God at Work, in the Word and the Water of Christ

 Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, August 23, A+D 2026
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota 
Mark 7:31 – 37

Audio of the Sermon available HERE.

   How much water does Jesus need to perform a miracle?  As we heard today, not much. 

   Fifteen or so years ago, Marcus Baikie was pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Forsyth, Montana, the congregation where I grew up.  A couple of years into his ministry in Forsyth, Pastor and Mrs. Baikie’s first child was born, very early, in the low 20s of weeks, a tiny little girl, just at the threshold of survivability.  She is now a young lady, which did not seem likely at the time of her birth.  Pastor Baikie shared a photo that was taken as he baptized her in the NICU in Billings, with just three drops of purified water from a sanitized eyedropper, which Marcus handled through plastic, from outside the tent in which his daughter struggled for life.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…

   Three drops of water, or just a bit of spit.  Our Lord’s saliva is enough for a miracle, too, it seems.  Jesus spits into - or on, or… well, I'm not sure where the Lord spat.  This slightly watery miracle is very strange. Along with spitting, and touching this man’s ears and tongue, Jesus’ groans to heaven, and speaks a word of command, “Ephatha!”  That is Aramaic for “Be opened,” and the man’s ears and tongue were made right. 

   A bit unsettling, is it not?  Still, no matter if the method offends our sensibilities, we see an expression of the divine will to help a man in need, this deaf and mute man.  And, on top of the wonderful day-to-day improvement for the man’s life, his healing also helps us understand the essence of Holy Baptism.

   The Feeding of the 5,000 was not the Lord’s Supper, but it does point to and illuminate the Sacrament of the Altar.  In the same way, what Jesus did for this poor man was not a Baptism.  But it was an act of God, a rescue flowing from the Father's loving heart, that involved water, God’s Word, and the personal involvement of Christ.  Jesus is teaching us the nuts and bolts of the Good News of Holy Baptism, as He heals this man.   

   Now, for me, being of German heritage, and of Generation X, and being from Eastern Montana, all the physical contact in our Gospel today is a bit much.  Fingers in the ears, touching the tongue, moans, and spit?  Sometimes Jesus healed people from a distance, with just His Word.  Why so close this time?  Why so much touching? 

   Here we see how God, to help hurting people, is willing to get up close and personal with our problems.  Jesus’ is not embarrassed or ashamed to touch and spit and groan, whatever it takes to open ears and invite praise from the mouths of His people, praise and thankfulness for the power and love of the Lord, who has come to rescue us.

   We can make lots of connections and comparisons between the Baptism of a helpless infant and the healing of the deaf and mute man.  One is that we might find it difficult or uncomfortable to talk about the problems that both face. 

   It is good that in our culture it is considered rude to look down on or mock a person with physical disabilities.  Even selfishly, we should foster a culture where people with disabilities are loved and accepted.  Because, sooner or later, we will all end up with disabilities. 

   So, we try to treat disabled people kindly.  But sometimes in our desire to avoid offense, we get tongue tied, and fail to speak plainly about reality, and maybe even treat the disabled person like an object, or a project, instead of a human being.  Likewise, no one wants to say that a tiny baby, especially a preemie, is a sinner, in need of forgiveness.  But in every Baptism, whether of an infant, child or adult, the essence of the thing is the Holy One of God approaching a sinner, to free her from the consequences of her sin.

   Both every baby, and the deaf mute man, are sinners.  Now, I don’t say this to to imply that the deaf-mute man had committed some sin that earned him his hearing and speech difficulties.  St. Mark does not tell us the direct cause of his disabilities.  So, we should show some compassion and not assume he lost his hearing and ability to speak because of something he did.  But, the importance of having compassion for disabled people does not change the reality that their limitations are evil, that they are consequences of the infection of sin in the world.

   God has always wanted to give us a life without problems, without end, lives full of perfect joy. Although a specific handicap is not necessarily linked to a particular sin of the person suffering from it, being deaf and mute is clearly a result of the fallen state of the world, for which we all share the blame.

   In the same way, when we celebrate the baptism of a precious little girl, plainly speaking the biblical teaching about her sin and need to be rescued from her natural alliance with the devil might offend some of her family.

   With a two-year-old, I think most parents are willing to admit that on certain occasions their daughter doesn't behave perfectly.  But in general, our culture doesn't want to hear anything about the particular sins and the inherent sinfulness of a child.  This may be because of the affection we have for little ones, or perhaps we don't want to consider the fact that what applies to a baby is surely worse in an adult, myself included.  In the end, we can deny or ignore the reality of sin, even until our last breath.  But our stubbornness does not change the reality of sin, nor does it offer us relief from its destructive consequences, those of today and those that will follow in eternity, if something isn’t done about it.

   Christ came to do something about it.  He came to rescue us from these consequences, a rescue He foreshadowed in the healing of the deaf and mute man.  If His method or His message upset us, He does not care, because He not only knows the truth, He is the Truth, the Divine Truth, the Eternal Word made flesh, entering our reality to change it.  And Jesus did not come to just make a few improvements.  No, Jesus came to renew the entire world, beginning with the root of all our problems: human sin.  As we heard in last Sunday's Epistle, we were all by nature children of wrath, just like everyone else, dead in our trespasses and sins.  But God in his mercy has given us new life in Christ.  By grace we have been saved.

   I don't know what condition blocked the ears of the deaf man Jesus healed. But another comparison between his story and Holy Baptism is that a first step in divine rescue is opening our ears so that the saving Word can enter.  “Ephphatha, be open,” the Lord commands, “so that my Word of hope may enter through the ear, renew the heart, and loose the tongues of my sons and daughters.  Because, I want to hear their voices, marveling at my ministry of deliverance.”

   The physical blockage in the deaf person has its counterpart in the spiritual blockages that prevent us from hearing the Word of Christ. There are many: ignorance, pride, love of sin.  Or the rejection of the concept of sin as offensive to human dignity.  Apathy, or distraction in earthly pleasures.  Belief in a false god and his plan of salvation based in my good works.  Or, at the other extreme, there is the lie that I am too big a sinner to receive God's forgiveness and love.  The Devil tries to block our ears with all these lies.  But Jesus, with His Gospel, His Good News, comes to open our ears and send his Spirit within us, to teach us the Truth, and give us new life.

   But still, why did Jesus do His work so up close and personal with this deaf-mute man, spitting,
touching, groaning?

   Perhaps in this miracle with the deaf and stuttering man we might see a foreshadowing of the most central and essential miracle of all, when there was also intimate contact between sinners and the Lord.  You remember it.  Men were spitting in Jesus’ face, pulling out his beard.  Religious hypocrites told lies in His face.  But Jesus did not flee this evil contact with the worst of humanity.  Nor did He argue back to defend His honor.  In the face of all the attacks, insults, and false accusations, Jesus was like a mute man.  Like a lamb led to the slaughter; He did not open His mouth to try to make it stop.  Which He could have done. 

  There were also hands.  Sinful hands touched the Suffering Servant, slapping Him, whipping Him, beating Him, nailing the Holy One of God to a Roman cross.  The only man who never sinned turned into the Chief of Sinners.

   As when He healed the deaf-mute man, again Jesus groans.  Jesus again raised his eyes to heaven and groaned, crying out to his Father: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

   Also, there at Golgotha there was just a little water, and none to quench Christ's great thirst, which was for the justice of God.  Jesus drank in His Father’s just anger against all human sin.  Christ’s thirst for righteousness led Him to die, in our place.  Then came the water, the water that flowed with the blood from His side, the water and blood that today still testify to the forgiveness of our sins, God's eternal commitment to save us.  Not just to heal us for a while, but to rescue us from never-ending condemnation and separation from God.

   The work of redemption is now complete.  Now, the ministry of justification, distributing the gift of free salvation through the forgiveness of sins, is the ongoing work that Jesus continues to perform through His Church, through His people. 

   This is why we rejoice to witness a Baptism.  For in Holy Baptism, hidden beneath a few drops of water, and empowered by the Holy Word of the Lord's Name, the entire saving work of Jesus is revealed before our eyes - a miracle of love that loosens all our tongues, so that we too may proclaim the great works of Jesus, who has done all things well, so well that in Him, there is forgiveness and salvation for all people.  

   This is also why the Spirit calls each of us to get up close and personal, uncomfortably intimate with sinners.  As Christ did for us, He continues to do through His Christians.  And so, from time to time, loving the neighbors that God has given us requires touching, tears, cleaning, holding, groaning.  We do not have to win salvation for anyone; Jesus has done that.  But only through His own children does Christ reach out to other sin-disabled people, to open their ears and call them to Himself.  So, when elderly mothers and fathers reach the end, Christian children sit by their side, speaking of the mighty deeds of God, all the way to the end.  Other ears and eyes observe that love, and, Lord willing, seek that hope.   Also in day to day life, friends invite friends to come and see, come and hear, about the Savior who has come to us, with healing and grace on His tongue. 

   Day by day, disability by disability, messy situation by messy situation, Christ is still reaching out to souls broken by sin, through the hands and mouths, the words and groans and touch of other sinners whom He has already healed and claimed for His own. 

   This is the Way of Christ, to perform great works of salvation and love, hidden beneath unimpressive things like words recited and sung by sinners, a few pieces of bread, and a sip of wine. The messengers are weak, and God’s chosen means do not seem powerful.  But through these ordinary things, the Lord continues to draw near to sinners with his grace, forgiveness, and love. They are the means of His boundless commitment to us sinners, now made holy through baptismal union with Christ Jesus, in whom we have received complete forgiveness, justification before the throne of God, and some day soon, eternal life in glory and perfect joy.

  And so, let us pray: Almighty and merciful God and Father, we thank and praise You because by Your grace you preserve and expand your family.  Help each of us to cherish the Good News that You have claimed us in Holy Baptism.  Work through us to draw more and more souls to the Water of Life, either to be baptized, or to renew the faith into which they were baptized, but from which they have drifted away, and ended up in a dry desert of unbelief.  As You have made us your sons and daughters through the washing of water with the Word, we humbly implore You to keep us in the grace of Baptism, so that according to Your good will we may grow faithfully to lead godly lives for the praise and honor of Your Holy Name and, finally, together with all Your saints, obtain the promised inheritance in heaven, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Humility and Joy

Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after the Trinity
August 16th, A + D 2026
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
 Based on Luke 18:9-14

Audio of the Sermon is available HERE. 

   Two men went up into the temple to pray.  We always go up to the temple, to the worship place, even if the room itself where we gather is located in a basement.  If we are approaching the true God, the Almighty Creator, to pray, to worship, to seek His favor, we are, in the cosmic sense, always going up.  We must be going up, because the Lord God is higher and better and simply more than we are. 

   We live in a time of radical egalitarianism; everybody is equal, or so it is said.  Any normal citizen should be able to interact with presidents and generals and kings, without being nervous, no particular courtesies required, because, “the president puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like me.”  In the popular imagination, every person, prince and pauper alike, has an equal voice.  I'm not sure this is actually true, even with earthly leaders.  But it is definitely not so with God. 

   Although the Lord does not normally make Himself visible to us, as He did from time to time with ancient Israel, the reality is that we do encounter Him, for He comes to us.  He comes down to us sinful creatures, whenever two or more gather in His Name, whenever Christians gather around Christ’s gifts in Word and Sacrament.  When we gather for worship in the Name of Jesus, God comes to us.  Therefore, as we approach the Holy God approaching us, the great difference between us and God should certainly influence our behavior.  We poor, fallible creatures must enter the temple of the Lord with deep humility. 

   But we don't want to do that.  Part of this is our popular egalitarian bent.  Plus, we have a hard time taking an invisible God seriously.  Naturally, we live by sight.  “I’ll believe it when I see it!”  And, from what we can see, we human beings are pretty impressive and important.  We are the sovereigns of the natural world, unless you end up alone in the woods with an angry mountain lion or grizzly bear.  But, certainly, we are capable of great things, right?  And, as we see every day on our screens, the most successful people in the world seem to always lack humility.  Pride, self-esteem, and self-promotion are the buzzwords in our culture.  Humility is for losers.  Nice guys finish last, don’t they?

 

   This perspective, so normal, so common, and often true in worldly and human affairs, is eternally wrong.  Pride and self-importance are the great self-deceptions of our human race.  The Lord God opposes the proud.  Indeed, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.  However, because the Lord God is concerned about our eternity, because God wants a whole bunch of people living with Him forever in paradise, He decided to spend 33 years with us, visibly, to disabuse us of our pride and self-esteem.  God’s Son became a human being, to correct our foolish pride and give us something much better.  God the Father’s eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, laid aside his glory and power for a time, because the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  He came down from heaven and took on human flesh, in order to give us an example of proper humility, and to save us from our deadly pride of self, so that we can be exalted with Him.   

   It is a common thing to think of Jesus as meek, courteous, and kind. Fact check true.  But at the same time, Jesus is also the Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe, the source of all energy and matter, the great ruler of the cosmos. 

   And yet, he was meek and mild.  And, on top of his example of humility, Jesus gave us many sermons on the same topic, none more important or profound than our gospel today. [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

   Unlike today, historically in most cultures, including American culture 50 or 75 years ago, worshiping the true God has been very important to most people.  Today, agnosticism, (professed ignorance of God) or atheism, (the denial of God) are growing.  Spiritual apathy abounds.  But our zeal or lack of zeal for the Lord does not change our nature or God’s reality.  We all need God, apart from whom there is no lasting peace or life.  But our pride gets in the way, especially if we convince ourselves that God does not exist, or that He is at best  unknowable. 

   Although supposedly a man of the true religion, the Pharisee has no humility.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

    Wow, the nerve of this guy.  Even many pagans, praying to mute idols, display outward humility, bowing their heads to the ground and making a great show of their submission. It´s tempting to think that Jesus is exaggerating.  I do not think I have ever seen someone so overtly egocentric in their prayer.  But we should remember that Jesus was always concerned with the interior, with the faith of the heart, not just the outward appearance. 

   Perhaps we never appear to be so obviously proud and self-satisfied.  Perhaps such words never cross our lips.  But what is in our hearts, in our minds?  It is good to fast in preparation for worship, and to give a tithe, to serve at Church, and avoid sin, as the Pharisee claimed to be doing.  I pray that we all do similar things.  The question is, when we do such good works, are we able to avoid inner pride?  Or, do we begin to think that our works have made us worthy to approach God on our own merit?  “Look at me God, aren’t you so happy to have me?”  “Look at how much I do for You!”  Or at least, “See how much better I am than those people!”

   Sometimes hard-to-explain conflicts erupt in congregations and church bodies, often when someone who has long performed some necessary task for the church now has to share, or completely pass on that task, to someone new.  I sometimes wonder, and pray against the possibility that these odd blow-ups have a pharisaical root.  I worry that the intense emotion relates to a member losing a responsibility that had become their assurance before God.  I fear sometimes that the veteran doer-of-good-things, having lost 100% control of their good deed, is now unsure that God still loves them.  I pray the Lord set all of us free from such Satanic errors.  

   The Pharisee prays with great pride of self.  Jesus goes on to the other man:  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

     This tax collector, a Jew working for the Roman rulers, the foreigners who subjugated and occasionally persecuted the Jews, was not despised only by the Pharisees.  In first century Israel, everybody looked down on tax collectors, especially since many of them, like the wee little man Zacchaeus, abused their job.  It was fairly simple for a tax collector to collect more tax from the people than required by the Romans, and so make himself rich.  Many tax collectors deserved the contempt they received. 

 

   But right here we discover the power of humility.  Being humble in the world does not often result in much benefit.  But before the Lord, honest humility, actually confessing the truth about our condition, is a key that unlocks heavenly treasure.  Despite the reality of his life, the tax collector trusted that God is merciful.  By the Word and the Spirit, he believed the promise that the Lord God of Israel wants to forgive sinners.  So, with humility, shame and honesty, he confessed his sin, his need, his unworthiness.  And so, Jesus praises him: I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.

   What?  How’s that?  How can it be that God forgives repentant sinners, without them doing anything to deserve it?  This is the question that has started most of the errors within the Christian Church for two thousand years.  Where is the justice in giving mercy to bad people, to sinners, without first requiring some previous reform on their part?    

   Jesus.  Jesus Christ is the answer.  The "it can be" of God’s radical mercy is located and revealed in an even deeper humility, the passive, dying humility of God himself.  The answer lies in the cosmic shame that the Author of our parable and the Author of our lives embraced, so that He could fulfill God's justice for us.

   Jesus, the Perfect One, showed humility, the proper humility of a human being, every day of His whole life.  He also taught, as in our parable today, the need for humility and honesty about sin.  But let us not think our humility and honesty do anything; they are simply the necessary reality, the opening of our spiritual eyes to our desperate situation, so that we can also see and receive God’s justice. 

   The justice that makes our forgiveness possible is the justice that Jesus suffered on the Cross.  The wicked justice of the Jews and Romans, and the perfect justice of God against all sinners, eternal justice executed on the Innocent One, who hung there in our place.  

   The Cross is the key.  It is the essence of humiliation, the acceptance by Jesus of the guilt and punishment for all the sins of world, every evil thought word and deed, exterior and interior, of everyone.  Jesus took on Himself the sins of the tax collector, and of the Pharisee, and even of His own executioners, the sinners who with their own hands crucified the Lord of glory.  Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.  

 

   It is finished.  Christ Jesus is the One who humbled himself unto death and hell.  That work is done, finished, for you.  And so, since He then rose from the dead, never to die again, in Him you receive mercy, forgiveness, and His righteousness, and His eternal life.  Because Jesus is resurrected, exalted, glorified, ascended and ruling in heaven, right now, you can look forward to a glorious forever. 

   In fact, by faith, we baptized believers are already there in glory, seated with Christ the King, because He has joined Himself to us.  We are His beloved baptized.  So, as long as we continue in the true confession, the confession of our sinfulness and of the divine mercy revealed on the Cross, this faith binds us to Christ Jesus, forever.

   And so, as Luther says in the Large Catechism, “in the Christian church everything is ordered so that daily we can obtain the full forgiveness of sins through the Word and the signs.”   With this turn of phrase, Luther is simply restating the same thing that, through the tax collector, Jesus teaches us today.  The heart of worship and the whole life of the Christian Church is the delivery of the merciful forgiveness of Christ to humble sinners. 

   Humility is never going to be fashionable with the world.  But who cares?  Humility about ourselves and faith in Jesus is the Way of Truth that rescues, that gives life to lost and dying men, women and children.  The humility of the Son of God is our salvation. 

   This changes everything.  Today, we descend from the temple to our homes with joy, because we are justified, declared righteous and beloved, by the Lord.  We have peace and friendship with God.  What a turn-around!  For we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. 

   Sadly, envy and jealousy are natural to us.  We see the first horrible instance in Cain’s murder of Abel.  Envy, jealousy, wanting what someone else has are motors that drive our society.  Today we especially see this online, in our entertainment, commerce and social media.  Joy in the blessing of another is a rare thing in our world. 

   But, we need not envy the proud and self-promoting world, because we have something much better than self-esteem or earthly fame and wealth.  We are esteemed by God.  We are beloved in the eyes of the Lord Almighty.  Today, in Christ, we are free from the fear of earthly humiliation, whether from poverty, or the contempt of others, or from sickness, weakness, or other earthly failures.  These things may come, will come, in our earthly lives.  But so what?  We already have the life of Christ and all the wealth of God as our inheritance.          

   Therefore, we are also free to live with the humility of Christ, without feeling a need to compete in the world’s success sweepstakes.  You can ignore the world’s endless pride competitions, for they are a sham.  Your pride is Jesus Christ, and so you are free to live with humility and love, not only seeking your own good, but also sharing the love of Christ with your neighbors, even by sharing with them the good news of the great surprise that the Son of God came to serve, and not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for sinners. 

   Yes, I am a sinner, like everyone else.  Like you.  It’s shameful.  But the Holy Spirit does not let us despair.  You can dare to confess your sinfulness, because in Christ you have full forgiveness.  You are justified.  You live in the mercy of God, revealed in the saving humility of Jesus.  What joy!  Amen.       

Sex, Money, Righteousness and Blessing

 Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Trinity.  Based on 2^nd Samuel 22:26-34, Psalm 51, 1^st Corinthians 10:12-13, Luke 16:1-13

There is no manuscript this week.  You can listen to the sermon HERE.

Wielding the Hammer of God

Eighth Sunday after Trinity, July 26^th, A+D 2026
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Wielding the Hammer of God 
Jeremiah 23:16-29, Acts 20:25-38, Matthew 7:15 – 23

Audio of the Sermon available HERE.

1.  Preach you the Word and plant it home

        To men who like or like it not,

     The Word that shall endure and stand

        When flow'rs and men shall be forgot.

 2.  We know how hard, O Lord, the task

        Your servant bade us undertake:

     To preach Your Word and never ask

        What prideful profit it may make.

   Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. ²⁹ Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

   All of our readings this morning say something about God’s expectation for His preachers, for His prophets and pastors, and God’s expectation of His people, too.  “Beware of false prophets,” warns Jesus, “who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”  Paul instructs the Ephesian elders, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”  Near the end of our Jeremiah reading we hear God’s simple instruction: “Let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.” 

   A failure to faithfully teach and maintain what God has said is the original source of evil entering God’s good creation, (Did God really say, hissed the serpent).  All the problems God’s people have suffered down through the millennia can be traced to a failure to receive, believe, proclaim and follow the Word of the LORD.  From Moses, Elijah and Elisha, down to John the Baptist and the Apostles Peter, Paul and John, the LORD’s expectation for His preachers has always been the same: Hear my Word, and speak it, faithfully, to men who, as the second line of our hymn instructs, may like it, or like it not.  You be faithful. 

     Simple enough, this shape of the preaching task.  Simple, but not easy.  Not easy, in large part, because of the very last line we heard from Jeremiah: “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”  Now, I suppose from time to time some men become so enamored of the power implicit in the call to proclaim God’s Word that they embrace the task with a proud and excessive zeal, not concerned with the final result their message might produce, knocking sinners down, with no thought of also raising them up.  Such bold, fire and sledgehammer alone preaching might even prove profitable to the speaker, for a time. 

   But the truth is, as every prophet and preacher, except One, is only human and also a sinner, the hearers’ reaction does matter to most men called to proclaim God’s Word.  This can lead to a number of imperfections in proclamation, not least being the softening of hard edges, the padding of the hammer, the shading of the truth, so as not to offend.  This also is a serious problem, for treading lightly over the uncomfortable words of God can leave sinners comfortable in their sin, not knowing the dangerous risk they are taking.  This is not God’s will.  God’s Word is a burning fire and a rock-breaking hammer for a merciful reason, to break sin’s hold on us, that we might be set free in the love of God.  More on this after our next hymn stanza.

   But first, a bit about “The Hammer of God.”  The primary way that preachers and hearers can learn to recognize and appreciate faithful proclaimers is to read and hear and study the Biblical greats, like Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and the rest.  But it can be helpful to have more recent examples, from contexts closer to ours than the Biblical setting.  And one came to mind as I was preparing this week: the Swedish pastor and theologian Bo Giertz.  I know many of us are of German or Norwegian heritage, but are there any Swedes in the house today?  (Filipinos probably outnumber Swedes here, actually.) 

   Well, regardless, Bo Giertz was a 20^th century Swedish preacher, Church historian, Bishop and author who I believe was very faithful, a great example of how to live out the call for faithfulness which we have heard from Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus this morning. 

   Decades after his death, Bo Giertz continues to serve the cause of faithful Lutheran proclamation, through his many writings, the most famous of which is a novel named “The Hammer of God.”  This one work has had an outsized influence on the Church, motivating and showing the way for countless Christians, clergy and people alike, both Lutheran and from other church bodies. 

   Giertz lived from 1905 to 1998.  He served the Swedish state church, which is historically Lutheran, as is the case in all of Scandinavia.  Giertz’s ministry saw the Great Depression, the second World War, and tremendous social, economic and theological upheaval.  He was an actively serving pastor from 1934 to 1970, the last 21 years serving as the Bishop of the diocese of Gothenburg, Sweden.  In retirement, largely rejected and discredited within his church body, Giertz continued to speak and write, calling the Church and her pastors to faithfulness.   

   In one sense, you could call Giertz a failure.  He was a consistent and tireless advocate for faithfulness to God’s Word, but his Church went hard down the path of unfaithfulness.  Despite Giertz’s efforts, the Swedish state church abandoned Scripture and conformed itself to the world.  As Paul warned the Ephesian pastors, “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”  The worst threats to the Church always come from within, it seems, when the devil draws preachers away from God’s Word, to spread his cancerous lies throughout the Body. 

   The state church of Sweden is today very much a “LINO” church, that is “Lutheran In Name Only.”  Like happens in all church bodies that abandon God’s true Word, the state church is increasingly irrelevant in Sweden, and Giertz witnessed much of her decline.  Like so many faithful Biblical prophets, Giertz seemed to be fighting a losing battle his whole life.  That is a real downer, and yet, there is a lesson and an encouragement for us in this difficult reality.  But first, we should return to our hymn and be reminded of the Who and the Why behind the call for faithfulness. 

3.  The Sower sows his reckless love

         Scatters abroad the goodly seed,

     Intent alone that all may have

        The wholesome loaves that all men need.

     My Word is like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, but only because it must be, in order to save sinners like you and me.  God is laser focused on having a huge congregation of souls with Him in paradise, forever.  For this He created us, for this He sustains us, for this purpose, the Father sent the Son to redeem us, and the Holy Spirit works through the Word to create and sustain saving faith in us sinners.  Nothing is more important to God than this task. 

   There is that occasional man who takes delight in burning and breaking souls with God’s Word, not for the sake of saving them, but only to delight in stolen power.  His is the worst sort of demonic voice, masquerading as God’s servant.  It is true, God’s hammer must break us in pieces, like Humpty Dumpty fallen from the wall.  But this is always so that the healing word of God’s grace can build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified, that is, those who are made holy, righteous, beloved in God’s sight, living members of the church of God, which he obtained with His own blood.   

    More common than sadistic preachers are people-pleasers, of course, men who fail to simply state the whole truth of God’s Word.  Through Jeremiah, the LORD accuses them of proclaiming their own dreams, prophets who refuse to say that the sins of God’s people are not acceptable, prophets who proclaim peace, peace on earth and peace with God, when the true state of affairs, because of our sin and our failure to flee to Christ, is that there is no peace, and souls are in danger of receiving God’s rejection.  This also is a demonic message.    

    And so Paul admonishes the Ephesian pastors to mimic him and always proclaim the whole counsel of God, both the rock-breaking hammer and the life-giving comfort.  The Good News of the Cross makes no sense apart from the truth of our sin and our need.  And the condemnation of God’s Law can only destroy sinners, if it is not joined to the forgiving word of the blood-bought salvation earned by Christ Jesus.  And so faithful prophets and preachers listen closely to all that God has said, and then apply all of it to their hearers.  And by this powerful whole counsel, we are saved, and we are made wise for Christian living, and useful for God’s ongoing Mission. 

4.  Though some be snatched and some be scorched, And some be choked and matted flat,

     The Sower sows; his heart cries out, "Oh, what of that, and what of that?"

5.  Of all his scattered plenteousness, One-fourth waves ripe on hill and flat,

     And bears a harvest hundredfold: "Ah, what of that, Lord, what of that!"

     The most shameful defeat, the death of God’s Son on the Cross, is in truth God’s greatest victory, the executioner’s tool becoming the glorious throne of our Savior.  Life comes from death.  An unjust punishment results in eternal justice, peace between God and man, and so wins righteousness for unworthy sinners.  The greatest possible horror for Jesus’ followers becomes the central message of His Church, and the hope of sinners everywhere.  The Gospel is very upside down, inside out and unexpected. 

     So, it should not surprise God’s proclaimers that God’s powerful Word, like Jesus Himself, often seems defeated.  The whole counsel of God is life itself, but so often it is ignored, rejected, or accepted for a moment, then discarded when more entertaining words come along.  And yet, God’s prophets and pastors are not to worry about that, at all.  Do we desire to see all men come to repentance and be saved?  Of course, for this is God’s will. 

   And yet, in a mystery too deep for us to fathom, this blessed result is all too often not achieved.  The Good seed is trampled, the new shoots of faith are choked out.  “Oh, what of that?” the sower cries, because his call is not to success, his call is not to achieve a certain numbers of conversions, a certain grandiosity of ministry.  No.  While we pray for great results, the call is to be faithful, period, and leave the results to the Holy Spirit. 

    So also when the harvest is visibly great.  Are God’s spokesmen or His people to pat themselves on the back when many come to the Church?  Are they to find their self-worth in the numbers, or are they to find their worth in the gift of Christ’s self-sacrifice?  You know the answer.  God forbid that we boast in anything other than Christ Jesus, our crucified and resurrected Lord, in whom alone we have hope. 

     What goes for the preachers goes for the people also.  For God calls some men to public ministry, to be ordained for public proclamation.  But all of God’s children will have calls to proclaim the truth of Christ from time to time.  Most obviously, faithful fathers and mothers are pastors, shepherds and preachers in the home, using God’s Word to raise up their children in the faith.  The world will from time to time ask us the reason for the hope that we have, and then we are called to proclaim.  And the same expectations and promises and pitfalls pertain.  Within our various callings in life, each one of us is called to maintain God’s true Word, simply because God is good, and His Word is His tool to save, when and where He wills. 

6.  Preach you the Word and plant it home, And never faint; the Harvest Lord

     Who gave the Sower seed to sow, Will watch and tend His planted Word.

   I do not know what dark nights of the soul Bo Giertz may have suffered through.  Seeing the church body you served for decades abandon God’s Truth in pursuit of worldly gain had to have been very painful.  But Giertz’s faithful prophecy and proclamation were not in vain.  We know this because God’s Word never goes out in vain, but always achieves the purpose for which the LORD spoke it.  This is God’s promise, even, no, especially when we cannot see the results. 

     And we do see some results, some fruit, from the faithfulness of Bo Giertz.  Today, in every Nordic country, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, there are new fellowships, new faithful Lutheran church bodies and movements, in large part inspired by Bo Giertz’s faithful proclamation of Scriptural truth.  Are they small?  Yes.  But they are also very great, a vibrant part of the innumerable congregation of souls in heaven and all around the earth which makes up the Body of Christ. 

     This is the promise of Jesus: His Church will not, cannot fail, because He, the Resurrected God-Man, the one with forgiveness and eternal life for all people, is her Head.  As Christ goes, and He has gone into heaven to reign at His Father’s right hand, so also will go all who belong to Him, all who trust in Him, because of the working of His faithful Word. 

Let us pray:  Holy Father, we live in an age of unfaithfulness.  It seems that Your Church is beaten back and nearly defeated.  And yet, because of Your faithful Word, because of the work of the Word made flesh, Your Son Jesus Christ, we know that Your Church will endure to all the ages.  Grant to all your Preachers and to all Your people faithful, wise,  and dauntless hearts, that we believe in the fiery, rock-shattering power of Your Word, in good days and bad, so that we, along with all Your faithful saints, may endure unto the end, and rejoice in Your heavenly glory, through the only Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns over all things, with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen. 

The God of Reversals and Investments

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Preached at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Custer, South Dakota
Based on Genesis 2:7-17, Romans 6:19-23, Mark 8:1-9

Audio of the sermon can be found HERE.   

  The rivers in Paradise flowed backwards, in the opposite way than normal.  Or at least,  the opposite of what we think is normal. 

   In the world we know, the world after sin shattered God's good creation and began its decay, in our world, small streams and rivers join together in their course to form larger rivers, until they flow into the salty sea, and all the water becomes unfit to drink, until God in His merciful and purifying evaporation brings it back over the land to rain down life again.

   It was not like this in Eden.  As Moses says in Genesis 2: “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.  ¹¹ The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴  And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”   

   That’s weird.  Eden, the garden God created for the man and the woman, was the source of the water, and the River divided to deliver this life-giving liquid to four more lands.  In the original Creation, before the arrival of sin, water came from a single source and was then distributed, carrying life everywhere.

   This is one of the less appreciated consequences of the Fall into Sin: a reversal in the very nature of rivers.  St. Paul teaches us in Romans 8 that the creation was subjected to futility… and bondage to corruption.”  This side of the Fall, we cannot fully grasp the depth of the destructive changes that human rebellion against God introduced into the good world He had created.  We usually think about the effect sin has had on people and our relationships, and that is the priority, certainly for us, and also for the LORD.  But from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible also explains that there were profound changes in nature, reversals and corruptions of the way things worked when the earth was brand new.

 

   Regarding water, there is a fundamental change.  In the beginning, there was a source, one main river dedicated to irrigating the garden, which then divided into four more rivers to water the surrounding lands.  Rivers existed for the benefit of humankind and all creatures.  

   After the entry of evil in the world, water and rivers were still good, necessary, often beautiful.  But they can also be dangerous, violent, drowning people and flooding crops and cities.  And water is always running away from us, one stream joining another and another to form mighty rivers that empty their precious liquid into the ocean, where it becomes salty brine, unfit to drink and sustain life.  Access to good water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning, and the search for sufficient water for agriculture and industry have been constant challenges for every civilization, ever since Adam’s descendants founded civilization.  The abundance or lack of good water has been a major cause of migrations, and of famines, and of wars.

   Many things were reversed, greatly damaged, when our first parents chose to ignore the only limitation they had: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Marriage was inverted from perfect companionship to an often bitter competition.  Work, originally just tending a garden, gathering delicious ripe fruit, and watching over the animals, became a struggle, a risky endeavor to scratch a food supply from the dusty soil.  Childbirth is still a wonderful thing, once it’s complete.  But what was to be a moment of pure joy became exceptionally painful, and risky, to mother and child. 

   These reversals, these inversions have greatly impoverished our lives.  Now death, pain, decay, and decline are constant threats, sometimes more pressing, sometimes receding, but never disappearing.  And these reversals impacted not just humankind, but all creatures, even all of creation.  But there is still hope, even in the reversal of the natural order. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  (Romans 8:20-21)  The damage, the reversals that creation suffered do not lead to a negative end.  No, rather, the creation eagerly awaits the freedom of the faithful, the final liberty of the children of God, when all things will be fully restored.

   We see a sign of the beginning of this reversal, from slavery to freedom, from fear to joy, in our reading from St. Mark.  Through the presence and power of God's only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and because of His mercy, the people witnessed and received an unexpected and marvelous reversal, seven loaves and a few small fish multiplied into a banquet for many, with leftovers to spare.  At Jesus’ Word, scarcity was turned into abundance.  For the gathered guests of Jesus, there was a change, from hunger to satisfaction, growling bellies to full stomachs.   

   In Eden, we saw that a river became a blessing for four lands. With Jesus, we see a glimpse of a new Paradise, as the Lord turned the seven loaves into a banquet for four-thousand people.  The consequences of the Fall into Sin were beginning to disappear.  And why?  Because this New Man,  this New and vastly improved Adam, named Jesus of Nazareth, is also the true God, the Creator, with more than enough power to exchange bad things for good.

   Such moments are encouraging.  They give us hope, especially when we in our lives face truly negative things.  When an infection or cancer is destroying our body and threatening our life, we long for reversal, for remission.  And when it comes, what a relief to have that burden lifted.  When war rages, we pray for peace.  When the land is dry, we pray for rain, to stay the fires and allow the plants to grow.  And, as He did in a moment for the 4,000, God often grants us blessed reversals.  But none of these, least of all the feeding of the 4,000, are a permanent solution.  The shortages, deficiencies, and curses of this life are symptoms of the main problem, not its cause.  Returning the world to its original good state would require much more.

   To make this great reversal, this exchange of a fallen world for a restored one, God had to make an investment, like investment bankers and entrepreneurs make when they risk something valuable, for the hope of receiving a greater return.  For God the Father, the investment required to fully restore His good Creation, was to invest, to risk, to sacrifice, the life of His only-begotten Son.  Jesus Christ was given 100% into the project of restoring the creation, and mankind, the crown of that creation.  God gave His Son to fix all the things inverted, turned upside down and broken, by us and by our sin.

   Jesus did a lot of things during the three decades He visibly walked this earth.  He loved His family, His neighbors.  He taught, He healed, He fed, like no one ever had or ever could.  The King of Heaven, with all glory, honor and bounty ever at His beck and call, laid that all aside, and chose to wander around the dusty roads of Israel, sleeping on the ground.  He embodied the truth that it is better to give than to receive, better to serve than be served.  Giving and serving are better, they are Godly, because giving and serving and loving are essential to the LORD’s character, they are of the essence of who He is.  Like the river flowing from Eden spread out into four rivers to bless more and more lands, even more God is the giver of every good thing, and loves doing it.  And so naturally, of His Godly nature, this is how Jesus lived.  Still, none of these things were His Great Reversal. 

   No, the Great Reversal, the mysterious and too-big-to-fathom work of Jesus was when He accepted the consequences of all our wrongdoing, all our sin, and the sin of every person.  Jesus took all sin into His own body, and destroyed it with His own death.  This He did, willingly, in order to restore us to the state we lost in Paradise.  This is the investment, the exchange, of the Cross: the good for the wicked, the living for the dead, the holy for sinners, all given to change our reality, to transform our future—a reversal from condemnation to blessing, from suffering to glory, flowing out from the Roman Empire’s favorite tool of execution.

   And then, the river really started flowing out again.  All sin and all Godly justice and punishment flowed to one point, to Calvary, so that, on the Third Day, all righteousness and mercy and blessing could begin to flow out, to the four corners of the world.  This mercy mission of Christ has extended even to us, here, and God always seeks to see it divide and flow, farther and farther, dividing and growing to bless more lands, carrying blessing and new life to the ends of the earth,

   It is difficult to live in reverse. Even though it is already ours by faith in Christ, it is difficult for us, still sinners, to live in Christ’s reversal, in the new reality of the resurrection.  This is why St. Paul had to write so much about the Christian life, the new life that begins even during this earthly life.  This is why, in today's Epistle, St. Paul teaches us about the transformations we have experienced, and how they should be visible in our lives.  

   Before the living water of Christ poured over us, our members served impurity and wickedness, but now their service is reversed.  Now our members are for sanctification, for a life of increasing holiness.  Justified, declared innocent and right with God by the death and resurrection of Christ, Paul exhorts us: present your members to serve righteousness.  

   Through baptismal regeneration, we have been given faith and forgiveness.  We have received the exchange of life for death.  How, then, can we seek dead things?  No, let us strive to live, in holiness and righteousness, as children of God do.  Let us leave behind the false attractions of this world, and seek the things that are above, the higher things. 

   You see, now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to sanctification in this life, and in the world to come, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   This gift of God is yours in Christ, for in Him, (and only in Him) all your sins are forgiven.  So, stay close to Him.  Without His daily bread, without the bread of heaven that comes only from Him, we too will faint along the way.  But there is no reason for it to be so.  The bounty of the Bread of God is ours.  Christ Jesus is here with us, through His Word and in His mystery meal, our Savior present to nourish us, protect us, and guide us to the very end.  

   The Father’s investment is complete, and His return, the Father’s profit, now rules over all things at His Right Hand on High.  Since Jesus reigns on high, for you, so also every day, and especially when you face struggles and doubts, know that the curse has been reversed, and Paradise is yours, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.