The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 16:23-30
In Christ Jesus, who has taught us to pray with all boldness and confidence because He has died for us, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, dear fellow redeemed:
If there was something you wanted as a child, who were you more likely to ask: your mom or your dad? There were a number of factors to consider: First of all, their track record—who said “yes” more often than “no.” Second, their level of stress—who was in a better state of mind to consider your request. Third, their natural interest in your particular idea—for example, dad was maybe more disposed to say “yes” to ordering pizza, while mom was more willing to say “yes” to going to a friend’s house. There were some important calculations you had to make—and possibly some minor manipulations—to get your way.
This is not the sort of approach we need to take in praying to God. We do not need to guess what He might be thinking before we make our request. “For who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Rom. 11:34). We do not need to hope He is happy with us and looks with favor upon us before we pray. “For God so loved the world” (Joh. 3:16). We do not need to appeal to one Person of the Triune God over another, as though one is harder to approach or less willing to hear. For “God is one” (Gal. 3:20).
There is much in this world that discourages our prayer. But there is much in Jesus’ Word that encourages it. First of all, the obstacles to prayer. One of the obstacles to prayer is the thought that we don’t have time to pray. We have so much to do. We have to keep up with kids and work and appointments. We hardly have time to eat and exercise the way we want to. Even if we did carve out a few minutes for prayer, our brains are so full of what else needs to get done, that we could not focus anyway.
Another obstacle is our lack of confidence that we are praying in the right way. We know people who are good at it, it seems to come naturally to them, but that isn’t us. We stumble over our thoughts and our words. We imagine that God is in heaven shaking His head at our attempt. This obstacle is closely related to another one: I am not worthy to pray. Who am I to think God would ever want to hear my prayers? I have sinned too much. I haven’t been loving or kind to others like I should be. I don’t deserve to have what I want to ask for. The thought of trying to pray just makes me feel guilty.
Another obstacle is the thought that my praying won’t accomplish anything that isn’t already in God’s plan. This goes along with the idea that God has predetermined everything. He knows what He will do, and there’s nothing I can do to change that. So why pray? He knows what I need; He doesn’t need me to ask Him. Closely connected to this obstacle is the notion that God probably isn’t going to give me what I ask for, so why increase my frustration and pain for giving prayer a try and having it fail?
These are common obstacles to prayer. I am confident they sound familiar to you. If you polled one hundred Christians, I think the vast majority of them would say that their practice of prayer is weak or nearly non-existent. Our goal today is not to give you a list of ways to form a habit of prayer, to teach you to become a more effective pray-er, or to try to convince you how fun this can be. That would be trying to motivate you with the Law, and that would only lead to more guilt and failure. Instead, we will focus on the promises of Jesus, on His encouragements to pray, and the power and grace He imparts to us to bring our requests to God.
At the beginning of today’s reading, Jesus says, “Truly, truly—Amen, amen—I say to you.” Whenever He doubles the word “amen” or “truly,” we should listen carefully. He is saying something immovable, something He wants us to take to heart and keep there. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”
This is a glorious passage! Jesus is saying that there is no barrier between us and the Almighty Father, Maker of heaven and earth. Jesus taught His disciples in every time and place to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” In the Catechism, Martin Luther beautifully explains what this means: “God would hereby tenderly invite us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him with all boldness and confidence, as children ask their dear father.”
The reason we can ask the Father with such boldness and confidence, and the way we do it, is “in Jesus’ name.” “In Jesus’ name” means in view of everything He did to save us. He paid for our sins, He overcame our death, He covers us in His righteousness. Because we are in Him, members of His body by faith, when the Father sees us, He sees His Son. When He hears us, He hears His Son. When He answers our prayers, He answers them as though His Son did the asking.
But if that is true, why don’t we receive everything we ask for? Did Jesus receive everything He asked for? Think about how He prayed in great agony in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His death: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luk. 22:42). Did Jesus receive what He asked for? The Father did not remove the cup of suffering from His Son. Jesus had to suffer the wrath of God and the fires of hell and die on the cross in order to make atonement for our sins. The Father’s love for us compelled Him to send His Son to suffering and death.
The cup of suffering was not removed from Jesus, but the Father’s will was done, and that is ultimately where Jesus left His request: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” We pray in the same way when we are praying for things that we’re not sure God wants to give us. “If it is Your will, help my injury to heal, my health to improve, my finances to stabilize, my family to grow.” It may be His will to let our struggles continue a while longer in order to train us in our faith, our patience, and our humility.
But we do not pray to the Father expecting to come up empty-handed. We pray with confidence, in full expectation that He wants to bless us and will bless us. Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mat. 7:11). The Father loves you! He sent His only Son to die in your place! If He did not care about you, He would not have done this, He would not provide for your daily needs, and He would not continue to bring His holy Word to your ears and heart.
You have a gracious, generous God. There are so many proofs of this in the abilities, interests, and skills He has given you; in the food, clothing, and home you enjoy; in the family and friends that surround you. You are part of a Christian congregation; you hear His saving Word; you receive His life-giving Sacraments; you have a pastor who cares for your soul (Heb. 13:17). Your God forgives you, comforts you, strengthens you, protects you. He loves to hear your prayers, and He loves to give His gifts: “Ask,” says Jesus, “and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
These promises all hinged on Jesus completing the work His Father sent Him to do. Jesus said: “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” The disciples did not understand it at the time, but Jesus was telling them that He had to suffer and die, and that He would rise again and return in glory to His Father. His “leaving the world and going to the Father” at His ascension was the sign that His saving work was finished. It was the proof that the way was opened to the Father, that every believer has direct access to the Father in prayer.
Jesus’ death and resurrection to save our souls, His righteousness that covers us, His name placed on us in Baptism, is why we are confident in prayer. Through His Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit imparts the grace we need for praying. The Holy Spirit works in us the desire to speak to our Father in Jesus’ name, to bring all our concerns, struggles, and wants to Him, and to have confidence that everything we need, “whatever [we] ask,” rests in His merciful and all-powerful hands.
We don’t need to wait for the perfect time to pray; we don’t need to pray in the perfect way; we don’t need to wonder if God is ready to hear us or worry how He will respond. Effectiveness in prayer does not depend on how well we do it or on pulling the right strings. It depends on the love of God toward us. He wants us to pray. He promises to hear us. He loves us with a perfect love which means He is not looking to criticize us or judge us harshly for our weakness in prayer.
Like a dear mother or father who patiently and gladly listens to the request of a child, God listens to us. He knows all things, so He knows what is best for us. He will answer our prayers in such a way that we are spared from the weak impulses and inclinations of our sinful nature and are instead confirmed in His grace and truth. His perfect answers to our prayers increase our joy and move us to respond to Him in words of thanks and praise. So we say:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus and the Little Child” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Second Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 21:25-36
In Christ Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, and who shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, dear fellow redeemed:
Jesus’ triumphal entry in Jerusalem marked the beginning of what we call Holy Week. Some people, identified as “Greeks” who saw or at least heard about Jesus’ arrival, approached His disciple Philip that week. They were probably Greek-speaking Gentiles who had been instructed from the Scriptures. They came to Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (Joh. 12:21).
Why do you suppose they wanted to see Jesus? There were likely many reasons. The whole city was buzzing about Jesus’ coming. Word had spread about how He had recently raised Lazarus from the dead. There were reports about Him healing many who were sick and diseased, making paralyzed people walk, giving sight to the blind, and casting out demons. He gave attention to children and even non-Jewish people, the Gentiles. This may be what gave the Greeks confidence to approach Jesus.
We imagine what it would have been like to be in their position, to live at that time, to see Jesus perform miracles, to hear Him teach. We imagine Him looking into our eyes, knowing our struggles and pains, and taking them all away. We would never want to leave Him. We would follow Him wherever He went.
That was Jesus at His first coming. But His second coming will be different. All creation will be stirred up. The sun and moon will go dark, “and the stars will fall from heaven” (Mat. 24:29). Our reading says the nations will be distressed while the sea and waves are roaring, “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
The “Son of Man” is Jesus. He will not come in lowliness then. No Bethlehem manger then, no lowly donkey for His entry to Jerusalem, no crown of thorns, no cross, no grave. On the Last Day, Judgment Day, He will come with “power and great glory”—the power and glory of the God who made all things and who single-handedly conquered sin, death, and the devil. That powerful Lord may not be how we typically picture Jesus. We picture Him gently serving those around Him and willingly suffering for sinners. We wish to see that Jesus, but what about the Jesus who comes on the Last Day? Do you wish to see Him?
The thought of Judgment Day makes us nervous. We read passages like 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” If you were judged by what you have done or said or thought, how would it go for you? You might try to take the “big picture” approach. Overall if your life was one big scale, perhaps you feel that there would be more on the good side than on the bad side. Some hope to be judged by how hard they tried to do right, or how much better they were than others. None of that is enough; God demands perfection. If you are judged by what you have done, you will come up short, and you know it.
But Jesus does not tell you to be afraid of that day. He says that when He comes to judge the world, you should not try to run and hide. That’s what the unbelievers will do. They will want to crawl in some deep, dark caves to get away from Him; they will beg the mountains and hills to cover them up, so they don’t have to face the wrath of the Lord they rejected (Rev. 6:15-17). On the other hand, Jesus says to His people who trust in Him, to you and me: “when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
When the Son of Man comes on the Last Day, that is your redemption drawing near. That is the day of your ultimate deliverance from the evils of this world and from death. He already purchased you with His holy blood and won eternal life for you. On the Last Day, you will experience this in all its fullness. You will join Him in His glory, your body whole and perfected. You will join Him in the air when He comes and will go with Him to His heavenly kingdom.
So you do not need to be afraid of His coming, but you do need to be ready for it. Wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, the persecution of the Church, the rise of false prophets, the increase of lawlessness—all of these are signs that our Lord is coming. The more we see these signs, the more we should prepare.
It’s like the approach of Christmas. You are surrounded by signs that Christmas is coming. People’s homes are decorated with colorful lights, Christmas trees appear in living room windows, Christmas music plays over the radio and in stores that offer holiday specials at every turn. The closer we get to Christmas, the more the anticipation and excitement build. We don’t become lazier, less and less interested in decorating, gift-buying, and party planning as Christmas comes. We get more focused, active, making sure that everything is ready to the smallest detail.
That is how we should prepare for our Lord’s return. Jesus warns us about getting distracted by the world and being complacent in our faith. He says, “watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life.” “Dissipation” is the loss of sense and control that comes from drinking too much. It is like a drunk person stumbling around, saying whatever he wants, doing whatever he wants, not caring how others are affected. That is the mentality of many who are so focused on self-indulgence and self-fulfillment that they ignore their responsibility to love God and serve their neighbors.
When we let “dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life” overcome us and distract us, then we are not prepared like we should be for Jesus’ return. Then we may be found without faith when He arrives and calls the faithful to come to Him. Jesus says, “watch yourselves lest… that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.”
A good test of preparedness is to ask what in your life demands the most of your attention. What would you have the hardest time giving up? Would it be your work, your home, your money, your smartphone, or your computer? Would it be your friends, even the members of your family? Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mat. 10:37).
There are many things vying for our attention, many of them good things. But none of them should take the place of our Savior. None of the things of this life can save us. Only Jesus can. None of the things of this life can prepare us for His return. Only Jesus can prepare us. And He does it through His Word. It’s not just His warnings about what is coming. It is the grace He applies to us that makes us fit to stand before Him.
Every time we encounter Jesus through His Word and Sacraments, a transaction takes place. We cannot see Him as He visits us today, but He is present with His eternal blessings. We confess our sins, and He imparts His forgiveness. We put off our burden of guilt, and He places His holiness on us. We repent of our weaknesses, and He gives His strength. We divulge our worries and fears, and He gives us courage and peace. All of these are gifts of His grace. We do not earn them; He gives them freely out of love.
What we are doing every time we gather together is a preparation or a rehearsal for what is coming. By listening and learning, by receiving the gifts of Jesus through His Word, we are getting ready for the main event, for Jesus’ triumphant return. His Word is true. He is not playing a joke on us or tricking us when He tells us what is coming. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” He says, “but My words will not pass away.”
So He tells us to “stay awake at all times.” This means staying awake and alert spiritually. We do this by staying connected to His living and active Word, not just through attendance at church but also through reading and studying His Word in our homes and even listening to it while we are out and about. Hearing what He says to us moves us to speak to Him in prayer. These go together: Word and prayer, receiving and responding, listening and speaking. This is a holy conversation that we get to participate in as children of God.
Jesus says, “stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” You will stand before the Son of Man as all people will. Those who have denied Him through unrepentance and unbelief and trusted in their own righteousness, will tremble before Him and be condemned. But you do not need to fear that day.
You will not experience the wrath of the Son of Man. You will instead see His gracious countenance, His smiling face. He will have no words of judgment for you because He shed His holy blood to cleanse you from your sins, and He completely covers you with His righteousness. So You Do Wish to See Jesus when He comes again in His glory. Now is the time to get ready and stay ready. For He has promised, “Surely I am coming soon.” And we joyfully reply, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).
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 Jerico Lutheran Church stained glass)
The Third Sunday after Michaelmas (Trinity 21) – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Chronicles 32:1-23
In Christ Jesus, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns “from everlasting to everlasting” (1Chr. 16:36)—not like “the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands,” dear fellow redeemed:
“If God Himself be for me, / I may a host defy;
For when I pray, before me / My foes confounded fly.”
(Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #517, v. 1)
These are the words of the hymn we just sang, a hymn by the great 17th century Lutheran hymnwriter, Paul Gerhardt. The hymn begins with a conditional statement, “If God Himself be for me / (Then) I may a host defy.” First one thing has to happen—God must be for me—before I may defy a host, a great company, of spiritual enemies. But is it true that God is for me? Can I be sure of that?
There have been many times in life that we questioned if God is for us. Maybe we didn’t seem to fit in anywhere and felt all alone, and we wondered why God didn’t seem to notice or didn’t seem to care. We may have gotten in the middle of a fierce family disagreement, found ourselves in a financial crisis, or dealt with a serious health issue. Perhaps our job was causing great stress, or we lost someone we were very close to. “If God is for me,” we wondered, “why is He letting me experience so much pain and trouble?”
King Hezekiah may have dealt with similar doubts as he watched the great Assyrian army make its way toward Jerusalem. We heard last week how the northern kingdom of Israel was completely overcome by the Assyrians, and whatever Israelites survived were relocated to other places (2Ki. 18:9-12). Now King Sennacherib set his sights on Jerusalem.
After Sennacherib had conquered a number of fortified cities in Judah, Hezekiah tried the appeasement approach. In the parallel account to today’s reading in 2 Kings, Hezekiah told Sennacherib, “Whatever you impose on me I will bear” (18:14). The Assyrian king demanded the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. To reach this amount, Hezekiah had to strip the gold from the temple doors and doorposts. He sent almost everything he had to the Assyrians. But it wasn’t enough to appease King Sennacherib. The Assyrian army kept coming and camped outside the city.
The people of Jerusalem were not completely unprepared. The very location of the city made it difficult for enemies to overcome it. It was built on the top of Mount Zion, so any enemies had to go uphill to attack it. Besides that, Hezekiah built up the main wall of the city, added an extra wall outside it, and put up towers all along it. He diverted the water through an underground tunnel to the city, so their enemies could not cut off their water supply. He “made weapons and shields in abundance.”
The odds still seemed very bad for Hezekiah and the people. The Assyrian army was 185,000 soldiers strong (19:35). The Assyrian king’s top official mockingly offered Hezekiah 2,000 horses if he could find riders to sit on them (18:23). The same official speaking for Sennacherib also mocked the LORD: “[F]or no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!” They put the same mockery in print in letters sent to Jerusalem: “Like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand.”
How would the LORD God respond to these insults? Would He respond at all? Was God for Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem or not? The answer to that question is not in what the LORD would do for them. What God will do in the future is entirely in His hands and done according to His wisdom. Whether or not God was for His people was answered by what He had already done for them.
He had brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He had given them the Promised Land of Canaan. Though they often rebelled against Him and served other gods, He patiently called them back. He sent faithful prophets to preach to them, and He replaced wicked kings with good ones. Besides all that, He continued to repeat the promise that He would send a Savior to redeem sinners. It was clear that the LORD loved His people and did not want them to be destroyed.
We need to answer the question, “Is God for me?” with this same perspective. We don’t find the answer in what He will do for us, as though He needs to prove Himself to us, or how He will address my current problem or pain. We find the answer in what He has already done for us. Romans 8 makes the answer clear, starting at verse 31, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” This is how we know that God is for us: He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.
God is for you because the Son of God took on human flesh to save you. God is for you because Jesus perfectly kept the Law on your behalf. God is for you because He took every one of your sins to the cross where He paid for them with His blood. God is for you because He rose in triumph over death and the grave. God is for you because He keeps bringing you the righteousness, forgiveness, and life that He won for you and gives them to you through His Word and Sacraments.
So when you are alone, when you are in the middle of a trial, when you are struggling, when you are under attack, when you feel like nothing will ever be right again, and you question if God is really for you—He is for you. He knows your trouble, and He promises that He will not leave you to fight through it on your own.
He may not address your trouble exactly the way you want or expect, but He will address it in the way that you need. He uses your suffering to build up your endurance in the faith, endurance to produce good character, and character to point you toward hope—the hope of eternal life in heaven, where all suffering, pain, and sorrow will be done away with (Rom. 5:3-4).
Knowing that God is for us makes us confident and bold. We are on the side of our Lord—the winning side. This gives value to all the work we do for Him and our neighbors. He is pleased with what we do. He loves us and has redeemed us from our sins to serve in His name. Unlike the unbelievers of the world, we don’t just focus on ourselves and what we can get in this life. We focus on Him and the blessings He gives us through our service to our families, in our jobs, and in our communities.
As we carry out this work, we are also confident and bold in our prayers. Jesus says, “[W]hatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you” (Joh. 16:23). The model for this boldness is the Lord’s Prayer where we cheerfully demand from our heavenly Father what He has promised to give. We boldly pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and “Forgive us our trespasses.” “I am for you,” He says, “so make your request. I am listening; tell Me your concerns.”
Hezekiah showed this same confidence and boldness (at least outwardly) as the Assyrian army came marching over the hills toward Jerusalem. He encouraged the people in their work saying, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.”
From an outsider’s view, victory seemed impossible for Jerusalem just as it often seems impossible for us. We can feel like we are surrounded by fierce enemies, outnumbered, like sitting ducks. How can my family survive the attacks of the devil and the world? How can the Church survive? Do I have enough faith to be saved? It does us no good to look inside ourselves, to trust in our own efforts, our own arms of flesh. We trust in the LORD and His powerful Word. He hasn’t lost yet, and He isn’t about to.
Hezekiah prayed fervently to the LORD, and the LORD heard His prayers (2Ki. 19:6,20). Despite all appearances, despite any logical person’s expectations, Assyria did not destroy Jerusalem. Just when the army was preparing to attack, “the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians” (v. 35). His army destroyed, King Sennacherib “returned with shame of face to his own land.” Then our reading tells us that “when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.” Not only were Sennacherib’s gods unable to overcome the people of Jerusalem; they were unable to save him from the scheming hands of his own sons.
The Assyrians messed with the wrong god when they mocked the God of Judah. This was the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of David and Hezekiah. This is our God, too, the Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He cannot be defeated. No matter how much the devil and demons and the powerful kingdoms of the world throw at Him or His people, His holy Church endures. Jesus said that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat. 16:18).
We stand firm by the power of His Word, His Word that declares us right with Him, justified, children and heirs of His kingdom. Since He is for us, we are most certainly not alone. We are not outnumbered. We are not without hope.
If God Himself be for me, / I may a host defy;
For when I pray, before me / My foes confounded fly.
If Christ, the Head, befriend me, / If God be my support,
The mischief they intend me / Shall quickly come to naught. (ELH #517, v. 1)
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 “Michael Conquering the Dragon” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Judges 16:18-30
In Christ Jesus, the greater and perfect Samson, who delivered us from all our enemies, dear fellow redeemed:
There is an error about prayer hanging around some of the branches of the Christian Church. The error is the idea that if you pray with enough faith, or if you have proven yourself worthy before God by your good works, then He will give you exactly what you ask for. When people who are taught this do not receive what they pray for, they have a crisis of faith. They assume that God must be punishing them for something. They picture Him looking upon them with fierce wrath instead of looking upon them with mercy.
We see a different picture in God’s dealings with Samson. But first, a little backstory is helpful. Before Samson’s mother had him, she had been unable to have children. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said that she would “conceive and bear a son” (Jud. 13:3). He would be dedicated to the LORD, and his parents were directed to let his hair grow. As he got older, we are told that “the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir in him” (13:24-25).
One of the ways the Holy Spirit “began to stir in him” was by giving him tremendous physical strength. On one occasion, a young lion charged at him roaring. “Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and… he tore the lion in pieces” (14:6). The same language is used later on—“the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him”—and he single-handedly killed thirty men among the Philistines who ruled at that time over the Israelites (v. 19). The LORD was using Samson to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors.
For his next act, he caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs and put a torch between them. Then he set them loose in the Philistines’ grain fields and olive orchards, and much was destroyed. The Philistines came after him, and with the jawbone of a donkey in his hand, Samson killed 1,000 of them. Another time, he tore out the gates and posts of one of their cities and carried it in one piece and set it on the top of a hill. Samson was a big problem for the Philistines.
And Philistine women were a big problem for Samson. We meet one of them in today’s reading, a woman named Delilah. The Philistine rulers promised her great riches if she would “seduce him” and find out “where his great strength lies” (16:5). Samson told her that if he were bound with seven fresh bowstrings, he would become weak. When he fell asleep, she bound him with seven fresh bowstrings, but when he woke up, he broke them easily. She kept trying. He told her that fresh ropes would do it, but he broke those too. Then he said if his hair were tied into a weaver’s loom, he would become weak. Delilah did this, but it didn’t work either.
