Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity: August 1, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

God has a knack for teaching you something perfectly, even while using an imperfect example. The only thing you have around you is an imperfect world, a world riddled with sin, suffering, hardship and death. So for God to explain anything good and true and perfect to you, chances are He’ll sometimes have to use something imperfect, something tainted by sin’s disease and given to false pretenses and abuse, at least the way you normally see it.

We find this in today’s Gospel, a parable of Jesus, an earthly story that has a heavenly meaning. When you read His parables, normally there is only one or two main points that Jesus intends you to draw from them, and the surrounding details remain in the background. That is especially true with this story, because if you give equal emphasis to all the details, you actually contradict the main point. The parable is about a steward, or business manager, that a rich man put in charge of his possessions. Evidently, one of the items for which this manager was responsible was what today’s business world may call “accounts receivable.” He was to collect payments for bills that other people owed to the rich man. As the story goes, the manager wastes his boss’s possessions and it was announced to him Apprentice style: You’re fired. Prior to his last day on the job, this terminated manager thinks ahead a little bit and wins the favor of a few of the master’s debtors. How does he do it? He dishonestly tells them to pay his master less than they owe! That’s what will make his future unemployment a little brighter.

Most people don’t have a problem with the story up to this point. It’s the very next thing that happens that causes a real stir. It makes you scratch your head and wonder, What is Jesus thinking with this story? Because the rich man, the master, commends his fired manager! And since Jesus is providing this story in a positive way, you could even say Jesus Himself is commending this manager as an example for you! But here on out you must be careful: this is an imperfect example that He uses, and I must point out that He does not necessarily commend the actual dishonest thing he did, but the key to this whole parable is the manager’s shrewdness. Actually that word shrewdness in verse 8 is worth highlighting or circling in your Bible, if it belongs to you, that is. In the NIV it says he acted shrewdly. You might even see the word “cunning” in some other English Bibles. That sort of worldly wisdom that just like a good chess player it thinks a few steps ahead—that is what Jesus says the world can teach the Church.

Listen to your Lord’s own words: “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Guess what? This is not a compliment. For you who are born of water and the Holy Spirit and ushered into the loving embrace of God your heavenly Father, you’ve got a big lesson to learn from the people of this world, people who wouldn’t ever give one thought to their eternal salvation! Jesus is telling you that you are not diligently wise in doing what you do best as a Christian, and the business sense of this fallen world is really showing you up.

The best way to illustrate this worldly diligence is how it makes you wonder—how do all those scam artists keep coming up with more and more elaborate plans to separate you from your money by fraud? It was bad enough that they concocted a scheme to steal your carbons back in the days when there were credit card carbons. Now they can be so bold as to impersonate you to a bank or to your own friends and take out a loan in your name or even trick you to be generous to them because they are in an emergency and Grandma Robbie or Uncle Tim, surely you can help out with just a few bucks to get them out of their bind? That kind of diligence would pay off really well in a real, legitimate job, right? But the world apparently can’t see that difference, and it still rewards shrewdness, whatever form it takes.

Jesus makes the point clear: “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” The word for wealth or money in the older versions of the Bible is Mammon, perhaps you heard of it. It means everything you have as God’s gift to you, and that means time, personal influence, strengths and abilities as well as money, anything you have that is extra beyond what you need to keep alive and satisfied. Jesus called it unrighteous wealth or Mammon because people like you and me use that extra surplus normally just for selfish things. That’s what the sinful world does best, but that’s still not the lesson Jesus wants you to learn. You already know that. You and I are by nature selfish because of sin.

Making friends by means of unrighteous wealth means to use the time, money, and energy that your heavenly Father has lavished on you to help someone who needs it. Another parable Jesus tells in the Gospel of Matthew reveals that when you feed the hungry, clothe the unclothed and visit those in prison, you are actually serving God. Now Jesus is not saying that all of a sudden you are saved and going to heaven just because you did good things, as if faith and trust in Him were now thrown out. No, believing in Jesus is still the only hope you have for salvation. You cannot do enough to please God, but Jesus has done it all, and your heavenly Father counts what Jesus did for you in your favor. That is the true faith, that is still the only way you’re going to heaven.

But it is also true that the true faith changes you in the process. It renders the lies and the deceptions of this world absolutely foreign and empty to you, and at the same time makes you do something that your sinful human nature could never do: and that is, look out for the benefit of someone else, doing good works for someone who needs it. Ephesians 2 sums it up: you are saved by God’s grace that you have received in your heart through faith and not by doing anything for it. Yet you are still the Lord’s new creation and He has preprogrammed you to help others and do good works, not to improve your situation, but to improve their situation. Since you were grafted in Baptism to Jesus Christ the Vine, you as His branches produce fruit, doing good things, but really it is God doing it all through you. Whether it is praying for your friends and loved ones, wielding a paintbrush on a Saturday, saving a friendly hello for someone new, changing a baby’s diaper, taking out the trash for your wife, giving to the Lord’s Work here at church as well as in some other area of missions, doing your homework, driving kids to millions of places, (as you know, the list just goes on and on)—whatever it is, God is placing the desire in your heart to do it, and you do it automatically. No matter what the service is that you do, or how unnoticed and unappreciated it might be, it is a good work that pleases the Father only because He is pleased with Jesus. In fact, the more unnoticed and unappreciated the better, the way He sees it. It’s what you do best as a renewed, forgiven Christian: thinking not about how to help yourself, but how to help other people.

And so, now to put it together, Jesus is telling you to learn from the shrewdness of the dishonest manager and apply it to the good, helpful things that you do best as a child of light. Look diligently, even creatively for ways to use the God given gifts you have beyond what you need to help other people. Jesus says in another place, Let your light shine before men, that they may see what you do for them and praise your Father in heaven. Remember, the dishonest manager didn’t have any means of his own to give to these people to make them his friends. He only had the generosity of his master the rich man to rely on. He had to know that the boss would honor the discount in the first place or else his plan wouldn’t work. It’s the same for you: the generosity you share with others isn’t really yours but God’s, yet He has given it to you to hand out to others.

But I should remind you that you will fail in this task as long as you are on this earth. You will constantly have your sinful human nature putting yourself first rather than your neighbor. Every day you will still need the Lord’s free gift of forgiveness that is yours in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. And He will come through for you every time because it is His responsibility as the head of the household of faith to serve you. For He didn’t think anything of laying down His own life for you, His bride, the Church. He just did it, and did it perfectly. And you have His Body and Blood here on this altar and placed into your mouth to bring His sacrificial love to you.

Jesus was truly diligent in completing His task when He went to the cross for your sake. Any one of us who thinks we can stand needs to take heed every moment so that we would not fall. We’re in this world, remember, and we’re not perfect. And yet temptation to sin, even at those times when we think we are being shrewd with our unrighteous wealth, that temptation will not be too great for us; we have God’s guarantee of that written down by the Apostle Paul. We have that guarantee of forgiveness sealed with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, which also through God’s own strength enables you to think ahead like that manager, imperfect though he was, but you’ll be that much more encouraged, eager and diligent when you leave this building and share His love with others.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
2 Sam. 22:26–34 With the pure you will show Yourself pure
Psalm 51:1–12 in sin my mother conceived me
1 Cor. 10:6–13 …to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition
Luke 16:1–13 No servant can serve two masters

Sermon for the Festival of St. James, the Elder, Apostle: July 25, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” What confidence, what boldness is in that statement! Something that strong is what you want for a confirmation verse, or as a caption to a poster with a hang-glider flying over the Grand Canyon. It has a pretty heavy initial punch, but I wonder if it always lasts. You say that God is for you and it gives you instant encouragement, but what does it really mean? When you come to think of it, that’s a pretty easy phrase to say, don’t you think? I mean, you would have to be a hard-boiled atheist not to be attracted to the claim that God is on your side.

You hear the idea tossed around a lot, and it can get emphasized a little too far out of hand in some Christian Churches, the mistaken notion that God has an interest in the United States in a different way than He does in other nations of the world. It’s as though He’s building up His glorious heavenly kingdom right here on earth, and sure, He’s given us a unique and special blessing of freedom in our country, but there’s no nation past, present, or future that can replace one, holy Christian Church. And you can misuse any number of Bible verses that in reality either speak of the Old Testament kingdom of Israel in their divine role of preparing for Jesus, or they really talk about the royal priesthood of baptized children of God, citizens, if you will, of an eternal, not an earthly, nation. While pagan religions like Islam demand their subjects to fight for their god’s cause, we just like to think that God, the true God, fights for us. Isn’t that the holy promise you hear in St. Paul’s letter to the Roman church?

The disagreement, of course, lies not in the statement itself, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” but rather in how it came to be that God is for us in the first place. It’s probably the most popular to think that in some way you have or can somehow obtain the right to say such a thing. Like you’ve earned it by what you’ve done or the kind of life you lead. And this can get pretty sneaky, where you don’t realize that you’re falling for a favorite deception that the devil uses. Sure you’re saved only because of Jesus and His death on the cross, your sins are forgiven and Christ is your Savior. But then, so the reasoning goes, it is your decision to make Him your Lord, meaning, you have to lead a better, moral life so that God will be pleased with you, bless you with various benefits, give you a harmonious family, provide you with means to get ahead and take away your suffering. People fall for that trap every day. If you feel abandoned or condemned by God, then the false reasoning goes, you are abandoned and condemned. Try harder. Just commit yourself to God in a more meaningful way, you’ve got to pray longer prayers about more and more people whom you don’t know, and demonstrate in public how dedicated to the Lord’s work you are.

If that describes you, then you’re in good company. Because I just described the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, the Catholic monks of Luther’s day, and the popular evangelicals of every denomination of our own time. And God’s holy Law accuses you the same way it always has: God is not pleased with you because of what you do. He despises your self-pride and sinful human nature. Apart from Jesus, the good deeds that you take pleasure in are worse than waste. Because you insist on extolling your own virtues especially over against others, you have a fouled-up image of the glory of Jesus, just like the Apostle St. James and his brother did—at one time.

The disciples’ three-year seminary education with Jesus was nearly over. They were walking on the last journey that would lead up to Jerusalem, right before Palm Sunday and the extremely important events of Holy Week. The Lord Christ has the cross and His suffering in mind, and He is taking every opportunity to explain this unique, once-in-all-history sacrifice to His followers, and what it will mean for them, and what it means for you. And in a total interruption, like they were not paying any attention to what Jesus was saying, James and John came up to Him (Matthew says it was their mother) and asked Him to grant them the right- and left- hand places in His glory.

Jesus Himself said that James and John did not know what they were asking, because they had the wrong idea of His glory. That same false idea of glory is what is most attractive to you, and it’s what most often makes you think that God is for you because of something you have done. But the glory that Jesus enters and the glory He hands out to you today is the glory of the cross. Suffering, being weak and in need, having others persecute you or treat you unfairly because of your Lord, these are the true glorious things. Take a look at the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 again to refresh your memory of Christ’s real glory.

It was a cup of suffering that Jesus drank in your place, a chalice that you filled to the top with your sins, your rebellion against God, your self-centered attitude. It was a cup that He even prayed that the Father take it away, but He obeyed with no regard to the pain and death He would later undergo. That cup of punishment He drank all the way down to the bottom, when He was baptized with the fire and brimstone of God’s anger that should have been directed at you. He endured it, though. You are no longer condemned. You walk away completely free! The cup of the glory of suffering that He drank He then fills up with His precious blood for you to drink after Him. And as you drink His chalice with your fellow confessors of the faith in remembrance of Your Lord, be reminded also of His glory, not only of the future, sinless and eternal glory of heaven, but the glory you possess right now, the glory of suffering and the cross.

For this cross is what assures you that God is for you. The cross on which your Savior died is truly precious and Holy to you because you were reconciled to your Creator there. Your sins, especially your evil and self-centered nature were killed there with Christ, but He alone rose from the dead on the third day. Your sins stayed buried. The holy cross was placed upon you when you were baptized for two reasons: first, because the washing of new birth was won for you on the cross, and second, because the rest of your entire life will be under the glorious suffering of the cross that God gives you. Those two reasons are a good reason to wear a cross as a public testimony to others, or put it up on the wall of your house, or to make the sign of the cross before prayer or during a blessing as a reminder to yourself. And as you gather up front at the foot of that cross, you eat and drink the true Body and Blood that Jesus gave for you to forgive and strengthen you in body and soul.

That is how you know God is for you: His rock-solid promise, spoken from a certain man, the pastor called, ordained, and standing in His stead, and the actual, physical things of Baptism and Holy Communion that He has set aside especially to assure you. These real things turn you away from relying on yourself, your moral life, or your emotions for the assurance you need every day.

But be assured also when you go through your times of suffering, when it is your turn to drink the cup of Jesus’ true glory, the glory of suffering that everyone else thinks is foolishness. Don’t be discouraged, you’re in good company: St. James drank that cup, as did his brother John although in another way, all those ancient Christians who met together when Christianity was declared illegal by the government and their lives were continually in danger. Remember Martin Luther and everyone else who rediscovered the Gospel, and all Christians today in all parts of the world who are beaten nearly to death simply because of Jesus. They all know, as you know, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And that phrase means so much more to the one, holy Christian and apostolic Church than merely a throwaway encouragement or sound bite. Through this Scripture truth, backed up with the real, history-changing way that Jesus accomplished to make it come true, you can have that same confidence, that boldness to confess the Christian faith without fear.

God’s promise is absolute: you will not be separated from Him! The glory of heaven is yours, because you believe in the one who suffered the glory of the cross, a glory of suffering you endure now as your privilege. Do not lose heart! Be bold in your confession of the true faith: God is for you! Who can be against you?

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Acts 11:27—12:5 he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
Psalm 56 You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle
Rom. 8:28–39 If God be for us, who can be against us?
Mark 10:35–45 whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity: July 18, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The Son spoke the Father’s Word, and behold, there was an abundance of food. What a gift it was for Adam and Eve, and their children who would have come from their paradise-surrounded marriage, to eat fruit from any tree in the garden except the one God commanded not to eat. All that easily available fruit bore testimony to His desire for His human and animal creatures to possess and enjoy life in its fulness. There was, to be sure, not a need that the gracious Lord did not fulfill. They shall not want, for the Lord was their Shepherd from day one. There was water a plenty on this elevated site, enough water even to divide into four great rivers that flowed downstream to spread Eden’s lush wealth with the rest of the created land. It was so perfect that the only way we can understand it is to say what Eden didn’t have: no lack, no limitation, no sin, no lawlessness, no violence; in short, no death.

Then Satan spoke his snake-like voice, and his lies introduced doubt into Eve and also into Adam. God does not want you to be fully satisfied! He’s not interested in providing for you! You need to provide for yourself. You need to become like God, knowing good and evil, or else you will not be happy! You may be eating all this fruit and feeling full in your belly, but the Lord is starving you of what will truly give you a fulfilling life. Satan’s big lie brought forth the wages of sin, which is death. Ever since, death has cast its dark pall over God’s perfect world, and death has its unmistakable markers: lack, limitation, unfairness, violence, suffering. Every time we eat our daily bread, we are reminded that that bread came to us at the cost of our toil, our feverish, thorn-cursed working against death the inevitable.

A crowd had gathered to hear Jesus preach in the desert wilderness. It was about the farthest thing from Eden that the mind can imagine. Water was scarce, food would be inaccessible. If there were any trees there would hardly be enough fruit to pick for a multitude of four thousand to share even a nibble. They had been with the Lord for three days, hearing the Son speak the Word of the Father, and life had enveloped them in a way they had never experienced before. Many of them scarcely noticed it at first, but soon all present would come aware of the presence of death. There is a lack of food. This is a desolate place, as Jesus Himself observed, and many people of the crowd are far from their homes, or even the closest McDonalds.

The Good Shepherd feels compassion for His sheep. The Biblical word actually describes our Lord’s insides twisting in pain-filled concern for their health and well-being. How much more so was He caring also for their souls! God felt literal pain in His stomach for people who might not make it back home in time to eat and fill their stomachs. They might faint along the way. That would not be the Creator’s fault. God had created the world so that people would not faint from lack of food. He created food in abundance, but sin on the part of deceived mankind took that abundance away. Yet instead of throwing up His hands in disgust over what we did to ruin His perfect world, Jesus felt compassion deep down in His guts, and it is that compassion that led Him, even compelled Him to take the next step.

Jesus called His disciples to Him, and spoke to them about His compassion for the crowd. He told His traveling companions and students that He did not intend to send them away empty. What makes this even more complicated is that this very situation had already happened before. With a larger crowd of 5000, Jesus spoke the Word of blessing, and there was miraculously an abundance of food that multiplied from five bread loaves and two fish. Now there are seven loaves, some more fish, and just a gathering of 4000, and the disciples still reacted to Him as though they had not been walking around all this time with the True Son of God living and breathing in human flesh! All the disciples could see were the great number of people, the little amount of food, and the worthless wilderness that surrounded them with death.

“Have the people sit down,” so says the Good Shepherd. He was speaking as though the crowd were a flock of sheep settling down in peace for their feeding. Just as He did before, He took the bread, gave thanks to the Father the Creator of heaven and earth and all good things, and He broke apart and gave the food to the disciples to give to the people. You’d think by this point a disciple or two would have remembered the feeding of the 5000, and then would have predicted what would have happened next. The Son spoke the Father’s Word, and behold there was an abundance of food. It didn’t look like Eden’s trees sprouting forth from the ground and bearing fruit for the people to eat, but it was still God’s abundance that satisfied the stomachs and kindled the fires of faith in those who looked to Jesus as their one hope and trust. These new believers would soon find out that Jesus came not just to give them one memorable meal, but to continue feeding their souls unto everlasting life. He came to set them free from the bondage of death, lack, and limitation. They had no reason to fear, even if they themselves had grossly disobeyed God.

The abundance yielded more than enough food, more than the crowd could eat, plus the seven basketfuls of food left over. One basket for each day of creation, plus the one day of rest and worship, the day that crowns each week and reminds us that God is our provider for everything. It drives home the point to us even to this very day that our Lord wants us to hear this great miracle for our benefit. It would be one thing for us to rejoice that God did great things for some other people, some other time, in some far away other place. Instead, we have the opportunity today to give thanks to the Father, standing alongside with Jesus, and to receive this same abundance today—this time not a simple meal of bread and fish, but the true, full abundance of our Creator, granted us by faith in Christ His Son.

That same compassion Jesus felt for the hungry people, He felt in His own stomach also for you, His precious lamb. He did not want you to go home faint or with anything to lack, but instead He desires to fill you here today with His most precious gifts of forgiveness, of life everlasting, of salvation from everything that death has brought into this world. Jesus was moved by this very same gut-wrenching compassion to die the death that would destroy death, that would achieve a full reconciliation between you and your Father. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead to crush Satan and his evil lie. He guaranteed this return of abundance of life, and it envelops you with a forgiveness and a fulfillment to your life that you had never experienced before. At your baptism, Jesus clothed you with the white robe of sinless perfection and the Father blessed you and called you His beloved child. That’s partly why I wear a white robe in church, to picture for you how God now sees you with your wages of sin paid in full in your place.

For the time being, you still need to eat your daily bread with the curse of death still attached to it. You will get hungry again. You will suffer disease and lack and limitations, and violence, and unfairness. You may faint from exhaustion as you make your way closer and closer to your heavenly home. There are days when all you can sense around you are the fearful signs of death, just like the disciples could only see that which made their situation seem impossible. But do not fear, for your Good Shepherd has you today sit down, you may even kneel at His holy table if you like. Soon you will hear again His blessed words of thanksgiving, and another miracle will take place. Bread, which ordinarily reminds us of our hunger, toil and eventual death, this bread is linked up with Jesus’ own Word and it becomes for you instead a life-giving bread! His servant the pastor serves you straight from the Lord, just like the disciples served the 4000. The true Body and Blood of Christ is given you to eat and drink for your forgiveness and everlasting life. We need not merely rejoice that Jesus did great things for a far-removed crowd so long ago. Our Creator’s great abundance is restored to you this day, and for the rest of your life as you hold fast to His Word of promise, and not sway your attention to the alluring, yet passing away things of this world.

What a great and abundant blessing is here for you, for your children, for your friends and loved ones, indeed for all whom Our Lord chooses to gather here in His presence! Nothing that helps you is withheld. Only that which will harm you is to be avoided. This may be the farthest thing from the hilltop garden of Eden, with rivers flowing down in a wealth of trees and fruit. But here you have all you need to testify to your Creator’s sincere desire not to starve you, but fill you with good things, and satisfy your soul to eternal life. Our church season’s color of green bears witness to that Eden-like growth that is taking place in your heart as you join your faithful parents Adam and Eve in worship of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is not a need you have that your Lord has not answered and fulfilled by what Jesus has done for you. He has been your Shepherd from day one. The death you feel and sense about you will not be around much longer. Soon, well-fed and nourished by the Word of God, you will arrive home.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Gen. 2:7–17 and the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground
Psalm 33:1–11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever
Rom. 6:19–23 but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Mark 8:1–9 He took seven loaves and gave thanks … seven large baskets

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity: July 11, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Our Old Testament reading today proclaims the whole Ten Commandments, which we normally repeat when we rehearse the Catechism. As we read the entire Ten Commandments, what strikes us especially is what our Lord says about His own Name. God the Father says to you and to all Christians of every time and place, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” And you have read the other, more modern words for this Commandment, You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God. While that still gets some of the idea across in translation from the Hebrew original, I put forward to you that we should still be familiar with the idea of “take in vain,” and what that means.

Because there is a harsh and terrible warning for you in these Words: “the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His [the LORD’s] name in vain.” There is also a rich and wonderful promise for you, too: for when God gives you His Name—when you have upon yourself the powerful name of the Lord your God—that Name shall never, ever be in vain, or rendered useless. That is to say, God’s name shall at no time fail you or withhold His promised benefit and blessing from you. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon complained that vanity, vanity all is vanity—well, that may be true for anything in this sinful, “under the sun” cursed world, but vanity will never describe what our Lord’s powerful name has done for you in Christ Jesus.

Going back to catechism and confirmation class, the Second Commandment is usually taught so that it forbids the sins of the tongue. Perhaps you have memorized at some point in your life: What is the Second Commandment? You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts (or use witchcraft), lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks (Small Catechism, Second Commandment).

That is a very good start, especially for teaching small children, but God’s Second Commandment goes far beyond the sins you commit when you lie or deceive or when you fail to pray as you ought. Sins of tongue and a foul mouth are just one small detail of the much larger painting. Listen to the commandment again, this time with a literal ear. God does not say, You shall not SPEAK God’s name as a swear word, and so forth. But He says, “You shall not TAKE—you shall not pick up, you shall not lift up, not carry or bear—the name of the Lord your God as though it were nothing.” These Words paint for us a bigger picture!

Yes, God certainly forbids that we misuse His name with our tongues. That is still part of it. Stated another way, God does not wish for us to take His name into our mouths and to lift it up or speak it out before the world in a vain or inglorious way, cursing, swearing, using witchcraft, lying, and deceiving. Such uses of God’s name dishonor the good name of our God among us!

Yet God also forbids that we CARRY and WEAR His name vainly, and not only in what we say. “The LORD will not hold guiltless him who TAKES—picks up, carries, bears and wears—His name in vain.” To illustrate this wearing of God’s Name in addition to speaking it, listen to how God taught the priests (Aaron and his sons) to bless to the people. First, God specified certain vestments for the priests to wear and the clothing had an inscription on it: Holy to the LORD. Then He gave the priests specific Words that they were to say: Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:22-26).

Then, after telling the priests what Words to say, God went on to explain what happens to you when the priest speaks these Words to you: “So shall they [the priests] PUT MY NAME UPON the people of Israel” (Numbers 6:27). Did you catch that? When you hear the Words of the Lord’s blessing, then at that very moment God’s name is getting laid upon you like a blanket or clothing you like the priests’ vestments. When you hear those Words, God’s name gets handed to you to bear and to carry forth into the world much as you would your driver license or your photo ID. “So shall they PUT MY NAME UPON the people of Israel.” And as God’s baptized people, you have God’s Name put on you, so that the power of God’s name would be evident to the whole world in and through you. If you do anything, including speaking, that makes it appear to others that that Name of God isn’t so powerful, or that it really is worthless and nothing, then the Lord has every right to hold that against you. When He gave you His name, He didn’t give you a piece of junk, He gave you something truly precious and powerful! So you shall not pick up and carry, you shall not wear or bear God’s name uselessly, because “the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” So yes, by all means, think about the sins you commit with your tongue, how you offend the Lord every day by what you say, or when you neglect to pray. Yet, Do not stop there! Think also about how little you recall your Baptism, where the good and gracious name of God was given personally to you, and where you were baptized into “the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). In the Second Commandment, God forbids us to take THAT name—the name given in Baptism—and bear it up before the world in vain. Stated another way, God forbids us to live as if we were never baptized, or as though our heavenly Father never came through for us and helped us when we needed Him.

This Commandment is God’s warning to those who would dare to baptize their children and then disappear from worship, not bothering to teach their children the Christian faith. “The LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” That is to say, the Lord knows and the Lord will remember those who take His name in Baptism but then want nothing more to do with Him. Yet that’s too easy for you to hear, because here you are attending the Divine Service! And this commandment does more than speak to the other guy!

What are you and I really doing, when we treat our neighbor harshly, when we withhold forgiveness or nurse a grudge against them, or when we ignore someone’s need? When we withhold love from our neighbor, in the various forms that are described in all of the other Commandments, we should think of it also as an act of taking our LORD’s name in vain. God’s name contains ALL the power and strength we need for patient and generous neighborly love, and God’s name is our gift! “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” Stated another way, God’s name is yours! Why would you make it look like that Name was worthless? You have a truth that must be confessed, not only with the mouth but with your whole being.

How about when you or I choose to wallow in self-pity, or when we wring our hands with despair? Self-pity pays attention to the deceptive, devilish suggestion that we might have been forgotten. Despair entertains the satanic lie that there is no forgiveness and no hope to be found. Yet we have been given the name of the Lord our God! Where God’s name is, there also is the full forgiveness of every sin, created for you by Christ Jesus, paid for by His Blood on the cross. Where God’s name is, there also is security and confidence, even in the darkest hours of the night. Where God’s name is, there also is hope and expectation and certainty, standing fast against all fear. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” In other words, be comforted! Do not allow yourself to think that your faith is in doubt, or that full release from every sin has not been given to you in Jesus’ name, even in your darkest hour. Do not allow yourself to be fooled or deceived into thinking that God cannot or will not raise you up, even from the dead. After all, you do not carry and bear the name of God in vain and for no purpose!

Really, that is the blessing of the Second Commandment, even though it sounds like a warning and a curse. In order to spot the blessing and the promise, take the words not merely as a command for you to do something. Rather, listen for a moment to these Words as if God were stating a fact to you: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” Stated other ways, God has assured you: It will never be not worth it for you to carry the name of the Lord your God, both upon your forehead (Revelation 14:4, 22:4) and upon your heart (Psalm 33:21). It shall not be useless or unproductive for you to take the name of the Lord your God. Amidst struggle or hardship, terror or despair, all of God’s Christians may fearlessly say, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8). Also, “Save me, O God, by Your Name,” (Psalm 54:1) And again, “The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, [we] run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10, NIV).

When God’s name is given to you—and most certainly it has been –His name shall not fail to do what it promises you! God’s name has indeed been given to you, both in Baptism and at the close of Service. Because of this name you carry and bear this name which is above all other names (Philippians 2:9) and you may say and confess with the confidence of King David, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright (Psalm 20:7-8). The Name that saves and forgives you, is the Name that will also strengthen and keep you steadfast to life everlasting.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Ex. 20:1–17 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt
Psalm 19 The heavens declare the glory of God
Rom. 6:1–11 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Matt. 5:17–26 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity: July 4, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

I wonder if there will be a cross in heaven. Now, before you quickly say yes or no to that possibility, think a little more about what the cross is. The question by itself doesn’t mean all that much since the Bible doesn’t definitively say anything about this specific fact, whether or not there will be a cross in heaven. But perhaps asking such a question, even if you don’t find the exact answer now, it still could help you grasp and understand and believe what Holy Scripture does say about this well-known standard of Christianity. For you know as the hymn proclaims, the cross of Jesus Christ is a glorious tree and a triumphant sign. You would suppose that anything that could be called glorious and triumphant now, here in this world, would be something that you’d be sure to see around God’s magnificent, heavenly throne.

Now, perhaps the cross is only the treasured symbol of the Church Militant. That is, if you are still on this earth, fighting against the devil’s attacks, fighting your own sinful desires, and fighting the false gods of this world, then the cross is your comfort, for it promises you that Jesus has fought all your battles and He has won the war. And then someday, when you have arrived in the joyful presence of your Heavenly Father, you will exchange that old rugged cross for a crown, and you will celebrate forever the glory and triumph that the cross brought to you in this life.

Most often though, the cross and suffering do not bring glory and triumph to mind. Rather, these are better recognized to most in this world as signs of defeat. Many people think that bad events in someone’s life, even tragedies as bad as the terrorist attacks of nearly twenty years ago, or just recently the high rise collapse in Miami, that such things come as punishments. On the other side of it, if you are a good person, and you have truly committed your life to the Lord, then it’s often held that you’ll avoid those terrible things and get some fringe benefits, too: like a happier life, you’ll build a more loving family free of conflict, and your temptations to sin will flee away. When seemingly indiscriminate pain and tragedy blow away this kind of thinking, there’s no further foundation on which to stand. And yet, human nature keeps chasing after the dream that what you do and how good you live your life is going to be rewarded. And because of that, the cross will never escape the label of “foolishness” that St. Paul describes in First Corinthians.

For he knew of two groups of people who right off the bat would treat the cross of Christ with scorn and derision. Those were Jews and Greeks. The Jews (of course, the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus) they didn’t like the cross because many of them were convinced that the Messiah would be a glorious earthly king. They read the prophecies concerning the Christ’s reign as if life was suddenly going to be perfect. Everyone will have plenty to eat. The land would belong to them forever without any more war or foreign rulership. The whole system of doing good things to earn the favor of God would still be in place. But when Jesus was crucified, all those fantasy dreams were shattered. God’s own people could not bring themselves to believe that their Lord would save them by dying. The Jewish religion became one of rejection of their own Messiah, and they and their children after them threw away the salvation that their ancestors had so fervently desired and hoped for.

When you have expected earthly blessings to come your way because of your faith, then that is the moment that you have stumbled at the cross just like those Jews did. You in the same way have hoped that everything was going to be perfect for you. The most important thing God does, at least in your mind, is to take care of your needs and give you a few of your wants, too. Because God is a loving God (and it seems everyone at least knows that) He would want you to be happy and get a raise every year, that everyone close to you would live to a long, ripe old age, or that you’d have not a single care in the world. And you cannot shake the thought that if you’ve been nice enough to others and got involved in your church, then God would have no choice but to reward you. But the shame and humiliation of the cross, the challenges that seem to be too much for you to handle, all shatter that fantasy so that you end up despising God for doing this to you.

Why, then, did the Greeks see the cross as a foolish thing? It wasn’t because they didn’t tolerate different points of view. In fact, when Paul visited a gathering of these philosophical people, he couldn’t help but notice that they were extremely devoted to learning and even intent on finding out spiritual truths. They thought, Man was the measure of all things, and the Greeks looked to cultivate and preserve all the best that man could be. Take the Olympics, for an example. Not only were they thoroughly ritualistic and considered worship of various gods, which the 2004 Athens Olympics ceremonies did so well to depict, and I’m sure we’ll see something similar this year broadcast from Tokyo, but also the games themselves displayed the all-around virtue and strength of the human being.

When, however, the message of Jesus dying on the cross comes in the hearing of the Greeks, not only is there shock at the statement that man is sinful and corrupt, but also the whole claim that the only true God is a man, a criminal, who exposed Himself to the shame of being crucified in order to save man from destruction. It seems that Jesus could not successfully provide for Himself the rescue that He promised to give to others. Anyone who was not clever enough to escape such a fate is too foolish to be worth listening to. Another problem the Greeks had was that the Christian confession of faith did not allow for other religions to exist side-by-side with it. Later on, the Romans persecuted the Christians, not really because they worshiped Jesus, but rather because they wouldn’t also worship the Roman gods along with Him. Such a religious teaching that was so exclusive and incompatible with other beliefs was simply foolish to those who were perishing.

You would share the same offense at the cross along with the Greeks if you were to follow the world’s illusion that people are basically good and hold that there is more than one way to worship God. For as long as you see your life as a Christian in terms of what you are doing, then the cross and the gospel of what God has done for you will continually get in your way. You get caught in the temptation to measure all things compared to yourself, especially when it comes to your feelings and emotions. Your human nature gets easily offended when the law condemns you. You resist accepting forgiveness because it’s just too good. You don’t want it to be a “cheap grace” that doesn’t require a life-commitment on your part, or spur you on towards living a victorious Christian life. And then the suffering of the cross becomes something you do rather than God’s blessing placed upon you.

The cross still means death. First of all, it was the death of your Savior and His blood that was shed so many centuries ago that destroys your sin. No matter what you have done, even if you had questioned the very truth of Christianity itself, you can be certain that Christ took your sin with Him and He allowed Himself to suffer and die the punishment that was intended for you. The cross not only means Jesus’ death, but it also means death on a daily basis for you. It means that you must constantly deny yourself, and receive whatever happens to you in this life as God’s precious gift, even when life brings hurt and grief. In order to be forgiven and renewed, you as a sinner must die; you must be killed on the cross that was laid upon you when you were baptized.

