It’s getting to be that time of the season when schedules are getting tight, people’s energy is getting squeezed. So much to do before Christmas and the end of the calendar year. Shopping, working, deadlines, sales, deliveries, finals and tests at school or at work, concerts and program rehearsals, basketball and other sporting games, the actual concert or program performance. Food preparation, getting ready to visit; getting ready for visitors. And so much more, I am sure. So, I ask you: How is your endurance holding up?

Sometimes it does seem like life is a race; even as Scripture has said in various places. But life is not a sprint, nor a marathon, but in fact, it seems more often than not like a long-distance obstacle course. But like in any kind of race, any kind of stress and strain on our bodies or our minds, the end result often depends on endurance. How much can you handle? How much can you be pushed before it is too much, before all stamina runs out and you collapse?

The devil, the world, and the flesh are always trying to push us, and try us, and prey upon our weaknesses. In addition to the elements of time and responsibility that are often pushing us, these spiritual enemies are constantly trying to wear us out and wear down our stamina, whispering or yelling in our ears: “you can’t do this! You will fail. Just give up on doing what is right, but do what feels good. Serve yourself. You have worked hard all week, so stay home from church, sleep in: go shopping instead. Go out with the boys or girls all the time, forget about your family and what is right or wrong. Abuse alcohol, get high! Whatever!” Give in to these impulses and yes you will fail: in life, in love, and in faith.

When a person is exercising and training; it is much harder to do it alone. Left by yourself, you might find it easier to focus on the pain, to focus on how easy it would be to quit, to turn around and go back to bed and skip it. If you do this, you and your body will only get weaker, your stamina shortened, and mentally you will feel more a failure than had you gone even for a while. But if you have a training partner or a trainer with mutual goals, you are more likely to go, and go further, to go faster, and push each other while encouraging one another and keeping each other accountable. That is why even in long distance races athletes often travel in packs for various stretches of the race to help pace each other, perhaps in competition, but quite often in mutual aid as they exchange words here and there to help distract themselves and each other from the strain and approaching weariness.

Don’t go it alone. Don’t find enablers who enable bad habits, bad thoughts, and temptations that draw us away from all that is good and honorable in this life to pursue pleasures and goals that are fast fleeting and will not last. Most especially, do not listen to the voices of our culture and our flesh which would tell you to take faith and church attendance for granted; that in comparison to all your other responsibilities or commitments, attendance to God’s Word and receiving His gifts are low on the list of priorities. The devil will use your flesh, maybe other family members or friends, or television or internet shows and blogs or whatever to discourage you and other Christians from being where you need to be. He will plant excuses in your mind or as you get ready in the morning or even on your way here to say, “Why not go home? or go back to bed? you can go back next week or next month or whenever. I didn’t like that pastor or those people anyway.” But this is what has happened to many and their hearts have grown cold and their faith unhealthy or dead. This is the devil’s ploy to ensure discouragement, spiritual injury, loss of hope, harmony, joy, and eternal life. The end result of loss of faith is all too permanent: eternal fire and death. Yes, what is given here is far more important than the exercising or strengthening of the body alone.

And that is why we are here together. Because as we repent of our failures, admitting together our weakness, our sin, our spiritual laziness and lack of stamina, we know the end goal and who gives us the hope and strength to make it.

As St. Paul said in today’s Epistle: this is why God sent Jesus, the root of Jesse, the Son of God and promised Savior. Jesus served to show God’s truthfulness and confirm His promises to the Old testament patriarchs and believers, but also, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. God knew that you, me, and everyone else who has ever lived could not finish this life reaching the goal of keeping the Law and living a perfect life. Nobody had the ability, the stamina, or endurance. But Jesus, God’s own son, did. He came so that humanity might have hope: hope in Him: hope in God; and finally understand that God is and has always been serious about loving and redeeming His creation. That is the message of Christmas. This Savior being born, to share our flesh, to go though the human life cycle in perfection and purity, to endure every temptation known to mankind, to take every assault of the devil and resist him, to be persecuted and rejected to show in Christ’s flesh, the sadness of man’s rejection of God and the blame they so often unfairly put upon Him. Jesus took upon Himself your sin, and the sins of the world, so that at the cross, Jesus endured the suffering of God’s wrath in His own flesh alone and forsaken until His blood being spent, He breathed His last, His goal of sacrifice accomplished, and died. Then in 3 days, He was raised to show that Jesus did not endure the cross in vain, but that He had crushed death beneath His feet, and in His death, the Devil would not see all condemned like himself. Jesus is victorious.

Jesus said in the Gospel lesson today, there will come a time when He shall return and we who believe are to be ready. There will be times of difficulty in this life and before His final return, obstacles before us, which would try to destroy, dishearten, and shake us from the faith. But do not fear. “When you see these things begin to take place straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Jesus said referring to our final redemption at the end of time.

But even now you are redeemed. As Jesus also said, “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away”. You have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. You have been given His Word and His name as a sign and seal that He has claimed you and will strengthen you and keep you by His Word in that faith in Jesus Christ unto life everlasting. You were baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but hear what other names and titles He reveals that He is for you. St. Paul said them in Romans 15. He is the God of endurance and encouragement. He is the God of hope.

He encourages you here. His Word has been written for your instruction, and with the Sacraments you are given endurance and hope. Here we can take all that is distressing and troubling us and lay it upon the Lord. This is where you can rest upon the Lord and remember that Jesus Christ died for you, that God does still love you and has redeemed you from all your sins.

Advent is a season to forsake bad habits and begin anew. In order to do that, here is where He gives you living water and the bread of life from God Himself. So, drink up through your ears the Good News of Christ’s victory which is now yours. Drink His blood outpoured and eat His body given for you in with and under the bread and wine, and your stamina will be increased. Your body, spirit, and mind refreshed by His Holy Spirit, you are able to stand and endure the obstacles and challenges of this life, not by your strength, but by God’s strength. You are not alone, but together you are united to God and to your Brothers and Sisters in Christ to live in harmony by His Word.

So, let us encourage one another here with God’s Word. And let us encourage those who are willfully absent from attendance today to return, that together, by faith we can continue onward by the cross of Jesus Christ to our mutual goal: to be with our Lord and Savior in His eternity prepared for us.

Continue to hope in Christ. During this hectic season or whatever season, put all things into this perspective. Be encouraged in your vocations, to be faithful as the Lord has been and is faithful to you. You can do this, because Christ has already done it all for your salvation. Praise and sing to God’s name. Rejoice Gentiles with his people

May the God of endurance and encouragement; the God of Hope grant you to live in such harmony with one another and fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope unto life everlasting, in Jesus Christ Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Expectations. We all have them. We have them for the people around us. And others have them for us. Have you ever heard “You didn’t live up to my expectations!” Have you ever said it or thought it? Parents and children have expectations for each other. We have expectations for the government. They may not be great expectations, but we do have them, otherwise we wouldn’t be disappointed. You can’t be disappointed if you don’t have expectations.

And then there’s expectations we lay on God. We expect Him to be there for us when we need Him. To alleviate all suffering, no matter what the cost. To right all wrongs, avenge all injustices, reward every good for us, punish every evil of our enemies, redirect all destructive storms way from our area. Bring rain when convenient and sunshine on demand. We do have expectations of God whether or not they are right.

The Israelites also had expectations. They were God’s “chosen people”, His “holy nation” after all. They had been selected, protected, and set apart from all the other nations. A people given a land, a covenant, a Law, a Promise. No other nation in the history of nations was quite like Israel of the Old Testament. Let’s be clear, no other nation will ever be like it again in this world and this life. God is finished with nation building. Now it’s all about His kingdom of Word and Sacrament.

When Israel grew faithless and idolatrous and adulterous, God punished His nation, His people. He sent the Assyrians to ransack the northern kingdom. He raised up the Babylonians to capture the southern kingdom, to depose the earthly Judean king from his throne, that “son of David” to cast him into chains and captivity, to destroy the temple, God’s house, and to cart the people off into exile.

