How dull and plain life would be if the seasons never changed! No matter how much you might prefer one particular season of the year, you probably would get tired of it if it never ended. Most of us like to see variety in one way or another, and the changing seasons of the year offer that variety to us, and at least give us something start up a conversation. Each season has its own attraction and charm and, by the time you get tired of one season, there’s always another one coming sooner than you think.

Not only our world around us, but also the Church has changing seasons of the year. As we gather to worship, we notice the Church moving through one season into another, each with its own unique message, and each with its own mood. As a result, worship is not monotonous, but vibrant and always renewing from week to week. As one season draws to a close, the next one comes in its own special way.

The Church Calendar informs us of the different seasons in the Church’s liturgical year. The seasons of the Church Year are closely related to the seasons of nature, but sometimes they are independent of each other. A Calendar like the one in the very front of the hymnal tells us when each season of the Church Year is to begin and how long it is to last.

The Church Year is divided into two main parts. The first part is focused on the life and ministry of Christ while He was still visible in the flesh on this earth. During this part of the Church Year we partake of the important events surrounding our Lord, from His birth in Bethlehem, till the time He ascended into heaven and gave His disciples the Holy Spirit. Since significant days like Christmas, Good Friday and Easter happen during this part of the Church Year, it is commonly called the Festival Half. In the non-Festival half, which covers most of the summer into the fall, the festivals are not as big, but no less important. It is also known as the Time of the Church. This is usually the time when the Church focuses on how the life, the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus feed and strengthen us as the Body of Christ.

In response to the various moods expressed throughout the liturgical year, the Church has chosen over the years to use color, among other things, to help bring out the special mood of each season. The paraments that decorate the altar, pulpit and lectern in the front of the Church change colors from season to season. This excursion will take a brief look at each liturgical season and the unique features that it offers us as God’s gathered people.

Other customs also reflect the mood of the season. For instance, during the solemn, penitential season of Lent, some churches do not include many flowers and the congregation does not sing or say the word Alleluia, only then at Easter they pack the place with lilies and sing 10 alleluias with every hymn! Of course, there is a different message from God’s Word for each season, and each Sunday has its own Scripture readings, hymns, prayers and so forth.

If we become aware of these different seasons and what they are all about, our participation in the Church Service will carry more interest and lead to a greater understanding of God’s mysteries.

As this special service explores each season, look especially for its associated color. That will be the color you find draped on the altar, pulpit, lectern and on the stole that the pastor wears. Today, a reading, collect prayer and hymn selection from each season will lead us through each of the Church’s seasons.

Advent

The Church Year begins with the season of Advent, which means “coming.” It includes the four Sundays that precede Christmas in which we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. As we look forward to the day of His birth there is, of course, much cause for joy and gladness. But there is also shame and penitence. John the Baptist, who was the last great prophet who pointed to the coming of the Savior, says each Advent to us what he said to his disciples: Repent! The Son of God comes to humble Himself and take on your sins, shortcomings, and sicknesses. Turn from your wicked ways and believe in His forgiveness! The royal and penitential color blue reminds us of our need to be sorry for our sins, but also to look forward in expectation to the second coming of our King, this time not as a baby in a manger, but as the Lord of heaven and earth receiving His children into eternal life.

Zechariah 9:9, 16-17

Advent 1: Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

LSB 357 1, 3, 7

Christmas

Christmas is one of the greatest days in the entire Church Year. It is the birthday celebration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. At Christmas we set aside the restraints and penitence of Advent as we burst forth with holy joy. God has kept His Old Testament promise. The Son has entered time and space in the form of a lowly newborn child. This Baby of Bethlehem will do for us what we could never do for ourselves—He will set us free from sin and bring us back into communion with God. The wonder and the thrill of God’s love at Christmas is everywhere. The color white, which is always used in connection with Jesus, reflects His radiant glory and testifies to the holy joy that He inspires into our hearts. Of course the chancel is specially decorated for Christmas—and it would seem like something’s missing if there were no greenery, Poinsettias and a Christmas tree up in front. Following the manner that days are reckoned in the Bible, every festival in the Church Year actually begins at sundown the evening before, and Christmas Eve is a perfect example. The Christmas season itself lasts for 12 days, from December 25th to January 5th.

Luke 2: 6-14

Christmas Eve O God, You make us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Grant that as we joyfully receive Him as our Redeemer, we may with sure confidence behold Him when He comes to be our Judge; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord

LSB 380 all

Epiphany

Epiphany follows right after the Christmas season, beginning on the 6th of January. Epiphany means “revealing” or “showing forth.” During this season we ponder the different ways in which Christ was revealed to the world as God and Savior. The first showing forth was to the Wise Men, or Magi by means of a star which guided them to His manger-crib. Later on Christ revealed Himself through His Baptism, His miracles, especially when He changed the water into wine, and through His preaching. His most splendid revelation was at the Transfiguration. The day of Epiphany begins and ends using the dazzling color white from the Christmas season; but in between the color is green, the color of foliage, growth and life, suggesting our spiritual growth as a result of our Lord revealing Himself to us in His Word and the Sacraments.

Matthew 2: 10-11; Luke 9:28-33, 35

Transfig O God, in the glorious transfiguration of Your beloved Son You confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah. In the voice that came from the bright cloud You wonderfully foreshowed our adoption by grace. Mercifully make us co-heirs with the King in His glory and bring us to the fullness of our inheritance in heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.

LSB 396 1-3

Lent

After Epiphany the mood of worship changes abruptly. Joy gives way to penitence as we begin to commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. The season reaches its climax on Good Friday and comes to an end at sundown on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. As we recall the depth of Christ’s agony at the hands of Pontius Pilate and on the Cross, we are compelled to remember that He went through it all out of His love for us and His desire to free us from our sins. As we especially humble our hearts and gather for worship more often during Lent, the color purple signifies our penitent mood.

Philippians 2:4-8

Lent 3 O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

LSB 430 1-3, 5

Good Friday

On Good Friday, we commemorate the day God in human flesh gave up His life for us. The altar is either covered in black or it is stripped bare. Our every word and action focuses on the cross, on our bleeding Lord and the events of that all-important day of the world’s history. But there is nothing morbid about this concentration on our guilt and our Lord’s suffering. For that suffering and death is the source of great relief and strength to us. Through His bitter agony and death Christ removed our guilt and paid for the forgiveness of our sins. As we see Him as pictured on the crucifix bleeding and dying, we are looking at the price of our salvation.

Luke 23:33-46

Almighty God, graciously behold this Your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sinful men to suffer death upon the cross; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.

LSB 451 1-3

Easter

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Though every Sunday is in its own way a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, on Easter Day, Christian hope and joy reach their highest point, for this is the day on which our Lord rose from the dead. Easter is the only Church festival that is not on any fixed day, but rather it occurs on a certain Sunday each year between March 22 and April 25. The color changes to white, which remains during the entire seven-week Easter season. As we stand before the empty tomb we discover along with the faithful women and the disciples that Christ’s death was not a tragic failure but rather a glorious success. We realize that He entered suffering and death as an Innocent Victim, but He fought as a mighty warrior who has gained the victory over death and Satan. Faith in the Christ who is risen brings us tremendous joy because the victory that He won on this great day is also our victory. His resurrection paved the way for our resurrection into eternal life hereafter.

Matthew 28:1-7 (please stand)

Almighty God the Father, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You have overcome death and opened the gate of everlasting life to us. Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

LSB 457 all

Ascension

Forty days after Easter, Christ concluded His visible ministry on earth when He ascended into heaven, where He as true God and true Man sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Prior to His ascension He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Though we no longer see His physical body, He is still here in a hidden, mysterious way—through His Holy Spirit in the preached Word and in the Holy Sacraments. Ascension is a day of triumph and joy as Christ, our Redeemer and the conqueror of sin, leads the grand procession to heaven, a procession that we follow also to our true home.

Acts 1:9-11

Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

LSB 494 1, 3, 4

Pentecost Day

The fiery color red belongs to Pentecost, which means “the fiftieth day.” On the fiftieth day after Easter, Jesus Christ sent His Holy Spirit upon His disciples, just as He had promised. Appearing in tongues of fire that rested upon them, the Spirit filled these first preachers with courage and strength. Immediately, Jesus began to preach through their many mouths, and thousands from all nations who had waited for their promised Savior believed. The Holy Spirit has never left Christ’s people, and He has been the constant intercessor for us before our Lord, and our never-failing source of inspiration and zeal. God the Holy Spirit uses the called and ordained ministers of Jesus Christ to preach the powerful Word to His chosen people. For this reason, the red color of Pentecost is also reserved for the ordination and installation of a man into the Office of the Holy Ministry.

Acts 2:1-4

O God, on this day You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit. Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.

LSB 498 1-3, 6

Trinity

After the celebration of Pentecost, the Festival half of the Church Year comes to a close. The very next Sunday after Pentecost is the feast of the Holy Trinity, or Trinity Sunday. The words Trinity and Triune both mean “three-in-one,” and this all-important doctrine of God we confess especially in the Athanasian Creed. On this day we remember that the God who revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ is the same God who created us and all things, and who dwells in our hearts. The one God is worshiped in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as
represented in the triangle icon. The color white is the symbol of Christ and the divine glory revealed in the Holy Trinity. The Trinity reading from Matthew is AKA the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:16-20

Almighty and everlasting God, You have given us grace to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity by the confession of a true faith and to worship the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty. Keep us steadfast in this faith and defend us from all adversities; for You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, live and reign, one God, now and forever.

LSB 507 1, 2, 4

Season of Pentecost

The last and longest season in the Church Year includes all the Sundays after Pentecost. Some local churches number the Sundays after Trinity because they follow the one-year cycle. In either case, the color is green to signify the new life and growth that Christ has achieved for us and continues to work in us through His Word and the activity of the Holy Spirit. This is the time of the Church, and the time in which we are reminded to be rooted in our Lord so that we may bear fruits of service for the benefit of our neighbor. In the late fall, as the Church Year draws to a close and the farmer looks to the gathering of the harvest, the Church proclaims the Last Things: the saints who have gone before us on All Saints’ Day, the Return of Christ, the Last Judgment, and the life everlasting.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

LSB 644 all

Offering

Church Festivals

Scattered throughout the seasons of the Church’s liturgical year there are also single days and dates that she does well to observe, especially if they happen to occur on a Sunday. Most of these special days commemorate certain Saints. They recall to our minds some of the great Christians of the past. Many of these days borrow the red color of Pentecost to signify the work of the Holy Spirit in their words and deeds as well as the color of their blood that was shed while they lived out the suffering and persecution of Jesus in their own bodies. We in the Lutheran Church follow the correct understanding of the Holy Scriptures when we teach that we do not worship these saints or pray to them. However, we do praise the Lord for the wonderful works He had allowed them to do by His grace, and we pray that God would likewise give us a bold faith.

Revelation 7:9-10

LSB 517 (stanza 4)

Kyrie & Lord’s Prayer

Almighty and most merciful God, the protector of all who trust in You, strengthen our faith and give us courage to believe that in Your love You will rescue us from all adversities; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Father in heaven, in mercy You have given us Your revealed will and counsel in the Holy Scriptures. Grant that as we hear and proclaim Your Word throughout the Church Year, we may be led to repent of our sins against You and receive forgiveness and Your gift of eternal life. Dwell within us in the flesh and blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit may we dwell in You now and forever.

O Father of mercies and God of all comfort our only help in time of need. Look with favor upon Your servants… Assure them of your Mercy, deliver them from the temptations of the evil one, and give the patience and comfort in their illness. If it please You restore them to health, or give them grace to accept their affliction.

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

Once I attended a graduation ceremony when I was a student at the Seminary. Many lay people from the surrounding community often attend this celebration, and I figured the two women seated in front of me were long-time regular attendees of Seminary festivities like this. When the doctoral degrees were being awarded, there was one in which the graduate’s thesis was announced that it had proposed to study the role of women in the church. One woman snickered to her friend in my hearing, “Must have been a short paper!”

Okay, despite all of today’s useless noise about the subject, the Bible’s teaching stays the same: women can’t be pastors. As Confessional Lutheran church bodies like the Missouri Synod, the Lutheran Church of Latvia, Siberia, Madagascar, Ghana, Australia, Argentina and others teach, women shouldn’t take roles of spiritual leadership that God has already assigned for certain qualified men to do. God’s Word is abundantly clear about that. But, Holy Scripture, as well as God-given reason and good sense, together state just as clearly that women are precious in God’s sight, and their unique gifts and service for the church and for their neighbors are irreplaceable. The Book of Proverbs ends with an excellent chapter that praises and exalts “a woman who fears the Lord,” making special mention of those to whom God has given the blessed and holy vocation of wife and mother. By dark contrast, societies around the world that have rejected the light of Jesus Christ tend also to demean and debase women. Churches like the ELCA and the Church of Sweden and most other Lutheran state-controlled churches, those that have adopted the heretical practice of female clergy, have also eventually ventured into paganism, earth-goddesses, and using the word “She” in reference to an ever-changing and, in their mind, self-improving God.

And then there’s the fascination with Mary Magdalene. Andrew Lloyd Webber writes a big role for her in the Broadway hit “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” She figures quite prominently in the story of the fictional and anti-Christian book and movie, The Da Vinci Code. Some unbelieving scholars go so far as to suggest the fantasy that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife or girlfriend; others only are bold enough to say Jesus regarded her as the leader among His disciples. None of these things about her grasp even a shred of reality as it has been revealed to us in the Bible, and all of them do this holy woman a great disservice.

According to the Gospels in the New Testament, Mary Magdalene had seven demons. She was under total domination by the forces of darkness, as the number seven depicts in other parts of the Bible. At the hearing of Jesus’ powerful, Divine Word, those seven spirits were released from her, and she followed Jesus along with other women, a few of whom had some wealth to share, as they accompanied the disciples whom Jesus later called to be His preachers.

In the Gospel reading you just heard, Mary Magdalene was specially listed as one who came to the tomb of Jesus, even though the other Gospel writers tell us that other people had accompanied her at first. Due to this account that has been preserved for us in God’s Holy Word, Mary Magdalene is given the honor of being the first among believers to see Jesus risen. She was also entrusted to relay the good news to the disciples, which she announced joyfully, having the dawn of forgiveness shining anew in her heart.

But that early morning, as you know, did not begin with joy and expectation, the smell of flowers and blinding sunshine cascading through stained glass, like we are accustomed to here at Easter. It began with unfinished work to do, with the cloud of death choking every glimmer of hope. Mary and her female companions were risking their lives to perform what they thought was one last tender gesture of respect and love for Jesus—to bury His body properly with the traditional spices, and perhaps say a few appropriate prayers. Then when the tomb was discovered empty, with the stone rolled away, sorrow must have turned even darker, to utter dread and a downward spiral of bewilderment. Not only has she lost her Teacher and Friend, but as a good student she knows that with a dead Lord, she is a goner. It means to Mary that she would still be dead in her sins. Those demons will soon be back with a vengeance. Could you imagine what you would feel if you knew such a horrible existence was just waiting to pounce on you yet again?

John, in his divinely inspired telling of the Easter story, notes that there was a time when Mary was alone, weeping, speaking first to the angels stationed in the tomb, then to the mysterious gardener. Could any light pierce or penetrate this complete darkness that had suddenly returned to a woman who had been so captured before?

Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ That’s it! That’s what needed to happen to bring light into the hopeless darkness! Jesus called her by her name and that makes all the difference. Mary knew the Voice of the Good Shepherd when He called her by her name. Good Friday grief is fully replaced by Easter Sunday joy. Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’ and Death’s sadness gives way to Life’s gladness. In this way, Mary Magdalene properly stands according to the Bible as the flesh and blood symbol for you, the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For you have been rescued from the utter darkness of your sins, and lifted up from your dreadful weeping, all because Jesus called you by name. For you, along with Mary, rejoice at this comforting Voice of Jesus, and you confess who He is, as Savior and Teacher, calling out to Him in prayer.

The Christ who died on the cross for you, to pay the price to save you from eternal darkness, rose from the dead so that He could impart His eternal light of forgiveness upon you. When you were baptized, heaven was opened, clouds were parted, God called your name, and so His face began to shine with the love He had for you from the very beginning. As you heard His Word, whether it was all your life, or only just recently, His countenance was lifted up in a new dawn and your demons were put to flight, never to return in domination ever again.

Even though the disciples would be the chosen Apostles sent to all the world, and they would be the ones who would preach and proclaim the Good News, Jesus specifically chose this woman, Mary from Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, to help and support them. They really needed her, not for her to preach to her own congregation, but to provide assistance for the church according to her own God-given gifts. To be sure, Mary’s help and support probably

was better at the time than if Jesus had sent twelve male messengers from the empty garden tomb. Yes, she was doubted; the men thought she was telling tales or the grief was making her delusional, but that’s how the Gospel is still treated with disdain in our world. We heard a few weeks ago God’s own reminder, My power is made perfect in weakness. In her former demon-possessed life, Mary Magdalene most likely was marked and avoided in her community. Yet this time, armed by a Spirit-filled boldness, she would proceed undeterred.

Such a thing could happen to this day. Very well-respected church leaders could throw out the Bible’s message for their own pet projects. Nevertheless, the humble, unassuming yet powerful message of forgiveness will not be darkened. Sometimes, a godly lay woman’s kindness and baptismal faith is what the Church needs to remember who the true Lord, the Bridegroom, the Good Shepherd, really is. The light of Christ still will shine, even when many reject it for what their itching ears would rather hear. Rejoice, all you who are baptized into the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Rejoice along with Mary Magdalene who first saw the Savior alive, because your demons are gone, your sinful darkness is past, and the light of Christ has risen upon you.

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

Readings:
Proverbs 31:10-31 A woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Acts: 13:26-31 In him we have obtained an inheritance
John 20:1-2, 10-18 to Mary Magdalene: go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending…’

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

If there was one thing that would have frightened King Herod, it was that John the Baptist was somehow raised from the dead. Thanks to a drunken stupor while entertaining both political friends and foes, a dance that was likely pleasing to the male eye, and thanks to a sinister plot of a vindictive woman, Herod woke up one morning with a headache, a dead prophet and a head staring at him from a bloody platter. The memory of John was still haunting Herod enough as it was. Now it seems this Baptizing preacher is miraculously raised from death, and bound to come by the palace for another round of guilt-inducing sermons. King Herod knew John was right about his sinful, adulterous marriage. He was told to repent, just as John told everyone, but this politician under the spell of Queen Herodias had allowed Satan to pluck up the seeds of the Word that God had planted in his heart. He was glad to hear about the Gospel of God’s kingdom, and the coming of the Savior, but he just loved his lifestyle, which is to say, he loved sinning, way too much. So instead, he pacified his wife and tried to keep John as safe as he could in a prison near the Dead Sea.

We live in a world of false comfort. We are clothed with fine, soft clothing and fare sumptuously every day. Our mutual funds may fluctuate more than we want, but such wealth would be unimaginable a generation ago: think of the cell phones, laptop computers, and air conditioning, of course, but then you go into the kitchen: there you find popcorn poppers, computerized refrigerators, waffle irons, double boilers, cappuccino machines. The pioneers who settled this land were lucky if they didn’t have to share forks! Anyway, John is a good man for us in our luxurious existence. He is a man obsessed. He cares for almost nothing, least of all gadgets and convenience. He cares not even for decent food or clothing. He cares only for the Savior to come, the One whose sandals he is not fit to untie, but Whom he will anoint by Divine Command. He will anoint Him for a crown of thorns, for a throne erected between two thieves, for a Kingdom whose glory is found in the death of its Prince. In the anointing, in that Holy and first of all Baptisms, heaven opens to sinners, the Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and the Son begins His journey toward our redemption.

Nonetheless, John’s message sounds mean to our sensitive, modern ears even as it did to Herod’s. It is harsh because he will not waste your time to be nice. He will not coddle you. He has not come to try out his flawless rhetoric to “make a point” but he gets right to the point. He won’t tell cute stories or show you funny videos, or promise more money in your pocket. He is not trying merely to “make you think.” He is not being clever or poetic. He will not manipulate your emotions or “set the mood.” He is not a reed blown about in the wind of human opinion. He despises the urge to be interesting or engaging. He’d even fail the Seminary preaching classes! But on Jordan’s bank stands a man obsessed. He cares only for the wrath and judgment to come, doing the work he has been given to do before the night comes when no man can work. He wags that bony finger of his in your face, stands too close, breathes his nasty locust breath upon you, fixes his steely gaze,
eyeball to eyeball, and says, “Repent! Repent now, before it is too late. Turn from yourself and your worries. Cease your self-obsession, your concern for your rights and honor. Don’t let the thoughts that try to condemn you have the last word. Be filled with the Spirit, die and rise again with Christ, hear the Father’s adopting words. Be Baptized and live!”

John is the ultimate preacher of the Law. And that is so often our excuse for ignoring him. Our fallen flesh tends to think, “Well, he preaches Law but I need to focus on the Gospel. John was all about ‘fire and brimstone’ and calling people out when it’s none of his business how people live, but I am a nice, gentle, kind person. I want to help people. I am not like John. I am like Jesus.” Okay, but then you should actually try reading the Gospels and pay attention to what Jesus says. There is a reason that the Gospels summarize both John’s and Our Lord’s preaching with the same sentence, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” They may have done similar actions, but of the two, Jesus is more stern, more fierce, more demanding. He is not some wimpy little do-gooder. He is bold and brazen. He even got angry! He is not afraid to pick up a towel and water and wash His disciples’ feet. He is not afraid to defy the priests and the governor. He keeps awake to pray. He does not fall into temptation or excuse sin. He is not afraid to look weak or to suffer. Finally, He is clearly the only One ever not afraid to die. If John is obsessed, Jesus then must be a maniac.

Like it or not, the Law is God’s Word. It is His revealed will for man but man cannot obtain it. False law, not the kind John preached, is actually quite nice. False law takes many forms, but at its most popular it is a guide for good living or secret hints on how we might please God, earn His favor, and get ahead. False law says there can be other definitions of marriage. The real Law came from John’s mouth, and also ultimately from Jesus. It is damning. It hurts; it kills. It drives us to our knees. But it is it is good. It needs to be preached, so it would open our eyes to the reality of how helpless we are. The Law made even King Herod stop and think for a while.

John preaches the Law because he is a prophet of the Most High. That does not mean that God sent him to make the people feel guilty and sad or to scare them. He was sent to tell the Truth. And that Truth can only comfort those who own up to their smelly feet and let Jesus wash them. John comforted them. In repentance, Jesus Christ, the Salvation of mankind, is known. John delivers forgiveness through preaching and baptizing into Jesus. The Law he preaches is not the goal. It sets our hearts up to hear the Gospel, the Good News of God’s intervening love that caused Him to take up our flesh.

The tender mercy of our God is not in removing the Law, but in fulfilling it. It accuses us. It drives us to the edge of despair. With Isaiah we cry out, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.” With Peter we beg, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” We acknowledge the goodness, the holiness of the Law and our abject failure regarding it. But then, at the Word of Christ, the Law, which hounded us, departs. It is satisfied in the perfect life and death that Jesus lived and died in our place. Suddenly, there is no one to accuse you. The Lord helps you up, embraces and kisses you, and bids you come and be a guest at His Table, to sit down next to John and all the others who believe and testified until death. Your sins are removed. Your past, your shame, your guilt are no more.

Unlike John, Jesus really did rise from the dead, not to make you fearful like Herod was, but to set you free. He wipes away your tears and fills those places left empty and abandoned inside you with Himself. His hair, His skin, His bones, that Body pierced, dead and buried, back to life, with God’s judgment now satisfied, is placed into your once unclean lips and they are cleansed. You are healed. You are whole. The Blood of the Lamb is poured down your throat and into your heart. You are clean. You are one with Him. You abide in Him and He in you. You are His. You enjoy a Holy and perfect Communion.

That was what King Herod rejected. It was the blessed, sweet Gospel that came right along with John’s stern demands for repentance. He heard that he couldn’t have a wife who was also his sister-in-law as well as his niece. And the devil, using other people’s anger, incited him to kill John, since he can’t ever kill the Gospel. But when the guilt started coming back to the king’s conscience, just like it might be for you when you recall a sin you’ve done in the past, Herod felt helpless, like there was nothing by which he could undo this day of reckoning. The risen John the Baptist could pop in any day now and announce my condemnation, and I wouldn’t have an answer back.

Thanks to the Gospel Word that you hear today from your Lord and Savior Jesus, you need not face that helpless, condemned feeling that’s stronger than any normal feeling. You may have days where everything good that Jesus does for you sounds like it is tearing you down with shame instead of lifting you up. Like you are not good enough. But those thoughts need not haunt you anymore. You do have God’s unchanging Word that says Jesus was good enough and He took your place. He gave you His place. Really, you are not condemned—you are safe and secure in your heavenly Father’s arms. Because of this Good News, John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb at the presence of his Savior. He also died in joy too, even though it was also a sad, unjust tragedy. He was branded a fanatic, but it was the Word of God that kept him tied to the message of the Gospel and eternal life. Give no anxious thought to what tries to dominate you in the here and now. The persecution from the world is not worth comparing to what lies ahead. Your life, as well as your death, should it come before Christ returns, will in the same way as John the Baptist bear witness to your Lord who gave up His life in order to make you His own.

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

Readings:

Isaiah 6:1-9 Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts
Luke 5:1-9 …a great number of fish, and their net was breaking…

Amos 7:7–15 the LORD took me as I followed the flock
Ps. 85 Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your anger toward us to cease.
Eph. 1:3–14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ….
Mark 6:14–29 Martyrdom of John the Baptist

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

Jesus was the man to whom the prophet Isaiah refers when he writes: He was despised and rejected. (Isaiah 53) And Jesus was despised and rejected no more strongly than among His own people. In the very city of Nazareth, in which the Son of God grew up as Mary’s Son, He received one of the worst welcomes. They thought of Him as the “kid who lived down the block.” They could not accept the miraculous wonders that came from the Words of His mouth and the laying on of His hands. Only a few people, perhaps they were desperate for help, but they were the ones to whom God gave faith to receive His healing. So Jesus speaks His rebuke: “A Prophet is not without honor (‘not without’ means He is well-liked), except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”

He says this not so that you’d feel sorry for Him. The Gospel according to Mark tells us Jesus marveled at His fellow Nazarenes’ unbelief, but this isn’t like it hit Him unawares. He knew, He even decreed through the ancient prophets that many would reject Him, even those people He might have thought He could trust for support. He was the one who told Ezekiel, I am sending you to the stubborn and obstinate people of Israel. They will refuse to hear you, but you are going to preach to them anyway. Although it won’t look like you’ll have success, you’re going to give them My Word. For Jesus, the Prophet above all other prophets, the One who gave the Holy Spirit to all the prophets of the Old Testament, He is still not without honor. This means that He will receive the honor that is rightfully due to Him, just not from the place you would think.

Instead, Jesus receives honor from the weak, the desperate, and the sinful. They are mentioned even in the Bible account merely as a parenthesis: as if it were to say, the whole population of Nazareth rejected Jesus, oh, and by the way, He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. Now, important people can give honor, but these people who barely get a mention have little more honor than a stray dog. But I tell you—these people are the ones we should pay attention to! Those who believe in Him are not the ones who think they can have it their own way. They understand that Christ came as a doctor not for those who pretend they are healthy, but for those who acknowledge that they are incurably sick. They’re desperate for healing and nothing else matters to them.

That is who you are. You regularly admit here in this place that you are a poor miserable sinner. You know you have no choice but to confess that you have the bad habit of lashing out in anger or frustration against your friends and the loved ones in your own family. Perhaps it’s just in your thoughts or online communications. You realize that, because of your sins, you have no claim on the Lord, no reason why He should love you as He does, except that the Lord Himself came to rescue you from your debilitating sin. And by that, He is honored.

For Jesus Christ, Son of God and the Son of the Virgin Mary, set aside all His heavenly honor and power and humbled Himself, but not just when He became a human being. For He could have come as a mighty king, arrayed in finer wealth than King Solomon and Bill Gates combined. All honor in heaven and earth could have been laid at His human feet while sitting in glory on every earthly throne—and it still would have been a humbling experience for the Eternal Son of God the Father. But, He humbled Himself further than just becoming a man—He became a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” (Isaiah 53) He became the lowliest of men, the miserable, suffering servant of all people. He not only set aside His eternal crown as King of the Universe, but He also replaced that crown with a crown of thorns.

And finally, it is on the cross that you see your Lord who is worthy of all honor. Christ crucified; this is your Lord in all His ironic glory. It is also the glory and honor that He chooses to give to you. It may not be His will that you are successful in earthly things. He may have other plans than for you to get that job or promotion that you’ve been hoping for, that big goal that you’re setting your heart on. But that doesn’t mean that you didn’t pray hard enough or that He doesn’t love you. He can say to you much like He said to the Apostle Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. And His will is going to continue as it has in this dying world even if our magnificent plans never materialize, whether it’s a revived Sunday School or a standing-room-only church attendance, or offering plates overflowing. That doesn’t mean that our Lord would not bless these things and use them to do His will in spite of sinful people like all of us, myself included, who love to meddle and put in our two cents’ worth. Reports from the mission field in places like Madagascar amaze us at how God’s work is being done among millions of Lutherans in a whole different-looking way than it is over here, but it is no more and no less the will of God in either place. We also rejoice in the fact that the far-flung mission field has saved us the travel trouble and has come right here in our own area!

You see, Christ does not need us in order for Him to receive His honor. Following His death on the cross, by which He destroyed the devil and murdered death itself, He rose from the dead in magnificent glory and almighty power. And then, when He comes straight to you, the sinner, He holds out His nail-marked hand and says, Your sins and your rebellion against me are all forgiven! Be free, and allow me to fill you with my flesh and blood and make you my holy temple. I will revive and restore your sin-sick body and soul with my glorious and vibrant resurrected body and Spirit. And for you simply to receive such a gift from your Lord Jesus is really to give Him all honor in heaven and on earth. For it is not your holiness and good deeds nor your involvement in worship that renders Him honor, even if you were the holiest and most pious. Instead, He is truly honored when you say Amen, it shall be so, Amen, the gift is received.

And so, you too have the honor that belongs only to Jesus, because He dwells in you and you in Him. You have His honor because you have His Word, His all-powerful Word. It is the same Word that He gave to those disciples whom He sent out to teach right after the story of His rejection. You would think that those twelve preachers would be discouraged right after that negative encounter happened in Nazareth. And no doubt that those apostles faced plenty of rejection themselves. Many of them would suffer the ultimate persecution of martyrdom, not long after Jesus ascended into heaven. But they had God’s Word on their lips and in their hearts. And right away Christ was accomplishing through those men the same things He was doing Himself. So you, as God’s holy people, have that same powerful Word entering your ears this very day. And as you receive that Word and all the forgiveness, life and salvation that that Word brings, your Lord is honored and glorified.

God continues to give His Word into the mouths of His New Testament prophets and servants of the Word. Many new pastors are being ordained this summer. They too will learn that honor will come from the most unlikely of places, but most of all it springs from the Word that they will have no other choice but to preach and from the Holy Sacraments that they must administer following the commands of Jesus. Without this, they would have no honor, even from the poor souls they seem to help, because without the Word of God they would be no better than missionaries of the devil. But through all the trials, and despite the many and various “thorns in the flesh,” they may have to suffer, Christ’s honor and power will be made complete and perfect in the weakness of this world. As a despised and rejected Christian who boasts not in yourself but in the power of God hidden in weakness, you too will be not without honor.

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

Readings:

Isaiah 53 Surely He has borne our griefs

Ezek. 2:1–5 you shall say to them ‘Thus says the LORD God!’
Ps. 123 as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters, … So our eyes look to the LORD our God,
2 Cor. 12:1–10 a thorn in the flesh … My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.
Mark 6:1–13 A prophet is not without honor…out two by two

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

The Book of Lamentations comes from a very dark time in the history of God’s people. This was when God finally punished His people for all their wickedness, for all those generations who bowed down to idols and went chasing after other gods. He sent an army from another country to defeat their forces, destroy the city of Jerusalem, including the temple, and carry off survivors into exile. It is an ancient funeral song, a song that mourns the profound loss these people experienced.

What did it mean for these people that their temple was leveled to the ground? It was much more than a severe economic loss, even considering all the tons of gold that King Solomon had used as though it were wallpaper in this massive building, not to mention the gold and bronze altar and lampstands. It cost the people more than their pride, more than their ethnic identity. This was the Temple: God’s set aside place to be with His people. Through the temple and its sacrifices, the Israelites received God’s forgiveness for their sins, and through the temple, God heard their prayers. But not anymore—this connection with God seems to be all gone, and His people are lamenting. The words of Psalm 90 could have come to mind as the foreign army ransacked the place, words like “We have been consumed by Your anger, O Lord, and by Your wrath we are terrified.” They felt consumed, eaten up, by God’s dreadful punishment.

Yet Jeremiah, the writer of this funeral song, changes his tone. Today’s reading from Lamentations follows a section where the author seems to hit rock bottom in utter despair. At such a dire moment, when nothing seems to make sense, when questions are left unanswered, when you feel consumed by the problems of this life, that’s the moment when you see God’s promises come through. When you place your hope in Him alone, you see that His mercies are new every morning, and though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion.

For God’s great love for you is not located in any specific building anymore like the temple. It is located instead in a person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God sent from heaven to be our Savior. Only His sacrifice on the cross can pay for your sin and the sin of the whole world. All the blood of lambs, goats and bulls that was offered at the temple building was a mere shadow of the true blood of sacrifice, the blood that flowed from God’s own wounds as He was nailed to that cross. Only one drop of that precious blood is all that is needed to take your sins away and restore you to life with God. But Jesus has poured out that blood generously upon you ever since you were baptized.

You see, God the Father had every right to punish you, just like He punished the Israelites. He took away their temple and had the invading Gentiles carry them off into exile. You have sinned against your Lord, too—but it is even deeper than the bad stuff you do. You are a sinner, corrupted with this disease ever since you were conceived in your mother’s womb. It is your human nature to think of yourself first, to set up barriers against other people, especially members of your own family, and whatever peace you want, well, that has to be on your terms or it’s no peace at all. You, like your ancestors Adam and Eve before you, are not normally content simply receiving God’s love.

And this is also why you and I tend to see bad things in our lives and setbacks as God’s punishment. You may have questioned to yourself, what have I done wrong to deserve all of this? Why doesn’t my family get along together? Why is life so difficult for me, and not for some other people? In short, you feel consumed, eaten up by the reality of life. Have you been in a similar position to the synagogue leader Jairus, the one who came to Jesus pleading for the life of his daughter? He was frantic, fighting through the crowd that had assembled at the lakeshore, he didn’t care if Jesus was going to be troubled or not—he wanted his twelve-year-old to see the age of thirteen. That’s what mattered to him.

Or think of the sick woman who came up to Jesus as He was walking through the crowd to Jairus’ house. Twelve years of constant blood discharge, and all the suffering and doctors she endured-that would be a health care plan none of us would like! Not to mention that her feminine issues banned her from God’s house, due to ceremonial uncleanness. It would be very easy for her to think that the merciful Lord had excused her forever from His mercy!

Then the horrible news reached Jairus—your daughter is dead. And this was the part that hurt the most—why trouble the Teacher any further! First of all, Jesus never told Jairus that He was troubled. Someone else labeled Jesus incorrectly. That was the unbeliever, whoever it was. That was the person who didn’t take Jesus seriously, that all His miracles were just games or psychological tricks. His Word didn’t seem to that person to be powerful at all. It is hideous to think that you and I have treated our Lord this way, but in our fears, anxieties and outright sins, we too have told others, don’t bother with Jesus. He’s not going to help you. I’m not sure I want to help you. I doubt I can do anything to help myself! This is too much like carrying a cross. I don’t like it.

And that’s because you try to rely on yourself and your strength and your ideas of what God does. I do too. When your efforts fall flat, then you get that terrible feeling that even God Himself can’t get you out of this one. Sure, you may certainly try to make it work on your own for a while, but in the end you realize that there is nothing you can do to avoid a life under the cross.

But the cross is where it all makes sense. On the cross you see your Savior Jesus and what He has done to rescue you from this world, and even from your sinful self. Through Christ and Him crucified, you find out the good news that Lamentations has it right after all: “Because of the Lord’s tender mercies, we are not consumed, His compassions fail not.” This saying is not just some trite motto that you can recite over and over again and you’ll start feeling better. You can truly say in any trial or trouble that you are not consumed because the Son of God was punished.

He was consumed by Divine anger and punishment in your place, for your sins. The life under the cross is your joy instead of your burden—and not merely because you’ve had a simple “attitude adjustment.” Your sinful “Old Adam,” as it’s often called, is killed, drowned in the water of your baptism. You, as a new Man (and I mean Man with a capital M, meaning Christ Himself who is permeated within you) you as a new Man rise each day from that watery grave to live a new life in righteousness and holiness before God. He sees not your rotten, sinful self but He sees His own Son Jesus standing there whenever He looks upon you.

When the woman was healed of her bleeding problem, Jesus stopped and looked for her. He didn’t want to embarrass her or even make an example. He wanted to encourage her growing faith so that it would remain centered on Him. That’s why you need to keep coming to Jesus for your healing, and bring others in real life as well as in your prayers for them, so that our Great Physician can heal them, too, in body and in soul. When Jairus was devastated with the news of his daughter’s death and the despairing words, why trouble the Teacher?—Jesus comforted him with, “Do not fear—only believe.” This illness would not consume the little girl. It would consume Jesus instead on the day when He was nailed to the cross.

Your God, the Blessed Holy Trinity, desires to dwell within you as His Holy Temple. Again, no building is going to do; your Lord wishes to be closer to you than that. And so He who spared you from being consumed, He who offered up the sacrificial temple of His body on the cross now invites you to consume Him. Eat up your Jesus with your ears in the Gospel word that you hear this day. Come with joy to this holy table (whenever you have the blessed opportunity) to eat His body and drink His blood in one confession of the true faith with one another. For by the Lord’s tender mercies, you are not consumed. And yet as you consume Him, you have the strength and faith from Him to face any earthly trial and cross. You can then trust in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of your frail body and the life everlasting as your gift that can never be taken away.

