2 January 2022 - Christmas 2 - Luke 2:40-52

The episode described in today’s Gospel from St. Luke was very frightening to Mary. From her perspective, her twelve-year-old son was lost, away from home, in the large, strange, and dangerous city of Jerusalem.

She and her husband Joseph were frantic in their search for him, while her imagination was no doubt running wild with fears about his safety and well-being. We can understand why she was not thinking clearly under these circumstances. And she was indeed not thinking clearly.

What the angel had told her when Jesus was conceived, and what the shepherds had reported to her concerning what the angel had told them when Jesus was born, should have been remembered; should have kept her calm, and trusting in the protection of God over her son; and should have guided her to look for Jesus in the Temple.

Gabriel had told her: “The child to be borne will be called holy - the Son of God.” And the shepherds had been told that the babe born in Bethlehem was “Christ the Lord,” which in a Jewish context would have meant, “Christ Jehovah.”

Mary should have realized, therefore, that her unique son, in a sense, actually had two homes: the obvious one in Nazareth, in the house of Joseph, whom almost everyone thought was his father but who was actually his step-father; and the one in Jerusalem, in the house of his true and eternal Father, God the Father Almighty.

Yet Mary did not grasp this. St. Luke tells us that after three days of searching, when she and Joseph did finally find Jesus at the Temple - where they should have looked first - Jesus said to her:

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Luke then adds this parenthetical comment: “And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.” They did not understand. Mary did not understand.

She did not understand what was going on with respect to where Jesus was, and what he had been doing there: “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” She did not understand what Jesus had said to her, and the question he had asked her.

She didn’t understand any of this, and in her exasperation she had even lashed out at the twelve-year-old child whom she had left behind: “Son, why have you treated us so?

And yet, as we are told in the text, “his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.” She didn’t understand these things, but she treasured them up, because she knew - deep down - that these things were important.

She knew that through these events, and through the words that Jesus had spoken, God was trying to teach her something about himself, about her, and about his will and plan for her and for her salvation: if she would just keep thinking about them in faith, pondering them in humility, and prayerfully asking God to show her what they meant.

Mary absolutely did not react with the idea, “I don’t understand any of this, and so I’m going to ignore it and forget about it.” And because she did not react in that way, but instead kept an open mind and an open heart, she did eventually come to understand.

In time God’s Spirit did impress the significance of these events and words upon her mind and heart. What’s clear to us now, as we look upon today’s account in hindsight - from the perspective of knowing about Jesus’ later ministry, and his death and resurrection - also became clear to Mary.

As God in human flesh, Jesus is the final prophet and rabbi of Israel, and the world’s teacher. The Epistle to the Hebrews declares:

“At many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

Jesus offered his life in sacrifice for the sins of the world. And as the risen Lord, he now dwells, by a mystical union, in his body the church, which is the living temple of his Spirit. Again, the Epistle to the Hebrews states that

“If the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them.”

A similar story played out in the Life of Martin Luther, leading eventually to what is often described as his “Reformation breakthrough.” As a monk, Luther was steeped in medieval scholastic theology, which understood the phrase “righteousness of God” exclusively as a reference to the fact that God himself is righteous, and judges and condemns man as unrighteous; and not as a description of how God justifies and saves man.

But there were some passages of Scripture that didn’t seem to support this medieval viewpoint, even though Luther could not quite understand what those passages did actually teach regarding the way of salvation. One of those passages was in the Epistle to the Romans, where St. Paul had written:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

Luther looked and looked at that passage. He studied it, he thought about it, and he wrestled with it. He did not just throw up his hands and walk away from these words, due to his inability to understand them. He knew that by divine inspiration these words were God’s words, so that he could not simply ignore them.

And eventually, the lights came on for Luther, and he could finally see what this passage was really saying. He did then understand what it was saying to him and to all people struggling with sin and faith. Luther gives us an autobiographical account of this discovery:

“I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. But up till then it was...a single word in Chapter 1, “in it the righteousness of God is revealed,” that had stood in my way. For I hated that word “righteousness of God,” which...I had been taught to understand... regarding the...righteousness...with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.”

“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...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 Ten Commandments, 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.”

“Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, ‘In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”’ There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the...righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’”

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.”

So far Luther.

There might be things in the Bible that you don’t understand, or that don’t make sense to you right now. There might even be teachings in Scripture that you think you disagree with, because you don’t know how to incorporate those teachings into the way you currently look at the world, and at yourself.

Many people in our “enlightened” and “rational” age have had this kind of experience. And their immediate reaction - when they come across something said by Jesus, by an apostle, or by a prophet, that doesn’t make sense to them at this point in their lives - is so often to dismiss what they have heard or read, set it aside as irrelevant, and move forward in life without thinking about it any more.

That is a big mistake. The fact than tens of thousands of people make this mistake, and have such a disrespectful attitude toward these sacred mysteries, doesn’t mean that this is an acceptable way to deal with difficult or challenging passages of Holy Scripture.

Don’t make this mistake. Have enough respect for God as God to keep your mind open to what he wants to teach you. Have enough regard for Jesus, who gave his life for your sins, to cherish in your heart whatever he does and says - as Mary did - even if you don’t understand what it all means at the present time, and you’re still trying to figure it out and apply it.

Jesus says a lot of things that are hard to understand. But the problem is in us, when we may think that we already know as much as we need or want to know. The problem is not in him, and in what he is saying.

Maybe you don’t know as much as Jesus wants you to know. Maybe you don’t understand him, and what his claims on you include, as deeply and fully as you should.

Maybe you need to set aside some of your assumptions - shaped in you by the world and not by God - and wrestle with the text of Sacred Scripture, when it says things that you don’t get right away, or that might even offend you at a first reading.

Read it again. Read it in context. Think about it. Think about it some more. And some day, the words of that text will change you. They will soften your heart, enlighten your mind, open your eyes, and fill your soul.

The Book of Proverbs speaks with much wisdom, when it says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”

When God’s law addresses you, and identifies something you are doing or planning to do as sin, your first reaction may be to get your back up, justify yourself, dismiss or deflect what God’s law is pressing on your conscience, and try to walk away. But you can’t walk away, because you know deep down that God is speaking, and that you will eventually have to listen, and repent.

If God’s law is demanding a change in your life, your first reaction may be to try to find a way to persuade yourself that this doesn’t really apply to you; or that the guidance given in Holy Scripture for faithfulness in vocation, and for the honoring of God in all things, consists in old fashioned rules that don’t apply to anyone any more.

But eventually you will have to make the change. You can’t ignore God forever, pretending that you don’t understand him. You do understand.

And with respect to the gospel, St. Paul writes to the Colossians that he became a minister of the church “according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.”

Maybe your conscience is weighed down with guilt and regret, and maybe you feel that God is still far from you and greatly displeased with you because of your sins, so that the gospel of Jesus - which offers hope and comfort - is still a message of mystery to you: hidden and unclear.

Maybe you cannot understand how God can apply the righteousness of his Son to you, to cover over your unrighteousness. That doesn’t make sense!

Maybe you cannot see how God’s promise to remove transgressions from us, as far as the east is from the west, would also apply to you personally. You see your continuing weakness. God sees it too, doesn’t he?

But please listen to Jesus whenever he speaks his pardon and peace upon you, and into you. Listen intently. Meditate upon his words. Ponder them in your heart, and reflect upon them in your mind.

When the risen Christ authorizes his ministers to speak and act in his name, by saying to his disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” listen to what Jesus says. And listen to your pastor when he complies with this command for your sake, so that Jesus will personally speak to you through his lips: I forgive you all your sins.”

Jesus teaches that his body was given into death for you, and that his blood was shed for the forgiveness of your sins. When Jesus, by the power of his Word, supernaturally gives you that body and blood now in his Holy Supper, and personally comes to you in his body and blood as your Savior from sin, death, and the devil, believe him!

If what he says seems impossible, keep listening. Keep thinking and praying for faith and discernment. Treasure up his words and promises in your heart. That’s a large part of what the instruction from the catechism is for, as future communicants are prepared for their admission to this sacred meal.

So, don’t walk away from this sacrament, literally or figuratively, because you can’t fully understand this mystery. Examine yourself and turn away from your sins; and then turn to Christ: embracing him in his Supper, as he embraces you, because what he says must be true.

It’s not always easy to be a Christian, and to understand and believe everything that God’s Word teaches. Sometimes it takes a while for the meaning of Jesus’ words to come into focus for us, or for the relevance of what Jesus says and does to become clear to us.

That’s okay. It was okay for Mary, and it’s okay for you. But don’t cast aside what you don’t immediately understand. Don’t ignore or reject what you think you can’t accept. If it comes from God, you will learn to accept it.

So, spend some time with these words. Spend as much time with them as you genuinely need to explore them - as they in turn explore you, and work in you the faith that you need to believe that what those words declare is true.

Always believe that if Jesus said it, or did it, it’s important - even if you can’t see yet how and why it is important. Let this prayer addressed to Jesus be your prayer: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

And let Mary’s faith be your faith. “They did not understand the saying that he spoke to them”; and yet, “his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.” Amen.

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6 January 2022 - Epiphany - Isaiah 60:1-6

It has often been observed that, in the history of Christian art, Jesus has very seldom been portrayed in a way that suggests a serious attempt by the painter to picture him as he really looked.

Northern European painters often portray him with fair skin, light hair, and blue eyes. In the Ethiopian Christian tradition, Jesus, and other biblical figures, have a distinctly African appearance. Asian Christians have tended to picture the Savior in a way that gives him an appearance similar to how they look.

The objective historical fact of the incarnation, is that God’s Son took on human flesh in the form of a middle eastern Jewish man. His features therefore would have been the features of a middle eastern Jewish man.

Sometimes we see that in religious art. Usually we do not.

But it is not necessarily a bad thing that Jesus, in the symbolism of Christian art, often takes on the appearance of the people for whom a particular work of art has been prepared, in order to picture for them the reality that Jesus, as the resurrected Lord of his church and the Savior of all nations, is not a foreigner to them.

To be sure, during his earthly ministry, Jesus stated that he had been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not to the gentiles. But now, after his resurrection and ascension, he has promised to be with his church always, as his church takes him, and his gospel, to all nations.

Jesus’ willingness to engage the Syro-Phoenician woman and the Roman centurion during his earthly ministry, as an exception to his ordinary calling at that time of his life, is no longer an exception. Through the ministry of his church, in his gospel and sacraments, Jesus engages people of all nations all the time, and embraces people of all nations without prejudice, and without favoritism.

Christian art has been a tool for underscoring and reinforcing this saving truth, as it portrays Jesus, not necessarily as he lived during his earthly ministry, but as he lives now, in his church, among all nations, and with Christians of all races, ethnic groups, and cultures.

In and through his church he comes to them - to all of them. And by faith, they come to him - just as the magi in the Epiphany Gospel, in St. Matthew, came to him.

Indeed, the coming of the magi from the east - from beyond the Jewish world - to see and worship Christ, is yet another picture of what the Great Commission now represents and inspires.

The word “magi” - sometimes translated as “wise men” - is a technical term for a specific cast and category of astronomical scholars in the ancient empire of Persia, which in the first century included the land of Babylon. The magi who visited Jesus were either ethnic Persians or ethnic Babylonians, and as a matter of objective history, would probably have looked like modern-day Iranians or Iraqis.

But just as with paintings of Jesus, so too with paintings of the magi, the tradition of Christian art over the centuries has often not portrayed the magi in that way.

Even though the text of Matthew’s Gospel clearly identifies the visitors from the east as magi, in time a tradition developed that they were actually kings. That tradition was helped along, by the wording of today’s Old Testament lesson from the Prophet Isaiah, which came to be taken as a direct reference to the events of the first Epiphany:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

And when Isaiah goes on to say that “They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord,” that clinched it for many medieval interpreters, that the wise men were gentile kings!

Now, they were from a gentile nation, and that is very significant. But as a matter of actual history, they were not kings.

Yet in Christian art, not only were they often portrayed as kings, but they were portrayed as kings who represented diverse ethnicities of the human race. It came to be believed that there were three such kings - corresponding to the three gifts that were brought - and names were assigned to them.

According to the tradition that developed in the western church, in medieval Europe, the first king was named Balthasar, who was thought to be a king either of Arabia or of Ethiopia. The second king was Melchior, from Persia. And the third was Gaspar, a king from India.

In keeping with this tradition of the wise men’s multi-ethnic backgrounds, paintings of the wise men usually pictured them as dark-skinned, and sometimes as very dark. All of them were pictured as exotic men from lands far away from Europe.

So, while Jesus was often made to look like a European in how he was painted, the wise men were deliberately not made to look like Europeans. The combined artistic point was that Jesus is a Savior for Europeans, which is true; and, that he is a Savior for non-Europeans as well, which is also true.

What can this mean for us, today, as we gather in the Lord’s house to celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord, and the wise men’s visit to our Lord? The teaching of God’s Word, combined with the symbolic message of Christian art, leaves us with at least two important things to think about.

First, Jesus is your Savior from sin and death. Jesus’ invitation to repent and believe the gospel is an invitation that is intended for you, whoever you are, and whatever your ethnicity or national origin may be.

Jesus was and is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world - not just the sin of his own nation of the Hebrews. And he was sent into the world to accomplish and provides such a salvation, as an outcome of the love of God for the world, and not just for the nation of Israel.

Israel was chosen by God to be the unique conduit of salvation - since Jesus was born into that nation - but not to be the unique recipient of salvation.

St. Paul emphasizes in many places, what he says, and asks, in these lines from his Epistle to the Romans:

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one - who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”

In any way that the symbolism of Christian art can help to make you feel welcome in God’s house, and welcome in the loving and forgiving embrace of Christ, then that is a good thing.

As a matter of history, you know, of course, that Jesus - in his humanity - was not of northern European extraction. But if you are, don’t ever doubt Jesus’ love for you.

Even with his swarthy complexion and his dark curly hair - as we can imagine his likely historic appearance - he is not repelled from your blonde or sandy hair, or from your fair skin. None of that matters to him.

What matters to him is that you are a child of Adam by natural generation, whom he wants to make into a child of God through the regeneration of his Word and Spirit, and a member of his new human family. Jesus takes a personal interest in you and reaches out to you - with his grace - across all cultural and ethnic boundaries.

He reaches out to you from his cross, where his body and blood were sacrificed for you, to reconcile you to God. He reaches out to you from his Holy Supper, where his body and blood are distributed, and bestowed upon you for the forgiveness of your sins. He reaches out to you from within his Word, where the meaning of everything that he did and does is expounded, and applied to your life for as long as you live in this world.

Second, to quote the Samaritans as they spoke of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel, “we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” And in his First Epistle, John himself makes this Trinitarian confession:

“By this we know that we abide in [God] and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

We have a message, therefore, that is for everyone who draws breath in this world. Knowing this gives us a heartfelt desire to support world missions, which we cannot and will not suppress. And, we have a message for everyone who lives with us in our own communities.

The temple in Jerusalem was intended to be “a house of prayer for all nations.” This was unfortunately forgotten by many of the Jews in Jesus’ time, who therefore needed to be admonished by him concerning this.

May we never forget that the modest house of prayer in which we are meeting now, is likewise - according to God’s will - open to everyone. And that needs to be more than a rhetorical affirmation. We need to actively make everyone who walks through our doors feel welcome, even if they look like Jesus looked in real life, or like the wise men look in classic art.

That art, in the way it often portrays the wise men, can help us to remember this. These imaginative pictures of three kings from three distant lands - all coming to Christ to worship him, and being welcomed into his presence - can help us to rise above our fear of unfamiliar situations, or of unfamiliar people; and to learn to love all whom God loves.

Returning to the Epistle to the Romans, we close with these words from St. Paul - and with the words of the prophets whom he quotes:

“Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.”

“As it is written, ‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.’ And again it is said, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.’ And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.’ And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.’”

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Amen.

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9 January 2022 - Baptism of Our Lord - Luke 3:15-22

The doctrine of the Trinity, in brief, is that there is one true God, who exists eternally in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This doctrine can easily become, in our minds, an abstraction - a collection of disconnected paradoxical assertions about something that seems to be very remote from our simple Christian faith and our day-to-day existence.

But this is not so. Rather, the mystery of the Trinity is at the heart and center of everything we know about Jesus, and it is at the heart and center of everything we experience as Christians.

When the Lord Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the mystery of the Holy Trinity was made manifest, to the ears and eyes of faith.

The voice of God the Father rang out in its divine authority from heaven, declaring to Jesus that he was indeed the beloved Son of God, with whom his Father in heaven was well-pleased. As the Son of the Father in human flesh, Jesus was in this way revealed at his Baptism to be the divine-human Savior of the world.

And when the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended upon Christ, he was thereby anointed, in his humility, for the public Messianic mission on which he was now setting out.

The presence and activity of the entire eternal Trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - were made known, either audibly or visibly, in time and space on this day. The three divine Persons were all involved in what was happening, and they would remain involved in everything that was going to happen for the next three years, throughout the remainder of Christ’s earthly ministry.

The whole Trinity was involved, and at work for our salvation, as Jesus, the greatest of prophets, taught the Word of God by the power of the Spirit; as he performed miracles by that same power, as a sign of his Messianic office; as he suffered under the weight of the sins of the world, which were imputed to him as our substitute under the law; as he offered himself to the Father on the cross as the ultimate priestly sacrifice for humanity; and as he rose again from the grave, achieving for us a divine victory over sin, death, and the devil.

The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God,” purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

In today’s second lesson, from the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul explains that in our Baptism we are united to Christ. Across the limitations of time and space, we are united to his perfect life, to his reconciling death, and to his victorious resurrection. Paul writes:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Baptism mystically transports us to Christ and to everything that he did for our salvation. Baptism mystically transports Christ to us, so that all of his gifts can become ours.

In spite of constant claims to the contrary, coming from the world of popular American religion, the New Testament never says that Baptism is a symbol of anything. It is not a symbol, but it is a reality - the reality of Christ’s union with us, and of our union with Christ.

This mystical union with our Savior is offered to us, through Baptism, by means of the power of the Word of God, which Christ’s institution has connected to this sacred washing. And this mystical union with our Savior is received by us, through Baptism, in repentance and faith, as we believe what God says to us through Baptism, and as we are transformed by what God does in us through Baptism.

And when our Baptism in this way unites us to Jesus, and to what Jesus has done for us, it also unites us to Jesus’ own Baptism.

In his Baptism Jesus identified with sinful humanity, and took our sin upon himself to carry it to the cross. In our Baptism he invites us to identify with him and what he has done to save us, and he places his righteousness upon us, to forgive all our faults and to cover over all our blemishes.

And when we are united to Christ’s Baptism, we are united also to the whole Trinity, who was manifest in Christ’s Baptism. It is not a coincidence that the formula for administering Baptism which Jesus gave to his church is the Trinitarian formula: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Whenever we repeat those words by way of invocation, in preparation for prayer - perhaps accompanied by the gesture of making the sign of the cross upon ourselves, as it was traced upon us when we were baptized - we are recalling the privilege that has been granted to us in Baptism, to call upon the Lord in the day of trouble, with the confidence that he will hear us and deliver us.

In his Baptism Jesus heard the voice of the Father speaking to him about his Sonship, and about God’s loving approval of what he was doing. In our Baptism, the voice of the Father declares us to be heirs of heaven with Christ, and beloved members of God’s family. We are adopted as his children for the sake of Christ.

In his Baptism Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit, who descended upon him. In our Baptism the Spirit of God descends to us and fills us.

We are “born again” by water and the Spirit, and a new spiritual nature, in the image of Christ, is created within us. In our mystical union with Christ, who came to the Jordan at the beginning of his ministry, his Baptism is our Baptism.

The Triune God envelops us and saves us, giving us a Trinitarian faith and preserving us in that Trinitarian faith. And the Baptism that we receive for our salvation also gives us a Trinitarian life.

When we speak of the new spiritual life of a Christian, we are talking about an actual change in heart, soul, and mind; in thinking, in willing, and in acting. St. Paul elaborates on this in today’s lesson:

“Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ... We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

There is probably more superstition improperly connected to the sacrament of Baptism that to any other aspect of the Christian religion. There are no doubt millions of ungodly and profane people in the world who invent for themselves a false and presumptuous comfort based on the historical fact of their Baptism, while at the same time rejecting the faith which alone would allow them to enjoy the true benefits of Baptism.

And there are no doubt many outwardly moral and religious people who likewise are spiritually disconnected from their Baptism, and who trust in themselves, and not in God, for their salvation. Dear friends, make sure you are not one of them.

Jesus said at the end of St. Mark, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” This is significant.

The hope of salvation is not attached to Baptism as an external ritual, apart from the supernatural work that God performs through Baptism in the hearts of men, and apart from the faith that receives the blessings of Baptism. Likewise, the hope of salvation is not attached to Baptism in such an exclusive and absolute way that there would be no hope for those who sincerely trust in Christ, but who have not yet had an opportunity to be baptized according to the Lord’s will.

Instead, Jesus teaches that it is unbelief which condemns; and it condemns, even if the unbeliever in question was baptized at an earlier point in life. Likewise, it is not the absence of Baptism that condemns, but the despising of Baptism.

God does offer real, saving blessings to us in Baptism, through which he also engenders the faith that receives these blessings. God likewise offers real, saving blessings to us in all the various ways by which his Word comes to us.

But the blessings of Baptism can be rejected, just as the blessings of the gospel in general can be rejected. And when Baptism is rejected, the entire Holy Trinity, who speaks and works through Baptism, is rejected.

Yet when God’s Baptized people daily repent of their sins, and daily put their trust in Christ, then their Baptism is fulfilling in them the work that God wants it to accomplish. As you repent and believe, your Baptism is fulfilling in you the work that God wants it to accomplish in you.

You are forgiven by the Triune God, and you are at peace with the Triune God. And, when you are at peace with God, you are also alive in God.

Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too now walk in newness of life by the glory of the Father, who has raised us up in Christ, into a new heavenly way of thinking, of willing, and of acting. St. Paul exhorts us in his Epistle to the Galatians:

“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ...the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

As heirs of the kingdom of God the Father, who belong to Christ Jesus, we walk by the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit.

This is the Trinitarian life that the Holy Trinity himself bestows on us in Baptism, and that he lives out in us. This is the Trinitarian life to which you are united when, in your Baptism, you are united to Christ, and to his Baptism.

We do, of course, fall, and fail, often. In the strength of our Baptism we struggle against sin, Yet in the weakness of our flesh we also sin against our Baptism. But then we repent. Every day, we repent.

And we repent in a Trinitarian way, too. We return in faith to Baptism to be refreshed by the Lord’s forgiveness and restoration.

God the Father welcomes us home as the prodigal son was welcomed by his father. Christ the Son seeks us out like a good shepherd seeks out the lost sheep. And the Holy Spirit intercedes for us - from within us - with groanings that cannot be expressed.

And so, in faith we receive the blessings of our Baptism, which unites us to Christ and to his Baptism. And Christ and his Baptism unite us to the whole Trinity, and to everything that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have done and are doing to save us.

In Baptism God had provided for us a Trinitarian salvation. He has bestowed upon us a Trinitarian Faith. He has called us to a Trinitarian life. Amen.

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23 January 2022 - Epiphany 3 - John 2:1-11

God himself instituted marriage and the human family in the Garden of Eden, when he created Eve from Adam’s rib, and then introduced her to him, to be his friend and partner, and the future mother of their children. The institution of marriage did not evolve over the centuries on the basis of human societal needs. It came from God, and is defined by God.

It is not customary for Lutherans to describe marriage as a “sacrament,” since marriage was not instituted for the purpose of conveying forgiveness to us. The act of getting married does not, in itself, bring any special measure of saving grace or eternal blessings into your life.

Marriage is, however, an institution that is intended to bring many temporal, earthly blessings to those who enter it. But in this life, the blessings that marriage is intended to convey are not actually experienced by married couples as they are supposed to be, according to God’s original plan.

Not long after our first parents were given to each other in marriage, they fell into sin. And their sin affected their marriage in a very direct way.

Instead of encouraging her husband to remain faithful to God and his Word, and supporting him in that faithfulness, Eve drew Adam away from God’s will and coaxed him to disobey his Lord. Then, instead of taking his proper share of responsibility for his actions, when God called him to account, Adam turned on his wife and blamed her for everything.

Adam and Eve’s harmony with God was broken by their sin. And Adam and Eve’s harmony with each other was likewise broken by their sin.

From that point forward, throughout human history, marriage has been consistently characterized by two things: a married couple’s wish to experience fully the blessings of marriage, as God instituted it; and a married couple’s failure to experience fully the blessings of marriage, because of their sinfulness.

Christians are not immune to these failures. Like everyone else, we do bring into marriage our sincere aspirations for happiness and fulfillment. But also like everyone else, we bring into marriage our sinful nature.

As a result, we disappoint each other with our mutual weaknesses and shortcomings. We hurt each other with our mutual pride and selfishness.

Again, marriage as such is not a sacrament, because marriage does not convey God’s forgiveness and saving grace to those who enter it. But those who do enter it, and who endeavor to live within it, definitely need God’s forgiveness and saving grace for the many mistakes they inevitably make.

The story of the wedding of Cana, from the Gospel of St. John, helps us to understand how God does in fact provide to married couples - and to every member of a family - the kind of forgiveness and grace that they always need.

Jesus was present as a guest at this wedding. The bride and bridegroom who were celebrating the beginning of their life together had wisely invited Jesus to be a part of that celebration.

Indeed, at a deeper level, it is wise to invite Christ to be a guest at every wedding, and to be a continuing part of every marriage and family.

As God in human flesh, Jesus himself is the divine author of marriage, and is the divine guardian and preserver of marriage. And for those couples who, in repentance and faith, invite him to be a continuing part of their relationship, Jesus is also - when he needs to be - the restorer of marriage.

When the joy of marriage runs out, and when the rich happiness of mutual love and respect is gone - leaving only a thin and watery cohabitation in its place - Jesus in his gospel miraculously replenishes the wine. He pardons the sins, and renews the love.

And the joy of a renewed love - seasoned by forgiveness mutually-received, and lessons mutually-learned - is often more satisfying and rewarding than the untried and immature love of a new relationship.

As a couple’s marital love is tested and strained, it may break and crumble, if the healing grace of Christ is not mutually sought. But when that grace is sought - when we humble ourselves together before the Lord, admitting our faults and seeking his pardon - then a love that has passed such a test can become a stronger love, and a deeper love.

The wine that Jesus gives us at such times is better than what we had before.

Self-reliance and self-help efforts will not accomplish this. Relying on his own means and provisioning, the bridegroom at Cana - who was responsible for the wedding feast - did not have enough wine for all his guests.

Without divine intervention, that celebration would have been ruined. His lack of preparing adequately for the guests would have caused profound embarrassment, especially because of the heightened importance of such hospitality in that culture.

But Jesus saved this man, and his new wife, from the public disgrace that these shortcomings would otherwise have caused. He filled in all the gaps. He provided everything that was lacking. He covered over all the inadequacies.

And we, too, because of the original sin that we have inherited, are incapable of being everything that we should be, and of doing everything that we should do: not only in our marriages, but in all our relationships and callings. Our best efforts will always come up short. Always.

St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And it will be that way for as long as our sinful nature clings to us.

But where we fall short, Jesus fills in all the gaps for us. He provides everything that is lacking. He covers over all our inadequacies.

The righteousness that Jesus credits to us - his own perfect righteousness - places the wealth and merit of his obedient life into our otherwise empty account. In his forgiveness Jesus assures us that our relationship with God, strained and threatened by our sin, has been restored, and that God is perfectly at peace with us for his sake.

As the power of this forgiveness then bleeds over also into our human relationships, it makes them better, too. As a reflection and fruit of God’s forgiveness toward us, we forgive others, and in Christ are at peace with them. In Christ we are at peace with spouse and children, siblings and parents. And with others as well.

Notice that when Jesus was invited to the wedding at Cana, he did not come alone. His disciples were also invited, and were there. And that’s the way it is in our relationship with Christ.

To be sure, there are some deeply personal aspects to the faith-relationship that we have with our Savior. Some of our inner struggles and regrets are known only to ourselves and God. Some of the private joys and victories of our faith will likewise always remain just between us and the Lord.

But as a general principle, the only way to have a genuine relationship with Christ, is to have a genuine relationship with the disciples of Christ - that is, with his church.

St. Paul tells us in his first Epistle to the Corinthians that we were all baptized into the body of Christ, and that we are renewed in our membership in the one body of Christ when we participate sacramentally in the Lord’s body and blood. “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

To invite Christ into your life, and into your marriage and family, is to invite his church into your life, and into your marriage and family. And it is to place yourself, and your family, into the fellowship of Christ’s church.

At a minimum, this means that the place for a Christian family to be on the Lord’s day, is in the Lord’s house, among the Lord’s people.

Sometimes, of course, it is not easy to get along with other members of the body of Christ, just as other members of the body of Christ sometimes have a hard time getting along with us. Sometimes our fellow Christians test our patience, even as we test theirs.

In the needs and weaknesses of the sinfully-damaged humanity that we all share, we may have an emotionally draining effect on each other. When we all become a part of each other’s lives, in the larger fellowship of the church, we, as it were, drink up each other’s wine - just as the disciples of Jesus did their share of depleting the supply of wine at the wedding in Cana.

But again: Jesus, and the disciples of Jesus, come together as a package deal. You can’t have one without the others. You can’t genuinely invite Jesus into your life and relationships, without also being willing to welcome his church into your life and relationships.

As the Psalmist declares, “God settles the solitary in a home.” In your Baptism God gives you a home among his people, imperfect though they may be. He makes you a part of the family to which they belong. He makes them a part of your life.

But it’s not all bad. In fact, it’s mostly not bad. As Christians grow closer to their mutual Lord and Savior, they also grow closer to each other, and in time they become better able to overlook the little irritants that don’t really matter all that much.

They become better able to count on each other, and to draw strength from each other. And especially in the gathering of God’s people around Word and Sacrament, where we pray together and confess God’s truth together, Christ replenishes our wine.

Through the absolution that his called servant speaks to you in his name, and through the Sacred Supper that his called servant distributes to you in his name, Jesus justifies you with the announcement of his pardon, and with gift of his righteousness.

He fills in all the gaps that your sin has created. He provides for you, everything that is lacking. He covers over all your inadequacies with the fulness of his mercy.

And the work of God’s Word and Spirit continues on, reaching also into the encounters that we have with each other outside the setting of the worship service. We are a family of families, of various configurations: married couples and single people; the grown children of older parents and the grown parents of younger children.

But whatever the circumstances of our home life may be, we are woven together by the gospel into a patchwork of families that care about each other, that help each other, and that speak and sing the Word of God to each other.

God does not do his healing and restoring work in our lives in spite of other Christians, but precisely through them. God brings to you his words of warning and hope, of rebuke and comfort, through the lips of other people.

That’s the way he builds you up in your faith. That’s the way he helps you when you are hurting, or frightened, or lonely. And for those of you who are married, that’s the way he builds up your marital relationship when it falters. That’s the way he restores your marital love, when the wine runs out.

May the inspired words of today’s Gospel serve to describe not only the events in Cana so many centuries ago, but also the state of the homes and families of each of us today:

“On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.” Amen.

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29 January 2022 - Epiphany 4 - Luke 4:31-44

“And they were all amazed and said to one another, ‘What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!’”

In this way the people of Capernaum described what had happened in their midst when Jesus of Nazareth was among them, as St. Luke reports these things in today’s Gospel. They heard and saw things on that day that they had never before seen or heard.

Jesus had taught them marvelous things about God and his kingdom. And, when the situation presented itself, he had cast a demon out of a possessed person. He did these things simply by his word, and nothing else. But his word had extraordinary authority, and supernatural power.

The Greek word translated as “authority” is a term that is derived from another Greek word, which means “it is lawful.” So, when Jesus speaks of divine and spiritual things, he does so as one who has the lawful and moral right to do so.

He speaks with confidence, because he understands the full depth and breadth of what he is talking about. When he discourses about something, he speaks from the heart and center of the matter, and he brings his hearers to the heart and center of the matter.

This is in marked contrast with much of the religious teaching that the people of Israel otherwise heard in the first century. The various rabbinic schools within Judaism had each developed their own respective ideas and interpretive tradition about God’s word and God’s will, through a long sequence of deductions from deductions from deductions.

This process was a lot like the way in which our judicial system works. Court decisions in our time are based on the precedent of earlier court decisions, which were based on the precedent of even earlier court decisions.

With this layering of interpretations piled up on interpretations, the more recent court rulings often seem to be very far removed from the simple principles articulated in the Constitution.

The traditions of the rabbis, developed over time in a similar fashion, likewise often ended up bearing little resemblance to the simple yet profound message of the original Hebrew Scriptures. But the teaching of this new rabbi from Nazareth was different.

There was a freshness and an authenticity to his explanations. As the true son of Father Abraham, Jesus truly understood the faith of Abraham: a very real and personal faith, in a very real and personal God.

As the true heir of King David, Jesus truly understood the devotion of David: a very real and personal devotion, directed toward a God who had forgiven his sins and transformed his heart.

Christ’s teachings did not deal with speculative and uncertain deductions. They dealt with repentance and trust: matters of fundamental importance for people who are conscious of God’s holiness and goodness, and who are also conscious of their own sinfulness and helplessness.

Christ’s teachings were “radical” - that is, they went back to the root and source of things.

Jesus speaks with authority also over against the demon, who plays a prominent role in today’s account. At the beginning of his encounter with the Lord, this evil spirit, who was possessing a man, said to him, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

In other words: “What business do you have, here in this godless world? Satan is the prince of this place! Why don’t you go back to heaven where you belong, and leave us alone?!”

But Jesus wasn’t going to leave this demon - or the whole domain of demons - alone! As the divine-human Savior, he had re-staked his claim on the world he had made, by becoming a part of that world, to redeem it.

And so, when the Lord tells that particular spirit that he is actually the one who needs to leave, he must leave! Christ’s word has authority, and he can speak that word anywhere he wants to: in heaven and on earth.

This also means, of course, that he has the authority to speak his word into your life. He has the right to tell you, by means of his law, what to do and what not to do.

What goes on in your life - in your behavior and in your attitudes - is his business. He has something to say to you every day of the week, about the values and moral convictions that are to govern your thoughts and actions every day of the week - not just on Sunday for an hour or two.

He won’t be ignored, or boxed into a small non-threatening “religious” corner of your life that has little connection with how you otherwise live. And even if you think you are getting away with ignoring him and his law now, the time will come when you - and all humanity - will have to listen to Christ.

On judgment day he will speak, with an authority than cannot be ignored, and that will not be questioned. And everyone will listen: some with joy, others with terror. Every human being who has ever lived will have to listen to what Jesus will say then:

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Or “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

He has the authority to speak these words. When the time comes, he will speak them.

And, he has the authority to say to us now, what he is currently saying to us through the Scriptures. We’d better listen.

Also pertinent here - very pertinent, in fact - is what we refer to as the office of the keys. As recorded in St. Matthew, Jesus said to Peter:

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

And then, on the evening of the first Easter, he said this to all his disciples:

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Jesus has authorized his church and its ministers to speak on his behalf and with his authority. We often apply this in explaining why a penitent and troubled sinner should be confident that Christ himself truly is forgiving him through the absolution that the pastor speaks in the stead of Christ. This is most certainly true.

But it is not all that is true with respect to the office of the keys. When a word of divine judgment is spoken to an impenitent sinner, binding his sin to him and closing to him the doors of heaven, this, too, is something that Jesus is speaking, through the declaration of the minister.

This is not just the minister’s opinion. If you refuse to turn away from a sin that Holy Scripture clearly identifies as a sin, Jesus has an “opinion” about that. And he reserves the right to express that opinion - that firm, divine truth - through the binding key that his church exercises in his name.

The crowd in Capernaum noticed that the word and teaching of Jesus have that kind of authority; and also that the word and teaching of Jesus have that kind of power. They said:

“What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

When the Lord himself speaks, whether in person or through the sacred page of Scripture, things happen. The earliest example of this is creation. God spoke the world into existence, out of nothing.

So too in the New Testament, and in the New Testament gospel, Christ’s message is not a sterile recounting of vague theological opinions and tentative religious theories. Rather, Jesus says things like this:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

Because the word of Jesus is always powerful, and always true, the reply of faith will always be: “Amen.” And, to quote Peter’s statement to Jesus on another occasion:

“You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

The powerful word of Jesus is, as it were, on the offensive. It is on the move, going out into the domain of darkness and evil, to reconquer that domain.

In spite of all the opposition that the world, the flesh, and the devil throw up against that word, it will prevail. The word of Christ breaks down walls, and builds up again where human hands have not worked. His word kills, and makes alive.

And, Christ’s word has the power to solve problems, whether these problems are of an “ordinary” variety, or are extraordinary and supernatural.

Through the power of Christ’s word, St. Peter’s mother-in-law was healed of her fever. And she was restored to her joyful work of providing hospitality to her son-in-law’s guests.

Through the power of Christ’s word, the possessed man was set free from the wicked entity that had been controlling him. And he was given a new beginning in life.

And the word of Christ has the power to accomplish the good and liberating things that he wants it to accomplish in your life, too.

If Jesus were to speak a word of physical healing into your weakened and ailing frame, it would be healed. You would rise up from your sick bed, and your earthly life would be prolonged.

And on the day when the Lord returns, when he calls all of us to come forth bodily from the grave, it will happen. It doesn’t matter how “dead” you will be by then - how far and wide the molecules of your corpse have been dispersed.

When Christ calls your body forth from the earth, your body will be reconstituted and made immortal, and will be reunited with your soul. Your death will be undone. Nothing will stop this.

The power of Christ’s word to make this happen will not be suppressed or restrained. And while we all still await these momentous future events, the power of Christ’s word in our lives in this world, even now, will likewise not be suppressed or restrained.

His word already declares his perfect righteousness to be upon you, covering over the sins of which you repent, and restoring your fellowship with God. His word already speaks the enlightenment of his Spirit into your mind, and the cleansing of his Spirit into your heart, causing you to be a new creature in him and a child of God.

Christ’s word has the power to make these things happen. And when he speaks to you in his faith-creating gospel - in his Holy Absolution, and in his Holy Supper - they do happen.

The forgiveness that he has put into his means of grace, is put into you, by the means of grace. You are set free from your sins and from their condemnation, as the loosing key is applied to you in the stead and by the command of Jesus.

Everything that Jesus accomplished and won for you by his death and resurrection - by his divine authority, and in his saving power - is, as it were, packed into his word.

When that word is spoken to you - and when, by his grace, you hear and believe that word - all of the blessings that God wants you to have are unpacked and released into your life, and become yours.

The demons flee. Your soul is healed and restored. Jesus becomes your Lord: every day and forever.

The word of Christ has such power. His word is filled with the power of God himself, because Jesus is God himself: the eternal Son of the Father in human flesh, as even the demons knew.

And so, when Jesus tells you that something is so, it is so. When he convicts you, and impresses upon your conscience through his law that you have sinned, you have sinned. Don’t deny it.

Yet when he then tells you that your sins are washed away, they are gone. Don’t reject this gift because it seems too good to be true. It is true, and real. Peace with God in Christ is real.

Jesus says: “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. ...the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

When Jesus tells you that you are a child of God who has been born again of water and the Spirit, then that, too, is exactly what you are. He says, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

The crowds in Capernaum “were all amazed and said to one another, ‘What is this word?” We, too, are amazed at the word of Jesus.

And the crowds in Capernaum also said, in their amazement: “For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

We, too, have felt this authority and experienced this power. We, too, now know the liberation and life of Christ, through the word of Christ. Amen.