Maundy Thursday – Pr. Faugstad homily
Text: St. John 13:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who produces the fruit of humble service through us by serving us through His powerful Word and Sacraments, dear fellow redeemed:
“Greatness” is often defined as being better than everyone else at something. Athletes are said to achieve greatness when they break long-standing records or win the world championship. Professional singers achieve greatness when they reach the top of the music charts or get inducted into the hall of fame. Business people achieve greatness when they hit a record-breaking level of sales or become CEO.
Jesus defines greatness in a very different way. He says, “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mar. 10:43-44). In today’s reading from the Gospel of St. John, Jesus taught this greatness first with actions and then with words.
Jesus had arranged to eat the Passover meal with His disciples in Jerusalem. They did not know how quickly His death would come, but He did. John tells us that He knew that His death was near, and that He would soon return to His heavenly Father. In these last hours before His death, Jesus did something that surprised His disciples. He set aside His outer garments, tied a towel around His waist, and proceeded to wash their dirty feet.
When He got to Peter, Peter would not have it. Without knowing why Jesus was doing this or being willing to learn why, he blurted out, “You shall never wash my feet.” It was like Peter’s statement some weeks before this when Jesus predicted His suffering, death, and resurrection. “Far be it from you, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you” (Mat. 16:22). Peter was so sure of himself, so certain that he saw and understood things clearly.
Peter was proud. Who was he to tell Jesus, the Son of God, what He should and should not be doing? And yet, we fall into the same sin when we criticize God for not fixing the problems in society, or when we question why He doesn’t give us more in this life or make things better for us. We act like we are in charge, like Peter did. First, Peter wanted to tell Jesus what to do: “Do not wash my feet.” Then when Jesus warned him about rejecting His service, Peter wanted to tell Jesus how to serve him: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus had to teach Peter to receive humbly the gifts He was giving. He knew what Peter needed, just as He knows what we need. When Peter asked for a whole body washing, Jesus replied, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.” Then He added, “And you are clean, but not every one of you.” The one who was not clean was Judas Iscariot who was about to betray Jesus for money. Judas had fallen from faith. He was no longer under God’s grace.
But the other disciples, despite their pride and their confusion about Jesus’ work, were clean in God’s sight. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent by the Father for the world’s salvation. You are clean like they were because you also believe that Jesus is your Savior. You believe that He gave His body to be crucified in your place and shed His blood to wash away your sins.
This cleansing was applied to you in Holy Baptism when you became a member of the holy body of Christ. Baptism brought you the forgiveness of sins, but that doesn’t mean your sinning stopped at your Baptism. This is why you need continuous cleansing through Jesus’ Word and Sacraments. Jesus demonstrated this by washing the disciples’ feet. He was showing them and us that we need His ongoing, sanctifying work in order to remain clean.
This is why He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar on this holy day. He took the unleavened bread from the Passover meal and said, “This is My body.” Then He took the cup of wine and said, “This is My blood.” He also told them what it was for: “for the remission of sins” (Mat. 26:28). We continue to partake of His body and blood because we continue to sin. Jesus humbly meets us in this Supper with His grace, stooping down to remove the dirt of sin that has become stuck inside us.
But it is possible to reject this work that Jesus comes to do among us. Like Peter, we could misunderstand what Jesus is doing and act like Holy Communion is a service we render to God instead of a gift He gives to us. Or like Judas, we could watch Jesus stooping down to serve us but despise Him in our hearts. Isn’t it shocking: Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, and He still knelt before him to wash his feet. In the same way, Jesus gives His body and blood to all who partake of the Supper, but it only benefits those who believe His words.
Those who receive His body and blood without faith, take the Supper to their spiritual harm. 1 Corinthians 11:27 says, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” This is why we insist on meeting with visitors who attend our services before they take Communion. We have the same concern for our members who have fallen into public sin. We want to ensure that they are repentant of their sin and recognize what Jesus is giving in the Supper before we invite them to commune.
That same examination must happen with all of us before we come forward to receive Christ’s body and blood. 1 Corinthians 11:28 says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” We examine ourselves by acknowledging that “our feet are dirty,” so to speak. We admit the sins we have committed in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. We also confess our trust in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, that He shed His blood to pay for our sins. We acknowledge that He is present to give us His holy body and blood. And we express our intention to stop our sinning and do better.
That last point is difficult. We might think to ourselves: Do I really want to stop the sins I keep falling into? Do I want to stop hating my enemy? Do I want to stop listening to and watching what I know I shouldn’t? Do I want to stop drinking too much, eating too much, lying, gossiping, prioritizing my pleasure and my plans above everything else? These are all sins of selfishness.
Jesus calls us to set aside these sins, leave them behind, and receive His body and blood to wash our guilt away. No sin is too great that He cannot forgive it. Jesus died on the cross to pay for all sins, every single one. As we come forward for Holy Communion, burdened by our sins, we remember why Jesus instituted this Supper. It is for our forgiveness.
As we leave the Communion rail cleansed and return to our homes and our work, Jesus also directs us to the needs of our neighbors. He says, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
This is where true greatness is found: first in Jesus’ humble service to us, and then in the humble service toward one another that He moves us to do. This sort of greatness might not impress the world, but it is the sort of greatness that changes the world, that changes hearts, just as the sacrificial work of Jesus has changed ours. “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mar. 10:45).
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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(picture from painting by Giotto di Bondone, c. 1267-1337)
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Matthew 8:1-13
In Christ Jesus, who is our ultimate cure, dear fellow redeemed:
Benjamin Franklin once said, “[I]n this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” But I think that a third thing needs to be added to that list: sickness. You could eat nothing but healthy food, drink lots of water, get just the right amount of sleep every night, wash your hands regularly with soap and water, and clean everything that could possibly be contaminated in your house; and you would still get sick eventually.
Getting sick is a miserable and frustrating thing. Depending on the type of sickness you get and the severity of it, you could lose your voice, your head could hurt, you could become so weak that it’s difficult for you to move, or perhaps the worst thing of all, you could have to take really nasty tasting medicine. And if that’s not bad enough, you may even have to cancel plans that you’ve been looking forward to, or you may fall behind on important work that you have to get done. Getting sick really can put you in your weakest and most helpless state.
When you are in this state, you have two options: you could ignore your weakness and helplessness and try to power through on your own, which usually results in your sickness getting even worse, or you could admit your weakness and helplessness and turn to others for help. But who should you turn to? Family? Friends? A doctor? While all of these people can be a great help to us when we are helpless, there is one person who can help us more than any of them: Jesus.
In our reading for today, we hear about two men who were at their weakest and most helpless state. One of them was a leper, a man who had a disease that made him ceremonially unclean and unable to be a part of Jewish society. The other was a centurion, a Roman commander who was in charge of about a hundred men. The centurion himself was not suffering from any physical weakness, but he was still at his weakest and most helpless point. This was because he had a servant who was not just suffering terribly from paralysis, but, as we find out in Luke 7, was also near death (Luke 7:2), and there was nothing he could do about it. These two men could have ignored their weakness and helplessness and powered through on their own, but they didn’t. They realized that they needed help, and the person who they turned to for help was Jesus.
The leper and the centurion believed that Jesus had the power to give them the help that they needed. Now, if Jesus was a mere man, then believing that he had any real power at all would be foolishness. After all, no man can miraculously heal someone’s sicknesses or disabilities. But what did Jesus do? He touched the leper with his hand and said, “[B]e clean” (verse 3), and the leper was immediately cleansed of his leprosy. He said to the centurion, “[L]et it be done for you as you have believed” (verse 13), and the centurion’s servant “was healed at that very moment” (verse 13). By having mercy on these two men and healing the leper and the centurion’s servant, Jesus proved that he was not just a man. He is God.
Because Jesus is God, we can turn to him for help whenever we are suffering from physical weaknesses of any kind. Physical weaknesses are not just sicknesses or injuries. They are also everything else that we suffer from in this life, such as money problems, drama with friends or family, or when we have a seemingly impossible task before us. Whatever it is that we are suffering from, it can put us at our lowest point.
When we are struggling and feeling helpless, we have two options: we could ignore our helplessness and try to push through on our own, which would only make our suffering even worse, or we could turn to Jesus, who has the power to help us, no matter what state we’re in, because he’s God. Jesus loves us, and in his mercy, he comes to us in our time of need and lifts us out of our low points. And if we have to suffer for a little longer, he remains by our side and takes all our sufferings on himself and bears the burden of them for us. As Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
Even though we don’t deserve any of this love and mercy that Jesus shows us, there are times when we don’t think he is showing us enough love and mercy. We are grateful to Jesus when he delivers us from our suffering, but if he allows us to continue suffering, and that suffering seems to have no end in sight, we can become impatient with him and wonder if he is truly doing what is best for us.
We may think that we know what’s best for us, but this is based on our imperfect human reasoning. In reality, God is the only one who knows what’s best for us. It can be difficult for us to understand how our suffering could possibly be for our good when we are in the middle of it, and sometimes we may never know the reason for it. All we can do is trust, like the leper did, that no matter how God chooses to help us, be it by delivering us from our suffering or by helping us bear it, his will for us will be done. As the apostle Paul says, “[W]e know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). And we know that God’s ultimate will for us will be done, because he has already delivered us from the deadliest disease of all, the disease of sin.
Sin is a disease that we are all born with, and it infected every part of us, not just our physical bodies, but also our thoughts, words, and actions. It is because of sin that all of our physical weaknesses exist in the first place. It is because of sin that we grow impatient with God when he doesn’t help us in the way that we want him to. And it is because of sin that we will one day die. The disease of sin really puts us in our absolute weakest and most helpless state.
The disease of sin has infected us so completely that we are unable to turn to Jesus for help. And if it were left up to us, we would not just fail to overcome our sin, we would enter into the outer darkness of hell as punishment for our sin, where, as Jesus describes it in today’s reading, “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (verse 12) without end, eternal suffering.
But God the Father did not want to leave us in this state of complete and utter helplessness. He knew that we were unable to cure ourselves of the disease of sin, so he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to be our ultimate cure. Because Jesus is God, he was not born with sin, like all of us were, and he did not catch that deadly disease because he successfully resisted all the temptations that would have caused him to catch it, temptations that we fail to resist on a regular basis. Then, on the cross, he took the burden of our sin on himself and paid the price for all of it. Because of the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross for us, we have been cleansed of our sin.
The cure that Jesus won for you is a free gift that he gives to all of you through his Word and Sacraments. He speaks his forgiveness to you through his powerful Word, which heals you at that very moment. He reaches out his hand and gives you his healing touch through his Holy Sacraments. And now that he has given you his cure through these means of grace, you have a new life, not one that is weak and helpless, but one that is strong in Jesus.
Unfortunately, much like the physical sicknesses that you suffer through in this life, the disease of sin just doesn’t want to go away. And it doesn’t just give you physical weaknesses to suffer through, it also gives you spiritual weaknesses. It does so by trying to attack and weaken your faith, making you think that your weaknesses make you uncurable. But, thanks to the new life that God has given you through faith, trying to power through on your own is no longer your only option. In faith, you can turn to God for help, and he gives you the help you need by giving you the comfort that he has forgiven you and will always be there for you, bearing the burdens that you suffer in this life until the day that you get to enter into eternal life in heaven with him and forever be at peace.
One of the ways that Jesus gives you the forgiveness of sins when you are suffering is through Holy Communion. In that holy supper, you come to the Lord’s table, weak and helpless from the sins that you are suffering from, and you receive the Lord’s true body and blood in the bread and wine, which is the best medicine there is, the medicine of immortality. This is not a medicine that tastes really nasty, like the medicine that you may have to take to recover from your physical sicknesses. This medicine is sweet, granting you the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for you on the cross and strengthening you to continue through your lives with Jesus at your side.
Sickness is something that can be truly miserable and frustrating, especially when it makes us so weak and helpless that we can no longer function on our own. But even though it can be miserable, it can also be beneficial by helping us to realize that we can’t do everything on our own and that we do need to rely on help from others, especially on Jesus. When we are suffering from physical or spiritual weaknesses and there is no one else to turn to, we know that we can always turn to Jesus, who has the power to help us get through any weakness, because he is God.
Even though things that cause us suffering, such as death, taxes, and sickness, are considered to be certainties in this life, they are only temporary. The only certainty that has no end is the grace and mercy that can only be found in Jesus. Jesus truly is the ultimate cure.
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 a portion of a Byzantine mosaic in Sicily)
The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 22:1-14
In Christ Jesus, who looks with compassion on the outcasts, the ugly, and the soiled, so they might become beautiful and pure in Him, dear fellow redeemed:
The wedding day is a few weeks away. Who do you suppose is most anxious about the details, things like the guest list, flowers, food, decorations, clothing? I’ll give you three choices: the bride, the mother of the bride, or the mother of the groom. It’s the women! And that’s okay—that’s why wedding celebrations are beautiful!
But these wedding planners and detail doers are not leading the way in Jesus’ parable about a wedding feast. In fact, no reference is made specifically to a bride or the mothers. This is about “a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” And through this parable, Jesus wants to teach us something about the “kingdom of heaven.”
It is obvious that if you were a member of an earthly kingdom, and the king invited you to celebrate the wedding of his son, you would go. You would go either because you felt honored to be invited, or because you were afraid of what might happen to you if you refused. It is shocking to hear how the invited guests in the parable refused the king’s summons. Some of them even killed the servants who brought the message from the king!
This is nothing short of treason, a total rebellion against the king’s authority. They wouldn’t do this unless they thought he was powerless to do anything about it. Well they made a severe miscalculation. “The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”
Jesus spoke these words during Holy Week. He was talking about the Old Testament people of Israel, who through their history often rejected the faithful prophets of God and even killed many of them. For their rebellion against Him, God gave them up to their enemies. The people in the northern kingdom of Israel were either killed or enslaved by the Assyrians. And the people in the southern kingdom of Judah were later conquered by the Babylonians.
After seventy years in exile, God sent some of the Jews from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. The descendants of these returned exiles should have remembered what the Lord did for them, and learned to humbly trust and follow God’s Word. But now the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were plotting how they might arrest Jesus and have Him killed. They were just as guilty as their forefathers, and even guiltier for rejecting the King’s Son in the flesh.
So the King extended His invitation beyond the original guest list. He sent His servants out to “the main roads” to gather “all whom they found, both bad and good.” This refers to the Gentiles, who were not part of God’s chosen people Israel. Now they were welcome at the wedding feast too.
But before we go any further, we have to be clear about what this wedding feast is. We see that it is entered by invitation only, that wedding garments are required for all the guests, and that the food is the best there is. This wedding feast for the King’s Son is the feast of salvation, the celebration of Christ’s victory over our greatest enemies—sin, death, and the devil. It is a feast that no one partakes of on his own terms or makes himself worthy to receive. Notice that the attendees included both those who were considered bad and those who were considered good. No one earned an invitation and a place at the feast; the King granted it.
But why is this feast of salvation likened to a wedding feast? If the King is God the Father, and the feast is for His only-begotten Son, who is the bride? The inspired Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, answers that question for us. The last section of the chapter speaks of the husband as the head of his wife “even as Christ is the head of the church, his body” (v. 23). Then it says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (vv. 25-27).
These are some profound words. They describe Christ as Bridegroom and the Church as His bride. We often joke about husbands that they “married up” in relation to their wives. But that is not the case here. Jesus chose a bride that was not virtuous, not wise, not beautiful, and He joined Himself to her. Through this sacrifice of Himself, He gave His bride all that was His. His virtue became her virtue. His wisdom became her wisdom. His beauty and holiness became her beauty and holiness. His glory became her glory. If anyone has “married up,” it was certainly the Church in relation to Christ.
And who exactly is “the Church”? It is all those who are cleansed “by the washing of water with the word.” It is those who submit themselves and their eternal future to the safe-keeping of Jesus their Savior. Or to use the words of today’s reading, “the Church” is the ones who were invited by the King to His Son’s wedding feast. They came when the King’s servants called. They entered wearing the wedding garments supplied by the King. They have a seat at the King’s table where they enjoy His delicious food.
So you see that a bride actually does make an appearance in Jesus’ parable. The guests in glorious attire at the wedding feast, they are the bride! The guests are the Church of all believers, presented to Jesus “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing… holy and without blemish.”
That is a description of you, dear friends in Christ. You were cleansed of your sins in the waters of Baptism and were clothed in the garments of Jesus’ righteousness. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). This is when you were called to the King’s feast, the feast of salvation. All that Jesus accomplished for you by His death and resurrection became yours. You were joined to Him at those waters. You became a member of His holy Church which is His bride.
And that means He has reserved a seat for you at His table in the eternal feast above. You participate in this feast now by receiving Jesus’ body and blood in Holy Communion—the holy “joining together.” You don’t see Him in all His glory, but He meets you here to strengthen you for this life and to prepare you for the life to come. Your partaking of the Lord’s Supper here is a dress rehearsal for the wedding feast in heaven.
But as you know very well, even though all are invited to the King’s wedding feast—even though Jesus died on the cross for all people—not all are found worthy to attend. Jesus said this about the unbelieving Jews who killed the prophets sent to them by God. They “were not worthy” because of their unbelief.
So the invitation was extended to outsiders to come. But when they came, one of them decided to attend the feast without a wedding garment. This was an insult to the King who was glad to provide these garments. Essentially the man was saying, “I don’t need the King’s garments. I’m just fine the way I am.”
That describes people who call themselves Christians, but who do not trust in Jesus alone for their salvation. They want to go to heaven on their own terms. Some of them place their confidence in the works they do. Others knowingly reject certain teachings of God but still expect to have God’s favor.
This is why we don’t automatically invite all Christians to our Communion table. We want to make sure we are in agreement about what we believe before we take Communion together. After all, we aren’t the ones in charge of this wedding feast. It is the King and His Son who are.
Jesus’ parable should be a huge eye-opener for us. Many decide that the feast of salvation is not worth their time. They ignore or they get angry at God’s servants sent to call them to come. And of those who do come, some want the King to submit Himself to them. Jesus sums up these warnings with the words, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
But you, dear members of the Church, are here today. You want to hear God’s Word of truth. You want the comfort of His absolution. You want to receive His body and blood for the remission of your sins. You don’t have something better to do than this. This is where you want to be. This is where Jesus meets you with His saving gifts.
He comes here through His Word and Sacraments to reaffirm His love for you. He comes to fight for you against the temptations and trials you face. He comes to provide all that you need to enter the marriage hall—His forgiveness, His righteousness, His life. Even though His bride—each one of us—may forget Him from time to time and pursue other things that seem more important, He does not forget us. He is perfectly committed to His Church; He is perfectly committed to you.
And you know it. You know that you are not invited to the feast because you are so important or so worthy to receive the King’s gifts. You are invited to the feast because The Gracious King Wants You at His Table. He does not look down on you for the rags of sin you have worn; He clothes you in the righteousness of His Son. He does not judge you for your many failures; He welcomes you to the marriage hall based on the perfect merit of His Son.
This is not a wedding you have to plan. You don’t have to worry about all the details that make everything just right. You are the honored guest. Everything has been prepared for you, and your merciful Lord is thrilled to serve you, His bride, both now and forevermore.
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 Great Banquet” by the Brunswick Monogrammist, 16th century)