The Thirteen Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 5:15-27
In Christ Jesus, who by His blood purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), dear fellow redeemed:
When Martin Luther was ordered to recant, to take back, everything he had written up to that time in 1521, he replied, “[M]y conscience is captive to the Word of God… I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience” (quoted in Kittelson’s Luther the Reformer, 161). For Luther, conscience and the Word of God were so bound up together, that to go against one would be to go against the other.
God gave us a conscience which He informs by the moral law written on our hearts. That moral law totally agrees with and is sharpened by the Ten Commandments recorded in the pages of Scripture. When our conscience is operating properly, it will help keep us in line with the Law of God. And if we are living according to the Law of God, we will have a clear conscience. But as you and I well know, living according to God’s Law is not the easiest thing to do.
When we hear about the Good Samaritan, we might think of him as a professional do-gooder, whose heart was filled with an endless supply of love, patience, and compassion to help a person in need. It seems to us that a person like this must have enjoyed a clear conscience. He was just so good. But let’s bring him back into the real world. Let’s imagine he was something like us.
The Samaritan may have had other concerns and responsibilities occupying his mind. He may have been mulling over troubles at work as he traveled. Maybe he was in danger of losing his job. Maybe he was poor and hardly able to provide for his family. Maybe he and his wife hadn’t spoken for days or weeks. Maybe his parents were beginning to need care he wasn’t sure how to provide. Maybe he was stressed and unhappy and didn’t think his life could get any more complicated or any worse. Then there was this man lying by the side of the road. Could he really handle another problem right now? Should he just pass by on the other side? Would anyone know if he did? His conscience compelled him to stop.
You can’t be a Christian without having struggles of conscience. Those struggles, those inner conflicts, are actually a blessing. If you no longer felt conflict inside, the tug and pull of what is right or wrong, then your faith would be in great danger. Life in this fallen world is not meant to be comfortable for those who believe in Jesus. He plainly said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33), and “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24).
Naaman felt this struggle and conflict. As soon as he was converted, he began to be concerned about having a clear conscience. His flesh was cleansed of its leprosy, and he came back to Elisha confessing the name of the true God. But though he was now clean, Naaman was bothered by something new. He would soon be leaving Israel to return to his home. The last thing he wanted was to dishonor the LORD who had miraculously healed him.
He first asked for two loads of soil, so that he could offer sacrifices to the God of the Israelites on Israelite ground. Then he brought up another issue. As the right hand man of the king, he was expected to accompany him into the temple of Rimmon, a false god. Would the LORD pardon him for doing this and even for bowing down—not out of respect for the idol but out of respect for his king? Elisha replied, “Go in peace.”
But Naaman wasn’t the only one whose conscience was troubled. Gehazi, the chief servant of Elisha, couldn’t believe his master had rejected the gifts that Naaman wished to give. Think what good that silver, gold, and fine clothing could do. After all, should the prophets have to scrape by on so little? If nothing else, couldn’t such riches be used to help the poor? This is what Judas Iscariot argued when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment (Joh. 12:4). But it wasn’t charity that drove Judas or Gehazi to speak up for the generous offerings of others. It was greed.
The love of money caused Gehazi to do great violence to his conscience. He surely reasoned it all out to quiet this inner voice. Perhaps he thought that what Naaman offered probably belonged to Israel anyway. After all, Naaman had attacked the Israelites, taking their goods, and turning them into his slaves. Wouldn’t Gehazi know how to put riches to better use than that wicked man?
Gehazi felt so sure about his purpose that he even took an oath before God that he would handle the situation in a better way than Elisha. “As the LORD lives,” he said, “I will run after him and get something from him.” Then to follow his plan through, he had to lie to Naaman and then to Elisha. Even if Gehazi convinced himself that his cause was right, his conscience was certainly not in line with the Word of God.
The tension of keeping a clear conscience was so great that Gehazi decided he would not listen anymore. We know how that feels. Every day, we are challenged by these tensions. Should I confront my boss about his dishonest business practices, or stay quiet and protect my job? Should I take the shortcuts everyone else is taking, or do what is right? Should I hide my toys so no one else can play with them, or should I share? Should I lie and keep myself out of trouble, or tell the truth?
Sometimes the cost of a clear conscience seems too great, and we make the conscious decision to go ahead with something that we know is wrong. Sure, we reason it all out to keep our conscience from screaming too loudly: “We may not be married, but we are committed.” “Who am I to say what someone else should do with her body?” “It’s not right for me to judge.” “It’s going to happen anyway whether I say something or not.” “I don’t want to be left out.” But even if our conscience is quieted somewhat, we have departed from the Word of God, and the leprosy of the unbelieving world rubs off on us. We think we can just give a little, relieve some of that tension, and still be faithful confessors of Christ.
These compromises can never deliver a clear conscience. They only make our condition worse. No amount of good intentions, compromises, or charitable efforts and good works can earn us a clear conscience. These efforts amount to selling the faith for two talents of silver and two changes of clothing which won’t help us anymore than they helped Gehazi. Then sin continues to cling to us just as leprosy clung to him.
So what can be done to get a clear conscience? If conscience is guided by the Law of God, and we have broken the Law in many, many ways, is a clear conscience even possible?
God knows the cost of a clear conscience. He knows this not because His conscience was ever dirtied or in conflict, but because He knows us sinners. He knows how utterly we failed to keep His holy Law. He knows how what He intended us to be is nothing like what we are since the fall into sin. So He resolved to send His holy Son down to earth to be “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
Being placed under the Law, Jesus could fulfill the Law for every sinner. He could maintain a perfectly clear conscience that never departed from the holy Law of God. He was tempted in every way just as we are, but He never blurred the line between right and wrong. He never deviated from His holy task. He never set aside the Word of God—even in the smallest part—in order to appeal to more people.
He kept His conscience clear all the way through a false verdict, unmerited suffering, and a horrible death. He held fast to the promises of God; He had to follow through with God’s plan in order to redeem souls, your soul. God now declares you to be right with Him because of what Jesus did. You are now freed from the guilt of your sins. By the immeasurable price of His holy body and blood, Jesus made the payment to obtain for you a clear conscience, a conscience that is no longer imprisoned in your former darkness and sin.
So a clear conscience cannot be gotten by something you do. It is obtained by what Jesus did for you. Just as Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy in the waters of the Jordan, your conscience was cleansed in the waters of your Baptism. And that powerful cleansing remains in effect as long as you are a believer in Christ. St. Peter calls Baptism “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pe. 3:21). And the author of the book of Hebrews writes, “[S]ince we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (10:19,23).
Baptized into Christ, He is with you to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (1Ti. 1:18-19). He helps you to resist the temptations of this world, the devil, and your flesh, and to continuously battle to uphold the truth of His Word. You will not perfectly avoid what is wrong and do what is right. Your conscience will be sullied again by the leprosy of sin. But it is always cleansed in Christ.
Bring your troubled conscience to Him in humble repentance; acknowledge where you have fallen short; lay all your guilt before Him. Then wrap yourself up in His righteousness and grace. Know that your sins are all forgiven through the blood of Christ. The Cost of a Clear Conscience was very high, and Jesus met that cost in full for you. You can depart as Naaman did with these words of comfort in your ear: “Go in peace.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Parable of the Good Samaritan” by Jan Wijnants, 1632-1684)
The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Kings 18:16b-39
In Christ Jesus, who cannot be overwhelmed, outnumbered, or overcome, dear fellow redeemed:
Elijah said to the people of Israel, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Which one would it be? The people did not answer. What made them go silent? Wasn’t it a simple question?
The people knew there was something special about Elijah. They had almost certainly heard that he had told King Ahab there would be no rain in the land until Elijah gave the word. Now three and a half years had passed with no rain; the land was in a severe drought. Shouldn’t that have been enough to show them that Elijah was a prophet of the true God?
But Elijah was not the king. Ahab was the king, and Queen Jezebel stood right by his side. Jezebel was not an Israelite; she was from Sidon. And in Sidon, the people worshiped the god Baal and the goddess Asherah. Baal was the Canaanite god of rain, and Asherah was associated with fertility. Ahab and Jezebel were so committed to this religion, that they supported 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.
So when Elijah told the people to choose one God or the other, the Lord or Baal, they did not want to go against Elijah, but they also didn’t want to face the wrath of Ahab (or rather Jezebel) by declaring that the Lord is God. It was safer, they thought, to keep their mouths shut. The prospect of following Elijah seemed much more dangerous than going along with the popular religion of the time. They weren’t interested in risking their lives or their place in society.
We can understand their hesitancy. It takes a special kind of courage to go against the status quo or to stand against the majority. When our beliefs or values are questioned by others, and they appeal to the fact that the vast majority believe differently than we do, this can cause us to have doubts. How can we be so sure we are right? How can so many others be wrong? Whether we are talking about the origin of the world, what is true or false, or what is good and bad, we hear many voices telling us that we don’t want to end up on the wrong side of history. Better to stick with the popular opinion, they say.
But evolution, for example, hardly entered people’s minds until Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species in 1859. That’s not that long ago. This theory wasn’t taught in public schools until about a hundred years ago. It didn’t become the majority opinion until relatively recently, and now we are told that we should accept the theory of evolution because that’s what the majority thinks. So many people can’t be wrong, can they?
But what about the much greater number of people throughout history who believed that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Don’t they count? Or what about the attempt to redefine marriage in our day? Should we go along with the current majority view and ignore the thousands of years of consensus about what marriage is and what it isn’t?
We will find ourselves on shaky ground if we chase after what is most popular, if we give in to the pressure of those in power, if we operate simply by saying or doing what seems best for us in the moment. Elijah’s question for the Israelites is still pertinent for us today: will we follow the Lord and His Word, or will we follow the path that is most advantageous for us in this world?
The answer should be simple: We will follow the God who created us, who sent His only Son to redeem us, who sent out the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith. But this is not always the answer we have given when our faith has been tested or when we have faced temptation to sin. Often we have taken the easy route, the path of least resistance, the way that would keep us from standing out too much or inviting the ridicule or wrath of our peers. When we were called to speak the truth, we went silent just like the people of Israel did.
I recently read a book about the Norwegian Lutherans in America, and at the time of the Norwegian church merger in 1917, the author said that nearly 95% of Norwegian Lutherans joined in the merger. The remaining 5% spread across the United States included the Saude and Jerico congregations. Members of our churches would not have done this unless they were certain they were standing on something more solid than popular opinion. They would not compromise the teaching of the Bible for the sake of unity. They stood firmly on the unchanging Word of God even when it affected their standing in the community.
Would we do the same today? Are we willing to say “no,” even when everyone else is saying “yes”? The courage to do this is built on the confidence that what God says in the Bible is the truth. Our beliefs are not based on our own private opinions; they are based entirely on the Word of God. The Bible is not my truth or your truth to take or leave as we please; it is God’s truth. Even when we find things in the Bible that challenge how we think and how we want to live, we stick with the Holy Bible.
Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah was the Lord’s way of calling the people of Israel back to the Scriptures, back to the true faith. He is the One who established His chosen people from old father Abraham. He is the One who led His people Israel out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the promised land of Canaan.
Elijah referred to the true God by the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush, “I am who I am” (Exo. 3:14). In Hebrew, this name is Yahweh; and in English, the name is given as “Lord” in all capital letters. Elijah was saying that the Lord who made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and who led the people out of Egypt through Moses, is the Lord who even now would show His power through Elijah.
It was a bold statement. Elijah stood alone against the leaders of the land, 850 false prophets, and most of the people. One man against a mob. How could he alone be right? The prophets of Baal tried everything they could, but Baal didn’t answer. From morning to evening, they danced around their altar, cried out to their god, and cut themselves till the blood gushed out. But Baal sent no fire to burn up their sacrifice.
Now it was Elijah’s turn. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord, dug a trench around it, and placed the wood and the bull on it. Then he ordered the altar to be doused with water three times, so that everything was soaking wet. Then he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord sent fire from heaven that “consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” What else could the people say, but “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”
We might wish that the Lord would do something like this today, prove to our skeptical society that He is who the Bible says He is. But remember that many of those who watched Jesus perform miracle after miracle still rejected Him. Faith does not come through powerful signs; “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The Word of Christ is the message of what He has done to conquer our greatest enemies. What He did was more amazing than what God did through Elijah. Elijah seemed to be alone, but we will hear next week that God preserved 7,000 people who had not bowed their knees to Baal (1Ki. 19:18).
Jesus truly stood alone as He faced the sinfulness of the world, the dark powers of the devil, and the deep pit of death. Was Jesus really the one to follow? Many thought so for a while; they thought He could be their king. But by Good Friday, Jesus stood alone, with even His disciples forsaking Him. As the people saw Him condemned and crucified, they wondered about what could have been. What if Jesus had done things differently? What if He would have compromised somewhat? What if He had made political alliances with the right people? Then maybe He could have become the king they wanted. What a disappointment, they thought.
Jesus knew what the people wanted, but much more importantly, He knew what they needed. On Good Friday, He went forward in silence, not because He was afraid to speak the truth, and not because He had nothing to say. He went willingly to the cross—like a lamb that is led to the slaughter—to save you and me. He went to the cross to pay for our sins, for not speaking the truth when we should have, and for going against His Word by our words and actions. He did not take the easy path; He took the hardest one, the path of eternal punishment for all of our wrongs.
But how can we know that this was done for us? How can we know that Jesus made eternal satisfaction for all our sins? We know because on the third day, He rose from the dead. Only God could do that. Only God could win the victory over death itself. The prophets of Baal could neither make their false god burn up their offering nor save them from death. Only the true God can save. The true God is the God revealed on the pages of Holy Scripture.
He is not the God we expect. We expect a god who requires great things from us, who exacts payment from us before he will act—perhaps like the blood the prophets of Baal poured out. But the true God does not require the shedding of our blood; He saved us by the shedding of His blood. Jesus is the Lord of all heaven and earth, seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and bringing His blessings to us still now, even today, through His powerful Word and Sacraments. And so we worship Him by faithfully confessing, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God!”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from the outdoor service at the parsonage)
(sermon audio not available this week)
Good Friday – Pr. Faugstad homily
Text: St. Luke 23:39-43
At first, both the criminals crucified with Jesus reviled Him (Mat. 27:44, Mar. 15:32). They joined their voices with the chief priests, scribes, elders, soldiers, and passers-by in attacking Jesus with ugly, blasphemous words. The verbal assault came from all around Him. “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mat. 27:40). “He saved others,” they said mockingly; “he cannot save himself…. [L]et him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (v. 42).
These piercing, biting words had a common source. The devil was behind them. When Jesus began His public work, the devil was there tempting Him, attacking Him. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, over and over again (Mat. 4:3,6). And why shouldn’t Jesus make bread out of stones and jump down safely from the top of the temple? Why shouldn’t He come down from the cross and show all those scoffers who He really was?
Because then He would have become something He wasn’t. Then He would have chosen the world’s way instead of God’s way. If He had come down from the cross, He might have gained the world’s glory, but He would have forfeited our souls. He had to be on that cross, He had to stay on that cross, so that His blood would ransom us from our slavery to sin, so that His death would satisfy the holy wrath of God.
“Are You not the Christ?” said one of the criminals, “Save Yourself and us!” He said, “save us,” but he wasn’t talking about his soul. He just wanted to escape death. He wanted to escape the consequences for his wrongdoing without actually changing his behavior. He expressed no remorse for his sins. He probably blamed everyone else for his bad situation because that is what unbelievers do. They refuse to listen to the holy Law of God which condemns every one of us equally.
