Reformation Sunday

Reformation Sunday

October 29, 2006

Text: Romans 3:19-28

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (v. 28; ESV). This truth, so clearly confessed by St. Paul, was rediscovered by a 16th Century German monk who had so agonized over the question, “How do I appease a righteous and angry God?” And really, this is the question for all of us today. How do we get right with God? How do we avoid His eternal wrath and condemnation? Can we earn his favor by our own good works? What about our good nature or disposition? St. Paul writes, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (v. 23). Or as he puts it even more explicitly earlier in this same chapter, quoting the Old Testament, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (vv. 10-12). If there is no goodness in us, we cannot hope to be saved on account of anything within ourselves. Rather, Paul says, a man is justified through faith! We are justified because Christ justifies us, and that justification becomes our own through faith!

Martin Luther spent many years trying to please God by his own works before he came to know the truth of the Gospel. He was terrified by the righteousness of God. Brought up in the piety of Medieval Roman Catholicism, Luther was taught that he had to make satisfaction for his sins. He had to make himself right with God. How could he ever know if he had done enough? How could he ever know if he had been saved? He was taught to look at Christ not as a loving Savior but as an angry Judge! Luther knew his own sinfulness. How could he stand before this angry Judge and live? Oh, the terrors of Luther’s conscience! Again and again he would go to confession, seeking to confess every one of his sins, finding little lasting comfort in the counsel of his father-confessor. Luther would starve himself for days at a time, beating his body into submission and hoping somehow thereby to earn God’s favor. It was to no avail. The Law continued to accuse and condemn. Luther writes of that time:

"Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God
with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated
by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes
sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was
angry with God, and said, “As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners,
eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the
law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also
by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!” Thus I raged with
a fierce and troubled conscience" (“Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther’s Latin
Writings.” John Dillenberger, Martin Luther [Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1961] p. 11).

For many years, Luther painstakingly searched the Scriptures for some kind of peace. All this time, unbeknownst to Luther, the Holy Spirit was behind the scenes working faith in the soul of this sinful monk by means of His Holy Word, until one day, quite suddenly, Luther came to realize that he had misunderstood the Gospel entirely. He had misunderstood the concept of the righteousness of God, the “righteousness of God” that comes “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe,” as St. Paul says in our text this morning. Suddenly Luther came to realize that the righteousness of God is the free gift of God to all who believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins! In other words, we are accounted righteous by God for Christ’s sake! Now when God looks at us He does not see our sin, but rather Christ’s righteousness! When He looks at us, He sees Christ, as St. Paul writes in Galatians, “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (3:27; NIV). The sinner in you, the old you has been drowned in baptism. The sin has been covered up. It has been buried in the tomb of Christ and you now stand before God having been clothed in Christ’s righteousness.

This is the discovery that Luther made through the words of St. Paul in Romans chapter One, “He who through faith is righteous shall live” (v. 17). That is to say, the “righteousness of God” spoken of by St. Paul is that by which God Himself makes us righteous through faith. “At last, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words,” writes Luther.

"Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through
open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me.
Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory. I also found in other terms
an analogy, as, the work of God, that is, what God does in us, the power of God,
with which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, with which he makes us wise,
the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

"And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had
before hated the word “righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me
truly the gate to paradise" (pp. 11-12).

At last, Luther had found peace, the peace with God that comes along with justification through faith (Rom. 5:1). This faith, which was given by God Himself, sustained Luther through every trial and temptation encountered during Luther’s lifetime and throughout the Church’s Reformation. This was the faith that allowed Luther to stand in Worms before the Emperor and Princes of the Holy Roman Empire and before the highest representatives of the Pope of Rome, and declare on pain of death, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” Luther would stand on the faith revealed in Scripture, and upon no other. Neither Church tradition nor all the man-made rules of the Pope and his curia nor the devil Himself could bind Luther’s conscience. His conscience was bound to God alone, in whom he trusted for the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation.

