There is a saying: “Actions speak louder than words.” People might say things, but their actions often tell a different story. If the words contradict their actions, it is far easier to believe the meaning of the actions than those words which do not match. Actions reveal where the heart really is, despite the words coming out of the mouth. For example, if somebody tells you that they love their spouse, but they are having affairs or are they physically or verbally abusing them, is that loving? It’s pretty clear where their heart is, isn’t it?

This morning’s Gospel lesson said that Jesus saw the faith of the friends who brought the paralytic to Him. How did He see their faith? In addition to the fact that He really could see into the hearts of men and women, He saw their faith by their actions. In fact, everyone did. It was hard to miss. Such faith according to St. Luke’s account of this morning’s text was willing to make a big hole in the roof, and lower down their paralytic friend for an impromptu face-to-face meeting with Jesus.

The evidence of such faith was real. They believed in Jesus and wanted to present their friend to Jesus to be healed. They knew that Jesus could help, and they weren’t going to let crowds and roofs get in the way of being in the presence of Jesus. Such faith was physically making itself known. There was no disconnect between faith and action. Their actions matched their faith in Jesus.

Many Christians hear this lesson and say wait: “God doesn’t look at the outside and actions. God only looks at the heart.” He does look at the heart, but the thoughts of the heart give evidence by the action of the person. You cannot say that you have faith in Jesus Christ and love for Him, then choose something else over Him and church on a Sunday morning, for example.

Now, does Jesus know the hearts of men? Does Jesus know the Truth, despite all the right phrases and catchwords being parroted out in the name of “faith”? He can tell the difference between good works done in faith and good works done in unbelief. Scripture tells us this all the time. You can’t fool God. He is not mocked or deceived. He is not a “respecter of persons,” meaning that God’s not impressed with who your daddy is or how good you were in high school or how much money you put in the offering plate if it isn’t done with faith. God doesn’t care how many Beth Moore or Joel Osteen or other so-called Chrisitan books you’ve read, or how many mission trips/vacations you’ve taken. All those Facebook pictures you post showing how much of a “humble servant” you are, those are not what impresses God. 

What impresses God is a humble heart, a repentant heart which seeks forgiveness, help, strength, and comfort only from the Lord. The paralyzed man must have had that. That is why Jesus forgave the man His sins, first. It was this forgiveness of sins, that would encourage and cheer the man as Jesus said the phrase which means, “take heart” “take courage” “be of good cheer”.

Jesus also knew the hearts of the scoffing Scribes, who were mumbling and saying to/within themselves that Jesus was blaspheming for telling the man on the stretcher that his sins were forgiven. “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” See. Jesus knows the Truth! Jesus knows the heart. 

It is true, that only Jesus can see the hypocrite’s truth, only God knows for sure what is in a person’s heart but make no mistake: You are known by your fruits. You are known for what you speak and what you do. Many people who do good and say they are Christian are not in their hearts but hypocrites, yet how can a person not do what is good and right and still call themselves Christian? Faith is able to be witnessed. Yet, faith is never trying to impress anyone but the Lord. There is real and tangible evidence of faith. As Jesus said earlier in Matthew “You are that which lights the world. A city on a hill that cannot be hidden.” What do you think Jesus is talking about in here?! You can see faith! You SHOULD see faith!

The faith of those who brought the man was doing what faith in Jesus does: bearing good and God-pleasing fruit. Their faith wasn’t seeking their own good, attention, or glory. They didn’t have to try and convince everyone that they really were good people who loved and trusted in Jesus. They showed it. Their faith was seeking Christ. Everyone in the room could see it. 

Do people see this kind of faith in Jesus coming from you? Are you also worried about bringing your family, friends, coworkers, classmates and others to Jesus? Are you so eager to come to church every Sunday, because you know you need it? You get to see and hear Jesus here. You get to lay your sins upon Him and confess your sins, and lay your weaknesses before Him and your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are not here to impress your them. You are not here because you just happen to have an open schedule…I would hope.

If that is not why you are here, repent! The Lord knows what is in your heart. If you are comfortable in blending in with the world during the week, repent, that is not the fruit of faith. If you think that you shouldn’t care about the salvation and rescue of others who have wandered from the faith, repent! If you think that you are better than others because of anything that you have done, repent!

Now listen, oh repentant ones. Jesus says to you this day: “Take heart, your sins are forgiven you.” The actions of God back up His promises. You can know the heart of God through His actions for you and for the world. He said, “I do not desire the death of all”, so He sent of Himself, the Word, Jesus, the Christ. He came to show us the affirmation of the truth of His love, and His words, by His actions. The Son of God, humbled Himself. He fulfilled the Law in His human flesh. He showed mercy and revealed His plan and the wisdom that we need in His teaching, and the mercies that are present and yet to come in His showing mercy to sinners: the sick, the needy, raising the dead; forgiving sins. Then He took their sins, your sins, my sins, upon His innocent flesh. Knowing the impurity of our hearts and our rebellion, He nevertheless laid down His life upon the cross, to pay the cost of our trespasses so that we might have eternal life.

Truly the actions of our God speak loudly to His Word. I want you to look right here [the crucifix]. Here is the font and source of living, saving faith. The place where you were washed and born again into the crucifixion and resurrection of your Redeemer. The Holy Spirit has worked into your heart: faith. Faith by that Spirit which now wrestles against your flesh to put to death that sinful self and be changed in Christ. Here is perfect obedience of faith in God: to believe. All so that you can be freed to be joyful children of God, who live in trust and hope. So that Good works can flow from that faith. Sometimes you must make a conscious effort, but in faith, good works and doing the right thing come often without thinking.

God continues to act. He speaks to you and calls you back in His Word, calms you and soothes your heart when it is anxious and He promises to hear your prayers and answer them as a wise and loving Divine Father.

To empower, strengthen, and encourage you, a forgiven sinner, God continues to show in action the words of His love, here at the Sacrament of the Altar. Here is the real touchable proof of His faithfulness and love to you. Jesus says “Take and eat. Take and drink. This is My body. This is My blood. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Here is Christ, with you and for you! You get to meet Jesus here, already. You don’t have to wait until your body dies. Isn’t it worth everything to get here, to receive for yourself His gifts, to bring others to Him, and witness the gratitude and joy of that faith within you the rest of the week? If your faith is not visible, repent, pray and be encouraged, here… this is the only place where your faith is given the food to act as it should. And it will grow in Him. We Christians really have been blessed with a message, and a hope based not upon our worthiness or how consistent we are in our works. What hope would that be? Our hope is in God’s grace and His actions through Jesus Christ for us poor sinners. Remember that. Rejoice in that. And let that peace which passes human understanding take hold of you so that you can take heart in this life. So that you can rise and walk the walk of faith every day, because your sins have been forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Michael and all angels which is celebrated on the 29th day of September each year. Scripture records Michael, whose name literally means “Who is like unto God” in Hebrew, in the book of Daniel. Michael is referred to in a heavenly, perhaps theophanic vision, (meaning a type of seeing God Himself) as one of the “chief princes”, who engages in heavenly combat to aid in victory for God’s elect (Daniel 10:13- 21 and 12:1). In the book of Jude, it is Michael who contends with the devil, disputing over the body of Moses, not speaking a reviling word against him but simply saying “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 5, 9). In the book of Revelation, it is “Michael and his angels” who prevail over the dragon and his angels in the great heavenly war, casting the devil and his angels down to earth, for “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” (Revelation 12:7-9) 

People today have a lot of different and wrong minded ideas regarding the angelic spiritual beings which God has created. These wrong ideas all come about by ignoring Scripture. All too often people are led by their sentimentality, and pop Christian culture, rather than God’s Word in their misunderstandings. For example, it is particularly sad and wrong-minded when people believe that people who die become angels. I have heard this particularly said when a child dies that “heaven has received another angel”. This is sad not only because it’s incorrect, but because the position of a Christian believer who dies in the faith is higher than that of the created order of angels. It is nothing like the Christmas film: “It’s a Wonderful Life”… The reality is much better.

