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Here as we begin the season of Advent we are waiting.  Our prayer is that our King would come to us.   We are in an in between state, a time of waiting and watching. This is part of the Christian life, we live in a time where Jesus has already won the battle on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven- conquering sin death and the devil. But we are still waiting for Jesus to return to bring us to the full completion of God’s plan for us, life eternal in heaven. As we wait for our king to come, we are in a place of transition.

How often in life do we find ourselves waiting for the next thing. Waiting for Christmas, waiting for the Spring or summer time, waiting to get a new pet, waiting for your child’s wedding day. And of course, here and now as a congregation we are waiting on my decision in regards to the Call extended to me.  

We are future oriented in this way for a reason- we know the best is yet to come.  Although sometimes waiting is simply hard.  Sometimes it feels just too much to keep waiting.  But the waiting for God’s kingdom is different than just waiting for holidays and life events to come. This waiting is the way in which we trust in God, have faith in him and worship him.  If we are not expecting, and waiting and hoping, then we are sleep walking through life.

Many of our hymns and songs for the season of Advent celebrate the end of waiting and the opening of gates and doors as our King comes.  “O Savior rend the heavens wide; Come down come down with mighty stride, unlock the gates, the doors break down; unbar the way to heaven’s crown.”

“Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors, and weep no more! O Zion daughter sing, to greet your coming King: Now wave the victor’s palm and sing the ancient psalm, “Lift up your heads you everlasting gates! Your king awaits!  God will now dwell with man- and never again be separated from us. After so much waiting Israel sees that Jesus’ reign as King has begun.

Psalm 24 provides to us this imagery of the king entering through opening of the everlasting gate: “Lift up your heads, o gates! And lift then up O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in.”

The fact that doors are described as ancient and gates as everlasting implies that there has long been a chasm and division between Our God and His people, back to ancient times, back to the Fall into sin- when the entrance to the garden of Eden was so forcefully closed by angels.  The fact that ancient gates and doors should open is also amazing.

This world is so full of imperfection and sin, and Heaven is perfect and full of the glory of God.  How is it that the two can meet? How could it be that the ancient gates could swing wide open.  How is it that Jesus our king can come to us?  How can God come to us when there is a barrier and a chasm between heaven and earth? 

Our Old Testament Reading from Isaiah calls for this divide to be broken wide open: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.”  

Gates and great doors to ancient cities kept control over who could come and go.  The gates protected the city so that those who would bring harm would be kept out and those who would bring prosperity to the city could be let in.

The imagery in the scripture describes all of creation as the city, and in order for the renewal of creation to occur, the gate needs to be open to a visit from a realm beyond our creation, from heaven. Like opening the gates for a king, but with even more excitement and reverence than even a visit from a king would bring to a city.

One thing is abundantly clear, we cannot open the portal, we cannot raise the gates.  We wait for God to come to us and bridge the divide.

We cannot raise the gates, but our Lord Jesus has come to burst open the chains that hold us down in sin, to open the way for God’s kingdom to come among us. Isaiah chapter 64 longs for this coming of the Savior:  “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence- as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil- to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence.”

We continue reading in Isaiah chapter 64 with the next verse, 3  “When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”

Nowhere in the world has it ever been heard of where a God who acts for those who wait on Him- except for the God of Israel.  Who parted the Red Sea, who opened the flood gates of the waters to deliver His people from pharaoh’s army.  

Remember when Jesus was in Capernaum it was discovered that he was at a home and many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door.  And four men brought a paralytic to be healed by him, down through the roof.  And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The scribes questioned in their hearts: “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Indeed never since the beginning has anyone ever had the authority to forgive sins- to speak words and change someone’s standing from separation with God to peace, from condemnation to salvation.  

“But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins- he said to the paralytic, “I say to you rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  As he picked up his bed and walked before them all in plain sight, they said: “We never saw anything like this!”  The heavens were opened and God’s kingdom was coming.

We all need this healing for our sins. The unbelieving world does not understand this healing. The world says, we never saw anything like this and never will.  But you have seen.

You have seen the Lord’s work in your lives as the gates of heaven were opened to you in your baptism as the Triune name of God was placed upon your heart and your forehead. There the curse of sin was taken away from you, and every time you remember Your baptism you are reminded that heaven has been opened to you in Jesus.

You have the saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ there in your own life story. You have been healed and forgiven by Jesus just like the man who was lowered through the roof in that house in Capernaum. You have seen the most amazing work in your own life and in the life of your brothers and sisters in Christ here in this church.

The reading from Isaiah continues: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” . As we recognize how unclean all of our deeds are we see that it is entirely in the mercy of the Lord that we put our hope.

Isaiah continues: “There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” 

On account of our sin we are unable to actually call on God’s name, we cannot rouse ourselves to come to the Lord, instead we push away from God and turn toward ourselves.

But fortunately, we are not on our own, Jesus promised he would not leave us as orphans- but sent us the Holy Spirit. And Jesus told the disciples that when they face the trials of the last days, that they should lift up their heads because your redemption is near. And when this barrier is bridged, take your eyes off of anything else, lift up your heads for your redemption is near.

 We are to lift up our heads because of the promise that Jesus will return to us in the same way that he ascended. At that time He will complete the transformation that he started in us, giving us renewed spiritual bodies without sin.

And in preparation for this day Jesus has already begun to shape us as His own and transform us.  In this time of transition in our lives, we pray for faith to receive his shaping- faith to say Lord you are the potter, we are the clay. Even in this difficult time in our fallen world, even in this time of the summit of darkness Jesus creates us anew as vessels for His glory. We pray “Come to us in our time of waiting so that we see that even on the journey as we wait for the gate to open- you are already with us.”

Christmas decoration are a good thing and may bring joy to young and old alike.  But the decorations are not just there to give us a sense of awe over the moment of the birth of Jesus.  We need more than moments of feeling good and cheerful.  We need the presence of Jesus with us, the presence of the Savior who rends down the heavens and comes down.  Whose death on the cross brought the mountains and the whole earth to quake. 

Open the gates we pray. And as we wait for the gates to open we do not give up, we do not grow weary if we shall be delivered- for we have a God who acts in love. We wait in hope for his coming.  “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in many a recent year the Sunday after Thanksgiving has been the first Sunday of Advent- a time where we turn our attention to the promises of scripture that prepare us for celebrating the birth of Jesus.  Today, as early as Thanksgiving is in the month this year we are instead in the Last Sunday of the Church year.

Accordingly, we have an opportunity to dive more deeply into the meaning of giving thanks and thankfulness in the Christian life. Where many a people started putting Christmas decorations up this year already after Halloween, we can pause to consider what Thanksgiving really means to us.

The scripture described the lack of Thanksgiving as one of the chief marks of Satan and unbelief. In Romans chapter 1 St. Paul writes “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

The lack of thankfulness goes hand in hand with idolatry.  The people became futile in their thinking when they stopped giving thanks to God and turned inward toward their own wants and demands.  You can see the same lack of thanksgiving today in the attitude and tone of those who want to deconstruct society to a form where anything resembling the goodness and order of God’s creation is called patriarchal oppression that needs to be pealed back.  

Even in the context of this lack of thanksgiving to God, in our society today there is a lot of talk about gratitude in the secular world. People with no religious beliefs seem to resonate with the ideas of gratitude, as in learning to appreciate all of the good things that you have in life. But gratitude is not quite the same thing as Thanksgiving. Gratitude  directs its focus not on appreciating God the giver, but on appreciating the gifts themselves.

If you focus only on gratitude it is contingent on how well things are going in life. It’s easy to be grateful when you have a steak dinner, but not so much if you have a dinner that has accidentally been half burnt.  

With a focus on gratitude alone, you may feel guilty that you cannot feel more appreciative of things during times of difficulty.  If you look inward at your lack of appreciation you are likely to feel bad about yourself that you are not grateful like God wants you to be.

It is a different thing to live in thanksgiving.  Here we focus on what the Lord has given us not only materially in this life , but also spiritually in the next world. When times are difficult we can still be thankful. Martin Rinkart wrote the hymn “Now Thank We all our God” in the context of his pastoral care to a community with so many losses in the 30 years war in Europe coupled with countless deaths from the black plague.

Rinkart was immersed in sorrow during the peak of the plague to where he performed countless funerals each and every day. Yet we see in this hymn the focus was on Thanksgiving for the gifts of Salvation the Lord gives us- valued even more in the midst of losses.  

Our cause for Thanksgiving is centered in our life and salvation in Christ. His gifts to us are immovable and present to us in times of want just as in times of plenty.  As Psalm 30 reflects: “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

A popular mental discipline in our present culture is Mindfulness. Mindfulness tells us to live in the moment and not be weighed down by worries about the future or guilt about the past. There can be some benefit for Christians to be able to live in the present moment, especially in regards to our prayer and worship.  Yet for the Christian the present moment is always defined by the past blessings the Lord has given us, and the future plans the lord has for us.

In our Old testament reading from Deuteronomy we see this exact pattern. The people of Israel are asked to remember how the LORD God has led them these past 40 years in the wilderness, remember how he tested you to strengthen your faith, remember how he provided for your every need even with bread from heaven, how you were never truly in want.

We live our life as Christians remembering the victory over death and Satan’s hold at our baptism. We live as Christians remembering the Lord’s provision to us over time in the form of places to live, schools and friendships, churches where we first learned the story of our salvation.

We remember career successes and avenues of purpose in life as adults. For some of us this has included the Lord’s gift of marriage, and the Lord’s gift of children. We can remember times of going astray and times of testing where the Lord humbled us and taught us to rely on Him all the more.

In our reading from Deuteronomy, keeping the commandments is part of this remembering: ⁶So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 

When we give in to the temptation to sin, it usually means that we are living only for the present moment and are not remembering what the Lord has done for us. But as we remember the Lord’s gifts to us we have the power to resist temptations.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4 St. Paul writes how the Holy Spirit warns about those who will depart the faith by following the teaching of demons. One of the false teachings of demons is to teach people to abstain from what God has given to us. The scripture reads:  through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ³ who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,

Notice the counter to the temptations of false teachers to reject what God has given- to receive God’s gifts with Thanksgiving. When we are thankful for what God gives us, we are not going to be so easily tricked into giving up what the Lord gives us as if it makes us more holy and righteous.   Like Israel, we are to look back at what the Lord has given us- so that we may receive all the gifts of His design for creation with Thanksgiving.

As the people of Israel remember the Lord’s faithfulness to them in the past they are also asked to look in faith toward the Lord’s promise to them in the future.

⁷For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills^, 8… 9a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, … ¹⁰And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Just as the people of Israel looked forward to the bountiful gifts of the promised land, we can look forward to the inheritance we have in heaven, the new promised land where all of God’s people will dwell.

When you find yourself weighed down by the circumstance of the present moment. You can always be looking back to what the Lord has brought us through in life year after year- and as we remember the Lord’s goodness to us in the past we have peace, to be still and know that He is God here in the present moment as well.

And we can always be looking to the future in Thanksgiving for the Salvation Jesus has promised us on the last day. When the present moment seems like it has more difficulties, more burdens than we feel we can handle, we know a blessed rest awaits us when all of our needs will be provided for.  

Worship is the chief way in which we can live in thanksgiving. In our gospel lesson only one out of the ten lepers returns to him to give thanks. This man who returned recognized that the healing Jesus performed for him was not the last thing he needed from Jesus. He saw Jesus more than a means to an end who healed him of this awful disease- he saw Jesus as someone who is life himself.

And that is how we can approach our participation in the Divine Service. We are not just here because we know Jesus will heal us of our sin and give us the balm of forgiveness.  We are here to know Jesus and abide in Him who is our life.

When we begin the Divine Service, we know how it will end, with the forgiveness of our sins and the delivery of the renewing word of the gospel. Yet we can enjoy and appreciate every moment of the service because it is spending time in the presence of Jesus, it is our giving thanks to Him with our utmost attention and care. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we can worship him in Spirit and truth.

And the good news for us is that even when we do not feel particularly moved to give thanks, he is faithful to us. He is praying for us, he is interceding to the Father on our behalf.  His attention and care and devotion to us far surpasses anything we can do on our own. His righteousness saves us, his love for us is what moves us to thanksgiving. Thanks be to God for the gift of a living faith that He nurtures in us. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate once again the Sunday of the Reformation, we can turn our attention to one word in particular that is essential to our knowledge of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That word is truth.

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus taught that there is one and only one way to know the truth- to abide in His Word.  And knowing the truth is freedom. 

The nature of man is to try and find the truth for ourselves- and to believe we have the truth when we experience self gratification. Yet no matter how many experts you listen to, no matter the news source you subscribe to- you will not have the truth through the wisdom of man.   

The Reformation is important for us to celebrate because there is always a fierce battle for the truth in the public square.  The Reformation affirmed that truth comes from the Word of God, even if the Pope should begin to say that he has the ability to determine truth and speak truth out of thin air.

