Psalm 30; St Luke 7:11-17
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When the Lord God formed the man of dust from the earth, He could’ve attached some impressive looking wings. But instead, God gave him these funny-looking things called feet. The Lord could’ve made man to fly, but instead He made him to walk. Heavenly beings, like Michael whom we heard about on Sunday, are associated with the skies. Man is associated with the earth. The dust. The dirt. So Adam walked.
And it was a good walk that he took in the Garden of Eden. For with every step he took on the virgin earth, Adam’s bare feet felts his origins and the life-giving goodness of his Creator. For God had taken man from the stuff he was walking on. Breathed into that dead pile of dirt life. Perfect from head to toe, Adam walked the walk of the perfect man.
But it wasn’t long be before his walking became a death march. It wasn’t long before his life became one long walk to the grave. For that perfect walker quickly went astray. He wasn’t content to be a walking, talking creature. Adam desired to be like God. So he walked to a tree from which God had forbidden him. He thought God much have been holding something back. That there was something else. That God wasn’t telling the whole truth. But it was just as the Lord said. On the day you eat of it you shall surely die. And in Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden they led all of God’s walking, talking humanity to the grave.
They were driven eastward, bearing the curse of death. Their walk was different now. They would walk within the valley of the shadow of death. With every step death stalked them. Fear surrounded them. Terror dogged them. They refused to heed God’s blessed Word and so they were cursed. They no longer feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things. They now lived the rest of their days in a world that was against them all the way to the grave.
And that is the death that dogs you too. The fear that seizes you. The terror that buffets you. That is the cruse that is also in you. It courses through our veins, dear Christians. That is why we find it so easy to shove God’s commandments aside - You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the Name of God. Remember the Sabbath day - and walk to the beat of our own drummer. This is why we live for ourselves, afraid to live for others. And why what makes living with us, sometimes, no walk in the park.
This is why we find it so difficult to go out of our way and serve others. Why we’ll walk all over others just to get our way. Its not the death surrounded us, dogging us. Its the death in us. The curse in our veins. And this is why we have joined that long walk of revel humanity to the grave. That long march east. Where Adam has led all of rebellious man.
A long march east also happens to be the direction that they were going in Nain. Archaeologists have found a large cemetery just east of Nain. That is where that weeping crowd was walking.
And there was a widow who had just lost her only son. The curse of death hit her hard. Not only had she lost her husband, but now she also is carrying her son to the grave. No wonder she wept. Her son was more than a son. He was her lifeline. He would've provided for her. Given her a roof over her head. Kept her clothed and fed and cared for. He was more than a son. He was a savior to his widowed mother.
Yet consider, beloved, the drama that makes us glad. They are going east, but someone else is coming from the East. Someone coming from the other direction. This procession of death, this long train, Satan out front with Adam and Eve, this widow’s son in line, you brining up the end, this procession was about to collide with a very different procession.
Its common courtesy to allow a funeral procession to have right of way. Not today. On these narrow streets of Nain there is One who going to put a stop to this march of death. One who will bring glands into this bitter scene. Joy into this sad spectacle.
Who will it be? An angel flying from the east to do a miracle? A heavenly being coming to flex his power? No, because no matter how majestic or powerful, no matter how fast those heavenly being are, they cannot give life. St Michael and his angels are awesome, but only God can give life to dirty men. Isaiah says it this way, Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, He who is splendid in His appeal, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save (Is 63:1).
The One who helped this day was not an angel with wings. But the God who took on feet. Who walked the ground of the earth cursed by your sin, to bless and give you life. He set His feet toward destroying death forever. To stop Satan dead in his tracks. To do what He did in the beginning when He breathed life into Adam. To do what He did through the prophet Elijah when He revived the son of the widow of Zarephath.
Christ is doing what He does so well. He gives life to the dead. He imparts joy in the midst of sadness. To redeem man from the afflictions of the devil. As you sang in the Psalm. To speak His Word of comfort into sadness, depression, terror, despair, doubt, the perils of death, and similar poisonous, fiery darts of the devil.
This is why He came. Adam wandered off to a tree that brought death. But Christ our Lord purposely set His feet to go to a Tree that would bring life to the world though it would mean for Him. The Tree of the Cross is where His beautiful feet were nailed in order to heal your straying feet. Where His legs bore the heavy weight of your sin and guilt. Where His lungs would be filled with your poisoned air, so that He could breathe the breath of life onto you.
He didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, so that you might be everything to Him. He was carried to the grave, His mother Mary weeping and His disciples having fled. Only for Him to triumph and bestow life on the dead.
In seeing Jesus’ feet you see the feet of God. The God who walked with Adam in the cool of the day. And seeing His heel, you see the fulfillment of the One promised to crush the head of Satan.
That’s what He does for the widow at Nain. And He does no less for you. He stops death dead in its tracks. He shows compassion by speaking and by touching. He speaks His Word of Gospel comfort to the widow: Stop weeping. And then He touches the open coffin. For He has come to extract the poison of death from you and draw it into Himself. In exchange He gives you His purity and righteousness.
This is what He does for you. He gathers you to Himself to speak a Word of Gospel, to forgive all your sins. Then He touches you with His Body and Blood in His Sacrament, bestowing on your His life and righteousness, feeding you the Medicine of Immortality which raises you from death. Even though you walk with Him through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil. For your sins are forgiven. All of them!
And you are given to join that great mass of truly alive people called the Church. We march through this world following Christ our Head. We stare into the grave, laughing with St Paul, mocking death, for we know its power has been destroyed and life and immortality are brought to life!
Because that widow tonight is a picture of the Church, is she not? The Church is a weeping Church. Torn apart by false preaching. Divided. Unfaithful and ambitious men are often her leaders. The doctrines of God are treated with contempt. The Commandments thrown out and rejected. She seems so weak and without hope. The Church’s own sons and daughters forget and abandon her. Hardly support her. Consider her insignificant and despise her. No wonder she is pictured as a widow. It seems like her son is taken away and gone forever.
But be glad. Stop weeping. For God comes again to His weeping Church and gives her back her Son. He does so at this Altar where Christ’s crucified and resurrected Body and Blood are presented and given to you again to forgive your sins. To enliven your hope. To give you courage under trials. Joy in the midst of sadness. And to teach you anew of the unfathomable goodness of God who does not just let you wander in this wilderness, but gathers you around Himself as His people.
We process through this world as God’s pilgrim people. Once we were not a people, but in Baptism we were claimed as His people. Despite the fact that we have not walked the walk, His grace always goes before and follows after us. We walk in the newness of life. A life that can never die. A life that is planted in you. The very life of the One who comes as the Sun rising in the east to give light and life to those in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When the Lord God formed the man of dust from the earth, He could’ve attached some impressive looking wings. But instead, God gave him these funny-looking things called feet. The Lord could’ve made man to fly, but instead He made him to walk. Heavenly beings, like Michael whom we heard about on Sunday, are associated with the skies. Man is associated with the earth. The dust. The dirt. So Adam walked.
And it was a good walk that he took in the Garden of Eden. For with every step he took on the virgin earth, Adam’s bare feet felts his origins and the life-giving goodness of his Creator. For God had taken man from the stuff he was walking on. Breathed into that dead pile of dirt life. Perfect from head to toe, Adam walked the walk of the perfect man.
But it wasn’t long be before his walking became a death march. It wasn’t long before his life became one long walk to the grave. For that perfect walker quickly went astray. He wasn’t content to be a walking, talking creature. Adam desired to be like God. So he walked to a tree from which God had forbidden him. He thought God much have been holding something back. That there was something else. That God wasn’t telling the whole truth. But it was just as the Lord said. On the day you eat of it you shall surely die. And in Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden they led all of God’s walking, talking humanity to the grave.
They were driven eastward, bearing the curse of death. Their walk was different now. They would walk within the valley of the shadow of death. With every step death stalked them. Fear surrounded them. Terror dogged them. They refused to heed God’s blessed Word and so they were cursed. They no longer feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things. They now lived the rest of their days in a world that was against them all the way to the grave.
And that is the death that dogs you too. The fear that seizes you. The terror that buffets you. That is the cruse that is also in you. It courses through our veins, dear Christians. That is why we find it so easy to shove God’s commandments aside - You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the Name of God. Remember the Sabbath day - and walk to the beat of our own drummer. This is why we live for ourselves, afraid to live for others. And why what makes living with us, sometimes, no walk in the park.
This is why we find it so difficult to go out of our way and serve others. Why we’ll walk all over others just to get our way. Its not the death surrounded us, dogging us. Its the death in us. The curse in our veins. And this is why we have joined that long walk of revel humanity to the grave. That long march east. Where Adam has led all of rebellious man.
A long march east also happens to be the direction that they were going in Nain. Archaeologists have found a large cemetery just east of Nain. That is where that weeping crowd was walking.
And there was a widow who had just lost her only son. The curse of death hit her hard. Not only had she lost her husband, but now she also is carrying her son to the grave. No wonder she wept. Her son was more than a son. He was her lifeline. He would've provided for her. Given her a roof over her head. Kept her clothed and fed and cared for. He was more than a son. He was a savior to his widowed mother.
Yet consider, beloved, the drama that makes us glad. They are going east, but someone else is coming from the East. Someone coming from the other direction. This procession of death, this long train, Satan out front with Adam and Eve, this widow’s son in line, you brining up the end, this procession was about to collide with a very different procession.
Its common courtesy to allow a funeral procession to have right of way. Not today. On these narrow streets of Nain there is One who going to put a stop to this march of death. One who will bring glands into this bitter scene. Joy into this sad spectacle.
Who will it be? An angel flying from the east to do a miracle? A heavenly being coming to flex his power? No, because no matter how majestic or powerful, no matter how fast those heavenly being are, they cannot give life. St Michael and his angels are awesome, but only God can give life to dirty men. Isaiah says it this way, Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, He who is splendid in His appeal, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save (Is 63:1).
The One who helped this day was not an angel with wings. But the God who took on feet. Who walked the ground of the earth cursed by your sin, to bless and give you life. He set His feet toward destroying death forever. To stop Satan dead in his tracks. To do what He did in the beginning when He breathed life into Adam. To do what He did through the prophet Elijah when He revived the son of the widow of Zarephath.
Christ is doing what He does so well. He gives life to the dead. He imparts joy in the midst of sadness. To redeem man from the afflictions of the devil. As you sang in the Psalm. To speak His Word of comfort into sadness, depression, terror, despair, doubt, the perils of death, and similar poisonous, fiery darts of the devil.
This is why He came. Adam wandered off to a tree that brought death. But Christ our Lord purposely set His feet to go to a Tree that would bring life to the world though it would mean for Him. The Tree of the Cross is where His beautiful feet were nailed in order to heal your straying feet. Where His legs bore the heavy weight of your sin and guilt. Where His lungs would be filled with your poisoned air, so that He could breathe the breath of life onto you.
He didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, so that you might be everything to Him. He was carried to the grave, His mother Mary weeping and His disciples having fled. Only for Him to triumph and bestow life on the dead.
In seeing Jesus’ feet you see the feet of God. The God who walked with Adam in the cool of the day. And seeing His heel, you see the fulfillment of the One promised to crush the head of Satan.
That’s what He does for the widow at Nain. And He does no less for you. He stops death dead in its tracks. He shows compassion by speaking and by touching. He speaks His Word of Gospel comfort to the widow: Stop weeping. And then He touches the open coffin. For He has come to extract the poison of death from you and draw it into Himself. In exchange He gives you His purity and righteousness.
This is what He does for you. He gathers you to Himself to speak a Word of Gospel, to forgive all your sins. Then He touches you with His Body and Blood in His Sacrament, bestowing on your His life and righteousness, feeding you the Medicine of Immortality which raises you from death. Even though you walk with Him through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil. For your sins are forgiven. All of them!
And you are given to join that great mass of truly alive people called the Church. We march through this world following Christ our Head. We stare into the grave, laughing with St Paul, mocking death, for we know its power has been destroyed and life and immortality are brought to life!
Because that widow tonight is a picture of the Church, is she not? The Church is a weeping Church. Torn apart by false preaching. Divided. Unfaithful and ambitious men are often her leaders. The doctrines of God are treated with contempt. The Commandments thrown out and rejected. She seems so weak and without hope. The Church’s own sons and daughters forget and abandon her. Hardly support her. Consider her insignificant and despise her. No wonder she is pictured as a widow. It seems like her son is taken away and gone forever.
But be glad. Stop weeping. For God comes again to His weeping Church and gives her back her Son. He does so at this Altar where Christ’s crucified and resurrected Body and Blood are presented and given to you again to forgive your sins. To enliven your hope. To give you courage under trials. Joy in the midst of sadness. And to teach you anew of the unfathomable goodness of God who does not just let you wander in this wilderness, but gathers you around Himself as His people.
We process through this world as God’s pilgrim people. Once we were not a people, but in Baptism we were claimed as His people. Despite the fact that we have not walked the walk, His grace always goes before and follows after us. We walk in the newness of life. A life that can never die. A life that is planted in you. The very life of the One who comes as the Sun rising in the east to give light and life to those in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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