Listen to Our Father's Beloved Son

THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

The Baptism and Transfiguration of Our Lord

January 21, 2018

ST. LUKE 9:35 & ST. MATTHEW 17:5

Listen to Our Father's Beloved Son

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

Listening is hard.

Listening to your teacher is hard.

Listening to your co-workers is hard.

Listening to your pastor is hard.

Listening to your spouse is hard.

It's hard because we want to control what we listen to. We want to be in charge and choose what we put into our ears.

So your teacher is telling the assignment, but you'd rather focus on what you going to do once school is done.

So your co-worker is telling you the features of the latest product, but you'd rather think about the bills you have to pay when you're done with work.

So your pastor is preaching the sermon, but you'd rather think about assignments are due at work this coming week.

So your wife is telling you that your newborn is doing something amazing (again!), but you'd rather keep listening to what going on in Washington.

Sound waves entering your ears is easy, but we care more about ourselves than anything else that is happening. We'll listen carefully if the fireman is giving you instructions on get off the burning second floor, but you want to save your life.

We love ourselves and the words of others only matter if they pay attention to ME.

In other words, listening is hard because we're selfish.

When it comes to listening to Jesus, we're selfish there, too. Case in point: Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration.

ST. LUKE 9:28–32 About eight days after Jesus said this, He took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹As He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰Two men, Moses and Elijah, ³¹appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³²Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. NIV 1984

Peter was in a life-and-death situation. He was confronted with the glory of God. Men cannot survive the glory of God. The Lord God is holy; sin cannot exist with holiness. This is why sinful Adam and Eve hid from God; they instinctively knew that sin and holiness cannot coexist.

Yet Peter, that sinful man, who should have remained silent and paid attention to holy men speaking on the mountain, choose to listen to himself. So he spoke.

ST. LUKE 9:33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) NIV 1984

In and of itself Peter's advice was fine. He wanted to build a church. A house of God where we can receive His glory.

But that wasn't the point. The point wasn't we do or what we build; it was listening to Jesus and what He builds. To make sure that Peter didn't miss Jesus, God the Father interrupted his pious intentions.

ST. LUKE 9:34–35 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” NIV 1984

Listen to Him. The holy men—Moses and Elijah—were speaking with Jesus about His departure, They were talking about how Jesus would exit this world, through suffering and death. This way of departure was the reason for Jesus coming down to the earth. It would be a disgraceful exit from this world. Criminals taunted Him, Pharisees mocked Him, soldiers beat Him, women wept for Him, His own disciples ran away from Him, including Peter, James, and John—abandoned by His own and scorned by everyone else. Abandoned and scorned because none had listened to Him. They hadn't listen when Jesus told them what was going to happen to Him.

MARK 10:32–34 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again He took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to Him. He said, “We are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles, who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.” NIV 1984

We'll never know what it was like to live through those holy days of our Lord's death and resurrection. But I'm certain that we would have been just as hopeless at listening to Jesus and remembering His words as Peter, James, and John. We wouldn't have connected the dots, either.

I make this guess based on how often we don't listen to Jesus right now. Jesus told Peter, James, and John that terrible things would happen to Him because of us; Jesus tells us that bad things will happen to us because of Him. And when those bad things happen, like when people who are supposed to listen to us, don't, we're surprised. When we don't listen carefully to those we are supposed to listen to, we get defensive instead of listening to Jesus.

When we sin by failing to care for those we are supposed to care for, listen to Jesus who tells you to repent and hear Him say, “I forgive you,” through your pastor or your fellow believer, probably the person you didn't listen to.

Let His caring words ring out in our ears and in our mouths and in our hearts. Jesus didn't come to earth to teach you the art of communication, but by listening to Him carefully, you will become a more careful listener in fits and starts because the more you listen to Jesus, the more you will learn that life doesn't revolve around you. You don't owe Jesus anything, but you are here to serve the people who are within earshot: teachers, co-workers, pastors, spouses.

You are alive because Jesus died for you. You have hearing ears because Jesus set aside His glory to carry the cross for you. You listen to Him and others because He has made into someone who cares.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thanks be to God!

AUDIO

His First Miracle Is Like Today's Miracle

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

January 14, 2018

ST. JOHN 2:1–11

His First Miracle Is Like Today's Miracle

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

Does anyone ever really deserve wine?

Or for that matter, more wine?

