Faithful Hearing of God’s Word

Ash Wednesday 2018

February 14, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

As we begin the holy season of Lent, we are reminded of several things. First, that we are dust and to dust we shall return.  The ash cross is just a reminder, though you live with reminders every day.  Bodies grow old and tired. Minds dull. Evil rears its ugly head in our lives, in the lives of our family and our friends. And death. Death that comes too often, too early, too suddenly.

We are reminded that death is not the end, that death has been defeated.  We know how our Lenten journey ends – with an empty tomb.  We observe the season of Lent not for its own sake, but because it points us to Christ. Our faith, our devotion, is intensified this time of the year as we focus more clearly and specificially on Jesus Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins.

Knowing the end, knowing our end, shapes the way we live here and now as we wait for the Lord’s return. There are habits that mark how the Christian lives out his life as we wait for the Lord’s return.  And that’s what we are going to be considering this year during Lent: godly habits and disciples of the Christian life.

And so tonight, as we hear the Word of God calling us to return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and aboudning in steadfast love, we need to remember that godly habits begin with hearing the Word, for faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. We confess in the third article of the Creed that I cannot believe by own reason or strength.  Notice the present tense.  The Holy Spirit’s calling, gathering, enlightening , and sanctifying work must be ongoing in order for faith to continue to exist.   The first habit of godliness is simply this: hearing God’s Word.  The Word alone has the power to give and sustain the gift of faith in our lives. All godly habits start from the Word of God, have their source and sustainment of the Word of God, and their goal the Word of God.

That the Church proclaims the Word is a command from God, how she organizes it is not.  What is read, the pattern of how and when to read various parts of Scripture, the songs, the prayers, and the like are left at the discretion of the Church.  Historically, the Lutheran Church saw great benefit in continuing to use the pattern of reading the Word received from very early on in history. The church year, moving from the seasons of Christmas to Easter to Pentecost, centers on the main events of the life and teaching of Jesus.

The chief and primary emphasis and activity of every Christian is one thing: “to hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it,” as Luther explains what the Third Commandment is all about.  The highest work you can do during worship, the most important way that you can be involved is hearing the Word.   To be blunt, to the hold the Word of God sacred means that at minumum you should be in Church on any given Sunday whenever you are physically able. This is not to fulfill some obligation as was thought in the middle ages and still promoted within Roman Catholicism today, and its not a pep rally like many in American Evangelicalism treat it, but it is the joy of being in the very presence of God with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

We need to treat it that way.  We lament the that so many of our children wander away from the faith and from the body of Christ, but this starts at home.  When mom and dad eagerly look forward to the day when they can gather with brothers and sisters in Christ to hear the Word of God, to receive His gifts and strength for the week, that will teach the children to do the same.  If you treat going to Church like a chore and a burden, you will teach that going to Church is a chore and a burden. That’s why Luther says that we should fear and love God so we do not despise preaching and God’s Word.  To despise does not mean to hate, it means to think little of, to regard something as unimportant or unworthy of your time and consideration. So you despise the preaching of God’s Word when you find that hearing God’s word is of less importance than something else. More often than not when people stop coming to church they also stop reading the Word at home, they stop praying. The loss of the Word of God results in the loss of faith in Christ.

Lastly, this isn’t a me and God thing.  Hearing the Word of God is a communal activity.  Our American culture has inodated us, all of us, to the idea that faith is a private matter, that is primarily a thing between myself and God.  But the Church is not a me and God thing, it is an us and God thing. The Holy Spirit’s normal way of bringing people to faith is by means of the Church. He works through the Office of Ministry to proclaim the Word and administer the Sacraments. He brings hearers together to bind them to Jesus. I come to faith through God’s Word at work in the community of the Church. And this community meets together regularly to gather around the Word again to hear it read to them, preached to them, prayed, sacramentally given in the Lord’s Supper, and then sent out with the Word on in their hearts and on their lips. 

This isn’t just limited to Sundays, to once a week.  You should attend to God’s Word everyday.  Church services, home devotions, songs and prayers.  Use the Portals of Prayer, Lenten devotions, the Treasury of Daily Prayer. Don’t skip the Bible readings in these, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. The Word of the Lord endures forever.

1 Samuel 17:40-51

Wrestling Goliath

Lent 1 Invocabit

February 18, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Was there ever in the Old Testament, maybe in the whole Bible such a hero as David. And is there anywhere else where this is so exemplified than in his battle against Goliath.  This is one of those historical events that almost everyone knows about, even if they are not Christian.  A little context is helpful in understanding this great victory and what it means for us.

The year was 1019 BC, the place was Elah, a valley in Judah.  The Israelite army, led by King Saul, and the Philistine army were at a stalemate.  The armies were facing each other on each side of the valley. Into the stalemate came a soldier from the Philistine camp, a champion, Goliath of Gath. His most impressive feature was his height. An average Israelite man at the time stood only between 5’ and 5’3”. There’s debate on Goliath’s height, whether he stood close to 9 feet tall or about 6 and a half.  Either way, to the normal Israelite soldier, Goliath was indeed a giant. His armor and his weapons would have made him seem even that much larger and more dangerous. And then there’s the taunts, the challenges, the defiance.  To the Israelite army, Goliath was a large, intimidating warrior and must have appeared nearly invincible. He struck fear in the hearts of every Israelite soldier.

The stark contrast thus far is not between David and Goliath, but David and Saul. Saul, the first king of Israel, a man who himself stood head and shoulders over most Israelite men, a man chosen as king in part because of his stature to specifically fight Israel’s battles (8:20), is a disappointment here.  Saul should have fought the Philistine. She should have led his people in courage and bravery and faith. The reaction of King Saul was typical. Never does Scripture depict Saul as bold in the face of a Philistine threat. As the king reacted in cowardice, so did his troops.

And so enters the shepherd, David.  God had already informed the prophet Samuel that David would be king, but nobody really paid much attention to this.  This young man went to speak to his brothers who were soldiers in the Israelite army.  He heard of Goliath’s taunts, and that Saul was offering a bounty to death the giant, and he wanted to know more. For David, Israel’s fleeing in panic at someone who mocked the army of the living God was an unacceptable lack of trust in God as Israel’s savior and protector. And so he volunteered to fight the Philistine. He offers his ability in fending off the lions and bears, implying that Goliath was simply an animal, an uncircumcised brute, not worthy of respect, and even more so, one who was excluded from God’s covenant and a man left in a state of unrighteousness.  Against such an enemy, David asserts that just as it was God who rescued him from the lions and bears and not his own skill, so too it would be God who would rescue him again.  Remembrance of God’s deliverance in the past fills David with confidence that God will not let him down.

Shunning Saul’s armor, David showed a deep faith which valued God’s presence with him in battle more than anything else.  Goliath was not armed with the Lord, and Saul trusted only in himself. And so David takes only his shepherd’s staff, and his sling along with carefully chosen stones.

The actual battle is almost disappointing given the build up. With one stone sunk into the head of Goliath, David fells him right on his face. The insults and disdain of Goliath, the great armor and spear amounted to nothing in the presence of the Lord of hosts who was with David. David took Goliath’s sword, killed him and cut off his head, and the Philistines fled the scene. David’s victory over Goliath demonstrates to the world the existence and the power of Israel’s God, the living God. David takes no glory over the victory, but the glory belongs to God. 

This stuff is better than superhero movies, and it actually happened! And more so, it still matter to us here and now beyond being a good hero story.  Warfare still continues and you have been conscripted to God’s army.  Circumcised in the heart, by virtue of your baptism, you are part of God’s people, a dear possession to God.  Goliath, the devil, your sin are standing before you. Temptation and resistance against sin are the nature of this battle. The devil throws his fiery darts with the intention of piercing your faith. His taunts are much worse than that of Goliath, though not that different. He curses the living God, and you for following Him.

So, do you pick up the stone?  Do you stand toe to toe with the evil giant? The answer to that is no!  You’re not David.  You are not the hero. You are one of the Israelites shaking in your boots, scared silly, thinking that all is lost. There is no way that you can defeat Goliath. He is too big, too strong, too dangerous. If you go up against the devil by yourself, you will lose, every time.

Verse 2 of A Mighty Fortress summarizes it extremely well, “With might of ours can naught be done, soon were our loss effected; but for us fights the valiant One, whom God Himself elected. Ask ye, Who is this? Jesus Christ it is, of Sabbaoth Lord, and there’s none other God; He holds the field forever.”

This is why Jesus goes out into the desert, to continue the fight against the devil, against the temptations you feel leading you to sin, against the sting of death. Jesus is fighting the devil, He believes that God is good, and He will have victory. He doesn’t fight with armor and a sword in His hand. He doesn’t throw punches. The form of this battle is temptation and resistance. The devil wants Jesus to pick up His divine powers, to go be God. The devil tempts Jesus with thinking that there is no reason for Jesus to do this, no reason for suffering, sorrow, pain.  Though the world may look at this Jesus and see no one special with nothing special, the victory is His. He doesn’t defeat the devil by might.  He beats the devil by dying. And His victory also belongs to you. He doesn’t use a stone to fell the giant, but by His blood we are saved, and by the power of His resurrection He stands victorious.

Christ holds the field for you.  Jesus is the greater David who defeats the greater Goliath, the devil, for the glory of God and the safety and security of His people. And through faith in Christ, we stand with Him not just on the battlefield of this life, but on the Day of Resurrection.  Until that great and mighty day of the Lord, for the believer in Jesus, no physical weapon of any sort benefits him. Instead, God provides the full armor needed to withstand the assaults and flaming arrows of the devil: as St. Paul outlines in Ephesians 6, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which the Word of God.  We have a champion, a hero in Jesus. His victory is our victory. And He brings us to stand with Him.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

The Way of Christian Love

Quinquagesima

February 11, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Luke 8:4-15

Sowing the Seeds

Sexagesima

February 4, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus compares His Word to a seed and Himself to the sower of the seed. Just as in nature the seed does not bring forth fruit in every place upon which is falls, so too it happens in the world. Jesus wishes us to know about the kingdom of heaven, about how things happen. And so He sets out four groups of those who hear the Word.

The first group are those who hear, but do not understand or pay attention to it. These are people who hear God’s Word, who even want to be called true students of the Word, who live in the Christian congregation, who participate in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But they have fleshly hearts who do not accept this Word, who find it too harsh or think it too complicated, and so the Word goes in one ear and our the other.

What’s more, the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  Not only are hardened hearts further deprived of God’s Word, but the devil himself sends false preachers who trample the Word out with their false teaching.  They hear the Gospel but produce no fruit. Rather, they are ruled by the devil, and explain the Word of God according to their own mind and opinion.  Make no mistake, the devil does not want you here. He does not want you to pray or hear God’s Word.

The second group are those who receive the Word of God with joy, but they do not persevere. This is the group who hears the Word, believes the Word, rejoices in the Word. But when it comes to the point of suffering harm, insults, loss of job or property or life, then they fall away, keep quiet, and deny the Word, for they do not have the Word planted deeply enough. They are like the seed planted in shallow, rocky soil that withers in the sun for it lacks moisture.

The third group are those who hear and understand and believe the Word, but then fall off the other side into laziness and they do nothing with the Word. They don’t take the Word seriously, but instead become lazy and absorbed in the cares and riches and pleasures of this life.  This the prosperity gospel preachers who replace Christ with health, wealth, and happiness.  Therefore, they are like the seed that falls among the thorns. Although there is no rock, but it land among good soil, there is no path but deeply plowed ground, the thorns will not let it grow, but choke it out. They have everything necessary for life in the Word but didn’t use it, so they rot in the earthly pleasures. They are those who hear, but do not act accordingly, those who teach, but do not follow it themselves, and remain in their sinfulness.

The fourth group are those who hear the Word of God and believe it, who cling to the Word and would risk everything for it. Among these, the seed sprouts and produces fruit, the fruit of faith, the fruit of patience.  A humble faith dwelling in a repentant heart is able, by the grace of God, both to endure persecution and avoid falling into the trap of worldly and satanic temptations. 

All of this is said for our instruction, so that we do not go astray, since so many misuse the Gospel.  When the Gospel goes out, it will fall on good soil, not only on the stony path, the shallow or thorny ground. Wherever the Gospel goes, there Christians will be, for the Lord says in Isaiah 55, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty”

And yet, not everyone is saved, though everyone is paid for. Jesus says elsewhere that “many are called and few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14). God’s Word has no magical power. When people reject it and refuse it entry into their heart and life, it will not grow. But when and where it received, it is sacramentally effective, brings forth life, has the power of grace and life. And so we must examine ourselves to see whether we have a hard heart, whether the passions of our flesh are great, when and where the devil torments us.  When we do so, we find that we don’t need to ask ourselves which kind of ground we are, for in truth, we resemble all. There are no good hearts that are good by nature.  There are only hearts that are made good by the grace of God working through His Word and Sacraments.  The power for growth lies not in the soil, but in the seed, in the Word of God. The hearts that are good are only good because God’s plow has come and deepened our shallow soil, pulled out the weeds, and softened the hardened heart.

All Christians undergo the same type of struggles and temptations.  You are no different, your temptation and struggle is not new nor unique. The sinful nature, the world, and the devil all resist the Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In Jesus we have One who has suffered when tempted, and who is able to help those who are tempted. By God’s grace, only by God’s grace in Christ, can our faith not only withstand trial and temptation, but grow stronger as it led to look more and more to Jesus.

That’s exactly what we hear of the Disciples after Jesus tells them the parable. When they didn’t understand exactly what Jesus was saying, they go to Jesus and ask Him what it meant. And that is faith.  It’s not that the disciples had a perfect faith, but this Word-created faith has created in them a trust and desire to go to Jesus, to ask of Him to provide for them in their time of lack and need.

For that reason Jesus tells them, and us, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand”?  These “secrets” are the things hidden in the kingdom, such as Christ with all His grace. It is called a secret because it remains a mystery unless the Spirit of God reveals it, as St. Paul says in in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”  The Spirit of God gives it to you, so that you not only hear and see the Word, but recognize and believe.

So listen up, keep your ears and hearts open to the Word of God. When temptation comes, trust not in your own power, but in the Word of God.  The seed is the Word of God.  That means that the life is in the seed, and only God is good.  So it is the power of the seed that transforms the soil to be like Him, that is, good.

National Lutheran Schools Week 2018

Hebrews 13:8

It’s All About the Same Jesus

January 28, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Last September as Zion Lutheran Church celebrated its 100^th birthday, we were able to open up the time capsule placed near the front doors when this building was built. We are still considering what to place in the next one, and hopefully soon, we can do that.  It’s a fun thing to think about. In light of what we received from our forefathers in the faith, what will we pass on to our children?  It’s the same question we ask at our school, especially as we bring to an end this Lutheran Schools week. All that we believe, teach, and confess is centered in Good News of our salvation – that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It’s still all about Jesus because, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). 

While all of Scripture directs us to Jesus, the book of Hebrews does so most clearly and emphatically. Hebrews includes over 20 different titles and descriptions of Jesus. The epistle begins, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God” (Heb. 1:1–3). Chapter two refers to Jesus as “for a little while … made lower than the angels … crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death” (Heb. 2:9). In chapter 9 (v. 15) Jesus is called the “mediator of a new covenant,” and Heb. 12:2 invites us to see Jesus as “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”  Then, in chapter 13, we hear, “Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday. The book of Hebrews takes us to the yesterday of the Old Testament. It emphasizes that the covenant was fulfilled in Jesus. The role of the Old Testament high priest is perfected in Jesus, the holy High Priest. The faith of Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moses and many other saints noted in chapter 11 was a faith in Jesus, the Messiah. The Jesus of yesterday is the fulfillment of all that God promised. He was the One who crucified, died, and raised on the third day.

This is the Jesus of our yesterday. For the original hearers, their yesterday would have primarily meant the Old Testament. There was the record of God’s call and His promises to His people.  Creation and call of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Exodus and Passover. The Babylonian captivity and journey home. The prophetic Word of God proclaimed, promising the coming Messiah, and revealing that He has now come in Jesus Christ.

This is the Jesus who in our yesterday called into His life through the waters of Baptism. This is the Jesus who came to us in His Word in our Christian home and Christian classrooms and nourished us in the faith. This is the Jesus who is the foundation of our church, school, and daycare. A church 100 years old, a school over 50 years old, a daycare 30 years old. All of it rests on Jesus. This is the Jesus who came to us in the many and varied yesterdays of our disobedience, wanderings and unfaithful response to His love, only to forgive us for all our yesterdays and take us to today.

Jesus Christ is the same today. For the original hearers, that included a time of temptation to return to the legalism of Judaism. It included an apathy toward the truths of the Christian faith and the life of a Christian. In response to those inclinations, there is the encouragement not to give up worshipping together and to keep on living in love. There is the encouragement to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). Anticipating a time of persecution and hardship, the readers are encouraged to anticipate God’s discipline and to endure hardship. Into their lives came a Jesus who was Lord of all and Savior for all, the One who had conquered sin, death and the devil, and who would forever be victorious.

That same Jesus comes to us today. Today and every day we wake up as sinners. Today we are unsure. Today we face temptation. Today we may face ridicule and persecution for our witness. Today we have our family concerns and church and school frustrations. But today Jesus comes to us again in the assurance of our Baptism, in His Word of forgiveness, and at His table, where He gives His Body and Blood. Today Jesus Christ is the same at our School. We teach the same Gospel, memorize the same Bible verses, sing many of the same songs that instill the same Christian faith, and so we will continue.

Jesus Christ is the same forever. Forever is having Jesus go with us through all the changes of the future. The Hebrews struggled with how to live out their lives in hopeful anticipation of the Lord’s coming. How could they relate the Gentile Christians, how could they be faithful witnesses when surrounded by those who believed in different gods, different morals, different goals, and different lives? Because of Jesus their lives had been radically changed, but never abandoned by God.

Neither are we. There will be changes, have no doubt about it. Our culture and world are changing at a pace that we can hardly keep up with.  We Christians, our church and our school, are not immune. Whether the changes are the result of detailed planning or adjustments to unforeseen circumstances, Jesus is always part of the conversation and the constant from beginning to end, and into eternity. “Forever” has eternal implications. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus” (Heb. 12:22–24).

We are thankful for all those who gathered in our school in the name of Jesus in the yesterday of our school history. We rejoice in every child and family that learns of Jesus in our school today. We are blessed that through God’s grace in Jesus we will be with Him forever. 

This sermon was adapted from the National Lutheran Schools Week sermon provided by the LCMS. 

2 Peter 1:16-21

Transfiguration Sunday

January 21, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

People today love stories. Heroes and villains.  Good guys gone bad and bad guys gone good. Our culture is one of telling stories, books, television, and movies abound. Fiction and non-fiction alike. Children hear stories from the parents and grandparents. And when we come to Church, we hear the story of Jesus and our place in His story. And this is nothing new.   People in all ages have thought and spoke about God and man. Egyptian gods, pyramids, and statutes still testify to their stories. Greek and Roman mythology is still told and retold. Many people today get more of their mythology from comic books and movies than from the ancient sources These things and more tell us what many in history thought about such things, and how many people today still think. 

With all these stories, how do you know which ones to believe? Which one are good, right and salutary? Too often people hear the story of Christ from a different story than what God has delivered to us in the Bible, and want the latest conspiracy theory.  Human speculation reigns as king. There is no definite authority to determine what is right and wrong, what is truth and what is falsehood. But there is a constant: when sin rears its ugly head, it is most often denied or just rejected.  When God’s plan of salvation humbles our pride, God’s truth is all too often rejected. When people hear what they don’t like, or don’t agree with, it has become all too popular to try to rewrite history, to make God in our image.

The Christian faith, however, rests not speculation, not on comic book caricatures, not on mythology. We need facts, real facts, facts of history, facts experienced in real human lives. To be of any real and lasting value, the Christian faith must have a historical basis. And we must have a real testimony and witness to these things for which we believe, live, and die.

And so St. Peter says in our Epistle this morning, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). Peter gets right to it. The heart of Christianity, and the Christian witness, centers around the living, historical Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus the Christ. Christianity is a historic faith, for it begins and ends with He who is the Alpha and the Omega, Jesus. We are not dealing with legends or myths, but with the Person who is Jesus, whom history knows.

So when Peter says, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty”, he was talking specifically about the Transfiguration, about seeing Moses and Elijah and the Lord’s shining face, of hearing the voice of the Father from heaven declare, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” But this was not all he saw or heard. He saw many miracles, His resurrected glory, His ascension into heaven. And not just Peter, but James and John, the other disciples, and thousands of others. These historical facts which they witnessed and heard and to which they testify, are the basis of our faith. They wrote the truth of these things, even when it was to their disadvantage. But it’s not just their opinion, it’s not just their story, and it’s not just their word we are to take blindly.

Peter continues, “And we have something more sure, the prophetic Word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in the dark place…” It is more sure because, “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).  The entire Scriptures confirm the apostolic witness of Christ. Peter’s eyewitness account of the transfiguration is trustworthy because it rests on the authority of the Word of God.  It is more sure not because men witness and give witness to Christ, but because the Holy Spirit inspired what they wrote concerning these things. It is upon the Word of God that we build the foundation of our faith, because there is nothing more sure than that which God speaks.

The Word of God, the writings of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles is a light that shines in a dark place because it points us to the Christ, to the Sun of Righteousness, the morning star that rises in your hearts. This is the Jesus who shows His divine and majestic glory to His closest disciples upon the mount of Transfiguration, who stood with Moses and Elijah, the representatives of the Old Testament Law and Prophets.

It we pay attention to this Word, believe it, follow it, act upon it, our faith rests surely throughout this life and into eternity. This is what it means to see Jesus only, as Peter, James, and John did on the holy mount.  Luther once explained it well, “He bids us fix our eyes and keenness of mind on the Word alone, on Baptism, on the Lord’s Supper, and on absolution, and to regard everything else as darkness. I do not understand, or care about, what is done in this world by the sons of this age; for they crucify me. I cannot escape or draw away that horrible mask which hides the face of God, but I must stay in darkness and in exceedingly dark mist until a new light shines forth” (LW 8:33).

Many will not do this.  They foolishly rob themselves of the greatest gift that a loving and almighty God can give to His people: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through faith in Jesus.  They may imagine that people who pay serious attention to God’s Word are weird, are different. And we are. The culture of the church is not the culture of the world. It is a culture based upon God’s Word, upon God’s story wherein He sends His Son into the world to die and rise again so that the world might be redeemed unto Himself.

Peter had seen a glimpse of the glory of God on the holy Mount of Transfiguration. We have not.  We see the glory of God hidden under normal things – water, bread, and wine, and the Word. What we see and hear and believe and experience here is not some silly myth. The For we have the prophetic Word of God, on which the faith and certainty of hope in our Lord’s triumphant return depends.  What you now know by faith, you will one day know as an eyewitness. It won’t be a glimpse of God’s glory in Christ, it will be the full glory of God, that you will share in.

John 2:1-11

2^nd Sunday after Epiphany

January 14, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Jesus was invited to the wedding. There will be no good marriage, no faithful marriage, where Jesus is not invited, where He is not present. Marriage takes work, but most importantly, it takes the work of Christ in sharing His grace, mercy, and peace to His people.

So how do you invite Jesus to the wedding? How is He part of your life at home? To answer this, we must look to the words of Jesus’ mother.  A problem arose, so Mary approaches Jesus. This wasn’t a complaint, but it was the request of someone who knew that Jesus could do something. “They have run out of wine.” This was not Jesus’ fault, nor was it His responsibility, but He would be the solution.  “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come?” In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ hour comes upon the cross, when God will glorify His Son. Here, Jesus is just beginning His ministry, performing His first miracle with the purpose of displaying His glory.  Though Jesus seems to speak harshly to her when she presents the issue of no more wine, she does not lose faith nor persistence but simply says to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

These are words of faith. She does not know what Jesus will do, but she knows her son. She knows His compassion, and she knows the needs of her neighbors as they begin their marriage. Jesus does not disappoint. He meets their needs by turning water into wine. This miracle is no magic trick, which means that He isn’t changing the meaning or purpose of His creation. Rather, it shows the Creator working in His creation for the good of His people.  He shows His glory, His divine majesty, according to His pleasure. He provides what it lacking because of sin. He provides not just the minimum, but the quality, overabundance of good.

In Psalm 104, the Lord says that He makes wine to gladden the heart of man.  We know that wine can be used for both good and bad. The Lord would have it be for our good and to point us something greater. Our Lord chooses wine, that which makes glad, as the vehicle for the gift of His blood. That blood shed upon the cross fills our cup of blessing, poured into the faithful in the Holy Sacrament. What makes man’s heart glad becomes the means of heavenly gladness, for in the Sacrament we taste and see that the Lord is good, that is forgiving, that He is gracious and merciful and brings salvation. It will be brought to fulfillment in the marriage feast which is to come, where we will lack no good thing, but are joined together with the Lord forever, where not even death will us part His people from Himself.

But where there is no faith, no discernment, of the body and blood of Christ present, where there is no repentance over sin, it brings forth judgment. God forbid anyone here treat this miracle so lightly and misuse it so severely. Where God works His miracles, it is serious, as is that work which He does in marriage.

God’s Word is clear when it comes to marriage – it is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. It is the Word of God which turns water into wine, and a man and a woman into a one flesh union.The Lord wishes us to honor and cherish marriage as a divine and blessed estate because, in first place, He instituted it before all others. He created man and woman separately for the purpose of helping and serving one another, bringing forth two out of one flesh, and then united the two into one flesh that they might live together in God’s grace.

Secondly, marriage provides the foundational relationship of our society, the place where faith and service to God and our neighbor are primarily lived out toward husband and wife, the children they raise and bring up in the fear and love of the Lord. With marriage and family, God teaches us to serve the world, to promote the knowledge and faith in the Gospel, godly living and all virtues, to fight against evil and the devil. Marriage promotes faith in God and trains us to love our neighbor through all kinds of work, service, trouble, pleasure, hardship, cross, and trial.

Thirdly, in marriage we see a picture of the communion between Christ and His bride, the Church. Our Lord blessed and honored marriage with His presence and first miracle at Cana in Galilee. No matter how much people nowadays want to despise it, reject it, twist it, redefine it, or think little of it, God acknowledges His own work in joining together a man and a woman into one flesh, and He loves it. 

For all these reasons, marriage is not be entered into lightly or inadvisably, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purpose for which it was instituted by God. Because marriage has its foundation in creation, was instituted by God, and is loved by Him, and that Christ Himself honors it, it ought to be near and dear to everyone. God sanctified the holy estate of marriage. He will bless all who love Him, trust in Him, and abide in His Word, though because of our sinful nature, it is not easy.

So, if you are single, live patiently and celibately in that estate, using your time and efforts to serve God and your neighbor. Do not live nor pretend to be married when you are not. That is a lie, and it is adultery.

If you are married, be content with the spouse the Lord has given to you. Don’t covet someone who is not your spouse, that is idolatry.  Do not long to separate what God has joined together. If you are a husband, love your wife as Christ loved the Church, sacrificing everything for her, regarding her as the most beautiful woman in creation.  If you are wife, submit to your husband as the Church submits to Christ, serving him with honor and the respect.  This is good, this is right, this is godly, for it is from Christ, and it directs us to Christ. The Christ who displays His glory in His miracles, who gives His life for His bride, the Church, who dresses you with the wedding garment of His righteousness, who carries you across the threshold of eternal life, who provides an overabundance of that which is best, the Gospel, that gladdens the heart for eternity.

So whether married or single, your life together in relationships with others flows from Jesus, His over abundance in giving something better than good wine, but the life, forgiveness, and love of God. Our marriages and our homes, whether married or single, are to be little masks of the joy of eternity with God that is for you, who are invited to the wedding to feast with the Lord.