Homily - Trinity 25 Midweek

“Time to Wake Up!”
Trinity 25 Midweek (Series A, Proper 27)
Matthew 25:1-13

It’s probably the last thing that a child wants to hear, especially on a school day—mom coming into the room and saying, “Time to wake up!” But as children we needed to hear that ourselves, and as parents we know our children need to hear it.

It’s also what Jesus tells us in this evening’s Gospel reading—essentially, “Dear Christians, it’s time to wake up!” It’s time to be ready and watch. In Jesus’ own words: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Yes, Jesus is coming back, like a bridegroom coming to receive His bride, the Church, and take her home with Him. Yes, He has delayed these many years. And yes, we Christians tend to doze off and fall asleep, perhaps out of boredom, as we wait. But it’s time to wake up.

The ten virgins describe all of us and each of us quite well. When we become Christians, we are eager, ready and watchful for our Lord Christ. We go out to meet the Bridegroom. Some, though, are foolish and unthinking; others are prudent and street-smart. What’s the difference? The virgins all look the same. They all carry lamps. They’re all waiting for the Bridegroom. The difference is not in their good works or way of life. The difference is in the lamps. The wise virgins have oil in their lamps when the Bridegroom comes; the foolish virgins have let their oil run out.

You see, while they waited, “as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.” The wise virgins knew how to set their lamps, but evidently the foolish ones did not. As they slept, the oil burned out. Then came the wake up call: “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet Him.”

Dear Christians, it’s time to wake up. Just as all ten virgins fell asleep, so do we. How so?

This waiting for Christ to return is serious business. When we are confirmed in the Christian faith, we are full of zeal and we confess Christ and the Christian faith. We promise that we “intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it” (LSB 273). But as we wait, we fall asleep on the watch. We stop praying or reading the Scriptures at home; after all, it takes so much time and we are oh, so busy. Besides, who can understand it? Some may choose to view Sunday morning as the “only time to sleep in,” or Wednesday evening as an odd time for worship, and the rest say, “Shh! Don’t wake them up,” or “We don’t want to bother them too much.”

How else might we slumber? When we hear news of the holocaust of abortion in our land, and the millions of little lives snuffed out before they can even be born, we yawn with thoughts of privacy and rights. When we hear news of another state allowing homosexual marriage, or even see such scenes on TV or in movies, we roll over to go back to sleep. Instead, we ought to be fervently praying, “Lord, have mercy on us.” We need to pray for and speak out for those who lose their lives to abortion. We need to pray for and speak God’s message for those who commit this holocaust. We need to pray for and proclaim God’s will to those who burn with the unnatural desires for the same sex. We need to stand on and confess God’s clear words and not compromise for the praise of men. We need to pray for ourselves, that we too may live in repentance and faith in Christ. But too often we simply hit the snooze button and nestle in for a little more slumber, wrapping ourselves cozily in our own little lives.

But perhaps the most dangerous way we sleep is when we doze off in the Divine Service. Perhaps we simply go through the motions and snooze through what’s happening in the liturgy. The Bridegroom comes in His words read and proclaimed. He comes right here to give us a foretaste of His eternal wedding feast. What an amazing thing! Heaven, right here on earth. The Son of God, right here in our midst. Yet we often walk away from worship as if we were sleepily walking from one chore to another.

Dear Christians, it’s time to wake up. Trim your lamps. The Bridegroom is coming. Ah, but some may find their lamps out of oil, and the wise ones cannot share theirs with the foolish ones. So, the foolish ones have to go shopping for their oil. What is that oil? Faith—faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us; faith in the Bridegroom who by His bloody death on the cross makes us His pure, unspotted bride; faith in the Lord Jesus who rose victorious to give us life with God, both now and into eternity. So, when the Bridegroom comes again, let’s not be the ones out chasing after the sales and merchandise. When the Bridegroom comes in His Gospel and Sacraments, let’s not be hypnotized by the world’s worship at the shopping mall. As the bumper sticker says, “The one who dies with the most toys still dies.” But the ones who are found waiting and watching when Christ returns, they will be brought into the great wedding feast of heaven.

It’s time to wake up, dear Christians. Our Lord Jesus has given us His gifts of forgiveness and life and salvation won for us by His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. He wakes us with a call to repentance and faith. Instead of getting so wrapped up in ourselves and our cares of life, He calls us to watch for Him, both as He comes now in grace and when He will come again in glory.

Yes, the Bridegroom already comes with forgiveness and mercy for our sleepiness. He says, “You may have gone to sleep on Me, but I have not gone to sleep on you. I have been watching over you all this time.” For us sleepy virgins who sometimes forget who we are in our Baptism, Jesus opens heaven’s door. He says, “Come on in. Join the festivities.” For us who get drowsy as we wait, our Lord prepares a sumptuous feast here this evening. He joins us to Himself in the eating and drinking. He gives us His crucified and risen Body and Blood to strengthen our weak flesh. So our lamps can be full of faith in His forgiveness and mercy.

Yes, it’s time to wake up, dear Christians. It’s time to realize that though we’ve been less than faithful, though we tend to fall asleep, our Lord still loves us and welcomes us into His wedding feast. Jesus bids us to bask in His loving presence and feast upon Him, the very Bread of Life. It’s really the only way to stay away and fend off the cold boredom of a long watch. It’s time to wake up and watch for the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, to come again. Amen.

Homily - Trinity 25 (3rd Last Sunday of the Church Year)

Here's my homily from this past Sunday. Sorry it's late, but the RAsburry household has been pretty busy keeping up with falling leaves (not raking them, rather blowing them and sucking them--no, not with my mouth; with a leaf blower and vacuum :-), preparing for winter time (cleaning and organizing the garage and putting things away for the cold months), and getting the parsonage ready for much-needed new windows (which are being installed as I write).

Anyway, here's Sunday's sermon:

Kingdom Hidden, Kingdom Revealed
Luke 17:20-30 (Alternate Gospel)

Today we begin looking to the end of time, to the Last Day, when Christ will return. As we wait and watch, here’s a vital question: Which sense is more important for a Christian—the sense of sight or the sense of hearing? What takes priority in the Church—the eyes or the ears? The Bible says, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). It also says, “Faith comes by hearing” (Rom. 10:17). So, for the people of God, ears are the more important sense organs. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the external words of the Gospel of Jesus, words that He speaks into our ears. When it comes to the senses, Christians are all ears.

But our Lord Jesus spoke against the Pharisees for being all eyes. They demanded special signs, and signs are seen instead of believed. The Pharisees did not trust in the Lord’s spoken words, but rather in their own vision and experience. They walked not by faith, but by unbelief that said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

In today’s Gospel reading the Pharisees ask Jesus about “when the kingdom of God would come.” They think it’s yet to come because they cannot yet see it. But Jesus tells them not to rely so much on their vision. They don’t see that the kingdom has already arrived. But Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of God is here, a present reality. It may be hidden and veiled from ordinary sight, but it’s still here. Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, there it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

God’s kingdom does not come with observation, Jesus says. We need to remember this in our culture of TV, Netflix videos, computer games, and virtual reality. We like to see things. That’s how we like to know what’s real. But the kingdom of God cannot be observed or analyzed with natural eyes. It cannot be identified with visible signs of power or prosperity. No, this side of eternity, God’s kingdom is hidden from normal human sight.

