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Reformation–“Justified by Christ” (Romans 3:19-28)

F-28a ReformationGrace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon today is the Epistle, which was read earlier.

On the eve of All Saints’ Day, October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg. His purpose behind this wasn’t to start a new church named after him. The whole purpose behind the 95 Theses was to reform the Church and restore it to the teachings of the Scriptures. His sole purpose was to have the Church teach from the Scriptures and from the Scriptures alone.

As Paul begins this portion of his letter to the Romans, he addresses it to all of the Church. He is writing it to himself, the teachers of Christ and all of Christendom. As Paul speaks of the Law, he speaks of the purpose of it: to bring us to the full realization of our sin and the saving work of Jesus Christ. The Law speaks for everyone, not just the Jew but also the Gentile, the slave and the free. The Law makes us accountable to God. It points out our sin and our utter dependence upon the work of Christ and not that of ourselves.

Paul moves on to a very important point regarding the Law when he continues, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight….” For Luther, this was one of the striking teachings of the Church that was contrary to the Scriptures. The Church taught on account of the work of Jesus plus the good works that a person does, they will inherit eternal life, following time in purgatory, of course. Most people think that good people go to heaven or that being good will get you into heaven. If there is such a place called heaven, then we’ll all be there because we’re pretty good people. We’re not perfect, but we’re not horrible either. God doesn’t require us to be pretty good people. God requires us to be perfect people. This is what Luther was trying to attain in one way or another. He sought to confess all of his sins. He tried to do all that was required by the Law in order to be saved. In the end, Luther couldn’t be perfect. He couldn’t be pretty good. He realized exactly who he was: a sinner in need of Christ’s forgiveness. It would be on account of Christ and His work that would save Luther, nothing that Luther could do himself. The same holds true for you and me as well. Nothing that we can do will make us any holier in the eyes of God. Nothing that we can do will earn us one ounce of salvation.

Paul reveals a truth that many do not want to hear and most certainly do not want to acknowledge: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….” We have missed the mark. God shows no favoritism in dealing with sinners. Those who are disobedient, that is, all of mankind, are under His wrath. Everyone receives the same punishment for their sins: death. No matter how you try to get around the issue, you are a sinner and you deserve nothing but death for your sins.

Praise be to God that Paul doesn’t leave us with the heavy-handedness of God’s wrath. What a miserable existence we would have if we were left solely to God’s wrath and judgment. Paul goes on to tell us that we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus….” You have your salvation by God’s gift to you that comes in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ.

As we celebrate the festival of the Reformation today, we are reminded of what was at stake during this time. What was at stake was God’s Word. What was at stake was the salvation of the people. The Church at the time of Luther taught God’s Word plus the teaching of man. It was the teaching of man that worked against the Word. Man’s teaching tainted God’s Word. Man’s teaching confused God’s Word. Man’s teaching changed God’s Word. Man’s teaching contradicted God’s Word. If there is anyone who should be adhering to God’s Word, it should be the Church. Unfortunately, this was the one place where it was not.

As Paul teaches here in Romans, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” the Church taught that your salvation was found in the works of Christ and the good works that you do as well. Your salvation was found in the indulgences that you bought that would earn you time out of purgatory.

Only one could be right: God’s Word or the word man. That’s what the Reformation was about – a return to God’s Word as the authority for our faith. Everything that we have has been given to us. We have been granted salvation because of Christ. We have been declared righteous because of Christ. We have been ransomed and the ransom price was Christ’s blood shed for us. This is how God declares us to be not guilty, by the blood of Jesus and not by our works.

When Luther wanted to know what the true means of salvation was, he kept going back to the Scriptures, namely Ephesians 2:8-9 which said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It is God who declares a sinner not guilty of sin. Free of sin, guilt, and punishment, the acquitted can enter the joys of heaven. This is a result of Christ and Christ alone. It is not the result of any works that we do, good, bad, or otherwise. Luther went back to the Scriptures and found that the answer to our salvation was singular and not plural. The answer was Christ. The answer is Christ. The answer will always be Christ. It is the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus that saves and not the works that a person does or does not do.

There is nothing that any of us can do to gain heaven. Salvation is entirely a gift of God. A gift is something freely given, which the giver expects no payment in return. The Roman Catholic Church wanted to put a price tag on that salvation by indulgences and works. As we read the Scriptures, there is only one price tag for our salvation and that is the blood of Christ. It is the price that was to be paid for a gift that was to be freely given.

When one hears the teaching of the Church at Luther’s time, how could one accept it? How could you accept that God sent His very Son to take on human form, to live a sinless life, to die for your sinful life so that you may receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, BUT in order to receive all of this, YOU have to do something to earn it! That is not a gift! That is something that which you earn yourself. That’s not what the Scriptures teach. Unfortunately, that thinking is still well and live within Christendom today.

Salvation, by grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, as found in Scripture alone, is the basis of our daily Christian life because that is what the Word of God teaches. The Reformation and the work of Luther was nothing more than opening the eyes of God’s people to His holy Word so we may see that this wonderful gift of faith is ours, not because of what you and I do, but it is ours solely because of what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done for us. In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

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Pentecost 21 – “Jesus For You” (Mark 10:23-31)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.
Today’s text is the continuation of the encounter of the rich young man from last week’s Gospel reading. As we left that man, Mark records, “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” That’s the last we see or hear about this rich young man, for the man went away sorrowful because he was not able to fulfill Jesus’ command. How sad it must have been for the young man, but what is even more sad is how many more people are just like him. ;
As sad as the interaction was with the man, Jesus continues teaching the disciples, saying, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” This was not only a problem for the man who left Jesus, but it is an important lesson for us today as well. Jesus explains how wealth makes it difficult to enter God’s kindgom. He then generalizes this statement to include all people. While there is nothing wrong with being wealthy or having lots of possessions, our riches cannot and will not earn us entry into heaven, nor will they earn us everlasting life. This is the point that Jesus was trying to make to the disciples and to the rich young man a few verses earlier who went away sorrowful. Our earthly riches will do us no good when it comes to the gift of salvation, for this gift cannot be bought or purchased for any amount, other than the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
To stress the point of just how hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells them that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” So just how does one go about making a camel go through the eye of a needle? Imagine pulling hair by hair out of the camel through the eye of the needle, then someone disassembling the camel on one end, pulling the camel through and somehow reassembling the camel back together and giving it life again. Obviously, it is a ridiculous notion that Jesus is putting before them, making something so huge go through a hole so small. The disciples knew this and were left with the same question that we all have: “Then who can be saved?”

We go back to the question that the man asked last week, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Right away, we’re saying that there must be something that we can do. But sadly, even though the question is wrong, there are plenty of people who will be happy to give you an answer, albeit a wrong answer.
In more than one church and from more than one pastor, the answer is that you must do good works in order to inherit eternal life. You must lead a good life. You must keep all the commandments of God, or at least as well as you can, and the Lord will graciously open the gates of heaven to you. This is such a popular doctrine among us today, that as long as we go to church x number of times a year, we’ve done enough and eternal life is ours. Or better yet is the notion that as long as we do our best each day, what more can God ask for from us. Doing the best you can isn’t good enough in God’s book, for Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” ;
These answers are appealing to our sinful nature – it means that we can do this on our own. It means that we don’t have to get it all right and God won’t punish us. It means whatever you want it to mean and God will grant you everlasting life regardless of what you have done or haven’t done. The easy answer is good works. But how many good works are necessary? What constitutes a good work? Can you ever do enough good works? The answer to this question is that good works will not earn you salvation.
When Jesus turns His full attention to the disciples, His words are centered around salvation, but the disciples focus on some sort of human-achieved salvation. Jesus has just explained about the camel and the needle and Peter is quick to respond that they have left everything and have now chosen to follow Jesus. In his thinking and logic, they have done exactly what Jesus told the rich man to do: go and sell all their possessions and to follow Him. Yet again, the disciples miss the point of Jesus’ teaching.
It is humanly impossible for a rich man to enter heaven. It is humanly impossible for the poor man to enter heaven. It is humanly impossible for any man to enter heaven on their own accord. To gain heaven by our works, we must walk that tightrope of God’s Law, without wavering and without breaking any of His commands. Because of that reason, St. Paul writes in Romans, “No one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
We as God’s people would do well to remember that also; that we all have turned aside from God and that we are not capable of doing good. Only by fulfilling the Law of God are we saved. However, there is one problem with that: we can’t keep God’s Law. Paul tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That includes you and I. We have all failed in keeping God’s Law. Our salvation could never rely upon us. Paul continues by saying, “[we are] justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus….”

So where does that leave us? How is it then that we able to be saved? We’re left asking the same question that Peter asked. The answer is Jesus. It is Jesus who died for our sins. It is Jesus who gives eternal life. This isn’t about what we do, but it is about what Jesus does for us. It’s not about you – it’s about Jesus for you! What is impossible for us is completely possible for Jesus. ;
Through our Baptism, we are joined to Christ. His perfect life, His suffering, and His death all become ours. That means that when we stand in judgment, we stand not in our sin, but in Christ’s righteousness. We receive full credit for what Christ has done. Because of Christ’s work, we will rise again to new life. ;
Nothing in us is capable of our salvation and so we rest solely on Christ and what He has done for us. Eternal life is impossible when left to us, but all things are possible with God; and because we have Christ, we have the One who sacrificed Himself because He was and is and will always be about us. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen. ;
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Pentecost 21 – “Jesus For You” (Mark 10:23-31)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.
Today’s text is the continuation of the encounter of the rich young man from last week’s Gospel reading. As we left that man, Mark records, “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” That’s the last we see or hear about this rich young man, for the man went away sorrowful because he was not able to fulfill Jesus’ command. How sad it must have been for the young man, but what is even more sad is how many more people are just like him. 
As sad as the interaction was with the man, Jesus continues teaching the disciples, saying, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” This was not only a problem for the man who left Jesus, but it is an important lesson for us today as well. Jesus explains how wealth makes it difficult to enter God’s kindgom. He then generalizes this statement to include all people. While there is nothing wrong with being wealthy or having lots of possessions, our riches cannot and will not earn us entry into heaven, nor will they earn us everlasting life. This is the point that Jesus was trying to make to the disciples and to the rich young man a few verses earlier who went away sorrowful. Our earthly riches will do us no good when it comes to the gift of salvation, for this gift cannot be bought or purchased for any amount, other than the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
To stress the point of just how hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells them that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” So just how does one go about making a camel go through the eye of a needle? Imagine pulling hair by hair out of the camel through the eye of the needle, then someone disassembling the camel on one end, pulling the camel through and somehow reassembling the camel back together and giving it life again. Obviously, it is a ridiculous notion that Jesus is putting before them, making something so huge go through a hole so small. The disciples knew this and were left with the same question that we all have: “Then who can be saved?”

We go back to the question that the man asked last week, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Right away, we’re saying that there must be something that we can do. But sadly, even though the question is wrong, there are plenty of people who will be happy to give you an answer, albeit a wrong answer.
In more than one church and from more than one pastor, the answer is that you must do good works in order to inherit eternal life. You must lead a good life. You must keep all the commandments of God, or at least as well as you can, and the Lord will graciously open the gates of heaven to you. This is such a popular doctrine among us today, that as long as we go to church x number of times a year, we’ve done enough and eternal life is ours. Or better yet is the notion that as long as we do our best each day, what more can God ask for from us. Doing the best you can isn’t good enough in God’s book, for Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 
These answers are appealing to our sinful nature – it means that we can do this on our own. It means that we don’t have to get it all right and God won’t punish us. It means whatever you want it to mean and God will grant you everlasting life regardless of what you have done or haven’t done. The easy answer is good works. But how many good works are necessary? What constitutes a good work? Can you ever do enough good works? The answer to this question is that good works will not earn you salvation.
When Jesus turns His full attention to the disciples, His words are centered around salvation, but the disciples focus on some sort of human-achieved salvation. Jesus has just explained about the camel and the needle and Peter is quick to respond that they have left everything and have now chosen to follow Jesus. In his thinking and logic, they have done exactly what Jesus told the rich man to do: go and sell all their possessions and to follow Him. Yet again, the disciples miss the point of Jesus’ teaching.
It is humanly impossible for a rich man to enter heaven. It is humanly impossible for the poor man to enter heaven. It is humanly impossible for any man to enter heaven on their own accord. To gain heaven by our works, we must walk that tightrope of God’s Law, without wavering and without breaking any of His commands. Because of that reason, St. Paul writes in Romans, “No one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
We as God’s people would do well to remember that also; that we all have turned aside from God and that we are not capable of doing good. Only by fulfilling the Law of God are we saved. However, there is one problem with that: we can’t keep God’s Law. Paul tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That includes you and I. We have all failed in keeping God’s Law. Our salvation could never rely upon us. Paul continues by saying, “[we are] justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus….”

So where does that leave us? How is it then that we able to be saved? We’re left asking the same question that Peter asked. The answer is Jesus. It is Jesus who died for our sins. It is Jesus who gives eternal life. This isn’t about what we do, but it is about what Jesus does for us. It’s not about you – it’s about Jesus for you! What is impossible for us is completely possible for Jesus. 
Through our Baptism, we are joined to Christ. His perfect life, His suffering, and His death all become ours. That means that when we stand in judgment, we stand not in our sin, but in Christ’s righteousness. We receive full credit for what Christ has done. Because of Christ’s work, we will rise again to new life. 
Nothing in us is capable of our salvation and so we rest solely on Christ and what He has done for us. Eternal life is impossible when left to us, but all things are possible with God; and because we have Christ, we have the One who sacrificed Himself because He was and is and will always be about us. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen. 
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Spontaneous Prayer

You may or may not have heard of the Voice. I don’t mean the show, i mean the Bible “translation.” Their headline on their website reads, “A new Bible translation that reads like a story with all of the truth and wisdom of God’s Word.”

In the latest blog post from the Voice, David Capes writes about spontaneous prayer verses scripted prayer. In it, he writes the following:

I come from a tradition that privileges “spontaneous prayer” and looks suspiciously on scripted prayers or prayers written beforehand.  According to this perspective, spontaneous prayer means prayer from the heart while prescribed prayers or prayers written down beforehand are not from the heart.  I accepted this myself for many years until I met some remarkable Christians and began to read and reflect on Scripture.

He later goes on to say, “As I have listened to others pray publically, I realize that in many ways spontaneous prayers are not that different than prayers scripted beforehand.”

He then includes the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 from the Voice.

Our Father in heaven,

let Your name remain holy.

Bring about Your Kingdom,

Manifest Your will here on earth,

as it is manifest in heaven.

Give us each day that day’s bread—

no more, no less—

And forgive us our debts

as we forgive those who owe us something.

Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9-13; The Voice)

 

As he concludes the post, he writes the following:

Any good commentary on Matthew 6 and Luke 11 will advocate that Jesus wanted his disciples to pray this prayer and he also wanted his followers to pray prayers like this.  One is scripted.  The other is more spontaneous.  Peter Davids, one of the scholars who worked on The Voice, has written a wonderful piece recently on the Lord’s prayer.  You can read it here.

 

I have to ask the question if this is how Jesus would really want us to pray the Lord’s Prayer. If He wanted us to pray it like this, then wouldn’t He have spoken it as such? Yes, I know that all of our English translations are not the words that our Lord spoke. Our New Testament was written in Koine Greek. Scholars throughout the centuries have produced translations based off of the original, but this one is not a translation as much as it an interpretation of Jesus’ prayer.

What are your thoughts?

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Pentecost 20–“Eternal Life” (Mark 10:17-22)

B-90 Proper 23 (LHP) (Mk 10.17-22)Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

Today’s Gospel tells us about a man who came to Jesus for advice. He wanted something very good – eternal life. He thought he knew how to get eternal life, but he wanted some assurance, some sign that he was on the right trail. From all outward appearances, this man seemed to be an example of righteous living, but something was still nagging at him. Something about eternal life still left him uneasy. He wanted Jesus to tell him what was missing.

How many of us ask that same question that the rich young man asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Our society today has any number of answers to that question and the answer always involves us. It requires that we do something or that some sort of contribution on our part be made and then, if by magic, eternal life is ours. It’s one of those “If this, then that” equations. The equation reads, “If I do this, then I receive that.” It sounds good, doesn’t it? It sounds good that you do something to inherit eternal life. The problem is using the words “I do” with the word “inherit.” You do not inherit anything because of what you do. You inherit something because of what someone else did. You inherit something because someone else included you in their will. The heirs really have no say in the inheritance. The person who makes the will determines who inherits what.
The problem this man had was that he thought that if he dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s, he could force God to love him enough to put him in the heavenly will. This man felt he had done everything he was supposed to do, but he still felt uncertain. He wanted Jesus to assure him either that he had already done enough or tell him what sort of task or behavior he still needed to do to guarantee eternal life. Like many people, this man thought that he just needed some special knowledge or that he needed to do some special task. If he could just learn the secret, he could guarantee his place in eternity.

Herein lies the problem. There is nothing that we can do to inherit eternal life. To go back to the earlier equation, “If this, then that,” we need to fill in the variables to see how the equation works out. If we fill it in where it reads, “If I do this, then I inherit that,” what is the “that” that we inherit? The “that” that we inherit is hell, because there is nothing that we can do to inherit eternal life. Everything we do is tainted by sin and so we can do nothing to earn eternal life. The rich young man deceived himself into thinking that there was something that he could. In fact, he had done everything that Jesus had said. Jesus had laid out Commandments 4-10 as that which needed to be upheld. There is God’s Law clearly presented, something that none of us are capable of keeping. However, the rich young man is the exception, as he has kept them from his youth.

It must have been good to be this man, since he had done something that no one since before the Fall has done – keep God’s Law perfectly; in other words, not sin. When we properly understand the full meaning of these commands, the proper response is to realize that we have broken them all. When we understand that the Bible considers hatred to be a form of murder, we must admit that we are all murderers. When we realize that even the smallest lustful thought about someone who is not our spouse amounts to adultery, we must admit that we are all adulterers. The least bit of laziness makes us into thieves. Even if all we do is listen to gossip, we are liars. The number of ways that we can break these commands is limited only by our creativity. As God Himself said, “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

The man in today’s Gospel did not understand that. For when he heard Jesus’ response, he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” The context of this passage leads us to believe that this man truly believed these words. Jesus had piled up a collection of commands that should have had this man begging for mercy. Instead, this man actually thought he had kept these commands.

It is at this point in the conversation that Jesus pointed out the man’s true failure. Jesus said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” With these words, Jesus revealed the man’s heart. He did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Instead, his fear, love, and trust were all based on his money and possessions. In spite of all his good works, this young man had gold for a god.

When we come to the honest understanding that there is nothing that we can do, then we hear these words from God: “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” “The blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.” We are justified by faith apart from works of the law. This is the central teaching of the Christian faith. All the doctrines of the Bible depend on the doctrine of justification. Everything in the Bible points to the fact that we do not inherit heaven based on what we do. Instead, we inherit heaven based on what God has already done.

Through that faith we constantly receive the forgiveness of our sins, God declares us holy in his eyes, and we inherit eternal life. We stop asking the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Instead, the Holy Spirit points us to Jesus and declares, “Look what God has done to give you eternal life.”

For us, the equation is and always will be “If Jesus died for us, then we inherit eternal life.” What we do know is that we – like the rich young man – have an empty place inside of us. We hunger for the assurance that we have eternal life. If we try to find that assurance on our own, we will fail. Only the Holy Spirit can fill that empty space inside of us. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the faith that receives the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus earned for us on the cross. He does this by convicting us of our sin with the Law and then comforting us with the good news of the Gospel. In this way, the Holy Spirit makes us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

For us, we don’t have to ask the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” because it’s the wrong thing to ask. For us, it’s not about what we must do, but it’s about what has been done for us, all because of Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

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Funeral for +Don Bates+

LSB Icon_040The text that I have chosen for Don’s funeral comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Here ends our text.

Donna, Gail, family and friends of Don, funerals and grief go together. Sadness and bereavement are normal when a loved one dies; but there is a significant difference in the type of grief evidenced at funerals.

On the one hand, there are many funerals where the sorrow of the bereaved is inconsolable, where widows or widowers and children of the deceased weep and lament without hope. Nothing anyone says or does can dispel their grief. On the other hand, at Christian funerals, the bereaved also experience great sadness, but mixed with their sadness is their Christian hope, which enables them to dry their tears and even smile in the midst of their sorrow.

St. Paul speaks of this significant difference in grieving when he writes in the words of our text, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” The apostle goes on to say that believers in Christ, by contrast, grieve with hope! This hope is expressed in the closing words of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in . . . the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.”

Today, as we come together in a time of grief, we remember a father, a friend who is no longer with us. To say that we are saddened is an understatement. We know that death is that unnatural natural, a result of man’s sin. As we see a loved one advance in age, see their health begin to deteriorate, we begin to try to mentally prepare ourselves for that day that our Lord calls our loved one home, but it doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. There is no way that we can truly prepare ourselves for the moment of death, but there is One who does and has prepared us for death: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our Lord came into a sin-broken world in order to make things right once again with God. Because of Don’s sin and the sin of the entire world, our Lord took on human flesh so that He could live the perfect life that Don and we could not. Our Lord went to the cross, taking Don’s sins and ours with Him so that we would not have to bear them. Our Lord died the death that was meant for Don and us and in turn, gave to us the gift of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

We grieve with hope because we do not have to fear death. There is probably nothing in life that people fear more than death. This fear is demonstrated in the fact that we avoid the noun death and the verb die. In medical circles, a patient doesn’t die; instead, he or she “expires.” In daily conversation, we often employ the euphemism “passed away” rather than say that a person has died. But for us believers in Christ, we need not fear death. In fact, we embrace death when it comes because we know that death is not the end, but rather, it is eternal life in heaven with God our heavenly Father. That is the joy that Don now experiences. He is enjoying that everlasting life where there is no sickness and no pain. He is enjoying that everlasting life with those who have departed this life in the faith, including his wife Elsie and his son Donald.

We turn to the words of Jesus for our comfort at death: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” For those who trust and believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and life, death is but the door into heaven. By His death and triumphant resurrection, Jesus has made complete payment for all sins, including that of Don. And so now our departed brother rests from his labors in the fullness of heaven.

St. Paul uses the wonderful language of those who have “fallen asleep.” What a wonderful experience sleep is, especially if one is tired after a long day of work. That is what happened to Don early Sunday morning – he fell asleep in Jesus. I’m sure that in the last days of Don’s life when he knew that his life was coming to an end, he did not fear death because he knew what was in store for him – he knew he was going to receive the crown of life. Don had great faith in the words of David: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” When St. Paul refers to death as a sleep, he is saying in a very powerful way that you and I who believe in Jesus do not have to be afraid of death any more than we are afraid of falling asleep at the end of the day.

Today, we grieve with hope because we can look forward to eternal life. This was something that Don was very sure of for a very long time. He knew that on account of what Christ had done for him and not what he had done, that he had been granted that gift of the forgiveness of sins and that he would receive everlasting life. I know Don believed that because he spoke so fondly of what Jesus had done for him. For you, his children, he wants you to know that as well. Because of Jesus Christ and His life, death, and resurrection, all of your sins, past, present, and future have been forgiven. They have been atoned for and you have been declared not guilty.

We who believe in Jesus Christ do not grieve without hope because Christ our Lord gives us hope because He gives us everlasting life. And what a glorious day that will be for us when God our heavenly Father calls us to Him, just as He did for Don on Sunday. As St. Paul says, “…and so we will always be with the Lord.” In these coming days of grief and sorrow, know that you will always have at your side a Lord who cares for you. This is His promise to you: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Know that the Lord’s care for you gives you power by God’s grace to wait for that great reunion of the saints when Christ comes in glory.

I leave you with these words of the psalmist David: “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” As you grieve, grieve as those with hope, because that is exactly what you have. Trust in God, grateful for the earthly life that he has granted to Don and the many memories we have. Rejoice in knowing that now he lays safely in the arms of Jesus, who is our good shepherd. Amen.

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Funeral for +Loren Brenden+

LSB Icon_040The text that I have chosen for Loren’s funeral is Isaiah 49:13-16.

13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. 14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Here ends our text.

Kathy, Bev, and Diana, Monday was a day that had been at times long coming, while at times seemed sudden. Regardless of whether it was sudden or long coming, it doesn’t make today any easier. The fact of the matter is that we are gathered to mourn the loss of a father, a brother, a grandfather, a great-grandfather and a friend.

At age 82, it is safe to say that Loren lived a long and good life. However, that wasn’t always the case. To bury a spouse is something that can be expected, but to bury a child is the most of unnatural things to do. Loren had to do this not once, but four times.

All of this can be devastating to a person. It can take a toll on a person, both physically and mentally. The prophet Isaiah experienced hardships and difficulties in his life. He brought good news to the people of God’s promise of salvation while at other times, he was the bearer of bad news and judgment from God to the people. As we look at our text, we see how distraught Israel was in thinking that God had forsaken and forgotten them. The reason why Israel felt this way was because of the many grievous sins they had committed. But throughout the many and various sins the people of Israel committed, God never forgot them. God could never forget them because Israel was His chosen people.

Just as God did not forget Israel, so did God not forget Loren. In all of his adversity, he still had a promise from God. In His Baptism, God placed His name on Loren and made him His beloved child. He forgave him all of his sins and granted to him the gift of everlasting life. This was a promise that God made to Loren and it was a promise that God kept, just as He keeps every promise He makes to His people.

Death comes upon us all because of our sinful condition. We all are mortal, meaning that one day, we too, will die. The reason is because we inherited our sinful, mortal condition from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Not only do we have that original sin, we also are guilty of that sin that we ourselves commit.

Even in our wretchedness of sin, God did not abandon us. God saw fit to send to us a Savior in the person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been redeemed; our sins have been forgiven. All are wiped clean by our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered on the cross for the sins of all people, including Loren. Jesus died. Death came to Him as a member of the human race, though He was without sin. His resurrection from the grave is our comfort and our hope in all aspects of our Christian life and especially at this time.

The words that Isaiah records from God are words that indeed bring comfort to us because they are a promise to us: “Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” Focus your eyes and look closer into our Lord’s hands. On the palms of our Lord’s hands something is engraved. The Lord says, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Inscribed in the two palms of the hands of the Lord God Almighty, you are there! St. Paul writes, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” From eternity you have been in the mind of God and inscribed in the palms of His hands and that is where Loren has been.

God is not a God of “cheap grace,” easy forgiveness. The payment for our sins cost Him the life of His Son—our Savior. But by Christ’s death and resurrection, we are forgiven people. God declares us righteous—made right again in His eyes—through Christ’s atoning work for us. We cannot save ourselves. Christ did save us. And He wants the assurance and peace and comfort and hope of that forgiveness to be a living reality in our daily lives. God says: “I have redeemed you . . . you are Mine.”

Loren believed that. He was baptized and knew he was a forgiven child of God. And that’s what he has right now: life with God. Three words sum up Loren’s state right now. These three words are “with the Lord.” That’s what life eternal is: being in the presence of the eternal God who is love. That is joyful bliss beyond all description.

As you grieve today and in the days to come, rejoice in the fact that your Lord has called Loren home to be with Him and the children that God saw fit to call unto Him. Amen.

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Pentecost 19–“Let the Children Come” (Mark 10:2-16)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

Once again, we see Jesus on His way to Jerusalem. There, He was about to shed His lifeblood as the sacrifice for our sins and for the sins of the world. Prophesied by the inspired prophets of God for years and years, the fulfillment must have been on our Lord’s mind.

His reputation had been well-established by this time. His miracles attested to His power, His teaching to His gracious wisdom. People flocked to see Him wherever He went. His popularity had also increased among the people of Israel and so had the opposition and hatred of the religious establishment, the scribes and the Pharisees. The Pharisees followed Him and tried again and again to challenge Him and His work. In our text, Jesus taught them and answered their questions – He tells that God brings couples together; He guides their lives together that they might live their lives for God. And with the disciples He urged the sanctity of marriage. Then He teaches us that God not only loves husbands and wives, but that He loves the products of these marriages, their children. They are indeed beloved by God, and they are important to our Lord, for Scripture is clear that Jesus came for all.

All of this was prompted by people bring little children to Jesus in order for Him to touch them, to receive a blessing from Him. This was not necessarily a bad thing. This was actually a good thing, because it showed the love of the Savior that they had. They recognized that Jesus had come not only for them but also for their little children. They went to have their children receive the blessing and love of the Savior.

This is one of the most delightful and comforting, and at the same time saddest stories in the synoptic Gospels. By preventing people from bringing their children to Jesus, the disciples revealed that they considered children too immature to profit from the Lord’s attention and were not yet in need of a Savior. If anything, they were a bother to Him. But Jesus took the side of the people who brought their children, not that of the disciples.

In Mark’s Gospel, only one other time does he record that Jesus became indignant or angry. That time, it was directed against the Pharisees. This time, it is directed against His own disciples. It is hard to believe that Jesus was angry at His disciples, but here He was, angry at them for what they had done. Jesus had righteous anger and proceeded to show the disciples how wrong they were in their actions.

The reason why Jesus was so angry towards His disciples was because they were turning away those whom Jesus had come for. Jesus came for all people. His life, death, and resurrection would earn salvation for all peoples, whether they were young or old. Jesus indeed came to seek and to the save the lost, and here in this instance, it included the little ones. He showed that even the little children were precious in the eyes of His heavenly Father and they were precious in His eyes as well.

For the disciples, they saw the children being brought to Jesus as a bother because they were just that, children. Jesus was intended for the adults, for it is only the adults who could believe and have faith, or so the disciples thought.

What a sad thing for the disciples to believe. With that mindset, all children are outside of the grace of God. All children are excluded from the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation. In short, children are excluded from the forgiveness that Jesus Christ has won for them and for all people.

Unfortunately, that same school of thought continues even today. Baptism is excluded for children, especially for infants, because they are either born sinless or they are incapable of making that decision for Jesus and choosing to be baptized on their own. But here’s the truth that they don’t want to admit: children are born sinful. We are all born sinful and remain sinful until our Lord calls us to Himself. That is our original sin at work, that sin which we are born with. But the other thing to acknowledge is that children, if left to their own devices, would not choose to come to Jesus. If that isn’t shocking enough, I’ll let you in on a secret: if left to your own devices, you wouldn’t come to Jesus either. None of us ever would because we are born enemies of God and want nothing to do with Him. Martin Luther wrote, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him….” It’s not us who comes to Jesus but it is Jesus who comes to us.

Ultimately, the disciples failed to understand why Jesus came and what His kingdom was all about. So Jesus proceeded to teach His disciples and us adults two important lessons.

First, God’s kingdom is also for children. Faith is not a matter of the intellect or will, but a matter of trust in Jesus and in the promises of our gracious Father. That trust in Jesus and God’s promises is granted to us by the Holy Spirit, who works saving faith in us, granted to us in our Baptism. That is why we practice infant Baptism, because children are born sinners and need the forgiveness of sins just as much as you and I do as adults. The Holy Spirit can work saving faith in the heart of an infant or child, just as it does for adults. We heed the words of Jesus, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder for them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”

The second point that our Lord teaches His disciples is not only are children part of God’s kingdom through faith in Him, but also, it is precisely that kind of faith that God looks for in all of His believers: simple, humble, trusting faith that looks only to Him. By nature, just like little children, we’re unable to save ourselves. We truly are dependent on God; we can’t make a decision to follow Christ, but the Holy Spirit comes and creates this faith in us. This faith is a gift of God and it is by this faith that we receive the kingdom of God, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Despite what others teach, the truth remains that there is original sin. Children receive the guilt of their parents by nature and need salvation. Children inherit that sin from our first parents, Adam and Eve. They need forgiveness and that is why Jesus bids them to come to Him. Through Baptism, He gives His gracious forgiveness of sins to everyone, from the youngest of the young to the oldest of the old.

In the gift of Baptism, God graciously welcomes all into His saving faith, bestowing upon them the Holy Spirit. He grants them forgiveness through this gracious gift of water and the Word. He bids us all to come to Him, to trust in Him as a child, with a faith that takes His Word to heart, completely trusting in Him and His love. In Jesus name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.