Today just as much as in the 16^th century the world we live in, our surroundings shape how we perceive what is the truth. The examples and attitudes of parents and teachers , and our neighbors all shape and influence your character and attitude. Whether I realize it or not, I am going to either imitate or avoid the behaviors I have experienced during my life. I live my life much more like those who influenced me than I might realize.

All the more important that I am shaped more than anything else by God’s Word.  That I am shaped by God’s Word to be the beloved child the Lord has made me to be.

Martin Luther was certainly shaped by the world into which he was born a little over 500 years ago. Jesus was always shown to him as a judge ready to punish what he had done wrong, with a sword in his hand.  The image of God Luther carried and learned from his surrounding culture made him scared. He even confessed , “I hate this God!”

The problem was that the church of his time had fallen away from the truth of the Bible in place of the truth of man, the way of the law. It was all about what you have to do, you have to please God by doing the right things. It’s all about the obedience and sacrifices you make.

Yet God was gracious to Luther and led him to contexts in his life where he was immersed in God’s Word- not man’s word. Although entering a Monastery only made Luther’s desperation worse, he eventually was led to reading the Bible under the guidance of a compassionate mentor Johannes von Staupitz who counseled Luther as any faithful pastor would, to look to Christ instead of looking obsessively at his own sins and his failure to keep from sinning.

Luther read through the scripture and especially in the Psalms he saw that God comes to the aid of his suffering people. As we chanted today: God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.  

In time Luther received a Doctorate in theology and he was appointed professor at University of Wittenburg, where he had to read and study the Bible even more to prepare for his classes.  God was working through his living Word in Luther’s life. Luther was no longer living under the darkness of a gospel obscured- he was living in the dawn of knowing and cherishing God’s truth.

As God’s Word was working in Luther at this time, the Reformation was already taking shape years before October 31^st of 1517. Luther was beginning to see that God is not just a God of justice, but a God of love, who sent his Son Jesus to accomplish all righteousness required from man. As the book of Romans teaches, there is nothing more that man must accomplish for his salvation – everything was paid for by Jesus on the cross.  Jesus brought us from being enemies of God to being beloved children. This is the most important truth about ourselves and about our world that there is to know.

When Luther realized that salvation was a free gift of God by faith in Christ Jesus, he felt he was born anew. He was indeed beginning a new life, where he was no longer living under the shadow of threats and fears, but a life of a free beloved child of God.

And we also are free to live this new life in Christ, Christ has freed us from the bondage and slavery to sin. We no longer need to be slaves of our sin, our envy and coveting of others need not drive our life experiences.  Our continual desire to look out only for ourselves need not drive our lives.  

Jesus has freed us from our obsession with looking out for ourselves, because he has shown us that since he is in charge of our lives- we do not need to look out for ourselves so persistently, we can serve God and serve others, knowing that the Lord has provided and will continue to provide for our every need.      We desire to do the Lord’s will out of thanksgiving for what he has done for us.  As Psalm 143 celebrates: Teach me to do your will, for you are my God!  Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!

The Lord provides for us according to His Word and promises, so much better than we could ever achieve on our own.  This truth is greatly obscured by the world, which insists that man knows better than God what is good for him.

But no matter how fiercely the world preaches about the might of man, or the freedom of man to be whoever he wants to be- we do not need to listen to a single word of it. Because we know true freedom comes only from serving the living God.

For we can see right through Satan’s lies. We do not need the world’s truths about anything, because we have our own world in the church where the truth is known and treasured and proclaimed to the world.

We can rejoice that there is a place where Jesus’ truth is proclaimed. If the church itself cannot be relied on to have the truth, then you cannot find truth anywhere.  If even the church you go to only gives you a partial truth, how difficult it would be to see clearly.

What a gift that we have a church right here, where God’s Word is freely taught without hidden agendas! The church is an oasis of freedom in a world overrun by Satan.  And although the church is surrounded by the lies of this world, we continue to be free- because Satan’s lies have no hold here.  Let us be thankful for this most precious of gifts- the truth of the gospel that is alive and well in the Lord’s Church. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you can find much cause for sorrow and even violence in our readings today. In Isaiah chapter 5 and in our gospel reading we have agricultural images that paint a picture of prophecy and judgement. These are negative examples of judgement from a Holy God.

And yet all things in scripture are written for our learning. It is good for all people and God’s people alike to remember the fact that the Lord will judge, that there will come a time when his mercy and patience toward us can end without repentance. Vines that bear bad fruit are cut down and plucked out.

As Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard, his audience would have Isaiah chapter 5 come to mind, where Israel is the vine that has been carefully propagated by the LORD.  After all of the careful care and support and love put into the vine the tragic result is that the vine produced sour grapes. This parable in Isaiah chapter five is told as a judgement on all of Israel for it’s lack of faith.

Yet, although Jesus begins with the imagery of a vineyard, the focus changes drastically from the parable in Isaiah chapter 5. The focus of the parable is not on the produce of the vineyard or any problem with what fruits are yielded. Instead, the focus is on the care takers. The stewards and the caretakers of the vineyard represent the leaders of Israel, the pharisees and scribes and ruling class.

To describe this ruling class Jesus gives details in the parable that are exaggerated and unlike real life, already at the first attempt to harvest the fruits of the vineyard the tenants prove themselves to be exceedingly wicked, they beat one servant, kill another and stone a third. 

The land owner’s response is unlike what would happen in real life.  Instead of punishing the tenants and driving them out, the owner sends more servants, this time more than the first group.

Are the fruits of the vineyard really worth risking such losses? By human standards the fruits of vengeance against the wicked tenants would be sweeter than salvaging what is left of the fruits of the vineyard.

You can picture that in sending the second larger contingent of servants to collect from the tenants the master is giving the tenants an opportunity to finally be good tenants by finally surrendering the fruits of the land.  With such a larger group of servants bearing down on them, surely the tenants would change their ways.

Yet, to add insult to injury, the larger contingent of servants is now met with the same fate from the wicked tenants.  

It almost seems as if the patience of the master was foolish.  I remember hearing this gospel reading at St. John when Isaac was a baby. As a new parent, I felt more fully the tragedy of the details of the parable that these servants should be killed, for nothing other than lust for power and control of the land.  And how much more tragic that the master should send his son next. By human reckoning, no vineyard is worth salvaging to put your own son at risk.

We would argue it is not worth it even to send more servants after how the first group was treated.  Look how the first group was treated, you can just anticipate more of the same.  

Sending that second group of servants, it’s not going to go well for them, you might as well not send them at all. And not only for their sake, but for your own reputation, so that you are not insulted by having servants of your household shamed and even destroyed!

There is a reason Jesus gave this first detail about more servants being sent over to the vineyard. He is describing how the Father sent one Old testament prophet after another to Israel, despite their treatment of prophets of the past.  The prophets spoke to Israel on behalf of the Father. They called the children of Israel to repentance. They called Israel to trust in the Lord and worship him instead of the false gods they were so enamored with.

The prophets may have been well received at first, but in the long run, the message from the Father was rejected. Many in Israel preferred the messages of the false prophets who said, it is well with you, we are on your side.

In the story of the parable it is unreasonable for the tenants to think that by overpowering and destroying all who come to collect the fruits of the land, that they will become the owners. Or that by killing the heir that they would somehow gain inheritance of the land.  But this is exactly what they say to themselves when they see the son: This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him

It is just as foolish for false prophets to think that by getting rid of the Lord’s prophets and promising things that people want to hear, that God will overlook or bless that deception.  

Israel rejected the prophets in failing to learn and listen to the message about the Savior who would come from the offspring of Eve, who would be a prophet like Moses yet greater, who would be a King in the line of David.  The prophets told of a Savior to come who would rescue them just as God rescued through Moses in the Exodus.

Instead, Israel made its own alliances to protect them, instead of putting their trust in a Savior to come.  The leaders and the Pharisees put their trust in what they can do for God with their rigorous practices, they put their focus on their self righteousness instead of their faith in the one to come who would save them.

What need do they have of a Messiah, so well tuned into following scripture and extra Rabbinical laws so that they were more holy than the common people of Israel?

But it was not just the prophets who the Father sent, though they were rejected. He sent his own son. It makes no sense for the landowner in the parable to send his own son, but that is just what our Heavenly Father did for us, he sent his son to the wicked tenants who ruled Israel with self righteousness.  

The Father does not see us as lost causes. Just like the people of Israel of old rejected the prophets, our sinful nature leads us to want to reject God’s rule in our lives and establish our own rule.  Yet instead of condemning us, the Father planned for our sinful nature to be condemned and defeated through the work of the Son.  

There have been times when my wife and I have tried to salvage a houseplant that is not happy and is not thriving. You try to repot it and you get the same results, next a different spot in the house with more light or less light coming through. After a while I begin to think that it is just me that the plant does not like.  I have given away plants that don’t work out as well as I would like. Other times I have just put them outdoors to make it as long as they can until the first frost. A lost cause is a lost cause after all.

The Lord Jesus does not know lost causes. He takes what is dead in us and brings life. He plants new life in us in the barrenness of our hearts.

The judgement to those who do not listen to the prophets or even to the Son is severe. Yet there is a bigger picture we have as God’s people. The Lord sees beyond our short sightedness, the Stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  The vineyard of the Lord may indeed produce only bloodshed. Israel may have failed the Lord, we may have failed the Lord, but the Lord still has a way to salvage what is lost and worthless.  

And the Lord is patient with us until the time when we can be brought back to life! If you look at the patterns in your life you can see how many times you have born bad fruit despite all of the gifts the Lord has provided in your life.

The Lord has blessed you in planting you in the church and nurturing you with His Word, cleansing you with the forgiveness given in the Lord’s Supper.  And yet we still can look at our lives and see our failures, see sins that have hindered us and become snares for us. The Lord is patient with us, leading us back to Jesus, leading us back to Him.

And the Lord has a purpose for us. Jesus is our master gardener who is designing us to become more like him. Pruning us, and propagating our fruits so that we look more and more like the Son, more like the heir- so that when we meet the Lord we will be prepared to receive the inheritance of children of God- life everlasting in the Father’s presence, life everlasting with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, listen again to the start of our Epistle reading from Philippians chapter 2: So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

St. Paul make a beautiful appeal through the work of Jesus in our lives that the church should be all together in every way.  He yearns for the church to be of one mind. The same mind, the same love, being of full accord- which means agreeing fully in matters of life purpose.

It seems St. Paul did not get the memo about the wonders of diversity of thought. Instead of encouraging every church to have its own unique perspective about who Jesus is and how to worship Him and proclaim his salvation to the world- the scripture instead is describing what is the same- the same mind, the same love, the same purpose.

How can Christians be of the same mind and the same purpose? If we are honest we can observe that there are always things we find to disagree about, whether the color of the carpet on a local level within a congregation, or divisions regarding the meaning of the sacraments between different denominations- there always seems to be disagreement.

In the 1950s and 60s many seeds of differences grew in American Christianity. Some traditions bought into historical critical methods without looking back. These were ideas from Universities that tried to use scientific rational methods and historical research theories to reinterpret Christianity through a lens of skepticism as far as what actually happened in Old Testament history. People began to think they were being of service to society by questioning what is recorded in scripture, questioning what Jesus actually said as compared to what the church came to believe and recorded in the scripture.

Our own LCMS needed to face this cross roads in the history of the church. The same questions were asked within the learning institutions of the LCMS, culminating with a poorly reasoned student walk out of seminary in a day in February of 1974.

The students walked out because they succumbed to a group think where they felt the need to defend the professors who they spent time with and looked up to- even though these professors were teaching false doctrine. They were foolishly following false teachers who questioned things like whether Jonah could really have survived in the belly of a great fish.

Professors who tried to make distinctions over what is that which Jesus taught and that which is more of a teaching of the early New Testament Church that collected the gospel accounts- as if there is a difference between what Jesus taught the disciples and what the church confessed throughout the Apostolic age by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But in the end as a church body the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod determined to be of one mind that the Holy Scriptures are indeed the inspired Word of God and that we will be a church that seeks to follow Jesus alone, and not the whims of cultural movements from one generation to another.

The reason why the church was able to choose the truth of scripture over the academic historical methods of the day, was because of the faithful beliefs of the members of congregations throughout the synod who sided with the president of the Synod in his resolve to fire the professors who had departed from the right teachings of the church.

Because the church had been of one mind in doctrine for so many years, the LCMS was able to choose orthodoxy of practice over a departure of the faith.  As a result of being in one mind at this crossroads in the church nearly 50 years ago, we are now of one mind in doctrine today as a church body- as we mark another three year period of the church’s history through the LCMS convention that met over the summer.

No matter how much division our society has over the cultural issues of the day, we can count on the congregations of the LCMS to always choose the side of what is taught in God’s Word- not what is popular with man.

And that is the gift and blessed intention of the Lord for us, that we are of one mind as the church- so that God’s Word can continue from generation to generation without changing. It is indeed vital for the church’s confession to the world that we give a clear witness to the world of who Jesus is and what it means to follow him.

The reading clarifies this: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition, or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” The seat of false teaching always comes from individuals who are self serving in what they are teaching, those who seek to change what the church teaches for the sake of their own ambitions to remake the church in their own image.

History teaches us that the town of Philippi was populated with a high concentration of retired Roman soldiers. As Paul was writing to the Philippians church he was writing to a population who valued being citizens, who are proud of their nation and the service they gave. As a result their ears would have perked up as Paul writes about a deeper and more true citizenship- our citizenship in God’s Kingdom. He was giving them instructions on not just how to be a good citizen in the land you live in, but how to be the perfect Christian citizen, being of one mind in Christ.

Being of one mind does not mean that the church is agreeing to blindly stand together without understanding what we are standing together on- just for the sake of saying, look we agree, look at our unity!  No, instead the reason for being of one mind is entirely from the model of who Jesus is for us.

We look out for others and not ourselves based on the model that Jesus gives to in looking out for others and not advancing himself in the form of his role as a servant who has nowhere to lay his head, who came to serve and not be served, who lived to die for us, obedient to the will of the Father, even to the point of death on the cross.

By sharing in the mind of Christ we can truly be of one mind as a church, we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling which means that living our faith as something that is of first priority in life. We can do this as the rest of the sentence goes in the scripture, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.  And God’s good pleasure is for his kingdom to come.  

We are of one mind in Christ so that we can be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in a crooked and twisted generation among whom we shine as lights in the world!

It is true that as a congregation we have many different personality styles, one person is outgoing, another is more quiet. One person likes upbeat fast hymns, another hymns that are more meditative, slow, and almost somber.  But the differences don’t mean anything in light of the mind of Christ. 

If we agree that Jesus is our source of life, then we are of one mind as a congregation. Last week I changed the letters on the church sign to capture as much as I could fit on the sign the short hymn “On My Heart Imprint Your Image”  The hymn summarizes what we all have in common- the desire to reflect the image of Jesus from our heart. “On my heart imprint Your image, Blessed Jesus king of grace. That life’s riches cares and pleasures, never may your works erase. Let the clear inscription be, Jesus crucified for me, is my life, my hope’s foundation, my glory and salvation.”  What a great summary of being in one mind in Christ.

The world is always busy and it is easy to feel overwhelmed or feel insignificant in comparison with all of the different things that matter to this world. It is in fact impossible to be of one mind with the world, because the world is in rebellion against God and is going in countless contradictory directions.

In my work as a counselor, I have heard from many people who describe how they don’t feel like they fit in with society very well, “I am different, I move by a different wavelength and people don’t understand me, and I am not sure I want to understand them.”  It is almost like people are making a testimony to the fallen nature of the world and their own awareness of their fallen nature as individuals.

In Christ, we are a new creation and we are citizens of a New Creation, the kingdom of God. In Christ, no matter how different the way we relate may be, we are of one mind in Christ. And we are of one purpose to live by his mercy, and to rejoice in the place of service he we have in his kingdom. Amen.  

The basis for our meditation this morning is from our Old Testament reading, the account of Joseph and his fearful brothers.  The setting of this reading from the very end of Genesis is so rich with conflicting emotions it might as well be a scene in a well acclaimed movie.

In the midst of the long expected death of the family Patriarch Jacob, there is considerable unease as to where the chips will now fall. You can almost picture a group of men gathered around a table secretly meeting over candlelight.  Joseph’s brothers are exceedingly fearful for their safety.  They suspect that their powerful brother Joseph will take this opportunity of their father’s passing to exact some long in coming revenge. Not just any revenge, but a 20 years in the making, you left me in a pit in the wilderness and faked my death so father wouldn’t come looking for me kind of revenge. 

To add to the intrigue of the story the brothers have come up with a desperate intervention of defense. They will tell Joseph that their father had a message for him, “please forgive you brother’s offense to you” The moment of truth is now at hand. One of the brothers serves as a messenger. Just as they rehearsed it, those words are recited… your father gave this command…

Will this plea even make a difference they are not sure, but before they know it Joseph is down on his knees in tears. The rest of the brothers come.  They begin to see in that moment how completely unfounded their fears were. They are all now on their knees overcome with emotion.  In fact they now are hearing from Joseph as if from the Lord.  “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Joseph manifested to them the unconditional love of God to them as he forgave them. They received undeserved grace as they saw Joseph down on his knees in tears. He pointed them to the unconditional mercy and love of the Son of God who had appeared to their father Jacob and wrestled with him and blessed him. His forgiveness of his brothers pointed them to the ladder their father had seen where the angels of God where ascending and descending from heaven.

This passage in Genesis was further expanded upon in the book of Romans where in the 8^th chapter St. Paul writes “We know in all things God works together for the good to those who love him and have been called according to His purpose.”   From the previous content of Genesis we know that the good God worked out of the trials Joseph experienced was the long sequence of events where Joseph became second to Pharaoh in authority in all of Egypt and had the divinely given foresight

 to store up surpluses of food for the long drought and famine ahead. And in a much greater sense the good accomplished from the evil Jospeh experienced was none other than the settling of the children of Israel in Egypt as the stage by which Israel would be delivered by the Lord with a mighty hand- pointing forward to the same Exodus our Lord Jesus Christ would lead the people of God out of the grips of sin death and the devil.

Have you ever felt like Joseph’s brothers, gathered together plotting for their survival by deceit and desperation? Have you ever felt like the sins of the past are going to catch up with you? As if the amount of sins you have committed against God and against others is so great that it is more than you deserve forgiveness for? 

Have you ever found yourself doubting whether God’s forgiveness could apply to you? Have you ever doubted if someone could really forgive you for what you said or did to them?  The reason why they doubted was because they were looking at themselves, and not that salvation is outside of themselves. 

We heard in our Introit the proper response a believer has when confronted with the danger of enemies all around us. The response is to flee to the Lord for refuge.  This is the way we should handle the times when we feel that we have messed up too much and are in a hole we cannot get out of- flee to the Lord for refuge and seek his forgiveness.

In fact when we know we are forgiven by the lord- our enemies have no hold over us, for we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, neither death nor life, neither persecutions or things to come.

Sometimes as I recall particular things I have said or done in the past that were hurtful, I feel a sting of embarrassment or regret.  Sometimes it is over something as trivial that I could easily never think of it for years at a time. But then all of a sudden there is that painful memory of regret of sins against others.

What I have said in the spirit of sinfulness, God can turn into good, whether through my learning and maturity or through some other means.

Today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew demonstrates how vital it is that we forgive others considering that God has first forgiven everything of us. We have been forgiven the great debt of our sin.  

We are in this way just like Joseph’s brothers, we have shown mercy and forgiveness when we know we deserve none of it.  In fact, we are not only like Joseph’s brothers, we are more specifically Jesus’ brothers. 

As humans we badly mistreated Jesus in a way that even exceeds the mistreatment of Joseph.  We rejected Jesus and inflicted onto Jesus the completely undeserved punishment of death on the cross.  Despite our great offense Jesus has forgiven us completely.  

We can either accept this forgiveness, or we can look inward and live in fear and doubt about our own unworthiness as did Joseph’s brothers. We need to look at the salvation Jesus gives us- instead of looking at our own shortcomings.

In this fallen world we live in we can expect the experience of being hurt deeply by others. God’s word tells us that our life is not defined by the hurts we experience in life.  Instead, our lives are defined by the healing Jesus brings to our lives.  Forgiving others is not simply an exercise in proving that you are a mature Christian or the more mature person in a relationship.  

Forgiveness means that you believe the ways of God’s kingdom are bigger and greater than the ways of this world.  Forgiveness means that you treasure the new life you have in Christ far more than your own sense of pride. Forgiveness because of Jesus and through Jesus, frees us from everything that oppresses us and has a hold over us in our life today.  

Valuing the riches Jesus gives to you more than your sense of pride or fairness means that you forgive before or regardless of whether a person is repentant over the sin against you. This is because the Lord’s Forgiveness is a freely given gift that is not earned. It is no different than the servant who owed the impossible sum of 10,000 talents is shown mercy and forgiven his debt.

 This is the truly liberating work of the gospel in our lives.  We are freed from our debts and thereby freed up to love our neighbor unconditionally and offer unconditional forgiveness- regardless of what our neighbor’s behavior is like.   

This freedom means we are not expecting particular actions from others in order to forgive. And it means we are not seeking to perform our own actions of penance to make up for what we have done wrong. That would make an insult  of the gracious gift the Lord gives to us.

Iti s easy to focus on what we do not have and what vulnerabilities exist in our life, and what can go wrong next. Instead, we rejoice at the power of God’s Word to heal us and make us whole again. Although this fallen world brings us all many uncertainties, we have the perfect certainty of the gifts of God’s Word. We have perfect certainty of our salvation in our Baptism and in the reassurance of the Lord’s Supper.

 May the Lord bless us with a living faith that abounds with unconditional love to others. And may this living faith set us free from all of our fears. Amen. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, have you ever thought about what impresses Jesus?

The large stones of the temple built up by King Herod did not impress Jesus. While the disciples looked at the construction in wonder, He warned the disciples that not one stone would be left on another.  The size of the Roman empire or the authority of Pilate to condemn or release him did not impress Jesus. We even hear at times how Jesus is underwhelmed by the disciples in their response of faith.  “O you of little faith.”  

The faith of the Canaanite woman however caught Jesus’ attention as she asked for her daughter to be healed:  The Canaanite woman came to Jesus in a time of great need, seeking help for her daughter oppressed by a demon.  She appealed to Jesus with recognition that he is a descendant of David, that he is of the people of Israel.  She acknowledged in her appeal to Jesus her position as an outsider. She communicated by her speech that she was out on a limb in her appeal to Jesus, depending completely on the mercy of Jesus. 

“O woman great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”  Jesus seems to have reacted in a similar way as he did to the faith of the Centurion in Matthew chapter 8: When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israelhave I found such faith. Faith, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit, is what Jesus treasures in this world.

Jesus celebrated the faith of the Canaanite woman knowing that she represented one of the first of many who would come to faith as gentiles- grated into the vine of Israel.  God’s word rejoices in the plan of salvation that the gentiles also would come to know God, through a continuation and an extension of the salvation God gave to Israel.  

these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;  their burnt offerings and their sacrifices  will be accepted on my altar;  for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”⁸ The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,  “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

Just as Israel has its outcasts who need gathering back in, so also the LORD promised to gather the nations back to Him. It was never the plan to only provide salvation to Israel and leave everyone else out. Abraham was called to faith so that all nations would be blessed through him. 

The promise is there in the scripture that the Lord’s house is a house of prayer for all peoples. Yet just before Jesus praises the faith of the woman, it appears by our modern sensitivities that Jesus was insensitive to the Canaanite woman,

 that he was closing the door on her faith in an unloving and unrespectful way.  Can you imagine how it would sound in today’s world for someone to tell a woman from another culture that giving to her is like taking food from children and giving it to dogs. This would be called prejudice of the worst kind. 

But Jesus is not talking abrasively to her because she is a woman or because she is of another culture- he is simply addressing the fact that she is not an Israelite, she is a gentile- and gentiles did not at that time have a share in the covenant. They were without God’s law in their lives.  Jesus is protecting the holiness of God by observing the distinction between Jew and Gentile, clean and unclean.

Jesus sounds insensitive to our ears because the world we live in struggles with accepting that Jesus alone is the way of salvation.  Jesus’ short response served to illustrate that there is a way to have a relationship with God, and it is through the covenant, through the temple. If salvation were dispensed to anyone who came up to Jesus, regardless of what they believed, then where would the teaching of God’s Word be?

We are included in the all nations the LORD promised to save- and we also have reason to come before the LORD as beggars, as those who are not worthy of the gifts we receive, as those who ask for mercy- for crumbs from the table. By faith we can recognize that crumbs from the Lord’s table is a richer feast than anything we could make on our own.

The disciples preferred that Jesus would just help her and send her away so that she would not be a bother anymore. They were looking at what inconvenience she brought to their day and missed the big picture that Jesus had come to bring people back into the fullness of God’s love and care.

This woman was a very unlikely candidate for God’s mercy. The people of Canaan were ordered driven out of the promised land for their false idol worship. As a Canaanite woman she would not have grown up following the law, participating in the sacrificial system as a means of receiving God’s mercy and love. The disciples would not have expected her to know much about who Jesus is and what he could do for her.

When Jesus turned her down, it would be human nature for her to plead her case and say how she was deserving of the same bread as everyone else in Israel, or to say all of the good things she had done in her life to deserve what she is asking for- and to talk about how great her daughter’s need was and how innocent her daughter was in this possession that afflicted her.

 But she did not try and advance herself before Jesus- instead she stayed focused on His authority to provide for her needs in abundance.

We are all like the Canaanite woman, very unlikely candidates for God’s Mercy. We have done nothing to deserve God’s mercy. We are full of sin, any case we make for our deserving mercy falls flat.

We heard in our Epistle reading from Romans: ³² For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.   By disobedience St. Paul is describing Israel’s rejection of the gospel as going against God’s law, and those who are gentiles were in disobedience already before the gift of the gospel.

The result is that nobody can say that they deserve mercy more than another. We cannot say that we deserve mercy more than the people of Israel who rejected the gospel, or more than those people in our neighborhood who would never consider coming through the doors of a church. We are not entitled to God’s mercy as our birthright. It is a gift given to us, which we gladly receive.

The gift sometimes seems to take longer than we would like.  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers them out of all of them.” What must it have felt like for the Canaanite woman to work up the courage to ask Jesus for mercy only to be told he has not come for her people?

Did her heart sink for a moment, did she think all was lost?  It seems her faith kept her from doubting, so that she could look past rejection and instead keep making the case for the deliverance she knew Jesus was able to give.

We can learn from the perseverance she has in looking to Jesus for her needs. When life presents problems so deep that relief does not seem present to us, when we feel darkness holding us in its grasp, we need to see that Jesus’ mercy does not run out. Mercy to Israel and mercy to the gentiles, mercy that abounds for all.  Even the mere crumbs from the table are all we need for a living faith and hope in Jesus.

And Jesus provides us with much more than crumbs. He provides his very body and blood for us.  There is more than enough of God’s mercy to go around to us as we approach the Lord with humility and repentance.

As we receive the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis, we are asking in faith for the Lord’s mercy, repentant of our sins, examining ourselves and seeing that we have once again done nothing to deserve God’s mercy. We taste and see that the Lord is good to us, that even as unworthy as we are the crumbs fall down to us and supply us with all that we need. There in the Lord’s Supper, Christ’s body for the life of the world.

We are here, part of a church at worship because the Father revealed Jesus to us.  Considering the unbelief in this world it was through very unlikely circumstances that you received the gift of faith- much of the world is designed to keep you away from faith. It was only because of the grace of God in your lives that you have been given the gift of hearing God’s Word with your ears in faith for your very life, your very salvation.

Jesus was amazed at the faith of the Canaanite woman, and Jesus sees our faith.  When we confess that what He provides is more than enough for our needs- then Jesus is greatly pleased. Amen.

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.”

Can you picture yourself going through what Job went through? With tragedy after tragedy and painful boils all over your skin. What would you do? What would you say to God?

With all of the suffering Job went through, he said many things… he may not have felt proud of. He cursed the day he was born and wondered why he was not a still birth. But he also directs his attention to the ways of God’s Kingdom.   He lamented all of the wrongdoing and evil the unrighteous commit.  And he pleaded his cause as someone who has stayed faithful in his life purpose.

Job closes out his speech describing the punishment he would deserve if he had knowingly transgressed God’s law, using the phrase: “If I have.”

If I have walked in falsehood, and my foot has hastened to deceit, If my heart has been enticed toward a woman and I have lain in wait at my neighbors door, if I have withheld anything from the poor, if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, if I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me, or exulted when evil overtook him. 

Could you picture yourself saying these things to the LORD? Have you ever thought to yourself, but I am a good person and wickedness is not ruling my heart? How could these troubles be upon me now? If I have done something to deserve this than so be it.

What have I done to deserve this trial? We know that the wages of sin are death.  Yet still we wonder why now, why this trial.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the LORD.” Isaiah chapter 55.   The answer is that God knows why we face such pain and suffering, God knows those things we cannot understand.

We want to make the case for ourselves and put a lot of thought into what we have done right- ways we have followed God’s law. But in the end what is most important is not how much effort we have put into living our life well, not what case we can present before the judge, but only the righteousness of Christ. 

Can you imagine if the LORD asked you to dress for action and provide all of the answers to the mysteries of creation? The law hits very hard and deep in these words, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Do we ever question why things are the way that they are and why do the wicked prosper and we dry up? Have you ever questioned God’s love and care for you in the midst of a long suffering problem or struggle? Of course you have. In our state of sin, we all have.  

God’s response to our prideful belief that we know it all is the same response to us: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements- surely you know!”

The reading continues with further details of God’s creation, beyond what we can possibly know.  Yet through our faith we do not need to feel worse and worse as we hear more and more evidence that we know less than nothing as compared to God.

Through faith we can see that through hearing about the unsearchable majesty of God’s creation we can Be Still and know that The LORD is God. As we hear these words about the foundations of the world and the morning stars singing together and start to let go of the burden and pressure we put on ourselves to make sense of things in our life and in our world.

We can let go of thinking we need to have everything in order just how we would like it to be or else our lives would fall apart.  We can let go of the grip on life our sinful human nature holds and we can open ourselves to see by faith that Jesus holds the world in his hand.

Consider what it means that the LORD measured the length of the foundation of the earth and laid the cornerstone.  The earth was built exactly how it needed to be in order to stay together for as long as needed, through the flood, through seasons and years and centuries, through a time period of thousands of years and counting until the time when the new heaven and earth will be created when Jesus returns. 

Science has identified numerous factors that all needed to be fine tuned in the right way in order for life to be possible. Water is different than other liquids in that it is more dense in liquid form than in solid. As a result ice floats to the top of rivers and lakes and artic ocean areas. We may not think of this much, but if ice sank instead, more and more surface water would be exposed to the cold leading to more and more frozen lakes and streams making life uninhabitable.

If Saturn and Jupiter were not so incredibly large compared  to earth it appears comets would make life on earth continually in peril.  The strong gravitational pull of these large planets pulls in the most dangerous comets that would threaten life, like a mighty defense shield circling our planet.

If the moon were not the right size the earth would not be tilted by gravity to have 4 seasons.  If the earth were smaller there would be a weaker magnetic field that would result in solar winds stripping away our atmosphere.  If our electromagnetic force were smaller or gravity less, larger atoms would not hold together and no chemical bonds could occur.  Only God knows the exact measurements that make our world hold together.

We have not been there day after day as the LORD has commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know its place- each new day a miracle of creation.  

 No, we were not there, but God’s Word is telling us about it, and the fact that Jesus holds all of creation together is a tremendous cause for relief and security.  Pondering the wonder of creation and God’s perfect design can heal our troubled hearts and give us reassurance that no human words or knowledge can. We were not there, but we did not need to be, God took care of it all.

The LORD took care of it all for us.  “Immediately Jesus spoke to them saying: “Take heart it is I. Do not be afraid.”

When the disciples saw Jesus walking on water, it was far beyond what they could ever imagine or expect.  The one who shut in the sea with doors and said ‘thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.’ He who was there from the beginning told the disciples, “It is I, do not be afraid.”

We are no more righteous than Job, we also like Job need the forgiveness of Jesus that comes to us not through knowledge of how the universe is made, but through the gift of faith.

Like Job who looked to the promise of the Savior and said “I know that my Redeemer lives.”, we are invited by our Lord to look to his cross and see that no matter how difficult the circumstances of our life, God is certainly for us. God sent His Son to die for us. 

No matter the hardship we need not fear as God’s Word tells us that Jesus is here with us: “Take heart It is I, do not be afraid.”  By our human wisdom we often try and find security through the knowledge we can obtain. We look at weather forecasts, we read about economic outcomes and polls forecasting about the next election.

Yet our knowledge is always imperfect, and our knowledge is not what we need to put our hope in. Our needs are not met by the right circumstances of chance in the future, but instead by a Savior who reaches out his hand for us, who commands the winds and the waves, who has known us from the womb, and will see us through.

The storms of life in this fallen world come at us time after time, and sometimes it seems so fiercely!  The scripture does not hide the fact that we go through so many afflictions. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” 

Although the storms may intensify day by day, we are indeed delivered from them in a way that the world does not understand. We are delivered through the promise given in our baptism, that although our human nature should fold under the weight of the storm, our new life in Christ grows ever stronger, even in times of affliction.

So that you can look at your week ahead and know one thing for certain: Behold I am with you, even to the end of the age. The risen Lord Jesus is with you through the storm, and he says: “Be still and know that I am God.”

²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This morning our gospel reading is short.  Just 6 verses, and only two main ideas- that the truth of God’s kingdom is hidden from the wise in this world and only revealed by those who the Father chooses- and that Jesus gives not more work and challenge to his people, but a lighter yoke and rest.  The simplicity of the reading is appropriate to help reinforce the simplicity of the message. Following Jesus is not an exhausting enterprise, but a nurturing and a life giving process.

To the wise and understanding of this world following Jesus is not desired or understood.  Those who are so high on themselves and their wisdom cannot see Jesus and the way he offers. They can only see the way they set for themselves, and they have little desire to repent of their chosen way.

For those of us who are able and willing to repent of our sins, we can see Jesus, we can know the path he sets out for those who desire life and salvation from him.  And with this right understanding in our hearts of what it means to follow Jesus we can see that it is an easy burden to carry.

Of course, we try and make things harder, we try and make things in our life more difficult than they really are. We want to prove ourselves and make a name for ourselves with hard work. We want to earn our salvation.  And we know this is not quite what the scripture teaches us, but it is just so hard to resist earning your place in life, that we move forward. And soon we are exhausted by our efforts.

One way this plays out is in trying to avoid sinning and covering up our sin. We hide our sins from one another, so that when we come to church on Sunday morning, we do not confess our sins to one another. We lie and cover up our sin- we believe that if people knew about our sins they would no longer want to talk to us.  Soon our Christian life can become just as much about keeping up with appearances and concealing our sinful nature as it is about abiding in the Word and abiding in Jesus.

This hard work of keeping up appearances has a cost. It perpetuates the lie that being Christian is all about being a good person- it obscures the gospel that Jesus died for us and calls us as his own regardless of how good or bad we are.

When Jesus talks about how his yoke is easy you can’t help but think about the opposite heavy yoke that Jesus describes of the Pharisees. The Yoke of the Pharisees is to add extra laws and regulations to God’s law, to essentially prove that you really mean it in following God’s law.  Because this takes so much work and effort to keep up extra regulations, it keeps a person from living according to God’s design and brings a person instead to become preoccupied with man made regulations. These man made regulations are a heavy yoke because they do not point to Jesus, they do not point to the gift of salvation to us in Jesus. Rather they point to man’s works and a self righteousness that professes that we can stop sinning and that tries to show off to the world that we are more devoted to God than others.

Our Epistle reading for today Romans chapter 7 shares about the futility of trying to be without sin: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 

This is an amazing section of scripture because St. Paul is sharing the complete truth about our fallen human nature and how we will fail to live without sin. If the scripture was selectively edited like some cynical unbelievers would wishfully believe, this is the type of passage that would be worth editing out. Why tell people that they will fail?

What if a high school English teacher told students on the first day of class- you are just high school students, you know so little about literature and Shakespeare and the other classics, that whatever you think you know about literature is probably wrong or at best partially wrong. How hard would the students work? Would some just give up and let artificial intelligence write their papers for them?

The scripture shares this failure of our human nature to keep God’s law not to discourage us from trying to follow God’s law- but to point us to Jesus as the only way we can keep God’s law.

God’s law is good and there is certainly good in following the teaching in scripture in how we are to live our lives. We are not to just throw out what the scripture teaches in how to live a righteous life.  Even though we cannot live up to the full extent of God’s laws. Instead we are to keep the law through the power of Christ and the power of Christ alone.

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When we see that Jesus is the one who can bring us to keep God’s law, then we experience the rest for our souls that Jesus promises.

The rest for our souls is in recognizing what we cannot do for ourselves. When you stop trying to hold everything together with your own effort, life can get much easier. This is the freedom Jesus brings, that you can be who you are as God’s child, you can confess your sins and your failures and you can look to Jesus for your strength and your belonging.

Instead of looking to prove yourself, you just look to Jesus as the one who is pulling the ox yoke and taking you along for the ride.

And what does this look like for your life? What does this look like for Christ Lutheran Church if we see that Jesus carries the weight of the yoke? How can we truly learn from Jesus and stop trying to carry ourselves?

It starts with our understanding the full gift of forgiveness we have in Jesus.  Since he has carried all of our sorrows and sins on the cross we know that we have a very light load in life indeed.  If we find we are carrying too heavy of a load we have to ask if we are carrying a load more for issues of pride than for the joy of God’s kingdom

Knowing the gift we have in Jesus is the light load that we are called to carry. If we have a heavier load to carry in our participation in the church, we can only carry it with Jesus as our help.   On our own we will fall exhausted.

Our hymn of the day put it well: “I heard the voice of Jesus say “Come unto me and rest; lay down thou weary one, lay down my head upon my breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, so weary worn and sad; I found in him a resting place, And he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely give the living water thirsty one, Stoop down and drink and live.” I came to Jesus and I drank of that life giving stream; my thirst was quenched my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say: “I am this dark world’s light. Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise And all thy day be bright.”  I looked to Jesus and I found In Him my star my sun; And in the light of life I’ll walk Till traveling days are done.