In the Gospel text today, Jesus heals a man who was paralyzed, but even more than that: He first forgave the man his sins. So, which was the greater or should I say, which was the more important gift? The forgiveness of sins.

The Scribes recognized that it was a big deal that Jesus said that He forgave the man His sins. “Blasphemy” they thought. Nobody can forgive sins, but God alone. Jesus, being God in the flesh, knew their thoughts and called them out. It is easy enough to say the words: “your sins are forgiven you” but not actually have the authority or power to forgive sins, so the healing that Jesus performed actually backed up the power and authority that Jesus had to forgive sins of those brought to Him with faith. So, Jesus forgave the man, raised him from his paralyzed and helpless condition and the man gathered his bed and walked home.

One of the objections that people outside our confession have to what we as Lutheran do, is this: forgiving sins. Not just the “I forgive you for sinning against me” that every person can and should do, but specifically how we begin the Divine Service. The confessing sins to the pastor whether it be here altogether in a corporate way, that is, as it is said together, or to confess one’s sins to the pastor in private the pastor then speaking Absolution (that is forgiveness in the stead of Christ) is very strange to many in other church bodies. Many people react to this like, “wait, how can a man forgive sins? Why do you have this thing that you go through where a pastor says specifically “I forgive you your sins”? “Is that man making himself like God?” “Can’t only God forgive sins?” Well, that’s right that only God can ultimately save us and forgive sins against God and our neighbor. Does that mean that a pastor who says these words is putting Himself equal to God or placing himself in the place of God? Is a pastor telling people that he has power to forgive and not forgive as though he were God? Is the pastor doing this by his own authority?” That there is the key. Is a Pastor forgiving by his own authority or is he proclaiming it by an authority higher than himself? Any pastor who thinks that he is equal to God or Christ Jesus, or who thinks that he can just forgive sins or not forgiven sins, whenever, however, and to whomever based on his own whims or feelings, is of course, wrong. But what goes on in the absolution is not by my authority. I, Aaron Kangas, am nothing. It is the authority given to me to pronounce and announce this absolution to repentant sinners by God through Jesus Christ, as Jesus said to the Apostles on the night of His resurrection: “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’.”

A pastor is the Lutheran church Missouri Synod does not take on this responsibility or office on his own. He is not to assume the office of his own choosing. He doesn’t just start preaching or forgiving sins, because of his authority, because he has a gift of gab or because he knows Scripture. At least that should not be the case, and mistakes still happen, bad men get into office, and godly men may fall into temptation and fall from that position or simply burn out.

But we believe and confess that God calls and brings men into the office of pastor. He uses what we call a “mediate call”. Mediate means that God uses means He uses others to bring this about. Another pastor may see that a particular man has talent, ability, a faith and might want to consider the possibility and so he suggests and may encourage that man to pray about it. Then if he does follow to see what is God’s will, he must be interviewed at the seminary from the beginning and throughout his studies and then finally before he graduates. Then God uses what we term the “calling process” which involves many people, District Presidents, committees, etc. as you know. But by prayer, ultimately God uses a congregation to call a man who has been approved to serve them, and is then ordained and installed, or just installed if he has already been ordained. But a pastor is subject not to the congregation first and foremost, but rather to God and His Word to serve them faithfully with that same Word and the gifts that God gives which bring with them God’s forgiveness of sins.

Why then does a pastor proclaim an “absolution”? Because just as the act of salvation has to come from outside humanity’s dead in sin condition, faith and forgiveness must also come from outside of us. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit working through His Word and Sacraments which proclaim and deliver the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice and victory over sin to those infected, infested and paralyzed in the bondage of sin. This action of God to us from the outside or objective reality, to us personally or subjective is powerful stuff because it reminds us that the assurance of God’s love is not based on the quality of our obedience, the “sincerity” or constancy of our emotions, or whether or not things are “going well”. Living with our fallen flesh, in a sin-plagued world, we need this outside assurance and proclamation of a hope and promise bigger than ourselves.

However, the Devil works quite often by drawing people into themselves looking for assurance from within ourselves. He uses our tendency to pride: pride in our works, our desires, our own thoughts of righteousness…convincing us that we don’t need God or the church or to hear the forgiveness of sins. Or he will plant doubt and insecurity into people if they internalize their salvation and confuse the Law and doubt the Gospel. “I am a sinner. How can God love me? Can this sin truly be forgiven? I believe, I think, but how can I know this forgiveness is from God and for me?”

That is why God uses these objective (that is, outside of us) means. To draw us outside of ourselves. We are otherwise paralyzed, dead in our trespasses and cannot help ourselves. Without forgiveness, without God’s healing touch of His Word and sacraments coming from outside our own self to raise us from our sins, we will remain paralyzed in our sinful condition. That is why, much as the paralyzed man in the Gospel text needed to be brought to Jesus, and God used His friends, we needed somebody outside ourselves and God used that somebody else to bring us to Jesus. So we were brought to His Word in Holy Baptism, to His Word of forgiveness, where the Lord raised and healed us by in Christ Jesus. Our sins were placed upon Him crucified and raised to pay for our trespasses, and His righteousness placed upon us.

Throughout our lives, as we wrestle against our flesh, the devil, the world, and we fall into temptation, the Holy Spirit moves us to examine ourselves and repent anew and the Pastor from week to week speaks the absolution, Christ’s forgiveness of sins: “I forgive” “for you”, not by his own authority but as the mouthpiece of Jesus Christ by His authority, to assure repentant sinners, that God’s love and forgiveness is an objective unchangeable truth accomplished through Jesus Christ for the repentant believer in His death and resurrection. They don’t have to wonder “Am I forgiven? Do I feel forgiven? How can I know?”

That is why I as the pastor say, by the authority given to me, by Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is God’s forgiveness. In His name. The same name into which you were baptized and brought from unbelief into belief. From death to life. The same powerful name of the Trinity which brought you here to move you to see your sin, your need for His grace, and then gives it to you: In your ears in Absolution and preaching, over head in your baptism, to daily remember it, and into your mouth in the bread and wine with Christ’s true body and blood. All so that you can know that this forgiveness of sins is for you. That it is Real. This Word is Jesus speaking to you. You have been baptized, you have been repented, you are now forgiven in His name and by His authority. Both outside and in. All doubt: now flee away. Have confidence in that forgiveness of sins proclaimed not because of me as your pastor, but have confidence in the power and authority to whom I point: Jesus Christ crucified and raised for you.

Your sins are forgiven you. Receive His gifts. Arise! in Jesus Christ’s name. Walk by faith and confidence in Him by His Holy Spirit. As you have been brought to Jesus also be ready for God to use you “to bring” other people to Jesus: in your vocations as parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, students, teachers, coworkers, whatever. Speak with confidence what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. Bring them here, to hear that Word. To be served by Christ through the ministrations of the pastor in baptism and absolution, and when they are ready and able to confess the holy things here offered, then also the Holy Supper of Christ’s victory. Through these truths God will keep you healthy in faith and confidence in Him, as He comes to you, to His church, until Christ comes again at the last to carry us to our eternal home to live Him in His joy, His righteousness and purity forever, in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

What do you think about the Christ? What you think about Christ is the key to entering heaven. We are saved by faith, but in what and in whom? Who is that Christ?

Christology, that is, the study of “who is Christ?” is not just an exercise for pastors and professional theologians, but for you. It is closely connected to the previous question in the Gospel text that the Pharisees asked Jesus. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said, Love God and love your neighbor.

Love is the summary of the two tables of the 10 Commandments. Many people would say, “well I have tried. I have done better than others.” Maybe others would say: “Well, do I really need to? Isn’t God merciful, loving, and all that, anyway?”
What does that even mean to love?

In the biblical sense: love is not just an emotion but an outpouring activity. It is that to which you are willing to give of yourself, your all.

Whom do you love above all? Is it God? If you are honest, it has not been God. It has not been your neighbor. It has been yourself and the things of this world.

How does that fit into the subject of Christ? Nobody has loved God and their neighbor as they should have, and if you admit that you have not loved God or your neighbor, then you should also know that you deserve God’s wrath. You have sinned and you deserve eternal damnation, and you should repent.

This is where the Christ comes in. The One who came to do what we humans could not. This was the whole message and purpose of history throughout the Old Testament and the prophecies God sent: to point to, to lead to, Christ. Who is the Christ? A man? A god? “Somewhere in between?”

A survey before the pandemic in 2020 found that 52% of Americans believe that Jesus was a great teacher but not God. 30% of those considered Evangelicals agreed that Jesus was only a great man and teacher and NOT God. 40% of those who see themselves as Christians, believe that Christ was created by God; that He may have had some God-ness in Him, but Jesus the Christ was a creature!! These numbers are terrible and I am sure have only gotten worse.

If you think that Jesus, the Christ, was created by God, that He was only part god, or that He wasn’t God at all, you are wrong and that thinking has serious consequences.

The false teachings about Christ are very old. At the time of Jesus there were misunderstandings and false beliefs. In the early Christian church, “Christology” was at the root of all heresies and arguments. We see it today in the major disagreements between denominations. Most don’t even realize it. There is a “What do you think about the Christ?” problem. They may in their creeds confess that they believe that Jesus was the Son of God and true God and true man, but then they turn right around and in their practice and in their teaching effectively deny that Jesus is true God and true man.

Let us take the Sacrament of the Altar as an example. Most Protestants will say that the “Lord’s Supper is just an ordinance,” a law that Jesus said to do. They do not believe that Jesus is present in the bread and the wine with His body and blood. It is true that they may say that Jesus is there in a spiritual sense, but they deny that His flesh or His blood could be present in a sacramental but very real way. Why? Because they have a weak Christology.

Now wait up. Don’t get upset. Hear me out. Again, I am not saying that they are not Christian, but their dogma is dangerous. The reason why they cannot say that Jesus is there in that “real more than spiritual presence” is because Protestant/ non-Lutheran theology has been heavily influenced by the false teaching which says that “the finite cannot comprehend the infinite.” (repeat) What that means is that they believe that because Jesus was true man, His human body cannot be in many places at the same time. His body is ascended but to a literal location and that location alone. Therefore, in this belief system, the sacrificed and raised body of Jesus Christ cannot be present in the Eucharist meal in many places around the world at the same time. In this, they are actually limiting the Divinity of Jesus. They are saying that Christ cannot be where He says He can be and promises to be. Ultimately, they are confessing that the literal body of Jesus has not been given the full exercise, glory, and power of Christ’s Divinity even now that He has ascended into heaven. The problem really is finite human reason which limits the Divine mysteries to formulas of philosophy.

This is the problem for all of us, when we go above and beyond Holy Scripture which gives us all the objective truth that we need. We can comprehend God only by understanding Him through Jesus Christ who is God Himself.

Jesus the Christ is true man according to the flesh, Son of Adam, son of David all the way forward to son of Mary. Why did the Christ have to be true man?

Get ready, because here comes a list:
1st: It was necessary that He be true man and have a human body and soul, in order to do what we could not: namely keep God’s Law here in time, in the flesh, overcoming all temptations without falling into sin.
Secondly: It was necessary, that the Christ be fully man, to receive in His righteous and perfect flesh, the full penalty of the sins of mankind: receiving in His own bodily flesh, God’s righteous wrath upon sin, allowing Himself to die upon the cross.
Thirdly, it was necessary that He be True man so that He would then rise bodily from the dead, rising from the grave to show that His sacrifice was acceptable payment for humanity’s sin. Also, in His resurrection, we see the hope and promise for all those who believe in Him, a literal resurrection of the body with the soul.
Fourthly it was necessary for us, that we recognize that Jesus in His body had human needs, feelings, and we can be further assured that He and God know what we are going through in the human experience.

But what about His being true God, why must we reject limits to His power or the denial of His Divinity?
It was necessary that Jesus was and is true God equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, because:
As true God, Christ was able to be born without original sin.

As True God, Jesus was able to endure all bodily torments, temptations, and sufferings in His earthly life, even death on the cross, without sinning.

As True God, His sacrificial death on the cross could pay the sins of the world.
Having been exalted in Heaven as True God and True man: Jesus Christ now reveals God to us in all His love and mercy.
  As true God, Christ had and has authority to judge and forgive sins.
As true God, Christ is able to be with us and believers, spiritually, but also physically according to His promise. 

As true God, Christ hears the prayers of His people and intercedes for us before the Father.
As true God, Christ rules over creation and the Church.

For a time, Jesus had humbled His divinity during His earthly life and ministry, not fully exercising it but now that He has been crucified and raised, He glorified that earthly body by assuming it into the Divinity: giving unto His earthly body all the power, glory, and authority of His Divinity as He showed even in His resurrection appearances. He still retained His earthly flesh and blood: eating with the disciples and being able to be handled and touched. But He showed His mastery over physical law, by rising before the stone was rolled back from the tomb, by appearing on the way to Emmaeus, vanishing only to appear in the locked upper room with the disciples, twice… among other appearances.

You cannot separate Jesus from God. You cannot separate God from Jesus. Can Jesus as the Son of God be present without His body? No.

You cannot separate His Divinity from his humanity. This is what we confess in the creeds and the Formula of Concord. This is biblical. It is right here in the text of Matthew as Jesus is speaking. This is what Jesus was trying to get the Pharisees to see. Scripture is clear. The Christ which David foresaw was both true God and true man. His natures not separated nor mixed but unified by His Divine power. This we confess once a year in the Athanasian Creed: Although Christ is God and Man; he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood into God. One altogether; not by confusion of Substance; but by unity of Person. God and Man is one Christ; This is the catholic/universal faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.

Take heart and rejoice in this truth! God loved you enough to join Himself to human flesh for all time. Now and forever. He died on the cross for you. To free us from ignorance and unbelief, rescued from false teaching and all that would cloud the message of who Christ is for you and me. He is your Savior and God!

The blood of Jesus is the blood of God, which pays for your sin and washes it away. It is truly present in the sacrament of the Altar for us to eat and drink. Through His coming to us in His Sacraments, He desires to join us into the fellowship with the Trinity, receiving His holiness, His spiritual gifts, His love. We in turn can love Him and love others here, witnessing to the truth of who He is for the world. A God who does not desire the destruction of all but has sent Himself to be our Savior in Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The word Sabbath is rooted in God’s resting on the 7th day following the six days of creation. Genesis chapter 2 says: So, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it, God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. Sabbath comes from the Hebrew verb “sabat”, meaning to stop, to cease, or to keep. On the Sabbath, then the Jews of the Old Testament were to stop their working and rest. However, the Sabbath is more than cessation or stoppage of labor. Resting in bed all day does not amount to a keeping of the Sabbath. According to Isaiah 58 the Sabbath is to be a delight and joy (Is. 58:13).

The Pharisees in much the same way as everything else, got hung up on the keeping the Sabbath. They were so focused on the rules against work, that they actually made, “resting” a work! They used the Sabbath to exalt themselves in their sense of righteousness. “See how much I am resting, I only took this many steps today, just enough to get to the synagogue and back”. They hired others to work for them and serve them, so they could rest while others worked around them. They forgot the whole purpose as to why God had given the Sabbath.

As the explanation to the third commandment points out: the Sabbath is not just about not working, but it is about worship: about resting in God: the God who does not rest! Receiving from God through the work of the priests and Levites on behalf of the people in the OT and through the Divine Service in the Word and Sacrament in the NT. In the Old Testament on the Sabbath, additional sacrifices were offered (Num 28:9-10) at the temple, and the special shewbread was to be set out “sabbath after sabbath” to signify Israel’s commitment to the covenant (Lev 24:8). There were morning and afternoon services at the synagogue, and in their homes, the Jews would recite scripture and benedictions, that is blessings from God. To help reflect the joyous character of the Sabbath there was a Jewish tradition of eating richly on the Sabbath, (Lev 23), and they were not to fast on that day, and it was forbidden to go about with outward expressions of grief and mourning.

The Sabbath was always a gift. As Jesus would say in the Gospel of Mark: “the Sabbath was made for mankind not mankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In other words, God gave the Sabbath as a gift. His telling them to observe this is what we sometimes call a gospel mandate. This do for your good. Like eat this or drink this, it is good for you. The spirit not the letter. The Sabbath was an Old Testament means of grace a Sacramental giving from the Lord. It was not so much about physical rest as it was an opportunity to receive from Him, grace, mercy, and spiritual rest. Yet, humans seem to be wired to take the gifts of God and make them works. Even today, the Protestants or RC see Gospel Sacramental instruments as our works or evidence of our obedience. But the sacraments, the Word of God, the Sabbath are not objects or instruments of the Law, but instruments delivering God’s grace and mercy and rest from sin, sorrow, guilt, and trouble.

We saw and heard that difference in understanding in this morning’s Gospel. The Pharisees had invited Jesus to come and feast with them, but they were observing Him to see what He would do. It is possible that they arranged for this man who had this dropsy to make an appearance to test what Jesus would do. And what did he do? He showed mercy. This is the true meaning of God’s Sabbath. The keeping of the Sabbath is not about exalting oneself or being lazy or even using it as another work day, but it is a day specifically set aside to receive mercy from God and/or showing mercy to others who need help physically and spiritually. AS Jesus said elsewhere: “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”. Just as naturally as one would rescue an ox or a child who has fallen into a well on the Sabbath, so too then Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath, and God in His Word and sacraments act with the interest of life and salvation, for us, and for all people.

This is so important, because we have sinned and cannot become righteous by our keeping of the Law. We dare not try to keep the Law and say that we are more righteous than others. At the same time, we should not abuse God’s gifts as we so often do. Even though the Sabbath is given by God to deliver His grace and Gospel, how often do we see it as a day where church is optional, where we can sleep in, or go do or watch sports? Maybe we see it as an opportunity to do make up work for ourselves that we didn’t get to during the week. But what is an hour or two out of your day to receive that which is needful?

No let us humble ourselves, let us call out from the wells and pits into which we have willfully stumbled and fallen into. Crying out for God’s help to rescue us from our sin, our pride, our messed up sense of priorities.

And Jesus does come to our aid. God sends Him to rescue us from the pit or well of spiritual death into which we have fallen by our sin. Jesus who was and is the exalted son of God, humbled Himself to be joined to human flesh, humbled Himself even further by becoming the servant of all, taking upon Himself all sin and sorrow taking it to the cross and dying to pay the price of your sin and win our forgiveness. The forgiveness of sins which is given here in His Word and His body and blood. This is what we need for our life now and forever in eternity. No other gift and rest will do. No other gifts grant mercy, healing, and forgiveness from God in Jesus Christ. God rested on the original Sabbath before the Fall and in a sense Jesus rested in the tomb on the Saturday after the crucifixion, but that was it! God works on the Sabbath, He works on the 8th day to redeem you by His death and resurrection!

Therefore, do not be like the Pharisees and exalt yourself because you are here and “putting in your obligation of time”. This does necessarily not mean that you are more holy simply because you woke up and made the effort to come here this day and are therefore a better person than those who are not here. Are you here for the right reasons? The best reason is because you know what is here for you. How desperately you need God’s mercy and forgiveness in order to be refreshed and strengthened spirit, mind, and body in Jesus Christ for the new week? If that is not your main reason, then humble yourselves in sincere repentance for your sin, knowing that this is why you need God’s Sabbath grace and rest in Him. This place of all places on earth, is where He promises to give us His true rest as He says, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He gives you rest for the work that He has given you to do as His child to do it well and faithfully.

When God created all things and gave unto Adam and Eve the stewardship of creation on the 6th day, he did not put them to work immediately, instead, on the 7th day He gave them a day of rest, a day to be refreshed in His grace to have the right mindset and heart to do their duty well by faith. The Jews saw days beginning with rest at sunset and the mornings followed for the work to be accomplished after the night time rest. This is profound. People: “Rest first. Work after.” That is why even now Sunday is not the end of the weekend, but the beginning of the new week. Why you should every evening have devotions and prayers, remembering your baptism, then go to sleep and rest in Jesus to start your work in the morning refreshed in Him.

Let us see the importance of the rest which God has established for us here in His Word as He comes to serve you through Christ in the Sacraments. This is a privilege to have a place to come and be gathered and be served. This is why you should be concerned by those who are not here. They are not receiving. Without this receiving, their hearts and minds will wear down and their faith will be destroyed as it is exhausted and distracted by the things of this world. This is why you should do all that you can to support this congregation to continue this work of God among you, to rest in Him, and respond in merciful service by faith to your neighbor.

In the meantime, rest up here. Be strengthened. Do not come to church to go through the motions. Come to be healed and strengthened by Jesus and His Word. Desire the same for your neighbors, your fellow church members who are not here today. They need this too. Christ and His gifts are the most important rest, recreation, and gift that we need in answer to the troubles that surround us in this life. If you are or get ill or injured as sin’s curse continues to attack to wear you out, text or call me as your pastor to come visit you and bring you Christ’s gifts for bodily spiritual healing and strength.

So: stop, rest, and listen. Receive. Be forgiven. Eat, drink, and go forth having been exalted and served through Jesus Christ. Refreshed and renewed for the labors of the week, to serve each other in mercy and love, as the Lord serves us as we look forward to the fulfilling of that eternal Sabbath rest with our Savior in God’s heavenly kingdom for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Aaron Kangas

Today marks the 5th Sunday in a row where the effects of sin are placed in the front and center to observe. 4 weeks ago, there was a death and mute man, the next week was the man attacked on his way from Jerusalem in the “Good Samaritan parable”, next it was the 10 leprous men suffering shame, isolation and a deadly disease, last Sunday was Jesus preaching from the sermon on the mount, saying do not be anxious in the midst of all these things. Do not even be worried about what to eat, drink, or what clothing to put on, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. These sufferings and worries are all the effects of sin experienced and lived out in the flesh. Sin is the cause of sorts of suffering: physical limitations, anxiety, grief, pain, anguish, helplessness, vulnerability to those who would take advantage showing the evil intent of those around us, and yes, a whole host of other things. This all leads to today’s text which features the ultimate weapon in Satan’s arsenal against humanity: death.

Against death, humanity is helpless. When we experience any of the issues, illness, physical limitations, persecution, physical violence, disease, hunger, any of these, the problems are multiplied because we ask: “what will this lead to?” “Will I recover, how weak will this make me, will I die from this?” The reality is that no regular human can ever escape from death. Death can happen whether we are old or young. It could arrive from illness, cancer, a car crash, or anything, really. No one can know how or when death will come. Some may try to ignore this reality. For some, the fear of death controls almost every decision they make. Most people are somewhere in between. Regardless of where you or I land on this spectrum, it is human nature to fear it, when it is thought about.

Satan uses this unsureness, this fear, or it’s opposite: over-confidence in one’s health or youth. He will use either to his advantage. All these things, he uses to cause people to embrace and live to worship themselves and while doubting God and His promises. He uses these fears or seemingly random tragic events or the awful results of careless personal choices to cause people to accuse God of not caring, or being evil, unloving, or cruel.

In today’s Gospel and Old Testament lessons, we have the OT and Gospel accounts of young men who died, sons of their living mothers, both who were widows. Death is always tragic because of sin, but when it takes a young person, it always seems even worse. We are not told the how or why they died. The OT lesson gives us a bit more detail in saying that the son became ill. We have no detail for the Gospel. Both mothers were widows. You know that this meant that both women had suffered the loneliness and heart ache of their husband dying. Stung by the pain of death before, now their only sons being taken from them, they, grief stricken by the sting of death once more, cried out to the Lord, “Why?” The window of Zaraphath said to Elijah: “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” The widow of Nain is not recorded as saying such a thing, but surely the thought to ask the Lord, “Why?” had crossed her mind and perhaps her lips.

Perhaps you have said similarly to God when things have gone the wrong way, when all hellish temptation, worry, trouble, disappointments, suffering, pain, and the threat of death fall around us and upon us. “God what do you have against me? Do you hate me? Why did you allow this or these things to happen? Why, Lord?” Is it sinful to ask such questions to the Lord? I don’t think so. Because you are asking the Lord. You are going to Him and praying and pouring out your complaint before Him as a believer. This is why Job is not seen by the Lord as saying anything unworthy of forgiveness despite his laments and challenges of God in the book of the same name. He did not write God off in unbelief, but cried out to Him and complained in faith.

However, the Devil, as I said can use this impulse of complaint from grief and fear to lead us to answer our questions with an earth based, untrue, answer: yes, God does hate you. That is what the world would say. “If there is a god, he must hate you. What did you do to make him so angry with you? Don’t you look like a fool and feel like a fool for trusting in such garbage? You should trust only in yourself, or some other earth bound authority to provide and protect” That is what the world will do. That is how the world would advise us.

But they are wrong. And when we make our own conclusions and blame God and feed our anger and fear, we are sinning. We are failing the test and opportunity to grow. We could blame God for sin and death, but in reality, He and His angels keep back most everything that our sinful, ungrateful, untrusting bodies and souls deserve. The reality is that we don’t deserve any grace or mercy. We and all the world deserve a present and eternal punishment, an eternal torment in the fires of hell.

The Gospel and Old Testament lessons for today and the last weeks, all point to the reality of who God is, and what is doing and does for us and why. The reality is that God does love us. Within His Word, His Grace, and within His only begotten Son. There is the solution for all that troubles us, all that grieves and oppresses us. That last enemy which threatens us all, death? It is defeated by the giver of life.

On His way into the city, Jesus and His followers meet the funeral procession for the son of the widow. Behold the situation which has so much irony. The widow is hopeless in that moment for comfort, but they meet the hope for the world and the Great comforter. A young man and only son of his mother, meets the young man and only son of God His father. The one who lives, calls forth the one who has died, but the living one who calls forth the dead son must Himself die and lay down His life. Jesus came to meet death head on, to conquer it with His innocent suffering and death on the cross. He sacrificed His perfect flesh and life so that this momentary and temporary resurrection of the young man of Nain from the dead could become permanent. So that death could be overcome by His perfect sacrificial death. So that as the Father restores His beloved Son Jesus in His resurrection from the dead, your resurrection of the body and soul would be eternal. After Jesus called the young man to rise from the dead, he restored him to His mother. What do suppose that also points to? Because Jesus Christ has died upon the cross for you. Because He has risen from the dead for you. He restores you to your heavenly Father. Through Holy Baptism and His Word His Spirit has brought you into His death, resurrection and brought you already from death to life. By the faith given to you in opposition to the spiritual blindness of this world, you can open your eyes and behold and respond to your loving God.

From one who was dead in sin, you are now alive in Christ. You are now marked for eternal life. You have already been raised to breathe the fresh air of life and hope for now and forever. Your bodily suffering and anguish, your griefs all will have an end. Place your hope in Him and you will not be dismayed, nor lost.

Cry out to Him in faith. Stop trying to bear things alone. Know that He hurts when you hurt. He hears and comes to you. Come to where He is for you and be restored again and again, being strengthened with each reception.

Come and receive the eternal food which strengthens and nurtures your faith. It is this food that gives comfort and joy in the deep valleys of this dying world. Here is the crucified and raised body and blood of your Father’s beloved Divine son, so that you can eat and drink and be restored as His created son or daughter. This feast shows you and gives you and prepares you for the eternal restoration of life of body and soul and the last.

Christ suffered so that here your earthly sufferings may be blunted and lessened. He suffered and died so that your death would not be permanent. No longer suffer anguish, anxiety, fear. When any enemy to wrest you from the Lord, invoke His name, and wrap yourself in His grace and promises and trust in Him, He will deliver you for His name’s sake.

Let Him already now turn your sorrows into hope, your disappointments into opportunities for learning and growing, and rejoice in His deliverance. As the young man began speaking and the people began praising the Lord, let us do the same. Let us praise Him with all our life and breath here on earth knowing that He who has raised us from our sin and unbelief will raise us once and for all, in Jesus’ name. Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The concept of faith is rather easy to understand. The simplicity of faith is summed up in the simple meaning to the First Commandment. “You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Faith is simply defined as trust in God above all things. Hebrews 11 states it this way: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is to truly hope and trust in God alone, that what He says and does is true and right for our good even if we do not see it immediately with our eyes. But … you and I both know that this is much easier in theory than it is in “real life.” Putting faith into actual practice is a different ballgame. 

In the Gospel for this 15th Sunday after Trinity, Jesus says more than once, “Do not be anxious” (Matt. 6:25, 31). And yet, hearing these words, we adults can’t help but laugh a little. “yeah right”. We live in anxious and uncertain times. In this media saturated world, we can’t ignore the reality of war, potential war, the growing violence in our cities and communities, even between people as they relate to one another with increasingly sensitive hair-triggers. Money is tight. Inflation and recession rage and rampage, the stock market seems volatile. Words such as “pandemic,” and “supply chain,” are now part of our everyday vocabulary.

And on top of this, there are the daily stresses of bills needing to be paid, deadlines on our calendar needing to be met, perhaps health related issues needing to be addressed with uncertain outcomes. The list of issues is almost endless.

“Do not be anxious? Sure. Nice ideal. How can we NOT grow anxious?”: we think. And yet, what is the root cause of this anxiety?… Where our faith truly lies.

Jesus stated this truth: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matt. 6:24). Literally, “You cannot serve God and mammon,” which is worldly things such as possessions, wealth, and success.

Like a slave who’s duty-bound to serve only one master, you can only serve one master – God or mammon. This brings us back to the first commandment. So, who do you fear, love, and trust above all things?

For us Christians, we want to say: “of course, God”, We’re to serve the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s the One who created you, the One who redeemed you with His holy and precious blood, the One who sanctifies you, you’re to fear and love and trust in Him above all things. You’re to look to Him as your greatest good, help, and comfort in life.

And yet, in practice, from day to day, week to week, when we are tempted to worry…Do we trust God and say, “God will provide. God will take care of us through cross or trial in this sin cursed world?” Again, easier said than done or believed.

Instead, in order to live and survive in this world, in order to feel safe and secure, we see how mammon meets those needs. We can physically see with our eyes the bank account or food on the table or the gas gauge in our car. So, we try to compromise. We say that we trust in God …and these hands, this money, that politician, whatever. Yet you cannot serve both God and mammon. You will end up loving and working for the one and hating the other. When we yoke ourselves to mammon, to this life, the inevitable slavery is to worry, to become anxious, to wonder: “whether or not there will be enough.”

Not only does mammon bring with it about anxiety and worry. It steals your heart, your peace, so that you don’t recognize the true God or look to Him as your greatest good, help, and comfort and source of hope in this life or the one to come. Yet He is where freedom and true life reside.

The words of Jesus “do not be anxious about your life,” and “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Ring hollow to the world and our flesh. The devil tells us in our experience: “God’s a liar. He is just trying to sucker you. You still need to worry. He will let you down like He has before.” But like so much in this media saturated world, those words are a twisting and revision of history, a twisting of the truth of what God has done and provided and it is a falsehood regarding the source of the troubles of this world and what plagues us.

God is not the source of evil and trouble. He does not cause anxiety for believers. He is its answer. Sin and unbelief are the cause of anxiety, of the curse of trouble and toil. God is actually the refuge in the midst of a world suffering rightly under the curse for sin. He is the only true source of hope and comfort.

Look at the Old Testament for this morning and the lesson of God’s care in the midst of suffering. Elijah is directed by God in the midst of a great famine to go outside the kingdom of Israel to a widow who God said would feed him. He doesn’t argue with God but goes. Elijah speaks to the widow who is not yet a believer and she has given up hope. She figures that she is gathering wood to make one last bit of bread and then she and her son will die. Elijah gives a command and promise. Make the bread for me and God will provide for you and not let your oil and flour run out. This widow woman could have said, “yeah right!” yet instead she thought, “what do I have to lose anymore? Why not?” Being brought to desperation, she by the Holy Spirit is being opened to a new hope: a hope in God’s promise of His Word. So, she obeyed and God rewarded that faith, first in the earthly things, but then also in the heavenly things as we will hear next week as she comes to receive a right faith in God.

Fellow redeemed, repent of looking to mammon for help in your time of need and not to the true God. Repent of the times that you have tried to justify your mistrust and unbelief. Repent of your sin and direct your attention, not to the news, but to the Word of the Lord.

Follow the example of the widow of Zaraphath or the 10 lepers from last week’s lesson. Live by faith in His Words. Know that God is the cure, the answer, the hope, the solution to our troubles: first eternal, but also to our earthly physical needs. He does not lie. His words are truth. How often we forget all the good that He has provided for us throughout our lives. A good hymn that we are not singing this morning puts it well. It is from hymn number 737 “Rejoice my heart be glad and sing” It challenges us to think thusly: “Why spend the day in blank despair, In restless thought the night? On your creator cast your care; He makes your burdens light. Did not His love and truth and power Guard every childhood day? And did He not in threatening hour Turn dreaded ills away?” It’s so easy to forget those times when trouble rears its ugly head and instead fall into unbelief and worry.

Because of our sin and mistrust, we deserve death both of the body now and in eternity, yet He continues to have mercy and gives us undeserved grace. So, when the Lord says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matt. 6:25), you can believe Him!

Jesus’ call, “Do not to be anxious,” isn’t a guarantee that you won’t face danger and extreme need and eventual earthly death. We live in a sinful, fallen world.

We sang “What God ordains is always good,” And it is true. Everything the Lord Jesus is giving to you, and allows for you, is for your ultimate benefit either to return you to Him for strength or to complete your joy in Him. All the joys and all the sufferings.

“Do not be anxious.” This fatherly divine goodness and mercy is shown to you and me for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. This Son was given so that you may have a hope which the gentiles, the unbelievers do not: a hope for forgiveness of sins, a knowledge that God loves you now, but that He has defeated your death by Christ’s death upon the cross. By faith in Jesus Christ, you are saved from death, damnation, and despair now and for eternity. You know that through Christ, God loves you and will give you grace and mercy for every moment in this life. You have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and so you have a hope and a joy established beyond yourself, your failings, your worries, and even the passing joys of this life. Christ took upon Himself all your sin and also the pain and suffering and death that comes with it, and nailed it to the cross and buried it in the tomb.

As a result, the absolute worst thing that could happen to you, is death; it has already happened to you in the waters of your baptism. “[You] were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, [you] too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

In that resurrection, there simply is no reason left for you to live in worry and anxiety anymore. Christ has died for you on the cross. All things are yours in Him. There’s no need to fear, for the Son of God took on your flesh and died in your place. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Fellow redeemed, place your eyes toward the cross and the kingdom of God which comes to you in His Word and in His bread of life and cup of blessing in the Lord’s supper. Seek and receive. Rejoice and be renewed. See by faith how your Father loves you for Christ’s sake. He tends to you individually more than the grass of the field and the birds of the air. As St. Paul says in Romans 8:2 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Remember that, rejoice, and rest, in Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

I am sure that you have all heard the phrase or at least something like: “life is a journey”. As you may already know, this is actually a biblical concept. And of course, the meaning of “life is a journey” in biblical thinking is much different than the world. Despite its ignorance and unbelief, the people of the world may observe from creation and understand there is a kind of movement, of journeying through time, and through life.

We are surrounded by movement and motion in this life. Even if a person stops to rest a while: time, animals, seasons, people continue to march and move around them. There is always a movement to something and away from something else. There is always a destination whether it is for a purpose or as a result: of our actions or someone else.
Think about this: Even if we are standing and sitting still it is because we are watching something or listening to something or someone, hopefully for learning and growing. Or we are still because we are waiting for something to come to us, like an opportunity, an idea, for our turn in order to conduct business, our meal, or we are resting there waiting for our energy to return.

People should be thinking of the movement of life itself in terms of goals, of growth. In each moment, we should ponder the reason we make the decisions that we do or do not make. Each decision, each movement, each moment ends up with its own destination or result. This is an important understanding. We may have a clear idea of our goals but we may forget that little decisions may distract and wind up directing us away from whatever goal it is. Or maybe we only have a hazy idea of where we would like to end up in the end, but by just going with the flow, we will definitely be guided in our decisions day to day, week to week by our selfish desires.

There is a definite spiritual and religious dimension to ALL of this, Because of sin, we don’t always make good decisions about where we want to end up or how we get there. Sometimes we think only in terms of the here and now. But spiritually and religiously speaking there are only two destinations and goals. As we live in this time on earth we are either being moved towards God by repentance and faith by His Holy Spirit to eternal life… or we are moving away from God by our rebellion, our ingratitude, our self-worship, apathy or worship of the things of this world. As we move away from God by our sin, to which destination are we headed? That’s right: eternal death and judgement.

That is partially why there is so much movement and action language in the Bible. Have you ever noticed how much movement there is?… in the Gospels, and really in the Bible in general? It is not the only concept nor even the chief concept, but there it is: Journey-ing. There is much talk of paths, roads, or the going by “the way” or along the way, (The early church and its beliefs were even referred to as “The way” in Acts 9). The Bible uses includes many details regarding feet and sandals, travel, walking and running. There are constant movements to or away. There is travel and there is standing still, but there is always a purpose or a result.

We heard this theme it in the Proverbs reading today.
“the way of wisdom;…the paths of uprightness.”
When you walk in the way of wisdom and righteousness, your step will not be hampered,
    and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
    guard her, for she is your life.
The other path is this: …”the path of the wicked,
    do not walk in the way of the evil.
Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. The wicked and evil seek to cause you stumbling.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
    which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know over what they stumble.
My son, be attentive to my words;
    incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
    For they are life to those who find them,
    and healing to all their flesh.
Put away from you crooked speech,
    and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
    and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
    then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
    turn your foot away from evil.

These are great words of advice from our Lord in Proverbs chapter 4. It describes the fact that really there are ultimately only the two paths going in directly opposite directions through the journey of earthy life. The way of life or the way of death. But who hasn’t stumbled and fallen at some point? Who hasn’t swerved to the right or left at least once, returning to the path of wickedness?

Well, that brings us to the Gospel lesson. Jesus knew where He was going and why. We need to remember that every time we hear anything regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, we should realize that there are definite answers to the questions: Why was He wherever He was or where He was going? Everything He did, He did with purpose. Why was He on earth to begin with? The purpose of that earthly ministry and life which seemed to be stopped at the cross outside Jerusalem, but arrived there and progressed from the cross of Golgotha for your salvation and the salvation of the world. So that you could be placed again and again upon the path of righteousness which leads to eternal life by the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus was not to be stopped by death, nor your sin and the sin of the world. The Son of God through His dying, destroyed death and the work of the evil and wicked plotters who still seek our stumbling. Christ Jesus has won. He lived, died, rose again, and ascended to send the Spirit for your healing and your salvation. So that you would no longer be spiritually cast away from Him but could be and would be returned to and brought back to Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

At the moment of our Gospel lesson Jesus was on His journey through Samaria and Galilee to Jerusalem, to accomplish this work of Redemption. As He passed through there were 10 lepers standing and waiting for Him. In the midst of their death sentence outcast condition because of their leprosy, they retained hope. They hoped in this Jesus of Nazareth to come to them, to have mercy on them. They called him “epistates” which means overseer, not Master…the one who is the caretaker. They did all have faith or at least hope (which has faith within it). So they hoped in Him. He passed through that way, knowing this moment would come and Jesus told them literally to “journey” to the priests to show themselves. He didn’t say that they would be healed, but they were on their way. And one turned back from His journey. He returned to the healer. This Samaritan knew that Jesus was the Messiah, God Himself, for the Gospel says that He journeyed back praising God and completely prostrated Himself at the feet of Jesus in worship and thanksgiving. After speaking with Him, Jesus sent the man forth “on his way” reminding him that he was made well by faith.

This Gospel text teaches the importance of gratitude to be sure. But not only in times of being healed of diseases or in times of joy or great accomplishment… We are to live this life’s journey giving thanks because God has healed us of our death sentence and our outcast condition, by taking our sins upon the great high priest Jesus Christ. We have been baptized into His sacrifice which has paid for our sins and have been given the knowledge of the way of salvation.

How do we know the way? As the Proverb said: “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.”

So what is the path of your feet? Where are you to be gazing straight ahead toward? What about your loved ones? If the path is not lit by the light of Christ’s crucified and raised then it is going the wrong way. If you are not looking to Christ and meditating on how and where your feet are turning, then Return. Repent. Look to the cross of Jesus. Be led by Him and His Word which is the way of salvation and all your ways in the journey of this life will be sure. That doesn’t mean life will be predictable. That doesn’t mean that life here on earth will be easy or glorious or pain free. No. But your way will be sure. The sureness is referring to your destination. The destination that is yours because of faith in Jesus Christ your Savior, redeemer, the overseer of your soul and body: eternal life with Him.

Even now He encourages you on the way. Proverbs said that the evil eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But God through Jesus Christ gives the bread of life and righteousness in Christ’s body given for you. He gives the wine of peace and reconciliation in Christ’s blood.

The liturgy itself has movement mimicking the movement of Christ’s ministry and service. Entering, processing, standing, sitting, walking, kneeling, returning, recessing…The movement of God to us, gathering us to Him, and then Him sending us out along the journey and vocation to which we have been called, having confessed, been absolved, taught, encouraged, fed, and nourished. Leaving with His blessing and promises.

Keep your gaze, your eyes of faith straight toward the cross and your way and goal will be made sure. Glorify Him, give thanks to Him, go and journey along life’s path to life eternal with Jesus Christ forever in His grace and joy. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The Gospel reading for today includes the parable of the “Good Samaritan” as most people call it. Most people just look at it as a morality tale told to say, “people should be compassionate and have mercy on those in need”. That’s it. And then they move on. There is much more to it than that.

I will make the case today, that this parable which has many things to teach us, also teaches us about desire. Yes, “Desire”. As in what do you desire? What would you like to have, to receive, to experience? What is it that you desire, that you “will” to do or have done for you in this life?

Suggestion is very powerful in directing our desires. A person may not desire to eat cookies until somebody says the words: “fresh baked chocolate chip cookies” and then suddenly you realize that you want some. Sorry about that if I made you hungry. You didn’t know that you were in the mood for cake until you saw it. You didn’t know that you wanted pizza until you smelled it.