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

Readings:
Psalm 90:3-12 we have been consumed by your anger v.7

Lam. 3:22–33 They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness
Ps. 30 Your brought my soul up from the grave.
2 Cor. 8:1–9, 13–15 the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia
Mark 5:21–43 Jairus’ daughter; woman with the flow of blood

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

O People of God, fellow-citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem! John the Baptist was born into this world for you! In this wilderness of disease and destruction, in this morass where you hear there’s no real truth, just people’s personal opinions, you must listen more carefully than ever for a clear, pure voice speaking out. You need a preacher who is not afraid to tell you how it really is for you, no matter how much it might hurt. And considering that we’re all miserable sinners and every day we battle the desire to serve the self, most often the truth is going to be painful to hear. But someone who stands as a spokesman for God, then decides to change what he says based on how it might go over, such a preacher will do you no favors.

What you need is a preacher, a “voice crying out in the wilderness,” a “prophet of the Most High.” You need to listen for the pure words of Law and Gospel for the forgiveness of your sins. The church cannot afford to have a reed that is shaken by the wind. Instead, you are much better served by a man called by God who preaches the same, unchanging Word, whether he fits your ideal “mold” or not, whether or not you can easily get along with him. You must hear from this preacher’s voice the clarion call to repent! You desperately need John the Baptist, because your need for repentance is urgent.

Through this bold, yet quirky man of God, the Lord fed His people with His wholesome Word, even though his own body was sustained by a meager diet of locusts and honey. John’s preaching was really the voice of God Himself, and God’s people of all times and places hear His voice and follow Him, even into the forbidding wilderness, where he was given his pulpit. Now, the hymns and readings today may sound to you like they’re out of place—that’s understandable. We associate John with the season of Advent, because his message is the perfect preparation for the coming of Christ in the flesh, whether as the baby of Bethlehem, the mighty Judge at the end of time, or in hidden form under bread and wine today at the altar. But you and I are sinners all year long. We constantly need to repent.

All sorts of people came to listen to John in his lifetime, and he didn’t care what public opinion was of him. He stayed focused on the Word of God that he was called to preach, and on His Lord Jesus Christ in whom he delighted, even from the time when he was still a fetus in his mother’s womb. This faithful shepherd in the wilderness preaches “a baptism of repentance,” meaning that his preaching and baptism was doing something in the hearts of all who listened. His Holy Spirit-inspired words were leading people to turn away from their sins and receive God’s forgiveness that is freely given in the waters of Holy Baptism. All who listen to this baptism-oriented preaching to this very day are pointed to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John preaches to you, too. You have been baptized. Repent, be ready to receive Jesus, even though it’s still six months from Christmas Eve.

The world around you in the light of God’s Law is nothing but wilderness, and your own sinful nature within you is a spiritual wasteland, full of unbelief and despair. The word of God coming from the mouth of John is the food and drink that you need to live. Repent, confess your sins and receive Jesus who comes to you today, and who will come again at the Last Day.

“Comfort, comfort,” that’s what God also says through His preacher to you, His people. That means all is not lost. Be comforted, you who mourn. Be comforted, you who are anxious and in need of our Lord’s loving hand. For you cannot deceive yourself into thinking that things will get better all on their own. You cannot imagine that you can pull yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. You are attacked daily by the devil’s sharp arrows accusing you of your sins and trying to convince you that God does not care. By yourself you could not withstand such a barrage. But be comforted, God does care for you, and not because you now finally do what God wants you to do, but because He has reached out in mercy to you, poor miserable sinner that you are. He loved you too much to leave you alone to do whatever your human nature wanted or believe whatever was just your own opinion.

God will comfort you, this you can know for certain. However, be aware that you will not feel comfortable. Remember, it is the Lord’s comfort, not the comfort you expect from this world. You can work and struggle to achieve a comfortable way of life for you and your family. You could look for comfort in all sorts of things that you think will make your life more fulfilling, but in the end it’s all an illusion. You won’t reach lasting comfort in these things—only God out of His undeserved mercy and love—only He gives you true comfort in His Word.

But consider the comfort that He proclaims to you—it sounds strange falling on human ears. In Isaiah 40, the Lord informs us that the preacher we need talks about iniquity, the guilt that is left over from sin. It is the sense of God’s judgment hanging over you because He is righteous and holy and you are sinful and unclean. Talking about your sin surely doesn’t give you any comfort. Who wants to be reminded of the wrongs they have done in the past? God’s call to repentance sounds harsh, too. Turn away from your sins, you haven’t lived with the constant attitude that God is first in your life. Too often, other things have taken His place, but your complete trust needs to be in Him alone. At first hearing, the comfort of God doesn’t sound comforting at all.

However, by talking of sin and iniquity and the need to repent, God is constructing a straight, level road in the rocky, forbidding wilderness where you are. The reason why you need to hear and admit that you are by nature sinful and unclean is so that you would be truly comforted with these words: Your sins are forgiven. Your iniquity is pardoned. You are the spiritual inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, our Lord’s heavenly kingdom of peace and you have received from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins. But double what? Double the punishment? No, certainly not. The punishment is already gone—that has been laid upon Jesus and paid in full for you on the cross. Instead, it is double the grace: first, that your sins are taken away and the slate is clean, and second, that Christ joins Himself to you and in God’s sight you are just as holy and righteous as He is. That is what it’s all about: receiving from the Lord’s hand double blessing in exchange for all of your sins.

Rejoice, you are sinner no more, because John was born for your repentance, then the time was perfect for Jesus to be born for your salvation. You have found food in the wilderness—it is the comforting words of God’s forgiveness given to you through Jesus Christ. The Lord is your shepherd; he is feeding you in the wilderness through John the Baptist, just as He fed His people of old. The same baptism of repentance that John preached, the baptism that forgives your sins, this gift of the Holy Spirit is what you can claim for your very own inheritance. This baptism is none other than the Lord’s comfort to them and to you that sins are forgiven and God’s people are rescued from the devil’s wilderness, saved from the deadly snare of unbelief.

Your Lord Jesus gives you real food and drink every time you kneel at this altar and eat His Body and drink His true blood. This is not spiritual “comfort food” or merely a fine reminder that everything will be all right. This food brings true comfort, the comfort that comes from sins that are forgiven. Your heart is really turned around so that you love and trust in God above all things. This is the food that sustains you in the wilderness, and ushers you into the blessed presence of your Savior. Though you may find yourself at times in a spiritually barren wasteland, attacked by the constant temptations of the devil and plagued with worry and despair, you will not starve, you will not be harmed. The Lord is your shepherd and you shall not want—you shall lack no good thing. You are His sheep, and you are precious to Him because He has washed you in the saving waters of Baptism and made you His own. God is constantly concerned over the health and safety of your soul and body. He will not let go of you. And through His called servants of the Word, He will guide you with His Word and promises in the paths of righteousness, through the wilderness of this life, that you may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So you see, you are blessed to have John the Baptist come into this world for your benefit. In him you have a humble servant of God who loves you enough to proclaim to you the truth, even when it hurts. Confess your sins, renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways, for no matter what time of the year it is, you can never have Christmas-style joy without Advent-style repentance. Soon the highway through the wilderness of this sin-stricken world will be complete. And when the glory of the Lord is revealed, and all flesh finally sees it together, you will then fully know the riches of God’s heavenly grace that are your hidden possession right now.

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

Readings:
Is. 40:1–5 Comfort my people … voice of one crying in the wilderness
Ps. 85 Mercy and Truth have met…Righteousness and Peace have kissed.
Acts 13:13–26 to you the word of this salvation has been sent
Luke 1:57–80 Nativity of John the Baptist

Job 38:1–11 Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? … Where were you …?
Ps. 124 Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare … the snare is broken
2 Cor. 6:1–13 We…plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
Mark 4:35–41 windstorm … in the stern, asleep…

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

Have you ever met an indifferent farmer? I would think it would be quite difficult in that line of work not to care about what’s going on in the fields, what the weather is doing, when seed time and harvest time will arrive and so forth. To be sure, there can be a handful of bad farmers, and they are thoroughly gripped in fear and anxiety over losing everything, since they are so self-deceived that they can control everything about farming, yet when reality hits home and the natural struggles and frustrations set in, they cannot cope with it and they yearn with great longing to be rid of the whole business. Most good farmers are well aware of now “not-in-control” they really are, they do their best, do a little venting of frustration with like-minded compatriots, and proceed as best they know how, not presuming that their own efforts can manipulate too much of what’s already going to come out in the end, no matter what. To us with our busy schedules, that may look somewhat like an indifferent attitude, but in fact these good farmers are keeping their minds on the most important things, not letting them get crowded out by the side-stuff or the things they cannot control.

I think this may be a big reason why Jesus uses fishing and farming so many times to describe the work of the Church’s ministry. As former fishermen, or maybe fish harvesters, Peter, James and John as well as their dad Zebedee would have been well aware of being not-in-control of their results. Witness the first and last catch of fish that they hauled in thanks to Jesus’ miraculous words. Both times they had caught nothing all night, then boom! The jackpot of all yields. If at any time these gentlemen in the fishing vocation had imagined their techniques and personal willpower and persistence would amount to a hill of beans, when it came to bringing in fish, then utter anxiety and unbridled frustration would have taken them over.

So I then ask you: in your daily life both in your vocation and as part of Christ’s Church on earth, are you indifferent? Do you think or act in such a way sometimes that what Jesus has to say to you in His Word matters neither here nor there? Then let the parable of the sower of seeds instruct you. Because God’s true and perfect Word cannot let you remain indifferent. The seed that Christ the sower plants will sprout, but your faith will die and you risk getting thrown into the eternal fire if you keep yourself disconnected from the nourishment He provides you. Indifference to doctrine like that is downright dangerous for your soul.

Or is it possible that you have been overcome in anxiety? Do you see the things to which you look for strength falling down around you, so that it concerns you to the point of despair? Will my family hold together, should tragedy strike? Will there ever be fruitful reconciliation with that other person now that we’re avoiding each other? Will the Church live on to see another day in the increasingly tenuous situations in which we find ourselves this day and age? If that is the case in your heart, then remember from the parable that the seed of God’s Word grows you know not how, and perhaps you could consider yet one more analogy, this time coming from the Apostle St. Paul.

Paul made tents, and also possibly constructed shade awnings for marketplaces and sports venues. As he traveled far and wide as an Apostle in a relatively short time, he could have paid his way at least partially by means of his first trade. Whether he continued tentmaking or not, he wrote comforting words to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth by speaking of our life in the flesh in this present world as dwelling in a tent. Mind you, this is not the fun, temporary summer diversion that gets somebody out in nature, curled up in a sleeping bag, separated from the canopy of stars (and the occasional rain shower!) by a mere layer of Scotch-guarded cloth. Paul’s words in this context imply that a tent is an inconvenience, a lesser-desired situation than a sturdy, well-built house. People, including fathers, enjoy camping partly because they know deep down that they don’t have to remain living that way! When a tent is all you have for a long period of time, then it starts to become a burden. You then yearn for thicker walls, air conditioning, and far less biting insects.

Now, the Corinthians were facing great trials as a new church. In their young history as a Christian congregation, they had been attacked by party factions, pagan infiltration, and even a notorious sexual indiscretion within their own membership. Paul had heard all about this and wrote his two epistles to them, and perhaps some other letters, to answer their many difficulties, sometimes chastising them with divine Law, other times comforting them with the Gospel. It is clear that he could identify with what they were going through, and described it perfectly, saying, “In this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling…” Life wasn’t getting any easier for these new Christians, and many of them were being driven to despair because they could not control what was happening to them, and they were seeing no end in sight. They were yearning for something better than that inferior tent in which they were living.

Is that feeling any different for you? Don’t you find yourself longing for something better? Are you groaning under the burden of this inferior tent? Whether it’s the limitations of the physical body, signs of illness, handicap or age, or struggles in vocation or human relationships, or even spiritual battles against evil and falsehood; no matter what, sometimes life would seem so much better if you were rid of this temporary tent. Paul himself, especially in the epistles of his later age, spoke of his desire to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is much better (see Phil. 1:23). Yet even if it isn’t specifically death you are thinking about, there are other ways you may be tempted to try in order to grant yourself some relief.

Notice, however, the advice that Paul does give to the Corinthian congregation. He never chides them for “groaning” in their tents, that is, letting their heart pour out in prayer to God and in mutual consolation toward one another. Here he includes himself, groaning right along with them, even speaking of himself and his colleagues in ministry as “beside ourselves” or out of our minds, yet due to his office and responsibility as a preacher of the Word to his hearers, Paul knows there also comes a time when he must adopt a calmer perspective and be, so to speak, “in our right minds for your sake.” Just like the farmers and the fishermen who commiserate amongst themselves, yet when they speak to someone on the outside, such as myself, it doesn’t sound quite the same, not because they’re hiding anything from me, it’s just I wouldn’t be able to empathize quite as well as I would if I were in the same situation.

Yet there still is a warning that you should take care to note from St. Paul. In your moments of yearning and groaning in this world’s tent, you should not forget where your courage and confidence comes from. In other words, in your praying and even complaining to the Lord, don’t neglect His rock-solid promises to you in His Word. The Lord’s own personal guarantee, the deposit or down-payment toward His greater blessings that are to come, is all yours because the Holy Spirit was poured out on you when you were baptized. Because when ordinary water combined with God’s Word and was applied upon you in the name of Father Son and Holy Spirit, then your mortal and sinful being was swallowed up by Life. You were then assured of a greater dwelling, of being further clothed, that is, having a better physical body at the time of the resurrection of the dead, being fully rid of sin for good, once this short time of battle against the flesh comes to its completion.

When you forget these wonderful things, you lose your God-given confidence, and you try to fill its place with a self-centered or idolatrous confidence in something other than God. You prefer make your home in the body, the temporary, worldly things that you can see and experience here and now, but due to your sinful nature, when you’re at home in the body, you are away from the Lord. In a sudden urge to control whatever is happening to you, you end up either deceiving yourself, throwing your hands up in despair, or retreating into a numbing indifference. For whether it is indifference or anxiety, it is still the same problem, the same sinful rebellion we stage against God and choose our own way. Even upstanding, well-meaning Christians may think they need to work harder at cultivating a holy life in themselves, but the sin they keep seeing at the worst possible times creeps out and the devil uses it to accuse and cause further frustration and discouragement. Just ask the fishermen and farmers how tough it is to stay positive. Maybe this has affected you at certain times in your life.

But do not fear. God has prepared you for this very thing. Do not doubt that He Himself has washed you clean and pure. Confess your sins to Him, use your pastor in private confession if you want, pour out your soul in personal prayer to your heavenly Father, as Paul and even our Lord Jesus Himself tended to do. Reject walking by sight, by what you experience and feel, and return to faith and trust in your Savior, who has promised He will not let you go, despite what appearances may tell you. Keep your mind off the side details and remember the more important things. Rejoice that in Christ, and you have been “in Christ” ever since the day you were baptized, you are a new creation. You have been set free from the old, passing away world that is like an inferior tent. Rather, the new has come for you, a piece of the future heavenly dwelling laid out on this table for you to eat and drink from the Body and Blood of Jesus your Savior. And with this confident faith in Him who died for all, you also have been given true Christian love for all. It is impossible as a new creation merely to live for yourself or remain indifferent, but rather you serve your neighbor, not because you need to do these things to please God, but because it is now your greatest honor that as a forgiven sinner whether farmer, fisher, tentmaker, or baptized Christian, you are perfectly pleasing to God, and you are headed from this earthly tent to a heavenly dwelling, a house not made with hands.

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

Readings:
Ezek. 17:22–24 I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree
Ps. 1 like a tree planted by the rivers of water
2 Cor. 5:1–17 the Spirit as a guarantee … we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ … in Christ, he is a new creation
Mark 4:26–34 as if a man should scatter seed … … a mustard seed

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

The strong man first crept through the lush terrain of paradise as he sought out his innocent prey in a “search and destroy” mission. He saw the man and the woman standing there in the garden. He knew he’d have to fight them with great tact and subtlety, for a full frontal assault would probably fail to entice them over to his side. So the strong man turned his attention first to the woman as he approached her in a serpentine sort of way. He spoke to her lovingly and reassuringly—using the words of his greatest Enemy, the Stronger Man—twisting those words until they sounded enticing and attractive. Then he outright contradicted them.

In this battle, the woman fell first, while the man followed closely behind her, all because of the strong man’s persuasive forked-tongue. He spoke to them lie after lie, and passed each one off as a Word better than God’s Word. Suddenly, right there in the garden, this strong man found God, His greatest Enemy, standing face to face with him—looking no less powerful or glorious than He had ever looked—and that in spite of the rebellion in progress. Because the strong man’s Nemesis was hardly weak of Himself, on that day His countenance and words told the story of both wrath and mercy, sin and grace, Law and Gospel.

There in the Garden of Eden, on the same day as the strong man’s victory over the highest of all creatures, his enemy the Stronger Man began to outline His battle plan. God didn’t bother to conceal His strategy, nor did the devil accidentally overhear it. Rather He boldly and openly declared this plan directly to the Serpent, to the strong man himself. He said to him, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” This was not some sort of hopeful wish or blustery trash-talking. Rather, God spoke a promise. In fact, He spoke The Promise. He spoke it directly to the devil, and He told him exactly how one day he would be utterly defeated.

Of course, that strong man would have you think otherwise. He’d like you to believe that it’s he who has the power—not just over you but over all things—that it’s he who tempts you away from the Lord God and His good and gracious will. When you’re sick or in despair, it’s that satanic strong man who whispers in your ear to try to convince you God has no real love for you. He tries to convince you that you no longer have any need for God when life is good, and that he’s the one who’s given you everything you have. He makes sin and temptation so enticing, then goads you to leave the Word behind and decide for yourself what’s good and right for you. This has been his effective strategy from the beginning, and you were bound to his power.

For although he knows he’ll never win the war, the strong man’s desire is to lure and keep from Christ as many of us as he can—as he goes down in defeat. The strong man’s greatest pleasure, then, is when he’s able to entice one of God’s own to leave the kingdom and be lost with him forever. On the surface it almost sounds ludicrous that anyone would follow this strong man. But just consider our world around us. See how many have already forsaken the one true God in favor of the devil. Just think how many might be lost in the future to his damning lie. Then, finally, take a look at yourself and heed God’s warning: You’re no match for the strong man. That’s why you have to keep your eyes focused on the promise God made to us all in the Garden of Eden that day: that the Seed of the woman would one day come to do battle with the strong man—that the strong man would bruise His heel like a cowardly serpent hiding in the weeds waiting for his prey—but more importantly, that the Seed of the woman would crush the strong man’s head in fulfillment of the promise. In other words, that the Seed of the woman would be the Stronger Man.

