Our text from last Sunday showed that following His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus wept over the “City of Peace” on account of their unbelief. Immediately afterwards, He enters the temple and, in righteous anger, drives the money changers out of the temple, crying, “My house shall be a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46). What’s so special about the temple, this house of prayer? It was the temple where the God came to His people and where they were to come to Him in repentance and with the shedding of blood.

It’s no coincidence that in the parable set before us this morning, Jesus places the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple.

Yet, as we heard, the two prayers offered up in the presence of the Lord were vastly different. “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get'”.

In an age where fornication and adultery is defended by the popular culture – in an age where people with power can lie and cheat and steal and get away with it, is there anything wrong with NOT being an extortioner, unjust, or adulterer? Of course not! In fact, you would probably want this Pharisee as your neighbor: as an employee.

Is there anything wrong with tithing, that is giving 10 percent of all income back to the Lord? Of course not! As everything is the Lord’s, it’s good to give back unto the Lord in joy and gratitude.

Yet, however outwardly good and pious the Pharisee appears, he didn’t go home justified, that is, declared righteous before God. To use the language from last Sunday, he didn’t know the things that make for peace with God. Why?

In sinful pride, the Pharisee didn’t think he had anything to repent from. His prayer was addressed to God, but he didn’t really pray to him. He bragged to God. He used the word “I” five times listing his good works. He compared himself to others, exulting himself and despising others. Trusting in his own merit and works, he stood before God alone without the Advocate, the Savior/Redeemer needed for sinful man to be justified, declared righteous before God.

Where the Pharisee came before the Lord in sinful pride, the tax collector came before Him in contrition and humility. “…the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'”

The people viewed Pharisees as holy and righteous, tax collectors were despised. They were seen as traitors working for the Roman government, and many charged the people more in taxes than what they really owed and pocketed it. So you have what appeared to be the best kind of person in the Pharisee and the worst in the tax collector.

Yet, the tax collector was convicted of his sin. He was humbled by the Word of God. He was ashamed: he stood far away from the view of others. He wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, he was truly grieving over his sin beating his chest in sorrow. He compares himself to no one else. He sees only his own sin.

The word translated mercy refers specifically to the mercy of forgiveness. Literally, he’s praying, “God, be propitiated to me. God, remove your anger from me.” His words are a prayer for forgiveness of sins that comes from God only through the intercessory bloody sacrifice offered up to the justice of God. He knows his sins only merit God’s wrath and he personally can do nothing to make it right. He knows the forgiveness of sins has a cost, and it’s nothing less than the blood of God. Appealing to the mercy of God on behalf of the sacrifice of the Savior, the tax collector does go home justified. As is written: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted”.

Fellow redeemed, we live in a world that loves to exalt in pride, not in doing right, but in sinning. They attack God’s gift of marriage between one man and one woman. They glory in their shame, attacking family as God instituted and ordained it.

All the more reason, why we, modern disciples of Christ need to confess God’s truth in society and lead holy lives according to His truth. We pray that proud unbelievers would be brought to repentance unto faith in Christ; He is the only source of salvation. He is the only way to be justified, to be propitiated.

So, we also must pray in repentant humility, pleading for the sake of Jesus to forgive us our many sins. We should daily pray that He would guard and keeps us from all misbelief, shame, and vice.

The temptation is to have our eye on the world around us, the person sitting in the pew, and compare ourselves like the Pharisee, “I thank God that I’m not like the world around me.” The devil tempts you to exalt yourself in that pious sinful pride to think better of yourself than you ought.

God help you and me to utterly despair of trust in self, our own righteousness and “goodness”; to instead cry out as the tax collector did, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,”. And then depend only upon Jesus Christ to keep us from either error: embracing of sin as something to be proud of, or pride in our own works and piety.

The unblemished, sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus would soon make obsolete the very temple that He speaks of in the Gospel text. By His crucifixion on the altar of the cross He makes satisfaction for sin. Unlike the blood of Abel that cries out for vengeance, the blood of Jesus speaks a better word, a forgiving word, a propitiating word: Mercy! Christ’s perfect obedience and innocent suffering and death on the cross has appeased God’s wrath against your sin. Risen from the grave three days later, He spoke words of peace, of sins forgiven to His disciples and He has done so again today for you.

The crucified, risen, and ascended Christ is here today to exalt you who have been humbled by your sin in repentance that you may return home justified in His Name.

Let us ponder this: having been exalted and justified through the blood of the lamb, was the tax collector free to go back to ripping people off and overcharging them in his vocation as tax collector? No. And so it is for you.

In humility, we come into God’s presence to confess our sins and hear the announcement of absolution in Jesus Christ. We come into His presence to remember the baptism He has given us, to hear His Word preached into our ears, and to eat and to drink Jesus’ crucified and raised body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. This strengthens faith in preparation for life eternal.

Having been exalted out of our sin, are we thinking about the greatness of God’s mercy in this and rejoicing? Do we just go home justified to use it as an excuse to sin all the more and exalt ourselves in sinful pride? Heaven forbid!

St. Paul said in today’s epistle lesson, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:1-10)

Through the blood of Christ, you’ve been exalted out of the darkness of sin and death: not to go back to sin. Here, God works on your heart and mind through His Word and Sacrament to bring repentance, but to also be re-created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to be as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, were supposed to be. To walk in His workmanship by doing good.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. It means walking in humility: understanding that you have no good apart from the cross of Christ and live in constant amazement at God’s mercy.

Eagerly come into God’s presence here, not because you have to but because this is where He gives you His gifts for forgiveness and life, where He gives you His mercy and strength, where He humbles and exalts. Then, having been exalted through the blood of Christ, you joyfully speak of God’s mercy to a world lost in sinful pride, not to lift yourself up in sinful pharisaic pride, but sincerely desiring their repentance and salvation, that they can share in God’s grace and salvation.

St. Peter wrote, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you…” Through the blood of Christ, He does exalt you out of your sin. When He tells you that your sins have been forgiven for Christ’s sake, you can believe Him! And know that you can go down to your house justified and forgiven, for the sake of Jesus Christ crucified and raised. To Him, who is your propitiation, your payment for sin, be all glory, honor and thanksgiving. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Do you know what is the shortest verse in the Bible? It is from John 11:35 which reads: “Jesus wept”. That verse was referring to the tears shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus: a friend whom He was going to raise. The Greek word used in John “to shed tears” is different from the Greek used for this morning’s Gospel text. The weeping of Jesus in our text today is loudly mourning, lamenting, really more like wailing in grief. So Jesus was bewailing, in personal pain and grief, over Jerusalem.

He looked upon the city in this way because as the Son of God, He knew the future. He knew what was to come upon that city: the harsh reality of judgment and destruction. The tearing down of walls, the terrorizing, injuring, and killing, and utter desolation that would come upon this city called Jerusalem.

The name, Jerusalem, has great meaning. A meaning that reflects its history as a capital and as the place of God’s presence in the temple. Jerusalem comes from two Hebrew Words “Yara” and “Shaloam”. Shaloam can simply mean peace but it really means more: as an action word it means: to be or make whole or complete by paying something back. As a noun it means wholeness, completeness.

“Yara” describes the bringing about of a unified whole, a coming together, a building together by means of many little movements. Like how you can make a hill with many little stones or how the plants gets watered not by one rain drop but by many raindrops.

Jerusalem means to make whole or complete, to be reconciled and to be brought together by a payment of/for many things. This describes the sacrificial system of the Jews. Jerusalem, which had contained the temple, was the place where people were to gather, acknowledge their sin, their separation from God and from each other by their injustice, greed, and breaking of the commandments. As they repented of their sin, they were to understand that their rebellion against God deserved death. The only way that they could be restored to wholeness in relation to God was if something or somebody were offered up as a sacrifice to pay for it: to make restitution. They offered up animals and their blood in ceremonial sacrifice. They paid offerings of gold, of incense, of time, of materials and grain for the building and upkeep of the temple in which these offerings were to take place. This location was to also serve to unite as a people and religious community the Israelites, the people of Promise through whom God would proclaim to the world the promise of His blessing. A blessing for all those who would repent from their sin, hope in God and His Promise of a Savior, and receive His grace and mercy.
In the name Jerusalem, and the workings of the temple, we see what Jerusalem and the people of Israel were to be. A people united in humility and confession to God and the One Messiah: A people waiting for the ultimate sacrifice even as they sacrificed. By it, true peace would be built among and in them. United in wholeness, completion in mind, heart, and body, reconciled to God to receive life eternal by the sacrifice of this Messiah.