Jeremiah the writer of our OT lesson prophesied during those latter days of the south. He looked ahead to their coming destruction and exile. He warned the people of what was coming. But they ignored him. In fact, they actively tried to silence him. They said “He was depressing. Unpatriotic. God would never let such a thing happen.”

He spoke of desolations. Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah utterly laid waste. But he also spoke of restoration and healing and resurrection. Exile and return. Destruction and construction. Death and life. Where the streets were deserted, they would again be filled. Where there was silence, there would be music and joy and laughter. Where the pastures were empty there would be flocks and herds. In the place of death there would be life.

That’s the background for today’s reading from Jeremiah.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” God keeps His promises. Even as He permits destruction and desolation and death, He keeps His promises. A righteous Branch. A sprout from King David’s family tree. A Son of David will return to the throne forever. He will do justice and righteousness in the land. “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely.”

The Israelites clung to that promise. When they lived in exile during the time of Daniel, they clung to those promises of God that a Son of David, a righteous Branch would sprout from David’s line and deliver His people. They believed that there was a coming day when Judah would be delivered and Jerusalem would live in peace and safety. They longed for it, they hoped for it, they lived in expectation of it.

Then came the decree of Cyrus and the return to Judah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, the temple rebuilt. Not as good as before, but still…. They were back. Yet they found it wasn’t the same. It was kind of a cheap copy of the glory days. When the old timers looked at the rebuilt temple they wept and said, “It isn’t as good as the old one.” And it wasn’t. There was no longer an ark of the covenant. No glorious presence of the Lord. And no freedom, really. They lived on borrowed land under the grace of Persia, then Greece, then Rome. But the faithful Israelite never forgot the words of Jeremiah the prophet, the promise of a righteous Branch from David’s line. One who would do justice and righteousness and bring salvation. They remembered and looked forward in hope even in the darkest of their days. There were great messiah type figures who came along: Judas Maccabeus, who rescued the temple from the hands of the Greeks. There were others who gathered their armies of well-intentioned holy warriors bent on liberating Israel from her captors and bringing in the kingdom of God. The royal robes were always at the ready, kept in the temple. Every Israelite was watching expectantly for the coming One, the son of David, the messiah, the righteous Branch who would do justice and righteousness in the land, but what kind of justice, righteousness, and salvation? Their expectation was an earthly reign and rule.

Then comes Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on top of a borrowed donkey. His disciples formed a welcoming party, as though a victory parade was passing from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. They hailed him as a king. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” It was true. Everything they said was true. This was the One, the righteous Branch of David’s line.

What were the expectations of Jesus’ disciples that day? Most likely it was a holy war, the coming of the kingdom of God and the eternal establishment of the throne of David. That’s precisely what happened. But not in the way they expected. Jesus rode into the city to suffer and die. He came to make a sacrifice to satisfy justice to sin for you and all people, He came with steadfast love and faithfulness for a people who did not love God nor their neighbor faithfully. For all people who did not live up to the righteous expectations of the Law, Jesus came as to do righteousness, to fulfill the Law. He came to fulfill what you and I would not and could not. Jesus, the king, came to execute an exchange – your sin for His righteousness. He came to be the true faithful Israel reduced to One, the true righteous Branch of David’s line. Called and chosen to be the tree chopped down and burned in the fire of God’s wrath against our sin upon the cross. He came to do holy war all right, but not against nations or people but against Sin, Death, and the devil along with all the powers of darkness that threaten to consume us. He came to die so that we might have life and salvation in His victorious death and resurrection to bring people from the captivity of sin and exile from God in their unbelief and sufferings into an eternal kingdom with God in belief and joy.

We have expectations of our leaders, projections of what a proper and respectable leader should look and act like. We might be surprised at how short the founding fathers of our country were. Or how the great figures in history actually looked in real life. Or the great figures of the Bible – Moses, David, Paul, yes even Jesus looked and were perceived. I think we’d really be surprised and our expectations would be turned upside down.

It is curious that nowhere in the Gospels or the epistles do we get a description of Jesus. We don’t know how tall he was, whether his hair was long or short. Forget all the images of religious art, bulletin covers, and movies portrayal of how Jesus looked. We just don’t know. We do know that the prophet Isaiah said that men would hide their faces from the suffering servant, though that was probably more of a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion.

The only description we get of Jesus is in the Revelation, and then it is a terrifying, unearthly picture. Perhaps it is better for us that we don’t know exactly, that we don’t see Him as He was in the flesh nor as He is in the resurrection. Faith is about hearing, not seeing. This righteous Branch who does justice and righteousness is not for us to see, at least not yet in full, but for us to hear and to trust that He is mighty to save and to expect that we shall see Him at the last day when He rides triumphantly in power from the sky to assemble His saints: soul and body and judge the living and the dead.

That is the theme for Advent, it is the looking forward to and the preparation for His final return, knowing that He promised to come once and for all, and that we are called to be prepared, to work, to study, to be faithful until His final reappearing. This is what we are called to do not just during Advent but throughout our lives. For in Jesus and in Baptism, we who were scattered by sin, darkness, and unbelief have become a new nation, a new people. Your sins have been covered in Christ your righteousness. His Spirit has given you faith to see His workings in this His kingdom which has no end.

But you know what? We do see Him, we do hear the voice of the King. It is just not where and how we might expect. Your king still comes to you with righteousness and salvation. He comes and speaks to you in His Word, through the called and ordained office of the pastor to give absolution for your sins, in that physical presence of a man who may also not meet your expectations. You also get to see your crucified and raised king coming to you not on a donkey, nor in great power, might, and fanfare, but in the simple means of bread and wine where He delivers His body and blood crucified and resurrected for your sin to strengthen and keep you forgiven, faithful, and bearing witness to His truth until He does come again in His full glory.

Soon He will come in power and glory at the end of the days to raise you in Righteousness. Your King will come at the dawn of the new creation. Expect Him. Wait for Him. Hope in Him. “Behold Your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

A very blessed national day of Thanksgiving to you and yours!

In many ways the celebration of National Thanksgiving is kind of like New Year’s Eve. It is true that quite often people spend both days getting food and drink prepared, socialize, maybe watch football, and don’t really think about these days with any significance. However, for those who actually talk about it or think about it, on both days people can look back on the previous year, even as they look forward to the new. For Thanksgiving people generally try to look at the good that has happened to them or that they have accomplished and they take a moment to be “thankful” or “grateful”… to whom or what really depends on their confession of faith. For New Years, people may look at what has happened and worked in the previous year and what has not and proceed to make resolutions and goals going forward.

For us in the church, this year as in many years, we actually have both dates in one. How so? Because last Sunday was the last Sunday of the Church Year. This Sunday begins a new year in the life of the church. So for a church that celebrates the national day of Thanksgiving, it’s kind of like a New Year’s Eve reflection.

St. Paul said in today’s epistle: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

That last line has become popular over the years among athletes and others who see this as an inspirational text for being able to set goals and achieve those goals, perhaps by God’s grace, but quite often they see it as mostly their own grit and determination that brings these things to pass. But does this text really mean that? Does it even say how it is often translated: “13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” What if you did not meet your goals? What if you failed? What if bad things came upon you? Can you still be grateful and thankful to God?…then again if you are relying upon yourself and setting your own earth bound goals, can God be held responsible for your failures or the failure to attain them? Had He agreed to support them? Perhaps there was and is a better way and better goals that we should focus upon.

St. Paul in Philippians is writing from jail in Rome. He knows that more likely than not, he will soon be executed for the confession of Jesus Christ. When people quote Phil. 4:13, they often ignore this context. He speaks of the hardships that He has endured. He says: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” He has grown. He has learned. He is grateful. He has learned to be content, to survive, and overcome all adversity by God’s strength. In fact, the Greek verbs in verse 13, should not be translated as they so often are. It could and probably should be translated as: “For all things, I have strength, in the One who is empowering me.” Let me repeat that: “For all things, I have strength, in the One who is empowering me.”

