Notes

The Lord be with you!
The Fourth Sunday in Lent marks a significant change in the mood of repentance that has characterized the season up to this point. Both the Introit and Gradual for this Sunday echo the theme of Laetare “Rejoice”. Joy is not the opposite of repentance, but in fact the two are closely intertwined. Only with genuine repentance and full trust in the Lord, whose mercies are new every morning, can we truly experience the joy He has always intended for us, His beloved children.

Let us pray the collect for Laetare:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Your mercies are new every morning; and though we deserve only punishment, You receive us as Your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Isaiah 49:8–13
“Sing for joy, O heavens! Exult, O earth!” And what is the occasion for this rejoicing? The Lord has comforted His people. He has compassion on the afflicted. Our God has instead of administering due punishment, has appointed a day of salvation to help a people He has single-handedly made for Himself. The unmistakable sign of the arrival of God’s servant, the Messiah, is that He will feed the multitudes and lead them to refreshing streams of water. As Jesus Himself said about another reading from Isaiah, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing it” from Him.

Galatians 4:21–31
Paul discusses the difference between Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, by having them stand for two different covenants. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael in order to quell Abraham’s doubt that the Lord would provide him an heir through his proper wife, Sarah. Ishmael was born according to the flesh, since his mother was still of the age of bearing children, but he was not the fulfillment of God’s promise. The covenant that corresponds with Ishmael is the old law of Moses, and due to unbelief and self-centered rejection, that covenant was unable to save God’s people. Isaac, on the other hand, came precisely to fulfill God’s promise, and it wouldn’t have been possible for Sarah to bear him if it weren’t for the Lord’s own miraculous hand. He stands for a covenant that God Himself would fulfill for our sakes. Since you have one covenant that saves, and one that does not, the church as a divided household will not thrive unless the covenant that cannot save is cast out, as Hagar the slave woman was.

John 6:1-15
Why couldn’t the people in the crowd figure out for themselves how they were going to eat their next meal? So the disciples must have thought. Why do we have to feed them? Since they couldn’t solve this problem, they went to Jesus. How different the disciples were from the crowd of people who fully depended on Jesus! They didn’t want to leave Jesus at all, even to go back to their own homes for a meal. They were hanging on every Word He said, because that’s what mattered more than anything to them. Then, with the miraculous feeding of that five thousand plus crowd, Jesus demonstrated His divine power to save the whole world of lost human creatures. He also teaches us, like He did for the disciples, to place our entire trust and hope in Him.

Here’s hymn 743, stanza 2:
    In Thine arms I rest me;
    Foes who would molest me
    Cannot reach me here.
    Though the earth be shaking,
    Ev’ry heart be quaking,
    Jesus calms my fear.
    Lightnings flash
    And thunders crash;
    Yet, though sin and hell assail me,
    Jesus will not fail me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent: March 14, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The multitudes were “going without” – specifically “going without” food. The people were hungry. They were needful – even as you often see yourself in the same desperate way. The money always dries up toward the end of the month. Your health or physical condition is not at the level you would like. Your emotions or those of your family irritate you to the point of insanity. You are going without, and so you face a problem where it looks more and more likely that there isn’t a solution. You find yourself in a condition that seems beyond help. And isn’t it that very condition which then prompts you to ask the question, “Why?” “Why do I have to endure suffering and lack such as this?” “Why must I simply ‘make do’ with it?” “Why can’t the Lord send down a miracle like multiplying the bread and fish?” “All I’m asking for is for just enough to live peaceably and comfortably – just enough so that I don’t have to be in constant pain, persistent anxiety, or scrimp from week to week.” Is that asking too much?

And there it is, right there. Wondering if you’ve asked too much. There’s where you are in danger of losing or damaging your precious faith. Because it’s not a case of asking too much, but actually of not asking for enough. What do I mean? Why stop with asking just for material gain, or for the greater ease of your mental and physical anguish? Why not just go all the way and ask for an absolutely perfect life? After all, wasn’t it Jesus Himself who once said: “Ask for anything in My name … and you shall receive it?” You and I, you see, we seem to have this tendency to view everything backwards – or at the very least, with a severely limited and often self-centered point of view. While God constantly provides for you in His Holy Word a glimpse of transcendent, everlasting life, you tend to be too busy fretting about this miserable and temporary life. While God wants us all to look at suffering and lack of things with a heavenly perspective, we insist on starting with the bad and letting that influence the way we look at the good.

Among the most important lessons to be learned from a familiar miracle story like this is that you must recognize that, on your own – at least apart from Christ – you have nothing of value to offer God. Look again at the first part of the Gospel. I want you to note something about this multitude which followed Jesus. They had nothing – and that’s not simply in terms of food. What I mean is that these people had nothing about them which would cause God to love them. Do you see that they were just like you?

Now just before this Jesus had received news that John the Baptist had been beheaded by King Herod. That was terrible news for Jesus to hear. A boastful, power-drunk king would rather save face than kill an innocent man. But before you get too offended, you must remember that according to God’s Law you too are also murderers. For Jesus Himself has said that even hating someone in your heart is the same as murder in God’s sight – as is failing to help and befriend our neighbor in every bodily need, as the Catechism explains. So, no less than King Herod, each of us sinners are murderers too. And as such, there’s nothing that you can find within you—whether it is years as a church member, or family pedigree, or amount of “sweat equity” you’ve built up—none of that would invoke God’s love – nor would it dissuade Him from punishing you.

And yet there’s still good news for you, for even though the crowd that pursued Jesus out in the countryside had no redeeming qualities – we’re told that Christ’s heart went out to them. He was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick ones. And so, without reason, without logic, and without any just cause, our Lord Jesus fed them. Jesus feeding the multitudes didn’t make sense, humanly speaking. They had nothing to give Him in return for His benefit. He did it only because He loved them. Then He went beyond that loving gesture to sacrifice His own life on the cross for miserable, sinful creatures – even for you.

Isn’t it amazing, that here we are, a people who are so often caught up with amassing the table-scraps of temporal things for ourselves, while God’s desire is to bless us with so much more, with the ultimate banquet. Here we are so busy trying to get our hands on the mere five loaves of bread and two fish. Yet at the very same time Christ has already secured for us that heavenly food which will satisfy our greatest need – that food which will bestow upon us everlasting life. Most specifically, that meal is His very own body and blood given and shed for us sinners to eat and drink for the forgiveness of our sins and to strengthen our faith and declare to one another our unity in confessing the one, true Christian faith.

The clues are in today’s Gospel. Did you notice them? If you didn’t, look again at this miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand. It’s really quite significant. First, the people sat down—they reclined. Then, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. Does it sound familiar? It ought to. It can’t be an accident that even though this isn’t yet the Lord giving His own body and blood, still this was the very same action Jesus used when He instituted the Lord’s Supper on the night He was betrayed. And notice also what happened when the meal was concluded. There were twelve full baskets left over. It can’t be a coincidence that there are also twelve Disciples – twelve who would carry on the office of Christ and distribute His gifts to the Church. In just the same way, the Pastors of Christ’s Church have continued to do right up to the present day in the stead and by the command of their Lord, and not to fulfill the whims of whoever controls their livelihood.

In Christ, dear friends, you’ve already been given everything you need. You have as your possession the forgiveness of sins, the sanctified life, salvation, and the promise of an eternal home in heaven. Nothing you might think is lacking in your life can ever supersede or replace what God’s already given you in Christ Jesus through His Word, through His Spirit, and through His Church. You may recall the comfort of Romans chapter 8 that says throughout your tribulation, distress and persecution, you remain more than conquerors through Him Who loved you! It’s all yours. Just ask for it. But now if that’s so, why do you still have to go through tribulations? Why do you have to put up with heartache? Why doesn’t God simply give you deliverance like you request; or freedom from the pain of this world? Well, that is precisely because you are God’s elect, the ones chosen for eternal life, and so therefore He allows these things to happen.

That’s what explains that whole part about how all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Well, the fact is that you have been baptized and called to faith so that you might partake of eternal salvation. And the “things which work together for good,” are described plain as day: “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword.” God allows those who are His elect to experience such things. Why? Because in the midst of it all you have no other choice but to place your faith in God alone for all things. In your own limited wisdom and understanding you could never fathom how any of this could possibly be for your benefit. And since you cannot see for yourself how things work together for good, you simply have to take God at His Word.

You have to accept things in your life the way they are because He says so? Does that make God indifferent or uncompassionate toward you? Not at all – but rather it reveals He has such great love and mercy that He was willing to give up His own Son for the guilt of our sin – and all so that He might then grant you the full assurance, that already in this life – through the Gospel-word-and-sacrament ministry of His Church, which you sing and speak in the liturgy, that nothing – “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Can you see yourself among those spiritually hungry crowds following Jesus? Are you faced with the struggles that come with being a faithful Christian in our world today? If so, then you can see your life in the life of Jesus Christ. By faith, His life belongs to you just as much as you belong to Him. In Him you live, and move, and have your being. And if your life is in Jesus, what are you lacking? Nothing. What do you have to be anxious or worry about? Absolutely nothing. And what do you have to look forward to? Absolutely everything – everything in Jesus – both now and forevermore – for His sake – and in His name.

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

Readings:
Ex. 16:2–21 They said to one another “What is it?”
Psalm 132:8–18 Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness
Gal. 4:21–31 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
John 6:1–15 Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

“Heavenly Pattern and New Covenant” Hebrews 8:1-13; Jer 31:31-34; Ex 25:40
Good Shepherd Lutheran – Yucaipa, California
March 10, 2021 – Midweek – Lent III
✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝

Our Lenten depiction of Jesus both as our Great High Priest and as the Priest after the order of Melchizedek now brings us to another very important aspect of our Savior’s role as a priest. A priest needs a place to work. Everything that was important to the Old Testament priests, the ones who belonged to the family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi, everything that was essential to their priestly work is also absolutely important to the priestly work of Jesus. Yet there is also a very important difference, which could be described as the difference of a shadow to the real thing.

Finally, as we read in the book of Exodus, the Israelites were free and on their own out in the wilderness. They had eaten the Passover meal, left Egypt quickly and with a hefty plunder of gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, and other precious materials, and crossed the Red Sea that God had opened for them, but then closed the waters in on the Egyptians to overthrow them completely. Israel was saved. No more threat was posed to bring these people of God back under the scourge of slavery. Moses said they were to worship God in the wilderness, and that was the next item of business: get everything set up for worship the way God had intended for them. Now they would find out exactly why they needed all the precious metals, stones, fine wood and cloth that they were commanded to take with them as they left Egypt. Calling upon the name of the Lord in prayer, praise and sacrifice was going to look very different for the people of Israel from this time onward.

In the heart and center of their wilderness camp, a particular area was set aside to be holy. About a quarter acre would be enclosed by a fence of curtains seven and a half feet high. In the middle of this courtyard would be a tent that would be named the Tabernacle. This is the structure where the Levites and priests would serve their worship duties—sacrifices, burning incense, offering prayers, and the like. God gave Moses very specific dimensions concerning the layout of the Tabernacle, and as they constructed it they would use a cubit, which is a convenient measuring unit because everyone always has it along with them. A cubit was the length from a man’s elbow to the tip of his fingers. The pattern also of the Tabernacle furniture, the Ark of the Covenant, the altars of sacrifice and of incense, everything included in the new worship space and procedure, was a distinct pattern handed to Moses directly by God. This means that the greater, original, divine dwelling place is actually where Jesus, the Great High Priest, the one ordained by the Father’s oath after the order of Melchizedek, this is where He serves both His final and His eternally continuous priestly duties. The earthly tabernacle, copied after the heavenly dwelling place, which would later become a permanent (or rather permanent-ish) structure called the Temple, would only be used by the Levites and priests of the Old Testament so long as their ministry was necessary. After that, the new Great High Priest would take over, and the worship space made with human hands would be torn down, leaving the greater, heavenly, truly permanent original pattern temple to remain forever.

