To Live and Abide with God in His House of Love

Whether a person knows God or not, everyone desires love.  They may not know what love is, and they may be looking for love in all the wrong places, but you and all have been created for Love — for the sake of Love — to be loved by God in Christ, and to love both Him and your neighbor.

As I mentioned last week in speaking of Agape, real Love is more than a feeling.  It is a passion, to be sure, but not the passion of selfish lust; it is the passion of self-sacrifice, which is willing to suffer and die for the sake of another.  That is the sort of Love for which you have been created; for that is the Love with which the Lord has created you and loved you and given Himself for you.

As a human being, a man or a woman, you are created in the Image and Likeness of God to love and care for one another as the Lord your God loves and cares for you in Christ Jesus.  Indeed, you are called and commanded to love your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves you in His tender mercy and with His free forgiveness; and not only that, but, as we heard last Sunday, you are to love even your enemies, to pray for those who persecute you, and to forgive those who trespass against you.

As a Christian, insofar as it depends on you, you are to be at peace with all people; to forgive, as you are forgiven, and to do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the household and family of God. And of course, that begins with your own household and family — with your father and mother, with your brothers and sisters, with your own husband or wife, and with your children.  And if you are left without a family of your own, your love begins here within your congregation, and it extends from here to your immediate neighbors, to your classroom or your workplace.

Everyone longs to be loved, as I have said, whether they can put a name to it or not.  Everyone is created to receive the Love of God, and to love the Lord and their neighbors in turn.  Our hearts and minds, bodies and souls are restless and uneasy, aimless and out of sorts, until they settle into that life of Love, which is from God and found in Him alone, in the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

To live and abide in love is to be at peace with others, to rest in your own place in communion with those the Lord has stationed around you, graciously giving and receiving without keeping score or counting the cost.  It is to build a house and make a home and to share it with your neighbors.

But would you build a house of love that will last?  Would you build such a house that will abide and remain, not only for this lifetime, but beyond death and the grave?  No, your home and family are not forever.  Even holy marriage is only until death.  Children grow up and move away to make homes and families of their own.  Friends and neighbors come and go with the passing years.

An abiding House and Home — a dwelling place of perfect Peace and Sabbath Rest and never-ending Love — is found only in the Lord your God.  But would you build such a House for Him?

The Law of God is good and glorious, it really is.  And it seems to offer the obvious answer and solution: Love God, and love your neighbor.  Fear, love, and trust in God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength, and do no hurt nor harm to your neighbor.  Do not take, but give and help and serve your neighbors.  Do not be selfish or greedy or lustful or jealous, but be content with what you have.  Be happy with your lot in life, trust the Lord your God, and do your job faithfully.

Such is the way of the Law, and it is indeed the way of Love.  It is holy and righteous and good, and it is right to live accordingly.  So it seems very promising.  If you would only do these things, then you would live, and God would be very pleased, and you would be at peace with everyone.

Yet, for all of that, it is a false and misleading dream to suppose that the Law will save you in that way and provide you with the House of Love that you desire from the very depths of your being.

The Law cannot bring you into the Land of Promise, however great its promises may be.  The Law of love lets you see it with your eyes, so that you know what it looks like; but the Law will not let you enter.  The Law is a faithful servant in God’s House, but the Law cannot build the House.  The Law can crush and destroy your enemies; it can defeat Pharaoh and all his hosts.  But it cannot give you Life.  The Law accuses you and would destroy you.  It does not bring you into the Good Land.

It is not for Moses but for Joshua to bring you through the waters of the Jordan into Canaan.  Neither is it the great Prophet Elijah, but the One who comes after Elijah — the One to whom that Prophet also points — the Christ of God, the One anointed by the Holy Spirit at His Baptism in the Jordan River for that great and final Exodus which He accomplishes at Jerusalem.  He is the One who loves you and saves you, who brings you out of Egypt into the Promised Land of God.

Your own wisdom, reason, and strength will not get you there; nor will your own beauty, charisma, or wealth get you the Love that you need.  Your own works of love will not build a permanent House and Home with God.  No matter how hard you work, no matter how skilled, intelligent, or crafty you may be, your own efforts will not do it.  All your glory fades, and all your works fail.

But the beautiful Glory of Christ Jesus, which is the Love of God, that is what saves you.  And that is what builds the House of God for you, in which you abide with Him, and He with you, forever.

So, that sounds good.  That is the Gospel, and it’s simple enough, albeit profound and marvelous.  You know and believe that it is true, that God loves you and saves you in Christ Jesus.  But what is so staggering is the nature and content of His beautiful Love and Salvation in this body and life.

God does not look at the outward appearance, nor does He appear as you would imagine Him.  He looks rather at the heart; and He opens His own great Heart of Love to you in the Person of His incarnate Son, in His Body of flesh and blood like yours, transfigured in radiant Glory on the High Mountain this morning, but so also crucified, put to death, and buried in the dark valley below.  He is the Chosen One, the Lord’s Anointed — the Christ or Messiah — who is your Savior.

He goes up that Mountain to pray — not in desperation for Himself, but in His great Love for you and all people, all those He has come to save.  He goes up the Mountain to God, in anticipation of His being lifted up and drawing all men to Himself and bringing them to His Father in heaven.