The angels of God were created by God for specific purposes. Every time they appear in Scripture it is in service and praise to God for the benefit of mankind. Angels are spiritual beings and do not possess bodies in the same way that we do. And when they are described in Holy Scripture, they are not described as fluffy feathery soft and feminine beings. They are fierce and mighty. They are portrayed as having multiple wings, faces, eyes, and are terrifying to behold. The angel who first approaches Daniel in the OT text is described: “His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.” But why is that? Because they are a terror to God’s enemies. They were and are used by God as a spiritual army to defend God’s people in their earthly battles and in heavenly spiritual matters that we cannot fully comprehend. The chief enemy is the Devil, himself a fallen angel, who dared with his band of fallen angels to rise up against God at some point after creation. Although the Devil is judged and now condemned. He is even more filled with wrath and hatred as we heard in the Revelation account. He is filled with hatred for God, His good creation, His people, His Church, the Truth, and Jesus Christ. Therefore, even now while there is time, he is constantly trying to twist, distract, detract, and destroy the Word of God and the faith of those who believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the testimony of God’s messengers.

Sometimes it feels lonely because we do not always see the truth of God’s power surrounding us here on earth. We often forget the reality of God’s ministering spirits for our sake. But this is nothing new. We only see what is going on with our own eyes and we grow discouraged or alone in our daily battle against Satan, the world, and our flesh.

Yet, God reveals that there is much that is going on beyond our limited sight for us, and so He has allowed for the occasional vision of heavenly glorious things to encourage not only those prophets and patriarchs who saw such visions, but through their testimony, us too. Through them, we learn of God’s continual providence and protection through His heavenly army of angels and archangels for us even now.

In our Old Testament text for next Sunday, in Genesis, the patriarch Jacob, falling asleep with his head on a stone, was shown a ladder connecting earth and heaven. On the ladder, ascending and descending, were the angels of God, His ministering spirits, coming and going before the King. Upon waking, Jacob fearfully confessed, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it… How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16–17).

At another time, the king of Syria sent his army to capture the prophet Elisha, surrounding the city with chariots and horses. When the prophet’s servant saw the great host, he despaired. “Do not be afraid,” the prophet promised, “For those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16–17).

Things are not always as they seem. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). And we walk by faith in the Creator of all things visible and invisible (Nicene Creed). This creation includes invisible, incorporeal spirits, and they are closer than we know. The heavenly realm of spirits is not far away, but in and behind the physical realm we see. Humans are in both realms at the same time. What’s more, we as Christians, are to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6), and even now we in the flesh wrestle against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

So God sends His holy angels to keep watch over you, oh little one. (Matthew 18:10). He continues to send His Holy angels to watch over you and defend you, individually and together as His Church by the continued testimony of His message of Law and Gospel in preaching, teaching, and ministering of God’s Word.

Nowhere can this spiritual world be more firmly impressed upon the human conscience than in the Divine Service. Here you stand upon no mere plot of earth in any materialistic sense. You stand at the very gate of heaven, surrounded by armies of holy fire. The weight of this glory is almost palpable as the King of Heaven holds court on earth. It is no accident that we join the singing of the angelic choirs in both the Service of the Word and in the Service of the Sacrament. We join the angels in proclaiming and adoring the Lord we share.

The Gloria in Excelsis is the song the angels sang to the shepherds of Bethlehem at the birth of our Lord (Luke 2). In this way, they fulfilled their office as messengers of the Good News. They proclaimed the glory of God in Christ and His peace for sinners in the blood of the holy Child. How fitting then that we share this proclamation with the angels, first singing their words and then giving our attention to the Word of God in the liturgy. In the writings of the prophets and apostles, we hear the things into which angels long to look (1 Peter 1:12). While many of the holy angels have served as God’s heralds, announcing His promises to God’s people, it was ultimately to men that this message was committed. We are the ones addressed by the Lord and it is for our benefit. In joyful amazement the angels see mankind entrusted with the proclamation of their King.

But the angels witness an even greater glory in the Service of the Sacrament and, once again, we join their song. The Sanctus is the song of the seraphim always surrounding God’s throne. This song was first heard by the prophet Isaiah in Jerusalem’s temple (Is. 6), and again witnessed by the apostle John on the Lord’s Day (Rev. 4). But now, O God, your throne of grace is here, even at our altar, so with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying: Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. The One who sits on the throne, adored by His angel hosts, is now with us in His very body and blood. These mighty beings of heavenly splendor must fall down in wonder as they behold us, in all our human frailty, welcomed by their God to commune with Him, closer, more intimately than they could ever hope. They behold him, but they do not share flesh and blood with Him as we do with Jesus Christ. They know Him, but He does not dwell in them, imparting to them His own divine nature. They live forever before Him, but the source of their life is not His holy body and precious blood that redeems, forgives, and sanctifies us, poor sinners as we are.

All of that, the full wealth of our Savior’s atonement, is not a gift for the holy angels. It is for us, the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. But the angels are filled with joy for us. They are only glad to sing of the salvation their God worked for us. And they gladly join us in the King’s throne room, at the very gate of heaven here on earth. Rejoicing that now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. Satan is judged, His power to accuse removed.

When you are contending with sin and temptation, rebuke the devil and your flesh in the Lord’s name, and in that name you are victorious. As those who have been baptized, repented, absolved, and redeemed in the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ, rejoice and in awe come forth to the place where the Lamb joins us with the heavenly band, to show us the victory that is yet to be fully realized for us but already is, and so by faith in Him behold that which is written in LSB hymn 693:
“The cherubim, their faces veiled from light,
While saints in wonder kneel,
Sing praise to Him whose face with glory bright
No earthly masks conceal.
This sacrament God gives us Binds us in unity,
Joins earth to heav’n beyond us,
Time with eternity!”
Alleluia, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

St. Paul in today’s Epistle lesson said to the Ephesians, and by extension, to all Christians: “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” In the Collect for today, we prayed: “Lord, grant Your people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow You.”

Both of these are concerned with the way, the walk, the following of a believer in Christ Jesus. People in some other church bodies may even ask: “how is your ‘faith walk’?” An interesting question. How is your “faith walk”? What does St. Paul mean “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called?” This is not a walk in the park or how you move about, but how you live this life as you travel toward the end of this life. You have heard this before, but there are only two ways. The way of the world, the flesh, and the devil on one hand. And the way of the Lord on the other.

The two ways are very different, quite often they look different, but most especially the two ways are different because their motivations are different… even if they both say they come from “love”. One is motivated by selfish love. The other selfless love.

St. Paul describes very briefly in chapter 4 the way of the world. He said: “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!”

The way of the world: is the worship and love of self in all its ways. For many, it is as Paul described: tied in with material and sensual pursuits for the self. For others, it is the building up of itself in pride: pride in being better than other people, economically, spiritually, or any other way.

Speaking of how selfish and self-centered people are. A few years back I was watching Family Feud. They had surveyed 100 people and asked them: “If you could do something nice for someone who would it be?” Think for a moment what the number 1 answer was. “If I could do something nice for someone who would it be? I thought maybe, spouse or Mom, but nope. The top answer was: “myself”. How selfish. How crazy that people think that they are so victimized and put upon that the first person they think to do something nice for is themselves? …. But maybe they are just more honest than most. I do think the kneejerk reaction for most people is to want to treat themselves. To think whatever they get that is good, they deserve, but whatever they do not attain, they still deserve but are just being cheated out of it.

Are we ever like that? How about judging others in order to make ourselves feel better? Have we been unwilling to help others unless we knew could get something out of it? We just heard a few weeks ago about the Levite and Priest who decided not to help the injured man on the way to Jericho. How was their faith walk? They walked right on by. They loved themselves and had no time to show mercy. The Pharisees in today’s Gospel most likely would have just walked by or ignored the man with the dropsy. It was the Sabbath, and the Pharisees took the Sabbath rest so seriously, that to them, exerting too much effort on the Sabbath was a sin. To show mercy would take work, not to mention the fact that they believed that people who suffered in this life were probably getting what they deserved: biblical karma, they figured, I suppose.

But everyone gets far better than they deserve in this life according to the Law. According to the Law, there is only one way of living in order to deserve any grace, any blessing, or any joy, and that is in keeping it perfectly. Anything less than keeping the Law is the way of disobedience, sin, and deserving temporal and eternal death. That is what we deserve. We have not walked according to the Law. We have not walked in a manner worthy of the calling to which we were called.