But Jesus wept over Jerusalem because the city, its people, and many of the Jews were not repentant, they were not rightly looking to the one who was to come. They were proud of their nationality, yes but only as an earthly kingdom. As long as there was a Jerusalem and a temple, they thought they would have a hope of rising in national power again, the Messiah would be another David, a glorious military leader.

In Jesus, most saw a miracle worker to benefit from, but not much more. Many rejected Him altogether instead of receiving Him for whom they should have been waiting. They did not heed the message “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Many used the temple not as a place of prayer, confession, and praise of God for the peace He gave, but a place to make money, to praise themselves. Even after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, many Jews continued to reject Jesus and His message of salvation, even persecuting and killing followers of this Messiah. By doing this, they were bringing more guilt blood upon themselves, building up a future not of grace but of vengeance and judgment. To move them from their idolatry and wickedness to Christ, God removed their idols of the temple and the city walls in 70 A.D. He allowed the Romans to violently take away those objects of pride. The time of the sacrifices were over: no longer needed because Jesus was their fulfillment.

So Jesus lamented, He wailed over them. He wailed over the needless suffering of a people who needlessly rejected the very One in whom their completion and reconciliation with God should occur. If only they hadn’t resisted but received the work of the Holy Spirit, their overthrow may not have happened and so many innocents would not have had to suffer.

God does not desire the suffering of people, He desires that people would turn from their sin, turn to Him and live reconciled with Him. Too often it is only through the destruction and the removal of people’s idolatrous altars, when people are brought low in various forms of discipline that God allows and commands, that people then become open to repentance of their sin and then in humility receive and rejoice in His forgiveness and mercy but only when they finally recognize their need.

It grieves the Lord to see people sin. It grieves the Lord to see people take His grace for granted, and it grieves Him to have to condemn those who do not repent. So as a Father, He does sometimes discipline those whom He loves. A reluctant Father who must punish His children so that they do fall completely into the way of destruction. He will allow the rod to fall so that people may be corrected and reconciled to Him rather than be hardened to the point of eternal condemnation which is a far greater tragedy.

It is a sad thing, that it so often takes the removal of those things in which we have put our trust and value for us to finally repent and get back to what is truly important, turned to God and returned to the place where our peace is accomplished.

This is the lament of every faithful pastor of every age and time. He laments over those who have reduced their attendance at church or who have stopped all together. When brothers and sisters in Christ are not getting along or abusing each other or the grace of God. He grieves and wails inwardly and sometimes outwardly for those caught in unrepentant trespasses and sins who must receive rebuke and admonishment: when church discipline must take place, and even worse when those people refuse to repent. When we see this falling away, every good pastor and lay person should grieve. We wonder, will God allow something to come upon them that turns them? Will they continue in their sin just the same? The end of that road of spiritual sickness is not salvation, but judgment and death. Every unrepentant sin is a false worship and a step away from God and toward Hell.
Must we wait for tragedy? Must we wait for our cities, our nation, our capitals, our loved ones taken, our own health removed, for all our false idols to be toppled and ripped from us before we turn?
But here is the good news: because of God’s mercy, He did keep His promises so that we may hope. He did send Jesus His Son so that there would be an end to suffering, an end to death, and an end to sin and the demonic forces who tempt sons and daughters of Adam.

Jesus became the true Jerusalem, the true temple, the true sacrifice whose blood would drop by drop, pay and make restitution for the sins of the world. Jesus, true man and true God, in perfect humility came to save people still in their pride. He laid down His life and died on the cross to suffer and die and pay the wages of sin.

Yet people still reject Him, they still mock Him, they belittle the seriousness of the pastor and other Christians who see the value of this blood and this temple not made with human hands that brings about our peace.

Does God weep and lament over Yucaipa, Calimesa, Mentone, San Bernadino and Riverside counties, does He weep and lament over you? Yes.

Repent of your idolatry. Repent of placing yourself above the Lord. Repent of treating the Gospel as refuse and cheap.

And then, when you and I repent, when any single sheep repents, do you know what happens? God and His angels’ wailing, mourning, and grief turns into joy and rejoicing. As the Shepherd who found His sheep, as the woman who found her coin, as the father who regained His repentant son, so God and the heavenly host rejoices, their weeping of sorrow on our behalf turn into tears of joy: what was lost is now found.

Dear friends, your Jerusalem, the way that makes you, me, and the church a complete whole unified is in Jesus. He continues to come down to earth to give the gifts of His sacrificial payment to unify us in confession and faith where He promises to bring “believers” into unity with the Trinity, through His physical crucified and raised body and blood here in the Lord’s supper. This then becomes the true Jerusalem on earth, that which makes for our peace in Jesus Christ.

It will only get better in the future. Here He trains believers and prepares us for the difficulties of a sin-filled world, so that we may remain strong upon the path of righteousness by faith in Him as we return to Him again and again until the day when we are brought to eternal life: to the gathering forever of the whole body of Christ with all the saints and the company of the angels in heavenly glory forever and ever.

Let us today exalt and rejoice in our Lord who builds us up with walls that cannot be torn down by His Word. We are joined together by the true Jerusalem, Jesus Christ. In His blood and body crucified and raised we are reminded that no host can prevail against this house of prayer, this place of our peace which God brings to us and for us now through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Have you ever heard that? That is what St. Paul was saying to the Corinthians in today’s epistle lesson. People may read the Old Testament and wonder “why did God allow the Israelites to wander for 40 years before entering the promised land?” Why did God let Israel suffer from time to time, to even be mostly destroyed, with a remnant taken into a captivity in Babylon so that even the faithful suffered?

St. Paul tells the Corinthians and by extension, us, why: “These things happened to them [the Old Testament Israelites] as an example, written down for our instruction. So that Christians, New Testament Israelites, do not repeat the same mistakes. Old Testament Israel was the Old Testament visible church, they had had God’s Word, yet many did a lot of stupid and unfaithful things: they were wicked and spiritually adulterous and idolatrous, time and time and time again. It’s like they never learned from their own history as to the results of going against God’s Law: the removal of God’s protection and grace. Doing the same thing again and again, yet expecting a different result, never learning, is the ultimate insanity.  St. Paul, speaking to the fair-weather Christians in Corinth, points to the forgetfulness of the OT Israelites and God’s judgements upon OT Israel to punish the evildoers and get them to repent and said: “You’re doing the same thing those fools did. Adulterous, idolatrous, worshiping the things of this world, putting God to the test, grumbling against the rules of God, do you wish to suffer the same earthly consequences?” Learn from your history! God wrote all this stuff down for you, so you’re not doomed to repeat it!”

We look around at all that’s going on in our world, and we shake our heads in utter disbelief. Our nation politically, yes, but even with so many who claim to be of the Church who still haven’t learned from history. We’re still doing the same dumb and wicked things people of the past have done. Going after false prophets, denying and minimizing God’s Word of Law and Gospel. Then people are shocked when God permits the suffering even of minor consequences for our wicked, murderous, and idolatrous ways.
Let’s be careful. Not all repetition of history is a bad thing or something to be avoided. Paul never says “Don’t ever repeat history.” What he says is, “Learn from history.” There is a difference. In Church history and Holy Scripture, there are many good and faithful people for us to imitate, there is much that was done that was good and true and we should and must repeat as we make our way through this life at this time. Are the struggles of our communities, homes, and nation unique or new to mankind? Not completely. Not really. When speaking of whatever is going on, pandemics, fires, droughts, riots, assassination attempts, coup d’etat…we often like to use the word “unprecedented”, but it’s simply not true. It may be all new to us, but there’s nothing unique/new about what we’re experiencing. There is no new sin or result of that sin that isn’t just a variation of sins and their repercussions of the past, it is just more readily known and promoted because of technology and the internet. In history there were plenty of wars and rumors of wars, pandemics, government corruption, political unrest, fear mongering and economic uncertainty. In addition to this, every generation in history has had to deal with a sick/dying loved one, job loss or bills which are less extreme but no less sad or troubling results of the curse of sin. 

Read the Scriptures! These things are all written down for a reason…for us to learn: to learn to repent of our sin, to turn from our wickedness, to then look to God and Jesus Christ and be saved, to look to the example of others whom God rescued and preserved and be inspired and comforted! 

Are you discouraged by hardship, by sadness, ridicule and persecution? You’re not the only one to ever suffer or struggle or worry or grieve. Learn from history. Look to Job, to David, to Elijah, Jeremiah, Hannah, Leah, Abraham and Daniel! Look to St. Paul, to Stephen, to Simon Peter, St. John the Baptizer, and look to Christ. Jesus Christ sent from God to stop the cycle of repeating the badness of history. He came to show the Grace of God to those who learn from the wages of sin and repent, looking to God for mercy. Here it is, in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross, so that we would have life. He was made low for those sunk in their sins and suffering to raise them to the glory of God. Learn from history and see the mercy of God to all the saints and believers who turned to Him, who trusted in Him, who were built upon the Rock that cannot be moved. He kept them in the faith in sickness and in health, in tumult and uncertain times, and gave them strength by His Word to receive His salvation. The same salvation which God offers to you in these days and at this time.

Look at what has been handed down to us from our spiritual parents, and ultimately from God? What have the faithful always done when things get tough? They have learned their history. The history of God’s salvation and mercy. The Church turns to Scripture and the psalms and prayers inspired by the Lord, they look to the historic liturgy, to receive God’s eternal and unchanging answer to our sin and repentance. The answer which will be held out to you, without fail, without conditions, and without end, this day in Holy Absolution and the Lord’s Supper. The answer is God’s forgiveness of sins undeserved but freely given by the merits of Jesus who has been crucified and raised for the forgiveness of sins, to give life instead of the judgement of death.

The answer is in His invitation to “repeat history” in the daily, remembrance of our baptism where God sealed His grace to us, where many of us first came to faith by His Word, were purified and made holy by the blood of Jesus. Remember it, remember whose you are, and that God has promised to you to wash you and cleanse you again as you return in contrition. By His Holy Spirit, you learn from your sins of the past, so that they are overcome in Christ and you need not repeat them by His strength. Remember: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Remember this [Word and Sacrament] is what the faithful have always understood and fled to and held fast to.  When tumult and tribulation rear their ugly heads; when Christians are made to feel fear and terror, the churches have always been filled with the faithful fleeing to God remembering a hope that goes beyond the hopes of this world. 

Don’t put the focus on yourself and what we need to do/not do. The focus of the Christian faith is to concentrate on Almighty God and His faithfulness to His promises. All three of the lessons today point to that fact. God is unchanging. He will judge but He is merciful to those who love Him. Do not give up hope in any situation here on earth, hope in Him as we heard:
“This God His way is perfect;
    the word of the Lord proves true;
    He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.
“For who is God, but the Lord?
    And who is a rock, except our God?
This God is my strong refuge
    and has made my way blameless.

He will make your way blameless. As you have received mercy from God, you be merciful, and God will show more mercy to you, and instead of a death cycle of repeating sin and receiving punishment as the world has, we have a cycle of grace and spiritual blessing here given.

God works all things for the good of those who love Him. He uses the joys in our lives too but sometimes also the crosses. Look no further than right here as an example [the cross].  Who would EVER think that this is good/victory?! But here it is. In our place, is Christ, The Father’s wrath against sin, placed on this battered, bloodied, and nailed body upon a cross for all the world to see. Here is how God views and handles our sin! By laying down His life for each and every sin of the entire crooked world, mine and yours included.

This is also that history from which we can and must every day learn from. What our sins deserve, but God’s mercy and grace in this precious gift for our salvation.
My fellow redeemed: Learn from your history and the history of the Church. How has God proven Himself to every believer in every age? By God clinging to them in good times, in bad times, richer, poorer, in sickness and in health, by preserving them in hope and mercy. All the examples are written down for you; for your sake for warning but also for comfort. Trust in your Lord. Learn from His history in dealing with you and all people of every age. He is a loving and gracious God, He is slow to anger, and quick to forgive. ALWAYS. This cross, these sacraments, are absolute proof to learn that your Lord loves you and forgives you and wishes your victorious salvation. He is faithful to make you faithful in believing and living in Him. Let there be no doubt! Your heavenly Father loved you so much that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for you! May we ever learn and grow in Him through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Have you ever gone fruit picking? In just a couple of weeks you should be able to go pick apples in Oak Glen if you wanted to. I don’t know of any orange orchards that do “u-pick”. But the point of the matter is that you wouldn’t go to an orange tree to find apples, nor an apple tree for an orange. And you certainly wouldn’t expect to find apples growing from a palm tree. Pretty elementary. Even most people who might not know anything about trees, bushes, plants, or what it takes to grow them, if they knew what an apple was and they saw an apple growing on a tree, they wouldn’t have to know how to recognize the apple tree leaf or its particular bark. They would recognize the tree by its…fruit! Right? The whole energy of a fruiting tree, or plant, if it is working right, is not in growing more leaves, but it funnels its efforts toward producing fruit: good fruit. Fruit which is used ultimately to plant more of the same kind. Think of apple seeds, orange seeds, avocados, etc. It is in some ways a very selfless enterprise.

Likewise, you can tell if a tree is healthy or diseased by the quality or lack of its fruit produced. As Jesus said in today’s Gospel lesson: “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” That also makes sense. Healthy tree = healthy fruit. Diseased tree = sickly or diseased fruit. In an orchard or a garden if something that has been planted gets diseased or ceases to bear fruit or be productive, the owner will often cut it down or prune it sharply. The tree has failed in being what it was supposed to be. The diseased tree or its parts would also be removed and burned so that whatever is wrong with the plant does not infect and infest the others.

What was Jesus talking about in this Gospel lesson and why? He was not so much concerned with how orchards work, but rather speaking about spiritual realities within this world. The orchard and vineyard of the Church is under constant threat of attack from outside spiritual forces using the disease of false teaching by those who pretend to be orchard keepers, by the environment of the world, and from within. It actually is pretty easy to detect the effect and influence of these attacks. It may seem difficult at first but eventually it should be pretty elementary to identify a false teacher and prophet. The standard for identification is as simple as this: faithful fruit is identified as preaching, teaching, and administrating the Divine Service in agreement with the wisdom of Holy Scripture. Lay people who are Christians can be identified by the fruit of their faith as well. That fruit involves being kind, doing things that are good, tithing, caring for each other, receiving regularly the nutrients offered in Word and sacrament, but what is the true and chief fruit of faithfulness? Repentance, humility, and joy in the hope and promise offered in Jesus Christ.

If people or pastors are unfaithful and: you can identify them by their fruit. Their fruit is lawlessness: that is that which does not abide by the Law and counsel of God in Scripture. In today’s society the spirit is most identified by permissiveness, the fact that these false ones do not preach against sin or warn against temptation, but rather they preach a doctrine which rots, a doctrine which promotes worshipping self, feeling good, justifying oneself, nursing one’s own desires. Perhaps they will occasionally preach the performing of good deeds but not for the sake of mercy, but so that people can pat themselves on the back in pride. As the true fruit of faithfulness is repentance and joy at the Gospel, so the fruit of diseased trees and their rotten fruit is this: pride, a refusal to repent, to humble oneself and it recognized by its lawlessness. Lawlessness meaning lack of discipline and respect for what God has established as good and right by His Word.

So look at yourselves, look at how you have been living, and interacting with the world or your fellow trees in the orchard or vines in the vineyard? What has been your chief goal in life? What kind of fruit are you bringing forth and forming?

The problem is that you and I by nature would rather not produce good fruit. Good fruit on the part of the tree means sacrificing, being pruned, being trained. We would rather be wild and grow according to our fleshly nature, we like how the disease of false teaching first makes us feel as it does not prune away pride and arrogance, but lets it grow wild and lawlessly. Lawlessness makes us feel like we are gods. It makes us feel like we can make personal laws for ourselves and alter them as we see fit. We don’t have to follow God’s Word exactly, we can go and grow along any lines we would like, even if it does not produce healthy fruit. That is why so many people in today’s modern churches, if they go to church at all, go to feel good churches that cater to their likes, their whims, and does not teach repentance and the cross, but turns God into a god who promises earthly prosperity and comfort in one’s own definition of truth. We, according to our flesh, would prefer to rebel against the pruning of God’s true Law which identifies our sin and would cleanse the diseased sores which we have allowed to invade and fester within us. If there is no repentance, then the Gospel which gives life is wasted. Like water off a duck’s back, the work of the Holy Spirit is rejected. The work of Jesus means nothing for those who feel they have no need for salvation.

