Under His Wings - A Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent
March 6^th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Under His Wings
Psalm 91 and Matthew 4:1-11

You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, 
   who abide in His shadow for life,
Say to the Lord: 'My refuge, 
   my Rock in whom I trust!'
'And He will raise you up on eagle's wings, 
     bear you on the breath of dawn,
 Make you to shine like the sun, 
     and hold you in the palm of His hand.'
For to His angels He’s given a command, 
    to guard you in all of your ways,
Upon their hands they will bear you up, 
   lest you dash your foot against a stone.

      “On Eagles’ Wings.” This beautiful hymn repeats promises found in Psalm 91, fantastic promises of angelic protection, of direct divine protection, from all sorts of evils.  As the world moves on from the crisis of Covid-19 to the crisis of the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, we are aware that life is full of dangers: accidents, violent people, job loss, dangerous weather, war.  These dangers come from outside of us.  We also face disease, doubt, depression, addiction, loneliness, fear; dangers arising from within.  We long to be protected from all these dangers, and to know that our loved ones are protected.  And God makes just such a promise.  So we love this hymn. 

    We love it, and yet we struggle to believe it is true for us.  Because bad things still happen to us, even though we confess the Name of Jesus.  Are you tempted to doubt the promises God makes to you in Psalm 91? 

      satan tries to use the words of Psalm 91 to tempt Jesus.  Taking Jesus up to the top of the temple, satan says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.' ".  What does it mean that the devil tempts the Christ to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple?  satan wants Jesus to force the Father to send angels to catch Him.  he wants the man Jesus to put God to the test, to see if God’s Word is true, if His promises made in Psalm 91 hold up. 

     satan is confused, or perhaps is ignoring, the Two Natures of Christ.  Even though the evil one says, “If you are the Son of God,” this temptation is really aimed at the man Jesus.  

    The promises of Psalm 91 are made by the LORD God, to mankind, to humanity.  Jesus is a man, and so this promise is also for him, no?  But Jesus is not only a man.  He is also God, the LORD Himself, entered into human flesh. 

 Equally as the Father or the Spirit did, Jesus made the promise of Psalm 91.  The promises of God are the promises of Jesus.  Jesus is the hen who gathers the people of God under His wings to protect them.  Jesus is the source of our hopes, the font from which flows the mercy of God.  Only as a man would Jesus Christ need the protection of God’s angels.  As Almighty God, He needs protection from no one; He is the Protector.   

      Of course, satan’s temptation of Jesus the man is also false, based on a lie, based on the twisting of God’s Word, as are all of the devil’s temptations.  For Jesus to swan dive off the top of the temple would also have been a failure as a man, an attempt to impress the devil by proving the ability to control God.  You see, the promises of Psalm 91 are for the man who dwells with God, who loves God and trusts in Him alone.  The promise is this “if you fall, if you are attacked, like by satan, God will rescue you.”  Someone who is seeking the devil’s approval has by definition rejected the promise of God.  Nor does Psalm 91 promise that if you willfully try to hurt yourself, God will protect you.  Although often enough the LORD does protect us, even when we seek to hurt ourselves.  Still, to willfully put your life at risk to show the devil who’s in charge is utterly foolish.  It is certainly not the behavior of one who dwells in the shadow of the LORD.  God in Psalm 91 promises protection to the faithful, not to rebels.    

    Jesus was never going to give in to satan’s temptation, like Adam and Eve did.  Jesus is God. Jesus created the angels, including satan and the rest who rebelled and fell away.  Jesus is LORD.  So He naturally dismisses Satan’s temptation to act like a sinful man.  Jesus rejects the temptation to serve Himself, for He came not to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many. 

   And here we find the real goal of satan’s temptations: trying to get Jesus to serve Himself and avoid the Cross.
None of this was ever going to happen.  No way, no how, no contest.  Be gone, satan.   

    The fact that Jesus is God, Holy and Perfect, means He could not give in to temptation.  And, for the man Jesus, this made enduring the temptation much worse.  His divine power to resist all temptation does not minimize what the man Jesus went through; rather it increases His temptation, immeasurably.  The God Man Jesus could, and would, face far more temptation than we can even comprehend, precisely because He would never give in to sin.  All the way to the Cross, Jesus, knowing what was coming, had to face the constant temptation to give up, to turn from His path.   He was constantly tempted to serve Himself.     

    Jesus’ temptation was far worse than we can imagine.  Because in the end, the ordeal Jesus was being tempted to avoid was suffering the entire wrath of God against all human sin.   

    We cannot imagine very far down the road of ever-increasing temptations, because we give in so easily.  I pray that you and I resist temptations.  We ought to, for how can we who died to sin through our Baptisms, how can we who have received the Name of God, how can we who confess Jesus as LORD, then turn around and live in sin?  We ought to resist, and we do.  We try, but not very successfully.  Now and again we resist sin bravely, God be praised.  We may even, over time, more or less successfully set aside gross sins that once plagued us.  With discipline and support, alcoholics and drug addicts can avoid the chemicals which attract them.  The violent can resist lashing out at people in anger.  Adulterers can learn to be faithful to the spouse God has given them.  But still, when we are tired, or confused, or angry, or embarrassed, whenever our human weaknesses show up in our lives, we are easy marks for all too many temptations.  Even if we refrain from the outward acts, in our hearts and minds we fall so often.    

    Indeed, this is why, even though resisting temptation is important, resistance to sin is not the heart of Christian living.  Repentance is.  Returning to Christ, again and again, confessing our failures and seeking forgiveness, this is the heart of Christian living.     

   Confess your sins daily, like Jesus Himself teaches us to do, right there in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer.  And Jesus will take your sins from you and give you Himself, again, for another day, another hour.  God will forgive and restore you as often as it takes to lift you up, forever. 

    Why?  Why does God forgive us, again and again?  Why did Jesus fast forty days and forty nights, and then face satan’s temptations, in our place?  Why did Christ go all the way to the Cross, never straying from the path His Father set for Him?  Why did He do all that He did, even though in return, we do so little for Him? 

    Well, it’s not because God is just, although He is.  We see divine justice fulfilled in the fact that Jesus suffered for the sins of the whole world, paying the price, once for all, so that divine justice is served, perfectly, completely, eternally.  Justice had to be fulfilled, and it was.  But it was not the driving cause of Jesus’ faithfulness.

    Nor did Jesus do what He did because God is all powerful, although He is.  Indeed, we see the almighty power of God in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and in His Ascension on high.  We see Christ’s almighty power in the continued endurance and growth of His Church, despite all that the devil, the world and our own sinfulness do to defeat her.  The more you know the about persecution of Christians around the world, the more you follow current events, the more you deal honestly with your own sin, the clearer it becomes that only God’s almighty power could keep the Church alive in a world like ours. 

   But neither God’s power nor His justice is the cause of Jesus’ actions.  No, Jesus, indeed God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, does what He does to win and deliver salvation to us, simply because God is love.  The love that flows, and has flowed forever between Father, Son and Spirit, the love that is God has overflowed, for us.  To give us life.  God loves His people, the crown of His creation, loving us in spite of the sad fact that we are fallen, sinful, runaway children.  And the way that God loves humanity is Jesus, the Sinners’ Friend.  

   This is our good confession, that the God-man Jesus Christ was tempted, without ever giving in to sin.  He suffered, without turning back.  He died, not just a physical death, but also a spiritual death, enduring the hell we deserve, in order to save you and me and the whole world.  Jesus denied all temptations, in order to gather you under His wings, the wings of His Cross, where all your sins were carried away, where your death was defeated, and where your new and eternal life was won.  And, dwelling in the shadow of God’s forgiving love, you will then share that love and forgiveness with others.  Indeed, it is only when you rest in God’s great work for you that you can do truly good works for others.        

    This is the promise of Psalm 91 for you.  Danger and enemies and disease and all sorts of bad things will attack you in this life.  But the consequences of sin which ruin this world have no ultimate power over you, for you live in Christ.  God’s promise to raise you up stands.  Indeed, it is already fulfilled, in Jesus, who has risen to all glory, for you.  Because He has defeated temptation, you will defeat temptation.  Because He has died in your place, your death has no power to separate you from God.  Because He has risen to the right hand of glory, He will send His angels, to carry you to Himself.  

    Stay under Jesus’ wings.  Come to His Table; dine with Him.  Stay under God’s wings, by staying close to His promises, to His Word of Grace, which has made you a believer, and which keeps your faith alive in this world full of temptations and sin.  Jesus gives you strength for living, He lifts you up, daily, and eternally, by the forgiveness of all your sins, Amen.

Ears that See Clearly - A Sermon for Quinquagesima

Quinquagesima – The Sunday 50 Days before the Resurrection
February 27^th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Ears that See Clearly
 

     Lord save us from our lying eyes and wandering hearts. 

     There is a bit of irony in being a church of the “Missouri Synod,” a Christian church from the “Show Me” state.  Missouri, the one state with the nerve to make a motto out of the faithless attitude that certainly predominates in each of these United States: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” 

     Now, maintaining the attitude that “I’ll believe it when I see it.” isn’t a bad approach for earthly life.  In fact it’s pretty wise.  We idealize the contract done by handshake and the faithfulness of a good man or a good woman.  But come on, you know that doesn’t always turn out so well.  There are good and bad reasons that America is the most lawyered up and prone-to-sue-each-other place in the world.  Truly we should celebrate when people make promises and keep them.  Because it isn’t so common. So, by negative experience we learn to say: “Show me.” We decide we will believe something only when we see it.  This is certainly a depressingly low view of our fellow man, but it leads to less disappointments, and fewer times getting shafted by a trickster. 

     The real problem with ‘seeing is believing’ is that it doesn’t work in our relationship with God.  God tried that, first with Israel, when they were in Egypt, and again in the wilderness.  There were 10 visible plagues which freed them from slavery.  The miraculous escape through water at the Red Sea, immediately followed by the destruction of the chariots of the enemy.  God Himself was present to protect and guide them, in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Daily bread from heaven each morning.  Water from the Rock.  God made His presence and care for Israel more than visible in the wilderness.  And yet the children of Jacob were faithless, again and again. 

     Jesus also showed God’s presence and mercy with visible miracles.  Which attracted a lot of attention, and large crowds. 

But the people, and the Pharisees, and even the Disciples believed the wrong things.  Each one in turn saw what they wanted, or what they feared in Jesus.  They were incapable of seeing God and taking Him at His Word. 

     The crowds coveted a bread king, who would keep their bellies full.  The Jewish zealots saw a military leader with wonderful powers, who would throw out the Romans and establish a Jewish heaven on earth.  The Pharisees, the religious leaders, saw a rival, a threat to their privilege, and to their belief system, which was built on their own goodness. 

    The 12 disciples seem to have run the gamut in their vision of Jesus.  In every case, instead seeing what Jesus did and taking Him at His Word, instead of His miracles and teaching engendering a living faith of the heart, a humble and confident trust in a loving and just God, almost everyone saw something different.  And wanted something more.  Our eyes always want more, more of what we think we need.  We rejoice when God meets our expectations.  But then after the miracle has passed and life has returned to normal, in two seconds we refuse to believe and follow God.   

     Jesus laid out God’s plan to the Twelve in clear terms: "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be finished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  And after whipping him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise."   No fancy words here, and good news at the end.  The Cross was coming, but Jesus would rise victorious from the dead!  But the 12 Disciples can’t see it. 

    St. Luke cuts them some slack, “This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”  Perhaps, in order to keep them with Jesus all the way to the Cross, so they could be God’s eyewitnesses, perhaps for this reason, this saying was hidden from them.  But not believing God’s plan of salvation is really our default position.  God’s plan seems crazy, we say, and very unpleasant.  We need more evidence. Show me.  I won’t believe it until I see it. 

    Jesus had displayed such power and wisdom.  He was so wonderful.  So, the way of the Cross always seemed impossible to the Disciples’ eyes.  Impossible to our natural eyes as well, because we would never think to make such a sacrifice.  Impossible to our eyes, and also repugnant to our wandering hearts, which don’t want to confess the truth, the humbling truth that the requirement to save the likes of us was the death of the Holy One of God.   

     Be careful, dear friends.  “Seeing is believing” may be a wise plan for earthly life, but in relation to God, “I’ll believe it when I see it” will lead us to hell.  Because our eyes lie and our hearts wander.  What we need are ears that see, and hearts that believe the promises of God, despite what we see with our eyes, despite everything in our being that screams against what the Lord has said.  We need ears that see clearly, like the blind man on the side of the road. 

     Our blind friend couldn’t see what Jesus was doing.  He couldn’t easily drop everything and travel to see this miracle worker from Galilee.  Our blind friend could only hear.  He could only listen to the reports about Jesus, and ponder.  And by God’s grace, he believed.  Which actually makes sense, because faith, true trust of the heart, comes by hearing.  While being a blind beggar is certainly not the American dream, our blind friend was blessed, truly blessed by God, despite his struggles.  Because he had ears that saw clearly. 

     What did our blind friend believe, exactly, that day outside Jericho?  Did he have any understanding of the coming Cross?  That’s hard to say.  He clearly believed that Jesus was a holy man, the Messiah, the Anointed Son of David, sent from the Father to rescue God’s people.  He believed Jesus would save him, believing strongly enough to cry out, to ignore the rebukes of the crowd, and cry out ever louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”  And Jesus did have mercy. 

     And He has mercy for you as well.  Not just mercy to relieve the struggles of this life, although these are important, and God does care about your day to day.  Your Jesus rescues you from many problems. 

 

And when in God’s wisdom removing your current burden is not the plan, well, then He has mercy to strengthen you to endure the struggles of this life in faithful patience.  All the while looking forward to the day when you will see God face to face, and live in His perfect mercy and blessing, forever and ever. 

     We live in a “show me” world.  God grant us ears that see and hearts that believe the unlikely and unpopular story of God’s grace and love to sinners, revealed in the death, and Resurrection, of Jesus. 

     Our blind friend, his sight restored, joined the followers of Jesus, just in time to witness the first Holy Week, just in time to see with his own eyes the climax of God’s plan of salvation.  Did he follow Jesus from Jericho to Jerusalem?   Did he witness the Son of David dragging His own Cross to Golgotha?  Scripture does not say.  But where else would you be if Jesus had just restored your sight? 

     Jesus, eight days after His glorious Resurrection, declared to Thomas, and to you: “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”  All those who trust in the Son of David are blessed by God the Holy Spirit with the true faith that comes by hearing, the faith that despairs of our goodness, the faith of the heart that trusts not in what our eyes see, nor in our feeble attempts to prove our worth.  No, instead true faith clings solely to the One who died, and rose again, in order to give sinners life.  

     One day, by faith in Jesus, we will see God in His glory, face to face.  Then our forward-looking faith and hope will pass away, for we will have arrived.  In God’s presence, will bask in His love, seeing His glory with our own eyes, forever and ever.  In the meantime, we stick to the Word.  We fill our ears with the lifegiving and powerful Word that makes us see the Truth.  This Truth of Christ, which creates new hearts in us, hearts that rejoice to proclaim the unbelievable plan of God to save the world, the plan that Jesus has finished, for you. 

     See clearly with your ears, and rest in His promises, the promises of Jesus, the Son of David, and the Son of God, your Savior and Lord, Amen.  

Why We Baptize - A Sermon for Sexagesima

Sexagesima Sunday, February 20^th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Why We Baptize - Isaiah 55:10-13, Hebrews 4:9-13, Luke 8:4-15

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

   Why did we baptize James Oaklee this morning?  Why do we baptize
anyone?  

   There are a number of ways we can correctly answer this question.  Our readings this morning from the prophet Isaiah, from the letter to the Hebrews, and from the Gospel of Luke combine to emphasize that Scripture alone is the center of teaching and practice in the Christian Church.  God’s Word is at the heart of all that it is to be Christian.  We can certainly get at a reason to baptize through this route.  Simply put, we Christians baptize because God through His Bible tells us to baptize:  Jesus commanded the Eleven Apostles, just before He ascended into heaven, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Ten days later, Peter at Pentecost cries out to his hearers: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and your children.”  We also learn from Peter a simple reason to baptize Oaklee, or anyone, when in his first letter the Apostle tells us, “Baptism now saves you.”  That is quite a promise! 

 

   Scripture, God’s Word alone, is our authority for understanding and teaching God’s will, so we are careful not to allow human reason to introduce objections, or put conditions on the gift of Baptism that God has not declared.  Which, sadly, we have a tendency to do, because Baptism seems unreasonable to our fallen minds.  It’s just water and some words, after all: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Surely salvation can’t come through just that?  Throughout the history of the Church questions have entered the thoughts of well-meaning Christians: How can plain water do such great things?  Well, says God through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.”  God declares: “I send my Word to save, and this is what I mean to accomplish through it, and so it does.”  The Word does not return to the Lord without accomplishing His purposes.  So, because of God’s Word, Holy Scripture, we baptize. 

   There is another way to explain why we baptize, not unrelated to Scripture Alone, but more personal.  My favorite way to explain why we would baptize a baby like Oaklee is simple: because we love him.  

   Now ‘love’ is a word that means different things to different people, and often Christians bemoan the way the world twists this good and important word.  ‘Love.’  Love is not selfishness, it is not power, nor pleasure seeking lust.  Love is not just momentary thrill, nor does it rejoice in the hurt or control of others.  Love is not a rejection of the Creator and the order of His Creation.  And through these negative examples, we know that the word ‘love’ is terribly misused, so often. 

   We should be careful how we use this precious word.  But we can’t stop the world from abusing language, and in this case, the many ways we use or abuse the word ‘love’ actually provides us with an opportunity.  People may misunderstand and misuse it, but everyone wants to be on the side of ‘love.’  Which creates the opportunity to make a comparison, to speak of ‘love’ as God speaks of love, an opportunity, as Paul says, to speak the Truth in love.  To speak of the selflessness, the self-sacrifice, the other centered-ness of true love.  Such speaking will, among other things, take us into all the depth and riches of the gift of Holy Baptism.  For this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as the propitiation, as the atoning sacrifice to take away our sins.  The loving gift of God, which the Holy Spirit delivered to you, in your Baptism. 

   Think of it this way:  When you love someone, you naturally want to talk with them.  From birth, long before they can respond with words, we talk to our babies.  Which is good for them and good for us.  Our words to babies help their brains develop and help them to know in their souls that they are loved.  Talking to babies is so good; it is almost God-like.  For God promises through Isaiah that the Word which comes from His mouth would be like the life-giving rains that cause seeds to grow, and allow people to eat and live.  And the Lord tells us through the preacher to the Hebrews that God’s Word is living and active, it does things.  And Jesus in our parable today portrays Himself as wildly optimistic and careless farmer, scattering the seed of His Word everywhere, almost as if God wanted everyone to hear, believe and be saved.  Which we know is true, because God is love, and the part of His creation that He loves the most, despite many reasons not to, is us.  God loves mankind, men and women and babies, and in an act of sustaining and protecting grace, God has maintained this feeling of love, even in sinners like us. 

   And so Oaklee’s parents have discovered what so many of us know, that having a child taps a well of love inside us that we didn’t know was there.  They love him, and Oaklee’s extended family loves him, and any of you who have had a chance to hold this handsome little man love him, and together, we desired that Oaklee be baptized.  Because we love Oaklee, we wanted to give him the promises the Bible makes about Holy Baptism, which is a life-giving water of renewal and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, a dying and rising with Jesus Christ.  To be baptized is to be clothed with Christ, to be joined to Him.  Baptism is adoption by God the Father.  Looking down from heaven, and seeing one baptized into His Son Jesus, the Father extends the blessing He declared when the Christ was baptized in the Jordan River.  Today, to Oaklee, for Jesus’ sake, the Father says: “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” 

   When you ask a Christian about the importance of God’s Word, the first thing you will usually hear will have to do with the Authority of the Bible.  That God’s Word is inerrant, infallible, and tells us what is true, what is acceptable, what we are to do and not do.  You will hear how we must maintain and respect the Authority of Scripture.  And all this is true.  But this Authority is not the fullness of Sola Scriptura, Scripture Alone.  God’s Word is true and authoritative.  However, that by itself doesn’t make it good news.  But God’s Word, as we have said, is also effective.  God’s Word accomplishes what God wills, what He desires.  And God desires to save sinners.  So the Word brings us to repentance for our sins, and faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ, living and active, the Good News of free forgiveness, which is the power of God unto salvation. 

   God the Holy Spirit uses the Word to save us, to convert us from rebellion and make us children of the Heavenly Father.  The Spirit does this at our Baptism, and continues this work throughout our earthly lives.  Which is a good thing.  Because we want the promises of Baptism... until we don’t.  We need the Word to be living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, because even as Christians, we try to twist and avoid and ignore what God has said to us.  The Word restrains and rebukes our sinfulness.  We desire what God knows is bad for us, and so He says no.  And we rebel. 

   So we need the Spirit, with the sharpest of all swords, to come along and cut out what is false, and replace it with truth.  We need the Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord to accomplish God’s will, because we cannot.  We need the scattered seed of the Word to make good soil out of our hearts.  Because not one of us is naturally good soil. 

   The Word tells us what God does through Baptism, and the Word is the Lord’s tool to actually do His will in time and space, to create good and honest hearts, hearts of flesh and not of stone, to create new hearts, new hearts that gladly receive the implanted Word, which is able to save our souls. 

   And how does the Word of the God have such power?  Because of the Word
made flesh, Jesus Christ, the very best utterance of the Father, who came down from heaven and joined us in our humanity.  Jesus created the powerful Word of forgiveness, through His bloody death, in order that we might be restored to God’s family, today, and forever and ever.  Jesus is the Seed who fell into the ground and died, so that He might produce a hundred-fold harvest, nay, a millions and millions fold harvest of souls.  The Word of Baptism, the Word of Forgiveness, the Word of the Supper, these Words deliver to us today the victory that Jesus, the Word made flesh, won for us, on His Cross. 

   And so we rejoice in the love of God, spoken to Oaklee today.  And also to you, on the day of your Baptism, and every day since.  Rejoice in Christ’s Word of life and love, live in the promise of your Baptism, and go forth, free to love and speak and pray for all,

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

Grace Alone Save: So Don't Give God the Stink-Eye

Septuagesima – The Third Sunday before Lent
February 13^th, A+D 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Grace Alone Saves: So Don’t Give God the Stink-Eye

Stanzas 1 and 2 of Hymn 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives

     Being hired into the vineyard is to be brought into the Kingdom of God, made a citizen, a member of God’s people, living under God’s rule and reign.  This hiring is a decision and act taken by the Master, the Owner of the Vineyard, the Lord God Almighty, without any merit or worthiness in us, shiftless types, idling around in the town square.  A sinner being hired into the Vineyard is what we are scheduled to witness next Sunday, with little James Oaklee, at his Baptism.  Nothing helps us see God’s grace in action better than the Baptism of an infant. 

     The works that God has planned for James Oaklee are already prepared, and they are very important to the Lord.  But they are not why God chooses him, or any of us.  His works are not part of the reason God saves him.  Salvation is pure grace, God’s free gift.  Little Oaklee will be just as much a member of God’s Kingdom as the most famous saint.  For all of us are by nature sinful, and are totally dependent on God’s generous heart for our salvation.   A humble, dependent, but eternally blessed way to live.     

Stanzas 3 and 4 of Hymn 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives

     Martin Luther and CFW Walther have drilled into generations of LCMS pastors that we are to preach Law first and then Gospel.  We are to preach repentance before we preach free forgiveness.  Then, after proclaiming God’s free gift, we are not to bind people under the Law again.  We are not to imply that our salvation depends on us obeying the Law, after we are saved.  God’s Law is good and we should obey it with all our might.  But all our might cannot keep the Law without sin.  So, in this life, God’s Law always points out our sin, even when it is guiding us in Christian living.  Only the Gospel, only the Good News of free forgiveness in the blood of Christ, can save.  We want people to leave Church confident of their salvation, for the sake of eternity, and so that they will be moved to freely do good works.  So preaching Law first and then Gospel is wise, for us poor miserable sinners called to preach here on earth, so that we don’t mix up God’s Law and Gospel, and so damage the faith of our hearers. 

   But it is interesting how often Jesus doesn’t feel bound by this rule.  Which of course He isn’t, since He can actually see into men’s hearts and knows just exactly what we need to hear at any moment.

     For example, Jesus ends today’s parable with Law, with a warning to the early arriving workers, who thought they deserved more for all their contributions to the vineyard than the workers who came at the last hour.  “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”   This is a stern warning to Christians against thinking that we are better than others, against thinking we have deserved or have earned what we have received from God.  The proper response of faith to the superabundant grace of God is humility and thankfulness, not pride and possessiveness.  We need grace for ourselves, every day, and we rejoice when it reaches another.    

     The original language of Jesus’ warning is actually much stronger than our translation.  A literal translation of the master’s question would be:  Is your eye evil, because I am good?  In less formal speak, the Master says to the grumbling worker, “Are you giving me the stink-eye because I’m generous, with my own money?”

     Don’t talk to God like that!  Don’t even think like that!  The Law must be preached against human pride and greed, including, indeed especially in the area of salvation, throughout the life of every Christian.  As sinners, we naturally look for some way to take credit, to put ourselves ahead of others, to avoid admitting every day that our status in the Kingdom of God is always a matter of undeserved grace.  Such thinking is an insult to God, and a threat to your salvation. 

     Our works, apart from Christ, remain as filthy rags.  But God in His grace clothes you again and again in the pure white righteousness of Jesus, who died and who lives, to bless you.  Every time you are brought to repentance and bring your sins to the Father, He forgives and restores you, for Jesus’ sake. 

     This is the Divine Liturgy, God’s saving work of service to dying sinners.   Our Divine Service, our liturgy on the page, (or screen), seeks to faithfully reflect and deliver what God has done and continues to do for you.  God grant that we revel in His service, rely only on His grace, and rest joyfully in the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and which keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting, Amen.     

Stanzas 5 and 6 of Hymn 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives