Monthly Archives: February 2021

The Canaanite School of Beggary – Sermon on Matthew 15:21-28 for the Second Sunday in Lent

Listen here.

Matthew 15:21-28

21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

No one likes being insulted. I remember playing kickball in 7th grade and kicking a home run. One of the 8th grade girls on the other team complained to her teammates about not getting me out. I can still hear her saying, “Come on guys, we can’t even get string bean out!” It hurt, but, in her defense, calling me ‘string bean’ was probably accurate. I think I had just reached 6’ 2”, probably weighed all of 120 lbs. when soaking wet, and was as coordinated as a linguini noodle. And if I remember right, it wasn’t a home run because it was some high, majestic kick that cleared a fence. The ball probably made it to the outfield and they tried to throw it at me a couple times, but I was too skinny of a target. Back then, I was basically two dimensional.

Insulting words can hurt from certain people’s lips, but there are times words can feel insulting and we should not be offended because those words are simply true. A prime example of this is when God Himself doles out insults in Scripture. Jesus said that He came to call not the righteous, but sinners (Mt. 9:13). Yes, Jesus came for everyone, so Jesus is calling all of us ‘sinners.’ Jesus says that He came to seek and save the lost (Lk. 19:10), that means you and I are the ‘lost.’ When you read Ro. 3[:10b-18] there is a whole series of insults for all people. Here’s a few for you: no one understands, no one seeks for God, together they have become worthless, no one does good, their throat is an open grave, the venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

In our text today, we have this Canaanite woman whose daughter is severely oppressed by a demon; she gets ignored, rejected, and even insulted by Jesus. But then Christ holds her up before us as an example of great faith because she continues to beg and pray to Jesus – the only One who can help her. In fact, she is only one of two people in all the Gospels whose faith is praised by Jesus. The other person whose faith is praised by Jesus is the Gentile centurion who had a sick servant (Mt. 8:5-13). Not even the disciples, who were personally called by Jesus, get praised for their faith. Because she has great faith, she has something to teach us. As Christians and disciples of Jesus, we should always learn from Christ, and here today, Jesus tells us to be learners and disciples of this Canaanite woman.

So, settle down class. Let’s all learn from our guest lecturer visiting us from the Canaanite School of Beggary.

This Canaanite woman comes to Jesus asking for mercy because, again, her daughter was severely oppressed by a demon. She is going to the right place – to Jesus – and asking Him to do exactly what He came to do. 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” But what does Jesus do? “He did not answer her a word.”

According to this woman’s experience Jesus is completely ignoring her. But rather than letting her experience discourage her so that she goes away, she keeps crying out. She cries out so much that the disciples become embarrassed and tell Jesus to send her away. Not only is her experience with Jesus harsh, but this foreign Rabbi’s disciples are actually praying against her. And notice that still Jesus doesn’t address her. He answers the disciples. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

So now, this woman is not only fighting against her experience, she is also fighting against the disciples’ prayers and Jesus’ own words. When Jesus says that He’s only sent for Israel, it is reasonable to think that Jesus is saying that He was not sent for her. But she fights against what reason would say and stubbornly clings to her hope in Jesus. She kneels before Jesus and gives Him a command, “Lord, help me.” Finally, Jesus gives her some attention, but it’s devastating. He replies, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And that is as insulting as it sounds.

I think it’s safe to say that if most people heard Jesus say this to them, they’d be looking for another god. But this woman knows there is no other help for her, so look what she does. She takes the insult, holds on to it for dear life and says, “Yes, Lord.” Then our translation, the ESV, does something weird here (so do all English translations); they translate the next word as ‘yet.’ Some other translations will use the word ‘but.’ (I think I understand why all the English translations use ‘yet’ or ‘but’ as their translation.) But the word there means ‘for.’ It’s one of the most common words in the New Testament, and of the 1,009 times it’s used in the New Testament this is the only place the ESV translates it as ‘yet.’ The problem with using ‘yet’ or ‘but’ is that it sounds like she is disagreeing with Jesus. She isn’t disagreeing with Jesus. Instead, she agrees with him. She confesses that she is a dog. “Yes, Lord, for even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Basically, she is saying, “Ok, Jesus. You call me a dog? Then a dog is what I am. I don’t need the bread You give to Your children. You’re correct. It isn’t right to give Your children’s bread to a dog like me. Treat me like a dog and I’ll be more than content to get the crumbs that dogs get. The crumbs that the children drop without realizing it are enough for me.”

I think the first lesson we learn in the Canaanite School of Beggars is that we can be bold in our prayers. 

I love what Luther says when he preached on this text. (I included this quote in your bulletin insert.) “When we feel in our conscience that God reproaches us as sinners and judges us unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, then we experience hell and think that we are eternally lost. Whoever has this woman’s ingenuity should catch God in His own judgment and say, ‘Yes. Lord, it is true. I am a sinner and unworthy of Your grace. Nevertheless, You have promised forgiveness to sinners.’”

Dear saints, have the ingenuity of this woman. When God’s Law comes to you and says, “You are lost,” we take God at His Word and cry to Him. “Yes, God. I’m lost. Find me.” When God’s Law says, “You’re a sinner,” we say, “Yes, God. I’m a sinner. Save me” (Mt. 9:13). When God says, “You’re dead,” we cry to Him “Raise me.” And we can be bold when we pray these things. God has promised to do these things for the lost, the sinner, and the dead in sin. So we can take those promises, hold them in front of God’s face, and demand that He be true to His Word.

We actually had a little debate about this in our family this past week. I ran through this idea during our Bible time, and my family had a consensus that we should add a ‘please’ to these prayers. I’m glad my family has manners, but there might be times when we get frustrated with God because He appears to be continually denying our prayers for things He has promised to give us. In this text, it appears that Jesus isn’t going to answer this woman’s prayer.

Now, this whole event with might have lasted an hour or it might have been as short as fifteen minutes. But there is no denying that Jesus puts this woman through the ringer. In our lives, there may be times where it might seem that God is denying our prayers for days or weeks or years. Don’t stop praying. Grab God’s promises and hold them in front of His face like this Canaanite woman did. That’s faith, and Jesus praises that faith.

When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus gives them the Lord’s Prayer. There isn’t one, “Please,” in that prayer. All the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are imperatives – they’re commands. “Make Your name holy. Bring Your kingdom. Do Your will. Give us our daily bread.” Even the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses,” is a command. “Don’t lead us into temptation. Deliver us from evil.” Every last one of them is a command addressed to your Heavenly Father. Dear saints, be bold when you pray. Hold God to His promises. Like Jacob in our Old Testament lesson (Gen. 32:22-32), don’t let God go until He blesses you. According to Jesus, that is great faith.

Also, you can be consistent and constant in your prayers. After being bold in our prayers, I think that’s the other important lesson we should learn from the Canaanite School of Beggary. God wants you to annoy Him with your prayers. In fact, Jesus teaches two parables to this effect. The first one is in Luke 11[:5-8]. The parable is about a guy who knocks at his neighbor’s door at midnight asking for some bread to give to a guest who has just showed up. And because the guy keeps knocking the neighbor will get out of his bed, get dressed, and find some bread to give to him.

The other parable is Lk. 18[:1-7] where a widow keeps going to a judge to ask for justice. And the judge gets so tired of her asking, he finally gives her what she wants so she doesn’t beat him down with her continual requests.

This text is those two parables played out in real life. She keeps going to Jesus until He gives her what she needs.

Dear saints, like this Canaanite woman, you can take God’s insults because we are all beggars before God. And even when God seems indifferent, when He seems distant, and even when He insults you, you can keep asking boldly. You can do all this because God has sent His Son Jesus to die and rise again for you.

Because Jesus has done this, He has taken us beggars and made us His children. God is your Father, and He won’t let His reputation as your Father be tarnished. He will answer your prayers. It is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Lk. 12:32). He will remember His mercy and steadfast love for you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

What Is Baptism? – Sermon for Midweek Lent 1

Listen here.

I. What is Baptism?

Baptism is not simply water, but it is the water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s Word.

What is this word of God?

It is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded in the last chapter of Matthew: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I’m no Julie Andrews, but I’ll attempt a little Maria von Trapp impersonation here, “Let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A-B-C. When you sing, you begin with Do-Re-Mi…” When you consider Baptism, you begin with Mt. 28:19.

Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Our crucified and resurrected Savior, who has all authority in heaven and on earth, passes His authority to His disciples. But what exactly is Jesus telling His disciples to do here? What is the command? I can still hear and picture a particular missionary repeatedly telling a group I was in, “The command is to go!” Actually, it isn’t. And, in fact, the word ‘go’ is probably the least important word in this verse. That’s a horrible thing to say about anything Jesus tells us, but it’s true. In all honesty, you could remove the word ‘go’ and what Jesus says would have the same meaning. Just quickly, here’s why.

Before ascending into heaven, Jesus meets the disciples on a mountain in Galilee. Jesus wants His disciples to ‘make disciples’ of ‘all nations.’ Since ‘all nations’ are not there on that mountain, the disciples are going to have to leave the mountain in order to do what Jesus wants them to do. But because Jesus does say, “Go,” it is important. I don’t want to overly bore you here with grammar, so I’ll just get to the point. “Go,” is not a verb in Jesus’ sentence here. The idea is more along the lines of, “as you go,” in other words, wherever the disciples go, here is what they are to do. “Disciple all nations.” The command Jesus gives is ‘disciple,’ and ‘disciple’ is not a word that we are used to being an action. Normally, we hear the word ‘disciple’ and think it is a person – one of the twelve or a Christian today. But that’s the command, ‘disciple’ or ‘make disciples.’

And Jesus specifies whom the eleven disciples are to disciple – “all nations.” The word, there, for nations is ἔθνος – where we get our word ‘ethnicities’ or ‘all types of people.’ Jesus wants all ethnicities to be His disciples because – “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” And to fast-forward to when we will consider infant Baptism, that is one of the reasons we baptize infants. No matter their skin color, country, heritage, age, or ethnicity, Jesus wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

How are Jesus’ disciples to disciple all ethnicities? Two things are necessary: First, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and second, teaching them all that Jesus has said.

Notice that, according to Jesus, the water of Baptism is tied to the divine, triune name of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God places His holy name on you in Baptism. But this is more than simply slapping a bumper sticker or luggage tag on you. When you were Baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God brought you into fellowship with Himself. God gave you a new character, new identity, and even new birth.

When you put your name on a loan or marriage certificate, something changes. You are bound to an agreement or a person. When the eternal, unchangeable, holy God puts His name on you, that is significant.

That’s why teaching is also part of making disciples. It will take our entire lifetime to learn what it means to have God’s name placed upon us, the Baptized. That is why you come to church and listen to sermons, why you study and read your Bible. You have been made a disciple through water and the Word. Keep learning what that means, you children of God!

Now, some object to what the Bible says about God working spiritually through something physical like water. To that, we have to ask, “Has God ever used something physical to bring about salvation?” To that we have to say, without hesitation, “Yes!” Jesus became a literal, physical human to die on a cross, shed His blood, and rise again. In Christ, God used something physical to bring about something spiritual.

As humans, we are physical and spiritual – body and soul. So, it makes complete sense for God to save us through both physical and spiritual means – water and Word.

Now, it is vitally important that we recognize that Baptism isn’t simply water, but water used according to God’s command and connected to God’s Word. Without the Word and command of God, there is nothing special about the water used. That same water could be used to boil potatoes, wash your hands, or mop the floor. God’s Word and promise connected to that water is essential.

We might wonder, “Why would God chose to connect His promises to something as common as water?” God could have connected the same promises to honey, milk, or kiwi juice. But He didn’t. Asking why water is used in Baptism is like asking, “Why didn’t God create us with six arms? Why don’t birds say, ‘Moo’? Why doesn’t salt taste sweet?” The only answer is that God didn’t do it that way. Let’s let God be God, and let us be His creatures.

Again, God’s Word is essential to make a Baptism, but so is the water. Consider the importance of water through Scripture. It was over the water that the Holy Spirit hovered at the beginning of creation (Gen. 1:2). It was through water that God brought His people into the Promised Land (Jos. 3). It was through water that God led His people out of slavery (Ex. 14). It was with water that the priests were to wash their hands and feet before they went near the altar to minister to the Lord (Ex. 30:18-21).  And it was into the water that Jesus stepped to fulfill all righteousness (Mt. 3:15). 

Christian, as we will see in the coming weeks, in your Baptism God has done all of this for you. In your Baptism, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you. In your Baptism, you have been brought out of your slavery to sin. In your Baptism, you have been brought into the Promised Land of the kingdom of God. In your Baptism, you have been brought into God’s presence and before God’s altar. In your Baptism, God has fulfilled all righteousness and saved you. 

Finally, because Jesus commanded Baptism and as we see what it does in the coming weeks, we know that Baptism isn’t merely a human work. Baptism is God’s work. Just as God has redeemed you through the shedding of blood through Jesus’ hands, He has adopted you through the washing of water in Baptism done by human hands. In your Baptism, God gave you His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and adoption. It didn’t miss. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Confident Repentance – Sermon on Hebrews 4:14-16 for the First Sunday in Lent

Listen here.

Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

All three of our Scripture lessons today (Gen. 3:1-21; Mt. 4:1-11; and Heb. 4:14-16) deal with temptation. First, we heard how Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden and leapt headfirst into sin. Second, we heard how Jesus Himself was tempted in the wilderness by the devil and didn’t jump into sin. And this epistle lesson brings it all together by telling you that your Savior knows your temptations, that He is sympathetic toward your weakness in the face of those temptations, and that He is always ready to welcome you to His throne of grace. Hopefully, v. 15 is a familiar verse to you already, but I want you to hear it again. Listen carefully. “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

We might hear that and just fly over it without giving it much thought. I think it is easy to have a blasé attitude toward that verse and think, “Sure, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, but look how easily He resisted those temptations. He just quoted some Bible verses, and voilà. No big deal. After all, He’s God, and God cannot sin. The temptations I face are much more difficult.” Dear saints, be careful with that kind of thinking. To think that Jesus wasn’t tempted like we are is to essentially deny His humanity.

Jesus was indeed tempted in every way – every way – that we are tempted. And, in fact, I think v. 15here teaches us very clearly that Jesus knows what it is to be tempted even better than you and I do. Try this picture:

Imagine there are two men who are standing over a pit of sin. This pit could be any sin. It could be lust and clicking on certain websites, it could be anger toward others, it could be gluttony, it could be gossip. And I would encourage you to imagine that this pit is whatever sin you recognize most often in your own life. So, these two men are standing over the pit of sin with a cord tied around their waist. At the bottom of that pit is the devil trying to tempt these men into sin.

Neither of the men simply jump into that pit and willingly sin. So, the devil adds some weight. Satan adds five pounds to the first man’s cord. The man notices a little tug, but he knows what is at the bottom of the pit, so he resists. The devil adds another ten pounds to the cord, and the man has to compensate a bit to keep his balance, but he still resists. So, the devil adds another twenty-five pounds. The cord is digging into the man’s waist. It’s painful and difficult. And the man thinks, “Well, this is just going to keep getting harder. The struggle isn’t going to stop.” So, he simply jumps into the pit and sins. And there, please notice that I said that he ‘jumps’ into the pit. He doesn’t simply fall into the pit. Scripture does talk about ‘falling’ into sin but you only fall into sin after you jump. The man willingly and deliberately jumps in because he figures the temptation is just going to continue to get worse. I’ll explain that bit about jumping more in a bit.

Now, the second man doesn’t jump into the pit right away either. The first five and the additional ten pounds are just as noticeable to him as it was to the first man, but he doesn’t jump. The next twenty-five pounds cut into his skin just as it did the other, but he keeps fighting. So, the devil keeps adding weight. Another fifty pounds. Then, another hundred pounds. The second man is pulling with all his might against the 190 lbs. of temptation weight. He’s clutching on to a tree with every ounce of strength to keep himself out of the pit. The devil decides that a little more weight will do the trick and throws it on the end of the cord… 

But the cord snaps. And the man is left there on the ground. He’s tired and sore and injured, but he isn’t in the pit. He remains on the firm, solid ground.

Now, which of those two men knows better what it is to be tempted? The second man. The man who resisted the temptation. He fought longer and harder, and by God’s grace, he prevailed.

With that picture in your mind, listen to what Heb. 2:17-18 says about Jesus, “[Christ] had to be made like His brothers,” that’s all of us (not just the men here), “He had to be made like His brothers in every respect in order to atone for the sins of the people.” Now, listen very carefully as the text continues, “Because [Jesus] Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Dear saints, Jesus suffered when He was tempted. When our text here says that Jesus was “tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin,” that isn’t just referring to the types of sin that Jesus was tempted with. He knows every weight of temptation that you have experienced. He knows what it is to have that cord pulling and tugging Him. Yet, He endured the weight and allure of sin. Every cord and rope and chain of temptation that the devil used to try and pull Jesus into the pit of sin broke. So, your Savior is able and knows how to help you when you are being tempted.

Now, that brings me back to what I said in the picture where the first man jumps into the pit of sin. This little analogy should shed new light on 1 Cor. 10:13, which says, “No temptation has come upon you that is not common to man. But God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.” Stop there for just a second. Jesus knows how much weight of temptation you can handle. The cords and ropes the devil would use to tempt you will all break, they will completely snap, at the exact weight that God determines. Satan can’t use ropes of temptation that are more than you can bear. The devil does not have that ability. Back to the text, “God will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation [God] will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Dear saints, that is why we have to say that when we are tempted and sin, we don’t just fall into the pit. No, we jump. You and I too easily jump into the various pits of sin. And it is only after we jump that we fall. When the weight gets heavy and the struggle long, we simply jump and find ourselves in those pits of despair. We need to fight temptations because those cords will break. Scripture promises. Later in Heb. 12[:4], we hear this, “In your struggle against sin,” and the word there in Greek for ‘struggle’ is ἀνταγωνίζομαι (antagonizomai) where we get our word ‘antagonist.’ It’s interesting to know that word ἀνταγωνίζομαι is used outside of Scripture to describe a boxing match and even mortal combat – fighting to the death. So let’s use that idea. “In your mortal combat against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Fighting temptation isn’t just a mortal combat for your physical life; it is an eternal combat for your soul. Yet, you and I too often do not put up much of a fight. We jump into all sorts of sins. Repent.

Maybe you noticed that I titled this sermon “Confident Repentance,” and here I’ve spent all this time talking about temptations and the need to resist them. We do need to resist temptation. We need to fight against our sinful flesh. Yet, we also recognize that we keep jumping headfirst into sins over and over again. And the thing that this text would teach us is that we do not need to hide that fact before God. So, here is why you can confidently repent: you have a merciful God who can personally sympathize with your weakness when it comes to temptation and sin.

One of the saddest things we saw in our Old Testament lesson is that Adam and Eve fled from the sound of their Creator after they sinned. Then, over and over God is simply trying to get them to repent which is nothing more than telling the truth about your sin. God asks, “Where are you?” God knew where they were, and He knew what they had done. He was just trying to get them to tell the truth about their sin. God asks Adam a second question, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree I commanded you to not eat?” In other words, God again just wanted Adam to speak the truth about his sin. But Adam passes the buck. Eve gets asked, “What is this that you have done?” and she blames the serpent. Parents wouldn’t accept these excuses from their children because Adam and Eve are both trying to put the blame somewhere else. It isn’t what we might call ‘true repentance.’

But also notice, there are little kernels of truth. Adam does say he ate – even though he blames his wife and, ultimately, God. Eve also admits she ate even though she blames the serpent. But God abundantly merciful and counts it as repentance. Notice the first thing God does. He punishes the devil and promises to send Jesus to crush his head.

God takes these sorry excuses and counts them as repentance, and this is way back in Genesis. So, how much more, now that Jesus has come and has been tempted in every way that you are, now that Scripture promises that because of Christ God is sympathetic to your temptations because He knows your struggles against them, how much more confidence can you have that when you repent and tell the truth about your sin you will also find mercy and forgiveness?

You can, with sure and certain confidence, approach God’s throne of grace and admit those times that the heavy weight of temptation got to you and you jumped into the pit of sin. You can confess the times where there was just a little weight – just measly fifteen or even ten pounds – and you jumped. You can even bring before God the times where there wasn’t any weight and you simply jumped into the pit.

Jesus knows your temptations, your weakness, and your failures. And He still goes to the cross for you. Jesus takes your sin upon Himself. Jesus has gone into every pit of sin into which you have jumped to rescue and redeem you. He suffered all the wrath you have earned by your sins. And now, He has ascended to the right hand of God the Father ready to hear your plea, “Have mercy on me.” And He does.

So, now, confidently repent. And hear His merciful invitation to take your seat at His table. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Dust & Doves – Sermon on Jonah 3:1-10 and Matthew 6:16-21 for Ash Wednesday

Listen here.

Jonah 3:1-10; Matthew 6:16-21

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Tonight, you heard harsh words. They were the same words that were first spoken to your father Adam, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). God had said it would be this way, “In the day you eat of it, you will die,” and so it is.

God never intended to speak such harsh words of judgment over the crown of His creation. When Adam was created, God had lovingly and carefully formed him out of the mud. As a potter molds and shapes the clay (Is. 64:8), so God formed and shaped Adam. Then, God blew into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul. After God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs, God blew on both of them again and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over everything that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). God wanted more and more of these creatures of dust which He had made in His image.

But tonight, we remember what we have destroyed by our sins. We need to remember because we so easily forget what our sin is and what our sin does. Your sins and my sins aren’t just little accidents here and there. They aren’t just making an occasional wrong choice. Every one of our sins is a rebellion against God. Sin corrupts and darkens and infects every part of us – body and soul. Our sin is the cause of our stiffness, soreness, tiredness, and fatigue. But even if we can hide the outward, bodily effects of our sin, we cannot hide anything before God. Eventually, sin will overtake us and we will return to dust.

Tonight, we remember what we have done to bring about our own death. We remember how we have lived as though God did not matter and as though we mattered most. We remember that our sin is every thought, word, and deed that we have done and what we have left undone. We remember that we justly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment. We remember that our heart is always turning everywhere except where true treasure is to be found. And, as we remember all of this, we repent.

As important as it is to remember our sin, our separation from God, and our mortality, there is something more important to remember and that is the fact that God remembers His promises to you.

Tonight, we heard about Jonah’s preaching and the repentance it brought to the people of Nineveh (Jon. 3:1-10). God had called Jonah to preach to that great city once before, but Jonah ran the opposite way. Jonah ran, not because he was afraid, but because he had faith in God’s Words. Jonah knew that God had promised to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Ex. 34:6-7). Jonah didn’t want that for the people of Nineveh. We heard how he went and preached a reluctant, one-sentence sermon of only Law. But despite Jonah’s reluctance and poor preaching, God’s Word was still effective. (And that, by the way, is a comfort for me.) The people of Nineveh repented and turned to the one true God whose mercy abounds.

The people of Nineveh heard and believed God’s Word (Jon. 3:5). And they took, what was for them, a shot in the dark. They repented thinking that maybe, just maybe, God would turn from His fierce anger. And it paid off. God forgave them.

A lot could be said about Jonah’s sinful attitude toward preaching to the people of Nineveh, but we’re going to leave that for another time. Tonight, know this. The same God who forgave the wicked sinners of Nineveh is also your God.

God sent Jonah, whose name means ‘dove,’ to proclaim peace to Nineveh. And even though that little dove, who now smelled of whale vomit (because that’s what he had become), and even though his sermon stank as much as he did, God’s peace arrived to those dusty sinners of Nineveh.

Tonight, God has done for you what He did for the Ninevites. God has sent the dove of His Holy Spirit. God has gathered you here tonight so He can breathe on you His life-giving words.

Your merciful God remembers that you are dust, and He has done something about it. God Himself took on a dusty, human frame when He was born. He took on your human flesh so He could draw all the poison of your sin into Himself. The same God is the One who forgives and raises the poor out of the dust to live forever in His kingdom.

Through God’s Word tonight, He is creating faith in us who were His enemies. He brings life to the dying. He opens the gates of heaven because this Word creates faith which remembers God’s promise that He will remember your sins no more.

Tonight, God invites you to His altar to hear another one-sentence sermon. “Take, eat and drink; this is the Body and Blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” He gives you this Sacrament so that we men and women of dust will live eternally. Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] I am thankful for a sermon by Pr. Ralph Tausz as inspiration for this sermon.

Love – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 for Quinquagesima Sunday

Listen here.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Or as Mr. T would say, “Happy Balentine Day!” 

Love is the highest of all virtues. Faith and hope are right near the top, but love is still the greatest. More on that at the end of the sermon. 

The world doesn’t know what love is. And too often, even we Christians have a misguided understanding of love. Sometimes, love hurts as the band Nazareth said back in ’75. Our problem is that we have associated love with certain feelings, and we wrongly think we are loving when we say or do something that makes us feel good about ourselves. When our feelings become the standard of what is and what is not love, we are in a bad place. What’s even worse is that in our culture today tolerance has risen to the top of all virtues. Can you imagine getting a card from your spouse or parent or child that says, “Happy Valentine’s Day! I tolerate you”? It wouldn’t go well.

To be sure, tolerance is a virtue. There are times where we find the views of others to be strange, wrong, or even abhorrent, but we can still live peaceably with that person. That’s true tolerance, and it is good to be tolerant in that sense. But when the word ‘tolerance’ is used today, that’s not what people usually mean. Today, ‘tolerance’ has come to mean that you endorse or affirm opinions or ideas that are totally unbiblical and unnatural, and if you don’t, you are labeled as ‘intolerant.’ We could do a whole study on the hypocrisy of that mindset, but we’re not going to do that today – at least not directly. Instead, we are going to talk about love in the truest sense.

Love is what this world needs because true love is in short supply. Thankfully, the Scriptures repeatedly show us what true love is, what true love does, and what true love does not do. This text from 1 Cor. 13 is one of the best definitions of love. In v. 4-8a, we are given sixteen different aspects of love – seven describe what love is and nine describe what it is not.

Just to run through them quickly, and I will encourage you to take your Scripture insert home and use two different-colored highlighters to mark what love is and what it is not.

Here is what love is. Love is patient and kind. Love rejoices with the truth. Love is bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. When you consider the seven things that love is, you and I can quickly see that we are not loving because we are not those things.

Here is what love is not. Love is not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not rude, and not insistent. Love is not irritable and not resentful (the Gk. there is literally love does not ‘count up wrongdoing.’ I like how other translations do it there, ‘It keeps no record of wrongs.’). Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Love does not end. When you consider those nine things that love is not, again, you and I quickly see that we are not loving because we are those things.

So, again, Scripture tells us what love is, and we recognize we are not those things. And Scripture tells us what love is not, and we recognize we are those things. Let us all repent.

There is One who is all the things that love is and who is not all the things that love isn’t – God. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16). We see this most clearly in Jesus. 1 John 4:9-10 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the ‘atoning sacrifice’) for our sins.” If we want to see the love described here in 1 Cor. 13 in action and what it looks like in real life, all we have to do is look at Jesus, God in the flesh – embodied love. So, we’re going to play a game here. Let’s consider how Jesus interacted with people and ask if He was loving. I promise there are no tricks here, but there are wrong answers. The purpose of this little exercise is to help us understand how to live a life of love.

First question. Was Jesus loving when He repeatedly taught the disciples that He must be betrayed, go to the cross, suffer, die, and rise again – even though the disciples didn’t understand it (Lk. 9:22; 9:43b-45; 18:31-34)? Yes, Jesus was loving. He was being patient, and He was bearing with the disciples’ misunderstanding.

Next question. Was Jesus loving in our Gospel text (Lk. 18:31-43) when He restored the sight of blind Bartimaeus? Yes, He was being kind. Was Jesus loving when He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever (Mt. 8:14), when He forgave and healed the paralytic who was lowered through the hole ripped open in the roof of His house (Mk. 2:1f), when He cleansed lepers, cast out demons, gave hearing to the deaf, fed the hungry, and raised the dead? Yes, Jesus was loving. He was being very, very kind.

Good job! You’re doing well at our little game. Let’s keep playing and see how many imaginary points you can get.

Was Jesus being loving when He went into the wilderness to fast and be tempted (Mt. 4:1-11; Lk. 4:1-13)? Was He loving when He believed God’s Word rather than the devil’s lies in that temptation? Was He loving when He hoped in God’s provision of food at the right time? Was He loving when He endured those temptations? Yes! Jesus was loving. Remember, love believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Let’s go to round two and make the game a little more difficult here.

Was Jesus loving when He preached the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7)? Jesus taught there that no jot or tittle will pass away from the Commandments. He taught that anger is the same as murder – it’s just murder in your heart. Same with lust. Lust is committing adultery in your heart. Was Jesus loving in that sermon when He teaches you how to love your enemies, how to give, how to pray, and how to fast? Yes, Jesus was loving. Remember, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.

Taking a quick break from our game here to bring this to your everyday life. There are times where you are going to have to correct others. Parents, this duty regularly falls to you, but it isn’t only for parents. If you love your children, you will have to teach your kids right and wrong. You will have to teach them how to deal with people who hate them, how to be generous, how to pray, and how to give up things that are harmful to them.

Let’s step the difficulty in our game up a notch and make it a little harder. Remember, there’s no tricks in this game. For this round, think back to the list of things that love is not. Love is not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, insistent, or irritable.

Was Jesus loving when He cleared out the Temple (Mt. 21:12-17; Mk. 11:15-18; Lk. 19:45-46; Jn. 2:13-22)? Yes! Jesus was loving. But you might wonder when He saw the sellers and moneychangers and flipped their tables, when He made a whip to drive them out of the Temple, when He was consumed with zeal for God’s house and said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” wasn’t Jesus being envious, rude, and irritable? No, He wasn’t. He was still being loving even though those acts certainly made the sellers and money-changers uncomfortable.

How about when Jesus clearly taught, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” (Jn. 14:6) was Jesus being loving there? Isn’t that being boastful, arrogant, and insistent? No, Jesus wasn’t being any of those things. He was loving. Again, He was rejoicing in and teaching the truth.

We need another break from our game here to apply this to our lives. I hope you all remember Abdi, the leader of the Islamic center just a couple blocks from here. A few years ago, the Islamic center had an event to introduce themselves to the community, who they are and what they do. The people there were extremely kind. They provided a good meal to everyone who came. But one of the presenters that day took a lot of time trying to say that Muslims worship the same God that Christians worship. Which is absolutely false. Sure, they will say that they trace their pagan religion back to Abraham which we do as well. They will point to passages in the Koran that say Jesus is a good teacher who should be listened to. But they deny the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh who died and rose again for the forgiveness of sins. Islam is a false, pagan religion of works not grace.

During that gathering, Abdi invited me to introduce myself, and I wasn’t really prepared to say anything. So, I had to make a split second decision of how to love these people who were being kind and generous but teaching things that are false. I don’t exactly remember what I said, but I simply thanked them for their hospitality and mentioned that I hope to get to know them better and work with them to help the people of our community. I didn’t go on a diatribe of how Muslims will go to hell unless they convert to Christianity. I didn’t rant about the evil, violence, and oppression that Islam promotes. It wasn’t the time to do that. But I was wearing this cross which confesses that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It confesses Jesus’ death and resurrection. I know some people there noticed the cross. And I hope and pray that how I conducted myself there will open the door for opportunities to talk more with those people for whom Jesus died so they too can believe in Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And I will readily confess, that may have not been most loving thing to do. I admit, there was some cowardice in that moment on my part. God forgive me if anything I did or said was misleading the Muslims there to think I was affirming their pagan beliefs. I don’t think it was misleading in that way. But I hope and pray what I said and did there will open the door to develop good relationships and grant opportunities to point them to Christ. All of this is to say, dear saints, you are, at times, going to be put into positions where you need to be loving and it isn’t crystal clear what the most loving thing to do is. For the time being, we see in a mirror dimly. But know that your words and actions must confess the truth that Jesus is the only way of salvation. That is always loving.

Back to our little game, and this is the final, and in my opinion, most difficult round.

Think back to when Jesus was talking with the woman at the well in Samaria (see Jn. 4:1-42). There are other moments that would work here. But this is my game, so I get to make up the questions. As Jesus talks to her, He offers her the water of eternal life, and the woman is extremely interested to learn more. Then Jesus says, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” But the woman responds, “I have no husband.” And Jesus comes right back saying, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” If love, as defined by Scripture, says that “love is not resentful” (and remember that literally, that means “love does not count up wrongs”), was Jesus being loving there? I mean, Jesus brought up a detailed record of her sins. Was He loving when He did that? Yes, Jesus was being loving. The woman’s adultery was a sin that needed to be addressed and dealt with. She needed repentance and forgiveness, and Jesus gives her both repentance and forgiveness (for God being the source of repentance see Act. 11:18, 5:31).

Dear saints, it is unloving to endorce or celebrate people harming themselves in their life of sin. Parents, it is not loving to allow your children to continually ignore your rules and treat your rules as though they do not matter. It is not loving to repeatedly warn your child of consequences but not follow through on them. For example, if you threaten to punish your kid for standing on the couch but never actually dole out that punishment, they will think that your words aren’t important. And when you warn them that running into the street without looking first is dangerous, they might think you aren’t serious about that either.

Another example, I don’t think any of you are dealing with this specifically – God be praised. But I want to use this example to set up something else. If there is someone in your life who is slowly killing themselves with an addiction to illegal drugs, is it loving to provide a home and access to your money (even if it is by them stealing it)? No, it is not loving. You might need to kick that person out of your house. That person might say that you are being unloving by making them homeless. They might not see your actions as loving, but know that it is not love to help feed that addiction. That sets me up for this:

The same goes for sexual sins. And I’m going to talk about the LGBTQ movement for a moment here. It is not loving to say that it’s ok for two men or two women to pretend to be married. God invented and created marriage to be a man and a woman. And don’t fall for the lie that those relationships don’t harm anyone and aren’t your concern. People who chose to live a homosexual lifestyle are harming themselves and others with diseases and depression. They are harming others by not having children who will become productive members of society. The same goes for men who think they are women and women who think they are men. The hormones they inject into their bodies and the surgeries they may have do irreparable harm. It is not loving to say that those choices aren’t the concern of anyone else and promote them. We do need to correct these things in as kind a way as possible. We do not harangue or yell. We need to let love guide the way in which we correct these things. Build relationships, look for open doors, and speak in kindest and most loving way – always.

Dear saints, I hope this little game we’ve played has been helpful to give your love direction. Know that following and keeping God’s commands and speaking the truth about what God commands is love. When Jesus summarizes the Ten Commandments, He boils it down to this, “Love the Lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk. 12:28-31). And Romans 13:10distills it down even further when it says, “Love is the fulfilling of the Law.” How we love others in a specific situation isn’t always going to be perfectly clear. But the Commandments and our relationship with others gives us a guide as to how to love others. There will be times where you will have to use your God-given wisdom to know if you need to be patient or kind or speak harsh truths that may not be welcomed or received. And know – know beyond a shadow of a doubt – that you will fail in your love for God and your love for others.

But also know that God hasn’t failed in His love for you. Even though the disciples didn’t know what Jesus meant when He plainly told them that He would die and rise again for them, He did it anyway. Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Well, Jesus went even further. He laid down His life for wicked, unloving sinners. He laid down His life for you.

Love is not one virtue among many. It is the only virtue. The chief virtue. The virtue from which all other virtues flow. When this passage says that love never ends, know what that means for you. Christ’s love never ends, which means that Christ’s love embraces you with a love that will change your mortal body into a resurrected, glorious body. Christ’s unending love for you is why you believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

In this life, our love will always fall short of the real standards of what love is. But Jesus’ love for you doesn’t. God’s love for you in Christ is perfect, complete, and whole.

And the day will come when you will also love perfectly. Your impatience, your cruelty, anger, pride, envy, and bitterness will disappear from your heart. What you now see in a mirror dimly will become crystal clear. God’s pure love will flow through you forever.

That’s why love is the greatest. Faith will cease because it will be replaced by sight. Hope will no longer be needed because it will be exchanged with experience. That’s why love is the greatest of the three. It will never end. God’s steadfast love for you in Christ never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new each and every morning. Now, and unto eternity. For that, God be praised. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Seed – Sermon on Luke 8:4-15 for Sexagesima Sunday

Listen here.

Luke 8:4-15

1 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This is Jesus’ first parable, so a quick note about parables is important here at the outset. We get some insight as to the reason Jesus teaches in parables when the disciples ask Jesus what the parable means. Jesus tells them, “I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand.” In short, parables are not intended to make things clearer. The parables, according to Jesus, are meant to obscure things. And here’s why:

The crowds had begun to reject Jesus’ teaching. Basically, what Jesus says He is doing is teaching these know-it-alls in riddles, so they realize just how dumb they really are (see esp. Mt. 13:10-17). You know how it is when you are around a group of people and there is a joke that you aren’t in on. You get curious and want to be ‘in.’ So you ask questions and dig deeper to be part of the ‘in’ crowd.

God be praised, the disciples fall for the bait and do exactly that. Please notice, that. These guys who have been called by Jesus to be fishers of men, even they have to ask Jesus what the parable means. When the disciples ask Jesus what He means by this parable, they are exercising and growing in their faith. They go to the right place with their misunderstanding; they go straight to Jesus. “Dude, what are you talking about?” Whenever you have doubts or questions or feel like outsiders, you do well to follow the disciples’ example here. Let’s all go to Jesus, the Word made flesh, and get things cleared up.

Honestly, this particular parable really is quite simple. And to make it idiot-proof and so we don’t get it wrong, Jesus gives us the cheat sheet. We can thank the Holy Spirit for inspiring the Gospel writers to help us dense folk today. So, since you have ears, hear what God desires you to hear.

In the parable, the seed is the Word of God. The different places where the seed falls – the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the good soil – are the various conditions of the heart. While we might be tempted to ask, “What kind of soil am I?” it is probably better to recognize that you and I are each of these types of soil at different times. And even though Jesus doesn’t explicitly say this, I think the types of soil that are presented in the parable are in a particular order. Jesus starts with what is easiest for the devil to attack and prevent fruit from being produced and moves to the types of hearts that are more difficult. So, let’s go through each of them.

First, the path, and listen most closely right now. Open your ears here for two minutes. If you don’t listen to any other part of this sermon, listen to this. The path represents those who hear the Word of God, but then, the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts. Look again at the end of v. 12. Our translation, the ESV, has Jesus explaining what happens to the seed on the path by saying, “so they may not believe and be saved.” Now, the ESV is a faithful translation (I wouldn’t be using it for our services if I didn’t think so), but I think the translators unintentionally mislead us a little bit here (and to be fair to the ESV, other translations do the same thing). They make it sound like there are two verbs there – ‘not believe’ and ‘not be saved.’ But, actually, there is only one verb. ‘Not believe’ is a participle and ‘not be saved’ is the verb. In other words, more literally, Jesus says, “so that having believed they may not be saved.” In other words, these people hear God’s Word, and they believe it. But before that Word can begin to grow and sprout, the devil simply snatches it away. This is the devil’s easiest attack on the Word of God. And I think we’ve all experienced this.

To my great shame, I will admit that there are times when I hear God’s Word and it goes right in one ear and out the other. For example, after I drop my kids off for school, I will listen as my phone plays one of my daily Bible readings while I drive here to work. And there are days when I get distracted by something – thinking about my day, or another driver who doesn’t come to a complete stop or use their turn signal or whatever. The reading ends, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what I heard. Other times, I’ve listened to sermons – good, solid, biblical sermons – but once the sermon is over, I couldn’t tell you what the sermon was about. Again, this is the easiest way for the devil to attack the powerful, effective Word of God. He simply snatches it away because it falls on the hard, concrete path.

People of God, when you hear God’s Word, when you read the Bible, when you sit in those chairs and hear the preaching, listen up. Do whatever it takes to pay attention. Get enough sleep on Saturday. Have some caffeine before you come. Don’t let your heart be a paved, hardened path where the devil can simply come and snatch God’s Word from you.

Now, that you’ve heard that, I hope I have your attention and you keep listening.

The second place the seed of God’s Word falls is the rock. This ground is a little more difficult for Satan. This is when we hear God’s Word and receive it with joy. But then those promises get scorched by the heat of trials. We believe the Word for a while, but when times of trouble and testing come, we abandon those promises and fall away.

How many times does God promise to be with you always, but then, when hot trials come, we think God is angry with us and has abandoned us? Trials, tribulations, and troubles are not the time to doubt God’s promises! Think about it the terms of this parable. The heat from the sun represents the trials. But it isn’t the hot sun that kills plants. If plants have good, deep roots that reach down to where the moisture is, the heat from the sun is what causes plants to grow and bear fruit.

Think of when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced death – they faced the hottest trial that anyone can encounter, literally! But they refused to let that trial wither their faith. They had roots that went down to the moisture and their faith prevailed and even flourished when Jesus walked with them in the burning fiery furnace. If you know even a little bit of church history, you know that the church typically grows when it is persecuted. Dear saints, when trials and tribulations come, that is not the time to abandon God’s promises. That is the time to sink your roots deep into them and find the moisture you need. Those trials will in fact cause you to grow and not wither away.

The third place the Word of God falls is among the thorns. The thorns are the cares and riches of this life. Jesus here is warning us that trials and tribulations aren’t the only enemy to our faith. Good gifts that God gives can also be bad for our faith. We are tempted to think that when we are comfortable and not facing trials that we will be left alone, but that isn’t the case. We cannot let our guard down when things are going well. The devil will still attack us, but this is also where he has the hardest time. Satan hasn’t been able to simply snath the promises of God away, and he hasn’t succeeded with his fiery trials. So, the devil has no other choice but to try and choke out God’s Word. But this attack takes the longest and is the hardest for him to accomplish. Here, the devil has to try to slowly introduce weeds to choke out God’s Word. He can’t do it all at once, otherwise we would recognize the attack and be on guard against it. So, he works slowly to choke out God’s Word from your heart.

This is just a reminder. Those weeds – the riches, pleasures, and cares of this life – will always be a threat and nuisance to you. Christian, there will be times where you will need to go out and pick weeds from your life. You can’t simply trim weeds. You have to pull them up by the root. Dear saints, ask yourself, “What has gotten in the way of the Word of God? What things keep me from hearing the blessings God would give me through His Word?” When Jesus talks here about the cares and riches of this life, He doesn’t get specific. Instead, He wants us to constantly assess ourselves and see what is hindering us from rejoicing in God’s Word and being participants in God’s family.

Now, we are ten days away from the beginning of Lent. Today is February 7th and Lent begins February 17th. Scripture doesn’t give specifics for each of us as to what chokes out our faith; instead, God’s Word gives us wisdom to discern what might be slowly strangling us. I am calling on you now to use that wisdom.

Lent is typically a time to remove particular hinderances to our devotion to God’s Word. The Scriptures call it fasting. Fasting is not commanded, but Jesus does assume that His disciples will fast at times (see. Mt. 6:16-18). Fasting is not a way to make God more pleased with you. God couldn’t be more pleased with you who believe that Jesus has forgiven you of all your sins. Instead, fasting is a way to uproot the thorns that the devil would use to choke out your faith. Fasting curbs your sinful, fleshly desires. Fasting, basically, tells your flesh, “You are not in charge of me.”

Lent is a time to pull out those weeds and thorns that would choke out your faith. You have ten days to consider what you might remove from your life for the forty days of Lent. Maybe, there is something that would be beneficial for you to give up in order to discipline your flesh and give extra attention to God’s Word. Again, God doesn’t command this. It’s not something you have to do, but it is a good practice. Don’t think that God will be more pleased with you if you fast. Instead, know that it is a good and beneficial discipline to deny yourself something so that thing, whatever it is, doesn’t become a choking, strangling thorn in your life of faith. Lent is a good time to pick weeds from your spiritual life.

Finally, the Word falls on good soil. Just as you, sinner, are the soil of the path, the rocks, and the thorns, you, Christian, are also the good soil. You are both and all at the same time. God’s Word comes and produces an abundance of fruit that yields a hundred-fold and provides for others.

When we hear this parable, one of the most shocking things is how the recklessly the sower throws around the seed. He throws it around willy-nilly and it lands all over the place. Well, right here at this altar, the sower is about to carefully plant the Seed of His Word deeply into you. You are about to come and receive Christ, the Word made flesh, His very Body and Blood. Let this careful, deliberate planting of God’s Word and the deliverance of God’s forgiveness of all your sins bear, let it bear the fruit of joy and love. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.