So if the cross means death, why should you even think that there might be a cross in heaven? Wouldn’t that be like bringing a Good Friday mood into an Easter celebration? In the Father’s house where you and I have our permanent residence being prepared, there is only life. And yet, there are also the signs of how that eternal life was achieved for you. Jesus rose from the dead with a perfect body full of the Glory of God, and yet the wounds of His crucifixion remained. When Moses and Elijah appeared straight out of heaven in order to speak with Christ during the Transfiguration, the Evangelist Luke wrote that they talked about Jesus dying on the cross. The book of Revelation describes Christ over and over again in His state of exaltation as the “Lamb who was slain.” And you may have heard that without Good Friday, Easter would be just as exciting and joyful as a motel “Vacancy” sign. He’s not here, folks! No, He rose specifically from the tomb of death. So while the cross does still mean death, it is still death that is your means to obtaining eternal life. You are still drowned in baptismal water when you confess your sins. At this altar you still have the Body and Blood of Christ brought to you straight from the Holy Cross of Calvary. The cross is a symbol of victory and triumph not because of the suffering it has brought to you, but rather because of what your Lord accomplished for you when He was nailed to it.

It is impossible to say for sure that you will or will not see a cross when you get to heaven. But if you happen to see one, don’t be surprised, because it is truly a symbol of joy for you, the redeemed Christian. Feel free to make the sign of the cross over you when you pray, in order to teach you to fix your confidence not on yourself but on the Cross of Christ. Thank God that He has gathered you into a congregation that proclaims nothing more and nothing less than the “foolish” word of the cross. And because the body of your Lord paid for your sins there, it truly is for all believers a Holy Cross. May that Cross of Christ that we proclaim here be your one and only source of your hope for eternal life until the time comes when you will experience that blessing first-hand.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
  1 Kings 19:11–21 and after the fire a still small voice
  Psalm 16 At your right hand are pleasures evermore
  1 Cor. 1:18–25 the foolishness of God is wiser than men
    or 1 Peter 3:8–15 always be ready to give a defense
  Luke 5:1–11 Launch out into the deep and let down your nets

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity: June 27, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Jesus teaches, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” What is mercy? Mercy is not giving someone what they deserve. Mercy means that you know exactly what someone else has said and done. If things are right and fair, mercy would not be the expected outcome. Revenge is the expected outcome. Mercy is instead, when you know what someone deserves rightly and fairly, yet you choose to abandon the revenge. You forgive them instead. You don’t give them what they deserve. You showed mercy.

So when Jesus teaches, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful,” He is in fact teaching us the Law. Do this. Be merciful because that is pleasing to God. It’s His will. But, He knows perfectly well that we are not merciful. On the contrary we are full of revenge, judgment, anger toward our fellow human creatures. Have there been times when we have sat in church, listening to God’s Word of grace and mercy, while at the same time our hearts have been full of anger, hatred, judgment of someone, maybe one sitting in church with us!

Jesus teaches, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful,” and He helps us understand mercy through the 8th Commandment, in our Catechism: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Recall what this means: We should fear and love God that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

Sounds easy, right? Just like “Be merciful,” sounds easy. But you know it’s terribly hard to put that into practice. Be merciful. Don’t give in to your evil desire! Don’t sit in judgment over others. Many people actually believe that they are not really that bad of sinners. They haven’t really seriously hurt anyone, so what harm can a little secret hatred do? But we hear Jesus’ words “Be merciful” and reflect on the Commandment, and we can’t deny the times we have been unkind, even cruel toward others in our own family, toward those we love, or should love. How often have you opted for revenge instead of mercy?

Joseph’s older brothers were by the time of Genesis 50 well into their grandparent years, but they could not put out of their minds what they did to Joseph at least 35 years before, out of their hatred. The decades-old guilt could not be quenched. They had sold him into slavery and he was taken down into Egypt. Joseph was ripped away from his loving father Jacob at the age of 17. He was later thrown into prison for a crime that was fabricated by his master’s wife.

Now look at Joseph! He’s the one in charge of the whole Egyptian kingdom. All the riches and fame that Joseph had now as the most powerful man in the land, second only to Pharaoh, still couldn’t reverse what his brothers had done to him (so they reasoned). They, too were by this time also living well in Egypt. Joseph was providing for his brothers and their families, and that despite the widespread famine. Joseph had forgiven them, but the brothers were still leery. They assumed that Joseph harbored the same hatred that they once had against him, even after all those years. Now that their father Jacob died, they feared that Joseph would seize the opportunity to take revenge.

Even though they lived so long ago, they knew well the language of our sinful flesh that is still with us today, the way of the world, as it were, that does not allow for love and forgiveness. It just doesn’t make sense, nor is it right or fair. The guilt these brothers had inside made them afraid of Governor Joseph. They thought they were protected by the life of their father, and now that shield was gone. What they had done against their little brother was quite an injustice, and they knew that he had every right to pay them back—that was what they feared.

Yet Joseph showed not revenge but mercy. He said, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. You almost assume that the answer is, No, I am not in the place of God! I have no right to judge or condemn. Jesus echoes this when He teaches further, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” What He is saying is that none of us stands in the place of God when it comes to passing judgment on others. It is not my job to stand as judge, jury, and executioner over my fellow Christians, or anyone. That is God’s place. My job, if you will, is what I read in the Catechism, my job is to defend my neighbor, speak well of him, and to explain everything about him in the kindest possible way. My place as a Christian is to remember, not that I was offended and hurt, but rather to remember that we all are poor, miserable sinners, with no room to say we’re better than anyone else.

This is a blest teaching: Judge not, and you will not be judged. Yet it can be often misunderstood. Many might take this to mean that Christians may never condemn sin or make a distinction between right and wrong. Some say that parents should never be allowed to discipline their children. Others think that pastors should never point out and condemn false teaching, or speak out against open, offensive sins that the world likes to praise with rainbow-colored pride. It’s clearly now rude and unloving in our culture, especially in the month of June, to point out that gay, lesbian, or transgender lifestyles are against God’s Word. They try to turn Jesus’ own teaching against Christians: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?… You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. He’s really condemning a hypocritical double standard. He’s saying that you don’t hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself. So what is the standard by which we are all to be judged? The standard is God’s holy Law, not our own petty rules. We all, talking about the big sinners of our crazy world today, and little old us as well, we all stand condemned before God’s Law, which we all break every day.

So we come back to Jesus’ first teaching, Be merciful, as your Father is merciful. What sort of mercy does our Father in heaven have toward us? We tend to judge others based on very little evidence, I look and see a little of what I don’t like in someone else, and I condemn him or her based just on that. By contrast, the Father sees all and knows all. There is nothing hidden from His sight. He knows all your faults and shortcomings, as He knows all of mine, down to the very end. Sin must be avenged. Its guilt must be quenched. It cannot be set aside and forgotten. As Joseph’s brothers could tell you, this kind of guilt is persistent. Your conscience may remind you about something you did, even if that sin was already forgiven. To erase that revenge we deserve, takes nothing less than an act of His marvelous grace.

And that is exactly what He has done! Our Father is merciful! Jesus demonstrates the Father’s mercy perfectly in His salvation mission: He took care of our sin once and for all by shedding His blood to death on the cross. His resurrection proved to all creation that the revenge due on our heads was paid fully by our merciful King of Kings. God did something very surprising. He did not take revenge on us, like we deserved, but He punished Jesus instead, in order to show mercy to you. It wasn’t fair to our Lord at all, He didn’t deserve revenge at all, but out of that gross injustice came the saving of many lives.

It’s very similar to what Joseph said to his brothers: What was intended for evil, God intended for good, for the saving of many, many lives- your life and mine included this time! Our loving Father has this way of turning evil on its head, of reversing the grim reality of death we have to face, and instead bringing forth life through the Gospel—life that is offered to you today. As Jesus breathed His last on the cross, He pronounced total victory over sin and death. You, as one crucified and buried together with Christ, also died to sin, and you are raised each day with Him, through your baptism, to new life.

Because Jesus died for you and was raised from the dead, God now speaks words of mercy and forgiveness to Your hearts. You don’t get what you deserve! Rejoice in the new life you now share with Me because I have won the victory over sin and death permanently. This is mercy of God for you now and forever. Judgment is no more, because true judgment has been fully rendered and satisfied. Anyone crying out for justice and equity in the affairs of this world will be utterly disappointed. It’s not going to happen. The appetite for revenge is just too great. There will always be another enemy in this sinful world who is taking away justice and fairness. But not in God’s kingdom! In God’s kingdom, you have assurance of your heavenly Father’s mercy.

You can tell the brothers completely lost hope when they finally reached Joseph’s presence. There they were in his courtyard, with nothing between them but the unresolved guilt. No longer did they sense having the upper hand to work out a deal for their forgiveness. They were ready to give up and become Joseph’s slaves, because they were so crushed with guilt. Quite a different attitude from the time when they sent the message, isn’t it?

Joseph forgave them. He told them repeatedly: Do not be afraid. He wasn’t going to take revenge; he wasn’t even going to take them up on their offer to make them his slaves. He assured them by saying God turned this evil that they had done into something good. He didn’t say it as though they were right to sell him into slavery 35 years before. He did say that God is in control, as He always is. He spoke tenderly to their hearts; what was broken has now been made right. God speaks to your heart today, and to your brothers and sisters in Christ. He is here today forgiving you, feeding you with His Body and Blood, that you may have full assurance despite any doubts that might return to you later. You don’t even have to come up with your own apology—He gives you the perfect words to say! Meditate on the words from Psalm 51 that are in the liturgy: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your free spirit.

You acknowledge the forgiveness that comes from Christ and what He did for you. It’s not that you repeat certain words like a magic formula, but rather you’re trusting the promise that backs these words up. Believe that God is actually saying to you: I forgive you all your sins, and you will be confident in Him.

As you are confident that your heavenly Father will not take revenge against you, now you are free to abandon revenge against those closest to you who have done you wrong. Instead you may say: “Do not be afraid. What you did hurt me, yes, and I forgive you. God can now make something good come out of the situation.” That’s where, ironic though it feels, you are in the place of God, because God shows mercy. In God’s mercy there is great healing and a great future for our church today- it all starts with forgiveness.

Do not be afraid; confess your sin to God and to each other. Trust in Jesus and He will provide for you and your family, even making good come sometimes out of bad. Do not be afraid. Trust in mercy.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Gen. 50:15–21 you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good
Psalm 138 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me
Rom. 12:14–21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
or Rom. 8:18–23 eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Luke 6:36–42 why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity, Father’s Day: June 20, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, that is, who is constantly repenting throughout one’s life, turning back from the sin that constantly is attacking. Congratulations! Jesus is here talking about you personally.

You see, Jesus likes to use common, everyday Words when He speaks to us. Jesus likes common Words because He wants us to understand His thoughts clearly and know His ways fully. Luke chapter 15 is a good example of our Lord’s simple speech. We may not have met too many shepherds in our everyday experience, but every preschooler can tell you what a sheep is. So, too, with the coin: who among us has not felt that surge of urgency that starts in the pit of your stomach once we realized we lost something valuable? What father would not take time to look for that lost toy that was his child’s entire world? Jesus uses coins and sheep and other common images because He wants us to understand an important spiritual truth, and avoid all the complex mental categories altogether. Eternal life may be greater than anything we can think of, but you can, in fact, think of it in terms of everyday experiences.

Yet even when Jesus speaks with such simplicity as you just heard today, always be ready for something you did not expect. He will use words that are easy to understand, but what He says will seem to be the total opposite of the way we naturally think. We will hear His Word, clear as a bell, and wonder, why would Jesus say that? Why, for instance, would He make Himself like a shepherd who chases down one, single, stray sheep—and leaves the 99 others all alone! That’s totally insane!

Then, He says that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. More insanity! I thought God was pleased with righteousness in His people. Didn’t His Ten Commandments require us to be righteous persons? But what would be the use of working so hard to be a righteous person, when that would cause no celebration among the angels, after all?

Part of the misunderstanding is this. When you and I think and speak of “righteous people,” we usually mean those people who go to church every Sunday to receive God’s gift of righteousness from Jesus, who is here today to hand it out. To be sure, there are many places in God’s Bible that speak of righteousness in that manner (for example, Psalm 118:20, Matthew 25:46, and Hebrews 11:4). But that is not how Jesus uses the phrase “righteous persons” in today’s Gospel! Jesus actually turns things upside down in Luke 15. Surprisingly, Jesus says “righteous persons” today actually to speak about unbelievers, impenitent people, those who have no desire to hear God’s Word. How do I know this? Earlier in St. Luke’s book, Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). See? If you’re “righteous” according to this other definition, Jesus says, No need to bother.

What is a “righteous person,” in this surprising and unusual way that Jesus uses? A so-called “righteous person” is one who has no interest in Jesus; a person who sees in themselves no sins that need repentance; actually, this is a “self-righteous” person who does not feel lost and in need of being found. According to the surprising and unusual way Jesus uses the phrase, a “righteous person” is that person who refuses God’s Word and rejects His gift of faith. You are not that guy, are you? Jesus puts you in another category.

It is also a surprising and unusual manner when He describes you and me as lost sheep and lost coins. Generally, you and I think of “the lost” as those people who are still outside the church, those who have not yet been gathered into Christ’s salvation. We generally think of “the lost” only as those unbelievers whom we need to evangelize and get them to come to church. But Jesus has turned things upside down. In an unusual, even surprising manner, Jesus here defines the lost as all those who need Jesus, including those who have gathered in the presence of the Lord; even those who want to hear Jesus’ Words are “the lost.” After all, what prompted Jesus to tell the two parables we have here? Luke started by saying: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all DRAWING NEAR TO HEAR JESUS.

Knowing the surprising way Jesus speaks of things for you in today’s Gospel, listen again to what Jesus says for your comfort and joy:

Witness the diligence and faithfulness of your Lord! By turning things upside down—by calling you and all His Christians “lost sheep” and “lost coins”—Jesus is NOT condemning you and He is NOT calling you unbelievers. By turning things upside down—by calling you and all His Christians “lost sheep” and “lost coins”—Jesus is helping you better see in clear, understandable words what He continually does for you through His grace and by His mercy. According to the two parables you heard today, Jesus is your Good Shepherd who rejoices to carry you upon His shoulders and who feels great delight that He has now found you and gathered you safely into His holy Church. Jesus then commands His angels, “Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep that was lost.”

Jesus then compares Himself to a careful and painstaking woman who happily finds you laying helplessly in the dust, who sweeps through sand in a mud-hut in His sincere earnestness to have you, and who attaches great value to you. “Rejoice with Me,” says the Lord to His heavenly host, “for I have found the coin that I had lost.” And all you had to say was, Lord, have mercy on me, a poor miserable sinner. I need help, and you are the only one who can help me. I thank You, dear Savior, for sweeping through Your dusty world just to find me.

Take comfort in these Words, Christians! Return frequently to the Gospel! Each day as you rise and go your way, thank your Father in heaven that you ride through your daily life like a found lamb upon the strong and broad shoulders of Christ, your Good Shepherd. As you heard Jesus explain in today’s Gospel, “When He has found His Sheep, He lays it on His shoulders.” Each night as you lay down to rest, know that you sleep securely in the coin-purse of your Lord, who has diligently sought and found you through the light of His Word. Thus says the Lord, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners—that is, lost sheep and lost coins—to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Be glad, therefore, that you are a sinner in need of repentance. The sinfulness that you feel in yourself is good and faithful proof that Jesus came especially for you!

What is that repentance into which He has called you? Remember, it’s ongoing action, a constant turning away from the sin that is always trying to get back into your life, a struggle that you need to endure in this life, or else you will end up being one of those so-called “righteous persons” who end up convincing themselves that they don’t need a constant hard look at their lives in light of God’s Word and the Ten Commandments. You need to realize that forgiveness is not a one-time thing in your life, but a constant life-breath necessity.

That’s another surprise that came from Jesus that you weren’t expecting—you shall never escape your sinfulness, so long as your life on earth endures, and your Savior says, that’s a beautiful thing for you. He engaged in His insane, totally illogical mission to rescue you and bring you home to Him forever. That’s something to make you rejoice. Don’t stop being a sinner! Because at the very moment you and I stop being sinners, that’s when we stop needing Jesus. Stated another way, It is a good and blessed thing to be that “one sinner who is continually repenting” because hell is full of those so-called “righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Rejoice in your sinfulness, dear children of your heavenly Father, because all is forgiven in Christ! Gladly take your place among “the tax collectors and sinners who were all drawing near to hear Jesus.” There is no better place to be! Jesus says today about you, now that He has found you and gathered you in:
There will be more joy in heaven before the angels of God over one sinner who is continually repenting than over ninety-nine so-called righteous persons who claim to have no need for repentance.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Micah 7:18–20 You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea
Psalm 103:1–13 merciful and gracious, slow to anger
1 Tim. 1:12–17 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
or 1 Peter 5:6–11 casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you.
Luke 15:1–10 What man of you, having a hundred sheep
or Luke 15:11–32 your brother was dead and is alive again

Proverbs 9:1-10; Ephesians 2:13-22; Luke 14:15-24 (ESV)
2nd Sunday after Trinity A.D. 2021. Pr. Neal Blanke

In Jesus’ name.

Our Gospel Reading, the Parable of the Great Banquet, is in the middle of the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. The beginning of chapter 14 gives us the context for this parable of Jesus. Jesus is at the end of His earthly ministry. He is traveling south to Jerusalem for the last time to suffer and to die, for our sins and for the sins of all the world. On the cross and on this journey Jesus addresses our sinfulness. On this journey to Jerusalem, on a Saturday, Jesus has been invited to dinner. Luke, chapter 14, beginning at verse 1,

Dropsy is the old-fashioned word for edema, that is, “swelling that is caused by fluid trapped in your body’s tissues. Edema happens most often in the feet, ankles, and legs…” and is caused by a variety of diseases, “such as congestive heart failure and lung, liver, kidney, and thyroid diseases.” (clevelandclinic.org) Edema or dropsy can be very painful. Jesus, surrounded by the scribes and Pharisees and presented with a man who had dropsy, on the Sabbath, seized the moment to teach this dinner party about their own sinfulness and the true meaning of the 3rd Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8a NIV) What does it mean to “remember the Sabbath Day.” What does it mean to keep Sabbath? What work is allowed to be done on the Sabbath day? Jesus responded to the Jewish leaders’ legalism and their misunderstanding of the Sabbath. Luke, chapter 14, beginning with verse 3:

Thus Jesus taught that works of rescue and healing are appropriate on a Sabbath, but now that He has their attention, Jesus continues to teach this dinner party. Jesus’s 2nd lesson is a lesson on dining etiquette, a lesson which also points out the selfishness of the Jewish leaders. Verse 7:

This is a good lesson in table manners, but it is also a wonderful insight into how humility should dominate the entire Christian life. Also it is a parable which teaches us about our own selfishness and about how humility will be rewarded on Last Day.
Having given a lesson in table manners to all the guests, Jesus now turns to His host, the Pharisee, with a 2nd lesson about dining etiquette and selfishness. Verse 12:

In teaching table manners Jesus has certainly taken the focus off of temporal rewards and refocused our attention on eternal rewards. One of the men, who was dining with Jesus understood what Jesus said, and responded. His response is the beginning of our Gospel Reading. Verse 15,

Jesus’s response was the Parable of the Great Banquet. Verse 16:

In the parable, the man who gave the great banquet is God. Those, who originally heard Jesus speak this parable, the scribes and Pharisees, were well read in the Hebrew Scriptures. They would probably have remembered that God, through the prophet Isaiah, had foretold His banquet of salvation, which would, quote, “swallow up death forever.” Isaiah, chapter 25, beginning at verse 6, “On this mountain,” that is Mount Moriah on which Jerusalem was built:

Through the prophet Isaiah, God had foretold the banquet of salvation, which would come in Jesus Christ, and this banquet cost God dearly! Our Old Testament Reading reminds us of the expense of preparing for a banquet. In Proverbs, chapter 9, wisdom is personified as a woman who has prepared a banquet. Beginning with verse 1,

To prepare the banquet of our salvation, God the Father gave up His only begotten Son to suffer the torments of hell and to die in our place for our sins. The banquet of our salvation cost God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit dearly! It was our selfishness which required the infinite torments of hell. Christ went to the cross to endure that torment of hell fire for us. God loves us dearly and has sacrificed everything for us. In the Sacrament of the Altar God feeds us with the banquet of salvation, His own Body and Blood in our mouth, for the forgiveness of our sins.

Whom did God invite to His banquet of salvation? He invited every believer. He invited the entire Jewish nation, all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Through His servants, the prophets, God has been inviting His people, ever since the Garden of Eden, to have their sins forgiven by the Seed of the Woman, but when the Messiah actually arrived, what was the response of the Jews? Jesus said in Luke 14, verse 18:

4000 years after the promise to Adam and Eve that the Seed of the Woman would crush the Serpent’s head, after the prophets repeatedly foretold of the coming Messiah, when the Messiah finally shows up, what was the response of the Jews?
They are too entangled in the affairs of this life to make time for God’s greatest gift,
and therein is the warning for us. We are to be good stewards of God’s earthly gifts, but woe to us, if ever make our work, our business or our family more important than God!

What was the response of the Master of the house to those who rejected His invitation? Verse 21:

God was angry with the Jewish rejection and disregard of Jesus, and so He promised that those, who rejected the Christ, would never taste His banquet. God turned and offered His salvation to the Gentiles. That is what our Epistle Reading explains, how God could offer to the Gentiles, those outside of the covenant, His salvation. Saint Paul wrote to the Gentiles at Ephesus. Verse 13, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing…” Actually that is too strong of a word. Instead of abolishing, read neutralizing, for Christ did not destroy the Law, but by fulfilling the Law, He has relieved us of its requirements. I restart at Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 14:

In Christ Jesus, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 (NKJV) In His Body on the cross, Jesus has paid for your sins and the sins for all the world. Your sins are forgiven! Your selfishness is forgiven, and Jew and Gentile are united into one people of God, the holy Christian Church, which is God’s temple on earth. Meditate on your forgiveness and the great love of God for you, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity: June 6, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Do you have a need for greed? Over the years there’ve been a number of game shows that used greed as a motivation. Whether it’s “So You Want To Be A Millionaire” or “Deal or No Deal,” even “Jeopardy!” and “The Price is Right,” the winner is the one who successfully executes the right strategy to take the most money home. In a sense these shows are pretty close to real life, because what happens there happens every day to you and me. In our day greed is no longer considered a vice. Instead, greed is now seen as a virtue worthy of praise. Why else would you throw good money after bad in pursuit of those things you think you have to have? Though we may try to curb the urge, the truth of the matter is that we often find it almost impossible to live without the newest toys and gadgets that catch our eye.

Behind this need for greed, dear Christian, is a lack of respect for God’s gifts. Although God has blessed each of us with all we need to sustain this body and life – not always by giving us what we want, but what we need – there are still times when we find themselves in the predicament of having “too much month at the end of the money.” Look at the loan industry, which is flourishing because people are willing to mortgage their future for a fleeting taste of the here and now. We think have to have the best to be the best. But when it comes to giving back to God, we are seldom as lavish with Him as He with us. God will simply have to wait until next week.

But greed works in other ways, too. It’s possible for a person to save so much money that soon they begin worshiping their savings portfolio rather than using it to love their neighbor. But to keep ourselves looking good, rather than calling it greed, we call it having “common sense” instead. Like the rich man, our clothes are turning purple and our tables are full. We are the rich man – refusing to listen to the Law as it tries to wake us up to God’s way of seeing things. For many of us, greed has become good, not evil – a way of life – and we love the way we live.

But we’re in good company. Did Abraham not try to help God fulfill the Promise He had given him – that his house would not be barren, and that his wife, Sarah would have a child in her old age? When God didn’t deliver the son He had promised in what Abraham considered a timely manner, he went and slept with Sarah’s maid, Hagar, who then gave birth to a son named Ishmael. Abraham’s greed—even greed for what the Lord already promised him—that impatient greed got the best of him. But did God give up on Abraham and look for another to be His heir? No. God still kept His Promise. Abraham believed that promise, and the Lord credited it to him for righteousness. He counted that faith as though Abraham was perfect.

Abraham’s problem was that he wouldn’t listen to or immediately believe God’s Word. And that was the rich man’s problem, as well. This unnamed rich man walked by Lazarus’ place at the gate of his house every day. Perhaps he even had a passing acquaintance with him. But it’s obvious he didn’t care about him. He had more important things to be concerned with. But when death came to them both, there is where we find the surprise. The rich man ended up in hell, while Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s bosom – that is, to heaven.

Yet even in hell the rich man in his greed was playing his greed game– still looking to make a deal. “Send Lazarus,” he pleaded, “so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. Send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. If he goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” And how does Abraham respond? He tells the rich man that if his brothers refuse to hear Moses and the prophets, then neither will they be persuaded even if one should rise from the dead.”

Ouch! That must have stung. But it’s true. When you pay no attention to the Law and the prophets, neither will you pay any attention to Christ – even when He rises from the dead. The Law and the prophets, you see, their purpose is to prepare you to receive Jesus and His teaching. Saint John writes that if someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he’s a liar – for if he doesn’t love his brother whom he’s seen, how can he love God whom he hasn’t seen? You and I, we need to repent and give up our greed. We must turn away from wanting to help God only on our terms. We have to return to Christ so that His love might abide in us, and so that we might love Him even as He loves us. And this is how God loves us: He sent His only-begotten Son into the flesh, so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. God created this world because it’s His nature to love. And the Father sent Jesus into this world as an expression of that love – because God doesn’t want those whom He created to die and be forever separated from Him. Rather than passing us by every day as the rich man did Lazarus, God had pity on us, picked us up from the pit, took us out of it, and set us free.

Now, God counts our faith in all this – that is, our faith in Him – as righteousness. And to accomplish this He has placed our greed – indeed, all of our sin – upon Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God. God, you see, unlike us, is not greedy when He sacrifices His very best, His own dear Son. But here is where God is greedy. The Bible uses the word jealous. God is greedy in this sense: He wants to save you all on His own. He doesn’t want, seek, or need, your help. By saving you all on His own, He demonstrates the true meaning of love, and promises to abide in those who abide in Him. This He accomplishes by means of Holy Baptism, where water connected with the Word pulls you out of this world of sin and death into the endless life of the world to come. Forgiveness of sins and eternal life are now yours as a free gift, as through the faith of Jesus, God saves you from the death and hell we all rightly deserve.

God also abides with you in another way – through the Sacrament of the Altar, where you receive with your own mouth the true body and blood of our Savior, in, with, and under simple bread and wine. Though you’ve been wearied by the devil, the world, and your old sinful flesh, you will soon be eating and drinking at that Banquet Table which is God’s gift to make you whole again in Christ. Because God abides in you, you are now empowered to proclaim His love for others through your various vocations. Your life, hidden in Christ, becomes a light-filled sermon preached to the world. Though still weak, you no longer feel that “need for greed” because of Jesus. The richness you have in Christ is what moves you to show His love to others. Trusting in Him who saves us from our greed and gives us His love in return, you’ve been freed to love your neighbor even as God loves you. Greed is dead. Love is alive. Believe it for Jesus’ sake.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Gen. 15:1–6 the stars…So shall your descendants be
Psalm 33:12–22 the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him
1 John 4:16–21 perfect love casts out fear
Luke 16:19–31 They have Moses and the prophets

Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity: May 30, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Throughout the Old Testament, God set before men like Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets, an incredibly difficult, uncomfortable task. They were not called upon to explain the sublime doctrine of the Trinity, but what they were given to do was prophesy – prophesy concerning Israel’s impending destruction at the hands of her enemies. It’s a message of judgment, so it should come as no surprise to learn that these men suffered continual rejection in their quest to be faithful to God’s call.

On one occasion, for instance, Jeremiah was beaten by the chief officer of the Temple and placed in stocks so people could ridicule him as they passed by on their way to their false, hypocritical “worship.” At one time Jeremiah became so despondent on account of his God-given task that he complained of ever having been born. He wrote: Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you – a son!” May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? (Jeremiah 20:14-18)

In similar fashion, the holy man Job also suffered. However, unlike Jeremiah, he didn’t suffer at the hands of God’s people who rejected his preaching. Instead, Job suffered afflictions of body and soul which God permitted Satan to inflict upon him. He lost seven sons and three daughters in one catastrophic event. All his flocks of camels and sheep were stolen right out from under his nose. Satan was even permitted afflict him “with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.” So in his forsakenness, the famously patient Job also reached the point where he despaired of his birth, and said: May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’ May that day turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it. Why didn’t I perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? There the wicked cease from turmoil and there the weary are at rest. (Job 3:3-6)

Yet the regrets of one’s birth are not confined only to the prophets. All who enter into this life and reject the faith God desires to give us all – who willfully live in conscious opposition to the Lord’s Christ – will likewise also regret their birth someday. Recall, for instance, what Jesus said of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord of Life to His death. He said: “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!” (Mark 14:21)

Consider how some people, even today, regret having ever been born because of the course their life may have taken – because of regrettable actions they have done or because of regrettable punishments they may have suffered at the hands of evil men. Due to terrible things that happened to them, both Jeremiah and Job wished they had never been born. And, it would have been better for Judas not to have been born – not because of what he suffered, but because of what he willfully undertook – even though if he had not betrayed our Lord, someone else would have stepped up and taken his place.

But, you may be thinking that Jeremiah, Job and Judas are extreme examples. Maybe so. Is it not true, though, that each of us – sinners all – at one time or another are inclined to look back on our lives with a deep sense of regret? Is it not true that many addictive people rue the day they first gave in to temptation? Is it not true that many lament the sufferings they’ve experienced at various times in their life, not all of which they outwardly seem to have deserved? Is it not true that many would love to go back in time, do things differently, right the wrongs they may have committed, and perhaps maybe avoid some of the pain in their life?

What causes you remorse? Is it the way you may have been treated, the way you’ve treated others – or is it both? Is there something in your life that makes you desire a return to your birth, a chance to start over – fresh, spotless and new? If so, dear Christian, today’s Gospel is what you need to hear. It’s the story of Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night under cover of darkness, with a hunger to know and understand the source of the great miracles Jesus had performed. But our Lord Christ had no desire to discuss the topic Nicodemus wanted to talk about. He didn’t want to get tangled up in explaining the three persons and the single essence of God. Rather, Jesus engaged him in another subject, more to the point: “I tell you the truth,” He said to him, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” – born from above – “begotten of the Father” as we read in John chapter 1– “born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, nor a husband’s will, but born of God.”

Jesus wasn’t speaking to Nicodemus about the possibility that he could return to his mother’s womb – as if that were even feasible – but He did speak with him about a return to the fresh, clean innocence of an Eden-like birth – about a birth of water and the Spirit that restores regrettable, regretting sinners to an unceasing, child-like innocence – an innocence that has no “stain or wrinkle nor any other blemish” – an innocence which only God, and no one else, can give. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about Baptism – his Baptism, your Baptism.

Nicodemus, you see, was more than just a “teacher of Israel,” as Jesus called him. He was also, perhaps more importantly, a battle-wearied sinner – a Word-of-God-speaker who had no idea what He was to speak – a truth-searcher who realized he had run out of places to search for the truth. So he came to Jesus at night and said to Him: “Rabbi, we know You are a teacher who has come from God.”

Here in this Gospel, Jesus taught the teacher, just as He teaches you and me. He teaches us that you can, indeed, return to your birth and start afresh. He teaches that new birth has already come to you as a gift from above – in a birth of water and Spirit that washes away all sins and regrets with their attendant remorse and shame.

As Paul reminds us in Romans 8, there is now no condemnation for the people of God – for you and for me. There is, instead, the continually flowing water of Baptism – a washing of water and the Holy Spirit – that repeatedly blots out all your transgressions, washes away all your iniquities, and cleanses you from all sin. There is no guilt that any longer need weigh heavily upon your heart, for the blood of Jesus has cleansed and purified you.

You need never regret your birth, for our heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has given you a new birth – a birth from above. And so, with Nicodemus, Jesus declares to you this day: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” – born from above says the Greek – you too are “begotten of the Father” – even incorporated into the Holy Trinity Himself, since you are unified with the ascended Christ.

This is the birth that the Holy Trinity has given to you; it’s by the will of the Father, through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, and by means of the Holy Spirit’s gifts. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” and he has been given new birth. After speaking of your new birth, Jesus goes on to speak about the certainty of your forgiveness and salvation with these words: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

Here’s where believing in the Holy Trinity makes a difference for you as a Christian: The Father sends the Son. The Son is lifted up on the cross for the salvation of the world, so that all who look upon Him in faith may be saved. Then finally, the Holy Spirit pours out His grace into your heart and mind, so that having been born anew, you may now and always live in the new life Christ has won for us all. By this faith, children of flesh are made to be children of God, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, and possessors of eternal life. This is the lesson of today’s Festival and its Holy Gospel reading. May our dear, merciful God and Lord graciously nurture and sustain you in it, for the sake of His Son, and for the building up of His kingdom.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Is. 6:1–7 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Psalm 29 The voice of the LORD is over the waters
Rom. 11:33–36 Oh, the depth of the riches
John 3:1–17 unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.