Christ is an interminable well

Those of you who use the Treasury of Daily Prayer for you daily devotions read this wonderful quotation:

"The sun is not dimmed and darkened by shining on so many people or by providing the entire world with its light and bright splendor.  It retains its light intact.  It loses nothing; it is immeasurable, perhaps able to illumine ten more worlds.  I suppose that a hundred thousand candles can be ignited from one light, and still this lighty will not lose any of its brilliance.  Likewise, a learned man can educate a thousand scholars without forfeiting any of his own learning.  The more he shares with others, the more he has himself.  Thus Christ, our Lord, to whom we must flee and of whom we must ask all, is an interminable well, the chief source of all grace, truth, righteousness, wisdom, and life, without limit, measure, or end.  Even if the whole world were to draw from this fountain enough grace and truth to transform all people into angels, still it would not lose as much as a drop.  this fountain constantly overflows with sheer grace.  Whoever wishes to enjoy Christ's grace-- and no one is excluded-- let him come and receive it from Him.  You will never drain this fountain of living water; it will never run dry.  You will all draw from it much more than enought, and yet it will remain a perennial well."

-- Martin Luther

Epiphany 5 of Series B (Isaiah 40:21-31)

“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?” You have heard it in Sunday School, you were taught it in confirmation. You can open your Bible and read all about it. It isn’t a mystery, it isn’t something hidden. “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning?” It is God who created all things, not man. It is God who separated the waters to create land, it is God who stretched out the heavens to cover this earth, it is God who created plants and animals, it is God who gave man dominion over them. God “makes princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.” No man is greater than the God of all creation. He stands over and above history, and He has acted in history, to build nations up, and to bring them back down. He has destroyed nations before, judging them for their wickedness, and He can do so again. “Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.” Surely all flesh is grass before the Lord. We all wither, and we all fade away. 

“‘To whom will you compare me, that I should be like Him?’ says the Holy One.” We were like Him, created in the very image and likeness of God, but through our rebellion, we lost that great gift; now we are conceived and born in the image of sin and death. God is ‘other,’ unlike us in power and might, unlike us in holiness. Surely we are the grasshoppers, and He sits above the circle of the earth. But He looks down upon us, small and insignificant, and He knows us, He knows each of His creatures. “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power not one is missing.” He knows His creation by name, and not one is missing, because He holds all in His loving hands.

Why do you say, O Kiron, and speak, O Deloit, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? The Scriptures proclaim to you that God has created all things, that He sustains all things, that He knows each of His creatures intimately, by name. But, you say, if God knows me and cares for me, why do I suffer as I do? Why do I suffer from disease, why does death stalk my steps? Why do I have conflicts with family and friends, why am I estranged from them? Why do I struggle with addiction, why can’t I rid myself of this sin? Why was the one I love taken away from me? I suffer each and every day! I suffer for no reason at all, and God doesn’t seem to be able to give me an answer. He doesn’t know my ways; He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know my problems, He doesn’t know my struggles. God doesn’t understand me, and so He can’t help me. He’s powerless to intervene in this world, and so I am left alone, left to solve these problems through my own efforts. My way is hidden from Him, He can’t help me in my suffering.
Or maybe He won’t help me. Maybe God is completely capable of intervening, and He refuses to do so. “My right is disregarded by my God.” He has disregarded my affliction; He could act to deliver me, and He won’t. He refuses to hear my prayers; Lord, I prayed to you, and you didn’t act! You didn’t heal, you didn’t restore, you didn’t save. You could’ve, but you didn’t. Why do you refuse to act? Maybe it’s simply that my problems are too small to matter to the eternal God. “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.” The problems of grasshoppers don’t matter much to the gardener, and so my problems must not matter too much to you. You can help, but you won’t. You are too great to care about my suffering, and Lord, I am suffering! “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.” I don’t know whether you can’t help or you won’t help, but the result is the same; I suffer without relief!

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.” The Lord set the planets in motion, He placed the stars in the sky. His power extends over the wind and the waves. He watches over nations, He even creates life in the womb. He who has done all that is not powerless; He can help in our affliction because nothing lies outside His power. “He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.” You cannot investigate the mind of God. His ways are not our ways, because we are unlike Him. We are not given the answers to our suffering; we do not know why turmoil and struggles enter our lives. We are not God; He is. “‘To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?’ says the Holy One.” You are tempted to try to be like God when you suffer, to demand answers from Him, to put Him on trial. “Why are you allowing this to happen? What is your plan here?” But you are not God, you are a creature, and for creatures “His understanding is unsearchable.” You are called upon rather to trust, to wait, to leave the answers in the hands of the One who created you.

For our Creator can help, and our Creator will help. “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint.” You are weary because of your suffering, but God never grows weary. The greatest athlete, the most savvy businessman, the hardest working politician will all eventually faint, collapsing under the load of their burdens, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, “they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint.” They are connected with the God who endures, the God who does not grow weary. They receive strength as they suffer, because they wait on the Lord. We don’t like to wait, we don’t like to be patient, we want deliverance now, and we want it on our terms. When we are suffering, patience seems nearly impossible. But you aren’t waiting in the hope that God might act, you are waiting for the God who can deliver you and who will deliver you; in fact, you are waiting on the God who has delivered you.

“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?” God’s solution to your suffering is Jesus. He came in answer to your cries, in response to your afflictions. He came to solve your suffering, to relieve it forever. He came as God in the flesh. “He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in” located Himself in a human body, He condescended to became like you in order to deliver you from suffering. The Lord and Creator of all was born in a stable and laid in a manger. Jesus came in humility, not in His power and might.

God’s “understanding is unsearchable.” If we were God, we wouldn’t have come down in humility, and we certainly wouldn’t have solved suffering by suffering ourselves. But that is what Jesus did; He answered our suffering with His own. He hung upon that cross for hours, enduring not only the pain and humiliation of that instrument of torture, but also the naked wrath of God, poured out upon Him. Our suffering is caused by the sin of this world; our own sin and the sin of those around us. Upon the cross Jesus endured the penalty for that sin, forgiving the sin of the entire world through His own suffering. Our suffering is also caused by the reign of death over us and our loved ones. Jesus’ death destroyed the power of death, because His death was in your place. When Jesus rose on Easter Sunday, the causes of our suffering- sin, death, and the devil- were all defeated. He suffered so that your suffering would one day end. You do not look to your own suffering to know what God thinks of you; you look to Christ’s suffering, and there you learn the richness of God’s love for you, a love which sustains you as you suffer.

And so you wait for the end of your suffering, not with some vague hope that God might relieve it, but instead in the sure and certain hope that because of Christ God will ultimately deliver you. “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint.” Christ gives you strength in the midst of your suffering through His great gifts. That is why He gives you the Scriptures, that is why He gives you the forgiveness of sins, that is why He feeds you with His very own Body and Blood. You wait in patience because God has already acted to deliver you; because the suffering of Jesus is the solution to your suffering. You wait in patience because not only is God able to deliver you, He will deliver you. Your God isn’t too great to care, He is too great to fail, and He has already saved you by setting aside that greatness and humbly suffering for you.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?” Your suffering will end in the new heavens and the new earth that Jesus won for you. In our suffering, we learn to give up all reliance on ourselves, to place ourselves in the hands of Jesus, and we especially learn to yearn for the life He gives. In the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no more weariness, no more suffering. Your burdens will be no more, for Jesus has relieved them through His precious blood. There you will dwell in peace and safety, with sin paid for and death destroyed forever. There “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Amen.

Singing against the enemy

Hymns should preach.  Hymns should proclaim.  Hymns should confess.  Good hymns do all of that in a masterful way; they preach a sermon that is eloquent, that is simply, that is conveyed through the blessed medium of music.  Good hymns don't simply play with the emotions; good hymns have something to say.

When good hymns preach, they are not simply preaching to someone.  In fact, our preaching, whether from the pulpit or in the song of the Church, should never be simply to the people in the pew or even to the world.  Good preaching is also against someone or something.

The hymns of the Church should speak a word against our own flesh, putting it to death.  The hymns of the Church should speak a word against death, telling our ancient enemy that it has no hold on God's saints.  The hymns of the Church should speak a word against Satan, telling Him to cease His accusations and go back to hell where He belongs.

Not every hymn has to do this explicitly to be a good hymn, but especially the great hymns of Easter and Baptism do this marvelously.  The hymns of Easter preach the victory of Christ against death itself.  Many of them have this 'in your face' attitude, telling death that its reign is done with the death and resurrection of the Son of God in our place.  The hymns of Baptism are especially suited for this, because in Baptism, God takes hold of a person and seizes him or her from the dominion of sin, Satan, and death.  "God's Own Child, I Gladly say it" embodies this perfectly: "Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ!  Drop your ugly accusation, I am not so soon enticed.  Now that to the font I've traveled, all your might has come unraveled, and against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me!"  On Easter, on the occasion of a baptism, and every Lord's Day, we sing to our enemies, but we also sing against our enemies, only because Christ Himself has won the victory for us.

Sanctity of Life Sunday (Luke 1:39-45)

“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this Sanctity of Life Sunday comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, there once was a pregnant teenager. Only fifteen years old, without a job, without money, without much hope. She is scorned by the world around her, looked down upon by her friends and neighbors. Her parents are furious, upset that their daughter has brought shame on the entire family. Her fiancé should be angry, but he is more sad than anything else. He had worked so hard to remain pure, to do things in this relationship the way that God wanted, and he thought that she was the same. But not only had she apparently cheated on him, now she was pregnant. He clearly can’t stay with her; he must go his own way. With one announcement, one moment, everything has fallen apart for this young girl. She feels completely alone.

There are plenty of voices in this world that would be glad to help her in her difficult situation. The advice comes from doctors, from the media, from intellectuals, from the family planning clinics we find throughout our country. The first statement is the most basic: “that isn’t a real person in your womb.” It’s a potential person, sure, if it ever sees the light of day, but now it’s just a glob of tissue. Some of the more extreme feminists will even call it a parasite, something growing within her that simply takes nutrients away and contributes nothing to her health. They use sterile terms like ‘zygote,’ ‘embryo,’ or ‘fetus’- anything but ‘person’ or ‘baby.’ If it isn’t a person, then it isn’t murder, it’s just a medical procedure, like removing a tumor. It’s your body, to do with what you want; no one should be able to tell you what to do with what is your own. 

The world says the same thing to the medical researcher about to destroy a human embryo: “That isn’t a real person in the petri dish.” That embryo is just genetic material, ripe to be harvested for the good of others, to cure diseases; who could argue with that? A family gathered around a hospital or nursing home bed hears the same message: “That isn’t a real person laying there.” The person you knew is long gone; now they are simply a drain on resources, a burden on you. People are protected, but a fetus, an embryo, the elderly or infirm? They exist only as long as they are useful to us.

These voices want her to be selfish, to look out for her own needs. They want her to give into her fears and take the steps necessary to eliminate the source of that fear. They don’t want her to place her trust in anyone else, certainly not God. Abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell treatments are all done out of fear and a lack of trust in God. People are afraid of the burden of life, the burden of an unwanted child or the burden of an elderly or infirm relative. Their trust isn’t in the God who provides, the God who has promised to take care of His people, but instead their only trust is in themselves. They will do what’s good for them, seeking their own needs first, not the good of what dwells in the womb, in the researcher’s lab, or on the hospital bed. They want control, they want to be in charge. They want to be God. Satan’s temptation is heard in abortion clinics, labs, and hospitals throughout the world: “You will be like God.” 

We have wanted control from the very beginning, and in a world of abortion on demand, we have it in a crucial area of our lives. God no longer gives children where and when He pleases; we have become gods, we control over when and whether we give birth. Sex doesn’t need to have any connection with children anymore through birth control and abortion. Through those twin tools, we have become gods, we have conquered nature and its Creator. And we extend that control to the end of life. We can control when someone dies, when their time has come and they are no longer useful to us or deserving of life. The beginning of life and the end of life is in our hands; we don’t have to trust anyone but ourselves, because we are in the driver’s seat, we have become gods.

As this world tells that pregnant teenager to take her rightful place as a god, it tells her friends, her family, her fellow citizens, you and me, not to interfere. In many and various ways, our world tells us, “There’s other issues more important than life.” Surely the economy is more important right now than abortion or euthanasia, surely the threat of terrorism is more immediate, right? For forty years we have lived under the horror of Roe vs. Wade. Many of us here have never lived in a time when the womb was a place of safety. The death toll in our country alone is over fifty million. We live in a nation where the most vulnerable are killed for convenience, for a variety of reasons or for no reason at all. And we as Christians have failed to hold our leaders fully accountable for the slaughter. We have failed to realize that while life isn’t the only issue, it is the fundamental issue. A society cannot adequately protect any other right unless it protects life; a country has no right to condemn any other act of violence while it slaughters its children. This entire nation has blood on its hands, you, me, and all of our fellow citizens.

If that pregnant teenager had lived today, she would’ve heard each of those voices, and perhaps she would’ve given in, perhaps her child would’ve been killed. This girl’s name was Mary, and her child? Jesus. Think about it: if Jesus had been conceived today, He may have been aborted. But while Mary was afraid, but she didn’t put her trust in herself, she didn’t seek control, instead she placed herself into the hands of the Lord. Elizabeth said of her, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Our God spent nine months in the womb of Mary, sanctifying the womb and every stage of life by passing through it just like you and me. Christ’s work of salvation didn’t begin on Christmas Eve, but instead it began at the moment of His conception. Our text clearly teaches that every child in the womb is a person, because in the womb of Elizabeth, that glob of tissue, that parasite, that ‘fetus’ leaped for joy when he heard the voice of Mary. Even in the womb, John pointed to Jesus, who even in Mary’s womb is our Lord and Savior, the Son of God. In God’s eyes, we are persons, members of the human family, and His precious creation from the moment of conception, and He proved it with His own journey from zygote to Bethlehem.

Life was Christ’s most important issue; that is the reason why He came. He came to bring life, because death reigned since Adam and Eve followed Satan’s advice and tried to become like God. It is a scourge on our planet, our greatest enemy, for which we have no solution. Abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research are tragic attempts to wield our greatest enemy as a tool, an instrument to solve our problems. These attempts are doomed to failure; there is only one who could use death as a tool, and that was Jesus Christ. He used death against itself; when death thought that it had claimed God’s Son, Jesus burst forth from the tomb, victorious over it. In the moment of His death, Jesus broke the bonds of death, for His death satisfied God’s wrath, His death paid the price for the sin of the world. He gave Himself up willingly to death in your place, in my place, in the place of all. Without sin, death is powerless, an empty shell; His resurrection proves it. Now death is His tool, His instrument to bring His children to Himself. [He did this earlier this morning, as He drowned the old Adam in Tyler, forgiving his sin, destroying the power of death over him, and claiming Tyler as His own.] When a Christian dies, they don’t endure eternal death, but they have passed from death to life. Jesus uses death as the doorway to eternal life, the path which brings His beloved children, you and me, to the glories of heaven. His gift is life, life which conquers and destroys death.

He can only give life because He gives forgiveness. That is what pours into our hearts through Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper; forgiveness of all of our sins, the forgiveness that reconciles us with our God, the forgiveness which opens heaven to us. And the good news this Life Sunday is that this forgiveness is for all sinners, even those who have acted to destroy life. If you are filled with the guilt of a past abortion, these words are for you: you are forgiven! Christ died for you, He shed His blood for you, He has taken your guilt upon Himself, He has washed away your sin. If you have pressured someone to have an abortion, as a boyfriend, fiancé, or husband, or as a father or mother, you are forgiven! If you have participated in ending the life of the elderly or infirm, then you too have forgiveness of your guilt. Christ bore those sins to the cross with all the rest! Even doctors and nurses who have participated in abortion or euthanasia are forgiven by the shed blood of Christ, the same forgiveness that you and I have! And if you have failed to stand up for life in our country, holding your leaders accountable, then, dear friends in Christ, I have good news for you: you are forgiven!

It is the message of forgiveness, of love, of grace, that we bring to those who face the challenges and burdens of an unexpected pregnancy or an infirm relative. We proclaim to them a God who they can trust to provide, who gives great gifts to His people. We speak the word of Law that must be spoken, but then we proclaim the love of a God who bore all of their sins to the cross and paid for them there. Our God is a God of life, life for the unborn child and eternal life for the repentant sinner, for the woman who has committed an abortion, for you, for me, for all people. In the Name of the One who sanctified all life by dwelling in Mary’s womb, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Why do we give offering?

I teach my confimation students to answer to this basic question: "What is worship?"  The answer I'm looking for is something like, "God gives us gifts--we give Him thanks and praise."  Worship is a rythmn, a back and forth relationship, with God Himself taking the position of primacy.  His gifts are what make the Divine Service, they are the most important, they are what come first.  But within the Divine Service, we have the opportunity to adore Him, to thank Him for those great gifts, to praise Him for His salvation.

Where does the offering fit in that spectrum?  Well, it obviously seems to fall on the end of 'we give Him thanks and praise.'  God has blessed us with the First Article gifts of this earth, and we respond by presenting to Him our firstfruits for the work of the Church in our community and around the world.

Why do we give offering?  The answer we most often give is, 'So the church can pay for things.'  True enough.  The congregation does need to pay for a lot of things: pastor's salary, the light bill, insurance, etc.  The congregation also has responsibilities to support the work of the church throughout the world, by supporting distict, synod, and missionaries.

But is that really the answer to why we give offerings?  Unfortunately, and I know this as a pastor of small, financially struggling congregations, we can get caught up in thinking only in those terms.  People give so that we can keep the doors open.  But that isn't truly why we give; if we stay focused on the bills, then we lose sight of our end of the back and forth of worship described above.  God gives us gifts and we give Him thanks and praise.  We give offerings because God has blessed us.  Indeed, we give in proportion to how God has blessed us.  And we give especially because He who was rich became poor for us; we give in grateful thanksgiving for salvation and forgiveness.

We don't give so that the congregation can pay its bills, we don't give to a budget, we give according to how God has blessed us, whether little or much.  God doesn't need our money, but we need His forgiveness, and then in gratefulness for that gift, we have the privilege to support the work of His Church

Epiphany 2 of Series B (John 1:43-51)

“Jesus answered him, ‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this second Sunday after the Epiphany comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Dear friends in Christ, Philip’s very first act as a Christian was to tell someone else about Jesus. He didn’t even give Jesus an answer, but as soon as our Lord said the words, “Follow me,” Philip turned tail and ran to his friend Nathanael. He couldn’t contain his joy; he had to tell someone about Jesus. This took priority over everything else- Nathanael had to know before he did anything else. See how much joy the call to faith brought into Philip’s life! See how much he cared for Nathanael that he would waste no time in bringing that joy to him! This joy, this desire to bring others to Jesus, is unfortunately often missing in modern Christians. Sure, we can speak about Jesus with confidence here within these four walls, but out in this world, politics, sports, and even gossip flow more freely. In place of Philip’s boldness, we have meekness; in place of his confession, we say little at all. We are worried about what others will think, we don’t want to risk our reputation or a friendship over something as divisive as religion. Our world tells us to be quiet about our faith, and we are often all too happy to oblige.

But not Philip. Even though he probably knows the response, he boldly confesses Jesus to Nathanael. Though he has only been a follower of Jesus for mere minutes, he declares to his friend, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip confesses that Jesus is the One proclaimed in the Scriptures, the Messiah promised to God’s beloved people. But Nathanael is skeptical; he takes offense at Jesus’ origins. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael has found it hard to believe the claims of Jesus. He takes offense at this carpenter from Nazareth- how can He be God’s promised Messiah? The Savior of God’s people surely wouldn’t come from a no-name town in Galilee. Nathanael’s skepticism was met not with an argument, but with words of invitation: “Come and see.” Philip doesn’t think that his words can convince his friend; instead, Nathanael needs to see Jesus for himself. The Church does the same. We can argue with non-believers all we want to, but ultimately Christians simply invite the world to come and see Jesus. This is much simpler than trying to argue someone into the faith, but do we even do this? When was the last time that you invited someone to ‘come and see’ Jesus? And I’m not even talking only about your non-Christian neighbor or co-worker; when was the last time you invited one of our inactive members to ‘come and see’ Jesus?

This is by no means easy- both the world and even Christians have plenty of excuses for not coming and seeing Jesus. Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The world is like Nathanael, it has little use for Jesus. Sure, He was a pretty good guy, had some nice things to say, but the Messiah? I don’t need salvation from anything, and even if I did, would I believe that some desert rabbi was my savior? They take offense at the stable, at the cross; they take offense at Bethlehem and Nazareth. They understand the language of power and wealth, and this carpenter’s son seems to have neither. They take offense at the implication that they need salvation; they don’t think that sin is that big of a deal, and therefore they don’t really need forgiveness. But what offends them the most is the declaration that Jesus is the only way, the only solution to sin and death. The world refuses to come and see Jesus because they cannot imagine that He has anything to give them, at least not anything they can’t get somewhere else.

 For Christians, many other things take priority over Christ: work, school, sports, and recreation. If there is time left after everything else, then maybe we can squeeze in our Lord, but we’ll see. Jesus has to fit into my schedule, not the other way around. The busyness of our lives in this world can crowd out Christ until we have no room left for Him. We can also fall into the trap of the world, deceived into thinking either that we don’t have a sin problem, or that it isn’t such a big deal. If you truly know and feel your sin, you will run to Jesus for forgiveness every week. But if you don’t have sin, or if you don’t think sin is a problem, then you don’t need Jesus, certainly not on a regular basis. Finally, the same apathy that keeps us from calling on others to come and see can keep us from coming and seeing for ourselves. And that is exactly where Satan wants us. Either he wants to keep us away from Jesus, or if he can’t do that, he wants us to keep Jesus locked up inside us where He belongs, not out in the world where He might actually create faith.

The Church combats Satan by continuing to call on all people, the stubborn world and its own members, to come and see Jesus. Today the invitation of Philip sounds forth from a pulpit in Iowa: “Come and see Jesus!” Come and see the One whom doubting Nathanael saw, the One who knew him intimately: “Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael said to Him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’” Come and see the One who knows you inside and out, each and every one of you. He knows your joys and your struggles, He knows your failures and your excuses. In fact, He came because He knew that you were sinful. He came to conquer sin, He came to destroy death. That is who Philip invited Nathanael to come and see; that is who I call on you to come and see today.

Nathanael didn’t need much convincing to turn from skepticism to a bold confession: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus tells him to calm down a bit: “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” For Nathanael, the wonders were just beginning. Jesus declared, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Come and see Jesus, for He joins earth to heaven! He is the link between God and man, because He is true God and He is also true man. You can only come and see a God who has taken flesh. He has come to bring God and man together once again, the way it was intended from the beginning. The great divide between us and our Creator is bridged by Jesus’ shed blood; when He was exalted on the cross, heaven and earth were reconciled. Sin has been abolished by His sacrifice in your place; death has been destroyed by His resurrection. As we heard last week, heaven is opened never to be closed again. Through His sacrifice on Good Friday, Christ opens heaven to us, He provides access to the Father’s presence forever. He is the connection to heaven; where Jesus is, there heaven is brought close to this earth, people are reconciled with their God, sin is forgiven and death is destroyed.

Heaven touched this earth when water touched your head; in Baptism, Jesus opens heaven to a sinful human by joining them with Himself. Heaven also touches this earth when the Word of God is read and proclaimed in this place. Jesus promises to be present in His Word, and wherever Jesus is present, there heaven comes down to earth. Heaven comes near to this earth, it touches your lips in the Lord’s Supper. The Word who became flesh gives His flesh and blood to you to eat and to drink. When you come to this altar, you are participating in heaven itself, the foretaste of the feast to come. In the gifts of Christ, you see Him with the eyes of faith, for in those gifts He is just as truly present as He was two thousand years ago when He spoke to Philip and Nathanael.

So come to this place and see heaven touch this earth, come and see Jesus as He comes to you in the Divine Service! Heaven and earth are joined together through the blood of His cross, and Jesus extends that union, that reconciliation to you each and every time you gather to worship here. In this place, an ordinary building in an ordinary town, heaven touches earth, the gifts of forgiveness, life, and immortality are given. “What good can come out of Kiron or Deloit?” Salvation itself, the gift of eternal life, the promise that you will live, even though you die. All that heaven offers is given to you on Sunday mornings here in this place, a place made holy by the gifts of Christ. Here you truly see “the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Where Jesus is, earth and heaven are connected again, and He is present here to give you all that He won through the cross and empty tomb.
We are here to come and see Jesus because we need Him, we need His forgiveness for when we fail to confess Him before the world, we need His forgiveness for when we have failed to come and see Him revealed in His gifts. We are here because with the eyes of faith we see Jesus as the link between earth and heaven, the One who reconciled us with our God, so that we wouldn’t die eternally. “Truly, truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Philip and Nathanael both saw Jesus and confessed Him, declaring to the world that this Jesus was the promised Messiah, the One who had come to defeat both sin and death. We follow their pattern, going forth into our lives in this world with the same bold confession that in Christ, heaven and earth are reconciled, that on Sunday mornings, heaven touches this earth for the salvation of all. Come and see! Come and see the Jesus who died for you, who rose for you, who forgives your sins and gives you everlasting life. Today you come and see with the eyes of faith; in the new heavens and the new earth, you will see your Savior face to face for eternity. Come and see! In the Name of the one who connects earth to heaven through His shed blood, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

The Baptism of our Lord (Mark 1:4-11)

“And when [Jesus] came up out of the water, immediately He saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending of Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning, the Baptism of our Lord, comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Mark. Dear friends in Christ, at one point in the wonderful series The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, books that I strongly encourage all Christians to read, one of the children ask about Aslan, the mighty lion who we are to see as a picture of God. “Is He quite safe?” The answer is given with a nervous laugh. “’Course He isn’t safe. But He’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” In the same way the citizens of Narnia declare over and over again in these books that Aslan is “not a tame lion.” C.S. Lewis was onto something when He portrayed God as a lion. Each of the four Gospel writers has been symbolized in Christian art throughout history with a different creature; Saint Mark is the lion. That is because he gives us the most ‘raw,’ unpredictable, and perhaps even ‘violent’ picture of Jesus. Our God isn’t tame, He isn’t safe or comfortable, He isn’t even ‘nice’ in the way that we often think of that word. We do not have a tame God, and no event demonstrates this better than the Baptism of our Lord.
As Jesus comes up out of water, our text declares, “Immediately He saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove.” This translation doesn’t fully express what Mark writes; the heavens didn’t ‘open’ like you would open a door or the curtains. No, Mark tells us that they were ‘torn open,’ they were ripped violently apart, as you would tear a shirt apart to make rags, or as a lion tears apart the carcass of an antelope. God violently broke into our world, fulfilling the cry of Isaiah, in chapter sixty-four of his prophecy: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence!” An opened door can be closed; you can pull back the curtains. But what is torn apart cannot easily be restored. God tore open the heavens so that they would not be shut again. With Christ’s baptism, the barrier between God and man came crashing down; God was acting to restore His beloved creation to Himself. He who has no sin is standing in that muddy river in the place of sinners as the heavens are ripped apart, declaring that He has come to bear all sin. He submitted Himself to the baptism of sinners in order to destroy sin itself. This man from Nazareth is God in the flesh, come to conquer sin, Satan, and death. God has broken into our world with salvation, and He will not leave until all of our enemies are placed in submission under His feet. At Jesus’ Baptism, God tore open the very heavens, pouring out His Spirit and sounding forth His voice. We do not have a tame God!
When you were brought to the blessed font, to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, the lion roared. God ripped you out of the hands of Satan, tearing you away from the clutches of sin and death. The devil wanted you for his own, and he desperately wants you back, but in your baptism, and every day afterward, the lion roars and God declares, “This one is mine! Go back to hell where you belong!” For the heavens were torn at your baptism; there the barrier between you and God violently came crashing down. You are His own because nothing separates you from Him anymore; you are united with God the way it was intended from the beginning. God has broken into your heart with salvation; He has forced His way into your hardened, sinful soul and established faith, faith which clings to Him, faith which saves. You were in rebellion, separated from Him by the sin you inherited from your first parents, but we do not have a tame God; we have a God who rent the heavens and came down, into our world and into your heart, to seize you from Satan, to tear down the barrier between you and His love and grace. The heavens were torn for you, so that you would never be divided from God again.
As you can see, baptism is dangerous, even violent business. It is dangerous for the enemies of God, who are served notice that their time is coming, that their defeat is near. But baptism is just as dangerous for the one who is baptized. The Words of the Father to Jesus seem glorious, but they bring with them darker tidings. “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” The first part of this declaration, “You are my beloved Son,” is the words of Psalm two, part of which is our Introit for today. With these words God reveals His Messiah before the world, as He did at Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan. This one, the one standing in Jordan’s stream, the one on whom the Holy Spirit descends, is God’s chosen King, indeed His only-begotten Son! Bow down and worship, as the wise men did so long ago! But the nations of the world do not respond kindly to God’s Messiah, as David predicted long ago: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’” God’s only Son, the chosen King, the Messiah promised of old, will be opposed by the rulers of this world. They will set themselves against both God and His Anointed, and will be determined to destroy them. The baptism of Jesus places a target on His back; the only question is, will they succeed in putting God’s Messiah to death?

The second part of God’s declaration, “with you I am well-pleased,” answers that question. It points us to another place in the Old Testament, our Antiphon for today from Isaiah forty-two. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” This Jesus isn’t only the Messiah David proclaimed, He is God’s beloved Servant prophesied by Isaiah. And Isaiah promised that God’s servant would suffer. “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” All would reject Him, they would cry out for His death, and the rulers of this world would accommodate their blood-thirsty desires. The One proclaimed by God Himself at the waters of the Jordan river- “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well-pleased”- would be nailed to a cross, beaten and mocked by the soldiers and the crowds, put to death like a criminal. But this was all to fulfill His Baptism; He stood in the Jordan in the place of sinners, in the place of you and me to declare Himself as the sin-bearer. And so He bore our sin to the cross in order to destroy it there, to fulfill what He began on His baptism day. Isaiah prophesied it: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.”
We do not have a tame God! Death found that it had swallowed poison when it tried to claim Jesus, and on Easter morning the lion roared once again, for Christ had destroyed sin, death, and the devil. God has ripped you from the hands of Satan because Christ died bearing your sin, the heavens are torn open for you because Jesus rose again for you, He breaks into your heart with salvation because Jesus fulfilled His baptism. You do not have a tame God, but one who freely accepted the consequences of His baptism in order to do battle with your enemies and defeat them for you!
Baptism was dangerous business for Jesus, and it is dangerous business for you and me. On your baptism day, God said to you, “You are my beloved child; in you I am well-pleased!” As Christ faced the consequences of these words, so must you and I. We too will sacrifice and suffer because of our Baptism. The world will hate us, and Satan will rage against us, desperately trying to bring us back into His fold. Baptism is dangerous because it gives us enemies. Our baptism is also dangerous because now we are claimed by a God who is anything but tame. He has made us His own, and He doesn’t do this lightly. When the baptized children of God live in open and unrepentant sin, when they refuse to feed the faith given them in that baptism by regularly coming to worship and the Lord’s Table, they are putting God to the test. They are daring God to condemn them, they are mocking the gifts He has given to them at the font. It is dangerous to play games with the living God; He is not tame! Saint Paul declares in our Epistle lesson: “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” He who tore the heavens open to bring salvation takes Baptism seriously, and we should do the same. Baptism isn’t just a ceremony, it isn’t symbolic, it is the action of God Himself breaking into this world with salvation, ripping you from Satan’s clutches and making you His own. It is dangerous, indeed the highest and most tragic form of rebellion, to despise the gifts God gave you there.
We do not have a tame God. He is stronger than we are, He is dangerous to His enemies, He violently broke into our world to accomplish salvation. But while He is not tame, He is good. His roar is terrifying, but only to His enemies, those who have rejected His grace. Repent! Repent whenever you despise your baptism, whenever you put God to the test. Repent and cling to the very promises Christ gave through that blessed washing! As Jesus drew comfort in the midst of affliction from the declaration of the Father at His baptism, we rest in our own baptism each and every day, when we are afflicted by the hatred of the world, and when we through sin despise the gifts God gave us there. We cling to our Baptism because while our God is not tame, He is good, and He pours out forgiveness in abundance upon repentant sinners. On your Baptism day God tore down the barrier of sin that separated you from Him and declared you His own beloved child. He is faithful to His promises; He will forgive you for the sake of Christ. You are His beloved child; with you He is well-pleased! In the Name of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the beloved Son of the heavenly Father, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.