The Lord's Redemption of His Vineyard

Those who first heard the Parables of Jesus knew and understood that the Vineyard signified the people of God, His Holy Church.  The children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, planted in the good Land He had promised and given.  And you also have been planted in His Vineyard — you are a member of His Church — by your Baptism into Christ.

Accordingly, the Lord your God does look for produce from your life and labors in this world.  He looks to find in you the fruits of faith and love, which are the good works He has prepared for you to do within your calling to the glory of His Holy Name and for the benefit of your neighbors.

And yet, how little and how few are the fruits that you bear and bring forth in your life on earth.  Even at your best, you do no more than your duty.  And with St. Paul you must confess that all of your works and efforts of self-righteousness are rubbish and refuse, fit only for the manure pile.

Now, the care and cultivation of the Lord’s Vineyard, His Church on earth, has been entrusted to the stewardship of His called and ordained ministers.  By the preaching and teaching of His Word and the faithful administration of His Holy Sacraments, they are to nurture the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, to guard and keep it in His Name, and thereby to bring forth fruits which praise and glorify Him.  They are accountable to the Lord for their faithfulness and failures in this calling.

But as for you, the faithfulness and failures of the Lord’s ministers do not exonerate or excuse you for your own failures, for your lack of fruits, your lack of faith and love within your own callings and stations in life, which the Lord requires and expects from you as part of His Vineyard.

Not only that, but you also have been entrusted with a portion of the Lord’s Vineyard, which you are to care for and cultivate in accordance with His Word.  Whether that portion be small or great, you are responsible and held accountable for your stewardship of that portion of the Vineyard.

You are to care for your neighbor, and to serve your neighbor, in whatever place and position the Lord has stationed you on earth.  If you are a husband and father, you are to care for your wife and children.  If you are a wife and mother, you are to care for your husband and family.  As a child, you are to honor your father and mother, and you are to love and help your brothers and sisters.

Wherever you live in this world, you are to look to your neighbors and be attentive to their needs.  Whatever your job may be, you are to serve your employer and your employees, your clients and your customers.  As a citizen, you have responsibilities to your country and your community.

In each and all of these different stations in life, you have been entrusted with a portion of the Lord’s Vineyard.  And you are accountable to Him for the way you carry out that stewardship.

It is not only a matter of money, although the way you manage and use money certainly is one part of your stewardship.  Nor is it only a matter of what you give and do for the Church, although you do have responsibilities within your congregation, and you are to support the Ministry of the Word of God.  Beyond those basic aspects of your Christian stewardship, you are to use whatever talents and resources the Lord has placed into your hands to glorify His Name and to serve your neighbor.  Whatever you possess in this world, whatever the Lord has provided, it is not only for the purpose of preserving your own body and life, but for the benefit of those He has placed alongside of you.

Now, as you have heard, the scribes and the chief priests recognized that Jesus spoke this Parable against them, against their sins and failings, against their unfaithfulness.  But in response, sadly, they did not repent.  Instead, they sought to kill the One who exposed their sins.  What about you?

Do you recognize yourself in this Parable?  And will you repent of your own sins and failings?

St. Luke did not record this Gospel in order that you should sit in judgment of the scribes and chief priests of Jesus’ day, but in order that you should recognize your own sins and so repent of them; that you should flee to Christ Jesus in faith for the forgiveness of your sins and newness of life.

The fact is that you have not brought forth the good fruits that you should from the portion of the Vineyard entrusted to your care and keeping.  You fail to bear such fruits because you do not tend to your callings and stations in life with the Word of the Lord.  You are lax.  You are irresponsible.  You are chiefly concerned for yourself and for your own ambitions, rather than for your neighbor and his needs.  Even your closest neighbors in this life too often receive your attention only if and when there is something in it for you, something at stake, or something to be gained.

And as for those whom the Lord sends to you in His Name and stead — to speak His Word of the Law and the Gospel to you, to call you to repentance and faith, and by His Word to cultivate good fruits in your life and in your portion of the Vineyard — you do not heed or honor them as the servants of the Lord, but in many and various ways (sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious) you reject them and their preaching, and you send them away empty-handed.

You falsely suppose that your body and life are your own to do with as you like; that your job and your income are your own; that your talents and opportunities are all your own, and that you can therefore do whatever you want with them.  You do not recognize or acknowledge that everything you are and all that you have belongs to the Lord your God.  It is all a sacred trust, a stewardship of His property.  Whatever He puts in your hands, it is not for your own selfish gain at the expense of others; it is for the glory of God and for the benefit of others.  You have whatever you have in this body and life for the sake of loving and serving your neighbors in the Name of the Lord.

But instead, because you imagine that what you have in your hands is your own, you seek to hold on to it and to possess it for yourself.  All of your temptations and sins ultimately derive from this covetous idolatry, whereby you worship yourself and refuse to fear, love, and trust in the Lord.

Consequently, it is as though your every sin of thought, word, and deed is a big stone that you pick up and heft in your hand and hurl at the beloved Son of God.

It is your sins that have killed Him.  It is your transgressions that have wounded Him.  It is for your iniquities that He is put to death outside of His own Vineyard.  But do you not fear the Lord your God in all of this, considering that He suffers the condemnation that you deserve?

Do not deceive yourself into thinking that the Lord of the Vineyard is impotent, that He is unable to deal with you or His Vineyard.  Do not suppose that He is far away and not looking; that He is unaware of your wickedness; that He does not know the sinful intentions of your heart and mind; that He does not hear your sinful words of anger and hatred, your blasphemy and proud boasting; and that He does not observe your sinful actions.  He is aware and well able to act (and He does).

The Lord will not suffer His beloved Vineyard to be neglected and abused.  He will not leave it in the hands of those who would wring it dry for their own selfish benefit and profit.  He will destroy such tenant vine-growers, and He will entrust the stewardship of His Vineyard to others.

That is the clear judgment and terrifying work of His holy and righteous Law, which condemns you for your sins and does not leave you to your own devices but sentences you to death.

But precisely here emerges the great irony and paradox of the Christian faith and life, the Mystery of the Vineyard.  Here is the New Thing which God accomplishes, which He has had in mind from before the foundation of the world and now brings to fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.

The Lord never has been powerless to help and keep His Vineyard, to prosper and preserve it.  This story has never been outside of His control, for He remains the Author of all things.  His apparent naïveté and foolishness in sending the beloved Son to the Vineyard, to His death, is the way and means by which the Lord has redeemed and restored His recalcitrant Vineyard, yourself included.

It is by His innocent suffering and death, by His holy and precious Blood, that He has redeemed or bought back His own Vineyard for Himself.  Not in any selfishness or greed, but in divine Love.  He seeks to retain and cultivate His Vineyard, not because of any need or lack in Him, but for the sake of sinners such as you — for unproductive branches and unfaithful workers like yourself — in order to save you from your sin and death, to care for you and cultivate you in His grace, mercy, and peace, that you should live and grow and thrive in Him and bear abundant fruit in His Name.

So it is that, when the Lord Himself, the Son of God, is crucified, put to death, and buried, He is thereby planted in the ground as the true Vine.  And in His Resurrection from the dead He bursts forth from the earth, a vigorous, healthy, and productive Vine.  His own Body of flesh and blood is a living and life-giving Vine, firmly rooted and anchored in the living and life-giving Tree of His Cross, whereby He bears and brings forth all the fruits of faith and love that God requires, first of all for the benefit and healing of His Vineyard, and then also for the glory of His Vineyard.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who does it all.  He is the One who cares for His Vineyard and causes it to be fruitful and productive.  For He is the Vine at the heart and center of the Vineyard, who sprouts and grows in the New Creation of His Resurrection.  So does He produce good fruits to the glory of His God and Father and for the benefit of you and all His neighbors.  And everything that He produces is credited to you, as your very own, and to His Church, to all those who believe and are baptized in His Name, all by His grace alone through the Word and work of His Gospel.

For that reason, though you are put to death for your sins, and you are crushed and destroyed by the Law of the Lord, you are not left to be scattered as dust and ashes to the four winds, but you are raised up from the dust of the ground, gathered together, and planted in Christ, grafted into the true Vine, so that you should thereby rise and emerge in and with Him unto the Life everlasting.

When you are crucified, put to death, and buried with Him by your Baptism into His death, and by daily contrition and repentance, that is where and how you are bound to Him and grafted into His crucified and risen Body.  Therefore, in the very midst of death, you find and receive your life in Him — and health and strength and every good — by faith in His forgiveness of all your sins.

It is likewise from His Cross, by and with the Fruits of His Cross, His Body given and His Blood poured out for you, that He feeds and nurtures you in the one true faith.  Not only does He thereby forgive you all your sins, but He also enlivens and sanctifies your body and soul, your heart, mind, and spirit, unto the righteousness of faith and the holiness of life and love in the presence of God.

The Lord does all of this in His love for you, because you are His very own, purchased and won by His Blood and baptized in His Name.  You belong to His Vineyard by His grace.  And because He is intent on caring for His Vineyard, so is He intent on caring for you.  And so He does.

As a worker in His Vineyard, you often fail and fall short, you sin every day and deserve nothing but punishment.  But as a branch of the true Vine, you are preserved in His safety and peace, and you are well supplied with grace and every blessing.  So it is that you are also a productive branch of that holy Vine, because He is faithful, and He is fruitful both for you and in you, and so also through you for others, for your family, for your neighbors, for your community and your church.

The very One whom you have wounded with your transgressions and cast out by your sins, He has made Atonement for you by His willing Sacrifice and the shedding of His Blood upon the Cross.  And by His Resurrection from the dead He now justifies you with His own righteousness through the Ministry of His Holy Gospel, whereby you also are raised up from death to Life in His Body.

Indeed, His crucified and risen Body has become the strong and solid Root, the steadfast Anchor, and the sturdy Vine from which the entire Vineyard lives and grows in holy faith and holy love.  Therefore, you also live and grow and thrive and flourish in Christ Jesus, in the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts.  This is the Lord’s own doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes!

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

The Lord Has Prepared His Table for Bernice in His Father's House

So there are these two disciples of our Lord who have journeyed together on the Road to Emmaus (let’s call it Indiana 23).  Side by side they have lived and walked and traveled, at home and away, within the Lord’s House, and with their family.  They have surely had their troubles and hardships on the way, their own various health issues, and their daughter’s stroke and subsequent struggles; but you would rarely have known or hardly have guessed any of those burdens they bore.

Bernice and Eldon have always radiated joy and contentment.  Look at the wonderful picture from their 50th Anniversary celebration, and you can see it so clearly in their faces and their smiles.  They embraced their life together in real happiness — playing cards, dancing, quilting, traveling.

Bernice lived her life on the road to and from Emmaus, not only with Eldon beside her, and family and friends, but with the Lord Jesus.  She and Eldon lived together in the Word of God and prayer, reading from their Bible day by day at home, and worshiping together in the Lord’s House every week.  To be on the road with Jesus is to be in His Word and in His House, and so they have been.

And here is the truth: In the confession and prayer of His Word, in the telling and retelling of the story of Christ Jesus, He Himself draws near and journeys alongside of His disciples on the way, in both good times and bad, in all the joys of life and in its sorrows.  So has He been with Bernice.

I’m sure that all of us can relate to the sadness of those very first disciples of Emmaus on this day, as we mourn Bernice’s death.  She touched so many lives with her gentleness, quiet humor, and  compassionate love, her departure from this vale of tears has left an emptiness in our hearts and lives — none of us more so than you, dear Eldon, now left without your wife of sixty-two years!

But where we are all so tempted and prone to despair in our fallen, mortal flesh, the Lord Jesus gently chides our slow and foolish hearts, and He does not leave us to wallow in sadness and fear, not even in the face of death and the grave.  He comes alongside you today, as He has walked with Bernice and Eldon all these years, and He joins your pilgrimage through this valley of sorrow.

It was the presence of Christ Jesus that sustained Bernice in peace and hope throughout her days on this earth, all the more so in the final weeks and months of her mortal life.  When she spoke of her illness, of her cancer and its treatment, and of her hospice care at home, it was with the calm acceptance of her Lord’s good and gracious will for her, with faith and confidence in His Gospel.  Not by her own reason and strength, but by the Word and work of her Lord Jesus Christ.

So also for you, and for all of His disciples, the same Lord Jesus opens the Scriptures to reveal Himself to you.  He opens your ears to hear, your heart to believe, and your mind to comprehend the glory of His Cross, as He leads and guides you by His Word and Spirit into His Father’s House.

It is only by His Word and Spirit that faith is created and sustained in your heart and life, especially in the midst of adversity and hardship, under the trials and tribulations of the Cross.  Otherwise, you cannot comprehend the Cross or make any sense of it.  Neither are you able to bear the Cross  except by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, whereby He calls you to fear, love, and trust in Him.

Even so, it is paradoxically by the way of His Cross that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, enters into His Glory; because it is by His Cross and Passion that He has redeemed His Israel from sin, death, the devil, and hell.  It is by His Cross that He has redeemed and reconciled you and all the world, including Bernice, to be His own.  For the Lord both wounds and heals; He kills and brings to life.

Indeed, the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus stand at the heart and center of the Holy Scriptures, at the heart and center of the whole creation and all of history.  The Cross is the defining event by which the incarnate Son has fulfilled all that the Prophets have spoken, and accomplished His great Salvation for you and all people, and entered into His Glory as your merciful and great High Priest.  His Cross likewise defines and shapes your Christian faith and life on earth, as it did for Bernice.

His Resurrection from the dead on the Third Day, in accordance with the Scriptures, is therefore not a contradiction or the undoing of His Cross.  It is, rather, the manifest victory of His Cross.  And as He was crucified for your transgressions, put to death and buried in His Body of flesh and blood like your own (and like Bernice’s), so His Resurrection from the dead is your resurrection and your righteousness in the presence of God — which He now gives to you with His Gospel.

It is in that hope and confidence of His Cross and Resurrection that we are gathered as His people today.  To mourn, yes, but also to confess the sure and certain promise of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, which Bernice shares with Him forever by virtue of her Baptism in His Name.

What she needed most in this body and life, and what you and all your family, friends, and loved ones need above all else — in order to share in the Resurrection and to live with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is more than just the news and information concerning Jesus of Nazareth.  What you need is Christ Jesus Himself, in His own Body of flesh and blood, crucified and risen.

So, then, especially at those times when He is hidden from your eyes, and when He appears to be moving on without you, He teaches you to pray, to call upon His Name, to bid Him come and stay with you.  And as He teaches you to pray, so does He hear and answer.  He comes and meets your every need by spreading His Table before you and feeding you with Himself from His own hand.

As St. Luke has here described so beautifully in this Holy Gospel, your catechesis on the road with the Lord Jesus brings you to His Breaking of the Bread, to the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of your sins and life and salvation.

It is here at His Altar in His Church that He is with you, as He has been here with and for Bernice throughout all these many years, revealing Himself in mercy, and giving Himself to His people.

That is what makes this place a true “Emmaus,” not only in name but in actual fact!  For He comes to make this humble dwelling into the very Temple of God.  We call upon His Name and ask Him to abide with us in grace, mercy, and peace.  And so He does!  But so it is that you become a guest at His Table within His Father’s House, wherein He serves as the Host, the Waiter, and the Meal.  So it was that He also came to visit Bernice in her home last week, to feed her with Himself.

To be sure, the Lord Jesus is with you on the way, in His Word, in your life and conversation — as surely as He has been with Bernice throughout the many years of her Christian faith and life.  But at the heart and center of it all, He is with you, as He has been with her — to love you and to serve you with Himself, and to open up your eyes — in the Holy Supper of His Body and Blood.

That is the destination to which He leads you and brings you by the preaching and catechesis of His Word, that you should find Him and receive Him in the Breaking of the Bread, and fear not death nor any other evil, but live in Him, both body and soul, here in time and forever hereafter.

But what then are we to think or say about Bernice, or about any of the other faithful Christians who have suffered and died across the centuries and around the world?  For Bernice has suffered, and now she has died.  Was her confident faith in Christ Jesus misplaced or in vain?  Have all her prayers — and all our intercessions for her — gone unheard and unanswered?  By no means!

The truth is that Bernice has been redeemed in body and soul by the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus, by His holy and precious Blood, by His innocent suffering and death on her behalf.  Indeed, she shared both His Cross and His Resurrection already in her Baptism.  There she was crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ; and her life was thereby hidden securely with Christ in God.

So it is that all of her suffering in this life on earth, and now her death and her grave, are sanctified by the glorious Cross of Christ; and they are vindicated by His bodily Resurrection from the dead.

Such things are by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and not by sight or sense.  But they are true and real and sure, even so.  That is why we do not mourn as those who have no hope, but as those who hope and trust in the Resurrection and the Life everlasting of our Lord Jesus.

Bernice was blessed with such hope and confidence by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus.  That was evident in the way she faced and dealt with her illness over these past six months, so gracious and at peace, so calm and content in Christ.  Not in denial, but in the confession of His Gospel.

Her faith and hope and confidence in Christ have been evident all along, certainly throughout the decades that I have been privileged to know her.  Evident in the love that she demonstrated for all her neighbors in the world — for Eldon; and for her family, her siblings, her children, and her grandchildren; for her many friends and fellow Christians; and for her Emmaus congregation.

Her faith and love were obvious in her gracious hospitality, as she and Eldon opened up their hearts and their home to others, hosting the Emmaus picnic for years, and sharing their tomatoes.

As Christ opened His home to her, so did Bernice open up her house and home to her neighbors.  As a member of the Body of Christ, she cared for the Body of Christ in His members.  And as she thus cared for the members of His Body, so did she receive and care for Christ Jesus Himself.

She was both a Mary and a Martha, no doubt, in both learning and loving; in both hearing the Word of Christ and sharing His hospitality; in both receiving the Body of Christ and returning thanks for that holy Gift.  Loving the Altar from which she received His Sacrament, she assisted for many years in caring for that Altar, especially by taking care of the flowers that adorned it.

And as often as the Lord gave His own holy Body and precious Blood into Bernice’s frail, mortal body — as He continued to do in the last weeks of her life on earth, there in her living room at home along with her family — He was redeeming her for Himself and for His Father in heaven, and sanctifying her body and soul with His Spirit, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

So it is that we lay Bernice’s body to rest on this day in the confidence that Christ shall raise her body from the dust on the Day of His appearing.  Though her poor body suffered such affliction in the final months of her mortal life on earth, then her body shall be made perfect and glorified, like unto the Lord’s own glorious body, henceforth immortal, imperishable, and indestructible.

For His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for her to eat and drink in repentant faith and with thanksgiving, are the down payment, the surety, and the pledge of Bernice’s resurrection.

As He gave Himself for her into death upon the Cross, and as He has given Himself to her in the Sacrament of His Altar, so has He received her to Himself and taken her into the palm of His hand.  He preserved her faith and life in Him throughout her pilgrimage on earth, on her steady journey to and from Emmaus; and nothing and no one shall ever be able to snatch her away from Him.

He has prepared His Table for Bernice in the House of His God and Father.  And as a member of His Body, as a beloved member of His Holy Bride, she lives and abides forever with Him in the blest Communion, Fellowship divine of His crucified and risen Body, enlivened by His precious Blood.  So does He also abide with you, and you with Him, in His Breaking of the Bread within the household and family of God, which is the Holy Christian Church, on earth as it is in heaven.

Though you cannot see it with your eyes (not yet, though someday you shall!), the Holy Spirit calls you by the Gospel to be gathered here at the Lord’s Altar with all the holy angels and archangels, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with Peter, James, and John, with Bernice and all the saints, to worship and give thanks to the Lamb upon His Throne, who was slain for all your sins, but who is risen from the dead — He is risen indeed! — and behold, He is alive forevermore.

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

Baptized with the Baptism of Christ

The Season of Lent developed in connection with a period of intensive catechesis in preparation for Holy Baptism, which then took place at the Easter Vigil in that hinge between the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  Along the same lines, Lent was also an opportunity for those who had departed from the faith and life of their Baptism to return to the Lord their God in heart, mind, body, and soul, by way of repentance and reconciliation.

By the Word and Spirit of God, this sacred Season of Lent remains to this day, also now for you, as a time of catechesis and repentance in which you follow the Lord Jesus up to Jerusalem.

Lent calls you to be baptized with the Baptism of Christ.  Or, if you are already baptized into Him, it calls you to remember and return to the significance of your Holy Baptism.  Either way, you are called to follow this Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, on His way of the Cross, which is to say that you are called to suffer and die with Him, that you might live with Him by faith in His Word.

What, then, is this Holy Baptism to which you are called?  It is the working of the New Creation by the washing of water with the Word and Spirit of Christ, the incarnate Son, whereby the first creation is fulfilled and comes to fruition in you, according to the good and gracious will of God.

You are a new creature, a new man or woman, by your Baptism into Christ, because it first of all puts you to death and buries you with Christ, and then also raises you up and gives you new birth in His Resurrection from the dead.  Though hidden from your eyes, that is the labor and delivery that occurs in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, as it has been instituted by Christ Jesus, our Lord.

By the rites and ceremonies of His Word and work in Holy Baptism, in the waters administered in His Name at His divine command, you are crucified with Christ Jesus.  For He has sanctified the waters of your Baptism with His own Baptism in the Jordan River, the Baptism He completed and perfected by His Cross and Passion in Jerusalem.  He was baptized into His own death and burial, and that is why your Holy Baptism is a sharing or participation in His Crucifixion.

It is not that you atone for anyone’s sins, not even your own; neither are you given as a ransom for anyone’s life.  But the Lord Jesus has opened the way for you — through death and the grave into the resurrection and the life everlasting — so that now you follow after Him by faith in His Word.  You follow Him through the waters of Holy Baptism into the grace and glory of His Kingdom.

Thus are you cleansed and refreshed in body and soul, inside and out, with the spiritual water from the Rock who not only leads the way but also follows after as your rear guard, sword, and shield.  For the water that fills the font of Holy Baptism is the water that flows with the precious Blood of Christ from His pierced side, from His crucified Body, from the innermost depths of His heart.

So it is that Holy Baptism brings about a new heavens and a new earth, a new home for you, where righteousness dwells.  It ushers you into that home, that you may live and abide with the Father in Christ Jesus as a member of His household and family, and so rest in the peace of His Spirit.

Your Baptism in His Name justifies you with the righteousness of Christ, it reconciles you to His God and Father as your own dear God and Father, and it pours out His Spirit and His Life upon your body and soul through His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  So everything is made brand new.  Your slate is wiped cleaned.  For Baptism is not only a new creation, it is a new and better flood, which drowns and destroys the old Adam in you with all his mockery and worldly desires, and washes away your sins, while preserving you in safety aboard the Ark of the Church.

It is within His Church, as a member of His Body, united with Him in His Cross and Resurrection by your Baptism in His Name, that you belong to the Bride of Christ.  For He has clothed you in the white wedding gown of His righteousness; He has adorned you in the beauty of His holiness.

