The Fifth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 5:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who did the work we had hardly even begun and were not about to finish, dear fellow redeemed:
What would it take for you to feel like you have really “made it”? When would you consider your life a success? Would it be rising to a prominent position in a company? Being recognized and awarded for your accomplishments? Making a certain amount of money and achieving the standard of living you always dreamed of? We look up to actors, athletes, and singers, because it seems like they have everything they want, the perfect life.
King Solomon had more than all of them. He looked back on a lifetime of hard work, of success and fame, and concluded that “all was vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecc. 2:11). He said that “there is more gain in wisdom than in folly,” but in the end, “the wise dies just like the fool!” (vv. 13, 16). He also recognized that everything he had worked for would one day be turned over to another to keep and manage, “and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?” (v. 19).
So our satisfaction will not be found in climbing higher and higher and getting more and more. There is a better focus for our work, and we learn it today from the example of Jesus’ disciples.
When Jesus visited the fishermen by the lake of Gennesaret, they were not in good spirits. These men fished for their livelihood, not for leisure, which made a night’s work with no return especially frustrating. We might have expected Simon Peter’s response to be a bit saltier than it was when Jesus directed him to row to the deep part of the lake and let down his nets. For one thing, it was not the right time of day for fishing. And the deeper parts of the lake were probably not the best places to find fish. But Simon replied respectfully, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets.”
It wasn’t long before the fishermen saw the nets start to drag along as though they were filling up. In a short time their nets were so full, that two fishing boats could not handle the load. So much for all their fishing wisdom! This Jesus came along and prompted the greatest catch of fish they had ever seen! Now they were keenly aware of a power in their presence that was much greater than their own. They did not doubt that they had just witnessed a miracle, which meant Jesus was either a prophet of God or God Himself. Simon fell to his knees and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
What Simon had forgotten at that moment is something that we lose sight of too. We forget that we are always in the presence of God, and that we cannot prosper in work without His blessing. So often we experience some success at work and are praised for what we accomplish, and we think of this as well-earned recognition. We worked hard for this and did what others could not do.
It is not wrong to take pride in a job well done. But it is wrong to take full credit for it. If you are a farmer, who is it that sends the sun and rain for your crops? If you work for an employer, who gave you the mental and physical abilities you have? If your kids grow up to be reasonably responsible citizens, who granted you the patience and care you needed to raise them?
To act as though God has nothing to do with our successes—which is what every unbeliever thinks—is to greatly dishonor Him. Unbelievers see their success as entirely dependent on themselves and even flaunt their riches in God’s face, as though He had nothing to do with it. But unless He opens His merciful hand and gives His blessings, no creature could live. He satisfies the desire of every living thing, as the Psalm says (145:16).
But we do not always feel satisfied with His gifts. Sometimes, like the disciples, we work hard and come up with nothing. Why is that? Why do we wear ourselves out and lose ground while the unrighteous appear to prosper? Has God forgotten our need? It is easy to question God when we are struggling, but it is just as easy to forget Him when we prosper. This may be why God sometimes gives us more and sometimes less—to remind us to trust in Him.
No matter how hard you work, if your work is not done to the glory of God, it is empty. No amount of money and goods will satisfy you without Jesus in view. Peter, James, and John recognized this. Even after the greatest catch of fish they had ever seen, they left it all behind. “[T]hey left everything and followed [Jesus].” They followed Jesus because He called them to a different kind of fishing. Now they would be “catching men” for God.
But they were not prepared to help fill God’s net until they were caught themselves. When Simon saw the great catch of fish, He begged Jesus to leave him, because he was a sinner. What sin do you suppose was on his mind? Was it that he doubted any fish would be caught when he “put out into the deep”? Or was it just a general awareness of his sinfulness as He stood before his Lord? The prophet Isaiah reacted in much the same way in the presence of God in heaven, “Woe is me! For I am lost” he said; “for I am a man of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5). But the last thing Simon Peter needed is what he requested. When he said, “Depart from me,” he should have said, “Save me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
Being in the presence of God and hearing His Word forces us to reckon with our sins. We hear the standard that God sets and realize how far we fall short of meeting it. But instead of crying out to Jesus, “Save me!” we try to make things better on our own. We know that the sin we have fallen into is condemned by God, and we want to stop doing it. But instead of trusting in Him, we put our trust in ourselves. “I am strong enough to overcome this,” we think. “I know I am better than this, and I will prove it!” And what happens? We fall again and again. And eventually, we lose the will to fight anymore. Sometimes we continue in the sin despite the conflict we feel in our conscience, or we begin to justify the sin in an attempt to rewire our conscience.
Our flailing attempts to get free of God’s accusing law are like a bird caught in a fishing net. The harder it tries to get away, the more tangled up it becomes. This is how it was with Martin Luther. Luther had tried to get right with God by his works. He even gave up a promising career in law in order to become a monk, so that he could dedicate his life to righteous living full-time.
But the harder he worked, the more his net of righteousness came up empty. He expressed this painful realization in a hymn verse: “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay; / Death brooded darkly o’er me. / Sin was my torment night and day; / In sin my mother bore me. / Yea, deep and deeper still I fell; / Life had become a living hell, / So firmly sin possessed me” (ELH 378, v. 2).
It wasn’t that Luther was more sinful than the common man. But he was more honest about his sinful condition than many are. No matter how hard you and I try, we are still sinners who deserve death. St. Paul lays it out clearly, “the wages of sin is death.” But then he speaks the good news for us sinners, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
By God’s grace, we learn that the righteousness God requires of sinners is supplied by Jesus. To try to get to heaven without Him is to come up empty. But to place one’s entire life and being in His hands through repentant faith is to obtain everything. By faith in Jesus, your net is filled with forgiveness for your many sins, with eternal life instead of death, and with salvation from your enemies. Faith receives such abundant blessings from God that you sink beneath their glorious weight. God’s grace surrounds you and covers you, so that your flimsy attempts at righteousness can no more be seen. All that is now in view is the righteousness of Jesus and His cleansing blood.
That is why we follow Him. He gives us what we could never get on our own. Our Constant Toiling Nets Nothing without Jesus. Romans 4:5 declares, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” It is not your work that justifies you before God, but faith in Jesus who did all the work that was necessary to save you.
He worked hard to save you, and He isn’t about to let that hard work on your behalf go to waste. He comes to you still and continues to work in you through His Word and Sacraments. Through these means, He supplies forgiveness whenever your God-given work falls short, and He grants the strength that you need to carry out your work to His glory alone.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of the miraculous catch of fish by Raphael, 1515)
The Second Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 14:16-24
In Christ Jesus, who fills the hungry with good things, but who sends the self-secure away empty, dear fellow redeemed:
“I’d like to throw a party at our house soon, and you are invited! I just need a little bit of help from you to make it happen. I’m going to need about ten people to come early to clean the house and five more to get the yard set up. I’ll need a few of you to decorate, make things look nice. Then I’m going to need a bunch of you to work on the main dish and the rest of you to bring side dishes and desserts. And of course we will need you to help clean up afterward. ‘What will I be doing?’ you ask. Don’t worry, I’ll be at the party on time. It’s going to be great!”
How many people do you suppose will come to my party? I expect there would be a lot of excuses, a lot of conflicts in the schedule. Who wants to go to a party where they have to do all the work? We attend parties such as graduation open houses and wedding receptions to celebrate and have fun. We look forward to the good food and the good company. It is a privilege to be invited to attend.
In the same way, it was a tremendous honor to be invited to attend the party that Jesus speaks about in today’s parable. This was no backyard barbeque, no small gathering of relatives or friends. This was “a great banquet” that the guests had been informed about far in advance. “Many” were invited. They knew this banquet was coming; it didn’t catch them by surprise.
But when the master of the house sent his servant to tell those who were invited, “Come, for everything is now ready,” they started making excuses—not just some of them—all of them! Not one of them intended to come. What an insult to the host! You would be crushed if this happened to you. Then you would probably be angry. “All that work, and no one could trouble themselves to come?! Do I really mean so little to them?!”
That’s how the master of the house reacted. He became “very angry” and told his servant to invite anyone he found in the city, “the poor and crippled and blind and lame,” and the strangers way out in the country. The honored guests who were first invited lost their place to the dishonored and the downtrodden. And the master’s house was filled, and the great banquet was enjoyed by many.
Jesus spoke this parable to teach how the invitation to salvation came first to the Israelites, the chosen people of God. They should have known this salvation was coming because they had the Old Testament Scriptures which clearly pointed to the promised Messiah. But the devil tempted them to give attention to other things. He got them to focus not on the commands and promises of God, but on making and keeping their own self-righteous laws. These were too busy with their possessions, their work, and their families to listen to the Messiah when He came. They did not follow Jesus their Savior, but rejected Him.
So God turned His merciful help to the Gentiles. These were the dishonorable and downtrodden ones who did not have the Scriptures or live according to God’s holy law. They were not worthy to receive an invitation to salvation, but God graciously extended it to them. Jesus made this clear when He said just before His ascension into heaven, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mat. 28:19). And the apostle Paul wrote by inspiration that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Ti. 2:4).
But “all nations” have not been converted to the Lord, and “all people” have not come to the knowledge of the truth. Why is that? Why does anyone reject the summons to God’s great banquet of salvation? It is because so many think they have better things to do with their time. Some people focus on their fields, their possessions in this life, building up more and more, better and nicer things. Some focus on their work, getting more done, making progress, building a legacy. And some focus on their family and friends, enjoying new experiences together, making memories, having fun.
All of those things can seem more important than the saving Word of God. We typically don’t go to the Word of God when we want to make money, when we want to move up in our job, when we want to have fun. Part of this is because of our misunderstanding about where all good things come from—they come from God who gives us our daily bread. And part of it comes from our own sinfulness, our stubborn tendency to overlook the best things in favor of the lesser things.
You wouldn’t miss your own child’s graduation party, but missing the great banquet of salvation is infinitely more serious. God doesn’t have our whole heart, soul, and mind until nothing matters more to us than His holy Word. The “field” can wait, the “five yoke of oxen” can be examined later, spouse and family must be led to the banquet and not away from it. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” said Jesus, “and all these things—all these earthly blessings—will be added to you” (Mat. 6:33).
“[S]eek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”—tell me why this priority is not possible, and I will sympathize with you. All of us think we have better things to do than to occupy our heart, soul, and mind with “the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” All of us have excuses, and they can sound pretty good and reasonable: “I am exhausted. I don’t have time to read the Bible or pray.” “We are on the go constantly! It just isn’t possible to have devotions at the dinner table or the bedside.” “I don’t feel qualified to have devotions with my family. What if I can’t answer their questions? What if I tell them something wrong?”
As reasonable as these excuses sound, they are all bad excuses. I’m especially talking to Christian fathers. It is our job to make sure our families are trained in the Word. It is our job to spend ourselves and sacrifice ourselves, even when we don’t feel like we have anything left to give. God tells us do this. Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” It is not first of all the mother’s job or the church’s job. It is our job as fathers, whom God the Father has placed on this earth to be examples of His love and care for His dear children.
But here’s the important point, here’s the thing to remember: not one of us has to come up with the plan for the banquet; not one of us has to prepare the food. All of that is done. God the Father is the Master of the House, and His only Son is the Food, and this Food is enjoyed by all who are brought to faith by the Holy Spirit’s invitation.
This is not a party (like the one I am planning) where the people who are invited do all the work. This is a party where all the work is done—the table is set, the food is prepared, your spot is reserved, everything is ready. All of this was done by Jesus for you. He won your place at God’s table by setting aside His glory to suffer and die for you.
Your excuses for doing what you knew you shouldn’t and for not doing what you knew you should—Jesus took them on Himself. He accepted these excuses, not as valid reasons for acting the way you did, but as what they are, violations of God’s holy law and stains on His perfect creation of you. He took the blame for all of them.
Jesus offered no excuses to set aside His work of suffering and dying for you. He willingly went in your place, suffering the eternal anger of God, so that you would have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of [your] trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). God does not say, “You missed your chance! The door to the banquet hall is shut! Go away!” He says and keeps saying to you, “Come, for Everything Is Now Ready.”
That is often what I say after the Lord’s Supper has been prepared. Christ’s Words of Institution have been spoken, we sing the Agnus Dei, “O Christ, the Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us,” and you are summoned to the great banquet of salvation. Jesus is here for you. He is here to feed you with His holy body and blood. He is here to cleanse your heart and mind and give you a clear conscience. He is here to strengthen you for the work He has called you to do. So I say to all who have examined themselves—confessing their sin and their trust in Jesus and His Word—“Come, for Everything Is Now Ready.”
You haven’t had to do anything. God has prepared this banquet for you, His guest. Many are invited to this banquet, but they make excuses for why they cannot come. Those who do come when they are summoned are the ones who are done making excuses. These are the ones who recognize that they don’t deserve to be at the banquet, and that they have nothing to offer God that could ever compare with what He gives them.
God made no mistake when He invited you to this banquet. No matter how spiritually “poor and crippled and blind and lame” you have been, no matter how far down the highway of this sinful world you have gone, there is a place for you in the Lord’s kingdom. Listening to His Word, faithfully partaking of His Sacraments, you are tasting the rich food of His banquet.
And the foretaste that you enjoy right now with the Christian friends who sit beside you in the pews and kneel or stand beside you at the Communion rail—this delicious feast you will enjoy in all its fullness in the great banquet hall of your heavenly Father’s house.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut of the poor, the blind, and the lame being invited to the banquet, from the 1880 edition of The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation)
The Festival of the Holy Trinity – Vicar Anderson farewell sermon
Text: St. John 3:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit are one God, one Lord, who in the confession of the only true God, we worship the Trinity in person and the Unity in substance, of majesty co-equal, dear fellow redeemed:
In the last ten years, I have mostly moved once a year. First it was to college. After nine months, I packed everything up and brought it home. Then I moved for Seminary, then to Iowa, and later this month, to my first call to serve as pastor in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Packing and unpacking, packing, and unpacking. My wife and I are working to make sure everything is secured in boxes. Our text for today is teaching how some have tried to pack up God. The world and maybe we have wondered, how can we have a triune God who is also one true God? Is that even possible? Should packing God into a box even be done? The answer is that we do not want to try and pack God into a box. It is not possible. Yet how do we reason with God being triune? Our God is holy, perfect, and righteous. Jesus in our text explains how God is triune. The trinity is active in your life for your good. Jesus teaches you and Nicodemus how this is possible.
Nicodemus points out how they believe that Jesus was sent from God. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” The Pharisees reveal that there is a God. They understand that God does exist. As they believe that God exists, they refuse to believe that Jesus came down from heaven to die for them. They don’t believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. They pack God into a box with their lack of understanding of the Scriptures.
As Nicodemus reveals that Jesus is a prophet, he doesn’t understand what Jesus is telling him. ‘Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’ It is easy to understand why after hearing this, Nicodemus needs clarification. Jesus gives Nicodemus an explanation that His teaching is about heavenly things, but Nicodemus should know this as He is the teacher of Israel.
The reason that Nicodemus is having a hard time with this is because He has the wrong understanding about God’s Law. The Pharisees believed they were saved by their works. They had created their own laws, so it looked as though they were following God’s Law. This belief skewed their judgement, causing them to be upset about Jesus and His work as the Son of Man.
This concept of the Trinity, a Son of Man, how do we understand it? How do we explain that God is one God in three persons? By us believing that God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we have alienated ourselves from the rest of the world and their beliefs. We are told that if we just believe in “a god”, we will easily fit in with everyone else. Why can’t we just have “a god”? If we have “a god”, or we try to remove the Trinity from the one true God then this is what we have, “for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Psalm 96:13). This is God boxed up into our glorious, most holy judge. He will come and judge the world in righteousness and faithfulness.
Our righteousness and faithfulness do not compare to what God wants. Jesus tells us, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). We cannot appease God and be perfect for Him. And since we can’t be perfect, we deserve His holy wrath and punishment. Like the Pharisees and the world, we can strive as much as we can and change God’s laws to be born again on our own, but it never works out. Jesus then tells Nicodemus that the prophets have been ignored.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” Here Jesus is telling Nicodemus that what Jesus and the prophets have spoken in Scripture will happen even if the world won’t receive it. He has tried to explain it in an earthly way, but Nicodemus still lacked understanding. As this cuts us to the heart, Jesus tells Nicodemus, He tells us what their testimony is all about.
The prophets prophesied that a Savior would come. That Savior cannot be just anyone. “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Jesus confirms to Nicodemus that what the Pharisees think is true. Jesus has come from God. He is true God and the Son of Man. Our text ends with Jesus saying, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Jesus teaches that this can only happen with the work of the triune God, and this is how He is active. God the Father has mercy on all of mankind. He sends the Son of Man to suffer and die for all people. How is Nicodemus born again? It is not based on his works. He is born again by the work of the Holy Spirit who brings the work of the Son of Man to him as “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” It’s not Nicodemus work, it’s not our work. It is the Trinity active in your life.
God is righteous and merciful. He is so merciful that He did the unthinkable for you. Like Nicodemus, we can’t fathom that God would be so merciful that He would send His one and only Son. Jesus points out that the Father is looking out for you. He blesses you beyond all measure. He provides for your earthly needs, and He does the unthinkable by providing for your spiritual needs. He sent His Son to earth and born of flesh and blood. The Son of Man, felt your pains, sufferings, and temptations. He suffered this earthly life perfectly for you. He loved you so much, that He put your sins on His back that the Father’s perfect righteousness and holy judgement came down on Him that He was judged guilty of death even though He was innocent.
Jesus like that serpent, was raised up on the cross, becoming a curse for you. So that He would not have to judge you guilty of what you deserved. Jesus died and rose from the dead for your future. Your eternal future is eternal life in heaven not because of anything that you could do, but because of the death of your Savior.
To have eternal life, God can’t be packed into a box as just “a god”. We wouldn’t be able to be in His presence. Our triune God, not only rules over you, but He takes care of and comes directly to you in the Word and Sacraments. He comes to you in the Word as the Word is Christ. He speaks directly to you, He knows that you have sinned and because of your repentance, He forgives your sins. In baptism, you were baptized with the name of the triune God into the death of Christ. You were marked with the sign of the cross the mark of your Savior. The water and the Word washes away sins and drowned your old Adam. In Holy Communion Christ commands, you to come often to receive His holy body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Physical comfort of your Savior with you. These gifts that the Father has mercifully given you because of the life of His perfect Son come to you through these means by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Your baptism, going to communion, and hearing the Word of God preached to you strengthens your faith. You can be certain of your new life in Christ because this is not you’re doing. The work of the Holy Spirit brings you faith in Christ. Every good work that you do is because of the Holy Spirit. This is your new life, and the Trinity is constantly at work for your good. And when the problems of this life get you to again question like Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” The Holy Spirit works faith, you confess your sins, and He once again brings you comfort and assurance that you have been forgiven by Christ, giving you the blessing of eternal life.
This text is not quite the same as packing up belongings and moving them across the country. We see the opposite, that God cannot be contained. If God was contained into a supreme being, there would be no benefit for us. We would see how we cannot achieve what He wants from us. The Holy Trinity is active in our lives. God the Father blesses us, God the Son redeems us, and we receive all of this through the work of God the Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons, one true God. We will never be able to unpack this information because like Nicodemus, we are sinners. But as we confess our sins, the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts giving us new life, and like Nicodemus we hear forgiveness in the Son of Man being raised up like that serpent on a pole. The next verse brings us comfort until the end of time. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Christ and Nicodemus” by Fritz von Uhde, c. 1886)