The Character and Content of the Christian Life

What we have here is a series of people who just don’t get it.  They don’t understand Christ Jesus or His Cross, why He has come, where He’s going, or what in the world He is doing.

The Samaritans, first of all, resent the fact that Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem, and not on Mount Gerezim; because one of the biggest contentions between the Jews and the Samaritans was where and how to worship Yahweh.  And the truth is, the Jews were correct that Jerusalem was the place where God had caused His Name and His Glory to dwell among His people, Israel.

But Jesus is on His way to offer Himself in Jerusalem as the final, perfect Sacrifice, fulfilling the entire Old Testament in His own Body of flesh and blood.  By His death upon the Cross He atones for the sins of the world, and in His Resurrection from the dead His Body is established as the new and permanent Temple of God.  So God is now worshiped by faith in His crucified and risen Body.

The Samaritans do not recognize or understand what Jesus is all about, and so they want nothing to do with Him.  So it is that, sadly, to their own spiritual detriment, they refuse to receive Him.

Yet, James and John, those “sons of thunder,” they don’t get it, either.  They are right in supposing that Jesus Christ, the almighty and eternal Son of the Living God, should be received and treated with honor and respect, reverence and worship.  But He has come to accomplish and reveal an even greater Glory of God in His Self-sacrifice on the Cross for the sake of the salvation of all people.

On His Way of the Cross, the Lord Jesus comes preaching and bestowing the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, in and with His Word and His flesh-and-blood presence on earth.  Where and when He is not received, He does not seek retribution or revenge; He simply moves on to preach and bestow the forgiveness of sins to those who do receive Him in faith and humble gratitude.

Even to the close of the age, the dear Lord Jesus preaches and bestows the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, through the Ministry of His Holy Gospel in Word and Sacrament.  Week after week, there are those who refuse to hear and receive Him, because they don’t like what He has to say, and they don’t want anything to do with Him or His Cross.  But the time for Judgment is not yet.  Nor is it your prerogative.  Vengeance belongs to the Lord alone, He says.  And yet, for now, until that Day arrives, the Son of Man comes with grace and mercy, to save and not to destroy men’s lives.

Where and when He is not received, He goes elsewhere with His free and gracious gifts of life — to bestow the fruits and benefits of His Cross by the water and the Word of Holy Baptism, with His spoken Word of Holy Absolution, and in His Body given and His Blood poured out at His Table.  Take it, or leave it, these means of grace are what He is all about — whereby He grants forgiveness of sins, life with God, and eternal salvation — all centered in His Cross and Resurrection.

Those who are called to follow Christ Jesus, to be His disciples, are called to an apprenticeship of the Cross, that is, to a life defined and shaped by His Cross, which no one is able to comprehend or carry by sinful nature.  But, by God’s grace, you have been signed and sealed by and with the Cross of Christ in the waters of Holy Baptism.  And so it is that you carry His Cross as a Christian within whatever place the Lord your God has called and stationed you to be in this body and life.

That is where and how you are called to live, to bear the Cross in faith and love, to the glory of God and for the benefit of your neighbors in the Church and in the world.  But, oh, how easy it is to look back and yearn for an easier way of life, to put down the Cross and withdraw from Christ.

How easy it is to put down the Cross of the Law and the Gospel, when the world around you offers such a different set of standards and priorities; when your family and friends compete for your time and attention, your allegiance and affection; and when your own flesh, your heart and soul, your reason and strength, your thoughts and feelings drag you away from Christ Jesus and His Word.

In fact, there are days when you do look back, and times when you have turned back: When you knew the right thing, but you would not do it; and when you knew that such-and-such was wrong, but you plowed ahead and did it anyway.  There are those times when you have set aside the Cross.

Thus, today, you are confronted and called to repentance by the Word of the Lord, which starkly reveals that of yourself you are not fit for the Kingdom of God.  You do not deserve it, you are not worthy of it, and you are not able to enter into it by any wisdom, reason, or strength of your own.

But you are not your own.  You are bought with a price, the precious Blood of Christ, and you belong to Him.  So, too, the Cross that you are given is the Cross of Christ, which He has borne and carried for you.  It puts you to death and buries you with Him, so that you might live with Him.

All that you have failed to do according to God’s Law, including your reluctance to bear the Cross appointed for you, Christ has taken upon Himself and carried in His own Body to His Cross and Passion in Jerusalem (the city that stones the Prophets and kills those who are sent to her).

As the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ has taken upon Himself the entire weight and burden of your mortality and the deadly consequences of your sins.  What is more, in the footsteps of the Old Testament Prophets — Moses and Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all the rest — in steadfast faith and holy love, in perfect obedience to His own God and Father, He has preached the Word of the Lord unflinchingly.  With all that He says and does — to and from His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead — the Kingdom of God has drawn near in His Body and Life.

Having set His hand upon the plowshare of His Cross, He does not look back — no, not even once — because, not only is He fit for the Kingdom of God, but it is by and from His Cross that God establishes His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.  It is for that throne of His Cross and for His crown of thorns that He has been anointed by the Holy Spirit for the salvation of all people.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that those who would be His disciples — who would share in His salvation and live in His Kingdom — must take up His Cross and follow after Him.

Nor is it surprising that those who perceive the destiny of His Cross want no part in it.  After all, foxes have their holes, and the birds of the air have their nests, but Christ the Son of God has only the hard wood of His Cross and the cold stone of His borrowed Tomb on which to rest His head.

Of course, to reject this Lord Jesus Christ, the Crucified One, finally will bring judgment and fire down from heaven.  But for the time being, that is not His purpose in coming down from the Father in heaven into this world.  He comes by way of His Cross in order to bear and suffer the judgment and wrath and damnation of God against the sins of the entire world — on behalf of Samaritans, Jews, and Gentiles alike.  And having come to bear that judgment in Himself, in His own Body on the Tree, He does not inflict it on others.  He offers them, instead, His presence and His peace; and when those gifts are denied and rejected, He perseveres and continues on His way to His Cross.

Today, by His Word and the preaching of it, He calls you to follow Him on that road to Jerusalem, to walk after Him in the Way of His Cross, with your face set resolutely on Him and His Passion.  Such things are your inheritance as a Christian in this world; they are your life and your salvation, your hope and comfort in Christ Jesus.  Such is your journey with Him through death into life.

His Word to you this morning, and to anyone who would be His disciple, is a matter of priorities.  What comes first in your life?  Where do you invest your time, attention, energy, and resources?  And what is it that you prize and value more than everything else?  If you would live with God in Christ Jesus, you must fear, love, and trust in Him above all else, and have no other gods before Him — no other gods before Christ, in whom the Holy Triune God is revealed and given to you.

So it is that Christ Jesus says elsewhere that anyone who does not hate his father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, and yes, even his own life — in deference to Christ — is not worthy to be His disciple and is not fit for the Kingdom of God.  True discipleship involves the adoption and practice of entirely new and radical priorities, according to which the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus takes precedence over your family and friends, your country, and yourself.

It is by your Baptism into Christ that you have been signed and sealed with His Cross and set upon that new way of life in body and soul.  For thus you are crucified, put to death, and buried with Him — dead to yourself and to the world — and so also raised to newness of life with Him.

Baptized into Christ Jesus, the Lord’s Anointed, you also are anointed with the Spirit of God, and so are you granted the life that God intends for His children, that is, the divine, eternal life of the Holy Triune God Himself, given to you in Christ as your salvation.  But in this world, because it is the very life that Christ has lived for you, it is a life lived under His Cross.  Your forgiveness, your life, and your salvation are all rooted in His Cross and defined by it, in such a way that the Cross — with all its bitter pain and agonizing sorrow — is nevertheless your glory and your hope.

And as this divine life that is yours by virtue of your Holy Baptism is a living, dynamic, ongoing reality, so does your Baptism have a daily and lifelong significance — as the Catechism teaches.

It is the daily crucifixion of your fallen flesh by way of contrition, repentance, and the confession of your sins — being put to death by the judgment of God’s Law, which declares that no one who practices the works of sinful flesh will inherit the Kingdom of God; and that you are not fit for that Kingdom.  In this way, all of your pride, all your self-reliance and self-confidence are crushed and destroyed under the weight of the Law; and the very heart of you is drowned and put to death, each and every day, in the waters of your Baptism — even seventy or eighty years after the fact — until the significance of your Holy Baptism is finally consummated in your earthly death and burial.

All of this is painful, it is difficult, and it hurts.  But in spite of the pain, because the Cross that you bear is the Cross of Christ — which He has already carried for you — it is a salutary, blessed, and life-giving death by crucifixion that you undergo: in Baptism and throughout your Christian life.

What is more, because it is the Cross and Crucifixion of Christ Jesus that you share, you are also given a share and a portion in His Resurrection and Ascension to the heavenly, eternal life of God.  For the same waters of Baptism that drown and destroy your old Adam have been sanctified by Christ to be a rich and full washing away of all your sins.  Therefore, Baptism not only crucifies and buries you, but, as St. Peter writes, Baptism also now saves you.  Uplifted by the Word and water of this salutary Flood, you are preserved, dry and secure, in the Holy Ark of the Church.

It is in that sure and certain confidence and hope that you daily bear the Cross you have received.

Of course it is true that, in your sinfulness and weakness, you fall short and fail on a regular basis.  You do not bear and carry the Cross in all your thoughts, words, and actions, as you are called and commanded to do.  All the more do you need the daily forgiveness and the blessed mercy of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, who continues to carry the Cross both with you and for you.  In grace, mercy, and peace, He saves you from your sin, from death, and from the power of the devil; He sustains you by the Holy Spirit through His Word of the Gospel; and He raises you up, again and again, to the newness of life in both body and soul that He has established in His Resurrection.

And as often as He calls you to repentance, as often as you hear and receive His Holy Absolution of all your sins, and as often as you eat His Body and drink His Blood according to His Word and promise, He returns you to the life and salvation that are yours in Holy Baptism.  So does He unite you with Himself in both His Cross and His Resurrection from the dead.  And just as surely does He bring you with Himself to the Father in heaven — even now by faith, and hereafter in both body and soul forever.  The One who calls you is faithful, and He will surely do it.

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

God's Own Child, Baptized into Christ

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has adopted you to be His own dear child by way of water, Word, and Spirit.  So it is that He has taught you to pray to Him as your own dear Father.  And so it is that you receive all good things from His hand, all that you need to support this body and life, and even more, the forgiveness of all your sins and the gift of eternal life and salvation.

Your God and Father in Christ Jesus gives you this life in both body and soul.  He has named you with His own Name, and He has made you a member of His own household and family, the Holy Christian Church.  He has come to you in Christ, that you might live and abide with Him forever.

Christ the Lord has come to you in the midst of this foreign territory, in order to bring you home to His Father.  By way of the water — in the Boat of His Church — He has drawn near.  He has found you in Gentile territory, among the pagans.  Even among the tombs, He has come to you.

You did not ask for Him, but He has sought you out.  You did not seek Him, but He has allowed you to find Him, and He has found you.  All day long, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, He spreads out His hands to you.  He comes to you, and He beckons you to Himself.

He forgives you all your sins with the authority of His Gospel.  For He has died, and He is risen.  He has atoned for all your sins.  And as He was baptized, so has He baptized you, and all your sins and death are washed away.  Not just once upon a time, but so long as you live and abide in the waters of your Baptism, you live and abide in Christ, and day by day your sins are washed away.

Why, then, do you go about like a wild man?  Why are you so frantic?  Why are you driven into madness — by things that are forgiven, by things that people do to you, and by things outside of your control but not outside of your Father’s keeping?  Why is it that you are so out of your mind, even though you have been given the mind and Spirit of Christ Jesus?  Why do you remove the garments with which your Father has dressed you and go about naked and unclothed?  Why is it that you live among the dead, and dwell among the tombs, and make your residence in graveyards, instead of dwelling in the House of the Lord where He has made a place for you?

It’s easy to tell that the man in this Gospel is crazy.  Insane.  Stark raving mad, and stark raving naked.  He hasn’t worn clothes for a very long time.  He doesn’t live in a home.  He makes his bed in the tombs.  A walking dead man.  A crazy man, possessed by many demons, and afraid of Jesus.

But he is not so different than you are.  For you have your own demons, visible and invisible.  You do wear clothes, but how often do you feel yourself naked and exposed before God and before your neighbors?  How often has it seemed as though a scarlet letter were written on your forehead, as though people could just look at you and see those things that you are so ashamed of?

You may not live in a graveyard.  Indeed, you probably have a very nice home.  It may even be paid for, remodeled and decorated, safe and secure with adequate locks and a security system, and a manicured lawn, and a place for your children or grandchildren to play, on a nice street in a good neighborhood.  But if you put your trust in those things — all of which are perishing — then you also live among the tombs, and you reside in the vain monuments of this dead and dying world.

Such good things on earth are the good gifts of your God and Father.  But they are His gifts, and they cannot take His place.  You dare not worship them as gods.  They are part of the life that God your Father gives you, but they are not your life.  Your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.  And your true home is not of this world.  It is the Church, on earth as in heaven.  The Lord’s House, that is your place — where you belong — where your Father keeps you safe.

You may not be possessed.  If the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in your heart by the Gospel and laid Christ upon your heart through the Gospel, then you are not possessed by demons.  But do not suppose that the devil has given up and left you alone.  He’s foolish enough, and ferocious enough, and hateful enough, and murderous enough, to continue attacking you throughout your life on earth.  He speaks sometimes with fury, at other times with sweetness.  He tempts you to sin, and then stands first in line to accuse you.  And as the devil with his demons did with that poor man in this Gospel, he would drive you into the desert — away from the water, and away from Jesus.

Now, the Law would do its good work in you, as God so wills.  It would serve as a tutor leading you to Christ, as St. Paul has written.  And understand that a tutor is not simply someone who helps you with your homework, and goes over the lesson with you, and helps you to prepare for a test.  A tutor in the ancient world was much more involved than that.  The tutor would take you from your father’s house to the school where your father enrolled you.  He would make sure you sat at your desk and stayed for the lesson, and then bring you home at night.  He would discipline you as necessary with the authority of your father, in order to keep you on task.  He would not so much teach you himself, but he would make sure that you went to school and listened to your teacher.

God’s Law is such a tutor.  It curbs you, and it guides you in the direction you should go.  It threatens you with a big stick, in order to force and compel you to that which you need, which your Father would have you hear and receive.  It commands you to love your neighbor, in order to love and protect your neighbor; and it commands your neighbor to love and protect you.  But the Law also commands you to look to God, to look to Him for all good things, to listen to His Word, to call upon His Name, to pray, praise, and give thanks, to rest from your labors, and to be served by Christ.  The Law cannot achieve any of these things for you, but it points you to the One who does.  The Law cannot forgive your sins, but it drives you to the One who does forgive your sins.

The Law cannot bring you home, though it aims to restrain you from running further and further away.  For this reason, it has bound you, and yet you have broken its bonds.  It would chain you to the Lord and His Word for your own safety and well being, but you have broken the shackles.

So it is that Christ the Lord has come to set things right.  And He is ferocious against your enemies.  He is your dread Champion in fighting the devil.  The Lord Himself has entered the fray, not only to stand at your side and assist you, but to take the lead, to bring down Goliath, to slay the dragon.  By the cleansing Word of His Gospel, He sets you free from the unclean spirits that haunt you.

The Lord Jesus speaks, and it is so, for all authority is His.  The demons hate Him, but they must listen to Him.  They beg Him to go away, but they know they cannot force Him.  They would go into the pigs, but they need His permission to do so.  They are not in charge.  And they are not the boss of you, either.  Not anymore.  For this stronger Man has come, and He binds the strong man who has held you captive.  And those chains with which He binds the devil will not be broken.

So, then, the Lord Jesus comes in love to save you.  But what if you are still afraid of Him?

What if you are terrified, because you do not want to be found out?  You do not want everyone to look at you and see that you are so naked.  You would rather crawl back into the tombs and hide yourself away, and welcome even death, than to meet the One who comes to save you from death.

What if you are trapped by your addictions?  What if you are driven by temptations that constantly lead you back into the same old sins over and over again?  What hope is there for you, if instead of swimming like a little fish in the waters of your Baptism, you wallow around like a swine in the muck and the mud and the mire?  Immoral.  Trashy.  Living for money.  Neglecting your vocations while chasing your passions.  Cursing your neighbors.  At enmity with your bothers and sisters, refusing to forgive them, and refusing to acknowledge or apologize for your own wrongdoing.

What if you are so driven by your desire for things which God has not given you, that you do not even attend to those things which He has entrusted to your care and stewardship?

What if your demons drive you away from the waters of your Baptism, so that you willingly wander into the territory of the devil and the night of sin and death?  Be warned that such a path and such pursuits will eventually drive faith and the Holy Spirit altogether out of your heart and soul, out of your body and life, and lead you finally into the abyss with the devil and his demons.

The Lord Jesus has come to save you.  But what if you run away from Him?  What if, instead of praying, you simply beg Him to leave and go away, because you are so afraid and so ashamed?

Even then, He would use the Law as your tutor, to bring you to the school of His Church, to the lesson of His Gospel, to the Life-giving Breath of His Holy Spirit in the forgiveness of your sins.

Consider what it means that He permits the demons to go into those pigs.  Why does He do that?  Why does He give the demons permission to do anything?  Why does He not send them straight to the abyss right away?

Beloved of the Lord, it is for the sake of His mercy and for your salvation that He does this strange thing.  For even the demons, death, and the devil must serve His purpose.  He permits the demons to afflict even you, whom He loves, so that by this means He would drive you back to the water.

If you live an unclean life, then do not be surprised that demons haunt you, and that the Law of the Lord pursues you.  But even then, understand that the Lord is at work, that He would drive you to the font: to be baptized, if you have not been, or to remember and return to the significance of your Holy Baptism.  He would drown and destroy the old Adam in you, with all your sinful lusts and desires.  He would put you to death.  To that extent, you are right in fearing that He has come to kill you.  For His Word is fierce, and among your enemies are your own sinful nature, your fallen flesh and idolatrous heart, your unclean spirit, and your own dark thoughts and feelings, which lie to you and deceive you.  He would put all of that to death, drowned in the water like those pigs.

But remember that He has made Himself unclean with your sins and death.  Remember that He also has gone into the pigsty to rescue the Prodigal Son.  Remember that He has become sin, and the curse, and guilt, and death, all in order to redeem you, and to justify you with His Righteousness.  Remember that He also has been baptized, and by His Baptism into death He has made of those waters, not only a death-dealing flood, but a gracious water of Life.  For out of that tomb He has risen, and out of that tomb He raises you up with Himself to the Life everlasting in body and soul.

The Lord kills in order to make alive.  The devil promises life in order to kill, but Jesus comes to kill and make alive.  And He has been the first in line to die and rise again — for you and for all!

When He would permit even demons to torment you, He has not lost control, nor has He given up on you.  He does not turn His face from you in anger.  All day long He stretches out His hand to a rebellious people: All. Day. Long.  And at night He does not sleep, so that you may rest in peace.

Return, therefore, to the waters of your Baptism.  Find again that right mind which is yours in Christ Jesus, so that you may think the things of God and not of sinful man.  Dwell upon such good things as these: Though your sins are many, they are forgiven.  Though you have sinned and gone astray, your Good Shepherd has brought you home, and He rejoices over you in love.  Though you have not loved the Lord as you should, and you have not loved your neighbor as yourself, your Father loves you still.  And though you have not prayed as you ought, He speaks to you in peace.  He clothes and covers you in Christ, His Son, so that you are not found naked and unclothed.

Your sins are all forgiven.  Though you have been sinful and unclean, you are not a pig.  You are a child of God.  You are God’s own child, I gladly say it.  You are baptized into Christ.  And He who has named you — the Father who loves you — He shelters and protects you.  Though you have made your home among the dead, and dug your own grave, and made your bed in the dirt, your Father brings you into His House and Home, and here He feeds you at the Table of His Son.

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

The Glory of God in the Marriage of Christ and His Church

The estate of holy matrimony is the crowning glory of God’s good Creation.  For Man is created in the Image and Likeness of God.  Not a single man, but a man and a woman, male and female, that the two should be united with each other, in love, as one flesh.  To that purpose, the Lord God created the woman from the man and for the man, to be a helpmate comparable to him; and He also brought her to the man, gave her to the man, and joined her to the man.  Marriage is thus God’s own creation, gracious gift, and holy institution, established and sanctified by and with His Word.

So also, to this day, marriage is no mere legal formality nor simply a human custom and tradition.  It is not a man-made thing.  The rites and ceremonies of holy matrimony are, in fact, the Word and work of God, which actually make this man and this woman to be, henceforth, husband and wife.  Here the Lord God joins them together as one and sanctifies them by His Word and Holy Spirit.

It is God’s good and gracious will, therefore, Aaron and Annalise, that you look upon each other, love and serve each other, and cleave to each other, according to His Word — that you recognize and respect the glory and adornment of His Word with which the two of you are clothed by Him.

You are to be comrades, first of all, that is, partners in life, friends together on a common road.  And within that companionship, you are placed not only alongside each other on the same journey, but also given to each other, face to face and heart to heart, bound together in the intimacy of spirit, soul, and body, to find comfort, compassion, and passion uniquely in each other.  And from that union, as the Lord so wills and provides, your love for each other may bear fruit after its own kind and be multiplied in the bearing of children, that you might care for them as the Lord cares for you.

Of course, this all sounds terrific and ideal, especially on a day like today.  And it is most certainly true!  But what we experience in the world seems quite different.  To some extent we are all aware of the hurts and fears, the burdens, challenges, and difficulties that marriage faces in this fallen and perishing world.  Everything on earth is falling apart, winding down, and running out.

Trace it back to the start.  Adam and Eve were the perfect couple, with every possible advantage, and yet they fell into sin and death.  They did not go riding off into the sunset, into some happily-ever-after.  They were driven out of Paradise on account of their sin.  The curse lay heavy upon them, and it still rests upon their children’s children to the present generation.  The marriage rite, therefore, realistically expresses, not only the godly purposes of marriage, but also its inevitable termination: “Til death parts us.”  That is the limit of what you can promise to each other.

Nevertheless, we stand here today in the presence of God and His Church, in the face of the whole wide world, to rejoice and give thanks for the goodness of marriage, and to stare down sin, death, the devil, and hell with the Word and promises of the Lord.  For while it is true that all the sons and daughters of Adam die, it is also true that Christ has died — and He has risen from the dead.

The fact is that human marriage was never intended to be an end unto itself.  It was always about Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, the perfect Image of the Father — who came down from His Father in heaven, conceived and born of the Woman, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, and blood of our blood, in order to redeem and rescue all the children of man for real life with God.  He left His Father and His Mother to claim His Bride and cleave to her.  He gave Himself for her, atoning for her sins by His sacrificial death on the Cross.  And by the Water and Blood from His riven side He cleanses her of all iniquity and clothes her in His own holiness and righteousness.

It is for this reason that Aaron leaves his father and mother and cleaves now to Annalise; that he should manifest the divine Love and true divine Glory of Christ by loving and serving his bride with his own body and life, even unto death.  And Annalise, in turn, is here given to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by submitting herself to Aaron in Christian faith and love.

You should not suppose that such things are true only of those “ideal” marriages that everyone admires and envies.  For it is by the Cross that Christ Jesus wins and weds His Bride, the Church.  It is by His gracious self-sacrifice that He makes her beautiful through His forgiveness of all her sins.  And it is by her dying and rising with Him in Holy Baptism that she is made ready as a Bride for her Husband, covered and clothed in the cloak of His redemption and His righteousness.

In contrast to all the so-called “wisdom” of this world, it is precisely in the crosses and sacrifices of marriage and family that the Glory of God is most fully manifested in this present body and life.  For the Cross and Passion of our Lord is the Hour of His Glory, by which He gives life to us all.

The world never will be able to recognize or understand this sign; and so the world’s counsel and advice for you will always be wrong.  But it does not matter.  Christ shall work His work in you, and He shall manifest His Glory in your marriage.  So then, for your part, do whatever He tells you.

Aaron, love Annalise, even when she’s not so lovely and loveable as she is on this day.  Make her beautiful with your loving devotion to her and with your faithful delight in her.  Forgive her sins, overlook her faults, and bear with her in love, even as you bear her burdens in patience and peace.  Set aside your own desires in order to comfort and care for her.  When Satan would beguile her with his sly temptations and his brutal accusations, take up the Sword of the Spirit to defend and protect her.  Do not stand by silently while she is slain, but breathe Life into her by the Word of the Gospel.  Love Annalise in the way that Christ loves her and you and His whole Church.  Cover her as Boaz covers Ruth and cares for her, in anticipation of the Son of David who will come in the fullness of time from their union — the Seed of the Woman, conceived and born of St. Mary.

Annalise, entrust yourself to Aaron, and learn to follow his lead and rely upon him.  I don’t mean that you should not think for yourself or speak your own mind, but let Aaron be your husband and your head, as Christ is the Head of His Church.  When the devil would show you his weaknesses, his faults and failings, remember that Aaron is clothed and covered with the majesty of Christ’s Word.  He is the one man to whom the Lord Himself now gives you, to protect you and provide for you.  In submitting to Aaron in love, you confess your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, it is for the sake of Christ and His Word that Aaron is called to love and serve his bride, to lay down his life and sacrifice himself for her in all sorts of big and little ways.  Not because she deserves it, but because that is what Jesus does  — for him, for her, and for all of us.  Aaron is to see Annalise as Christ Jesus sees her, that is, with His eyes of mercy.  He is to treat her as Jesus does, that is, with gentleness and tender, loving care.  He is to cherish her, because Jesus cherishes her.  So, too, his love for her will overlook and cover a multitude of sins, not because they are a mere trifle, but because the righteousness of Christ is greater and His grace abounds all the more.

And so it is that Annalise is likewise taught by the Word and Spirit of God to see and serve Christ in her husband.  Though this human groom beside her is not perfect, she knows and confesses that she is not perfect, either.  Yet, there is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all.  As Annalise has been dressed with Christ and His righteousness (in and with His Church), she confesses that Aaron, too, is hidden with Christ in God; and so she lives by grace through faith.

Is this not what it means to be a Christian, a disciple of Christ Jesus?  To walk by faith and not by sight.  To love and forgive your neighbors as you are loved and forgiven by the Lord your God.  To bear all things, believe all things, and hope all things, all for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, who first loves you.  It is ever and always to Him and to His Love that holy marriage points you.

Christ is not simply a guest at this wedding today.  He is the very heart of the occasion, for He is the true and heavenly Bridegroom of His Church, on earth as it is in heaven.  It is for His sake that each and every one of you are here — not only that you are in attendance, but that you exist at all and are alive to this day.  And it is also for His sake that Annalise and Aaron have been created, and for His sake that they are here bound together to be one flesh by His Word and Holy Spirit.

It is Christ alone who is all and all.  For it is by and from His Cross, from the innermost being of His sacred Body, that the living waters of the Holy Spirit and the holy, precious, life-giving Blood of Christ Himself are poured out generously upon His Body and His Bride, His Holy Church.

And He who did not spare Himself, but gave Himself into death for your redemption — who daily and richly forgives you all your sins — will He not also freely give you all good things in love?

According to His sure and certain promise, He provides for all your needs of body and soul, for now and forever: Seed for the sower, Bread for the eater, and Wine for the wedding — even as He gives His own Body for you to eat and pours out His Blood for you to drink already in His Supper, which is your Meat and Drink, indeed, a Foretaste of the Lord’s own neverending Marriage Feast.

So does He also give you marriage itself — both in general and in each particular case — along with all its crosses, all its joys, all its hard burdens, and all its grand adventures — to be a blessing, a pleasure, and a true delight here in time, and a sign of the true Glory of Christ and His Bride.

In all things, at all times, and in all places, He supplies whatever is lacking.  He provides all your needs.  His Cup of Salvation runneth over for you, in His House, unto Peace and Rest in Him.

Whenever the well runs dry and the wine runs out — for Aaron and Annalise, and for all of you — it is Christ whose overflowing Chalice restores the joy and celebration in marriage and family, as in all of life.  It is Christ who makes Annalise beautiful and worthy of Aaron’s self-sacrificing love; and it is Christ who enables Aaron to serve her, and who restores Aaron as often as he falls short.  It is Christ who enables Annalise to submit to Aaron, because she lives in the faith and love of her Lord and heavenly Bridegroom; and it is Christ who both strengthens and sustains her, for better and for worse, in good times and bad, who sanctifies and cleanses her whenever she fails.

In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, He has grafted this bride and groom into Himself, into His riven side, from which the Blood and Water of His Passion have been poured out for them and for all.  And in the Holy Communion, the great Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, He feeds them and all the members of His Church with His own Body and Blood, the pledge and promise of His Resurrection, that He should thus abide in and with His Bride with His own indestructible Life.  As He thus gives them Himself and His Life, He is fruitful in them, and He brings forth good fruits of life and love for others.  For the Tree of His Cross bears such fruits after His own kind.

This is what the Lord Jesus does for His whole Church, and for each and all of her members; and this is what He does for you, Aaron and Annalise, within the Communion of His Church on earth.  Do not doubt that, by these ways and means of His grace, within the sacred fellowship of His own Body and Bride, He bestows these very good gifts and benefits upon your marriage in His Name.

And just as He is risen from the dust of the earth to live and reign forever as your true Redeemer, and as you are now flesh of His flesh and blood of His blood, so shall your body be raised up from death to life in His Glory.  As it shall be at the last, so also is it now in your life and marriage here — even though it is still hidden under the Cross, and for now it is visible only to the eyes of faith.

His Glory shall be manifested in your life together, Aaron and Annalise, as husband and wife: As you love each other in Christ, and as He loves both of you.  As you live by His forgiveness of your sins, and as you forgive each other.  And as you also serve your neighbors within your stations.

Take heart, and have no fear of anything.  Your heavenly Bridegroom is faithful, and He will never leave you nor forsake you.  He has joined the two of you to Himself, as members of His Body and His Bride, and so shall He cleave to you forever.  He shall not allow your sin, Satan, or even death, to separate you from Him.  He has pledged Himself to you, and He has vowed to have and to hold you as His own.  He has sworn this oath by His own honor, and His Word cannot be broken.

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

Speaking Peace and Love by the Spirit of Christ Jesus

If anyone loves the Lord Jesus, he (or she) will keep and cherish His Word.

Do you love Christ Jesus?  Know that His Word speaks Love to you.  And Peace.  And comfort.  And the forgiveness of all your sins.  It is by and with the preaching of His Word that He draws near to you, and God the Father draws near to you in Him.  And it is through His Word that He pours out His Spirit upon you.  So does the Holy Triune God come and make His abode with you.

Keep and cherish His Word, therefore.  Be gathered together in the House where His disciples are, in the City of God, established on His holy Mountain.  Listen to what He says, and remember what He has spoken to you.  Call upon His Name.  Pray, confess, and sing His Word.  And speak peace to one another, in love for one another, counting your brothers and sisters in Christ better than yourself.  Speak forgiveness to those who sin against you, as your Father in heaven forgives you all your sins for Jesus’ sake.  Comfort those who are troubled in heart, mind, body, soul, or spirit.

Speak the Gospel.  Speak Christ Jesus.  That is the language of the one true God, which sanctifies all the tongues of men, Hebrew and Greek, Latin and German, French and Italian and Spanish, English and Swahili, Russian and Chinese.  All the languages of earth are sanctified by the Word of the Gospel, by the Word of Christ, as it is spoken and confessed, prayed and sung in all of those languages under heaven.  That is the universal language of the Holy Triune God, with which He establishes His City here on earth, as it is in heaven, to the Glory of His holy Name.  For so does He save sinners by His grace, and so does He call men and women, young and old, slave and free, Jews and Gentiles from all around the globe, into His one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church.

That Word of Christ, that Word of the Gospel, that is the Word that breathes and bestows the Spirit of God and gives life to you and all people, indeed, to all of creation, and makes all things new.

It is not your native tongue or the language of your heart to begin with.  It is a divine language that is taught by the Spirit through the preaching of Christ.  It is the language of your new Father, who has spoken to you by His Son, and who has granted you His Spirit through the adoption of sons.

But you have known a different language before this, the tongue that is native to all men because all men sin, a common way of speaking which knows no borders or boundaries.  You have known the language of selfish pride, of covetous lust, of towering ego, of envy and jealousy, of gossip and greed — the language and law of the jungle, which teaches you to look out for yourself above all.

That is the language that all people share in common by their inheritance from Adam.  And yet, it separates and scatters them.  It sets them at odds with each other.  It is the kill-or-be-killed language of the city of man, with which you strive to name yourself.  With it you contend and compete.  You speak with cunning self-interest.  Nothing bridles your tongue or stays your hand.

There is no genuine or real love in that language of man, but only selfishness and self-interest.  There is no peace, but constant war and strife.  There is no comfort, but endless grief and torment.  There is no forgiveness of sins, but debts that can’t be paid, grudges that are never let go, bitter resentments, angry and hurtful revenge.  Thus are you poisoned by your own venomous tongue.

You know how the words of others can sting and hurt you, but you do not take to heart that your words likewise sting and hurt your neighbor (and then rebound in consequences upon yourself).  You know how powerful ways of speaking are — whether to calm things down or stir things up — and you still speak in ways that tear the house down, that tear your brother or sister down.

When the whole world speaks that language of man, then all efforts fail, towers crumble, and cities fall; nations are divided, and families are scattered.  There is no house or home that provides any lasting safety.  There is no dwelling place of peace, but persistent anxiety and amorphous fears.

But now the Lord has come down to see this travesty which the sons of men have spoken and have made for themselves.  He punishes their sin with their own sin.  He scatters them to the four winds, dividing them by their own common language of selfish pride.

He does so in mercy — that is what moves Him — that He might gather all the sons and daughters of man to Himself by His own divine language of the Gospel.  In all the tongues of all the nations, He speaks the one Word of His Son; and through that Word He breathes the Spirit who gives life.

Consider, then, how near that Word of the Lord is to you — it is in your ears even now — and in your heart — and in your mouth, as well, to confess and pray and sing, and even to eat and drink.

For this Word that God the Father speaks — His own dearly-beloved Son from all eternity — has become Flesh and dwells here with you.  So does the Lord your God abide with you, sharing in your flesh and blood.  More than that, He has also taken your sin and death upon Himself, into His Body.  He has borne the whole curse of the Law for you.  He has suffered the righteous wrath and judgment of God, and the assaults and accusations of men, their cruel mockery and bitter conceit.

But in the midst of all that He has borne and suffered in your place, He has not blasphemed or cursed God.  He has not reviled in return, nor has He shouted in anger.  Nor has He grown surly and silent.  Neither has He spit venomous ire at His enemies.  But in prayer and confession, He has remained faithful.  He has spoken the Word of His Father and called upon the Name of the Lord.

And to you He speaks forgiveness and peace, such as this world does not know and cannot give.  The Lord Jesus comforts you in His compassion for you.  He loves you with His language of the Gospel, and He has mercy on His lips.  That is what proceeds from His mouth into your ears.

That is the language of love which you learn from your new Father in Christ Jesus, His beloved Son, who is your own Brother in the Flesh and in the Spirit.  For this language is spoken to you in bodily form, but it is alive and life-giving with the Holy Spirit.

The Word of Holy Absolution, that is, the forgiveness of your sins — like the water and the Word of Holy Baptism and the Word-made-Flesh in the Holy Communion — that Word breathes the Spirit of God into your very body, into your flesh, into your blood, into your heart, mind, and soul.  That Word of God breathes the Spirit into you, so that you are filled with the very Life and Light and Love of God.  Thus do the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come to make Their abode with you.

This is the true divine Peace of which Christ Jesus speaks, which He grants to you by His speaking.  It is reconciliation with God through the free and full forgiveness of all of your sins.  He sets you free from your sin and death, and He grants you that Peace of harmony and unity in the love of God Himself; for not only does God make His abode with you, but He grants you to abide with Him.

Not only does Christ come near to you, and not only does He bring you into the presence of His God and Father in heaven, but more than that, in His own Body — and with His own Holy Spirit breathed into your body through the Gospel — He shares with you the Life of the Holy Trinity.

So then, speak that same language of divine love to your neighbors in the world.  Forgive those who trespass against you.  Say it out loud: “I forgive you.”  And ask forgiveness for your sins.

Serve your neighbor with your hands and with your feet.  Run to him, run to her, and stretch forth your hands in love.  But in all of that, do not fail to speak.  Say, “I love you.”  Say, “I care.”  Speak forgiveness, and so be reconciled and at peace with those who have been at odds with you, whether you have hurt them or they’re just being difficult.  Be reconciled with them.  Take the first step, and speak the first word.  And let your word be a word of love, such as Christ Jesus speaks to you.

As He comes to you in meekness and gentle kindness and loving compassion for you, so speak with gentle kindness and tender compassion for your neighbors.  Speak peace to them, as Christ Jesus speaks peace to you.  And you fathers and you mothers, in particular, teach your children to speak in this way, to confess and to pray the Word of the Lord, and to rejoice, give thanks, and sing to the praise and glory of God.  For so does God the Father speak to you by His Son, and so does He give the Holy Spirit into your ears, into your heart and life, and upon your lips and tongue.

So it is that, with that Word of Christ, which is the language of God, you bestow the Holy Spirit upon your neighbors in peace.  For the Words of Christ that you speak are Spirit, Truth, and Life, and they convey the grace of God.  Therefore, do not ever suppose that you have nothing with which to serve your neighbor, even if your hands and your pockets and your cupboards are bare.  When you speak of Christ Jesus, you bestow the Holy Spirit on your neighbor.  You build a house and a city of love with such Words.  You raise the tower of the Cross of Christ, by which all men are drawn to Him.  You confess the Name of the Lord, by which you and your neighbor are saved.

For not only does the Holy Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, draw near to you by the speaking of the Word of Christ.  But as the Holy Spirit lays Christ upon your hearth through the Gospel, and as Christ Jesus breathes His Spirit into your body and soul, so does the same Lord Jesus Christ bring you in and with Himself to the Father in heaven, to the very bosom of the Father.

It isn’t a matter of traveling some great distance by planes, trains, or automobiles.  It isn’t a matter of geography, or aeronautics, or space travel.  It is, rather, the true Spiritual Life in communion with God, which is given to you in the Word and in the Flesh of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

As you abide in Him and His Spirit abides in you, so do you abide in and with the Father, hidden with Christ in God.  That is where your life is: Safely and securely hidden with Christ in God, seated with Him in the heavenly places, even while you sojourn here on earth under His Cross.

It is for that life with God the Father, for the sake of His own divine love and mercy, that Christ Jesus keeps on speaking Peace to you, forgiving you all of your sins and granting you His Spirit.

Do not be afraid.  For these Words in your ears are not my own, but those of Him who sent me.  As He has given Himself for you on the Cross, and as He has been raised for your justification, so does He give Himself to you here, together with His Spirit and with all His gifts and benefits.

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

The Spirit of Christ Jesus in the Ministry of His Gospel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Worship the Father in the Word and Spirit

When God the Father opens His mouth to speak to you by His Son, His Word is not impotent or empty, nor does it return to Him fruitless and void.  His Word is the Seed, the Sunshine and Rain, by which He brings forth an abundant harvest to the glory of His Holy Name.

It is by His Word to you that He bears you up and brings you to Himself in peace and love, that you may live with Him and have true joy in His presence, both now and forever.

It is in this way that you come to the Father in Christ Jesus and worship Him in Spirit and Truth, as He has first come to you.  The true and only God has come to you in Christ, the incarnate Son, the divine Word made Flesh, who has borne your sins in His Body and sacrificed Himself for you.

This Word of God, the only-begotten Son, has come from the Father to live and abide with you here, to be with you in this world of tribulation.  And make no mistake, His life and experience here in the flesh have been no sham or clever charade, but He has truly suffered your tribulation, and He has died your death on His Cross.  What is more, in doing so, He has been abandoned by His friends, and He has borne God the Father’s righteous wrath and judgment against your sins.

And yet, even then, in His death upon the Cross, in His suffering the curse and consequence of sin, He is not alone, because the Father is with Him.  He experiences the fierce forsakenness of God, as He prays from the Psalter in His Passion, because He bears the full condemnation of the Law.  But that is not all!  For His Father is with Him, not only to crush Him with the Law and put Him to grief for the sins of the world, but also with the promise of redemption and rescue from death.

The Lord Jesus knows from the Scriptures, from the oath that God swore to Abraham, from the Covenant that He made with Israel, from the preaching of the Prophets and the Psalms of David, that His God and Father will not abandon His soul to Hades or permit His flesh to suffer decay, but will raise Him up in righteousness and holiness, in innocence and blessedness.  Therefore, He trusts and believes and relies upon His Father.  He calls upon His Name in the confidence that He will hear and answer.  In such holy faith, He worships the Father with His whole Body and Life, by His sacrificial death and by the pouring out of His own Blood upon the Altar of His Cross.

It is by this death of His that He, the Word-made-Flesh, tells you plainly of the Father.  For it is in the loving Self-Sacrifice of His Body and Blood upon the Cross that the very heart of God has been fully opened to you and made known to you.  And it is precisely in this way, as the Lamb who is slain, that Christ Jesus, the beloved Son in the Flesh, is the Temple and the Lamp of the City of God.  It is in His Body of flesh and blood, given and poured out for you, that God draws near and dwells with you, that He reveals and gives Himself to you, and that He draws you to Himself.

So it is that God the Lord is with you in midst of the great tribulation of this world — by and with the Cross of Christ, and by and with the fruits of His Cross, that is, by the Word of His Cross and with the Holy Sacraments of His Cross.  And so it is, too, by these same means of grace, that you come to God the Father in, with, and through the flesh and blood of Christ the Crucified.

The fact is that grace and every blessing, the Life of God, the Lord Himself, and the fullness of joy are all found in Christ Jesus, and only in Him.  For He is “God-with-us,” Immanuel, as you know.  Just so, He is also the true and perfect Man: He is Man-with-God, and God is with Him.  Which is really to say that a right relationship with God — for anyone — is found only in this Man, Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary.  If you want to know how to get right with God, it is in Christ that you are.

It is in your love for Christ Jesus that you find God the Father — and that you are found in Him — that you are with Him, and at home with Him, as a beloved child.  Whereas, to be scattered from Christ Jesus is to go your own way, to go to your own home, wherever you wander — wherever you make your own bed and have to lie in it — instead of going to the Father in and with Christ.

There is frequently such failure in yourself, such retreating into fear, such scattering from Jesus, as also in the case of the disciples then.  But take courage!  Not that you will somehow overcome by your own strength and willpower, but because He has prevailed for you, and He has overcome the world with all its toil and troubles, the devil with all of his temptations and torment, and the frailties of your own flesh with all its sin and death.  The Lord Jesus Christ has done it for you.

For Christ was not alone in His suffering and death.  He was with the Father in faith, and the Father was with Him in love.  Even in His forsakenness, bearing the sins of the world and suffering for them, God remains His Father — and the Father is His true and only God — who will deliver Him from out of death and the grave and bring Him safely back from the battle waged against Him.

So it is that Christ returns to the Father by the way of His Cross: First of all, as the Sacrifice of Atonement, offered up to the Father for the sins of the world.  Then also, as the perfection of that Sacrifice, in His Resurrection from the dead and His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father.

Thus are you now drawn to Him, and to the Father in Him, by the Holy Spirit, through His Cross.  For He has engaged the battle and conquered in the fight in order to become your Champion, to save you from your enemies, to snatch you out of the jaws of defeat into His own great Victory.

As He has been crucified, put to death, and buried — planted as a Seed into the ground — so has He emerged and risen from the ground; and His Cross has become the new and better Tree of Life, His crucified Body bearing good fruits after His own kind.  By the Word and Spirit of His Cross, you are planted with Him, and grafted into Him, to grow and live in Him: watered from His side, warmed by the sunshine of His Gospel, and well nourished by His holy flesh and precious blood.

You love Him, thus, because He first loves you; and He continues to love you now and always.

It is with such divine and tender affection that He woos you to Himself through His Word of the Gospel and draws you to Himself by the Spirit, that you should find your life and your self in Him.

It is in Him — in Jesus Christ the Crucified — in His flesh and blood, and in His Name, therefore, that you also go to the Father and are gladly received by Him.  That you are lifted up from death to life in the glory of His Gospel, to the glory of His Holy Name.  For as the Father is glorified in Christ Jesus, so is Christ glorified in you; and the Father glorifies Himself in you through Christ.

In this way, like Christ Jesus, you worship God the Father in Spirit and in Truth.  That is to say, you worship the Father by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of the incarnate Son.

You worship the one true God in Christ, as Lydia did, first of all by listening to His Word and the preaching of it: Not as a good work of your own doing, but as a gift of His grace, as the Holy Spirit lays Christ upon your heart and calls you to the Father in Him by the preaching of the Gospel.

It is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that puts you to death and raises you to newness of life.  That is what causes the Light of Christ to shine within your heart, so that, not you, but the darkness is scattered before Him.  The same preaching brings you to the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism, as it did for Lydia and her household in Philippi, and as it has recently done for Fredrick Bliese, Violet Rodriguez, Ruth Osbun, and Benedict Harrison.

As the Lord continues to baptize disciples into the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, you are not re-baptized, but you do remember your Holy Baptism and return to it each day: in which your name has been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and His Name has been written upon you, inscribed upon your forehead and your heart, upon your body and soul, by the stylus of His Cross.

Signed and sealed by the Spirit of Christ Jesus — as a Christian disciple, baptized and catechized in His Name — you worship God the Father in Spirit and in Truth by eating and drinking the Body and Blood of His Son, our dear Lord Jesus Christ, in repentant faith and with thanksgiving to God.

In this faith and love, by this Word and Holy Spirit, you belong to Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, and you belong to God the Father in Him.  You bear His Name as a beloved and well-pleasing child.  And so it is that you worship Him by praying to Him as your own dear God and Father.

Such prayer is the very voice of faith in Christ, in whom you cast yourself and your burdens upon the Father in heaven.  For by your Baptism into Christ Jesus, and by your eating and drinking of His Body and Blood, you enter the Holy of Holies and stand in the presence of God in Christ.  Thus are you bold to pray before that Throne of Grace with the Word of the Lord upon your lips.

As He has opened your ears and your heart to hear and believe His Word, so has He opened your lips and your mouth to pray.  And He Himself opens His ears and His heart to hear and answer your prayer in love.  Do not doubt that He is your true Father, and that you are His own dear child.

He delights to receive your petitions and requests, and He will surely give you all good things — He will give you nothing less than Himself and His Spirit — through Jesus Christ, His Son, who has been crucified for your sins and raised for your justification.  So shall you also be raised.

That is the bottom line: The Lord your God will rescue and vindicate you from all harm and danger.  Indeed, He will deliver you from death and the grave.  He will raise you up from death to life, because He has laid all your sins on Christ, and He has forgiven them all.  He has set things right between Himself and you in the raising of that same Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

By this Holy Gospel — by this powerful and living Word of forgiveness; by this sure and certain promise of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting; by this incarnate Word who tabernacles with you in the wilderness of sin and death — by this Gospel of Christ, the Father fills you with His Spirit and sustains you in the midst of the great tribulation.  And so shall He raise you up in Life.

He will never let the righteous fall.  And as a child of God, you are righteous in Christ Jesus.  Your Father will not let you fall.  That is your peace and joy, even now, and your courage in Christ, even as you are confronted by the frailties and failures of your mortal flesh and blood.  Your Father will not let you fall, but He will daily raise you up through His forgiveness of all your sins.

To be raised up by Him is also to worship Him in your pilgrimage of faith, here and now on earth.  Until, finally and forever, your worship of the Lord your God — of the Father in His Son by His Holy Spirit — shall culminate and continue in the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting of your body and soul in Paradise.  For the Father glorifies His Name in you by raising you up.

Already the down payment is being given to you in the Divine Service, from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day, week after week throughout the year, and also here and now on this new day of His grace and salvation: In the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, which is the Lamp by which you see and know the one true God and believe in Him.  And in the Holy Communion of Christ’s true Body and true Blood.  For He is the Temple of God, also here on earth in His Holy Christian Church, as He is in heaven forever.  Here on His Altar is the Lamb upon His Throne, given and poured out for you.

As you feast upon Him here, so shall you enter the Holy City, New Jerusalem, which has come down from heaven to you in Christ Jesus, in which there will no longer be any trouble or fear, nor any night, nor desert heat, nor winter cold, but everlasting perfect Day, and peace and joy forever.

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

For Now You Sing, Not by Sight, But by Faith in His Word

Christ is risen indeed.  (Alleluia!)  And if Christ is risen, you also shall rise.  For He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the Beginning and the End.  He is the First, and He is the Last, the One who remains forever.  He has become the Firstborn of many brethren, and you are among them.

He is the Firstborn from the dead.  And in His crucified and risen Body, His saints also are raised — even now, by faith, and hereafter forever in the Resurrection of the body unto Life everlasting.

Where you are, Jesus is also.  And where He is, there you shall follow after.  But you have grief for now because, for a little while, you cannot see the Lord Jesus Christ.  You do not perceive Him.  You do not feel Him.  You do not experience His Resurrection in your day-to-day life on earth.

You do not see Him for a little while, and so you weep, and you mourn, and you grieve, while the world laughs at you, and mocks you, and rejoices over you at your expense.

You have such grief for now, for this little while, because you do not see Jesus.  But then again, after a little while, you will see Him, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy will never end.

He speaks here of His Cross and Resurrection.  But He speaks of these, not only historically, but theologically and pastorally; not only for His disciples there and then, but for you here and now.

He speaks of His Cross and Resurrection, not only with reference to those days when He was led to His Passion and crucified under Pontius Pilate, when He was dead and buried, and when He then arose from the dead according to the Scriptures.  Everything else depends on those events, but He speaks here of the way His Cross also forms and shapes His Church on earth.  And He speaks of the way He comes to you and deals with you by the ways and means of His Cross, even now — that is to say, by ways and means that you cannot perceive with your eyes, but only by faith in His Gospel, by the gracious working of His Holy Spirit through the Word He preaches into your ears.

It is not what your eyes see, nor what your flesh senses, nor what your emotions feel in the world, but the preaching of the Word of Christ, that reveals to you where He is, and conveys to you His gracious forgiveness and life from the Sacrifice of His Cross and His Resurrection from the dead.

You do not see Jesus as He is, because He comes now in that glorious Cloud, His means of grace, hidden within the womb of His Church in such simple and ordinary means.  You do not see Him for a little while, because He reveals and gives Himself to you in the Breaking of the Bread.  And having given you that revelation of His grace and His glory in the Sacrament of the Altar, He is for now hidden from your sight.  You know Him only by the Word He speaks.  Thus do you behold Him by faith in the Breaking of the Bread, in the Holy Communion, and in His Body, the Church.

You do not yet see Him as He is, and you do not see Him in your neighbor, either.  You do not see Him in His many brethren with which you are surrounded.  In them you see frailty and weakness.  In them you still see sin and death.  You see and perceive their irritability, their laziness and greed; and it is a challenge not to focus on those flaws, because for now you do not see Jesus in them.

And yet, you hear His Word declare that these also are His little ones, these baptized brothers and sisters who are so dear to Him, for whom He has given His body and life and shed His own blood.  You hear Him say that, as you love them, you love Him; in serving them, you serve Him.  You hear His command that, just as He forgives you, so are you to forgive your neighbors their trespasses against you.  Though you see none of this, you see your neighbors by faith in the Word of Christ.

You do not see Him in yourself, either.  You hear the Word of God in Christ Jesus, that you are a beloved and well-pleasing child of the Father in heaven.  You hear the Word of Christ declare that you are a member of His Body and Bride, the Church, and that He will never leave you nor forsake you.  You hear that He rejoices over you in love; that He delights in you and cherishes you.  And you hear His promise, that He does not seek to harm you but to give you all good things.

But for all of that, you do not see Him or perceive Him in yourself.  In yourself, in your flesh, in your body and life, you find nothing else but sin and death and all manner of evil.  In yourself you experience hurt and pain, disappointment, scars, and regrets.  In yourself you see all that is lacking.  You do not perceive yourself as a child of God, but as a wretched sinner and a dying mortal.  You do not appear good looking but disgraceful; neither loved nor lovable, but forsaken and forgotten.

But Christ Jesus speaks to you concerning both His Cross and His Resurrection.  And by His grace, by the power of His Holy Spirit, you rejoice, give thanks, and sing of both.  You sing and give thanks even for His Cross and Passion, knowing that His voluntary Sacrifice is His Victory, and that His Resurrection is the outcome of what He has purchased and won for you by His innocent suffering and death, by His holy and precious Blood.  Although for now you cannot see Him, you sing and rejoice in both the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, because His Word is true — and because His Spirit helps you in your weakness, that you might pray and sing in holy faith.

These Mysteries of God are great indeed.  They are hidden from your eyes, and they confound your old Adam with all your sinful hungers and perverted passions.  It seems more than strange that by His Cross He raises you up, and that He brings you through suffering and death into His Glory.

But it is most certainly true.  And so it is that, by His grace, by His Word and Holy Spirit, you sing.  For it is by His Cross that He makes all things new: First of all in His own Body, crucified and risen from the dead; but so also, now, in your body and life, baptized into His dying and rising.  Thus are you a member of His Body and Bride, and a beloved child of His own God and Father.

It is by and from His Cross that He adorns His Church with His own righteousness and holiness, as a Bride made ready for her Husband.  By the Word of His Cross He pours out the Holy Spirit on Jews and Gentiles alike, cleansing them by His grace and sanctifying them in body and soul.

The animals and the people that St. Peter saw were unclean, but God declared them to be clean and holy by His Word.  So also for you.  As God has declared you to be clean, do not regard yourself as unholy.  As God has declared your neighbor to be clean, do not regard your neighbor as unholy.  But rather, with the eyes of faith, see in yourself and in your neighbor that which Christ sees and that which Christ says: That you are dressed beautifully, and that you are a gorgeous Bride, and that you have such a Husband who is so happy with you and so eager to receive you to Himself.

It is by the way and the means of the Cross, by His Word of the Cross, that He begets children of God also through you and through His Church on earth.  By His Cross and Passion, by that painful labor and delivery, He brings forth sons and daughters for the Father, and fruits of righteousness, of love and joy and peace and gladness.  And it is by His Cross and Passion that He conforms you to His own Image, that you might abide in the Image of God.  For it is by His Cross that He works in you the repentance which leads to life.  And it is by His Cross that you live as a child of God.

Such are the fruits of His Cross, the good fruits of Christ Himself, which the Holy Spirit discloses to you, bestows upon you, and produces in you by the preaching of the Gospel, by that forgiveness which comes to you from the Body of Christ the Crucified — which is poured out into His Font and Chalice — which is preached into your ears — which is fed into your mouth and your body — which is surely yours, as Christ presses it into your hand and gently declares, “This is for you.”

It matters not what you have been or done.  It matters not what others have done or said to you.  It matters not what you see or perceive in yourself, far less what the world perceives in you.

What does matter is what Christ Jesus says and does and gives to you.  For His Cross, which is His Victory over death and the grave — His Cross, which has atoned for the sins of the world — His Cross, which reconciles the world to God — His Cross also bears fruit after its own kind in you.

So it is that, in a little while, you also see Jesus in yourself, in the fruits that He produces in you as a branch of His Tree.  In the righteousness that He causes to be at work in you through His Holy Spirit.  In the comfort of your heart, and in the comfort that you give to others.  In that compassion which He has for you, which you in turn have for your neighbors who are hurting and afraid.

It is by the Cross that He begets children, and so also through your speaking of His Gospel.  If you are a father or mother and you teach your little children the things of Christ, know what a glorious good work that is.  And if you have failed in that responsibility, do not despair but repent now, and rejoice that in a little while you will see the Lord Jesus.  If you have not done what you should, begin to do so.  Bear the fruits that Christ produces and brings forth in you by His Word and Holy Spirit.  Rejoice in His Cross.  Rejoice also in His Resurrection and His Life.  For these are yours.

If you have no children of your own, you may yet speak the Gospel to your parents — whereby the child becomes a parent and gives birth to the children of God through the comfort and confession of the Gospel.  So it is when you forgive your father and mother where they have sinned against you, and when you are patient with them and honor them, as Christ has commanded for His sake.

Or if you speak the Gospel to your brother or your sister, whether he or she is younger or older, the Gospel that you speak is that of Christ Jesus.  And by that speaking the Spirit discloses Christ Jesus to your brother and sister and grants them joy and gladness in the salvation of the Lord.

If you have no family at all, you are yet given to speak the Word of the Gospel to your neighbor.  And if you are cut off from everyone, still you may confess the Gospel before your God and Father in heaven.  And you can sing with and for His Church, even when all else and all others are silent.

Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.  For that is one of the fruits of the Cross: To sing of the Atonement, to sing of the Resurrection of Jesus, to sing of His Gospel, and by your singing to confess and pray twice over.  You sing the New Song of the Lamb by virtue of His Cross and Resurrection.  You sing the New Song of the New Heavens and the New Earth.  You sing the New Song of the New Jerusalem, which is the Song of Christ Jesus.  For having become His, and He being yours, what you speak and sing is the Word of Christ.  And though you cannot see Him, yet you love Him.  And though you cannot see Him, yet the Song that you sing is true, and it is full of the Holy Spirit.

Consider St. Paul’s Epistles to the Church at Ephesus and Colossae.  He urges you to comfort one another — and to give the Holy Spirit to each other! — by the singing of Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs.  That is the singing of Christ Jesus, whereby He is heard upon your lips.

For a little while you do not see Him, not in Himself, nor in your neighbor, nor in yourself.  And yet, your life in Him is as sure and true and certain as Christ Himself, crucified and risen from the dead for you.  For now you have grief, but your grief shall be turned into joy, and your joy shall not be taken away from you.  It shall not.  You shall never be snatched out of the Lord’s hand.

It is through trials and tribulations that you enter the Kingdom of God.  It is through the narrow passage of the Cross that you are conceived and born of Christ and His Church.  And so it is by the Word and Spirit of His Holy Cross and Passion that you in turn beget other children of God.

But for the joy of Christ, for the Glory of His Resurrection, and for the Peace and Comfort of His forgiveness of all of your sins, you forget the grief, and you leave the pain behind.  Not as though you were already done, but knowing that your life is in Christ; that He is yours; that where you are, He is also; and where He is, there you shall be, both now and forever.  For He is the First, and He is the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, and He has made you His own.

What He sees, already now in you, is a beloved child of His God and Father and a member of His own beautiful Bride, in whom His heart rejoices and is glad, and over whom He sings in love.

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