Christ's Praised His Prophet Who Refused to Pretend

Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 24, 2017

Isaiah 40:6–8 and St. John 1:20

Christ's Praised His Prophet Who Refused to Pretend

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I.

John could have tried to be Jesus. For a while John could have said that he was the Christ. And it's a good bet that many people would've believed him, at least for a while.

John would have been able to return to civilization and gotten a haircut. He could have gotten free home-cooked meals instead of eating grasshoppers and honey. He could have put on comfortable clothes instead of his animal skins.

He could have had it all, but when asked directly if he was the Christ, he said,

I am not the Christ.

JOHN 1:20

Perhaps his conscience prevented him from claiming to be the Son of God. But he could have settled for being Elijah. That would have been good. The Pharisees would have been interested in meeting an 800-year old Elijah, back from the dead. They would have listened to that prophet. But John said he wasn't Elijah, either.

Instead he quoted a different prophet, Isaiah, and used his words to point these men to the true Christ.

I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”

JOHN 1:23

John patiently explained to his Jewish cousins that the Lord was coming soon. Therefore, it was time to get ready for His arrival. The Jews who heard John quote Isaiah would have known the words that followed this straight-way making.

A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

ISAIAH 40:6-8

We get ready for Christ just as John did. We confess freely that we are grass, just fading blades of grass. Our lives are short, 70 or 80 years, if we have the strength. Our lives make no lasting impact. You will be remember for three generations, four if you're lucky, but no further. Some humans grasp for legacy through art, politics, medicine, or exploration.

And we do know some names: Michelangelo and John Wayne, Lincoln and Kennedy, Salk and Crick, Armstrong and Grissom and Ed White. Schools and buildings and bridges bear their names.

And you do know a few things that they did, but you don't really know them, so you can't really remember them as a fellow human being. So even our most famous fellow blades of grass are forgotten and in the end they changed nothing essential to our human life. Sure Neil and Buzz landed on the moon, and we got Velcro^® out of it, but nothing really has changed.

We are just blades of grass. While occasionally a blade of grass might end up on your kitchen floor and that little bit gets a bit more attention than the billions of other blades that are mowed and left to rot in the field, in the end it too dries up and blows away.

II.

So it is odd that Jesus praised one of these blades of grass.

John had freely confessed that he was grass, here today and gone tomorrow. John said that he was not even worthy to untie Jesus' sandals. He refused to pretend to be anything more than grass.

Yet Jesus praised John.

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.

MATTHEW 11:11-14

John had said that he wasn't Elijah, but Jesus said that he was! Jesus didn't mean that John was the dead Elijah brought back down from heaven. He meant that John was the promised prophet who spoke boldly like Elijah of old. He was the forerunner whom God had promised would arrive before the Christ and announce His coming.

John is the promised Elijah; Jesus is the promised Christ.

Jesus didn't need John (or Elijah, for that matter). But He chose to need John. He gave John life in the womb of his barren mother. He put John under orders to go out and preach repentance and baptize sinners. John didn't go on his own. Christ chose to need John and sent him out.

III.

With the same mercy Jesus chooses to need you. He sends you out, but not into the wilderness. He sends you back into your life. He sends you into His Word to confess freely that you are a blade of grass who is joyfully waiting for the coming Christ. Paul promised that the Lord is near. These final days of waiting will pass quickly and so we rejoice and are glad. John had been dead for many years when Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Philippi, but surely they capture John's joy in the coming Christ. Our joy, too.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

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!

Lift Up Your Heads

Second Sunday of Advent

December 10, 2017

Luke 21:28

Lift Up Your Heads

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Lord commands us to do several things in today’s Gospel:

lift up your heads;

know that the kingdom of God is near;

watch yourselves;

stay alert.

LUKE 21:28,31,34,36 EHV

Jesus' commands all revolve around seeing and believing and correctly understanding what is happening.

We are expected to be able to see the distress of nations, the decline of civilization, and the degradation that comes with fear as clearly as signs in sun and moon and stars. Yet we are told not to run and hide, but to pray and to straighten up and lift our heads.

These horrors are to be interpreted like buds on a fig tree. It is not winter that is coming, it is summer. It is not destruction and desolation and famine that is coming.

The fig tree is budding.

Your redemption draws near.

The devil, the world, and our fallen flesh are thrashing about in death throes. It is horrific, terrifying, devastating. But they will pass away. Thanks be to God: they will pass away, but the Word of the Lord will not pass away.

So watch yourselves, says the Lord, so that you don't think that the worst thing that can happen in this life is physical death. Watch yourselves so that your second worst fear is unhappiness.

But everything is going to be okay, because Christ has died for you.

And now our redemption draws near.

If they must, then let the seas rise and the poles melt and the earth itself burn.

Our redemption draws near.

Take they goods, fame, child, and wife, take they food, music, and laughter: they yet have nothing won. The Kingdom ours remaineth.

Our redemption draws near.

So straighten up. Raise your heads. Look not to the things of this world or to politicians or to movements or even to the doctor’s sad news. Look not to Facebook or Instagram.

Our redemption is drawing near.

It is not just Christmas that is coming. The Last Day, the time when heaven and earth pass away, when horrors and terror will be on every hand, that is coming.

But it will not be a horror for the Baptized who are now trapped in prison, caught in the web of our sins, waiting for our redemption to draw near. Soon we will rejoice and exult and lift up our heads.

And it isn’t just the Last Day that is coming, even now, right now, the Lord Himself comes. He comes here, now, into the midst of our guilt, our fears and our sorrows.

Lift up your heads.

Your redemption draws near now, here, in this place. He speaks in His Word. His Spirit stirs your heart and you believe. His Absolution presents you to His Father as His own dear, immaculate and holy bride.

He comes now, in His Flesh, and enters into you with His risen Body and Blood consummating the marriage, strengthening your faith, and forgiving your sins.

Echoing the Lord’s words from today’s Gospel the pastor turns to us each Sunday and commands “Lift up your hearts” and we say: “We lift them up to the Lord.” What we mean by this is that we want to stop thinking about other stuff. However inattentive we’ve been to this point in the Service, whatever grudges we might have been holding, whatever lusts or fantasies we might have been indulging, let us forsake all sin now.

Let us repent and come before the Lord’s risen Body and Blood with awe and joy and thanksgiving.

We lift our hearts up to the Lord where they belong, not high in heaven, but we lift them up to the Altar, not to be sacrificed, but we lift up them to the altar where He promises to be for us in order to receive the benefit and blessing of the One who Sacrificed Himself for us on the Holy Cross. We lift them up there, now, here, to receive Him as worthily as we might, that is with faith and confidence that His Word is true, that His invitation is valid and makes us worthy, and that He is here for us and truly forgives our sins.

This is your redemption, your Christ, who draws near. The one who died for you and has declared you righteous before His Father comes now in Word and Sacrament to bless you and encourage you. Soon He will also come in glory. He will finish the good work He has begun in you.

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!

At Just the Right Time

First Sunday of Advent

December 3, 2017

Matthew 21:4–5

At Just the Right Time

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

— MATTHEW 21:1–5 —

Jesus wasn't making His list and checking it twice. That is, He wasn't accomplishing His plan of salvation by ticking off boxes on checklist written on a scroll tucked up His sleeve.

It wasn't as though Jesus woke up on Palm Sunday, five days before He was crucified, and thought to Himself, “Okay, what prophecies do I need to fulfill today? Oh, right, I have to ride on a donkey today.”

The eternal Son of God who created not the idea of time, but Time itself, chose to live in time and in our history. But while He chose to limit His use of His divine power for a time, it wasn't ever controlling Him.

On the other hand, Time certainly pushes us around. And no other time than now. We have obligations to fulfill. Lists to make. Items to order. Tickets to buy. Boxes to wrap. Lights to hang. Trees to chop (or assemble).

And then the world has the audacity to say that if you don't get it all done in time, you haven't had Christmas.

Christ came to earth to tell you that everything's going to be okay. He was born so that everything would be okay. He rode into Jerusalem so that everything would be okay.

The crowds were exactly right to shout hosanna to Jesus because it meant that everything was going to be okay. Hosanna means save us and our dear Lord did just that. His royal death on a lowly cross was the sacrifice for all our sin.

We use our time badly, sinfully even, but everything's still going to be okay because Jesus is on the cross for us. That's why He came. He promised to die and He did for us.

And so shortly before receiving His true body and blood for our salvation, we joyfully sing the words that proclaim His arrival, His advent:

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

The deeds prophesied about Jesus weren't dictating what He would be doing on each day of His life on earth. Instead, it is better to think of it like this: Jesus simply did what He does and the prophets inspired by God simply wrote down what was already as good as done at just the right time:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

— ROMANS 5:6–8 —

Amen.

A Wake-Up Call from Christ

Last Sunday of the Church Year

November 26, 2017

Matthew 25:13

A Wake-Up Call from Christ

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

The parable is a warning, ending with this command from Christ:

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

MATTHEW 25:13 NIV 1984

The warning is that it’s possible to lose faith in Christ. It’s possible to give up hope that He is coming back.

The foolish virgins aren’t those who were confirmed and then immediately quit coming to Church. The foolish virgins are those who stuck it out, who served on committees, who pitched in on potlucks, and put their offering envelopes into the plate. But the Bridegroom was delayed, and as time passed they gave up hope that Jesus would ever come.

The wise virgins are not paragons of Christian virtue. They also fell asleep. They were told to stay awake and to watch, but they failed. But despite their sin, the wise virgins still expected the Bridegroom to come. They had more than the outward trappings of Christianity. They had oil, which here means faith in Christ.

And that's what saves: faith, and not good works. When Jesus the Bridegroom comes back, what you need is the faith that receives His promise. And His promise is that He died for those who fail.

This parable is well aware of the wise virgins sleeping, but it doesn't call them hypocrites. They aren’t hypocrites because even in their failure, they have faith. They hang on to the promise that the Bridegroom is coming back.

In the parable oil—faith—is what matters, not staying awake. But don’t read here that good works don’t matter. It matters when we don’t come to church or serve on committees or give of ourselves. While the parable is warning us that those things aren’t enough, it should make us want to dare to examine our lives, even our faith, and see if we’ve been sleeping. Christ told this story to stir us up. He wants to make us uncomfortable.

He wants to do this because He wants us to repent. We have fallen asleep and acted selfishly. We have not believed as we should. We have pushed what we know is right to the back of our minds, we have pretended that God wasn’t watching or wouldn’t care, so that we could enjoy our sins or pretend to not notice.

We have dangled our fingers in shark infested waters. We have neglected our prayers. We have allowed ourselves to become cynics and thought ourselves realists and we have not served our neighbors. We have been told to watch, but none of us has watched as we should. Repent, wake up, for no one knows when the Son of Man will return and we don’t want to be caught in sin.

We should also notice that the Lord treats the wise virgins as though they never fell asleep. He holds nothing against them. He died to save them from their failure to stay awake, so their sins aren’t going to stop Him.

This is why the hymn, “Wake, Awake” is so exuberant. The parable is a warning, but the hymn can’t wait. “Wake, Awake” is a call to repentance that fills the believers with joy. The cry “repent” is welcomed by those who have fallen into sin and want to be rescued.

The Bridegroom doesn’t come in terror to His bride, but in mercy. He comes to bring us into the bridal chamber.

First He declares us to be virgins, to be pure, holy, and innocent that He might bring us to the destiny of virgins. For we aren’t simply bridesmaids at this wedding. He is the groom; we are the bride. He joins us to Himself in Holy Communion by mystic union, His flesh entering into us. And in that sacred act He joins us also to the Father and the Spirit.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Amen.

When Thanksgiving Eats

Day of Thanksgiving

November 22, 2017

Luke 10:42

When Thanksgiving Eats

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

Thanksgiving in our way of speaking implies us doing something. There are many parts of your body that do the work of thanksgiving.

Your brain by remembering.

Your legs by taking you to church.

Your tongue by speaking and singing.

Your heart and hands by praying.

What about your hands and your stomach? Can they give thanks?

I think Martha from the Gospel of Saint Luke thought so. I think she's right. She was giving thanks to her Savior by feeding Him. She was using her hands to make food for Him and His followers.

Think of Grandma on Thanksgiving. What does she want from you? To gush about the dressing or the turkey or the pie?

No, she just wants you to be there at the table, eat, and get along with everybody. You give thanks by receiving her food and we call that eating. That's thanks enough for her because that's her vocation—to serve and care for her family.

So part of thanksgiving is giving the food. But another part is receiving the food. And this is especially true of how we give thanks to God.

Part of thanksgiving is the remembering, worshiping, speaking, singing, and praying. But another part of thanksgiving is receiving His gifts.

Like the annual coming to Grandma's Thanksgiving table in family unity and eating her food—only far, far better—Christians come to the Lord's table in unity of faith and eat and drink the Lord's supper. This eating and drinking gives us life and salvation because of the Word of Christ.

On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23B-24 CSB

Jesus gave thanks as He celebrated His Holy Supper with His friends. He gave them His body under the bread and in thanksgiving they received the bread of life for their salvation.

Jesus wasn't telling Martha that her bread for their stomachs wasn't important; He was telling her that His Word is the bread that gives life whether stomachs are stuffed or empty.

There are many good ways to give thanks: with our brains, hearts, tongues, and hands. But the best way to give thanks is to keep on receiving the one thing needed, the Word of God, that says: “Take, eat, this is My body given for you. Take, drink, this is My blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin.”

In this thanksgiving meal of the Lord,

as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23B-24 CSB

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Amen.

You Did It For Me

Second Last Sunday of the Church Year

November 19, 2017

Matthew 25:40

You Did It For Me

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

Why do you make sure that your wife knows who fixed the dripping faucet?

Why do you make sure to let your husband know that you changed the dirty diaper?

Why do you tell your parents that you put away your backpack?

What's the common thread here?

All these things justify ourselves to others. We show that we have value; we are worth keeping around.

This is the way much of the world's population has lived and will continue to live: they need to prove that they are good. Some are trying to prove it to God; others are trying to prove it to other people.

Their natural and chosen way of living makes them all shopkeepers. They are always adding things up and balancing the scales.

Am I getting a good enough return on investment?

Are my nice deeds being noticed?

Is my life making me happy?

But it's never enough. On the outside they might do a good job of pretending that things are going well, but the pressure to be worthy is always there. They believe that lasting happiness and endless love are just a day away, if they just try harder.

The one sin they will never commit is confessing this way of life is sinful. It is sinful and deadly because it rejects Jesus as Savior from sin. These people admit they aren't perfect, but they claim to be without sin. And since they reject their sin, they reject the Savior from sin.

They are the ultimate Do-It-Yourself-ers and just like the guy at the K & K who asks what the jig-a-ma-thig is for, they are going to ruin everything.

At the end of life, they will hear Jesus declare His judgment of all their deeds:

‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.’ ⁴⁴They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ ⁴⁵He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ ⁴⁶Then they will go away to eternal punishment

MATTHEW 25:41b–46a NIV 1984

Even at the end they are trying to argue their case, “When could we have done all these things?” They still cling to the illusion that they can justify themselves—just give us more time and we'll do it and better.

Near the end of the Athanasian Creed, the events of Matthew 25 are summed up:

At His coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.

Jesus speaks of judgment based on personal deeds, our fruits of faith. But He's not judging based on your self-worth or performance. He's giving mercy because of who you are. And who you are is what He's made you to be.

You were a creature with no value and no worth. At birth you were only worthy to be thrown into eternal fire because you were worthless. Scripture is clear:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; ¹¹there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. ¹²All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

ROMANS 3:10b–12 NIV 1984

You hear these words and protest, but not because it is untrue, but because it is! It's the child who broke the vase who gets defensive when accused of breaking the vase, not the kid who was in another room drawing on the wall. And this is just as true, if not more so, when adults are caught out.

Our hope is not in proving we are worth. We have none. Our hope is not in arguing with God—we have no case, only crates upon crates of damning evidence.

Our only hope is Christ and the worth He gives you. In Holy Baptism He took a corpse and made it alive. He made little Ezekeihal alive yesterday in Baptism; He made you alive in Baptism years ago. Ezekeihal's vocation is to be a baby and a Christian, which are very alike. Both are all about receiving. Good things are done for us and to us. We live because we receive food.

In time we acquire new vocations, new people to care for. And you care for them, not because you are trying to show your worth, but because you're alive. Living people feed other human beings, clothe them, visit them, and care for them when they're sick.

You don't owe God anything for the sake of Christ Jesus. On the cross He gave up His life; His death sends away all owing. It is finished.

And so we live without any debt to God, without pressure to justify our worth, because our worth is Jesus. We now live for others and serve them and care for them. These are our personal deeds that Christ judges as our fruits of faith.

This is why you will be puzzled by Jesus' commendation, “When did we help You, Jesus?” You were just living, the faucet got fixed, the diaper got changed, the backpack got hung up, and all the rest of it. And then Christ will return and

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.’

MATTHEW 25:40 NIV 1984

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Amen.

For a fuller treatment on Vocation, see this Podcast.

The Lord Speaks and We Leave It All Behind

Third Last Sunday of the Church Year

November 12, 2017

Matthew 24:15–16

The Lord Speaks and We Leave It All Behind

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

“When you see the abomination of desolation,” says our dear Lord, “flee.” He doesn’t say that we should stay and fight. Even though we really want to.

What we’re fighting for is our stuff. We hang on to dear life with all our power. Why? Do we want to continue in sorrow, in pain? People are forever telling me they aren’t afraid to die, but I don’t believe them. I don’t believe you. You’re hanging on to your stuff and you don’t want to let it go. That not wanting to let it go is fear.

It is as though our dear Lord pops His head in the door and says, “Grab you stuff, we’re going. Wait. Leave your stuff. It’s only stuff. Don’t look back. Don’t bend down to grab your jacket. Leave now.”

But we like that jacket. And we like the earrings our mother left us and a favorite book and a fancy bottle of single malt we’ve been saving. We like our families. We like the grandchildren and the old friends. We like our pets and we like our place. It is all stuff even when wrapped up in pious talk.

The world is coming to an end. Good riddance. What are we afraid of losing? Name the thing you can’t live without. Music? Freedom? A child? Luther says that is your god. That is what you won’t let go off. That is why you fear death. Repent.

We aren’t so prone to turning statues into gods, nor do we normally turn to evil things. We turn to good things. We make gods of wives, jobs, children, reputations. We worship health, money, and pleasure. Those are the things we think we need. But the Lord pops His head in the door and says, “Let’s go. Leave it. Flee.”

This world is coming to an end. It is under a death sentence. It can’t go on. And our hope cannot be in it, cannot be in stuff of this world.

There is the good news here: The Lord can, and the Lord has, and the Lord does bring a clean thing out of an unclean. He has reached into the septic tank where we were feeding, grabbed us, wiped us off, and given us good food and drink, a place in His house, and a Name. Do we now become nostalgic for cucumbers floating in the toilet?

Flee the abomination of desolation. Your body is God’s temple and in it lives your lying flesh that is always trying to get justice, instead of receiving mercy. There are incidents when abominations have been erected in God's house: a Zeus statue in the Temple, a pope masquerading as God’s voice on earth. But the worst is within you.

Leave behind your justifications, your need to excuse your lack of care for the poor, your need to protest that you are not afraid to die, or that you’ve done your best or that, at least, your kids are good people even if they don’t go to church and live in sin.

You don’t need to justify yourself. The Lord has justified you. He has answered for you. In Christ, there is no one left to accuse you, nothing to answer for. You don’t owe anybody anything, not even God.

Does that sound too easy? God’s mercy always chafes against our fallen flesh, but this is what God has done in Christ: He brings a clean thing out of an unclean.

But that is not yet the whole good news: that God brings a clean thing out of an unclean. Here’s a bit more. St. Paul writes:

We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:14 NIV 1984

Here hangs our hope, the end of all our need for stuff: Jesus died and rose again. What of those who have fallen asleep? Since Jesus died and rose again they will be brought with Him, with Jesus, through Jesus.

But that is still not all. For what of you who are alive when the end comes? Since Jesus died and rose again, and has ascended to His Father’s right as your Advocate and Savior, He will descend. He will come for you. You don’t go to Him. He comes to you. Since Jesus has died and rose again, you will be caught up, either from beneath the earth where you have been resting or from the surface of the earth, snatched away, into the clouds, to be always with the Lord.

Still, that is not all. For He is not a passive God. He does not sit and wait to see what you will do. He does not ask you to explain yourself. He intervenes for you, answers for you. He who came in lowly, despised ways to be a Sacrifice for sin, He still comes. He comes now, not just in the future, but He comes now to get you. Even if He does not yet come in clouds while the world burns, still He comes now. You don’t go to Him. He comes to you. He bestows life in His risen Body and Blood, separating you from your stuff and from death.

Ours is a faith built upon history, the historic fact of Christ crucified, the innocent and pure desolated as an abomination for all our vile sin. Here is the source of our Life in Christ.

Ours is a faith that also, even as it gathers around the cross, looks forward, eagerly, to the Kingdom of glory. Jesus is coming back. We will be with Him always.

But ours is a faith that lives now, in the present. We confess: “Jesus lives.” He lives now. And now, here in time, here in this building, here upon this altar, the Lord comes with forgiveness, acceptance, and refreshment in His physical Body and Blood for us physical sinners. Jesus lives. He comes also in His Holy Word and Absolution, in Hymn and Chant. He speaks the Baptized clean. And He hears the fervent prayers of His people. His Name is upon us and He comes for us.

Now is the day of salvation. This is the day that the Lord hath made. The world is coming to an end. Good riddance. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

Adapted from a sermon by the Rev. David H. Petersen.