Saint Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church
2525 E. 11th Street Indianapolis, IN
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St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

9/22/2019

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Ezekiel 2:8-3:11; Ephesians 4:7-16; St Matthew 9:9-13
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. 

The other Evangelists call him Levi. Named for that priestly tribe of Israelites who were commissioned by the Lord our God to care for the Tabernacle and its accouterments. They were set apart among this nation of priests to belong to the Lord. Taken instead for the requirement of the firstborn. They alone were to handle the holy things. The Ark, the Altar, the Menorah. They alone were commanded to set up the Tabernacle and take it down. 

And set apart for this holy work the Tribe of Levi received no portion of inheritance among the tribes. No land allotted to them. The Lord was their inheritance. To them the Lord gave every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service in the tent of meeting (Nu 18:20-21). 

But this Levite exchanged his inheritance for mammon. Worse than his birthright for a bowl of porridge, this Israelite rejected the Lord, his inheritance, and traded Him for an idol. Rather than set up the Tabernacle, Matthew, called Levi, set up his tax booth. Rather than handle the Holy Things of the Lord, Levi grabbed his hands onto the wealth of his brothers. Rather than receive his inheritance of the Lord through the generosity and gifts of his people, Levi took more than his fair share from them by force. He was a thief, a crook, a traitor.

Scripture knows many thieves. There’s Adam, the “Thief in the Garden,” who swiped the forbidden fruit. There’s King David, the “Thief on the Rooftop,” who caught a glimpse of the wife of one of his loyal soldiers and took her into bed with him. There’s Zacchaeus, the “Thief in the Tree,” and of course the unnamed, “Thief on the Cross.” 

Today you meet another - St Matthew, the “Thief in the Chair.” That’s where Jesus found him, sitting in the tax booth, wealthy from collecting way more than he should have. Levi the Tax Collector, who sat there in darkness and the shadow of death, ripping of his countrymen. This worker who in disobedience and unfaithfulness, hurt many by stealing, negligence, waste, and perhaps even bodily harm. 

What about you? Where do you sit? What have you stolen? Is your heart inclined to the testimonies of the Lord? Or to selfish gain? Do your eyes gaze upon worthless things? What unholy things have your handles handled and done? Like Levi we’ve exchanged our inheritance from the Lord for mammon. We’ve taken part of the life that God has given us and said, “That’s mine. Here, with this part, I can be as discontent and materialist as a pagan.” We’re supposed to own our possessions, but they possess us. We’re lovers of money, not lovers of God. Like Matthew, we are all thieves sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. 

It is precisely into this world of thieves that Jesus has come. The One who saw Matthew sitting there at the tax booth, has seen you sitting there. The Savior of thieves has come to us. To us who try to find our life in collecting and grabbing and taking, the Savior has come, giving out salvation. For free! Satan, that Arch Thief and First Murderer, came with his lies, thieving you to himself, enticing you with that which glitters, filling your minds and your bellies with the rotten stink of his deceptions. It has made you sick. Sick with guilt and shame. Sick with a calloused conscience and stubborn heart. What fruit are you getting from the things of which you are ashamed? The end of those things is death (Rm 6:21). 

But Jesus Christ has come to give life! He has come to snatch you from the jaws of Satan, feed you with the wholesome food of His comforting Word, transform you by the renewal of your mind, and heal your sin-sickness by the medicine of His Absolution. For as it states earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, The people dwelling in darkness have seen a Great Light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a Light has dawned (Mt 4:15-16). 

For God so loved this world of thieves that He send His innocent Son into the world to become One. Jesus, who eats with tax collectors and sinners, so identifies with this world of thieves that He became One in order to save it. Jesus too became the “Thief in the Garden,” the Garden of Gethsemane, where with blood and sweat and prayer He prepared Himself to take the cup of the Father’s wrath from your lips and drink it down Himself. 

Jesus too became the “Thief on the Rooftop,” the top of the Temple, where Satan took Him to tempt Him with the sights below. But while David said, “Yes,” Christ Jesus said, “No.” For Jesus came to ransom you from Satan’s kingdom. 

Jesus too is a “Thief on the Cross,” for He is there swiping away our sin, our greed, our mistrust, our discontent, our anger and resentment and lies, and saying, “These belong to Me now.” And then He dies for them. 

For He redeemed you, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. 

For Jesus is the Good Thief, raised from the dead on the Third Day and is not seated at the Right Hand of God. From thence He will come again like a thief in the right on the Last Day, bringing along for you the gift of a new heaven and a new earth. 

Matthew means, “Gift of God.” But without Jesus he could never have fulfilled his name. Without Jesus he was a thief, a crook, a traitor. But called by Jesus for the work of the ministry, equipped by Him to be an evangelist, shepherd and teacher, he became God’s gift to the world. No longer taking, but giving. No longer sitting there recording numbers on a sheet, but using that pen and ink to write the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest Gift the world has ever been given. No longer finding his life in money, but finding his life in the preaching of the Gospel, that splendid Light that drives away the darkness, which builds up the body of Christ. 
For you are a gift too. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife or worker? Then you are a gift from God to those at home and at work. Wherever God has placed you in life. For He desires mercy and sacrifice. And He is both. He is the Merciful Sacrifice on your behalf, by which He calls you to Himself, that you may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him by serving others in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.

He’s saying to those around you, “Here’s a gift.” But without Jesus you are no gift. Without Jesus you are only a taker, only a grabber, a thief, living only for yourself. But in and with Jesus, thieves become generous givers. Just as Zacchaeus. In and with Jesus, people who by nature say, “That’s mine. I want that,” say instead, “What’s mine is yours.” He leads you in the path of His commandments and you delight in them (Ps 119:35). For in and with Jesus, stubborn grudge bearers become what God desires, merciful, sacrificial, forgiving saints. 

Would you be strengthened in faith toward God and in fervent love toward your neighbor? Then come, follow Christ. For your Divine Physician still eats with tax collectors and sinners. Here He beckons to Table those who are desperately sick and know it. Those who are thieves and know it. He comes to you, “Thieves in the Pew,” and He heals you with the Medicine of Immortality - His own Body and Blood given into death, resurrected, ascended, glorified, now given to you - as the Cure. Here is your Tabernacle and Holy Things. Here is your Lord. Here is your Inheritance. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Trinity 13

9/15/2019

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2 Chronicles 28:8-15; Galatians 3:15-22; St Luke 10:23-37
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

What is the point of preaching? Depends who you ask. To the world preaching is utterly useless and pointless. A trite vestige of days gone by. Enlightened people don’t need to hear of sin and death, the condemnation of the Law, and Jesus’ blood atonement upon the Tree. 

To the devil, real, Christian preaching, the kind of which St Paul, just verses earlier in his letter to the Galatians, says, It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified (Gal 3:1), is sheer agony; the excruciating twisting of the two edged sword of God’s word plunged deep into his scaly hide. It is just a painful reminder of what awaits him at the judgment. 

To your flesh, it lands somewhere between these two. After all, your flesh is an ally of the devil and the world. It continues to despise preaching and the Word of God, foolishly rejecting and condemning it. Beware of such tendencies and dispositions within your own hearts, dear Christians. For this unholy trinity is at war with you, battling for your soul and body.

So, what is the point of preaching? Ask St Paul, he said it pretty clearly last Sunday: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? But they have not all believed the Gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ (Rom 10:13-15, 17). 

Preaching, real, bloody, Christ centered preaching, is for conversion and confession. Jesus says as much in Luke 24 after His resurrection: Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Lk 24:46-47). To Jesus, St Paul, all the holy prophets and apostles, the point of preaching is for repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Faith in Christ lives from the preaching of the Gospel. This faith is expressed in the Christian’s life of prayer, confession, and charity. 

So if this is the point of preaching within the Christian Church, what about the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ which goes on in the Gospels? Ought it not be for repentance and the forgiveness of sins? Ought it not create and sustain faith which is expressed in prayer, confession and charity? Does our Lord not desire all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4)? Indeed He does. Thus His preaching is for this purpose. For repentance and faith. For teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness. Indeed, this is why He came out, as our Lord says in Mark’s Gospel. To preach. 
So it is that today our Lord Jesus is confronted by a lawyer who asks, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Ask a Law question, get a law answer: Love the Lord your God with your all and your neighbor as yourself. That’s right. This is the summary of the Two Tables of the Law. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love is all you need. Except what? You can’t. You don’t. You know you should. Or at least try. 

So like this lawyer, you attempt to make the Law more manageable. More do-able. You attempt to justify yourself. “Hey, I’m not a bad guy. If I was going down the road and saw someone in real, desperate need, I’d help them. I mean, I’m no doctor, but I’d call 911. I’d stay there until the ambulance showed up. But do I have to do this for everyone? I mean, there have got to be some people I can pass by. Other Christians can do their part, right? I can’t be a good Samaritan all day. Just, who is my neighbor?” 

Listen closely, because this is Jesus’ sermon: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.”

Now, is the point of this parable, this preaching, this sermon from Jesus, do more, try harder, you can do it? Is that ever the point of Jesus’ preaching? “If you just good worked yourself a little more, if you loved God more and your neighbor even harder, then you’ll inherit eternal life.” That doesn’t sound right, does it? But that’s how we often hear the parable of the Good Samaritan. This preaching of Jesus to a man who is truly interested to know how he can inherit eternal life. Is it just do the Law harder? The devil, the world, and your sinful flesh certainly want you to hear the Parable that way. 

But this doesn’t fit with the analogy of faith. That you are justified by grace, by the undeserved kindness and favor of the Father toward you because of the bloody, atoning sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ on your behalf. This sort of interpretation of Jesus’ preaching doesn’t fit with the clear words of St Paul: For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an atoning sacrifice by His blood, to be received by faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law (Rom 3:23-25, 28). This is just more of the same preaching that he gives to the Galatians in today’s epistle. This is the clear proclamation of God’s Word of Law and Gospel.  

So, since you’re like the lawyer and are always attempting to justify yourself, always trying to make the Law more manageable, according to your flesh, then hear this preaching of Jesus as the lawyer. You’re not the Samaritan. You’re not even the priest or the Levite. You’re the man in the ditch. In attempting to justify yourself and make the Law more manageable and doable to inherit eternal life, you’ve been pummeled and beaten by the very Law you thought could give life. You fell among the delusion of your old Adam that the Law could save you. And its stripped you of even your most righteous works, which are as filthy rags before the Lord. Its beaten you down, leaving you an eviscerated mess, alone in the ditch of your self-righteousness, dead in your trespasses and sins. 

And in an attempt to climb out, to pull yourself up by your boot straps, and try harder, the priest and the Levite, those representatives of the Law, come strolling by to taunt you. They can’t help you. If a Law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the Law. They cross over opposite your bruised and battered carcass, ineffective and unable to help. 

But by chance a Samaritan comes. Well, not by chance, but by divine design. It just seems like chance from your perspective. He is not encumbered by the false belief that the Law can give eternal life. He knows the real purpose of the Law: to kill you, but also to teach you to be merciful. So having compassion, the Samaritan comes to you, binds up your wounds, cleanses you by the application of oil and wine, His purifying Law and sweet, refreshing Gospel. He hoists you to His own animal, walking, while you ride, taking you to the Inn of His Church. He ordains the Innkeeper to be your caretaker and shepherd, and bestows to him two denarii, enough for two days provision, for He, the Good Samaritan, will be back on the third day to give the full inheritance by grace and mercy. 

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? Do you see it? Have you heard this sermon correctly? What is the point of Jesus’ preaching? You know and believe the Good Samaritan is the depiction of Jesus Christ, your Good Shepherd, who has had mercy upon you, coming down from His Father’s throne, seeing you in your decrepit and miserable state. He pours out upon you the oil and wine of His Word, cleansing you from all unrighteousness, bringing healing to your Law-battered conscience. 

He has carried you in Himself, laden as He was with your carcass, your rotten, festering sin. He was pummeled with the wrath of the Father, beaten bloody by the fists of the Law, which ought to have killed you. But having bestowed the two day deposit to see to your aid and comfort, He comes back on the third day, bringing life and immortality to light, giving you the inheritance of eternal life. 

This you know. But how? Through the preaching of His Word in which He is publicly portrayed before your very eyes as crucified. By repentance and faith. For the purpose of preaching is for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness. Not just the preaching of the Church now, but this is the purpose of Jesus’ preaching which you hear in the Gospels. 

So what about this certain lawyer? Does he see it? Has the Law done its work on him, bringing him to repentance? Has the Gospel of the Good Samaritan raised him from the ditch of death? Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor unto the man who fell among the robbers? How does he answer? The One who showed him mercy. He seems to get it! He is converted by the preaching of Jesus and makes the good confession. The promise of life which was given to Abraham by faith is fulfilled in the One Seed, who is Christ. The Law does not annul this. The Law is a pedagogue, a teacher, until the coming of the One who shows mercy. The Merciful One who in faithful obedience kept the Law for you, loving God His Father with His all, and His neighbor as Himself. All people. All the time. He is the Good Samaritan, who by His all sufficient Sacrifice has redeemed you from under the Law.

So like the certain man in the parable you wake up here in the Inn of the Church, having received mercy and compassion, kindness and love, forgiveness for all your sins, freedom from having to earn your salvation, having to do to get your inheritance, for it is bestowed by grace through faith in the promise. And what do you do? How do you live? You just sang it: “O grant that nothing in my soul may dwell but they pure love alone; Oh may Thy love possess me whole, my joy, my treasure and my crown! All coldness from my heart remove; my every act, word, thought be love” (LSB 683:2). 

And as we are want to do, we’ll sing it again, preaching it to one another during the distribution. For this is what hymns do. They are sermons set to music. By them you preach to one another, to yourselves, and confess before the world and the devil. So listen up to that great Lutheran chorale and sermonic hymn from Paul Speratus: “Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone and rests in Him unceasing; and by its fruits true faith is known, with love and hope increasing. For faith alone can justify; works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living” (LSB 555:9). Again in 851. And again in the last hymn: Where charity and love prevail. To be sure, the Scriptures are constantly preaching good works to you, exhorting you to holy living according to the Law. 

Make no mistake, dear Christians, you are baptized into Christ, buried with Him, but your flesh is a good swimmer and the old man needs to be daily drown in the baptismal waters. The Law does this. Crucifies you anew. Slays and kills you. Always. But raised through those same baptismal waters you have put on Christ and His righteousness and delight in His Law. 

So it not only kills your flesh, it guides your new man. It teaches and admonishes you, as Christ does the lawyer, Go and do likewise. As you heard in the Old Testament reading. You are given to clothe your neighbor, who shares in your flesh and blood, care for them in prayer, through confession of the faith, and in charity. Not only to send them off, but to go with them to Jericho, the City of Palm Trees, to the rest and habitation of the Lord. 

Hence do you always need the Inn of the Church. Its preaching and care. The oil and wine of His Law and Gospel. The Absolution of your wounds. For here are the two denarii of Christ’s Body and His Blood, your heavenly inheritance, by grace. Received in faith they strengthen you in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Christian Funeral: Quinton "Dutch" Heintzelman

9/14/2019

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Job 19:21-27; Ps 121; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; St Luke 2:25-32
In the Name + JESUS. Amen.

He told me to call him Dutch. We stood outside the conference room next to the church office. He was singing with the choir. It was thirty minutes before my ordination and installation. I remember he shook my hand. His strong hands dwarfing mine. I felt like a child. I was a child! He told me to call him Dutch. “Well,” I said, “I guess you can call me Pastor Mierow.” He still held my hand as he looked me over. “So, you’re my Pastor,” he said. “And for that, I love you.” Ugh. “Who am I that I should go to St Peter’s and give God’s Word to this man?” I felt like Moses at the burning bush. I was wholly unequal to the task. 

He was 87 years young. I was less than a third his age! He had grandkids older than me. He probably had ties older than me. Here he stood, the wisdom of age, the honor of service, dignified and kind, just meeting his new pastor. “And for that, I love you.” He didn’t know me from Adam! 

But he did know what he inherited from Adam. Dutch knew his sin. The wages he deserved. For his graduation from General Motors Institute he received honors. For his sacrifice and service in the war, he received gratitude. For his engineering feats at Allison, accolades and a modicum of fame. For his years with the Liederkranz, respect. For his decades of sacrificial love and Christian charity at St Peter’s, immense thanksgiving. 

But to Dutch this all piled up to nothing. Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ, he confessed along with St Paul. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing work of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Ph 3:7-8). 

Dutch knew the wages of his sin meant death. He confessed as much for 73 years here at St Peter’s! For all his accomplishments, all his valor, all his manly sacrifice and service, Dutch knew that before our Lord God, His almighty Father, he was a poor, miserable sinner who justly deserved His temporal and eternal punishment. He knew this. He confessed it. Do you? 

Do know that the Word of God teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own? We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation. Dutch’s parents knew this. Thus did they bring him to the font at Trinity Lutheran Church on March 5, 1921 to be born again, begotten from above by water and the Word in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Rees baptized him. And for that, Dutch loved him. Then he placed him back into the arms of Norton and Laura to raise in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).

For his parents, for all the faithful pastors from that man until know we give thanks. They baptized him. They catechized him. They proclaimed our Lord’s death and resurrection for him. Put His Body broken for Dutch into his hands. Poured Christ’s Blood, shed for him over his lips. They absolved him in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. And for that, he loved them. He loved them because they gave Him the pure Word of Jesus. The Word which endures forever. The Word which marks the body and soul of our dear brother, therefore he shall endure forever. Dutch confesses with Job, and as you just sang, Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

A few months ago when I visited Dutch at Rosegate he was sleeping. I put my hand on his chest, and said, "Herr Heintzelman, wake up." He opened his bright blue eyes, smiled and asked, "Pastor, is it the resurrection?" No, not yet, my friend. 

But for this reason do we loving cover his body today with the funeral pall, representing the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all his sin and joyfully sing, “God’s own child, I gladly say it, I am baptized into Christ.” Dutch is baptized into Christ Jesus, baptized into His death and resurrection. He is united with Christ in a death like His, certainly he shall be united with Him in a resurrection like His. 

Our brother’s baptism is now complete. “Death, you cannot end my gladness.” The Word of the Lord, the words of our Psalm, spoken today at his funeral as we come in go out for the final time with his earthly body, were spoken at Dutch’s baptism as he was first carried in: The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. 

As a commissioned officer in World War II our dear brother in Christ carried a hand written copy of that psalm, Psalm 121, in his cap. Though he never saw combat, Dutch prayed the words of the psalm often. For his friends and fellow countrymen, for his wife, Jean, waiting at home, for himself. Don and I marveled at Dutch’s recitation of several psalms. Begin the first verse and he’d recite the rest from memory. Blessed is the man . . .

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me . . . 

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered . . . 

Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me. 

He could recite them all. Mostly in English. Sometimes auf Deutsch. But Psalm 121 was his psalm. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

At wartime or peace, on the factory floor or at home, with good friends or around the table with his dear family, while examining the many catechumens over the years or praying with his beloved bride before her death, Dutch, by our Lord’s grace and mercy, through the work of the Spirit in the Word, in faith and hope lifted up his eyes to the hill of Golgotha, to the Place of the Skull, to that Hill of Salvation. 

He knew that is where his true Help came from. From the Lord who made heaven and earth. From the Word through Whom all things were made, without Whom nothing was made that is made. From the Word who became flesh, who endured in his flesh Satan’s war and tyranny, who bore in His own strong hands the sting of Dutch’s sin and sin of the whole world, Who, in perfect love and obedience, offered up that frail flesh upon Calvary’s sacred Tree, shedding His precious blood for Dutch. And for all! 

There a real Man, the GodMan, received the wages due Dutch’s sin, the world’s sin. For His compassion, Christ received ridicule. For His love, mockery. For His teaching, taunting and jeering. For His humility, shame. But He did it all, received it all, in His body on the Tree, for Dutch. It is fitting that today is Holy Cross Day. Its why we have the reds on the altar. Today the Church remembers with awe and reverence the glory of our Lord’s beautiful crucifixion. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For all his honors and accolades, awards and accomplishments, Dutch knew true wisdom. The Word of the Cross. The preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is why he loved his faithful pastors. Why he loved this place. For him, as for Jacob, it was the gate of heaven. 

He was our very own Simeon here at St Peter’s. He was righteous and devout, joyfully awaiting the Word of the Lord read and preached, and the Holy Spirit, who called him by the Gospel, and enlightened him with His gifts, kept Dutch together with the whole Christian Church on earth, with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church our brother daily and richly received the forgiveness of all his sins. 

He received the Lord’s Christ here, at this Altar, His true Body and Blood in and under the bread and wine, given and shed for him to eat and to drink for the full and free forgiveness of all his sins. This is why he loved his pastors. And so he sang countless times with Simeon, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel. Simeon was prepared to die. Dutch confessed the same thing every time he came back from the Lord’s Supper. 

After Jean was gathered to our Lord, Dutch was different. My German is useless, but in Spanish there is a phrase, “Mi media naranja.” “My half orange.” It’s kind of like our “my better half.” But I like the half orange image. Cut an orange in half and the part left out starts to shrivel up. It’s not whole. Dutch wasn’t whole anymore. He said he was an old man. His better half, his woman, his love had departed in peace. He told me to call him Quinton. That was fine. He will always be my friend Dutch. But as his pastor I gladly called him Quinton. It was the name his mother gave him. It is the name joined to our Lord’s most Holy Name in his Holy Baptism.

That baptismal Name and its promises of forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation to all who believe was remembered every Invocation and Absolution when Quinton and I had Divine Service at Rosegate. He would still read the liturgy. In fact, Pam, Don, and myself inadvertently got him to read the House Blessing when he first moved into Rosegate. That was good. It calmed him down. The Word of the Lord gave him peace. Be still and know that I am God. 

When I visit the shut-ins I read the Gospel lesson to them and then preach a short sermon. Sometimes with Quinton I would announce, “This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God,” and while I paused to collect my thoughts, he would start expounding on the text. Our sermons were more like conversations. The mutual consolation of the brethren, Luther called it. We’d confess the Baptismal Creed, pray the Vater Unser, and then after I gave him the Holy Communion, before we sang Simeon’s Song, he’d receive the blood of our Lord, sigh, and say, Oh taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8). Then we’d sing to the Lord and confess, “I am now ready to die.”

Nancy, Diana, Pam, Don and Julian, beloved grandchildren, great, and great-great grandchildren, his beloved family, dear friends of Quinton, brothers and sisters in Christ from St Peter’s, the author to the Hebrews writes, But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone (Heb 2:9). Jesus Christ shares in our flesh and blood, even as Quinton is flesh and blood, so that through His suffering and death He might destroy the one who as the power of death, that is, the devil. 

Behold, He is risen from the dead, freeing Quinton from eternal death. For He who drank the cup of suffering and woe, who tasted death for Quinton, has given him the cup of salvation and the joy of everlasting life. He now rests from his labors and has received the victor’s crown of gold. For the Lord kept him from all evil, He kept Quinton’s life, and has given him a blessed end, graciously taking him from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven. Here, within the communion of the Church, the place he loved, you shall find strength to meet the days ahead in the assurance of a holy and certain hope and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with Quinton, Jean, and all those who have departed in the faith. 

In a few moments we shall loving place the body of Quinton - father, Opa, friend, and brother in Christ - into God’s acre. We do so in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself. Our Lord keeps his life. The good work our Lord began in Quinton on March 5, 1921 is now complete. His baptism is complete.  Our Lord will keep his going out and his coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 
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Trinity 12

9/8/2019

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Isaiah 29:17-24; Romans 10:9-17; St Mark 7:31-37
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And it was good. It was kalos. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host (Ps 33:6). And it was good. It was kalos. By His Word He separated the seas, formed the dry, caused vegetation to sprout forth. And it was good. It was kalos. By His Word He scattered the stars, placed the sun and moon, created swarms of living creatures on land, sea, and air. And it was good. It was kalos. 

On the sixth day He created man. This He did intimately, privately. He stooped to the dust and got His hands dirty. He formed man from the ground, fashioned him from earth and breathed the breath of life into him. And it was good. It was kalos. He gave man and woman ears perfectly attuned to His Word. Tongues free to sing His praises and confess His holy Name. Hands to work the ground and serve one another in love. Everything was in perfect order, right alignment, and in accordance with the Lord’s holy will and Word. It was kalos. 

But it was not long before Satan wormed his way into the goodness of God’s perfectly ordered creation. And unlike the Lord God who does all things well, Satan only does one thing well. He destroys. He creates nothing. He tears down, he breaks, he disjoints the perfect union of God’s good creation. He pollutes the waters, sows tares among the wheat, turns beast against beast. 

And where he encounters ears attentive to the Word of the Lord he seeks to stop them up. Where he hears lips and tongues singing the praises of the Lord and confessing, he desires nothing more but to silence them. He cripples hands and palsies limbs. He destroys the goodness of God’s creation. This is the one thing Satan does well. 

Behold the deaf mute in today’s Gospel. Behold the devil’s work. Ears blocked. Tongue chained. Eyes sad. A man shut down, closed up. Doomed. The devil is not creative, but he is effective. Because what he did to Adam and Eve and the goodness of God’s creation, what he did to the poor creature of God, he has done to all of humanity. 

For we have suffered at the effects of his malice and envy. Not only as recipients of aging eyes and aching limbs, but as willful accomplices to his deception and destruction. We have shut our own ears to the preaching of the Lord’s Word, obstinately hearing and refusing to learn it. Fighting against the truth, seeking to submit the Word to our own reason and strength. We bite our own tongues in silence when it comes to speaking kindly to friend and foe, to confessing our Lord’s holy Name, the truth of His saving Word, and prayer. 

Our minds are twisted with thoughts only of self. Our fists are tight around what we have, closed to helping others. Even our hearts are shut to certain people. Look at the deaf man. Look at yourself. Look around everywhere. Ever since the devil slithered up to an open-eared Eve, he’s done his thing very well. Man shut down. Man closed up. God’s good creation made crooked, relationship with Him put out of joint. 

Repent. You are not only a victim. You have been complicit. Call upon the Name of the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. Call upon the Name of the Lord in prayer and praise and thanksgiving.

For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call if they do not believe? And how do you believe if you have not heard? And how can you hear without a preacher? 

Today the Preacher comes. Into the broken, twisted, disjointed creation, comes the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth. The Word eternal, throned on high, Word that brought to life creation. And He encounters a man ensnared in the devil’s work. A man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. And as it was in the beginning, the Lord took the man aside, privately, intimately, and He got His hands dirty in the restoration of His good creation. He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed, that is, He breathed, He exhaled, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 

He spoke plainly. Not only intelligibly, so that others could understand. He spoke orthos, as in orthodoxy. He spoke rightly. The Word of the Lord struct his ear, moved from his ear to his heart, and from his heart to his lips. He spoke orthodoxly. He confessed. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Jesus took that which was out of joint and aligned it rightly. He took that which was crooked and made it straight. The man who was shut down and ruined, was restored. Not only in ears and tongue, but his whole being, body and soul. By His Word, our Lord put him in right relationship with His God and Father. He justified him.

For the devil may do his thing well, but the astonished crowds in our Gospel said of Jesus, “He does all things well.” He does all things kalos. 

They spoke too soon. They really had seen nothing yet. For He is the Word that came from heaven to die, to be crucified for our salvation. On the sixth day, that Good Friday, God recreated man. As Man He stooped low, into the dust of your sin, the thorny ground of the curse, and got His hands dirty. Those fingers full of wax were stretched out and nailed to the Cross. Those wounds are healing for your stingy hands. 

He may have touched the man’s tongue with spit, but when Jesus went to the Cross, His tongue was parched and dry, sticking to the roof of His mouth, as He thirsted for your righteousness and the healing of your unkind tongue. He may have looked up to heaven and said, “Be opened,” but when His hour came to save the world, His cries to the Father fell on deaf ears, so that heaven would be opened to you and your prayers be heard. 
All His bones were out of joint, even as you were disjointed, separated from the Father by sin and death. And His head drooped in death, as He was buried and shut up in a tomb, because that is what it took to atone for your mean thoughts and closed hearts. 

But that same head was lifted from the bed of the grave, bringing your reconciliation and healing, your restoration and justification. He has come to you, deaf and mute, twisted in on yourselves by sin, broken and out of joint. And taking you aside, privately to the baptismal font, He stuck His fingers in your ears when the Word was spoken: In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. There, by water and the Word, your tongue was loosed to confess orthodoxly, to sing His praises and confess His holy Name. There heaven was opened to you that you may call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved. For faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ. 

This morning He again thwarts the work of the devil, as He did at your Baptism. For He sends you preachers, who in His stead and by His command, say to you, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, and your ears are opened and attentive to hear again that you are forgiven completely. Those words recreate you, restore you, realign you into a right relationship with God. And again, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened, and your mouth is opened to receive from His cup the Blood that revives your faith, rekindles your love for Him, and enlivens you to open your heart to be rightly ordered with those around you. Indeed, He has done all things kalos. 

But you don’t speak too soon, either. For you’ve seen nothing yet. For the devil desires nothing more than for your soul to be imprisoned in hell and your body to be separated from God forever. So how great will it be when Jesus comes again and your grave is opened up and your dead ears hear His voice and you come forth. And your dead tongue moves again and shouts for joy forever. Then we shall say, He has done all things well. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 
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Trinity 11

9/1/2019

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Genesis 4:1-15; Ephesians 2:1-10; St Luke 18:9-14
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. 

Cain was the darling of the world. His name meant, “Gotten,” as in I have gotten a gift from the Lord. He wasn’t merely Adam’s firstborn, he was the world’s firstborn. The first baby boy the world ever set eyes upon. His was the first belly-button to be tickled. His little piggies were the first to be counted. His little arms were the first to be lifted up as he called to Adam, “Dad, up-downs.” Later, when he put on his Avengers pajamas and said, “Dad, I’m Hulk smash,” he had Daddy’s undivided attention. When he said, “Dad, look, no hands,” dad was already looking. And when it came time to go fishing, it was just him and dad.

But one day it was announced that he would be a brother. His mother gave birth to a son named, Abel, which means, “Weak One.” With a name like that, Abel would certainly need his older brother to be his protects and keeper. And what a change it meant for the world’s darling. Now when Cain said, “Daddy, look at me,” he might have to wait awhile because dad was also looking at little brother. No longer would he be the sole apple of his father’s eye, because now his father had two apples. No longer would all eyes be on him.

But Cain’s world would really change when one day these two brothers went to God’s altar to pray. In fact, it would crash. Privileged Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. But Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. “Look at me and my offering, Father in heaven,” Cain thought. 

But God had eyes only for Abel and his offering. In fact, He couldn’t take His eyes off of Abel’s offering because it was offered with the only faith that matters to God: faith in His promise that He would be merciful to Him by sending His Son to atone for his sins. 

Cain stood there with a lot of produce, but no faith like that. He knew how to look religious, this child of privilege, but there was no faith and trust in God’s promise. So the Lord had regard to Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. 

Cain felt the way you feel when someone who is your equal gets praised and lauded. You get envious and resent it. And it turns you into a killer. Of course, as a refined sinner, your murder is done more respectably than Cain with a stone in the field. You do it behind people’s backs with words. But its still cold-blooded murder in God’s eyes. So, Cain rose up in envy against his brother Abel and killed him. From the world’s darling to the world’s first murderer. Two brothers went up to pray, but only one came home alive. And it wasn’t Cain. 

Jesus tells a parable. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. It’s Cain and Abel all over again. One who thought of himself as “God’s gift” and a weak sinner crying for mercy. One is the darling of the religious world, privileged, a Pharisee, whose prayer is a lot like Cain’s. “Look at me, God.” “Lord, I just wanna thank You for making me, me.” “Lord, I just wanna thank you that I’m not like other men, especially like this weak one, this backslider behind me,”

But God didn’t have eyes for the Pharisee. For the Pharisee and his offering God had no regard. But for the weak one, the tax collector, the one who had his head down, beating his breast, the Lord had regard. Indeed, his prayer was rather short, it lacked religious sizzle, but God loved it. He couldn’t take his eyes off of him because his heart was full of faith that God would be merciful the way He promised to be merciful - by sending His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Two brothers went up to pray, but only one went home alive - justified by faith - and it wasn’t the Pharisee. 

God has heard your prayer for mercy this morning and answered by absolving you. You will go home justified, alive in Christ, declared righteous for the sake of another by faith. Aren’t you glad? Imagine if you had to justify what you’ve been? How would you justify all the blood that’s on your hands, blood that cries out to God for vengeance? How would you justify all the small and heartless things your envy has driven you to do? No one else knows about it, but God saw it.

How in the world would you justify your selfish prayers, your constant demand for attention and the “look at me” life that’s so wearying to others? You couldn’t do it. It would cause a crisis, for your hope of eternal life, your world would come crashing down. 

But instead, you will go home justified, raised up and exalted. Because into our lives has come a birth announcement. A fulfillment of Abel’s sacrifice, an answer to the tax collector’s prayer. A Brother has been born who will be our Keeper and our Savior, our Mercy and our Propitiation. For a Virgin named Mary hath gotten a Man with the help of the Lord, a Man who is the Lord. A Firstborn Son for the world that was name, “Jesus,” God’s darling, for He was born to save His people from their sins, to justify the ungodly. God so strong, yet God made the “Weak One.”

God with a belly button to be tickled, so that later a spear could be rammed next to it. God with piggies to be counted, so that they could grow big and then be nailed to a Cross. God with little arms to be lifted up, so that later in His earthly life they might be stretched out wide on the Cross. This is God’s way of treating a world of sinners as precious darlings. God with blood coursing through His veins. Blood that would be shed because of envy. Your envy too that He is God and you are not. But Blood shed that doesn’t not plead to the skies, but for your pardon cries. 

God the Father had regard to Jesus and the offering of His faithful and perfect life. And because to it, you will live eternally. The Father can’t take His eyes off of His Son and the offering of His Blood upon the Altar of the Cross. 

Jesus, the Firstborn of all creation, is the at the center of His Father’s universe. But He didn’t come into the world praying, “Look at Me, Father.” He came to do what it took so that the Father would have eyes for you and have regard for you, despite all your sins. For He is your Brother forever, not only in the flesh, but by His Spirit through your rebirth from above. He is your Protector and Keeper from the threatening perils of your sins and God’s righteous anger against them. One Man went up to pray, the whole world goes home justified. That includes you.

For Cain deserved death, yet God had mercy on him and put a mark on him lest nay who found him should attack him. You deserve death for your sins. Indeed, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved you, made you alive together in Christ. And He marked you with His own sign, the sign of the holy cross, in which you were marked when you were baptized into the death of God’s Lamb and Christ your elder Brother became your Keeper. 

In Abel’s day the ground opened its mouth to receive the blood of vengeance. But it is a new day, the day of the new creation, Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed and is risen. And because of it the Father considers you all sons, a whole Church of firstborns, adopted by His the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward you in Christ Jesus, so that you, His Church, are privileged to be the “ground” that opens it mouth and receives the Blood of mercy, forgiveness and life. 

For the One who humbled Himself has exalted you and raises you up with Him and seats you with Him in the heavenly placed in Christ Jesus, who together with + the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and unto the ages. Amen.
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Martyrdom of St John the Baptist

8/29/2019

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Revelation 6:9—1; St Mark 6:14-29
​Lutheran High School Chapel
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

Herod was a pervert. He committed adultery with his brother Philip’s wife. She was also his niece. History intimates that he was more than “just friends” with Caligula, if you know what I mean. Caligula, in case you forgot, was the Roman Caesar who lived incestuously with his sister, raped brides at their weddings, executed parents in front of their children and laughed about it, had playwrights burned alive on stage, and tortured people as dinner entertainment. Herod, that rotten apple, hadn’t fallen far from the poisoned tree. 

But his sexual dalliances were only the beginning of his moral decrepitude. He embezzled money and incurred a substantial debt with wealthy officials. He cooperated with Claudius to assassinate Caligula, after which he was appointed tetrarch in Judea and Samaria. He martyred St James, the son of Zebedee, and when he saw that it pleased the people, he had St Peter imprisoned. He was a self-righteous, bombastic, arrogant tyrant who surrounded himself with sycophants. Acts 12 details his quick demise: An angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last (Acts 12:23). 

But then there is St John. The baptizer. The Forerunner of the Messiah. The Voice crying in the wilderness. He didn’t have a wife. Or children. Or a home. He lived in the desert of Judea and ate insects and wild honey growing up. He dressed in rough fashion reminiscent of Elijah in whose spirit he served, turning the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers. His life prepared him for a ministry that lasted at most a year and a half. 

He called Pharisees a brood of vipers, warned of the impending doom to come even while the axe was laid to the root of the tree. He kept company with tax collectors, prostitutes, and traitors, repentant sinners all. He was jailed for daring to criticize Herod, to speak truth to power, as they say, by preaching that it was not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife as his own. 

Imagine that. A Christian preacher unafraid to tell the ruling authorities that their ideology about marriage and sexuality was wrong. That it was not in step with God’s Word. Calling them to repentance. John didn’t toe the party-line. He wasn’t a Republican or a Libertarian. He had no political allegiances at all. He wasn’t polite. Or nice. In fact he did one thing and one thing only: he pointed to Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He decreased, in every possible way, while the Son of God increased. 

