The Thirteen Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 5:15-27
In Christ Jesus, who by His blood purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), dear fellow redeemed:
When Martin Luther was ordered to recant, to take back, everything he had written up to that time in 1521, he replied, “[M]y conscience is captive to the Word of God… I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience” (quoted in Kittelson’s Luther the Reformer, 161). For Luther, conscience and the Word of God were so bound up together, that to go against one would be to go against the other.
God gave us a conscience which He informs by the moral law written on our hearts. That moral law totally agrees with and is sharpened by the Ten Commandments recorded in the pages of Scripture. When our conscience is operating properly, it will help keep us in line with the Law of God. And if we are living according to the Law of God, we will have a clear conscience. But as you and I well know, living according to God’s Law is not the easiest thing to do.
When we hear about the Good Samaritan, we might think of him as a professional do-gooder, whose heart was filled with an endless supply of love, patience, and compassion to help a person in need. It seems to us that a person like this must have enjoyed a clear conscience. He was just so good. But let’s bring him back into the real world. Let’s imagine he was something like us.
The Samaritan may have had other concerns and responsibilities occupying his mind. He may have been mulling over troubles at work as he traveled. Maybe he was in danger of losing his job. Maybe he was poor and hardly able to provide for his family. Maybe he and his wife hadn’t spoken for days or weeks. Maybe his parents were beginning to need care he wasn’t sure how to provide. Maybe he was stressed and unhappy and didn’t think his life could get any more complicated or any worse. Then there was this man lying by the side of the road. Could he really handle another problem right now? Should he just pass by on the other side? Would anyone know if he did? His conscience compelled him to stop.
You can’t be a Christian without having struggles of conscience. Those struggles, those inner conflicts, are actually a blessing. If you no longer felt conflict inside, the tug and pull of what is right or wrong, then your faith would be in great danger. Life in this fallen world is not meant to be comfortable for those who believe in Jesus. He plainly said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33), and “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24).
Naaman felt this struggle and conflict. As soon as he was converted, he began to be concerned about having a clear conscience. His flesh was cleansed of its leprosy, and he came back to Elisha confessing the name of the true God. But though he was now clean, Naaman was bothered by something new. He would soon be leaving Israel to return to his home. The last thing he wanted was to dishonor the LORD who had miraculously healed him.
He first asked for two loads of soil, so that he could offer sacrifices to the God of the Israelites on Israelite ground. Then he brought up another issue. As the right hand man of the king, he was expected to accompany him into the temple of Rimmon, a false god. Would the LORD pardon him for doing this and even for bowing down—not out of respect for the idol but out of respect for his king? Elisha replied, “Go in peace.”
But Naaman wasn’t the only one whose conscience was troubled. Gehazi, the chief servant of Elisha, couldn’t believe his master had rejected the gifts that Naaman wished to give. Think what good that silver, gold, and fine clothing could do. After all, should the prophets have to scrape by on so little? If nothing else, couldn’t such riches be used to help the poor? This is what Judas Iscariot argued when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment (Joh. 12:4). But it wasn’t charity that drove Judas or Gehazi to speak up for the generous offerings of others. It was greed.
The love of money caused Gehazi to do great violence to his conscience. He surely reasoned it all out to quiet this inner voice. Perhaps he thought that what Naaman offered probably belonged to Israel anyway. After all, Naaman had attacked the Israelites, taking their goods, and turning them into his slaves. Wouldn’t Gehazi know how to put riches to better use than that wicked man?
Gehazi felt so sure about his purpose that he even took an oath before God that he would handle the situation in a better way than Elisha. “As the LORD lives,” he said, “I will run after him and get something from him.” Then to follow his plan through, he had to lie to Naaman and then to Elisha. Even if Gehazi convinced himself that his cause was right, his conscience was certainly not in line with the Word of God.
The tension of keeping a clear conscience was so great that Gehazi decided he would not listen anymore. We know how that feels. Every day, we are challenged by these tensions. Should I confront my boss about his dishonest business practices, or stay quiet and protect my job? Should I take the shortcuts everyone else is taking, or do what is right? Should I hide my toys so no one else can play with them, or should I share? Should I lie and keep myself out of trouble, or tell the truth?
Sometimes the cost of a clear conscience seems too great, and we make the conscious decision to go ahead with something that we know is wrong. Sure, we reason it all out to keep our conscience from screaming too loudly: “We may not be married, but we are committed.” “Who am I to say what someone else should do with her body?” “It’s not right for me to judge.” “It’s going to happen anyway whether I say something or not.” “I don’t want to be left out.” But even if our conscience is quieted somewhat, we have departed from the Word of God, and the leprosy of the unbelieving world rubs off on us. We think we can just give a little, relieve some of that tension, and still be faithful confessors of Christ.
These compromises can never deliver a clear conscience. They only make our condition worse. No amount of good intentions, compromises, or charitable efforts and good works can earn us a clear conscience. These efforts amount to selling the faith for two talents of silver and two changes of clothing which won’t help us anymore than they helped Gehazi. Then sin continues to cling to us just as leprosy clung to him.
So what can be done to get a clear conscience? If conscience is guided by the Law of God, and we have broken the Law in many, many ways, is a clear conscience even possible?
God knows the cost of a clear conscience. He knows this not because His conscience was ever dirtied or in conflict, but because He knows us sinners. He knows how utterly we failed to keep His holy Law. He knows how what He intended us to be is nothing like what we are since the fall into sin. So He resolved to send His holy Son down to earth to be “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
Being placed under the Law, Jesus could fulfill the Law for every sinner. He could maintain a perfectly clear conscience that never departed from the holy Law of God. He was tempted in every way just as we are, but He never blurred the line between right and wrong. He never deviated from His holy task. He never set aside the Word of God—even in the smallest part—in order to appeal to more people.
He kept His conscience clear all the way through a false verdict, unmerited suffering, and a horrible death. He held fast to the promises of God; He had to follow through with God’s plan in order to redeem souls, your soul. God now declares you to be right with Him because of what Jesus did. You are now freed from the guilt of your sins. By the immeasurable price of His holy body and blood, Jesus made the payment to obtain for you a clear conscience, a conscience that is no longer imprisoned in your former darkness and sin.
So a clear conscience cannot be gotten by something you do. It is obtained by what Jesus did for you. Just as Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy in the waters of the Jordan, your conscience was cleansed in the waters of your Baptism. And that powerful cleansing remains in effect as long as you are a believer in Christ. St. Peter calls Baptism “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pe. 3:21). And the author of the book of Hebrews writes, “[S]ince we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (10:19,23).
Baptized into Christ, He is with you to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (1Ti. 1:18-19). He helps you to resist the temptations of this world, the devil, and your flesh, and to continuously battle to uphold the truth of His Word. You will not perfectly avoid what is wrong and do what is right. Your conscience will be sullied again by the leprosy of sin. But it is always cleansed in Christ.
Bring your troubled conscience to Him in humble repentance; acknowledge where you have fallen short; lay all your guilt before Him. Then wrap yourself up in His righteousness and grace. Know that your sins are all forgiven through the blood of Christ. The Cost of a Clear Conscience was very high, and Jesus met that cost in full for you. You can depart as Naaman did with these words of comfort in your ear: “Go in peace.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Parable of the Good Samaritan” by Jan Wijnants, 1632-1684)
The Third Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Joshua 21:41-45
In Christ Jesus, who promises rest to His sheep who “labor and are heavy laden” with their sins and with the troubles of the world (Mat. 11:28), dear fellow redeemed:
Have you ever been perfectly happy? Have you been so relaxed, that you felt like you had no care in the world? Has it seemed like everything in life was going your way? Often these thoughts come to mind when you are looking back and remembering, when you say, “I didn’t know how good I had it.” Or perhaps you are constantly hoping for that experience, for that time in the future when you can say, “I finally made it; I reached my goal; now I can be happy.”
A wise pastor said that we almost always miss the experience or feeling we are aiming for. So if we aim for happiness, we never seem to have it. If we aim for contentment or success or fulfillment, they always seem just out of reach. But if we aim for service and love toward others, for hard work, or for any other noble pursuit, we often find happiness, contentment, success.
