Blessed Wages – Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12 for All Saints’ Day (Observed)

Matthew 5:1–12

¹ Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dear saints, that’s you. If you are a Christian, you are a saint. A saint is nothing more than a holy person. I don’t imagine you think that you are holy in and of yourself. If you think you are, that is nothing more than pride, which is evidence that you are not holy. No, you are a saint because you belong to Jesus. He has made you holy by shedding His blood and dying for you. Christ has purchased and redeemed you and has made you holy.

Now, that brings us to the Beatitudes, but we’re going to start at the end so we can better understand the whole thing. In the last two verses, Jesus says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

Jesus commands us to do something here, but it might be one of the most difficult commands in Scripture. Your Lord commands you to rejoice and be glad when you are reviled, when you are persecuted, and when people utter all kinds of evil against you falsely. This command doesn’t have to do with how you use your body. We’re used to those kinds of commands – don’t use your mouth, tongue, and lips to lie; don’t use your arms and hands to kill or steal. We can do those things at least outwardly – even though we don’t perfectly keep those commands when we don’t lie, kill, or steal. But with this command, Jesus demands that you have certain feelings. Be joyful and glad. Yes, Jesus commands even your emotions and feelings, and Christ gives the reason we are to have those feelings.

“Rejoice and be glad for,” in other words, ‘because,’ or ‘here’s why,’ “your reward is great in heaven.”This is so helpful. The reason you are to rejoice is your heavenly reward is great. If you looked up the Greek word that gets translated as ‘reward,’ the first definition you would see is ‘wage.’ In fact, it’s the same word Jesus uses in the parable about the workers in the vineyard who all get paid the same wage of a denarius, no matter how many hours they worked (Mt. 20:1-16).

We do use the word ‘reward’ in a similar way. If you win a game or a race, your reward is a trophy or medal – it’s what you’ve earned for all your work before and during the contest. But ‘wage’ puts a little more of an edge to it. Wages are what you get paid for doing something, and Jesus promises great, heavenly wages.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus lets you know that things are going to be difficult in this life, at least for a while. You will be poor in spirit. Many things will cause you to mourn. You will be meek and humble. You will constantly hunger and thirst for righteousness. You will be merciful instead of vengeful. You will be pure in heart. You will seek to make peace instead of demanding your rights. And when you do all of that, Jesus says, people will persecute you because of it. But Christ wants you to endure all of that with rejoicing because He will pay you. And He will pay you well.

And to be clear, this isn’t the only time Jesus says something like this. In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus says, and I’ll paraphrase: “When you give a feast, don’t invite your friends, family, or rich neighbors because they will invite you to repay you. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind who cannot repay you. Do this because you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” There, Jesus says that one of the reasons or motivations for you to treat people well – even those who can’t repay you – is that you will be repaid by God at the resurrection.

Shouldn’t you just do this because Jesus has been so kind and merciful to you? Yes, you should. God’s mercy freely given to you is all the motivation you should need. But Jesus gives another motivation here in the Beatitudes and in Lk. 14:14, and that motivation is that God Himself will repay you.

This is a great promise, and we should use it more often. So, take this promise, and keep it in your back pocket so you can pull it out regularly. The next time you are mistreated, pull this promise out of your pocket. When you spend hours planning, shopping, chopping, and cooking a nice meal for your kid and you place that that healthy food in front of him, but he says, “I don’t like that!” and slides it off the table so it spills all over the floor, take a breath. Remind yourself, “Jesus promises that I will be repaid.” When you are waiting in a long line and someone rudely and budges in front of you, take comfort in the fact that you will be repaid. When someone dominates the conversation and constantly interrupts you, don’t be impolite back and take your vengeance. Instead, think about those heavenly wages that Christ promises.

Of course, none of this – not one bit of it – is the basis for your salvation. You aren’t earning God’s favor or pleasure because of these works. But, again, this promise of blessed, heavenly wages can give you patience and motivate you toward good works. This is simply doing what you are called to do in Colossians 3:1-4, “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your Life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

So, to go through the Beatitudes quickly:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You are the subject of a king who isn’t going anywhere. He won’t ever be unseated. This world is not your home. You have a better one now and forever.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. That’s a heavenly reward. You will be comforted by Jesus. Yes, you have this comfort now through the Gospel and forgiveness of your sins, but there is even more and greater comfort yet to come in heaven.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The new creation will be yours. You, dear saint, will be co-owners of the new heavens and earth. It belongs to you.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. You already have the righteousness of Christ. You don’t hunger and thirst for that. But you do hunger and thirst for the righteousness that will be yours when your sinful nature is finally done away with. That will come, and it will be paid to you as your blessed wage.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Yes, you have mercy now, but there’s still more to come. And you will be given this mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You will behold Him and His face forever. The closest you get to that here is in the Lord’s Supper where you get to eat and drink His Body and Blood. But here, He is still veiled. Eventually, that veil will be removed.

Finally, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Yes, you are God’s children now, but what you will be has not yet appeared. But know that when He appears, you will be like Him because you will see Him as He is (1 Jn. 3:2).

The treasures of earth are going to fade and pass away (Mt. 6:19), but your blessed wages will not. Dear saints, blessed are you. Jesus promises. Amen.

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

Slaves & Sons – Sermon on John 8:31-36 for Reformation Sunday

Oct29

John 8:31–36

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus says, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Those words of our Lord have been rolling around in my mind this past month. What Jesus says there has a lot of implications both for individuals and, by extension, for congregations. To be a disciple of Jesus – in other words to be a Christian – means abiding, remaining, and staying in Jesus’ Word. Those who are saved love to hear their Savior’s words. And that does not only refer to the red-letter words in our Bibles. It’s the whole thing. From the words, “In the beginning,” in Gen. 1:1 through the final, “Amen,” of Rev. 22:21 are all Jesus’ Words.

And notice to whom Jesus says this – this is so important. Jesus is speaking to “the Jews who had believed in Him.” In other words, Christ is speaking to Christians (Ro. 10:17) – people who believe His words. So, what Jesus is calling them to do is to continue abiding and remaining in His Words because if they do notremain in Jesus’ Words, they will not be His disciples, they will not know the truth, and they will not be free. Dear saints, your life as a Christian is to continue to learn and grow in your knowledge and understanding of the Bible. To be a Christian is to be a student of the Scriptures.

Now, all of that is important to ponder and consider, but there is something even more profound here that I want us to consider today. Again, as Jesus speaks to people who believe in Him, He calls them to abide in His Word so that they will (future tense) be set free. In other words, those who believe in Jesus are waiting for a freedom that is still to come. That freedom is promised, and that freedom is the hope of every Christian, but it is still in the future.

Today, as Jesus’ disciples, let’s abide in these words of Jesus here for a moment because many other passages in Scripture say that we are free when we believe. Romans 6:22 says that you, believer, have been set free from sin. A little later in Romans 8:2, Scripture says that the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus. Galatians 5:1 says that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Just like the people in this reading did, we might want to ask Jesus, “How is it that You say, ‘You will become free’? Aren’t we free already?” Well, Jesus is clear. “Truly, truly. Amen, amen, I say to you everyone who practices,” probably a better way to translate this would be ‘does,’ “everyone who does sin is a slave to sin.” To do sin is to be a slave to sin.

So, dear saints, consider this: Are you a Christian? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe His Word? Yes. Then Scripture is clear, you are free – right now.

But also consider this: Are you perfect? Do you do things that God forbids? Do you not do things that God demands? In other words, do you sin? Yes. Then, your Lord is also clear – you are a slave to sin. And you can’t wiggle out of this. It isn’t just that you make mistakes or that you are programmed to do things that aren’t quite right. No. All of us deliberately sin. We sin on purpose, with full knowledge, and repeatedly. And by sinning, we place ourselves under slavery to sin and put our faith in danger. Repent.