How and why is that important for Thanksgiving Day or any other day? It means that God is the one who empowers you, who blesses you, who brings you into contentment, freed from anxiety regardless of your past, current, or future earthly circumstances. Whether you have had a year of disappointments and failures, or bountiful blessings and rousing successes according to worldly reckonings. Whether are able to gather with our loved ones tomorrow around a grand feast, with good health, and money in the bank or we are separated from loved ones, have very little food, and no money in the bank. Let us remember what God has done for us. Let us remember with what He empowers us and repent of those times when we have not appreciated His gifts, but taken credit for them and blamed Him for our disappointments.

Dear friends, God has brought you through this year redeemed from your sin. He has kept you by His empowering grace by the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus Christ crucified and raised. He has called you into saving faith and He continues to provide for the strengthening of that faith as you hear His Word, as you remember your Heavenly Father’s promise to you in your baptism. You belong to Him. He has eternity and a perfect life prepared for you with Him forever. He provides for you a feast of fine wine and meat spread before you in the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist: the true eternal and international Thanksgiving feast. We celebrate it now and today in the physical presence of only some of our family and loved ones, looking forward to and hastening on the day when we can celebrate this feast with all the heavenly hosts and all the faithful family of God from all time in paradise in God’s perfect glory. Then we shall no longer have to face hunger or want, physical or emotional pain and disappointments. So looking to the future, be comforted for the present. Know in all stations and all conditions, God gives you and I more than we deserve. Rejoice in all the bountiful gifts that God has given you that you need for salvation here, but then think upon and rejoice in all the earthly blessings that He grants you for your current life. God loves you immensely. Try to count them all and you will lose count. Neither you nor I can remember nor account for or are aware of all the good that God has worked for us, nor all the evils that He has prevented from befalling us. As St. Paul said: “God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Indeed. In Jesus Christ we are all rich. We are all able to be satisfied and contented in Him. And when you do feel need. When you are weakened and tempted to despair, remember: “For all things, I have strength, in the One who is empowering me.” And “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Amen. Now let us stand and sing the offertory.

Pastor Aaron Kangas

Today we celebrate a great and ancient celebration which the Church has observed for well over a thousand years. All Saints Day. We should celebrate and remember the lives of the great confessors and martyrs who were killed for the sake of their confession of Jesus Christ as well as all those believers in Christ who are now at rest from their labors. This year we remember those most recently transferred from her as members of the church militant to the church triumphant. Here in this congregation, we remember, Tom Evens, Lucille Blomquist, Sadie Zeitz. But we even as we do, we must be careful; there has always been a temptation to exaggerate the good attributes of the heroes and heroines of the faith as though they were great and wonderful on their own merits or person. It is good to remember them, but what good is it to remember them without remembering the object of their faith, that which gave them that which was good in their lives and kept them faithful in their earthly life and sustained them in their godly death?

As we look at Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes it is tempting to try to apply these qualities to the blessed memory of loved ones or of other saints who have gone before. To think of these sayings as a recipe for earning or becoming worthy to receive the gifts here promised. But if we think that somehow, we can earn salvation by our attempts at following the Law: we are to be pitied. To try to earn salvation by way of acting the part of holiness is the height of hypocrisy. As you may recall that is the literal translation of hypocrite, it is an actor or actress: one who is but acting as a character, but on the inside is someone or something altogether different. Therefore to act pious, to act poor in spirit, to act mournful, meek, merciful, etc. is really a lie, if you are merely trying to remember your lines or your character that you are playing.

How can one be saved then? How can one ever be considered “makarioi” blessed or truly happy? This, my friends is what All Saints day, and joy of life is all about. It is not about what you can do for God, it is not about how you can attain an audience with the most high, by making yourself higher or more worthy. The message of hope is first in despairing of all hope within your own worthiness, your own self-delusions of merit, by repenting and acknowledging that we have sinned and deserve nothing but wrath and punishment. This is the work of the Holy Spirit working through the Law of God to make us see that we cannot act the part, we cannot fill the role that the Law demands. We definitely and without question need a savior.

But God in His mercy and love anticipated our need and so He had already set aside His only begotten Son to come down to earth not to act a part, but to be in the flesh, our savior, Jesus the Christ. To do and be what we could not. This Divine savior is our hero who came and united Himself to human flesh so that our flesh would be redeemed in Him. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary putting Himself under the Law that He Himself made into flesh which He Himself had created. He then in His life was the true fulfillment of the beatitudes, the fulfillment of the Law for as we know from Scripture: Love is the fulfillment of the Law. Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Spirit truly loved and love the world enough to mourn over it, enough to show so much meekness, mercy, and purity of heart, as to receive persecution, hunger, emptying of Jesus of life so that He gave up His spirit at the cross as a payment for sins, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, so that Peace could be made and with that peace, Sons and daughters of God could be begotten and born from above.

How? How were they begotten from above? By water and the Spirit, by the blood of the Lamb. By the Word of God changing hearts and minds from the outside in and the inside out. Through the hearing of the Word of God from outside, by the washing of the water and the blood of the Word made flesh which is the Lamb of God it covers over the sins of that person and by the power of the Holy Spirit working through that Holy baptism, He goes inside and makes the spiritually dead alive, He makes the blind see, and the deaf hear. He makes those who were enemies and persecutors of the body of Christ into confessors and martyrs. He makes sinners into saints. A Saint means that they are Holy Ones, made holy by God in Jesus Christ by faith in Him. This sainthood, is not only for those who are dead but for those who have died to self and have been made alive by faith in Jesus Christ and declared justified through Him in His merits.

Dear Friends, this All Saints Day is a celebration of a present reality. You have been baptized into Jesus Christ, you have been given the Word of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. You also have been given the white robes of righteousness in Jesus Christ. Your sins have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We who realized our poorness of spirit by the Law are able to be blessed because in Jesus Christ we have been redeemed, and rescued from the punishments that we deserved. Because Jesus died for our sins, our sins can be forgiven. Because He has shown His faithfulness to His Father’s Will our unfaithfulness no longer need be charged to our account. But look now, the generations of those who have gone before us who have been redeemed continue to show us the faithfulness of God. The beatitudes show us His ongoing promises for us here on earth.

What do I mean? Many may talk about a coming time of tribulation. But we are already in it. The time of great tribulation has come upon us since the cross of Christ. A servant is not greater than His master, For what has been done to the master, will be done to the slave, as Jesus said, if they meaning the world persecuted me, they will also persecute you. The devil sees that his reign is undone in Jesus Christ, therefore those who belong to Christ by faith, the devil will try to attack and destroy if possible through the world, the flesh, twisting God’s Word, using false prophets, false practices, unionism, rationalism, emotionalism, anything he can think of to try to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. He will use the troubles and trials of this sin sick world to weary Christians to despair.

But have courage, look to all the Saints who now are in the presence of Jesus Christ in glorious triumphant rest. All those believers who have gone before us had been sustained by God in Jesus Christ to survive the great tribulation of their earthly lives by the faith He gave them. He sustained them by His spirit working through the Word as they heard it preached, proclaimed and applied in Baptism, in the liturgy, confession and absolution, and in the building up of one another as fellow members of the body of Christ in prayer and love. He encouraged them as you can be encouraged now. If you are suffering now in any way, look to Christ, He will bear and ease your suffering. Take heart, because of Christ, there is an end to mourning, hunger, war, and so on. Already now, we and those resting from their labors are gathered around the throne of God and the Lamb here in the His Divine Service of blood and wine and body and bread, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. By His strength and faithfulness you are sustained in the true confession of Jesus Christ to remain faithful unto the end of this life to the life that is to come. All the true believers past, present and future in Jesus Christ join us in this sacramental and mysterious union. They are cheering us on as they sing praise to the Lord. Those who have died, are not truly dead, for our God is the God not of the dead but of the living. The power of death is also defeated to be overcome fully at the last when Christ shall come again with trumpet blast to raise the bodies of the dead and bring to completion all that which is promised in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We celebrate this day, the profound gift and hope that we have and share with those who were preserved and now rest from their labors in Jesus Christ. We too even now have the Lamb in our midst, guided to the springs of living water, where the tears of this life meet their end. The joy that we have already now is summarized in the heavenly song “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the Throne and the Lamb!” May God keep us in this joyful hope in Jesus Christ until we are transferred from this church militant to join those members of Christ’s church triumphant to live forevermore in His perfect joy. “Amen Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen”

Pr. Aaron Kangas

A blessed Reformation Day to you all! Oct. 31st is the commemoration of the beginning of what we call “the reformation of the Church”. It started as Martin Luther first questioned raising of funds through the buying and selling of forgiveness of sin by the church of his day.

But the Reformation is more than the proper way to raise money for the church, it has to do with our status before God. How is a person saved? Our answer: by grace, through faith, apart from works, based solely on Christ crucified and raised in payment for sin and the judgement that they deserve. Jesus Christ overcame the temptations of the devil, the world, and human flesh. He lived the perfect life of obedience. For us our Lord the Passover Lamb died, offering Himself up as a sacrifice for sin, satisfying the wrath of God over sin, even our sin. There can be no talk about the merits of the saints or of Mary, or our own as aiding in salvation. There can be no other way to pay for our sins as in selling “an indulgence”. Christ’s life and death alone paid the price of our salvation, and His resurrection is the seal of our victory.

The Devil, the world, and the flesh do not accept this defeat. They despise the message of God’s Word. They always have and always will until Christ returns. The doctrine of forgiveness of sins because of the blood of Christ is so precious and comforting that Christians were willing to lose their lives for it throughout history. At the time of the Reformation many men and women were put to death by the forces of the Roman Pope and the emperor, all for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet in order to preach and teach and receive God’s Word and sacraments in all their grace and purity, they continued to risk their lives. They were convinced that “it is better to die with and for the Gospel of Christ’s victory in eternity than to live here on earth without that Word of God.” They confessed that no other message, no other truth can give peace here on earth.

This willingness to suffer for the truth of Jesus Christ to preserve the truth for the future enrages the devil, the world and the flesh… That is why there is an ongoing and never-ending spiritual battle even in our own lives. The devil wants to destroy that boldness.

Ultimately this is a battle for the entire truth of God in Jesus Christ crucified. The world will ridicule the truth. The flesh desires to reject God’s wisdom and grace. Look at our Gospel lesson for today. Jesus talked who had once believed in Him. He talked about the freedom that comes from the Truth of God’s Word in Jesus Christ, but they rejected it and misunderstood it. The people ridiculed and found fault in Jesus because they rejected the Truth. It didn’t matter that He was the Christ who preached repentance and forgiveness and the fulfillment of Scripture with His miraculous signs. They rejected Him.

This is how Satan tries to attack believers in order to make them weak. He turns people from Christ and His Word to self. By justifying and emphasizing “the self”, he can weaken, expose, and destroy otherwise good well-meaning Christians and even cause them to do all sorts of evil. In the day of Luther it was emphasizing the meriting God’s grace by works of the Law or appealing to an authority which had added to God’s Word. Now the devil uses the spirit of emphasizing making people feel good about their own opinions and emotions while watering down the teachings of God in Jesus Christ. Or he convinces people that if God is loving then they can sin all they want and there so many other temptations…Any way he can do it: using the flesh or the world to remove people from Christ, the devil will try. As soon as any person turns to self as an authority, or uses something other than God’s Word to arm and protect themselves, they become weak and vulnerable.

The way to boldness and strength and peace is not in ourselves but by resting in Jesus Christ crucified and raised. By letting our faith be subject to, and encouraged and strengthened by His Holy Spirit working where the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and the sacraments are administered in the promises and as God has commanded, that is where strength and boldness is possible.