So it was for the people of Israel. It wasn’t sufficient to aim for happiness and prosperity in the Promised Land. They thought they could achieve that through their strength, their plan, their work. They should have focused on the promises of God and trusted His Word, and they would have received the happiness and prosperity they wanted. But most of the Israelites whom the LORD brought out of Egypt did not enter the Promised Land. They did not trust the LORD. Because of their unbelief, they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years, and they died in the wilderness.
They never reached the Promised Land, but their children did. Their children trusted the promises of God. We heard on Easter how they entered the land of Canaan through the Jordan River, when God stopped the water from flowing so they could cross on dry ground. Last week, we heard how He delivered the stronghold of Jericho into their hands by making its walls come tumbling down. After Jericho fell, the book of Joshua details victory after victory over their enemies until we get to the point of today’s reading.
Now the people had rest from their wandering and their fighting, “rest on every side.” Now each tribe of the sons of Israel received cities and lands in Canaan. The descendants of Levi received very little land because the LORD wanted them to live in the territories of the other tribes. The Levites provided instruction from the Scriptures and spiritual care, and their needs were supported by the people they served—much like it works with pastors today. Throughout the land of Canaan, the Levites were provided forty-eight cities with pasturelands to keep animals for sacrifice.
Many times before the Israelites reached Canaan, they heard it described as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” It was a beautiful land. It had everything the Israelites needed. They were able to settle so quickly because God gave them victory over all their enemies. The Israelites took over the cities, homes, vineyards, and fields. It was all theirs! “And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as He had sworn to their fathers…. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
That sounds like the last words of a happy book or the last scene of a feel-good movie. The Israelites had to go through a lot of trials and suffering, but here they were. Everything had worked out well in the end. It would be nice if we could visit this land today and find it just as it is described in Joshua 21, to find “a land flowing with milk and honey,” to find everyone living in prosperity and peace—a people dedicated to the LORD.
But you already know that isn’t how the story played out. Shortly before he died at age 110, Joshua urged the people, “be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day” (Jos. 23:6-8).
The generation after Joshua’s remained faithful; they knew what God had done for them. But the next generation took this all for granted. They only knew the prosperity and peace, and it spoiled them. They imagined they would always have it. The days of slavery were in the distant past, they thought. Now they were a force to be reckoned with. They forgot the source of their peace, the reason they had “rest on every side.” And they lost it all.
This is very instructive for us who also enjoy many good things. The standard of living that we have is higher than most places in the world. We have plenty to eat and places to live. We enjoy relative safety with no imminent threats to our daily existence. Our country could be described as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” But do the people of our land give glory to God for these tremendous gifts? Do we give glory to God for these tremendous gifts?
The Israelites didn’t seem to recognize that as they had received the homes of others by the grace of God, so He could turn their homes over to others as He saw fit. Their beautiful land was only theirs because God handed it to them. Our reading states it very clearly: “[T]he LORD gave to Israel all the land…. [T]he LORD gave them rest on every side…. [T]he LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.” The LORD had done it all, and He had done it all for them.
When the Israelites forgot about this or ignored it, then He had to remind them what was most important. It wasn’t their homes, their vineyards, or their success against their enemies. For their own good, He took these things away from them, so they would remember, so they would seek His mercy, so they would trust His Word. Nothing was more important than calling His sheep back to the green pastures and still waters of His promises.
Our Lord also calls us back to His holy Word when we have drifted toward the ways of the world. He can see when our eyes are drawn to what appear to be greener pastures, but are actually dangerous places that are not safe for us. Joshua warned the Israelites about mixing with the unbelieving nations around them, people who would tempt them to serve their gods.
We are tempted in the same way to adopt the thinking and practices of unbelievers around us, to think the way the world thinks about relationships and money and priorities, so that God’s Word no longer has a place in our lives. But when the worldly things we have come to trust slip through our fingers or are taken from us, what will we have left?
If we aim at the appealing things of the world, we will find neither peace nor rest. Just ask anyone who has won big in the lottery if their life has improved since winning. Their possessions increased exponentially but so did their problems. But if we aim at God’s holy promises, at His unchanging Word, we find both peace and rest—and not just for this life but for the life to come.
Hebrews 4 is all about this heavenly rest of God. This rest comes to those who believe His promises. It is our Sabbath rest, a rest that results from God’s work and not man’s work. We have to do just as much work to obtain salvation and eternal life as God the Father did on day seven of Creation week, or that Jesus did in the tomb on the day after His atoning death. The Sabbath rest we enter by faith is a gift from Him.
It is a rest from our sin because God the Father took our sins off us and placed them on His Son who suffered and died for them all. It is a rest from our sorrows and troubles because our Lord promises to carry us through the difficulties of this life and strengthen us to endure. It is a rest from the devil’s afflictions since his head was crushed by our Savior. It is a rest from the fear of death since we know that death is our entrance to the green pasturelands of heaven.
This Sabbath rest of God fills your ears and mind and heart every time you listen to His Word and partake of His Sacraments. Here our Good Shepherd comes to tend His sheep. He knows His sheep. He recognizes our weaknesses, He sees our invisible burdens, He knows our deepest cares. He tends personally to each of His little lambs as only the perfect Good Shepherd can do. Everything you need, even if you were not aware you needed it before hearing His Word, is richly supplied by Him.
Through His Word, God gives you His kingdom. It is a glorious kingdom, flowing with spiritual milk and honey—with forgiveness, righteousness, and life. Your worldly wanderings in the past are forgiven and forgotten by Him. The Lord invites you to remain with Him where you have Rest on Every Side, where your enemies cannot harm you, where you shall want for no good thing, where He restores your soul. And when He takes you to the Promised Land above, you will join all His sheep in praising Him and saying, “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD made to us has failed; all came to pass.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of the Judean mountains in Israel)
The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Ephesians 6:10-17
In Christ Jesus, who rallies His soldiers around a manger, a cross, and an empty tomb and sends the terrible army of darkness scurrying away from His piercing light, dear fellow redeemed:
“It’s time to take a stand!” “Seize the moment!” “Stand up and be counted!” “Your future and your children’s future are at stake!” We have been hearing these messages a lot lately. They are attached to appeals for the citizens of this country to get active and go vote. People from both sides of the political aisle are calling this the most important presidential election in our lifetime. Each side says that if the other candidate wins, it will be the end of democracy as we know it.
It is not my job to tell you who to vote for. It is not even my job to tell you to vote. That is a right and privilege you have that you can choose to exercise or not. But it is my job to tell you not to get too caught up with the candidates you support or the candidates you oppose. God can use bad rulers as well as good rulers for His purposes. After this November 5th, our almighty Lord will still reign over all things in heaven and on earth just as He does now.
We are reminded of this in today’s reading, where our chief enemy is identified along with the battle plan for his defeat. Paul writes that we must take our stand “against the schemes of the devil.” Jesus described the devil as “a murderer from the beginning, [who] has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him…. he is a liar and the father of lies” (Joh. 8:44). The devil’s goal is that we join him in the eternal torments of hell. He is pure evil. He does not play fair. He will do whatever it takes to separate us from the forgiveness and salvation we have in Christ.
The devil is our number one opponent. We can never forget that he is on the march against us. Bad people—including bad politicians and government officials—come and go (Psa. 146:3-4). The devil has been carrying out his destructive work since the beginning (1Jo. 3:8). Our reading says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” When people pursue bad things and do bad things, we have to remember who is behind it—the great tempter and deceiver and his fellow demons.
He has his sights set on you, too, especially you. You confess Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, which puts you at odds with the devil. He hates you. He wants to destroy you. The unbelievers can go their merry way, but not you. You have to pay for your devotion to Jesus. He will attack wherever he thinks you are vulnerable, wherever he thinks he can cause the most pain and do the most damage to your faith. In Job’s case, he attacked his possessions and his family and then Job’s own health. But he did not prevail against Job, and it is not a foregone conclusion that he will prevail against you.
So how can you withstand his attacks? What is your battle strategy? If you knew someone was going to try to break into your home, you would stay awake and alert. Or if someone was going to physically attack you or take shots at you, you would wear protective body armor and carry weapons to defend yourself. But physical defenses and weapons don’t work against the devil. You need spiritual protection for this spiritual battle.
That is why Paul says, “Put on” and “take up the whole armor of God.” Only God’s armor can protect you against the devil. God knows the dark and imminent threats to your faith. He sees the dangers and pitfalls that are hidden from your eyes. He knows how to equip you, so that you “stand firm.”
The first piece of God’s armor is “the belt of truth.” This is not your truth or anyone else’s truth; this is God’s truth. His is the only truth that matters. His is the only truth that is most certainly true. We know the truth because He has delivered it to us in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Joh. 8:31-32). And He said in prayer to His Father, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (Joh. 17:17). We learn the truth by listening to and studying God’s Word, and in this way we also learn to identify the devil’s lies.
The next piece of God’s armor is “the breastplate of righteousness.” A breastplate protects your vital organs. What is it that covers your heart, so you are safe from the devil’s attacks? Some think that their heart is protected by their own good works and good intentions. Their heart is pure because they work hard to keep it pure. But this kind of self-righteousness is not a strength; it is a terrible weakness. The only righteousness that can cover and protect your heart is Jesus’ righteousness. The devil cannot pierce through the armor of His righteousness because He has perfectly kept the holy Law, and He kept it on your behalf.
The next part of God’s armor is sturdy shoes that help you to stand firm. You are ready for battle when you stand on “the Gospel of peace.” Now that doesn’t sound very strong. What about “the Gospel of power” or “the Gospel of victory”? The Gospel is those things too. But “peace” is where you stand with God. Paul wrote about this to the Christians in Rome, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). And, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (v. 2). As long as you have peace with God and remain in His grace by faith, you have firm footing against the devil.
God also supplies you with “the shield of faith.” This part of His armor provides some insight into how active the devil is. Paul speaks about “all the flaming darts of the evil one.” Picture thousands after thousands of burning arrows flying at you through the darkness. Or if that isn’t scary enough, picture thousands upon thousands of missiles screaming your way. God provides a shield to protect you—the shield of faith. The devil’s unending accusations cannot land on you as long as your trust is in Jesus. Those flaming darts are quenched like matches flicked toward a waterfall.
By faith you wear “the helmet of salvation.” You put this on when the water was poured on your head while Jesus’ words were spoken at your Baptism. The sign of the cross was made over your forehead and heart that day, and the sign of the cross still starts at your forehead and ends over your heart. God does not let the devil hang your sins over your head or bury you under them. You are protected by the salvation Jesus secured through His death and resurrection.
So you have the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes standing on the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. Finally you take in your hand “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” There is no more powerful defense than the Word. The Second Letter to Timothy says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (3:16-17). Everything you need in your battle against the devil is supplied by the Word. You also learn through God’s Word how to pray, speaking back to God in petitions and praises for what He has promised you (Eph. 6:18).
The inspired words of today’s reading make it very clear where we should stand and where our strength is found. We stand “in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” The parts of the armor of God that we have reviewed today are all gifts from Him. None of them depend on our own strength or our own abilities. In other words, the only way to stand firm against the devil’s attacks is to recognize our own weakness. The only way to win is to admit how poor and unprepared we are by ourselves.
Our powerful Lord must fight for us. This is exactly what Martin Luther wrote in “the Battle Hymn of the Reformation”:
Stood we alone in our own might,
Our striving would be losing;
For us the one true Man doth fight,
The Man of God’s own choosing.
Who is this chosen One?
’Tis Jesus Christ, the Son,
The Lord of hosts ’tis He
Who wins the victory
In ev’ry field of battle. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #251, v. 2)
Jesus fights for us in every field of battle. We stand with Him. Or better yet, He stands with us. He comes to strengthen and keep us in the faith through His Word and Sacraments. This is how He keeps us ready for the cosmic conflict against the devil. This is how He picks us up when are staggered by the devil’s blows and have fallen into sin. This is how He fortifies and tightens our armor, so there are no gaps and weak spots for the devil to exploit.
Today and every day is the Time to Take a Stand. Not on the shaky ground of a politician’s promises or an important person’s power because they will disappoint us. Not on the mushy ground of our own strength or our good intentions because they will fail us. We take our stand on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and His Word. Even the gates of hell cannot prevail against His Word (Mat. 16:18). “The word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8).
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 Temptation of Christ by the Devil” by Félix Joseph Barrias, 1822-1907)
The Festival of the Holy Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 11:33-36
In Christ Jesus, who has revealed the Father’s love for us by becoming one with us and who has now sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, dear fellow redeemed:
In the spring of 1955, a pathologist performed a regular autopsy on a man who had recently died. But then he did something that crossed an ethical boundary. Though there had been no injury to the man’s brain or any cause to believe that something had gone wrong with it, the pathologist removed it from his skull! He was motivated by the fact that this wasn’t just another person on his table. This was Albert Einstein, a man regarded as one of the great thinkers of the 20th century.
His brain was dissected and put into slides for purposes of research and study. The hope was that some secrets of Einstein’s genius might be uncovered and used to increase human capacity for knowledge and mental capability. More recently, scientists have been experimenting with putting digital chips in the brain that could enhance memory retention or even be used to download information into the brain.
We would all like to be smarter and stronger, getting better and better. But even if we could, even if we made major strides forward from a human perspective, we would still be “know-nothings” compared to God. The apostle Paul speaks of “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments,” he says, “and how inscrutable—how incomprehensible—His ways!”
The only reason we are able to know anything significant about God is because of what He has revealed to us about Himself. For example, human thinking could never figure out and cannot comprehend that God is Triune—one God in three Persons. Non-Christians such as the Muslims accuse us of having three gods. But that is not the case. We worship “one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity,” as we just confessed in the Athanasian Creed.
The Triune God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere, which we remember with the three omni words: omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God is eternal, holy, wise, and loving. He created all things that exist—the world and everything in it with all its beauty and complexity and the world’s place in the vast and ordered universe.
The evidence of creation alone is enough to show us the unfathomable depth of God. Specialists can spend their entire lives focusing on one tiny part of God’s creation and still learn or understand only a little fraction of it. In the whole scheme and scope of the universe, you and I are just small specks, temporary placeholders on a timeline that stretches behind us for thousands of years and will stretch beyond us for an unknown amount of time.
And yet, though we are certainly little more than fragments of dust in the history of the world, we are known and loved by our Creator God. We know this because He has told us so. This is how He described His approach to the human race, that He is “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. 34:6-7a).
The crown of His creation—mankind—rebelled against Him and did the one thing He commanded them not to do. But instead of pouring out His anger on them and wiping them off the face of His perfect earth, He made them a promise. He would send a Savior to free them from the grip of sin, death, and devil. That promise was kept when God the Father sent His Son to become one with mankind.
In the incarnate Son of God, we clearly see the mercy and grace of God. God could have condemned us. He could make us pay for our sins. But instead, He chose in His love to redeem us. The Son perfectly obeyed the will of His Father and suffered and died in our place for all our sins. This also is beyond our comprehension. How could sins be paid for that hadn’t even been committed yet, like our sins? And how could the Son die, but not the Father or the Holy Spirit, since these three Persons are one God?
We don’t need to make logical sense out of all this before we accept it as true. Just because something may not jive with our reason doesn’t mean it can’t be true. In fact, accepting only the things that fit our thinking makes us closed-minded, not open-minded. God wants to expand our understanding to include truths that are over and above anything the world can know. We were reminded last Sunday how He did this.
On Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, so that their message of Christ crucified would reach the ears and hearts of sinners “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Act. 1:8). In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit” (1Co. 2:12-13a).
The Holy Spirit continues to work through the inspired Word of the Bible, so that sinners are brought to faith and grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God. But even we believers have plenty more to learn. It is easy to forget this. After all, we are baptized, and we have been confirmed. We regularly attend church, and we know way more about the Bible than most of our Christian friends. Our faith is strong! But it doesn’t take much for us to question God.
Where is He, we wonder, when we need help and are hurting? Isn’t He all-powerful and able to change our situation? Or when we were unknowingly heading toward trouble, why didn’t He redirect our steps? Isn’t He all-knowing? Or when we were worried and had doubts, why didn’t He make His presence more obviously known, so we could be certain He is in control? Isn’t He present everywhere?
Paul writes, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?” Are we on God’s level? Can we see things like He does? When you have been around someone who acted like he or she knew everything, you know how irritating that is. It might be the brand new employee who on the first day of the job points out all the things the long-time employees should be doing better. Or the person who has hardly watched a sport, let alone played it, yet who thinks he knows more than the professionals.