For many people “desire” as a concept sounds like something carnal, that is of the flesh. And quite often it is. In many ways that is how the sin of coveting leads to a whole host of other sins. You may not even know that you want or desire something until you see somebody else enjoying it. You see what somebody else has and you “desire” it. You desire to claim it, consume it, master it, and make it yours. It could be wealth, specific possessions, status, or even people for friendship or 6th commandment breaking.

Desire can have a non-sinful spin. You desire to be helpful. You wish to be kind. You want to grow in your faith. If you ask a person if they want to go to heaven. They will say, of course! But how do you get to be saved? Can you do it on your own? Do you need help? Or are you helpless? How much do you desire it? It is funny how so often it takes failure or desperation to realize what we truly should need and truly desire.

A person thinks “I am going to build this new shed” and someone else asks: “Do you need help?” And they answer: ” No thanks, I’ve got it!” Fast forward a couple of hours when the walls are falling on top of that person, and suddenly, they realize, “I really want; I really need and desire some help now”. Or how about a student who thinks that they understand a subject, but then they take the test and looks nothing like what they thought it would be and they fail. Then they realize that they don’t have it together. You and I are so much like that. All humanity is at some time or another.

Sometimes it takes us to be brought down low to realize how much we need; to finally desire to receive that which is truly important which we cannot achieve ourselves: mercy, salvation, and rescue.
In today’s Gospel lesson an “expert in the Law” desired to put Jesus to the test regarding the way to achieve salvation. The word inherit is used, but when Jesus turns the question around on him, it is clear, that the expert in the Law thought salvation could be achieved by His own works. When Jesus told Him, “yes, do the Law and you will live”, the man desired to justify himself. Did you catch that? When people think that they can fulfill the Law they “desire to justify themselves”. When people are caught in a sin that they refuse to repent of, they “desire to justify themselves”. Two sides of the same coin. What the expert in the Law should have desired was what the ancients had desired. What is that?

Jesus turning to the disciples had said in verse 23-24, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

This expert in the Law, (the Word of the Old Testament) should have been looking for the blessed age and time of the Messiah! The “right then at that moment Messianic time”, the Messiah who was right in front of Him. This Jesus, the Christ, was the One promised to come to show mercy, to rescue, to bring salvation, forgiveness, and healing.

But this lawyer couldn’t and didn’t see his need for a Savior. The man in the parable didn’t know how much he should desire a savior until he needed one. He just took it for granted that he would be safe on his trip. He took it for granted that he could take care of himself. He could travel through life, offer up a few sacrifices and offerings to the Lord in Jerusalem and he would have a smooth life, an unchallenged life, and some day end up in heaven. He didn’t have any pressing desire for salvation until he needed it. He didn’t desire companionship or protection until he realized that he had none. When he realized what happens in this life if you have no spiritual protection against the evil that surrounds then it was too late to defend.

Then when that traveling man was waylaid and almost killed, he realized what he should have desired all along: a Savior. Suddenly he knew the vulnerability he had had. How trusting in himself, his pride, and his own strength was a great and terrible mistake. So there he lay, perhaps groaning and moaning, and two religious authorities passed by. Two experts in the Law, yet there was no help within them, because they wanted only to justify and protect themselves. If they paused to help, they might also be waylaid. These were men of duty to God, but faith was far from their hearts.

Finally, from the most unlikely, the least looked for place, a man of a despised background, came the much desired and needed salvation and rescue. This Samaritan stooped low to the ground, to bind the man’s wounds, anoint and cleanse them, then he lifted the mostly dead man onto his own beast of burden taking him to a place of constant attention and aid, paying for all his food, his shelter, the care of this man’s life until he would return.

This Samaritan is pointing to Jesus. The prophets, kings, and believers of the past who lived the Old Testament, who wrote the Old Testament longed for and yearned to see the day of Jesus. The day of His visitation. They had seen in their own lives how they had needed God for life, for hope, for forgiveness. They desired to see in life with their own eyes the Savior who would ultimately deliver them, but they did not.

The lawyer, did not yet desire what he needed to desire, though He saw the instrument of his salvation before him. So often people do not realize how much they have always needed God and the message of Jesus Christ until it is almost too late, but it is not too late as long as there is life and breath. There is time to see that we cannot justify our sin, and we cannot justify ourselves by our works. We are helpless and as dead men and women spiritually. The Law has shown us our sin, let us repent before the world, the devil, or our flesh bring us to the gates of eternal death.

Let us desire what we need: a Savior: Jesus Christ. Then let us see how much we need to hear His voice in His word and His absolution as often as we can. How much we long to hear the voice of Jesus who was considered low and rejected by so many. Jesus became as the Samaritan to take our sins and our burdens upon Himself. Lifting us onto Himself, and paying the cost for our life and our care by His blood shed upon the cross.

He has bound you up and brought you here this day to the inn. So that as His called and ordained innkeeper, I can wrap your wounds with the bandages of God’s Word, washing and changing your wounds and bandages, cleansing the infectious sin from week to week, and feeding you the food which Christ has paid for, so that you may live now and for eternity.

What a privilege. We are able to receive and see with our own eyes and hear the message which the ancients longed to see and hear: the time of promise fulfilled in Christ crucified and raised. Here He comes to us in bread and wine with His body and blood, His word of promise and mercy has been fulfilled. We should desire to be here and receive as often as we can. After receiving the gifts, we sing with Simeon, that our own eyes have beheld in this blessed meal, the salvation which God has prepared for all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people Israel.

Let us who admit that they are weak, weary, and heavy laden put our cares upon Christ crucified. Pray and know He hears and answers. As you desire His strength, power, and wisdom to live by faith, He fulfills those desires, and He promises to take care of your other needs too. See that the desire of God is for your salvation, for us to be free of our sin, and the empty desires of this world. He alone justifies you and declares you righteous for Christ’s sake. Receive His grace and rejoice in Him until He comes once more to bring us with Him to eternal life, In Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Touch can be a good thing. As physical, flesh and blood people, we need and long for “touch” especially from those whom we care about. We wish to be able to “touch” them in return. Studies have shown that if newborns do not receive physical touch and care, in addition to the basic necessities of feeding and changing, they will die.

Why is touch so necessary for humans? The sense of touch removes loneliness. Good touch creates and expresses bonds of intimacy and affirmation of that person. This kind of touch is seen when people shake hands as a greeting which expresses respect, a lack of fear and repulsion of the other person. Friends may hug in greeting, or in comfort or sharing in a happy moment. Parents hug and kiss their children, they hold their hands. Husbands and wives, kiss and cuddle.

Then there are times when touch is desperately needed: times of fear, worry, anxiety, grief. The human response at those times is to fling out arms and hands and clutch for something, somebody, to give reassurance by a comforting touch.

Hence the value of holding the hand, of reassuring those who are ill, helpless, near death: whether conscious or unconscious. This touch is of great comfort to both the bed-ridden and the care giver alike. The fact that so many of us in 2020 and 2021, had been forced apart, forced to forgo those tender, precious, and beneficial moments of touching or being touched especially during illness and recovery, or during the waning health leading to death of our loved ones, has been a bitter and tragic part of that Covid era, and we must not soon forget those enforced deprivations.

Without touch, we feel even more “fear” and loneliness, like people unclean and forgotten, forced to deal with everything alone, our minds quite often will wander into dark and scary thoughts. The desire and need for touch, for community are actually a longing for God’s perfect creation of mankind before the fall when perfect fear-less communication was the standard.

God created people for community. Think about that word: community. Do you see the word: unity in it? It’s there. God created us soul and body in unity to exist in communion that is, in community with Him. Even when God created Adam, He did so in a very personal and physical way: touching and gathering together the soil and dust of the ground, then breathing God’s own breath of life into man’s nostrils. To form Eve God did not say “Let there be”, but He used the physical means of touching and taking Adam’s rib, and formed from it, the first woman.

As Lutherans, we confess that the body is not bad in and of itself. However, our bodies have inherited the flaws and weaknesses of our parents going back to Adam and Eve’s curse. The weakness and fallenness of our bodies reveal what is going on spiritually. Since the fall into sin, every man, and woman has been conceived and born spiritually dead and separated from God. No longer set within the framework of living in community with God by faith and knowledge of Him, our bodies reflect the spiritual loneliness and longing that should find its answer and its fulfillment in God. We are conceived with a spirit no longer connected to and in unity with God, but a spirit that seeks its own way as St. Paul wrote in last week’s epistle text (Ephesians chapter 2): “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Often the emptiness of people’s spirits without the Lord, is lived out in the sinful passions of the flesh. People seek to be satisfied in the touch of the things of this world. Grasping at lust, or wealth, health, honor, glory, popularity, possessions, even family, through them, they seek to comfort themselves from the loneliness and emptiness of the spiritual void which lingers within them, without God. Yet, they can find nothing to grasp and touch that does not shift or fade with the passage of time in this sin-plagued life. All things pass away: parents, children, health, fame, pleasure. None can help and comfort when sickness attacks the body and death beckons. We may cling to the hope of life extended from drugs, the work of doctors, but no matter what, death will come. Death is the great cleaving and tearing of soul from body. This is the terrible wage of sin. All must pass through this ordeal of death of the body. It seems to unbelieving eyes that everyone must pass through it alone. But that is not how it has to be.