And as He prays and intercedes for you, so does He live for you, and so does He die for you.  For you and your salvation He sets Himself on the Way of Love, which is the Way of His Cross and Passion; and that is what transfigures His Body.  The appearance of His face is changed, as He now sets His face toward Jerusalem, taking up the Cup and fulfilling the Baptism His Father has given.

Recall that, in the Garden — as He takes these same three men, Peter, James, and John, along with Him — and as He goes apart to pray — the appearance of His face is changed again, and the sweat falls from His brow like great drops of blood, in order to cleanse the soil cursed by Adam’s Fall.

It is in Love for His Father and for you and all that He comes down from heaven and comes down from the High Mountain to the Cross in Jerusalem.  And it is there in His suffering and death that His Body is transfigured by the sins of the whole world, as the once-and-final Sacrifice, in order to redeem you and all the children of Adam from captivity.  Thus does He fulfill His Exodus as the Passover Lamb of God, that He might bring you out of death into life, through the wilderness and into Canaan, as the One who is baptized in the Cloud and in the Sea, in the Water and the Blood.

With that in view, St. Peter is not completely off base when he suggests making tabernacles.  The Feast of Tabernacles followed shortly after the Day of Atonement.  At that time the people would take leafy branches with the fruit still hanging on them and make little tents for themselves, little tabernacles.  And for a full week they would live in those tents, remembering that God had brought them out of Egypt, preserved them through the wilderness, and brought them into a Good Land.

And St. Peter knows that the Lord made His dwelling among the sons of Israel by giving Moses, that great and faithful servant, careful instructions for a Tabernacle that went with the people in the wilderness; and upon that Tabernacle the Cloud of God’s Glory rested and remained among them — the Pillar of Cloud by day, the Pillar of Fire by night.  So was God the Lord with them.

St. Peter understands that much.  Yet, he would have the Christ and hold onto Him in Glory apart from His Cross and Passion; as the week before St. Peter rightly confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, but then rebuked his Savior when He would go to the Cross and die.

Hard as it is to comprehend — for you no less than Simon Peter — there is no Christ without the Cross; for His divine Glory is manifested precisely in His Passion.  It is with the very Flesh of Christ Jesus that God, the Builder of all things, constructs His new and better Tabernacle; not with the skin of animals, but with the skin of His beloved Son.  And it is by the Cross of Christ Jesus that God pitches His Tent in the midst of His people; not as though He needed a dwelling place for Himself, but that He might be your Dwelling Place.  For the Body of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, is the Temple of God, His House and Home wherein you live and abide with Him forever.

This is the Glory of God, that He saves you by His grace at great cost to Himself.  The Father gives His own dear Son, and the Son lays down His own Body and Life for you, to rescue you from sin and death, to wake you up from your sleepy stupor, to raise you up from the dust of the ground, and to bring you in and with Himself up the High Mountain to His God and Father in Paradise.

By and from His Holy Cross and Passion, in and with His Resurrection from the dead, He adorns you in the glorious white garments of Holy Baptism, cleansed and sanctified in body and soul, without any spot or wrinkle or blemish, adorned as a Bride made beautiful for the Bridegroom.  So shall you appear with Christ Jesus in His Glory, as did Moses and Elijah on that Mountain.

The two men in white are His witnesses of these things, that Christ has died, that Christ is risen, and that Christ will come again, as even now the Cloud of His Glory rests upon His Body in the Tabernacle of His Church on earth.  It is right here in this place, from this Pulpit and at this Altar.

That is what the crucifix signifies, confesses, and declares: That here is the Glory of God in the crucified Body and shed Blood of Jesus, the Christ.  That here at His Altar, He is the Tabernacle of the Lord your God.  This is where He opens His great Heart of Love to you.  He withholds nothing but gives you Himself; and by the Fruits of His Cross you are glorified in and with Him.

It is in divine and holy Love that God has built His Tabernacle for you here.  And in turn, He also builds you as a living stone into His House and Home; so that, by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, your body and life become the dwelling place of God among your neighbors here on earth.

Men, when you love and serve your own wife, there’s nothing she can’t do, and there’s no woman on earth more beautiful or glorious; your love makes her bold, courageous, and strong, so that her own unique gifts and graces are able to shine the more brightly and clearly.  Likewise, when you love and care for your children, they are strong and free and able to do great things to the glory of God; they learn from you to love others, and they grow to build houses that are strong and good.

All of you, then, rejoice that you are children of God in Christ Jesus, and you have such a Father who loves you and cares you; for you are members of the Bride of Christ by your Baptism in His Name, and you have such a Bridegroom who loves you, serves you, and gives Himself for you.  He shelters and protects you in the House that He has built.  He feeds you with Good Things and clothes you with His own Righteousness.  He delights in you, and He glorifies Himself in you, and you in Him, so that you are beautiful and radiant with the Glory of His Cross and Resurrection.

The Lord is your Sun and your Shield, your Strength and your Song, because He has become your Salvation.  Crucified and risen from the dead, He is your Pillar of Cloud by day and your Pillar of Fire by night.  And in the preaching of His Gospel, in the waters of your Baptism, in His own holy Body and precious Blood, He is your Tabernacle throughout all generations, even forevermore.