It is obvious that Delilah could not be trusted, but she wouldn’t give up. She kept pressing and pressing until Samson finally gave in. “A razor has never come upon my head,” he said, “for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man” (16:17). You heard what happened next. The Philistines shaved his head while he slept, and when they attacked him, he figured he would defeat them like before. But “his strength left him” because “the LORD had left him.”
Samson had taken his strength for granted. He felt invincible. He thought he could not be defeated. He had forgotten where his strength came from. He had forgotten to put his trust in God and follow the LORD’s will. He was full of pride, and that led to his fall (Pro. 16:18). It was a tremendous fall. The Philistines gouged out his eyes and made him grind at the mill in their prison. Then they gathered for a great feast to their god Dagon to celebrate Samson’s defeat, and they brought Samson in to entertain them. We can imagine the abuse and mockery hurled toward him. He had killed so many of their people, but now here he was—weak, pathetic, a joke.
These hardships had given Samson time to reflect. He knew where he had gone wrong. He understood how foolish he had been. He realized how arrogant he had been and how faithless before God. We see this humility come out in his prayer to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
But why should God give back to Samson what he had so carelessly thrown away? He didn’t owe Samson anything. Samson had been given a great gift from God, and he sold it for the charms of Delilah. Samson deserved to be the Philistines’ slave. He deserved their ridicule and torment. Why should the LORD listen to his prayer?
The same question might come to our minds. None of us have had the strength of Samson, but like Samson, we have taken God’s gifts for granted. We have not used our ability to think in pure and dedicated service to the LORD. We have not always used our mouths for His glory and honor. We have not always used our physical abilities to serve Him and our neighbors. We have treated these gifts as though they originated with us and not with God. Why should the LORD listen to our prayers?
The answer is not that we have somehow earned the right to have God hear us because our faith is strong enough or we have proven ourselves worthy before Him. We know this is not the case. The reason the LORD listens to our prayers is because He is merciful—full of mercy—toward us. He is not watching us and keeping a tally of all the things we do and say and think that are wrong, to see when the scale tips or the balance shifts away from His favor. If this were the case, our fate would have been sealed long ago for our sins against Him.
But as He looked upon Samson, so He looks upon us. He knows far more clearly than we do how we have sinned against Him. He sees every misdeed, every infraction, every transgression. We deserve nothing but torment from God for these sins, endless torture in the eternal prison of hell. But the LORD has mercy upon us. He saw us in all our weakness, surrounded by our enemies, unable to free ourselves, and He sent us a Savior.
Like the angel who spoke to Samson’s mother, an angel appeared to the virgin Mary and said, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Luk. 1:31). The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He was the eternal Son of God. As He humbled Himself to carry out His saving work, Jesus appeared vulnerable and weak, but His enemies were not able to overcome Him. The devil, the roaring lion, rushed at Him with many temptations, the unbelieving world with all its power and resources tried to bury Him, death tried to hold Him fast in its dark chains. But all of them failed. He conquered them all.
He was our Samson, the strongest Man, who stood up to our formidable enemies. He had mercy on us in our weakness. He rescued us from the devil’s prison house. He paid the price for our transgressions. He suffered and died for our sins. This is how we know God the Father loves us—He sent His Son to redeem us by pouring out His holy blood. This is how we know God the Father is not punishing us for our wrongs—He punished His Son in our place.
Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day is also how we know the Father hears our prayers and wants to hear them. In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus says, “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (Joh. 16:27). Because of what Jesus has done, the way is open to the Father. He urges us to pray to Him as He says in Psalm 50, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (v. 15).
He knows that it is often in “the day of trouble” that we remember to pray to Him. It is when we are weak, when we are unable to control or fix something, when we don’t have answers, that we remember to bring these troubles to our LORD. This is what Samson did. He was weak, he couldn’t see, he was the object of everyone’s scorn, and he prayed for the LORD to give him strength. The LORD did. Samson pushed against the pillars of the house, and the house fell on the thousands of Philistines gathered there, killing more in Samson’s death than he had in his life.
The LORD had given him strength in his weakness, and He had done it for the sake of His people Israel to save them from their enemies. The LORD also works in you as the Holy Spirit strengthens and builds you up through His Word and Sacraments. He leads you to repent of your sins, to set aside your arrogance and pride, and put your trust in Him alone. He applies the saving work of Jesus to you, so you are comforted and assured of His grace.
The Holy Spirit also guides you in your prayers. He graciously brings your needs and concerns and requests before God. Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” The Lord God wants to hear your prayers, and in His mercy, He promises to answer them in the way that is best for you, both for your earthly good and for your eternal salvation.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1660)
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 32:22-32
In Christ Jesus, who appeared to the faithful fathers of old to prepare them for His coming in the flesh to save the world, dear fellow redeemed:
When Jacob went to Haran to find a wife, the LORD promised him that his offspring would be “like the dust of the earth,” that He would be with him, and that He would bring him back to the land he came from (Gen. 28:14-15). Now Jacob was on his way back with his wives, children, and great possessions. He had left with nothing but a staff in his hand, and now he was a rich man. God had made good on His promise.
But Jacob was shaking with fear. He heard from a messenger that his brother Esau was coming toward him with four hundred men. Jacob knew that in the past, his brother Esau wanted to kill him for taking the family blessing. Twenty years had passed since then. Had Esau’s anger and hatred subsided over that time or had it only increased? Jacob implored God to deliver him and his family from Esau’s wrath. He prayed: “O LORD, You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ Please protect me and deliver me as You said You would” (Gen. 32:12).
Jacob knew that Esau would reach him the next day. He sent presents ahead of him hoping to appease his brother. Then during the night, he sent his family and all that he had across the stream, while he stayed behind alone in the dark. You know how active a mind can be in the middle of the night when you are anxious about something. Can’t sleep. Wide awake. Running some problem or conflict over and over again in your head. Imagining the worst. Despairing of any good outcome. That was Jacob. All he could picture was Esau coming at him with arrow ready or knife drawn. He imagined his wives and children under attack—all that he loved, destroyed, lost.
He prayed like he never had before: “Have mercy, O LORD, have mercy!” I’m sure you can relate. Perhaps you have not faced an immediate threat to your entire family like Jacob, but you have worried about a family member who was sick or injured. Or you have been at odds with someone close to you and couldn’t see how the situation would ever improve. Or you have felt threatened by an enemy and feared what harm he or she might do to you.
You prayed at those times. But your prayers were probably also mixed with some doubts. Will my loved one be okay? Will we be able to work through this conflict? Will I be safe? And as much as you might have asked God for help, you may have felt alone like Jacob, alone and in the dark, worried and fearful about what might be coming.
In Jacob’s anguish that night, he suddenly realized he was not alone. A stranger surprised him and started fighting with him. Was it Esau or one of Esau’s men? We aren’t told what Jacob was thinking, just that “a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Jacob poured all his worries and fears into this wrestling match. He felt that he was fighting for his very life! We don’t know how long this went on, but we do know that Jacob fought with all his might.
Jacob fought so desperately, that even when the Man dislocated his hip, he did not give up. With daylight coming on, the Man tried to get away, but Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.” A very strange request to make of someone threatening his life! But Jacob somehow knew this was no ordinary man. He perceived that it was the LORD he was wrestling with, the very LORD he had been begging for mercy. And so it was.
But why was the LORD fighting with him? Why was He acting like Jacob’s enemy instead of his Savior? Didn’t Jacob have enough troubles without the LORD piling on? Perhaps you can relate to this too. Have you ever had one bad thing happen after another, and you couldn’t help but ask, “Why God?” Or you felt like the times you tried to do what was right, you got punished for it.
You can rule out the idea that God is unable to help or is distracted by other responsibilities. Those things could only happen if God were small and only somewhat powerful, which is not the case. You can also rule out the idea that God has changed His mind about you and has turned against you, since that would go against His promise never to leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5). So why might it be that God would sometimes behave like your enemy, like He did with Jacob?
Could it be that He wants you to fight like Jacob did, to fight with a desperate faith? Think about the Canaanite woman crying out to Jesus for mercy for her demon-oppressed daughter. At first, Jesus didn’t answer her. Then He told His disciples He was sent only for the Israelites. Then when the woman knelt right in front of Him, begging, Jesus said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” It seems obvious that Jesus was telling her to go away, but the woman wouldn’t give up. She believed in Him. She declared that this dog would gladly accept the crumbs that fell from His table. And Jesus said, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire” (Mat. 15:21-28).
This teaches us that Jesus wanted to be caught. He wanted to be conquered by faith. We see this in the Holy Gospel for today from the leprous man who conquered Jesus by faith and was healed, and from the Roman centurion who faithfully brought the needs of his servant before Jesus. The same was true in the LORD’s wrestling with Jacob. He wanted Jacob to struggle with Him and pin Him down by faith. Hadn’t He already made a promise to Jacob? Why was Jacob so afraid? Why was he so worried? The LORD tested him, so Jacob would learn not to doubt, so He would learn to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
The LORD also wanted him to understand that the promise He made to him was bigger than blessings in his lifetime and even bigger than the multitude of people who would come from him. The promise was ultimately about the Savior who would come from his line, in whom “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). Perhaps this is the blessing God repeated after wrestling with Jacob.
God operates in the same way with us. At various times in our life, He may seem to be ignoring us or even opposing us. This is because He wants to exercise our faith. He certainly isn’t trying to drive us away from Him. He wants us to recognize our weaknesses, so that we trust in His strength. He wants to teach us to let go of what we cannot control and instead cling tightly to His Word and promises.
Above all, He wants us to remember that the Savior He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did come. The LORD kept this Promise of all promises. Jacob thought he was alone in the dark, but the LORD was right with him, holding him in His everlasting arms. Jesus, on the other hand, truly was alone as He suffered in the dark on the cross, crying out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Jesus was forsaken because all your sin was piled on Him. He was getting the full wrath of God and the eternal punishment that you deserved. He was suffering for the times you worried about tomorrow, when you doubted God’s commitment to you, when you trusted your strength instead of His, when you neglected to thank Him when He saved you from your trouble. It was sins like these that brought the Son of God down to earth as a Man and got Him nailed to the cross. He paid for all your sins, every single one.
That means you can be certain that God is not punishing you for your sins by sending you hardships in your life. He lets you experience temporary suffering, not because He is angry with you, but because He loves you. Isn’t this why parents discipline their children, out of love for them, because they want them to be good, humble, and responsible people when they grow up? Hebrews 12 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” And a few verses later, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (vv. 6, 11).
The Lord knows what you need. A life of constant success, where everything goes the way you want, would destroy your faith. Who needs faith if everything works out exactly the way they plan? When troubles and afflictions come your way, that is when faith can do what God gave it to you to do. That is when faith can rise up in every instance of hardship, pain, and sorrow and can take hold of the rock-solid promises of God. That is how faith conquers. It conquers by clinging to the One who conquered every fearful enemy for us—our Lord Jesus Christ.
He wants you to bring all your worries and fears to Him, trusting that He will take care of you. He wants you to endure and prevail in every hardship. He wants you to pin Him to His promises and not let Him go unless He blesses you. He will bless you, as He has so often done before. By His grace, He will carry you through your troubles and will strengthen your faith until you are ready to join all the faithful, the many “from east and west,” who will “recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mat. 8:11).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from 15 century French Gothic manuscript painting)
The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Ephesians 3:13-21
In Christ Jesus, who carried out His Father’s loving will by suffering and dying on the cross to set us free from sin and death for all eternity, dear fellow redeemed:
What do you most want for your children or your grandchildren? When you imagine their future, how would you want it to look? About two years ago, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of parents with children under age eighteen (“Parenting in America Today” posted online, Jan. 24, 2023). When asked what they most wanted for their kids when they grow up,
- It is probably no surprise that 88% said it is very important that their kids be financially independent as adults, and that their kids have jobs or careers they enjoy.
- It might surprise you that only about 20% said it is very important that their kids get married, and that their kids have kids.
- Around 90% said it is very important that their kids are honest, ethical, and hardworking.
- Only 35% said it is very important that their kids have similar religious beliefs to their own.
Does this match what you want for your children and grandchildren? Of course you want them to be successful and happy when they grow up. You want them to live fulfilling lives with rich purpose. You want them to be honest and kind, ready to help others in need. But is that what you most want for them, or are there things you would put higher on your list?
The Apostle Paul in today’s reading gives us a roadmap for how to think through these things. He presents here the main things he wanted for the Christians in Ephesus. He spent more time with this congregation than with the others he helped establish, so there was a close relationship between Paul and the people. He loved and cared for them as we do our children, and they looked up to him and respected him as we do our parents.
Where our reading begins in chapter three, Paul is reassuring the Christians in Ephesus. Although he has been put in prison for preaching Christ, it is all part of God’s plan to have the Gospel preached to the Gentile people. Paul recognized that his suffering was for the glory of those who heard the saving truth, so he suffered faithfully and willingly.
Instead of looking for their pity, Paul expressed his love and concern for the Ephesians. He told them very clearly what he wanted for them by how he prayed for them. He bowed his knees before God the Father asking that God would grant them “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” This first part of Paul’s prayer was that the people would remain connected to the Word of God by gladly hearing and learning it.
This is how the Holy Spirit carries out His work of creating and strengthening faith—through the Word. Even as the Ephesians read Paul’s inspired letter, the Holy Spirit was powerfully working to strengthen their faith. This happens every time the Gospel (the good news) of Jesus’ saving work is proclaimed. As Paul said in another of his letters, “[The Gospel] is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). If the Ephesians held tightly to the Gospel, they would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit’s power.
And where the Holy Spirit was at work, the Ephesians could be certain that their Lord Jesus Christ was also present. He is not stuck in heaven since His bodily ascension; He is seated at the right hand of God who is present everywhere. This means that Jesus rules over all things and fills all things as the God-Man. When the Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ forgiveness, righteousness, and life to believing hearts, He is bringing Jesus Himself. Paul prayed for the Holy Spirit to deliver these gifts, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
That’s a comforting thought. For all the doubts we have had, for all the sins we have committed, for all the bad things we have imagined in our hearts, our Savior Jesus still wants to dwell inside us. He is not ashamed to be connected with us. He willingly poured out His blood to save our souls. He became one with us in His Incarnation, He suffered and died for every single one of our sins, and He made us one with Him in Holy Baptism. Jesus specifically prayed for this union the night before His death. He said to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (Joh. 17:22-23).
When we are joined to Jesus by faith, we are joined to His love. Paul describes it as “being rooted and grounded in love.” The love of Christ is a greater love than any we know on earth, greater than the love we have for any family member or friend. His love compelled Him to enter the world that had rebelled against its holy Creator, to suffer all sorts of mistreatment and abuse, and finally to be nailed to a cross to die. No one made Him do it. He followed His Father’s will and laid down His life of His own accord (Joh. 10:18).
The incomprehensible part of this love is that Jesus suffered eternal hell for every single wrong we have done. He suffered for our failures as parents, grandparents, siblings, and children. He suffered for our selfishness, our pride, and the bad example we have been at various times. He felt agony and anguish for all of it. With His enemies mocking Him and laughing at Him—and we should picture ourselves in that crowd gathered at His cross—He was atoning for all of our sins.
This perfect love flows into you and fills you when He dwells in your heart by faith. It replaces the guilt and shame you feel for your wrongs and the anger you have toward yourself or others. His love changes the way you see yourself and the people around you. Yes, we are sinners, but more than that, we are ones who have been graciously rescued—redeemed from our sin and death.
Jesus looked at us in all our weakness and sin, going our own way, heading toward eternal death, and He decided that we were worth His perfect life. We were worth His sacrifice on the cross. He had compassion on us in our procession of death like He had compassion on that funeral procession outside the town of Nain (Luk. 7:11-17). Paul expressed the wonder of this in his epistle to the Romans, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:7-8).
As the Holy Spirit worked powerfully in the Ephesians through this Gospel, Paul prayed that they “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” By focusing on Christ’s love for us, we forget our love for ourselves and our desire to have things go just the way we want in this life. We empty ourselves of our selfishness and greed, so that we are ready to receive the rich blessings of God. When we “know the love of Christ,” writes Paul, we are “filled with all the fullness of God.”
You notice that Paul did not pray for the Ephesians’ financial security, for their good health, or for their happiness in this life. He did not pray that they might avoid all trouble and pain, or that the future would be brighter than the past. He prayed for the strengthening of their faith, for their joy in Christ, for their salvation.
If the survey I mentioned is any indication, that is not want parents today especially want for their children. They want their kids to be successful and happy in life and have a good reputation with others. But they are not especially concerned if God’s truth is passed on to their kids, or that their kids carry these beliefs into marriage and the raising of children.
I’ll go back to the question I asked at the very beginning of the sermon: What do you most want for your children or your grandchildren? It’s a very important question. How you answer it will shape how you raise them, how you teach them, how you guide them. To help you answer it, try changing the question to this: What does God most want for your children and grandchildren?
He wants them “to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Ti. 2:4). He wants them to know their sin is forgiven, that heaven is open to them, that eternal life is given to all who trust in Him. He wants them to find their identity not in popularity or achievements that fade, not in possessions that fail, not in success that is quickly forgotten. He wants them to find their identity in His love for them, in His perfect, finished work to save their soul, in the blessings He promises and gives to all His children.
This is what He wants not just for your children and grandchildren, but for your other relatives, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors. And not just for the people around you—this is what God wants for you. He wants you to have exactly what Paul prayed for.
So Paul’s prayer can be and is our constant prayer for one another, that each of us would be strengthened in faith by the Holy Spirit through the Word, that Christ would continue to dwell in our hearts, that we would stay rooted and grounded in His unchanging, incomprehensible love, and that we would be filled with all the fullness of God, both now and forevermore. God grant us these gifts for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
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(picture from the altarpiece in Weimar by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1555)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: James 1:22-29
In Christ Jesus, who did every good thing that His Father gave Him to do, so that we sinners would be covered in His righteousness, dear fellow redeemed:
The employee worked hard. He went above and beyond what was asked of him. He never took company things for his personal use. But he still got passed over for promotions in favor of co-workers who were less dedicated and less honest. Why should he work hard if no one notices?
The mother finds time in her busy schedule to put a meal together for her family, and all they can do is complain about what she made. How can they be so ungrateful?
The student tries to be friendly and helpful to her classmates, but they hardly acknowledge that she exists. Why should she be nice when no one seems to care?
We can relate to these situations or ones like them. Each of us has had the experience of doing good things for others, and then either having them not notice or having them criticize our efforts. That hurts! It makes us question whether it might have been better not to try at all. Or it makes us regret that we tried, along with the resolve not to try again in the future. In other words, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
But there’s a problem with this approach: It makes our doing of good contingent on receiving something in return. Then it’s fair to ask how good our good deed is, if there is really a selfish aim behind it. But how else are we supposed to operate? Who is able to keep doing good when the opposite is thrown back at them? If our good deeds never result in being promoted or thanked or treated with kindness and respect, then why should we try? Then What’s the Point of Doing Good?
We receive an answer to that question in today’s reading. Just before our text, James writes about the salvation we receive through the Word of God. We heard these words last week: “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (v. 21). By calling it “the implanted word,” James indicates that God’s Word should grow in us, and that it should produce fruits in us and through us.
This is why he goes on to say that we should “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Notice that he does not say that doing is more important than hearing. In fact, one follows from the other. We are not ready to do until we have heard. Our faith and our salvation come from hearing, not from doing. This is what Romans 10 and Ephesians 2 teach, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (v. 7). And, “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (vv. 8-9).
The great error of the Roman Church that Martin Luther called out at the time of the Reformation was the idea that a sinner’s salvation comes from a mixture of his faith and his good works. That is wrong for two reasons: 1) It takes the glory away from Christ who perfectly kept the Law for us and gave up His life to redeem our souls, and 2) it leads us either to pride in our works or to despair because of our failures.
The Bible teaches that salvation was won for us 100% by Jesus and is gifted to us by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is why we can be completely confident of our salvation. It was accomplished for us by Him. It happened outside of us, not inside us—apart from us, not with our assistance. God the Father declares us forgiven, redeemed, saved because of the perfect life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus.
This good news, this gracious reality imparted to us—it changes us. It changes our heart, our mind, our purpose, our plans. It changes the way we look at ourselves and at one another. This change is what James describes in his epistle. If we have rightly heard, he says, and faith has been worked in our hearts, then we will certainly do. We will reflect the love we have received from God out toward the people around us.
This love will make us stand out in a world that is so filled with hatred and self-righteousness. The Christian Church throughout history has always been known for its love. Christians have started countless hospitals, orphanages, care centers, soup kitchens, and food pantries around the world to help the poor, helpless, and lonely. Christians defend and care for those whom others cast aside, such as the crippled, the sick, the elderly, and the unwanted.
This is how James describes “pure and undefiled [religion] before God,” to care for those who are most in need, such as “orphans and widows in their affliction.” Then he adds that such pure religion is also, “to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Christians are in the world, but they are not of it. They have a special purpose, a special calling from God. They are set apart for holy things and holy works, even as they live in an unholy world.
But there is a problem: Christians are not perfect either. Often we, too, think selfishly about things. We focus on what others should be doing for us, instead of what we should do for them. Or we keep our faith so well disguised around our friends and co-workers, that they would never guess we believe in Jesus as our Savior. This is hypocrisy, which is one of the sins that James identifies in today’s reading.
It is hypocrisy when we say we believe what God says, but then we act or speak in ways that are contradictory to our beliefs. We have all in our own way played this game. We have been on good behavior around fellow believers but behaved just like our unbelieving acquaintances in other settings. Or we willingly compromised the truth when it seemed advantageous to do so.
In these ways, we don’t look much like the new creation we are through our Baptism into Christ. We don’t look like those who have been transformed by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit through the Word. We don’t look like those who are bound for the kingdom of heaven with the saints and angels who stand in the holy presence of God.
When God looks at how little we have accomplished and how much we have failed, it seems fair that He should ask, “What’s the point?” “What’s the point of all that I do for them, providing for their needs every day, pouring out my blessings upon them? What’s the point of forgiving their sins, when they just sin more and more? What’s the point of doing good to them?”
But God does not ask these questions. He doesn’t ask them, because His love toward us is perfect. It never falters. It never runs out. He does not second-guess His commitment toward us. He loves, because He is love (1Jo. 4:16). He does good toward us, because He is good.
His love is what caused Him to send His only Son to save us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Joh. 3:16). God did not send His Son in order to get something from us. He sent His Son in order to give grace to us, by fulfilling the law for us, dying for us, rising from the dead in victory for us.
Jesus perfectly carried out this work to save our souls. He did not make His good words and good efforts contingent on others doing good to Him. He kept doing good things, even when He was opposed, mocked, and finally crucified. Even when the nails were piercing His flesh, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luk. 23:34).
Jesus’ perfect life of love is already counted as ours by faith. We have nothing to do to earn God’s favor or get ourselves to heaven. We get to work, we get to serve, we get to help, we get to pray for everyone in need as the special agents of God carrying out His mission in the world. “We love because he first loved us” (1Jo. 4:19).
Through the immeasurable love of God toward us, we learn how to love others. We learn that the hard work we put in (like the honest employee), the sacrifices we make (like the meal-making mother), and the kindness we show (like the helpful classmate), are not about what we can get or what we think we deserve. They are about what we can give in recognition of what God has given us. One of the best ways to give to others is to pray for them. This is how we bring their needs to God who promises always to answer our prayers in the way that is best.
God only does good toward us. There is no good apart from Him. We do good to others through our words and actions, because that is what He created and redeemed us for as His children. Since He never runs out of good, neither will we, because “every good gift” comes down to us “from the Father of lights” (Jam. 1:17). “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever” (Psa. 106:1). 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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(picture from “Jesus and the Little Child” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. John 16:23-30
In Christ Jesus, who teaches you the value, meaning, and the command of prayer, giving the Lord’s prayer as your model and guide, assuring you that He hears you, dear fellow redeemed:
Pastor and I have started another round of Christianity 101. Like the class in the fall, a statement is made to try and put people at ease. That statement is, “There is no such thing as a dumb question.” Now we might chuckle and think to ourselves questions that fit that category, we can also use this idea with our worship lives. Is there such a thing as a dumb prayer? Now I know when children hear the text say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you,” they can wonder if God will really give us anything. “Can God really give me my own semi-truck?” “Can He get me my very own race car?” As a child I may have had these questions, and even if they were childish then, our text today is very clear. Jesus is teaching about the power that prayer has. This power is not from us, but we see Christ’s work on display. It is through Him that the Heavenly Father hears His children’s prayers.
Our text starts with Jesus telling the disciples that their joy will be full when they ask in His name. He is pointing out that this joy is coming to them from God. God is with them, and He will not leave them or forsake them. Jesus is pointing this out because they can still have joy, even when there is great tribulation. The disciples forget about the joy they have from their heavenly Father as the night continues. Their joy that they have being with Jesus soon shatters as Jesus is arrested and taken away from them. Instead of joy, they run away in fear.
The disciples are trying to figure out what Jesus is talking about. Jesus admits to them that some of the things that He tells them, He is using figures of speech. Jesus is not saying these things to trick His disciples. There is important information that Jesus tells them plainly. The important information is that He will die and rise from the dead. The disciples do not want to believe this saying.
Jesus also tells the disciples where He came from. “In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” He points out that the disciples do believe this. That Jesus is the Son of God. They can pray to God the Father because they believe in the Son. Hours from now they will be asked to pray. Jesus would pray continually in the garden, but instead of praying, the disciples would fall asleep. They would not ask for strength and they would run away in fear.
We all have fears that the devil will try to use to paralyze us. Our fears can consume us. I don’t need to say, “think about being in the disciple’s shoes.” Each one of us has had a fear that has caused us to cower and many times, it can be from our sins. We can be struck with the fear that our sins could be brought into the light. This fear has been passed to us from our first parents. Adam and Eve tried to hide their sins from God. They sewed fig leaves to make clothes and when they heard God walking in the Garden, they hid among the trees. God knows their hiding place.
He also knows our hiding place. God sees all that we do, nothing is hidden from Him. Like Adam, Eve, and the disciples, how do we go to God when we have sinned against Him. He is a righteous judge. Yet we get in trouble because we do not go to Him when we have problems. We think that since God is upset with us, maybe we can just get ourselves out of the problem. God is right there to give us medicine, but we look the other way. How can the Father love us and answer us when we have failed to keep His commands?
Jesus is teaching His disciples about God’s command of prayer. God hears our prayers and commands us to do it. Now what is the problem with that? Well, we usually do two things. We can find ourselves in a group who don’t pray or pray very little. We think that we are controlling our lives. The devil enjoys when we are not going to God. He knows that when we are not praying, it means we are focused on ourselves. Then we go to God in prayer as a last resort when we find ourselves in a bad situation. There is another group who looks at prayer as something we are doing for God. That God needs our prayers to function. These prayers, like the last-minute ones, focus on me. Not on what God has done, but what I can do for God or what I demand from Him. As you might be wondering to yourselves, “how do I pray to God”, Jesus keeps you calm with the first thing He says in this text.
God the Father does hear His children. Jesus teaches the disciples that they can have comfort and joy because they know the truth. Jesus tells them that “you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” They understand that Jesus is true God. God the Father loves them because they loved and trusted His Son. They can go to God the Father as children because Jesus has taken away their sins and made them right with God. Even when they were going to still mess up. Jesus would soon leave them, but He would come back to them, rising from the dead!
Jesus’ glory shines forth and we see that He is not just a man. This is God in the flesh. No one can talk like this unless they came from God. The world needed someone to be able to answer God directly. We cannot do that because we are not perfect. Jesus however can talk to God directly because He has done all that His Father asked of Him. Jesus assures us just as He assured His disciples that the Father does hear us. He listens to our every word and Jesus explains why.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Jesus knows that you can’t go to God the Father on your own. He is a righteous judge. Jesus tells you that it isn’t because of anything that you can do to talk to God the Father. You needed a go-between. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). You can ask for anything in Jesus’ name because He is your go-between. He stepped in front of God’s vision with His sacrifice on the cross for your sins. Your communication is restored with your heavenly Father because He comes to you through the work of Christ.
Christ’s redemptive work is the reason that you are children of God. You never need to think that God doesn’t hear your prayers. He is always listening. When life looks as though it will continue to push back on you, when it drives you into the lowest parts, it can feel and seem easy to not pray to God. It is in these hard moments where you look to the cross, see what Christ has done for you and know that God hears every prayer. He can even translate prayers when you are so hurt that it looks as though nothing will come out of your mouth.
As God translates even your silent prayers of pain, He has given you other prayers to pray. The psalms are rich prayers that still fit today. They remind you of where your prayers are supposed to come from. “O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart” (Psalm 10:17). Your prayers do not come from elaborate thoughts, they come from the heart. The psalms assure you that because of what Christ has done for you, you are heard here on earth.
Your Savior has also taught you a prayer that sometimes you take for granted. There is a reason that Jesus taught the Lord’s prayer. Think about the petitions, how many are focused on the things of this world? The fourth petition is the only petition that you pray that God would give you daily bread. Your daily bread is anything you need to take care of your body and life. All the rest of the petitions are about your spiritual needs. These are needs that you can sometimes forget about, and these are the most important. You are reminded that God is the One who takes care of you, not the other way around. And when you forget this, it is your Savior who has redeemed you that you can go to God as children go to their Fathers.
We do not need to be in fear or think that we don’t deserve this Fatherly love. We receive it not based on our own works. The Father loves us because of His Son. Christ died in our place and rose from the dead taking away our sins. It is because of what Christ has done for us that we don’t need to worry about our prayers. They are being answered by God himself. He is all around us, providing us with strength for our trials. Our prayers are not dumb in God’s eyes. He hears every word, even the words that won’t come out of our mouths. Nothing is too big or too small for God to handle. He will do everything according to His good and gracious will. Jesus teaches us that whatever we ask in His name God will hear. Our joy will be full because we know that we speak to God because of Christ. And because of Christ’s resurrection, we will speak to Him face-to-face when He calls us home. 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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(portion of “Crucifixion, Seen from the Cross,” by James Tissot, c. 1890)
The Third Sunday in Lent – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. Luke 11:14-28
In Christ Jesus, who taught His prayer to us so that we call on God the Father to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, dear fellow redeemed:
In the many different categories of history that I love, one of those categories is the battles of the Civil War. Now the Civil War is not a bright spot in our Nation’s history. The divisions had come to a point where the country was at open war. Brother against brother, family against family. There are many stories that are found when the men went to war against one another. This is contrary to what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity” (Psalm 133:1). Civil wars do not bring unity. That is what Jesus tells those who accuse him of being in league with the devil. Jesus fighting for Satan?! That doesn’t make any sense. Not only does Jesus refute this nonsense, but He explains what is happening. Jesus is not on the same side as the devil, but it is the finger of God that is going to war against Satan for us! As Satan looks to attack us with all his might, Jesus teaches us that we are delivered from the enemy!
The father of lies continues his attacks against Jesus, this time using Jesus’ enemies to do his bidding. Those who are against Jesus lie about what He is doing by saying He is using the power of the devil. Let’s look at what Jesus does. A man was suffering under the pain of being mute. Not able to talk to anyone. This demon had such a firm grip, it looks like it won’t let go. Jesus with one word sends the demon out, letting loose his grip. And all Jesus’ enemies can do is say that He is in league with Satan. Does this look like being in league with Satan? Jesus cured this man taking him out of Satan’s grasp.
They try to trick Jesus as they declare that He is in league with the devil. They ask for a sign from heaven that they know Jesus will not produce. Satan wants Jesus discredited. Jesus knowing what they are attempting to do, explains to them their accusations are not true. He points out that if Satan had a civil war on his hands, his kingdom could not stand. As He explains how their accusations are false, and that the devil would not go to war against himself, Jesus also gives a warning to those whom He has helped. Satan doesn’t rest. He sees how people’s lives are put back together and he comes back with an even stronger force.
As Jesus’ enemies accuse Him of working for Satan and Jesus refutes them, we see how serious it is that Satan is working from a unified front. He begins to come after us by making an alliance, an unholy trinity of the devil, world, and our own sinful flesh. They make attacks against us every day. The flesh works on us to succumb to its wants and desires. Sexual pleasures, laziness, drunkenness, and the like. He uses the world to get us to be upset and angry. Violence, injustice, cursing, slander, and lying are ways that the world gets us to turn on one another. Satan attacks spiritual matters viciously. His work is to destroy God’s will on earth. Jesus warns us about these attacks.
Satan attacks us right here at church. He uses our sinful flesh and the world to come after us. Our sinful flesh commits sins that we can have a hard time confessing here at church. We can feel embarrassed or think that God can’t forgive them. We might also not want to give them up. He sends the world after us to call us bigots and hypocrites. The world is nonstop trying to get rid of the church. With these attacks then Satan comes in with more foes, stronger than ever as he works on us spiritually. He tempts us with terrible sins, and he wants us to doubt God to the point that we leave the church entirely. This is what Satan wants, to disturb and destroy God’s kingdom.
As the devil is fighting from a unified front against us, it is the finger of God that casts out the devil and his minions. God is much stronger, and the devil is outmatched. Jesus explains to His enemies that they cannot beat him. The Pharisees’ sons could cast out demons. This was not on their doing; it was because of God’s doing. We also see the power of the Gospel. Jesus’ enemies want to believe that Jesus is on the same side as the devil, except we see how He is the One who has come to destroy the devil’s work. Jesus died on the cross, destroying sin, death, and the devil. We see what Jesus Words bring, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to those who hear and learn it.
Jesus then explains how the strong man is defeated. Satan is a strong man that fights hard, but Jesus is the stronger man. Satan had our number from the beginning. He tempted Adam and Eve to sin. He tempts us and gets us to fall. We see how hard Satan fights against us using the world and our very own flesh. And as Satan points out our faults and tries to get us to despair, Jesus explains that this strong man has been defeated. Satan’s kingdom does not fall because it is at war with itself, it falls because of Christ’s death and resurrection. Satan can’t judge or condemn anyone because of what Christ has done, Christ takes the punishment that we deserved. He redeemed us not with gold or silver, but with His innocent suffering and death.
Jesus tells us how Satan is sent away. “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” This is an important connection. The finger of God is not just anything, but here we see the power of the Word on display. With God’s Word, Jesus uses it against the devil. With one word He sends demons packing. We see the power of the finger of God. God’s Word comforts and defends us. It’s there for us when we need it most.
Christ warns us that Satan will come back and continue to fight us. He specifically warns those who have had demons driven away. “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.” His warning is that those who persist in their sins, the devil will come back.
What are we to do when the strong man comes back? There is nothing that you can do to stop him. It is what your Savior does for you. He comes to wage battle for you through the means of grace. We see the power of His Word. It is sharper than a double-edged sword. In your baptism you are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, the ways in which He destroyed Satan’s kingdom. His body and blood brings you the comfort of all that Christ has done for you. He takes away your sins. Your Savior also taught you, His prayer. You are taught to pray for God’s will on earth and for your daily bread. He provides you with strength and comfort in this life. He forgives you your sins as you forgive others, He leads you not into temptation and delivers you from the evil one. The evil one who thinks he has your number. The stronger man delivers you from the hands of the strong man. Jesus Christ delivers you from the devil.
In their zest to discredit Jesus, His enemies do point out a scary truth. There is no civil war happening within Satan’s ranks. He is bound and determined to come and attack Christians with all sorts of strife and temptations. His goal is to get us to doubt God’s Word and to bring us away from Christ entirely. Jesus is the stronger man, who overpowers the strong man. Through His death and resurrection, He has taken the strong man and thrown him out. We have been delivered from the enemy with Christ’s redemption. But Satan is not content with laying idle. He comes back to fight against us and get us to sin. As Satan continues to badger us, we know where we find our comfort and strength. We pray to God, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” We put our faith in Christ. He delivers us from our enemies, pointing us to the truth. It is what He has done that we are saved. The truth of Christ is found in His Word. He points it out when he says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” 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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(picture from “Exorcism” woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)