You no longer have to look forward in time to the fulfillment of that promise made in Genesis 3:15. No, we rejoice that this Stronger Man has already come. The promised Seed of the woman was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. He’s Jesus, and He’s clearly the Stronger Man that He was talking about. He healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. By mighty words and deeds He’s proven Himself to be that promised Savior, the Son of God, and the Stronger Man. That’s why the Scribes and Pharisees—those unwilling to repent and place their trust in Him—instead conspired together in hopes of destroying Him. He was “too good to be true.” Or more like, for those Pharisees, He was too good to be tolerated!

And so the strong man, the devil, went about his guerilla warfare of attacking the Stronger Man. He incited Jesus’ own people to doubt Him, and thus they came to take Him away, believing Him to be out of His mind. “He has Beelzebub,” they said, and “By the power of demons He casts out demons.” That was the exact opposite of the truth. He was no slave of the ancient serpent. He hadn’t come to bring people to hell for Satan, but to defeat that strong man once and for all. He asked: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand… No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods,” Jesus reminded them, “unless he first binds the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.”

The Stronger Man, you see, is no slave of the devil, but He came instead to bind him, tie him up, and rob him of his power over you. In fulfillment of His Word He came to tie up the satanic strong man and plunder his house and goods. How did He tie up the strong man—and how does He plunder his house? And here’s the genius of this amazing victory.

It’s not what we would have expected, because His power is made perfect in weakness, the Stronger Man fulfilled the ancient promise and defeated the devil by submitting to death on the cross. He suffered for the sins of the world. He bore upon Himself the wrath of God for the iniquity of us all. He trusted that even though on the cross the Father would forsake Him and judge Him for our sin, He would also raise Him to ultimate victory. We must continually point out to one another, and also to the world, that the strength and power of Christ the Stronger Man is His death. That’s how He ties up the strong man. He suffers for the sin of the whole world and dies, but death cannot hold Him in the grave. By His resurrection He shows that it’s the strong man who’s really been bound, and that Satan is the one who finally has no power at all!

Death, then, is how the Stronger Man accomplished his victory, and He plunders the house through the forgiveness of sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Stronger Man, has stolen you away from Satan by taking your sin away. He died for it on the cross, and now He freely offers forgiveness to you through the Word you hear today. In the Divine Service week after week, He continues to plunder the strong man’s home with glorious shouts of victory. Whenever you hear Christ’s words saying, “I Baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Those few words—together with a splash of water—sweep away the devil and his hold on you. With words of forgiveness announced through His called pastors, He regularly proclaims to you how you’re forgiven of all of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Your sins are loosed from you like broken shackles, and the strong man is bound. And, of course, the Stronger Man has yet one more battle cry: “Take and eat, this is My Body…take and drink, this is My Blood…given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” Where Christ is, you see, the devil must flee, for a divided house cannot stand.

This rescue is yours to believe and trust in, but Christ the Stronger Man doesn’t force His forgiveness on anyone. He simply offers it as a free gift and as a statement of His love. Yet the devil twists even this. He still convinces people that, while the Lord offers grace, they ought to refuse His gifts and go their own way, believe what they want to believe, do what they want to do. “This,” the devil whispers, “this is true freedom!”—when really it’s slavery of the worst kind.

Those who forsake God’s Word, you see, give up on forgiveness itself. The person who says he has no need of worship, the Word, or Communion is actually saying that he has no need for the work of The Holy Spirit! This, as Jesus says, blasphemes the Holy Spirit, and a rejecter of God will not be forgiven, and not because God isn’t merciful or He’s mad at them, but it’s because the unrepentant sinner is saying “No!” to the very mercy God offers.

Though the devil has already lost the war, he still longs for you to return to his house, and with him suffer his defeat and condemnation forever. He whispers in your ear that you’re no match for him, because, after all, he’s the strong man. And he’s right! You are no match for him! Compared to you, he’s still much too strong for you to defeat. But the fact is, while the devil may be the strong man, our Lord Jesus Christ is the Stronger Man. By Christ’s death, Satan’s been bound and rendered powerless. Today in the forgiveness of sins, Christ has once again plundered the devil’s house. He triumphantly says: “You are no longer dead in sin. I died for you. I’ve forgiven you. My kingdom is yours, and you are Mine.”

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

Readings:
Gen. 3:8–15 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking
Ps. 130 My soul waits for the Lord
2 Cor. 4:13—5:1 we have a building from God, a house not made with hands
Mark 3:20–35 if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. … whoever does the will of God is My brother…sister…mother

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

Did you know that most Jews enjoyed observing the Sabbath? You might have thought at first that, with all the restrictions and all the things that one could not do on the Sabbath, that this weekly observance would be resented by those who were forced by their religious traditions to stop everything they had going on in the week and do nothing, or at least it would be next to nothing. But the Sabbath, also known as Shabbat, is actually embraced and treasured by the devout Jew. I read a little bit from an interesting book that Senator Joe Lieberman recently published in which he describes in detail his family’s Shabbat rituals and encourages people of all faiths to adopt a kind of rest from everyday work. He admits that there were some Friday evenings when he had to walk four miles home in downpouring rain when he had to stay at the Capitol after sundown and his orthodox Jewish Sabbath tradition forbade him even to ride in a car during those sacred hours. He stunned a reporter who caught him buying flowers every week for the Sabbath dinner table, and she assumed he was the most romantic congressman in Washington. One of our own members grew up in a Jewish home and she recalls very fond memories observing Shabbat, taking a break from ordinary life and enjoying all that God has given out of His bountiful goodness. She also recalled those embarrassing moments when friends would confront her at school and ask her why she was not allowed to answer the phone on Saturdays. The Sabbath was sacred, and oddly enough, the strict discipline it required seemed to most Jews to be a joy.

Then you see these Pharisees constantly hounding after Jesus on the Sabbath, wagging their fingers as it were and telling Him what He cannot do on this particular day of the week. It doesn’t appear from this reading that they would have enjoyed the Sabbath day at all. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to conclude that they hated Jesus more than they loved Shabbat. Yet Jesus seemed to do most of His great healing works specifically on the Sabbath. The Bible records at least seven occurrences when this question of healing and restoring on God’s Holy Day pops up. Notice how Jesus heals here: he told the man with a withered hand just to stretch it out, and it was healed, again, on the Sabbath. What do the Pharisees then do? They boil with anger against the Messiah who had struck them silent with His undeniable logic and they make their plans to kill Him—it’s not at all the joyful response that the rest of the crowd had!

The two places in the Old Testament that establish the Lord’s Commandment to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy are in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. Each place gives a slightly different reason for having the Sabbath. In Exodus, the reason is tied to our Lord’s Creation of the world: “For in six days the Lord your God created the heavens and the earth… and rested on the seventh day.” But the second time around, in Deuteronomy, Moses makes the people of Israel recall another big act that the Lord has done—He saved them. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” This was what we heard in our Old Testament reading today. These two mighty works are what we focus on whenever we gather for worship, or when we study God’s Word on our own: God made us and He saved us for everlasting life. Both of these are tied to the rest that He has graciously decided to give us, that is, our Sabbath rest.

The Sabbath Day, you must understand, is not just a mere bygone relic of Old Testament history. Nor is it only the peculiar social oddity of certain people who have a different religious heritage than we. The Sabbath Day turns out to be not a day at all, but it is our Lord Jesus Himself, who has come among us in the words of forgiveness we hear Him speak to us. Sabbath isn’t our taking time for church or other acceptable holy activities, really, but it is Our Lord blessing us with a little piece of what we can expect when this life is over and our final burdens of life are laid down, and we will be with the Lord in His new creation after He returns at the end of time. We have rest not because of how diligent we were with our talents, time and treasure, but it’s because we received a precious gift from the Lord who wanted to give to us out of His rich abundance. How can you not enjoy and constantly look forward to that, and make it the most important thing in your life? That would be my challenge to you today.

You know, Jesus made a powerful statement here that sometimes we overlook because it sounds so simple and logical: the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is a good thing for us sinners! For if man were made for the Sabbath, and it were not the other way around, then the Sabbath would entirely depend on how well we kept it. Our works would have to be the cause of our everlasting life, and the forgiveness earned by Jesus when He died on the cross would turn to dust. We would be lost forever, since God’s Law continually condemns us for not measuring up to the requirements our Heavenly Father has imposed upon us in the Ten Commandments. If man were made for the Sabbath, the third Commandment would still be about what day you worship and how perfectly you worshiped. We would be following the Jews and the Seventh Day Adventists to a despairing end for us all, because no one, with us included, would be able to find their way to eternal life.

But oh, how blessed it is that the Sabbath was made for man, and more than that, rejoice that Jesus, the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath! That means He’s not just in charge of a particular day, and we acknowledge Him that one day and leave the rest of the week to make ourselves into our god. No, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and He created the Sabbath of forgiveness, of everlasting mercy, of rest for your souls that are weary with sin, with hurt, with guilt, with all our burdens that you could never carry. But Jesus has already said to you: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you… Shabbat– rest! He’s the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is His gift to you, a cup overflowing with forgiveness and life!

Yes, taking a break after a long week of work has a practical benefit for your body, as you can read in those popular books. It may be worthwhile to you to follow that advice for sanity’s sake and turn down those temptations to make every time away into a “working vacation.” Yuck! However, the greater point is the spiritual benefit that is not only for your body, but for your soul as well. No matter what day is set aside, what makes it a Sabbath and a holy rest to the Lord is to believe in Jesus, who created you and saved you. It is easy to be impressed with the high level of devotion that is exhibited for us by the orthodox Jews, the pious Seventh Day Adventists, even by the Christian runner in the movie Chariots of Fire, who wouldn’t compete in the Olympics because he would have to run on a Sunday. But all that intense devotion and self-sacrifice falls flat if there’s no faith in Jesus that trusts in His gift of the forgiveness of sins.

The Pharisees’ short-sighted criticism of Jesus is easy for us to point out and ridicule, but that self-centered, legalistic, sour-faced approach to the Sabbath and all our worship of God is found inside each one of us. We make a whole lot more out of the efforts we do and the sacrifices we make, about do this, don’t do that, while at the same time we are tempted to disregard or resent the greatest of Sabbath gifts that is right here in front of us. We have been trained in the six days of our toilsome work to be impressed by results, by measurable successes, by outdoing one another to get ahead. But on the Sabbath, which now in our Christian circles is better called the Lord’s Day, it’s completely the opposite. Instead we are called upon to deny ourselves and our hard-working, sacrificing, constantly doing human nature and turn our complete attention to Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath who has graciously come among us. When it comes to God’s gifts, don’t just do something, sit there! Receive, and not work, for in receiving from Jesus what He wants to give you, that is the greatest way to worship and observe your Sabbath rest.

Imagine yourselves walking with Jesus and alongside those disciples in the grain field. Pick the grain that stands here today for you. King David and his men were famished with hunger and they needed the priests’ holy bread to sustain them on their God-pleasing journey. On this table laid out before you today is an even greater bread of Christ’s presence; it has come to you without toil or price tag. You are hungry, exhausted with the burdens of your previous week, but even more burdened with sin and the weight of what this world keeps throwing at you. Your hand may not be withered and useless, but your soul has been shriveled up with all that has caused you anxiety and pain. Stretch out your hand to take the blessed gift of forgiveness, and you shall be restored! Observe Shabbat, not merely in your outward actions and reverent routines, whatever practices you may choose to do, but most importantly, with a joyful heart that is eager to receive forgiveness from Jesus, and with that forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal for another week that your heavenly Father lays before you in the work He has given you to do for your neighbor. Rejoice! Your Lord has made you and He has saved you. Jesus is your Sabbath, and His perfect rest is yours now, and eternal, uninterrupted enjoyment of God’s gifts is yet ahead.

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

Readings:
Leviticus 24:5-9 the showbread
I Sam. 21:1-6 David and the showbread
Ex. 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day
Mt. 11:28-30 Come to Me all you who labor

Deut. 5:12–15 Observe the Sabbath Day
Ps. 81:1–10 I answered you in the secret place of thunder
2 Cor. 4:5–12 we have this treasure in earthen vessels
Mark 2:23–3:6 The disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath … Sabbath was made for man … man with withered hand

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

The prophet Isaiah’s world was unraveling before him. By his time, the once-proud united kingdom under Kings David and Solomon had already been fractured for two hundred years. Almost right after that split, the northern kingdom of Israel fell deep into idol-worship and the evil ways of foreign overlords like Queen Jezebel. And among the faithful people that were left down south in the tribe of Judah, even they were starting to fall away from the Lord. And then as if anything worse couldn’t have possibly happened, King Uzziah suddenly died. King Uzziah was a good king. He followed what the Lord said and governed well as God’s representative in the Kingdom of Power. He reigned fifty-two years, starting from the age of sixteen. He was the only king Isaiah had ever known up to this point.

But then came a dark day in the history of King Uzziah’s reign. The book of Second Chronicles unfolds the fateful story. King Uzziah defiantly took the burning incense pot from the altar of incense right in the middle of the temple. He proceeded to violate the worship of God and nullify the Lord’s grace when he disregarded the warnings of Azariah the high priest along with 80 other priests who tried to get in his way and stop this terrible thing. As the king’s anger flared against God’s holy servants there in the temple, the Lord Himself stepped in and right then and there He afflicted King Uzziah with leprosy that broke out on his forehead like a special-effect in a sci-fi thriller movie. When this happened they rushed him out of the temple, and he went willingly without resistance, and for the rest of his life, King Uzziah suffered the effects of his disease and his gross disobedience against God. He was never allowed to set foot in the temple again. He had to hand over his rule as king to his son, and was left in the leper’s quarters to die alone and in disgrace.

All of the kingdom of Judah was stunned. Isaiah may well have been, too. This beloved king, this great moral anchor of the land, had one brief fit of self-centered pride that turned him against the Lord Whom he had so faithfully served in the past. If King Uzziah could fall to such depths, what hope would there be for the rest of the nation? There seemed to be a crisis on the horizon. All hope would soon be lost for the people of God. When this king whom God deposed in shame finally did pass away, Isaiah the preacher faced a very uncertain future. This once faithful people was getting increasingly corrupt and their lips had already become unclean. If they found themselves in the presence of the Almighty God, there would quite literally be hell to pay.

Not even a year had passed by yet, and suddenly Isaiah is confronted with what could have been his worst nightmare. It is likely that he’s in the temple; he could actually be not too far from the very spot where the Lord’s holy anger broke out against the king. Then the magnificent glory of the Triune God appeared to Isaiah right there where he stood. High and lifted up He was on the judgment throne, with the flowing kingly robes filling up the massive temple building. Imagination itself is too shallow to take in this glorious sight. The burning, white-hot angels, known as the seraphim, were singing the unending song of heaven right in Isaiah’s hearing. This song of heaven whose words you know: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Isaiah may at first have been stunned with wonder and amazement. But it was only a moment. Evidently, when you see the almighty power of God, the blinding light of perfection shines on your sinful, imperfect heart. That’s what happened at least to Isaiah. Immediately, he was painfully aware of the guilt of sin, not only Isaiah’s sin, but the sin of the entire people as well. The uncleanness was evident on the lips, as the prophet pointed out, because hidden sinfulness becomes quite plain when the sinner opens his mouth. The Apostle James (3:7-8) wrote something very similar to this: “Every kind of beast and … creature can be tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” A rebellious insurgent such as this has no business dwelling in the presence of the Lord of Hosts.

The same is true for you. Since you are a sinner, as am I, God’s holy law gives you no right to enter His courts. You may have the freedom of religion and assembly as a citizen of this country, but your thoughts, words and deeds provide clear evidence that you would rather be enslaved to the passions of your own heart and flesh, serving the every sadistic whim of Satan instead. Your lips are unclean because there are those whom you have hurt with your words. Trouble and crisis seem ever on the horizon. Your world may be unraveling before your eyes, whether it is a direct result of your own sin, or perhaps because of somebody else’s sin. It’s as if nothing worse could possibly happen. Isaiah’s nightmare is playing out in real life when you compare yourself to the righteous, perfect, unattainable standard of God’s law. In the prophet’s own words: Woe is you for you are lost, you are undone.

But all of a sudden, a wonderful thing happens. Isaiah saw it himself. A seraph stops singing the heavenly song for a moment. At the Lord’s command, this bright angel heads for the altar of sacrifice and brings from it a burning coal with tongs. He touches the prophet’s lips. The burning kills and cleanses at the same time. Those beautiful words spoken by a messenger of God resound in the sinner’s ear: Your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. Isaiah is set free. He is given a vocation with which he gets to do that which is pleasing to God, and with willing heart and voice he exclaims to the Triune God: “Here am I! Send me!”

Is it any different with you? It isn’t, except in your case, your loving heavenly Father did not make a mere angel stop singing momentarily to bring you a lump of coal. Instead, He allowed His only-begotten Son to go forth out of heavenly glory and put on human flesh; the creator of time and space now subject to these things. Rather than carrying a pair of tongs, Jesus instead bore down under a heavy cross, but with that cross was the infinitely heavier burden of your sins and the sins of the whole world. His death under the burn of God’s judgment is the perfect atoning sacrifice that truly belongs on that altar, for it is the only death than can pay the price to buy you back your freedom. Instead of burning your lips with holy fire, your Savior crucifies your sinful nature, and drowns it in the water of your Baptism, so that just as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father, so you may be raised from your death, and walk in the newness of divine life. That’s what those words, “assumption of humanity into God,” mean in the Athanasian Creed: Jesus did not stop being God the Son when He became Man, that would be conversion of the divinity into flesh. But rather, He did restore the divine image to mankind so that you may have perfect unity with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His called messenger, the servant of the Word, announces this declaration sent straight from God’s judgment throne: Your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Three-in-One and One-in-Three God.

And just as Isaiah was given a vocation in which he may serve according to God-given talents, you have been given your calling as well. Note that you do not have the same vocation as Isaiah, yet there’s some little corner of this vast world that God has created where you are already qualified and called to do what He declares to be holy work. Concerning this place in life that the Lord set aside for you, He has set you free from your sin so that you too may respond, “Here am I! Send me!”

The world may still crumble around you. Terror and crisis may still be your lot in this life. In fact, persecution may increase because of Satan’s bitter opposition to the Truth. But one thing is most certainly true: A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. (Psalm 91) Why? Because you have the Lord’s eternal Word to strengthen you. You have Christ crucified so that your eyes may be comforted by the ransom price paid in your place. Hope is not lost. You have Jesus’ Body and Blood to touch your lips with forgiveness, and the song of the angels in the liturgy to lift up your hearts away from this sinful world and unto the Lord. Celebrate the Holy Trinity with Isaiah and with all the host of heaven, because saying the Athanasian Creed may be a mind-numbing, tongue-twisting experience now, but the eternal salvation that it stands for is awesome beyond what words can express.

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity. Let us give glory to Him because He has shown His mercy to us!

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

Readings:
II Chronicles 26 King Uzziah
James 3:7-8 No man can tame the tongue.
Psalm 91 A thousand may fall at your side…
Is. 6:1–8 Here am I! Send me
Ps. 29 The voice of the LORD is over the waters
Acts 2:14a,22–36 God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
John 3:1–17 unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.