Sermon - Ash Wednesday - Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

It might strike you funny that we practice this very visible ceremony – the imposition of ashes – when we have the words of Jesus warning us, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven”

He goes on to unpack that general principle with further commentary on how we pray, how we fast, how we give.

It’s not that praying, fasting, or giving are to be avoided.  In fact these are all pious practices that Jesus assumes the Christian will do.  These are all helpful Lenten disciplines, but the key is this:  do not do them “in order to be seen by other people”.

Jesus is teaching us the danger of show-boating our faith.  Warning us against making a display of our righteousness.  And it’s a well-taken point.

For everything we do, even as Christians, even the good and helpful and holy practices of the faith – can be a playground for the sinful nature to pervert and profane.  Where God builds a cathedral, the devil builds a chapel, Luther said.

And so the temptation for us, even in our pious practice of Christianity, is to take this things which are meant to be helpful and spiritual, and turn them into something else:  perhaps just another way of boasting of our own righteousness.  Wouldn’t it be nice if other people see how good I am?  Maybe even God will recognize how good I am, and reward me!  So the twisted sinful thinking goes.

But the penitent season of Lent calls us to do just the opposite.  We have nothing to boast about, ourselves.  Our best works are as filthy rags.  We are dust, and to dust we will return.  Let the ashes on our foreheads remind us of this, as a sign of repentance, that we are sullied by sin, stained by its guilt, and deserving of death.  

Consider fasting this Lenten season.  Many have a practice of “giving something up” for lent, as sort of a fast from a certain food or some other pleasure.  We may consider literally fasting, even, for certain hours of the day, or some such discipline.  

Consider Jesus, who fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, but even more, did battle with the devil and won!  For him, the fast served as a time of testing and proving before he undertook his public preaching, his miracles, and his suffering and death.  For us, let the fast of Lent also lean forward toward Holy Week and Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Prayer, another Lenten discipline, really a much wider and deeper part of the Christian life.  We call upon God’s name not as an act of show, to be seen, but in humble need, like a poor beggar.  We call on him because we need his good gifts.  We call upon him because he invites us to do so.  And we call upon him in the name of Jesus, whose life and death alone make our prayers acceptable, even pleasing before God.  

Likewise our giving, not just a Lenten discipline, and our Lord assumes will do it, but warns us not to do it to be seen.

Lent is a good time to commit to a greater and deeper discipline of prayer, fasting, or giving.  A good start might be taking up a family devotion, or committing to our Wednesday evening services.

But back to the ashes – here is something that is less a private practice of self-discipline, or even a personal act of piety – but more a corporate confession of repentance at the beginning of the penitent season.  Together, we bear upon our flesh an outward sign of death, that we are dust and to dust we shall return.  Thus the wages of sin are shown forth in a very outward way.  This isn’t “practicing our righteousness before other people” as much as “confessing our unrighteousness apart from Christ.”  

We take our cues from the Joel reading, rending our hearts in repentance, and so many others of the Old Testament, in which things like sackcloth and ashes served as outward signs of contrition and repentance.  Like the people of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching of Jonah, and wore sackcloth and sat in ashes from the king on down to the slave, and even the animals!  

We mourn our sins and look to Jesus for our only salvation.  Let these ashes testify to this.  Thus, the ashes are marked upon us in the shape of a cross – a reminder that the sin and death we deserve was imposed upon him, and he bore it unto death for us.

But Jesus doesn’t just warn us and scold us about improper piety.  He doesn’t just exhort us to keep our spiritual practices of faith from becoming a show.  He also reminds us where true treasure is found.

It’s not on earth.  It’s not in the finer things of life.  It’s not in the outward, the flashy, the showy, the silver and gold.  The true treasure is in heaven.  

That is to say, the eternal reward that is not like earthly rewards, which are earned and deserved.  His reward is heavenly, and Christ gives it to us for free – the promise of a resurrection and life without end.  

You are like your sinful first father Adam.  You are dust, and to dust you shall return.  Everything you have in this life is perishable, and will also fade and pass away.  Nothing in this life, even the best things, will last forever.  

