Thursday of Easter 2 Psalmody

O Lord, You know better than I that I have made a wreck of the life and love You have given.  Enlarge my heart that I may be evermore faithful to You and serve my neighbor in love.

Lent 2c Homily - Luke 13:31-35

(a revision of Rev. Richard Stuckwisch's 2010 sermon)

         “You shall die” (Jeremiah 26).  Those are stark words on the bulletin cover.  “You shall die, Jeremiah, unless you stop talking against us,” said the leaders of Jerusalem 600 some odd years before Jesus was born, because they did not like what Jeremiah said.  His sermons got in the way of their good and comfortable life.
“Herod wants you dead, Jesus” said the religious leaders, because they did not like how Jesus spoke against their religion.  So they camouflaged it a bit, hiding their hatred under a fake concern for Christ’s life.  “If you stick around here, you shall die, Jesus.  So why don’t you leave our town and get away from Herod.”  Self-preservation makes sense.  It’s perfectly acceptable.
But that is not the way of Christ the Crucified.  Of course, it is not that He is suicidal or enjoys pain.  It hurts Him.  He even prays there might be another way.  Yet the Son of God goes willingly and knowingly to His death.  He voluntarily puts Himself in harm’s way, taking the bullet of our punishment to be a human shield for sinful you and sinful me.
Where others might fight, or flee, or change their stories to stop people from being outraged at them – Jesus, when He is insulted, does not insult in return.  He continues to entrust Himself to God the Father.  He turns the other cheek to those who strike Him, to the point where He hands Himself over to the Cross.  And even then Jesus forgives all those who shamefully attack Him.
That is why God’s Son comes here in the first place – to pour out His innocent blood; for Herod and Jerusalem; for Jeremiah and his enemies; and for you.  To pay for the sins of the world and to reconcile you to God.
However, this is more than a history lesson about what happened in the past.  This is also God’s map for your life.  You shall die.  Not just die before we have your funeral, but die daily to sin by the power of your Baptism.  For you are marked as one belonging to Christ the Crucified.  Disciples of Jesus are to take up their crosses and follow Him.  And crosses are used for just one thing – to kill.  In this case, to put to death the evil in you and me that seeks self-preservation at all costs – even sacrificing godly love for our neighbor in order to save our own skin.  But taking up our Crosses is the way of self-sacrifice, of self-giving and service instead of selfishness.  You are to love others – whether they are family or enemy – because God first loved you, even while you behaved as His enemy.  When your life makes them uncomfortable because you are doing and saying the godly things, and they tell you, “You shall die” – that is, when they threaten to end your friendship, or to make life miserable for you – well then so be it.  In the same way they persecuted our Lord Jesus before us.
And do not for a moment think to yourself, “That is easy for you to say, Pastor.”  It is not easy for me to say.  I do not want to hear it either.  I want to get along with everybody and avoid making people mad – even if though that often means keeping silent about God’s Truth.  Way down inside the sinner in me cares more about what people say and think about me than what God says and thinks.
However, their thoughts and words are temporary.  God’s thoughts and Words endure forever.  Furthermore, yes God says, “You shall die as you take up your cross.”  But His last word on the subject is that “Though you die, yet shall you live.”  For as Christ has died and is risen, so you shall rise too.  You live because the sacrificial and bloody death of Jesus forgives you all your sin.  And your neighbor that God calls you to serve, whether they are a friend or an enemy – Christ’s bloody death also forgives their sins.
Therefore you and I, as Christ’s disciples, shall die to holding their sins against them.  We must forgive those who trespass against us.  Bear their burdens patiently.  Even turn the other cheek when they insult without striking back, for our Lord Jesus did not insult in return.  He loved those who hurt Him, prayed for them and laid down His life for them.
Ultimately we have to ask ourselves, “What will I really lose if I die as I seek to love others with God’s love?”  What can you lose since your “citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:21).  You travel here through this earth today and tomorrow (or maybe not, as only the Lord knows how much longer you have here.)  But whether you live or die, you belong to the Christ who rises from the tomb on the Third Day.
In today’s Epistle, St. Paul is torn up with sorrow as he tells us about those who “walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ” (3:18).  Obviously he is describing those who attack the Christian church, promote immoral lifestyles, laugh at the Bible, and say all sorts of evil things about Jesus and His people.  However, St. Paul talks about those whose gods are their bellies – the people who seek out their own greatest comfort and self-preservation in this life – especially at the expense of others.  They will tell lies, withhold forgiveness, or whatever… if they believe it will somehow make their lives better.  And you should be aware that this is your natural instinct also – to fight or flee, whatever it takes to preserve yourself.
That is the very opposite of faith in Christ and His love for others, the opposite of the eternal life He gives to others.  For when we set our minds on earthly things and obsess over our appetites, our selfishness is self-destructive.  As our Savior Jesus says elsewhere, “Whoever would save his life will lose it.”  Refuse to walk with Jesus, put your cross down and go your own way in order to protect your own skin and you shall not only die here in time, but you shall die forever in Hell.  Paul speaks with tears in his eyes about those whose god is their bellies because they have a sad life, always having their rumbling tummies force them to go all over the place to try and fulfill desires that constantly change.  And that ends in shame and destruction as they perish like the very food you eat.
Remember how it went for Jerusalem, the city where the Lord caused His great Temple to be built!  Yet the people hid horrific lives under very religious actions.  They practically dare God to stop them from killing the prophets – and then when God sends His own Son, they kill Him too.
Certainly a few people in Jerusalem were different and were happy to see Christ arrive.  Yet most of the citizens failed to recognize Jesus as their Savior.  Whatever they thought of Him, bad or good, they did not welcome Him as their God.  While some plotted to trap Him, discredit and destroy Him, even those who loved Him did not understand His Cross.  Not even His disciples, until afterward.  Not even you nor I, except by God's grace, as you are being taught by His Word and the Holy Spirit.
All sorts of people and things try to get in His way, and there is a lot of confusing things that might get in the way of you understanding what today’s text is all about.  However, this much is absolutely clear – Jesus is determined to do what He came to do.  No one can stop Jesus – not the Pharisees, not Herod, not even the Devil in the wilderness as we heard last week.  God's Son comes for just one reason, with only one holy desire – to love you, to save you, to gather you to Himself.  As a hen gathers her chicks, Jesus would bring you under His wings of mercy, and nestle you close to His heart as His children.  He comes to use His Cross to shelter you, protect you, feed and comfort you.  Jerusalem would not have it.  Will you?
He goes to Jerusalem anyway, despite the signs of danger, and does what He does no matter what anybody else says or thinks about it because He loves His Father and His Father loves you and Jesus loves you.  Jesus endures your pain – not only how others make you suffer, but also the pain you inflict.  He endures your insults in peace.  He bears your sin and death to remove them from you forever.
See God's strong arms stretched wide open on the Cross in love, to gather you to Himself and protect you in peace.  Listen to God's Son here in the Gospel as no one will stop Him from saving you from all your sins.  Truly, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  And in Christ, blessed are you.  Amen.

February 11 - Gospel

O Christ, as You invited the Samaritan woman to bring her husband, so You would have me bring to You those to whom I have witnessed or about whom I have prayed.  Like that woman, I must shamefully admit that I have not been faithful in witness of words and godly life.  And my prayers for others have even faltered.  As there are those who would have let her status as a Samaritan or her sinful life get in the way of their love for her, so also I have let such things as status and sin get in the way of my love for my neighbors.  Forgive me.  I want to do better.  May this upcoming season of Lent be a time of renewal, of death to my old self and new life in You as I take up the cross your Father gives so I may follow You more closely through Good Friday to the Day of Your Resurrection.  Yet remember that my frame is dust.  I am weak and even scared of how hard following You will be.  Let me never forget that You who seeks me out to save me - You are the same Savior who sought out the sinful Samaritan woman at the well and dealt with her compassionately.

January 9 - Writing

In case you were wondering what words were replaced by the ellipsis for number one in today's TDP writing:

"A person who wants to live like a heathen or a dog and does not publicly repent should not expect us to administer the sacrament to him or have us count him a Christian. Let him die as he has lived because we shall not throw pearls before swine nor give to dogs what is holy [Matt. 7:6]. Sad to say, there are many churlish, hardened ruffians who do not care for their souls when they live or when they die. They simply lie down and die like unthinking hulks."

Martin Luther, telling it like it is.  Thank you to Rev. David Juhl for doing the research.

January 6 Gospel - Luke 3

When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him like a dove, and the voice of God the Father announces, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”  It sounds like all that stuff is good for Jesus, but actually it all is good for us too.  Because if Jesus had not stepped into the Jordan River, then our Baptism would be meaningless, nothing but an empty ritual, and we would never be with Christ, but would burn in Hell.  But since Christ submitted Himself to baptism, Christ was there with you in yours.  As St. Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:3-5). 

Baptism joins you to Christ, and He to us, so that all that is ours becomes His, and all that is His becomes ours.  He takes our shame, and trades it for His glory.  He takes our death and gives us His life.  He takes our slavery and gives us His Sonship.  When the water splashed on you, Christ baptized “you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16) – not to burn and destroy you, but to cleanse and purify you to make your body His temple.  And on that day, Heaven was opened as Christ’s Father became your Father, who said to you, “You are my beloved Child; with you I am well pleased.”

January 5 Gospel - Luke 3 (and Isaiah 65)

     The One John proclaimed as coming, He still comes to us and works in us today – to give us gifts of joy, to provide our lives with meaning and purpose, to fill in and raise our dark valleys of despair, to tear down the mountains of our pride, to straighten our crooked ways.
     What exactly will that look like in your life? It means different things for different individuals. John lets us hear that with his instructions for specific groups. The tax collectors were to stop cheating people out of money. The soldiers were to be content and not bully people until the soldier got what he wanted. And for everyone it means generosity, compassionate charity – giving food and clothing to the less fortunate for Christ’s sake. So what does it mean for you – as you live out such God-given roles as friend or father? Mother, neighbor, boss, brother, daughter, worker or retiree?  
     Whatever it may mean specifically, in general living out these God-given roles will be difficult. There will be unexpected twists and turns you never saw coming – over rough roads and rocky terrain and other places you would rather not be. The road of faith may even lead you out to some desert wilderness where it seems like you have to walk alone. You will work, and will not see any success for all your effort. Others who did not work might even get more benefit out of it. However, the Day is coming, declares the Lord, when

"They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of My people be, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them" (Isaiah 65:21-23). 

     As you journey to that new heavens and new earth where you will rejoice forever, you will never be by yourself. Psalm 139 says that even if I cross the farthest seas, even there God’s hand shall lead me and hold me. For this God has given us our faith, the God who baptized you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He has given you His Word so that you can be certain that He is with you always to the end of time, our Immanuel. He who gives His body for food and His blood for drink – He promises to do for you what you cannot do; not only there on the Cross when He earned Heaven for you, but also goes to work in your heart – to change you, renew you, and even straighten you out. And already now He promises that even though you may never see the results of your work in the Lord, your labor will never be in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

January 3 Gospel - Luke 2

(A revision of a sermon by Rev. Rick Stuckwisch)

            Simeon was at the Temple of the Lord that day looking to see Christ.  And after Anna sees the little Lord Jesus, she talks to all who are looking for redemption.  What are you looking for?

            Behind all your plans and pursuits, resolutions and wish lists; in all the movies you watch, games you play, books you read, music you listen to, and dreams you dream, what are you looking for?

            When you come here, to our smaller version of the Temple of the Lord, what are you looking for?

            Behind all of our short and long term goals, our choices, and voting, and the way we spend our cash and our time – behind it all is our desire for peace.  Not just an un-easy cease fire, or the absence of arguments – because then you worry about when the next outburst of conflict will come.  But real, honest to God peace, contentment, satisfaction in who you are and why you are here, true friendship with God and your neighbors.  The peace your restless heart looks for – because God created you to live that way with Him and each other. 

            In Colossians 3, today St. Paul tells us to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”  The almighty Judge who could destroy you for your disobedience, instead chooses in Christ to redeem you with such a great forgiveness of our sin.  The only right way to respond is to praise Him and to drop our grudges, replacing our hatreds with trying to live at peace with others – as far as it depends on us.

            If you do not have Christ’s peace ruling your hearts, nothing will satisfy you for very long.  You cannot control your inner turmoil – or even truly understand it.  And you soon find that it is controlling you like a puppet on strings.  Not a real boy or girl.  Not a real man or woman.

            Look for inner peace… and you will find it the same place that Simeon and Anna did – in the Temple of the Lord; in the Christ child, the Babe, the Son of Mary, who found no peace as He carried His cross for you.  You find it by the Spirit of God in the Word of God.  This is where you find what you are ultimately looking for, as your eyes see God’s salvation – the Peace of God that goes beyond anything you can understand, which guards your heart and mind from the Devil. 

            So how do you live this peace?  Well, for starters Romans 6 says that I have died with Christ in Baptism that I may now live with Him as an instrument of God’s righteousness.  And even though I will die, yet shall I live beyond the grave. 

            While we know the peace will be far better in Heaven with Christ, God still has His reasons for your life to go on here on earth.  He does not tell you all the details, but the Lord still gives a purpose to your life in this time and place, even as He gives you Christ’s peace.  For, as Philippians 1 says, whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s.

            That is the first key to our Gospel text today, and to the peace that we share with Simeon, Anna, Mary, and Joseph – You are the Lord’s, because He has created you and yet more wonderfully redeemed you by Christ’s sacrifice of His body and by shedding His own blood at the Cross.

            It is why Mary and Joseph were there at the Temple in the first place, why all Jewish parents of those days went there with the firstborn son – to confess that their whole family belongs to the Lord us as they present their children in the Temple for life in the world to the glory of God.

            You and your children also belong to our Creator and Redeemer, as all the good things you have ever received are yours only by His grace.  And God sanctifies you for a life of service to your church and your world.  In whatever place God puts you, He calls you to live life not for your own sake, but for the sake of our Christ who died and rose again for us.

            Simeon tells Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed ³⁵ (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).  The conflict and lack of peace in man’s heart that we try to keep hidden – it will violently show itself against Mary’s son for all to see.  Good Friday reveals the evil secret thoughts of how much man hates God.  And the Cross reveals the secret thoughts of the sin in your heart too.  It shines the light of Christ’s selfless sacrifice upon your selfishness and mine.  The Cross says that we need a better righteousness than our own because our goodness is not good enough – and our pride does not like that one bit.  As His cross puts our sin to death, you may be surprised by the monstrous ways you behave.

            However, it is Christ’s Cross.  And He has given Himself over to death ahead of you, to pay for our monstrous behavior, and to rescue you – or, actually better to rescue us from it forever.  For St. Paul tells us to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” so that you can live in the one body of Christ that is the universal Christian Church. 

            The peace that you look for is not only for your own comfort and calmness.  Anna speaks to all about the redemption of Jerusalem, and Simeon says Jesus is for all people – the consolation of Israel and salvation’s Light for the Gentiles.  You find the peace you look for in your neighbors, in your brothers and sisters in Christ, babies and old people.  As you love Jesus, you love them.  When you love them, you are loving Him – for whatever you do for the least of them, Jesus says He counts it as though you did it for Him (Matthew 25:31ff).

But what does it look like to love this way?  God’s Word is what guides us as Christians, so – for starters – we can see some examples in today’s Gospel reading.  God’s Word is what brought Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph with their baby to the Temple – and likewise the Word has brought parents with their children to this House of the Lord.  Parents, you are to raise your children to know the Scriptures, for they teach us Christ and His salvation.  Bring them to this House and present your children to the Lord in Baptism.  Let the Word of Christ dwell in them richly – not just here, but in your homes with family devotions, starting out with children’s Bible story books, morning and mealtime and bedtime prayers.  Teach them psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, prayers and thanksgivings to Our Father, and to Jesus who was once a little child like they are.  Prepare them to receive Christ in His Body and Blood.

If you are a husband or wife like Joseph and Mary, then live with your spouse in peace, until death parts you.  If you are widowed like Anna, then worship the Lord with prayer night and day, and you will strengthen God’s people as He answers your requests.  If you are a young man, or old like Simeon, see in today’s text how masculine it is to be in church, to pray and praise and wait for the Lord to answer in His time.  It is a manly thing to care for your family if you have one – and to care about what happens to the children of others, and even bless them as gifts of life from God like Simeon does here, happily taking the little Lord Jesus into his arms.

These are only a few ways that love acts as seen in today’s Gospel text.  There are so many other ways our Christian love should go toward God’s people – being patient with them, helping them through their troubled times, sharing their burdens, compassionately forgiving whatever good she failed to do or whatever evil he did do. 

There is peace and life and love in this forgiveness because it is the forgiveness that lives in Christ’s heart and flows out from Him to all members of His Body.  It flows to us even though you and I have not been righteous and devoted in our worship nor prayers.  Even though we have not faithfully sung His praises, spread His Word, nor shared His peace.  Even though you and I have failed in every relationship – from honoring our parents to cherishing spouses to caring for children to loving our neighbor as ourselves.  We have made a mess of it all. 

Yet nonetheless here is this little One, the Babe, the Son of Mary is your Peace.  He has performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, fulfilling the command to love perfectly, as we ought to love.  And in order to save you, Christ gives you the credit as if you lived in total obedience to God.  You will be received into Heaven – for, according to His Word, Christ has redeemed you from death as He bears all your guilt.  So now bless God, depart in peace, and live.  Amen.