Martyrs of the Church

Reformation

October 28, 2012

Martyrs of the Church

Mark 13:9

In name of Jesus. Amen.

You've heard of Martin Luther. But you've never heard of Robert Barnes.

Robert Barnes was an Englishman. He died 500 years ago. He met Dr. Luther in Wittenberg, heard his preaching, and became convinced that the true Gospel was a promise, not a demand.

He returned home and became the first Lutheran in England. From his pulpits in Cambridge and London, he preached justification by faith alone to his fellow countrymen. He preached the free forgiveness of sins on account of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. In the end Dr. Barnes was caught up in the political schemes of King Henry VIII and those around him. Dr. Barnes was burnt at the stake.

Jesus knew of Dr. Barnes when He promised the Church that many would become martyrs on His account.

Mark 13:9

You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of Me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses [martyrs] to them.

The English word witnesses is a translation of the Greek work martyrs. We usually think of martyrs as those who have given up their lives because they refused to betray the pure confession of Christ like sainted Dr. Barnes. But a martyr is also simply someone who speaks about what they have seen.

Dr. Barnes didn't see Christ hanging from the cross or His empty tomb like the martyred Apostles or the very first martyr of the Church, Stephen. But he did see and hear faithful pastors like Luther proclaiming the promise of forgiveness because of God's work on the cross for us. He saw and received the true body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of his sin in the Sacrament of the Altar, just as you will see today.

In our country today, being a martyr or witness should not primarily be a matter of shouting to strangers or acquaintances, either by picketing a political rally or forwarding emails or posting religious/political items on Facebook. Shouting is easy to do and often does more harm than good or just nothing at all, other than making you feel as though you have done something.

Instead, speak softly and clearly to those whom Christ has placed into your life. For example, be a martyr of the Church by supporting your pastor when he tells your son that he is sinning when he defends his choice to live with his girlfriend. Fathers, Don't pretend that everything's okay. Have the courage to tell that impenitent son, who defends his sin and implicitly says that it's a good thing, that he is in grave danger. Perhaps your words will need to be reinforced with action. Perhaps your witness to the truth will include dis-inviting your son to your holiday table and festivities.

Being a martyr is painful and a lonely road. But let us carry our crosses and take a stand for the truth like Dr. Luther and Dr. Barnes. Let us seek what is in the best interests of your beloved child.

This is what Christ calls to do. He said:

Matthew 10:32-39

“Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

As things are now, we'll never lose our lives on account of Jesus. Thanks be to Christ! But we are martyrs, that is, we are witnesses to the acts of Christ in our lives that He promised to do. We see Him forgiving us as His promise creates and strengthens spiritual life through water, through words, through bread and wine.

Let us come to the Lord's Supper rejoicing as we give thanks and praise to Christ for the Reformers and Martyrs of the Church like Dr. Luther and Dr. Barnes. The Lord used them and many other faithful martyrs as they stood before the world and confessed their Savior and ours, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, who takes away the sin of the world.

In the name of the Father and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Adam at the Wedding

Trinity 20

October 21, 2012

Adam at the Wedding

Matthew 22:11-12

In name of Jesus. Amen.

Adam tried to crash the wedding in Jesus' parable. He showed up at the feast, wearing fig leaves. And the king noticed.

Matthew 22:11-12

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

The man in the parable is not named because his name isn't important. But let's put Adam at the wedding today and see the point Jesus was making.

The man's clothes were wrong. And since this is a parable—a made-up story to make a point—the clothes represent something. I'll tell you what I think they represent in a minute. But first let's explain what's going on with the clothes.

In those days special wedding clothes would be provided without cost to all the guests. Everyone wore the wedding clothes during the multiple days of the feast. Anyone not wearing the wedding clothes would stand out, just like we'd notice if someone today wore sweatpants and a hoodie to a wedding service or reception.

The king, who was the host of the celebration, went over to this stand-out. He called him friend. But here friend perhaps was used in a negative way. (Think of two politicians debating and one calling the other, friend, but they're not really friends.)

The king wanted to know how he got in without the right clothes. The man didn't have an answer, so the king threw him out of the feast.

Based on the king's reaction, the clothes represent goodness. You can either get the clothes from Him or you can make them yourself, that is, you can either receive goodness from Him or you can make up your own goodness.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam was God's invited guest. He was given everything he needed or desired: food without sweat, a beautiful wife without the bickering, a perfect relationship with God without any fear. He was naked, but in the most important way, he was clothed with the righteousness and goodness of God. He moved around the garden in God's movable feast of delicious fruit trees. Life was a banquet and it was good.

But then Adam decided to make his own feast. He brought his own forbidden fruit to his table and tried to have his own party. You could say that Adam crashed the Garden, just like the unnamed parable man crashed the wedding.

In his sin Adam put on his own clothes. They were rags, made of leaves. The leaves were inadequate and embarrassing. Fig leaves are our goodness that we try to pass off before God. Let's run our “clothes” through God's fashion show on page 156, and consider if they'd pass the test surrounded by true holiness.

Personal Preparation for Holy Communion

Our clothes, that is, our goodness before God, are like wearing that hoodie to the wedding. It's just not going to work. It is a kind of “goodness” that's going to get God's attention, but not the kind of attention we want.

I've always wanted to go to a restaurant where they make you wear a jacket. (I figure the food should be good.) You wouldn't wear gym clothes to a fancy place like that. If you tried to wear causal clothes to a formal eatery, you'd be saying that you get to make the rules that everyone else has to live by. In a word, you're god. And this would doubly be the case, if they offered the completary jacket and you refused.

Sinful old Adam was at that wedding. The king offered him beautiful wedding clothes to wear. These clothes had cost the king's Son His life, but cost old Adam not a penny to wear. They were freely given. But Adam refused. He'd rather wear his own ratty fig leaves, his own pathetic version of goodness.

Salvation is not a matter of sewing your own clothes or wearing the right clothes, making your own goodness and believing it should be enough for God. It is a matter of receiving the gifts that Jesus gives to you. He called and chose you and put His righteous robes on over your old dirty clothes, so that now you have a place at the table of the Lord's Supper. And you will be seated at the heavenly feast forever.

Old Adam crashed the wedding, but Christ crushed the old evil foe for you.

In the name of the Father and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Making the Impossible Easy

Trinity 19

October 14, 2012

Jesus Makes the Impossible Easy

Matthew 9:2

In name of Jesus. Amen.

In our Gospel for today the paralyzed man whom Jesus met was helpless. We don't know how long this disability had plagued his life.

We do know that he had a mat. On this mat he would beg for help from others. And since he couldn't go out and buy a mat at the department store, it's safe to assume that he'd had this mat for some time.

We can also see this man's distress at his long-term condition in how Jesus addressed him, ”Take heart, son!” This Greek word that the Holy Spirit inspires Matthew to record is a command from Jesus to this unnamed man to be courageous. We could translate it as “Cheer up, son!” Aside from the obvious reason for his sadness—his helplessness—there may have been another reason for his depression.

Though he had friends who carried him to Jesus, these kind men may have reminded the paralytic of what he lacked. Consider the crushed hope if the men would have to have carried their crippled friend back home. They were certainly taking a chance because they were expecting the impossible.

Jesus saw their trust. But trust or faith can mean saving faith or trust in specific promises of Jesus. So their faith could have been trust that Jesus could heal their friend. But could it have also been trust that Jesus was the promised Messiah and would do whatever was best for their friend, including not healing his paralysis? Possibly.

Whatever their expectations were, Jesus exceeded them all by addressing this man's most serious problem. It wasn't his physical handicap; it was his sinfulness. And Jesus fixed that first, “Your sins are forgiven.”

What Jesus literally did was send away this man's sins. The Greek word here means to depart. Jesus is telling this man's sins to go far away. But where? Where does the sin go? They can't be sweep under his mat. They have to go somewhere or else the man gets sent far away from God. One of them has to leave.

Jesus sends the sins to Himself. This man's sins were waiting for Jesus when He was lifted up on the cross. And there their right to condemn their owner was sent away by Jesus' blood.

The teachers of the law were infuriated by Jesus' promise. They grumbled to each other that Jesus was just a man who was pretending to be God. That is the essence of blasphemy: speaking God's Word without permission from Him.

But Jesus wasn't speaking out of turn. His Father sent His only Son to preach and teach. The Father says,

“This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5)

The paralytic man listened and heard Jesus do the impossible. He forgave him. And He made it easy for him. Jesus didn't demand acts of gratitude. He didn't force him to share his story with others. He didn't ask for his only possession, his mat, as a sign of obedience. He just forgave him. He made the impossible easy for this crippled man.

Jesus makes it easy for us, too. Some of us are crippled by pain. But we are all helpless in our sin. We naturally assume that we must work to send away our sins in cooperation with Jesus' work. We believe and confess that Jesus did it all, but when you repeatedly ignore the needs of helpless people, like the paralyzed, or the unborn, or the old, the Devil steps in and whispers, “You have to work harder, because Jesus didn't save you for a life of ease.”

The Devil is half-true and indeed we agree with him. But the Devil is muddying the waters. Jesus does ask us to deny ourselves and do things that are hard and inconvenient for the benefit of others. But we bear our crosses as a result of Jesus' hard work for us on the cross. Our hard work is the result of Jesus' work and it doesn't cause Him to forgive us.

The cause of our forgiveness is that Christ loved us so much that He died on the cross. And that's it. It's finished. We can't believe that it's that easy. But when you can't believe how easy it is, put your eyes on the cross and see Christ making it easy for you there.

Consider the second stanza of the hymn, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted.” It ends,

Many hands were raised to wound Him,

     None would intervene to save,

But the deepest stroke that pierced Him

     Was the stroke that Justice gave.

The severe harshness of justice against the sins of the paralytic and our own sin striking Jesus is what makes His forgiveness easy for us to possess and to proclaim. By His command,

I forgive you all your sins

in the name of the Father and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lutheran Free Conference

Lutheran Free Conference 2012

http://www.lutheranfreeconference.org/#

November 7-8
New Ulm, MN

A Lily Wiser Than Solomon

Trinity 15

September 16, 2012

Content in Christ

A Lily Wiser Than Solomon

Matthew 6:28-29

In name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus pointed out Solomon's splendor when talking about being content, because Solomon tried to serve two masters: God and money. Even though he had everything, he wasn't content.

He had wisdom.

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man… 

And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:29-34)

He had wealth.

All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days. The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. (1 Kings 10:21-25)

But the good gifts of wisdom, fame, and money with which the Lord had blessed Solomon were not enough. He had married many women, many of whom worshiped false gods. He began worshiping these idols, because he was only content when he served his own needs. In the end he was his own idol, his own master. He served himself.

The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. (1 Kings 11:9)

Jesus contrasted this great man of history with a flower.

See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. (Matthew 6:28-29)

Flowers are blessed with wisdom and contentment because they can't pretend that they are the reason for their own beauty. On the other hand, we pretend all the time.

We pretend that our money is ours. We may know that we have our money because God gives us jobs and parents, but we still manage to pretend that the money has become ours and we can use it as we like. We use it on the newest iPhone and TV and clothes that we don't need, because the money is ours.

Time belongs to us. We work for the weekend. The end of the world happens once a week: Friday. Heaven is Friday night, and Saturday, and Sunday morning. Sunday night is gloomy, and Monday morning is hell, when you live as though time belongs to you and that you can control it.

Contentment is out of the question, when you treat money and time as though it's yours. You might enjoy the illusion of possession for a while, but it never lasts. If anyone could have been truly content through the control of money and time, it would have been Solomon. But his life ended with turmoil in his life and in his kingdom.

Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, which begins,

“Meaningless! Meaningless!… Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Wisdom, money, even fame are gifts that are good when we don't pretend they belong to us and we use them to help others. Jesus doesn't need your wisdom, money, and time, but your neighbor does. And treating your good things as they truly are—gifts from Jesus—is the source of lasting contentment. And it starts on His cross.

Christ's cross washes away our sin, including our desire to pretend that money and time belong to us. The cross confesses that we are beggars with nothing to offer, so that all you have is a gift.

And by faith in His cross for us, we take the money we have and the time we are given and share them. First with our family, then with others. We spend our time and money by first asking ourselves, “What is the best way to use Jesus' money and time for the needs and benefit of my spouse and children, and then others?” You can answer that question as you live in the shadow of the cross. And even though your inner Solomon will howl at the answers and even win the day, you still live under the cross and live as a forgiven Solomon and a wise lily.

We don't pretend. It belongs to Jesus. And we live accordingly: forgiven, forgiving, and giving.

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

Why Jesus Healed Ten

Trinity 14

September 9, 2012

Why Jesus Healed Ten

Luke 17:11-19

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Why did the Holy Spirit inspire St. Luke to record this multiple healing? Before I tell you why, let me tell you that it wasn't to make you feel guilty.

Our thanksgiving is always incomplete, imperfect, and mixed up with our selfish desires. A prophet who preached Christ 700 years before Christmas, St. Isaiah, is blunt: “All our righteous acts (including our thanksgiving) are like filthy rags [to God]” (Isaiah 64:6).

So don't try to measure yourself up to the Samaritan. Your mother may compare you to others, but you shouldn't. You shouldn't try to compare yourself to others in regard to how good you are or in regard to how thankful you are to God's goodness.

Here's the thing. Jesus healed all ten lepers. He did not re-leperize the other nine after the Samaritan showed up to give thanks. He knew before He healed them who would return. But He healed all ten because of His great mercy.

Jesus quotes St. Hosea, another prophet who preached Jesus' advent before He arrived, and said: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13)

Jesus desires mercy, but always rejoice that He is the source and the One who sustains all mercy. St. Paul says in Romans 9: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (v. 16).

God's mercy is why those ten lepers were made whole. And when they were told to go to the Temple, Jesus gave them the faith to obey Him. And they were rewarded for Jesus' mercy.

And the Samaritan came back. Here's the rest of the story: he couldn't go to the Temple with the rest of the newly-healed Jews. If he had gone to the Temple, he would have been stoned to death. Jews could not allow non-Jews into their holy place.

So instead of going to the Temple of the Old Testament, of Moses and the Ten Commandments and of the Law, the Samaritan went to the Temple of the New Testament, Jesus.

Jesus is the New Temple. We know this from the Gospels. After Jesus had driven the money-changers from the Temple grounds, St. John tells us:

Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous 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.”

The Jews 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. (John 2:18-22)

The Samaritan had nowhere else to go. Jesus had created the faith in this man, so that this man trusted in Jesus. His faith was a gift and it clings to Jesus.

Thanksgiving that the world, and the Law, and you expect is measurable. Look at how we treat Thanksgiving Day: “Well, at least I'm going to church today. All those other people who are home watching parades and the football pre-game aren't thankful like me. If more people were thankful like me, than this country would be going to pieces!” That attitude is pride and is sinful.

Let's take it for granted that we take things for granted! Let's stop trying to measure how thankful we are.

Thanksgiving based on the Gospel is all about mercy, not measuring our level of sacrifice. The highest worship, praise, and thanksgiving is simply receiving the mercy that Jesus gives us!

In the Lord's Supper, also known as the Eucharist (Thanksgiving), you receive Christ Himself. You receive the forgiveness of your sin. He makes you whole for the very same reason He healed all ten lepers: His mercy.

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

You Aren't the Good Samaritan

Trinity 13

September 2, 2012

Who Is the Good Samaritan?

Luke 10:30-37

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus tells a story about a man who loved and expected nothing in return. He finds another man, half-dead, in a ditch. He clearly had been robbed of all he had. So he didn't rescue that man to gain; he rescued him out of love that expected nothing in return.

And that's the point of our parable today: Love that expects nothing in return. This is perfect love.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. (Deuteronomy 6:5; Luke 10:27)

Ironically, this was the heart-felt answer of a man who felt that he could justify himself. In other words, he was pretty sure that he could stand before God's judgment throne and declare himself to a man who had loved perfectly. This man thought that he had a relationship with God because he thought he had loved God and other people with all his heart!

Believers who are daily confronted with God's desire for perfect love that never expects anything in return must always say, “Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner! Christ, have compassion on me, because my love always expects something in return. I cannot remove my selfishness from my love. Have mercy!”

Because of sin of self, our relationships are broken. Your selfishness is why your family is so fragile, and why a happy family is worth more than a pile of gold.

Sin is why husbands and wives fight over trivialities. Afterward, they say, “What were we fighting about?” They can't remember because the real issue was selfish love. They love their beloved and expect a gesture in return. When these expectations aren't met, tempers flare.

When we refuse to confess that we are sinful and selfish, when we refuse to admit that our love is not perfect, we establish unrealistic expectations for love in general and our relationships in particular. This man who tested Jesus considered his love to be perfect, so good that he couldn't wait to go and perfectly love his neighbor. Thus, his follow-up question makes perfect sense: “Who is my neighbor?”

Then Jesus tells him with a story that he needs to go back and take a closer look at his first question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus wants him to see that “I do” isn't part of His rescue of souls. He preaches that perfect love that expects nothing in return is far away from every human being, most especially far away from those who think that they are close to it.

So He preaches a story that can do nothing, but cause our minds to flashback to all those times when we failed. (Sure, those who want to try to justify themselves will cherry-pick the few “success stories” from their lives.) Jesus' sermon forces us to think about those times when our time was more precious than anything else. It forces us to think about the times when we have not loved and when we have loved expecting something in return. In short, Jesus preaches how miserably we have failed to keep the law of perfect love.

But this remarkable sermon-story also preaches the Gospel, because He preaches Christ, He preaches Himself. He is the Good Samaritan. He has loved us without expecting anything in return. His love for us gained nothing for Him. His love for us didn't make Him a more perfect God; He was, is, and always will be perfect.

So He preaches us away from our selves and preaches us to Him. When did He pick us up? When His pastor picked you up and held you at your baptism. When did He wash our wounds? When His pastor poured water on you over the baptismal font, a fountain of everlasting life.

What must you do to inherit eternal life? Nothing. What did Jesus, your Good Samaritan, give you to give you eternal life? His own.

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