Luke 1:39-56
Advent 4

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

    Some of the most important women in the Old Testament are ones who were barren or infertile or beyond the age of childbearing–and yet beyond all expectation, God granted them to be mothers.  This is what we’ve been focusing on in our midweek Advent services–people like Sarah, the mother of Samson, and Hannah.  They are pictures of how our God is One who creates out of nothing.  The closed, infertile womb is the most fertile ground for God’s saving work.  For it shows how God brings His deliverance without our contribution or efforts or attributes.  The same God who created the universe out of nothing, also brings salvation out of nothing for us.  These births emphasize that it’s all God’s grace simply to be received in trusting faith.

    And so appropriately on this final Sunday in Advent, on the threshold of the celebration of the gracious birth of Christ, our Gospel tells of the meeting of two women who are remarkably, miraculously pregnant.  One woman is well past the age of bearing children, probably in her sixties; the other is a young virgin, probably no older than sixteen or so.  Elizabeth is six months along with John the Baptizer, the prophet and forerunner of Christ.  Mary has conceived a child in her virginity by the Holy Spirit.  Both of them are pregnant by the power of God’s Word. They are living testimony that “with God nothing will be impossible.”

    The angel Gabriel had told Mary the news concerning Elizabeth, and so Mary hurried off to the hill country of Judea to visit her cousin and share in her happiness.  And as soon as Mary’s greeting reached Elizabeth’s ears, the baby jumped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb.  What an amazing thing!  The sound of Mary’s voice caused the unborn baby John to leap with happiness.  Already as a six-month-old fetus in his mother’s womb he is bearing witness to Christ!  Mary gives voice to the Messiah within her, and the sound of that voice causes John to rejoice.

    Who says that babies can’t believe? And who would dare argue that even unborn children can’t benefit from being in church and hearing the Word? If the sound of Mary’s greeting filled the baby Baptizer with joy, how much more will the sound of the living voice of Christ’s Word bring life and joy to the unborn!  Being in the Liturgy, hearing the Word, eating and drinking the Sacrament is a vital part of every Christian woman’s prenatal care.

    The same holds true for our infants and toddlers and little ones. They need to hear God’s Word even before they know what all the words mean. They need to grow into the vocabulary of forgiveness and eternal life in the divine service. They will have all eternity to master it, but the earlier they start, the better.  Instead of merely soaking in the screen-driven philosophies of the world, they need rather to be filled with the sound of God’s Word at home and in church, to know the historic hymns of the faith and the ancient creeds that have been handed down to us.  A child can believe without fully understanding, just like adults do.  A child can respond to God’s Word without having a huge vocabulary.  If you doubt that, just remember John’s leap for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice.

    The Gospel also records that upon hearing Mary’s greeting, John’s mother Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And by the Holy Spirit, she says of Mary and her holy Child. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”  You may recognize those words.  Together with Gabriel’s earlier greeting, they are the first part of the Ave Maria . “Hail, Mary, full of grace. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”  We Lutherans, who hold to the sacred Scriptures, certainly can agree with those words without falling into the Roman Catholic error of actually praying to Mary or looking to her for help like a goddess.

    Elizabeth considers it an honor and a gift of God that Mary should come and visit her. She calls her younger relative “the mother of my Lord.”  That’s why the church rightly calls Mary the Theotokos, “the mother of God.”  She is the bearer of the eternal Word, the Son of God.  She is the door through whom God entered our world, the temple in which our Savior chose to dwell as a tiny unborn child.  She is the chosen and honored instrument of the Incarnation of God.  Through her the Son of God received His humanity, so that He might offer it for the life of the world.  Mary is truly blessed among women, and every generation of the faithful rightly recognizes this.

    All women, especially younger women, have a great role model in Mary.  She teaches us that the highest honor of women is motherhood.  For every pregnancy and birth is connected to and is an image of the birth of our Savior, who shared in the humanity of every child, born and unborn.  And in our culture that glorifies promiscuous celebrities and makes fun of chastity and virginity, in an age when pre-marital sex is pretty much considered the standard, even among people professing to be Christian, Mary stands out as a picture of what happens when God’s Word holds sway with someone. She is filled with the Spirit and the Scriptures.  Her psalm of praise, the Magnificat, shows us that this young woman knew the psalms well.  She believed the Word of God that was preached to her by the angel. In that faith she said “yes” to God’s plan that she would be the virgin mother of the world’s Savior.

    We do indeed bless and honor Mary–not because she has some special higher holiness of her own, but because of the Lord’s grace in choosing her.  Who else but Mary is the source of our Lord’s human nature?  Whose womb but hers was His throne room for nine months?  Who else but Mary was He dependent on for nourishment as an infant?  Jesus alone is sinless, but His mother is blessed because the Mighty One has done great things for her by His Word.  To honor her is to honor the incarnation of God, to praise God for taking on human flesh to save us.

    We sometimes have difficulty in blessing and honoring Mary. Perhaps it’s because we have difficulty with anything special and different that God sets apart for His holy purposes.  Our culture has lost the idea of the sacred–sacred time, sacred space, sacred people, sacred things.  Everything tends to be ordinary for our culture, the same, generic, interchangeable.  Our age wants churches to be “comfortable,” the pastor to be “just a regular guy,” worship to be indistinguishable from the surrounding world, Mary to be just another pregnant teenager.

    But that’s not how it is with the Lord.  And so we treat the church building as a holy space.  We don’t just tramp in here as though we were entering a stadium or an auditorium or a store.  This place is set apart.  It isn’t because the wood or the concrete is holy of itself.  It’s because of the Word of God that is preached and heard here. The Word makes this space holy and blessed.

    Or consider the bread in the Lord’s Supper.  We don’t throw it away after communion or even put it back with ordinary bread, because it is holy; the Word of God has been added to it which declares it to be and makes it to be body of Christ in the Sacrament.  Likewise the chalice–we treat it as a holy thing; something sacred.  I hope you would be offended if I took it home and used it at my dinner table, not because the chalice is made of silver and gold, but because it is used for something sacred: to distribute the blood of Christ.  The blood of Christ that it holds is what makes it holy.

    And so it is with Mary. She is blessed and holy not of herself but on account of what she holds, on account of the holy Child that was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. She is the instrument of our Lord’s incarnation, and for that reason she is to be blessed by all who believe in her Son for their salvation.

    Mary is certainly not to be worshiped. That would irritate her. No, her soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior.  She directs our attention to the same place–to her Child.  Mary teaches us not to take our place with the proud and the powerful, the ruling and the rich of this world.  For the Lord is a toppler of thrones.  He puts the powerful in their place.  He scatters and puts down the self-sufficient and the self-righteous.  There is nothing and no one that can withstand the strength of God’s arm.  He destroys everything that competes for our trust.

    Rather, Mary teaches us to worship God with humility and awe, for “His mercy is on those who fear Him” in reverent faith.  He lifts up those who are humbled and bowed down.  God helps those who cannot help themselves.  “He has shown strength with His arm” especially by extending His arms on the cross for us to crush the power of death and Satan.  His arm reaches out to fill the hungry with good things, even and especially here in the holy Supper.

    Mary teaches us that our God is One who keeps His Word.  He helps His people “in remembrance of His mercy.”  He is faithful to His promises.  Galatians 4 says that in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of Mary, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons.  Just think about what that means for you:  Mary gave birth to Jesus.  And you are members of Jesus’ body.  That means that Mary is your mother in Christ and the mother of all Christians.  

    In this way Mary is a picture of the church and of all believers.  You, too, are virgin pure and holy; for you are washed by the blood of Jesus that has cleansed you from every spot of sin.  The Lord has been conceived and born in your hearts by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word.  He dwells in you through faith.  

    And so you also magnify the Lord with Mary.  For the Mighty One has done great things for you.  He has scattered the pride of your sin, and toppled the old Adam from the throne of your heart so that Christ reigns there as your Savior-King.  God is faithful to you; He will complete what He began in your baptism and bring His promises to their culmination on the day of His return.  Just like Mary, blessed also are you who believe that what the Lord has said to you will be accomplished.

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

(With thanks to William Cwirla)

I Samuel 1:1 - 2:11
Midweek Advent 3

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Christmas is not always a happy season, but for some, a down time of year.  Not only is it darker and overcast more often it seems.  But as I mentioned this past weekend, feelings of loss or discontentment or inadequacy can get amplified when expectations for the holiday aren’t met or when everyone else seems more cheery.  All the music and the gifts and the get-togethers leave many feeling left out or just tired.

    That may have been something like how Hannah felt in today’s reading.  Every year Elkanah went up with his two wives to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.  But this annual event only seemed to remind Hannah that she was childless, that the Lord had closed her womb.  Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah, had several children.  When Elkanah made the sacrifice, he would give portions of the food to Peninnah and her children.  But because he loved Hannah he would give her a double portion, as if she also had a child to feed.  But Hannah wept and would not eat.  For it was bad enough that she had no children–to her it felt like she was cursed and not blessed by God; furthermore, as the Israelites waited for the coming of the Messiah from among their offspring, the fact that she had no offspring made her feel as if she was outside of that divine promise.  But on top of all of that, Peninnah would provoke her and mock her and make her life miserable because of her barrenness.

    We can also be tempted to feel like Hannah when our earthly circumstances aren’t so good, when our marriage or family life isn’t so great, when all the things we hoped for and expected don’t come to pass.  We can fall into the trap of thinking that we are cursed and not blessed by God, that His promises only apply to somebody else and not to ourselves.  The devil then becomes our Penninah, trying to provoke us to unbelief and despair.
    
    Elkanah tried to comfort Hannah by saying, “Am I not better to you than ten sons?”  The question also rings in our ears in the midst of our disappointments, “Is not the love and the providing of your heavenly Father sufficient?”  But in the end it is only the birth of a son that truly comforts Hannah, and it is only the birth of the Son of God that brings real comfort to us.

    Even in the bitterness of her soul, Hannah still looked to the Lord in faith and called upon His name.  Hannah prayed and made a vow to the Lord at the tabernacle, that if He would grant her a son, she would dedicate that son to the Lord and give him over for the Lord’s service all the days of his life.  This wasn’t mere bargaining with God.  Hannah was entrusting the entirety of her situation into the Lord’s hands.  By making this particular vow, she was acknowledging that if she received a son it would be solely by the grace and giving of the Lord.  So also we come before the Lord in prayer, not so that we might manipulate Him by what we say, but so that we might commit ourselves and our needs into His gracious hands, the hands of Him who alone can help and save us.  Though our faith be weak, yet we still believe and confess, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  

    Hannah prays without making any sound, only moving her lips.  When the priest sees this, he thinks that she is drunk and scolds her.  But Hannah explains that she is simply pouring out her soul to the Lord in grief.  And then, from the servant of the Lord, Hannah finally hears a blessing.  “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”  And with that blessing from God’s priest, she went in peace.  She ate, and her face was no longer sad.  In the course of time, God remembered Hannah, and she conceived and bore a son by Elkanah.  She called him Samuel, which means literally “Heard by God.”  For God had heard and answered her prayers for a son.

    Even as the birth of Samuel brought peace and joy to Hannah, so the birth of Jesus brings peace and joy to us.  For in Jesus God has answered your prayers in a most profound way.  In Christ all of your needs are supplied; every petition finds its “yes” in Him.  Christmas is living proof that you are blessed and not cursed by God, that God does indeed love and forgive you and care about you.  For the Son of God took on your very nature, your own flesh and blood, in order to redeem you from all that brings you bitterness and sorrow and weariness in this life.  He became like you in order to rescue you from your isolation and bring you into everlasting fellowship with Him.  

    The birth of Christ is an unmistakable sign that God is with you, that God is for you, that God is on your side.  And it is written in Romans 8, “If God is for us, who can be against us? . . .  Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”  And then St. Paul concludes, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Having that unconquerable certainty of God’s love for us in Christ His Son, receiving God’s blessing in the benediction, we are made to be like Hannah, with a face that is no longer sad, able to eat and drink in peace at His table.

    Jesus truly is your Samuel, the sure evidence that you have been “Heard by God,” even before your prayers were offered.  As it is written in Isaiah, “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer.”  Just as Samuel entered into the tabernacle to appear before the Lord and remain there all his days, so also the Son of God entered into the tabernacle of our human body and soul to remain there forever as both true God and true man and to intercede for us before the Father.  So fully did Christ assume our humanity that He who created the Blessed Virgin Mary now was dependent upon her for nourishment, so that we may learn to long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word and grow up into our salvation.  When Samuel was weaned He ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest in the place of sacrifice.  In the same way Jesus served His Father by becoming both priest and sacrifice, offering up His own body to atone for the sins of the world.  

    Through the humility of the cross Jesus has brought low and defeated all the Peninnahs of this world–even the devil himself.  And through His resurrection He has lifted up and exalted all those who trust in Him.  This is what Hannah proclaims in her prayer after Samuel’s birth, that canticle that we just sang, which is a precursor of Mary’s Magnificat, which we will sing in a moment.  Notice how in Hannah’s prayer the exalted are humbled and the humble are exalted.  “The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength. . .  Even the barren (woman) has borne seven (children), and she who has many children has become feeble.  The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up.  The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up.  He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.”

    This is the way of the Lord, to turn the thinking of the world upside down, to take down the strong and self-sufficient who trust in themselves, and to raise up the weak and the needy who trust in Him.  Peninnah is put to shame in the end; Hannah rejoices.  The Lord opens her womb to have five more children after Samuel, even as He opens the womb of the church to bring new life to all who believe and are baptized into Christ.  God wins his victories through humility, the humility of the manger and the cross, the humility of the font and the altar.  As this Advent season draws to its close, let us therefore humble ourselves before the Lord in faithful trust, that He may exalt us in due time.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7
Midweek Advent 1

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Both Abraham and Sarah at first had laughed at God’s Word.  In the chapter before today’s first reading, Genesis 17, when God told Abraham that Sarah would bear a child for him, it is written that he fell on his face laughing.  Then in Genesis 18, Sarah does much the same thing, even though she foolishly tries to deny to God that she had laughed.  The idea of Sarah having a child seemed preposterous both to her and her husband.  For “the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.”  She was past the time when she could conceive and bear a child.  How could a worn-out wife and a husband who was as good as dead, as St. Paul puts it in Romans 4–how could they be the ones to bring the promised offspring into the world?

    Abraham and Sarah had grown old and weary waiting for God to fulfill His promise–the promise that God would make of Abraham a great nation, that all families of the earth would be blessed through him, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  We know they had grown impatient because they tried to come up with their own way of fulfilling the promise, when Abraham went in to Hagar the maidservant and conceived a child by her.  Abraham was convinced that this Ishmael was the promised son.  However, God’s promise would not be fulfilled by human wisdom and manipulation.  

    Let us all learn from this, especially when we begin to grow weary and impatient waiting for the Lord to fulfill His Word.  For we, too, can be tempted to think that there are ways around God’s Word that get us to the desired goal, trusting in our own ideas and our own forms of spirituality.  We can even begin to doubt if the promise is actually real.  Our fallen nature laughs at the idea of simply trusting in God to fulfill His Word and waiting on Him; our old Adam scoffs at the notion of living by faith in the Lord, especially when what He says and promises seems literally inconceivable.  Let us repent of this unbelief.  All things are possible with the God who made the heavens and the earth.

    The Lord first made His promises to Abraham when he was 75.  Now he’s 99 and Sarah is 90.  They had waited a long time without a lot to show for it.  The Lord also makes you wait, too.  Prayers sometimes seem to go unanswered.  The Lord delays in His return to bring your redemption to fulfillment.  The days can drag by slowly.  But this is not without purpose or reason.  The Lord is not apathetic; nor is He slow to fulfill His Word.  Rather, He is longsuffering and patient toward you, not wanting any to perish.  In order to save you, He allows you to be brought low, so that you may despair of yourself and your wisdom and your works, so that you have nothing left to hold onto but Him and His Word.

    It is precisely when we can contribute nothing, when the situation is humanly impossible, that the power of God’s Word and the glory of His work are shown most clearly.  When we are brought to nothing, God and His gracious giving are everything.  For the true God, the Holy Trinity, is the one who creates out of nothing.  He brings light out of darkness, life out of death, faith out of unbelief.  He chooses that which is weak and foolish, even things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no one may boast in His presence (1 Cor. 1:27-28).  God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).  The fact that it was humanly impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child actually made this the perfect divinely prepared moment, the appointed time for them to be given a son.  

    As it was with the birth of Isaac, so it is with the birth of Jesus.  “When the fullness of time had come, [after centuries of waiting], God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).  God had said to Sarah, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”  And the angel would say to Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).  With God all things are indeed possible (Mt. 19:26)—even the Virgin birth of the Savior without any contribution from a man, even the salvation of us sinners without any contribution of our own works (Rom. 3:28).  The Lord did not pass by His servant Abraham (18:3), and neither does He pass by His people today.  He shows us favor and comes to us in the fellowship of His holy meal.  As Abraham offered water to the Lord for the washing of feet and invited him to rest under the tree, so Jesus washed the disciples’ feet before going to the tree of the cross and resting in the tomb.  By dying and rising, Jesus does what is too hard for man.  The Incarnate One alone defeats death and the devil.  In the shadow of the cross, under that tree we find rest and peace and hope.
    
    The name Isaac means “he laughs.”  What a fitting name that is!  For laughter surrounds the life of this child, both for good and ill.  Although Abraham and Sarah had laughed disbelievingly when the Lord had first spoken of Isaac’s birth, their snickering was turned to joyous believing merriment when the Lord visited Sarah and did as He had promised and brought life to them even in the face of death.

    And that’s how it is for you, too.  Isaac, the son of the father, is a picture of Jesus.  Though the Lord was laughed at and mocked in His suffering, though you at times have had your doubts, His incarnation and death and resurrection now bring you joy and laughter in the knowledge that you are reconciled to God.  You are rescued from Satan’s captivity, and you are right with God and an heir of His kingdom.

    God’s Word is true, whether or not it is immediately believed.  The Lord is faithful and does what He says.  The Lord carries on to completion the good work He begins in us (Phil. 1:6).  Though we are filled with uncertainty, God’s Word is powerful to turn unbelief to confident faith and scoffing to joy.  He is at work constantly through His Word to strengthen our faith in Him.  

    And don’t ever forget that all of you who believe are also children of Abraham.  For Abraham was father to Isaac, Isaac was father to Jacob, Jacob’s 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel, out of Israel came the Messiah Jesus, and you have been baptized into Christ; you are one with Him by faith.  Therefore Abraham truly is your father as Christians.  It is written, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise.”  Just as Abraham was accounted righteous before God by faith, so are you who trust in God’s promises in Christ.

    So especially during this Advent tide, let us wait on the Lord in humble faith.  Let us hope in Him.  For the Son of the Father, Jesus, brings you laughter in the forgiveness of your sins. The long-awaited promise of the Savior has been fulfilled.  In Him you are set free from sin and fear and death.  In Him you have hope in the midst of this fallen world. With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption, and He will bring to fulfillment all the promises that He has made to you.  Take Mary as your example and say in simple and humble faith, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Matthew 21:1-9
Advent 1

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

    It is written in the Psalms, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”  “Evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.”  And it is written in Isaiah, “Those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

    Yet even with those great promises of God, we are still not a people who like to wait, on God or anything else.  Everything needs to be available within a couple of clicks or taps.  People better answer our calls or texts without delay.  Christmas is four weeks away, so we’d better start celebrating and playing all the music now.  What is it about the world–and even that bit of the world that resides in us–that can’t wait, that must do all the celebrating in advance so that by the time the actual holiday comes, you’re getting a bit weary of the songs and the artificial cheer and you’re ready to move on, especially if things don’t quite live up to expectations?

    I think the answer is to be found in the fact that for the world, there is no certainty about the future.  All they see looming in the distance is decay and death.  So what’s the point of waiting?  With the world it’s life, then death, so you’d better have your fun now before your time’s up and gone.  But that’s not the way of the church and the people of God.  For us, what we see in the distance is something far better than anything we will know in this world. Christians know that the pattern that Jesus has laid down for us is death, then life, first humility, then exaltation, first repentance, then forgiveness and reconciliation and joy.  That’s why we have Lent before Easter, and it is why we have Advent before Christmas.  We can delay our gratification; we can afford to wait.  For we wait on the Lord, who will in the end give us the greatest joy and happiness in the fulfillment of His promises.  

    It’s not the Christmas season just yet, it’s the Advent season.  The message of the church right now is, “Hold on.  Wait on the Lord.”  This is a time of penitent and hope-filled preparation.  This is a time not for mere sentimentality but to dwell more fervently on the Word of God to make ready the way of His coming to us–which is the reason of course for the additional midweek Advent services.  And even though we will follow the tradition of many churches of putting up the Christmas decorations for the third Sunday in Advent–which is called “Gaudete” or “Rejoice Ye” Sunday–we still won’t light all the candles until Christmas Eve.  We eagerly anticipate Christmas, but now’s not the time for the full celebration.  We don’t sing the “Glory Be to God on High” yet in the liturgy.  That’s the song of the angels at Jesus’ birth.  Now’s the time for waiting and discipline and preparing for the coming of our Lord in the flesh to save us.

    That’s why we have the somewhat unusual Gospel that we do today.  Advent means “coming” or “arrival.”  This Gospel teaches that our Lord comes to you humbly, whether on a beast of burden or in a lowly manger.  Jesus comes not simply to be born; He is born to humble Himself even to the point of death on a cross, to give His life as a ransom to rescue you from sin and death and the devil.  “Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

    Note that there are two donkeys there that Jesus rides, an older one, the mother, and a younger one, a colt, the mother’s foal.  These two donkeys represent God’s Old and New Testament people.  First, Jesus rides the old, to show that He is the fulfillment of all that Israel was about and all that its prophets foretold.  Then Jesus rides the new, which is born from the old, the new Israel, which is the church.  Our Lord comes to make all things new by dying and rising again.  Out of the old order of death comes a new order of invincible life for us in Jesus.  He unites all believers, from the Old Testament and the New, from every nation and race, together as His true and everlasting Israel.

    And let us not forget that we are the donkey, a very stubborn animal, hard-headed, set in our sinful ways, eager to go our own direction.  And so Christ must ride us and gently but firmly drive us toward the cross.  He drives us to die with Him, to die to ourselves, so that we may also rise with Him to new life, real life.  He drives us to repentance through the Law so that through the Gospel we may have His full and free forgiveness.

    The people spread their clothes on the road before Christ.  This is a fitting sign of their repentance and their faith in Him.  For we must all lay aside our clothing.  St. Paul exhorts us, “Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”  You too, then, must cast your clothes on the road before Christ, so to speak, laying aside the stubborn works of your sinful nature.  For that is how you repent and prepare the way of the Lord.  Do not engage in gluttony and drunkenness.  Do not indulge in immoral passions and lusts.  Do not give way to strife and division and envy and pride.  For these things choke you off from the life of God.  

    Instead receive by faith the clothing that only God can provide.  “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  For He is your righteousness, as Jeremiah says.  Jesus wore all of your dark, sin-stained clothing and made it His own so that you would be free from it.  Jesus Himself became the beast of burden, bearing and carrying the sin of the whole world to the cross.  He became Sin for you, so that you would become righteous before the Father by His holy sacrifice.  Jesus perished in the darkness so that you could wear His garments of light and live as children of the Day.  

    That’s the sort of king you have in Jesus, not one who coerces and forces His subjects to serve Him at the tip of a sword or with guns and bombs and drones, but one who lays down His life to serve His subjects, who draws you to Himself through His self-giving.  Every other king sends out soldiers into battle to fight on His behalf.  But this King goes into battle Himself to fight on your behalf.  He rides not on an armor-clad stallion, but an animal of peace–for He comes to bring you peace, as the Christmas hymn sings, “Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”  This King will ascend His throne by wearing not a crown of gold but of thorns, not by defending Himself but by becoming defenseless, dying so that you may live and escape from the enemy’s grasp.  This is the King who is coming to you.

    And notice also that He’s the One doing the traveling.  You don’t have to go out searching for Him.  Jesus searches you out and comes to you.  You can’t get to God through your own intelligence or works or emotions.  But God can and does come to you in His grace, 100% of the way.  Without our asking or help, He came down from heaven right to where we’re at, right into our very body and soul, taking up our human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.  He even went so far as to come into contact with the slime and the slop of our sin and death on the cross so that we would be cleansed and rescued from them by His precious blood.

    And our Lord still rides into this Jerusalem, this Mount Zion, meekly and humbly.  The gates of the city through which He enters among us are His words and sacraments.  There in simple water, in spoken and preached words, mounted upon bread and wine, the Lord Jesus comes to you to bring you His forgiveness and life, that He might live in you and you in Him forever–no Christmas-special glitter and fanfare, just beast-of-burden humility and love. So it is that before receiving the Sacrament, we sing the very same words that were shouted to Jesus in the Gospel, “Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

    Let us all, then, wait on the coming of our King Jesus with heartfelt Hosannas, casting our prayers and praises like palm branches on the path before Him.  Hosanna means “Save now.”  “Save us, Lord.”  It is a penitent cry of praise which is confident that the Lord will help those who wait on Him.  We know that Jesus comes to us here, to give us poor beggars His royal and divine treasure.  While the world is all about its Black Fridays and small business Saturdays and Cyber Mondays, as people anxiously spend their money on treasures that wear out, here we have divine service Saturday/Sunday, where that which does not wear out is freely obtained.  Here are gifts for you with an eternal guarantee, warrantied by Christ’s own blood.  Let us receive Him who alone gives real peace and lasting comfort and happiness, who comes to you humbly and lowly, right where you’re at.  “Daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming to you.  He is righteous and having salvation!”

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

4th Petition of Lord’s Prayer
Thanksgiving

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

    This holiday 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 something in that for us to learn today about giving thanks even in the midst of conflict and troubles.  And so as we think about all of our temporal blessings, it seems 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 you or 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–and then we become overwhelmed with anxiety and worry and finally depression.  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’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating, 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.  Thanksgiving, then, becomes 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 lucky.  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 and enjoy that food.  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 you 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--and don't despair if you don't have all these things.  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 your home or workplace.  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 your own, that your prayers and petitions may be filled with thanksgiving to God for all of His fatherly love toward you.  “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.”  Amen. 

Last Sunday in the Church Year
Matthew 25:1-13

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

    Most of us like a good comeback story–somebody made a terrible decision that messed up their life, or lost badly in sports, or failed at something.  But then instead of that being the end of the story, they change, they turn things around, they humbly learn from their faults, and things are made right and good in the end.  Deep down we believe everyone deserves a second chance–for we know how many times we ourselves have needed second chances.

    And in many ways, that’s very much a Scriptural notion.  We heard in last week’s epistle about how the Lord’s delay in His return is because of His longsuffering patience and His desire that all come to repentance.  He doesn’t want anyone to perish eternally, but for all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  We know that parable where even the workers hired at the 11th hour receive the denarius of salvation.  Our God is indeed the God of the second chance, and the third and the fourth and the 490th chance.  He is a God of patience and forgiveness and grace.

    However, there will come a time when 2nd chances will finally run out.  Jesus’ parable of the 10 virgins teaches that.  They only had one opportunity to get it right.  And when the bridegroom comes late, the oil of the foolish has run out, the storekeepers’ shops are closed, and the door to the marriage feast is shut–and there are no do-overs or turning back the clock.

    This, then, is one of the messages of today’s Gospel.  We dare never presume upon the grace of the Lord.  What a foolish thing it is to say, “I’ll take the things of God more seriously in a few years, later on.  Right now I’ve got to focus on other things.”  Tell me: how do you know you’ve got a few years to work with?  Do you know the day of the Lord’s return or the day of your death?  How can you give so much attention to your worldly loves and assume that the things of the Lord can be taken care of at some point in the future?  It is a foolish notion to think that you can schedule your repentance and put it off for later.  That is perhaps the most silly and dangerous thing of all.  If you are willfully clinging to your sin now, willfully putting off repentance until some nebulous future point, what makes you think your heart will suddenly be repentant later?  Resisting the work of the Holy Spirit is a dangerous game.  It numbs the conscience and deadens faith until finally you no longer feel your need for repentance or forgiveness or Jesus at all.

    Now is the time; now is the day of salvation.  Now is the moment for repentance and watching and receiving the Lord’s gifts.  Now is the time to be wise in this foolish age.  

    In the Scriptures, wisdom is not equated with a high IQ or great learning. One may be wise without being academically smart.  Many of you have seen this in folks from generations past, who may have only finished gradeschool, but who had a humble and insightful wisdom that some with doctorates don’t possess today.  In the Bible real wisdom is seeing things–seeing all of life–from God’s perspective, having the mind of Christ as St. Paul puts it.  Our Lord tells the story in Matthew 7 of the wise man who builds his house on the rock. Jesus says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”  In other words, the wise man knows that only a life built on the words of Jesus will endure, for even though the heavens and the earth pass away, His words will never pass away.  It is no wonder, then, that Moses prays in Psalm 90 saying, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Moses’ prayer is not simply that we might be smart, but that we might see our fleeting days from God’s perspective.

    Five of the virgins are wise.  They do not merely live for the moment; they live with their hearts set on this most important wedding event.  They do not know at what hour the bridegroom will come and lead them into the wedding hall.  They do not know when the party will begin.  But they know that the bridegroom is on His way and that they are his invited guests.  So their lives are lived toward that wedding.  Nothing else is as important as that event.  So they are prepared for the wait. They check their lamps. They buy extra oil. Their flasks are full.

    No doubt they seemed a bit foolish carrying around those extra jars of oil.  Perhaps they were told to stop burdening themselves, to loosen up and have a good time and not to be so extreme or obsessive.  Nevertheless, these wise women paid attention to the oil; they were prepared for the delay. And when the bridegroom finally arrived, they were ready to take part in the marriage feast.

    For the five foolish virgins it was too late. There was no more opportunity to purchase oil. They were unprepared for the feast and unable to enter into the joy of the celebration. The door was shut, and they were excluded.

    What does this mean for you? Jesus’ own explanation of the parable says it all, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”  Watching does not mean that you should be speculating about the day or the hour.  History is full of failed predictions about the end.  All you are given to know is that Jesus’ return will come suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, like the flood in Noah’s day, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  What you are given to do is to watch, to be ready, to devote yourselves to the worship of Christ and the receiving of His gifts.  

    To watch is to believe and to hope in His promises.  The Word of God is the lamp to our feet and the light to our path.  It is filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit, who makes us wise unto salvation and keeps the flame of faith in Christ burning brightly. To watch is to be vigilant about the things of Christ, the life-giving gifts which He purchased for us with His holy and precious blood.

    A church that ceases to watch will lose the Gospel. A church that becomes lazy or complacent regarding God’s doctrine is in danger of losing the teaching of Christ, falling from faith.  Therefore, the Apostle Paul writes to Pastor Timothy and all pastors: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (I Tim. 4:16). Our watching is not a gazing up into the heavens, but attentiveness to the voice of our Good Shepherd as He speaks to us in His Word.  We are now living in that evil age which Paul spoke about when he said, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from the truth to wander into myths” (II Tim. 4:3). We are to watch by holding fast to God’s Word, hearing it, learning it, and taking it to heart.

    Right now is the evening of the wedding feast, when second chances are still available.  Right now is the time when you still have access to the oil; it is available to you in overflowing abundance. For the forgiveness of sins purchased by our Savior through His atoning death on the cross is enough for the whole world, for all of you; it covers every single one of your sins–none left out. There is no shortage of supply in His grace and mercy. This oil of the Holy Spirit is distributed now in the preaching of the Gospel and the ministering of Jesus’ body and blood in the Holy Supper. The wise cannot get enough of these.  They never say, “Oh, I can skip that stuff for a few weeks.”  For they always desire more of Jesus.  And the more we get of Him, the more ready and eager we are to receive Him when He comes again in glory.  Remember that the One who is coming is your Redeemer.  He is the One who in His first coming willingly suffered for you in weakness to break the power of the curse over you. He is the One who loves you and forgives you.  He is the One who comes not in wrath and judgment for you who believe but to bring you the fullness of joy.  As the Epistle said, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

    When all is said and done, when we have properly been shaken with the urgency of the call to watch and the finality of what will happen on the Day of Christ’s return, we also then need to take a deep breath and let it out with a joyous laugh.  Because what we are watching for is a celebration.  The unknown day and hour is not a dreadful time for the faithful; it is the ultimate day of happiness that we eagerly seek and look forward to.  It is the ultimate holiday, the holy Day when the Lord, whom we love and trust in, is revealed, and when we get to be with Him and revel in His presence.  If being reunited with loved ones for the holidays and just spending time together can bring great happiness, how much more will that be true of our Savior’s return?  The Lord who is coming is not like that snooty relative who walks around finding all the flaws in your house and who is eager to give advice on how you should do things better.  Rather He is like the uncle who always brings the funniest gifts and tells the best stories and who you just like hanging around with.  Make no mistake, the One who is coming is your God and your Lord to whom you owe the greatest reverence.  But He has also made Himself to be your flesh and blood.  And so while we watch for His coming, we do so not as a burden but as a joyful thing.  For we eagerly are looking forward to the merriment of the wedding feast.

    Your Bridegroom says to you, “Assuredly, I do know you in your baptism.  More than you have watched for me, I have watched out for you.  My eyes are on you to save you.  I have redeemed you and claimed you as my own.  You are holy and righteous.  What awaits you is a new heaven and a new earth. No more tears. No more sorrow. No more crying. No more pain. All things made new.  Perfect delight.  The fulfillment of your salvation.”

    This divine service is the Last Day in miniature.  I cry out to you, we all cry out to each other, “Wake, awake!  The Bridegroom is here!  Jesus is coming to you in the Holy Sacrament.  Go out to meet Him at His holy altar.  He comes to you in mercy.  Enter into the joy of the wedding feast.”

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

Matthew 25:31-46
Trinity 26

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

    Why should you do good works?  There are two very simple reasons: God has commanded them, and your neighbor is served by them.  Sometimes we become complacent as Lutherans because we know that we’re saved by God’s grace alone, and so we draw the false conclusion that the 10 Commandments are now just the 10 Suggestions.  Remember the Sabbath Day–if you can fit it in and if you feel like it.  Don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony–unless you’ve got a really good reason.  No, God’s commands are still in full force.  The grace of Christ doesn’t do away with the Law, it fulfills the Law.  Believing in Christ, we learn to love His commands, and we are awakened to the need for works of faithfulness and love.

    What’s important is that you shouldn’t do good works to gain some sort of reward for yourself.  That turns a good work into selfishness.  And besides, any good that you have the ability to do came from God in the first place, right?  So why would He owe you if you do what He created you to do?  The Lord doesn’t owe anyone anything.  

    It’s worth repeating: God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.  All you have to do is look around for two seconds to see that this world is full of need that is to be met with works of love–and not only charity, but the ordinary, day to day fulfilling of your callings, at work and with your family and friends.  Today’s Gospel reading shows us where our good works are to be directed–not up to God as if to earn a merit badge, but down and out toward your neighbor, even toward “the least of these My brethren.”

    All that is needed for heaven is faith–the empty hands of faith that receive the works of Jesus for you and that cling to Him and His cross alone.  But then, with hands filled with the mercy and goodness of Christ, all that is needed for the neighbor is love which passes along Christ’s mercy and serves the neighbor in need.  And those two things are connected and go together.  Faith in Christ gives birth to deeds of love.

    Though faith is unseen, and love often goes unnoticed, all will be revealed for what it is on the Last Day.  When Jesus comes in glory with all His angels, He will judge both the living and the dead.  And His judgment will reveal who are the sheep and who are the goats, who are the believers and who are the unbelievers.  What is now hidden will be uncovered.  That’s actually what the word “apocalypse” means, the uncovering, the revelation.  The private will be made public.  Everyone will be revealed for who they are, and all our works will be revealed for what they are.

    In some ways that’s a scary thought, can’t it?  The Bible says very clearly, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. . . so each of us shall give an account of himself to God” (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:12).  Your works matter; your bodily deeds are important.  But, thanks be to God, there is something else that comes first, before your works.

    The first thing that will be revealed and uncovered on the Last Day is not what you’ve done or left undone, but who you are and what God has done for you.  The first thing that happens on the Last Day is that Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats.  Sheep on His right.  Goats on His left.  To the sheep:  “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”   To the goats:  “Depart from me, you who are cursed.”   To the sheep:  “Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”  To the goats:  “Depart … into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

    Right now your life as a baptized believer is hidden before the world.  Colossians 3 says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  And Romans 8 says that “the entire creation groans and eagerly waits for the sons of God to be revealed.”  So that’s a good way to think about what’s going to happen on the Last Day–it will be a revelation, the curtains pulled back.  Everyone will be seen for who they are in God’s sight, the faithful or the faithless, a sheep of Jesus’ flock or a goat.

    Notice, though, that the separation of the sheep from the goats comes before any talk of their works. The sheep are not at the Lord’s right hand because of the works they have done, but because of who and what they are in Christ by His grace.  All this had been prepared long before their works, from the very foundation of the world, it says.  So it can’t be based on works.  Salvation is by God’s election and doing, not ours, as Ephesians 1 says, “(The Father) chose us in (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.”

    On the Last Day, once the sheep and goats are divided up, then their works will be judged and evaluated by the Lord.  And the works of the sheep will give evidence of the fact that they are indeed the blessed children of God through faith in Jesus.  For works are good before the Lord when they flow from faith in Him.  No work is good in God’s sight without faith in Jesus, for it is written, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).  And it is also written, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).  See, not only does Jesus’ blood cleanse us and take away our sins, but His blood cleanses even our imperfect good works, too, and makes them holy.  In Jesus all that is bad and unclean is taken away, and only what is good remains.  Those good works provide evidence of our faith in Jesus, that we are among His baptized believers.  

    And yet even that will not be fully revealed until the Last Day. This is a very important point.  Even this evidence of our faith, the evidence of good works, is something that finally only Jesus the Judge can see right now as we live before Judgment Day.  So right now we should not look to ourselves and our good works as proof that we are sheep.  It is a dangerous thing to look to yourself for the assurance that you are saved.  After all, unbelievers do humanly good works and acts of charity, too.  It’s faith in Jesus that makes all the difference.  Always remember, the life of the believer is hidden until the judgment, and creation eagerly awaits the revelation of who God’s people are!

    So, in the meantime, Christians live in this world side by side with unbelievers.  And most of the time you can’t tell a huge difference, especially if you only look at what they do in the world.  There is no “Christian” way to deliver the mail, fix a flat tire, or plow a field.  You would hope Christians would be more ethical and hard-working and loving; but pagans can be ethical and hard-working and loving, too–though the ultimate motivation for that will be different.  The difference is internal, and it is the difference between faith in Jesus or unbelief in Jesus.  On the Last Day, Jesus, who judges the heart, will reveal the faith or the unbelief.   And the only works that will be judged good before Jesus are the ones that flow from faith in Him.

    Faith in Jesus is a divine work in you that transforms your hearts and minds.  Good works come so naturally to faith that the Christian most often does them without even recognizing them.  Notice that the sheep are surprised to find out that the food and drink they served to the hungry and thirsty was actually a meal served to the King of kings and Lord of lords,  or that the sick neighbor they helped was actually Jesus Himself hidden in that neighbor.  “Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”

    And remember this, too.  Even the good works you do were prepared for you by the Lord.  Ephesians 2 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  It’s all God’s grace; it’s all what He has done for you and given to you in His Son Jesus.

    Good works are done best when we become forgetful of having done them. Our works become a problem when we’re all self-aware about them, wanting to drag them with us into heaven as if they are a bargaining chip to use in a salvation negotiation.  No, the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all that is needed for heaven.  All our good works are to be left down here, for our neighbor in need.  In our neighbor who is sick or hungry or in prison, we learn to see Jesus, who fasted for us, who was arrested and afflicted and stripped of his clothing for us to fully redeem us.  The eyes of our faith are always and fully on Christ the crucified.  His works alone save us.  Living in that faith, we see Jesus also in our neighbor and show our love for Him by loving them.

    On the Last Day our faith will finally give way to sight.  We will see Jesus as He is, the crucified and risen Savior of the world.  To Him every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the everlasting joy of the sheep, to the everlasting shame of the goats.  On the Last Day, it will be revealed who you are.  But, of course, you don’t have to wait until the Last Day to know.  After all, the Judge comes here every Sunday in the divine service as His Word is proclaimed.  And He speaks His Word to you, saying, “All your sin is forgiven!  I put my Name on you in your Baptism!  You are my sheep.  Have no fear little flock.  I am your Good Shepherd.  I laid down my life for you.  I was raised from the dead for you.  And I live and reign to give you life and peace and joy forever.  I see you and know you and love you.  You are mine.”

    Jesus and His cross is always the dividing line between the sheep and the goats.  The same Jesus who was crucified between a believing sheep and an unbelieving goat on Good Friday feeds you with His own body and blood at the foot of the cross, setting you apart from the unbelieving world.  

    Every divine service is a little judgment day where Jesus judges you to be forgiven.  Every week He is here with all His holy angels as we gather around His altar to receive His gifts of grace.  On the Last Day you surely will hear Him declare:  “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

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

(With thanks to Brent Kuhlman)