Ash Wednesday
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    How good are you at keeping good secrets about yourself?  When you have information that portrays you in a positive light, how hard is it for you to hold it in?  When there is something you want others to see in you and know about you, is it hard to restrain yourself from talking about it?  Perhaps it’s a worthy accomplishment, a kind deed, a generous donation.

    Your feeling may be that such goodness should be displayed a bit.  With all the bad examples out there, certainly a virtuous deed would be of benefit to others if it were publicly known and shared and posted.  And so we try to work the conversation in our direction, try to get people to notice the good things we’ve done.  Of course we know we shouldn’t be conceited about these things, and so we try to look humble, we act as if we don’t really like all the attention, we play as if we wish people really weren’t talking about us so much.  But deep down we’re loving it.

    How good are you at keeping good secrets about yourself?  That question can help us to examine the nature of our hearts on this Ash Wednesday.  For Jesus here speaks a word of judgment against those who love the praise of people.  He says they already have their reward, an earthly reward that will pass away.

    Jesus says rather, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.”  “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.”  So to keep your good deeds secret is to keep them with the Father.  And isn’t that enough?

    You should do charity and pray and fast without seeking notice because, Jesus says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  To act in this way is to walk by faith and not by sight, to trust that God sees the good things you’ve done and will do with them as He sees fit.  It is to do them out of love for God and your neighbor and not for self-serving gain.  Do you believe that God sees you?  Do you believe that when Christ comes again He will reward you according to His grace?

    Hearts that struggle to believe that are constantly tempted to let their strong points show through to others and to make sure their care and commitment get noticed.  Just consider how much easier it is to do that than it is confess your sins before others and openly admit your faults–although even that can be turned into an attention-getting device.  But would we really want the God who sees in secret to reveal not only our good points but also the things of which we are ashamed?  Do we really want all our unknown deeds exposed?

    On a larger scale, churches can be tempted in the exact same way to get into the business of self-promotion.  In our publicity-conscious, social media age, a church’s visible deeds and programs are often trumpeted as that which matters above all else.  Can’t you see what we’re doing?  Can’t you tell how active the Holy Spirit is here?  Look at the charity!  Look at the sacrifice!  Look at the praying!  Now it is true that Jesus does say in Matthew 5, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  But that’s the key thing isn’t it?  Who is going to be glorified, you or God?  

    On Ash Wednesday God calls us to repent of using religion and spirituality for self-glorification.  We are to do acts of mercy; but we are not to parade them around or even notice them ourselves.  We are to pray personally and daily to God; but we are not to trumpet the fact that we are saying our prayers.  Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed fine outward training, as we say in the catechism; but we aren’t to call attention to our fasting or self-sacrificing.  While the self-discipline may do us good, blabbering on and on about the food or the drink or the screen time we’re giving up for Lent will do us bad.  To put it simply, God wants us to be good at keeping good secrets about ourselves.  For to keep it in secret is to keep it with the Father who is in secret.  And if it’s with the Father, then it can’t be destroyed or stolen away; it endures.  This is one element of what it means to lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.

    Another way of looking at it is to ask yourself who you’re trying to please.  Do you live to please people or to please God?  Living to please people flows from pride, the desire to be exalted in the eyes of others who will return to the dust.  Living to please God, though, flows from humble submission to Him who is eternal, the Most High.  It is to desire to have fellowship with Him more than anything else.

    And so the Lord says to us in Joel 2, “Repent.  Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning.  Rend your heart and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  And in Isaiah 55 it is written: “Seek the Lord, while He may be found.  Call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.”  Take refuge in God’s abounding grace and mercy and love.  For as we prayed earlier in the Psalm, the true sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.  A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.  Blessed are the poor in spirit, our Lord said, those who have no spiritual merits to trust in, who cling to Him alone to save them, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

    It is written in 2 Corinthians, “Now is the day of salvation.”  For now the secret things of Christ our Redeemer are being openly proclaimed.  God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.  Jesus was counted as our substitute.  He exchanged placed with us, so that His perfect fasting and praying and deeds of love would be counted as our own.  On the cross He was treated as if He were the unholy one, the one full of sinful self-awareness and pride, so that we would be treated as ones who are righteous and holy.  Jesus takes our place so that we get to take Jesus’ place.

    This fact is so real and true that Jesus refers to God the Father as “your Father.”  Think about that!  The only One who can truly call God Father is Jesus, His eternal and only Son.  But Jesus here invites you to take His place and to come before the Father as if you were Jesus Himself.  For you have been baptized into Christ, who took all your sins away through the shedding of His blood.  Therefore all that belongs to Christ belongs to you.  You have full access to the Father through Jesus, and all the treasures of heaven are yours in Him.  Clinging to Jesus by faith, you are saved from the fatal love of worldly praise and worldly treasures which will pass away, and you are reconciled to God again.

    “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Jesus said.  That is not only true for you, it is also true for Him.  You are God’s treasure.  His heart is with you.  You are the focus of His love, love which sacrificed all to win you back through the hidden means of the cross.  God also did His good work in secret.  Hidden in secret beneath the goriness of the crucifixion is the glory of God and the love of God for you.  The Father sees in secret and honors His Son’s work, and He now reveals openly the mystery of the cross through His Word.  Through the foolishness of the preaching of Christ crucified, He saves you who believe.

    In a moment Jesus will again come to you in the hidden and secret means of the Sacrament.  Hidden in, with, and under the bread and wine, He will give to you His own body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  The Father sees in secret and blesses you here at the altar.  Believe in that truth.  Believe that the Father sees you and knows you and that He will give you the reward of Christ on the Last Day.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠ 

(With thanks to the Rev. Kenneth Wieting for some of the above)

1 Corinthians 13
Quinquagesima

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

    Once again the church’s calendar and the world’s calendar have intersected a bit this weekend.  And while we don’t let the world determine what goes on in our preaching here, it would probably seem strange if I didn’t meditate a bit this Valentine’s Day weekend on today’s Epistle reading, where St. Paul speaks of the divine character of love.  This may be especially necessary since, ironically enough, a lot of people hate Valentine’s Day–too many stresses and expectations, not only for couples, but also for the single and divorced.  So while the world tries to push conformity to it’s view of love and romance, it’s helpful for us to remember that this day actually has some Christian roots having to do with a real historical man named Valentine.  

    From what we can gather (and the details are a bit sketchy), in about 270 A.D. the Roman emperor Claudius issued an edict forbidding marriage to young men.  It was a time of war, and he believed that single men made better soldiers than married men.  And so he canceled all engagements and weddings in Rome.  During this time a Christian bishop named Valentine is said to have invited young couples to come to him in secret to be joined in matrimony and not be denied God’s good gift of marriage.  When Claudius learned of this, Valentine was sentenced to death.  Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine.”  A short time later on February 14th of 270, because of his stubborn faith in the God who is love, he was executed by beheading.

    St. Paul begins the Epistle reading by reminding us of the importance of love–that if we don’t have love, even our greatest works will amount to nothing.  Do I speak in the tongues of men and of angels?  If I have not love, all those words amount to nothing more than clanging and clattering.

    Do I have deep insight, prophetic powers, the ability to penetrate the deepest mysteries of God?  Can I express Scriptural doctrine with precision and clarity?  Do I possess great knowledge and learning?  If I have not love, even with all of that, I am nothing.  Do I have faith that can move mountains?  Without love, even faith comes under judgment.  It is empty.  Faith without love is faith without God, for “God is love.”  We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone.  It lives and breathes the loving God it clings to.

    Do I have impressive works, generous deeds of charity?  Have I given richly of my time, my talents, my treasures for the church of Christ? Without love and a holy and right attitude in my heart, I gain nothing.  Even if I offer my body for burning–and what greater act of devotion could there be than to die as a martyr like Valentine did?–and yet have loved only myself and my martyr’s death, then the Law would condemn even my martyrdom as nothing.

    God wants more from us than good works.  He wants our love.  In fact that’s really all He wants from us–to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.  But we fall short of that.  For we are born in love with ourselves.  True love is always and entirely directed outward, toward God and our neighbor.  But our fallen hearts are turned inward, toward our own needs and priorities and ideas.  The Scriptural Law of love judges not only the works of our hands, but also the orientation of our hearts; not only our actions but also our motives.  It reveals where love is absent in us, or where we use our good deeds for self-serving purposes.  

    Real love, Paul says, is “patient and kind.”  Love is willing to wait a long time, faithfully, right up to the very end.  Love that cannot wait isn’t true love but self-love.  Love never forces its own way, never hurries things along, never manipulates things to get its way.  Love has nothing to lose because its goal is precisely to give itself away.  That’s how love can wait patiently.

    True love always returns kindness, even when it is met with hatred and hostility.  It turns the other cheek to those who strike it.  It offers the shirt off its back as well its coat.  It goes the extra mile for the other.  It blesses those who curse.  It returns good for evil.  It prays for the enemy.  It speaks well of those who speak ill of it.  

    True love never looks at itself; therefore, it has no basis for comparison with others.  “It does not envy, does not boast, is not proud or rude.”  Love rejoices in the prosperity and success of others. “Love isn’t self-seeking,” therefore it can seek the good of others.

    True love “isn’t easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”  Love doesn’t keep bringing up the past mistakes and failings of a spouse or friend or relative as ammunition or leverage.  Instead, love forgives.  Therefore, love is not easily provoked to anger.  Little things don’t bring up the past memory of big things.  Love is merciful and compassionate.

    Now that doesn’t mean love is indifferent to right and wrong. “Love does not delight in iniquity but rejoices in the truth.”  This is very important to note in our current context: The love that Paul is talking about is not the feel-good, sin-condoning love of our culture.  True love is sometimes tough love.  You’re not showing love to someone by letting them indulge in sin and not speaking up.  True love grieves over the sin of others.  And love even risks losing a relationship in order to rescue others from their sin.

    Real love rejoices in the truth, even when the truth is hard.  Love and truth run together in the same channel.  “Speak the truth in love,” St. Paul says in Ephesians.  Love would just as soon deal with a sinner as a sinner, as our Lord Jesus did, than deal with a phony face, a pious facade that hides the truth.  Love wants to get the truth out in the open, where it can be seen as it is, so that it can be shown mercy and loved without limits or conditions.

    True love “bears all things.”  It puts up with everything.  Only love can bear with things as they actually are.  It doesn’t whine about wanting to go back to the good old days, but deals with the present for what it is.  There is no sin, no crime, no disaster so great that love cannot face it, because love is greater than the greatest sin.  As it is written, “Love covers a multitude of sins.”  This is how love can reach out even to the unlovable and repulsive.  Love bears all things.

    True love “believes all things and hopes all things.”  It refuses to yield to suspicions of doubt about another but always seeks to put the best construction on everything.  It hopes for the best and doesn’t look for the worst.  Love “endures all things.”  It lasts through thick and thin and keeps it’s commitments.  When all else fails, love doesn’t.

    Now, who loves in this way?  Not me, or you.  Only God does.  Our love fails, but His love endures forever.  In fact, God’s love is so perfect that it creates the loveliness in the one He loves.  Romans 5 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  God doesn’t love us because He found something attractive in us.  God didn’t see us across the room and say, “Wow, I want that beautiful creature to be with Me forever.”  No, “while we were yet sinners...”  While we were yet in the muck and the ugliness of our fall into rebellion against God, that’s precisely when He came to rescue us.  His love is what makes us lovable and lovely again.  He loves us simply because He Himself is love.  St. John writes, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  Jesus is God’s love reaching down to us, God’s love in the flesh.

    Romans 13 says, “Love is the fulfillment of the Law.” And Jesus is that Love who has fulfilled the Law for us, to rescue us from our lovelessness and restore us to the Father by His mercy.  Today’s epistle can only be understood fully and properly when we recognize that Jesus is the Love being lauded and praised; He is real, palpable love for you.  

    Jesus has been patient and kind toward you.  He’s stuck with you.  He’s sometimes had to wait for a long time, hasn’t He?  In your baptism He committed Himself to you for the long haul.  He’s brought you to where you are today, here in His house, where He is present in love for you.  It is written, “The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish.”  

    Jesus is not self-seeking.  Rather He seeks your salvation.  He lives for you.  He turned the other cheek when He was mocked and beaten, to save you from judgment.  He went the extra mile for you, walking the way of the cross, where He offered up His own body to the judgment of hell,  stretching out His arms to embrace you forever.  Truly, Jesus bears all things, even your sin.  He endured suffering and persecution, all for the your sake, His beloved people.

    Jesus wasn’t envious, boastful, or proud.  He does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth; for He is the Truth.  Our Lord is slow to anger.  He keeps no record of wrongs.  Psalm 130 prays, “If you Lord kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand.  But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be revered.”  His precious blood has fully paid the price for all wrongs to set you free.   You are completely and entirely forgiven.  By faith in His redeeming work, you stand before your heavenly Father holy and righteous.  For through Christ, God remembers your sins no more.  The only record He now keeps is your name written in His Book of Life.

    How true it is, then, that Love never fails you.  For Hebrews 13 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  He is the embodiment of love that never changes.  That’s why Paul ranks love greater than faith and hope.  Jesus is love incarnate.  Our faith will one day turn to sight.  Our hope in the promises of God will be fulfilled on the Last Day.  But love, and He who is love, will continue forever in the new creation as the very essence of our lives as God’s people.

    That love of Jesus is here for you today, spoken gently to you in His Gospel, given to you tangibly in the Sacrament of His true body and blood.  And Romans 5 calls to mind our baptism when it says, “The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”  In this way you have been made to be instruments of His love to a truth-starved and hurting world.  Let us love one another, for love is of God; love is Christ.  “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

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

Luke 8:4-15
Sexagesima

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

    We have long ago stopped being an agrarian society, where most people have directly experienced the realities of farm life.  Add to that an education system which is sometimes focused on social engineering over knowledge about God’s ordered creation, and today’s Gospel about sowing seed may seem a bit foreign.  That’s why it’s a good idea even for city and suburban folks to plant and keep a garden, if for no other reason than to keep in dirt-level contact with the created world, and in particular here, to understand the workings of a seed.

    Then again, if you have never seen a seed germinate and sprout, it may actually add to the wonder of our Lord’s story.  For what if you knew nothing about seeds, and I handed one to you, say, a kernel of wheat, and told you that if you put it in the dirt and put water on it, in a few decades it could possibly provide bread for an entire city?  You might think that sounds like superstition, or some kind of Jack-and-the-Beanstalk story.  For how does a little seed know what to do?  Where do the stem, the roots, and the leaves come from?  And what about the fruit?  And how does it seem to work perfectly all the time if it has the right conditions to grow?

    The original listeners of our Lord’s story saw where their food came from, and that it didn’t just appear on the shelves at the grocery store.  But what a wondrous thing to learn about if you haven’t seen it before, to behold the workings of a seed.  Many of us planted seeds in a paper cup indoors when we were schoolchildren, perhaps sunflower seeds.  We watched as the little stem burst forth out of the dirt and started to grow leaves.  And if we stuck with it long enough, the sunflower might have grown to be taller than our parents, with a flower bigger than a grown-up’s face.  And in time, it would have a bunch of new seeds in the middle, which we could plant and start the process again, with no real limit to the number of plants that could come from that original seed.

    That sense of wonder should equally apply to the Word of God and how we think of it.  For the seed in our Lord’s story is the Word of God.  Just as a little seed contains microscopic DNA instructions embedded in the cells, which start working like a computer program when water signals the seed to do its thing, so too does the Word of God contain power–true power to produce everlasting life by germinating faith in Christ.  The DNA of salvation is carried upon the preached Word of God.  How it works exactly, we don’t know any more than the original hearers of Jesus knew precisely how seeds germinate and mature.  But they knew that the seed had a hidden power: power to feed many–so long as it had water and good soil.

    The Kingdom of God also begins with water: baptismal water that sets in motion the activation of the Word of God into faith.  It starts out small; but it grows.  And with the right soil conditions for us human beings who are created from the dirt, that small seed will transform into flourishing faith, bearing fruit that abides and endures, multiplying itself a hundredfold.

    In our Lord’s story, the sower of the seed tosses it everywhere.  He doesn’t discriminate.  He doesn’t try to predict what soil will ultimately be good soil.  Likewise, preachers do not discriminate.  We cannot predict who will come to faith when they hear the Word.  We cannot see into hearts.  We cannot point to any group or category of person and project who will be good soil and believe, and who will ultimately prove to be bad soil, and the Word of God will die in their hearts.  There have been times when I’ve been happily surprised at someone who receives the Word so favorably and faithfully without a great deal of special attention on my part; and there have been times when I’ve been sadly disappointed when a great deal of time and effort result in rejection and unbelief.  The Word alone does the work.  So we just sow the Seed everywhere.  Sometimes we preach convinced that nobody cares, that our words are being wasted.  But the Word is never wasted.  It carries out the purposes of God regardless of appearances, even if that purpose is to bring judgment on the unrepentant hearer.  And sometimes in unexpected and surprising ways, the Word takes root and grows in the hearts of those who hear it.

    First, Jesus speaks of the seed sown along the path.  It was stepped on and carried away by birds.  This is a description of those whose hearts are hardened to the Word of God, like a foot-worn path.  Perhaps they’ve been stepped on and misused in their life, and they blame God or the church.  Perhaps they’ve been deceived by YouTube preachers that the Bible isn’t trustworthy and by the world that mocks Christian teaching.  The devil makes the soil of the heart unreceptive; he snatches away the Word of God so that it doesn’t have the chance to take root.

    Jesus then speaks of the seed that falls on rocky soil; it doesn’t get enough moisture, and it dies.  This is like those who initially hear the Word with joy; they’re passionate about the faith.  But it turns out that their faith is shallow, not deeply rooted in the Word and the foundational watering of baptism into Christ.  And so as soon as the heat of difficult times comes, when they realize that being Christian means daily repentance and bearing a cross, when Christianity no longer gives them the life they want in this world, they lose their faith.  Rather than being drawn to Jesus in their time of need, they turn away from Him to something else they think is better and more practical.

    Jesus also speaks of the seed that does take root and sprouts and grows, but it gets choked out by thorns, and it is unfruitful.  This is like the people who hear and believe God’s Word, but they get distracted by the “cares and riches and pleasures of life,” and their faith dies before it can bear fruit. Our culture is filled with these distractions–diversions that waste your time or that get you to focus on things which don’t really relate in any direct way to your particular vocations and callings in life.  Time that could be spent meditating on God’s Word or fulfilling the duties He has given you is instead spent getting angry about some political cause or scrolling endlessly through videos on social media.  This is why I’ll be proposing that we all engage in some screen fasting this coming Lenten tide–more details on that later.  Beware of that which chokes out your faith, either by displacing it and sucking up all your time, or by diverting you from the one thing needful, the Word of Jesus.

    But then finally, note the miracle that happens in the good soil.  The seed falls into the dirt, and it germinates and grows.  Eventually it bears fruit, and in the fruit are more seeds, so that its descendants will bear fruit exponentially.  And this is what happens in the Kingdom of God when the Word is preached and received in the good soil of the believer who hears, listens, and takes it to heart.  The Word of the Lord grows to be a blessing to others, from generation to generation.

    Now you may feel a bit uneasy at this point.  Because you know that the first three soils describe you to some extent.  The hardening of the path by the devil, the thorns we are exposed to in this fallen world, the shallowness of our own sinful nature are all factors in our life. So how do we become the good fourth soil?  How do we hear the Word so that we hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience?

    First, we do this by recognizing that the power is not in us but in the Seed.  And so we prayerfully make it our purpose to get rid of any impediments to that Seed–to reject the temptations of the devil, the world, and our flesh that would snatch the Word from our hearts, choke us with distractions, and lure us with shallow spirituality.  Put simply, our primary task as Christians is to repent and remove whatever is in the way and simply be receivers of the implanted Word.  God’s design imbedded in the Seed will do the real work of giving us life and making us fruitful.

    And then above all, we must remember that if the Seed is the Word, Jesus is the Seed, the promised Seed of Abraham and David.  And He is also the perfect fourth soil.  He is the eternal Word of God having taken root in the earth of our humanity–fully human, but entirely without the rocks and thorns and hardness of sin.

    This Word became flesh and bore all that has infested your soil.  Jesus was planted in this world by His heavenly Father to redeem your humanity.  Behold how this Seed is cast to the earth, how Jesus the Word is thrown onto the wayside, the way of sorrows, where he is dragged to His cross, mocked in His suffering like the caws of scavenging ravens.  But notice that the birds of the air do not devour Jesus’ body; He was reverently buried.  This Seed is hurled upon the rocky ground of Golgotha, where He lacked moisture and cried out, “I thirst!”  But in spite of his suffering and thirst, this Seed would not wither away permanently.  And Jesus was even crowned with thorns, the very symbol of Adam’s curse; yet this Seed would not be choked out of existence, but would rise again.  A Seed has to die, if it is to rise out of the earth and bear much fruit.  The fruit of Jesus’ suffering is your salvation.

    In this way our Lord has overcome all that stands against you, all that keeps you from having life, all that keeps you from growing to maturity.  In Christ you are set free from hard-heartedness and the rocks of shallow faith and the thorns of this world.  In Christ alone you are the holy fourth soil, pure and righteous and fruitful and forgiven.  In you the Word of God is implanted through preaching and teaching.  And the Word is sown in the soil of your body, placed on your very tongues, in the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood.  The power of God to give life is in the Seed.  And the Seed of the Word is in you and with you and for you, the Word of the Father who wants with all His heart for you to share forever in His life.

    Let us, then, be eager to confess this Word with our mouths before the world.  Let the scattering of the holy Seed continue outside of these walls, out in the daily callings that God has placed you in.  Let the Word accomplish its purpose with your unchurched or de-churched friends and family.  Invite them in to divine service, to adult instruction classes.  Together with them, let us all seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him, for He is near; His Word is here.  Return to the Lord, for He will have mercy on you, and He will abundantly pardon.  His grace in Christ is more than sufficient for you, even in the midst of your weakness.  For His strength is made perfect in the weakness of the cross.  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane for some of the above)

Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima

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

    One way of understanding today’s Gospel is that it’s a debate about equality, and whether or not equality is a good thing.  The laborers who had worked all day in the vineyard did not favor equality.  For when those who worked fewer hours were paid a full day’s wage by the landowner, their complaint was  “You made them equal to us!”  They didn’t like that.  

    And to some extent we can understand their complaint.  It doesn’t seem particularly fair to reward everyone equally for unequal work–sort of like a group project in school where one or two people do all the heavy lifting, but the slacker in the group still gets an “A” grade.  The Olympics are starting next weekend.  Imagine if everyone in the Olympics was rewarded equally after the competitions, and the person who fell three times in a skating event received the same medal as the one who performed all the jumps flawlessly.

    In this sense we can rightly say that sometimes equality is not good.  Coercing and forcing equal outcomes and rewards is fundamentally unjust, no matter how the socialists and Marxists want to spin it.  It is good and just that the one who works harder, takes more risk, has more responsibility is given a higher wage.

    But then what’s going on in today’s Gospel parable?  Well to begin with, Jesus is not speaking about politics or economics here.  Nothing that He says here has to do with being a republican or a democrat, a social justice warrior or a free-market capitalist.  This is not about the kingdoms and power structures of this world.  For what does Jesus say?  “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”  So let us zero in today on what Jesus is teaching us about the way things work in God’s kingdom, how He desires to treat us, and what that means for us who have been called to work in the vineyard of His church.

    “You made them equal to us!”  The complaint was accurate; that’s what the landowner did.  So in what ways are we all equal in God’s sight?  Firstly, we are all equally created by God, knit together by Him in our mother’s womb, and therefore equal in dignity and worth as human beings, made in the image of God–whoever we are, wherever we come from.  But as Scripture makes clear, that image has been broken in each one of us.  We are also equal before the Lord in this respect, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Not a single one of us can lay claim to some sort of heavenly reward or say that God owes us anything.  In fact, quite the contrary.  The wages we have earned by our work, the equal wages of sin is death.  If God were to be just and fair with us and give us what we deserve, eternal death is what we’d all receive.

    This is where we begin to see the difference between the first laborers in the vineyard and the later laborers.  For the first, they thought that anything good they received was based on their work, what they did.  They were operating under the principles of a contract; a day’s wage for a day’s work–that’s what a denarius is.  But notice how it was for the later workers.  The landowner said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.”  Now if that was you, would you go and work for this man, without any idea of what you’d be paid?  Well it depends, doesn’t it.  It depends on what kind of person you think him to be–is he more like the cheap next door neighbor or the grandparent who’s looking for an excuse to be generous?  Is he a man of good character or bad?  It depends on whether or not you trust him–do you know him, do you have a good relationship with him?  If you don’t trust the landowner, you probably won’t go into his vineyard.  If you do, you will.

    That ultimately is the real difference between the first and the last in this parable.  The first were dealing with the landowner on the basis of the Law, a legal agreement; the last were dealing with him on the basis of the Gospel, faith in his goodness.  The first wanted to deal with him on what they deemed to be fair.  The last dealt with him on the basis of what he deemed to be good and right.  That’s a huge difference.

    Remember, the Lord is not unfair with the first men.  He is just very generous to the others.  The Law was not broken.  The first received a proper and fair wage.  He tells them, “Go your way.”  “You want it to be all your way, based on your work, fine.  Take it and go.  But I wish to be gracious to these others and bring them joy.  If that makes you grumpy, too bad.”  Hell is filled with grumbling and complaining against God.  The damned in their pride actually believe that God is wrong, that His grace is unfair.  This worsening bitterness and teeth-gritting frustration is part of their unending torment.

    Do you find yourself considering God to be unfair because of your situation in life or something that’s happened to you?  Are you one whose religion is like a contract with God, a system of rewards for your good deeds?  Do you negotiate with God in your prayers (I’ll do this for you if you do this for me)?  If so, then you are behaving like the first laborers in this parable, and you must repent.  Turn away from ranking yourself above others, turn away from trusting in your own works, and turn to the works of Christ.  Believe that it is only and entirely through Him that you receive any blessing at all from the Father.  Trust in Christ alone to save you from death and hell.  

    Unbelievers seek a God who is fair, and then when they find Him, they don’t like Him.  Believers seek a God who is merciful and gracious, and when He finds them, they love Him.  (Notice how in the parable, it’s the owner who finds the workers; He initiates the “hiring.”)  Believers know that it is only by grace that they are even in the vineyard, no matter how long they’ve been there.  They consider it a privilege to be able to work in the vineyard and contribute to its health and growth.  They are not jealous of the newcomer or the repentant restored sinner or the one converted in his dying days, but they rejoice that the same mercy that saved them has also saved another.  They’re glad to say to the Lord, “You have made them equal to us!”  Even a faithful lifelong Christian recognizes that of himself he deserves nothing and that it is only because of Jesus that he has forgiveness and life.  As it is written, “The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).”  And again, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8-9).”

    In the same way that the landowner dealt with those hired at the 11th hour, so the Lord treats you as if you did all the required work, from the beginning to the ending of the day.  For what you failed to do, the Lord Jesus has accomplished completely on your behalf in His perfect life and death and resurrection.  He Himself is the real Laborer in the vineyard who brings you the generous reward at the end of the day.  Let’s run through the times again: Jesus began His work before dawn on Good Friday, being condemned by the Jewish authorities.  He was questioned by Pontius Pilate, flogged, and crucified at the third hour of the day.  Darkness covered the land from the sixth hour, noon, until the ninth hour, as a sign of the judgment He bore in your place.  At the 11th hour our Lord the cried out “It is finished!” and died as the perfect and complete sacrifice for your sin.  Behold how He did all the work for you!  He who is the Rock was struck, and water and blood flowed forth from His side for your cleansing and your forgiveness.  He was buried just before sundown to sanctify your grave and make it a place of rest from which you will awaken and rise in glory on the Last Day.

    So to bring this full circle, Jesus is like that classmate who is the only one in your group who understands the material and who gives you to share in His perfect score on the project.  He is like the gold medal winner who invites you up onto the podium to share in His glory.  He is the one who gives you “whatever is right,” that is, His own righteousness and undeserved love as a gift.

    And now, living in that confidence, we are freed to do truly good works, without calculating what’s in it for us or what reward we’re going to get out of it.  Instead of ranking ourselves above others and sneering at equality with them, we give attention to the words of St. Paul when he says, “Count others more significant than yourselves.”  1 Corinthians 12 speaks about how it is in the body of Christ, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor. . . God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”  We are all one body in Christ, we have all equally received the denarius of grace.

    Let us then attend to the work of the vineyard of the Church and be full of good works by trusting in the grace of Christ alone to save us.  Let us run in such a way as to obtain the prize of life with Christ.  Let us fight the good fight of faith, setting our hearts on Him, disciplining our bodies and minds, filling ourselves with His words and His life-giving body and blood.  Come and lay hold of the denarius Christ earned for you–not because it’s owed; but simply because it is His good pleasure to be generous and loving toward you.

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

Acts 9:1-22

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

    Saul was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.  He wanted to lock up and even exterminate believers in Christ.  It was only a short time earlier that Saul had been involved in the stoning death of a Christian deacon named Stephen.  Following that, Saul was inspired to go from house to house and drag off to prison those who were followers of Jesus.  He was so zealous to protect his false religion and so eager to persecute Christians that he even got letters giving him authority to go to far away cities and arrest believers.  His attempts to destroy the church caused the faithful to flee for safety throughout the region.

    In our text Saul was traveling all the way to Damascus in Syria to further his campaign against the Christians.  As he got close to the city, a light from heaven flashed around him.  Falling to the ground, he heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?”  “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”  Saul thought he was on God’s side; but he wasn’t.  He thought his was the true religion; but it wasn’t.  He thought he was diligently carrying out God’s work; but in fact he was fighting against God.

    Are we ever at all like Saul?  We need to remember that we can even use religion and spirituality to fight against God.  Saul was a very religious person.  He had great zeal in seeking to live a righteous life.  But the problem was, he was using religion to justify himself and advance himself.  He thought he could make himself acceptable and pleasing to God by his own loyalty and goodness.  

    Do you ever use religion as a way of advancing your own cause, as a means to achieve some self-serving end, showing yourself to be a good person?  In other words, is your spirituality about gaining some benefit for yourself or is it about desiring fellowship with God?  Do you ever find yourself despising people who aren’t living up to your standards?  Do you sometimes get upset because you feel like you deserve a better life from God?  Do you think that the main purpose of religion is to get people to behave properly?  If so, then you’re being like Saul, fighting against God, following a religion of the Law, trying to establish your own goodness.

    The truth is, we could get everyone to take a stand for God and country and pass all sorts of worthwhile laws–and some good might indeed come from that–but we still won’t have addressed the main issue.  There’s only one righteousness that counts before God, and that’s the righteousness of Christ.  Only Jesus’ death and resurrection redeems us.  It’s not our good works but His good works on our behalf that do the job.  After his conversion Saul, whom we now know as Paul, said that he considered all the religious merits of his former way of life that he could brag about as garbage, sewage (skubalon), that he may be found in Christ, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”  Only in Jesus are we put right with God and granted eternal life.

    That’s a dangerous and scandalous message.  People are offended when their spirituality of self-fulfillment is declared worthless.  Such a Gospel of pure grace alone is seen as a message which needs to be suppressed and done away with–whether it’s “righteous” Muslims persecuting and killing Christians in Sudan and Nigeria and elsewhere, or “righteous” progressives in this country mocking Christian teaching and ignoring the cross and storming into churches, or for that matter “righteous” libertarians who insist on the superiority of everyone being free to live the way they want and who hate the church’s call to repentance.  False religion will always turn the focus from Jesus and put it on human wisdom and  qualifications.  Fallen human nature has to lash out at others like St. Paul did in order to justify itself as being right or worthy of God’s favor.  And so the Gospel of Christ will always be a target in this world.

    “Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.”  Saul had to be knocked to the ground before he could comprehend his lowliness before the Lord.  He had to be blinded before he could perceive that he had no spiritual vision.  So it is with us.  God has to knock us on our butt with His Law to make us see that we are by nature spiritually blind and in darkness.  Saul could not see for three days, even as the Lord was in the grave three days.  Saul needed to die through repentance before he would be reborn in the Lord.  Likewise, we also must repent, dying to ourselves so that the real life of Christ may be ours.

    Now, as of yet, Saul was not converted.  Many think that his conversion took place on the road to Damascus; but it didn’t, at least not entirely.  That was the Lord getting his attention.  The conversion was yet to be completed.  The Lord called a man named Ananias to go to the house in which Saul was staying on Straight Street.  Ananias was understandably hesitant.  After all, only days earlier, any Christian would have been in grave danger in Saul’s presence.  But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go!  This man (Saul) is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.”  God had special plans for Saul, and so Ananias went.

    Ananias came to Saul, placed his hands on him, and said, “Brother Saul . . .”  That was no insignificant title.  For a “brother” among Christians was someone who was to be considered a fellow inheritor of eternal life; a “brother” was someone who belonged to the community of those saved by Christ.  And so by referring to Saul as a “brother,” Ananias was declaring to him that from this point forward, his sins were forgiven, that he was now reconciled to the Lord.  “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again.  He got up and was baptized.  Now that Saul had been given the eyes of faith, his physical vision was restored.  He was baptized into Christ.  Here on Straight Street, the crooked way was made straight.  By water and the Spirit, he had become a Christian.  Solely by the mercy of God, he had been converted.

    This story of Saul should be of great comfort to you.  For it shows that even someone like him, who became the great Apostle Paul, was converted the same way you were.  Most of you probably had no miraculous Damascus road experience; but just like Saul you were enlightened by the same gifts of the Spirit.  It was holy absolution and holy baptism that converted Saul and made him a Christian.  So also with you, an ordinary pastor just like Ananias applied the name of God to you with the water.  Your sins, too, are absolved.  You are a child of God, a brother or sister in the faith who possesses eternal life in Christ.  You are no less of a Christian than St. Paul.  For you were made one the same way he was.

    This story also teaches very clearly that it is purely by God’s grace and not any merit or decision of your own that you are saved.  For clearly, Saul didn’t choose to be a Christian; Christ chose him.  He didn’t find the Lord, it was the other way around.  He didn’t give His heart to Jesus.  Jesus created a new heart and a right spirit within him.  It was God’s doing.  Jesus said to His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”  If that is true for the great St. Paul, then that is certainly true of you.  You are Christians by God’s doing, not your own.  You didn’t find Him; you didn’t even choose to believe in Him.  Rather the Holy Spirit worked in you by the Gospel to bring you to faith in Jesus your Savior.

    St. Paul later wrote: “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God, I am what I am.”  And again he wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.” St. Paul, Saul, is an example for you, to assure you of God’s mercy towards you.  If God forgave him who sinned so grievously by harming the very church of God, then certainly He forgives you.  The cross of Christ is bigger than your grievous sins.  Repent and trust in Him; He is merciful towards all who take refuge in Him.

    You’ll recall that when Saul was on the road, Jesus said to him, “Why are you persecuting Me?”  By persecuting Christians, you see, Saul was persecuting Christ Himself; for they are members of His body.  Christ is in heaven; but His body, the church, is still on earth.  So then, if you are in Christ by baptism and faith, you are protected in His body; your eternal salvation is secure.  For the Scriptures reveal that Jesus cannot die again; death has no mastery over Him.  Therefore, the world and the grave have no power over you.  For when they attack you, they’re attacking Christ Himself.  And He cannot be overcome.  He will surely bring you, the members of His body, safely through this troubled world and the jaws of the grave.  Just as He rose again and ascended to heaven, so you will follow where He has gone.  For the body always follows the head.  St. Paul had to go through many sufferings in His life, as must many Christians.  But he reminds us, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us,” the glory that shines from Him who is the light from heaven, Jesus Christ.

    Brothers and sisters of Christ, St. Paul experienced a radical, 180-degree conversion, from persecuting Christ to preaching Christ.  You also have experienced a radical conversion; for you have been changed from the enemies of God to the family of God, from those who are blind and dead to those who are alive and seeing and who confess His saving name.  You are followers of the Way, Jesus Christ, who is the only path to the Father.  God grant, then, that you daily walk the narrow Way of the cross, the way of repentance and faith.  For the end of the journey in Jesus is the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.

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

John 2:1-11; Ephesians 5:22-32
Epiphany 2

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

    God’s good gift of marriage has always been under assault.  Right from the beginning Satan subverted the marital order of husband and wife by luring Eve to turn away from the Word of God which Adam had preached to her.  Division and self-orientation have tainted marital unions ever since.  The assault on marriage can even happen under the guise of religion.  In medieval times those who rejected married life and the one flesh sexual union were honored–monks and priests and nuns were held up as leading a higher and holier life than those who embraced ordinary, earthy things like marriage.  Today, our problem tends to be falling into the ditch on the other side of the road, where people take pride in their supposed freedom of sexual expression and doing what they want with their bodies.  But it’s still the same root issue: marriage is thought of as non-essential.  Maybe it’s a nice cultural practice if you want to, celebrate the couple and have a big reception, but in the end just a piece of paper for legal purposes.  (And of course, if getting married means legally losing financial benefits, well then, skip the wedding.  Money trumps matrimony.)

    Whether you’re on the prudish side of things where you think celibacy gives you some supposedly higher state of holiness before God, or whether you’re on the libertine side of things where you just follow your heart and sleep with someone you’re not married to, in the end it’s two sides of the same coin.  In both cases, it’s the same sin: degrading and casting aside God’s gift of marriage.  “No thanks, God, I’ve got a better way.”  

    However, in today’s Gospel we see that Jesus approves of marriage and blesses it and the sexual relationship within it as good.  Marriage is not just a human arrangement.  It’s a divine joining together of a man and a woman, an act of God making two people one flesh.  That’s why it’s called holy matrimony.  Don’t ever forget that God created marriage and joined Adam and Eve together before the fall into sin.  He’s the One who created us male and female.  God instituted this for the mutual delight and companionship of husbands and wives, and for the creation of new human life when He grants it.  So whether you’re married or single, God teaches you in His Word to honor marriage highly, especially in how you talk about it with friends and family and co-workers.  Raunchy joking about sex does not honor marriage.  Belittling your spouse does not honor marriage.  Talking about marriage as if it’s this burdensome prison that limits your freedom doesn’t honor marriage.  Rather, we should remember and emphasize the great good that God works through this holy estate.

    First of all, in marriage (as in all our vocations) God works to protect us from selfishness.  He places a flesh and blood spouse directly before our eyes, with specific and real needs.  God calls us out of a self-absorbed life that invents its own good works into a devoted life that takes care of the spouse He has given.  A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her.  That’s why if a husband is complaining that his wife is hard to deal with or that she’s not “meeting his needs,” he needs to quit whining and man up.  Your job is not primarily to be a receiver but a giver, sacrificing yourself for her.  It’s time to focus on how to draw her to yourself again.  And likewise, if a wife is lamenting that her husband is not turning out to be the man she hoped he would be, she should remember that God’s call to respect her husband is not dependent on how romantic or patient or communicative he’s been lately.  Honor him as your head as the church honors Christ.  With a gentle spirit, don’t give up looking for him to be the man God has called him and declared him to be.  It is God’s intent that through this mutual self-giving, His people would be built up and that self-orientation would be put down.  

    Secondly, in marriage God works to protect us from lust.  The book of Proverbs consistently refers to sexual enticements, pornographic enticements, as one of the chief ways in which people are led into ruin.  In marriage God seeks to protect us from the destructiveness of lust.  St. Paul counsels all who suffer from lust to marry, for this is God’s good and gracious provision for rendering proper affection one to the other.  This is also one of the reasons why Paul counsels spouses not to withhold themselves from each other for lengthy periods of time.  One of God’s blessings in marriage is the dampening and controlling of lust.

    Thirdly, through marriage God works to rescue us from doubt.  How can we be certain that we have chosen the right partner?  Through marriage God guards against such doubt by giving you the certainty that He is the One who married you to your spouse; that person is the one the Lord Himself has given you to love and to be committed to, even if they’re less than perfect.  And what the Lord has done stands far above any feelings you may or may not have or any later wondering whether you should have chosen differently.  Reject the pagan notion of a soul mate!  A man and woman may in freedom choose to marry each other, but what really and finally counts is that it is the Lord who unites them, working through the authorities that He has established.  In this way God protects marriage from doubt with the certainty that He is the One who has made the union.

    Fourthly, in marriage God seeks to protect us from loneliness.  Through the working of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh, we can easily become isolated and cut off, waiting for that perfect person, living in a world of books and screens rather than flesh and blood.  In marriage God is at work to protect us from that.  When it is His will, He gives us a companion for comfort and camaraderie in life.  In the Garden of Eden, God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  Adam received Eve as the God-given companion that brought them both completeness.  Such is God’s intention for marriage also today.

    Fifthly, in marriage God seeks to protect us from the delusion of self-sufficiency.  We tend to think that we can do just fine on our own apart from God.  Without the calling of serving a spouse in marriage (or serving our neighbor in any of our vocations), sinners would perceive even less need for God.  When husband and wife fail each other, as is bound to happen, God puts His law to work.  He confronts their spiritual self-reliance; He afflicts their consciences.  In this way God drives them back to Himself, to find forgiveness, strength, and hope in Christ.  Confession and Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, and the Body and Blood of Christ become their lifeblood, making them right with God and able to serve each other again.

    Finally, through marriage God is at work to create and preserve families and good order in society.  When God established and blessed marriage He said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”  Through that creative word, God blesses the union of husband and wife so that children are conceived and born.  There is no such thing as a Christian marriage that is purposely childless.  This is also why same-sex marriage simply does not exist in God’s sight.  The complementarity of male and female is essential to what marriage is.  Every child has a father and a mother–and needs a father and a mother who are joined and committed to each other.  God’s purpose in marriage is for husband and wife to serve not only each other but also to have children whom they provide for and protect and nurture in the training and instruction of the Lord.  Founded upon God’s gift of the family, human society can be more peaceably ordered.  And this, in turn, gives a good setting for the saving Word of Christ to be proclaimed and taught both in the church and in the home.

    All of this is God’s good gift.  And all of this is meant to drive us to the greater reality that marriage points to.  The fact of the matter is, to one degree or another, all marriages are broken marriages; for it is two sinners who are united, whose only hope is in the forgiveness of sins that comes from Jesus.  And whether a Christian is single or married, divorced, widowed, young or old, as members of the Church we all are in a marital relationship that rescues and saves us.  For the Church has been united with her holy Groom, Jesus. She is the betrothed of Christ.  In the Epistle today Paul spent a lot of time talking about husbands and wives and marriage.  And then he concludes his comments by saying, “What I’m really talking about though is Christ and the Church.”  Earthly marriage is a sign of the greater perfect love that God has for His people and the heavenly union that exists between them.

    From all eternity, before marriage was instituted, it was planned that Christ would lay down His life for His woman, sacrifice Himself for the church, to give her life.  Adam was put into a deep sleep, and Eve was created from his side.  Jesus was put into the sleep of death on the cross, so that a new Eve might be created from the sacramental blood and water that flowed from His side.  St. John calls the church “the elect Lady,” chosen and redeemed by Christ.  For Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.  For all of you whom sin has contaminated, or whose marriages and families are broken, Jesus shed His blood to cleanse you of every sin; He sanctified you and made you holy for Himself by the water and the Word of Baptism.  You stand before God spotless and perfect in the family of His Church, His holy bride.

    Just as husband and wife are given in marriage to become one flesh, so you now you as the church are the body of Christ, one flesh with Him through baptism.  So if He is the Son of God, then you are called sons of God.  If He holds in His hand the riches and treasures of heaven, those treasures are also yours to hold and take to heart.  If He is the Righteous One, then you are declared righteous before God.  If the death He dies no longer holds Him in the grave, then neither can death hold you in the grave.  The Bride shares in everything that belongs to the Groom.  That’s how marriage works with Jesus.  What is His is now yours, too.

    This is the joy of the eternal wedding feast that we are given a glimpse of in the Gospel.  The ritual washing water of the Law is turned into the joyous wedding wine of the Gospel.  The best is saved for last, and that best is Jesus–His forgiveness and mercy and life–which are all for you, flowing like sweet wine from the mountains.  Even now in Divine Service the heavenly Groom, our Lord Christ, comes to His bride to comfort her.  He speaks to you His words of love.  He remembers the commitment He made to you at Baptism. He gives Himself to you in Holy Communion that you may share fully in His life.

    So set aside your doubts and fears and sorrows.  For it is written, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”  He has saved the best for you.  Come in faith to His table, that you may share in the joy of the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom that has no end.

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

Matthew 3:13-17
The Baptism of our Lord

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

    Jesus grew up like any other faithful Jewish boy, going to the synagogue weekly, and to the temple for the various feasts, as we heard last week.  And so praying and singing the psalms would have been a regular part of His life.  All the way to the end, He even prayed the Psalms on the cross.  “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” from Psalm 22.  “Into your hands I commit My Spirit” from Psalm 31.  But that raises an interesting question: Would Jesus also have also prayed the penitential psalms during His life, those Psalms that ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness?  Could the sinless Son of God pray Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out My transgressions”?  We can picture Jesus praying parts of Psalm 69 to His Father like this, “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. . . Because for Your sake I have borne reproach . . . Zeal for Your house has consumed me.”  The New Testament even says that those words apply to Jesus.  But what about verse five of that same Psalm, “O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You”?

    It would be easy to think that Jesus could not possibly have prayed those words.  But one of the things the baptism of our Lord teaches us is that Jesus must have prayed those psalms–not because He had any sins of His own to confess, but because He humbly bears our sins in His flesh and makes them His responsibility and confesses them as if He were guilty of every single one of them.

    It was a strange sight for John the Baptizer, to see the Messiah, the One he had been preparing the way for, stepping down into the water to be baptized.  The people were coming out to John in response to his preaching of repentance, confessing their sins.  John’s baptism was for the forgiveness of sins.  And yet here is Jesus with His feet in the murky Jordan waters asking John to baptize Him.  You can understand why at first John tried to prevent Him and didn’t want to do it.

    We probably would have done just as John did.  For the truth is, we don’t necessarily want Jesus getting down into the mess and the muck of our actual everyday life in this world.  Better to keep Him at a distance all shiny and clean; better to keep Him here at church unstained and separate from our lives out in the “real” world.  We, too, try to prevent Him, keep Him away from the coarseness of our workplace or the imperfections of our home life.  It bothers us and unsettles us a bit when Jesus gets down into the daily realities of our existence.  For then there’s no more hiding the way things are with us.  Jesus’ entry into the water means things are going to be stirred up and changed, everything out in the open.  And that means repentance for us, which is never easy.

    But it is good.  For Jesus enters the water to take our place.  Jesus said to John, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  In doing this Jesus was fulfilling the Father’s righteous plan to save sinners by trading places with us–the holy for the unholy.  Jesus receives this baptism for sinners in order that He might become the Sinner, the only sinner.  Like a great sponge He absorbs the whole’s world’s sin into Himself, and counts Himself guilty of it all, so that we would be counted righteous in God’s sight.  It is written in 2 Corinthians, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Jesus takes our curse of death so that through Him we might have the blessing of His divine life.  Here in the water is where it all starts.  Jesus begins His ministry here by accepting and taking this burden on Himself, as John would later say, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away, who carries away the sin of the world.”

    You might say that Jesus stole your sins from you in the water; He took them away.  The only way they can damn you now is if you steal them back and insist on continuing in them and keeping them away from Jesus.  Either your sins are on Him or they’re on you.  And Jesus says today, “They’re all on me.  I took them.  Believe that; deal with it. You don’t get to hold on to them any more; you don’t get to keep beating yourself up over them.  I became your pride, your greed, your lust, your immorality, your jealousy, your impatience, your laziness and weakness.  And in turn you have become My righteousness, My holiness, My glory.  Today I begin My sacred journey toward Calvary, bearing and carrying the sin of the world, so that I may destroy it there by My death and the shedding of My blood.”  

    It’s interesting to note that after Jesus persuaded John to baptize Him, it says that John “consented” or permitted Him.  It’s the same word that Jesus Himself later uses when He says, “Let the little children, permit, allow the little children to come to Me.”  That word in Greek is closely related to the word meaning to be forgiven, released, let go of our sins.  The point for us is this: Because Jesus was permitted to be baptized, there is now forgiveness and release for us in the water of baptism.  By the power of His Word and Spirit, all our sins washed away.  They have been taken up by Christ and carried to the cross where they were paid for and destroyed forever.  You are forgiven, pure and holy in Jesus’ name.

    Proof of what Jesus’ began to accomplish in His baptism is shown by the signs that appeared that day.  As soon as Jesus was baptized, the Gospel says “behold”–pay attention to this–the heavens were opened to Him.  That’s what Jesus accomplishes: He opens the heavens by His taking on and taking away the sin of the world.  Heaven was closed to us fallen creatures.  There was no entrance permitted for us by our own efforts or striving.  But now the heavens are opened to Him, the righteous One, and to all who are baptized into Him and who share in His righteousness by faith.

    Then it is written that “the Spirit of God descended like a dove and alighted upon Him.”  That imagery of the dove is important, particularly as it connects this event to Old Testament events involving water and new life.  In the very beginning we hear that the Holy Spirit was hovering, like a bird gliding over the face of the waters.  The Holy Spirit was there with His creative power to bring life to the world that was being made.  And then we hear of Noah sending out a dove from the ark, hovering over the waters, and then bringing back a freshly plucked olive branch, as a sign of the new creation that Noah and his family would enter after the flood.  The Holy Spirit coming in the form of a dove points to Christ as the bringer of the new creation.  It’s all there in Him.  Through our baptism into Christ we receive the same Holy Spirit which He was anointed with.  The Holy Spirit alights upon us to bring us new life, to make us new creatures, and to give us entrance into the new creation.

    Finally, it is written that a voice came from heaven, the Father’s voice declaring, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  God the Father was greatly pleased to see His Son obediently humbling Himself in love like this to save us, beginning His journey to the cross.  Because of what Jesus has done, all the baptized now hear this very same voice of our heavenly Father saying, “You are My beloved Child; in you I am well pleased.  I see no fault, no blemish in you–only my perfect and holy son or daughter.  I am with you in the messiness of your day to day to life to sanctify you and sustain you.  You may feel worn down, but I will never cast you aside or forsake you; find your rest in My Son.  I have called you by name; you are Mine.  Nothing in all creation can separate you from My love.”  

    All three persons of the Trinity are present here at Jesus’ baptism, the very ones whose name you are baptized into–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And so you have been drawn into that divine fellowship.  Since Jesus has put Himself in the water for you, your baptism gives you His life.  All your sins are washed away.  You have a place in the Father’s house forever.

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