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

An Epiphany of the Grace and Glory of God in the Flesh

The familiar Words that you have heard from the lips of Christ Jesus this morning are challenging and difficult to hear, and they are easily misunderstood.  They are commonly heard in a legalistic way, as though the Lord were here instructing you to earn God’s favor, the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation by your own efforts, good intentions, behavior, and achievements — as if you even could actually accomplish the sort of life that Jesus describes and sets before you in this Sermon.

It is rather to be understood that what Christ Jesus here preaches is the perfect life and holiness of God-in-the-Flesh, which He Himself lives for you and for all, and which He bestows upon you as a gift within His Holy Church by the Ministry of His Gospel, as also on this day and in this place; so that your own life in the flesh, by faith in Christ, is also a living Epiphany of His divine Glory.

To be sure, these Words of our Lord do expose your sins, your imperfection and unrighteousness.  He does preach His divine and holy Law, which confronts you with commands and duties that you are not keeping, and with boundaries and limits that you are not honoring or living within.

His preaching shines a spotlight on your way of life in the flesh, not only your outward actions, but your heart and mind, your thoughts and feelings, which are not as God has created you and called you to be and to live.  For you are to manifest His Life and His Love in your body and life; but you have fallen far short of His Glory, your good intentions and best efforts notwithstanding.

To begin with, consider how the Lord extols you to “Love your enemies!”  The word for “love” in this case is the Greek word, Agape, which means doing what is right, irrespective of the cost, whether it feels good or not.  It has nothing to do with romance or even friendship, but with duty and commitment; it is objective and unwavering, because it’s not a matter of feelings but actions.  And the Lord spells out what it looks like in practice, as He goes on to say: “Do good to those who hate you! Bless those who curse you! Pray for those who mistreat you!”  That’s Agape.

But don’t you rather hate your enemies and curse those who mistreat you?  How do you react to the guy who cuts you off in traffic?  And what do you do when so-n-so is on your back?  Children — what do you mumble under your breath about your parents and teachers when they don’t let you have your own way?  Do any of you love your enemies?  Do you even love your own family?

As for those who mistreat you or abuse you, there are plenty of different ways in which people do sin against you and others, whether with words or fists or passive-aggressive manipulation; and we rightly sympathize with all those who suffer such treatment.  But the Lord here commands that you are also to pray for the abusers!  Not to excuse or ignore their wrongdoing, but that the Lord in His mercy would bring them to repentance; whereas a more typical reaction is to fight back with force and vengeance, even though responding in that fashion can lead to brutal consequences.

The Lord’s familiar admonition is that you should “turn the other cheek” to those who strike you.  But the instinctive and more likely response is to hit back, even to escalate the conflict in order to get the upper hand.  None of us wants to be a punching bag, nor do we like being pushed around.  And to be clear, there are both callings and stations in life and circumstances that do require you to defend yourself and your neighbors.  But too often it is neither love nor duty that compels you to act, but anger and vindictiveness, arrogance and pride, or a desire for dominance and power.

Jesus goes on to say, “when someone takes your coat, don’t prevent them from taking the shirt off your back, as well.”  But is that your natural reaction and response?  Not at all.  Take a look at the way toddlers battle it out over the same toy, and you’ll have an honest example of where and how your own fallen flesh is prone to contend with your neighbors at every age and stage of life.

Now, it’s not that you must give everything away to robbers and thieves.  But the Lord exposes your selfishness, your lust for wealth, your lack of trust in Him, and your lack of charity for your neighbors.  By way of example, when someone has taken advantage of your kindness in the past, do you go out of your way to avoid that person and ignore him, so as not to provide further help?

Christ Jesus teaches you to “lend without expecting to get paid back.”  But the far more common motto is, “Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.”  Consequently, you are often not very generous with the gifts that God has entrusted to your stewardship.  Or, when you do give to others, do you then suppose that you are in a position of superiority, as though you were a god and lord, yourself, distributing your own largesse?  Or do your gifts and favors come with implicit strings attached?

“But if you do good only for those who do good for you, what credit is that?”  The word for credit here is actually the word for grace, which is taken directly into English as “charity.”  So, to say it more straightforwardly, “If you lend money only to those you hope will pay you back, where’s the charity in that?  Even sinners lend to sinners when they know they’ll get their money back."

And with that, the Lord identifies each and all of us as sinners.  For isn’t it the case that much of what you do for your neighbor carries expectations of some “return on your investment,” whether it be financial, tangible, emotional, or whatnot.  But where is there any real charity in that case?

The Lord rather sums up the many and various ways you are to love and serve your neighbor in the so-called Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  Help them in their needs, look out for them and take care of them as you’re able, protect and defend them in your words and deeds, and do it all for the sake of Agape-love, simply because it is good and right.

Your life is not to be governed and guided by the law of the jungle, “eat or be eaten.”  The rule of the Lord is not, “Do unto others as they do unto you,” far less, “Do unto others before they do it to you!”  Look out for “Number One,” to be sure; but realize that you are not number one!  You have rather fallen far short of the divine Life and Glory for which you have been created by the Lord your God, and to which you are called by His Word and Holy Spirit, as again this morning.

But these Words of Christ Jesus reveal, not only your sin, but His divine grace and mercy for you.  For He has “done unto you” what He would have you “do unto others.”  Indeed, all the demands of God’s holy and righteous Law have been met perfectly by Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.  He has lived the Life of God — in His own human Flesh and Blood — for you and for all.

