The Peace of the Lord in the Midst of Chaos

You can imagine that storm at sea, the howling of the wind, the crashing of the waves, the water filling up the boat and threatening to sink it.  You can picture the scene, whether or not you’ve been in a boat at sea, because you have your own storms to navigate, your own chaos: Howling winds, crashing waves, water up to your neck, and your whole world on the verge of shipwreck.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep.  By His Word and Spirit He brought forth light out of the darkness, and He established a beautiful and brilliant order throughout His Creation.  It is still by His Word and Spirit that He creates and gives life and upholds all things in their proper place; whereas, apart from His Word and Spirit, creation collapses back into chaos.

There is such chaos in the world on account of man’s sin.  For the Lord God, who made the man in His own Image, also gave the man dominion over the Creation.  By the Word of the Lord, the man was to exercise authority over the earth, to govern it according to the good order that God had established, and to act as God’s own agent and representative.  Thus, for example, it was the man who gave names to all the animals.  So, too, the man and his wife were to fill the earth with children and to subdue it, not as tyrants but as a godly king and queen over God’s good Creation.  By the same token, when the woman and the man deviated from God’s Word and reversed the order of His Creation, they opened up the floodgates to the wild waters of chaos: Real storms that wreak havoc on land and sea and in the air, and a host of metaphorical storms that rock your world.

Now, man still attempts to exercise dominion.  And so you should within your own calling and station in life, in accordance with the Law of the Lord.  The chaos of sin and death is undone by the right logic of the Word of God, by living in harmony with His good and acceptable will.  When you fear, love, and trust in God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself, then the light shines in the darkness and the chaos gives way to a beautiful order and form.

Yet, man attempts to exercise dominion, not by living under the authority of God’s Word, but by imposing his own will against his neighbor and by pitting his own strength against the challenges and dangers of life in a fallen world.  He sets his own wisdom, ingenuity, and skill to the task of survival.  He takes on the chaos like an exhilarating adventure.  He thrills at the prospect of riding the storm out and forcing it to serve his purposes.  He harnesses the wind and dams the water.

It can be an invigorating contest, up until the point when it all goes horribly wrong and becomes life-threatening.  Then it’s no fun anymore, but scary.  Not only the danger that threatens your body and life, but the overcoming of your will, that is the most disturbing chaos.  The danger can be a thrill, but not the realization that you are powerless, that you are at the whim of wind and wave — that is when the chaos rolls over you completely and drags you down into its depths of darkness.

The external chaos is bad enough, but even more alarming and disarming is the chaos inside of you, driving your thoughts and feelings, your words and actions.  You’d like to believe that you’re in control of yourself, in charge of your own heart, mind, and will.  Except the storms within toss you around and threaten you as much or more than those that rage without.  You’re not really in control.  Lustful thoughts seize your mind, no matter how hard you try to resist them.  Envy and jealousy put you at odds with the neighbors you are called to love.  Bitterness and resentment cast long dark shadows across your soul, no matter how pleasant your outward demeanor may be.  Disappointments and regrets rob you of any confidence or ambition.

Your addictions call the shots, instead of reason or sound judgment.  You spend money you don’t have on things you don’t need.  You eat and drink things that you know will be harmful to your health.  You waste endless hours of your time on frivolous pursuits, instead of doing your duty.

These are the howling winds and the crashing waves that threaten you and overwhelm you from the inside-out.  Chaos and confusion reign within, and you are powerless to save yourself.

But, of course, there is Jesus who has come to help, and He is here with you.  Right?  The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, restores peace and calm to His good Creation.  With His Word He undoes the chaos and orders all things rightly.  Even the winds and waves obey Him; for He is Himself the Word by whom all things are made, and He is also the true Man who exercises godly dominion over Creation.  You have heard the evidence of that in this familiar Holy Gospel.

So, then, why are the disciples even more afraid when Jesus has quieted the wind and stilled the waves than they were of the storm in the first place?  That is what St. Mark has described.  Before, they were afraid because they were perishing; but afterwards, they are very much afraid.  Why?  And why are you so afraid of the good and right ordering that Jesus establishes by His Word?

Such fear is another aspect of the chaos inside of you.  It is the fear of sin and death, instead of fear, love, and trust in God.  For in your fallen state the power and authority and right ordering of the Word of Christ can only be perceived and interpreted as the force of the Law, as the imposing of His will upon all that is contrary to His Word.  So, yes, all that chaos in the world that threatens you must obey Him and submit to Him.  But so is all the chaos within you likewise confronted by the authority of His commands, and your own stubborn will is silenced and stilled before Him.

That perception of the Lord and His authority, according to the power and the judgment of His Law, is even more frightening than the chaos that rages around you.  For it presses upon you and challenges your will, and in a single stroke it undoes all your sin and your self-righteousness.

That’s what you hear when Jesus speaks and the winds and waves obey Him.  And that’s what you hear when the Lord speaks to Job in response to that poor man’s worries and complaints.  That’s what you hear in response to your own sufferings, your struggles, and your sorrows.  Who are you — little man, or little woman — to question or complain about the judgments of the Lord?

But God is not backhanding Job with chastisements when He speaks.  He does not add yet another crushing blow atop the assaults and accusations of the devil.  He does not compound the chaos, and neither does He calm things down by constraining and compelling Job to “shut up.”  Rather, He quiets Job with comfort and consolation in his suffering.  The Lord reveals the mysterious truth that suffering is not a mark of His displeasure, nor is it foreign to His good and gracious purpose.

It is true that the Law reveals the good and right ordering of God’s world.  But there is a deeper and different authority of the Law than its demands and prohibitions, threats and punishments.  All of these confront you and accuse you and weigh so heavily upon you, but only because your heart and mind, your body, soul, and spirit, and the whole sinful world around you, are disordered and chaotic with sinful unbelief and stubborn disobedience.  At the heart of the Law, however, is the harmony of faith and love, the peaceful unity of the Holy Triune God who lives in perfect freedom and acts in perfect love, who gives life to those who are His own creatures.

Hence, the foundation and good order of Creation, and so also the fulfillment of the entire Law, is Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, crucified and risen.  He is the Cornerstone, not only of His Church, but of the heavens and the earth and all things.  From before the foundation of the world He was slain for the salvation of all flesh, and all things are made brand new in His Resurrection from the dead.  His Self-sacrifice upon the Cross is the Self-giving Love of the one true God, the divine grace by which and for which whatever is made has been made.

The Son of God enters the waters of St. Mary’s womb, and He is born from those waters under the Law, in order to redeem those under the Law.  He then enters the waters of St. John’s Baptism in the Jordan River, thereby submitting Himself to sacrificial death as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world; and from those waters He makes His way steadfastly to the Cross.  So does He also embark upon the sea, in order to cross over with His people — through death into life.  As such, He too is found on the boat in the chaotic storm, amid the raging winds and the thrashing waves.

He is on board “just as He is.”  He has flesh and blood like you.  He sleeps because He is true Man.  Which means, not only that He gets tired and must sleep, just as you must take your rest, but also that He lives by faith, just as you are called to live.  Only, where you so often cannot sleep but toss and turn at night, He rests in peace and quietness while the winds and waves toss the boat around.  It is neither exhaustion, nor laziness, nor a lack of care and concern for His fellows, but faith and trust in His Father which enables the Lord Jesus to sleep in peace with all the chaos going on.

He lives as the true Man by entrusting Himself entirely to His God and Father in faith and love.  That is how all of Creation — and man in particular — is created to live; so that is how Jesus lives.  And that is then also how He dies.  For not only does He lay Himself down to sleep in the peace of His Father, but so does He lay down His life, even unto death, in the confidence of His Father’s love and care for Him.  So there is this striking contrast between His peaceful sleeping and His panic-stricken disciples who wonder whether He even cares that they are perishing.  And there are such times when you also question His care for you, when the storm rages and your Jesus sleeps.

But it is in His sleeping, even in His death upon the Cross, that He fully sets Himself, His faith and love against the chaos of sinful unbelief.  His voluntary suffering and death in faithful obedience to His God and Father atones for all of man’s sin and remedies the brokenness of Creation.  So, too, it is in His rising from death and the grave that all of Creation is fully restored in peace, as life and immortality are brought to light through the preaching of the Gospel.

It is in His dying and rising that the Lord Jesus Christ receives the authority to exercise a godly dominion of love over all of Creation.  And nowhere does He do so more profoundly than here in the Holy Communion.  For here He takes bread and wine from His Creation, and He gives them to you as His own Body and Blood, as Meat and Drink indeed for your body of flesh and blood.  He uses His dominion to bless and sanctify Creation, to love, and to give life by giving Himself.  And in His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins, you have Peace in Christ Jesus.  For with His forgiveness the winds and waves are hushed and stilled.

It is true that He rebukes you for your doubts and fears of unbelief.  He calls you to repentance and to faith — to fear the Lord, yes, but so also to love and trust in Him.  To die and rise with Him in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection.  To be at peace in His love for you.  And so to exercise dominion in the place where He has put you, not as a tyrant, but in mercy like His own.

You are on your way.  You’re in the midst of the sea, in the midst of crossing over.  You’re not yet to the other side, and meanwhile there is much that rages against you, both from without and from within.  For you have gone into the waters of Holy Baptism, and, make no mistake, those are deadly waters, in which you are drowned and destroyed with your old Adam, put to death and buried with Christ Jesus.  But consider what that means.  As you are baptized into Christ Jesus, then you are in the boat with Him, and He is in the boat with you, that is, within the Holy Ark of His Christian Church.  And herein you are safe in the midst of the storm, even though you are sometimes so afraid, and even though it seems as though your Lord Jesus were sleeping and not very much concerned about you.  He has laid Himself down to sleep in flesh and blood like yours, in order that you may find your peace and rest and quiet sleep in Him.  Just as He has died for you, so that, by your dying with Him in the waters of Baptism, you may also rise and live with Him.

Here you are safe.  For all your doubts and fears and lack of faith do not make the One who loves you any less faithful.  You may wonder what is going on, and whether He will ever help you, but in truth He is here with you, and He will not let you perish.  To be sure, your body will die, just as He has died.  But so shall your body be raised to be like His own glorious Body, and you shall live forever with Him in body and soul.  No hurricane or tidal wave on earth can drown or blow away that sure and certain hope, which has already been accomplished in the Body of Christ Jesus, your Savior.  In His sleeping is your Sabbath Rest, even in death.  And in His rising from the dead you are saved unto the Life everlasting.  In Him God the Father has already given His “Yes” and “Amen” to your every need and all your prayers.  And thus do you have Peace in Him forever.

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

The Tree of Life Bears Good Fruits after Its Own Kind

There are lots of different kinds of birds, from the sparrows to the young ravens which do cry, and the Lord God feeds them all.  He cares for them and gives them life, He shelters and protects them; and not one of them falls to the ground or perishes apart from His divine wisdom.

There are lots of different kinds of plants, as well, from the lilies of the field to the tall cedars of Lebanon, and the Lord God gives them life, also.  He provides nutrients in the soil, He causes His rain to fall and water the earth, and He causes His sun to shine, so that, by His creative providence, the plants grow and flourish and bring forth leaves and flowers for beauty and fruit for food.

What sort of a tree are you?  What sort of a planting in the Kingdom of God?  Whether you are big and tall or short and small, what fruits are you bearing to the praise and glory of your Creator?

Are you living by His grace and growing in faith and love in the place where He has planted you?  Are you flourishing and bearing fruits that gladden the hearts of men and glorify your Father in heaven?  Are you ever green, even in your old age?  Or barren, dried up, and withering away?

The fruits of faith are borne from within a life lived in and with God.  This is a mystery beyond your knowledge and ability, given and worked in your body and life by the Lord Himself.  You are His planting, and He provides what is needed for life and growth and flourishing.  He provides the soil in which you are firmly rooted; He provides the rain from heaven that brings forth abundant fruit in you; and He provides the sunshine that warms and lights you and sustains your life in Him.

The fruits of faith are manifestly those of love toward God and for your neighbor in His Name.  In faith and love toward God you offer Him your thanks and praise, because everything you are and have is a gift freely given by His grace.  He has no need of anything from you, but He provides for you in every way.  The earth and all its fulness, all its plants and animals, the trees and flowers, the birds of the air, and all the beasts on a thousand hills are His — so what will you give to Him?

But, just so, as everything you are and have is a gift, for your part there is only thanksgiving and praise in return to the Lord.  Not because He needs even your thanks, but because it is meet, right, and salutary for you to give Him thanks and praise.  And there is nothing else that your heart of love can offer to Him who gives you all things, except to give thanks to Him, to praise His Holy Name, and to glorify Him for who He is and all that He has done for you in both body and soul.

The main way that you return such thanks and praise and glorify His Name is by confessing what He has said to you.  You confess His Word when you pray as He has taught you, and as you speak the faith before Him and to your neighbor.  To speak of all the marvelous works of the Lord your God, that is how the Holy Scriptures describe the praise and thanksgiving of His holy people.

Unto the Lord your God you offer such thanksgiving, the fruit of lips that praise His Name.  And in faith toward Him you exercise love for your neighbors in the world.  Indeed, you are free to pour yourself out in self-sacrificing love and charity and kindness for your neighbor, precisely because you know that your God and Father in heaven provides you with all that you need, and, whether you live or die, all good things are yours in Christ Jesus.

Is that what your life is like?  Is that how you are living?  On the one hand, it is not a hard life, because it is by the grace of God through faith in His Gospel; it is not earned but received as a gift.  But on the other hand, it is not easy, either, nor is it lacking in works.  To love your neighbor does require conscientious effort, long-suffering patience, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, such as the Lord Himself has first of all extended in love toward you.  And that you might learn to live and love as He does — that you should be conformed to the Image and Likeness of God in the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus — He bestows this life upon you from the Cross, and He works this life within you by the way of His Cross, by repentance and faith in His forgiveness of your sins.

Apart from His forgiveness, it is impossible for you to live and grow and flourish in the Kingdom of God.  It is impossible to praise the Lord your God or love your neighbor as you ought, except your God and Father give you life in Christ Jesus by His Word and Holy Spirit.  And this He does within His House by the Liturgy of His Gospel, by the preaching and Sacrament of Christ Jesus.

“In the courts of God,” that is where He does His work and has His way with you.  That is where He causes the Rain of His Word to shower down and the Seed of His Word to be planted, whereby the Sunshine of His Spirit shines upon you in Christ Jesus.  And that is where the Lord takes you in hand, raises you up in love, and nurtures and sustains you with the Fruits of His Tree of Life.

It is by the righteousness of God that you live.  And that righteousness of God is not that you keep His Commandments or fulfill His Law; it is rather found in His grace, mercy, and forgiveness, in His salvation of sinners.  That is the Power and the Glory of God — and that is His righteousness — that He justifies sinners and gives them life instead of death for the sake of His divine Love.

To live by this righteousness of God is, first of all, simply to hear what He speaks and receive what He gives.  Look to Him for all good things, and trust Him for all that you need, in the confidence that He daily and richly provides for your body and soul, for this life and for eternity with Him.  And in such faith, return thanks to Him for all His benefits, confess what He has said and done, call upon His Name in faith, hope, and love, and serve your neighbors with the charity of Jesus.

By contrast, when you attempt to live by and for yourself, by your own reason and strength and for your own advantage and benefit, then you will die in your sin.  For that is not the righteousness of God, it is the idolatry of self-righteousness and covetous lust, whereby you do not receive but spurn the gifts of God, His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  That is not only the wrong way to live, it is no way to live at all.  It is not life but death.  There is nothing in you by which to grow and live and flourish.  Rather, relying on yourself and serving yourself, you consume yourself and perish.

Remove a plant from the ground, withhold water from it, and keep it hidden in the dark away from the sun, and you know that it will not survive.  Likewise, if you turn away from God, depart from His Word, and hide yourself away from your neighbor, then you cut yourself off from the very life which the Lord desires to give you with Himself and in communion with His Body, the Church.

Apart from the Word and Spirit of God there is neither faith nor love.  And where there is no faith and love, there is no life.  If you appear to be strong and mighty now, and yet have no faith in God and no love for your neighbor, then you are already dead and dying, and you are already useless.

But how do you live and grow and flourish in the Kingdom of God?  How is it that your dry and useless tree becomes green and fruitful?  And how is it that your low tree shall ever be exalted?  How is it that you, a sinner, are raised up from death to life in the Kingdom of God, in the courts of the Lord’s House, in the midst of His Jerusalem, planted and alive on the heights of Mt. Zion?

The answer and solution — your rescue and salvation — are found solely in Christ Jesus.  For the Kingdom of God is found solely in Him, the one righteous Man who flourishes and bears abundant fruit to the praise and glory of His God and Father and for the benefit of all His neighbors, even for His enemies.  He is the true Seed, the Lord’s own planting, and His Cross is the Tree of Life.

God thus speaks to you by His Son, who comes in His own Body of flesh and blood like yours, in which He also bears the full weight of your mortality, all of your infirmities, burdens, and sorrows, and all of your iniquities, trespasses, and sins of thought, word, and deed.  He bears it all in His own Body to the Cross, where He also puts it to death in Himself and then buries it forever.  For thus was He planted in the ground — in the dust of the earth — as the tiniest of Seeds in the dirt.

But whereas your sins have all been done away with by His Cross and Passion, put to death and put away forever in the tomb, God has raised this same Jesus from the dead in righteousness.  He has risen from the dust of the earth, and, what is more, He grows and thrives and flourishes over and above the mighty cedars of Lebanon and all the massive redwoods of California.  His Cross is a Tree above them all, although it appears to be very small and weak and fruitless and helpless.

And in His Resurrection, He bears and brings forth abundant Fruit from that Tree of His Cross.  Indeed, His own crucified and risen Body is the Firstfruits of the New Creation.  And all this He has done, not selfishly, not for His own benefit — He needed nothing — but He has done it all for you, that He might feed you, and that you might also live and grow and flourish in and with Him.

By the preaching of the Gospel He sows His Seed throughout the world, even to the ends of the earth, in order to make disciples from all the nations by way of catechesis and Holy Baptism in His Name, and by feeding and nourishing His disciples with His Word and Flesh within His Church.

By His atoning Sacrifice, His Cross has been planted and established as the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise; and just so, it bears its good and blessed Fruits here within His Church on earth.

His Cross has become a place of shade in the noonday heat, a place of rest for weary travelers who cannot make it any farther.  In the branches of His Tree of the Cross birds of every kind abide in safety and peace.  The leaves of His Tree are Medicine for the healing of the nations; and the Fruits of His Tree are given and poured out for you and for the many as nourishment and refreshment.

His Tree of the Cross is your shelter and protection, because it is by and from His Cross that you receive the forgiveness of all your sins.  Daily you are forgiven by the Word of the Cross.  Daily and richly you are fed with its grace, mercy, and peace.  From the Cross the Lord Jesus hands over His Holy Spirit, pours out the Water and the Blood, and feeds you by His own wounded hand.

He is the righteous Man.  The Kingdom of God is not only like Him, but it is found in Him, and it is here at hand in Him.  For He has planted Himself here on earth in order to give Himself to you; and, indeed, He has planted Himself in you — into your ears, into your heart, mind, and body — that He should live and abide in you, and that you should live and abide in Him, now and forever.

Thus, by the washing of the water with His Word, you have been planted together with Him in His death and burial, that you should also rise and live with Him and bear abundant fruit to the glory of His Holy Name.  So it is that, as often as you are returned to the waters of your Baptism by daily contrition and repentance, by His preaching of the Law and the Gospel, you are watered with the Water of God, enlivened by His Holy Spirit in body and soul, and fruitful in His Righteousness.

Here, too, by His Word, in the courts of the Lord’s House, you are seated as a guest at His Table.  And here you are fed like a baby bird receiving a worm from its mama.  For here your own dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, feeds you with the Fruits of His Cross, with His own Body and His Blood — into your mouth and into your body — to bear good fruits in you after His own kind.

See how tenderly He cares for you!  Here you can make your nest and find your shelter and your shade.  Here you are safe and sound.  Here you are not found naked and exposed in your sin, but fully clothed and beautifully adorned in the righteousness of Christ Jesus.  You are not spurned or cast away from His presence, nor relegated to death and the grave, but raised to Life in Him.

The Psalmist declares that the birds of the air find a nesting place at the Altar of God.  Those are not careless or throwaway words, but Words of the Spirit and of Life.  For it is here at the Lord’s Altar, little bird, that you find your nesting place.  Here are you fed, and here do you live.

The Lord your God is gracious and merciful, He is full of compassion and great kindness.  And this is the Home He has made for you.  So it is that, living to and from this House of the Lord, you do bear good fruits after His own kind, wherever in the world He has planted you — according to whatever sort of tree He has created you to be, whether you are big and tall or short and small.  As surely as the Lord has gotten Life for you by His Tree, and as surely as He gives you Life from His Tree, so surely does He cause you to live and grow and flourish in the Kingdom of God forever.

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

Christ Jesus Is Your Champion Against Satan

It is a sobering fact that, not only are you unable to believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him by your own reason or strength, but you are likewise unable to discern or recognize the difference between God and the devil by your own intellect, wisdom, or sensibilities.  Apart from the Word and Spirit of God, you confuse good with evil and blaspheme against the Lord who has come to save you.

At the heart of the problem, you don’t even realize how ignorant and wrong you are.  Instead, you are quite confident of your perceptions and opinions, feelings and conclusions.  Yet, presuming to know God and His Will apart from His Word is the root cause of all the sin and wickedness and evil in this fallen world.  It is precisely what led Adam and Eve into sin, when they disregarded and disobeyed the clear and certain Word of God, deferring to the devil’s voice and their own senses.

We dare not attribute anything to the Holy Spirit apart from the Word and promise of the Lord, as He has spoken concerning the Church and Ministry of His Gospel and concerning your calling and stations in life.  Absent His Word, anything that claims divine inspiration or authority is not from God but from the devil himself.  No matter how sincere, well-intentioned, or self-righteous you might be, heeding voices that do not confess God’s Word will lead you away from Him into sin.

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to recognize the voice and temptations of Satan in your life — whether you take the devil seriously or not — because the voices in your own head, that inner dialogue you carry on with yourself, and all the insights and interpretations of your sinful heart and mind are in cahoots with the devil.  That’s why the story of the Fall into Sin is so familiar — not only because you’ve heard it repeated so many times, but also because it keeps on playing itself out in your life.  It seems obvious enough in retrospect, but it’s not so obvious at all when you’re in the middle of being tempted.  The forbidden fruit, whatever its variety, appears beautiful and good for food.

So you take the bite.  You fall prey to the snares of the devil, you fall into sin, and you lead others into temptation right along with you.  And then, instead of fleeing to the Lord and His mercy, you run away and try to hide — ashamed of your nakedness and afraid to admit that you have sinned.  Instead of confessing your sins and seeking forgiveness, you come up with excuses for yourself, and you resort to blaming your neighbor, the devil, or God Himself for your faults and failings.

It’s still the same ol’ same ol’ story.  You are no different and no better than your first parents.  The devil has done his job cunningly well, not only tempting you and leading you into sin, but then also blurring the picture, confusing the facts, and turning everything inside-out and upside-down.

This morning’s Holy Gospel is a case in point.  Christ Jesus, our great Champion against Satan, is accused of being in league with Satan.  By that move, those who are supposed to be the religious leaders and teachers of Israel blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  So, then, things are not as they appear.

It is only by the Holy Spirit that you are able to recognize the Lord Jesus for who He truly is — and to recognize Satan and his temptations for what they actually are.  You cannot rely on your own faculties or filters to decipher the facts of the matter; otherwise, like the Lord’s own family at that point, you will terribly misjudge Him.  It is only by the preaching and hearing of the Word of Christ Jesus, where and when it pleases God, that the Holy Spirit works the fear and faith and wisdom of the Lord in your heart, mind, body, and soul, lest you be deceived and die in your sin.

Our Lord’s entire Ministry was a demonstration of His approaching victory over Satan.  Everything He did was a fulfillment of that first promise in the Garden — the promise of a Savior, the Seed of the Woman, who would crush the serpent’s head, obtain forgiveness, and restore life to Man.

Christ Jesus is engaged in combat with Satan from the first, especially as He is driven by the Spirit from the waters of His Baptism to be tempted by the devil in the wilderness.  As the true Man, He resists the devil with the same Word of God that you are also given in the Holy Scriptures and in your Holy Baptism.  But there is more.  As the very Son of God in the flesh, His presence marks the beginning of the end for Satan and his demons.  Whenever He heals the sick or raises the dead, He is already in the process of restoring life and vitality to all mankind and the whole of creation, thereby undoing the curse of sin and death.  Whenever He forgives sins, He exercises in advance the Absolution of the Fall by His Cross and Resurrection.  And whenever He casts out demons — a trademark of His Ministry in the Holy Gospels — He shows that He has come to “clean house.”

So, too, in His little Parable this morning, the one about the strong man’s house.  For the Ministry of Christ Jesus — His forgiveness, His miraculous healings, His exorcisms — it is all a binding of the “strong man,” Satan, that Jesus might plunder his possessions by the Cross and Resurrection.

That victory of Jesus over Satan, sin, and death, is likewise the point of His descent into hell, as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed.  It’s not that Christ Jesus must go there to suffer — for His suffering is perfectly fulfilled on the Cross.  But Jesus descends into hell as a declaration of His triumph over the evil one.  He boldly enters the strong man’s house to thumb His nose at the devil, to spike the football in the in-zone and run a victory lap with the standard of His Cross held high.

Now, then, from that same victory of His Cross, the Ministry of Christ Jesus and His Holy Spirit advances throughout the world, as an ongoing defeat and destruction of the devil and his demons.

The very same Ministry of Christ Jesus that is recorded and revealed in the Holy Gospels continues to this very day — and to this very place — in the Liturgy of His Holy Word and Sacraments.  Indeed, the stories of Jesus that we hear and tell are not just ancient history, “once upon a time.”  That is not the point at all.  Wherever on earth His Church is found, His story is still happening.  That very thing is indicated, just a few verses prior to this Holy Gospel, when Jesus gives His own authority to the Twelve Apostles, “that He might send them out to preach, and to heal sicknesses, and to cast out demons.”  Which is to say that the casting out of demons, as mentioned in the case at hand, is a Ministry of Christ and His Spirit which continues in the ongoing life of His Church.

So, how shall you respond?  The Lord Jesus Christ is with you here in the Liturgy of His Gospel, in the preaching of His Word and in His Holy Sacrament.  He is no less present for you, here and now, than He was for the people there and then.  And it is still the case that, wherever Jesus enters in, Satan is bound and cast out.  But how shall you respond to all these great and mighty wonders of the Lord, as He comes to you here with His forgiveness of your sins, with Life and Salvation?

There’s no need to guess at the response.  The Word of God describes what it will be — what it has always been, and what it will continue to be, whenever the Gospel of Christ Jesus is preached.

There are basically three responses, each of which is found in this Holy Gospel from St. Mark:

There are those, first of all, who hear and receive the preaching of Christ Jesus by the grace of His Holy Spirit.  They recognize that He is their Savior.  They recognize their sins, but they know and trust His mercy and forgiveness, so they warmly embrace His Word of Absolution or forgiveness, even though it is spoken by a human pastor.  They rejoice in their Holy Baptism, as a rich and full washing away of all their sins, even though they see nothing else than water.  And they hunger and thirst for the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, though all their senses perceive are bread and wine.

These are the people who are gathered in a circle around Jesus, hanging on His every Word, and looking to Him with childlike faith and trusting hearts, which are the gracious gift of His Spirit.

But there is another group of people — who hear the same preaching of Christ Jesus and partake of the same Means of Grace — who yet regard the Lord and His Ministry as foolish nonsense.  This preacher is “out of his mind!”  That was the evaluation of Jesus’ family and friends in this Holy Gospel.  They loved Him with human affection, but they did not embrace His preaching because it did not fit their preconceived notions of family and church and life as they knew it.

I suspect that many if not most of the people in this country who self-identify as Christians really belong to this second group.  They think of Jesus as their “friend,” but they’re embarrassed by much of what He says and does, and they would just as soon not be seen with Him in public.  In much the same way, His Church may be important to them, in a quaint, old-fashioned sort of way, but family and country come first; those are the priorities around which they organize their life.

Such are the people in this Holy Gospel who look for Jesus “on the outside,” that is, apart from His Church, apart from His Liturgy of the Gospel.  To be sure, they may be sitting in the pews on any given Sunday, bodily present — yet all the while their hearts, minds, and spirits remain elsewhere.  You don’t have to look far to find that group; you should simply examine yourself and repent.

There is then another group, with a third sort of response to Jesus, and you are not immune to this way of thinking and acting, either.  You find them here in the scribes and pharisees who came down from Jerusalem — who left the Temple and the Word of God behind — who went so far as to say that Jesus was Himself possessed by the devil.

In this accusation they the sin against the Holy Spirit — a sin which, so long as it persists, cannot be forgiven.  It is to identify the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ Jesus, with Beelzebul, the prince of demons.  Not only is this a horrible blasphemy, it is deadly to faith and life and damnable in its outright rejection of the Lord God Himself with His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  There can be no forgiveness for the ongoing denial and rejection of the very Spirit who breathes and bestows the forgiveness of sins in, with, and through the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

It is not the case that this sin, alone among all others, is simply “so horrible” and “so great” that no forgiveness could be had.  By His Cross and with His precious Blood the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away the sins of the world.  As He says, “all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter.”  But those who harden their hearts against the Word and work of His Holy Spirit are thereby refusing and rejecting this very forgiveness of the Christ.

Those who are guilty of this unforgiveable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — so long as they persist in their unbelief and refuse to repent — they are the vessels of wrath who are held in the possession of Satan.  They may not look like wicked people, not like in the movies.  In fact, they might be outstanding citizens and belong to model families.  But blasphemy and unbelief remain the work of Satan nonetheless; they mark the citizens of his hellish kingdom and the members of his evil household, who are caught and held in the deadly grip of this “strong man,” Beelzebul.

That is where you would be and remain, as well, if not for your Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who enters in to set you free from the bondage of sin, death, the devil, and hell.  He is the stronger Man who still invades the house of Satan, binds him up, and plunders his “possessions.”  You could not set yourself free.  In your native sinfulness, you did not even recognize your peril or want to leave.  But Christ Jesus has released you by the ways and means of His Cross, by His Word and Spirit.

Tragically, there are still a great many people who willingly choose to remain with Satan and reject the Lord Jesus Christ.  But, again, that is where each and every one of us would be, if not for the Holy Spirit, who calls you by the preaching of the Gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps you in the one true faith — just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps her united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

It is here within the Church — where He daily and richly forgives your sins with the Gospel of Christ Jesus, with His Word and Flesh — that the Holy Spirit strengthens your faith and preserves your life in Christ, body and soul, now and forever.  And here within His Church is where you have become and still remain a member of Christ’s family, His brother or sister — living in His House, abiding in His fellowship, hearing His Word of the Gospel, and breathing His Holy Spirit.

This then is your fortress, your shield, and your strength — against Satan, all his works, and all His ways — the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in the Liturgy of Jesus, wherein you receive the promise of His Gospel, today and all year long, and whereby your sins are all forgiven in His Name.

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

God's Own Child, Baptized into Christ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Peace of Christ in the Storms of Life

“Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!?”

It is, for the most part, a rhetorical question.  The wind and the sea must ever and only obey the Lord God, their Creator.  Just as the same Lord makes clear in His response to Job, when even that great man of faith began to question the tragic events in his life.  But who was Job, and who are you, to question the wisdom of God, the Almighty, the Maker of the heavens and the earth?

He shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb.  He made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band.  He fixed His limit for it, and set bars and doors.  He said, “This far you may come, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop!”

He is the almighty and eternal Son of the living God, by whom all things are made, and without whom there is nothing — who now tabernacles with you in His own flesh and blood as true Man.

There is particular significance in His command of the elements, especially the wind upon the waters.  For these are the waters of Creation, upon which the Spirit of Yahweh is moving.  And they are, again, the waters of the Flood, which cleanse the world of sinful unbelief and damnable idolatry, but which deliver the righteous from death and give them life by the Spirit of Yahweh.

We all know the importance of water as one the most basic components of life at all levels.  For the Lord Jesus to control the waters of the sea, therefore, is the evidence and exercise of His life-giving authority as the Creator.  At the same time, there is also a destructive potential to water, and no doubt you have experienced for yourself the terrifying fury of storms: thunder and lightening and torrential rains, driven by gale-force winds, threatening the safety of both man and beast.

Confronted by the deadly power of water in those and similar situations, you might well ask why God allows such things to happen to you and to others.  That was the question of Job, and of the disciples out there in their little boat upon the lake.  But whatever else ought to be said in response, it must first of all be said that the gracious Creator of all things is not the Author of death.  He uses death to punish sin with sin, to be sure; for He is the Lord, to whom all flesh is held accountable.  But He is, by nature, the true and living God, the Author and Giver of Life and Light and Love.

When Adam rebelled against his Creator and Lord, by rejecting and disobeying the Word that God had spoken, he brought death into a world that was created for real life with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  If not for the gracious preservation of our Lord, we should already suffer the eternal death of damnation, which is to exist apart from Him.  As it is, He allows the consequences of sin to afflict and discipline the children of man, in order to drive them back to Himself in repentance.

The “storms of life,” both natural and metaphorical — beginning already with the Great Flood of the Old Testament — are the judgment of God against sin.  But not so much as a retribution for this or that particular sin, as it is that He curses the creation in the hope of His Redemption.

Regrettably, among the consequences of sin are the persistent doubts and fears of unbelief, such as you have heard in the case of the disciples on the lake.  The same is true for you.  Though you confess and affirm that God is the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, and that He still takes care of all His creatures, you still have your doubts — in the midst of calamity and danger — as to whether the Lord is going to protect you and provide for your needs in this body and life.

The sad fact is, that, apart from the Word and Spirit of Christ, the tragedies of life do not serve their purpose of driving you back to the Lord.  Instead, they drive you further away, into the utter depths of sheer despair.  Like the disciples then, you begin to wonder and worry that the Lord has forgotten you, that He is “sleeping” on the job, or that He just doesn’t care that you are perishing.

Of course, your dear Lord Jesus Christ does care deeply about you.  So does He also care for you.  His genuine concern is already demonstrated in this Holy Gospel, from the outset, by His crossing of the Sea to the land of the Gentiles.  For He is bringing mercy and forgiveness, life and salvation, to those who have lived and walked in the darkness of unbelief (as you also have done).

There are many parallels, in this respect, to the familiar Old Testament story of Jonah, who was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah.  The Prophet Jonah, as you know, did not want to go to those people.  He tried to run away on a ship in the opposite direction.  But that ship, too, was caught in the grip of a violent storm.  Do you remember where the captain found poor Jonah?  Asleep below deck!  But after he had woken up, the storm was finally brought to an end when Jonah directed his shipmates to throw him into the depths of the sea.  He spent three days underwater in the belly of a fish, before emerging onto land to carry out his mission from God.

Now, there are some obvious differences between the Prophet Jonah and Christ Jesus.  To begin with, Jesus went gladly to the Gentiles with His preaching of repentance and forgiveness.  And there was no sin of our Lord, as there was in the case of Jonah, to bring the storm upon the ship.

Nevertheless, Jesus elsewhere indicates that Jonah is the sign of His own death and burial and Resurrection from the dead — the three days that He will spend in the belly of the earth, and then His rising from death to life again.  It is by His Sacrifice on the Cross that He brings calm to the storms of sin and death, and newness of life and genuine peace to all of His creation.  Indeed, the mercy and compassion of His Cross and Resurrection flow throughout His entire life and Ministry, and He will afterwards send His Apostles to preach that Holy Gospel to the whole creation.

For example here, His genuine care and concern for the disciples is shown by the fact that He did bring the storm to an end.  Their lack of faith in Him did not destroy His faithfulness toward them.  He saved their lives, just as He does for you, despite how often you have given up hope in Him.

Of course, His calming of the storm demonstrates, not only His compassion, but also His divinity as the Son of God.  Hence, the fear of the sinful disciples in response to His miracle, as they are confronted by the Lord God Almighty.  And yet His divine compassion and genuine concern for His disciples, yourself included, is also indicated by His perfect life as the true Man in holy faith and love.  For Christ, the Son of God, is also the Man who is most truly human.  His very presence in the boat, just “as He was,” sleeping like a baby on a pillow in the stern, testifies to the solid fact of His human flesh and blood — flesh and blood like your own, in which He has carried all your sin and suffering to the Cross.  In His presence, therefore, the disciples need not have been afraid.  In His presence, the only proper attitude is faith and trust in His deep, divine compassion.

To be sure, the disciples did the right thing by going to Christ in their time of need.  However small their faith had become, even so, by the gracious working of the Spirit, they did run to Christ, they woke Him up, and they sought His help.  In truth, the Spirit also drove them to their knees before the One who is their Savior and their Lord.  God grant that He would do the same for you, as well.

But the real example of faith in this Gospel is Christ Himself.  His sleeping in the boat was, itself, already an act of faith and trust in His Father.  He lived His entire life in this way, “entrusting Himself, His body and soul and all things,” into the hands of God.  And it was also in such perfect faith that He willingly sacrificed Himself in the flesh, for the forgiveness of all your sins, and for the healing of His Creation, confident that His God and Father would raise Him from the dead.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Old things have passed away.  Behold, all things have become new.  In Christ is found the faith and life that you are called to live in Him, the faith and life that Adam and Eve and all their children have otherwise failed to live.  He alone has done what you could not do.  And yet, He has done it all for you.  He has fulfilled the Law of God by keeping all of His commandments in faith and love on your behalf.  And with forgiveness of your sins, He gives you life with God.  For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

In the sleeping and waking of Christ on the boat out on the lake, there is foreshadowed His Cross and Resurrection.  There again, the disciples felt themselves abandoned by their Lord, at the very moment when He was most completely given for their forgiveness and salvation.  But there, too, the tables were turned.  As Christ entered upon the storms of His Passion, bearing the judgment of God against their sins, His disciples were the ones fast asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In His calming of the storm at sea, when He was awakened, you see the restoration of Creation by His Cross and Resurrection.  The curse of sin is removed by His Sacrifice, so the raging storm must cease.  With Him there is a great calm, like the Word of the Lord at Creation: “Behold, He looked at everything He made, and it was very good.  And God rested from the work that He had done.”

Thus are you called to live your life in the peaceful calm of His New Creation, in the Body of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead.  When you know and trust that He has saved you and redeemed you, then you rest in Christ, enjoying His gifts and looking to Him for real life.

Instead of frantic desperation and the endless pursuits of your own self-righteousness, you are able to “sleep” in the Peace of Christ, because you are traveling safely with Him in the “Boat” of His Church.  While the unbelieving world, together with your old Adam, is drowned and destroyed in the waters of the Great Flood, you are kept dry and secure in the Holy Ark of Christendom.

Herein you are crossing with your dear Lord Jesus to the “other side.”  Crossing the Red Sea out of slavery in Egypt into the freedom of faith in His forgiveness.  And crossing the Jordan River out of the wilderness of sin into the Promised Land of Paradise in His Body and His Blood.  And all the while, the wind and waves that would otherwise terrify you and threaten to kill you have been replaced by the living and life-giving, Spirit-filled waters of your Holy Baptism.

In the face of all the storms of life — those within your heart and mind, and those that rage around you in the world — no matter how intense and frightening they are, hear the Word of the Lord, the Creator, in the voice of Christ, your Savior, who speaks above the tumult: “Peace be with you!  Be still and know that I am God.  I am with you always, and I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

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

The Mystery of the Kingdom of God in Christ

The Parables of Jesus are well known and familiar.  They are prominent in the teaching of our Lord in the Holy Gospels, and they are both engaging and easy to remember.

For all of that, the Parables of Jesus are often misunderstood, not only in their particular points but in their whole purpose.  They are not offered as the “illustrations” that many suppose, as though to make things clear and sensible.  The Parables are not only a revelation of the Kingdom of God, but also a concealing of that Kingdom.  They certainly do have something to teach us, but only as the Lord Jesus unveils the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God to His disciples within His Church.

To this point in the Holy Gospel, St. Mark has described the authoritative preaching and miracles of Christ Jesus, indicative of His identity as the incarnate Son of God.  But, as you may remember from last week, there was a mixed reaction to Jesus.  There were some who believed in Him, yet others who thought He was crazy, and still others who accused Him of being an agent of Satan.

So, then, in His preaching to the crowds, Jesus spoke in Parables in order to accentuate the Mystery and the hidden character of His Kingdom.  His Words are simple enough, and His stories are vivid and captivating; they seem so obvious at first, but disarmingly so.  For the Word of God in general, and the Parables of our Lord in particular, cannot be understood apart from His Holy Spirit.

For those who reject the Ministry of Christ and His Spirit, the Parables serve only to darken their minds and to confuse their understanding even further.  As Jesus has already said to the disciples earlier in this chapter of St. Mark: “To you it has been given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those on the outside everything is in Parables, so that, “Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”

As it is, even the disciples did not understand the Parables, nor could they understand apart from Christ, the catechesis of His Word, and the gift of His Holy Spirit.  Neither could you understand.  For those outside the Church of Christ, apart from His Gospel, the Parables conceal the Mystery.

What, then, is the Kingdom of God?  What is it like?  That is the Mystery in question.  If and when the Kingdom is identified, then the Parables are able to illustrate its character and significance.

To that end, it is necessary to recognize the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus.  He is the Lord’s Anointed, the Christ, our King, who comes to save us for life with Himself.  It is in and with His coming in the flesh that the Kingdom of God is at hand, as St. John the Baptist and then the Lord Jesus Himself preached.  To understand the Parables of the Kingdom, to learn anything at all from them, you must first of all recognize the presence of the Kingdom of God in the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus, in His Body, crucified and risen from the dead, given and poured out for you.

Keep that at the forefront of your mind as you hear these Parables of the Kingdom this morning.  Both of them recall a fact that has seemed obvious to me since my teen years in rural Nebraska, where most of my friends and neighbors lived on farms: If fox holes discourage atheism, farming certainly does.  A farmer must rely on the Providence of God for everything he needs, for sunshine and rain, the fertility of the seed, and the productivity of the soil.

Along with that agricultural reality, these two Parables share a common background and context in the Parable of the Sower (earlier in St. Mark 4).  In that case, Christ is the Sower of His Seed, which is the Word of God, but the various conditions of the soil hinder and impede its growth.

You remember how it goes.  Some of the Seed is stolen away by the devil before it has a chance to put down roots.  Some of the Seed puts down its roots okay, but the soil is too rocky and too shallow for the seedling to survive.  And some of the Seed gets off to a good start, but then it is choked and overwhelmed by the weeds of the world.

Even so, some of the Seed prospers by the grace of God and produces a bountiful crop — thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or even a hundred-fold.  And that is the case, now, in the Parables this morning.

First there is the Farmer who plants the Seed; and then, while He lies down at night and rises by day, the earth sprouts forth a crop from the Seed that has been Sown.

To understand the Parable, realize that Christ Himself is both the Sower and the Seed — the Word of God who became flesh, was crucified, died, and was buried.  Having planted His Seed, He lied down by night in the sleep of death, relying on His Father to raise Him up at the proper time.  And by the Spirit of His God and Father, He got up on Easter Day.  By the way of His Cross, He was “planted” in the ground.  And then He “sprouted” from the dust of the earth in His Resurrection.

As Jesus says more clearly, for example, in the Gospel According to St. John: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”  He was speaking of Himself first of all, of His Cross and Resurrection, and of those who die and rise in Him.  So, too, in the first Parable at hand today, the sprouting of the Seed as a crop from the earth marks the beginning of the harvest.  For all things are completed by the Cross of Christ, in such a way that His crucified and risen Body is the First Fruits of the Resurrection of all flesh.

So it is that, in the sure and certain confidence of His Resurrection from the dead, Christ and His Cross are now planted within and through His Church on earth.  How so?  By the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name.  Such preaching will not fail to produce a crop.  Not by any ingenuity or power of man, but solely by the grace of God, by the power of His Word.

First the Blade emerges from the earth, which is Christ Himself who rises from the tomb.  Then the Head of Grain — that is, the Ministry of Christ, even to this day — bears the fruit of His Word, by which the Church, the Body of Christ, the full grain in the Head, grows and prospers in Him.

Nowhere is this more true for you than it is in your Holy Baptism.  For there, in that washing of the water with His Word, you were “planted” together with Christ in His death, and “sprouted” together with Him in His Resurrection.  So do you continue to lie down and get up, to die and to rise with Christ Jesus, by night as by day, in the daily and lifelong significance of your Baptism.

Which is to say, as you are planted and growing in Christ, as you are watered by His Word and with His Spirit, He bears an abundant crop and good fruit in your body and life, in your callings and stations on earth.  For you are righteous by faith in Him, and you flourish like a palm tree and the great cedars of Lebanon.  As you are planted here within the House of the Lord, you flourish in the courts of our God.  You are green and alive, and you bear the fruits of Christ all your days.

That all sounds great, of course.  But it is often not evident or obvious in your experience of life.  You may well be discouraged by the apparent lack of growth in yourself or in the Lord’s Church.  The efforts and achievements are rather small and meager by the measure of the world.  Perhaps you would go so far as to say that even your best effort is no bigger than a grain of mustard seed.

Well, that is the way God works.  And that is the point to the second Parable.  In the first place, again, it is Christ Jesus Himself who is that tiny grain of mustard.  He is so meager in appearance, especially as He is hung upon the Cross, bruised and bleeding, and wounded for your salvation.

And yet, in the humility of His Cross we behold the greatest Tree of all, the Tree of forgiveness, of Life and Salvation.  It is the crushing defeat of the devil, the destruction of death and the grave.  It is the comfort of the afflicted, a shelter for the lost, and your own help and hope in time of need.

This “Mustard Seed” of Christ the Crucified has truly sprouted into many great and marvelous things.  And so does He continue to give life through His meager and humble Means of Grace.

The unassuming, unimpressive Tree of the Cross is now planted by the unassuming, unimpressive preaching of the Gospel.  It is watered by the hidden, unseen Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution.  It is nurtured and sustained by the Body and Blood of Christ under bread and wine.

None of this is much to look at.   It is by the Word of Christ, by faith in His Word, and not by sight.  And yet, these simple Means of Grace are the Seeds of the Cross, which have sprouted a Church with branches all over the world, in all times and in all places, including right here and right now.  It has not been accomplished by the power and strength of man, but by the mercies of God in Christ, by the ways and means of His Cross.  This, too, belongs to the Mystery of His Kingdom.

So, too, the same Lord accomplishes His purposes, according to His good and gracious will, in you, in your body of flesh and blood, in your callings and stations in life.  Not because you are so big and strong, so clever, or so smart, but in spite of the fact that you are so little, so pathetic, and so weak.  It is for you, now, as it was for the disciples then.  By grace alone, by the catechesis of Christ, you are given to know and believe the Mysteries of God, and to bear fruit in His Name.

Through His Apostles, in spite of their foibles, in spite of their fumbles and faults, He established and built His Church on earth.  And to this day, even to the close of the age, He continues to care for and preserve His Church by the Word of His Apostles.

But all of this remains “in spite of appearances.”  In the final harvest all things will be brought to light and shown for what they are, but until that great and glorious day it all remains hidden under the Cross.  Even so, no matter how bedraggled the Church of Christ may appear in the world, she remains nonetheless His Body and His Bride, the embodiment of His divine Kingdom on earth.

Consider our own little congregation.  We are part of something much older and much bigger than we appear to be.  Something much older and bigger than the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.  Something much older and bigger than even the Reformation and its five-hundred year old legacy.  We belong to the one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church of all times and all places.  That is our heritage under the Cross, right here on the corner of Milton and Dale in South Bend, Indiana.

If you look back on the history of Emmaus, there are any number of twists and turns and ups and downs.  There were years of much larger membership, and other years when things looked pretty grim.  But the one constant reality has been the gathering of pastors and people around the pulpit, font, and Altar of Christ.  In the preaching of His Gospel, in the administration of His Sacraments, we are and remain the Church of Christ, His Body and Bride.  No more nor less when everything is going well, or when it all seems to be falling apart.  In the Ministry of His Holy Gospel, no more impressive than a tiny grain of mustard, we receive the fulness of Christ Jesus and His Kingdom.

So do we continue, by the grace of God in Christ, trusting Him to give us growth, if not outwardly then inwardly, according to His good and gracious will.  Trust and believe that He will produce a bountiful harvest from this field of His Church.  By the planting of His Seed right here, He grows the branches of His mercy and forgiveness, that others also might find rest in His cooling shade.

In the shelter of His Cross, under the protection of His arms, and nurtured by His good fruits, His Body and His Blood, sleep in the peace of His forgiveness, and rise in the confidence of faith in His Resurrection.  Eat your bread, and eat your meat, drink your water and your wine, work your job, and take your rest, all in the joy and gladness of your Lord.  For all the while, by night as by day, the Seed of His Gospel is sprouting and growing, though you know not how.  Whether you may plant, or whether you may water, as the Lord so calls and wills, it is the Lord Himself who gives the growth.  Because the Kingdom of God is in Christ.  The Field is His.  The Seed is His.  The Crop is His.  And you are His, to whom be all the glory, honor, and praise, now and forever.

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

The Household and Family of God in Christ

The Builder of all things is God.  He is the Maker of the heavens and the earth, and of all that is in them.  He also created the Man in His own Image, and the Woman for the Man, and He gave them to each other as husband and wife.  And He planted a garden in the East, the Paradise of Eden, which He gave to the Man and the Woman as their home.  All of this He did, in love, by His almighty and eternal Word.  And it was very good.

Within this God-built house of creation there is security and strength.  It is beautiful by His gracious design, well-structured by His Wisdom, and upheld in love by the power of His Word.  Within His good creation, in the good order that He has established, there is safety and security for those who live according to His will, that is, by faith and in love, according to His Word.

Living in the place the Lord has provided, the Man is able to serve and care for the Woman, and the Woman is able to support and serve the Man.  Together they are fruitful and multiply, they fill the earth and subdue it.  They exercise dominion in the Name of the Lord, under His blessing.

So, what happened?  The house is falling apart.  The whole world is dirty, messed up, and dying.  Heaven and earth are passing away.  Creation groans under the curse of sin and death.  The grass withers, the flower fades.  There is a deep rupture that you cannot hope to patch, clean up, or fix.

Not only in the world outside, but even within the home, there is disarray and trouble instead of the security and peace that God intends and everybody longs for.  Marriage and family are under attack and constant stress.  Where the Lord has commanded the honor of father and mother and the fidelity of husband and wife, there is disrespect and disobedience on the part of children, neglect and abuse on the part of parents, unfaithfulness and hostility on the part of spouses.

Even in those places where you ought be most at ease and comfortable, the devil runs amok and causes all manner of unrest.  Instead of contentment and cooperation, there is dissatisfaction and dissension.  Instead of peace and health, there is hatred and hurt.  Not only in others, but in you.  Satan entices you with lies and false promises, and then accuses you of your sin with a vengeance.  He attacks you in body and soul, as he tyrannizes all of the children of men with the fear of death.

The devil has such power and strength to constrain and threaten, because Man has presumed and attempted to build his own house.  The Woman takes what the Lord has not given.  And the Man declines to guard and protect his wife.  He does not speak the Word that God has spoken, nor does he step into the breach to subdue the crafty serpent.  Instead of receiving what the Lord provides in faith and giving to his wife in love, the Man ignores the Lord and follows the Woman into sin.

This sinful rejection of God’s Word puts everything in jeopardy, into a tailspin.  It puts you at odds with both God and the devil, and that’s a double enmity that you will not survive on either side.

In attempting to build your own house, instead of living by faith and in love within the House that God has built and provided for you, you’ve taken on a futile task that cannot and will not succeed.  So you struggle and toil away to stake your claim, to protect your space, to guard your castle and maintain it, to shut out the noise and keep death at bay.  Your house requires constant work, whether you do it yourself or pay someone else to do it for you.  And yet, it still won’t last.

Your mortal body and life are subject to the same futility.  The task of growing and gathering food is backbreaking labor, which drives you back into the dirt from which you are taken.  Childbirth, too, is under the curse of sin and the constant threat of death.  It is dangerous and precarious, and it takes a toll on your body.  From its beginning to your life’s end, death has marked its prey.

The daily fight to survive in this fallen world, in the face of death, in the midst of guilt and shame, also pits the Man against the Woman, the parents and the children against each other, and brother against brother.  When you are endeavoring to build and keep and live in your own house against all odds, then everything is a potential threat, and everyone is your opponent.

You do make alliances, to be sure, for the sake of survival.  But even your allies are a threat once all your common enemies are gone.  No one gets out alive.  Sooner or later, it’s just you in your crumbling castle, stacking all your furniture against the front door in the hopes of reinforcing it, firing your canons out the windows, and pouring hot oil on the heads of all your foes.

Men use their strength to protect and pamper themselves, to make demands on others, to intimidate or undermine their neighbors, and to take for themselves whatever they can.  Women are often left to fend for themselves, and so they do.  If the men will not care for them in love, the women will conspire and manipulate to secure what they need and take care of themselves.  Children observe their parents and so learn to emulate their strategies and sins, in order to get what they want.

Each of you has your own sins, according to your own personality, your own abilities and traits.  Your house is not the same as your neighbor’s, and you’re proud of that fact, even as you fight to conceal your envy and jealousy.  But the underlying problem and the larger context are the same.  Sin and death hold sway, and so the devil has you and everyone else imprisoned and enslaved in your own houses!  You’re not safe inside.  You’re shackled and chained, and bound to lose it all.

But now the Stronger Man has come to the rescue, just as Jesus says.  The Lord Himself has come to plunder the devil’s house; which is really not the devil’s own domain, but the one that he has usurped and taken over, in which he holds you captive.  The Lord enters in to bring you out, and He establishes a new house and home, one not made with mortal hands but eternal in the heavens.

First things first, He comes to bind the strong man, Satan, and He does so.  But the Lord Jesus is stronger than the devil, and He defeats the devil, with a different kind of strength altogether.  Not with the power and might of this world, but with divine patience, tender kindness, and gentle compassion.  He does not impose His will upon His neighbors, nor does He establish a house for Himself.  He rather lives as a Son in His Father’s House.  He does the will of His God and Father.

In that strength and authority of faithful obedience, Jesus submits Himself to death, in order to forgive the sins of all the children of men.  Far from making a life for Himself, He lays down His life in love for others, in the faith and confidence that His Father will raise Him up again.  He does not take for Himself what has not been given, but He receives all things from His Father, in order to give all things to His neighbor.  In order to be a strong Husband for His Bride, to give her life and care for her in love, and to provide a home for her in the House of His dear Father in heaven.

From the outside, looking in, He appears to be downright crazy, and in patience and love He bears that blasphemy against Him.  He does not get angry or defensive.  He simply refuses to count or consider such insults.  The fact is that faith and love and the Cross of Christ look foolish and weak, ludicrous, and even insane.  But Jesus does not take offense at what others think of Him, because He is content with the Word and Wisdom of His Father.  He knows the pledge and promise of His Baptism.  He knows His office and vocation.  He knows that His house and home are with God.

Therefore, Jesus does not go out to His mother and His brothers, and He will not be taken custody by them.  He does not disrespect His family; He does not disown them or distance Himself from them.  But He calls and gathers a whole new family to Himself, into the House where He is found, by the preaching and teaching of His Word.  He establishes and populates a new household and family of God, which includes St. Mary, St. James and St. Jude, and disciples from all the nations.

By His own perfect faithfulness, and by His voluntary sacrifice for the sins of the world, He has robbed Satan of his weapons and his ammunition.  Sin is forgiven, and death is defeated; which leaves the devil with nothing to attack you with or hold against you.  Rather, creation is restored and made brand new, and reordered according to the will of God — already in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, and so too for all who live and abide in Him.  For His crucified and risen Body is the Temple of God, which is an eternal House for all who are His family by faith.

He brings you into that House and makes you a member of His own dear family by His preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He brings you into His own household and family, even as He plunders the devil’s house.  For He frees the children of men from captivity to sin and death.  He brings them to life and sanctifies them by the gift of His Holy Spirit through the Gospel.

Those who refuse and reject the Holy Spirit — those who refuse and reject the Gospel — remain in the bondage of the devil and outside of the Lord’s House.  Apart from repentance, that’s forever.

But you who are gathered by and around Christ Jesus — by and around His strong Word of faith and forgiveness of sins — you are His Mother, His brothers and His sisters.  That is to say, you are collectively His Church, the Bride of Christ and the children of God.  You live now in His House, as surely as you are here to be catechized by the preaching of His Word, to abide in His Baptism, and to partake of His Body and Blood.  You live and abide in the household and family of God.

So, then, as the Lord your God forgives all of your sins — He holds none of them against you — Satan cannot legitimately accuse you of anything.  Nor can the devil threaten you or scare you with death anymore, since your God and Father has raised Christ Jesus, your Brother, from the dead.

Consider how this strength of Christ Jesus sustains you.  For you are safe and sound within His House, which shall not fall.  Its sure foundation is the sacrifice of His Cross, once and for all.  And just as He is risen from the dead, never to die again, so shall His House stand fast forevermore.

Here at His Table you are fed with food and drink that you don’t have to work for.  You are a child of God, and your Father feeds you with the flesh and blood of Christ.  It is by the sweat of His brow, by the labor of His Cross and Passion, that you eat and drink and shall not die but live.

Here in the Lord’s House, you and your family are given life in place of death.  This promise is for you and for your children, for your parents and your spouse.  The birth pangs of repentance are not the mark of mortality, but are the glory of the Cross, unto immortal and imperishable life with God.

You don’t have to build a house for yourself.  That whole futile rat race is ended.  You no longer have to fight that no-win battle against death, which wearies you and wears you out but gets you nowhere.  You rather live in the place where God has put you, a beloved child in His family, and a permanent resident of His house and home, by faith in Christ Jesus.  And, as such, He strengthens you to make a safe house and a loving home for your neighbors here on earth, whether in South Bend, Mishawaka, southern Michigan, or Gary, Indiana, or wherever you may roam.

You husbands have the strength, in Christ, to care for your wives.  You mothers have the strength to care for your children.  You children have the strength to care for your parents, and you brothers and sisters have the strength to care for each other.  Not with any flawless perfection of your own, but with the perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus, which is yours by His grace through faith in His Gospel of forgiveness.  Not out of guilt or shame or fear, but in His peace and hope and charity.

You have this strength to love and serve each other, because you have your home and family in the strong House of the Stronger Man, Christ Jesus.  By His Cross and Resurrection from the dead, He has defeated your enemy, the devil, and He has reconciled you to His Father in perfect peace.  He has made a place for you forever, and in Him is your Sabbath Rest that shall not end.  In His crucified and risen Body — which you have entered by your Baptism, and which you eat and drink in the Sacrament of the Altar — you have genuine security.  You really are safe with God.

So, too, you have the strength to forgive the sins of those who sin against you, because the strength of your Savior, Christ Jesus, is the strength of His Gospel.  He does not accuse, threaten, or punish, but He daily and richly forgives you all of your sins.  He forgives your weaknesses and your fears.  He forgives your laziness and your neglect of responsibility.  He forgives your short temper and your abuse of power.  He does not hold any of your sins against you.  Instead, He calls you daily to repentance, and He gently raises you up to live by faith in Him, to live in love for your neighbor.

If the whole world thinks you’re crazy, well, never mind that; you’re in good company.  So shall you be glorified with Him who loves you.  Whatever affliction you may suffer is momentary, and it’s not even worth comparing to the eternal weight of glory for which the Lord Jesus is preparing you, even now.

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

That You May Be His Own

If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that He bore your sins in His Body to the Cross, and that He was put to death for your transgressions; and if you believe that God the Father raised Him from the dead for your justification, then confess with your mouth and with your life that this same Jesus is your Savior and your God.

In all that you say and all that you do, let it be known before men that you belong to Him who paid for you with His holy and precious blood.  Hear and heed His holy Word, and live by that Word.

For you are called to be and to live as His disciple.  Which means that you follow Him and listen to His teaching, and that you also learn from His example and His life.  You are His apprentice, and from Him you learn how to live, and how to die, to the glory of His holy Name.

So also, find your true home and your true family in His Church.  Understand that your identity, and your entire place and purpose in life, are found within the Body of Christ, His holy Church.

When Jesus speaks of the divisions that will come within families, He certainly does not advocate animosity for its own sake.  You should not seek to be at odds with your spouse, your children, or your parents.  But neither should you serve and accommodate any of them at the cost of your faith, at the expense of your confession, or in any way that would compromise the Word of Christ.

Your allegiance belongs to Him.  And anyone who loves father, mother, son, or daughter more than Christ, is not worthy to be His disciple, and will not enter the Kingdom of God.  You are to love and serve your family, of course, in accordance with the Word of God, and so also in the fear of the Lord, in the faith and worship of Christ above everything else.  But it is blasphemous idolatry to put your parents, spouse, or children ahead of Him.  Wherever you are doing so, repent.

Do not love anyone more than you love Jesus.  I’m not talking about your feelings and emotions, but about your words and actions, your commitments and priorities.  Do not be afraid to count the cost and bear the consequences of following the Lord.  Do not be afraid of what others may think or say or do to you.  And do not fear what may become of you.  But fear, love, and trust in God.  And finding your life in Christ Jesus, so live as a slave unto righteousness in Him.

Now, St. Paul carefully explains that, when he speaks of this slavery to righteousness, this slavery to Christ, he is speaking with human terms.  It means that you belong to Jesus, who has redeemed you, purchased and won you for Himself.  Not with gold or silver, as you know, but with His own Body and Life, with His own Flesh and Blood; that you should be His own, and live under Him in His Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  Thus it is that your true value and worth are indicated by what the Lord Jesus Christ has paid for you.

But, in fact, you are a slave to whatever you obey.  You are a slave to whatever master you follow, whether the Lord or your own fallen flesh.  And if you are a slave to sin, then you do the works of unrighteousness, which lead to death.  But if you are a slave to Christ, that is to say, by His grace, through faith in Him, you do the works of righteousness and life to the glory of His Name.

So, then, do not live as a slave to sin and death.  Nor suppose that your sins are harmless or okay.  If you live as a slave to sin, then you belong to sin, and you are subject to death, both now and forever.  For the wages of sin is death, as Holy Scripture plainly says.

Live instead as one who has died and risen with Christ, as dead to the world and alive to God.  For if you are a Christian, that is precisely who and what you are.  That is what God has accomplished in you by His Word and in your Holy Baptism.  You have been crucified, dead, and buried with Christ Jesus.  So are you also raised to newness of life in and with Him.  Live, therefore, according to His Word, in the confidence and courage of His Resurrection, as a member of His Body.

It is a matter of confessing what you have heard and received from the Lord Jesus Christ.  As you have been called and brought to faith and life by His Word of the Gospel, so confess that Word of His Gospel with your words and actions.  In that way you glorify God and serve your neighbor.

As it is not only your soul but also your body that has been redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ, and cleansed in the waters of His Holy Baptism, and sanctified by His Holy Spirit, and saved for the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, confess your Lord in and with your body.

Day in and day out — week by week throughout the year, throughout your life, from childhood into old age — work not for your own benefit, but work to serve your neighbor within the office and station in life to which the Lord has called you.  That is where He wills you to work in love for your neighbor, to live and serve according to His Word, as Christ also lives in love for you.

You need not wonder where or how you are to live.  Your job and duties may be tedious and boring.  They may be difficult and thankless.  They may get no attention or acknowledgment, even from those whom you serve.  Nevertheless, it is to such work that your own dear Father in heaven has called you in His Son.  He is well aware of you and your labor.  He sees and knows what you are about.  And He is pleased by your faithfulness.  Your faith and love in Christ are not in vain.

It is certain that you will not atone for your sins or justify yourself before God by your good works.  That is not the point or purpose of His Commandments or the duties He has given you to do.  But by your labors of faith and love, according to the Word of the Lord, within your office and station in life, you do confess your Lord Jesus Christ and glorify your Father in heaven.  That is the point.

Therefore, do not be lazy, slack, or cavalier in regards to the life that you are called to live as a Christian in the righteousness which is by faith in Christ.  Take that calling as seriously as the Cross and Passion of your Lord, and live it boldly in the hope and promise of His Resurrection.

By the same token, flee immorality.  That’s not just advice.  That, too, is the Word of the Lord.  Do not give your body over to lust of any kind, whether for your neighbor’s wife, or for pictures in a magazine or on your computer, or for money, or food, or position and prestige.  Covetousness is the root of all temptation, which conceives and gives birth to sin, which matures fully into death.

Therefore, do not live according to the lusts of your flesh, but turn around and run the other way.  And pray without ceasing that God would strengthen and sustain you in the faith, to do not what is deadly but what is good and right and acceptable according to His Word.

Do not live as though you were still dead in your trespasses and sin.  Do not continue in your evil deeds as though you still belonged to them, as though sin and death were your lord and master.  Do not go about your days and your deeds in this body and life on earth as though you were nothing more than a mass of decaying flesh, instead of the very temple of the Holy Spirit, a living being of body and soul, in whom Christ Jesus lives and abides by His grace.  Do not deny His Resurrection, nor disavow the Kingdom of your God and Father, as though it were a fantasy.

Remember that you are the Lord’s, His own precious possession, His child and heir.  Not only are you His creature, but all that you are, and all that you have, has been bought and paid for by Christ Himself, at the cost of His own Body and Life, by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood.  You belong to Him in life, in death, and in the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting.

For now, your life in Christ is hidden under His Cross.  You cannot see it, except through a glass darkly.  For He lives and dwells in thick darkness, in the midst of sin and death.  So you do not see or feel or experience His Resurrection and His Life with your mortal eyes or in your mortal flesh.  It is revealed to you only in His Word.  But even that can sound like such a soft and subtle whisper in your ear, which the wild world threatens to drown out with all its noisy chaos and confusion.

What, then, do you experience?  Fightings and fears within and without, and the war that rages in your members, in your body of death.  You find yourself returning to the slavery of sin, day after day, over and over again, even when you know better and desire to do better.

You are too easily persuaded by the sinful world around you, by the devil, and by your own sinful flesh.  And you are too sluggish to follow Christ, to live as He lives, to do as He has called you.

But now, do not despair, and do not be afraid.  Rather, repent of your sins each day, and bear the fruits of repentance.  Trust Christ, and live according to His Word, by faith in His forgiveness of your sins.  For you are called to be a lifelong disciple of Jesus, your Teacher.  Which is to say that you must continue to be instructed by Him, to be catechized by His Word and the preaching of it.

To be a disciple, which is to be a Christian, is to be a lifelong student of Christ Jesus.  It is to be a slave of this one Master.  For you are not above Him, but you are called to be like Him.  Listen to what He says.  Let His Word have its way with you, instead of insisting on your own way.

Hear and heed His Word of the Law, which reveals His good and acceptable Will.  For it is neither safe, nor godly, nor okay, to ignore or disobey the Lord’s Commandments.

But together with His Law, hear also His Word of the Gospel.  For what He teaches and reveals in His Law, He has accomplished and fulfilled for you and for all in His own Body and Life, by His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead, in holy faith and perfect love.

God’s Law accuses and condemns you because you are a sinner.  But God’s Law also sets before you a picture of Christ, who has lived as the true Man in perfect faith toward His God and Father and in perfect love for His Father and for all of His neighbors, including you.

He does not rob you.  He does not take your life.  He is not unfaithful in His promises to you, nor does He cast you aside for your unfaithfulness.  He does not speak against you.  He testifies on your behalf.  He declares you righteous for His own sake, with His own perfect Righteousness.  He gives you His own life, at His own expense, and with that He gives you all good things.

When He preaches His Law to you, it’s not because He’s already done His part and now it’s your turn to carry the weight for awhile.  He preaches His Law, as He does all things, that He might call you to Himself in peace.  That He might turn you away from sin and death and back to Himself.  That He might gather you to Himself and embrace you with His love, and bring you to the Father.

So it is that His Word of the Gospel does not command you but forgives you.  It rescues you from death.  And it brings you to life with God.  Because Christ has become your Righteousness, and Christ has become your Holiness.  His Cross and  Resurrection have reconciled you to God the Father.  His Word of the Gospel thus lays hold of you in love and brings you into safety forever.

Whatever sins have dwelt in your heart and mind, and whatever sins you have committed with your body, Christ forgives you by and with His Word of the Gospel.  And by this same Word He brings you into the presence of God, cleansed and holy, pleasing and acceptable to your Father in heaven.

Hear also how He confesses you before both God and man.  Hear how Jesus confesses you in the presence of heaven and earth.  He proclaims you to be His own.  He forgives you all of your sins.  And He feeds you with His own Body and Blood, the Ransom with which He has redeemed you.

The Son of Man comes to you here and now.  He comes to you in love, who has given Himself for you on the Cross, and who has been raised for your justification.  He has opened heaven to you and to all who believe and are baptized into Him.  Therefore, do not be afraid.  For Christ endures to the end.  And Lo, He is with you always, even to the close of the age, and unto the life everlasting.

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