This is the joy of the Gospel, the great and good news that God does not forsake the flesh of mankind nor see it as repulsive and unclean and unworthy of salvation. He desires to purify, rescue, and comfort us soul and body. To bring life to the body through the giving of His Spirit to bring faith in Himself. His will is to renew and reconcile the community that was ruined by the sin of Adam and Eve: to cover over every sin committed by every person since.

That is why the Son of God came into the world. God saw that this flesh is something that is still worthy of redemption and salvation along with the soul and person. He desires that you, and I and all those who would believe would be reconciled to Him in a restoration of the paradise that was lost. Despite the rebellion of humanity, He does not desire you nor I to receive the full measure that our sins deserve. So, the Father sent the Son to bring the flesh of humanity into community with His divinity in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus felt in the flesh everything that we feel: temptation, illness, suffering. He hungered; He grew tired. Though He did not sin, He took upon Himself the sins of the world. When He healed, He took the spiritual ailment of sin along with its symptom. That really is how we should look at illness, birth defects, mental disorders, accidents, cancers, sufferings of any kinds, yes even death. These bodily troubles are symptoms of the reality of sin. That is why we suffer in the body and in the spirit when these things come upon us.

So, we see in today’s Gospel text how God seeks to interact with humanity: to comfort and to rescue. That is why Jesus touches the man who was deaf and dumb. Jesus touches him to absorb the man’s sin and to pour forth His healing Divine Power. His action also show God’s pity and comfort in our suffering flesh. Very often when Jesus heals or raises from the dead, He touches. He wouldn’t need to. He could just say the words. He does that too. But often, He touches, He grasps a hand, He spits and places His fingers, He heals when others touch Him. This shows that there is healing and comfort in the touch and presence of Jesus Christ!!

As the crowd proclaimed “He does all things well” in today’s text, so He does. He accomplished our salvation by receiving all the bad touches that our sin deserved: the whips, the nails, the humiliation, God’s wrath, and an excruciating death under the weight of sin upon His body and His spirit. Jesus died on the cross so that your death in your body is temporary. So that you do not die as one who is “alone” when your last hour comes here on earth. Death has been defeated in Christ’s sacrifice. To prove that the division between soul and body, the division between God and Mankind is temporary and has been overcome, Jesus rose bodily from the dead! He showed that human flesh is indeed redeemable in Him.

Even as the devil, the world, and our flesh would try to make us despair in this life, God comes to you and desires for you to rejoice in Him today, to be comforted in Him, and to be established and renewed in faith by His Spirit. He gives us the good touch and reassurance of His presence in Jesus Christ today. He continues to descend to comfort us in His true presence through material and physical means.

In Holy baptism, He uses water with the Word to touch our skin and our soul to wash us, drowning our evil nature, and bringing our spirits from spiritual death through the cross to life in His resurrection.

He touches us on our hands and tongue when we receive Christ’s crucified and raised body and blood in the bread and the wine. This is His communion to those who come in repentance and faith. This is where He pours out His power to forgive and deliver true comfort and unity in that confession and His presence. This sacrament works forgiveness of sins, it renews our faith and the work of the Holy Spirit within us, and it comforts and strengthens these weak bodies by His victorious body. We are physically reminded that death is overcome and these bodies which received Him in bread and wine will at the last day be raised imperishable. And through Him we are gathered into this body of the church with one another, to care for, pray for, and communicate for each other as further proof that we are called into a holy and redeemed community in Christ.

That is how Christians can survive this world of loneliness: “with hope” even when apart. How they can face even death without the trembling of an unbeliever. We can grasp and hold onto something that cannot and will not pass away: the Word of God in Jesus Christ. God in Jesus Christ has come to us, and grasped us to Himself. He will hold our hand, and He will lead us through the gateway of death, unfearing, alone nevermore. To be taken to our eternal home to live forever in His presence, surrounded by His angels and saints, victorious and rejoicing because of God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

What was the difference between the pharisee and the Tax collector in today’s familiar parable? It wasn’t just their station in life; it was a matter of how they viewed themselves. Today’s parable shows the contrast between pride and humility and how God views either attitude.

The Pharisee saw nothing wrong with himself. ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ I guess it was nice that he thanked God, but the reason why he thanked God was pretty messed up. Thank you that I am not like others who are sinners in various ways, and that I fast and I tithe. Is there anything wrong with tithing, that is giving 10 percent of all income back to the Lord? Of course not! In fact, it would be wonderful if everyone could or would give that much back unto the Lord in joy and gratitude. Was there anything wrong with fasting? (That is of course, going without food for a set time) No. Fasting is a way of disciplining the body and was commended in the Old and New Testaments as a good thing, in fact, so much the better if it is done as a personal sign of repentance. Was there repentance in the heart of the pharisee? No. The fasting and the tithing were signs of repentance and humility for the Pharisee, but a source of pride, a chance for him to show others how good he was. He did it for his credit, not as unto the Lord in thankfulness and mercy. He was thankful, but only in pride that he was better than others, including the tax collector. This man was not repentant, and he stood proudly before God, not even giving God credit for the good works done through him. No, he was a self made man of exceptional quality, nothing to repent of…that pride which shows itself in refusal to acknowledge sin is why he was not forgiven. His tithes, his fasts did him no spiritual good nor credit, because he did not do it in faith and humility.

Pride is dangerous. Of course, he was a sinner. His prayer even showed that. He was worshipping himself not the Lord. But he was too lost in his pride to see it. He was too convinced of his good spiritual health to see the horrible stench of spiritual death within himself.

We see the same kind of pride today. Although it is not always pride in churchly good works. We see people take pride in their sin and their shame. Yes, there are those church goers who take pride in the same way as the Pharisee who look at those who have sinned and say, “Look how good I am”, and “I don’t need to repent for I am so virtuous”. But the spirit of today actually calls sin and pride in it, “a virtue”, and the protection and promotion of those who do it is a new form of righteousness. It is terrible and destructive, but that is the nature of pride.

Are you and I immune from pride? Be honest. The answer is “no”. If you, or I, like the pharisee or the others I just mentioned try to minimize, excuse, justify, or qualify our sins of the heart, mind, and action…If we refuse to look in the mirror or attempt to cover our ears to the rebuke of God’s Law which is accurately accusing you through Scripture or the admonishment of a brother or sister in Christ, how are we any better than the Pharisee or the world in its pride?

Sin is serious business. It is actually a spiritual wound and separation from God. Pride in our sin or pride in our perceived righteousness and good works is not faith, but that which brings us under condemnation and separation from God.

What is it then that makes a man or woman justified before the Lord? Keeping the Law? Well, yes of course, if you can keep it in full. But who can? Nobody. Therefore, let us take a lesson from the tax collector in this morning’s Gospel. The only way to be justified before the Lord, is to be repentant, to be humble, to acknowledge our sin, to forsake our pride, and He will justify you in Christ. What is repentance? It is not “I am sorry I got caught,” it isn’t “I am sorry for that sin but look forward to doing it again.” It isn’t giving yourself over to your temptation and accepting it as just part of your identity.

Repentance is truly being sorry as in, “I don’t want to do this again. I was wrong, I am wrong. I do want to change. I don’t deserve mercy, but without mercy, without God’s power and strength, there is no hope for change or forgiveness for me, O Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.

Jesus said: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” That is the key. Humble yourself before the Lord in hope and repentance and He shall exalt you. He shall lift you up. That is what the tax collector did. When the tax collector went to the temple, what did do and say? Almost completely different from the Pharisee, he would not even lift his eyes to heaven but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

That prayer is our prayer, at least it needs to be. “God be merciful to me, a sinner. And for the sake of Jesus Christ by faith in Him, God is merciful. For the sake of mercy Jesus came, so that those who are led to see their sinful and spiritually dead condition may hope for forgiveness and change. Jesus was and is the perfect and righteous man, the Son of God, yet He died on the cross to take our unrighteousness upon Himself, so that we may be forgiven by faith in Him and His sacrifice.

Here’s a good question for us to ponder: Was the tax collector forgiven and then freed to go back to ripping people off and overcharging them in his vocation as tax collector? No. What does that mean for you and me?

We come here and we confess our sins, and we hear the announcement of absolution in Jesus Christ. We remember our baptisms, we hear God’s Word preached in our ears, we eat Christ’s crucified and raised body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, strengthening of faith, and preparation for life eternal, but are we thinking about the greatness of God’s mercy in that? The magnificent power that He shares with us by His Holy Spirit? Do we just go home justified only to look for ways to judge others or go back to our sin using God’s grace as an excuse to sin all the more? Heaven forbid!

St. Paul said in today’s epistle lesson: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

God saved us from death, by His grace and grants it through faith in Him. You and I are freed from the bondage of death and darkness, but not freed to go back to our sin. Here He works on our hearts and minds through His Word and Sacrament to bring repentance, but to then to also be re-created in Christ Jesus to do good works to His glory, by His power, to be as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, were supposed to be.

This is not as difficult as it sounds. It just means live in humble joy in Christ. Jesus Christ has died on the cross for you, oh, sinner! So now live each day in His grace by faith, focus on the cross, keep remembering you have no good apart from Christ and live in constant amazement at His mercy. Eagerly come to church not because you have to, but because this is where He gives you His presence and His gifts. This is where He works on you to give you mercy and strength by the ongoing forgiveness of sins. Then you can care-fully speak to others as one forgiven, not as one who is better in their own holiness and “faith walk”, but as ones who are seeking and desiring the repentance and salvation of others so that they can share in God’s grace and salvation with us. You can and should then give offerings as you are able with joy in response to what God has given you in Jesus Christ.

Dear friends, you have been justified, forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ! Live humbly, with pride only in the cross and God’s grace. Rejoice and live by God’s grace and faith until He brings us to rest with Him for eternal life. In Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“Err on the side of the Gospel” is what we pastors are sometimes told. That doesn’t mean put the best construction on a person when rumors are heard or when trying to understand a person’s motivation. The phrase “To err on the side of the Gospel” is almost always said as a form of permissiveness. To give permission for wrong practice, sinful lifestyles, decisions, the casting away of Scriptural teaching, while claiming it is to be done “for the sake of the Gospel”; so that people are not turned off or turned away to the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, supposedly.
Sometimes we get confused in today’s modern Christianity. A “Christianity” which seems to tend more towards excuses: almost an “anything goes” mentality. Whether we are talking morally, ethically, liturgically. We hear this: “Don’t be mean. Don’t be close minded. Don’t offend. Don’t judge.” “We are saved by grace through faith, right? Everybody sins, so why not just love people and let grace abound?”

The truth is: Grace is not permission to be sinful. A permission to indulge the flesh. It is not permission to make excuses and take the easy way out. God does not and did not redeem humanity through the precious life and death of Jesus Christ to give you, me, or anyone else permission to sin willfully, wantonly, and unashamedly.

Any pastor, any so-called teacher, who gives permission to relax the teachings/doctrines of Holy Scripture, the laws, rules, and recommendations of Scripture are to be judged. Not by me, but by the Words of Jesus Christ Himself in this morning’s Gospel: “whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Once again: Grace is not permission to do whatever we want, whenever we want, and then just expect to be given a pass by God.

However, this does mean that it is ok to add to the Law or to use it to build oneself up in pride. Do you remember the scribes and pharisees? They were the experts in the Law. The Pharisees not only tried to abide by the letter of the law in the 10 commandments, but they even added to those Laws in order to become righteous in the sight of God and their communities. “Righteous” means to be blameless in the eyes of the Law. Doing what is “right”. Jesus said: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

How can our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? Are we saved by the righteousness that comes from the works of the Law? The answer: yes. Yes, we are saved by the righteousness that come from the works of the Law. How is it possible to be saved by the works of the Law? We are born into original sin. Even if we try to follow the Law in every way, we all still daily sin much, not only that, but we often use “original sin” and the universality of sin as an excuse for adding to our debt, by breaking the Law of God willingly, proudly, in thought, word, and deed.

So how can you, me, or anybody else have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and pharisees by the obedience to the Law? How are we saved by the works of the Law?

Through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one whose righteousness far surpasses the artificial and imperfect righteousness of the pharisees and scribes and ourselves. The sinless Son of God came and joined Himself to flesh and bone and loved God perfectly in our stead, He loved His neighbor perfectly, in our stead. He ministered and loved even those who seemed to be outcasts and the greatest sinners of society. Yes, He ate and drank with those who were prostitutes and tax collectors among others, but such is what they “were”: past tense. Jesus did not give them permission “to keep on sinning on”, for them to “you be you”, to “go back to that same old sin and way of life”. He did not give permission, but He did give forgiveness of sin, and a release from the bondage to temptation to pridefully sin, He took away the guilt of sin. He came to save you and me not so that we could sin boldly so that grace may abound, but that we could be freed from sin by Grace in order to be the people God originally created us to be: new and holy creations now in Jesus Christ.

In order to bring that righteousness to the unrighteous, Jesus also had to take the place of sinners in the judgement that sin deserved. A painful death, a rejection and judgement by God at Golgotha, to experience hell upon the cross. It was not the flood of Noah’s days, nor the fire and brimstone at Sodom and Gamorrah, where God’s terrifying presence and wrath upon the sin of the world was witnessed here on earth. It was here at the cross of Jesus. this has become the place of ultimate Sacrifice, Golgatha is the true mount Zion, the mountain of deliverance. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, for you.

In the flood of Holy Baptism you have been brought into that sacrificial death, into Jesus Christ’s righteousness by the obedience of the Law. He has taken you into Himself, so that you and your sinful flesh would be crucified with Him, your sins buried in the tomb, and now you are and have been raised with Him in newness of life. You have died to sin, to be made alive by His grace, to believe in Him, and do the works of the Law in the righteousness of Christ by His Spirit even now in this life.

Do we cease from sinning here on earth? Can we become perfected in soul and mind here on earth? The heretical Nazarene church and others would say “yes”. The Bible says: No.

The progressive churches and false teachers would say to that, if you can’t be perfect, then sin all you want and do so with pride. No.

Neither is a correct reaction to God’s love, grace, nor the freeing power of Jesus Christ’s work of atonement for sin.
We cannot ourselves perfectly fulfill the demands of the Law as long as this stubborn fallen flesh clings to us. That does not mean we should give up and give ourselves permission to sin, nor does it mean that we should judge whether or not we are saved by the numbers of our good deeds or measure ourselves against others.

We should realize that we do not want to sin because it separates us from God and destroys our faith. Therefore, we should measure ourselves according to the Law in repentance, returning in hope again to the Gospel: to the cross of Jesus Christ. This is the only place where life changing, life giving, forgiving of sin is given. Returning to our baptisms, to the place where Jesus has placed His sign and seal of His Spirit upon us. We confess our sins in true contrition, being sorry, not wanting to return to sin, not excusing ourselves, not placing ourselves back in those situations where we are sure to fall again into temptation.

We are then made pure once more by the blood of Jesus. We are given the power of Christ’s forgiveness once more. We are freed to be His people. To live in humility, to be selfless, to be kind to one another, tender hearted, caring. To lift one another and encourage one another in our earthly journey and pilgrimage to the Promised land of God’s eternal heavenly glory.

God comes to us and gives us the wisdom of His Word, His sacraments, the liturgy, the teachings and doctrine through which the Holy Spirit feeds us and guides into all Truth as We live in Christ, having been anointed in God’s Triune name. To sustain us, and give us strength against temptation, He affirms His truth and His love and His bond to us by coming to us in Christ’s crucified and raised body and blood in the bread and wine. Here we are reminded that Jesus has overcome the world. He has overcome even our weakness and sin, and as we abide in Him, He will abide in us with His grace and power.

Dear friends, remember, to relax the Law and to give permission for willfully sinning is really to take away from the work of Christ. It is abusing God’s grace. It is saying “God, you are a sucker, we don’t appreciate you or Christ’s sacrifice. We don’t believe it. We only believe in ourselves.” Lord preserve us from this unbelief!
Let us, instead, stand firm in the freedom of the Law fulfilled, free to be Christian, His redeemed children. We have His righteousness which exceeds the pharisees and scribes, the righteousness of Christ Jesus who fulfilled the Law for you. We are a new creation because we have been brought into Christ and have His power. As God told us through St. Paul: “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

In Jesus Christ, we will be kept in that baptismal grace for forgiveness and life, until we receive “in full” the resurrection of our bodies in Jesus Christ. Jesus, who shall come again to take us where we shall live forever with Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This is most certainly true, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas