Though Devils All the World Should Fill

Woe to those who live on earth in the midst of sin and death, subjected to the devil’s great wrath.  Be on your guard, constantly vigilant, sober and watchful.

Satan is a fierce foe, and he hates you with dark and dire vengeance.  He does not rest in his attacks against you, but day and night he is plotting to entice and deceive you; and at the same time he is always accusing you of your sins.  He mocks you with guilt and shame, whether real or imagined; and he threatens you with death and damnation, even with the condemnation of God’s Law.

Pray, therefore, at all times and without ceasing.

Do not rely upon your own wisdom, reason, or strength, but humble yourself before God.  Repent of your sins, and seek the Lord where He may be found in His grace and mercy and forgiveness.

And even so, even now, take courage and stand upright.  For here there is One who helps you, who is mightier than sin, death, the devil, and hell.

Here there is Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, who has become the true Man, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that He is your Brother in the flesh.  And He is your Savior.

This one Lord, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, has conquered in the fight.  Not by the raw power of His Law, which would destroy you along with your enemies, but by the Spirit of God, by perfect faith and love in His own flesh and blood, and by His own Cross and Resurrection.

He has robbed the devil of his threatening might and fearsome power.  He has stripped the devil of his teeth and ripped off all the bars and doors from the devil’s prison house of fear and death.

The devil is done for, because the Cross of Christ has satisfied the Law and perfectly fulfilled it, meeting all its demands and removing all its threats.  The Lord Himself has made propitiation and atonement for all sins, including yours; He has reconciled you and all the world to God the Father.

With what, then, shall Satan accuse or condemn you?  And what threat or fear of death shall the devil hold over your head?  For Christ Jesus has trampled death and hell beneath His feet, and  in His Resurrection He has opened the grave and opened heaven to you and all the baptized.

The Lord your God in His own flesh, the Son of Man, has accomplished this victory for all men and women, all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  By the way and means of this victory, by His Word and Holy Spirit, He actively saves you.  He gives to you His Name and Himself, with His whole life and His salvation: as in your Baptism, so also in the whole Ministry of His Gospel.

Even more relentlessly than Satan accuses, the Lord Jesus Christ never ceases to speak forgiveness and peace.  So long as the heavens and the earth remain, from the rising of the sun to the place of its going down, He preaches His Gospel and thereby takes away the sins of the world.  So it is that Satan is cast out and thrown down, not only out of heaven, but so also from your conscience.

It is for this purpose that the Lord has so ordained and constituted the ministry of men and angels, unto the life and salvation of all who are called by His Name.

Thus are you, dear child of God, dear “little one” of Jesus, guarded and guided by the Word of the Lord that is preached to you.  His Word is a lamp to your feet and a light upon your path, so that you know the way of faith and love; and by His grace you live and abide in safety and in peace.

The Law of the Lord curbs you from your wickedness, in order to protect you from the devil’s treachery and deceit.  And with that, even while exposing your sins and calling you to account, the Lord is also directing you to the Cross of Christ and the salutary Word of His sweet Gospel.

As often as you stumble and fall, that precious Holy Gospel lays the gentle hand of Christ Jesus upon you and raises you up in His Resurrection with the free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  That is the special authority with which He has called and sent your pastors, His messengers of the Word, to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name; so that you do not die but live.

As surely as you are baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, so does He also nurture your body and soul and preserve your faith and life in Him — by the preaching of His Word, and by nourishing you in the wilderness with the spiritual Food and Drink of His Body and His Blood.

By that Ministry of His Gospel, just as surely as He named you with His Name in Holy Baptism, so has He written your name with His own Blood in the Lord’s Book of Life.  For as you share His Baptism, and as you receive His forgiveness of all your sins, His Resurrection is now also your resurrection from the dead, and He Himself is forever and always your Life and your Salvation.

It is for this reason that His holy angels surround you, to guard you and protect you in both body and soul, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  For they see in you — what you often fail to see in yourself and in your neighbor — they behold in you Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, His Name, His flesh and blood.  They love and care for you as a member of His Body and Bride.

The angels are not given the highest honor of preaching the Gospel to you; for that is done by men of flesh and blood, like that of Christ Himself, who is not an angel but is both God and Man.  But the angels do guard and protect you for the sake of that Holy Gospel.

The angels preserve your life, in order that you may hear and confess the Word of the Gospel, so that both you and your neighbor may live, in both body and soul, both now and forever.

Of course, the devil doesn’t fight fair.  He is a liar and a murderer, by night as by day.  And he is crafty, with a serpent’s body that slithers this way and that and strikes in the blink of an eye.  By hook and by crook he attacks you on the left and on the right.  He tempts you into sins of all kinds, and then he quickly points the finger at you and vehemently accuses you.  He assaults your heart and mind with distractions and enticements; with fears and trepidations; with pride at one moment, despair at the next; with envy and jealousy; with guilt and shame.

And when he cannot shake your hope and confidence within, the devil levels all his wrath and hatred against your frail flesh, against your household, family, and friends.

With his lying and murdering day and night, the devil lets you have no peace within or without.

But in spite of all of that, do not be afraid.  The armies of the Lord who loves you surround you.  And because they always behold the face of your own dear Father in heaven, they are more fierce and determined in their protection than even Satan in his wrath.

Nothing will by any means injure you.  That is the Lord’s promise.

But how can that be so?  Given that you bear the Cross — that you are crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus — how shall you not be injured, even to the point of death?  For you are frail flesh and blood.  You are but mortal.  You get sick; you get hurt; you suffer and die.

What is more, you are in fact, as you confess, a poor, miserable sinner.  You surely deserve nothing but punishment.  Does the devil not have a point in accusing and condemning you?

But, no, you are in Christ, and He abides in you and with you and for you.  There is therefore no condemnation that shall stand against you.  There is no punishment or death that shall injure you.

The One who has all authority in heaven and on earth, who could destroy your soul and body in hell, has named you with the Name of Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, and He has declared that you are well-pleasing in His sight.  He judges you righteous, and He gives to you all good things.

If you are crucified and put to death by the Cross of Christ, it is also by and from His Cross that He daily and richly forgives you all your sins.  And it is from the same Cross that He also feeds you with His Body and His Blood.  And it is by His Cross that He brings you through death into life with God in His own Resurrection and Ascension, through His suffering into His glory.

It is by His Cross that the dragon, that old serpent who is called the devil and Satan, is even now and forever conquered and crushed under the heal of Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, your Savior.

If you and your body and life are marked by the Sign of that Cross, so do you also bear the Name of Christ, and His Spirit, and His Body and His Blood.  By these means you overcome.  Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour you, yet you are kept safe and sound in Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who loves you and has given Himself for you — He sees to it that none of the treasures of His Kingdom shall be taken from you.  Nor shall you be snatched out of His hand.

Indeed, the same Lord sends His men to preach and administer His Gospel to you, and He stations His holy angels to guard you round about, night and day, in all your going out and coming in.

Rejoice, therefore, and bless the Lord.  All that is within you, give thanks and bless His holy Name.  For as He feeds you here and now with His own Body, so shall He awaken your body from the dust of the earth and raise you unto Life everlasting in the never-ending Feast of His Kingdom.  And as you worship Him and sing with saints and angels here at His Altar on earth, so shall you continue to worship and sing with all the company of the blessed in heaven forever and ever.

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

Salted by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus for Life with God in Body and Soul

Your life and health and strength and salvation are found in the Name of the Lord.  You do not live by your own works, for they will perish with you.  Nor is your life to be found in the wealth and wisdom of this world, which also is perishing.  But it is by the Name of the Lord that you live — as His child, in His presence — by His grace.  And that life is by faith in Christ Jesus, your Savior.

The Name of that Lord Jesus Christ has been granted to you in Holy Baptism.  And that is a most wonderful and extraordinary thing.  Whenever that day was, whatever your age may have been, whether you can remember the day or not, there in the water with His Word the Lord laid hold of you in love, He saved you from death by forgiving all your sins, and He gave you His own Life.

The Name of the Lord is your Strength and your Song, because He has become your Salvation, and He has named you with His own Holy Name.  So are you also anointed by the Holy Spirit for faith and life with God, who is now your own dear Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  Everything that belongs to Him is now yours.  His Life is yours, because His Name and His Spirit are yours.

