2nd Sunday after Pentecost; Romans 6:12-23

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Kyle is a murderer.  Throughout his entire life, he’s been in and out of the court system for varying degrees of misdemeanors and felonies.  By the time he was twelve, he was charged with his first drug crime.  By the time he was 16 he was charged with assault.  Now, in his twenties, the increasingly troubled man, in a fit of rage, gunned down those closest to him: his wife, son, and daughter.  He was arrested, tried, and convicted of three counts of 1^st degree murder and eventually sentenced to be executed for his crimes.  A fitting punishment.  He gets what he deserves, right?  But the governor shows Kyle grace, undeserved kindness and love.  He grants Kyle a pardon; he gets off scott-free.  He is released from prison.  He did the crime, but he won’t be doing the time.  He’s been set free from the bondage of his sin.  Shown mercy and grace and forgiveness.  Now the question is what is he free to go and do?  How is he to use this grace that he’s now been given?

            Kyle thinks to himself, “I’m living under the governor’s grace.  I can do as I please since I have a kind and merciful governor who grants to me forgiveness and pardon.  He loves to forgive and I love to commit crimes.  It’s a perfect match.”  So Kyle continues his life treating the governor’s pardon as permission to do whatever pleases him.  Until, in another fit of rage, he took another life.  But this time the governor, having shown him mercy and grace once, refused to commute his death sentence a second time.

            This is a made up story, an illustration, if you will.  There are certainly aspects to this little fable that don’t fit with our Lord.  Don’t misunderstand me; Christ’s mercy is greater.  Unlike the governor, who won’t put his political bacon on the line for another round of Kyle’s sins, Christ has spilt his blood for all.  But the point is this, that if Kyle misunderstands the governor’s lesser grace, takes it as license to go on a crime spree, don’t you misunderstood Christ’s greater grace, if you think it means you can live as you please.  You’ve been baptized, pardoned, released, set free from your rap sheet of innumerable sins, trespasses, and transgressions.  They’ve been wiped off the books. The Almighty Judge has freed you on account of His Son.  You’ve been given grace, mercy, and peace through Jesus’ death on the cross.  You’ve been baptized…  So now what?    

Today’s epistle text lands us right in the middle of a line of thought in Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome.  He begins by reminding those in this congregation who they are, “What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”  

            You’ve been buried with Christ in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection, by faith.  In Baptism the Old Adam is killed, drowned in the water combined with God’s Word and the New Man, the new creation, has been raised up.  You’ve been brought from death to life.  God has shown you unfathomable grace and mercy through His Son who He gave into death for you.  Now, how do we live in that grace?  How do we live out our baptismal life?  Because apart from faith, baptism isn’t a “get out of hell free card.”

            That’s today’s epistle reading.  “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”  Paul is speaking to Christians, confused Christians who understand the free grace of God to mean that it doesn’t matter what they do with their bodies, it doesn’t matter how they live their lives; the doors are wide open to them no matter what they do.  But that’s not freedom, that’s running back to the dungeon and casting themselves back into the chains of sin.  That’s being a slave to sin. 

Paul is speaking to us, as well.  Christ has freed us from our sin, not freed us to sin.  We’re free but we’re not free from Jesus, we’ve been freed by Jesus.  For who among us hasn’t fallen into sin.  Who among us hasn’t had the thought, “My God is a loving and forgiving God.  I can always just ask for forgiveness.”  Let it not be!  You’ve been redeemed by the blood of Christ, baptized into His death and resurrection, released from sin and death through the suffering and death of the Son of God.  What, now, is it that you want to do.  Live as if you haven’t been redeemed, haven’t been set free?  Live like a person of the world?  Live like the tares instead of the wheat?  God forbid it!

As long as we live on this side of glory we struggle, fight, and war against our old sinful nature.  We fight against our sinful nature each and every day.  It’s a struggle.  What God calls evil, the sinful nature calls good.  Our feelings and emotions can betray us to this sin or that and you know the sins that you deal with on a day to day basis.  As long as we live on this side of glory, we’ll be sinners who constantly need the grace and mercy that comes through Christ.  Paul’s point isn’t that we must rid ourselves of sin, because if we’re not sinless heaven’s gates are closed to us - that’s not what he’s saying.  But neither is he saying that the grace of God is a license to sin.  We are raised from death not to give in to it again, but to fight.  The only weapon we have to fight against it is God’s Word.  The Gospel.  Trusting who you are and what Christ has done for you.

