St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalene
St. John 20:1-2, 10-18
July 21–22, 2007

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saint Mary Magdalene is a picture of the one, holy, Christian and Apostolic Church. She is neither the “wife” nor the “lover” of Jesus Christ. She is a penitent sinner covered in the blood of the Christ. She is the first “evangelist” to the Apostles of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. She is an example of faith and devotion to us as we are penitents, witnesses, and “evangelists” of sorts of the gifts Christ gives His Church.

The Gospels of Mark and Luke write that Jesus drove out seven demons from Mary Magdalene. She was under Satan’s power until the Lord came to her and spoke the Word that drives demons away. We too were under Satan’s power. We were born into sin; slaves of Satan; bound and owned by the prince of the world. The Word of Christ draws us to the font of Holy Baptism where Satan is cast out and Jesus is put on us.

The Rite of Holy Baptism takes this seriously. Luther’s revision of the Roman Catholic Rite of Holy Baptism left the exorcism intact. You might think it’s a weakness of medieval religion to leave an exorcism in the Baptismal rite. Beloved, Satan is real. Sin is real. Satan must be cast out before the Holy Spirit makes His home in us. So it is today that the pastor proclaims, depart, unclean spirit, and make way for the Holy Spirit, and, I adjure you, you unclean spirit, that you depart from this child in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther took it seriously. So should we.

Consider also these words in the baptismal rite: Do you renounce the devil and all his works and ways? The power of God’s name and God’s Word with the water washes away sin, death, and Satan. Just as Jesus rescued Mary Magdalene from the demons of hell, so He claims you as His precious child rescued from hell.

Saint Mary Magdalene is one of several women who attended to the Lord’s needs. These women provided for the Lord and the Twelve from their own resources. Perhaps they gave them food and clothing. Perhaps they mended their sandals or patched clothes. Mary Magdalene rendered to the Lord grateful and cheerful service for all He did for her.

The Church gives back to the Lord what belongs to Him to support the ministry of the Gospel in this place and around the world. Mary Magdalene gave to the Lord from her very means and substance. Mary is our example. We give abundantly and generously to ensure the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments remains among us. We give not because we have to give, but because we get to give. As the hymn says, we give Thee but Thine own, /Whate’er the gift may be; /All that we have is Thine alone, /A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

Mary Magdalene was a witness of our Lord’s death. Though she didn’t understand the full importance of Christ’s death, she followed Him all the way to the cross. Every time she heard the preaching of the Gospel, she recalled that sad Friday afternoon where she stood vigil with her Lord Christ as He accomplished the salvation of the world.

The Church’s life revolves around the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. There are really two seasons in the Christian Church: Easter, and getting ready for Easter. We cannot see Easter without first seeing Good Friday. Our Lord’s death for sin is front and center in everything we say and do as Christians. That is why we have crosses in our churches. That is why it is a salutary custom that our crosses have our Lord’s Body upon them. A cross with Christ’s bloodied body upon it is a sermon without words. The Lamb of God suffers and dies for all. The Lamb of God robs Satan of his most prized possession: mankind. When we hear the Apostolic preaching of the cross, we stand in the long line of witnesses who hear Jesus proclaim to Mary Magdalene and to you and me: It is finished.

Saint Mary Magdalene’s highest privilege is to see the resurrected Savior first. Three times she wonders out loud who has taken away her Lord Jesus. Mary is filled with sadness. She is hoping against all hope that Jesus would return from the dead as He promised. Her hope is not in vain. She meets a man whom she thinks is the gardener. All it took was the mention of her name, Mary. At His Word, she recognizes Jesus.

At His Word the Church recognizes Jesus. We do not cling to Him as Mary wants to cling to Him. Soon He will ascend into heaven. One day we will join Him, but that day isn’t here yet. Now that Christ is raised from the dead, we seek Him where He promises He will be. He is present wherever the people of God gather to hear His Word and receive His gifts. We do not cling to strange signs, visions, and prophecies. We cling to His external Word proclaimed from pulpit, font, and altar. Here is where the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and makes holy the Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ.

Mary ran to tell the Good News about Jesus to His Eleven chosen men. His Eleven chosen men, later to add Saint Matthias, would tell the Good News about Jesus to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the world. Telling the Good News about Jesus is not strictly your pastor’s responsibility. It is the Church’s responsibility. Together we speak the Gospel of Christ to our neighbor who doesn’t know what Jesus does for us. Like Mary Magdalene, we leave Christ’s side here and go into the world with Good News. Christ has triumphed over death. He is alive and ready to make you His precious child through water and Word in Baptism. He is ready to nourish you with His Body and Blood in the Supper. He is ready to forgive your sins in Absolution. He is ready to nurture you through careful study of His Word with other brethren in Christ. God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Our common task with Mary Magdalene is to say I have seen the Lord!

Today we honor Saint Mary Magdalene not for who she was, but for Who she placed her trust. Today is all about Jesus and the wonderful things He did for her. Today is also all about Jesus and the wonderful things He does for you. Saint Paul is right when he proclaims: To you the word of this salvation has been sent. Today salvation has come to this house of God we call Saint Paul. Today you, like Mary Magdalene, have seen the Lord! In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tagged

Pr. Weedon, my fellow servant of Christ has tagged me for seven things I have learned in life.
Here goes:

1. Everything I needed for life was taught to me by 1st grade.
2. My Wife is always right.
3. We are a greedy society and a greedy people.
4. A Pastor must be in the Word if he wants his flock in the Word.
5. Don't be wishy washy, either YES! or NO!
6. Don't tell anything to anyone that you don't want the whole world to know.
7. Keep It Simple Stupid.

I think that these are self explanatory, so I shalt not go on any longer.
Go for it if you haven't already been tagged.

Sermon for Rogate @ St. Paul Lutheran Church Hamel, IL

Rogate Sunday
John 16:23-33
“Prayer in the Name of Jesus”
May 12–13, 2007

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, it is by the Name, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the living God, the Stone which was rejected but has become the Chief Cornerstone; in His Name alone is to be found salvation, and in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12) There is no other way to heaven. There is no one else to worship, save the devil himself. There is no one else to whom one should pray.
But this is not the message of the world, indeed, it’s not even the message preached in all of Christendom. The message we and our children are bombarded with everyday, from nearly every source, be it television, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet, what have you, is that there are many paths to heaven and eternal life, and they are all equally valid. This message claims that there is a pantheon of acceptable gods to choose from. And if you make any claim to the contrary, well, you are just ignorant and uniformed at best, or at worst, you are a hateful bigot.
Spiritually, our world isn’t much different than in the days of pagan Rome. One of the ways Rome subdued and pacified a people when they conquered them was to allow them to keep their religion and their gods. This practice eventually led to various gods and religious customs being absorbed into Roman religion and practice. All religions were acceptable as long as no one religion made any exclusive claims. One could bow down to one’s god or gods, as long as one was willing to bow down to the gods of Rome as well.
So it is today. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making any claims that the Christian God is the One True God. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making such a public display of your beliefs. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want, as long as they also worship at the altar of multiculturalism, and as long as they recognize that the one true god is not the God of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, the God who became incarnate and suffered and died for you.
No, they must also worship and recognize the one true god of the world—tolerance. This god has also crept into Christianity. No longer is it tolerable to make an exclusive claim to the truth of Holy Scripture. No longer is it permissible to point out error and heresy wherever and whenever error or heresy are found. To do so is seen as unloving and unchristian. But friends, if we hold the whole Church to that standard then we must excommunicate St. Peter, St. Paul, and all the Apostles, and even Jesus, for making exclusive claims about the Church and about the Truth of Holy Scripture. For did not St. Peter in speaking of Jesus before the Sanhedrin preach, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Didn’t we hear St. Paul, even this very morning, preach, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5) And hasn’t Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
No, we really are no different than the Romans. So it is that, in our society today, acupuncture, herbal teas, and howling at the moon are deemed acceptable attempts to deal with incurable diseases. Science fiction is preferred to science. While overt paganism is alive and well in the world, covert paganism and latent superstitions reside in the hearts of the people in our churches where a part of us believes that dancing around a fire and peering into tea leaves somehow has power. Popular opinion among us says that anything is possible, and truth shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way. We can believe what we want about any subject, but nothing should be held dogmatically. Nothing should be held to the exclusion of other possibilities or opinions. Only fools are uncompromising in their beliefs. Along with absolute truth is gone the concept of any actual reality.
Therefore, when the pseudo-religious find themselves in any kind of a crisis, their first thought is to call together all the clerics of all the religions of the world and have them pray to their myriad gods, hoping that one of them will hear their cries for help. They behave like a patient diagnosed with a terminal disease who goes from one health food store to the next and hangs on every word of every wacko in the business of pseudohealth hoping that one of them will have a cure.
Prayer in such a context, even if Jesus’ Name is invoked, is not prayer in Jesus’ Name. For Jesus will not share the stage. He is not one among many. He is not regional or ethnic. He is not just the white man’s God, or a god forced on so many ignorant peoples subjugated by white men of European descent. Jesus is not satisfied to be the chief god, like Jupiter, Zeus, or Thor. He is the only God! There is no other! To pray to any other god, to pray in any other name, is idolatry.
Jesus is the only Name under heaven given to us by which we are saved. Jesus is the only One, the only God who has promised to hear our prayers. All other gods are idols of stone, wood, metal, or man’s feeble imagination. They cannot hear and they cannot save.
Jesus, the One True God, hears our prayers by His grace. He has made us His people. But, He is also everyone’s God. It is just that everyone does not know it yet. In the end they will. For every knee shall bow, those in heaven, and those on the earth, and those in hell, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)
When we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name, we are confessing that Jesus is Lord; that He is the great I AM. That confession cannot stand next to Rabbis who hold that Jesus is nothing more than a bastard child of a poor Nazarene peasant woman and who was executed for the criminal he was. That Jesus was crucified until He was dead and that He remained dead. Nor can that confession stand next to a Muslim Mullah who understands Jesus to be no more than a man and a prophet of Allah who was sorely misunderstood and did not make atonement for the sins of the world and whose Father does not hear prayer in His Name. Prayer in Jesus’ Name cannot stand with those Christians who would hold Jesus did not rise from the dead, was not born of a Virgin, and was not the Son of God. Nor can prayer in Jesus’ Name stand with witch doctors and shamans in buffalo skins peering into the intestines of animals. Prayer in Jesus’ Name must, by definition, condemn such demonic lies.
For our Jesus is the real God and He will tolerate no other. He will not share your heart with the gods of this world. The One who is, who gave His life to make you His, hears and answers your prayers. For we have a God who is not like us, whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways, but who is good, and whose mercy endures forever. Prayer in Jesus’ Name is prayer heard by God through His death and resurrection, who bestowed that same Name upon you in Holy Baptism, and it is prayer conformed to the prayer in Gethsemane. For God’s will is always good, and is always done. And even when it seems bad, such as the Father not removing the Cup of wrath from His Son, even when it means suffering shame and hatred from the world, heavenly hindsight will reveal it is always perfect, that it is just what God’s children needed.
Pray then for what you will. You do not need to worry about forming the perfect request. For even before you ask your Father knows what you need. He provides what you need not because you pray, but because He loves you. You pray, “Lord, have mercy,” and He does have mercy on you. You pray, “Create in me a clean heart O God,” and He does. You pray, “Our Father,” and He is. In Christ Jesus, God is your Father and He, Himself, loves you. Here is comfort for a lost, hurting world! He is the message they so desperately need. They need the Truth boldly proclaimed. They need the promise of a real God who does not randomly hear some and ignore others, but who welcomes petitions from His children through His Son and by His Name!
You are not alone in prayer. For God speaks in His Word. With that Holy, inspired, inerrant Word, prayer is not a one-way conversation. In the Bible God reveals His will for you. He exposes His loving mercy and kindness. This God of grace who speaks in His Word answers your prayers. He provides friends, family, food, and all things. But most significantly, He who provided the ram in the thicket that Isaac would go free, has provided His Son as a perfect sacrifice in your place, and delivers that same Son to you in His Body and Blood. By His Word, He provides. He forgives. He renews. He strengthens and encourages. He hears your prayer and He answers, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the  Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon for Rogate @ St. Paul Lutheran Church Hamel, IL

Rogate Sunday
John 16:23-33
“Prayer in the Name of Jesus”
May 12–13, 2007

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

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, it is by the Name, Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the living God, the Stone which was rejected but has become the Chief Cornerstone; in His Name alone is to be found salvation, and in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12) There is no other way to heaven. There is no one else to worship, save the devil himself. There is no one else to whom one should pray.

But this is not the message of the world, indeed, it’s not even the message preached in all of Christendom. The message we and our children are bombarded with everyday, from nearly every source, be it television, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet, what have you, is that there are many paths to heaven and eternal life, and they are all equally valid. This message claims that there is a pantheon of acceptable gods to choose from. And if you make any claim to the contrary, well, you are just ignorant and uniformed at best, or at worst, you are a hateful bigot.
Spiritually, our world isn’t much different than in the days of pagan Rome. One of the ways Rome subdued and pacified a people when they conquered them was to allow them to keep their religion and their gods. This practice eventually led to various gods and religious customs being absorbed into Roman religion and practice. All religions were acceptable as long as no one religion made any exclusive claims. One could bow down to one’s god or gods, as long as one was willing to bow down to the gods of Rome as well.

So it is today. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making any claims that the Christian God is the One True God. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want. Just don’t go making such a public display of your beliefs. Christians can worship whom they want, how they want, as long as they also worship at the altar of multiculturalism, and as long as they recognize that the one true god is not the God of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, the God who became incarnate and suffered and died for you.

No, they must also worship and recognize the one true god of the world—tolerance. This god has also crept into Christianity. No longer is it tolerable to make an exclusive claim to the truth of Holy Scripture. No longer is it permissible to point out error and heresy wherever and whenever error or heresy are found. To do so is seen as unloving and unchristian. But friends, if we hold the whole Church to that standard then we must excommunicate St. Peter, St. Paul, and all the Apostles, and even Jesus, for making exclusive claims about the Church and about the Truth of Holy Scripture. For did not St. Peter in speaking of Jesus before the Sanhedrin preach, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Didn’t we hear St. Paul, even this very morning, preach, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5) And hasn’t Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

No, we really are no different than the Romans. So it is that, in our society today, acupuncture, herbal teas, and howling at the moon are deemed acceptable attempts to deal with incurable diseases. Science fiction is preferred to science. While overt paganism is alive and well in the world, covert paganism and latent superstitions reside in the hearts of the people in our churches where a part of us believes that dancing around a fire and peering into tea leaves somehow has power. Popular opinion among us says that anything is possible, and truth shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way. We can believe what we want about any subject, but nothing should be held dogmatically. Nothing should be held to the exclusion of other possibilities or opinions. Only fools are uncompromising in their beliefs. Along with absolute truth is gone the concept of any actual reality.

Therefore, when the pseudo-religious find themselves in any kind of a crisis, their first thought is to call together all the clerics of all the religions of the world and have them pray to their myriad gods, hoping that one of them will hear their cries for help. They behave like a patient diagnosed with a terminal disease who goes from one health food store to the next and hangs on every word of every wacko in the business of pseudohealth hoping that one of them
will have a cure.

Prayer in such a context, even if Jesus’ Name is invoked, is not prayer in Jesus’ Name. For Jesus will not share the stage. He is not one among many. He is not regional or ethnic. He is not just the white man’s God, or a god forced on so many ignorant peoples subjugated by white men of European descent. Jesus is not satisfied to be the chief god, like Jupiter, Zeus, or Thor. He is the only God! There is no other! To pray to any other god, to pray in any other name, is idolatry.

Jesus is the only Name under heaven given to us by which we are saved. Jesus is the only One, the only God who has promised to hear our prayers. All other gods are idols of stone, wood, metal, or man’s feeble imagination. They cannot hear and they cannot save.
Jesus, the One True God, hears our prayers by His grace. He has made us His people. But, He is also everyone’s God. It is just that everyone does not know it yet. In the end they will. For every knee shall bow, those in heaven, and those on the earth, and those in hell, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)

When we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in Jesus’ Name, we are confessing that Jesus is Lord; that He is the great I AM. That confession cannot stand next to Rabbis who hold that Jesus is nothing more than a bastard child of a poor Nazarene peasant woman and who was executed for the criminal he was. That Jesus was crucified until He was dead and that He remained dead. Nor can that confession stand next to a Muslim Mullah who understands Jesus to be no more than a man and a prophet of Allah who was sorely misunderstood and did not make atonement for the sins of the world and whose Father does not hear prayer in His Name. Prayer in Jesus’ Name cannot stand with those Christians who would hold Jesus did not rise from the dead, was not born of a Virgin, and was not the Son of God. Nor can prayer in Jesus’ Name stand with witch doctors and shamans in buffalo skins peering into the intestines of animals. Prayer in Jesus’ Name must, by definition, condemn such demonic lies.

For our Jesus is the real God and He will tolerate no other. He will not share your heart with the gods of this world. The One who is, who gave His life to make you His, hears and answers your prayers. For we have a God who is not like us, whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways, but who is good, and whose mercy endures forever. Prayer in Jesus’ Name is prayer heard by God through His death and resurrection, who bestowed that same Name upon you in Holy Baptism, and it is prayer conformed to the prayer in Gethsemane.

For God’s will is always good, and is always done. And even when it seems bad, such as the Father not removing the Cup of wrath from His Son, even when it means suffering shame and hatred from the world, heavenly hindsight will reveal it is always perfect, that it is just what God’s children needed.

Pray then for what you will. You do not need to worry about forming the perfect request. For even before you ask your Father knows what you need. He provides what you need not because you pray, but because He loves you. You pray, “Lord, have mercy,” and He does have mercy on you. You pray, “Create in me a clean heart O God,” and He does. You pray, “Our Father,” and He is. In Christ Jesus, God is your Father and He, Himself, loves you. Here is comfort for a lost, hurting world! He is the message they so desperately need. They need the Truth boldly proclaimed. They need the promise of a real God who does not randomly hear some and ignore others, but who welcomes petitions from His children through His Son and by His Name!

You are not alone in prayer. For God speaks in His Word. With that Holy, inspired, inerrant Word, prayer is not a one-way conversation. In the Bible God reveals His will for you. He exposes His loving mercy and kindness. This God of grace who speaks in His Word answers your prayers. He provides friends, family, food, and all things. But most significantly, He who provided the ram in the thicket that Isaac would go free, has provided His Son as a perfect sacrifice in your place, and delivers that same Son to you in His Body and Blood. By His Word, He provides. He forgives. He renews. He strengthens and encourages. He hears your prayer and He answers, “I forgive you all your sins.”

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

Jubilate Sermon

Jubilate John 16:16-23 "PAINFUL"

In the Name of the Father and the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On the night when He was betrayed, on the night in which He left to His disciple the durable legacy of unity with Himself in the Sacrament of the Altar, He prepared them for His departure with the promise of return and of joy. They were puzzled by it and so Our Lord explains further and with an illustration: "Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you."

He is speaking of the specific sorrow that the disciples will have at the crucifixion. But we do well to apply this to ourselves and to the sorrows we endure in this life while awaiting His imminent return. For the Church on this side of glory is very much like a woman in labor. For a woman in labor bears the brunt and consequence of the Law. Remember the curse pronounced upon Eve and her children: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."

Consider the dangerous passage, for both mother and child, of birth. The mother is in great pain, out of her mind, but clearly focused upon, and caring about nothing but, getting that baby out. So also we still bear the burden of the Law. We are forgiven, like Eve in the garden clinging to the Promise of the Messiah, but we are still waiting for completion of our joy. It is still in the future. And the Law of the present brings pain and sorrow.

For the present is full of our sinning. By our sins we have burnt bridges with family and friends, employers and neighbors. With a moment's foolishness or with a moment of selfish pleasure, whether that be giving in to our rage and frustration and lashing out or whether it be a quiet nurturing of our lust, greed, and malice, we've succumbed to temptation, and hurt the ones we love the most. Our words have been spiteful, bitter, and mean. Our service to spouse and parent, coworker, and friend, has been under pressure and with great show. We have needlessly complicated our lives, caved-in, given up, ran away. We have been weak. Sometimes it is like we are two or more people at the same time. In the back of our minds we watch helplessly, ashamed of what we are doing, but not stepping out and stopping it. Repent. Turn away from your fleshly desires. Remember that this is not your home. Let the pain, the sorrow, even your trickery, focus you upon the coming joy.

For a woman in a labor, for all her trouble, is a woman uniquely focused upon the joy to come. She is not distracted by the petty things of this life. She doesn't care if the doctors, nurses, or see her hair is messed up or her shirt a little wrinkled. She is having a baby, and for a little while, that is all that matters. For a little while, she has sorrow, but then the baby is laid upon her and her sorrow is not only complete, but forgotten. It cannot compare to the wonder and joy of the life of her living little baby.

So it is also for us. This life is temporary. It seems long, but in retrospect we will see that it was brief. Our joy will be complete and no one will take it from us. Hang on. Be as focused as the mother in the delivery room. Jesus Christ did not die and rise in vain. It will end soon. And when the going gets tough, in the waning hours of darkness, in the midst of your watch, know that you will mount up on wings like eagles and soar. Soon, you will leave all this pettiness, this hatred sin, these open sewers of false morality and half-hearted lies behind. You shall be free! No more pain, no more suffering, no more shame or regret, no more past, no more sin. You will be free of yourself. This is the horizon that rises before you. God's Grace cuts the cords, which bound you to this awful, dark place. The payment for your selfishness has been paid. There is no more, but the waiting. For God loves you in Jesus Christ and will bring you to Himself. In your labor, ponder this profound and simple truth, for His own reasons, from His own sovereignty, His own goodness, without any merit or worthiness in you, He loves you. He calls you by name. The inheritance of the righteous is rightfully yours, for you are His. In Christ, you are free. You are free from worrying about yourself. You need not defend yourself, look after your rights and honors, or be insulted by the stupid behavior around you. Patience is learned in the cross, for there we see that nothing else really matters. You are free from those who hurt you, from the devil's accusations, from death. Jesus Christ Himself is your Defender, your Advocate, your Friend. He never sleeps or grows faint. Let Him worry about you. For who would dare to stand against you, the King's own chaste Bride? These labor pains are not punishment. Rather, they are the proof of His love.

And while you wait, knowing that your time is coming, that nothing else matters, receive already the foretaste of that Joyous Feast to come. Be strengthened, encouraged, and refreshed for your labor. Eat His Body and drink His Blood for sustenance. Your sins are there forgiven and the Church Militant, that is you, joins its worship to the worship of the Church Triumphant, the Church at rest in glory, which has already been delivered. Here is your strength to carry on. Here is hope for the future, peace for the tired, troubled heart. Here is unity with Christ crucified and raised ,and therein, unity with the fellow confessing pilgrims on earth, diverse strangers no more, but now brothers and sisters in Him, for faith is thicker than blood. And there is unity with the confessing cloud that even now surrounds you and prays for you. This is not an epidermal, a narcotic to numb you and drug you out of your mind. It is a promise of joy to come delivered now, that you would endure in confident Hope and Faith. So, Relax. Fear not. In a little while you will see Him and your joy will be complete, your travails forgotten. No one will take it from you.
In +Jesus' Name. Amen.

Quasimodo Geniti

Easter 1 - Quasimodo Geniti

A Reading from the Book of Concord

April 15, 2007 - Second Sunday of Easter

From the Small Catechism, copyright © Concordia Publishing House, (St. Louis, 1986, 1991). Used by permission.
Book of Concord Reading for Easter 1 – Quasimodogeniti Sunday

JESUS GIVES THE KEYS TO THE CHURCH: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead brought life and forgiveness (absolution) to all. Jesus gave the keys of binding and loosing sins to the apostles and their successors, the pastors, so that the work of Jesus’ death and resurrection may come to each person. From the Small Catechism, Part 5 Of Confession:

Confession

How Christians should be taught to confess.

What is confession?
Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

What sins should we confess?
Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even those we are not aware of, as we do in the Lord's Prayer; but before the pastor we should confess only those sins which we know and feel in our hearts.

Which are these?
Consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments: Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?

Easter Sunrise

“The Gardener” John 20:10-18 Easter Sunrise Matins
+ In the name of Jesus +

Mary Magdalene is standing near the tomb in the garden weeping. A garden, a woman, a grave--that sounds a lot like Eve, doesn’t it. Was it not in the garden that Eve, with Adam, fell away from God? In so doing did she not bring a curse of pain and sorrow upon herself? Was not death the result of her and her husband’s sin? In her helplessness and hopelessness and loneliness, Mary Magdalene, the daughter of Eve, weeps.

So it is for all the children of Eve, for all you who are dust to dust. Everything is only temporary in this vale of tears. Nothing lasts. It is written, “All people are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall.” Even youthful glory is permeated by the degenerative power of death. It’s the hollowness that you still have after you’ve taken in your fill of all this passing world has to offer. It’s the so-called “fun” you rationalize that ends up taking from you more than it gives. It’s the camaraderie you seek by going along with the crowd that turns out to be a sort of crowded isolation. There’s ultimately no avoiding the brokenness of mortality. In the end you are left right where Mary is, bent over, staring through wet eyes into the mouth of the grave.

But what does Mary see? Not only does she see that Jesus’ tomb is empty, but she also beholds two angels sitting where the Lord had lain. And these messengers of the Lord ask her, “Why are you weeping?” It’s almost as if they said, “There’s no need for tears any more. For the crucified One whom you seek has risen. He who bore the curse of the world’s sin has redeemed you from the curse forever. He who was held by the jaws of the grave has shattered those jaws and has destroyed death’s power over you. He who did battle with the kingdom of darkness has crushed the devil’s head by His holy cross, setting you free from hellish bondage. Do not cry. For Jesus is alive for you as the triumphant conqueror and the Lord of all.”

Mary turns around and sees Jesus. But she doesn’t yet know that it’s Him. She mistakes Jesus for the gardener. And yet she really isn’t mistaken, is she. Jesus is the Gardener. For He is the Second Adam. And was not the first Adam the caretaker of Eden’s garden? So also Jesus is risen to restore you, His people, to Paradise. This New Adam walks in the garden in the cool of the new day and reveals Himself to the daughter of Eve. What He brings to her and to you is not judgment but justification, not sin but righteousness, not death but life. Jesus completely reverses and totally undoes the fall. It is written, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Jesus is not only the Gardener, He is also the Seed which is planted in the garden. He is the promised Seed of Eve which overcomes the serpent. Jesus had said that unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, then it is fruitful. So it was that Jesus was crucified and planted in the garden tomb. The Seed had to die and be buried in order that it might sprout and bear fruit.

Jesus, then, is the New Vine of the garden, which has arisen out of the earth. And by the watering of this garden, which is Baptism, He bears fruit, that is, He produces Christians who are made alive in Him and who are given to share in His resurrection. You are the fruit of Christ’s labor. The sweet juices of His goodness and mercy fill you. The water of life flows through Him into you. Jesus said, “Because I live, you will live also.”

Jesus makes Himself known to Mary simply with one word. The sheep know the Shepherd’s voice, and He calls them each by name. In the joy of this sudden recognition, Mary cries out “Rabboni!” “Teacher!”

Has not the Teacher also revealed Himself to you by calling your name at the blessed font? Indeed, by water and the Word He drew your name into the name of the Holy Trinity, uniting you with Himself and thereby making you a child of God. So it is that Jesus says, “My Father and your Father, my God and your God.” Do you see what that means? You are given the same status as Jesus. All that Christ is and has He has made your own: release from sorrow, abounding forgiveness, indestructible life and joy. By virtue of your baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection, you are now His kin, His own flesh and blood, restored to communion with God and with one another. Believing in Him you shall share in the eternal inheritance of His new creation.

Therefore, it is written, “‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. . . God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”

+ In the name of Jesus +

St. John Passion

The 12th Station of the Cross - Jesus dies on the Cross.

This particular station is found in St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa.

From My Friend Pastor Aaron Koch. Some brief meditations on the different sections of the St. John Passion for Good Friday.
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John 18:1-11

The devil had come to Adam in the garden full of deceit to bring upon him the curse of death. Now Judas, into whom the devil had entered, comes full of deceit to Jesus in the garden, betraying Him to death. But Jesus is not like the old Adam, who hid among the trees in fear. He is the new Adam who has come to undo the curse by His cross. Jesus goes forth boldly to meet His captors, fully prepared to drink the cup of judgment given Him by His Father.


Jesus is the great I AM, the eternal God revealed in the burning bush to Moses. His name causes His enemies to draw back and fall to the ground. For all who do not call on His name in faith will fall to their own destruction. Yet He who took up our humanity submits to their capture, saying "Let these go their way," so that none of the disciples given Him would be lost. For Jesus came that they and all of us who bear His saving name might be released from the powers of darkness. This victory is won not by the sword but by sacrifice.

John 18:12-27

Jesus is led away in chains as if He were a dangerous criminal. For His teaching threatens those who are self-righteous. He is questioned by the religious leaders and then slapped in the face for the answers He gives. They are not really looking for answers but excuses to execute Him and to justify their deeds. We also slap Jesus in the face whenever we try to justify ourselves and don't humbly pay attention to preaching and His Word.


Peter has three chances to confess that he knows Christ. Three times Peter fails. He would have to live for a while with the awful emptiness of his disloyalty and failure. We know that weakness of the flesh, too, when we deny Jesus with our words or behavior, seeking to avoid negative consequences to our reputation or our income or our life. Apart from Christ, Peter can do nothing, in spite of his good intentions.


Jesus had told Peter this would happen. Jesus did so not only to cut brash Peter down to size, but also to teach Peter that His love would remain despite Peter's sin. Peter would call Jesus' words to mind when the rooster crowed and weep. But he would also realize that Jesus didn't reject him even though He knew this about him ahead of time. So also with you-Jesus knows you and how you will stumble and falter. And yet He doesn't reject you; He sticks with you despite yourself. The rooster's crow is not only a call to repentance but also a call to faith in Jesus' constant love.


John 18:28-40

The Jewish leaders do not want to enter Pilate's Praetorium, especially during this time of the Passover, lest they be defiled by being in a Gentile building. But they are already defiled within by their sinful motives and desires. So also, we are all too often concerned about outward righteousness and appearances, when the Lord looks at the heart and desires the inward righteousness of faith. To be undefiled is to confess your sins for what they are and to trust in Him who is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.


Jesus stands before Pilate. Pilate received His authority from God. And now God in the flesh humbles Himself to be placed under this authority. The Judge of all men is being judged by a man. Judgment should be based on truth, but the only thing Pilate can say is "What is truth?" All fallen human beings are liars, the Psalm says. But Jesus is Himself the truth. He is reality. He is the way things are, the truth of God's mercy shown to those who have not deserved it.


Pilate finds Jesus innocent, no fault in Him at all. But the crowds don't want Jesus, they want Barabbas. The violent robber goes free that Jesus might rob us of our sin by being violently executed. The one who took life lives; the One who gives life dies. This is God's good and gracious will, that Christ should die in the place of sinners. Jesus goes to death in our place, so that we might live forever in His place, in His kingdom, which is not of this world. Pilate's plan to release Jesus fails. The Passover Lamb will be sacrificed by the Father to take away the sin of the world.


John 19:1-16

Pilate brings a bloodied and humiliated Jesus out before the people and says, "Behold the Man!" Jesus is the only real Man, the only one whose masculinity has not been corrupted and diminished by His own sin. He is the real Man who lays down His life for His beloved Church, His elect Lady. He allows Himself to be scourged and mocked and treated inhumanely in order to rescue her. He bears her thorny curse to release her from it. "By His wounds we are healed." Those who are less than men cannot stand the sight of Jesus and cry out "Crucify Him!"


Such people of this world follow those with the power and the influence. "We have no king but Caesar," they say. But earthly rulers fail you, as it is written, "Trust not in princes, in mortal men who cannot save." Only this King, Jesus, can save. He exercises His authority not be being served but by serving, giving His life as a ransom for His subjects. He saves not by killing but by being killed, sharing in our mortality so that we might share in His immortality.


John 19:17-24

Jesus is crucified at Golgotha, the Place of a Skull. His cross, like a dagger, is here stabbed into the Skull. And in this way death itself is killed. Though His feet are pierced, yet those same feet crush Satan's head and pulverize the power of the grave.


The religious leaders don't like the fact that Pilate put the title over our Lord's head, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." They ask him to change it. But the earthly authority whom God has established says, "What I have written, I have written." God even causes this pagan ruler to proclaim the truth. Jesus is the King of the Jews, that is, the King of all those who are the true children of Abraham, who trust in God's promises in Christ, and who are credited with His righteousness by grace alone.


Christ is naked on cross. He bears our shame. We try to cover ourselves with the flimsy fig leaves of blame and denial. But God strips away our excuses. The darkness must be exposed to the light. The sin must be laid bare. And so Christ hangs naked, covered with our shame, so that we might be covered with His seamless garment of righteousness.


John 19:25-30

Jesus honors the woman who bore Him, who nursed Him, who raised Him. And He honors His disciple, who stood by Him with His mother in this difficult time. "Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother." Jesus' words create a bond closer than family and bring comfort to those who mourn. Mary and John here picture the church and the pastors who care for her. They are given to receive and honor each other according to the word of Jesus.


Then Jesus says, "I thirst." He is parched, dried out by the arid barrenness of our sin. He becomes bone dry for us so that through Him we might we be drenched with living water, doused with His Spirit in baptism and the Word, drinking up His mercy in the cup of His Supper. He thirsts for you, so that you might learn to hunger and thirst for His righteousness.


Finally Jesus says, "It is finished." That's all one word in Greek-it is finished. It is the last Word, the Word that declares that all has been fulfilled; everything has been accomplished to secure your salvation and win your forgiveness. Nothing more needs to be added. The job is done, finished, paid in full, a completed gift given to you, no strings attached. These are good words for you to remember when you are in doubt about your salvation, or when you are afraid of death. Remember and believe what Jesus said, "It is finished." You are perfected and complete and at peace in Him.


John 19:31-37

Jesus does indeed die as the Passover lamb, for it is written of the Passover lambs in the Old Testament, "You shall not break one of its bones." The blood of the Lamb again stains the wood. The cross is the Church's doorpost and lintel. Inside the house of God, we are safe. Death passes over where the blood of the Lamb has been applied.


A soldier pierces Jesus' heart, and from His wounded heart flows water and blood-a fountain for cleansing from sin and impurity. John emphasizes that he's telling the truth about this; he wants you to pay attention. For the church has her life here, in the wounded side of Jesus, from which flows the water of baptism and the blood of Holy Communion. In those sacraments all the blessings of the cross are given to you. The church is the new Eve, created from Jesus' side as He sleeps the deep sleep of death.

John 19:38-42

We finish where we began: in a garden. Our Lord is buried in the tomb. By His rest in the tomb He has sanctified our graves and made them a place of rest, a place of sleep from which our bodies will awaken. The holy Seed has been planted in the garden. From this seed immortal life will take root and germinate and bloom. This is a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. For Christ is the firstfruits of them that sleep. Be buried in Christ by faith, that you may be raised with Him when He comes again.
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Maundy Thursday Sermon

Revised Sermon
Maundy Thursday
1 Corinthians 11:23-32, John 13:1-15, 34-35

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The night before God's people left Egypt was a horrific and bloody night. Children, cattle, and lambs died. They died because Pharaoh's heart was hard; because Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit. They joined the rebel angel armies of Satan. They took up the cause of death and plunged all creation into chaos and destruction.
But the lambs were innocent. They had not rebelled or sinned. They had not enslaved their brothers. Yet they died that night. They were sacrificed in the place of guilty people. The lambs' blood marked the doors of those who submitted to God's Word through Moses, who in repentance pleaded for mercy to the only One who can give it. Thus while the angel of death took the firstborn of the Egyptians, those marked by the blood of the lambs were spared. That blood counted for them and the angel passed over them.
It was a bloody night because while God loves the world, He has no sympathy for those who reject Him, who attempt to worship Him by some other name, who like Pharaoh will not hear His Word, or who ask Him to share their devotion and prayers with false gods. They get what they desire, the inheritance of the fall, death. He has no sympathy either for the lambs. Their blood is the price of man's rebellion. He is unflinching about the sacrifice. They have to die that men would again be His. And thus God loved the world by killing them. He hid His people under innocent blood. The killing angel passed over them. God spared them from death through death.
But it was not enough that the lambs died in their place, that their doors were marked, that they hid behind that innocent blood, and trusted in God to deliver them. They still needed life. So they ate those lambs. Safe from death, they ate in a foreign land, in haste, in preparation for a pilgrimage to freedom. They drew strength and nourishment for the journey from the flesh God provided. It was a double giving: one a substitution, a satisfaction, the removal of guilt, and the turning away of the angel of death. The other giving was a feeding, a filling, a bestowal of righteousness. Thus they escaped slavery with the strength to travel to the promised land.
The night before Our Lord's departure was also a bloody night. In the Garden His anguish turned to bloody sweat. But His Father was unflinching about the Sacrifice. He had to die so that men would again be His. God loved the world by killing Him. His blood would stain thorns, lashes, the hands of evil men, the wood of the cross, and the dust of Golgotha. That God would spare men death through death. But first, His Blood stained the Cup and the lips of His children. He marked the doors of theirs hearts with His blood and thus warded off the angel of death. For He is our Passover Lamb. He takes away the sin of the world. He does what those lambs in Egypt illustrated and prophesied. He lays down His life in a double giving: one of substitution and one of feeding. He dies in our place. He gives Himself as the food of salvation, providing strength and courage.
Thus we remember Him in the eating and the drinking. We proclaim the Death He died, once for all, as an atoning sacrifice to remove all wrath, all guilt, all sin; the Death that makes men who believe in Him safe from death and heirs of life; the Death that triumphed by defeat and from which has issued forth the reign of Life. His living flesh is eaten by the mouth. It slips past the teeth and down the throat. He is present in bread and wine in the genetic material, the skin and bones, the tissue of Mary's womb which felt the nails and which rose again on the third day. But it is only seen, comprehended by faith. For He is present according to His Promise, by the power of His unfailing Word. It is what He says it is or He is a liar.
When men receive Christ in His Body and Blood but deny it, are impenitent, or are making a hypocritical confession, they receive Him whom they have rejected in this Sacrament that confesses unity. They make a mockery of His gift. Thus, St. Paul, warns that such an unworthy reception is a reception of condemnation. What God meant for good, fallen men pervert and use for evil, to promote their own agendas and create their own unity. Thus the Church has been afflicted over time with the likes the crusades and the inquisition. Even the Sacrament of the Altar can be misused to the detriment of men's faith when it is forced into the categories and rules and society of men. In such evil ways Satan turns men for whom Christ died into the first born of Egypt who die for themselves. St. Paul issues this stern warning on purpose. We must heed it. We must examine ourselves. We must be judged by the Lord, conformed to His Word, and chastened in love so that we are not condemned along with the world. On this side of glory the Church fights, struggles, hurts, and is persecuted. She is divided because of sin. She suffers in those divisions. They are painful. But that suffering is her chastisement. And chastisement always beats condemnation.
So, examine yourself, O Christian. God has called you. He has baptized you into His Name. He has given you faith. He has revealed His grace and will in His holy Word to you so that you are sorry for your sins and want to do better. You trust in the sacrifice of the Messiah as the appeasement of God' s holy wrath against you. You rejoice in the acceptance and favor you have found in Christ. You confess the Lord's actual Body and Blood, crucified and raised, offered in bread and wine for the remission of sins in the Holy Communion. And you make together a common, united confession of the same. You call each other brother and sister, not in the abstract, but in the concrete reality that you are united not just in heaven, but also here on earth.
Thus, you come on bended knee seeking mercy and correction, seeking to receive the Body and Blood to your good. Are you worthy? Yes. Because God has made you worthy through His sacrifice. He has forgiven your sins, given you faith and a fellowship, a confession, brothers and sisters who believe the same. He has done it all for you. He thus joins you to Himself and to each other. You who eat this Body in repentance and faith together at this Altar make one bold confession: He who died on Mount Calvary died for us and rose again to bring us to life. His Word is true. He never lies. The grave could not hold Him. He is alive. And He is the only hope for sinful men; the only Savior; God and Man in one Christ, who has loved us to the end. His Doctrine is what sets men free and liberates them from all false gods and all false teachings of the devil. He will bring us at last to the promised land and to our father Abraham.

Maundy Thursday 2007
John 13:1-15, 34-35

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
That night, in the upper room, Jesus knew His hour had finally come. His exodus was at hand and the reason for His incarnation was about to be fulfilled, for “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)
What did that love mean? It meant taking on the form of a bondservant, becoming a slave. It meant rejection by the very people He had come to save. It meant arrest and torture after being betrayed with a kiss. It meant being deserted by those He loved— being forsaken by man and God. It meant the silence of His Father in the hour of His greatest need. It meant suffering alone, utterly alone, the horror of crucifixion. But, above all, it meant loving you to death, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...” (John 3:16) into death for you, that you might believe and live. That is what this love of Christ means.
So, it is that, Jesus girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ dirty feet. He took on the task of the lowliest of house slaves as an example of His humility and sacrificial love. Jesus knew, only too well, what the coming hours would bring. After all, it was for this purpose that He was born.
St. Paul tells us Christ “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8)
Jesus came to serve and to cleanse, to give Himself over to the wrath of His Father in your place and pour out on you, and into you, the holy Blood of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) “The Son of Man did not come to be served,” you see, “but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45) So Jesus foreshadows His greatest act of love by washing with water those He would soon wash in His Blood.
On this most holy of nights, Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples in keeping with God’s command. In this, He brought to an end the old covenant, and immediately established a new and lasting covenant in its place; a covenant in His Blood. On this night Jesus set aside the things of the former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness, for the Law made nothing perfect, and He gives to us a new and better hope, through which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19) He gives to us His own Body and Blood.
No, St. John does not include our Lord’s institution of the Supper in his description of what took place on that night. For that, we must turn to Saints. Matthew, Luke, and Paul. Still, that does not mean that the Supper is not there, for it is in the very fabric of John’s entire Gospel account. It is woven into the tapestry that is the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Thus, it is seen in John’s account of the wedding at Cana where Jesus turns water used for ritual washing (the Law of the Old Testament) into the (Gospel) wine of the New Testament.
We see it in the multiplying of the loaves and fishes as Jesus feeds five thousand plus on life sustaining bread and then compares Himself to the manna, or bread, from heaven, and we hear the Supper preached in Jesus’ upper room discourse: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Finally, it is seen in the Blood flowing from the nail wounds in His hands and feet, from His lacerated flesh, and His spear pierced side.
Therefore, one cannot possibly understand or remotely comprehend the love of God apart from this sacred, priestly feast. For in this Holy Supper is the very Body given in love for you, and the very Blood poured out in love for you. It is for this very reason, Jesus calls Himself the true Bread from heaven, which gives life to the world, (John 6:32- 33) promising that whoever eats this Living Bread and drinks His Blood will have eternal life, being raised up by Him on the last day. (John 6:53-54)
This Blood is inextricably entwined with the waters of Holy Baptism. And so the washing of His disciples’ feet this night, a picture of Baptism, and the water that also rushed from Jesus’ riven side on Calvary, are bound together with the Blood of Christ, poured out, making you children of the Most High God, giving to you His Holy Name, and through faith, mystically joining you to Jesus, giving you a share in His death and resurrection, and bequeathing to you His righteousness and eternal life.
So there, in the Upper Room, in spite of knowing all that was in store for Him, in spite of knowing all the ways with which He would be betrayed, Jesus girds Himself as a slave and washes the filth from the feet of His betrayers. Jesus knows all that will shortly take place and yet, His compassion, His love, is for His disciples and for you. “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)
His concern is not for Himself; His heart is set on His disciples, and you. He knows that He will accept the scorn of the world that you would have the Father’s love. He will die alone that you would have the company of heaven. You see, this is the will of the Father, for He does not desire the death of a sinner, but would have all men be saved. (1 Timothy 2:4) He has loved you to the end.
And so, to the end, which is no end at all, but the beginning of your eternity, you receive Jesus’ Body and Blood in remembrance of what He has done for you—putting to death, death itself, and conquering sin and the devil. In His Holy Supper He feeds you with the Bread that came down from heaven to satisfy your hunger for righteousness. He offers you the Blood that He sweated in the garden and the Flesh that was nailed to the Cross as the perfect love that never ends. He gives you the same Body that left behind the shroud and napkin in the empty tomb and ascended to God’s right hand. Jesus gives Himself, His life, and His love, for and to you. Jesus takes away all your foul sins and in their place gives to you His righteousness, His forgiveness, and His peace.
Jesus fulfills the promise of the first Passover with His death. By His Blood, death can no longer harm you. Death passes over. With His Blood Jesus has made you His own, a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.” (1 Peter 2:9)
Come now, you who have been bathed and are completely cleaned. Receive the love of Christ that you may love one another. Receive that which gives you strength to give as you have received. Receive His true Body and Blood, given and shed for you and hear the Word of the Lord, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Easter Monday

Easter Monday
April 9, 2007
Exodus 15:1-8; Hebrews 9:1-28

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27)

In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Even the Old Testament people of God knew the promise of resurrection and life everlasting. Job’s faith clung to the promise of redemption and resurrection, standing in the flesh before the Almighty God.
Sure, the promise of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection were not yet fully revealed. God’s time had not yet fully come. But that does not mean that God was not active or that He did nothing for His people.
Nor did it mean that no one looked to God’s promise of a Savior. Job had hope in the midst of suffering. Even though he lost everything, he rejoiced in the hope of everlasting life in the presence of God. His friends told him to give up, to curse God. Job must have done something to anger God and cause Him to bring about such great suffering on one man.
Today, people will give you similar “wisdom,” even some of the bestsellers on the Christian bookshelves. They say that as a Christian, you have the power to be a success and to live life to the fullest. If you’re not experiencing material blessing in your Christian life, you must have done something wrong or maybe you’re not doing something right.
Tell that to the faithful Christian who loses a dear loved one. Tell that to the faithful Christian struggling to pay bills. Tell that to the faithful Christian who just received word that she has terminal cancer. Tell that to any faithful Christian who suffers in this world. You and I know the truth. We know that we are sinners living in a fallen world. Through God’s Law, we know our sin, which brings death.
But God’s Son, Jesus, brings life beyond the grave. On the Cross, Jesus redeemed not only our souls, but our bodies as well. His resurrection from the dead reveals what God has prepared for you – resurrection and life!
Resurrection is hope in the midst of suffering. Resurrection is hope that clings to God’s promise fulfilled in Christ. Your eyes of faith see Him now, but on the Last Day you will stand with Job and all the faithful, and in the flesh you shall see God face to face. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“I know that my Redeemer lives; What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, He lives, who once was dead; He lives, my ever-living head.” (LSB #461, verse 1)

Good Friday Matins

Good Friday
April 6, 2007St. John 18:1-19:42
Exodus 12:29-32; 13:1-16; Hebrews 6:1-20

“It is finished.” (St. John 19:30)
The last and great word of Jesus from the Cross: “Tetelestai.”
“It is finished.” With this word, Christ announced to everyone – to the Father and the Holy Spirit, to Satan and his hell hounds, and to the whole human race – “mission accomplished.” We have been saved from Satan, death and hell, and have been presented to God without blemish or sin.
Death is said to finish us off. But here Christ finishes off death itself. This little word “it” carries a lot of force. The fulfillment of all prophecy comes to its completion. The words of King David in Psalm 22, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” become reality.
The separation between God and man, because of sin, is broken. God’s ultimate gift is given: the life of His own Son for your salvation. Because of this gift, you are a citizen of heaven, and a child of the Heavenly Father. All of that is accomplished. That is IT.
It – the mission – is finished. A great exchange took place. You deserve death, but you receive life. Jesus deserves life and received death. What a mystery! That God would exchange our frail, sinful lives for the life of His Son. What a miracle there is in the little word, “it”. That word ushers in freedom from death to slavery and sin. Satan, too, heard that word and cringed. He, too, is finished.
It is finished. The tense of the verb is present perfect. The victory is an accomplished fact. The Son’s purpose in coming down from heaven has been completed. The gulf between heaven and earth is bridged. This announcement was made by God to God. The Son tells the Father that it is all done. Even as He yielded up His life, Christ claimed the victory.
What an amazing truth! God looks at you through Jesus and loves you as His dear child. You have been brought into His family through the waters of Holy Baptism, and He sustains you with His very Body and Blood shed on this Tree, because “It – all of it – is finished.”

Wednesday of Holy Week

Wednesday of Holy Week
April 4, 2007
St. Luke 22:1-23:56
Exodus 10:21-11:10; Hebrews 4:1-16

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (St. Luke 23:34)
Each of the four Evangelists paints the picture of our Lord’s Passion in a particular way. St. Luke, a trained physician, shows us that Jesus is the compassionate, merciful, forgiving Savior – even when He is suffering death on the cross. So only in Luke, do we hear Jesus say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Jesus shows us what it means to pray, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” But there is always more with Jesus. St. Stephen prayed for forgiveness for those who stoned him. But while our Lord prays for their forgiveness, He actually also does the forgiveness.
To forgive means to pay the price for what someone has done against you. It means to bear the punishment for the wrong and let the sin and its penalty rests on you. Only God can do that. So when Jesus says, “Father, forgive them”, He is at the same time undergoing the punishment that makes that possible. When Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them,” He is praying for your forgiveness – for your inborn and daily sin that made His death necessary – and, at the same time, Jesus is suffering the death that will win and give you just that.
Luke’s compassionate and merciful Jesus is not meek and mild. He is strong to save. He stands in there and takes the punishment and for your benefit suffers the death He doesn’t deserve. As Jesus, Himself, says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends,” (St. John 15:13). And yet, the compassion of our Jesus is greater even than that – because He lays down His life and suffers death even for His enemies. Jesus’ prayer is for you. He doesn’t just speak forgiveness, but accomplishes it by bearing and carrying your sin in His body to death.
Jesus knows what He is doing. He is dying, so that His forgiveness, life and salvation might be delivered to you even today – by Holy Baptism, by Holy Absolution, and by the Holy Supper of our Lord’s Body and Blood. All for you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Holy Week

Holy Week

The Church Year finds its high point and center in Holy Week, when we celebrate the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord. No other week of the Church Year is celebrated with such solemnity, devotion, and reverence. No other week deserves the name Holy Week alongside those days in which the church accompanies her Lord on His way to the cross and to the grave and rejoices in His victory over death. It is the week toward which the entire church year moves and from which it receives its meaning and content. During this time, the church's services crowd together as she sings her most earnest laments and her songs of penitence and then again rejoices most heartily in His victory.

The journey of Christ to the cross draws close to it's fulfillment as our Lord's Passion begins when He enters Jerusalem in triumphal procession. The palms of Palm Sunday greet the Victor who by His death frees His people. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week we continue to prayerfully reflect on our Lord's Passion, we meditate on the events which took place leading to the cross, and we petition our Father in heaven to hear the cries of His people and prepare our hearts. Our worship is heightened during the last three days of the week, the "Holy of Holies" of Holy Week, as we commemorate our Lord's first institution of the His Holy Supper (Maundy Thursday), His betrayal, and then walk with Him anew to the Holy Cross of Calvary (Good Friday). Though Good Friday is the high point of Holy Week it is not the high point of the Church Year, as on Holy Saturday evening our sorrow gives way to Easter joy!

During this week, we do not worship as a sort of historical society simply commemorating past events but rather we adore Jesus Christ as our true King, who is not humbled by His passion and cross but rather glorified and exalted through them, and who will soon be revealed as the victor over sin, death, and hell. Thus, through all the lamentation and sadness there is also solid trust, unwavering hope and joyful thankfulness as we await His, and thereby our, victory!

Holy Monday

Monday of Holy Week
April 2, 2007
St. John 12:1-43

“So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him.’” (St. John 12:19)
It seems that everyone was curious about Jesus: Pilate, Herod, the Jews. The word that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the grave was getting around. People were eager to see this great miracle worker. This excitement, of course, was not good news for those who were plotting to careful kill and dispose of Jesus. But the Son of God will not be a victim of their plans. He willingly goes to Jerusalem. No one has the power to take Jesus’ life from Him. He lays it down and He will take it up again. He will be “lifted up”, that is, He will die on the cross to draw all people unto Himself, including the Greeks who came to Philip with the request: ”Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” (St. John 12:21).
They will see him. On a Tree. Jesus said, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” At the wedding in Cana when Jesus performed His first miracle, He said, ”My hour has not yet come,” (St. John 2:4). But the time is now. This was the hour for which He came into the world. It is time for the sinless Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. What the world would judge to be an hour of shame and defeat, Jesus calls the time of His glorification. In fact, Jesus prays: “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name,” (St. John 12:28).
Glorified how? At the Cross! He says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” St. Augustine put it like this: “The death of Christ was the death of a most fertile grain of wheat.” Planted in death, Jesus will be raised to life on the third day, becoming, as Paul says, “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
You are the harvest that is produced by the death of Jesus. His death destroys your death. And by His rising from the grave, He gives you the pledge of your own resurrection to life eternal, the fruit of which He gives you even here and now. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we implore You that we, who amid so many adversities do fail through our own infirmities, may be restored through the Passion and intercession of Your only-begotten Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for Monday of Holy Week)

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Background
In the temple Jesus said, "If anyone keeps My word he shall never see death." (John 8:42-59) For Jesus came to taste death for us, to drink the cup of suffering to the dregs in order that we might be released from its power. Clinging to His life-giving words, we are delivered from death's sting and its eternal judgment. Christ is our High Priest, who entered the Holy of Holies and with His own blood obtained everlasting redemption for His people. (Heb 9:11-15) He is the Timeless One, who was before Abraham and yet is his descendant. He is the promised Son who carries the wood up the mountain for the sacrifice, who is bound and laid upon the altar of the cross. He is the ram who is offered in our place, who is willingly caught in the thicket of our sin, who wears the crown of thorns upon His head. (Gen 22:1-14) Though Jesus is dishonored by the sons of the devil, He is vindicated by the Father through the cross. For, "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided."

Scripture
* Psalm 43 (ESV)
* Genesis 22:1-14 (ESV)
* Hebrews 9:11-15 (ESV)
* St. John 8:42-59 (ESV)

Hymn of the Day
* LSB 430 "My Song Is Love Unknown"

Other Hymns
* LSB 429 "We Sing the Praise of Him Who Died"
* LSB 431 "Not All the Blood of Beasts"
* LSB 634 "The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord"
* LSB 544 "O Love, How Deep"

A Book of Concord Reading for Judica
Love is the Fulfillment of the Law

In today's Gospel Jesus tells the Jews, "If God were your Father, you would love Me." The Law of God shows us how to love Him in His Son, Whose blood shall "cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." [HEB 9:14] From The Formula of Concord, Part II, Chapter 4:
1] A disagreement has also occurred among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession concerning good works, one part employing the following words and manner in speaking of them: Good works are necessary for salvation; it is impossible to be saved without good works; likewise, no one has been saved without good works; because, they say, good works are required of true believers as fruits of faith, and faith without love is dead, although such love is no cause of salvation.
2] The other part, however, contended, on the contrary, that good works are indeed necessary; however, not for salvation, but for other reasons; and that on this account the aforecited propositiones, or expressions, which have been used (as they are not in accord with the form of sound doctrine and with the Word, and have been always and are still set by the Papists in opposition to the doctrine of our Christian faith, in which we confess that faith alone justifies and saves) are not to be tolerated in the Church, in order that the merit of Christ, our Savior, be not diminished, and the promise of salvation may be and remain firm and certain to believers.
3] In this controversy also the following controverted proposition, or expression, was employed by some few, that good works are injurious to salvation. It has also been argued by some that good works are not necessary, but are voluntary [free and spontaneous], because they are not extorted by fear and the penalty of the Law, but are to be done from a voluntary spirit and a joyful heart. Over against this the other side contended that good works are necessary.
4] This [latter] controversy was originally occasioned by the words necessitas and libertas, that is, necessary and free, because especially the word necessitas, necessary, signifies not only the eternal, immutable order according to which all men are obliged and in duty bound to obey God, but sometimes also a coercion, by which the Law forces men to good works.

All Book of Concord quotations are taken from the Triglotta, copyright 1921 by CPH. It is in public domain.

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Background
The Lord provided bread from heaven for His people in the wilderness. (Ex 16:2-21) Now He who is Himself the Living Bread from heaven miraculously provides bread for the 5000. (Jn 6:1-15) This takes place near the time of the Passover, after a great multitude followed Jesus across the Sea, when He went up on a mountain. Thus we see that Jesus is our new and greater Moses, who releases us from the bondage of Mt. Sinai and makes us free children of the promise. (Gal 4:21-31) Five loaves become twelve baskets, that is, the five books of Moses find their goal and fulfillment in Christ, whose people continue steadfastly in the doctrine and fellowship of the twelve apostles, and in the breaking and receiving of the Bread of Life, which is the body of Christ together with His precious blood, and in the prayers. (Acts 2:41-47) So it is that God's people "shall neither hunger nor thirst." (Is 49:8-13) For He abundantly provides for them in both body and soul

Scripture
* Psalm 132:8-18 (ESV)
* Exodus 16:2-21 (ESV)
* Acts 2:41-47 (ESV)
* St. Luke 11:14-28 (ESV)

Hymn of the Day
* LSB 743 "Jesus, Priceless Treasure"

Other Hymns
* LSB 423 "Jesus, Refuge of the Weary"
* LSB 642 "O Living Bread from Heaven"
* LSB 622 "Lord Jesus Christ You Have Prepared"
* LSB 420 "Christ, the Life of All the Living"

A Book of Concord Reading for Laetare
God Provides
Our Lord provides His people with all that they need to support this body and life. From the Large Catechism on the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer:

80] But this petition is especially directed also against our chief enemy, the devil. For all his thought and desire is to deprive us of all that we have from God, or to hinder it; and he is not satisfied to obstruct and destroy spiritual government in leading souls astray by his lies and bringing them under his power, but he also prevents and hinders the stability of all government and honorable, peaceable relations on earth. There he causes so much contention, murder, sedition, and war, also lightning and hail to destroy grain and cattle, to poison the air, etc. 81] In short, he is sorry that any one has a morsel of bread from God and eats it in peace; and if it were in his power, and our prayer (next to God) did not prevent him, we would not keep a straw in the field, a farthing in the house, yea, not even our life for an hour, especially those who have the Word of God and would like to be Christians.
82] Behold, thus God wishes to indicate to us how He cares for us in all our need, and faithfully provides also for our temporal support. 83] And although He abundantly grants and preserves these things even to the wicked and knaves, yet He wishes that we pray for them, in order that we may recognize that we receive them from His hand, and may feel His paternal goodness toward us therein. For when He withdraws His hand, nothing can prosper nor be maintained in the end, as, indeed, we daily see and experience. 84] How much trouble there is now in the world only on account of bad coin, yea, on account of daily oppression and raising of prices in common trade, bargaining and labor on the part of those who wantonly oppress the poor and deprive them of their daily bread! This we must suffer indeed; but let them take care that they do not lose the common intercession, and beware lest this petition in the Lord's Prayer be against them.
All Book of Concord quotations are taken from the Triglotta, copyright 1921 by CPH. It is in public domain.

Third Sunday in Lent

Background
Jeremiah was charged with speaking evil when he spoke the word of the Lord. (Jer 26:1-15) So also, Jesus is accused of doing evil when in fact He is doing good. He casts out a demon from a mute man so that he is able to speak. (Lk 11:14-28) But some said Jesus did this by the power of Beelzebub, Satan. Like Pharaoh of old, their hearts were hard. (Ex 8:16-24) They did not recognize the finger of God, the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through Jesus. Jesus is the Stronger Man who overcomes the strong man. He takes the devil's armor of sin and death and destroys it from the inside out by the holy cross. He exorcizes and frees us by water and the Word. We were once darkness, but now we are light in Christ the Lord. (Eph 5:1-9) As children of light our tongues are loosed to give thanks to Him who saved us. In a world where demons roam we confess, "My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net." (Introit)

Scripture
* Psalm 136:1-16 (ESV)
* Exodus 8:16-24 (ESV)
* Ephesians 5:1-9 (ESV)
* St. Luke 11:14-28 (ESV)

Hymn of the Day
* LSB 659 "Lord of Our Life"

Other Hymns
* LSB 890 "O Blessed Light, O Trinity"
* LSB 521 "Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken"
* LSB 718 "Jesus, Lead Thou On"

A Book of Concord Reading for Oculi
Jesus is True God
Jesus was accused in our lesson of being in league with Satan. He then proves that he is acting as the finger of God. Regarding the nature of the Trinity, we read from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article I, of God:
1] The First Article of our Confession our adversaries approve, in which we declare that we believe and teach that there is one divine essence, undivided, etc., and yet, that there are three distinct persons, of the same divine essence, and coeternal, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 2] This article we have always taught and defended, and we believe that it has, in Holy Scripture, sure and firm testimonies that cannot be overthrown. And we constantly affirm that those thinking otherwise are outside of the Church of Christ. and are idolaters, and insult God.
All Book of Concord quotations are taken from the Triglotta, copyright 1921 by CPH. It is in public domain.

Second Sunday in Lent

Background
Jacob wrestled with God; he would not let Him go until he received a blessing from Him. (Gen 32:22-32) So it was with the Canaanite woman. Though Jesus seemed to ignore and reject her, yet she continued to call upon His name and look to Him for help. (Mt 15:21-28) Even when the Lord called her a little dog, she held on to Him in faith and would not let Him wriggle out of His words: "Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." This Gentile woman shows herself to be a true Israelite, who struggles with God and man in Christ and prevails. "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." This is the sanctifying will of God, (1 Thess 4:1-7) to test your faith in order that it may be refined and strengthened. For tribulation produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope in Christ does not disappoint. (Rom 5:1-5)

Scripture
* Psalm 121 (ESV)
* Genesis 32:22-32 (ESV)
* 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 (ESV)
* St. Matthew 15:21-28 (ESV)

Hymn of the Day
* LSB 615 "When in the Hour of Deepest Need"

Other Hymns
* LSB 571 "God Loved the World So That He Gave"
* LSB 562 "All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall"
* LSB 718 "Jesus, Lead Thou On"


A Book of Concord Reading for Reminiscere
On Giving
Our Lord teaches in the faith of the Canaanite woman that we are to give generously and without fear, for God has promised that he will care for one and all. From the Large Catechism on the Seventh Commandment:
250] Let this suffice as an explanation of what stealing is, that it be not taken too narrowly, but made to extend as far as we have to do with our neighbors. And briefly, in a summary, as in the former commandments, it is herewith forbidden, in the first place, to do our neighbor any injury or wrong (in whatever manner supposable, by curtailing, forestalling, and withholding his possessions and property), or even to consent or allow such a thing, but to interpose and prevent it. 251] And, on the other hand, it is commanded that we advance and improve his possessions, and in case he suffers want, that we help, communicate, and lend both to friends and foes.
252] Whoever now seeks and desires good works will find here more than enough such as are heartily acceptable and pleasing to God, and in addition are favored and crowned with excellent blessings, that we are to be richly compensated for all that we do for our neighbor's good and from friendship; as King Solomon also teaches Prov. 19, 17: He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again. Here, then, you have 253] a rich Lord, who is certainly sufficient for you, and who will not suffer you to come short in anything or to want; thus you can with a joyful conscience enjoy a hundred times more than you could scrape together with unfaithfulness and wrong. Now, whoever does not desire the blessing will find wrath and misfortune enough.

All Book of Concord quotations are taken from the Triglotta, copyright 1921 by CPH. It is in public domain.

First Sunday in Lent

Background
In the Garden man exalts himself to be a god in place of God. (Gen 3:1-21) He succumbs to the temptation of the devil, and eating of the forbidden fruit he receives death. But in the sin-cursed wilderness God humbles Himself to become man in place of man. (Mt 4:1-11) He does not eat but fasts and bears the onslaughts of the devil for us that we may be restored to life. Jesus stands as David in our place to do battle against the Goliath Satan. (I Samuel 17:40-51) Though outwardly Jesus appears weak, yet He comes in the name of the Lord of hosts. He draws from the five smooth stones of the books of Moses and slings the Word of God. The stone sinks into the forehead, and the enemy falls. In Christ we are victorious over the devil. Let us therefore not receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor 6:1-10), but seeing that we have a great High Priest, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain help in time of need (Heb 4:14-16).

Scripture
* Psalm 32 (ESV)
* Genesis 3:1-21 (ESV)
* 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 (ESV)
* St. Matthew 4:1-11 (ESV)

Hymn of the Day
* LSB 849 "Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness"

Other Hymns
* LSB 418 "O Lord, Throughout These Forty Days"
* LSB 716 "I Walk in Danger All the Way"
* LSB 656 "A Mighty Fortress is our God"
* LSB 618 "I Come, O Savior, to Thy Table"
* LSB 919 "Abide, O Dearest Jesus"

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Background
Having witnessed a glimpse of the glory of our Transfigured Lord, and having transitioned through Pre-Lent, the church enters into the forty day period of Lent and commemorates the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The season of Lent, which begins tonight, intensifies as we draw closer to Holy Week and the climax of Good Friday. As we recall the depth of Christ's agony on the cross, we are compelled to remember that our sins brought all this upon Him. So, we search our souls and humble our hearts. The color violet, or purple, signifies this penitent mood.

Scripture
* Psalm 51 (ESV)
* Joel 2:12-19 (ESV)
* 2 Peter 1:2-11 (ESV)
* St. Matthew 6:16-21 (ESV)

Hymn of the Day
* LSB 607 "From Depth's of Woe I Cry to Thee"
Other Hymns
* LW 367 "When Over Sin I Sorrow"
* LSB 563 "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness"

Setting
* The Ash Wednesday Service is a spoken Low Mass utilizing the Rite for the Imposition of Ashes and the Service of Corporate Confession and Absolution from LSB.