Reformation Romans 3:19-28

And now, separate from Law, a justice of God is revealed still, witnessed by the Torah and the Prophets, and a righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ, into all the ones believing. For there is no difference, for all miss the mark and lack the reflected-glory of God, being made righteous–a gift in His grace through the ransoming–the one in Christ Jesus; Whom God placed before–an appeasement through faith in His blood, into a sign-of-proof of His righteousness, through the letting go of sins unpunished which were done before; in the holding back of God, to the sign-of-proof of His righteousness in the now-season, into Him being righteous, and making righteous the one having the faith of Jesus. Where then, the bragging? Excluded. Through what Law? Of the works? No, but through a law of faith. Therefore, we calculate a man to be made righteous in faith, separate from works of Law.

The central question of the Reformation was that of orthodox teaching. Was the Roman church of Luther's day teaching truth, or did the bible teach the truth? This was, and remains the critical question for evaluating any church or preacher. For teaching must be "orthodox" which means quite literally "giving God the proper glory". So Martin Luther posted his 95 theses in hopes of debating what church practices gave Jesus the right glory. His main question was about selling "indulgences".

The question may have begun about whether forgiveness and complete pardon for sins was for sale, but it soon became a matter of whether man could do a single thing to earn, merit, or make himself worthy of God's grace. Did you have to strive and struggle to be righteous first to find God's favor, or was God already gracious to you because of Jesus? From his extensive study of God's Word, Luther learned that the righteousness of God was a free gift, which came to a believer by faith alone.

Now, this Reformation mantra, "Faith alone" is not found in today's text, although it is implied, as it is a faith which is apart from works. In Luther's German translation of this text, he inserts a technical old German term for "alone" to make it clear to those speaking that language that man is righteous "alone, by faith". No works of law obedience are required for you to be righteous in God's sight! It is a gift!

But your old Adam in your flesh doesn't want to believe it. Salvation must be earned! It is so valuable that it must cost dearly! It seems to you, at times, to cheapen the whole process if redemption comes to you freely, by faith, and even that faith is a gift and working of God in you. You want to show yourself to be deserving of such a blessing. So you strive, struggle and strain, and then boast about it to others.

But bragging is excluded. What? There's no commandment against it! But it is excluded just the same. For there is no one who deserves to be saved. You have all sinned like Adam and Eve, and you all have lost that image of God which once reflected His glory. You are all in the same boat. You could boast, "look at me, I'm a good Christian" but you'd be lying, and everyone knows it. No, all bragging is excluded by the law of faith. God made you a believer and gifted you with His righteousness freely.

This is seen clearly at your baptism. You were conceived and born a sinner, in need of much help. So God washed your sins from you that day, but He didn't leave your heart empty. Your sins were deposited on Jesus at the cross where He died your death there. Yet Jesus' Own holy goodness He gave up for you at Calvary--His righteousness given to you as a free gift to make you worthy of eternal life! Your baptism is a sign of the proof of God's righteousness, through Christ Jesus your Savior.

This comes to you also at the Lord's Supper. Jesus, your "propitiation" is your atoning sacrifice appeasing God's wrath as the sacrificial lambs of old. He passes over the sins you did before as the true Passover Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. He is the mercy seat, covering over the commandments in the ark of the covenant, with His shed blood poured out for your salvation. His body given and His blood shed for you are another sign of the proof of His righteousness for you!

Through word and sacrament, God Himself makes you orthodox, that you too be of the proper glory, just as God Himself is. Your own self-righteous attempts fail to bring you any lasting glory, falling short. But your glorious God–Christ Jesus, gives up His Own holy righteousness at Calvary for you. God's glory is now reflected in you by the righteousness of Jesus, credited to your account by faith! The glory of Christ alone is now your own glory, as the image of God is restored to you in Jesus! This is the orthodox teaching of God, from His Word, for it gives Christ all the glory for your salvation!

Amen

hymns for today from LSB:
#556  Dear Christians One and All Rejoice!
#656   A Mighty Fortress
#555  Salvation Unto Us has Come  all 10 stanzas
#655  Lord Keep Us Steadfast in You Word   stanzas
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Proper 20 Pentecost I Timothy 2:1-15

So I appeal to you first of all to make entreaties, prayers, requests, thanksgivings on behalf of all humanity, on behalf of kings and all those being in high places, so that a peaceful and quiet life we may lead in all godliness and reverence. This–good and pleasing before our Savior–God, Who wants all humanity to be saved and into recognition of all truth to come. For one God, even one Mediator of God and humanity, a human–Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom on behalf of all, the witness  at the proper season. Unto this I myself was placed a proclaimer and an Apostle, I speak truth, not falsehood, a teacher of nations, in faith and in truth. So I want the husbands in all places to pray, raising devout hands without anger and argument. In the same manner wives in respectable clothing with modesty and moderation to adorn themselves, not in braids and gold and pearls, or clothing which costs much, but what fits women promised to godliness–through good works. A wife in silence learns in all subjection. And I do not permit a wife to teach nor have authority over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam–first to be created, then Eve. And Adam wasn't deceived, yet the wife was deceived, in transgression became. Yet they will be saved through the child-bearing, if ever remaining in faith and God's love and holiness with reasonableness.  

God wants all humanity to be saved and recognize the truth that Christ is the Savior of all. So Jesus teaches a weird parable about an unfaithful manager whose shrewdness is actually praised.His deception isn't commended, but his making of friends for his future is worthy of kudos. Jesus instills in us the same prudence to make future friends above. You are to store up folks as treasures in heaven.

So Paul insists that what you do matters. Not that it scores points with God, but it blesses your neighbor. You should pray for people, care about how you behave in your own household, because how you act effects others. If a wife berates her husband in bible class, how would that appear to a curious onlooker? If a husband won't even pray for the President, how does that sound to a visitor?

So in how you pray, by how you behave, and even in what you wear, you might just be making friends for eternity. Yet you think, "these people don't pray for me, so why should I pray for them?" Or, "My spouse doesn't subject himself to my needs, so why should I subject myself to his? Or, "People nowadays don't care how they look, so why should I care how I appear to them? Not the right attitude.

Jesus didn't think that way. What if He said, "You don't pray to Me much, so why should I save you?" or "You don't accept where I've placed you on earth, so why should I let you into heaven?" But He doesn't act like you. His good and gracious will is to save you, regardless of your bad attitude and conduct. So He has your pastor, week in and week out proclaim this truth to you: Jesus loved you so much that He forfeited His life as the ransom price to save you at Calvary! You acknowledge this truth by faith.

God has called you from the darkness of this sinful world to the marvelous light of this gospel promise. It promises you unto your godliness and reverence. But your attitude isn't always so reverent, is it? Nor is your behavior always so godly. Your desire to show of who you are and share what you think sadly overshadows what God desires, and who He has made you to be in Christ.

Though you are stuck in the same sin into which Eve and Adam fell, God has rescued you from it all. You have been saved through child-bearing, in particular, one child born of a virgin. The baby Jesus came into this world to be your Savior in the flesh, to one day sacrifice Himself for you. He gave His body unto death and shed His blood for your forgiveness. You eat the body and
drink the blood of your Savior in the Lord's Supper. In this way you remain in God's love, in the holiness of His  forgiveness.

Jesus says that you can even make friends with mammon which is in-and-of-itself unrighteous. But what do you do with all your mammon? You spend money on electronic gadgets that are outdated in a few months. You buy fancy clothing, jewelry, and hair products to make you look as up on the latest trends as everyone else. But this helps nobody but your own self. Repent of such mammon serving.

Instead, God has given you all your stuff to use in the most godly ways. It's given to you for a purpose, so that others may be blessed, even unto eternity! God once blessed you with the simplest stuff–water. It, with God's word, washed you clean of all your transgressions, and made you a new creation in Christ. At your baptism, God made you anew, now a holy, reverent, godly person where a former unrighteous person used to be. He gave you faith there, in which you remain in God's love.

Proper 19 1 Timothy 1:12-17

I myself am gracious to the One Who has empowered me–Christ Jesus, our Lord, that faithful, He regards me, established into service; the one before being the blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant one; but I was mercied because of ignorance I acted in unbelief; yet the grace of our Lord over-swelled with faith and God's love–the one in Christ Jesus. Faithful-the word, and worthy of all approval, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of which I myself am the first. But through this I was mercied, so that in me, first, Christ Jesus might show the whole patience, the prototype of those about to believe upon Him unto life eternal. And in the King of the ages, undying, invisible, only God, honor and glory into the ages of ages. Amen.  

The great St. Paul wasn't always so great. Nor was he regarded as a saint. Nor did he even go by the name of Paul. Known by His Jewish name of Saul, he was a prominent pharisee, as upright as any Jew could be, even to the point of persecuting that new sect of Jesus-followers called Christians. He spoke against this so called "Christ", and was given great authority to attack Christians, imprisoning some and having others put to death. He even approved of the stoning of St. Stephen. He was lost.

So how did this poor lost soul known as Saul, ungreat, and unsaintly though he was, become the great St. Paul? Jesus had to come and find him, that's how. On his way to persecute the Christian church in Damascus was where Jesus found him. Jesus stopped Saul in his tracks, blinded Him with a light, wrapping him up like a deuce. Then, when he followed Jesus' instructions to go to Ananias' house, he was baptized, regained his sight, and began using his Roman name of Paul to serve Jesus.

You are not unlike Saul because you too have been arrogant just as he was. You've acted selfishly and stubbornly in your own name. You've done what you alone have wanted to do, not caring what God desires. You have spun things in your own favor to place yourself in better light, even when it casts a shadow on your neighbor's reputation. You have acted as though you mattered most.

You are not unlike Saul aka Paul. For just as He was baptized and began using a new name, you too have been baptized. But not in your church's name, or in your pastor's name, or even in your own name, but in the Name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. God has given you His Own name at your baptism, making you His very Own dear child. You are adopted into God's household at your baptism, receiving God's Own family name as your own. Your home now is in His heavenly mansion, forever..

You are not so very different from Saul in that your actions have been anything but holy at times. As Saul has blasphemed against Jesus, your words have taken His name in vain, and have dishonored your Savior. As Saul persecuted the Church, so have you misled believers by your wrong-headed opinions and your attempts to mislead others away from how you know Christians are to behave.

Yet you are just like Saul/Paul in that you are declared to be holy despite your unholy thoughts, words and actions. This is because Jesus died on the cross for you just as much as He did for St. Paul. Jesus proclaims that you are forgiven of all your unholy sins, and that He has exchanged them for His Own holy righteousness from the cross of Calvary. His strong word has bespoken you "righteous", so that like St. Paul, you can be called a saint, shining bright with the glory of Jesus' Own holiness as your own!

You aren't dissimilar from Saul who sinned in his great ignorance. You too are ignorant when you act apart from your God-given faith. You wrongly assume it isn't so bad to take the first misstep of a transgression. Then you figure, it isn't so bad if you take just a couple more steps into Satan's dangerous territory as you keep trespassing there. But then you are stuck in sin, dreadfully lost.

But you are very much in the same boat as the great St. Paul, who was found by Jesus when he needed saving the most. Jesus has found you as your Good Shepherd as well, bringing you to the green pastures of the Lord's Supper, where He feeds you with His body given, and gives you to drink of His shed blood for the forgiveness of your sins. He mercied you there just as He once mercied the great St. Paul. Your greatness now is in Christ Jesus, the Word Who dwells in you richly.

So, just as the great St. Paul once was lost, but then was found by Jesus, you too were once lost in your trespasses and sins; but Christ found you and has returned you to His holy sheep-fold. Paul is a prototype of your own salvation, for just as Jesus mercied Him, so has He likewise mercied you! This Word is faithful: Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Through this you are mercied!

Amen.

hymns this week from LSB:
#707  Oh That the Lord would Guide my Ways
#609  Jesus Sinners Doth Receive   stanzas   music
#611  Chief of Sinners though I Be

Proper 17 Know your Place Luke 14:1-14

May the love of the brothers remain. Do not forget the hospitality, for through this it has escaped the notice of some who were surprised by angels. Remember the prisoners, as fellow-prisoners, the mistreated as also these are being in the Body. Honor marriage in everything and the bed undefiled, for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. May your manner be not greedy; sufficient is your return. For He Himself has said, "No, I will not abandon you, and no, I will not leave you behind." So we are confident to say, "The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear! What can man do to me?" Remember the ones who led you, the ones speaking to you the Word of God, as looking carefully at the end of their behavior, mimicking the faith. Jesus Christ yesterday and today the same and into the ages..

In the lessons today, we hear about the humility we should have in this life, that God might exalt us. You wouldn't want to presume to be the King's favorite, only to be humiliated by him later on. So it is with the humble life you walk on this earth as a Christian. You are to *know your place*. Your place is not to exalt yourself as though you know everything, and deserve many honors. You don't. Your place is to be last, so God can make you first. Your place is to be low so God Himself can raise you up.

So, just what is your place in this lowly, humble life? First, the writer to the Hebrews address how your life of humility looks to your fellow man. You are to be a Philadelphian. Live your life in brotherly love toward others. You are to open your homes to strangers, care about prisoners and those who are downtrodden. For God has placed you here on earth with your neighbors so you can care for them. Yet you find excuse after excuse why your own cares and concerns are more important than theirs.

Has your God treated you the same way? Not by a long-shot! Your God came down from His comfortable home in heaven to walk this world with the likes of you. He didn't have to, but He wanted to because He loves you. He came to this sin-sick world to become infected with your sin at the cross. There He gave His body in death and shed His blood to ransom you. His body He forfeited, so that by eating His body and drinking His blood at communion, you may become of the Body of Christ forever!

How else does your life of humility look now? Well it's not to your honor, but to God's. Therefore you are given to honor the things of God, for by doing so you show Him respect. Take marriage. It is not something you get to define by your own notions. It is a gift of God Who joins together a man and his wife. This you are to honor, keeping the marriage bed chaste. Yet what have you done? Sex outside of marriage, unfaithfulness to your spouse, and you fall into all kinds of debauchery that defiles you.

Has God treated His relationship with you as you have acted in your relationships with people? Hardly! Where you have been the unfaithful one, time and again in your relationship with God, He's been nothing but faithful to you. Though He has every reason to leave you, instead He says, "No, I won't abandon you, I won't leave you." He proclaims His unending love for you in Christ Jesus, your Husband, Who by His sacrifice at Calvary has redeemed you as His bride as Boaz redeemed Ruth..

How else does your place in life's humility manifest itself? It shows itself in your stuff. You are to consider the blessings God has chosen to give you as *sufficient*. But you don't. You are jealous of other people; you envy their job, their family, their possessions; you are greedy to obtain more stuff as you strive to "keep up with the Joneses". You fail to consider God to provide, because you are not satisfied with what He's given you so far. You should be content with God's blessings, but you aren't.

Has God stopped providing for you since you've been so ungrateful? No way! He's still your Helper. You have no reason to fear that you will be lacking any good thing. God provides for you as a loving Father provides for His children, because you are God's Own child! At your baptism, God adopted you into His heavenly family. He gave you God's Own Name that day, cleansing you from your sins which Jesus bore for you at the cross. He even gave you Christ's Own righteousness as your own!

So what's your place in this humble life? Being convicted of your sins by God's law is a good start. But you don't remain lowly for long. A servant to God and others in word and deed on this earth, yet being served by Your Savior Jesus, Who has raised you up into Himself at your baptism, and will exalt you fully when He returns on the last day. For although you waffle in your humble walk as a Christian, Jesus never does. He's the same yesterday, today and forever! He keeps on speaking God's word to you, by which He keeps on forgiving you, saving you, giving you life, and exalting you heavenward.  Amen.


Hymns for today from LSB:

#706   Love in Christ is Strong and Living
#842   Son of God, Eternal Savior
#845   Where Charity and Love Prevail

Proper 15 Epistle

In faith Abraham offered Isaac, being tested, and the only begotten he offered, the one having received promises, to whom it was spoken that in Isaac your seed will be called, considering that even out of dead ones God was able to raise, from which him also in a parable he received...And these all having been witnesses through the faith did not receive the promise; God, concerning us, a better thing He foresaw, in order that not apart from us they be perfectly-completed. For this reason also we, being enveloped in so large a cloud of witnesses, may we lay aside all impediments and the constricting sin, through perseverance we run the contest before us, we fix our gaze unto the Beginner and Completer of the faith–Jesus, Who on behalf of the joy He was devoted to, endured a cross, a disgrace he despised, and on the right of the throne of God He has been seated. For you consider the One enduring such a hostility by the sinners into Himself, in order that your souls not become weary (or) give out.    

A rookie ball player is called up to the majors, taking his first at bat. He is baptized by fire. A young marine is deployed into a war theater, facing his first tastes of battle. He is baptized by fire. A newbie volunteer fire-fighter responds to her very first call. She is baptized by fire, but hopefully not literally. Being baptized by fire is not an easy thing. It's dangerous, dreadful and sometimes deadly. You don't want to be baptized by fire, if you can help it. But one person couldn't help it. His name was Jesus!

You see, Jesus' baptism was quite different from yours. Oh, it looked similar when Jesus was in the Jordan river with John. But your baptisms was to wash your sins off of you. Jesus' wasn't. His was a baptism by fire. Fire is a symbol in the bible of God's judgment. Where you and I are cleansed from our unrighteousness in baptism, Jesus wasn't. Quite the opposite. Jesus came to embrace sin and death. Jesus was so devoted to the joy of your salvation that He willingly endured the cross for you.

Not just for you, but for everyone. Jesus endured His baptism by fire at the cross for all people of all times and; places. Your Savior received God's fiery judgment against your sins nailed to Himself, and also Abraham's sins Christ bore in His body on the tree. All the guilt, shame, and; disgrace of every single sin of mankind Jesus became at Calvary. It wasn't a shame Jesus liked. He despised it. Yet He was willing to endure it for your sake, and for the  whole world. He's baptized by fire, for you.

With such an awesome thing that Jesus was willing to do for you and all people, you'd think everyone would look to Him with awe and wonder. But people don't. Sometimes you don't. You consider Jesus on Sunday, then He's out of your mind by Tuesday. Or sometimes even by the time you get to the church parking lot. Your consideration for Jesus and what He does for you is often lacking.

Abraham, by faith, considered God's promises, trusting beyond all logic as God told Him to kill his only son Isaac, through whose line the Savior Jesus was promised. Abraham would have done it, trusting that God who gives life could restore it to Isaac in resurrection. You are given to consider God and His promises in the same way. You are to consider Jesus who took Isaac's place in death, and your place as well on the cross. You consider the only-begotten Son of God baptized by fire for you.

With such a great cloud of faith-filled witnesses in the bible, you ought to be just as faith-focused as they were. But often you aren't. Your gaze drifts away from Jesus who bore your sins on the cross, and instead you find your eyes fixed on your favorite sinful habits. You gossip, waste money, indulge your whims and act selfishly until your sins become impediments to your Christian walk, ensnaring you.

Yet Jesus remains there for you, at the right hand of God's throne. This is not a location, but a power. God's mighty right hand comes down to wash you in your baptism, to mark you with the sign of the cross in Holy Absolution, and to feed you with His body and blood at Communion. Jesus, by the power of His Spirit re-fixes your gaze to Himself, and where He promises to be for you in His Word and in His sacraments. For there Jesus promises to be to forgive you, save you, and give you life forever.

So when life's race becomes rough making you feel you are being baptized by fire, there is no reason for you to despair or grow weary. For your Savior has already been baptized by fire in your place at the cross. For in Christ Jesus there you are perfectly completed. Your faith in Christ a gift He both authors and finishes for you, keeping you in the true faith unto your life everlasting. He likewise does everything by His grace for you, announcing it from the cross, "It is finished!" to you, Abraham, and all.

Proper 8 Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Don't Look Back

In the freedom Christ has freed us; stand then and do not again in a yoke of slavery be loaded down... for you, yourselves upon freedom were called, brothers; only not the freedom into returning to the flesh, but through God's love, enslaved to each other. For all the Law in one word is to be fulfilled, in the "love your neighbor with God's love, as yourself". Yet if you bite and destroy each other, see that you aren't by each other consumed. And I say, in the Spirit you walk, and the wants of the flesh no, you will not complete. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that whatever you want, these things you do not do. And if in the Spirit you are led, you are not by the Law...And the ones of Christ, the flesh they have crucified with the passions and the lusts. If we live in the Spirit, may we also be aligned. May we not become conceited, provoking each other, jealous of each other.  

"Don't Look Back." That was the name of our class song in 1984, soon after "Comfortably Numb" was summarily rejected. It was fitting then because we were leaving High School, and moving forward to college, careers, new places and families. Don't look back seems to be the theme for our lessons today. Elisha was kind of tempted to go back to his family, but he didn't. The man who wanted to follow Jesus was likewise tempted to return back home. But another "don't look back" is our concern.

Inspired by the Spirit, Paul reminds you not to go back to your former ways of slavery to sin. Don't look back on your former sinful ways from which you have been forgiven. Don't go back to your former life from which Jesus has redeemed you. Don't turn back to the yolk of the Law that binds you to a life of permanent frustration. Don't look back to your own flesh and its evil desires, be they lusting, drunkenness, carousing, jealousy, provoking fights, or any other immoral activity. Just don't look back.

Yet this admonition "Don't look back" is easier said than done. You have a fondness for the things of the past, even those you know weren't healthy for you. You are a creature of habit, and those habits of your flesh are so easy to fall back into. You have very strong feelings and emotions, wants and desires attached to those old memories of how you have acted in the past. You have old friends who still do many of the sinful things you used to do, and how easy would it be to slip back into your old ways.

But your former ways of thinking, God has changed! Where you used to think only about yourself, now you think of God's love, and the needs of your neighbor. Those old heresies you believed have been replaced by faith in Christ to Whom you now belong! You have experienced God's love for you in Jesus which has freed you from your sins through your baptism, washing them in that filthy flood from the font to the cross. You are freed from sinful behavior too, made a servant of God's love to others.

So if you don't look back, then where do you look? First, you look to the here and now, and what God has made you to be in Jesus. You came to faith through the Holy Spirit's work of calling you to become a believer through the Gospel of Christ's love for you from Calvary. Now as a believer, Jesus' Own Spirit dwells in you so that daily you walk in the Spirit, and no longer according to what your sinful flesh wants. You are no longer led by God's Law which increases sin. You are led by the Spirit!

In the Spirit, you love with God's Own agape love. His joy is your joy. You have peace with God the Father  through His only-begotten Son Who gave His life to ransom you from death! So God's Spirit makes you patient to wait on God's timing, kind and good toward your neighbor, faithful to God in your behavior, gentle, with your self controlled by the Holy Spirit. None of this is of the Law. It is of God Himself, loving other people with His love which He gave you from the cross of Jesus, to give to others!

So following God, be it like Elisha after Elijah, or one of Jesus' disciples back in the day, is all about what God is doing. That's why you Don't Look Back to when you were in charge of things, with sinful attitudes and evil behaviors. God draws your attention forward to Him and what He does for you. For you are of the Christ. For sinful you was crucified with Jesus on Good Friday. A new you is raised in Jesus on Easter to walk in new life, a life which isn't according to the Law but in the Spirit of Jesus..

"Um, pastor, what if I do look back to my old sinful ways?" Then repent, confess and receive God's forgiveness in Christ. For the same Jesus in Whom you have been crucified offers Himself to you in His Supper regularly, for He knows that you sin daily. So Jesus feeds you with His body given for you, and gives you His shed blood for you to drink, a new testament for the forgiveness of your sins.

Hymns for today from LSB:


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Proper 7 Galatians 3:23- 4:7

For before faith was to come, by the Law we were guarded, confined into the faith about to be revealed, so the Law came to be our child-leader into Christ, so that out of faith we be justified. And the faith, having come, we are no longer under a child-leader. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as into Christ are baptized are wearing Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is not male and female; for all of you are in Christ Jesus. And if you are of Christ, then the seed of Abraham you are, according to promise–heirs! And I say, for the length of time an heir is a child, he doesn't differ from a slave, being lord of all, but he is under guardians and house-managers until the time set of the father. So also we, while we were children, under the elements of the world we were enslaved. And when the fulfillment of time came, God sent out on a mission His Son, begotten of woman, becoming under the Law, so that the ones under the Law He may redeem, so that as sons we may be taken from it. And because you are sons, God sent out on a mission the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, "Daddy, Father!". Consequently, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir, through God..  

Many moons ago when I was in college, our Synod came out with a CTCR document called "Women in the church" (1985). It was hotly debated in that day, with some upset that it didn't allow for women pastors. Those who argued for women pastors cited the passage, "there is no longer male and female", as if that were the last word to be had in the matter. But it wasn't, of course. In fact, it wasn't even the last point St. Paul is inspired to make on the topic in our epistle for today. For all in Christ are Sons!

Oddly, after telling the folks that their own gender didn't matter, Paul seems to go an entirely different route with Jesus' gender. It mattered a whole lot! Jesus was not some genderless "child" of God. He was very much male, and as such, He is very much a Son of God. The legion of demons knew this well, addressing Jesus plainly as God's Son. Jesus refers to Himself countless times also as the Son of His heavenly Father. So how does our gender matter so little, but Jesus' matters so very much?

Whether you are a male or a female doesn't matter because you no longer live, but Christ lives in you. In Christ you have become a son of God, through THE Son of God. You were taken from the condemnation of the Law in your baptism, where God adopted you into His heavenly family. You were washed clean of all of your sins, and made holy to bear God's Own family name from that day on. You are no longer disobedient slaves of God under the Law, but sons of God by Jesus' forgiving grace.

"But I'm a gal" at least half of you are thinking. "It's just plain odd to be a female-Son!" Yes that would be odd, but remember, that's not how God sees you. You are a son of God, regardless of your gender, because you are wearing Jesus–the Son of God! At the blessed exchange of the cross Jesus became your sin and was dealt it's severe punishment in your place. You, in trade, received His holy righteousness by faith, to wear for eternity. God the Father looks down on you seeing only Jesus!

Your sonship from God comes with a very special bonus. As a son, you become an heir of God the Father! In bible times, the gals were never part of the inheritance, but sons were. As a son of God you have Jesus last will and testament already given to you. Not just a promise, but delivered through the cup of the new testament in Jesus' blood shed for you. You eat and drink from this last will and testament at the Lord's Supper, receiving the gifts of life and salvation through this sacrament.

Yet some of you want to cry out, "Why are women not allowed to do what men do in our church?" This is not what God has given you to cry out. He has placed the Holy Spirit of His Son into your hearts so that you will cry out a different thing: "Daddy, Father!" Instead of questioning about what some people want to do, God gives you to holy sonship, that your cries of prayer recognize by faith just who you are in Christ Jesus, an ever-blessed son of God! Repent of your foolish cries, and embrace sonship.

So refrain from the Law questions of "what do I get to do", for you are no longer children still under the Law. Instead, you are blessed by God to rejoice by His Spirit in the fact that, regardless of your gender, you are all Sons of God in Christ Jesus your Savior. For the Son of God died for you at Calvary under the Law to redeem you from its curse, forever. No longer are you under the guardian of the Law as a child, but since faith has come, you are fully grown sons of God in Jesus God's Son.

Hymns today from LSB:

#731  O God, Forsake Me Not
#825  Rise, Shine, you People
#594  God's Own Child I'll Gladly Say It


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Proper 4 Galatians 1:1-12

Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God (the) Father, the One having raised Him out of death, and all the brothers with me, to the ones called out of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and (the) Lord Jesus Christ, the one having given Himself on behalf of our sins, so that He may remove out of the present age of evil according to the will of God, and our Father, to Whom–the glory into the ages of ages, amen. I am amazed that so quickly you turn away from the One calling you in grace, into another gospel which is not another, if not some are the ones stirring you up and wanting to change the gospel of the Christ. But even if ever we or an angel out of heaven proclaims a gospel other than the gospel in you, may he be cursed! As I foretold, and now again I say, if anyone proclaims a gospel to you other than the one you received, may he be cursed! For now am I persuading men or God? Or am I seeking to please men? If yet men I were pleasing, a slave of Christ I would not ever be.  

Just what is true nowadays? It's becoming more difficult to tell. One tv channel spins a news story one way, and another channel spins it in an entirely different direction. Your significant other tells you one way is best, but that conflicts with what your parents taught you as the right way. One TV preacher claims that God wants one thing for you, then you flip the channel, to find another one preaching an entirely different message. How can you know what words are reliable, and which ones aren't?

Well, this is not a new problem, although in our post-modern age where everyone has their own personal version of the truth, it might seem worse than ever before. But way back in Paul's day, there were already others substituting a different so-called "gospel" for the one of Christ Jesus. Folks were trying to substitute a different message, claiming all the while that it was the same as God's word. It wasn't. But they would use twisted logic, quotes out of context, whatever to buttress this false gospel.

Really this is no different than the false appeal made to Jesus in today's gospel. "This guy is really worthy" the people argue. He wasn't. He knew it. He admits freely to Jesus that he doesn't deserve a miracle, or even for Jesus to come under his roof. The truth comes out in the end. The prevailing opinion of the people was dead wrong. Jesus does not bless the man "who deserves it", because nobody deserves it. We are all sinners deserving of hell. Jesus blesses the unworthy out of His love!

This flies directly in the face of popular notions. God can only love the "lovable", right? Wrong. That's what man thinks. It's not God's will. People show favor to the one who seems worthy of it. People only praise the person who has done something deserving of it. We only honor somebody who seems honorable. We expect ourselves to receiving something good because we've somehow earned it, so that we can receive the credit. This is the foundation of the false gospels that abound even today.

The orthodox gospel is different. Orthodox means "proper glory". So if the glory, the honor, the credit, or the praise goes to you as deserving God's blessings, it's not orthodox, because the glory isn't going in the right place. All glory is to belong to our God, alone. He's the One who saves the unworthy of salvation. God loves you in Christ Jesus, not because you are so lovable, but despite the fact that you aren't. Jesus died for your sins, became your sins on the cross so you become His righteousness.

This is God's will, the Lord's plan for you, His desire to love you despite yourself. Yet Satan works overtime to drag you away from this free gift of grace. Though he appears as a "white devil" he's still a wolf, albeit in sheep's clothing. He appeals to the popular opinion, telling you that God can't love you unless you... Or he tried to deceive you by saying, "if you just do this, then, and only then, God will bless you..."  What horse-pucky!  While you were yet sinners, Christ died for you! "It is finished!"

These false gospels of today twist the glory from God to men. The gracious washing of your baptism they pervert into an "ordinance" you gotta do to please God. The Lord's Supper, Jesus' body and blood given and shed for your forgiveness is twisted into your act of remembering Jesus. God's gift of faith to convert you from heathen to believer is turned on its head into "your decision" for Christ. Each gift, each work of God, each blessing from Jesus becomes your work, your effort, your choice.

Yet you remain confident in Christ Jesus, by Whose death your sin, your death, and the devil's hold on you is defeated, and by Whose resurrection you are raised to life everlasting! You await His return to remove you from this evil age of false gospels, according to God's will to save you eternally!

Amen.

Easter 5

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth went away, and the sea is no longer. And the city, the holy one, New Jerusalem I saw coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride made beautiful to her husband. And I heard a great sound out of the throne saying, "Look, the tabernacle of God with mankind and He tabernacles with them, and they, His people they will be, and God Himself will be with them–their God, and He will wipe away every tear out of their eyes, and death will not be any longer, nor grieving, nor weeping, nor wickedness will there be any longer; the first things have gone away. And He said, the One sitting upon the throne, "Look, new I am making everything," and He says, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." And He said to me, "These things are done. I–the Alpha and the Omega, the Source and the Ending. I Myself will give to the thirsty one out of the spring of the water of life, a gift. The conqueror will inherit these things and I will be to him a God and he will be to Me a son.  

When I watch a commercial, the product is often new and improved. Now that's great for getting folks to buy it, but what about me who already bought the old, lousy version last month? There is a lot of joy in our second lesson today, about a new heaven and earth, joined together as one by the heavenly Jerusalem, where God and man will be together like they were way back in that first paradise. When God makes all things new, it will certainly be great. But we are currently left here in this old earth, apart from heaven.

Such is life for us as we await the last day when Jesus will return to make all things new. In the meantime, Jesus is not able to be seen by us. He's gone as He told His disciples "for a little while". But it surely doesn't seem like a little while at all. It's been almost 2000 years, and still Jesus hasn't returned! It's almost enough to cause us to give up hope that He'll ever come back to make it all new.

But it really is just a "little while" in the big scheme of things. For when Jesus gave up His life on the cross He did so to give you eternal life. No amount of wait time compares with life everlasting, does it? Your heavenly home is already secured for you by the water of life--your birthday unto life eternal. Your Baptism day became the first day of your life forever with Jesus. Your reign with Jesus in heaven began that day, and it lasts for time immemorial. So waiting a bit until we see Jesus is not hard.

Separation anxiety seems to set in for you at times, knowing that there is a split between heaven and earth for a time yet. While the saints above are basking in the joys of paradise with their Savior, you here below may grow a bit jealous of what they now enjoy. In the interim, you live in a very sinful world, where temptations abound, far away from heaven, where sin and death seem to reign supreme.

But Belinda Carlisle may have been correct when she sang prophetically, "Heaven is a place on earth." For these brief moments this morning, God does indeed bring His heavenly presence to be among us here. Jesus who tabernacled among men on the earth when He first came, will tabernacle with mankind again. And He tabernacles within you when He feeds you with His ever-living body come down from the right hand of God's throne, and gives you His life-blood to drink for your forgiveness.

Yet it's difficult waiting for things to be finished. Like the birthday present "with some assembly required" seems to take some of the joy out of the gift, you may become frustrated knowing that you live in a yet-to-be-completed work which fixes all things. You dwell now within the problem of this sin-sick world. It's so contagious that you've caught this deadly disease of sin yourself, in need of a cure.

But don't be anxious about this temporary time of sorrow, for the remedy is yours in Christ Jesus. "These things are done" Jesus says to John in Revelation. "It is finished!" Jesus says to you from the cross. All that was needed to save you from your sins, Jesus has already accomplished for you, from His perfect life of obedience which earned everlasting life for you, to His innocent suffering and death which destroyed your death, to His raising Himself to life to bring the life of immortality to light for you!

So don't remain sorrowful simply because you live in the not-yet of this world separated from heaven. Rejoice that the same God Who is at work for you know will also bring all things to completion on the last day. Rejoice in those ways that God is already with you, being your God so that you can be His son. Be reminded daily that you are a baptized child of God, now and forevermore. Receive Jesus into your ears in the proclamation of His gospel love for you. Have your thirst quenched by much better than a 100oz big gulp–by the cup of salvation, the new testament in Jesus' blood for your forgiveness!

Amen!

Hymns for today from LSB:
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Maundy Thursday 2013

And the Holy Spirit even testifies to us, for after the saying: “‘This–the testament which I will testify to them after those days,’ says the Lord; ‘I will give my Law upon their heart, and upon their mind I will engrave them...and their sins and their lawlessness, no, I will no longer remember.’” And where there is forgiveness of these, no longer is there an offering concerning sin. Having been, then, brothers, we are bold into the entering of the holy place in the blood of Jesus, was made new to us, a not previously existing and living pathway through the veil, that is, His flesh, and a great Chief Priest upon the house of God, may we come forward with a genuine heart in fullness of faith, hearts sprinkled from consciences of evil, and bodies washed in pure water; may we hold firm the confession of the hope unwavering, for faithful is the One Who has promised; and may we consider others into urgings of (God’s) love and good works, and may we not abandon the gathering together of ourselves, just as the custom of some, but calling (them) alongside, and so much more as you see the approaching of the Day.   

Back in OT days, as people gave into temptation, they brought a sacrifice to God for their sin. Once a year, on Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement, 1 sacrifice was made for all people’s sins. A lamb was killed in the place of God’s people. The chief priest entered the holy of holies to pour some of its blood on the mercy seat of the altar of God’s presence. The rest he sprinkled 7 times on the people.  

This was the way of the old testament, or old promise of God to reconcile His people to Himself by the forgiveness of their sins. But this old way forshadowed a new testament which would not have to be repeated for every sin, or even once a year. God had found a way to take a new Lamb, one even better than the spotless lamb of the Passover sacrifice, Who became a once-&-for-all offering for all your sins & lawless deeds, so that God would not remember them any more. This Lamb was Christ!

Sometimes you don’t really favor this way of reconciliation between you and God. It seems to easy. You begin to doubt a free gift to you of forgiveness is real. So your sinful flesh seeks to do this or avoid that as though you can somehow make yourself presentable to God. You can’t. You can never make yourself good enough to earn God’s love, since His standard is impossible for you: “be perfect”.

But don’t think that the way of reconciliation was easy. It may be free to you, but only because it was so costly to Jesus. He is the sacrificial Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus gave up His body unto death for you on the +, and shed His blood for you at Calvary to forgive your sins. His flesh given to you replaces the old veil that separated the people from God’s presence. You now approach the Lord’s Table with confidence, knowing that no offering is needed for sin any longer!

Yet you still tend to think that God ought to love you despite all of this, because you consider yourself a pretty good-hearted person. You are no mean, nasty criminal. You care for your family and live life as a model citizen most of the time. You are good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like you, so why shouldn’t God? But you are lying to yourself. You aren’t holy like God Himself is holy.

So you are in need of cleansing. Just as the blood of the lamb sprinkled 7 times upon the Israelites cleansed them from your sin, you too have received a washing. Not one that has to be repeated like the one of Yom Kippur, but you have been washed with the pure water of your baptism. Your heart has been sprinkled clean from your old evil conscience. You can come forward today to partake of the Lord’s Supper with a genuine heart, one that is now full of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Still, at times you wonder if you really need so much of God’s word in your life. “A worship service that exceeds an hour! That pastor must just like to hear himself talk.” You want to limit what you hear from Jesus because you think that the smallest bit of God’s word is plenty for you. How much of the same promises of God do you need to hear? Repent of limiting God’s word to you by your reluctant listening

For Jesus wants you to hear that He loves you over and over again. Would you tell your beloved spouse that they say “I love you” too much? So rejoice likewise that Jesus wants the words of His promised love to you to echo frequently in your ears, so much so that these words become your own confession of hope, opening your own mouth and the words of God’s gospel promise come out. For your neighbor needs the same encouragement of God’s love that you do, lest he/she stop gathering in church for worship. Your confession of God’s promise calls them back to worship alongside you!  

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Lent 5

Whatever was to me a profit, these things are to be considered on account of the Christ, forfeited. But, on the contrary, also all things are to be considered to be forfeited, on account of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, through Whom I suffer loss of all things, and consider them excrement, so that Christ I may profit, and let me be found in Him, not having my righteousness, the one of the Law, but the one through faith of Christ, the righteousness out of God, upon the faith, the knowledge of Him, and the power of His resurrection and the communion of His passion, taking the same form in His death, if somehow, let me come unto the resurrection, the one out of death. Not that already I have received, or already have been completed, yet I pursue, if even, let me receive, upon which also I was taken upon Christ. Brothers, I myself do not consider myself to have taken; and one thing: on the one hand I forget the things behind, on the other hand for (what is) ahead I reach out. According to the destination I pursue unto the award of the call from above of God in Christ Jesus.

Why would God want to let you into His heaven? There are two predominate schools of thought on this issue. The first, Paul encountered in Philippi, where law-focused Jewish members like Spike Lee insisted that everyone must “do the right thing” for God to consider you worthy of His kingdom. So to counter this, Paul offers a different point of view, one which looked at all the so called “right things” he did as nothing but, well, for lack of a better word: “excrement!”. Another righteousness was needed.

St. Paul urged them, and urges you to consider everything which you value in this world as something completely lost to you. Your own pride, your own supposed “goodness”, your own skills, talents and abilities are to be forfeited on account of Christ. For nothing you do contributes to your own goodness at all. You have a righteousness that is alien to yourself, one that comes from another world, the world to come. For you have been given the righteousness out of God, from above, given you through faith.

Now the first challenge you face with regard to this foreign righteousness is that you want somehow to be the one in charge of obtaining it. But you aren’t. Deep down you want to do something to get it, you think that you must at least reach out a little to take it, but you must understand that you are like Paul, not considering himself to have taken it. Instead, all the taking is done by Jesus Who takes us to Him.

The true righteousness is not taken from God, but given to you by God. You don’t actively take it. You passively receive it as a gift. The righteousness you have is by the faith of Christ Jesus, Who willingly took your sins as His Own on the and, so that in Him you would become the righteousness of God! This blessed trade Jesus made with you at Calvary, and delivered it to you the day of your baptism, your sins washed from you all the way to the tree of Golgotha, in exchange for Jesus holy righteousness.

The second problem you have concerning this gift of Jesus’ righteousness is that you are tempted to consider everything you already have as “good enough”. You seem “alright” at this juncture of your life, working hard, caring for your family, having made provisions for the future... Yet St. Paul reminds you that you are not to consider yourself as somebody who’s already received it all in this world.

No, the best is yet to come. Like the woman buried with a fork in her casket, because at every church dinner she was told to keep her fork for dessert, you have far surpassing things awaiting you. Oh, you have some knowledge of Christ your Savior now, but you know that you look forward to one day seeing Him face to face in heaven, as you behold His everlasting wounds which Thomas touched, as a permanent reminder to you that Jesus gave up everything for you, even His life unto death on the cross.

A third difficulty you face when it comes to Christ’s righteousness is that you are tempted to believe that you are complete already, and need nothing further from Jesus. This is simply not the case. You might feel self-satisfied with what a good Christian person you perceive yourself to be, but you remain in this world tainted by sin, corrupted thoroughly by your sinful flesh, in need of a drastic solution..

God alone can solve this problem by connecting you with the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Sinful you needs a participation in Jesus’ suffering and death, so that you can be raised by God to new life again. This fellowship with the death and resurrection of Jesus is given to you in a special communion of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus feeds you with His very body given in death, so that it become for you a feast of life eternal through the forgiveness of your sins, salvation for your soul!  

So your own righteous efforts placed behind you, you reach out in faith for your heavenly destination.

Amen

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Lent 3

For I don’t wish you to be unknowing, brothers, that all our fathers were below the cloud and all went through the sea, and all into Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same Spiritual food, and all the same Spiritual drink they drank; for they drank out of a Spiritual Rock following, and the Rock was the Christ. But not in many of them was God pleased, for they were killed in the desert. And these types happened for us, into us not being passionate for evils, just as those ones were passionate. You, are not to be idolaters, just as some of them became, as it is written, “The people sat to eat and to drink, and stood to play.” And may we not fornicate, just as some of them fornicated, and fell one day 23,000. Nor may we test the Christ, just as some of them tested, and by the serpents they were destroyed. Nor do you complain, just as some of them complained, and were being destroyed by the destroying angel. And these types came upon them, and were written to warn us, into whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, the one thinking he stands, see that he not fall. Temptation has not overtaken you, if not humanity; but God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will make, with the temptation, also the way out, for you to be able to endure.

When trying times come, there are some people who endure it, and others who cannot. When temptations come, some people resist, while others fall prey to the sin. This, of course, is because there are some with strong faith, others with weak faith, and still others who lack faith altogether. But our God cares for all people, regardless of their faith status. He proclaims both Law and Gospel for the benefit of all, just as He baptized the folks into Moses’ Law, then quenched their thirst with Christ.

Now, while God makes no distinctions between persons, we, sadly all-too-often do. You grow very impatient with particular sinners, especially those who don’t commit your favorite sins. “Don’t they see that they are headed to destruction?” you want to shout. You have a great desire to admonish them of the dangers of the path you see them on, and grow frustrated when they don’t heed your warning. You are tempted to write them off as a “lost cause” for repenting, and give up on them completely.

Praise God that He doesn’t have your impatience. God is patient with you, warning you again and again with His Law. He does this even though you often try to ignore His conviction of your own sins. But He persists, so that you will realize in the end that you have no power of your own to resist temptation but must rely on God to help. He does, with His Gospel, which forgives all your sinful thoughts, words feelings and actions, removing them from you by His grace, depositing them all on Jesus at the cross.

When you look inwardly at yourself, you fall prey to the temptation to think that you are a “strong Christian” and that you are able to overcome your own inclinations toward sinning. But the truth is, you can’t! That’s why Paul warns you not to think that you can stand on your own against the devil, the world, and your own sinful desires. If one of these doesn’t get you, the other two will, and you fall.

As you remember from last week, you stand, not on your own, but only on Christ Jesus. It is God who causes you to stand firm. For you are much like the fig tree in Jesus’ parable. The fig tree didn’t create itself. It doesn’t produce figs by it’s own efforts, just what God made it to be, a fig-producing tree. Likewise for you. You are given to bear your own fruits for God. You can’t do this yourself. God does it through you. He fertilizes you with His gospel Word and sacraments so you become fruitful.

When you find yourself in a predicament, falling prey to a particular sin, you often think that it is your responsibility to get yourself out. You couldn’t be more wrong. Yet you foolishly think that if you strive, struggle, and strain enough to overcome your sin, then God will be pleased with you. Nothing could be further from the truth. God knows you can’t resist all sins or overcome them by yourself.

So it is God Himself Who both provides your ability to resist temptation, and to find a way of escape when you fall into a sin. You are not your own life-guard. It is God Who rescues you from the unholy trinity. This rescue He first gave you at your baptism, where you were delivered from death and the devil and saved from sin by the washing of water with His Word. In addition, Jesus feeds you with Himself, just as He fed the Israelites in Moses day, with His body and blood for your forgiveness.

So whether you have strong or weak faith, your God remains faithful, ever-patient with you, having made you a new creation in Christ to stand firm and endure, always there for YOU to provide your escape.  

Amen.

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Lent 2

Become fellow-imitators of me, brothers, and watch those walking this way just as you have our type. For many walk, which many times I said to you, and now also crying I say, (as) the enemies of the cross of Christ, of whom the end–destruction, of whom the god–the belly, and the glory in their shame, the ones whose mind-set is on earth. For our commonwealth exists in heaven, out of which also a Savior we eagerly await–the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will transform our bodies of humility conformed to the body of His glory by the work of His power even to submit everything to Him. Therefore, my brothers, loved-by-God and longed for, my joy and victory-crown, so you stand in the Lord, loved by God.  

We are all headed for the very same goal in the end, for we know that our true and lasting home is with Jesus in heaven above. But as we eagerly await the return of our Savior to take us from this valley of tears and sorrow to be with Him in paradise, life here on earth can be difficult. Temptations abound as you walk this way and that in this world. You find enticements along many different sinful paths. So how do you stand firm against so many different, exciting yet dangerous sins at every turn?

The dilemma is a relatively simple one as St. Paul is inspired to spell it out for you. The problem is in the walking. Those who walk this path and that one are the enemies of the cross of Christ. You keep on walking where they lead you, and you’ll end up with nothing but destruction. Their god is their own belly, which means whatever feels like it satisfies them, that’s their goal. Drinking, promiscuity, drugs, gluttony, and the list goes on. The things of this earth which give temporary pleasure is their shame.

No, you might think that since the problem is walking in all the wrong places, that the solution would be for you to walk only in the right places. But you’d be dead wrong! While you remain of sinful flesh, this is impossible for you to accomplish. All your own righteousnesses are but filthy rags in God’s sight. So no, this problem of your law breaking cannot be solved by you striving at better law keeping.

Instead of walking, St. Paul is inspired to give you a different way altogether. You are to stand. Stand still. Stand firmly in the Lord Jesus. In Him you live, you move, and you have your being. So remain in Christ loved by God. Stop trying to walk your own way to heaven without the Lord, and simply stand on His promises. For Jesus walked the walk you never could. He walked the 1st and 2nd days, and on the 3rd day He reached His goal. Having died for you Good Friday, Jesus rose to life that 3rd day for you.

Your walk is in a humble, lowly, really in a humiliating body. For you walk thinking, “everybody fudges on their taxes, so why shouldn’t I?”, or “I could pass off that coupon that expired yesterday as though it is still good”, or “what does it matter if I cuss throughout the week, so long as I watch my tongue on Sunday morning”, or “they put all that ‘eye-candy’ on tv and in the movies so that people will watch, so I might as well ogle them”. But walking in this way is shameful as it leads to more dangerous sins.

Jesus’ walk was nothing like yours! He walked the walk of pure goodness, healing the sick, casting out demons from the possessed, curing the blind and deaf, and even raising the dead. He walked every day loving God His Father with His entire heart at all times, and loving His neighbor even more than He loved Himself. He walked the perfect walk you never are able to walk. He walked it straight to Jerusalem where the prophets were killed, to give His life as a ransom for you and for all people.

Yet there are some who think, “If only I can be more Christ-like, then I’ll make myself into a real Christian!” Hogwash! It is not when you first fix your walk that God loves you, but while you were yet sinners, that’s when Christ died for you. So throw out your WWJD bracelets, because where He went in His walk, you simply can’t go. Instead, if you are looking for an example to follow, look to St. Paul and the other Apostles of old, who realized that all they could do was to stand in the Lord Jesus.

For Jesus walked the walk of the Savior. He walked the only walk which could bless all people, which is why the people welcomed Him to Jerusalem with shouts of “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!” Jesus came filled with blessings in the Lord’s name. Those blessings He came to you, showering you with them at your baptism in the Lord’s name, where He gave you forgiveness of your sins, deliverance and rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation to you who believes.  

So you are left with nothing else to do than to take your stand in the Lord Jesus. You stand in His love as He feeds you His body and blood at His supper table. You stand, loved by God, awaiting His return.

Amen

Lent I

Near you is the statement, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the statement of the faith which we are proclaiming, because, if ever you confess in your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God raised Him out of death, you will be saved. For in the heart--to believe unto righteousness, and in the mouth--to confess unto salvation. For the scripture says, “All who believe upon Him are not put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the Same is Lord of all, bestowing riches unto all the ones calling upon Him; for all whomever calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved.  

“Calling upon God’s name.” Seems simple enough. We Christians pray in God’s name. We call Him by name “Our Father, Who art in heaven.” We can ask things of Jesus directly. Jesus even promises that anything we ask for “in His name” He will grant. But I once asked for a new bicycle for Christmas in Jesus’ name, and there wasn’t one under the tree. Maybe you’ve attached God’s name to a prayer, and it didn’t occur. So there must be something more to it when we call upon the name of the LORD.

This “calling on the name of the LORD” must be something pretty important. When Luther ‘splains the 1st petition of the Lord’s Prayer, He lists calling upon the Lord’s name in every trouble as the first good use of God’s holy name. Yet it must be something more than simply attaching God’s name to a prayer, like a desperate soldier might do in a foxhole. We should consider calling on the Lord’s name.

Calling on the name of the LORD means something to God. It means that He keeps His promise to come and *act*. Now, if you were to smash your thumb with a hammer and shout out God’s name, He keeps His promise to be there with you, but might just make it throb a bit longer until you realize that you shouldn’t use His name so carelessly. But if you cry out to Him in earnest prayer when you want help, God promises to come with all the blessed fruits of the Holy Spirit to bless you in time of need.

The Lord’s name is also connected to one specific act of your God. When you came to the baptismal font, you were washed not only with water, but with the word. With an utterance or statement from the mouth of God’s Minister, you were baptized. This word was no less than God’s Own name, of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That day, God named you with His Own Name, adopting you into His heavenly family. You have joined the royal household of He Who reigns above! Heaven’s riches are now yours!

So, having been named with the Lord’s name, that Word uttered at your baptism is near you. It is in your heart, where by that Gospel statement the Holy Spirit created faith in you. This word is also in your mouth, so that you may utter it as your confession of the faith you share with all believers in Christ Jesus. You confess the Lord Jesus with your words, along with all believers, as you do when you recite the creed in church. God gives you to speak words of faith as a believer in Christ Jesus.

Yet you know that your words aren’t always those of faith. Sometimes what comes out of your mouth doesn’t sound very Christian at all. You curse, you swear, you speak faithless words about luck or fate instead of confessing God’s rich blessings. You talk as if you trust your favorite team, or your political party, or yourself more than you rely on God. Instead of words of great confidence in God to see things through, you speak forth doubts, grumblings, complaints and uncertainty about the future

  

But it isn’t just the words of your mouth which betray your lack of faith. It is your actions which give you away as well. You behave as though God didn’t matter, and as if you mattered the most. You haven’t showed love to your God from your whole heart, and you haven’t always cared for your neighbors as you’ve cared about yourself. When other people see the way you are throughout the week, would they consider you to be one of those Christians who calls upon the name of the Lord?

So you’ve failed God with your words, with your deeds, and even in your heart of hearts. What can you do now? All that remains is to call on God’s name for His mercy. For there is salvation for all who call on the name of the LORD, and that includes you. For calling on God’s name is nothing other than calling on God to keep the promise He made when He baptized you in that same name. He promised forgiveness, rescue, and salvation that day, and Jesus is still your Savior from sin, death and satan today.  

For the name of the Lord upon which you call is the name of Jesus, your Savior. He is the One Who suffered every temptation of the devil, yet without a single sin. As a perfect sacrifice, He willingly went to the cross to suffer death for you. By His resurrection from death He justified you forevermore.