Monday, August 29, 2022

The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

 The Decollation (Beheading) of St. John the Baptist – August 29, 2022
Psalm 31; Revelation 6:9-11; Romans 6:1-5
St. Mark 6:14-29

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

The Church does not remember her saints to teach a moral lesson. The lives of the saints, especially those found in Holy Scripture, are not fables. Aesop’s fables are taught to children for the purpose of teaching a moral lesson – what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. The Tortoise and the Hare teaches children not to rush but work slow and steady. The life and death of St. John the Baptist are not given to teach you what to do and what not to do.

The church remembers her saints for three purposes. This ought to sound familiar as I have mentioned these three purposes at the feast of many saints over the last two years. We remember the saints first as an example of God’s mercy shown both in the works God performed on behalf of the saints and in His giving such magnificent teachers to the Church; second, for the strengthening of our own faith as we see how God forgave the sins of these saints and know with certainty that He has forgiven us, too; and third, to imitate first their faith and then their virtues.[1]

We gather tonight first to give thanks to God that He has given such a magnificent teacher as St. John the Baptist to the Church. John was the forerunner of the Christ. He preached repentance in the wilderness that the heart man would be prepared to receive the Blood of Jesus. The Law must precede the Gospel. The Law must uncover our sins before we can see the need for a Savior.

It is true, this Law can take the form of physical suffering. It can take the form of emotional suffering. It can take the form of disease, loss, pain, betrayal, or any other type of non-verbal suffering. But anything communicated non-verbally will always be less specific than something communicated in words. Man was created to communicate through words because we are created in the Image of God. What is that Image of God? In the first place it is original righteousness, but it is also the very literal form which God takes to relate to man. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity is called the Word of God and it is this Word which took on flesh. We are created in His Image and thus were created to communicate in words.

As forerunner, St. John necessarily came preaching and necessarily came preaching the Law. Herod, the son of the Herod who murdered the babies at Jesus’ birth, clearly shows the result of one whose heart is struck by the Law of God but who only hardens against God’s Word rather than begging for forgiveness.

Herod enjoyed the preaching of St. John. He enjoyed it so much that he would not let his adulterous lover murder the prophet. But Herod did not enjoy the preaching so much that he would stake his reputation on reneging a vow made to his stepdaughter. With a measure of regret, Herod gave the order to have St. John executed.

Sometime later, when he heard about the miracles and teachings of Jesus, Herod was terrified in his heart. He believed John had returned from the grave and was going to come for him.

There are bold unbelievers in the world. They are entirely content to deride the True God. These are a law unto themselves. They have no moment’s hesitation regarding their salvation. Then there are those who have heard the Word of God and even though they profess against it, or against some doctrine therein, they cannot escape the pangs of their conscience.

It is here that many Christians find themselves. Sincere Christians do not profess against the Scriptures or God’s doctrines. But we often find ourselves with pangs of conscience. We know what the Word of God says but we don’t like it. Or we know what the Word of God says, and we agree, but are afraid of what might happen if we speak it out loud.

It is a dangerous time for children to be in schools and for adults to be employed. Parents must be prepared to scrutinize everything your children are learning. We cannot take anything for granted. Homosexuality is assumed in almost every subject down to the youngest grades. Transgenderism, equality of outcome, and resistance to binary truths are being taught even by well-meaning teachers. As for adults, one overheard comment can cost you your job, health insurance, and retirement. Woe to you if said comment is in print via social media. You are looking at years of ramifications.

And yet none of this should stop us from proclaiming the truth. St. John knew that telling Herod he was committing incestuous adultery by marrying his sister-in-law would eventually lead to his death. But he did it anyway. Why? Because he loves the Word of God, and he cared enough about Herod to say something.

A sin of omission is failing to do the right thing. It is very easy to convince yourself that by not saying something, you are protecting yourself or your family. But at what cost? By staying silent in the face of your employer, your child’s teacher, the school board, or even your sister, are you condemning him? Are you sinning against yourself as well as that person? The answer is yes.

And then there is the direction of our fiction, news, and all forms of media. Things unimaginable 30 years ago are commonplace on primetime TV. It is so very easy to claim to shut your eyes or mute the TV for a few moments, but you will eventually get too lazy to catch it every time. Then you will figure it isn’t so bad, so long as you remember that it isn’t good. But eventually, you will become hardened to the sexual images, the images of violence, the crude joking, and substance abuse.

So repent. Repent of not loving others the way you have been loved by God. Repent of thinking you are stronger than everyone else so as not to be tempted by sex, drugs, and violent images. God loved the world so that He gave His only Son, the lost to save. But God also sent the forerunner. He sent John, preaching the Law to prepare the way for the Gospel.

St. John was clearly blessed with extreme humility and fortitude. These are virtues, beneficial characteristics of Godly men, we are called to imitate. John clearly confessed God’s Word, both Law and Gospel, to Herod just as he confessed to the multitudes gathered at the Jordan. He saw no difference between the beggar and the Tetrarch. Both needed to be called to repentance and both needed to receive the blood of Jesus.

Yet our imitation of these virtues is not the most important thing to gain this evening. St. John died in imitation of His Lord. He did not raise an army to fight back against Herod but humbly submitted to unjust imprisonment. From the stony garden of his cell, John prayed to his Lord, “Are you the coming One, or do we look for another?” It is true, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was not experiencing a crisis of faith. St. John did experience such a dark night of the soul. Yet when faced with imminent death, both trusted that the Father in Heaven would guide them into eternal life.

Good Friday must come before Easter morning. St. John, the forerunner of Christ, prepared the hearts of man to receive their Lord but he also prepared the grave to receive God. He was a forerunner in life just as he was a forerunner in death. We, too, must imitate Christ by imitating St. John in this way. Unless Christ returns in glory to gather His saints to His bosom, we shall all experience death. Our friends and children will collect our bodies to prepare them for burial. This is the way of all flesh.

We give thanks to Almighty God that He has shown us His mercy in upholding the faith of St. John, who endured a terrible death, but who is now singing with the angels and archangels in heaven. If John could be imprisoned, beaten, and executed because of his preaching, yet retain his faith by the strength of the Holy Spirit, so too can you be assured that the Holy Spirit will uphold you through suffering and even death.

And if John had a moment of doubt before his death, yet is counted among the glorious saints in heaven, then you too can be assured that while doubt is a result of your sinful flesh, it also cannot be present without faith. You cannot doubt something you do not believe in. Doubt will come when you endure suffering of any kind.

St. John handled his doubt with much more grace than many of us are capable of. First, pray a psalm, like Psalm 13 which begins, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”[2] But remember the mercy of God, just as David does at the end of Psalm 13, “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”[3]

While this seems like a stark change, it is the experience of Christian doubt. Christians do not doubt if God exists; we doubt if He is on our side. We doubt whether He cares about what we are going through.

Our Father absolutely cares. He cares for you such that He sacrificed His Only-Begotten Son that you might have eternal life with Him. The deliverance of St. John from the torment of Herod was his deliverance from this side of glory. Your deliverance might be more temporal or it might wait until you too are delivered unto heaven. Either way, the Word of God, which was placed upon your head in Holy Baptism, delivered into your mouth in the Holy Supper, and proclaimed into your ears this night, though it is undeserved, is true for you. God has never forsaken the soul that trusted in Him. Just as Christ died for John, He died for you.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.



[1] Ap. XXI 4-7.

[2] Psalm 13:1.

[3] Psalm 13:5-6.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – August 28, 2022
Psalm 68; Genesis 4:1-15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-10
St. Luke 18:9-14

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

Two men went to church to pray, one was an Elder and the other was homeless. Before the service, the Elder came quietly into the nave and prayed, “I give thanks to you Almighty God, that I am not like other men—I am not tempted by money, women, or food, or even alcohol and drugs as this homeless man has certainly struggled with. I’ve been a member here for 35 years, I give more than a tithe, and I even fast during Lent.”

Meanwhile, the homeless man sat in the back corner. He did not make eye contact with anyone, but he also would not look up at the altar for fear that his filth would somehow stain the beautiful clothes. Instead, he wept quietly and prayed, “God, please do not be angry at me. Jesus has died for me.”[1]

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector are going to church. They are presumably at the Temple during either the morning or evening sacrifices. Every day, at 9 AM and 3 PM, public prayer services were conducted in the Temple while the atonement sacrifices were made.[2] A lamb was sacrificed every morning and every evening to atone for the sins of the people. After the lamb was sacrifice, that is, after atonement had been made and the people declared righteous, incense was offered to God. Having been atoned for by the blood of a lamb, it was during the offering of incense that individual prayer was offered. “Let my prayer rise before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”[3]

Our Lord is preaching to those who would justify themselves. He clearly intends to compare the prayers of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. One great difficulty for us in this parable is our familiarity with the Scriptures. We are just familiar enough to get ourselves in trouble.

The prayer of the Pharisee strikes our ears as immediately self-righteous and sinfully prideful. We hear the words, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men,” as being the height of self-righteousness. To do so is dangerous. Our Lord intends to compare the prayers of these two men, but He intends to compare more than the bare words. The prayer of the Pharisee could just as easily be read as a prayer of thanksgiving that God has spared him from the temptations besetting other men. To pray in such a way is good. I thank God I was not raised in a Muslim country, where I would be tempted to worship the false god of the Muhammedans. So too is it a worthy prayer to recount your pious deeds.

On the other hand, the Tax Collector is singularly focused on begging God for mercy. His prayer could even be read as a plea that God would be the sacrifice on his behalf. The Tax Collector is praying for the death of Jesus. He is praying that God would take on his flesh and carry his sins into the grave. He clearly understands there is nothing he can do to save himself. He also understands that just as the blood of the lambs just slaughtered in the Temple are not enough to save his soul. The forgiveness of sins requires the shedding of blood, and the salvation of man requires the shedding of the blood of God.

It is important to understand that the bare words of either man do not determine who returns to his home justified. Recognize that when Jesus says that only one man returns home justified, He means the other returns to his home condemned to hell. The words spoken by these men do not justify nor damn them. The words of their prayers simply reveal the orientation of their hearts.

Let us return to the idea that these men are attending the Divine Service. The words spoken, the prayers said aloud and within their hearts, the hymns sung, and the Scriptures read reveal the orientation of the hearts of the congregation. So do their actions. Seeing the Tax Collector stand in the corner, praying with his eyes cast down speaks of the humility of his heart. He is a man broken by his sin and seeking the One Being who can save him.

The Pharisee stands before all men, making sure they can hear his prayer. His prayer is oriented toward himself. This is reflected in his words in that he refers to himself seven times and never once recounts the works of God. He also does not ask the Father for anything because his heart sees himself as sufficient.

We worship the Triune God. We worship the God who has come to us in our own flesh. Thus, we physically orient our worship toward the altar. An altar is a place of sacrifice. However, our sacrifice has been offered once and for all. Now, the altar serves as that place where the benefits of that sacrifice come to us. Upon the altar sits a crucifix. This is the sign, or symbol, of the sacrifice that is distributed from that altar. The paten and chalice which sit beneath the veil are not symbols, but actually contain the Body and Blood which were shed for your salvation. They contain the answer to the prayer of the Tax Collector.

The bare words of the prayers in the parable are not enough to damn or save. The orientation of the hearts of the men praying them are what give the prayers authority. Now then, before you think I am speaking to the sincerity of your prayers, or the importance of “really feeling your prayers,” stop it. When I speak of the orientation of your heart, I speak of moving toward God or moving toward Man. God alone can change the heart of man. Therefore we pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

If you tried to orient your heart toward God of your own efforts, you will become the Pharisee. Your prayers would be turned immediately toward yourself. In fact, this is already the state of us all. By nature, each of us will turn our prayers toward man. If not praying about how great you are, then praying about how terrible you are and that it is your fault.

By God’s grace and mercy, He has called you into the true faith. He has washed you in the waters of Holy Baptism and He feeds you on His flesh and blood. By this, your heart is oriented toward Him. As such, when your pride swells and you are thankful that you are not like other men, you give thanks to God and pray that He would uphold you in this blessedness. You pray that He would grant you the ability to share this blessedness with others. You thank God that He has died for you and spared you the temptations that are so rampant in our world.

Then when you fall into despair and see the depth of your sin; sin which lies at the bottom of your heart and plagues you with nights of sleeplessness; you pray that God would forgive your sins. You pray that God would atone for your sins with His own blood. Then you give thanks that God has already done this; that He has called a sinner like you into His family. You pray that God would relieve you of your suffering or at least grant you the faith to receive it as a sign that you are loved by Him and hated by the sinful world.

Either way, you come to the altar of God to receive His gifts. You are confident of your salvation because it does not depend on you, your actions, or your words. You are confident because it depends on Christ, His death, and His resurrection.

And then, when you pray, you examine the orientation of your heart. Are you praying to elevate yourself? Or are you praying that you might diminish that Christ would elevate? Are you praying to give thanks and trust in the mighty power of God? Or are you praying that God would see what you have done?

And when you come to worship, are you coming because you are oriented toward God? Does your every action in worship speak of one who is in the presence of the Almighty God? Or do your actions speak of one who is seeking entertainment, recognition, or friendship? Do you come to the altar of God knowing that He is present? Or do you just wait for it to be over? Is there a certain gravity to the Divine Service or is it something that must be done just so you can get to the part where you might stand before others and be heard?

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”[4]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


[1] This is a retelling of the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from St. Luke 18:9-14.

[2] Arthur A. Just, Jr. Luke 9:51-24:53, Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1997), 681-682.

[3] Psalm 141:2.

[4] St. Matthew 6:2-18.

Sunday, August 21, 2022

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – August 21, 2022
Psalm 55; Jeremiah 7:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
St. Luke 19:41-48
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to understand the seeming contradiction between God’s wrath and His mercy. God’s wrath is the enactment of His rightful justice against evil. God’s mercy is the withholding of His punishment against the same. It is true that the destruction of evil brings glory to God. It is also true that God desires all men to be saved. It is true that Christ died for the sins of every man ever born and that same Christ sentences the unrighteous to eternal torment in hell. God is Love and God is Just.

Thanks be to God that we do not have to reconcile these difficult attributes of God. We must, however, pay attention to them. We must realize the true meaning of God’s wrath so that we might understand the severity of our sins. Knowing the depth of our condition and the totality of God’s wrath against sin, we must cry out for help. We must plead that God would sustain us in the faith so that we would be counted among those who receive His mercy.

On Palm Sunday, as our Lord approaches Jerusalem, he weeps over the city. He weeps over Jerusalem because he loves her. He loves the people of Jerusalem, the people given to dwell with the Lord at his Temple, and yet they have rejected him. They have rejected Christ and perverted his Word. In so doing, they have invoked the wrath of God. As a parent weeps over the rebellious child who has disowned the family, Jesus weeps for Jerusalem.

These tears of our Lord signify four things.[1] First, they bring comfort by proving Christ to be True Man. He shares in the lament and pain that only man can know. Great sadness and frustration wells up within him. “The shedding of tears is a very human trait.”[2] There is no pain known to mankind that our Lord did not take upon himself. Even today, risen in glory, our Lord retains his complete humanity, exalted on high, such that we would know our unity with him.

Secondly, the tears offer satisfaction. They are obviously not the atoning sacrifice of the Cross, but Christ became poor that we would become rich, and he wept that we would have eternal joy. “Christ’s tears have paid [for all Christians] so that God can later wipe away all tears from [your] eyes.”[3]

Thirdly, they are tears of consolation. God desires not the death of the sinner and mourns the sins of man. God’s justice requires punishment for sin and it deeply grieves God to mete out such punishment and yet it is the hardness of man’s heart that rejects the love and mercy of God. Sinful man has chosen his own punishment and in God’s perfect justice, the unrepentant sinner is turned over to the lusts of his own heart. These tears flow from the deep well of Christ’s heart. “When one’s heart is wounded by sorrow, tears flow from one’s eyes just like blood flows from a bodily wound.”[4]

This is also why it is a dangerous error to believe that God has chosen some for condemnation. If God had made an eternal decree that certain individuals would go to hell, why should Christ mourn? Why mourn over that which God himself caused? No. God desires the salvation of all and mourns the loss of even one who would reject this salvation.

Finally, these are tears of exhortation. Christ weeps over sin to call us to repentance. If we have put on Christ in our Baptisms, should not we also weep over our sin? The life of the Christian is a daily battle against the world, the devil, and our own flesh. Daily we must return to the waters of our Holy Baptism, that we would mourn over our sins, and cling ever more tightly to Christ.

With the tears of Christ comes a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. The walls, the Temple, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were brutally slaughtered by the Romans in 70 AD. This was the first fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy, and yet it was not the Romans alone who enacted judgment against Jerusalem. The Lord delivered a prophecy to Isaiah saying, “I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, and I will raise siegeworks against you.”[5] God Himself was judging Jerusalem for her lack of faith; for turning to worship false gods; for crucifying Christ.

The earthly Jerusalem was to be the shining city on the hill; that place where God came to dwell with His people: first in the Temple and then enwrapped in the flesh of the Incarnation. The Jews who dwelt at Jerusalem were given the Word of God to be a light to all nations, being a blessing to all who blessed them.

But this was not the case. Already in the time of Jeremiah, the Jews were worshipping Baal in the morning and Yahweh in the evening. They offered their children on altars fire then sacrificed a bull to Yahweh without seeing the contradiction. By the time of our Lord’s Incarnation, the temples of Baal were gone but they had been replaced by banking and commerce in the Temple. Even worse, those most prepared to receive the Savior rejected Him as dangerous to their way of living.

You, dear Christians, are the most prepared to receive the Savior. You have the Word of God delivered to you in easily available bibles and preached from this pulpit. But much like the Pharisees, such familiarity easily breeds contempt. You confess that the Small Catechism is the right teaching of the Word of God but when was the last time you opened your copy? Or said the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed, and Lord’s Prayer more than once a week? Is reading the bible in the morning and evening a danger to your way of life? We are far more like the Pharisees than any of us wants to admit.

Thanks be to God we have their example. We have the example of those who reject the Savior, seeking to destroy Him with hellfire. We have the example of these wicked men, whose actions foreshadow our own, being slaughtered by the Romans; being judged by God for their lack of faith and infidelity with the gods of their own pleasures.

The example of the Pharisees and the prophecy of destruction are a warning to you. See it for what it is. Prepare yourself for the end of days, when the heavens and the earth with pass away. In that day, will you know the time of your visitation? Will you know that Christ comes not to destroy you but to bring you to Himself? Or will you hide from the Lord?

Do your actions today and every day speak of a preparation for the coming of the Lord in power and might? Do you cry out to God, “King of majesty tremendous, who dost free salvation send us, fount of pity, then befriend us! Think, good Jesus, my salvation caused Thy wondrous incarnation; leave me not to reprobation! Guilty, now I pour my moaning, all my shame with anguish owning: spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning! Worthless are my prayers and sighing; yet, good Lord, in grace complying, rescue me from fires undying. With Thy favored sheep, oh, place me! Nor among the goats abase me, but to Thy right hand upraise me.”[6]

You can be confident in your salvation because Jesus has died for you. You can be confident in your salvation because Jesus has washed you in His blood when you were baptized. You can be confident in your salvation because Jesus Holy Body and Precious Blood are here to strengthen and preserve your body and soul unto life everlasting.

Yet the sin which clings to your flesh can take such confidence and turn it to pride. This is the folly of the Pharisees. They were confident in their salvation because they had kept God’s Law, or as much of it as they thought necessary. They had no need for the teachings of Jesus, nor His forgiveness. Lest you, too, fall into this trap of pride, humble yourself before God and remember always to pray that He would have mercy on you.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.
_____________________________

[1] This enumeration comes from Johann Gerhard, Postilla: An Explanation of the Sunday and Most Important Festival Gospels of the Whole Year, Volume 2, translated by O Marc Tangner (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2007), 109-119.

[2] Gerhard, Postilla, 111.

[3] Gerhard, Postilla, 112.

[4] Gerhard, Postilla, 113.

[5] Isaiah 29:3.

[6] Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning, stanzas 8-9, 12, 14-15.

Monday, August 15, 2022

The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

 The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God – August 15, 2022
Psalm 34; Isaiah 61:7-11; Galatians 4:4-7
St. Luke 1:39-55

***What follows are the outline and general notes used to preach the sermon on this festival.*** 

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

The Augsburg Confession “approves giving honor to the saints. This honor is threefold. The first is thanksgiving: we ought to give thanks to God because he has given examples of his mercy, because he has shown that he wants to save humankind, and because he has given teachers and other gifts to the church. Since these are the greatest gifts, they ought to be extolled very highly, and we ought to praise the saints themselves for faithfully using these gifts just as Christ praises faithful managers. The second kind of veneration is the strengthening of our faith. When we see Peter forgiven after his denial, we, too, are encourages to believe that grace truly superabounds much more over sin. The third honor is imitation: first of their faith, then of their other virtues, which people should imitate according to their callings. The opponents do not require these true honors. They only argue about invocation, which, even if it were not dangerous, is certainly not necessary.”[1]

I. We give honor to the saints in thanksgiving for the examples of God’s mercy.

II. We give honor to the saints in the strengthening of our own faith.

III. We give honor to the saints in imitating first their faith, and then their other virtues.

Mary is not a co-redemptrix.

“People imagine that Christ is more severe and that the saints are more easily conciliated, and so they rely more on the mercy of the saints than on the mercy of Christ. Thus, they flee from Christ and turn to the saints. In this way, they actually make them mediators of redemption…

“Two conditions must be met for a person to qualify as a propitiator. First, there should be a Word of God from which we know with certainty that God wants to have mercy upon and to answer those who call upon him through this propitiator. Therefore, such a promise exists for Christ [John 16:23]: ‘If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.’ No such promise exists for the saints. Therefore, consciences cannot establish with any degree of certainty that we will be heard if we call upon the saints…

“The second qualification for a propitiator is this: his merits must be authorized to make satisfaction for others who are given these merits by divine reckoning in order that through them, just as though they were their own merits, they may be reckoned righteous. It is as when a person pays a debt for friends, the debtors are freed by the merit of the other, as though it were by their own. Thus, Christ’s merits are given to us so that we might be reckoned righteous by our trust in the merits of Christ when we believe in him, as though we had merits of our own.”[2]

“Here and there this form of absolution has come into use: ‘The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the merits of the most blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints be to you for the forgiveness of sins.’ Here an absolution is pronounced that declares that we are reconciled and accounted righteous not only by the merits of Christ but also by the merits of the other saints. Some of us have seen a case where a teacher of theology was dying and a certain monastic theologian was summoned to offer consolation. He could do no better than press upon the dying man this prayer, ‘Mother of grace, protect us from the enemy; receive us in the hour of death.’

“Now we grant that the blessed Mary prays for the church. But she does not receive souls in death, conquer death, or give life, does she? What does Christ do if the blessed Mary performs all these things? Even though she is worthy of the highest honor, nevertheless she does not want herself to be made equal with Christ but instead wants us to consider and follow her example. The fact of the matter is that in the court of public opinion the blessed Virgin has completely replaced Christ. People have called upon her, trusted in her mercy, and through her have sought to conciliate Christ, as though he were not the propitiator, but only a dreadful judge and avenger. We contend, however, that we are justified by the merits of Christ, alone, not by the merits of the blessed Virgin or the other saints.”[3]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


[1] Apology to the Augsburg Confession XXI: 4-7, hereafter referred to as "Ap." Quoted from The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, Translated by Charles Arand, Eric Gritsch, Robert Kolb, William Russell, James Schaaf, Jane Strohl, and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 238.

[2] Ap XXI: 15, 17-19. Kolb / Wengert, 239-240.

[3] Ap XXI: 25-29. Kolb / Wengert, 241.

Sunday, August 14, 2022

The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

The Ninth Sunday after Trinity – August 14, 2022
Psalm 54; 2 Samuel 22:26-34; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
St. Luke 16:1-13

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

What man intended for evil, God meant for the good, to save many people alive.[1] Such is the assessment of Joseph when reflecting on how his brothers tried to kill him and he ended up a slave in Egypt. Joseph is one of very few people in the Old Testament who is portrayed as being nearly flawless. He is a prophet of God and works faithfully for his masters in Egypt. Even when Potiphar’s wife repeatedly tempts his flesh, Joseph remains faithful to God and his Egyptian master.

Being thrown into prison, Joseph is such an exemplary inmate that he is eventually given charge over other inmates. Such loyalty leads to him being made the second most important man in Egypt, steward over all that belongs to Pharaoh. Joseph had complete authority over everything in Pharaoh’s household, having the complete trust of someone the Egyptians believed to be a son of the gods. Joseph is the picture of the ideal, the faithful steward.

The steward in today’s parable is found to be much less deserving of faith. This steward has authority similar to that of Joseph. He has complete control over all of his master’s possessions. He may do with them as he sees fit. The primary concern of the master is that the steward uses his possessions to increase the wealth of the master. Yet this steward has demonstrated himself to be wasteful. He is the prodigal steward, using money that doesn’t belong to him to indulge the lusts of his flesh in food, drink, and women. He is like the prodigal son throughout the first half of that parable.

We join the parable as the master learns of his steward’s wasteful actions and brings the accusation before the steward. There is not a moment of denial by the steward. His actions speak for themselves. He can’t deny it because his sins shine brighter than a spotlight on a dark stage. Once the account books are turned over to the master, the steward will be cast out of his position, having gained a reputation that will certainly prevent him from ever working in this town again.

Most of us are well trained in reading parables. We know to look for the “God” figure and the “man” figure, locating the forgiveness of sins or a similar description of God’s character and mercy toward man. This is especially true of the parables in St. Matthew’s Gospel. It is also generally true of St. Luke. But St. Luke also has much to say about possessions and the right use of possessions by the Christian.

The Parable of the Shrewd Steward does not have a “God” figure. The master is not standing in the place of God. Rather, this parable is revealed in the concluding sentence, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.”[2] This is a parable concerning the actions of the sons of this world and how it is an example to the sons of light.

When the steward calls the debtors together, he still technically has the authority to write and rewrite the contracts of debt. Until the account books are in the hands of the master, the steward retains the authority to change them. He is acting according to the letter of the law as opposed to the spirit. This man, who has lived wastefully on another man’s wealth, is too proud to beg and is too weak to dig ditches. He is not a paragon of virtue. He is, however, shrewd.

This word, “shrewd,” has negative connotations. It sounds evil, or at least mean. Perhaps it even rings in your ears as someone who is miserly and lashes out at those around him. The original word carries no such meaning. It simply refers to practical wisdom, knowing what actions to take in a particular situation. This is different from the “wisdom” we usually think of. Wisdom is generally reserved for theoretical wisdom, that is, having the knowledge of the best course of action. To be shrewd is to have practical wisdom of the situation and knowing the best steps to take.

For example, it might be wise for a carpenter to soften the corners of a table to give it a finished, beautiful appearance. It is shrewd of the carpenter to soften the corners and the edges to reduce splintering. The wise Christian knows the value to his body and soul of attending the Divine Service every Sunday and every other day it is offered. The shrewd Christian bathes the children the night before so that Sunday morning is efficient and attends the earliest service so that the children are still slightly subdued by the early rising.

At the end of the parable, the master does not commend the steward’s lies or prodigal living. He commends his shrewd actions. The steward knows his future is bleak unless he takes action. He decides to use the remaining few minutes of his authority to craft deals with those owing debts to the master. This is not an act of revenge. It is an act of practical wisdom. By cutting the debts, the debtors will look upon both the steward and the master with great favor.

Make no mistake, the actions of the steward will cost the master financially, but those same actions will benefit the master in reputation. From the perspective of the steward, he has benefited both himself and the master in the eyes of the debtors. The master understands this and commends such shrewd actions. The steward will still lose his job but has virtually guaranteed himself a place to stay and new job prospects once he is fired. He has also strengthened the loyalty of the debtors toward the master, probably making him more money in the long run.

Do not imitate the actions of the steward in obeying the letter of the law to benefit yourselves in this world. That is not the message of this parable. The teaching of the parable to is to align your actions with your priorities for the future. The actions of the steward guarantee him a comfortable future in this world. He is a son of this world and acts shrewdly to improve his life in this generation.

You are sons of the light. What future are you prepared for? Do your actions speak of shrewd preparation for that future? Do not be anxious about what you will eat or wear or where you will lay your head.[3] These are short-term concerns, and your Heavenly Father has promised to take care of them for you. Compared to the parable, worrying about tomorrow is like the steward worrying about which path he will use to walk home after the master fires him. It is something you need to make decisions about but not something worth your anxiety.

The goal of the steward is that when his lifelong career fails, he is received into the homes of others that will care for him the rest of his days. The goal of the Christian is that when you fail, that is, when your body gives up its final breath, you will be received into the everlasting heavenly mansion prepared for you by Christ.[4] You will be received into the bosom of Abraham, gathered into the general assembly and church of the firstborn, to God the Judge of all, and to Christ the Mediator of the new covenant, whose blood of the sprinkling speaks better things than that of Abel.[5]

The steward took action toward his goal. He used practical wisdom, he was shrewd, in deciding what steps he can take to ensure a desirable outcome. How shrewd are you? It is true, there are no steps, no actions, no amount of wisdom that will give you heaven. Salvation has come unto you. You have been called by Christ and delivered from sin, death, and the devil. This was done while you were yet in your sin. Even now, as a baptized child of God, it is not up to you to keep yourself in the faith. It is not by your own reason or strength that you continue to be a Christian. This, too, is a gift of God.

Yet there are plenty of actions, steps, foolish thoughts, and sins that can drive you away from salvation. Being lazy and not attending to the miraculous gift of faith you have been given is the sin of sloth. Sloth is enough to turn you away from God. Idolatry, wrath, envy, greed, pride, and lust all easily turn you away from God.

So, I ask again, how shrewd are you? For what are you preparing yourself? Make no mistake, every action today is preparing you for something tomorrow. Honestly reflect on how you spend your time and evaluate what it is that you are preparing yourself for. Are you preparing to have a conversation about a foreign war with no direct impact on daily life? Are you preparing yourself for retirement? What about when the war is over, or you find that you are retired? What if you die before you retire? For what have you prepared yourself for?

There is some debate among Christians whether video games are themselves sinful. Some say yes, and some say no. What cannot be denied is that time spent in a video game has produced nothing. Oh, it might produce the topic of a few conversations, perhaps a basis for a friendship. But what happens to that friendship when that video game is obsolete? What has happened to the foundation? Minecraft has been described as virtual Legos. I’ve seen the ability of Minecraft to help children with autism relate to the world around them. But then again, at the end of the day, if it is virtual Legos, what has the child built? Even the child with autism—he has become better able to communicate with other people on computers, but has it helped him communicate with his mother? Or his peers?

 Such leisure activities as movies, television, and even video games might have their place, but we must remember that not only do they produce nothing, they do not prepare you for anything. They are virtual—that means they are not real. If such idle activities have a place, it cannot be for a considerable length of time.

So, I ask again, how shrewd are you? What are you preparing yourself for? You do not know what will happen tomorrow, let alone next week, or in 5 years. You can plan so that you give your family the best opportunity to have a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs, but you should not be anxious over these things. They are auxiliary. What you know for certain is that death will come. So long as Christ waits to return, death will come. That is the certainty of the future. What are you doing to prepare for death?

You can select a funeral package at Bross and Spidle and you can begin making payments, but these too are auxiliary. What about eternity? With the time that you have been given, are you preparing yourself to walk further away from Christ, staring at your smartphone, your favorite 24-hour news station, and chatting on social media? It is very easy to use the settings on your phone to see just how much time you spend looking at it and even which apps are demanding your attention. Or are you making for yourself friends by unrighteous mammon?[6]

“Unrighteous” in this case does not mean “evil” but rather “that which cannot save you.” Are you using your time, talent, and treasure to build up the Church—both the building and those called by God to gather around His Word and Sacraments? Every possession in this world is mammon, it is unrighteous because it cannot save you. But all mammon can certainly damn you. It is dangerous. All earthly possessions are dangerous because they so easily become idols. Thanks be to God He has given to His children the Holy Ghost, by which we are made wise. We are wise as serpents and innocent as doves.[7]

The unbelieving world hates God; hates Christ; and hates Christians. Persecution is on our doorstep. Are you shrewd enough to handle it? Or will you fold when you get sick, when your neighbor gets sick, or the government tells you to stay away from Church? Are you preparing for a long, comfortable life on this side of glory or an eternal life with Christ? Are you willing to endure the short fires of suffering in this life to avoid the eternal fire of hell or is such delayed reward too much for you to endure?

This is the lesson of the Shrewd Steward. You have been given such wonderful gifts of God. You have been given the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. You are an eternal being, created by God to endure forever. Prepare yourself for eternal life with Christ by using the temporal gifts you have been given in the ways that God has commanded. Serve God and your neighbor by forgiving each other, covering the sins of your brother, walking alongside the erring and the weak, and by devoting your time, efforts, and treasure to the work of the Church.

This is what it is to be a shrewd Christian. Learn from the actions of the Shrewd unbelievers but do not work toward their goals. Use their dogged determination toward the goal which you have already been promised, lest you should lose that eternal reward. ‘What is the world to you, with all its vaunted pleasure; when Christ and Christ alone is your treasure! The world seeks praise and wealth—all that mammon offers—yet it is never content, though gold fill all its coffers. Jesus is your treasure, your life, your health, your wealth, your friend, your love your pleasure, your joy, your crown, your all, your bliss eternally. Once more, then, declare, what is the world to you?’[8] You have Jesus.  

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.


[1] Genesis 50:20.

[2] St. Luke 16:8.

[3] St. Matthew 6:25-34.

[4] St. John 14:1-3.

[5] St. Luke 16:22; Hebrews 12:22-24.

[6] St. Luke 16:9.

[7] St. Matthew 10:16.

[8] A summary of “What is the World to Me,” Lutheran Service Book #730. Text is public domain.

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