To walk rightly according to the Law is to be like Jesus… What did Jesus do? He loved. He served. Lived humbly, gently, wisely. Extending words of Truth, the hurt He dispensed was the hurt of the Law cutting through the false front of hypocrisy, pride in sin, to warn in order to turn people from error and repent. He was selfless in His loving and serving even to the cross of Calvary.
We have not been humble. We have not been gentle, patient, or bearing with one another. All too often we are not eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because we do not allow God’s Word and His Law to rule our hearts and minds. False teaching, false believing, false living, schism, and infighting all come from living to self. Loving only ourselves and the things and people of this life. Showing that we have no faith in the true God, but these other things: they are our priorities. They are our gods. That is path that we have taken.

Why? because we have fallen victim to the siren song of our flesh and the world around us. The goal of success as measured by the world is but a mirage and trick constructed by the devil to ensnare you and me first by coveting that which we desire, and then by acting in pursuit of those lusts and gods. All so that we fall from the purity, the holiness which Christ has earned, achieved, and then by grace had given to you and me.

On the other hand, if we put our faith in being able to fulfill the Law, we are doomed to fail. If we are honest, even with our best efforts, we must admit that we have already failed. The man with dropsy knew that he could never heal himself. That he was helpless and could not control his bodily movements. Just so his spiritual condition. Yours and mine too. The more we try on own to control our efforts, the more we will flail and flounder. So, let us humble ourselves, and die to self. This is how you can walk in the manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Repent and leave all your pride at the cross. Remember that you have been baptized into the one Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have been rescued from the world and its blindness and futility. You are no longer separated from God, but He has called you to believe, to partake in that one faith and confession of Jesus Christ. This is the one hope to which you have been called. Jesus Christ has died for your sins. He has risen again. And you have been baptized into that salvation which He has accomplished. Today, again you are forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. You are set by the Lord upon the right and true and only path of righteousness, joy, salvation, and eternal life.

But this walk, this path is not an easy one. The way of faith is a way of trust. The devil knows how hard it is for us to trust, especially when suffering befalls us here on earth. The way of the cross is not for the weak. The walk is often set with traps by the enemy, and we daily battle against the devil, the world, and our flesh. But do not fear. Do not be tossed about by every wave of false teaching, craftiness, and temptation that arises. God has equipped you for this walk; these battles. You have been called and baptized as individuals, but you have been called into the one body of Jesus Christ, which is the Church. Here in this congregation, we are called to stand together against our demonic foes when they arise, and walk together by faith. Yes, bearing with one another: which, by the way means bearing each other up: carrying each other when we are weak. It doesn’t mean just putting up with each other. So, we show each other mercy. We strive to serve one another in humility and love: in our physical needs, but also spiritually, exhorting each other to remain true to God’s Word. True and consistent in attendance to Bible Study, to the Divine Service. This is where you are made strong. For in Christ Jesus Christ, you are not weak any longer. God’s strength is made perfect in faith, humility, and repentance: what to the world seems to be weakness.

That is why Paul says: God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors/ teachers, to equip the saints, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ who is the head, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Receive His Love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Remember whose you are. Walk by faith. God guiding you by His Word, strengthening you through His Eucharist. The path of the walk given you is lit by the cross of His Son Jesus Christ who is leading you forth through your unknown earthly future. Keep your eyes on the cross. Remember His sacrifice and love for you. Walking in a manner that is right and proper is a result of His Spirit living through faith in Him. God’s Love covers the multitude of our sin and He will bring His Church through it all to our destination: paradise with Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

I have spoken about it before, but I want you to consider this morning how special the sense of touch is. Appropriate touch is a good thing, it can be an assuring thing, a comforting thing. Appropriate touch creates and expresses intimacy, a closeness with an individual. The simple shaking of hands indicates respect, a lack of fear of one another. Friends hug in greeting or in the sharing of a joyful moment. Family’s will also hug and kiss one another out of love and compassion for one another.

Then there are times when touch is desperately needed. In times of fear and worry, pain and grief, the human response is to desire to be touched or to reach out and touch in order in order to comfort. The clutching of a child to a parent or the holding of a hand and the reassuring hug in the midst of anxiety and suffering brings with it comfort, and the assurance that one is not alone in their anguish or fear.

And so, it’s no wonder why studies have shown that newborn infants need physical touch in additional to the basic necessities of feeding and changing. It’s no wonder why that, during the Covid lockdowns and social distancing, there was so much widespread depression among all age groups. We’re physical beings. We need and long for touch and physical presence of another person who cares. And this is one of the reasons why we empathize with the widows in both the Old Testament and Gospel for this day.

Having lost both their husbands and their only child, their only son, the Widow of Zarephath and the Widow of Nain were no longer able to speak to, see, and touch the ones they loved. They were no longer able to hold and hug and kiss them, nor they in return. On top of this pain of separation and loneliness, without a husband or child, these women would have had to worry about their food, and drink, their provision, the very things that Jesus said not to be anxious about in last’s weeks gospel. These widows, in addition to losing their loved ones have lost their means of earthly support.

So we empathize with these women. You all to some degree know what it’s like to have loved ones die. I am sure that you can think of someone who has died who you would be overjoyed to hold and touch just one more time.

This grief in response to death is partially because death and the separation which comes with it is anything but natural. Death was and is against all that God wanted for mankind. He created life to be lived without death. To live in fellowship with God and creation in His love in the touch of His caring hand. He first touched mankind, when He created Adam in a very personal and physical way. Taking together the soil and the dust of the ground, His breathed His own breath, the “breath of life” into the man Adam. And in forming Eve, God didn’t say, “Let there be…”. Instead, God used the physical means of touching and taking Adam’s rib and forming she who would be called “woman”.

And yet, there came a touch that was bad. Rejecting God’s Word for a lie, the first man and woman sinned by touching and eating of the forbidden fruit. “…just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12).

Death is the wages of sin and is therefore universal. Therefore, St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that now our bodies are bodies of death (Rom. 7:24). You can’t educate or discover a way out of death. You can’t “health-food” your way out of death. We can’t medicate or exercise our way out of death. You can’t choose to sit out of it like a spectator.

And yet, that’s why Jesus is walking the earth in our Gospel text just a few miles south of His hometown of Nazareth. In the face of sin and its wages of death, comes the Creator, the One who is life and the Lord of Life. In fact, this text in St. Luke is the first time that the author refers to Jesus as “the Lord” as He demonstrates in such an awesome way that He is Lord even over death! The people already had known that Jesus was special. He had taught with authority. He had healed diseases, like that of a leper whom he touched and said, “Be clean” (Luke 5:13). The only prophetic miracle He hadn’t done up to this point in Luke’s Gospel was raising someone from the dead. Many people followed him, anticipating and wondering what He might do next.

Our text reads: “As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then He came up and touched the bier carrying the body, and the bearers stood still” (Luke 7:12-14). Jesus stopped the procession by touching the casket, the stretcher which carried the body, as if to indicate, “Death, you may not proceed. You have not won the victory today or forever, for I am the resurrection and the life!”

And yet, more so than this, to touch this bier, this casket, Jesus risked becoming ritually unclean. In the Book of Numbers, Moses wrote, “Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.” (Num. 19:11-12).

And yet, instead of becoming unclean and defiled, Jesus cleanses and heals. As true God in human flesh, the power of holiness, cleanliness, and of life is in Him. And proving that He is the life and the Lord over death, Jesus spoke, “‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:14-15).

The woman’s son, whose body had become still in death, was now active and alive again. I can’t even imagine the shock and joy of this mother. Her son was once again able to touch, to be touched and lovingly kiss and hug and embrace his mother, and to be embraced by her in return. Presenting the man to his mother, Jesus revealed that He’s truly Lord over life and death.

Despite this miracle, death doesn’t just magically disappear in this time. Sin and its punishment of death must still be dealt with so that it will have an end. In touching the bier which is the instrument to bear and carry a dead body, Jesus reveals that He’s the true bearer of sin and death carrying it away upon Himself to the cross and empty tomb. It’s as we confess, “Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” As true God, He really touches and bears, in His flesh, your sin and death, and carries it to the cross. And there, offering up His perfect life, He accomplished your salvation by receiving all the bad touches that your sin deserves: the whips, the nails, the humiliation, God’s wrath and punishment, and an excruciating death under the weight of sin. There, on the cross, the power and sting of death would be defeated for you and for all people.

The testimony of His resurrection from the dead proves the fact that Jesus has defeated sin and death in His crucifixion. Jesus came forth with His risen body from the tomb three days later not by the power of another, but because of His righteousness and power. His Divine and human body, a physical body was raised, a body upon which He invited Thomas and the disciple to touch His nail pierced hands and speared side. The empty tomb declares, “Death’s reign has ended. The grave isn’t the end.” Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead proves that death’s grip is now broken. Jesus has made a way through death to life. The tragedy of sin and death have been undone in Christ who is its Lord and master.

Fellow redeemed, the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh will lead you to despair by trying to cling to, to lay hold of the common earthly things of this world that do not have a promise from God. Instead, lay hold by faith to the places where God promises to come to you with His physical touch in Jesus Christ to comfort, assure, and strengthen you.

In Holy Baptism, the Lord used water with the Word to touch our skin, to wash you clean from sin and death, to mark you has His own. Through this touching, God caused you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:3-4).

In the Lord’s Supper, the Lord touches you on your hands and tongue when you receive Christ’s crucified and raised body and blood in the bread and wine. In this touch, He delivers forgiveness of sins for you. He comforts and strengthens your weak body with the assurance that it will be raised imperishable on the last day through His resurrected body and His righteousness.

In the face of the death that we see around us, let us touch, grasp, lay hold by faith that which will not fail – Jesus Christ. Through His crucifixion and resurrection, He has made a way through death unto life. And in His Word and Sacraments, He come to us, and grasps us to Himself in His loving embrace. There we receive a touch and foretaste of the resurrection yet to come in Heaven which is ours by faith for the sake of He who takes away our sin, even Jesus Christ, our crucified and resurrected Lord of Life. Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

We all know what groaning is, right? There are the moans and groans that our kids make when we ask them to do something that they don’t like doing, whether its chores or homework, although… actually adults can be that way too. Or there is the groaning that takes place when someone is suffering pain and anguish. These are not words as much as sounds. These can be the groans of a woman in labor, or anyone as they labor and suffer under the weight of physical exertion or pain and mental and spiritual anguish. Who can understand the meaning of these groans other than the one going through them?

The Gospel for this day places before us a man who most likely groaned under the burden of his physical impairments. The first issue is that he’s deaf: he couldn’t hear. While he could see the world around him, he couldn’t hear what was going on in the world. He couldn’t hear the birds of the air, children playing, or the voice of a loved one. Not only was the man deaf, he was also mute. He couldn’t properly form words; probably because he could not hear. In order to communicate with others, he likely had to try to make hand signals or he had to grunt some sounds which to those listening were more like groanings and barkings rather than words. Remember this was in the days before any formal sign language was established. Being both deaf and mute, this man was virtually cut off from the world around him.

Yet, God be praised, this man was not entirely cut off from the world, for we are told that he had friends, people who cared for him and had compassion on him. And in this compassion, they sought out Jesus who was returning to the region of the Decapolis – the Ten Cities. Jesus was in this gentile territory – southeast of the Sea of Galilee – a place that He had previously cast out the demon from the man and sent the unclean spirit into a heard of pigs. Likely hearing of that previous miracle, these friends brought the deaf/mute man to Jesus, and “they begged him to lay his hand on him”.

Yet, Jesus does more than lay his hand on the man. “And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed…” (Mark 7:33-34). However, the Greek word for Jesus’ action after looking into heaven was that “He groaned”. Jesus literally “groaned” as part of this miracle.

Now as I introduced earlier, a real groan isn’t a small exhale of air, like a sigh. A groan is something deeper and louder. A groan is an involuntary response that escapes from someone who is in pain, who is suffering.

Fellow redeemed, what do you groan over? Do you groan over the aches and pains of your body? Do you groan over the pain and suffering a loved is going through? Do you groan over your own disappointments in this life or the events going on in this country and around the world? Do you groan over seeing people falling away from the faith? Do you groan when you yourself feel weak and heavy laden by your own sinful shortcomings, sins, and worries?

Ultimately, this groaning is a reaction to sin. When God created the heavens and the earth, He said that it was very good. Yet, through one man’s disobedience, sin and death entered into the world. Creation itself was subjected to futility, not willingly. And as a result, all of creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans chapter 8. And not only creation, but we ourselves groan inwardly because of the curse of sin upon us and the longing for an end to it (See Rom. 8:20-23).

Yet, when Jesus groaned, he wasn’t groaning over any sin within Himself. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was preserved from sin that one normally inherits from their father. And yet, in human flesh and blood, Jesus groaned. He groaned over sin and its effects that had come upon this man, and also the suffering that has come upon this earth and all humanity. That is the very reason why Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth. He came for the sake of mercy and the groanings of this sin tainted and weary creation. He came to relieve you and me in our groanings.

Unlike our groanings, Jesus isn’t helpless to do something about it. As the Son of God – the Promised Messiah – the Second Adam – He comes to confront sin, its effects, including its wages of death and misery. So, this miracle shows us the attitude of God to our suffering and how He handles it. Jesus speaks, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And [the man’s] ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

As we hear and read the accounts of Christ’s healing miracles, there’s always a temptation to think that Jesus heals people in an effortless and detached way. Almost as though He is above our problems, and it doesn’t really affect Him, like He just waves His hand and the problems go away. Like a magic trick. We need to get away from this mentality. Healing actually costs Jesus something. He suffered for us and with humanity. Therefore, He’s not just groaning with sorrow at the man’s sin and infirmity. He’s groaning because He’s taking the man’s sin and all of his infirmities upon Himself at this moment of healing all the way to the cross.

This is why we confess that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It’s because He really bears, in His flesh, your sin and mine. And not just your sin, but all the illnesses and diseases and death that flow from that sin. He bears your sin and carries it to the cross. He offers up His perfect life in death on your behalf. And in His cry and groan, “It is finished,” He proclaimed that this ultimate rescue for you from every evil of body and soul has been completed. The wages of your sin have been met and paid for in the death of the Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus Christ. When you repent and confess your sins, they are cast upon Christ crucified where He bears them for you, so that you don’t have to bear them any longer.

So take your groanings, your burdens, and sorrows, to the Lord. Take your worries, anxieties, your guilt, your fears, and unload them in prayer and confession unto the Him. He will not look down on you for being weak. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15)

In the midst of our groaning here in this life, our crucified and risen Saviour comes to us here in Word and Sacrament. He invites us to come to Him and receive. He says, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). He comforts you in your groaning with the reminder that your sin is paid for and the effects of sin have an end. He brings you His strength over sin, death, and the power of the devil, so that you may live by faith in His strength and not dwell in the limitations of your own weak flesh.

Be renewed in His baptismal promise when He first came to you, casting out your unclean spirit, replacing it with His Holy Spirit. Daily, by remembering Holy Baptism and His promise of new life in Christ, you can be comforted in your groans and your daily tasks. Your groans to Christ are turned into praise and joy. In Christ, you may see each day of life as an opportunity to serve and praise Him, with tongues loosened to speak clearly the wonders of God’s gracious mercy and salvation.

Then we are gathered here as God’s people by His Spirit, to confess and receive forgiveness of sins. To have our ears cleansed, closed, and deafened to all the messages of the world, but instead be opened to hear the voice of our loving Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ beckons that we take and eat of His body which was given into death and raised to “take and drink the blood” which has been shed for you to pay for your sin that these bodies which groan under that curse of sin will be raised to new life at the last day.

Then shall come to pass that which was spoken of by Isaiah in today’s Old Testament lesson: “The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.”

The Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ came to earth, paid the price, and has suffered and died, groaning for you, so that your groanings, and your sin, may be taken upon Himself. And His joy, the joy of God’s grace is returned upon you as one who has been forgiven and healed in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Our text from last Sunday showed that following His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus wept over the “City of Peace” on account of their unbelief. Immediately afterwards, He enters the temple and, in righteous anger, drives the money changers out of the temple, crying, “My house shall be a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46). What’s so special about the temple, this house of prayer? It was the temple where the God came to His people and where they were to come to Him in repentance and with the shedding of blood.

It’s no coincidence that in the parable set before us this morning, Jesus places the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple.

Yet, as we heard, the two prayers offered up in the presence of the Lord were vastly different. “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get'”.

In an age where fornication and adultery is defended by the popular culture – in an age where people with power can lie and cheat and steal and get away with it, is there anything wrong with NOT being an extortioner, unjust, or adulterer? Of course not! In fact, you would probably want this Pharisee as your neighbor: as an employee.

Is there anything wrong with tithing, that is giving 10 percent of all income back to the Lord? Of course not! As everything is the Lord’s, it’s good to give back unto the Lord in joy and gratitude.

Yet, however outwardly good and pious the Pharisee appears, he didn’t go home justified, that is, declared righteous before God. To use the language from last Sunday, he didn’t know the things that make for peace with God. Why?

In sinful pride, the Pharisee didn’t think he had anything to repent from. His prayer was addressed to God, but he didn’t really pray to him. He bragged to God. He used the word “I” five times listing his good works. He compared himself to others, exulting himself and despising others. Trusting in his own merit and works, he stood before God alone without the Advocate, the Savior/Redeemer needed for sinful man to be justified, declared righteous before God.

Where the Pharisee came before the Lord in sinful pride, the tax collector came before Him in contrition and humility. “…the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'”

The people viewed Pharisees as holy and righteous, tax collectors were despised. They were seen as traitors working for the Roman government, and many charged the people more in taxes than what they really owed and pocketed it. So you have what appeared to be the best kind of person in the Pharisee and the worst in the tax collector.

Yet, the tax collector was convicted of his sin. He was humbled by the Word of God. He was ashamed: he stood far away from the view of others. He wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, he was truly grieving over his sin beating his chest in sorrow. He compares himself to no one else. He sees only his own sin.

The word translated mercy refers specifically to the mercy of forgiveness. Literally, he’s praying, “God, be propitiated to me. God, remove your anger from me.” His words are a prayer for forgiveness of sins that comes from God only through the intercessory bloody sacrifice offered up to the justice of God. He knows his sins only merit God’s wrath and he personally can do nothing to make it right. He knows the forgiveness of sins has a cost, and it’s nothing less than the blood of God. Appealing to the mercy of God on behalf of the sacrifice of the Savior, the tax collector does go home justified. As is written: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted”.

Fellow redeemed, we live in a world that loves to exalt in pride, not in doing right, but in sinning. They attack God’s gift of marriage between one man and one woman. They glory in their shame, attacking family as God instituted and ordained it.

All the more reason, why we, modern disciples of Christ need to confess God’s truth in society and lead holy lives according to His truth. We pray that proud unbelievers would be brought to repentance unto faith in Christ; He is the only source of salvation. He is the only way to be justified, to be propitiated.

So, we also must pray in repentant humility, pleading for the sake of Jesus to forgive us our many sins. We should daily pray that He would guard and keeps us from all misbelief, shame, and vice.

The temptation is to have our eye on the world around us, the person sitting in the pew, and compare ourselves like the Pharisee, “I thank God that I’m not like the world around me.” The devil tempts you to exalt yourself in that pious sinful pride to think better of yourself than you ought.

God help you and me to utterly despair of trust in self, our own righteousness and “goodness”; to instead cry out as the tax collector did, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,”. And then depend only upon Jesus Christ to keep us from either error: embracing of sin as something to be proud of, or pride in our own works and piety.

The unblemished, sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus would soon make obsolete the very temple that He speaks of in the Gospel text. By His crucifixion on the altar of the cross He makes satisfaction for sin. Unlike the blood of Abel that cries out for vengeance, the blood of Jesus speaks a better word, a forgiving word, a propitiating word: Mercy! Christ’s perfect obedience and innocent suffering and death on the cross has appeased God’s wrath against your sin. Risen from the grave three days later, He spoke words of peace, of sins forgiven to His disciples and He has done so again today for you.

The crucified, risen, and ascended Christ is here today to exalt you who have been humbled by your sin in repentance that you may return home justified in His Name.

Let us ponder this: having been exalted and justified through the blood of the lamb, was the tax collector free to go back to ripping people off and overcharging them in his vocation as tax collector? No. And so it is for you.

In humility, we come into God’s presence to confess our sins and hear the announcement of absolution in Jesus Christ. We come into His presence to remember the baptism He has given us, to hear His Word preached into our ears, and to eat and to drink Jesus’ crucified and raised body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. This strengthens faith in preparation for life eternal.

Having been exalted out of our sin, are we thinking about the greatness of God’s mercy in this and rejoicing? Do we just go home justified to use it as an excuse to sin all the more and exalt ourselves in sinful pride? Heaven forbid!

St. Paul said in today’s epistle lesson, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:1-10)

Through the blood of Christ, you’ve been exalted out of the darkness of sin and death: not to go back to sin. Here, God works on your heart and mind through His Word and Sacrament to bring repentance, but to also be re-created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to be as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, were supposed to be. To walk in His workmanship by doing good.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. It means walking in humility: understanding that you have no good apart from the cross of Christ and live in constant amazement at God’s mercy.

Eagerly come into God’s presence here, not because you have to but because this is where He gives you His gifts for forgiveness and life, where He gives you His mercy and strength, where He humbles and exalts. Then, having been exalted through the blood of Christ, you joyfully speak of God’s mercy to a world lost in sinful pride, not to lift yourself up in sinful pharisaic pride, but sincerely desiring their repentance and salvation, that they can share in God’s grace and salvation.

St. Peter wrote, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you…” Through the blood of Christ, He does exalt you out of your sin. When He tells you that your sins have been forgiven for Christ’s sake, you can believe Him! And know that you can go down to your house justified and forgiven, for the sake of Jesus Christ crucified and raised. To Him, who is your propitiation, your payment for sin, be all glory, honor and thanksgiving. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Do you know what is the shortest verse in the Bible? It is from John 11:35 which reads: “Jesus wept”. That verse was referring to the tears shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus: a friend whom He was going to raise. The Greek word used in John “to shed tears” is different from the Greek used for this morning’s Gospel text. The weeping of Jesus in our text today is loudly mourning, lamenting, really more like wailing in grief. So Jesus was bewailing, in personal pain and grief, over Jerusalem.

He looked upon the city in this way because as the Son of God, He knew the future. He knew what was to come upon that city: the harsh reality of judgment and destruction. The tearing down of walls, the terrorizing, injuring, and killing, and utter desolation that would come upon this city called Jerusalem.

The name, Jerusalem, has great meaning. A meaning that reflects its history as a capital and as the place of God’s presence in the temple. Jerusalem comes from two Hebrew Words “Yara” and “Shaloam”. Shaloam can simply mean peace but it really means more: as an action word it means: to be or make whole or complete by paying something back. As a noun it means wholeness, completeness.

“Yara” describes the bringing about of a unified whole, a coming together, a building together by means of many little movements. Like how you can make a hill with many little stones or how the plants gets watered not by one rain drop but by many raindrops.

Jerusalem means to make whole or complete, to be reconciled and to be brought together by a payment of/for many things. This describes the sacrificial system of the Jews. Jerusalem, which had contained the temple, was the place where people were to gather, acknowledge their sin, their separation from God and from each other by their injustice, greed, and breaking of the commandments. As they repented of their sin, they were to understand that their rebellion against God deserved death. The only way that they could be restored to wholeness in relation to God was if something or somebody were offered up as a sacrifice to pay for it: to make restitution. They offered up animals and their blood in ceremonial sacrifice. They paid offerings of gold, of incense, of time, of materials and grain for the building and upkeep of the temple in which these offerings were to take place. This location was to also serve to unite as a people and religious community the Israelites, the people of Promise through whom God would proclaim to the world the promise of His blessing. A blessing for all those who would repent from their sin, hope in God and His Promise of a Savior, and receive His grace and mercy.
In the name Jerusalem, and the workings of the temple, we see what Jerusalem and the people of Israel were to be. A people united in humility and confession to God and the One Messiah: A people waiting for the ultimate sacrifice even as they sacrificed. By it, true peace would be built among and in them. United in wholeness, completion in mind, heart, and body, reconciled to God to receive life eternal by the sacrifice of this Messiah.

But Jesus wept over Jerusalem because the city, its people, and many of the Jews were not repentant, they were not rightly looking to the one who was to come. They were proud of their nationality, yes but only as an earthly kingdom. As long as there was a Jerusalem and a temple, they thought they would have a hope of rising in national power again, the Messiah would be another David, a glorious military leader.

In Jesus, most saw a miracle worker to benefit from, but not much more. Many rejected Him altogether instead of receiving Him for whom they should have been waiting. They did not heed the message “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Many used the temple not as a place of prayer, confession, and praise of God for the peace He gave, but a place to make money, to praise themselves. Even after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, many Jews continued to reject Jesus and His message of salvation, even persecuting and killing followers of this Messiah. By doing this, they were bringing more guilt blood upon themselves, building up a future not of grace but of vengeance and judgment. To move them from their idolatry and wickedness to Christ, God removed their idols of the temple and the city walls in 70 A.D. He allowed the Romans to violently take away those objects of pride. The time of the sacrifices were over: no longer needed because Jesus was their fulfillment.

So Jesus lamented, He wailed over them. He wailed over the needless suffering of a people who needlessly rejected the very One in whom their completion and reconciliation with God should occur. If only they hadn’t resisted but received the work of the Holy Spirit, their overthrow may not have happened and so many innocents would not have had to suffer.

God does not desire the suffering of people, He desires that people would turn from their sin, turn to Him and live reconciled with Him. Too often it is only through the destruction and the removal of people’s idolatrous altars, when people are brought low in various forms of discipline that God allows and commands, that people then become open to repentance of their sin and then in humility receive and rejoice in His forgiveness and mercy but only when they finally recognize their need.

It grieves the Lord to see people sin. It grieves the Lord to see people take His grace for granted, and it grieves Him to have to condemn those who do not repent. So as a Father, He does sometimes discipline those whom He loves. A reluctant Father who must punish His children so that they do fall completely into the way of destruction. He will allow the rod to fall so that people may be corrected and reconciled to Him rather than be hardened to the point of eternal condemnation which is a far greater tragedy.

It is a sad thing, that it so often takes the removal of those things in which we have put our trust and value for us to finally repent and get back to what is truly important, turned to God and returned to the place where our peace is accomplished.

This is the lament of every faithful pastor of every age and time. He laments over those who have reduced their attendance at church or who have stopped all together. When brothers and sisters in Christ are not getting along or abusing each other or the grace of God. He grieves and wails inwardly and sometimes outwardly for those caught in unrepentant trespasses and sins who must receive rebuke and admonishment: when church discipline must take place, and even worse when those people refuse to repent. When we see this falling away, every good pastor and lay person should grieve. We wonder, will God allow something to come upon them that turns them? Will they continue in their sin just the same? The end of that road of spiritual sickness is not salvation, but judgment and death. Every unrepentant sin is a false worship and a step away from God and toward Hell.
Must we wait for tragedy? Must we wait for our cities, our nation, our capitals, our loved ones taken, our own health removed, for all our false idols to be toppled and ripped from us before we turn?
But here is the good news: because of God’s mercy, He did keep His promises so that we may hope. He did send Jesus His Son so that there would be an end to suffering, an end to death, and an end to sin and the demonic forces who tempt sons and daughters of Adam.

Jesus became the true Jerusalem, the true temple, the true sacrifice whose blood would drop by drop, pay and make restitution for the sins of the world. Jesus, true man and true God, in perfect humility came to save people still in their pride. He laid down His life and died on the cross to suffer and die and pay the wages of sin.

Yet people still reject Him, they still mock Him, they belittle the seriousness of the pastor and other Christians who see the value of this blood and this temple not made with human hands that brings about our peace.

Does God weep and lament over Yucaipa, Calimesa, Mentone, San Bernadino and Riverside counties, does He weep and lament over you? Yes.

Repent of your idolatry. Repent of placing yourself above the Lord. Repent of treating the Gospel as refuse and cheap.

And then, when you and I repent, when any single sheep repents, do you know what happens? God and His angels’ wailing, mourning, and grief turns into joy and rejoicing. As the Shepherd who found His sheep, as the woman who found her coin, as the father who regained His repentant son, so God and the heavenly host rejoices, their weeping of sorrow on our behalf turn into tears of joy: what was lost is now found.

Dear friends, your Jerusalem, the way that makes you, me, and the church a complete whole unified is in Jesus. He continues to come down to earth to give the gifts of His sacrificial payment to unify us in confession and faith where He promises to bring “believers” into unity with the Trinity, through His physical crucified and raised body and blood here in the Lord’s supper. This then becomes the true Jerusalem on earth, that which makes for our peace in Jesus Christ.

It will only get better in the future. Here He trains believers and prepares us for the difficulties of a sin-filled world, so that we may remain strong upon the path of righteousness by faith in Him as we return to Him again and again until the day when we are brought to eternal life: to the gathering forever of the whole body of Christ with all the saints and the company of the angels in heavenly glory forever and ever.

Let us today exalt and rejoice in our Lord who builds us up with walls that cannot be torn down by His Word. We are joined together by the true Jerusalem, Jesus Christ. In His blood and body crucified and raised we are reminded that no host can prevail against this house of prayer, this place of our peace which God brings to us and for us now through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Have you ever heard that? That is what St. Paul was saying to the Corinthians in today’s epistle lesson. People may read the Old Testament and wonder “why did God allow the Israelites to wander for 40 years before entering the promised land?” Why did God let Israel suffer from time to time, to even be mostly destroyed, with a remnant taken into a captivity in Babylon so that even the faithful suffered?

St. Paul tells the Corinthians and by extension, us, why: “These things happened to them [the Old Testament Israelites] as an example, written down for our instruction. So that Christians, New Testament Israelites, do not repeat the same mistakes. Old Testament Israel was the Old Testament visible church, they had had God’s Word, yet many did a lot of stupid and unfaithful things: they were wicked and spiritually adulterous and idolatrous, time and time and time again. It’s like they never learned from their own history as to the results of going against God’s Law: the removal of God’s protection and grace. Doing the same thing again and again, yet expecting a different result, never learning, is the ultimate insanity.  St. Paul, speaking to the fair-weather Christians in Corinth, points to the forgetfulness of the OT Israelites and God’s judgements upon OT Israel to punish the evildoers and get them to repent and said: “You’re doing the same thing those fools did. Adulterous, idolatrous, worshiping the things of this world, putting God to the test, grumbling against the rules of God, do you wish to suffer the same earthly consequences?” Learn from your history! God wrote all this stuff down for you, so you’re not doomed to repeat it!”

We look around at all that’s going on in our world, and we shake our heads in utter disbelief. Our nation politically, yes, but even with so many who claim to be of the Church who still haven’t learned from history. We’re still doing the same dumb and wicked things people of the past have done. Going after false prophets, denying and minimizing God’s Word of Law and Gospel. Then people are shocked when God permits the suffering even of minor consequences for our wicked, murderous, and idolatrous ways.
Let’s be careful. Not all repetition of history is a bad thing or something to be avoided. Paul never says “Don’t ever repeat history.” What he says is, “Learn from history.” There is a difference. In Church history and Holy Scripture, there are many good and faithful people for us to imitate, there is much that was done that was good and true and we should and must repeat as we make our way through this life at this time. Are the struggles of our communities, homes, and nation unique or new to mankind? Not completely. Not really. When speaking of whatever is going on, pandemics, fires, droughts, riots, assassination attempts, coup d’etat…we often like to use the word “unprecedented”, but it’s simply not true. It may be all new to us, but there’s nothing unique/new about what we’re experiencing. There is no new sin or result of that sin that isn’t just a variation of sins and their repercussions of the past, it is just more readily known and promoted because of technology and the internet. In history there were plenty of wars and rumors of wars, pandemics, government corruption, political unrest, fear mongering and economic uncertainty. In addition to this, every generation in history has had to deal with a sick/dying loved one, job loss or bills which are less extreme but no less sad or troubling results of the curse of sin. 

Read the Scriptures! These things are all written down for a reason…for us to learn: to learn to repent of our sin, to turn from our wickedness, to then look to God and Jesus Christ and be saved, to look to the example of others whom God rescued and preserved and be inspired and comforted! 

Are you discouraged by hardship, by sadness, ridicule and persecution? You’re not the only one to ever suffer or struggle or worry or grieve. Learn from history. Look to Job, to David, to Elijah, Jeremiah, Hannah, Leah, Abraham and Daniel! Look to St. Paul, to Stephen, to Simon Peter, St. John the Baptizer, and look to Christ. Jesus Christ sent from God to stop the cycle of repeating the badness of history. He came to show the Grace of God to those who learn from the wages of sin and repent, looking to God for mercy. Here it is, in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross, so that we would have life. He was made low for those sunk in their sins and suffering to raise them to the glory of God. Learn from history and see the mercy of God to all the saints and believers who turned to Him, who trusted in Him, who were built upon the Rock that cannot be moved. He kept them in the faith in sickness and in health, in tumult and uncertain times, and gave them strength by His Word to receive His salvation. The same salvation which God offers to you in these days and at this time.

Look at what has been handed down to us from our spiritual parents, and ultimately from God? What have the faithful always done when things get tough? They have learned their history. The history of God’s salvation and mercy. The Church turns to Scripture and the psalms and prayers inspired by the Lord, they look to the historic liturgy, to receive God’s eternal and unchanging answer to our sin and repentance. The answer which will be held out to you, without fail, without conditions, and without end, this day in Holy Absolution and the Lord’s Supper. The answer is God’s forgiveness of sins undeserved but freely given by the merits of Jesus who has been crucified and raised for the forgiveness of sins, to give life instead of the judgement of death.

The answer is in His invitation to “repeat history” in the daily, remembrance of our baptism where God sealed His grace to us, where many of us first came to faith by His Word, were purified and made holy by the blood of Jesus. Remember it, remember whose you are, and that God has promised to you to wash you and cleanse you again as you return in contrition. By His Holy Spirit, you learn from your sins of the past, so that they are overcome in Christ and you need not repeat them by His strength. Remember: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Remember this [Word and Sacrament] is what the faithful have always understood and fled to and held fast to.  When tumult and tribulation rear their ugly heads; when Christians are made to feel fear and terror, the churches have always been filled with the faithful fleeing to God remembering a hope that goes beyond the hopes of this world. 

Don’t put the focus on yourself and what we need to do/not do. The focus of the Christian faith is to concentrate on Almighty God and His faithfulness to His promises. All three of the lessons today point to that fact. God is unchanging. He will judge but He is merciful to those who love Him. Do not give up hope in any situation here on earth, hope in Him as we heard:
“This God His way is perfect;
    the word of the Lord proves true;
    He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.
“For who is God, but the Lord?
    And who is a rock, except our God?
This God is my strong refuge
    and has made my way blameless.

He will make your way blameless. As you have received mercy from God, you be merciful, and God will show more mercy to you, and instead of a death cycle of repeating sin and receiving punishment as the world has, we have a cycle of grace and spiritual blessing here given.

God works all things for the good of those who love Him. He uses the joys in our lives too but sometimes also the crosses. Look no further than right here as an example [the cross].  Who would EVER think that this is good/victory?! But here it is. In our place, is Christ, The Father’s wrath against sin, placed on this battered, bloodied, and nailed body upon a cross for all the world to see. Here is how God views and handles our sin! By laying down His life for each and every sin of the entire crooked world, mine and yours included.

This is also that history from which we can and must every day learn from. What our sins deserve, but God’s mercy and grace in this precious gift for our salvation.
My fellow redeemed: Learn from your history and the history of the Church. How has God proven Himself to every believer in every age? By God clinging to them in good times, in bad times, richer, poorer, in sickness and in health, by preserving them in hope and mercy. All the examples are written down for you; for your sake for warning but also for comfort. Trust in your Lord. Learn from His history in dealing with you and all people of every age. He is a loving and gracious God, He is slow to anger, and quick to forgive. ALWAYS. This cross, these sacraments, are absolute proof to learn that your Lord loves you and forgives you and wishes your victorious salvation. He is faithful to make you faithful in believing and living in Him. Let there be no doubt! Your heavenly Father loved you so much that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for you! May we ever learn and grow in Him through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Have you ever gone fruit picking? In just a couple of weeks you should be able to go pick apples in Oak Glen if you wanted to. I don’t know of any orange orchards that do “u-pick”. But the point of the matter is that you wouldn’t go to an orange tree to find apples, nor an apple tree for an orange. And you certainly wouldn’t expect to find apples growing from a palm tree. Pretty elementary. Even most people who might not know anything about trees, bushes, plants, or what it takes to grow them, if they knew what an apple was and they saw an apple growing on a tree, they wouldn’t have to know how to recognize the apple tree leaf or its particular bark. They would recognize the tree by its…fruit! Right? The whole energy of a fruiting tree, or plant, if it is working right, is not in growing more leaves, but it funnels its efforts toward producing fruit: good fruit. Fruit which is used ultimately to plant more of the same kind. Think of apple seeds, orange seeds, avocados, etc. It is in some ways a very selfless enterprise.

Likewise, you can tell if a tree is healthy or diseased by the quality or lack of its fruit produced. As Jesus said in today’s Gospel lesson: “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” That also makes sense. Healthy tree = healthy fruit. Diseased tree = sickly or diseased fruit. In an orchard or a garden if something that has been planted gets diseased or ceases to bear fruit or be productive, the owner will often cut it down or prune it sharply. The tree has failed in being what it was supposed to be. The diseased tree or its parts would also be removed and burned so that whatever is wrong with the plant does not infect and infest the others.

What was Jesus talking about in this Gospel lesson and why? He was not so much concerned with how orchards work, but rather speaking about spiritual realities within this world. The orchard and vineyard of the Church is under constant threat of attack from outside spiritual forces using the disease of false teaching by those who pretend to be orchard keepers, by the environment of the world, and from within. It actually is pretty easy to detect the effect and influence of these attacks. It may seem difficult at first but eventually it should be pretty elementary to identify a false teacher and prophet. The standard for identification is as simple as this: faithful fruit is identified as preaching, teaching, and administrating the Divine Service in agreement with the wisdom of Holy Scripture. Lay people who are Christians can be identified by the fruit of their faith as well. That fruit involves being kind, doing things that are good, tithing, caring for each other, receiving regularly the nutrients offered in Word and sacrament, but what is the true and chief fruit of faithfulness? Repentance, humility, and joy in the hope and promise offered in Jesus Christ.

If people or pastors are unfaithful and: you can identify them by their fruit. Their fruit is lawlessness: that is that which does not abide by the Law and counsel of God in Scripture. In today’s society the spirit is most identified by permissiveness, the fact that these false ones do not preach against sin or warn against temptation, but rather they preach a doctrine which rots, a doctrine which promotes worshipping self, feeling good, justifying oneself, nursing one’s own desires. Perhaps they will occasionally preach the performing of good deeds but not for the sake of mercy, but so that people can pat themselves on the back in pride. As the true fruit of faithfulness is repentance and joy at the Gospel, so the fruit of diseased trees and their rotten fruit is this: pride, a refusal to repent, to humble oneself and it recognized by its lawlessness. Lawlessness meaning lack of discipline and respect for what God has established as good and right by His Word.

So look at yourselves, look at how you have been living, and interacting with the world or your fellow trees in the orchard or vines in the vineyard? What has been your chief goal in life? What kind of fruit are you bringing forth and forming?

The problem is that you and I by nature would rather not produce good fruit. Good fruit on the part of the tree means sacrificing, being pruned, being trained. We would rather be wild and grow according to our fleshly nature, we like how the disease of false teaching first makes us feel as it does not prune away pride and arrogance, but lets it grow wild and lawlessly. Lawlessness makes us feel like we are gods. It makes us feel like we can make personal laws for ourselves and alter them as we see fit. We don’t have to follow God’s Word exactly, we can go and grow along any lines we would like, even if it does not produce healthy fruit. That is why so many people in today’s modern churches, if they go to church at all, go to feel good churches that cater to their likes, their whims, and does not teach repentance and the cross, but turns God into a god who promises earthly prosperity and comfort in one’s own definition of truth. We, according to our flesh, would prefer to rebel against the pruning of God’s true Law which identifies our sin and would cleanse the diseased sores which we have allowed to invade and fester within us. If there is no repentance, then the Gospel which gives life is wasted. Like water off a duck’s back, the work of the Holy Spirit is rejected. The work of Jesus means nothing for those who feel they have no need for salvation.

Like it or not, offended or not, when “Christians” regularly skip church for things like sports, housework, chores, or just to sleep in. That is what they are saying. “I have no need of you, God. Me first. Maybe I will return some day.” This behavior and attitude are showing the fruit within the heart. These actions and thoughts reveal the work of the disease of sin and pride which causes faith to shrivel and the fruit that should be good and should be nurtured and fed by God’s Word is sickly, stifled, and may never mature.

In the day of death, the day of Christ’s mighty return, the spiritual trees of this earthly orchard shall be judged by their fruit or their lack of fruit because it is and was the evidence of the faith inside it. Then it will be too late to alter course. And then as Jesus said: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Dear friends, we must all beware of our own pride, our own security in our sin, we should look to our fruit and take care. We should also take care not to attend false churches or watch or listen to preachers or read books by those who by God’s Word we can recognize as not being faithful.

Now let us, pastor and laity, bear the fruit of repentance to God, let us admit our need for Him to prune us of our pride and sin, and receive it as we confess that sin.

Then as hungry and thirsty trees planted in the good soil of God’s Word’s let us absorb and take to heart the truth that we need to hear. The truth from God which is a pesticide of the best kind against the idolatry of self and the world, a weapon to kill wolves and mute false teachers: The Word of life in Law and Gospel. You already heard the Law and its threat today and I have spoken about the Gospel, but now hear that Good News: God does love you. God has planted you into His orchard by His word and through Holy Baptism. You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” Christ Jesus came to face the devil, the false teachers, the world, the temptations of the flesh, and in His life and then in His crucifixion and death, He defeated them. He defeated them for you. He died so that the fruit of His righteous sacrifice would give birth to life, faith, and righteousness in you and all believers in Him. You have been redeemed with the redemption that you and I could not accomplish in the blood Jesus Christ. We are freed from our sin once more. AS St. Paul said, “brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

So you are children of God. Live in Him. Rejoice in Him, receive from His hand here in the Sacrament of the Altar His forgiveness, love, life, and mercy. Be renewed in your heart and mind by the Holy Spirit in the strength of true teaching and practice as members of the Church. Be made strong in Jesus Christ crucified and raised for you; strong to bear the fruit that He has created you for: faith, repentance, joy, life now, and eternal life forever in Him, for Jesus Christ’s sake, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Looking over the texts appointed for today, the words of the Small Catechism kept flooding my mind where it says: that our heavenly Father “richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.” We see illustrated in the miraculous feeding of the four thousand, and five thousand and in our daily lives, but we also see this already in action at the very beginning of time. God takes His newly created man, created in His own image and likeness by means of His own hands and His own holy breath, and places him in the garden, which was especially created for him to work and keep. (We also see that God gives the gift of work even before the fall. Work is a good and godly thing, contrary to what many people tend to believe. But… that’s a different sermon.)

Anyway, God places His highest and most cherished creation in that garden and then tells him: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.” Talk about providing!  Every fruit of every tree was available for Adam to eat! Nothing was out of season. Nothing was stale or old or mushy or bruised. It was all fresh; as fresh as it could possibly be! Ripe for the picking! “All that I need to support this body and life.”
But… we know that there’s more to the story, isn’t there? “You may eat of any of this fruit… except for the fruit of that one single tree; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of that fruit you will surely die.”

We may be tempted to think “Okay… so God also provides a death trap? That doesn’t seem very loving. If God truly desires the death of no man, then why did God provide that tree? If He’s all-knowing, He had to have known they would eat and die. Why provide something that does not support, but rather destroys body and life?” 

Folks: I don’t have the answers to those questions. God doesn’t tell us these things. That alone is a loving “stop sign.” Go no further. In the words of Deuteronomy: “The hidden things belong to God, and the revealed things belong to us.” God doesn’t tell you all you want to know, nor does He have to. He tells you all you need to know. Besides, I would caution anyone who dwells on these questions because these are questions of unbelief. “IF God truly desires the death of no man….  IF God is truly all-knowing….” Those questions are no different than the questions straight from Satan’s mouth in the temptations of Jesus: “IF you really are the Son of God, prove it. Turn these stones into bread. Throw yourself off this rooftop. Save yourself and come down off that cross.” God provides us with all that we need; not all that we want.

But focusing on all those “IF’s” is not only wrong, but it causes us to miss God’s good and loving providence staring us in the face. Just listen to what God Himself says to His beloved Adam in regards to that particular tree. “In the day that you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.” God IS providing for Adam! It’s as plain as the nose on your face. He’s providing all that Adam needs for this body and life, including (and especially) eternal life. It’s a loving warning. It’s not a threat. It’s a statement of reality. “Adam, if you eat this, you will die, and I don’t want this for you.”

Of course, we all know how that turned out, right? The problem wasn’t with God’s providence, was it? The problem was with man’s pride; with man’s doubt. Adam wasn’t content with all that he needed. He wasn’t getting all that he wanted. And look what happened. Man turned a deaf ear to God’s loving Word; Word that provided him all that he needed for his body and his life; and instead trusted his own eyes. As you may recall, Chapter 3 tells us that Adam and Eve looked at the fruit, and seeing what a delight it was to their eyes, they took it and ate. 

What about you and me? Consider your own lives. I’ll ask, just like St. Paul, consider the fruits you get from your sinfulness: slavery to more sin, and death. Yet, we still long for these deadly fruits of fleshly temptation, even as we stand on this side of the cross. Why? Because they appeal to our Old Adam senses. Let’s face it: We have our wants and desires; our pride, and humility and suffering just isn’t on the preferred menu for us. It’s true, whether we want to admit it or not: We who have been justified and grafted into the Vine of Life that is Christ still in our hearts and minds tend to prefer the fruits of sin. It feels good. It makes us “happy.” Life just seems so much easier when we’re swimming downstream and going with the flow with everyone else; when all our “wants” are satisfied; when we don’t have all those pesky crosses to bear. 

The end of all those fruits of sin and selfishness is death. Those earthly things don’t save you. Those sinful fruits and desires kill. They kill the body, but also faith and steal the free gift of God away, “for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Look to this cross; this tree. Looking to the cross of Christ we see both the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as well as the tree of life. In terms of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by faith we look to this tree of the cross and we see just how truly deadly our sin is. Our sin isn’t just a malady or an imperfection. Our sin isn’t something we can somehow overcome if we just buckle down and try harder. Our sin is evil. It is death, and we are dead in our sin. DEAD! Since the fall, we are by nature corpses of sin. Dead men tell no tales, and dead men also can do nothing for themselves. They certainly can’t make themselves any less dead! 

Look to the cross of Jesus Christ and also see and learn how God lovingly provides. Here is just how serious and deadly your sin really is, yes, but that is precisely why God Himself took on flesh; for the sole purpose of taking that flesh to the cross to suffer and die; to pay your wage of sin in full. And He did just that, paying that wage in full with His own holy and precious blood.  That’s why in faith we refer to this event as “Good Friday.” It is God’s holy and righteous “good” that puts to death our sinful evil, paid in full by our good and gracious God. And in this way, looking to this cross we also in faith behold our tree of Life; our very good tree of life. All that we need for this body and life indeed!

Let us no more be like Adam and Eve and look at temptation as that which is pleasing, but instead as repentant and absolved by the blood of Jesus but on the new Adam made by the spirit in Jesus Christ, who is Adam’s fulfillment. Let us behold in wonder and joy that which God has provided to satisfy and is truly pleasing to God and for our good. Look to the baptismal font. Look to this altar. Here is where God Himself nourishes you with the life-saving, life-giving fruits of the wretched yet holy tree of the cross of Christ. God brings His victory over sin, death, and the grave to you! Here is where He grafts you into the Vine of Life that is Christ. Here is where He nourishes you with the fruit of the vine; His very blood. Here is where He nourishes you with the fruit of His bounty; the Bread of Life Himself. Here is where He freely and unconditionally gives to you the gift of eternal life in Christ by the forgiveness of your sins. No longer slaves of sin leading to death, but now slaves of righteousness leading to eternal life, freedom, and peace.

In this light, I have to ask: What more do you need? What more do you want? Seek first the kingdom (the reign and rule of God), and all these things will be added to you.” All that I need for this body and life.

You belong to Christ. No matter what this world throws at you; no matter how bad things may get or things may seem, you belong to Christ, and no one and nothing can ever take that away from you. The most important thing you need God gives to you freely and unconditionally, purely out of His good grace and love in Jesus Christ, and He continues to provide so that you live and grow in faith and understanding, in His Word, from this pulpit, from the Bible, from the font, the altar, and as we speak this Word to each other as fellow redeemed. In just a few minutes, when you leave this communion rail and leave the doors of this church building, you will have the Body and Blood of Christ within you and the message of God’s love and provision ringing in your ears. Your Lord will dismiss you with His Gospel promise and blessing; His benediction of peace. I pray that you eat that which He blesses with His presence and places into your mouth.  I pray that you hear, mark, learn, and inwardly-digest all that He richly provides, and I pray you are truly satisfied/contented with His life-giving, life-preserving satisfaction as He truly provides all that you and I need for this body and life which have now received the promise of immortality through Jesus Christ, our God provided, Redeemer, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas