Wisdom for Living in Grace, from a Talking Donkey - Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday

Septuagesima – The Third Sunday before Lent, January 28^th, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Wisdom for Living in Grace, from a Talking Donkey
Numbers 22:22-35 and Matthew 20:1-16

Audio of this sermon is available HERE.

   I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.  Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Palm 32:8-9  

   Don’t be like a mule.  Instead, be like a donkey! 

   Today is Septuagesima Sunday, the 3^rd Sunday before Lent, and our readings lead us to
consider the wondrous truth that salvation is by God’s grace alone, simply a consequence of His generous, loving heart.  Which is wonderful.   But ‘Grace Alone’ also comes with an edge, because, astoundingly, we human beings do not always receive God’s grace well.  We see this in Jesus’ parable about the workers hired into the Master’s Vineyard at various hours of the day.  The Good News is the owner’s remarkable grace, how generous he is with his money.  He freely chooses to pay a full day’s wage to anyone who will come to work, no matter how late in the day.  The Bad News is the entitled greed of the workers hired early in the morning, who hate seeing others being blessed, want more for themselves, and feel they have a right to tell the Master what to do with his own money.  They are so convinced their long hours of work have earned them a special status with the Owner.  Their pride leads them to demand special recognition, and even to despise the Master.  Yikes!   

   It’s helpful to remember that Jesus is using the example of a vineyard to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven.  Paying a full day’s wage to workers who only work one hour at the end of the shift would be a strange way to run a literal vineyard, here on earth.  But Jesus is not teaching Mogen David how to run their business.  Rather, He speaks of how His Father’s Kingdom works, and the Kingdom of Heaven runs on grace.  God’s generosity, His desire to bring people into His Kingdom, freely, by grace, this is the point. 

   Just to break it down, the vineyard represents God’s Kingdom.  The Master or Owner is the Lord God.  Hiring workers to come into His vineyard equates to salvation, to sinners being taken out of the kingdom of Satan, and brought under God’s righteous rule and reign.  Which is a gift, freely given.  That’s grace.

   If you’ve ever been out of work, not sure how you were going to feed yourself and your family, and then suddenly someone offers you a good job, then you have an inkling of the relief and joy being hired can give.  Yes, you have work to do.  But you’re IN.  You have a future; you’re not going to lose your car or your home, your kids are not going to go hungry, or be forced to beg. 

   Even more, when God in His grace reaches out and converts a sinner into a believer by the forgiveness of sins, the only reasonable response is to thank and praise, serve and obey our gracious Master.  And yet how perverse and unthinkable is our human foolishness.   Sadly, we are all capable of receiving God’s gifts, and yet grumbling. 

   Like Israel did, during the Exodus.  God’s newly-rescued-from-slavery people were traveling in the wilderness.  God through mighty signs and miracles had just snatched them from under Pharaoh’s dominion in Egypt.  This same Lord was leading them across a wilderness, a barren desert, leading them to a land flowing with milk and honey, which He promised to make theirs.  Just because.  That’s grace. 

   But how did the Israelites respond?  Again and again they grumbled.  They’re in a desert, and they get thirsty.  But instead of a faithful prayer for relief, they complain and grumble.  “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die of thirst?”  First pang of hunger, same complaint about starving.  In response, God gave them water from the rock, and bread from heaven, daily manna, to simply pick up and eat.  But, in time, the Israelites loathed the manna and complained about it, too.  Did the Israelites really think that being liberated from the most powerful nation on earth and transported across a desert to a Promised Land would be totally smooth and hassle free?  Apparently so.  Or, maybe they just never stopped to think about it. 

   Likewise for us: we are on our pilgrimage, our journey, an Exodus of undetermined length, from this world full of trouble and strife, headed to our eternal Promised Land.   But the Master is with us, and has already guaranteed our final victory, as a free gift.  That’s grace.  But should we think this journey will be all rainbows and unicorns?  We dying sinners have been given new life in Christ, and we have been ‘hired’ by Him to serve in the tasks of His kingdom, until we reach our home.  Now, of course, we would never let the work we do in the Kingdom make us begrudge other dying sinners.  We would never look down on other Christians, just because they were rescued and brought into the kingdom later than us.  Or would we? 

   Jesus told His parable for a reason, and the reason is that yes, we do grumble and complain on the Way.  We saved-by-grace sinners do seek status and special privilege, and demand recognition for our work.  We see other sinners, like us, but latecomers to the Vineyard, and we are tempted to demand they know their place and give deference to us, the earlier workers.  We want credit for our work in the kingdom, earthly prestige.  We forget that love of the world and its glory leads to hatred of God.  How foolish to despise the One who made and sustains our world, and who is the only source of true and lasting glory.  Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard to warn us against swelling pride and any sense of Christian entitlement.  We have what we have by God’s grace alone.  If we get full of ourselves, and are not corrected, such sinful selfishness could even extinguish our faith, and lead us to abandon our place in God’s Kingdom.  Lord have mercy! 

   And so we run to Christ, confessing our sinful pride and foolish self-centeredness, every day, or more often, as necessary.  And, in His super-abundant grace, the Savior washes us clean again, and restores our faith.  Alleluia. 

   And yet it’s not pleasant, to be brought to repentance, to realize, (by God’s grace), that we have been headed off on our own path, again, turning our back on God and putting our eternal life in jeopardy.  We all do it.  And so our gracious God has given us Absolution, the Word of Forgiveness.  And He’s given us the Holy Supper, as rock-solid fountains of grace which we can always return to, until He brings us all the way home.  But it would be nice to once in a while avoid the whip-saw of falling into terrible sin, and needing rescue.  We will not entirely escape sin in this life, but a steadier walk with Jesus would be good.  We need an example to follow.  Where might we find a helpful guide? 

   Well, to be sure, Jesus is an example for us.  “What would Jesus do?” is a a legitimate question for Christians.  The problem is, He is so much better and greater, and many things He would do are one time things He has already done, and we cannot duplicate them.  What would Jesus do to solve this or that problem with human sin?  Well, He would live a sinless life and then submit to crucifixion, die, and on the third day rise again, for the salvation of the world.  Good News, the very best news.  But this is not something that we can do. 

   Might we find some other, less lofty example for Christian living? 

    Well, what about the donkey?  Balaam’s donkey, that is.  We could do a lot worse than to emulate the example of that little beast.    

   Our Old Testament reading is set during Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.  Balaam was a sorcerer, a holy-man of a sort, a freelance prophet for hire.  An enemy of Israel wanted to hire Balaam to curse God’s people.  But the LORD God intervened, instructing Balaam in this transaction, so as to show His almighty power.  But Balaam’s heart was not in the right place.  His eyes were not fully open to the LORD’s plan.  So, as Balaam saddled his donkey and went on his way to consult with Israel’s enemy, the Angel of the Lord came to confront him. 

   As part of this confrontation, God gave the donkey some marvelous gifts.  Wisdom and human speech might be the first ones that come to mind.  Who ever heard of a talking donkey?  Outside of the Shrek movies, of course.  The donkey spoke truth and wisdom to his master, Balaam, who was stubbornly following a path against the Lord’s will.  The donkey is God’s mouthpiece to prepare Balaam for repentance and conversion, and so Balaam would do the work which the LORD prepared for him.  Against the enemy’s will, Balaam was to bless Israel, and not curse them.  Which of course would not please Balaam’s employer. 

   God might use you and me in similar ways in our lives.  Often, when Christians refuse to do things the world demands because they are evil, suffering comes into our lives.  Today, many medical professionals, nurses and doctors, suffer economically, or are even leaving their field, rather than take part in giving hormone therapy or body-mutilating surgery to children who think they need to “change” their sex.  And similar examples are multiplying across our culture.  And yet, it is right there, in the midst of suffering for refusing evil things, that Christians are given opportunity to speak God’s truth, as part of His saving plan. 

   A wisdom-speaking donkey is great.  But there was also a prior, and more fundamental gift that God gave the donkey, the gift which we should seek, first, last, and always.  The donkey was brave to refuse Balaam’s foolish commands, and was wise to speak the saving truth, because first his eyes had been opened to see the Angel of the Lord standing in the path, drawn sword in His hand, blocking the way to evil.  This should be our first prayer, that the Lord would open our eyes, open the eyes of our hearts, to see and trust that Christ and His angels are with us every day, on the Way, warning us away from evil destinations, and pointing us to the straight and narrow way that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

   The donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, and knew to obey Him, rather than his earthly master. And, through the donkey’s actions and words, Balaam was rescued.  Balaam was saved from disobedience, and also given eyes to see the Angel, and hear His instruction. 

   What our grace-filled God did for Balaam that day long ago in the wilderness, He does every day for you and me.  We might prefer more spectacular revelations of God’s truth and presence.  Who doesn’t want to see a talking donkey?  But, as St. Peter taught us last week, we have something even more sure.  Even more sure than seeing the glory of heaven shining from Jesus’ body at the Transfiguration, we have His prophetic Word, written down and preserved for us in the Bible.  Page after page points us to see and trust in the super-abundant grace of God, fully revealed and delivered in Christ Jesus, crucified and resurrected. 

   We do not have bread from heaven every morning around our houses to simply pick up and eat, nor water springing from some rock in the desert.  We have better.  We have the solid meat of God’s inspired Word, the full story of God’s salvation miracle, given to strengthen our faith and shape our lives.  We have the flesh of Christ, and His very blood, in, with and under the bread and wine, the Gospel we eat and drink for forgiveness, and to gain strength for the journey, and for doing our tasks.  We have the one time bath of Baptism, the heavenly washing which endures forever, the hiring contract of the Spirit, which makes us members and workers in God’s Kingdom.  These are God’s means of Grace, by which He blesses us, today and forever, and through which He prepares us for service in His Vineyard. 

And so, let us pray:  O LORD, you opened the eyes of Balaam’s donkey to see your Angel and obey Your will.  Through this gift and the suffering it caused the donkey, you revealed your power and your will to save, as you spoke truth and wisdom through the mouth of the animal, convicting and preparing Balaam for conversion to faith in You.  By your amazing grace, grant us, Your servants, eyes to see Your ongoing presence and protection in our daily lives, so that we might ever flee to the means of grace You use to sustain our faith, and so be prepared to serve in Your Vineyard, according to Your holy will, through Christ Jesus, our Lord, Amen.        

 

The Transfiguration of Our + Lord
Celebrating the Sanctity of Human Life
February 21^st, Year of Our + Lord 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
God’s Special Dirt Makes People Special

Audio of the sermon is available HERE

   “Moses, Moses, do not come any nearer!  And take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  Thus spoke the LORD God Almighty from the Burning Bush, revealing why the festival of the Transfiguration of Our + Lord is a most excellent day to celebrate the sanctity of human life.  For it is Jesus, the Angel of the LORD, who sanctifies, or makes holy, human life.  Indeed, He redeems and sanctifies the whole creation, which groaned under the burden of sin.  Jesus has come down to our dirty, broken world, and makes it holy ground again.  And so we rejoice, and we uphold the value of every human life, for which Christ Jesus gave His all.  

   Holy ground.  From the Burning Bush the LORD warned Moses he was standing on
holy ground.  Ground set apart and dedicated for God’s loving purposes.  Holy ground.  In Hebrew, Adamah Qodesh.  Which is so cool, don’t you think?   It’s been weeks since we’ve learned any Hebrew, so I’m sure your eager to unpack Adamah Qodesh this morning.   

   Qodesh is the noun form of the adjective which the Four Living Creatures sing as they fly around the throne of the Almighty:  Qadosh, Qadosh, Qadosh, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD God Almighty.  Qodesh is a noun, which means the quality of holiness, of being dedicated, set apart for God’s purpose. 

   Ground in Hebrew is adamah.  And if you’re thinking you hear an echo of a certain famous someone’s name, you’d be right.  The LORD God formed Adam, the man, from the dust of the adamah, the ground.  Man was formed from the ground, Adam from the adamah.  God’s fondness for inspiring plays on words in the Bible began already in Genesis 2, and continues throughout the Good Book.   

   The Angel, or Messenger of the LORD comes down and occupies the bush on Mt. Horeb, where Moses was tending sheep.  The presence of the Angel makes the bush burn, but does not consume it.  This flaming mystery served to attract the attention of Moses, to draw him near, in order that he might hear and deliver the LORD’s message to Pharaoh. 

   But not too near.  The presence of God’s Messenger made the ground, the dirt beneath and around that bush, to be holy, special, set apart for God’s purpose.  And of course anything taken and used by the LORD will also be made sinless, since He is without sin.  Holiness includes and presupposes sinlessness.  So the sinner Moses bowed his head to the ground and took off his sandals.  

   This Angel, this Messenger of the LORD does a mysterious thing:  He speaks as God Himself.  Moses is afraid to look at the bush, for he is afraid to look at God.  Somehow sent from the LORD, and yet also being the LORD, this Messenger is more fully revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Jesus (whose name, btw,  means “the LORD saves”), took Peter, James and John up on the holy mountain and revealed a bit of the glory that was hidden within His flesh.  The Son of Mary is the New Adam, the New Man, who is also God.  And so, from His flesh shines forth glory, the glory which gives light to heaven.  The glory of God was always present in the flesh of Jesus, but it was normally hidden.  The Lord at the Transfiguration revealed His glory, for a few moments, to Peter, James and John.   

   The Transfiguration kicks off Jesus’ march toward Jerusalem, where He would rescue His people from the dominion of Sin and Satan.  This is much like the encounter some two millennia earlier, when God met Moses at the Burning Bush, to kick off the Exodus, God’s rescue of His people Israel from the wicked domination of Pharaoh.  This similarity makes sense, since truly, the Exodus and the Passion of Christ are two stages in the same story, one prophetic and foreshadowing, the other messianic and fulfilling.  The first shows God’s Way of restoring His fallen humanity, and the second finishes the project.

   Adam, made from the adamah, had brought curses down, on himself, and every other part of God’s good creation.  The very ground, the adamah from which he was formed, was cursed because of Adam’s sin.  But God loves the ground; He loves His whole creation.  Amazingly, God even loves us, the sinners who invite all the tribulations and struggles that we see in the world.  The ground is cursed when we sin, when we abandon God’s holy, special, set-apart will for our lives, and instead chose our own way, thinking we can live independently from the Creator.  Adam did it first, and we all have naturally followed in his way.  By our nature, we cut ourselves off from the only source of life, the only source of goodness and love, and make ourselves unholy. 

   Which is the height of foolishness and the greatest tragedy.  For the LORD is the great I AM.  He is not some petty god, like Zeus or Thor or Osiris, pretend gods who are subject to error and failure and defeat.  I AM who I AM, declares God, the One Being from whom all other beings, all other existence, flows and depends.  The One Source.  The One True God, who always has been and always will be.  Our existence, and our happiness, now and for eternity, depend entirely on Him. 

   So Adamah Qodesh, holy ground, is decidedly good news.  For at the Burning Bush the Holy, Holy, Holy LORD God Almighty began to show that He is willing to get down into the dirt, to come down to His own adamah, in order to put right everything that Adam and Eve, and the rest of us, have made wrong.  The ground re-made holy, as the LORD works to remake and sanctify fallen humanity.         

   This glorious truth of God’s complete commitment to our rescue is revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration.  This is who Jesus of Nazareth is: the eternal Son of God, who entered time and took on flesh from the Virgin Mary.  Jesus came to rescue humankind, by joining Himself most intimately, and forever, to our race. 

   Human life has dignity and value simply because God is our Creator, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  But even more, we are sanctified, made holy.  We have the highest value in God’s eyes, because Jesus became our Brother.  Jesus honored our species by becoming one of us: in His humanity, like us in every way, except without sin, but in His divinity, in His God-ness, utterly higher and greater, the Source and Author of life, now also a Man, the New Adam. 

   The Transfiguration gives us a special window into why Christians are “for life.”  Every human life has value, is worthy of love and protection, because Jesus came for every human life.  He came to shed His blood which covers all sin, all the sins of all the people, from Adam and Eve down to you, and you, and me.  

   At the Transfiguration, three of Jesus’ Apostles glimpse Jesus’ glory, which would help them as they followed Jesus on the long, dark road to Golgotha.  To be sure, knowing Jesus held the glory of heaven within His body must have made His suffering and death that much harder to understand.  But on the third day, glory returns. 

   Jesus left the Tomb with a glorified heavenly body, which He revealed now and again, over 40 days, to His chosen Apostles and disciples, that they be restored and forgiven and empowered to carry His message of repentance and mercy to the ends of the earth. 

   And so, we Christians live differently.  I for one, as an American citizen living on the ground in 2024, am tempted to depression about the coming year, and the mud that is sure to fly politically.  Hopefully nothing worse than mud will fly.  Our nation and our polity seem frayed and brittle.  Violence between neighbors and nations, fighting over internet memes and worthless patches of ground, is on the rise.  I pray the Lord will bring us through this year without major troubles, but I’m not confident that this is His will.  Enough said.  I have my worries, and you have yours.  But as Christians, we know better.  The One who revealed His glory on the Mount and fulfilled His glory on the Cross now rules in heavenly glory, at the Father’s right hand.  The events in this world are not beyond His control.  We know how this all ends, for each individual believer, and for the Church in total. 

   We may suffer.  We may have to live through uncertain and even dangerous times.  But my future and your future, the future of Christ’s Church is absolutely secure, secure in the nail-scarred hands of the New Adam, Jesus our Savior.  Even now He is interceding for us before the throne of heaven, guaranteeing our future glory, by His victorious reign.  And so we Christians lift up our heads.  Trusting in the wonderful future that is ours, we are bold to speak and act and even sacrifice for other human lives.  Because our life is guaranteed glorious.

   Freed from fear by the Ascended Christ, Christians also see others with the eyes of Christ, who came to be the Savior of all.  We learn to value others specially, selflessly, faithfully.  To be sure, loving our fellow man is not always easy.  We ourselves are not, on our own account, all that loveable.  But we are not lovely or loveable on our own account; we are lovely to God, beloved even, because we are joined to Jesus Christ by Baptismal faith.  And the Spirit who drew us to Christ is capable and is seeking to draw all men, women and children to Jesus.  And so, let’s pray to the Lord of the harvest to impress us with a bountiful multiplication of His Church.  Let’s even dare to fight for life, with truth and love, to fight in the public square, and in our private lives.  Let us ask God to make us as innocent as doves and as shrewd as serpents, as we fight against the wolves who devalue and seek to end innocent lives.   

   Nineteen months ago, in the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court ended the deadly tyranny of a nationalized “right” to unfettered access to abortion throughout nine months of pregnancy.  This was a good thing.  But we should not have been surprised that the enemies of life have fought back fiercely.  States with strong pro-death movements are even promoting abortion tourism.  Human life is still devalued in much of our society and the world.  Abortion is hardly the only threat to the sanctity of human life.  The fight has changed, but it goes on, just as it has since the Garden of Eden.  Sadly, this fight will continue until the Father calls time, and the Son returns on the clouds in glory. 

   And precisely because the fight goes on, our opportunity to be part of God’s rescue continues.  In the midst of death, there is life, because of Jesus.  In the midst of the sometimes brutal struggle for life, there are always opportunities for the Holy Spirit to use our words, our confession of Christ and His glorious love for life, to convert our enemies, to bind up the broken-hearted, to give new life and joy to the hopeless.  

   And so, God grant that we Christians continue to be about the work of loving life.  We are eternally optimistic because Jesus is risen and reigns on high.  We are continually compassionate, because God has poured out His compassion on us.  We are hopeful in the midst of troubles, because in Jesus, we have perfect hope. 

   As Peter, James and John hid their faces on the holy ground of the Mount of Transfiguration, they received strength for their journey, through their glimpse of Jesus’ hidden glory.  That was great.  But, as Peter writes, we have something more sure, the prophetic Word, the Holy Scripture, which tells the finished story of Jesus’ victory.  This prophetic Word, the Word of Christ, has the power to save. 

   In His Word and in His life, Jesus has declared us holy.  Today, He continues to make the dusty ground of this troubled world to be holy, wherever and whenever His Gospel is spoken, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.   

Seeking God's Glory, Rightly - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

The Second Sunday after Epiphany                                   
January 14^th, A+D 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
Seeking the Glory of God, Rightly 
Amos 9:11-15 and John 1:43 - 2:11 

Episode Audio available HERE.

   Wine can be glorious.  Or, it can be a problem.  Wine can be a problem, but that sure isn’t how the Holy Spirit tends to speak about wine in the Bible.  Much to the dismay of some of my Baptist friends, a close reading of Scripture will reveal that for every passage which warns against abusing wine, there are three others in which God speaks about joy and paradise and eternal salvation through the language of enjoying good wine. 

 

   As in our reading from Amos this morning: “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”  That sounds like a lot of vino!  Or consider our Gospel, in which Jesus manifested His glory, revealing just how great life with Him would be, by producing gallons and gallons of the best wine. 

    Wine can be a problem, because we do not always handle it well.  The nature of a sinner is that we are capable and sadly prone to abusing the good gifts which God gives us.  But our frailty and perverseness do not change the goodness of God’s gifts.  The Lord’s desire is to have us with Him forever, “rejoicing with exceedingly great joy.”  A celebration, a super party, if I dare use the term.  Rich food, even a feast of fats, and wonderful wine, these are among the good gifts mentioned again and again when the Bible describes God’s eternal celebration.  God the Father is the host of the heavenly wedding feast, and He is the cheerful Giver of every good gift in this world, despite our tendency to misuse them.  Our sin cannot change the essential goodness of God, nor of His gifts.  And so, the believer’s desire to enjoy God’s gifts, even to enjoy His glory, isn’t essentially wrong, no matter how prone we are to mess it all up.  

    Moses gave us one famous example of the right way to seek the highest, most glorious gifts of God, without sinning.  In Exodus chapter 33, Moses expresses his desire to see God’s glory, to see His unveiled face.  Moses spoke with God face to face, but there was always something that shrouded God’s presence: a pillar of fire, a pillar of cloud, etc.  Moses wanted to see God’s full glory, to see His face directly.  Which is the right goal to have, because it is God’s goal that we bask in His glory, in heaven, before His throne, forever and ever. 

    All in God’s good timing.  But, Moses didn’t want to wait.  However, and this is crucial, Moses made his request with humility, and in obedience: “Please show me your glory.”  The LORD went on to explain this could not be, no sinful man could see God’s face and live.  But God would tuck Moses into a cleft in the rock, and then let him see all His goodness pass by.  Finally, He would let Him see His back.  Which is all pretty glorious, by earthly standards, even though not the full glory of the LORD God Almighty.  Moses, in faith and submission, sought a wonderful thing.  He did not receive his precise request, because he couldn’t, not yet.  But God was happy to give Moses a very great gift.       

    The examples of God’s people pursuing God’s good gifts in wrong ways are too numerous to count.  The men of Babel ignored God’s instruction to fill the earth, and instead tried to gather everyone into one mega-city, where they would make a name for themselves by building a tower into heaven.  Getting into heaven and having a good name are both worthy goals, but neither can be a do-it-yourself project for sinners. 

   Any name we make for ourself, however impressive it may seem to our friends and neighbors, is stained by our sinful thoughts, words and deeds.  If we try to force our way into God’s glorious presence, that will not end well.  So, to protect mankind from mankind’s misguided desires, God came down and confused their languages, forcing them to abandon their tower and scatter around to fill the earth, as the LORD had instructed. 

    Abraham and Sarah desired the fulfillment of God’s promise that they would have a child, despite their old age.  But they doubted that God could really make this happen, since Sarah had been unable to have children her whole life, and now she was old.  So, Sarah gave Abraham her maid Hagar as a concubine, and Abraham agreed.  They thought Hagar could have a child who would somehow truly be Sarah’s.  Their surrogate mommy plan didn’t work out so well.  Sarah became intensely jealous and spiteful to Hagar and her baby.  Their plan brought strife and pain into the family, not promise.  And yet, despite their faithlessness and sin, God did not abandon His promise.  By God’s grace, Sarah did conceive and bear a child, the old-fashioned way, with Abraham.  In joyful laughter, they received the promised son, Isaac, through whom the People of God and the Savior of the world would come. 

    Tamar’s desire to have a baby was also good.  She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, Abraham’s great-grandson.  She was also twice a widow, of Judah’s two oldest sons, both of whom were evil, worthless men, and the LORD put them to death.  Tamar was frustrated that Judah didn’t follow through on his obligation and promise to give her his third son as a husband, and so she was left childless.  Tamar had been wronged.  But her method of achieving the noble and wonderful goal of motherhood left quite a bit to be desired.  She took advantage of Judah’s sinful nature, disguised herself as a prostitute, and became pregnant by Judah.  Both Judah and Tamar failed to live out their sexuality as God intended.  It’s all a terrible mess.  But here’s the crazy thing.  God did not approve of their sin.  Nevertheless, He overcame their sin and gave Tamar not just one child, but twins.  From one of them, Perez, the human lineage of the Messiah would flow.  Tamar too, along with Judah, is an ancestor of Jesus our Savior. 

    The first human king of Israel, King Saul, sought the blessing of the LORD before entering into battle.  But Saul was impatient, and did not follow God’s instruction to wait for Samuel the Prophet to come and make the offering to the LORD.  Saul sought a good thing, the blessing of the LORD upon the armies of Israel.  But he did not do things the way the LORD had instructed.  Even though Samuel had told him to wait, Saul made the sacrifice himself, taking upon himself an office and a task the LORD had not bestowed.  Saul showed his lack of faith, and the LORD withdrew His favor from him.  He instead chose David, a man after God’s own heart, to replace him on the throne of Israel.      

    Sadly, there seem to be far more examples of God’s people pursuing good things in an ungodly way than there are of the faithful pursuit of God’s blessings.  This is true in the Bible, and if you look around, in our lives as well.  And even still, despite what we have earned again and again by our “do it my own way” approach to Christian living, God does not and will not abandon His promises.  Nor will God discard a good thing, just because we sinners abuse it.  God grant that we trust His promises, and also grant that we arrange our daily lives in keeping with His good plan and provision. 

    In our daily lives, we are free to pursue good gifts, but always with the greater gifts first in our minds.   Pursuing God’s good gifts, be they children or a good living to support your family, or a fine bottle of wine to enjoy with a special meal, such pursuit is good and right for Christians.  But, we are called to pursue these good gifts only in ways that are in keeping with God’s Way, His Order, His Plan. 

    A few examples:  We rejoice to come to God’s house and be treated kindly and graciously by our Good Shepherd.  Violence and coercion are fruit of the Fall into Sin.  God is love, and, while He has battled fiercely to defeat the power of Satan, He does not coerce us, or mistreat us, despite what our sins deserve.  Then we are sent out to make our way in the world.  If we who gather to receive the mercy of God turn around during the week and speak harshly, deal cruelly, and make our way by brutality and force of will, our witness is not Christian.  Jesus said: They will know you are Christians by your love.  If instead to get by we seek to dominate, and give scorn and insult, then who are we, really? 

     To pursue a good income, a good salary, but to do so by working and dealing in a less than honest way, is an insult to God, who placed His good name upon you in your Baptism. 

    To support your family by working hard, or to seek some recreation together out in God’s creation, both of these are fine and good.  But not if work or play end up keeping you or your loved ones away from the services of God’s house.  For it is here, among God’s gathered people, that God has promised to come and distribute His greatest gifts: forgiveness and new life in Christ.  Here is where God invites you to approach His glory.  A rich earthly inheritance or a thousand vacation photos will mean nothing to you or your loved ones, if in getting them you cut yourselves off from the inheritance Christ has for you in God’s eternal glory. 

    And don’t get me started about Christians who say they can just read their Bible at home, that they don’t need to be part of a Christian congregation.  Jesus makes us members of His Body when He saves us, and the Body of Christ is the Church.  Obstacles may sometimes prevent some Christians from regular Church attendance, others end up entirely unable to attend.  But other people stay away because they find gathering with God’s people, (a bunch of sinners), to be distasteful or tedious.  They prefer to go it alone.   When I get the chance, I always ask such people where in the Bible they heard God commending this idea of “lone-wolf” Christianity.  Spoiler alert, it’s not in there. 

    Thinking our faith can survive just fine, while we despise gathering with our local congregation, or while we live in an un-Christian manner, these are dangerous ideas.  Such thinking and living can easily morph into an idol, a self-made religion that twists God’s Truth, eventually twisting it into a lie that cuts one off from Christ.       

     Oof.  Heavy stuff.  Between all the bad examples in Scripture and the frailty of us Christians today, it’s a good thing we have the examples of Nathanael and Mary to bookend with Moses’ good example that we started with.  Because Nathanael and Mary both help us understand how we are to seek God’s good and glorious gifts, and also give us a window into the unrelenting will and drive of God to deliver on His Promises. 

      I always wonder what Nathanael might have been thinking about while he sat under that fig tree.  His conversion is amazing.  One moment he doubts anything good could come from Nazareth, and the next he declares Jesus to be the Messiah and the Son of God.  And his conversion seems to be triggered by a fairly minor miracle, that Jesus “saw” him under the fig tree.  Was there something about Nathanael’s thoughts under that fig tree, some message from the Holy Spirit, which prepared him for a sudden conversion to faith at Jesus’ words?   

    St. John doesn’t tell us.  But Jesus does promise Nathanael much greater visions of God’s glory, and takes him along to the wedding at Cana, where He began to manifest, to reveal His glory, through the miracle of water made wine.  And Nathanael demonstrates how a true Israelite, a true believer, lives: he follows Jesus.  He accepts the simple invitation to “come and see,” and then he follows Jesus.  (BTW, that’s not a bad outreach plan.  We could simply invite skeptical people to “come and see” Jesus, coming into our midst through His Word and Sacrament, and then we can pray and encourage and trust that Jesus, through His word, will make them His followers, new disciples.)  

     Finally, there’s Mary.  Because she knows the great things the Lord had done for her, she trusted in His goodness and power to help anyone with anything.  Her heart goes out to the newlyweds at Cana, who will suffer public embarrassment if more wine is not quickly found for their wedding banquet.  She does not tell her Son what to do, but simply presents the problem to Him, and waits.  Jesus, for some reason that would require a whole other sermon, tells her the request is badly timed.  But God loves to give, to help, and Mary knows this.  So she tells the servants, literally the deacons, to do whatever Jesus tells them. 

     And what do we learn?  First, God is love, and as His disciples, we are free to ask Him for big things and small things, trusting that whatever form His answer takes, it will be the best.  Jesus’ answer will be glorious, a little window into the future glory that Jesus is preparing for all true Israelites, all His true believers, all His Christians. 

    Second, in the day to day, we are wise to listen to Mary and do what Jesus tells us to do, even if it seems foolish or impossible.  Fill six big jars to the brim with water?  Why?  Stick with my husband or my wife, despite all the challenges?  Can there really be lasting joy in marriage?  Gather to hear some feeble preacher speak God’s Word, and then kneel to eat and drink a bit of stale bread and a sip of sweet wine?  How can that do anything?  Dare to simply invite people to “come and see Jesus?”  How could that ever make a difference?   

      These seemingly foolish things make all the difference.  They are joyful and glorious, because through them, Jesus chooses to manifest His glory.  Through them, Jesus draws our eyes up and away from our worries and foolish pursuits, and fixes our eyes on the culmination of Jesus’ glorious ministry.  Which, to our great surprise, was revealed on a Roman Cross.  High and lifted up, the despised and dying Jesus was in truth finishing the way for us to access God’s glory.  And so, it is finished.  In Christ crucified, eyes of faith can finally see the face of God, loving sinners, unto forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life.  In, with and under the Bread and Wine, eyes of faith know that at this Table, Christ feeds us with the Good News of His glorious forgiveness and salvation. 

     Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, is the glory of Israel, the Promised descendent of Abraham, Sarah, Tamar, Judah and King David.  Look to Him, trust in Him, follow His Word, day by day.  And the Peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting, Amen.