✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    This day has been set aside by our government for the giving of thanks, especially for our national and temporal blessings.  Interestingly, Thanksgiving first became a national holiday in 1863, right in the middle of the conflict and bloodshed of the Civil War.  Abraham Lincoln saw God’s providence in the pivotal victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and praise “to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.”  There is certainly also something for us to learn about giving thanks even in the midst of conflict and troubles.  And so as we think about all of our temporal blessings, it is fitting that we consider and meditate on the 4th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer.  If you would, please turn to the back of your bulletins and answer aloud the questions that I will ask you from the catechism. 

What is the 4th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer?

“Give us this day our daily bread.”
What does this mean?
God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

    Let’s stop there for a moment.  “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people.”  Think about what that means.  It means that God’s goodness is not dependent on your praying.  The Scriptures say that He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends His rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  The Lord is good.  Period.  If you stop praying, He’s not going to stop being good.  So don’t think that your praying is the key element that gets God to do things, as if we can manipulate Him to do what we want.  The truth is that very often it seems to be the unfaithful and the unscrupulous who are doing better at acquiring daily bread than Christians!  In fact most of Psalm 73 is a lament at how prosperous the wicked often are.  And yet the Psalm also confesses trust in the ways of the Lord, who brings down the unrepentant to utter desolation and destruction in the end.  So, we don’t pray “Give us this day our daily bread” in order to make God do something He otherwise wouldn’t.

    But that raises the question, “Why should we pray for daily bread at all, then?”  We do so because in praying this petition, we are drawn to turn our hearts toward our merciful and generous God, to remember that He is the One who gives us our daily bread and all things, and we learn in that way to give Him thanks and honor as our gracious Lord.  God gives us this prayer not for His benefit but for ours, so that we might learn to look to Him for all our needs and trust in Him and cling to Him, lest we forget about Him and turn away from Him and begin trusting in ourselves, to our own destruction.  That’s the real danger that we face as fallen sinners, isn’t it?  To think we’ve gotten where we are in life by our own sweat and hard work and good choices and intelligence.  That’s especially a danger when times are tough.  If we’re doing OK, we can become proud that we put ourselves in a better place than those who are struggling.  But if we’re struggling, we can burden ourselves with all this overwhelming guilt as if it’s all up to us and we’re the ones who control everything.  In both cases, whether it’s pride or despair, thanks toward God and faith in Him is completely lacking.  There is no looking to Him as the source of every blessing for which we should give thanks.  

    Moses warns us in particular against pride in the OT reading, “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’” When we are unthankful, it is because we have forgotten that every good thing that we have in our life is an undeserved gift from our merciful heavenly Father, for which we should thank and praise, serve and obey Him.

     One way you’ll be able to tell that most people don’t really get this point, even on Thanksgiving Day, is in the way they talk about giving thanks.  I always like to mention this, because it’s key:  If you listen carefully, you’ll notice that while people may talk about what they’re thankful for, there’s almost no talk about who they’re thankful to.  There’s no mention of the one who receives our thanks, no mention of God or the Lord.  Or else they’re just expressing thanks to other people, which is fine, but entirely misses the point of the holiday.  Just as Christmas has in many ways become Christ-less in our culture, so also Thanksgiving has become God-less.  Sometimes I think when people say they’re thankful for something, they just mean they’re glad they have it or they feel good about it.  So be sure when you talk about what you’re thankful for that you say, “I’m thankful to God for this or that.”  For ultimately it’s not our giving of thanks, but who we’re giving thanks to that matters.

Let’s continue with the catechism:  
What is meant by daily bread?
Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

    As I’ve already been indicating, when we pray for daily bread, we are asking for more than just food.  We are also praying for everything that is necessary for us to receive it and enjoy it.  It’s hard to enjoy your daily bread when you’ve got rude neighbors or a grouchy spouse or bad health or violence in the streets.  And so when we give thanks for daily bread, our hearts and minds should think beyond the turkey and stuffing on the table, and consider also the farmer’s field and the weather and the trucker who transports and the baker who bakes and the store which sells and the employment by which we earn our money to buy and civil order in society and so forth.  All of this is in God’s hands.  All of this is what we need and ask for in this petition so that our bodily needs might be provided for.

    And yet, we should never forget that this petition comes in 4th place in the Lord’s Prayer, not 1st or 2nd or even 3rd.  That is meant to teach us something, namely, that daily bread is not the most important thing.  First comes God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will; and only then comes the daily needs of this life.  You see, the Lord preserves and protects life not simply because He created it, but especially in order to save it for eternity.  The reason He feeds even the wicked and the unbeliever is so that the unbeliever might repent and believe.  That is His will–not just to provide for you for a time, but to have you with Himself forever.  

    And so our receiving of daily bread is ultimately meant to draw us to the even more important receiving of the Bread of Life, our Savior Jesus Christ.  Just as God provides food for both the good and the evil, so also our Lord Jesus died on the cross for all, for the morally upright and for the immoral, for the noble and the shameful, for those who believe in Him and for those who do not.  The Lord is good, and His goodness is shown in His mercy toward people like us, that He took the punishment for all of our ingratitude and pride and sinful self-love, and by His suffering and death He forgave us and freed us from eternal judgment.  This is the greatest blessing for which we give thanks today, that the Living Bread from Heaven has been given to us, Bread which we may eat of and never die.  As Jesus said, “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.  And the bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”  It’s no coincidence that we pray  “Give us this day our daily bread” in the liturgy right before we receive Holy Communion.  For that petition (and indeed every petition of the Lord’s Prayer)  is answered most perfectly in the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for our forgiveness.  

    And so our Lord exhorts His disciples and us in today’s Gospel: Don’t rejoice simply in the fact that the spirits are subject to you, that you have certain spiritual or material gifts.  Don’t simply give thanks to God for your house or car or job or family.  Rather, rejoice especially in this, that He has written your names in heaven by the blood of Christ.  You who are in Christ are in the Book of Life.  You are saved and redeemed and reconciled to God.  You are His baptized chosen ones.  And if you have that, you have it all–even if you’re unemployed or struggling to pay the bills, even if your health is failing, even if there’s conflict in your life or in our nation.  In Jesus you have the unimaginable riches of heaven.  In Him you have the perfect health of His resurrection life and His victory over the grave.  You are children of God’s kingdom and citizens of heaven.  So it is written, “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”  That’s how St. Paul could say in today’s Epistle, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  

    God grant that Paul’s faithful attitude may also be our own, that our prayers and petitions may be filled with thanksgiving to God for all of His fatherly love toward us.  “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.”  Amen.

Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    The world of Martin Luther’s day and of our day are obviously quite different.  His was a time dominated by princes and popes and the widespread fear of purgatory when you die.  That’s why the indulgences being sold by the church were initially such a success.  People were sincerely afraid of the judgment of God.  Their worldview was very much focused on finding a way to be saved from the punishment their sins deserved.  The promise that indulgences could free people from that was an appealing solution for many.

    On the other hand, ours is a time dominated by notions of freedom and equality and the assumption that almost everyone will have a nice afterlife.  Fear of God’s judgment isn’t what drives things anymore but self-fulfillment.  The god most people conceive of today isn’t the God of the Bible, but just a sort of nice, generic, supernatural force.  And while people certainly still may not like the thought of dying, the belief at least on the surface is that unless you’re a super evil person, you’ll end up in heaven.  Isn’t it just standard conversation at a funeral to say that the deceased is in a better place?

    And so we can be tempted to think that the things that Luther and the Reformation were about–things like sin and hell and the cross and reconciliation with God–while they may have been important at one time, really are no longer things we should focus on so much.  The world has changed.  Many think that we as a church need to move on to other things and address more contemporary and relevant questions.  

    But in truth what ails the church today is that the problem Luther faced has stopped being our problem.  Technology may have advanced, times may have changed, but fallen human nature hasn’t.  We need to learn to start asking the right questions again:  How can we be rescued from the slavery of our sins and the bondage of death and the very real judgment of God?  For Luther, the question was very personal: “How can a sinner like me be redeemed?  How can I find a God of mercy?” 

    Don’t be drawn away by the self-absorbed God questions of our age: How can I find a God who can make my life better?  How can God give me a life of purpose?  How can I be happy and fulfilled?  Do you notice in those questions, God is just a means to an end, just a way of getting where I want to be.  But God is never merely a means to an end.  God is the end; He’s the goal we seek, the God of mercy.  Our desire is to be with this God.  That’s what heaven is.  He is Himself the fullness of the life that we’re looking for.  Part of the problem, then, is that we’ve stopped asking the right questions.  As one theologian put it, God’s Word isn’t about meeting our needs, it’s about giving us needs worth having.

    Here’s the diagnosis of your need from God’s Word; from the Epistle:  “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”  Since God’s Law declares all to be guilty and condemned before Him, your greatest need is to escape that and be delivered from that.  And the Law itself can’t help you.  All the Law can do is point the finger at you and tell you to shut your trap.  You’ve got nothing you can say in your own defense–no excuses, no justifications, no “but I did the best I could.”  Just zip it, the Law says.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  There’s nothing you can say to help.  

    In Luther’s day, the typical way to try to escape God’s wrath was through human effort, things like his duties as a monk, his life of self-denial, his attempts to list and repent of every sin in confession and do proper penance–but none of that satisfied him or gave him peace.  For Luther had been given a gift by God: the gift of a tender and strong conscience.  Today, we might call that a curse.  The key to success in this world, and even sometimes in church hierarchy, is compromise.  But with each compromise, the conscience is deadened a little, and God’s Word is set aside a little more.  With each compromise you and I make, we have to tell ourselves, “The warnings of God’s Word don’t really apply to me.”  Deluding ourselves that it is for a greater good, it is easy to set aside what we have learned from Scripture until it no longer bothers us at all.  But Luther’s conscience wouldn’t let him stop being bothered.  And that was actually good.  For as Hebrews 12 says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”  These things are not trifling matters.  The fact that we do not tremble more often at God’s Word is a sign of how we have compromised our own consciences, how much we have taken God’s Word of Law and Gospel for granted.

    What made the Reformation finally occur was when the pure light of the life-giving Gospel shone through clearly and began to lift the burden of the Law from Luther.  That didn’t happen through some mystical experience or an emotional conversion or a commitment to obedience, but through a rediscovery of the Scriptural teaching about God’s righteousness.  And here’s what that teaching is:  what God demands in the Law under threat of punishment, He gives by pure grace in the Gospel, as a gift.  In the Law, God condemns our unrighteousness, but in the Gospel, God freely gives us His own righteousness.  It is written in Romans 1: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” In other words, the Gospel makes known the righteousness of God, not as demands on you but as a gift to you.  God isn’t saying, “See how righteous I am; now you better measure up,” but rather, “Here, take my righteousness, wear it as your own; it’s yours.”  In His Word God reveals and gives you His righteousness, so that through faith in the Gospel, you are 100% holy and guiltless in His sight.  These words of Scripture revealed the answer to Luther’s terrifying question: “How can I find a God of mercy?”  It’s all there and given to you in Jesus, God’s mercy in the flesh. 

    St. Paul writes in the Epistle, Since, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Pay close attention to those words.  You are justified freely by His grace, without any strings attached.  That’s what grace is, an undeserved gift of love.  You don’t have to justify yourself, look for loopholes, prove yourself, build yourself up by what you do; God Himself justifies you, He declares you righteous, He puts you right with Himself solely and completely based on the works of Christ Jesus His Son.

    And here in particular is what Christ has done for you: the Epistle says that the Lord Jesus redeemed you.  He bought you back out of your slavery to sin and Satan and the grave.  He purchased you with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  He traded places with you and allowed Himself to be enslaved, captured and condemned as if He were the sinner, guilty of every wrong that’s ever been done and every failure to do what’s right.  He took your place in the chains of death to set you free, so that you would take His place in everlasting life.  Through His sacred death, Jesus broke your bonds and conquered your slave masters so that they have no eternal power over you any more.  In the Son of God you are truly free–released, forgiven, alive.  Jesus Himself said, “If the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed.”

    That merciful release and freedom given only in Christ is what Luther needed, what we need, and what every age needs.  It doesn’t change with the times; it doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle ages or this postmodern age, this unchanging truth remains:  God’s wrath against sinners has been completely turned away through the cross.  This He did for you.  God doesn’t hate you, He loves you in Jesus.  He has chosen you as His own and brought you out of darkness, so that you may live under Him in His kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  You are no longer slaves, you are beloved children in the household of God.  That’s the good news of the Gospel of Jesus.

    So if we really want things to be put right again, with ourselves and with the church, and be renewed in our Christian faith, then let us always keep the Reformation question central to our own theology and belief: “How can I find a God of mercy?”  And hearing the answer in God’s Word, that we are justified and declared righteous “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” alone, given by grace alone in preaching and the Sacraments, received through faith alone, then we will be on the right track.  Then we will be freed to do truly good works–works performed not out of fear of punishment or to acquire our own salvation, but works performed in the sure confidence that we’re already saved in Christ, works done for the good of our neighbor as we live out the callings God has given us in the home and work and state and church.  This is the Scriptural, Reformation flow of good works–not us to God, but God to us and then through us in love to the world. 

    One final thought: The Epistle reading said that boasting is excluded.  That is important for us to remember at a Reformation celebration.  It’s not just that we shouldn’t boast in our own good works (since it’s all from God), it’s also that we shouldn’t boast in our Lutheranism for its own sake in some sort of puffed up and self-righteous way.  For then we’re denying our own confession of faith.  We aren’t justified by being Lutheran.  Martin Luther of course can save no one.  We are justified by the holy cross, by faith in Christ alone–and even that faith is a gift of the Gospel.  That’s where the focus must stay, always on Jesus and His Word.  As it is written, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”  For the Lord Himself says, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to Herman Sasse and his work, “Luther and the Teaching of the Reformation,” Part 2, The Lonely Way, and the Revs. William Willimon and Christopher Esget)

• Matthew 22:15-22
• Trinity 23

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    When we hear today’s Gospel reading, there is a strong temptation for us to interpret it in American political terms.  The statement “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” we take to mean little more than “the separation of church and state” or something along those lines.   You’ve got your church life here, and you’ve got your secular life and political life over there.  Take care of your responsibilities in each, but keep them separate.

    But that’s not what Jesus is saying here.  He’s not simply reducing himself to the role of Thomas Jefferson.  And he’s certainly not saying that your Christian faith should only be applied to a couple narrow areas of your life and be kept out of the other stuff.  In fact that’s actually the opposite of his point.

    Now to be sure, there are distinctions to be made between church and state.  In the church God rules primarily by means of the Gospel, bestowing mercy and forgiveness on repentant sinners.  For such there is no coercion, just grace.  But in the state God rules primarily by means of the Law; which means that when the government is doing its job properly, it’s about punishing bad behavior and rewarding and protecting good behavior.  The government by its very nature operates by threat and coercion, by force.  Step outside the boundaries of the Law and face the consequences; stay within the boundaries of the Law and reap the benefit.  This is as God intends.  Romans 13 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. . . Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.”  God gives government and rulers the authority to use force, to punish, and to reward.  They are ministers of God’s left hand kingdom of the Law for your good, to maintain order.

    Of course, the problem occurs when sinful rulers are no longer a threat to wrongdoers but to those who are doing good.  In our country, the abortion industry is not only protected by the government, it’s even funded by the government.  Planned Parenthood, which performs over 330,000 abortions in this country every year, receives about $550 million dollars a year from the federal government and what we pay in taxes.  All tolled, the government and the civil law is complicit in the deaths of over 1 million unborn children in this country annually; that’s over 3000 every day.  Politicians who say, “I’m personally against abortion, but I don’t think I should force my moral views on others” are gravely mistaken and self-deceived.  Just apply that thinking to the topic of child abuse, and you’ll realize how ridiculous and foolish that supposed justification is.  I’m personally against child abuse, but I don’t think I should force my moral views on others.”  What do they think abortion is?  This bizarre separation of church and life is certainly not what Jesus is talking about here.

    In addition, the government also now protects and promotes a fundamentally corrupted understanding of marriage.  And the days are drawing nearer when those who simply speak out in favor of God-given natural marriage only between a man and a woman are going to be seen as criminally guilty of hate speech.  Christian business owners who decline to take part in providing services for same-sex ceremonies are already being are already being sued and driven out of business, very often with the blessing or assistance of local authorities.  Such actions by governments are certainly not to be seen as God’s will or the God-given role of the state.  In our democratic republic, it is certainly right and appropriate for us in these instances to resist the authorities and to work to change the laws as well as the hearts of people toward what is good and right.  And if the government ever attempts to require us to sin, then we say along with St. Peter in Acts 5, “We must obey God rather than men.”

    But having said all this, Jesus’ point in the Gospel actually isn’t focused primarily on civil government, but on something much more.  Those who were trying to entangle Jesus in his talk were mostly concerned with political things.  Were you backing the right people and favoring the right policies?  That’s what they were getting all worked up about.  But Jesus wasn’t fitting very well into the agenda of either side, and so since He wasn’t useful to their cause, they wanted to get rid of Him–and that included both the religiously conservative Pharisees who hated living under Roman rule, and the secular elite and powerful Herodians, who were in league with the Roman empire.  They had common cause here in trying to trip Jesus up.  No matter how Jesus answered the question about paying taxes, they thought they’d have Him trapped.  If He supported paying taxes to the Romans, he’d lose popularity with the people who were oppressed under Roman rule.  If He didn’t think it was right to pay taxes, then He could be accused of treason and rebellion.  But Jesus, Wisdom in the flesh, rises above their political arguments and says, “Whose image and inscription is on the money.  Caesar’s?  Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  And they were silenced.  All they could do was marvel and go their way.  

    But note how Jesus not only shut them down, but also how He changed the subject.  With His response, it was as if He was saying, “You are all caught up in the things of this world and the power of people who are nothing but dust.  If part of Caesar’s passing glory is to have his image and inscription on money, and he wants you to pay taxes with it, do it.  Don’t give that money and that mammon more importance than it deserves.  The stuff of Caesar is temporary; the things of God are eternal.  Turn your attention to that.  Render to God the things that are God’s.”  The real emphasis for Jesus is not on the first half of the phrase but that second half.

    “Render unto God the things that are God’s.”  Well, if you think about it, everything is God’s, so give Him everything.  Psalm 24 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.”  Paying taxes is really nothing, then.  God wants all of you–all you are and all you have.  He doesn’t just want a couple of hours on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning and some money put into the plate so you can tell yourself that you’ve done your duty.  And then you can get back to your real life out there.  He wants to be your real life everywhere, 100% of the time, at the heart of all you are and all you do.  He Himself is your life, isn’t He?  He’s the Source, the Creator, the Redeemer.  To render to God the things that are God’s, then, means to honor Him as the true owner of everything you have and are and to manage that in a way that is pleasing to Him.  That may well start here with the 10% that you are given to put in the offering plate to support the mission of the church, but it’s about much more than just money.  It continues with the other 90% and your very lives that you are given to manage out there for the good of your neighbor and the glory of God.

    Remember, it’s all about the image and the inscription.  The coin bore Caesar’s image, so it was given to Caesar.  And what bears God’s image?  You do.  You are created in the image of God.  And so you are given to God.

    But also remember this.  You do not give yourself to God.  You are brought to God in Christ. For while you are in God’s image, Jesus actually is the image of the invisible God Himself according to Colossians 1.  The image of God in us was broken through sin, and it is restored only in Christ. Just as an image of a president is pressed into a coin, so Christ Himself is the image of God “coined” in our human flesh.  And as money is offered up to pay taxes, so Jesus was offered up to God to pay for our sins on the cross, rendered to the Father as a sweet sacrifice. Jesus purchased and redeemed you, not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood.  And there was even an inscription that was placed over Jesus head at Calvary by an agent of Caesar himself.  It read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”  There is Jesus on His throne for you.

    When it comes to settling accounts with God, you can do one of two things: either you can render to Him your own works and your own goodness, which always fall short in making up for your sin, or you can trust in the works and the sacrifice of Christ rendered to the Father as the full and complete payment for your sins.  So then at its heart, to render to God the things that are God’s is simply to rely on Christ and believe in Him.  It is to point to Christ the crucified and say, “There is my salvation.  He alone is the offering that wins for me everlasting life.”  To put it another way, we render to Caesar obedience, but we render to God the love and trust of our hearts.

    In baptism, the Lord put His own inscription on you, His own Triune name.  Your image was tarnished and corrupted, but Jesus stamped the sign of the cross on you and joined you to Himself.  In Jesus the very image of God is restored to your humanity.  You are now God’s holy coinage, His cherished treasure.  What shall we render, then, to the Lord, for all His benefits to us?  We offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, calling on the name of the Lord.  And living in Christ, we offer up our bodies as living sacrifices by the mercies of God in loving our neighbor.

    For as St. Paul said in the Epistle, our citizenship is in heaven, in Christ.  We are like foreigners who are only passing through to our true homeland.  So we don’t have to live as if we’re so attached to the things of this life or as if everything depends on who wins elections, as important as they are.    You are citizens of this country only for a short time; you will live under Christ in His kingdom for all eternity.  Set the deepest love of your hearts, then, on that better, heavenly country. 

    Hear the wisdom of the Psalmist, “Put not your trust in princes and rulers, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.  When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.  Blessed, is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.”  When everything seems to be coming apart in the world around us, it is good to meditate on the words of Psalm 11, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?  The Lord is in His holy temple.  The Lord’s throne is in heaven.”  Christ remains the King of kings and the Lord over all authority forever.

    Here, then, is our sure and certain hope and our heart’s desire: (Phil. 3) “We eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body.”  These lowly bodies of ours will undergo a wonderful and mysterious metamorphosis at Jesus’ return, so that they will be like His glorious body after His resurrection from the dead.  Your bodies will finally no longer be threatened by all of the troubles and the sin and the sickness and the death they experience in this world.  You will live before God amidst the holy pleasures of the new creation eternally.

    So render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, taking care of those necessary duties in a fallen world.  But above all, render unto God the things that are God’s, honoring and trusting in Him above all things.  “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?  I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”  Here is where you are given to participate already in the life of God’s eternal kingdom.  Here is where you not only kneel before your King, but calling on His name, you receive His very body and blood into your bodies for the forgiveness of all your sins.  And “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    One thing I’ve discovered through the years is that most people, even unchurched people, don’t usually mind discussing questions about God and morality.  Even those who never have time for divine service will often still have time to express their opinions on this or that religious topic.  But that’s where the problem often is: what we end up doing is simply to make God an object of discussion and debate.  Folks talk about theology the same way they discuss politics or the economy or sports:  creation vs. evolution, the presidential race, gay marriage, Lutheranism vs. Roman Catholicism, police shootings, racial protests and riots, Islam and refugees, what’s wrong with the Packers offense–these are all just things to talk about and take sides on.  Spiritually speaking the problem is this: when the things of God become simply a topic to discuss and debate like anything else, that can actually become a way of keeping the Lord at arms length–religion’s an idea out there that we can safely control and manage.  It then becomes about concepts rather than about a person: the God we live under and are accountable to, Who desires that we live in communion with Him, the Redeemer who is our very life.

    And one of the easiest ways to talk religion without actually having come to terms with the living God is to debate morality, to discuss the Law–which, of course, is fine and good.  But as we see in today’s Gospel, for the Pharisees it had become a bit of a game and a litmus test.  Jesus had just silenced the elite Sadducees, who were sort of the liberals of the day.  The conservative Pharisees liked that.  Now, they thought, let’s see if Jesus passes the test and can fit properly into our group.  With their question, they wanted to be able to categorize Jesus and put Him into one of their boxes, so that they could handle Him and manage Him.  

    “Teacher,” they asked, “which is the great commandment in the law?”  It was a question intended to bring Jesus down to their level.  Notice how Jesus was supposed to pick just one commandment.  If Jesus answered the right way, the way that agreed with their group’s thinking and shared their priorities, then He would simply be one of them.  But if not, then they could debate Jesus’ answer as if they were His equals and dismiss Him, all the while reducing the living voice of God’s Law to a matter of ethical points.  Either way, they were using the Law in a lawless way, as a way of exalting themselves rather than humbling themselves before God.  Beware of trying to argue moral questions simply for the sake of being right or winning a debate or justifying yourself.  That’s not why God gave the Law.  The Law is always meant to lead us to repentance and to Christ.

    Our Lord’s wisdom would not play the Pharisees’ game or submit to their litmus test.  He did not choose a single commandment.  Instead, He summarized them all.  He cut through their vain request and exposed the foolishness of pitting God’s Word against itself.  Love is the fulfillment of the law.  So Jesus answers in two parts.  First, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  That’s not something you can reduce down to a bunch of do’s and don’ts.  For that Law commands you to love God with every fiber of your being, all that you are, all that you own, with nothing held back from Him.  He wants the entire devotion of your heart; all of your love, your allegiance to be with Him alone.

    And Jesus doesn’t stop there, in case someone thinks that loving God means leaving ordinary life and your fellow man.  He goes on, “And the second (great commandment) is like (the first): ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  These two go side by side, hand in hand.  The love of God and the love of the neighbor are inseparable.  You cannot claim to love God if you don’t love your neighbor.  For God seeks to be loved in your neighbor.  The Lord Jesus–who took up our nature and truly shares in our humanity–is present therefore in all those around us, particularly those in need, to receive our acts of kindness and self-giving.  As the proverb says, “He who gives to the poor lends to the Lord.”  That’s why Jesus says that the commands are alike: Because God is served both in love for Him and in love for the neighbor.  This love is limitless in how it is to be expressed and shown.  

    That is where the living voice of the Law nails us and condemns us for falling short.  It exposes our lovelessness.  It exposes our self-satisfying motivations when we do engage in loving works.  It brings nothing but judgment and death.  

    Repent, therefore, and turn to Christ.  For Jesus here gets us back on the track that leads to salvation and life.  The Pharisees had asked a Law question, but now Jesus asks a Gospel question, not one that focuses on us, but one that focuses on who He is.  Jesus gets us away from moral concepts and religious debates and gets us to meditate instead on personhood of the Messiah Redeemer.  Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah?  Whose Son is He?”  They said to Him, “The Son of David.”  And that was correct.  God had promised King David in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be one of His descendants.

    Jesus then asks them this question, “How then does David in the Spirit call the Messiah ‘Lord’ in one of the Psalms?”  You see, under ordinary circumstances in Jewish culture it would be the son who refers to the father as lord or master, not the other way around.  And yet here David, the father and the great ancestor of the Christ, refers to his descendant as Lord.  Jesus asks them, “Why is that?”  Just as the Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus into a debate with a Law question, Jesus here tries to “trap” them into thinking about the truth about the Gospel with this question, to get them to see the saving reality of who He is.

    The Jews had been conceiving of the Messiah as being a combination of a great prophet and a powerful political leader, but always in the end only a man.  But Jesus here leads us to see that while He is truly human, He is more than just a man.  David calls Him lord and master because Jesus, his literal descendant, is also truly and fully God.  The Son of David is the everlasting Son of  God.

    Here, then, is where the good news is for us.  Jesus, thankfully, does not come in a way that fits into our mental categories and according to the expectations of whatever groups we align ourselves with.  He isn’t a liberal or a conservative.  His ways are infinitely higher and better.  He comes not in the way of fallen man but in the way of His perfect self-giving humanity.  Jesus is the only man in whom God’s love is perfectly embodied.  Jesus kept the Law perfectly for us and in our place.  He loved His heavenly Father with all His heart, with all His soul, and with all His mind, devoting Himself entirely to doing His Father’s will.  And Jesus loved His neighbor as Himself.  He gave Himself completely to those around Him, healing them, helping them, teaching them saving truth.  In the end He gave His life away, laying it down for us on the cross.  There is no greater love than that a man lay down His life for His friends; and you are His friends whom He died for.  Through that perfect act of love and self-giving, Jesus won for you the full forgiveness of your sins.  
    Jesus said that on these two commandments of love hang all the Law and the prophets.  Jesus, who is love in the flesh, hangs on the cross for you to fulfill the Law of love perfectly.  Baptized into Him, the Law’s condemnation is taken away from you, as Romans 8 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  You are free, released, forgiven, right with God in Christ.  His self-sacrifice has rescued you from judgment and has brought you everlasting life.  For Jesus has made your enemies to be His enemies–sin and death and the devil–and by rising from the grave He has made them His footstool.  The grave is conquered; sin is taken away; Satan’s head is crushed.  All of this that you now know by faith you will see with your own eyes at Jesus’ return–when He who is at God’s right hand is revealed in all His glory, and all things that are under His feet will be put under your feet with Him.  

    Therefore, brothers and sisters of Christ, remember that theology is not just something we talk about, it is the God, the Redeemer we come face to face with, and whom we confess, the Jesus who is our life and who desires that we share in His life and have fellowship with Him forever.  He is present here now–not as a concept but as pure love in the flesh, giving you His true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  Here is living theology, where the love of God and love of the neighbor all come together in Christ, love’s flesh and blood.  You are sanctified and cleansed in Christ Jesus.  You are saints before God as the epistle said–not because of the Law and what you have done, but because of the Gospel and what Jesus has done.  Continue, therefore, to believe in Him and cling to Him, eagerly waiting for His return.  For He will confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful; He will do it.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Luke 18:9-14

Trinity 11

“Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.”  “Well,” you say, “that’s certainly not talking about me.  I know I’m not righteous.  Nobody’s perfect.”  However, don’t be so quick to dismiss what Jesus says.  Sure, I don’t think there’s anyone here who would stand up and say that they’re perfect and righteous.  We’ve all made mistakes; we all have our flaws.  But on the other hand, most of you think that the flaws you do have aren’t all that serious.  And you’ve got pretty good justifications for your mistakes.  “Some person did something to me and set me off.  This or that happened to me in my childhood; my parents are to blame.  The circumstances I was presented with left me no good options.”  Trying to justify yourselves and your sin like that is the opposite of being justified by God through faith in His mercy.  And it’s certainly the opposite of a repentant heart.

Matthew 11:25-30

What is it that exhausts our souls?  For some it is very simply the stress of fulfilling their many responsibilities in life and all the things you have to deal with as a parent and a spouse and a worker and a volunteer and a caretaker.  The anxiety that comes from doing everything that needs to be done can cause more than just bodily tiredness, it can drain a person's spirit.  For others, it is struggling to live up to the expectations and social pressures of family members or friends that makes them inwardly worn out.  They never feel like they quite measure up.  For many, burdens of the soul can be caused by bodily troubles and sicknesses, which wear a person down mentally and can raise the nagging question, "Why is this happening to me?"  And for still others, spiritual weariness comes from the fact that they've been dragging around a load of guilt with them for years and sometimes even decades.  Some failure or something they deeply regret having done won't leave them alone but seems to hang on to them like a ball and chain.