When that transition from earthly to heavenly Tabernacle takes place, there is another transition—a change in the covenant that God makes with His faithful ones. This too is a change from earthly to heavenly, from sin-caused weakness to resurrection-powered strength. The prophet Jeremiah highlights these two covenants and their differences in the portion that is quoted and re-presented to God’s people in the book of Hebrews. The old covenant, corresponding to the earthly Tabernacle, the Levitical priesthood, the animal sacrifices, that covenant had relied on man’s obligation to keep the law, and so since mankind sinned and we sinners could not fulfill the law’s obligations, that old covenant had to be replaced. The new covenant, as Jeremiah was inspired to describe it, is actually the original pattern, the heavenly reality that was foreshadowed all along in the old covenant. This covenant however, instead of relying on the failed obligations of men, now has its foundation on an obligation that God Himself fulfilled in Jesus Christ and all that He came on earth to do. Instead of the law that brought sin and death, we now have a life-giving guarantee that is proclaimed to the world in the Gospel– the message that Jesus and the work He accomplished is our permanent assurance of eternal life in God’s kingdom. In this kingdom God the Father daily and richly forgives our sins and creates His Church out of us forgiven and renewed sinners.

When the old covenant was put into place, the earthly tabernacle was set up as a tent in the desert, and God had saved His people from slavery to the Egyptians. Each man had to teach his neighbor, saying “Know the Lord.” The law had to be written on stone tablets and blood had to be shed (we’ll talk more about blood and the covenants next week) blood from animals was constantly flowing to make a constant atonement or sin-offering for the priests and the people. This blood would then be sprinkled on the earthly structures, worship furnishings and even the people themselves to mark them as a holy possession of God. When the new covenant was established, the Blood of Christ was shed one time as an offering of substitution, a sin-payment to God for our sakes, the whole world was saved from the slavery to sin and death, and complete forgiveness was declared upon the resurrection of Jesus on the Third Day. The law would now be written on our hearts of flesh and not of stone. Instead of a ritual blood-sprinkling, you have been sprinkled with the water of Baptism, and you drink the Blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper as your constant connection to this one-time Sacrifice for your holiness to continue. You do not need to construct an earthly copy of a tabernacle in order to gain your access to God through worship. The buildings we use are not designed in heaven to specific dimensions. A building itself isn’t even necessary anymore. What counts is the One who promised to be with us whenever two or three are gathered in His name. Jesus your Great High Priest has led you with Him into the inner sanctum, the Most Holy Place of the heavenly tent, not made with human hands. The shadow is no more; the heavenly real thing is here in your midst. God the all-knowing One has said He will remember your sins no more.

In the name of the Father, and of ✝ the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

These words of Scripture from today’s Gospel were included very distinctively in a famous speech by Abraham Lincoln. The year was 1858 and the United States were just on the brink of erupting into the Civil War. The hot issues at the Republican Convention in Springfield, Illinois centered around slavery, and in his address, Lincoln quoted this Bible verse to make his point that the Union could not remain half-slave and half-free. It only seemed logical: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

It’s more important for us today, though, to consider how the original speaker, Jesus, uses these words. Who’s house is He talking about? The Jerusalem leaders accused Him of something very serious—they said Jesus was in league with the devil, and that by the power of Beelzebul (which is another name for Satan) He drove demons out of people. Rather than call them out right there on their blasphemy, Jesus instead exposes their wrong-headed logic: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” Jesus is talking about the kingdom of the devil, and He says that Satan would surely fall to oblivion if his house were divided against itself.

Why should Jesus concern Himself with the devil’s house? Is Satan really that powerful? He certainly has been around a long time. This constant battle between Satan and the Son of God has been around since Genesis 3, when humanity and the whole world fell into sin, thanks to the Serpent’s lies and crafty power over Adam and Eve. Here in God’s blessed creation, Satan gained a foothold and started setting up his house of doom. Our Old Testament reading recounts for us another skirmish between those two enemies that took place in 1446 B.C. when God sent Moses to Pharaoh in order to demand that he “Let My people go.” Ten times Pharaoh denied, ten times Egypt was ravaged by plagues, the original catastrophes of Biblical proportions as you may hear them still called every now and then.

As he did earlier in Genesis, when the devil convinced Adam and Eve that they could be like God just by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, he’s constantly using the tactic against you too, feeding you the delusion that you can get along much better without God calling all the shots. Satan tricked Pharaoh through his court magicians that these divine plagues were just tricks that anyone with magical skills or contacts with evil spirits could perform. Turn your staff into a serpent? We can do that! Turn the Nile River into blood—that’s an old one. Thanks to the devil’s work, our human race has turned into a house divided, for it was he who convinced human beings that they should attempt to declare their independence from God. And when sinful human creatures declare their independence from God, they quickly turn on each other as well, as we’ve seen all too clearly these days.

Do you think you’re safe from this evil scheme? Does your baptism somehow protect you from the assaults of the devil? If you think so, you should guess again. Satan works the hardest against those who are not his. He can divide those in a Christian house against each other just as easily as he could anyone else. But he doesn’t stop with messing up your relationship to God and with other people. The devil also attacks your very self and actually creates a civil war within you.

The Apostle Paul describes this inner conflict in his letter to the Romans: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I desire not to do, that’s what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I desire not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

What’s true for Paul is also true for you. As a Christian, you want to do what pleases God and helps other people, yet you actually do the very opposite. That’s the war between good and evil also going on within your flesh—a war instigated by the devil himself. And what’s more, he has an ally in your own sinful human nature, a traitor that would make even Benedict Arnold blush. It’s the sin that dwells in you, it’s in your very nature, causing you to divide yourself against God and feed your own lusts and desires. It’s that part of you that says you’d get along much better without God calling all the shots. Your heart is a house divided, and if the devil and your sinful self had their way, you would not stand.

You know how the devil is often portrayed—a funny red guy with horns and a pitchfork, a voice in your left ear trying to out-shout the angel on your right that tells you to do the good thing. Satan is not a made-up idea or practical joke. He is real, and as First Peter says, like a roaring lion he seeks those whom he may devour. He is what Jesus likened to a strong man who vigilantly guards his possessions against any who are out to take them. By his crafty lies and deception, he seeks to take possession of you, turning you into a house divided against yourself and against God. We have no ability in and of ourselves to oppose him—Satan truly is strong…far stronger than we are.

However, in this parable, Jesus only likened the devil to a strong man in order to point this out: He is the stronger man, the one who actually has bound Satan and plundered him for all he’s worth. Though we have given in to temptations and disregarded God’s will, Jesus stood up to the crafts and assaults of the devil. He prevailed without falling into sin—for our sakes. God has always had the upper hand in these battles with the Evil One. Remember that Pharaoh was convinced that his magicians could match the plagues that Moses dished out? Then the gnats and the flies started attacking in unprecedented swarms, those magicians could only admit the truth: This is the finger of God. Their snake-staffs were swallowed by the serpents made from Moses and Aaron’s staffs. Even they could see that every time God faced off with the devil, that God would always win. Though we, following our deceived sinful nature, would rather side with the devil and only think for ourselves, Jesus took it upon Himself to rescue us from the slavery that placed us in the house of Satan.

Our rescue was certainly a show of divine power, because Jesus destroyed the power of the devil once and for all. Yet at the same time, it looked the opposite—like the devil was the one who would emerge victorious. With Jesus and what He’s going through as we read in the Gospels, we don’t see cataclysmic plagues unleashed against the bad guys and our Savior’s boot pressing down on the devil’s neck. In fact, the ultimate death blow in this war that had begun at the dawn of time was when Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross!

He chose to bind your sins to Himself and forced God the Father to be divided against His own Son—after all, who was it that said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The rejection and scorn, suffering and dying of His crucifixion, these were in fact the very cords that bound up Satan and rendered him powerless and divided. Now with the strong man tied up, Jesus the Stronger Man robbed his house, taking back you and me, the poor souls who were once lost in our sins and slavery. Once we were rightfully accused of sin and rebellion, of doubt and hypocrisy. Now we are in Christ, the risen and victorious Savior. It’s your emancipation proclamation– You are free!

Now that you are released from the devil’s kingdom and made a part of the Kingdom of God, you are no longer a house divided from Him. Instead, Jesus took great pains to unite you as one with Him and with your fellow believers. He does some binding on you, too, a different kind of binding. Christ binds you close to Himself in faith that is His gift to you, and He binds you to your neighbor in love, so that you may fulfill each other’s needs. Jesus calls you His brother, sister and mother, because you believe in Him and by His grace perform His will, not as a requirement but as a response. Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.

Renounce the devil, and all his works and all his ways. Resist his evil schemes and deceptions. Instead, turn in faith to your Savior Jesus, who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Do not remain a “house divided” within your soul. Drown that confederate rebel sinful nature in the waters of your baptism into Christ, a baptism that still lives on to make you grow in your Christian life. You are not a possession of Beelzebul. He has no power over you. Instead, you belong to Jesus and your sinful division is mended because of His word of forgiveness.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It is true for us as a free country, and it is also true for us as Christians, now that we are free from the bondage of sin, death and the devil. Because of Christ, Satan’s kingdom has been divided and his eternal judgment has come, but we on the other hand stand united in our Lord and share in the everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness that God has in store for us. Thanks be to stronger man Jesus, for He bound strong man Satan, and released us from his prison. Now you are in God’s house unto eternity.

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

Readings:
Ex. 8:16–24 the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”
Eph. 5:1–9 be imitators of God as dear children
Luke 11:14–28 blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!

Wednesday, March 3, 2021 by Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent: February 28, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

You have heard Jesus often say the phrase, “O ye of little faith,” in the Gospel records. Seldom does He speak of someone having great faith, but that’s exactly what he does when He finally answers this Canaanite woman, a Gentile who clearly belongs outside of God’s holy nation of Israel. Or does she?

This conversation that the woman has with Jesus is an excellent description of prayer as our Lord Himself has directed for us to pray. We approach our Lord on our knees as it were, begging for His undeserved mercy. We sinners can claim no right to the full portions of His love, however even the table scraps from His holy Table are more than enough to feed us for eternal life. When all our life and our experience seems to be telling us that Jesus is avoiding us or even punishing us by turning His face away, we can still confidently lay claim to His definite promises in His Word, and we can know for certain that He will always hear our prayer and answer as He wills for our own good. Martin Luther wrote in the Catechism, “We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace.” (Lord’s Prayer, Fifth Petition) That’s what this foreign woman did, and Jesus responded, “O woman! Great is your faith! Be it done as you desire,” and the demon left her daughter at that very hour.

How come she can have it so easy, though? Doesn’t God know that my prayers don’t get answered like that in real life? Is this Bible story meant to tell me that I don’t have great enough faith, because I still have these unresolved problems? You may have friends like Job had, that is, those who surround you, sometimes comforting you, sometimes lending you a listening ear, but at other times they’re trying to diagnose your ordeals as something that’s wrong with you; something you need to do better in your life so that God can bring you the peace that you desire. Then this story of the Canaanite woman is thrown in—see,
you need to keep asking God in prayer and never give up. You need to commit your life to Him more earnestly as a disciple, and not just a casual believer. Your faith needs to be great. You need to believe in the power of prayer from the bottom of your heart. You need to be like Peter and get out of that boat walking on the water!
But such encouragement, however well-meaning it might be, often has the opposite effect, and you could feel driven away from God, despairing of His answer, or any answer at all. You even sing the words, “We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer,” but all you see in your mind is that disapproving little finger wagging, no, no; you’re not trusting in Him.

At those moments, you certainly are feeling the full effect of God’s condemning law. You can tell quite clearly that you haven’t measured up to His commandments, that you haven’t fulfilled your daily calling in life, family and society the way He wants you to. Your prayers may have dried up. We may feel anger inside that the Lord has taken His sweet time in getting back to us, but even deeper down we can find a possible reason why we shouldn’t expect anything but trouble, hardship and punishment for our sin. It is that impossible perfect standard of righteousness that puts out the forbidding hand, and calls us what we really are, a miserable dog. Nothing more to do than to get shoved out of God’s presence, head down, tail in between your legs. How spiritually uplifting is that? Who would ever wish for that kind of Christian life?

But it is precisely in those kinds of depths, when you’ve totally given up on anything you’ve got with you, when you’re so tapped out spiritually that you’re too ashamed to talk to any other Christian about it. That’s when the Lord is near, when He’s ready and eager to hear your prayer, ready to bestow great faith in your heart. For that’s when you acknowledge that of yourself you are weak, and in that very weakness, Christ shows you He is strong. This is the proper lesson to learn from the Canaanite widow who dared to approach Jesus. Her persistence with the disciples, and later with Jesus Himself, bore witness not to any self-confidence that she had inside. Rather, her motivation came both from a loved one’s need, namely that of her daughter, and the Word of God that she had heard concerning Christ the Lord, the Son of David. By God-given faith worked within her by the Holy Spirit, she trusted that Word, even more than when she experienced that initial rejection from the Savior’s own mouth.

Jesus immediately recognized His own handiwork when He commented on the Canaanite woman’s great faith. He noted the power of His own death and resurrection that energizes all Christian faith and prayer. In a strange twist that only God can do, it was Jesus within that woman praying unceasingly to Jesus to have mercy on herself and requested healing for her daughter. You can see why Jesus responded with such amazement, because in the midst of her weakness, this woman wielded the very power that He already gave to her!

You should take note of this, too, that is, your confidence in the Lord comes not within yourself, it comes from Christ, who is pleased to dwell within you and pray with you, even when you don’t feel the strength to pray yourself. When you pray, remember it’s Jesus doing the praying, which is obvious when you think about the Lord’s Prayer: it’s not your prayer to keep to yourself, it’s His prayer for you to pray with Him and with one another, and even at those times when you’re praying alone. That’s the way you acquire great faith and live a vibrant life of prayer. If you keep trusting in yourself, and insist it’s your own positive-thinking that will get you through your struggles, then you’ll remain disappointed, because you will still struggle against your sinful flesh with its impure desires. But Christ and His prayer are perfect; it uses God’s own powerful Word, so it accomplishes whatever He says.

When you offer your requests both for yourself and for others, recall Jesus and all His prayer as He made His way closer to the cross. In your weakness and suffering, remember He has gone through it too, and He is with you to bear your burden for you on His shoulders. Admit your sins, confessing them to the Lord, and they’re gone. Be comforted that as a baptized child of God, you have bathed in the cleansing Blood of Christ, and you appear in God’s sight as clean and clothed in white as snow. Whenever you think of Jesus on the Cross, His bitter death and His glorious resurrection, be reminded that all of this and more is your heavenly Father’s gift to you without any condition, except He has commanded you in faith to ask for it, and ask in abundance!

And though your chastened heart, who along with the Canaanite woman sees yourself as no higher in the Lord’s house than a dog, and after considering your own sin, you would be content with only table scraps, you have been promised much more. Yours is instead a lavish feast of God’s forgiveness. You were once an outcast, even worse than a Canaanite, but by Christ’s sacrificial blood you have been brought near to His holy presence as His blessed child and heir of His guaranteed promises. May His unfathomable grace give you great faith, so that you ask for yourself and for your loved ones not the temporary things that your sinful nature wants, but the Holy Spirit and His gifts, which your Father in Heaven knows you need.

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

Readings:
Gen 32:22–32 a Man wrestled with him until the break of day
Psalm 121 I will lift my eyes to the hills
1 Thess. 4:1–7 This is the will of God, your sanctification
or Rom. 5:1–5 having been justified by faith, we have pace with God
Matt. 15:21–28 even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters table

Good Shepherd Lutheran – Yucaipa, California
February 24, 2021 – Midweek – Lent I
✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝

Whoever said God was watching us from a distance, didn’t appreciate or take too seriously the fact that the very Son of God came down to earth and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit. God became one of us, one with us, one who went through trials, struggles, disappointments, fears right alongside us. Watching us from a distance was the last thing God wanted to do. So He sent us Jesus, who is our Great High Priest.

What is a Great High Priest? Let’s go through that in reverse order.

First, a priest. God spoke to us in our fallen, sinful world right from the very beginning. He also right from the start selected certain go-betweens to serve as His representatives to all. Adam was the selected priest for Eve and their children. Moses was the designated representative for the wandering Israelites until his brother Aaron became a priest. Pastors are ordained to speak God’s Words and apply them in ongoing pastoral care. You have been consecrated as a priest, too; only your priestly work is specialized in your own vocation with your own set of neighbors that you serve.

God uses His priests to speak His words of Law and Gospel, warning and comforting, discipline and love to all who would hear it. His priests also offer their lives up in service as a sacrifice of sorts that serves to the benefit of those to whom God has given them. You are doing a priestly work when you pray for those who are sick, or for those who need God’s special touch of forgiveness and life in their souls. Jesus is a priest for a very important reason. A human being can only be a representative or substitute for another human being. Jesus has our same flesh and blood as we do, yet He is without sin. That too is a necessity of being a priest—purity. Either the priest has to be cleansed and made pure (that’s true for you or for me), or in the case of Jesus, the priest already is completely pure.

Second, He’s a High Priest. Jesus is not specialized, in a manner of speaking. His priestly work extends generally to all people everywhere. He is above all other representatives that God has selected because He is God Himself. There is not one human being who has ever existed that Jesus has not known their struggles or their cares. Not one person is outside of the love of God extended to mankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. As High Priest, true God and true Man, Jesus alone has the right to forgive us and claim us as His very own, because He did all the work to make that forgiveness and redemption happen. Not just made it possible, Jesus accomplished it perfectly for our sake.

And that brings up the Third part, the Great High Priest. Jesus as High Priest accomplished our salvation and on the third day He rose from the dead. He ascended in full divine glory to heaven to announce our heavenly destiny is assured. Our place in the Father’s house is being prepared as we speak. No other high priest will do. Jesus is our Great High Priest. Because of Him we have two huge, monstrous results of sin removed and done away with. Those two obstacles are fear of the devil and shame before God—they’re gone!

Fear is the devil’s only weapon that can attempt to gain traction on us. Our sinful, self-centered human nature fears that God might be hiding something from us. “Did God really say?” was the devil’s attempt to plant fear and doubt in Eve’s and Adam’s mind, as we read this week from Genesis 3. We can easily fear that God doesn’t have a good outcome in mind for us. The suffering we must endure seems like God has turned against us. The devil preys on those fears and we take our sights off of Jesus. But when we turn to Jesus and trust in His work for us as our Great High Priest, that removes our fear of the devil, or the fear that the devil uses to keep us separated from God. He says, “Love casts out fear.” Love is God’s own assurance that He will always be with us. In Christ we have God’s assurance of our forgiveness, renewal of our heart and our certainty renewed in the life of the world to come. With the fear of the devil removed, we have renewed confidence as we trust in God no matter what fearful events may occur in our lives.

Our renewed confidence testifies to another obstacle that has been removed, and that is shame before God’s almighty judgment. We deserve to be shamed with everlasting punishment and separation from God. But Jesus Christ stepped in and endured the entirety of that punishment and that shame. Jesus knew no sin, He was sinless, but He who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God. The Father actually punished Jesus as though He were a sinner, in fact, since the sin of the whole world was laid on Jesus’ shoulders, He was punished as though He were THE Sinner. So great was the payment, the atonement, that Jesus offered to the Father as the price for the removal of our shame, that there remains nothing left for us to do in order to be able to stand without that shame or stain of sin clinging to us anymore.

We may feel that shame or iniquity in certain moments of our lives. The devil will try to remind us of sins of our past and attempt to convince us that those sins are too great, or that there’s some catch to the free offer of God’s grace. There’s somehow no way for you to be forgiven, so you may be led to believe. But none of that is true. Jesus is your great high priest. He was the great high priest when He fought the devil’s temptations in the wilderness for you. He is your priest now as you eat and drink the sacrifice of His body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. He will remain your priest as He intercedes for you to the Father, bringing to His loving ears your every prayer in His name. Rejoice in Jesus, your great high priest. Because of Him, you have your forgiveness guaranteed. You have no more need to fear the devil. Your shame of sin before God has been removed and you are in His eternal good graces. God does not watch you from a distance. He is right here with you now and always!

In the name of the Father, and of ✝ the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Notes

The Lord be with you!
The Latin title for the First Sunday in Lent (borrowed from the first word of the Introit, “When he calls”) is Invocabit. Now has begun our journey with Jesus as He draws nearer to the cross in order to die for our salvation. Before He offers up His life for ours, He allows Himself to endure the attacks and temptation of the devil in the wilderness. Because Jesus withstood the devil with His own very words written in Holy Scripture, we also have His power over the attacks of Satan. Our evil foe has no power over us, as Martin Luther instructed us to pray morning and evening.

Let us pray the collect for Invocabit:
O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Genesis 3:1–21
Satan took the form of a serpent, a creature that God had made, in order to corrupt and curse all creatures, pulling them away from God’s good pleasure. He approached Eve with his first temptation, even though Adam was also with her. Satan lured them both with the God-created goodness of the fruit, combined with the twisted lure for them to be like God. The merciful Father had not withheld every tree from His precious human creatures, but the knowledge of good and evil turned out not to be likeness to God at all, who is only good. Thankfully, along with the curse comes our first pronouncement of the Gospel promise in the Bible: verse 15. Jesus is the “seed of the woman” who will crush the head of the devil, even though He would suffer the enemy’s heel strike on the cross.

2 Corinthians 6:1–10
Satan’s temptations come in many forms. If he cannot lure us with good-looking things, he can attempt to tear us away from God through difficult trials in our life. Yet it is also true that suffering is God’s very own means of holding us closer to Him. We must constantly heed the appeal that the preachers of the Word make to us: be reconciled to God. This is our Lord’s true desire and it can only be fulfilled when we hear His Word and believe it with God-given faith. The faithful workers of God not only speak the Word, but demonstrate it with lives that have been formed in likeness to Christ.

Matthew 4:1–11
Jesus began His visible ministry on earth with His baptism, but then immediately He went into the wilderness in order to face impending starvation and temptation at the hands of the devil. Three times the adversary attacked Him and three times Jesus responds the same: It is written. Even when the very comforting Psalm 91 is misused as a way to trip Him up, Jesus has an answer from the very Bible that He Himself caused the prophets to write. That same powerful Word of God is our effective weapon against the attacks of Satan in our own life. We are, however, not left to ourselves to try to do battle with Satan on our own, for because Jesus vanquished the Foe on our behalf, we are confident that in Christ we have already prevailed.

Here’s hymn 562, stanza 6:
    We thank You, Christ; new life is ours,
    New light, new hope, new strength, new pow’rs.
    This grace our ev’ry way attend
    Until we reach our journey’s end.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent: February 21, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

All the Lord’s ways are mercy and truth (Tobit 3:2). That sounds pretty straightforward, easy to believe, right? God does all of that good stuff. I want the good stuff, so I believe in God. That’s a very shallow way to think of faith, but sadly, it is quite popular in our culture. Many Christians, including Lutherans, can get lured into believing some form of the idea of Karma. I know the name “Karma” comes from the Hindu religion, so right away you can perceive that it’s off-base somewhere in its philosophy, but really, all you’re concerned about is some kind of justice that’s gotta be out there in the world. That somehow those bad people are going to get what’s coming to them. That if you do enough good things, that you’ll get your reward eventually. I know that’s a tantalizing thing to believe, and it gives you great mileage in making you feel good when everything in your life seems cruel and unfair. But there are times when even Karma is not going to give you relief. There is no promise from God’s Word that backs up a hope that Karma, or whatever you call it, will settle everything. There is a promise from God’s Word about Jesus, and it is only in Him that we find God’s mercy and truth, yes, and even His justice.

Most Christians are very puzzled by the Gospel report of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. If He couldn’t sin, then why was He tempted? If our Lord was going to do battle with Satan, then why didn’t He strike him and his minions down with a walloping battle assault? All this fasting He did, suffering, hungering and quoting Scripture words seem so weak, so unassuming. If you tried that, you would be laughed off as defensive and wimpy. What did Jesus do to deserve such disgraceful treatment? The idea of Karma would make no sense here! And wouldn’t it be better for the Lord to bring an end to all suffering, or at least to shield His own children more effectively and absolutely from the assaults and crafts of the devil? We are exposed to all the tricks of the ancient enemy, and it doesn’t make logical sense that we feel left out on our own in this world. But the Lord’s logic exceeds our understanding. His foolishness is wiser than our wisest wisdom. And His ways are not our ways. For all His ways are mercy and truth.

And that is how we must hear today’s Gospel of our Lord’s temptation, His testing. Not as some mythical story of good versus evil. Not as the first skirmish in the great battle between God and the devil. And certainly not as an example for what techniques and weapons we should employ when we fight our own battles, what courage we should muster, and what perseverance is required when we battle the devil, our own sinful flesh, the world’s various temptations it throws at us, our physical infirmities and the demons that torment our heart and mind.

This is a story of Our Lord’s mercy. He gives clear evidence that He has, and that He will, freely engage and beat back the devil for us. We don’t have that assurance whenever we assume that some justice out there in the great big universe is going to come around in our favor someday. Jesus shows that His promise to be for us is not an empty promise. He pointedly enters our fray, and immerses Himself in our misery. He put on your flesh, He fought your battle against the devil and sin. And He proves that He can and has overcome not just some evil forces, but the very devil that taunts and haunts you. He won your victory.

What you have heard today, then, is the beginning of your salvation. For until now in the Church Year, the continuing story since Christmas has all been promise and expectation, pledge and hope. But when the Spirit that came to Jesus at His baptism shoves Him out into the wilderness, when the Father inserts His Son into the middle of the devil’s playing field, plopped him down into Satan’s video game, when the Lord makes Himself vulnerable to demonic and diabolic tricks–then He begins to come through on His promise; then hope becomes real; and then the Word and pledge for your forgiveness and everlasting life comes true.

Yet you still may be tempted to hear this story as history-a true event, of course, but it took place long ago and it has meaning today only because it changed the course of events way back then. But the Lord’s mercy is not mere history. And His ways are not simply past events to set the world straight, or just evidence to prove that He can do it.

When Our Lord enters the wilderness to battle Satan, you must see that the Lord is entering your own wilderness. Not just some deserted place in Judea, but the desolation of your own heart and mind—all that hurts you, all that you have used to afflict others, that is what the Lord enters, makes His own, and suffers. As the Psalms continually pray, the Lord plants Himself squarely in our muck, our slimy pit, our mire and the filth we have made. He sits in the dust and ashes with us. He descends to the lowest part of our personal hell. He wraps Himself in the things that trouble us so deeply that we cannot find the words to confess or explain them. That is our wilderness. And there is Our Lord, in the midst of it, taking on our devils, fighting back our demons.

That is the Lord’s mercy. As you are hearing the Gospel today, that’s what’s going on in your heart to create it new again. I’m not lecturing about Divine blessing coming down mysteriously from on high. No philosophy of Karma coming around and rewarding good and bad as if there were some necessary balance between those two. I don’t give you simple words of comfort, vocal sounds that are psychologically proven to settle the mind and ease the heart. This instead is what you’re getting today, right now: The Lord Jesus becomes your sin, bearing your infirmities and weaknesses, washing them away in your Baptism and Absolution, enduring your grief, living your hell, dying your death. All the Karma that the universe can muster came crashing down on His shoulders, requiring Divine Justice solely from His nail-pierced hands!
And in the midst of that, He says, as the hymn sings:
    Hold fast to Me,
    I am your Rock and Castle;
    Your Ransom I Myself will be,
    For you I strive and wrestle;
    For I am yours and you are Mine,
    And where I am you may remain;
    The Foe shall not divide us.
That is the Lord’s way. And there is the Lord’s mercy for you. Not in some spectacular-looking battle between the forces of good and evil. But Jesus is right there in your wilderness, battling your devils, fighting back your demons, undoing your messes, and holding you so tightly to Himself that hell, death, devil and anything else cannot and will not snatch you from His hand. It looks to us like losing, but really, our Lord, the Word made flesh, quoting the written Word that you have today in your hands, He has won! The Bible does tell you so.

That is how you should hear today’s Gospel. For it is not just another religious story. It is the Lord sending His Son to have mercy on you. It is the Lord’s Word and sure mercies overcoming your greatest fears. It is the Lord placing Himself squarely between you and the things that threaten to undo you. It is the Lord giving you more than what Karma can ever give you—you have His strength where you have no strength. It is the Lord enduring and persevering even though your hopes fade and your faith wavers. Never fear, for all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.

And if that is not enough when you are really suffering a trial, remember as well that there are the holy angels who minister not only to Jesus, but He sends them also to serve you. Once, you were alone and without hope – helpless before the threefold enemies of your old sinful nature, this fallen world, and the devil. But now, with all the hosts of God’s kingdom, you too are able to sing with joy the words Martin Luther penned so long ago in celebration of the blessed victory of the Savior for us all:
    “Though devils all the world should fill,
    all eager to devour us,
    we tremble not, we fear no ill,
    they shall not overpower us.
    This world’s prince may still
    scowl fierce as he will.
    He can harm us none, he’s judged; the deed is done;
    one little word can fell him.

    The Word they (our enemies) still shall let remain,
    nor any thanks have for it.
    He’s by our side upon the plain (of our battle)
    with His good gifts and Spirit.
    And take they our life,
    goods, fame, child, and wife,
    though these all be gone, our victory has (still) been won.
    The kingdom ours remaineth.”

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

Readings:
Gen 3:1–21 Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’
or 1 Sam. 17:40–51 he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook
Psalm 32 I said I will confess my transgressions to the LORD
or Psalm 118:1–13 for He is good! For His mercy endures forever
2 Cor. 6:1–10 now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation
or Heb. 4:14–16 we have a great High Priest…let us hold fast our confession.
Matt. 4:1–11 If You are the Son of God…

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Return to the LORD your God!

Readings:
Joel 2:12–19 rend your heart and not your garments
or Jonah 3:1–10 the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast
Psalm 51:1–19 Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean
2 Peter 1:2–11 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to lie and godliness
Matt. 6:(1–6) 16–21 do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Readings:
1 Sam. 16:1–13 Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!
or Is. 35:3–7 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Psalm 89:18–29 I have found my servant David
or Psalm 146 Do not put your trust in princes
1 Cor. 13:1–13 … but have not love, I am nothing
Luke 18:31–43 Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The Word of God is a doer. When most people think of the Word of God, they think of the Bible, a Good Book, an informer to mankind of what God wants us to know. That leads to the popular acronym for the letters in BIBLE: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I must tell you, as easy as that is to remember and fun as it is to share, the Word of God is much, much more than just instructions. The Word of God is a mighty, active doer, a creator, and even a preserver. If the Word of God were only instructions, then there would be no need to believe in it and put your whole trust in the Word of God. You would just follow the instructions, the seed would be sown in your heart, and the plant would grow—all would be well. And yet, we know that life as a Christian can get more complicated than that, so we need the Word of God to do for us and within us the mighty work that God has given His Word to do.

First, the Word of God is a seed. Even though it looks tiny and insignificant, a seed is a miracle of life. You can have a clump of cells smaller than a poppy seed, but that is still a baby girl that has started to grow in her mother’s womb. The Seed of the Word of God comes to someone who is born a sinner, dead, cold, lifeless in the spiritual sense, and in that barren environment brings to life a forgiven, redeemed, holy believer. This miracle is called faith, and it can only be created by the Word of God.

It was our heavenly Father’s great pleasure to call you out of the spiritual darkness called sin and death and bring you to new life. That was what the Word of God as a seed did in your heart. When you were baptized, and remember baptism is the Word of God joined together with water, when you were baptized not only were your sins and just punishments removed, but you were also made a child of God, a receiver of many precious gifts, forgiveness and eternal life being at the top of the list. This forgiveness was declared upon you in a particular form of the Word of God that is called absolution, and it was paid for by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Your promise of resurrection of the body and life everlasting was guaranteed when Jesus rose from the dead. This forgiveness and life is not given to you just once, but constantly, week after week, as you come to the Divine Service for the Word of God in scripture and sermon and as you eat and drink the Lord’s Body and Blood in Holy Communion. Our Lord constantly plants the seed of His Word in your heart and He intends for it to grow and produce fruits of good works that give Him glory and help the neighbors that God has given into your life.

Secondly, the Word of God not only plants faith in Christ within your heart, but that same Word waters, maintains and grows that faith for the rest of your life unto the life everlasting. Think about that story Jesus told about the sower casting seed over all kinds of soil. He explained the parable immediately afterward, saying these different soils are different people who have differing responses to the same Word. But I would challenge you today to think of those different soils as they occur within your soul. Sure, you may be hearing and meditating on God’s Word now and it produces great fruit in your heart. Your neighbor, your child, your loved one is benefiting from those good works that God has used you as His instrument to perform.

However, there are also times in your life when your soil is of a different quality. Sometimes we become callused to the Word of the Lord; too familiar this great gift and so our fear, love and trust in our heavenly Father doesn’t take deep root. Other times the cares of this passing world distract us from the Word. We get worried and concerned about our world’s political leaders; we get caught up in who said what and who wants to do yet another crazy, yet very predictable act of robbing our freedoms. Satan is constantly active all around us, threatening to choke out the seedling of our faith like a nasty thorny weed that appears unwelcome in the garden. Our nearly year-long pandemic has surely tested our mettle in not a few areas of life, but has it helped or has it hindered your growth in the Word of God?

What can you do when your soil is not as productive as it should be? What is the way that will improve your relationship with your heavenly Father and bring you closer to Him? The answer is the Word of God. And it’s not like those billboards that say, Are you scared? Jesus can help. Of course He can help, but how exactly? What really helps is repentance. What do I mean by repentance? For that you can turn to the catechism: Consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments. Have you been self-serving, rude, quarrelsome with others? Have you failed to fear, love and trust in God above all things? The sharp, two-edged sword of the Word cuts deeply into you, revealing the sins that you have done, even down to the very thoughts of your heart. Without the powerful doer that is the Word of the Lord, you would be powerless to change your heart and be the fruitful, productive soil that would cause God’s good seed to grow.

And when you realize that God’s Word not only plants your faith in you but also nourishes it when times in your life are not going as well, then you understand the true power of that Word. Not only are you informed about Jesus and the sacrifice He made for you on the cross, but you also are taken up into His resurrection from the dead, forgiven of all your sins, consoled in your mourning heart, strengthened and preserved in the one true faith unto life everlasting. The Word of God does it all for you, beginning and sustaining your life-saving trust in Christ for eternal life. You were dead, but through His Word Jesus called you back to life, breathing His blood-bought forgiveness into you, and then you breathe out the same Jesus-filled forgiveness to your family members and neighbors who have sinned against you. This brings great pleasure to your Creator, for this is exactly how He made you to be and to act in accord with His Will.

The Word of God flows from God to us and back to Him again, as Isaiah sang. It’s just like rain coming down from heaven, watering the earth, flowing together into whatever body of water our Lord has designed to collect that rain as a sort of congregation, if you will, be it a small puddle like our church is or a vast and wide ocean. Then that water of God’s Word is spent in good works and returns to the Lord who gave it in order to complete the cycle that will not be halted until the end of time itself. If anyone can appreciate the precious resource that is rain for our land, it would be we who live in a land often ravaged by drought. Let us also appreciate just as much, yes, even more, the precious Word of God that He allows to rain down upon us, granting us the seed of faith, as well as the nourishment of that faith that leads to the good works of love that we owe to one another.

Next week we will begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, which is not only a six-week preparation for Easter, but also a deliberate exercise of our hearts and bodies in repentance. If our observance of Lent only consists in making promises to modify our diets, cut out meat or sweets or renew whatever New Year’s Resolutions that we broke in the first week of January, then the whole point would be lost. What would truly make Lent a useful practice of repentance for you is, in addition to those outward disciplines and personal training, to focus your attention on the Word of God. Recall its great power to reveal your sins, but also the even greater power to wash those sins away in the flood of forgiveness that streams to you from the pierced side of your Savior Jesus Christ. He has planted His Word in you. He will even use His Word to cultivate that faith He has created in you. He will also bring your life to its completion, His good work that you are in His sight, on the coming Day when the final harvest will be gathered in and the eternal life we’ve been promised is realized in full. May the Word of God be for you from this day forward not only a talker, but a doer. His Holy Spirit has made it so.

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

Readings:
Is. 55:10–13 My Word…shall not return to Me void
Psalm 84 Even the sparrow has found a home
2 Cor. 11:19—12:9 My grace is sufficient
or Heb. 4:9–13 let us be diligent to enter that rest … Word of God…sharper than any two-edged sword
Luke 8:4–15 A sower went out to sow