But we have something more.  We have something that moth and rust cannot destroy, and no thief can steal.  We have an imperishable treasure kept secure for us in the mansions of heaven.  We have the cross of Christ, the blood of Christ, and the life of Christ.  

Therefore repent and believe in him.  Practice your piety, but not to be seen by man.  And know that your reward is great in heaven.  In Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.  

Sermon - Transfiguration - Luke 9:28-36

So far Epiphany has presented us with various pictures of Jesus as the True Bridegroom, the Holy One of God, the one who preaches with authority, casts out demons and heals the sick.  He’s the one who calls disciples to follow him and calls us to love even our enemies.  He’s the savior of the nations and the glory of Israel.  He’s the Redeemer of Jerusalem and the King of the Jews shown by a star and worshipped by sages.  He is, at his Baptism, declared to be God’s beloved Son, with whom the Father is well-pleased.

Now we reach the pinnacle, the mountain top of the Epiphany season, and we see Jesus transfigured.  Changed.  His appearance all bright and shiny and glorious.  Moses and Elijah appear.  Even the voice of the Father thunders forth from heaven.

I remember hearing this story as a child, and being captivated as I imagined it.  Who can blame poor Peter for not knowing what to say when confronted with it all – the glory, the great men of old, the voice of the Father, the radiance of Jesus?  What would you or I say if we had a front row seat to all of this?

And yet there is so much more going on here than the spectacle of it all.  There’s a reason we visit the Mount of Transfiguration every year in the church calendar.  The riches of this event keep on giving, year after year.  Let’s undertake again this morning to plumb the depths of the Transfiguration, as we prepare for Christ’s departure, his exodus, his journey to the cross.

It’s maybe worth revisiting that when the Second Person of the Trinity, the very Son of God came down to set foot on this earth, he did so humbly.  He took on human flesh in a very unassuming way.  There was very little hint of his true glory, if one were to see him swaddled up in the manger, or as a young boy in the temple, or even as an itinerant preacher from Nazareth.

Theology calls this his “state of humiliation”, that time in Christ’s earthly life, in which he set aside (for the most part) his divine power and majesty and glory – and lived humbly, like any one of us, yet without sin.  And here’s the difference between his lowliness and ours – we are humiliated by sin and death, the natural consequences of our rebellion against God.  We are brought low by our own doing, subject to the prince of this world by casting our lot with him in the garden long ago.

We lost whatever glory we might have had back then, and ever since we’ve been stumbling and bumbling through life wending our way to the grave trying to deny the reality of it all.  The truth is we are much worse off than we seem, far less glorious.  We are, apart from Christ, more helpless and hopeless, utterly humiliated and laid low by a corrupt nature, wicked thoughts, words and deeds, and a destiny down in the depths of the grave. 

Christ’s humility, however was different. He, though being in the very form of God, made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, taking on our human flesh, in order to redeem all flesh.  He became like us in every way, yet without sin, and that makes all the difference.

I say he set his power and majesty aside “for the most part” however, because even though he ate and slept and wept and walked and did everything we do – he also showed flashes of his divine nature, especially in his miracles.  There we get a glimpse of his true identity, that he is indeed, the Holy One, the Son of God.  

But even then, some denied it.  They said he cast out demons by the prince of demons.  They failed to understand about the loaves.  They were afraid when they saw him walking on water, or giving a miraculous catch of fish.

At the Transfiguration, it’s staring us, almost slapping us in the face.  It’s undeniable.  It’s clear as day, brighter than the sun.  Christ shines with the glory of God, for he is God’s own beloved Son.  And we do well to listen to him.

Not just look at him, the voice of the Father urges us, but listen to him.  As astounding to see Christ’s glory revealed here, yet more astounding are his words, his message.  So what does he say?

St. Luke actually tells us the topic of conversation - what he was talking about with Moses and Elijah:  his departure.  The Greek word here is, “exodus”, literally, his “going out”, which we are told he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  What can this mean?

It can only be his cross.  Jesus knew he was going to Jerusalem, and he knew exactly what that meant.  He had begun to teach it to his disciples, but they were slow learners.  He was going to be handed over to sinful men, the chief priests and the scribes, and he would be crucified, and on the third day rise.  The closer they go to it, the more plainly Jesus seemed to speak about it.

Like so many other things in the faith, what is most important is not what is seen, but what is said.  Romans 10:17 doesn’t say “faith comes by seeing” but, “faith comes by hearing.”  Jesus told Thomas that even though he believe when he saw, yet more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.

Jesus speaks of his cross.  And any preacher of Jesus worth his salt will do the same, never veering too far from the topic, the only one that ultimately matters, the good news of Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners.

Now, to be sure, the disciples were given this vision for a reason, and that was not just to wow them with a lightshow.  They were blessed to get a peek behind the veil of Christ’s shrouded glory, which of course they would only later understand.  But they needed to see that this Jesus who was going to the cross was not just a great prophet like Elijah, not just a great deliverer like Moses.  But he is the very Son of God.  And if the Son of God dies for your sins, then you know you are saved.

Moses and Elijah appear, not to wow the disciples with their star-power, but to witness, to testify to Jesus as the fulfillment of all their hopes and all their lives’ work.  Jesus is the greater Moses who comes to lead his people in an exodus from sin and death.  Jesus is the greater Elijah who comes not just as a prophet bearing God’s word, but as the very Word of God made flesh.  All the law and the prophets testify to him, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  The one who for the joy set before him would endure the cross.

And it is also, then, in the Transfiguration, that we get a glimpse of our own future.  For just as Christ would not stay forever in his state of humiliation, but would after his resurrection ascend back to glory – so do we have a future hope and promise.  We will be like him, for we will see him as he is, in that day, at the resurrection of all flesh.  We will be more than transfigured in appearance only, we will receive a glorified body fit to live in the mansions of heaven eternally.  A promise we know not by seeing, but only by hearing and believing his word.  By listening to him.

We might be tempted to see this Transfiguration of Christ only according to the outward, the seen, the visible glory of Christ shining forth on the mountain.  

But don’t be fooled, Christian.  Jesus has even better surprises in store.  Something more important than a glimpse of glory.  He’s going to face death, face it head-on, endure it for us all, and come out victorious on the other side.  That’s the true glory.  In the cross of Christ I glory, and so do we all as we listen to him.  On this Transfiguration Day and always.  Amen.

Sermon - Epiphany 7 - Luke 6:27-38

It would have made a great reality tv show scene.  Joseph had been wronged.  His brothers really did a number on him.  They almost killed him, really, but to his father and the rest of his family, he was as good as dead.  They sold him into slavery, and he ended up in Egypt, first as a slave, then as an unjustly accused prisoner.  Finally, after much suffering, God not only restored Joseph but set him at the right hand of Pharaoh himself, ruling all of Egypt.  A rags to riches story if there ever was one. 

But he never forgot what they did to him.  And for most of us, it would be hard to forgive.  So when one day his brothers appeared before him, strangers from a strange land begging for food and help in the midst of a famine, they didn’t even recognize him.  But he hadn’t forgotten them! 

It's a dramatic moment when he reveals his true identity to them.  What’s he going to do?  Call them out for their sins against him?  See how they like it rotting in a dungeon?  Or will he put them to death for their crimes, as he surely could have done?  They betrayed him, they hurt him, they were his enemies.  But Joseph surprises everyone.  He loves them.  He forgives them.  He weeps and embraces them and kisses them.  There’s perhaps no more dramatic Old Testament story of forgiveness than this. 

It's hard to imagine forgiving your enemies like that.  But that’s Just what Jesus calls us to do, as we read today a bit more from the Sermon on the Plain.  “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” 

But sin programs us to do the opposite.  Sin wants us not only to be the judge, but the jury and the executioner.  Sin wants its revenge.  Sin wants us to remember and catalog every little slight, every insult, every disrespect our neighbor shows us.   

And it takes so little.  Your neighbor doesn’t have to throw you in a pit and fake your death, or sell you into slavery to raise your sense of enmity.  An unkind word, perhaps even misunderstood.  A thoughtless slight, “oh, you bought everyone else coffee but me?”  Maybe it’s their politics that put them on the opposite side of you. 

Or even just some annoying habit or personal trait that bothers your delicate sensibilities and all of a sudden that person is no longer worthy of your love, your respect, your kindness. 

We don’t usually go around calling other people our enemies, though.  We try to save that word for the nazis or the communists or maybe a characters in some movies.  But I’m kind of glad that Jesus uses the word.  It pushes us to see the seriousness of our unloving-ness.  We are too quick to make enemies of people, even in our own family, if even only for a time.   

Love them.  But we want to hate them.  We feel justified in hating them. 

Do good to them.  Ah, but we think they deserve anything but good. 

Bless those who curse you.  Now, that just doesn’t seem fair! 

And… get this… pray for those who abuse you!  Our sinful nature must think Jesus is off his rocker.   

This is a hard teaching of Jesus.  And we could try to water it down or explain it away, but isn’t it just better to let this application of law cut us down and expose us as the sinful sinners we are?   

It’s not like we’re the innocent victims, even of our enemies.  And haven’t we done enough to harm others, that we should rightly be judged and found guilty? 

But there is one who had far more enemies than he deserved.  There is one who truly suffered unjustly at the hands of evil men.  And he prayed even for those who abused him, “Father, forgive them!”  He loved even those who denied him.  He blessed those who cursed him.  He even died for those who killed him. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ dies for us, even while we were enemies of God!  He loves us when we were and are unlovable. He does good to us who know nothing but evil.  And he prays for us who deserve nothing of the sort.  His radical grace, the undeserved love shown to us when he saved us from sin, death and hell, is truly remarkable.  And it serves not only as an example to follow, but, far more than that.  It changes us. 

Christ turns us from enemies to friends.  He takes rebellious people who shake their fist at God in anger and arrogance, and he humbles us, restores us, and renews us for service.  He changes the heart.  He changes lives.  He baptizes and feeds us and his Spirit is ever sanctifying us, working to bring that good work to completion at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And at the same time, he defeats our true enemy, our old evil foe, that ancient serpent who deceived our first parents in the garden.  God put enmity between the woman and all her offspring, and promised the One offspring that would come and crush the serpent’s head.  Jesus Christ has done just that.  Our enemy is destroyed, his power come undone, and all that’s left for him is bluster and threats.  He knows his time is short, and the victory belongs to Christ and all who are in him. 

Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  He reigns even now, ascended on high, seated at the right hand of the Father, governing all things for the good of his church.  But one day he will come again, finish off all his enemies, and the last enemy which is death itself.  He’s already won that victory for himself – risen and alive and never to die again.  But on that final day, he will give us a full share of that victory as we too triumph over death in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. 

Until then, we mortify the flesh even while we live in it.  Each day we drown our old Adam in the waters of baptism, by repentance and faith, and the new man arises.  Each time we come to the altar and receive the risen and victorious body and blood of Christ, we partake of his victory, and are strengthened unto life everlasting.  We are strengthened in faith – a faith that loves our neighbor, and even our enemies.  A strength that forgives and turns the other cheek, and blesses and even prays for those who don’t deserve it.  Because we don’t deserve the good grace he shows us in Christ. 

And then, one day, you will die.  It will seem the enemy has won.  But with Christ, all is not what it seems.  The pastor will stand at your grave and proclaim, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Love your enemies.  For you were once an enemy, and God has made you his friend, his child, his treasured possession in Christ.  Love your enemies, for your neighbor isn’t your true enemy.  But Jesus Christ has given you victory over the real enemies – sin and death and hell.   

 

 

 

 

Sermon - Epiphany 6 - 1 Corinthians 15:2-20; Luke 6:17-26

The Epiphany Season continues to set before us the question – “who is this Jesus who has appeared and manifested among us?”  He’s the True Bridegroom at the Wedding at Cana.  He’s the preacher who is rejected in his hometown of Nazareth.  He’s the one who teaches with authority and casts out demons and heals the sick.  And he’s the one who calls people to follow him, making fishermen into fishers of men. 

Like the facets of a diamond, we can continue to observe the many aspects of his Epiphany, and see him as both God and man, prophet, priest, and king.  The savior, the redeemer, the one who makes atonement for sin.  The Messiah of the Jews and the Christ of the Gentiles.  It really is all about Jesus. 

 

Today, Luke gives us a bit more of Jesus’ preaching ministry in what is called the “Sermon on the Plain.”  It is similar to his probably more famous “Sermon on the Mount” from Matthew’s Gospel.  Here, he also begins with a poetic piece known as the Beatitudes.  Only this time he not only mentions those who are blessed, but also those who are cursed, or objects of woe.  It’s a study in contrasts as Jesus paints a picture of life as a believer in him. 

 

For the first three blessings, Jesus speaks metaphorically, about the poor, the hungry and those who weep.  Three sad states of affair in this earthly life that most everyone wants to avoid.  The poor lack money to buy what they need.  The hungry lack food to sustain their very life.  And the mourners are deeply grieving some sad state of affairs, most likely someone’s death.  The poor, the hungry, and those who weep – are three pictures of people the world would say are decidedly not favored, not well off, and certainly not blessed by God. 

But Jesus doesn’t think like the world.  In fact he comes to turn the things of the world upside down and inside out.  The poor, he makes rich, even kings, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  The hungry he fills with good things, and they are satisfied.  And those who weep see their tears turned to joy and laughter.   

 

At the end of the book “The Lord of the Rings”, the hobbit Samwise Gamgee wakes up to the bright sun and see his friend Gandalf the wizard.  He thought Gandalf was dead, for the last time he saw him he had fallen down a great chasm.  Sam says, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?” 

 

With Jesus, that’s just how it is.  In the end, everything sad comes untrue.  For great is your reward in heaven. 

 

It’s not simply being poor or hungry or sad, however that saves you.  Nor is it enduring the hatred of the world, in and of itself.  Faith in Christ alone saves. 

 

But for the one who trusts in Christ, all of this world’s woes are nothing compared to the blessings we are promised.  This world is passing away, it has an expiration date.  But the reward of heaven is forever.  And the blessings in store for us far outshine any woes of this life. 

 

Conversely, those who find their fulfillment only in this world are in a bad way.  Woe unto them.   If your master is your money, you cannot serve God and money, and you will see it all come to nothing.  If your god is your stomach, and all your cares are for the pleasures of this life, then that is all the consolation you will see.  If you laugh now – that is if you find your happiness and joy only in this life – you will find mourning and weeping ahead of you, even gnashing of teeth.   

 

The world may look at wealth and pleasure and all the desirable things of this world as blessings, but the true blessings are not so flashy, not so shallow, and not so easily seen.  True blessing is in Christ, and him crucified for sinners.  True blessing is in his resurrection from the dead, which gives us the hope of the resurrection. 

 

Today we also have a portion of the Great Resurrection Chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.  Here Paul indicates that some were saying in Corinth that Christ didn’t really rise from the dead, and that Christ only gives us hope for this world.  What a horrible lie!  If Christ isn’t raised from the dead then our faith is in vain – it’s all for naught – the whole thing comes tumbling down.  If Christ didn’t conquer death, then how could we have any hope?  If Christ is not raised from the dead, then our future prospects are quite grave.   

 

For as Paul rightly shows us, Christ’s resurrection and our own resurrection are connected.  Ours depends on his.  And his guarantees our own.  Christ’s resurrection is the first-fruit.  He’s the early harvest.  But much more is yet to come.  He’s the first born of the dead, and his brothers and sisters will surely follow. 

 

We confess this in the creeds, of course.  I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. That’s your body, raised from the dead to live in the kingdom of glory forever.  Great is your reward in heaven! 

 

Here is hope also for our loved ones who have died in the faith.  Paul speaks of them as having fallen asleep.  Yes!  Because they will wake up, they will arise, with all the faithful dead at the trumpet call of God on the last day.   

 

If our hope in Christ was only for this life, Paul says, we are most pitiful.  Then poverty and hunger and weeping and persecution would be the end of the story.  Then there would be nothing but woe for us.  We would be without hope.   

 

But Christ has been raised from the dead, and he lives forever.  And you will be raised from the dead, also to live forever!  Blessed are you, indeed!  For in that day, everything sad will come untrue.  And all the blessings now hidden will be revealed.  Fortunes are reversed, the mighty are brought low, and the lowly raised up.  And even death itself must give way to life.