But the Law did its work on the heart of the other criminal. Hanging there on the cross, knowing death was fast approaching, he thought about his many sins. He deserved this torment, just as the other criminal did. But not Jesus. So when he heard his fellow criminal yelling at Jesus and treating Jesus as though He were like them, he had to respond. “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
Those are faithful and true words, “this Man has done nothing wrong.” Jesus was perfectly innocent. He was the only innocent man at the scene—the only innocent man in the whole world. He was entirely holy, not a bad bone in His body. So why was He nailed to a cross to die? The criminal next to Him knew: Jesus was suffering for him. The innocent Man had taken on the sin of the guilty. The world’s Savior was hanging next to him.
In all humility this criminal said to Him, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” But why should He? Why should Jesus remember this man whose sins He was currently suffering for? Why should He remember any of us who have broken God’s holy Law again and again? The answer is because He loves us. This is what the Son of God took on human flesh to do. He knew it would culminate in the cross. He knew what terrible torments and agonies were coming to Him. And He still went forward.
He went forward for the criminals hanging next to Him on their crosses, for the passers-by, soldiers, elders, scribes, and chief priests who mocked Him. He went forward for you and me and every sinner. He willingly accepted the wrath of God and the fires of hell for all your sins. He took your place, so you would be clothed in His righteousness and made an heir of His kingdom. The criminal, in faith, expected nothing less, and Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
The promise could not have been more at odds with the present reality. The three men gasped for breath on blood-stained crosses with smug spectators gathered around them. “Truly,” Jesus said to him, “today with Me… today in Paradise.” And even as the criminal’s suffering intensified, even as his breathing became shallower, even as he perhaps watched the soldiers break the legs of his companion and then come his way, the criminal repeated those words, “Today with Jesus… today in Paradise.”
What happened next? You, dear fellow redeemed, will experience it yourself. When your breathing becomes shallow, and your death approaches, you will cling to the same promise: “Today with Jesus… today in Paradise.” Jesus’ death in your place secured that for you. He forgives you all your selfish choices, all your unfaithfulness, all your attempts to deflect the blame for your sins. His holy blood cleanses you of all your sin (1Jo. 1:7).
One day, you will get to meet that criminal. You will get to see him pain-free and at peace. You will get to hear how his ugly words of reviling were exchanged for a beautiful song of praise, and you will join him in that song to the living Lord Jesus—in Paradise.
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(picture from “The Crucifixion” by Giambattista Tiepolo [1696-1770] at the Saint Louis Art Museum)
The Fifth Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Exodus 34:29-35
In Christ Jesus, “who make[s] His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you” (Num. 6:25), dear fellow redeemed:
I imagine you have heard the proverb: “Bad company corrupts good character.” The apostle Paul quotes it in his First Letter to the Corinthians (15:33). The opposite is also true: “Good company promotes good character.” But good company can also be painful for us when we are doing or saying things that are not good. You may have had the experience of criticizing or making fun of someone, only to have a friend or acquaintance defend that person and speak well of him. That can make you feel pretty small as you become aware of your own pettiness and your failure to uphold the Eighth Commandment.
When this happens, there are typically two responses. You might admire your friend, react with humility, and be thankful that he or she spoke up. That would be “good company promoting good character.” But you might also get angry and accuse that person of being self-righteous. You might even put some distance between the two of you and choose the company of friends who will not question you like this. That would be “bad company corrupting good character.”
We see something like this going on in today’s account of Moses coming down the mountain with a shining face. The people knew why his face was shining; “he had been talking with God.” They also saw “the two tablets of the testimony in his hand,” just like the first set he broke when he found them worshipping the golden calf. And instead of approaching Moses with humility, they ran from his presence and kept their distance from him.
Moses’ shining face reminded them how unholy they were, how much they had fallen short of the glory of God. They weren’t even seeing God’s glory directly; this was a reflection of His glory, and it was still too much! But Moses called the leaders of the people to come near. He recognized their fear; he spoke gently with them. The scene is similar to when Joseph revealed his identity to his eleven brothers in Egypt. He had the power to harm them after they had sold him as a slave many years earlier. But instead he called them to come near and embraced them (Gen. 45:4,14-15); “he comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (50:21).
Moses had been chosen by God as an intermediary between Him and the people. No one but Moses could go up on Mount Sinai when God descended in a cloud to talk with him. We are told that the LORD spoke with Moses “as a man speaks to his friend” (Exo. 33:11). God gave His holy commands to Moses, and Moses gave them to the people. After Moses finished speaking God’s Word to them, he would put on a veil to cover his shining face. But when He returned to the LORD’s presence, he removed the veil and kept the veil off until He had conveyed to the people what God had said.
Moses had some privilege and power as the mediator. Nobody else had this close communication with God, and whatever Moses said, the people accepted as God’s truth. His constantly shining face reminded them how different his station was than theirs. But Moses was still a sinner like them. The holy Law of God applied to him as well, and it condemned him whenever he followed his own sinful will. So Moses was a mediator with flaws and limitations. He had no power to make God do anything. He had no power within himself to save the people.
A different mediator was needed for that, and today’s Epistle from the Book of Hebrews tells us about Him. But to understand what Hebrews is saying, we need to understand the ceremonial laws about worship in Old Testament times along with the responsibilities of the priests. God gave instructions to Moses how he was to construct a tabernacle or movable tent for the worship of the LORD. The tabernacle had two main sections: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. These areas were separated by a thick veil.
Behind the veil in the Most Holy Place, the Ark of the Covenant was set. Three things were put inside the ark: a golden urn holding some manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the tablets of the Law that Moses brought down the mountain (Heb. 9:4). On the lid of the ark, God directed Moses to put a “mercy seat.”
Only once a year, the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place, and only after he had washed and put on holy garments and been consecrated for the work. He sprinkled the blood of a bull and a goat on the mercy seat to make atonement for Israel’s sin before God. This blood sprinkled on the mercy seat covered over the Law of God which was stored below it. The high priest was directed to perform this ritual every year because the people continued to break the holy Law of God (Lev. 16).
Today’s Epistle brings this practice forward to the time of Christ. It says, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” As the high priest brought blood into the Most Holy Place to make atonement each year, so Jesus presented His own blood before God in heaven once and for all.
This shows us that the tabernacle that Moses built and later the temple in Jerusalem that followed the same design were patterned after heaven. And the work of the high priest each year with the sprinkling of blood pointed forward to Jesus’ atoning sacrifice and the shedding of His blood for the redemption of all sinners. This is an “eternal redemption,” sufficient for all time, because no common blood was offered before God. Jesus offered His own holy blood for our cleansing.
The author to the Hebrews writes that His blood “[purifies] our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:14). “Dead works” are all the works we have done in our sin—our lack of love for others, our self-centered behavior, our giving way to bad habits and choosing bad company. They are dead works, which mean they don’t work. They destroy everything. These dead works clutter up our conscience; they weigh on us like a heavy burden.
Jesus’ holy blood washes away these sinful works; it cleans them out of us as though they were never there in the first place. His blood cancels the debt we owe to God for breaking His Law. Jesus paid for our sins. He made atonement for them. No matter what bad things you have done or said, God neither sees nor remembers them anymore. He forgives you all of them.
He has washed these sins out of you and freed your conscience, so that you can serve Him. That is the great liberating effect of Jesus’ atonement and the absolution He announces to you. His forgiveness of your sins means you get to move forward. You don’t have to continue to dwell on your transgressions in the past. You go forward in His grace, ready each day to serve Him by serving your neighbor.
You are free to serve the living God. That sounds very different than serving God because you are afraid of Him, afraid that He will destroy you in His anger if you mess up. That is the message of the old covenant, of God’s holy Law. But there is another covenant, the covenant of God’s promise. This is the promise that God the Father made to send His only Son to keep the Law for us and die for our sins. Romans 10:4 says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
If we read the old covenant apart from Christ, it is like reading it with a veil covering it, a veil like the one Moses wore over his shining face. Apart from Christ, we don’t see the Law clearly and how it applies to us. But as St. Paul writes, “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2Co. 3:16). Then we have freedom, freedom through the knowledge of our forgiveness, freedom to approach God for mercy and grace.
This was underscored by the amazing thing that happened when Jesus took His last breath on the cross. Right at that moment, the thick veil in the temple (thick as a person’s hand!) that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place tore in two, from top to bottom (Mat. 27:51, Mar. 15:38, Luk. 23:45). What was veiled, was now opened. What was formerly restricted, was now freely accessible. The hymnwriter explains what that means for us:
Jesus, in Thy cross are centered
All the marvels of Thy grace;
Thou, my Savior, once hast entered
Through Thy blood the holy place:
Thy sacrifice holy there wrought my redemption,
From Satan’s dominion I now have exemption;
The way is now free to the Father’s high throne,
Where I may approach Him, in Thy name alone.
(Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary 182, v. 8)
This is what our perfect Mediator, our holy High Priest, has done for us. He offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, which gives us continuous access to the Father’s throne of grace. He imparts this grace to us through His holy means of grace. As we hear His Word and partake of His Sacraments, we receive His heavenly gifts. His holiness covers us, His life fills us, His light shines through us.
As awesome as it would have been to converse with God on the mountain like Moses did, we have everything that Moses had and more. He looked ahead to the fulfillment of God’s promises. We see them fulfilled. The Old Testament laws and rituals, the detailed requirements for daily life, the constant emphasis on holiness—all of these anticipated the coming of the Holy One, our Lord Jesus Christ. All those things were “a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17).
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 tabernacle in wilderness by William Dickes, 1815-1892)
The Baptism of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Exodus 11:1, 12:21-30
In Christ Jesus, whose blood cleansed us from all our sins and reconciled us to God, so that we would be saved from destruction, dear fellow redeemed:
God turned all of Egypt’s water to blood, but Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people of Israel go. Then God sent frogs and gnats and flies, but Pharaoh wouldn’t budge. Then He sent a disease on Egypt’s livestock, boils on Egypt’s people, and destructive hail throughout the land. Still, Pharaoh said no. God sent locusts that devoured every green plant, and then caused a deep darkness to fall on the land for three days. Through each of these nine plagues, the book of Exodus says first that Pharaoh hardened his heart, and then that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He did this to show Egypt and all other nations that He was the LORD (Exo. 10:2). He would free His people, the Israelites, from slavery.
They weren’t always slaves. You remember that Joseph brought his father and brothers to Egypt during a time of famine. When they came with their families, there were seventy of them. But over a period of several hundred years, the people had multiplied greatly, and the Pharaohs in power no longer knew about Joseph. They saw the Israelite people as a threat, so they enslaved them. When the people continued to expand, the Pharaoh ordered all Israelite baby boys to be killed. It was a horrible time for God’s people.
But the LORD heard their groaning. He saw their suffering. He hadn’t forgotten them (Exo. 2:24-25). He raised up an unlikely deliverer, eighty-year-old Moses, to lead them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses and his brother Aaron delivered the message to Pharaoh that he was to let the Israelites go to worship the LORD in the wilderness. When Pharaoh refused, the plagues commenced and continued.
That brings us to the final and decisive plague which today’s reading describes. Before He sent the plague, God gave instructions for how His people were to be protected. He didn’t give them armor or put a force field around them. He didn’t give them supernatural powers to defend themselves. He told them that their salvation would come through a lamb.
Each household was to select a lamb “without blemish, a male a year old” (Exo. 12:5). They were to wait four days and then kill the lamb at twilight. They were directed to put some of the lamb’s blood on the lintels and doorposts of their homes, eat the meat roasted over a fire with unleavened bread on the side, and prepare to march into the wilderness. The Israelites did this. They killed the lambs, painted the blood outside their doors, ate the meat, and waited with belts fastened, sandals on, and staffs in hand.
At midnight, the LORD did what He said. He struck down all the firstborn sons in Egypt in all the homes that had no blood on the doorposts. The LORD had told His people, “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exo. 12:13). This is where the term “Passover” comes from—the LORD passed over the homes marked by the blood of the lamb. In this way, the people of Israel were saved and set apart from all other nations. They were purchased by God from their slavery in Egypt with blood.
This purchasing with the blood of the lamb was a “type” or a shadow of what God promised to do for all sinners through His Son. 1 Peter 1 says, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (vv. 18-19). This is why John, after seeing the Holy Spirit descend on Him and hearing the words of the Father about Him, pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29).
Jesus’ Baptism marked Him as the Christ, the anointed Son of God. It was the beginning of His public work. No more quiet service to His parents in Nazareth, where probably no one pegged Him as the next great rabbi or a great prophet. Now He began to teach, preach, and heal. He gathered His disciples. He traveled from place to place. And finally He set His face to go to Jerusalem, where this spotless Lamb would be bound, nailed to a cross, and die before the setting of the sun on that Passover day.
Just as the blood of the Passover lamb saved the people of Israel from death and delivered them from slavery, so the blood of Jesus has done the same for you. His blood set you free from the grip of the devil; he can no longer accuse and torment you for your sins because your sins were all atoned for by Jesus. You are not a slave to sin because you have been purchased and won by Jesus’ blood. Eternal punishment and death in hell must pass over you because Jesus saved you.
But how can you be sure about this? Doubts always creep in. What if the sins you have committed, either for their frequency or for their repulsiveness, disqualify you from receiving God’s grace? What if your faith is not true enough? What if your heart is not pure enough? The Israelites could point to the blood on their doorposts: “That made the difference! That’s why we are saved!” What can you point to?
Some people try to point to their good works, but those cannot save them. Some point to their good intentions – “My life may not look great, but God knows I tried”—that won’t save anyone either. If you point to anything you do, you will always have doubts. Your thoughts, words, and actions have never been perfectly pure, and as long as you live in this fallen world, they never will be.
And that is why you take comfort, not in what you have done, but in what God has done for you. God the Father sent His Son to be your Passover Lamb, to wash you clean of all your sin by shedding His precious blood. Jesus willingly went to the cross for you. He suffered and died there for you. And to make sure you know that He did this for you, He has given you a visible sign, the holy Sacrament of water and the Word.
Your Baptism is like the Israelites’ blood on the doorposts. The blood marked them as God’s own children. Baptism marks you as a child of God. When you were baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” God put His name on you and claimed you as His own. He made you holy and set you apart from the world. He made you His heir, joining you to the eternal inheritance won for you by your Savior.
No matter what the devil and the world plot against you, no matter what harm they might do to you, you belong to the LORD. He loves you perfectly. He knows your struggles and suffering. He gives you His strength and courage through His Word and Sacraments. And He promises ultimate deliverance—safe passage to the Promised Land. In his great Easter hymn, Martin Luther puts these thoughts together:
Here the true Paschal Lamb we see, / Whom God so freely gave us;
He died on the accursed tree— / So strong His love—to save us.
See, His blood doth mark our door; / Faith points to it, death passes o’er,
And Satan cannot harm us. / Alleluia! (ELH 343, v. 5)
Your Baptism was the beginning of your new life in Christ. It set you on a different path than you were on before. Baptism lets you put behind you the desires and sins that enslaved you. It points you forward in hope to a better place, a better day, a better home. That’s exactly what the Passover was for the people of Israel. In fact, God made their deliverance from slavery in Egypt the beginning of a new calendar (Exo. 12:2). They were to celebrate the Passover at the beginning of this new year every year, in order to remember and rejoice in the grace of God they continued to receive.
This is why it is good for you to remember the date of your Baptism and give thanks for it each year—and not just annually, but even daily. The Catechism teaches that you return to your Baptism by daily contrition and repentance, and that a new man daily comes forth and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity (“The Meaning of Baptism”). You are baptized into Christ. It is your enduring identity before God. It is the eternal mark He put on you that He can see just as clearly as He saw the blood on the doorposts.
The Israelites could not see what the future held after they had made their Passover preparations. We also at Baptism cannot see all the burdens and blessings that will come along the way in our journey. But we know who is with us—the LORD who made heaven and earth and everything in them, the LORD who delivered His people Israel from slavery, the LORD who conquered sin, devil, and death for every sinner!
As we go forward, He speaks His comforting promises to us. He reminds us who we are in Him, who He made us to be through Holy Baptism. And in the new Supper instituted with the unleavened bread and wine of the Passover meal, He feeds us with His holy body and blood. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, including your sin and mine. We are saved by His blood.
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 Sacrificial Lamb” by Josefa de Ayala, 1630-1684)
The Presentation of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 37:17-36
In Christ Jesus, who was sold for a small sum of money and returned the deposit with the payment of His holy, precious blood, dear fellow redeemed:
When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem at forty days old, He looked like any other baby. In fact, with so many coming and going from the temple, I expect that hardly anyone noticed or paid attention to this family. But what a monumental moment this was! The God who descended on the most holy place of the temple in a cloud, was now carried through the temple courtyard as a little baby in His mother’s arms. He whom the sea and wind obey had come to serve us sinners in great meekness (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, #161, v. 2).
Only those to whom this mystery was revealed could see this baby for who He was. Simeon was one of these. The Holy Spirit led him to the temple just before Mary, Joseph, and Jesus arrived. While everyone else just saw a baby, Simeon saw salvation. Praising God, he declared, here is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luk. 2:32). Here is the Savior of the whole world!
But it would be a while before His identity as the Savior would become widely known. For the vast majority of His earthly life, Jesus toiled away in Nazareth, serving His earthly parents, living a mostly unremarkable life—at least in the view of the people around Him. This changed when He was about thirty years old. At that time, He was anointed as the Christ at His Baptism in the Jordan River and began teaching and performing miracles.
Even then, many had their doubts about Him. Jesus heard it all: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Joh. 1:46). “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (Joh. 8:48). “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mat. 27:40). None of it stopped Jesus from doing the work His heavenly Father gave Him to do—fulfilling all righteousness according to the Law, paying for all sin on the cross, and rising in victory over death.
Joseph, the son of Jacob, had a similar journey from obscurity and hardship to victory and glory. Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob because he was born from Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel. Jacob showed this favor by giving Joseph a special garment, “a robe of many colors” (Gen. 37:3). This caused Joseph’s brothers to be jealous of him and hateful towards him. Joseph was the twelfth child of Jacob and his eleventh son, so why should he be favored? Joseph didn’t help his cause when he tattled on his brothers and got them in trouble with their father.
They hated him still more when he told them some strange dreams he had. In the first dream, he and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field, and their sheaves bowed down to his. “Are you indeed to rule over us?” they said (Gen. 37:8). He dreamed again, and this time, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to him. When his father heard this, he rebuked Joseph, “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” (v. 10).
This is why his brothers plotted evil against him when they saw him coming at a distance. “Here comes this dreamer,” they said. “Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” As terrible as this is, I think each one of us here can relate to wanting harm to come on someone. Maybe you were in a physical fight with a family member, and in your anger, you wanted to hurt them badly. Or you had a verbal altercation with someone, and you wanted to wound them deeply with words. Or you wished in your heart that someone you hated would die.
These are Fifth Commandment sins, “You shall not murder.” This Commandment includes all bodily harm done to others. It also includes our thoughts of anger and hatred, as the Apostle John writes, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1Jo. 3:15). For Joseph’s brothers, it was just a short step from the hatred they felt toward him to the desire to kill him, which shows how important it is to address our sinful thoughts before they turn into sinful actions. James 1:15 outlines this progression, “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
Joseph did not know what he was walking into. He had gone at the direction of his father to visit his brothers as they pastured the flocks. Maybe he hoped this could be a time to patch things up with his brothers and become friends. Instead they grabbed him and tossed him into an empty pit. Reuben, the oldest, had plans to return and set him free. But before he could do this, the others saw a caravan of traders coming by. They decided it was better to sell their brother as a slave than kill him and receive nothing.
So that’s what they did. They sold him to the Ishmaelites, who were relatives of theirs through Abraham’s son Ishmael. Today’s reading doesn’t provide the details of Joseph’s reaction to their terrible deeds. But later the brothers recounted seeing the distress of Joseph’s soul, when he begged them to have mercy, and they did not listen (Gen. 42:21). Those were some hard hearts. Can you imagine selling your sibling or your child as a slave?
Joseph’s brothers sold him for twenty shekels of silver. This was the price of their betrayal as brothers. This was how little they thought of their father and the crushing grief this would bring on him. Twenty shekels to be rid of “this dreamer.” Twenty shekels to move him out of the way and increase their own inheritance from their father. This is one example of the harm that the love of money does. St. Paul wrote in his First Letter to Timothy, “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1Ti. 6:9).
Many years after Joseph’s brothers sold him for money, Judas Iscariot did the same to his Lord Jesus. The Gospel of John lets us in on a secret about Judas that “he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it” (Joh. 12:6). When Jesus’ enemies were looking for an opportunity to arrest Him, Judas saw an opportunity for more money. “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” he asked. “And they paid him thirty pieces of silver” (Mat. 26:15).
We can see many parallels between Joseph and Jesus:
- Joseph was the beloved son of his father; Jesus was the beloved Son of God.
- Joseph was faithful to God’s Law and obedient to his father; Jesus perfectly kept the Law in obedience to His Father’s will.
- Joseph was hated by his brothers; Jesus was hated by His fellow Jews.
- Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver; Jesus was sold for thirty.
- Joseph was handed over to Gentiles who mistreated him; Jesus was mocked, beaten, and crucified by Gentile soldiers.
- Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold as a slave and was not elevated to the throne until he was about thirty; Jesus died on the cross and rose in victory around the same age.
The Egyptians did not know what they were getting when a young Hebrew slave was brought to their land. They did not know that this man would save them when great troubles fell on the land. So it was with Jesus. Only the faithful recognized Him for who He was as a baby and later as a man. He did not look like the Savior of the world. He did not look like the Conqueror of sin, death, and devil. Still today, many think that Jesus was nothing more than a good teacher or perhaps a social activist.
You have been taught otherwise by the Holy Spirit. You see not as the world sees. You know who Jesus is. He is the perfect Son of God who took on flesh to save you. He did not hate those who hated Him, including you and me in our unbelief. He loved us. He came to offer the full payment for all sin, not with anything perishable like silver or gold. He offered His own precious blood (1Pe. 1:18-19). His blood washes away the stain of sin that others have put on us and that we have put on others, so that we don’t need to hold on to our anger and hatred any longer. We forgive as He has forgiven us.
We also see how God works all things for good. He even used the wicked thoughts and actions of Joseph’s brothers to make it so that Joseph would be in a position later on to save them, and with them, the promise of the Savior from their line. God sent Joseph to be A Light for Gentiles and Israelites, so that Jesus would be an even greater light some 2,000 years down the road.
The light of Christ’s salvation still shines upon us now through His Word and Sacraments. That is why in our liturgy we still join Simeon in singing, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luk. 2:29-32).
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 Presentation of Jesus from St. Michael Cathedral, Toronto)
The Festival of the Reformation – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 3:19-28
In Christ Jesus, who promises that everyone who acknowledges Him before men, He also will acknowledge before His Father in heaven (Mat. 10:32), dear fellow redeemed:
We have all had the experience of trying to get ourselves out of trouble, but the more we say, the worse it gets. Maybe you broke something in the house, but instead of apologizing to your parents, you tried to pin the blame on a sibling. Or maybe you got pulled over, and your excuses for why you were speeding just made the situation worse. We are not always good at knowing when to speak and when to keep our mouths shut.
The same can be true in our spiritual life. We sometimes speak when we should be silent, and we are sometimes silent when we should speak. Today’s reading addresses both of these things. Just before our reading, St. Paul quoted from the Book of Psalms where it says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God…. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive…. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness” (3:10-11,13,14). Paul is citing God’s Law which applies to all sinners, to every single one of us.
When we hear God’s Law, we have nothing to say in response because we have failed to do what God commands us. But that doesn’t stop us from trying to sidestep responsibility for our sins. One of the hardest things for us to do is acknowledge that we have done wrong. We always want to make an excuse for why we did what we did or said what we said, excuses like:
- “He started it!”
- “If she had done what she said she would, this wouldn’t have happened!”
- “I didn’t mean to cause any harm—they’re just too sensitive!”
- “This is just how I am; I can’t help it!”
These are all statements of self-righteousness. Instead of admitting our sin and asking for forgiveness, we argue and try to pass the blame. But God’s Law does not budge. No matter how much we try to justify our actions or words, sin is sin. James 4 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (v. 17). God’s Law does not change with the times. Misusing God’s name was a sin from the beginning, and it is still a sin. Sexual immorality is still a sin. Lying is still a sin.
We can’t talk ourselves out of the judgment of the Law. One of our hymns says it like this: “What God doth in His law demand / No man to Him could render. / Before this Judge all guilty stand; / His law speaks curse in thunder. / The law demands a perfect heart; / We were defiled in ev’ry part, / And lost was our condition” (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #227, v. 2). This is what today’s reading teaches us. Paul writes, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”
He says that before the Law, every mouth is stopped. We must go silent—“zip the lip!” We have no argument to make for our righteousness. God commanded us to be perfect, and we have sinned again and again, falling far short of the glory of God. There is nothing we can do to earn our way or work our way back into God’s favor. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight.” The verdict is clear. No matter how hard we try, we have failed. We cannot save ourselves.
Then why is it that so many Christians today think that salvation depends somehow on what they do? Though most Christians admit they are sinful, Lutherans stand mostly alone in our teaching that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God or get ourselves connected to Him. This has been the consistent teaching of the Lutheran Church since the time of the Reformation, and we believe it to be the historic teaching of Christ’s Church from the time of the apostles as today’s reading shows.
Martin Luther took criticism from all sides for his teaching that we are saved not by our works but only by God’s grace in Christ who perfectly kept the law for us and died to pay for our sins. The Roman Catholic theologians said that if our works are not part of salvation, then what’s to stop Christians from embracing sin if they are saved by grace alone? It must be that our works contribute in some way toward our salvation. Luther replied that good works are fruits of faith that every Christian does and should do, but it is faith in Jesus alone that saves.
The Reformed theologians told Luther that he wasn’t going far enough. He had to get rid of the empty, outward trappings of the Roman Church, such as the Sacraments. What matters, they said, is that we dedicate ourselves to God from the heart and strive to live for Him. Luther replied that if we remove the means that God has given for the formation and strengthening of our faith, we will become self-righteous Pharisees, or we will despair because we are unable to do what we have promised.
Luther’s opponents wanted him to say that we are responsible—at least in some way—for our salvation. It sounded very reasonable. Many in previous generations had taught exactly this. Luther was in a difficult spot. He could have opened his mouth and worked up some kind of compromise to try to keep everyone together. He could have aimed for personal glory and a prominent position in the church.
But he would not go against God’s Word. Standing before one of the most powerful rulers of his time, Luther refused to take back what he had written and taught. “My conscience is captive to the Word of God,” he said. “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me.” Luther knew when to be silent. He had to answer to God. He would not compromise the Word of God for the sake of peace in the Church.
This is what we celebrate on Reformation Day—not so much the man since Luther was a sinner like we are. But we celebrate his faithful confession of the truth and his faithful teaching of salvation by grace alone. On the back of your bulletin, I have included a picture from the altarpiece in Wittenberg, Germany, where Luther lived. This altar painting was dedicated in 1547, one year after Luther died. It shows him preaching to the parishioners of Wittenberg. But if the picture were bigger, you could see that Luther’s mouth is closed. He is preaching by pointing.
This painting emphasizes that Luther’s work was not about him or any unique message he came up with. He preached Christ crucified like Paul and the other apostles did. It’s all about Jesus. We do not open our mouths to boast about our own good works. We do these good things quietly, for the benefit of our neighbor and for the glory of God. When we are tempted to boast or when people encourage us to be prideful, we do what the tax collector in the temple did. We humbly bow our heads and pray, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luk. 18:13). That kind of silence about our own good works speaks volumes.
We have nothing to boast about in ourselves. But we do boast about Jesus. We boast about the salvation He won for us, not because we deserve it but because He is merciful and gracious. We deserve eternal punishment in hell. The Law condemns us. We have sinned. But God sent His Son to save us. He put Him forward “as a propitiation by His blood,” as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The holy blood that Jesus shed washes all our sin away. It washes away the sins that make us feel guilty and the imperfect works that make us feel prideful. His blood cleanses us from the many ways we have broken the perfect Law of God.
His blood was the price He paid to redeem us, to purchase us so that we might be His own. His Father accepted this payment which is why we are justified before God, declared innocent, “not guilty.” We are “justified by His grace as a gift.” The righteousness we need to stand before God does not come from us. It comes to us as a gift from God, a gift received by faith. Even our faith is a gift, worked inside us by the Holy Spirit through the Word and Sacraments.
This is why it is right for Paul to say in the same place that we are “justified by His grace” and “justified by faith.” It all points to Jesus. We are saved by what He did, what He accomplished, what He set out to do and finished. We will be silent about our own works which could never save us. But we will not be silent about His works which He offered as a perfect sacrifice to the Father for our redemption.
This is what Paul taught in his inspired Epistles. This is what Luther taught at the time of the Reformation. This is what we still teach by the grace of God and what we pray will be taught to generations to come. Where God calls us through His Word to be silent, we will be silent, and where He calls us to speak, we will speak—all to His glory alone.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Wittenberg altarpiece painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Younger, 1547)
The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Revelation 12:7-12
In Christ Jesus, who wore a crown of thorns and yet remained the King of heaven and earth, who carried His own cross and yet commands the angels, who felt the flames of hell and yet quenched the devil’s fire, who died, rose victorious, and lives forevermore, dear fellow redeemed:
The Old Testament book of Job describes Satan as being in a place we wouldn’t expect him. It says that when the holy angels presented themselves before the LORD at His heavenly throne, Satan came among them. The LORD did not immediately throw him out. He asked if Satan had considered His faithful servant Job, “who fears God and turns away from evil.” Satan replied that it is no surprise Job was so faithful since God blessed everything he did. “But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has,” said the devil, “and he will curse you to your face” (1:6-11).
God allowed Satan to destroy all that Job had. But even with this tremendous loss, Job did not curse God. So Satan came before the LORD again and said, “stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face” (2:5). God allowed the devil to do this as well, and the devil struck Job with terrible sores. Satan would not give up. He would stop at nothing to try to turn Job against his Creator.
This account reveals that Satan had surprising access to God even after rebelling against Him. We can picture it like a courtroom. God the Father sits in the Judge’s seat. Satan is the prosecuting attorney lobbing charge after charge at the accused. Ten jurors sit over on the side listening carefully and nodding their heads. And who is on the stand? The sinner.
That sinner is you; he is me. And how does the devil try to accuse us? This is how nasty the devil is. He tempts us to commit sins, and then he points an accusing finger at us when we sin. “How could God love you? You’re just a liar, just a cheat! You have loved yourself but hardly your neighbor! All you care about is being popular, influential, and rich! How can you expect to go to heaven? You have failed in every way! You are guilty! You deserve death!”
The ten jurors are the Ten Commandments, and they agree with the accusations. We have not loved the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves (Mat. 22:37-39). We will get no help from the Law. None of our works can get us off the hook because all of our works are imperfect.
It looks like an open and shut case. We bury our face in our hands. The devil looks confident. There is a smirk on his face. “Another one goes down,” he says to himself. “I’m still on top!” But the Judge hasn’t ruled yet. There is still more to be said for the accused sinner. There is more evidence to be logged in the public record. The smirk on the devil’s face begins to fade and then goes away. What has he missed?
The door to the courtroom opens. Who should enter but a Lamb looking “as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6)? The gallery erupts with cries of astonishment. The devil’s eyes get big. He looks at the same time like he wants to crawl under a rock and like he wants to destroy all living things. The Lamb comes forward slowly and purposefully and says, “State the charges again.” The devil gathers himself and launches into a tirade against the accused, listing wrong after wrong after wrong.
But after each accusation, the Lamb replies, “Objection! That sin was paid for… and that one… and that one.” The Judge does not overrule Him. What the Lamb says is true. He has the marks to prove it. This Lamb is the Sacrifice, the One once dead but now living. This is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29). This Lamb—the Son of God incarnate—took away your sin. He canceled all the debt you owed to God. He made the vomit of accusations from the devil’s mouth stop cold by stomping on the devil’s ugly head.
The deflated and desperate devil had no leg to stand on, but he wasn’t about to go down quietly. This is where our sermon text picks up from the book of Revelation, chapter twelve, beginning at verse seven:
“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
“And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
The great dragon, the old evil foe, was thrown down, along with all the evil angels. These had rebelled against God shortly after they were created. They refused to obey His will. They refused to serve Him. And now they were cast out of heaven and away from His presence once and for all. Now the devil can no longer accuse God’s people “day and night” in the heavenly courtroom.
He was conquered “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” The blood of Jesus washes away all sin. Sin does not stick to you and me anymore because God the Father put all our sin on His Son. He was judged in our place. He took our punishment and was sentenced to eternal death in hell for us. This Gospel proclamation is the cause of the devil’s continued frustration. He cannot stand against the Gospel since the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).
We are acquitted and righteous before God. We are justified by His grace, declared “not guilty!” But that does not mean our troubles are over. That does not mean we have tangled with the devil for the last time. He was cast out of heaven, but he landed on his feet on earth. The voice from heaven that announced the devil’s defeat also said, “woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
The devil has been defeated, but that does not mean he has given up. He knows now that he can never knock God off His throne. What drives his evil heart is trying to pull more souls with him into eternal damnation. He does this by tempting each one of us in our own unique ways. He might tempt us with bitterness or anger or lust or greed or pride or selfishness or complacency. He has innumerable tools at his disposal. Like we see in the account of Job, the devil will never give up until he has utterly ruined us.
The Lord’s apostle Peter said, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1Pe. 5:8-9). The devil is a formidable opponent. We cannot stand against him alone by relying on our own power or on the strength of our own will. But we can resist him by the power of God the Holy Spirit. As we listen to and study the Word of God and faithfully receive His Sacraments, the Holy Spirit fortifies us and strengthens us. He makes us sober-minded, alert, and watchful for the devil’s attacks. He increases our faith, so that our eyes are constantly fixed on our Champion Jesus who destroyed the works of the devil by His death (1Jo. 3:8) and who still fights for us.
Our faithful Lord also dispatches His holy angels to guard us and defend us. Psalm 91 says, “he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (v. 11). Psalm 103 describes God’s angels as “mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word” (v. 20). Today’s Gospel reading tells us that even the littlest among us have angels watching over them, angels constantly looking upon the face of God and taking His direction (Mat. 18:10).
We are well-protected against the devil’s attacks. As formidable as Satan is and as much as he still tries to accuse us, our Lord Jesus with His holy angels defends us. The Lamb with the marks of His crucifixion stands against the great dragon, and the dragon must slither away. The blood of the Lamb poured out for all people means that you and I are cleansed of all our sins. The devil and demons know it, the holy angels know it, and God wants you to know it and never forget it.
One of the things that the voice from heaven said about the saints, about the holy followers of Jesus, is that “they loved not their lives even unto death.” They did not love their life on the earth with all its treasures and pleasures. They did not place all their hope in what they could get here. That is just what the devil wants and how he so often succeeds. But no, they loved the Lamb who died and rose again for their salvation. And they loved His holy Word which testifies to His victory.
God grant each of us such an enduring faith, a faith that holds fast to the Lord Jesus and His saving blood, a faith that leads us confidently before God’s throne of grace, a faith that makes all the holy angels rejoice with exceeding joy.
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 by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
Midweek Lent 5 – Pr. Abraham Faugstad homily
Texts: Genesis 3:7,21, St. John 19:23-24
In Christ, who for our sakes was stripped in shame that we might be clothed with the garments of salvation, dear fellow redeemed.
Why do we wear clothes? While we might be inclined to attribute clothing to modest Norwegian sensibilities, we know that isn’t quite true. People all around the world wear clothes. Clothing does not just have to do with the climate either. In both hot and cold climates people wear clothes. It’s rather interesting that humans are the only creatures in the world that wear clothes. So why do we wear clothes?
To understand why we wear clothes we have to go all the way back to the garden of Eden. The serpent tempted Eve by saying that by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would become like God. Adam and Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was pleasant to the eyes, and they ate. They thought that they knew what was better for them than God did. As a result, they brought sin, death, and destruction to the entire human race. As soon as they sinned, Scripture tells us that their eyes were opened, “and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7).
Immediately, they felt their shame and nakedness. They were now afraid of God. They knew they had no right to stand in the presence of a holy and just God. They tried to hide themselves among the trees of the Garden and they made themselves loincloths of leaves to cover their sinfulness. Humanity made the first clothes to try to cover their sin. Every suit of clothes, every clothing store, and every clothing display is a witness of the fall into sin.
Adam and Eve clothed themselves with leaves to cover their shame. Yet, we know what happens when leaves are plucked. They dry up and break into pieces rather quickly. How silly it must have looked for our first parents to attempt to cover themselves up with something that clearly would not last.
But isn’t this what we all try to do? We don’t want others to see our sin, so we try to cover it up. Some try to cover and clothe themselves by blaming others. It’s as old as Adam who blamed Eve and she who in turn blamed the serpent. We see this in our own lives. It’s easy for us to blame our problems or actions on someone else rather than taking personal responsibility.
Yet, perhaps the main way people try to cover up their sin today is through human work righteousness. Our consciences accuse us for what we have done wrong, so people try to make up for it by doing good things. People think God is keeping records of our rights and wrongs, and as long as our rights outweigh the wrongs, we are alright. Ask the average person how he expects to have peace with God in the afterlife and the usual answers you will get is, “I’ve tried to live a good life so I think God will accept me and take me into heaven.”
No matter how we try to cover ourselves and our sin, they are all feeble and foolish attempts. All the leaves of our own righteousness dry up as Adam and Eve’s did before God’s demand, “Be perfect as I the Lord your God am perfect” (Matthew 5:48). God isn’t impressed by our best efforts or good intentions—he demands perfect holiness. When we look at our own lives, we see that we have never perfectly kept God’s Law—our heart is filled with hatred, lust, jealousy, and greed. Scripture tells us that even our righteous works are like filthy rags in the sight of God, which cannot save us (Isaiah 64:6).
God knew that Adam and Eve’s leaf clothing would never work. The leaves would crumble and dry up. Therefore, the Lord made for Adam and Eve tunics of animal skin and clothed them. We could never stand before God with our own man-made clothing; only God can provide the proper clothing for man.
“And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” By the shedding of blood and death, the Lord covered Adam and Eve. From this we see two important things—first, God must cover us. God provides the proper clothing. We can’t cover our sins and shame. Second, it required sacrifice and death so that God could cover our sins. The covering of sins is pictured in all the Old Testament sacrifices which pointed to the once and for all sacrifice and covering on the cross.
The clothing of Adam and Eve reminded them of the danger of sinning, to repent continually, and to put their hope of forgiveness and life in the promised Seed of the woman. They looked with hope to the one who would crush Satan’s head and free us by the bondage of sin and provide the covering needed to stand before God. The One born of the virgin called Emmanuel, God with us.
Our Lord Jesus provided a garment for us, which alone is pleasing to God, by offering up his life in our place. The Son of God became man, leaving his glory and majesty on high to come to our rescue. Jesus was the only righteous person to ever live, but he humbled himself, by taking on our shame. Ever since God first clothed Adam and Eve, it has been shameful to be disrobed in public. Our dear Lord Jesus was stripped in shame so that we would never have to be.
When we see Jesus mocked, beaten, and stripped in shame, we can feel a sense of anger and sadness over his mistreatment. Yet, we must realize that Jesus was not just there because of Pontius Pilate or the soldiers who mocked and stripped him. Jesus was there because of you. We deserve to be punished, publicly shamed, and abandoned by God. But here Jesus stood in the place of sinners—of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and you and me.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed… the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5–6). God kept his promise. Jesus fulfilled what the Scriptures foretold, even to the most minute detail of the soldiers dividing his garments and casting lots for his tunic, all to assure you that your sin and shame have been covered by his blood. Jesus offered himself up so that we might be holy and righteous before God. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
Scripture writes, “For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Your robe has been made white through the blood of the Lamb. The righteousness of Jesus, God’s own Son, is the only covering that can clothe the nakedness of the sinner. Because of Jesus, God no longer sees your sins—his holiness is counted as your own.
Paul explains how God has clothed you with the beautiful garment of Christ personally, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26–27). By faith in Jesus, worked in us and promised to us in the waters of holy Baptism, we are clothed with the garment of Christ. Clothes fit for heaven itself!
Our sinful flesh will always try to cover our sin with man-made coverings, but these cannot save us and will leave us in shame on judgement day. Why do we wear clothes? They remind us of the fall into sin and serve as a reminder of our own sinfulness and need to be covered before God. At the same time your clothes are an assurance of your salvation. You have been covered by God with the garment of forgiveness obtained by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross. Your sins are forgiven. There will be no shame for those who are clothed with Christ’s righteousness, but eternal joy and peace. God grant us faith to hold dear to this priceless clothing freely given to us,
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
’Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head. Amen.
ELH 432:1
(picture from “Cristo Crucificado” by Diego Velázquez, 1632)
Midweek Lent 3 – Pr. Faugstad homily
Texts: Genesis 3:16,19, St. Luke 22:39-44
In Christ Jesus, who drank the cup of suffering to the very bottom, so we would be freed from the heavy burden of our sins, dear fellow redeemed:
When you go to work, whether in your home, at school, at your job, or in your community, do you think in terms of “get to” or “have to”? Is your work a blessing or a burden? In the beginning before the fall into sin, it was always “get to.” After the LORD God planted a garden in Eden filled with “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen. 2:9), He put Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it” (v. 15). We might think of a perfect life as one in which we wouldn’t have to work. But Adam worked. He joyfully tended the plants in the Garden of Eden. Work was not a result of the fall into sin; work was a gift from God to man.
And it still is. Work gives us an outlet for our energy. It gives us an opportunity to apply our skills and abilities. It gives us purpose and a way to “make a living.” Work is a gift from God. But we don’t get to work like Adam did. We don’t know what it is like to work with a perfect attitude and perfect abilities in a perfect world. We do our work with a sinful nature in a sinful world.
In the first reading for today, the LORD told Eve and Adam what the sin they had brought into the world would do to their work. Eve was destined for motherhood ever since God told her and her husband, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (1:28). But what would have been a glistening crown on her head—the bearing of children to populate the earth—now would also be a cross for her to bear. “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing,” said the LORD; “in pain you shall bring forth children.”
This is a unique burden for women, because only biological women can carry and bear children. Only women have a womb in which a fertilized egg can be implanted and grow. Only women have a body which can change and stretch to carry another person inside. Only women feel the pain and pressure of a child growing bigger and bigger month after month. Only women understand the anguish of bringing forth a child into the world.
Why would any woman go through this and endure this process that permanently changes how she is? The LORD said, “Your desire shall be for your husband.” It wasn’t as though Eve did not care for Adam before the fall. But her needs and his needs were so perfectly matched that one did not think about what the other needed. In their perfect love for one another, they only thought about what they could give each other.
Now that had changed. Woman’s desire would be for man. She would need his love. She would need his protection. She would need him to provide for her while she carried and nursed their children. And these things that she would need from man, he would never perfectly supply. In this vulnerable state, she would also understand the final part of the curse of sin, that her husband would “rule over” her.
This language shocks us. Outside the Church, this language offends people. There are plenty of women who say, “I care nothing about men. No man rules over me!” And yet there is both a physical and a psychological reality that women need men. God made man and woman interdependent when He formed Eve from Adam’s rib, and this interdependence has not changed. What has changed is that the relationship between the sexes is not perfect. It is strained by sin.
And Adam would have his own crosses to bear. The work that he had previously enjoyed and taken great pleasure in, which had always produced bountifully, now would be full of trouble and hardship. The LORD said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” He would have to work for his food; it wouldn’t come easy anymore.
And that work would take its toll. The very ground that God had shaped him out of, the very ground that he plowed, planted, and picked for his food, that same ground would become his grave. “[F]or you are dust,” God said, “and to dust you shall return.” This is true for every man. Whether a man is a poor farmer or makes it on the Forbes 500 list, whether he has many healthy years or many sick ones, whether he is considered a success or a failure—every man dies. That’s what he gets for his hard work, for his heavy toil, for the sweat of his face.
Women wear themselves out and spend themselves in childbearing and family life. Men wear themselves out and spend themselves in working to get ahead, in trying to do something that lasts. But what does it accomplish? What is it all for? King Solomon, the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, said, “I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11).
King Solomon was right. The fall into sin turned beautiful things ugly, blessings into burdens, and joys into sorrows. If all we knew was life in this world—we live, we work, we die—that would indeed be “vanity.” It would be futile, worthless, empty. If all we are focused on is what we do, what we want to accomplish, what serves ourselves—that is vanity.
But God the Father did something to change the course of our vain existence. He planted His perfect Son in the womb of a poor woman. She did not ask for this, but she accepted it as the will of God. She told the angel who conveyed this startling message, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luk. 1:38).
Now we see her Son Jesus enter a garden. Like the first Adam who worked in the Garden of Eden, this Son of Man went to work in the Garden of Gethsemane. But He brought no shovel, hoe, or rake. What He brought with Him was your sin. He brought your sin of failing to honor your father and your mother. He brought your sin of fighting with your siblings, or of losing patience with your children and neglecting to teach them what is good. He brought your sin of not honoring and respecting your husband. He brought your sin of not showing love and making sacrifices for your wife.
Every sin that you have committed in your home, at school, at your job, and in your community, Jesus carried with Him into the garden. It was a heavy load. He pleaded with His disciples to keep watch with Him, but they slept. He pleaded with His Father to remove the cup of suffering from Him if He was willing. And while an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him, there was no other way. Jesus had to do the horrible work of suffering God’s wrath for the sins of Adam and Eve and for all their descendants including you and me.
“And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Adam deserved to do his work “by the sweat of his face,” because of the sin he brought into the world. We deserve the same hardships in our work, because we also have sinned. Jesus did not deserve this suffering; He committed no sin. Why should He be in such agony?
It was for His bride. It was to cleanse her who was unclean. It was to present her “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). You are this bride as a member of His holy Church. Jesus went through all the anguish of this suffering for your sake. He willingly took your trespasses on Himself.
Those great drops of bloody sweat falling from His face to the ground—those were for you. He shed His blood to wash away your sin, so that you could see your work differently, so you could see the people around you differently—so you could see them as He sees you.
Because of His suffering for sin in your place, the good work that He has prepared for you to do is not a burdensome “have to.” Your work is a blessed “get to” for the glory of His name. Amen.
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(picture from Redeemer Lutheran Church altar painting)