Unlike our friends in other Christian confessions who teetotal, who never touch a drop of alcohol, we know that wine is a good gift from our Lord Jesus, the creator of dirt, rain, vines, and fermentation.

But we also know that to overindulge in any of God's gifts is sinful. This is particularly obvious with wine.

Since we are so prone to actively overindulge in God's gifts, whether wine or humility or money or family, we prove ourselves to be exactly what the Lord reveals to us about ourselves:

All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. ROMANS 3:12 NIV 1984

So does anyone ever deserve wine, or any gift from the Lord? No, not really.

This is certainly true for us.

And it was true for the presumably tipsy wedding guests at Cana.

And it was true for the hapless bridegroom, who hadn't bought enough wine (he had one job, just one—make sure there's enough food and wine for the guests).

But our Lord risks being forgotten while His gifts are worshiped in His place. He makes possible His good gifts of wine and food and love. Even the version of love found in the weddings and marriages of those who don't trust in Him is only possible because of the true love that Christ has poured out for this world.

Since it seems like this was a family wedding, perhaps a cousin of His was the bridegroom (just a guess, though), His mother Mary comes to Him and asked for His help. (We might have reacted, “Mom, I'm not going to bail out cousin Enoch again. He's never prepared, even for his own wedding. It's his problem.”)

But Jesus isn't us. He is our merciful Lord, who gives us the opposite of what we deserve. But His answer to His mother seems brusque, and it's even curt in the original Greek, which literally goes: “What to Me and to you, woman?”

He rebukes Mary reminding her that God can’t be compelled with the law. Men don’t deserve wine. They have no right to complain. They don’t deserve mercy. They don’t deserve good things. God isn’t moved by their demands or wishes, but He is moved by their need.

Mary accepts the rebuke. She tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” She doesn’t know what He will tell them. He might not tell them anything. He might ignore them. He might tell them to go home, party's over.

Mary doesn’t know what He will tell them, but despite the rebuke, she believes and trusts that the Lord is compassionate. He loves weddings. He loves celebrations. He loves joy. She trusts that whatever He tells them to do will be good—even if it is unpleasant. Whatever He tells them to do will serve, ultimately, the good of His people.

That is faith. Faith expects good things from God. It trusts Him to keep His promises, to be our God, that is, to be on our side, for us, with us.

We faithfully wait on the Lord.

Now to our eyes His gifts take a while like wine, or a marriage. In most marriages Jesus usually doesn't bail out the husband who forgets the anniversary with a magical wrapped box of chocolates next to the garage door.

And the gifts that He does give often don't feel gifts: noisy healthy kids, too many clothes, too much stuff. The world laughs at marriage and says the answer is to run away, have some me-time, and drink some wine.

The answer isn't more of you, not more me-time, but more Jesus, more Communion with Him, more of His Words in your ears.

Do you have a spouse who won't listen? Take it to the Lord in prayer: ask Him to give you and your spouse ears and hearts to listen carefully to each other. Your spouse may listen; they may not ever seem to listen. But in your petitions don't think about how you will look to your spouse or to the rest of your family or to your friends. Do not worry about looking blameless or trying to prove that you are the one put upon by your spouse. Rather give them mercy—give them the opposite of what they deserve. If they seem not to listen to you, listen even more carefully to them. And in truth, your spouse, perhaps sitting next to you now, is thinking the same thing.

Repent. Turn to Jesus and be forgiven. And live in His mercy. And as a living person, be merciful in turn.

Marriage is hard. Life is hard. You need more Jesus. And so His first miracle performed at Cana is followed up by His miracle among us today: His blood and body is under His wine and bread for our forgiveness. He saves us with His Word with the wine.

Like the bridegroom we are unprepared and undeserving. But Jesus sees our need and gives us what we need: the gift of Himself.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thanks be to God!


AUDIO

To Be Among My Father's Things

First Sunday after the Epiphany

January 7, 2018

St. Luke 2:49

To Be Among My Father's Things

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

The shame of the Virgin Mary

An obedient child is easy to neglect. And so it is that Our Lord’s parents assume He is with them.

And when the Virgin Mary found Him in the Temple, she felt the shame of having left a twelve-year old unattended for three days. Perhaps the shame was compounded because the Temple was the last place they looked.

Because of that shame, she lashed out. She accused Him of having made her feel that way, claiming that it was His fault.

Repent.

We choose to feel the way we feel. We choose our reactions. We may be provoked, but that doesn’t excuse us. No one makes us angry. Rather, we give in to our anger. We blame others at every step. It is possible to have righteous anger. Jesus did not sin when He cleansed that very same Temple years later.

But most of the things about which we’re angry, if we examine them, reveal our self-righteousness. We have a tendency to think that we know more than people in authority. We think that we are smarter and have more common sense. We assume that our motives are good and those of others are self-serving. We give in not to righteous anger but to self-righteousness.

Having done one bad thing, neglected her Son, the Virgin Mary made it worse by panicking and then blaming Him.

His rebuke was gentle. He did chastise her when He says: “Why were you looking for Me?” That means, in part, “how is that I came to be lost? What went wrong? Whose responsibility was it?”

But it also hinted at the answer. They were looking for Him not just because He is their charge and He was lost, but also because He is their Savior and they were lost without Him.

The next bit has bite as well. He wants them to remember that contrary to Mary’s heated accusation, Joseph is not His Father according to the flesh but only His guardian.

Mainly, however, our Lord confesses who He is and what He is about. He must be among His Father’s things.

“Why were you searching for Me? Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s house?”

LUKE 2:49 NIV 1984

The things of My Father

Our translations here all fail. I don’t know why. St. Luke doesn’t record either the word “house” or “business.” He also doesn’t render it in the first person. It is not “I must.” Rather it is simply “It is necessary.” So literally rendered it would read: “Did you not know that it is necessary for Me to be among My Father’s things?” (οὐκ ᾔδειτε ὅτι ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου δεῖ εἶναί με;)

It is necessary to leave “it is necessary” in that form. That form indicates prophecy. Here our Lord announced the necessity of His betrayal, beating, and crucifixion. It's not that translating “I must be in My Father’s House” is way off but it misses the nuance and fails to connect this saying with the predictions of the crucifixion—connections that need to be made—for the Virgin Mary and for us.

The next problem is rendering “things” as either business or house. Business is not that bad, but not that good. House is terrible. House simply inserts the idea from the space and not from the words. The idea is not all bad, but it misses the edge of the sword, and swords are all about the edge.

Jesus is not in His Father’s House. He is among His Father’s things. What things? The lampstand, the altar of incense, the altar for whole burnt offerings, and the like. He is there among the stuff of sacrifice, in the midst of the stuff that renders God’s people clean through blood and reconciles them to the Father that they might bring their prayers and petitions to Him. The entire purpose of the Temple was to give God’s people safe access to Him. God doesn’t need the Temple. We do.

Jesus is not simply there near and around that stuff, among His Father’s things, rather the point is that is what He is.

He is one of the Temple things, one of His Father’s things, one of the things that God gave for cleansing and forgiving the people. In fact, He is THE Thing.

He is where He belongs, not simply in His Father’s House, but on the Altar, as the Priest and the Victim. Where else would He be?

We live in the third day

Here is another little clue from St. Luke that this is about more than a lost child: they find Him on the third day. That is not accidental. Luke isn’t merely foreshadowing the Resurrection, though He is doing that, but He is also telling us where to find Jesus.

We live in the third day, post-Resurrection, when every day is Easter.

So where is Jesus?

Just as He was finished with cleansing the Temple in His good and right anger, the Jews confronted Him.

The Jews then responded to Him, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do all this?”

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and You are going to raise it in three days?”

But the temple He had spoken of was His body.

After He was raised from the dead, His disciples recalled what He had said.

Then they believed the Scripture and the Words that Jesus had spoken.

ST. JOHN 2:18–22 NIV

The new temple is the Gospel, received by ear and mouth

He is among His Father’s things.

But isn't the Temple gone? No, it isn’t.

They tore it down and He built it again on the third day. That is the Temple of the Lord, that is where God dwells and abides with men, where men have safe access to the Father—in Jesus Christ, who is the new and greater Temple—risen from the dead.

So where is He?

He is present in His Body and Blood, in His Holy Word, in His gathered people, in the preaching of His Gospel, and the Holy Absolution. Here is where you find Jesus, where He remains for you.

So it is that our Lord welcomes back His mother Mary. He even submits to her.

He welcomes you as well. He didn’t die in vain. Your sins, even your fits of angry blame, do not stop His love. He is faithful to the end, patient and long-suffering. His mercy endures forever. Treasure these things up in your heart, bend the knee and submit to the grace of God in Christ Jesus, be fed, be forgiven, be here.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thanks be to God!

With thanks to the Rev. David Peterson.
His Epiphany preaching was the basis of this sermon.


AUDIO

A Gift for the Magi

Feast of Epiphany

January 6, 2018

St. Matthew 2:1–12

A Gift for the Magi

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

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These were the gifts that the Magi brought from the East to present to Christ. But the most important Gift given in that house in Bethlehem was Christ Himself.

This King was God's gift to the world. This Baby Boy came to offer Himself as the sacrifice that would restore humanity from evil to righteousness. By faith in this Gift, this Immanuel, we are no longer God's enemies; we are now His children.

So the gifts the Magi gave to the Gift were entirely appropriate, perhaps more fitting that they realized at the time.

The gold is always a good gift for any king and this treasure doubtless paid for the family's escape from Herod's murderous clutches down to Egypt.

The frankincense reminds us of Jesus' deity—using incense was a key part of the worship in the Lord's Temple. The smoke went up to heaven, symbolizing the prayers of God's people, that would be answered in this promised Child.

The myrrh pointed ahead to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that killed Him. Myrrh was used as a painkiller and was mixed with wine and offered to Jesus on the cross, which He refused to drink.

And upon His death myrrh was used, along with aloe, to wrap His dead body in linen, before being placed in the new tomb, which in three more days would empty again.

Christ is the King of kings and the Answer to our prayers and the One who died to save us.

All of this makes Him the Gift for the Magi and for the whole world. He was and is and ever shall be for us.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thanks be to God!


Audio

The Name That Saves

Sunday after Christmass

December 31, 2017

St. Luke 2:21

The Name That Saves

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

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise Him, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.

LUKE 2:21 NIV 1984

On the eighth day of Jesus' life, His destiny is revealed in His name and in His circumcision. On this day He was given His name that His angel had delivered to His guardian and caretaker:

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

MATTHEW 1:20–21 NIV 1984

The name “Jesus” in those days was a popular name. There are examples of others named Jesus in the Bible. But God's Son picked Jesus to be His name not because it was popular, but because He would make His name come true. Jesus means He saves.

This saving began with His conception by the Holy Spirit in blessed Mary's virgin womb. It began there because Jesus had to become what He was going to save. He had to become a human to save humans.

Consider this pencil. It is not greedy. It is not lustful. It is not envious of anyone. But what does its perfection do for you? Nothing!

Jesus would not save us by being a perfect pencil or a sinless angel or a faithful dog. He had to become a human to save humans. And the only way to save us was to offer His perfect blood to pay for our guilt and sin. God became a man so that He could bleed for us.

So on this eighth day of Jesus' life, He was circumcised. Now it might seem strange to celebrate this event in Jesus' life, since for most people these days circumcision is simply a medical procedure done without any fanfare. But from the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus, circumcision was the symbolic guarantee of the unity between God and His people.

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

GENESIS 17:9-14 NIV 1984

Based on the promise of the coming Savior that was already as good as done in the time of Abraham, circumcision was established by the Lord God to make Abraham's children His children.

In our day, the Lord has given us Holy Baptism for all sinners of all ages, for boys and girls. Baptism has replaced circumcision, which was only for Israelite boys. St. Paul explains:

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

COLOSSIANS 2:9–11 NIV 1984

Jesus Christ was both circumcised as an Israelite baby boy and our sinless Savior was baptized as though He was a sinner. This is because He serves as the vital link between the time of His promises—what we call the Old Testament—and the time of His fulfillment of His promises—the New Testament. He said He would be born and die in our place; He did.

And so Simeon holds the New Testament in his sinful hands. In his hands is Salvation Himself named Jesus, the One who saves us. So it is right, good, and salutary for us to pick up Simeon's chorus after we have received the Lord's Supper for our eyes have seen the Lord's salvation, which He has prepared before the face of all people. Like Simeon you hold Salvation Himself in your hands and receive Him on your tongue. You hear the One who saves as He promises that His body and blood forgives your sin and unites you to His body, the holy Christian Church.

Like Simeon you now depart in peace because Christ came not as a pencil or angel or dog, but as a true man for your salvation.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thanks be to God!