Beggar

“Beggars on the Road of God”

Luke 18:31-43

Quinquagesima

February 20 – 21, 2009

Trinity Lutheran Church

Girard, IL

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text for today is the story of the beggar on the road from Luke chapter eighteen.

Look at him, lying by the side the road. He barely has clothes on he’s so poor. Look at him. He can’t look at you. He’s blind. He can’t see a thing. He is poor as dirt and completely helpless. I’m sure there was a time when he thought he could do everything himself. I’m sure there was a time when he believed that he would not let his blindness and begging overcome him. I can do this! You can almost hearing him say it to himself. I can defeat this! If I just work a little harder at paying attention, if I just find a job and a life that suits my lifestyle, I can overcome these woes which have come upon me.

Look at him. See how far his positive attitude and good work ethic got him? He’s stuck alongside a country road. He doesn’t even have the good sense to do his begging in the middle of the city, where there are more people. No matter how hard he tries, he can do nothing for himself. His very life depends on the generosity of strangers. It’s pathetic. How degrading is that? Doesn’t he have any self-respect? I mean, maybe if someone just gave him a good start, he’d be able to do it himself. What’s the old saying? Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?

But it’s been tried with this beggar. He keeps falling flat on his face. He keeps trying and trying and trying, but there is no hope for him on his own. He is royally stuck alongside the road with no hope of redemption on his own. All he can do is beg for the gifts that will come to him. That is his only salvation.

You are that beggar. You are blind and poor and helpless in God’s sight. You can’t get yourself out of the trap that has befallen you by sin. Certainly there may be times when things go better than others. There may even be months or years when you can forget that you wear rags, not riches, that you are blind and cannot see what sin has wrought in your life. You are that beggar.

The hardest thing in the world for a human being to do is repent and recognize that you are helpless without God’s love and mercy. It’s all fine and good to talk religious talk. Have lovely poetry on the walls in your house. Put spiritual makeup on so that no one can see you are a beggar. You want to depict yourself as a super-Christian, able to leap tall sins in a single bound. But it is not so. You are weak. You are blind. You are a beggar before God.

Martin Luther considered himself a beggar more than any other. His last words upon his deathbed in 1546 were a combination of German and Latin: “Wir sind alle bettler. Hoc est verum.” We are all beggars. This is true.

You are that beggar. Repent of your self-made life and your fantasy world where you don’t need God. Repent, and live.

Now look at that beggar once again. He hears the voice of His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and cries out for all he’s worth: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Ah, that great word of faith, mercy. Have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy on me. This beggar recognizes that he has no hope and no life apart from the mercy of Christ. That is what drives him. It is in him that his very lifeblood can be found.

The crowds and those around him want him to be quiet and go away. This is just like the cries of self-help and self-reliance that the world wants to foist upon you. Don’t trust in Christ! Trust in yourself! You can do it. You don’t need him. And even if you need him, someone as important as the Son of God doesn’t have time for all your problems.

But the more the world tells him to be quiet, the more this man of faith cries out, Son of David, have mercy on me! And Jesus stood still at the cry of faith, listens to his cry for mercy, and heals him. Miracle of miracle. When this beggar, who has nothing and offers nothing, cries out for mercy, God gives it to him.

Now look at that beggar. He once was blind but now can see. He once was dead to the world but is now alive in Christ. And if you look a little closer still, you can see this beggar eating at the master’s table, dressed in the finest of clothes, drinking the finest of food and the richest of wines. This beggar has become a lord and master. He has become everything he could not by his own power. All because of the mercy of the master.

You are that beggar. God kills you so He can make you alive. God hears your cry for mercy and forgives your sin, opens your eyes to see, and lifts you up to the highest place. It is no accident that we kneel to receive Christ’s body and blood at His banquet. That is the proper place for beggars like you and I. But God, who is rich in mercy, lifts you up to the highest heavens and gives you His greatest treasure. He gives you His own Son, dead and alive again.

The world can never understand the Christian faith and how God works. They constantly want to come up with some sort of work-share system, where we contribute and he contributes like some sort of benefit package. But God will not share His glory with any other. And His glory is to forgive your sins and raise you up out of the depths into the heavenly places.

Now think about that for just a minute when we hear St. John’s words that God is love. God is goodwill in action. St. John puts it this way, In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (I John 4:10). God’s love for you takes flesh and blood in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, the love of God in the world, gives you His very life to demonstrate God’s love for you.

We begin our journey with Christ to the cross this coming Ash Wednesday. This blind beggar shows all of us beggars that when we beg at Christ’s feet, He will always come through for us. Come on the journey of salvation. You will never be the same again. Amen.

“The Sower and the Seed”

Sexagesima – 2009 Feb. 13–14, 2009 Luke 8:4-15 “The Sower and the Seed”

Trinity Lutheran Church, Girard, Illinois

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today's Gospel begins by telling us that a great multitude had gathered before Jesus and that people had come to Him from every city. Everyone had heard about Him and wanted to see Him. But Jesus' purpose was not to satisfy the curiosity seekers. Jesus' teaching and miracles were not about impressing the multitudes but about ushering in the kingdom of God. So to the crowds, who came with a variety of motivations and agendas, Jesus spoke in parables and mysteries and riddles, so that the unfaithful who do not seek the kingdom of God would be driven away and left in ignorance, but that true disciples might be drawn in to discover and grasp the meaning hidden in Jesus' words.

You see, Christ's church is not supposed to be a place where the masses feel comfortable and everyone likes what they see and understands what's going on. People walk through these doors, too, for a whole variety of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with the kingdom of God. So if the church is truly proclaiming Christ's Word, the result should be the same as when Jesus taught: the unrepentant will be left unsatisfied and driven away, but the repentant will be drawn in to receive the gifts of Christ. Remember what Jesus said in the parable: in three out of four cases, the sowing of the seed comes to no effect. All the church is to worry about, then, is faithfully preaching and teaching the Word of God, and trusting that the seed of His Word will not return to Him empty but will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it.

In the first instance, the seed that is sown falls on the hardened path. It can't penetrate the soil, and so it is eaten by the birds. This symbolizes those with a heart that is hardened to the Word of God. They may hear the Word or know about the Word, but they don't listen to it. They may understand it mentally to some extent, but it doesn't penetrate their heart. And one of the ways in which the devil hardens many people's hearts to God's Word is by calling the Word into question, getting you to doubt it trustworthiness. It will be suggested that you can't trust the Bible because it's been copied so many times throughout the centuries that we can't even be sure it's accurate anymore. Of course, we have boatloads of evidence to the contrary, assuring us that the reliability of the Scriptures is greater than any other ancient document we accept as reliable. But still, some will use that as an excuse not even to give God's Word a hearing. Others will dismiss the Bible as being a relic of some past patriarchal, sexist, morally oppressive world view, and in that way will avoid its actual message. They'll mock it as something that only the intellectually weak and foolish rely on.

There's another more subtle way that people's hearts are hardened to God's Word. It happens when people say things like, “Oh yeah, I believe in God; I just don't need to go to church.” In this way they deceive themselves into thinking they have faith, all while they studiously avoid hearing the Word of God which creates and sustains true faith. No Christian wants to stay away week after week from the place where Christ the Savior is present in divine service. To say you're a Christian without going to church is sort of like saying, “Yeah, I love my wife. I just don't want to talk with her or spend any time with her.”

Unless we become guilty of only pointing the finger at others, we also are hardening our hearts to the Word whenever we hear a Scripture reading or a sermon and think to ourselves, “That really applies to so and so a few pews behind me,” or “I sure wish a couple people I know were here to listen to this. They really need to hear it.” That may be true, but to think in that way is a sign of a hardened heart, to let the seed of the Word bounce off of you and say, “This doesn't apply to me but to someone else.”

In the second instance, the seed was sown on stony ground, a thin layer of dirt over hard rocks. This symbolizes those who initially have a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement for the faith. They seem to be growing so quickly. But when things start to get too difficult, when life becomes a mess, then the doubts and questions creep in. Their once seemingly strong faith is now shown to be only a surface faith, easily scorched by the heat of testing and temptation. It is based on the shifting sands of emotions or on how much they like the pastor or certain people in the church. Their faith is not deeply rooted in God's words and promises but on how well He's coming through for them right now. In the end when it becomes clear that following Christ means real repentance, getting out of the easy chair and taking up the cross, they become offended; they stumble and fall away. They wither spiritually, never having been firmly rooted in the faith. This calls to mind the Scriptural warning, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.”

In the third instance, the seed lands among the thorns that choke out the young seedlings. This symbolizes how many hear the Word of Christ and believe it, but then they fail to mature in the faith because there are so many other things clamoring for your attention, wanting to be the top priority in your life, that faith in the Word of Christ gets choked off. The one thing that is truly needful gets ignored. This is a huge challenge for a Christian in a market-driven culture like ours. It's not that anybody tells you to ignore the practice of your Christian faith. It's just that there are so many pleasures and distractions and diversions offered to you that you end up becoming spiritually paralyzed. The thorns of the world sink their poison into you and you're left anesthetized in front of your new high definition television or your computer screen, desensitized to what's going on in the world, numb to the things of God. There's 168 hours in a week, and yet we can hardly find 15 minutes a day to pray and meditate on the Scriptures, there's just so much else that has to be done first. Even here in church the thorns try to crowd your mind and divert your attention to other things so that you can't dwell on God's Word as you should.

So let us be on guard against giving ourselves over to what Jesus mentions here: the cares, riches, and pleasures of life. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus refers in this parable to the “deceitfulness of wealth.” Don't buy into the lie that if you just devote yourself to pursuing that mammon a little bit more or a little bit longer that suddenly everything will be better. The finish line keeps moving and if you ever do cross it, you'll find it's only the edge of a cliff. As Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul?”

As you hopefully can see, this parable is meant to shake us up and knock us in the head. For who among us here cannot see himself or herself in one or more of these first three soils? Who here can claim to be that fourth good and perfect soil? None of us can. Therefore this parable cuts through us all like the sharp blade of a plow, calling us to acknowledge our condition and repent.

The good news is that the Father sent forth His Word, Jesus, from heaven precisely to rescue you from what has infested you children of Adam, created from the dirt. Christ has cleared away the debris in your soil through the power of His suffering and death. Christ Jesus Himself is the seed that is cast, the seed that is sown; for He is the Word made flesh. Therefore, whatever the seed in the parable experienced–on the path, on the rock, in the thistles–Christ has experienced for you. Thorns were placed on the head of Christ, the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. For you and for your deliverance Jesus was crucified in some hardened and rocky soil called Golgotha, the place of the skull. There, He bore the withering heat of the day and the fire of our judgment. There, people trampled on His Name with their insults, and Satan and his demons, like scavenging birds, hellishly pecked at Him and wounded Him and devoured Him. Do you see? All that happened to the seed in the first three instances happened to Jesus. And now, because Christ suffered all of that in your place, the devil and the world, sin and death are conquered for you. Christ has destroyed the power of the raven and the hard clay, the thorn and the rock from the inside out. For on the third day our Lord broke through the soil, rising from the depths of the earth, bringing with Him mercy and new life for you.

The truth is that it is Christ Himself and Christ alone who is that fourth good soil. For only Christ is without the stain of sin; only He is not overcome by the devil or the world. He is the divine Word of the Father who was cast like seed from heaven into the good soil of His perfect humanity, which He assumed in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary. He alone is the One with the noble and good heart who received His Father's will and perfectly carried out His Father's Word, growing up and producing a bountiful harvest of those who believe and are saved.

Jesus once said of Himself, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” Our Lord Jesus is the promised Seed of Eve and Abraham and David. He was planted in the tomb in order that abundant life might spring up and that a great harvest might be brought in through His bodily resurrection. And you are a part of that crop. You are one in whom the Word of life has been planted. In Christ alone, by His grace alone, you become the fourth soil. The seed of the Word was planted in you by the Holy Spirit with the water of your baptism. It is sown still in the absolution and the proclamation of the Gospel. The seed of Christ will land on the soil once again today as the very body and blood of Christ are placed into your mouth, onto your tongue, for the forgiveness of your sins. The Word of Christ is at work in you now, that you may bear fruit one hundred fold–the fruit of faith toward God and fervent love toward one another. The Sower is still sowing His seed, that you may have His life forever.

Brothers and sisters of Christ, to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Treasure these mysteries, dwell upon them, believe in them, so that you may remain deeply rooted in the Word of Christ, and so that you may share in Christ's resurrection in the final harvest on the Last Day. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Amen.

God Is Unfair (Thankfully)
Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima
February 7 – 8, 2009
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
Between Girard and Virden Illinois

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

All of us are born with a natural instinct for what is fair. Without ever being taught, we seem to know when the treatment isn’t equal. Even young children are experts at fairness. “How come her dessert is bigger than mine? That’s not fair!” “He got to spend more time on the computer than I did. That’s not fair!” And it’s the same for us adults, too. All of us have heard people say at one time or another, “Life just isn’t fair.”

I’ve noticed that whenever we bring up the issue of fairness, it’s almost always because we’re promoting our own interests. “Management should be paying me more; my wages are unfair.” “Hey, I was next in line; it’s not fair that you’re serving him first.” “I shouldn’t have to do all this work; you should take your fair share of the responsibility.” Sometimes our complaints are justified; often they are simply an expression of greed or selfishness or laziness.

Where this becomes particularly dangerous, however, is when we try to apply the idea of fairness to our relationship with God. Because for us to demand fairness from God is for us to tell God what He should and shouldn’t do. It is for us to take ourselves and our standards and put them higher than God, to make God fit our requirements of how we think He should act. And to do that is not only arrogant, it is idolatrous; it is to make ourselves into gods above God.

Beware! Fairness comes under the category of God’s Law. God’s Law is about justice. It’s about getting what you deserve. And for the sinner who has fallen short of the Law, justice means judgment. “The wages of sin,” what you’ve earned by our works, “is death.” You’d better think twice before you ask God to be fair with you. Fairness is what the devil wants. Fairness is hell. But God does not wish to deal with you according to His justice, His fairness, but according to His mercy in Christ, in the manner of a gift. The Gospel is unfair, and that is very good news indeed. For in God’s unfairness is His love towards you. You are “declared righteous freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

That ultimately is the real difference between the first and the last in today’s Gospel parable. The first laborers had an agreement, a contract with the landowner to work for a denarius a day. The other laborers, however, weren’t operating under any legal terms. Rather, the landowner simply said, “Go into the vineyard, and whatever is right, I will give you.” So the first were dealing with the landowner on the basis of what was fair; the last were dealing with him on the basis of trust in his goodness. The first were relying on their own works; the last were relying on the landowner’s righteousness, and in so doing, they received more than they ever expected or deserved.

The owner of the vineyard in this parable is God the Father. By His Word and Spirit He sends out the call of the Gospel to come into His vineyard, which is the church, and for His people to be about the things pertaining to the holy Vine of Christ. Some come into the church from the first moments of their life, baptized as infants, remaining faithful their entire lives. Others are converted as adults. Some aren’t brought to faith in Christ the Savior until their lives are almost over. Some are full of good works. Others are full of weakness and failure who yet cling to Christ. But God gives all the same thing at the end of the day: full forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death and the devil, everlasting life with Him in heaven. He does this not because He is unfair, but rather, because He is generous and loving and merciful. He pours out His gifts on His people abundantly and lavishly. For the reward at the end of the day is given not based on our work but on the work of His Son, who lived and died and was raised again for us.

The problem arises when some in the vineyard of the church begin to think that their length of time and their service deserves some special reward, who want God to work on the merit system. For that destroys the relationship of love that God wishes to have with His people. Love has nothing to do with what is owed or deserved. Real love is a freely given gift with no strings attached. As soon as we start wanting to deal with God on the basis of what He owes us, it is no longer a relationship of love, but in the end a business relationship–you do for me, I’ll do for you. To treat God like that is not to love Him but to use Him.

Those who want to deal with God on the basis of their own works and measurements of equality will be sent away from His presence forever, as the landowner said to the first workers, “Go your way.” Hell has been rightly described as the place where the damned suffer the anguish of growing infinitely more angry with God at His unfairness. But those who give up trying to deal with God on their own terms and instead rely on His goodness and mercy–they will receive from Him much more than they ever expected or deserved. If hell is the place where there is anger and weeping and anguish at God’s supposed unfairness, then heaven is the place where God’s people laugh and sing and rejoice in God’s unfairness–where they experience the ever-growing joy of the undeserved love and goodness and life that the Lord causes to abound to His people.

That is the difference between unbelief and faith. Unbelievers seek a God who is fair, and when they find Him, they don’t like Him. Believers seek a God who is merciful and gracious, and when He finds them, they love Him. Believers know that it is only by grace that they are even in the vineyard, no matter how long they’ve been there. They consider it a privilege and an honor to be able to contribute to the health and the growth of the vineyard. They are not jealous of the newcomer or of the one converted in his dying days, but they rejoice that the same mercy that saved themselves has also saved another. Even a faithful lifelong Christian recognizes that of himself he deserves nothing and that it is only because of Jesus that he has forgiveness and life. As it is written, “The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

It is as we prayed in the Introit, “The Lord will save the humble people, but will bring down proud and haughty looks.” Or as Jesus said, “The last will be first, and the first last.” Repentant thieves and prostitutes enter the kingdom of heaven while unrepentant Pharisees are excluded. The contrite new believer is at the front of the line while the self-righteous lifetime member is at the end. The self-sufficient are cut off. The humble beggars are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“The last will be first, and the first last.” For that is the way of Christ. He who is the first and the greatest humbled Himself to be the last and lowest on the holy cross. He was treated unfairly so that you would be treated graciously. He Himself was the one who did the work in the vineyard that brings you the generous reward at the end of the day. Consider the times mentioned in this parable. Christ was handed over to Pontius Pilate at dawn. He was crucified at the third hour of the day.

Darkness covered the land at the sixth hour, noon. Our Lord died at the ninth hour as the perfect and complete sacrifice for your sin. He was buried at the eleventh hour of the day just before sundown. Jesus Christ is the true Laborer in the vineyard, that you may be living, fruitful branches of Him who is the Vine.

And now that the day’s work has been done, Christ directs His stewards, His pastors, to give to you your denarius, the denarius of Christ’s life and salvation, which He bestows through His baptism and His preaching and His supper. Only do not despise this denarius as those did in the parable, and thus miss out on its benefit. Rather, receive this denarius with faith and thanksgiving. Trust that behind the poor elements of the Word and the Sacraments, the Lord imparts rich blessing–not because He has to or because it’s fair, but simply because He delights in being generous and loving towards you.

This is the true way of the Gospel, the way of undeserved grace. It is the way of Him who is Himself the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, Jesus Christ, the Savior. Those who have His Gospel have everything they need.

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

ONLY JESUS

“Only Jesus”

Matthew 17:1 – 9

Transfiguration

January 31 – February 1, 2009

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church

Rev. Keith E. GeRue

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read, which particular focus on the words, “And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”

It is a rare and amazing thing to have a glimpse of your own future. Perhaps, when you look into the faces of your children, you get a picture, an image of who you are, who you have been, and who you will be in the lives of your descendents. You look into their eyes, and a whole realm of history can flow right back at you. And there are certain days in each person’s life, when for just a moment, all of a family’s history comes together, and the whole stretch of life is viewed as a tapestry, where each family member’s life is a part of the whole tapestry.

Peter, James and John had the same sort of experience. Jesus asked them to go on a special trip to a mountain. And you know, when God goes to a mountain, something big is going to happen. There on the mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them. The word there is the same word which we get our English word, metamorphosis. And for just a few minutes, they beheld the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

To be sure, they did not deserve this honor. Peter, James and John had proven their unworthiness time and time again. Who could forget James and John’s mother coming to Jesus, and asking that they be placed at His right and left hands of power? And Peter, well, he is the brash one, always shooting off his mouth, always thinking he gets the whole story, when he doesn’t. Peter, the betrayer. No, they did not deserve the honor God gave them. We should not be surprised, then, when Peter wants to stay basking in the glory. We shouldn’t be too shocked when Peter asked to set up dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, so that they could stay on the mountain for a very long time. But it could not be so. Peter didn’t understand that Jesus great glory, His true glory, was not to be found on that mountain. For as Jesus

stood on the mountain top, He could see another mountain in the distance, a mountain of shame and horrible suffering. Golgotha, the place of the skull.

We, like Peter, would like a Jesus who was only in it for the big show. Maybe that’s why the transfiguration intrigues so much. Jesus, the powerful God. Jesus, the mighty one, who gather’s His people together like a general gathers his troops. But we can’t forget the conversation. What was Jesus talking about with Moses and Elijah? Our text in Matthew doesn’t tell us, but Luke gives us a hint. Luke recounts that they were speaking of Jesus’ exodus, His departure. It’s almost like there is this conversation going on in heaven, and Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, come down to earth, and continue this heavenly conversation. And when was Jesus’ departure? The cross. His suffering and death. His departure from this earth.

Now doesn’t that tell us something? Doesn’t that give us a window into heaven? The Scriptures tell us that the angels of heaven rejoice when one sinner repents, because that one sinner now sees themselves in Christ. The conversation of heaven, the writings of the Old Testament, the message of Jesus and the apostles, indeed the message of the whole Church is about Jesus work for your salvation. I had a professor once who would often say that all theology is Christology. It’s all about Jesus. There is no getting beyond the message of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for your salvation. That’s it! That is the eternal conversation of the heavenly hosts. That is the conversation we join when we sing with angels and archangels, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth. Heaven and earth and full of your glory. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! That’s the message of all eternity, and we, by God’s great mercy and love, hear and rejoice in that message week after week after week.

God’s mercy in Christ Jesus is the most practical thing in your life. I think sometimes we can falsely give the impression that Jesus’ work on the cross isn’t enough. Ok, Jesus died for my sins, now how do I live better? How do I become a better parent, or spouse, or worker? Now are these bad questions? Not at all. But unless they are viewed through the lens of the cross, they mean nothing. Without Jesus, no amount of positive thinking or motivation or even fear of punishment amount to a hill of beans. If you don’t have Jesus Christ, you have nothing, even if you own the whole world. But when you have Jesus, all of heaven is yours, even though the whole world rejects you. Now call me crazy, but that sounds a little practical to me.

In the transfiguration of our Lord, we are given a window into the mind of God. This is the last Sunday of Epiphany. During Epiphany we have been speaking at some length about who is Jesus, and what His nature is as the Son of God. There have been sermons on healings, and fasting, and the calling of the disciples, and the gifts of the magi. But now we are preparing to move into Lent. We know who Jesus is, He is the Son of God and the Son of Mary. True God and true man. He loves you and gives you Himself according to His flesh. Now what does this Jesus do for you? That is the message of Lent. As the great Lenten hymn asks, What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, that caused the Lord of bliss, to lay aside His crown, for my soul. What wondrous love indeed. That is the love of the God who gives Himself to you. That is the love of a God who cannot bear to see you suffer the punishment you so richly deserve for your sins. You deserve it, yes. You deserve to die for your sins. But instead, He sends His Son into our flesh. He sends His Son into our flesh, to die.

What wondrous love. Each one of you have a story, a journey you have taken in your life that has led you to this place. I suppose from our human side, it seems like the journey has all been yours. But know this: God is the one who has been leading you on this journey into the flesh of His Son. The very hand of God has drawn you here, to hear His Word. With water and that same Word, the work of Satan is crushed into the dust. With the confession of that faith, eternal life is sealed by the Holy Spirit. That’s a great work, and it’s God’s work in you and for you.

Today you begin a journey, the journey of faith. And starting Ash Wednesday, we begin that journey with Jesus again. We travel with Christ to the cross for our salvation. Today we bid farewell to the alleluias for a while, as we let our resurrection joy hide away during the season of Lent. We will set aside this joy for a time, but we can do so, knowing that it will come again. But this is really the joy of the Christian life. There will be days of suffering on this earth. But rejoice, for you know the end. Like Peter, James, and John, you have been given a little window into your life together, eternal life in Jesus.

And now perhaps the greatest work of all. Now God tenderly invites you to partake of His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. For at this altar, God comes to earth to feed you with Himself, to forgive you sins, and to draw you into this great and wonderful company of the saints of God. For when you are in Jesus, you get it all. Forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. What more is there?

God the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son, hear Him! God calls you to His Church to hear the voice of His Son. And that voice is not one of judgment and fear. It is the voice of our elder brother, Jesus Christ, true God and true man. It is the voice of the God-man that loves you above all creation. It is the voice of God who draws you to Himself. For when you are in Jesus, you are a part of the great company of heaven, even though it cannot be seen today. But believe it, it is there.

Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves. Only Jesus. All of these great things of God are there, but in the end, there is only Jesus. And He is enough. No, He is everything you need. Welcome to the family.

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