Revelation 7:9-17

With angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven…

All Saints’ Day (Observed)

November 5, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

In light of the big anniversaries we have celebrated this year, have you ever wondered what it would have been like to worship with those of the past? What would it have been like to sit in Pastor Kahle’s Model T listening to him practice his sermon on a drive from New Plymouth to Nampa in the years leading up to our congregation being founded? What would it have been like to be at the dedication services for the original building, and then this one we are currently in?  What were some of your parents and grandparents like? What did their voices sound like when they sang? When they prayed?  When they confessed the Creed?

Going back further, what it would it have been like to sit in a church service and listen to Luther preach a sermon against indulgences and proclaiming God’s free favor for the sake of Christ? We have modern recordings of what some Lutheran services sounded like in Luther’s day and the majestic nature of it all is amazing. What would it have been like to be in a church and for the first time hear the words of the Small Catechism spoken, or to be one of the first people to ever sing “A Mighty Fortress?” What about worshipping with the early Church Fathers like St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom the Golden Tongued preacher, St. Nicholas?  What about with the apostles?

Or even further. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to worship in the Old Testament temple with King Solomon. Or singing the psalms with King David just after he wrote them. Or kneeling next to the ark of the covenant in prayer with Moses and Arron? Or worshipping at the altar with Abraham where God provided a sacrifice in the place of his son, Isaac? Or even all the way back to the beginning, in the garden of Eden walking and talking with Adam and Eve as they spoke to God.

What would it be like to worship with the saints? It would be just like this. In fact, that is exactly what we are doing this morning! We often forget the timeless nature of our worship, of the liturgy. These words we speak and sing and not man’s words, they are God’s Word. The pattern of worship we follow is not “Lutheran,” in fact, with some minor variations, the ebb and flow of the Divine Service stems from the Old Testament pattern of worship.

Today, we sing, we pray, we worship with all the saints.  Remember the words of the Proper Preface in the Service of the Sacrament, “It is truly good, right, and salutary that we at all times and all places give thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord… Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying … Holy, holy, holy…”  The Sanctus, the song of the angels from Isaiah’s vision.

Our first reading from Revelation 7 shows us these saints, and countless more in heavenly worship. We see them before the throne of God and before the Lamb, just like we are gathered here today in the very presence of God.  These words give us no clue to the location of heaven.  But we don’t need it. There is something of far greater interest here: the state of the saints rather than the place. On earth, these saints saw the Savior with the eyes of faith. Now they are in His very presence where they wished and longed to be.

There they are standing before God, dressed in white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb.  By virtue of your Baptism, you too are clothed in the same righteousness. The ancient baptismal practice was to actual dress the newly baptized in a white robe after the Baptism to symbolize that which was actually just happened.  We read that the saints have palm branches in their hands and sing, “Salvation belongs to our God.” That probably reminding us Palm Sunday, when the crowds greeting Jesus as He rode into town to them. Today, we greet our Lord as He comes to us in the Holy Sacrament and sing their Hosannas as they did so long ago including, “Truly blest is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

More than that though, palm branches were also part of the Old Testament practice during the Feast of Tabernacles, the most joyous festival of Israel that comes at the close of the year’s outdoor work and when the season of rest begins. It also commemorated God’s care during the wilderness and His continued care in the Promised Land. The troubles of the wilderness are ended, the harvest home of the Church has come. The days of labor are over, now comes rest.

“For all the saints whom from their labors rest…” we sang. These have come out of the great tribulation. They have left behind the sin, death, war, famine, trouble of this life and are now free from it.  They serve the Lord day and night within His temple. For details on what this looks like we will have to wait until we arrive. We who are still in the great tribulation can hardly conceive of a state when there shall be nothing to cause a single tear to flow. We only have the Word that speaks of their service of praise. They never get tired of singing, where singing is more natural than speaking. Eight verses for a hymn is nothing.

We come here today sorrowing over the loss of some sainted loved one. As we hear the word of the Lord from His revelation to St. John, it’s as if God is now wiping away every tear from our eyes. Our grief appears selfish. We are thinking only of our loss and not their gain. In spite of all our pain caused by separation, we would not wish them back. They have come out of the great tribulation. For us now, there only remains the wish to be with them.

That wish is met in part today in the Divine Service as we are gathered by God around the Lamb and His throne where He bespeaks us righteous and delivers Himself in the Holy Sacrament. For at the Lord’s Table as we commune with our Lord and with all the saints. Communion is not a “me and God” thing. It is communal, not individualistic.  If you want to feel close to your loved ones who died in the faith the place to do so is not the cemetery, it’s not out in their favorite place. The place to have communion with them is Holy Communion. This is the Sacrament that links us to the saints in heaven. By eating and drinking this Holy Sacrament in faith you declare that He gave His body and blood for you, that your sins are forgiven and washed away, that you approach the altar of the Lord where the Lord is truly present for you.

Do you miss your grandparents, your parents, your spouse, your child? Do you long for your friend who died much too young? Come to the Lord’s Table. This side of heaven, when you partake of the Sacrament of the Altar, you experience the closest communion of saints possible and the closest communion with Christ as you eat and drink His very body and blood.

Do you want to see those loved ones who you sorely miss? To meet those of whom we have only heard stories? And the best thing yet, to stand before God and the Lamb?  You should, this is the Christian hope and anticipation which rests solely on the crucified and resurrected Jesus. There is no other way to join the heavenly saints than through faith in Christ. Our joy is focused not on dying and going to heaven, but on the ultimate joy and triumph: we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life T of the world to come.  We will see those saints wholly restored in both body and soul; and we too will stand there, raised up in glorified bodies by the power than enables Christ to subject all things to Himself. We will experience the words of Job, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27).

Romans 3:19-28
The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation + Treasure Valley Circuit Reformation Service
The Brandt Center + Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho + October 29, 2017
Pastor Tim Pauls
The Legacy of Luther

Rap, rap, rap.

A hammer strikes, blow after blow, long ago and far away. Five centuries ago this Tuesday, an obscure professor at a university of no repute nails a paper to a door. It’s been done before and it will be done again. Yet those hammer blows echo down the streets of Wittenberg and across the countryside. They reverberate long and far enough that, well, here you are.

Rap, rap, rap.

What Luther posts on the door of the church is not meant to be a fiery act of defiance, but a basis for some probably drowsy academic conversation. His thoughts are rough – there are plenty of things in his 95 theses that need work. But there’s an underlying theme that moves his pen, and we might find it in the first thesis, a thesis which reads, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” And lest anyone think that Luther is calling for a life of sadness and drudgery, it is really quite the opposite. Within those words is a hidden joy for Martin Luther: he is no longer angry with God.

He has been. He’s been near despair for a good part of his life. He has taken so seriously the righteousness of God and His wrath for sin, and rightly so! He has sought within his life to tame his soul, control his thoughts and sanctify his actions – Luther has worked ceaselessly to cleanse himself of sin, and he has punished himself severely for little sins that you and I would dismiss as too small for God to care. He firmly believes the truth – the absolute, divine truth – that God is holy and demands that His people be holy. He believes the Bible when it says that sinners will be eternally condemned.

He knows God’s commandments. He has studied God’s laws. He is haunted by the truth that the only way to keep them well enough is to keep them perfectly.

All this is not popular today. But it is still just as true.

So Luther has grown angry, angry at God. What kind of a God demands holiness but makes it impossible, and then condemns sinners for failing? What kind of God demands the impossible without mercy?

If he’s got the question right, you really have three options: delusion, defiance or despair.

You can delude yourself that God doesn’t really mean what He says in His law. Maybe He’s trying to throw a good scare into you so that you do your best, but He doesn’t seriously expect perfection. Maybe when He says “hell” in the Bible, He doesn’t mean “outer darkness” or “lake of fire,” but really means a pleasant middle-class suburb on the outskirts of the City of God. Maybe when God says, “Be perfect,” He really just means “Eh, do whatever’s convenient.” If that’s true, then this Luther character is taking God way too seriously; but to do otherwise, to give into such delusions, you simply have to deny the truth of Scripture. Many did then, and many do today.

If not delusion, then perhaps you’ll choose defiance. Defiance demands, “Who is this God to tell us what to do, with all of His impossible laws? Why does He get to define what’s right and wrong?” When sinners get angry and opt for defiance, it’s never pretty. In order to justify themselves, they have to overthrow God and make their own rules. There’s plenty of that in history: God tells sinners to wait at Mount Sinai for His law, so they worship a golden calf and rise up to “play.” God wants them to worship Him alone, so they fill His temple with a bunch of idols and then gush about how those dead monuments coexist so well. Such defiance is no different now. God declares that He ordains marriage to be between a man and a woman, so sinners deconstruct the institution to suit their appetites. God says that He creates people male and female; and after inventing sixty-plus genders (as of yesterday) the defiant say, “We sure showed God.”

Here’s the kicker: God gives His Son to be born of Mary, and sinners literally kill God in an attempt to justify themselves and their rebellion. It’s a sad truth, demonstrated time and again in history: left to themselves, sinners will defy God and do away with all that is holy. Getting rid of what is holy is the constant, because sin always looks better in the dark.

It goes without saying, of course, that you don’t have to do some spectacular sin to be defiant. You’re either holy or you’re not, and your own favorite little socially-acceptable pet sin is enough to leave you condemned.

If delusion and defiance are not your cup of tea, there is always despair. It’s the most honest of the three. The sinner who despairs is the one who says, “God is God and God is holy. I am not God, I am not holy, and God is far bigger than me. I cannot stop sinning, and so I am eternally condemned. Wretched man that I am!” This is the despair that Luther has known. He has pursued holiness frantically and painfully. He’s studied, he’s fasted, he’s flogged himself to get rid of his sin; and do you know what all that study, fasting and flogging has gotten him? It’s made him a really smart, hungry sinner who has to sleep on his stomach.

But he’s still a sinner.

After all of his toil, all that God’s law has done for Luther is show him how much of a sinner he is.

But here’s the marvelous thing: that means that the law has done exactly what God has given it to do.

You heard it before, in our text from Romans 3: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

That’s worth repeating: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Through the law comes knowledge of sin. God doesn’t give His law to save you. He gives His law so that you know – so that you know your unholiness and that you cannot save yourself. He gives you His commandments to show you how much you need a Savior.

It’s that stunning realization that leads Luther to the door with his 95 theses in Wittenberg. Remember that first one again: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Repent! Literally in the Greek, change your mind. Stop thinking one way and start thinking another. Stop believing what is wrong and start believing what is right! In this case, by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, stop deluding yourself that your sin is acceptable and God doesn’t mind. Stop defying God and poking Him in the eye, because He is holy, He hates sin, even the ones you find useful, and He is far bigger than you. And stop despairing as if God is playing the cruelest of cat-and-mouse games, toying with miserable you until He packs you off to eternal condemnation.

Stop believing those lies; and by the grace of God, believe this: there is a way to be holy and righteous. It’s just not by what you do. It’s by what’s been done for you. And what has been done for you?

Rap, rap, rap.

Another hammer strikes, long ago and far away; and these echoes never fade. They are harsh and brutal blows: they are driving nails through the hands and feet of an innocent man.

Innocent. Not just “not guilty of the crime of which He is accused,” but innocent before God. Holy. Righteous. Sinless. Never sinned once from eternity, never will. And if He hasn’t sinned, the wages of sin are not for Him. He doesn’t have to die.

But here is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and nailed to a cross. The Son of God has become flesh for this very thing. He has numbered Himself with the transgressors. He has borne your iniquities, infirmities and all the curse of sin to the cross. There, He is the perfect sacrifice for sin. There, He is forsaken by His Father, condemned for the sin of the world. There, as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God! We have the righteousness of God in our epistle as well, and what good news is this!

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.

This is the Gospel, right? For you and for your salvation, the very Son of God has paid the price for your sins. You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so He took your place in judgment that you might be forgiven. You and I will never comprehend the enormity of that sacrifice. God is just, and so God must punish sin; but so that God might justify you, He both deals out the wrath at the cross and He bears it. The Son suffers and dies in your place, so that you might be forgiven, so that in Christ you might become the righteousness of God. And if it’s Jesus who does it, you know He has gotten the job done. Finished! If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.

You are free indeed! And risen from the dead, Christ gives this forgiveness as a gift – you are saved by grace, not by works of the law. How free? Imagine this: imagine that someone near despair because of sin has wandered into this service. And as we sing those rich verses of the sermon hymn, it dawns on him that Christ has died for him and that God no longer holds his sins against him. He hears and he knows he is forgiven. Just then, before he thinks another thought, before he and you are subjected to this sermon, the earthquake hits, the roof caves in and kills us all. So is this man saved? There is no time to do good works, to give offerings, demonstrate contrition or even pray a little prayer.

Ah, but the Word has gone into his ears, and the Spirit has worked it into his heart. He knows Christ has saved him. And by the grace of God, he dies believing in Jesus.

That’s how free is this forgiveness. It is so apart from works that God gives it to infants in Holy Baptism, long before they can do anything but eat, sleep and fill their diapers. It is given by the same Word of God that once declared, “Let there be light,” and so light was bestowed upon creation without the works of man. Likewise, with every Gospel proclamation, the Lord declares, “Let there be faith!” It is given to you in His Supper as you receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins; and when you depart that Holy Communion, you do not say, “I must now do good to pay for the meal.” You say, “I am fed and set free from sin to do what God has made me to do – love Him and love my neighbor.

All this is unfolding when Luther writes in that first thesis, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Repent. By God’s grace, turn from deluding yourself that your sin is okay.

Turn from defiance and confess your sin for the offense it is to holy God.

Turn from despair and rejoice that God has given His Son to die for you so that you might be free.

Free from sin. Free from death. Free from hell.

Free for life. Free from the anxiety of wondering if you’re good enough for God. Free in the certainty that God has made you His child. Free to serve Him and those He puts in your life.

What joy!

If it’s all right with you, maybe we won’t get through the other 94 theses today. But as we wrap this up, two closing thoughts.

The first is that a 500th anniversary brings a lot of discussion about the legacy of Martin Luther, and all sorts will lay claim. Linguists attribute to him the modern German language. Some historians call him the father of the German nation. Educators credit him with starting public school systems. Feminists give him a nod for his enlightened view of women … just not enlightened enough.

Progressives extol him as a rabble-rouser who defied the institution and stuck it to the man. At the same time, right-wingers praise him for nationalism and respect for authority.

Capitalists say he opened the door for free market economies; on the other hand, Marxists say he’s a hero of socialism.

Everybody wants to claim Luther as their own, it seems, whether he would agree or not; and to the claims just listed, his responses would probably range between, “I don’t care,” “Oops,” and “Why aren’t you talking about Jesus?” We ought not ignore how momentously the Reformation changed the world, nor how pivotal a figure Luther is in the history of the world. But what was Luther’s intention? Why did he do what he did, and what is his legacy for the Church?

For all the change and advancements of the past 500 years, we live in chaotic, darkening and fearful times, yes? Given the wars, violence and persecution throughout the world, as well as the crass apostasy, immorality, and the collapse of reasonable discourse in our own culture, we may be on the cusp of a dark age indeed. And as the realization of how bad things are grow, so do the cries that we must do something. So what shall we do? What of the legacy of Luther shall we continue?

His answer is predictable enough: he’d tell us forget the old bag of worms named Luther and stick with sola scriptura. Stick to Scripture alone and keep saying what Christ says.

This is the Christian legacy of the Reformation: repentance. We repent and live repentant lives. We do this because, though evil manifests itself in this world in all sorts of frightening ways, the cause is always sin; and the battleground is always the conscience, the heart of man. Sin has already been defeated at the cross, and people are rescued from its control by forgiveness. The legacy of the Reformation is nothing else than maintaining the same message in a changing, dying world: the message of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

So what are you to do? You confess your sins and you trust in Jesus.

You run to the Word and the Supper to strengthen your faith against the daily, incessant attacks of evil.

You speak up for just laws in society, because even the just laws of man deliver the knowledge of sin.

You help the poor and the helpless. You do what you can, in service to God and to others, in the callings God has give you.

You keep God’s laws as much as you’re able. You extol virtue and model it in your life. You confess your sin and hypocrisy when you fail.

You joyfully confess the Gospel. You put it in each other’s ears in worship. You teach it to your children. You share it with your neighbor.

You do not lose hope, because the Lord does not cease to be faithful.

You pray for reformation in our nation and in the Church; and better yet, you pray, “Lord, come quickly.”

Because the Lord is coming again and … rap, rap, rap.

There is one hammer yet to be heard. It is the gavel of the Last Day, the Final Judgment, when you stand before the Lord of all – you, the sinner, before the holy Son of God. If you are still lost in the delusion, the defiance or despair of sin, that will be a fearful day. But that fear is not for you. This is the legacy of the Reformation: you already know the verdict of Judgment Day. The Lord does not keep you in suspense, wondering if have you earned the kingdom of heaven; there is no need for anxiety, because your righteousness comes not by the law but by faith in Christ. If Christ has done the work, there is no doubt. When that gavel falls on Judgment Day and you stand before the Lord, you will hear the same verdict you have heard, time and time again, throughout your days. He says, “As to the charge of your sin and sinfulness, the price is paid. I declare you ‘not guilty.’”

He says it even now, just with different words. Church words, not court words. The verdict of judgment day now sounds like this:

“I forgive you all of your sins.”

A blessed Reformation to you all.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

John 8:31-38

500^th Anniversary of the Reformation

Reformation Sunday (Observed)

October 28, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

This Tuesday, October 31, 2017 marks the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation.  Especially for us Lutherans, this is a big deal. Our namesake, Martin Luther, nailed the 95 Theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg that sparked something unintended and unexpected.

We could spend a long time talking about Luther, his life and legacy; about Lutheranism across the ages and the world; and give ourselves a nice pat on the back for being the heirs of the Reformation. But I’m not going to do that. Luther would not have wanted any of this to be about him.  So I’m not going to talk about Luther much. The Reformation is, has always been, and will always be about Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins. Christ who sets free from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil.  It is about the freedom we have in the Gospel, a freedom from sin, death, and the devil that Jesus speaks about in our Gospel reading today.

“Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’”  Some of the Jews took offense to this claiming that they have not ever been slaves.  Which is really quite funny. Did they just happen to forget one of, if not the, defining event of their past: their exodus out of slavery to the Egyptians? That’s not to mention the real slavery, which is the enslavement due to your sinfulness.  Make no mistake, your sin, both original sin and actual sin, condemns you to a life of slavery with a destination of hell.  Denial of the truth does not negate the truth. Sin really is that bad, and it really is that serious.  And there is nothing you can do to fix it or to free yourself.  Freedom comes from outside of you, your deliverance comes from on high, and the real exodus is the delivery out of the bondage to sin.

All of the Jews’ past, all of their history, all of our history, leads up to and centers upon the freedom that Jesus wins upon the cross, and that this freedom is delivered to people by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This is the truth that sets free. Now, this isn’t a subjective truth based upon popular opinion or what might feel good at the moment.  This is an objective reality truth based upon the way that the Creator has made and works through and for His creation. This is a freeing truth not because it informs the mind of the way things really are, but because it frees both the body and the soul from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil.  In other words, to know the truth is to know Christ, and to know Christ is to know the truth. For our Lord says elsewhere in the Gospel according to St. John, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

Such freedom in the Gospel does not lead to laziness. For the sake of our neighbor, we struggle against sin and the devil to love our neighbor.  It is a freedom now to do the works of the Law, not in order that God might love us or that we might be “better” people, but because we are already free. Truly, we are freed from a perfection established through works, whether it be thought in this life or the condemning falsehood of purgatory. We await fulfillment in faith, where through daily dying to sin and rising to new life through faith in Christ we will be conformed to Christ.  Human nature needs liberation, freedom, not self-perfection. Free will does not make one free, it only expresses the desires of the self. It is “self will.” Only Christ makes one free. Insisting on maintaining free will is not freeing, it is bondage to one’s sinful passions and desires. The Gospel is not a self-help program, it is the good News of our salvation, of our freedom from sin, from death, and from the devil, earned by Jesus upon the Cross.  It is human fulfillment is outside of human hands. It is in the nailed scared hands of Jesus.

This is the theme of the Reformation.  It is about Jesus, it is about the freedom of His Gospel, it is about His Word.  Though the namesake of our denomination is Martin Luther, we are not disciples of Martin Luther. We are disciples of Jesus Christ. We trust in Jesus and in His Word, and we trust in much of the Reformation because it appeals to, rests its foundation upon, and proclaims God’s Word. The power of the Reformation isn’t in Luther, it isn’t in the 95 Theses, it is in the Word of God.  Luther himself once stated, " In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf,⁶ the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.” (LW 51:77)

As we celebrate a great Reformation anniversary this year, we cannot forget that In broader terms, 500 years is really not that long. It’s the same Gospel that has always been present, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden after the Fall. It’s the same Gospel Just as our past was, so our future will be built only upon the rock of Christ and Him crucified, and upon His Word of truth that sets free. The Word of the Lord endures forever, as we have spent so much time and prayer as we celebrate our 100^th year at Zion Lutheran Church. The Word does not return to the Lord empty handed but accomplishes His purpose in sending it.  The Word was made flesh and we have beheld its glory, glory in Jesus Christ.  Faith comes by hearing the Word.  That Word is the good news that has been proclaimed to you. You are justified solely on the basis of Christ.  His righteousness is yours by virtue of faith.

Matthew 9:1-8

The Power of God’s Word

19^th Sunday after Trinity

October 22, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

In our Gospel reading for today, we hear the account of Jesus healing a paralyzed man, a healing that took place both of his soul and his body.  In doing this, Jesus illustrates a very important part of His ministry: the forgiveness of sins. This miracle is recorded right after two well known other miracles.  The first is when Jesus calms the storm after falling asleep in a boat with His disciples.  After they get off the boat, He casts demons out of two men and into some pigs, which then ran into the sea and drowned in the waters.  Now, he comes back across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. As he arrived, some men bring a paralytic to Him on a bed.  He sees the faith of the men who brought the crippled man, and speaks to him, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

Now, some in this man’s position might think, “That’s nice, but what I really want is to be walk again. I want my body to be healed.” How many times have we heard, or thought, those same things when we’ve fallen ill, or heard a cancer diagnosis, or the after effects of a car accident, or whatever it may be.  We pray and want this physical problem fixed, which isn’t wrong by any means, but this misses the entire point. Jesus healed this man, He healed him of his true sickness and handicap, which wasn’t because he was paralyzed.   The man had a sick heart, a sinful heart, that needed to be healed.  And that healing comes through the forgiveness of sins, not just in this body and in this life, but through eternity. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation. 

Some of the scribes who were there didn’t like this one little bit. The Pharisees knew that the forgiveness of sins is God’s work and belongs to Him alone.  For this reason, they thought Jesus a blasphemer, they thought Him slandering God, and making Himself to be on the same level as God.  Here, the accusation is that Jesus claims divine authority, since forgiveness must come from God alone.  Which is exactly Jesus’ point.

And so, knowing their thoughts, He says to them, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk.’?  Obviously, it is easier to declare someone forgiven that to tell a paralytic to rise and walk.  So Jesus does both just to prove His could, to prove His point, to prove who He was. “‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – He then said to the paralytic – ‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’”

Jesus speaks directly and immediately with God’s own authority. This was the beginning of long standing conflict between the followers of Jesus and the heirs of the Pharisees in rabbinic Judaism.  It’s the scandal of the incarnation.  Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because Jesus is the Son of God.  It is scandalous to think that God would become man, and as fully man act with the authority of God.

This Jesus, who is the Christ, the Son of God, came from heaven and became man, suffered, and died to save us from our sins. This is the cause, the means, and the treasure through which the forgiveness of sins and God’s grace are given to us.  It must not be sought anywhere else other than through and in Jesus. Whoever comes to God with any works outside of those that belong to Jesus, brings to God a pile of sinful garbage. If you want to be free from sin, stop trying to do it yourself, stop seeking to bring your works before God, rather crawl to Christ as the One who takes away the sin of the world and puts it on Himself and nails it to the cross. 

“Take heart, My son, your sins are forgiven.” These are powerful words, these are God’s words.  This is what is called, “Absolution.” The word “Absolve” comes from Latin words ab, which means “from”, and solvere, which means “to loose.” It refers to the sacred act of loosing a person from sin, to free one from guilt of all their sin.  When we confess our sins, whether publically or privately, and hear God’s word of forgiveness spoken to us, then, like the paralytic, we are absolved (TLSB, notes Matthew 9:1-8), our sins are loosed, we are freed from the guilt and the shame and the punishment because Jesus has taken all that upon Himself.

Only Christians believe this.  This divides you from every other belief and worship on earth.  The difference between Christians and non-Christians has nothing to do with how good of person you are, how loving you are, how you have it all together.  The thing that marks Christians as different is simply this: the possessions of the forgiveness of sins.

How do you get this forgiveness? That’s the big question now isn’t it? How do you get, today, what Jesus earned upon the cross 2000 years ago?  It’s pretty straightforward actually.  Forgiveness is delivered through the Word of God and the Sacraments, and it is received by faith.  First, sin is driven out of the heart and grace is poured in. Second, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed; one person to another.

This too may seem just as scandalous as Jesus forgiving sins.  One of the most common questions asked about a Lutheran Divine Service centers around the Confession and Absolution. Luther’s Small Catechism states the Biblical position that confession has two parts: first that we confess our sins, second that we receive absolution, that is forgiveness of sins, from the pastor as from God Himself. And so often that rings as blasphemy in people’s ears.  “You have no right, no authority, no power, to forgive the sins of anyone, especially when the sin isn’t even directed against you.  And the answer to that is “You are exactly right. I don’t have the right, nor the authority, nor the power. But Jesus does, and by Jesus’ authority, and in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has commanded that His church proclaim this message, this Gospel, to the entire world.” God has given to His people the authority to forgive sins. Jesus clearly speaks in John 20:20-23, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” As Christians we not just talk about forgiveness, we actually deliver forgiveness; we not just announce God’s forgiveness in Christ, we actually forgive in Christ’s name.

It’s not just the pastor, but all baptized Christians have this authority, which rests in God and which He delivers and commissions to us by virtue of our Baptism. Christ puts His word in our mouths that that we can say as often as necessary, “you are forgiven in the name of Christ!” This should be the voice of the church until Christ Himself returns on the Last Day.  These words, “I forgive you” should be some of the most common words spoken in your homes, between husbands and wives, parents and children.  This is the very Gospel, the heart of the Christian faith. Do not neglect it.  Do not ignore it. Do not silence it. This is your baptismal right, it is your baptismal life – a life marked with repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins won upon the cross by Jesus Christ.

Matthew 22:34-46

Law and Gospel

Trinity 18

October 15, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

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In our Gospel reading for today, Christ answers the Pharisees’ question, “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the Law?” and in turn puts a question to them, “What do you think about the Christ?”  Today, we are reminded that these two points should always be preached: First, the teaching about the Law or the Ten Commandments, and second the teaching about the grace of Christ.  This is Law and Gospel.  If either one of these two teachings are missing, the other suffers.  On the other hand, if one remains and is used correctly, the other will necessarily follow.

And so let us take up the first question, and the answer which Jesus gives us.  The teaching of the Law, which Jesus here cites from Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Law teaches this is the way you were, and this is the way you are, and this is the way you still should be, and you will become. In Paradise you had this treasure and you were created to love God with all your heart. You have now lost this. But you must become this again. Otherwise you will not come into the kingdom of heaven.

The problem comes in the idea that we can somehow do this if we just try hard enough.  All too often in Christian churches around the world, the message of the Law is proclaimed as something that you must, and you can, do in order to be saved.  This is the way that the Pharisees understood God’s Law 2000 years ago.  This is the way the Roman Catholic Church understood God’s Law 500 years ago.  This is the way too many churches today still understand God’s Law.  Do this, and you will live.  Which is true enough.  It is a good teaching which teaches us what we should be.  The problem is that we can’t do it. Not perfectly. Not all the time. Not with our whole heart.  The Law is always present, holds us guilty, drives and demands that we are to be godly and righteous.  What are we to do when our own conscience finds us guilty of not doing this wholeheartedly?  The Law gives no answer to this, it only wants and requires you to be obedient.

Which brings us to the second question. The answer to the first question means nothing if there is not a right understanding and faith in Christ.  What does it mean to know Christ? The Pharisees and scribes certainly don’t know. They think no more of Him than that He is David’s son. But they didn’t know that they needed him to rescue them from sin and death.  This is why the Holy Spirit explains to them that He is only David’s son, but also God’s Son.  Our Gospel reading teaches us that Jesus is both David’s true, natural Son from his flesh and blood, but also David’s Lord, whom he must worship and regard as God. It was impossible for them to make sense of this.

This is where the Gospel flips the world on its head. Jesus steps in and says “I will fulfill this, not only for Myself, but for all.” Christ has fulfilled the Law for our advantage, so that we can have the benefit of Christ’s work and through this come to grace. This grace is not the power to do the Law perfectly, but it is the delivery of the One who does it perfectly. Then this One promises and delivers the Holy Spirit so that our hearts begin to love God and love others.

The Law comes first here, namely, what are to owe God – perfect love toward Him and toward others. If a person does not know this, then will not know or care at all about Jesus. If we are to know Christ as our Savior, then we must first know what we need saving from – our sin, and greed, and hatred. Christ reminds us in order to teach that is not enough to have the Law, which only shows how far we have fallen.  Rather, if anyone is to return to it and be renewed, Christ must do this through the faith that He was certainly born God and man.  It is this good news of our salvation in Christ that motivates us and frees us now to do the works of the Law, not out of compulsion or thinking that it somehow will make God love us more, but out of simple thankfulness to God for Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

In other words, if you don’t know who God is or what He has done for you, if you have not heard nor believed in Christ and His love, then you can’t love God. And if you don’t love God and you don’t know the love that God has shown you in Christ, how can you share His love with others?   Faith in Christ has made easy the love of God.  Fear casts out love, but Christ casts out fear.  The Law that accuses us of our sinfulness and drives us back to the Gospel to find forgiveness, life and salvation in Christ, also serves us as a Word from the Lord that guides us into holy living through faith in Jesus Christ, the fulfiller of the Law. 

We cannot overlook this fact: The Law may guide us in holy living, but it is only and always the Gospel motivates us to do good works. We must guard ourselves against the spiritual lazy thinking that “even if you do not keep these commandments of loving God and others, that does not hurt you; if only you believe, then you will be saved.”  Too often this our excuse and self-justification for our sin.  We tell ourselves that we know our sin is wrong, but we keep on sinning thinking that what “really” matters is that we believe in Jesus. As good Lutherans we know that we saved by God’s grace apart from works, but at the same time we must guard ourselves against the temptation to use God’s grace as an excuse to continue in sin. For Jesus did not come abolish the Law. He did not come to say these things don’t matter and now you can do whatever you want as long as you label it out of “Love.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus remarks to those who would think like this, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have no come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.”

So yes, you are to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, because God loves him as He loves you.  Love your neighbor for God’s sake, if not for his own. As God loves you for Jesus’ sake, so love others for Jesus’ sake. God is not gracious and merciful to sinners so that they would remain where they are, but He does so to lead them to conform to Christ until the Last Day when it will no longer be called grace or forgiveness, but pure truth and completely perfect obedience.  In the meantime, He continues to grant us grace for the sake of Christ so that He always gives, forgives, bearing and carrying us to the grave and then to the resurrection. He gives us the Holy Spirit, so that we might follow Him and begin here to suppress our sinful desires and cations, until He comes to us at the Day of Resurrection when there will be no sin and we will all live in complete righteousness.

Luke 11:9

Funeral Sermon for Lorraine Boehlke

October 20, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

People loved by God. On a day like today, what is worth asking for? For family and friends to gather in honor and memory of Lorraine? For sharing memories and stories, tears and comfort in the midst of death? Handshakes and hugs? Another day with a loved one?

All these things are good, right, and salutary. And I pray that we are able to share in all those things today, and in the future. But I would like you to think about this a little more.  And I like you to think about in terms both of today, as well as April 14, 1935.  Lorraine was 15 years old, her sisters were 10 and 4 years old at the time. It was Palm Sunday at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Eustus, Nebraska.  Women were sitting on one side of the congregation, men on the other.  Her dad, who usually sat up in the balcony, through Lorraine never knew why, probably was sitting down closer to the front. It was Confirmation day. Lorraine would have had to memorize Luther’s Small Catechism, several Bible passages, and probably some hymns.  Some of this was in English and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of it was in German too.  At the end of the Confirmation rite, shortly before she would have received Communion for the very first time, her pastor read this Bible verse over her from Luke 11:9, Jesus said, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” And then it goes on in the next verse, “For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

So I ask you again, in light of today, with the dead body of that woman whose those words were spoken over, a daughter and sister, a wife and a mother and a grandmother and greatgrandmother and friend, what is worth asking for? What is worth seeking? What is worth knocking on?

We have an answer to those questions, and the answer is found in Jesus.  These questions cannot simply be focused on the here and now, on life in this world.  God certainly answers those in Jesus, but the answer is much bigger than that.  It’s questions and answers that transcend this life, one that the devil, that your sins, that even death cannot silence.

I will argue that Lorraine is actually a good example of what this looks like in the life of a Christian. She lived a full life, a long life, with the love of many family and friends. She wasn’t perfect, and we know that. She had her shortcomings, her struggles, and her sin.  Just like all of us do.  Reading through an autobiography of sorts, primarily of her childhood life, marriage, and birth of two of her children illustrates just a small part of this.  Someone who lives as long as she did experienced a lot of history personally. She lived through the Depression, the Dust Bowl, World War II.  She went from travelling to a one room school by horse and buggy, to experiencing technological marvels unthought-of of in her younger years.  Outhouses and no electricity to the modern marvels of television and the internet. She raised children, saw them grow and have families of their own. What those eyes had seen, the lives that those hands had touched. In her later years, her memory was not that good. Maybe it’s a clique, but I am convinced that she had forgotten more than many people had ever learned. She rarely recognized me, but when I told her who I was she always knew her church. Even right before her death, as she heard the Lord’s Prayer, she never forgot her Lord.  She knew Jesus, and more importantly Jesus knew her.  And she died a blessed death.

What does Lorraine receive? Jesus says in Revelation 2:10, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of eternal life.” What does she find? From our Gospel reading today in Matthew 11, Jesus’ word of promise and invitation, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” What is opened up to her? The door to heaven with all the saints in glory.  Almost two weeks ago now, Jesus called her to eternal home.  When she was unable to move, He sought her out and found her. When she was unable to speak, His Word provided the answer to the questions she could not ask aloud. When her hands were too frail to do much, He opened the gates of heaven and carried her to Himself.

What’s worth asking for today?  There are lots of questions that you might have, lots of desires for which to ask. Shortly, we will commend the body of Lorraine into the Lord’s care until the day of the resurrection. This is THE question, and THE answer, from 1 Corinthians 15, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Lorraine enjoys that victory now, and through faith in Christ, so do you.

Luke 14:1-11

The Humility of the Christian

Trinity 17

October 8, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID