Reminiscere (Lent 2)

Reminiscere (Lent 2) – February 25, 2024

Psalm 25; Genesis 32:22-32; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

St. Matthew 15:21-28

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

“O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, For His mercy endures forever!” The goodness of God cannot be known outside of His mercy. When the pastor speaks the first part of this verse at the end of the service, it is almost as though the congregation must quickly respond to explain what that goodness is, lest anyone should think God’s goodness exists apart from mercy.

Both Jacob and the Canaanite woman are quick to respond, “for His mercy endures forever!” The Canaanite woman is not an Israelite by blood. She is outside of the people of Israel. Her people were pagan. They worshiped demons. Her people sacrifice children on fiery altars to appease their gods. Yet she identifies Jesus as the Son of David, like Blind Bartimaeus from two Sunday’s ago. Both are beggars who recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Promised Son of David come to save all people from sin, death, and the devil.

At first, she cries out with formal, liturgical language. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely demon-possessed.” Our Lord does not respond. His lack of response is a harsh, “no” to her prayer. The disciples want him to cast the woman out because she is annoying. He also does not answer their prayer.

He turns again to the woman and says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This is where things get interesting. The rebuke in this response is that the woman is not an Israelite, she is a Canaanite. She is not of the people chosen to bear the promise of the Savior. It is also, likely, an indictment of her sinful life. Growing up and living outside of Israel, she has not participated in the worship of the true God nor kept his commandments in her heart.

However, what does it mean to be a lost sheep of Israel? In our Old Testament lesson, Jacob wrestles with God and God gives him a new name: Israel. For striving against God and man, and prevailing, he is given the name by which Christ would identify His people. Who then is the true Israel? It is those who have faith in Christ. It is those whose citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, not of this world. It is those whose ancestral blood is the Blood of the Lamb, not the human blood of Abraham. The Church is the sheep of Israel. You are the true Israel.

Our Lord is telling the woman that He has come for her. She is one of His sheep, but He is testing her faith. He alone knows just how far He can test her faith because by testing, her faith will be strengthened. At this point, the woman drops the formal, liturgical language. Her response is simply, “Lord, help me.” She is deflated. No longer is she searching for the proper thing to say, she simply speaks from the heart. That does not make her second prayer better or more appropriate. Spontaneous prayer from the heart is no more effective to God than prepared, repeated, liturgical formulations. But it does reveal the woman’s desperate state.

Again, the Lord pushes her. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” While Jesus does use a diminutive form of dog, that is “little dogs” or “puppies,” dogs are never a good thing in Scripture. They were not a good thing in the ancient world. They were either dirty scavenging beasts or used for work as guards. They ate scraps, were dirty, and smelled. They were either outcast or used without pay. It could be that Jesus is accusing the woman of allowing herself to be used by others. It could also be that he is simply calling her an unclean beast.

The woman catches on to the details of God’s word. The little dogs in our Lord’s response are inside the house. They are at least near the table. So she holds Jesus accountable to his word, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” She doesn’t want the children’s bread. She wants the master’s bread. She wants the Bread which only the Lord can give. She wants the Bread of Life, salvation. And she wants it for her daughter.

Jesus has pushed her enough and now commends her great faith. Finally, the prayer is answered, and her daughter is immediately healed. “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.”

God tested both the Canaanite woman and Jacob. Both came into these situations with faith. They knew to look toward God, to pray that he would deliver them, yet after their prayers, God tested them. This is the life of the Christian. You will suffer. You will suffer physically and spiritually.

Sometimes, this suffering is allowed by God and sometimes it is caused by God. The suffering allowed by God is caused by Satan. Satan hopes you will be crushed by this suffering and despair of God. This suffering is often the result of sin though it is not a one-to-one punishment. It is the suffering whose root is evil.

The suffering caused by God is a testing and strengthening of your faith. It is suffering which seems to have no cause. From our perspective, we cannot tell the difference. Both appear the same as we experience the suffering. However, in either case, the suffering is for the purpose of strengthening your faith.

The purpose of lifting weights is to cause tiny tears in your muscles. These tears are repaired, and the muscle grows. This is the picture of God testing your faith. You will suffer so that your faith will be strengthened. One theologian called such agonizing spiritual testing “a dark night of the soul.” You experience a “dark night of the soul” when you wrestle with God through the night. “Why, O Lord, have you done this to me? Why aren’t you listening?”

The fact is, God is listening. He hears the cries of His people. Even when He is testing you, He is providing you with everything you need. Therefore, Christ depicts the dogs being present at the table. He is providing the woman with the words to catch Christ in His own promise. God desires to be held accountable and He gives us His words and promises to do just that.

When Job suffered the loss of everything, children, herds, flocks, health, and his wife, he forgot the promises of God. He eventually blamed God and justified himself saying he did not deserve such punishment. Jacob and the Canaanite woman recognize they deserve everything that has happened to them. They also recognized that God has promised to bless them. In humility, they cry out for God to have mercy. Then God pushes them, testing them further. He wrestles with Jacob and derides the woman. Yet both remain firm in the faith that God loves them and will provide for them.

In your dark night of the soul, turn to the word of God. When temptation to sin falls upon you, remember the mercy of the Lord endures forever and He has had mercy upon you. Why would you drag His mercy through the mud of the sin you are tempted to commit? Rather, cry out for faith strong enough to defeat such temptation. Then receive the forgiveness promised to you by your Heavenly Father.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

Invocabit (Lent 1)

Invocabit – February 18, 2024

Psalm 91; Genesis 3:1-21; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10

St. Matthew 4:1-11

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

The first and most important lesson to take from the Temptation of Christ is that He suffered the temptations of Satan and overcame them on your behalf. The war between Jesus and the devil begins right after Jesus’ birth, as the servant of Satan, Herod, sought to murder the infant Jesus. But on that occasion, the devil worked through his agent to assault the Son of God. It is not until Jesus is Baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and marked by the Word of the Father as being a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice for the sins of man that the devil took a personal stake in assaulting Jesus.

Baptized by John, Jesus is immediately hurled into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. It was the will of God that Jesus be tempted in the wilderness. He willingly submitted to this temptation. If He had not, then the devil could not tempt Him. The devil is powerful, but he is not omnipotent. He is not the “equal-but-opposite” of God. The devil is, after all, an angel, a created being, a spiritual being.

Why might Christ will to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness? To win the victory on your behalf. When Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden, they fell, choosing to listen to the word of the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit. When the Israelites were tempted in the wilderness, they fell, complaining against Moses, Aaron, and God, and saying they preferred slavery in Egypt over freedom with God. When given the land of Canaan, the Israelites were tempted to worship the false gods of the Canaanites, and they fell, worshiping Baal and Asherah.

By contrast, our Lord was cast into the wilderness to be tempted and win the victory. But He did not win the victory for Himself. “He battled as the Surety, the Mediator, the Substitute of the whole human race, for all men, for us who are gathered here. Through sin all men sold themselves to Satan; all became his servants and subjects of his kingdom. To redeem and save men Christ came as the real Owner of all the souls of men in order to conquer Satan, destroy his kingdom, take his booty away again, free us from his power, and lead all men through the kingdom of grace into the kingdom of eternal glory.”[1]

So it is that we can see Christ taking the place of all mankind in the struggle against sin, death, and the devil. He is winning the victory that you cannot win. He humbly and willfully submits to being tempted by Satan to fulfill the Law of God. Your salvation was not won by breaking any rules. God did not simply assert His authority over all creation and rewrite the laws of reality. Instead, He entered into reality, into creation, that He would win the prize of your salvation according to the Laws which He already wove into the world. When He told Adam and Eve that in eating the fruit, “dying you shall die,” He meant it. The consequence of sin is death. In order to fulfill this Law, someone must die.

Thus, being anointed as the acceptable sacrifice for sin, Jesus submits to being tempted that He might fulfill the whole Law. Where man has failed, Christ has stood steadfast and won the victory. By His overcoming temptation, we see that He is truly the unblemished Lamb, acceptable as the perfect sacrifice for all ages. This is by far and away the most important truth of the temptation of Christ.

Knowing that Christ was tempted on your behalf and won the victory over temptation on your behalf, you are now free to see His actions as an example for your own. Such an example should never overtake the fact that Jesus defeated Satan for you, but it is the necessary consequence. Seeing David strike down Goliath, the Israelites were spurred on to victory, chasing down the Philistines and killing every last soldier and plundering their tents.[2] The actions of the army would be impossible, let alone insignificant, if not for the actions of the lowly shepherd boy from Bethlehem. So much more is this true of the actions of Christ and the resulting actions of all Christians. We have seen our Almighty General conquer in the fight. This should then rouse our souls to imitate His glorious victory as we chase down and smite the remnants of the devil’s pitiful army.

The example of Christ for us to follow in fighting against the temptations of Satan are three-fold. First, we see that Christ has been in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights without food or water. He has been fasting. At first, this seems like a weakness. At first, it seems as though Christ would be at His weakest and that is the reason that Satan has chosen to tempt Him at this time. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”[3] This fast of Christ is an example of the spiritual discipline of fasting which strengthens you against the temptations of the flesh.

The primary purpose of fasting is to remind you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.[4] The result is the training of your flesh, bringing it under the control of your faith. Fasting, if you are not used to it, is difficult. Remember, fasting is not just “giving something up for Lent.” To fast is not to eat. Christians have always practiced fasting, but the guidelines have been different at different times and in different places. Sadly, these guidelines have sometimes become the basis of controversy in the church as though God had commanded a specific method of this discipline.

The basic guideline to fasting is to not eat for a period of time. If this is something new for you, you might begin on Sunday mornings. Do not eat until after you have received the Sacrament. By the time we get to the Lord’s Supper in the Divine Service, you will notice how hungry you are and the first sustenance you receive will be the Body and Blood of Christ. If you would like to go a step further, choose a day of the week—historically Wednesday or Friday—on which you will not eat from sunup to sundown. When you do eat, it should be a lighter meal for the practical reason that gorging yourself on an empty stomach is not good for your gut but for the spiritual reason that fasting is not an excuse for gluttony. And if you would like to go even a step further, then fast on your chosen day from the time you wake up until you go back to sleep.

The second tactic to learn from Christ is how to counter the temptations of Satan. The devil tempts Jesus with corrupted versions of creation and the Word of God. He tells half truths and offers that which he has no right to give. Such temptations are incredibly enticing for man. Yet we see Jesus not only parry, or deflect, such attacks of Satan, but He delivers a riposte, or counterattack. How? He rightly uses the Word of God. He rightly takes that given to Him by the Father and uses it against such false teachings.

For you to use such a tactic first means you must know the Word of God. You must be familiar with the teachings of Scripture. It is one thing to quote Scripture. Even the devil can do that. It is another entirely to use it appropriately. This requires that you read the bible every day. You must be steeped in the Word of God. The pace at which you read the bible is dependent upon you. Maybe you are only capable of reading a few paragraphs a day. Maybe a chapter. Maybe multiple chapters. I can tell you that you are capable of reading more than you think. Challenge yourself to read more than you think you can. There are myriad bible reading plans out there. If you need one, let me know and I’ll get you one.

Being familiar with the Word of God, being steeped in it, is only the beginning. It is necessary that you commit the Word of God to memory. No matter your age or your relative ability to memorize, it is possible. Start with the verses you already know. Almost everyone in this room knows John 3:16. Excellent. Then, think of every time we sing or speak verses of Scripture in the liturgy. You probably already have those memorized. Most everyone here today could participate in the Divine Service without looking at your hymnal for the ordinaries, that is, the parts of the liturgy that don’t change.

From there, think of the verses that are used in the catechism and those verses choses for the Congregation at Prayer which correspond to the catechism. If you worked to memorize only those passages I’ve already mentioned, you would arm yourself with close to 100 verses of Holy Scripture. The next step would be practicing using those passages. When you are tempted to sin, speak aloud a corresponding Word of God. Tempted to gluttony, then say, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”[5] Tempted by anger, then say, “Do not avenge [yourself], but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”[6]

The final tactic to be learned from our Lord is reliance on God and his ministers, specifically the Holy Angels. Amid temptation, it is vital that you remember relief is at hand. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for [the Lord is] with me.”[7] Though they are unseen, God has appointed the Holy Angels to be ministers to His beloved, a mighty army encamped around the children of God.[8] No amount of suffering or temptation will last forever for those who trust in the Lord. “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, those these all be gone, the victory has been won, the kingdom ours remaineth.”[9]

The comfort and ministration of the Holy Angels may not always be as apparent as those who ministered to Christ after His temptation, but your temptations are also not as apparent as the Devil whisking you away to top of the temple nor showing you all the kingdoms of the earth. Just as your temptations are real so too is the ministry of the Holy Angels real. Whether in the guise of mortals or simply working unseen, the Holy Angels will and do minister to all of you. In fact, they always guide and protect you. Be strengthened in the knowledge that all the heavenly host is on your side and fighting with you against Satan, all his works and all his ways.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] C. F. W. Walther, Gospel Sermons, Volume 1, translated by Donald E. Heck (St. Louis, MO: CPH, 2013), 160.

[2] 1 Samuel 17:51-53.

[3] 1 Corinthians 1:27.

[4] St. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3.

[5] St. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3.

[6] Romans 12:19.

[7] Psalm 23:4.

[8] Psalm 34:7.

[9] A Mighty Fortress, Stanza 4.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday (Quadragesima) – February 14, 2024

Psalm 57; Joel 2:12-19; 2 Peter 1:2-11

St. Matthew 6:16-21

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

It might seem like our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount is driving toward a simple lesson – a good work done with sincerity is better than a good work done for selfish gain. If that was the case, then Jesus wouldn’t be telling you anything different than any other religion in the world. The Buddha, Mohammed, and Oprah all have access to this teaching. They will all teach you that to give to the poor with a sincere heart is better for the poor man and for you than giving for tax breaks or even for recognition from others. At some point, we’ve all been told that we should do nice things for other people because it makes you feel good.

 They aren’t wrong on this point. Jesus even confirms this teaching is true when He says, “Assuredly, I say to you, they [the hypocrites] have their reward.”[1] He is saying that those who do good works—with or without faith—receive a reward. That reward might be prestige among men. Maybe they will be given an award by the local Chamber of Commerce for going above and beyond their civic duty. Maybe they will be given a large tax refund for their generosity. Maybe they will be given a good reputation by the community in recognition of their good actions. Any kind of objectively good work will receive a reward.

But these rewards are temporal. They are fleeting. They are insignificant when compared to the scale of eternity. If the goal of good works is not rewards and if our Lord is not focused on the sincerity of our works, then what is the role of Good Works in the life of the Christian? What is the main idea of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount?

In the first place, it is that good works cannot save you. Your works of the Law do not contribute to your salvation. For most of you, this is not a shocking statement. By your working of the Law, you do not gain salvation. By your agreeing to the Law, you do not gain salvation.

There is a crass rejection of the Law of God by which man would create good works of his own choosing. In Martin Luther’s hymn summarizing Psalm 12, he places these words in the mouths of false teachers, “Now, where is he [God], that shall our speech forbid us? By right or might we shall prevail; What we determine cannot fail; We own no lord and master.”[2] Those who would rebel against the very Law written on their hearts deny the right of any authority higher than themselves. “Who would dare to curb our speech? Who would dare tell us we cannot say whatever we want? We will destroy our enemies by asserting our rights and if that doesn’t work, we will use force. No one, not God or man, will be lord or master over us.”

Those who hold to this autonomy seek to create a law of their own choosing. They believe that by living according to their own standards—standards which are inconsistent and move about according to every wind of emotion, hormonal imbalance, and change in the culture—they will be saved. What they will be saved from or who determines what that salvation entails is always vague. It is vague because they are striving against anything objective, anything outside of themselves. It is like someone trying to create their own universe without basing it on God and His creation. The result will either be unintelligible or a vain imitation of that thing they sought to avoid.

It should be obvious that salvation is not gained through such self-made works that seek to avoid God at all costs. There is another type of good work, that which aligns with Natural Law. Natural Law is the order of creation, the “plan” which God has woven into the very fabric of reality. This is the Law written on man’s heart. By nature alone—that is, by Creation alone—human beings can deduce what it means to live virtuously. We can determine what aligns with the order of the world and what does not.

Externally, the works of the repentant Christian and the rank unbeliever might look the same. Both might give alms to the poor, fast from meat, or strive for virtuous living. These look the same because of Creation. Whether Christian or not, man is created by God. Man has been created by God according to His order. Within this order, there are objective truths that must be followed in the world. One does not need to be a Christian to recognize that a man is a man no matter what clothes he wears or the number of surgeries he uses to mangle his body.

There is value in works according to Natural Law. These at least recognize the created order such that there is such thing as objective truth and reality. Conversation can be had regarding virtue and whether one course of action is better than another. Recognition of Natural Law means it can be determined that murdering babies in the womb is wicked while raising children to care for others is virtuous.

But even works according to Natural Law will not save you. Being a “good person” by outward standards is still lacking in the sight of God. A parent should raise children to be virtuous, but the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Teaching a child to share or respect his elders is good but it will not save his soul. If that is the bottom line of parenting, then you are raising whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but dead on the inside.

Which raises a third type of good works by which you cannot be saved. Even good works done according to the Word of God will not save you. Remember, the Pharisees were the “good guys” of the first century. They were the example of godly living. They were the example of civic duty and good works toward man. They were the example of biblical scholarship, knowledge, and wisdom. And yet, they too, were whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but dead on the inside.

Even today, you can find those who speak of our works providing consolation to Christ, as though He is pained by our sins and needs us to feed a homeless man for Him to feel better. There is a strain of Christian false teaching that would have you believe that Jesus is held captive to your works—good works mean relief for Him while sins mean Him greater harm. While it is true that Christ rejoices over our faithfulness and mourns our sins, His suffering and death are done and over. We do not provide comfort and consolation to Jesus. He is our comfort. He is our consolation.

The hypocrites who feature in this section of the Sermon on the Mount are striving to keep the Law of God. They are giving to the poor, praying, and fasting. While Jesus highlights that they are doing these things to be seen by men, He does not leave out the possibility that they are also doing them to please God. It is entirely possible that they are sincerely trying to please God by following His Law while simultaneously hoping to be noticed by their fellow man. Even these works of the Law will not save them. They have their rewards on this side of glory.

Searching the Scriptures, even the New Testament, to find the admonitions to godly living and then living in this way, hoping that by them you will be saved, is a futile endeavor. Praying in secret, for your Father hears in secret, will not save you. Laying up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, will not save you.

Then what’s the point? Is Jesus crossing His fingers behind His back when He tells you to give alms, pray, fast, and lay up treasures in heaven? Is it all an act? Is it an elaborate illustration to say that everything you do is futile, or that it doesn’t matter what you do because it will be stained with sin and will gain you no reward?

Of course not. The admonitions of Christ are just as sincere as His promises of rewards in heaven. Even the promise of temporal rewards is sincere. Doing a good work for your neighbor does make you feel good, even if that feeling is fleeting and not the goal of your work. Recognition from the community is a reward, even if it is fleeting and not the goal of your work.

The goal of your work is to grow in Christ. The goal of your work is to shine forth the light which has been placed in you by Christ. These works flow from faith. You are a new creature, recreated in Christ through Holy Baptism. This change is true and sincere even if it is not something you feel or understand. It is sincere because God has said it is. It is an objective fact that you cannot deny or prove. And rather than try to prove it, you should rejoice in it! You are baptized into Christ, and this means you are free from the tyranny of the Law.

Having been freed from the tyranny of the Law, you are now free to revel in it. You are free to observe it because it too is spoken by God. Your good works are now fully in accord with Natural Law because they recognize that God is the head of creation. Man is man and woman is woman not just because they are made that way, but because it is God who has made them this way. These are not works of your own choosing, as though you need to design something to please God. They are according to your station in life. They are according to the gifts God has given you. They are the necessary consequence of your new life in Christ.

This freedom reveals another purpose, another use of God’s Law. It is now a tool for you to use to train and restrain your flesh. You are a new creature but the Old Adam clings to your flesh. You know what it is to live without God and the consequences of such life. That knowledge is terrifying because by it, you know how easy it is to fall into temptation. You know how quickly you can go from faithful to faithless.

Thanks be to God that He has not left you to your own devices. It is not up to you to figure out how to live or how to “console” Christ. He has given you the tools for restraining your flesh; for training in righteousness; for focusing your eyes on Him and Him alone.

First and foremost is repentance. The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart. He desires that you would examine your conscience and root out the desires for sin. Such contrition does not make you holy in itself, but it is the upkeep for those desiring to follow Christ. Examining your conscience and repenting of your sins is not a pleasant activity but neither is exercise. To build muscle, you must tear muscle. By doing this, you are growing stronger and more resilient. So too, by examining your conscience, you are learning to grow in righteousness.

Other physical and spiritual disciplines then become tools to support your repentance and faith. Christ especially mentions almsgiving, prayer, and fasting as particularly helpful disciplines. Almsgiving is our weapon against the world and temptations to worldliness. Fasting is our weapon against the flesh and the desires of the flesh. Prayer is our weapon against the devil and all his works and all his ways.

Good works according to your station in life also serve as tools against sin. Fulfilling your responsibility to feed, clothe, nurture, and teach your children leaves little time for sins of idleness. Serving your brothers and sisters in Christ through diligent volunteering in the congregation will prevent sinful gossip and speculation as you become directly involved in the life of the Church.

As we enter the Lenten season, do not fall for the lies that your works do not matter before God. Nor the lie that you are helplessly captive to your sinful nature or that asking “Being justified, how now should I live” is only a question of the Old Adam. You are a baptized child of God and that means something. It means that you have been set free from the tyranny of the Law and invited by the Holy Ghost to participate in the righteousness of God. I say participate in that it is a solemn and joyful duty of every Christian to live according to the Word of God. You have marching orders that no one else in creation has because you are of the household of faith.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. Matthew 6:2.

[2] O Lord, Look Down from Heaven, Behold, TLH 260, stanza 3.