3 August 2025 - Trinity 7 - Genesis 2:7-17

It is difficult for us to imagine what it would have been like to live in the Garden of Eden. This garden is so very far removed from anything we have ever experienced: not only according to the distance in time that is involved; but also according to the totally different nature and character of what the garden of Eden was, in comparison to any place we have ever been.

Eden was a pristine, beautiful place. It was inhabited by pristine, immortal people, who were without sin, and who had a perfect, unbroken fellowship with God.

In comparison, the world in which we live is nothing like that, and we are nothing like that. The corruption of sin and the stench of death surround us everywhere. The corruption of sin and the stench of death reside in each of us, as well.

We are by nature sinful and unclean, and we are all people of unclean lips. That’s the curse that we have called down upon ourselves by our many transgressions.

We have inherited sin from our parents, through a line of ancestry going all the way back to Eden, and to the time when our first parents got themselves expelled from that beautiful place. And we so often also bring harm upon ourselves, by the foolish and destructive things that we ourselves do, and by the bad decisions that we ourselves make.

We also spread this sin around to each other, as we hurt each other, and treat each other unkindly, unjustly, and unfairly. The world in which we live is filled with example after example of man’s inhumanity to man.

Right now, the nightly news is telling us about the death and destruction that are taking place every day in Kyiv, Ukraine, and in Gaza, in the middle east. In the past, we have been told of similar tragedies in other places.

This sort of thing is always going on somewhere in the world, and is usually going on in more than one place. And that’s not even to mention the continuing problem we have with crime and violence in the streets, and in the homes, of our own towns and cities.

Indeed, as the Book of Genesis tells us elsewhere, the whole earth was cursed because of human sin. The earth now brings forth for us thorns and thistles, and not only the results of our labor that we would wish for.

Sometimes we work hard for something that we never get. Disappointments abound. Poverty often stalks us, and occasionally overcomes us.

Each of us is, in more than one way, living in a different place in this world. What’s going on in your life is not exactly the same as what’s going on in the lives of those who are sitting near you right now. You each have your own unique struggles and challenges.

But one thing I can say: none of us is living in Eden. Wherever we are living, we are all living in a place where we experience our own pain, our own regret, and our own sadness. We are not in paradise.

But is it possible to go home to Eden, at least in some respect? Is it possible for us, even while we are living in a fallen world, to experience at least a taste of what it was like for our first parents, in the world in which they lived before they rebelled against God and his word?

Yes, in Christ, and through the power of his gospel, this is possible!

Today’s reading from the Book of Genesis tells us that the Lord God put the man whom he had formed in a wonderful garden. It describes four rivers that flowed through and from Eden, keeping it lush and beautiful.

And we are still able to find things that are beautiful in this world. Beauty is not all we find, but we can find it, even in the midst of ugliness and suffering.

And within the fellowship of the church - as God’s people gather to receive his gifts in Word and sacrament, and to offer their praises and petitions - they also look for opportunities to express the joy of their faith, and to beautify God’s house and God’s worship, with the use of art and music, symbol and ceremony.

The Garden of Eden was a paradise. It was like heaven on earth. The seventeenth-century Lutheran minister and devotional writer Christian Scriver once said:

“I would that one could make the whole church, and especially the altar, look like a little Heaven.”

The Christian faith has inspired the greatest works of art, and the greatest musical compositions, in human history. And the church retains and preserves the beauty of this wonderful culture, and passes it on to future generations.

Of course, God has not attached his promises of grace and forgiveness to works of art as such, or to musical compositions as such. But art and music have always been used to underscore, and draw attention to, the means of grace that God has given us for our salvation.

Good art and good music have also always served as teaching tools, to testify to the seriousness and reverence that properly should characterize God’s people at prayer. So, we can get a small taste of the beauty of the Garden of Eden, also when we see and experience beautiful things in church: such as colorful flowers on the altar, or colorful vestments on the minister.

When they need to, God’s people can, of course, worship in very austere settings. When they have no other choice, Christians can worship in a dungeon or in a catacomb - and in history they have often done so.

And sometimes a dedicated Christian sanctuary is decorated and appointed only very sparingly, especially in places where there are limitations on what the people in those places can afford.

But we do what we can, and we make use of what we have, as we find even small ways to adorn our worship and our worship spaces.

Today’s reading from the Book of Genesis also tells us that the Lord God gave Adam the task of tending and keeping the garden. So, there was work to be done. Adam was not to spend his days loafing and doing nothing, but was to find joy in labor that was fruitful and beneficial.

As Christians, even with the struggles and frustrations that we often experience in this fallen world, we too are able to find satisfaction in the work that God gives us to do, according to our respective earthly vocations.

Through various external means, God puts us in positions of responsibility and service, through which we can enrich the lives of others, and provide for them, in God’s name. He puts us into godly relationships, in which he calls us to love and serve others.

And especially within the fellowship of the church, God puts us into relationships, and entrusts important duties to us, that serve the higher purpose of extending his eternal kingdom into the lives of others.

I as a pastor do, of course, have a very public position in the church. But no one else who faithfully fulfills a task that has been entrusted to him is unimportant, even if this goes largely unnoticed by other people.

God notices, and God blesses you in your service and in your generosity: for his church, and for the extension of his means of grace to your community and to the world.

In the verses that immediately follow today’s appointed text from Genesis, we are told that God said:

“It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him.”

And that's exactly what he then did, as he brought forth Eve to be Adam’s companion, friend, and beloved wife.

So, in the Garden of Eden, not only did humanity have unhindered fellowship with God, but the first human beings had a loving and rewarding fellowship with each other. And more specifically, the first man and the first woman were united in holy matrimony.

This established a God-pleasing pattern for their descendants, which is why the Book of Genesis also tells us that, following the example of Adam and Eve and of their commitment to each other,

“A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

For Adam there was literally no other woman for him to think about or be drawn to, besides his wife Eve. And for Eve there was literally no other man for her to think about or be drawn to, besides her husband.

Even though that’s not the way it is now - with all the billions of people who now live on this globe - once you get married, your vow of fidelity is supposed to have the same effect on you and on your affections, in terms of undistracted love and devotion for your spouse, as Adam and Eve’s marriage had on them.

Certainly we can have friends and acquaintances who are of the opposite sex. But at that deeper, more intimate level, if you are a married man, then for you there is no other woman. You are like Adam, and your wife is like Eve.

And at that deeper, more intimate level, if you are a married woman, then for you there is no other man. You are like Eve, and your husband is like Adam.

To the extent that you are blessed to have this in your marriage - if you are married - then in this you are able to have a small taste of Eden.

It is a wonderful thing when a married couple is able to be a part of a Christian congregation, and when children can be born and then raised in the faith. But even if you are single, or if you experience loneliness, disappointment, and unhappiness in your family life, you - as God’s son or daughter - are a member of his family: with all the blessings that come with that.

In your baptism, you have been supernaturally born into this family, by the regenerating work of God’s Word and Spirit. You now cry out, “Abba, Father,” to the God who has forgiven all your sins, and who is perfectly reconciled with you, through the death and resurrection of his only-begotten Son.

And you, as a member of Christ’s church, participate in the loving and forgiving relationship that Jesus has with his church. St. Paul describes this relationship, which he compares to the devotion of a husband toward his wife, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, where he says that Christ

“loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

You have been baptized into this, as well. In this way also, you are able to have a small taste of Eden.

And finally, in today’s lesson from Genesis, we are told that God included, among the trees that were present and growing in Eden, something that he described as the tree of life. The fruit of this extraordinary tree was, for Adam and Eve, an extraordinary kind of food: which preserved their immortality, and which would have kept them alive forever.

One of the chastisements that God put upon Adam and Eve after their sin, is that their access to this tree - and indeed, their access to the entire Garden of Eden - was now cut off. But the Book of Revelation tells us that the tree of life and its fruit will be accessible to God’s redeemed and resurrected humanity once again, in the new Jerusalem, and in the paradise of heaven.

The language is certainly symbolic at some level, but we are told in Revelation that the tree of life will never stop bearing fruit, and will in fact bear twelve kinds of fruit in an endless rotation. And we are told that the leaves of the tree will be for the healing of the nations.

And even now, God sustains our faith, and our hope for eternity, through a special, powerful food that he makes available to us - even now. This sacred food is the true body and true blood of Jesus Christ.

This food is offered to us, under the form of bread and wine, in a supernatural way, but in a very real way. This food nurtures and sustains us with God’s pardon and peace.

We do indeed need God’s pardon, because of our many continuing failures to live up to our callings and vows. We do indeed need God’s peace, because of the troubled consciences we have due to those failures.

God meets these needs for pardon and peace with the comforts of his gospel in general, and with the comforts of his Son’s sacramental meal in particular. This Supper is also a medicine of immortality, which heals us of all the wounds that sin and death have inflicted upon us.

So, whether you have brought pain into your life through your own sins, or whether others have brought pain into your life through their sins against you, or whether you have experienced pain simply due to the damage that the fallen world inflicts on everyone who lives in it, that pain is healed here by Christ, the great physician.

The resurrected body of Jesus that you receive is, as it were, a down payment on your own future resurrection. Those who live and believe in him, will never die. This basic Christian truth is reinforced profoundly when we, in repentance and faith, partake of the blessed Sacrament that Jesus has made available to us, and through which he comes to us personally.

Indeed, Jesus in his person is, for us, the living, divine tree of life. He is the vine and we are the branches.

We live as we abide in him, clinging in faith to his Word, knowing that he is clinging to us with his love and grace. And that - all of that - is a very real taste of Eden.

It is a very real taste of what life was like for our first parents when sin was not yet a part of their life, because in God’s forgiveness, our sin is now washed away and covered over. As far as God is concerned, and in how he sees us, we are now like Adam and Eve before the fall.

There is no sin to disrupt our relationship with God, because all our sin was nailed to the cross of Christ, was buried in the tomb of Christ, and in Christ has been removed from us as far as the east is from the west.

The world in which we live is so different from the world in which Adam and Eve originally lived. When we look around us, and see the many ways in which our faith is threatened and attacked by the powers of sin, death, and the devil, then we know that we are not in Eden.

And yet, as God brings beauty into our lives, and especially as God’s means of grace and our response of faith are ornamented by beautiful things, then in that sense we are back in Eden once again.

As God calls us to our work in this world, and in his church, so that in his name and under his direction we can love and serve our neighbor through useful vocations, then in that sense we are back in Eden once again.

As God unites us in godly relationships in our families, and in loving relationships with all the other members of his family; and especially as his gift of baptism incorporates us into the heavenly bride whom Jesus loves perfectly, then in that sense we are back in Eden once again.

And as God feeds us with the life-giving gift of his Son’s body and blood, and brings healing and restoration to us through this wonderful sacrament, then in that sense we are back in Eden once again. Amen.

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10 August 2025 - Trinity 8 - Jeremiah 23:16-29

There are prophets. And then there are prophets. In ancient Israel, during the time of Jeremiah the prophet - a real prophet - there were some other prophets - fake prophets. Of these the Lord said:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You shall have peace”’; and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”

In Jeremiah’s day there were many who despised the Lord. Oh, they may not have despised the idea that there was a Lord - that is, a God whose name was “the Lord,” or Jehovah. But they despised what this God and Lord stood for, and they despised what he insisted his people stand for.

They would make up their own rules for how to live and how to treat people. They would set their own priorities. And perhaps they would also invent their own religious rituals, while dishonestly putting God’s name onto all these things.

They would also seek out prophets-for-hire to confirm them in these delusions, and to tell them what they wanted to hear. And they would rest secure in the make-believe world of physical and spiritual safety that they had thereby created for themselves.

But a true prophet of God would always condemn such blasphemies. A true prophet would warn people who were walking down such a pathway, of the destruction and divine punishment that awaited them: unless they altered their course, turned to the Lord for forgiveness and guidance, and walked instead according to the Lord’s statutes.

In the time of Jeremiah, those were the warnings, the admonitions, and the exhortations that Jeremiah offered - even as the people of Judah hated him for it. But whether they liked it or not, punishment from God was coming upon them, through the instrumentality of the invading Babylonians.

Jerusalem would be besieged and eventually fall. The nation as a whole would be taken away into captivity. The people may have imagined that if their preferred prophets said otherwise, this would somehow make it not happen. But it was going to happen.

This punishment was coming, because of the people’s persistent breaking of the Ten Commandments according to both tables of the law: through egregious sins against God directly, and through egregious sins against each other.

The people of Judah were guilty of idolatry and false worship. One would think that they would have learned a sobering lesson from the destruction of the Northern Kingdom at the hands of the Assyrians about 130 years earlier, because of the idolatry of those tribes.

But such a lesson, if it had ever been learned, was now forgotten. Some in Judah shamelessly worshiped Baal and other pagan idols.

But the primary spiritual problem in Jeremiah’s time was that the people, who did participate in temple worship, did so thoughtlessly and superficially: without repentance and faith, and without a heartfelt desire to know God’s will and to submit to it once they knew it.

This angered God, who was and is righteous and holy. Through Jeremiah, God reminded the people of some important aspects of their history:

“I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’”

Elsewhere in the Book of Jeremiah, we are told that the Lord had more recently implored his people in this way:

“Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’”

And then - as Jeremiah quotes him - the Lord said this:

“Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people - the fruit of their thoughts - because they have not heeded My words nor My law, but rejected it. For what purpose, to Me comes frankincense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.”

With respect to the second table of the law, the people were also guilty of cruelty toward others, and indifference regarding the suffering of others. God had previously directed Jeremiah to speak these words to the nation:

“Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people... Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”

God promised that if the king and the people obeyed him, and if justice and mercy prevailed in the land, then the nation and the throne of Judah would be preserved and protected. But God also said:

“If you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. ... I surely will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited. I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; they shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire.”

“And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the Lord done so, to this great city?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’”

As Jeremiah was pointing out, God’s warnings were coming to fruition, because the king and the nation had not heeded his voice. God’s threats were now being fulfilled, because they - and the false prophets who catered to them - had made up their own words to believe in, rather than believing in the words of the Lord their God.

The New Testament era in which we live differs in many ways from Old Testament times. Now, the God of the Christian Church is the same God as the God of ancient Israel and Judah. He is just as holy and righteous today as he has ever been.

But there is a different focus for his demands and warnings. The chosen people of God are no longer defined in terms of an earthly kingdom.

And the dangers that surround us are not the armies of hostile countries of this world. Those dangers are of another world. St. Paul reminds us in his Epistle to the Ephesians that

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness...”

Earthly tyrants are not trying to separate your body from your country, by carrying you off to another land. Supernatural tyrants - the world, the flesh, and the devil - are trying to separate your soul from the fellowship of faith that is the holy Christian church.

The kind of worship that is pleasing to God today, and that is beneficial for our salvation, does not involve a physical temple in Jerusalem with animal sacrifices. But the New Testament does lay out for us the general character of what the liturgical life of Christians is supposed to be. We read in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

And we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

“Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

The requirements for how we treat people are basically the same as were the requirements that were laid down for the ancient Hebrews. A difference is that our love and compassion are not to be directed only to the members of our own earthly tribal group - however that may be defined - but to all people.

Jesus directs us to make disciples of all nations - by baptizing and teaching people from all nations. And according to the Epistle to the Romans, “there is no partiality with God,” so that all who disobey his law - whether Jew or Gentile - are equally accountable before him.

But also, as St. Paul rhetorically asks in Romans, regarding the Lord:

“Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul also gives us a New Testament perspective on how the moral law should be fulfilled by Christians:

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

In his Epistle to the Galatians, Paul adds these thoughts:

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

The true prophets and apostles of the New Testament era, are teaching us these things. They are warning us not to despise the Lord by despising his will is these matters.

They are forbidding us to listen to the false prophets and false apostles that are present in abundance: with contrived teachings that contradict what the Scriptures say about our duty toward God, and that justify the rebellion of our sinful nature against what God’s Word says regarding our duty toward our neighbor. And they are threatening us with divine punishment: if we wilfully turn away from the Lord who has redeemed us, and with unbelief expel the Holy Spirit from our hearts.

In his parable of the sower, as St. Luke records it, Jesus describes those “who, when they hear, receive the word with joy”; yet “these have no root,” so that they “believe for a while,” but “in time of temptation fall away.”

Dear friends, in a time of temptation, please do not let yourself fall away. Please do not throw your Savior, and your salvation, away. The fate of those who do fall away, and who stay fallen away until death, is described with a heavy heart by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.

We are told there that “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire” he will take “vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

It would not be difficult to find prophets and preachers today - on television or in liberal pulpits - who would gladly tell you that hell is a myth, and that there is no coming judgment. But their statements - which contradict what God’s true prophets and apostles say - will not cause hell to become a myth, and will not make judgment day not come.

The rebellious people of Judah were removed from their homeland because of their despising of God and his Word. And those who rebel against God’s Word today, to the point of unbelief, will remove themselves from the spiritual fellowship of the church, and will lose the hope of heaven.

You might think that you are not rebelling against God, or despising him, but are just being neutral, or indifferent.

But when God the Father, who sent his Son to redeem you from sin and death, tells you through his apostle Paul, “You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s”; and you respond with neutrality or indifference, you are rebelling against him.

When the Lord God tells you through his prophet Ezekiel, “As I live..., I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live,” and you do not turn, you are despising him.

We read in today’s text from Jeremiah:

“Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury - a violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.”

But, there was a way of escape for the ancient Hebrews, if they would only repent and turn. And even when they ignored Jeremiah and were accordingly carried away into Babylon, there was a way back.

There is also a way of escape for you. If your faith has been weakened by the prideful desires of the flesh, by the enticing riches of the world, or by the alluring lies of the devil; and if you are even now being tempted to fall away: there is a way of escape for you.

And there is also a way back for you. If you have already succumbed to temptation, have expelled God from your life through the hardening of your heart against his Word, and have fallen away, there is a way back for you. If you are still alive, then there is still a way back.

We turn once again to the Prophet Jeremiah, as he held out to God’s Old Testament people an oft-repeated Messianic promise. Someday there would be a new beginning for everyone: Jews and Gentiles; the strong in faith, and the weak and struggling; those who have been preserved in God’s grace, and those who need to be invited to come home.

Someday there would be a new covenant for everyone. God, in the person of his Son, would do everything to make this covenant happen. It would not be a negotiated deal between God and man, but this covenant would be a gift, to be received by faith.

Jesus would establish this new covenant by the atoning sacrifice of his body on the cross, in the stead of a fallen and fearful humanity. Jesus would fulfill this new covenant by the shedding of his precious blood, to wash away all sin for the reconciliation of God and man.

Jeremiah was a mouthpiece for God, so that God could say this to everyone through him:

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

This is what God’s prophets and apostles are telling you today, through the pages of Holy Scripture. God has indeed established a new covenant through Jesus, the one mediator between God and man. And he has established it for you.

God has indeed provided a way to know him: to know his mercy and love, his comfort and protection, his wisdom and strength. And he has provided it for you.

God has indeed declared his gracious forgiveness in Christ: which covers over all the rebellions against him, and all the despisings of him, that scar the lives of sinners. And he has declared this to you.

The wondrous and liberating truth proclaimed by his genuine prophets is for you. The good news of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord of his church - revealed and applied in Word and sacrament - is for you.

The certain hope of eternal life - as a child in God’s family, and as a citizen in God’s kingdom - is for you. The assurance that God is with you every day - to teach you by his Word, and to inspire you by his Spirit - is for you.

The Lord says: “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.”

Today, God’s Word has been spoken, faithfully, to you. Amen.

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17 August 2025 - Trinity 9 - Luke 16:1-13

“There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’”

And so begins one of our Lord’s more unusual parables, as recorded in today’s Gospel from St. Luke.

The steward was in charge of managing and maintaining the rich man’s wealth and property, but he was not doing a very good job. Jesus tells us that he was accused of wasting the master’s goods.

The English word “wasting” translates the Greek word “diaskorpizó,” which means more literally to disperse or to scatter. When we see how the steward sought to repair the situation by collecting at least a portion of what various people owed his master - even though not all of the debt was collected - we get the impression that the problem was that the steward was allowing the master’s property to be scattered around among the master’s various debtors, without being collected and brought into the possession of the master, who was the rightful owner of all that was owed to him.

Once he learned that his job was on the line, the steward, in his shrewdness, told the various debtors that their accounts would be settled if they paid a designated portion of what they owed. This discount then prompted them to pay the new amount, whereas previously they were not paying anything.

Now, the rich man had previously become aware of the fact that, due at least in part to the negligence of his steward, he did not have in his possession 100 measures of oil and 100 measures of wheat that rightly belonged to him. But after the steward scrambled to collect most of his master’s property from the people among whom it was dispersed - even if not all of it - now, at least, the master did have in his possession 50 measures of oil and 80 measures of wheat.

That was certainly better than zero measures of oil and zero measures of wheat, which is what he had before. And so, as Jesus tells us,

“The master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.”

The Greek word translated as “shrewdly” could also be translated as prudently or wisely. It was indeed prudent and wise for the steward to figure out a way for his master to have something rather than nothing.

And in the process, because of the reduction in the debt that he had given to his master’s creditors, he was hoping that they would now be kindly disposed toward him, and think of him as a friend who had done them a big financial favor. The steward was thinking that if he gave them this kind of break - while he was still authorized to do so, as the rich man’s steward - that they would therefore receive him into their houses, after he had been fired from his stewardship job.

Jesus is telling this parable about how “sons of this world” act. He would likely not want Christians to imitate the steward in everything he did.

But he does teach that we should imitate the shrewdness, prudence, and wisdom of the steward: in how he figured out the best way to get most if not all of the master’s property into his possession, so that it could be used according to the master’s wishes. And as Christians function as steward’s of God’s possessions - as “sons of light” - Jesus also wants us to hear and ponder these words:

“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.”

Unrighteous mammon is not unrighteous because it is evil. Money and things of material value are not evil in themselves. But money and things of material value are not righteous in themselves, either.

It is not a virtue simply to accumulate wealth for its own sake. Wealth as such is morally neutral, and is a tool or instrument for either righteousness or evil, depending on how we use it, and depending on the kind of relationship we have with it.

In a passage that is often misquoted, St. Paul says elsewhere that

“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Money in itself is not a root of all kinds of evil, but the love of money is. Our heart’s capacity for love is actually to be directed in two other basic directions, as Jesus tells us in St. Mark’s Gospel:

“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The Ten Commandments unfold and apply these two great commandments of love. And notice that loving money is not included.

We love the Lord our God in more than one way. We love him by believing that what he says is true: what he says about our sin and our pressing need for his mercy; and what he says about his freely-offered grace and forgiveness in Christ.

We love him by humbly trying, with his help, to live in a way that honors him and his moral law. We love him by showing respect for his house, for his worship, and for his church.

And, we show love for our neighbor in more than one way, according to our various callings, and according to the various relationships into which God has placed us.

Your closest neighbors are usually your spouse, your children, and your parents. You have a special love for them.

And even when your family members put barriers up between themselves and you - perhaps by rejecting you, in whole or in part, because you won’t reject Christ or your confession of faith - you still love them as you pray for them: wishing and hoping that God will change their hearts.

Again, money and material goods are not ever to be an object of the love that we actually owe to God and man. But, money and material goods are to be a tool in how we love, and demonstrate love, for God and man.

We don’t use money simply in order to make more money. We use money to make friends - living, human friends - and to serve and help those friends.

We don’t continually invest and reinvest money in itself. We invest money into people: wisely and with purpose, to be sure. But what Jesus tells us today is clear:

“I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.”

What is also clear is that temporal wealth, for a Christian, is to be used in a way that will result in eternal blessings for those friends - and for himself.

Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” In the person of Jesus, God entered into our world, where he lived, died, and rose again, so that his gospel in Word and Sacrament could lift the sons and daughters of this fallen world into a heavenly hope.

Even now, through his Spirit, Jesus uses the things of this world to lift people up in heart and mind, beyond this world, and to prepare them for the world to come. St. Paul writes to the Colossians, and to us:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

In order for the gospel to be preached to this purpose in its full truth and purity, and in order for the sacraments to be administered with this goal in mind, according to the Lord’s institution, there must be properly-trained and properly-called preachers and ministers.

And so, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul reminds us that “the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” And in his First Epistle to Timothy he adds this thought about the elders or pastors of a congregation:

“Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’”

What is said about the needs of local pastors, applies also to the needs of missionaries, and of others who deliver the means of grace to people in specialized settings, and in ways that may not benefit us personally, but that contribute overall toward the fulfilling of the great commission.

You should not think of your contributions to your own congregation in the way you might think of membership dues in a club or organization to which you belong, where you have the idea that you are simply paying for the benefits that you personally receive through that membership. Instead, you want to help keep your church going, also so that you can “make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.”

Certainly you do want to be able to receive, continuously, the forgiveness, life, and salvation, that Jesus distributes to his people in his Word and Sacraments. It is a great blessing to have a church to go to, where the truth of Holy Scripture in all its parts is honored and taught, and where God is worshiped acceptably with reverence and awe.

But we want this for other people as well, and not only for ourselves.

We keep this ministry going, through the way we use unrighteous mammon to pay the bills, so that as many people as possible in our community can have a place to come to - and where we may in fact bring them ourselves as our guests - where they too can receive from God the full remission of all their sins; can be regenerated and born spiritually into his eternal family; and can go to heaven when they die.

If the people whom we have helped to hear the gospel believe it when they hear it, and if they die before we do, then they will be waiting for us in the mansions that Jesus has prepared for them and for us. They will welcome us and receive us into that eternal home with God that we will share with them always.

Regarding the various resources that we possess in this life, we do need to remember that we possess these resources as stewards, and that we possess them only for the time that we live in this world.

“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

With our minds we all accept these words of St. Paul as obviously true. But with our hearts we often have a hard time accepting them as true.

We hold onto things as if we could take them with us. But what that really means is that these things are holding onto us. Unrighteous mammon becomes our master, rather than a tool and instrument that we use under God, to make friends for ourselves for eternity.

But, our possession of material wealth is indeed only temporary. And our possession of material wealth does indeed take place as a trust from God, the true owner of all things. If every beast of the forest is his, and the cattle on a thousand hills, then the money in our bank account or in our pocket is also his.

We are therefore accountable for the prudence, wisdom, and shrewdness with which we use those resources: to meet the needs of our family, and others for whom we are responsible; to fulfill our obligations to individuals with whom we have an economic relationship; to comply with the requirements of law regarding matters of civil taxation and government fees; and to support the work of God’s church in our community and in the world.

That fourth item was last on the list that I just set forth, but it should not be the last obligation that we ever think about, when we think about how we spend our money - or rather God’s money - and where our priorities are to be.

We should not waste the material goods that God owns, and over which we are called to exercise a proper stewardship. That is, we should not allow the things of monetary value for which we are accountable to remain dispersed and scattered in other places, being used only for other things, without at least some of them being brought into God’s direct use for the practical expenses related to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the worship and mission of the church.

A point of great thankfulness that motivates us to remember what God calls us to in this respect, and to keep our eyes open to the opportunities that God places before us, is the fact that God, in his providence, made sure that there were people who were willing to do what was necessary so that we could be brought to faith and be nurtured in that faith, in the waters of Holy Baptism, and in the instruction from God’s Word that has been given to us.

For many if not most of us, we were first embraced by Jesus’ love, and were delivered by him from sin, death, and the devil, in infancy, before we had any idea what was going on around us, or who in God’s name was providing these blessings to us and to our parents in those earlier years. The way that the means of grace work, is that human beings who are authorized by God through his church, act within his church and on God’s behalf, in applying water and speaking the baptismal words; in blessing and distributing bread and wine according to the Word and command of Christ; and in teaching and preaching - in season and out of season - to young and old alike.

The liturgical gatherings of the church, in safe and clean places like this house of worship, give us a warm and welcoming space within which these wonderful gifts of God are offered and received.

All of this was done for you, and is continually being done for you, as an expression of God’s love for you.

God shows his love for you in the promises of the gospel itself, which his Spirit supernaturally energizes so that the gospel is, for you, the power of God for salvation. God shows his love for you by inspiring other people to love their neighbor as themselves, with a willing and joyful generosity.

You are the neighbor they love, as they provide, for you, this space, and the marvelous things that happen in this space for you. They are using the unrighteous mammon that God has entrusted to them, as his stewards, to make you to be their friend - and to be their brother or sister in Christ - in time and in eternity.

St. Paul comforts us in his Epistle to the Romans with divinely-inspired words that can apply to all of us in so many different ways, when he writes that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

God is the one who causes all things to work together, according to his ultimate plans, so that his will is indeed ultimately accomplished: even when the alluring and idolatrous world, the selfish and stingy flesh, and the lying and thieving devil, would do what they may to thwart God’s will.

But God’s plans - his good plans for you - have been fulfilled, in spite of all this. God has seen to it that his saving Word was brought to you - and remains with you even now - so that you can know with unswerving certainty that your sins have been removed from you by your Savior, and that the righteousness of your Savior has been placed upon you in their place.

God has made sure that there were people there for you - people who were sons of light in his church - to make provision for all that needed to be done, so that his call to you would reach you and get to you, would take hold of you, and would carry your forward in a life of faith and loving service, compassion and generosity, under his protection and guidance. We close with this prayer to the Lord, our great benefactor:

The wealth of earth, of sky, of sea, the gold, the silver, sparkling gem,
The waving corn, the bending tree, are Thine; to us Thou lendest them.

We, Lord, would lay, at Thy behest the costliest off’rings on Thy shrine;
But when we give, and give our best, we give Thee only what is Thine. Amen.

---

24 August 2025 - St. Bartholomew - John 1:43-51

“Seeing is believing.” “What you see is what you get.” These commonly-expressed sentiments illustrate how much value we tend to put on the ability to see things, with our eyes, in our determination of what is true and what is real.

Today is the feast day of Nathanael Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles. His name literally means “Nathanael, the son of Tolmai.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke refer to him by his patronymic name, Bartholomew. John’s Gospel refers to him by his given name, Nathanael. But they are all talking about the same person.

Church tradition tells us that as an apostle, Nathanael Bartholomew’s ministry took him eventually to Armenia, where the king of that country was converted under his ministry. But the king’s brother was angered by this, and had him killed.

Before all that, however - as demonstrated in today’s text from St. John’s Gospel - Nathanael was someone who originally attributed great importance to his ability to see things for himself, in his determination of what he would accept as true and real. And he was also impressed by the extraordinary ability of Jesus also to see things that he would not have expected him to be able to see.

We are told in our text that Bartholomew was willing to believe in Jesus, because of what Bartholomew saw; and, that Bartholomew was willing to believe in Jesus because of what Jesus saw. But should he have been so willing to believe, just on this basis?

Nathanael’s friend Philip - who had himself very recently become a disciple of Jesus - invited Nathanael likewise to become a follower of the Lord, saying: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Nathanael’s somewhat haughty and dismissive response was, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip then said to him, “Come and see.” That appealed to Nathanael. He would go and see for himself whether Jesus is, or might be, the Messiah.

The idea of seeing Jesus, and of being an eyewitness to his life both before and after his resurrection, was an important component of what it meant for an apostle to be an apostle. Unlike other pastors and preachers, who would come later in the history of the church, the apostles uniquely laid the foundation of the Christian church: by their proclamation of what they had seen with their own eyes, and heard with their own ears.

But as a general principle, it would be a dangerous and discouraging idea, if we were to think that we should not acknowledge the truthfulness of anything that we have not seen with our own eyes. In reference to the life and hope of Christians, St. Paul writes that “we walk by faith, not by sight.”

The faith by which we know that Jesus lived, died, and rose again for our salvation, is not based on our having seen these things, but it is based on the apostles’ having seen these things. And this saving faith is also based on the supernatural testimony of the Holy Spirit - in, with, and under the apostles’ testimony - that these things really did happen, and really do matter for us.

But back to the story of Nathanael: We are told that as he approached Jesus - with Philip - Jesus said of him, loudly enough to be heard by Nathanael: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

One can almost imagine the teasing glint in Jesus’ eye as he talked with Nathanael. When Jesus was not around, Nathanael had expressed to Philip his unvarnished low opinion of Jesus’ hometown - and, by extension, his skepticism that the Messiah could come from that town.

So, Jesus’ seeming compliment - that he was an Israelite in whom there is no deceit - was referring to his having told Philip what he really thought of Nazareth and of Nazarenes.

But this didn’t get Jesus angry. More than likely it made him chuckle, as he let it be known to Nathanael that he had seen him - and heard him - at the time when he had spoken these uncomplimentary words.

How often have you been willing to express gratuitous, unkind thoughts about someone to a third party, when you believed that the person you were criticizing or mocking could not hear you? And how embarrassed have you been on those occasions when the person you were “running down” walked up behind you - without your knowing it - so that he could hear your back-stabbing insults?

This is not just a laughing matter. Jobs have been lost, and friendships have been fractured, through such offensive behavior, and through such hurtful words.

According to the Eighth Commandment, we should speak well of others as far as truth permits; and should put the best interpretation on every situation, and on every word and action. This commandment teaches that it is better to avoid the sin of slander in the first place, than to regret the sin of slander after it has come back to bite us.

Some forms of honesty and sincerity are not virtuous - such as when the honest and sincerely-held opinion that we hold, is a proud, arrogant, and judgmental opinion. Such opinions should not be held. And they should definitely not be expressed.

So, Nathanael was likely embarrassed, and ashamed of what he had said - even though it was his honest opinion - once he realized that Jesus had seen him, and heard him.

This was one of those occasions during his earthly ministry when Jesus knew things that he could not have known by ordinary, natural means. It was an indication that Jesus was not an ordinary man, and was evidence either of his divine nature, or of his special anointing with the Holy Spirit, or of both.

But by itself, this example of extrasensory perception on Jesus’ part was not enough of a reason for Nathanael to say what he then said: “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And so Jesus - likely with another chuckle - responded:

“Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these. ... Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Many people who were aware of so much more about Jesus than his ability to know about things that were beyond his physical senses, refused to believe in him. They attributed his healings and miracles to the devil.

This was not Nathanael’s problem. He was not being stubborn in willful unbelief. But he was being a bit gullible and hasty.

An instance of extra-sensory perception, in itself, does not prove that God is present or is causing this to happen. The devil also knows a lot of things about a lot of people. He and his minions are all over the place, eavesdropping on conversations, and watching what people do.

Satan is a fallen angel, with great powers of perception. And he is able to convey to people who are in his service - or who are unwittingly under his deception - a knowledge of the things that he knows, about other people in other places.

People in general today are so deficient in spiritual discernment - and so lacking in a knowledge of what the Scriptures teach about the evil powers and principalities that exist in the supernatural realm - that as soon as they conclude that something in the supernatural realm is real, they automatically assume that it is good and harmless.

So, for example, when they participate in a seance, and are spoken to through the medium by an entity that knows things about their departed loved one that they think only that departed loved one would know, they conclude without hesitation that the spirit of their departed loved one is reaching out to them. It never enters their minds that this could be a deception.

Yet there are intelligent and malevolent spirits in this fallen world who would eagerly welcome any opportunity to deceive the spiritually naive, and to give them a false hope for a blessed afterlife that does not depend on faith in Christ - who alone is the way, the truth, and the life.

Now, in today’s text, Nathanael was correct that Jesus was the Son of God, and the King of Israel. But he was not correct for the right reasons.

Based only on the evidence that turned Nathanael to this conclusion - that is, Jesus’ knowledge of where he had been, and what he had been doing - Jesus could have been in league with the devil, and could have known what he knew because the devil had revealed it to him.

If you’re going to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and as the King of Israel, you need to have a better reason than the reason Nathanael had for this belief. If every being that has an extra-sensory knowledge of persons and events is the Son of God, and the King of Israel, then you’re going to be worshiping, and bowing down to, a lot of demons!

And there are better reasons to believe in Jesus that do not depend on what you can see, or on what he can see. Bartholomew and the other apostles - in time - came to understand those reasons.

As the apostles, through the New Testament, continue to bear witness to what they saw and heard, and as the Holy Spirit confirms their testimony in your mind and heart, your faith is established, and built up, on a truly sound foundation.

Jesus did things for you that the devil could never have inspired him to do. He carried all your sins to the cross, and as your substitute and Savior he absorbed into himself the just judgment of his own divine law against your sins. And God the Father vindicated his Son, and declared his acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins once and for all time, by raising him from the dead on the third day.

In his glorified state Jesus now governs his church through his Word; and in his divine wisdom he governs the world for the benefit of his church and its mission. And Jesus governs you, who know him by faith, as he comes to you again and again in his gospel and sacraments: to wash away your sin, to renew your hope, and to enlighten you ever more in his truth.

Until the end of this world, Jesus will continually come to his people in these hidden and invisible ways: ways that cannot be seen, but that are very real. But on the last day, he will return visibly, with his angels, to raise - and to judge - all the dead.

All eyes will then see him in his glory. They will see his angels ascending and descending on him. Nathanael will see this. You will see this.

But as you then stand before the judgment seat of Christ, giving an account of yourself and of your deeds, there is something that Jesus will not see. He will not see your sins.

In the Book of Revelation - in anticipation of the final judgment - Jesus is quoted to say these words, of each of those who trust in him, and endure in faith until the end:

“The one who conquers will be clothed...in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”

The white garments are the garments of Christ’s own righteousness, which cover over our sin, and which make us - in God’s eyes - to be as righteous as his Son is. As St. Paul also says in his Epistle to the Galatians:

“In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Our recognition of who Jesus is - as our justifier, and as our Savior - is not based on an ability now to see him - although we will someday see him. And in the final analysis, our recognition of who Jesus is to us, is not based on what he is able to see, either. It is based on what he is able not to see.

As far as the east is from the west, God, in Christ, has removed our sins from us. God, in Christ, remembers our sins no more. God, in Christ, does not see our sins.

Nathanael Bartholomew - through the teaching of his Master and the leading of the Holy Spirit - eventually did live, and die, in this faith. Eventually he did walk by this faith, and not by sight.

And you, too, are invited to join him in walking, not by sight, but by faith: faith in a God who makes and keeps promises, who forgives sin, and who does and gives what only God can do and give. Amen.

---

31 August 2025 - Trinity 11 - Ephesians 2:1-10

Today’s lesson from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians is filled with contrasts. A good way to know the precise meaning and application of a point that Paul expresses in this text, is to view that point in light of the contrasting point that Paul also sets forth.

So, for example, he tells us that a human existence without Christ, is an existence of death in trespasses and sins. But when we are saved from this condition by grace through faith, and are thereby united to Christ and to his resurrection, then we have been made to be alive.

From another angle, Paul tells us that those who are dead in trespasses and sins are under the influence and control of “the prince of the power of the air” - which is a reference to the devil. As far as God is concerned, not only are unbelievers not under his influence, but they are under his wrath, as “children of wrath.”

But Paul also tells us that those whom God in his grace has made to be alive, are now under the influence and control of Christ, due to their being intimately united to Christ.

He is with us on earth, sustaining us through all the trials and temptations that we face here. And we are with him, and are seated with him in the heavenly places, at the right hand of the Father.

For this reason we can be completely sure of God’s faithful protection of our soul’s salvation, and of God’s power to sustain us in faith until we depart from this world, because there is a sense in which we are already in heaven: in Christ, and through our union with Christ.

What I want to concentrate on now, is another contrast that St. Paul presents for us in this text. If you are indeed saved from the spiritual death that formerly characterized your inner existence - according to the fallen nature with which you came into this world - that salvation was not by works.

You did not save yourself, or earn your salvation, through your own efforts, your own successes, or your own accomplishments. You have nothing to boast about, or to congratulate yourself for, in this regard.

The very word “saved,” which Paul uses, means rescued. People are usually not thought of as rescuing themselves from a bad predicament. They are rescued by another person from such a predicament.

A man trapped in a burning building is saved or rescued by a firefighter. He does not save or rescue himself. A woman drowning in the ocean is saved or rescued by the lifeguard. She does not save or rescue herself.

That’s the normal way we talk. And that’s the way Paul talks when he describes our rescue from spiritual death and from divine wrath.

If God had not intervened, to do something about the predicament we were in, we never would have been able to get ourselves out of it. And it is precisely because God did intervene, by his undeserved grace, that you are no longer in that predicament, but are now alive - spiritually alive in heart, soul, and mind - in Christ.

But, while it is true that we are not saved by works, we are saved for works. Let’s listen again to Paul:

“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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

God’s will for all people - beginning with Adam and Eve - has always been that they would have a harmonious and joyful relationship with him, through believing his promises and obeying his commands; and that they would have harmonious and joyful relationships with each other: with everyone always looking for opportunities to do good for other people, so as to help their lives to be more happy, more fulfilling, and more fruitful. But sin messed that up. And I mean, it really messed it up.

The sons of Adam and Eve, according to God’s original plan, were supposed to be always looking for ways to build up one another and encourage one another, through mutual works of love and service. But as today’s reading from the Book of Genesis sadly reminds us, that’s not what happened.

Instead of doing a good work for his brother Abel, Cain did the worse possible thing to him. He murdered him.

And we don’t need to look long or far to see this replayed in human relationships over and over again. The killings that are taking place at staggering rates in Ukraine and in Gaza, and the killings that took place at a church in our own state just a few days ago, remind us of what fallen human nature is capable of.

Now, most people in the world usually do not let their destructive passions and unbridled impulses take total control of them in such deadly ways. But the corrupted heart from which Cain’s murderous desire emerged, is the same kind of corrupted heart that we all have.

Given the right circumstances and the right provocations - if you were still locked into an existence of spiritual death - you could be put on a pathway that would bring you eventually to a place where you would become capable of doing the same kind of thing.

Again, Paul spells out for us in his Epistle to the Ephesians, what it’s like for people who have not yet been saved from their inherited spiritual death. They don’t have the life of God residing in the deepest part of their heart and soul, but their inner existence - their inner death - is nevertheless animated by a malevolent spiritual force.

As Paul explains, the spirit of the devil is at work in the sons of disobedience, who conduct themselves in the lust of their flesh: fulfilling the desires of the flesh in the way they live and in the decisions they make.

Human beings, in their natural condition, are not saved by good works, in part because it is impossible for them to do good works in the true sense.

Unbelievers certainly are capable of performing external acts of altruism and human kindness. But they are not capable of performing acts of altruism and human kindness from an inner motivation of loving God, and of being thankful to God for his salvation from sin. And that’s also a part of what God requires.

As far as the full and complete requirements of God’s law are concerned, all people by nature are “sons of disobedience”: not wanting to obey; and not able to obey.

But God changes that, when he changes people. God changes that when he saves and rescues people from spiritual death, and makes them to be spiritually alive in Christ, instead.

Then we do want to obey, according to the new nature that God has birthed within us. Then we are able to obey, according to the influence of the Spirit of God who now indwells us, rather than the spirit of the prince of the power of the air, which no longer has a home in us.

Because the old sinful nature still lingers for as long as we remain in this world, this obedience remains imperfect. There will always be a need for a daily repentance before God on account of our failures, and for a daily re-appropriation of the forgiveness of God, which was won for us in the death and resurrection of his Son.

God’s salvation by grace through faith needs to be reclaimed every day, and renewed every day. And especially on every Sunday, or whenever we are able to be in the Lord’s house, God’s loving desire to sustain us in his grace - or if need be, to return us to his grace - is revealed and implemented in the means of grace that are layered upon us in Word and Sacrament.

In the realm of Washington politics, a bill in Congress can almost never get passed and signed into law, without people on all sides being willing to accept something being in the bill that they would prefer was not there, or without their willingness to accept that something is not in the bill that they would prefer was there.

Very seldom does an elected representative or a president think that a bill that he is willing to vote for, or sign into law, is perfect. The operative saying is that they don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

We can apply that principle to the honesty that we need to have regarding the imperfections in our good works. The works of love that you might perform for your neighbor won’t be perfect.

You might make some well-intentioned mistakes. You might not be sensitive to everything that is going on in a troubled situation. But imperfect works are better than no works at all.

And performing no works at all, for those around you who need your help and encouragement, is simply not an option. As a new creature in Christ, you have been created for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that you should walk in them.

You are God’s workmanship. He has made you, and he plans to use you. As a man or woman of faith, according to the new nature that is now in you, you cannot say No to this.

I’m not saying merely that you should not say no to God, or should not disobey God. According to what you have been made to be in Jesus Christ, by the working of God’s grace, you cannot harden yourself against God’s prompting and guiding. You cannot just ignore what God’s law tells you to do, or to refrain from doing.

So, any tempting thoughts to this end, need to be banished from your mind as foreign intrusions, and as hooks that the devil is trying to get into you, so that he can reel you away from God, and away from what God’s grace has called you to, and made you to be.

But as you cling to the Word and promises of God, even in your weaknesses and inconsistencies, what the devil wants to do won’t work. That’s not who you are any more. Even if your good works are imperfect both in motivation and in execution, you cannot refrain from doing them.

As someone who is alive in Christ, and who is seated with Christ in the heavenly places, you obviously can’t hate God, or be indifferent to God and to his will. So too, as someone who is alive in Christ, and who is seated with Christ in the heavenly places, you can’t hate your neighbor, or be indifferent to your neighbor and to his needs.

James, in his Epistle, speaks about the true wisdom from God by which a Christian lives with love and compassion, in comparison to the false wisdom of this sinful and selfish world:

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ... But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Truly there is no pride or boasting in this, or in the way that you as a Christian now try to live. Again, we are God’s workmanship. He’s the one who made us this way. And so we are dependent on him every step of the way.

And God, as he softens our hearts and opens our eyes, is also the one who gives us the ability to see where there is a need, and then to do what we can to fill it: with his help, and with the courage he gives us.

Regarding those who have an abundance of resources, St. Paul, in his First Epistle to Timothy, gives this directive to his young protégé:

“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

And as he is quoted in the Book of Acts, St. Paul tells everyone - both rich and poor:

“I have shown you in every way...that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Psalm 82 speaks to all who have been blessed by God:

“Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked.”

And St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippians, encourages us to think in the right way, so that right actions will then naturally follow:

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

All these things - all these thoughts, and all these actions - make proper sense, and have their proper meaning, only in the context of the thoughts and actions of Jesus, for us. Again, this is - and always must be - the foundation for everything we have been talking about.

Those who watched, and listened to, Jesus - during the time of his earthly ministry - would have seen and heard these things:

“The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

And those who kept watching and listening, would have seen Jesus lay down his life as a ransom for many, and would have heard him speak words of forgiveness and hope even from his cross.

Jesus did profoundly good and necessary works for you: when he lived for you in perfect righteousness; when he died for you as a perfect sacrifice; and when he won for you a perfect salvation, in his victory over death and the grave.

These are the good works that save you. These are the good works - the good works of Jesus - that earned for you God’s continued mercy, and God’s continued forgiveness.

And these are the good works that give your good works - such as they are - the quality and character that they have as good works: which are pleasing to God; and which fulfill the purposes of God, for and in your life.

The good works for which you were created in Christ Jesus, are motivated by faith, and not by fear; are impelled by love, and not by lust; are shaped by divine precepts, and not by human presumption; and are carried out according to the wisdom of God that flows out from his sacred Word, and not according to the wisdom of the flesh that is fed and formed by the fallenness of the world.

Salvation unto us is come by God’s free grace and favor.
Good works cannot avert our doom; they help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, who did for all the world atone; He is our one Redeemer.

As Christ hath full atonement made and brought to us salvation,
So may each Christian now be glad and build on this foundation;
Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead, Thy death is now my life indeed, for Thou hast paid my ransom.

Faith to the cross of Christ doth cling, and rests in Him securely;
And forth from it good works must spring, as fruits and tokens surely;
Still, faith doth justify alone, works serve thy neighbor and make known the faith that lives within thee. Amen.