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

Sin is not just a theological topic. It’s your mortal enemy. Sin is always on the attack against you, an attack mounted by the father of lies, the devil himself. You were promised that your Lord Jesus Christ dwells in you ever since your baptism, but His protection from this attack seems weak at times. It’s very distressing. No one is above sin and temptation, we have a sinful nature, and we are descended from the first sinners, Adam and Eve – but that isn’t much comfort. Wouldn’t you rather be rid of sin for good? Isn’t that why you came here today? You know there’s sin in your life – and you don’t like it one bit.

You’re never going to be freed from sin’s assaults until that day when God takes you to Himself. Daily you have to struggle with it. You live in this fallen world. Your “Old Adam” who clings to you inside will never let go. And the old evil foe will expend all his energy trying to trap and devour any who might try to escape his grip. So you struggle Should it come as a surprise then, that when Jesus determined to take upon Himself the full weight of your sin, He had to struggle too?

When the prince of darkness confronted Jesus in the wilderness, right after His baptism, you might notice that he tempted our Lord with the very same unholy trinity of evil that you and I daily struggle with. Those three temptations try to cast doubt on your heavenly Father’s ability to provide for your body, to value the praise and wealth of the world rather than God’s love, and to place one’s self over and above the Lord.

He was in the wilderness forty days without food, and so Satan was able to tempt Him first with bread – and not just any bread, but bread that would tempt Jesus to obtain it in a most unholy way. How strong was this first temptation? Imagine how great the struggle would be for you if you hadn’t eaten for forty days! Then add the full force of all the temptations arising from your old, sinful nature – the gluttony, the lust and the desire for all kinds of things that could easily bring you into harm’s way. It’s not only an unhealthy desire for food, but this temptation affects those who destroy themselves and their families by lust – who daily face the reality of addiction of any kind – and daily give in to it. These are the very same temptations of the body which our Lord Jesus Christ fully resisted when He stood fast against the devil’s enticement that He feed Himself through a misuse of His own creative power. And when He refused to satisfy His hungry body in this way, that made His body become the righteous payment for all the sin you’ve ever committed with your body.

When it comes to the second temptation, you yearn for the pleasures you could enjoy if only you weren’t a Christian – when you reach out to take something that God has not seen fit to give you – when you disregard the boundaries God has set about you – the authority He’s set over you – and the dignity of the neighbor with whom you live and work – in all these ways Satan is busy tempting you. Satan came to Jesus with the false promise that if He would only yield to him, all the wealth of all the kingdoms of all the world would be His. Think how that temptation must have felt to His human nature – how wonderful the palaces of the world must have seemed, even to this Man who is God, after forty days in a barren wilderness, struggling to survive. Think how you struggle to improve your earthly life – to get a better job, a bigger house, a nicer car, anything pleasing or more secure – and then consider how Satan promised Jesus He could have far more than that by taking the deceptive shortcut he offered Him. But Jesus willingly set aside His own desires, interests, and even His own gain, submitting it all to the authority and will of His Father so that you might receive it all in His place.

You know well the struggles you daily face from the Devil, who comes to reinforce the temptation that’s already in you by reason of your own sinful nature and this fallen world, who makes sure the thing you’re most likely to fall for, that’s exactly what’s placed there before you. He takes perverse pleasure in causing the fall of those who seem highest and holiest – and that through the most sordid, cheap means at his disposal – because the seedier and cheaper the temptation that causes a person to fall, the harder it’ll be for others to make God’s voice heard in this world which already refuses to believe that there is a loving heavenly Father.

Every decent civic leader is besmirched by the person who would sell his vote or judgment for a few dollars – and soon all politicians and judges become derided as fools – in spite of the fact that God is the One who established them in their office for peace and good order. Every honorable, hard-working businessman is hurt by the person who sells shoddy wares at inflated prices and preys on the gullibility of the public – even though God is the One who gives everyone a vocation to see that their neighbor is well-served. Every decent, loving, mother and father is hurt by those parents who abuse and neglect their own children – so that soon every mom and dad become the object of society’s scorn – though in truth mothers and fathers have been called by God to serve in an office that’s higher and holier than any other on earth. Even pastors are robbed of their voice and effect upon the hearts of people by that pastor or priest who falls into scandal – so that after awhile, to many people, all pastors become suspect. Consider who it is that’s able to plant such an evil image in your heart. Consider who it is who wants to destroy the blessed work of all good and helpful vocations – and of every upright and honest leader, parent, teacher, or pastor.

Satan’s the one who wants all authority, all offices, all vocations, and every avenue for Godly love, wisdom, and service to be degraded, scorned, ridiculed, and abandoned. Satan would like nothing better than if you would disregard everyone but yourself. He’d love you to overthrow your family, Church, society, and government in the false belief that you could then be in charge of it all by yourself. He’d like nothing better than to convince you that you can actually be like God. It’s the breath of the Evil One which causes you to believe that ultimately you alone know what’s best. It’s a Satanic will which thinks it has the right to put itself before the needs of others. And this is what Jesus faced when He was taken to the pinnacle of the Temple and tempted to throw Himself down so that the angels of God could swoop down to catch Him. This is the temptation you face in your darkest hour – when destruction, rebellion, suicide, and all forms of lashing out against your self try to seep into your consciousness.

Make no mistake about it, dear children of God – it’s in moments like this when you come face to face with the Evil One himself – and against such power, you, in your sin, on your own, are entirely helpless to defend yourself – no matter how strong you think you are. The old Evil Foe does mean deadly woe. Deep guile and great might are his dread arms in fight. On earth is not his equal. And if you try to stand on your own in opposition to such might and power, soon you’ll find yourself defeated. Yet, sadly, that’s exactly what oftentimes happens. You try to stand on your own – and soon you find yourself caving in – helpless, hopeless, and powerless before the might of the devil’s temptation which attacks through our flesh, our world, and our own evil lusts and desires. But know this for certain, Jesus has already – once and for all – stood where you yourself have often fallen! He was tempted, just as you are daily – and yet, He fully and completely overcame your mortal enemy. And, even though you may think you’re all alone in this world and struggle, the Good News is the exact opposite!

The Valiant One, whom God himself elected, is there with you – fighting alongside of you – fighting for you. This Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts – this One who carries within Himself the very power and might of heaven – this One who alone is God – alongside whom there is no other God – who was tempted by Satan in every possible way – this is the selfsame One who overcame it all for you – as Satan lost, and Jesus won. And now, because Jesus has won, you’ve been freely given His life and victory forever to claim as your own. Daily He gives you the prize of forgiveness from your own defeat under sin and temptation. Even in the midst of all this He has made you the victor. The kingdom of God is near as Jesus calls you again to repent and believe the Good News – to come to Him with your sin so that you might leave this place today with His righteousness, assured of His forgiveness!

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 awareness God had given him concerning 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 been won. The kingdom ours remaineth.”

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

Readings:
Deut. 26:1–11 first of all the produce … put it in a basket
Psalm 91:1–13 a thousand may fall at your side … they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot…
Rom. 10:8b–13 if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
Luke 4:1–13 You shall not tempt the LORD your God Dt. 6:16

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

The cloud, the light, the mountain, Moses, Elijah: all these things show us that the Son of Mary, the Rabbi of Peter, James, and John, His disciples, He truly is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. One and the same. He is the God of Sinai, the God of creation and redemption, living in ordinary human flesh. It is not His Divine nature which changes form on that mountain, but His human nature. The magnificent Divine qualities or attributes have been communicated, that is, transferred to His visible flesh and blood and are shown forth full force in the transfiguration. This is the high point of Epiphany, where His disciples see Him as He is in Divine glory and not hidden. To be sure, for all sinners like you and me, He must be hidden so that He could save us. But it is also true that apart from the Flesh of Jesus there is no Son of God, no Second Person of the Holy Trinity. He who placed the stars, who cast Satan out of heaven, formed the mountains, set the course of rivers, and crafts each snowflake, is forever joined to the stuff of Mary’s womb, made one of us for us. He is one of us in order to be the sacrifice, the guilt offering, the atoning death in our place.

And that is the conversation of heaven. Moses and Elijah, the great representatives of the law and the prophets, the council of God’s ambassadors of Grace, are gathered together to talk about this. They talk about the only thing that matters, the only thing that counts, the only thing that endures into eternity: they speak about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. St. Luke says their topic is his coming exodus or departure, that is, they speak about his execution and vindicating resurrection, about His leading us out of this valley of sorrow, out of death, sin, and even Hell, and leading us to Himself in heaven!

Would this conversation make those stern prophets sad, or guilty, or afraid? Quite the opposite, in fact. In perfect bliss, as they are by this time gathered to Abraham’s bosom, rejoicing in the reward of God’s intervening mercy on their behalf, they are glad to talk about the death of Jesus Christ. For they see the Day that the Lord has made, they rejoice and are glad in it. Moses is no longer barred from the Promised Land. Elijah’s fiery chariot taxi transported him to his destination! They behold the Day when the builders rejected the Stone that God established as the chief Cornerstone. They see the real Day of Atonement, the actual Day of the Lord. They see Good Friday, the Day that the sun refused to shine, the earth shook, the graves opened, the angels wept, and a pagan Centurion wet His spear in Jesus’ side and was converted by that Holy Spirit so that he boldly confessed, “Surely this Man was the Son of God!” They see that Day from on high, and they are glad in it. This is the Day they prophesied, the Day that returns mankind to God’s possession, the Day that the Lord purchased and won for them, the day He made to bring joy to the human race.

But Peter is not yet there. He sees. He hears. He knows. And with three tents ready to stick into the ground, he wants to stay there on the mountain. He must be ready to leave behind wife and children, in-laws and employment, friends and neighbors. But Peter’s work is not done. He has, at this point, already done some good things as fruits of his faith, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. He has confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And he had even been given a holy interpretation, from God Himself, of what his name means. But, then, Peter tried to take it back. Selfishly, sinfully, he tried to stop the sacrifice of Christ from happening and was rebuked with the stern response, Get thee behind me Satan! Again, now that he’s here on the mountaintop, he sees what is good. He desires it. But it is not time for him. His shame was not yet full, and I’ll explain what that means later.

So Peter, thus strengthened, descended from that mountain. He had been nurtured there by God, heard His Word. He had seen glory. But when Good Friday finally came He again denied the Christ, his Lord, until that rooster crowed the awful Law that cut into his heart, opened his tears, and brought him back again to repentance and faith. But after that, and even after seeing the risen Lord for himself, he still hid behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, until the Lord came bringing peace and absolution and opened up His side to the probing, proving hands of Thomas. After that, at Pentecost, Peter was anointed with fire by the Holy Spirit. He spoke miraculously in unlearned languages and God has built his Church upon that confession that he gave when he said, You are the Christ, Son of the living God. Peter has been the instrument of conversion, bringing the Word of God, the consolation of the Spirit, to many.

But still, even after all of that, even after Peter had a dream where the unclean foods of the Old Testament are pronounced acceptable to heaven, he, the chief of the Apostles, preached heresy in his actions! He committed hypocrisy, and added shame upon shame. For after that dream, and with clear knowledge that the old ceremonial Law had been fulfilled, he tried to hold men to that Law again. Early in the history of the Christian Church there were Gentiles mixing in with Jews, and some of the latter were insisting on keeping the religious purity laws. Peter suddenly separated himself from the Gentiles in Antioch, with whom he had been eating in full fellowship, and in so doing harmed the young faith of many Christians who looked up to him as an example. Paul was also there, and fortunately, he spoke up in public to call Peter on his error, to save him from causing further damage. (Galatians 2:11-16) Peter, who was directed by Jesus to feed God’s sheep, was binding the hearts of men with the law. His high office and great honor, his heritage and learning, his special place in history and extraordinary circumstances, were not enough to save him from his fallen flesh. There is no excuse for blaspheming God, for violating His Word, for selling out. And even one as zealous as Peter, with all his experience and promise, can possibly cave in to the political pressures of men.

But God’s grace was enough. It restored him again, the way it always did. God brought Peter back by Paul’s rebuke, by the power of His true Word which cuts to the heart and binds up again in perfect love. As the shame of his sin increased, God’s grace increased toward him all the more. Peter was humbled under God’s Grace, which makes men free. In God’s mercy, he was not allowed to pretend his lies were pious or devout. In God’s mercy, he was chastised and brought low. In God’s mercy, he wept, confessed, and believed. In God’s mercy, he repented and the angels rejoiced.

Peter’s glory came. But only after his shame was full and completely forgiven. He did feed God’s sheep, even us. And he did glorify God by stretching out his hands to die, by the strength of the Spirit he finished the race and did not forsake the Lord even at pains of death. Thanks be to God. For His mercy endureth forever!

Now, may the life of Peter instruct all of us. For no one who still resides in the fallen flesh in this life can act above God’s Word. No one is incapable of error or is without sin; nobody lacks the pride, lust, greed, and ambition that marks us as sinful. Our shame is not yet full. Every day we must repent. We must submit to God’s Word. It alone is the truth, the judge, the rule, and the norm. And thus the Father’s ever stern, and yet always gentle voice comes to us from heaven: Listen to Him! He is the Word appearing in our Flesh. And listen to this exchange: He became what He was not in order that we would also become what we were not! That is, He became the Sinner standing in our place, so that by His death and resurrection we are guaranteed to be ourselves resplendent, holy, innocent, just, beloved, and transfigured!

God strengthened Peter for the long journey ahead of him by giving him a glimpse of His glory on the mountain. That experience did not keep Peter from stumbling from time to time. Nor did it take away all of Peter’s troubles. But neither did Peter’s stumbling keep God from loving and saving him. Again and again, despite Peter’s sin, God intervened and welcomed him back. And what, too, of Moses, that cowardly murderer, and Elijah, that despondent unbeliever? Their faith wasn’t perfect, either. But the Grace of God, the exodus, the mission if you will, of Jesus Christ was enough to perfect them and their faith in the end. And so it is also true for you. Listen to Him! Behold His glory in His Word. Behold His welcoming, inviting, absolving Word. Behold, His mercy.

Come, and eat, hidden under bread and wine, that glorious body of Christ that Peter saw on the Mountain. Be strengthened by that eating, by being joined to the Flesh of Mary’s womb shining with God’s true love, united to Divine majesty. Be consoled and comforted by the God who has gone before you to bring you to Him, by the God who desires to be merciful to you. And rejoice in the company of Moses, Elijah, Peter, and the whole cloud of witnesses already at rest. For there on the mountain Peter saw his future – and you see yours.

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

Readings:
Deut. 34:1–12 This is the land…I have caused you to see it with your eyes
Psalm 99 He spoke to them in the cloudy pillar
Heb. 3:1–6 Christ as the Son over His own house, whose house we are…
Luke 9:28–36 behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah

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

Will the real Jesus please step forward? I say this because there’s one Jesus who is doing all the miraculous healing, feeding, driving out demons and attracting huge crowds of followers, while the other Jesus, so it seems, is telling you that life as you know it right now is not going to be all that good, and yet you’re supposed to be somehow happy about that? And to top it all off, this second Jesus says that it’s wrong to laugh and be well fed and to have a good reputation! I don’t know about you, but from the sound of it all, the two Jesus-es are at odds with each other. Look over the reading from Luke 6 again real quick. One Jesus acts like the victorious Son of God taking over the world He made and He has come to flex His powerful God-in-flesh muscles over the devil and the sinful world. But the other speaks like He’s sadistically obsessed with pain and suffering, like that’s the proper response to His loyal followers, and He’s a fanatic who is opposed to the enjoyment of all life’s simple pleasures. How could these two different characters be one and the same Jesus?

To be sure, most of the people who first listened to Jesus and watched His miracles had the same confusion. Crowds were streaming in from all over the place, some traveling for days just to spend a few moments with this Man, who is the Son of God. Of course, the crowds got bigger when a free meal was being handed out, or when a dangerous demon-possessed person is healed. Sure, there were those who rejected Him and accused Him of various nit-picky things like healing on a Sabbath day when, according to the Pharisees’ law, absolutely no work was supposed to be done on the Sabbath. But that bit of opposition certainly wasn’t keeping the crowds away.

The disciples who were with Jesus all the time were in on the excitement too. Sometimes these were just the Twelve whose names we have recorded. Other times the disciples of Jesus included others, especially when He sent seventy or so of them to go ahead of Him and preach and perform the same miracles He was doing: healing the sick, feeding the poor and hungry and so on. All of this popularity of Jesus might have gotten to them, too. Perhaps these disciples were beginning to think that following Jesus would mean a life constantly in the praise and adoration of a forever grateful public.

And then you hear what Jesus says especially to those disciples. “Blessed are you who are poor, who hunger now. Blessed are you when men hate you and exclude you and insult you.” How could He say such things at the height of His popularity? Come on, Jesus! Being a Christian is going to be great! Sins are forgiven, the dead are raised up, you’re doing wonderful things for my life! I don’t have to do anything to be saved—it’s all by your grace! If there were a choice those disciples had to make between the miracle working Jesus and the Jesus who preaches about suffering, it would be the first one hands down.

No doubt that would be the choice you would make, too. After all, it’s this miracle-working Jesus that you pray to when you want your loved ones who are sick to be made well. When problems and crises come up in your family or in the church, you pray for a quick fix to end the conflict, right? After you’ve come to the point that you can’t help yourself, you turn to this miracle-working, magic Jesus to pick you up and help you. You completely forget or even avoid the other things Jesus says, that following your Lord will include hardship. That you might not see any fringe benefits to being a Christian. That you might pray and pray for the specific answer that you want and either nothing happens or the opposite thing happens.

Then you fall into the devil’s trap that plants doubt in your mind, that suggests to you that God is not seeing to your best interest, or that the Father has turned His back on you. It becomes easy to believe that He is somehow pleased with seeing you squirm with uneasiness because things just don’t seem to work out right for your life. Armed with this complacent attitude, you throw up your hands in despair and say there’s nothing you can do for God’s kingdom either because you’ve done plenty enough in the past, or because you’re just too busy, or worse, it just doesn’t do any good for you anyway, so why bother? Brothers and sisters! Avoid this attitude! Listen to what Jesus says, along with the miracles that He does. Do not think you are here today to get richer or to attract a record-breaking crowd in here or to get along better with any other aspect of our fallen, sinful world.

For the apparent difference between those two Jesus-es is solved when you understand the cross. It is one and the same Jesus. This Jesus who performed all those wonderful miracles was Himself rejected, beaten, excluded, left hungry, and full of sorrow, all the way to His bloody crucifixion and death. When He speaks these words of blessing to those who are poor in spirit, who are slandered and afflicted, Jesus is saying you are going to go through the very same things that He went through. Yet He says rejoice and leap for joy because you’ll get the reward for all that suffering that Jesus endured in your place, when He suffered and died for your sins.

Jesus was the one who truly deserved the blessings of heaven and had every right to bask in heavenly glory, not only because He is the Son of God, but because He lived a perfect, sinless, holy life while He was visible in the flesh here on earth. That bloody death, being nailed to a criminal’s cross, suffering the insults, the cuts, bruises, and crown of thorns, and most of all, when He suffocated under the punishment of God the Father against the sin of the whole world on the Son’s shoulders—that very suffering and death is the reason for you to rejoice. That is the reason you are blessed even in the middle of your own trials and griefs. And to seal that blessing as your very own, and to destroy all doubt and selfish attitude in your heart, your alive and victorious Lord Jesus miraculously takes His own Body and Blood and sticks it into your own mouth, so that your sins are forgiven and you are strengthened in body and soul to life everlasting. You also have the assurance that the very moment you hear God’s Word of forgiveness, you are not just reminded of some blessing that’s out there, you are truly blessed, right now, even though right now you don’t always feel like you’re being blessed.

Since you have such a blessing from this one and only Jesus, He invites you to stop looking for happiness and blessing from anyone or anything else. Compared to His precious gift of eternal life, you now look with scorn upon the things this present world values so highly. In light of Christ’s baptismal word of blessing spoken upon you today, who cares if those who reject Him say mean things about you? It won’t even matter. True, you may not laugh quite as you did before, especially if it meant laughing at something that hurt someone else, or laughing at something that angers God in breaking His commandments. However, the joy and laughter of heaven over a sinner who repents far outshines and drowns out the crass humor that you find on this earth.

And when you pray, you realize you cannot do anything on your own without Him. You look instead to the one Jesus who has power over heaven and earth, but who also for your sake said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, not my will, but Thy will be done.” In His own way, and in His time, your heavenly Father will answer your prayer, in fact, He has already answered it, in sending His Son Jesus Christ. And one day this same Jesus will gather you, along with believers from all over the world, to welcome you in His Paradise, where the blessings that are yours now, but hidden in suffering, you will finally see and experience those blessings fully, and without end.

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

Readings:
Jer. 17:5–8 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
Psalm 1 Blessed is the man who walks not…
1 Cor. 15:1–20 I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you
Luke 6:17–26 Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

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

September 11th, Pearl Harbor, Auschwitz, Space Shuttle Challenger, Capture of Saddam Hussein. All I have to do is say a few words, and countless memories and images fill your head. You can’t help it. I don’t have to explain myself to say, for instance, the morning of the eleventh of September, 2001, in rural Pennsylvania, lower Manhattan, New York, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. You already know all the necessary details, and still, they can make your heart sink.

That is why Isaiah only said those few words, “In the year that King Uzziah died…” What a horrible experience for the kingdom of Judah that was! It was an event that everyone would probably want to forget. For Isaiah referred to an event after which the city of Jerusalem would never be the same. Uzziah began his long reign as king at the age of sixteen, as 2 Chronicles 26 has it. For 52 years he led the nation under God’s blessing and with relative peace. The Philistines were still around, but they were not nearly so powerful an army as in the older days when the young man David killed Goliath. King Uzziah was a famous and strong ruler, he set in motion a technologically advanced defense weapons program that designed some device that was a cross between a catapult and a crossbow, and because of him, Jerusalem was probably the safest it ever was, or ever will be in the Middle East, even to this day.

Then the horrible event happened. All the peace and favor of the Lord shattered to bits, as though it were wiped out by something as devastating as a terrorist attack. Uzziah was riding high on his fame as a powerful king and he thought he was invincible, even bigger than God Himself. So he took it upon himself to bend the rules a little bit and introduce an innovative new worship practice: he would offer the incense in the temple that only the priests were authorized to burn. He dared approach the presence of the Lord without the blood of sacrifice on him to take away his sins. King Uzziah deserved to suffer the full wrath of God and be instantly condemned to hell, but the Lord instead mercifully struck him with a skin disease and made him a shameful, lonely, unclean outcast until he finally died and the country was suddenly under the rule of a young, inexperienced king.

That was the horrible event that made Isaiah and everyone else in Jerusalem cringe at the very thought of it. Someone you thought was a righteous, upstanding, faithful ruler, living under the smiling face of God and then, boom, he enters into His holy presence and the guy suffers the drastic consequences. You don’t easily forget something like that if you were to live there at that time. Isaiah had a powerful image in his mind that spoke loud and clear that you don’t just walk in on the Lord unforgiven. Maybe the next person to do that wouldn’t be so lucky as King Uzziah.

But in that same temple where the king met his fateful doom, not far from the very spot where God’s fearful judgment took place, Isaiah was confronted with a vision of the Lord in His full glory. There He was on His throne and the perfect six-winged angels were covering themselves in reverence as they flew around before Him. And there poor Isaiah was, he was sure he was about to suffer punishment just like his king did. When God in all His power and might shows up, the only reaction you can have is, “I’m a goner. Woe is me, for I am lost! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” The perfect, utter holiness of Almighty God can do nothing else but reveal the ugly, stained sinner that you are. And when the bright, pure light of the Law shines on your doubting heart, it cuts you down so that you despair of any possible way to escape the punishment you deserve.

Isaiah felt this, and so did Peter. Jesus finished His sermon from the boat and worked the miracle of catching all those fish. And anyone in the business can tell you it usually takes Divine intervention to have a successful day fishing in the first place. That’s why Peter finally got it that he was actually standing in the presence of Almighty God. Immediately, he feared for his stubborn, sinful soul, because the Lord who knows the thoughts of every heart had every right to rub him out once and for all. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” That guilty feeling has been in the heart of man ever since Adam, while chewing a mouthful of forbidden fruit, stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the sound of God walking in the garden.

It is a shame that you cannot ignore or explain away. Still, you try to turn attention away from your spiritual uncleanness. The class clown puts on a performance, the worker who gets caught slipping up just once points the finger to someone else who continually breaks the rules and gets away with it. You may have thought, I may have some flaws I have to work on, but someone else deserves more of the blame for what I’m going through. But the guilt of God’s law remains, it does not go away, and Isaiah and Peter at least admit that for themselves. You need that same law and God’s threat of punishment to bring you to your knees every day. You are no better, and yet here you are in the presence of the Lord Almighty. Do you dare refuse to admit your sin to the face of your all-powerful Judge? Repent.

Though Peter and Isaiah were crushed down low when they realized their sinfulness, the Lord raised them up again with His forgiveness. The fiery seraph flew to Isaiah with a hot coal straight from the altar of sacrifice. His lips were purified so that he could preach God’s Word as His holy prophet. Jesus comforted Peter with His Divine, forgiving Word, saying, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men.” And with that, Jesus created within Peter and the other disciples their desire to follow Him and begin their seminary education.

Whatever vocation God has given you to do His holy work, He forgives and strengthens you just like He did Isaiah and Peter. After His law has impressed upon you the fact that you are a poor, miserable sinner, Jesus speaks His loving, uplifting and forgiving Word of Gospel to restore you. He may not send an angel to burn your lips or fill your boat with fish, but He will drown your sinful nature as He brings you back to your baptism. Though you are crucified and killed along with Christ your Lord, you are also raised up to life with Him in order to live the way He originally planned for you. Right into your mouth He places the Body and Blood that He gave up on the cross in order to win you back for your heavenly Father. He admits you with open arms into His holy presence, you are no longer forbidden because the Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, covers you. You no longer have anything to fear, for your sin is taken away. As terrible as your past may have been, as far as your Lord is concerned, it is forgotten. That is what God’s forgiveness is all about.

It is a forgiveness that prepares you for eternal life. Beginning from the moment of your baptism, from that point onward you are declared innocent, no, actually perfect in God’s sight because of Jesus, while at the same time the Holy Spirit is helping you in your fight against Satan and even your old sinful self. While you are still on this earth you will continue fighting, you will continue confessing your sin and hearing the mighty Word of absolution. You always do that here in church, but you can also do it in private so that your pastor can announce that forgiveness especially to you. However you hear it, though, it still is the Word of Jesus for you to pick you up and send you on your way as you live out the calling in life that God has given you. Just as it did for Peter and Isaiah in the Bible, so that Word also strengthens you, for He is stronger, even stronger than any memorable tragedy of this world. And armed with His strength, you are able to rise from the destruction of sin and by His grace alone, move forward in fulfilling His mission.

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

Readings:
Is. 6:1–13 Holy, holy holy is the LORD of hosts
Psalm 138 You have magnified Your word above all your Name
1 Cor. 14:12b–20 do not be children in understanding … in understanding be mature
Luke 5:1–11 from now on you will catch men

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

When Jesus was baptized, the Father’s voice declared, You are my Son, whom I love. With You I am well pleased. At this point all the world began to find out that the Son of God who came in human flesh to bear the sin of the world, now at last got to work to save us. Long ago the prophet Jeremiah recorded that God’s plans and tender love were not reserved only for Jesus but for you, for all of us, long before He formed us and gave us life in the womb. Our Lord and Savior arrived on the scene in long ago and far away Galilee to say, Remember what the prophets for centuries have been saying about a Messiah? Here I am, to proclaim good news to you and to heal you.

Today, St. Luke records for us here in this portion of his Gospel a summary of all the preaching and healing that Jesus did during His Ministry. This is the same preaching and healing ministry which would continue in the work of the Apostles, and which continues also to this very day – here in this place, in fact, and wherever the Word of God is purely preached and taught, and the Sacraments are rightly administered according to Christ’s institution. I’ll say it again: Jesus’ Words and works back then are the same that He continues to do even now for you here in this place. He gave three important points as we consider what it is we are doing when we gather to hear God’s Word and receive from this Altar the soothing, healing medicine of immortality which is given and poured out for us – the very body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The first thing we need to look at is the Divine necessity of the preaching and healing ministry of Jesus. What I mean by that is, it was just as necessary that our Lord preach and heal as it was that He needed to go to the cross, suffer, die and rise from the dead. He emphasized this Himself on the day of His Ascension when He commissioned His Apostles to go into all the world and make disciples – first by Baptizing, and then teach these new disciples everything Jesus Himself had taught. And this was most certainly not necessary for God’s benefit, or to help Him do something as if He couldn’t do it without you, but rather it was for you and for your salvation – so that you might receive the forgiveness of your sins and be delivered from sin, death and the devil. This is God’s good and gracious will, for apart from this salvation – which is to say, apart from this preaching and healing of Jesus – you and I would be lost forever in our sin, subject to eternal death and the devil, and doomed to spend eternity in hell. God would then only be joking with us or leading us on when He said, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Without Jesus, those words would be absolutely worthless to us.

Think about the man who was possessed by an unclean spirit, yet still he was there, evidently there to worship at the synagogue. If Jesus had never spoken to him, what use would it have been for him to set foot in that sacred place? He would not have been healed. And what about Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, who was possessed by a fever that was threatening to take her life? Would we not consider her to be a member of the Church because of her connection to Peter and Jesus? At least the Scriptures don’t ever say that she didn’t believe.

And so the same thing is true for you. Not only was it necessary for our Lord Christ to purchase and obtain the gift of salvation for you by His sacrificial death on the cross, but it was just as necessary that He wrap up that gift and hand it out to you. What Christ Jesus, the beloved Son of God, accomplished in His own flesh, He bestows upon His creation through His created gifts, in order that He might thereby recreate you and all creatures as a new creation in His Resurrection from the dead – all of which is given to you, and is accomplished for you, by the preaching of Jesus and the healing power of His body and blood.

Now at this point if we were able to ask the question of the crowds in this Gospel: “What is this Word,” and also: “How can this be?” – it sounds like the familiar “What Does This Mean” from the Catechism – that would bring us to the second point: namely, the Divine authority of the preaching and healing of Christ Jesus. We could of course say that Jesus has the authority by Divine right as the almighty, eternal Son of the living God. To be sure, even the demons recognize and acknowledge this with fear and trembling. Yet for us, that is a good thing. It’s not only because Jesus is the Almighty Son of God, for that alone would make us tremble, too. For us sinners, we need to hear that Jesus is the Almighty Son of God, sent to suffer in our place to earn our complete forgiveness. For apart from His Cross, His Divine authority would have to bring upon all of us nothing other than His Law, His wrath and His hot condemnation – and all without forgiveness, salvation, or any hope at all!

But thanks be to God for the Divine authority Jesus has been given as the Son of Man – that is to say, as the true God who has also become true Man for us men and for our salvation – He voluntarily took upon Himself the past, present and future sins of the entire world and borne them in His own body to the Cross – He has been vindicated in His Resurrection from the dead, and appointed as Judge of all mankind – but at the same time has also been endowed by our Heavenly Father with the authority to forgive sinners and give them eternal life. Life that began and was already infected with sin right from the womb now has been restored and the precious promise has come true.

It is with that Divine authority to forgive sins and give life in a place of death, that Jesus preaches the Gospel, heals people so that their sin doesn’t destroy them, and drives out both demons and fevers alike. And that authority is not just locked up in ancient Bible history, far away from us today. No, it’s with this very same authority He received from His Father that Jesus sent His holy Apostles – and that He continues to this very day to call and send His ministers out into this world to carry on what He began during His time here among us.

And that is the third point, what Jesus actually did and said, as we hear it in the Gospels for which we stand and praise Him singing our Alleluias. The modern-day world doesn’t want to admit that any of these events happened. That God created the world and then sent Jesus to rescue it and bring forgiveness. None of that will accomplish what sinful people want to do with their self-centered, works-oriented agenda. According to Jesus Himself – His preaching and healing is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. And what I mean when I say the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is His reign and work by His grace, in our hearts through faith of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has rescued us from the tyranny of the devil, thereby making us citizens of His heavenly Kingdom.

The preaching and healing of Jesus is what hands out these gifts and brings sinners into this Kingdom of God. Today you hear Jesus’ Words, and the miracle is, you are receiving Christ Himself – along with all His gifts and benefits. This is where Christ Jesus enters into you and Satan is cast out of you – and where God’s good creation is once and for all resurrected, restored and renewed. This is your Creator working right now in your midst to raise and restore creation to the perfect goodness that it had before the fall. He is coming through on the promise He made to you before you were the size of a single cell. Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you.

Today your hearing the Word is not reminding you or making you imagine what it would have been like if you were there listening to Jesus. No, that very same forgiveness and healing touch is right here. Both your soul and your body stand here today to be healed by the touch of His divine, life-giving flesh which comes to you not only by hearing, but also through water, bread and wine – even as the Scriptures teach all over. Thus, when you hear the Minister of the Word preaching His Gospel and eat Christ’s Body and Blood here in this place, and wherever God ordains it, He heals you and all people of their sins, and bestows eternal life and salvation just like He did when He first got to work, beginning His visible ministry.

You have been gathered together in this New Testament “synagogue” of the Christian Church, and on this holy “Sabbath Day” that you know as the Divine Service. Yes, odd as it may sound, Yucaipa turns out to be one of those “other cities” to which Jesus was also divinely sent to preach the Kingdom of God! It happened when He called a pastor to preach and bestow gifts in His name and stead, so that by His Divine authority the loving approval of the Heavenly Father might be preached into your ears and heart, and you might thereby be healed of the diseases of your soul with the precious medicine of immortality received here, at this Altar.

God grant you His grace, His Holy, precious Word, and the working of the Holy Spirit, so that you, too, would have the same zeal to hear and receive Christ’s preaching and healing just as the crowds did long ago, that you would cling to Jesus by faith in His Word, and that you would never push Him away from you. May this report of Him as our only Lord and Savior be spread far and wide from this place by means of your mouths, even “into every locality in this surrounding district,” so that all who are sick with sin and death may also be brought to Him and be healed.

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

Readings:
Jer. 1:4–10; 17–19 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you
Psalm 71:1–11 You are my rock and my fortress.
1 Cor. 12:31b—13:13 and yet I show you a more excellent way
Luke 4:31–44 at the synagogue in Capernaum

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

Imagine for a moment you were suddenly told that it’s time to pack up and move back to the ancestral homeland of your family. Now, most of your lifetime you have been away from there, living your own life, but instantly you are faced with a complete about-face and back you go to an exotic place full of history like Germany, Greece, the Philippines, Nebraska, or Brooklyn. That’s the situation that the Israelite exiles faced after living in Babylonia, which then suddenly changed management and became Persia. Since it was over a hundred years since Nebuchadnezzar marched the forefathers out of the Promised Land, none of the people who returned to Jerusalem with Nehemiah had ever before set foot west of the Jordan River. This homecoming would seem strange to them, since it was all going to be so unfamiliar.

Now there had been an earlier group that had gone ahead, and they started reconstructing and re-settling Jerusalem. Think about what they must have seen as they came up the summit and had their first view of the city they had dreamed about, the location of the former temple toward which they faced as they prayed. It was in utter ruins. The protective city wall was broken down. The temple itself was utterly desecrated and demolished. Nobody would have a home to call their own until they had rebuilt it with their own hands from the ground up. And don’t forget, the whole time there are some nasty neighbors who are constantly looking for an opportunity to attack and prevent them from rebuilding the Holy City, the land of their forefathers.

Yet despite all that could go against them, these Jewish pilgrims, along with the encouragement of prophets like Haggai and Zechariah, managed to rebuild the temple and resume a new life in their ancient family homeland. Ezra the Scribe was an expert in preserving and explaining God’s Word, and he was sent to Jerusalem with the blessing and generous finances of the Persian king in order to teach the Lord’s chosen nation and train them in the ways of righteousness. The Biblical book that bears Ezra’s name details what he said and did at that important time.

Another few years go by, and another leader brings over another group of people who knew that their family was from Israel, but they themselves had never seen Palestine before. This man was no prophet, nor a priest or Levite, nor a Scribe—he’s a layman, a dedicated hearer of the Word who served God through another vocation. This man is Nehemiah, and he made it his act of selfless love for the Lord and His Holy City to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.

This project was going to be every bit as difficult as it had been to rebuild the temple, because they had to start from the ruins of utter destruction and do their best to get it back to at least something like it was before. And those enemies were going to keep attacking. Wall builders had to hold their work tool in one hand, and their weapon in the other, just to ensure their own protection as they were working. With swords constantly strapped to their sides, they had organized a plan to form an instantly ready militia at the sound of the trumpet blast if there was the threat of any attack while the wall project was going on.

Finally, the wall was completely rebuilt. Nehemiah was appointed governor of Jerusalem and the whole surrounding region. The solemn gathering that you read about just a few moments ago in the Old Testament reading from Nehemiah chapter 8 was their first opportunity to gather on a holy day in an ancient Jerusalem that this new generation of immigrants could finally call home. An aging Ezra unrolled the scroll at dawn on the first day after a new moon in early fall. The gathered crowd fought against a slight chill in the air as they awaited the first rays of the sunrise to peek over the Mount of Olives in the distance. The Scribe stood up higher on a wooden platform so that his voice could carry from this pulpit to all the hearers. He and all the Levite helpers with him needed to preach and explain the words the people were hearing, since most of this new generation did not learn the ancient language that their forefathers spoke, the language in which the words of Moses were written.

It should have been a time to celebrate, but the people mourned and wept instead. They had been through so much, was it in response to their long, protracted ordeal finally being resolved? Did they suffer separation anxiety from the home they knew before, since it could never be the same for them in the land that they had to re-inhabit? No, their source of collective grief lay in what they heard in God’s Word. They began to take stock of how they had lived in light of the Law, and they could not avoid the chilling truth that the Lord’s own people had failed Him with their sins of thought, word, and deed. There was no more excuse left to use. They had to come clean before the Lord and His chosen spokesman. If you were there, you could hear people all around you wailing out loud and crying at the top of their lungs. Ezra and Nehemiah, along with their assistants, actually had to calm the multitude down and get them to concentrate on the Jewish festival that they had gathered to celebrate. Later that month, they would devote the entire day to repentance and confession of sin. Now, however, they needed to be assured of something even greater than the magnitude of their sins. This newly formed congregation of pilgrims in their new home, which was their old home, needed to be edified by those Gospel words: The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Perhaps that’s what you’ve come into this house of the Lord to hear today. You want some strength. You’ve undergone an ordeal of one sort or another and you’ve heeded Christ’s call to come to Him and find rest. Every time you think you have one fire put out, there’s another one that blazes even brighter and hotter than the last. These events that you’ve experienced, as they are interpreted by God’s perfect Law, drive home the point to you that you are a sinner. You can’t avoid it. The more you reflect on what the Lord desires for you in connection with your calling of service to Him and to your neighbor, the more you see just how far you have disobeyed the Commandments, especially the first one, You shall have no other gods. Your situation in life often appears worse than if you were to come to a ruined ancient city and you were expected to make a new home out of it. If you are fully honest with yourself, you would realize that it is much too easy to let despair take over and suffer the attacks of the Devil, who wants you to deceive yourself into thinking that your heavenly Father wants nothing to do with you, which is nothing at all like the truth.

You hear today about those who rejected Jesus at Nazareth, His own hometown. But before you jump to the conclusion that, I wouldn’t reject my Savior, I would love to have Him pay me a visit; take notice that you’re not too far away from that misstep yourself. Your eagerness to pray has a frequent tendency to grow cold and possibly even die out altogether. You have reacted in anger toward those who have sinned against you, and assume the worst out of one too many misunderstandings. Your sinful nature has within you an innate resentment of familiarity against Jesus, just like His neighbors in Nazareth had. It loves to make demands of our Lord, and presume to lecture Him with the words, “Physician, heal thyself.” You may not ever form a mob and threaten to push Christ over the cliff, like they tried to do, but you certainly would have rather had Him make His proofs a little more convincing to your tastes.

Yet Jesus is most certainly that Physician that your soul needs. He came not to heal Himself, but to heal and forgive you. As you hear the words of Law that bring your sin to light and crush you down with condemnation, listen also for the Gospel liberty that Jesus earned for you once on the cross and constantly hands out to you right here in the Sacrament of the Altar. Do not dwell on the sins and faults of your past, like those people did who were listening to Ezra read from the scroll of God’s Word. For you have the same assurance that calmed their troubled hearts: the Joy of the Lord is your strength, too. It was the joy that was set before Jesus that led Him to the cross, despising its shame, and once He accomplished your ultimate rescue, He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, claiming the same authority as at the time when He sat down in Nazareth’s synagogue to preach and proclaim: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Be an attentive and diligent hearer of the preaching and teaching of the Word of God—not to glean some helpful hints for making your life better or more successful in this life, but rather to receive the good news that your Jesus has intended for the poor in spirit. If you honestly acknowledge that without your Savior you have nothing in you that is pleasing to God, then in His Name the certain absolution of the Lord’s favor is yours forever. You don’t have to make your works into something holy, or churchly and pleasing to God—since you have Jesus, your works of your particular God-given calling are already that way. As impossible as it may seem, with the aid and comfort of the Holy Spirit, you can build up a wall of spiritual defense against all who would try to harm your faith. You may feel at times that you are far away from what is familiar and comfortable as you face the trials and crosses of life, but even in a spiritually distant culture like we have these days, it’s still true: you belong to the Church, the holy people of God, who by faith in Christ, inhabit already now the real Promised Land of His eternal kingdom.

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

Readings:
Neh. 8:1–3, 5–6, 8–10 And Ezra opened the book
Psalm 19:1–14 The heavens declare the glory of God
1 Cor. 12:12–31a by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body
Luke 4:16–30 proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD…Today this Scripture is fulfilled

The following statement from President Harrison is intended not only to address the current situation in our country, but also to provide a continued confession of the LCMS’ position opposing abortion. President Harrison’s statement is available for use in your congregation, local paper or any avenue proper for your situation.

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

On Jan. 22, 2019, the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand, the governors of both New York and Illinois signed laws to extend and promote abortion.

“This is the evolution of humankind in America,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he signed the Reproductive Health Act into law. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an executive order to ensure taxpayer funding of abortions, saying that it would make his state “the most progressive … in terms of women’s reproductive rights.”

Life, not death, is the goal of humanity. History testifies that death is never the means through which justice and human rights prevail. We do not advance on the graves of our children. Germany, which sought eugenics as the solution to problems, now has strict abortion laws. To defend and support life is the goal of every just government, and the right to life is the hallmark of a good society.

Yet abortion laws have allowed the abortion of more than 61,000,000 children since Roe v. Wade. That’s nearly 50 times the number of American soldiers killed in all wars. The abortion industry and its proponents take great lengths to avoid facing the fact that abortion dismembers a living child in a horrid pool of its own blood. This is barbaric.

Abortion is a lie. Science is on the side of life. We shall stand against the barbarism of abortion until our dying breath. Abortion is illogical, as we slaughter babies in the womb while developing ever-better care for other unborn children. Abortion contradicts the natural law written on human hearts that teaches us it is wrong to kill.

Lawmakers and bureaucrats in our country have become emboldened to force citizens to go against their conscience. People publicly celebrate laws that lead to the deaths of children.

How long, O Lord, how long?

Our Christian faith teaches us to value life and to love each and every person as our neighbor. Love is life, and life is the great gift of love. Death is our natural enemy. This can be seen in our lives and in our world each day. Even the birds that seek food in winter testify that life is the goal of their movements and their work. The flowers that grow toward the sun seek the light that enlivens them. We all live under God, who grants life to His whole creation.

And in the giving of His Son to be the Savior, God shows that He is the Lord of life. Jesus came to love. He taught us to love all people, including those whom we consider our enemies. He taught us to unconditionally love every person, even those whom this world considers unworthy of love. Jesus not only taught us to love. He brought healing and wholeness to the broken. He proclaimed peace to those who were troubled. He sat with those who were excluded. He lifted up those who were beaten down. But most of all, He loved through the sacrifice of His own life on the cross. He died to forgive the sins of all humanity. His forgiveness is a free gift for all who trust in Him, including those who suffer from guilt for aborting their child. He rose on the third day.

The resurrection of Jesus is God’s grand statement that life is the goal of this creation. The resurrection of Jesus proclaims that all creatures find the goal of their existence in life. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so we learn that God treasures life over death.

We live as citizens in this world, and we seek to be obedient to our nation’s laws. We thank God for our leaders and for this great land He has given to us and for its precious freedoms and opportunities. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod advocates strong citizenship and active participation in government. We obey the laws of our land and encourage those around us to do so.

We are, however, bound by our conscience to speak against those laws that are unjust and, especially, those laws that violate God’s law and the natural law that binds all mankind. Abortion and other means through which humans kill humans violate these natural and moral laws that form the foundation of society.

Therefore, we stand against these actions and against all laws that sanction abortion or the taking of innocent life. We cannot stand silent when people elected to positions in which they are to protect citizens continue to pass laws and advocate for legislation that undermines the sanctity of human life. Our conscience is bound by both the Word of God and reason to speak for life as a precious gift of God and to speak against any and all who promote the killing of unborn children. We cannot hide the evil of these laws under the banner of “rights” or “privilege.” Children’s lives are at stake. They cannot speak for themselves. We will speak for them, and we will work to protect their lives.

And we will continue to work to love and support the women who face difficult choices or suffer from the consequences of abortion. We support young mothers who have chosen life for their children. We work to provide adoption and other opportunities to care for children in need. And we continue to show God’s mercy to all, just as He, in Jesus, has mercy on all.

We will work, love and pray that all might know the love of Jesus and trust in Him for salvation. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, President The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Link to LCMS page

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

Jesus turned water into wine, three days after He was baptized, to manifest His glory, that is, make it plain as day for others to see what John had already testified: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He did it so that His disciples would then believe in Him. John the Gospel-writer designated this as the “first of His signs,” because there would be more miracles to come that would bear witness to the all-important event of our forgiveness, that time which Jesus called “My Hour.” Yes, you could also note the supreme trust that His Mother Mary had in Him, and we would be wise as well to put every one of our problems into His hands. And you get in this story an amusing way to prove to others that Jesus didn’t have a problem with alcohol in and of itself. He approves of a modest amount for the purpose of enjoying what He has made. But don’t rule out also that this unusual miracle includes with it Christ’s blessing of the institution of marriage, which God Himself began and blessed in the perfect creation, before there was sin.

Why would Jesus choose a wedding as the place for His first miracle? What was the particular blessing that would be given? For one thing, getting married is not an achievement of man, not some rite of passage for a person to do or not to do, it’s truly a gift of God.

Perhaps we should think of Jesus choosing a wedding feast for His first miracle because marriage is the one human relationship that ties all of us together—including everyone who is not right now married. On this Life Sunday it is appropriate for us Lutherans to claim that Marriage was originally and still remains God’s foundational, life-giving and life-affirming institution. Even if you are single or widowed, if you are divorced or it will be awhile until you might marry, you still have family relationships that God has given to you on account of marriage. Brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles all comprise the fruit and flower of marriage. Beyond that, all government, all friendships and all business relationships might likewise be traceable to marriage, if for no other reason than for the fact that we all have Adam as our father and Eve as our mother. God gave His gift of marriage to our literal first parents (Genesis 2:21-25) and from that one marriage has come forth every human relationship on earth. If a marriage becomes defined as something else besides what God says it is, it is not, and never will be, a marriage no matter what a government would try to say.

Jesus seemed ready to pass up on the opportunity to solve the problem that Mary posed to Him in the midst of a wedding. They had no wine. A time for celebration was about to end in disaster and a cloud of shame. But see, Jesus is not entirely against enjoyment and pleasure, and of course He is not approving of drunkenness at all. Replenishing an empty wine jug is not the real act of salvation; remember John wrote this miracle was a sign—that is, something letting you know about something else, something greater yet to come.

The miracle at Cana is “the first of His signs.” These Words “the first of His signs” suggest that this miracle is the elder brother, so to speak, of all our Lord’s other miracles. This miracle is the prototype, the outline, the kick-off for all the miracles following, up to and including His resurrection. In this, His first miracle, Jesus “manifested His glory”, and the glory of Jesus extends to people of ALL NATIONS.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the purification jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it [and] the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine.

As it is with all His miracles, Christ our Lord is teaching us that we can rely upon Him, and trust in Him. I know it does not always feel as though you can rely upon Jesus while you struggle and labor every day with your various crosses in life. Jesus knows that you do not always feel convinced and content that you can trust Him. It seems like He is going to pass up yet another opportunity to help you out of your disaster and cloud of shame. You get frustrated; you get dejected. The law points out your sins and failures and you feel powerless to overcome them. You have run out of the wine of enjoyment in this faith marriage that you have to Christ your Bridegroom. That is part of the reason why your dear Lord gives you this miracle at Cana. What has Christ done here today?

He promises—and demonstrates—that He will provide for each of us, according to our need. His abundance will never fail to flow for us at the proper time—neither a moment too late nor too soon. Christ shows us in today’s Gospel that we can confidently look to Him for all things, just as His mother Mary looked at Jesus and boldly said to Him that simple prayer, that doesn’t at first sound to us like a prayer, “They have no wine.” Christ Jesus wants each of us to share in Mary’s confidence and certainty. She has faith that was also given to you in Baptism. It was Mary who said to the Angel Gabriel, who had brought news that she would be Mother of Our Lord, “Let it be to me according to God’s Word.” Now, thirty years later, she turned and said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” With these Words, Mary was essentially saying, “Everything will be fine. Simply listen to Jesus and act according to His Word, no matter what it looks like.” You can say that, too.

So the miracle is somewhat more than just “the water now become wine.” Maybe our Lord’s miracle did not begin at the time when He saw “six large stone water jars there.” Perhaps the miracle actually began much earlier, when Jesus was invited to the wedding with His disciples and HE ACTUALLY WENT! I am talking about the miracle of God’s presence among us! It’s the unfathomable mystery of Christ our Lord choosing, not only to come to earth, but also to sit among us in our daily lives and to be with us in the midst of our marriages and other family relationships. Don’t overlook that miracle. John does not write to us about a God who simply drops our provisions down upon us from above! Today’s Gospel shows us a God who desires to live bodily among us, providing for our every need while standing near and in the midst of us!

If you think of our Lord’s first miracle only in terms of “water now become wine,” and nothing more, then you would think of Jesus’ glory as only an isolated display of His divine power. To be sure, Jesus displayed His glory at Cana’s wedding because He possesses the divine power to change water into wine just by speaking a Word.

But Jesus is not all about showing us how He can flex His God-muscles. He is revealing His DESIRE to come to the wedding! He wants to be a part of your life and exert His divine power for your sake. We hear this Gospel not merely to see a Lord and Christ who can do great things, but here we see a Lord and a Christ who wants to be among us, to be baptized in our filthy, sin-filled water, and He finds no greater glory than providing forgiveness—true purification—for us while He’s right here in our midst! He wants to bring the wine to the party, the best wine at that!, for you to enjoy His wedding feast of salvation. Today’s miracle begins when Jesus was invited to the wedding with His disciples, and HE ACTUALLY WENT!

Jesus wants to be with us, and even rejoices to be with us, whether we remembered to invite Him or not. Jesus is happy to dwell among us because there is now, thanks to Him alone, nothing in us any longer that would bring down His wrath. After all, when His Hour did come, Jesus our Lord shouldered all the punishment and judgment against us when He entered the Baptismal water for us and thus became “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and from that day forward He made His glory plain as day, the glory that means forgiveness for you, exemption from the punishment you had deserved, a wedding union to the God who desired to be one with you. Give heartfelt thanks and praise to God almighty, for when God calls this miracle the first one, He wants you to know and to trust that there are many more to follow, also in your life.

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

Readings:
Is. 62:1–5 You shall be called by a new name
Psalm 128 thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD
1 Cor. 12:1–11 one and the same Spirit works all these things
John 2:1–11 there was a wedding in Cana

Our congregation is being invited to expand its mission work by supporting an independent LCMS mission group called Lutherans in Africa. Rev. Timothy Rossow travels the country telling congregations about this work and he will be here Sunday, February 24 at Bible Class and there will be a special missions sermon.

Lutherans in Africa is addressing the need for religious education in Africa. There are millions of Lutherans in Africa but many of them do not know what it means to be a Lutheran. Many of the pastors have never read Luther’s Small Catechism (yes, the pastors). Also, most Lutherans do not get to see a pastor but every couple of months and so they are led by untrained laymen. For ten years Lutherans in Africa has been invited by Lutheran Bishops (similar to our District Presidents) all over the continent to lead seminars to educate the pastors and lay teachers.

Two years ago we broke ground on a twenty- building seminary outside of Nairobi, Kenya and have already had dozens of seminars at this new location. God is richly blessing us.

Two buildings have already been completed at the new seminary and two more are over half done. Please come hear Rev. Rossow talk about this great work on Sunday, February 24.

Visit the website at
Lutherans in Africa

Newsletter:
December 2018

Lutherans in Africa are supported by Lutherans in USA and…Finland! So the website is bilingual. Take a look!

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

The Holy Spirit often flies like a bird, swooping, hovering, so that His rushing wind sound could very well come from the flapping of His wings. Over the primordial waters at the very beginning of time, even before God created light, the Holy Spirit flew around like a dove looking for a place to rest. But, like the raven that Noah first let fly from the Ark after the Great Flood, there was no rest to be found. The earth at that time was still covered in water, the water of God the Father’s judgment against man because of his sin and the fact that every inclination of man’s heart was only evil, all the time. And so the raven returned, and Noah and his loud, smelly, frustrated crew and cargo had no choice but to wait patiently, and expectantly for the time that the Lord had in mind to let them out on dry ground.

The world was not under God’s judgment only during the months that Noah and his family and all the animals were in the Ark. Ever since He expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the Almighty has uttered the terrible sentence: “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.” When man listened to the Serpent, the devil, rather than the voice of the Lord God, then the heavens were shut, with no possibility for man to open them. Because of your sin and the sin of all mankind, all the way back to your ancestor Adam, the Holy Spirit was left to hover, He was flying around, waiting most patiently, most expectantly for the chance to come down and rest again. But the Holy Spirit is God and you worship and glorify Him as God, for He proceeds from the Father and the Son. And since the sin that is in all men is an open rebellion against the Lord, a constant rejection of His dominion over your life, the Spirit had to wait a long time. There was no man (or woman for that matter) in whom the Father was completely and fully delighted, and upon whom the Spirit could come to rest. Until…

Until the day your Savior Jesus began His ministry in the flesh here on this fallen and corrupted earth. That was the day when He came to that great final prophet, His relative in the flesh, John the Baptist. Many others came to this wild-looking man to admit and confess their sins, to repent, be forgiven, and restart their lives in an effort to do better. Jesus did not do that. He did not need to do that. But He did come to be baptized by John in the Jordan River. And St. Luke tells you why Jesus, who needed no repentance, came to be baptized along with all those sinners, with all those people like you, who were grieving over the judgment of God against them because of their transgressions.

For when Jesus was baptized, according to God the Father’s will, as He was praying a most unexpected and most wonderful event occurred. The heavens burst open once again! The Holy Spirit, who for so long flew back and forth, giving word to all those prophets back in the Old Testament that a Savior was coming, now He finally came down and landed on solid ground. This bird that John the Baptist saw, and any other witnesses for that matter, this bird they saw that was the bodily form of the Holy Spirit Himself (not just a symbol) came to rest on Jesus, the bodily form of the Son of God Himself (not just an enlightened man). Then there was the Voice. The Voice of the Lord God, the Voice that once justly condemned you and your father Adam, now speaks blessing, speaks of God the Father being well-pleased once again.

What a day that was; what a day that we celebrate today! The Baptism of Christ helps you continue your focus on the Christmas story. When St. Simeon held the baby Jesus in his arms and then said that he may finally depart in peace, it reminded you that the baby Jesus was born in order to die and thus bring an end to death, and for the Christian, death becomes a good end instead. Epiphany told you that Jesus was born for all people, and not just for the Jews. Today you hear that He would go to His death on the cross carrying your sins in His body, all so that the Holy Spirit could flap His wings downward and come to rest upon you, even as it did that one day upon Him.

In your baptism, the sins that are every day washed away from you, those sins were there in the Jordan River on that great day. They were in the cloudy water that soaked up into His flesh; your rebellion that is wiped out at the font was the load that was placed on the shoulders of your Savior. And He bore it gladly and willingly for you so that you might be free. It all begins with Jesus being baptized, and it all comes to completion when He dies on the cross for you and rises from the dead. That is why Jesus’ baptism is so important for you—it makes your baptism the water of life, grace and forgiveness that it is.

Your baptism is not your sign of commitment to God, it was instead the day your Heavenly Father opened heaven to you and gave you the Holy Spirit. Remembering your baptism every day in confessing your sins and hearing God’s forgiving statement of absolution is how He does this for you continually. Just like what happened to Jesus in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit comes to rest upon you—in a way hidden to you—but real all the same. He comes to rest upon you not because you have made yourself perfect and acting like Jesus, but instead, through your baptism you have put on the perfect life and death of Jesus like a robe or garment. In the Father’s eyes you are none other than Christ His beloved Son! It doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; that’s what being the Body of Christ is all about. You need not look for some extra “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” nor for any other signs that you are saved. You were and you are truly baptized in the Holy Spirit because you were baptized in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It didn’t need to be special water; you didn’t need to be immersed in it. All it took was simple water, God’s Word, and God’s holy name. You not only were baptized at a certain time, you are baptized—it is a sign to you that you have been given a new life in Christ.

And so, your life as a Christian continues now with the Holy Spirit on you and within you. Remember, your body is His holy temple and it is your privilege to treat it as such. Bring into your temple that One true sacrifice: the body and blood of Christ that was offered up once and for all for the sins of the whole world. And the Holy Spirit has promised to dwell wherever Christ is present. But the Holy Spirit is not simply at rest; He’s not nesting in your heart, bracing for a cold, dark winter. He continues to work, creating life in your dying flesh, constantly converting and renewing your heart, pushing you and leading you to pray and serve. He invigorates a slumbering giant of a church that has the potential to do such wondrous and amazing things. All as He desires, and all on the timeline that He sees fit.

Finally, the Spirit brings war within your very being, in which your new nature, alive in Christ, fights against the old, dying flesh that still wants its own way. It is a war that will continue till death, but it is war that is already won. For now, you wait patiently in the Ark until the end. It will get frustrating, and loud and even a little smelly in this Ark called the Christian Church on earth, but in God’s good time He will rescue you, in the end the waters of judgment will not touch you, and you will be safe, dry and secure. As His precious, forgiven, baptized child and temple of His Holy Spirit, He will bear you up on eagles’ wings and bring you to Himself in heaven, because now, because of your baptism, with you also He is well pleased.

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

Readings:

Genesis 6
Galatians 3:26-29
Exodus 19:3-6

Is. 43:1–7 I have called you by your name; You are Mine.
Psalm 29 Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Rom. 6:1–11 dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Luke 3:15–22 the Holy Spirit descended…like a dove upon Him…