Like it or not, offended or not, when “Christians” regularly skip church for things like sports, housework, chores, or just to sleep in. That is what they are saying. “I have no need of you, God. Me first. Maybe I will return some day.” This behavior and attitude are showing the fruit within the heart. These actions and thoughts reveal the work of the disease of sin and pride which causes faith to shrivel and the fruit that should be good and should be nurtured and fed by God’s Word is sickly, stifled, and may never mature.

In the day of death, the day of Christ’s mighty return, the spiritual trees of this earthly orchard shall be judged by their fruit or their lack of fruit because it is and was the evidence of the faith inside it. Then it will be too late to alter course. And then as Jesus said: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Dear friends, we must all beware of our own pride, our own security in our sin, we should look to our fruit and take care. We should also take care not to attend false churches or watch or listen to preachers or read books by those who by God’s Word we can recognize as not being faithful.

Now let us, pastor and laity, bear the fruit of repentance to God, let us admit our need for Him to prune us of our pride and sin, and receive it as we confess that sin.

Then as hungry and thirsty trees planted in the good soil of God’s Word’s let us absorb and take to heart the truth that we need to hear. The truth from God which is a pesticide of the best kind against the idolatry of self and the world, a weapon to kill wolves and mute false teachers: The Word of life in Law and Gospel. You already heard the Law and its threat today and I have spoken about the Gospel, but now hear that Good News: God does love you. God has planted you into His orchard by His word and through Holy Baptism. You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” Christ Jesus came to face the devil, the false teachers, the world, the temptations of the flesh, and in His life and then in His crucifixion and death, He defeated them. He defeated them for you. He died so that the fruit of His righteous sacrifice would give birth to life, faith, and righteousness in you and all believers in Him. You have been redeemed with the redemption that you and I could not accomplish in the blood Jesus Christ. We are freed from our sin once more. AS St. Paul said, “brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

So you are children of God. Live in Him. Rejoice in Him, receive from His hand here in the Sacrament of the Altar His forgiveness, love, life, and mercy. Be renewed in your heart and mind by the Holy Spirit in the strength of true teaching and practice as members of the Church. Be made strong in Jesus Christ crucified and raised for you; strong to bear the fruit that He has created you for: faith, repentance, joy, life now, and eternal life forever in Him, for Jesus Christ’s sake, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Looking over the texts appointed for today, the words of the Small Catechism kept flooding my mind where it says: that our heavenly Father “richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.” We see illustrated in the miraculous feeding of the four thousand, and five thousand and in our daily lives, but we also see this already in action at the very beginning of time. God takes His newly created man, created in His own image and likeness by means of His own hands and His own holy breath, and places him in the garden, which was especially created for him to work and keep. (We also see that God gives the gift of work even before the fall. Work is a good and godly thing, contrary to what many people tend to believe. But… that’s a different sermon.)

Anyway, God places His highest and most cherished creation in that garden and then tells him: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.” Talk about providing!  Every fruit of every tree was available for Adam to eat! Nothing was out of season. Nothing was stale or old or mushy or bruised. It was all fresh; as fresh as it could possibly be! Ripe for the picking! “All that I need to support this body and life.”
But… we know that there’s more to the story, isn’t there? “You may eat of any of this fruit… except for the fruit of that one single tree; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of that fruit you will surely die.”

We may be tempted to think “Okay… so God also provides a death trap? That doesn’t seem very loving. If God truly desires the death of no man, then why did God provide that tree? If He’s all-knowing, He had to have known they would eat and die. Why provide something that does not support, but rather destroys body and life?” 

Folks: I don’t have the answers to those questions. God doesn’t tell us these things. That alone is a loving “stop sign.” Go no further. In the words of Deuteronomy: “The hidden things belong to God, and the revealed things belong to us.” God doesn’t tell you all you want to know, nor does He have to. He tells you all you need to know. Besides, I would caution anyone who dwells on these questions because these are questions of unbelief. “IF God truly desires the death of no man….  IF God is truly all-knowing….” Those questions are no different than the questions straight from Satan’s mouth in the temptations of Jesus: “IF you really are the Son of God, prove it. Turn these stones into bread. Throw yourself off this rooftop. Save yourself and come down off that cross.” God provides us with all that we need; not all that we want.

But focusing on all those “IF’s” is not only wrong, but it causes us to miss God’s good and loving providence staring us in the face. Just listen to what God Himself says to His beloved Adam in regards to that particular tree. “In the day that you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.” God IS providing for Adam! It’s as plain as the nose on your face. He’s providing all that Adam needs for this body and life, including (and especially) eternal life. It’s a loving warning. It’s not a threat. It’s a statement of reality. “Adam, if you eat this, you will die, and I don’t want this for you.”

Of course, we all know how that turned out, right? The problem wasn’t with God’s providence, was it? The problem was with man’s pride; with man’s doubt. Adam wasn’t content with all that he needed. He wasn’t getting all that he wanted. And look what happened. Man turned a deaf ear to God’s loving Word; Word that provided him all that he needed for his body and his life; and instead trusted his own eyes. As you may recall, Chapter 3 tells us that Adam and Eve looked at the fruit, and seeing what a delight it was to their eyes, they took it and ate. 

What about you and me? Consider your own lives. I’ll ask, just like St. Paul, consider the fruits you get from your sinfulness: slavery to more sin, and death. Yet, we still long for these deadly fruits of fleshly temptation, even as we stand on this side of the cross. Why? Because they appeal to our Old Adam senses. Let’s face it: We have our wants and desires; our pride, and humility and suffering just isn’t on the preferred menu for us. It’s true, whether we want to admit it or not: We who have been justified and grafted into the Vine of Life that is Christ still in our hearts and minds tend to prefer the fruits of sin. It feels good. It makes us “happy.” Life just seems so much easier when we’re swimming downstream and going with the flow with everyone else; when all our “wants” are satisfied; when we don’t have all those pesky crosses to bear. 

The end of all those fruits of sin and selfishness is death. Those earthly things don’t save you. Those sinful fruits and desires kill. They kill the body, but also faith and steal the free gift of God away, “for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Look to this cross; this tree. Looking to the cross of Christ we see both the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as well as the tree of life. In terms of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by faith we look to this tree of the cross and we see just how truly deadly our sin is. Our sin isn’t just a malady or an imperfection. Our sin isn’t something we can somehow overcome if we just buckle down and try harder. Our sin is evil. It is death, and we are dead in our sin. DEAD! Since the fall, we are by nature corpses of sin. Dead men tell no tales, and dead men also can do nothing for themselves. They certainly can’t make themselves any less dead! 

Look to the cross of Jesus Christ and also see and learn how God lovingly provides. Here is just how serious and deadly your sin really is, yes, but that is precisely why God Himself took on flesh; for the sole purpose of taking that flesh to the cross to suffer and die; to pay your wage of sin in full. And He did just that, paying that wage in full with His own holy and precious blood.  That’s why in faith we refer to this event as “Good Friday.” It is God’s holy and righteous “good” that puts to death our sinful evil, paid in full by our good and gracious God. And in this way, looking to this cross we also in faith behold our tree of Life; our very good tree of life. All that we need for this body and life indeed!

Let us no more be like Adam and Eve and look at temptation as that which is pleasing, but instead as repentant and absolved by the blood of Jesus but on the new Adam made by the spirit in Jesus Christ, who is Adam’s fulfillment. Let us behold in wonder and joy that which God has provided to satisfy and is truly pleasing to God and for our good. Look to the baptismal font. Look to this altar. Here is where God Himself nourishes you with the life-saving, life-giving fruits of the wretched yet holy tree of the cross of Christ. God brings His victory over sin, death, and the grave to you! Here is where He grafts you into the Vine of Life that is Christ. Here is where He nourishes you with the fruit of the vine; His very blood. Here is where He nourishes you with the fruit of His bounty; the Bread of Life Himself. Here is where He freely and unconditionally gives to you the gift of eternal life in Christ by the forgiveness of your sins. No longer slaves of sin leading to death, but now slaves of righteousness leading to eternal life, freedom, and peace.

In this light, I have to ask: What more do you need? What more do you want? Seek first the kingdom (the reign and rule of God), and all these things will be added to you.” All that I need for this body and life.

You belong to Christ. No matter what this world throws at you; no matter how bad things may get or things may seem, you belong to Christ, and no one and nothing can ever take that away from you. The most important thing you need God gives to you freely and unconditionally, purely out of His good grace and love in Jesus Christ, and He continues to provide so that you live and grow in faith and understanding, in His Word, from this pulpit, from the Bible, from the font, the altar, and as we speak this Word to each other as fellow redeemed. In just a few minutes, when you leave this communion rail and leave the doors of this church building, you will have the Body and Blood of Christ within you and the message of God’s love and provision ringing in your ears. Your Lord will dismiss you with His Gospel promise and blessing; His benediction of peace. I pray that you eat that which He blesses with His presence and places into your mouth.  I pray that you hear, mark, learn, and inwardly-digest all that He richly provides, and I pray you are truly satisfied/contented with His life-giving, life-preserving satisfaction as He truly provides all that you and I need for this body and life which have now received the promise of immortality through Jesus Christ, our God provided, Redeemer, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“But God Meant It for Good” This is what Joseph said in the Old Testament text for today. “But God meant it for good…”

This is one of the toughest lessons to get straight. It flies in the face of our emotions, our natural reactions, and our reason. Yet it is the lesson of God’s care and providence working through the difficulties that we encounter in this life. In our society, the devil uses the comforts of wealth, ease, free time, and good health to tempt us to expect only these physical comforts in this life. In this way, the devil tempts us to be complacent in our faith in God, to grow in our hearts a sense of entitlement. That we are “entitled” to only good things here in this life. Because of that sense of entitlement, when anything goes wrong, or we don’t get what we feel that we deserve (which are, of course, only good things) we blame God and our faith is challenged more than we feel that we can bare. 

We Americans have been blessed in many ways. Our basic minimum tolerable condition standards are far higher than most other countries in the world. Our standards by which we judge our happiness is far higher than most of mankind has ever known throughout history. So, it doesn’t take much to make us feel really miserable. Yet because we live in a sin-filled world, and as Christians we are attacked and besieged by the devil, the world, and our flesh misery must come, hardships, betrayal, and bitterness do come upon us. When those miseries arise, though it is difficult, let us keep the message of the Old Testament lesson and the Epistle in mind. “God meant it for good.”

Joseph is one of the true heroes of the faith. Through various terrible trials, Joseph did not curse God nor did he despair but acted with dignity, morality, and faith. 

Overtaken by his older brothers when he was just 17, tossed into a dry pit to die, then sold into slavery. It is interesting to note that Joseph was from a rich family in comfortable conditions for that day and age – and he was favored by his father. The transition he faced was incredibly abrupt and extreme. Taken to Egypt and sold in the slave market, he was brought very low. However, in whatever circumstances he found himself, he simply did the work appointed to him without complaint in faithfulness to God. Because of that faith, God was with him and blessed everything he did. He worked his way up to head of his master’s house, second only to Potiphar himself.

Then Potiphar’s wife was attracted to him, tried to seduce him, Joseph did what was right and good, uttering those faithful words, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” When he failed to join in that sin, she avenged herself by accusing Joseph of rape and so His faithfulness was rewarded with punishment and prison. One day, after several years of imprisonment, he interprets dreams for some of the more important prisoners, only to be forgotten when the cupbearer was returned to his original post.  He languishes in prison for another two years.

Finally, Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh, and is made the highest ranking officer in the court of Pharaoh, second only to the Pharaoh himself. And you know the story of how he saved the food and rescued his family, and brought them to Egypt. His goodness and holiness cost him just as dearly at times as it brought him success.

In our OT text today, Jacob, Joseph’s father, had died and his brothers are faced with the reality of what they did, and what they deserve, and what Joseph has the power to do to them. They came to Joseph pleading for their lives – dishonestly even at this point. Joseph, on the other hand, deals with them in mercy.
Joseph teaches his brothers, and us, the truth that whatever we may face, whatever God allows for us, our heavenly Father is far more merciful than we deserve, and God will mean it for good! Joseph said, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?  And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to preserve many people alive.” Joseph knew that God’s hand was behind it all. The evil they did was still evil. They were still accountable for their actions, but Joseph understood God can take the evils we do or have experienced and turn them for good, using our wickedness to accomplish His holy will!!  And so, Joseph forgave them instead of punishing them.

The same thing is still true today. God never changes. If He worked good out of evil back then, He will do it today.

So when people turn on us, and do evil to us, and events conspire against us and cause us frustrations, pains, fears, and troubles, we may take comfort and be confident in the truth that God is at work none-the-less. God sometimes pushes us to do things we don’t want to do, and He takes us to places that we don’t necessarily want to go. He works through events and people – even the wickedness and evil of people around us – to put us in places and situations where He will use us for His purposes. To bless us with spiritual growth, to cling to Him all the more, even as people are then blessed through the witness God uses within us.
The sin and wickedness of others is not created by God, nor does His use of them to accomplish His holy will change their evil to good or give them or us some excuse for being wicked. They must face their wickedness, and answer for what they have done or said. Even as we must face our wickedness and repent. But God is still so wonderful and wise that He can take evil and use it for good, just as He did with Joseph. Most of the time God’s use of our circumstances is not as noteworthy to the world, we may not even know what God is doing, but He is there to call us to Himself, bless us, and to protect us, and to work His good will in all things — even things that are not good or pleasant.  And what is the will of God for us?
Our salvation.

Like Joseph, we are to be holy. We are to repent for the evil we have done knowing that we don’t deserve mercy. We are to see the will and hand of God by faith, and trust Him, and show mercy to forgive those who sin against us. We have the example of Joseph. We have the example of Jesus. By the will and hand of God we are shown the power to forgive as He forgave us and laid down His life for us. In fact, He takes the evil that we have done and He places it upon someone who only did what was right and good: His only son, Jesus Christ. He took the evil that was done to Him in His betrayal by Judas, His rejection and false accusations levied by the Jewish leaders, the scourging, binding, and being crucified. The conspirators meant evil for Jesus but God meant it all for good. In His innocence, Jesus took all the unrighteousness of the world’s sin including yours and mine upon His innocent flesh. He took all this evil, and worked it out for the good of our salvation and all those who have and will believe in Him. Our entitlement should be for punishment, but instead of being punished like we deserve, He shows us mercy by the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. He takes our sin and washes it away in baptism and absolution. He rebukes our sin but makes us stronger in repentance and faith in that renewal of His forgiveness in Christ. He feeds us in the midst of a spiritual famine and drought in the world: here with His body and blood in the bread and wine so that we are blessed with His mercy and strength. He does not reject us, but rather gathers us to himself and embraces us with His love and rejoices over us and the faith that He gives, works, and uses for our eternal good.

Your sins, whatever they may be, have been paid for. You have been redeemed at the price of the suffering and death of the only-begotten Son of God.  You are forgiven! He that believes and is baptized shall be saved!!

So, now, you are free to imitate Joseph, and imitate Jesus. You can trust God, that in all things He means it for good. You can forgive those whose wickedness and evil have caused your troubles and pains, but which God has used for His holy will. You don’t have to know what it is that God is doing. Joseph didn’t until the very end. 

The lesson is to do what is right and holy – to live out our faith, and trust God to do what He has so often promised He will do – bless us, protect us, and bring us to eternal life. 

In all things, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. God’s good for you. Make use of His good gifts of mercy and love in His Word and Sacraments. Rejoice in these comforts which are far more than material comforts. Show mercy as our heavenly Father has shown us mercy. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” In all things, give thanks knowing that God is blessing you and working all things in this life for your good and your eternal salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Recklessness is not often considered a positive attribute. One who is reckless does not seem to care about the consequences of their actions; one who throws caution to the wind seems to have no care for the future and how their actions affect others. The Gospel text for today speaks of a son who spends his inheritance recklessly. Many would call him “the prodigal son”. In truth, this text which happens to have been heard on “Father’s Day”, is about a reckless and prodigal father, reckless with His love and forgiveness for not just one but two wayward sons. It is a parable about dying and living again by the love of that father who loves and seeks and restores.

Luke 15 opens by telling us that there were tax collectors and other sinners drawing near to Jesus. Jesus had not rejected them and so the Pharisees grumbled about this. So, Jesus told them this parable… Except that He didn’t just tell one parable, He told 4 of them in quick succession, the parable for today is actually the third of the four following the parable of the lost and found coin which followed the parable of the lost and found sheep.

Well in the parable, there was a man who was apparently wealthy. He had two sons and the younger son asked for his inheritance early. This is basically saying, “Dad, I need some money, I wish you were dead, I can’t wait, so give it to me now, because I am done with you.” The Father did not have to give it to him, he could have rejected his son right there in response to his son’s rejection of him, yet he did not. Instead, he divided his property between his two sons. The younger son not only rejected his father, but then rejected his country by journeying to another country far away where he squandered his property in reckless living. Penniless and broke a famine then strikes. He is fortunate enough to get employed, however his employment is with a pig farmer working with the pigs, in their pens, in their muck and feces which to the Jews would have been the ultimate in shame, filth, degradation, and unclean faithlessness. He is so hungry that he even covets the food of the pigs! Yet no one gave him anything! He was about as low as he could get! Starving and alone in a far away country we hear in vs. 17, “He finally came to himself”. He begins talking to himself, realizing, finally, the extent of his sin and that he has made his own trouble. He thinks back to better days, days of luxury as a son in his father’s house where he was not starving, and he remembers the servants and slaves. He remembers that they always had enough bread. He remembers his father’s generosity and thinks to himself, “Yet, here I am from hunger, dying!” Near death, in anguish, he is finally contrite and repentant and resolves to get up and go to his father admit his sin and beg not to be received as a son for knew he did not deserve it. He knew he was no longer worthy, but perhaps, just maybe he could be treated as a servant and at least have a full stomach.

Here in the Greek text we have a marvelous flow of words that we miss in English. Verse 17 when the son realizes he is dying from hunger actually ends with the word “dying” “apollumai”. The very next word is “anastos”. This is a word of resurrection. “Rising up”. The son from his dying in his repentance, rises up.

The son arose and traveled back toward his father, but while he is far off, before he sees his father, his father sees him. Was this chance? Did his father just happen to be looking out that way at the right time? No, the father had been watching the roads, watching, waiting, praying. So, the father, knowing the very act of returning home is repentance from his son, had compassion for him. The Greek is that his guts were turned outward for him, he hurt on behalf of his son. The father ran to the son, embraced him and kissed him. Meanwhile the son tried to express his repentance; to confess his sin to his father, but the father is already calling the servants to restore this son not to servant’s clothes but to full sonship represented by the best robe, the ring, and shoes. Then to end the son’s fast the father proclaims a feast because as the father declared: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”

The other son who had not left the country was in the field working heard the sound of celebration, was curious as to why. When told it was because his brother had returned, he became angry and he pouted. No doubt he had anticipated the possibility that his brother would return and feared that his father might be gracious to he who was so unworthy. The brother felt it wasn’t fair and refused to go in to the celebration. The father noticed that his other son was not there, and the father who was reckless with his love in running to the younger son now also goes out in love to the older son wanting to reconcile him not only to his own brother but to himself. This older son vents his frustration: he never gets his own parties, that he has always worked hard, but now this other son who not only hasn’t contributed anything to the family but actually has stolen from the family and been shameful with the family’s property, consorting with prostitutes, is now welcomed back with the fattened calf and given full rights again. “Where is your love and gratitude to me?” implies this brother. The father said to him, “son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive, he was lost and is found.” In other words, this son has had the benefit of His father’s grace all along and had forgotten the benefits of living in that household. Momentarily though he was in body living with the father, he was in mind also rebelling against and rejecting his father’s love trusting instead in his works.

Both sons were in a sense lost, one more obviously than the other, both had to be sought out and restored by the father. The younger son had rebelled in body and spirit, the older had also rebelled in body and spirit by remaining outside the house, angry and jealous of his returned brother, yet both are sought out to be reconciled by the gracious loving father and are restored.

This parable of the father with the reckless and abundant love is really telling the story of God and His love for the world but especially for members of His church, those who are His sons and daughters.

Though this parable can be expanded to include God’s love for the world, this really can and should be applied to us and our dynamic of living together here on earth in the church as we have been repentant and returned to the Lord in faith. In many ways Jesus is pointing out two things, one is a rebuke of those who think that sinners shouldn’t be received back into the Church. This is hypocrisy at its worst, because nobody is not a sinner except Jesus Christ. Therefore, if God’s kingdom were so exclusive as to exclude sinners none would be saved. Therefore, this is a reminder that even life-long church members are sinners and in constant need of grace and mercy. However, many interpret this text and even the ministry of Jesus incorrectly saying that Jesus received sinners and therefore He was ok and is ok with people continuing in their sins so that grace may abound. This too is incorrect. Jesus came to heal sinners from their infirmities, to take the dead and dying in their sin and unbelief and raise them to life, by changing and restoring them so that sinners might be freed from their old sins and habits of wallowing in the mud, muck, filth, and feces of sin, not to return to that filth but to be cleansed and turned from sin to His glory and for their good.

Even before we realized our sin, while we were yet dead in our trespasses and sin, wallowing in the muck of our own filth, we, who by our rebellion and sin, basically had told our creator and father, that we had no use for Him. Yet, our heavenly Father sent Jesus His Son from heaven to a far land to rescue us reckless and prodigal children. So, the Son of God, the good and perfect Son, came to earth, to save sons and daughters who like Adam and Eve were in desperate need of rescue, spiritually starving, and dead. Jesus was sent to rescue and live with the unclean, the filthy piggish people, the ungrateful idolatrous harlots, to live a perfect life while showing a perfect love, even going to the cross to make payment for our sin by His sacrificial death. For this dying world, He suffered and died on the cross taking the punishment and rejection that we deserved. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and has been received by the Father as a full payment for our sin. All this so that our Heavenly Father who has sent forth His Word, may restore His people by causing them to die to sin, repenting as the Law kills our old flesh, washing the filth of our sin, so that we may be “anastos” that is, be raised up in Jesus Christ.

He runs to us and covers us in royal robes in Holy Baptism as we have Christ’s righteousness put upon us. He is forgiving us even while we are yet confessing our sins restoring us to Himself and then He welcomes us to the feast where we celebrate the victory which Jesus Christ has accomplished for us in the Sacrament of the Altar. Here we receive the forgiveness of our sins, the bread of life aplenty where we are filled so that we never go spiritually hungry. And we, likewise, desire for others around us to turn and live by repentance pointing ever and always to the love of the father, who restores from death to life by His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Then the heavenly host rejoices because all those in the banquet feast were lost but now have been found and rescued in and through the love of God our Father. Rejoice. Rejoice for yourselves. Rejoice for each other. Give thanks and praise to our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. We were dead in our trespasses and sins but have now been made alive in Christ. Let us ever look to the cross and see the place where by faith we are saved. May we never forget that while we were yet sinners God sent His Son to die for us to reconcile us to Himself. Let us rejoice in His Grace and His reckless love for us shown in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Lord Jesus Christ, the Church’s head,
You are her one foundation;
In You she trusts, before you bows,
And waits for Your salvation.
Built on this Rock secure, Your church shall endure
Though all the world decay and all things pass away,
O hear, O hear us, Jesus

The hymn that we sang before our sermon was drawing on the imagery of our text today, the Epistle reading from Ephesians 2, specifically, from verses 19-22: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” In other words, the Church is “God’s Building Project.”

The fact that the Church is God’s building project–that makes a big difference. The Church is not some manmade creation. Rather, it is a divine institution, founded by Christ Himself and central to God’s plan for the ages. God will not abandon His church. He will not abandon us. He will not abandon you.

This is good to hear, because the devil, the prince of this world wants to destroy the Church. He wants to drag every last believer back into the sin and false wisdom of this world. It is easy to get discouraged in our daily struggles individually, but even as a congregation, or even looking at the various congregations within our own synod or throughout the world as there seems to be so many congregations and church bodies leaving the path of God’s Word and doing their own thing, following the ways of the world, abandoning Christ for an ungodly/worldly message with only the trimmings of Christianity and “holy speak” using Jesus’ name in vain. It is easy to get caught up in negativity, a questioning hopelessness as to our future and the future of the Church at large when looking at these things. We definitely need encouragement.

And that’s what God’s word gives us today. Encouragement. Encouragement for us in the Church, at a time when anxiety, apathy, and aggression are swirling all about us. It’s good to know we are God’s building project.

Paul wrote this text to the church at Ephesus. Ephesus was located on the west side of Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and it was one the largest cities in the first-century world. The church there at Ephesus was made up mostly of Gentiles, people who had come out of pagan idolatry. So Paul reminds them of what they had come out of when they had come into the church: “Remember…that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

Friends, this describes where we would be apart from Christ and outside of the Church. You and I would be aliens and strangers with regard to God and His people. We would be outside the kingdom of God, not knowing the precious promises of salvation. That’s a terrible place to be. Think of it. To have no hope–no hope for the future, no hope for what lies beyond this life. To be without God in the world. That’s pretty scary and sad. But most people in our world, the unbelievers–they don’t even realize what a terrible situation they are in.

We were that way. We too were dead in our trespasses and sins. Ours sins alienated us from God. We were far off. We have at times drifted away, turned away, run away from God. You and I should be included in that sorry lot. We too have sinned. It comes easy to us: natural to us, according to our sinful nature. We do things, we think things, we say things, that go against God’s commandments. We are not eager and zealous to do God’s will. We mainly just want to do our own will, and who cares what God says? Other people are there to please us and do things for us–that’s the world we create in our minds. That’s the sinful nature alive in us and producing such bad fruit in our lives. This sin separates us again from God, and it puts up walls between us and other people. That’s where we would be on our own, apart from what God has done for us in Christ.

That is what is so profound about God and His love for us. Why would He think to build anything with such weak, frail, rotten material as me, you, or any human in their spiritual fallenness? Because that is what He does. That is who He is. Though there was righteous hostility between God and us because of our sin, and hostility on our part because of our wanting to remain in our sins… God has taken what is from our body of sin and breaks it and crushes it and places it upon Jesus Christ and His flesh who then, in turn has broken that hostility and that separation by the unity of His Divinity and humanity in His body taking our sin to the cross, receiving the punishment for sin, which we deserve. This is how we are brought near to God: through the sacrificial blood of Christ. By His shed blood poured out for us at His crucifixion.

That is the, if you will, “the liquid cement”, for covering over our sin and weakness, binding and bonding us to God and the structure of His Holy temple with the prophets, apostles, the saints of old and the saints, yet to come. Molded, fitted, shaped, by the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ where the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to us.

Where is it applied? His blood is applied to us in Holy Baptism when in the water, the invisible blood of Christ is applied to us by the power of God’s name and His Word of promise. There we were taken outside of time and our old spirit of flesh was crucified with Christ, buried, and we were raised with the Holy Spirit, and now the spirit of God dwells within us by faith. That is what St. Paul means when he said: “In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” You are indeed the temple of the Holy Spirit as an individual who is part of the whole temple as a member of the Church. God indeed dwells in you, so far as you have faith.

Does that mean the project is finished? No. As Paul said, “you are being built”. Even as I spoke of earlier, we are constantly being battered like buildings by the winds and waves of the spirit of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh which continues to surface. We wear down from this onslaught, our eyes become downcast toward the grind and disappointments and taunts of this world. We sin and parts of us crumble, the concrete bonds that we should have to the holiness of the Lord, we often knock off ourselves because of our selfishness and pride. We wander back into the dark and temporary priorities of this life as our main focus and eternal hope begins to dim.

So the Lord calls us, even now in this sermon, this liturgy, in His Word of Holy Scripture through the witness of our fellow believers, by His voice to come back from afar, to come again by His peace, to Himself. Sometimes almost dragging us reluctantly He brings us back to His workshop, back to the place where we must again be broken down, to be reshaped and reformed into and by Christ. We hear the Law which shows us our sin, we repent and are sorrowful for what we have done and not done, but with hope, we turn. And we plead for mercy for the sake of the blood of Jesus Christ. And God forgives us and renews us in our baptism in Absolution. We hear once more that because Jesus has died upon the cross for our sins, God will not forsake the humble, but serves us not only a proclamation of forgiveness for those sins, but gives us once more a full measure of His Holy Spirit where He gives us the blood of Jesus Christ. In the great feast of the Sacrament of the Altar we are drawn ever nearer to the place where we will be permanently a “completed building project” to the place of rest and fullest assembly in the heavenly places. We eat and drink Christ’s body and blood in the bread and wine. Christ comes to us, and we celebrate with the whole church, the victory of Jesus Christ and His marriage and promise to the Church completed in Him. Though we do not perceive with our earthly eyes or tongues, we are bound to the Lord and to the fellowship of all the saints in the household of God through the blood of Christ here given.

So be encouraged. The Lord is not done working with you and on you and me. He will not abandon you. Remember where you came from. Remember in humble and repentant joy, your own weakness, but remember God’s strength for you in Jesus Christ. Remember whose you are and all the promises and grace that come with it. Pray for strength and remember where you are going: to be with Christ your Savior in God’s glory for eternity.

As we sang:
O Lord, let this Your little flock, Your name alone confessing,
Continue in Your loving care, True unity possessing,
Your sacraments, O Lord, and Your saving Word
To us Lord pure retain. Grant that they may remain
our only strength and comfort.

And for your Gospel let us dare to sacrifice all treasure,
Teach us to bear Your blessed cross, To find in You all pleasure,
O grant us steadfastness in joy and distress,
Lest we Lord You forsake. Let us by grace partake
of endless joy and gladness,
for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday in which we proclaimed the Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in whom we trust and believe in. This God is truly rich in mercy and love. As we trust in Him, and lean not upon our own understanding, but rather allow mysteries to be mysteries, we recognize that the Lord’s will is for our salvation, to receive His true riches of forgiveness, love, and mercy, now and for eternity. In this life we are to trust in the Lord, not upon our own possessions, and the things of this earth. He has taught us to crave the true riches now He offers in His Means of Grace, and in turn be rich in mercy and love to our neighbor. 

Today we heard of a man who was rich in earthly wealth and money but was not rich in mercy. By way of the story of Lazarus and the rich man, our Lord is teaching us that we can only get into heaven by hoping and trusting in God by faith, and faith comes from hearing and heeding the Word of God. Our text shows us the importance of hearing the Word of God and keeping it.

Our Lord speaks of a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, such as those who lived in luxury and were in king’s courts. This rich man “fared sumptuously every day” (v. 19); that means he had a feast every day, not just on special occasions. When would we normally enjoy a feast? We tend to eat feasts at Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving dinners, perhaps when we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, Independence Day or some other holiday. In Scripture, there is nothing wrong with celebrating special events and occasions. Not only do we have in Scripture the image of the marriage feast, but in Luke’s Gospel just prior to this text, we heard of several feasts. In the Lord’s parable of the “prodigal” or lost son, the father threw a feast because his son who once was lost had been found. The shepherd whose sheep had been lost invited his friends to rejoice with him once he found it. The woman did likewise when she found her lost coin. Such times of rejoicing could involve an extravagant feast. However, the rich man did not wait for a special occasion to have a feast, he rejoiced in his riches, his friends, and in himself and his pride, glorifying and worshipping these earthly things in the meantime. He gorged himself every day while a poor beggar lay at his gate, a man named Lazarus. This poor man would have been happy to eat merely the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. However, he did not get even the crumbs. He was also so weak that he could not fend off the dogs that licked his sores or it could mean that the dogs were the only ones showing care. Regardless, day after day Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate, hungry and sore, no doubt dying. Day after day the rich man passed through his gate, aware of Lazarus but not lifting even his little finger or giving the tiniest charity to help his neighbor in desperate need. The rich man had not the love of God in his heart, nor the love for his neighbor…only the love of self.

And it came to pass that both men died. Lazarus was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. That is to say, Lazarus died and is brought to heaven. The rich man, however, was in torment in the fires of hell. Such a notion was contrary to many a Jewish thought: not the concept of hell and judgment, but the concept that the rich man would be in punishment. You see, the Scribes, Pharisees and many others of that time were the prosperity Gospel preachers of their day, they believed that you get what you deserve here on earth, therefore if Lazarus was poor, hungry, and diseased; he must have been a sinner and afflicted by God. The rich man may well have been considered righteous or at least favored by God. However, the opposite was true. No doubt the Lord spoke this parable to point out the evil and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The rich man was in hell, although he was Jewish, He was in name or in blood only. He may have been a physical descendant of Abraham, but he certainly was no spiritual descendant. The spiritual descendants of Abraham in those days placed their trust in the Messianic promises, the promises uttered by the Prophets, speaking of the coming of the Messiah. In these days they (spiritual descendants of Abraham, that is, Christians) place their trust in the Messiah who has come and will come again. If the rich man had been a faithful believer, he would have heard Moses and the Prophets and believed the Word of the Lord and repented in life and been rich and mercy understanding his own need for mercy and forgiveness. Yet there he was—in hell—unrepentant…and still arrogant. He still thought of Lazarus as little more than an errand boy, a slave. From hell, the rich man cried out, “Father Abraham!” He wanted Abraham to send Lazarus down to hell and comfort him. But the sainted patriarch reminded him that there was a gulf fixed between heaven and hell, a gulf no one could cross; one would either be in heaven or in hell forever after death. There was and could be no crossing over between the two.

The rich man then asked Abraham to send Lazarus to the rich man’s brothers to warn them of what was awaiting them in hell. Abraham responded, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them” (v. 29). They needed to hear the Word of God and believe it, for, as we hear in Romans 10, faith comes from hearing. The place to hear the Word of God had been in the liturgy of the synagogue and temple, just as the place to hear the Word today is here in the Lord’s house, for He comes to us in His Word. The rich man thought little of God’s Word in his life, it was no priority; he didn’t need it. The Word was not enough for the rich man or his brothers, maybe if something spectacular happened, like someone coming back from the dead, maybe then they would be moved to repent. But Abraham rightly said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead” (v. 31).

It is Moses and the prophets that testify of the resurrection that is promised to those who live a life of repentance and faith, glorifying and trusting in God and His promises, feasting on His Word, waiting for the Messiah and showing love and mercy to one’s neighbor. Faith only comes by hearing God’s Word as it is proclaimed in God’s Word, in its preaching, teaching, and application in the sacraments which announce God’s righteous Law to work repentance and then the Gospel announces the fulfillment of God’s messianic promises in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

Many people of this day and any age miss this message, they feast and celebrate at the altar and table fellowship of selfish pride. Whether they seek after the physical treasures of this life for their own enjoyment and glory, or they deny the pleasures of this life and try to fulfill the law in order to earn salvation, they are united by their false worship of self. They miss out on that which is necessary for salvation, the message of our and all people’s unworthiness. The fact is all people in the eyes of God’s Law are more miserable and in more poverty than Lazarus because of our sin. The sores of our sin, fester, yet quite often we, like the world, wear them as badges of honor and glory in our shame.

But it is the Word of God’s Law that like Lazarus causes us to see our sinful condition, turning to God, begging for His mercy for Christ’s sake to be healed.

Unlike the rich man in the story who had no mercy, God is rich in mercy and love, so He sent His Son down from heaven, Jesus Christ, to take our sins and the sins of the world upon Himself. Jesus, the Son of God, fulfilled the Law, yet became despised and destitute of earthly glory, wearing the wretched rags of our sin upon His flesh, being crucified to pay the demands of the Law. He is the One testified about by Moses and the prophets, the One who did rise from the dead as a testimony of God’s justice and love. So we have Moses, the Prophets, and He who has been risen for the dead, yet sadly many refuse to turn while there is time.

How do we obtain this faith which can save us from ending up like the rich man? How is faith restored when we have sinned? How is it strengthened and renewed? Only by hearing His Word, repenting, receiving His Grace, and living by the wealth of those treasures as they are outpoured in His Divine Service and in the study of Scripture. These are they that testify of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and ascended for the forgiveness of sin.
Here, we who are beggars, come and receive that forgiveness for Christ’s sake and are renewed in our baptismal grace and received again into the bosom of the Church, the place of shelter and rest in Jesus Christ. Here the Lord rejoices over us with all the saints who have gone before us, with all the angelic host, that we who were lost have been found and redeemed again! Here Jesus comes to serve and welcome us, to forgive us our sins, too bind up our wounds, and make us whole. Here He makes a feast in His body given for you and His blood shed for you, to strengthen you as we rejoice. Responding with shouts of Alleluia, that is Praise the Lord! Confessing that faith that He has given us. Then having received such uncountable and profound riches of grace and mercy, we in turn, strengthen each other, serving, admonishing, and exhorting one another to faithful unity in the confession of Christ’s teachings, and in loving service to each other here and then of course, also in the community. Respecting life but not worshipping the things of this earth and its priorities and neglecting the proclamation of repentance and life in Christ.

Let us ever return here for comfort and hope, for our hope where we meet the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be in His presence and hear His Word. Let us feast and rejoice this day and in this grace until the day that we are brought by His angels, to eternally bask in the joy of our Lord to evermore rest at the side and bosom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

One of the greatest mysteries of God has been confessed to be true by us today in the Athanasian Creed. God reveals these mysteries about Himself in Scripture, yet we cannot rationally understand it. God is singular. He is One God, yet there are three distinct persons within this Trinity. The persons of the Trinity are all eternal, uncreated, infinite, almighty and God. They are each distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet they cannot be divided nor are they blended together as though it were the same person acting as different characters. The Father begets the Son, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son.

Even if we cannot fully comprehend the ins and outs of what God is as He has revealed Himself, even if the Athanasian creed is long and is difficult to keep our attention. It is good for us. The Nicene creed and the Apostles Creed are also good for us to read, learn, and recite. A creed is a statement of belief. It helps summarize and verbalize from Scripture who God is and who we are. But it also teaches us who God is and His nature regarding us and His creation. As we speak it, and repeat it, the creed teaches as we listen, so that the reciting of the creed strengthens that very faith which is being confessed.

The mystery of God we confess in the creeds reminds us how finite our minds are and how vast the separation that remains between us and God because of our sin here on earth. Yet the creeds remind us how God does not discard us due to our weakness, ignorance, unbelief, or sin. Again and again throughout Scripture and from generation, and even now God continues to stoop down. To create, to redeem, to call to faith, and reconcile sinners to Himself, into the Church, receiving His gifts. And the creeds reflect this. “Who for us men and for our Salvation came down from heaven” as we say in the Nicene Creed or as we said in the Athanasian creed today: “For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation…”

Why does God do this? God does this because of another attribute of God: an attribute which helps us to begin to understand the mystery of the Trinity and its unity and that is of love. For God is love. A giving love, a selfless love. That is why He created the heavens and the earth. He created out of love, to have the world but specifically Man and Woman as objects of His Love.

God the Father almighty is the maker of heaven and earth. He designed and created and made all things good, because of His love. Yet He knew that sin would arise and that is why the Father had already begotten, that is set aside His Son, the Word, to be born in human flesh in the fullness of time.

This brings us to the verse which we heard in today’s Gospel lesson. The verse that is a favorite of many. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God is also the Son, Jesus Christ. He who came to redeem the world from sin, by coming into human flesh and receiving the sin of the world including yours and mine. These sins He took to the cross to satisfy God’s righteous wrath upon sin. He came not to condemn but to save us and all people from condemnation. However, as the Gospel of John chapter 3 continues we hear that there are those who will be and are condemned because they refuse to believe. They refuse to humble themselves before God and receive the gift of His love.

How does one believe? Well that brings us to the specific work of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the helper. Without His work, we could never know God as Father or Son: as creator or redeemer. We cannot come to faith on our own as St. Paul declares in Ephesians 2:3-8
“We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.”

That is what Jesus was trying to explain to Nicodemus in John 3. To believe, to be born again, or as the Greek says to be born from above. It is not a choice of our own, but passive on our part. It is the work of the Holy Spirit through water and the Word. It is He who gives understanding and as Jesus later said leads into all Truth. It is the Holy Spirit who caused Scripture to be written so that in the hearing of God’s Word, faith can be worked, sins can be confessed, understanding can be given, mysteries can be accepted, and hearts may be changed.

It is the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, and enlightens you, me, and all the host of believers into the Church by His Word as it is preached, taught, and heard. As that Word is attached to the fellowship of Holy things in the Sacraments, so that the whole Christian church can receive forgiveness of sins. How and Why?

Because the Holy Spirit points people back to the cross of Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ, to the Father. So that in all things God works together so that we might see His love for us as it is revealed in His saving work at the cross of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. Then as we continue to confess, as we continue to ponder the mysteries of God’s Word, studying it through the lens of the cross and God’s love, as we continue to come where He promises to be: hearing His Word, remembering our baptisms, confessing our sins, receiving Christ’s body and blood in the bread and wine, we are given greater understanding by faith. By these mysteries we are given the clarity of God’s peace: peace with God, peace in our hearts, and peace by His Truth and love for us. We are made strong to confess God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to unbelievers around us so they too may hear and believe. We are built upon Jesus Christ and surrounded by the company of heaven to boldly rebuke by Word and deed our flesh, the world, and Satan’s accusations which would separate us again from God’s love. We cannot do this by our strength. No, but by God’s strength. So come, receive God’s strength. Be made one in Him and with the Church on earth and in heaven.

God did not create you for death but for life: eternal life with Him. So that on the last day, even as Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead your body shall also be raised unto life everlasting. Therefore, live in Him, receive of Him, confess Him, and in that confessing and receiving, be made strong in faith, hope, and love, unified in the powerful name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas