Praying to Our Father - Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost

Praying to Our Father 
Genesis 18:20-23 and Luke 11:1-13
Sermon for the 7^th Sunday after Pentecost\
July 27^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota

Let us Pray:  Heavenly Father, you invite us to pray to You for all our needs.  You have taught us how to pray and in Your Holy Word you have given us many prayers to use.  In our Baptisms, you have given us Your Holy Spirit, and joined us to Your Son, Jesus Christ, who both intercede for us before Your heavenly throne.  Prayer should come easily to us, but often it does not.  So, on this day that You have set before us mighty words about Your intention for prayer, open our ears and our hearts, that we might learn to truly pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

   Abraham shows us how to pray boldly.  For 25 years, Abraham had been living by faith, faith in the great promises the LORD had made to him, that he through Sarah would be the father of many nations, that his descendants would possess the land of the Canaanites, in which Abraham sojourned, living in a tent, without a permanent dwelling.  God even promised that through Abram, every family on earth would be blessed. 

   Abraham lived out his faith very imperfectly, (see the end of Genesis chapter 12, or chapter 16, or chapter 20, if you want to hear just how imperfect Abraham was).  But sometimes Abraham did speak and act in accord with the faith God had created in his heart.  His prayer to the LORD for the sake of any righteous people who might be living in Sodom is a tremendous example, a model for our prayers. 

   Sodom and Gomorrah was a terrible place; the worst, most perverted kinds of wickedness were the daily pursuit of the people.  Lot, Abraham’s cousin, had chosen poorly when he decided to raise his family there.  The LORD reveals to Abraham that He was about to give Sodom the destruction they deserved.  Abraham is moved to intercede, to plead for clemency, for the sake of the righteous souls who lived there. 

   “Would the LORD spare Sodom for the sake of 50 righteous?”  Abraham starts his pleading there, and once the LORD declares His willingness to show mercy, the founder of God’s chosen people moves quickly and boldly to secure more mercy, kind of reverse-auction style.  What about for 45? For 40? 30? 20? What if there are only 10?  Perhaps Abraham could have lowered the total more quickly.  For the LORD never indicates displeasure with his requests, and finally declares: "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it."    

    In case you don’t recall the rest of the story, there were not 10 righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah.  The men of the town mean to assault the angels God sent to investigate.  These heavenly messengers rescue Lot and his family, and the city is destroyed.  Abraham’s pleading for them did not avail, not because the LORD was unfaithful or unmerciful, but because the men of Sodom were so wicked. 

   Still, we can learn a lot from Abraham’s prayer.  First of all, those who trust in the LORD’s promises can and should pray to Him.  Even if that faith is feeble, still, all believers are qualified to ask God for things, even big things.  Because God loves to hear the requests of His children, and answer them perfectly.  This is what Martin Luther understood as he explained the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer:   “Our Father who art in heaven.”  What does this mean?  With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him, as dear children ask their dear father.

   Abram’s name, which meant great father, must have seemed increasingly ironic, and painful, as he and Sarai lived decade after decade, with no children.  Abraham, the new name the LORD gave Abram in Genesis chapter 17, means “father of many,” as in father of many nations.  It might have seemed like the LORD was piling on a bit, since still, after so many years of hoping and praying, Sarah was still barren.  But the LORD’s promises are reliable, and just before our Genesis reading today, the LORD had showed up, visibly, to Abraham, to repeat and put a date on His promise:  I will return this time next year, and Sarah will have a son. 

   Buoyed by visit of God and His repetition of the promise (believers can never hear too much Gospel promise), Abraham dares to intercede to the LORD as to his dear Father, praying for what he hopes is a handful of righteous souls in Sodom.  Which is a key second point: Dear children will ask for things for themselves.  But since they know their dear father is taking care of them, even more, they will pray for others.  And so the Lord’s Prayer is collective, Our Father, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses.  Like Abraham, we forgiven sinners pray for each other, and the world, that God’s kingdom be expanded, and His will be done, that hunger, sin, temptation and evil would be restrained and defeated, for us and for all, by the LORD.     

     Our Father.  It still seems brash.  How dare we speak to God in this way?  How dare we poor, miserable sinners be so bold, so familiar, as to come into the presence of the Holy Creator and King of the universe, the Almighty and Everlasting Lord and Judge, and call Him “Father”? 

   For one simple and massive reason:  These words, “Our Father, who art in heaven,” were spoken through the mouth of the eternal Son who would hang on the cross for the world’s salvation.  For the sake of Christ crucified and resurrected, the words “our Father” are a tender invitation, inviting us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, calling us to put our faith where our mouth is and call Him “Father,” as we ask Him for good things. 

   With these words, Jesus distinguishes the prayers of His disciples from the pious shows of religious people who pray in order to be seen by others, in the market places and around town.  Now, you might say, “nobody is making a scene about praying in public in our world today.”  But, consider people who put up yard signs or flags to signal their virtue, from the left or the right,  Or, when the values of the unbelieving world are displayed in proud parades, or bumper stickers that celebrate depravity.  Think about the fake tolerance behind the COEXIST bumper stickers that exalt false religions.  Far too many Americans have made politics their religion, so all too often their political speech is the same as pagan prayer. 

   Sometimes a situation calls for a Christian to pray in public, and God be praised.  But in every instance, even in public, Christian prayer is personal, intimate conversation with the Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son.  Prayer should never be a billboard for self-advancement.  It is certainly not a Christian merit badge.  It is simply what children do: ask their Father for their every need.     

  With these words, Jesus distinguishes the prayers of His disciples from the prayers of the babblers, who in their “spirituality” heap up empty words and phrases in the hope that God will be impressed and hear them for their many words.  Prayer is not mindless meditation or meaningless mantra.  Prayer is filled with meaning, spoken confidently, boldly, directly, expectantly, as Luther said:  “Few words and richness of meaning is Christian; many words and lack of meaning is pagan.”

     Jesus called God His Father, as He prayed in thanksgiving for the reception of His teaching by His disciples: "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes Father, for such was your gracious will,  (Matthew 11:25-26). 

   Jesus called God His Father on the night of His betrayal, in the upper room: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, (John 17:1).  And in the Garden of Gethsemane: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)

As they nailed Him to the Cross, Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do, (Luke 23:34).  Jesus called God His Father with His dying breath: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, (Luke 23:46).  Jesus prayed at all these times, to His eternal Father, praying in our place, on our behalf, for us, and for the life of the world. 

     And so we pray “Our Father” because Jesus has taught us to pray in this way, and made our divine adoption possible by His blood.  The One who hung on the Cross has given us the new birth of Baptism, the circumcision of the heart, made without human hands.  So yes, indeed, we may pray “Our Father.”  

   And we do not pray alone, because Jesus prays with us.  He who became our Brother, the One who gave us His Spirit that He might carry us to the Father, this One also intercedes for us.  It is the Spirit of Christ whom God has put into our hearts in Holy Baptism, the Spirit who cries out with our spirit, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8, Galatians 4)    Baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus is our permission, our authority, our invitation to come to God and ask Him for all our needs.  Like when dear children ask their dear father, causing him to smile and set down his phone, turn off the T.V. and just listen, to you, as your dear father. 

     To conclude, we should discuss three common obstacles to our prayers, the first imagined, the second two, real.  The first obstacle to our prayers is when we impose our image of fatherhood on God.  Sometimes using earthly fathers to talk about God the Father can be helpful, like, I pray, what I just did.  To help us understand that God loves to hear our prayers I used the image of a dad putting down his phone and turning off the T.V., in order to listen to his kids. 

   But far too often, we injure our own souls as we imagine God like a big, distant uncle or grandfather, a possible source of goodies, but also full of shortcomings, and not always available, an old man dispensing hard candies and pats on the head. 

   The LORD God is not a father like our earthly fathers and grandfathers.  No matter how good they may be, God your Father is infinitely better.  He is our Father above and beyond our understanding, the absolute greatest Father, from whom all that is good in human fatherhood is drawn, but without any of our failings.  God is our Father, Almighty, Awesome, the Creator of everything, and also our Provider, our Protector.  He is personable, approachable, ready to listen, because of and through His Son, Jesus Christ, who has qualified us to be sons and daughters of God. 

     The second obstacle to our prayers is our own lack of words.  The Fall of Adam left us naturally deaf to God’s Word, and also mute, dumb, unable to pray, ears stuffed, tongues stuck, lacking vocabulary worthy of God.  The sinner that remains in each of us resists the notion of prayer.  Too often we are lazy, and find it nearly impossible to consistently set aside time and energy to petition our Father.  Our natural deafness to God’s Word robs us of the words to say.  Our doubt of God’s Word tempts us to think God isn’t even listening. 

     So Christ must heal our mouths and ears as well as our hearts and minds.  And He does, putting His words of prayer on our lips, taking the guesswork out of prayer by providing us with the very words we need, as well as a guide to the proper form of any prayer.   We need not wonder, “What words will I use?  We need not ask, “Will God hear?”  “Did I pray using the proper form?”   We know all these things, for it is Jesus who tells us:  “When you pray, say these words: Our Father, who art in heaven.”   

     I would not trade the Our Father for all the prayers that have ever been uttered in Churches, no matter how poetic, passionate, good and true they may be.  Even if the Our Father were the only prayer we knew, it would still provide a lifetime of prayer.  This side of glory, we will not exhaust the depth of the prayer that Jesus has taught us.  And the Lord’s Prayer is no means the only prayer God has given us.  One hundred fifty psalms, and dozens of canticles and prayers from Prophets and Apostles, these are yours to pray. 

   If you want to focus on the Lord’s Prayer, try this.  Pray it daily, but focus on one petition each day.  As you go through your week, use the Our Father to lead you into prayer for God’s kingdom mission, or for daily bread, or for fleeing temptation.  Jesus has neatly provided seven petitions, one for each day of the week. 

   The Our Father, the Psalms, and other prayers from Scripture are yours to pray freely, and often: in the morning, at meals, in times of doubt and struggle, in times of joy, and before bed.  Pray often, because God the Father loves to hear your prayers.  Especially the Lord’s Prayer.  It is, after all, the prayer His beloved Son taught us, the prayer His beloved Son prays with us.    

     The third obstacle to our prayer is our sin.  In and of ourselves we have no right to pray.  Based on our thoughts, words and deeds we should be banished from God’s presence, forbidden to speak.  But, Jesus has commanded us to pray, and the Father has promised to hear us, for Jesus’ sake.  God has spoken; He will not take back His Word.  It stands whether we are holy or unholy, worthy or unworthy.  The validity of our prayer is not based in our personal worthiness, but in the command and promise of God.  Our prayers find their value in the body and blood of Jesus, offered in prayerful sacrifice on a Roman Cross, broken and poured out to cover our sin.  So, a prayer offered through faith in Jesus Christ is precious and holy in God’s sight, no matter how big the sinner who utters it might be. 

     Jesus especially teaches us to pray for forgiveness, that we be renewed in the Good News that our sins do not prevent our prayers from being heard.  Your prayer for forgiveness is already answered, by Jesus’ prayer on the Cross, “Father, forgive them.” And He does!  Jesus has also promised to deliver His Father’s forgiveness through real and tangible means, in Baptism, Absolution and the Supper.  Through these means, these mysteries, these hidden miracles, God is also answering your prayers.  Christians dare not say: “I cannot pray because I am a sinner,” because the Father declares, through Jesus, “You are forgiven, and I await your prayer, in Jesus’ Name.”  You can pray, and pray boldly.      

   In fact, Abraham did not have to stop at 10.  From a human perspective, his movement from asking mercy for the sake of 50, all the way down to 10, seems very bold.  But from God’s perspective, it does not take 10 righteous persons for the LORD to show mercy.  No, it only takes One.  Because that One righteous person is also God Himself, the Father’s eternal Son, who has done all it takes to provide mercy to the whole human race.  All who are brought to repentance and faith are spared, declared righteous, washed clean and adopted by God, for Jesus’ sake.

     So be bold and confident, and come into the presence of God with your prayers.  His favor toward you is not in doubt.  You do not pray to bribe God, as if to make a deal with Him through your prayers, because Jesus has already closed the deal for you.  Christ died and rose for you, so you are welcome, baptized, forgiven, fed, and listened to, in His Name.  As dear children ask their dear Father, let us pray, together, and as individuals.  Let us pray today, tomorrow and every day, for ourselves, and for the life of the world, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.  

The One Thing Necessary - Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 20^th, A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
The One Thing Necessary - Overcoming Distraction
 to Feed on the Bread of Life - Luke 10:38 - 42

Audio of the Sermon available HERE.

   It’s not just our phones.  Distraction is a great enemy of saving faith, and the 21^st Century phenomena of the smartphone, giant flatscreen and laptop are a problem.  But distraction comes in many forms.  Both Plato and Aristotle worried that the spread of the invention of writing would degrade human memory and impede knowledge and wisdom.  As tends to be the case with every new communication technology, sexually inappropriate materials were a big part of the early expansion of the printing press in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  For every Gospel tract published by Martin Luther and his friends, there were many more bawdy tales printed to sell to the masses, which would distract them from hearing and believing the Good News about God’s Son Jesus.  Back in the day when newspapers were the rapidly expanding new media, some were concerned that skimming newspapers rather than reading books would dumb down society.  Distraction is a problem. 

   Smartphones and the internet certainly bring a unique blend of challenges, with their flashing lights and the false promise of online “friends.” The violence and pornography that are just a few clicks away for all of us is troubling.  Learning to deal with boredom is likely an important developmental task for our brains, but how could we ever be bored, when we can play Candy Crush whenever we want?  You can have very high quality Bible apps with you at all times, to listen, read and study.  But I’m not sure many people are taking advantage of them.    

   We may be more distracted today than ever.  But distraction that prevents us from hearing and believing God’s truth comes in many forms, and it has always been a problem, ever since the Serpent distracted Eve with his question: Did God really say? 

   Today Martha teaches us about a surprising distraction, the distraction doing good works, of lovingly serving the Lord and his disciples.  "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things…”  Are there any Martha’s in our pews this morning?   

   I do feel a need to defend Martha a bit.  Yes, the Lord encourages her to focus on His Word, His teaching, by praising Mary’s choice.  But Martha was doing good, important things.  Preparing for this morning, I thought of the CCVs, the college conference volunteers at the Higher Things conference I attended with our youth a couple weeks ago.  CCVs are college age men and women who serve at HT conferences, directing lost kids and adults, helping with seating 1200 souls in a church built for 900, running the evening games and activities, making sure the various teachers had all they needed for their sessions, and generally doing whatever else was needed.  They were present for all the great worship and teaching, but I’m sure they missed a lot, because they were distracted by their duties. 

   They volunteered to miss out on good things, for the sake of the kids.  They chose to serve a group of fellow Christians that just a year or two earlier they had been part of.  It would be hard, close to impossible, to run a conference without their sacrificial service.  

   Martha’s reason for distraction was big.  The Christ, the promised Messiah, the anointed Savior of Israel, and of all the nations, was coming to visit.  How clean did she need to get the house?  God in the flesh was going to get hungry, not to mention the men who traveled with Him.  Was she tempted to try a new recipe, or did she stick with what she knew was good?  There was work, good, important work, for Martha to be doing. 

   So, good for Martha, willing to serve.  And yet, Martha got distracted by her work, distracted from the one truly necessary thing.  Martha became too busy to stop and listen to Jesus.  She forgot some of the most basic teachings of Jesus, that the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served, and to give His life as a ransom for many.  Martha forgot that man, and woman, do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  From the beginning, the first order of business in the relations between God and mankind has always been for God to speak, and for humans to listen.  Hear O Israel, the Lord is One.  Hear the Word of the LORD.  Be still, and know that I am God.   Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.  Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.  I am not ashamed of the Gospel, (I will not only embrace the Cross at the center of the Good News, but I will also make hearing the Gospel priority #1), for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, for all who believe.  

   God’s first concern is that we listen to His creative, life-giving Word.  Still, as we listen, plenty of God’s Word will tell us to serve, whom to serve, and how to serve.  Hospitality in particular is a big deal in the Bible.  Abraham sets the standard, springing into action to serve the LORD, when He showed up at his tent near the Oaks of Mamre.  Israelites were to be ready to provide for the sojourner, the outcast, the widows and orphans, for they had suffered as slaves in Egypt, and wandered homeless through the wilderness.    

   Both listening to God and serving other people are very important to the Lord.  The key is to set things in their proper order, and keep them that way.  I’m reminded of the object lesson popular among college professors, hoping to help the incoming freshmen with prioritizing their lives.  The prof sets a large clear container on a table, and then fills it up with large stones.  He asks the class: Is it full?  As students offer their opinions, he pours gravel in on top of the large stones, which runs into all the spaces.  Now is it full?  The students are more cautious with their answers, as they begin to grasp the point.  The professor proceeds to pour fine sand on top of the stones and gravel, and it runs to the bottom and fills all the spaces.  Now the jar really looks full.  Finally, the professor takes a pitcher of liquid, water most often, or beer if it happens to be a Lutheran college, and pours it on top of the stones, gravel, and sand. 

   One lesson we might take away is that there is always room for a beer at the end of a good full day.  But the more important, real lesson is that when we start our days with the big, important things, we will still find space for the smaller things.  But, if we fill the jar of life with small things like sand or beverages, there won’t be room for the big, important rocks. 

   Jesus is teaching Martha, and us, that, even though the world tells you the opposite, filling up with His Word is the One Thing Necessary, the one way to be connected to the Rock of Salvation.  Service to others, and care for ourselves, rest and relaxation, these are all good, in their proper time and quantity.  But if, instead of sitting at Jesus’ feet, we pursue the lesser things first, or, God forbid, we pursue worthless things, our life might seem full, but that will not be the life God wants for you.  For God wants to give you the life of glorious joy with Him, that goes on forever and ever.   

   Why is feeding on the Word of Christ the One Thing Necessary, the Truly Good Portion?  Because God has promised by His Word, and only by His Word, to rescue sinners from all our troubles. 

   Satan wants you distracted away from the Word of Christ, because in it you will hear that God in Christ has reconciled the world to Himself, through the forgiving blood of Jesus.  You will hear that the Lord desires for all to repent, and come to the knowledge of salvation, that He is always ready to claim new children, through the circumcision of the heart, made without hands, Holy Baptism.  Satan definitely does not want you to hear that there is no other name, given under heaven, by which we must be saved, other than the Name of the only Savior, Christ Jesus, God the Father’s crucified, resurrected and ascended Son. 

   And wait, there’s more.  In addition to salvation, (as if we need anything in addition to salvation), still, even more, it is by His Word that the Holy Spirit gives you wisdom, wisdom to choose better, day by day, as He renews your will.  By His Word, the Spirit gives you the mind of Christ, and the desire to serve others, and not just yourself.  By delivering to you the love and forgiveness poured out for you in Christ, God through His Word is changing you, and He is using you, as He continues to work through His Church, through every believer in Christ, to draw yet more sinners to the forgiving love of Jesus. 

   There is no other Word like Jesus’ Word, nowhere else can we find grace to meet our every need, forgiveness and acceptance by the Almighty, and a part to play in God’s ongoing mission.  So yes, indeed, sitting at Jesus’ feet to hear Him speak words of life is the One Thing Necessary, the Truly Good Portion.     

   How are you doing with this most important task?  Well, you’re here today, hearing Jesus and receiving His gifts, so that good.  The Sunday service, a regular, habitual weekly gathering to be served by God and to respond with thanks and praise, this has been the hub of God’s Plan A for serving His people since He first gave a set plan for worship to Moses in desert, more than 3,400 years ago.

   I sometimes wonder if you get tired of me suggesting practical ways to get more of the Word of Christ in your daily life.  I wonder, but I don’t really care, and I’m not going to stop. Because, besides preparing a faithful service for you on Sunday, what better thing do I have to do than to always be trying to connect you more closely to Christ through His Word?  For Christ in you is the hope of glory. 

   So you can see in your bulletin the list of opportunities for deepening your time in the Word through the week, and you know I am always happy to talk individually to help you with this most worthy project.  It is important to find and use good resources, of course.  But this is a manageable task, one I’m very happy to help you with. 

   And of course, first and always, keep gathering, like you have today.  If you must miss on Sunday, remember, we gather for prayers on (Tues/Thurs), and on Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm at ORLC.  And especially you should consider coming next Wednesday.  We’ll pray at 7:00, as usual, and then, Lord willing, we will enjoy root beer floats, and hear from Makia Adler, a brand new LCMS missionary preparing to deploy to Belize.  Come and learn about God’s ongoing mission, for your faith, and joy, and to help open our eyes to opportunities here in the Black Hills.  

   Mary made the better choice, when Jesus came to visit her and Martha.  That may seem easy.  After all, God in the flesh had come into the house.  Easy for Mary to choose to hear Jesus, just as it was easy for Abraham and Sarah to drop everything to host the LORD, as He came to visit them at the oaks of Mamre. 

   But hear and please remember this: We have the same blessing today.  God’s presence with us is not visible, and so maybe for us not as exciting.  At the same time, the story of salvation, which was incomplete for Abraham and Sarah and Mary and Martha, is now, for us, complete.  It is finished.  It is finished, and your Finisher is here, today, to teach you and comfort you, to forgive and strengthen you, to feed you with the bread of life, the medicine of immortality, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. 

   Rejoice, hear Jesus, and joyfully receive all He has for you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.   

Beautiful Feet - 5th Sunday after Penetecost

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, July 13^th, A+D 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Beautiful Feet

Grace Mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

   Beauty is seen with the ear. 

   So, this is a Higher Things conference-week sermon, which always presents a number of special challenges.  As usual, there are lots of things we could talk about in our readings, from the good Samaritan, to the lofty language of Colossians, to that review of the law and we heard in the Old Testament.  There’s also lots of thoughts and ideas for teaching, swirling around in my head from the worship and the preaching and the singing and the teaching that went on at the Higher Things conference at Concordia University in Seward, NE.  And of course, I could just talk about Joy and Bergen, Sonja and Logan.  But that wouldn’t be all that interesting cause they pretty much just behaved wonderfully, and we had a great time,

   Higher Things conferences are all about the truth of Christ’s Gospel.  What is the truth of His gospel? What is the real reality of that good news?  This morning, we are going to consider this, not by using anything in particular from Higher Things, or even from our three readings, although we will get into them eventually.  But, I want to focus on the Gradual that I read between the Old Testament and Epistle readings.  Particularly, on that first line:  “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.” This comes from Paul in Romans 10 who gets it from Isaiah in chapter 52.  As a good Lutheran will do, we will simply ask the question. “What does this mean?”  What exactly did Paul and Isaiah mean by this?

   It’s helpful perhaps to break it down a little bit, so maybe the first question we could ask is who brings the good news?  Well, that’s the Sunday school answer, isn’t it? It’s Jesus.  But not just Jesus.  Jesus and those who are with Him are the ones who bring the good news, each according to his or her vocation.   Jesus’ vocation, His calling from the Father is to be the one and only Savior.  The Apostles special calling from Jesus is to be the foundation stones of the Church, and to record the Scripture of the New Testament. There are also pastors, and deacons and missionaries. They have special callings to be good-news-bearers.  There are also parents, who are called to bear the good news to their children.  There’s all the family members, as we speak the gospel to each other.  And friends and coworkers, and wherever God places us.  Every Christian has a calling to speak of Jesus and to give the reason for the hope that we have. 

   But as we think about that, and as we think about all the people who God calls to speak the good news, we do need to ask the question: “Are our feet really all that beautiful to look at?”  Even just consider the feet of Jesus the Savior Himself.  He walked around in sandals in the dust, his feet undoubtably weren’t really all that great to look at.  So, what are Isaiah and Paul trying to tell us when they say that those feet truly are beautiful? 

   All the feet of those who bring the good news are beautiful, of course, because of the message, because that’s how things work in this fallen world.  If we want something truly be beautiful, especially for an eternal basis, we need to apply that Gospel, the Good News to it.  And so the beauty of their feet is heard in the ear of their hearers. 

   So, we know who’s bringing the good news and how it is that their feet are beautiful.  But, what is this Gospel? What is this Good News?  Now we might take for granted that we all know the answer.  I think all too often that does happen, and so we again and again we repeat the answer, being very careful to guard this truth. What is this good news? Well, of course this good news is the way of salvation.  It is expressed in many ways in the Scriptures.  At our youth conference this last week, it was spoken of in terms of Jesus making All Things New.  All that is broken and ruined in this fallen world, including us, will be made new.  This is the Way of salvation.

   How does it work?  Here we get into the challenges of living in this world as a sinner, even living in this world as a redeemed sinner: it’s natural for us to wonder about how the way of salvation works.  We worry about how that way of salvation works because the threats of the Lord‘s law are serious, they are eternal.  It is Natural to be like that lawyer, and to wonder how it is that this way of salvation comes to us.  The lawyer is even a more obvious example of the way that we all are somewhere in the back of our minds.  Even though we are baptized believers we still like to think that we must do something to earn salvation. The lawyer asked specifically, what must I do to inherit eternal life. We have the thought in our heads that we must be required to do something.  Certainly it can’t be for free.

   All of these ways that we wonder and worry about our salvation reflect our gut expectation that we must earn it in some fashion.  This is our expectation because that’s simply the way that daily life works. Life works this way no matter what area you want to talk about: you must do and give in order to receive. There is no free lunch in this world.  If you want to be successful at work, you must work hard. If you want to do well at school you must follow the rules and do good work.  If you want to be loved by your neighbors, you should love them first.  This is how this world works, and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with this.  It’s quite fair that we should do something to earn something.

   There is nothing intrinsically wrong or unfair about this arrangement, but there is a big problem, of course, which is that sin infects us. Our sin has ruined this way of doing and receiving that is really completely fine.  If sin had not entered into the world, we would naturally do things in love for our neighbors and we naturally receive back from them all that we needed.  But what we do naturally now is not so wonderful.  What we do naturally now is try to get and not to give.  What we do naturally now is to be selfish and not to be loving as God has called us to be. We know we can’t do it and yet we still haven’t lost the idea of self-justification. It’s just that the ability to achieve that justification, that rightness with God, this we do not have.

   So you might ask the question why, then, since we can’t achieve this justification, since we can’t justify ourselves, why does God still say so much about us doing the right things?  Why does he spend chapter after chapter and Exodus and Leviticus giving rules for how Israel was to live, not to mention Jesus and Matthew chapter five and six, not to speak of many other places. 

   Why does God call us to do so much, as we see in the Old Testament reading?  Don’t glean your fields right up to the corners and you leave some crop behind for the poor and you love your neighbor as yourself and you do good to him. It’s really a description of true social justice discussed, of how God‘s people should live together, discussed in our Old Testament reading.  In our epistle Paul talks about calling the Christians to live in a manner worthy of the calling that you’ve received.  Even after we become Christians we still have that burden of a certain way to live.  Why does God keep bringing this up, when He knows that we can’t achieve it? 

   Well first of all God speaks about how we should be and how we should live because it’s good and right.  This is the blessed life: to love your neighbor as yourself and to love God above all things.  It’s good and right, and the closer we can come to it, the better life in this world will be.  But, most importantly, God speaks about His law and His requirements and how we should live because we have to be separated from that innate idea, that false hope, that we can justify ourselves.  And, in this regard, Jesus’ exchange with the self-justifying lawyer is a wondrous thing.  It is maybe the best example in all of scripture of Jesus separating a self-righteous person from that false idea, that false hope. 

   I want to read again just the first paragraph of our gospel reading.      And behold, a lawyer stood up to put [Jesus] to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" [26] He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" [27] And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." [28] And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."

   God‘s expectation for the way that all people should live, summarized clearly and perfectly, from the word of Moses quoted by this Jewish lawyer.  But the lawyer can’t just accept it.  He wants to justify himself.  I think there’s a partial admission in what he says next that did he know he really couldn’t do it, that he really didn’t have the ability to love his neighbor as himself.  Certainly his next words give proof that he doesn’t have the heart that God requires, the heart that naturally loves what God loves and wants to help all those around him.  He hears God‘s command to love his neighbor as himself, he even speaks God’s command, but He wants it to be limited. He wants to cut it down. He’s willing to try hard to love his neighbor, but he wants that list of neighbors to be a little narrower.  So he asks, “Who is my neighbor.” Can I cut it down to people I like?  Can I limit it to people who are easy to love? 

   He hasn’t heard the beauty of Jesus words. So, Jesus takes it farther and responds with the story of the good Samaritan.  In this story Jesus is of course, giving an example of a wonderful person who gives selflessly to someone he doesn’t even know.  But, most importantly, Jesus ratchets up the requirement. Jesus makes it clear to the lawyer, and to us, just how difficult, just how expensive is God‘s call for us to love our neighbors. Jesus even goes on to disparage people that we would naturally think are holy and good.  A priest, who serves at the altar of God’s Temple, and the Levite, whose whole life is dedicated to taking care of that Temple. They are of no use. They’re not good neighbors.  Neither of them measured up to God‘s command to love their neighbor as himself.  They had excuses, probably, they didn’t want to become unclean before they served.  But God wants people to be saved. He’s not as concerned about perfection in his temple as he is about the perfection of love. 

   Jesus then goes on to paint the picture of a truly righteous man, and rub it in a little more.  He uses the example of a Samaritan as the righteous one who is the good neighbor.  This is extra hard, because the Jews hated the Samaritans.  As you might remember, the Jews and the Samaritans were cousins, the Samaritans are the leftover Jews from the 10 tribes of Israel, who were exiled from their land.  Most of them were exiled into a Assyria, and disappeared.  But, some were left behind in the land, and  intermarried with the pagans around them.  Then they took the teaching of Moses and they contorted and twisted it so they had a version of the Jewish faith of the faith of Israel, but everything was changed around.  The Jews hated their half-blood cousins.  So, to twist the knife, Jesus chooses a Samaritan and lifts him up as the one who truly loves his neighbor.  This is the standard: not just loving your family, not just loving people you like, not just loving people who are difficult to love.  Love also strangers, you’re your enemies, love people who are dying.  This is much harder, because they will require a lot out of you.  Jesus says, “do whatever it takes to love the people that God puts in front of you in your life.” This is the standard Jesus teachers. 

   After revealing what a good Samaritan does, and Jesus turns to the lawyer and asks: “Which of these three proved to be a neighbor to the man who was dying on the side of the road.”  We notice the lawyer couldn’t even say the name Samaritan.  He simply says the one who showed mercy.  Well, Jesus allows this weak answer, this avoidance of saying the name, because He is now going for the kill-shot: “You go and do likewise.”

   Did you see the Gospel with your ear in this story? Did you hear any good news in what Jesus said to the lawyer?  That’s the question we started with, what exactly is the Good News? What is this message of salvation?

   One character in the story certainly receive good news, right?  The man lying half dead on the side of the road, he received a free gift.  He was about to die, and a stranger comes and rescue him, washes his wounds with oil and wine, binds him up and puts him on his own animal, to carry him to an inn, and takes care of him.  He provides for his future care and promises to come back and take care of him again.  So the wounded and the wounded man, he’s the one who certainly received good news.  In this we see that the Samaritan is not only lifted up by Jesus as an example of how you should fulfill the law of loving your neighbor, but Jesus is also of course giving us a picture of Himself, a demonstration of the gospel.

   The good news is that Jesus is your Good Samaritan, the one who was rejected by his own people, by the people of Israel, by His own Jewish tribe.  But he came and is the good Samaritan who came and found you and me half dead on the side of the road.  He did all that it took to save us.  He took our wounds and our sins and our problems on Himself and carried them to His cross to wash them away forever.  And He has come to you and to me.  He has washed you at the font. He’s healed you of all your wounds.  He carried you to an inn, giving you a place to be safe in his love until He returns.  That place of course is His church, a place to be gathered and continue to be served by Jesus our Good Samaritan.  So, Jesus truly is the one with beautiful feet. Jesus truly is the one who has given this good news in His own life, death and resurrection.  And then has He has His good news carried on to others.

   Our feet may not be all that attractive; we don’t need to test that out.  But the feet of every gospel speaker are beautiful for what they bring to our ears and for what you bring to the ears of others.  Beauty is seen in the ear of the one who hears what our Good Samaritan has done for us and for all people.  Hear this, see this: you have been washed, you have been cleansed, you have been healed. You have been carried to the inn that is the church of God, given a place to wait for His return.  So, you can rejoice, you can rest, and you too can serve your neighbor because you know that your Good Samaritan to serve you perfectly, in the Name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.  

God's Comfort - Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
July 6^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
God’s Comfort 
Isaiah 66:10-14, Galatians 6:1-18, Luke 10:1-20

Audio of Sermon available HERE.

   "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance."

   God is not shy with the metaphors He chooses.  He equates His promised salvation with the comfort of a nursing baby, drinking his fill, satisfied and safe in his mother’s arms.  I don’t talk like this; do you?   And yet, I think we all get it.  We all understand the intensity of the comfort the LORD describes through the image of a nursing infant. 

   How is it that we all understand?  Is it merely by observation?  Is it simply that we have all seen a baby nursing and immediately could sense the intensity, comfort and beauty of the connection between mother and child?  Or is it more personal?  We don’t remember nursing, but is there somewhere in our brains a hidden memory of our infant experience, that infuses our thoughts and emotions so thoroughly that we nod knowingly at this passage from Isaiah?    

   Lisa Smith delivered her twins a couple weeks ago, Carlee June and Claude August.  Everything was going fine, and Shelee’s family was in town, so I didn’t go right over to see them.  But I was thinking about getting to meet them, and now so are most of you.  I was eager to go see the babies, and talk to Elliot about his new baby sister and brother.  And now I have received one of the many perks of the office of the ministry, as I was able to visit the Smiths last Thursday.  Elliot wasn’t around, but Carlee and Claude wrapped their tiny fingers around mine and slept beautifully, as Lisa, her mom and I discussed plans for their Baptism.  It had been a while since I’d been around newborns, and twins to boot.  They are a wonder.      

   The eager anticipation so many of us feel at the opportunity to meet a newborn goes along with our innate grasp of the LORD’s nursing infant metaphor.  There is something precious and miraculous and peaceful about a new human being, born into this world, precious, miraculous and peaceful at the same time it is stressful and messy and frightening.  Parenting newborns is both one of the hardest parts of life, and also the very best. 

   Of course, not everyone is so comfortable and enthused about interacting with infants.  As a youngest child, I didn’t get to learn all about it on a younger sibling, so 12 to 20 year old David was not so eager, not so poetic, not so comfortable around infants.  And that’s o.k., as long as we don’t stay stuck there.  For the good of our souls and the future of our nation, not to mention the growth of the Church, everyone should learn how to hold and care for a baby, because this is how we learn to love them.  And loving babies makes us more like God. 

   Inexperience is a legitimate reason to not be enthused around infants.  They are tiny and fragile and it takes a bit to learn how to hold and care for them.  But there are darker reasons people avoid babies.  Infants force us to stop focusing on ourselves and give them our attention.  Babies, with all their needs, inconvenience us from time to time.  Infants, which we have all been, may remind us that we were once helpless.  For those who think it through, infants also remind us of the return to increasing dependency that we will all experience, if we live long enough.  As we gather two days after the 249^th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, the virtues of independence, freedom and autonomy all ring in our ears.  Does a red-blooded American want to be like a helpless nursing infant?  Are we too proud to embrace the reality of our need, of our dependence on God? 

   You don’t need to answer me.  But this is precisely the problem that Jesus diagnoses in the three Galilean villages of Chorazin, Bethsaida and His second hometown of Capernaum.  All too many proud Jews, Jesus’ own people, rejected the saving message of Christ, precisely because He was describing the saved like needy newborn babies. 

   It’s not just that Jesus’ hearers were confused by His teaching on Baptism, like the Pharisee Nicodemus was, when he came to Jesus at night to learn from Him.  Upon hearing about the new birth of Baptism, Nicodemus asks, “How can one be born again, can he crawl back into his mother’s womb?”  (John 3)  Impossible!  Uncomfortable to think about.  Nicodemus was confused, but many Jews understood, consciously or unconsciously, that the Gospel Jesus preached was offensive in what it says about human capacity and goodness.  The way Jesus taught, always laying bear the sinfulness of all His hearers, pointing to His Cross as the solution, and promoting the helplessness of a newborn as the ideal of true faith in God, this teaching was and still is offensive, for what it says about mankind, about you, and me, and every descendent of Adam.  Jesus declares that we utterly lack capacity to make ourselves right  before God.  And that stings our pride.        

   Many of His countrymen, by and large quite religious people, were nevertheless offended by Jesus and His doctrine.  So, most rejected Him.  Pride-of-self, confidence in one’s own goodness, is the great danger to the religious.  Self-righteousness can lead us to reject God’s miracles, to reject His true messengers, and to finally twist His teaching, His Law and His Gospel, distorting them into a horrible lie that condemns both the proud teacher and his hearers. 

   And comparing the faithful to helpless newborns is not the end of God’s scandalous teaching.  Jesus takes it further, all the way up a rocky hill to a Roman Cross.  Jesus’ death is the ultimate condemnation of humanity, the ultimate pride-crusher.  Here is what we deserve.  Here is what it takes to save the likes of you and me, the necessary solution for every sinner. 

    In terms of achieving God’s standards and making ourselves righteous, we are helpless, like newborns.  But it’s even worse, of course.  We are not only helpless, we are culpable.  We are guilty; we are by nature enemies of God.  We have absolutely no room to boast. 

    Except.  Paul, after calling the Galatians to humility and selflessness, exhorting them to gently restore each other when anyone falls into transgression and sin, goes on to deny the right for the Christian to boast, with one exception.  But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 

    The “upside-down-ed-ness” of the Gospel flips our perspective again, as the very thing that most crushes our pride-of-self becomes the one thing that we rightly boast of: God did that, for me.  Christ Jesus went through that, to have me for His very own.  The victory of the Cross and the Resurrection, this is the gift that God delivers to me, delivered to me in my Baptism, renewed each time I confess my sins and hear His forgiving Word of Absolution, received in my mouth in the mystery of the Holy Supper.

    It is painful to hear and accept the truth about our sin, our unworthiness.  It is also hard to believe the forgiving message of the Cross, that the same God who hates our sin and promises just punishment, also took our sin upon Himself, in order to comfort us with His mercy and love.  Hard to believe, but joyful to trust, an eternal comfort we begin to rely upon, once the message remakes and restores us.  This Gospel message is recorded throughout the Bible, in words like “He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

    And again, “for the joy set before Him, (the joy of having you for His very own), Christ Jesus endured the Cross, despising the shame, and (resurrected from the dead and ascended on high, He) has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)  Or again, “this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son as the propitiation, (the atoning sacrifice), for our sin.” (1 John 4:10)

    This is the promise that gives us sinners comfort, comfort like that of a nursing newborn, cradled in her mother’s arms.  This is peace like a river, the promise that both changes our eternity, and our today.  Knowing and resting in the comfort of Christ, floating in the river of His peace, means both that our destination is the glory of paradise, and also that our current days are changed.  For we still live in this world, with all its problems and failures, but we are also alive, already, in the world to come.  For we are joined to the risen Christ by Baptismal Faith. 

    Now, here’s a question: This life, lived in the comfort of the Gospel, the life lived floating on an innertube down God’s River of Peace, what does this life look like?  Well, the life that flows from the Cross looks a lot like the life lived by the One who went to the Cross, on our behalf. 

    Life floating in the River of God’s Peace looks humble.  Christ Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself and entered this messy world, in order to save it.  So also Christians are necessarily humble, for our salvation is not our achievement.  We live humbly, and we live in this messy world, as long as our Lord desires, knowing that each day is another day of grace for us, and another day God would love others through us, always seeking to draw them toward Jesus with the Word of hope.  And that Word is best received when the speaker proclaims in humility, not from arrogance or superiority. 

    The life of Christian comfort is thankful: Our Savior gave thanks as He transformed the Passover into the Holy Supper.  At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of and made promises based on His own suffering and death, which would begin in just a few hours.  A serious and frightful moment, anything but comfortable.  And yet Jesus, at that moment, gives thanks, before He breaks the bread.  He gives thanks before He blesses the Cup.  Jesus was thankful, even on the night when He was betrayed, because the salvation of sinners is the desire of God. 

   So also, Christians live thankfully, for we know more than anyone just how much our God has done for and given to us unworthy sinners.  Christian life is the thankful life, and is especially the life that returns regularly to the thankfulness meal, the Eucharist (that’s what that funny word for the Lord’s Supper means, give thanks, thanksgiving). 

   The life lived floating in God’s River of Peace is gentle.  For God did not treat us with the severity that we deserved; rather He has treated us with the gentleness of a mother, caring for her newborn.  So also we are gentle, especially when our calling includes restoring a brother or sister in Christ who has fallen into error, or when we are called to speak the truth in love to an unbeliever.  We speak the truth, in love, with gentleness and respect, seeking to prepare the soil, that the Holy Spirit might plant a seed of faith. 

   The Christian life is a life that flows from receiving God’s comfort, and then flows into sharing that comfort with others.  And so St. Peter exhorts us: like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. (1 Peter 2:2)  And Paul teaches us that God comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.  (1 Cor 1:4-5)  

   As Americans, just two days out from the 4^th of July, we may or may not struggle with God’s choice of the nursing infant metaphor.  But perhaps the LORD knows our need better than we do.  Which brings us to the 72.  Luke helpfully includes this bit of Gospel history, establishing the fact that the pastoral ministry which the Apostles of Jesus established was not an idea the Apostles dreamed up. 

   After Christ ascended to God’s right hand, the Apostles went out and preached the Gospel.  As the Spirit converted unbelievers, the Apostles planted churches.  Peter, Paul and the rest of men whom Christ chose as foundation stones for His Church then started appointing other Christian men to serve as pastors, deacons and missionaries.  Through this work, along with their writing of the New Testament, the Apostles ensured that the ministry Christ had established would go on after they died, and they established its form.  There is a challenge in this, however, if you only read Matthew, Mark or John’s Gospel, because they don’t tell us that Jesus instituted a ministry beyond the 12.   Now, that He desired this is implicit in much of what Christ taught.  Still, it is a blessing that Luke included the explicit event, when Jesus chose 72 others, not to be Apostles, but yes to be missionaries, evangelists and preachers, serving in the same tasks as the 12.  And indeed, Jesus gives the highest endorsement of their ministry, telling the 72, “he who hears you, hears Me.” 

   This was a needed endorsement, because the chosen spokesmen for God are never all that impressive.  After all, the LORD only has sinners to work with.  Nevertheless, God chooses to work, with authority, through His Word, spoken through the feeble and fault-filled men who occupy the pastoral office. 

    The 72, like the 12, are called into a great adventure, proclaiming God’s coming kingdom, healing, casting out demons, preparing the way of the Lord.  They go speaking peace, for the comfort of every soul they encounter, a peace that is real, and freely given, but too often rejected.  They do great things, by the Holy Spirit’s power, and upon their return, they are rightly excited.  But, as we began today talking about comfort, worked for us by God, so also, Jesus concludes this passage about the 72 with the most comforting advice, for them, and for us. 

    After they regaled Jesus with their exploits, and after Jesus celebrates the fall of Satan, caused by their preaching, He then points the 72 back to the proper reason for joy, the real comfort of every Christian.  “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”   This is the true comfort and joy of every Christian. 

    And how did names of the 72 get written in heaven?  How did your name get written in heaven?  Not by your hand, to be sure, but by the nail-scarred hands of Jesus, writing in blood to reserve your place with Him, forever.  This is our true comfort, in good days and bad, and also the Good News that sets us free to speak of Christ and share His love. 

 Let us pray:  Merciful God, grant us faith and wisdom to rest like nursing babes in the comfort of the promises you have given to us in Christ Jesus, today, and forever and ever, Amen.