St Matthew 6:24-34
LSB 725 Children of the Heavenly Father
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

If there’s any creature in God’s great wide creation that should worry, its the birds. They live on the edge of life and death. They’re small. Cats and foxes want to eat them. Bigger birds like hawks want to eat them. A billion birds a year die from flying into windows. Thousands more die flying near wind turbines. No doubt you’ve found one lying dead in your backyard. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from. They have to build a new place to live every year. If there’s any creature that should worry, it’s the bird. But they don’t.

That’s why our Lord instructs us to look at the birds of the air. Actually, He says it stronger than that. He actually says, study the birds. He holds them up as our catechists! They are to teach us! And what do we learn when study them? Creatures that live by faith. Creatures that don’t worry. Don’t get anxious. Creatures that don’t forget they have a Father in heaven. Creatures that do what we don’t - get up everyday expecting nothing but good from their Creator. Look at the birds, our Lord says.

But what do the birds think when they look at us? They must think we are very strange creatures.

We sit in our homes with cupboards bursting with food, a stuffed refrigerator, and enough food to scrape some into the garbage. And yet, we still worry whether God will take care of us in the future. What strange creatures we must be to them! We have closets bursting with clothes and shoes, more than we can ever use, and yet we fret about whether we can expect good from God in the future. What strange creatures we are.

God has gifted us with life and health. Yet we’ve infected ourselves with a form of death called anxiety. It takes years off our lives. It swipes hours of needed sleep. The preacher to the Hebrews says that Jesus partook of flesh and blood like us so that through death He might destroy the devil and deliver all who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb 2:15). The power of death is the fear of death. That fear of death, that anxiety, that apprehension, is a demonic bondage.

Our Lord says to us, don’t be anxious. Don’t worry about tomorrow. But telling the likes of us not to worry is like telling us not to think of green elephants. When Jesus says, Don’t worry, He’s not so much instructing us, as He is exposing us. What do the birds look down and see when they study our daily lives? Creatures with little faith and little trust in their heavenly Father.

So, out with the truth. Confess that those little birds put our faith to shame. Confess that our worry is worship of the devil and sin against our Father who art in heaven.

But do not fear. For what matters is not what birds think then they look down at us. What matters is what the Father thinks when He looks down to you. What does the Father see when He studies you and sees how little faith you have in Him? He sees someone who in no wise deserves His goodness, but out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, still provides for all your needs of body and soul. Of daily bread and all. Including, among other things, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

The truth is He looks down and sees people who do not seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Yet He seeks you by sending His Son and giving you a kingdom. Because He looks down in mercy. He looks down in compassion and love. He looks down in kindness. He tends and nourishes His own. Spares them from all evil things.

What did the birds see when they looked down at Jesus, God’s Son in the flesh? They saw the very Person of Faith you needed. Your Substitute. They saw One who never worried, never fretted, was never rushed, never stressed, never got even a little nervous though His mission was to die on a Cross for all your faithless fears. He was the One who prayed to His Father, trusted His Farther, was devoted to His Father and loved His Father in all circumstances. They saw One whose faith put even the pious birds’ to shame.

His faith and His faithfulness, dear Christians, is exactly what you need. And that is precisely the faith that God in mercy has created in you. And that faith He reckons as righteousness in His sight.

Birds are valuable to God. He made them. He provides for them. But you are more valuable. What does the preacher to the Hebrews say? He shared in our flesh and blood. He did not take on the nature of birds to redeem birds. But He took on your nature, your fallen flesh, to redeem you. You are so valuable, in fact, that He not feeds you from your kitchen pantry. He fed His Body into the jaws of death so that you might be fed heavenly Food from this altar.

You are so valuable to Him that He not only gives you to drink from your faucet. He opened up His veins at the Cross that His Blood which flowed out might answer for your mistrust of the Father and then flow into the chalice you now drink, quenching your thirst for righteousness.

You are so much more valuable to Him than birds that He not only fills your closets with clothes. He goes to the Cross to be stripped of His clothes, stripped of His dignity, stripped of any earthly help, that He might die for your lack of trust. That He might rise again and come forth from the tomb, to give out the robes of righteousness from His heavenly closet. Just as He did in your Baptism.

God looks down on you in love again this evening and not only pours out His Son’s blood for the forgiveness of your sins, but also pours out His Spirit upon you. In His Spirit do you walk, as St Paul writes to the Galatians, saying, Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). That word “walk” has a military ring to it. More like “march.”

So there you go. You have the Holy Spirit. You have the very Lord and Giver of Life dwelling within you. You have the power of the resurrected Life within you by the Spirit. So don’t process through life like a bunch of slump-shouldered worriers that makes birds sigh. We live by the Spirit. We march through life, the snares of death surrounding us, with the confidence that our Father in heaven has and will continue to provide for all our needs of body and soul. “Though He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne’er forsaketh; His the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy” (LSB 725:4).

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

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

He has no lines in his own book. The author, humanly speaking, of the first Gospel, says nothing. St John at least refers to himself, but does it sort of creatively, as “the beloved disciple;” “the one whom Jesus loved.” Literarily you’re supposed to find yourself there. You, the reader, are to understand that you are “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” And so be read into the text.

But St Matthew doesn’t even do that! He tells his own story, to be sure. You heard it this morning. Being called from the tax booth. But he does it in such a way that he directs all attention away from himself and onto Jesus. He’s the main character in this evangel, not Matthew. This is His book. The bible of the genesis of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. That’s how he starts. Matthew 1:1. This apostle and evangelist, begins the first book of the New Testament, recalling everything from the Old in two words, Biblos geneseos, the Bible of the Genesis, of who? Of Jesus Christ.

So when this Jesus, whom Matthew puts before you today, says Go and learn we’d best do what He tells us. He sends the Pharisees, and us, to school again. Relearn the basics. Relearn the A-B-Cs of God. You are never too old to study the catechism. To back to the beginning. To be a child. And the first thing that Jesus lays down is what pleases God above all else. Mercy. Not sacrifice.

“But just hang on a minute,” you and the Pharisees protest. “Sacrifices weren’t our idea. They were Yours.” Aren’t entire Old Testament books - Leviticus say - devoted to God given and explaining the what and how of the sacrificial system to His people? He has some pretty strict rules about where and how to offer these sacrifices. Doesn’t the Psalm today even highlight the keeping of these sacrifices? Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statues and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep Your Law and observe it with my whole heart. Your rules are good. I long for Your precepts (Ps 119:33-40).

Listen again, Go and learn what this means. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” A direct quote from Hosea. The prophet who condemned Israel for thinking that God wanted mere obedience to ritual law more than the practice of mercy. But He doesn’t say that sacrifice was worthless. He said what pleases God, above all, is mercy.

We are always wanting to let our love for God come unglued from love for the neighbor. We wish that we could have a relationship with God independent of our relationships with other people. George Jones’ refrain is the ballad of the Old Adam. “Me and Jesus, we’ve got our own thing going. Me and Jesus we got it all worked out.” Well, sorry, but there is no just “me and Jesus.” Getting Him means getting all His brothers and sisters, too. The whole family. Your neighbors. Remember, the One who said, “Love Me with everything you’ve got,” is the same One who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

So, no, He won’t accept from our hands a “sacrifice.” That is, anything we do for Him or give to Him. If our hearts are not merciful toward others. Merciful toward all the people He has placed around us. Its not that He doesn’t want the sacrifice. Its that the sacrifice that pleases Him is a sacrifice offered by a heart filled with mercy. One bursting with kindness toward others. We may all be different parts of the body, as St Paul’s writes to the Ephesians, but the commonality between us all is not only the Head, which is Christ Jesus, but the heart, established blameless in holiness (1 Thess 3:13), consumed with mercy, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

That’s the problem the Pharisees have with Jesus. He’s eating with the tax collectors. He sitting down and whiling away the hours together with all the wrong sorts. Even having a good time, laughing with them over food and drink, all the while telling them about His Father and an unconditional love. “Sacrilege!” They cry! “That’s just not done. You don’t defile and demean yourself by associating with the likes of them. Jesus, what are you doing?”

And here comes the answer: “I am the Doctor attending to the sick. I don’t worry about catching something from them. My only concern is to heal them.”

The Pharisees think: “But you might catch something from them. You might. You might catch their uncleanness. You might die.”

The answer: “Hmm. So I might. So I shall. Their disease will kill Me. Yours too. I’ll catch “sin sickness” from you all. But that won’t stop Me from being merciful. Mercy doesn’t calculate the outcome in regard to self. Mercy only asks what the other needs. And then mercy acts. Mercy is being there for others, whether or not being there is a danger to yourself. Much less an inconvenience. I have come among you in mercy. I came to heal. I came to save. So, yes, you’ll find Me right here in the hospital. Right where the sick are. They are my clients. The broken, the bruised, the battered ones. Those who’ve been hurt and torn up by sin. My heart is filled with pity for them. I have come to do something about their sorry state. I’ve come to befriend them. I’ve come to heal them. I’ve come to save them and set them free.”

And He looks at His detractors long and hard. He says, “I only came for the sick and the sinners. Will you admit to being one? Will you own up to needing the healing I come to bring? Aren’t you tired of the sorrow of sin yet? Will you check into My hospital? Go and learn: mercy, not sacrifice. Come, let Me heal you too.”

And the day came when the sin-sickness seized holy of the heavenly Doctor. The day came, a dark day full of rage and fury, when He was stretched out and fixed to a Tree. And there is all your uncleanness. All your sorrow. All your rebellion and sin in His Body. All the sin-sickness of the entire human race is coursing through His veins. And that sin that leads to death killed Him. His contact with us. His breathing our poisoned air and touching our foul uncleanness fall took Him down. Our Physician died.

And there, beloved, you see the mercy of God. Mercy and not just sacrifice. It truly was mercy and so it was the acceptable sacrifice. A sacrifice that the Father received and rejoiced in because it was given entirely and wholly from a heart of mercy. The Divine Physician made the ultimate sacrifice out of mercy.

And so the Father raised Him up! Early that first Easter Day death was undone. Its power over the human race broken once and for all. Broken by the merciful sacrifice of God’s only Son. The debt completely paid by His priceless, precious Blood.

And He did it for the likes of St Matthew, a traitor to his own people. A sell-out to his Levitical birthright. He took that man, called him from raking in the money to giving away the full and free forgiveness of sins to all people. The Church is indebted to St Matthew, humanly speaking, for his Gospel. His is the only one in which we hear of the struggles of Joseph, admonished in a dream to take Mary his wife. From his pen we have the full account of the Beatitudes. From his pen we have the full version of the Our Father we are used to praying in the Divine Service, in the Daily Offices, at home. Only in St Matthew’s Gospel do we have the Trinitarian Name used in Holy Baptism.

Matthew, whose name means “Gift of YHWH,” truly is a gift of Christ Jesus to His Church, as you heard from St Paul. When He ascended on high He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

Thus does St Matthew continue to bestow his gifts, by the inspiration of the Spirit. Thus does he continue to present to you the Doctor from heaven, Jesus Christ, who comes to give mercy. He still spreads the Table. He still invites the most disreputable sorts, sinners who need His mercy, to sit down with Him and eat and drink. He still touches us - the same Body and Blood that touched and healed Matthew and others long ago. It’s only a foretaste. Only a tasting room for heaven, where the healing is final and the sorrows forgotten and the feast never ending.

Follow Me! Jesus said to Matthew. And he got up and left everything to follow Him. To sit down at Table with Jesus. Follow Me! He still cries. There’s room at His Table. A place for you. Follow Me! You invite with lips given to sing His glory, tongues His mercy to proclaim. Welcome the outcasts and undesirables. The sinners just like you. Don’t be afraid of their sin. Welcome them home. Jesus has dealt with sin like theirs. He’s dealt with you. His forgiveness is for them even as its for you. Follow Me! He says, “Into a life of mercy and so a life of acceptable sacrifice. Follow Me and I’ll lead you all the way Home.”

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

Psalm 40; 1 Peter 3:13-22
LSB 756 Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

If you were able to rate the entire calendar year of 2020 thus far the same way you can an Amazon purchase, how many stars would you give it? Half? One? Probably no more than two, right? This year has been unique in the lives of many. Everything is in upheaval and turmoil. Uncertainty reigns. Some have become soft fatalists, attributing just another crisis or event to the calendar date. “Ah, well, its 2020.” Christians may even be tempted to think that nothing like this has happened before.

Not so fast. Go reread Ecclesiastes. There is nothing new under the sun (Ecc 1:9). 2020 may be your personal year from hell, but 250 wasn’t great either. Especially for Christians living in the vast Roman Empire. And particularly for those in Carthage, modern day Tunisia.

After a series of military victories, Decius became Roman Emperor in 249. Wanting to revive Rome’s “Golden Age” under Trajan, he made many changes to the political infrastructure. He restored the Colosseum, reinstated the ancient office of censor - a position of absolute power which oversaw public morality - and revived the traditional Roman religion.

Concerning the latter, after he himself made the annual sacrifice to Jupiter on January 3, Decius issued an edict ordering all citizens throughout the Empire to make sacrifices to the gods. He was trying to unify the vast realm through a loyalty oath. Nevertheless, this was the first time that Christians faced Empire wide legislation forcing them to chose between abandoning their religious beliefs and death.

To be sure, the edict didn’t target Christians, specifically. It ordered everyone in the Empire, with the exception of Jews, to sacrifice to the gods and the genus of Caesar. It was sort of like mask mandates. You didn’t have to believe in it or even agree with it. I was just something everyone had to do for the good of all. Practically what it meant was to burn a pinch of incense and say, “Caesar is Lord.” Do that in front of the magistrate and you received a certificate called a libellus, certifying that the holder had made the requisite sacrifice.

If you were caught without this certificate you could be arrested, have your property seized, possessions confiscated, and potentially executed for treason.

You didn’t actually have to deny Christ the way one did with the edict of Pliny the Younger in 112. But Christianity was not exempt because it was not considered to be a religion. Christians were called a-theists, atheists, because they refused to worship the Roman pantheon of gods. Because they disapproved of abortion, homosexuality, pederasty, misogyny, and a host of other “morally acceptable” Roman practices. And worse, they didn’t quietistically keep to themselves, but sought to convert others to their way of thought and life - a better way. For all this Christians were deemed socially disruptive, dangerous, and seditious. No exemption for you!

So, why not burn the incense? Its only a pinch. Why not get the libellus? You didn’t have to agree with it. Just go through the motions. Rome wasn’t worried about what you believed in your head or even what you did on Sunday. Just what you said with your mouth. Make the oath. Be a good citizen. Keep your property, your goods, your life.

Except Caesar isn’t Lord. Jesus is Lord. He is the only Son of the true God, the righteous King under whose merciful provision you live. In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make an apologia, a testimony and witness to the truth of the Gospel, to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.

So who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Plenty of people! That’s why Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, first fled when the Decian persecution came to his hometown. Others fled with him. But some stayed. Their homes seized. Their property confiscated. Their lives taken in martyrdom for refusing to follow the edict.

But others who stayed did submit to the edict. They burned the incense. They said the oath. They got their libellus. They loved their lives in this world and so kept their property and their limbs. They did it to protect their families. Their livelihoods. They did it out of fear. Cross and trials are hard. Its easier to acquiesce, to justify and equivocate.

The edict was enforced for a year. AD 250 gets less than a star from faithful Christians. Decius died in 251 and his edict died with him. Many Christians came out of hiding. Others had been buried. Some of those who had lapsed or apostatized tried to return to the Church. And Cyprian was faced with a dilemma.

Consider this situation on a congregational level. Some Christians fled and hide, lapsing in their confession. Others had denied Christ, buried the incense and kept their lives. Others stayed, faithfully refusing the oath. And among those many were tortured or martyred.

Two little girls are friends from the same congregation. Closer than sisters. One’s parents burned the incense, got the libellus, saved their skins. The other’s refused and paid with their lives. Do you just let the apostates back ignoring what they’d done? Do you refuse to grant them fellowship in the Church for the rest of their lives? Decius may not have specifically targeted Christians, but Satan sure got what he wanted. He managed to disturb and disrupt peaceful Christian communities, causing trauma that, in some cases, lasted for generations. Only a year long, the Decian persecution became known in the collective memory of the Church an episode of monstrous tyranny.

Cyprian walked the middle way between severe strictness and simply ignoring what they’d done. He helped forge a penitential discipline that would welcome them back as members of the Body of Christ and yet only fully restore them after they had given suitable demonstration of their faithfulness to Christ. That is, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as You know, O LORD. I have not hidden Your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation. They made the good confession. They suffered for righteousness’ sake. They suffered for doing good according to God’s will.

For your suffering and persecution and trouble are a benefit, not a hindrance, to you, dear Christian. They are catechesis. Our Lord is instructing you. Molding and shaping you. Forging and refining you as gold in the furnace, seeking to consume your dross. “Why should cross and trial grieve me? Christ is near, with His cheer; never will He leave me. Who can rob me of the heaven that God’s Son for me won when His life was given?” (LSB 756:1)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. This is Peter’s answer to the problem of suffering. Christ also suffered. The call to be a Christian is the call to suffer. The call to follow Jesus is the call to walk His way of suffering. If we follow Jesus, we are carrying a cross. Christ the Righteous One suffered for the unrighteous to bring us to God. We have been brought to God. Our sins are forgiven. We are redeemed. We belong to the Lord.

That’s why Peter can say, have no fear of them. Death is worshipped by fear. Pain and suffering are worshipped with fear. The devil wants us to loose hope, to despair, to cause our faith to wither and die. He wants us to lapse. To apostatize. It’ll make our lives easier. It’ll spare us pain. And probably sorrow. But it won’t give us a good conscience.

A heart prepared by fearlessness, a calm trust in Christ, who suffered for us, a good conscience, these are all gifts of the Gospel. And they come through fellowship with Christ’s death through the flood of Holy Baptism. For baptism saves you. By joining you in faith to Christ’s saving suffering and victorious death. Jesus doesn’t say, “You’ll make it through persecution. You’ll endure trouble.” He says you are blessed when you are persecuted, blessed when you are reviled, blessed when the enemies of God speak evil against you on His account. He says, Rejoice and be glad (Mt 5:10-12).

And we have the bold example of Cyprian to help us here. He came back. He faithfully guided the Church, giving pastoral care and catechesis to the family of God in Carthage. For that is what the Church is, the family of God in Christ Jesus. Cyprian famously taught, “One cannot call God Father who cannot call the Church his mother.” Here, in Holy Baptism, you are born from above in the womb of the Church. Christ is your Brother in the flesh and by the Spirit. His God is your God. His Father is your Father. He does not delight in sacrifice or offering, but has given you an open ear. To receive His Word and instruction, His catechesis in the way of faith and life.

When the next wave of persecution broke out in 256 under Emperor Valerian, Cyprian stayed and was among those who simply refused to sacrifice to the emperor. In 258 he was arrested and beheaded. His only response to the sentence of death was “Deo gratias!” “Thanks be to God!”

Beloved, he is here, along with all the saints in Christ, including your own family, gathered in the family of God in Christ Jesus, around the Table of the Lord. Here the true Sacrifice of Jesus our Lord is given to you in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. And He who stoops to serve you here, to give you a share in His indestructible Life, has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him. To Him, who lives and reigns with the Father + and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.

Number 21:4-9; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; St John 12:20-33
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

You did not choose Him. Christ the Lord has chosen you. He has called you to Himself by the poaching of His Holy Cross. To follow Him through death into life. To be with Him where He is. To bear much fruit to the glory of His holy Name.

It is in Christ that you come up to worship at this Feast. At the Feast of His Holy Cross and the Eucharist of His Body and Blood, given and poured out for you and for the many. You come up to worship the Lord in this Feast by and in and through Christ the Crucified. In His flesh He has gone to the Father on your behalf. By and through His Cross He brings you with Him.

The very hour of His glory unfolds against the backdrop of the Feast as you heard from St John. As per the Word of the Lord in Leviticus the crowds have come up to Jerusalem for the Passover. And for the Feast of Unleavened Bread that follows immediately after for a full week. It is one of the several pilgrim festivals in which the people gathered together in one place. The place where the Lord caused His Name and His Glory to dwell. In the Temple.

During these celebrations, on the day after the Sabbath in the week of Unleavened Bread, the first fruits of the year were offered and consecrated to the Lord. Do the math. The first fruits were offered on the Easter Sunday when our Lord rose from the dead! The wave offering of grain was brought before the Lord in His Temple. An unblemished one year old male lamb was offered as a whole burnt offering. A grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil was given. And wine as a drink offering. Until then the people were not to eat anything from the grain of the new year’s harvest. But after the harvest was dedicated to the Lord with the first fruits offering, then they could enjoy the produce of the good land.

Consider this Old Testament Feast with its God given rites and ceremonies in light of the Word that Jesus speaks to you this morning. The grain that was buried in the ground has now, by the grace of God, brought forth a great harvest. Returning the first fruits back to Him, He now opens up His hand to satisfy His people with the bounty of the Land. A land flowing with milk and honey, abundant with bread and wine.

This is the hour when the Son of Man is to be glorified. When the Christ is to be lifted up as the Sacrifice of the Lord in fulfillment of the entire Feast. He is the Passover Lamb. He is the Whole Burnt Offering. He is the Grain and the Drink Offering. He is the First Fruits of the New Creation. He is the Grain buried in the dust of the earth, who, by the Tree of His Cross, now bears much fruit. Fruit which includes you and your life. A life hidden in, with, and under His Cross.

You bear and carry that Holy Cross of Christ as His disciple. It is a foolish and offensive scandal in the eyes of the world. It is foolish and offensive to your own fallen and perishing flesh, too. To your own way of thinking. To your feelings and emotions.

Yet that scandalous Cross is the very power and wisdom of God for the reconciliation, resurrection, and righteousness of the whole world. And for your salvation, too. All because of the crucifixion of Christ. His Body sanctifies the Tree with its branches. His Blood stains it scarlet!

The Body of Jesus, nothing else, makes the Cross holy. Not suffering and death for its own sake. But the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in the flesh, for your sake. That is what sanctifies. Not only His Cross, but His Cross, afixed with His holy Body, which is laid upon you in your suffering. And you bear that suffering in your body in His Name!

His Cross is the power and wisdom of God and the Glory of God because His death upon the Cross is the defeat of death and the devil! It is the judgment of God for the salvation of sinners. Sin is condemned in the Body of Christ upon the Cross. Your sin. Atonement is made by His Blood. You are reconciled to God and justified in His Resurrection.

The Father glorified the Son by the Cross. By His obedience even unto death. The Father glorifies and honors the Son by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. The Son of God returns to the Father by the way of the Cross. So too do all those who follow after Him.

This is how the Father honors disciples from all nations - a true diversity - who follow Christ and serve Him in life and death, in faith and love. This is how it is for you. You’ve been called to repentance and faith. Not just once. But daily. To take up the Cross and follow Jesus through the waters of your Holy Baptism, through death and the grace into the Resurrection and the Life.

The whole world is perishing. Clinging to your life here, in this world, can only end in death. But dying with Christ Jesus, every day, brings you into life everlasting with Him in both body and soul.

This dying and rising in repentance and faith in Christ is what it means to have the Lord as your God. To fear, love, and trust in Him above all things. To worship Him above all gods. To look to Him, to trust in Him for all that you need in body and soul. For every good thing. Entrust yourself to Him, even to the point of death. For in so doing, you gladly receiving all things from His hand, both the Cross and the Resurrection.

In dying to yourself and your selfish ambitions you arise to live before God in the righteousness of Christ. And you bear much fruit for the benefit of others to the glory of His holy Name. Or, to say it better, it is Christ who bears the good fruits of His Cross in your body and life on earth.

Beloved, this is the attractiveness of His Cross, as you just sang. “Faithful cross, true sign of triumph, Be for all the noblest tree; None in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit thine equal be; Symbol of the world’s redemption, For the weight that hung on thee!” (LSB 454:4) It is not visible to those who are perishing. To them it looks as grotesque and useless as a bronze serpent on a pole. But for all those being saved by grace through faith in Christ? The Crucifix of our Lord Jesus Christ is the power, glory, honor, beauty, and wisdom of God! And by it and from it you bestowed the righteousness of God Himself.

For in the preaching of His Cross, Christ is lifted up before the world. He draws all people to Himself. He draws you. By this Word you follow in the footsteps of Christ to see Him portrayed as crucified before your very eyes in the preaching of His Gospel. This Voice comes for your sake! The thunder of the Law and the sweet message of the Gospel and the ways and means of the Cross by which our Lord calls you to repentance and faith, to die and rise with Him.

By the Holy Absolution this Voice is given you again. In the Holy Baptism and ongoing catechesis of the Word. In the Cross laid on its side as the Sacrament of the Altar is given to you and you remember and proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. These are the fruits and benefits of His Cross. By these are sin and death defeated. By these, the devil with all his assaults and accusations, is cast out of your conscience. In them you are drawn to Christ in faith. And the Father in Him. And together given His Spirit of reconciliation and the hope of salvation.

He does not promise to protect you from pain and suffering, dear Christians. Nor to preserve your body and life in this perishing world. But He does protect and strengthen your faith and life in Him, in order to preserve your body and soul for the Life everlasting with Him.

So come up to where He draws you to Himself and bestows to you His Body and Blood given into death upon the Holy Cross for your atonement. For they are now given and poured out for you here in this Feast of the forgiveness of all your sins. Here, you see Jesus.

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

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

There stood Adam. A bad man desiring to be considered “good.” There he stood, half naked, on the run, hiding from God behind a tree, guilt all over his face. There was no way he could justify his behavior. But the deepest impulse in his fallen heart was to try. So he did. He said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate (Gen 3:12). Translation: “It’s Your fault God.”

There stood Aaron, a bad priest desiring to considered a good one. But there he stood before an angry Moses. Those hands that were supposed to handle the Holy Things, instead had chiseled the golden calf and blessed the false worship. Caught red handed there was no way to justify his behavior. But the deepest impulse of his fallen heart was to try. So he said it this way, The people gave me their gold. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf (Ex 32:24). Translation: “It’s not my fault.”

There stood that lawyer, guilty as sin. Jesus had just summarized the Law. Love God with your all. Love your neighbor as yourself. But he hadn’t. And he knew it. He was a bad neighbor. But his deepest desire of his fallen heart was to be considered a good one. So he - desiring to justify himself - said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Translation: “Just make sure to keep my neighborhood small. Family, friend, people I like and who like me.”

The deepest impulse of fallen man is to justify himself. And its always a pathetic sight. Whether its you trying to justify that bad investment. Another purchase on Amazon. Your eating habits. Your rudeness toward family. Your sin. This is the central impulse of the sinner. We desire to justify ourselves.

We even hear this Gospel of the Good Samaritan and try to justify that we are the Samaritan. We’re nothing like him at all. Its pathetic. The Good Samaritan helped a bitter enemy - Jews and Samaritans loathed each other. We only do what a pagan does: help only those we like, who like us, who appeal to us, are nice to us. And if they stop? Well, then, so do we! And we justify it saying, “Well, she was mean to me first.”

The Good Samaritan didn’t just call 911. He himself touched the man. Applied the medicine. We’d never go that far. The Good Samaritan totally inconvenienced himself, to the point of taking him to an inn, staying overnight with him and promising to pay the innkeeper whatever it too to get the man back on his feet. Our mercy has to fit into our tidy schedules and not interfere with our lives.

According to Jesus’ definition of neighbor, we can’t call ourselves a “Good Samaritan.” Maybe not even a “Good Christian.” How often are we like those Israelites in the first reading? Taking advantage of our neighbor’s misfortune? Thinking that because they’re suffering, it must mean God loves us? Right? The love God requires is a love we’ve never given. Nor ever will. In fact, according to the flesh, we don’t even desire to. So how can we stand here and justify what we’ve been and what we’ve done?

We can’t. So don’t. Don’t stand there like Adam, blaming God. Don’t stand there like Aaron, offering flimsy excuses. And don’t stand there like that lawyer looking for technicalities and loopholes. In fact, don’t stand at all. Repent. And humble yourself. You’re not the Samaritan. Put yourself in the ditch right next to the man who fell among robbers, was stripped, beaten and left half-dead. No matter how small we might try to shrink our neighborhoods, it will never be enough for us to be able to justify our lack of love.

But be of good cheer, beloved. For the Lord has regard for His covenant. God arises and defends your cause. Jesus, in His boundless love, has united Himself to you. And that’s good for you. Because doing good does not make you a “Good Christian.” Receiving mercy is what does. And He has gathered you here again to receive it.

For you are the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho in the parable. You are a son of Adam who was attacked by that robber Satan. Stripped of his original goodness and left half dead in the ditch. The priest and the Levite, the representatives of the Law, they cannot help. For the Law has no compassion. Like you heard in St Paul’s letter to the Galatians: For if a Lw had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the Law. But Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Along comes Jesus, the High Priest of our salvation, able to do for you what the Law could never do - have compassion; give life. He saw your desperate state. A pathetic sight, with no righteousness of your own. Unable to justify the things you’ve done. But Jesus didn’t keep His distance. He didn’t stay away, afraid to sully Himself with your uncleanness. We went down into the ditch and bound up the festering wounds of your sin. He applied the medicine Himself. The Psalmist prays, The Lord stoops and raises the poor from the dust; He lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes (Ps 113:8).

He picks you up, sets you on His own animal, that is, the Lord carries you Himself. He then brought you to an inn, His Church, where He has placed an innkeeper, the Pastor, giving him two denarii, His word of Law to bring you low when you attempt to justify yourself, and His word of Gospel to raise you up once more. Words that will be care for you until the Good Samaritan comes again in glory.

The deepest impulse of your fallen heart is to justify what you’ve done and what you’ve been. Don’t bother. For the deepest impulse of Jesus’ heart was to do whatever it took to justify the ungodly (Rm 4:5). As David sings in the Psalm, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity (Ps 32:1-2). He has. And He does.

For Jesus came for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). He was the good Man Adam never was. The deepest impulse of His heart was not to hide behind a tree half naked, but to hand on one, half naked, taking into His flesh your ungodliness and dying for it. He rose from the dead to declare you good. He then ascended into heaven because the deepest impulse of His heart was not to be a high priest like Aaron, saying anything to avoid punishment, but to be a High Priest who has cast Himself into the fire of God’s wrath for you and now raises His hands to bless as He intercedes for you.

He didn’t pick and choose who He would love and serve. The deepest impulse of His heart was not to die only for a few, but to die for the whole neighborhood of sinners in the world - even those who betrayed Him, persecuted Him, and crucified Him.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Your father Adam longed to see what you see this morning - the blood of the promised Seed, the crucified and risen Messiah, pressed to your lips. Blessed are the ears that hear what you hear. For Aaron longed to hear such things. “Take; eat, the Body of Christ; Take, drink, the Blood of Christ given and shed for you.”

Think of this Communion Rail, this Table of the Lord, as that ditch where the Good Samaritan comes to you, touches you, applies His healing medicine to you, restores and justifies you.

It’s no wonder that Jesus now says to you, Go and do likewise. For there are others whom our Lord has put in your path. Neighbors laying next to you in the ditch who are not gathered here to receive what you’ve received. Don’t avoid them. Don’t neglect them, passing by on the other side. Go to them. Show them mercy as you’ve been shown mercy. You have been lifted up and set on your feet, so that you can now crouch down to other sinners wrecked by the Law and given them the same mercy and compassion you’ve been shown. For "Jesus’ boundless love toward you seeks to remove all coldness from your heart, that your every act, word, thought be love" (LSB 683).

His Spirit desires to gather you all together here, His congregation which He has purchased of old (Introit), to receive an inheritance that could never be earned, one that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pt 1:4-5).

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

Lutheran High School Chapel
Joshua 1:1-9; 3:1-17; St Mark 1:9-13
LSB 587

In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

Moses has died. The Lord buried him. And the grumbling Israelites have been wandering for forty years in the wilderness. Despite their faithlessness, the Lord, in His mercy, miraculously fed them with bread from heaven. Their shoes did not wear out, nor the clothes on their backs.  They were faithless. The Lord was faithful. They were petty.  The Lord was abundant in mercy.  They gave themselves over to idolatry. The Lord remained their God and called them back to Himself through repentance and faith. Remember the whole incident with the snakes and the bronze serpent on the pole?

In His divine mercy for them He provided for their needs of body and soul. He fed them.  Forgave them. And now, as the Lord has always done, He provides them with a shepherd, a leader, after the death of Moses His servant.

Yeshua bar Nave was but a young man when he was sent with the eleven others to spy out the Promised Land. Only he and Caleb returned to camp fully convinced that the Lord would do all that He had promised. The other ten spies were frightened at the size of the Canaanites, their fortified cities and large armies. And so Israel complained against the Lord and despised Moses.  Thus did the Lord condemn them to wander in the wilderness. An entire generation perished in the desert. Of the generation of men who came out of Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb were permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Here now they stand, at the bank of the Jordan River, ready to receive into their hand all that the Lord has promised to give. Fitting indeed. For the Law can only lead one so far. It can only lead the people of God to the Promised Land. It cannot take possession of it. That was the work of Yeshua.

For it shall not be in the power of their battalion or the strength of their sword that they shall conquer the heathen nations of Canaan. Rather it is through steadfastness to the Word of the Lord and the courage of faith in His promises. For His power is always displayed in weakness and His strength in humility. With instruction from the Lord, Joshua waged war with Jericho with trumpets rather than swords. He made the sun stand still at Gibeon!

City after city, territory after territory, Joshua gave to the children of Israel the land the Lord promised. At the end of the major conquests, he summoned Israel to himself at Shechem to renew the Lord’s covenant with Israel. Here he urged the people, called by God, to decide whom they would serve. The pagan gods of Canaan? Or the one, true God, Lord of heaven and earth? But as for me and my house, said Joshua, we will serve YHWH (Josh 24:15).
He died at the age of 110 and was buried in the hill country of Ephraim (Josh 24:29-30). Through him the Lord made provision for all of Israel. By His grace He provided for His children against all odds.

By His grace and according to His abundant mercy, the Lord has made provision for you too. He has clothed and fed you. He provides for all your needs, not only of body, but also of soul. For when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, faithless and an idolator, the Lord appointed your Yeshua, Jesus, Son of Mary, Son of God, to be your Redeemer and Champion.  

He who instructed Joshua to be careful to do according to all the word that Moses My servant commanded; the Book of the Torah shall not depart from his mouth, but mediate on it day and night, is the very Word made flesh, the Torah Incarnate, who has come to give success to the Israel of His Church!  

Thus does your Yeshua arrive at the banks of the Jordan. Not Himself to cross over but to be your faithful High Priest and the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant. He steps into the waters, receives the baptism of John in order to separate the waters for you, His Israel, so that you may walk in safety to the other side. In your baptism, does He ferries you with Himself from death to life, from wandering to being given a homeland in which He richly and daily provides all of your needs by and from His Word of forgiveness.

He trumpets His mercy and forgiveness against the walls of sin and the stronghold of the devil. He makes the sun to rise and shine upon you, and provides for you, even as you are taught to “give us this day our daily bread.” He welcomes you into His House wherein you are catechized and learn to serve the Lord.

Indeed, beloved, you walk among the pagan Canaanites of this world, in danger on the right and on the left. You sojourn in a land in which you already possess an inheritance of immeasurable value, but do not yet enjoy the fullness thereof. Rather you feel like pilgrims and strangers. Exiles and wanderers. It is easy to acquiesce. Appealing to give in. To succumb to the ways and means of the world, blend into the culture.

Yet you are commanded, Be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the Torah that Moses, the Lord’s servant, has taught. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left. That is, unmoved, stand on His sure Word.

Thus you shall not conquer by the might of your sword, but by the power of the Sword of the Spirit, the very Word of God, slicing and dicing to the heart of the sinner, laying them bare before the fury of His wrath. “God’s Word is all sufficient, it makes divinely sure; and trusting in its wisdom, your faith shall rest secure” (LSB 587:1).

You shall not be victorious through the puffed-up courage of your flesh, but in the repentant humility of sorrow over your sin. Only by dying and rising in the strength and courage of the Lord shall you posses the inheritance He has laid up for you.  

For while you were imprisoned under the Law, held captive by the menacing clutches of sin and shame, your Yeshua defeated the armies of Satan and attacked his fortress to retrieve you.  He allowed Himself to be beaten and killed, overcoming evil with good. He surrendered Himself to your death that you might live. He arose from the dead, your Savior and Head, and leads you over the Jordan of your baptism through this valley of the shadow of death, to His eternal Promised Land which He has given you; even as you now receive possession of it.  

Beloved, He will not leave you. Your Yeshua, your Jesus, will not forsake you. The Lord your God, who put His Name upon you in Holy Baptism, is with you wherever you go. Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed.  

Be strong and courageous. Clothed in the armor of His might. Cling steadfastly to His Word. For He has brought you safely to His House, in which you serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Do as He has commanded you to do in the Law of Moses, which is His good and gracious will for your life. Do it not to receive a reward or earn an inheritance, but because it is the Word of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For by His Word does He grant success. Not as the world gives does He give.  

For the success and prosperity of the Lord comes always by way of His Cross, which He has laid upon you. He is faithful and true. He shall protect you from the false doctrine of those who surround you. Only do not turn from His Word. He shall spare your life from those who seek to take it by the sword. Only be strong and courageous, according to the will of He who is at work in you. For your Yeshua has conquered death by His death and distributes His kingdom to you by His grace and according to His mercy. Do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.  

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

First Communion prior to Confirmation: Ezra Mierow
Revelation 6:9-11; Romans 6:1-5; St Mark 6:14-29
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

He worked no mighty miracles. He had neither wife nor child nor place he could call home. He lived in the desert wilderness of Judea and ate insects and wild honey growing up. He dressed in the rough fashion of Elijah in whose spirit he served. Turning the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. He preached and baptized for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. His life prepared him for a ministry that lasted at most a year and a half.

He was jailed for daring to speak truth to power. Not for preaching the Gospel, but proclaiming the Law in its full sternness. He showed no partiality. He called Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. He dared to condemn Herod Agrippa for taking his brother Philip’s wife as his own.

No entourage. No adoring fan base giving him a raucous convention. No house. No home. No family. He was the Voice. The Voice crying in the wilderness, saying, Repent, the reign of God is at hand. Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight (Mt 3:2-3). He was a Prophet. He was more than a prophet. In fact, Jesus says of him, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist (Mt 11:9, 11). He was a preacher. A martyr. A hero.

You can learn a lot about a person if you know who their heroes are. We live in the shadow of our heroes. We look up to them. We try to live like them. Our heroes encourage and inspire us. Good heroes encourage us to fear, love and trust in God above all things. They teach us by their words and deeds to believe in the promises of Christ. To hold fast His Word in the midst of all sorts of trouble. They exhort us to “sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving.” To “perform our duties faithfully” (LSB 750:7).

Who are your heroes? Are they dressed in soft clothing and live in king’s houses? Fancy suits and mansions? Are they reeds shaken by every cultural or political wind? Do they bend the knee for prestige and glory? Do they make self aggrandizing promises of kingdoms and power? Get caught up in tawdry affairs? Do they suppress the proclamation of the truth?

Christians need heroes who remind us of God’s mercy. To see in their lives how God forgives sinners and saves the ungodly. Heroes such as David and Paul who remind us that the Lord can forgive murder, adultery, and raging against the Church.

Christians need heroes who remind us to thank God for all His gifts, especially those that come by way of suffering and cross bearing. To be reminded that He raised up faithful men and women before us to teach us and be a blessing to us. Our heroes Moses and Mark remind us to give thanks to God for their Spirit-inspired wisdom recorded in Scripture.
Our heroes Nathan and Daniel remind us to submit to the governing authorities who bear the sword, but to always obey God rather than men.

Christians need heroes who can stand as examples, especially when our Lord gives us their same vocations and callings. Mary and Joseph are heroes for parents. Samuel is a hero for children. Stephen is a hero for preachers. David is a hero for rulers. Jonathan a hero for friends. All the Christian heroes are our examples in faith and love, prayer and joy. In patience. In suffering. In death.

Christians need heroes who pray. Christians need heroes who serve. Christians need heroes who suffer with patience. Christians need heroes who die.

The Christian hero is not the person who has obtained all that he desired in this life. Our heroes are not those who have gained the entire word but lost their souls. Our heroes are not those who have achieved a great degree of worldly success or notoriety. Our heroes are those who have fought the good fight of faith. Those who have kept the faith. Those who have finished the race. Our heroes are those have stood against the wiles of the devil. Who have stood against the world and their flesh. And having stood, our heroes are those who have died the blessed death.

For the goal of the Christian life is not to make it to the end without suffering, amassing awards and notoriety and stuff. The goal of the Christian life is to make it to the end of life still trusting in the promises of God. Of walking by faith and not by sight.

John the Baptizer is such a hero. He died in the faith, not having received the things promised. He saw them from afar, but a lot closer than any other prophet. With his own hand he baptized the Coming One and said of Him, He must increase, but I must decrease (Jn 3:30). He was the Forerunner, preparing the way of the Lord. John stood on the banks of the Jordan and pointed with his own finger to God’s Lamb who bears away the sin of the world. Lamb’s were for slaughter. And to be the Forerunner is to go on ahead in the way the Lord Himself was to journey. John knew it wouldn’t end well for him in this world.

But he desired a better country. That is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called his God. He prepared for John a city. When he sent two disciples to Jesus asking if He was the One who is to Come, Jesus sent them back saying, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have Good News preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me” (Mt 11:4-6).

Did John whisper this promise to himself as the executioner came with sword in hand? Herodias’ daughter’s swirling and salacious hints had captured the old man’s lust. Herod made his foolish promise and Herodias finally had her revenge. The regretful king handed the grisly platter with the prophet’s head on it to the girl who gave it to her mother. When word reached John’s disciples, they came and took away the body and buried it. Then they went to Jesus.

That’s what John taught them to do. That’s what we, by God’s grace, teach our children to do. What Ezra, who joins in the fray today, has been taught to do. This is what all catechumens are taught to do. Go to Jesus. Hear from Him the words that will sustain when all else fails. Take refuge in Him and never be put to shame. He is your Rock of refuge. He is your Fortress. Learn from Him to suffer. Learn from Him to pray. Learn from Him to die. Learn from Him to rise.

In the end He is your ultimate Hero, your Champion and Chief Contender. Jesus. Jesus who died. Jesus who took upon Himself flesh and blood so that He could die. Jesus, the immortal God who bound Himself to our sin, our shame, even our death, to save us. Dear Christians, you have a God who bleeds. A God who suffers. A God who was hated by the world. A God who has a tomb. You have a Jesus who says with His dying breath, It is finished.

There is a lot in that little sermon of Jesus. There are so many things that are finished. The work of salvation, finished. The sacrifice, finished. The atonement for the sins of humanity, finished. The war between heaven and earth, finished. The mad and endless attempts for us to win our own salvation, finished. The way from death to life, finished. The death of Jesus is everything for us. It is our hope and our life. It is our doctrine and our preaching.

And John is still pointing us toward Him. John is still preaching today. But not from the grave. He is standing at the Jordan of your Baptism, at the font, calling you to repentance. To put away your earthly heroes, your icons and idols. To be plunged once more, daily, through repentance and faith into the baptismal fellowship of Christ’s death. And to be united in His resurrection.

John is crying out from under the Altar, as you heard in the first reading, directing you to Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us. Grant us Thy peace.

Dear Christian, your heroes are strangers, wanderers, exiles on earth. Your heroes have a discontentment with this world, knowing there is something better. They have their eyes on the resurrection, the life and the world to come. They have their hearts set on the new heaven and the new earth where righteousness lives.

These are not the heroes from movies. Not the kind of people the world wants to follow. To do so means to follow them, with Christ Jesus, into death. But these heroes are the great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1) who are put before the Christian to encourage and enliven faith. These are the heroes put forth by God for you. Who stand here now, with Jesus, at this Altar, where He invites you to come and eat, come and drink, of His Body and His Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, for faithful strengthening in both body and soul, and for a life unconquerable that cannot die.

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

St Luke 18:1-8
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

She was a widow. She was alone. She had no husband. Which meant that she had no provider. No advocate. No one to plead her cause. No one to provide her with justice or comfort. Her only retort was to continually go to the unrighteous judge saying, Give me justice against my adversary.

But he was a pagan. He cared not for the poor widow nor her cause. His rejection of her case is shorthand for his rejection of God’s Word, His covenantal loyalty to His people and His command to care for the widows and the fatherless. Even more perplexing is that he neither fears God nor respects man. He has no shame. No scruples.

The story seems straightforward. St Luke even catechizes us in the intent of Jesus’ catechesis: He told them a parable to show them they must pray continually and not grow weary. So thinking the parable is about the widow’s persistence as a model for our prayers as we wait upon God, how surprising then that the unscrupulous judge is finally broken down by a widow because she is beginning to undermine his reputation. I guess he cared what other people thought after all.

But even that is not the point of the parable. On the surface its about a persistent widow as an analogy for the Christian to be patient and long-suffering in their prayers to God. But in the end the parable isn’t about the widow or the judge. Its about God. And the underlying reality is the Good News that God is merciful and long-suffering and He will deliver His elect in Christ.

St Monica is a superb example of such a persistent widow. Known primarily for her more well known son, St Augustine, St Monica is best remembered for her fervent desire and many years of heartfelt prayer for her son’s conversion. He had been registered for Baptism as a child, but, in keeping with the unfortunate custom of that day, he was not actually baptized then. For various and sundry reasons to numerous for this evening, it was often the case that Holy Baptism would be delayed until after the wild oats of youth had been sown. I guess it’s sort of like waiting until puberty before allowing children to receive the Holy Communion.

In any case, Augustine drifted further away from Christianity into pagan philosophy and heretical sects. He fathered a child with a prostitute. He rejected Christian truth and lived as the prodigal son, squandering the good gifts the Lord had given.

So it was that his dear mother prayed, night and day, for many long years, with great tears and weeping, that he would be returned to the faith. That he would come to his senses and return home into the fellowship of the Church through repentance and Holy Baptism.

I recall, several years back, an angry father pronouncing a curse upon me wishing that my children would grow up and abandon the faith as his children had done. I have friends and family who have departed from the Christian Church and the Christian faith. I can’t really think of anything in life more painful than such apostasy in one’s children. I worry about my children. I don't know how I would bear it if one of them renounced their faith in Christ.

You may suffer this cross with your own children or family members. In such cases we not only have the return of the prodigal son , or the long history of Israel as God’s wayward and rebellious children, but we have the blessed example of St Monica. Not only her faithfulness in prayer. But that she trusted in the faithfulness of the Lord to answer her prayer.

He did not do so quickly, by any means, but He did at last call her Augustine to Himself by the Gospel, enlighten him with tremendous gifts, both spiritual and temporal, sanctify him through the washing of water with the Word, and preserve him steadfast in the one true faith. St Augustine became not only a Christian disciple of Jesus, but a faithful pastor and bishop. He is remembered as one of the four towering giants of the Western Church. Possibly the most significant and influential of all the Church fathers. Through the persistent prayers of St Monica our Lord not only blessed this dear mother who finally witnessed the Baptism of her son, but also blessed the entire Church through him.

St Augustine was baptized, famously, by St Ambrose of Milan. A pious tradition maintains that these two patristic giants emerged from the waters of that Baptism spontaneously singing the Te Deum. This is also the setting in which St Monica asked St Ambrose about the divergent fasting practices she had encountered while in Rome. The Archbishop’s famous answer to her was, “When in Rome, I do as the Romans do.” In other words, don’t raise scruples about certain spiritual disciplines, but cheerfully maintain, in Christian freedom, the unity of the faith in the bond of peace.

St Monica was widowed at age 40 and died at age 55. But she, by the grace of God, lived to see both her husband and her son baptized into the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Such prayers, dear Christians, are not always answered in the timing and circumstances that we would prefer.

But we pray in faith according to the Word and promises of God. We pray in the Name of Jesus. We pray as a faithful community awaiting the coming of the Son of Man with hope and joy and eager longing. We pray as loyal disciples in the faithfulness of God the Father, the righteous and just Judge, as we watch for the coming of Christ Jesus; listening urgently and intently to His catechesis. As the teacher of the Hebrews writes, We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it (Heb 2:1).

For there is no other confidence than this. It does not rely on sight or feelings or experience, but solely upon Christ. His Word and promises. And in Him God’s answer to prayer is always “Yes!” and “Amen!” We might not be sure of anything, but we can be absolutely sure and certain of this: In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19).

I have no guarantees that any particular child, nor any other person, will be called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified in the one true faith. But when the Holy Triune God bestows His Name upon a child in Holy BaptismHe binds Himself to that boy or girl. And binds him or her to Himself. The baptized one is adopted as a son of God, united with Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, in His Cross and Resurrection and anointed with His Holy Spirit.

If we are zealous for and protective of our children, He is all the more so, and far more capable than any of us to guard and keep them from all harm and danger. He will keep their going out and their coming in from this time forth and forevermore. He will keep their life.

For the Father’s eye remains on the Prodigal Son, even when He has gone away into the far country, even when He is languishing in the pig pen. The Good Shepherd comes to seek and save the lost. He calls and gathers His lost and wandering sheep back into the sheepfold by His voice of the Gospel, the full and free forgiveness of all your sins. The Holy Spirit is the first and best Master of properly dividing and applying the Law and the Gospel. Of calling sinners to repentance and faith through the forgiveness of sins.

We may learn this from St Monica, who in fervent prayer and steadfast trust, reminds us: God will not forget nor neglect our children. We cannot love them more, nor care for them better, than He does. They are His. You are His.

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

Proverbs 3:1-8; 2 Corinthians 4:7-10; St John 1:43-51
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

Our Lord spotted him under a fig tree. And for that, Nathanael, son of Tolmay, declares Him to be the Son of God, the King of Israel. He is confessing that the Man who stands before him is YHWH in the flesh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the One who walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day and called to Adam and Eve, seeking them out. For having sinned they were ashamed of themselves and tried to paper over their guilt with fig leaves.

But now, by the invitation of Philipp, Nathanael, or as others call him, Bartholomew, is drawn out of the shadow of the fig tree, out of the shadow of death, out of darkness and brought to Jesus, the Light of the world. For He is the Light that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And Nathanael, whose name means, “God has given,” has now been given true faith and a good confession. Even if he doesn’t yet comprehend its fullness.

What of you? What is your condition? In what shadowy darkness do you hide? Under what tree do you seek shelter? Do you find your rest in complaining about others and stewing on their slights? Is your respite in running into the arms of another who is not your wife? Crawling into the darkness of pornography? Drugs? Drinking?

Don’t waste time hiding from your sins. Don’t bother papering over them with figs leaves of lies and excuses. Our Lord sees right through them. He sees right through you. He knows our hearts. We are filled with guile. With deceit. With trickery.

Yet in mercy He still calls you, as He did Philip, saying, Follow Me. He uses the simple invitation of another, Come and see. It ought not be called a “program,” but here, dear Christians, is the greatest evangelism ever. No door-to-door solicitation. No cajoling or scare tactics. No false promises or bait and switch routines. Just a simple invitation: Come and see. Come and see the One of whom Moses preached and the prophets foretold. Come and see the One of whom Solomon spoke and in whom David trusted. Come and see.

And it is not a single use invitation. Not a one-time encounter. You can never say, “I am baptized, that should suffice. I was confirmed, that’s enough catechesis. I’m good.” We can never say, “I can stay away from Church for awhile. It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” Our Lord calls Nathanael a “true Israelite,” so as to distinguish him from the false Israelites. From those who boast in their lineage and brag concerning their descendancy from Abraham. They are his children by blood, yes, but not according to the faith. They are false Israelites.

So too their are false Christians. They boast in the same way. “We are baptized and bear the name Christian.” But they do not remain swimming in their Baptism and the pure teaching of forgiveness of sins and the promise of Christ. Rather they fall away into despair and other great shame and vice, neglecting the preached Word.

The genuine Israelite has the promise of Abraham and the faith of Abraham. Studies Moses and the prophets. Seeks the coming Christ as we see in Philip and Nathanael. Jesus found them. But did you hear what Philip said? We found Him. That’s how it feels! We didn’t know what we were missing, but we found Him. It is the same with the Christian in whom their is no deceit, no guile. “When baptized they give ear to the Gospel, read the Holy Scripture, partake of Holy Communion, and love their neighbor” (AE 22:197).

Solomon catechizes his son this way. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

St Paul learned this lesson well. Our Lord knew him. As He knew Nathanael. He called him on the road to Damascus. He taught this son of Israel what is meant to suffer for His namesake. In affliction and perplexity. In despair and persecution. For only them, in weakness, is God glorified. As he writes later to the Christians in Corinth: To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:7-9).

Nathanael, or as we call him, Bartholomew, likewise learned of this weakness. According to the ancient Church, Bartholomew carried the Gospel of Jesus to Armenia. There he spoke of Your testimonies before kings, O Lord, and was not put to shame. The regent of Armenia converted. But his brother, in a fit of rage, had the Apostle flayed alive. He died like old Job, a witness to the resurrection. I know that My Redeemer lives. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27). In weakness, Christ is strong.

So I ask you, what could be more weak than the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is the folly of God’s salvation. It is the weakness of His power. Christ crucified. Lift up your eyes to the hills. To the Hill of Golgotha and behold the greatest thing: Amen, amen, I say to you, Here is heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Here is the fulfillment of Jacob’s ladder. Recall the patriarch, that Trickster Israel in whom there was much deceit. After tricking his brother and deceiving his father he fled for his life. Camping out under the stars one night with a stone for a pillow he beheld in a dream heaven opened. And a ladder reaching from heaven and resting on the earth. The Son of Man stood atop this ladder while the angels of God ascended and descended upon it. When he awoke he confessed, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it! How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven (Gn 28:16-17).

To Philip and Nathanael, Andrew and Simon, and to you, our Lord Jesus interprets this text. He refers it to Himself. All of Holy Scripture preaches Him. When the Son of Man and Son of God came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made Man, He opened heaven. Beginning at His Incarnation heaven was opened. And it remains open. It has never closed. Not since His Baptism in the Jordan. Not since His Transfiguration.

Heaven was opened and remains open since His Crucifixion, when the Son of Man was lifted up from the earth, suspended between heaven and earth as a Ladder. He descends to us. And by Him we ascend to the Father.

First He descends to us, into the very depths of our sin. Into our death. So that by His death and resurrection He may chop down your shady trees of lies and deceit, or lust and pride, of vanity and anger. In their place He has planted the Tree of His Cross. As the Psalmist sang: YHWH is your keeper; YHWH is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. YHWH will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.

Dear friends in Christ, heaven is opened to you. Christ Jesus has opened in His death. He came and stood among the Twelve that Easter eve, showing them the openings, the wounds in His hands and side, into which they and you crawl and hide in the day of trouble. Then they were glad when they saw the Lord!

You see those same wounds. You have the heavens opened as the foot of the Ladder which is Christ is firmly placed in this Font. Here Christ Jesus descends to you by water and His Word. And in faith you ascend with Him to life and salvation. Come and see.

The foot of the Ladder of His Cross is grounded here in the pulpit. For the blessed Gospel which St Bartholomew preached is proclaimed here so that you may believe and love it. Come and see.

And there, upon the Altar, the Ladder of the Cross tipped sideways as a Table to serve the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven brought down to you. Here the angels dare to descend and knee before God in the Flesh, hidden in the weakness of bread, in the foolishness of wine. Come and see.

Surely the Lord is in this place. This is none other than the House of God. This is the gate of heaven. Partaking of His crucified, risen, ascended and glorified Body and Blood, you, in fact, carry around in your body, in your jar of clay, the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in your bodies.

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

1 Samuel 3:1-21
LSB 589 Speak, O Lord, Your Servant Listens
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.

Tomorrow the Church remembers and gives thanks to God for His servant, Samuel. Samuel was Israel’s last judge, first of the great prophets, priest and Nazarite. This collection of Old Testament offices being gathered together in one man reminds us first of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, the first of the New, the Voice in the Wilderness and the Forerunner of Christ. We will hear more about him two Sundays from now when the Church remembers with thanksgiving his martyrdom.

But the confluence of offices in Samuel also point forward to, and serve to proclaim, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King both fulfills and supersedes the old covenant.

Samuel’s father, Elkanah, had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. As often happens in the Old Testament when men have more than one wife, there was favoritism. Elkanah loved Hannah very much, but she was barren. Peninnah bore him many children. And so, a bit like Sarah and Hagar or Rachel and Leah, there was animosity, contention and competition between the women.

One year, when the pious family went up for the yearly sacrifice at the Tabernacle at Shiloh, Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed silently to the Lord as she wept. Eli, the priest, first mistook her to be drunk. He reprimanded her. But Hannah answered, No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD (1 Sam 1:15). She was praying for a son. Eli assured her that the Lord would hear and answer her prayer. And Hannah vowed to lend him to the Lord as a Nazirite all his days.

Her prayer was answered and she gave birth to a little boy and named him Samuel, because the Lord heard her prayer. Samuel is a Hebrew name which means either “the Lord hears,” or “the one whom the Lord asks after.” Either way is fitting for this little boy. For the Lord heard his mother’s prayer and granted her a son. She then, according to her vow, after he was weaned, brought him to the Lord at Shiloh - for the Tabernacle was there - and he ministered to the Lord in the present of Eli.

The day came when the LORD “asked after” the boy. The Word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision for the people of God did not widely receive His Word, gladly hearing and learning it. Rather they often rejected the Lord their God and His Word, persecuting, even killing His prophets.

In addition, it was quite sad, Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phineas, abused their priestly office. They were lazy, heretical, and immoral. The would take the best portions of the sacrifices, rather than offering them to the Lord. They would offer prayers for a bribe. They would sleep with the women who came to worship at the Tabernacle! Outrageous!

So the day came when young Samuel was lying down in the Temple of the Lord, where the Ark of God was. That is, the little boy slept in or near the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. Because Eli was going blind, it was Samuel’s job to make sure the lamp stand in the Holy Place didn’t go out. He was an acolyte in the House of the Lord. Again, in this way, he foreshadows our Lord Jesus Christ, who, even as a young boy, remained in the Temple, about the business and among the things of His Father, as we hear in Luke chapter 2. There He astonished the scribes and teachers with His questions, even as the Lord let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.

As he lay sleeping, the Lord called Samuel. Supposing it was Eli, the boy ran to him and said, Here I am, for you called me. “No, no. I didn’t call you. Go lay back down.” Three times this goes on. The Lord called, Samuel! Samuel goes to Eli. Eli says he didn’t call him. Go back to bed. After the third time Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. This is because three is the number of the Lord. Isaiah hears the trisagion, the Holy, Holy, Holy - three times - in the Temple (Is 6). Our Lord puts His name upon the people of Israel - the Lord bless and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine, the Lord give you peace - three times (Num 6). Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved Him (Jn 21). Three is the number of the Lord.

So Eli realizes it is the Lord calling the boy. So he instructs him how to respond. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel” And Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears. And the Lord God pronounced judgment against Eli’s house for the wickedness of his sons and the complacency of Eli who did not reprimand them. Samuel was, quite understandably, hesitant to tell the old man the Word of the Lord, but he eventually did. Again, pointing forward to our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the Word of the Lord is in His mouth. And faithful Eli responds not unlike old Job, It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.

And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. Again. Like Jesus. Hear how St Luke says of the Christ Child. And the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And was in favor with God and man (Lk 2:40, 52).

Samuel judged Israel for many years. Sadly, his sons, like Eli’s before him, did not follow the Lord like their father had. It is heartbreaking when children abandon the faith of their fathers, wandering off from the inheritance of the Lord. Eventually all of Israel demanded a king. They wanted to be like the other nations. The people of God had acquiesced to the world. They wanted to look and sound and act like the pagan nations. Samuel warned them. A king will take your daughters as his wives, your sons as his soldiers, your fields for his own. They didn’t listen.

Like the father of the prodigal son, God conceded to their demand. He gave them Saul. Samuel anointed the man from the Tribe of Benjamin. It didn’t go well. Saul apostatized and led Israel astray with him. Eventually Samuel, at the command of the Lord, anointed Jesse’s youngest son, David, to be king. Samuel died before David was inaugurated into office.

Samuel is remembered as a man of prayer. He was one whom the Lord heard, as his name suggests. Firstly, though, he heard the Word of the Lord. For that is where prayer originates. Not in the poverty of our own hearts. But in the riches of God’s Word. Pray begins with God speaking and us listening. Reading, learning, marking, and inwardly digesting His Word, that by patience and comfort, we may hold fast His blessed promises of forgiveness and everlasting life. The Father speaks to us through His Son by His Spirit. In prayer, we speak in the Spirit through the Son back to the Father, saying what He has said to us.

Now I know it’d be nice if the word of the Lord came to us like it did Samuel. Suddenly. Obviously. In this audible way. Beloved, it does! Or rather, He does!

There is no reason we ought not hear the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the Word of the Lord in the simplest and most literal way possible. We don’t need to mysticize this revelation and Word of the Lord. For we have the One on whom all the offices and sacrifices and promises of the Old Testament, through Samuel and all the prophets came. We have the Word who became Flesh and dwelt among us!

Even as Samuel foreshadowed Jesus, it was Jesus who appeared to Samuel and spoke to him. It is Jesus in whom the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King coalesce and are fulfilled. He is the Light, the Tabernacle, the Ark. He is the anointed Son of David, given to be our once for all Sacrifice. In Him all the promises of God are Yes and Amen (1 Cor 1:20). For He is the atoning Sacrifice for your sins and the sins of the whole world. He is the Offering of the Lord, upon whom was visited the punishment of Eli’s sons, Israel, and all people. And He was raised from the dead, never to die again!

Beloved, even if you’ve had a miraculous appearance or special revelation from the Lord, we have, as St Peter says, the prophetic Word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place (2 Pt 1:19). What I mean is this. The Lord who appeared and called Samuel by name as he lay asleep in the Tabernacle, has appeared and calls you by name in your Baptism as you were asleep in the death of your trespasses and sins. So does He wake you to hear His Word.

Does He not come to you in this Shiloh, this Peaceful Place, and reveal Himself to you by the Word of the Lord? He sends His servants who call you by name, saying, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."