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 18, Philemon 1-21

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy the brother, to Philemon the one loved by God and our fellow-worker...Therefore, although in Christ having frankness to direct you in what is fitting, through God’s love, rather, I urge such being as Paul, an elder now and also a prisoner of Christ Jesus; I call alongside you concerning my child, whom I begot in the prison, Onesimus, the once to you useless one, yet now to you and to me useful, whom I sent back to you, him, this one is my gut; whom I myself wanted to retain for myself, so that on your behalf a servant to me in the imprisonment of the gospel; yet without your knowledge, I wished to do nothing, so that not as according to compulsion your goodness be, but according to willingness. For perhaps through this he was separated a time, so that eternally you have him back, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother of God’s love, especially to me, and rather how much more to you also in the flesh and in the Lord. Then, if you have me in communion, receive him as me. And if anything unrighteous to you or owed, this is to me charged. I myself, Paul, write in my hand, I myself will repay; so that I not say to you that even yourself to me you owe. Yes, brother, I myself benefited you in the Lord; give me rest of my guts in Christ. Confident in your obedience I write you, having known that also beyond what I say you will do.

 

When we think of being a “disciple”, we often think of it in terms of what we do for God. We couldn’t be more wrong. We mistake Christian discipleship with being some sort of apprentice, performing the tasks Donald Trump gives us so that we won’t be fired in the boardroom at the end of the day. But being a disciple of Christ is not about what you do for Jesus. It’s about the cost to you. It’s about what is done to you, as you suffer for Christ’s sake, bearing your own cross as you are targeted by Satan.

 

You are to take up your cross, but don’t foolishly start boasting and bragging that you are an excellent cross-bearer. Even the Almighty Jesus couldn’t carry His Own cross to Calvary, as Simon of Cyrene had to carry it for Him. No, bearing your cross is not about your works of bearing up under burdens. Cross bearing is about suffering a loss. It’s about accepting the burdens, especially the ones you aren’t able to withstand, as Philemon suffered the loss of his runaway slave Onesimus.

 

Though you may suffer the loss of goods, fame, child, or wife, your losses pale in comparison to what Jesus lost for you at Calvary. Jesus bore His cross losing much more than you ever could. He Who knew no sin became your sin at Golgotha. The holy Father forsook His only-begotten Son on the cross, Jesus suffering the eternity of hell in those moments before His death. All this so that you would never be forsaken, but you remain as one who is loved by God’s Own agape love, now and for eternity!

 

The suffering God allows for you does indeed include your decisions and actions at times. Some sufferings you *could* avoid by choosing a path other than the one God has laid out for you. Just like Philemon had a choice to either severely punish Onesimus, or take him back as a brother in Christ. But don’t think that your cross bearing decisions are all about your obedience. They do not come from the compulsion of the Law and all its demands. Instead, they are of Christian freedom in Jesus.

 

For Jesus, however, it was about His obedience. His humanity prayed that the cup of suffering God’s wrath at the cross might pass from Him. But His divine understanding accepted the cross, praying, “not My will, but Thine be done”. All so that you too can pray that petition, that God’s will be done for you, His kingdom come to you, and His holy name be given to you in Holy Baptism. As Jesus took your place in death, He raises you up in your Baptism to walk a new life, an abundant life, life everlasting!

 

Your cross-bearing might seem to be all about you and what you must bear, but it really isn’t. Though your burdens seem unique to you, you know that you are not the only sufferer. Just like Paul reminds Philemon that they have a fellowship with each other in suffering, with Paul suffering in prison for preaching the gospel, while Philemon endures a lesser burden of temporary loss of a slave. So whether your burden is small or great, know that suffering is common for all believers in Christ.

 

For Jesus told His first disciples that they would suffer because He Himself suffered, as the prophets before Him suffered. Yet Jesus bears the greatest griefs of all on the cross of Calvary. There He gives up His body given unto death for all the world. There His holy, precious blood He sheds for you. So the communion fellowship you have with Jesus and your fellow disciples of Christ is not just one of sharing suffering. You also share His body and blood, eaten and drunk for your forgiveness, life and salvation.  

Amen

Hymns for today from LSB:

#705   The Man is Ever Blessed

#853   How Clear is our Vocation, Lord

#851   Lord of Glory, You Have Bought Us

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 16 Hebrews 12:4-24

Not yet until blood have you resisted to the sin you struggle (with). And you have completely-forgotten the One called alongside you, which to you, as sons, converses: "My son, do not take lightly the child-training from the Lord, nor grow weary from His correction; for the one the Lord loves, he child-trains, and He whips every son whom He receives." Into child-training you remain; as sons God deals with you... For you have not come to what may be touched and burned in fire and to blackness and darkness and whirlwind, and to trumpet blast and sound of spoken words, so that the ones hearing begged no longer to have the word given to them, for they could not bear the command: "Even if ever an animal touches the mountain, it is to be stoned." And so fearful was the sight, Moses said, "I am afraid and shaking." But you have come to Mt. Zion and the city of the living God, Jerusalem from heaven, and a myriad of angels gathered for a feast; and to a church of firstborns written in a book in heaven, and to God–Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made completely-perfect, and to a new testament mediator–of Jesus, and to a blood of sprinkling speaking greater than the one of Abel.   

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times". The opening words of A Tale of Two Cities. We have a tale of 2 mountains. On 1–Sinai, it's the worst of times, the tablets of God's commandments, His condemning Law exacting punishment and retribution for sin. On the other–Zion, it's the best of times, the Temple of God's mercy, sacrifices for sin averting God's wrath. Which mountain is yours?

It's as though Monty Hall (or Wayne Brady) is pointing to two doors where Carrol Merril is standing. The one door is really wide, and seems to be the entrance to a great many treasures. The other is extremely narrow, and would seem to hold a very little. But the appearances are deceiving. The wide door is the way of the Law. Do this, don't do that, as you read the signs. The narrow way is the way of the Gospel. The sign there has no "do's" or "don't's". All it says there is "Done, Done and Done for you."

Like those in the Gospel for today, you want to point to yourself and choose the wide door. You want to claim that you drank in Jesus' presence, and were there when He was teaching, but none of this does you any good. You would like to list all you've done which entitles you to enter, but the door of this way to heaven always remains locked. You can't get in. All you can hear is Jesus' voice saying "Where are you from? I never knew you. Depart from me all you workers of evil!".

What gives? You tried to be a really good person so that Jesus would like you enough to let you into heaven. But you've forgotten your child-training from the Lord. You do your best, yet receive punishment. You strive to obey, but you get a spanking at the end of the day. You come to the Lord offering Him your finest efforts, only to get a whipping from His Law when He receives you. Then He tells you this is love...for you deserve much worse for your unholiness. You deserve stoning/death.

So you see, there is no possible way for you to enter through the wide door of "what you do" to merit life in God's kingdom. Nobody can enter that way. If you did get through that doorway, you'd find nothing but the Zonk of condemnation and everlasting death behind it. The only choice is the narrow door, but you find that it's too narrow for you to get through on your own. You try to contort yourself to be small enough to fit, but your sinfulness is a burden that is too great to go through the tiny entrance.

Which is why sinful, sin-burdened you has to go. He can't fit through the door, so he has to be killed. The Law of God which brings such fear and trembling puts sinful you to death. Old sin-burdened you is gone. But that's just where God wants you! For now the Lord Jesus is able to raise you up as His firstborn son in your baptism. Where you had been last in your sinfulness, now the washing of water and word has made you first in God's sight, born again to new life to enter the narrow door in Christ Jesus.

In Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the Firstborn of all who are raised from the dead, you are now raised up. There is no longer only one Firstborn, but now many firstborns, which includes you. From all directions these firstborns enter the heavenly Jerusalem to recline at the table with God. You come this day to the Lord's Table to feast on His body given you, upon His blood shed for your salvation. This Holy Communion is a foretaste of the feast to come in the new Jerusalem above!

You've endured the "worst of times"--God's Law killing you. You now live in the best of times, entering through the narrow door--Christ Jesus Himself. For Jesus says, "I am the Door: if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved!" In Him, the Firstborn, you are raised. Thru Him you enter into eternal life.

Hymns for today from LSB:
#772   In Holy Conversation (only found in LSB - copyrighted)
#510  A Multitude Comes from the East and the West
#505  Triune God be Thou our Stay

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.

The Festival of the Holy Trinity "The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the eternal God who Saves!"

Jesus the Nazarene, a man approved from God unto you by powers and wonders and signs, those God did through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know–This One, in the timely will and foreknowledge of God was handed over through hands of lawless men, having been nailed, you killed; whom God raised, freeing the birth pangs of death, in view of the fact that it was not able to hold him by itself. For David says unto Him, "I kept seeing the Lord before my face through all, because He is out of my right hand, in order that I not tremble. Through this my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad, and yet also my flesh will dwell upon hope; because you will not abandon my soul into hades, nor give Your Holy One to see decay; You have made known to me the ways of life; You fill me in gladness with Your presence." Men, brothers, it is possible to speak with frankness to you concerning Father David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is among us up to this day. Therefore, a prophet he was, and he knew that an oath God swore to him, out of the fruit of his loins He would seat upon his throne, He saw ahead, speaking concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned into Hades nor did His flesh see decay. This Jesus, God raised, of which all of us are witnesses. Therefore, to the right hand of God being exalted, the promise of the Holy Spirit, having received alongside the Father, He poured out what you yourselves see and hear. For not David ascended into the heavens, but he himself says, "The LORD said to my Lord, sit upon My right, until whenever I place your enemies a footstool for Your feet." Certainly, therefore, may all the house of Israel know that both Lord and Christ God has made Him–this the Jesus whom you crucified. 

Just how old is the Trinity? This term was not used in bible times, so some foolishly assume the triune God only exists in Christian dogma. But we see clearly the persons of the Trinity existed long before. God the Father prophesied His Holy One--Jesus would not see corruption. This Jesus was Lord at His Father's right hand in the days of Father David! Jesus was the great I AM before Father Abraham.

You see, the three-in-One God has always been there. From the Wisdom which created everything at the beginning, the Father made, the Word–Jesus spoke, and the Spirit did his bird-like swooping to carry out the divine work of making everything. God has always been three, yet a three that is at the same time a unified one. But don't ask me to explain it. God is much more complicated than we can wrap our minds around. Who can comprehend Him? None of us, this side of heaven, that's for sure.

Sometimes you may get frustrated trying to figure out God. You want to know everything about God, how He can be plural yet singular at the same time, and just what makes Him tick. But you are on a need to know basis, and your mind cannot fathom the ways of God, here and now. So, as difficult as it is at times, you are only given to know certain things about the Holy Trinity, like those things you learned as you studied the Apostles' Creed in confirmation class. But you don't have all the answers.

So be contented by what you do know, namely those things God has revealed to you for your benefit. You know God the Father is on His throne. You know that Jesus has risen and ascended on high to the Father's right hand. You know that the promised Holy Spirit has been poured out upon you. By faith, you know that these three persons of the Trinity work together as One for your blessing.    
 
You also know what God the Father has done through Jesus in his powerful, wonderful, significant miracles. Just as Jesus healed, forgave and saved people from sin, death and Satan's power, so too has He healed, forgiven, and saved you from that unholy trinity. For although your sins crucified and killed Jesus, the Father did not abandon His Holy One, or let death keep hold of Him. God raised Jesus from death to life again, to make His enemies of sin, death and the devil nothing but footstools.

So just Who raised Jesus? Did God the Father do it? Yes! Did the Holy Spirit raise Jesus? Indeed! Did Jesus raise Himself to life again. Most definitely! For the Holy Trinity works together in all things, from their cooperation in the creation of the world, to the resurrection of all on the last day. Where the Father is, there is the Son, and there is also the Holy Spirit. For though they be three, they remain One for you. So baptized into the name of the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit remain with you always.

Only one time were these three persons of the Trinity separated. At the cross, the Father forsook Jesus, and He gave up the Spirit. The body given you, and blood shed for you is Christ's alone. For this, your salvation, He was not abandoned in hell, nor did His body see decay. The Trinity is reunited forever.
Amen.

Hymns today from LSB:

#507  Holy, Holy, Holy
#803  Joyful, Joyful, We adore Thee!
#498  Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest
#604  I Bind Unto Myself Today

Pentecost - A sign for all to see

And in the fulfillment of the Fiftieth Day, they were all of a place in one accord. And it happened immediately out of heaven a sound as a moving, strong wind and it filled the whole of the house where they were sitting, and appeared to them, being distributed, tongues as fire and it sat upon each one of them....And Peter, standing for the 11, lifted his voice and proclaimed to them: "Men of Judea and all those residing in Jerusalem, may this, to you, be made known, and pay attention to my utterance...this is the utterance through the prophet Joel: "And it will be in the last days, says God, I will pour out from My Spirit upon all flesh, and will prophesy–your sons and your daughters, and your young men will see sights and your elders will dream dreams; and both upon my male slaves and upon my female slaves in those days pour out from My Spirit, and they will prophesy; and I will give omens in the heaven above and signs upon the earth below, blood and fire and mist of smoke; the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the coming of the Day of the Lord, the great and the splendid one; And it will be, all, whomever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."    

This Festival day we celebrate Pentecost. On this harvest festival, with Jews gathered from all over the world, God saw fit to undo, for a time, the debacle at Babel when He had confused all languages so that men could no longer communicate their wrong notions with each other. Now, it was God's turn to speak to the people, so He provided a new miracle which allowed each person to hear the message in their own language. But Pentecost isn't so much about the miracle, as it is the message.

Sadly, the message is sometimes lost in all the pomp and circumstance excitement of the miracle. We find this happening even today in churches with the most modern music, dance, and entertainment which captivates the masses. The style is quite interesting to many, but the substance is often lost. We too fall prey to such temptations whenever we want peppier tunes, more exciting sermons, or more beautiful decor where we worship. Such things are peripheral. The key remains the "message".

Peter directs their attention, not once, but twice to his utterance. For the miracle of the tongues of fire was not for entertainment, but to enable the people to hear the message. And the message is clear: "God is pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh." Everybody, including you and me receives the Holy Spirit! Why? So that He work faith in your heart so that you believe the message Peter is proclaiming! Jesus sends the Spirit to connect you to Him & His message of love from the +: Jesus died for you!

Yet we hear Peter's words, finding ourselves mesmerized by the signs and the wonders, the sun darkened and the moon turned to blood! Such amazing miracles seem so very interesting to us. But we are quick to forget that they are given to us as signs. Signs don't direct our attention to themselves, but point away to something greater. You don't see a  40 miles to Raleigh sign, and stop to stare at it, do you? So why would you focus on the mere signs which point your attention elsewhere?

The signs are for the sake of the prophecy. Prophecy is not given with man's interpretation, but it's simply the proclaiming of God's word. Your pastor is given to preach not what he thinks or wants, but what God says. God gives signs to point you to greater things. You are excited that the moon will turn to blood, so be even more excited that the cup of salvation turns into Jesus' blood for your life and forgiveness this day. For today is the day of the Lord for you, as He feeds you His body and blood!

Still you hear how everybody has the Spirit poured out on them, how young and old, guys and gals, slave and free experience dreams, visions, prophesying. You are tempted to think to yourself, "Wow! If only I could do those things, surely people I know would be really impressed!" So you find yourself drawn to the Spiritual gifts that might manifest in you so that you can be special. But you are no different than those at Babel who tried to make a name for themselves. Repent and seek out a better way...

Instead of trying to make a name for yourself by what you get to do, God focuses you on a far better Name, His! You are given to call upon His name and be saved! Why? Because He already gave you His Own name at your baptism. You were baptized in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost to forgive your sins, make you born anew by water and the Spirit, deliver you from death and the devil, and give you everlasting salvation. Named with God's family name, you are now His forevermore.

This Pentecost Day, rejoice in the message of God's everlasting love for you in Christ Jesus! Amen.

Hymns from LSB:
#501 Come Down Oh Love Divine
#497 Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord
#500 Creator Spirit by Whose Aid



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Easter 6

And he came, 1 of the angels, the 1 having the 7 bowls, the 1 full of the 7 plagues of the end, and he spoke with me saying, "Follow, I will show to you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he took me up in the Spirit upon a mountain, great and high, and he showed to me the city, the holy one, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its light like a precious stone, as a stone of crystalline jasper, having a wall, great and high, having 12 gates, and upon the gates 12 angels, and names inscribed which is the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel. From the east, 3 gates, from the north 3 gates, from the south 3 gates, and from the west 3 gates. And the wall of the city having 12 foundations, and upon them 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And the 12 gates–12 pearls; again each one of the gates was out of one pearl; and the street of the city purified gold as clear glass. And a sanctuary I did not see in it, for the Lord, the God of all might is its sanctuary, and the Lamb. And the city has no necessity for the sun nor the moon in order to shine upon it, for the glory of God enlightens it, and its lamp–the Lamb. And the nations will walk through its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it...  

Honestly, most of us didn't *love* math class. But there was some arithmetic we all needed to get by in this life to budget, pay our bills, and not get ripped off. There's also some bible mathematics which you need to comprehend God's word. Some of you, from bible classes here or elsewhere understand God's math. Others ought to have learned this already. So for the sake of all, bible math class begins:

We start with the number three. Even without any training, you could guess that #3 is God's number. We call on Father, Son and Holy Spirit each and every Sunday to be with us in worship. With the angels we sing three "holies" to God, and receive a three-fold blessing from the Lord at the closing benediction. God is a three. He is a Trinity. He even blesses us with three means of grace in the Divine Service, salvation from Baptism, forgiveness from Communion, and eternal life proclaimed in Jesus' gospel from His cross.

But there's another problematic number. The #4. Like the four directions of the compass, the #4 is the number of this world. It is a sinful world in which you live. It has been corrupted to its core by the fall of Adam into sin. Planet earth's days are numbered, and it will one day be destroyed and replaced. You live within this sin-sick world, tempted daily to follow the deadly ways of the world which could lead to your own destruction. Wherever you look, east, south, north or west, the world's seductions abound.

But you heard good news about this world in Jesus message to His 12 apostles. "In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world!" This world's wicked ways have been defeated by Jesus, for your sake! The 4-nication of this world Jesus has conquered by the 4-giveness of your sins at the cross. Though the wages of sin in this world is death, Jesus died your death at Calvary, destroying death for you and for this entire world, and rising to new life and new hope 4 you.

So God does a strange mathematical thing. He doesn't subtract the world from Himself, for taking 4 from 3 would leave -1. No, God so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son into the world. He didn't just add Himself to the world, but God multiplied His everlasting life in the world through Jesus. So God, # 3, enters the world, # 4, by multiplication. 4x3 equals 12! 12 becomes the number of God's church in this world.12 Old testament tribes of Israel, or 12 New Testament apostles, the number of God's people is 12.

So it is not at all surprising to see the number 12 associated with the bride of Christ which is His church. Whenever God (3) relates to His people in the world (4) the result of His multiplied love in Christ Jesus is always a 12. Even when it comes to entering the pearly gates, you might be surprised to find out that there is not one set of gates to the New Jerusalem, but actually 12 gates. Wherever you live in north, south, east, or west in this world, there is an entrance to paradise prepared for you!

In that day of Christ's coming, there won't be any need to ask Jesus any more questions, for He the  Lamb will be the Lamp which enlightens us all in our New Jerusalem home! He will be our Sanctuary there, the very Holy of Holies of the Temple where the mercy seat of God's love is found! But here and now, as you await that day with all earnestness of hoping, you still have questions, and you have many requests for help from Jesus scattered far from heaven, remaining in this world of tribulation.

But you aren't discouraged, for Jesus overcame the world for you, multiplying His love to you to make you of the 12, by baptizing you into His one, holy, catholic and apostolic church-the New Jerusalem.

Hymns from LSB:

#869   With the Lord Begin Thy Task
#556   Dear Christians One and All Rejoice  (Luther Hymn)  music  stanzas
#474   Alleluia! Jesus is Risen!

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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Easter 4 aka Good Shepherd Sunday

After these things I saw, and look a great crowd, which no one was able to count, out of every ethnicity and tribes and peoples and languages, standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and palms in their hands, and they cried in great voice, saying; "the salvation in our God, in the One sitting upon the throne and in the Lamb." And all the angels were standing around the throne and the presbyters and the four living ones, and they fell before the throne and knelt in worship before God saying "Amen, the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength in our God into the ages of the ages. Amen." And answered, one out of the presbyters saying to me, "These the ones dressed in the white robes, who are they and from where have they come?" And I say to him, "My master, you know," and He said to me, "these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes and whitened them in the blood of the Lamb. Through this, they are in front of the throne of God and serve Him in worship day and night in His sanctuary; and the One sitting upon the throne tabernacles upon them. They will not hunger still, nor will they thirst still, no, the sun will not fall upon them nor all heat; for the Lamb, the One in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and will lead their way upon springs of the waters of life, and "God will wipe every tear out of their eyes."  

Today we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, as God directs our attention to the work of Jesus who leads us to green pastures and still waters. He is our Shepherd, and as such He takes care of us as His beloved lambs. But Jesus is no ordinary Shepherd. He's no guy who watches over sheep just because somebody is paying Him to do it. He's no hireling. In fact, Jesus is the very opposite of a money grubber. As your Good Shepherd, Jesus cares for you as His Own no matter what it costs Him 

Just what did it cost Jesus? A whole lot! The price Jesus paid to be your Good Shepherd was enormous! First, to be the best shepherd for you, Jesus begins by humbling Himself to be exactly the same as you. You are a lamb in need of care, so Jesus becomes a lamb like you. Although He was God in heaven above, He didn't consider His God-ness something to hold on to, so He humbled Himself to come down to this world to be born as a human person, in every way just like you.

But understand, this was just the very beginning of Jesus' humiliation for you. Things only got worse for Him from there. Because you have failed so miserably in loving God with your whole heart, and in loving your neighbor as you love yourself, Jesus came to live under God's Law in your place. Where you failed to keep the commandments, your Savior lived under the burden of God's Law perfectly, obedient in every thought, word and act. He alone was righteous before God the Father in heaven.

Yet Jesus didn't just take your place in life here on earth. He went one step further. Jesus made Himself to be a perfect sacrifice for your sin. He offered Himself up as the sacrificial Lamb killed in your place. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, became a Lamb like you to lay down His life unto death for you. He takes the punishment you deserved at Calvary. He lays down His life embracing your sin and death as His Own, in order to take it up again to bring life and immortality to light for you.

Jesus does not remain a dead Lamb, but raises Himself to life again to continue being your Good Shepherd. For you daily sin much. You need your filthy garments cleansed in the waters of your baptism, made white in those waters of life. The robe you wear in front of your heavenly Father's throne is the robe of Jesus' Own righteousness, exchanged with you for your sin which He bore in His body on the tree of Calvary. Jesus' holiness, His goodness, Christ's pure righteousness is yours–a gift

You aren't just washed with the water which flowed from Jesus' pierced side, but also you are cleansed by His blood shed for you at Golgotha. The Good Shepherd laid down His body in death at the cross so that you may eat it in the Lord's Supper. He shed His cleansing blood for you there so that you now drink it in the cup of salvation which is in the Lamb. With this blessed food of Holy Communion, you know that you will neither hunger nor thirst any more before God's throne in heaven.

So you see, this is precisely how Jesus, the Lamb of God, has become your shepherd, using under-shepherds like your pastor to wash you in Holy Baptism, lead you to the green pastures of the Lord's Table, and proclaim the Good Shepherd's voice to you, which by the gift of faith, you recognize. You are those whom Jesus will shepherd through the great tribulation, wiping every tear from your eyes. Jesus shepherds you here, until you stand in front of the throne of God in the sanctuary of heaven.

Amen

Hymns for today from LSB:
#710  The Lord's My Shepherd I'll Not Want
#709  The King of Love My Shepherd Is
#740  I am Jesus' Little Lamb
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Easter 2 John 20:19-31

John: to the 7 churches the ones in Asia; grace to you and peace from the One Who was, and the One Who is, and the One coming, and from the 7 spirits which face His throne, and from Jesus Christ, The Witness, the Faithful, The Firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the One loving us and freeing us out of our sins in His blood, And He made us a kingdom, priests to God and His Father, to Him the glory and the power into the ages of the ages. Amen. Look He comes with the clouds, and all eyes will see Him also the ones piercing Him, and all the tribes of the earth will grieve upon him. Yes, Amen. I Myself am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, the One Who was, the One Who is, and the One coming, the Ruler of all. I, John, your brother and sharer in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island, the one called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the witness of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and I heard behind me a great sound as a trumpet saying, “What you see, you write into a book and send to the 7 churches...And I turned to look at the sound which spoke with me, and having turned I saw 7 lamps of gold, and in the midst of the lamps one like a Son of Man dressed in a long robe and belted across His chest with a golden belt. And his head and hair white as wool, white as snow and His eyes as a flame of fire and His feet like bronze as it glows in a furnace and His voice as a sound of much water, and having in His right hand 7 stars and out of His mouth a sharp double-edged sword, and His outward appearance as the sun shining in its power. And when I saw Him, I fell to his feet as a dead person, and He placed His right hand upon me saying, “Stop being afraid; I Myself am the First and the Last and the Living one, and I was dead and look, alive I am into the ages of the ages and I–the keys of the death and of the Hades.      

   

  

Jesus is still Risen! Yes, the One who was dead now lives. Just as He lived to show Himself to unbelieving Thomas on earth, He also lives now in heaven above as He revealed Himself to John. But even more importantly to you, Jesus is still Risen for you. He still lives for the sake of the churches where His gospel love is preached, and where His actions of love are received in the sacraments. Jesus is, for you, the Firstborn from the dead, so that with Him, though you die, you live!

  

There is little doubt, of course, that Jesus was. Even the worst of historians will concede that a man named Jesus lived 2000 years ago in Palestine. But the fact that Jesus still is? This is difficult to accept. He died, after all. How can He make Himself alive when He’s dead? Thomas wouldn’t believe it. Many today doubt that Jesus still lives after death. You, yourself may have doubts at times too.

  

But the evidence that Jesus lives is all around you. He Who rules now over this world’s kings has made you to be a kingdom, to be priests with access to all of God’s blessings! Instead of you making sacrifices to try to please God as the priests of old, you are freed from your sins already by Jesus blood shed for you, and by His body given up as an offering for you. You taste and see that He is good!

  

There is also much doubt about Jesus’ return. The early church expected Him to come back quickly, and here it is 2000 years now and Jesus hasn’t reappeared yet. Many skeptics will wrongly assume that Jesus is never coming back. John himself may have had his own doubts as the sole surviving Apostle imprisoned on the isle of Patmos. Perhaps you have doubts about Jesus returning to earth.

  

So Jesus appears to John to show him that there is no reason for doubting, since the Son of Man is clearly alive. John is told to write this down to the 7 churches, meaning all the churches of God’s divine judgment, which includes our congregation. As He speaks, His voice is like the sound of much water, to remind you of your Baptism, washed by water and word, you are raised in Jesus to new life!

  

Even if you have no doubts about Jesus, you may have doubts about yourself. It’s already been a long while awaiting Jesus’ return, and it could be a long time yet. Like John, you live in the age of tribulation, with all sorts of temptations, trials and troubles abounding just because you are a Christian. You may be so overwhelmed that you faint dead away like John did before the appearance of Jesus.

  

But Jesus word of gospel love encourages you. He says to you, as He did to John, “Stop being afraid!” He tells you that He has won the victory over sin, death and hell, and now holds the Keys in His hand. Those keys lock up death and hades forever, and open the door of heaven for you! He Who now lives forever gives to you life everlasting in paradise with Him, into the ages of the ages! Amen.