So Jesus tells the Pharisees that God’s kingdom is already here: “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” It’s already here, already present, because Christ the King is here. Since He’s the King, it’s His kingdom. We can even say that He IS the kingdom—the kingdom of God in the flesh. Yes, God’s kingdom hides behind and within Jesus’ true humanity. All of God’s fullness dwells in Him. He is God’s kingdom with all of its blessings. So, the kingdom of God is present wherever the flesh-and-blood Christ is—wherever He speaks His words to His people, wherever He gives His Body and Blood to His people, wherever He forgives sins and gives a share in His life. When we have Jesus, we have the kingdom of God.

But our fallen nature prefers to have something of its own making. It wants something it can see rather than trusting what Jesus says. We are very much like the ancient Israelites at Mt. Sinai in our first reading. Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the Word of the Lord. The people grew impatient as he delayed coming down. So they said to Aaron, “Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses…we do not know what has become of him.” They did not want to walk by faith in an unseen leader. They wanted to walk and live by sight. And Aaron failed to be a faithful high priest and gave in to the people’s demands. He took their jewelry and fashioned a golden calf—a fertility symbol, an idol for sight, not for faith. They traded the true God for their own version of what they wanted God to be.

We also like to walk by sight. We also have our “golden calves” as we await the Lord’s return. We may not bow down to a symbol of fertility, but we do bow down to things we can see, things we think will lead us out of the wilderness of our sin and death. We might bow at the feet of growth and success and try to measure God’s kingdom and life in the Church by numbers and excitement we can see. We might bow at the feet of popular pastors and leaders who can draw great crowds. We might bow at the feet of making sure our 401(k)s and the stock market are always growing and shining with success.

Let’s remember, though, that when Moses came down from the mountain, when he saw the false worship and immorality, he took down the calf, burned it, and ground it into powder. Then he scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Even our golden calves—the things we trust instead of Jesus the Christ—will be torn down and crushed. Just as Moses came down from the mountain, our Lord Jesus will come down unexpectedly on the Last Day. We may be “eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage”; we may be “eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,” but the Lord will still come to judge the fallen world. And our Lord’s coming will be quite a surprise for all who ignore Him and live by sight.

However, for all who repent and believe, for all of us who walk as yet by faith, our Lord’s return is not something to dread. Instead, we welcome it. You see, our judgment day has already happened. It took place when our Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross. There He suffered the judgment for our sin and unbelief. There He took our place and, out of great love and mercy, endured the weight of our sin and death. That’s why Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” His great love compelled Him to redeem us from our idols of sight. His shed blood purchased us as His own so that we can “live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”

Yes, our judgment day has come. It came on the day when Jesus said, “It is finished.” Just as the Lord provided deliverance for Noah and his family, and for Lot and his daughters, He has also delivered us from sin and death and brought us into His kingdom. His kingdom comes in Christ crucified and risen. All we can see in the cross is a bloody execution, but in that very cross our Lord reveals His kingdom of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. In that instrument of death our Lord reveals His victory over the grave. Yes, we can trust these words that we hear. After all, we walk not by sight, but by faith.

God’s kingdom does not come by observation, but our Lord does reveal it to us. He is truly present, and He reveals Himself by “hiding behind” ordinary water that washes away sin and death, behind an ordinary man’s voice that proclaims His mercies and forgiveness, and behind common bread and wine that serve as His heavenly food. The kingdom of Jesus may not come by normal observation, but when we let our ears do their hearing, we recognize that the Kingdom is in our midst—Christ Himself is in our midst. As Jesus says, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn. 6:63). His water is “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). And He also says, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him” (Jn. 6:55-56).

The kingdom of God may not come by observation, but it is revealed to us in Jesus Himself. So, we learn to trust our ears. Our eyes may see only sin and sickness, trouble and death. But when we listen to and trust the Lord’s words, we hear the hidden reality that we are His chosen people, His royal heirs of eternal life. When we listen to and trust the Lord and His words, He sustains us and strengthens us to endure these last days in His kingdom revealed. We walk by faith, not by sight. After all, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1, NKJV). Amen.

Homily - Trinity 24 Midweek

False Ways and True Ways for the Church
Trinity 24 Midweek (A-Proper 26)
Matthew 23:1-12

Tonight we hear Jesus give a stinging critique of religion in His day, but He also wants His Church today to hear it and learn from it. Let’s walk through Jesus’ words again and listen to what they say for the Church today. First, though, an overall outline. We can see two main parts to our Gospel reading: the false ways and the true ways—what not to do and what to do in our life together as Christ’s Body.

And what does Jesus say on the false ways? “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.” That’s not a false way. Actually, Jesus respects the “seat of Moses,” after all, according to Jewish tradition Moses sat on the seat to teach the Law to Joshua, and other respected teachers sat on it after him. Jesus respects, even gives, those who study, interpret, and teach His Scriptures. Then Jesus says: “so practice and observe whatever they tell you.” Again, not a false way here. Jesus teaches us to hear and learn from our teachers in the faith, even put those teachings into practice. St. Paul was one such teacher. When St. Paul taught in a place called Berea, the Jews there “received the word with all eagerness, examining it daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). They listened to their preacher-teacher St. Paul and they did so with discernment—not only critically, but also not only receptively—but checking the teaching with the Scriptures. We do the same thing today with our pastors, our teachers in God’s Scriptures. It’s what Hebrews 13:7 says: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”

So, what’s the false way that Jesus warns us against? “Practice and observe whatever they tell you but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” The Bible teachers of Jesus’ day would teach God’s law—Jesus approves that—but they did not practice what they taught. Think of it as the preacher teaching, “Trust the Lord your God,” but then not trusting God himself. Think of it as the preacher saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but then not showing that love for the neighbors who hear his teaching. Yep, we preachers have a tall order!

Jesus gives another false way: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” They might teach people to pray, or fast, or give to the poor, or just to attend church and learn God’s Word—and these are all good things—but the false teachers make them burdensome tasks. They do not balance the burden with the Lord’s mercy. They do not show the mercy that God wants them to show as they teach.

Then Jesus gives a final false way: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others…and they love the place of honor at feasts.” In other words, they love the show. They love to show off their learning so that people will ooh and awe. They love the “great-ness-ism.” The phylacteries were little leather cases, or boxes, that would contain little scrolls of Scripture passages. They would be strapped to the arm, or even the forehead, as a reminder to learn those Scriptures. The fringes would be on their robes, and making them long would make people notice. Jesus teaches His teachers, in fact, His whole Church: “Don’t be ostentatious and showy; don’t look to be great and recognized.”

Those are the false ways. Jesus also gives us some true ways of life as His people, His Church. And once again, He zeroes in on the preachers and lets the same thing apply to all of His people.

For the first true way Jesus says: “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.” No, Jesus is not worried about what words we use to refer to our clergy. He is concerned about who the true Teacher is. Our Lord instructs us to beware of those teachers who promote themselves or who have followings based on their sparkling personalities or unique perspective. Jesus says, “you have one teacher.” Yes, there’s only one Teacher—Jesus Himself. And any faithful, true teacher and preacher in Jesus’ Church will teach and preach only what Teacher Jesus gives. He will defer to the one, supreme Teacher. “You have one instructor, the Christ.” And the true preachers and teachers will view one another as brothers. Even when there are levels of pastors to govern the Church, they are still equal brothers in Christ.

The second true way is very similar: “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” Again, Jesus is not worried about what words we use, whether we refer to our fathers in the faith or our biological fathers. Instead, He wants us to trust and rely on our heavenly Father. After all, all fatherhood, spiritual and biological, comes from Him. He is our Father; we are His family.

The third true way really sums everything up: “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” The way of life in Jesus’ Church—for both clergy and laypeople—is greatness by serving. It’s the way of Jesus for us. He did not come to be great, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. He did not come to exalt Himself, but to humble Himself in suffering and crucifixion and burial. And when He humbled Himself, He was exalted at just the right time, the third day. His death and resurrection bring an end to our need for greatness. His dying and rising show us that we are forgiven for our “great-ness-ism,” and restored to serve Him our great Teacher, and each other as brothers and sisters.

As Jesus teaches us these words, He was indeed preparing to head to the cross, His place of being humbled for us. We are hearing these words as we get ready to hear about the last days and the end times before Christ will return. So, Jesus’ words on the false ways and the true ways of life in His Church especially apply as we look for His reappearing on the Last Day. As we wait, we rely on our true Teacher. We trust our true Father and His Father. Instead of looking for greatness, we look to serve one another. And instead of exalting ourselves, we follow His path of humbling ourselves. You see, we also have the promise that He will by grace exalt us and raise us to life with Him.

"Spread the Wealth Around"?

It would appear that one of our U.S. presidential candidates has had socialist tendencies (i.e. "spread the wealth around," "redistributive change," etc.) for some time now. Listen here:



Is this really the direction that our nation wants to go--politically, economically, and culturally--in this election? What does this say about the education in our land when so many seem to resonate with such a worldview? What impact would such a grand paradigm shift have on the Church in this nation? Might we Christians have to take a crash course in keeping the faith from our brothers and sisters in lands such as, say, Russia?

HT: The folks at Naked Emperor News for making this available.

Homily - Reformation Day (Observed)

Here's the homily that I preached at both my congregation, Hope, St. Louis, and Trinity Lutheran Church, Cole Camp, MO for the "Reformation Festival" of the Sedalia Circuit of the Missouri District (LCMS). It was a great joy, honor, and privilege to join the brothers and sisters in central Missouri in order to proclaim the Good News of the Son setting us free from our slavery to sin, also since my wife and I got to see many relatives on her side of the family. Here's the homily:

The Son Sets Us Free
Reformation Day (Observed; at Hope & at Reformation Festival, Trinity, Cole Camp, MO)
John 8:31-36

In the late nineteenth century Joel Chandler Harris gave us the Uncle Remus stories with their famous, and impulsive, character Br’er Rabbit. In one story Br’er Rabbit has an unfortunate encounter with a Tar Baby, a lump of tar fashioned by Br’er Fox to look like a creature and thus lure Br’er Rabbit into a trap. Br’er Rabbit spots the Tar Baby and begins talking with it, but the Tar Baby does not respond. Impulsively, Br’er Rabbit concludes that the Tar Baby is stuck up. He insults and threatens the Tar Baby, but still the Tar Baby does not respond. Fed up with the Tar Baby acting stuck up, Br’er Rabbit hauls off and hits the life-sized but lifeless lump of tar. And his fist gets stuck. Then he hits it with his other fist. And that fist gets stuck. Then, totally upset with the Tar Baby, Br’er Rabbit uses one foot to kick the Tar Baby, and, yes, you guessed it, his foot gets stuck. Finally, Br’er Rabbit tries to hit the Tar Baby with his head…and gets stuck. Well, things don’t turn out too well for Br’er Rabbit, because Br’er Fox comes out from his hiding place and threatens to eat Br’er Rabbit.

What does Br’er Rabbit have to do with our Gospel reading or with celebrating the Reformation in the Western Church? Remember Jesus’ words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Just as the Tar Baby grabbed Br’er Rabbit’s attention and lured him in, so also our sin appeals to us and lures us in. But there’s more. Just as Br’er Rabbit tried to fight the Tar Baby and got hopelessly stuck, so also with our sin. We can try to fight against our sin, even our many actual sins, but we’ll only get stuck—stuck as if punching, kicking and head butting a gooey, sticky Tar Baby.

In our Gospel reading, the Jews who believed Jesus were not at all convinced that they needed to be set free from any tar baby of slavery. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Pretty comforting words, if you think about it. But the folks who had believed in Him objected. “We are offspring of Abraham,” they reminded Jesus. “We have never been enslaved to anyone.”

I guess those folks somehow forgot about the 400 years they were enslaved in Egypt, making bricks and serving harsh Egyptian slave masters. I guess they happened to forget about the 70 years they spent in exile in Babylon because they had been faithless to the God who loved them, redeemed them, and freely gave them the Promised Land. I guess it slipped their mind that at the very time they said they’d “never been enslaved to anyone,” their country was subject to the Roman Emperor and his mighty armies. I guess it’s like Br’er Rabbit trying to say, “I never got stuck with no Tar Baby.” It just wasn’t true.

Jesus, though, knows better. He knows that they most certainly have been slaves and still are slaves, but He’s not thinking of politics and race relations. He’s thinking of the heart of the matter, of what enslaves every human being: “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” He’s thinking and speaking of our spiritual life. When we commit sins, we show that we are slaves to sin. The more we commit sins, the more we punch and kick that ol’ “tar baby”…and the more we get stuck. And if you’ve ever gotten tar on you, you know what a mess it is. Just imagine getting stuck in it.

Only Jesus, the Son of God, can free us from the tarry mess of our sinful state and our sins of thought, word, and deed. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” And how does He do that? First, by taking on our human flesh and blood and becoming one of us. St. Paul called it “taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” But that’s not all. He also took the tarry mess of our sin upon Himself. “And being found in human form, he humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). As Jesus hung on that cross, hands and feet pierced with nails, head wounded with a crown of thorns, He put Himself in our place of fighting our “tar baby” of sin. “For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). That’s what St. Paul means when he says in our second reading: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

This is why we celebrate Reformation Day today. No, we do not celebrate Martin Luther hauling off and smacking the pope a good one, as if he were Br’er Rabbit and the pope were the Tar Baby. No, we do not celebrate Martin Luther throwing off the shackles of some burdensome church tyranny and starting his own, freer kind of religion. He even said that he was not trying to start his own church. No, we do not gather on this day for a Lutheran pep rally and cheer, “Luther, Luther, he’s our man; if he can’t do it, no one can.” And we certainly do not gather to sing a modified version of that song by Queen: “We are the Lutherans, my friend. And we’ll keep on fighting till the end.” So let’s not be like those folks in our Gospel reading—let’s not say, “We are offspring of Luther and have never been enslaved to anyone.”

Instead, we celebrate Reformation Day because Luther and the Reformation remind us to fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith. After all, it’s only by Him that we can be and are free from the tar baby of our sin. This is the “eternal Gospel” that the angel carries in our first reading.

Let’s go back to what happened on October 31, 1517. We know the story. Luther posted his “95 Theses” for scholarly debate. He saw some problems and abuses in the church of his day, and he wanted to correct those abuses with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the freedom from sin in His cross-won forgiveness. Remember how Luther began those “95 Theses”: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance. That’s the one thing that the offspring of Abraham in our Gospel reading did not have. That’s the key thing that was missing in Luther’s day as people tried to seek God’s graces by man-made works designed to merit God’s favor.

But it’s the very thing that Jesus is talking about in our Gospel reading. No, I didn’t hear the word “repentance” there either, but it’s what our Lord is teaching us. “If you abide in My word…you will know the truth.” What truth? The truth that you and I are enslaved in our sins. How so? When we give in to works such as “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-20). Ew! What a tarry mess! And, try as we might, we cannot free ourselves from such things.

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” And how’s that? By His death and resurrection; by His gifts of life and forgiveness that free us from the tar baby of sin and death. Also by being brought into His house, the Church, where we live in repentance. It’s not enough just to be pardoned; we also need to be brought into Jesus’ home, the Church. We’re not just saved from sin; we’re also saved for living as God’s children.

The Son remains forever in the house of His Church. It’s where we are freed and cleansed from the tar of our sin in the purifying waters of Baptism [just as Sergei and Slav now have been]. It’s where we live confessing our sins day in and day out and hearing the liberating words of our Lord’s Absolution. That Absolution keeps cleansing us from the tar of the sins we keep getting on ourselves. The house of His Church is where our Lord’s holy Body and Blood free us in forgiveness and strengthen us to resist reveling in the tar baby of our sins.

When the Son of God sets us free from our sin and sins, He also frees us to live in the fruit of the Spirit—in “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). When we practice such things, we do not try to merit God’s favor. You see, we can truly practice such things only when we already have God’s favor in Christ Jesus. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).

So, instead of trying to fight the tar baby of our sin with our punches and kicks against our sticky sins, let’s cling to the truth of Jesus’ word of truth: “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” After all, He has kicked sin and death in the teeth, and He frees us to live with Him in His house. Amen.

Barak Obama: Not Just "Pro-Choice" But "Pro-Abortion"!

Here's an absolute must-read article on the intersection between politics and the moral issue of abortion: "Obama's Abortion Extremism," by Robert George. Mr. George takes on the weak claims from many Catholics and Evangelicals who claim that Barak Obama is "the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view." He also shows just how bad a Barack Obama presidency could be for the support of human life in America.

Here's George's introduction to catch your interest:

Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals - who aggressively promote Obama's candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

What is going on here?

And here's another paragraph to put a potential Obama presidency in its truly horrific perspective:

What kind of America do we want our beloved nation to be? Barack Obama's America is one in which being human just isn't enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights. In Obama's America, public policy would make a mockery of the great constitutional principle of the equal protection of the law. In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: "that question is above my pay grade." It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator's pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy - and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.

By all means, read the whole article, not just in order to be informed, but also in order to support and defend God's gift of life ... for all human beings.

Thanks for the Milestone!

According to sitemeter.com, this blog has been visited just over 50,000 times - 50,784 to be exact (at this writing). Not bad, I suppose, for being up and running for just over a year now. (Actually, I don't know how that relates to other blogs, but, hey, I appreciate it.)

So, thank *you* very much for reading (and for checking back in recent days and weeks when I haven't posted as much - a bad habit I hope to overcome soon)! I couldn't have done it without you, the readers. :-)

Homily - Trinity 22

My homily from this past Sunday:

Unlimited Forgiveness
Matthew 18:21-35

During World War II a young Nazi officer lay dying in a Polish hospital. He wanted to confess his horrible actions, be forgiven, and die in peace. So he asked a nurse to bring a Jewish man to his bedside. When the Jewish man arrived, he listened to the soldier’s confession. The soldier confessed how he had herded Jewish people into a house, set gasoline cans inside, and then ignited them with hand grenades. The soldier also recalled how he gave orders to shoot a father and a daughter when they tried to escape. “We shoot,” he cried, “oh, God…I shall never forget it…it haunts me. Please forgive me and let me die in peace.” The man got up and left the room without saying a word. Later some rabbis confirmed this man’s actions and wrote this: “Whoever is merciful to the cruel will end up being indifferent to the innocent…. Let the SS man die unforgiven. Let him go to hell.” (Concordia Pulpit Resources, 9:4, p. 10). Ouch!

Jesus, though, has something different to teach us today. Our Lord Jesus calls us to trust His forgiveness so that we will also forgive one another.

In the verses just before our Gospel reading Jesus teaches us to go to our sinning brother, tell him his fault, and seek to gain him back in forgiveness. Peter was listening carefully and catching on. His newfound insight led him to ask a question: “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

Now Peter was being very gracious and generous. Writings from Jewish rabbis around that time show that the going rate for forgiving someone was three times. After that, a person ought to know better. So Peter was being very gracious. He doubled the going rate and added one more forgiving act for good measure. After all, “seven” is the Biblical number of completeness.

Our sinful flesh always wants to put limits on forgiveness. We also ask Peter’s question: “How often shall I forgive?” Sometimes we might even ask it this way: “How often to I have to forgive?” Too often there’s no sweeter sound to our sin-clogged ears than, “Don’t get mad; get even.” We don’t want to appear weak or soft on crime, and we certainly don’t want to be “taken advantage of.”

Oh, to be sure, forgiveness is very laudable – in the right situation. I remember when Pope John Paul II forgave the man who tried to assassinate him. He was applauded for his graciousness. But then again, John Paul was considered a “man of God”—as such he’s supposed to be more forgiving than most. We also hear talk of forgiveness after school shootings such as Columbine several years ago. But then again, the evil shooters took their own lives, and we don’t have to look them in the eye anymore. Still, we, along with Peter, like to ask, “Isn’t there a limit to my forgiveness?”

However, Jesus answered Peter this way: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” It really doesn’t matter how you do the math – is it 77 times, or 490 times? – Jesus is teaching us to live and practice unlimited forgiveness. And His parable gives the reason why. A certain king forgives a servant, but the servant can’t forgive his fellow servant.

Yes, let’s consider the enormous, massive, infinite debt of our own sins. Augustus Toplady wrote a well-known hymn. You know it. “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure: Cleanse me from its guilt and pow’r” (LSB 761:1).

How much guilt and power does our infinite debt of sin have? Mr. Toplady did some calculating. In 1775 he was “inspired” by the national debt. (Yes, there was one back then too!) Toplady wanted to show how a sinner’s debt can never be repaid. Since we sinners sin in all we do, he said, “Let’s say people sin once every second.” Yes, you heard correctly: one sin per second.

Let’s crunch the numbers. That adds up to 3600 sins per hour and 86,400 sins per day. Each year it adds up to 31,536,000 sins. When we can first drive a car, at age 16, we’d carry 504,576,000 sins on our record. When we’re 30 years old, enjoying family times with our children, we’d lug around 946,080,000 sins. When we’re 50 years old, the children are grown and the house is empty, our conscience would be overloaded with 1,576,800,000 sins. And when we reach 80, getting ready for the end of life, we’d have have to wrestle with 2,522,880,000 sins. Wow!

What’s the point? Our debt of sin is infinite. We cannot even begin to pay it back, no matter how many times we promise to “do better.”

But here’s the good news. There is forgiveness for our infinite debt of sins. As God told His Old Testament people: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her… that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Is. 40:1-2).

Yes, double – double forgiveness – for all sins! Jesus has more forgiveness than you’ve got sins for. No matter what your debt is, Jesus paid it and forgives it—“not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.” The king in Jesus’ parable absorbed the loss of the servant’s “gazillion” dollar debt. In the same way, Jesus Himself, our King and Savior, has absorbed the debt of our sin. He did not demand justice. He did not hold a grudge. He simply absorbed it, paid it Himself, and forgives. Unlimited forgiveness.

This is what our Baptism tells us. Our infinite debt is washed away. This is the infinite mercy of God that drives us to our pastor to confess our sins and hear the words of Jesus’ forgiveness. And when we eat and drink Christ’s Body and Blood, we receive Jesus’ even more infinite forgiveness.

Now we can consider the debt of our neighbor’s sins. In Jesus’ parable this debt seems large—a paycheck for three month’s work. But compared to the massive debt of billions of dollars, it’s nothing. This is the way to view our neighbor’s sins against us. Yes, our fellow Christians sin against us, disappoint us, anger us, even offend us. But what is that debt compared to how we have sinned against God? Honestly, it’s nothing. It’s a mere speck in our brother’s eye compared to the 2 x 8 plank sticking out of our own eye.

St. Paul said it well: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:12-14).

It really is a matter of faith toward God as well as love for our neighbor. If we cannot forgive our brother or sister, then we really have not trusted God when He revealed our infinite debt of sin. It also means that we don’t trust God’s forgiveness that comes through His beloved Son. You see, God also gives that same forgiveness to our neighbor. If God forgives him or her, why can’t we?

But God does forgive our neighbor. And so the best thing we can do for our neighbor who sins against us—whether a loved one, a friend, a co-worker, a fellow member at church—is to give your forgiveness too. That’s how our neighbor can see God’s forgiveness in action.

You see, the Church is the Body of Christ. As Christ forgives us, we also get to forgive each other. Jesus doesn’t want His body members to harm each other by not forgiving. No, He wants the same forgiveness that He gives to flow through His whole Body. When we trust and rely on Jesus’ forgiveness for us, we can also freely forgive each other and trust that Jesus has forgiven our neighbor as much as He has forgiven us.

Keep this in your mind and heart as you come to the Lord’s Table today. Jesus places His forgiveness into your mouths in the same Body and Blood that carried your infinite debt of sins to the Cross. He unites you to Himself and restores you to His image as one who forgives. Your hands and mouths that receive Christ’s Body and Blood may also speak and show His forgiveness to others. Amen.

Homily - Trinity 21

Do We Really Believe God’s Word?
John 4:46-54

It’s very hard to believe God’s Word, and I mean really believe it. Just ask the nobleman from Capernaum. He had heard about Jesus turning water into wine at Cana. He had heard about Jesus miraculously healing other people, and he wanted just such a miracle. His son was feverish and almost to the point of death. But would he really believe God’s Word?

Or would the nobleman believe the miracle over the Word? Jesus had to call him to the carpet for his trust in “signs and wonders.” “Unless you see signs and wonders,” He told the nobleman and us, “you will not believe.” You see, “signs and wonders” are for the weak in faith, for those whose faith can handle only milk but not meat. Yet Jesus still wants to help the nobleman, and us, grow in believing Him, the Word of God in the flesh.

It’s amazing how a personal tragedy or hardship in life turns us to the Word who is Jesus. But do we really believe God’s Word in the flesh? Perhaps we are like the nobleman, who needed proof before he could believe.

Perhaps we are like Thomas, who needed to see Jesus and put His fingers into Jesus’ wounds before he would believe. Every year on the Sunday after Easter we get to hear about Thomas. Jesus first appeared to ten of His disciples, but Thomas was absent. And he would not believe the Word that the others later proclaimed to him until he saw and touched Jesus in the flesh. The next Sunday, Jesus did appear to Thomas of the weak faith, and He did grant Thomas his request. Then Jesus also said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (Jn. 20:29).

Or perhaps we are like Elijah, who expected to see and hear God in the loud wind, or in the earthquake, or in the raging fire. But God was not in those things. No, Elijah heard God in the “still small voice” (1 Kgs. 19:12). Sure, God certainly allows and sends natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, so that we might turn from our self-centered thoughts and ways. He even allows and sends economic downturns so that we might repent and trust Him for every need. But He speaks to us in the still small voice of His Word, especially in the Word made flesh, Jesus the Son of God.

Do we really believe God’s Word? Or would we rather look for things that are much more monumental or tangible? Would we rather seek God’s love for us in what looks good and successful? Perhaps preaching the Gospel and giving out the Holy Sacraments don’t seem to do their job anymore. Perhaps we’d rather see the capacity crowds and even standing room only in the church. Perhaps we’d rather see the “faith healer” do his or her work to the applause of cheering and adoring crowds.

But if we want these things, we’ll have to be ready for the consequences. When we need the healing and don’t get it, we’ll be told, “Well, you don’t have enough faith. You need to read your Bible more and pray harder. Come back when you have enough faith, and then we’ll see what we can do for you.”

Notice that the nobleman’s faith grows beyond wanting mere signs and wonders. He persists. He says, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” He wanted more than a miracle; he wanted the Lord Jesus to help him. He knew and trusted that only the Word of God in human flesh could give life. But would he really believe this Word? It seems that he would not be satisfied until Jesus dropped what He was doing and made a personal visit to Capernaum.

Again, you and I are like this nobleman. Perhaps we get past the immature need for “signs and wonders,” but we still want to tell God how to do His job of being God. Perhaps we think that God must immediately heal us of the disease or injury that we have. Doesn’t He know how it will get in the way of daily life? Perhaps we try to convince God to remove the family trial that we’re going through. Doesn’t He know that it’s torture? Perhaps we think that God must immediately rescue us from our economic downturn. Doesn’t He know that we desperately need that wealth?

But Jesus will not be dethroned from His place as God’s eternal Word of love and life for us. The nobleman begs for Jesus to come to his home, but Jesus says, “I’ll do something even better. I won’t come to your home, but I will heal and give life back to your son.” “Go your way; your son lives.” That’s it! Just a word. It’s all the nobleman had to go on. As one preacher once said, “The nobleman went home with only a word in his pocket.” Would he really believe that Word?

As the nobleman went home, his servants met him on the way. They told him that his son had recovered. He asked, “At what time?” They said, “Yesterday at about 1 PM.” The nobleman knew that was the time that Jesus had said, “Your son lives.” So, really, two people are cured here—the young lad who was sick and almost dead, and his father who fought the disease of unbelief. “He himself believed, and all his household.”

Do we really believe God’s Word? Do we really trust this Man who brings life into this world of death? You see, Jesus comes to heal us here today. If we’re honest, we really don’t trust the Holy Spirit to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith, at least not as we should. Truth be told, we want to add all kinds of “signs and wonders”—whether they are outward signs of success or inward wonderful feelings. Somehow, we think, that will give the Spirit a nudge.

But Jesus knows how to heal and give life. You see, God does not hate us or His creation. In fact, He longs to be in communion with us. Even though we are sick in our sin, sick to the point of death—like the nobleman’s son—He still loves us and wants to heal us. That’s why He sends His only-begotten Son into the flesh. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” (1 Jn. 4:9). Jesus took our sickness of sin and death upon Himself. He took upon Himself the punishment and wrath that we deserved. And when He died on the cross, He trampled death to death. When He came forth from the grave victorious, He burst a big hole in death’s belly. Now sickness and death have no more dominion over us. Oh, sure, we’re all bound to catch a virus now and then, sometimes even contract a deadly disease. But those things cannot separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus. Now we get to live!

That’s the Word that we get to hear over and over again. Just as Jesus told the nobleman, “Your son lives,” He also tells us: “You now live.” And notice how Jesus tells us this—through His Word. So, do we really believe His Word? In the face of our daily struggles, we can certainly believe the Word that comes to us here in the Divine Service. We can certainly believe what Jesus says to us through Holy Scripture, through the Word read from the lectern and proclaimed from the pulpit. As Jesus said, “Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24).

And this same Jesus, this same Word in the flesh, also says: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6:53-54). Let that be the Word in our pocket, the Word that we can truly believe, the Word that says, “You live, because you eat and drink Me!”

No, we don’t need to look for signs and wonders of a man-made variety. We have the divine wonders of Jesus the Word. We have His signs called Sacraments. When times get rough, when illness and death strike, these gifts from God sustain us and strengthen us. After all, Jesus comes to tell us, “You now live.” And, yes, we can really believe it. Amen.

Homily - Trinity 20 - Midweek

Here's my homily from our midweek Divine Service this past Wednesday, complete with a most interesting modern depiction of the parable and a picture of the grapevine that goes around the reredos at Hope's altar (mentioned toward the end of the homily).

Inheritance from the Vineyard
Matthew 21:33-46

“This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.” Such cruel, vicious words, and yet it had to happen. And let’s thank God it happened.

When Jesus tells this Parable of the Tenants, He summarizes the whole story of the Bible, and He lets us in on the real purpose of His journey into our world and taking on our flesh and blood. You see, the tenants certainly wanted the vineyard for themselves, but they did not at all want a relationship with the vineyard Owner. Sounds like all of humanity after Adam and Eve fell into sin. Especially sounds like the nation of Israel when they were comfortable and prosperous in the Promised Land. They thought that they could run the vineyard just fine without the Owner. They thought that they could live life on their terms, under their control.

So when the vineyard Owner sent His servants, the prophets, the tenants did not like the reminder. Those servants reminded the tenants that the vineyard did not belong to them. They reminded them that they did not belong to themselves. And that was pretty uncomfortable! And how did they deal with that unsettling discomfort? Beat and kill the messengers. Pretend nothing happened. Continue thinking that they could live life on their terms.

Then the vineyard Owner sent His Son. “They will respect my son,” He said. No, He was not being naïve or ignorant. He full well knew that those wicked tenants would kill His Son. But He also wanted to confront them with what they should have done from the beginning—respect His Son; live life in a loving relationship with Him; fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, especially above themselves.

But the tenants saw a self-serving opportunity. Kill the Son, and they could have the inheritance all to themselves. Throw the Son out of the vineyard as if they were throwing out the trash. Little did they know that the inheritance would indeed come by killing the Son! How ironic.

And what was the vineyard Owner looking for all this time? The fruit from the vineyard. And what is that fruit? Faith—faith that wants to be in a relationship with the vineyard Owner, God Himself. Faith that says, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).

There’s just one major, uncomfortable thing about that faith, though. It means that we must die to ourselves. We must kill not the Son, but our own egos that say, “It’s my life; I can do with it what I want.” How hard that is!

It’s so hard that the Son of God freely and willingly took our death upon Himself. He was thrown out of the vineyard and nailed to the cross in the garbage heap called Golgotha. But when He was tossed out like rubbish on the garbage heap, He brought life and immortality to light. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” He suffered rejection and death and He rose again victorious to change us wicked tenants into loyal sons and daughters of the God who has always loved us. If anything, this parable shows just how God continues to love and forgive us even though we repeatedly reject Him in our doubts and unbelief. This is the Lord’s doing—loving us sinners—and it is marvelous in our eyes.

It is so marvelous that we can say with St. Paul: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.” Yes, this Son who was killed for the inheritance really does give us the inheritance of God’s vineyard in His death and resurrection. And that puts all of life in a new and different perspective.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news the past few weeks, you know how our nation’s economy has fallen on hard times. Perhaps you’ve even lost some of what you set aside for your retirement. Do not fear. You still have your inheritance of Jesus Christ and His forgiveness, life, and salvation. We can indeed count all things loss, especially our persistence in living life on our terms. You see, when we don’t have the Son of God, we really don’t have anything. But when we have Christ Jesus, we have more than we can imagine—life with our loving God, communion with our vineyard Owner, mercy and forgiveness for wanting to be in charge of all of life. As St. Paul says elsewhere, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

In our Baptism, we are joined to the Son who was killed in order get the inheritance. When we die to ourselves and rise again in the life of Jesus, we receive His eternal “retirement plan.” And when we come to the Lord’s Table, we once again see how marvelous the Lord’s doing is in our eyes … and in our mouths. The very Body and Blood that was thrown out of the vineyard as rubbish is truly our treasure and delight. It’s the only source of real life.

When you come to the Lord’s Table this evening, take a look at the wooden reredos behind the altar. Notice what goes each side and across the top—a vine with grapes on it. Yes, here in this Holy Meal, we are restored to life in God’s vineyard. Here we are strengthened in the fruit that God looks for—faith in Him, in the Son He sends into the world, and in the Holy Spirit who gives us life. So come, and leave behind your desires and ways of living without God, the vineyard Owner. Come, and receive your inheritance. Amen.

Prolonged Depression?

Yes, I'll admit it: the economy is on my mind a lot lately. As do many, I wonder what's going to happen next, what it will mean for people's retirement, what it will mean for all of us in general, from day to day. Are we heading for another recession? A depression? A prolonged depression? Will any of us have any money left, either in retirement funds or in daily operating checkbooks? (No, I'm not trying to sound "doom and gloom"; just trying to echo the thoughts that seem to be so prevalent.)

Mostly I wonder how all of this "economic downturn" may effect the Church, particularly in terms of folks coming to the Divine Service to discover or relearn where their true meaning and purpose in life is, namely, in Jesus Christ and His life and salvation. Difficult economic times could very well bode well for the Church, because, after all, the golden calves of our humming, ever-growing economy and our super-soaring social status based on material wealth sure seem to be biting the dust. Only time will tell, of course, how things will turn out. Only our Triune God and Savior can truly provide for what we really need, regardless of how much money we may or may not have.

In the meantime, perhaps we can learn a little something from history. We might wonder if we could ever get ourselves into another "Great Depression." Some say, "Yes, we could"; others say, "No, we have too many correctives in place these days." But you might be interested in this article from "MoneyNews.com".

According to two UCLA economists (yes, "left coast"!), it would appear that FDR's policies, usually credited with rescuing the nation from the Depression's destruction, may very well have prolonged the early 20th century economic downturn. I had to take a little time to wade through the statistical details in the article, but I also find it helpful to look at this historical event from a different perspective. I hope you will too. Here's the article's concluding paragraph to spur you on to read the whole thing:

"The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes," Cole said. "Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened."

Certainly gives another healthy serving of food for thought regarding our most recent governmental interventions in economic bailouts/rescue packages, doesn't it?

Who Says?

We keep hearing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and his political allies place the mess of the failed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--government-run mortgage companies--at the feet of "deregulation." Then, either by subtle insinuation or overt accusation, Sen. Obama and his cronies tell us that those "wascally Wepublicans" (my Elmer Fudd-esque term) are the culprits behind the "deregulation" of Fannie and Freddy.

But who was really trying to warn and regulate and who was truly stonewalling and putting the brakes on regulation? Let their own words answer that:

The Heart of the Financial Matter

The U.S. financial crisis has been front and center in the news and in discussions at the water cooler, to be sure. It's amazing how a singular vote in the House of Representatives--on whether or not the U.S. Government should spend $700 Billion of taxpayer money to buy bad mortgages--can grab our attention and the headlines. It's also fascinating to observe folks who normally don't give Wall Street the time of day perk up when it takes a nose dive of almost 800 points. As of this writing, however, it appears that Wall Street, contrary to yesterday's dire predictions, recouped almost 500 of those points in what looks like a pretty good day.

What's really going on, in the recent vote, in the Wall Street roller coaster ride, and in the pocket books on "Main Street" (to use the current politically fashionable word)? I won't pretend to be an economist, let alone to have grand answers, but I will pass on for your consideration some dispassionate explanation of what seems to be happening before our very eyes.

What is happening? It appears to be a tug 0f war between two vying economic systems: capitalism and socialism. That, it appears to me, is the real heart of the matter being played out in New York City, Washington, D.C., in the nation's headlines, and in the presidential campaign.

How can it be dispassionate in this time of highly charged emotions and over the top rhetoric? Because this was written in 1995 by Dr. David Noebel, a noted Christian apologist, in his book Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of Our Day and the Search for Truth.

What Noebel has to offer won't put money in our pockets, ease our tax burden, set politicians straight, bring greedy CEOs to justice, or clean up the economic mess. But I hope that his words will help us understand what's happening before our eyes and inform us as we vote for the good of all people in our nation come November 4.

Here's Dr. Noebel:

We began our analysis of capitalism and socialism by noting that capitalism trusts the free market while socialism requires centralized control. From this most fundamental difference between the two systems springs a number of ramifications, including the counterproductive bureaucracies created by the welfare system in the United States. Because socialism requires a planned economy, including control over wealth, distribution, pricing, and production, it also requires a powerful central government to initiate the plans. As P.T. Bauer points out, "Attempts to minimize economic differences in an open and free society necessarily involve the use of coercive power." [P.T. Bauer, Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), p. 18] Thus, the socialist must rely upon increased political power to achieve his goals of economic equality and a planned economy.

In a capitalist system, in contrast, far less political power is necessary, because the government need not worry about controlling incomes, prices, or production. Citizens are free to determine how they will spend their money and how they will use their resources.

Clearly, there is a relationship between the type of economy a society chooses and the amount of freedom the individual must sacrifice. In a socialist society, the individual must relinquish to the government much of the control over his life. "The only way to arrive at equal fruits is to equalize behavior," says Beisner; "and that requires robbing men of liberty, making them slaves." [E. Calvin Beisner, Prosperity and Poverty: The Compassionate Use of Resources in a World of Scarcity (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1988), p. 54] Economic freedom and the right to private property are crucial for political freedom. (Understanding the Times, p. 330-31)

What's at the heart of our current U.S. financial crisis? It would appear to be a wrestling match between capitalism and socialism. Only time, perhaps measured only in months and years, will tell which one will (or has) become dominant. But it seems prudent to bear Dr. Noebel's words in mind as we listen to, watch, and read news reports about our financial crisis. I pray that keeping this "big picture," the principles of the matter, in mind will help us citizens be informed on what's happening and speak up, especially to our elected representatives.

After all, such matters do affect us in the Church and how we can confess the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Homily - St. Michael and All Angels

I cannot believe that I actually passed up the chance to preach on St. Michael's day, but I could tell that Mr. Louis Boldt really wanted a chance preach on this great day of hearing God's teaching on angels, especially the story of St. Michael. As you can see from the following sermon, Louis did a very fine job as he took the task of preaching an "image-based" sermon, doing a masterful job of describing the picture (shown here) to which he refers throughout the sermon. You can learn more about the picture here: http://www.artilim.com/artist/david-gerard/altarpiece-of-st-michael.aspx .
Here's Louis' homily:

Today we are observing the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, which occurs tomorrow. September 29 is the day that the Church has set aside to acknowledge and honor the role of St. Michael and all angels in God’s created order. Today’s sermon will focus specifically on the work of St. Michael. While St. Michael is only mentioned five times in the Bible: 3 times in our Old Testament reading, once in our Epistle reading, and once in the Book of Jude, these sections of Scripture tell us quite a bit about his role in God’s creation. While many artists over the centuries have used these sections of Scripture for inspiration, there is a 16th century painting by Gerard David that expresses St. Michael’s work and his role in God’s creation in a unique way.

When you look at this painting, your eyes are drawn to its center where you see St. Michael standing on the ground with outstretched wings. Wings that almost span the entire width of the painting. Wings that almost span the entire height of the painting. And as we gaze at this larger than life image, we see that he is wearing a gown of the finest silk. Silk that is the color of the sky on a cloudless, summer day. A gown held in place with gold rope across his chest and cinctured around his waist.

And overlying this silk gown, St. Michael wears a cloak made from the softest and choicest of velvets. Its interior color is the warmest charcoal gray and the exterior color is the richest burgundy. Trimmed with intricate, gold filigree and held in place by a large gold medallion. A cloak so long that it drapes across the ground around him. And we are reminded of Daniel’s vision from our Old Testament reading. A vision that promises that Michael, a great prince, one of the chief princes, will arise and deliver the people from their trouble, trouble like there has never been before. And then we notice the shield in St. Michael’s left hand and the spear in his upraised right hand. And we know that this great prince does not come to deliver the people with a peace treaty. He comes to deliver them by waging war.

And as we look at the spear in St. Michael’s, we notice that he is looking down toward the ground and our eyes are drawn to that part of the painting. And as they focus on the ground at St. Michael’s feet, we see seven hideous, demonic creatures struggling to get out from underneath him and flee away. Creatures that have an other worldly appearance with horns, fangs and claws. Some bear a resemblance to animals, while others have a disturbingly human appearance.

And as we gaze upon this epic struggle between St. Michael and these demonic creatures, we notice other figures behind St. Michael up in the sky. And when we look more closely, we witness an on-going battle. A battle between angels in sky blue, silk gowns and demonic creatures like those at St. Michael’s feet. And we remember John’s vision from our Epistle reading, the vision of St. Michael and his angels battling the great dragon and his angels. St. Michael and his angels are victorious. They cast them out of heaven and throw them down to the earth.

Now this may or may not surprise you, but most people don’t believe that Satan is real. Most people believe that Satan is just a symbol for evil. He is just a symbol that people use to explain the bad things that happen in the world. A symbol to blame for all the bad things that people do. But they are wrong, very wrong. Now, I have never met Satan nor could I point him out in a crowd, but I know he exists. I know that he is real. I know because there is evil in the world. I know because behind every evil act is the agent of evil. The Devil. The Ancient Serpent. The great dragon. And that is how we see him. We see him through his works, through his temptations to sin. And this is what Gerard David is depicting in his painting entitled St. Michael Defeats the Seven Deadly Sins. Those seven demons underneath St. Michael’s feet represent the seven deadly sins.

And these sins are evidence of Satan’s work among us. Satan tempts us with LUST. He tempts us to take that lingering, second look. He tempts us to fantasize about that person we saw. He tempts us to act out our fantasies with that person.

Satan tempts us with GLUTTONY. He tempts us to eat one more dessert; after all, the first one was so good. He tempts us to eat out more often than we eat at home, just because we can. He tempts us to get our money’s worth at the all you can eat buffet; after all, we paid for it.

Satan tempts us with GREED. He tempts us with the latest and the greatest cell phone, game system, or plasma screen TV the market has to offer. Even if we already have one; after all, the new one can do some things that the old one just can’t do. He tempts us to replace our car with a new model - sure our car runs great, but it is getting old. He tempts us to work longer hours and take on more jobs to make more money; after all, we need to save for our retirement.

Satan tempts us with SLOTH. He tempts to spend less time on a project than we should; after all, we can cut a few corners and get it done more quickly. He tempts us to do our volunteer work in a half-hearted way; after all, we are not getting paid to do it. He tempts us to sleep in and skip Bible Study class; after all, that’s not as important as the worship service.

Satan tempts us with WRATH. He tempts us to lash out in anger because we didn’t get our way. He tempts us to get back at the other person; after all, they started it. He tempts us to get in the “first word” because we know they are going to attack us.

Satan tempts us with ENVY. He tempts us to think ill thoughts about a sibling because they always get what they want. He tempts us to think ill thoughts about a co-worker who got the promotion instead of us. He tempts us to think ill thoughts about another family because everything always seems to go their way.

Satan tempts us with PRIDE. He tempts us to boast about the things that we have done. He tempts us to withhold compliments even though they are warranted. He tempts us to disregard people’s attempts at correction; after all, that doesn’t apply to me.

And as we take in this epic battle scene between St. Michael and his angels and Satan and his minions, we notice the golden hue of sunlight breaking through the clouds at the top of the painting. And as our eyes are drawn toward that glorious light, we notice a figure within the light. A figure dressed in the finest of silk gowns. A figure wearing a cloak made from the softest and choicest of velvets. A crimson red cloak that matches the color of the underlying gown. Crimson red like the color of blood flowing from an open wound. As we look closely at this figure, we see that He is wearing a many tiered, golden crown on his head and carrying a royal scepter in His left hand. And we realize this is The King, The King who reigns in heaven above. We realize that the King of Kings is overseeing this battle. And then we remember John’s words from our Epistle reading, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, ... they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony...”

And we realize that the battle that St. Michael and his angels are waging against Satan and his minions was already won. It was a battle won when the very Son of God came down from heaven above. To take on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It was a battle won by Jesus, the Christ, when he lived a life under the law. To fulfill the law for those who could not. It was a battle won on a cursed tree at Golgatha. When Jesus Christ shed his blood and gave His life to pay for the sins of the entire world. To pay for your sins and for my sins. It was a battle won in an empty tomb on Easter morning. When Christ Jesus overcame death itself by rising from dead. It was a battle won when Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father. Where He received the power, authority and dominion over all of creation. It was a battle won when the Son of God enacted the full and complete kingdom of God.

And the great news for us, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we are part of this kingdom of God. We were brought into this kingdom of God through the waters of our baptism. We heard the Word of God. We received the sign of the cross on our foreheads and upon our hearts. We were baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the waters of our baptism, we were clothed with Christ as we were baptized into His death and resurrection. To receive forgiveness for our sins and to rescue us from death and the devil. And we live our lives looking forward to Christ’s glorious return at the end of this present evil age. An age where the devil lives and walks among us, prowling like a roaring lion. Looking for people to devour because he knows his time is short. An age where Satan seeks to pull us away from God by tempting us with the seven deadly sins.

And if we were left alone to face these temptations, we would surely succumb and be lost forever. But we are not alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit in the waters of our baptism to help us. God is at work within each of us through the power of the Holy Spirit to face these temptations and overcome them. Our faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit enable us to resist Lust and instead practice CHASTITY. To practice TEMPERANCE and resist Glutttony. To resist Greed and instead practice CHARITY. To practice DILIGENCE and resist Sloth. ..... To resist Wrath and instead practice PATIENCE. To practice KINDNESS and resist Envy. To resist Pride and instead practice HUMILITY.

And when we succumb to the temptations of the Devil, Jesus does not forsake us or leave us, He forgives us. When we confess our sins to God our Father, it is Jesus, Himself, who forgives our sins in the words of Absolution. When we come to the rail burned with guilt over our sins, it is Jesus, Himself, who says, “Take, eat, this is My body given for you” “Take, drink, this is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” And it is Jesus, Himself, who promises “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Amen.

Back to our roots, for economics too

Check out this article by Chuck Norris on the current financial mess and meltdown in our nation. It would appear that Norris is quite savvy about more than just karate and acting; he may just have something to say in our economic/political climate, and that by returning to the fathers of our nation's past. Actually, it sounds pretty common sense to me, but then again I, like most Americans, am a "Washington outsider."