The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity – October 6, 2024

Psalm 78; Genesis 28:10-17; Ephesians 4:22-24

St. Matthew 9:1-8

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

The friends of the paralytic are rightly concerned about him. They do not take him to see a physician nor to the Pharisees. It is possible that they’ve already tried these other remedies. Scripture is silent as to whether this is their first course of action or a last-ditch effort on behalf of a sick friend.

Our Lord’s response would suggest they have brought their friend to see Jesus as soon as they heard He was near. He is impressed by their faith. These men heard the Messiah had come back to Capernaum and they knew just what their friend needed.

Remember, this is said to be Jesus’ own city, that is, Capernaum, the city He adopted as a base of operations in His adult life. We can infer that this paralytic and those who brought him were known to Jesus and that they knew Jesus prior to the beginning of His miracles in Cana. These are the good ol’ boys from down the street. They didn’t grow up with Jesus, but they did know Him as an adult.

 Notice their behavior when they bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Our text does not record any speech on their behalf. Even the parallel accounts, each giving a few different details, do not give words to the friends. They just lay the paralyzed man before Jesus.

From this, we learn how to pray for our friends, our brothers, and our sisters. Seeing the paralyzed man, Jesus does not ask the diagnosis. He does not ask the opinion of the doctors or how it happened. The friends are not eager to share the details of how this man fell from the roof while patching it or stumbled down a small cliff while carousing. Jesus does not probe for more information regarding the difference between a spinal injury or a neurological disease. The men lay their friend before Jesus, trusting that the Son of Man would heal him in body and soul.

It is this faith that moves Jesus to forgive the man his sins. The paralytic may very well have been disappointed. “My friends went to all this work and there is nothing to show for it. They even impressed this Jesus fella and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

Or not. Perhaps the paralytic is included in the ones who had faith. Perhaps he is one of the “they” whose faith impressed Jesus. In this case, he is content to have his sins forgiven. There is a very real chance that this man’s conscience is in fact more bothered by his sins than by his sickness. He is content not because it made feeling return to his legs but because he trusts that whatever Jesus was going to do, it was the right thing for him. Faith is trust without verification.

Jesus came into this situation to forgive the paralytic, in effect, telling him that forgiveness is the greater portion and the paralysis is a cross he must bear in this world. This is the purpose behind our Lord’s statement, “Be of good cheer; take heart; be courageous!” He is saying, depart in the forgiveness of sins to bear the cross of your paralysis for you will be greatly rewarded in the life to come.”

This is the response that is most common to our prayers for healing. Rarely are we given relief from the physical ailment. But we are told to receive the peace that is beyond all understanding. This peace is not just regarding our conscience. This Peace, Christ Himself, does provide relief to our flesh. It is beyond our comprehension how this Peace settles our body and soul, but we have the promise that it does. So, pray for healing. Pray for the healing of your neighbor and know that your faith has healed you.

To pray for someone, especially as we do in the Divine Service, it is enough to lay them before Jesus. God knows what he needs. I don’t need to tell God. If it is good enough for God for the person to be laid before Him, then it is also good enough for me.

Why then, might your pastor ask for more information about someone you’ve asked to be put on the prayer list? It is to help him diagnose the state of your soul. He wants to know what kind of care you might require. As for your paralytic friend, it is enough to lay him before Jesus. It is enough to place his name among the sick and the sorrowing, those who mourn and the lonely, those in need and distress, the homebound and the infirm.

It is enough in your prayers to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ. It is enough to lay them before Jesus for He knows what they need. Demanding more information does nothing but satisfy your curiosity. If the desire for more information is for the sake of helping, that is, actually attending to their needs, then it is best to obtain that information directly from the one in need. Details are a matter of care, not a matter of knowledge.

On the one hand, Jesus already knows the cause of this man’s paralysis. We even see Him peer into the hearts of the scribes, knowing the evil that is going on behind their closed lips. But it is also instructive to us that He does not ask for the details of the sickness. The most important thing to know about paralysis, or any affliction, is that it is caused by sin. The sinful state of man is the root cause of all sickness, distress, and death. Therefore, the treatment most necessary is the forgiveness of sins. That is what matters more than remedies, medications, and surgeries.

Which brings us to a detail of today’s account that is easily overlooked. These men brought to Jesus a paralytic lying on a bed. They did not sit at home and wait for Jesus to drop by. They did not expect Jesus to hear from Sue, who heard from Louise, who heard from Jim that someone had palsy. A man was paralyzed and they took him to Jesus.

What does this mean for you? If you are sick, if you are injured, if you are grieving, if you are sorrowful, pray to Jesus and call your pastor. Do not expect others to communicate on your behalf. Every child knows the dangers of communicating important information via a game of telephone. Do not wait for the pastor to hear through the grapevine what you need. It doesn’t work. If you were experiencing a heart attack, you wouldn’t lay on the floor and hope the ambulance driver comes by soon, and then blame the ambulance for not arriving soon enough. You would call the ambulance immediately. You wouldn’t call your sister and ask her to tell her friend to get the ER prepped. You would call 911. Why expect the Church to operate any differently?

Jesus is God. He knows all things. For a time, He set aside the use of His divine attributes and yet, in our text, He makes a momentary use of them to know the thoughts of the scribes. Yet even with the all-knowing Son of Man, these men bring the paralytic to Him.

It is true that these men are helping their paralytic friend. They are interceding for him. But what they aren’t doing is seeing a friend in need, then sending a messenger boy to tell someone close to Jesus what is going on. Nor are they standing next to the paralytic and yelling into space what their friend wants. They pick him up and take him to Jesus. They do the thing he is incapable of doing. He can’t move so they move him. They fill his lack, nothing more and nothing less.

After Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, He commanded Him to get up, gather his bedding, and go home. The paralytic, immediately healed, obeys Jesus’ commands. He does not groan over needing to carry his ragged bed mat. He does not sigh with being told to get back to daily chores. This healing miracle probably meant more hardship for the paralytic. Now he has to work. Now he has to engage with other people. Now he has to feed himself.

Yet the paralytic doesn’t complain. He doesn’t talk back to Jesus. You might be thinking, “Of course, he’s just happy not to be paralyzed anymore.” I’m sure that’s true. But the concise language suggests that this man arose and set about his new life as one charged by Christ, as a new man, as a new creation of Christ. He does not need years of therapy to overcome the mental anguish of having been paralyzed. He will need to adjust to his new life. He will need to be taught or at least relearn how to do the physical labor that will be required of him. He will be reintroduced to pain in the lower back, something he couldn’t feel when paralyzed.

But the text doesn’t give a single word to these struggles. It is enough for the man that his sins are forgiven. It is enough to obey the words of Christ. It is enough for him to go about his new life in Christ with the knowledge that He is forgiven. It is enough for him to set about his vocation knowing that his identity is found in the God who created, forgave, and recreated him.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

 The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity – September 18, 2022

Psalm 84; Proverbs 4:10-23; Psalm 92; Galatians 5:16-24

St. Luke 17:11-19

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

 There is a distinction between being grateful and giving thanks. Both concern your reaction to receiving a gift but being grateful is oriented toward the gift itself. You are grateful to have received this specific thing. Giving thanks is directed toward the one who gave you the gift. Giving thanks recognizes the value of the gift in the person who loved you such that they gave you this gift.

An example might help clarify. If my wife gives me a tenon saw for Christmas, I am grateful to have received a saw that will help me make more precise cuts. I give thanks to my wife because she has listened to me talk about tenon saws and went through the effort of finding one and buying it for me.

In much the same way, there is a difference between praise and worship. We give praise to God by recounting what He has done for us. The Psalter is full of psalms of praise that tell the story of salvation. Worship is oriented toward the Person of God. In worship, we not only receive the things God gives us, but we recognize the origin of these gifts as being in the Person and attributes of God.

To be fair, these distinctions are not perfect. These words can be used in different ways. But to distinguish the concepts is very helpful. It is helpful because it places our focus not on what we are doing—being grateful, giving thanks, praising, worshiping—but on the object of these actions. On whom or toward what are we grateful, giving thanks, and offering worship or praise?

All ten lepers cried out to Jesus to have mercy on them. All ten lepers were grateful for the cleansing. They rejoiced to have received a life-altering miracle. Leprosy caused them to be separated from their families, their communities, and the life of the Temple, where God dwelt with man. The gift of healing meant these lepers would be reunited with mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children. It meant they could go to church again, to receive the blessings of God. All ten lepers undoubtedly recognized the goodness in the gift of healing and were abundantly grateful.

It is possible, and quite likely, that all ten lepers praised God for what He had done. When they went to the priests, the lepers probably told the story of how they were healed. They proclaimed the works of God. This is the essence of praise—to recount what God has done for us.

Although all ten were grateful and possibly praised God for this miracle, only one gave thanks to God and worshiped Him. Only the Samaritan leper recognized the value of healing in the person of Christ and directed his worship toward God in the flesh. Only the Samaritan realized the true nature of the Man standing before him.

When Jesus commanded the lepers to show themselves to the priests, it was the Samaritan who realized that the true High Priest was standing before him. With a loud voice, he glorified God, fell on his face, and gave thanks to Jesus. This is an act of worship.

Our worship is oriented toward the Triune God: One God in Three Persons. We worship the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. This means we see that the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are meaningless if they do not originate in the Person of God. If God is not a Person, that is, someone with whom you have a relationship, then He is not worthy of worship or thanks.

Our world is content with an ambiguous god. Quite often, we are content with an ambiguous god. Perhaps it is because we don’t like something the True God has said. Perhaps it is because we are afraid that we will say too much and so we purposely remain ignorant of who God is. Perhaps we know exactly who the True God is and yet we prefer a god of our own choosing.

Whatever the reason, an ambiguous god cannot save you. The abstract concept of a divine being who loves you just because will not save you. Even the idea that god loves you, if not given the flesh of meaning, is not enough to save you. The only god who saves is the God who took on your flesh, then died for your sins. The only god who saves is the God who calls you to repentance for your sins. It is this God alone who loves you such that He would die for you, rise from the grave, and call you out of the darkness of your sin and into His marvelous light. An ambiguous god can do no such thing because it is not a person.

God is love and this means He acts on your behalf. Leprosy kept these ten people from going to the Temple to be with God so God came to them wrapped in flesh. Your sin, both the sin from your birth and the sins you commit in thought, word, and deed, prevents you from drawing near to God. Your sin prevents God from smiling upon you for it is evil in His sight.

God is love and this means that He cannot abide His beloved children dwelling in evil. He comes to you, wrapped in flesh, that you might come to Him. He comes to you in water, where you are drowned in the first death. In Holy Baptism, you died. But if you died a death like His, you shall certainly rise in a resurrection like His. You rose from the waters of Holy Baptism a New Creation, breathing new life in Christ. Therefore, the faithful Christian has nothing to fear in temporal death. You have already died in Christ. Now, the sleep of death is a portal to eternity.

Between your death in the waters of Holy Baptism and your rest in the grave, God comes to you wrapped in bread and wine. He comes to you not as a performance, not as an act, but as your loving bridegroom. He comes to you just as certainly as He came to that village where ten lepers came out to meet Him. Your eyes of flesh do not see it, but the eyes of faith see the face of Christ in the Eucharist.

Our worship is oriented toward Christ. Physically, we orient ourselves toward the altar as the primary symbol of that which is truly happening. Jesus Christ comes to you today and every day. He comes to you today in Word and Sacrament. He comes to you every day as you pray, sing, read the Scriptures, and obey His commandments while serving your neighbor.

There is nothing fake about what happens when we worship. There is nothing theatrical about giving thanks to God. Thanksgiving and worship of the Triune God cannot be done without sincerity because to do anything else would be to deny that God is a Person.

In + Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity

 The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity – October 24, 2021

Psalm 119; Genesis 1-2:3; Ephesians 6:10-17

St. John 4:46-54

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

The account of the healing of the nobleman’s son is all about faith. The word “faith” is repeated three times, as is the consequence of faith – life. While we are accustomed to focusing on the object of faith, this portion of Scripture is focused on the development of faith. The nobleman approaches Christ in faith. He hears Jesus has come down from Judea into Galilee and so he quickly travels from Capernaum to Galilee to implore the Lord to heal his son who is on the brink of death.

The nobleman approaches in faith but it is undeveloped faith. He comes with the faith of an adult, not the faith of a child. He trusts that Christ can heal his son. He trusts that Christ desires to heal his son. He is also insistent that Christ travel to Capernaum to perform the healing. This reveals the weakness of his faith. He insists Christ follow his commands in the manner and timing of the miracle.

We might compare this nobleman to the Canaanite woman, who likewise was insistent that Christ answer her prayer.[1] Jesus seemed to ignore her pleas, but the woman was insistent that he exorcise the demons from her daughter. Although both the Canaanite woman and the nobleman approach Christ in faith, the woman did not dictate the time or place in which she expected the blessing to occur. She only expected her Lord to be faithful to his promise to care for her daughter in body and soul. The nobleman expects the Lord to fulfill his promises, but he is insistent that it be done on his own terms – “Come down to my house and heal my son before he dies!” Thus, Christ commends the great faith of the Canaanite woman and rebukes the nobleman.

That is not to say the nobleman is without faith. He certainly looks to Christ for the salvation of his son in body and soul. Yet his is an undeveloped faith. How then is his faith developed? How does he go from the milk-faith of a stubborn adult to the meat-faith of a newborn child?

This development does not come from praying harder. It does not come from introspection. It does not come from additional time in nature with God nor from intellectual pursuits of Scripture. It does not come from singing louder or mission trips. The faith of the nobleman is developed through suffering.

Perhaps faith was born in the nobleman at the wedding at Cana, where our Lord turned water into wine. Perhaps he heard Christ preach or witnessed the teaching of John the Baptist and the Baptism of our Lord. Sometime after faith was born within him, the son of the nobleman fell ill. His beloved son was thrown down by an invisible disease and brought to the point of death. When the Beloved Son of the Heavenly Father returned to the region, the nobleman sought him out and expected the Son of God to obey his demands for the sake of life. Then Jesus rebukes him.

“Unless you see signs and wonders, you will absolutely never believe!”[2] Of all the rebukes of our Lord, none is perhaps as complex as this one. One the one hand, he is rebuking the nobleman for demanding something of God which has not been promised, namely the temporal healing of his son.

At the same time, this rebuke is intended to teach the nobleman. There is a temptation within the flesh of man to think faith is an internal matter, as though it exists entirely apart from the physical, external world. This is the origin of that terrible phrase, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Those who hold to this creed believe their faith is a private matter between themselves and an ambiguous god. Such enthusiasts raise their own thoughts and desires above the external Word of God. They deny the Sacraments or treat them as magic rituals in which blessings of their own imagination are imparted.

The weak faith of the nobleman fits this creed. He has faith in Christ but has not submitted himself to the external Word of God. Through this rebuke, Christ is pointing him outside of himself. It is as though our Lord is saying, “Where were you when I created the heavens and the earth? Where were you when I formed your son in your wife’s womb? Do you presume to tell me how I am to love you and your son? Do you presume to know better the salvation of man than I, the Son of God, who has taken on flesh for this exact purpose? Do not look inside your own thoughts, desires, or imagination for a sign of the love of God. Look to me. Look for the sign of Jonah, the three days in the earth and the coming of the Dawn on the third day. Look for the sign and wonder of your salvation found when I come into my own kingdom, enthroned on a cross and crowned with thorns. Look to the sign of your salvation in me – my blood, my flesh, my washing, and my Word.”

The nobleman’s response shows a growth in his faith. The Word of God has worked on his heart and developed his faith. “Lord, come down before my son dies.”[3] While it is unclear if the nobleman understands the fullness of the Incarnation, the Holy Ghost is certainly teaching us through these words how it is the Lord saves us all from death. The Son of God came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Blessed Virgin, and was made man. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity descended from the Father so that he would be raised up in the sacrifice of the Cross in our place. The Incarnation is the beginning of the work of salvation of our Lord.

The nobleman likely doesn’t understand what he is saying and yet he is confessing that by coming down from the Father into our flesh, Jesus will save his son from death, eternal death. By coming down from the Father into our flesh, Jesus will raise the nobleman’s son on the last day in the very flesh which was thrown down by illness. By coming down from the Father, the Son of God will cause the son of this man to live life eternal.

It is at this time that Jesus tells the man his son lives, and the man believes the word of Jesus. He has not yet seen the sign and wonder and yet he believes. His faith has developed. His faith is strengthened. How did this happen? By the Word of God. By suffering. By crying out to the Lord for salvation and then trusting that the Lord is good and will answer. Jesus pressed the nobleman into a corner to force him to rely on the Word of God and trust that the Lord would hear his prayer.

When the servants of the nobleman report that the son was healed at the very hour in which Jesus said, ‘he lives,’ the nobleman’s faith is again strengthened. This is the sign and wonder which he sought, but it is not the sign or wonder which confirmed his faith. How else could his entire household believe if the nobleman had not preached to them the Word of God? He must’ve returned home with the psalms on his lips and cried out to them that the Son of God has come down that we all may live. The milk-faith by which the nobleman was barely clinging to life and now become a feast of meat-faith by which he is able to provide for his family, his man-servants and maid-servants.

The Son of God comes to you today in the same way. The Lord sends you affliction. You have children who have left the faith. You have sinned and are ashamed. You look around and see “perfect people” in the church and believe you don’t belong. You beloved faces life-threatening surgery. You face illness unto death and worry for the sake of your loved ones. These afflictions are sent to you for the strengthening of your faith. Repent of your little faith, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”[4]

Like the nobleman, demand that the Lord come down to be with you and then look for the sign. Not the sign of miraculous healing of a tumor or a bird suddenly appearing in your window. “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, [perfect health, wealth, children, and home,] and loses his own soul?”[5] Look to the sign of the cross. Look to the Body of Jesus, exalted on high for your sake. See the miracle of your salvation in the chalice. Hear the Word of God as it enters your ears and strengthens faith. “God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the Power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren, ‘Where two or three are gathered…’”[6]

These are the signs and wonders given by God for the strengthening of your faith. Faith is not an ephemeral, intellectual, or strictly “spiritual” possession. It is given and strengthened by things external to you, objectively present in the world. Faith is then displayed externally. First by driving you to continually seek the Lord. Faith desires to see the signs and wonders given by God. Faith drives you to the Church where you receive the things of God and gather for the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren in the flesh. Our God is not virtual. Faith is not virtual. Faith never drives you to be alone. Faith gathers you into the bosom of Abraham, to be gathered with all the saints around and within the Body of Christ.

Faith then springs forth in external works, just as the nobleman preached to his family. If you have seen and tasted that the Lord is good; if you know salvation is in his flesh; if you know the Son of God lives and by his life you have life; you will desire this same grace for all whom you love.

In T Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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[1] St. Matthew 15:21-28.

[2] St. John 4:48.

[3] St. John 4:49.

[4] St. Mark 9:24.

[5] St. Matthew 16:26.

[6] Smalcald Articles, III IV. Reader’s Edition.

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

 The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – September 26, 2021

Psalm 119; Proverbs 25:6-14; Ephesians 4:1-6

St. Luke 14:1-11

In the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.[1]

For the third time, our Lord has come into conflict with the Pharisees over the Sabbath. This is why they are said to be “watching him carefully.” It may be that the ruler of the Pharisees invited Jesus into his home precisely to entrap him into performing a miracle. I wouldn’t be surprised if the chief Pharisee specifically invited the man with dropsy.

When our Lord asks if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, he is not looking for permission. He knows he is going to heal the man. Rather, he is mocking the Pharisees. They think they have the upper hand, that they have laid a perfect trap. What they didn’t expect was for Jesus to call their bluff. His question leaves them in silence. They are silent because they’ve been caught. They have been called to account for their deeds and yet stand silent before the Lord.

This is not the silence of reverence or the silence of awe. It is the silence of shame, the silence of sin. It is the silence of Adam in the Garden. He hid from his Lord because he was naked. To us, the silence is deafening. To God, we are but small children who, after the window is broken, stand with the baseball bat behind our backs. The Pharisees feel the weight of the Law and stand silent. Any response given would be an admission of guilt.

Then Jesus heals the man and poses a second question. “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” Now the Pharisees are not only silent, but they have no answer. No longer do they withhold the truth for there is no truth in them.

Their shame is the revealing of their pride, for pride is the fundamental sin of man. Man desires to be like God and in being like God, he would become more than God. We think we know what is good. We know that suffering is always bad and to be avoided. We know a better foreign policy or tax policy. We know that happiness, leisure, and pleasure are the chief goals in life. It turns out that what we think is good are the things we like. This is the very height of pride.^[2]

We think we are smart, clever, or poetic. We think we can imitate God and by doing so please him. We, like the Pharisees, even think that we can outwit God by knowing the right answer. ‘I know what God says about humility so if I act humbly, I will be exalted.’ When coming into conflict with a brother in Christ, we must tell others about the confrontation, always admitting some mild form of blame while painting the other guy in the worst light. ‘See, I’m humble for admitting my fault but he’s the real bad guy.’

God will not be mocked. God knows the filth in your heart. God knows the greed, wrath, and sloth of your inner thoughts. God knows your humility is hypocritical for it is only a display to garner sympathy. God knows your shame and God will not be mocked.

This is demonstrated in the telling of the parable. It is not an etiquette lesson. Our Lord accomplishes three purposes in this parable. The first is again to mock the Pharisees, showing their false humility to be the height of pride. He sees the Pharisees jockeying for position and again, he mocks their pride. Neither the Pharisee sidling across the room toward the couch at the right hand of the host nor the one making a show of his ‘humility’ to sit at the foot of the table, of course expecting a promotion, avoids the sting of Christ’s parable. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Those who seek advancement through their own means will end up outside of the banquet.

The second purpose is to reveal himself to the Pharisees. Christ is the one who descended from the Father to dwell amongst sinners. He did not spurn the virgin’s womb, but humbled himself to become man. The very men listening to these words soon have him beaten, spat upon, and executed in the most humiliating manner. He then returns to his Father, to the right hand of God, exalted on high, and crowned in glory. He who humbled himself is exalted.

Remember that he reveals himself in this parable to the Pharisees, in the home of their leader. While he is certainly mocking their behavior, he is also revealing himself to them because he loves them. We are used to Jesus showing compassion upon the tax collector and prostitute, but we must remember that Jesus loves the Pharisee also, which is very good news for you because of how much you and I are like them.

Truly, we have more in common with Nicodemus, who must come to the Lord in the cover of night than Mary who anointed Christ’s feet with pure nard and dried them with her hair in the presence of the disciples. Thanks be to God he has compassion upon the Pharisees because it means he has compassion upon you. He desires their repentance every bit as much as he desires yours. He is their shepherd just as he is yours. Christ died for the ugly sinner just as he died for the fashionable one.

Which leads us to our Lord’s third purpose in the parable: He is calling the Pharisees, and all who hear his words, to his humility. He is calling us to walk in his ways. We no longer humble ourselves expecting a reward for the reward is already ours. We love and serve because Christ has humbled himself that we would be exalted with him.

In fact, we ought to be humbled by the knowledge that we are nothing. We are worms and not men. We are dust. We are nothing compared to God. We are nothing and we have been saved by grace. The love of God, his compassion on sinners has rescued us from the pit and set us upon Mount Zion. Our feet, swollen with dropsy, have been relieved by the piercing of Christ’s feet. We are lifted up and placed in the seat of honor by Christ being lifted up on the beam of the cross. We are counted as the honored guest because Christ is the honored guest who both humbles and exalts those whom he loves.

May the gracious Lord of the banquet continue to humble each of us, that we would be rid of the shameful pride which dwells in the heart of man.

In T Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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[1] This sermon is based on a sermon preached for my Theologia III: Preaching Small Group with Dr. Gifford Grobein during my fourth year of studies at Concordia Theological Seminary. Changes have been made to fit the context of the saints of Mount Calvary.

[2] This and the preceding paragraph are inspired by the Trinity 17 sermon by Rev. David Petersen found at https://cyberstones.org/sermon/trinity-17-2015/