John 8:31-36, Romans 3:19-28
Reformation

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

    “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  Martin Luther knew well the meaning of those words.  He knew what it was like under the old papal system to feel enslaved to the Law, to be in captivity to his sins and unable to set himself free.  The thing he most felt was the burden of an angry God on his back, driving him, demanding a holy life and penance for sin.  So much did he want to escape his slavery that, instead of a becoming a lawyer like his father wanted, he thought becoming a monk might do the job.  If he just devoted himself fully to being righteous and worshiping God, perhaps then he could break free and the shackles would come off.  But things didn’t get better; in some ways constantly being reminded of the demands of a righteous God, constantly going to confession under the requirement of confessing every single sin only caused him to feel his chains all the more.  This attempt at righteousness by his own efforts and works became a torture.  “Whoever commits sin a slave of sin.”

    The same thing is true for us, too; only we tend to experience this in an opposite way.  In our culture, the wrath of an angry God isn’t what runs the show.  For us it’s the absence of any wrath at all that’s runs things, spiritual permissiveness, being free to do and express ourselves as we please.  And that supposed freedom is where we experience our slavery.  For the sins that we enjoy promise us freedom and happiness, but they only ensnare us and bind us and imprison us in the long run.  Our desires and passions end up ruling us.  The technologies that make us feel like we’re lords of our own lives end up being what we serve, what we chain ourselves to for hours a day.  Gluttony enslaves us to our belly and our food, as does alcoholism to drink.  Lust enslaves us to our passions, to pornography, to adulterous behavior that tears people apart.  Laziness enslaves us in a cycle of dependency and pessimism and excuse-making and blame.  Gossiping enslaves us to the never-ending game of one-upsmanship, and really only ends up tearing everyone down, including the gossiper.  Greed enslaves us to our possessions and all the things we have to do to get and hold on to our stuff.  Pride chains us to having to keep up our image and prop up the facade, when deep down we know it’s just hypocrisy.  And on and on it goes . . .  We may not be running for the monastery like Luther, but we, too, often find ourselves grasping at straws because we know that things aren’t right with us, that we’re not truly free.  “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  And the wages of sin is death.  

    Repent.  God doesn’t just accept your best efforts as being sufficient to make yourself right with Him.  He doesn’t just say, “Try your hardest, be sincere, do what is in you, and that’s good enough.”  What does His Word say?  “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”  It is a misuse of His Law to try to justify yourself.  We can often be successful in justifying ourselves and our behavior before others in this world.  But that just won’t fly before God.  Besides, if you’re trying to do a good deed so that you can get some sort of reward from Him–in this world or the next–is that really a good work at all in God’s sight?  What did the Epistle say?  It said the purpose of the Law is “that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”  You can’t free yourself from the slavery of sin by your own doing.

    So what is our only hope of being saved and set free?  St. Paul writes in the Epistle, since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Pay close attention to those words.  You are justified as a gift–freely!  God grant that we never lose our gratitude for that!  It’s a gift of God to you, without any strings attached.  That’s what grace is, an undeserved gift of love.  God justifies you, He declares you righteous, He puts you right with Himself solely and completely based on the works of Christ Jesus His Son–not what you have done for God but what Christ has done for you.  

    And here is in particular is what Christ has done for you: the Epistle says that the Lord Jesus redeemed you, which means that He bought you back.  He found you in your slave chains, being driven and abused by sin and Satan, and He asserted Himself as your rightful owner, your gracious Master.  He purchased you out of your slavery with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  He went so far as to trade places with you.  He allowed Himself to be enslaved, captured and condemned as if He were the sinner, guilty of every wrong that’s ever been done and every failure to do what’s right.  He was your stand-in on the cross to set you free, so that you stand in His place in “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).  Through His death, Jesus conquered your slave masters so that they have no eternal power over you any more.  In the Son of God, Jesus, you are truly free–released, forgiven, alive–as Jesus Himself said, “If the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed.”

    Martin Luther puts it this way in the Large Catechism: “The Lord Jesus has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and all evil. For before, I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness.  For when we had been created by God the Father, and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited and deserved.  There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us.  Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness.”

    This is where Martin Luther finally found his liberty.  Before, he had understood the righteousness of God to be referring to God’s righteous demands on us, what we must do to get into God’s good graces.  But then, when studying the Scriptures, he came to understand the truth of the Gospel in Romans 1, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . .  for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.”  In other words, the Gospel makes known the righteousness of God, not as demands on you, but as a gift to you.  God gives you His righteousness, so that through faith in Christ, you are clean and guiltless in His sight.  Believe that.  God declares it to be so through Jesus and what He has done for you.

    That understanding of the Gospel, which had largely been lost, made all the difference for Luther.  And so began the Reformation and the restoration of the Gospel to its rightful place in the Church, a heritage we are beneficiaries of down to this very day.

    We summarize this belief with the four so-called “solas” of the Reformation: Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, and Christ alone.  Eternal life and a right relationship with God are a pure gift of His grace alone, not because of anything we have done.  We receive that grace by faith alone, apart from our decisions and spiritual efforts.  Our faith is in Christ alone and in no one and nothing else.  And God brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith through His life-giving Word alone and not by anything that comes from within us; all our teaching comes from Scripture and not man-made wisdom or tradition.  To put it most simply, all the glory for our salvation belongs not to us but to God and His abundant mercy.  All boasting on our part is excluded.  Romans 3 states, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [in Christ] apart from the deeds of the Law.”

    So hear the Word of God to you this day clearly: you have been set free in Jesus.  And remember, then, what you have been freed for: You are freed from slavery to sin so that you might have a new life, the life of Christ in the household of God.  Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  To abide in Jesus’ word is to continue to receive His Word in the many ways that it comes to you and find your life in it.  It is to live in the gift of your baptism, where the Word of God was applied to you with the water, drowning the old Adam and bringing you forth to a new life.  It is to hear the preaching and teaching of the Gospel, by which the Word is applied to you and its gifts are given to you.  And it is to receive the Lord’s Supper, where the Word made flesh is truly present, giving you His flesh and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  Our freedom from sin’s slavery is freedom for life with God.  That’s what we set our hearts on; that’s our goal: to be with the One who made us and redeemed us, to live in fellowship with Him, to bask in His presence, to glory in His gifts to us, to worship Him forever.

    The Reformation was about standing against anything that stood in the way of that: whether it’s the Pope with His man-centered works-righteousness, or whether it’s radical reformed churches that reject the words and promises of Christ in the sacraments and instead make it all about man-centered personal spiritual experiences.  False teaching on both sides had to be rejected.  No, Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  The Word in the water, the Word proclaimed from the pulpit, the Word in the bread and wine.  Abide in this, continue in this, trust in this, and you are Christ’s disciple, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free–free children of God who will abide in His house forever.

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

John 4:46-54
Trinity 21

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

    Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”  And sometimes we wonder, why should we? Why should we believe and risk playing the fool without signs and wonders?  What good is faith if it doesn’t deliver?  If it doesn’t move mountains, shouldn’t it at least make sickness go away?  Where are the miracles we hear about in the Bible?  Why were signs and wonders given to them while we are rebuked or left in silence?  Why must we leave our children to die in Capernaum instead of drinking wine in Cana?

    The nobleman had left the bedside of his dying boy to travel 18 miles and bring home a miracle worker.  That took some faith, some real hope and belief that Jesus could help.  But the miracle worker who turned water into wine would not go with him.  He would not leave Cana.  The official’s authority was not enough to command Him and only earned him a rebuke.  It must have seemed as though his faith and hope, his desperate prayers had all been for nothing.

    Jesus here does not seem like he’s being a very good pastor. In the face of this desperation He speaks not comforting but harsh words.  For He sees that faith is still lacking, still imperfect, and He will not pretend that it is good enough or that He is impressed.  He will not be winsome or polite.  He will not kindly meet felt needs.  He sees into the man’s heart by the man’s words.  He rebukes.  He brings faith to its knees.  He makes the father come to full desperation and forget his nobility and official power.  And then He commands: “Go your way,” and all he adds is “Your son lives.”  But what does that mean to a father full of fear?  Does it mean that his son lives in heaven?  Does it mean he lives right now but will die within the hour?  Or does it mean, does he dare to hope that the fever has left him?  The official is not told.  Nothing is explained.  No promise is made.  It is not “Your son will live.”  It is a simple declaration in the present tense: “Your son lives.”  That is it.  Nothing more.  Take that and go on your way and trust in Me.

    The miraculous thing is, that mysterious sentence changes the official.  He had at first tried to command Jesus.  He did not ask.  He commanded: “Come down before my child dies.”  That’s the way he was used to talking to people.  But Jesus simply said: “Your son lives” and everything changed.  In a way, you might say that it was no longer the nobleman who believed.  It was simply the man, the father of the son.  His nobility was stripped away.  Up to this point in the Gospel, he had been called a an official.  But after Jesus says: “Your son lives” he’s not referred to in that way any more.  He’s simply called anthropos in the Greek, the man, who believed.  The Word of Jesus changes him.  He goes on his way.  He obeys and believes as a simple man, stripped of pretensions, no longer glorying in his official human standing, no longer making demands of God, but resting in the Word of Jesus.  He still doesn’t know just what it means, but Jesus said it, and that is good enough.  That is how faith lives between Cana and Capernaum without signs or wonders.  Faith trusts that the word of Jesus is true, and that it is sufficient.  It is more than enough.

    God seeks to teach us these same things through today’s Gospel.  These things were written for our learning.  For many of you, it was not an easy task to get here today, whether that’s for physical or emotional or other reasons–to come to this place where Christ is present for you in His words and in the Sacrament.  But still you seek Him out, week by week, month by month.  You look to Him for help and mercy and deliverance and comfort–and not just for yourself, but also often for the needs of others.  And yet very often it seems as if you’re hearing back a rebuke from Him, as did the official in the Gospel.  You’re already feeling broken, and still something else comes your way that seems to break you down even further.  Learn from today’s Gospel that it is not because our Lord does not care for you, or even worse, that He wants to be rid of you.  Just the opposite–He wants to strip away all of the earthly titles and honors and things which you are still clinging to and putting your trust in, so that your faith may be fully in Him and His Word alone, so that you may have full and real life with Him forever.  His purpose is to do you true and everlasting good that far outweighs your troubles, which are but for a fleeting moment.

    What are those things that you are anchoring your hope in for the future apart from Christ?  What gives you a sense of nobility and pride about yourself that keeps you from glorying in the Lord and humbling yourself before Him?  Repent of it.  It’s time to stop being the nobleman who comes with his own merit and standing, and kneel as the plain man or woman before Christ.  We can’t command Him.  All we are given to do is trust in His Word, even if on the surface it doesn’t seem sufficient or we can’t understand it entirely.  Because with the Lord it is always more than enough.

    The official wanted Jesus to come back with Him.  He thought Jesus needed to be visibly present to do His work.  But all that was necessary was Jesus’ Word.  For this was the One through whom all things were created; His words do what they say.  And words are simply heard, not seen.  Faith has nothing to do with what you see.  As it is written, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Faith relies entirely on what Jesus says.  

    “Go your way; your son lives.”  By the Holy Spirit of Christ, the man believed the words that were spoken to him, and he went his way.  By all appearances he was returning with nothing more than he left with.  But by faith he was returning with the greatest treasure of all, the healing words of Jesus.  He traveled those eighteen miles back home trusting in what Jesus had said.  

    The nobleman’s faith was not in vain.  On the way back, before he arrived home, his servants met him with good news about his son which showed the wonderful power of Jesus’ words.  What are the first words out of the mouths of the nobleman’s servants?  “Your son lives,” the same words that Jesus spoke.  It was at the seventh hour of the day before that the son had gotten better; and it was at the seventh hour of the day before that Jesus had said to the nobleman, “Your son lives”–the number seven, the fullness of creation and life.

    Jesus speaks, and it so.  For He is the very Son of God through whom all things were created.  He is the Word of the Father who calls things into being out of nothing and who gives life to the world.  He says, “Let there be light,” and there is light.  He says, “Your son lives,” and he lives.  

    Don’t ever forget: the Word of God is not merely print on a page.  It is the living and powerful voice of the Lord.  The Word of God is the extension of Christ into this world to bring light out of darkness and life out of death.  When He speaks, what he says happens.  His words contain within them the power to create what they declare.

    So it is still today.  The same God who said, “Let there be light” and “Your son lives” is still speaking.  Now He is calling Christians into being by the power of His Word in the water.  To every parent at Baptism He says, “Your child lives.”  Now the Lord is speaking the absolution, “I forgive you all your sins.”  And it is so.  Now the Son of God is saying, “This is My body; this is My blood.”  And by the power of those creative words, the bread and wine truly are His body and blood, so that eating them with firm faith, you are filled with His healing and share in His resurrection.

    In fact, since Jesus Himself is now raised up from the dead, we say to the heavenly Father, “Your Son lives!”  Christ our Lord, who suffered on the cross at the seventh hour to take away your sins, who Himself received no miracle to deliver Him from death but suffered the full tortures of hell in order to break its claim on you–this Jesus is alive forevermore to bring you into the new creation to come, in which there will be no more sickness or sorrow or death.  For the old order of things has passed away.  

    So as you leave this Cana and go back to your Capernaums and to your everyday life in this world, God strengthen you and encourage you on the way.  May He grant you the fervent, confident faith of the nobleman.  Cling to the words of Jesus as you make that sometimes difficult and lonely trek.  His living words will see you through.  In the end your faith will not be in vain.  Go your way in peace.  For by the grace and mercy of God, just as His Son lives, so also you live in Him.

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

(With thanks to David Petersen)

Genesis 28:10-17
Trinity 19

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

    “Where is God?”  Many would answer by saying that, “God is in heaven,” or “God is in my heart,” or “God is everywhere.”  Those answers are certainly not wrong; and yet, they are not the best answers that we can give as Lutheran Christians.  For a god who is just everywhere is a god who in practice is really nowhere.  A god who is merely everywhere is nowhere in particular for me.  I’m no closer to him in one place than in another.  OK, He’s everywhere, but how do I have access to Him?  How do I see Him and hear Him and relate to Him?  It’s like He’s always just two feet away but on the other side of a solid brick wall, and there are no doors to get through.

    We learn from passages like today’s Old Testament reading that our God is One who is not merely everywhere but One who puts Himself somewhere, in specific places for His people.  He’s not just “out there,” above and beyond us; nor is He “in here,” coming to us from within ourselves.  Rather, God has made Himself accessible in particular, identifiable places for us and for our good.  He’s not above locating Himself right where we’re at.

    In the Old Testament account, Jacob was on a last-minute trip out of the country.  He took this trip for two reasons.  First, he was escaping danger.  He had just deceived his blind father Isaac into thinking that he was the older son; in this way Jacob had stolen the family blessing from his brother Esau.  You may recall how Jacob used the goat skin on his arms and wore Esau’s earthy-smelling clothes to accomplish the deception.  Hairy-skinned Esau was furious about this and consoled himself by making plans to kill Jacob.  However, while Jacob was putting some distance between himself and his brother, his parents had directed him to go to the land of his mother’s family and find a wife.  For Jacob’s parents didn’t want him to marry one of the local pagan Canaanites.  So Jacob was making this journey with a mixture of emotions–both with fear for his life because of his brother, but also with some degree of anticipation because he was hopefully about to get married and establish his own household.

    Jacob, then, is a lot like us.  For the fact of the matter is that as we walk the journey of our lives, few of us have it all together.  Rather, our lives are generally more like Jacob’s–a mixture of good things and bad.  We move through life trying to make the best out of what we’re confronted with.  In some ways we’re running from our past with a little bit of fear of what might happen to us.  In other ways we’re looking forward to the future with anticipation.  Our lives, too, are usually a little more mixed up and complicated than we’d like them to be.

    And quite honestly, like Jacob, we are often the cause of our own problems.  Deception is an art that we also can practice.  We too know how to put the goatskin on our arms, so to speak, to use manipulation and subtlety to make things go our way.  But there are times when that subtlety backfires on us and things happen that we didn’t foresee.  That’s how sin works–it brings consequences that we are blind to.  Our lives are often muddled because, like Jacob, we are fallen human beings, unable to know God rightly or even take one step toward Him.  A great canyon lies between us and God that we are incapable of crossing.

    However, God still graciously came to Jacob, even in the middle of his mixed up life.  During the night God gave Jacob a special vision in which he saw a ladder or staircase extending from heaven down to where he was.  And please notice that this ladder wasn’t for climbing!  The only ones on this ladder were angels ascending and descending.  The whole point of the ladder is that God and God alone bridges the gap between Himself and sinners.  He comes all the way to us, because we’re incapable of moving even one inch towards Him.  

    God came down to Jacob and gave Him two wonderful promises.  First of all, the Lord confirmed to him the same promise that was given to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, namely, that all the earth would be blessed through him and his offspring.  And we know that God kept that promise.  For in about 14 years God would give Jacob another name, Israel, and out of the descendants of Israel came Him who is the promised offspring and Seed, our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.  Through Him all the world is indeed blessed.  

    And God made a second promise to Jacob for the meantime–to be with him wherever he went, to protect him, and to bring him safely back home.  The Lord said, “I will not leave you.”  God broke into Jacob’s world, then, to comfort him and put his mind at ease–not because Jacob deserved it, but because of God’s awesome mercy in using even ordinary fallen people like him to carry out His plan of rescuing mankind from sin and its grave consequences.

    And the good news for us is this:  God has broken into our world in an even greater and more decisive way for our good.  Listen to John 1, where Jesus spoke about Himself: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  Jesus purposefully used the very imagery of this Old Testament reading to describe Himself and His mission.  Jacob’s ladder is a prophecy of Christ.  For Christ is the true ladder between heaven and earth.  He is the One who has bridged the gap between God and us.  He is the One who, being true God, came down right to where we’re at and took on our human flesh in order to rescue and comfort us.  The omnipresent, everywhere God located Himself for us in Jesus Christ, the descendant of Jacob.  He stood with you by living a sinless life in your place; He rescued you by being executed on a cross, receiving your punishment as your stand-in.  God Himself not only came down to where you are at and bridged the sin-gap in Jesus Christ, He became the sacrifice that covers our sin.  He is the scapegoat, the lamb that was slaughtered so that we would receive the blessing of the Father and be a pleasing aroma to Him.  The risen and ascended Jesus has completely delivered you from judgment.  Through Him you will be received bodily into His glory on the Last Day.  Where is God for you?  In Jesus.

    Note how Jacob responded faithfully, receiving God’s promises for what they were, and worshiping Him there.  Jacob understood what a wondrous thing God had done in stepping into the world in that place.  And so He set up the stone which was at his head as a pillar, and he called that place “Bethel,” which means, “House of God.”  God wasn’t just everywhere for Jacob.  He was in that particular location for him.  Jacob rightly said, “How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

    Just as it was with Jacob, so also it is for you.  God comes to you to calm your fears and ease your minds, even in the middle of this mixed-up life.  He provides for you; He protects you.  And He continues, even today, to put Himself in particular places for you, to help and comfort and guide you.

    God spoke to you at the holy font as He did to Jacob, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go . . . I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”  The Lord is there for you holy baptism.  For when He commanded it, Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the close of the age.”  “I have called you by name; you are mine.”  You have been robed in the garment of your older brother, Jesus; covered in Christ, the Father treats you as the firstborn.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is truly present in that water to choose people as His own, to create faith and forgive sins.  Whenever a pastor baptizes someone according to Christ's mandate, you can say with certainty, “There is heaven’s gate!”

    The Lord is also truly present in His words.  The Scriptures aren’t just some nice history book with a few teachings about morality.  Rather, they are the living words of Christ through which the Holy Spirit brings us to repentance and grants us saving faith in Christ.  Wherever God’s Word is, wherever it is preached and taught rightly, you can say without a doubt, “I heard the voice of God today.”

    And God is truly and literally present in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Christ’s very body and blood are there under the bread and wine.  Through this Supper God brings you forgiveness and life and strengthens you to live as His own dearly loved people.  It was angels that ascended and descended on Jacob’s ladder.  And we join with them here to laud and magnify God’s glorious name.  As we gather around the Lord’s altar, we can say the words of Jacob with complete assurance and boldness, “The Lord is in this place.”

    All of this is nothing more than a restatement of Jesus’ words, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”  God is not just everywhere.  He has located Himself where we gather around His preaching and supper.  Sure, you can pray to God at home or in your place up north.  But it’s only in divine service that the Lord is here in the flesh for you. As a wise pastor once said, “Water is everywhere in the air.  But if I want a drink, I must go to a well or fountain.”

    Jacob said, “‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’  And he was afraid.”  So it is that you are called to have that due sense of fear and reverence that comes with being in the very presence of your Maker.  Where is God?  He is in Christ for you.  And where is Christ?  He is in this place, in His words and sacraments.  This is the Portal through which we hear and come into contact with our Lord and receive His grace.  Therefore, we say together with Jacob, “How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

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

St. Michael and All Angels
Matthew 18:1-10; Revelation 12:7-12

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

    We don’t usually give the angels a lot of attention.  And they’re actually OK with that.  Angels are generally given by God to work unseen, in the background; they want us focused on Him, just as they are.  But we do refer to them every week when we gather for church.  The most obvious place is right before communion when we join together with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to praise our Redeemer God.  But we also refer to them in another less obvious place in the liturgy.  You speak of the angels in the creed when you confess that God is the Maker of all things, visible and invisible.  Human beings are the top of the visibles; the angels are the top of the invisibles–two distinct types of creatures; never one becoming the other.  Humans are physical beings with a spirit who look for the resurrection of the body; angels are purely spiritual beings without a body.

    On this St. Michael and All Angels day, we take time to pay special attention to the angels and to rejoice in these warrior hosts of the Lord who do His bidding.  The word “angel” means “messenger”; and that is their primary task.  They preached the good news of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds in Bethlehem; they announced Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to the women on Easter morning.  Angels are also the protectors of God’s people, as it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.”  We see this even in the life of Jesus–after his temptation and in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is written that the angels came and ministered to Him and strengthened Him in His bodily weakness.

    Now, believing in the existence of angels may seem a little bit childlike.  But Jesus reminds us today that when it comes to heavenly things, that is good.  He says, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  A little child is entirely dependent on his parents and receives everything with trust.  We adults, on the other hand, are always questioning everything and asserting our rights and our independence.  And so we need to turn, to repent and humble ourselves like a little child and trust in our heavenly Father, that He is good and merciful through Christ His Son, and that what He says is true.  That is what faith is about: to believe His Word and hold onto it simply because He is the One who said it, and He is trustworthy.  That is what defines greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  It is only with the humility and wonder of a child that we can rejoice in the angels or any of the gifts of God.

    To doubt the angels is to doubt the Lord of the angels.  To fail to take seriously their existence is to fail to take seriously that there is a real spiritual battle going on in this world.  For remember, there are some angels who turned their faces away from the Lord, who wanted to do their own thing and serve themselves and make themselves the greatest–fallen angels, namely the devil and his demons.  In the reading from Revelation today we are given a picture of what happened when Michael and his angels waged war against them.  “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”  That’s good news–for no longer can the devil accuse us before God in heaven.  But it is bad news for the earth.  The devil and his demons are loose, and they know that their time is short.

    The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, the Scriptures say, looking for someone to devour.  He wants to consume you with his lie that you don’t have to be like a little child.  You can make yourself big, be like God, grab what He has not given you.  The work of the devil is to take your eyes from the Lord, where the angels are turned, and to turn your eyes to yourselves, to your own wisdom and thinking and spirituality–to get you to believe that all the answers and the truth comes from within.  But there is only One who is the Truth, the One who was lifted up for you on the tree to bring you mercy and life, the One who is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

    Consider again that great scene you heard in the Epistle, that great battle that occurs between Michael and his angels fighting against Satan and his angels.  You might picture it at first like something out of a Superhero Avengers movie.  But angels are not like God’s security forces who have the best technology, so that in supernatural warfare they are a step ahead of the demons.  In fact, angels have no weapons, no elaborate tactics, no power at all except their mouths speaking God’s words.  That’s what their swords on your bulletin cover represent, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  For again, angels are mouthpieces, beings who repeat what the Lord says–both back to Him in praise, and against the devil for the defense and protection of the children of God.  What does Revelation 12 say?  “They overcame them by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony.”

    You see, what we’re in the middle of in this fallen world is a war of words.  Satan and his demons speak deceptions and lies.  And the angels of God speak the Truth.  And not just any true statement, but the Truth who is also the Way and the Life.  By this Word, they overcome the false, misleading, sabotaging words of the devil.  By this Word of Truth, the father of lies is undone.  By this Word which is Truth in the flesh, who offered up His own sacrificial blood, the ancient accuser is overcome.

    Words are what are flying back and forth in the war between good and evil, between demonic and angelic forces, between Satan and Michael.  Lies and deceptions versus the Truth.  Words that give birth to doubt versus the Word of God that engenders confidence and faith.  Statements designed to obfuscate and divide and create chaos versus the Word that unites and clarifies and creates communion.  Sayings that bring death and hell versus the proclamation of Jesus’ sayings, which are the words of eternal life.

    Perhaps this election season helps us to get a sense of this.  While physical fighting and violence do sometimes occur, politics is primarily about convincing you with words–sometimes accurate words, often deceptive and lying words.  It’s a battle of voices and speech for hearts and minds and votes.

    And in a much greater way, that’s what’s going on in the spiritual realm with regard not to votes but to souls.  Ephesians 6 reminds us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  Sadly, many are drawn away from the faith not by an outright rejection of Christ, but by the sabotaging, undermining deceptions of the evil one that attack the faith of those who are not watchful and wary of the devil’s schemes.  

    Words are the weapons in the battle between heaven and hell, seeking to win your mind and heart.  Words are what either create or destroy your life.  The words “I am the Lord your God; I am with you always; I am gracious and compassionate; I forgive you; I am the Alpha and the Omega; I am coming quickly to give you bodily redemption and resurrection”–those words are Life, Christ filling you with Himself by His Holy Spirit.  And on the other hand, the words of the evil one, “Did God really say. . . ?”  “If you are the Son of God. . .”  “What is truth?”–those words not only deflate hope and introduce doubt.  They seek to bring death to you in place of the Life that our Lord gives.

    I hope you are beginning to see now that what the angels do in a heavenly way, the church is also doing in an earthly way.  It’s the very same battle.  Preachers in particular are given to be messengers of the Word.  Revelation 1 in fact refers to the  pastors of the individual churches as the angels of the churches.  Out there, the fallen angels and those who follow them sling their lies at you from every direction and through every screen.  And then in here and in your Bible reading and devotions, the spoken testimony of God’s Word counters and casts the devil out.  The same thing that defeated the devil and threw him out of heaven is what defeats him here on earth and drives him away from you.  

    This is why we need divine service.  This is why Luther once said, “If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are every moment aimed at you, you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible.”

    Satan is cast out of heaven and defeated by the preaching of the holy cross of Jesus.  For the power of Satan is sin and death.  But Jesus overcame those enemies of yours by dying in your place.  All the power of sin to condemn you, all the judgment you deserve as a result of your sin, Jesus took in His own body and suffered it to death, shedding His blood on your behalf.  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, your sin included.  Sin and Satan and Death are defeated for you.  You are released from their grip and forgiven.  Believing in Christ, you are more than conquerors through Him who loves you.  

    Satan had been accusing mankind before God night and day.  But now he’s evicted.  God’s not listening to the devil’s accusations.  And that means neither should you.  Think about it.  The only reason the devil attacks and accuses you of being a sinner is because you’re the only audience he has left.  The devil is just a sad sack complainer and blamer, who’s always trying to corner you and let you have it.  But God stopped listening to Satan’s accusations when Christ shed his blood and took your sins away.  And because of that blood, you have the right to do likewise.  Don’t give the devil an audience.  His accusations against you don’t stand.  What stands is the life-giving blood of Christ and His cleansing Word.  

    So cling, then, to Christ and His Word.  Don’t become complacent or lazy in your faith.  For the devil won’t stop trying to attack and accuse.  The victory is won by Christ, but there are a few final skirmishes yet to be fought until the end comes when the devil and the demons and all who reject Christ are cast into the lake of fire.  Satan will try again and again to make you stumble and fall with him.  So be sober and watchful. Love not your lives in this world even unto death, sharing in Jesus’ cross, that you may also share forever in His resurrection in the world to come.

    For God is with you now, and so are His holy angels.  You are never alone.  Even when you feel abandoned, unprotected, vulnerable, what the Psalm says is true, “The Lord of hosts is with us.”  He is wherever His little ones of every age who believe in Him go.  And with Him are His hosts of angels.  Those hosts of angels are here right now–Michael, Gabriel, and all the rest.  For they dwell in the presence of Christ, and Christ is here in His words and in the Sacrament; angels and archangels and all the company of heaven are among us.  Whether there are 20 people here or 200, the truth is that there are 10,000 times 10,000 with us for every divine service, if we would but have eyes to see it.

    So let us rejoice today in God’s gift of the angels–His warrior messengers who rejoiced on the day of your Baptism, who rejoice over every sinner who repents and becomes as a little child before the Lord, who delight in pointing you to the body and blood of the Lamb on the altar.  The angels watch over you at the Lord’s command.  They will gather you to Abraham’s bosom on your last day.  They will keep you safe until the Day of our Lord Jesus, the Day when He comes with His angels to raise you bodily from the dead and give you eternal life in His name.  And then together with the angels, you too will behold the face of your Father in heaven.

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

(With thanks to William Cwirla and John Fenton)

(AI Image of archangel Michael from Pixabay.com, free for use and download)

Luke 14:1-14
Trinity 17

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

    What is the purpose of getting friends and co-workers and neighbors together for a meal?  Usually, it’s simply for the enjoyment of one another’s company.  But sometimes, there can be other agendas at work.  What benefit can I gain from the others here?  How can I impress them and be built up in their eyes?  How can I make use of this occasion and turn it to my advantage?  

    It’s that latter thing that is happening in today’s Gospel.  I’m sure all who were present at this meal would have said they were friends.  But they weren’t truly friends.  For what were they doing?  They were jockeying for position, wanting the top spot, jealous of where the others sat.  In our equalitarian, American culture, seating positions aren’t emphasized quite as much–although everyone does usually want to be at or near the head table at the wedding or the awards dinner.  Usually, though, you’ve got to look for other subtler signs of who’s in the position of top dog and who’s lower on the pecking order.  But the same type of thing still goes on.  

    Jesus accepts the invitation to this Sabbath meal from a man who certainly is no real friend of His.  For it says, they were watching Him closely, scrutinizing Him, looking for some flaw to exploit or for some advantage that they could gain from Him.  

    Now, it would be a tradition at meals such as this to leave your door open for a traveler or a poor person to come in if they wished to share in your meal.  Of course, this act of piety was a nice symbolic thing, as long as some stranger or person in need didn’t take this seriously and actually come in.  We’re all for charity for the poor until the poor are at our own doorstep.  Government elites are all for large scale immigration, as long as it doesn’t affect them negatively in their gated communities. Giving a poor man some food at the bottom place or off in the corner could make him feel uncomfortable and speed up his departure.

    It may well be that one such person shows up at this meal with Jesus.  For a certain man with dropsy is there, a condition involving severe retention of fluid in the bodily tissues and joints and extremities.  Jesus isn’t worried about impressing the others or climbing the social ladder.  In all things He’s there to help the lowly.  And so He says, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”  Is it OK for Me to help this man and make him glad?

    Some there didn’t think so.  Healing was work, and there was to be none of that on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees had jacked up the requirements of what it meant to keep the Sabbath.  The day of rest which God appointed for rejoicing in all of His good gifts they had made into a strict performance–only walk so many steps, only allow certain activities.  By keeping their more demanding Sabbath standards, they could then compare themselves to others and find themselves superior–which was really nothing different than their jockeying for the better position at the tables.  

    And before we mock them for their silly, self-exalting ways, isn’t that exactly what we do if we use our church attendance as a way of trying to earn God’s favor?  We try to exalt ourselves by that good work.  And the reverse is also true.  Some people skip church altogether because they want to engage in other recreational activities, or just to have a little “me time.”  They think that’s where they’ll find their rest, rather than in Jesus.  They think can do without divine service because they’re good enough on their own, by their own works.  Pharisaism can afflict us all.

    In spite of the Pharisees’ objections, Jesus heals the man anyway.  And then He gives them an illustration, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”  “That’s work.  And yet you’d do that.  How much more should I heal this human being who is in the pit of a bodily ailment and pain.”  In the supposedly “higher” exercise of their religion, they were actually treating this man worse than they would treat an animal!  

    The fact of the matter is that what Jesus was doing was actually in perfect keeping with the Sabbath.  For the whole purpose of this day of rest is for people to stop their work to focus on God’s work.  The Pharisees failed to see that in Christ God was the one doing the work here.  And that’s exactly what the Sabbath is all about.  We stop our endless, futile efforts and striving so that we might receive good gifts from the Lord of the Sabbath–and not because we’ve got the top spot at the table or because we’ve earned some sort of reward for ourselves by our better living, but simply because Jesus is good and merciful and revels in giving Himself to us, even to those at the bottom of the table, even to us whose bodies and souls are deformed by sin, to us who are constantly justifying ourselves and exalting ourselves.  He has come to release us from that bondage.

    Colossians 2 says, “Sabbaths are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”  The Old Testament day of rest points us forward to Him who is Himself our rest and our peace, namely, Jesus.  So it’s not about following regulations, it’s about receiving the Gospel Word of the Savior who said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  To keep the Sabbath is to keep and hold on to Jesus and to hear and believe His Word.

    That’s why the meaning to the third commandment in the catechism doesn’t mention anything about a day of the week at all, but rather states, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”  Again, the Sabbath day is about you stopping your work and your to-do list and your errands and your recreation and your entertainment–just stopping it all–and God doing His work on you and for you.  And God’s work is to preach His words of repentance and forgiveness, to lead you to see your sin and to rely on Christ ever more deeply who died to make full payment for your sin.  Coming to church is not your occasion to do something for God; it’s God’s occasion to do something for you.

    For the fact of the matter is that when it comes to spiritual and eternal things, you are like that donkey or that ox that has fallen into the pit and cannot get out.  You are in bondage to sin and death, and there’s not a thing you can do to get up over the edge and free.  Your pawing at the sides only makes things worse.  But Christ comes along on the Sabbath and by the power of His descent into the pit of death, He pulls you out through His resurrection, freeing you through the preaching of His Word of forgiveness and the supper of His living body and blood.

    Coming to church, then, is not a Pharasaical burden but a divine gift.  For Jesus is still exercising His authority to heal and restore you.  It’s no wonder that so many people have such a hard time finding rest and peace in their hearts when they cut themselves off from the source by staying away from divine service for weeks and even months at a time.  They don’t yet know the peace and the rest which passes all understanding and which transcends all the daily troubles of this life.  There is no greater calm that one’s conscience can have than in hearing and believing, “Your sins are forgiven through the shedding of Christ’s blood, you are reconciled to God in Jesus.  He is on your side.  He is with you every day that you must yet live in this troubled and fallen world, and He will surely bring you through the crosses of life to share in His bodily resurrection.”  That’s the sure word of Christ to you today.  That is your Sabbath rest, the work of Jesus for you.

    Only that work of Jesus can create true humility in us, that lowliness and gentleness toward one another that the Epistle speaks of.  We can’t work it up in ourselves.  In fact, even if we would make it our goal to become humble and work at it hard every day, we’d never ever be humble, because then we’d be paying attention to ourselves and our own improvement like the Pharisees, which is the opposite of humility.  Anyone who thinks they’re really making progress at being humble and being a better Christian is bound to be a phony pain in the neck rather than a help to those who have to live with them and deal with them every day.

    Only Jesus, true God, who humbled Himself to be born of a Virgin–only He is truly humble, gentle and lowly in heart.  He gives freely and abundantly to us without calculating what’s in it for Him.  And so humility is to be found only by living outside of yourself in Him.  Only in Christ are you freed from the petty rivalries and the manipulating and using of people to show them real love, to do them good and to be a happiness for them without any calculation of their worthiness or whether or not you’ll get anything in return.  That’s what Jesus is talking about when He says to invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind to your feasts.  Be free from considering what you’re going to get out of the deal, and simply pass on the good gifts of God for the benefit of others.  By faith you receive the bounty of what God gives, no strings attached.  By love you get to share His gifts with your neighbor, no strings attached.  

    It’s all grace, the undeserved love of Him who took the lowest place on the cross and has now been exalted to the highest place by His heavenly Father.  And He has raised you up with Himself.  It is written in Ephesians that you who believe are seated with Christ in the heavenly places–a reality that will be revealed to all at the close of the age.  This is what Jesus means when He says, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.”  You who in lowly faith follow Christ and share in His cross in this world will ascend with Him in the next and share in His everlasting life.

    Brothers and sisters in Christ, even now Jesus is here among us at the head of the table.  Take the lowest place, that is, come in all humility before God as a repentant sinner.  Come empty-handed as the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, knowing that there’s no way you’ll ever be able to pay Jesus back, and you will be blessed.  For to every penitent heart He speaks warmly, “Friend, go up higher.”  “Come, share in My honor by receiving My own body and blood.  Be filled with My forgiveness and My life.  Here is your Sabbath rest and healing.  Here is the foretaste of that Last Day when, in the resurrection of the body, you will go up higher forever.”

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

Luke 7:11-17
Trinity 16

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

    Philosophers say that one of the primary things that distinguishes us from the animals is that we live with the full conscious awareness that someday we will die.  That fact, of course, is uncomfortable for us, and so we tend to protect ourselves from death as best we can.  We avoid it.  We don’t think about it.  We ignore the realities of the graveyard.    

    We see that reflected in many of our funeral practices.  Bodies are embalmed to give the appearance that they are not dead, but sleeping–which at least fits in with the Christian teaching that death is a sleep from which we will awaken on the Last Day.  Cremation is sometimes chosen so that family or friends won’t have to be confronted with the reality of a corpse–which does not fit well with the Christian faith’s respect for the body which God created and the belief in the resurrection; plus most people don’t realize that the morticians who do the cremation literally have to grind up the bones since the bones don’t burn to ashes.  Funeral homes are decorated with plush linens and play syrupy background music.  Burial sites are covered with green artificial turf to hide the dark gaping presence of a grave. We try to keep things positive and talk about celebrating life and use euphemisms like “he passed away” rather than state the stark fact that our loved one is dead.

    Up until about 100 years ago, death was not quite as easy for us to avoid.  Death was the rule rather than the exception.  For one thing, the rate of infant deaths was much higher, and it was rare to find a family who hadn’t lost a child somewhere along the way.  In fact if you look at old European paintings of families, which were often wealthy families, you can frequently see one or more children depicted in all white clothing, signifying that they had died.  Disease was a greater threat to everyone back in those days, and it was rare to find a family where an adult had not died prematurely.

    Now, though, we are able to keep death much further away from us.  Today, death seems more the exception than the rule.  Today, death is much more an intruder.  Every now and then, when this intruder breaks into our lives, we’re shocked and surprised, because death seem so contrary to the normal stream of things.  And so we try to rationalize and spiritualize it as if it were somehow natural or good, even though deep down we know it’s not.

    In the Gospel, Jesus and the crowd with Him came face to face with a funeral procession.  A procession of Life confronted a procession of death.  Jesus did not dodge death or ignore it or avoid it or cover up the reality of it.  He didn’t offer the widow some empty words of comfort, that everything would work out OK.  No, He met death head on.  The widow’s son had died, and she was marching with his body into confusion and uncertainty.  But Jesus saw her, and He had compassion on her.  The Greek word here is the strongest word in Greek for compassion.  It means stirred, affected, moved, referring to great depths of feeling and great sympathy.  This widow, you see, didn’t really have a prayer.  She had already lost her husband.  Now the loss of her only son meant that there would be no man to protect and provide for her.  There was no social security and few sources of income for widows.  And in addition to her loneliness and sorrow came the knowledge that her family line had now ended.  The large crowd that followed the widow demonstrated the community’s sympathy with her plight.

    In our losses, we, too, may feel that we don’t have a prayer.  The death of our loved ones leave us hanging.  Relationships grow distant and die.  Grief and loneliness creep in and keep hanging on. Sometimes we just feel all alone.

    That’s what death does to us.  It cuts us off.  It cuts things short.  Romans 5 declares, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”  Death is not natural or good.  It’s the consequence of our rebellion against God.  The widow of Zarephath in today’s Old Testament reading recognized that the death of her son was the result of her fallen condition: “What do you have against me, man of God?  Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”  Romans 6 speaks those familiar words, “The wages of sin is death.”

    However, despite all of this, God takes the initiative and sends His Son to give us life, even without our prayer.  You’ll notice that the widow never said a word to Jesus, never called on Him for help.  It was simply the mercy and compassion of Jesus that moved Him to confront death and deal with it.  This is the story of the Cross, isn’t it–pure grace and undeserved love and help.  It is the cross which shows the depth of God's compassion, where we see the “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.”  It is the cross where God literally stands with us, hip deep in the muck and mire of our human condition.  Just as Jesus touched the casket, so on the cross He touched our death and absorbed it into His own body to save us from it.  Outside the gate of the city, both at Nain and later at Jerusalem, Jesus allowed death to pass from us to Him so that we would be restored to life.  He who cried out in utter forsakenness at Calvary here says to the widow, “Do not weep.”  Because the Savior has shared our sorrows, He has redeemed our sorrows.  Because the Savior has shared our grief, He has redeemed that grief.  Because the Savior has shared in our death, He has redeemed us from death and brought us to share in His bodily resurrection from the dead.

    “Young man, I say to you, arise!”  Jesus’ words accomplished what they said.  They are the words of the Creator who brings life out of nothing.  Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.  And they are words He still speaks to you, “I forgive you all your sins.”  The sinless Son of God does not remain aloof, but comes right to you to take away your uncleanness, your death.  Jesus’ touch raised the widow’s son.  And His baptismal touch raises you also to life eternal, life which transcends all grief and sorrow and restores your hope.  Just as you died with Christ to sin by water and the Word, so also you have been raised with Him out of the water and given a new life of righteousness.  It is written in Romans 6, “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  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.”  That life is yours now by faith, under the cover of physical death which you must still experience.  But the life of Christ will be yours by sight in the age to come at the resurrection.  For Romans 6 goes on, “If we have been united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”

    At the time of our bodily death, our souls will be received into the blessedness of heaven.  And on the Last Day our bodies themselves will be raised from the dead by the power of Christ's own bodily resurrection to live in His glory.  Jesus said of us, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Whoever hears my Word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  No longer are we dead in our trespasses and sins.  God has made us alive in Christ by the forgiveness of our sins.  Just as He said to the widow at Nain, so He says to you, “Don’t weep; for I have come to bring you life.”

    Our Lord confronts you in your dying condition and surprises you with the gift of Himself.  He gives Himself to you in the holy supper, where His living body and blood are fed into your mouths to give you His own life.  He is with you and in you.  Never will He forsake you.  And with His words of life, He gives you a prayer.  He teaches you to call upon God as your Father and to rely on Him in every time of trouble.

    Death has indeed been swallowed up in victory through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  God has visited His people in the most concrete and unexpected way.  By touching us through His Word and Sacraments, He raises us up and creates the faith we need to trust Him to help us through all our earthly losses.  Just as Jesus’ heart went out to the poor widow, so also He mourns with you in your losses and carries you through them to new life.  What a comfort to know that in Jesus, God has rescued you from your sin and death even before you could utter any prayer.  And now He hears and answers your prayers according to His good and gracious will, even the prayers of your heart that words cannot express.

    God has truly visited His people–not in some flash of glory that bowls us over.  God has come to us in a young rabbi named Jesus who shares in the life of His people, who is moved by love, mercy, and compassion for the grief of a widow, who touches her son’s casket, and says, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”  His Word of power is not distant, but personal, not cold, but human, not far away, but up close and real.  God has indeed come to help His people in Jesus Christ.  He is here even now in His flesh and blood to help you, both in this life and in the one to come.

    For now you cannot see Him; you must believe in Him who is present in our midst.  But at the Last Day, you will surely behold your compassionate Lord with your own eyes.  For He will come to the caskets of all who believe and are baptized, and He will say to you, “My brother, my sister, I say to you, arise!”

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

Painting above: James Tissot (Nantes, France, 1836–1902, Chenecey–Buillon, France). The Resurrection of the Widow's Son at Nain (La résurrection du fils de la veuve de Naïm), 1886–1896. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Image: 6 1/8 x 8 5/8 in. (15.6 x 21.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.115 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 00.159.115_PS2.jpg)

Matthew 6:24-34
Trinity 15

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

    In today’s Gospel Jesus says that you are worth more than the birds of the air.  He says, “Are you not of more value than they?”  And the implied answer is “Yes, you absolutely are!”  But why is that exactly?  Why are you of more value than the ordinary sparrow or the scavenging raven or the colorful cardinal or the majestic bald eagle?  The fact is that some today would say that you’re not.  A growing number in our climate change culture would say that human beings have no more value than any other animal, or even plants and trees.  It’s more important to protect unhatched bald eagle eggs than it is to protect unborn children.  An animal has just as much of a right to make its home in a particular habitat as you do.  And of course, it is true that we do have the responsibility to be good caretakers and stewards of God’s creation.  But the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) message that is communicated is that you’re actually not more valuable than the birds, especially since there are so many of you humans.  You’re no more valuable than a dog or a dolphin or an ancient tree.  You’re just an incredibly minor blip on the evolutionary timeline.

    Where is that we are to find our value and our worth?  People can tell us that we’re special or unique or important, but we know that doesn’t really mean much unless it’s based on something real.  What is it that makes you worth something?  We often try to find the answer by looking to our own qualities–our intelligence or our good looks or our creativity and talents.  Or we define our worth by our value to others–I’m needed at my job, or I have an important role in my family, or my friends and neighbors depend on me.  And that’s all fine and good.  But what happens if you begin to lose your mental acuity or your money or your looks?  What happens if you’re no longer needed at your job, and your family and friends don’t depend on you as much as they once did?  Have you suddenly lost your worth?  Certainly not!

    The one who defines your true worth is not you or others, but God Himself.  Your value comes from the Holy Trinity and is grounded in Him.  The fact that He loves you makes you lovely.  The fact that He treasures you makes you a treasure.  Jesus says to each of you here, from the unborn to the aged, “You are of more value and worth than you can fully know.”

    You who are gathered here are children of the heavenly Father, as we just sang.  And don’t discount that phrase or make it into some generic platitude.  You get to address the God of all creation, the Almighty Maker of the universe, as Father, Dad.  You are His children.  You have the key to the house.  You have the code to the door.  You have a spot at the table.  

    Here are three reasons why you get to call yourselves children of God.  First, He created you.  He knit you together in your mother’s womb.  And when He hand-made you like that, He did so in His own image.  That’s one of the key things that distinguishes you from the animals.  No animal was created in God’s image, not even your pets.  But you were.  You’re not just a highly developed animal; you’re a reflection of God Himself.  

    Now it is true that this image has been broken in you because of your sin; and that’s no small thing.  Like a shattered mirror, the image we reflect is disjointed and distorted and all out of place.  We’re all bent and turned in ourselves, like something from a fun house mirror in a horror movie.  But that brings us, then, to the second reason why we are children of the heavenly Father: Jesus has restored the image of God to our humanity.  This, too, is what distinguishes us from every other creature.  The Son of God did not become any of the animals, or even an angel.  The only Son of the Father, through whom all things were created, entered into His creation and took our humanity into Himself, becoming a true flesh and blood man.  And in that way humanity was restored.  Colossians 1 says that Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  Jesus wasn’t just born in the image of God; He is the image of God.  And so that image has been imprinted again on our humanity in Him.  

    If that doesn’t give you a sense of value and worth, I don’t know what will.  The Son of God has made Himself to be your flesh and blood, your blood brother.  He died in the flesh for you as your substitute to break sin’s curse; He shed His blood on the cross to cleanse you and reconcile you to the Father.  He rose again with His truly human body to restore your humanity to the fullness of life with God forever.  No other creature in the universe can say that!  Only human beings, only you can say that God shares in your nature in the person of Jesus.  

    And it gets even better.  Here’s the third thing, the clincher: this crucified and risen Jesus,  who is the image of God–you have been baptized into Him.  You are literally in the image of God, in Jesus, God’s Son, and so you truly are children of God through Him.  There’s only one child of God, one Son of God.  But through your baptismal union with Him, you are all brothers and sisters of Christ, and therefore you are children of the heavenly Father.  Here is something that gives you the greatest value: God Himself chose you personally and adopted you at the font by His Holy Spirit.  He put His name on you by water and the Word.  Think of it in terms of an auction.  If no one’s bidding, the item is worth little or nothing.  But when the billionaire steps in and shows interest, the item’s value skyrockets.  God has stepped in and shown more than just an interest in you.  He has bought you and claimed you as His own and brought you into the household through Christ.  The family name is yours.  You are royalty in the house of the King of kings.

    So, the question Jesus asks in today’s Gospel, then, is pointed: “Why do you worry. . .?”  Really.  Why?  The only way that you can worry is if you forget who you are in Christ and whom you belong to, if you start living as if mammon is your lord rather than God, as if the things of creation determine your identity and your worth rather than your Creator and Redeemer.  Your heavenly Father knows what you need.  Romans 8 says, “If God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”  

    To live in the way of worry is to live like the pagans, who believe it all depends on their planning and efforts and manipulation and control of the powers that be.  Their focus is on this world, so full of change and decay, rather than on Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever, trusting in Him.  Jesus Himself exhorts us, “Do not worry about tomorrow.  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

    We seek first the things of God, because He sought us first.  He seeks first your salvation.  Through Christ’s death and resurrection, the old perishable order of things has passed away and all things have become new.  You who are in Christ are righteous in God’s sight, a new creation.

    In this new creation our Lord clothes and feeds you marvelously and abundantly.  Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink.”  Don’t be anxious about such things, because Christ faithfully gives you to eat of His body and drink of His blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  Your life is forever safeguarded by His own life which He puts into you under the bread and wine.  How can you worry about daily bread when you are given to partake of the Living Bread which came down from heaven?  Any anxiety you have about your life has to fade into the background as you hear Christ's words, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

    In the same way, our Lord also says, “(Do not worry) about your body, what you will put on.”  You need not be anxious about clothing, either, for it is written, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”  You were robed in Christ’s righteousness at the font, the garments of the Savior that will never wear out or fade in glory as worldly fashions do.  How can you fret about clothes when you’ve been given such divine, royal apparel?

    In fact, we eagerly await the day when we can be rid of our mortal clothing–this perishable flesh and blood–and put on our new and everlasting clothing in the resurrection of the body.  It is written in 1 Corinthians 15, “The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. . .  Then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ . . .  Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

    This is your true identity.  This is where your value and worth come from, from the work of the Blessed Holy Trinity for you.  The Father Himself made you and formed you in your mother’s womb; you’re His handiwork.  The Son redeemed you by sharing fully in your humanity, sacrificing His flesh and blood on your behalf.  And the Holy Spirit has sanctified you, clothing you with Christ, bringing you to faith and into the family of God.  You are of the greatest value and worth to Him.  And that means that the life He has given you in this world has real purpose and value as you live in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward one another.  Even your ordinary daily vocations are rich with meaning, because God Himself is at work in and through you for the good of your neighbor.

    So do not worry.  Let your fears be turned to faith.  Let your anxiety be turned to confidence in the Father’s loving care.  Cast all your care on Him, for He cares for you.  The One who even looks after the sparrow says in Matthew 10, “Do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.”

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