Today he’d be censured, shouted down, and rioted against. He wouldn’t be allowed on Facebook, Twitter, or college campuses. He’d have some pretty choice words for church bodies who call themselves “Christian,” even “Lutheran” yet deny the true Gospel at every turn, evening publicly voting against the clear words of Jesus Christ as the exclusive way of salvation. 

But they were different times. They were the beginning of the end times. And St John didn’t lose his business or his friends or his 501c3 status. He lost his head, his life. For Jesus’ sake. And thus he kept it for eternal life (Jn 12:25). 

For the time came for the greatest born of women to be wicked decapitated in prison to slake the bloodlust of a murderous and cruel adulterous and her equally sinister daughter. St John died to please the pompous promise of a duped royal ruled by his sexual appetites. His severed head was served up on a silver platter for a morose dinner party. His disciples came and took away the body and buried it. Then they went to Jesus. 

That is what John taught them to do. Go to Jesus. That is what he still proclaims to you to do. Go to Jesus. He is now among those souls beneath the altar, slain for the Word of God and the martyrdom that they bore. He cries out, How long, O Lord? He has been given the white robe of Christ’s own righteousness and told to wait a little while longer. But still he preaches to you, Go to Jesus. 

He preaches from the baptismal font in your church, standing there each Sunday, immovable and resolute (unless yours is on wheels), calling you to repentance; to return to your Holy Baptism. Your sins may not be as heaven crying as Herod’s, but you too have broken the Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery, but shall lead a chaste and decent life in all that you say and do. Pornography. Lust. Any form of sex outside of one man and one woman marriage. These are all just as wicked. Just as unlawful. What are willing to forego for the sake of that good confession? Your job? Your friends? What are you willing to loose for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Your head? Your life? 

Indeed you have the One whom St John preached and pointed and baptized. You have the Lamb of God upon whom all your sins were laid. He is the One who became the adulterer, the pervert, the sexually immoral, the fornicator. Jesus became Sin. And because He would not perform for Herod, He would not dance to his sadistic drum, He was handed over to receive in His body the bloodlust of disgusting men. He was executed as a criminal while enduring the prison wrought by your sins. He is the Righteous and Holy Man, but He did not keep Himself safe from your perversions and lusts, but took them into His side and killed them. He is your Head who was cut off from the land of the living and was laid in the tomb.

But the Father avenged His blood by raising Him from the dead. Go to Him. For He now comes to you. He calls to you, not to dance salaciously before Him, but to purify you, cleansing you from all unrighteousness by water and His Word in Holy Baptism. There He gives you the white robe of His perfection and tells you to wait. Wait upon His Word. Hear Him gladly. Receive not half, but the whole of His kingdom, by grace. He even serves you in love and honor at His Supper. Not the grotesque buffet of Herod, but the beautiful and bounteous meal that is His Body given for you and His Blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. By these are you purified in body and soul, heart and conscience. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 
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Trinity 10

8/25/2019

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Jeremiah 8:4-12; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; St Luke 19:41-48
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. 

Our Lord once drew near to a funeral procession and saw the tears of a widow weeping over the dead body of her only son. But Jesus had a Word for her. Do not weep. And then He raised the boy from the dead and gave him back to his mother (Lk 7:11-17). Jesus once drew near to a house of Jairus and saw his tears. His twelve-year old daughter had died. So He had a Word of the parents and family. Do not weep. And He took the little girl’s hand and raised her up (Lk 8:49-56). When they led Jesus to the Cross, He was followed by a large group of women who were weeping and wailing about the brutal treatment and His impending death. Somehow He mustered the strength to utter a Word to them: Do not weep (Lk 23:28). 

This is what Jesus came to do. To draw near to broken hearts and heal them. To see the tears of man and wipe them away. To see the unspeakable sorrow of life in this world and bring joy into it. So something very odd is happening in this morning’s Gospel. Jesus draws near to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. As He drew near to the Holy City atop a borrowed donkey the crowds acclaimed Him as the Messiah with shouts of praise and adoration. But as He drew near He weeps. God cries. And we see what makes Him cry: no faith in Him. His Word and His peace not received. Love rejected. 

You would have thought that Jerusalem would know the things that make for peace. Jerusalem literally means “City of Peace.” It is were Melchizedek, King of Salem and Priest of God Most High, brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram. They should have known the things that make for peace. Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow and crane keep the time of their coming, but God’s people do not know the things of the Lord. They refused them. 

Things like Jesus’ Word. Things like Jesus’ blood being shed. Things like a wooden Cross where He was lifted up, suspended between heaven and earth. Things like the nails that would go through His hands and feet. Things like a crown of thorns. Those are the things that make for peace between God and man - the innocent suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. But they refused to believe. 

If the city spurns the Pax Domini, the things of Jesus’ peace, all that’s left for them is the peace that the Romans bring. The Pax Romana. And boy do they know how to bring it. As by Babylon at the time of Jeremiah, the Lord God would use Rome to discipline His wayward people. So Jesus warns them. In about 40 years - in AD 70 - a Roman general named Titus would draw near and bring his version of peace. The things that brought Roman peace were thing like the cutting off of Jerusalem’s food supply so that thousands of Israelites would die or resort to eating rats, or worse. Things like forcing weak, hungry Israelites to bury their own dead so that they would call into the graves themselves, half alive. Things like the alleys of Jerusalem clogged with thousands of corpses. Things like gigantic piles of dirt ringing the ways of the city; handy for placing cross to hang the bodies of those who tried to escape. All this happened to Jerusalem in AD 70 because they did not find their peace in Jesus. They did not know the Day of their Visitation. 

The Last Day will be much worse. No wonder Jesus weeps. 

And here we are in the Year of our Lord 2019 still all messed up, still trying to find peace outside, apart from Jesus. There you are again, trying to justify that naughty thing you did. That’s not finding your peace in Jesus. There you are again, thinking you can handle that guilt of yours by yourself. That’s not finding your peace in Jesus. There you are again, frustrated and angry in a world that is unfair and your always venting. But that’s not finding your peace in Jesus. There you are again, nursing your bitterness, stewing in resentment, and giving God the silent treatment, biting your tongue in prayer. None of these things make for true peace. Rather they are the things that destroy a person and can make God weep.

Repentance is needed. Today is the Day of your Visitation. Today you have a chance to do what Jerusalem never did. Today is not the day to say, “I was baptized, therefore I can lie, cheat, steal, hate, dishonor my parents, lust, and live any old way I want.” Today is not the day to say, “Of course I’m in. I’m Lutheran.” Today is the day to repent of your mediocre, half-baked repentance. Today is the day to confess your lack of faith and trust in Jesus. Repent, but do not weep. Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. Call to God and the Lord will save you. For Jesus draws near not only to warn you in love, but to bring to you a Word of Peace and absolve you. 

Do not weep. Jesus draws near in mercy and pity and reminds you of the things that He did to make for your peace. There He was upon the Cross, taking the naughty things you’ve done into His hands and feet so that the nails might be driven through them so that you may be justified. There He was, burdened with the guilt of sinners on His bloody back and handling it for you by carrying it to the Cross emptying it of its power to accuse. There He was, treated unfairly, getting the silent treatment from God His Father, unresponsive to His prayers, yet He doesn’t vent or take it out on sinners. Instead He takes your anger, your bitterness, your resentment right into His pierced side and buries it. As it is written, Now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the Blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who's broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility, that He might reconcile us to God through the Cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph 2:13-16). 

Stop hunting for a scapegoat on which to pin your troubles. You have something better. Yours is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

Do not weep. There is no need to. For once there was a funeral procession and you men were the dead sons. But Jesus drew near and baptized you, washing you with water and His Word, raising you from the dead, giving you back to your Mother the Church, saving you from eternal wailing, never to die again. 
You women were also once dead in your trespasses and sins, but Jesus drew near and baptized you, giving you His sweet Word of absolution, His peace which surpasses all human understanding. 

For you were all once dead in your sins, but Jesus drew near to you, visiting you as your Bishop and Shepherd, in your Holy Baptism. Your baptism, which puts you to death with Christ and buries you with Him, so that sin is dead and no longer reigns in your mortal body. But it also raises you with Him, by His Spirit, to join you as a living member of His Body the Temple, which was destroyed, but raised, never to die again. 

For Jesus entered the Temple and drove out those who sold, for He had to make room for Himself, the Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Of course He scattered the sacrificial animals. What are those animals compared to Him, God’s final and complete sacrifice for your sins. Of course He overturns the tables, for He had a better Table in view. One that He has set up in your midst and call you to this morning. One upon which are the things that make for your peace. Here your High Priest brings our bread and wine, His Body and Blood, blesses you as Abram of old, and makes you His new Jerusalem. 

Thus do you, like the people in the Temple, hang on His life-giving, death defying Word. You hold it sacred, unafraid of the final judgment, for you have his Word that you who share in the death of Christ by faith also shall share in His resurrection. At the Last He shall come to your grave and raise you from your grave, wipe away every tear from your eyes, and have a Word for you: Do not weep. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Trinity 9

8/18/2019

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2 Samuel 22:26-34; 1 Corinthians 10:6-13; St Luke 16:1-9(10-13)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

Jacob was a shrewd man, a trickster. Shrewd men take advantage of a situation in order to get themselves a benefit. And no one did this better than Jacob. When he saw his exhausted brother Esau come in from the field, he took advantage of the situation, and sold him a bowl of porridge for his birthright. Shrewd. 

When his father Isaac was old and blind, he took advantage of the situation and with the help of his mother disguised himself as his hairy brother, covering his hands and arms with goatskins and receiving the blessing intended for Esau. Shrewd. 

When his rival and father-in-law Laban was away sheering sheep, Jacob took advantage of the situation and fled with his wives and children back to Canaan. His wife even learned from her husband and nabbed her father’s idols before they left. Shrewd. 

You might think that God would be ashamed to associate with such a shrewd man. We can understand God being the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, well, if we forget the shrewdness of those men, too, that is. But the God of Jacob? The Heel Grabber? The Trickster? Yet, God is not at all ashamed of this trickster, whom He chose as patriarch. He is even happy over and over again in Holy Scripture to call Himself the God of Jacob. Nor is He ashamed to call His chosen people Israel, My Servant Jacob. Hear the Word of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah, But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, My friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners,saying to you, “You are My servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off;” fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Is 41:8-10). The Lord God is not ashamed to be associated with the shrewd. 

And perhaps this helps us a bit to understand today’s parable about the Shrewd Steward. Even though the Shrewd Steward’s tactics get all the attention, this is really a parable about the mercy of God the Father. In this it is like the parable just before this one, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which is really a parable about the Forgiving Father. For in both, vividly pictured for you, is the mercy of God the Father. What is God’s mercy like? It is like a father whose son is brash enough to ask for his inheritance early, yet the father gives it. And then the son squanders it in self-indulgent living. 

But what was squandered was more than just some money. He probably got his inheritance in land, which means he was squandering generations of his ancestor’s blood, sweat, and toil. He was squandering his father’s name and reputation in the community. It brought him shame and suffering. It was the father who was really being abused and squandered. 
And yet, when his tramp of a son comes to his senses he relies on his only hope for the future - his father. But the father doesn’t so much as wait for one syllable to come out of his son’s mouth in order to run to him, embrace him, and dress him up in the finest attire for a party. 

Today’s parable is linked to that one. The Rich Man in today’s parable is God the Father. But this time its not about His Son, but about His Manager, really His Steward. And this Steward was accused of squandering the possessions of the Rich Man. He needed to be fired. Really He needed to be put in prison or even killed. But He isn’t. Instead He’s told to turn in the books. Show me the receipts. 

But this shrewd Steward was so shrewd he made Jacob look like an amateur. He took advantage of the situation to get Himself a benefit. Just like the pig-feeding prodigal, the steward decided what to do. He did what the Prodigal Son did: He relied on the Rich Man’s mercy as His only hope for the future. By cutting the debt of the poor He was not only generating goodwill for Himself, but He was making the Rich Man look like a hero in the debtor’s eyes. He relied on the fact that the Rich Man would not expose Him and take back the discount, but would honor it, knowing that the Rich Man like nothing better than to be known as being generous and gracious and compassionate. 

We wouldn’t have praised the Steward We would have seen nothing good in this and had him thrown in prison for fraud. But the Rich Man stands for God the Father. And we’re nothing like Him. And that Rich Man does something that shocks us, He commends the dishonest Steward for His shrewdness. Not for His dishonesty, but for His shrewdness. Even though He is being used, He doesn’t mind, because it makes Him appear to others as He really is - generous. 

With this in mind, maybe now you begin to understand the first reading: With the merciful You show Yourself merciful; with the blameless man You show Yourself blameless; with the purified You deal purely, and with the crooked You make Yourself seem tortuous. You save a humble people, but Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down (2 Sam 22:26-28). You hopefully get a better picture of what St Paul means concerning the plight of the Israelites. They grumbled. God sent the serpents. He commanded the destruction of 23,000 in one day. Yet He is faithful. And He desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hosea 6:6; Mt 9:13). 

This is a difficult parable to understand. But knowing all these things, this parable is easier to understand when you see the Shrewd Steward as a picture of Jesus. Except for the dishonesty they have a lot in common. The Shrewd Steward was given authority by the Rich Man. All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus by His Father. The Shrewd Steward made Himself a friend of the poor by cutting their debt. Jesus made Himself the Friend of Sinners by canceling the debt of the poor in spirit. And just like the Shrewd Servant, Jesus’ actions took advantage of God the Father’s desire and delight to be known as merciful and gracious. And He did whatever it took for you to benefit from His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy. 

And you need it. For God has given you many opportunities to be shrewd, to make friend for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, and make God your Father look good and merciful, but you’ve blown it. God placed you there in the midst of your family, with brothers and sisters, cousins and in-laws that fight, hold grudges, and speak ill of each other when their not around, so that you might imitate your Father and be merciful and forgiving and gentle with no strings attached. But you’ve blown it. 

God placed you there in the midst of children and grandchildren who are ungrateful, rude, self-absorbed, so that you might take advantage of your chance to show them unconditional love and make God your Father look good. And you’ve blown it. God has placed you in that workplace where you are treated unfairly, where people take advantage of you and are nasty to you, so that you might shrewdly do what no one else would - bear it patiently and pay them back with kindness. Instead, you’ve plotted payback. 

When it comes to manifesting God the Father’s rich mercy in this world, He cannot praise and commend us. Its been too lacking. Called to account, charges could be brought and we ought to not only be fired, but abandoned to the prison of hell forever. 

But you have a Savior. A Savior who took advantage of your deep need for a Savior. He’s a Savior that is shrewder than Jacob, shrewder than any quick thinking manager. A Shrewd Savior, the Ultimate Trickster, who took advantage of the situation at the fullness of time, being born of woman, born under the law, to shrewdly do what it takes to save you from sin and everlasting death. 

Jesus the Trickster took on flesh and came into the world to save humanity from the devil, who was hungry, not for a bowl of soup, but to swallow down all humanity in the jaws of death. So Jesus shrewdly took advantage of the situation to gain benefit for you and glory for His Father. Grabbed by His heal in death for your sins He crushed the skull of the devil, defeated death and the grave, and came forth on the Third Day to bring you the victory. Talk about shrewd!

Jesus the Trickster was the shrewd Steward of God’s wrath against sinners. He took advantage of the situation upon the Cross by covering Himself with all your sins - the “respectable” one as well as the big hairy ones - and being your Substitute He bore all of God’s anger against them until there was nothing left for you. That’s shrewd. 

And when Jesus had the chance to manage the debt you owe God, He didn’t flee, He didn’t merely discount some of them, but He went to the Cross to bear all of it, both the debt you have inherited and the debt you have accrued - so that He could cancel it completely, nailing it to the Cross, the receipted signed with His Blood, bought and paid. 

Now He calls you to Himself, to deliver this triumphant victory. Come, you, His Master’s debtors, not to where you bring your baths of oil, but where He gives to you. Bathing you with water and His Word, anointing you with His Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. Come, not where you will be told that you owe some what, but where He invites you to receive wheat. Wheat that is His Body along with wine that is His Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Here the God of Jacob honors the shrewd dealing of His Son. Here the Rich Man makes you rich. Here He commends you and welcomes you into the eternal dwellings. 

In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Trinity 8

8/11/2019

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Jeremiah 23:16-29; Romans 8:12-17; St Matthew 7:15-23
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. 

In fairy tales forests are often dangerous places. They're dark and scary. They're filled with witches and monsters and people who would do you harm. So its a good thing that Little Red Riding Hood had a mother who warned her about the dangers of the forest. She lovingly warned the little girl before she headed through the forest to visit her sick grandmother, so that she’d get there safely. “Beware of strangers and stay on the path.”

But Little Red didn’t listen. She didn’t pay attention to her mother’s word and because of it, people died. While in the dangerous forest she met a deceitful wolf - one who appeared nice and friendly. He asked her where she was going and she answered. So he told her to go pick some flowers to take to granny. While she did the wolf went to grandmother’s house and ate her. But he was hungry for more. So he dressed himself up in grandma’s pajamas and waited for that disobedient and gullible little girl to arrive. And then he ate her too. 

But your life is no fairy tale. You live in the real world. And the real world is a real, fear-filled, scary place, not just in the forests, but everywhere. Adam’s sin and your sins have made it that way. Transformed that beautiful garden into a thorn-filled forest, complete with beasts and monsters. A world filled with darkness and death where that wolf Satan lurks in order to deceive you, mislead you into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Eventually he wants to kills you and bring you to eternal ruin. 

It is the good and gracious will of God, then, that the Church has Jesus to warn her about the very real dangers of this world. Not trans-fats and gun violence as emphasized by the recent ELCA convention. Beware of false prophets, Jesus says, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. For those who have received the Spirit of adoption as sons fruit usually connotes character and virtue, faithful works done in love for the neighbor. Bringing a basket of goodies to grandma’s house when she’s sick. 

But for the sheep’s skin clad prophet the fruit is not merely what you see, but particularly what you hear. For false prophets seem so nice on the outside. I’m not talking about the blatant deniers of Christianity, the avant-garde new atheists, the purveyors of false religions. Those are wolves in wolves’ clothing. You see them and run. False prophets come from within. He’ll probably seem nice on the outside. He might even wear a clerical collar. He’ll probably be called “Reverend.” And he’ll certainly talk a lot about Jesus. 

Oh yes, false prophets talk a lot about Jesus. Heretics in the Church have always appealed to Scripture. Even the prince of darkness, that big bad wolf, when he wanted to tempt the Son of God he said, “For it is written,” and misquoted Psalm 91. Even if he holds out Scripture, be careful. Test what is offered against the rest of Scripture and you will soon discover if he is peddling a strange Jesus. 

Beware, our Lord says to you today. He knows your deadly tendency to listen to your heart, rather than to His Word. He knows how impressed you can be with external appearances, with personality and charisma of a preacher. Pay careful attention to what comes out of his mouth. Jeremiah, that depressed prophet of Israel, constantly warned the people, but they refused to listen. St Paul warns the Christians in Galatia, Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed (Gal 1:8). Jesus says, Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Beware. He knows how much your heart hungers for a false Jesus, a fairy-tale Jesus. One who is more concerned with your short-term happiness in this life than your long-term joy in the life of the world to come. He knows how much your heart hungers for a fairy-tale Jesus. One who will just wink at your sin, condone the shirking of your responsibilities and vocations under the guise of piety. One who considers the subjects of sin, death, and the devil taboo. Beware. Lest you be like gullible and foolish Little Red Riding Hood, enticed with niceness off the path to Life, swallowed up into the bowels of hell.

Little Red didn’t have the obedience, the wisdom, the savvy to take on that sweet-talking wolf. Neither do you. 

So it’s a good thing a Savior came along. One who found her in the grips of the wolf’s wiles and rescued her. That savior was a woodsman. He saw her plight, cut the wolf open so that granny and Little Red could walk out unscathed and ready to eat a meal with their Rescuer. 

Beware. The wolves are everywhere, even hidden inside ourselves. Beware and be on your guard. But also be glad and do not despair. For in this dangerous and fear-filled world you have a Rescuer too. Not One from the pages of a children’s book, but the True Prophet promised from the pages of the Old Testament. The One who came preaching and teaching, but also came to save the foolish and naive. He saw the big, sharp teeth of the satanic wolf, big enough to hold all of humanity in his jaws. Sharp enough to pierce the heart and destroy the body. 

Yet for your sake He rescued you. Not with the power of a woodsman, but with the mercy of One who was willing to insert His holy Body right into the wolf’s jaws. He was killed on wood and swallowed up in death for all your mistrust of His Word. Even though you have a tendency to ignore His Word, He didn’t ignore your need for salvation, but hung on the cursed tree until the True Prophet preached those true and sweet words, It is finished. 

And finished off was the wolf. Finished off was a happy future for all false prophets of his. Finished off was the power of the grace over you. For Christ your Lord sends you true prophets who prophesy in His Name, who in His stead and by His command forgive all your sins. True prophets who cast away your demons by water and the Word of His Name in Holy Baptism. And it is true that grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, but the True Prophet, Jesus Christ, has transformed the wood of His Cross into a Tree of Life from which comes the most blessed fruit of all: the fruit of His Body and His Blood which preach a better Word than the blood of Abel.

Don’t be naive. Don’t be fooled by externals. The Dead Man on the Cross bleeding and dying for your sins is the greatest sight there ever was. Don’t consider the subjects of sin, death, and hell to be downers. Especially when you know that Christ has triumphed over them in the Resurrection, putting down your enemies forever, as the Psalmist says, The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps 110:1). Christ Jesus has defeated the wolf for you, rescued you from certain death, and gives you to walk in His integrity, to trust in Him without wavering. 

Therefore do not listen to your heart. It is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Neither put much stock in your dreams and visions. Listen to Jesus and be glad. Cherish and love Him as the True Prophets sent into our sin-filled and dark world not to condemn you, but to rescue you. 

Do not fear. You live in a dangerous world, but the Lord abides with you. In repentance and faith you love the habitation of His house and the place where His glory dwells. In repentance and faith, listening to His Word, you go around His Altar, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud. For you have been buried with Him by Baptism into death by which He also raises you to newness of life. One day you will walk out of the grave just like granny and Little Red, unscathed and unharmed, ready to feast with your Savior forever. 

In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Trinity 7

8/4/2019

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Pr Irmer preached this Sunday.
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    Pr. Seth A Mierow

    Lutheran. Confessional. Liturgical. Sacramental. By Grace.  Kyrie Eleison!

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