The Thirteen Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 5:15-27
In Christ Jesus, who by His blood purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), dear fellow redeemed:
When Martin Luther was ordered to recant, to take back, everything he had written up to that time in 1521, he replied, “[M]y conscience is captive to the Word of God… I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience” (quoted in Kittelson’s Luther the Reformer, 161). For Luther, conscience and the Word of God were so bound up together, that to go against one would be to go against the other.
God gave us a conscience which He informs by the moral law written on our hearts. That moral law totally agrees with and is sharpened by the Ten Commandments recorded in the pages of Scripture. When our conscience is operating properly, it will help keep us in line with the Law of God. And if we are living according to the Law of God, we will have a clear conscience. But as you and I well know, living according to God’s Law is not the easiest thing to do.
When we hear about the Good Samaritan, we might think of him as a professional do-gooder, whose heart was filled with an endless supply of love, patience, and compassion to help a person in need. It seems to us that a person like this must have enjoyed a clear conscience. He was just so good. But let’s bring him back into the real world. Let’s imagine he was something like us.
The Samaritan may have had other concerns and responsibilities occupying his mind. He may have been mulling over troubles at work as he traveled. Maybe he was in danger of losing his job. Maybe he was poor and hardly able to provide for his family. Maybe he and his wife hadn’t spoken for days or weeks. Maybe his parents were beginning to need care he wasn’t sure how to provide. Maybe he was stressed and unhappy and didn’t think his life could get any more complicated or any worse. Then there was this man lying by the side of the road. Could he really handle another problem right now? Should he just pass by on the other side? Would anyone know if he did? His conscience compelled him to stop.
You can’t be a Christian without having struggles of conscience. Those struggles, those inner conflicts, are actually a blessing. If you no longer felt conflict inside, the tug and pull of what is right or wrong, then your faith would be in great danger. Life in this fallen world is not meant to be comfortable for those who believe in Jesus. He plainly said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33), and “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24).
Naaman felt this struggle and conflict. As soon as he was converted, he began to be concerned about having a clear conscience. His flesh was cleansed of its leprosy, and he came back to Elisha confessing the name of the true God. But though he was now clean, Naaman was bothered by something new. He would soon be leaving Israel to return to his home. The last thing he wanted was to dishonor the LORD who had miraculously healed him.
He first asked for two loads of soil, so that he could offer sacrifices to the God of the Israelites on Israelite ground. Then he brought up another issue. As the right hand man of the king, he was expected to accompany him into the temple of Rimmon, a false god. Would the LORD pardon him for doing this and even for bowing down—not out of respect for the idol but out of respect for his king? Elisha replied, “Go in peace.”
But Naaman wasn’t the only one whose conscience was troubled. Gehazi, the chief servant of Elisha, couldn’t believe his master had rejected the gifts that Naaman wished to give. Think what good that silver, gold, and fine clothing could do. After all, should the prophets have to scrape by on so little? If nothing else, couldn’t such riches be used to help the poor? This is what Judas Iscariot argued when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment (Joh. 12:4). But it wasn’t charity that drove Judas or Gehazi to speak up for the generous offerings of others. It was greed.
The love of money caused Gehazi to do great violence to his conscience. He surely reasoned it all out to quiet this inner voice. Perhaps he thought that what Naaman offered probably belonged to Israel anyway. After all, Naaman had attacked the Israelites, taking their goods, and turning them into his slaves. Wouldn’t Gehazi know how to put riches to better use than that wicked man?
Gehazi felt so sure about his purpose that he even took an oath before God that he would handle the situation in a better way than Elisha. “As the LORD lives,” he said, “I will run after him and get something from him.” Then to follow his plan through, he had to lie to Naaman and then to Elisha. Even if Gehazi convinced himself that his cause was right, his conscience was certainly not in line with the Word of God.
The tension of keeping a clear conscience was so great that Gehazi decided he would not listen anymore. We know how that feels. Every day, we are challenged by these tensions. Should I confront my boss about his dishonest business practices, or stay quiet and protect my job? Should I take the shortcuts everyone else is taking, or do what is right? Should I hide my toys so no one else can play with them, or should I share? Should I lie and keep myself out of trouble, or tell the truth?
Sometimes the cost of a clear conscience seems too great, and we make the conscious decision to go ahead with something that we know is wrong. Sure, we reason it all out to keep our conscience from screaming too loudly: “We may not be married, but we are committed.” “Who am I to say what someone else should do with her body?” “It’s not right for me to judge.” “It’s going to happen anyway whether I say something or not.” “I don’t want to be left out.” But even if our conscience is quieted somewhat, we have departed from the Word of God, and the leprosy of the unbelieving world rubs off on us. We think we can just give a little, relieve some of that tension, and still be faithful confessors of Christ.
These compromises can never deliver a clear conscience. They only make our condition worse. No amount of good intentions, compromises, or charitable efforts and good works can earn us a clear conscience. These efforts amount to selling the faith for two talents of silver and two changes of clothing which won’t help us anymore than they helped Gehazi. Then sin continues to cling to us just as leprosy clung to him.
So what can be done to get a clear conscience? If conscience is guided by the Law of God, and we have broken the Law in many, many ways, is a clear conscience even possible?
God knows the cost of a clear conscience. He knows this not because His conscience was ever dirtied or in conflict, but because He knows us sinners. He knows how utterly we failed to keep His holy Law. He knows how what He intended us to be is nothing like what we are since the fall into sin. So He resolved to send His holy Son down to earth to be “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
Being placed under the Law, Jesus could fulfill the Law for every sinner. He could maintain a perfectly clear conscience that never departed from the holy Law of God. He was tempted in every way just as we are, but He never blurred the line between right and wrong. He never deviated from His holy task. He never set aside the Word of God—even in the smallest part—in order to appeal to more people.
He kept His conscience clear all the way through a false verdict, unmerited suffering, and a horrible death. He held fast to the promises of God; He had to follow through with God’s plan in order to redeem souls, your soul. God now declares you to be right with Him because of what Jesus did. You are now freed from the guilt of your sins. By the immeasurable price of His holy body and blood, Jesus made the payment to obtain for you a clear conscience, a conscience that is no longer imprisoned in your former darkness and sin.
So a clear conscience cannot be gotten by something you do. It is obtained by what Jesus did for you. Just as Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy in the waters of the Jordan, your conscience was cleansed in the waters of your Baptism. And that powerful cleansing remains in effect as long as you are a believer in Christ. St. Peter calls Baptism “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pe. 3:21). And the author of the book of Hebrews writes, “[S]ince we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (10:19,23).
Baptized into Christ, He is with you to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (1Ti. 1:18-19). He helps you to resist the temptations of this world, the devil, and your flesh, and to continuously battle to uphold the truth of His Word. You will not perfectly avoid what is wrong and do what is right. Your conscience will be sullied again by the leprosy of sin. But it is always cleansed in Christ.
Bring your troubled conscience to Him in humble repentance; acknowledge where you have fallen short; lay all your guilt before Him. Then wrap yourself up in His righteousness and grace. Know that your sins are all forgiven through the blood of Christ. The Cost of a Clear Conscience was very high, and Jesus met that cost in full for you. You can depart as Naaman did with these words of comfort in your ear: “Go in peace.”
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 “Parable of the Good Samaritan” by Jan Wijnants, 1632-1684)
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 5:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who through His own flesh delivered the eternal cure for our sin and death, dear fellow redeemed:
If you think of the stories of King Arthur’s brave knights or perhaps of the courageous heroes in modern war movies, you can get a sense of Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria. He is described as “a great man with his master and in high favor” and as “a mighty man of valor.” He was a man’s man, bold, and strong. We can suppose that he wasn’t afraid of anyone, that he never backed down from a fight. Wherever the danger was greatest or the odds were most against him, Naaman went forward.
And Naaman won. He was held in high esteem by his master because he was so successful. A ruler cannot be effective without loyal and capable men around him ready to carry out his orders. But neither the king nor Naaman realized where their success came from. We learn in today’s reading that “the LORD had given victory to Syria.” Syria’s strength was part of the LORD’s plan. And so was Naaman’s leprosy. Leprosy was a serious and debilitating skin disease. Naaman had probably prayed to his own gods for relief and healing, but none came. It bothered him enough that even his servants were aware of his struggle.
We don’t expect to see weakness in our heroes. We’re surprised when our nation’s leaders get sidelined by the cold or flu, or when elite athletes pull a muscle and have to take time off. These instances are good reminders that the people we look up to are human also. Because of sin in the world, hardships come on the strong and the weak, the wealthy and the poor, the famous and the obscure. This also teaches us that the people who seem to have it all probably have troubles and pains that we wouldn’t want to touch with a ten foot pole.
So Naaman, who knew military strategy, who knew his way around a battlefield, had been outflanked by a skin disease. He had no answer for it; he couldn’t beat it. It was going to kill him. And now we see the LORD’s strategy in play. Through a little girl who was carried away from Israel and made a slave in Naaman’s house, the LORD made Naaman aware of a prophet in Israel. The little girl confidently told Naaman’s wife that this prophet “would cure him of his leprosy.”
If Naaman’s skin disease did not bother him very much, he would have ignored what the little girl said. What would a Syrian commander want with an Israelite prophet! But that was not his response. He took the message to his king—as farfetched as it sounded—, and the king sent Naaman to Israel with a letter and a load of gifts. Naaman was willing to try even this if it meant he could be healed.
When he was sent to the house of the prophet Elisha, what Naaman expected was that he would have the opportunity to make the case for why he should be healed. Or perhaps he thought he would flatter the prophet and impress him with the gifts he had brought. Certainly it wasn’t every day that Elisha had such esteemed visitors come to his door with all their horses and chariots.
But Elisha was not impressed by these things. He was nobody’s tool but the LORD’s. When Naaman arrived, Elisha didn’t even come out of his house to greet him. He sent a messenger with simple instructions: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” This is not at all what Naaman expected. In fact, he found it very offensive. The prophet wouldn’t even speak to him directly?!? He was supposed to wash himself in the dirty waters of the Jordan River?!? No thanks.
Many people make the same judgment about the Christian Church. “If Christianity were true,” they think, “and if the Christian God is supposedly a God of love, then why wouldn’t He come and make the problems in the world go away? Or if He truly cares about His people, why wouldn’t He at least make their troubles go away?” When told about the basics of the Christian faith, they say, “How can regular water make me a child of God? How can eating bread and drinking wine be a Communion with the body and blood of Jesus? How can these simple things bring salvation?”
Looked at from the unbeliever’s perspective, we can see how strange this all seems. We don’t have anything like Naaman expected—someone waving his hands and saying the magic words and all our troubles disappear. How could washing in the Jordan River seven times do anything good? People expect that salvation should be harder to come by. Shouldn’t we have to do something to be saved? “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Initially, Naaman rejected the Word. He drove away in his chariot angry, perhaps thinking thoughts of war against Israel for treating him like this. Then his servants meekly approached and said, “Did you not hear what the prophet said? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So Naaman consented. He went down to the Jordan and dipped himself “according to the word of the man of God” once, twice, up to seven times—the number for perfection, holiness. And what happened? The flesh that was infected with leprosy “was restored like the flesh of a little child.” He was clean.
Now bold Naaman, mighty Naaman, Naaman the conqueror returned to Elisha’s house and said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” What had changed him? Was it the water? Did it have some special quality that when applied resulted in healing? No, it was the Word of the Most High God. The Word attached to the water brought healing to Naaman. The Word brought faith to his heart.
Naaman had been conquered by the LORD’s Word, and he didn’t even see it coming! Many other enemies of the LORD have also been conquered by Him and brought into His kingdom in the same way. You were one of them. Like Naaman, you had something like a disease clinging to and afflicting you, a disease for which you had no cure. It was worse than leprosy; it was sin.
People try all sorts of remedies for this: trying to do enough good to cancel out their bad, pointing to the worse failures of others to make themselves look better, even arguing that what used to be considered sinful isn’t really sinful anymore. But we can’t escape it. The sin of Adam has been passed along to us, and this sin has captured our hearts. Ignoring this infection doesn’t make it go away; it only makes our condition worse. So what can we do to make our condition better?
Jesus says, “There is nothing that you can do. But there is something that I can do.” The Son of God took on our weak human flesh, so that He could reverse the fortunes of Adam’s line. He came to bring salvation to us who were sick, and life to us who were dying. For the official beginning of His public work, Jesus stepped down into that same dirty river as Naaman had some eight hundred years before, and He was baptized by John “to fulfill all righteousness” (Mat. 3:15).
At His Baptism, your sin was poured over Him, and He carried that sin all the way to His death on the cross. His death on the cross was the cure for your sinful condition. It was the remedy for the Fall of all mankind. The perfect Son of God made full satisfaction for all your sins against the holy God. By His death and resurrection, He declares you righteous and pure in God’s sight.
To make sure that you know this righteousness is for you, He has sent messengers to tell you. Your parents brought you to the baptismal font, where you received “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3:5), so that like Naaman, you were made new, “like the flesh of a little child”—born again by water and the Word. It was a perfect cleansing, removing all your sin from you, and placing Jesus’ righteousness over you. At your Baptism, God gave you a tremendous gift. And since that time, your parents and sponsors and fellow believers and pastors have reminded you about this gift.
The humble appearance of Baptism makes some think it is powerless. It’s like Naaman stating that there must be better options for bathing than the Jordan River. But where Jesus’ Word is spoken according to His promise, there is power—life-giving, heart-changing power, the power to heal and save. Today’s Holy Gospel presents an excellent example of the power of His Word (Mar. 7:31-37). Jesus said, “Ephphatha—Be opened,” and the deaf and mute man was healed.
The Word attached to the water of Baptism is what brought you healing and salvation from the LORD. You return to these waters every time you repent of your sins and cast off the things that hinder your faith in Him. Like mighty Naaman humbly obeying the Word and dipping his leprous skin in the water, you and I bring our sins to God, but not only our sins. We bring our weaknesses and strengths, our past and our present, our worries, struggles, and pain, our abilities, our dreams, and our plans, our imperfect hearts and minds. We bring them all to the cleansing waters of Christ and drown them all in faith.
We want everything we do to be washed in Him, to flow from Him, to be sanctified through Him. We need Him to guide our thoughts, words, and actions. We need Him to carry us and keep us true to Him, so that we are not misled by other gods that cannot save. His method for keeping us faithful is not what we expect—the proclamation of His Word and the administration of water, bread, and wine with His promise. These are the powerful means that bring us His forgiveness and salvation, that conquer and cleanse our sinful hearts.
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 Saude Lutheran Church stained glass)
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Kings 19:9-18
In Christ Jesus, who knew exactly what to do when God sent Him down from His heavenly throne—save all people from their sins, dear fellow redeemed:
Two times the LORD asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” “Here” was Mount Horeb, the same mountainous area where Moses received the holy Law from God. It was deep in the wilderness, south of the kingdom of Judah. Mount Horeb was a long way from Mount Carmel in the northern kingdom of Israel. Mount Carmel in the north is where the LORD showed His power over the prophets of Baal by consuming Elijah’s sacrifice with fire from heaven. When that happened, the people of Israel cried out, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God!” (1Ki. 18:39).
You heard about that last week. What you didn’t hear about is that Elijah commanded the Israelites to seize the prophets of Baal and kill them. The people did this; those false prophets were totally wiped out. Immediately after this, the LORD sent a great rain upon the parched land, rain that hadn’t fallen for three and a half years. Everything seemed to be changing for the better in Israel by the power of the LORD. So what was Elijah doing far away from Israel, way down south at Mount Horeb?
When Queen Jezebel learned that her prophets had been destroyed, she sent this chilling message to Elijah, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow” (19:2). She was telling Elijah that he was as good as dead. Despite his victory at Mount Carmel by the power of the LORD, Elijah was now seized with fear. He “ran for his life” as fast and as far as he could go, away from where Jezebel was.
As the days passed and the miles stretched behind him, Elijah began to feel guilty. Why did he run from the wicked queen when she was no match for the almighty LORD? How could he be such a coward? He knew that he was not worthy to be a prophet of the LORD (19:4). But as his long journey continued, and God made it clear that Elijah’s work wasn’t finished, a self-righteous anger began to well up inside Elijah.
When the LORD asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” he had an answer ready, almost as though it had been rehearsed. He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Elijah’s complaint is understandable. The pressure on him was tremendous, and he knew of no one who shared the same devotion to the LORD. Elijah felt utterly alone. He had done what God directed him to do, but what had it accomplished? King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were still in power. The people of Israel remained in their sinful ways. And Elijah had been given a death sentence. It wasn’t fair. It was too much.
I imagine you can relate to that thought: “This isn’t fair; this is too much.” You have said that when you were stretched too thin, when more was expected of you than you could deliver. Or maybe you said it when you stayed faithful to the LORD, when you said or did what was right, and your reward for it was getting attacked or punished. You have felt alone, like the weight of the world was pressing down on you, and you couldn’t see how anything would improve.
As natural as this thinking is, it is also dangerous thinking. “This isn’t fair; this is too much,” is focusing on ourselves. It is turning over and over again in our minds the wrongs that have been done to us, the injustices we have experienced, the hardships that we don’t think we deserve. Tied up in that thinking is criticism directed at the LORD. It sounds like, “God, don’t You see what is happening? Why won’t You help? Can’t You see how faithful I have been? Don’t You care about me?” We can sympathize with lonely Elijah.
And how did the LORD respond to his reasons for running and hiding out in a cave in the wilderness? He sent a strong wind that tore at the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces. Then He sent an earthquake that made Elijah shudder in his cave. Then He sent a fire blazing across the face of the mountain. But the LORD did not appear in any of these forces of nature. After the fire had passed, Elijah heard “the sound of a low whisper.” When he heard this, “he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”
For the second time, Elijah heard the LORD’s question, “What are you doing here?” And for the second time, Elijah answered just as he had before. But after having experienced the wind, the earthquake, and the fire, and with his face now wrapped in a cloak, his answer had probably lost its edge. It’s kind of comical to think of Elijah talking through his cloak, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts,” and, “I, even I only, am left,” as He stood in the presence of the holy God. He didn’t look or sound quite as defiant or justified as he had before.
And that is as it should have been. It wasn’t Elijah’s job to tell God what He should be doing differently. It wasn’t Elijah’s job to determine what the LORD should do with his efforts. It was Elijah’s job to speak God’s Word faithfully and entrust his life to the LORD. When we insist on what is fair or on what God owes us, we sound like the Pharisee in the Holy Gospel, “I thank you that I am not like other men…. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luk. 18:11,12). He wanted everyone to hear why God should look with favor on him. He wanted his reward.
The tax collector saw things differently. The last thing he wanted was for God to reward him for what he had done. That would mean God punishing him for his sins. He knew that is what he deserved. Instead of trying to justify himself, the tax collector humbly bowed his head and quietly prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v. 13).
The LORD gave him the gift of repentance, which is a gift He wants to give each of us. The way He leads us to repentance is through the clear preaching of His Law. In Catechism Class last week, the students reviewed what the Law is: “The Law is that Word of God which tells us how we are to be, and what we are to do and not to do” (ELS Catechism, p. 23). But none of us likes being told what we should and shouldn’t do. That’s what makes hearing the Law painful. It exposes the sins that we would rather keep hidden. It shows us that we are not as righteous as we want to think we are.
The Law accuses us and terrifies us like the wind, earthquake, and fire that God sent on the mountain where Elijah was. The LORD described the Law as functioning like this: “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29). The Law like a fire burns away our prideful and self-righteous thinking. The Law like a hammer breaks through the hardness and stubbornness of our hearts. St. Paul writes that the purpose of the Law is “so that every mouth may be stopped [like Elijah’s cloak wrapped around his face], and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Rom. 3:19).
But once the Law has done its work, once it has humbled us like it did Elijah and the tax collector, then we hear “the sound of a low whisper,” a gentle word, from God. He promises us that all is not lost; He has a plan. He is not here to destroy us; He is here to save. We are not alone in our guilt; He is present with forgiveness and grace. This is the message of the Gospel. The Catechism students learn that “The Gospel (the Good News) is that Word of God which reveals the salvation Christ has won for all people” (ELS Catechism, p. 39).
We need this good news because all of us have sinned. All of us have played the part of the Pharisee, wanting to be seen as righteous by the good we have done. We must bow our heads like the tax collector, each and every day, and acknowledge that we are saved solely by the mercy of God. We are saved not because we deserve it, but because in His love, God the Father sent His Son to be our Substitute and our Savior.
In our weakness and impatience we complain, “This isn’t fair; this is too much.” But Jesus went forth like a Lamb uncomplaining, bearing the guilt of the whole world, taking the entire burden on Himself. He did not run from it. He didn’t argue His innocence. He didn’t make excuses for why He couldn’t do the job. Willing, all this He suffered (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #331, v. 1).
That means your sins of fear and despair, anger and impatience, pride and self-righteousness, are all forgiven, fully paid for, blotted from your record by His holy, precious blood. Now He cleanses your heart and mind to do His will, and He cleanses your mouth for words of truth and love. He has more work for you to do in His name, just as He had more work for Elijah to do.
He told Elijah, “You are not as alone as you think.” The LORD had preserved seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal or kissed him by idolatrous worship. And He has done the same for you. He has preserved brothers and sisters in Christ in these congregations and around the world who are faithful to His Word.
His Word, both powerful and piercing in Law and calming and comforting in Gospel, will strengthen and keep you steadfast until your end, according to His gracious will.
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 from “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Kings 18:16b-39
In Christ Jesus, who cannot be overwhelmed, outnumbered, or overcome, dear fellow redeemed:
Elijah said to the people of Israel, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Which one would it be? The people did not answer. What made them go silent? Wasn’t it a simple question?
The people knew there was something special about Elijah. They had almost certainly heard that he had told King Ahab there would be no rain in the land until Elijah gave the word. Now three and a half years had passed with no rain; the land was in a severe drought. Shouldn’t that have been enough to show them that Elijah was a prophet of the true God?
But Elijah was not the king. Ahab was the king, and Queen Jezebel stood right by his side. Jezebel was not an Israelite; she was from Sidon. And in Sidon, the people worshiped the god Baal and the goddess Asherah. Baal was the Canaanite god of rain, and Asherah was associated with fertility. Ahab and Jezebel were so committed to this religion, that they supported 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.
So when Elijah told the people to choose one God or the other, the Lord or Baal, they did not want to go against Elijah, but they also didn’t want to face the wrath of Ahab (or rather Jezebel) by declaring that the Lord is God. It was safer, they thought, to keep their mouths shut. The prospect of following Elijah seemed much more dangerous than going along with the popular religion of the time. They weren’t interested in risking their lives or their place in society.
We can understand their hesitancy. It takes a special kind of courage to go against the status quo or to stand against the majority. When our beliefs or values are questioned by others, and they appeal to the fact that the vast majority believe differently than we do, this can cause us to have doubts. How can we be so sure we are right? How can so many others be wrong? Whether we are talking about the origin of the world, what is true or false, or what is good and bad, we hear many voices telling us that we don’t want to end up on the wrong side of history. Better to stick with the popular opinion, they say.
But evolution, for example, hardly entered people’s minds until Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species in 1859. That’s not that long ago. This theory wasn’t taught in public schools until about a hundred years ago. It didn’t become the majority opinion until relatively recently, and now we are told that we should accept the theory of evolution because that’s what the majority thinks. So many people can’t be wrong, can they?
But what about the much greater number of people throughout history who believed that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Don’t they count? Or what about the attempt to redefine marriage in our day? Should we go along with the current majority view and ignore the thousands of years of consensus about what marriage is and what it isn’t?
We will find ourselves on shaky ground if we chase after what is most popular, if we give in to the pressure of those in power, if we operate simply by saying or doing what seems best for us in the moment. Elijah’s question for the Israelites is still pertinent for us today: will we follow the Lord and His Word, or will we follow the path that is most advantageous for us in this world?
The answer should be simple: We will follow the God who created us, who sent His only Son to redeem us, who sent out the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith. But this is not always the answer we have given when our faith has been tested or when we have faced temptation to sin. Often we have taken the easy route, the path of least resistance, the way that would keep us from standing out too much or inviting the ridicule or wrath of our peers. When we were called to speak the truth, we went silent just like the people of Israel did.
I recently read a book about the Norwegian Lutherans in America, and at the time of the Norwegian church merger in 1917, the author said that nearly 95% of Norwegian Lutherans joined in the merger. The remaining 5% spread across the United States included the Saude and Jerico congregations. Members of our churches would not have done this unless they were certain they were standing on something more solid than popular opinion. They would not compromise the teaching of the Bible for the sake of unity. They stood firmly on the unchanging Word of God even when it affected their standing in the community.
Would we do the same today? Are we willing to say “no,” even when everyone else is saying “yes”? The courage to do this is built on the confidence that what God says in the Bible is the truth. Our beliefs are not based on our own private opinions; they are based entirely on the Word of God. The Bible is not my truth or your truth to take or leave as we please; it is God’s truth. Even when we find things in the Bible that challenge how we think and how we want to live, we stick with the Holy Bible.
Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah was the Lord’s way of calling the people of Israel back to the Scriptures, back to the true faith. He is the One who established His chosen people from old father Abraham. He is the One who led His people Israel out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the promised land of Canaan.
Elijah referred to the true God by the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush, “I am who I am” (Exo. 3:14). In Hebrew, this name is Yahweh; and in English, the name is given as “Lord” in all capital letters. Elijah was saying that the Lord who made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and who led the people out of Egypt through Moses, is the Lord who even now would show His power through Elijah.
It was a bold statement. Elijah stood alone against the leaders of the land, 850 false prophets, and most of the people. One man against a mob. How could he alone be right? The prophets of Baal tried everything they could, but Baal didn’t answer. From morning to evening, they danced around their altar, cried out to their god, and cut themselves till the blood gushed out. But Baal sent no fire to burn up their sacrifice.
Now it was Elijah’s turn. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord, dug a trench around it, and placed the wood and the bull on it. Then he ordered the altar to be doused with water three times, so that everything was soaking wet. Then he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord sent fire from heaven that “consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” What else could the people say, but “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”
We might wish that the Lord would do something like this today, prove to our skeptical society that He is who the Bible says He is. But remember that many of those who watched Jesus perform miracle after miracle still rejected Him. Faith does not come through powerful signs; “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The Word of Christ is the message of what He has done to conquer our greatest enemies. What He did was more amazing than what God did through Elijah. Elijah seemed to be alone, but we will hear next week that God preserved 7,000 people who had not bowed their knees to Baal (1Ki. 19:18).
Jesus truly stood alone as He faced the sinfulness of the world, the dark powers of the devil, and the deep pit of death. Was Jesus really the one to follow? Many thought so for a while; they thought He could be their king. But by Good Friday, Jesus stood alone, with even His disciples forsaking Him. As the people saw Him condemned and crucified, they wondered about what could have been. What if Jesus had done things differently? What if He would have compromised somewhat? What if He had made political alliances with the right people? Then maybe He could have become the king they wanted. What a disappointment, they thought.
Jesus knew what the people wanted, but much more importantly, He knew what they needed. On Good Friday, He went forward in silence, not because He was afraid to speak the truth, and not because He had nothing to say. He went willingly to the cross—like a lamb that is led to the slaughter—to save you and me. He went to the cross to pay for our sins, for not speaking the truth when we should have, and for going against His Word by our words and actions. He did not take the easy path; He took the hardest one, the path of eternal punishment for all of our wrongs.
But how can we know that this was done for us? How can we know that Jesus made eternal satisfaction for all our sins? We know because on the third day, He rose from the dead. Only God could do that. Only God could win the victory over death itself. The prophets of Baal could neither make their false god burn up their offering nor save them from death. Only the true God can save. The true God is the God revealed on the pages of Holy Scripture.
He is not the God we expect. We expect a god who requires great things from us, who exacts payment from us before he will act—perhaps like the blood the prophets of Baal poured out. But the true God does not require the shedding of our blood; He saved us by the shedding of His blood. Jesus is the Lord of all heaven and earth, seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and bringing His blessings to us still now, even today, through His powerful Word and Sacraments. And so we worship Him by faithfully confessing, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God!”
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 the outdoor service at the parsonage)
(sermon audio not available this week)
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Kings 17:7-24
In Christ Jesus, whose storehouse of grace and love is never exhausted, dear fellow redeemed:
The prophet Elijah was used to his food coming by unusual means. Before today’s account, we are told that God sent ravens to fly in with bread and meat each morning and evening as he lived in a remote place east of the Jordan River (1Ki. 17:6). But when his source of water there dried up, God commanded him to go to a town in the region of Sidon. This was a good 75 miles away from where he currently lived. When he arrived, God told him to expect food from a Gentile widow who lived in the town of Zarephath. So not only would Elijah be traveling out of Israelite territory, it would be a poor widow who would keep him alive!
The reason God sent Elijah all the way to the territory of Sidon for food is because the whole land of Israel suffered under a divinely-imposed drought. It was also to keep him safe from King Ahab who reigned over the kingdom of Israel at that time. He was one of Israel’s notoriously wicked kings who led the people to worship false gods. The drought at this time was symbolic of the spiritual condition of the people of Israel. Their hearts had dried up, and almost no one recognized the need for the living waters of the true God.
The spiritual situation was so bad that Jesus would comment many years later, “in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow” (Luk. 4:25-26). Elijah was sent to Gentile territory because of the Israelites’ lack of faith.
This was as surprising for the widow as it was for Elijah. How could she possibly be a good candidate to support an Israelite prophet? She was about to prepare the final meal for herself and her son. The last thing she expected in her desperate situation was for someone to ask her for food! What did she have to give? Couldn’t Elijah find someone else with greater means?
When we think about the topic of stewardship, similar thoughts may come to our minds. “What difference do I make? I can offer so little. Such significant needs require those who have more to spare and can afford to give a lot.” But that is not the way God talks about stewardship. He says that Christians should give offerings regularly in accord with their income (1Co. 16:2). He does not require a “tithe” today—or a tenth of all that one has—like He did in the Old Testament era. But He does want us to give eagerly and generously to support the work of the Gospel.
Some still find it useful to give a “tithe,” a tenth of whatever they earn, to the church. But we are free in this regard. We are free to give less than a tenth of what we have, and we are free to give more. St. Paul writes, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2Cor. 9:7). Did the widow of Zarephath give cheerfully? It’s hard to say. She only had enough flour and oil for one more meal for herself and her son.
But she did what Elijah asked. She prepared food first for him and then for her family. This is consistent with the LORD’s command in Old Testament times, that the people give their firstfruits for the work of the priests. First they should provide for the men who attended to their spiritual needs, and then they should take care of their other needs.
This is what the poor widow in the temple did when she gave her last two coins—“all she had to live on” (Luk. 21:4). She held nothing back. But we see the pile of bills—house payments, utilities, cell phone, internet—and perhaps a growing debt. We convince ourselves that we can’t get by without this or that. We like having nice things. We don’t want our kids to have less than their peers. So instead of our offerings coming as the firstfruits, we often give them as the leftovers.
But why should so much depend on our giving? It may seem to us that if God needs the money so bad, He could easily get it some other way. Couldn’t God fill the offering plate in the same miraculous way that He filled the widow’s jar of flour and jug of oil, with just the right amount appearing? He certainly could. But where would it end? God could preach, baptize, and give Communion without pastors. He could make food appear on tables without work. He could construct roads without highway crews. He could imprison people without the justice system. Instead God chooses to do His work through countless vocations. This includes the support of the preaching and teaching of the Word.
When we think we can’t afford to give offerings to God, it’s usually because we think of what we have as ours. The good things we have do belong to us in a certain respect, but ultimately they belong to God. He sends us abundant gifts—food and clothing, home and family, property and goods—and gives us the duty of managing those gifts. We faithfully give back in our offerings from what God has given us, just as the hymn says, “We give Thee but Thine own” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #445).
Whenever we hand over what belongs to us, we expect to get something in return. Is that how offerings work? If we give generously to God, does God give greater gifts to us? The proverb seems to say this, “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (3:9-10). But this is not a promise that only good things will come to those who are generous toward God. It is a promise that God will not forsake those who humbly put their trust in Him.
The widow of Zarephath learned this lesson. She faithfully fed Elijah, and the food kept coming. But then her son died. That doesn’t seem right at all. Hadn’t she proven herself? How could God do this to her? Was it because of her sins, the widow wondered? Thankfully, God does not operate by a payback system. He was not punishing the widow; He was teaching her to trust in Him.
The same goes for us. Our LORD does not give to us based on what we have given to Him. Even if we gave more offerings than everyone else, sharing what we have generously and regularly, God would still reject us on the basis of what we had done. We have not given the perfect amount with perfect motivations from a perfect heart. If the LORD gave according to what we have offered to Him, we would be absolutely, unquestionably doomed.
But God does not pay us back. He faithfully gives whether or not our giving back has been so faithful. The jar of His grace and the jug of His mercy are bottomless. There are times that we imagine we have exhausted the stores of His patience and goodness. We fear we will find His cupboards empty. But the Bread of Life and the living waters are there for our eating and drinking.
These gifts never run out or run dry because God rewards us on the basis of what Jesus has done. Jesus offered more than a tenth of Himself, more than half. He didn’t hold back even one percent of Himself. He offered His entire Person. The Son of God and Son of Man was crucified on the cross for all sinners. He made the full payment for our sin and covered our debt in full before His Father raised Him from the dead in glory.
We see a picture of His resurrection in the widow’s son. After her son died, Elijah stretched himself over the boy three times before God brought him back to life. Jesus the Son of God died and was stretched out in graveclothes for three days until God the Father raised Him from the dead. The boy’s resurrection had significance for his life and his mother’s life. Jesus’ resurrection has significance for the lives of all people.
Because of His resurrection, the Scriptures call Jesus “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1Cor. 15:20). The offering of His own life to the Father on your behalf was no insignificant amount. It is the guarantee that you are going to rise one day also. God will faithfully give you eternal life, because Jesus faithfully gave up His life for you. Your failure to be a perfect steward does not disqualify you like the manager in our Holy Gospel who was fired for his unethical behavior (Lk. 16:1-9). God forgives your mismanagement of His good gifts. And He sends you right back out on the job with more.
He knows what type of people He is working with and through. There were times that Elijah’s faithfulness wavered. The widow questioned God’s care for her when her son died. We are willing to give, but we hold back because we want to make sure we will really have what we need. We don’t fully trust that God will provide. Or sometimes we feel as though God asks more of us than we can give.
Despite our reluctance and selfishness and doubt, our LORD does not stop giving good things to us. He is faithful. He makes sure that we receive our daily bread in abundance, and most importantly, He fills our cup to overflowing with His gifts of forgiveness and salvation. He faithfully gives these things to us as He comes to us personally through His Word and Sacraments. “In [His] presence,” as the Psalm says, “there is fullness of joy; at [His] right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).
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 “Parable of the Unjust Steward” by Jan Luyken, 1649-1712)
The Eighth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Kings 12:26-33
In Christ Jesus, who faithfully carried out His work of redeeming love for the salvation of our weak and sinful hearts, dear fellow redeemed:
For seven years, King Solomon built a beautiful temple in Jerusalem. Its dimensions were estimated to be 90 feet in length, 30 feet in width, and 45 feet in height. The walls and floors were lined with boards of cedar and cypress. Intricate carvings were made in the wood, and then the wood was overlaid with pure gold. The Holy Place and the Most Holy Place were built within the temple. The Most Holy Place is where the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD was kept. When the Ark was brought into the temple, the LORD came in a cloud, and His glory filled the temple (1Ki. 8:10-11).
The LORD was pleased with Solomon’s faithful work. He told Solomon that if he would walk “with integrity of heart and uprightness” as David had and would follow His Commandments, then Solomon’s throne would be established over Israel forever (1Ki. 9:4-5). But He warned that if Solomon turned aside from following Him and followed other gods, his great kingdom would crumble, and even the temple would become a heap of ruins.
As the chronicle of Solomon’s life continues, we learn that he took for himself 700 wives and 300 concubines. When he was old, these wives who came from foreign lands turned his heart away from the LORD to serve their gods. Solomon built altars to their gods and joined his wives in worshipping them. So the LORD raised up adversaries against Solomon, one of whom was a man named Jeroboam. This is the Jeroboam we hear about in today’s reading.
When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam began to reign in his place. And when the people from the northern tribes of Israel asked Rehoboam to be more merciful than his father Solomon had been, Rehoboam listened to bad advice and said that he would be much harsher than his father had been. So the people in the northern tribes of Israel rebelled against Rehoboam and decided to make Jeroboam their king. This all happened according to God’s will because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness. The LORD told Jeroboam that if he would be faithful to Him, his kingdom would be firmly established.
But Jeroboam did not remain faithful, as we learn about today. He was jealous to keep his power. He worried that if the Israelites went to the temple in Jerusalem to make sacrifices to the LORD, then Rehoboam might win them back. So he made a plan. He would set up new places of worship where the people could go, so they wouldn’t go to Jerusalem. He set up two calves of gold, one in Bethel and the other in Dan. And where have we heard about golden calves before? That’s the idol the Israelites made right after the LORD led them out of their slavery in Egypt.
What the Israelites said then is basically what Jeroboam said now about the golden calves, “Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Jeroboam’s idolatrous plan “became a sin,” as our reading says. He promoted this idolatry by making temples on high places, appointing priests not from the Levites, and establishing a feast day “in the month that he had devised from his own heart.” This grand idea started in his heart and was guided all along the way by his heart. He would have fit right in in our culture today.
We often hear that we can’t go wrong if we just follow our heart. Following your heart is seen as the path to happiness. Ignoring what your heart tells you could lead to a lifetime of regret and unhappiness. But why do people think the heart is such a reliable guide? Has anyone’s heart ever led him wrong? Listen to how the heart is described in the time before the Flood: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Through the prophet Jeremiah, the LORD said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (17:9). Then we have Jesus’ own words about the heart: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Mat. 15:19).
Clearly the heart can steer us wrong. It is not a trustworthy guide. It can and often has led us astray. So how can we know if the feelings and thoughts of our heart are good and beneficial, or if they are leading us in the wrong direction? We know this by comparing what we are thinking and feeling with what God tells us in his holy Law.
So if my heart is telling me to disobey my parents and do things they tell me I shouldn’t, then my heart is contradicting the Fourth Commandment. If my heart tells me to pursue a sexual relationship outside the blessed boundaries of marriage, then my heart is going against the Sixth Commandment. If my heart tells me to attack someone else’s reputation in an attempt to elevate myself, then my heart is violating the Eighth Commandment.
The theme of today’s service is “Beware of False Prophets.” The false prophet to be most aware of is the false prophet that lives within us, within our heart. It is the old Adam that disobeys God, and that looks with desire at what God says is sin. There are two ways that the old Adam in coordination with the devil works: One is outright opposing what God says in His Word; the other is twisting what God says in His Word.
The first is when we are tempted to reject or ignore what God says because it doesn’t agree with the way we think. We don’t want to be outsiders in the world; we want to fit in. Maybe we want to accommodate our own sin or the sin of someone else, so we write off something in the Bible as being outdated or unclear or unhelpful for the mission of the church. The other way the old Adam operates is to subtly change the Word of God, soften it, explain away something that challenges us. Maybe we excuse someone’s sin and even lend our support to it because, after all, God tells us to love our neighbor, and we interpret love as never questioning someone’s choices.
Jeroboam directly contradicted the Holy Scriptures in everything he did and said to keep the Israelites away from Jerusalem. How does Jesus tell us in today’s Holy Gospel that we will recognize false prophets? He says we will “recognize them by their fruits” (Mat. 7:16), especially by what they say. Do we say things that contradict what the Bible says? Then that is the old Adam talking and not our new man of faith.
Jesus says that those who will enter the kingdom of heaven are those who by faith do the will of His Father who is in heaven. Doing the Father’s will is believing and following exactly what He says in His Word. This is how we “hallow His name,” as we say in the Lord’s Prayer. We hallow God’s name by teaching His Word in its truth and purity and by living holy lives according to it as His dear children (Luther’s Explanation to the First Petition).
There is a reason we have to pray for this. A pure life lived according to God’s Word doesn’t come naturally to us. We struggle to hold to His Word. We struggle to do what is right. Our life is full of failures to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things” (Luther’s Explanation to the First Commandment). We have at times followed the god of self-satisfaction. We have followed the god of pride and personal glory. We have followed the god of popularity and acceptance by the world.
We pray along with King David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psa. 51:10), because we know how unclean our heart has been. David wrote these words after following his heart and succumbing to terrible sins. God forgave him those sins, just as He forgives you your sins. He knows how evil and desperately sick your heart is by nature. If it were good or even neutral, He would not have needed to send His Son to die on the cross in your place.
But He did send His Son. The coming of His Son in the flesh was necessary for you and every sinner. We needed Him to apply His perfectly pure heart to keeping the Law of God in our place, so we would be credited with His perfect love toward God and neighbor. We needed Him to hallow God’s name in every way by obeying His Father’s will and offering up His holy life for you and me.
You can’t find what you need for life and salvation in your own heart with all its wayward passions and desires. But you can find what you need in Jesus’ heart. He makes His love known to you by inviting you to partake of His means of grace, to hear His Word of truth and salvation and to feast on His holy body and blood.
What He gives you here through His Word and Sacraments may not seem as exciting or impressive as what is going on with the golden calves of prosperity, power, and pleasure that are worshipped by the world. But just as the LORD promised to be present in the Most Holy Place of the temple, so He has promised to be present here in this most holy place, where He comes to bless you with His gifts.
This is where He expresses His faithfulness to you, and where He strengthens your faithfulness to Him. This is where He cleanses your heart and pours His love into it, so it is ready for fruitful service to the people around you. This is the good plan and purpose for your life that the LORD formed in His own heart and revealed to you in His holy Word. By hearing and trusting His Word, you are submitting your heart to His will. And when you follow His heart, you will ever have His joy, His life, and His peace.
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 “The Golden Calf” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Samuel 16:5-14
In Christ Jesus, who accepted the curse of God’s Law and suffered death in our place, so we would be declared righteous before God, dear fellow redeemed:
Have you ever been cursed out before? Have you had someone attack you with words, bitter words, words that cut deep? Perhaps this has happened to you, and it came as no surprise. It was a reaction to something hurtful or harmful you had said or done. Or maybe this happened to you, and you didn’t see it coming. You became a target of someone’s anger when you didn’t deserve it.
Today’s reading describes a difficult time in King David’s life, when his son Absalom was seeking to take his throne and David was on the run. As David hurried away from Jerusalem and toward the Jordan River, a relative of King Saul named Shimei met him with continuous cursing. He accused David of having blood on his hands with regard to the house of Saul. He blamed David for the downfall of Saul, even though Saul’s unfaithfulness to the LORD was the reason he lost the throne.
While Shimei called down curses from the LORD on David, he also threw stones at him and flung dust in the air. He was making a very bad day even worse. The military men around David offered to dispatch the head of this troublesome man. Why should they have to put up with his cursing and stone throwing? David was the king; the king should be respected. All David had to do was give the order, and Shimei would be permanently silenced.
But even though Shimei was wrong in his accusations of David, David did nothing to stop him. He accepted the cursing as a chastening from the Lord. He recognized that his present troubles had come upon him from his own house because of his sin with a married woman named Bathsheba. He had seduced her, conceived a child with her, and then plotted to have her husband killed, so that he could marry her. When the LORD sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin, He said, “The sword shall never depart from your house,” and “I will raise up evil against you out of your own house” (2Sa. 12:10,11).
The condemnation of God’s Law hit home. David repented of his sin. And Nathan told him, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (v. 13). But the consequences remained. Most immediately, the child David conceived with Bathsheba died. And now evil had come out of David’s own house, with his son Absalom seeking to kill him. As he listened to Shimei’s curses, David acknowledged that this was a consequence for his sin.
Sin always has consequences, some more severe and some less. If you steal from someone and get caught, or if you drive recklessly and harm someone, those sins will have the consequence of criminal charges and possibly jail time. If you are caught in a lie, that sin will have the consequence of people not trusting you. If you give way to wicked or lustful thoughts or contemplate things you know are wrong, those sins may not have obvious, tangible consequences, but they will contribute to a burden of guilt on your conscience.
But saying that sin has consequences is different than saying that sin is not forgiven. Every sin you have committed, no matter what it is, is forgiven by God. God the Father placed all your sin on His Son, and Jesus paid for every one of your trespasses. He suffered and died for your sin as though He is the one who committed it. So when God sends or allows consequences for your sin, this is not to punish you. These consequences are intended to keep you humble and train you in righteous living.
We are so stubborn in our sin that if there were never consequences for bad behavior or wicked words, we would just be more emboldened to keep sinning. Why should I stop doing something bad if I never have to answer for it? We must be taught from our youth that there is a difference between right and wrong. We must be required to answer for our bad behavior. We shouldn’t get away with talking back to our parents, harming others physically or verbally, or taking what doesn’t belong to us.
By learning this discipline in our youth, we are more willing to receive correction and accept consequences for sin when we are older. When a family member, a friend, or a fellow Christian calls us out for our selfishness or greed, our judgmental attitude or unkind words, we recognize in their voice the voice of God. We remember the Ten Commandments which clearly reveal the will of God for us. If we refuse to hear correction from His Word, we are saying that we are not really as bad as God says we are. We are saying that we are righteous even while our actions, words, and thoughts conflict with God’s Word.
David acknowledged his sin, and he accepted the cursing of Shimei as a wholesome chastening from the LORD. Shimei was not correct in his accusations, but instead of acting out in anger toward him, David in humility accepted the verbal attack. He left justice to the LORD. He said, “It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today.”
In our litigious culture, where everyone wants to counter-attack and sue as soon as they feel offended about something or wronged in some way, David’s example is important for us Christians. He was willing to receive chastening for his imperfect life. He was willing to endure a fiery trial for the testing and strengthening of his faith. He was willing to suffer out of love for God.
Jesus teaches all His followers to do this. In His Sermon on the Mount, He teaches us to “turn the other cheek” when we are attacked (Mat. 5:39). He says that we should remember that even our enemies are our neighbors, and that we should love all our neighbors as we love ourselves (v. 44). This is the teaching of the Law, which is summarized by perfect love for Him and perfect love for one another (v. 48). That is what a righteous life looks like.
Sometimes our life resembles this, but often it does not. Because we have not perfectly kept God’s Law, we can’t put any trust in what we do. In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat. 5:20). Unless your righteousness is a million times better than the people who are considered the most holy and good, you cannot get yourself to heaven. That is why your confidence must be in Jesus, the holy Son of God and Son of Man, who did perfectly keep the holy Law.
In David, you see a picture of what Jesus would later endure for your salvation. David was the true king, but he was forced out of Jerusalem where he was met with wrongful cursing by his enemies. Jesus was the king of all creation, but He was forced out of Jerusalem wearing a crown of thorns and carrying a cross. When He was crucified on Calvary, he was met with all sorts of cursing and reviling from His enemies. “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe” (Mar. 15:32), they said in mockery. “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him” (Mat. 27:43).
If anyone had the right to defend Himself and call down curses on His enemies, it was Jesus. He had done no wrong. No court committed to justice would have ever found Him guilty. We are quick to cry out whenever some little wrong is done to us. We hold grudges. We plot our revenge. But look at Jesus! His apostle Peter wrote, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1Pe. 2:22-23).
That is righteousness. That is a holy life before God. He lived a perfect life of love toward God and neighbor. That perfect life is the reason you have confidence before God today. Jesus lived His holy, righteous life for you. He willingly suffered every injustice for you. He went to the cross for you, to pay for your sins. His righteous life and His sacrifice in your place now give you the courage and strength to endure afflictions in your life.
When you are unjustly attacked like David was, you can remember how Jesus humbly suffered for you. You may not receive justice in this life, but you are right with the God of heaven. Trouble may meet you at every turn, but your faithful God promises to hold you up by His grace. Peace may elude you in the world, but you have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
At the end of today’s reading, we hear that David arrived weary at the Jordan River, where “he refreshed himself.” The Jordan River is where 1,000 years later, Jesus was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (Mat. 3:15). Your Baptism brought His righteousness to you. Your Baptism is where the “great exchange” happened for you, the exchange described by St. Paul, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co. 5:21).
You are righteous “in him,” by faith in Him—the faith brought to you at your Baptism. In Him, you have the forgiveness of all your sins, strength for every difficulty, and the promise of eternal life. No matter what trials you have to go through, whether as consequences for your sin that the Lord works for your good, or as training in righteousness that the Lord gives for the strengthening of your faith, He will at the same time provide refreshment through His Word and Sacraments. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” He says, “and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28).
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 stained glass at Redeemer Lutheran Church)
The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Ephesians 3:13-21
In Christ Jesus, who carried out His Father’s loving will by suffering and dying on the cross to set us free from sin and death for all eternity, dear fellow redeemed:
What do you most want for your children or your grandchildren? When you imagine their future, how would you want it to look? About two years ago, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of parents with children under age eighteen (“Parenting in America Today” posted online, Jan. 24, 2023). When asked what they most wanted for their kids when they grow up,
- It is probably no surprise that 88% said it is very important that their kids be financially independent as adults, and that their kids have jobs or careers they enjoy.
- It might surprise you that only about 20% said it is very important that their kids get married, and that their kids have kids.
- Around 90% said it is very important that their kids are honest, ethical, and hardworking.
- Only 35% said it is very important that their kids have similar religious beliefs to their own.
Does this match what you want for your children and grandchildren? Of course you want them to be successful and happy when they grow up. You want them to live fulfilling lives with rich purpose. You want them to be honest and kind, ready to help others in need. But is that what you most want for them, or are there things you would put higher on your list?
The Apostle Paul in today’s reading gives us a roadmap for how to think through these things. He presents here the main things he wanted for the Christians in Ephesus. He spent more time with this congregation than with the others he helped establish, so there was a close relationship between Paul and the people. He loved and cared for them as we do our children, and they looked up to him and respected him as we do our parents.
Where our reading begins in chapter three, Paul is reassuring the Christians in Ephesus. Although he has been put in prison for preaching Christ, it is all part of God’s plan to have the Gospel preached to the Gentile people. Paul recognized that his suffering was for the glory of those who heard the saving truth, so he suffered faithfully and willingly.
Instead of looking for their pity, Paul expressed his love and concern for the Ephesians. He told them very clearly what he wanted for them by how he prayed for them. He bowed his knees before God the Father asking that God would grant them “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” This first part of Paul’s prayer was that the people would remain connected to the Word of God by gladly hearing and learning it.
This is how the Holy Spirit carries out His work of creating and strengthening faith—through the Word. Even as the Ephesians read Paul’s inspired letter, the Holy Spirit was powerfully working to strengthen their faith. This happens every time the Gospel (the good news) of Jesus’ saving work is proclaimed. As Paul said in another of his letters, “[The Gospel] is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). If the Ephesians held tightly to the Gospel, they would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit’s power.
And where the Holy Spirit was at work, the Ephesians could be certain that their Lord Jesus Christ was also present. He is not stuck in heaven since His bodily ascension; He is seated at the right hand of God who is present everywhere. This means that Jesus rules over all things and fills all things as the God-Man. When the Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ forgiveness, righteousness, and life to believing hearts, He is bringing Jesus Himself. Paul prayed for the Holy Spirit to deliver these gifts, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
That’s a comforting thought. For all the doubts we have had, for all the sins we have committed, for all the bad things we have imagined in our hearts, our Savior Jesus still wants to dwell inside us. He is not ashamed to be connected with us. He willingly poured out His blood to save our souls. He became one with us in His Incarnation, He suffered and died for every single one of our sins, and He made us one with Him in Holy Baptism. Jesus specifically prayed for this union the night before His death. He said to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (Joh. 17:22-23).
When we are joined to Jesus by faith, we are joined to His love. Paul describes it as “being rooted and grounded in love.” The love of Christ is a greater love than any we know on earth, greater than the love we have for any family member or friend. His love compelled Him to enter the world that had rebelled against its holy Creator, to suffer all sorts of mistreatment and abuse, and finally to be nailed to a cross to die. No one made Him do it. He followed His Father’s will and laid down His life of His own accord (Joh. 10:18).
The incomprehensible part of this love is that Jesus suffered eternal hell for every single wrong we have done. He suffered for our failures as parents, grandparents, siblings, and children. He suffered for our selfishness, our pride, and the bad example we have been at various times. He felt agony and anguish for all of it. With His enemies mocking Him and laughing at Him—and we should picture ourselves in that crowd gathered at His cross—He was atoning for all of our sins.
This perfect love flows into you and fills you when He dwells in your heart by faith. It replaces the guilt and shame you feel for your wrongs and the anger you have toward yourself or others. His love changes the way you see yourself and the people around you. Yes, we are sinners, but more than that, we are ones who have been graciously rescued—redeemed from our sin and death.
Jesus looked at us in all our weakness and sin, going our own way, heading toward eternal death, and He decided that we were worth His perfect life. We were worth His sacrifice on the cross. He had compassion on us in our procession of death like He had compassion on that funeral procession outside the town of Nain (Luk. 7:11-17). Paul expressed the wonder of this in his epistle to the Romans, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:7-8).
As the Holy Spirit worked powerfully in the Ephesians through this Gospel, Paul prayed that they “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” By focusing on Christ’s love for us, we forget our love for ourselves and our desire to have things go just the way we want in this life. We empty ourselves of our selfishness and greed, so that we are ready to receive the rich blessings of God. When we “know the love of Christ,” writes Paul, we are “filled with all the fullness of God.”
You notice that Paul did not pray for the Ephesians’ financial security, for their good health, or for their happiness in this life. He did not pray that they might avoid all trouble and pain, or that the future would be brighter than the past. He prayed for the strengthening of their faith, for their joy in Christ, for their salvation.
If the survey I mentioned is any indication, that is not want parents today especially want for their children. They want their kids to be successful and happy in life and have a good reputation with others. But they are not especially concerned if God’s truth is passed on to their kids, or that their kids carry these beliefs into marriage and the raising of children.
I’ll go back to the question I asked at the very beginning of the sermon: What do you most want for your children or your grandchildren? It’s a very important question. How you answer it will shape how you raise them, how you teach them, how you guide them. To help you answer it, try changing the question to this: What does God most want for your children and grandchildren?
He wants them “to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Ti. 2:4). He wants them to know their sin is forgiven, that heaven is open to them, that eternal life is given to all who trust in Him. He wants them to find their identity not in popularity or achievements that fade, not in possessions that fail, not in success that is quickly forgotten. He wants them to find their identity in His love for them, in His perfect, finished work to save their soul, in the blessings He promises and gives to all His children.
This is what He wants not just for your children and grandchildren, but for your other relatives, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors. And not just for the people around you—this is what God wants for you. He wants you to have exactly what Paul prayed for.
So Paul’s prayer can be and is our constant prayer for one another, that each of us would be strengthened in faith by the Holy Spirit through the Word, that Christ would continue to dwell in our hearts, that we would stay rooted and grounded in His unchanging, incomprehensible love, and that we would be filled with all the fullness of God, both now and forevermore. God grant us these gifts for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
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(picture from the altarpiece in Weimar by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1555)
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Galatians 5:25-6:10
In Christ Jesus, who did good to everyone, even to those who could not see the good and did not give thanks for it, dear fellow redeemed:
“Good” is a word kind of like “love”—it can be used in many different ways and have a variety of definitions. Just as it is difficult in our society today to agree on what is loving, so it is difficult to agree on what is good. Is something “good” if it makes me feel good? An illegal substance might make me feel good in the moment, but it is very damaging and bad for me. Is something good if more people are happy with a certain outcome than are unhappy? What if the majority is wrong?
The politicians are out in full force right now promising to accomplish good things for us. “I will give you more freedom!” “I will give you more rights!” “I will make everything more equitable—level the playing field for you!” “I will get you more money!” “Wouldn’t that be good?” What is good for one isn’t always what is good for another. And what we think is good for ourselves might not actually be what is good for us.
It might be helpful for defining and recognizing what is good to hear what God says is “not good.” Here are some examples from the book of Proverbs:
- “To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness” (17:26).
- “It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice” (18:5).
- “Desire without knowledge is not good” (19:2).
- “Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good” (20:23).
- “It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory” (25:27).
These proverbs tell us that unjust punishment is not good, injustice and unfairness are not good, unbridled desire is not good, cheating or taking advantage is not good, overindulging in food and an appetite for glory are not good. So it won’t do to define “good” as getting or having exactly what I want because that may not be good for me or for anyone else.
Today’s reading charts out a very different course for us as Christians. This epistle (or letter) from St. Paul was first of all “to the churches of Galatia.” These churches had been troubled by false teachers, false teachers who were telling these new converts that they needed to follow Old Testament rules and regulations such as circumcision and certain days of obligation in order to be good Christians. This focus on human works caused pride, in-fighting, and envy among the people. No doubt it also caused the false teachers to be puffed up since so many were now following them and forsaking Paul’s teaching.
“You are forgetting something fundamental,” said Paul, “something essential to the Christian faith. You are forgetting love—both God’s love for you and your love for one another.” Paul summed up this idea with the phrase, “law of Christ.” He said, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
That phrase sounds a little strange to us. We think of Christ as Savior, not as Lawgiver. In fact, we push back against people who say Jesus was just a good teacher or that He intended to replace Old Testament law with a new standard of morality. That’s how some describe His Sermon on the Mount, as presenting a different kind of law than the Ten Commandments.
The “law of Christ” is not a new system of morality, but it did have a different reference point. Its reference point was not Mt. Sinai with all its thunder, lightning, and fire where God gave the holy law to Moses. Its reference point is another mount, Mt. Calvary, where Jesus gave up His life as a sacrifice for us sinners.
The evening before His death, Jesus said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Joh. 13:34-35). Jesus’ disciples were to love others just as He had loved them. His love was the starting point.
He showed love for the people around Him by speaking God’s truth, both the law and the promises. He showed love by healing the sick and injured, comforting the hurting, feeding the hungry. Then He showed love by letting Himself be led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7)—“the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29). He had committed no sin, but He paid for our sin. He owed us nothing, and He gave us everything. He came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mat. 20:28).
That is love! And that is what Paul means by the “law of Christ.” It is a sacrificial love; it is outward-focused. “Just as I have loved you,” said Jesus, “you also are to love one another.” Just as Jesus gently restored transgressors who were sorry for their sins, so we are gentle and understanding toward our fellow Christians who fall because of weakness. Just as Jesus bore “our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa. 53:4), so we bear one another’s burdens of sorrow, pain, worry, and doubt. Just as Jesus sowed the good seed of righteousness through His gracious words and works, so we speak and serve one another graciously in His name. We learn from Jesus how we are to love. We learn from Jesus what is truly good.
But just because we know what is good, does not mean we always do it. Like the Galatian Christians, we need to be reminded about our sinful ways that work against God’s ways. “Let us not become conceited,” wrote Paul, “provoking one another, envying one another.” These things happen when we determine what is good by the wrong standard. We are tempted to measure how good we are by how much better we think we are than the people around us, or even by how good other people tell us we are.
We might think that we would never fall into the sins that others fall into, but Paul warns us not to be so proud: “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” In another place he wrote, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man” (1Co. 10:13). It does not take some unique, powerful temptation to get us to sin. The common temptations are effective enough for our weak flesh, temptations like conceit because we think are better, or pointless arguments that cause division, or envy because we want what someone else has.
“For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing,” writes Paul, “he deceives himself.” This is why each one of us must “test his own work,” not by comparing ourselves with others but by the standard of God’s holy law. This is how we each “bear [our] own load.” We take responsibility for our own words and actions. We acknowledge our own sins. In humility, we bring this heavy load to our Lord in repentance, asking for His mercy.
And how does He respond? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28). You see, Jesus is the Chief Burden-Bearer. He took the massive burden of our sin and death on Himself and exchanged them with the free gifts of His forgiveness and eternal life. It is His bearing of our burdens that makes possible our bearing of one another’s burdens. It is His strength we draw on. It is His love that inspires our love. We have nothing to give that He did not first give to us. Everything comes from Him.
It first came to us when He joined Himself to us in Holy Baptism. It was then that we became members of His holy body. This is why Paul said to the Galatians earlier in his epistle, “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” (2:20).
Christ lives in you by faith, and He works His good through you. When, as our reading says, you “bear one another’s burdens,” when you humbly serve one another, when you faithfully support your pastor, when you do good without growing weary, that is Christ working through you. That is Christ blessing the people around you through your humble service.
You don’t have to guess at what is “good.” You see it clearly in what Jesus has done for you and for every sinner. His goodness, His love, His mercy never run out—there is more than enough for all. And it is our feet, our hands, our mouths that He graciously employs to dispense these gifts.
“So then, as we have opportunity,” writes Paul, “let us do good to everyone”—spouse, children, parents, siblings, teachers, classmates, bosses, employees, friends, strangers, enemies—“let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith”—especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ, all to the glory of His holy name.
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 “Healing the Blind Near Jericho” by a Netherlands artist in the 1470s)
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Galatians 5:16-24
In Christ Jesus, who went to the cross to free us from our sin and free us for a life of service in His name, dear fellow redeemed:
Why do parents tell their young children they have to take a bath? “I don’t care if I’m clean,” a child might say. “But I care,” says the parent. “But why do I have to?” “Because you don’t smell very good right now. Don’t you want to smell nice?” Baths are good for a child’s own cleanliness and for the people in his general vicinity. That’s the main reason any of us wash ourselves. We want to look and feel clean, and we don’t want to be offensive to others.
That is something like the spiritual cleansing we have received through the Holy Spirit. We have been cleansed so that we stand righteous before God, and so that we can be a blessing to those around us. In today’s reading, St. Paul contrasts “the works of the flesh” which dirty us and the people near us, with “the fruit of the Spirit” which benefits our neighbors.
He says “the works of the flesh are evident”; they are obvious, easy to identify. He begins his list with sexual sin—“sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.” The people to whom Paul was writing lived in a culture much like ours, a sexually permissive culture, where sexual sin was widely practiced and accepted.
Then he listed “idolatry” which could include the worship of images, objects, or people, and “sorcery,” the practice of magic through dark powers. The next eight sins are behaviors that disrupt unity and goodwill: “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy.” Then he added the sins of “drunkenness” and “orgies” and showed that this list could go on much longer by attaching the phrase “and things like these.”
There are countless sins that violate the holy Law of God. These are all “works of the flesh,” they all come from the original sin that we inherited from our first parents the moment we started to be. They all represent our rebellion against our God who made us to be holy and to do holy things. All the sinful things that Paul lists come from our desire to be served and not to serve, from our selfishness, pettiness, and pride and not from a self-sacrificing love.
When we try to justify our sins, we don’t sound much better than little children: “But what if I don’t care if I’m dirty?” “I can do what I want!” “She started it!” “Everyone else is doing it!” Even if 99% of the population thinks something is fine but God says it is sin, then we must pray for the courage to stand with the 1%. It is no overstatement to say that our eternal salvation is at stake. Paul wrote, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
You and I have done these things, but they are not counted against us, and heaven is not closed to us. How come? Because the Holy Spirit has rescued us from “the works of the flesh.” He did this by opening our eyes through the Law to see ourselves as we really are—separated from God, unable to please Him, full of darkness. He moved us to repent of our sins, to set them before God and beg for His mercy.
Then the Holy Spirit shined the light of Jesus’ forgiveness into our darkened hearts. He washed us clean with the holy blood of Jesus. He covered us in the perfect robes of Jesus’ righteousness. He did all these things for us in a simple ceremony involving water and the Word—Holy Baptism.
At your Baptism, you were rescued from the works of your flesh. Your sin was washed out of you at those waters, and you were filled with holiness. Everything Jesus did for you through His holy life, His atoning death, and His resurrection was applied to you, so you became what you were not before. You became a new creation of God (2Co. 5:17). Paul points to the effect of your Baptism with the words, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
That was done to the sinful “passions and desires” of your flesh at your Baptism, and that’s what must continue to be done. Our sinful passions and desires must be crucified, destroyed. If they are not resisted and repented of, then we are saying that Christ was crucified for nothing, or that other bad people might have needed to be saved but not me.
We have an example of the temptation to get complacent, to forget who our Savior is, in the Holy Gospel for today (Luk. 17:11-19). Ten lepers cried out to Jesus from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” It sounds like they all had faith; they all believed Jesus could help them. But as soon as they received what they begged for, nine of them went on their way with hardly a look back. Only one “when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.” Only one showed his faith by his actions.
When you were baptized, you were cleansed by the Holy Spirit of something worse than leprosy—you were cleansed of your sins and rescued from eternal torment in hell. Jesus suffered and died to do this for you, and the Holy Spirit applied His atoning work to you. So you know what He cleansed you from, but what did He cleanse you for? You would be correct if you said, “He cleansed me for salvation and for eternal life in heaven with Him.” But He also cleansed you to do holy works of service in praise and thanks to God while you are here.
Paul urges us in today’s reading, “walk by the Spirit.” Walking by the Spirit means trying to live a pure life in an impure world. It means trusting God to provide all that you need for your body and life. It means helping, encouraging, and serving the people around you. This is not about following God’s Law so that He will reward you for your good behavior. It means falling at Jesus’ feet with thankfulness like the Samaritan who was cleansed and dedicating all your hours, all your energy, and all your abilities to His service.
If you feel like this is nothing more than a “have to,” you will go about it with as much enthusiasm and gladness as a pouting child taking a bath. But if this is a “get to” or a “want to,” you will give thanks for every task, every opportunity, even every trial that the Lord sets before you. Then you will be tasting and distributing “the fruit of the Spirit.” That fruit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
What do you notice about that list? It is not self-serving like the works of the flesh, and it does no harm to others. It serves for mutual good. It blesses you and those around you. These works of the Spirit are what you were created, redeemed, and called to faith to do. Delivering this good fruit is your purpose as a Christian in this world, and it is your privilege.
But as clear as this is, and as much as we want to display these fruits in our words and actions, we have to admit that it isn’t all joy with us, it isn’t all peace and patience and kindness, it isn’t all faithfulness and self-control. Paul acknowledged this struggle. He wrote: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
This is a life-long struggle, so it is a daily struggle. When it is no longer a daily struggle, when it is just a once-a-week-on-Sunday-struggle, or an every-now-and-then-struggle, then we are in trouble. By how should we stay diligent about this? How can we keep our focus? This is done day after day by remembering and returning to our Baptism.
The Catechism teaches us how to do this: “Such baptizing with water means that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts; and that a new man daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
So every day, we drown the old Adam, our sinful nature, with its passions and desires. We acknowledge our sins with sorrow and repent of them. And every day, we put our confidence and trust in Jesus who died for our sins and credits us with His righteousness. We dedicate ourselves to walking by the Spirit, to honoring and thanking Jesus by everything we do, and to showing love to the people that God puts in our path.
The Holy Spirit gives us the godly desire to do these things. As our reading makes clear, He does not just walk beside us as though we are equal partners in righteousness. He leads us. He leads us through the Word. When the holy Word of God is preached, studied, or called to mind, the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work to increase our faith and the fruit that comes from it.
He has cleansed us, so that we no longer show off the filth of our flesh or carry the stench of sin. Now we pursue a humble life of service and give off the sweet-smelling aroma of salvation which Jesus won for us by His grace. This is what the Holy Spirit has cleansed us to be and do—to be holy children of God who produce the good fruit of righteousness in thankfulness to Him.
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 stained glass at Redeemer Lutheran Church)