The First Sunday after Michaelmas (Trinity 19) – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Jeremiah 1:1-10
In Christ Jesus, who has given authority to men to proclaim His powerful Law and Gospel to lead sinners to repentance and faith, dear fellow redeemed:
Imagine that someone offers you a job, and the primary requirement for the job is that you tell the truth. But if you tell the truth, your colleagues will hate you, the authorities will hate you, and the people you most want to help will think you are crazy. A number of people will threaten you with death. You will be thrown into prison for a while. You will warn everyone about what will happen if they don’t change course. But no one will listen, and everything you predict will come true. Would you take that job?
What I described is similar to what happened to Jeremiah, a prophet of the LORD. But the LORD did not exactly offer him his job; He told him what he would do. The LORD had prepared Jeremiah’s work for him even before he existed. The LORD said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah immediately questioned his qualifications: “I do not know how to speak,” he said, “for I am only a youth.” To assure Jeremiah of His presence and power, the LORD engaged several of Jeremiah’s senses. The Word of the LORD came to him, so we assume he was able to hear the voice of God. Then “the LORD put out His hand,” which Jeremiah was presumably able to see. And then the LORD “touched [his] mouth,” which he was able to feel. All of it was to assure Jeremiah that he would not have to come up with the words to speak; the LORD would give him the words.
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth,” He said. He also told Jeremiah what those words would accomplish. Jeremiah would be placed “over nations and over kingdoms.” But the words he spoke would not be welcome. These words from God would have power “to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Four of the effects in the list are destructive—pluck up, break down, destroy, overthrow, and only two are constructive—build and plant.
The task for Jeremiah would certainly be difficult. The consequences for his faithful work were outcomes he would want to avoid. He grieved for his people who had gone after foreign gods (Jer. 8:18-21). And he grieved that he was attacked for telling the truth. He cried out bitterly: “Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me” (15:10).
So why did the LORD put him through such trials and troubles? It seems unfair that Jeremiah would have to experience these things. But let’s look at it from a different perspective. The people of Israel had forsaken the LORD. They worshiped false gods from the king down to the common people. The prophets and priests told everyone what they wanted to hear and were especially greedy for goods and money. The people were doing everything God said they should not do and what He warned would lead to their destruction.
But instead of sending enemies to smash down their gates and destroy the people of Israel, the merciful LORD sent them prophets. He sent the prophets to expose their sins through His Law and call them to repent of their wrongs. He also delivered a message of promise through the prophets, that if the people turned back to the LORD, He would bless them and give them peace and prosperity.
So the work was difficult for Jeremiah, but it was done out of God’s love for His people. He did not take pleasure in Jeremiah’s suffering. He took pleasure in seeking and saving His lost sheep. Jeremiah was right—he did not have the strength inside himself to do this work. But the LORD promised, “I am with you to deliver you.”
We do not face the same intense trials that Jeremiah did, where it is basically us against the whole world. But we certainly experience challenges to our faith and the pressure to go along with what we know is wrong. It is always difficult to tell the truth when we know the truth is not welcome.
And there have certainly been times that we kept our mouths shut when we should have spoken up and confessed the name of Jesus. We took the easy path that did not risk our popularity or our position instead of standing for what is right. Like Jeremiah, we have hidden behind our weaknesses and essentially told the Almighty God to find someone else who is more qualified.
But the task to speak God’s Word faithfully is given to each one of us. 1 Peter 3 says, “Have no fear of [those who oppose you], nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (vv. 14-15). But how can we stay prepared to do this? How can we make sure we are ready to speak when challenges and questions come our way?
We are prepared in the same way that Jeremiah was—through the powerful Word of God. The LORD has not visibly reached out and touched our mouth, but He did call us to the waters of Holy Baptism, where a pastor touched us with the sign of the cross and with water joined to His Word. That Baptism showed that before He formed us in the womb He knew us. He chose us to be saved and brought us the salvation Jesus won by baptizing us into His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4).
In our Lord’s institution of the Sacraments and His calling of men to be pastors, it is clear that He wants to fill all our senses with His Word. Besides the touch of the Sacraments, He wants us to see those visible Sacraments in the Divine Service and read the Word of God in worship and through regular devotions at home. He wants us to hear the Word preached and join in confessing and singing His truth. He wants us to taste the gifts of His Supper as He gives His true body and blood along with the bread and wine for the remission of our sins.
Our sense of smell is perhaps the least engaged of our senses in the Divine Service, though some Christians are used to the smell of incense lifting heavenward with their prayers. We might smell the candles or fresh flowers, but we might especially think of breathing in the Word like we do oxygen and then breathing out our prayers and praises to God.
The Word of God does not dull our senses like a drug or some kind of anesthetic. The Word of God wakes us up; it keeps us alert. The world sees it the opposite way. It says that the teaching of the Bible holds us back from true happiness, from reaching our full potential, from being who we were meant to be. The world agrees with the people of Israel who at times ignored Jeremiah and at times hoped for and worked toward his death.
Though Jeremiah often felt despair and wondered if his preaching was doing any good, the Word of God never returns to Him empty. It accomplishes His purpose and succeeds in the thing for which He sent it (Isa. 55:11). His Word is living and active (Heb. 4:12), and it produces a living and active faith in His people.
The Lord still calls men like Jeremiah—pastors who also struggle with doubts and weaknesses—to preach His holy Word. He calls you to gladly hear and learn this Word. The Lord speaks it for your life and salvation. He wants you to turn from your sin in repentance and to believe that all your sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus.
By your inherited sinful nature, you were like the paralyzed man brought before Jesus—unable to do anything to help yourself. But Jesus looked with compassion on you and said, “Take heart, My child; your sins are forgiven” (Mat. 9:1-8). That is a delightful Word. It is like music to the ears, like light for the eyes, like honey to the taste, like a sweet-smelling aroma, like a gentle and comforting touch. No matter how often you have ignored the Word of God, taken the easy path, or hidden behind your weaknesses, Jesus says to you: “Your sins are forgiven!”
This is a message for the whole world, for all sinners. This is what the LORD calls pastors to preach publicly in the congregation. This is the message the LORD calls every Christian to proclaim privately in their day-to-day lives, announcing the forgiveness of sins to your family members, friends, co-workers, and other neighbors. This Word of God’s grace is not always met with joy. Some take offense at the suggestion that they have sins that need forgiving. Others question whether sinners like you and me have any business speaking forgiveness to others.
But despite the criticisms, we know that it is not our Word we speak, but the LORD’s. He has put His Word in our mouths, and not just in our mouths—in our ears and eyes and noses and hands. The Lord Fills Our Senses with His Word, so that we are ready to speak His Word faithfully.
This is no job to run away from, and we do not need to be afraid to do it, “for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” Through His Word that we speak, our gracious Lord will continue to carry out His soul-saving work for others just as He has for us—the work of plucking up and breaking down, destroying and overthrowing, building and planting.
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 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Samuel 16:5-14
In Christ Jesus, who accepted the curse of God’s Law and suffered death in our place, so we would be declared righteous before God, dear fellow redeemed:
Have you ever been cursed out before? Have you had someone attack you with words, bitter words, words that cut deep? Perhaps this has happened to you, and it came as no surprise. It was a reaction to something hurtful or harmful you had said or done. Or maybe this happened to you, and you didn’t see it coming. You became a target of someone’s anger when you didn’t deserve it.
Today’s reading describes a difficult time in King David’s life, when his son Absalom was seeking to take his throne and David was on the run. As David hurried away from Jerusalem and toward the Jordan River, a relative of King Saul named Shimei met him with continuous cursing. He accused David of having blood on his hands with regard to the house of Saul. He blamed David for the downfall of Saul, even though Saul’s unfaithfulness to the LORD was the reason he lost the throne.
While Shimei called down curses from the LORD on David, he also threw stones at him and flung dust in the air. He was making a very bad day even worse. The military men around David offered to dispatch the head of this troublesome man. Why should they have to put up with his cursing and stone throwing? David was the king; the king should be respected. All David had to do was give the order, and Shimei would be permanently silenced.
But even though Shimei was wrong in his accusations of David, David did nothing to stop him. He accepted the cursing as a chastening from the Lord. He recognized that his present troubles had come upon him from his own house because of his sin with a married woman named Bathsheba. He had seduced her, conceived a child with her, and then plotted to have her husband killed, so that he could marry her. When the LORD sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin, He said, “The sword shall never depart from your house,” and “I will raise up evil against you out of your own house” (2Sa. 12:10,11).
The condemnation of God’s Law hit home. David repented of his sin. And Nathan told him, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (v. 13). But the consequences remained. Most immediately, the child David conceived with Bathsheba died. And now evil had come out of David’s own house, with his son Absalom seeking to kill him. As he listened to Shimei’s curses, David acknowledged that this was a consequence for his sin.
Sin always has consequences, some more severe and some less. If you steal from someone and get caught, or if you drive recklessly and harm someone, those sins will have the consequence of criminal charges and possibly jail time. If you are caught in a lie, that sin will have the consequence of people not trusting you. If you give way to wicked or lustful thoughts or contemplate things you know are wrong, those sins may not have obvious, tangible consequences, but they will contribute to a burden of guilt on your conscience.
But saying that sin has consequences is different than saying that sin is not forgiven. Every sin you have committed, no matter what it is, is forgiven by God. God the Father placed all your sin on His Son, and Jesus paid for every one of your trespasses. He suffered and died for your sin as though He is the one who committed it. So when God sends or allows consequences for your sin, this is not to punish you. These consequences are intended to keep you humble and train you in righteous living.
We are so stubborn in our sin that if there were never consequences for bad behavior or wicked words, we would just be more emboldened to keep sinning. Why should I stop doing something bad if I never have to answer for it? We must be taught from our youth that there is a difference between right and wrong. We must be required to answer for our bad behavior. We shouldn’t get away with talking back to our parents, harming others physically or verbally, or taking what doesn’t belong to us.
By learning this discipline in our youth, we are more willing to receive correction and accept consequences for sin when we are older. When a family member, a friend, or a fellow Christian calls us out for our selfishness or greed, our judgmental attitude or unkind words, we recognize in their voice the voice of God. We remember the Ten Commandments which clearly reveal the will of God for us. If we refuse to hear correction from His Word, we are saying that we are not really as bad as God says we are. We are saying that we are righteous even while our actions, words, and thoughts conflict with God’s Word.
David acknowledged his sin, and he accepted the cursing of Shimei as a wholesome chastening from the LORD. Shimei was not correct in his accusations, but instead of acting out in anger toward him, David in humility accepted the verbal attack. He left justice to the LORD. He said, “It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today.”
In our litigious culture, where everyone wants to counter-attack and sue as soon as they feel offended about something or wronged in some way, David’s example is important for us Christians. He was willing to receive chastening for his imperfect life. He was willing to endure a fiery trial for the testing and strengthening of his faith. He was willing to suffer out of love for God.
Jesus teaches all His followers to do this. In His Sermon on the Mount, He teaches us to “turn the other cheek” when we are attacked (Mat. 5:39). He says that we should remember that even our enemies are our neighbors, and that we should love all our neighbors as we love ourselves (v. 44). This is the teaching of the Law, which is summarized by perfect love for Him and perfect love for one another (v. 48). That is what a righteous life looks like.
Sometimes our life resembles this, but often it does not. Because we have not perfectly kept God’s Law, we can’t put any trust in what we do. In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat. 5:20). Unless your righteousness is a million times better than the people who are considered the most holy and good, you cannot get yourself to heaven. That is why your confidence must be in Jesus, the holy Son of God and Son of Man, who did perfectly keep the holy Law.
In David, you see a picture of what Jesus would later endure for your salvation. David was the true king, but he was forced out of Jerusalem where he was met with wrongful cursing by his enemies. Jesus was the king of all creation, but He was forced out of Jerusalem wearing a crown of thorns and carrying a cross. When He was crucified on Calvary, he was met with all sorts of cursing and reviling from His enemies. “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe” (Mar. 15:32), they said in mockery. “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him” (Mat. 27:43).
If anyone had the right to defend Himself and call down curses on His enemies, it was Jesus. He had done no wrong. No court committed to justice would have ever found Him guilty. We are quick to cry out whenever some little wrong is done to us. We hold grudges. We plot our revenge. But look at Jesus! His apostle Peter wrote, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1Pe. 2:22-23).
That is righteousness. That is a holy life before God. He lived a perfect life of love toward God and neighbor. That perfect life is the reason you have confidence before God today. Jesus lived His holy, righteous life for you. He willingly suffered every injustice for you. He went to the cross for you, to pay for your sins. His righteous life and His sacrifice in your place now give you the courage and strength to endure afflictions in your life.
When you are unjustly attacked like David was, you can remember how Jesus humbly suffered for you. You may not receive justice in this life, but you are right with the God of heaven. Trouble may meet you at every turn, but your faithful God promises to hold you up by His grace. Peace may elude you in the world, but you have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
At the end of today’s reading, we hear that David arrived weary at the Jordan River, where “he refreshed himself.” The Jordan River is where 1,000 years later, Jesus was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (Mat. 3:15). Your Baptism brought His righteousness to you. Your Baptism is where the “great exchange” happened for you, the exchange described by St. Paul, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co. 5:21).
You are righteous “in him,” by faith in Him—the faith brought to you at your Baptism. In Him, you have the forgiveness of all your sins, strength for every difficulty, and the promise of eternal life. No matter what trials you have to go through, whether as consequences for your sin that the Lord works for your good, or as training in righteousness that the Lord gives for the strengthening of your faith, He will at the same time provide refreshment through His Word and Sacraments. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” He says, “and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass at Redeemer Lutheran Church)
The Third Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Exodus 32:1-14
In Christ Jesus, who attacked and overcame the devil, so that we whom the devil once claimed are now free to thank, praise, serve, and obey the only true God, dear fellow redeemed:
When we think about the attributes or characteristics of God, we often think of the three omnis: omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Or we think about how He is just, holy, merciful, and gracious. One of the characteristics that probably doesn’t come to mind is that God is jealous. We often think of jealousy in negative terms, describing someone who is envious or suspicious without any real reason to be so. But there is also a positive side to jealousy.
We learn about this positive side in the Catechism from the Conclusion to the Commandments, where God’s own words are quoted: “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
We use these words as the Conclusion to the Commandments, but the LORD actually spoke them after the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exo. 20:3). He made it clear in this context that His people should not make any carved images of anything in heaven or on earth, and that they should not bow down to them or serve them. The people of Israel heard these words from Moses. Everything was plainly stated. And they answered with one voice, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do” (24:3).
Now just a short time later while Moses was meeting with God on Mount Sinai, the people grew restless. They came to Moses’ older brother Aaron, whom Moses had left in charge while he was away. “Up,” they said to Aaron, “make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” It seems that Aaron felt a mixture of pressure and pride. He could see that the people were restless, and that concerned him. He also recognized he was in a position of influence.
He thought he could steer the people in a better direction; he could compromise to keep the peace. He gathered their gold jewelry and fashioned it into a golden calf, just the kind of “graven image” that God had condemned. And when the people praised the idol as the “gods… who brought [them] up out of the land of Egypt,” Aaron tried to bring the LORD back into it. He declared “a feast to the LORD” on the next day.
But the people did not have the LORD in mind. They got up early the next day, offered sacrifices to the golden calf, ate and drank, and “rose up to play.” St. Paul told the Christians in Corinth what kind of “play” the Israelites were up to. He wrote, “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day” (1Co. 10:8). Twenty-three thousand fell into sexual sin, rejecting God’s institution of marriage, an institution as old as creation itself. And many more joined them in disobeying God’s Commandments and ignoring His promises. They chose the ways of the world, the desires of their flesh, and the lordship of the devil.
How would God respond? He told Moses that the people had “corrupted themselves.” They had “turned aside quickly” from the way He commanded them. “Now therefore let Me alone,” He said, “that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” If God did not care about His people, He wouldn’t have reacted like this. His anger was a sign of His commitment toward them. He had chosen this people. He had led them out of slavery in Egypt. He had brought them through the Red Sea and provided for them in the wilderness.
The LORD looks upon you with the same devotion and care. He gave you life through your parents; He knitted you together in your mother’s womb (Psa. 139:13). He brought you to the waters of Baptism where He adopted you as His own child and put His name on you. He delivered you from your slavery to sin, devil, and death. And He continues to provide you nourishment through His Word and Sacraments as you journey through the wilderness of this world.
If He were indifferent about how you live your life or about what happens to you, He would not have done all the things for you that He has done. Your Father in heaven certainly would not have sent His Son to suffer and die for you if He did not care for you and all sinners. But just as He was jealous for Adam and Eve when the devil brought them over to his side, and just as He was jealous for the Israelites, so He is jealous for you.
This is a proper jealousy. It’s the kind of jealousy a husband or father might feel when bad actors and bad influences are trying to break up his marriage or family. It’s a jealousy that fights for what another has no right to have. The LORD was jealous for His people. He was their God who had redeemed them. The gods the Egyptians worshiped had no power to stop Him. He alone was God. Any other gods were figments of human imagination fueled by the temptations of the devil.
Could this have been made any clearer to the Israelites, when Moses tossed their golden god in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the people drink it (32:20)? This was the god that brought them out of Egypt, the god that now made its way through their insides and was expelled?!? The same goes for the idols we set up in our lives: the pursuit of riches, possessions, and pleasures, of power, influence, and fame, of entertainment and excitement. Those might satisfy you for a while, but what good can they do when the day is far spent, when the sand in the hourglass keeps falling, when the time you have left is diminishing?
But the devil is well-experienced at trickery and deceit. He is always whispering in your ear: “Wouldn’t you like to have more? Don’t you deserve more? Why waste your life following the rules? Loosen up! Live a little! What’s so wrong with wanting to be happy? Pay attention to your feelings! Follow your heart! Only you know what’s best for yourself.” That’s what the devil did to the Israelites, and it nearly got them destroyed by the LORD.
It was only because of Moses’ intercession for the people that the LORD relented. Moses said to the LORD, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” Moses pointed to God’s promise, and God’s anger was averted.
When you have behaved like the Israelites and have fallen for the devil’s temptations and committed sins against God’s holy Law, you might also wonder if you will escape God’s wrath. You took the wrong path. You followed false gods. You denied the LORD who made you, who purchased and won you, who chose you. As much as you wish you could, you can’t go back and change what you have done. Does the LORD really forgive you?
The way to answer that question is to ask a few more questions: Did God the Father send His Son to take on your flesh? Did Jesus suffer and die on the cross for the whole world’s sins? Did He rise in victory over death on the third day? If the answer to those questions is “yes,” which is exactly what the Bible teaches, then the LORD really does forgive you all your sins. Jesus made atonement for each and every one through His suffering and death.
And now since His ascension, He is “at the right hand of God,” where He “indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34). He is the Prophet like Moses, whom Moses said would come (Deu. 18:15), and Jesus intercedes for us like Moses did for the Israelites. When the Father sees us falling into sin and living contrary to His will, Jesus is constantly reminding the Father of His completed work. “I paid for that sin, and that sin, and that sin,” says Jesus. So the Father relents from the punishment we deserve. He does what Jesus’ death and resurrection require: He forgives us.
That does not mean, of course, that we are free to keep chasing after idols. God is jealous for our fear, love, and trust. “I am the LORD; that is my name” He says; “my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isa. 42:8). He deserves our love, our devotion, our worship—our entire life. Whenever and wherever we have not given these things, we must repent. We must admit that we have not been and done what He chose us and called us to do.
Then we also take comfort that our God, the only true God, is good, kind, and patient toward us. Shortly after sparing His people Israel from destruction, He described His characteristics to Moses which are still true of Him today. He said about Himself: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exo. 34:6-7). That is the God you have—a jealous God, jealous for your faith and salvation.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Golden Calf” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
Septuagesima Sunday – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 50:15-21
In Christ Jesus, who came down from His heavenly throne to save us by grace, and grace alone (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #226, v. 4), dear fellow redeemed:
Do you remember the dreams that the teenage Joseph had? The sheaves of his brothers bowing down to his sheaf in the field? And then the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him? His brothers hated him for this (Gen. 37:8). Those dreams were on their minds when they saw Joseph coming toward them in the field. “Here comes this dreamer,” they said. “Come now, let us kill him” (37:19-20). But instead they decided to sell him… as a slave.
By the time of today’s reading, more than thirty years had passed. For seventeen of those, Joseph’s brothers had lived peacefully in Egypt under Joseph’s protection and care. But now their father Jacob was dead. What might Joseph do to them now, and who would stop him if he decided to take revenge? They had sold him for twenty shekels of silver. How much do you think they would have given to undo what they had done?
A clean conscience is a priceless thing to have. You know that because of what a tremendous burden a guilty conscience is. Think back to when you were a child. At some point, you probably took something you weren’t supposed to. Maybe it was a cookie or some treat your parents told you not to take. You took it and ate it, but it didn’t bring you the satisfaction you expected. In fact, it didn’t take long before you wondered why you ever took it in the first place and wished you could go back and change your actions.
That is true of so many of our sins. When faced with a temptation, we tell ourselves it is no big deal. “I can have this, or do this. No one will find out. I can get away with it.” But then it eats away at us. We can’t get it out of our mind. We feel it sticking to us like mud or hanging around our neck like heavy chains. We expect that everyone is going to find out. And we almost hope they do because then we can stop trying to hide it. Then we can take the consequences and move on.
But there is also danger in being found out. If somebody you have to answer to finds out what you have done, you can’t control how they respond. You don’t know how bad your punishment will be. You don’t know how much you could lose, but you always imagine the worst. That’s what Joseph’s brothers did. They saw how much power Joseph had. They imagined how he might sell them as slaves like they sold him. Or throw them in prison and make their wives and children slaves.
So they decided to appeal to the words of their father. If Joseph did not respect them, he certainly respected their father. They conveyed the command from Jacob that Joseph forgive his brothers. Then they asked him to consider their common faith in God and forgive them. Finally, they bowed down before him (just like Joseph’s dreams indicated) and said, “Behold, we are your servants. We are at your mercy.”
And they were. We don’t know if Joseph ever imagined this day. I suspect he did when he was treated roughly and sold in Egypt, and when he wiled away the hours in prison. No doubt the devil tempted him to hate his brothers who dealt so severely with him and tore him away from his home and family. You also know what it is to be wronged. Maybe someone attacked you for no good reason. Maybe someone betrayed your trust. Maybe someone lied to you and hurt you deeply.
It hurt so badly that you may have wanted them to feel that pain, so they would understand what they had done. Then they couldn’t try to pass it off as no big deal, or that they didn’t mean anything by it, or you should just forget about it. No, you wanted them to know how much it hurt you. And you can dwell on that and hold on to that bitterness and anger, so that it consumes you and grows much bigger than the original offense.
Now in Joseph’s case, it was a terrible offense. Who can imagine selling off a family member to an unknown fate? This gnawed at his brothers. They could not forget. They probably imagined Joseph being treated as less than human in Egypt and maybe even being killed and left in some unmarked grave. They did that to him. Like Cain who killed his brother Abel, they let their anger overcome them. And now they had to live with what they had done. But it was too much for them to bear. The burden of guilt overwhelmed them.
You know what this burden feels like because each of us has done things we regret, that we wish we could go back and change and fix. Knowing what a guilty conscience feels like is one reason why you should be ready to forgive those who have sinned against you. You know what a gift forgiveness is. You receive it each week in church after confessing your sins to God. You hear these words which have the power of God behind them, “By the authority of God and of my holy office I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
What a relief it is to know that every sin is forgiven by God! He holds none of them against you, even if you have fallen into the same sin again and again. He forgives you because Jesus paid the penalty for all sin on the cross. Even if someone you have sinned against tells you that he or she will never forgive you, God still forgives you. He has every right to hold your sins against you since you broke His holy Law, but He refuses to do this. The blood of His Son was sufficient to cleanse you of all your sins (1Jo. 1:7).
His blood was also sufficient to cleanse others of the sins they have committed against you. Sure, Joseph had the power to harm his brothers. But then he would have sinned just as they had. “Do not fear,” he said, “for am I in the place of God?” In the same way, you may have the power to harm someone, but are you in the place of God? The inspired letter to the Colossians says, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (3:12-13).
We are not called to take revenge. We are called to be toward others as Jesus is toward us. We are called to be gracious. If we are saved by grace, by God’s undeserved love, then that is what we want to pass on to our neighbors. This is not a lesson we learn from the world. We live in a culture of political retribution, of diss tracks that win the highest music awards, of bad behavior that gets publicly outed but never publicly forgiven.
The way of Christ is counterintuitive. It is countercultural. It does not seek to “get what’s mine.” It seeks to give. That is what Jesus did. He came to give His perfect life in the place of every sinful one. He came to undo every wrong by His life of righteousness. He came to wipe away every transgression, every wrong, every hateful and hurtful action.
He came to free the world and every human heart from the desire to wound as we have been wounded, the desire to treat others the way they have treated us, the desire to get the payment we demand for the wrongs that were done to us. The revenge game has no winners, only losers. Joseph could have taken revenge on his brothers. But he did the bigger thing instead. He forgave.
He also acknowledged that the goodness of God was greater and stronger than their wicked intentions. He said, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” God turning evil into good does not justify evil, as though we should sin however we want, since God will work good out of it. Joseph’s brothers weren’t about to pat themselves on the back for being the ones to get their brother in Egypt to carry out this good work.
But it is comforting to know that God does this redemptive work, that He can and does turn our times of greatest pain and suffering into blessings. Maybe we will never clearly recognize those blessings, but we can trust that God will bring them about somehow. We know that even though we have meant evil against God in our sins, He turned everything for our good. He sent His Son to redeem us, so that we do not have to fear His wrath and punishment but rest in His unchanging grace.
Our hymn of the month teaches this, that we are saved by God’s free and boundless grace. He will not punish us eternally for our sins, no matter how terrible those sins were or how heavily they have weighed on our conscience. As stanza eight of the hymn says:
By grace to timid hearts that tremble,
In tribulation’s furnace tried—
By grace, despite all fear and trouble,
The Father’s heart is open wide.
Where could I help and strength secure
If grace were not my anchor sure? (ELH #226)
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 “Crucifixion, Seen from the Cross,” by James Tissot, c. 1890)
The First Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 27:1-19
In Christ Jesus, Himself a Child within an earthly home, who with heart still undefiled did to manhood come (ELH #187, v. 2), so that His righteous life would be credited to us, dear fellow redeemed:
If you are from a family of more than one child, which one of you was the favorite? The older children can say, “Mom and Dad were so happy with us that they thought they would have more kids… but it didn’t work out like they hoped.” The younger ones can say, “Dad and Mom kept hoping for something better until they got to us.” These comments are all made in good fun. As much as we might try to get our parents to name their favorites, we know this would not be helpful to anyone.
Today’s reading gives us a clear example of favoritism in a family and the difficulties it caused. We heard last week how Isaac and Rebekah were unable to have children until twenty years into their marriage when God blessed them with twin sons. Carrying twins would be challenging enough, but in Rebekah’s case, her boys struggled inside her. It caused her such discomfort and pain that “she went to inquire of the LORD” (Gen. 25:22), probably through a prophet. She received this response: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” (v. 23).
When her sons were born, the first baby was all red and his body was like a hairy cloak. He was called “Esau,” a name like the Hebrew word for “red.” The second baby came out hanging on to his brother’s heel, so he received the name “Jacob,” a name that means “heel grabber.” As they grew older, rough-and-tumble Esau, an outdoorsman and hunter, was favored by his father, while mild-mannered Jacob who stayed close to home was favored by his mother.
It is clear that the question of who was to be the chief heir of the family was on each of their minds. Esau was in the position of inheritance as the firstborn, but Rebekah could not forget the LORD’s prophecy about how “the older shall serve the younger.” Once when Esau returned home exhausted, he demanded that Jacob give him some of the stew he had prepared. Jacob sensing an opportunity said, “Sell me your birthright now” (v. 31). In other words, give up the right of the firstborn. And Esau replied, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” (v. 32). So Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew, so little did he regard the promise of inheritance and of the coming Savior.
But it seems that Isaac was not convinced that Rebekah understood the prophecy in the right way. Perhaps through the struggle in her womb, thought Isaac, the younger Esau had prevailed and passed by his brother Jacob. Even by appearance, Esau was obviously the stronger of the two, and the prophecy said, “the one shall be stronger than the other.” Rebekah remained convinced that the son born last should be regarded as the first. Today’s reading shows us that the question had not been settled between husband and wife.
Isaac made it known to Esau that he intended to give him the official family blessing. Esau would inherit the largest portion. Esau would be the leader of the clan. Esau would be the heir of the promise. Rebekah overheard that conversation and quickly made a plan. Jacob would pretend to be Esau in order to receive his father’s blessing. The reason she thought they could pull it off is because Isaac in his old age had become nearly blind. Rebekah justified these actions by holding to the Word she had heard from the LORD, that the younger should prevail.
So Jacob dressed in Esau’s clothes, he covered his hands and neck with goat skin so his skin would seem rough like Esau’s, and he brought food for his father like the food Esau often prepared. And as crazy as the plan seemed, it actually worked. Despite some suspicions, Isaac bestowed the family blessing on Jacob including these words, “Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” (27:29). So Jacob received the blessing as the LORD intended. Everything turned out well! Except for the fact that Esau now hated his brother and made plans to kill him when their father died (v. 41).
Nobody comes out of this account looking very righteous. Isaac ignored or explained away the prophecy his wife received. Rebekah schemed to deceive her husband. Esau showed in various ways his rejection of God’s will. Jacob lied several times to his father. Does it surprise you to learn these things about Isaac and Jacob, two of the prominent fathers of the faith in Old Testament times?
What we find in the household of Isaac and Rebekah is not so different from what could be found in our own homes. Perhaps the sins of our household don’t look exactly like theirs, but sins are certainly there. In our homes, husband and wife do not always get along. They do not always willingly and humbly serve one another. Sometimes they get angry with each other and speak harshly to each other. Children do not always obey their parents. They seek to deceive them, they lie to them, and they speak disrespectfully to them. Siblings fight with one another, hurt each other, possibly even express hatred toward one another wishing that their brother or sister were dead.
You know the sins of your own household. You know the part you played in the conflicts from your youth to the present day. You know that you and your family are not as righteous as you would like people to think. We can be grateful that the details of our home life are not recorded in the pages of Scripture for everyone to read like Isaac’s and Rebekah’s were. But their family conflicts are not included to give us something interesting to read and make judgments about. Their family conflicts are included because they relate directly to God’s promise that a Savior would come through their line.
Even in this household of sinners, through these flawed and selfish individuals, God kept His promise. He chose them by grace to carry the seed that would one day take shape in the womb of a woman named Mary. God does great things even in our own sinful homes. He gives us opportunities each day for humble service to one another, opportunities to forgive each other’s wrongs, opportunities to encourage one another in the faith. We are joined to the members of our family by blood, but more importantly, we are—each of us—part of the body of Christ through the cleansing of His blood.
In all of human history, there has only been one perfect Child. We hear about Him today going to church with His parents in Jerusalem. And though we might wonder why He didn’t tell His parents where He would be as they prepared to leave the city, He did not try to deceive them. He had no bad intentions. When they located Him on the third day in the temple, He explained with some surprise, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Luk. 2:49).
They did not understand what He was saying, which I’m sure happened over and over again in His conversations with them. But the perfect Jesus did not become frustrated with His sinful parents. He submitted to their earthly authority, and in so doing, He perfectly fulfilled the Fourth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”
Jesus kept that command for you, so that the times you disobeyed or disrespected your parents, your teachers, your bosses, and every other earthly authority—so that these times are covered by His righteousness. Jesus was born under God’s Law to redeem you from your breaking of His Law (Gal. 4:4-5). He took all the sins you have done as a child, as a sibling, as a spouse, as a parent, and He paid the price in full to save you from the wrath of God.
And since God is not angry with you for our sins, neither should you be angry with anyone else. Just because Esau did not get what he wanted, does not mean he had the right to hate his brother. Even Isaac when he learned he had been deceived by Rebekah and Jacob did not disown his wife and son. He forgave them and turned these concerns over to his Savior God, who knows how to work all things—even hurtful and dishonest things—for good.
Perhaps Isaac also realized that his favoritism toward Esau had clouded his judgment. Obvious favoritism in a family is never beneficial. The Bible says multiple times that “God shows no partiality” (Act. 10:34), and the same should be said for a father and a mother. When God grants children to Christian husband and wife, He intends that each child be loved, provided for, and prayed for just the same. I remember hearing about a family with multiple children who admitted after their parents’ deaths that each one thought he or she was the favorite. Each child thought this, which shows how dearly their parents loved each one.
In every station of our life, we want to love the people around us whom God has given us to love. When we fall short in our interactions and our responsibilities, we take comfort that we are loved with a perfect love. We are loved and forgiven by our heavenly Father who holds no grudge against us for past wrongs and has no plan to punish us in the future. He sent His perfect Son, the perfect Child of Mary, to redeem all the children of the world, including imperfect ones like you and me.
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 “Jesus Among the Doctors” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Ephesians 4:22-28
In Christ Jesus, who gives us a purpose bigger than ourselves, who has a plan and a glorious future for us that stretches from this life to eternity, dear fellow redeemed:
“Stick to this diet plan and watch the pounds melt away!”
“Use this face cream, and your wrinkles will disappear!”
“Do these exercises and get the body you always wanted!”
“Follow these easy steps, and you will be rich!”
The promises made by advertisements like these are often exaggerations. But we don’t really care. We want to believe there are solutions out there to make us healthier, stronger, and better than we are right now. But even if these products delivered on their promises, how much would we have actually changed? Would the changes be significant and impactful long-term, or would they be surface-level changes, only temporary, only skin-deep?
Looking around us, we can’t help but see that many people are discontent. They complain about how they look, their aches and pains, their lack of time and money, their inability to maintain a good diet and a good exercise regimen. They see the people who seem so beautiful and handsome, so strong and fit, so rich and famous, and they envy them. “If only we could look like they look and have what they have,” they say, “then we would be happy.”
Others are working on ways to further integrate technology with humanity, so that they can figure out how to mitigate or even reverse the effects of aging. They are asking questions like these: “How can we live longer? Suffer less? Function better? Have a higher quality of life?” For some called “transhumanists,” the answer is somehow to plug a computer-enhanced brain into a technological environment, so that our consciousness and cognitive ability are not limited by our weak bodies.
But as much as we would like to have better health, more agility and strength, better cognitive function, and more wealth—and as good as these things can be—there is an important question we should be asking. That question is: Who is this for? Who is my physical health, my mental ability, and my individual talents for? The answer that our society typically gives to this question is: “These things are for me.” Is it any wonder that people are so discontent? As long as their personal improvement is only for themselves, they will find that they will never get as far or have as much as they want.
Today’s reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians helps us aim higher. The focus of this reading is not first of all on our physical health or on our earthly success. It is primarily about our spiritual health and how that affects the people around us. Just as physical health is about avoiding what is bad while also pursuing what is good, the same is true for our spiritual health. Paul writes that we were taught in Christ both to put off our old self and to put on our new self.
Our old self is our sinful nature, the nature we inherited from Adam. His sinful likeness, his image, is imprinted on us (Gen. 5:3). It is clear that we have come from him because we are sinners like he was. Sin is the common family trait that we can see in every human being that has ever lived (except for One). This corruption inside us is what causes us to do and say things that are harmful to ourselves and others.
These are the things that we are to put off or lay aside. Paul gives a few examples. He writes that we should “put away falsehood.” We should “not let the sun go down on [our] anger.” We should “no longer steal.” These are things that come from the old self. These are things that invite the devil in to attack our faith. If we want to be spiritually healthy, we will avoid these things. And if we have fallen into these sins, we must be ready to repent of them.
While avoiding what is harmful to our faith, we also want to pursue what is good. If we must “put away falsehood,” we should also “speak the truth” with one another. If we must “not let the sun go down on [our] anger,” we should seek to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving toward others (Eph. 4:32). If we must “no longer steal,” we should be ready to do “honest work with [our] own hands, so that [we] may have something to share with anyone in need.”
But like the paralyzed man in today’s Gospel account (Mat. 9:1-8), we don’t have the power to get up and do this on our own. That power must come from God. We see this power in Jesus’ words to the paralytic, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” It didn’t initially look like these words had done anything. The paralytic kept on lying there on his bed. What good were those words if he couldn’t walk?
But we have no indication that the man was disappointed. What if he had been blaming himself for his paralysis? What if he thought God was punishing him for past wrongs? What if he was terrified of dying apart from God’s grace? Then he heard those sweet words from Jesus, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” If that was the gift the man wanted most, then being able to walk again was just icing on the cake.
In the same way, no one can see the power of God at work in Baptism. When water is applied while Jesus’ words are spoken, nothing seems to happen. A sleeping baby might keep on sleeping. A crying baby might keep on crying, or even cry harder! But God’s power is at work in Baptism because He promises it is. Baptism is where your old Adam was drowned and where your new life of faith began.
At your Baptism, the Triune God claimed you as His own. He cleansed your heart of its old corruption and renewed your mind for better pursuits, for a higher purpose. He created you after His likeness and applied His “true righteousness and holiness” to you. This is your new self, your life of faith in the living God. There is no room here for pride or selfishness or discontent or despair. With the new self, there is only love, only good, only opportunities to serve God and neighbor.
But bad habits are hard to break. We know that with our lack of exercise, our preference for unhealthy foods, and our pursuit of unhealthy behaviors. Our sinful flesh wants to be indulged. It wants to be fed more and more. It wants us to pursue what feels right in the moment. It wants us to fill up on anything our eyes can see, our ears can hear, or our hands can take hold of. We don’t know what has prevailed more often—our old self or new self—but we do know we are not where we want to be.
This is why our struggle against our sinful flesh is and must be a daily struggle. We know what the devil, the unbelieving world, and our sinful flesh want. They want our faith to be snuffed out. They want us to forget what Jesus has done for us. They want us to choose and pursue and do whatever seems best for ourselves.
And what does Jesus want for us? He wants us to know that He has not rejected us for our past indiscretions, for our failures toward others, for our lies, our anger, our dishonesty, or our greed. He wants us to know that each and every one of our sins is forgiven, that our guilty conscience has been washed clean in His precious blood. He still has important work for us to do.
No matter how much you fell short yesterday, God has given you the gift of today. Your works of yesterday, both bad and good, are cleansed and sanctified in Christ. Today is a fresh start, a day for truth, for kindness, and for charity. The same will be true for tomorrow. You might only see your weaknesses. You might feel incapable of doing anything that really matters. You might feel like a failure.
God sees His own beloved child. He sees a light shining in this world of darkness. He sees a saint bathed in His righteousness and holiness. He sees someone capable of great things, great things like a gentle word that turns away wrath, like a hand ready to help a person in need, like a patient ear that listens to the anguish and pain of another. God sees those great things in you because that is what He made you for.
He created you and cleansed you and called you for His holy service. He rescued you from the futility of life in this world and the unbelief that leads to hell. He calls you to be more and do more, and He gives you the power to do it. The faith you have is His gift planted in your heart. The love you show and give flows from Him to you. He is the One who moves you to keep putting off your old self in repentance and to keep putting on the new self in faith.
You are one of the blessed ones whom Jesus has called to be His disciple. As His disciple, you follow Him and continuously learn from Him. You get to carry out the work He has prepared for you to do each day, for the benefit of others and for His glory alone. “This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psa. 118:24).
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 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Eighth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 8:12-17
In Christ Jesus, who shed His holy blood to cancel the immeasurable debt of our sin, dear fellow redeemed:
It must be the case that all of us here have some regrets. How can it be otherwise for sinners—at least sinners with a functioning conscience? We might regret how we hurt someone by our words or actions, how we lost our temper at people we care about, how we didn’t help when we knew someone needed it, how we said too much at certain times and not enough at others.
Along with these regrets can come a feeling of indebtedness, that we owe to others what they should have gotten from us but didn’t. That can really nag at us. We can find it difficult to be around certain people because of the guilt we feel toward them. We wish we could make up for our wrongs, but we can never take back what has been done or said. And the longer we carry these debts and dwell on them, the more they burden us.
There is also the other side of indebtedness—not what we owe others, but what we think others owe us. It is not a far step to go from feeling guilty for the wrongs we have done, to thinking about the wrongs that have been done to us. In fact, this might be the way we try to escape our guilt—trying to forget our sins by focusing on the sins of others.
The devil is ready for both situations. He is eager to magnify our own sins if that can move us to despair, or to magnify the sins of others if that can move us to bitterness or self-righteousness. In either case, the debt of sin remains. It is impossible for us to make up for our sins toward others, or for them to make up for their sins toward us. So if you want to talk about the “cancel culture” which is so popular today, not one of us can escape being cancelled because we have all sinned.
This is why St. Paul writes that there is no hope in living “according to the flesh.” There are different ways to live according to the flesh. The most obvious way is by doing the opposite of what God commands us and indulging in whatever comes to our mind and heart to do. Living according to the flesh also means thinking we can fix whatever we have done wrong. We can pay our debt of sin toward others by being good, generous, and charitable. Or we can prove by our good behavior that we are not as bad as the people around us.
This is all emptiness and vanity. This thinking shows that false prophets are not just outside us. One of the loudest and most deceitful false prophets is the old Adam inside us, our sinful nature. But contrary to the opinion of your old Adam, you can’t do yourself or others any good by staying focused on what you do. St. Paul states it plainly, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die.” You owe nothing to your sinful flesh. You can’t gain anything from your sinful flesh. The old Adam in you does not need to be fed; it needs to die. Paul continues, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
But how do you “put to death the deeds of the body”? If you were in a life or death struggle against someone or something, you would apply every ounce of your strength to survive and overcome. That’s how we need to struggle against our sin. We need to stay on the lookout for temptations, fight against them with all our might, and get rid of any sin that has wormed its way into our hearts and minds. We get rid of sin by getting it out in the open—identifying it, owning up to it, and repenting of it.
This is how to address the debt of sin. We can’t pay it down no matter how hard we try. But we can hand it over to One who can. We are taught to do exactly this in the Lord’s Prayer. In the Fifth Petition, Jesus taught us to pray to our Father in heaven, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” You may have also heard another translation of this petition, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
This petition is an acknowledgement that we are unable to pay our debt of sin to God and to our neighbors. That’s a big thing to admit. By saying this prayer, we are saying we do not want “to live according to the flesh” anymore. We don’t want to live for ourselves; we want to live for God. And He is the One who made this possible. He is the One who makes this happen.
We pray for His forgiveness with confidence, knowing that He will and He does forgive all our sins. He forgives our sins because each and every one of our sins has been paid for. They were paid for, not by us, but by the God-Man Jesus, whom His Father sent to save us. The debt for sin had to be paid; God is just. And that debt was paid in full by Jesus who suffered and died for all our sins.
His work settles the debts we owe to others because of our sin and the debts they owe to us because of their sins. What a relief that is! No more dwelling on our failures. No more dwelling on our hurts. We promise in the Lord’s Prayer to forgive the sins of others because we know God has forgiven us every one of our sins. “[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24).
Think of the work that Jesus did to save us like a blank check. There are sufficient funds to cover your tremendous debt of sin. The check is written and signed in the blood of Jesus with more than enough to cover the bill. But who is the check made out to? By the work of the Holy Spirit your name is included on that line, so you are certain that Jesus’ work was done for you.
Today’s reading makes it very clear that you don’t find your own way into God’s kingdom—you can’t save yourself. Paul writes that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” In other words, you can’t become a son of God unless you are led by the Spirit of God. And again, “you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.” Like any child who is adopted, you did nothing to get adopted by God. And again, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
We are children of God because the Holy Spirit has joined us to Jesus. In Baptism, we were given the full payment for our sins through Jesus’ death on the cross, and we were given the free gift of eternal life through His resurrection from the dead. We became “heirs of God” because the Holy Spirit made us “fellow heirs with Christ.” All that Jesus earned, we inherit. He paid our debt of sin, so that we inherit His perfect life and eternal kingdom.
This is why Paul writes that we are not debtors to the flesh. We can take no credit for our good standing with God. All we have done is accrue more and more debt by living according to the flesh. And living according to the flesh can only end in death, both temporal and eternal death. But the Lord has redeemed us—bought us back—from our sin. So Paul writes that those who put to death the deeds of the body by the power and work of the Holy Spirit will live.
He specifically credits the Holy Spirit for our repentance and faith. He says, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Our life of repentance, our life of faith, our life of love, none of it happens by our own efforts. It is a gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit through His Word and Sacraments. We are not indebted to our flesh. We are indebted to the Holy Spirit who has imparted to us all the good gifts of Christ.
In the Nicene Creed, we confess that God the Holy Spirit is the “Giver of life.” The Son of God won eternal life for us, and the Holy Spirit brings it to us. This is why we are right with God the Father. Each Person of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity, worked for our salvation.
So we are no longer slaves of sin, lugging around the debt of our wrongs. We are free people, unburdened by God’s forgiveness, living every day in His grace. The same is true for our fellow sinners. This is why when we ask for God’s mercy and grace for ourselves, we also promise to extend the same grace and mercy to others. We pray to our heavenly Father, “Forgive us our trespasses—our debts—as we forgive those who trespass against us—our debtors.”
We look at one another as God looks at us—as people who are perfectly loved by Him and who are redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood. Our Lord Jesus paid the debt for all. The Holy Spirit works through this message to bring forgiveness and faith to the hearts of those who do not yet believe, and to increase the faith of sinners like us whom He has graciously led from death to life.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained-glass window at Saude Lutheran Church)
Maundy Thursday – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. John 13:1-15
In Christ Jesus, who cleansed you by his selfless love, dear fellow redeemed:
The time had finally come. Jesus knew what was about to happen. In only a few short hours, he would be betrayed by one of his own disciples and arrested by the religious authorities in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then, after being questioned, mocked, and tortured, he would be sentenced to death on a cross, one of the worst ways for a person to die, even though he had done nothing wrong. On that cross, he would bear the burden of the entire world’s sin as if it were his own and face the punishment for all of it. This would be the final Passover meal that Jesus would eat with his disciples before he would be sacrificed as the ultimate Passover Lamb.
If you knew that you were about to face the ultimate suffering, surely you would be dreading what was about to happen and, if it were possible, would be thinking of ways that you could escape it. But Jesus wasn’t thinking about himself or the pain that he was about to endure. He was instead thinking about “his own who were in the world” (verse 1), whom he loved to the end, to the fullest extent. These people were not only his disciples, but were also, as Jesus describes in John 17:20, “those who will believe in [him] through their word,” that is, the gospel that would be preached by the disciples. In his final hours, Jesus was thinking about you. His disciples, on the other hand, were thinking about something much different.
In the gospel according to St. Luke, we hear that “[a] dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (Luke 22:24). This is not the first time that the disciples had this dispute. The last time they did, Jesus called a child to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4). But it appears that the lesson did not sink in. So, this time, Jesus said to them, “[L]et the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:26–28).
The Jews, including the disciples, thought that the Messiah was going to be an earthly king who would free them from the Romans, but Jesus did not come down from his throne in heaven to be an earthly king. He came down to earth to be a servant. In our Epistle lesson for Palm Sunday, we heard that Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7). We also hear in the gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). Now, Jesus was not only going to show his disciples through his actions that he came to be a servant, but he was also going to give them an example for how they were expected to act. He got up from the table, took off his outer garments and laid them aside, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet.
Since the Jews wore sandals when they traveled at that time, traveling on the dusty roads would cause their feet to get dirty. But washing feet was not a task that just anyone did. This was considered menial work that was reserved for the lowest of servants. Because the disciples thought so highly of themselves, none of them thought to volunteer to wash the feet of the others. But now that Jesus, the greatest among them, was willingly washing their feet without complaint, they all felt guilty that they had not been the ones to volunteer.
You might not argue that you are the greatest, like the disciples did, but there are times when you think that you are better than others or you think that a certain task is beneath you. You may not be perfect, but at least you’re better than the person who actively lives in sin, despite the warnings that are given to them by you or others, or the person who refuses to go to church, even though they are perfectly able to do so. There are also many important tasks that you are in charge of. So, why should you be expected to do even more when you’re already doing so much? Why can’t other people be found to do those tasks? It’s really easy to start thinking in these ways, but when you think in these ways, you are putting yourself, your wants and desires, before others and their needs.
This is not the example that Jesus gave us to follow. By washing the feet of his disciples, by willingly taking on the task that was reserved for the lowliest of servants, Jesus was teaching his disciples and us that we are to humble ourselves in loving service to others. But it’s clear from how often we fail to do that and only think of ourselves that it’s impossible for us to serve like Jesus served. Fortunately for us, Jesus perfectly humbled himself in loving service to others for us.
Jesus’ entire earthly ministry was spent in loving service to others. He fed people who were hungry, healed people who were sick, cast out demons from people who were possessed, and even raised people back to life who had died. Jesus was not performing these miracles because he was trying to make himself look good or because he was trying to get something out of those he was helping. He was performing these miracles because he loved the people of the world and wanted to help them. And Jesus showed how much he truly loved all sinners when he willingly laid down his own life for them.
Jesus’ willing sacrifice was the ultimate example of his loving service to others. Because of his great love for us, Jesus took all of our sins on himself and carried them all the way to the cross. He bore the burden of our sins as he hung on the cross and paid the price for every single one of them. When Jesus died on the cross, all of our sins died with him, because he bore them as though they were his own and made atonement for them.
Peter did not yet understand why Jesus was washing his feet or what Jesus was going to have to do to save him and the world. So, when Jesus came to wash his feet, Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet” (verse 8). But Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (verse 8). Jesus was not saying that Peter needed to have his feet washed if he wanted to have a share of Jesus’ eternal inheritance in heaven. He was saying that Peter, as well as all of us, need to be spiritually cleansed by him if we want to have a share in his eternal inheritance.
All of us who believe in Jesus have already been spiritually cleansed by him. But, just like a person who needs to keep washing his dirty feet, we also need to keep returning to Jesus for forgiveness since we continue to sin every day of our lives. One of the ways that we receive this forgiveness is in the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus would soon institute Holy Communion after he finished washing his disciples’ feet. In that supper, you receive Jesus’ true body and blood in the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus instituted Holy Communion, he was looking forward to the sacrifice he would soon make as the Passover Lamb on the cross, shedding his blood for you. Now that his sacrifice has been made, when you partake in the Lord’s Supper, you look back on the sacrifice that he made for you, and the forgiveness that he won by his sacrifice is brought to you in the present. As you leave the Lord’s table, you have the comfort of Jesus’ forgiveness and the assurance that you will one day feast with him in his eternal kingdom.
You may not be able to perfectly follow Jesus’ example of loving service, but through the faith that the Holy Spirit has given you through the Word and the Sacraments, he has changed your heart so that you desire to follow Jesus’ example. And when you fall short, you return to the Lord’s table to receive his forgiveness, which he freely gives to you. It is because of Jesus’ selfless love that you receive his forgiveness. It is because of Jesus’ selfless love that you are cleansed. Amen.
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(picture from painting by Giotto di Bondone, c. 1267-1337)
Midweek Lent 6 – Pr. Faugstad homily
Texts: Genesis 3:22-24, St. Luke 23:39-43
In Christ Jesus, who has prepared a glorious home for you in heaven, dear fellow redeemed:
“You don’t know what you have till it’s gone.” We hear people talk that way about their carefree childhood, about the jobs they left for better opportunities that weren’t actually better, about the days before so many health concerns and doctor visits, about loved ones who die and leave a bigger gap than expected. “You don’t know what you have till it’s gone.”
But nobody felt the pain of loss more sharply or deeply than Adam and Eve. They had every good thing they could ever want. They had perfection. They had blissful communion with their Creator God who loved them. And the devil convinced them that they should desire something more, that they should have their eyes opened, so they could “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5).
Ignoring the tree of life for the moment, they reached for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And when they ate, “the eyes of both were opened” (v. 7), just as the devil said they would be. Now man and woman knew the difference between good and evil, but this knowledge came at a tremendous cost. Now they knew the difference, because they were no longer good, enjoying all things in perfection. Now they were filled with sin and separated from the God who made them.
You know what happened next. They tried to cover themselves with fig leaves to hide their shame. They hid from God with the devil. They played the blame game. Today’s reading indicates that they may have also thought they could fix what they had broken, that they could undo what they had done. If they had corrupted all things by eating from the one tree God told them to leave alone, perhaps they could make everything right again by taking fruit from the other special tree God had planted in the garden, the tree of life.
We can hardly criticize their idea. On a human level, it makes sense. When we mess up, our first thought is usually not to throw ourselves at the mercy of another and beg forgiveness. Our first thought is often, “How can I hide this or fix this, so I can avoid having to fess up to it?” So if we break something, we might try to hide it or quietly repair it and hope no one notices. Or if we hurt someone, we might try to win them back with extra sweet words or with gifts.
Sometimes we might succeed in getting ourselves out of trouble. But sometimes our efforts to avoid responsibility or blame only make things worse. The LORD God shut the door on Adam and Eve fixing things on their own. He would not let them eat from the tree of life anymore. We don’t know what would have happened if they did. Could the curse of sin have been reversed? Would they perhaps have been doomed to live forever in their sin?
It was not for them to try to undo what they had done. They had sinned, and for that sin they deserved to die. But the LORD had mercy on them. He promised to send His only-begotten Son to be born of a woman, so that He could crush Satan’s head and destroy his power over sinners. They could not save themselves; God would save them.
So the LORD drove them out of the beautiful Garden of Eden, a paradise on earth, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. He posted a guard at the garden’s entrance, the cherubim—angelic beings with “a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” The cherubim did their job as long as the garden remained, probably until the waters of the flood destroyed it.
No one on earth tasted the fruit of the tree of life after the fall into sin. Just as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden before the fall, now the tree of life was forbidden after the fall. The first man and woman did not know how good they had it until it was gone. But even though they could no longer eat the delicious fruit of the tree of life, they could cling to the sweet promise of salvation that God had made.
We hear how that promise was fulfilled in our second reading. Jesus is hanging naked on the cross bearing Adam and Eve’s shame and the shame of all who descended from them. As Jesus suffers there through no fault or crime of His own, the religious leaders mock Him, the people passing by jeer at Him, the soldiers laugh at Him. And if that weren’t bad enough, even the criminals hanging on either side of Him railed at Him (Mat. 27:44). “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”
But then one of them began to see things differently. He heard Jesus pray for forgiveness for those who tortured Him. He saw how patiently He took the abuse, how His eyes were filled not with hatred but with love. The criminal also knew that his own death was fast approaching. There was no getting out of this one, no escape, no last minute pardon from the governor. He rebuked the mocking of his fellow criminal. “Don’t you understand that we deserve this! We are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
The repentant criminal was done making excuses. He was done blaming others. He knew his sin. Through teeth clenched in pain, he breathed out, “Jesus! Jesus, remember me!” “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” If the religious leaders heard this, they would have turned their jeers toward him. “Kingdom! What kingdom? Is this thorn-crowned loser your king? What can He do for you?” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Imagine if Adam was this criminal hanging next to Jesus. No more excuses; no more attempts to fix things. Entrusting his life to his Savior Jesus even as death approached. Imagine if that criminal were you. “I have sinned! I deserve death. I deserve hell. Jesus, remember me.” Jesus’ words are for Adam and for you and for all sinners who repent of their sins, “You will be with Me in Paradise!”
The gate that God closed in Eden now stands open in heaven. The way that was barred to the tree of life is barred no more. Jesus took the sentence of condemnation for sin in your place. He paid your debt to God. He was declared guilty, so you would be declared righteous. His blood cleanses you from all your sin. St. Paul writes, “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).
By faith in Jesus, you will not die but live. By faith in Jesus, you will not be kept outside the gates of heaven; you will be ushered in. And what will you see when you enter heaven? One of the few descriptions of heaven is in the Book of Revelation, where the apostle John writes, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month” (22:1-2). So in heaven we will get to eat from the tree of life, a tree producing twelve kinds of fruit! John continues that even the leaves of this tree have beneficial qualities, leaves “for the healing of the nations.”
With our sinful minds and mortal flesh, we cannot comprehend or appreciate how wonderful the Paradise of heaven will be. Just as it is true in this life that “You don’t know what you have till it’s gone,” so it is true of our future eternal life, that “You won’t know what you will have till you’re there.” God’s kingdom is beyond anything we can know here. The criminal learned this. He died in tremendous pain, but then his soul was taken to the bright light and glory of his Lord.
So it will be for you. You will leave the wretchedness of this world behind and will enter the gates of Paradise. Washed in Jesus’ blood and covered in His righteousness, no cherubim or flaming sword will keep you out. “Blessed are those who wash their robes,” writes John, “so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates” (v. 14). Thanks be to God. Amen.
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(picture from “The Crucifixion” by Giambattista Tiepolo [1696-1770] at the Saint Louis Art Museum)
The Second Sunday in Lent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
In Christ Jesus, who calls us to live not for ourselves, but to live through Him and for Him, dear fellow redeemed:
When the Apostle Paul traveled through parts of Asia and Europe on his three missionary journeys, he visited cities and towns that were mostly pagan in their culture. Paul visited some Jewish synagogues in these places, but much of his work was conducted among the pagan Gentiles. These people were polytheistic—they worshiped many gods. And although they had the moral law of the true God imprinted on their hearts, they promoted and engaged in many things that God calls evil.
One of the major problems Paul encountered was a porneia problem. He found it in Rome, he found it in Corinth, he found it in Galatia, he found it in Ephesus, he found it in Colossae, he found it in Thessalonica. We know he found it in these places because he wrote letters to the Christian congregations warning them about this.
The porneia problem that Paul wrote to them about includes every kind of unchastity, prostitution, and fornication. Our word “pornography” is related to this word. In today’s reading, porneia is translated as “sexual immorality,” which encompasses any sexual activity outside the boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman.
Paul wrote that it is God’s will “that you abstain from sexual immorality.” This is a completely different message than the one we hear from society and the one our children and grandchildren are taught in public schools. We almost never hear about abstinence any more. What we hear about now is primarily two things: “always use protection” and “make sure there is consent.” These are seen as the most important standards—protection and consent.
The messaging is that protection equals safety. But what these false prophets in our society will not tell you is that sex is never “safe.” It involves the most intimate parts of a person—not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Sex always has consequences. Not all those consequences are bad, but sex is nothing to enter into lightly or casually. And if “consent” is all that is needed for sexual activity, then we are looking at a future where marriage and family as we know it will no longer exist, or it will be found only on the fringes among small groups of people.
In many respects, the permissive culture of today is a lot like the culture Paul encountered. If Paul were here today, how would he address these issues? He would say today what he said two thousand years ago, “that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.” And, “that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” He would tell us to live as Jesus taught us to live, that the way we live should look different than the way non-Christians live.
But why focus on this porneia problem in particular? What about the people who lie and cheat, what about murderers and thieves, what about the rich and the greedy who care nothing for the poor? Paul wrote plenty about these sins too. But to think that sexual sin between consenting individuals is not as bad as sins that cause harm to others is not right. In fact, the Bible describes sexual sin as causing the deepest kind of harm. 1 Corinthians 6 says, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (v. 18).
These are hard words. It is hard for me to say them, and it may be hard for you to hear them. We think of friends who are living in sin, or siblings or children or grandchildren. What can we say to them? We don’t want to offend them! But where will your closest loved ones hear the truth if they don’t hear it from you? You can send them to the pastor and pray that the meeting goes well. What happens if they don’t like what they hear? Then things may be peaceful with you, but not so peaceful with the church.
Sometimes we feel like we can’t speak up about these things because of the stains on our own past. If we warn others about sins that we freely pursued ourselves, doesn’t that make us hypocrites? The reality is this: not one of us here is unstained by sin. That puts us all in the same boat. Maybe we have not acted on all our sinful desires, but we have had the sinful desires. Jesus says that looking at someone with lustful intent is committing adultery in the heart (Mat. 5:28).
Every single one of us has sinned. Every single one of us deserves to feel the wrath of God for our sin. Every single one of us deserves to suffer in hell eternally. None of us should think we are better because we have not committed the outward sins that others have. Just as dangerous as pursuing unrighteous activities, is taking pride in our self-righteousness.
The right approach is illustrated for us by the Gentile woman in today’s Gospel reading (Mat. 15:21-28). She was not “like the Gentiles who do not know God,” who are called out in today’s Epistle lesson. It is clear that this woman had a firm faith in God the Father and in Jesus as His Son in the flesh. She came to Jesus with a problem—her daughter was severely oppressed by a demon. But she did not come with reasons why Jesus should help her. She did not say, “I am a good woman,” or “I do nice things for my neighbors,” or “everyone agrees that I don’t deserve this trouble.”
She simply said this, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” Receiving mercy has nothing to do with having the right qualities or being deserving. Mercy has to come from outside us, from someone who is not obligated to do what we want. And for a while, it seemed like Jesus did not want to help the woman. First He ignored her. Then He told His disciples that He was sent “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then when the woman knelt down right in front of Him begging for mercy, He said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Maybe that is how you feel when thinking about your sins, as no better than a mangy dog. You might feel a lot of guilt for what you have done in your past, things you would be ashamed for others to know. How can you expect mercy and forgiveness from God, when you have broken His Law?
Listen again to the woman, “Yes, Lord. As You say, it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. I don’t deserve the children’s bread. I am a Gentile, not an Israelite. I don’t deserve anything good from You. But I trust in You. I trust that You are good and faithful and true. I will gladly be called a dog, if only You will give me some crumbs of Your grace. For dogs are always happy to “eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
This is what Jesus calls a great faith. It was not that the woman was better than others, or that she had sinned less. It was that she put all her confidence and trust in the mercy and grace of God. That is what we do with our own guilty conscience. We bring our sins before God in repentance and leave it to Him to wash us clean.
He promises to do this. Jesus went to the cross with all our sins, including our sins of living contrary to His will, and our sins of failing to warn others of the same temptations. Jesus died for these sins. He did have mercy upon us. Because of what Jesus has done, God the Father forgives us every stain and blemish on our record, and He sees us as though we have never done, said, or thought anything wrong.
To confirm us and strengthen us in this forgiveness and righteousness of His Son, He invites us to partake of the holy means of grace. Through the Word and Sacraments, Jesus comes to us to cleanse us from our sin and apply His holiness to us. He takes from us what is ours—our sin and guilt—and He gives us what is His.
This is how we are sanctified. We are drawn closer to our holy Savior Jesus by the power and work of the Holy Spirit and are strengthened in the faith to both say and do what is right. But the less we prioritize our Lord’s Word and Sacraments, the more we are drawn to the ways of the world, and the harder it is to see our own sin.
We must never forget how weak we are. Whatever immorality and impurity we see around us is rooted in our own heart. Jesus makes this clear. He says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Mat. 15:19-20). And His holy blood and righteousness applied through the Word, these are what sanctify a person.
Jesus suffered and died for you to make you His own. He is not ashamed to know your past. He forgives all this sin, and He calls you to join Him in His kingdom of holiness when your short time on this earth comes to an end. Whatever may be said about who you were, through Jesus you are God’s holy and beloved child. As St. Paul wrote in another letter, though you may have once engaged in many unrighteous things, “you were washed [baptized], you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1Co. 6:11).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from 15 century French Gothic manuscript painting)