The Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus

As a child of Adam, you spend your life attempting to exonerate and justify yourself, to rationalize and excuse your behavior: to yourself, to your neighbors, and in comparison with your neighbors, and even before God (when you aren’t trying to run away and hide from Him).

But there is death at the end, sooner or later, which shuts down all of your attempts to make a name and a life for yourself.  You can’t argue with death.  Not really.  Not your own, nor anyone else’s.  No matter how hard you work to ward it off, to put it off and delay the inevitable.  No matter how zealous you are in caring for yourself, and in trying to protect your children and keep them safe.

If you take the opposite approach, by living a crazy, reckless life, that gives you no more power and control, but only hastens what you can’t stop.  You don’t win that way.  You don’t beat death.

Your mortality looms so large, it casts a long dark shadow across your entire lifetime.  It stalks you and pursues you, even from the womb; as there are those occasions, utterly beyond your control, when it seizes and strikes down your children in the womb.  Being born is only the first big hurdle.  For even Cherianne — who is so dearly loved, and so well cared for by her parents — she already knows and feels the weight of her mortality in hunger, discomfort and pain, sadness and fear.

Sometimes, death and the grave are all that you can see.  So inevitable.  So final.

But Jesus you do not see.

Though you confess His Resurrection, where has He gone?  Where is He?  It would seem that He has left you far behind, so that, whatever it is that happened, both He and you are as good as dead.

What you do see all around you, and what you feel within yourself, are old bones, either dead or dying, and dry as dust: brittle, breaking, disintegrating.

As a Christian, you persist and persevere in hope, in the promise and assurance of things not seen.  But as a child of Adam in this fallen world, you flirt with despair and court disaster.  You succumb to the dread of death and plunge yourself into faithless unbelief, whether through apathy or apostasy, bitterness or cynicism, or the stubborn denial of God’s Word and promises.  Since you cannot see what He has spoken, you feel as though it were false, and so you tell yourself to give up on God, to go it alone or give up altogether.  In this way, your hope has perished ahead of you, and you don’t even bother to pray or ask for help.  Why bother, right?  You are completely cut off, and nobody cares; nobody is there for you, except to judge and criticize.

Like poor old Job: faithful, and righteous by faith, but also confused and upset, hurting and miserable, whose spouse and so-called friends are no help but only pile on the hurt.

Sorrow seeps into your heart and fills it up, driving out faith and the Spirit.  Not right away, but inch by inch, the more you dwell upon your own thoughts and feelings, which seem so immediate, so real and so true, instead of on the Word of Christ, which sounds so fanciful, and He so far away.

It’s not simply that things are hard and you get discouraged, but, in the midst of your pain, your mortal flesh gets increasingly restless and afraid; and the world, full of its own sin and death, threatens and tricks you with its traps and temptations; Satan also attacks and accuses you, fiercely but cunningly.  So you are bounced back and forth between feeling sorry for yourself and feeling ashamed of your sin.  You know that you are guilty, and you deserve nothing but punishment and death, and yet, you are frightened and it all seems unfair.

In all of this, the devil has you looking at yourself, in which there is no hope nor help to be found.

Without the Word and Spirit of the Lord, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  You feel it in your bones, and the Law of God declares it to be so.  You are dust.  And that is where that old serpent, the devil, would drive you, or entice you, to make you eat the dust that he is forced to eat.

But, now, consider that: the devil does eat dirt.  The would-be ruler of this fallen world has been judged, and he is cast out.  And the Spirit has come — who is the Lord, the Author and Giver of Life — because the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son, has returned to the Father who sent Him.

Jesus is the One who bestows the Holy Spirit upon His Church, and therefore upon you within His Church, because He is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, who has been anointed by the Spirit in His own human body of flesh and blood.  He received His body from the flesh and blood of St. Mary, a daughter of Adam, and so His body also is one of dust; yet, that very body of Christ has also been filled with the Spirit, and anointed by the Holy Spirit, for the rescue and salvation of all flesh.

Not as though the Son of God were ever without the Holy Spirit, but in His flesh as true Man the Spirit descended upon Him, and remained upon Him, so that in this Lord Jesus Christ the Spirit of God abides with Man forever.  You know that to be true from the witness of His Baptism in the Jordan River, as we have sung with Dr. Luther in the hymn on this day of Cherianne’s Baptism.  So do St. John the Baptist and all four of the Holy Evangelists testify, that, when Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove.

What began there in the waters of His Baptism, culminated in His Cross and Resurrection from the dead.  For both the dying and the rising belong to the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, which He underwent on behalf of all sinners, and which He has accomplished in Himself.

Therefore, He was driven by the Spirit from His Baptism into the wilderness, in order to be tempted by the devil: as Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden, as Israel was tempted in its own wilderness, and in every way as you are tempted.  Thus, He is your Comrade and your Champion.

In this way, having come down from heaven, from the Father, in human flesh and blood like ours, He embarks upon His journey back to the Father with all of us in hand.  He gathers us up into Himself, in His Body, in order to return us to faith and life with God, and, not only that, but to make us children of His own God and Father in heaven.

For this purpose, He has taken, not only your temptation, but all of your sin, and the sins of the whole world, upon Himself.  He has come, not only as true Man, with His own body of flesh and blood, but in the likeness of fallen flesh; which is to say that He has borne and suffered the full curse and consequence of Adam’s sin, the full weight and burden of your mortality, as though every sin were actually His own, committed by Him, and as though every death were His own rightful wages.

So it is that He is convicted concerning the sins of the world.  For He is condemned and crucified under Pontius Pilate, but it is the Father who hands Him over to the Cross, and the Spirit who fulfills the judgment of the Law in His punishment, in His bloody passion, in His death.  Thus, it is when all is finished and completed, that He hands over the Spirit He received at His Baptism.  Because, with His death, the requirements and condemnation of the Law have been fully satisfied, so that Adam & Eve and all the children of men may receive the Spirit, not for death, but for life.

Do not doubt that it is so.  For the truth of it is manifest and openly declared in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  Here is what His death has accomplished: the destruction of death, and the silencing of Satan’s accusations.  Whereas the Lord Jesus did not fight to defend Himself, nor did He answer His accusers, but in faith and love He quietly and willingly submitted to suffering and the sacrifice of His Cross, His Father has exonerated Him and fully vindicated Him by raising Him up from the dust of the earth.  He is not guilty.  He is blameless.  He is set free from sin and death forever.  And so are you.

For the whole world is “convicted concerning righteousness” in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Death and the devil no longer have any rightful claim against you, nor against anyone else — not in Christ, the Champion and Savior of all men.  There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

God’s judgment has been given by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.  In Him, sin is forgiven — it is no longer counted or considered, nor is it held against anyone — because it is atoned for by His death.  The whole world is justified and reconciled to God in His rising from the dead, in His returning to the Father in our human flesh: crucified and risen, glorified, and now immortal.

Thus, the Holy Spirit preaches these mighty deeds of God to all the nations of the world, in all the languages of earth, in order to make disciples of Christ Jesus from every tribe and tongue and people, and to gather men and women, boys and girls, the young and old alike, from the four winds into the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  For the dried up old bones that are resurrected, re-enfleshed, resuscitated, and restored to new life, are not isolated individuals but the whole house of Israel, that is, the Church, the Body of Christ.  It is precisely in His Body that all are made alive.

It is by the proclamation of His Word — by the preaching of this Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen — it is by this proclamation that the Spirit calls you daily to repentance; that is, from unbelief to faith in Christ.  For there is no conviction of any sin, except for unbelief, which sets you outside of and apart from Christ Jesus and His salvation.  Your unbelief is your rejection of His righteousness, in favor of your own, though apart from Him you shall not stand.

But the Spirit calls you to repentance, convicting you of sin and of righteousness, by the judgment of the Law and of the Gospel.  He speaks the truth in love.  He exposes your sin for the unbelief it is, and He thereby removes every pretense of self-righteousness within you.  That is the truth of the Law, which condemns you.  But the Spirit also speaks the truth of the Gospel, which is Christ, and by this Word He justifies you through faith, and He raises you from death to newness of life.

This is the Spirit’s testimony, and His defense on your behalf, against all of your adversaries and accusers: that you are a sinner, yes, but that Christ Jesus is the Savior of sinners, and that you are freely and fully forgiven and justified by Him, by His Cross and Resurrection.  On the one hand, the punishment of all your sin has already been carried out — in the Body of Christ Jesus on the Cross — and on the other hand, the innocence and righteousness of Christ are counted as yours.

That is the truth of the Gospel.  It is not an empty or powerless word, but the very Word of God, which is not only true, but Truth Itself, which establishes the truth concerning you, both now and forever.  It is a living and active Word, by which the Holy Spirit comforts you in sorrow, and grants you peace in place of fear, rest from your weariness, and perfect health and strength and life.

For with this Gospel, everything that belongs to Christ Jesus, the Spirit bestows upon you, and gives to you, to be your very own: His righteousness and holiness, His Resurrection, and His Life.

It begins, for you also, as it has for Cherianne this morning, with your Holy Baptism into Christ.

The Spirit brings you through the waters into the wilderness, where you now also bear the Cross as a Christian, as you live by faith in the Word and promise of your Father.  Here you find yourself in the midst of a desert of dry bones, and you yourself are crucified, dead and buried; for that is what daily repentance entails.  And, yes, you are still mortal — for now — you get sick, you suffer, and you die.  That should come as no surprise, nor is it a denial of the Resurrection and the Life that are yours in Christ Jesus, for you know that He also has experienced and suffered all of this.

But just as surely are you raised up, in and with Christ, and you are brought into the Land that God has promised to you.  Already He has brought you into His Church, which is the Body of Christ, and here you live, just as He lives.  Not only that, but, even now, under the Cross, you are glorified with the Glory of Christ Jesus, which shall be openly revealed in the resurrection of your body.  For as Jesus returns to His Father, by way of His Cross, in His Resurrection and Ascension, so are you brought to the Father as His dear child: as His very own, dearly-beloved, well-pleasing child.

That shall be so in the final Judgment Day, in the Resurrection of all flesh at the last, but so is it most certainly true, here and now, in the midst of the wilderness, as you hear and receive the Word of Christ; as your sins are all forgiven; as you are cleansed and refreshed by the waters that flow from the side of Christ; and as you are fed with His Body and His Blood.

In giving you Christ Jesus in these means of grace, by this Ministry of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit gives you everything that Jesus, the Son of God, receives and has from the Father.  And again, He does it by the proclamation of the Word of Christ.  For He guides you into all Truth by speaking what He hears, which is the Truth of the Gospel, namely, your justification and forgiveness.

This new language of the Holy Spirit is the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, and that is neither gibberish, nor fantasy, but the accomplished fact of His Body put to death and raised again to life — in which Body you also are redeemed, raised up, reconciled to God, and righteous in His sight.  That is what He says to you, and that is what His Word does for you and gives to you.

Though it seems such a simple thing, and it seems powerless to change anything, this Word fills your heart and mind, your body and soul, and even your mouth with the Spirit of Christ, who drives out sorrow and replaces it with joy and peace.  For with the Word of Christ, the Spirit refutes the rhetoric of the devil; He defends and protects you against the devil’s accusations; and He comforts you, in order to deliver you from hopeless despair.

With this Word, the Spirit opens your lips to show forth His praise, to speak the mighty deeds of God in Christ.  So that you, your sons and daughters, your nursing infants and young children, speak and sing this powerful Word to the glory of God and to the comfort of one another.  For this Word of the Gospel of Christ is the Truth, in your ears and on your lips, by which He breathes His Life-giving Spirit into you and your children, and your children’s children, that you and they may live forever and ever.

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

The Sanctification of Christ

To be sanctified is to be given entirely over to God; which is really to return to the One from whom your whole being and life derive.  To be holy is to belong entirely to Him, to be a child of the Holy Father, who is holy in Himself with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Not just a part of you.  Not only a portion of your life.  Not a piece of your time, nor a mere percentage of your stuff.  But to be sanctified is to be given up to Him altogether, body, soul and spirit, heart and mind.  So that everything you are, all that you have, and all that you think and say and do, is offered as a sacrifice of praise to the glory of His Name, and belongs completely to Him.

Even in general, that is a daunting and scary prospect to your old Adam, to your fallen flesh.  For you do not trust God to take care of you.  You do not believe that He will provide all that you need, and you are even less confident that He will give you everything you want.  You prefer to hedge your bets and cover all the bases, to diversify your assets, and to invest significantly in yourself.

To make a place for God in “your life” seems reasonable and wise, even pious and holy, but it is nothing but self-idolatry.  You shall not make a place for God, but if you would have a life at all, you must find your place in Him.

But if that is scary in general, it is far more challenging and difficult when it comes down to the nitty-gritty details of your day-to-day life.  For to be sanctified — to be given entirely over to God — means that you will trust Him, love Him and serve Him, precisely in the particular place where He has put you, and right there you will gladly carry out and fulfill your vocations and stations in life according to His Word.  That means receiving and loving the family and the neighbors that He has actually given to you (with all their flaws and weaknesses, their neediness and idiosyncracies), and being content and satisfied with whatever else the Lord your God has given you, instead of bitterly resenting what you have and jealously desiring what you don’t.

To be holy is to be perfectly at peace with God, and faithful in loving your neighbor, regardless of the ups and downs of your life in the world: in the knowledge that you and your life are not your own, but God’s, and that He will accomplish His purposes for you.  To be holy is to be pleased when good things happen to your neighbor, even while bad things are befalling you, in the sure confidence and contentment that your Holy Father has both you and your neighbor in His keeping.

Now, that does not mean — and do not suppose — that you sanctify yourself by your behavior, or by your good attitude and effort.  Holiness is not achieved or accomplished by your works.  Nor does holiness consist of your good works.

No, you are sanctified by God, the Holy One, and your holiness is your fellowship with Him, that is, with the Father in Christ Jesus.  It is in Christ that you are brought to God the Father and given to Him.  It is in Christ that you belong to Him and abide with Him.  That is your sanctification, which is your rescue and salvation from sin and death.  And that is your holiness, which is your eternal life and everlasting joy.  It is not something you get for yourself.  It is given to you by God.

But those who are sanctified by the grace of God in Christ, who are holy children of the Holy Father, do lead holy lives and do good works according to His Word.  And so are you called to lead a holy life within your own place in the world, and in all of your relationships; which is to extend your fellowship with God in godly friendship with your neighbors.

There is no sanctification, and no genuine holiness in you, except, by faith, in fellowship with God.  But then, where there is that true holiness of faith in the fellowship of God, there is also the holiness of love in fellowship with one another.  For you cannot abide with the God who is Love, without abiding in love with your neighbor.

That is the fellowship of the Church, first of all, of brothers and sisters in Christ, of pastors and people, of fellow Christians.  Such as we hear described in the Acts of the Apostles: The disciples of the Lord Jesus, baptized and catechized in His Name, are gathered together in His Name, in the fellowship of His Word and prayer.  They are gathered by and for the preaching of His Word, to hear and receive the Ministry of His Gospel, and to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth; that is, to receive His gifts in faith and with thanksgiving, and to call upon the Name of the Lord.

That Christian fellowship of the Church in the Apostolic preaching of Christ, in the Breaking of the Bread, and in prayer, extends from the Altar, and from the Divine Service, in a fellowship of care and concern, compassion and charity for your neighbor.  What begins with the Body of Christ, within the household and family of God, moves into the community in which the Church and each of her members live.  For in the holiness of faith, in the fellowship of God, you are perfectly free, alive and able, to exercise the holiness of love; to be for your neighbor as Christ Jesus is for you.

That is the holiness of life that proceeds from the Father and the Son, in the Holy Spirit, to you and to your neighbor.

The foundation for all of this, the structure that upholds it, and the content that fills it with faith and love, with joy and peace, with righteousness and holiness — that is Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.  As St. Paul also writes, in his Epistle to the Church at Corinth, that Christ Jesus has become your sanctification.  He is your holiness, by which you are holy.

To begin with, of course the Son of God is holy in Himself, as the Father and the Spirit are holy, indeed, from all eternity.  The fellowship of the three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is Holiness itself.  The Holy Triune God does not become holy, but is holy.  The living God is not sanctified, but is the Sanctification of His creation; for all things are made by Him, and there is no life apart from Him.

But now the one true God has become true Man in the Person of the Son; and He, Christ Jesus, has been sanctified in human flesh and blood, so that man is sanctified in Him.  That is what He has accomplished “for us men and our salvation,” first of all by His Incarnation (His becoming flesh), and by His truly human life, and then by His Cross, His Resurrection and Ascension.

He who is forever and always in fellowship with the Father and the Spirit, has entered into full and perfect fellowship with all the children of men, by becoming Man Himself.  And He has gathered humanity into the eternal fellowship of the Holy Triune God — permanently so, in Himself — so that all people everywhere are invited and welcomed into that fellowship, to see God, to abide forever in His holiness, and to live in Him.

He comes into the world in order to bring God to man in Himself.  And He comes to the Father in the flesh, in order to bring man to God — in His Body — in righteousness and holiness forever.

What was the Son of God’s from all eternity, by nature, He has thus received from His Father in human flesh on your behalf: from His conception and holy Nativity by the Blessed Virgin Mary, from His Baptism by St. John in the Jordan River, from His Cross and Passion under Pontius Pilate, unto His Resurrection and Ascension, when He was taken up in glory.

In all of this, as true Man, He lives by faith in His God and Father,
and He receives the promised Spirit from His Father in His Body of flesh and blood.

The Church looks forward to and celebrates the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, because the Father has, in fact, poured out the Spirit upon the Body of Christ Jesus — as at His Baptism, so also in His Resurrection from the dead.  So has He been sanctified in human flesh and blood, and so are you sanctified in Him by the preaching of His Word in the world.

The holiness of His fellowship with the Father (in the Holy Spirit) is manifested in the holiness of His love for you and all the world in His sacrifice upon the Cross.  In offering up Himself, His Body and Life, unto God, He has laid down His life for you, to atone for all your sins, and to redeem you from sin and death.  Therefore, in His rising, you are raised and justified; and in His Ascension, you are sanctified by His Spirit and seated with Him at the right hand of His Father.

That is where you now live with Him, because He Himself lives with you here in peace and joy.  You live with Him in holiness, because in Him you have fellowship with God, now and forever.

Has He not given you His Name — has He not named you with His Name — in Holy Baptism?  Therefore, you belong entirely to God, who is your true Father in Christ Jesus.  What is more, with His Name He has given you His Spirit and His Life, whereby you are sanctified and live.

Do not suppose that in His going to the Father He has gone away from you and left you all alone.

He has not!

As He kept the Apostles in His Name, and guarded them while He was with them, so does He guard and keep you in His Name, in His Word and Truth.  Not less so, but all the more so, as He has gone by way of the Cross to the Father on your behalf, as your merciful and great High Priest.  With His Word and Spirit, with His Ministry of the Gospel, He is with you forever and always, as surely as He is with the Father in heaven; so that your life, also, is hidden with Christ in God, and you are seated with Him in the heavenly places.

On the one hand, He ever lives to pray and intercede for you — as He does in this Holy Gospel — not only with His Word of Truth, with the Testimony of His Righteousness credited to you, but with His own Life, His Body and His Blood.  As He rises and ascends in human flesh, He Himself is your Prayer in the ears of your Father.  So are you heard and received in peace.

At the same time, even as Christ ascends to the Father on your behalf, He also remains with you, and He is near you, closer than a brother, in the speaking of His Word, in the Holy Ministry of those whom He sends into the world in His Name.  This Ministry of the Gospel is holy, because it participates in the fellowship of God, and because it sanctifies you with that fellowship.  It is holy, therefore, because Christ is not absent from it, but He Himself is actively present in it; He is deeply and intimately present.  As surely as He has given you His Name in Holy Baptism, so surely does He sanctify you in the Truth with His Holy Absolution; and with His Word, He guards and keeps you with His Word-made-Flesh in the Holy Communion.

Even that name, the “Holy Communion,” identifies the holiness of your fellowship with God in Christ, which you receive as your own in this Sacrament.  And because it is given to you, to eat and to drink, for the forgiveness of all your sins, you are fully reconciled to God and received by your Father in peace.  Not “up in the sky,” but here at this Altar.

Your fellowship with the Holy Triune God, and therefore your holiness, life and salvation, are as solid and sure as the Body and Blood of Christ, which He puts into your mouth and into your body here in the world.

He does not take you out of the world.  Not yet.  For as the Father has sent Him into the world, to live by faith, to live in love — and as He has sent His Apostles into the world to preach and teach in His Name, to write the Holy Scriptures, to baptize and absolve, and to commune His disciples — so does He send His Church into the world, to live by faith, and to live in love.

And so does He call you to live in the world by faith in His Name, and in love for your neighbor.

Why?  So that your neighbor, also, might know and receive the fellowship of God through the fellowship of your love, and so be sanctified in the Truth of His Gospel.

Do you not perceive that your life thus has divine significance?  Because your fellowship, even here and now in the world, is with the Father in His Son; not by your own effort, but by His Spirit.

The Holy Triune God is surely with you in all of your vocations, in all of your relationships, and in all of your dealings.  Not only to accomplish His purposes in you for others, but at the same time to preserve you in and with His holiness, to guard your life — even through death, unto the resurrection of your body and the life everlasting — and to keep you safe from the evil one.

To be sure, the devil hates you and is constantly seeking to devour and destroy you.  And the world hates you, too, as it hates the Lord Jesus.  The dangers to your mortal body and life are many and great, though even these are not as perilous as the temptations to sin, the lust of the eyes and of the flesh, the love of money, and then the wicked accusations of Satan who would drive you to despair through guilt and shame and the fear of death.  But fear not him who hates you.  Fear God, who loves you; repent of your sins; and trust Christ, your Savior, in whom you are not guilty but holy.

Fear, love and trust in this one true God, and do not be afraid to live and serve wherever in the world He has called you, wherever you are sent.  Whether you go to death upon a cross, or you live to a ripe old age caring for your neighbor, abide in the fellowship of Christ.  Remain in the Temple of His Church, calling upon His Name.  Be gathered together with His disciples in the Upper Room, where He still washes your feet with Holy Absolution and feeds you at His Table with His Holy Communion.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not abandon Him, but find your place in Him, your true home in the fellowship of His Body and His Blood.

As you receive from Him, so give.  You will not be left with nothing.  As you hear, speak.  For as you have the testimony of God in the testimony of men — in the Scriptures of the Apostles, and in the preaching of your pastors — so do you have this testimony in yourself.  The Word is near you, in your ears, in your heart, and on your lips.  Confess it to your neighbor, in the confidence that you thus speak the Word of God: that you speak Christ.  Confess His holy Name, which you now also bear as a child of His own God and Father.  And call upon His Name in prayer, knowing that your Father in heaven hears and answers in love.  Truly, your lips speak Christ, not only to your neighbor, but to your Father, who hears His Son Jesus in your prayer.

This is your confidence, your certainty, even when your heart quails in fear and your conscience condemns you.  For God is greater than your heart, and His Word is Truth.  He cleanses your conscience with His Gospel.  He grants you true peace by His forgiveness of all your sins.  And Christ Jesus, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of the Father, has so bound Himself to you in love, in and with His own flesh and blood — so that you are one with Him, and one with the Father and the Spirit in Him — that you are sanctified with His own holiness.  You are holy in Christ, as the Lord your God is holy.  Therefore, you are also raised from death to life, and anointed by His Spirit in body and soul, to abide in the fellowship of the Father here in time and hereafter in eternity.

In the holy Name of Jesus.  Amen.

Abide in the Friendship of Jesus

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come by the water of His Baptism, by the blood of His Cross and Passion, and with the Spirit of His Gospel, in order to love you and abide with you.  He has come to befriend you; that His joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full in Him: no longer driven to and fro by covetous desire, but content and at peace in His friendship.

His joy is found in faith and love; for He abides forever in His Father’s Love for Him.  He trusts His Father’s Word and promises, and so He has kept His Father’s commandments, from the waters of His Baptism to the bloodshed of His Cross.  He went to death in the hope of the resurrection.

And the Father loves Him faithfully, as ever and always.  He has raised Him up again, and poured out the Spirit upon Him, so that His risen and glorified Body is the fruit of the Cross that remains.

You, then, abide in His Love.  Avail yourself of His Love for you in the Gospel.  Rest yourself in His Love for you, by trusting His Word and promises to you: from your Baptism, even unto death.  And, so also, keep His commandment: love one another, as He loves you.

For He has called you His friend.  And what does this mean?  It means that He has made you part of His own family, a member of His own household, a comrade in His inner circle.  He has made you His own brother in the fullest sense of that word.  Which means that He makes common cause with you; He bears your burdens, as though they were His very own; and He lays down His life for you, in order to spare you and save you.  That is the height of friendship, as even the ancient pagans were able to understand in their own way.  But now the Lord Himself has called you His friend.  He values you and your life with His own life, and He thereby makes you equal to Himself.

He loves you with the Father’s love for Him.  Think of what a remarkable thing that is!  That the very Son of God should love you with the very Love that God the Father has for Him.  So He does.  Everything that He has heard and received from the Father, He speaks, makes known, and gives to you.  He is not selfish or greedy.  He does not horde or hide His stuff from you.  He does not argue and fight to take anything from you, nor to keep anything for Himself.  But whatever is His, He makes it all yours.  From the fullness of His joy, He pours out Himself and His Life for you.

As He Himself has come in the flesh to save you by the water and the blood, and with the Holy Spirit, so does He now give Himself to you by the water, by the blood, and with the Holy Spirit.

He preaches peace by His Gospel of forgiveness.  He calls you to repentance and to faith, that you might receive and rejoice in what He gives you freely by His grace.  He pours out His Spirit upon you with the new tongues of His Cross and Resurrection: with the language of His Atonement.

He speaks of your redemption by His Word of the Cross, and it is so.  He declares you righteous with His Word of the Resurrection.  He sanctifies you by the Spirit with His Word of the Gospel.

He preaches the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And to you who are baptized, He calls you back to the waters of your Baptism, that is, not to be re-baptized, but to contrition and repentance, to confession and absolution: to be washed by the One who loves you to the end.

He calls you, disciple of Jesus, to eat and drink with Him who has risen from the dead; not only with Him, but to eat His Body given and to drink His Blood outpoured; so that He would thus abide in you, and you abide in Him, in body and soul, now and forever.

He fills you up with His joy, and with Himself, and so do you overflow with His joy — the way His Chalice overflows with salvation for you.  You overflow with His joy, and you pour yourself out in love for others; for your neighbors; for those whom you befriend with the Love of Jesus.

Thus do you keep His commandment: to love one another, as the Lord Jesus loves you.

His commandment is not burdensome.  It is not a command of the Law, that you should make yourself righteous by keeping it.  Nor is it the command of a master to his slave, that you should be shackled and chained and compelled to obey, under threat of punishment.

His commandment is that of a friend, the word of a comrade in arms.  Like soldiers executing a maneuver, each serving his own role.  Like teammates coordinating a play on the field or the court.  Like musicians playing in tune, in harmony with one another.  Like dancers moving together with beauty and grace, one of them leading with confidence, the other following his lead with poise.  Like partners, planning and then putting into practice some great endeavor or grand adventure.

His commandment is that you should be with Him, and that you should be and do like Him.  For He has befriended you, and He would have you be His friend.  Not because He needs your help.  He does not offer you a contract or a bargain.  He befriends you solely for the sake of His Love.

He has already done and accomplished everything for you.  But now, in His Love, not only does He give you this great work of His by grace; He draws you into it, so to live and work with Him.  He gives you all the credit, and all the benefit and profit of His work, as though you had done it; and now He also works in you to do the same, that is, to bear good fruits after His own kind.

He has chosen you in love.  He has called you His friend.  And He has appointed you to go and do likewise for your neighbor: to befriend your neighbor within your own vocation, that you might show yourself to be a friend of Jesus.

This isn’t anything like a Facebook “friendship,” though even Facebook can become a part of it.

It is not self-promotion, but a true friendship of self-giving for another.  It is not begging or expecting others to do for you, but simply doing for your neighbor.  It is coming alongside him, in order to share and help carry his burdens.  It is laying down your life in love for your neighbor, not because she has been “friendly” to you, but in order to befriend her.  It is making friends by being a friend, not emotionally, but actively; not for the sake of some “return on your investment,” but from the fulness of joy in Christ, in the peaceful contentment of His Love.

Beloved, let His Love have its way with you, and so love one another, as He is loving you.

Abide in His Love by resting in His Gospel.  That is a kind of active passivity, by which you avail yourself of His means of grace, of His free gifts.  Listen to His preaching; receive His Sacrament.

Pray to the Father in His Name.  Pray in the confession of His Name, that is, according to the Word and promise that He has spoken to you.  Pray in the faith and confidence of your Baptism into Him.

Abide in His Love by living within your vocation, in the confidence of His calling; as Christ Jesus also went from His Baptism to His Cross, in the Way of Life that His Father laid out before Him.

Live in the confidence of your Father’s Word, who has called you His beloved and well-pleasing child.  Know that the work He has given you to do is pleasing to Him, and productive; and that He is with you in that work, which He Himself has prepared for you and given you.  There is meaning and purpose and a point to it all, and the fruits of your good work remain forever in Christ Jesus.

Live in the confidence of His forgiveness.  For not only does He fill up what is lacking, and amend whatever is amiss, but He freely and fully removes all of your sin; He does not hold it against you, nor does He consider it.  By His grace and Spirit, He cleanses you from it, because He loves you.

Live in the confidence that your Father loves you forever for Jesus’ sake.  He does not cast you away, but He hears and answers your prayer.  Always there is the loud and resounding “Amen!” of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  So does He save you, according to His mercy.

Live in the confidence, in the sure and certain hope, that He will raise you up: daily, and forever and always.  The One who promises is faithful, and He will do it.  Because you also are among the good fruits that Christ Jesus bears by His tree of the Cross, and so shall you remain in His own Resurrection, abiding in Him, as He abides in you.

That is the testimony, the pledge, and the gift of His water, blood, and Holy Spirit, which He pours out upon you here, and into you, body and soul, for the resurrection and the life everlasting in Him.

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

He Takes Your Sad Song and Makes It Better

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lord Is Your Good Shepherd

The Lord Himself is your Good Shepherd, and, with Him, everything you need and all good things are yours.  For His goodness is not an abstraction; nor is it simply a quality of His character, an ability or aptitude or mere potential, but faithfulness in action and the fulfillment of His office and vocation.  Yes, He is intrinsically good; indeed, He is absolute goodness.  But He is also very good at what He does.  And what He does is more than noble and right; it actually meets every need.

The Lord is your true Shepherd.  That is who and what He is, and that is what He does for you.

He is not like the hirelings that you are prone to enlist and rely upon, whatever or whoever those hirelings might be.  They run out on you, in one way or the other, just when you need them most.  But they have nothing more to give than you give to them, and neither you nor they can save you.  Neither do hirelings care about you, anyway.  They care about themselves, and they are just as needy, and just as scared, as you are.

A sheep without a real shepherd is in trouble, like a child without a Mom or Dad; because there are so many needs, so many dangers, and so many enemies.  The wolf is on the prowl.  The lion is, too, you know that.  The serpent lies in wait.  But if the predators don’t get you and gobble you up, your own hunger will.  A sheep has to eat, and needs water to live.  If that isn’t provided for you, or if you aren’t content with what you’re given, then your searching and scavenging for food and drink is liable to get you lost.  Alone in the dark, in unfamiliar territory, in places where you don’t belong, you’re going to get hurt, or worse.

But your Shepherd, who is faithful, good and true, is not a hired hand who runs away from danger or lets you wander into it.  You are His own sheep, and He cares for you.  He is not working to make a living off of you, but He gives up His own life on your behalf, in order to give you life and preserve it in safety and in peace.

He saw the wolf coming, and He ran — not away — but He raced to help you.  He heard the lion’s roar, the serpent’s hiss, the big bear’s deep guttural growl, and He took His stand and set Himself between those predators and you.  He did not simply holler at them or chase them off.  Nor did He fight them, tooth and claw, as one might expect.  But He dealt them all a far more deadly and permanent defeat, in a way that has left them unable to hurt you anymore.

The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  But what good would that be, if the wolf simply waited until the Shepherd were dead and gone, and then went about snatching the sheep and scattering them?  Heroic sacrifice, great, but what’s the point if it only puts off the inevitable?

No, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, so that He may take it up again, and in His rising He obtains and preserves the life of all His sheep forever.  This is the great Mystery of His goodness, the special authority of His faithfulness and love in His keeping and fulfilling the commandment of His God and Father.

So this Shepherd, in sheep’s clothing, defeats the wolf at its own game.  He shuts the lion’s mouth and crushes the serpent’s head by giving Himself as a tasty little Lamb into their teeth.  They cannot resist this prize.  They cannot believe it is so easy!  And yet, they are in for a surprise.  For this Shepherd is the sacrifice that ruins their appetite once and for all.  He is not a hunter who kills the wolf with knife or gun, in order to open it up and bring Granny and Little Red back out, but He allows Himself to be swallowed up in the first place, in order to burst the belly of the beast from the inside-out.  That is what His dying and rising have done.  His laying down and taking up again of life in the flesh has left your enemies undone.

The predators still prowl for a little while now, and they can still act all fierce and scary, but they are toothless, and they have terrible tummy troubles.  They have no stomach for you, who belong to the Good Shepherd.  For not only does He gather you close to Himself, and stand over you to guard and protect you with Himself and His own never-to-die-again Life; but He also feeds you with Himself, so that He abides in you with His own flesh and blood, and you also abide in Him.

As you are thus fed, not only by but with your Good Shepherd, with the Meat and Drink of His flesh and blood, the wolf, the lion, and the snake, and even the big ol’ bear ought to know better than to eat you.  Oh, to be sure, they still eye you hungrily and greedily; more so than ever, ‘cause you know how it is when you can’t eat what you want!  They salivate over your body and soul, but whenever they try to snatch you and swallow you down, they taste again the Shepherd who abides in you, and they become ill.  They cannot hold His liquor.  They cannot digest His food.  Nor can they have His little lamb.

If staying with your Good Shepherd and keeping yourself close to Him depended on you and your faithfulness, well, you should already be aware, that wouldn’t work.  As it is, you wander and stray, you get yourself hopelessly lost, caught in some thicket, fallen into some deep dark hole or dangerous ravine.  Often as not, the predators don’t even have to come looking for you, because you’re out there chasing after them.  That is not as it should be, but that is how it is.

Yet, the Good Shepherd cares for His sheep.  Truly, He does.  He who laid down His life for you, and took it up again, He also takes care of you in every way.  He has defeated your enemies, and He still keeps you safe from them.  He has called you by His Voice of the Gospel to become a sheep of His fold.  He feeds you with the green grass of His Word, and He refreshes you with the cool clear waters of His grace toward you, His mercy and free forgiveness.  He provides all that you need (even though He does not give you everything your appetite craves and desires, lest you make yourself sick with gluttony and drunkenness and lust).

He guards and keeps you under His protection, so that you are able to graze freely and in peace on the good food that He provides.  And with His rod and staff, He guides and governs you in the good way that you should go, that is, the way of life, from pasture unto pasture, along the streams that flow from His Cross, from His innermost being, through the font, into Paradise with Him.

He does all of this for you, in order to give you life and preserve it; not only because He knows you and loves you as His own dear sheep, but it is by these means of grace, by His Gospel, that He actually does know you and love you.  His knowledge and His love are not so much intellect and emotion as they are activity and gift.

He has known you, in love, by His becoming like you in every way: true Man of flesh and blood, forevermore, but also having experienced all your suffering and temptation, your sin and death.

He still knows you, from now on and forever, by giving you Himself and His Life with His Word.  This is the knowledge of intimacy, the way the Bridegroom knows and loves His Bride; which goes way beyond the honeymoon and romance to the sharing of life, the sharing of one name, the sharing of the same home, the sharing of time together in conversations and activities.

Your Good Shepherd knows you that well.  What is more, He knows you in the way the Father knows the Son in the perfect unity of the Holy Triune God; in that flawless harmony of divine and holy Love.  Truly, there is nothing lacking in His knowledge and love for you.  Therefore, do not ever suppose that He does not understand or care about you.  Rather, listen to His Voice, and learn to know Him in His Word to you, even as He knows the Father in Himself.

How often isn’t it the case that you perceive and know a father in his son, because the son has received and made his own what was the father’s.  So much more do you know God the Father in Christ Jesus, His Son, who is begotten of His Father from all eternity, of one and the same divine nature and substance as He is.  And as you know the Father by His Son, so do you know the Son by the Word that He speaks, by the gifts that He gives to you, and by the Life and Love that He bestows upon you in the Gospel.  Not only do you know Him in this way, but you also become like Him, begotten of God by His grace, a son of God in Christ, through faith in His Name.

As the Good Shepherd has become like the sheep, so do you, His sheep, become like your Good Shepherd.  Not apart from Him, but always with Him, in His care and keeping; because He is always with you.  He really is with you.

Do not be afraid.  Even if you are given up as a sacrificial lamb, know that your Good Shepherd has already gone before you, and He also now goes with you, through the valley of the shadow of death, into the glorious Light of His Resurrection and His Life everlasting.

If you are commanded by God and called upon to lay down your life for your neighbor — to bear the cross for your spouse, your child, your parent; for a stranger, or in forgiveness and love for someone who hates you and hurts you — know that your God and Father will also raise you up again, as surely as He has raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

His Resurrection is your resurrection.  That is the authority of which your Good Shepherd speaks: the authority of His Gospel.  Because He received both the Cross and the Resurrection from His Father, and in faith and love He took them on Himself for you.  The Father loves you for His sake.

So, then, His Resurrection is your resurrection, not only when you are faithful and true, but also when you have fallen and totally blown it; not only when you suffer patiently for doing what is right, but also when you suffer the consequences of your own faults and failings.  That is the whole point.  That is why your Shepherd has not only chased off the wolf and kept it at bay, but He has knocked out its teeth, shut its mouth, and broken its jaw.  Sin and death have been robbed of their sting, because the Law of God has been fulfilled and satisfied by the Shepherd for His sheep.  God does not accuse you, but He forgives you for Jesus’ sake.  That is what His dying for you has done, and that is what His rising for you means.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

His rising from death is your comfort and your confidence in the face of every contradiction, in the midst of all confusion.  Face to face with the wolf, surrounded on all sides by hungry and voracious predators, your Shepherd stands fast, and He’s got you covered.  He shelters and protects you round about.  You’ve got nowhere to run, but He has come running to you, in order to be with you, to defend you, to save you, and to love you, now and forever.

When the wolf would stare you down, to intimidate and scare you with accusation, guilt and shame, your Good Shepherd stares down the big bad wolf with His Atonement and Redemption, and the forgiveness of all your sins.  So that, when your own heart quails with fear, or your own conscience condemns you, the Lord who loves you comforts and assures you with His Voice of the Gospel, and He strengthens you with peace in His presence.  Because He is your Shepherd, and He is with you, therefore, you are safe.

In fact, you are far better than safe and sound, and your Shepherd gives you much more than peace and quiet.  He does not only spare your life and provide your basic necessities, but He has brought you into His royal palace and seated you at His banquet Table.  He actually gives you a place of honor, and He glorifies you — in the presence of His Father, the great King, on the one hand, and in front of all your enemies, to their great shame and disgrace, on the other hand.

You shall not be food for your foes, but here the Lord gives Himself as Food for you, so that you shall never go hungry.  You shall not want for anything.  Though you have been thirsty and dehydrated, His Cup runs over with abundant Life, which He pours out for you to drink your fill, to be refreshed, to be revived in body and soul forever.
Though you have been unholy and unhappy, the Lord your Shepherd anoints you with the oil of gladness; He pours out His Spirit upon you, to sanctify you with His divine goodness and true joy.

Though you have been lost, alone and afraid, and sometimes you still feel that way, the truth is that your Good Shepherd has come for you; He has already found you, snatched you out of danger, and brought you home rejoicing.

In reclining at His Table, you lie down in His green pasture.  In drinking from His Chalice, you rest beside still waters.  In living here and now, by the Word of your Shepherd, you already dwell in the House of the Lord, and so shall you abide with Him forever.

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

Not a Ghost of a Christ

Having come in the flesh to save you; having given Himself for you; having fulfilled the Law of Moses, the Scriptures of the Prophets, and the Psalms, by His Cross and Resurrection; having atoned for the sins of the world by His sacrificial death, and having reconciled the world to God in His rising from the dead, the Lord Jesus comes and takes His stand in the midst of His disciples. Where two or three are gathered together in His Name — that is to say, where His disciples are gathered by and for the preaching of His Word, to and from the font of Holy Baptism — there He is also. That is what the Divine Service is: the coming of Jesus Himself to His disciples, to be with them, to serve them, to forgive them, to give them life, to bestow His sweet Peace upon them.

He is here to speak His “Peace” to you, as you hear repeatedly in the Liturgy: You pray for His peace in the Kyrie, the Gloria, and the Agnus Dei, and He is with you, to answer that prayer, to give you that Peace, in the Salutation and in the Benediction, and, of course, in the Pax Domini, “The Peace of the Lord be with you always,” at the heart of the Sacrament. So does He let you, His servant, go in Peace, as you sing in the Nunc Dimittis; for His Word is here fulfilled in you.

Why, then, does He seem like such a ghost, like a disembodied spirit, a fantasy or specter? As though He and His Word were nothing but a mirage; a dream that vanishes as soon as you would trust it or try to hang onto it, like chasing after the wind, or so much hot air. Like too much talk, and not enough action. How solid does He feel?

His Words to His disciples then, once upon a time, now sound almost like a taunt, a tease: “See My hands, My feet, My side. Touch Me and see. Stretch out your hand and take hold.” But, what? What do you see? What do you touch and taste and handle? What do you feel and experience?

He does not yet appear as He actually is; neither do you. He and His Church, and you, are yet hidden under the Cross, in the frailties of fallen flesh, which withers, and fades, and dies, and doesn’t come back. Why should you expect anything other than a ghost?

You cannot recline upon His breast at the Supper, as St. John the beloved disciple once did. You cannot investigate the wounds of His Passion, as St. Thomas and the other Apostles could. You cannot share your fish and chips with Him, nor your waffles and pancakes. Nor does He tuck you in at night, or give you a hug when you’re afraid.

Sometimes the comfort of the Gospel and the promises of Jesus sound pretty hollow and empty, just like a ghost: friendly, sure, but sort of pointless. The Spirit may be willing, but what has become of the flesh, which, even in weakness, would still have a hand to hold onto? Everyone needs a hand to hold onto.

You hear His Word — you hear Him speaking, “Peace,” and preaching forgiveness of sins — and, sure enough, you see your pastor standing before you, a man of flesh and blood like yours, with hands and feet like yours. You hear and see him preaching; you see him baptize and administer the Sacrament in Jesus’ Name. But to all appearances, it is as if your pastor were doing all these things by his own power or piety, and, really, what would that accomplish? He’s certainly not performing the sort of miracles that are undeniably evident to all. Besides, pastors come and go; they die, like any other man. So what good is that going to do you?

Where is Jesus? And where is the Peace of which He speaks? Some days you feel it. Many days you don’t. And rarely does there seem to be any direct or tangible connection between the Liturgy and whatever peace you do manage to find. Maybe the Divine Service makes you feel good, or maybe it leaves you cold, but, either way, you leave this place and find yourself up to your neck in the stew, and smack up against a brick wall of sights and sounds and smells and stuff you can touch and handle, whether you want to or not. In contrast to all of that solid experience, what evidence is there that Jesus and His Word are even real?

It is a matter of faith, and not by sight. To trust and cling to the Peace and promises of Christ Jesus is nothing you can muster up or manage on your own. Not because the Gospel is unreal or a fantasy, and not as though it were a ghost story, but by the nature of the case: Because Christ Jesus is the Savior of sinners, like you, who are subject to death and the grave. He has not come simply to mend or modify this fallen world, but to make all things new; to bring all of creation out from under the curse, through death into life, into reconciliation with God and the Peace that surpasses all human understanding. You’ll not find, nor ever have, that new creation — the new heavens and the new earth, the home where righteousness dwells — not by way of scientific examination or experiment. It is only by way of the Cross, which contradicts everything you thought you knew about God, about life, about the universe and everything, and which crucifies you with Christ.

Historical investigation can help you to some extent. Because all of these things concerning Jesus of Nazareth really happened: at particular times, and in particular places. The Scriptures and the Creeds both make that clear, situating the story of the Gospel solidly within human history. You can place it on a map, on a calendar. Nazareth, Bethlehem, Egypt, Galilee, Jerusalem. Conceived and born in the reign of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and Herod was king of Judea; crucified under Pontius Pilate. St. Matthew and St. Luke provide genealogies of Jesus; both Jewish and secular historians of the 1st and 2nd centuries verify His life and death.

That He is the Son of God was manifest only to faith, but that He is true Man, of flesh and blood, skin and bones, was evident and verifiable. His conception and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary also testify to that fact, as do His Cross and Passion, His death and burial. And as to His bodily Resurrection from the dead — that He is not a ghost, but fully risen from the grave in His own Body; still bearing the marks of His Cross, though now glorified and immortal, never to die again — to all of this, His Apostles and hundreds of others were eyewitnesses.

And those twelve men, the Apostles, whom He chose beforehand, and called and ordained, with whom He ate and drank, they have testified to what they saw and heard and touched and handled.

Now, then, by that Apostolic Word, He shows you, not His face, but His wounded hands and feet. How so? Not in the same way He showed them, but, nevertheless, in the hands and feet of His disciples, in those whom He sends to serve you in His Name. It is by their feet that He comes to you and takes His stand here with you. Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel.” And by their hands, He stretches out His hand to feed you, to absolve you, and to bless you. Here is a hand to hold onto you: the hand of the Lord who loves you.

These hands and feet of His are wounded, marked and scarred by the Cross — as He was, and as you are. So did St. Paul, in particular, bear a thorn in his flesh and the sufferings of Christ in his body. But that is so for all who are baptized into Christ the Crucified, who have received the sign of His Cross upon their forehead and heart, and no less so in their hands and feet and side.

He has suffered the wounds of the Cross for your Atonement and Redemption. His disciples receive and bear those wounds unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, and in love for one another, in His Name.

His power is made perfect in such weakness, and from these wounds He pours out His Life and His salvation for you. It is precisely by His wounded hands and feet, as by His riven side, that He is recognized and received. Not His face but His scars distinguish Him. The marks of His Cross do not call into question but verify who He is, and what He has done; not only in His crucified and risen body, but in His Church, in His Apostles, in His ministers; in all of His Christians, even you.

In the gathering of His disciples in His Name, from His wounded hands, He shares a Meal now with you, in your presence; and you, for your part, eat and drink this Meal of His in His presence. This eating and drinking is inherently a matter of the body: His Body for your body, as both His Cross and His Resurrection are bodily accomplished for the salvation of your body and your soul.

What is more, as He took the fish and ate it before the Apostles, so do you eat and drink this Meal that He sets before you in the company of His congregation, in the communion of His Church. Preaching, Baptism, and Absolution all require at least a giver and a receiver, a minister who is called and sent, and a person to whom he is sent. But the more so is the Lord’s Supper a holy communion, a fellowship. It may be given to you by your pastor, one on one, in your home or hospital room, but the norm is the assembly of the Church: So is the Bread broken, divided and distributed, and the Cup is poured out for you and for the many, to “drink of it, all of you.”

That is why St. Paul teaches that you, being many, are all one Body in Christ, because you all eat of the one Bread, which is His Body, and drink of the one Cup, which is the New Testament in His Blood. This bodily eating and drinking of His Body and Blood, in the communion of His Body, the Church — side by side, shoulder to shoulder with other disciples — is the demonstration that He is no ghost, no disembodied spirit, but the Man, Christ Jesus, crucified and risen in the flesh.

With this Food and Drink, He gives to you the Peace of which He speaks — not only in your heart and mind, but in your body, too. He forgives you all your sins, just as He says: “Poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.” And that does mean life and salvation, likewise for both soul and body. It is refreshment for your spirit, and also for your flesh and blood.

And yet, His Word and promises concerning this Sacrament seem too good to be true, too amazing and too wonderful; especially when what you see and experience still seems so contrary.

Your body of flesh and blood, even after eating and drinking the holy Body and precious Blood of Christ Jesus, is still subject to suffering, sin and death. Your flesh is still frail and fading and falling apart. You still do and say things that you should not. And not only your body, but your thoughts and feelings, too, are still haunted and beleaguered by doubts and fears, by pride and greed, by all kinds of wickedness, weariness, and worry, and by many other weaknesses.

But this is why the very things that contradict and deny your hopes and expectations, are, in fact, the way and means by which the Lord Jesus saves you. The vicious circle of suffering, sin and death is precisely the arena into which He has come, in which He has fulfilled the Holy Scriptures for the salvation of the whole world: for you, and for all the sinful, mortal children of Adam.

He has borne and suffered everything for you — in His own Body on the Cross, but also in His truly human heart and mind, soul and spirit. He has endured the wounding of His flesh, even unto death, in order that your wounded flesh might be healed and made whole in His Resurrection.

For with the wounding of His heel, He crushed the serpent’s head under His foot, removing the assaults and accusations of the devil, the temptations and the guilt. Not as though you would no longer feel and experience these attacks, but that you would be delivered from them and win the final victory in Christ Jesus. As He has risen, so shall you rise. But the fact that He still bears the wounds of His Cross — the wounds of your sin and death! — even now in His risen body, shows that He has not left you alone, but He is with you: not only when you are strong and confident, but especially when you are confused and afraid, struggling to make it, and barely hanging on.

What you have brought upon yourself by your arrogance and ignorance, by your self-idolatry and selfishness, your unbelief and lack of love, He took upon Himself and resolved by trusting the promise of His Father and handing Himself over to the Cross in love for His Father and for you.

His Cross and Resurrection are your salvation from sin, death, the devil and hell. So are His Cross and Resurrection also your repentance, that is to say, your dying to sin and your rising with Christ, as these are now worked in you by His Word and Holy Spirit.

Your repentance and salvation are not something that you could ever accomplish or achieve for yourself, by your own perception or willpower; no more so than you, or even the holy Apostles, could recognize or receive the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus, except by His gracious revealing. So, because He loves you and desires your salvation, He sends His “hands and feet” to preach repentance to you for the forgiveness of all your sins in His Name. And by this preaching, He opens the Scriptures to you, and He opens your heart and mind to Himself, and He brings you into faith and life — through His Cross, into His Resurrection — into His Peace.

This “Peace” that He speaks to you throughout the Liturgy, which He gives to you by His Word, is unlike anything the world knows or understands or attempts to give. It is the comfort and safety of God’s acceptance of you, of His good pleasure with you, and of your permanent place with Him. It is not the fluctuating whimsy of your emotions, but the certainty of the Holy Spirit, whom He has poured out upon you generously through Jesus Christ, His Son. It is the righteousness of the same Lord, Jesus Christ, with which He has clothed you. It is the love of the Father for you, whom He has named with His Name and called His own dear child. It is, therefore, the Peace of being able to go home; of knowing that, according to His promise, He will receive you gladly.

Wherever and however you have withdrawn from His presence, and turned away from Him, and closed your ears, your mind, or your heart to Him, repent, and return to the Lord your God. That is not to say that you must now travel far and wide, nor seek Him in the heights or in the depths. But return to Him here, where He is with you. Return to Him by remembering your Baptism, by giving attention to the Word that He speaks to you, by receiving the fruits of His Cross.

Do not be troubled or afraid, but lay hold of Him who lays hold of you. I know that you can’t see Him, but He has come to be with you; He is near to you. He is in your ears, because it is the Lord who speaks to you in Peace. Beloved, He sees you in mercy, and He lays Himself upon your heart and soul, upon your body, mind and spirit, by His Word of forgiveness: by wiping your sins away.

Here is refreshment and rest for your weariness in the presence of the Lord; perfect healing for your wounds of body and soul in His Holy Supper. For returning to the Lord, who already loves you, does not require running to and for, nor traveling of any kind, nor searching or striving, but receiving what His wounded feet have brought you, and what His wounded hands here give you. In these gifts, His Body and Blood, is the surety and guarantee of the resurrection of your body.

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

Like Newborn Babies

It’s been about a year now since we’ve had a newborn baby at Emmaus, though we look forward to welcoming a couple more in the near future, as Rebekah and Sarah are both due in the coming months. Bob and Herta recently shared with me that, lately, there have been significantly fewer babies for them to rock and cradle at the hospital, but let us hope that changes soon. Meanwhile, we all know what St. Peter is talking about when he refers to newborn babies longing for milk.

The Moms among you know it better than the rest of us, but all of you can understand the way a baby craves, cries out for, and clings to the milk he needs in order to keep on living and growing.

That is how you are to long for the pure milk of the Word of Christ — the Word of the Gospel; the Word of Absolution, or forgiveness: like a newborn baby craving his mother’s milk. For just as surely as the baby needs that milk to live and to grow, so do you need the Word of Christ in order to grow and mature in respect to your faith and life and salvation.

So, what does it look like as a child grows up and participates in the life of a family? We’ve got lots of examples here at Emmaus, so we actually get to watch this happening all around us. Even the teenagers still live and learn from their parents, receiving food and clothing, shelter, protection, and many other good gifts from the Lord through their Moms and Dads. But, already at a fairly young age, children also begin to serve their family, contributing to the life of the household in a variety of ways. They all have their own particular chores and duties, according to their abilities, and at some point the older children are likely to be given some responsibility for younger siblings.

Something similar is likewise true for each and all of you, as members belonging to the household and family of God. On the one hand, as St. Peter has made clear with his admonition, you never do outgrow your need for the Word of Christ. No matter how old you are, you should still long for His Word, as though you were a newborn infant with an empty tummy. But, on the other hand, as you are nourished by that pure milk of the Word, so that you grow in respect to salvation, you also have a purpose and a role to serve within the Body of Christ, as a member of God’s family.

As a child of God in Christ — conceived and born again by the Word of Christ and Holy Baptism in His Name — the Church on earth is your house and home. The Church is where you live, where you receive the good gifts of the Lord through His servants, His sent ones, and where you also grow into loving and serving your brothers and sisters in Christ. Because the Church is not simply “home base,” from which you are launched into anything bigger and better. Far less is the Church a mere “oasis” from the so-called “real world.”

No, the Church on earth is the central location, the true means, and the present realization of the New Creation which began in the bodily Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead. That is to say, in fact, that the Church is the “real world.” It is God’s world, as He intended the world to be.

Now, that is not at all to say that the Church on earth is flawless and perfect in herself. She’s not. To be sure, she is flawless and perfect in Christ, her Head, because she is fully adorned with His righteousness and holiness. She lives by His grace, through faith in His Word; and such faith in His gracious providence is at the very heart of the way that God always intended His world to live. But in herself, in this life on earth under the Cross, the members of the Church have their doubts and fears, their hurts and problems, as well as their sins and failings. Which is why her faith, for now, clings first and foremost to the Word of the Gospel, that is, to the forgiveness of sins.

That Word of the Gospel is why the Church on earth is the New Creation; because all of those hurts and fears, and all of those griefs and sorrows, are gathered up and borne in the one Body of Christ Jesus. In Him they are not denied, nor merely covered up, but they are cared for and healed by His Atonement, by His Redemption of the world. It is the medicine of His Cross and Passion that is spoken to you in His Gospel, and this extends to all the members of His Body.

His Church really lives as the household and family of God; which means that each member loves and cares for all the rest by the same Holy Spirit who is poured out generously through the Word of the Gospel. The children of God thus have mutual care and concern for one another; they live together through mutual repentance and forgiveness of sins; they share mutual joys and sorrows, because they fully belong to each other in Christ.

These are not platitudes. Or, at least, they should not be viewed as such, nor lightly disregarded as empty and meaningless claims. This is the life of the family of God, to which you are called; the Christian life into which you are to grow and mature by the Word of Christ, your Savior.

The life of the Body of Christ is tangible and real. It is not imaginary fiction, but genuine and solid truth, living and breathing the Spirit of God in the flesh of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. It is touched and tasted, handled and heard. Often it is hard, like cold wet concrete; like mourning a loved one; like confessing your sins to your pastor, or to a neighbor you have trespassed against; like wearing your own ugly scars in public, or tending the open wounds of your parent or child.

Make no mistake: the Body of Christ is wounded and scarred. That is not simply by accident or incidental, but He and His Body are recognized and known by His wounds. The sign of the Holy Cross is a characteristic mark of His Church; and that is so, not only as a symbol or iconography, but as defining the faith and life of discipleship. The Holy Apostles were brought from doubt and fear to peace and joy by the wounded hands and side of Christ Jesus, and they themselves then shared in the sufferings of Christ, as they were sent in His Name to preach the Word of the Cross. No less so do you and your brothers and sisters in Christ bear the wounds of His Cross in your life.

But how well do you know each other? And how shall you care for one another, if you do not even know your neighbor’s needs? How shall you have all things in common — your treasures and your hurts, your joys and your sorrows — if you do not really talk to one another, and if you do not really listen? Pleasantries and chit-chat are not yet the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters in Christ. But, in truth, by your Baptism into Him, you are the children of one God and Father; you are all Christians, anointed by one and the same Holy Spirit; and you are of one heart and soul in Christ Jesus. So, what are your chores and duties in this family of yours?

Your monetary offerings and almsgiving are certainly important and necessary to the support of the Church and Ministry of Christ. But even your generous and sacrificial gifts of money are still relatively easy as compared to the investment of yourself, your time, attention, and energies, in the needs of your neighbor. Not that you should be nosy or intrusive, but as caring for the members of your own family, for your own brothers or sisters, with true compassion and active sympathy.

Such tangible fellowship with each other is found in your fellowship with the Holy Triune God in the Body of Christ. That is, again, the fellowship of the one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church; for the Church truly is the Body of Christ. But the Church is the Body of Christ because of her mystical union with His actual Body, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, risen from the dead, and truly given and received in the Holy Communion.

The Church is one Body in Christ, because her members all receive and eat His one Body in the Sacrament, and they all drink His holy and precious Blood, poured out in the Holy Communion.

The Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is the Church’s fellowship with God, and, as such, it is the heart and center of the Church’s life, both inwardly and outwardly. Everything flows to and from that central fellowship.

Preaching and catechesis have the Sacrament in view, making disciples of the Lord Jesus and bringing them to eat and to drink at His Altar.

So do Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution usher you into this Holy Communion, even as they derive their own healing power and saving efficacy from the same Cross, the same wounds, and the same Spirit of Christ as the Lord’s Supper does.

His Word of forgiveness, in each of these means of grace, breathes the Life-giving Holy Spirit into your body and soul, so that you are made brand new. His wounded hands and pierced side bring you to repentance, so that you no longer absent yourself from the gathering of His disciples, or hide yourself away from the world in fear; and you no longer harden your heart with unbelief, or try to protect yourself from disappointment with a shell of sarcastic cynicism; but you are granted Peace, and brought into Joy, and strengthened in true faith, and given real life in His Body.

As you eat and drink His Body and His Blood, you are recreated in His Image; not only in your spirit, heart and mind, but also in your own flesh and blood. You truly are a new creation in Him, by participation in the very Body that was crucified for all your sins and raised for your salvation.

This Sacrament of the Altar is the Meal of the household and family of God. It is the Table around which the Father gathers His children, His daughters and sons, in Christ Jesus.

Here, then, is where you are called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit of God — through the Gospel — to search for the Lord, to seek His face, and to find Him most surely. And where there are empty chairs and missing family members, therefore, seek them out and call them to this Supper Table. Be as diligent to find them and to bring them home as you would be if any of your siblings, or children or parents, were “absent without leave” from your family’s meals.

Here at the Table of the Lord is where you remember the marvels He has done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth; because here is where He comes and takes His stand in your midst, and He remembers you with His speaking and His actions. He speaks His Word, faithful and just, to forgive you all your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He speaks His Word by which He gives to you His Body to eat, and with which He pours out His Blood for you to drink.

Here is where you take up the Cup of Salvation and call on the Name of the Lord. For here is where His servant has been sent in His Name to serve you with His Word and His Gifts: in His stead, and at His divine command. Here, then, as you receive mercy from His hands, you rejoice, give thanks, and sing — to and for each other — to the glory of the holy Name of Jesus.

Here abundant grace is given, to each and all of you, so that none of you has any want or need of anything. Not as though your life in this world were now simple, carefree, and easy. And not that you should now ignore your neighbor, as though he or she had no need of your love and care. But precisely in this respect, that Christ is with you and for you, and He gives Himself to you, as the One who has been crucified and raised for you; so that you lack nothing, because He is yours, in, with, and under the Cross, in the midst of death, in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection.

So, too, He gives you to each other as fellow members of His one Body, as belonging to each other in Him. Thus, you lack nothing, even here in your life on earth, because you have one another, and you care for one another. You bear each other’s crosses. The strength of one bears the weakness of another, and vice versa, as circumstances require.

All for one, and one for all, because you are all one Body in Christ. Indeed, it is precisely because you here receive Christ Jesus and all good things in the Holy Communion, that you serve and care for one another, and share all good things with each other. So is your joy made complete in love.

Dear children of God, I am preaching these things to you, that you may not sin, but that you may practice the truth and walk in the Light of Christ; that, having tasted the kindness of the Lord, you would grow and mature in respect to salvation, in fellowship with one another: familial fellowship from this Altar of Christ into the rest of the week, in solicitous care and kindness for each and all of your brothers and sisters in Christ, in compassion and charity and tangible works of mercy.

For the Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses you from sin, as often as you drink this Cup. In His Name and stead, I forgive you. So receive His Holy Spirit, and here receive His Body, given for you, which is the Propitiation for all your sins, and for the sins of the whole world. This is your Peace and rest. For He who feeds you is your Advocate, who has reconciled you to His God and Father. Such is the fellowship that is yours, now and forever, in this Holy Communion.

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