As in the case of the Patriarch Joseph, already thousands of years before the Nativity of our Lord, God was making preparations “to save your life by a great deliverance.”  Though you stand every bit as guilty as Joseph’s brothers, God has sent His Son to deliver you and save you from your sins.

Christ Jesus loved you with divine and holy Love, though you were His enemy by sinful nature.  “When we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly.  When we were still God’s enemies, we were reconciled by the death of His Son.”  So, Jesus Agape-loved His enemies, including you.

Likewise, “when others abused Him, He did not abuse them in return; when He suffered, He made no threats,” because He entrusted Himself entirely into the hands of His God and Father, even to the point of His sacrificial death upon the Cross.  He “turned the other cheek” when the soldiers slapped Him around; and He gave up both His cloak and His tunic as He was being crucified.

In every way, Christ Jesus has practiced what He preached.  More than anything else, His Sermon describes Him and His Life and Death for you and your salvation.  He does not treat you as your sins deserve, nor does He repay your iniquities with punishment, but He deals with you in Love.

He does you good with no expectation of repayment, as the Gospel clearly declares: “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God.”  No strings attached.

Why?  “Because He is kind to the un-gracious and the wicked.”  He is kind and loving toward you, though you have been un-gracious and wicked toward others.  You might not want to think of yourself as a “charity case,” but before God that is exactly what you are.  As Luther wrote on his deathbed, “We are beggars, that is true.”  You live by His grace alone, or you do not live at all!

Because Christ forgives you freely — by and with divine charity — He daily forgives your failure to live as you should.  Think of how He prayed that His Father would forgive the very people who were nailing Him to the Cross, who were spitting on Him and mocking Him.  And remember how He came to Simon Peter following the Resurrection, forgiving that poor man for his denials of the Lord on the eve of the Passion.  Above all, consider that your dear Lord Jesus comes to you — in spite of all that you have done and failed to do — and He speaks to you His Word of Absolution.  He forgives all your sins and heals your diseases; He crowns you with His love and compassion.

And as you thus live by faith in His forgiveness, His Words this morning now also describe your life as a Christian.  Because Christ Jesus lives in you, your life in Him is now an Epiphany of His Glory.  Your whole life is a living display of the Gospel that He has manifested to us all; so that you now go about your daily life, “doing unto others” as Jesus has graciously “done unto you.”

By His grace, through faith in His Gospel, you “bear the likeness of the Man from heaven,” that is, Christ Jesus Himself, in your body and life, in your own flesh and blood.  Which means that you now love as Christ loves you.  You do what’s right for others — even for your enemies — whether it feels good or not.  You stick up for other people, defend them, speak well of them, and explain their actions in the kindest way.  You pray for them, even when you know they couldn’t care less.

“Agape your enemies,” Jesus says.  “Do good and lend without hoping to receive repayment.  And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.”  But your reward and your divine sonship are ever and only in Christ Jesus.  You are all “sons of God,” because you are baptized into Him who is the Son of God.  You live your life in Him, and He now lives in you.

You love God and your neighbor because the Lord your God has first loved you in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  So do you also love even your enemies, because the same Lord Jesus Christ now lives in you, and He displays in you the same Agape-love that He shows and displays for you.

So, you do good unto others for Jesus’ sake, and not for earthly rewards or human recognition.  That is how and why you are able to do good even for your enemies, and to pray and intercede even for those who hate you and persecute you.  In any case, you have no need or reason to fear your enemies; for while they may hurt your body, damage your reputation, take away your stuff, and maybe even take your life, they are not able to rob you of eternal Life and Salvation in Christ.

His divine grace and Glory are displayed in your life especially as you forgive those who trespass against you, just as Christ Jesus daily and richly forgives your sins by the Ministry of His Gospel.

As Jesus also says this morning, “Do not judge, and you will surely not be judged.”  That is to say, not that we condone sin or ignore it — we call it what it is, and we call our neighbor to repentance according to our stations in life — but we leave the final judgment up to God.  In the meantime, our speaking of the Law, as needs may be, is accompanied by our confession and practice of the Gospel in both words and deeds.  As sons of God in Christ Jesus, the Gospel is our bottom line.

As the Lord God deals with us, and as the Patriarch Joseph dealt with his brothers, we speak both Law and Gospel unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins.  And to do so for others means that you must always be returning to the “throne of Grace,” yourself, in order to receive the forgiveness that Christ Jesus offers and gives to you right here in the Liturgy of His Gospel; for you cannot forgive as you are being forgiven, if you are not experiencing that forgiveness yourself.

It is here, by His Gospel–Word and Sacrament, that Christ Jesus continues to make an Epiphany of His divine grace and Glory.  Recognize and receive that Glory of God for what it truly is, the free gift of forgiveness and eternal Life in the Lord who loves you and gives Himself for you.

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

Living and Working at the Word of Christ Jesus

It is the preaching of Christ Jesus, the Word-of-God-in-the-Flesh, which establishes and builds the Temple of God on earth, His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  For it is by the preaching of Christ Jesus that God the Father speaks to us by His Son, and that God the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies disciples from all nations and keeps them in the one true faith.

So it is that, as the Word of Christ Jesus made of Simon Peter’s home a little church in last week’s Holy Gospel, there in Capernaum, so does the preaching of Jesus make Simon Peter’s little fishing boat into a mighty cathedral and a holy ark of Christendom on the Lake of Gennesaret.

And here you are, like the crowds then, gathered around Christ Jesus to hear the preaching of His Word, His Law and His Gospel.  But do you perceive what is really happening here, and do you understand how significant it truly is?  Or is it a ringing in your ears?  Are they stopped up, like they’re filled up with wax or water, or the way they can get going up or down on a plane?

The fact is that His Law drives you crazy.  His Law makes your ears heavy and your heart tired, so that it’s hard to listen, and you don’t want to hear it.  His Law commands you and forbids you; it restrains you and compels you with seemingly impossible demands and threats of punishment.

The Lord commands you to love, not only your family, friends, and neighbors, but your enemies — to turn the other cheek to their rough behavior, to let them take advantage of you, and to forgive their sins against you.  And the Lord requires you to love and trust in Him more than money, and, what is more, to love Him more than your family, more than your parents, spouse, or children.  You are to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, regardless of your circumstances.

You hear His Law, and it drives you crazy.  But then again, His Gospel seems even crazier to you.  For when the Lord has exposed your sin and declared the punishment you deserve — when His Law has made clear that you are not worthy to stand in His presence — then He stretches out His hand and extends His tender mercy to you by and with and in His Gospel.  He forgives you all of your sins, and He raises you up from your guilt and shame to live with Him in His perfect Peace.

But how are you to comprehend such mercy and forgiveness?  How can you believe it or trust it?

Well, here is what is going on right here, right now, in this little boat, in this ark of Christendom: In this preaching of Christ Jesus, you are on the cutting edge between this world and the next, and the Father’s Voice once more sounds forth over the deep waters, as at the Creation, as again at the Baptism of Jesus, and as at your own Holy Baptism.  His Voice sounds forth over the deep waters to bring about a New Creation; to drown you in contrition and repentance, and to raise you up in newness of Life; to bring you out of the darkness of your sin and death into His marvelous Light; to catch you in the Net of His Gospel, and to haul you safely aboard the Boat of His Church.

So, then, put out a little bit from the land.  Venture forth that much at His preaching.  And by all means, listen to what the Lord says.  Hear and heed His Word.  Hear His Law, which declares to you His good and acceptable Will and describes the holiness of Life in His Name.  And listen to the Gospel that He preaches; for He has come to save men’s lives, and here He comes to save you.

Listen to His Word.  And as you hear, so venture out.  And serve and support the preaching of His Word.  Provide for the maintenance of His Church and Ministry.  Sustain the Office of Preaching, so that you may continue to hear, and that your neighbors may also hear and receive the Gospel.

And then, at the Word of the Lord Jesus, in the confidence of His Gospel — though it seems risky and ridiculous — go out into the deep waters of your vocation, and put down your nets for a catch.

You won’t succeed by any reason, wisdom, savvy, or strength of your own.  Truth be told, left to yourself you’ll work hard all night and catch nothing.  You’ll go at it with all your ingenuity and cleverness, and you’ll come up empty.  You won’t be able to make ends meet or succeed at all.

But at the Word of Jesus, everything happens, and everything becomes clear.  Like when your ears finally pop back open after takeoff or landing, you can hear what the Lord is saying, and it clicks and resonates.  By the Voice of the Father and the Gift of the Spirit, you recognize that Christ Jesus is the Holy One — that all the fullness of God dwells bodily in Him, in His Flesh and Blood.

Now, that is not something to take lightly or for granted.  Consider the holy angels, for example — those great, majestic, and powerful, spiritual beings — and how they conduct themselves in the presence of the same Lord God who dwells with you here in the Body of Christ Jesus.  In humility and reverence they cover their faces and their feet.  They worship and adore the Almighty, they sing His praises and glorify His Name; and yet, they hide their faces, and they hide their feet.

The holy angels hide their eyes, they cover themselves, and they reverence the Lord their God.  And here you are in the presence of the same almighty and eternal God.  Though He is veiled from your sight, He is present in His Word and the preaching of it, in the ongoing significance of your Holy Baptism, and in His holy Body and precious Blood, given and poured out in His Name.

You are in the presence of the Holy God, whereas you are sinful and unclean.  “Woe is me!”  That was Isaiah’s reaction.  “Woe is me!  I am ruined, I am done, I am a dead man.  For my eyes have seen the Lord, Yahweh Sabaoth, though I am a sinful man, and I live among sinful people.”

“Go away from me, Lord.  I am a sinful man.”  That was Simon Peter’s response, when he realized the holiness and righteousness, the divine power and authority of Jesus.  Bold, brave Peter, always eager to be first in line, always thinking he’s got the score and got it figured out — he’s brought to his knees in shame; he’s flat on his face on the floor.  And he asks for exactly the wrong thing.

But what Jesus said to him, and what the same Lord said to Isaiah, He says also to you, here and now:  “Do not be afraid.”  Even though you deserve nothing but punishment, do not be afraid.

Though you are sinful from the inside-out, and all your best deeds are filthy and disgusting, do not be afraid; because the Lord Jesus has gone into the deep waters ahead of you.  He has gone in, not only up to His neck, but in over His head, even to the drowning depths of a Baptism unto death.

He has gone into the deep waters ahead of you, and He has emerged and arisen with a great catch of fish — disciples of all nations, caught in the Net of His mercy, forgiveness, kindness, and love.

He is the Holy Seed.  The Seed of the Woman.  The Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The Seed of David.  The Seed of St. Mary.  And that Holy Seed is the Stump that remains when the rest of Israel has been cut down and removed — and when the Law has chopped off your head, as well.

He is the Portion that remains — for sacrifice and burning.  He is consumed by the Cross, and He is spent under the righteous wrath and anger of God against the sins of the world (not His own!).  But He rises from the dead, and He rises like Incense in the presence of His God and Father.  The Smoke of His Incense fills the whole Church in heaven and on earth; His Holiness fills the Temple of God; and His Righteousness surrounds you, covers you, upholds you, and sustains you.  And from the Altar of His Cross He takes the burning Coal of His own Body, His Flesh and Blood, and He touches your lips with His Sacrifice this morning.  Your sins are thus forgiven, your iniquity is pardoned, your conscience is cleansed of guilt and shame, and your body is raised up for Life.

His almighty power and divine Glory are manifest chiefly in this way, that He shows mercy and pity to you and to all, who do not deserve it; that He forgives sinners and rescues them from death.

“From now on,” He said to Peter, James, and John, “you will be catching men alive.”  And by the Apostolic Ministry that began with those men — and continues to the close of the age — you have been caught alive.  You are a fish in the Net of the Gospel, hauled aboard the Boat of the Church.  You have not been caught to be cooked and eaten, but to be saved from death and to live forever.

When Peter, James, and John understood that, they left everything and followed Jesus.  He actually called those men to a new vocation; not only to be His disciples, but to become Apostles, ministers of His Word, preachers and evangelists — to go even to the ends of the earth, proclaiming Christ and Him crucified — to suffer all and to give their lives for the sake of His Holy Gospel.

Now, most of you are not called to that vocation.  Some of you young men may be called to give up everything, in order to become preachers of the Gospel, ministers of the Word.  If your parents and teachers and pastors and other authorities suggest such a possibility, consider it and take it to heart.  But most of you are not called away from your office and station; you are called to glorify Jesus and follow Him within your own place.  Not to abandon your families, but to love and serve them.  Not to abandon your neighbors, but to look to their needs and care for them; to speak words of comfort and forgiveness, the words of the Gospel, and to provide also for the needs of the body.

But your first and foremost vocation is to be and to live as a child of your Father in heaven, as a disciple of Jesus.  And that vocation has been given to you in the deep waters of your Baptism.

Most of you are diligent and faithful and patient in your other vocations; not always, but mostly.  You know that you are to love your spouse and to care for your children and honor your parents.  And where you fall short in these ways, you try again, and then you keep persisting in those things to which God has called you.  You do your job, and you fulfill your responsibilities in the world.

But your first vocation is to be and to live as a child of your God and Father in heaven, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That begins with listening to His Word, and then confessing the Word that He has spoken to you.  And it means loving your neighbor, as Christ Jesus loves you.  That is how you give up everything and follow Him; not by liquidating your property, but by using it to glorify Christ and serve your neighbor.

How will you “translate” the Gospel and “interpret” it in your body and life?  How shall it become, not a strange and foreign tongue, but one that your neighbor can understand and so recognize the glory of God in you?  The vocabulary “key” is the Gospel.  You know the Glory of God as Christ Jesus is merciful and kind, as He loves you and forgives your sins.  And that is how your neighbor knows the Glory of God in your words and actions, as you are merciful and kind, as you forgive your neighbor his sins against you, as you love him in spite of his sins, and as you pray for him.

It may be that some of you already know another language, or you could learn another language if you took the time and put your mind to it.  And if so, you may well have opportunity to use that knowledge and skill to confess and speak the Gospel to neighbors who don’t speak English.

But even if you never learn any other language than English, yourself, consider how you are given to pray and to sing, to bless and give thanks, in such a way that your neighbors are edified and strengthened in the faith.  It is by praying as the Lord has taught you; by singing words that confess His Name; by acknowledging Him and His marvelous works; by giving thanks to Him at all times and in all places; and by praying and interceding for your family, friends, foes, and strangers.

It is a risky business, and it often seem ridiculous by every human metric.  But it is worth the risk.  Your dear Lord Jesus Christ does not lie to you, and His Word does not fail.  What He says to you is true and sure and certain.  As your sins are all forgiven by His Gospel, you have Life in Him, which no one can take away from you.  He will not allow the old evil foe to snatch you out of His hand.  And even if your body is pummeled and burned, you will yet rise from the dead and live.

It is a risk to live your life here on earth according to the Word of Christ, because it is by faith and not yet by sight.  But it is a risk worth taking, and you shall not be disappointed or put to shame.

Your lips have been cleansed, and so they may speak.  Though men may hate you for it, you are a servant of the Lord Most High.  Your sins are forgiven, your iniquity is pardoned, your lips are cleansed, and your eyes shall see the Lord, the very One who gives you His Body and His Blood.  You shall not go hungry, and you shall not die forever, but you shall live in the Glory of God, in the presence of Christ Jesus, the One who takes away your sins and the sins of the whole world.

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

The Gift of the Son for You and Your Children

You belong to the Lord your God by right, for He is your Creator and Preserver.  He is the One who has given you all that you are and have, your body and soul, your reason and all your senses.  And He is the One who still takes care of you, who feeds and clothes and shelters you and daily and richly provides you with all that you need to support this body and life.  Not because you are good or as though you deserve any of this, but entirely by His divine grace and mercy toward you.

You belong entirely to Him by right, and you have no life without Him.  But the problem is that, while you can’t live without Him, neither can you live with Him in your sins and native sinfulness.  Not only because you have broken God’s Law and earned His righteous wrath and displeasure; and not simply because you are doing this or that wrong; but because your sin is a disordering of your heart and life from the inside-out.  You are not in harmony with God but out of sync with Him who is the Author and Giver of Life; so you cannot abide in His presence, because you are odds with Him, at enmity with Him, until He saves you from sin and death and reconciles you to Himself.

Until He redeems you and reclaims you for His own, you are dead and dying in your sins, both now and forever.  But that is not His good and gracious Will.  He rather desires that you should have Life with Him; so He does not allow your sin to dissuade Him or prevent Him from saving you.

He comes, Himself, to do so.  For having become like you in every way, a Man of Flesh and Blood, conceived and born of St. Mary, He has taken the full burden of the Law upon Himself in your stead; and He has borne the full weight of your sins and the sins of the whole world in His Body, even unto death upon the Cross, whereby He has atoned for all of those sins with His own Blood.

The almighty and eternal Son of God, Christ Jesus, has come in the Flesh and fulfilled the entire Law of God for the justification, sanctification, and eternal Salvation of all the children of Man. Anyway, the Law always was about Him; not as a list of rules and regulations, but as a description of human Life with God.  He has lived it.  He has done so for you.  And in this is your Salvation.

The Law of the Lord that was fulfilled on this day, in particular, the fortieth day of the ChristMass, really gathers up the full scope of God’s Salvation, going back to the Garden following the Fall into Sin.  A woman must come to the Temple to be purified after giving birth, because labor and delivery, the birth of a child into the world, brings together both the curse and the blessing in one.

Here is new life, a precious gift from God; and yet, the gift is given and received in the midst of travail, blood and pain, and at least the risk of death for both mother and child, if not death itself. The first Woman and all her daughters suffer this because of the Fall into Sin.  And so do you also suffer in your body because of sin.  But even so, from out of the suffering God brings forth life.

So, the Law of the Lord commands that birth be acknowledged as sacred, but also as precarious, as the meeting of death and life, in the hope of the Son, the Seed of the Woman, who would be conceived and born to conquer death and establish Life forever.  From that first Promise of the Gospel in response to the Fall into Sin, every conception and every birth pointed forward to the One who would come in human Flesh to crush the devil’s head and thus remove the power of death that Satan held like a weapon over all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.  At the start, every daughter might become the Mother of God, and every son might be the promised Seed, the Savior.  Birth was therefore to be honored and sanctified by the Word of God, by sacrifice and prayer.

Over time it was revealed by the Word and promises of God that from the family of Abraham and Sarah, by way of Isaac, then Jacob, the Seed would come, the great Redeemer, the serpent-Crusher.  Thus, Abraham’s family was marked by God for this Salvation of the nations, for your Salvation.

And as such, the Lord was with that family and preserved them, even in their sin.  He blessed them, and He prospered them.  Yet, where did they find themselves?  Enslaved in Egypt.  Becoming a great nation, but in bondage, subject to Pharaoh, unable to free themselves.  Burdened by the Law.

But the Lord did not leave them there.  He brought them out of Egypt by His almighty arm, with  His powerful, outstretched hand.  With ten Plagues He manifested His glory over against Pharaoh, even to the point of that most dire Plague of all, when the Angel of Death passed through the land of Egypt and all the firstborn sons were claimed, both great and small, of both man and beast.

As you know, the Sons of Israel were spared that deadly Plague by way of the Sacrifice given in their stead.  The Lord God provided for Himself the Lamb in place of Israel’s firstborn sons.  Its flesh fed the people.  Its blood covered them.  And the Lord brought them out of death into Life.

Consequently, not only as their Creator, but as their great Redeemer, they all belong to Him.  Every firstborn son is His.  All of Israel is His by right.  And as such, He decreed that the children of Israel were obliged to sacrifice their sons to Him.  Only, He did not desire their death, but that they should be redeemed from death in recognition of Him; whereas the firstborn sons of Levi would be presented to the Lord and dedicated to His service, to work to the glory of His Holy Name.

So it is that, in the case of each and every firstborn son, Israel was reminded and taught that their life was from the Lord, and their life belonged to Him.  Indeed, the entire nation was the Lord’s.

And so it is, also, that Mary and Joseph came to the Temple to do for the Child — and for St. Mary herself — all that the Law of Moses prescribed, a sacrifice for each of them.  Except, St. Luke does not describe the redemption of this Son.  He is not a Levite, He is from the Tribe of Judah.  The Lord is not a priest in the order of Aaron; He is a unique High Priest among men, according to the order of Melchizedek.  So, we must assume that Mary and Joseph paid the redemption price for Him, the five shekels of silver required by the Law.  But as I said, St. Luke does not record that.  For Jesus is not redeemed from sacrifice and service; He is dedicated to Sacrifice and Service.  Though not a Levite nor a son of Aaron, Christ Jesus is and ever shall be a great High Priest over the House of God, speaking to God on your behalf, and serving you on behalf of His God and Father.  His Body and Life are given to be the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Hence, He is presented and dedicated to the Lord.  And He becomes the Passover Lamb, whose Flesh feeds you, whose Blood cover you.  And He becomes your merciful and great High Priest, crucified, risen, and ascended, who ever lives to make intercession for you in the presence of God.

What is more, He abides with His people as the very Glory of Yahweh, as the Presence of God in the Flesh, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us in this Son of Mary, Jesus the Christ.  He is here for you in the Temple of His Church, in order to save you and give you Life.  He speaks His Word to you, pours out His Holy Spirit upon you, and feeds you with Himself.

To be righteous and devout — to live by grace through faith in Jesus Christ — is to live and abide within His Temple, to dwell within His House, on earth as it is in heaven, and to wait upon the Consolation of Israel in the Liturgy of His Holy Gospel.  That is how Simeon and Anna lived — in the House of the Lord.  Thus, they heard His Word, received His Gifts, and beheld the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God in the Face of their Savior.  And so is He here for you now.

With Simeon and Anna, and so also with the Psalmist, “One thing I ask of the Lord, that shall I seek, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the Beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His Temple.”  This is the most central and important thing in your life on earth.  Not to the exclusion of your other vocations, to which the Lord has called you.  Nurse your babies until they are weaned.  Do your job.  Provide for your family.  And teach your sons and daughters to pray and confess the Word of Christ.  Speak to your neighbors in love.  Feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned.  Do all of this in faith and love, even as you are served and given Life by the Lord Jesus Christ here within the Temple of His Church.

Fathers and Mothers, this is the most necessary thing that you are given to do for your children.  You care for their bodies and educate their minds, of course.  But you must also present them to the Lord, that they may be served by His Word and Spirit.  He does for them what you cannot do.  From you they have inherited sin and death.  From Him they receive forgiveness and eternal Life.

It is the Lord who catechizes your children unto faith in His forgiveness of their sins.  It is the Lord who takes them to be His own, to live with Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  It is the Lord who feeds them with Himself, as He also feeds you.

You worry about your children.  You strive to care for them and protect them, yet you worry about their health and safety.  You worry about their education, whether they are learning what they need to know.  You worry about their future and how they’ll provide for themselves and their families.  But the Lord knows what they need, and He well provides their daily bread.  And He would give them something far greater than life on this earth.  He would give them Himself and His own Life.

The problem is that neither you nor your children can even receive this gift of Life from the Lord your God, except by His Word and by the working of the Holy Spirit through that Word.  But you are afraid, and you waver in unbelief.  It seems like such a dangerous proposition, and it surely is!

When you present yourself to the Lord, you offer yourself up as a living sacrifice, and you may well be called upon to die for the Name of the Lord, to give up your body and life for His Gospel.

So, make no mistake, and do not kid yourself: When you present your children to the Lord, when you bring them to Holy Baptism, when you expose them to the Word of God, and when you allow them to be fed with the Body and Blood of Christ, you commit them to the Cross which kills them.

This is a great irony.  You cannot see the Lord’s Christ unless you die; but having died with Him, thus do you live and not taste death forever.  Your instinct is to protect your children, that is right.  So, do not keep them from the One who alone can save them, but bring yourself and them to Him.

It is God the Holy Spirit who is actively present and at work in this place, in the Liturgy of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  So, for example, Simeon and Anna were not in the Temple by accident.  As St. Luke makes plain, everything transpired according to the Word of the Lord — under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, working through that Word and in that Temple.  So, those saints were there because God had brought them there.  And there they were served by His Word, enlivened by His Spirit to behold that young couple with their infant Son, to believe and confess that He is the Glory of Israel and the Hope of the nations; and to know that, having seen this little Babe, their Life was as it should be.  They could live, or they could die, and they were at Peace either way.

So the Spirit does for you and for your children.  In Holy Baptism you and they were put to death with Christ Jesus; not to be dead and buried forever, but to be raised up with Him in body and soul.  And so does the same Spirit likewise work through the Word, calling to repentance, putting to death and raising to Life, exposing sins and forgiving them in the Name and stead of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He enables you to behold in bread and wine that same Lord Jesus Christ, to receive Him unto yourself, to take His Flesh and Blood into your own mortal body, unto Life — to cling to Him who died, knowing that He is risen from the dead, and that you shall rise and live with Him.

That is why the Spirit has brought you here tonight, the darkness and weather notwithstanding.  And that is why the Spirit works through you to bring your children to this place, as well, to this Temple of the Lord on the corner of Milton & Dale in South Bend.  That you and your children should be purified of all your sins by the very Blood of Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb of God.  That you and your children should be redeemed by the Price that He has paid for you and for all.  And that you and your children should be blessed with His Peace through faith in His Holy Gospel.

Here, indeed, is the Consolation of Israel.  Here is your Comfort and your Solace in the presence of God, your Savior.  In the face of fear and anguish, in the face of sin, death, and the devil, here is your Life and your Salvation in the Face of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of the Living God.

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