You are “salted” by the Holy Spirit through the Word of Christ Jesus.  But what does that mean?  You are disciplined, as though by fire — as gold and silver are purified by fire — and as the sons of Levi and all the children of God are purified as though by fire.  By the discipline of the Word of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, you are called to daily repentance — by and through and with and in the Cross of Christ.  As He was crucified for you, so are you crucified with Him and put to death to the world, to your sin, and to all the lusts of your flesh, the cravings of your heart.

That is how you are “salted” on the one hand.  But you are also “salted” or “seasoned,” both inside and out, with peace and love — the peace that is yours in Christ Jesus, which is your reconciliation with God and with your neighbors — and the Love of God which is likewise yours in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, which He has poured out into your heart by and with His Holy Spirit.

So are you also “seasoned” with newness of life in body and soul, because God the Father has raised you from death to life in the crucified and risen Body of His incarnate Son.  The One who died for you has also risen from the dead, and you are raised with Him through His forgiveness of your sins.  There is no accusation that stands against you in your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

How, then, shall you deal with yourself and your body and life in this world?  And having been named with the Name of God and anointed by the Spirit, how shall you deal with your neighbor?

What shall it mean for you — for your relationships, callings, and stations in this life on earth — that you are God’s own child, baptized into Christ Jesus, crucified and risen with Him for life with God in body and soul, not only for ever, but already here and now as a member of His Church?

Well, it’s a hard Word that Christ Jesus declares to you this morning.  We’re not used to hearing Him talk this way; we know that He does on occasion, but it’s not typical, and it’s not easy to hear.  There is a kind of violence in what He says today, as He speaks of tying millstones around necks and drowning people in the depths of the sea, of cutting off body parts and plucking out eyes.  This is the sort of thing we expect from horror movies, not from the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He speaks of such violence — and it is a real violence, make no mistake — but it is not a violence against your body per se.  It is sometimes necessary, in medical surgery, for example, to harm the body and place the body in precarious danger for the sake of addressing some greater threat to life; and that is not so far removed from what we have going on here.   But the Lord is not prescribing a medical treatment, whereby you would actually mutilate your body with knife and scalpel; for your body remains His good creation even under the curse of sin.  Certainly He is not directing you to do violence against your neighbor’s body, either.  The violence of which our Lord here speaks is leveled against the sinfulness of your heart — the fountain out of which all of your sins proceed.

Your every hope, your life and salvation are in the Name of the Lord.  He saves you by His Name.  And His Name in turn bears good fruits in your body and life — finally forever in the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting of your body and soul — but already here and now, His Name is bearing the fruits of faith and love in your life on earth, wherever He calls and stations you.

But the sin in your heart is another story altogether; and that is what needs to be dealt with, to be cut off and thrown away.  As surely as faith in the Name of the Lord brings forth good and godly fruits in your body and life, so does the sin in your heart bring forth “fruits” after its own kind in your body and life, which are not living and life-giving but damnable and deadly to you and others.

So, our Lord is harsh and violent against your sin because He loves you.  He is not out to destroy you, but to save you from sin and death — to save you from yourself — for Life with God in Him.

Both sinful unbelief and repentant faith are matters of the heart and soul.  But both sinful unbelief and repentant faith are also embodied and bear fruit in your flesh, in your outward life and actions.  Faith bears the fruits of love, the fruits of the Spirit.  But sin bears more sin and brings forth death.

The actions of your body, in turn, substantiate and strengthen the attitudes of your heart, whether for good or ill, whether for life or death.  To live according to the Word of God is to exercise and strengthen your faith in His Word and in the life that He has given you by His grace.  To persist in sin and wrongdoing is to strengthen the sin in your heart and to buck against the Holy Spirit.

So, then, deny your body its sinful desires, its lust and greed, and live instead by faith in the hope of the Resurrection of your body.  Do not give yourself over to your cravings.  Do not covet what the Lord has given to your neighbor, but be content and satisfied with what the Lord gives to you.  In all that you do with your body, live now in view of the fact that your body shall be raised to live with God in His Kingdom forever; for your body also bears the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember that you are baptized.  The Name and Spirit of God have been given to you, along with the forgiveness of your sins and the cleansing of your conscience.  All of this in your body as well as your soul, as the water washed over your body with the Word of Christ Jesus, and the sign of His Cross was marked upon your forehead and your heart.  So shall your body be raised from the dead, glorious, like unto His own glorious Body.  Your body rises day-by-day from the watery grave of your Holy Baptism by faith in the Gospel, and so shall your body be raised in glory at the last, just as Christ is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity in His Body.  So, live now in the view of that Resurrection, in such a way that your body confesses the Name of Christ.

If your hand, your foot, or your eye is involved in sin, then repent in your heart, and so also repent in your body and in your outward behavior.  Discipline your flesh to do good and refrain from evil.  Avert your eyes, divert your feet, and withhold your hand from every manner of wickedness.

To live in sin is already a kind of living death.  And I’m not just talking about people shacking up and fornicating, though that is certainly part of it.  But to live in whatever your sin is, to persist in it, to keep on doing what you know is wrong, to put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, to harbor temptations in your thoughts and in your heart instead of resisting the devil and fleeing from his temptation — to live in sin is already a kind of living death, and it will end in no good.

But to live by faith, that is to rely on the Name of Christ Jesus, even unto Life everlasting.  To live by faith in His Name is to pray by and with His Word and Holy Spirit.  It is to rely upon Him rather than yourself.  To live by faith in His Name is to live in the Liturgy of His Gospel — to know that you need it, that you need to hear it and receive it — to seek it out, and to support it with your prayers, with your financial contributions, and above all with your presence and participation.

In turn, to live by faith is also to live in love, to catechize your neighbor.  Whether you are husband or father, wife or mother, or simply a Christian living in the world, you are given to catechize your neighbors — not necessarily by sitting down and having a class together, but rather by speaking the Word of Christ that you have heard and received in the Liturgy of the Gospel.  That is the most precious thing you can do for any of your neighbors, the one thing that shall remain forever after.

To live by faith is to live in love and to care for your neighbor in the Name of Christ Jesus, because you bear His Name, and because your neighbor may bear His Name — if he or she is already a Christian, a child of God baptized into Christ — or, if not, it is God’s desire that your neighbor would become a Christian, and receive that Name, and live by that Name as you live.   And so, for the sake of His Name, you care for your neighbor in the way that Christ Jesus cares for you; and you speak to your neighbor in the way — and with the Words — that Christ Jesus speaks to you.

Do not go home from here and go about your day-to-day life as though you have heard nothing of any consequence, as though the Word of Christ did not matter or make any difference, as though it may or may not be true, or as though it were only true for you.  But gladly speak what you have heard here, and do not be ashamed of that Word of Life in Christ, which is also for your neighbor.

Both by your words and by your actions, be patient and at peace with your neighbor, practicing mercy and kindness.  Be slow to anger, reluctant to hurt in what you do or say, eager to help and to heal, and always quick and ready to forgive, as you are forgiven by Christ Jesus in His Name and stead.  And when your brother goes astray, or when your sister stumbles in her faith and life, restore your neighbor in a spirit of gentleness, in the genuine humility of your own repentance.  For there is not one of you who does not stumble in many ways, and yet the Lord your God is merciful, and He calls you daily to repentance, to faith in His free and full forgiveness of sins.

In short, discipline yourself in body and soul, not only to avoid what is evil, but actively to do and say what is good and right, whether you feel like it or not.  Really, such discipline is most needed when you’d rather not do what you should; and, often as not, those are precisely the times when it is most important for you to do what is good and right for the sake of your neighbor.

In all of this, as you recognize your own sins and your own ways of stumbling — as you certainly will discover when you examine yourself honestly, as you should, in accordance with the Word of God — when you thus recognize in yourself your own sins and stumbling, do not despair — and do not persist in your sins, either — but call upon the Name of the Lord, and rely on Christ Jesus, your Savior.  Repent of your sins, trust Christ, and live; for He cares about you, He really does.

And because He loves you, the Lord Jesus provides for all your needs of body and soul, for this life and for the Life everlasting.  He forgives you all your sins for His Name’s sake; He raises you up to newness of life each day in His own righteousness and holiness; and so shall He raise you at the last to Life everlasting with Himself, and with His God and Father, and with the Holy Spirit.

The One who promises is faithful, and He shall do it.  Already He has borne the burden of your sin in His own Body on the Cross.  Indeed, what Moses and the Law could not do or accomplish, this Jesus has done for you and for all, for your life and salvation.  He has borne the whole burden of His people in His Body.  He has carried them in Himself.  He has saved them from sin and death.  And even now He brings you and all His people through this desert wilderness into the promised Kingdom of His God and Father, whom He has made your own dear God and Father in Him.

See here, in this Hour, in this Place, how He feeds you on the Way — how He feeds the vast multitude of His Church in all times and places.  He does not fail to do it, but with real Meat and true Drink He sustains them all.  And so does He sustain you with His holy and precious Blood, poured out for you, and with His own Body given for you, the Life-giving Manna that refreshes and restores your soul and renews your body for the Resurrection and for eternal Life with God.

Even in the midst of death, this is real Life, and this is real Living, which is for you in Christ Jesus.

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

The Divine Greatness of the Lord's Divine Self-Sacrifice

The heartbeat of the Christian faith and life is the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is likewise His Cross which His disciples are given to receive, to carry, and to rely upon for Life.  For it is in the Cross of Christ that true divine greatness and the almighty power of God are made perfect in His voluntary weakness and demonstrated in His mercy and pity toward us poor sinners.

He has such compassion and bestows His charity upon you, not from some high and lofty distance, but up close and personal, in His own flesh and blood.  Nor is His giving to you like the painless writing of a check from your disposable income to this or that cause or charity for the sake of a tax write-off.  No, His divine charity is the true greatness and real strength of self-sacrificing love and voluntary suffering for the sake of saving you, even though you have no way to repay Him.

So, then, in answer to the disciples’ questions and discussion, it is Christ Jesus alone who is the greatest of all.  He stands head and shoulders above any and all other contenders.  Indeed, He is lifted up above all others when He is lifted up in His death upon the Cross — and when He is then raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of His Father in everlasting glory and honor.

Again, His greatness is found precisely in His grace and mercy toward us, which He exercises in His obedience to the Father and in His humble service to the point of His death upon the Cross.  It is in love for His Father, and in steadfast perfect faith in the Father who sent Him, that He takes up that Cross and offers up His Body and Life upon it in love and compassion for His neighbor.

In doing so, He has made Himself the Least of all and the Servant of all.  The almighty and eternal Son of the Living God has become like a little child.  More than that, He actually was conceived and born as the little Child of St. Mary, in order to redeem the world and everyone in it, to rescue all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve from sin, death, the devil, and hell, by His own death.

To be and to live like a little child, as Jesus has done for you and your salvation, is to live by faith in the Lord your God, in His Word and promises.  It is to rely on Him and to receive all that you need from His hand by way of those He has given to care for you.  It is to boast not in yourself but in His grace and mercy, and to give to Him all your thanks and praise in body, soul, and spirit.

It is by living in this way on your behalf, by faith in His Father, in flesh and blood like your own, that Christ Jesus has humbled Himself to serve you and save you at the cost of His own Body and Life.  So has He atoned for your sins, reconciled you to God, and poured out His Spirit upon you.

Of course, this is the great irony and paradox of Christianity, that forgiveness, Life, and Salvation are obtained by the Cross of Christ Jesus and given to you by and from that same Cross; so that your true and only Life — your only real Life — is found in His innocent suffering and death.

Those who are called and catechized to be the disciples of this same Lord, Jesus Christ — who are called to follow Him and learn from Him — are thus taught by His Word and by His example to be and to live like Him: in faith toward God and in fervent love for those He places around you.

So do you become like a little child and live by faith in your dear God and Father.  And so do you also bear the Cross of Christ Jesus in self-sacrificing love and humble service for your neighbors in their need.  Not simply trading favors, tit-for-tat — not doing good merely for those who are able to repay you in some way or another — but sacrificing yourself, expending your time, your treasures, and your talents in service to others, for no other reason than that of holy charity.

Understand, first of all, that you actually are “a little child” in relation to the Lord your God, like a newborn infant.  You are absolutely and completely dependent on Him for everything; and you are not able to repay Him in return.  And as that is how it is for you, so learn to love and care for your brothers and sisters in Christ and for all your neighbors in the world, regardless of their age or abilities, in the way that your dear Father in heaven cares for you and all His beloved children.

In particular, care for those who actually are little children, even yet hidden in the womb.  And by the same token, care for those who are like the little children — who are innocent and simple in their thinking, in their abilities and way of life.  Care for all such little ones, because they are so small and weak and helpless — because they are not able to help themselves or to help you, but they need your help — and do what you can to care for them as an instrument and agent of your God and Father in heaven, much like an older brother or sister caring for your younger siblings.

To live in these ways, both in general and in particular — that is, to receive what you need from God, and then to give to your neighbor as the Lord your God gives to you — that is nothing more nor less than to live by faith and in love as a Christian.  It is to live by the Cross and by the fruits of the Cross of Christ Jesus, and to bear such fruits for others after the same kind — at your own expense, as needs may be, even unto death, in the hope and confidence of the Resurrection.

Sure sounds good, doesn’t it.  Except that it really is no wonder that the disciples were afraid to ask Jesus what He meant when He told them where He was going and what was going to happen to Him there.  They did not want to know or understand the Cross — not His, and certainly not their own.  That is not at all the kind of “greatness” they were discussing on the way.

It’s not what you’re after for yourself, either; not according to your sinful, mortal flesh.  It’s quite the opposite of what you want.  Your old Adam has other ideas and altogether different desires!  You don’t want suffering, you want prosperity and pleasure.  You don’t want to serve, you want to be served — except when you can promote yourself and feel good about yourself by serving others, in such a way that you’re able to place yourself above them, as though you were superior.  In general, you want other people to care for you, to provide for your needs, to cater to your wants, to be at your beck and call — or, better yet, to do what you want without your asking — none of this as though it were a matter of charity (or grace), but as though you were deserving of it all.

As you make your way through life, as you chart your course and blaze your trail, you also discuss and contemplate your greatness vis-à-vis others.  Not the greatness of the Cross, but the greatness of the world with its idols.  For that prize you compare and contrast, you jockey for position, you compete with your neighbor, and you maneuver for your own advancement, benefit, and profit.  That is what occupies your attention, because that is what grips your heart and mind.

Consequently, you are not able to comprehend the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus, who lays down His life and sacrifices Himself, not for His own benefit, but for the benefit of others, even for those who have hated Him and been at odds with Him, in order to rescue them from their own predicament, from their sin and death, and to reconcile them to His God and Father in peace.  He goes out of His way to make friends of His enemies, and to make life better for them, and to bring them to God.  Such divine, self-sacrificing love is pure grace and utter charity — and so contrary to your own instincts of survival, self-preservation, self-promotion, and self-righteousness.

So, that is why you must be catechized, put to death, and born again to a new and better life — all by the Word and Spirit of God, by the preaching of the Law and the Gospel, unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins — in order that, by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, you should thus become a little child of God and a faithful disciple of the same Lord Jesus Christ.

And with that, bear in mind that the only true and lasting greatness is that of Christ Jesus Himself, who has become, for you and for all, the Least and the Last, the faithful Servant of both God and Man, the Sacrifice to end all sacrifice for sin.  For not only has He become the little Child who lives by faith in His Father, but so is He also the sacrificial Lamb who lives and dies in love for God and for His neighbors, who takes upon Himself and takes away the sins of the whole world.

This is the great service that He has rendered and accomplished for you and for all people.

And it is in this greatness of His own Cross and Passion that He gently calls you to Himself, again and again, and catechizes you by and with His Word and Holy Spirit unto repentance, away from sin and death to faith in Him.  And as the Father has raised Him from death and the grave and has seated Him at His right hand in glory, so does He raise you from death to Life, now and forever.

So has He given you a brand new birth, and He has made you a little child of His God and Father by your Holy Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection.  That is who you are.  No matter how old you are, no matter how smart you are, no matter how strong you are, no matter how wealthy you may be, and no matter how much stuff you have (all of which is going away) — yet, for now and forever, you are God’s own child, a little child whom He takes into His arms and takes care of.

That is what He has done for you by way of your Baptism in His Name.  In much the same way, throughout your life He continues to send His servants to preach and teach His Word, to catechize you unto daily repentance, to forgive you all your sins in His Name and stead, and to nourish your faith and life in Him by the means of His Gospel within the household and family of His Church.

He teaches you to be and to live as a child of God, not by the force and fury of His Law, but by caring for you and providing for you, by loving you relentlessly, in spite of your sins, in spite of your unbelief, ingratitude, petty grumpiness, and persistent disobedience.  It is in mercy that He calls you to repentance for all of those sins and for all of your other sins, especially by calling you to the great goodness of His grace, to the forgiveness of His Gospel, to the free gift of His Love.

Not only does He feed and clothe and shelter you, guard and protect you, guide and lead you for this body and life on earth, but He freely gives you His own divine Life in body and soul, for now and forever.  Which is to say that He feeds and clothes and shelters you, He guards and protects you, He guides and leads you, and He brings you to the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul with Himself in the Kingdom of His God and Father.

As this one Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself for you and for all — unto His sacrificial death upon the Cross — so does He now give Himself to you from the Cross in the Sacrament of His Altar.  He humbles Himself in the elements of bread and wine in order to feed you from His own nail-scarred hands, to serve you with His own holy Body, and to pour out for you, not only cold water (refreshing as that is), but that Cup which is the New Testament in His precious Blood.

Receiving these good Gifts which Christ Jesus freely gives, you receive the Lord God Himself in His mercy, and you partake of His divine, eternal Life.  That is the true greatness of Christ and His Cross, which is now also yours as a child of God in Him, by His grace through faith in His Gospel.

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

To Hear and Speak the Word of Christ Jesus

Words matter.  Indeed, words make all the difference, because God does everything by His Word.

You already have at least some awareness of this fact.  You know how powerful words can be — to hurt, or to help: They can totally make or wreck your day, your week, or whole seasons of time.

Words matter.  For the Lord your God does everything by His Word, from the Creation to the Redemption of His Creation; and you, being made in His Image and Likeness, are created to speak.

What you say matters.  And not only what you say, but how you say it.  And what you don’t say, that matters, too.  And all of your speaking, whether it be good or bad, depends on your hearing.  Garbage in, garbage out.  But if you hear the Word of Christ, that is what you speak and confess.

You cannot fear, love, and trust in the one true God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, nor can you confess Him rightly with your lips, except by the hearing of the Word of Christ.  You cannot pray, praise, or give thanks, and you cannot call upon His Holy Name, except by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus.  You cannot bless God, nor can you bless your neighbor, if you are not hearing and receiving the blessing of God’s Word.  Apart from His Word to you in Christ Jesus, you can do nothing but curse, swear, lie, and deceive, grind your teeth, and foam at the mouth.

That is why it is so basic and fundamental to the faith and life of the entire Church on earth, and why it is so necessary to your own Christian faith and life, that there be preachers and teachers of the Word of Christ Jesus.  That is why preachers must be sent to preach repentance and forgiveness in His Name, and teachers must teach as the oracles of God; and disciples must listen and learn, and hear and heed the Word of Christ, in order to follow Him, believe in Him, and live in Him.

To be a Christian is, above all else, to be a hearer of the Word of Christ.  That is the first and most important thing that a Christian is given to do — to hear the Word that Christ Jesus preaches into your ears.  And to be a Christian is then also to confess with your mouth the Word that you have heard — to speak what God the Father has spoken to you by His Son, Christ Jesus — and by that Word to pray, praise, and give thanks, to call upon the Name of the Lord from a heart of faith.

To speak with the mouth of a disciple is to glorify the Name of the Lord by confessing who He is and what He has done, by speaking what He has spoken.  And it is precisely with that Word, with that confession, that you are able to sustain the weary one with the Word of Christ Jesus.

Is someone you know and love hurting?  Then, along with whatever good you can do for that person in his or her body, do not neglect to speak the Word of Christ.  Indeed, speak that Word of Christ to all of your neighbors.  For words do matter; and the Word of Christ matters most of all.

It is by the Word of Christ that the weary are comforted and sustained.  That is the main thing that pastors are given to do — to sustain those who are weary with the Gospel of Christ Jesus, with the forgiveness of sins in His Name.  And that is why pastors are held to such a strict accountability for their words and work, because everything depends upon the preaching and teaching of Christ.

But so also, in turn, are husbands and wives to speak that Word of Christ Jesus to each other.

And fathers and mothers — along with everything else you are given to do, and really above all of your other responsibilities as parents — you are to catechize and care for your children with the Word of Christ Jesus.  Not only by careful and consistent instruction, as an academic subject, but especially by way of your example, by your own speaking, by what you say and how you say it.

It is by the preaching of the Word of Christ Jesus that the entire Body of His Church is bridled and guided, just as a horse is bridled and as a ship is guided by its rudder.  And much the same thing is true in your home and family.  The way you speak guides the entire course of your household, whether it is in harmony with the Word of Christ or completely out of sorts and out of sync.

Consider the consequences of your words for those entrusted to your care.  If you speak the Word of Christ Jesus to your children, for example, they will learn to confess and to pray in His Name.  What is more, they will learn to know and love Jesus Himself in your speaking; because there is no other way to know the Lord Jesus, except by the speaking and hearing of His Word.

By the same token, tragically, when you routinely curse, swear, lie, and deceive in speaking to and around your children, that is what they learn to know and to speak.  Garbage in, garbage out.

Consider the example of that father at the foot of the mountain in the Holy Gospel this morning.  And think of how he differs from that faithful Syrophoenician woman in last Sunday’s Gospel.

Remember how she prayed?  There were no ifs.  There were no demands.  With her there was only the prayer of confident faith, even in the face of the Lord’s apparent rejection.  “Lord, help me.”  She knew that He could do it — and she trusted that He would — so she just kept on praying.

But this Dad today just doesn’t get it, leastwise not at first.  And you can feel for him, because your own circumstances, your own experience and feelings are not so different.  “I told Your disciples to do it, and they couldn’t; but if You can help me, do something.”  This is not the prayer of faith but of last resort and desperation, a case of clinging to the Law and making bargains and demands.

So, in this case, the father has to be catechized first.  He needs to hear the Word of Christ Jesus, in order to confess and pray rightly; so that he, in turn, will have a Word of the Lord with which to comfort and sustain his weary son.  For only by the ongoing catechesis and confession of the Word of Christ Jesus will the demons be kept at bay and prevented from coming back seven times worse than before.  Only by the Word of Christ will father and son be preserved in faith and life.

These are not fairy tales.  This isn’t make-believe or let’s pretend.  You also are given to hear the Word of Christ.  You are given nothing else, finally, nothing that will remain or save you; but you are given the Word of Christ, and everything depends on that.  If you would bring your family to Jesus — if you would have them live and not die — then hear, confess, and pray His Holy Word.

You cannot confess what you have not heard.  You cannot pray except by the Word and Spirit of Jesus.  And you cannot forgive your neighbor, except as you are forgiven by the Lord your God.

It is by the Word of God in Christ Jesus that all of this is accomplished and happens.  But the Word of God is not a magical formula.  The Word of God is not a mantra to be invoked, like the artificial intelligence on your phone, as though He were at your beck and call and subject to your whims.

The fact is that you can’t even open your ears to hear His Word, nor can you open your own mind and heart to comprehend and believe it.  You live by His grace, not by your own work or efforts.

You can’t convert your neighbor, either, not by your own eloquence or savvy.  It’s not a matter of finally getting the right combination of all the right words to convince your neighbor that you’re right about this or that.  The Word of God does not aim at “winning” arguments.  It doesn’t debate the truth but simply declares what is so, the Law and the Gospel, unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins.  The one true God does not have to prove Himself to you or to your neighbor; but He speaks to you in love — and He would have you speak His Word to your neighbor in love — because it is only by His Word that you and your neighbor are given to live by faith in Christ.

To that end, it is absolutely fundamental that you must keep on listening and learning, hearing, and heeding the Word of Christ Jesus.  Even if it were true that you’ve heard it all before, and even if you actually remembered every syllable of the Holy Scriptures — even so, you would still need to hear the preaching of God’s Word, not for the sake of “education” and “information,” but for the forgiveness of sins, for faith and life in Christ Jesus.  For it is by His Word that He is with you.

Apart from the Word of Christ, there is nothing but darkness and death, and separation from God, which is the essence of damnation.  But He has not abandoned you, despite your stubborn sin and fatal unbelief.  As He created all things out of nothing by His Word for the sake of His divine and holy Love, so does He draw near to you in love, by and with His Word, in order to give you Life in and with Himself.  As He preaches His Word into your ears, He Himself is thereby with you.

So, do keep listening to His Word and the preaching of it; and do keep speaking His Word.  But understand that, even with that effort and that discipline to hear and heed His Word, it is still not by your own intelligence, knowledge, or wisdom that you believe and trust in Christ Jesus.  No, that is by the power of the Word itself — by the working of the Holy Spirit through that Word.

So, too, for your neighbor as for yourself, and for all your family and friends, speak the Word of Christ in faith and confidence; but know that you cannot force or constrain anyone to believe it.

As often as you listen to the Word of God, and as often as you speak His Word, pray to Him.  Call upon His Name.  For the demons that prevent you from hearing and speaking the Word of the Lord “can only come out by prayer.”  Take that seriously, and pray that Christ Jesus, by His Word and Holy Spirit, will open your ears to hear, your heart to believe, and your lips to confess His Name.

That is the point and purpose of the Collect of the Day.  For the Church does not even presume to hear the Word of God by her own efforts, intelligence, or powers, but she rather beseeches and depends upon the Spirit of the Lord, that she would not be deaf and dumb to what He says.

Listen with confidence that the Lord wants you to hear what He says.  Listen with that confidence, but not presumptuously.  And as you hear, so also speak with confidence, but not presumptuously.  Rather, pray and intercede that you and your neighbor would hear and believe the Word that God the Lord here speaks to you.  For it is only by God’s grace that anyone does.

Do not imagine that it’s easy, not at all.  For now you are caught like that poor father at the bottom of the mountain, down in the valley between faith and unbelief, between life and death — between God and the devil, as Luther’s life was described.  Scary stuff.  And left to yourself, you can’t win.

Not only that, but when the Church’s prayer is answered and the Word of Christ strikes home in your heart and life, then there is a strange and dreadful strife that rages within you.  Then you are thrown into the fire and the water, as it were, as though to be utterly destroyed.  And the truth of the matter is that the Word of Christ Jesus does put you to death.  The Sword of the Spirit slices and dices between your very bones and marrow and cuts you to the quick of your unclean spirit.

But take heart, for this is the fire of the Holy Spirit and the water of His rebirth and regeneration; and this is the death of Christ having its way with you, even the death of His Cross.  And by these ways and means of His Word you are brought to repentance and to faith and to life through the free and full forgiveness of all your sins, so that death and the devil will not get to have the last word.

See, here now is the hand of One who has come down from heaven to help you and to save you.  Here is the hand of the One who has gone through the fire and the water, through death and the grave — ahead of you and for you — in order to deliver you, and to open the way of Life for you.

Here is the hand of the Crucified and Risen One, whose tongue and lips speak Peace and Life to you — who prays for you at the Right Hand of God the Father — and whose Spirit also intercedes for you at all times, even when that deaf and mute spirit has shut your ears and shut your mouth.

Here is the hand of the One who lays hold of you in love, who raises you up with Himself from death to Life — who has opened your ears to hear and your heart to believe — who opens your mouth and your lips and places on your tongue His own Word-made-Flesh.  So that, as you have heard, so may you believe, and so may you speak, and so may you live by His grace everlasting.

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

Cleansed Inside and Out by the Word of God in Christ Jesus

If you think back to Genesis and the story of the Fall into sin, there in the Garden of Eden, it might well strike you as odd for Jesus to say, here in this Holy Gospel, that what you eat does not effect the heart or defile you.  After all, wasn’t that the whole problem, to begin with, in the case of Adam and Eve?  And as you move through the Old Testament, it was the Lord Himself who differentiated between the clean and unclean animals and gave specific dietary laws for His people to follow.

But the key to understanding all of this — at ground level and from the inside-out — is the Word that God the Lord has spoken.  It is what He has said concerning this or that food that matters.

The truth is that sin and death are not caused or determined by food, leastwise not in itself.  Indeed, food belongs to God’s good creation and is basic among His good gifts to man.  Neither food nor drink of itself can defile or cleanse you, damn you or save you.  Neither fasting nor feasting make you righteous before God.  But the way that you receive and use His good creation — including the way that you consume the food and drink He gives to you — all of this is measured by His Word to you, whether you are acting in faith and love, or in disobedience, idolatry, and unbelief.

All things, St. Paul writes, are sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, and the Lord’s good creation is to be received from His open hand with thanksgiving (as in the Eucharist).  All things are lawful to those who trust in the Lord, and all foods are clean to the one who eats and drinks in such faith, as the gifts of God are regarded and used in accordance with His Commandments.

Faith is content, satisfied, and happy with whatever God has given to you, be it a lot or very little.  And faith is happy for your neighbor, too, with whatever God has given to him, even if it happens to be considerably more than He has given to you.  And you need not be afraid to enjoy and make use of whatever the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship in the freedom of faith in Christ Jesus.  Nor should you be angered by what you do not have, as though your life actually depended on that one thing — or those great many things — which the Lord your God has not given to you.

In faith you are neither angry nor afraid of anything, because you are at home and at peace in your Father’s world.  You are a beloved child living in His House, a free citizen of His Kingdom.

So, what has gone wrong?  And why is it that your life in the flesh is so precarious and difficult?

Well, flesh and blood are not your enemy.  Neither your neighbor’s flesh and blood, nor the flesh and blood of any creature.  Not food or drink but the devil is your enemy with his assaults and accusations.  He tempts you to sin, and then he drives you to despair when he has led you into sin.  And your sinful heart is not only vulnerable to his attacks; it is outright complicit with the devil and this sinful world.  You actually conspire with your worst enemy to your own hurt and harm.

Now, back in the Garden, Adam and Eve did not eat according to God’s Word in faith — that was the problem.  Instead, they disobeyed what He had spoken to them, beginning already with their doubt of His Word and His promises.  And you are their child and heir; you see the fruits of that in your life, in your heart and mind, in your thoughts and feelings, and in your words and actions.  You do not fear, love, and trust the Lord your God, and neither do you heed His Commandments.  Hence, you have no peace or rest, and you do not feel safe and secure in the world, because you do not believe Him.  You do not believe His promises, and you do not trust His providence.

Because your heart is not right with God, your life in the world is not righteous and holy, either.  Instead of receiving and using God’s good creation rightly, you either despise and demonize it with contempt, or you idolize and worship the creation as a false god.  You also sin against your neighbor in what you think and say and do.  You hurt him and speak ill of him.  You take his stuff, or you would if you could get away with it.  You covet his spouse and his children.  You burn with envy and jealousy, hatred and lust, because you lack the wisdom and understanding of God.

With such a sinful heart, you don’t even know how to live, not really.  You may think you do.  You may have many aspirations, and you may suppose that you’re hittin’ or missin’ the mark.  But the truth is, you don’t really know how to live.  Apart from faith in Christ, you are not able to “possess the land,” even though God gives you all good things by His grace.  You do not see or trust what He is doing for you, and so you stumble about from one sin to another, finally falling into death.

But now, listen to Christ Jesus.  Hear what He says, even before it begins to make sense to you.  For you won’t have the ears to hear until He has first of all opened your ears with His Word.

It is by His Word and by His Holy Spirit through the Gospel that He has called you into His House to catechize you here, to make you a disciple, a Christian, by His grace through faith in His Word.  By this catechesis, as by your Holy Baptism, He has made of you a new creation.  Indeed, all things are made brand new in the Body of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen.  And all things are cleansed and sanctified by the Word that He speaks to you.  So, then, listen to Him and hear what He says.

From out of your own sinful heart — Jesus has clearly told you — out of your own sinful heart proceed all kinds of evil things.  He gives you a fair number of examples, but there’s even more than you could ever realize.  It is the Spirit who searches your heart and tries your mind.  Only God can show you the full extent and depths of your sin — which is what comes out of your heart.

But out of His great heart of love, in striking contrast, grace and mercy and peace spring forth, unto forgiveness and Life and Salvation.  That is what proceeds from His heart — for you and for all.

The Son of God has come forth from the Father, and He has become flesh and blood for you and your salvation, indeed, for all the world.  In divine and holy love, He has entered into and become a part of His own Creation by His conception and birth of St. Mary.  And that too was by His Word and Holy Spirit, for everything the Lord your God does, He does by His Word and Holy Spirit; and as the Angel Gabriel said to the Blessed Virgin Mary, “With God, no Word shall be powerless.”

So this is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done.  And not only that.  He has redeemed and sanctified all flesh and all of creation in His own Body by way of His Cross and in His Resurrection.

Not only has He atoned for all of your sins by His sacrificial death and by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood, but in Himself — by His own life in His Body of flesh and blood like yours, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead — He has established the righteousness of faith and love for you and for all the sons and daughters of Adam & Eve.  As the true Man, He has set things right between God and man, not just abstractly, not just in general, but also for you.  Both inwardly and outwardly, now and forever, Jesus has made everything right.

And all of this that He has done for you (and for all) is what He also now gives to you (and to His whole Church on earth), as He gives you Himself and all the fruits and benefits of His Cross and Resurrection by His Word of the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins, and by and with His own Body and Blood, given and poured out for you, Christian, to eat and to drink in His Holy Supper.

This Word that He speaks to you — the Word of the Gospel that is preached to you, and the Word of the same Gospel in the Holy Sacrament — “Take, eat, this is My Body; drink, this is My Blood, for you, for the forgiveness of sins” — this Word of Christ Jesus which He speaks to you, into your ears and your body, declares you to be clean.  He speaks, and it is so.  You are holy and righteous before Him and in Him, in the presence of His God and Father in heaven, because Jesus says so.

He cleanses and sanctifies your heart, mind, body, and soul by the free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  So has He done by the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism; and so does He continue to do by the catechesis of His Word and by the preaching of the Holy Gospel.

That is the Truth with which you are girded: All of your sins are forgiven.  You are holy, innocent, and pure.  Your body, soul, and spirit are blameless in Christ Jesus, your Savior.

That is the Truth, and that is your righteousness — the righteousness of Christ which is credited to you by faith in His Word — the righteousness by which your heart and conscience are guarded from attack, so that the flaming darts of the devil cannot pierce you and bring you to utter ruin.

Such is your perfect peace with God in Christ, in which you now live in love for your neighbor within your own station in life, and by which you do “possess the land” that God has given you.

So, take up this shield of faith by giving heed to the Word of Christ, by listening to Him, and then by confessing what He has spoken.  And wear the helmet of salvation by filling your head with your Savior’s Voice.  Let Him permeate your inward thoughts and your outward conversations.

Don’t suppose that you can shut out the devil and his lies by sticking your fingers in your ears and wagging your tongue at him.  Rather, fill your ears with the Truth of Christ Jesus.  Give attention to the preaching of His Word.  Listen to it, read it, repeat it, and sing it for yourself and others.

And then take up the Sword of the Spirit by confessing what you have heard and, as St. Paul has instructed you, by the prayer and intercession of the Word of God.  Pray.  Pray for the mercies of the Lord.  Pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  And pray for the heart and mind of Christ Jesus.  Pray in this way, knowing and believing that your Father in heaven hears and answers your prayer according to the Word and promise that He has spoken to you by His beloved Son.

And pray also for the ministry and preaching of the Holy Gospel.  Pray specifically for your pastors in Christ Jesus — and for the pastors of our sister congregations and of the Church around the world — that the Ministers of Christ in every place would be enabled to wield the Sword of the Spirit for the benefit of the Church on earth, for your own sake and for the good of your neighbors.

That ministry and preaching of Christ Jesus come from outside of you, from the Lord your God who loves you.  They come to you from Him, in order to set you free from sin and every evil, and to feed you with a consecrated Food and Drink, which are the Body and Blood of Christ Himself.

This Meal of the Lord is a holy and Spiritual Food, which not only enters your mouth and your stomach, but into your very heart and soul, into your mind and spirit and your whole body, in order to cleanse you within and without, to heal you, and to give you Life with God forever and ever.

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

Trusting the Divine Doctrine of the Gospel

For the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing the preaching of Jesus following His Feeding of the Five Thousand, in which He declares Himself to be the Bread of Life.  The consequence of that Sermon was that many of His disciples went away, because it was simply too hard for them to believe what Jesus said about eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood.  The Twelve Apostles were a notable exception to this mass exodus; for by the grace of God they were able to confess, in the words of St. Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal Life?”

Still, the vast majority did not believe as Peter and the other Apostles did.  In fact, rumors about Jesus were evidently spreading far and wide; and in the Holy Gospel this morning from St. Mark, Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem have come to investigate this “religious trouble-maker.”

Sure enough, after watching Jesus awhile, they observe His Disciples breaking one of their many traditions; and so they accuse and criticize.  It is a mark of those who place their own traditions on par with the Word of God, that they must attack anyone else who does not follow the same path.

It is still the case that confessing and abiding by the Word of the Lord over against popular opinion and trendy behavior angers those who rely upon their own wisdom, reason, and strength.

In the case at hand, the “traditions” of the Pharisees were a special collection of teachings and opinions, rules and regulations, passed on by the rabbis in addition to the Law of Moses.  Over the course of six-hundred years, these traditions were gathered together into the “Talmud.”  And by and large, they were pious attempts to apply the Law of God to specific situations of everyday life.

At other times, sadly, the traditions were really man-made loopholes, whereby people attempted to circumvent the Will of God.  And to be sure, people are still prone to do the same thing today.

Even so, tradition in itself is certainly not a bad thing.  Indeed, traditions are generally quite good and practical — customs that have developed over the course of time via trial and error, embodying the collective wisdom of many generations — practices that most people would do well to follow.  But whenever human customs and traditions are made equal to the Word of the Lord — or, what is worse, when they are maintained in opposition to His Word — that is a serious problem.  And the fact is, the traditions mentioned in this case were held to be on par with the Holy Scriptures.

Most important of all, it would seem, were traditions that dealt with keeping things clean, such as the one about washing your hands before eating.  So seriously was this taken, by way of example, that one rabbi, after he was thrown into prison and given only enough water to drink, is said to have chosen to die of thirst rather than eating with unwashed hands.  Another rabbi taught that eating without washing was just as sinful as committing adultery.

And so it is that the Pharisees and Scribes try to condemn Jesus and His Disciples in this Holy Gospel, because the Disciples were eating without washing their hands as expected.

Now, especially after this past year or two, I imagine you would all agree that washing your hands before you eat is a good and sensible thing to do, and there’s no reason to suppose that our Lord would take exception to that.  But I dare say the Pharisees and Scribes were not really concerned about the Disciples’ health or personal hygiene.  Rather, they were themselves attempting to earn God’s favor by following this custom — and they condemned as sinful anyone else who did not.

It is this self-righteous attitude that contradicts and violates the Word of the Lord.  For the Lord requires that you be clean on the inside — that you must be spiritually clean in all your thoughts, words, and actions.  But all the soap and hot water in the world won’t wash the dirt of your sin from your heart, mind, and soul.  No, you are clean and pleasing to God only by the suffering and death of His Son.  As St. John writes, “the Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from sin.”

To be clear, the sins for which Christ Jesus died are not the neglecting of human traditions, but rather the breaking of God’s own holy Law — which you and all people are guilty of doing, whether you wash your hands or not.  But, because Christ Jesus was crucified for all of your sins and iniquities, the Law of God no longer condemns you.  And as the Lord your God no longer condemns you, no one else has any right to condemn you for the sake of their human traditions.

Again, it is not wrong to follow the traditions inherited from your fathers, especially in the case of those pious traditions that have been handed down from your spiritual fathers in Christ Jesus.  Many of those traditions are actually good and helpful, meet, right, and salutary, no less so than washing your hands before eating is a good and healthy habit to maintain.  And it is often the case that letting go of one tradition simply means adopting another, which may well be less beneficial.

But the way the Pharisees and Scribes were following and insisting on their traditions was not a healthy respect for the wisdom of the past.  Their traditions had actually become a rigid set of laws and by-laws, which were regarded and treated as equal to, or even superior to, the Law of God.  The Lord Jesus points this out, and He sternly condemns it.  For the fact remains that where you stand before the Lord your God is determined solely by His Word — by faith in His Word alone.

There are those who have claimed that we Lutherans follow human traditions in much the same way as the Pharisees and Scribes were doing.  And it is true that the Lutheran Church has made an effort to retain the ancient customs of the Christian faith.  We’re not a sect or a cult, huddled off in a corner by ourselves somewhere; we stand together with worshiping Christians from the time of Jesus onward.  And so we confess the Creeds of the Church, now many hundreds of years old; and we follow an order of Service similar in many respects to that which even the Lord and His Apostles used.  Granted, the particular details that we use are not commanded by God, and so should never be regarded as the basis of our faith.  But it is hardly fair to describe our Lutheran heritage as the “vain babbling of the heathen,” as I have heard from time to time over the years.

Consider this: The basic order and form of the Divine Service and many of the other traditions of the Lutheran Church, though not commanded per se in the Word of the Lord, are almost entirely derived from and based upon His Word.  And they have been knit together over the centuries in such a way that they focus your attention — not upon these various traditions for their own sake — but rather upon Christ Jesus and His gracious Gifts.  “Human traditions” they may be, but they direct you to the “doctrines of God,” to the Lord Jesus, and to His forgiveness, Life, and Salvation.

Although the Church on earth is free in respect to many of the forms of worship that she uses — so long as all things are done with integrity and in good order, with due reverence for the holy things of Christ Jesus, in love for all His people, and in harmony with the Holy Scriptures — the question should certainly be considered, “With what would this or that practice be replaced?”

Should the Lutheran Church, like so many others, let go of its clear focus on Christ and His Word in exchange for human feelings, flashy gimmicks, and current fads?  Or should we rather follow the steady example of our Lutheran fathers and mothers in Christ Jesus, who rejected only those traditions which detracted from the Word of God and His Gospel, and gladly kept those traditions which served and supported the Word and Sacraments of Christ in the unity of His holy Church?

Ironically, the Lutheran Church has also been criticized for its historic insistence on “orthodoxy” and “right doctrine.”  The word doctrine simply means official teaching; and here, of course, we mean specifically the teaching of the Lord God Himself, as He has revealed to us in His Word.  Significantly, genuine orthodoxy properly involves, not only this right teaching of God’s Word, but also the right worship or glorification of God — not only right doctrine, but right doxology.

It has always been true to some extent, and no less so now, that many ostensibly Christian churches have downplayed the Word of God in favor of social programming and humanistic philosophies.  Such churches have thereby minimized the Word of God to the point of obscurity, while treating the theories of man as doctrine.  Increasingly, there are those who would brazenly acknowledge that approach and boast of it as being more advanced, more up-to-date, and more sophisticated.  God forbid that we should go down that path, whether together or alone.  It will not end well.

But what exactly is the doctrine of God?  Certainly it includes His righteous Law — summarized in the Ten Commandments, which show you how to live and thereby also bring your sins to light.  But even more glorious is the Gospel, that most precious doctrine of God, by which He forgives your sins, justifies you in His sight, sanctifies you in Christ Jesus, and gives you His own Life.

The Lord your God speaks that marvelous Gospel to you, not only in His written Word, but also by the preaching of that Word, and by those Means of Grace which He Himself has established.  Thus, in Holy Baptism, you are united with Christ Jesus in His Cross and Resurrection, adopted as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Him, and anointed by His Holy Spirit.  In His Word of forgiveness your faith is strengthened and sustained.  And in the Holy Communion, you are fed with the Lord’s own Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation in Him.

These precious Means of Grace and the entire Ministry of the Gospel in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ are not the “traditions of man” but are truly the “doctrines of God,” whereby He does exactly what He says and gives to you all that He has promised.  These gifts and graces of God in Christ Jesus are divine traditions, which He has handed over to His Church on earth for the sake of Salvation, and which He has preserved within His Church from generation to generation, from His pastors to His people in each place where He causes His Name and His Glory to dwell in love.

While we dare not allow human rules and traditions to contradict or undermine God’s holy Law, it is far worse to let them contradict His holy Gospel.  Beware of would-be “Christian traditions” which dictate a particular manner of life apart from the Word of the Lord.  Moralistic crusades against drinking and smoking and dancing and rock music, for example, may (or may not) be grounded in wisdom, reason, and healthy self-discipline; but such things are not the measure of Christian faith and life — else the Pharisees and Scribes were the very best “Christians” around!

Your faith and Life and Salvation do not depend or rest upon an avoidance of human vices in your life, but upon Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.  “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved!”  Thus says the Lord.  Any human tradition that adds or subtracts from this doctrine of God should be condemned for what it is: damnable works righteousness.  Avoid vices because they are bad, and practice good habits because they are good and right — but not as though to save yourself.

There is nothing in or of yourself that can obtain the righteousness of God.  Even your own best works are no better than filthy rags in His sight, utterly unworthy of His holiness.  Yet, for the sake of His own holy Love, the Holy Triune God has freely and graciously given You Himself and His own divine Life in Christ Jesus, by and with His forgiveness of your sins.  Thus are you holy and righteous in His sight by faith in Him, by His Ministry of the Gospel and the Gifts of His Spirit.

In place of your own works (good or bad), you are credited with the works and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your Savior and Redeemer.  And all the punishment that you have deserved — for placing your own traditions ahead of God’s Word, and for trusting and worshiping yourself instead of Him — all the punishment which you have thereby deserved, the Lord your God has taken away from you, taken upon Himself, and taken care of permanently.

By His Cross and Resurrection Christ Jesus has obtained eternal Life and Salvation for you and for all people.  That is what He so freely and graciously bestows upon you by the Divine Doctrine of His Word and the Holy Ministry of His Gospel.  Nothing else in heaven or on earth is sure and certain.  Nothing else is righteous.  Nothing else can save you.  And nothing else will ever do.

So it is that your strength and comfort are ever and always in the Word and Spirit of God and in the Holy Sacraments of Christ Jesus, which He here gives to you by His grace and in His mercy.  Thus do you receive what only He can give — the forgiveness of sins and Life with God in Him.

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

The Life of God for You in the Flesh and Blood of Christ Jesus

Throughout His Sermon on the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus teaches you not to labor for the food which perishes, nor to go chasing after bread for your stomach at the cost of your soul.  Not that such temporal food is bad; it is not; it is given from the open hand of God to preserve your body and life in this world, to nourish your flesh and blood for a time.  But it is not forever.  And there is a better Food, an everlasting Food, to which your Savior calls you.  That is the true and Living Bread from Heaven, Christ Jesus Himself.  He is your Meat and Drink indeed, and those who feast on Him shall never die, but they shall live with Him in righteousness and purity forever.

Of course it is true that you must work for a living.  The curse of sin requires that you eat by the sweat of your brow and by the labor of your hands.  “And whoever will not work,” says the Lord, “let him not eat.”  But even such temporal food is still received by the grace of God, as a divine charity, without any merit or worthiness in you.  For He gives daily bread to you and to all, even to the wicked, with or without prayer; just as He causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the evil and the good.  All of these gifts of creation are for your flesh-and-blood life in this world.

Regrettably, the Lord’s good gift of Creation has been spoiled by sin.  Indeed, all “flesh” has been cursed by sin and death.  As Jesus says, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and “the flesh profits nothing.”  Thus, by the fallen nature that you inherit from your parents and pass on to your children, you are sinful and mortal, with no hope for life in your flesh and blood, but only death.

To be sure, God’s gracious and merciful gift of temporal food does nurture and sustain your bodily life in the world, but only for a while.  You know that no amount or quality of food will keep you healthy and alive or prevent you from dying.  And the same inadequacy pertains to all your earthly projects and pursuits.  All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of the grass; for just as the grass withers and its flower dies, so do you.  Only the Word of the Lord endures forever.

Consider how significant it is, then, that the very Word of the Lord which endures forever — the Word who was in the beginning with God; the Word who is God Himself, by whom all things are made — that very Word has become Flesh and dwells among us.  Everything that “flesh” has inherited, including the curse of sin and death, He has made His own and taken on Himself, so that He might live His Life in our flesh, and thereby make it possible for all flesh to live in Him.

The Living and Eternal Word — the one Lord, Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary — He has brought His own divine Life and vitality into our mortal and perishing flesh and blood, thus enabling you and all sinners (otherwise destined for eternal death and damnation) to rise and live with Him, in both soul and body, forever and ever.

He comes down to raise you up.  He dies to give you Life.  He gives His Flesh to save you.

There is first of all the Incarnation itself, whereby the almighty and eternal Son of the Living God has taken our flesh and blood to be His very own from the womb of the Woman, St. Mary, and has lived a fully human life, just as you must live, from His humble manger to His Cross and tomb.

It is by way of His Cross that He has offered His own Body of flesh and blood as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the entire world, for all the children of Adam & Eve, for the forgiveness of sins, for reconciliation and peace with God, and for the everlasting Life of all who believe and trust in Him.

In order to obtain such faith and bestow such Life, to the ends of the earth and the close of the age Christ Jesus distributes those fruits and benefits of His Cross by the Ministry of His Word.  His forgiveness of sins, His Life and Salvation, indeed, His very Flesh and Blood, are given to you in the Liturgy of His Gospel.  So is He still “coming down” out of heaven, in order to feed you with His living and Life-giving Bread — with His Word and Flesh — that you should not die but live.

Such are the ways and means of salvation, by which the Lord Jesus Christ “comes down” from His God and Father in heaven to you.  Apart from these ways and means of His divine grace, there is no Church on earth, no Christianity, no faith, and no salvation.  But in these Means there is Life.

“Life.”  That is the key Word that permeates this Holy Gospel, as well as the purpose for which the Lord Jesus comes to you.  He is the Life, and He lives forever as the Son of the Living God.  But He comes to give you His own Life, that you might live in Him.  In contrast to the death and decay that surround you in this sinful and perishing world, in the Body of Christ Jesus there is Life that abides forever.  As you have faith and life in Him, even though you die, yet shall you live.

It’s common enough to hear people talk about the “real world out there,” in contrast to the life that you experience in school — or in the Church.  But Jesus teaches you today that the real world and real Life are not whatever you might find “out there,” but only what is found in Him right here, in the Food that He provides, His Flesh and Blood for you in the Church and Liturgy of His Gospel.

Sadly, your fallen flesh resists this Life-giving Food of Christ Jesus.  Like the crowds in this Holy Gospel you pose the question, “How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?”  Instead of taking Him at His Word and receiving His gifts with thanksgiving, you doubt and deny what He says to you.

You might well remember that our first parents, Adam and Eve, did not ask such questions of the serpent when he tempted them to take and eat the forbidden fruit, which God had not given.  They saw that it looked good, and so they ate it.  And you have inherited their sin.  You take and eat the food of Satan without a second thought, but cringe and complain about the Bread from Heaven.

Consider how often you look for something more and different, presumably better, beyond and apart from the Word of the Gospel and the Holy Sacraments of Christ Jesus — something more practical and productive — something to fill your belly or satisfy some other craving of your flesh.  Indeed, you’re even willing and eager to work for it, to do whatever it takes to get what you want.

But that right there is already at the heart of your problem.  Because the Flesh and Blood of God are not a Food and Drink you could ever acquire for yourself by the sweat of your brow or the labor of your hands, nor with cash or credit.  They are given to you only by the grace and charity of the Lord, and thus received in faith and with thanksgiving (and not at all by work or worry).

So, your dear Lord Jesus continues to come down out of heaven to deal with you in mercy and bring you from death to life.  He comes with His Law to reveal your sins and your need for His grace and salvation.  He even allows you to hunger at times, that you might feel your need for His Life-giving Food and receive it with thanksgiving.  And then, above all, He continues to feed you, to nourish you with His own Flesh and Blood, that you might live forever in and with Him.

Several times over in this Holy Gospel, the Lord refers to “the one who eats.”  Ironically, the next (and only other) time this phrase is used in St. John’s Gospel, it refers to Judas, who went from eating the Bread of Life from the hand of his Savior to the betrayal of the same Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The Lord would offer and give to His betrayer all the blessings of His forgiveness and salvation; but apart from faith they were rejected and despised.

For “the one who eats” with faith, however, the Body and Blood of Jesus in His Supper bestow all that He is, and all that He has done for you, as your Savior.

You feast on Him with faith as you gladly hear and learn His Word and the preaching of it.  And you feast on Him by faith when you confess your sins and receive His Word of Holy Absolution.

And then, “eating Him” by faith in His mercy and forgiveness, you are also given to eat His very Body and to drink His very Blood with your own mouth, and thereby to receive the Life-giving Flesh and Blood of God Himself into your own body — not for judgment, but for Life with Him.

Your mortal and perishing flesh is thus united with the Lord’s divine and living Flesh, whereby you are made to be like Him and share the Life that belongs to the Holy Triune God.  Just as the temporal food that you eat becomes a part of your body and is transformed into your flesh and blood, so do the Meat and Drink of Jesus Christ become a part of you — but you are the one who is transformed by this true Bread of Life, by this Flesh and Blood of the incarnate Son of God, so that your flesh and blood will be raised up into Paradise by the Son of Man at the Last Day.

As the Lord Jesus says and promises, “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal Life.”  And again, “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in him.”

“Abiding in Christ Jesus,” and “Christ Jesus abiding in you,” these few simple words describe, first of all, the most intimate and personal union that you have with your dear Lord Jesus — like that of a Bride with her Bridegroom (as St. Paul describes, for example, in Ephesians).  But “abiding” also implies the need for a constant return to Christ Jesus and His embrace, whereby you remain close to Him, and cling to Him, and seek and find your life in and with Him — just as a bride and groom do not go their separate ways after the wedding, but live together in love as one flesh.

So, too, it’s not enough to get the ball rolling in your relationship with Jesus, so to speak, and then to coast through life on your own.  That won’t work, in any case.  The intimate union with Christ Jesus that began with your Holy Baptism in His Name is one that needs to be constantly nurtured and strengthened throughout your life on earth, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  Not only because you are still sinful in your heart and mind, in your thoughts, words, and deeds, and subject to the constant threat of death within and without, but precisely because your only real Life and your relationship with God are in Christ Jesus, in His Word and His Body of flesh and blood.

Cling to the Word of your Lord, therefore.  Listen to what He says.  Hear and heed His preaching.  Remember your Holy Baptism and return each day to its significance by contrition and repentance, by confessing your sins and receiving His gift of Absolution from the pastors He provides for you.  And do feed upon His Body and His Blood in holy faith and with thanksgiving, that you may abide in Him, and He in you, according to His Word and promise.

These gifts Christ freely gives are not simply means to some other end, but they are your Life and your Salvation in Him, because they are His own Word, His own good work, and His own Flesh and Blood.  It is in the Liturgy of His Gospel — in the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name, and in the celebration of His Holy Supper in remembrance of Him — that He lives with you, gives Himself to you, loves you, bestows His Spirit upon you, and gives you Life.

When I go to visit the homebound or hospitalized, there’s nothing I can do to heal their bodies or restore their health and strength.  I pray with them and for them, of course, and I entrust them to their Father in heaven.  But as their Pastor, I am privileged to bring them something more powerful than sickness and death, a Medicine of Immortality like nothing else in heaven or on earth.  When I care for them in the Name of the Lord, according to His Word, I am able to serve them with the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of divine Life in the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

Now, just think, you don’t have to wait until you’re homebound, hospitalized, or on your deathbed to receive those priceless gifts!  They are offered to you here, free for the asking.  If there is some sin that weighs heavy upon you, then I am here for you as your Pastor to hear your confession and grant you the Absolution of Christ Jesus Himself with no strings attached.  And here at this Altar is offered to you, week after week throughout the year, the Life-giving Body and Blood of Jesus.

As Dr. Luther writes in his Large Catechism: “In this Sacrament of the Altar the Lord offers us all the treasures that He brought from heaven for us, to which He most graciously invites us in other places, as when He says in Matthew, ‘Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’  So we must never regard the Sacrament as a harmful thing from which we ought to flee, but as a pure, wholesome, soothing Medicine which aids and quickens us in both soul and body.  For where the soul is healed, the body has benefitted also.  So, if you are heavy-laden and feel your weakness, go joyfully to the Sacrament and receive refreshment, comfort, and strength.”

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