When we say such things we must separate ourselves from other so-called protestants. Christians who may mean well but disparage, that is, put down Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christians who turn God’s gracious gifts into mere regulations and symbols which we do. They are what God does in grace: the Great Physician’s gift of medicine for the soul: the very real world application of all that He accomplished for us upon the cross: A gift for His soldiers to give them the foretaste of the victory which is His.

So, this Reformation Day, we must say such things again. With boldness, let us defy the devil, the world, the flesh, even death itself. This defiance includes false prophets, popes, pastors, laypersons… denying our own selves. Let us in all ways not seek friendship with the world.

The Secular Religion of self seeks to devour all who seek to be faithful to the Lord Jesus, God’s eternally begotten Son, who came to save us. All the more reason to celebrate the Reformation, and to draw from its lessons of truth and courage. The Bible is still the sole source of doctrine against the lies of the world. Our courage is born of the fact that Christ remains with us, though our boat may seem small, rocked by the waves. Our courage is born of the fact that the Bible is true, and that he who endures to the end will be saved. So, today let us say what Luther said about grace and faith. “We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.”

Let us dwell in the mighty fortress which is our God. Let us flee to Him in times of pride, to repent of our error. Let us hide in Him at the time of our fear. Let us open our catechisms and our Bibles to study His wisdom. Let us hearken to the call of God’s voice in His liturgy and hymns based on His word to sing and make melody in His truth. Let us not cry at the songs and dirges of the world, nor dance at their songs of mockery of Christ when they taunt us. Let us be unmovable to their push, but movable in our following the banner of Christ’s cross. Then surrounded by the wall, the fortress, and shield of Jesus Christ, we shall live in peace, even now.

True peace on earth is lived out in His Church in its confession and witness. There is peace even in the midst of spiritual war and battle. Peace can come to our hearts and minds because our faith is not in our worthiness, it is not in how much we can fit in with the world, or in getting whatever desires fulfilled we can. We are freed from such things in Jesus Christ. We are redeemed to focus on His gifts eternal.

Be of good courage. God is here in the midst of us. He has physically come to us in Jesus Christ not only in His earthly ministry of paying for our sin, but He is here as He applies His salvation to us again and again. Hemming us and hedging us in from every side against the devil, by His sacrifice. Holy Baptism is God’s gracious act of coming to us, washing us in the blood of Jesus, calling us by name. Here we are in the mighty fortress, brought into God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We confess our sins and are forgiven by grace in God’s name for Christ’s sake. Cleaned up, washed and given His righteousness, we live by faith.

He is in the very midst of us in His Word as it is preached, and as it is sung. He is talking to you. Jesus comes to us and serves us His body and blood as we celebrate His victory.

Remember Jesus is the word which causes Satan to fall even if it looks like the devil is beating us. Jesus is strong to save. He is sabbaoth Lord as we sing in “A mighty Fortress”. That means He is the Lord of hosts. Pray and Jesus will come with all His angelic hosts to you in the midst of temptation so that you may resist the devil.

You can confess and hold steadfast in God’s Word, because He will hold you… if you don’t reject Him. Difficulties and trials and hardships which the devil could use to overthrow you? Hide behind Jesus. Be bold. Satan, the world, they may hate you, but they can harm you none. They are judged, the deed is done. Even if you were to lose your mortal life for the sake of this truth, remember the hope that sustained the reformers and so many faithful before us:
“The Word they still shall let remain, nor any thanks have for it;
He’s by our side upon the plain, with His good gifts and Spirit.
And take they our life, Good, fame, child and wife, Let these all be gone,
They yet have nothing won; The Kingdom ours remaineth.”

Together we stand with God among us. He continues to speak and encourage in His Word. May God make us able to confess “it is better to die with and for the Gospel of Christ’s victory in eternity than to live here on earth without that Word of God.” “Through life it guides our way, In death it is our stay.” We pray: “Lord, grant that while worlds endure, We keep its teachings pure throughout all generations.” By His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, it will. God grant it for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas