The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 6:24-34
In Christ Jesus, whose promise to provide for us is far more powerful than our worries and troubles, dear fellow redeemed:
He says it five times!
- “Do not be anxious about your life.”
- “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
- “Why are you anxious about clothing?”
- “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
- “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.”
Jesus thinks we have an anxiousness problem, a worry problem, and Jesus is never wrong. He also identifies another problem: our little faith. Both of those go together—worry and a lack of faith. We worry because we do not believe God will do what He says, or at least we have doubts that He will provide for us in just the way and at just the time that we need it.
But what is it that causes our worry? What is our worry based on? Our worry is not based on anything we find in God’s Word. We don’t read about an arbitrary or a fickle God who sometimes chooses to bless His children and sometimes chooses to harm them. At times He does chasten and discipline us, because He wants to lead us to repentance and a stronger faith. But this is done out of love. He is always faithful. He does not change. So worry is not based on uncertainty about God’s will and work which are clearly revealed to us in His Word.
Worry is based on our own experience and the evidence we see around us in the world. We can think of times when we had more expenses than income, more responsibilities than we had the ability to meet. Maybe we were worried about paying our bills, and then more bills came. We didn’t know where the money would come from to cover even the essentials like food and utilities. Or one of our family members was sick, and we didn’t know if we could afford the medicine needed for healing.
We also look around us and see many people who go hungry, who can’t afford clothing, who have no place to go home to. If God feeds the birds and clothes the lilies, why doesn’t He feed and clothe all people in need? And if doesn’t do this for the people who really need it, how can we be sure He will do this for us? So we worry. We give more weight to our experiences and doubts than to God’s promises.
When we allow worry to come in, we are taking matters that God wants to handle and holding those matters in our own hands. We keep the burden on ourselves of providing for our needs and fixing our own problems. Or we look for another provider, another god, whose promises seem more reliable.
This is how many people view the government. They trust the government to take care of all their needs. But as necessary as government is—and God has certainly ordained it for good order and for our protection—yet government is made up of sinners, who are often ready to take as much or more than they promise to give.
Our worries really come down to 1) having enough and 2) keeping what we have. A person just out of high school or a married couple with little children might especially worry about having enough. They do without new clothes, new cars, and a nice house. Retirement is a long way off—there’s lots of work to do! But older individuals whose work has been blessed and who are able to afford the finer things, now worry about having enough to retire on and having the good health and energy to enjoy it.
When we worry about the future like this, we behave like “the Gentiles.” Jesus says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” Now many of us are Gentiles in the sense of not having Jewish background. But Jesus is referring to the unbelieving Gentiles, the ones who did not have the Scriptures. That isn’t us, but we act like the unbelievers when we worry about having what we need.
Instead of worry, Jesus teaches us to do this: “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” He says that when we put our faith in God and His Word—little though our faith may be—, all the things we need for this earthly life will be provided to us. That’s quite a promise! It’s a promise that we have difficulty accepting.
We think that if we are going to prosper in this life, we have to make it happen. We have to outwork our co-workers, we have to come up with new solutions to get ourselves noticed by the “higher-ups.” We have to be in the right place at the right time. Then we will have a shot at our dreams. Then we can have a chance at the life we always wanted.
This is not a criticism of hard work. God wants every one of us to do our work to the best of our ability, whether we are in the classroom, in the workplace, in our homes, or at church. God never endorses laziness. In teaching us not to worry, Jesus is certainly not teaching us to sit back and wait for everything to drop in our lap. The apostle Paul couldn’t have said it more clearly than this: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2Th. 3:10).
The difference is working for selfish gain or working for godly gain. We work for godly gain when we recognize that God is the one who gives each of us our unique abilities and strengths to employ in His service. We trust that He will bless our efforts as He sees fit. He might give more to some of His children and less to others, but all of it is a gift from His gracious hand. So it is not helpful to compare what we have with what others have, since God is the Giver, and “He is good, for His mercy endures forever” (Psa. 136:1).
And how do we know this is true beyond any doubt, that God really is so good and merciful? We know this because the Father who created and provides for all things also gave the greatest gift of all—His only-begotten Son to save us. When Jesus says, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” He is referring to His own holy work.
God the Father sent Him to do for us what we could not accomplish, no matter how much we worried after it or worked for it. Jesus the Christ was born under the Law, so that He might redeem us, buy us back, by His own holy life. While we are anxious and doubtful about God’s care for us, He perfectly entrusted Himself to the Father’s will. He did not worry about tomorrow; He focused on God’s Word today.
Wherever we have failed in our work through our worry, our selfishness, and our laziness, Jesus fulfilled the holy Law through His faith, His love, and His perfect commitment to the work of saving us sinners. “His righteousness” is the righteousness we must seek if we will stand before God in heaven. And this is the righteousness we already have by faith in Jesus.
Yes, our faith is “little” and never as strong as it should be. But even a little faith has salvation in Christ. Our eternal future does not depend on how strong our faith is, but on how strong our Savior and Lord is. And He is strong! He is stronger than hunger and want, stronger than worry and fear, stronger than sin, death, and the devil.
He suffered when He went to the cross, but He was not worried. Just before He took His last breath, He cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luk. 23:46). Then He was taken off the cross and closed up in the tomb, but He was not worried. Death was no match for Him, and He rose from the dead on the third day to prove it.
It is this Conqueror of sin and death who tells you: “Do not be anxious; do not worry.” If your needs and concerns are like ten enemies threatening you with pocket knives and pitchforks, God’s care is like an entire army right behind you outfitted with the best weapons and equipment. Worldly cares are scattered by the powerful promise of God’s care.
He will provide for you. If He needs to say it again and again, even every day, He will: “Do not be anxious. I have not forgotten about your needs. I know how to turn trials into blessings. I will come and help you. Have no fear!” In His care for you, God the Father already sent His Son to rescue you from eternal death. That must mean He will not forsake you in your times of need (Rom. 8:32).
And you know this to be true. You know that your cares and worries have never done anything for you. You know that God’s care for you has never failed. Even when you were anxious, even when you complained, He kept on loving you. And if He didn’t give you everything you wanted at the time, He gave you everything you needed.
God knows your needs even better than you do. He gives you His kingdom and His righteousness for your eternal life, and He gives all that you need for this body and life besides.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of Jesus and the lilies from stained glass at Jerico Lutheran Church)
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 17:11-19
In Christ Jesus, who heals the sick and rescues the dying, so they might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, dear fellow redeemed:
It started with little sores that stuck around, reddish spots, and some skin numbness. He wished it would go away, he wanted to ignore it, but he couldn’t. He went to the priest to have it examined, and the priest confirmed his greatest fear—it was leprosy. He had to leave his job, leave his home, leave his family. The Book of Leviticus describes the protocol for lepers: “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp” (13:45-46).
It was a hard reality, but there was no known cure. A person with leprosy had to stay away for the good of others. But he wasn’t completely alone. Lepers often formed their own communities. We see that in today’s reading, when ten lepers called to Jesus outside a village between Samaria and Galilee. We learn something else about this group of men. It was a mixture of both Jews and Samaritans. That probably wouldn’t have happened if this terrible disease hadn’t drawn them together.
In general, the Jews and the Samaritans interacted with each other as little as possible. They had long lists of reasons why the other group was inferior and not worth their time and attention. But “misery loves company,” and these men were miserable. They set aside the animosity they may have felt toward one another and stuck together. But they were still of course on the outside. They were not where they wanted to be. They were part of a community of death, a community of the dying.
And that’s exactly what the world is apart from Christ. It is full of people afflicted by the disease of sin, surrounded by death and facing death themselves. Leprosy is a helpful picture for thinking about how sin works in us. In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther quotes Romans 7:18, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.” Then he says, “If St. Paul may speak this way about his flesh, we cannot assume to be better or more holy than him. But the fact that we do not feel our weakness just makes things worse. It is a sign that there is a leprous flesh in us that can’t feel anything. And yet, the leprosy rages and keeps spreading” (Part V, paras. 76-77).
Because of nerve damage, a leprous person does not always notice when he cuts himself or gets burned or injured. And we do not always notice when we are getting injured or burned by sin. The more we participate in what is unclean, the less we perceive the damage that is being done to us. We think that we can stay in control of the sin. We won’t let it overcome us. But when we can’t stop consuming what is destroying us, can’t stop doing what we should not do, we are not in control of sin; sin is in control of us.
If one of the lepers in today’s reading denied that he had leprosy, it wouldn’t have changed the fact. And “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1Jo. 1:8). It is important that we see ourselves among those lepers. By nature, we are sinful and unclean (ELH, pp. 41, 61). We are the outsiders. We are the ones standing at a distance, away from all that is good. We cannot change our situation; we cannot save ourselves.
But One has drawn near to our community of death, even coming to live among us, One who has the power to heal us of our sin and save us from death. This One is very different; His reputation precedes Him. He has not been overcome by sin, and when death tried to take Him down, He took down death! “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” we cry.
And why should He have mercy? He isn’t the reason for our troubles. He is not responsible for the state we are in, for the messes we have made in our sin. But He does have mercy. He had mercy upon Naaman, an Old Testament Gentile who was afflicted by leprosy, by having him wash seven times in the waters of the Jordan River until he was clean (2Ki. 5). And our Lord had mercy upon us by bringing us to the cleansing waters of Baptism, where He applied the healing medicine of His holy blood to each one of us.
St. Paul explains this beautifully in Ephesians 2. He writes, “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh… remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (vv. 11,12). We were on the outside, and we couldn’t get in. We were stuck in our sin and death. Paul continues, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (v. 13). We were far off from salvation, but Jesus has brought us close to Him.
He accomplished this by perfectly keeping the Law of God, not just for the Israelite people but for all people. And then He went to the cross carrying the whole world’s sin and shed His holy blood to wash it all away. He poured His perfect righteousness and His cleansing blood over you through the waters of Baptism. That is how He transferred you from the community of death in the world to His holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. That is how He healed and cleansed you from the disease of sin that was killing you.
But many of the people He has done this for, whom He has joined to Himself in the waters of Baptism, continue on their way and forget what He has done. Like the nine lepers who were healed, they get caught up in “the cares and riches and pleasures of life” (Luk. 8:14). They don’t continue to listen to His healing Word. They don’t remember to give Him thanks. So even though Jesus freed them from the community of death, they have returned to it again. They might feel like they are alive. They might think they are doing important things. But none of it can save them, and none of it will last apart from Christ.
This is what the devil tempts all of us to do. He wants us to walk away from the life we have in Jesus, to give all of that up so we can fit in with the world. We might even feel ashamed sometimes of our membership in the Christian Church. We don’t tell anyone about it. We carefully keep it hidden, so we can fit in with the people who seem to matter. We don’t want them to think we are strange. We don’t want to be left on the outside. We don’t want to be singled out and left all by ourselves.
These are natural thoughts to have. It is difficult to be a follower of Jesus in a hostile world. But even though you may feel like you have to face these difficulties alone, you are not alone. The Samaritan went against the majority and turned back to give thanks to Jesus. He didn’t have the company of his former friends anymore, but He wasn’t alone. Jesus was with him, and Jesus blessed him. “Rise and go your way,” He said; “your faith has made you well.” Or as the Greek word literally reads, “your faith has saved you.”
You are saved by faith in Jesus who conquered your sin and death, and shares with you His life. And you are not the only one who has received this life. Going back to Ephesians 2: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (vv. 19-21).
Look at how large your community is! You are a fellow citizen with all the saints, all the believers who have gone before you. You are a member of the household of God. You stand on the foundation built by the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus Himself is the cornerstone. You are part of an immense structure, a beautiful building, a holy temple in the Lord. You are most certainly not alone.
You are a member of the body of Christ. It is with Him that you belong. You will always find friendship, acceptance, and purpose in Him. He will not leave you by yourself. He visits you with His mercy in good times and bad, whether you are happy or sad, restful or anxious. He comes right to you through His Word and His Sacraments to cleanse you again with His holy blood and bless you with His promises.
Each time you receive these blessings, you praise Him and give thanks to Him, bowing down at His feet. And He looks upon you with love, and He says, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.”
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 Healing of Ten Lepers” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Luke 10:23-37
In Christ Jesus, who always loves us, his neighbors, as himself, dear fellow redeemed:
The lawyer was not happy. After all, he was an expert in the Law. He knew what the Law said and what it meant. And yet, in a verse that came just before our text for today, Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21). Not only did this suggest that little children knew more about the Law than the lawyer did, but this also suggested that faith, given by God, was all that was required to understand the Holy Scriptures and to be saved. The lawyer had to prove that he understood the Law better than little children, better than Jesus. So, he put Jesus to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life” (verse 25)?
The Law clearly stated what a person had to do to be saved, so if Jesus’ answer showed that he did, in fact, believe that it was by faith that a person was saved, he would prove his ignorance. However, Jesus didn’t answer the lawyer’s question. Instead, Jesus turned it on him, saying, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it” (verse 26)? While not what the lawyer was expecting, he now had a chance to prove that he understood the Law. So, he summarized the Law by saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (verse 27). Jesus then responded to the lawyer by saying, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (verse 28).
Wait, so Jesus didn’t think that a person was saved by faith alone? That’s what Jesus’ response sounded like to the lawyer. However, that’s not what Jesus meant. He was actually trying to get the lawyer to see that he couldn’t live up to what the Law demanded and that it was purely by God’s grace and mercy that he was saved. But the lawyer didn’t see what Jesus wanted him to see. Instead, the lawyer shifted his goal to justifying himself. Jesus had told him to “do this,” but he already thought that he had. He had loved God like he should and his neighbor as himself—as long as “neighbor” was defined in a certain way. To see if Jesus saw things the way he did, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
This question was intended to prove to Jesus that the lawyer was needed to legally define what a neighbor is. After all, in the lawyer’s mind, since the Law was given by Moses to the Jews at the Mount Siani, then a neighbor had to be someone within the Jewish community, and he wanted to make that belief law. However, Jesus didn’t give the lawyer the justification he was looking for. Instead, Jesus showed that everyone is our neighbor, and therefore, (1) we’re not to show our love just to those we think deserve it, but (2) we’re to show our love to everyone, just as Jesus loves all of us.
In the parable, Jesus not only put the priest and the Levite, whom the lawyer would associate himself with, in a bad light, but he also put the Samaritan in a good light. The Samaritans were certainly not people whom the Jews would consider to be their neighbors. They were a mixed race and didn’t follow the Old Testament to the letter like the Jews did. But by using the Samaritan as the good example, Jesus made his point abundantly clear, so that even the lawyer had to admit it when he said that the one who “proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers” (verse 36) was “[t]he one who showed him mercy” (verse 37), or the good Samaritan.
When we hear accounts from the Bible like these, we can often times think to ourselves, “Yeah! You tell them Jesus!” However, we fail to realize that Jesus was not just speaking to the lawyer. He was speaking to all of us. Like the lawyer, there are those whom we don’t think deserve our love. Maybe it’s because they are murderers. Maybe it’s because they committed adultery. Maybe it’s because they didn’t keep a promise that they made. Or maybe it’s simply because they don’t belong to our group, like how the Jews viewed the Samaritans.
There are even times when we don’t think that those whom we would normally consider to be our neighbors deserve our love. In times like these, we act like the priest and the Levite, who passed by a fellow Jew in need of their help, simply because it wasn’t convenient for them. We might be willing to help someone in need, as long as it’s convenient for us or it benefits us. But, if we think that people have to deserve our love, then we also have to admit that we don’t deserve God’s love.
Since we have to keep the entire Law in order to earn God’s love, as Jesus told the lawyer, then we have to admit that we’ve failed. Sure, on the surface it may look like we’ve kept the entire Law, but Jesus shows us that it doesn’t take much to break the Law. We may think that we haven’t murdered anyone, but Jesus says that “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22). We may think that we haven’t committed adultery, but Jesus says that “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). We may think that we haven’t sworn falsely, but Jesus says, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (Matthew 5:37). We may think that we don’t have to show love to our enemies, like how the Jews thought they didn’t have to show love to the Samaritans, but Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). And these are just some of the ways that we fail to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We’re like the man who was attacked by robbers; beaten, bloody, and clinging to life; except we’re not the victim. We’re that way because of the sins that we committed, and Jesus would have every right to pass us by on the other side of the road and leave us to the fate that we brought upon ourselves. But he didn’t. Instead, like the good Samaritan, he came to help us in our time of need.
During his life on earth, Jesus was a good Samaritan in every way that we failed to be. He had compassion on those in need, feeding those who were hungry, healing those who were sick, and casting out demons. He didn’t let the background of others stop him from helping them. In fact, he would often times associate with Samaritans and those whom the religious authorities considered sinners. He even showed love to his enemies, praying while he was on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And he wasn’t concerned for his own wellbeing, putting the wellbeing of others before his own, with the ultimate example of this being that he willingly laid down his own life for our benefit. As the apostle Paul says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
On the cross, Jesus paid the price for all of the times that you didn’t show love to your neighbors. You did nothing to deserve the love that Jesus showed you, for you were completely helpless and dying on the side of the road. But Jesus washed your wounds with the waters of baptism, nursed you back to health by feeding you the medicine that is his own body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and clothed you with his own perfect and holy garments. Because of what Jesus did for you and still does for you, you haven’t just received the forgiveness of sins that he won for you, but his perfect fulfillment of the Law has also been applied to your life. Now, the Father no longer sees the beaten and bloody sinner that you once were, but only the new man that his only begotten Son, Jesus, made you. This is the same message that Jesus was trying to get the lawyer to understand, that he had come to save sinners and open heaven to all who trust in him.
The lawyer didn’t get the answer from Jesus that he was looking for. He thought that he had a better understanding of what a neighbor is than others did, and he thought that by showing love only to those whom he thought deserved it would earn him a place in heaven. Jesus showed him that his understanding of what a neighbor is was wrong and also that he needed the grace and mercy that only God can give in order to be saved. It is a message that the lawyer needed to hear, as well as all of us. We have not loved our neighbors like we should, but Jesus has loved us. Because of his love we now live, and because of his love we love one another as he has loved us.
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: St. Mark 7:31-37
In Christ Jesus, who came to bring healing not just for bodies but also for souls, not just for this life but for the life to come, dear fellow redeemed:
If you could change one thing about your body, one thing that would make you happier and more content, what would it be? For some of us (maybe many of us), it would be our weight—“I wish I could trim off a few pounds.” Others of us might say, “I wish I were a little bit taller.” “I wish I were stronger.” “I wish I were prettier.” Most of these wishes have to do with how other people see us. We want them to think we look good, because that helps us feel better about ourselves.
Or maybe what you would like to change is not so much your appearance, but your health. “I wish this pain in my joints or my back would go away.” “I wish I could get back the energy and mobility I used to have.” “I wish my heart were more reliable.” “I wish this cancer were gone.” And there is no question that being healed of these things would be a great relief. But how far would it take you? Would you actually be happier and more content if you received exactly what you wanted?
Today we hear about a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Those two things often go together. If you grow up being unable to hear, or unable to hear correctly, you won’t know how to control the sounds that you make with your mouth. Communication for this man was certainly difficult, but he had gotten along so far. He did not have a life-threatening illness or demon-possession like other people Jesus had healed. But the people figured that if Jesus could help with those things, He could “lay His hand on” this man and heal him too.
While the people had confidence in Jesus, it isn’t exactly the case that they believed in Him. They believed that He had special powers, and they were really hoping to see Him use them. But they did not believe He was the promised Savior of the world. What they were hoping for was a miracle of physical healing and not much more.
Jesus of course knew this about them. We see how He took the deaf man away from the crowd, because He wasn’t interested in making a spectacle of it. He sighed deeply—even groaned—as He looked toward heaven, saddened by the whole situation. And then after the miracle had been performed, He charged the people not to tell anyone what He had done—an order which they totally ignored.
But why would Jesus order them not to tell? Well what kind of message do you think they shared? Would you guess that they talked more about who He was, or about what He was able to do? “He has done all things well!” they cried. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!” The message was that Jesus mattered because of the physical healing He could perform.
This message could have led some to wonder, “Who is Jesus anyway? How is He able to do the things He does?” Those are the questions all the people should have been asking. But many just looked at Him as a means to get what they wanted. “If Jesus could take away this problem, or this problem, I would be so free. Then I could do whatever I wanted again.”
You can see how getting healed by Jesus did not guarantee that people would follow Him. We see the same thing today. Our merciful Lord regularly blesses the medical treatment people receive, so that their life is extended. Or He preserves people from greater harm when they could have easily died. Many who have been through these things will even express that they have “a new lease on life.” But their attitude toward God doesn’t change. They don’t give thanks to the One who gives them their daily bread, who gives them everything they have and everything they need for this life.
And the same often goes for us. We might fervently pray for one thing, one physical gift, whether it be healing from an infection or disease, or for improved health. We say that we will dedicate our whole life to God if only He will fix this one thing. But how much changes for us if that healing comes? It usually doesn’t take long before we forget what God has done for us. And then we take up a new petition, a new concern, that would make our lives so much better if only God would help.
There is always another problem. This makes me think of the animated movie Aladdin by Disney. When dirt-poor Aladdin learned he had three wishes to ask for whatever he wanted, he figured he really only needed one and said he would happily use one of the wishes to free the genie. But that first wish didn’t accomplish everything Aladdin wanted. More issues and needs kept coming up. That’s how life is in this sinful world. We cannot have a perfect existence here.
Instead of looking for happiness and contentment through the relief of our physical problems, Jesus wants us to look to Him. That was the message for Paul, who pleaded for the Lord to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” Surely God would grant this request to His loyal servant, who endured tremendous affliction for preaching the Gospel! Paul prayed specifically for this three times, and this was the Lord’s answer, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Co. 12:9).
The question is not whether God has the power to heal us. Of course He does. The question is whether that healing is the best thing for us. God’s response to Paul was that his thorn in the flesh would be a reminder to Paul of His grace toward him. Paul would have to rely on the Lord’s strength instead of his own, which is what he realized and confessed. Paul said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me…. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (vv. 9, 10).
What Jesus does for us—that is what matters. Today’s Epistle lesson is about the change brought by our Savior’s coming. It contrasts the ministry of condemnation and death with the ministry of righteousness and life (2Co. 3:4-11). The ministry of condemnation is the work of God’s Law on our hearts which convicts us of our sin, sins like worry and impatience in our suffering, and sins like forgetting the mercy of God toward us. The ministry of righteousness is the Holy Spirit applying the gracious work of Jesus to us sinners.
God sent His Son to infuse life into this world of death. We see this so vividly in Jesus’ healing touch. The man’s ears and tongue which were “broken” because of sin in this world, Jesus touched with His holy hands. Then He spoke His powerful Word. The man didn’t have the physical ability to hear this Word, but Jesus’ Word made its way through the damaged parts of his outer ear, middle ear, or inner ear and into his brain and set all those mechanisms right again.
That’s what Jesus’ Word does, it sets everything right. His Word sets our hearts right and our minds right. His Word sets our homes right and the teaching of our churches right. His Word sets our priorities and our plans and our hopes right. When the man’s tongue was released, we are told that he was now able to speak rightly (Greek: orthos).
The people said, “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak,” as though that were the most he could do or the height of what He could do. But He came to do something much bigger and much better than physical healing. Putting His fingers into the man’s ears was just a small sign of who He is and what He came to do. The Son of God put His whole divine self into our human flesh. “For in [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9).
He came to be the Minister of Righteousness, to serve us in His righteousness and to distribute His righteous acts to us. All the good He accomplished according to the holy Law, fulfilling its demands in full, He gives to us. He credits us with His perfect listening which covers over all the times we used our hearing to listen to what is false and wrong. He credits us with His perfect speaking which covers over all the times we used our mouths to speak what is untrue and unkind. The life we have lived in our sin has been wrong in so many ways, and Jesus set us right again with the Father by His perfect life. And the debt we owed to God for breaking all His commands, Jesus paid it by shedding His holy blood on the cross.
So whether or not everything is all right for you or for me in our bodies and in the world, we are right with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our confidence and this is our comfort when we suffer. Our suffering might not quickly go away, and it may be God’s will that it does not go away as long as we live here. But He promises to keep touching us with His mercy and grace in both the good days and the bad ones.
He does not tire of coming to minister to us and serve us with His healing presence in the means of grace. He does not tire of encouraging us in our weakness. He does not tire of speaking His promises to us again and again, opening our ears and filling us with His righteousness and with His enduring peace. The people were right that Jesus “has done all things well,” but they didn’t fully appreciate what “all things” meant.
Jesus “has done all things well,” all things right, because He is Righteousness. He is the Righteousness of God sent down from heaven to free us from our bondage to sin and death, and free us to hear His Word rightly and confess His truth clearly. In Him, we can be happy and content, even if not everything is right with our bodies on the outside or the inside. Jesus, the Minister of Righteousness is the one blessing we truly need.
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 morning of the annual outdoor service)
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 18:9-14
In Christ Jesus, who rewards us not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done, dear fellow redeemed:
The opening words of today’s reading state: “[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” Is this parable really for you? Is it for me? Are we people who trust in our own righteousness? Do we treat others with contempt? We find the Pharisee and his praying to be offensive. We admire the humility of the tax collector. So do we really need to hear this parable today?
Let me change the characters a little, make it more personal, and see if it gives us a different angle to consider it. “Two people went up into the temple to pray, one of them was you and the other Jesus.” In that comparison, we know which one is the prideful and arrogant one, and which one is humble. We might not step out and boldly say the things the Pharisee did, but Jesus wants us to examine the pride we have in our hearts and minds.
We can hardly imagine saying the things publicly that the Pharisee said. But we certainly have thought them. We have looked around us at the extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and cheats and stood a little taller—“I’m glad I’m not like them!” On the other hand, we have counted up the good things we have done and thought we were in pretty good shape.
Our natural tendency according to our sinful flesh is to get the object of our love wrong. The Commandments direct us to love the Lord our God with all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our love should be focused outward, not inward. And yet, what motivates us is often what pleases us, what makes us feel good, what benefits us. That’s the attitude that puts us in the place of the Pharisee.
The Pharisee said the words, “God, I thank You,” but it’s obvious he was really thanking himself. His “prayer” does not read like a humble offering but as a prideful recounting of all the reasons God should be pleased with him. What do our lists look like? “God, I thank You that I’m not lazy and dishonest like my co-workers are—that I’m not mean like my classmates—that I’m so good to my family—that I do so many wonderful things for others.”
It is not the good works that are the problem, but where we think the credit belongs for those good works. Why are you a hard worker? Why are you nice? Why are you good to your family? Why have you done so many wonderful things for others? If you think it is because you are such a good person and better than most, then you are most certainly the Pharisee. But if you humbly confess that the good you do is not really from you but is a gift of God, then you are the tax collector.
Now the tax collector was undoubtedly sinful. Tax collectors had the reputation of charging more taxes than required. We get a sense of this from Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector whom Jesus spotted up in a sycamore tree. When Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ home for a meal, all the people grumbled that He had “gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner” (Luk. 19:7). But Zacchaeus’ heart had changed. He stood up and vowed to Jesus, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (v. 8).
The tax collector in the temple was also troubled by his sins. He stood way off to the side. He didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. He kept his eyes downcast. It’s as though no one were there except him and God. He struck his chest and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Notice what he did not do. He did not put on airs, as though he were too important to show any weakness. He did not point out the Pharisee’s pride or exchange words with him: “Oh yeah, well what about when you did this and this!” All he could see was his own sins and God’s faithfulness.
That is the model for humility and repentance that Jesus sets before us. But we never do this perfectly. I have mentioned before the lesson my classmates and I learned from a college professor, who asked if we thought we were more like the Pharisee or the tax collector in this parable. Of course, we identified with the tax collector. “If you think you are more like the tax collector,” he said, “you are probably the Pharisee.” Yes, we can be proud even of our humility.
Jesus says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” We are humbled not by our own doing, as though it were a good quality in us. We are humbled by the Holy Spirit working on us through the Law of God. We are humbled by being shown we are not as good as we want to think. We are humbled by having our self-focused love exposed. We need the Holy Spirit to continue to do this humbling work, because the old Adam in us always thinks he knows best. But that fruit is still rotten to the taste.
The second Adam never tasted that fruit. He never sinned. He humbled Himself completely, perfectly. The apostle Paul writes that God’s Son, Christ Jesus, “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phi. 2:7-8). Jesus humbled Himself all the way. He did not maintain any dignity or honor for Himself. He never put Himself first. He put Himself right in our place and accepted all our sins as His own. He was no sinner, but He appealed to His heavenly Father to consider Him the sinner.
And the Father did. “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2Co. 5:21). Jesus was cast outside the city, ridiculed by self-righteous men, and forsaken by God. There would be no mercy. He had to be the object of the Father’s wrath, so we sinners would not be. He had to make the payment, because we had nothing to offer. He had to atone for all sin with His holy blood.
His perfect humility, His perfect sacrifice, means that God no longer condemns us. Jesus did the work in our place that we could not do. He fulfilled God’s holy Law of love for us, and He cancelled the whole debt of our sins that we could never pay. Because of these works of Jesus, we are justified before God, pronounced righteous, declared innocent of any wrongdoing.
Comparing the results of Adam’s sin and Jesus’ righteousness, Paul declares, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:18-19). What Adam did, Jesus undid. What Adam ruined, Jesus restored. You are just as guilty as Adam because of your sin, and you are just as righteous as Jesus because He credits His righteousness to you.
There is no need to boast in your own works like a Pharisee. Far better works are yours by faith in Jesus. Everything He obtained by His humble work, He shares with you. He even shares His glory with you. That glory is hidden now while the world seems to be king and the members of Christ’s Church seem so lowly and powerless. But that glory will be revealed when Jesus returns with a shout and the sound of a trumpet on the last day.
Then we who are justified by the grace of God will also be glorified. We who are humbled will be exalted. We walk in our Lord’s footsteps. We live the life He has laid out for us. We take up our cross and follow after Him. It may not be a life that seems very impressive. We may be looked down on as those whom no one would desire to be. Accusing fingers identifying our faults will be pointed our way.
We don’t have to play the world’s game, a game in which everyone loses. It is not for us to sling mud with the self-righteous Pharisees. We carry out our humble callings, off to the side, eyes looking down with compassion on our neighbors in need, always with a prayer for God’s mercy on our lips. He hears these prayers. He does have mercy on us. He sends us to our homes and to our work justified.
Knowing that we are right with God makes us joyful in our work and eager to serve. We don’t need to prove our worth to God, to others, or even to ourselves. Our worth is firmly established in God’s Son, who took on our flesh, suffered and died for us, so that we would have life and purpose and fulfillment in Him.
Let us pray: God, we thank You that though we are just like all others in our sin and have not lived the life of love You commanded, yet You have had mercy on us poor sinners. You have judged us righteous by faith in Your Son, who humbly gave Himself in our place and is now exalted above all things. To You alone be the glory.
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: St. Luke 19:41-48
In Christ Jesus, who opens wide the door to His beautiful home, so that sinners have a place of refuge and rest, dear fellow redeemed:
“Close the door behind you!” “Take off your shoes before you walk on the carpet!” “Clean up after yourself!” These are some common “house rules,” and I imagine all of us have other rules that are unique to our own homes. We have these rules because we want to preserve our homes and make them comfortable places to live.
In today’s reading, Jesus highlights some “house rules” of His own. We see how concerned He is to keep the temple in Jerusalem clean. When He was a twelve-year-old, and Mary and Joseph found Him with the teachers in the temple, He asked them, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luk. 2:49). And now, just a few days before His death on the cross, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56, “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (v. 7).
He quoted this passage because of what the temple wasn’t at that moment. It wasn’t “a house of prayer”; instead it had become a marketplace. This was not something new. Three years earlier when Jesus was first beginning His public work, He found the same thing—people selling oxen, sheep, and pigeons, while others dealt in money exchange. With righteous zeal, He overturned tables and drove out the sheep and oxen with a whip of cords. “Take these things away,” He cried; “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (Joh. 2:16).
His message hadn’t changed three years later when He overturned the tables again and “drove out all who sold and bought in the temple” (Mat. 21:12). The evangelist Mark describes how He not only cleared the space but also guarded it: “he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple” (Mar. 11:16). This is an instructive account for anyone who likes to turn Jesus into an effeminate pushover, a loving teacher who just wants everyone to feel good about themselves.
No, Jesus was a Man of sharp conviction, of resolute purpose, of perfect focus. His clearing of the temple those two times is not an example of Him momentarily “losing His cool,” or acting outside of His character. It is an insight into His character, and it is instruction about what matters to our Lord.
“My house shall be a house of prayer,” said Jesus, “but you have made it a den of robbers.” What Jesus wanted was humble sacrifice. What He saw was total selfishness. What He wanted was godly devotion. What He saw was a den of robbers, totally secure in their sin in the very place that was consecrated for holiness.
The fact that the temple had gotten just as bad as it had been three years before makes it seem like Jesus was fighting a losing battle. And besides that, Jesus knew that this was the week when He would complete His mission of salvation in obedience to His Father’s will. Why bother with the temple at this moment when seemingly more important things were about to take place?
For Jesus, this was the most important thing at the moment. This was no regular old building. This was the place of God’s presence, where He descended in all holiness to bless His chosen people. If this space was not sacred, then no space was sacred. And if no space was sacred, then the people had no communion with God. “My house shall be a house of prayer.”
“A house of prayer,” though, sounds like work. Is that all the people did there—come and offer their prayers to God in silence? Not at all. God directed the temple to be built for what He could give His people, not for what He could get from them. That is what our churches are for too. They were built many years ago as sacred places set apart for God to meet us sinners with His gifts through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments.
We expend a good amount of time and money to maintain these places. We do this because we think our churches are beautiful, and we want to keep them in good shape. But if that was our only motivation, we might as well turn our churches into museums and get them listed on the register of historic places. The reason our churches exist, the purpose for which they were dedicated, is because God is at work here.
As beautiful as we might think our churches are, they are nowhere near beautiful enough to welcome the Almighty God of heaven and earth. Even if we gathered together all the riches of the world and adorned one church with all of it, it would not be a good enough space for the God of glory. And yet, He still meets us here. He comes not only into our buildings, humble as they are, but He even comes into our hearts.
Is your heart a more or less fitting space than your church? The beginning of our reading speaks about Jesus looking out over the city of Jerusalem and weeping. The city was beautiful enough, perched impressively on Mount Zion with the temple occupying the prime location. But Jesus wept because the people of the city did not know Him. They did not believe His Word. They did not believe that He was the Messiah who had come to save them. “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
He predicted the destruction of this beautiful city, which happened about forty years later in 70 A. D. just as He described. At that time, the magnificent temple which Jesus took such care to cleanse, was burned to the ground. It happened on August 10, which is why this reading always falls in the month of August. All these things are given as a warning to us.
How the city and the temple looked on the outside isn’t what mattered to God. Scribes and Pharisees who mechanically did what the Law required is not what He wanted. He wanted humble hearts of faith that trusted His promises. King David wrote by inspiration, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psa. 51:16-17).
Jesus wanted a clean temple, so it could be a sacred place for prayer and for hearing His teaching. He wants your heart to be clean for the same purpose, for hearing His Word and responding in prayer. So is your heart clean? If it were perfectly clean, we would not have to join David in saying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psa. 51:10).
Our hearts are like the temple. It does get cleaned from time to time, but then it gets cluttered again. It gets cluttered with worries, with doubts, and especially with our sins. We are no different than the “den of robbers” that Jesus found doing business in the temple. Like them, we are often on the lookout for what is best for us, even if that is not beneficial to our neighbor. Or like them, we become secure in our sins, and we stop seeing how bad they are or what damage they do to our faith.
This is why Jesus calls us regularly to hear His Word in His holy house. Through the Law, He needs to confront the sin that we have allowed to creep into our hearts, first along the shadowy edges and then right out in the open, like those merchants in the temple. He exposes that darkness to the light, so that we stop trying to hide our sins away but instead own them and confess them.
A repentant heart is a heart that is ready to receive the eternal gifts of God. Our Lord does not despise a broken and contrite heart, no matter what sin you have committed. He supplied on your behalf the life of godly devotion and humble sacrifice that God required. He creates in you a clean heart, washed clean by His holy blood and filled up with His perfect holiness. He gives you a heart that hangs on His every Word and loves to help the neighbors He has given you to serve.
His “house rules” of repentance and faith do not apply just to that temple in Jerusalem or just to our church buildings today. These “house rules” apply everywhere we are and in everything we do. Jesus did not cleanse the temple—and He does not cleanse our hearts—because He wanted to do something for Himself. He does these things for our good, for our blessing. He wants to preserve us in the saving faith and give us the comfort of His forgiveness and peace.
Even though we have many times sold out to the ways of the world and bought into the devil’s temptations, Jesus has not given up on us. He forgives us just as He forgave the men who conspired to kill Him and who nailed Him to the cross. We know that some of them later came to faith by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit.
Our God is patient with us. This is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem and cleansed its temple. Our merciful Lord does not wish “that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2Pe. 3:9). He promises to do His gracious work among us as long as we are guests in this world of His creation. He will continue to beautify our places of worship with His holy presence, teaching us, forgiving us, and comforting us through His Word until the day of His joyful return.
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 “Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 16:1-9
In Christ Jesus, who is at the right hand of God dispensing all the treasures of His grace to us, dear fellow redeemed:
The manager’s time had run out. The jig was up. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The charges were true, or the manager would not have acted the way he did. He was guilty. Now what to do? If owning the sin and apologizing ever crossed the manager’s mind, Jesus does not tell us. What this man decided was to do what he did best—manipulate things to his own advantage.
Taking on manual labor was out of the question—he didn’t want to do anything too taxing or risk getting blisters on his tender hands. And he was too proud to ask anyone for help—he wouldn’t lower himself so far. So he decided to cheat his master one final time. He quickly called in others who were indebted to his master, and he reduced the amounts they owed. By unilaterally reducing their debt, he was putting them in debt to him, so that when he was booted out by his master, he would almost certainly find a soft landing somewhere else.
What could the master say? He had been taken twice, shame on him. He “commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.” But he still fired him. That’s how the world works. It’s one person trying to get leverage against another. It’s: “I’ll do you a favor, so you have to do me a favor.” “I’ll file away this mistake or this transgression and publicize it when the time is right.” “I’ll step on you if it will boost me up and give me a better position.”
This is ugly. It is hurtful. It gets people focused on what they can take from one another instead of what they can give. That is not what we are called to do as Christians. Jesus makes this clear in today’s reading. “[M]ake friends for yourselves,” He says. And how are we to do this? “[B]y means of unrighteous wealth.” What does that mean? It does not mean paying people off to get what you want. It does not mean obligating them to something because of your gifts. What it means is the exact opposite of those things.
“Making friends by means of unrighteous wealth,” or earthly wealth, means giving and giving and giving some more. That’s what disciples of Jesus are called to do, to give as He gave, love as He loved, help as He helped. Listen to how Jesus describes the love we should have for those around us, even for those who mistreat us. He says, “I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back” (Luk. 6:27-30).
That is a truly uncomfortable love! It is a rare love. Most of us would be on the phone with a lawyer before we would let happen what Jesus says we should let happen. But why does He ask this of us? Does He really want us to be everyone’s doormat, getting walked all over? He asks this of us, in order to keep our focus on the major thing and not the minor things.
Minor things are the things of this world, temporal things, things that last only for a little while. That includes our money, our possessions, our work, our reputation and honor. All these things are gifts from God, but they are not the major thing. The major thing is what Jesus accomplished for us through His perfect life, death, and resurrection, which He richly and abundantly imparts to us through His Word and Sacraments.
Our reliance on the major thing changes our view of the minor things. We appreciate the good things we have. We use them and enjoy them. But we don’t cling to them. We know that everything we have on earth could be gone in an instant. The author to the Hebrews says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb. 13:14). This puts our involvement in things like politics in their proper place. We are active as citizens, and we exercise our rights, but we keep our hope in God.
This also changes our perspective about possessions. We have what God has given us, nothing more and nothing less. What we have is ours to manage, but not ours to keep. We are stewards of what ultimately belongs to God. In the order of Matins, we sing these words of the inspired Psalm: “In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down” (95:4-6). Everything is His, including your home, your possessions, and your bank account.
He has given these things to you because He loves you, and He wants you to use them both for your own needs and for the needs of your neighbor. You do this by feeding and clothing yourself and your family. You do this by helping a neighbor who is struggling. You do this by giving offerings here at church, your firstfruits for the work of His kingdom. All of this contributes to “making friends” who “may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
If you do not feed and clothe the members of your family, they will despise you. If you ignore the troubles of your neighbors while you prosper, they will hate you. If you fail to support the work of God’s Church when you have the means to do so, the pure Gospel will no longer be heard in your community. These sins are even more offensive when committed by those who call themselves followers of Christ—Christians (1Ti. 5:8).
Jesus’ indictment in today’s reading is that we do not use what we have been given as “shrewdly” as the “sons of this world” do. He calls us “the sons of light,” and the sons of light are the ones who let their “light shine before others, so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 5:16). But often our good works are not clearly seen. Instead of using the good gifts of good shrewdly and wisely, we often behave like the selfish sons of this world. We are just as wasteful of the good gifts God has given us. We are just as greedy. We hold what is ours with an iron grip and find it difficult to pry open our hands to give to others.
Not one of us has as much as we want, and yet every one of us has more than we need. We worry about money while our cupboards are full of food, our closets are full of clothes, and we carry around expensive smartphones in our pockets. We have plenty to give, and yet we tell ourselves that there is so much more we need to receive before we can give.
God would have every right to call in the bill for all the services He has provided us and all the goods He has given. He could rightly say, “What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.” We deserve to be booted out of His house, banished from His kingdom, and lose all that He has given.
But the Lord’s Manager, His only Son, calls us to His side. “How much do you owe My Master?” He asks. But instead of fudging the numbers or sweeping our debt under the rug, He accepts it as His own. “I will pay your penalty,” He says. “I will satisfy your debt. I will atone for your transgressions.” He went to the cross to do just that, shedding His holy blood and dying to take away all your sins. He made the payment for your lack of generosity, for your coldness toward others, for your self-centered thinking about what will be best for you.
Through His Word and Sacraments which you are privileged to receive each week, Jesus comes to you, and He says, “Take the bill of this week’s debts, all the sins you committed against your heavenly Father in your thoughts, words, and actions, and write this: Paid. Forgiven. Dismissed.” That’s what Jesus does for you. He cancels the debt that you keep accruing. He distributes His gifts to you in abundance and doesn’t worry about getting a fair return. He just gives.
Through these rich gifts, the Holy Spirit puts the same loving purpose in you. He turns your focus away from yourself and toward others. The Holy Spirit teaches us to Leverage the Temporal for the Eternal, to “make Christian friends for ourselves” by sacrificial love and by supporting the preaching of the Gospel here in our congregation and through the mission and work of our synod. We are listening to God’s Word here today, because others have done this giving before us. We are the friends they have made “by means of unrighteous wealth,” by means of their sacrificial gifts and offerings.
We want to do the same for others. We know that everything we have needed in our lives has been richly supplied by our merciful Lord, starting with our salvation through His Son. When His Word is our most precious Treasure, everything else falls into place. Jesus assures us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys” (Luk. 12:32-33).
By the grace of God, our treasure in heaven is secure. And we look forward to the day when our good friends, the faithful saints who have gone before us, will joyfully welcome us to God’s “eternal dwellings,” where we will sing His praises forever.
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 – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Matthew 7:15-23
In Christ Jesus, in whom we can always put our trust, dear fellow redeemed:
The last few years of my life were spent in the classroom learning how to be a pastor. Throughout those years, there were many times when the professors would have me, along with my fellow classmates, read commentaries on the books of the Bible. Because the people who wrote these commentaries were much smarter than me, I tended to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that what they said in their commentaries was accurate. However, when it came time for us to discuss in class what we learned from the commentaries, there were times when I felt like I was the only one who assumed that the writers were right, as my classmates seemed to be much more willing to question the writers on points that they made than I was. It was then that I realized that, going forward, I should be more critical when reading commentaries on the books of the Bible and should not assume that they are right just because they are smarter than me.
There are times when all of us can assume that someone knows more than us in a particular field because they studied in that field more than us. We trust plumbers who come to fix the pipes in our houses. We trust doctors who tell us if we are sick and what we should do to get better. We trust pastors who tell us what the Bible says and how we should apply what the Bible says to our daily lives. However, while there can certainly be consequences in this life if the plumbers and doctors we trust are wrong, our eternal life can be at risk if the pastors we trust are wrong. So, when it comes to pastors and preachers, who can you trust? (1) Trusting solely in people leads to destruction, while (2) trusting in Jesus leads to heaven.
In our text for today, Jesus warns us to not trust every preacher who comes to us. After all, just because a preacher comes to us does not mean that he was sent to us by God. Jesus called these preachers “false prophets” and says in verse 15 that they “come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” They look like true prophets on the outside, but in reality, they are false prophets who, if followed, will lead us off of the path to eternal life and down the path to eternal destruction. And it’s no mistake that they appear to be like a fellow sheep either. It’s important to false prophets that they appear to be innocent and harmless, because if they let their true nature show, then the true sheep who follow the true Shepherd would recognize that these so called “prophets” are trying to lead them astray and would turn from them.
These false prophets come in many different forms. Some false prophets rely on miraculous signs and wonders to win people over to them. They have no intention of actually preaching the gospel. They just want to make better lives for themselves by using their lying wonders.
Sometimes they don’t have any miraculous powers at all and only stage their miracles in order to fool us, kind of like a magician doing magic tricks. It may seem real, but there is actually some really clever slight of hand that very few people recognize. Sometimes they actually are using real powers. However, these powers do not come from God. In reality, they are demonic powers. The devil and his angels do have limited powers, and they use those powers to lead people astray.
In our text for today, we do not see Jesus deny that the false prophets were performing miraculous signs. When he says in verse 22 that many false prophets will say to him on the Last Day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?”, he says in verse 23 that he will respond to them by saying, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” These false prophets may be able to fool people, but they aren’t able to fool God. God did not give them these powers, and even if they are claiming to do these miracles in his name, they actually had no intention of honoring anyone but themselves.
Another form that false prophets come in is one that distorts God’s Word, intentionally lying about what the Bible says. These false prophets will often try to win us over by using kernels of truth, such as saying that Jesus preached that we should love one another, as he told his disciples on Maundy Thursday in John 13:34–35. However, they will then preach a lie to go along with it, such as saying that, because Jesus told us to love one another, therefore we should never judge anyone for living a different way than we do, and we should support every kind of lifestyle that exists out there, even though the Bible condemns some of those lifestyles.
Some of these lies can be more convincing than others, and often times the lies are slowly introduced, so that we don’t realize that we are being lied to until it’s too late. This is why we have to be on alert and not trust everyone who claims to be from God. But if false prophets can be so convincing at times that we aren’t aware that they are lying to us, then who can we trust? While trusting solely in people leads to destruction, there is one man in whom we can put our trust: the God-man Jesus. Trusting in Jesus leads to heaven.
Unlike false prophets, who lie in order to win us over and lead us astray, Jesus never lied. Everything that he said during his time on Earth came true. When a centurion demonstrated the great faith that he had after asking Jesus to heal his servant, Jesus said, “Go, let it be done for you as you have believed” (Matthew 8:13). After Jesus said this, the verse continues by saying, “And the servant was healed at that very moment.” After Peter told Jesus that he would never fall away, even if everyone else did, Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times” (Mark 14:30), which ended up happening exactly as Jesus had said. And after Jesus cleansed the temple when it was being used as a house of trade, the Jews asked him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things” (John 2:18)? And Jesus responded, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The Jews thought that Jesus was talking about the temple that they were currently standing in, but Jesus was actually talking about his body. So, the account continued by saying, “When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” (John 2:22).
Therefore, when Jesus says things such as, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26), and “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32), we know that we can trust that he is speaking the truth and can confess, as Peter did, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
But while we would certainly like to think that we will always believe what Jesus says, in reality, we go through doubts all throughout our lives. We often find ourselves turning to what false prophets say, because what they say sounds better to our sinful nature than what Jesus says. There are times when we don’t think that the Bible makes sense the way that the true prophets of God explain it, so we turn to the false prophets that explain the Bible in a way that does make sense to our rational but sinful minds. There are times when we don’t like to be told that we are wrong or that we need to change, so when we hear false prophets telling us that we are perfect the way we are and that we don’t need to change, we want to listen to them.
We may not sit and listen to a false prophet each week like we listen to our pastor in church, but our sinful nature is always whispering in our ears, urging us to do the things we know are wrong and to neglect the loving things we know we should do. In a way, our sinful nature is the biggest false prophet of them all, and we follow it all the time.
While these false prophets often tell us what we want to hear, Jesus tells us what we need to hear, and what we need to hear is not only that we are poor and wretched sinners who deserve God’s wrath and punishment for turning away from him, but also that Jesus has paid the price for all of our sins so that eternal life is ours. Jesus accomplished this for us by his perfect life and innocent death. During his life, Jesus did not turn away from the Father, like the devil kept tempting him to do, but perfectly followed his Father’s will, which led him all the way to the cross to die for our sins of turning from the Father and following false prophets. And because Jesus perfectly listened to his Father in heaven, that perfect listening is credited to us as righteousness.
The salvation that Jesus won for you is a free gift. This is another way that he sets himself apart from the false prophets. You don’t have to give money in order to receive blessings from God, like some false prophets tell you to do. You don’t have to follow a program that false prophets plan out for you. Salvation is already yours, freely given to you by God through his Word and Sacraments.
Therefore, knowing that Jesus speaks to you truthfully though his Word, you can use his Word to test your pastors. Jesus says in verse 16 that “[y]ou will recognize [false prophets] by their fruits.” Your pastors are called to preach God’s Word. Therefore, follow the example of the Bereans, who “examin[ed] the Scriptures daily to see if these things [that Paul and Silas were saying in the synagogue] were so” (Acts 17:11). If your pastors are not preaching the sound doctrine that is found in God’s Word, you will know that they are false prophets, but if they are preaching the sound doctrine that is found in God’s Word, you will know that they are true prophets who have been sent by God.
While you may at times not know who you can trust, you know that you can always trust Jesus. He became flesh to live a perfect life and die an innocent death on the cross in order to save you from your sins. He never failed to keep his promises, and he still comes to you to bless you through his holy Word. He truly is the one you can trust.
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 Sermon on the Mount” by Carl Bloch, 1877)
The Seventh Sunday after Trinity – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: Genesis 50:15-21
In Christ Jesus, who works all things out for our good, dear fellow redeemed:
Everyone loves a good revenge story. It is a popular genre for a reason. There is just something so satisfying about a villain getting what’s coming to him, and it never feels quite right if the villain gets off easy. However, while we can easily sympathize with the hero of these stories, have we ever considered what it is like to be in the villain’s shoes?
It’s very hard to ever see ourselves as the villain in the narrative of our lives. Perhaps we convinced ourselves our villainy was for the greater good. We may like to think that we are not deserving of the revenge people want to dish out against us, but the unfortunate truth is that we have all sinned against other people. Therefore, knowing that we are all sinners, and knowing that everyone loves revenge, it only makes sense that there are times when we become scared of what others might do to us to get even when we sin against them. Even when we are repentant of the sins we have committed, it makes sense that we fear what others may do since we don’t always know if they are willing to forgive us. However, in situations like those, we remember the words that Joseph said to his brothers: “Do not fear. . . . (1) You meant evil against me, (2) but God meant it for good.”
The account of Joseph is perfectly set up to be a good revenge story. Because Joseph was the favorite son and had dreams about his brothers and parents bowing down to him, Joseph’s brothers became jealous of him. This, plus the fact that Joseph may have been a bit of a pain to live with, eventually ended with Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery in Egypt. His life was full of ups and downs in Egypt, but everything turned around for him when, after interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, he was not just put in charge of helping Egypt through a seven-year-long famine but was also made second in command of all Egypt.
Then, during the seven years of famine, who should show up to get grain from Egypt but Joseph’s brothers? Joseph suddenly had the perfect opportunity to get his revenge against his brothers, and at first, it looked like he was going to. He tested his brothers in several different ways, culminating in him accusing their youngest brother, Benjamin, of stealing from him after planting his silver cup in his bag. In this moment, Joseph’s brothers showed that they were repentant for what they had done to Joseph and had changed by saying that they would not go home without Benjamin. In addition, Judah offered to take Benjamin’s place.
Joseph then revealed himself to his brothers and didn’t get his revenge on them after all. However, when their father, Jacob (now called Israel), died, Joseph’s brothers suddenly became sacred of what Joseph might do to them. True, Joseph hadn’t done anything to them so far, but they feared that the only reason why he hadn’t was for the sake of their father. And now that their father was dead, there was no longer anything stopping Joseph from getting his revenge.
So, in order to prevent this potential outcome from happening, Joseph’s brothers sent a message to him that said their father wanted Joseph to be told to forgive their sin, no doubt hoping that, if Joseph did only withhold his hand so far for the sake of their father, he would forgive them if it was their father’s dying wish. In addition, they offered themselves up as slaves to Joseph. Since they sold him into slavery, maybe being his slaves would make up for what they did to him.
Now, put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. If your family or friends had sold you into slavery for any reason, even something such as being a pain to live with, would you be willing to forgive them? If they showed that they were truly sorry for what they had done to you, would you be willing to let it go? Also, keep in mind that Joseph was second in command of all of Egypt. If you had power like Joseph had, would you withhold your hand from those who wronged you, or would you use it to get revenge on them? And if they willingly offered themselves up to be your servants, would you accept their offer or not?
When we think of how we would answer these questions, we must also keep in mind how often we want to get revenge for much less. All it takes is a broken promise, someone breaking something important to us, or someone treating us poorly. These are not necessarily small things, but compared to being sold into slavery, they are not as bad. Besides, many of us know what it is like to be stabbed in the back by someone. Can we honestly say that we never wanted to get back at them for what they did to us?
Now put yourself in the shoes of Joseph’s brothers. We have all done things at the expense of others that we knew were wrong, and we were genuinely sorry for what we had done. When our friends told us a secret and asked us to keep it, we went and told others anyway. When we were in school, and we had an opportunity to climb the social ladder at the cost of disowning some of our friends, we did. When we were at work and we had an opportunity to get a raise or reach a better position in the company by playing dirty and bringing down our coworkers, we did.
But now imagine that these people we wronged basically had the power to do whatever they wanted without consequences. Would you expect them to forgive you? Would you live in terror of what they could do to you? Would you be willing to do whatever it takes to get them to not enact their revenge against you, even if it meant lowering yourself to the lowest position there is as punishment for what you did? Whether it’s at school, at work, or anywhere else, in moments like those, we often find ourselves fearing for our future and being willing to do whatever is necessary to prevent those outcomes.
We must face the facts: we have forgotten how to forgive. Sure, we may forgive our family or close friends when we think they deserve it, but isn’t holding grudges and getting revenge against those who wronged us the “new” virtue of the world today? When was the last time we watched a movie about forgiveness?
Therefore, it made sense that Joseph’s brothers had the fear that they did, and we would completely understand Joseph if he chose to get revenge on his brothers in this moment. In fact, we would probably find it to be a satisfying end to the account of Joseph’s life. But what does Joseph do instead? He says to his brothers, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.”
There are two parts of Joseph’s response that are particularly interesting. The first is: “Am I in the place of God?” While it is extremely appealing to get revenge on all those who wrong us, Joseph realized something important: it was not his place to get revenge, even if his brothers were not repentant. As Paul says in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” Even though God could have chosen to unleash his wrath upon Joseph’s brothers, he didn’t. Instead, he chose to show mercy.
The second is: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Does this mean that it was the will of God that Joseph’s brothers did evil? No, for God never wills evil. However, God is able to use even the evil that we do to bring about good. In this instance, he used the sin that Joseph’s brothers committed, selling Joseph into slavery, in order to save the world from the seven years of famine and preserve the line of the Savior.
These two points point to something far more significant. While most men have to confess like Joseph that they are not in the place of God, and therefore, cannot carry out revenge, there was one man who was in the place of God: The God-man Jesus. After all, Jesus is God, so he alone could carry out revenge, and he certainly could have and would have been completely justified in doing so. But he didn’t. Instead, he came to grant us forgiveness for all our sins. This ended up being the ultimate example of how God uses evil for good: God used the innocent death of his only begotten Son to bring about the forgiveness of sins for the whole world. On the cross, Jesus suffered the punishment that we deserved. Now, God no longer holds our sins against us, for they have all been paid for by his Son.
We therefore have no reason to fear. We do not have to fear people trying to get revenge against us, nor do we have to fear God getting against us and sending us into the fires of hell for all eternity. As Paul says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” No matter what we encounter in this life, God will work it out for our ultimate good, that ultimate good being granting us spiritual blessings and giving us eternal life in heaven.
Joseph’s second part is no less significant. In addition to forgiving us for the ways that we wronged others, God promises to even work good from sins we have committed. Perhaps you are suffering today because you did something terrible in your life. You know God has forgiven you, but you can’t forgive yourself. Know that you can take solace in this: While God does not will the evil that you do, he can work good through it, just as God worked good through the evil of Joseph’s brothers. To put it another way: God takes the lemons that we send out into the world and makes lemonade.
With all this in mind, let us follow Joseph’s example. He did not get revenge on his brothers even though he had the power to do so, but rather, he forgave them, just like how God did not condemn us to the fires of hell but forgave us for the sake of his Son. It will not always be easy for us to do this, and if it were completely up to us, it would be impossible. It is only with God’s help that we are able to resist our sinful desires for revenge, even though revenge is such an appealing thing. For this desire for revenge is only appealing to our sinful nature, which God has put to death through the waters of our baptism. To our new self, which God has raised up, it is appealing to reflect God and show forgiveness to all those who wrong us.
The account of Joseph does not make a good revenge story. Even though it had the perfect set up and everything seemed to come together to give Joseph the sweet taste of revenge, instead Joseph forgave his brothers, who showed that they were truly repentant for their sins. While this does not seem satisfying, it is the best possible ending. It shows us that no matter what we’ve done, we do not need to fear, for we have been forgiven by God, and he will work all things out for our good until the day comes when we enter into the gates of heaven where we will praise God for all eternity. Therefore, in the end, forgiveness proves to be far more heroic than revenge.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of the Judean mountains in Israel)
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 5:20-26
In Christ Jesus, who came not to abolish the Law of God but to fulfill it for our righteousness, dear fellow redeemed:
The words of Jesus for today come from the early part of His “Sermon on the Mount.” In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes what a righteous life before God looks like. A righteous life is a life that matches up with what God says in His Commandments. It is to be just, right with God, blameless. Two times in His sermon, Jesus tells us to desire such a life. He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Mat. 5:6, 6:33).
In both of these passages, He describes a righteousness that is outside us. What we are to hunger and thirst for and seek first is God’s righteousness. That’s because our own personal righteousness is not enough. “For I tell you,” says Jesus, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The scribes and Pharisees were seen as the holiest people there were, and Jesus said their righteousness still fell short.
Then He illustrated the ways our righteousness falls short by explaining that the Commandments of God are about more than outward actions, outward conformity. You haven’t kept the Fifth Commandment simply by refraining from murder. Jesus explains that this Commandment is also broken in the mind and the heart when you hold grudges, when you have anger toward another, or when you insult someone. The Fifth Commandment, along with all of the other Commandments, is fulfilled by love. If you have anger or want revenge against others, you have no love for them.
But if you think right now about the people who have been mean to you, who have been unkind to you, who have hurt you, it is easy to justify the anger or even the hatred that you feel. You gave them the benefit of the doubt, but they abused your trust. You tried to be nice, but they only got worse. So you are going to treat them how they have treated you. You are going to give them what they deserve—and it isn’t love.
Imagine if Jesus took this approach. If Jesus took this approach, I would have no good word to share with you today, no comfort to impart. If Jesus treated us like we deserved, He would never have come down to make peace between us and God. He would never have suffered the wrath of man and of God and let Himself be nailed to the cross in our place. If Jesus treated us like we deserved, He would condemn us for our sins and send us to eternal suffering in hell.
But the Son of God did not become man to give us what we deserved. He came to show God’s mercy and grace toward the world of sinners. Look at what love and compassion He had for the sick and hurting! So many came to Him for healing, that He often went without meals and without sleep. And He did this fully knowing where this was all going, knowing the suffering and anguish that the collective sin of humanity would cause Him.
He loved perfectly. He didn’t work with an angle in mind. He didn’t serve with conditions. He constantly focused on the needs of His neighbors and how He could bless them. His life is what the righteous life that God requires looks like. It is not the way our lives look. But Jesus does not look down on us or flaunt His righteousness in front of us. He lived a life of perfect righteousness for us.
His righteous keeping of God’s Commandments counted for you. Because He is true God and true Man, whatever He did in the flesh was done on behalf of all people. This means that all who deny their own self-righteousness and trust in Him are credited with His righteousness. You will find no peace in running over and over again the wrongs done to you by others or in trying to convince yourself that you have a right to your bitterness and anger.
You will find peace in Jesus. He died for all sin—both your sin and the sin of those who have wronged you. His blood cleanses you of all of it (1Jo. 1:7). And His righteous life, His life of perfect love, covers you completely. You are a holy one by faith in Him. God is not angry with you for your many sins. He poured out His wrath against His Son, who fully atoned for all your sins. By faith in Him, your righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, because you have His righteousness. That means you will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Everything God required of you, He supplied you. There is nothing keeping you out of heaven. Eternal life is yours—this is most certainly true! But it is not time for heaven yet. As long as you are here, God has important work for you to do. It isn’t that He needs anything from you; after all, everything on earth is His, because He made all things. But the people around you do have needs, and God has called you to love and serve them. He calls you to share with others what you have received from Him.
This is where our identity as His “righteous ones” is tested. We are glad to hear that He forgives our sins and declares us righteous, but we find it difficult to treat other people how He treats us. We can be “good with God” but not so good with others. But look at how Jesus takes the beam of love we have toward God and trains it on our neighbors. He says, “if you are offering your gift at the altar—dedicating your prayers, thanksgivings, and offerings to God—and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
First things first, says Jesus. Do what you can to amend your wrong toward someone, so that you can offer your gifts to God with a cheerful heart and a clear conscience. Now there are some interpersonal issues that are difficult for us to fix. Someone might have something against us because they choose too and not because we are guilty of wronging them. These are people we show love and kindness to and pray for God to soften their hearts.
But here, Jesus is speaking about people that we have wronged by something we did to them, something we said to them, or some other way we caused offense. This applies to everyone whom we have hurt, and especially to our brothers—our fellow believers. It is always troubling and sad when there is a division within the family of faith, within the body of Christ.
But taking that first step toward reconciliation is a difficult one. As we said before, it is easy to justify the reasons we have treated others like we have. “They started it!” “What he did was worse than anything I ever did!” “I was only giving her what she gave to me!” Those responses are self-righteousness. What we are concerned about is Jesus-righteousness. We are willing to humble ourselves and serve and suffer just as He did for us.
Jesus is the prime example of how we are to interact with our neighbors. He never stopped loving, even when all He received was hatred. Think of His first words after being violently nailed to the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luk. 23:34). But Jesus is far more than our example. He is our righteousness, our forgiveness, our power source for stepping outside what we want and stepping toward a neighbor in need.
All our neighbors have to deal with our sins, so we also want to deal out Jesus’ gifts to them. It is with Jesus’ love and sacrifice in mind that we can have courage and strength to say those three difficult words, “I am sorry.” And it is with His love and sacrifice in mind that we can respond to those who have hurt us with those other three difficult words, “I forgive you.”
“[B]e reconciled to your brother,” said Jesus, “and then come and offer your gift.” It may even happen, by the grace of God, that when you return to offer your gift, the brother with whom you had been at odds will be kneeling right beside you, offering his gift of praise and thanksgiving to God. This is what we are privileged to do each week as we receive Holy Communion. Husbands and wives who have hurt each other with unkind words come to receive Jesus’ powerful healing through His body and blood, given and shed for the remission of their sins. The same goes for parents and children who have been fighting, or for any others in the congregation whom Satan has tried to divide.
We all come forward, not trusting in our own righteousness, but humbly trusting in Jesus’ righteousness. We know how lacking our love for our neighbors has been, but we firmly believe that Jesus still forgives us and that He will strengthen us to do better. This is a beautiful pattern that repeats each week. We come weak and stained by our sin to the Divine Service, and Jesus meets us here to serve us and fill us up with His gifts.
Then He sends us back to our homes and jobs and activities with plenty of grace and forgiveness to share with others. If He never runs out of these gifts, then we won’t either, and we will continuously learn what a blessing it is to love as He has loved us.
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 Sermon on the Mount” by Rudolf Yelin the Older, 1912)