Baptized into Christ Jesus, you share His Glory by His grace.  So it is that your place is with Him in His Kingdom.  Indeed, His Royal Majesty crowns you with His divine and everlasting Life, as He honors you with His Word of the Gospel and anoints you with the Holy Spirit; and so also as He shares His Cross and Passion with you in the hope and promise of His Resurrection.

Of course, that is all pretty different than what James and John were envisioning.  But it is also far better than anything they (or you) could ever have imagined.  And it is yours by the Baptism of Christ, that is, by and through the water included in His command and combined with His Word.

Water by itself is already God’s good creation and good gift, whereby He grants and brings forth life on earth.  Water quenches thirst and cleanses the body.  It refreshes human beings, animals, and grass and trees and plants of every kind.  Together with sunshine, the rain which waters the earth is by the grace of God, by His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, also for all the wicked.

But water by itself does not forgive sins or rescue from death and the devil.  Water by itself is providence for life on earth, but not a source or means of eternal life.  By itself, it is only water and not Holy Baptism.  But with the Word of God, simple water becomes something altogether more.

That is how the Holy Triune God has delighted to work from the beginning in His divine wisdom.  When He first created the heavens and the earth, He started with the deep waters, over which His Spirit hovered, and out of which His Word brought forth the world and everything in it.  So, too, with the waters of the flood He cleansed His creation and rescued faithful Noah and his family.

And after He brought His Israel out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea — as He would later bring them through the waters of the Jordan River into Canaan — He provided them with water from the Rock in the midst of the desert.  And how did He do that?  In each and every case, He did it by His Holy Word.  “Speak to the Rock,” He said to Moses, and “thus bring forth water.”

It is by the Word of Christ Jesus, that is, by the Speaking of God the Father in His Son, that the waters of your Holy Baptism have been filled with the significance of His own Baptism.

And what is that significance?  It is the Voice of the Father from a wide open heaven, declaring His Name and His Glory upon the waters which have cleansed and covered you.  It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, descending upon your body in the bodily form of this sacred bath, and resting and remaining upon your body and life as you rest and remain in the Body of Christ by faith.

The Lord thus reveals Himself as the Holy, Holy, Holy One, by sanctifying you with His Holiness in the waters of your Baptism.  Which is utterly unlike the greatness and the glory of the Gentiles.  It is divine grace and the gift of Life, accomplished and bestowed upon His own creation by the Lord’s Self-Sacrifice, by the pouring out of His Body and Life even unto death upon the Cross.

In the same way that the waters become such a Life-giving Baptism by the Word of Christ Jesus, so do His preaching and His catechesis continue, day by day throughout your life on earth, even to the close of the age.  And by this ongoing Word of Christ, He reminds you of the significance of your Holy Baptism, He returns you to its repentance, and He restores you to its righteousness.

What does that mean for you?  And what does that look like in practice?  It means that your life is found in Christ Jesus, and that your greatness and your glory as a Christian are that of His grace and of His Sacrifice.  Which is to say that, far from being ashamed of His Gospel and His Cross, these things of Christ are your greatest pride and joy, in which alone you boast and glory.

At the same time, it means that all your worldly ambitions, your sinful human ego, your envy and jealousy, and your competition and contention with others, with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and with all of your neighbors — all of this is crucified and put to death in you.  And instead of all that muckety-muck, you begin to love your neighbors, your friends and foes alike, in the way that Christ Jesus lives in love for you and lays down His Body and Life to serve and care for you.

As you are baptized in His Name, do not grumble or complain against the Lord your God, who has brought you out of Egypt with His mighty arm and outstretched hand; nor grumble and complain against His servants and His people, but love them and forgive them in patience and in peace.

Your Baptism into Christ Jesus catechizes you to live in humility, repentance, and faith, relying not upon yourself, but upon the Lord who calls you to believe and trust His Word and promise.  He is faithful, and He will do it.  He alone is your Hope and your Help, and He is your Salvation.

Even Moses and Aaron, and James and John, and the other Apostles, all fell short in their faith and love, and too often stumbled off the road of discipleship into the ditch of ego and envy, ignorance, indignation, and incredulity.  It is far too easy to fear man more than God, and to love the praises of men more than God.  Be on guard against those dangers and temptations, and repent of those sins in your heart and life.  But do not despair.  Rather, in repentance look to Christ, and live.

Your Baptism, your discipleship, your life and your salvation, none of these rest on your shoulders, nor do they depend upon you and your faithfulness.  Each and all of these are the gracious gift and good work of God in Christ.  So do you rest upon His shoulders, and so do you depend upon Him, upon His Baptism and His Cup, and upon His faithful, loving Service for you and for all people.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, has drained the Cup of God’s righteous wrath and anger against your sins, in order to atone for all of those sins — to atone for the sins of the whole world — to ransom and redeem you from death and the devil forever.  He has accomplished and completed the significance of His Baptism by His Cross and Passion, by His innocent suffering and death, and by the outpouring of His holy and precious Blood.  So it is that death is destroyed and the devil is defeated, for the Body and Life of the very Son of God have been given for you.

This is the greatness and the glory of God, that He has reconciled the world to Himself in Christ Jesus, who has not only died for you, but has also risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever.  And He has done all of this by grace, for the forgiveness and salvation of sinners, including you, no more nor less than for James and John, for Simon Peter, for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul.  No distinctions.  No exceptions.  The incarnate Son of God has become the Servant and the Slave of all people, and He has given Himself as the Sacrifice of propitiation for the sins of the world.

With the same loving service, by the same divine grace, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus also now cleanses and sanctifies you with His own righteousness and holiness.  He has done so in the waters of your Holy Baptism, and those same waters remain, daily washing away all of your sins.  For you stand, by faith, in the midst of the River of Life, constantly flowing from His pierced side, and constantly cleansing you of all unrighteousness.  So, too, the ongoing catechesis of Christ, the preaching of His Gospel, and His Word of Holy Absolution, are always putting you back into that cleansing flood, into that holy bath, into that living and Life-giving water from the Rock of Ages.

He therefore gives to you, His beloved and beautiful Bride, to drink from His Chalice of Salvation.  There is no poison in this Cup, nor the wrath of God against you, but the precious Blood of Jesus poured out for you in love and mercy and forgiveness.  He has gone up to Jerusalem ahead of you, in order to prepare a place for you at His Table in His Kingdom.  That is the place He has prepared, which He now gives by grace alone to all who believe and are baptized into Him.

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

A Son of the Father by the Grace of God in Christ

There are all sorts of ways in which you may find yourself estranged and at odds with your family, colleagues and associates, and various other neighbors: Unresolved disagreements, unreconciled hurts and offenses, or the gradual chilling of hearts and minds that have turned away from mutual cares and concerns to other interests and pursuits.  So too, there are numerous ways in which you estrange and distance yourself from the Father in heaven, though He does not turn away from you.

There may be wild and loose living and flagrant vices of the sort that everyone knows are wrong, and there are ways in which you do pursue those paths, even if only in your imagination.  But there is also presumptuous pride and self-righteous indignation, covetous envy, and bitter resentment of brothers and sisters and other neighbors, whereby you find fault with your Father and harden your heart against Him and His household and family, despite His grace and mercy toward you.

When you are estranged and at odds with your God and Father in heaven, then you are also at odds and out of sorts with your neighbors on earth.  And by the same token, when you harden yourself against your neighbor, be it family, friend, or foe, you poison your relationship with your Father, as well.  Faith and love both suffer and die when you refuse to live by the grace of God.

When you insist upon your own self-righteousness, and when you invest yourself in selfishness, then you squander the gifts and blessings, talents and resources that God the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship and faithful use.  You squander them in reckless spending on yourself; and you squander them by clinging to what you possess and withholding the love and service that you owe to your brothers and sisters.  While you are well fed, your neighbor goes hungry.  While your home is maintained, expanded, and beautified, the Lord’s House deteriorates and falls apart.  While you look after yourself, shore up your bank accounts, invest in your children’s future, and take your extravagant vacations, others go wanting, others go hungry, others go without your love.

But attitudes and actions have consequences; and for all of these sins against the Lord your God and against the neighbors He has given you, there are various pigsties in which you find yourself.  As troubling and tragic as that may seem, it is a greater mercy of your God and Father to bring you to that point than if He were to leave you to the lusts of your flesh and the hardness of your heart.  It is often in the pigsty that you finally begin to remember who you really are, whose child you are, whose Name you bear; and with that stirring of repentance, you begin to remember your Father.

In the meantime there is brokenness and division within your family and your other relationships.  Either you and those you are given to love go your separate ways, or you coexist without any care and concern for each other.  You likewise distance yourself from the household and family of God.  You hold your neighbors in contempt, whether out of arrogance or covetousness.  And the upshot is that you do not have peace and security in your life, but anxiety, anger, sadness, and fear.

Not always, but often enough, your financial difficulties are likewise a consequence of the way you have invested God’s gifts in yourself, supposing that you are the author and giver of life, and so rejecting the hand of the Lord who feeds and clothes and shelters your body and life on earth.

In many such ways, you have cut yourself off and wandered away from your Father’s house.  You have wandered far and wide from His hearth and home.  You have turned your back on His great heart of love and pursued a life for yourself — a life that cannot succeed or prosper but must finally end in death.  In many such ways, you are the prodigal son, whether you realize it or not!

The older son is a prodigal son, as well, though he does not realize it and would not admit it.  Both of these brothers are in the same sad shape.  They have both departed from their Father, one in a distant country, one still living at home, but they are not so different from each other, not really, not at all.  They see themselves and each other very differently, but their life is very much alike.

The Father’s eye is upon both of His sons.  His heart is opened in love and generosity toward both of them alike.  So has He given them everything, and He pours Himself out for them.  He does it out of love, as an exercise of His pure grace and mercy, though neither of His sons recognize that.  They both presume to be His sons by right.  And they both presume that they must earn His love, a place in His house, and whatever else they would have from Him, by working for it.  Thus, they spurn His love, twist their hearts away, and estrange themselves from their Father.  In selfishness they seek to gain His favor by the righteousness of their own works and efforts.  It doesn’t work.

Neither of these brothers is a son by right.  They are sons by the grace of their Father, as are you and all of your fellow Christians.  For you are all sons of God by the Word and Spirit, Baptism, and faith of Christ Jesus, and by no other way or means than that.  So it is for Ruth Eleanor, for you, and for both the elder and the younger son in this Parable.  But they were not grasping that.

The older son boasts of all the years that he has slaved away and never done anything wrong.  He lives in his Father’s house, but he does not see the grace and blessing with which he has always been surrounded.  He views it as a prison.  He sees his work and labor not as love but as slavery.  He imagines that his Father has been unfair to him, that He has withheld good things from him.

The older son would have a goat, not to celebrate the Passover with his Father and his family, but to throw a party with his friends.  He does not want to be there any more than his younger brother did before.  He only figures that, by working hard and putting in his time, he will finally get what he wants.  He is selfish and self-righteous.  He is greedy, resentful, and hateful, and his sins are just as bad and just as harmful, if not worse, than his brother’s loose living in that far away country.

Both of these brothers have it wrong.  The younger son, when he comes to his senses and realizes how much worse his life has gotten, makes a plan to bargain and barter with his Father.  “I’m no longer worthy to be called your son,” he asserts (as though he ever could be).  “But let me work for you and earn my keep.  Let me be your servant.”  So does he propose to get himself back home.

Your own heart is much the same in its strategies and propositions, when you begin to recognize your sins and failings.  You’re gonna try and work twice as hard.  You’re gonna do better.  You’re very, very sorry, and so you’re gonna get back in the ring and get it right this time.  You’re gonna show your Dad that you’re not the loser or the lost cause you have seemed to be.  You’re gonna roll up your sleeves, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, carry your weight, and earn your keep.

But it doesn’t work that way.  You can only be a son of God by grace, through faith in the Gospel, and not by any works of your own.  You receive the inheritance of the Father and a place in His household and family, not by working for it, but only by receiving it, according to His love.

As things stand at the conclusion of the Parable, it is the older son who is left standing outside of the Father’s house.  His heart is bitter and resentful.  He is angry at his Father, angry at his brother, and angry at the world.  So he will not come inside.  He does not repent, and he is not reconciled to his Father or his family, because he rejects his Father’s grace for both his brother and himself.

Do not make the same mistake.  Do not cut yourself off from the Father who loves you, who would welcome you into His House by grace.  Repent of your sins, and be reconciled to God in Christ.

That is not to negotiate deals or contracts with the Lord your God.  You are not reconciled to your Father by redefining yourself as an indentured servant and working to pay off your dues.  Your place is that of a child in the household and family of God, which cannot be earned or achieved — no more than Ruth Eleanor could have earned or achieved her own birth, given herself life, or brought herself into existence.  It is rather the Author and Perfecter of faith who has opened up the way of repentance and reconciliation to you and to all the sons and daughters of man.

Christ Jesus alone is the Son of God by nature and by right, who has never neglected a command of His Father.  And having become the true Man after God’s own heart, that only-begotten and well-pleasing Son “squanders” His Father’s wealth on publicans and prostitutes, and on sinners like you.  In love and mercy, this One who knew no sin became Sin, bore the Curse, and suffered your Death and Damnation, in order that you might become the righteousness of God in Him.

It is this incarnate Son of God who has journeyed from His Father in heaven to the far country of your sin and death, who has descended into the muck and the mire of your pigsty, unto His Cross and Passion.  Thus has He taken your place to be His own, that He might bring you back to His place, back to His House and Home, back to His Father in heaven.  As by His sacrificial death He has made Atonement for your sins, so by His Resurrection and Ascension has He reconciled you to His God and Father, raising you up from death and the grave to Life everlasting in Himself.

It is by your Baptism into Christ that His God and Father is now your God and Father.  And it is in Christ Jesus that the Father’s eye is ever upon you, so that He sees you while you are yet a long way off and far away from home.  It is in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, that the Father’s heart and home, His arms, and His embrace are flung wide open to you in tender love.

It is in Christ Jesus that the Father has compassion upon you.  That is not just a sentiment or a warm fuzzy feeling in His heart, but the active exercise of His divine grace and mercy in the flesh and blood of the only-begotten Son.  That is to say, it is in Christ Jesus that the Father goes running out to meet His prodigal son, to embrace him and gather him home to Himself rejoicing.

The true significance of this point can too easily escape us in this modern day and age.  Patriarchs simply did not go running down the street!  From the standpoint of the world and its culture, this was disgraceful and embarrassing.  But so does this gracious Father shame Himself in order to bear and cover His son’s disgrace and shame.  He rushes out to meet him and to bring him home with joy and honor.  And so does He come to you by His Word and bring you home in repentant faith.

He does not lecture, scold, or chastise you.  He hears your confession of sin, and immediately He is all about forgiveness.  He covers you and clothes you with the best robe, which is the Robe of Christ and His perfect Righteousness, such as that which Ruth and all the baptized wear by the grace of God through faith in His Gospel.  He brings you back into town, and He brings you back into His House with His arm around you.  He permits no one else to accuse you, for He does not accuse you.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus, but only reconciliation and peace.

Your Father celebrates your resurrection and your life in Christ with the Fatted Calf.  He offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and He shares the fellowship of that sacrifice with the entire household and family.  He does not remember your sins or hold them against you.  He rejoices only that you are not dead but alive, that you are His very own, and that He has gotten you back.

It is a return to your Holy Baptism.  That is where you became His son, because that is where you were united with Christ Jesus, named with His Name, and anointed with His Holy Spirit.  So it is to that new birth of water and the Word that He returns you by repentance and forgiveness of sins.  He cannot and will not deny Himself.  He remains your Father, even when you distance yourself.

By the preaching of His Word, He goes out to you, gently pleads with you, and calls you back to Himself.  With His Word of forgiveness He clothes you again and again in the righteousness and holiness of Christ Jesus.  He puts a ring on your finger because He has given you His Kingdom.  The inheritance of heaven, it is yours.  Everything the Father has, it is yours, entirely by grace.

He welcomes you into the House.  He seats you at His Table.  He does not put you in the servants’ quarters, He gives you the place of honor; though you do not deserve it, it is His desire to do so.  Here He feeds you with the Body and Blood of the true Fatted Calf, the One who was sacrificed for your transgressions and raised for your justification.  He is your repentance and reconciliation, given and poured out for you.  He is your Strength and your Song, because He is your Salvation.  Wherever you have gone, whatever you have done, whatever you have been, this is your Father’s Home.  It is your house and home in Christ Jesus.  Welcome back!  How can we not celebrate?

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

From the Jordan Up to Jerusalem in Christ Jesus

Here now is the new and greater Joshua, who leads the Israel of God through the Jordan River into Canaan, who brings down the walls of Jericho and defeats the enemies of God’s people.

He is not the son of Nun but the promised Son of David, the true King of Israel, the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed.  Anointed by the Spirit in His crossing of the Jordan through Holy Baptism, He is the great High Priest who remains forever, who ever lives to make intercession for you and all.

More than that, He is the Ark of the New Covenant, and as the final great High Priest He offers His own Body of flesh and blood as the Sacrifice of Atonement once for all.  There is therefore no condemnation for you, because He has been handed over to death bearing all of your sins, and on the Third Day He has risen again.  In Him, God the Father has also raised you from death to life.

So it is that all is forgiven, and death has thus been defeated.  For this same Lord Jesus Christ is not only your Priest and your King, but He is the Prophet who has fulfilled and accomplished all the words of the Prophets by His Cross and Passion and His Resurrection from the dead.

Of course, all of that is easy enough for you to grasp and comprehend if you are thinking about the historical facts, the Bible stories, the life and times of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  But when it comes to following Jesus up to Jerusalem and actually bearing the Cross after Him, then you are likely just as blind to what it all means as the disciples were back then.

Even the Twelve were oblivious to what was really going on.  It was hidden from them, and they could not understand the Cross of Christ — not until after the fact, when it was all said and done.

Now, it is true that you know the Cross of Christ in the light of His Resurrection.  And yet, you are no different and no better than those disciples were when it comes to the Cross in your own life.

How are you mocked and mistreated, spit upon, scourged, and put to death?  It’s one thing to suffer for your own mistakes and failings, and to consider that you are getting what you deserve for your sins.  But how do you deal with the Cross that you bear and suffer because of your faithfulness?

What about those times when even your own family and friends criticize and ridicule you for doing what is good and right, for doing what you are called and given to do?

And what about the infirmities in your mortal flesh and blood, which can render you so powerless and helpless, and over which you have little or no control?

Do not kid yourself, supposing you can just rise above it all and ride the storm out by yourself.

But do consider the irony in the Holy Gospel before us, that a blind man knows and understands the Lord Jesus, and sees Him by faith, in a way the disciples could not perceive or comprehend.

That blind man, much like yourself, had nothing but the Word of Christ to cling to and rely upon.  And that is good and right, exactly as it should be, that is, by faith in His Word, and not by sight.

Do not listen to the voices in your head or in the world around you, which tell you to sit down and shut up.  No, but just as Christ is risen from the dead, you also rise, and come to Him at His Word.  For He is coming to you in mercy, and He is calling for you.  Therefore, call upon His Name in confidence, and keep on crying out to Him for mercy.  For He hears and answers your prayers.

He does have mercy upon you, and He helps you.  By His Cross, He bears your pain.  And in His Resurrection, He raises you up to life and health and strength forever, in both body and soul.

Follow Him up to His Jerusalem, to His Church on earth as it is in heaven, and to His Holy Altar, and there receive what is handed over and given to you for your salvation.  Taste and see that He is good, and know for sure that He guards and keeps you forever in body and soul, for this life and for the Life everlasting, according to His tender mercies and His steadfast loving-kindness.

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

As He Has Taught You to Pray and Promised to Hear You

We pray in this way to our Father in heaven — we call upon the Name of the Lord with such bold confidence and intimacy — because our Lord Jesus has so taught us and commanded us to pray, and He has promised that His own God and Father hears and answers such prayers in His Name.

As the Lord your God has created you for life with Himself forever, for fellowship and communion with Himself — as He has brought you into being and sustains your body and life by and through and with His Word — and as He reveals and gives Himself to you by His Word and Holy Spirit — so does He invite you to pray and call upon His Name in accordance with His Word, by echoing back to Him what He has said to you, and by confessing and actively relying on His promises.

To pray is part and parcel of the life for which the Lord your God has created you.  But to pray to God as your Father does not come naturally to you as a poor, miserable sinner.  Indeed, your sins hinder and prevent you from praying, and they undermine whatever you do attempt to pray.  If God did not act to rectify your situation by atoning for your sins, forgiving your transgressions, and reconciling you to Himself, then you would neither know how nor be able to pray rightly and call upon His Name, and He would neither listen to nor heed your prayers, petitions, and requests.

The fact that you are able to pray, and that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ does hear and answer your prayers, is entirely by His divine grace and blessing.  Not only has He created you by His Word, but He also speaks to you His sweet Word of the Gospel.  And through that Gospel He daily and richly forgives you all your sins and thereby reconciles you to Himself.  He calls and welcomes you to Himself, and He tenderly invites you to call upon His Name for all that you need.

All of this He has done for you and given to you in the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, your Savior and Redeemer.  That very Son of God who took your frail flesh and blood to be His own, who bore all your sins and sorrows in His Body to the Cross, has thus become your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.  He is the all-sufficient Sacrifice for all your sins.  He is the Mercy Seat, the Ark of the Covenant, through whom you come to God in confidence and peace.

It is in and through Christ Jesus, the Lord’s Anointed, that God the Father gives to you His Holy Spirit.  And though you do not know how to pray as you should, the Holy Spirit helps you in your weakness.  He teaches you how to pray through the Word of God in Christ.  And what is more, He prays with you, He prays in you, and He prays and intercedes for you, even when you cannot.

It is by Christ, by His Word and Holy Spirit, that you are brought to His God and Father as your own dear God and Father in Him.  Not as a supplicant before your Sovereign, nor as a slave before your Master, in fear of punishment, but as a beloved son or daughter coming to your own Dad.

Like a little boy or girl, you are invited to climb up into His lap, to sit upon His knee, to throw your arms around His neck, to hide yourself in His strong embrace, and there to find safety and peace.

All of this, again, is in and through Christ Jesus, the Son of God.  It is in Him, and for His sake, that God is your Father and you are His dear child.  For you are a son of God in Christ by virtue of your Baptism in His Name, by your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection from the dead.

In the waters of your Holy Baptism, all of your sins have been washed away, and you have been united with Christ Jesus, bound to Him in such a way that the wicked foe and all his horde cannot separate you from the Lord who loves you and gave Himself for you.  It is in Christ Jesus that the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon you generously by the grace of God through His Gospel, as He has named you with His Name and adopted you as His beloved and well-pleasing child by the washing of water with His Word.  Thus are you able to call upon Him as your Father, for so He is.

To pray, then, as one of the baptized into Christ Jesus, you pray also as a member of His Body, the Church.  It is not possible to be a Christian, nor to pray to God, apart from that fellowship of the Body of Christ.  Even when you hide yourself in your closet to pray, you nevertheless pray with Christ and with all those who belong to Christ.  And when you are gathered together with His Church, you pray together with His Church of all times and places, in heaven and on earth, because you are all one Body in one Lord Jesus Christ.  You are brothers and sisters, because you have one and the same Father in Christ.  You belong to one another, because you are fellow members of the one household and family of God.  So you are bound to each other, whether you like it or not.

When you pray, “Our Father,” and “Forgive us our trespasses,” you pray for all the children of your dear Father in heaven, wherever they might be.  So, too, wherever in the world the children of God are praying this Prayer that our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us, they are all praying for you.

I can attest from experience that even on the other side of the globe there are faithful Christians who daily pray, “Our Father who art in heaven.”  I know that Deaconess Rhein can testify to that same fact, even as her work on hymnal projects for the Church around the world has served and supported Christian prayer in various orders of service, in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

The Our Father has been translated into numerous languages; it is prayed and confessed in a vast variety of tongues.  But from the rising of the sun to the place of its going down, from east to west and shore to shore, it remains one and the same Prayer, voiced in one Spirit.  For there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; there is one God and Father of all who are baptized into Christ Jesus.

The sun never sets upon the Church of our one Lord Jesus Christ, for all around the world His Christians are praying every day as He has taught them to pray.  And by their praying they solicit the Father through His Son, our merciful and great High Priest, to guard and protect His people in body and soul, to forgive the sins of all believers, to call those who do not believe to repentance, faith, and Holy Baptism, and finally to raise the children of God from death to Life everlasting.

Because you pray in Christ Jesus, who has died for the forgiveness of your sins, and not for your sins only but for the sins of the entire world — and because you pray in communion with all of your brothers and sisters in Christ — the forgiveness of sins is of vital importance.  Indeed, the forgiveness that you need, and your forgiveness of those who sin against you, is fundamental to your faith and life in Christ, and fundamental to all your prayers and petitions.  Your relationship with your God and Father in Christ is closely connected to your relationship with others, especially your fellow Christians; and that entire family fellowship depends upon the forgiveness of sins.

Our Lord Jesus Christ reiterates this point along with teaching us to pray, “Our Father in heaven.”  If you forgive your brother his trespasses against you, so will your Father in heaven forgive you.  But if you refuse to forgive your brother, so will your Father refuse to forgive your trespasses.

Absolutely everything depends upon the forgiveness of sins.  For without the forgiveness of sins there is no Christian Church, and there is no life or salvation, not for you, and not for anyone else.

Dr. Luther has it exactly right when he teaches you in the Small Catechism that all of your other Petitions hinge and depend upon the Fifth Petition.  For you are worthy of none of those things for which you pray, nor have you deserved them.  God must give them all to you by His grace alone.  For you daily sin much, and you surely deserve nothing else and nothing less than punishment.  Yet, in His mercy, for the sake of His Son, your Father freely and fully forgives you all your sins.  And so, for your part, for Jesus’ sake, you gladly forgive and do good to those who sin against you.

With the forgiveness of sins everything else is already answered.  In Christ Jesus, your Savior from sin, God’s answer is always “Yes” and “Amen!”  For He who did not spare His own dear Son but gave Him up for you, also gives you all good things in and with Him, both for this body and life and for the Life everlasting.  His Resurrection from the dead is God’s Answer to all your prayers, His resounding “Yes and Amen” to all that you need and ask, and the Guarantee of all His mercies.

When you pray the Our Father, you pray with bold confidence because you know these Petitions are pleasing to your Father in heaven.  They are already His good Word to you before they become your words and prayer to Him.  They are the Words that open your lips to show forth His praise by praying to Him rightly and by confessing your faith in Him who is your Lord and your God.

It is not so much that you bring these Words to Him, as it is that He brings you to Himself by these Words.  For it is by the Word of God in Christ Jesus — especially by His Word of the Gospel, by His Word of forgiveness — that the faith in your heart proceeds from your mouth in this Prayer.  You pray that He would give you everything you need.  That His Kingdom would come to you.  That His Name would be hallowed in your body and life.  That His will be done for you and your salvation, against the wicked will of the devil, the world, and your flesh.  That your body be fed and clothed.  That you and your family be sheltered and kept in peace.  That your job and life in this world be secure.  And when your life on earth must end, that you be taken to your dear Father in heaven, body and soul, forever and ever, in and with and through your Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is no need that is not covered by the Our Father.  So you should never feel that you are at a loss for words when it comes to prayer.  When your family and loved ones, neighbors and friends ask you to pray for them, you can pray with your own words from the heart, of course, as a son or daughter to your Dad.  But do not neglect to pray this Prayer, which sets before God everything in heaven and on earth, all the needs of man, of His Church, and of all the people in your life.

In this Prayer the needs of your body as well as your soul are all covered.  And in Christ Jesus, as I have said, God’s answer is always “Yes.”  In fact, even before you call upon Him, He is already answering your prayer in Christ Jesus.  He does all of these things according to His promise, even without your prayers.  And yet, He invites you to pray, as well.  He teaches you to pray, and He commands you to pray — not as a matter of the Law, as though He would not act without your prompting, but as a sure and certain promise of His grace and mercy toward you in Christ Jesus.  To pray, therefore, is to honor His Word, to glorify His Name, and to exercise your faith in Him.

Solomon, in his youth, loved the Lord and walked in the ways of his father David.  But he did not yet know how to pray; he did not yet know the wisdom of true and right worship according to the Word and promise of God.  He did not yet know how to call on the Name of the Lord.  But when he asked for wisdom and discernment, he went back to Jerusalem, where the Lord had promised that His Name and His Glory would dwell.  And from that point forward, Solomon stood before the Altar of the Lord, before the Ark of the Covenant, and there he prayed in true wisdom.

So also, in the Words of the Our Father, you are brought to stand before the Lord your God in and with Christ Jesus, to pray to your Father in heaven in and with Christ Jesus.  And for Christ Jesus’ sake, your prayer is answered, as surely as He is risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, and ever lives to pray and intercede for you before the Throne of God as your merciful High Priest.

Now, in faith, in the freedom of the Gospel, you are certainly welcome to pour out your heart before your Father in heaven.  You can climb up into His lap, as I said.  You can simply pray that most basic prayer of faith, that cry for help, “Kyrie, eleison!”  “Lord, have mercy!”  You can open up your mouth and lay bare before the Lord who loves you all of your hurts and doubts and fears and sorrows, all of your needs, and all of your wants, trusting Him to care for you and provide for you in love.  And He hears and answers those cries of your heart, those prayers, for Jesus’ sake.

But again, do not neglect this Prayer, the Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer, which is one of the most precious gifts that your Lord has given you.  For these Words of His teach your heart, your mind, your lips and tongue to pray.  So that, even when your heart is not in it, when it is too distracted, too sad, or too burdened to pray as you should, the Word of God supports and sustains you.  It is the Word of God that opens your lips, and He answers that Word of prayer with His Word of mercy in Christ, crucified and risen from the dead: “Amen, Amen!”  That is, “Yes, Yes,” it shall be so!

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

The New Creation of Man in the Image and Likeness of God

Your life depends entirely upon the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Preserver of the heavens and the earth and of all that is in them.  He is your Creator, and He is the One who sustains you in His mercy.  He daily and richly provides you with all that you need for this body and life on earth.

For all that, in spite of all that, your sin has separated you from God.  Not only the sin that you have inherited from your parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve, but the sin that you have yourself committed in thought, word, and deed throughout your life.  Your sin has set you upon a downward spiral of death and damnation, from which you cannot set yourself free.  It has turned your heart and mind away from God and cut you off from the life with Him for which you have been created.  And there is nothing you can do about it.  You cannot sustain your body and life or save yourself.

As you get older, you begin to feel it, even if you would rather deny it.  The pain in your muscles, in your bones, and in your body cannot be denied.  As a teenager you may have thought you would live forever, but the older you get, the more aware and fearful you become of your mortality and coming death.  For the fact is that you are dying.  From the moment you were born, indeed, from the first moment of your conception, you have been returning to the dust.  And you cannot stop it.

But the Lord your God, who created the heavens and the earth in divine and holy love, who created the Man and Woman in His Image and Likeness, who brought you into existence and breathed life into your body and soul, He has taken every initiative to save you from your sin and death by His divine grace.  He takes action on your behalf.  He moves to save you, prompted solely by His love for you, because He Himself is Love.  He accomplishes your salvation for you from start to finish.

What that entails, first of all, is that He has obtained the forgiveness of all your sins.  He has dealt with them and taken them away, making Atonement for them at His own expense.  Furthermore, His great salvation entails calling you back to Himself in repentance, and restoring you to Himself in faith and love.  He woos you to Himself and joins you to Himself forever.  It is for this union and fellowship that He has created you, that you should live in and with Him forever.

It is this divine, eternal life and salvation that the Lord has begun to accomplish and set into motion with the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that daughter of David in the city of Nazareth.  As the Angel speaks the Word of God into St. Mary’s ears, she receives into her womb the very Son of God, and He receives a Body for Himself from her flesh and blood.

So it is that, by His Word and Holy Spirit, the Lord God Almighty brings about a New Creation, this time not starting from scratch, not out of nothing (ex nihilo), but from St. Mary’s womb, from her own flesh and blood, which she herself received from Adam and Eve and so shares with all of us children of man.  In her womb the one true God becomes true Man, a Human Being, a Person of the same flesh and blood — just like you in every way, save only without any sins of His own.

In Him, therefore, God and Man are perfectly united and permanently joined together.  In the Child conceived and born of St. Mary, in the Person of the incarnate Son of God, our Savior Jesus Christ — already as a tiny little Fetus in His Mother’s womb — God and Man have become one.

So it is in the one Lord, Jesus Christ, that your life and fellowship with God are forever to be found.

For your part, however, your sin would still separate you from God and prevent you from coming to Him, prevent you from finding your life in Him, and prevent you from abiding in communion with Him.  The fellowship of God and Man is perfectly established and permanent in Christ Jesus, the Son of God and Mary’s Son.  But the brokenness of the fall yet remains in your mortal flesh, in your sinful heart, mind, body, and soul.  That breach must be remedied and repaired, and you must be recreated and renewed in the Image and Likeness of God, if you are to live in Him.

To that end, the Son of God has not only become the true and perfect Man, but He was born under the Law in order to redeem those who were under the Law; and He subjected Himself, His flesh and blood, to the curse and consequences of sin and death, not by compulsion but in love.  Thus did He become and offer Himself as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the whole world, in order to reconcile the whole world of lost sinners to His God and Father.  He received a Body for Himself, in order to offer His Body into death.  There is Blood running through His veins already in His Mother’s womb, that He might shed that Blood for you and all upon the Cross of Calvary.

It is there on the Cross, by His innocent suffering and death, and by His holy and precious Blood,  that He redeems you for Himself, for life with God in the righteousness of His Resurrection from the dead.  He has both suffered and repaired the brokenness of the fall into sin in His own Body.

All of this He has done for you, and for all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, because He has done so in human flesh and blood like your own, that which He received from His Mother Mary.  This isn’t science fiction!  Women have no other sort of babies than real human babies, as you once were.  That is what your Mama bore, and that is what your Lord became, who offered Himself on the Cross, bearing in His Body all of your sins, all of your iniquities and transgressions, all of your frailties, failings, weaknesses, and shame.  He has borne them all and dealt with every one of them.

It is by and from His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead, by the Ministry of His Word, that He now calls you to repentance, to die and rise with Him as a new creation, reconciled to God by grace through faith in His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  That is the great salvation which He bestows upon you by His grace alone.  For His Word of the Gospel sounds forth from the Cross to the ends of the earth — even here and now to you — calling you to faith, calling you to life, calling you out of the darkness of your sin and death into the marvelous Light of His Love.

The truth is that, by and through the Ministry of His Gospel, He approaches you with a salutation much like the Word with which He greeted the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nazareth.  He has sent His angel (His messenger) to you, to announce His gracious favor upon you, to speak Himself into your ears, into your heart, mind, soul, and spirit, and to give His own flesh and blood into your body.

By this Word of His Gospel, by this preaching of Christ and His forgiveness, the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and the Power of the Most High overshadows you, to bring forth faith in your heart, to give you new life in Christ, and to recreate you in Him who is the Image and Likeness of God.

So it is, in all that transpires within this Holy Gospel, that St. Mary is set before you as an example of faith — a beautiful example of faith by the grace of God — and as a living icon of the Church, the Bride of Christ and the Mother of all the children of God.  For as St. Mary conceived and gave birth to the Son of God, so does the Church give birth to sons of God in Christ by the same Word and Spirit of God, by the preaching and catechesis of His Word unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, and by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism in His Name.  It is by these ways and means that you also have been conceived and born again as a son of God in Christ Jesus, the Lord.

And in this holy Christian Church, in the Sacrament of the Altar, as again this evening in this very Feast, you are fed with the same flesh and blood of St. Mary’s holy Child, the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who thereby comes to make His dwelling in you, in your mortal body.

This Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High — who has become the Son of His father Jacob, the Son of His father David, the Son of His blessed Mother, St. Mary — He comes to you as the true God and the true Man, to reign over you forever and ever in love and mercy, grace and peace.

But how can this be?  How can it possibly be true?

There is so much in your life, both within and without, in the world around you, and in your own day-to-day life, which seems to contradict and deny this Word of the Gospel, so that it makes no sense at all.  Above all, your sins and the stark fact of your mortality threaten to undermine your life with God in Christ.  All of your senses, your reason and experience scream that you are still dying, that you are still a sinner, a child of the dust, and that God must surely be angry with you, or else there is no God at all.  That is what your intellect and intuition argue and insist.

And of yourself, to be sure, there would be no hope.  For without God, nothing is possible.

But His Word is not only true, it is powerful; it does and gives exactly what He says.  His Word and promises to you are as sure and certain, as solid and real as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the very Word of God made Flesh for you and your salvation, who has been crucified for your sins, who is risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever as your righteousness and holiness in the presence of His God and Father.  His Word and His Work are established for you in His Body.

The New Creation in Christ Jesus is not “out of nothing.”  For the Lord in His mercy has not done away with the sons and daughters of man and started over, but He has redeemed His good creation from the inside-out, in and with His own humanity, which He received for Himself from St. Mary.  So, it is not “out of nothing.”  But it is no less majestic and mysterious.  For His Word still does all things and makes it so.  His Word establishes what is.  You are who and what He says you are: God’s own child, baptized into Christ Jesus, adopted by His Father, anointed by His Holy Spirit.

It is not what you do, but what He does, that determines your identity and righteousness.  It is not what you think or feel or experience, but what He says, that establishes your life and salvation and your place in the household and family of God.  It is His Word that has recreated you in the Image and Likeness of God in Christ Jesus.  It is His Word that has given you the new birth of water and the Spirit in your Holy Baptism.  It is His Word that feeds your flesh and blood with His, though what your senses see and smell and taste is only the bread and wine.  It is His Word that sustains your body and life in this world, and His Word that daily and richly forgives you all of your sins.

Against all odds and all expectations, in the face of human knowledge and modern know-how, and contrary to all the threats and assaults of sin, death, the devil, and hell, the Lord Himself is with you.  He loves you, and His favor rests upon you, so that you might rest in His grace, mercy, and peace by faith in His Gospel.  He speaks, and it is so!  Your sins are all forgiven.  You shall not die but live in Him, both body and soul, now and forever.  Even so, let it be to you according to His Word!

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