Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 29^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches, Custer and Hill City, SD
Deuteronomy 4:1-9, Ephesians 6:10-20 and Mark 7:14-23
Of Armor and Clothing

   Do this!  Don’t do that!  Keep my rules!  Obey my statutes!  Eat this, but don’t eat that!  Be different!  Put on the whole armor of God, fight the good fight of faith, and stand against the devil.  But don’t be fooled!  Wickedness doesn’t come from outside you.  Evil doesn’t get into you through what you eat.  No, Jesus tells us, evil rises up from the inside, from your own heart. 

   Is this the Gospel of the Lord?  Is being a Christian all about keeping rules, and being a
good person?  Sometimes it seems like it.  We don’t wear armor, but what we wear does seem to matter.  Some clothes are inappropriate for Church.  And there are some clothes are inappropriate for a Christian, no matter where they are.  And at different times we must wear certain things.  We make our confirmands wear a gown, a white garment, over their clothes.  We even dress our church furniture in a certain way, putting paraments, these fancy fabric coverings, over the altar and pulpit, color coordinated to the season and the Sunday.  And of course, there’s the pastor’s clothes.  Why do I wear black underneath, and a shirt with a funny collar, and a white gown or robe over the top, with a stole, and a crucifix to boot?  And that I look a certain way isn’t just important to me.  There are multiple people at both congregations, and you know who you are, who are carefully watching, every Sunday, trying to make sure I’m dressed properly, with the right color stole, and everything hanging straight, everything in its place.  What’s all this about?  

   None of this stuff is the Gospel.  As we learned in Catechism class, the Gospel is what God does for us, in and through Jesus, to save us from our sins, and give us eternal joy.  The things we do, the clothes we wear, the way we behave, none of these things can save us.  Now, just because something isn’t the Gospel doesn’t mean it isn’t important. 

But we need to understand the difference, and not get things mixed up.  The traditions handed down by God are the Word of Christ, and Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, along with gathering together to receive God’s gifts, and going out to serve others and speak about Christ Jesus.  These are essential.  Other traditions need to be considered in light of these traditions we’ve received from the Lord. 

   So why do we do some of the things we do in Church, or as Christians?  Well, that’s too big a question for one sermon.  But let’s just start today with what I wear, and see if we can extract some guiding principles or helpful insights.  

   We could have entirely different traditions concerning clerical clothing.  Pastors could all wear sky-blue jumpsuits and shave their heads.  If, with this alternate clergy appearance tradition, the Word and Sacraments of Jesus were still in the center, and so sinners believed the Gospel and were moved to love and serve their neighbors and speak the Gospel in their daily lives, then great.  But what if I came out next Sunday with a bald head and a blue jumpsuit?  I think that would be distracting.  It would get in the way of you receiving Christ’s gifts, simply because it’s not our tradition. 

   What’s going on with all of this?   

   First, there is value in people of a given calling, a given type of servant, wearing an identifiable uniform.  Uniforms are valuable for the wearer and for those he or she serves.  If you are terribly sick in the hospital and someone in street clothes comes in and starts messing with your I.V., you might panic, and rightly so.  But that same person, dressed in scrubs and a lab coat, with a hospital nametag hanging from their neck, is an image of blessing, a nurse or a doctor trained and called to care for you.  The uniform doesn’t make the particular nurse or doctor competent; but it is helpful for everyone, for maintaining order and calm, especially in an urgent situation. 

   In a similar vein, I try always to go to hospitals and nursing homes in a black clerical
shirt with a crucifix hanging around my neck.  That way, patients and residents know right away, even when their sight grows dim, what I’m there to do.  It’s not that I couldn’t visit and serve in a shirt and tie, or even a Sturgis Rally t-shirt.  But my clerical shirt serves as a symbol, and an invitation to ask for a word of Scripture and prayer.  Which happens a lot.      

   Now, to be clear, black clerical shirts aren’t Biblical.  But there is a history of very specific uniforms in the Bible.  The Aaronic priests in the Old Testament, and in particular the High Priest, had to wear a very specific set of clothes.  The various items in the High Priest’s uniform were jammed packed with symbolism, all relating to God’s care for His people Israel, through the sacrificial worship system that the priests conducted.  Indeed, his uniform pointed forward to and help us understand our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who offered Himself as the once for all sacrifice, for the sins of the whole world.    

   But the New Testament priests aren’t the pastors.  No, St. Peter tells us that all believers are members of the New Testament priesthood.  So Christian pastors don’t dress up like Aaron and his descendants. 

   The Old Testament has been fulfilled 100% by Jesus.  Now the only sacrifice God’s priests offer is the sacrifice of praise, the task for eternity of all believers, the royal priesthood gathered around the throne of grace.  So maybe you all want to get fitted for a turban, like Aaron wore, and an ephod, whatever that is.  Or maybe you just want to faithfully sing your Savior’s praises. 

   Still, uniforms are valuable.  In our Epistle we hear Paul using the uniform and equipment of a soldier symbolically, as a teaching tool to help Christians understand how to live.  Put on the full armor of God.  But the Holy Spirit in the New Testament does not specify a uniform for pastors and bishops.  The identifying mark of a faithful servant of the Word is sticking to the pure Law and Gospel teaching of Christ and working vigorously to make Christ known.  The critical task of the men serving in the Office of Holy Ministry that Christ established is to be His faithful public spokesmen.  Distinctive clothing for called and ordained ministers didn’t come till a few centuries into Christian history. 

   Over time, as the Church developed traditions concerning what clergy wear, both on Sunday and during the week, another advantage of this tradition was simply the visual acknowledgement of history and tradition.  In an ever-changing world, the fact that pastors look a certain way is a visual affirmation of the timeless and unchanging value of the pure Gospel.  Sticking to traditional clothing reminds us that the Church which gathers today is the same Church, with the same Savior, that gathered 1,000 years ago, 1,500 years ago, and at Pentecost.  

   O.k.  Beyond being a recognizable uniform, and portraying a link back to the very beginning of Christianity, what does the clothing our pastors wear intend to communicate?  Why black clothes?  This is a strong, although not universally followed tradition.  Well, I’ve heard it argued that black is a formal color, and reflects well the proper reverence with which we conduct the services of the Lord God Almighty.  O.k., maybe.  But the more valuable symbolism of a pastor wearing black is that it reflects the reality that every pastor is a sinner.  Nothing in or of the man who is placed in the pastoral office makes him worthy to serve, nor holier than other believers.  When you see a pastor dressed as a man in black, don’t imagine you’re seeing a holy man, and don’t think of Johnny Cash.  Rather, think of Adam, and the sin our first forefather passed down to all of us.  The man serving as pastor isn’t special.  The special one is the Savior whom that pastor is called to proclaim.  

   Pastors often dress in black shirts, but not 100% black.  There at the neck, sometimes just a little tab, sometimes a ring all the way around, there is a bit of white.  What’s that about? 

   When you see the white at the top of a pastor’s clerical shirt, think of the voice box that lies just beneath it.  For the pastor is called to speak of the Holy One, Jesus Christ.  When you see a pastor, in a clerical shirt or not, try your best to overlook the limitations of the man, and listen carefully for the pure message of Christ for us, our righteousness and justification, our redemption and sanctification.  Christ our life. 

   On Sundays and other times we gather as God’s people in this place to receive His gifts and sing our thanks and praise, our tradition is to cover up the pastor’s black clothes with a blanket of white.  The white robe, alb or surplice that the pastor wears serves two useful purposes. 

   First of all, have you ever noticed how the differences between our bodies get hidden when we wear a big robe?  A number of pastors all wearing white robes, or the members of a choir all dressed in the same robe tend to blend together. It does not matter one bit whether your pastor is short or tall, thin or hefty, stocky or sleight.  After all, we don’t come to church for their looks.  We gather to hear Jesus and receive His forgiving love, through the pastor’s service. 

  Secondly, like a white Baptismal gown, or the white Confirmation gown, the pastor covers himself in white on Sunday to remind you of Christ’s righteousness, which is yours by Baptismal faith.  The forgiving love of Jesus is what enables any man to serve as a pastor.  Christ’s forgiving love is what makes all of us worthy to stand in the presence of God.  A white overgarment of some sort is the perfect symbol to accompany the preaching of the forgiveness of sins. 

   One more thing.  Most pastors wear a big Cross or a Crucifix on Sunday morning, because we, with St. Paul, preach Christ crucified, foolishness to wise and reasonable Greeks, and offensive to works righteous Jews.  But to those who believe, Greek and Jew alike, Christ is the power and wisdom of God, the very revelation of God’s mysterious love, hanging on a Roman Cross.  Wearing or displaying a visual replica of the moment when God so loved the world is a good thing.  Both a crucifix and an empty cross deliver the same message:  God’s Son loved you by dying in this way, to take away your sins.    

   We could talk about stoles, or the cincture, that rope belt that many pastors wear, or the reverential bowing and making the sign of the cross, and on and on.  But enough for today.  None of these things we wear or do have the power to save.  But they can teach, and remind, and then be a comfort, because of their association with the Truth of Jesus and His saving blood.  Their value lies in their clear connection to the unchanging Word of Christ. 

   Kind of like Paul using the armor of God as a metaphor to encourage us to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.  All of our good traditions help us hear and understand and believe the promises of God’s Word.  So let’s close by hearing Paul’s encouragement again.    

   Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness.  As shoes for your feet, put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  Always carry the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming, accusing darts of the evil one.  Put on the helmet of salvation, it is yours in Christ, and wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Pray at all times in the Spirit, and keep alert with all perseverance, praying to God for all the saints.   And pray also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, as I ought.  And through us, sinners that we are, Christ will continue to build His Church, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

 

When Jesus Comes to Your Wedding
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 22^nd, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Ephesians 5:22-33
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD

What happens when Jesus comes to your wedding? 