Dr. Martin Luther is a great hero of the Church. We marvel at his faith even today. And yet, this gift of faith and justification is given by the grace of God in Christ also to you, dear friends. Dr. Luther’s story is also our story. Luther loved the hymn we just sang, “Salvation Unto Us Has Come” (LW 355), which was written by a dear friend of his, Paul Speratus. He loved it because it was his life story, and indeed, it is the life story of us all. Our good works cannot avert our doom. They help and save us never. But “Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, Who did for all the world atone; He is our one redeemer” (v. 1). He frees us from sin. Through His death, we have been freed from the power of sin and the Law. All our sins have been forgiven. And so now our living and resurrected Lord grants us faith; faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him in heaven. We confess, along with Luther, that such faith is not something we drum up within ourselves, but it is rather the free gift of God. Luther confesses in the Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith” (Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed). Such faith is trust in God for salvation in Christ along with every grace and blessing.

This faith is not blind. It knows the One in whom it trusts. Faith is always in something. Be it a right faith or a false faith, it is always directed toward an object. And so note very carefully that faith itself does not save; not even right faith. Only the object of faith, the object in which it trusts, can save. And the object of our faith is none other than Jesus Christ, whom “God presented” as “a sacrifice of atonement” (Rom. 3:25). Faith is not a work by which we earn our salvation any more than any other work of the Law. It is rather the means through which we grasp and receive that salvation which Christ Himself earned for us on the cross. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (vv. 21-22; ESV). Indeed, we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (v. 24).

Jesus Christ is therefore the one saving object of our faith. Faith does not look inward upon itself, but outward, to its Lord Jesus. Luther wrote this definition of saving faith, “faith goes out of itself, clings to Christ, and embraces Him as its own possession; and faith is certain that it is loved by God for His sake and not for the sake of its own works, worthiness, or merit” (What Luther Says, p. 496). Saving faith casts the sinner upon Christ the Savior. And any sinner who is cast upon Christ the Savior can be sure that he is justified before God freely, by God’s own grace, through faith, without works. And then, being justified already by faith in Christ, works follow naturally. Luther writes in his treatise, The Freedom of a Christian, “Behold, from faith thus flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a joyful, willing, and free mind that serves one’s neighbor willingly and takes no account of gratitude or ingratitude, of praise or blame, of gain or loss” (Dillenberger, pp. 75-76). These are the fruits of our God-given faith. Such is the Christian life.

This is our great heritage as sons and daughters of the Reformation. A 16th Century monk was led by the Holy Spirit to rediscover the words of St. Paul that “He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Rom. 1:17). And so this monk discovered that the Word of God both condemns and saves, kills the sinner and makes alive the saint, crucifies and resurrects. God is not only Judge, but He is also Savior. Though by the Law we are condemned, we are saved by grace through faith in the sin-atoning death of Christ. On account of Christ, the Lord forgives our wickedness and remembers our sins no more (Jer. 31:34). The Son has set us free, and we are free indeed (John 8:36). “Dear Christians, one and all rejoice, With exultation springing” (LW 353:1), for God has delivered His people from sin and death through His own dear Son. He has justified us in His blood. He has clothed us with His own righteousness. All praise and thanks be to Him forever and ever. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer of Damascenus

The Prayer of Damascenus Concerning the Personal Union of Christ:

Well done, O Christ. What shall we, poor and wretched as we are, render to You for all these benefits? For all things are Yours, and You ask nothing of us except that we be saved. And You have given even this to us. Indeed, You have the thanks of those who receive it out of Your ineffable goodness. We thank You because, although we are not, You have given that we might be, and although we are lost, You have given of Your grace that we might be blessed. And those who have fallen from this state You have turned again and brought them back because of Your indescribable forgiveness.[1] Amen.

[1] Martin Chemnitz, The Two Natures in Christ, J. A. O. Preus, trans. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1971) p. 155.

Holes in Evolutionist Logic

Timotheos over at Balaam's Ass (one of my favorite blog sites... check it out!) has an excellent post pointing out the holes in the logic of arguments put forward by supporters of evolutionary theory (http://talkingdonkey.worldmagblog.com ... see the Oct. 21 post entitled "Evolution"). He also clearly states the implications of evolutionary theory for theolgy, demonstrating once again that the concept of "theistic evolution" is an oxy moron.

Incidentally, congratulations to Timotheos and his wife on the birth of their son, Jonas Michael Ottomar, who, as of this morning, has been washed in the waters of Holy Baptism. My wife and I are honored to be his Godparents.

19th Sunday after Pentecost (B)

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B)
October 15, 2006
Text: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38-50

We humans are always restless and anxious. We are never happy with the way things are. When it’s Spring, we think of Summer. In the heat, we long for the Autumn chill. And when it snows, well… Winter comes all too soon and doesn’t leave us soon enough. We always think about the good old days. Hard times have a way of disappearing from the memory like a dissipating mist, while we romanticize the past. It’s called nostalgia. If only it could be the way it was back then.

If this restlessness is true of us in view of things temporal, how much more so in things eternal? We are never satisfied. Our Lord gives us the Gospel that truly satisfies, but we ignore it and continue to look in all the wrong places. Like the Hebrews in the wilderness, we long for the fleshpots of Egypt. We remember the days of old, before our Lord freed us from the bondage of sin and death, when at least we had meat to fill our bellies and an array of delights to gratify our every pleasure. We don’t remember how difficult it was to be a slave. We only remember that it was easier and more pleasant to serve the great god of self than to serve the God who bids us deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.

The devil knows our weakness for the past. He dresses up the Old Adam in us so that he looks better than the New Man. “Remember how much freedom you had as the Old Adam?” whispers the wily serpent. “Remember how much fun it was to have sin as your master? To taste the delights of a thousand sinful pleasures? Not to have to worry about your neighbor’s welfare, but always to look out for yourself? To make sure you always had what was coming to you, not caring if your neighbor’s lot came up short? Ah, but this Jesus is a stick in the mud. He never wants you to have any fun. He wants you to deny yourself. He wants you to be willing to die for Him and die for your neighbor. What good does that do? Jesus knows that if you taste the forbidden fruit, you will become like Him. You will be lord of your own destiny. You will be your own incarnate god.” So goes the temptation. It’s the same as it was in the Garden of Eden. And so often we are all too ready to listen.

But don’t listen, dear friends. Repent. Cast off the sin that so easily entangles you. The serpent is deceiving you. He has been a liar from the beginning. When sin was your master, it took full possession of you. When you worship yourself as a god, you are not free, but bound. Satan is your taskmaster, and death your lot. Repent. Turn from yourselves. Turn from your Old Adam. Drown him daily in those pristine baptismal waters. And live in the New Man, Jesus Christ, who is in you.

For our Lord Jesus Christ has freed us from bondage to sin, death, and the devil. He took our sin upon Himself on the cross, dying our death, suffering our punishment. He has led us out of slavery in Egypt, on an exodus through the wilderness where we can make pure sacrifices of worship and thanksgiving to God. The resurrected Lord goes ahead of us to lead us into the Promised Land. Don’t look back. Only slavery and death remain behind you. Follow your Lord. He guides you through the wilderness. He makes His eternal covenant of blood with you. He engraves His Word in stone before you. He is the Rock from whose riven side flows the water that quenches your thirst. He feeds you with His manna. And though the host of enemies between you and your eternal inheritance be strong and imposing, do not fear. Our Captain fights for us. He goes before us and wipes out our enemies with His strong arm and with His mighty hand. What is ahead of us is so much better than what has been left behind. The flesh looks back to the land of slavery. But faith looks forward to the Land of Promise.

Now we are in the wilderness. We have passed out of bondage in the Egypt of sin through the Red Sea of Baptism. We are God’s covenant people, the New Israel, the people of His New Testament. But the devil tempts us always to look back, and the picture he presents is not accurate. How serious this temptation is, Jesus makes clear to us. If “your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48; ESV). Now, before you start gouging out your eyes and amputating your hands and feet, understand, Jesus does not want you to literally mutilate yourself. But temptation is serious business. Your hand was not made for sin. Cut it off from its evil intent. Your foot was not made for sin. Do not let it lead you in paths of unrighteousness. And those eyes that keep looking lustfully at the array of pleasures before them, turn them away. Avert your gaze from the things of bondage and focus them rather on your Savior who frees you.

Yes, dear friends, focus your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of your faith. Look to Him with childlike trust. He protects His own as dear children. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,” says Jesus, “it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (v. 42). Thus it is for all the enemies of the cross who would tempt you away from your Lord and His salvation. You can trust your Lord Jesus. Nothing, and no one, can snatch you from His hand.

So do not look back, look forward. Do not offer your bodies as living sacrifices to the idols of this age; power, money, sex, vainglory, etc. Rather, offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God, in thanksgiving for the sin atoning death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so you will be the salt of the earth. Your neighbors will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. They will see you looking forward to a freedom that is beyond this present wilderness. You will be to them Joshua and Caleb, who in the midst of the multitude who tempted the people to go back to Egypt, boldly proclaimed, “do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us” (Numbers 14:9).

Dear friends in Christ, keep your eyes focused forward to the Promise that is waiting to be revealed at the coming of Christ Jesus. Then there will be no more temptation to look back, for God tempts no one. Then all temptation will be defeated and cast into the lake of fire along with the devil and all his evil minions. Our Lord Jesus has won the victory for us on His cross, freeing us from bondage to sin. For all of us who have eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree, the cross is a life-giving tree for all who believe. For all of us who long for the good old days of bondage when our bellies were full, or so we mistakenly remember, Jesus gives us to feast on His very Body and Blood this day, the very fruit of the cross, the holy Body and Blood of the Lord of Glory who was crucified for us men and for our salvation. This is the bread that really satisfies. This is the drink that really quenches our thirst. This food, this heavenly manna, strengthens us in our walk through the wilderness. It strengthens us for the day we enter the Promised Land. And on that Day we leave the dust and heat of the wilderness behind forever, to live in a new Heaven and a new earth, a land flowing with milk and honey, the reward prepared for us from the beginning. Lord, keep us faithful until that Day. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Trust in God, Not in Man

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation” (Ps. 146:2; ESV). “O how the mighty have fallen” (2 Sam. 1:19). “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes” (Ps. 118:8). It is dangerous business being a pastor. It is dangerous because pastors are men, but the people of God often treat them as princes. Certainly we want people to have a healthy respect for the Office of the Holy Ministry, as well as for the incumbents of that Office. But the Office is bigger than the man. The Office is Christ’s. The man is sinner. And the danger is, when the man, who is sinner, falls, he muddies the Office before the eyes of the people.

For this reason, we must not become Donatists. That is, we must not reject the Word and Sacrament ministry of the Office just because the man in the Office falls, or hurts us, or turns out to be a hypocrite. The Baptisms he administered are still a washing of regeneration and renewal. The Lord’s Suppers over which he presided are still the Body and Blood of Christ. And even the Word he preached, insofar as he preached the true, Scriptural doctrine, is God’s Word. So we rejoice in the gifts of Christ we have received from his hand, because it is not the hand that is important, but the gifts. The Gospel alone authenticates the work of the ministry.

We must also understand that pastors, insofar as they are sinful men, will fall. Don’t mistake the mud on their own sin-stained robes for something that has soiled Christ’s Office. The Ministry is holy, even when the minister is not. But insofar as pastors are baptized children of God, who have heard the Word, been absolved by the Gospel, and received the Body and Blood of Christ into their mouths, they are also forgiven of their sins. They, too, are saints before God on account of Christ. Christ died for them, too.

The reason for this post? We have all been disappointed by sinful men. I entered and remain in this Office with fear and trembling, knowing my own sins. And I know that it is only the grace of God if my own sins don’t appear to muddy the Office before the eyes of God’s people. I also know that God called me into the Holy Ministry by His grace, and that this is the same grace by which He called me by the Gospel, enlightens me with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps me in the one true faith, and daily and richly forgives all my sins for Christ’s sake. And by this same grace, the gifts that Christ offers His people by my hand are holy and effective, even when my hands are dirty. Faith in men will always be disappointed, for men are sinners. But faith in Christ will never be disappointed, for He never falls and never fails and is always faithful to His Word.

18th Sunday after Pentecost (B)

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B)
October 8, 2006
Text: Mark 9:30-37

Once again in our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus confronts our humanly devised theology of glory with His own theology of the cross. Like the disciples, we want to know who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s not an unnatural question. Who will have the greatest glory? Jesus’ answer is contrary to our human reason. In this case, Jesus does not answer our question directly, but His action speaks louder than words. “And he took a child and put him in the midst of them” and took the child in His arms (Mark 9:36; ESV). This is not what the disciples expected, and it is not what we expect either. It is more logical that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven would be one of the great Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; or perhaps one of the Prophets, Moses or maybe Elijah. Even more likely, it would seem, the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven would be one of the blessed 12 apostles, the most likely candidates being Jesus’ inner-circle, Peter, James, and John. But amidst questions about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus picks up a little child and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (v. 37). Let not the imagery be lost on us. The children of the Kingdom are the greatest in the Kingdom, and the one who receives such a child in Jesus’ Name receives not only the child, but also Jesus, and along with Jesus, the Father who sends Him. Once again, God is hidden in weakness, in this case, the weakness of a little child.

What is the meaning of this strange account, and how does it apply to us in the Church today? Dear friends, it is written, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise” (Matt. 21:16, citing Ps. 8:2). Children have a remarkable capacity for faith. Faith is trust. Unless parents give their children good reason not to trust them, children will naturally trust their parents. That is to say, children naturally have faith in their parents. From the very beginning of their lives, children have faith that their mother will take care of them. They do not intellectually reason, “Mother loves me, therefore she will feed me and clothe me and change my diaper and rock me to sleep and keep me safe from all harm.” They simply have faith that Mother will do these things. When a child grows a little and matures in intellectual capacity, the child expects that Mom and Dad know everything, and so whatever Mom and Dad say can be trusted. But over time, as that same child continues to mature into a pre-teen, and then a teenager, and then a young adult, that intellectual ability gets the best of the child. The child starts to become impressed with his own natural wisdom and knowledge. No longer are Mom and Dad so trustworthy as the child once thought. Faith in the self takes over where faith in the parents used to reign. Such is the case as children come of age. We can all speak from personal experience.

When children are young, they do not question what God tells them in His Word. They do not question whether God could really make the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in six literal days. God’s Word says it, so it must be. They do not question whether God could really gather a sampling of all the creatures of the earth into Noah’s ark and cause an overwhelming flood to cover the earth’s entire surface. God’s Word says it, so it must be. They do not question whether the children of Israel really passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. They do not question whether all the miracles of the Bible are true. They do not question whether Jesus really died for our sins and rose again from the dead on the third day, nor do they question His coming to us today in Word and water and bread and wine. They are not concerned that they do not see Him. Children have the remarkable ability to believe what is unseen. They know that they worship with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven as Jesus Christ Himself is present with and for us in this place. Their reason does not get in the way of all this. God’s Word says it, so it must be.

Considered from this perspective, it is not so strange that Jesus says the children of the Kingdom are the greatest in the Kingdom. They take Jesus at His Word when the rest of us don’t. The older we get, the wiser we get in our own eyes. And it is according to our great wisdom that the six-day creation and Noah’s ark and the Red Sea and the Resurrection and the Lord’s Body and Blood under bread and wine become absurd to us. The wisdom of God is foolishness to the wisdom of the world. It is foolishness to our logic and to our advanced scientific minds. Repent, and become as little children again, trusting the Word of your Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ His Son.

Yes, God would have us believe in Him as little children, without all the intellectual baggage that gets in the way in our adulthood. I’m not urging you to stop thinking or studying and exploring the universe God has given for our good. For children, the joy of discovery is new every day. No, I’m simply urging you to temper the wisdom and knowledge with which God blesses you with the Word of God. Give His Word the benefit of the doubt. If you cannot understand how all of the great miracles recorded in the Bible can be, “then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are” (Luther). When reason and the Word come into conflict, the Word must win every time. Reason must be subject to the Word and serve the Word, so that the Word is trusted and believed with simple, child-like faith; a faith that trusts God’s Word because it is God’s Word, a faith that trust’s God’s Word because it trusts God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture.

But it is important here to note the difference between faith that his child-like and faith that is childish. Childish faith picks and chooses what it wants to believe, and throws a tantrum when it doesn’t get what it wants. Child-like faith does not pick and choose, but believes what it is taught. If God says it in His Word, that is good enough for the child of God. Our Father knows everything. He is trustworthy in everything. If He says it, we believe it. When I was in college, I was accused by my professors and other students of having a simple, Sunday School faith. They did not mean this as a compliment. I was being ridiculed for blindly trusting whatever the Bible says. Dear friends, I pray that every one of you has a simple, Sunday School faith. I pray that every one of you trusts whatever God says in His Word, even if it doesn’t make sense to you, and even if you don’t like it. I pray that you trust it simply because He said it. Let the world ridicule us as they may. The wisdom of God is foolishness to them. But to us who believe, it is the power of God for our salvation.

And that is ultimately the point of our text. The children of God believe the Word even when it doesn’t make sense, and even when it offends their sensibilities. The children of God believe Jesus when He says, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise again” (Mark 9:31). They know that this is necessary. It is God’s plan, which seems like so much foolishness to the world, but is in truth the power of God. The Son of Man must suffer. He must die for the sins of the world so that the world may be released from sin. He must be killed by His own. He must die a humiliating death, the Innocent One surrounded by criminals. Against all human logic, He must accomplish our salvation by surrendering Himself to the enemy. But then after He is killed, He will rise again after three days. Death will not hold Him. The laws of fallen nature cannot keep His body in the tomb. Jesus breaks the laws of fallen nature in pieces and establishes His perfect Law, which will on the Last Day command all of us to come out of the grave, so that those who have believed in Him with a child-like trust will live with Him forever and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This is not rational. But it is true. And blessed are those who believe it in spite of themselves. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Safety Zones at Valpo

LCMS pastor Peter Speckhard writes about a recent visit to his alma matter, Valparaiso University ("A Valparaiso safety zone," Forum Letter Vol. 35, No. 10, Oct. 2006, pp. 6-7), in which he was surprised, upon entering a campus dorm that was supposed to be an "Intentional Christian Community," to find the following note taped to the front door window: "This space is a safety zone in which members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community as well as their allies are welcome and can be guaranteed acceptance and support."

Pr. Speckhard points out the embarrassingly transparent conflict of interests here, as well as exactly what members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities and their allies really want protection from: doctrine which criticizes or condemns their behavior as sin ("No, I don't think sticks and stones are the issue. They're worried about doctrines, 'intolerant' Christian doctrines, doctrines that are guaranteed intolerance within that 'intentional Christian community'").

But, Pr. Speckhard wonders, what about other groups that may be in need of such protection? What accomodations does Valpo make for them? "I also wonder how many other such 'safe zones' might pepper the campus. Is there any place where Jehovah's Witnesses are 'safe' from Christmas trees? Where Scientologists are guaranteed to have Tom Cruise taken seriously? Where six-day creationists are safe from the arguments, smirks, and dreaded 'judgmentalism' of evolutionists? Do we have any 'feminist-free zones'? (If not, I'll bet someone could make a pretty penny selling tickets to one.) Is there any place on campus where a person who whole-heartedly believes what the LCMS teaches about human sexuality is similarly 'safe' from contradiction and can be guaranteed support?"

Of course, the answer is no. Even our Lutheran schools are not immune from infection by the theology of one of our society's most prominent gods: political correctness. And clear biblical doctrine is the virgin sacrifice that pc priestesses and priests offer for their god's (or godess's) appeasement. Kyrie eleison.

Frequency of the Lord's Supper

Pastor’s Window on October, 2006

Frequency of the Lord’s Supper

“Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me… For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:25-26). These words of Jesus and St. Paul emphasize that the gifts given us in the Lord’s Supper are for us to be received often in connection with the proclamation of the Lord’s death. In the Supper, our Lord offers us the benefits of His death, that is, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Under the forms of bread and wine He promises, “This is my body, this is my blood,” so that in the Lord’s Supper we orally receive the very body and blood of Christ, given and shed on the cross of Calvary for our forgiveness.

Here at Epiphany we are blessed to receive the Lord’s Supper every Sunday and every Wednesday. I encourage our members to make use of this blessed Sacrament often. Here our Lord imparts His gifts to us. Here He nourishes us with His crucified and risen body and blood. It is a mystery how this can be so, but we believe it, because our Lord has promised it.

Sometimes people are afraid of receiving the Sacrament too often. Perhaps they are afraid that if they receive the Lord’s Supper too often it won’t be as special. Or perhaps they are afraid they are unworthy. Or perhaps they do not know how desperately they need the gifts Jesus gives to us in His body and blood. “I receive the forgiveness of sins also in the Holy Absolution and in the preaching of the Word. Why do I also now need to receive it in another form in the Sacrament?”

The fact of the matter is, you cannot receive the body and blood of Christ too often. You cannot receive the forgiveness of sins too often. You cannot receive life and salvation too often. Here in a special and tangible way, Jesus offers us these gifts to be received orally, in an uncommon way, under the common forms of bread and wine. Here Christ is literally put into your mouth. You receive Him orally, and He makes His dwelling within you. If you object that you are unworthy, you are right. None of us is worthy. But this Sacrament is precisely for those who know themselves to be unworthy, because the whole point of this Sacrament is the forgiveness of our unworthiness, the forgiveness of our sins. “But that person is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins’” (Luther’s Small Catechism)

This reception of Jesus’ body and blood is always special. Unlike other things in life, which are only special because of their infrequency, the Lord’s Supper is special as often as you receive it, because as often as you receive it, you receive Christ and His gifts. I have found in my own experience that the more often I receive the Lord’s Supper, the more I appreciate the comfort and strength it provides as Christ assures me of the forgiveness, life, and salvation that I have in Him. It is impossible to “wear out” the Lord’s Supper from repeated use. The more we use it, the more we appreciate it.

In his “Christian Questions with Their Answers” (found on pages 306-307 of Lutheran Worship, as well as in the Small Catechism), Luther asks “What should admonish and encourage a Christian to receive the Sacrament frequently?” Luther then answers his own question: “First, both the command and promise of Christ the Lord. Second, his own pressing need, because of which the command, encouragement, and promise are given.” Luther then asks, “But what should you do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the Sacrament?” Again Luther answers, “To such a person no better advice can be given than this: first, he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood. Then he should believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. Second, he should look around to see whether he is still in the world, and remember that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the Scriptures say in John 15-16 and in 1 John 2 and 5. Third, he will certainly have the devil also around him, who with his lying and murdering day and night will let him have no peace, within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16; 1 Peter 5; Ephesians 6; and 2 Timothy 2.”

As long as we are in the flesh and in the world, we have to wrestle with sin and temptation and sickness and strife. The devil will not cease attacking us. But in the Holy Supper of our Lord we have the sure and certain comfort of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life and salvation. The Supper is a shield and weapon against the attacks of the devil in our Christian life. And it is the source of nourishment that sustains our bodies and souls for the Day of Resurrection.

The Lord’s Supper is celebrated here at Epiphany every Sunday morning and every Wednesday evening. The Lord has set His table before you. Come and receive His gifts often, and proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Pastor Krenz

17th Sunday after Pentecost (B)

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (B)
October 1, 2006
Text: Mark 8:27-35

Confession of the Christ inevitably leads to bearing the cross. The disciple is not above his Master. Peter would have to learn, and that right quick, that there is no Christianity outside of the cross. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by His own. And so must His disciples. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34-35; ESV). Sorry, Peter. There is no room for your theology of glory here. There is only the theology of the cross. Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

The things of God are suffering and the cross. God hides Himself for us in suffering and the cross. It is on the cross that God accomplishes His greatest work on our behalf: the death of His Son for our forgiveness and salvation. God’s cruciform method does not measure up to the standard of our logic. It is a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25). God makes Christ and Him crucified “our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (v. 30). His grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in weakness and the cross (2 Cor. 12:9). Jesus Christ conquers sin, Satan, and death, not by some glorious battle and great display of His might, but by dying as a criminal on the cross. There, naked and bleeding on the cross, as the breath of life ceases to pass through His holy lungs… there, He wins the victory. There, in the death of God, we find death’s defeat. There, where the sinless One is punished for the sins of all mankind, we find sin’s demise. There, where the old serpent has sunk his venomous fangs into the Son of Man’s heel, we find the serpent’s head crushed. These are the things of God that bring about our reconciliation with Him and bestow on us His gifts of forgiveness, life, and eternal salvation.

But like Peter, we naturally do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Man would not accomplish his own salvation in the way Jesus did. He would not use the cross and suffering. These things are foolishness to him. Man would use power and glory. He would send the entire world’s nuclear arsenal at Hell in order to win the victory. God is so infinitely more powerful that all the world’s nuclear weapons combined. Why didn’t He wipe out the devil and sin and death by His shear might? Then we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.

We must admit that we are daily scandalized by the Christ of the cross who reveals His power in weakness and suffering. Perhaps the idea of Christ hanging on the cross so very many centuries ago does not scandalize us so much, because we are so familiar with the story, we’ve heard it so many times, and it is so far removed from us that it hardly seems like a reality. But when the cross touches our own lives, and we have to bear up under it, then we are scandalized. The idea that God can accomplish His will through evil things like cancer and heart disease and car wrecks and natural disasters and even terrorist attacks is absurd to us. It is foolishness. That God would hide himself in our own suffering and crosses is illogical and unreasonable. It is an offensive prospect. We prefer a Christianity where we don’t have to pass through Good Friday in order to get to Easter. We prefer not to have to wait for the resurrection. We prefer a Christianity where faith heals disease and suffering, where the Church grows exponentially because the preacher is so dynamic, where following these ten steps or these fifteen Christian principles leads us to health and wealth now in this life and gives us an “in” with God for eternity. But, dear friends, this is not Christianity. This is not the Gospel. Christianity and the Gospel are defined by the cross and suffering. In this fallen world, Christ is hidden under the cross and suffering. It must be this way. The way of Christ is the way of the cross. So those who follow Him must also go the way of the cross.

Of course we do not want to suffer. We do not seek suffering. We don’t seek the cross. And certainly God does not will us to suffer evil. But evil entered the world through sin, and in this fallen world every one of us must suffer evil. Now, for a little while, we must suffer. Now, for a little while, we have to go through various kinds of trials and temptations. “These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7; NIV). The trials, temptations, and sufferings; the crosses, that we have to bear in this life, are the refining fire that purifies our faith so that it may be proved genuine to the glory of Christ.

The things of man are honor and glory, but the things of God are suffering and the cross. And in suffering and the cross God’s true glory is hidden. Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil is hidden under His death on the cross for our forgiveness and salvation. “For the divine power of the Son of God, as Cyprian says, was a kind of fishhook which was covered with the appearance of human flesh, and when it was swallowed by the serpent Leviathan, through the infirmity of the suffering and death, it caught and overwhelmed this strong-armed creature.”[1] The devil must have rejoiced when he saw our Lord Jesus suffering and dying on the cross. But oh, the horror, he must have endured when our Lord said, “It is finished,” and the devil came to the realization that God had accepted the divine sacrifice as atonement for sin, that the kingdom of the devil was defeated by the Kingdom of God, that death was swallowed up by death, that the people of God had been ransomed and set free.

But that is not all. Our Lord is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Easter triumph is, indeed, ours, but we must have Good Friday first. The cross must precede resurrection. One cannot be raised from the dead unless he first dies. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35; ESV). Our Lord Jesus gave His life for our salvation. But in losing His life for us, He found it. He has been raised from the dead. As the body of Christ, we go the way of the cross. We lose our lives, drowning our old selves in daily repentance. But in so doing, we find our lives in Christ. And as Christ is raised from the dead, so we too shall rise on the glorious Day of Resurrection.

The lives of Christ’s faithful people reflect His own life in that His people daily take up their crosses and follow Him. Author J. K. Rowling, in the popular children’s book series, Harry Potter, has eloquently depicted the Christian life, the life of the Baptized, in the main character, Harry. Harry’s adventures teach him that true love sacrifices itself for its object. True love willingly suffers, even to the point of death. When Harry is but an infant, his parents stop the curse of the evil wizard, Voldemort (who represents Satan in the books), from killing Harry, by selflessly sacrificing their own lives for their beloved son. The final chapter has not been written in this series, but the speculation is that in the end, Harry will sacrifice his own life in love for his friends so that Voldemort will be defeated once and for all. This is the Christian life, dear friends. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). In laying down his life for his friends, Harry will find his greater reward. In laying down His life for His friends, our Lord Jesus won our release from sin, death, and the devil. And so we take up our cross and follow him. Laying down our own lives, we know that the greater reward awaits us in a new heaven and a new earth without sin, without death, without suffering, without pain, and most assuredly, without the accursed devil.

There is a happy ending for St. Peter, though the world may not recognize it. He finally comes to understand the theology of the cross, that God’s glory is hidden in the cross and suffering. His faith is redirected from his own notion of glory to the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus. Confession of the Crucified inevitably leads to bearing the cross. So Peter takes up his own cross and follows Jesus, and has the privilege of losing his life in order to find it, as tradition records, being crucified upside down. So also for us there is a happy ending, though the world may not recognize it. Our Lord Jesus has won eternal salvation for us by His innocent suffering and death. Our faith is redirected from our own notions of glory to the crucified and resurrected Lord. We take up our crosses and follow Him. But His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He carries us through Good Friday into the joy of Easter. We sacrifice ourselves for our friends. We lose our lives for our neighbors and for Christ, knowing that the greater reward awaits us. As Christ’s Easter people, we eagerly anticipate the Day of our own resurrection when the victory hidden under the cross will be made manifest. Lord, keep us until that Day. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] Martin Chemnitz, The Two Natures in Christ, J. A. O. Preus, trans. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1971) p. 222.