Pretty annoying. Pretty laughable. It’s like us trying to tell God what He should be doing better. What do we know about upholding the universe and everything in it? We can’t even keep our own life and behavior under control most of the time! The Lord invites us to cry out to Him and even complain. But we have no right to criticize Him. He is never wrong. He is never unjust. Everything He does is good and right and true, even if we can’t perceive the good.
Another error we make is thinking God owes us something. Paul quoted this from the book of Job: “Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?” Many people think they deserve payment from God because of what they have done for Him. “I have made sacrifices for you, God. I have served you my whole life. I have always tried to do what was right.” But how good is a work that is done for a reward?
This is the way the apostle Peter was thinking when he said to Jesus, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” (Mat. 19:27). At another point, the mother of James and John led her sons to Jesus and said, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom” (Mat. 20:21). Jesus’ response in these cases was, “many who are first will be last, and the last first” (19:30), and “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave” (20:26-27).
Then He added, “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (v. 28). If we think God owes us anything, we should recall what He has already freely given us. He has given us our very existence, including the body we have, the air we breathe, and the food and possessions we enjoy. He has also redeemed our soul, so that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven and not with the damned in hell.
He has had mercy on us when we did not deserve it. Jesus willingly took our place and shed His holy blood to wash away our sins. He paid for our sins of pride, our thinking that we are pretty good, that we have a better plan, or that we can see more clearly than He can. Our wisdom and knowledge are so small compared to His. Paul writes, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”
“From Him” tells us that God is the Source of all things. Through Him” says that God is the Giver of all that is good. “To Him” means that God is the Goal, the blessed Focus of all that we are and have and do. We can dissect the brains of geniuses and try to enhance our thinking with microchips, but we will never come close to the understanding that the Holy Spirit imparts to us through His Word.
Through the Word, we humbly learn how God Is Merciful to the Know-Nothings like us, and how He leads us more and more, deeper and deeper, into His “riches and wisdom and knowledge.” “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phi. 4:7).
To Him be glory forever. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus Traveling” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Second Sunday of Easter – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. John 20:19-31
In Christ Jesus, who dispels our every doubt, dear fellow redeemed:
How could Thomas be so stubborn? The other disciples saw Jesus with their own eyes. They saw the mark of the nails on his hands and the hole in his side from the spear. Why did Thomas refuse to believe his fellow disciples “[u]nless [he saw] in [Jesus’] hands the mark of the nails, and [placed his] finger into the mark of the nails, and [placed his] hand into [Jesus’] side” (verse 25)? What reason did he have to not believe the men whom he had traveled with for so long and gotten to know so well? But even though Thomas was wrong to doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead, the other disciples were no better.
The first people to hear the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead were the women who went to anoint Jesus’ body early in the morning after the Sabbath had ended. When they arrived at the tomb, they discovered that the stone, which blocked the entrance to the tomb, had been rolled away. Inside the tomb, Jesus’ body was gone, which perplexed the women. Then, two angels appeared to them and said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:5–7). Then the women remembered Jesus’ words and went to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard. The women were told to tell them these things not only by the angels, but also by Jesus himself, who appeared to them as they returned from the tomb.
What good news the women gave the disciples! Jesus, who had been betrayed by one of their own and arrested, who had died on the cross, as witnessed by John, and who had been placed in a tomb, the entrance to which was blocked by a large stone, was not dead, but alive! He had accomplished the work that he had come to do. He had paid the price for the world’s sins on the cross and declared his victory over sin, death, and the devil by his rising from the dead. The disciples should have been rejoicing when they heard the report of the women. But, when the women told these things to the disciples, “these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11).
The disciples had no reason to think that the women were just telling them an idle tale and that Jesus hadn’t actually risen from the dead. He had told them many times what was going to happen to him. We hear in the gospel according to St. Matthew that, after Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, “[f]rom that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21). He predicted his death and resurrection to his disciples two more times after that. Then, shortly before he was to be handed over to the religious authorities and arrested, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2). And finally, on the night that he was to be arrested and sentenced to death, Jesus said to his disciples, “[A]fter I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee” (Matthew 26:32).
When the disciples heard the report of the women, they should have remembered Jesus’ words and believed that he had risen from the dead, just like the women did. But instead, they doubted. It took Jesus appearing before the disciples and showing them the mark of the nails on his hands and the hole in his side from the spear for them to believe. The words that Jesus spoke to Thomas in our text for today may as well have been spoken to all of the disciples: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (verse 29).
You are “those who have not seen and yet have believed.” It was two thousand years ago that Jesus walked the earth. There’s no way that any of you could have seen him. All you have are the words that the Holy Spirit inspired the disciples and the other writers of the Bible to write down. Those words tell you that you are by nature sinful and that you deserve only God’s wrath and punishment. They tell you that there is no way for you to escape God’s wrath and punishment or to earn your way into heaven. But those words also tell you that God the Father loved you so much that he didn’t want to leave you to that dreadful fate. So, he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take all of your sin on himself and experience all of the wrath and punishment from God that you rightfully deserved. The mark of the nails on his hands and the hole in his side from the spear is proof of Jesus’ love for you. Jesus was nailed to the cross for you. His side was pierced for you. His death on the cross was so that you would not have to experience that death.
But what God tells us through his Word doesn’t end with Jesus’ death, because if Jesus had remained dead, then you would have no hope. As the apostle Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “[I]f Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). If Jesus had not been raised, then that would mean that his sacrifice was not sufficient enough to pay for your sins. The good news is that Jesus has been raised from the dead, which means that his sacrifice was sufficient and that your sins have been paid for and forgiven. You have heard the same words that the disciples heard. The disciples were not willing to believe this good news without seeing evidence that Jesus truly had risen. Even though you have not seen any evidence that Jesus has risen, it is through the work of the Holy Spirit that you believe that it’s true.
Does that make you better or more faithful than the disciples? Even though we don’t doubt that Jesus has died on the cross and risen from the dead, there are other things that God has revealed to us through his Word that we do doubt. God tells us that he will be with us in times of trouble, but how do we know for sure that he is with us during those times? After all, it is often during our times of trouble that we feel the most alone. God also tells us that he loves us and will always do what is best for us, but how do we know that this is true? After all, so many others seem to have it better than we do, and not just other Christians, but unbelievers. If unbelievers seem to have it better than we do, how do we know for sure that he loves us and is doing what is best for us? And even though we believe that Jesus truly did die on the cross for the sins of the world, how do we know for sure that Jesus died for our sins? After all, the sins that we have done are so horrible, and they continue to weigh us down. If Jesus really did die for our sins, why do we continue to feel so guilty? What if that means that our sins haven’t actually been forgiven because they are just too great? In all of these instances, as well as many others, our doubts can lead us to not trust in the words that God has spoken to us through Scripture alone. Our doubts can lead us to seek evidence from God that what he has told us is true. In moments like these, we are no better than the disciples, who needed to see the risen Jesus to believe that he had truly risen from the dead.
Whenever we have doubts about what God has revealed to us in his Word and shut the doors of our hearts to him, Jesus passes through the shut doors of our hearts and says to us, “Peace be with you” (verses 19, 26). Jesus brings his peace to us through the means of grace, his Word and Sacraments, and through Holy Absolution. Whenever we doubt that God loves us or that he is with us in times of trouble, Jesus dispels our doubts by pointing us to the promises that he made to us in his Word and saying, “I do love you and will always be with you.” Whenever we doubt that we have been forgiven, Jesus comforts and strengthens us by pointing us to our baptisms and saying, “I have washed away your sins.” Whenever we are burdened with guilt, Jesus leads us to his table to give us his true body and blood in the bread and the wine and says to us, “I forgive you all your sins.” And in Holy Absolution, he uses his called servants of the Word to announce to all of us, “By the authority of Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is not through evidence that our hearts are put at peace. It is Jesus, working through the Word, Sacraments, and Absolution, that puts our hearts at peace.
While it would certainly be amazing to have evidence from God presented to us that what he was revealed to us through his Word is true, we don’t need it, because we already have the eyewitness accounts from the apostles about what Jesus did. Even though those apostles thought that they needed to see proof of Jesus’ resurrection before they could believe, they now tell us to believe without getting any further proof. As the apostle John writes in our text for today, “[T]hese have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and in order that by believing, you may have life in his name” (verse 31). God’s Word is enough. It is through God’s Word that we know why we need a Savior. It is through God’s Word that we know what our Savior has done to save us. It is through God’s Word that we know that the victory has been won for us by our Savior. Whenever we have doubts, we don’t demand that God give us new evidence that what he says is true. We turn to his Word and hear of his great love for us, love that led our Savior, Jesus, to lay down his own life for us, and to hear of the comfort and hope that Jesus used to dispel our doubts, comfort and hope that we have through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut from “Doubting Thomas” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Festival of Pentecost – Pr. Faugstad exordium & sermon
Festival exordium:
Wings. Water. Wind.
The first time we hear about God the Holy Spirit in the Bible is at the beginning of Genesis 1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (vv. 1-2). “The Spirit of God was hovering.” That makes us think of the way a bird hovers in the sky. Fly forward.
After Jesus was baptized, “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him” (Mat. 3:16). Once again, the Spirit was hovering over the waters. Fly forward.
Jesus spoke with a man named Nicodemus and said to him, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Joh. 3:5). He spoke about the wind blowing where it wishes, flying wherever it flies, and declared, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (v. 8). Fly forward.
Ten days after Jesus’ ascension, His disciples heard a sound from heaven “like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting” (Act. 2:2). The Holy Spirit did not appear in the form of a dove, but He revealed His presence by the tongues of fire resting on each disciple. They began boldly to preach God’s truth in Jerusalem, and by the end of the day, three thousand souls believed the truth and were baptized. Fly forward.
When you were brought to the baptismal font, the Spirit of God was hovering over those waters. No one could see Him, but He was there with power. “[B]y the washing of regeneration and renewal” (Ti. 3:5), He caused you to be born again. He made you alive in Christ.
He still comes through the powerful Word and Sacraments, not bound by the laws of nature, not confined to space and time. He flies to you with the grace, forgiveness, and peace that are yours through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And He flies forward on His soul-saving, life-changing mission, adding more members to the church of God.
In praise of His magnificent work, we sing our festival hymn—hymn #399, “O Light of God’s Most Wondrous Love”:
O Light of God’s most wondrous love,
Who dost our darkness brighten,
Shed on Thy Church from heav’n above,
Our eye of faith enlighten!
As in Thy light we gather here,
Show us that Christ’s own promise clear
Is Yea and Amen ever.
O risen and ascended Lord,
We wait fulfillment of Thy Word;
O bless us with Thy favor!
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Sermon text: St. John 14:23-31
In Christ Jesus, whose ascension was the crowning moment of His saving work on earth, and who then sent out the Holy Spirit to distribute this salvation to sinners until the end of time, dear fellow redeemed:
It is very clear to all of you here why you needed God the Son to take on human flesh. You know that you are a sinner, and that you could not satisfy your debt to God. You needed Jesus to take your place, keep the holy Law for you, and die on the cross for your sins. But why was it so crucial that Jesus return to His Father? And why did the Father and the Son need to send out the Holy Spirit?
Jesus said to His disciples, “If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said ‘I am going to the Father.’” That does not seem like cause for rejoicing. Why would they rejoice when their great Teacher left them? He left them to suffer and die on the cross to make atonement for all sin. He had to go alone, because no one but Him could endure the wrath of God against sin. No one but Him could make peace between God and mankind.
When that work on the cross was complete, Jesus cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luk. 23:46). And the Father received the spirit of His Son. He accepted His Son’s sacrifice. We know He accepted it, because He raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. Jesus’ state of humiliation and suffering had ended. Now all authority in heaven and on earth were given to Him (Mat. 28:18), and He ascended to the right hand of His Father in the flesh.
Since salvation had been won, it was time for these glad tidings to be distributed. Ten days after His ascension, Jesus made good on His promise to send the Holy Spirit. Suddenly the disciples, common men from Galilee, could speak in languages they had never known before. They now stood up and spoke, not to draw attention to themselves, but to draw attention to Jesus and what He had done for all sinners.
And the Holy Spirit did more than give the disciples the gift of multiple languages. Through the Word they preached, the Holy Spirit was also giving the gift of faith to those who listened. We are told that the people “were cut to the heart” when they heard what was said. They did not realize that Jesus was more than a prophet. Now they knew they had crucified the Son of God, and that death could not keep Him in the grave. After what they had done to Him, how could they expect Him to be merciful toward them? “Brothers, what shall we do?” they cried.
And Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That sounds simple. All they had to do was say they were sorry for their sins and claim to have faith in Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit would be theirs. But that’s not really what happened. It was not a cause and effect. It was not, “They do their part, and God does His part.” God did it all.
I guarantee that none of the people who were baptized on Pentecost Sunday woke up that day thinking, “It’s about time I admitted that I was wrong about Jesus. I should just believe that He is the eternal Son of the Father who died and rose again, and I should be baptized in the name of the Triune God.” It was the Holy Spirit who led them to repentance and faith and who prompted them to be baptized. All of it was gift; none of it was earned.
The same is true for you. You did not choose to be a believer in Jesus. Your parents or others brought you to the baptismal font and to church where the Holy Spirit worked faith in you. God had to do this work for you, because you were dead in your sins. An unholy person cannot make himself holy. Martin Luther put it this way, “If you yourself were holy, then you would not need the Holy Spirit at all; but since we are sinful and unclean in ourselves, the Holy Spirit must perform His work in us” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 24, p. 169).
That’s why Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” The world says the kind of peace you want to aim for is peace among nations and communities or an inner peace and calmness. But these kinds of peace are not permanent. The peace that Jesus left with us is the peace of His atoning death which reconciled us with our perfect heavenly Father. This is the peace the Holy Spirit imparts to us through the Word and Sacraments—the peace of sins forgiven, of eternal life secured, of a temporary rest in the grave before the resurrection of the body on the last day.
The Holy Spirit brings you what you cannot get anywhere else. He brings you the gifts of God. But He doesn’t send these gifts directly from heaven to your heart like a bolt of lightning, or through a feeling you have that He is near. He brings you the gifts of God through the Word of God. Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” That is why we come to church and have devotions at home, because it is through the Word that God comes to dwell with us.
And it is through the Word that God teaches us the truth and comforts us. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Unless you have learned “all things” that God has to teach you, you still need to be a student in the school of the Holy Spirit. Unless you are perfectly holy, you still need the Holy Spirit to sanctify you through the Word.
And the Holy Spirit is glad to do this work. He is glad to take the forgiveness and life won for you by God the Son and apply it to you. He is glad to bring you comfort in your distress. He is glad to strengthen your faith in trials. He is glad to guide you on the path of righteousness. He is glad to prepare you for eternal life in heaven.
You can see how important the work of the Holy Spirit is. Without His work, we would have no faith. We would be without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). We would live for a short time and die and be dead forever. God the Father and God the Son sent out God the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so that everything Jesus accomplished according to the gracious will of His Father would be applied to sinners.
You and I are some of those sinners, sinners who deserve God’s wrath for our sins, who deserve eternal punishment in hell. But what we have received instead is the cleansing blood of Jesus that washed away all our sins. We have received His righteousness that makes us acceptable to the Father. We have received His mercy and peace and goodwill. By the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word, we have received all the fullness of Christ’s redemptive work, grace upon grace (Joh. 1:16).
This is why we rejoice today. This is why Pentecost is such a pivotal day for the church. This is the day that all the gifts Jesus won for sinners came pouring out of heaven like stores of grain for the hungry, like waterfalls for the thirsty, like rain on parched earth. “Come, Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of Your faithful people, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.”
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 Saude Lutheran Church stained glass)
The Sunday after the Ascension & Saude Confirmation – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 15:26-16:4
In Christ Jesus, who is constantly interceding for us at the right hand of God and pouring out His blessings on the Church, dear fellow redeemed:
This past Thursday marks the day of our Lord’s ascension, forty days after He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 4 that “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men” (v. 8). Everybody likes to receive gifts, so what gifts come to us from Jesus’ ascension?
Some people teach that the gifts we receive from Jesus are all about our life in this world. “If you give your life to Jesus,” they say, “you will receive great blessings. You will be more successful at your job and become more secure financially. Your family life will improve. You will have a more positive outlook, and your life will be happier.” Those are all wonderful things, but Jesus never promised to give them. Many people have been misled and frustrated by these false promises.
The gifts that Jesus did promise to give are tied directly to the work of God the Holy Spirit. Just before He ascended, Jesus said to His disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Act. 1:8). And what would they do with this power? Jesus told them, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (v. 8). The Holy Spirit would be poured out on them, and they would boldly proclaim the truth about what Jesus had done for all sinners.
In today’s reading, Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “Paraclete,” which is often translated as “Helper” or “Comforter.” The Holy Spirit would come to guide them along the way and give them strength to do what they never could on their own. He would teach them the truth which He received from God the Son and God the Father. He would bear witness about who Jesus was and what He had accomplished. It is obvious that the disciples of Jesus received these gifts, because they went from huddling together in locked rooms to openly preaching about Jesus in Jerusalem from the day of Pentecost onward. Their attitude changed from fear and doubt to confidently and eagerly speaking the truth.
And what reward did they receive for their faithful work? They were put out of the synagogues—excommunicated from the church. They were often beaten for preaching the truth. And of the apostles who were sent out to preach the Gospel after Jesus’ ascension, church tradition indicates that all but one of them were martyred for what they taught.
That seems like a questionable bargain. If I were to start a club, and I told people that membership in the club would not benefit them in any obvious external way, how many would want to be part of it? It would not bring them more respect in the community. It would not make them more likely to be chosen for important positions. It would not make them more popular, and in fact, it would probably bring them trouble and hardship. That wouldn’t be a very popular club. But this is something like membership in the Christian Church.
Now you could find a church that would not compromise your standing in society at all, because many churches have changed their teachings to fit the trends in society. The biblical and historic teaching of the Church, for example, is that no one should receive Holy Communion unless he has been properly examined, but many churches open Communion to everyone regardless of what they understand and believe. The biblical and historic teaching of the Church is that only qualified men should be pastors, but many churches allow unqualified men and women to preach and administer the Sacraments. The biblical and historic teaching of the Church is that all sex outside of traditional marriage is sinful, but many churches say that God supports whatever personal choices anyone makes about when and with whom to have sex.
If you do hold to the biblical and historic teaching of the Church, you will find that society and a significant part of the church in the world is not very friendly toward you. You may have heard disparaging comments from people in the community or even from your own friends about how the church you attend is too judgmental, too strict, or too old-fashioned. “That’s why your church is so small,” they say. “Why don’t you just attend one of the larger churches around?”
It all comes back to what we are expecting to receive from the ascended Lord Jesus. We can’t expect to receive approval both from Him and from the world, because Jesus said that the world hated Him and persecuted Him (Joh. 15:18,20). Ultimately Jesus was nailed to a cross, even though He had committed no crime and had healed and helped many who were sick and hurting. The people who crucified Him thought they were doing it in service to God, and Jesus said this same belief would also motivate those who would persecute and kill His followers.
So why would any of us want to follow Jesus if we know it will cause us pain and trouble in the world? We follow Jesus, because He has the words of eternal life (Joh. 6:68). The world cannot give eternal life. All the world can offer is temporary wealth, temporary fame, temporary pleasure, temporary peace. But as soon as we die, everything we built up, everything we enjoyed in this life, goes away. It would be one thing if we just ceased to exist when we die. If that were the case, then why not live it up now? But God says that all who die in unbelief, rejecting the salvation Jesus won for them, are consigned to eternal punishment in hell.
That is not the case for believers. You and I will not be punished eternally, because we are justified in Christ. To be justified does not mean that all the things we have done and said are reasonable and right—far from it. We have sinned just as greatly as everyone else in the world and deserve damnation just like they do. But by faith in Jesus, we are declared right with God, innocent of any wrongdoing. That’s what justification means. It means that through Jesus’ atoning death and victorious resurrection, we are counted righteous before God, forgiven of all our sins, heirs of eternal life.
Because Jesus gave Himself for you, you can expect to receive tremendous spiritual gifts through the means He has established. Through Holy Baptism, you were washed clean of all your sins and made a child of God. Your life and your future were tied to Jesus, who “is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” Because He lives, you live. Because He reigns, you reign. And He promises to come back again in glory to take you and all believers with Him to His heavenly kingdom.
Jesus has also promised to bring you His gifts through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Holy Supper. Even though He visibly departed from this world, He is very much present in all His power and glory. After Jesus ascended, the evangelist Mark wrote that the apostles “went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs” (16:20). Jesus is still at work among us. He imparts His righteousness, forgiveness, and life as we listen to His Word, and as we eat His body and drink His blood with the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Here we are, so often weak, faithless, stubborn, and lacking in love toward one another, and Jesus comes to us with mercy and grace. “Peace be with you,” He says. “I forgive you all your sins. I am not angry with you. All that is Mine is still yours.” And the Holy Spirit works through these powerful promises to comfort us and strengthen our faith.
The Holy Spirit convinces us that what Jesus has won for us and what He has stored up for us are greater treasures than we could find anywhere else. No one else has atoned for sin. No one else has conquered death. We proclaim what Jesus has done, not to cause trouble in the world, but to save the world. Our merciful God wants “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Ti. 2:4), and so do we. That won’t happen if we water down God’s truth and compromise our teachings with the times.
But we know that boldly speaking the truth will cause friction, just as Jesus and His disciples met opposition and persecution. We can expect to have trouble in the world, because we are not of the world. Jesus chose us out of the world (Joh. 15:19). He wanted to give us so much more than the world ever could.
As we follow Jesus by faith, we know exactly what to expect. He has told us clearly about the gifts that are coming our way. He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and to comfort us through His saving work. He also warned us to expect hostility and trials in the world. These things do not come to us as punishment from God, but as signs of His faithfulness.
We are not meant to stay in this world any more than Jesus was. After completing His work to save us, He ascended to the throne of His Father, where He rules over all things and continuously blesses His Church. With Him as our Lord and King, we cannot lose, even if everything we have in this life is taken from us. With the psalmist we say, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psa. 118:6). Soon the sufferings of this present time will come to an end, and we will join our Savior in the glories of heaven.
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 painting by John Singleton Copley, 1775)
The Second Sunday of Easter – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. John 20:19-31
In Christ Jesus, who walks with you by faith, who you don’t see visibly, but He is right here with you, dear fellow redeemed:
Whose shoes do you want to be in? The city of Jerusalem on the first day of the week is quite busy. Soldiers are minding their own business, probably wondering why they are guarding someone’s grave. Women are wondering who is going to move the large stone away. To their surprise angels move away the stone and proclaim the wonderful news, Christ is risen! The fear of the religious leaders has become a reality, the tomb is empty. The women not only hear this glorious news, but then they see Jesus! They tell the disciples, the ones who loved Jesus so much, and they doubted what the women told them. Thomas is nowhere to be found. So again, whose shoes do you want to be in? I think we can all feel for those disciples. We know some of the thoughts that they probably had. Their teacher was gone! He was dead! We weren’t there, we did not witness what took place, but Scripture has revealed to us what happened that Easter day. Our Savior has risen! Christ tells us directly that seeing is not believing.
Jesus’ disciples needed to see Him. Our text shows that on the evening of Easter, they are locked in a room. This is a place that they feel safe. After seeing what happened, they knew that the authorities were probably coming for them next. Remember these are disciples who said “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death” (Luke 22:33). Some news arrives that the tomb is empty. Yet they still do not believe what they have heard.
We see in the Passion account that the disciples needed help to get to this point. They had forgotten Jesus’ teachings. Jesus had spoken plainly to them about how everything was going to be fulfilled. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31). Their little faith now has them locked in a room in fear of the leaders who put Jesus to death.
The other gospels have more details about that day. After the women had reported to the disciples what they discovered, Peter and John also raced to the tomb. They saw His folded up burial clothes. Jesus body was raised, yet they did not understand what was happening. They were stuck in despair. Thomas was not even in the room on that first day of the week. He did not get to rejoice in seeing His Lord. He wanted hard proof that Jesus was alive otherwise he would not believe it.
Scripture speaks very plainly to us just like Jesus spoke to His disciples. We will often ignore what Jesus says to stay in our sins. We try to appease the world, and the world will still throw us into despair. We can get to the point that our lack of faith can have us locked behind closed doors in fear too. This is what the devil wants. He wants us at that point of no return where we doubt God and we despair that we have been left alone. He points out all of the things that are going wrong in our lives. We hear the lie “If your God is a good God, why is He letting all of these bad things happen to you, surely you won’t have more than what you can bear?”
Like the disciples, we often doubt what God says. God tells us that He keeps His promises. The moment something happens in our lives that causes our world to turn upside down, we immediately doubt what God tells us. We try to find our own way of fixing the situation. The first thing we should be doing is praying to God. Our way of communicating with Him. And we should go to His Word where He shows us and tells us that He works things out for the good. We tend to not look much farther than the disaster in front of us because that doesn’t look like God’s promises.
God’s promise is that He will abide with us, provide for us, and help us. When we forget His first commandment to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, we ignore His promises. When we forget about fear, love, and trust, well now why should we believe in Him? The world tells us to look around and see that there is no God. We must take care of ourselves. Unfortunately, we will continue into the pit of despair because we throw away our only source of comfort in this life.
The disciples looked like they were going to continue to stay in that pit of despair. Maybe they would have come around at some point from hearing what the women had told them. Jesus however has a different plan. Finally, as the day ends, they get to see Him with their own eyes. “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Their Lord was there and was alive! Their faith was restored! They get to see in person that their Savior has risen from the dead! They see that He is no longer in the tomb. Death was destroyed. Jesus has done all that He says He would do!
Now remember Thomas was not there that first night. The grief of the events must have been overwhelming. Thomas also said he needs that physical proof. One week later and the first thing that Jesus does after saying “Peace be with you,” is that He heads right over to Thomas. This is not only Jesus walking over to Thomas, but this is Jesus walking over to speak directly to you.
Where you lack trust, that is all Jesus had. He trusted in God that this was the plan of Salvation. Like Isaac trusting his father when Abraham was about to sacrifice him, Jesus also put His trust in God the Father. He did it perfectly and instead of being spared, He took on all your sins and died for every one of them. Without Jesus death on the cross and resurrection, the world would be right, and you would have nothing or no one to trust in. There would be no reason to believe in God keeping His promises. There would be no reason to go to church to hear and learn from Him. You would just sit at home and wait for your untimely demise. These sins of doubt and failing to trust in God, they are forgiven. When the hard events of life get you, your faith might waver, but what you see in that room where Jesus met His disciples is the truth. Your faith in Jesus Christ is not in vain. He is risen indeed! And as He speaks to Thomas, He has a message for you.
That message comes to you right here and now. You are in the year 2023 and you did not get to witness the crucifixion. The men and women who were there saw and heard what happened, yet they doubted. You were not there, but you believe it. You have a new life in Christ because He is speaking directly to you. Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” You have faith because even though it has been 2,000 years since Jesus was visibly on this earth, He still comes directly to you in the Means of Grace providing you with strength every day. Jesus is still here! This is why you come to church, to hear His Word and to receive His Sacraments. This is where Jesus is present, coming to you. He has marked you as His own, He speaks His Words of comfort that you are blessed, and He personally provides you with forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation at the altar. He breathes the Holy Spirit on you so that you hear this message and believe it.
We walk by a clear and confident faith because God has kept His promises. Our Savior has risen from the dead. Jesus then tells us directly that we do not have to worry or doubt. We were not present, but we are blessed because we believe. This is why Scripture is recorded. Everyone can hear the message of their salvation. Jesus came and died for all. St. John tells us that it is recorded for our hearing so that we may believe. We receive comfort that Christ has not left us. He is with us now in this life and He will reign over us forever. It is 2023 and we know that the tomb of Jesus was empty. Like Job we can confess, I know that my Redeemer lives; what comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, He lives, who once was dead; He lives, my ever-living head (ELH 351). Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(woodcut from “Doubting Thomas” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Fourth Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 1:19-28
In Christ Jesus, who “comes to judge the nations, a terror to His foes,” but “a Light of consolations and blessed hope to those who love the Lord’s appearing” (ELH 94, v. 10), dear fellow redeemed:
I imagine you have a busy week ahead. There will be gifts to wrap and food to make. Maybe there is more decorating to do and cards or letters to send. This is a time of preparation, a time to get everything ready for the big day: Christmas. Perhaps you hope to recapture the feeling of the season from when you were a child, or you want your children or grandchildren to have that feeling now. This is a special time. You want everything to be just right.
Advent is a time of preparation, but the focus is not especially on external things, what is happening around us. The focus is internal, what is happening inside us. The problem with internal things is that they are more difficult to control. I can spend hours wrapping gifts and make them just the way I want them. I can clean my house from top to bottom. I can put everything in its place around me and make it look like I have every detail covered. I can do all these things while being torn up inside by sadness, by pain, by guilt.
That might be where you are right now. That is why Jesus comes to you today. He comes to meet you in your struggle and lift your burdens from you. He comes to bring you forgiveness and hope, comfort and strength. He comes to assure you that you have a merciful Father who loves you and cares for you, and that in His Father’s house are many mansions where He has prepared a place for you (Joh. 14:2).
These are the things that Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, came down to earth to do. John was sent to prepare the people for His coming. He was the “voice” prophesied more than 700 years earlier by Isaiah, the voice who would cry out, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain” (Isa. 40:3-4). How exactly was that highway making—that raising of valleys and lowering of mountains—supposed to come about?
The evangelist Luke writes that John “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (3:3). And John didn’t hold back in his Law preaching. “You brood of vipers!” he said to the crowd. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (3:7-8). Repentance was the way the people were to prepare for Christ’s coming. It was the way for their hearts and minds to become open to His gracious teaching.
And that is still the way we prepare for Christ’s coming: we repent of our sins. We repent of our valleys of doubt and despair, and we repent of our mountains of pride. But we wouldn’t know this was even necessary if God did not give us His Law. His Law is both written on our hearts and recorded for us in the Bible. There is no question what God’s will is for our lives. There is also no question that we have failed to live up to His Law—failed completely.
But the error we often fall into is measuring our holiness not against God’s Commandments, but against the lives of other sinners. And we can always find others who appear to be more sinful than we are. This is a trick of the devil to get us to think that we are not that bad, that our lives are pretty well in order. But if that were true, then why did Jesus come? Did He come to hang out with the righteous people, or to save sinners? Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luk. 5:31-32).
The holy Law of God shows us how sick we are. It shows us how bumpy our road was in the past when we disobeyed God’s commands and how bumpy it will be in the future if we give in to our sinful desires. And through the Law, the Holy Spirit works repentance in our hearts today. He moves us to contrition, to remorsefulness and sorrow, for the wrongs we have done—for the sins we have tried to hide and the sins we have committed right out in the open.
But repentance is not just about admitting sin. It is about avoiding the same temptations going forward. It is about not giving the devil an inch, because he will take a mile and usually a lot more. What good is repentance if you have no desire to stop sinning and do better? John said to the crowd, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” Show in your life how sorry you are for your sin and how you want to live for the God who made you and provides for you.
The people must have trembled when they heard John preach. He was great and powerful in their eyes. They trembled even more when he told them One was coming after him, “the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” “I baptize you with water,” said John. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Luk. 3:16,17). In other words, “Don’t ignore my warning. Don’t let this fall on deaf ears. A far more powerful One than me is coming.”
John was a serious preacher, but it was not all gloom and doom. The baptism he administered was given for spiritual comfort. God’s Law was doing its work. The people were sorry for their sins. Now they stepped forward to the Jordan River desiring to receive God’s forgiveness. They believed what John said. They did not want to be caught unprepared when the Christ came. They sincerely wanted to “make straight the way of the Lord.”
But would the way be straight enough for Him? Would He be pleased with what He saw in them? Would they be worthy enough, welcoming enough? Those would have been natural questions to ask, but they were the wrong ones. We get sidetracked in the same way. We want to live our lives for the Lord, but then we focus more on our living than on the Lord. We focus more on our work than on His work.
But it is His work that saves. No matter how well or how much you prepare for Jesus’ coming to you now, it is not enough. You have fallen short of the glory of God. That is why God sent His only-begotten Son. Jesus came to perfectly do for you what you could not do. He had no need to repent, because He was sinless. He could measure His holiness against the Law of God, and it did not condemn Him. Those valleys of doubt and despair, those mountains of pride, could not be found in Jesus. He kept God’s holy Law for you down to the smallest detail.
And He put all your Law-breaking, all your sin, on His shoulders and invited God’s wrath on Himself to spare you from eternal punishment in hell. That is where the Lord’s greatness is most clearly seen—in His suffering on the cross. That is where His glory is found, hidden beneath a crown of thorns and behind all that anguish and shame.
You have a Savior who knows sadness. Isaiah described Him as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:5). You have a Savior who knows pain, who knows guilt, because He took all of yours on Himself. Isaiah says again, “[H]e was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (v. 5). This is the peace the incarnate Son of God came to bring, the “peace on earth” that the multitude of angels sang about the night of His birth.
It is the peace He wants you to have in this busy season no matter what troubles you, grieves you, or weighs you down right now. Jesus came for your sake. He came to save you. He came to redeem your soul by shedding His holy blood and remove your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Psa. 103:12).
His forgiveness of our sins is why we don’t view repentance as a chore. Repentance is a gift worked in us by the Holy Spirit which prepares us to receive God’s greater gifts—the gifts of His righteousness, peace, and life. He gives these blessings to us now and assures us that we will have them forever in heaven.
So by the power of the Holy Spirit, we “Make Straight the Way of the Lord” today. We push away all doubt. We set aside all pride. We hand over to God everything that has caused anguish and pain to ourselves and to others. And our merciful Lord says, “I forgive you all your sins. I made payment for them long ago by My precious blood. All that I won for you, all that I have, I poured over you at your Baptism. There, I made you My own.”
Your Baptism into Christ means that even though you may feel empty at times, you are not empty. And even though you may feel alone, you are not alone. The Christ, your Savior, has come, and He still comes with gracious tidings of comfort and joy for you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Preaching of St. John the Baptist” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1565)
The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 19:41-48
In Christ Jesus, who does not weep for you, because by His grace, you do know “the things that make for peace,” because you know “the time of your visitation,” dear fellow redeemed:
The temple in Jerusalem was the center of religious life for the Jews. It was the place of God’s presence. Other cities had impressive buildings, but none of them had a place like the temple. The first temple was built by King Solomon who covered the whole interior in gold. This temple was destroyed by the Babylonians nearly 600 years before the birth of Christ. A second temple was built about seventy years later when the Jewish exiles were allowed to return to Jerusalem. This temple was not nearly as magnificent as the first one, but King Herod later expanded and improved it.
A young mother and her husband carried a baby boy into this temple to present Him to the LORD. He looked like a normal baby to most everyone except for Simeon and Anna, who welcomed Him as the promised Messiah. This baby Jesus returned to this temple as a twelve-year-old and probably many other times besides. After starting His public work, we know that Jesus went to Jerusalem several more times, visiting the temple and teaching the people.
And then on a day known as Palm Sunday riding down the Mount of Olives on a donkey, Jesus looked upon the city with its glorious temple, and He wept. Why did He weep? A great crowd was praising Him with “hosannas” and spreading their cloaks and palm branches on the road. “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” they shouted. The jealous Pharisees couldn’t do anything to stop what was happening. So what was there for Jesus to be sad about?
He wept because so many in Jerusalem had rejected Him as their Savior. Some who were praising Him now would approve of His sentence of death by the end of the week. And He wept because He foresaw the destruction of this great city and its temple. He even described how it would happen: enemies would lay siege to the city and then destroy it and everyone in it—man, woman, and child. The city would be so utterly destroyed that one stone would not be left on another.
About forty years later in the year 70, everything took place just as Jesus described it. Following a Jewish revolt, the Romans surrounded the city with four legions of soldiers. They came in the spring just as the city had filled with travelers coming to attend the Passover. Things quickly went from bad to worse inside the city. Different Jewish factions fought over who was in control, and leaders were frequently assassinated. Food became so scarce, that many starved to death or resorted to eating what should not be eaten.
Eventually the Romans breached the walls and fought their way to the temple. The temple was set on fire, and it burned to the ground in August of that year, which is why this Gospel reading is appointed to be read each year in August. But our hearing of this account is not just an historical exercise. It is a warning to us. Why did Jesus weep over the city and prophesy that it would be destroyed? “Because,” He said, “you did not know the time of your visitation.”
They did not recognize that the all-powerful God who made everything was standing before them in human flesh. They did not realize why this would be necessary. They did not know how corrupted their hearts were with sin. They did not understand that their sin required a perfect sacrifice in order to save them from eternal destruction. The people of Israel were more interested in a national revolution than they were in the spiritual kingdom of Christ.
How about you? What do you think is our most pressing need today? Are you frustrated by the action or inaction of government officials on the national level? The state level? The local level? Do we need better-paying jobs? Better healthcare? Improved infrastructure? It is fine to care about these things and try to do something about them. But it’s very easy for these concerns to become our primary concern.
We forget that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, where He rules over all things. We forget that He holds the power over sin, devil, and death. We forget that He sets up governments and tears them down. We forget that He is coming again to judge the living and dead, and that on that day every knee will bow to Him (Phi. 2:10-11). We forget that He comes to us and blesses us now through His Word and Sacraments.
If we fully appreciated these truths, we would humbly fall on our knees each day in repentance and praise. We wouldn’t have to make ourselves go to church, read the Bible, and pray—we would do them eagerly and gladly. We would quote the Word of God more easily than the lines of our favorite movies or songs. We would discuss the Word of God as naturally as we do the weather or the prospects of our sports teams. We would be willing to be rejected by the world and bear our cross after Jesus. The fact that we find these things to be a struggle shows that we are not as strong as we think we are.
The Jews thought they were in good shape spiritually. They thought they were right with God. They were sacrificing animals in the temple like He required. They were keeping the festivals. They were trying to follow His law. But they were just going through the motions. There was no faith in their hearts. The Lord is not just concerned about outward actions. He is not pleased with you just as long as you try to be a good person and as long as you go to church.
King David understood it rightly when he wrote by inspiration, “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise” (Psa. 51:16-17, NKJV). “A broken and a contrite heart” means a heart that knows its sinfulness and is crushed by the indictment of the Law. God the Father does not despise a heart like this. He knows how to turn a broken, sinful heart into a clean and faithful one.
He does it by the visitation of His only-begotten Son, Jesus. Jesus went to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a peace mission. He wasn’t trying to bring the Jews and the Romans more closely together. He went there to reconcile sinners with God. And the only way to accomplish this was to offer up His perfect life in the place of all sinful people. Jesus wept, because even though the work would be done for all, not all would believe it. Even though His blood would be shed for all, many would remain in their sins through unbelief.
And how does it stand with you? Do you believe that Jesus rode into Jerusalem to make peace between God and you? Do you believe He carried your sins to the cross—every single one? Do you believe He poured out His holy blood to cleanse your heart? Do you recognize that This Is the Time of Your Visitation? Because it is. Jesus is present for you and working in you right now. He is here to comfort you and strengthen you.
He wants you to know that His righteous life under the Law is for you. His death and resurrection are for you. His forgiveness is for you. He is here to free you from the guilt of your bad decisions and give you a clean conscience. He is here to wake you up from your sleepy approach to spiritual things and keep your attention fixed on His saving Word of truth.
Many before you have been in this same blessed position. They have heard the Word as you do and received the Sacraments. And then they walked away from it. They thought everything was fine. They were happy with their life. They were happy in the world. They didn’t worry about the destruction that was coming. They rejected “the things that make for peace.” They “did not know the time of [their] visitation.”
The devil even now is trying to do the same to you. He wants to “surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground.” How can you withstand his attacks? How can you make sure your faith will not fail? You cannot stand against the devil on your own. You will never win the victory by your strength. The devil is too powerful. He has been fighting a long time—he knows how to conquer souls.
But Jesus knows how to save them and defend them, and the devil’s power is nothing compared to His. Jesus freed you from the devil’s accusations through His atoning death, and He triumphed over the devil in His resurrection. Jesus brings that victory to you through His Word and Sacraments. Through those means of grace, He plants His flag in your heart. He says to the devil, “If you want this member of Mine, you have to go through Me!”
Jesus took up residence in your heart at your Baptism, and He remains there by the faith the Holy Spirit worked in you and continues to strengthen in you (Eph. 3:16-17). This Is the Time of Your Visitation. Jesus is here for you, to bring peace to your broken and contrite heart. He is here to protect you and save you from destruction. He is here to impart His holiness to you and prepare you to enter His heavenly kingdom. Jesus is here for you, and there is no place that He would rather be.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)