   Pastor Anderson and Liz don’t want me to preach about them.  But, the assigned Epistle reading for this Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, which also happens to be the second day of their 51^st year of wedded bliss, is Paul’s famous instructions for husbands and wives in Ephesians 5, instructions which quickly veer off into a profound teaching about Christ and His love for us, His Church.  Nobody but the Holy Spirit chose that marriage would be prominent in the readings on this weekend of the Anderson’s Golden Anniversary.  And we, the Church, the Bride of Christ, must celebrate marriage, marriage as God instituted it.  Because nobody else is going to do it.  But everyone needs marriage. 

 
 We must celebrate marriage, because it is vital, absolutely critical for our society, and even more, absolutely essential as one of Lord’s favorite ways of teaching us about His great love for us sinners.  So, while I thank God for the double reason to preach Christ through the lens of Biblical marriage this morning, and although I am glad we can be a part of Bob and Liz’s celebration, this sermon isn’t about them, nor especially for them.  It is no more for Bob and Liz that it is for all of you, man or woman, adult or child, single, married, divorced or widowed.  Because marriage is important for all of us, both now, and forever and ever. 

   So what does happen when Jesus comes to your wedding?  Our Hymn of the Day is a lyric telling and interpretation of the Wedding at Cana from John’s Gospel, chapter two.  As we discussed last Sunday, Mary and Jesus and His disciples attend a wedding in Cana, and when the wine runs out, threatening to ruin the reception party, Jesus’ mother asks Him to help.  Which He does, by turning the water in six large stone jars into excellent wine. 

   In this miraculous sign, Jesus does three things: 

          He provides an immediate earthly blessing to the newlyweds, and their guests;

          He hints at the mysteries of Baptism and the Eucharist that He would later                        establish;         

         and He causes His disciples to believe in Him. 

    Earthly Blessing, Sacramental Connection, and Faith.  These are, not coincidentally, what make marriage the blessing that it is.  

Earthly Blessing: 

   God created marriage, and cares about every marriage.  In John 2 we see how Jesus helps the unnamed couple in a relatively unimportant matter.  Jesus does it because He is pro-marriage.  God desires to bless people in and through marriage.  And being husband and wife provides many blessings, today, to believer and unbeliever.  Earthly blessings, like the economic advantage of being married.  On average, people who get and stay married end up far wealthier.  There’s also the blessing of greater daily satisfaction, companionship and partnership that married couples enjoy.  And as God grants, the blessing of children, vital to the future of every nation.  This shouldn’t be a news flash, but it kind of is and so we need to say it and repeat it: traditional marriage and family are the foundation of good society.  Not political philosophy, not social welfare programs, not capitalism.  No, regardless of our form of government or the nature of our culture, good societies are built on the backs of strong, traditional families, which are the only proven place to consistently raise good citizens. 

   The fraying and tension we see in America today, the racial and political violence, the increased addiction and deaths of despair, the generational poverty that plagues both the inner city and many parts of rural America, all of these ills are in significant measure fruit of the disastrous attacks on traditional marriage and family of the last 50 years.  Lord have mercy on us.

   And let us not forget that for all the earthly blessings it provides, God loves Holy Matrimony because God loves babies.  God instituted marriage to be the source of new souls, the place where children are raised in the fear and knowledge of the Lord, a new generation of people to be loved and blessed by God.  Before sin came into the world, growing the People of God, the Church, simply would have required husbands and wives to have babies.  Now in our fallen world, Church growth is trickier; but it is still significantly linked to babies. 

     We don’t live in paradise, but rather in this broken world.  Everything, including marriage, is hard.  We all have our problems and failures.  I want to be careful to say that being loved by God, being saved, does not depend on being married, or on making your marriage work.  Your value before God depends entirely on Jesus and His forgiving love, period.  Marriage is a blessing.  But not everyone will or should get married.  Still, all of us benefit from Godly marriages. 

Sacramental Connection:  As Paul teaches us today, a marriage is an icon, an image, a picture of God’s love for the Church.  As any long-married couple will tell you, a Christian marriage seems like a miracle.  Paul plainly states that it is a mystery, which reveals God and His attitude toward us.  And what a wonderful mystery Holy Matrimony is.  It does not directly deliver the Gospel to sinners like Baptism or the Lord’s Supper.  But almost.  A Sacrament, according to St. Augustine, is when God has attached His salvation promises to physical things, like water, bread and wine.  At Cana, Jesus hints at His coming sacramental gifts to the Church.  He turns water to wine, which might remind us of wine in the Lord’s Supper, which God makes also to be the forgiving blood of Jesus.  Or Cana might remind you of the washing with water for salvation in Baptism.  What happened at Cana is not either Sacrament, but it does prepare us to understand and cherish them when Jesus later gives them to His Church.

    At the wedding in Cana, the Lord revealed His attitude toward marriage.  And, as Paul teaches us, in Christian marriage, Jesus gives a picture of His commitment to His Bride the Church.  While your Lord Jesus has ascended into heaven to prepare a place for you, He has not left you.  He has not abandoned His Bride, the Church.  He is with us always, through His Word and in His Sacraments, truly present to give new birth to sinners in Holy Baptism, comforting and teaching us with Word of His Father’s love, and feeding the family with salvation when we gather to eat and drink at Christ’s table, a foretaste of the heavenly wedding banquet to come.  Do you notice all the family life imagery that comes with the Gospel in all its forms?

Faith.  All the blessings of being part of God the Father’s family come to us by faith.  He who believes in Jesus the Savior has crossed from death to life, and entered the Kingdom of God.  At Cana, and from Paul we see how Holy Matrimony is used by the Spirit as a catalyst for faith. 

   Jesus in our Gospel reading today warns us not to pit man-made traditions against the commandments of God.  We should also remember that old fashioned traditions can be Godly.  Christian marriage is a Godly tradition, passed down to us by the Creator.  And as we try to live out God’s way of marriage, we see other human traditions that reflect Godliness.  Like holding out for the conversion of one’s desired spouse, so that both husband and wife will be bound together not only by their mutual love, but also by the love of Christ.  My own father was not baptized until the week before he married my mom, and he was then faithful in the Church until his death.  It is not a sin to be married to an unbeliever, but the couple that prays together in the true faith enjoys great advantages.

   Marriage also is God’s tool for outreach through observation.  Neighbors, family and friends can see in a Christian marriage the forgiveness, commitment and love that empower a couple to stay together, through thick and thin, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, good times and bad.  A Christian marriage leads others to want what they see, which is God’s invitation not only to a good earthly marriage, but to discover the Savior who is the third strand holding every Christian couple together.  Christian marriage helps draw unbelievers to the Faith.  

    Finally, there’s submission.  We can’t talk about marriage and Ephesians 5 without tackling submission.  Satan has managed to get us pretty twisted up over this word, so that what is truly a blessing from God is seen as oppressive.  May the Holy Spirit help us this morning to gain a better understanding of His truth about Christian submission. 

   First of all, if we go back one verse before the start of our Epistle, to Ephesians 5:21, we learn that submission is for all Christians.  We all submit to God, and to each other according to our vocations.  Submission is Godly and good.  Indeed, Jesus submits in all things to His Father, and there is nothing demeaning or negative or less-than in our Lord’s submission.  Jesus is one with the Father.  He is equally God, equal in glory, eternity and power.  And yet, as the perfect Son, Jesus eternally submits to His Father, with joy.  And that is good. 

   Indeed, the Gospel of our salvation is the story of Jesus’ willing and loving submission to His Father’s will.  Anything that is negative about submission comes from human sin.  Jesus’ willing submission to the Father’s plan had a negative side.  Saving us was terribly painful for Jesus, but only because of our sin. 

    Submission between human beings, including between Christians, including the submission of the wife to the role of her husband, can become negative when people abuse their position and authority.  But this is not Godly submission, for God does not abuse.  Abusing another person is sin.  Notice that Paul says the wife is to submit to her husband as [she submits] to the Lord.  There is nothing negative, but only blessing, in our submission to Christ.  Paul is not endorsing wives putting up with abusive husbands, not at all. 

   I mean, consider Paul’s instruction to husbands.  While the wife is called to submit as to the Lord, who is perfect and good, the husband is called to sacrifice his life for his wife, as Jesus did for the Church, for all of us, despite the fact that we are all by nature unfaithful sinners.  So who is Paul asking more from, the wife or the husband? 

   Paul then moves to proclaiming the Gospel, Christ’s love for His Church.  Because, as valuable as marriage is, it does not save.  Only the Gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins can save.  Paul knows, just like we all do, that no mere human husband is perfect, nor any wife.  He upholds the ideal marriage for the sake of proclaiming Christ and His forgiving love, through the same icon of marriage.  Indeed, the perfection, the holiness, that we can claim as Church is entirely received.  It is Christ’s perfection, His righteousness and holiness, which is declared to be ours by our faith and union with the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  

   And so Paul at the end of the passage returns to his specific day to day advice for husbands and wives with adjusted language, adjusted for the realities of this life.  “Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”  This accommodation to the realities of life in this world does not downplay the profound blessing and mystery of marriage, that the two, by God’s plan and will, become one-flesh, a picture of Jesus’ love for and union with His Bride, the Church. 

   And what a wonderful world it would be if the Christian husband did a better job in his most important role, which is, in partnership with his wife, to lead his family to God, to be the spiritual leader who encourages and teaches and helps all his family stay connected to Christ and His Gospel. 

   This is a high and difficult calling.  No husband or wife fulfills their role perfectly.  Thanks be to God, there is in Jesus relief from our failures and imperfections.  Marriage is one of God’s favorite images to communicate the Gospel.  But salvation does not depend on you and me having perfect marriages.  In a mysterious way, the value of marriage for the Gospel depends on us not being perfect.  For it is when the world sees forgiveness in action that marriage really does its great work.  The powerful evangelistic potential of a Christian marriage is forgiveness and dependence on God’s Word and Sacrament, displayed for the world to see.  It is in Gospel motivated selfless mutual service between husband and wife, over decades, done simply because this man or this woman is the one that my Savior has brought to me.  It is husband and wife submitting to God’s good plan, because we believe it is best. 

   So whatever your experience with marriage has been,

          whether you have had to overcome the problems of your parent’s marriage,

          or if you have suffered, or caused, real pain in your own marriage,

          whether you are young and confused about marriage,

          or whether you are living as though you are married without making the public         commitment that is the marriage ceremony,

whatever your issues with marriage might be, and we all have them, know this: 

     Your Bridegroom, your Savior, Jesus Christ the Son of God, has taken all your imperfections, all your weaknesses, all your sins, upon Himself. 

   On the Cross He paid in blood and death the dowry price required to have you as His very own, to live with Him in righteousness and blessedness, today, and forever and ever.     

   You are forgiven, in and by Jesus, and so you are freed to pursue Godliness, whether you are married or single. 

   You are precious to God the Father, for Jesus’ sake. 

   You are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, who will guard and keep you in the one true faith, until the Bridegroom comes again, to take you and all the members of His Bride the Church, to live with Him in the glory of His heavenly home, in purity and joy, where death cannot part you from God or any good thing, forever and ever, Amen.

Listening to Mary, Listening to Jesus, a Sermon for a combined celebration of St. Mary and the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

 Mary, Mother of Our Lord and the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 15^th, A+D 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
 
Listening to Mary, Listening to Jesus

   August 15^th is a special day, the day we remember and celebrate Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.  August 15^th also stands out for me, as it was the first Sunday that I preached as a called and ordained servant of the Word.  I started with Mary.  Then, after 10 years I went to Spain, the Land of Mary, to serve the tiny Spanish Evangelical Lutheran Church.  So rightly understanding Mary, her role, her example, and the way she points us to her Son have been, since the beginning of my ministry, especially important topics for me. 

    Important, but not always easy.  Sadly, we Christians have been arguing about how we should understand and celebrate St. Mary since the earliest centuries of our history.  Is Mary rightly called the “Mother of God”?  Are we to pray to her?  Is she sinless?  Should we even pay her any extra attention at all?  Since the schism in the Western Church that resulted from Luther’s rediscovery of the truth of the Gospel in the 16^th Century, the debate over Mary has largely fallen into two camps. 

    On the one side, the Church of Rome, especially in the centuries following the Reformation, doubled down on their focus on Mary, formally declaring her to have been conceived and to have lived without sin.  After she died and was buried, it was also said that she had been bodily resurrected and ascended above, to be crowned Queen of Heaven by God the Father and Jesus.  Rome holds Mary forth as a necessary mediator for Christians, someone who must be prayed to, so that her influence might lead God to hear our prayers.  And of course, it is said she has appeared on earth to people numerous times through the centuries, seemingly always giving special new rules to live by, to really make God happy.  Coincidentally, this has led to a boatload of Mary Shrines, and a worldwide religious tourism industry. A few Roman Catholics even want to designate Mary as Co-Redemptrix, a second Savior figure alongside her Son.  Lord have mercy. 

     On the other side, many Protestant Churches, reacting to the errors just listed, have swerved off the road in the opposite direction.  Many downplay Mary’s importance, and accuse anyone who praises her of idolatry.  Mary, for some Protestants, is nothing more than a Jewish peasant girl chosen by God for a particular task, but really no big deal.  Which is weird.  I mean, Mary, after a miraculous, unique-in-all-human-history virgin conception, gave birth to God’s Son, the Savior of the world.  Kinda seems like a big deal.  If we are going to look up to Moses, or John the Baptist, or the Apostle Paul, it seems like Mary would also be worthy of our attention and praise.     

      I would suggest that the right perspective on Mary lies between the two mistaken camps of Rome and the Protestants.  And the way to find this correct middle way is, no big surprise here, to carefully look to Scripture. 

    From Scripture we come to realize that humble Mary is chosen by God to fulfill an indispensable role in the Promise spoken first to the serpent in the Garden, that the Seed of the woman would crush Satan’s head.  Mary is the culmination of the primary task of the nation of Israel, which was to provide the human lineage of the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed Savior, of Israel, and of the whole world.  Our God and Savior took up nine months’ residence in Mary’s womb.  She is indeed most highly favored among all women, faithful and self-sacrificing; we should look to Mary as the highest example of both faith and works.  We already see her faith, and the good works she would do, foreshadowed in her words to the angel Gabriel, when she first learned of her calling to be the mother of God’s Son: “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your word.”  God has honored and worked through Mary in a unique, mysterious and tremendous way, and so we rightly honor her, and seek to imitate her faith and her faithfulness. 

    Most helpful in understanding how we are to relate to Mary is simply to listen to her, as she speaks in the Bible.  Mary doesn’t say a lot that the Holy Spirit caused to be recorded as Scripture.  For our Introit today we used the Magnificat, Mary’s Song, the song of the faithful sinner who looks with confidence to the promised salvation of the Lord, which would come through the baby boy she would bear, in the fullness of time.  Mary’s soul, and ours, magnify the Lord, because Christ the Savior is born, for us.  

    Mary only speaks a couple of other times in Scripture.  And what might be Mary’s last word to us?  The final Scriptural words of Jesus’ mother came at the wedding at Cana, when the wine ran out, and the joy of the newlyweds was going to be spoiled.   Mary asks Jesus to help, “They have no wine.”  Jesus’ reply to her is mysterious, and hard to understand: “Woman, what does this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.”  But in faith and confidence that Jesus would do just the right thing, Mary turned to the servants at the wedding and said: “Do whatever He tells you.”

    Do whatever Jesus tells you.  Listen to Jesus, and follow Him.  Learn from Him and seek to obey His word.  This is Mary’s final word to us, and it is good advice indeed.  The very best.  Thank you, Mary. 

    Not that doing what Jesus tells you to do is easy.  Sometimes, sure.  The servants at the wedding in Cana received a simple task:  fill up these six water jars to the top, and then take some of the water turned into the very best wine to the master of the feast.  Simple enough, and pretty cool.  Mary’s tasks were harder.  Be my mother, Jesus told her, through the angel Gabriel.  And then have a sword pass through your own soul, as Mary heard through the prophet Simeon.  Being the mother of the baby serenaded by angels and worshiped by shepherds would be terribly painful for Mary.  Bad enough must have been suffering the gossip of her neighbors, who assumed Joseph had fathered her child, before they were wed.  Or the flight to Egypt, protecting the Child from hateful King Herod.  Far worse, Mary would one day watch helplessly as Jesus suffered shame and scorn and was tortured, and then died on a Roman cross.  

    What about you?  Do you like listening to Jesus and doing what He tells you?  Love your neighbor, even when it costs you time and effort and money.  Love your enemies, pray for them and do good to them.  Give to Caesar, that is, the government, what belongs to the Caesar.  Which means pay your taxes and obey the law.  Stick with the wife or husband God gave you.  Flee from sin.  Indeed, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out!  Better to go into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than with two eyes to enter forever the Kingdom of Satan.  We struggle to do the things we know the Lord has told us to do.  But our struggle doesn’t change the fact that we should listen and do what Jesus tells us. 

    But that’s not the hardest part.  Today in John 6 we hear what for many is the most difficult thing that Jesus tells us to do.  Jesus said to them, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.... Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” We struggle and fail to avoid sin and keep God’s commandments about how we are to live.  But these words at least make sense to us.  Honor your father and your mother.  Do not commit adultery.  Do not steal.  Do not lie to hurt your neighbor.  Reasonable enough.  But feed on Jesus’ flesh?  Drink His blood?  This is immoral, forbidden.  Truly, this is a hard teaching.  How can a reasonable, intelligent person accept this?  

     Well, Jesus’ words aren’t really meant for reasonable, intelligent people.  Jesus’ words are for dying sinners.  Which is why many of Jesus’ followers very reasonably grumbled and turned away from the path, when Jesus insisted that His flesh is real food and His blood real drink.  How could a self-respecting, moral and intelligent person accept such a thing?  What kind of people does He think we are?  Jesus knows how hard His words are, and yet vital for salvation.  So He turns to the Twelve and asks, “What about you?  Are you going to leave me, too?”

   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and Peter begins to show such wise, soul-saving fear when he cries out to Jesus:  Lord, to whom shall we go?  You (and only you) have the words of eternal life!  It doesn’t completely make sense to us, but we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.  Peter and the 12 have no where else to turn. 

    Notice Peter doesn’t claim to understand, or be entirely comfortable with what Jesus has told them to believe and do. He cannot, by his own reason or strength, believe in or stay with Jesus.  But the Holy Spirit has called Peter by the power of the Gospel.  Which isn’t a happy story about how God is going to help you be all you can be, keep His rules and so make your way into His favor.  No, the Gospel is the sword that pierces Mary’s soul, the frightening plan of God to save us from death, not just physical death, but rather eternal death, forever and ever separation from God and every good thing. 

   Life comes from the Lord, and is intended to be lived as God commands.  But we are dying sinners, flesh, blood and spirit sinners, who cannot keep God’s commandments.  So the Lord became flesh and blood, our Brother, in order to defeat and reverse our sin and our death with His own sinless life, death and resurrection.   Jesus gave His flesh on the Cross for the life of the world, so that now we can eat and drink this same Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all our sins.  This is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last of Jesus’ words to us, the beginning and the end of the Gospel. 

    Is there anything to which we can compare this hard teaching?  Not perfectly, but one thing does come to mind:  Chemotherapy.  Due to the blessings of modern medicine, we have come to believe and trust that by taking in chemicals, poisonous chemicals, a person dying from cancer can be cured.  Doctors are getting better and better at it, but in the end, chemotherapy is still taking poison in hopes that the cancer will be killed before the patient.  It is a hard teaching.  Similarly, the ancient church called the Lord’s Supper the Medicine of Immortality.  In every other case, eating the flesh and blood of a man is prohibited by God and threatened with destruction.  But in this one unique, mysterious and tremendous case, God Himself gives us His Body and Blood, once given into the Cross, in order to rescue us sinners from eternal death.  The Medicine of Immortality.  Eat this flesh in faith, and you will live forever, with God, in paradise. 

    All the rules for living that our Lord has given us, as good and true and right as they are, must follow and be empowered by the Bread of Life, come down from heaven.  There is no other way, no other path to life that we can walk.  If we consider our works as qualification for God’s favor, then our works are pitiful and useless.  But by God’s grace we begin to obey the Law and serve our neighbors as the overflow of a faithful, thankful heart, which knows God has fed us with forgiveness and eternal life.   Inspired by Jesus, truly present in, with and under the Bread and the Wine, our works then ring forth like Mary’s song: joyful, and pleasing to God, who has accomplished His salvation for us.    

 In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.              

 

Christmas in August

 10^th Sunday after Pentecost ,August 8, Anno +  Domini 2021           
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota

Christmas in August 

 "Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 

    As much as I love the summer, I don’t know if in any of the 17 years I’ve been preaching I’ve ever made it through without throwing in at least one Christmas hymn in July or August.  And, given the question of the grumbling Jews in our Gospel, today is the day.  Because their skeptical question is the driving force behind one of my very favorite Christmas songs.  So let’s have it.  If you want, you can grab a hymnal and turn to #370.  Or maybe you have “What Child Is This” memorized. 

 What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the king, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste, haste to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary.

     Jews who had been among the 5,000 miraculously fed by Jesus are now grumbling about Him, "because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" John 6:41-42 (ESV) 

 

    Christmas had come some 30 years before.  And these Jews are interested in understanding the Man born on Christmas.  But somehow they missed the meaning of Christmas.  Maybe they never heard.  Or maybe they heard, but didn't believe.  Or perhaps they had forgotten.  At any rate, the message of the angels, the story of the shepherds, the worship of the magi, these facts are lost on this crowd. 

      There are two key teachings in Christmas.  These Jews clearly don't understand the first one, that Jesus, son of Mary, is also the Son of God.  Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth, who turned his life upside down caring for Mary and Jesus, faithful Joseph is not Jesus' father.  But the circumstances of Mary's pregnancy, the glory revealed in seeming shame, the mystery of God made flesh, these Gospel facts are unknown to the crowd who came to Jesus after eating the miraculous meal.  Love came down at Christmas time, but nobody seems to know it. 

      Since the Jews don't understand, Jesus explains Christmas to them.  That is, He explains who His Father is.  Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6:43-44

      The first key lesson of Christmas is that Jesus, born of Mary, is God the Father's only begotten Son, true God from eternity, now made also to be a man, who came as an infant, and now stood before the crowds as a teacher and a miracle worker.  Three decades after His birth, Jesus teaches the crowds what the angels taught the shepherds, that He is the heavenly Father's Son, come down from heaven. 

      John chapter 6, with all its mysterious discussion of faith and eating bread from heaven, isn't a story we usually associate with Christmas.  But following the Feeding of the 5,000 with teaching about Christmas actually makes good sense.  You see, Jesus uses the miraculous meal of bread and fish to teach about heavenly bread.  He is trying to make the crowds believe that He is the Father's Son, the Bread of Life come down from heaven. 

 Let’s sing stanza 2.

 Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian fear, for sinners here, the silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the Cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.

      Christmas is when Jesus first came down and revealed Himself.  The Son of God became a human child, growing in Mary's womb.  He revealed Himself visibly in Bethlehem, a humble village whose name just happens to mean 'house of bread.'    Jesus, the Bread of Life, came down from heaven, and was born in the House of Bread.  Then the Bread from Heaven was placed in a manger, a feed trough, a foreshadowing of His purpose, His goal of giving his flesh for the life of the world. 

      That's the second key teaching of Christmas, so beautifully taught in stanza 2, the frightening truth that Jesus became Mary’s Baby, in order to grow up to be the sacrifice for our sins.  In our Gospel today, as Jesus moves from teaching the crowds who His Father is, and starts teaching them why He has come from the Father, well then the grumbling really begins. 

     Just like Christmas.  Christmas is very popular with the world, when it is presented as a story of God in some hazy sense being one of us, as a story of good being brought out of humble beginnings, or as an undefined story of peace and joy and good will.  Christmas is also just popular as an excuse for a winter festival to raise our spirits before the long dark days of January and February. 

      But as soon as you mention why Baby Jesus came, as soon as you make the connection between the wood of the manger and the wood of the cross, well, soon people start grumbling. Even many religious people who claim a connection to Jesus and the Bible will be put off if you insist on telling the whole story of Baby Jesus.  They may even ask you not to ruin their holiday with all that talk about sin and sacrifice and forgiveness.   

     Just like John chapter six.  Jesus had attracted quite a following with the miraculous feeding.  He was quite popular.  But it seems like He really didn't care about growing His church.  I mean, did you hear how He talked to the crowds?  That’s no way to win friends and influence people.  Why is Jesus so hard on these people who like at least some of what He had to offer.  Strange church growth approach. Or perhaps growing the church doesn't work like we expect it to work. 

      Last week, instead of praising the people for seeking Him out, we heard Jesus rebuke them for coming after Him only for the sake of a full stomach.  Today, again unconcerned for offending potential converts, Jesus confronts their grumbling very harshly.  And He makes claims for Himself that only God can make, claims the people are not yet ready to hear.  Do not grumble among yourselves.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

      Jesus claims that on the Last Day, the Day of the LORD, He will be the One raising up believers.  That is to say, Jesus is claiming to be the LORD, equal to God the Father, truly God Himself, come in the flesh.  In the Jewish culture, such a claim was punishable by death.  But Jesus doesn't stop there.     After pressing the point about who He is, Jesus then goes on to insult the Jews' history.  I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.   The story of God feeding Israel with manna is one of the Jews' favorite stories, a sign that they are God's special people.  But Jesus points out the inconvenient truth that despite being fed by God, the Jews' ancestors still died. 

      These Jews want the fun stuff that comes with Jesus, the great teaching, the healing miracles, the exorcisms, and of course the endless buffets of bread and fish.  But please don't spoil their fun with talk about some exclusive salvation that only comes through Jesus.  Don't remind them that more than anything else they need a Savior from sin.  Don't bring up death when they are looking for another free dinner.

       God is always ready to give more and better than we desire or deserve.  We see this at Christmas, and we see this in our Gospel.  We want Christmas to be peaceful and joyful in non-disturbing ways.  We want nice decorations, family time with no
fights, the chance to hear a few favorite Christmas carols, and of course we want to get some new toys. 

      At Christmas, and all year long, God wants to give us real, lasting peace, first with Him, and then with our neighbor.  God wants to give us the joy of the angels and the saints in heaven, the joy of being eternally in His presence. 

      In our Gospel, the Jews are hoping Jesus will be a free meal ticket, and a way to avoid pain and suffering in this life.  Jesus wants to give them more.  Their real problem isn't a lack of bread or poor medical care.  These are just symptoms of the real problem, the problem which Jesus came to address.  Jesus wants to give heavenly, eternal bread, like He says:  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

      Forever comes with a price, a price we don't want to hear about at Christmas, or any other time.  A price the Jews didn't want to hear from Jesus 2,000 years ago.  Honest sinners don't want to be reminded of the price.  Because sinners know.  Their sins are the price.  Pain can be avoided temporarily if we all agree not to talk about our sin, not to deal with reality.  People, both Jews 2,000 years ago and Americans today, don't want to hear how God gives His greatest gift.  But Jesus tells them anyway:  The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.  Or, as we sang, Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the Cross be borne for me, for you.  

      In order to give you all that God desires for you to have, Jesus must be more than a cute baby in a lowly manger.  He must be more than a great teacher, more than a miraculous healer, more than the host of the world's most amazing picnic.  These blessings are nice to have, and lovely to consider and enjoy, for now.  But none of these blessings change our situation eternally. 

     In order to give you life eternal, Jesus had to deal with your sin.  Jesus must be the one who gives His own flesh, for the life of the world.  He must be the one who dies, for you, to forgive you.  He must, in order to be the one who rises for you, the one who promises to raise you as well.  He must be the one who continually feeds you with a foretaste of the feast to come, the miraculous Supper of our Lord, where He gives His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins.     

      That's who Jesus is.  That's the right understanding of Christmas, and of our Gospel today.  And the right understanding of the meal that we celebrate at this altar.  To begin to grasp the greatness of the Gospel gifts, we have to begin to wrestle with the depth of our sin.  Every wrong thing you ever thought or said or did, and all the wrong things committed by all the people of all time, these are the crimes which God hates, these are the debts which Jesus died to pay. 

But as big as that mountain of sin and debt is, the Father’s love is greater.  Jesus’ willing self-sacrifice is better.  The Spirit's comforting word of forgiveness is stronger.  And that gift is for you, everywhere Jesus comes to you in His Word, every time He invites you to His Supper, whenever He feeds you heavenly bread for eternal life.  And that is the greatest Christmas present of them all, no matter what month it is. 

Feast on Christ’s forgiving love, and sing the last stanza with me.    

 So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh, come peasant, king, to own Him.
The King of kings of salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise the song on high, the virgin sings her lullaby.         
Joy, joy, for Christ is born, the Babe, the Son of Mary.