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

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    This past weekend was the Academy Awards.  With much fanfare and a little virtue signaling, the movie industry congratulated itself and handed out Oscars to those they believe have excelled in the craft of acting (often in movies you’ve never heard of before).  And of course there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good movie and appreciating good visual storytelling.  But it’s worth remembering that actors are people who are really good at faking like they’re somebody they’re not.  We are watching accomplished pretenders, those who can give the illusion of reality, which then evaporates and is gone when the cameras are turned off.  

    I bring this up not to bash Hollywood–that would be lazy of me.  Rather, I mention this because in today’s Gospel Jesus warns us not to be like the hypocrites.  And the word for “hypocrite” literally means “actor” or “someone who impersonates another.” What Jesus is saying is, “Don’t be an actor or an impersonator when it comes to the faith.  You may be able to fool others with a show of piety, but God sees the way things truly are.  And He’s the One you should be trying to please.  You should be seeking the praise of God, not the praise of other people.

    In ancient theater, actors would sometimes wear masks over their faces. These masks would hide the actor’s true identity from the audience, and the attention would then be drawn to the character he was playing.  To this day many theaters will display two masks, one smiling, the other frowning as emblems of this past practice.  In our day to day life, we also sometimes put on a mask, a pretend face that conceals the truth of who we are or what we’re thinking and feeling.  Some are covering the pain of a failing relationship.  Others are masking some self-destructive addiction.  Still others hide the scars left by loved ones or by complete strangers.  All of us try to camouflage our sins and failings and imperfections.

     Jesus reminds us that in His church, there is no need for the masks.  There is to be no faking like things are better with you than they actually are, no pretending like you have no struggles with sin in your life.  Here, especially as Lent begins, the disguise can come off.  We can be honest in the presence of a merciful God, and before one another as His children.

    With our masks removed, then, let us consider Jesus’ words.  He says,  “When you do a charitable deed, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    Christians do not horde worldly wealth.  For we know that God is the Giver of all good and perfect gifts; and we trust that He will always provide for us, even as He does the birds of the air.  By such faith we are freed to use our monetary resources in love towards others, to take what we have freely received from God’s hand and freely give it for the good of the church and of our neighbor in need.

    But even such good deeds can be perverted and twisted back in on the self.  And so Jesus exhorts us to do our charitable giving secretly, to the point that our left hand doesn’t even know what our right hand is doing.  In this way the act can be entirely one of love, that is, one that receives no personal benefit such as worldly acclaim and glory, but one that is done solely for the sake of the neighbor and to please God alone.  To give in this way is to find your satisfaction in the eternal praise of God and not the temporary praise of men.  Jesus Himself is our reward, the One who is given to us from the Father’s right hand, who will indeed be shown openly to us on the Last Day.  He Himself is our wealth, as it is written, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

    Jesus also alerts us here to the wrong and the right way to pray.  “When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    We are taught here to guard against making a show of our prayers, virtue signaling to others how often we pray or whom we’re praying for to make ourselves look more spiritual in the eyes of others and to be honored by them.  Maybe you’ve been in group situations where it seemed as if the one praying was directing his words more toward the assembled people than to God.  True prayer doesn’t care what others think, be it good or bad.  It trusts in the Lord and seeks only Him and His help.  The “reward” given to such prayerful faith is precisely the One it trusts in, namely, God Himself–to receive His gifts, to live in His presence.  Jesus tells you to go into your room privately for prayer now because He at His return He will openly reveal the place He is preparing for you, as He said, “In My Father’s house are many rooms.”  You will dwell in the house of the Lord forever by His grace.

    Jesus finally speaks here of the wrong and the right way to fast.  “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But 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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

    Christians fast and engage in other forms of self-denial not in order to be noticed by others.  For such notice will pass and fade away.  We do so rather in order to be purged of our worldly loves and worldly desires and to direct our hearts to the eternal Creator who said, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”   Fasting and self denial is not done for any particular sort of personal gain, but to discipline our bodies as an integral part of our Christian faith and life, and to get rid of the impediments that keep us from hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of Christ.

    Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you . . .  I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. . .  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. . .  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  Fasting in regards to the temporal things of this world, Jesus invites us to feast on Him who died and rose for us, to believe in Him, to receive His true body and blood, so that we may be forgiven and share in His everlasting life, we in Him and He in us.

    That is what it means to lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.  For moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal this treasure which Christ has won for you.  Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  That is not only true of you, it is also true of 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 and secret means of the cross.  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.

    So real and true is this that Jesus refers to God the Father here as “your Father.”  Think about what an honor that is!  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.  This is no act; this is not a mask over your face but a divine robe that you wear.  This is your true identity now.  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 are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” St. Paul writes (Galatians 3:27), even partakers of the divine nature as St. Peter said in the Epistle (2 Peter 1:4).  You have full access to the Father through Jesus, and all the treasures of heaven are yours in Him.  Clinging to Jesus who took your place under judgment, you are saved from the fatal love of worldly praise and worldly treasures, and you are reconciled to God.

    Lay yourselves low, then, in the ashes of repentance this day.  Turn away from your sin.  Return to the Lord, your God.  For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and He exalts the lowly.  Believe in that truth.  And trust that the Father who sees in secret, where there are no masks, will Himself give you openly the reward of Christ on the Last Day.

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Quinquagesima

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

    The Lord had rejected Saul as being king over Israel.  For Saul had not followed the voice of the Lord but the voice of the people.  God had told Saul to utterly destroy all the Amalekites, both man and beast, as His judgment on them.  But Saul spared some of the animals and the spoils of war, justifying it by saying that it would be offered to the Lord.  Under a religious veneer he wanted to benefit from the Amalekites’ possessions and the food from the sacrificed animals rather than devote these things to destruction as God had said.  Because of this rebelliousness and presumption, Saul would be dethroned.

    The prophet Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”  Which is a good reminder and warning to us: Be on guard against thinking that you’ve got a better way of doing things than what God has said.  Sometimes God’s Word doesn’t make sense to us, and so we come up with what we think is more reasonable, all the while justifying it as being more fair or loving or more likely to draw people to God.  We try to forge compromises between the Scriptures and the world in hopes of not losing a treasured possession or a cherished relationship, when we should be treasuring God’s life-giving words above all.  We can be tempted to presumptuously put our own self-chosen wisdom above simply doing what the Lord has said.  

    In place of Saul a new king was to be chosen, a better king, one of the sons of Jesse in Bethlehem.  And the way this king was chosen went against everything that was expected, even what the prophet Samuel expected.  When Eliab the firstborn son was presented, Samuel thought for sure that he was the one, but the Lord said, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”  Eliab looked the part and had all the qualifications–strength and military experience and a commanding presence.  But that wasn’t how God would choose.  Something else was more important.

    “The Lord looks on the heart.”  So what does that mean exactly?  We’ve got sayings like “You can’t judge a book by its cover” and “Beauty is only skin deep.”  But that’s not really what this means.  After all when David is described, he’s depicted in terms of his outward appearance, handsome and having beautiful eyes.  But what is it that you do with the heart?  Why is that what the Lord especially pays attention to?  Well, with the heart you love, and with the heart you trust; and it matters what you love and trust in.  The Lord is looking for those who love and trust in Him.  Whatever else is true about you–your achievements, your looks, your job, your friends, your family, your finances–what really counts with God is the condition of your heart.  Even if you lack all of those things I just listed, what the Lord is looking for is a heart that looks to Him and seeks His help and trusts in His promises and loves Him and His words.  

    Listen to what David himself wrote in the psalms about the heart: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  The Lord looks on the heart that is penitent and humbled.  Take comfort in knowing that the Lord is looking on you with acceptance when you are laid low, when you confess your sins before Him.  Again David says,“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped.”  The Lord is looking on you when you seek refuge in Him; He receives you who believe in Him with your heart, especially in your time of need.  He helps you and saves you in Christ.  That is why David goes on to say, “My heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”

    David is described in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart.”  He loved what God loves and hated what God hates.  There is a place for hate in our hearts. As Scripture says, “Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9).  And David himself prayed in the psalms, “I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.”  “You, [O Lord], hate all evildoers.”  David is one who loved fellowship with the Lord and hated anything that stood in the way of that.  

    That is what it means that the Lord looks on the heart.  He’s not looking for some inner beauty or merit in you, but simply a heart that seeks Him, that loves and trusts in His words, a heart that has been moved to faith by the working of His Spirit.

    So when you call upon the Lord in prayer, know that He is looking on you and paying attention to you.  It’s just like the blind man on the side of the road.  What happened when he called out to the Lord for mercy?  The Lord stopped.  The Lord paid attention to him and looked on him.  It’s a beautiful thing.  And notice how the blind man addressed him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Jesus is not just a man after God’s own heart like David; He is the Father’s heart.  He is the enfleshment of God’s love and His desire to save you.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Messiah.  He is the promised Son who sits as King on the throne of David forever.

    What a strange thing it was for David to be made king, the youngest boy in the family.  The thought of him becoming king was so far-fetched that when it came time for this sacrificial meal, David wasn’t even there but was left to take care of tending the sheep.  But this shows the way of the Lord, doesn’t it, how he turns the world’s thinking upside down.  “The last shall be first, and the first last.”  The lowly and the outsider are exalted in the Lord’s presence.  

    In particular we should note that David was the 8th son of Jesse.  That number is particularly important in Scripture.  It is the number of the new creation.  It is one beyond the seven days of this creation.  There were eight people on the ark, in which God made a new beginning of the world.  It was on the eighth day that Hebrew boys were to be circumcised, a sign that they were being separated out from this fallen world as God’s own people.  And if you start counting at the beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, our Lord Jesus was raised on the 8th day, making all things new in His bodily resurrection from the dead.  As the 8th son, David points you to Jesus who regenerates you and gives you a new beginning in the waters of your baptism.

    And speaking of that, it’s worth noting here what Samuel calls the new king: the Lord’s anointed.  In Hebrew the word for the Anointed One is the Messiah; in Greek it is the Christ.  Every faithful Israelite king–and especially David himself–they were little messiahs, little christs, pointing forward to the Messiah and Savior, Jesus our Lord.  As David was anointed here among his brothers and the Spirit rushed upon Him, so Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in His baptism in the midst of sinners.  For He had come to make us His brothers by bearing our sin and taking it away to the cross.  As the baptized, you all have been Christened; you all are little christs whose Spirit has been poured out on you generously; you have been given power to do battle against sin and the devil and the world, and to overcome by faith.

    Almost immediately after his anointing, David would face Goliath in battle.  In the same way, immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit would drive Him into the wilderness to do battle with the devil, being tempted on our behalf.  This is who your Lord is, a Warrior King who is not in it for worldly glory but who is willing to wear the thorny crown and who isn’t afraid to get muddy and bloody to conquer your enemies.  Like David, He is a Shepherd King, who lays down His life for the sheep to rescue you from the predators.  He feeds you with good pasture and prepares a table before you right in the face of your defeated enemies.  Your sins are forgiven in Christ; death and the devil are crushed under His feet for you.  His fervent desire is for you to be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.

    The Lord looks on the heart.  Perhaps that scares you; for that means He knows every idolatrous love and sinful desire that you have.  But the Lord is slow to anger. He calls you to repent of those of things and turn back to Him.  For He is the One who creates in you a clean heart and renews a right spirit within you. Learn to see Jesus as the blind man saw Him, with the eyes of faith.  Let your ears have that 20/20 vision as you hear His words.  Don’t look upon Jesus according to the outward appearance of His lowliness, but according to His heart of mercy and compassion.  He is the incarnate love of the Father who is patient with you and is kind, who did not insist on His own way but walked the way of the cross.  He endures all things for you; He is the One who never fails you.

