Proper 16 of Series C (Luke 13:22-30)

“And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, what is it that teachers say- ‘There are no stupid questions’? I think that little saying makes a lot of sense, because usually the only way to find out information is to ask questions. A lot of you know that I have been spending most of my first month here asking questions, then listening to and learning from your answers. The answer to most of those questions is probably obvious and easy to those of you who have been a part of these two congregations for a long time, but for a newbie like me, I have no clue unless I ask. In our text for today, Jesus is chugging around Israel, and someone stops Him to ask a question. Now, keep in mind what Jesus has been talking about lately. In Luke chapter twelve we have plenty of fire and brimstone, judgment and warnings, and we heard a bit of that last week. In response to these teachings, an unnamed ‘someone’ comes up to Jesus and says: “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” It’s as if he walked up to Jesus, gave Him a friendly pat on the back and said, “Whoa, Jesus, that’s pretty intense, all that fire and judgment and stuff. Whew! Probably not many of these people out here are gonna make it, right?”

Jesus doesn’t dislike questions, but He usually has something to say when a person examines others without examining himself. The questioner wants to talk about all those ‘other people’ out there, but Jesus wants to make it much more personal. He wants to turn the question around- the questioner asks, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” but Jesus wants him to ask, “Will I be saved?” To do this, Jesus, like a good carpenter, speaks about doors: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” What kind of door is this? We learn all about it in Revelation. When Jesus speaks to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation chapter three, He says, “Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” Here we have a door hanging wide open, that no human could shut, even if they wanted to. And that door is open for those who are in Christ. What is behind this door? Well, we’re in luck, because in Revelation chapter four John goes through it. “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’” Behind that door John sees the throne of heaven, he sees God Himself on the throne and the Lamb, Jesus Christ, enthroned with Him. The door that Jesus speaks about is the door to heavenly glory, to the very throne of God! But while the door was open to all those in Christ, it will not remain open forever. Jesus says, "When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.'"

The narrow door is shut, and many, many people are left outside. Now there is a crowd that doesn’t even know that there was a door in the first place, or if they did, they ignored it during their life and they aren’t going to change now. There are plenty who put their trust in other gods or no god at all. But much closer to that door is a group who is loudly banging on it and crying for entry. You might recognize some of that group. There are plenty of God’s chosen people there, the nation of Israel, those who brought the messianic line to completion in the womb of Mary. The Gospel first came to them. A large contingent is those who followed Jesus around Palestine for the three years of His ministry. Jesus actually taught amongst them. Many were born into strong Christian families, and their names remained in a church directory throughout their life. We can see some that sat in the pew at church each and every Sunday, constantly surrounded by God’s. There are even more than a few pastors and church leaders, those who had the privilege of proclaiming God’s Word. They all have a common objection to voice. “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’” Wait a minute, Jesus! I was in your house each and every week. Sure, I never paid attention, and didn’t really believe much of it then, but I was there! I was born into a strong Christian family! I never came to church, but my name’s on the membership list- doesn’t that count for something? I preached your word and administered your sacraments for decades. I let my own faith wither and die, but I served you for too long to sit outside the door! Isn’t that just another form of works-righteousness, trusting in our deeds to bring us to heaven? If we think that our birth, church membership, or worship attendance alone can bring us through that door, then we are sadly and tragically mistaken.

Jesus here destroys any self-confidence that we may have in our own ability to waltz through that door ourselves and attain heavenly glory. Jesus has some pretty harsh words of warning for those who trust in themselves: "In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out." Where can we turn, then, for salvation? We cannot trust our own ability, but instead must place our trust in another. How do we pass through the narrow door? Jesus doesn’t give us detailed instructions on how to gain entry, but instead He goes forth to achieve entry for us.

For Jesus Christ Himself is the door that He spoke of in our text. He teaches us this in John chapter ten. “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” He is the one through whom we find entry into heaven, He is the one who provides access to the Father, He alone is the narrow door, the only pathway to eternal life. He is all these things only because He traveled to Jerusalem. Luke told us at the beginning of our text: “He went on His way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.” This is not some idle comment by St. Luke, but a reminder of what Jesus is doing throughout the latter part of the Gospel. Jesus has set His face to go to Jerusalem, and He is determined to go there despite all that He may face in that city. He goes to provide access to the Father, to bring us through Himself to heaven by demolishing the barrier between God and man. Before Jesus went to the cross, there wasn’t a narrow door at all, in fact every pathway to God was barred by our sin. All humanity stood outside the walls, doomed to spend eternity separated from their Creator. But Jesus came to change all that. He came to create a door, a door that would provide access to God for all people. And He forged this door in His own blood.

Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem to shed His blood there, to give up His life for you, for me, and for all people. His blood poured out there reconciled you to your heavenly Father, it provided access to heaven, the open door that Jesus told the church in Philadelphia about. Jesus said in the final verse of our text. “And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Jesus was the firstborn of all creation, God’s only and beloved Son. But on the cross God’s firstborn became last, for He placed you, me, and all people before Himself by submitting to death on our behalf. On the cross, the exalted One was humbled, and He choose to be humbled because of His great love for you. Jesus did all of that, He gave up His very life into death to open up a door to heaven, a door to the heavenly banquet. The way to heaven now lies open, and it goes through Jesus Christ.

With His resurrection from the dead on the third day, Jesus then works to bring us through the open door and into the feast. He says, “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” You might recognize some of this group. It will include some of the lowliest members of humanity, those who had little else to depend on rather than Christ. There will be Gentiles at the feast, those from every nation, tribe, and language, those called by the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word. It will include all those who cling to their baptism in God-given faith, struggling in a sinful world to hold onto the promises of Jesus. But their weak and faltering grip on Christ is overpowered by His strong grip on them, for He knows that without His aid, none of us could stand. That is what it means to “strive to enter through the narrow door.” It means the struggle of the life of repentance, worked by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. This crowd is harassed by Satan, it is scorned by the world, but it belongs to Jesus, and He preserves them through His gifts, His Word and His Holy Sacraments. He says about them, “And behold, some are last who will be first.” And it will include you and me, those who have nothing of our own to offer Christ but our sins, and He takes them upon Himself and then carries us through the door to the heavenly banquet. That is why we come to this place, not to earn something before God, but instead to receive His great gifts, the forgiveness we need and the strength we require to strive and struggle in this sinful world.

We do so knowing that because of Christ we are destined for the reality described in our Epistle lesson: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” That is what lies behind the open door- thanks be to God that Jesus will bring us through it! In His name, Amen.

Proper 15 of Series C (Luke 12:49-53)

“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read just a moment ago from the twelfth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, I want you to think about Christmas. Now, that shouldn’t be too difficult considering the weather we have been having lately. Last week was positively Christmas-esque. What I especially want you to think about is the song that the angels sang that night. In fact, it is the same song that we sang earlier in the service. The Gloria in Excelsis is the song of Christmas, it is the song of the angels! Turn back to it with me (it’s on page seventeen). We sang: “Glory be to God on high; And on earth peace, good will toward men.” It makes sense, doesn’t it, that we would begin our service at Christmas. And what characterizes the song of the angels? Peace.

You heard that same word at the beginning of the sermon: “Grace, mercy, and peace…” You will hear it at the Lord’s Supper: “The peace of the Lord be with you always!” And you will hear it as you depart this place: “The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” Peace, peace, peace! That’s really all we want to talk about throughout the Divine Service, and for good reason. For when the infant Christ child was born of Mary, He was born to bring peace, peace between God and man. Jesus’ work can be summed up by that one Word, and that is why we speak it so often. His death and resurrection reconciled us to our heavenly Father, to our Creator, His work tore down the dividing wall of hostility between God and man. When Jesus hung upon that cross, He was bringing peace, the peace that we needed, the peace that passes all understanding.

This emphasis on peace makes Jesus’ words in our text for today seem very out of place: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Can you imagine being amongst the disciples that day? “Whoa, wait a minute Jesus! Didn’t anybody tell you that you became man only to bring peace? Maybe you missed the memo, maybe the song of the angels didn’t quite get back to you, but your mission is to restore relationships, not divide them.” But Jesus has a point to make on this day. His disciples, along with you and I, need a reality check, we need to understand what consequences follow in the wake of the Messiah’s work. And while Jesus came to bring peace between God and man, His work would not provide peace in this world. Instead, division is the unfortunate result.
The work of Jesus confronts all of humanity with a question, the same question Jesus put to the disciples in Matthew chapter sixteen: “Who do you say that I am?” Many throughout the centuries, along with you and I, reply with Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” We can only say this through the faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, many, many more in every generation say that Jesus is just a guy, just some good teacher, just a prophet, a revolutionary, a vegetarian, and a whole host of other things. In fact, people have answered that question with just about every label we have, but none of those answers is correct. They reject Him and His work, sometimes out of spite, sometimes out of ignorance or indifference, sometimes because they simply can’t believe what Jesus says about Himself. But whatever the reason, they reject Him, and the world is separated into two camps, Christ’s work divides humanity in two. We who believe in Christ as our Savior are in one camp, and those who reject Him are in another. And the reality is that we will spend eternity in those same two groups.

This wouldn’t be so tough if it was simply all of those nameless, faceless people ‘out there’ who were opposed to Christ, but you and I know that the division that Christ’s work brings hits far closer to home. “For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” You all know the truth of Jesus’ words here. You know all too well that when confronted with the work of Christ, our own families become fractured. We all have family members that have abandoned the faith, those who have gone to another religion or those who have joined America’s fastest growing religious group: “No Preference.” This is painful, it hurts us deeply, especially when we have done our best to raise them in the faith or provide a positive influence in their lives. And this division is even more difficult when we face the ridicule or even persecution of those whom we love the most because of our faith. We hear about this tragedy in our Introit for today. “For it is not an enemy who taunts me- then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me- then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, by familiar friend.” If we don’t face persecution from our families and friends, we sure face it from the world. One only needs to watch the news, read a newspaper, or surf the internet to find people mocking Christianity, or in the case of Islam, threatening our very lives. The division that Christ’s work brings surrounds us at all times, and Jesus tells us that it is a reality in our lives until He returns.

Jesus knows that His work will cause division, but He knows that it is only through division that He can bring us salvation. He begins our text: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” Jesus is agitated, He is distressed, for He is headed for a baptism that is not by water at all, but by fire, the fire of God’s wrath. He is constrained by divine necessity to go to that baptism, for in that bloody baptism on the cross Jesus will pay the price for our sin. There the hot wrath of God that we deserved for our sin will burn against Jesus, and it will consume Him, it will kill Him on that cross. On Good Friday, Jesus Himself will experience the division that His work causes. His own family and people, and indeed all men to whom He came as a brother will condemn Him to death and nail Him to the cross. But that was not the greatest division of that day. Jesus proclaimed in our text: “They will be divided, father against son.” On the cross, Jesus’ Father will be divided against His only-begotten Son. God will pour out His wrath on His beloved child, He will separate Himself from His Son, Jesus will suffer the reality of hell. This fact causes Jesus anguish, it causes Him distress, but still He goes, for He is determined to accomplish your salvation, He is absolutely committed to deliver you. And He will go to Calvary’s cross because He loves you, and He does not want you to spend eternity separated from your heavenly Father. He was willing to suffer that separation, that division; He was willing to have His Father be against Him so that our Father would never be against us. Jesus did that all for you, and now He claims you as His own through your own Baptism.

If Jesus describes His death as a baptism, then it only makes sense that our baptism is into His death. When you were brought to the font and water was poured on your head “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” you were incorporated into Christ’s death, you were brought all of the gifts that He won there. But baptism also entails a division, this one much more personal. The prophet Zechariah connects Christ’s death with this division. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the LORD of hosts... In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people;’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

The sword has been awakened against Christ, and when it strikes Him, not only is humanity divided into those who believe on Jesus and those who reject Him, but those who believe are put through the fire. This is the fire of baptism. In Jesus’ bloody baptism on the cross, He faced the fire of God’s wrath; therefore, when He baptized you into His death, the God’s fire did not destroy you, but instead it refined you, it burned away your sin and corruption. Jesus divided from you all that kept you from a relationship with the Father. Because you are incorporated into His death and resurrection, God says to you, “They are my people.” Because you are now His child, you can say in response: “The Lord is my God.” This is not a painless process. The old sinful man within us wants to hold on, He does not want to leave. Therefore Baptism is more than a one-time occurrence, it is lifelong cycle of repentance, of Christ working within us to burn away our sin and divide our sinful nature from us. John the Baptist prophesied this baptismal life in Luke chapter three. “John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’” Christ causes division within you, division which purifies you, which cleanses you, which brings you every good gift that He won.

Christ’s work removes every weight, every hindrance, every sin that separated us from our heavenly Father. Because He chose to be divided from His Father, because He divided us from our sin, He will give us eternal peace. That is the peace He gives, that is the peace the angels declared, not peace in this world, but peace forever, peace with our Father, peace that lasts. He does not give as the world gives, but He gives more, He gives lavishly, He gives to you and me the victory that His resurrection declares. God’s peace is yours forever, because of your Savior! In His holy and precious Name, Amen.

Proper 14 of Series C (Genesis 15:1-6)

“Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. Dear friends in Christ: one of my favorite chapters in all of Scripture is our Epistle lesson for today, Hebrews chapter eleven, the ‘Hall of Faith.’ In this chapter, the author lists out the great heroes of the Old Testament, showing that each of them lived by faith, not by sight. He begins by giving the textbook definition of faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” By that definition, Abraham was definitely a man of faith. When the Lord first appeared to him, He came with marching orders: Abraham was to leave his home and travel to a far off land, living as a stranger and foreigner. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” From this we may get the impression that Abraham lived the easy life of faith, trusting fully and completely in God. But when we read our Old Testament lesson for today, we get the other side of the picture.

Abraham was afraid. He was a wealthy and powerful man, and even though he had obediently left his homeland to live as a stranger in the promised land, he still carried much of home with him. He still had his livestock, his servants, and all his possessions. And now he feared for those possessions. Abraham had no son to receive his inheritance. God had promised when He first called Abraham that He would make him a ‘great nation,’ but nothing seemed to be happening. And now he was afraid. He cried out to God: “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” We too fear for the stuff of this world. We fear and worry about money, about our things, especially in these troubled times we spend a ton of time thinking about our financial security. For a lot of us, the time spent fearing and worrying about the things of this world far outweigh the time spent in prayer, devotion, or bible study, showing that our priorities are often pretty similar to Abraham’s.

Now as Christians, we do want to put the best construction on everything, and so while it seems that Abraham is only concerned about the disposition of all his earthly stuff, we can guess that there was a deeper fear in the back of his mind. He knew that long ago, when man first fell into sin, God promised to provide a deliverer. The Lord declared to the treacherous serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” But now that promise had hit a roadblock. Sarah’s barren womb brought the messianic line to a screeching halt. In the back of Abraham’s mind, he must have realized what this meant. If God did not bring forth from his line the promised messiah, then man would remain in sin, separated from God. And that we should truly fear. We should fear that possibility more than the loss of all our material things in this world, for if God does not bring forth a Savior, then we are done for. All mankind is then condemned to hell, no questions asked, for our sins would still separate us from our creator. If we truly understand what it means for Sarah to have a barren womb, then we too should tremble with fear. All other fears and worries in this life pale in comparison to this situation, for if we do not have salvation from our sins, nothing in this world matters at all.

All people react to fear in different ways, but most of us, like Abraham, usually have a complaint ready for someone. At least Abraham directed his complaint to the One who could do something about his situation, his Creator: “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” Well, we tried to put the best construction on it, but it seems that Abraham, like us, is mostly concerned with his things, his property and wealth. But at least he cries out to the right person. Our world teaches us to cry out to a whole host of others when we have fear. Now, lawyers, Thrivent representatives, or bankers are not bad people to turn to, but when we turn to them alone and not to God, then we are placing our trust in the wrong place. But even if we do cry out in complaint to God, as Abraham did, we often need patience, for God works on His own timetable. And patience comes hard to one who is living in fear. Abraham once again receives the promise of God in our text, but the promise is not fulfilled immediately. Fear takes hold again and then leads to impatience, and in the following chapters Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands. Abraham tries to get his heir with Hagar, and while a son is born, the only result is a dysfunctional household. God will accomplish His purposes in His own time, but for sinful humans, patience is difficult, if not impossible.

Impatience leads to us trying to do things our own way, and when we try that, things usually become worse. But God’s purposes will not be thwarted, even by our own efforts to move Him along or help Him out. His great plan to deliver us from sin, death, and the power of the devil had hit a roadblock, Sarah’s barren womb. But our Lord and Creator had something to say about that situation. “After these things the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward will be very great.’” Do not fear? Why shouldn’t Abram fear? As we heard before Abram has plenty to fear, and all of humanity with him. But the Lord says, “I am your shield.” God has defended Abraham before, and He promises to do so now. But how will He defend us? Our enemies are death and hell, and they are powerful foes. We need deliverance, we need a Savior, and all our hopes rest on an elderly woman’s barren womb. But that barren womb will remain an important part of our salvation. “And behold, the Word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” The Lord thunders forth His promise- Sarah will bear a son. Despite Abraham’s fears, despite his impatience, God will preserve the Messianic line. He will protect and preserve His promise.

The Seed of a woman, begun with Eve’s son Seth, would not be halted by Sarah’s barren womb, but the Lord would open that womb and bring forth Isaac. And God would provide for His people through the centuries, He would defend that seed until the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she brought forth the Messiah. Jesus Christ, the seed of a woman, the offspring of Israel, would be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that night. Jesus Christ came to conquer fear, He came to be a shield for His people, He came to deliver to us heavenly treasure, for He had come to reconcile us to God. Do not fear, for Abraham’s offspring is also His God and your God, come to reconcile His people to Himself. Do not fear, for Jesus Christ took on human flesh to bear your sin. Do not fear, for He gave Himself in your place to the shame of crucifixion, the Son of God in the place of those whom He loved. Do not fear, for every drop of blood that He shed there He shed for you and your salvation. Do not fear, for the One prophesied long ago crushed Satan’s head just as God said He would. Do not fear, for Christ conquered your great enemy, death, when He rose victorious from the grave. Do not fear, for your Lord will take you to be with Himself in eternal glory. Do not fear, for Jesus Christ is your shield, and He will defend you against every assault of your enemies. Death, hell, and Satan have nothing against you now. God kept His promise, and when He opened Sarah’s womb He opened up the line which would bring to you salvation.

“And [Abram] believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” Abraham grasped onto the great promise of the Lord in faith; he believed that what God said would come true. That faith conquered fear, because it was rooted in the very promises of God. Faith is not simply something floating out there by itself. The moment we begin examining our own faith on its own merits, we are in trouble. Instead, faith has an object, it has a focus, it fixes its eyes on the promise of God and there it finds its anchor. Only when faith is centered on the promises of God can it conquer fear, doubt, and impatience. We, like Abraham, have the promise of God, the promise of Jesus Christ and His redemption, the promise that through Christ we have been reconciled to our Creator and have forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Through this promise the Holy Spirit creates faith within us, faith which grasps onto God’s Word and Jesus Christ Himself. And because we, like Abraham, grasp onto Jesus in God-given faith, what happens? “And [Abram] believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” Because we are joined with Christ through faith, God sees us as righteous, He declares us righteous. We are right before God because of Jesus! Faith focused on Christ joins us to His death and resurrection, and it brings to us all that He won there.

St. Paul turns to our text when he writes to the Romans about this faith. “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” We confess that it is by faith alone that we are justified, made right in God’s eyes. Any of our own efforts, any of our own attempts to help God along cannot reconcile us to our Creator, but simply push us further away. Faith alone reconciles us to God. But faith is never alone. Faith has an object, Jesus Christ Himself, His promise to deliver you from sin, death, and hell through His sacrifice, His promise to keep and preserve you despite anything you face in your life. As our Lord said in our Gospel lesson today, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Proper 13 of Series C (Luke 12:

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the twelfth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, as I travel the roads of northern Crawford County, I cannot help but notice how wonderful the crops look. Each and every field seems to be bursting with tall, green corn or full and bushy beans. It seems to me that we are headed for a bumper crop and a joyous harvest. Now I know that most of you are not directly involved in bringing in that bumper crop, but I don’t have to tell you that the entire economy of this area is ultimately dependent on those fields, making a good harvest good for everyone. The Lord has truly blessed us this summer, but when you think about it, He has blessed us each and every year, for even when the crops are not so good, He still provides for our needs.

That is because our God is a giver- He loves to shower His good gifts upon His people. I don’t think anyone has expressed this better than Luther did in his explanation to the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all I need to support this body and life.” The gifts of a fruitful creation, providing all that we need to live on this earth, come only from God. He works through humans to give these gifts to us, but they ultimately flow from His desire to give us every good thing. All that we have to support this body and life flow from the loving hands of our Creator. But notice how Luther began: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul…” Not only does God give us the things we need for our lives, but even our lives themselves are a gift from Him. Our lives are not our own, but they are given and sustained by Him as a gift, along with every other gift.

But somehow that doesn’t sit right with us. We have been taught that our lives are our own, to use how we please, that the abundance of the earth is a result of our labor, to provide for our own pleasure and perceived needs. The rich man in our text is not too far off from any one of us. Listen again to this parable of Jesus: “The land of [a Crawford county farmer] produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’” There is nothing wrong with building a barn, silo, or grain bin, but notice what the rich man doesn’t do. He doesn’t give thanks to God for this abundant harvest. He sees the abundance of his fields as something for himself, something earned solely by his own labor, and therefore something to be enjoyed by himself. Listen to the pronouns: my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods. He depends on no one but himself. And now he even has a conversation with himself: “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.’” What is your first response when God has blessed you? Is it to give thanks and praise to Him? Is it to think of the needs of others that you can now provide for? Or do we, like the man in our text, praise ourselves and think about our own wants? The rich man completely isolates himself from others, he doesn’t think of God, he doesn’t think of his neighbor, but only about number one.

Before He tells this story, Jesus warns us: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness.” Saint Paul in our Epistle lesson has an interesting take on that term, which is the same thing as greed: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Paul equates covetousness or greed with idolatry! It is not too hard to see why. Idolatry is the violation of God’s first commandment: “You shall have no other Gods.” Luther gives us the explanation: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Who did the rich man fear, love, and trust? Himself. He made an idol out of his own accomplishments, his own wealth; in fact his own life of leisure became his idol. That is what happens when we depend on ourselves, when we don’t give thanks to God or share our bounty with others. We become self-centered and self-dependent, eventually worshipping not the God who gives all good gifts but instead only ourselves. But God has a wake-up call for all who trust in themselves: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” A fool is one who places his trust in anything or anyone other than God. When we are focused only on ourselves, we are blinded to the fact that our own lives are given by God. It is His prerogative to take that life back when He so chooses. At that point, anything we have stored up here on earth is worthless, it can do nothing to help us, as God tells the rich man, “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Jesus’ conclusion is a warning to us all: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

This brings up an important question: how do we become rich toward God? It is relatively easy to lay up treasure for ourselves, for greed is not simply a vice of the rich, but where is it that we find heavenly treasure? The answer, once again, comes in God’s character. Our God is a giving God. And in order to give us the heavenly treasure we needed, He gave us another gift. Luther talks about this gift in the explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord.” That is why we open presents on Christmas, because on that night God gave to us the gift of His Son. And Jesus Christ came into the world as God’s great gift to us to bestow on us even greater gifts. Luther continues: “who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”

Jesus Christ came to give to us His own life in our place, on the cross He won the great gifts of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. He came to fulfill the promise we heard in today’s Introit: “God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me.” We couldn’t pay for our own redemption, no amount of the stuff of this world could fulfill the debt we owed. But Jesus Christ, God’s gift to us, paid on our account with His life, with His very blood. He ransomed us from the power of death, He gave to us His very self. Jesus did this out of the same love that motivated the Father to create us, the same love that motivates Him to give us every good thing. Jesus hung on that cross to deliver you, to redeem you, to pay your debt out of His great love for you and His desire to give you the ultimate good gift: eternal life with Him.

When Christ rose from the grave on Easter Sunday, He went forth to deliver the heavenly treasure and inheritance to you, me, and all people. One becomes rich before God by being joined with Christ, by having His treasures poured into our hearts. He pours out on you in abundance His holy Word, filling your treasure chests with every good thing that your soul needs. This very day He gives to you the gift given by God on Christmas Eve and by Christ Himself on Good Friday, His very Body and Blood, given and shed for your salvation. He fills you with the treasure of Himself. Finally, he poured out on your head the treasure of Holy Baptism, where He gave to you an eternal inheritance, one that will never fade. You are not your own, you are His, bought with a price, and so the Lord desires to give you every good gift. The treasure and inheritance delivered through those gifts declares us right before God, it is the treasure that counts in eternity.

The man who called out to Jesus at the beginning of our text wanted Jesus to divide his inheritance with his brother. Jesus responded: “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Jesus did not come to grant earthly inheritances, He came to grant to us a heavenly inheritance, entry into the new heavens and the new earth where we will dwell into eternity. Because we have such a treasure, such an inheritance, we can have confidence that our God will continue to provide for us out of His rich bounty. We are freed from worry about trying to store up treasure on earth, for our inheritance is not of this world. Now, this does not mean that we sit around, waiting for God to send us abundance from the sky. We do continue to labor wherever God has placed us. But we do so with confidence in God’s providing hand, and with thankfulness for whatever He gives to us. If God gave to us His very Son, how will He hesitate to provide us with everything we need for this body and life? Our God is a giver God, and the same one who gave us Jesus Christ for our salvation will also give to us “clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have.” He will provide for you because He loves you and has redeemed you through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Unlike the rich man in our parable, as Christians, when God blesses us with abundance in any way, we do not keep it for ourselves, but we give thanks to God for it and put it to use to bless those around us. The Lord uses us as His means for providing those ‘First Article gifts’ to our neighbors. We do this in the confidence that as God has blessed us, so He will continue to bless us. He is our heavenly Father, who desires to give good gifts to His children. He has given to you His Son Jesus Christ, and someday He will show you the heavenly inheritance that He has won for you! Amen.

Proper 12 of Series C (Genesis 18:20-33)

“And the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the eighteenth chapter of Genesis. Dear friends in Christ, the Lord looked toward the city and said, “Because the outcry…is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” And the Lord turned to go, but an intercessor came up and stood between God and the city. This man interposed himself between the Lord and creator of the universe and the sinful city there below. Webster’s dictionary defines an intercessor as one who offers “mediation, pleading, or prayer in behalf of another or others.” That is exactly what this intercessor intends to do. He places himself between God and the city and goes to work.

The intercessor gets right to the point, calling on God’s just character to spare the city. “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!” He knows who he is dealing with. God is a God of justice, and while justice may mean the punishment of the wicked, it also means the deliverance of the righteous. But God answers, “If I find…fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. But don’t count on it. This people is rebellious and sinful, they do not hallow my Name. My Name is holy because I am holy, but these people use my Name in vain, they dishonor it by the way they live. They do not realize that every moment they bear my Name, and their sin defiles it. But if there are fifty who hallow my Name, the city will be spared.”

The intercessor is a good Old Testament Hebrew; he knows that the highest form of faith is to wrestle with God, to cry out to Him in prayer, and so he boldly pushes the envelope. “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” God wants His people to wrestle with Him in prayer, to bring every request to Him, and so He does not become angry, but answers: “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there. But don’t get your hopes up. This people wants nothing to do with my kingdom, they certainly don’t want it to come. They have things just fine the way they are, with a comfortable life, money, material goods. They don’t see that they have any need for my kingdom to come to them. But yet if there are forty-five who see their need for my just rule, the city will be spared.”

The intercessor knows that God is a god of justice, but He is also a God of grace. He wants to deliver His creation, for He loves all He made. “Again he spoke to Him and said, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’” The Lord of the universe answers, “For the sake of forty I will not do it. But I fear even so few are lacking. No one wants my will to be done, only their own. These people want their own desires fulfilled, they care nothing for my good and gracious will. They trust only in themselves, and have little room in their heart to depend on me. But if forty seek my will, I will spare the city.”

“Then he said, ‘Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” The Lord answers, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there. But there may not be thirty there who seek their daily bread from my gracious and overflowing hand. My people do not realize that I provide every good gift, and so they depend on their own labor to supply their needs. They toil away; they worry constantly about daily bread. They do not realize that I work through my creation to provide for them, they forget that it is their sin that has cursed the ground in the first place. But if thirty seek daily bread from their creator, I will not do it.”

The intercessor is one very bold individual, to bargain with God over the fate of the city. But that is what God desires from those who pray, boldness to bring every request before Him, to ask, seek and knock. And so the intercessor speaks again: “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” The Lord answers, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it. But not even twenty may be found who forgive their neighbor. Instead they hold onto their neighbor’s sin, letting it fester inside, waiting to be used at the worst possible moment. They do not even know how to say ‘I’m sorry,’ and when they do, the answer too often is ‘It’s OK,’ rather than ‘You are forgiven.’ But if twenty forgive their neighbors when they sin against them, I will spare the city.”

The intercessor is persistent with God, but he knows that God loves the persistent prayers of His people, and so he speaks one last time: “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” The Lord has a look of sadness as He answers, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it. But that deceiver, that murderer from the beginning has led all astray into temptation. They have all deserted me, they are all corrupted with sin from their first parents, as my psalmist said, ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’”

The Intercessor is not fazed by this reply, this final striking down of His prayers for the city, for its people, but instead He says, “No, Father, none of these your created people are righteous, but I am righteous, and I will stand in their place. I will become man, taking on their human flesh, and I will live the life they could not, perfectly fulfilling your Law. I will fulfill it in their place, so that it can no longer accuse and condemn them. And if the Law no longer accuses, then there will be no place for the Accuser. I will defeat the evil one, Satan, on their behalf, for their sake I will crush his head just as you promised from the beginning. And finally, I will stand between your wrath and them. Just as I have stood before you and interceded for them, so I will stand before you as the Righteous One, hung upon the tree for the sin of the world, for all of their rebellion, all of their sin, all of their falling into temptation. You are a just God, and so sin must be punished, but you are also a gracious and merciful God, and so you desire not that men die eternally but that they are reconciled to you. On the cross your justice and your mercy will meet, as wrath over sin will be poured out on me so that you can show mercy to your people. Through me you will be reconciled with your people. I willingly do this because I love these people, and you love these people; I love them so that I am willing to face your wrath for their sakes, you love them so much that you are willing to give me up, your only Son, on the altar of the cross.”

God looked in love upon His only begotten Son, the Righteous One, the One whom He loved, and said, “I could not find even ten righteous ones in the city, but for the sake of the one Righteous One, my Son Jesus Christ, I will spare the city. He will put His righteous life in the place of the sinful lives of my created people, and His death will pay for their sin forever. His sacrifice will reconcile me to my people, and I will welcome them to the heavenly banquet forever in the new heavens and the new earth into all eternity. And because He gave Himself up into death in order to conquer death, my Son will not remain in the grave. I will raise Him up on the third day victorious over all that held my beloved people captive. He will rise as the victor over death, so that my people need not fear its sting any longer, but will see it as the door to eternal glory. All who cling to my Son in faith, the faith given through the gifts of my Word and Holy Sacraments, will be delivered. He will come to them and grasp onto them, and no one will snatch them from His hand. Satan will still try to lead them into temptation, but he is a chained lion without fangs; he can no longer accuse them before me, and they can find forgiveness from my overflowing springs each and every time that they fall. When I look at them, I see my Son and His righteousness.”

Our Intercessor, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior then says to us this day: “Behold, now that I have won the victory over sin, death, and the grave through my death and resurrection, I have ascended to the Father’s throne and continue to intercede for you before Him. You can take confidence and great joy in knowing that I am praying for you, praying that your faith may be strengthened and preserved until you join the saints of all ages in eternal glory. And because I now intercede for you, you can in boldness pray to my Father. You can bring any concern before Him, you can cry out to Him for deliverance, but most importantly you can now intercede for others. You can hold others up before your Father’s heavenly throne and know that you are heard, for I have delivered you. They need your prayers, they need your intercession, and here especially on Sunday mornings the entire body of Christ prays on their behalf. That is why I gave to you my prayer, because in those simple words you not only pray for yourself, but you pray for the entire world, and you pray not as strangers, not as those separated from God, but as His dear children. For my sake, you pray ‘Our Father’ until you see your Father face to face in heavenly glory.” Amen.

Proper 11 of Series C (Luke 10:38-42)

“One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, our Introit for today comes from the longest chapter in the bible, Psalm 119. This psalm is all about the Word of God, more specifically our study of His Word and our meditation upon it. The little snippet we spoke together earlier in the service is so wonderful because it expresses the psalmist’s joy in studying the Word. Hear again what he says: “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” He cannot imagine walking through this dark world without God’s Word to guide him. And listen again to how he concludes: “The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!” He loves the Word of the Lord so much that He cries to his God to give him more, to teach him more. As we read these words, we can feel the joy he receives from every moment spent in the midst of God’s Word.

How about you and me? Do we feel that same joy from hearing or reading God’s Word? Do we cry out to our God with eagerness, “teach me your statutes!” No doubt many of you are thinking, “I do feel that joy! I am excited and eager to learn God’s Word!” Even though I have only been among you for a short time, I have no doubt that this is true, but we should dig a little deeper. Do we always receive God’s Word with joy? Or are there times when the things of this world keep us from hearing God’s Word? We have plenty of distractions in our world today, there are many other things to do rather than read our bible our spend time in prayer. You know what many of these are in your own life. Whether it is the television, the internet, or simply the busyness of life, there is always something waiting to pull us away from God’s Word. Satan has always been a master at distracting us from the study of God’s Word, and with our current technology and busy schedules, he barely has to work at it anymore. He wants us to not have time for God’s Word, because He wants us disconnected from the source of strength and life. He wants us to wither away from a drought of our own creation. And in our text for today, we see that even service can distract us from hearing God’s Word.

This is a dangerous text for a new pastor to preach on. A pastor is supposed to encourage his people to serve, right? And then, on his first Sunday, as he climbs into the pulpit the cruel fate of the lectionary is that he has to preach on the story of Mary and Martha. He has to tell his people, these people whom he barely knows, these people on whom he has to depend to run these churches, that service is a bad thing!? We’ll be lucky if we have coffee after church…or ever. How can service, especially service to Christ, be a negative? When we think about it in these terms, I think we can understand Martha’s dilemma. She welcomed Jesus into her home, and now she thought it was only proper to show Him hospitality. She’s just following the example of Abraham, right? We heard about him in our Old Testament lesson, how he hurried about to prepare a meal for his three angelic visitors. Martha knows what good hospitality entails, and it has nothing to do with sitting in the living room while the Messiah has nothing to eat! That is why she says to Jesus, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”

The reply of Jesus is striking: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Martha’s service has turned into a distraction, which has then transformed into worry and anxiety. Satan is the master of deception; he is an expert at using even good things to pull us away from God’s Word. I think we all have a little Martha in us, and the danger unfortunately increases the more we are involved in our church and in our communities. We get so wrapped up in serving, in doing the tasks to help our Lord’s Church and our neighbor that we work ourselves into a frenzy, forgetting why we serve in the first place. The church can become a place where people are simply busy, as if busyness was a mark of God’s favor. This can feed into Satan’s greatest lie, that our service is needed to please God, that it is something we do to earn His favor. How often are we tempted to think that our service, our busyness, will earn us God’s grace? Satan wants us to stand before God on the day of judgment with our titles, or a list of all our volunteer hours, depending on them to give us entry into eternal life. That is Martha’s fundamental problem. She thinks that she first has to serve Jesus. She thinks that He has come as a triumphant king to receive glory and honor from all He meets. In order for blessings to come to her, she needs to do something for Jesus.

But that way of thinking is completely backward. Jesus says in Matthew 20:28, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Martha’s problem is that she is trying to serve the One who came to serve! Jesus Christ came into this world not as a triumphant king searching for glory and servants, but instead He came in the form of a servant, and He was on His way to Jerusalem to render the greatest service of all, His very own life for us. He declared to Martha, “One thing is necessary.” We know that in this life plenty of things are necessary. We need food, we need water, we need air and a place to live. But here Jesus says that only one thing is necessary. I can imagine Him pointing at His own chest as He said those words. Jesus is the only necessary thing, and Him alone. All those other necessities pale before Him, because our need for Him was greater than any other need. The same sin that distracts us from God, the same sin that uses even our service to pull us away from Him, left us condemned before Him. All the church titles and all the volunteer hours in the world could not reconcile us to God. We had a need for a Savior, and thanks be to God that our Savior came in the form of a servant.

Jesus Christ came to serve you when He carried your sins to the cross. Jesus Christ came to serve you when He stood in your place before Pilate’s judgment seat. Jesus came to serve you when He faced the wrath of God over your sin and my sin upon that cross. Jesus came to serve you when He crushed Satan’s head by sacrificing Himself in your place, removing the penalty for your sin. Jesus came to serve you when He triumphed over sin, Satan, and the grave by walking out of the empty tomb on the third day. The entire life of Jesus was one of service, service to you, service for your salvation. And because He came not to be served but to serve, you will dwell with Him forever in heaven. Your sins have been washed away by Christ’s sacrificial death and His victorious resurrection. He fulfilled our necessity, He was determined to wipe out our greatest need, and so He willingly offered the greatest service by laying down His life. Rejoice, for we do not have to depend on our service to be reconciled to God, but instead He came to serve us!

You see, Mary had the proper perspective. Listen to how Luke describes her. “And [Martha] had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching.” Although she may not have understood all the details, Mary knew that Jesus had not come to simply receive, but He had first come to give. And thanks be to God that Christ’s service, His giving to His people, did not end with the cross. The salvation He accomplished there He now delivers to us in His Word and His holy sacraments. We gather here each and every week to sit at the feet of Jesus, receiving His gifts from Him again and again. Jesus proclaims His Word to you, His Word of forgiveness, His Word of life. He worked through a pastor to baptize you, bringing you into His kingdom. And on this day, He serves you by giving of Himself. The same body that the Servant bore on the cross, the same blood that He poured out in service to you is given to you this day to eat and to drink. Christ brings His forgiveness near to you, the forgiveness that you need, the forgiveness that He won.

Having received the forgiveness of Christ here in this place, having sat at the feet of Jesus today and every time we are in God’s Word, we then respond with prayer and praise, service to God and service to our neighbor. We experienced the joy of the Gospel each and every time that Christ gives to us His gifts, and then that joy motivates us to serve. We do not, like Martha, first try to serve Christ, but we like Mary first receive from His overflowing hand and then go out and serve. That is why we volunteer our time at our congregations, serving in various capacities. That is why some of you gave generously of your time to serve at Vacation Bible School this week. That is why we are involved in our communities, searching for any opportunity to serve, bringing the love that Christ first showed us to others. That is why we provide a helping hand to friends, family, or coworkers throughout our daily lives. Service is a wonderful and God-pleasing thing! Moreover, our neighbors need that service. Martha’s dilemma is not solved by pitting service and hearing the Word against each other, but by having them in the proper order. Christ serves us, and then we respond in joy to the great things He has done for us.

We go forth in service with a great promise, the same one that Mary and Martha heard in our text for today. “One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Satan wants to pull us away from Christ, but here we have the promise that He will hold tightly onto us, strengthening our faith through His gifts until that day when He brings us to be with Himself forever. He is constantly working to forgive our sins and strengthen our faith through the hearing of His Word and the giving of His Body and Blood to eat and to drink. Come rejoicing, for Christ our servant gives of Himself to you once again on this day, for the forgiveness of your sins and to bring you to eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth. In His name, Amen.

Lent 4 of Series C (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)

A little late in getting this up, but here it goes. If anyone is still following this blog, I hope to resume posting sermons sometime this summer, as I was assigned as a candidate from the seminary to Faith Lutheran Church in Deloit, IA, and St. John Lutheran Church in Kiron, IA. Once I am going there, expect regular sermon postings, newsletter articles, etc.


“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon today is from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, the Father had two sons. Now these were two pretty ordinary brothers. They grew up in the same home, ate much the same food, watched the same television shows, and played on the same high school football team. They went to their Father’s house on a weekly basis, to receive the gifts that their Father abundantly poured out on them. But the Father didn’t just bless them once a week. By His gracious provision, they did not lack anything to sustain this body and life.

But something changed between the two brothers. The younger brother fell in with a different group of friends, ones that persuaded him that there were far better things to do than visit his Father’s house each week, or follow his Father’s constricting rules. He began to drift farther and farther away from his Father, and he rarely darkened the door of his Father’s house. Finally the day came. In arrogance and pride, the younger son walked into his Father’s house and told him to drop dead. “I am finished being your son, I am finished following your rules, I am finished depending on you!” And you know what? The Father did not stop him. In an act that bordered on insanity, the Father let the younger brother take everything he had given him, indeed his very own life. Why would any Father do such a thing? Well, for this Father, it was part of His character. No one could choose or decide to become His son, but the Father would not stand in the way if someone decided to reject the sonship that had been freely given. To be sure, it saddened Him, but He would not force someone against their will to remain His son.

The younger son left his brother and his hometown and went to the city. There, he indulged his desires in an endless search for pleasure. There is no need for us to go into the dirty details of his life- let’s just say that he lived only for himself, and he used up every gift that his Father had given him. He spent his money, his mind, and his body on sex, on alcohol, on drugs, any quick fix that would satisfy his immediate needs. He rarely felt bad for the parade of women that spent the night at his apartment- they had all been raised on the same television shows, they knew what life was all about. Satisfy your own pleasure, and don’t worry about anyone else, because all those other people are only doing the same. The dim spark of love he held toward his father, indeed toward anything other than himself, soon flickered and died. He was truly as he wanted to be, dead to his Father. But yet, despite this, the Father continued to constantly seek after His lost son.

The older son had watched his brother drift away from their Father. He had seen it happen and had said nothing, he had not attempted to reconcile that broken relationship. “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” he told himself. At least he had stayed. He continued to go to his Father’s house every week to receive his Father’s gifts, eventually bringing a wife and a young child along. He was even in his Father’s house a lot during the week, as he served on church council and then as an elder. He and his family were the perfect example of morality and love, and example that may others wished to follow. Sure, he lusted after women and had indecent thoughts, but he never acted on those thoughts. Like many others, he often let a curse word or a dirty joke escape his lips, or he participated in gossip, but those were minor compared to whatever his brother was doing. At least that was how he responded to himself whenever his conscience told him he was not as squeaky clean as he looked- “At least I’m not my brother.” That assertion was the basis of his relationship with his Father- “I’m the loyal son, I’m the good son, you don’t see me wasting your gifts like that brother of mine.”

The younger brother first realized something was wrong when his debit card was rejected at the casino. His account was empty, and as he soon discovered, so was his life. Within weeks, in addition to having no money, he had no friends and no home, and if it was not for the generosity of a downtown soup kitchen, he would’ve had nothing to eat. He began to realize the emptiness of his life, that when you live your life concerned with no one but yourself, you are left with no one but yourself when the bottom falls out. His transgressions of his Father’s commandments had ruined him. And now, how could his Father ever take him back? He deserved death, death forever, for what he had done, and he knew it. He knew that he didn’t deserve to be his Father’s son again, but then a plan formed itself in his mind. He would make amends, he would earn his way back- even if he could not ever receive his sonship back, surely he could earn something more than he had now, right?

And so after years of absence, the younger son traveled back to his Father’s house. He intended to make his bargain as soon as he entered, but on this Friday night, there were people in his Father’s house, and a man in the pulpit preaching. This preacher speaks about his Father, and about his Father’s wrath over rebellion. In agony the younger brother realizes that no amount of bargaining could possibly satisfy that wrath. He is truly done for, without hope. But then the preacher speaks of someone else, he declares that the Father, his Father, sent a Son, one to be our brother, to take upon Himself all of mankind’s rebellion. He quotes from Saint Paul: “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” This brother of ours, Jesus Christ, had no sin of His own, He was perfect. But in the extraordinary, incredible love of the Father, Jesus Christ took on the sin of all mankind, of you and me, and he bore it to the cross. A tear fell from the younger brother’s eye. How could this possibly be true? The preacher reached the crescendo of his sermon, and he proclaimed to the gathered people: “This Jesus took our sin to the cross, and there He bled, there He died, there He faced the wrath that we deserved. On this Good Friday, He suffered in our place, to deliver you, to deliver me, to grant us the forgiveness we so desperately need.” The younger brother shook his head in amazement and joy. Before he could even begin to bargain with Him, his Father had provided the solution, He had sent a brother to bear his sin along with the sin of all.

The preacher continued to speak, declaring the results of Jesus’ death. The younger brother heard about how through the cross and empty tomb, Christ’s death and resurrection, we are restored to the Father, how those who were dead in their trespasses and sins are now made alive through Jesus. The younger brother nodded, remembering that while through his rebellion he may have told his Father to drop dead, he was actually the one who died, and he died in the filth of sin. And now the Father, through the work of Jesus Christ, has sought him out when he was lost made him alive again. Through this pastor, the Father had reminded him of his baptismal garments, and had indeed covered the filthy rags of sin with the white robe of Christ’s own righteousness, won on the cross.

The preacher was not surprised to see the young man from the back of the church come running to the altar after the service. He had watched him carefully as he preached, seeing the change of emotion and the tears flow freely as he heard of what Christ had none for him. The younger brother threw himself on the floor before the altar. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” The pastor did not hesitate. “What is impossible for man is possible with God. As a called and ordained servant of the Word, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He lifted him onto his feet. “Welcome back to your Father’s family, those purchased by the blood of the Lamb.”

The older son’s cry of protest boomed out from behind them- “He does not deserve your forgiveness!” The pastor turned and gently said, “None of us do, but the Father continues to give it freely.” The older son came chest to chest with his pastor and pointed an accusing finger at his brother. “You mean that after he has squandered every gift that our Father gave him, after he has turned his back on our Father and no longer wished to be His son or my brother, that he can simply come back and everything is well!? I have served my Father all of these years, and we have never celebrated me! I have followed all of those stupid rules to the letter, I have been a slave to my Father, and this is the reward I get? He cannot be my brother again, he cannot be my Father’s son again!”

The pastor spoke softly. “You have been a child of your Father since that day He claimed you with the waters of Holy Baptism. From that day, He has continued to shower His gifts upon you. He forgives your sins each and every day, but especially at the beginning of the Divine Service each and every Sunday. You have heard from this pulpit God’s Word proclaimed, a Word that declares Christ’s death on your behalf. In just a couple days, you will hear of Christ’s victory over death, as the women came to the tomb on Easter Sunday and found it empty. You have life, just as your brother has life, eternal life, because you are incorporated into Christ’s victory. All of us were lost, all of us are in need of the gifts Christ won. Your sins are forgiven not because they are somehow less worthy of condemnation than your brother’s, but because Jesus Christ shed His blood for them upon the cross. Each and every sin that you have ever committed is covered with Jesus’ blood. Your Father never abandoned your lost brother, but continued to seek him out, for Jesus Christ came to seek sinners and restore them to the Father. You have seen this today with your own eyes. So now, join the feast with your brother, the feast of salvation, the feast of forgiveness, the feast of Christ’s Body and Blood, for Jesus only dines with sinners.” Their Father rejoiced, for His sons were lost and they are now found, they were dead and are now alive.

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” This feast, this celebration, is for all those who are crushed by their sin and the demands of the Law. This feast is for all those who were lost, for you and me, who have lived in sin and self-righteousness, and have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. Come, for the feast is ready, and all is prepared, celebrate with all the saints the foretaste of the feast to come! Amen.