Jesus knows when He says that those who do sin are slaves to sin is a devastating judgment. That’s why He continues speaking and offers us hope saying that even though, “the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Jesus doesn’t just leave you in slavery to sin. He is the Son who sets you free – both now and in the future. Romans 6 says that you have been joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection in your Baptism, and it goes on to say, “our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin may be brought to nothing, so that,” and listen carefully here, “so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Ro. 6:6-7).

Jesus tells us the truth. The one who does sin is a slave to sin, and He sets us free from the evil master of sin. These two clear truths from Scripture have to be one of the most difficult tensions in all the world. You are, for a time, both slaves (because you sin) and sons (because you believe and are redeemed). You are free, and at the same time you are a slave to sin. You aren’t one or the other or bounce back and forth. At the same time, you are sons of God and still slaves to sin. The last half of Romans 7 talks about this tension (Ro. 7:14-25).

You are simultaneously saint and sinner, or, as Jesus puts it here, simultaneously slaves and sons. The tension between those two teachings isn’t understandable or comprehensible. But that’s ok. The Bible teaches all sorts of things that are beyond our understanding like the Trinity; the two natures of Jesus, that He is both God and man; etc. We don’t hesitate to believe those things because Scripture clearly teaches them. Well, Scripture also teaches that you are a slave to sin and a redeemed son of God.

This tension is what keeps you running back to Jesus. It isn’t your obedience or your consistency or the fact that you feel bad about being a sinner that sets you free. Yes, you should feel bad about being a sinner, but that isn’t what sets you free from your slavery to sin. It’s Jesus, the Son, and Him alone who sets you free now and will make you free forever.

Dear saints, when – not ‘if’ but ‘when’ – when you feel the weight of your slavery, when the shackles of your iniquities rub your wrists and ankles raw, when the whip of your transgressions has shredded your back, remember Jesus came for you. He came – not for the righteous because there aren’t any righteous – He came to call you, sinner, to repentance and faith (Mt. 9:13; Mk. 2:17; Lk. 5:32). Jesus sets you free, and if He sets you free, then you are free indeed.

Child of God, abide in Jesus’ Word, and you will remain in the house forever. Amen.

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

The Garment-Giving King – Sermon on Matthew 22:1-14 for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

Oct22

Matthew 22:1–14

¹ And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, ³ and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. ⁴ Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶ while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. ⁷ The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. ¹² And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

What kind of king is this? Throughout most of this parable, he doesn’t look or act like a normal king.

His royal highness is throwing a wedding feast for his son and has already sent out invitations to his subjects. But when he sends his servants to call the guests, they don’t come. The king sends out a second batch of servants with a third invitation, “The feast is ready, the best food – the oxen and fattened calves – have been slaughtered and prepared. Come to the wedding feast.”

Here the king just looks desperate. He doesn’t look like a dignified, royal ruler. He looks more like the smelly, dorky kid in school who wants his classmates to come to his party. And that is how his subjects treat him. They don’t pay any attention to the invitation. They don’t care about his party. They have better things to do. Some go off to work in the dirt, others simply go about business as normal, but some get violent. They seize the servants, commit all kinds of atrocities against them, and even kill them.

What kind of king is this? He seems desperate, needy, whiny, and almost pathetic. That’s what his subjects seem to think of him. They have no interest in him. They don’t care about him, his son, the wedding, or the banquet. How is the king going to react? Well, he’s still the king. Even though he appears weak, he still has his army. After his three invitations have been despised and dismissed as an inconvenience, the king is done with these ungrateful, unworthy subjects. No more servants. Now, it’s time for the troops, the horses, chariots, battering rams, swords, and torches. Vengeance against these unworthy subjects is what is called for and is doled out. The ungrateful invitees are destroyed, and their city is burned to the ground.

But what happens next? Standing on the walls of his castle and overlooking the smoldering ruins that surround him, we would expect that the king would give up on this party and just have a small ceremony for his son. But still the king hasn’t given up. He sends out more servants to the highways and byways. “Bring in anyone you can find. I don’t care who they are. I don’t care if they are good or bad. Just bring as many as you can find into the palace. Fill the banquet hall. It’s time to feast.” All this king wants to do is celebrate the marriage of his son. And he wants people around him to enjoy what he provides.

So, the servants go out and find people. It doesn’t matter if they are noble or common peasants. It doesn’t matter if they are rich or beggars. If the servants can find them, they bring them in. This is a royal wedding and a “black tie” event, but none of these guests needed to rush home and find their best attire. No need to rent a tuxedo or evening gown. The king had them covered, literally. Upon their arrival, the king provided each one of these unprepared, unwashed guests with a wedding garment. He would clothe them from his own royal wardrobe. This king spares no expense when it comes to throwing this feast.

So, the hall is filled with guests. The food is served. The drinks are poured. The music starts. The dancing begins. And the king enters the banquet hall to finally enjoy his party. But what does he see? Another holdout, another person who despises him and his provisions. There in the corner is a man without a wedding garment, a man who decided his own stinky, smelly, unwashed clothes were just fine. He figured he didn’t need the king’s gift, so he refused it. But he miscalculated. Badly.

The king addresses this man, “Friend,” and this isn’t the normal word for ‘friend,’ so we could almost translate it, “Buster, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” This king had provided everything that was needed. Everything was free. And the man has no excuse because there is none. So, the king has the man bound and tossed out – not just out of the party – out into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The parable ends there, but based on what the king has done so far in the story, what do you suppose he does after this rascal is thrown out? I would imagine he simply goes back to the wedding feast, back to the party, the food, the drink, the dancing, and the merry making. The king wanted his feast, so why wouldn’t he let the feast go on?

Seriously, what kind of king is this? Remember, according to Jesus, this is a parable about the kingdom of heaven. The King is God Himself. And this parable mirrors what you see and experience.

In this world, almost everywhere you look, people despise God, the true King. And it isn’t just His invitation they despise. People despise everything God has said. There is little or no respect for God or the authorities He has established – parents, police, leaders, etc. And the people in those positions of authority, who have been placed there by God (Ro. 13:1), don’t seem to deserve authority. You turn on the news, and you see killing, looting, riots, and stealing. Nations are at war. Terrorists are mercilessly attacking women and children. In our estimation, it looks like God doesn’t seem to care about the sin and wickedness that runs rampant throughout the kingdom of His creation. But our understanding of the situation is not correct.

In our Old Testament reading (Is. 55:1-9), we heard what God desires, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” God desires that everyone would be His guest at His table; He desires that all would be saved and at His banquet (1 Tim. 2:4).

When we look at the state of this world, we are tempted to think that God doesn’t care, or that He can’t or won’t do anything about it. We are wrong. Whenever God delays judgment on the wicked, any time we imagine that He is overlooking sin, it is a display of His mercy and grace. God delays His judgment because He wants His banquet filled. God wants to clothe all sinners in the robe of Christ’s righteousness won on the cross. You don’t know better than God. Your ways are not better than His ways. Your thoughts are not higher than His thoughts (Is. 55:8-9).

God is King. He rules and reigns over all things. He isn’t ignoring the sin and wickedness in this world. No. God’s being patient. He wants as many as possible at His feast; He wants His banquet to be filled. To us, His promises seem to be slow, and even forgotten. But they aren’t. He wishes all to reach repentance and faith (2 Pet. 3:9). He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Ex. 34:6).

Dear saints, the banquet is prepared. The King has invited you and clothed you in Christ’s righteousness. The garment-giving King has given you a seat at His feast. His patience in judgment is for your good and for the good of others. In His timing, everything that is wrong will be put to right. Stand in the garment of righteousness that you have been given, and be patient. The feast will begin soon. Amen.

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

Old Man, New Man – Sermon on Ephesians 4:17-28 for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct15

Ephesians 4:17–28

¹⁷ Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰ But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹ assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²² to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. ²⁶ Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸ Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The first four verses of this text are intense. Paul tells the Christians at his former congregation in Ephesus that they are to no longer walk like the Gentiles. Then, his description of the Gentiles is where things liven up. They have futile minds and a darkened understanding. They are alienated from the life of God. They are ignorant, hard-hearted, callous, licentious, and pursue every kind of impurity. Paul isn’t beat around the bush. He is blunt and to the point, not an ounce of “Minnesota Nice” in this description. It’s no wonder that we repeatedly see in the book of Acts that, when Paul goes and preaches in a new place, he gets chased out of the city, beaten with rods, arrested, or pummeled with rocks.

But, now, this needs to be abundantly clear. When Paul is speaking about the Gentiles in this text, he’s referring to unbelievers, people who aren’t Christians. These Gentiles are not identified either by their blood or ancestry, rather they are identified by what they do. Their actions, their darkened understanding, their futile minds, and their sins have alienated them from God. Back in Eph. 2:3, Paul says that all mankind was just like this in their unbelief. Paul even described himself in a similar way when he was a persecutor of the church before he was converted (Gal. 1:13-14). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul is diagnosing the disease in all of us – sin. Left to ourselves, this cancer of idolatry will destroy all of us sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. And there is nothing you or I can do to rescue ourselves from this alienation. There must be a transformation. There must be a complete, radical change.

That change comes only through learning Christ. Christ Himself is the school, the teacher, and the lesson. Through learning Christ, which is nothing more than hearing His life-giving Word and believing in Him as the Savior of sinners, something wonderful happens.

Look again at v. 22-24. Our translation can give a wrong impression. The way it is worded might make it sound like we are commanded to do several things: put off the old self (the word there is ‘man’), be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self (again, the word there is ‘man’). It might sound like those are commands – things we must do. There are a lot of sermons floating around on the internet that say this putting off and putting on is our work, and those sermons give tips, steps, and instructions on how to do it. That is notwhat those verses are saying. These are not things we have to do; these are things that have happened toyou, Christian!

The grammar is clear. What Paul is saying there is that you have put off the old man. The renewing of your mind happened when you believed and ‘learned’ Christ. You have put on the new man who has been created according to God’s likeness in true righteousness and holiness. What Paul is saying here is similar to what the Holy Spirit inspired him to say in Gal. 3:27, “As many of you as were Baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Jesus is the New Man, the New Adam, the Second Adam (1 Co. 15:45), who is the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, and you have put on Christ through faith. Now, when God looks at you, Christian, He doesn’t see your sin. No, He sees Jesus’ righteousness and holiness.

In short, what these verses are saying is that you are to be and remain who God has made you to be by His grace through faith. This is not and cannot be a result of works lest you should boast (Eph. 2:8-9). God has done this to you and for you, believer. This is all so beautiful.

Only after this is firmly established – the fact that by God’s grace given through the working of the Holy Spirit, your old man has been replaced by your new man – only then does Paul go on to give a series of commands. They come in v. 25-28, and each of them could be their own sermon, but I’ll be brief. But, again, notice the introduction to these commands: “Therefore, having [already] put away falsehood…” do these three things:

The first command is that each one of you speak truth with your neighbor. A Christian loves the truth and hates what is false. Christians tell the truth even when it is tough, even when it isn’t nice. The easiest way to be nice all the time is simply to never speak. But God wants you to speak; He wants you to speak the truth in love. Sometimes, this means saying uncomfortable things. Christians call sin ‘sin’ because it is the loving thing to do. Don’t let your fear of what others might think about you stop you from speaking the truth – either about their sin or, even more importantly, about Jesus, the Savior from sin. How many moments and opportunities to share the Gospel have passed you by because you were afraid to simply speak the truth? Even as a pastor, I can say I’ve let too many go. Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner.

The second command is, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Remember that Jesus says that being angry with your neighbor is the same as murder (Mt. 5:21-22), and many places in Scripture anger is right up there at the top of the list of harmful sins (2 Cor. 12:2; Gal. 5:20; Col. 3:8; etc.). In fact, just a couple verses after our text, Paul says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger… be put way from you” (Eph. 4:31). He doesn’t just say, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” He says get rid of it – all of it. So, how are we to understand this?

Get rid of your anger quickly. Getting rid of anger doesn’t mean that you are a pushover. Christians aren’t weak people; remember we speak the truth even when it is hard. But part of our strength is to not give in to our anger, to not be frustrated, irritated, or whatever other synonyms you might replace with the word ‘anger.’ It’s easy to get mad. Toddlers get mad and throw temper-tantrums because they don’t have the strength and discipline to overcome their emotions. Putting away anger takes strength, work, and discipline. Christians are strong people who stay calm even in the face of evil. They control their temper. Remember, Jesus used His strength to patently endure beating, mocking, insults, and even an unjust execution.

The third command is, “Let the thief no longer steal, rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Christians who have put off the old man and put on the new man don’t steal. And don’t be quick to fool yourself into thinking that you’ve never stolen. Sure, maybe you’ve never taken something from someone’s house, robbed a bank, or shoplifted. If you haven’t done that, that’s good, but be honest, you’ve stolen.

Have you ever done a job on the side and asked the person to pay you in cash so you don’t have to report it as income? Yes, that’s stealing. Romans 13:7 says that we are to pay our taxes, and Jesus says to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s (Mt. 22:21). Have you found out something you own is about to break so you quickly sold it? You probably aren’t going to get arrested or sued for that, but that is another form of stealing. Have you ever slacked off at work? That’s stealing too.

Christians are to work. We don’t avoid working, and God cares about the motivation we have for working. The reason we work is so we can be generous and have something to give. Our motivation to work is so that we can give to others who have needs. Christians are conduits of God’s own giving. Work so you can give. This doesn’t come naturally, but it is something God can, and does, cultivate in us.

Dear saints, you stand before God righteous, holy, and blameless. Live that way. Continue to be truth-tellers, beat back your anger, and be generous. God has put off your old man and put on the new Man, Christ. And this God now invites you to His table where He will put in you His Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. And when you go from here, be what God has made you to be. Amen.

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

Depend – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct8

Matthew 22:34–46

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?

⁴⁵ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This Gospel reading takes place on Holy Tuesday. In other words, it is just a few days before Jesus will be crucified, and what we heard is Jesus’ last public teaching until He preaches the seven last words from the cross. The Pharisees and Sadducees are asking our Lord three questions to try to entangle Him in His words (Mt. 22:15). They want Jesus to say something they can use against Him and kill Him. The first two questions they asked were about paying taxes and the resurrection. But Jesus answers both questions so skillfully that they can’t find a way to accuse Him.

Our text begins with their third and final trick question that comes from a sleezy lawyer. “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the Law?” It seems as though the intent of this question is to get Jesus to put one of the Commandments above the others, and when He does that, they will say that He teaches that the other nine aren’t as important. But they end up looking like fools. It was Jesus’ finger that carved those words into the stone tablets and His voice that spoke them on Mt. Sinai. Jesus is the Author of the Commandments, and they are all important.

So, Jesus answers the question, “The great Commandment is this: love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “All the Commandments matter. All of them are the greatest. They all demand that you love God and love your neighbor. All the Commandments depend on these two.” Jesus is clear here, and Scripture is clear elsewhere that what the Commandments require of us is to love. Love is the fulfilling of the Law (Ro. 13:10b). In every situation, you are to love God and love your neighbor. And it is important to spend some time on this because there is a lot of unnecessary confusion about what love looks like. A pastor friend of mine (Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller) put together a list that helps to define and shape what love looks like. And this list is biblical and, I think, very helpful.

First, love is shaped by the Ten Commandments. Love does not mean that there are no other Commandments. No, the Commandments define what love is. Love depends on the Commandments. If you are fornicating and committing adultery, you cannot presume to say that it’s ok because, “We love each other.” Adultery is always unloving.

Second, love is shaped by our vocation or our station in life. Everyone has several vocations, so I’ll use myself as an example here. Some of my vocations are husband, father, pastor, a child of my parents, a friend, etc. In each of those vocations, I am called to love. But what that love looks like depends on those different vocations. For example, part of my love as a father includes providing for my family. So, I earn a living so my wife can go and buy socks for our kids. As a pastor, my love looks different. It looks like faithfully preaching and teaching God’s Word to you, the flock that God has entrusted into my care. My vocation as a pastor does not require me to buy socks for all of you. Pastors are not called to provide socks for their congregations. But that, then, leads us to the third thing that shapes our love.

Our love is also shaped by the needs of our neighbor. If one of you, who aren’t part of my family, needs socks and can’t get them for yourself, my love for you would be to give you socks. Even if the only reason I know you and your need socks is that I’m your pastor, I’m not giving you socks because I’m your pastor. I’m giving you socks because I am your brother in Christ. And if I needed socks, I would want one of you to give me socks if you have the means and resources to provide them. In that instance, I’m loving you as I would love myself. (I think this is the most I’ve ever used the word ‘socks’ in a sermon, but I’m done now.)

That leads us to the fourth thing that shapes our love which is the gifts God has given us. God gives us stuff, skills, and talents so we can use them to love and serve our neighbor. If God has made you successful and given you a lot of money, use those resources to love your neighbor. If God has given you the talent of being good at cooking, you love your neighbor by cooking. If God has given you good mind for math, you can love your neighbor as an engineer or an accountant. The beautiful thing about this one is that the gifts God gives you can help you love your neighbor across different vocations. A person who is good at math can be a good accountant. He can earn a good living and provide for his family and, at the same time, love and serve his clients who need someone to keep their books.

Just briefly here, our neighbor’s need might mean that we have to love our neighbor in a way that we aren’t gifted. Imagine a meteor hit the church during this service. We don’t have an ER doctor here, but we do have an optometrist, a medical student, nurses, and EMTs who are gifted in knowing how the body works and how to heal. They should be the ones who go to the people who are most injured and help them. And if more people are injured, those of us who aren’t gifted in that way are called to do the best we can even though that kind of love is usually reserved for doctors and nurses. Our neighbor’s need trumps how we are gifted. Especially in an emergency, we love and serve others based on their needs rather than our love depending on our gifts. And when the ambulances get here, we who don’t know as much about first aid should step aside and let the professionals use their gifts to serve the people in need.

So, the first four things that shape our love are: 1) the Ten Commandments; 2) our vocation; 3) our neighbor’s need; and 4) our gifts. All of that is fairly obvious and reasonable. But there is another thing that shapes our love, and this last one is one that our culture fights against (for several reasons). But this one is also important to consider. The fifth thing that shapes our love is our neighbor’s sin, and this is where things can get tricky and difficult. But this is also where Jesus’ summary of the Ten Commandments – love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself – is helpful. And God gives you wisdom to help navigate this.

Imagine you know someone who is addicted to fentanyl, your calling is still crystal clear: you are called to love that person. But now what is that love going to look like? Is it loving to just step aside and let them keep killing themselves by using that fentanyl? No, it isn’t. Their sin against themselves might even mean that you need to break one of the Commandments in order to love them. You might need to steal their fentanyl even though stealing is sin and a violation against the 7^th Commandment.

Now, please recognize that the Ten Commandments are still the primary thing that shapes and defines our love. But because of your neighbor’s sin, you break the 7^th Commandment about stealing in order for you to keep the 5^th Commandment which calls you to do your neighbor no bodily harm, but help and defend him in every need. This is why knowing the Commandments is so important. And, again, your vocation still plays into this too. You aren’t called to travel to San Francisco, Seattle, or Portland and steal fentanyl from all the addicts in those places.

Our neighbor’s sin can hinder the ways we love them. Parents, when your children are breaking the 4^thCommandment and not obeying you, your love for them looks like disciplining them; it isn’t what you want to do, but you are called to do it (Pro. 22:15; 23:13; Heb. 12:11). If you have abusive parents, you are still called to keep the 4^th Commandment and honor them, but their sin could mean you have to disobey them if they demand you do something contrary to God’s Word. If your cousin, Stacy, is getting married, your love normally looks like going to her wedding and celebrating with her. But if she is breaking the 6^th Commandment by trying to be married to another woman, your love for her means not going to the wedding because that would embolden her in her sin against the 6^th Commandment. Yes, this is hard and difficult. Yes, this is uncomfortable. Yes, it is even confusing. You are always called to love, but sin can put constraints on love.

And that brings us to the second part of our text which is the question Jesus asks the people who are trying to trip Him up. Jesus turns the discussion to the identity of the Messiah. The Savior is David’s Ancestor and also David’s Lord. The way this is possible is that Jesus is the fully Divine, eternal Son of God and fully human. Christ is God and Man.

Your Savior’s love for you was fully shaped by the Ten Commandments, which Jesus kept perfectly. His vocation was to be the Messiah and shed His blood and bear the punishment for the sins of all humanity because that was our need. He was gifted with everything necessary to be the Savior. And He navigated our sin in such a way that He perfectly loved God by loving us and bearing our sin to the cross. Now, He is risen and lives and reigns on the throne of all creation for eternity.

Your eternal life totally depends upon what Jesus, the Son of God and Son of David, has done. God be praised that He has done all things well (Mk. 7:37). Amen.

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

Confidence – Sermon on Esther 4:7-16 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct1

Esther 4:7–16

⁷ And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. ⁹ And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, ¹¹ “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”

¹² And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. ¹³ Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” ¹⁵ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

Esther 4:7-16

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In our Gospel lesson (Lk. 14:1-11), Jesus warns about taking a place of honor at a banquet because someone more distinguished might come and you’ll get relegated and downgraded to the kids’ table. Well, Esther is facing a much more dire situation. Even though she is the queen, if she puts herself in front of the king without him extending his golden scepter, she could face immediate execution. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it is good to recap what has happened up to this point in the story of Esther.

A man named Mordecai grew up in Jerusalem, but when the Babylonian armies came and destroyed his city, he was taken into captivity and now lives in Susa (Est. 2:5-6). Mordecai had taken it upon himself to raise his cousin, Esther, who had been orphaned (Est. 2:7). We aren’t sure how her parents had died, but it is likely they died when Jerusalem fell. Mordecai was a Christian man. He had the Bible, read it, and trusted the promises God made in it. The main promise that Mordecai trusted and believed was that God would send a Messiah who would save His people from their sin by sacrificing Himself.

Esther grew up to be very beautiful. She was chosen by King Ahasuerus (aka. King Xerxes) to be the queen in place of his former wife, Vashti who had disobeyed one of his commands. There’s a lot more to that story, but for our purposes today, it’s enough to know that Xerxes had no hesitation to toss aside even his own wife if she does something he doesn’t like (Est. 1).

Even though Esther had become the Queen, she wasn’t living in a ‘happily ever after’ situation. The reason for that brings us to the main villain in the story, who is a man named Haman. Haman was a prominent advisor and official – he was Xerxes’ right-hand man (Est. 3:1). Xerxes had commanded that all the servants at his gate must bow down to Haman when he walked by, but Mordecai, who was one of those servants, refused, and Haman didn’t like that one bit (Est. 3:2-5). So, Haman found out that Mordecai was a Jew, and he told Xerxes that all the Jews in the land despised Xerxes’ commands and laws. Haman offered a huge sum of money (Est. 3:9) to Xerxes if he would sign an order that every Jew living in the kingdom be killed on a certain day. Haman wanted to have Mordecai and all his people destroyed – a holocaust. And Xerxes agreed. He had the order sent throughout the kingdom, but when Xerxes signed the order, he didn’t know that Esther, his wife and Queen, was a Jew herself (Est. 2:20).

That brings us to our text. As soon as Mordecai learns about the plan, he sends a message to Queen Esther in the palace through this guy Hathach telling Esther, “You’ve got to do something about this.” And Esther responds to Mordecai, “Listen, if I go to the king without being called and summoned, I’m probably going to be killed. Xerxes hasn’t called me to come before him for a whole month.” In other words, “This is really risky. If I try your plan, Mordecai, I’ll be executed.”

Mordecai replies to Esther – and this is where I want to spend the rest of this sermon – saying, “Listen Esther, just because you live in the king’s palace don’t think that you are going to escape the fate of the rest of us Jews living out here.” Then in v. 14, Mordecai says, and this is so beautiful, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.”

Did you catch what Mordecai is saying there? Remember, Mordecai is a Christian. He has confidence and faith in God’s promise. He says, “If you don’t do this, we’re all going to die. But even if we die now, relief and deliverance will rise for us. I have no idea where it might come from, but God has promised. He will deliver. He will send the Messiah someway, somehow.” Mordecai knew his Bible. He knew God would send the Savior, the promised offspring of David and Abraham. Mordecai is completely certain that God will come through on that promise. His faith and confidence here is remarkable.

But note the change in Mordecai’s tone when he talks about the current situation with Esther. “Who knows whether or not you have been made the Queen for such a time as this.” I know that’s currently the famous line from Esther, but the whole thing is so important. Mordecai is not telling Esther, “Just go to Xerxes. God will keep you safe. Everything will be fine.” Mordecai doesn’t say that. He might wish he could say that, but he can’t say that because there is no promise in the Bible that Esther will be safe in this particular situation.

All Mordecai can say is, “Esther, know that God loves you. He is going to send the Savior. Yes, if you go and stand before the king, you might die. But I’m asking you to do it out of love for your people.” And this isn’t lost on Esther. She asks Mordecai to have everyone pray and fast for her. She will break the law; she’ll take the risk and go to the king. And she says, “If I perish, I perish.” In other words, even though she doesn’t know how all of this will all turn out, out of love for Mordecai and her people, she uses her sanctified reason and decides to take the risk and go to the king.

Dear saints, the Christian life is marked by two things – faith and love. Faith lays hold of God’s clear, certain promises and puts full and complete confidence in them, and God is pleased with that faith. Love ventures out into what is uncertain and, sometimes, risky to serve the neighbor, and God is pleased with that. God was pleased with Esther’s decision to take the risk, and God uses her action to deliver the Jews in a remarkable way. I’ll just encourage you to read the whole book of Esther to see how God uses Esther’s risk-taking to deliver her and her people.

Here’s the point: In this life, safety is an illusion, and it is an illusion that can become a horrible idol. Think of the Israelites in the wilderness. God had made clear promises to bring them into the land of Canaan, but when the twelve spies returned from checking out the land and ten of them told the people about the huge giants they would have to fight (Num. 13:25-14:4), what did the people do? Did they take the risk, or did they choose safety? They chose safety, and how did that go for them? Did they get safety? Sort of. Every day for the next forty years, God provided them with food, but they wandered. For forty years they walked around in the sand and dust while every one of the adults – except the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb, who had tried to remind the people of God’s promise – all the other adults died without a homeland. Forty years wasted with wandering and death.

Now, I say all of that stuff about safety being an idol, but this can be taken too far. For example, wear a seatbelt in a car. A seatbelt doesn’t guarantee your safety if you get in in an accident, but it is not a sin to wear a seatbelt. You aren’t worshiping that strap by wearing it, so it isn’t idolatry. And wearing a seat belt doesn’t keep or hinder you from loving your neighbor. In fact, God might use that seatbelt to help you love your neighbor in the future by protecting you so you can love your neighbor instead of being paralyzed. Basically, what I’m trying to get across with this sermon is that God wants you to quit being like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz and, instead, have courage and confidence. The point of the sermon is not to turn you into the scarecrow with no brain.

Dear saints, there are times when God calls you to step out in love for your neighbor, but that love is going to require you to take a risk. It might mean risking your perception of financial stability or your reputation or your comfort. Again, use your God-given brain, but more importantly, have the confidence to love your neighbor in a way that seems risky because God loves you. And He loves it when you step out in faith to love and serve your neighbor.

And this same God and King of all creation now invites you to come and have a seat at His table. He invites you, not by extending a golden scepter, but something far more precious. He extends to you His very Body and Blood. He gives you this meal to forgive you of all your sins, and He will use this meal to strengthen your trust and confidence in Him as you go from here to love and serve your neighbor. Amen.^[1]

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

Not used:

Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. 3). They were in a situation where they had to make a choice between safety, which would come at the cost of bowing down to an idol. Or they could take a risk and not bow down but they will be thrown into the burning fiery furnace. They ended up placing their confidence in God saying to the king, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.” Notice, they have confidence in God’s ability to deliver from that particular threat, and they continue with even more confidence, “He will deliver us out of your hand.” But even if God doesn’t deliver them from the immediate threat of the furnace, they say, “We will not serve your gods or bow down to worship this idol you have set up” (Dan. 3:16-17).

^[1] This sermon was adapted from a sermon by Pr. Jared Melius.

Funeral Etiquette – Sermon on Luke 7:11-17 for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sep24

Luke 7:11–17

¹¹ Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. ¹² As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ¹⁴ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” ¹⁵ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶ Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” ¹⁷ And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I want to start by giving you a simple exercise to do when you read Scripture that can be very helpful. First, you identify the different characters and then, you pay attention to what those characters do and say.

In this text, the characters, in order of appearance, are Jesus, His disciples, a great crowd following Jesus, a dead man, the man’s mother who is a widow, a considerable crowd following her, and people carrying the dead man’s casket, i.e. the pallbearers. The first step of the exercise is done. Great work! Now, notice what the different characters do and say.

So, first, Jesus: He has compassion. He speaks to the widowed mother. He touches the bier (or coffin). He speaks to the dead man. And finally, Jesus gives the man to his mother.

Next, the disciples: They are silent and don’t do a thing. By the way, that’s not an indictment here. We’re just observing.

The crowd that follows Jesus: They are silent like the disciples until the end when they are rightly fearful because they glorify God by saying, “God has visited His people.” And then, they bear witness because the report about this event spreads.

The dead man: He’s silent when he is introduced, for obvious reasons. But he sits up and begins to speak – even though we aren’t told what he says.

The mother: She’s silent except her weeping which we only know about because Jesus tells her, “Do not weep.” The only other thing she does in the text is also implied. She receives her son when Jesus gives him to her.

The crowd following the mother: They are the same as the crowd that follows Jesus. They are rightfully fearful, glorify God, and tell the event to others.

Finally, the pallbearers: They carry the coffin. They stand still. And they are silent – unless they also fear God and spread the report.

Doing that exercise helps us see that even in a short text like this, there’s a lot going on, but it also helps us see that the text focuses on and is centered around Jesus. Our Lord does almost all the talking. Every other character shares one line of recorded speech, and their words give glory to Him – “God has visited His people!”

That exercise helps us see the main theme of the text: Jesus leads the living and defeats the march of death. Jesus, the Lord of Life, is leading this crowd of people, and when He meets a funeral procession, our Lord doesn’t defer. He doesn’t just stand back out of respect for the widow and these mourners. He brings life out of death like it’s no big deal. He raises this man by doing little more than you would do to wake up a sleeping child.

Today, I want to go one step further and offer you some suggestions on how you should act and behave as a Christian at a funeral. No one likes to go to funerals. Funerals can – and probably should – make us at least a bit uncomfortable. Every funeral is a reminder of the wages of sin (Ro. 6:23) that each of us will be paid unless Christ returns first. But there are a few things in this text that shed some light on how we, as Christians can offer comfort, light, and life even and especially at a funeral because we have passed from death to life (Jn. 5:24).

The focus of the whole text is on Jesus, but also notice where Jesus’ focus is. He’s not very focused on the dead man. He’s focused on the mother. He sees this widow who has already lost her husband, and now she has lost her only-begotten son. Yes, the word there is the same as describes Jesus in John 3:16. Jesus sees this scene and has compassion on her and goes to her first. It is only after Jesus talks to her that He does anything for the dead son.

So, here’s your first funeral etiquette lesson. When you attend a funeral, focus your time and attention on the surviving family and friends. Sure, go ahead and pay your respects at the coffin and share your memories and stories. Doing that can be comforting for the bereaved. But in doing all of that, be more focused on offering comfort to the family than focusing on the person who has died. You can’t give any comfort to the dead. When you are at a funeral, the mourners are the ones that God is calling you to serve. So, serve them with compassion.

That brings us to the second etiquette lesson which is how to comfort, serve, and have compassion on them. Notice what Jesus says to the mother, “Do not weep.” Now, this might sound harsh from Jesus. It isn’t. Remember, we are told specifically that Jesus has compassion on her (v. 13). While our translation uses the word ‘weep’ there, the Greek word for what the widow is doing (κλαίω) is actually stronger than that. The word there means wail, like a hopeless, uncontrollable sobbing.

I want to be clear here. Jesus does weep in Jn. 11:35, when He is at the grave of His friend, Lazarus, but it’s a different word there (δακρύω), and it is clear that Jesus weeps, not because of Lazarus’ death. Our Lord knew that He was soon going to call Lazarus out of death and the grave (Jn. 11:11-15). Jesus doesn’t weep because Lazarus died; instead, He weeps because He sees the great sorrow that death brings to mankind.

Here, Jesus isn’t forbidding that widow from being sad and grieving. What He’s doing is calling her to faith. He wants her to pay attention and see what He’s about to do. He wants her to see that He is the One brings life out of death so she can believe in Him because Jesus Himself is the Resurrection and the Life (Jn. 11:25).

So, my suggestion of how to show love and compassion isn’t to tell people, “Stop crying,” at a funeral. That isn’t going to go over well. Instead, use your words to point people to Jesus. And the best way to do that is to use Jesus’ own words that He uses to comfort people in the face of death. Again, just before He goes to Lazarus’ grave, Jesus tells Martha, Lazarus’ sister, “Your brother will rise again.” Well, change the word for the relationship as needed. “Your mother, your husband/wife, your child, your friend will rise again.” Of course, say this when the deceased is a Christian. But also know that that is true for people who have died as unbelievers. Doing that points the grieving to Jesus who has defeated death because He is the Resurrection and the Life.

That brings us to the final funeral etiquette lesson for today, and this one is maybe the most important. It’s important when you feel the pain of the death of a loved one and it’s important when you are called to comfort others who feel that pain. Grief can be a good work offered to God and neighbor.

The best way to get this across is to consider our love for our neighbor as taking different shapes, and those shapes are defined by the needs of your neighbor and your relationship to that neighbor. Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:30-37) as an example. The good Samaritan’s love for the robbed, stripped, beaten, half-dead guy was shaped by the needs of that poor soul lying in the ditch. The Samaritan applied first aid by pouring on oil and wine. He lifted the guy up onto his donkey. He set him up at the inn, prepaid for the guy’s needs, and offered to come back to pay any outstanding debts the guy incurs. The good Samaritan didn’t need to do that for every person he saw along the road that day. If he had poured on oil and wine to every person passing by and hoisted them on his donkey, he would have been arrested. His love for other travelers was simply being friendly, giving them a kind, “Hello,” or an up-nod. His love for others was shaped by their needs and his relationship to them.

In the same way, your love for your parents when you were a child (or if you are still a child) is shaped in such a way that you let them take you to the doctor and behave well. When your parents get to a certain age, your love for them might be shaped by you taking them to the doctor. Again, our love for others is shaped by our relationship to them and their needs.

So, how is your love shaped when your family and friends have died and are gone? Can you still show love to them? Yes, absolutely. Your love for those who are close to you and have died is to grieve their absence. In 1 Thess. 4:13, Paul tells the congregation there that he doesn’t want them to grieve death the same way as those who have no hope. It’s very clear there that grieving is not the problem. It’s grieving without hope that is a problem, which is, in fact, sinful. So, yes grieve knowing that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.

Dear saints, Jesus, your Savior, has come to give life and give it to the full (Jn. 10:10). Jesus knows how to get out of death and the grave. He is your Good Shepherd who leads you through the valley of the shadow of death even now. And He is the one who will lead you out of death on the Last Day when He returns. Your God who has, does, and will conquer death has visited you. To Him belongs all glory, now and forever. Amen.

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

The Malicious Master of Mammon – Sermon on Matthew 6:24-34 for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sep17

Matthew 6:24–34

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

When we are anxious and full of worry, we are serving the false god of mammon. Jesus says, “You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon.” I know our translation says ‘money,’ but the word there is mammon. It includes money, but it also refers to all our stuff. Worry and anxiety is the worship we give to the stuff of this world. When we worry, we are living out the future before it has even gotten here. That’s the opposite of faith. Faith simply trusts that when the future becomes the present, our heavenly Father will be there to give us what we need because He promises to do so.

This is how and why mammon is such a malicious master. Mammon cannot promise you anything in the future because all the money and stuff of this life is temporary and fleeting. Money and things come and go. One moment you have plenty, the next you have little. That is why, when mammon is your god, the one command is to try to possess more in the false hope of finding pleasure or security. But there is no pleasure or security in the things of creation apart from God’s giving of those things. And because we aren’t ever satisfied with what we have, we think the answer is to get more. But that turns into a vicious cycle. If we do, somehow, get more, we find that we aren’t satisfied with the more we’ve gotten. Repent.

Jesus wants you to listen to the preaching of the lilies. The lilies Jesus speaks about here aren’t the large lilies we know from Eastertime. Those don’t grow in Galilee. The lilies Jesus refers to here are tiny flowers that grow along the grass in the fields.

It isn’t quite true to say that the lilies grow. Saying it that way gives the impression that their growth has to do with their achievement. Instead, it is more accurate to say that God grows the lilies. All a lily can do is wait on God to give it the strength and resources it needs to grow. A lily can’t go out and get any more nourishment than what God gives to it. It can’t try to find soil that is better fertilized, and it can’t dig irrigation ditches to get more water. Every aspect of the lily’s life is in God’s hand. That’s why lilies aren’t impatient, and they don’t try to grow up to be trees. Instead, God grows the lily slowly, steadily, and quietly to be what He designed it to be. And the lily is content to receive what God has given it.

The same is true for the birds. When was the last time you saw a bird driving a tractor or operating a combine? A bird cannot plant and harvest like we can, but God didn’t design birds to do that. He designed us to do that. Birds simply do what God designed them to do: have chicks, raise them, and sing.

A bird wakes up, finds a branch, and sings the song God puts into its beak. While that little bird sings, it isn’t worried about food even though it has more reason to be worried than we do because that bird doesn’t know where its food is going to come from. It can’t go to the store to buy food. The bird just sits there and sings for a while. Then, when it is hungry, it flies off and finds the food God has set out for it.

Now, to be clear, Jesus isn’t telling you to not work in this text. The lily isn’t preaching to you that you should sit down, do nothing, and expect God to drop your clothing from the sky. God didn’t create you to be a lily. The birds aren’t preaching that you should just fly around and make music and serenate the rest of creation for free. God didn’t create you to be a bird.

We humans were created to work. Jesus’ whole life was hard work, and He has given you work to do that calls for energy, effort, and diligence. But because we rebelled against God’s design, we bear the curse of sin and our work, which should be happy and creative, has become a toil and burden. What Jesus wants for you is to have your work and, now, even the burden of work be free of anxiety and worry.

The pagans go around full of anxiety asking, “What are we going to eat and drink? How are going to get clothes?” Here, Jesus wants you to know, to be confident, and to be content in the fact that you are not your own maker. You don’t live by your own hand. The food you eat isn’t just the nourishment you have earned. No, it’s the food that God has given you. The house you live in, isn’t just a bunch of wood, sheetrock, wiring, and plumbing; it’s the combination of all those things that God has given to you.

Dear saints, you live by everything that proceeds from God’s hand. You live by Him and because of Him.

In 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Paul writes what basically serves as a commentary what Jesus says in this text: “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

When Paul says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” the word Paul uses for ‘godliness’ does not mean to be like God. In English, when we talk about godliness, it can mean that, and there is a right place to do that. But the word there means “right reverence.” It means to have a right and proper attitude and response toward God. To have the right attitude and reverence toward God is to recognize that He is the Giver of all good things, and when we recognize that, we can be content.

So rather than wasting your time and energy by worrying and living in the unknown future (which you can’t do anyway, all that does is drain you in the present), you can work diligently in the present knowing that God promises to give what you need in the future. Yes, it will mean more work and toil for you, but God promises to give you the strength to do that as well. Live your life in the present knowing that God holds the future in His omnipotent hand.

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” So, when you worry, take that worry and turn it around. Don’t let it be the slavish worship you offer to the malicious master of mammon. Instead, when you are worried about anything, make it your prayer. Pray, “God, You have told me not to be anxious. You have told me not to worry. Well, I’m worried about ______. You take care of that. Help me. Provide for me. Protect me.” Then your worry is transformed into true service to God.

Dear saints, God loves you. He has already provided you with everything you need for your eternal future. In His mercy, He sent His only-begotten Son to shed His blood on the cross to make you His own so that you will live forever in His kingdom. There is no reason for you to doubt His provision of the things you need today or tomorrow (Ro. 8:32).

And then, be free. Free to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness – the righteousness He freely delivers to you in His Word and the righteousness He gives you now in His Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. Seek that first because you know where to find it – here at His altar. And He clearly promises that all other things will be added to you as well. Amen.^[1]The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

^[1] Portions of this sermon – especially regarding lilies – were adapted from a sermon by Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel.

Roadblock – Sermon on Proverbs 4:10-23 for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sep10

Proverbs 4:10–23

¹⁰ Hear, my son, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
¹¹ I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
¹² When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble.
¹³ Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
¹⁴ Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of the evil.
¹⁵ Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
¹⁸ But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know over what they stumble.

²⁰ My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹ Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
²² For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
²³ Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In 2019, the AFLC’s Annual Conference was held near Scranton, PA. To save our congregations a bit of money, four other pastors and I decided to travel together. We rented a vehicle in Minneapolis which ended up being a brand new, black GMC Yukon with tinted windows and all the bells and whistles. Our first day of travel together was from Minneapolis to a hotel in Toledo, OH which is just under 700 miles and would take about 10 hours. We had Google Maps plot our course to avoid toll roads, made our way through Wisconsin, and started to enter the Chicago metro. As we got deeper into Chicago, Google kindly told us that our current course had congested traffic and that there was an alternate route which would save us 45 minutes. That’s what you call a no brainer. Reroute.

We got off the freeway and quickly found ourselves driving through the neighborhoods of Chicago. Sure, there were stoplights and stop signs, but we kept moving. Now, one of the other pastors had grown up near Chicago, but he had been asleep in the third-row seat when we decided to reroute. I’m not exactly sure what woke him up, but he looked out the window and asked, “Where are we?” We told him that we were still in Chicago and that we had left the freeway to avoid traffic. He looked at a couple of street signs and said in the most serious voice I had ever heard him use. “We need to get out of here. Now!”

We had been redirected to the south side of Chicago, not only that, but a neighborhood notorious for stray bullets and carjackings. Apparently, Google Maps can help you avoid tolls and traffic jams, but it isn’t able to assist five, slightly overweight, mostly Scandinavian pastors avoid being robbed at gunpoint. We did make it out safely with the rented Yukon.

The point is this: it is easy to quickly and unintentionally end up on the wrong path. For us five pastors, the address of our destination didn’t even change, but we were deeply down the wrong path.

Now, there is a temptation for us to hear about the two paths described in these verses and lull ourselves into a false sense of security. We can wrongly think, “I’ve been taught the Bible which is the Word of Life. I’m not overly influenced by all that bad stuff ‘out there.’ I’ll just set the cruise control on my mostly moral life, make sure the lane departure warning system is enabled so I keep being virtuous, and everything will be just fine and dandy.”

Dear saints, beware of that attitude sneaking up on you because when it does, you are already several steps down the dark path of wickedness. The fork in the road between the path of life and the path of the wicked isn’t just ‘out there’ and clearly marked with signs. No. The exit down road of evil is always in the heart of each of us sinners and you can start down it without realizing that your destination has changed. Repent.

Go back for just a minute to that picture of the wicked being unable to rest or sleep unless they have done wrong or made someone stumble. If it weren’t so haunting, it would almost be comical. Imagine the wicked getting ready for bed. They put on their pajamas, brush their teeth, go to the bathroom, fluff their pillow, snuggle up under the covers, but toss and turn because they realize they haven’t gotten someone else to sin. It sounds so ridiculous, but, if you’re honest, you’ve probably experienced that restlessness and sleeplessness when you realize you haven’t caused someone else to stumble.

Stick with me on this. The most natural reaction we sinners have to our sin is, sadly, not to repent, not to get off the dark, evil path of the wicked. Instead, our natural reaction is to recruit other sinners by trying one of two things:

First, we try to recruit other sinners when we play the comparison game. We compare our sin to the sin of others. We search high and low for people who have fallen into sin and think that God will look more kindly on us because there are others who fell harder or further than we did. In our opinion – which, frankly, doesn’t matter – our sin isn’t as grievous as those other people’s. That comparing our sin to the sin of others brings us to a place where we celebrate the sin and downfall of others. We hope to find others stumbling.

But the second way we recruit others to sin is more dangerous and, I think, more common. We recruit other sinners when we try to defend ourselves and make excuses for our sin. When we make excuses for our sin, we are foolishly trying to rig a jury that has no jurisdiction over our case. We figure if we can get enough people to understand why we did that sinful thing, whatever it was, then they will be ‘on our side.’ We lose sleep thinking of ways to convince others that our sin was justified. We want them to make us comfortable with our unrepented sin.

Adam tried to pull this asinine trick when he ate the forbidden fruit. He tried to excuse his sin by convincing God that the reason he ate the fruit was the fault of God Himself. Adam basically says, “Listen God, the only reason I ate the fruit was that this woman, whom You gave to be with me, gave me that fruit. You’re responsible and culpable for my sin” (Gen. 3:12).

When we make excuses for our sin, what we are actually doing is we are trying to get others to fall into their own sin. We want them to lie by calling the evil, sinful thing we did ‘good’ or ‘ok’ or, at least, ‘neutral.’ But Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe,” in other words, ‘damned,’ “are those who call evil good and good evil.” When we try to excuse our sin before others, we are trying to get them to call something evil we have done ‘good.’ Again, repent.

Dear saints, constantly be on the alert for the path of the wicked knowing that you are always inclined to reroute yourself to it. See the roadblock that this passage puts in front of that wicked path. “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on” (v. 14-15). Don’t be like a foolish child and blow through that roadblock.

Dear saints, stay on the righteous path. Hold fast to the Words of Scripture. Notice how the opening verses also call this righteous path the way of wisdom. This wise, righteous path is clear of obstacles. When you walk on this path, you will not be hampered, and if you run (I’m so glad that the text leaves that as optional by saying, ‘if’) if you run on this path, you will not stumble. This path is life – it is full of life, and it grants life.

To follow this path means that when Scripture points out your sin, be wise. Confess that sin. Receive God’s mercy and forgiveness freely given to you because it has been bought and paid for by Jesus’ holy and precious blood. Confess that sin and be filled with Christ’s righteousness.

And know that this path is like the light of dawn. You who are righteous through faith in Christ, you don’t walk in the light of the full day – not yet. But you do walk in the light of the dawn which is always growing brighter and brighter so you see the righteous way more clearly as the day of your Savior’s return draws ever nearer. Amen.

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

Charged to Silence – Sermon on Mark 7:31-37 for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Aug27

Mark 7:31–37

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The miracle is strange enough on its own. A man who is deaf and mute is brought to Jesus. Our Lord throws His fingers into the man’s ears. I know our translation says ‘put,’ but the word there is more aggressive and intrusive. It probably wasn’t comfortable for the man. But Jesus isn’t done being weird. Christ spits – exactly where, we aren’t sure. A collection of Jewish literature called the Talmud, which is an interpretation of the Old Testament, taught that saliva was a healing agent. Mark seems to indicate that Jesus’ saliva ends up on the guy’s tongue – either directly or from Jesus’ hand to his tongue. Jesus sighs and says, “Ephphatha,”which means, “Be opened,” and the guy can hear and speak. Again, strange miracle.

Why all the intrusiveness and all the ceremony? Why doesn’t Jesus just do as He had done all sorts of other times – speak the word and let the healing take place (Mt. 8:8)? Well, I don’t know. But what I can say for sure is that Jesus’ still has ‘it’ whatever ‘it’ is.

Through His Word, Jesus does amazing things. The same Jesus spoke all things into existence when He created the cosmos (Gen. 1; Jn. 1:3, 14). In the creation account, God spoke into the void and things that did not exist obeyed and came to be. Here, Jesus speaks to ears that He created but couldn’t hear anything, and they obey His command to open. He’s doing Jesus-type things – healing and fixing the brokenness that sin has brought to creation. Yes, the miracle is strange, especially the leadup to it. But what might be even more strange is what happens at the end.

Jesus tells that man to not use his newly loosened tongue to announce the healing to anyone, and He commands the crowds to be silent about it as well. In short, Jesus speaks to two different types of ears with two different responses. Christ speaks a command to deaf ears and a stuck tongue, and they obey. But then He charges hearing ears to keep their working tongues silent, but they zealously disobey (Mk. 7:36). They dismiss Christ’s Word and command.

The only clue we have to the mindset of these people who are blatantly disobeying Jesus comes from what they say, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” It sure seems like their intention is to say nice things about Jesus.

What they say is true. Jesus does do everything well. And He is good, good beyond our imagination. He has just made the deaf hear and the mute speak. That’s true too. However, we need to understand, saying nice things or saying true things can still be sinful. And we know that it is sinful here because, again, Jesus told them to not say anything about it. Exactly why Jesus told them to keep silent, we don’t know. Jesus repeatedly does this in the Gospel of Mark, and in other places where He does this and people disobey Him, we see that His ministry is hindered (Mk. 1:38-45). So, what are we to do with this?

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7 says that there is a season for everything and a time for every matter under heaven; there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. And, certainly, when God commands you to keep silent, that is a time to keep silent. So today, God calls us to consider when and how we use our mouth, tongue, and voice and to regularly examine ourselves in light of the 8^th Commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” In the Small Catechism, Luther’s explanation of it is so good: “We should fear and love God so that we do not deceitfully lie about, betray, backbite, nor slander our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the most charitable construction on all that he does.”

Of course, we break the 8^th Commandment when we desire the truth to be different and lie. But we also break this Commandment when we hijack the truth in order to make our neighbor look bad and spread gossip. Yes, lying is bad, and we often have our conscience pricked when we lie. But gossip and tearing others down is just as bad. There are times when telling the truth is a sin and violation of this Commandment. For example, don’t tell Laura about Peter’s sin if Laura doesn’t need to know about it. You don’t like it when it happens to you. Don’t do it to others. So, don’t lie. Don’t gossip. But also know when to be silent.

We live in a world that is buzzing with communication. Technology has given you the ability chat with a person in Indonesia about a cat while you get into an argument with someone who lives in Spain about weather. With instant access to a majority of the world in our pockets, it is easy to get distracted and waste copious amounts of time communicating with people we don’t know about things that don’t matter, and when that kind of communication is happening, it is easy to use our tongues and fingers to break the 8^thCommandment. So, hear this as a call to consider how you use your phone, social media, and the comments section on a news article to interact with others. You should be spending more time interacting with your family and the people around you than you do interacting with people on Insta-Snap-You-Twit-Face.

Also, in your regular in-person relationships and interactions, you need to use your God-given wisdom. Yes, absolutely, there are times when God is giving you an open door to proclaim the truth to those who blatantly deny it. There are times where you should correct, reprove, and rebuke evil and sin. But how do you go about doing it? Are you speaking the truth in love in an effort to correct the erring, or are you mocking, ridiculing, and belittling people and further turning them off to Christianity?

The tongue and all your communication has great power both for good and for evil. James spends a lot of time on this. In James 1:26-27, we read, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” And later, in James 3:2-8, he talks about how horses are guided by a small bit in their mouths and huge ships are steered by a small rudder. In the same way the tongue is a small part of your body, but it can set a huge fire.

Dear saints, what you say and communicate and how you say and communicate it, has great power to both tear down and destroy or to build up and edify. Guard your mouth, your pen and pencil, and, yes, your typing. Guard them in such a way that you declare God’s praise (Ps. 51:15) because faith comes by hearing (Ro. 10:17).

So, dear saints, hear again that Christ Jesus has forgiven you all the sins of your tongue and fingers. Know that His shed blood has covered all your iniquity. Continue to fight against your sin, as you live in Christ’s grace, now and forever. Amen.

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

Pastorsamwise

"Don't the great tales never end?"

Category Archives: Historic One Year Lectionary

Blessed Wages – Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12 for All Saints’ Day (Observed)

Slaves & Sons – Sermon on John 8:31-36 for Reformation Sunday

The Garment-Giving King – Sermon on Matthew 22:1-14 for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

Old Man, New Man – Sermon on Ephesians 4:17-28 for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

Depend – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Confidence – Sermon on Esther 4:7-16 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Funeral Etiquette – Sermon on Luke 7:11-17 for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Malicious Master of Mammon – Sermon on Matthew 6:24-34 for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Roadblock – Sermon on Proverbs 4:10-23 for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Charged to Silence – Sermon on Mark 7:31-37 for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity