“Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 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 morning comes from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the fifth chapter of the book of Second Kings. Dear friends in Christ, Naaman was desperate, desperate for cleansing. He saw his leprosy, this cursed disease that consumed his flesh, and he wanted deliverance, he wanted to be clean. He knew that he was unclean, that he couldn’t hold his children, he couldn’t hug his wife, he couldn’t even fulfill the tasks that made him so valuable to his king. He is so desperate for cleansing that he is even willing to listen to the advice of a slave girl: “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” Think of how desperate Naaman must’ve been, to travel to Israel on the word of a slave!
We too are unclean, not with physical leprosy, but instead we are covered with the leprosy of sin and guilt. Some sins make us feel more unclean that others, especially those committed with our bodies, such as sexual sins, but all sin makes us unclean. That is often the way sin makes us feel; dirty, covered with filth and grime that we cannot remove with a mere shower. We need cleansing, in fact, we are desperate for it. Sin isn’t something we can see, but we can feel its corruption. We try all sorts of cures, from special diets to self-help, but none of them can quite remove the filth. In fact, many of us spend years trying to become clean. We know deep down that we are dirty, but we have no idea how to rid ourselves of the filth of sin. We feel like we will never be pure, never clean, never whole again. Like Naaman, we are ready to try anything to find the cleansing we need.
And like Naaman, we eventually come to the Church, we finally come to God. But Naaman didn’t come to God’s chosen people to beg for help, instead he came to demand it. Look at how he comes to ask for help: “So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothes.” Naaman came to buy forgiveness, he wanted to impress the king of Israel to get what he wanted. But the king can’t give it. “Am I God, to kill and to make alive?” Fortunately for Naaman and for Israel’s king, Elisha heard about this request. “Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman came, but not in humility. “So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.” He will not stoop down to come into the house of the prophet; Elisha must come out to him. The prophet must deal with him according to his lofty status. Despite his leprosy, despite his uncleanness, which has driven him to such desperation, Naaman is still full of pride. Isn’t that like us? We know that we are unclean, we know that we in desperate need of cleansing, but we do not come to God in humility, begging for help; instead we come in pride, demanding it. We believe that we are entitled to healing, deserving God’s cleansing on our own terms.
Elisha will have none of it. “And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be clean.’” The prophet acted to kill the pride of Naaman. He refused to even come out and see this great general, but simply prescribed the cure: water and the Word. If Naaman washes, he will be clean, not because the Jordan is filled with some special water, but because that water has the promise of God attached to it, spoken by Elisha through his messenger. This is the same cure that Jesus proclaims to you in your uncleanness. He doesn’t come to you Himself, but instead sends a messenger, a fellow sinner just as unclean as you are, who proclaims to you, “Go and wash, and you will be clean. Avail yourself of the baptismal waters, because there Jesus gives cleansing, there he will wash away your filth.” The cure for uncleanness is water and the Word, given by Jesus through his called messengers.
But human nature rebels against such humble means. “Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” Naaman wants to see great wonders, to witness the mighty deeds of the prophet. Some show of power will surely befit his status as the hero of Syria! His pride revolts at this attempt to put it to death. He will not come in humility; healing must come the way he wants it, or he doesn’t want it at all!
In his pride, Naaman doesn’t fully understand his condition. He doesn’t say, “cure my leprosy,” but instead “cure the leper.” Naaman refuses to own up to his uncleanness, his pride won’t let him admit that leprosy is a part of him. Instead, he claims that this disease is something abstract and disconnected, a problem that needs to be fixed. Isn’t that how we deal with our sin? Sin is a problem that we want the Church, that we want our pastor, that we want Jesus, to ‘fix.’ It really doesn’t belong to me, it’s simply something that I am carrying around. We believe that our sin can be taken care of without really doing anything to us. But sin isn’t a problem that needs fixing, an issue that can be solved. Sin is a disease, a corruption that affects everything that we think, say, and do. The only way to deal with our sin is by putting it to death. God must kill in order to make alive.
That is what Elisha was doing when he refused to come out and see Naaman; he was putting Naaman’s sinful pride to death. But our pride doesn’t want to die, it rebels against the attempt of God’s Law to kill it. Like Naaman, we want the problem fixed without any cost to us. Our pride still wants to be in control, and so it demands wondrous signs, not the humility of the water and the Word. Naaman was prepared to die as a leper rather than submit himself to the means God had established for his cleansing. Fortunately, his servants continued the assault on Naaman’s pride. “His servants came near and said to him, ‘My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, “Wash and be clean”?’” These servants encouraged Naaman to give up on his pride and trust the Word given by God’s prophet. And their master listened. “So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God.” Naaman’s pride was finally crucified. He ‘goes down’ into the Jordan in humility, trusting in the means God has set forth for his cleansing. And He was made clean!
“His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” Naaman’s washing in the Jordan didn’t symbolize cleansing, it actually accomplished it. In those waters, joined with the very promise of God, his leprosy was washed away. In the same way the waters of baptism, which carry the very promise of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, wash away the leprosy of our sin. Even our pride is destroyed in those waters, because baptism is not your work, it isn’t the great sign and wonder that your pride wants; it is the work of Jesus, acting through His messenger. You bring nothing to the font, only your sin, and Jesus drowns it there. He drowns your filth in order to bring you back up from the water clean. God kills to make alive, He puts your sin to death in the font. That is the only way to deal with sin; it can’t be ‘fixed,’ it must be killed.
That is why Jesus went to the cross. Sin must be put to death, and so Jesus became sin for us, and was put to death in our place. His pride didn’t rebel against this path, the means God had established for the salvation of all, but instead He humbled Himself, coming down into our world so that He would be lifted up upon the cross. There all of your sin was put to death; all of your filth, all of your pride, crucified with Jesus. Jesus didn’t ‘fix’ sin, He destroyed it, by bearing it to the cross and putting it to death in His own body. So when Jesus puts us to death in our baptism, He is joining us with His own death, as Saint Paul declares: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” God kills in order to make alive. Jesus was put to death bearing the sin of the world, but on the third day, He was made alive, risen never to die again. You were put to death in your baptism with Christ so that you would be made alive with Him. “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” You are incorporated into Christ’s death as the water drowns your sinful nature, and you are incorporated into Christ’s resurrection as you are brought up from that water alive forever, cleansed from all your sin.
For Baptism doesn’t symbolize your cleansing, it actually cleans you. All the sin that you desperately try to cleanse through any other means is washed away in Baptism. That is the cleansing that you are so desperately searching for. But Baptism is only a one-time occurrence, right? How can that cleansing apply to me each and every day since? The answer is that your baptism happened once, but its effects last forever. Your leprosy is cleansed and your pride killed each and every day as you return to the font in repentance and faith, receiving Christ’s blood-bought forgiveness. You live in this world as the baptized: dead to sin, for that sin has been put to death on the cross and drowned at the font, and alive to Christ, for Jesus raises you out of those waters cleansed and renewed to live before Him forever. You do not say ‘I was baptized,’ but ‘I am baptized,’ and this identity you will carry into an eternity spent before the throne of the Lamb, your crucified and risen Savior. In His holy and precious name, in which we are baptized, Amen.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
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
"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
Monday, February 6, 2012
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.
“‘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.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, January 30, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, January 27, 2012
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
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
Thursday, January 26, 2012
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.
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.
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