Five years ago, a friend and colleague, Pastor Erik Rottman, planned a very interesting and memorable pastors’ conference. The topic he chose for it was Church Security. How safe is your sanctuary? so we were asked. Do you have a plan in place in case of an emergency, a health issue, an unwanted intruder, or an innocent-looking panhandler? Many pastors know these problems arise, even in rural settings, but not all had given enough thought to what one should do in these various scenarios. That is why I personally thought that this conference theme was an excellent idea.

The keynote speaker was a layman—a member of a Baptist church, actually—who was a former law enforcement officer and now he directs a company that helps churches with security solutions. He cited the rapid increase in violent incidents that have been reported from church settings in the United States. From only 18 of these in 2008, the numbers have risen to 135 violent incidents, just in 2011. Typically, intruders are simply wanting to disrupt services and say whatever they wanted to say. The vast majority of these incidents are usually over with and resolved before law enforcement or emergency personnel arrives, however it is still important that churches also have plans in place that ensures that help is contacted quickly whenever it is needed.

For churches that also operate a day care and preschool, some of these security issues are automatically required to be addressed. Safety needs to be a number one priority when parents are entrusting the care of their little ones to others during the week. But it is also true that we have to be safe when we meet for church and for church meetings. Not only children, but all age groups can be targets for a “bad guy” looking for an easy strike.

What should we do to defend ourselves? Is that even a Christian thing to do? What about the idea of offering up one’s life for the Lord? These issues were all brought up in our presentations and discussions. We at Good Shepherd have recently addressed some of these when we upgraded our alarm system. While it is true that our body and life belong to our heavenly Father who created us, and our full trust for protection should remain in Him, we also must realize that He has given us vocations and offices in daily life that put us in responsibility toward others. Parents need to protect, feed and train their children. The strong are needed to uphold the weak. Church members need a place where they can feel safe, so that the most important activity of hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments can go on in Church. People who volunteer for service in the name of Good Shepherd should not be made into “sitting ducks” for a predator.

Far from being scared of the unknown, farther still from advocating violence over against our neighbor, I learned from this conference that we should give some thought to the safety of our sanctuary, take notice of everybody who walks in—whether they are visitors unsure about where to go, or potential threats—and be prepared for anything. Hopefully, none of the serious incidents that are affecting churches these days will ever happen to us. But, with a little effort and good communication, an episode like that need not become an insurmountable obstacle to the church’s ministry.

Yours, in Christ’s service,

Pastor Stirdivant

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The U.S. Justice Department released new guidelines regarding the treatment of religious freedom by federal agencies. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a guidance containing 20 “key principles” that spell out the religious liberties of individuals and organizations as they relate to regulations and policies of the federal government.

“Religious freedom is not merely a right to worship in a sacred place,” Sessions wrote in his memo. “Except in the narrowest of circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law. Therefore…religious observance should be reasonably accommodated in all government activity, including employment, contracting, and programming.”

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, applauded the new stance announced by the Justice Department. “Federal government agencies have now been put on notice: you will not only respect the freedom of every American to believe according to their faith, but also to live according to those beliefs.”

“President Trump is demonstrating his commitment to undoing the anti-faith policies of the previous administration and restoring American’s First Freedom–religious liberty. These concrete steps will once again erect a bulwark of protection around our First Amendment rights.”

President Trump had promised earlier this year to address the continuing threats by government to the free exercise of religion. In a press conference in the Rose Garden that included members of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Trump declared that “we will not allow people

of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore. We are ending the attacks on religious liberty.”

(Source: Missouri Family Policy Council email 10/17/17)

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The Reformation was not about anything new, but about returning to the unchanged and unchanging truth. So it still is today. The celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is not a time for novelty. It is time to return. Return to the truth. Return to the basics. Return to the foundation.

Luther wrote the Small Catechism for the instruction of lay people. Luther intended the Small Catechism to be used at church and in the home to instruct children in the faith and to reinforce the faith in the hearts and minds of the adults.

There is no better time than in this year of celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation to review the catechism.

Read it for yourself. Refresh the theology in your mind. Pray the catechism daily. Memorize it. But even more, teach it. If you are a parent, teach it to your children. As you have opportunity, share it with your friends and peers.

The catechism teaches the fundamentals of the Christian faith: the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, Confession and the Office of the Keys, and the Sacrament of the Altar. This small book is well worth your time and study.

May this celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation be a time when we return to Word and Sacrament, and when we turn to Christ and His love. It’s Still All About Jesus.

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

Dearly beloved fellow heirs of the Reformation:

You and I are reminded nearly every day that we should cherish our freedom. We are often told that it is our greatest achievement, freedom is something we or someone else has worked hard to get. Our liberties as American citizens came to us at a great price. Our independence, which was won for us by the men and women in the armed forces of yesterday and today who made real sacrifices, it is all something we should treasure.

We think of similar sacrifices as we, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, celebrate the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther put up a notice of academic debate, and from that point onward, the Christian Church has celebrated freedom and independence from Roman Catholic superstitions and the iron-fisted control of the pope. Once again, such freedoms were very difficult to attain. Many suffered death by burning at the stake—something that Martin Luther, however, escaped. Others were innocent bystander casualties of violent mob-uprisings and bloody wars. And yet the freedom of the Gospel they fought for is now our most prized possession as Lutherans.

And so we are reluctant to believe it, or we are downright offended, when we hear that this freedom is actually something you receive as a gift. It would then turn out that you didn’t work for it, or possibly that you didn’t need to struggle for it. Saying that our freedom is something that God has already given us would also say that it was for nothing that those colonists fought the Revolutionary War, or that brother fought against brother in the Civil War. If you were to admit that Christ has achieved our freedom for us, then what need did we have of Martin Luther, or all the other players in the Reformation drama?

A gift is really demeaning to your proud sinful nature, if you want to be perfectly honest. It’s almost a game some people play at birthdays and Christmas to try quickly to match each other equally in their gift-giving. And nothing can be more satisfying but also at the same time offensive than when you have given better than what you got in return. Offensive because you know you deserve better and the other person is able to give better than they have. Satisfying because you’ve proven yourself to be the more generous, benevolent soul, and you have won the game of giving.

So God’s gift of freedom that He gives willy-nilly through His Son Jesus Christ is a gift that puts you on the wrong end of the game. It means you are not in control of yourself; you have no way of making your sinful nature proud. If you were free by what you yourself have done, then your freedom is on your terms. Freedom would be what you deserved as a birthright, just like the Jews imagined when they were talking to Jesus. “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.” They understood that if Jesus were to give the gift of freedom, then they, the recipients, would have to acknowledge that they were in a truly miserable position from birth. Not only were they in political bondage because Palestine was under strict control of the Roman Empire, but they were also in spiritual bondage to sin, death and the devil. The Jews’ claim of lineage from Abraham gave them the bragging rights to freedom in both political and spiritual realms, so they believed. They really earned it and no other ethnicity had those same bragging rights—and the Jewish religion has basically the same pride surviving to this very day.

Remember, though, that this gift of freedom is for you, too, no matter how much you also want to regard it as an achievement. You in your heart know that if your freedom in the Gospel can be thought of in your own terms, then you are independent. You would owe nothing to anybody. It would just be you and Jesus. You would then have every right to come in here, sit in the pew that you have claimed and reserved for years, you then fill ‘er up with the forgiveness that God has to give you as an individual, give just enough to cover your own part, and turn around and walk right out and drive home without having to do anything else. You get all the credit for going to church, and you still have time in the day to do something useful.

That is one kind of freedom, namely, freedom from everyone else. You are an individual, free from sin. This is how you normally think of it when you read the Bible—how does this apply to my personal relationship with God? What are the certain things I must do every day? I must repent of my sins, seek God’s forgiveness, and believe that He has given it to me. And you would be right. Christ has freed each and every individual you out there. You are His child, washed in the blood He shed on the cross and baptized into His name. No one else can believe for you. No one else has control over the salvation that you have. God the Father has specifically forgiven you and given eternal life to you.

But that’s when the devil wants to take over. He wants to capitalize on that individual, one-on-one concept that you have in your mind, and push out everything else. Satan keeps you focused on the time and commitment that you have given, and then he turns your attention to compare yourself against the others sitting in church with you. Something about them may distract you and the devil attempts to use it to pull you away from your Lord and your neighbor and they make you an isolated individual. And so the good of God’s freedom in the forgiveness of Jesus is twisted and contorted to be your declaration of independence from your brothers and sisters in the faith. In the end, that turns freedom into a bondage that says, “I can now do whatever I want,” but really you are fooling yourself, for you would then do what sin wants and what your Old Adam wants and your freedom would be lost.

The true freedom, the freedom for which Christ died and shed His blood, and the freedom that He lavishes upon you, is not only freedom from sin but also a freedom for living as His new creation. It’s freedom for being a disciple, so that your very existence is for the good of someone else. Because the waters of your baptism not only are your individual promise from God that your sins are forgiven, but they also kill the individual in you and remake you in the image of Jesus, joining you to His Body, the Church. The Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion are not just an extra assurance of forgiveness above and beyond all the forgiveness you already get in the rest of the church service. Even more than that assurance of forgiveness is the fact that Jesus joins Himself to you, giving you the perfect holy life and freedom that He is, right into your mouth! And along with Jesus giving Himself to you, He gives you to each and every other person kneeling at the rail with you, who believe and confess the very same faith you do and are joined to the very same Jesus that you are joined to. This is true freedom: freedom for serving each other.

Rather than a declaration of independence, this freedom for which Christ died and that He alone gives to you is a declaration of dependence on your fellow believers. In this new relationship, you bear one other’s burdens, trials, griefs and difficulties, but also their joys, love, and eternal hope, because those are the things that will last into eternity. The bad stuff will all be gone soon. This is why Jesus denied the Jews of their claim to true freedom by being the descendants of Abraham, because it was only freedom for themselves as individuals. But it also applies to you. If the freedom you have from the promises of the Lord is only your individual freedom from sin, then it really isn’t the true freedom Jesus is talking about, the freedom for serving those around you without expecting anything in return. If you don’t have this freedom for, you never really had the freedom from to begin with.

Martin Luther wrote that as a Christian you are completely free, subject to none—that is the first kind of freedom that I talked about, freedom from sin and death. But he also balanced it with the freedom for, saying that the Christian is also in a new type of bondage, a servant to all in the love given through Jesus Christ. In this understanding of freedom, there is still forgiveness, especially for you. Your sins of selfish pride and individualistic attitude are wiped away, and God remembers them no more. And as you live in true freedom, freedom for each other, remember that you do such nice things not because you have to put in your time like it was community service, but because there is nothing more free and natural than to help someone else. Jesus has won the eternal life that you could not earn. His freedom is yours, and when you sacrifice yourself for the good of someone else, something that your heavenly Father wants you to do in the first place, you still get rewarded, even when you had nothing to do with it! Test Him in this, He says, give up a little of yourself for others in whatever way you can, and you still get hundreds of times back what you gave. That is the true freedom of the Gospel: countless blessings above and beyond the forgiveness that is already yours.

So, fellow redeemed, the Church of the Reformation on this the 500th anniversary, stand fast, therefore, in the freedom by which Christ has made you free. Cherish it, not because you worked for it, but because it is God’s gift to you. For you are no longer under the yoke of bondage, but you are free for the benefit of one another, and you wait for the promised freedom of heaven, when you will be set free from the grip of sin, death and the devil for good. Thanks be to the Truth, our Lord Jesus Christ!

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

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

This sermon is from Pastor Eric Kaelberer of Grace Lutheran in Rialto, who graciously stepped in when I could not make it to church. Then following below is the sermon I had prepared for the 22nd, but did not preach. God’s blessings and thanks so much for your prayers! Pastor and Krika and Turner, whom, God willing, will be baptized on November 12th.

Beloved of the Lord, Happy Birthday! I guess we’ll hear that again next Sunday as we celebrate the Reformation. But as you did a few years ago when Kelly Nava gave birth to Zoe, every time a pastor’s wife gives birth, the baby holds a special place in the hearts of the congregation. My own bride, my Kawai is sitting in the pew with me this morning, rejoicing with all of you, anticipating with all of you, praying with all of you that Krika, your beloved Pastor’s dear bride will be safe and that their dear son will be safely delivered and be healthy.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: Every time there is a birth in the church, the pastor and his wife rejoice, for that child of yours becomes theirs as well. I guess that is the true meaning that we are brothers and sisters in Christ! What a miracle, what a blessing. You belong to me, and I to you. We weep with those who weep and we rejoice with those who rejoice. Yes, today my wife and I celebrate with you and with Krika and your dear pastor as we sing and celebrate the birth of this fine little boy… we say it as we commend ourselves and this dear family into His care… Happy Birthday Good Shepherd, Happy Birthday!

That brings us to our texts. Did you catch the Introit? It is from that blessed 121st Psalm:
The Lord is your | keeper;*
  the Lord is your shade on your | right hand.
I lift up my eyes | to the hills.*
  From where does my | help come?
My help comes | from the Lord,*
  who made | heaven and earth.
He will not let your | foot be moved;*
  He who keeps you will not | slumber.
Behold, He who keeps | Israel*
  will neither slum- | ber nor sleep.
The Lord will keep you from all | evil;*
  He will | keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your | coming in*
  from this time forth and for- | evermore.
Glory be to the Father and | to the Son*
  and to the Holy | Spirit;
as it was in the be- | ginning,*
  is now, and will be forever. | Amen
The Lord is your | keeper;*
  the Lord is your shade on your | right hand

It is one of those great Psalms of Ascents, the songs that pilgrims sang as they turned the corner and got their first real look at the City on the Hill, to Jerusalem. They knew that Salvation came from those hills. What they may not have realized when the Psalm was first sung is that on the hills just outside the gates of the city, the hill called Golgotha, that He who watches over Israel, the never slumbering, never sleeping one, the One who keeps you from all evil, that is, who forgives all sins, that is ALL sins, the one who keeps your life… for eternity…

He went to Golgotha to pay the full price for your redemption.

He has you. He has Krika and that beautiful baby. Going out and coming in. That is the movement. Did you catch it, beloved, the first motion is the going out, then the coming back in. For the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the first time this was particularly important. Though they may never have seen the Temple, with all its gold and fine linen, its woven wool and acacia wood, they knew they were already in the Ark of the Church, they were already in the womb, if you will, of God’s grace. He is our Good Shepherd who keeps us safely in the sheep pen, where He causes us to be found in Him. It is all His doing and it is glorious – thus we can say, “Soli Deo Gloria!”

This Good Shepherd is keeping this Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – He is keeping you, as surely as He is keeping Pastor and Krika, and their dear gift from God, their new son. Thus, the pilgrim coming to Jerusalem, seeing it for the first time from afar already knows that He is safely in the ark of the Church, that Heaven is his home, all because God the Redeemer was to make their Cross His home. We are home. Today we are “in” already. Thus, shortly, after we finish our Fine Meal of the Supper of the Lord, after we finish the coffee and cookies and the Bible Class, we will “GO OUT.” We are home and we will go out. Then, next Sunday, we will “come in” again – we will return home.

But wait! There’s more. He never leaves us, never forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5), He has inscribed us on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16), we are His, for surely He has called us by name! (Isaiah 43:1) He holds us close, as close as a nursing mother and even closer than that! Wherever we find ourselves, He is there, ready to forgive, to heal, to enlighten, to lead, to keep you, ye, from the scorching heat of the day, and yes, the dark cold of the night! He keeps your going out and your coming in from this time and even forevermore.

As the new Stirdivant baby comes out, he will be kept. As He is home here for his baptism, He will know that the Lord has him, from that time forth and even forevermore. Oh, how strong are the promises of our God, How strong is His Cross to save, how strong is our Good Shepherd, who reminds us that we shall never want.

Oh, Pastor and Krika’s son is a sinner, saved by Grace, even as we all are. He will know the depth of his sin and weep over it. He will know the sweetness you all know as you kneel here to receive the pronouncement of God’s grace for you, literally in your mouth as you receive Christ, the full payment for all your sins, as you eat His true body and drink of His true blood, all for your forgiveness, healing and peace. To know what it means to be His own… what a gift… what a God!

Now I would be remiss if I didn’t at least touch on the Gospel. It is Holy Week, Jesus is just hours away from what is surely your cross and mine, the full payment for all sin, for all time! The Pharisees want to entrap Him, to ensnare Him in His own words, and so, like master politicians they set the trap regarding taxes and Caesar.

But unlike a politician, He answers not with the answer that will garner the most votes, as with the Tennessee politician at the time just before Prohibition (tell the story) .. He does not obfuscate, like, or deceive to curry momentary favor. He will leave that to the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. No, He will answer their question with His gift of life and death on the Cross. He will render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s – in a word, full payment of the tax for living, and He will render God the full payment, the tax to cover death.

Jesus came into this world because of the tax, not of Caesar Augustus, you know the one when Quirinius was governor of Syria, where each went to their home country to be taxed, where Mary, the espoused wife of Joseph went with him to Bethlehem, the City of David, for they were both of this house. Jesus came to Bethlehem because of the heavy tax of sin, and He came to Golgotha some 33 years later because of the heavy tax of sin. He rendered unto Caesar whatever that fool wanted, namely a scapegoat, a payment, and He rendered unto the Father, all that was His, the full payment for all sin, for all people, for all time.

Yes, Krika will bring into this world her firstborn, a son, a sinner, and yes, one who will be as the great Baptismal Hymn by Jaroslav Vijda, “See this Wonder in the Making” –

See this wonder in the making God Himself this child is taking As a lamb safe in His keeping, His to be, awake or sleeping Here we ring a child of nature; Home we take a new-born creature, Now God’s precious son or daughter, Born again by Word and water. (LSB, 593, stanzas 1, 4)

Jesus rendered unto God the things that are God’s – not merely forgiveness of sins as the idea or concept, but the very child of nature now become the new-born creature. You, beloved are safely in the Ark of the Church. He is leading you out and in. He is keeping your beloved Pastor and his dear bride, He is keeping their son, and He is the One who causes us to look up, to see that our redemption, it draweth neigh. We know that our help comes from the Lord. Therefore, this morning I greet you with a blessed and happy Birthday, in the name of Jesus, Amen!

Pastor Eric Kaelberer
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Rialto, California

In today’s Gospel our Lord Jesus speaks a most profound, divine truth when He says: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” With these words, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that the lifelong duty of every Christian is to faithfully serve our government in whatever righteous demands it might make upon us – yes, including even those mundane things like taxation, civic-service and voting – but more importantly, that we must also faithfully and dutifully serve our Heavenly Father in all He gives us to do so long as we live here in this fallen world and await Christ’s return.

But an honest desire to clarify a citizen’s duties toward God and country wasn’t what started this conversation between Jesus and His opponents, the Pharisees – indeed the whole question of whether or not it was right to pay taxes was nothing more than a ruse that they cooked up in a futile attempt to ensnare Jesus. You see, these enemies of Jesus couldn’t have cared less about this question – nor were they all that interested in how He answered it. The only reason they asked this question at all was because they hoped to destroy our Lord no matter what He said. If He answered, “No, you shouldn’t pay taxes,” then these enemies of His could have had Him arrested as an enemy of the State. But if He answered, “Yes, you must pay taxes to Rome,” they could have turned Him over to the people to be lynched – for there was nothing the Jews hated more than Roman government.

Truth be known, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus in His words because they quite simply hated His words. Remember, He’d just finished telling them the Parable of the Wedding Feast, which we heard last week. And when Jesus spoke in that Parable about how the King of the Feast would destroy all who ignored His invitation, everyone knew He was talking about those Pharisees. So, should it come as any surprise that from that moment on they began to lay plans to trap Jesus in His words and find a way to kill Him? For Christ’s words required a change of heart and a change of mind, and the Pharisees weren’t about to do either one! Jesus’ words demanded proper recognition from them that He was the Man of integrity who taught only “the way of God in accordance with the truth” – a way which stripped His enemy’s words of all authority and power and removed the hold they had over others. Believe me when I say they wanted none of that!

And so what we learn from this is that Jesus isn’t really speaking about taxation, but rather about the clash of God’s Word over and against the false words, thoughts and opinions of sinful men. It’s about the false assumption that we fallen human beings make even today – that is, that the pure Word of God cannot endure in today’s world as we know it. But Jesus proclaims to you and to me that faithfulness to the Word and Promise of God isn’t merely an ideal that we can try to see if it’ll work, but instead, His life and peace make up the very substance of our life here in this world as we wait for the Resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day. He’s all we have that we can rely on.

Now when some hear the words of Jesus – and you and I would certainly have to be included in this group from time to time – they may be tempted to say: Well, that all sounds fine and good, but how about when I come up against the real world? We can talk about grace and peace in church all day, but I still have a boss, a neighbor and a husband or wife who will give me no peace! You can talk all you want about generosity and Christian giving, but I’ve got my own problems and my own bills to pay. It always sounds so good, to hear what God says in His Word about marriage, family, gentleness, concern, faith and piety, but there’s not much room in my reality for such things as these! This may have worked in days past or with people who have been Christians all their life, but life is different in today’s real world. We live in a place filled with divorce, anger, temptation, strife, and yes, even physical harm. “Pastor,” you may say, “Life ‘out there’ in the real world very seldom measures up to what I hear you talking about when I’m sitting here in Church.”

Yet, dear friends these thoughts and questions that may be in your mind today are, in fact, the very things Jesus confronts in today’s Gospel. His enemies came to Him and asked: “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But is that question any different from the kinds of questions on the minds of believers today? Haven’t you ever wanted to corner Jesus and ask Him, point blank: “Exactly how far can I take Your words, Lord, when You speak of soaring over clouds while I live stuck in the gutter? Are you speaking about ideal conditions, or do Your words actually have a place here in my reality? You talk all the time about this Kingdom of God, and that’s fine, at least until those who are firmly entrenched in the world hear about it – because they aren’t interested in any competition from You, Your Church, or Your people! You talk about the forgiveness that comes from the Father, and that’s fine, too – at least until I fall into sin again and my guilty conscience starts holding up all my past sins against me. You talk about how Your Church is holy, pure and blameless, but all I see is a bunch of poor, miserable sinners huddling together for a while on a Sunday morning – then leaving – by themselves – to brave the storms of this world all over again. Just how far can I take Your words, Lord?”

Dear Saints of God, what you need to know and remember is that our Lord Jesus isn’t some ivory-towered professor who shrouds Himself in abstract theories and potentialities. He isn’t some mountaintop guru who spends all His time telling you how things ought to be, and could be, if you’d only get your act together and be more obedient. No! Jesus’ only desire is to speak to you about the way things really are. And when He speaks His words to you, you need to know that these words will not fail you or let you down – even though admittedly they oftentimes appear to be colliding with – and sometimes even seem to be destroyed by – the awesome forces of this world and the sad realities of life. Everybody wants rules for self-improvement. Jesus instead kills sinners and raises up from their dry bones His own dear children.

The Pharisees, you see, came to Jesus asking their question, in the hopes that it would set up an impossible situation in which Christ’s Word couldn’t possibly prevail. “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not,” they asked. What they didn’t know is that our Lord Jesus always remains above intimidation by whatever so-called “impossible” situations life might try to throw at Him. So He answered them, saying: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” With those words, Jesus not only answered their question about taxation, but He also spoke – and He speaks to you now – the reality by which you and I live in this real world. And the reality is this: Christ and His Word are not separate from you. He not aloof and ideal, nor a God who is far away out there. Rather, Christ and His Word have come to you – and made His life your life now and forever.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” With these words, our Lord Jesus was really describing the whole of our Christian life – and the fact that our allegiance to one facet of that life need not collide with any other allegiance we might have. According to Holy Scripture we owe to the world the things which are of this world, for naked we were born and naked we shall die. From dust we came, and to dust we shall one day return. If the government should ever require of us every earthly possession, what Jesus is saying is that even that would not be too great a price for us to pay. It would be a huge injustice, but none was a greater injustice than killing the perfect Son of God on a cross. Luther once said: “If someone takes my clothing, my life, my property, or obstructs me in this way or that, so be it. As long as I cling to Christ I have nothing to fear.” Or again, to quote Luther’s most famous hymn: “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife. Though these all be gone, our victory has been won. The kingdom ours remaineth.” Caesar – that is, the government – can only lay claim to things temporal. Our brothers and sisters in the Lutheran Churches of Siberia or of Haiti or Southern Sudan can back me up on this one. The Word of the crucified Christ remains, and is powerful to grant endurance and strength in every struggle here in the real world – in every so-called “impossible situation” created by the evil hearts of men.

Caesars of all stripes will come and go, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. That Word has imparted to you many great gifts, my dear brothers and sisters – gifts unseen except by the eye of faith, but real gifts nevertheless. These have come about – and have been delivered into your hand – by our Lord’s refusal to remain separate from you and your situation – and by His willingness to take your life into His own body, which was then sacrificed on the cross for us all. And these unseen gifts which flow to you from this cross – forgiveness of sins, life and salvation – are indeed and really yours. So you see, There’s really no clash between your life of faith and your life in this world, for the life of faith is most certainly lived out here in the world. There’s no impossible situation which can be devised that our Lord hasn’t already overcome by His death and resurrection. And His promise to you is that His Word will always remain and be there to strengthen and guide you through the ministry of His Church – as it comes to you in water, Word, bread and wine – no matter what daily life may demand.

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

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

Did you know that God loves planning a wedding? He is probably the only Father who doesn’t dread the expense that looms on the horizon. He doesn’t roll his eyes when He looks at the ever-increasing guest list. In fact, a wedding was the first thing God had arranged, right after He created man and woman. Our Lord is THE specialist in setting up a relationship that is based on unconditional love, without a hint of fear, and with no requirement of paying Him back. No reality TV show producer comes close. God is most pleased when a man obeys His divine command and leaves father and mother to be joined to his wife. Such an activity proclaims to the world that the Son of God, true God and true Man, wants to join Himself to us in an eternal spiritual marriage. Such an invitation is precious, and ever since the world fell into sin, the invitation has gotten all the more valuable, because now the alternative to the heavenly wedding is everlasting punishment, you know, the weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a totally free invitation to the Lord’s wedding, and it would be ludicrous to turn Him down.

The prophet Isaiah sings about this wedding feast that the Almighty Lord is putting on: the rich food, the well-aged wine. Nothing will be left out. It is truly going to be perfect. It is set on scenic Mount Zion, which is a favorite Old Testament symbol for the dwelling of God with men, and it is a fitting description that the Old Testament prophets have of the Christian Church, which for them was still to come. This banquet is not an empty symbol, it doesn’t merely stand for some future, heavenly happiness, but it also describes the gift you have standing before you this day in the worship service. Not only is this a wedding banquet, but a royal wedding banquet, and that if you’re invited to this event, you have just been given the highest honor that you’ll ever receive. And if you ever get to read through the whole Bible, you’ll find that it is all about this royal wedding banquet, about all the invitations that went out, the many and repeated rejection of those invitations, then the invitations were given to other people, and finally what will happen once the Royal Host of the wedding finally visits face-to-face with His guests. So Jesus, in telling this parable, is actually giving you the entire history of the world, from God’s point-of-view, in the form of a little story.

So, since this parable is a summary of the world’s history, where do you and I fit in to it? Now, the first invitation already went out: Adam and Eve were given the promise of a Savior immediately after they fell into sin. Many other generations after them received the same invite anew. The dinner has already been prepared, the animals have been slaughtered and everything is ready: this refers to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection. Plainly speaking, the way of salvation is complete, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have said “It is finished,” while He was hanging there on the cursed tree of Mount Calvary. Those who were invited first and rejected Him have already been demolished, meaning the old Jewish way of Temple sacrifice and the many detailed preparations for the Messiah are over. You can therefore find yourself in the final invitation: where the King’s servants went out to the roads all over the world to gather all people, good and bad, so that the wedding hall of the Church would be filled with guests.

I can understand if this identification hurts your pride a little bit. No one wants to take an invitation merely out of charity. If you weren’t first on the list, then it’s a slap in the face, even if there’s free food. At first glance, it looks from this story at least like you were God’s second-thought guests. Like it was all by chance that you ever came to faith and received the forgiveness of all your sins. Just so you know, that is all cleared up in other parts of the Bible that speak of your eternal election, that your heavenly Father had it in mind from before creation to save you and make you His own. What is emphasized here, though, is that those guests who were last invited, they relied totally on the generosity of the Host. That you can identify with. In the exact same way, you had nothing about you that made you worthy to receive the Gospel invitation; it was all by grace that you got in to the banquet of the Lord’s salvation.

But remember from this Gospel parable, getting in the door is not where it ends. There is a wedding garment to put on; house rules. Mind you, this is not something those guests needed before they arrived. They were fresh off the street. The wedding garments were handed out as the guests walked in. These clothes meant something very important. They were a sign that the guests belonged inside; a sign that the Master of the banquet had done everything to make it possible for them to attend the banquet. If they refused these garments, they would be no different from the other guests who had outright refused the earlier invitation. Which also means that they would suffer a similar retribution of destruction, complete with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For each and every one of you, your heavenly Father has set aside a wedding garment for you to wear. It is the pure white gown of Christ’s perfect righteousness that clothed you when you were baptized. Though you were completely soiled in sin ever since your conception within your mother’s womb, it doesn’t matter anymore to God. He has washed away your sin completely and you are clean. You are presented to the Lord in radiant white wedding clothes that you did not earn or work for, but were given to you by God’s free grace, which is the main reason why many families pass along a baptismal gown from one generation to the next as a family heirloom. Since you are dressed in the forgiveness of all your sins, which was paid for by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you are most certainly welcome to your heavenly Father’s wedding banquet.

And yet, for the rest of your life you will face the constant temptation to throw this all away. You remain a sinner, and sinners reject the Lord and insist on their own way. They want to be independent from God; a sinner often falls for the alluring, but empty promises of the devil. Like others before you who rejected the Master’s invitation and one preferred to tend to his farm, another to his business, the pattern continues today: one to believe it’s more important to watch the football game, one to take the weekend off to relax, and another, she may be worried about what she’ll see in their next retirement fund or social security statement. All sinners, that is, all human beings, face these opportunities to gratify their sinful flesh. But for you, your Lord offers to strengthen you through these temptations and take away your sin, clothing you over and over again in the perfect wedding garment that you inherited when you were baptized.

And yes, there will be some, some even within the Church itself, who will continually refuse to receive this forgiveness. There are those who will insist on their own way of trusting in themselves rather than in Christ and what His Holy Word clearly says. A few will listen only so far as they agree with what the Lord has to say. In fact, God has promised that there will be such guests appearing for a time at the banquet. You might recall a similarity between this parable and the story Jesus tells about the weeds that grow in the field of wheat. False Christians will indeed look very good to others in this world, they may even stand as religious examples. Unless they make a clear denial of the faith in word or in action, you would probably never realize it.

But the Lord, the Master of the Banquet Himself, He will know when He personally appears to meet with His guests who heard His generous invitation and got inside. This refers to what will happen at the Last Judgment following the resurrection of everyone who has ever died. Then, all people, good and bad, will appear before His throne. Those who wish to continue independent of the Lord and refuse His forgiveness, will be instantly ushered out of the banquet hall and into utter darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That is no symbol either, that is chillingly literal. But those wearing the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness, even though they did not deserve it, they will dine at the never ending feast, and forever enjoy the presence of God in heaven.

That baptismal wedding garment is still available to you. Repent of your sin, including your worries and concerns. Believe that as the called and ordained servant of the Word speaks it, you have actually received full forgiveness; then extend that forgiveness within the context of your particular vocation, and forgive those who sin against you with the same Divine power that God gives to the pastor in his vocation. Believe that the heavenly banquet is here laid before you on the Altar, only for now it is hidden under bread and wine that truly is the Body and Blood of Christ, just as He says. You are worthy of this feast because Christ Your Savior bestowed His perfect worthiness upon You by faith. Be assured that your heavenly Father loves to put on His Son’s wedding feast to end all wedding feasts, sparing no expense, and that He and the myriad host of angels rejoice to know that they will one day also welcome you in face-to-face.

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

There is a notable holiday in the Church Year calendar that gives us an opportunity to give thanks to the Lord for a unique disciple of Paul the Apostle and an inspired teacher of our church, the Evangelist Saint Luke. His designated feast day, October 18, is perhaps, like Holy Cross Day (September 14), the date of dedication of a church that was named in his honor.

Luke wrote two large books of the New Testament, together comprising over a fourth of its content, and those are actually two volumes of one work, referred to as Luke-Acts. He wrote an introduction, or prologue, to both of them (see Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-3) and addressed it to a Christian named Theophilus. The theory about this unknown man is that he had been already taught about Jesus and baptized, but he requested Luke to present a clearer and more orderly account of our Lord and His mission from beginning to end. Theophilus could possibly have also helped finance the major project, which in terms of our money today, might have cost over $10,000 to produce a single copy of each book!

Luke probably grew up a Gentile, living not far from the Apostle Paul’s hometown of Tarsus, near the border of Syria and Turkey. When Paul received the vision and call from the Lord to begin proclaiming the Gospel in Europe, Luke joined him as he sailed for Philippi. This is clearly indicated in the book of Acts when all of a sudden the narrator changes pronouns from “he” to “we.” (See Acts 16:10) It seems that Luke stayed in Philippi as the brand-new church there was getting started, but then rejoined Paul as the Apostle traveled back to Jerusalem, bearing an offering that he had collected to relieve the struggling poor Christians in that city. It’s likely that while he was staying with Paul during his imprisonment, Luke collected writings and interviewed eyewitnesses that gave him the material he needed to write the unique Gospel stories that his book includes.


Luke has included in his narrative lots of unique events, for instance, the birth of John the Baptist, the angels singing to the shepherds, the Baby Jesus in a manger, the boy Jesus teaching the teachers in the Temple. He repeats the well-known parables of the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, and the story of the different prayers of the Pharisee and the publican (or tax collector; the one who said, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” Luke 18:13). The Biblical songs or canticles found in the Gospel of Luke are Magnificat (Mary’s Song, “My soul magnifies the Lord…”), the Benedictus (Zechariah’s Song, “Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel…”), and the Nunc Dimittis (Simeon’s Song, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace…”).

Luke was a physician and well-trained in the Greek language. It was thought that he used specifically medical terms when describing diseases or Jesus’ sweating blood in Gethsemane, but it has been more recently discovered that those words were widely used in Greek literature, more so than just among physicians. He wrote (with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, of course) for the benefit of Gentiles who might not have been aware of Jewish ceremonial requirements or have an extensive background in Old Testament history. Church legend also claims Luke was an artist or painter. Each of the Four Evangelists has been associated with a “living creature” symbol, which are borrowed from the vision that originated from Ezekiel 1. Luke’s symbol is the ox or calf, and it is sometimes depicted with wings. The other symbols are the angelic man (Matthew), the Lion (Mark), and the Eagle (John).

God bless your observance of this unique gift to the church, the Gospel-writer or Evangelist Saint Luke!

Yours, in Christ’s service,

Pastor Stirdivant

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

Whenever a prophet comes on the scene, it means that it is a critical time for God’s people. It is a critical time because that prophet’s message is basically this: “God’s judgment is just around the corner, and time is running out for you to repent and turn back to Him.” It is not a happy message. Rather, it is dark and foreboding and it stings you with the fear of the Lord. Its weight is meant to crush you so that there is nothing left for you to claim. If you had happened to live during the time of one of God’s prophets, he would usually tell you that God is about to punish His chosen people for turning away from Him. There is no comforting word that ever comes from the mouth of a prophet until God’s people have heard that harsh message: stop your sinning! They don’t preach the Good News of God’s mercy until the Law has cut the hearers’ hearts in pieces and condemns them for the sinners that they really are.

Isaiah certainly had that message for the people who lived in and around Jerusalem over 700 years before Christ. Like in Jesus’ parable, he said that they were God’s vineyard, which He had planted with care. This vineyard was as perfect as the Garden of Eden in His sight. And yet these people were bad vines: instead of good, ripe, sweet grapes perfect for wine, they produced wild grapes—the bitter kind that do nothing but set your teeth on edge. They did violence to God’s Name by worshiping other gods that they themselves have made up. They rejected the righteousness that God gives, turned their noses up at the help the Holy Spirit gives to live a holy life, and they preferred shedding the blood of God’s prophets instead. And so here is God’s Word for this critical time in the history of Israel—you will soon be destroyed. A foreign army will cut you down and trample you underfoot. If you don’t end up killed then you will be deported with almost no chance of ever coming back again. Your carefully watered and fertilized land will soon become dry, weedy, thorny wasteland. This is none other than God’s judgment and you will not escape it. That was what Isaiah had to preach.

Obviously, no one in the Old Testament would have liked to be a prophet. Their message is never easy to proclaim. Moses had pleaded with the Lord, using one excuse after another and then finally saying, “Please send someone else!” before he actually went to Egypt in obedience to God’s command. Jeremiah complained that he was only a child and that he didn’t know how to speak in front of God’s people as a prophet. One man after another is thrown into the task of going to sinners and telling them that the time of God’s judgment is near.

But not only is proclaiming the message a difficult task for a prophet to do, the response to that message usually makes it even worse. People with itching ears who want to hear only what sounds good have a real problem with hearing about their sin. Deep down, whether you realize it or not, you also don’t want to be stung with the fear of the Lord. For that would mean that you have failed, that you are not better than those other “hypocrites” and “sinners” whom you know. That would mean that the good things you do contribute nothing to your standing before God. To hear and believe God’s Word spoken by His prophet is nothing more than giving up on helping yourself and trusting in Christ instead to save you. Nobody is ever ready for a prophet’s harsh message, and some may even try their hardest to keep that message quiet.

And so, prophets will be persecuted for the sake of God’s Word. According to a tradition that is outside the Bible, Isaiah was said to be murdered by being sawn into two pieces, as mentioned in Hebrews 11:37 but without saying who that was. God sends one servant after another into His vineyard, and the workers continue to beat, kill and stone them. But not only did God not stop sending preachers at crucial times pleading with His people to repent, He then sent Jesus! His death, and the deaths of every prophet who preached before Him, these deaths were none other than the Lord’s doing. Every time we remember it, it is marvelous in our eyes. Isaiah himself says about Jesus: “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” (Is. 53) As it happened to the prophets, so it also happened to Jesus.

For our Lord, just like the prophets, appeared at a critical time, too. According to God the Father’s own design, just like in the parable, He sent His Son. The message Jesus preached sounded like that of the prophets through whom He preached in time past. He also preached that God’s judgment was right around the corner. And yet here was the difference: God’s final, once-for-all judgment was not going to fall on His sinful people, but instead it would destroy Jesus as He stood in their place. With His crucifixion only days away, Jesus spoke with urgency in His voice to call sinners to repent of their own ways, to stop sinning, and instead trust in Him to take away their sins. He wanted them to give up on trying to please God by their own good deeds and instead receive His free forgiveness and absolution. It was truly a critical time for God’s people—it was indeed the fullness of time. For God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that He would get the punishment and we would have God’s righteousness and good favor.

Fellow citizens of heaven, this is a critical time for you! God’s judgment is right around the corner, and time is of the essence. The day of God’s final verdict is at hand. All those other times when God handed out punishment, those were really the first installments of the great Last Day, the Second Coming of Christ that will soon be here. I tell you now, be ready for that day! Stop your sinful thoughts, words and deeds that test the patience of your heavenly Father. God’s punishment is still very real and we have every reason to fear His wrath. Why? Because it is all too easy to reject God’s Word. It is all too easy for you to say, “I know all this stuff already.” But do you believe it? Can you defend it if someone challenges you? All who refuse to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins will be deported to the permanent punishment and damnation in the everlasting fire of hell. This would have been your future were it not for Jesus, who took your place and He already suffered hell for you.

So if you are crushed under the weight of your own sin and you realize that there is nothing within you that pleases God, then the sight of Jesus despised and rejected, hanging on the cross—this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in your eyes. Your sins are all paid for, and your guilt is taken away. The coming day of God’s judgment is a day when you will finally see your Lord face-to-face and He will welcome you with open arms.

Though you were torn down and destroyed by the law and God’s condemnation, you are now replanted as a new vineyard by the Gospel. You are an heir of eternal life, a citizen of heaven. You as a fruitful branch are connected to Jesus the true Vine, and He uses you to bear good fruit in His vineyard, the Church. The very body and blood of Christ feeds you and waters you, and you are grafted into Him. Jesus has planted you Himself and you are the vineyard of His good pleasure. He gives you His Holy Spirit, so that by His power working in you, you can then, instead of sinning, serve others whom God has put in your path and so bring glory to Him. You had no ability within you to do good things, but it is Jesus and His Holy Spirit within you that bears the good fruit, in whatever responsibility in life or calling that God has given you.

Hear God’s Word from the mouth of His holy prophets and receive what it gives. God’s judgment is right around the corner—so do not reject His message. Recall Isaiah’s words about the vineyard of the Lord. Believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, who was sent to tear you down and destroy your sinful pride and replant you as His own vineyard, a Garden in which He delights. For the Son who was sent to the vineyard and killed—He is no longer dead. That is the happy Easter message, your punishment is gone. And joined with Christ, you too shall rise from the dead to be with Him on that last judgment day. Until that time you have your Lord and Savior here in front of your very eyes, giving you His life-giving body and blood and proclaiming forgiveness to you. You are the vineyard of the Lord, and He has promised to take care of you until the great harvest day.

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

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

Jesus told the parable of a father talking to his sons. He said to the two of them, Go and do your work. To our ears that means a command from God our heavenly Father in His Law that says to us, Go and follow my commandments. Go, believe in me, which are commandments one through three, and love your neighbor, four through ten. There’s more detail about that in your catechism. Everybody receives this Father’s command because everybody is created in the image of God and our Lord never wanted anyone to be lost but for all to believe the Gospel, and be saved. It doesn’t matter whether you were part of the Jewish nation, God’s original people and children of Abraham, even if you’re a member of the Lutheran church since birth, or whether you have just heard His Word for the first time today. The Father simply says Go. The different responses of the sons tell us a lot about what is on our hearts and minds and how we approach our God and His holy command.

That first son really annoys us, doesn’t he? This disrespectful child spouts off with, “I will not do what you say!” Very defiant, very difficult to deal with. It’s easy to see this son’s attitude at home or in school or at work or on the highway and hey, we’re trying to drive here! Our wrath rises along with the hair on the back of our necks against those who are like this first son. What a disobedient, spoiled child, to refuse God’s holy Word like that! How shameful. Surely, he needs to be punished by parents, given detention in school, fired by the boss, or sent to jail by the police. Yeah, he goes back and does the work after all, but how can you depend on hypocrisy like that?

The second son says, “I go, sir.” Oh, now there’s a response that will make a parent proud, a teacher thankful, a boss pleased, and a nation grateful. We have here a law-abiding citizen and member of the church promising to be obedient. Just take a look at those two sons. One is a disgrace while the other is an up-standing example to us all.

But then you consider the second son a little more closely, the one whose mouth speaks obedience. The father calls him and says, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” The second son replies, “I go, sir,” but did not go. Who might this son be like?… Think of the little child who says “I’ll get ready, Mom”, the friend or family member or coworker who made a commitment to you, and then dropped the ball, some emergency came up or they outright refused to come through for you. Maybe you did that to someone else. Pastors, US Presidents, farmers, doctors and delivery drivers have all done this, said they’d do it and they didn’t. That’s not so good after all. Actions need to follow our words, and we have all failed.

But you know what? There is a third son! Yes, there were two in the story, but the third Son is the One Who is telling the story, the One speaking the Word, that is Jesus, of course. He’s the third Son, who is at the same time similar to and vastly different from each of the first two sons. From eternity the Father said to Him, “Son, go and work in My vineyard today.” Christ the Son of God said obediently, “I will go,” and He went and did exactly, completely and perfectly what His Father wanted Him to do!

He kept His own holy Law for the world and for you. He atoned for all the sins of the world and that includes all of your sins. He poured Himself out for the life of the world and for you, even as he cried out to the world and to His Father Who sent Him, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and to the One Who said to Him, “Go”, Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46). On the cross He defeated this world’s deceiver for you. He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. And the Father glorified Him when He rose from the dead. Actions perfectly followed promises, and He has saved all humanity.

Because He had said it would be so, the Counselor would come, that is, He would send the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, to inspire the apostles and evangelists to write down the very Word of God, and to work repentance in every believer. The Spirit causes the inscription of the Words of Jesus, the Son of God, in the Bible and in your heart. What do these Words of Jesus do in your Christian life? Well, something like this …

‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went. Yes, just like that first son, that terrible, rotten sinner whom we thought was no good. That person couldn’t possibly be a good enough Christian. He is told to come into the vineyard to work and he replies that he will not. But then, afterward, he repented and went into the vineyard. What an amazing transformation! It’s an about-face. Even though he said he would not, he had a change of mind, which is what the word repentance actually means.

Maybe that has happened to you, or one you know, one you thought could never change, that the mess they made with their life could never turn around. Everyone may have given up, but as you found out, God did not give up; He turned their heart in repentance in order to reconcile with God and with other people, perhaps also with you. It may have taken a night or two of terror once the horrible effects of the wayward sinful life had ultimately caught up with them. Whatever God used to bring you or the one you’re thinking of to their knees, He was immediately there to feed the hungry soul and stick that hand out to rescue the one who, like sinking Peter, finally said, “Lord, save me!” And He did! Yes, it is true: the one who was like the first son did commit a sin by saying No, but following the repentance and forgiveness, the Lord Himself led them to be forgiven and restored to the family, eager and equipped to do the Father’s will once he had been set free.

The third Son, Jesus, finished telling His parable and then asks the religious experts a question concerning the other two sons, namely, the first son who said he wouldn’t go and then repented; and the second son who said he would go but didn’t. The question was intended for all within His hearing to ponder personally and to reply all at once, for surely there is but one answer and it is an easy answer. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” What other answer could there be? Certainly no other, for Jesus constructed and told the parable in such a way that the answer was clear for everyone who heard His Word that day and this day.

The first was the correct answer. And Jesus then said to the exposed hypocrites, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the Kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.”

And why is this so? Because, even though those most notorious breakers of God’s Law are by nature sinful and unclean and have sinned against God in thought, word and deed, they have also received the gift of repentance and they look to Christ for forgiveness. Surely, this is why John came, to call people to repentance and this is why Christ came, to call and welcome them into His Kingdom, doing so gladly and with great joy. Their sin, however bad it was, is totally gone, it doesn’t matter anymore, and they have been made pure and holy in God’s sight, just like you.

For those who say they’ll follow God’s commandments, who claim that they have not sinned against Him at all, the Law has not yet done its work on these seemingly upstanding people, so they will hear no Gospel. They are not to the point where they admit that they have not kept the Law. Though they may be truly exemplary in the eyes of the world, Jesus says that without repentance, when they say No to confessing their sin, they are not in the Kingdom of God. They are not yet thirsty for His Living Water.

Still, it is most certainly true that the Lord wants the Good News to be proclaimed to them and they enter the Kingdom of God. For Christ truly wants all, including the hypocritical and stubbornly unrepentant, to hear the words that, after the Law has fully convicted them, these words promise to bring them eternal life and salvation. These words were the promise that the third Son made long ago and came through on it with the actions of His death and resurrection, all of which He has done for you. What are the words that will do all of this for you? They are the words of the Gospel, of course. But what words specifically? Well, you who are in the Kingdom of God know them well and you have heard them in the Absolution, namely, “Dearly beloved, you are forgiven.”

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

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

Peter had wanted to know what he was going to get out of all this following Jesus. The next two disciples, James and John, also former fishermen, were pushed by their mother to snatch the top two positions in Christ’s kingdom. These disciples were already thinking about their payday—when all this self-sacrifice of theirs would cash in. Have you thought of this, wondering whether you have given up everything; given it all away to those in need; and taken up the Cross that you have set before you to follow Jesus? Whoever loves his life will lose it—And whoever loses his life for my sake will keep it for eternal life. So, it seemed natural that, on behalf of the Apostles, St. Peter would point out that they, all twelve of them, had in fact given up everything to follow Jesus. Peter was wondering what would become of them, and what would they get.

In answer, Jesus promised His disciples that, in the Resurrection, when He would sit on His throne of glory, they would also be enthroned alongside of Him, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But He would have more to teach them, and you. On the surface, Jesus’ parable teaches that the inheritance of everlasting life is not earned (nor can it be), but it is given and received by the grace of God, and, as such, it is given equally to all of the disciples of Jesus, no matter what their sacrifices and service. When it comes right down to it, the lowliest and least worthy servant of Christ will be made equal to the Holy Apostles and saints, those Christians who labored long and hard, who bore the heat of the day, and who were martyred for their faith. Their glory as Apostles is surely unique, but their inheritance in the Kingdom of God is no more nor less than yours; for it is the wage of His grace.

That is what the Parable teaches. But now, then, what does this mean for you? Well, first of all, some clarifications are in order. The Householder is the Lord, of course. And the vineyard signifies His people: Old Testament Israel to begin with, but also His Church of the New Testament. The workers who are sent into the vineyard, therefore, (as in similar parables,) are first of all the Prophets and Apostles, and the servants of the Word of Christ even to this day; and, further, those workers in the vineyard represent all of the disciples of Jesus Christ, who are called and sent to serve their neighbor within their God-given vocations (not only in the church, but at home, at work, in the community, and so forth).

It should especially be noted that the coin that the workers received—the denarius—was roughly equivalent to a normal day’s wages; it would be like the owner handing out 50- or 100-dollar bills. This so-called “wage” signifies the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance of everlasting life. Clearly, it is not a wage that can ever be earned by any amount of work. Be careful to notice, especially, that even for those first workers in the Parable, they are promised to receive the denarius before they have been hired and before they did any work.

You see, the thing of it is, this Parable is not about coming to faith, but about the good works that come forth in your daily life from your faith. According to the Bible, good works are principally the service rendered by you Christian disciples within many different vocations, and it is in this way that you serve the Lord (in faith) and you serve your neighbors (in love). Thus, the Parable portrays the way in which good works and Christian service follow after God’s grace and gift of faith have already come into your life.

The parable talks about differences in the amount of time that the employees worked, and those differences pertain to the differences that there are between the many and various earthly vocations, labors and obligations of all Christian disciples. As God Himself designed it, these things differ from one person to the next, according to his or her respective talents and abilities, opportunities, and stations in life. The vineyard is thus served in a wide variety of ways, just like the Body of Christ has different parts to it and all of them work together in their respective functions.

It is important to note, that, in spite of the differences that there are in types of service, each and every vocation is still arising from and according to the Word of the Lord. This you can see from the Parable, because each and every worker is called and sent by the Householder. In each case, He says to them, “Go, and work in My vineyard!” That’s what creates the job, you might say.

In that light, the Lord in His holy Law of the Ten Commandments presents you with a probing question straight out of the Parable: Why are you just standing there idle?

It is simply not true that “no one has hired you.” Each and every one of you has been called and sent to some duty of service, which differs from one person to the next, but, nevertheless, God the Householder has said to you, “Go!” What is more, you don’t have to go searching for what you are sent to do, you don’t even have to wait for a special sign from God for Him to speak directly to your heart because His will is clearly set before you in your vocations, whatever they might be, and in the needs of your neighbors, whoever and wherever you might find them. So also do you have set before you the needs of your congregation, which is, of course, very much a part of the vineyard, and there’s simply no excuse for standing idle while there is work to be done. The fact of the matter is, there is an urgent need for workers in this part of God’s vineyard.

Now, at the end of the day, the bottom line is that your sins have been forgiven, and that you are called through faith to receive the inheritance of everlasting life, regardless of how much or how little you have worked, and regardless of how well you have done. You’re going to receive the same paycheck that the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord get, whether you have done much or little. When that payday comes, by the grace of God, all are equal. But in the meantime, here on earth, there are these differences. They are differences in vocation, differences according to the Word and Will of God. Then again, some differences stem from the fact of our sinfulness. There are some who simply do more than others, and some who do little or nothing at all; some may well be lazy and irresponsible (as are we all at times), while others may well become full of sinful pride over their own contributions and resentful of everyone else (and again, we all fall prey to these temptations, too).

This sinful attitude of pride and resentment—such as we see portrayed in those first workers in the Parable—is actually an expression of works righteousness, I must get what I deserve, and I demand recognition before God in heaven. This sinful opinion and false belief sets the individual over and against the Lord God. It is arrogant, demanding, ungrateful, selfish, rude, and quarrelsome. And, sad to say, it is the attitude that all of us possess in our sinful hearts, and which we exercise more often than not in our dealings with God and each other.

Another temptation makes use of reasoning something like this: just as every worker in the Parable gets the same wage, if it doesn’t affect your eternal reward how much you work and serve in God’s vineyard of His kingdom, then Why should any of us work or serve at all? The answer is, emphatically, Not for the sake of earning something more from God. For one thing, what more could you hope to gain than the forgiveness of your sins, eternal life and salvation, all of which are given to you freely, by the grace of God, already? Besides, you cannot earn these things in any case, much less anything beyond these most important gifts and benefits!

But no, you work and serve for two simple reasons: First and foremost, because the Lord has called you—in your vocations—and He has sent you to serve in His vineyard; so you do it for the sake of the Lord. And second, because your neighbors, including your fellow church members and visitors, need your help and service; so you work and serve for the sake of your neighbor, as well. There are no other reasons.

Now, it is not for you, nor anyone else, to pick and choose where and how you ought to be working and serving in the vineyard. That is determined by the call and sending of the Lord, that is to say, by your station in life and your unique vocation. And, as Jesus says elsewhere, even if you were to serve perfectly and faithfully your entire life, you would still have done no more than what it is your duty and responsibility to do as a servant of the Lord. He simply worked in you.

In reality, though, you have not served perfectly and faithfully (no matter how long or how hard you may have worked). No, you have too often served yourself instead of the Lord, instead of serving others for the sake of the Lord. And too often, when you have done your duty outwardly, going through the motions, you have done so with a bitter and resentful heart, or with a prideful and presumptuous heart. Or, then again, how many days have you preferred to stand idle in the world’s marketplace, instead of working at all? Maybe you’ve gotten tired of serving after so many long years; or maybe you’ve made excuses for why you really shouldn’t be expected to do anything more—you should be served instead; or maybe you figure it’s someone else’s turn to love their neighbor— (doesn’t that sound ludicrous?)

It should be clear enough from the Parable that the first workers in the vineyard are not relieved of their duties when the later workers are sent out; rather, everyone is called and sent to work together until the day is done, until the night comes when no man can work. And, to the point, everyone the Householder finds is called and sent to work in the vineyard (even if only for the final hour of the day). So, frankly, there are no excuses, and you are convicted by the question: Why do you stand idle?

Yet, in spite of your unfaithfulness and less than perfect service, you also (even you!) are considered equal to the Prophets and Apostles, and you receive the inheritance of everlasting life. Not because you (nor anyone else) has earned such a wage, but solely by the free grace of God, for Jesus’ sake, who has made Himself last, in order to serve you and all the rest with His own hard labor unto death. Here’s how Jesus’ work day went:

In the early morning, He was hauled before Pontius Pilate and the crowd; and from the third hour until the sixth hour, He was interrogated and mocked; and from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, He suffered in your place upon the Cross; and at the eleventh hour He was buried in the tomb—and after fulfilling the Sabbath rest He rose again unto life everlasting.

Indeed, He has done it all. He has worked the entire day. He has borne the entire heat and burden. And He has truly earned the wage of forgiveness and eternal life for you (and me) and for all people. For He Who is the First, has made Himself to be the Last—and the Servant of all—in order that you, who would otherwise be the least and the last and the lost, might inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

What is more, and most wondrous (and wonderful) of all, He has done all of this—for you (and for me and for all)—for the sake of His own holy love, out of the goodness of His own divine heart, by His grace alone. There was no outside motivation that prompted or compelled Him to do it. There was no merit or worthiness in any of us. There was nothing to be gained for Himself, as though to make Himself better, or as though to improve His lot, which He didn’t need. No, He does it all for you by grace, because He wants not to be served, but to serve you: to save you, and to give you His eternal life. He does it all for you by grace, because He is good, and His mercy endures forever. He is free to do with His own things as He so desires, according to His good and gracious will.

So take note, fellow believers, that He has desired to make you equal—not only to the Prophets and Apostles who have labored long and hard ahead of you—but equal to Himself, as though you too were the Son of the Living God, because He has taken your place under the Cross, that you might share His Resurrection and His Life everlasting. So, here receive with thanksgiving the denarius from His hand, which He has earned for you by His own hard work and bloody sweat. Take, and eat, the very Body that has borne the entire burden of your sin and the heat of judgment; and drink from the Fruit of the Vine, which is His holy and precious blood, poured out for you, and for the many, for the forgiveness of every sin.

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

The Funeral Service for Bill Saulnier
will be held
Saturday, October 7, 2017
11:00 a.m.
at
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Yucaipa, CA

December 24, 1980 – September 14, 2017

At Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Yucaipa, we remember Bill as our organist. He was there for years on each Sunday, accompanying the hymns and liturgy. At Christmas-time, the trombone ensemble, of which he was a member, would play a concert at the church. Bill would guide the young people who performed on their instruments on special occasions.

With thankgiving, we remember Bill!

Lord God, our shepherd, You gather the lambs of Your flock into the arms of Your mercy and bring them home…