Populus Zion (Advent 2)

Populus Zion – December 7, 2025

Psalm 80; Malachi 4:1-6; Romans 15:4-13

St. Luke 21:25-36

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

The word “advent” means “coming.” Now the world treats this time as the “Christmas season,” by shopping for Christmas presents, holding Christmas parties, decorating houses, and making travel plans for the Christmas break from school and work. There is nothing wrong with participating in these things. We do live in the world even if we are not of the world. Yet the temptation is to become wrapped up in these activities of the world and to forget the purpose of the season of Advent.

Like the world, Christians use the time of Advent for preparation, but the way in which Christians prepare and the occasion Christians are preparing for are quite distinct from that of the world. During Advent, we reflect, contemplate, and prepare for the three ways in which Christ comes. First, He came in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary. The eternal Son of God descended into the flesh of man, sharing in our humanity that we might receive His eternity. Second, He comes to us today, through the reading, preaching, and meditating on His Word. He also comes to us bodily in His Holy Sacrament. He comes in the mutual consolation of our Christian brothers and sisters, as they share with us His Holy Word. Finally, we look forward to His final coming, when Christ will reveal Himself to the nations, make His final judgment, and receive all who believe and are baptized into His loving arms for all eternity.

It is this final coming of Christ that Christ speaks of this morning in the Gospel and for which He bids us to prepare. While the world is preparing to celebrate family time at Christmas by buying presents, preparing meals, and making travel plans, the Church prepares to receive her King in the same way she has always prepared herself for God: by repentance.

When I speak of repentance, I don’t just mean reciting the words of the general confession once a week, “I, a poor miserable sinner…” though that is a good start. I mean taking a serious reflection of your heart, actions, mind, and soul. Consider your station in life according to the Ten Commandments, whether you are a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker; whether you have been disobedient, unfaithful, slothful; whether you have grieved any person by word or deed; whether you have stolen, neglected, or wasted anything, or done other injury.[1] Have you placed your fear, love, and trust in God above all things or have you feared the opinions of people or the economy more than trusting that God loves you and will provide?

Our age is filled both with security in material goods and anxiety over every aspect of life. On the one hand, we look to our stuff to feel secure and happy while constantly worrying about the opinions of others, how we measure up to their expectations. This security and anxiety are both misguided because they entirely remove God from the equation. Our security is in Him, who created and sustains all things in the universe. Our anxiety only runs skin deep, though we feel it deep in our soul. This anxiety forgets that the same God who created and sustains the universe also descended into our flesh for the very purpose of taking our cares, anxieties, and most importantly our sins, upon Himself and crucifying them. He bore your sins into death so that they would remain in the grave forever.

Both the security and anxiety of our age is also misguided because it fails to reach into the root of the problem: our sinful state. The problem is not that we don’t have enough to be secure or that we feel bad about ourselves. The problem is that these are sins against the Almighty God. They are the actions of sinners who have forgotten what the Lord has commanded. Only by a serious contemplation of the Word of God can sin be revealed. “I would not have known sin except through the law…The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”[2]

And yet there is a second part of repentance. Repentance is first contrition, that is, sorrow over our sin which has been brought about by the contemplation of God’s holy, just, and good law. The second part is faith; faith which clings to the promise of God that Christ has died for your sin and rose for your justification. If it were not for faith clinging to God’s promise of forgiveness, it would be unthinkable to consider your sins. It would be so overwhelming because it is obvious to anyone that they are unworthy of God. A moment of reflection over the state of your soul would either cause you to turn immediately away from God and cling to your sin in pride or fall into such despair that you would beg for death.

And yet knowledge of the promise of forgiveness makes considering your sin bearable. It becomes bearable because the Word of God has revealed that His great love caused His incarnation. His great love caused the Father to accept the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son on your behalf. His great love washed you in the waters of Holy Baptism, not only cleansing you from sin but making you a child of the Heavenly Father. And just as a child desires nothing more than to make his father proud, so too such great love of God moves your soul to desire to make God proud. It causes you to desire to be free from sin and conform to God’s holy Law.

This is what makes the Christian’s Advent preparations different from that of the world’s. When the nations see signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, they tremble with fear because they are perplexed. A sense of foreboding dread sweeps over the nations for fear of what is coming upon the world. Yet the Church sees these signs and knows that her King is coming soon. We prepare (through repentance and faith) with great joy, straightening up and lifting our heads to see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. The distress of nations is for us a sign that the end is near and we know what will happen at the end. Christ will come and gather us to Himself.

Thus He bids us to watch ourselves so that we are not weighed down with despair, drunkenness, and the cares of this life. Rather, we stay vigilant and pray that we be kept in this true faith until either we die or Christ returns, whichever should come first.

I stand before you today for the first time, charged with bringing you the whole counsel of God. The Lord has seen fit to call this sinner to serve Him in this place and at this time. I have taken vows to be faithful to the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions, which means that it is my sacred duty to stand in the stead and by the command of my Lord, Jesus Christ, delivering to you His Holy Word and Sacraments. When Christ returns on that final day, I will stand before Him and be held accountable for my ministry to your souls. If I profane the Word of God, if I cause one of you little ones to fall away from the faith because I pervert the things of God, then I will be judged guilty and spend eternity in hell.

It is my sacred duty to pray for you and with you. It is my duty to love you as Christ loves this church. It is my duty to weep over your sins, even as I call you to account for them. Know that it is not my sacred duty to be nice. Certainly to extend Christian love and fellowship, bearing with you in all things, but there is no obligation to be “nice” simply to please men. This is a hard teaching, but it is true. I am obligated to hold you accountable to the Word of God just as you must hold me accountable to it.

Scripture calls all Christians to pray for their leaders, including their pastors. God expects you to pray for me and to pray for my family. It is also expected that you will bear with me in all things, honor the office to which I’ve been called, uphold my reputation - not hearing any accusation from others in idle gossip, and listening intently to the Word of God. You have also promised to aid me as I care for my family and to be diligent to “put the best construction on everything,” recognizing that “love covers a multitude of sins.” I expect you to hold me accountable to the Word of God and if I should sin against you, I expect you to call me to repentance.

Our Lord has promised that though heaven and earth will pass away, His Word will never pass away.[3] The time is already growing late. It has been 2,000 years since our Lord spoke these words. Though it is cold outside and the calendar shows it is winter, in the broad view of time, the trees are coming out in leaf and the end of time draws near. Together, we hope and pray that the Lord will grant a bountiful harvest in this congregation, that He will bless us with new children to baptize, adults to instruct, and families to bring into our fold. Yet it is the Lord who gives growth. It is also at the Lord’s discretion that congregations shrink. We do not measure the success of the Church in man’s terms. We measure the success of the Church in faithfulness to the Scriptures, trusting that God knows better than we do how to manage His own household.

So together, we must stay awake at all times, praying that we may have strength to escape the temptations of the world and to stand before the Son of Man in humility and faith. Together, we must devote ourselves to the things of God, to His Word and Holy Sacraments. Together, we must show ourselves to bear the Light of Christ into the world, that not by our efforts, but by the very Word of God, the world would be brought to Christ. You and I bear the priceless treasure of Jesus Christ. Let us not bear it in vain, but in boldness of faith. Let us prepare for the return of Christ in humble repentance, never forgetting that He came in our flesh to die for our sins and still comes to us today, wrapped in water, bread, wine, and His Holy Word.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] Small Catechism, Confession VI.

[2] Romans 7:7; 12.

[3] St. Luke 21:33.

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary – July 2, 2025

1 Samuel 2; Song of Solomon 2:8b-14

St. Luke 1:39-56

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

When the Blesséd Virgin Mary enters the home of Zacharias, she is greeted by her relative, Elizabeth, with a blessing, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”[1] Some have understood this blessing as strictly referring to the child in Mary’s womb. Mary is blessed because her Son is blessed. And there is certainly truth in that understanding, truth that I will address in a minute. But where I think such an understanding is lacking is that it does not give attention to the dual nature of Elizabeth’s blessing. She is praising God and imparting a blessing on both the mother and the child, something that is worth a bit of our attention.

In what ways is Blesséd Mary blessed? First, she is blessed in the way all mothers are blessed. Children are a heritage from the Lord and a blessing to mothers and fathers, alike. They are the continuation of your lineage and of all the blessings given to you in this life, they are the only one you can take with you into heaven. They are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, not joined into one flesh by God (as with holy marriage), but being generated by your own being. God is certainly the cause of children, but He does not take two formerly distinct persons and join them into one flesh but rather takes what has been joined in holy marriage and brings forth from this united flesh a new person.

Yet this is the least of the blessings to which Elizabeth is referring. She says, “Blessed are you among women,” meaning, “You have received a greater blessing than all other mothers.” Elizabeth recognizes that the child in Mary’s womb is the God-Man, God Incarnate. Of all the women in all creation, from Eve down to the last little girl to be born before the end of the age, Mary holds a unique position. She is the mother of God. It was given to her to bear the Christ. She is the ark of the Old Testament, bearing in her womb the very presence of God, wrapped in flesh. She will give her bone and her flesh to the Christ, who will take away her sin and the sins of the world. This is a higher blessing and honor than that given to every other mother in the world.

Such a statement shouldn’t bother you, though it might. The Marian errors of the Roman Catholic Church shouldn’t prevent you from the truth of the Scriptures, “Blessed is Mary among women.” Just as not all men are called to be kings yet David was king after God’s own heart; just as not all men are called to be translated body and soul into heaven prior to the resurrection yet Enoch walked with God; just as not all men are called to build a Temple for the earthly dwelling of God yet Solomon did just that; so too, not all women are called to bear the Christ yet the Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of God.

And that was not on account of her greatness. It was not on account of her particular holiness or sinlessness. It was not even on account of her heroic faith, as though it were a virtue she had worked hard to strengthen over the early years of her life. It is a mystery as to why this specific maiden was chosen to be the mother of God. What we do know is that it relates to the fact that she was of the lineage of David and that she was of no great status. She was a lowly handmaiden, signifying in her sinful flesh the exact “type” of people for whom the Christ came. You should never reduce our forefathers and foremothers in the faith to paper cut-outs of the “everyman,” because they are real people. This is important because if they are real people, then Christ came to save real people. And if Christ came to save, to visit, to dwell with real people, then He came to save, visit, and dwell with you.

 With that clearly understood, then we can also understand how Mary is blessed because the Child in her womb is blessed. He is the source of every grace and blessing. This blesséd child is the source of Mary’s own blessing. How is the fruit of Mary’s womb blessed? “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”[2] God is the most common recipient of blessing in all of the Scriptures. A very wooden translation of this word, “bless,” would be “good words are spoken of” the one being blessed, but that translation only goes so far. These “good words” are praises of eternal good, not merely temporal benefits. To be blessed speaks of being rightly ordered according to God’s holy will and to be one who dwells in the light of Truth. To bless God is to praise His very divinity and to be blessed by God is to be drawn into the same.

Now, blessing Mary and her Son was not the only thing Elizabeth said. She followed her blessing with these words, “But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”[3] This question is as important as the blessing. It is a statement of Elizabeth’s humility and is in keeping with the song of Mary, the Magnificat. Both women are keenly aware that they are not worthy to be in the presence of the Almighty God, wrapped in the flesh of Mary’s womb. This humility is not self-abasement nor a virtue signal as though they are just saying the right words that were expected by God. Elizabeth and Mary know the sinfulness of their own hearts. They know that the Creator of Heaven and Earth deserves to sit not in the womb of a lowly virgin or visit a dusty hut in the hill country of Judah, but to sit enthroned in the great majesty of the Temple in Jerusalem, surrounded by kings and priests.

It takes a great act of humility to confess your sins and your sinfulness. It takes an honest reflection on your own soul to admit that you have not kept the Word of God purely; that you have treated your neighbor with disdain; that you have hated the very gifts which God has given you. Such humility is necessary in all who would be called by the name of Christ, that is, all Christians. It is necessary because Christ came to save sinners. He who is without sin is without the need for a Savior. There will never be a time on this side of glory when you have no need of humble repentance.

This is why the Son of God descended into the flesh of a lowly maiden. It is why this humble maiden visited her elderly relative in a backwoods, hill country village. The mighty are put down from their thrones but the lowly are exalted. The personal suffering of the Christian is given by God to tear down any thought that she can rely on herself in this temporal life, let alone in eternal life. The original sin in the garden was an act of self-sufficiency, explaining why self-reliance is such an enduring, perpetual temptation. Wallowing in self-pity and blaming God for your circumstances is another way of saying, “God, I’ve done my part, why aren’t you blessing me more?” Notice how that is the opposite of what Elizabeth says, “Why is this great blessing granted to me?”

What you can do, is attend to the vocations you’ve been given. Now that might require a change of thought or a change of habit, or a dedicated effort to do those things you’ve neglected. But at the end of the day, faithfully attending to your vocation may not change the circumstances of your suffering. If it did, there would certainly be a temptation to think that it was your work to improve yourself that relieved your suffering. That is not a condemnation of self-improvement, it is a warning against any thought that your work makes the world better. All glory is given to God. “Why has this been given to me? I am but a lowly mother, father, sister, brother, wife, husband, worker, employer, etc.”

What a great joy and blessing it is to be here with all of you tonight. You are in the house of the Lord, hearing His Word and receiving His visitation. Why is this granted to me, a sinner, that the Lord should come to me in this place, giving me His eternal inheritance when I am nothing but a lowly servant? The Lord has kept His promise to Abraham and to our fathers, helping His people, Israel (the Church), in remembrance of His mercy. Why has this been granted to me, that the Son of God would visit, dwell, and save a sinner such as me? What a glorious mystery to celebrate with all of you.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] St. Luke 1:42.

[2] Psalm 103:1.

[3] St. Luke 1:43.

Ash Wednesday

Guest Preacher: Rev. Kevin Vogts

Ash Wednesday - February 22, 2023

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.

Our meditation for Ash Wednesday is based upon the Old Testament Reading from Joel: “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning’ . . .  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful.”

Most newspapers have a movie reviewer and a restaurant reviewer.  The “Cleveland Plain Dealer” is the only newspaper in the country to have a church reviewer.  He visits a different church each week and then writes a review about his worship experience there.

Some years ago, the “Plain Dealer’s” church reviewer visited a congregation of our Synod in a Cleveland suburb.  He gave it a four-star, thumbs-up rating. What struck him most, and struck him deeply, was the opening words in the Confession of Sins: “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins.”

He said it was a bit shocking, because in all the churches that he visits, most of them don’t talk much about sin anymore.  But, he also found it refreshing, to have a whole congregation of nice-looking, well-dressed, middle-class people, proclaiming to one another that they are in fact “poor, miserable sinners.”  He said he liked having that stark confession at the beginning of the service, because it really lets you know WHY you are there: you are a poor, miserable sinner, in need of a Savior.

And that is why WE are here this Ash Wednesday: because we are all poor, miserable sinners, in need of a Savior.  Nice-looking, well-dressed, middle-class, but, nevertheless, poor, miserable sinners, in need of a Savior.  “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning’ . . .  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful.”

Ash Wednesday sets the tone for the rest of Lententide, and in the same way each week the Confession of Sins and Absolution at the beginning of our worship sets the tone for the rest of the Divine Service.  Ash Wednesday tells us what the season of Lent is all about, and the Confession of Sins and Absolution at the beginning of the Divine Service tells us what our worship is all about, WHY we are gathered here.

We are not here to be entertained by a flashy show.  We are not here for a self-help lecture.  We are not here for a massive group therapy session with the preacher playing psychologist.

We gather in this house of God because we have a fatal spiritual sickness, and we are seeking the cure from the Physician of souls.  We gather in this house of God because here we find something we can’t get from the flashy world of entertainment.  Here we find something we can’t get from self-help gurus.  Here we find something we can’t get even from psychology.  St. Paul describes it as, “The PEACE of God which surpasses all understanding.”

The Confession of Sins at the beginning of the Divine Service is a declaration that we are here because we are poor, miserable sinners, seeking that peace of God, which comes only from God’s gift of forgiveness, salvation, eternal life.  “We poor sinners confess unto you that we are by nature sinful and unclean, and that we have sinned against you by thought, word, and deed. Wherefore we flee for refuge to your infinite mercy, seeking and imploring your grace for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning’ . . .  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful.”

God answers our Confession of Sins with the comforting, Good News of the Absolution:  “[I] announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” 

Does the minister really have such power, to actually forgive sins in Jesus’ name?  When Jesus first appeared to his disciples after his resurrection he told them, “‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.’  And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven them.’”

So, it is not just pretend or symbolic when Christ’s ministers proclaim, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins.”  As Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism: “[It] is as valid and certain, in heaven also, as if Christ, our dear Lord, dealt with us himself. . .  we receive Absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.”

“I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you . . .”  That tells us what this season of Lententide, and the Divine Service each week, is all about—WHY we are gathered here.  Not for flashy entertainment, or a self-help lecture, or playing psychology, but to receive “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding,” the Good News of God’s Holy Absolution.

“‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning’ . . .  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful.”

Amen. 

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity – July 17, 2022

Psalm 27; 1 Kings 19:11-21; 1 Peter 3:8-15

St. Luke 5:1-11

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

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the Prophet is taken to the throne room of God. Immediately, the prophet fell on his face and hid his eyes, proclaiming, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”[1]

The prophet knew that a sinful man who stands in the presence of God will be destroyed. Sprinkle pepper in a bowl of water, then let a single drop of soap into the middle. Immediately, the pepper will flee to the edges of the bowl. Such is the might of God’s holiness. At His presence, the filth of sin is not only scattered, but destroyed. The serpent, that ancient dragon, will bite His heel, but the Almighty shall crush the serpent’s head.[2]

This is the position in which St. Peter finds himself. Like Isaiah, St. Peter is in the presence of the Almighty God. He knows that he is a sinner and sin is destroyed in the presence of God. But unlike Isaiah, St. Peter bids Christ to depart from him. Isaiah bowed in reverence and awe before God Almighty. Such worship and adoration were met with the hands of an angel, touching a coal from the altar of the Lord to the Prophet’s lips, cleansing his sins. St. Peter does not bow in reverence but bids his Lord to depart.

Such is the heart of man. The good, the true, and the beautiful are always difficult for us to accept. They require a rejection of our love for this world. It is much easier to accept what is in front of us. St. Peter had just been blessed by God with a miraculous catch of fish, thousands of dollars in revenue, but this blessing also threatened his life. The boat began to sink. Rather than cry out for mercy, St. Peter wanted Jesus to leave. “In You, O Lord, is salvation, but I prefer my career and my life.”

Because of the sin humanity has brought into the world, the many blessings of God are, from our perspective, always tinged with suffering. To love someone requires suffering. To love is to submit your will and your needs to the will and needs of another. You deny yourself on behalf of another. This self-denial is a light form of suffering, but the human soul turns this self-denial into resentment.

Scripture always considers children a blessing from God. “Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them.”[3] Yet how easy is it to begin to resent your children? When do you get some ‘me’ time? Why can’t they just learn the first time? Why don’t they know how to behave?

Perhaps we recognize the blessings given to us but we want to choose the amount. “Blessed is the man who fills his quiver? Well, I guess I’ll shrink my quiver to 2.5.” The Word of God is profitable to forgive your sins, strengthen faith, and guide you in the way you shall go all the days of your life. “But reading the bible is boring and Netflix is only a click away.” Or, “One hour is good enough. Why do we need to have other services and events throughout the week? What are we, all pastors?”

Then we might look at the world around us. Like Peter’s sinking boat, our world is collapsing into the depths of the chaotic sea. A country blessed by God, where the freedom of conscience and the ability to worship without the oversight of pagans is a birthright, is seeing its last days. Our freedoms have become the basis for our collapse. Freedom of religion has led to the freedom from religion. It has bred a ‘live-and-let live’ mentality. It was one step into darkness when sodomy was legalized but such deviance became rooted in our nation when we said, ‘what happens in your bedroom has no effect on me, just don’t make me support it.’

We are on a sinking ship. In this same situation, St. Peter told Christ to depart and let him down with the ship. Our Lord would not let that happen. Jesus hears Peter’s confession of sins and rather than obeying the heart of man, Jesus absolves Peter’s sins and refuses to abandon him. It is as though Jesus says, “the only way for you to leave my presence is for you to throw yourself into the darkness of the deep because I will not leave you. Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” Peter has no need to fear destruction because Christ has forgiven his sin. Jesus has taken the sin of Peter upon his own shoulders and called him to be his apostle.

Christ has promised never to leave you nor to forsake you. Because he loves you, because he died for you, because he paid the price for your sin, you are valuable to him. He will fight for you even if it means fighting against your own will. Our Lord, the Heavenly Fisherman, is present with you always but especially in the Heavenly meal given from this altar. Elijah was sustained forty days and forty nights on the Bread of Heaven.[4] You, who receive the Body and Blood of Christ weekly, will likewise be sustained.

You have no need to be afraid because you are forgiven. If the wrath of God has been poured out on Jesus on your behalf, then you no longer need to fear the wrath of God. If you do not need to fear the wrath of God, then you have nothing to fear. Neither height nor depth, neither death nor life, neither lost loved ones or the suffering of this world needs to cause you fear.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”[5] Why resent the blessings of God? Why allow the blessings of God to become wicked in your eyes? Never forget what the Lord has given you. He has forgiven your sins. He continues to forgive your sins. He has given you everlasting life. What could possibly be better than that? Should the Lord call you to forsake your family, your career, your home, or even your life, you still have the better portion. Jesus is gracious to you and answers your prayer. He will not forsake you because He is the God of your salvation![6]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

[1] Isaiah 6:5.

[2] Genesis 3:15.

[3] Psalm 127:3-5.

[4] 1 Kings 19:8.

[5] Psalm 27:1.

[6] Psalm 27:7, 9, 1.