Namely, that our Lord has freed you from the bondage of sin by Himself being placed into the bondage of death.  He shackled Himself to your sin and carried them to the cross, where His sacred blood was shed for them - where His innocent life was laid down for you.  Like Kyle, the eternal, fiery death sentence has been stayed, overturned, commuted, thrown out because Christ has already bore the punishment your sins deserve. 

You’re free.  Free from the consequences that your sins demand.  Free from death – the just wages for your sin.  You’re free.  Free to use your members for instruments of righteousness.  You’ve been set apart from the wicked world to live in your baptisms each and every day – crucifying the Old Adam and remembering who you are.  You’re a child of God.  You’re bought and paid for.  Redeemed by the blood of Jesus.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

However you have sinned you’re forgiven.  Washed clean in the tide of Jesus blood.  Given the free gift of salvation because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for you.  Let us die to sin and live in Christ – in our baptisms.  Let us, as Paul says, “present [our] members as slaves to righteousness…” trusting in Christ, who has put away your sin and remembering our baptisms, in which we live each day because we sin each and every day.  For the Lord forgives you each and every day on account of His Sin.  You’re His Children – the people of God.  Set apart from this wicked world to be His own.  You’re His, bought by the blood of His Son, reborn in baptism.  Christ died for you.  Never forget that. 

But what about the Kyles of this world?  What about us, who’ve convinced ourselves so many times that the freedom Christ bought us with his own blood was instead a license to sin?  What about us, who for the fleeting graces of this world have strayed from God’s good and enduring graces, God forbid!  But we do it.  Lord, have mercy on us! 

The governor must not pardon Kyle, when he sees what a mockery he makes of the governor’s grace, when he sees the damage Kyle keeps doing.  But for your sake Christ’s blood, however many times we’ve crucified him over and over again, returning to our former ways like the proverbial dog to its vomit —Christ’s blood, though we don’t always appreciate it, speaks a better word: It is finished.  If we have been unfaithful, God is still faithful, to “forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And here is the power of God to save us and break the shackles not only that bind us to death and hell, but to sin itself.  

Let us not, then, think in our hearts to remain ungodly.  “For do you not know what all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death”, and that the one who has died to sin can hardly live in it.  But thanks be to God, that his mercy consists in this: that he justifies the ungodly, that he saves sinners, that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that he might make even us the righteousness of God.  We’re given to examine ourselves with diligence and eagerness, for Christ the Holy One has come to take every sin away, with the death and damnation it would have brought on us.  Repent now, ever, always, therefore, with tears of joy, for He who has promised this is faithful, and He will do it.  You’ve been baptized into Christ’s death.  And believing that baptism, that Christ the Son of God has set you free, to be free indeed; and free you are.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Festival of the Holy Trinity; Matthew 28:16-20

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

            Happy Father’s Day!  Today we remember those who have been faithful fathers and father-figures in our lives.  Our Lord gives us fathers as earthly illustrations of His love, care, and mercy.  For we have a God who is Father.  The Father of our Lord Jesus, from whom both proceeds the Holy Spirit.  Yet they’re not three gods but one God.  Distinct Persons but not separate.  The Holy Trinity.  The One true God who reveals Himself in three Persons.  It’s a mystery that our mind simply cannot comprehend, our language isn’t even able to describe it perfectly, no analogy that sums it up rightly, not even a symbol that accurately reflects the three in one and one in three.  The best we can do is simply confess the words of the Athanasian Creed, “We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” 

            This triune God that we have acts and works on our behalf, for our benefit. It’s amazing that we have a God who is father, who begets His Son from eternity before creation, before there was even such a thing as time.  But He does.  And then He gives His Son into death and raises Him again “for us and for our salvation.”  The Father offers up His Son for a world who doesn’t even appreciate such a gift.  The Father sends His Son to die for you and He willingly and gladly goes.  No other god that anyone has invented, no idol that’s ever been crafted would do such a thing; die for its creation.  But our Triune God does.  When Jesus was hanging on the cross and gave up His Spirit, God, the Second Person of the Trinity, died.  For you.  Through His shed blood and by faith, we have Jesus as our brother and so we also have God as our Father.

It’s a mystery why God would allow us to call Him Father.  For so often we’re the prodigal son who go our own way, who wallow in our own filth like pigs.  We’re the rebellious teenager who thinks that we, somehow, know better than our Heavenly Father.  We think He’s holding out on us, doesn’t want us to have the fun that we’re entitled to.  We view our Heavenly Father more a crotchety prude than the almighty, eternal, powerful, loving God. 

What should a child of the Most High look like?  How should such a child act in the world?  Should a child of God curse, swear, or tear down the neighbor with juicy gossip?  Should such a child of God allow his eyes to wander to images on a computer screen that are sinful?  Should such a child ignore the Father’s gifts of His Word and His Holy Sacraments to chase after something that is more “fun?”  When God gave His Law to Moses on Sinai He not only commanded what the people are to do and not to do, but the Commandments describe how God’s people could be recognized.  They won’t have any other gods.  They won’t be committing adultery, they won’t be lying or slandering their neighbors. 

            How good of a child have you been?  His Law is holy and we’re not.  Our Triune God is holy and we don’t deserve to be called His sons and daughters.  Yet, God will not stand to cast number you with the lowly servants, He so desires to be our Father.  It’s a mystery because we have no right to address Him with such an intimate title.  Yet Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father.”  Not “Our Master.”   Not “Our Conqueror.”  Not even “Our Creator.”    But “Our Father.”  Isn’t that astounding!  Because the truth is the Father only has one eternally begotten Son.  He adopted the rest of us. 

            Jesus, the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, God incarnate, in human flesh, stands with the eleven on a mountain in Galilee.  Having been crucified and raised, having paid for your sins with His blood, having completed the work of salvation, He sends the eleven out to do two things: baptize and teach – the means by which God makes disciples.  The means by which He adopts us as His own dear children.

            “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Actually, a little more accurate to say, baptism them into the Name.  Just like our earthly fathers gave us his name, his last name, that which identifies us as part of the family, so does our God give us His Name.  Note that Jesus doesn’t command that nations be baptized into the names, but the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  In baptism, you’re been born again, brought through the water combined with God’s Word and made part of God’s family, marked with the very Name of the Triune God.  God gifts you with His Name and with His Name all the other gifts are given to you because God has made you His Son, His daughter, an heir of His heavenly kingdom. 

            Even more, in baptism, God not only gives you His Name.  He gives you Himself.  Entirely.  Completely.  Wherever God places His Name He’s there with His gifts, with the Son’s forgiveness and blessings which come flowing from the cross. 

            Because we have Jesus as our brother, we have God as our Father.  Covered in the blood of the Son, who gave His life on the cross for you, we’ve been made worthy, made holy to come before God and dare to call Him Father.  It’s His work of creating you anew, giving you new birth, giving you His Name.  Even when you go our own way, roll around with the pigs for a time; He’s there ready to hear your confession and eager to forgive for the sake of His Son.  Even when we’re the rebellious teenager who thinks that we know what’s best for us, as we ignore His Law, He stands patient watch throughout the night of your sin, waiting for you to come to your senses and repent and receive His forgiveness that He so delights in giving, sending the angels into a frenzy of joy. 

            You’ve been brought into the family of God, the adoption papers signed with the blood of Christ.  Not because you’re worthy of it, not because you’re holier than anyone else, but because you’ve been made worthy to be given the title a Son, a daughter of God; made holy to stand in His presence because the Father offered up His only begotten Son into death for you.  Because you’ve been reborn through water and the word. 

            So if you ever find yourself doubting your status before God.  If you ever find yourself ridden with guilt because of this sin or that.  If you ever find yourself wondering if God still accepts you as His own dear child look not inside yourself.  There you’ll only find more heartache.  But look to the cross.  Jesus died for you.  Look to your baptism.  God has spoken those words over you, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Look to the Supper, where Jesus Himself is placed into your mouth.  These all come from outside of you, they’re works of God for you.  And when you come before God desiring His forgiveness He has to give it to you.  After all Jesus took your place on the cross.  After all, you’re part of the family.  Amen.

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

Day of Pentecost; John 7:37-39

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’”  The feast that Jesus was attending was the Feast of Booths also called the Feast of Tabernacles.  God commanded this celebration to be observed in order to commemorate the wandering of Israel in the desert for 40 years.  Just as Israel dwelt in booths, tabernacles, or what were really tents; so did the people celebrating this feast day live in tents throughout this eight-day celebration. 

            For seven days of the feast of this eight-day feast, water would be taken in golden pitchers from the pool of Siloam and poured out in the temple in order to commemorate God quenching Israel’s thirst by providing for them water from a rock.  In the midst of water being poured over the rocks, in rembrance of Jesus quenching His peoples’ thirst Jesus stands up  “on the last day of the feast, the great day.”  “You’ve seen water being poured out in the temple for seven days now,” Jesus says, “You’ve remembered that God has provided Israel with water as they wandered in the desert.  Now, look up from this water streaming down the temple to Me.  “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…” 

            Are you thirsty?  You should be.  Your own heart is a desert full of sin.  You were dead in your sin; dried up, with no hope.  We, like Israel in the desert, grumble and complain.  “I don’t have enough money.  My house isn’t big enough.  I want more!”  we, like Israel belly-ache in the wilderness but are never satisfied.  You’re a people with dry, dusty hearts.  Are you thirsty?  You should be.  You’re a desert people in a barren land.

Our bones are dried up.  There’s nothing we can do; no way we can pump life back into our sinful, dusty heart.  So, we turn Jesus who says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…” 

We muddle about in this desert-world, parched, dry-mouthed, with the stink of our own sin about us.  Yet, as someone who’s wandering in the wilderness finds the oasis, a watering hole, his heart skips for joy.  As his lips bend down to sip the cool water, his life is restored. 

Jesus is our oasis, living water that brings new life to our dried up hearts.  The Water of Life, Jesus, was glorified on the cross bearing your sin so that after you too would be glorified. 

John records, “Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”  Rivers of life and the Spirit, they go together. 

You, who cleansed in the blessed river of Baptism, have received this Spirit, the Holy Spirit.  The water that flowed from Jesus pierced side flows right into that baptismal font and over your head.  As you heard the kids sing, “In a dear forgiving flood, sprinkling me with Jesus’ Blood.   As the kids learned, Jesus has called you by name in baptism, Jesus saved you in baptism.  In baptism the Spirit was given to you as a gift; and the Spirit leads you to Christ.  He doesn’t draw attention to Himself, but points you to Jesus.  He’s your guide through the desert who leads you to the oasis of Christ; where you’re given rest and comfort; peace and joy.

The Holy Spirt leads us, who are thirsting for righteousness, who have hearts of dust, to the death of Christ on the cross.  Jesus’ death was died for you.  This Spirit leads you to Him who, viewed from human eyes, is the most inglorious thing ever.  A corpse hanging on the cross doesn’t look very glamorous or glorious.  The blood spilled from the sacred veins of the Son of God, to the world, looks shameful.  But through the Spirit and through the eyes of faith that He brings to you, the crucifixion on the cross is Jesus’ great and glorious moment… It’s your great and glorious moment.

The Spirit leads you to Him who willingly died a sinner’s death for you, who are parched and thirsty because of your sinful heart.  The Spirit leads you to Him who took all your sins upon Himself and paid for them…in full.  Who washed them away in Baptism.  The times you’ve grumbled against God, the times you’ve been, the times you’ve not been content with what you have, even those really bad ones, the ones that cause you shame and grief have been forgiven, covered in the blood of Jesus.  That’s the Spirit’s job, to lead you to Him who is your oasis, your life, and salvation.  Who, by His death and resurrection, turns your dusty hearts to a heart that flows the living water of faith.

            We wander through this desert of the world and we’re constantly going to Jesus, who creates anew our lifeless hearts, making them gush forth faith in Him.  We return to our baptisms, daily, where Christ has made our hearts to flow water of life.  You hear His Words of the Gospel, which brings you the forgiveness of sins.  You receive the Holy Meal, holy food that brings forgiveness and sustains faith.  Christ uses these means in order to give you the Holy Spirit who guides you to where you need to go in order to find comfort for your parched, thirsty hearts.  He leads you to Christ and His cross, where you glory is found, and where you have life and have it in abundantly.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

7th Sunday of Easter; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6-11

Christ is risen!

            Her name is Meriam Ibrahim; and she has been sentenced in a Sharia court to 100 lashes and to be executed because she refuses to recant her Christian faith.  But her story goes a deeper than that.  She was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother and even though her father left soon after her birth, even though she has been raised Christian her whole life, according to Sharia, Muslim, law, since her father was Muslim, she also is considered to be of Islamic faith.  She’s never bowed toward Mecca, she’s never called on the name of Allah, but because this court considered her Muslim from birth because of her father’s faith, she has been convicted of converting away from Islam. 

Moreover, she married a Christian man, she had one child before her conviction and was pregnant with the other until just days ago when she have birth to a little girl.  She’s also been convicted of adultery, Muslim women are forbidden from having relations with non-Muslim men, even though he’s her husband.  

The judge did show a little compassion, if you could call it that.  He stayed the 100 lashes until the child was born and he stayed the execution until the child has been nursed for two years.  So, the child having been born, the lashes could be given at any time.  Then she’ll wait in a Sudanese prison cell until the child is weaned.

This whole matter could just go away if she just did one thing: renounce Christ and praise Allah.  But she’d rather face prison, lashes, and death than deny Christ. 

I tell you this not so to fuel the flames of anger; we’re called to love even our enemies.  Not so that you would call this an injustice of the highest degree, we’re called to bless our persecutors.  I tell you this so that Meriam may be an example of faith to you.  That if you ever face the prospect of being persecuted for the faith, you remember Meriam, and the rest of the martyrs, who spilled their blood rather than deny the faith.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because of Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”

Peter is writing to people who know what it is to suffer.  His letter is addressed to “those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.”  Exiles scattered, dispersed, presumably because of persecution that they endured for bearing the name of Christ.  Being Christian, contrary to what you may hear from some T.V. preachers, offers no exemption from suffering.  With baptism comes no “Get out of Suffering Free” card.  It’s a mistake to think that since Jesus suffered, we’ll get out of it in this life.  But as, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, those who are hungry, thirsty, poor in spirit, the meek, the persecuted are blessed.

The kind of suffering that Peter is talking about isn’t the general sort of suffering we face because we live in a fallen world, you know, that aches, the pains, the heartaches; but Peter’s talking about suffering specifically for the faith.  Suffering for being a Christian.  Suffering for holding fast to the faith once delivered to you, His saints.  He’s talking about the suffering that St. Paul once afflicted God’s people and the suffering that he ultimately endured himself.  Peter’s talking about the suffering that he would eventually go though as he was martyred for the faith.  He’s talking about Meriam Ibrahim kind of suffering.  Suffering for the faith.

I don’t know if we’ll ever endure such suffering in our lifetimes here in America.  The Christians in the next generation may; the storm clouds seem to be looming on the horizon.  But for the moment the sufferings that we endure are more the sufferings of insults, ridicule, loss of friendships, even discrimination, perhaps, or a loss of credibility.  Even small, momentary sufferings like those have caused people to fall away, what will happen when walking into this building may mean the loss of your life?  Are God’s gifts that important to you or not?  Do you take seriously your confirmation vows or don’t you - that you would face death rather than falling away?  Face 100 lashes and the hangman rather than deny the faith?

As strange as it may sound Christian suffering is a gift.  Peter says if you suffer for being a Christian, don’t be ashamed, glorify God in the Name of Jesus and entrust your lives to your faithful Maker and Redeemer.  He will see you through your time of trial and testing. 

In the book of Acts, persecution is the engine that drives the spread of the Gospel.  The apostles and the believers are scattered and the Word of the Lord spreads like seed blowing in the wind.  The Russian dictator Vladimir Lenin tried to get rid of Christianity and purge it from Russia. But he finally concluded that Christianity is like a nail.  The harder you drive it, the deeper it goes. Suffering for Jesus’ sake drives faith even deeper.  It galvanizes and tempers faith.  It refines and purifies faith.

You will suffer for Jesus’ sake in your own way, from time to time.  But know that Jesus suffered for you first.  Suffering is the way of Christ.  Jesus came to suffer as the “Man of Sorrows.”  His suffering was our suffering.  Indeed, no man has ever suffered to the degree Jesus suffered.  We suffer for ourselves.  He suffers for us.  We suffer for our own sins.  He suffers for the sins of the world.  We suffer as one man, one woman.  He suffers as collective humanity, Everyman, all of humanity as one suffering Man.  His suffering was the great necessity of His mission – it was the will of God, it was prophesied in the Scripture, it was necessary the Christ must suffer and enter into His glory.  The way to the right hand of the Father was the way of the cross, of death, of suffering.

Jesus knows what it’s like to suffer.  He understands human pain to His own flesh and bone.  He experienced the anguish of God’s silence.  He knows the darkness of facing one’s death alone.  He knows our pain; He identifies with our suffering.  He is one with our suffering and He is with us when we suffer.

You will suffer for Jesus’ sake, probably not in the way Meriam Ibrahim suffers, but that’s certainly never out of the question.  Jesus suffered for you first.  His suffering saves you; your suffering honors Him.  His suffering is the gold of your faith.  Your suffering brings that gold to 24 karat purity.  HIs suffering was for your sins; your suffering if for His Name.  His suffering sanctifies your suffering.

You will be humbled, you can expect it. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  You will be humbled. Jesus was humbled to death on a cross to save you.  He humbled Himself for you, reaching down to you, joining His suffering life to you.  He was humbled in order to exalt you to the right hand of God. And in your humbling, you will exalted.  He will lift you up. He will raise you from death.  He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.