We mentioned many times that no one knows the day nor the hour that Christ will come, and it is appropriate this advent season, to remind ourselves of this once again. You see, when Christ came the first time, as a babe in Bethlehem, no one knew then the day or the hour. In fact, no one on earth but Jesus, Mary and Joseph knew He had come that day! The angels were commissioned to carry this great news out to the people of the earth, which were the shepherds (the wise men came much later due to a star). Even King Herod did not realize that the King of Kings had come!
As you can see from this first advent, the Second Advent of our Lord will be just as surprising. The only real difference is that Christ Himself will make His presence known to all men. Yet, until Christ comes, the day and the hour is plain unknown. Our text states, “Not even the Angels in heaven, not even the Son, but only the Father in heaven knows when that time is.” So if the Son does not know, how can any person know? How can the so-called- “scholars” search the “Bible Code”, which were written by God Himself, which Christ knew intimately because He was present when they were written, and find the information that even Christ did not know? How can the tabloids, which can’t even get the facts of a current events right, give us the information that Christ did not have? How can the Virgin Mary, who at times did not believe that Christ knew what He was doing, know when the coming of Christ will be? No one knows the day nor the hour but only The Father Himself. So if you do run into these false prophets telling you when to be prepared, watch out, be on your guard, be alert, and run away - run away to God.
Since no one knows the day or time, we need to be reminded, “Watch out, be on guard, be alert! Stop and think about all these things! It is true that the Second Coming will be like the first and be a big surprise for all involved on earth, even the elect to some extent. However, it is a bit different today than it was 2,000 years ago when the babe in Bethlehem was born, for now it is like a master who has gone away and left His servants in charge; each with his own assigned tasks, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Jesus is the man, the master who has gone away, the house is the church, and He has left you and me to be in charge of our assigned tasks; which are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Now when it says the man left the house, do not infer that Jesus has left the church completely. What Jesus has done is left visibly from the church on earth so that you and I will be the instruments that will carry on the great work of people being saved by Jesus Christ. All the things that Christ did in the flesh, He has now turned over to me and you: the preaching of the Word, the instruction of the Word, the living of the Word, the praying, the singing of hymns, the administration of the Forgiveness of sins - these are the things we can all do in our daily lives! Each of us have our own gifts to use to bring these works about. For myself, Christ has assigned to me this congregation of workers to lead you in thanks, praise, prayer, teaching, and to be an example of Christian living as a Pastor. For you men, The Holy Spirit has called you through the gospel to lead your families in true worship and understanding of God’s Word, to bring them to the services of God’s house whatever their age may be, and instruct them in the simple ways of the faith of Jesus Christ as God and Lord. For you women, Christ has assigned you the task of bearing children and to teaching them to obey their Father in heaven, and to you children, Christ has assigned you the task of proclaiming the Gospel message that you have been baptized in and have been taught in SS to others who have not yet understood as you have the beauty of God’s Word. This is, of course a quick list. There is so much more that we have been asked to do with the gifts given to us, but the most important task given to each and every one of us is to stand firm and to keep watch for the coming of Christ again.
We cannot rely on others to watch for us. Just like having faith, each of us must watch for ourselves. We cannot be saved by another’s faith, nor can we be saved by another’s watching, for then it will be too late. Then again, you are not watching in order to be saved, as if you must watch before salvation can be yours. No, for you are already saved by the blood of the Lamb, by that body and blood that came in the first advent, shed at the first Good Friday, resurrected at the first Easter. You are watching because all this is yours already. You are watching out of gratitude for God coming to be with you forever, and to take you to be with Him in heaven. It is like my daughter at the window. She waits not in order to become my daughter again when I come home, but waits and watches because she is my daughter and desires to be with her daddy again.
Nevertheless, in watching we must be ready. When I come home, as excited as Julia is when she sees me, she is also ready to face her daddy for all the things she has done wrong that day, and she is punished appropriately for her sins. It is no different with Christ. As you watch for your Savior, you must have no sins that need to be taken care of when He arrives. They had better be already gone when He comes, because Christ expects His servants to be pure and blameless in His sight. You are to have no hostility towards you neighbor; no earthly lust in your heart; nothing that will keep God away because of your sins. We have mentioned many times that Satan biggest desire is to get your eyes off of Christ and the cross, and to put them on something else. This is what Jesus is trying to tell us to watch out for - to stop and think to be alert of our sinfulness that we are carrying.
So I ask you today: search you heart, and see what is there. Do you have any malice towards your neighbor? Any false witness? Any coveting in there? Any desires of the world or flesh tucked away in the closet? Is there any room in there that is not being taken up by Christ? Sure there is clutter in there - all kinds of sinful lust and desires, that is the sinful nature. However, look with the eyes of faith in Jesus Christ - with the eyes that trust that the Sacrifice of the cross for you. Do you see the river of Baptism, the water of eternal life, flowing around in there? Do you see that the body and the blood are shed for you? Do you see with your eyes of faith that Jesus alone is the lifeblood that is pulsing through your body and life? This is the Christian that indeed is able to stand at the door and keep watch: the Christian that remembers his baptism, partakes of the supper frequently for the forgiveness of sins, who comes to worship to rest from their labors and let God restore the soul with complete forgiveness and strength to live a life as He sees fit; that does the duty of the Master commands. These are not your doings, or tasks, or even your duty, but us is the Holy Spirit doing and gifts in your life.
Baptism, body and blood of Christ, the Word of God, and faith, which is the power of all these things - these are they that remove sinful desires and wants and replaces them with eternal salvation. This is what will keep you awake as you stand at the door and keep watch. It matters not what you feel like or even what has happened in the past that Satan wants to use to keep your eyes off of Christ. There is a coworker that I have been talking with for the past couple weeks who has expressed the desire that she wants to end her time here on this earth because, as she puts it, God wants her dead. I directed her to the life found in baptism – if you believe He gives you life, how can He want you dead? I directed her to the services of God’s House, He wants you to come and praise Him, the dead don’t praise Him as the psalmist so aptly states. I directed her to the Supper and the Word of God where true life is found. Will all this help her now to keep watch? We pray that it does. Pray that all who struggle with God’s grace and forgiveness may find rest in His healing wings.
Oh truly watch out for the tempting of the evil one, for he will attach where faith is asleep. True faith found in the works of Christ Jesus is the only faith that saves. It constantly is motivating and moving the faithful Christian to worship and to the sacraments - even in the remembrance of such sacraments - even in physical rest. Faith always keeps watch, even physical sleep, for it is faith that prays, “If I should die before I wake, I Pray Thee Lord my soul to take.” Even in rest, your faith totally trusts in Christ, Your Savior. So this advent season, as the colors have changed from green and white, to blue and purple, the colors of hope and anticipation of the coming of our savior and the colors of repentance, may we indeed wait for these final summons with the eyes of faith. Faith in the promises of God to be revealed in the Second advent of His Son to us, even as we remember again His first coming to us. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Want do you wait for? We wait in lines and invariably it is the slowest line there is. Other lines are just racing past, and so you jump the line – and – wouldn’t you know it? THIS becomes the slow lane as the one you just left cruses along. I submit to you that slowness is relative to the desire to speed things up. The more you anticipate something, the slower time moves towards the goal. Therefore, adapting the immortal philosophy of Forest Gump if I may be so bold, slow is as slow does. Things are only slow if we perceive them to be so, and we perceive them as such because we are excited about the finish line; the light at the end of the tunnel; the prize at the end of the ordeal.
Whether it would be the number of days leading to Christmas day to open presents, or it would be the backed up traffic to try and get home from a long day of work, it always seems that things move way to slowly to get to the end desire. For the Church, the end desire is eternal life and the final destruction of sin and death. As we spoke of last week, this will come about when Christ comes again. We are standing at the door and keeping watch for the coming Savior Who has won for us the victory with His holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death. Now we also spoke of those who are baptized are the ones who are waiting. Which means some of us have been waiting all our lives for this King to come. Some others of us, well, not as long. So we have to ask ourselves, “Is it truly a slow going to try and reach the end of this world?” It is, only if you think it is.
They say perception is reality, but in this case, no it is not, for then the concept of time would hinge on OUR reason or strength, and that just leads to further disappointment. When we rely on ourselves, we are in for a whole mess of heartache, because we want things to be different, yet they stay the same. We want to be in a faster lane, but we can’t make the line move any faster than it does. We can’t make time speed up so the day goes quicker, we are not God. What is that you say? God does not mess with time? He most certainly does. In no less than three instances has God messed with the seemingly unchangeable time. Once He made the shadows on some steps go back ten steps – that lengthened the day. Another instance where He messed with the time clock was the time He made the sun stop its motion across the sky; for 24 hours it stayed motionless. And again, certainly the promise of Christ Jesus is so thankfully received, “If not the time were shortened, even the elect would fall away if that were possible.” Indeed, our God does play with the illusion of time because He is the creator of time. However, there is a far more important reason for playing with time – He wants all men to have enough of it to turn from their sins and be saved.
Therein lies the issue of slowness. It is not so much slow is as slow does, but how slow is slow? Its not really slow now is it? To us, waiting all this time it seems painfully slow. Yet, if God is in control, He is not slow; in fact, He is going at just the right pace. It is like the speed limit. Some places it seems painfully slow, and yet, the speed is set for conditions, concentration of pedestrians, traffic, and all kinds of factors. It is set at that pace for a reason, even if we don’t know why that is. God sets the limit, in order that His Will be done. His will is that all people come to the knowledge of His Son. To know Him, born of a virgin and died at the cross, for their sins. To know Him, as the one Who takes those sins and buries them in hell, so that you may live. To know Him as God, and Savior, has come and will come again.
The Old Testament prophets told the story over and over again that the Messiah was coming, that they had to wait for it. The people got excited but then, fell away cause they could not wait that long, or so they thought. Then the Messiah came, and they were so busy with the life here on this earth they lost sight of the true prize of eternal life in heaven. They had been waiting so long, when He came, they just did not believe. The Babe was in Bethlehem, as told by the shepherds, they did not come. The Child was honored by foreign kings, they did not honor Him. So the time was extended of the Old Testament prophets, for John the Baptist came a calling, and warned them of the coming wrath. If the time were not extended these hearers may never have heard, but extend He did, and they received baptism unto everlasting life, that is, those who believed.
So the time has been extended to you. You now have the opportunity to hear of Jesus Christ but more than just you, so has your neighbor. Those people who are not here now, need to understand God’s slowness is not an opportunity to play, but to come to repentance now, rely on the cross, rely on Christ’s Work, and rely on forgiveness of all sins to make one whole. The time is now so you won’t be caught off guard. We cannot explain to them the slow approach of God if we ourselves are too caught up thinking He’s delaying a bit. Let us spread the Word that this is not slow as we think slowness, but is God’s longsuffering, not wanting anyone to perish, but that all come to a knowledge of Him, and have everlasting life. As we wait to celebrate our Savior’s birth yet again, may we wait with a joy of our forgiveness that makes others desire the same. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Our Text is taken from the epistle appointed for this day, Saint Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, the 5th Chapter, verse 16-18:
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Sometimes, it seems the sermon writes itself. Did I say that before? I am pretty sure I did. Anyways, this text before us seems to write itself in more ways than one, mostly because we have heard it before, right? Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks, this is God’s Will for you. It almost sounds like the Italian proverb: Live, Love, Laugh. I’m not sure if it is an Italian proverb, I just see it at the bottom of my plate in some Italian restaurants. But I pose the question albeit quite subtly. Can the life of a Christian be summed up in so few words: be joyful, pray, give thanks?
For the Christian to be joyful always is a command that has been since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve were put in the garden and told to enjoy everything, just stay away from the ONE TREE. The world was meant to be enjoyed, and the word JOY is right in the middle there. However, things went from incredibly joyful, to out and out despair. No possible experience can there be to compare to this drop from joyful to distain in the heart of man. At first he is literally on top of the world, but he sins and in less than a nanosecond, there is the dark pit of despair to envelope him. He cannot find joy, unless it is a perverse one in seeing his fellow man fall in seemingly greater danger. The joy that once was inside him he now must find elsewhere. He looks to treasures of this world, but they are fleeting; he looks to himself but finds an empty hole that yearns to be filled. He looks to others, but greed and corruption abounds.
So how is a good Christian supposed find joy in this world? Well, he cannot. There is no treasure here that he needs to make himself want anything more than God. That my friend is the key. Joyfulness is found outside of oneself, outside of this world, to the heavens itself must we look for joy, and to be joyful always, well, the cares of this world will try to keep that from you, dragging you down, reminding you of your sins and trapping you in this despair. But despair not, for there is a champion, a conqueror, a Savior in Christ Jesus our Lord, Who’s will it is that you be so joyful, has come! He was born of Mary, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and as such has given us much to be joyful for! He has come to bring God closer to us, that we may believe and be saved. He has come, and led the sinless life, that we may understand pure joy, and be joyful always. Joyful, in knowing that sins are removed, joyful, knowing that God’s anger towards sins has been dealt with at the cross, and that the blood of His Son has washed the stain of despair completely. Certainly we would not want our Lord to die for us miserable sinners, we don’t deserve such consideration let alone the actual act, yet our Lord truly loves us this much, that He came once to save, and will come again to bring us close to God again.
And is that not truly our prayer? We pray that our Savior will come quickly to bring us to everlasting life. For what reason? Why is it that you want your Savior to come quickly? Are you afraid of the future? Are you afraid that you might lose your faith if you deal with this world any longer? Are you afraid that others will despise you and persecute you if they ever found out your source of happiness? Are you not wanting to do any more work for the Lord, knowing that someone else will take up the slack when you are gone? For myself, I pray that Christ our Lord comes quickly because this world is just falling to far away, and its not making it any easier to evangelize. I pray every day for this world to at least not be so aggressive in attacking God our Father, I pray for the people in the church, and especially Mount Calvary Congregation, that you will not fall away, but be blessed and use the time to help more people come to the understanding of Christ Jesus and not think He is coming too slowly to bring us to Himself. I pray for myself that I have the strength and the ability to use my talents to increase the kingdom here and abroad, so that others may hear and believe and be saved.
Yet, above all I give thanks unto the Lord my God that her has brought me to where I am, I give thanks for my congregation, I give thanks for my life, for even in the darkest of times I can reach out to Him Who redeems me and reminds me that this world is not the end, but will end, and I am watching for it. I hope; I joyfully anticipate that great coming of the Lord so that all who believe will meet again body and soul in heaven by the workings of the Holy Spirit. You thank Him too, even if you don’t realize it, for every proper baptism is a thanksgiving for the life death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord, every proper reception of the Lords Supper is a thanksgiving for the forgiveness of sins that allows us believers to be joyful always, pray continuously, give thanks in everything for our Lord makes us truly live; live and enjoy life as blessed by the Father.
Is the life of a Christian truly that simple? I contend that it is, if we trust in Jesus all the way. Not just when needed, but in everything, be the unspoken guest at every meal, the unnoticed visitor in every home, the One Who will come to make the new heaves and earth really joyful with never ending praise. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Our Text is taken from the Gospel appointed for this day, Saint Luke’s Gospel, the 2nd Chapter; verses 9-14:
We are ready.
We have waited long and hard in this season of advent for this week of Christmas. We waited for all the candles to be lit on our advent wreath. We waited patiently in the lines to purchase our gifts to give and we wait perhaps just a little longer to open the ones given to us. We have by faith stood at the door and watched for our Savior’s arrival, and therefore by faith, are ready for the promise of gifts to be given are right there under our trees, so we can wait just a little longer and have patience and enjoy the excitement that comes from seeing Christmas come to us this day.
But I would be willing to contend that for some of you, as I have mentioned, have already opened some presents. You either opened the presents because you were asked to, so that the person giving the gift could see your reaction to it, or you opened it because you will not see the gift giver on Christmas day. What I hope is that you were not impatient and opened gifts because you were too week to wait. Recall the discussion of a few Sundays ago: The Lord is not slow in coming as others count slowness. Truly we need to wait patiently for the Lord so that we do not get caught up in the false cries of “Here He Is”, or “There He is” and lose the greatest gift of all time ever.
The other extreme is not being excited at all at the coming of the Great Gift. The anticipation that the world was feeling as it was waiting for its Savior to come the first time is telling. Here is the Creator of the World, the Promised Savior that was anticipated since the beginning of time, let alone since the beginning of sin, here He Is born in a cow barn. The King of kings and Lord of lords has come as He so promised, and the world knew it not. The world went about on its merry little way not taking notice of the newly wed couple coming into the city for its tax count. They would not even give Him, their King, a room in the local inn. They had to go out into the place of the common man, and the Savior was born in a stable.
Look at that manger scene we have here. Does it not look cute? We have sheep and cows, a donkey and maybe a goat or two at some other manger scenes. We have the happy parents looking blissfully upon the child placed gently in a manger among such wonderful new hay. We have the Magi even misplaced upon the scene for this day, but we put them in there for impression’s sake. The Guardian angel, looking down so peacefully, and the well kept shepherds all gazing lazily upon the child. I call this the “sterile” view of our Lord’s birth, because I doubt it was this clean. We have hospitals now that give birthing mothers every convenience and comfort for their timely deliverance. We have the most sterile conditions to give the child the greatest chance of starting out in life without diseases, and how do we greet our Savior of long anticipation? To use the words of Martin Luther, the conditions are pitiable. Not only is he given the dirty, horrible conditions of which to come to us in, we totally ignore that He even has come.
What horrible, wretched human beings we are. We claim that we love God, anticipate His coming, stand at the door and keep watch, and when He finally shows up, we do not even recognize Him. Good thing God steps in. It is God alone Who can save in the face of grave misbelief and other great shame and vice. It is God Who again sends His messenger ahead of Him to declare the Words to be true and trustworthy, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” This is the sign from God that He will send Himself to save. Yet, more than that, He give us more comfort in that though we will treat Him shamefully, He will come nonetheless, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us, a Son is given, the government will be upon His shoulder, and He will be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” He will be with us; He will save us. In spite of the humiliation of His birth to be in a place we would never dare to choose to bear our children, God comes to us to show us the better way. He came not to bring us to Him through fear and intimidation, but He comes to us meek and lowly that we may indeed come to Him. He came not in a castle that we might be turned away by armed guards, much as the little children were turned away by the disciples when they were brought to Jesus. No, He came to where even the lowliest condemned creature can come and know He is with us. He came, to show us the promise fulfilled.
He came, and He comes again. The grace of God had trained us in the past to look for His coming and by faith to believe the angelic message, now we are trained by faith to look for the coming to come, the blessed hope and glorious reappearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us so long ago, that we may see and believe and praise with the shepherds. Our children’s program got it right. There is a story of glad tidings to spread with all the talents we have. We can speak of a birth, and a death that makes us His through the blood of our Savior Who has come to us. For without the blood, the birth is just a birth. Yet, with the cross, we have a Savior. As hard as it is to believe from a human perspective, it is nevertheless, true. Jesus was born of a Virgin, and came to live with us so that He could take away your sins. As a present sits under your tree, and you anticipate what is inside, wondering if it is something that will be good for you to have. Jesus is that most perfect gift that keeps on giving, coming to die on that cross, yes, but with a purpose, coming willingly to bring us to the ultimate gift of Eternal life.
We are ready. In faith we are ready to receive every gift from God no matter how long the wait. We waited this long for the Savior to be born; we can wait just a little longer for our Savior to bring us home. Though it may come in a wrapping that we may not want, at a time we may not expect, we welcome it anyway by faith. The promise Savior has come. He has done all things well. He has given you faith and eternal life. May we always praise His holy name, and be eager to do the good work of faith in Him, the Babe of Bethlehem. In His, most Holy Name we pray. AMEN.
[RISE]
+ NOW MAY THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN +

Our Text is taken from the Old Testament appointed for this day, the prophet Isaiah, verses 2 & 3 of chapter 62:
You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God
Do you feel Jewish? I feel Jewish from time to time. And not about money either. I am talking about today, the Sunday after Christmas. I feel Jewish, in that I am glad that my God has come to me. He has come, just as He promised and more than that, He comes even though I don’t deserve Him to come to me.
For none of us deserve for our God to come to us. Not even Simeon was deserving of having God come to him, but the wonderful Grace of God was that the Holy Ghost revealed to him that he would not die until he got to see the Savior of all Israel. What a wonderful God we have! He gives grace and every blessing though we deserve none of these things. We fell away, we ran away from Him. We have gone so far as to build up walls and fortresses to keep Him at bay, hoping against hope that if we keep him away we can somehow escape the wrath that will come – or at least fall through the cracks and miss it. We have set up the defenses of blame, of redirection, of unaccountability in order to feel better about our sorry condition. We have done everything to keep ourselves happy and separated from God, hoping to separate the wrath as well.
But we are not happy are we. We know that there is a God that oversees all and is going to punish us for the evil we have done against one another let alone against Him. He is going to judge and do so harshly because that is what justice means. We are going to get what we deserve. We are going to suffer mightily because the wages of sin is death and we shall surely die for our sins. That was the promise so long ago, and we have seen the drama play out. All have died for all have sinned, and though we fear the wrath of God we fear death even more because we know all too well, that with death comes the end of being able to try and convince Almighty God to have mercy and we are at the hands of justice once again.
However, there is another promise that Satan does not want you to hear, because he wants you to wallow in sin and despair. He controls you when you have lost all hope, yet our God has done something remarkable. He has given us a promise from the Old Testament. God promises to give us a new name – not one of shame but of rejoicing! A name that is above every name – one based on His Son Who has come to redeem His people – a peculiar people unto Himself. Not because we are better than others, or more worthy by mental reasoning. Not because we are a greater people by numbers or by praise of men. No, simply by grace alone has He chosen us and make us the crown jewel in His diadem. Just as the Jews were not chosen for fine human qualities or traits, you have not been chosen because of your fine traits, but simply because He loves you. He comes to you as the Babe in Bethlehem that you might see Him and not be afraid. More than that, He promises to take the government upon His shoulders. Now what this means is that He will take the whole judgment of God upon Himself, and win for you the victory over the sin, death, hell, and the grave that so burdens us and tries to keep us from believing the Gospel or hearing Him call us by our new name, our baptismal name.
Many times God has changed the name of His people to reflect their new standing in Him as the Chosen People, chosen for Salvation. Abram in the Old Testament, Saul in the new, changing the names of a people is certainly not foreign to God’s people, and so He gives you a name. A new name – Christians. A new crown atop our Godhead. If this does not want you to rejoice with the Jews as Simeon did upon beholding his Salvation, what will? I feel wonderfully Jewish in that my God has come to me as He so promised; no other people have this promise! There is no other religion in this whole earth that has their God come to them just to love them. There is no other religion where their God comes to them and dies on the cross for their sins and brings them to heaven by no work of their own. There is no other religion where God comes to them, as He will do so again this day, coming in the forms of bread and wine for us to eat and drink for the salvation of souls. He saved me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with Gold or Silver, but with His holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death.
O to be as Simeon and to not taste death until we behold our Salvation! We have, my friends in the mysteries of the WORD and Sacraments. Your baptism now saves you; your reception of the Lord’s Supper keeps you. What more do we need? Let us be as thankful as Simeon, proud of our Jewishness, in that our God has come to us, and given us a new name. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+
CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD……….

Our Text is taken from the Epistle appointed for this day, the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, verses 4-6 of chapter 1:
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the World, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His Will, to the praise of His glorious Grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.
A new year upon us, and a waning Christmas season fast approaches its end. Epiphany will soon be here and the focus will be on the life of Christ as adult. Not that there is anything wrong with this, it just happens to be how the Church Year is set up. This means that this Sunday is the last chance we have to see Jesus as the Christ CHILD. The last chance before we see Him as the true suffering Servant of us all. We don’t see the Christ Child suffering. We don’t see Jesus as having a hardship childhood. In fact, it seems that His childhood was quite bland. Our Gospel lesson gives us the only true account we have of Jesus’ youth. The clay pigeons and the dead playmates of Jesus’ youth are from books outside the Biblical cannon and from unreliable sources. This account from Luke shows us how this Christ Child grew in wisdom and stature of man, and certainly we could meditate on this as a great sermon on following authorities, on doing as one is told, and certainly a sermon would mention how Jesus never sinned, no not once.
However, lest we forget, there was a time when Jesus was BEFORE He became a child, and that is what our Epistle lesson is stressing here. Before the foundation of the world – Before the child in the synagogue, before the kings brought their gifts, before the manger scene, before the world began, He chose us. Did the subtlety of that verse miss its mark? Before the world began, Jesus was, and He was making decisions on YOUR life. He was planning and doing the work you could never do to earn your salvation, and before you were even born, He chose you.
Where, then, is the decision for Christ? Where is the works righteousness? Where is the earning of our salvation so that we can say we did our part? It is not there, friends, for Christ has chosen you before the foundation of the world. And since He wants you holy and blameless before Him, He is going to be doing that work as well. The Ancient Law demanded that those who sin be punished for their wrongdoing, Yet our Savior determined even before the Ancient Law took effect to make it depart in Him. Therefore the stage was determined before even the light was called into existence. He was going to come, be born of the virgin, suffer under Pontius Pilate, be crucified and buried; all this was planed well before even the first day of creation. All this was divinely planed so that you would be saved from your sins through the blood of the Lamb.
But why, pray tell, if He knew going into the process of creation, that we would be violating the ancient law and in need of a Savior to die for us – more than that – that there would actually be people for Whom He will die and yet will reject Him in spite of all the contrary evidence that He exists and want that ancient law on their shoulders, would He continue to make us in His own image. Why didn’t God just stop at the Zebras (Assuming He made the animals in alphabetical order; and in English) and say, “That’s it. All is good enough. We have a perfect world.” Because in love He predestined us to be His Sons through Christ Jesus.
The world was not perfect without man in His own image, because He loves you that much. He loves you enough to make all the arrangements to make you His forever and keep you there simply out of love. To give you the Salvation planed from the beginning and to make you an heir which is His divine will. That you caused all the sorrow and sins and as a child of man who willfully runs from Him is not His concern when it comes to His love for you. He loves you enough to forget it all and focus on His Son for the Salvation of your souls.
To this it truly is our duty to thank and praise Him. We praise His glorious name and wallow in the blessing of the Beloved. He has come; He has saved you from your sins! He makes the ancient law depart that allows us to be free to praise His glorious Grace that forgives all sins. What more is there to say than, “Let’s celebrate!” Who are you saying that to? Yourself? Well I guess that’s possible, but the word celebrate implies a group enjoying the fruits of the celebration. Yet, how can others celebrate with us if they know not that we celebrate, and why? Certainly we remember our baptism, and what a joy to see a once wayward sinner be washed clean with forgiveness. Certainly the celebration of the Supper would be a nice way of reminding us of the true sacrifice our Lord has made to earn you the victory and forgiveness of sins. Yet these are not hidden treasures. These too are to be shared with all as the shepherds once did. Many hurt souls need to hear the comforts of the forgiveness of sins. We who experience it daily and more so need to be ready to comfort with the true Word of God.
So as we draw a close of the old year and start a whole new year by the grace of God, let us be ever mindful of His love for us and our neighbor and be ready to praise Him proper for all He has done. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

Our Text is taken from the epistle appointed for this day, Saint Paul’s first letter to the Romans, the 6th Chapter, verse 10-11:
For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Do you remember your baptism? I certainly do not remember mine. I was only a few hours old when I was baptized, and I am certain that many of you out there were just infants at the time as well. However, there are some of you whom have been baptized just a little older, maybe even as adults. Do you remember your baptism? Was it exciting, praiseworthy, the stuff movies were made of? Did the earth move, the ground shake, maybe a shudder down your spine? Did the sun pivot itself to shine right on your blessed face for the glorious KODAK moment? Did the angels come down and sign the Alleluias? Maybe the well tuned choir? Perhaps a car honked? Anything at all?
It seems that every baptism I do nowadays is fraught with boredom. At least in comparison to other more exciting Hollywood type baptisms. There is no great crowd, no fanfare, and no TV crews to capture every moment and make commentary on every rubric. The most excitement we can hope for is a hymn that we know the tune to, and maybe see how the pastor is going to handle that fussy child.
And yet, I can tell you that every baptism has been as wonderful and exciting as has the one in our gospel text today. Mark shows us that there is a rending of the heavens, and the Holy Spirit descending upon the Christ Child as a dove. HOLD IT! Christ is not a child here, He is an adult! This is Epiphany season, remember? There is no longer a child but a Man facing us for the rest of the season. So right away, Jesus’ baptism is different, in that He is an adult, not a child. As for the imagery, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. Surely now, none of us ever had a fluttering fowl alighting upon any of our baptisms, and yet here He is, upon Jesus’ baptism. Notice also that Jesus’ baptism was filled with onlookers hoping for their turn at the river. Many people witnessed the outstanding display of the Godhead in action and heard the voice. Remarkably memorable I would say to all involved. Surely now we have to see the wisdom of Jesus’ baptism being far and away the most action packed and exciting baptism on record.
Yet, that is not what it is truly memorable for. It is truly well of us all to remember why Jesus has to be baptized – to fulfill ALL righteousness. Where is that righteousness? It is found in every blessing that bestows the forgiveness of sins. Therefore the most truly remarkable thing is that the fulfillment of the promised Messiah has come and has used this Sacrament as a way to bring His righteousness to you – even as little babes. For as our meditation text explains: the death He died, He died to sin once for all. Jesus has died and shed His blood for you and in fulfilling that righteousness that you cannot earn for yourself in any way, has allowed such righteousness to be imparted to you through your baptism. Truly the words of Peter ring true, Baptism now saves you. This can only be true if Jesus has died and conquered sin death hell and the Satan himself. This He has and this He continues to do in the most profoundest of ways. His blood is now found in every baptism done in His name, and therefore, just as profound as His baptism was fulfilling all righteousness, your baptism is equally profound in that your need for righteousness has been met in your baptism.
So you must now consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. How is this done? Hitler is dead, is he not? Do you fear him rising back up to take over the world? Or how about Attila the Hun. Do you fear an uprising that He will again take over the whole known universe? Or how about Al Capone, or John Dillinger, or Ted Bundy, or any other past dead and gone evil men? Of course not, they are dead and gone. They can’t come back to haunt you or take you down the bad road. They are dead to you, and for all intentional purposes you are dead to them. By the same token neither can sin have dominion over you washed in the blood of Christ, so you are dead to sin, and alive to God. He saves you and keeps you in this one true faith. Confessing sins and receiving absolution makes you alive in Christ Jesus and the Father welcomes you into everlasting live through the Son Who saves.
For all this, it is our duty to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him, for He truly in the most profound way has given us the life by faith alone; no works of our hands allowed. What better more profound message do we have for a hurting world, “Repent and be baptized each and every one of you for the forgiveness of sins.” There cannot be another one. So let us diligently endeavor to spread the gospel message through the baptism we have in Christ Jesus so that many more can join with us in celebrating Christ death for our life. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Our Text is taken from the epistle appointed for this day, Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the 8th Chapter, verse 1:
“Knowledge" puffs up, but love builds up.
A little knowledge goes a long way, or at least that’s what they say – whoever they are. They must be the same people who believe that they have superiority over those who are less educated. I don’t know if you have ever run into those people before, but they are not hard to see from a distance. They are the ones who are at the social gathering and they belittle the servants because they are so much better than the lowlifes (as they see them). They go to the retail stores and ask the stupidest questions just so they can feel better about themselves. I’ll give you a perfect and personal example.
There was a customer looking for a car adapter for his cell phone. Now for those of you who are technologically challenged, your car runs on a 12v system – that is, the plug you plug into the cigarette lighter is 12v plug, transforming the electricity to mimic a 120w to 240w alternating current. Now because of the popularity of needing multiple cigarette lighters, many newer cars and upscale models have a 12v plug built right in – some even for the passengers! So now you can use the cigarette lighter, which usually only works when the car is on, or the dedicated 12v port that usually has current as long as the battery does not run out.
So back to the story: the customer comes in looking for a 12v adapter for his cell phone. The poor Wal-Mart associate shows him the line of car adapters and makes the fatal mistake of saying, “these are the adapters that you put into your cigarette lighter.” To which the customer then replies, “I don’t have a cigarette lighter, I have a 12v port. I need a 12v adapter for my car.” The poor associate was trying to understand the customer’s concerns, but all this customer wants to do was belittle the poor girl, and show his superiority by demanding that he receive his 12v adapter. He’s too rich to have a cigarette lighter – his car has a 12v port. He’s too educated to be working for Wal-Mart, so I will belittle this uneducated young lady and make myself be bigger than I really am. She has lees knowledge than me so I will seem more important than her.
This is the same attitude towards knowledge that the Corinthian’s were in. There were some among them who were very well educated and quite on their way to being considered the greatest of all the Christians in knowledge – at least in their own mind they were. Now the Greeks considered knowledge to be the ultimate status symbol of their day. If you could be the smartest person in town then you were the most respected, sought after and popular person. Now wouldn’t that be swell? It satisfies one of the three main desires of the soul – to be fed, to be protected, to be loved.
Yet, Paul tells us that there is a better course of action to be loved - “Knowledge" puffs up, but love builds up. Indeed, love for neighbor should never be directed in. Love is always projected out. Let me explain with my above example. If the customer truly loved his fellow man, then he certainly would have accepted her answer as cigarette lighter and moved on. He would have thanked her for directing him to what he needed and moved on. But instead, he decided to belittle her and make her feel stupid in comparison to him, for no other reason than because he could. That’s not love, that is just plain evil, and certainly not the way God wants us to act.
So as I say, God wants us to love out, not in. The Church community is built up by each member loving one another, rather than trying to find out who can get the most recognition or the most motions to pass their way. Unselfish love is that same love that God gives to us in Christ Jesus. Jesus wasn’t looking out for “Number one” but for you and your joy to be found in Heaven. He went to that cross so that you would not have to puff yourself up to be loved and seen as important, either by man or God. By being baptized and forgiven shows your importance in the Church, seeing Christ on the cross for you shows that you are loved more than life itself.
That also means that we look out for one another. If there is a weak brother among us, and they are concerned about how we do things, even though we have full Christian liberty, we set them aside for the sake of a weak brother in Christ. For in the days of Paul, meat was routinely sacrificed and dedicated to idols. Now we all know that the meat means nothing for an idol is nothing. We are no better off if we eat or don’t eat, but if a new Christian had concerns due to their past involvement in such sacrifices, out of love for neighbor, Paul would refrain from eating the meat. Out of love for the weaker brother he would not want to cause an unwanted burden on the poor soul. Today we don’t really have sacrificed food, but we do have attitudes, and if they are not kept in check, they could lead Christians to believe that this is a proper way to act as a Christian and that would be doubly wrong. It is my earnest prayer that all our doings and life reflect Christ in all we do, and by the help of the Holy Ghost, we live a Godly life here in time and hereafter in eternity. We begin by loving one another; we end by loving our enemies. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Have you ever pretended to be something you are not? Imagination land is where many a child has gone to become a policeman or a fireman, a mother cooking spaghetti or the first female president. How many times have children put on their parents clothes and desired to be not so much just like them, but to be them? To be something you are not can be a wonderful game if played in the right way.
However, we grow up and we forget how to play. Or at least, we convince ourselves that we have to be proper and upright in how we present ourselves. Let me give an example. You see a kid sitting in a puddle of water and dirt, probably more dirt than water – hard to tell. You can see he is just having the time of his life. He’s got mud and dirt and grime in places that are supposed to covered by clothing and not have messes in them. His hair is molded as if he purposely put the brown moose there to look like space boy or what have you. He’s got the biggest grin on his face and he invites you to come and play with him. What is your reaction? Is it repulsion given the dirty, slimy, messy image you got before you? Would you insist that he get himself cleaned up – perhaps even hosed off – before you even touch him? Could you possibly play with him in your three-piece suit or your best Sunday dress? Course not! You know how much it would cost to clean this?
How many other excuses could you come up with? You don’t like kids to begin with; you have bad knees and would not be able to get back up; you’re allergic to dirt. Any one of these excuses would probably pass for the ways of this world, but thanks be to God He does not respond to us this way. When God looked down upon us, He certainly saw more than just dirt and water messes on us. To be sure, simple water would not clean our filth away. Not to mention we were happy little clams in our filthy world. We had not intention of bringing ourselves out. Hey, we didn’t even know we were dirty! So God sent His Son, Jesus to get down in the mud with us. He became like one of us, getting into the mud, the mixture of sin and disease, of misbelief and vice, of shame and rejection from the world, and He took it all upon Himself; all of it! From cradle to grave He took it all. He came to where you were in that filthy life of sin death hell and the grave, and He reached down to save you – to lift you up to something more than you are – to where you should be – a child of God the Father.
And He has done this in ways that required none of your input, reason or strength. He washed you through water – not simple water only, but with water comprehended with God’s command and connected with His Word, a word of how Jesus went to the cross for you for the forgiveness of all your sins and through that shed blood moved you from a child of wrath to a child of the heavenly Father. What more, His Supper feeds you with forgiveness yet again, and makes you an heir to everlasting life and able to amend that old life into something more – a life that now lives for others as He does.
You see, Jesus did not leave you there but came to where you were and became like you in order to save you from your sorry condition. He lifts you up, and makes you honored in His presence. We have the same ability. I meet people every day that were just like us and in need of God’s love and forgiveness. There are weak people, strong people, people of non-Christian faith let alone non-Lutheran, people who feel guilty and under the wrath of the Heavenly Father, and those with no fear at all. And yet, to each of these, there is a message to impart. A message of the Savior God that forgives and makes His people be uplifted. That is the message I give to each as they need it, however they receive it.
Yet, I can’t do it alone. I need each and every one of you that feels God’s love to join with me in meeting people where they are and bring them out from darkness into His marvelous light. Are you too timid, because you just might look a little dirty getting to where they are? Who cares what others think! You do it for just as I do: for love of neighbor, that I just might save some. I am only one man. I can only speak one on one. But there are 50+ of us gathered here. What if we each just chose one person to become like – not as pretending as a playmate, but truly caring to be all things to all people so as to sympathize, empathize, and just plain meet people where they are – just not leaving them that way. We could accomplish so much more. Working to make them better as children of God with us, that the Holy Spirit would save some. That would be grand would it not? In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

“You can’t please all the people all the time.” Certainly you have heard that catch all phrase have you not? Surly this is spoken to us from well meaning people trying to cheer us up after a failed attempt to help another. There are times when our conscience tells us this in order to explain away why our best efforts are going to waste upon one who does not receive our attempts at reconciliation. We say it so as to make ourselves feel better; however, I contend that there is a way to please all the people all the time, that is, in the context of how Paul addresses the Corinthians – and us – this day in our text.
The text as I have presented it to you is different from the one on the back of your bulletin in that the word TRY has been eliminated. According to various other translations, as well as well respected theologians translations, there is no TRY in the original Greek. Does this change the doctrine? Not at all, but it does change the attitude that Paul has, and by default it changes ours as well. Paul has just got done preaching, that which we saw last week, that he has become all things to all people that he might win some. To win some, not all. The actual reception of the Good News of Jesus Christ eludes some people that just are not paying attention – hence the understanding that not all men are saved. However, they are still pleased by Paul in that Paul is not trying to see what he can get out of the people, but gives them the welcomed change of GIVING; and therein lies the key: Paul gives, while the world tries to take. Paul offers with no strings, while the world offers with intent to gain back with interest. Paul shows the better way of dealing with people, to not look to see what he can get out of it, but to make a welcomed change in the lives of the Corinthians, to offer them God, Christ, forgiveness, and salvation through the cross.
Now who among us is not pleased when someone gives without expecting anything in return? Oh sure, from time to time there may be the cynical person who may be wondering if there is a catch, but when the truth is revealed that it is true genuine love that serves, who is not happy with that? Can you please everybody? When it comes to acting out of faith, and offering salvation through Jesus Christ, offering the good news that you are loved by Christ enough that you need not earn your salvation but freely receive as He freely gives, then there truly is peace on earth, and the warmth of the Holy Spirit truly will move the hearts to accepting the good will and be pleased.
The leper in the Gospel is a great example. Jesus Christ cures him of his leprosy, and he is so pleased that he cannot contain himself and begins to talk freely about how Jesus cured him of his leprosy. He was miserable before, but now quite pleased about the whole situation. And the people hearing the news – they are pleased to hear it and come to Jesus to hear and receive. That’s what Saint Paul means to please all the people, and what I mean about all the time. There is always a soul that needs forgiveness, and there is always a time to give.
Then there is Naaman. He was very upset that he had to follow the directions of washing in the Jordan River when there were perfectly good rivers in Syria. How can we please him? He was pleased with the end result for the Lord gave him what he wanted – peace in knowing that the real God was in Israel, and that His goodness, grace, mercy and forgiveness extended far beyond the borders of Israel, even to the ends of the earth.
So are we to take home today from our text? Taking care of neighbor is not a Sunday only kind of thing. It is an everyday thing. Every single day we need to care for neighbor; forgiving one another in all things is the true way of passing the peace that makes us more pleased than when we first came in - even if only from a spiritual standpoint. Look at the servant girl of Naaman. She cared enough to help her master by telling him about the prophet; unquestionably he was really pleased with the result. The point is, there is an ability to please all the people all the time, and that is through Godly forgiveness and a sincere desire to make your neighbor better through salvation.
If we could spend our energies on just this alone, then we truly understand the way of the cross, for it is not a way of selfish ambition, but a way of sacrificing. It is not a way of seeing how I can get something in return, but seeing how I can care for my hurting neighbor. It is not a way of me, but a way of He. May the cross of Christ that makes us free to receive, free to give, that many truly will be saved by faith in the Cross of Christ’s forgiveness. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

The glory of God; many people have tried to find it. Many people have tried to define it. Many people have risked their lives looking for it, as the series of movies featuring Indiana Jones has portrayed some, but why are they searching? What is it they are looking for? Many are looking for the mountain top experience – to see God as He truly is, but alas, it eludes their searching eyes. Then there are those who are searching for the Moses that will make their dull and dreary lives brighten at the understanding of God’s Glory, looking for the flamboyant and smartest and most attractive (by their standards) preacher with the glowing personality. But as the glamour wears off, and the bright light begins to fade, (for the substance of their preaching was not in God’s word but from some other source and drive,) there is the return of darkness, and the settling in of despair.
As we mentioned last week, the drive of the Christian is to please all the people all the time, yet this can only be accomplished if the thing that pleases the people is the need for forgiveness, and this found only in Christ Jesus. Why is this not accomplished on the grand scale? Because the devil himself would like nothing more than to have everyone sit in darkness. He thrives on despair and malice and above all deceit in order to control his dominion here on this earth. He stops at nothing to convince people that this world is the glory days, and that what comes after this life is nothing as the evolutionist teach. He convinces people that this world is continued on in parallel universes claiming there is no hell for those who ignore Christ, as the Universalists teach. The devil himself poses as God and claims a glory that dose not hold up under scrutiny, as per the thousands of religions that do not keep the Word of God centered in its truth and purity. This world truly is sitting in Darkness, and its inhabitants are a reflection of that darkness. Led by their sins, to do as they please and think, they reflect the darkness of their souls, and worse yet, their master the devil, and find themselves helpless to save their lot.
Yes, we all, due to sin, have been influenced by the master of deceit, yet that is not the end of the world, people! There is a light that shines, so bright that those who see it do need to request that it be toned down a bit. It’s a quite strong in and of itself, let alone in contrast to the darkness of this world. To this world, it is also confusing, as when you wake up in a dark room and turn on the lights – it hurts! It’s a light the world cannot fathom. It is the Glory of Jesus Christ, and it is reflected in our lives. It is a glory that began in our baptism and made us the beacon of His light. We have no light of our own; hence we do not exalt ourselves more highly than we ought. We are simply servants reflecting Christ in our lives and service. As Moses, we have a bright reflection of Christ, that though it does not need to be veiled, it is confusing to this world when they see it. It is confusing because the world in the darkness cannot understand the Light it sees. Why do we help the less fortunate? No one else does that without expecting something in return. Well, that’s the glory of Christ in us, we explain. Why do we pray for our enemies? Because that is Christ in our lives; He prayed for us, even as we were doing incredibly evil things to Him so in reflection of this Glory, we pray for our enemies. Why do we remain calm in the midst of great tragedy? Because we have a God that has been with us and is like us, in that He was born of a virgin as a man of flesh like us, suffered under the burden of sin like us, tempted like us, and yet, endured without sin. The Glory of the Lord is that He makes us His through the cross He bore, that we take up our crosses and do the same.
We have the knowledge of Christ to calm our troubled breast in the midst of tragedy and to help others in their troubles. Yet, to help just to help is not the point of being a servant of Christ Jesus. We have also a message to convey: the love of Christ in our lives and for the life of the whole world. Think of it this way: a man needs a meal. You give him one, then you bid him good day and you leave. What have you done? Have you reflected Christ? In some small way you have, for all we have is from God so we share with the less fortunate. However, what if while he was eating you shared with him the Love that Jesus has for him, that he can be forgiven of sins and be right with God? What if you – dare I say it – pray with him, a stranger, in public? Would that be more of a reflection of love and care and of Christ in your life? I will answer it for you, Yes indeed it is.
That’s the living of the faith part. It is easy to help, but to share Christ, to reflect Christ with forgiveness to our enemies no less, wow. Can we really do that? That is why we partake of communion. Receiving the very body and blood gives us a new understanding of the glory and makes us able to reach out and make others see Christ in our lives. Therefore, since He saves us yet again, given all that we have done against Him, we now have a healthy sense of taking care of others, and just as importantly, going to them and sharing Christ. Which reminds me of Peter and his statement to Christ. The problem with Peter was that he wanted to make a permanent place where he and the others could come and visit heaven any time they wanted – to put God in a single place as it were. To get the mountain top experience with the efforts he gave. This is not reflective of Christ. He wants us to get down from the mountain and meet people where they are. To spread the good news to where the people sit in darkness and need a Savior.
Thanks be to God He forgives our folly, even when well meaning. We are about to stuff ourselves silly on fat Tues as we prepare for Ash Wednesday and the start of our Lenten fast. In this new Season, let us endeavor to remember that we are in the knowledge of Christ, where the glory of the Lord is found not in the things we do, but are reflective in what we do. The Glory of God is not found in the highest heights or in the lowest low. It is found in His Word, and as we live that Word. Live forgiven this Lenten season and we shall reflect who we really are – forgiven sheep of the Good Shepherd Who cares for us. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

I am sure you did not fail to notice the theme for our sermon today, “The Great Dichotomy.” And certainly you were trying to figure out which of these statements of dichotomy that Saint Paul lays before us is the greatest. Certainly, the glory that we have in preaching to our neighbor about the love of God in Christ Jesus has made us met at times with the dishonor of them not believing it or trusting our report. Though we try to truly care for our neighbor and his welfare, we have been accused at times of being out to get something in return. We know who we are, though the world knows us not, for we are the people with hope!
This hope we have is in Christ Jesus Who gives us the great promise of life everlasting is ours now, even as we live in this dying state of being. Yes, unless Christ comes very soon, we live as dead men walking – we will die, and yet, we will live; another great dichotomy that helps us face the day and the service to neighbor, even if that service will lead us to the sufferings for the name and truth’s sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, we may be beaten for our beliefs, either physically, emotionally, or spiritually, but we will not be killed – for we fear not those who can hurt the body but not the soul, we fear Him Who can kill both body and soul in the pit of Hades. For this, we are able in the midst of sorrow, rejoice, for our Lord and Savior has gone through what we are enduring, and knows our troubles and is sympathetic to our plight. Being poor, He makes us rich towards God, and thereby we make many more rich by telling them about the riches found in Christ Jesus, which explains the other great dichotomy, that though we may have nothing in this world, we posses everything in Christ Jesus.
And yet, every one of these dichotic statements can be trumped by the greatest dichotomy which brings us here today – the one that Saint Luther called the greatest dichotomy of all, that we are “simul uses et picador” We are simultaneously Saint and sinner. Truly this is the greatest one of all, for how is it that our sins keep us from God and yet, our God still loves us enough to save us through the cross of Christ Jesus? And it is not like we sin, He forgives us and we live free and perfect lives from this point on. No, we cannot seem to help ourselves find even more opportunities to offend our God, and yet, He forgives again. Certainly this has to be the greatest story ever told: that while we were yet sinning, Christ died for the ungodly, for the sinner, for you.
Truly this is why we celebrate today this ash Wednesday the salvation found in our God and make the public display of ashes upon our foreheads as ones redeemed by Christ the crucified. Though we be sinners, Christ died for us; though we lament our sins, we celebrate our Salvation found in our God; though we be assailed by the arrows of the evil one, we finally overcome by the God Who Alone saves, and though we may fast, we feast on the promises made in baptism – you have everlasting life, which truly is everything. May your ashes show the world your salvation, and reestablish your standing as forgiven saint in the presence of our God, and an opportunity to witness to others to have this same blessed assurance. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

I don’t know about you but that exchange just cracks me up. For who among us have felt the same way? We think the devil has nothing on us, nothing for us, nothing to tempt us with and yet, with just a little extra push, we don’t know what hit us. Bam! Sin kicked up a notch. So now who can we blame for all this? After all, is this not what we are supposed to do? Find the root of the sin and remove it? Now if we blame ourselves, then we are going to have to deal with the punishment. So we won’t go there. Blame the devil! There is the Flip Wilson ticket – The devil made me do it! Blame him! Yet, if I only suggested having another piece of pie for desert, and you eat it, can I be blamed for what you eating too much desert? You could blame me but I am not taking the rap for your folly. Besides, Who made the devil and allows him to run around deceiving as he does? Let’s blame God!
Sad thing is, it has already been tried. When God Almighty confronted Adam with the thoughts of being naked and for eating the forbidden fruit, He blamed God for giving him a wife that would give him such fruit. Eve, when caught eating the forbidden fruit, blamed God for giving us a serpent crafty enough to deceive us into temptation. The serpent – he just smiled smugly. The blame game didn’t work then, and it sure doesn’t work now.
Can we talk? Joan Rivers used to say that when it was time to get serious – well, that is a relative term for her, but can we talk? We need to set ourselves right this first Sunday in Lent. There is no blaming God for our temptation. As we are so well instructed in our Catechism, God indeed tempts no one, but we pray in this petition (the 6th one if your counting,) that He would guard us and keep so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and though we be assailed by them, we finally over come and obtain the victory. How can we overcome? By working real hard at not doing it – like trying to quit a bad habit? If we just work had enough, concentrate strong enough, we can finally overcome our sins and be right with God? If we just do everything God requires of us – like Abraham in our Old Testament lesson – then we will be right with God. Oh, if only it were that easy. No. we cannot overcome temptation by our own reason or strength. Well, if we can’t overcome, how can we be blamed? It is still our sin; we still grieved our Lord. It is as Martin Luther once said, “We cannot stop the birds from flying over head, but we can stop them from building a nest in our hair.” It is our desire for what we think we don’t have that leads us to allow the nest to e built in our hair, and that desire comes from in here and nowhere else. Adam and Eve sinned when the desire for the fruit, for the knowledge, for the ability to be like God first was sown, then it seeded in to reaching out to take the fruit, then it fully grew into the tree with bird nests when the fruit was ate. This happens to each and every one of us when we sin, and truly the only person we can blame is ourselves. Not God, not neighbor, not the devil, not even the birds for building the nest in the first place; the onus is on ourselves and us alone for the sins we commit each and every day.
Bleak picture for lent, huh? Then let’s talk some more about hope – REAL hope; hope found in Jesus Christ our Lord, Who saw our wretched plight, saw we could not help ourselves, and He came down and made sure that we would never be left in this despair of great shame and vice! He came to suffer the sufferings that every one of us should endure for our own sins, and yet, He deserved none of it – it wasn’t His fault we sinned and yet, He took it all – from cradle to grave He suffered and blamed us not. How can I be so sure? Because on that first Easter morn He came to us, and offered Himself yet again, “see My hands and my side; stop doubting and believe!”
Believe – that is all that is ever asked of you and everything that Jesus won is yours – that is everlasting life with Him in heaven forever. And if we have everlasting live, then we truly have overcome the world, the devil, our very own flesh, and heirs to everlasting life. What joy this brings to the heavy heart still trapped in the darkness of self-sin. Instead of trying to find blame, why can’t we just trust in Jesus Christ for all our Salvation and remember our baptism, believe in the real presence in the supper, and trust that all that God tells us is for our own good?
This is all easy for us to say and do who have been doing this since our very youth. But what of the neighbor, the grocer, the doctor we visit so infrequently? What of our old classmates or the new co-worker? Any of these people need forgiveness of sins? Well now we know how to help them; give them Jesus and let the Holy Spirit do His work. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

How hard would you work to save somebody? Let’s say your child has been warned not to go into the deep end of the pool, and after repeated warnings, still crept over to see how far he could go, and whoosh! Under the water he goes, struggling for life. Would you leave him there? Perchance you would wait a bit to teach him a lesson. Maybe you figure he deserves it; after all, he was warned. Of course not – you would be arrested for child endangerment. What a horrible thing to say! You would save your kid simply because you love him and don’t want him to drown! You would do anything in your power to keep him alive – even if that meant an hour of CPR to accomplish that feat you would do it.
That is easy enough to contemplate, but what about a close friend or a total stranger, does this change things? Would you work harder, less harder, to save such a person? I ask this question because I heard a true story this week that just made me change my whole direction for this sermon. Apparently, there was a group of friends and acquaintances at a McDonald’s restaurant, and in their – shall we say inebriated state – one person challenged the other that he could fit an entire double quarter pounder – with cheese – into his mouth and eat it. Now for al you ladies out there, a quick glimpse into the mind of a guy: a boast like this cannot go unchallenged. There were agreements agreed upon and the contest commenced. Needless to say, in the course of the ordeal, there was a small delay. The burger got stuck. After realizing that this was a serious and real problem, one quick thinker started to apply the Heimlich maneuver, one would hope with great vigor.
Now I ask you, how long would you work to save this obviously not to bright fellow to A) make such a ridiculous challenge, and B) attempt to do so as inebriated as he was? Should he not have to suffer the consequences of his actions? The reason I ask this is for the next thing I am about to tell you which is eyewitness account relay to me – the guy applying the Heimlich, trying desperately to save this fellow human beings life, stops the maneuver. Why? Because the passageway is unclogged? Because the victim is turning blue and more drastic measures are needed? Because he is stepping aside as a friend wants to step in and try also? No, nothing as noble as all that. He stopped, because he got too tired, and said, “eh, o well. I tried.”
Can you imagine? “O well. I give up. Too bad, buddy, you’re on your own.” I was in utter disbelief! It had to be a joke, but no, it was not. This fellow human being decided that he had done enough to save a dying person and left him to fend for himself. This got me to thinking this Lenten season, what if Jesus decided that He tried but it just wasn’t working or worth the effort. Where would that leave us? What if Jesus suddenly stopped on the road to Capernaum, and fed up with the disciples arguing again who would be sitting on the left and the right of Jesus, and like Elijah decided to go back to heaven on a whirlwind, not even going to the cross? What if Jesus had left us to fend for ourselves? How horrible the Words if Jesus were to utter, “It’s their sin not mine. They will not even believe in the miracles!”
Or worse yet, what if having died on the cross, Jesus had only done half of the effort to save us, and we had to accomplish the other half, could we do it? What if Jesus had gotten down from that cross, when demanded to do so from the Pharisees in order to “believe in Him”? Or if Jesus did 99% of it and it is required of us to accomplish the other 1% either for ourselves or another – sort of like purgatory and praying the souls out of their holding cell as the Romanist believes. Could we truly do enough effort for our fellow man, would we desire enough to save a person we deem somewhat righteous? Could we do it?
I contend we could not, would not, and cannot. Case in point, let’s go back to Jesus and the cross shall we? There He goes down the via Delarosa. Where is the throng that desires His safety? Where are the disciples to fight for His freedom? Not one single person was willing to die for this righteous man – no one tried to die for Jesus though they said they would. Recall that Peter said he would die rather than deny Him, and all the apostles declared the same fervor – even Judas the betrayer! But no, no one helped Him; they all actively put Him on that cross.
Yet, what did Jesus say? “Father forgive them.” FORGIVE THEM! He prayed that they might receive forgiveness, even as they were nailing Him to the tree! That is true love – to love someone enough to want to forgive them and desire not them to perish. To want them to have everlasting life and accomplish it all the way through, not stopping to rest, not stopping to give up on them, but taking all of the Father’s wrath upon Himself and winning for you the victory.
What more could we do since our Shepherd has done so much for us? What could we possibly do for another? We could start by repenting of our own shortcomings and believing we are forgiven. Then we will be prepared to follow the great commission, “go and do likewise”. Desire not the destruction of the wicked, but give them the same Christ you have – the one that saves. Give them the holy Word, that turns their hearts unto the Holy Ghost, and give them the blessed hope found in the washing of regeneration; baptism that saves you now. Never give up on the erring, the misinformed, the enemy – if you have to pass them off onto another Christian that’s fine, for it is not us who saves but the Holy Ghost that gives faith where and when He yields it. But pray continually that the enemies of the church will cease their enmity, and walk with us in all justice and truth. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Zesty is a word that is not used too much in our language unless we are talking about salad dressing. Zesty Italian is what I find in my refrigerator, not sure what you have in yours, however Zesty can also mean energetic, as in Jesus had Zesty Zeal in our text today.
Now, to be sure, this zeal did not start out that way, no sir. First, Jesus comes to the temple and observes all that is mentioned here: In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. This is not your local church craft fair, or your Christmas party potluck, this is not your typical Tupperware party or your Amway product party. This is not some small smattering of people all calmly waiting their turn to order. When you think of this Temple bazaar, think Wall Street brokerage as the market is plummeting. On a typical day, there is noise and barter and panicking that the choicest sacrifice might be taken by someone else. There is the hustle and bustle as many try to get this unpleasantness over with quickly. After all, just like today, the sooner you get done with worship, the sooner you can get on with your day, right? Yet, the worse of it all in my humble opinion, and believe me, the other stuff is pretty bad news, is the money changers. Here the Jews, in their self-righteous pomp, in order not to violate the sacred ordinances of God’s house and not have graven images in His presence, change the common money into temple shekels. Now, what, pray tell is the exchange rate for such a transaction? Do you get one for one here? Give a Roman coin, get a temple coin? Oh no, my friend. It was well understood that the exchange rate varied by how much you could afford, and by how much you needed, and by how much the priest felt was adequate – very much like Roman Confessionals nowadays; and the Jews had the gall to complain about the tax collectors.
It took some time for Jesus to make His way through all this goofiness – Yes, I say goofiness, because nowhere does Scripture talk about moneylenders and buying and selling sacrifices. For sure, it just seems so much more logical to buy what you need and pay your penance, and for sure it would be more convenient to just buy your bull there at the site rather than dragging it all over town and such. And surely if the priest had to inspect the sacrifice to make sure it had no spot or blemish, it would be quicker to buy a pre-approved sacrifice - think of it as the express lane to worship; buy, kill, sprinkle, all done. One stop shopping for those who can afford the luxury.
And then, what if the merchandise – I mean sacrifice – was not approved, now you have to go back to the vender and get recompense either by refund or adjustments. Oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise this all has made, as Jesus makes His way through the crowd. None of this was sanctioned; none of his was supported in Scripture. God was very clear – you bring from Your bounty, Your sacrifice, Your gracious gifts that come from above.
So, as Jesus makes His way through the crowd, He begins to make a whip out of cords – small chords that were designed to move people to attention and get then to do what was required of them. It’s taking time to make this whip, but that’s ok, for there is a lot of ground to get to. I imagine Jesus getting to the back of the ecclesiastical bazaar, and snapping His little friend like a sled dog driver. Snapping it more for effect than for contact, for the stampede of the animals will be dangerous enough. He drives them all out: sheep, oxen, birds, people, and now having come to the front entrance again, empties the purses of the money-changers, and overturns their tables.
To this, the Jews demand the sign that He has authority to do all this, but the sign is right there. What were all those things there for? Why were there sheep and oxen and birds? Why were the money changers changing the money? So the people could pay for the forgiveness of their sins; so the sacrifices would be acceptable before almighty God to forgive their sins and let them live free again. With that in mind, did not Jesus already do just what the doctors of Jewish law ordered? There is the sign! The only thing left in the temple to sacrifice is Christ Himself! Destroy that temple and in three days He will rise again. There is your precious miraculous sign O Jews! There is your recompense O Gentiles! His Zeal for His house has consumed Him, and the Zesty Zeal displayed has made for you the object of your desire singular and unquestionable. Believe on the One Whom He has sent, and you will be forgiven and saved.
Indeed, this season has given us an opportunity to have a little zesty zeal for Lent as well. We come here to recall our sins and receive the blessed absolution, first received in Baptism, then received from the promises of the Pastor who stands in the stead of Christ, and by His Word forgives. With this forgiveness from the singular sacrifice of the cross, you now no longer have a burden; no longer have guilt, no longer have the devil’s clutches around your throat. They have all been driven out, crushed by the Savior Who rose again that blessed Easter morn. Yet this zesty zeal is not some sort of condiment on your life, it is your life. The life of every believer is one of zeal for the Lord’s forgiveness, and zeal for our fellow man to understand the same. Each of us, in our various vocations have the opportunity to reach out to the world that knows not of Christ and His forgiveness for them, so we shall. From here on through the rest of lent, we shall have a renewed zeal for the Lord, not just for ourselves to desire more of our Lord through worship, through the proper reception of the Sacraments, though our daily devotions in communicating with Him, but also for our neighbor, inviting them to join with us and behold the miraculous sign for themselves: The sign of the Cross for their sins, for this is all we preach, Christ Crucified; there is nothing else. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to give us a new found energy to have Zest in our Zeal in sharing Christ with those who need to hear. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

What is the easiest thing you can think of? Strolling through the park? Sometimes you stumble on a tree root or a stray rock or uplifted concrete sidewalk. Sitting on a chair? Unless you have no back problems, can’t do that for very long – especially if your wondering how much longer the Pastor is going to go on. Taking candy from a baby? Well in the words of Montgomery Burns, “That task proved more difficult than one is led to believe.”
“For By Grace You Have Been Saved Through Faith… not of works, lest any man should boast!” We preach Christ Crucified, a simple message and a simple point of faith. Indeed, so simple it truly is the stumbling block to the Jews and much folly to the Gentiles. Yet, the question must be addressed, “Is Salvation really all that simple?” Indeed it is, and believe you me, you would not want it any other way.
Imagine if you will that you have to try and find your own salvation. What would you do? What could you do? Where would you even start? When would you feel that you have reached the end? That would be the tricky part – when would you end. Finding stuff to do is not hard – the plan has been laid out. Follow the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve, and love your neighbor as yourself. There is the fulfillment of the law of God. But how to fulfill this without sinning, without stopping, and knowing when you have done enough to appease almighty God, how would you ever know? Even the Romanists admit the concept is a bit hazy, so they sell indulgences and pray souls out of purgatory for extra credit so to speak. To do and not to do, to appease the wrathful vengeance of the One True God, that is such a hard thing to do.
Ok, that was a scary road to travel. Let us look at the true salvation of God. True Salvation is found only in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him we see the work started: He came down and became as us so as to fulfill the Plan in our place. Then He went to the cross, and let us all witness this feat. All the Gospel writers let us see the pain, the suffering, the agony, the fulfillment. And best of all, we know when it ended; we know when our salvation was secured, when the Father’s wrath was appeased, when the necessary suffering was indeed no more. It was when our Lord declared “It is Finished!” Then did our sufferings become buried with Him when He was laid in the tomb. Then did our salvation rise to life on that glorious Easter day so that we could live!
So, now that we have established that Salvation is won there at the cross, how can we make it ours personally? What can we do? Where do we start? And when can we end it so that we know this salvation is complete in us? Again, left to ourselves we come up with all manners of goofiness. Just look at all those pagan religions trying to tell us how they come to the presence of God in their lives. All those may directions of which to go and all leading away from the Almighty in every instance. Again, the way is simple, for God has established it for us from His Word. Salvation is ours through faith and baptism in that One True Faith. Simple water comprehended in God’s Command and connected with His Word is all it takes to make all that salvation earning your forgiveness yours personally. Simple faith accepting the Words then and the words now, offering forgiveness in the bread and wine for your continued salvation, that is all there is to make salvation yours now. He has established this path, so you would not have to forge it or find it yourself. Again, a great gift free as Christ’s resurrection is freely given.
But can it truly be all so simple? Just believing in Christ, and then you’re saved? Just looking at the Christ on the cross is enough to have Faith in the forgiveness? This is nothing new, for in our Old Testament lesson, we see that if any were about to die, all they had to do was just look at the serpent, believe you will be saved, and it truly did happen. Really can anything be simpler? Just look at something and believe? Still we are more blessed, for the Scriptures are true: Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe. Just as the serpent was lifted up, so is the Son of Man lifted us, so that all who see Him might believe and be saved. Believe on The One Whom He has Sent, believe in the Resurrection, and you shall be saved.
This living in the glow of Christ’s resurrection is where we are today, and always will be. Salvation is complete in Christ, and ours through the sacraments and faith – all free gifts of God never earned or sought out for, so what is it that we can do to show our appreciation? Again, where do we start? When do we end? With so many directions to go, how can we possibly please the Almighty? Here again, God leaves nothing to chance, and plans our lives beforehand that we should walk in them. In all truthfulness, they would not be good works at all if there was not faith to guide them; hence, they are all His doing. We reap a benefit of all that He has done for us, and continues to do as He plans our day, our lives, our faith.
Truly, I cannot think of anything simpler. To believe in Him Whom has been sent, accept His offer of faith and life, and follow His plan as He has laid them out by living ones life to His glory, what could be simpler? I contend there is not a single thing simpler to do – except maybe dying, but as we die in the Lord, He takes care of that to, so maybe there is not anything simpler. May we always be content with the simple ways of Christ and His Salvation, and never complicate life with our own thoughts or words or deeds. In Jesus’ most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

Hosanna! Loud Hosanna! The little children sang! Throughout the whole town the song of praise has been echoing off the buildings through every crevice of the city, permeating the very fabric of the town, for is it not true that the children are our future, the very fabric of our being? But more than that, these young people have made perfect praise: They hear that Christ is coming, and they believe it. They are not burdened by experiences, or so-called rational understandings. They have no memory of false messiahs from the pasts or memories of being let down that another charlatan has duped them into following a wrong path. There is an innocence about them, they trust that He that is praiseworthy is the Promised Messiah, and they rejoice with all creation that their King has come to them, righteous and having salvation.
Glory Be to Jesus, for He is coming into the City amongst praise and adoration unmatched since perhaps the Magi. Then, the Magi paraded to Jesus so that they could offer their gifts of Gold, frankincense and myrrh; here, Jesus parades to us offering us the gifts of Body, Blood, and eternal Life – all for the forgiveness of all sins. Then, all Jerusalem had witnessed and wondered who is this King of Kings who was being sought after; here, all Jerusalem sings praises of Hosanna to their Coming King.
All Glory Laud and Honor, to Thee, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children make sweet hosannas ring! Ah! But there are some who are not offering up glory, laud, or even respectful honor are they? They are the mean, nasty, selfish Pharisees alright? The Chief Priests and the teachers of the law, otherwise known as scribes, were observing all the wonderful things He did, and questioned their validity; questioned the faith of the little children. These men hated that Jesus was claiming to be the coming King. Indeed this parallels the Magi visit in that Herod hated that the King of Kings had come, and sought to destroy Him Himself. Oh how horrible it was back then; many an innocent died for the glory of the Lord, that Jesus may live. Truly it was a sad chapter of human history as Rachel wept for her children for they were no more. Yet, this day, the morning for the many innocent turns to our singular Lord and we watch as He now rides on to the path of the cross for the salvation of all mankind.
Ride On; Ride On, In Majesty, in Lowly Pomp Ride on to Die. Ride On we encourage our Lord. For if He does not, we are truly lost and all the wonderful things He has done then mean not a thing. Jesus was baptized at the beginning of His ministry to fulfill all righteousness, but if He does not ride on, then even this righteous act will not be fulfilled. Jesus said it Himself; the Son of Man must suffer many things at the hands of the Chief priests and the Teachers of the Law. He MUST! For how else can we be saved? How else can scripture be fulfilled? Are you worthy to die for another’s sin? Are you worthy to die even for your own sins so that the Almighty Father may indeed bless your name and be well pleased with the sacrifice of blood? Indeed we poor wretched miserable sinners are not. We cannot even save our own selves let alone save another. Is there not another possible perfect sacrifice to be made that can save us from our wretched fate? Indeed there is, for just as the Old Testament priests slaughtered the one great spotless lamb for the sins of the Whole People, our Lord has indeed cleansed the temple so that He Alone may save you all.
A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth, the guilt of all men – you , me, the troubled teenager without direction, the man in prison for steeling to feed his family, the conspiracy theorist whose head is not on straight, the man on death row because he has no fear of God – the guilt of all men bearing. Laden with the sins of earth, no one else the burden sharing. He is the final sacrifice acceptable before almighty God, Who alone has these Words said about Him, “With Him I AM Well Pleased.” He goes to the cross, and He accepts the burden that He is innocent of, and He saves you, yes, even now, today, this cross offers forgiveness for all burdens of all sins.
Jesus in Thy dying woes, Thou still cry out to save. For even as He forgave the soldiers who nailing Him to the tree, He forgave all the people for they truly did not know what they were doing. He saves you when you know not what your doing in your sins, and He demands no listed penance in order that this forgiveness may somehow “stick”, no my friends, He offers the forgiveness for those who repent, and believe. Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain, sinners ruined by the fall. Here the fountain flows for you, for all. It flows to wash your robes white, that ye shall walk with God aright. And in this covenant of Blood, you have a soul renewing flood, flowing from the altar of our Lord with the promise that this blood is given for the forgiveness of sins.
Upon the cross extended, He was, and yet, still death could not hold Him. He is not in the tomb where He was laid, He has indeed broken deaths strong bands, and with this resurrection display, assures you, me, all who believe, that this salvation offered is not some mere words floating on the wind, but are Truth, and we can with all boldness and confidence cry out, “I Know that My Redeemer lives!” But more than that, we can profess the living Christ to the World that knows not Who He is. I have given many examples is the past of how to recognize those who do not know, but suffice to say there is only one things we need to do so that others come to us. Lift High the Cross, the love of Christ Proclaim, till all the world, proclaim His sacred Name. Let us go Onward, Christian Soldiers, and with the cross of Jesus going on before, tell everyone what He has done. Let us wave the palms and sing the praise of Him Who died, not just now on this sacred day of perfect praise, not just this week, but everyday, with thousand tongues, sing unto the Lord a New Song – the song of forgiveness from the cross, that shows the Father’s love for all. In His most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

It has been five days now. Where are the palm branches? Where is the joyful singing? Five days ago I said we were to praise Him until the mourn; it does not get more mournful than this. This is Good Friday, where we see with our eyes of faith our Savior stripped of everything He ever had on earth, His clothes, His honor, His dignity, and there He hangs on the cursed tree. Tradition has us celebrating Good Friday at the noon hour because that’s when Jesus was hanging on the cross, stricken smitten and afflicted; see Him dying on the tree. Truly it is well said, if you think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here view it nature rightly, the guilt of sin estimate. Ah, that is a wonderful verse from a well loved hymn, but can we sing and enjoy such hymns while we see Him hanging on the Tree? How can we be singing hymns that we enjoy as our Savior dies for our sins? It seems in bad taste, to be enjoying oneself as another suffers so. It is sort of like a humorous sympathy card; who needs humor when one is grieving? Imagine getting a sympathy card, “Sorry to hear your Savior is dead,” open it up and it says, “Bet your glad it’s not you instead.” Must have been sent by an atheist. So the question still remains – here we are mourning the death of the innocent, can we still praise?
Look at the people, the multitude, the very same ones that praised His triumphant entry just five days ago. All morning long they clamored for His death through crucifixion, and now having finished their dastardly deed, they leave beating their breast. Some say this was an act of contrition, and maybe so. Yet, I find that given the context of what we are seeing here, maybe not. The Sanhedrin was not remorseful in any way, telling Judas to take the money and leave them alone. The people were adamant that Jesus needed to go to the cross and suffer as they kicked Him, spit on Him, pulled His beard as He traveled the Via Delarosa. They jeered and mocked as they observed it all, and it is no stretch of the imagination to feel that they were beating their chest as would the NBA star that just blocked a big shot or a wide receiver after fighting for a first down. We seem to praise ourselves and our big efforts beating our breast saying, “Look at me! See what I did! I’m the MAN!” The Multitude beats their breast saying “Look what we did God, we eradicated the vermin from our midst. We Have obtained the victory!”
Certainly that is not the kind of praise we should be doing today, unless you are telling the Almighty Father to look at what we did, so that He can see His Son die for your sins. Look at your Son hanging there, so that your Justice may be satisfied of His sacrifice, for ours is not even close. We poor wretched miserable sinners can not save ourselves no matter how hard we try, so we turn to the Savior on that cross. We need Him to win the victory. Cheer Him On is what we need to do, but can we praise at this hour, at this time? Is this not out of place? This is our Darkest Woe, the Savior is dying! How can we praise at a time like this?
Yet, there is praise going on as the Son of God and Man dies. It was done by the Centurion. Here, a roman, a gentile, observing all that he has seen, praised God, saying, "Certainly this Man was innocent!" How right he was to not only praise, but praising God, for having seen and heard. I believe He became a Christian right then and there, and understood that this man, this innocent man, must have died for all men to be right with God and that the sacrifice was accepted. He confessed the great confession, “Surly He was the Son of God”
He confessed, and he praised, for he knew that all this Man had done showed the love of God in action; God saving His people. Our savior dies that we might live – oh what comfort this sweet sentence gives! He says it is finished and we fear The Father’s wrath no more. But what to do with Jesus? He has given up the ghost, that we may finish our last act of humiliation to Him. We will place Him in a stranger’s tomb, and wait for the three day promise to be fulfilled, that we may sing joyously again our Savior’s victory over sin death and hell, wining for us the great gift of the salvation of our souls through the forgiveness of sins.
We pray as we wait….

HE IS RISEN! [He Is Risen Indeed, Hallelujah!]
We finally made it to Easter! No more somber tones or questions on whether or not it’s ok to celebrate with songs of praise – Sing away we shall for our King is Risen! [He is risen indeed]
Yet what of our Text today? There is a cause to pause in the celebration. There seems to be an awkward moment in our attempts to invoke long awaited frivolity. The disciples don’t seem to understand. Do you know how awkward this is? To run into a party and not know why everyone is having a good time? It is likened unto a party where a handicapped person comes in seated in a wheelchair and the dancing stops because no one knows how to react. Do we continue dancing and make that person feel bad because they cannot join with us? Do we try to invite such a person to join in, and maybe embarrass him for his condition? Do we just assume that he does not want to dance and thereby just keep going as if he was not even there? How do we celebrate our joy for the risen Christ without offending our fellow neighbors that may not understand?
King David has an answer. He danced naked in front of the ark of God he was so happy that the presence of God was with His people. There was one of his wives though, Michal, who thought his display, was unfitting for the dignity of a King. His reply? “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD -- and I will make merry before the LORD. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.” She had no idea what David was so happy about, nor did she understand the great importance of the presence of God in the midst of His people, but that does not stop King David from worshiping His Lord. We should have the same attitude. Though the world may not understand Who our God is or how it can be that He is risen [He is Risen indeed!] that does not stop us from singing His praise – and we too will become more contemptible than this!
If there are any offended people, we will still do our thing. It is not that we do not care; it is just that we will not stop celebrating the risen Christ nor stop praising His merits that give us forgiveness of sins for the new man in us cannot do otherwise. What we hope is that they will come to the understanding, accept the risen Christ, believe He has died for their sins and rose again for their acceptance before God Almighty. This is where confirmation is so important, and why we will celebrate the confirmation of Donald and Jacob, and Luke and Katie, and Julia this day. It is hoped that on this day they sing the praises of Him Who died, and remember that every Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord that is for me – yes, it is ok to be selfish when coveting God, and opportunity to understand yet again the importance of that cross and this proper reception of Body and Blood coming to me, but most certainly also, an opportunity to tell others what they have learned and grown in the faith understanding.
The disciples did not understand right away the resurrection of our Lord, but they did, and they preached to the far corners of the earth this message. May we celebrate today and ever more the wonderful resurrection of our God, and sing His praises now and evermore. In His most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

HE IS RISEN! [He Is Risen Indeed, Hallelujah!]
I would like to read you 2 quotes; think how you react to them being read in this order. Quote One: I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him. Quote Two: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. The first quote you certainly recognize as the memory verse for the Third Article of the SC. The second is a quote from Isaiah, the first chapter verse 18. Now how can it be that I cannot reason my salvation in Jesus Christ, yet the Old Testament says I’m to reason the understanding that my sins will be wiped away?
Then, as if to confuse the matter further, we have the epistle reading for today which is nothing if not a strange discourse in reasoning and quick-witted understandings. This is understandable, however, because John was writing to a particular group of people. It seemed each apostle traditionally had ministered to a particular group – Peter to the Jews; Paul to the Gentiles; Thomas to the orient; Matthew to the African Continent. It is John who saw it fit to minister to a particular group that would not respect you unless you were developing a rational understanding; logic that is. He was ministering amongst the Gnostics, a group of people prizing human mind above all else. What these people prized was unmitigated logic, one of which they concluded was if God is light, and God is love, and if God’s light shines on everybody, and God loves everybody, then He certainly will not send people to hell, for that would not show true unadulterated love, since His light cannot illuminate hell.
John, of course, had to combat this thinking. True, God is light, but in Him there is no darkness at all. Therefore if a person wants to have darkness in his life, do the things God said “No” to, then he is not of the light anymore. He is still in his sins. Yet, the reasoning is, Christ took care of that because He saved everybody. Yet, says John, He saves us not so we could continue in the darkness, but could live in the light.
Therefore, if we claim to be without sin, then the truth is not in us. We are poor, wretched, miserable sinners. There is no truth in us if we cannot accept this fact, for it is the truth of the flesh. As long as we have this mortal, sinful flesh, it is who we are and what we have become due to original sin. And if we claim to be without sin, apart from God, then we call God a liar, because He says otherwise. He says there is not one righteous, no, not one. There is no escape from our vantage point. We are in the darkness, no matter how much we want to be in the light. We need God to lighten us, through the death of Christ upon the cross, and there is no other way to salvation.
This is why the sacraments are so important. They disperse to us poor miserable sinners the forgiveness and the love of God independent of our actions and deeds. It proves that if anyone does sin, the advocate has given us the forgiveness through His means of Body and Blood, of water and Word, of confession and Absolution. Indeed, our Lord has done all things not leaving up to us to try and make some progress towards earning forgiveness. Therefore I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Him. Thomas wanted to demonstrate his reason and strength to touch and see and believe. When Jesus suddenly appeared, he had all the proof he needed.
We who are here in this day and age have the same ministry as John. Many are looking for a logical God. Yet all the logic in the world will not create faith. It must come from the work of the Holy Ghost that moves the hearer with Word and Sacrament ministry. Hence, this is where you come in. The ministry is done by spreading the Word, not the logic. The ministry is done with earnest pleading not mundane arguing. Come, let us reason together, and understand the God the Father saves us by placing His wrath on His Son, and that the Holy Ghost gives us the opportunity to use this grace to lead others to Him. Christianity need not be logical, just faithful to the Word. In His most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

HE IS RISEN! [He Is Risen Indeed, Hallelujah!]
They say ignorance is bliss; would you agree? I, for one, hardly ever go to the doctor because they always find something wrong with you, don’t they? So if I don’t go to the doctor, then I will not know of the complications that are going on inside. I am blissfully ignorant of any problems going on in there, so I guess I do not have to face them, right? Oh sure, there is the consequence of sickness and even death if treatment is avoided when there really is something life threatening going on inside, but no matter to me – I’m ignorant and happy and I got no worries cause ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also very dangerous. One of the first rules to learn on the streets is never fight an opponent you have no knowledge of. If there is a bully running around wanting to pick a fight, it would be foolish to fight him unawares. You need to know his weakness, his habits, does he go to his right more than his left – every piece of info will give you the advantage to take him down and teach him a lesson. You do not take on an unknown adversary.
I think the Jews, the Scribes and the Pharisees could have used this advice when confronting Jesus. Oh, to be sure they though they knew their adversary quite well. They knew His mother and brothers and sisters; they knew where He traveled all over Jerusalem and the surrounding area. They knew His miracles, for they were vehemently upset at His healing a man on the Sabbath. They knew that Jesus constantly violated the Old Testament observance of the Sabbath – that is, the way they said one should observe it. They knew He had a great following, and a core set of 12 disciples privy to the most intimate of discussions. They even got one to betray his Master. And above all, they just knew that He claimed Himself to be the Son of God, which was the most blasphemous thing of all.
Yes, friends, all this they knew, and yet, as Saint Peter so aptly stated, “Now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance.” They were blissfully ignorant that all that Jesus claimed about Himself was true. He really is the Son of God and the Son of Man. He truly was born of the Virgin Mary. He truly did change the water into wine, healed every disease, made the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and above all else, forgive the sins of the penitent sinners that they may have life, and have it to the fullest. They were ignorant of Christ Jesus not because they did not know of Him, they were ignorant because they did not have faith in Him.
Faith is the key, my friends. For without faith, all you see of Jesus is the outward signs. You see the works and you say, “What a nice young man,” but you can never come to the truth that He is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, He is my LORD! Only through the gift of the Holy Spirit and with the all-powerful Word can you then believe with your heart and confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord. Faith removes the ignorance that is caused by selfish sin, and makes the new man humble to bow before almighty God and desire His will not our own.
This new man also lives for his neighbor, knowing that ignorance is not bliss but can keep the sinner trapped in the darkness of sin and away from the sure promises of Christ Jesus. The New Man desires not the destruction of the wicked, and desires to tell everyone about Who this Jesus really is. Do you have the new man in you? If you are baptized you do! That new man comes forth and desires nothing more than the increase of the kingdom of God. This requires that the Word and Sacraments be preached and taught diligently. Christ is the light that lightens our days and our deeds and there are so many out there that need this message. They are ignorant of the Truth, and they need your help. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His forgiveness. To wonder through this life unawares of Jesus and His forgiveness through the Word and Sacraments is not bliss, it is scary. You have the power to change all that, for you have the Holy Ghost in you to tell everyone about this Jesus of Nazareth, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Resurrected One. You can break the cycle of ignorance in this world, and lead people forth in joy in His name. May we never rest on the fleeting feeling of blissful ignorance, but earnestly desire the knowledge of God. In His most holy name we pray, AMEN.
+ MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. AMEN+

+ AND NOW MAY THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS. AMEN+