The Fifth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 5:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who by the power of His Word “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20), dear fellow redeemed:
About the middle of this past week when I was attending our church camp with the youth, Kristin asked me if my time there seemed like work or like a getaway. As much as I enjoy camp—and we do have a good time—I told her that we pastors stay very busy with teaching, preaching, and chaperoning. And it’s not always clear what effect our efforts have. Do the campers leave camp with a clearer understanding of Law and Gospel? Have they grown in their faith? Has their love for God and for each other increased? Those things are difficult to measure.
We live in a results-driven society where everything gets measured. The success of a sports franchise is determined by how many titles it has won. Businesses are constantly doing cost and profit analyses to find their way in the market. Individuals are judged by their grades and their personal accomplishments. Even churches fall into the “results” trap and measure the effectiveness of their mission by their attendance totals or by how significant their financial holdings are.
Judged by this kind of standard, we would conclude that Simon, James, and John were not the greatest fishermen. They worked all through the night and didn’t catch a thing. What was the problem? Were their methods faulty? Had they chosen the wrong parts of the lake? Did they try at the wrong time? What exactly was keeping them from success?
But the message of today’s Gospel is not a tutorial from Jesus about how to maximize one’s success at fishing or anything else. The message is that no matter what skill and effort we might apply in our work, no matter what plans we make and what success we have had in the past, we cannot accomplish anything good apart from God’s mercy and the blessing of His Word.
The fishermen hadn’t done anything wrong in their approach to catching fish. They had been fishing for a long time, probably since they were kids. They wouldn’t stay up all night fishing unless they felt confident that the fish they would catch would outweigh the lack of sleep. They couldn’t explain why their nets came up empty. For whatever reason, the fish just weren’t there. They must have felt frustrated as they cleaned their nets on the shore. And tired.
But then something happened to take their attention away from their troubles. A great crowd had gathered on the lake shore. The people were listening to Jesus, that prophet from Nazareth, whom John the Baptizer identified as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Joh. 1:29). Everyone wanted to hear Jesus and get a good look at Him, so they pressed toward Him. It was similar to how people act around a famous person today, all crowding in to get a picture or an autograph.
Jesus decided that a change was needed, so the people could focus on His Word and not on how close they could get to Him. He saw fishing boats on the shore and asked Simon to take Him out a little ways. From His place in the boat, He continued teaching with Simon sitting there listening. When He was done speaking, He told Simon to row to a deeper part of the lake and let down his nets for a catch.
Conventional wisdom said that if the fish couldn’t be caught the previous night, they certainly couldn’t be caught that day. Simon said to Jesus, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” But he had been listening to what Jesus was saying that morning. He recognized that Jesus was a prophet of some sort. “[A]t Your word I will let down the nets,” he said.
He was shocked to see the fish swarming, the nets breaking, and the boats filling. Simon cast out the nets just as he had the night before. The method hadn’t changed. But now he had an abundance of fish whereas before he had none. What was the difference? The difference was the Word of Jesus. Jesus spoke the Word, and He gave the increase. Jesus gave success to Simon. Jesus put fish in the boats.
This should teach us to put our trust in the Lord’s Word. Look at what His Word accomplished! It moved the disciples to action even after their previous efforts had failed. It filled the nets that before had come up empty. And it caused them to leave behind their historic haul of fish to follow Jesus. His Word continues to do amazing things like these each and every day. The problem is that we don’t recognize the hand God has in supplying our daily needs and giving us success.
We imagine that our work succeeds because of how gifted we are and because of how hard we try. “Look at what I have accomplished,” we think. “Look at what my hands have built.” But if we take all the glory for our successes, don’t we deserve all the blame for our failures? That’s not often how it goes. We are glad to receive praise for the good things, but we quickly pass the blame for the bad things.
Or maybe we do see our failure in earthly things as proof that we are no good. We imagine that God frowns on us and that He must be punishing us. We approach our work with a defeatist attitude. “Why should I even try? It isn’t going to work anyway. If it failed once, it will certainly fail again.”
Both of those perspectives are sinful—the idea that everything good we have is a result of our efforts, and the idea that we’re better off not trying anymore when we have failed. Simon was right to fall down before Jesus and acknowledge his sins. Each of us should do the same. We should recognize and acknowledge every day that we are sinners.
When our prideful or despairing hearts have been pierced by the Law of God, the difference between His holiness and our sinfulness couldn’t be more obvious. We see that even our best moments in life did not put us close to the glory of God. The thought that we could ever be good enough to get ourselves to heaven is an outright lie of the devil, and it destroys saving faith.
Simon had just pulled in the greatest catch of fish that he had ever seen, but when he realized what had happened, his eyes shifted to Jesus. And when he saw Jesus, he felt as though all his sins were laid bare before the almighty God. He wanted to hide. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” he said. “I am not worthy to be in Your presence. I am not worthy to receive Your gifts.”
Simon was right about that. But Jesus did not leave him. He said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Simon did not have to fear the wrath of God. Jesus had come to save sinners. He had come to atone for Simon’s sins and to give Simon special work—the work of preaching the Word of Jesus. Jesus’ Word which had filled Simon’s nets with fish would also fill God’s nets with repentant believers.
This is a net you want to be caught in, and which you are in through the saving Word. You were lost in the darkness, living without hope or a purpose like so many in the world today. And God drew you to Himself with the net of His Word. He called you out of darkness. He brought you forgiveness and life in the calm waters of Baptism. He claimed you as His own, and He still claims you.
But as you look back through your life, you know how much time you have wasted in pursuing your own plans. You know how prideful you have been when you have done well, and how you have failed to give glory to God for your success. And you know how easily you have given up when everything didn’t work out just the way you wanted. What kind of servant are you in the Lord’s kingdom? Why should He look kindly upon you? You can understand why Simon said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
But Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; I forgive you all your sins. I died and rose again for you. I will not depart from you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” His Word of grace restores you. It lifts you out of your sin and despair. It shifts your focus from the gifts to the Giver, from your successes to your Savior, from the nets full of blessings to the One who fills them.
And when you recognize that The Word of God Gives the Increase, then you are ready for the work He has called you to do. You are ready to give your best to your family and your employer, knowing that God has called you to these vocations and will bless your efforts. You are ready to work humbly, knowing that you do not deserve either the opportunities you have or the success.
All the good things you have in this life and in the life to come are from the powerful Word of God. The Word He has spoken makes the sun shine, the rain fall, and the plants grow. His Word brought about your existence through the union of your parents and keeps you going. His Word gives life all around the world. Hebrews 1 says that the Son of God “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (v. 3). And His Word brought the light of faith to your heart and makes your faith strong.
The Word of God can do what we consider impossible. It works even when the conditions don’t seem right and conventional wisdom says it will fall flat. The Word changes hearts. It comforts consciences. It is always effective. That means as the Word continues to be in your ears, in your mind, and in your heart, God will bring blessings in all that you do.
These blessings are not measurable according to the standards of the world. God’s Word may not appear to make much difference. But God is constantly at work through His Word. He promises that His Word will not return to Him empty, and that He will continue to give us blessing upon blessing each and every day.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of the miraculous catch of fish by Raphael, 1515)
The Fourth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 6:36-42
In Christ Jesus, who clearly sees our shortcomings and sins but loves us anyway, dear fellow redeemed:
It’s a hot day, the perfect day for some ice cream. You step up to the counter and order one scoop of hard ice cream in a cone. The server gets a small scoop out of the bucket, sets it gently on top of the cone, and very slowly hands it over to you. Move too fast, and the ice cream might just tip off. “That’ll be $3!” You’re not impressed. Couldn’t they push some ice cream down in the cone and make the scoop a little bigger? Couldn’t they be a little more generous?
In today’s reading, Jesus talks about using a good measure in our dealings with others. He likens a generous measurement of grain in the marketplace—“pressed down, shaken together, running over”—to the generous way we should act toward others. Be stingy with love and kindness, and you will likely get the cold shoulder. Be generous and warm toward others, and the same will likely come back your way. Jesus said, “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
But how exactly does that fit with what Jesus experienced during the time of His public work? No one ever gave a measure as generous as He did. He healed countless people of their demon-possession, diseases, and deformities, and He never charged them a dime. He patiently taught the demanding crowds and those who opposed Him. He was merciful and kind to young and old alike. He loved each and every one of His neighbors perfectly.
So shouldn’t He have received tremendous love and kindness in return? Shouldn’t the whole world have fallen down at His feet and praised this remarkable Man for His righteousness and humble service? Shouldn’t it have been obvious to them who He was—the holy Son of God in the flesh? Sometimes He was honored, by His disciples and by the crowds. But often His goodness and love were met with ugliness and hatred.
The people of His own town tried to throw Him off a cliff because He did not perform miracles for them like He had in other places. Many of the people who had followed Him left because He wasn’t interested in being the earthly king they wanted. The Jewish religious leaders accused Him of having a demon and working for the devil. They schemed to have Him arrested, condemned, and turned over to the Roman authorities to be put to death. The Roman soldiers beat Him, flogged Him, and mocked Him. He was nailed naked to a cross and made a spectacle to all who passed by.
If that is how people dealt with the best person who has ever lived, the one who never did anything wrong, it would seem there is no point in trying to be good. Why be kind to others if they’re just going to walk all over us? Why be generous if they will take advantage of our generosity? Why love if we’re just going to be hated? And Jesus knew this is what we would face. He said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you…. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Joh. 15:18,20).
But even though no one was ever mistreated like Jesus was mistreated, He still went willingly to the cross. He let the injustice come. He didn’t stop the punches, the spit, and the jeering. He didn’t make the nails turn to water or dust before they could be driven through His hands and feet. He let the nails come, and He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luk. 23:34).
That is not how the world operates. The world says, “If someone is mean to you, give it right back!” “If they don’t respect you, don’t give them the time of day!” “If a business doesn’t treat you right, post as many bad reviews as you can!” “If you don’t get what you think you are entitled to, hire a lawyer!” Everything is about me, what I deserve. Me first. That’s what the world teaches us.
But Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” He doesn’t teach us to think about what is most advantageous to us. He doesn’t teach us to treat others as they deserve. Jesus Teaches Us to See as He Does.
Now Jesus certainly sees everyone’s sin. There is no log in His eye obscuring His vision. There isn’t even a speck. He sees what is in our hearts and minds as clear as day. Nothing is hidden from His sight. But even though He can see the whole world’s sin, He doesn’t look upon us with anger in His eyes or judgment. He didn’t come to condemn us, damn us to hell. He came to save us.
When He looks upon you and me, He looks at us with eyes full of mercy and love. He knows how far we have fallen short of the glory of God. He knows how often we have failed in love for God and our neighbors. He knows how bitter we can get when others do not treat us like we feel we deserve. He knows how quickly and easily we regret an act of kindness that was not acknowledged or returned. He sees our stubborn pridefulness.
He turns His gaze toward us, seeing us in all our ugly sin, and He says, “I forgive all these transgressions. I do not condemn you. I shed My blood for you. I redeemed you, body and soul. My good name, My righteousness, My spotless record—all of it is yours.” We have not done anything to cause Jesus to look at us in this way. He looks at us this way because that is how He is. He is gracious and merciful.
And we know He is. We know it by the faith that God the Holy Spirit has worked in our hearts. On our own, we would never believe that the Almighty God who demands perfection could ever look upon us with such kindness. But He does. He tells us so in His Word. His Word brought faith to our hearts, and His Word continues to strengthen our faith, so that it keeps bearing fruit.
This fruit is what Jesus describes in today’s Gospel. It is seeing our neighbor not as they are in their sin, but as God sees them, with eyes of mercy. It is refraining from judgment when our motive is not to warn them out of love but to condemn them out of spitefulness and self-righteousness. It is being generous in our attitude, in kindness, and in charity. It is doing to others as we would have them do to us.
The only way to have this perspective about others is to first acknowledge the vision impairment we have by nature. Jesus said that you can’t see clearly to remove a speck of sin from someone else’s eye unless you first recognize the log in your own eye. It’s a funny picture—trying to get close enough to examine someone’s eye but unable to because our eye-log keeps bumping into everything! That’s what our sinful pride and arrogance do; they obstruct our vision and make us difficult to be around.
We see as Jesus sees when we repent of our sins and recognize how much God has forgiven us. Then we are ready to humbly serve the sinners around us. Everyone was below Jesus, and yet He didn’t look at anyone that way. He turned everything upside down on its head. He taught His disciples: “[L]et the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves…. I am among you as the one who serves” (Luk. 22:26,27). St. Paul wrote in one of his letters, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phi. 2:3).
That is the Christian life, a life lived by faith in Jesus. It is a blessed life, full of purpose and love. But what are we to do when Jesus’ words don’t seem to come true—“For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you”? What if our good deeds and kind words are not rewarded with the same? What if we are attacked like Jesus was and face violent enemies who want to destroy us?
Even that does not negate Jesus’ words. Jesus does not promise that a rich measure of earthly fame and fortune will come back to us for our goodness. He does promise His never-ending grace. He does promise to give us rest from our weariness and trouble. He does promise His mercies and faithfulness which are new each morning. He does promise to take us soon from this world of trouble and sorrow to our eternal home with Him in heaven.
Whenever we do suffer here, we keep our eyes on Him. We see how He suffered—humbly, faithfully, committing everything to the care of His Father. Our job is not to obtain justice for ourselves in every area of our life on earth. We will probably never receive from others what we think is our “due.” We leave the balancing of these scales to God. We trust Him to give us our daily bread, to provide all that we need for this body and life.
His merciful care for us makes us free to have mercy and to forgive and to give with no expectation of repayment. We can dish out kindness and compassion toward others in large scoops—with generous measure. In all our dealings with others, we love and serve as Jesus loved and served. We will never be above Him, but by the continued work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, we can become more like Him.
And while we serve our neighbors imperfectly, Jesus will continue to serve us perfectly. He will keep pouring out His grace and forgiveness when we fail, and He will keep teaching us and helping us to see others as He does.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Sermon on the Mount” by Carl Bloch, 1877)
The Second Sunday of Easter – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. John 20:19-31
In Christ Jesus, who rose from the dead on Easter morning and speaks His peace to you today, dear fellow redeemed:
Fear, uncertainty and sorrow caused the disciples to run and hide on that first Easter evening. They feared the consequences for following Jesus, a man despised and innocently slain by the world, and were afraid to speak of what had happened. Confused and disappointed they locked themselves in a room and out of the sight of others.
In the eyes of these men all appeared to be lost, the One whom they put their trust and hope in was now dead and they did not yet fully understand the significance of this. Had Jesus deceived them about why He had come? Had they been following a fraud this whole time; was anything He said the truth?
Jesus wasn’t a fraud or a liar and, though they did not yet know this, He was no longer dead! He had risen from the dead; He had triumphed o’er the grave!
Thomas was absent from the locked room when Jesus first appeared to the other disciples. We don’t know exactly why, but we might assume it had something to do with his stubbornness and unbelief. The rest of the disciples had seen Jesus that first Sunday night and sometime between Easter night and the next Sunday they shared their joy with Thomas. They said to him, “we have seen the Lord” (John 20:25) but he wouldn’t believe.
He said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25) The words and truth of the other disciples were not good enough for Thomas; it had to be Thomas’ eyes and his own hands that would determine whether Christ was truly alive.
Thomas was close to losing faith. In stubbornness, and perhaps hopelessness, he refused to believe the words of the other disciples who had seen Jesus with their own eyes. He demanded that Christ show him the proof. Not only had Thomas forgotten Jesus’ word he had built up a wall against it, a wall of stubbornness and pride.
Jesus had never lied to His disciples before and He hadn’t done so now. Jesus told them directly what would happen; that they would all run away and be scattered and that He would rise from the dead on the third day. He also said He would go ahead of them into Galilee where He would meet them. (Mark 14:27–28) But because they were consumed in doubt and uncertainty they didn’t remember His words.
We often make the mistake of thinking, ‘had we just seen Jesus after His resurrection believing in His resurrection would be so much easier.’ But would it really have made it any easier? Our mind, body and our reasoning can’t comprehend the resurrection, even if we saw it with our eyes! Wouldn’t we be, as the disciples were, skeptical as to if and how this happened?
All of His disciples doubted that Jesus would rise again from the dead. Some still doubted even after they saw Him alive. (Matthew 28:17) Doubt is weak and wavering faith, it is the opposite of belief. Doubt opposes faith and fights against it. It puts our reasoning over trust and puts hope in our own abilities rather than in God’s hands.
We doubt whenever we stop trusting Jesus’ word and instead trust our own judgment. We doubt when we start thinking that our plans are better than His; That His way is wrong and our way is right. When God doesn’t do things according to our plans we selfishly and ignorantly accuse Jesus of making the mistake. We falsely accuse our perfect God of letting us down. We determine He’s not credible or dependable anymore so we decide to follow our own plans even more.
Jesus didn’t acknowledge Thomas’ doubt immediately. Instead, He allowed him to dwell in it for about a week. Jesus knew exactly what Thomas wanted from him. He had heard Thomas’ words when he doubted His resurrection and would soon address it. Jesus permitted this time so that Thomas might come to recognize his stubborn sinfulness and repent of his unbelief.
When we doubt Jesus He sometimes lets us dwell in it for a time. He chastens us out of love. This is why we feel burdened by shame and guilt when we doubt Him. We know we shouldn’t doubt Him but life can get difficult. Sometimes the world, the devil and our sinful flesh are so overwhelming that we begin to think Jesus has let us down. But these are lies only the devil and the world would have you believe.
Jesus has not let you down; He is calling you back to Himself. He desires that you seek Him where He promises to answer you and He urges you to quit looking inward at yourself and instead look to Him. He comes to you just as He did His disciples to comfort you and to lift you out of your doubt.
Eight days after Jesus first appeared to the Twelve, His disciples again met inside the same locked room. This time Thomas was with them and Jesus came and stood among them. We don’t know exactly how this occurred, but Jesus truly stood among them in His glorified body. Jesus wasn’t limited by space and didn’t need to pass through the door or be snuck in by someone. Jesus could pass through any structure He wanted. With Judas no longer a part of the Twelve, only eleven men would have been in the room. It would’ve been startling to notice a twelfth man in the room who wasn’t there before.
Jesus again speaks, “Peace be with you” to all of them. “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’” (John 20:26–27) Jesus addressed Thomas’ exact hesitation and uncertainty; Jesus had heard him and answered him.
Our Lord is so gracious and patient even with doubters. Jesus doesn’t shame us for our weak faith or doubt, instead He comes directly to us in His word and says, “do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27). Jesus loves and cares about us so much. He doesn’t want us to lose our faith. He hears our questions and concerns and He meets them, He calms our fear and strengthens our soul. He brings us the peace the world cannot give (John 14:27) and forgives our sins of doubt.
St. Paul writes on the certainty of the resurrection, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:17–19, 21–22)
Jesus walked out of the tomb on Easter morning to bring life eternal to all who believe in Him. He has made all believers alive through His resurrection. Jesus met the disciples’ fear and uncertainty with His words, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19) He stood among them and brought the peace He secured by His death and resurrection. With His words Jesus offered peace because He alone is peace. (Philippians 4:6) His words accomplished exactly what He said.
He does the same for you. He meets your fear and uncertainty with His peace. Peace He brings to you in His Word and Sacrament. The undeserved love of God is poured out upon you through these means of grace. You receive the peace between God and man, the forgiveness of sins secured by Jesus, which removes all your guilt and makes you holy and innocent in God’s eyes. He speaks His word of peace and we recognize Him as our Savior just as Jesus spoke His word to Thomas and he exclaimed, “my Lord and my God.” (John 20:28) Jesus spoke His word to Thomas and all of his doubt vanished.
You also know Jesus by His voice. Jesus said, “Blessed are those that have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20:29) You who have not yet laid your eyes on Jesus are blessed because you see by faith and not by sight. As we heard in our Epistle lesson today, Jesus Christ is the testimony of God.
He testifies through His Word by the Holy Spirit and through His Sacraments, by the water in baptism and by the blood in the Lord’s Supper. In Word and Sacrament Jesus speaks peace to your doubting hearts. The Holy Spirit works through these to bring you the peace of God found only in His Son. “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” (1 John 5 10a)
St. John writes, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:9–10, 11–12) Jesus points us to something far more sure than our own reasoning and senses, He points us to His word, which is life.
Through it He never gives up on us, Jesus knows the weaknesses of our faith and He comes to aid and strengthen it. When we doubt Him He doesn’t condemn us or discard us, instead He treats us with love and safekeeping by bringing us His peace. He comes to us and feeds us His life giving Word and body and says, ‘don’t doubt dear one, but believe.’ (John 20:27)
He meets your doubt with the assurance found in His word. He knows the difficulties you have believing in Him and knows your deepest fears. He hears your cries and answers them, He knows your need for guidance and He leads the way. Jesus stands among you to strengthen your faith and speaks His peace to soothe all the trials and troubles you face in life. He is always with you and promises to never leave you or forsake you. (Matthew 28:20)
Hear His words of peace spoken through the Apostle Peter, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8–9).
Jesus is Risen! He is with you now in this very sanctuary bringing you His peace. Though you cannot see Him with your eyes, by faith you obtain the salvation of your souls. On the last day when your body is raised and glorified you too will see Him in your flesh, your eyes will behold Him and not another. (Job 19:26) You are truly blessed indeed!
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 Incredulity of St. Thomas” by Caravaggio, c. 1601-1602)
Good Friday – Pr. Faugstad homily
The hymn we just sang describes how drastically the appearance of Jesus changed on Good Friday. By the time He was nailed to the cross, He had been repeatedly slapped and punched. His face was bruised and swollen. A crown of thorns had been driven into His skull. Blood dripped from the wounds of His scourging and from the nail holes opened in His hands and feet. All His clothes had been taken away from Him. He hung there in great shame and terrible agony.
His appearance shocked those who passed by. The prophet Isaiah wrote that “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind…. [A]nd as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (52:14, 53:3). Jesus described Himself in Psalm 22 as “a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people” (v. 6).
But the ugliness and wretchedness that could be seen was only a faint reflection of what Jesus was suffering. The greatest burden He carried was invisible. The source of His most intense pain was hidden from human eyes. Those hideous marks, that unbearable weight, came from us. “[H]e was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…. [T]he LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5,6).
There in His disfigured face and whip-striped body, you see your sin. There in that public spectacle with the crowd laughing at Him and mocking Him, you see your shame. It is more than we can imagine. It is more than we could bear. But we must not turn away. If we don’t understand why Jesus was on the cross, then we will never understand how far we have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).
This is the question that each of us must ask ourselves as we look upon the crucified Christ: “Did I do this?” It is easy to point our finger at the Jewish religious leaders. They weren’t going to stop until Jesus was dead, even if they had to tell lies and convene a sham trial to get it done. Or we can point our finger at Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers. Pilate gave the order for crucifixion, and the soldiers carried it out.
But you and I are no less guilty of Jesus’ death. He went to the cross to pay for sin. If you have ever sinned, you are complicit in His death. You should see yourself in the crowds on that Friday. You should hear your voice in the chorus calling for His crucifixion. You should picture yourself in the band of soldiers taking cheap shots at Jesus and mocking Him. You should see your face among the satisfied faces of all who watched Jesus die.
But as you look upon Jesus hanging there on the cross, He does not look back at you with anger. He looks at you with compassion liked He looked at the thief crucified nearby and at His weeping mother. The look on His face says, “I am here for you. I am here to save you. Your soul is worth this suffering. I accept this anguish and pain. I willingly take this burden.”
Jesus went to the cross out of love for you. He went there to obtain your forgiveness by pouring out His holy blood. He took into Himself and onto Himself all the ugliness of your sin, all your guilt, all your shame. This was the will of His Father. There was no other way to save you. “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co. 5:21).
Your sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus on Good Friday. God doesn’t see them on you anymore. All He sees on you is the righteousness, the perfect obedience, of His Son. Jesus went to the cross to accomplish this for you. He became dirtied, so you would be cleansed of your sin. He accepted your shame, so you would have glory and honor. He became ugly, so you would be beautiful in God’s sight. He embraced your death, so you would have eternal life.
All of this was done for you. It is finished! Thanks be to God. Amen.
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(picture from Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald, c. 1510)
Midweek Lent – Vicar Anderson homily
Text: St. Matthew 27:45-49
In the hours before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion He told the disciples that they would be offended and stumble because of Him. (Matthew 26:31) Jesus said, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” (John 16:32)
Jesus’ disciples claimed they would never leave Him and yet they all failed Him in His greatest hour of need. The going got tough and His closest followers took off. The disciples betrayed Him, His opponents were winning and His enemies were killing Him. Christ was alone.
The disciples left Jesus’ side after they witnessed Him be surrounded by temple guards and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. It would be foolish to think we would have been any more faithful. We too haven’t always remembered and trusted Christ’s Words. We’ve had thoughts like, ‘He’s not who He says He is, what He promises is far too good to be true,’ or at times we think our sins are too great and are beyond the Lord’s ability to forgive. We think He won’t help us because we have been far too wicked and are too far-gone. We abandon the Lord because our sinful flesh and the devil convince us He has abandoned us.
There on the cross Jesus hung, abandoned by those who once loyally and boldly followed Him. We know of nothing recorded in Scripture that shows anyone coming to His aid or rescue. In fact the only person who speaks up to defend Jesus is the repentant criminal hanging next to Him. In the first three words from the cross Jesus prayed for His enemies; turned and forgave the guilty criminal next to Him and provided earthly care for those most dear to Him. Though no one came to His aid, Jesus remained our lifeline. The perfect Son of God continued to freely give forgiveness and life to His beloved children.
Then a tremendous shift takes place and from twelve o’clock to three in the afternoon darkness unfolded over all the land. Being mid-day the sun would have been at its highest and brightest. Christ’s crucifixion took place during the feast of the Passover, which was celebrated during the period of a full moon making an eclipse impossible. God the Father specifically brought this darkness for the judgment that was taking place on Calvary.
Now Jesus physical, mental, and spiritual anguish was met with the pain of eternal death, complete separation from His gracious Father. An earthly abandonment by His closest friends now met a far greater heavenly abandonment. God the Father turned His face away from Christ and no longer smiled upon Him. One theologian wrote, “the frowns of heaven were upon the Son of God.” (Lenski) Here judgment and the eternal wrath of God settled in and pressed down hard upon Jesus.
This forsakenness is far greater and significant than we can fully grasp. Jesus cries at the highest point of His suffering, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me,” (Matthew 27:46). In those dark three hours the righteous Son of God became sin and a curse and for three brutal hours His Father left Him completely alone. (Galatians 3:13) St. Paul writes, “For our sake God the Father made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) By taking your sins and my sins the lamb without blemish was made sin in the hours of His sacrifice.
Our Lord Jesus felt far more than the, injuries, shame and insults of the people, He felt the door of grace being shut on Him for all eternity. (Kretzmann) When God looked at His Son on the cross He saw the sin of the entire world and justly punished Christ for it. Jesus experienced hell for us, “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).
In the peak moments of Jesus’ suffering He cried, “My God, My God.” Jesus exemplified the very essence of faith by truly being forsaken by God and yet still solely depended on Him to save Him. Jesus remained faithful to God at all times even in the midst of hell. No person can fully grasp the depth of what Christ was experiencing in those moments. In mercy God has spared us from fully understanding the reality of what took place in those three hours upon the cross. The closest we can come to understanding this moment on the cross is with the help of Psalm 22.
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22: 14–15). The darkness of that day alone would have been enough to make us shudder in fear and sorrow, but that is nothing compared to the darkness Jesus felt in his soul!
God withdrew His countenance from Jesus. God no longer caused His face to shine upon Him. (Numbers 6:22–27) At Jesus’ greatest point of need He was forsaken, so that by His abandonment He would come to your aid. The Father declared Jesus guilty on account of all your sins and damned Him to hell to justify you and forgive you. Jesus cried out and received no answer so that now when you cry out you are answered each and every time. (1 John 3:22) Christ Jesus was overcoming rejection, condemnation and eternal destruction for you.
This dreadful forsakenness of Christ is great news for all sinners. The gospel rings out in Christ’s loud cry, “My God My God why have you forsaken me?” By Jesus’ cry you know that you are liberated from all of your wrongdoing because He endured hell on the cross in your place. God cannot and will not abandon you because of what His beloved Son endured. God the Father’s countenance shines upon you, the warmth of His smile guides you every day of your life. You are declared righteous on account of Jesus. He has suffered the judgment and wrath of God for you.
There is no doubt that you and I will face hardships in this life, but no matter how bad they get you have the assurance it is only temporary. Jesus took eternal pain, suffering, and sadness so that you would never have to. You will never be cut off from God because in Christ God was reconciling you to himself, not counting your trespasses against you. (2 Corinthians 5:19) Your relationship with God is repaired by the work of your Savior.
The righteous Christ became your sin so that your sin would become His righteousness. Jesus took care of you on the cross and still takes care of you today. His love extends forever and comes to you now. Christ Jesus overcame the world, the fires of hell and the devil so that now you can have eternal life with Him in heaven.
The sinless Son of God must die in sadness;
The sinful child of man may live in gladness;
Man forfeited his life and is acquitted;
God is committed.
(Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary; 292 v. 5)
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 Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald, c. 1510)
Ash Wednesday – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. Luke 23:32-34
In Christ Jesus, who laid all your sin on His shoulders, bearing there crushing weight and forgiving them on the cross, dear fellow redeemed:
In the Old Testament God instructed the people of Israel how they were cleansed from their sin. The priest Aaron would take two goats, one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. This occurred once a year on the Day of Atonement. The first goat would be slaughtered and placed on an altar as a burnt offering to show the payment for sin was flesh and blood, which needed to be sacrificed to God.
Then Aaron would lay his hands upon the second goat, referred to as the scapegoat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions and all their sins. (Leviticus 16:21) Then the goat would be driven out from the city and into the wilderness and as far away as possible. These sacrificial practices pointed forward to the entire work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who would take all their sins and pay for them with His own precious blood. (John 1:29)
Our text takes place not long after the accused Jesus was brought before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Pilate had determined that Jesus was innocent and washed his hands of the matter, but he didn’t step in and stop this injustice. Instead he delivered Jesus over to the people and they seized Him and drove Him out of Jerusalem with the weight of the cross on His back.
Some of the people were ignorant to what was happening. Some soldiers ignorantly believed that Jesus was just another guilty criminal, and thought this was just another day’s work of nailing criminals to a cross and guarding them until they died. Knowingly or unknowingly, these soldiers were guilty of putting Jesus, the Son of God on the cross. They personally saw to it that He was nailed, lifted up and killed.
It wasn’t just the sins of government and religious leaders, soldier’s and the people witnessing His crucifixion that nailed Jesus to the cross; it was all our sins. We may think we are off the hook for killing Jesus but none of us are free from the guilt of crucifying the Lord. All of our sins caused Jesus suffering, pain and death. A sin is a sin whether it was done intentionally or without our knowledge. Humans are so frail and weak we sin without intending to and many sins we don’t even remember committing. Whether it was something we said or did we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
All of our vicious actions and evil thoughts were laid upon the innocent Christ, the scapegoat, who took our sins and carried them to Calvary. Jesus suffered the punishment for everything we have said and done that is against what God commands. We sentenced Him to death and we are the executioners.
God the Holy Spirit has revealed to us our sinful condition and the truth about who Christ is. (1 Corinthians 2:9) This truth that is now in us is what brings us to repentance acknowledging our mortality and sins. If we live a life without repentance we reject Christ’s forgiveness, but as the apostle John writes, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
His Word of truth has shown us what our sins deserve and how we should despise our sin, but it has also revealed where we should look for our help. We look to our Savior hanging on the cross. There He bore the weight of your sins and the countless sins of every person that has and will walk this earth. Jesus Christ was your substitute who suffered the penalty of sin and death instead of you.
Those around the cross jeered at Him saying, “He saved others; let Him save himself, if He is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”(Luke 23:35–36). In their blind unbelief they didn’t recognize the Messiah; they didn’t know Jesus. They didn’t see how He was freely laying down His life for sinners, His enemies, people deserving God’s eternal wrath.
Jesus certainly had the power to save Himself but in obedience did what He came to do. He willingly, with perfect love gave up His life for you. This is why Jesus can ask His Father for your forgiveness and also why this is a tremendous comfort to all sinners. (Eph. 1:7) As the nails tore into the flesh of Jesus’ hands and feet in the midst of suffering the agony of hell, He only thought of you. When you feel the burden of your sin, hear Christ’s petition from the cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).
Many who heard Him say these words didn’t understand what He was doing, but you do. By faith brought to you by the Holy Spirit in holy Baptism you know that Christ was forgiving you.
Jesus forgives the sins you don’t remember committing and the weakness of your humanity. He forgives your sins of ignorance and stupidity; the things that happen in life and you scratch your head and wonder why you are such a failure. Jesus’ forgiveness is for you even when you forget to ask for it.
His forgiveness is not dependent on your repentance; it is dependent on something far more perfect and pure. You have the assurance of forgiveness because of His true body given and His true blood shed. (Matthew 26:26–29) You are forgiven because Jesus died for sinners and not perfect human beings. St. Paul writes, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Jesus’ tender and caring words are applied to you each and every time you slip up. His comforting words of absolution on the cross keep washing over you and are never exhausted. You are forgiven for all the times you hurt someone even for the times you seek revenge because the One who saved you never hurt anyone nor sought revenge.
St. Peter writes, “when he was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten.” Jesus thought well of everyone, even those who beat and killed Him. His pure and holy love replaces all the times your love has failed.
Jesus doesn’t struggle to forgive or forget sins like you and I do. Instead He points His Father to His once for all atoning sacrifice on the altar of the cross and says, “Father, Forgive them” (Luke 23:34) I have paid for all of these; their debt is wiped clean. Jesus Christ bore your grief and carried your sorrows; He was stricken, smitten and afflicted for you. (Isaiah 53)
God the Father has forgiven you; Christ was raised from the dead for your justification and now the life He won is yours through faith in Him. (Romans 4:25) All of the burdens of your sin were laid upon Jesus and He has removed them as far away as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12) Even though your sin put Him on the cross, He willingly suffered to win your forgiveness.
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 Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald, c. 1510)
The Baptism of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 3:13-17
In Christ Jesus, who came to take the sins that were ours and to give us the righteousness that is His, dear fellow redeemed:
We live in a time of “have it your way” Christianity. Beliefs about God are determined not so much by historic church teaching based on ancient holy texts. Beliefs about God are determined by people’s own feelings and ideas about God and how He seems to be working in their lives. So then what do they need the church for? They figure they can talk to God just as well at home or at work or out in nature as they can at church. They don’t need any pastor or know-it-all Christian telling them what to believe!
We can understand the frustration people have about “the church.” They see the church divided into tiny fragments with each one saying that it is the right one—Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics, various community churches. And there are even divisions within these groups like ELS Lutherans, LCMS Lutherans, ELCA Lutherans! People hear about scandals and abuses in the church, the manipulation of the vulnerable, the mismanagement of funds. Why would anyone want anything to do with the church?
But as imperfect as the church is in our eyes or anyone else’s eyes, God wants us to be part of it. When we speak about being part of the church, this includes both the “visible” and the “invisible” church. What we call the “visible” church is the church that can be seen, including all the different types of Christians. The visible church is divided, and because of sin it will continue to be divided until the end of time.
But the Bible also talks about the “invisible” church, the church of all believers who look to Jesus alone for their salvation. This church is perfectly united, and it is holy. This is the church the apostle Paul spoke about in his letter to the Ephesians: “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” (5:25-27).
So if we were choosing between the two, we would want to be members of the invisible church instead of the visible one, right? Actually it’s not an either/or. Simply being a part of the visible church does not save anyone. But those who are members of the invisible church by faith will also want to be members of the visible church. That is because God gathers His people around visible things: the preaching of the Word by a flesh and blood man like you and the administration of the Sacraments with the visible means of water, bread, and wine.
He calls us out of our homes and away from a solitary existence to join together with fellow believers. The author to the Hebrews writes, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (10:24-25).
That emphasis on joining together, on community and communion, is seen in our Lord’s institution of Baptism. He told the apostles that the discipling of all nations would happen and must happen through their personal interaction. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” He said, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mat. 28:19-20).
Never in the Bible do we read about a person baptizing himself, in the same way that the Bible does not teach us to forgive ourselves or privately give ourselves Communion. These gifts come to us from God through others. If anyone would have seemed qualified to baptize Himself or give Communion to Himself, it was Jesus. But Jesus did not do this.
Look at what happened at His Baptism. Jesus came to the Jordan River where John was baptizing, and He stepped down in the water. John knew enough about Jesus to know that he was in the presence of a godly man. “I need to be baptized by You,” said John, “and do You come to me?” And in the first words we hear from Jesus as an adult, He said, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus let a sinful man baptize Him, even though He was perfectly holy. So what was the Baptism for? Everyone else was coming to John to be baptized because they recognized how sinful they were. Jesus came declaring His righteousness: “Baptize Me,” He said, “in order to fulfill all righteousness.”
You might think of Jesus’ Baptism as the reverse of our Baptism. We were baptized for the forgiveness of sin, to receive the righteousness of God through faith. Jesus was baptized not to receive forgiveness, but to receive our sin—not to become righteous which He already was, but to take our unrighteousness upon Himself.
Jesus submitted to Baptism as the public beginning of His work to save us sinners. It was as though He said, “I accept the task. I am ready for the trial. I will give Myself for all sinners. I will suffer and die their death.” That was His message when He told John, “thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then the heavens opened, and Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And the Father said from above, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
All of this has great significance for your Baptism. Most of you were brought by others to the font—you didn’t bring yourself. And all of you were baptized by another sinner’s hand. (Some of you here today were even baptized by this sinner.) Through Baptism you became a member of both the visible church where you were baptized and the invisible church which is the holy body of Jesus. You were joined to the company of others—sinners, yes, but also saints cleansed “by the washing of water with the word… holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:26,27).
This is not something you chose. Your Baptism was a gift from God to you. At your Baptism, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit came upon you, and the Father said through His holy Word, “You are My beloved Child, with whom I am well pleased.” God looks at you in this way because your Baptism was a Baptism into the death and resurrection of His holy Son (Rom. 6:4). The forgiveness Jesus won for you on the cross was given to you at your Baptism, and so was the victory He won over your death.
God did all this for you. He brought you into His holy church. But just because you were brought into the church at one point, does not mean your membership is permanent. We see all the time members leaving the visible church, and God also sees members leave the invisible church. They leave by denying their sinfulness and their need to repent. They leave because they have elevated their own will and desires over God’s will.
This is how the devil and our own sinful flesh tempt each one of us. They tempt us to embrace the “have it your way” mentality. “Why should you have to worry about anyone else?” they say. “Live the way you want to! Make the decisions that are best for you! Don’t be bothered by the outdated rules of God’s Word. He will accept you no matter what you do!”
But God is not mocked. He did not claim us out of the world, baptize us into His holy name, make us His children and heirs of eternal life so that we would live as though none of that happened. He chose us out of the world. He delivered us from the devil’s kingdom of darkness. He rescued us from eternal death. He did all that so that we would have life in Him. He did all that so that we would live for Him.
Why did Jesus step down into that water? It was to “fulfill all righteousness.” Only He could do that because only He has ever been righteous. Except for Him, the Bible says that “there is none who does good, not even one” (Psa. 14:3). You and I have not done any good on our own. There is no good apart from God. All of us have sinned. And yet our merciful Lord called us to His gracious waters of life.
He brought you to the baptismal font by the hands of your parents or sponsors. He spoke His powerful, life-giving words through the mouth of your pastor. At your Baptism, He Poured His Righteousness over You, He washed your sins out of you, and He took up residence inside of you.
You did nothing in Baptism—all of it was done for you. That’s what makes it so comforting. Even knowing how your future would look, how you would at times despise His good gifts and choose to follow your way instead of His, He still brought you to those waters of life. And now He calls you to continuously return to those waters.
You return to the cleansing waters of His forgiveness and righteousness by repenting of your sins and trusting His promise of grace toward you. As He speaks His absolution to you, He strengthens you to deny the desires of your sinful flesh and live for Him. And He also invites you to be renewed and refreshed by His holy body and blood as you make your journey through this life.
You do not walk alone. You walk together with all the baptized—those who confess the faith with you in this congregation, and those who are living members of the body of Christ Jesus. His righteousness covers over you and all who trust in Him, and it makes you fit to enter His heavenly kingdom.
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 1895 painting by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior)
Sexagesima Sunday – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. Luke 8:4-15
In Christ Jesus, who sows His Word among us, penetrating hearts and creating faith, dear fellow redeemed:
Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Is that better? Good. Everyone here is dependent on their hearing. If you come to church and can’t hear anything being shared, what good would it do to come? This is why pastors try to project their voices as best they can when leading the Divine Service and while preaching.
A dear woman once shared with me that at large group functions, she would turn down her hearing aids or even sometimes resort to shutting them off. She said when her hearing aid was on; the voices would all blend together into a loud buzz in her ear. Since she couldn’t understand anything being said anyways she turned them off. What a headache this must have been for her. If a message has no value and isn’t worth hearing, people will tune it out to preserve energy possibly their sanity or countless other reasons.
In our text today, Jesus shares a parable that teaches how the Word of God comes to us. He compares God’s Word to a sower who sows seed. The sower is God and the seed is His Word. This seed goes everywhere and covers all parts of the field. God sows His field, the whole world, with His Word hoping to produce a great yield. “As Jesus said these things, He called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear’” (Luke 8:8b). Almost as if He is saying, “Hear the important words I say, you don’t want to tune me out.” The ear on its own cannot help but hear that is what it was created to do; the only thing we can do is turn them off.
He says His Word falls on the path where it is trampled underfoot and ignored. Then the devil comes and steals it away from their heart, like birds relentlessly dive-bombing, pecking and devouring it. He describes how seeds fall upon the rocks that received at first with joy but later in times of testing they wither and fall away because their roots are weak and have no moisture. Some fell among thorns and as it grew up the thorns choked it out. Those thorns are the cares and worries of this world. Finally He describes how seed lands in soil which grasps it with an honest heart and bears fruit in patience. (Luke 8:12–15) It’s important for us to understand that the descriptions of soil in Jesus’ parable are not different people, but rather they are the spiritual conditions of the heart upon hearing His Word.
Jesus quotes the words of Isaiah chapter 6, because many people were refusing to hear Him. (Luke 8:10) “And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’” Isaiah continues in that same chapter, “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed’”(Isaiah. 6:9-10).
In the days of Isaiah they hardened their heart towards God. They lacked repentance and understanding of their sin and most tragically they saw no value in hearing God’s Word. Some hated God blaming Him for their trials and fell away, while others turned to the cares and pleasures of life. They deliberately stopped hearing His Word and in doing so they invited the devil to steal Christ away. It was no different in Jesus’ day and it is no different today.
God’s Word continues to fall on deaf ears. Self-righteous individuals stubbornly plug their ears to the truth of God’s Word not wanting to admit their sins and acknowledge how helpless they are. They find no value in the Words of God and determine them to be foolish and a waste of time. They are guilty of persistent unbelief and this only earns damnation.
It’s even possible for believers to lose their faith. Our hearts can become hard and callous towards God’s Word; our sinful nature is always fighting against it. At times in our lives we have treated His Word poorly making it take a backseat. If God’s Word becomes of no value when times of suffering come along you will discard it as something useless, and turn to something else instead.
We all know someone in our lives who at one point listened to God’s Word but has now quit hearing it. They disregarded His Word thinking they will make time for it when it’s convenient for them. It’s heartbreaking for us to see them push away the Word. The more they push the more they risk throwing salvation away. The Lord does not make someone lose their faith nor does He take pleasure in it, but He will not stop them if they choose too go that way. In love He never stops calling us back to Himself but He doesn’t force us to believe in Him.
The prophet Ezekiel writes, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). The Lord does not want to lose His beloved children; He wants them to turn back to Him.
Can you hear God’s Word today or is the joy you have in Christ being choked by the cares and problems in your life? Maybe someone has hurt you and you feel they need to apologize first before you can forgive them. You’re feeling guilty because God’s Word says you should forgive them. (Matthew 6:14–15) Maybe you’ve said something out of anger and now it’s eating you up inside. Your heart is heavy because you feel this relationship is severed and beyond repair. There is good news for you; God’s Word repairs everything and it gives rest to a weary heart. (Matthew 11:28–30)
His Word is powerful. It cuts deep into the heart like a spade, pulverizing rocks and clearing out weeds. “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”(Jeremiah 23:29) Hearing His Law is hard and painful, it’s convicting, but it is what makes us dependent on Christ for our salvation.
It shows us just how ugly our sin is causing us to acknowledge our helplessness and our need for Jesus to take our sins away. All our pride is removed because we cannot stand before the requirements of His holy Law. Hearing and learning what God’s holy Law requires has prepared our heart to receive His Word with joy. The Word opens our ears and hearts creating good soil. It is turned over and plowed deep; allowing affliction and suffering to squash our pride and finally opening up so the seed may fall in deep to do its wonderful work of growing into everlasting life.
The Sower knows better than anyone the rocky and thorny challenges that face His Word. Out of His great love for you He provides the tools to defeat them. Hear again the comforting Word of God through the prophet Isaiah, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Is. 55:11)
The Word of His mouth is successful and never disappoints. It’s the only thing that truly does what it sets out to do. The Word has set out to create faith in your heart and it has done just that. Given to you by the heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit on account of the merits of His Son.
You hear about the salvation won for you on the cross and hear how it has been distributed to you in Christ’s Word and Sacraments. This is the whole counsel of God found in the Holy Scriptures and you are justified by it. St. Paul writes in his letter to the church in Rome. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:14, 17).
The life and death of Christ was credited to you at your Baptism. His Word penetrated deeply into your heart and created strong roots of faith. Jesus lived for you as the perfect hearer and follower of God’s Word. Christ dwells within you and has reconciled your relationship with God the Father. He forgives the times you are unwilling to forgive others and He forgives those who have hurt you. This is what leads you to reach out and heal that broken relationship with a friend. The love of Christ leads you to forgive because He has forgiven you. (1 John 4:19)
He died for your sins of being distracted by the world, inclining your heart towards its promises rather than His promises. He also forgives the times you selfishly plugged your ears to His Word.
Christ never stops crying out to you; hear me, depend on me, be saved by me. (Luke 8:8b) It is a message too good to tune out; you can never grow weary from hearing it. You can never hear the words of His forgiveness enough. You need a righteousness that is greater, purer and lovelier than anything you are capable of. So you come to hear God’s Word, not because you are righteous or because you need something righteous to do. But because no matter how hard you try you remain a sinner everyday of your life. You need God to penetrate your heart deeply and bring you spiritual rest. You need Jesus.
Jesus says, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). His Word has done this for you and now you hold fast to this truth with persevering faith because it is the power of God unto salvation. (Romans 1:16)
Hearing the Word of God is the easiest and most valuable thing you have in this life. It brings rest, comfort and relief to your hurting souls, His voice reassures your heart for as long as you live. Christ calls out to each one of you, I am your salvation you are forgiven. (Psalm 35) Can you hear His Word? You are forgiven!
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 Hortus Diliciarum, a book compiled by Herrad of Landsberg in the 12th century)
The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 8:23-27
In Christ Jesus, who sees our troubles even when He appears to be sleeping, and who comes to save us even though it seems like we are alone, dear fellow redeemed:
We don’t exactly know how things played out in the boat with Jesus and His disciples. But it seems clear that they didn’t go to Jesus for help until things had gotten really bad. Before this, they thought they could handle the situation. They were expert fishermen after all, and this was their sea. They had sailed through all sorts of conditions on the Sea of Galilee, and it had never dished out more than they could take.
These seasoned men were keenly aware of changes in the weather. They noticed variations in the wind, temperature drops and rises, and what to watch for at different times of the year. As the wind started picking up, they may have rowed a little harder or changed their trajectory to get to land sooner. Then the wind got stronger, the waves rose higher, and the boat started to fill with water. So they started bailing water—they knew what to do!
But as conditions worsened, they realized they were no longer in control. They were at the mercy of a raging sea, and neither their knowledge nor their strength could save them anymore. It was then—and only then—that they cried out to the Lord for help. How bad do things have to get before you pray? I’m not saying you don’t pray—I know you do pray regularly. But when things are going badly, is prayer your first order of business? Or is it something to try when all else has failed?
There is a certain confidence we have when we face challenges in familiar settings. We might think that we have weathered plenty of storms before in our homes, in the workplace, or even at church. We can handle whatever comes our way. We’re ready for whatever happens. But then a big storm arises. We didn’t expect the diagnosis of a terminal disease. We didn’t expect the serious injury. We didn’t expect the attacks from our co-workers or our fellow Christians. We didn’t expect the place we knew so well to become all of a sudden so treacherous, so difficult to navigate.
We realize we are not in control, which is just as troubling as the problem itself. When we are not in control, that’s when we feel afraid. It’s the feeling you get when your car starts spinning on the ice. It’s the feeling when someone is making bad choices, and you are powerless to stop it. It’s the feeling when a loved one is suffering, and you can’t make it better. It’s the feeling when a contagious virus spreads through your home or your community, and one after another gets sick.
At times like these, people look at God in one of two ways. They look at Him as the problem, or they look to Him as the solution. Or maybe there is a mixture of the two. The disciples cried out, “Save us, Lord!” knowing that He could rescue them. But the evangelist Mark also records them saying, “do you not care that we are perishing?” (4:38). They believed Jesus could help, but they were also troubled to see Him sleeping while they were doing all they could to keep their heads above water.
“Do you not care?” they cried. It was a silly question, but it is a question that easily comes to mind and crosses the lips when we are faced with difficulties and troubles. We think we shouldn’t have to endure such hardships. We try to live the right way. We love our neighbors. We give glory to God. We don’t do all this perfectly but certainly better than many of the people around us, we think. So why does it seem like they have it better than we do? Doesn’t the Lord care about us?
This expectation of how things should be and how things should go is following our own will rather than God’s. We do not trust Him to get us out of tough situations or to lead us through them for the purpose of strengthening our faith. Or if we do put our trust in Him, it is only after every other option has failed, and we recognize we have lost all control.
That’s how the disciples were when they shook Jesus awake. Jesus did not chide them for waking Him up. He chided them for their fear. “Why are you afraid?” He asked. And then He supplied the answer, “O you of little faith.” Their desperation and fear were caused by their little faith. Had they not seen Jesus turn water into wine, cleanse lepers, heal the sick, and cast out demons? What about those experiences told them that Jesus doesn’t care? What made them think that the storm around them was more powerful than their Lord?
“Do you not care?” is a silly question. It was silly for the disciples, and it is for us too. It is abundantly clear that Jesus does care about you and me. The Lord cared enough to become a man and humble Himself, so that He could suffer and die for your sins. He cared enough to endure more troubles on earth than you can imagine, so that you would have heaven for eternity. He cared enough to cover you in His righteousness through the waters of Baptism, and He cares enough to keep coming through the Absolution and through His Holy Supper to bring you the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus does care.
In His care for you, He strengthens you now through the means of grace for the storms of life that will come. And He promises to strengthen you and relieve your burdens when the storms have come. He is the agent of peace that brings calm in all your stressful, anxious situations. He is not unaware of your troubles. He is not sleeping on the job. Something might be out of your control, but it is not out of His. Something may cause you to tremble with fear, but not Him. He rises up in your heart and rebukes the winds and the sea that rage inside you, and He calms your fear.
People will often try to find inner, lasting peace by looking inside themselves. But peace doesn’t come through positive thinking, breathing exercises, or yoga poses. The peace “which surpasses all understanding” (Phi. 4:7), comes only through the Word of Jesus. The evangelist Mark says that Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea with the words, “‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (4:39).
How did the disciples respond? The evangelists tell us that they were afraid (Mar. 4:41, Luk. 8:25), but this was a different kind of fear than before. Before, they were afraid because they had lost all control of their situation and thought they might die. Now they were afraid because they realized nothing on earth was more powerful than Jesus. They “marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?’” He was the sort of man like the world had never seen. He was the God-Man—God in the flesh.
I expect the disciples were ashamed about their lack of faith when they thought back to this episode. They were ashamed that they questioned Jesus’ commitment to them, and that they worried about anything when He was right there with them. We likewise feel ashamed when we remember how small our faith was in various trials and difficulties. We did not put our trust in Jesus, the King of all creation. We are ashamed that we prayed only when all other options were exhausted.
And yet Jesus did not bail on us. He is still with us. He is here to speak His Word into the storms around us and inside us. He is here to bring calmness and peace. He is here to save. He forgives our thinking that we are ever in control. He forgives us for questioning His commitment to us. He forgives us for failing to fear, love, and trust in Him only. And He still hears our cries for help, even when those cries come later than they should. “[C]all upon me in the day of trouble,” He says; “I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psa. 50:15).
It is true that like those trembling disciples in the boat we have a “little faith.” But we have a great Savior. No storm is too fierce, no problem is too difficult, no trial is too terrible for Him. There is nothing to fear, because He is here. “Fear not,” says the LORD, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isa. 43:1-3).
Because of our Lord’s powerful promises, our faith rises up and sings:
Lightnings flash
And thunders crash;
Yet, though sin and hell assail me,
Jesus Will Not Fail Me. (ELH #263, v. 2)
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 “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by Ludolf Backhuysen, 1695)
Festival of All Saints – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. Matthew 5:1–12
In Christ Jesus, who has blessed you His Saints, by His all-powerful Word on behalf of all He has accomplished for you, dear fellow redeemed:
To our world a blessing is something you can see with your eyes or grasp in your hands. The world measures blessings by the amount of success or wealth someone has or the amount of popularity they have. People don’t boast about their failures, instead professional athletes and prominent politicians only boast when things appear to be going well for them. To consider oneself blessed when that clearly doesn’t appear to be the case would be foolishness to them.
On this All Saints Sunday it is fitting for us to hear what it actually means to be blessed. Today we remember the Lord’s saints, all those in the faith who have gone before us to their heavenly home, all of us here on earth continuing in the good fight of faith and all those after us who will complete the race. Today we hear in what we often call the Beatitudes that the Lord’s saints are blessed in a far different way than the world tends to think.
Jesus taught the people saying (Matt. 5:1–2), “blessed are the poor in spirit,” those who lack spiritual resources on their own and must depend on someone providing these resources for them. “Blessed are the mourning,” the ones saddened by their sins, dealing with the consequences of their own poor choices. “Blessed are the meek,” the gentle and submissive, those who are pushed around and imposed upon.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst,” people searching because they recognize they lack what they need. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” This means that those who are blessed are people like you and me.
In the eyes of the world the Lord’s saints look anything but blessed. They think we are fools because we put our faith and trust in something we can’t see or grasp. This can impact our way of thinking and seep into how we as Christians look at our life. We are tempted to begin searching for evidence of blessings; if we can’t feel them then they must not be there.
We start to base the objective truth of our blessings from Christ upon our subjective emotions, which wax and wane day-by-day, or even moment-to-moment. We feel happy one moment and feel like the world is crumbling all around us the next. This only causes us to question God. Our troubles in life feel more like God’s abandonment than His love. We start to doubt whether or not God is good, because how could a good God allow such turmoil and trouble to inflict us?
Some Christians believe that blessings come only to those who earn them. They tell us, “good things are coming your way, work harder, keep God at the center of your life and things will be better,” believe stronger, think more positively and the Lord will bless you, you’ll see.” Well, what if things don’t improve, or what if they continue to get worse? That is why this is a false kind of gospel.
Christ never promises that we will have a comfortable earthly life if we follow him, in fact His Word tells us to expect the opposite. St. Peter writes, “beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12–14)
What if the happiness and goodness of life depended on our efforts or the strength of our faith? Imagine if forgiveness depended on our loyalty to God, or the proof of our faith was dependent on our obedience to God’s Law. What kind of a life would that look like for us? It would be one full of angst and regret, one of uncertainty and doubt, the definition of a truly un-blessed life!
Thankfully this is not how our merciful God wants us to live. Instead He wants us to look outside ourselves to our Savior on the cross of Calvary for the certainty of our happiness and goodness in life. To see that Jesus was tempted in every way like us but did not sin; He suffered grief and insult in His life yet remained silent. We share in His sufferings and He in ours. Even more God abandoned His own Son on the cross, suffering the eternal agony of hell, so that you and I would never have to.
Jesus’ perfect life and His atoning death are the source of your blessed life. He does not meet you halfway, instead Jesus went the whole way. He lived with perfect and complete obedience to God’s Law in your place, always faithful to God the Father. Your Lord does not say, “if you do this, I will do this,” His grace is not conditional, it is a promise already kept for you.
The Lord has created His saints by declaring you forgiven of all your sins. He forgives the moments you doubt His goodness and the times you are convinced He has abandoned you. He forgives selfishness in the times of your success, when you give Him no honor for His help and guidance. He forgives the times you get stuck staring at yourself instead of looking to Him.
In order for us to look to Christ it first requires us to despair of ourselves and recognize how powerless we are against sin and the devil. We must in repentance acknowledge that we are helpless and lack the ability on our own to resist sin. The Lord’s saints hate their sin because it stands in the way of enjoying all the blessings He has given them.
We look to Christ who did what God required of all of us, but what we were unable to do (Romans 8:3–4). Christ is not another lawgiver; the Beatitudes are not a new law. Jesus tells us He came to fulfill the Law by His life and death—not to abolish it or add to it (Matt 5:17). Jesus is the one who has cleansed us from all guilt and shame and God blesses you on account of that fact, not on account of anything you do.
We His saints still struggle with sinful thoughts and sinful actions and want to do better but we can’t do it on our own. St. Paul knew this well, he writes, “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18–19).
Jesus did not abandon St. Paul and He does not abandon you. He has provided the means to continuously uplift and sustain you. God brought you to faith and now He continues to shower grace upon you through His Word and Sacrament. The Lord forgives us our sin, strengthens us and keeps us in His embrace. We kneel at the rail communing with all the saints in heaven and on earth where He distributes forgiveness to us in the Lord’s Supper, freely giving us eternal salvation and a renewal of life.
Jesus opens His mouth and the Word that comes out from it effects change. The same Word of Christ that made water into wine makes the poor in spirit rich in spirit. You are no longer spiritually poor; He has supplied everything for you. The same powerful Word of Christ that raises the dead to life turns sinners into saints and the unblessed into the blessed. It has the power to quicken those spiritually dead to a new life in Christ. This new life starts here but continues on for you in heaven.
Jesus tells you, “great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). There He gives you a reward of immortality and infinite wealth. He has reserved a place for you where there are many mansions (John 14:2). Even greater than all of this, after your resurrection from the grave you will dwell both body and soul in the glory of your Savior, in His fullness and without end. “Rejoice and be glad” (Matthew 5:12), because all of this has been given to you.
The Lord has blessed you by His resurrection. His resurrection is proof that God the Father has accepted the sacrifice on the cross. It is a declaration of righteousness and forgiveness over all people. God declares you righteous on account of His Son’s life and death, which overpowers death and hell for you. His resurrection means that God no longer sees you as a sinner, but as a saint.
God’s wrath is not directed at you; instead His loving face shines upon you. You hear these words of the Lord spoken over you every time the benediction occurs in church. “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–27).
God’s face is like the warmth of the sun upon you. It sends beams of sunshine into a heart in need of salvation, making it a recipient of His grace. Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes that because of God’s grace you are blessed no matter what circumstance you find yourself in. Jesus gave Himself for you so that a rich supply of goodness would pour down to you from God’s good favor.
The Lord never ceases to speak His Word, in order that you who are called His own might gladly hear and forever hold firmly to it. When your time comes you will join the host of saints in heaven, arrayed in white, who rest from their labors in everlasting blessedness.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Sermon of the Beatitudes” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)