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