    So as we prepare to enter the Lenten season this week, let us ever walk with Jesus as the blind man did and glorify Him for opening our eyes to who He is as our Redeemer.  For those who follow Him by faith, who suffer and die with Him, will also rise with Him bodily and live with Him eternally.

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

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Sexagesima

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

    One of the frustrating things a pastor sometimes has to deal with is when people are going through some trouble in their life, spiritual or mental or physical, and they decide then to just stay away from church and avoid pastoral care or the counsel of fellow Christians.  Perhaps it’s because they feel embarrassment or that they’re going to be judged.  Perhaps they think that God has let them down somehow.  But it’s profoundly sad, because it’s especially in those troubled times when we need the Lord’s help and the Lord’s saving gifts.  We tend to flee from God’s presence precisely when we should be running to Him.

    It’s helpful for us to remember that the church is exactly the place for people who don’t have it all together.  One of my favorite Martin Luther quotes is this one, “May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint!  I want to be and remain in the little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins.”

    To use the language of today’s Epistle, the church is the gathering of those who are weak in themselves and who find their strength in Christ and cling to Him and His words.  False prophets will preach that your strength comes from within.  They will say that you can achieve your best life now if you just follow the right mental practices and spiritual principles.  And of course there may be benefit from some of these things.  But the followers of Jesus are not called to a life of glory and self-fulfillment, but to deny themselves and take up His cross.  The way Jesus operates is not to avoid affliction and trouble but to go directly through it with you, to bear the cross fully for you as the only way to bring you real life and victory and resurrection.  To follow in the way of Christ is to believe, even against what you sometimes feel, that God is at work for your good precisely in weakness and suffering and struggle.

    In today’s Epistle the apostle Paul was dealing with the church in Corinth that was in danger of being led astray by success-and-glory preachers.  Responding to that threat, Paul says that even though he could boast of revelations and visions from the Lord, that would not be profitable or helpful.  Instead he says that he will rather boast in his weaknesses, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me,” so that the eyes of everyone may always be focused on Christ and Him crucified.

    Paul speaks of one affliction in particular.  To keep him from becoming proud and puffed up, he says “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”  Notice the language that he uses.  Even though this thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan, yet Paul speaks of this in the language of a gift; this thorn was given to him by the Lord.

    That notion can be a bit troubling to ponder, just as Job struggled to understand why God permitted his suffering.  But it should also bring us great comfort, too.  Even if we can’t understand why God permits our trouble or affliction, we can trust that there is a good God who is working through it, as it is written, “A father disciplines the son he loves.”  In this way even what the devil does to us ends up serving God’s purposes for His called and chosen people.  The affliction which Satan tries to tear us down with actually ends up drawing us closer to Christ and the life we have in Him that cannot be taken away.

    Now, what was this thorn in the flesh that Paul had?  Since it’s described as a messenger of Satan, some have thought of it as some sort of demonic spiritual attack.  That is possibly the case.  But I would suggest that since Paul speaks of his flesh, this is something he probably experienced as a bodily ailment.  He may have suffered from malaria or some other chronic disease.  We know for certain from the epistle to the Galatians that Paul had very poor eyesight that he suffered from.  But whatever it was, all of this is described as a messenger of Satan.

    In the same way, when you are suffering intense stresses or physical problems, it can feel like the devil is sending you a message, trying to slap you around and saying, “Oh, you really think that God cares about you, that He’s with you, that He forgives you?  Come on, look at you.  Why would He let this happen to you?  You should just give up on Him.”  When we’re suffering physically or emotionally, that’s the message the devil wants to drive home and lure you to believe.

    But notice what actually happens for God’s people in the end.  Paul says that this experience moved him to pray and to plead with the Lord.  So it is for us.  We may say our prayers of thanks when all is going well, but so often complacency sets in, and we forget about the Lord and stray away.  And so the Lord makes use of affliction to draw us back to Himself and into His life–not because He wants to do us harm, but because He wants to do us the greatest good.  He doesn’t want us to be lost.

    And then comes the even harder part about all of this: Paul says that he pleaded with the Lord three times that this thorn in the flesh might depart from him.  Three times the apostle begs for this affliction to be taken away.  You would think if anyone’s prayer would be answered positively, it would be someone like the Apostle Paul.  But our prayers are not answered based on our own merits and worthiness, but on the merits and worthiness of Christ, and the good and gracious will of our heavenly Father.  And in this case, that gracious will meant that the answer to Paul’s prayer was a gentle but firm “No.”  No, Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.  For my power is made perfect in weakness.”  The discipline of that thorn in the flesh would endure for his earthly lifetime.  It would be part of the way that Paul was brought to perfect fullness in Christ.

    And so it is also for us.  We may know in some sense that we need Jesus when we feel like we’re living a good life and things are going well for us.  But it’s when our sinfulness is driven home to us to the point that we’re terrified of losing our salvation, it’s when everything in life seems to be falling apart that we learn how desperately we need Jesus, and we cling to Him with all our heart and look to Him to rescue us and deliver us.  And to cling to Christ is to be truly strong.  For His is real strength that cannot be conquered or overcome.  When you finally learn to give up on your own wisdom and good choices and the good stuff you’ve acquired, when you realize that of yourself it’s all just dust in the wind, when you’re nothing, then Jesus is everything.  His strength is made perfect for you in weakness.

    Remember the apostle Paul, then, when it seems that God isn’t hearing your prayers, that He doesn’t care, or even worse, that He is against you.  Remember, that the good and gracious will of our heavenly Father sometimes answers “no” to your prayers.  You may not understand why, but like Paul you are given to say “Amen” to His will, trusting that His power truly is made perfect in your weakness.

    For after all, isn’t that the heart of what we believe about Christ Himself?  His strength was made perfect in His own weakness.  His greatest power was not exhibited when He calmed the stormy sea, though that was great and divine power.  The greatest force of His might was not shown when He cast out the legion of demons from the Gerasene man, though that was a wonderful example of how He came to rescue and deliver us.  Jesus’ ultimate strength was shown when He chose not to use His power in a glorious way, but when He utterly gave up His strength for you at Calvary, when He became completely weak with all of your sins and infirmities and sorrows, when He emptied Himself of His divine glory and power and was broken down completely, losing it all, even His very life.  Jesus’ greatest power was shown by using His strength for sacrifice, to redeem you, to win you back, to conquer your enemies, sin and death and the devil.  His perfect weakness was perfect strength, perfect power to save.  

    This, then, is the way of Christ for you.  Despairing of yourself in your own weakness, taking refuge in Christ the crucified, you share in His perfect strength and salvation.  As people baptized into Christ, you know what it means to find real life by losing your life for His sake.  In the foolishness of the Gospel message preached, that weak little seed scattered on the soil, the Lord saves you who believe, you who were created from the dirt.  His Word does not return to Him void.  The Word made flesh is planted right on your tongues under weak bread and wine, His true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins, so that you may share in the power of His glorious resurrection on the Last Day.  In the strength of these things, we who belong to this insignificant little congregation declare with St. Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

    “My grace is sufficient for you,” Jesus says.  In the end, this grace of your Lord Jesus is all that you need.  It suffices; it is more than enough.  For His grace saves you eternally; and it strengthens you to endure every trouble and affliction and cross that you must yet bear in this fallen earthly life.

    The hymn writer Paul Gerhardt said it this way:

    When life’s troubles rise to meet me,
   Though their weight
   May be great,
They will not defeat me.
God, my loving Savior, sends them;
   He who knows
   All my woes
Knows how best to end them.

    God gives me my days of gladness,
   And I will
   Trust Him still
When He sends me sadness.God is good; His love attends me
   Day by day,
   Come what may,
Guides me and defends me.

    From God’s joy can nothing sever,
   For I am 
   His dear lamb,
He, my Shepherd ever.
I am His because He gave me
   His own blood 
   For my good,
By His death to save me.
    (LSB 756:2-4)

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

(Image Credit: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/2CO.12.9.NIV) 

Matthew 20:1-16
Septuagesima

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

    Lent begins in 2 ½ weeks.  The Lenten season could be compared to Army boot camp, where we train in doing battle against the devil, the world, and our own fallen flesh.  But of course no smart person goes to boot camp without doing some pre-training to get in shape.  And so we have the pre-Lent season, the Gesima Sundays to get ourselves prepared and to do some basic training.  

    St. Paul picks up on this idea in today’s Epistle.  He says, “I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.”  In other words, this isn’t a pretend game.  It isn’t make-believe light saber fights with sticks, or a daydream about hitting the winning shot at the buzzer.  This is a spiritual war zone with live rounds being fired.  And so Paul goes on, “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  The disciplines of Lent are already in view.

    To get us in shape, the Gesima season focuses on three of the great solas of the Reformation: Grace Alone, Scripture Alone, and Faith Alone.  Getting those right forms the basis of how the battle is won.  

    This week’s Gospel parable focuses on grace alone and how God’s undeserved love and generosity can lead self-justifying sinners to grumble.  Jesus deliberately sets us up by telling a story that strikes us as patently unfair.  How can we not side with the workers in this story who feel cheated because they worked, in some cases, twelve times as long as other workers–including working at the hottest time of day–only to get paid the same wages?

    No labor union would endorse this parable.  Nobody who has ever been treated by a boss unequally compared to other co-workers is likely to be happy with the ending of this tale.  It sounds like some kind of propaganda designed to justify the unfair labor practices of wealthy business owners.  You might even say that this sounds like DEI, rewarding people based on something other than their merit and their work.  Ah, but that’s the point.  

    The workers who felt cheated “grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’”  We can resonate with that, and with the children of Israel in the Old Testament reading, unhappy with the leadership of Moses, who brought them out into the desert with no plan as to how they would drink water.  We too would likely be grumbling about his poor leadership skills.

    But when we grumble at what has or hasn’t been given to us, when we grumble because we desire what has been given to others, we are really grumbling at God Himself.  We are saying to Him: “You don’t know what You’re doing; You should be doing things My way.  You’re not a good God.”

    But the children of Israel in fact did get water to drink.  For God was with them and had not forsaken them, but was testing them.  By God’s gracious working, Moses brought water out of the rock.  We are told in the Epistle that “they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”  He allowed Himself to be struck with a spear on the cross so that the living water flowing from His side would wash away the sins even of grumblers.

    Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven is like by reminding us that God is in charge; He determines what is fair, and He gives according to His will and His bountiful goodness.  All things belong to Him, and we have no claim on anything.  And really, if God is merciful to someone else, how does that affect us negatively anyway?–any more than if an employer were to give a needy coworker a special bonus just out of the kindness of his heart.  God owns everything.  Is He not allowed to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him?  Who are we to begrudge His generosity?

    It’s important to remember in this parable that nobody was treated unfairly.  No injustice was done.  The first workers got a fair day’s wage.  That was good and right.  It’s just that the others were the recipients of the landowner’s great generosity.  People might expect that Jesus’ message would be different, that He would side with the workers seeking equal pay for equal work.  However, it turns out that Jesus is like the landowner who has every right to do what He wants with His own things and to be generous to whomever He wants to be generous.

    You could try to make a political point out of this parable about socialism or capitalism or liberalism or conservatism.  But, of course, that would be missing the main point of this parable, which is not about politics or economics but about what the kingdom of heaven is like.  Jesus says that in God’s kingdom, “The last will be first, and the first last.”  He says that “fairness” according to the ways of the world is not how His kingdom operates.  In fact, it’s turned upside down.  Those who think God owes them something more than what He’s given are gravely mistaken.

    Here’s really the key spiritual point to take from the Gospel reading: the difference between the first laborers and the later laborers is that the first had a specific contract, a legal compact, with the landowner, whereas the last workers had nothing specific, just a promise that the landowner would give them whatever is right.  That’s a big difference.  Would you work for someone without knowing in advance what your wage was going to be?  You might.  It depends on who’s hiring you, right?.  Is the person greedy or generous?  Are they trustworthy or not?  Is it a stingy next door neighbor wanting to get their snow shoveled on the cheap, or is it grandma and grandpa looking for an excuse to give their grandchild a big gift?

    So you might say that the first laborers were operating under the Law, and the later laborers were operating under the Gospel.  The first laborers were relying on their own works, the last laborers were living by faith in the goodness of the landowner.  That’s why the last are first, because their confidence is not in themselves but in the Lord and what He does.  A literal translation of  what the landowner said is, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”  The Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever.  

    The truth is, we should thank God daily that He doesn’t judge us by what is fair; He doesn’t give us what we deserve by our works.  For we deserve death and hell.   We may rightly be considered good people in an earthly sense.  But how often have we been idle and lazy in doing good works?  Have some of our words or deeds perhaps even done damage to the vineyard of Christ’s church?  Scripture plainly says, “The wages of sin is death.”  However, because of the atoning work of Jesus, God shows mercy to us.  He is free to do good to us which we have not merited or deserved.  In the death of Jesus, justice (what is fair) and grace (what is undeserved) come together.  At Golgotha, the just punishment for sin is carried out.  Justice is done; Jesus pays the price.  And at the same time grace overflows.  Your sins are forgiven; you are treated as if you worked perfectly and tirelessly all day.  The merits of Jesus are credited to you.  “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

    He who is the first and the greatest humbled Himself to be the last of all on the holy cross.  He bore the burden and the heat of the day that brings us the generous reward of salvation.  Just consider the times mentioned in the Bible on Good Friday. Jesus was handed over to Pontius Pilate at dawn, crucified at the third hour of the day; darkness covered the land at the sixth hour, noon.  Our Lord died at the ninth hour as the perfect and complete sacrifice for our sin.  He was buried at the eleventh hour of the day just before sundown.  The work has all been done for you, simply for you to receive by faith.  Hear again those words from the cross, “It is finished.”

    One more point: Very often when we hear this parable of the laborers in the vineyard, those of us who have been lifelong Christians and lifelong Lutherans like to think of ourselves as having worked the whole day.  We didn’t come to faith later in life; we were baptized as infants and have been a part of the church right from the very beginning.  And that’s certainly an acceptable application of this parable–although it is also a warning.  Remember what happened to those hired at dawn!  Let us never grumble at the grace of God shown to those who repent of their sins and receive the denarius of salvation later in life!  

    But there’s another way to think about and apply this parable, too.  And that is that we ourselves are actually among the last workers hired.  Those who have really borne the burden and the heat of the day in the Church have come before us in history.  We’re not the ones who fought the early heresies and formed the Scriptural Creeds of the Church.  We’re not the ones who faced the power of emperors and the power of popes, risking death for our faith (though that day may soon be coming).  We’re not the ones who crossed oceans and sacrificed everything to be able to practice our faith and raise our children according to the truth.  We’re not the ones who preserved the liturgy and penned the great hymns of the Church.  Truly an astonishingly rich heritage has been handed down to us which we are privileged to carry on.  And here we are near the close of the age, at the end of the Day, eagerly waiting for the Last Day, relying on the goodness of the Master, mercifully called to work in the vineyard and to support and tend to the one, holy, Christian, apostolic Church.  Truly, it’s all a gift of God’s grace.

    Our Lord does what He chooses with what belongs to Him.  And that is true here again today, as Jesus freely chooses to give you His very body and blood, once offered up as the atoning sacrifice for all of your sins.  Here at the altar you all are paid the denarius of salvation, regardless of how long you’ve been in the vineyard.  For in truth we are all those last fortunate workers who just squeaked in, though we do not deserve it.

    The Lord is just and fair.  The Lord is gracious and generous.  The Lord is good and merciful.  Blessed is the one who trusts in Him.

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

(With thanks to the Rev. Larry Beane)

Mark 4:35-41; Jonah 1:1-17
Epiphany 4

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

    Jonah was called by God to go and preach to the city of Nineveh, to cry out against it because of its wickedness.  Now the Ninevites were enemies of Israel; they were idolaters who were known for their cruelty.  They would sometimes skin their enemies alive and hang the skins on the city walls as a warning to their adversaries.  You can understand why Jonah wanted nothing to do with that.  He found a ship going in the opposite direction and got on it.  Nineveh was to the east; Tarshish, which is probably the southern part of modern-day Spain, was to the west.  Jonah tried to run from God, to avoid God’s will, to flee from the presence of the Lord.  

    We are not unlike Jonah.  We see the wickedness of the world around us, and we know that there are times when we should say something and speak the truth in love.  But that can be a risky proposition.  It could affect our relationships with family or friends.  There could be financial and job consequences, maybe even violence.  We run away from conflict and worldly disapproval.

    And we’re also like Jonah because just as a general rule, we all want to go our own way rather than God’s way.  Our old Adam runs from the presence of the Lord.  Now your running may not be so obvious as Jonah’s.  You may not be leaving for a far away place.  After all, you’re here in church–although we don’t always like to hear what God is telling us.  The truth is that we want religion that doesn’t require too much of us, one where we can keep God at a manageable distance and stay one step ahead of him and still be pretty much in charge of our own life.  And when God gets too close, when His Word calls for us to go in a direction we don’t want to go, when it involves changes in our life and the forsaking of our favorite idols, that is when we run.  Whatever it is that you do to avoid your responsibilities, wherever it is that you go to hide out and escape from the stations of life into which God has placed you, whenever you engage in excuse-making for your failure to follow His words and heed His calling, that is when you are being just like Jonah here, stowing away in the belly of some ship.

    Of course, you can’t run from the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.  Jonah’s rebellion against the Lord caused a great storm to rage against the ship he was on.  Nothing that the crew tried could save the ship from certain destruction.  The only thing that finally kept the ship from breaking up was the sacrificing of Jonah.  He was thrown overboard, and the sea stopped its raging.  So it is with us.  Our sin causes God’s wrath to rage against us.  There is nothing we can do to save ourselves.  The judgment of the Law is that our eternal death is required.  Only then will the raging cease.

    But then comes the Gospel in which we learn of a new Jonah, one who takes our place under judgment and who saves us from its surging storm.  For here is Jesus in the very same circumstance as Jonah, in the midst of a tempest on the sea.  Just as Jonah was sleeping in the ship, so also here Jesus is sound asleep in the boat despite the commotion of the wind and the waves.  Our Lord was weary and worn out from the day’s work and teaching.  He took on our very flesh and blood and subjected Himself to all of the exhausting effects of sin on our behalf.  

    Jonah’s shipmates awakened him and asked him to call on his God, that they might not perish.  So also the disciples woke Jesus with the prayerful plea, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  Jonah’s shipmates cast lots to see for whose cause this trouble had come; and the lot fell on Jonah.  In the same way, the Lord Jesus took our place under the Law.  Though the storm of judgment was brought on by our own doing, Jesus allowed the lot to fall on Him, that He might receive the punishment in our place.  In other words, Christ became as if He were the sinner fleeing from God.  He became Jonah for us, in order that we might be forgiven and brought back to the heavenly Father and restored to fellowship with Him.  

    Jonah was cast overboard, and the storm stopped.  Jesus was cast over to death not on the sea but on the cross.  In view of that impending sacrifice, and with His authority as the Almighty Son of God, Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  Christ is not only true man but also true God.  He is the One through whom all things were created.  By His Word the wind and the waves were called into being in the beginning; and by His Word these fallen elements of creation are subdued and tamed.  “Quiet, be still!”  And there was perfect peace on the water.

    Jonah was three days in the belly of the great fish before being vomited onto dry land.  So also our Lord Jesus was three days in the belly of the grave.  Having paid for our sins by the shedding of His blood, Jesus then came forth from the depths of death victorious over the grave, bringing His resurrection life to all who believe in Him.  By the holy cross, the storm of God’s judgment has subsided for you.  Through Jesus there is a great calm, the full forgiveness of your sins.  “Be still and know that I am God.”  In the risen Christ you now have perfect peace and reconciliation with the Father.  

    And that perfect peace is yours in the water.  For it is through holy baptism that you are placed into Christ.  It is by water and the Word that Christ became your refuge, like the great fish was for Jonah.  Most of you know that the fish has long been a  symbol in the church for Jesus–you see it in a couple places in this building.  The Greek word for fish is IXTHUS.  And those letters form an acronym in Greek for the phrase, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.”  Jesus is your great fish.  He saves you from the watery depths of death by taking you into Himself, protecting you in His body, joining you to His death.  And then He sets you forth on the shores of new and eternal life, joining you also to His resurrection.  

    It is written in Romans 6, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  The old, fleeing Jonah was buried in the water, and a new Jonah came forth whose first destination was Nineveh.  So also the rebellious fallen nature in us was buried at the font, and we came forth from the water as new people with a new direction, ones who are given to live the very life of Christ Himself.  In fact that is the substance of the Christian life–to drown the sinful nature through repentance, so that the new man, Christ, may daily emerge and arise in us to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

    As we await the day when our old nature will be put off from us forever, there will be times when your faith will be tested.  There will be times when it seems as if the storm of judgment still threatens to do you in.  Sicknesses and pains in your body, sorrows in your hearts, troubles in your family, strained relationships, financial problems all can make you feel as if you’re going to go under and never come up again.  And as this tempest rages around you, it might seem as if the Lord is sleeping, as if He’s paying no attention to you and doesn’t even care.  “Why don’t you do something, God?  Don’t just sit there.  The ship’s about to go down!  Help me, if you care!”  That’s the temptation you face: to doubt God’s goodness toward you in Christ, to fear the things that are going on around you and inside of you rather than revering and trusting in God above all things.  

    Jesus said to His disciples, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”  At least they had little faith and called on His name in their time of need, “Lord, save us!”  If their faith had been greater they would have recognized that the only way they could go down was if Jesus would go down, if the wind and the waves would prove stronger than He who created them.  Jesus was unthreatened by the storm, sleeping soundly, trusting in His Father’s care.  In fact, there was probably no place safer in all of Israel that night than right there on that boat.  For Jesus was on that boat, He who is Creation’s Master, He who is the refuge and the fortress of His people.  

    Remember that when it seems as if the wind and the waves in your life are going to overwhelm you.  Remember who their Master is.  Remember these words of faith from Romans 8, “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.”  

    You’re in the same boat with Jesus.  He has received you into the ship of the church.  The only way that you can go down is if He goes down.  And the fact is that He has conquered the storm and every threatening evil by the power of His cross and resurrection.  You are safely sheltered in His holy wounds.  His risen presence surrounds you as an impenetrable stronghold, so that not even death can snatch you out of His hands.  Therefore, cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.  Our Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all things for the sake of the Church.  He has promised to work all things together for the good of those who love Him, for you who are the called according to His purpose.  He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  He has given you the Sacrament of His body and blood to strengthen you in that confidence, that you might be certain that He truly is with you, that He forgives you, that He loves you.  

    Believe that truth; trust in His Word.  For though this fallen creation may groan all around you, though you may groan inwardly under the power of the curse, yet the Word of Jesus overcomes the wind and the waves and brings calm to your heart.  We are those who live with a sure hope in Christ and a sure destiny in our voyage.  We eagerly await the redemption of our body, the resurrection to come on the Last Day.  And so we boldly confess with St. Paul, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

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

Matthew 8:1-13; 2 Kings 5:1-14
Epiphany 3

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

    The word “clean” comes up a number of times in today’s Scripture readings.  And it’s a concept that shows up in a number of ways in our contemporary culture, too.  There’s the idea of “clean eating,” avoiding overly processed foods, eating organic, pesticide-free, non-GMO, in order to be physically more clean and healthy.  Or when it comes to exercise, you’ll commonly hear references to the technique of taking a “cleansing breath.”  As you breathe in and then exhale out your anxiety and stress and negativity, this technique is supposed to help cleanse you in soul and body.  Even the popular philosophy of minimalism, of downsizing and decluttering, has within it the idea of cleaning and tidying up your life.  We can have a sense of uncleanness when we have too much disorganized stuff, as if we’re being sullied by our possessions.  And so in an almost spiritual manner, methods are given to put your life in order and make things clean and right again.

    Whether people are overtly religious or not, we all have this inherent sense that there is something unclean with us and that we need to be purified.  And so our eating and our exercising and our tidying and our doing of good works and our positive thinking is often an attempt to address that, to cleanse ourselves.  But if we’re honest, we can never completely shake the sense that things still aren’t quite how they should be, that what the confession says is true, “we are by nature sinful and unclean.”  We are all in the position of the leper in today’s Gospel reading, who comes before Jesus with the prayer, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 
    
    Now usually we think of our need for cleansing from God only in spiritual terms.  But what our Lord gives involves the body, too.  We see that fact with both Namaan in the Old Testament and the leper in the Gospel.  Their being made clean involved their whole being, flesh and spirit.  To be sure, uncleanness is first of all a spiritual matter.  The Bible sometimes calls demons unclean spirits who seek to defile us as well.  Sin and the allurements of the world are described in Scripture as pollutions–you take part in them and you’re left feeling tainted and infected and corrupted.  And then there are also the sins that have been perpetrated on you, against your will, that leave you feeling contaminated.  Verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse can leave a person feeling desecrated and soiled.  We need cleansing from Jesus not only for the sins we’ve committed, but also for those that have been committed against us.  

    But again let’s not lose sight of the fact that the cleansing Jesus gave was also a fleshly cleansing and healing and restoration.  We need our whole selves to be cleansed, soul and body.  This quickly becomes apparent when we’re dealing with physical sicknesses and diseases; the body isn’t naturally sanitary and hygienic.  Doctors and nurses are dealing with wounds that ooze, limbs that swell with fluids, cancer that eats away at healthy tissue, mucous and phlegm that congest, bowels that malfunction.  It’s no wonder that medical personnel are constantly using the hand sanitizer.  They know better than most that what they’re dealing with is uncleanness, viruses and bacteria and disorders that require very tangible, fleshly help to bring about some sense of cleanness and order back to the body.  A hospital patient’s comments about their messed-up hair or lack of make-up or decent clothing are often a commentary on this deeper feeling. “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

    What an excellent prayer that is which the leper prays!  He doesn’t presume to tell Jesus what to do but comes before Him humbly.  However, He also expresses full confidence and faith in Jesus, that He surely has the power to help Him if He wants to.  And then what an excellent response our Lord gives to him!  Jesus says, “I do want to.”  “I am willing; be cleansed.”  Here the Lord’s heart is opened to the leper and to us all, and we see His great desire to make us clean in both soul and body.  This is the very reason why the Son of God was made man, to purify you from all that ails your flesh and spirit.  For notice what Jesus does here.  It says that He put His hand on the leper and touched him.  That’s the last thing you would normally want to do with someone who has a contagious disease, not at least without getting gloved and masked up.  But Jesus makes direct contact with this man in his uncleanness, because, as it is written later in this same chapter, “He Himself took our sicknesses and bore our infirmities” (8:17).  This is your Savior, the One who took into His own flesh all that attacks your flesh.  He knows, He has felt your sickness in the deepest way possible.  In His scourging and on the cross, His body was opened up and laid bare to every pathogen that threatens our life.  He died a bloody, infected, unclean mess.  However, by that very death, He conquered all your sickness and your disease and the grave itself.  For in the body of God made flesh, all corruptions of the flesh met their match and their end.  It is written in Psalm 16 that Jesus’ body did not see decay or corruption in the grave.  By the wounds of Christ you are healed and cleansed.  The One crucified and now risen in the flesh is your cure.

    Believing that doesn’t come naturally to us.  The ways of God often seem insufficient or foolish or strange to our minds.  That’s certainly how it was with Naaman in the Old Testament reading.   Naaman thought He knew the way that God and His prophets should behave.  Naaman was an army man, and so He assumed God would act according to his power thinking.  He traveled all the way from Syria to Israel because he heard that there was a man there who might be able to cure him of his leprosy.  But after making this lengthy trip, things did not go according to his plan.  Elisha, the man of God, didn’t even come out to greet Naaman.  Instead he sent out his servant.  Naaman wouldn’t even be able to meet the prophet whom he had come to see.  He had all this silver and gold and clothing which he thought he could use to secure Elisha’s blessing, but the prophet would have none of it.

    All Naaman got from Elisha was words, words through his servant telling him to go and take seven baths in the Jordan river.  At that, Naaman lost his temper.  “You mean I came all this way and that’s it?!  I thought the prophet would come out and wave his hands around and call on his God and do something spiritual and heal my leprosy.  All I get is a command to bathe?  I could’ve done that at home, and in much clearer water than this measly river.  That’s it, I’m leaving.”

    We too can be tempted to be like Naaman, especially in those times when God isn’t meeting our expectations, when He doesn’t seem to be coming through for us.  “I’ve come all this way, Lord, seeking health and happiness and a successful life in this world.  I’ve tried to jump through all the right hoops, but I am still weighed down with all sorts of problems and troubles.  And all you’re giving me is words and Scriptures from your servant?  Give me some spiritual advice and techniques and power that will work for me right now.  If not, I’ve had enough.  I’m going home.”

    Fortunately for Naaman, he had wise servants.  They said to him, “If the prophet had told you to do some great and difficult thing, you would have done it.  Why not, then, trust in this little thing and do it?”  We’re always more inclined to think that great religious deeds are what really make us holy and bring us closer to God and obtain His blessing.  But the key factor is whether or not God’s creative and healing Word is present, even connected to simple water.

    Naaman did according to the word of God spoken by Elijah, and when he came up out of the water the 7th time, his leprous skin had been healed and cleansed completely, like that of a little child.  You might say that Naaman was born again, freed from his disease to live a new life.  Having washed once for each of the 7 days of creation, Naaman came out of the water a new creation, a new person, through the hidden power of the words connected with the Jordan water.

    That’s how it is also for us.  God heals and cleanses and recreates us not through impressive visible power, but through simple words and promises connected to the baptismal water.  This is what we heard last week in Ephesians 5, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”  It is written in John 3, “Unless one is born (again) of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  We must turn and become as a little child, Jesus said, utterly dependent, forsaking our adult merits and wisdom, completely on the receiving end of God’s gracious giving.  Laying aside any claim to our own worthiness, we stake everything on Christ and His holy Word.  For wherever the Word is, there God is present to cleanse and save.  And the Word is in the water!  Remember that Jesus Himself later entered into these same Jordan waters.  There He was baptized into our sin and death so that through our baptism into Him we might receive His mercy and His life.

    So here’s the point for you to take to heart today: If you feel unclean, tidying up and eating well and taking cleansing breaths is fine.  But what will really give you a sense of cleanness is the Lord’s Word.  Make that your daily meditation.  And listen today how the Lord says to you what He also said to the leper, “I am willing to help you; be cleansed.”  At the font, He gave you the sure hope that your lowly body will be transformed to be like His glorious body (Philippians 3:21).  In divine service He continues to speak those words in the absolution, words of forgiveness which are life to you and health to all your flesh (Proverbs 4:22).  And here at the altar, you receive the blood of Jesus which cleanses you from all sin (1 John 1:7).  Here for you is the medicine of immortality and the guarantee of health and wholeness that will be yours in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.  

    Jesus can make you clean.  He is willing.  Be cleansed.

✠ 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 ✠

    In today’s Gospel Jesus is taking part in and adding to the joy of a wedding feast, even providing the finest vintage wine for the occasion.  This Gospel certainly deals with much more than marriage, but because it’s such an important and timely topic, this year I’m going to follow the lead of Martin Luther and focus especially on the divine gift of holy matrimony.  

    Now you might think at first that Luther’s situation and ours are completely different.  When it comes to marriage and sexuality, his time and ours might in fact appear to be exact opposites.  After all, in the 1500’s some of the most honored and looked-up-to people would have been those who were celibate, monks and priests and nuns who had taken a vow of chastity.  Such people were looked upon as especially spiritual and examples to follow for living a good life.  In our time the most honored people, who are thought of as living the good life, are often those who flaunt their sexuality, who might have several sexual partners over time, and who present their sexual freedom as part of what it means for them to live a truly fulfilled life.  Someone today who is celibate or who waits till marriage is generally looked at as a bit unusual or naive or just boring.

    And yet, when it comes right down to it, the problem in our day and in Luther’s day with regard to sexuality is at its root the very same problem.  For in both cases God’s good gift of marriage is looked down on and sometimes even rejected outright as if it were just a piece of paper, or merely the celebration of a union the couple already consummated for themselves.  But whether you’re living a celibate life in order to achieve some supposedly higher state of holiness before God, or whether you’re sleeping with someone you’re not married to, even with the best of intentions and justifications, the sin is still the same: you’re rejecting the goodness and the necessity of God’s institution of marriage.  It is within that sanctified estate that His good gift of sexuality is to be enjoyed.  So it’s the same thing: whether a person is prudish about sex and considers it somehow to be dirty, or whether they’re indulgent about sex and are fine with whatever consenting adults want to do, it’s two sides of the same coin.  God’s gift of marriage is being degraded and cast aside.  

    However, in today’s Gospel we see that Jesus approves of marriage and blesses it and the sexual relationship within it as good and holy.  Marriage is not just a human arrangement or a mere legal matter.  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.  Remember, 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 starting to copmlain that his wife is hard to deal with or that she’s not meeting his “needs,” he should look in the mirror and slap himself in the face.  His job is not primarily to be a receiver but a giver, sacrificing himself for her.  It’s time to man up and 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 this:  God’s call to submit to your husband and to respect him is not dependent on how romantic or manly or communicative he’s been lately.  Honor him as your head as the church honors Christ.  With a gentle spirit, keep looking to 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 selfishness 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 (who himself was single) 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, 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.  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 comparable to him.”  Adam received Eve as the God-given companion that brought them both completeness.  Such is God’s intention for marriage also today.

    Fourthly, through marriage God works to rescue us from doubt.  Although we would like to believe that we always make good decisions in life, we know that sin clouds our heart and mind.  So 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.  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.

    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.  In marriage God protects us from such misguided self-reliance.  He gives husbands and wives the holy calling of serving each other in Christ.  And when husband and wife fail each other, as is bound to happen, God puts His law to work.  He confronts their self-centeredness; 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 works to preserve society.  Without this institution, the basic unit of society, the family, would crumble.  We see this happening around us, where conflict and chaos and self-will replace His order of family self-giving.  To prevent such evil, God established and blessed marriage from the beginning and said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”  With that creative word, God continues to bless the union of husband and wife so that children are conceived and born.  This, btw, is why same-sex marriage simply does not exist in God’s sight.  Every child has a father and a mother, male and female.  Every father and mother is given a divine responsibility toward their children and toward one another within the commitment of marriage.  Homosexual relationships can only fake that and cannot produce children.  They are fundamentally sterile and lifeless, not because of health reasons or age, but by the very nature of what they are.  God’s purpose in marriage is for husband and wife to serve not only each other but also their children by protecting, providing for, and nurturing them 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 context for the saving Word of Christ to be preached and taught both in the church and 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 and 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.  So also Jesus was put into the sleep of death on the cross, that this 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 ✠

(Some of the points in the middle section of this sermon are based on an article written in Gottesdienst by the Rev. Chaplain Jonathan Shaw.)