A mighty Fortress is Our God was sung just now. Why is that? In addition to it being a good and well loved hymn, it speaks very much to reality of what is going on in today’s text and in our daily lives: Spiritual battle.

The season which we call Lent or as the Germans had called it “fasting time”, is not just about giving up foods or about enjoying fish fries (which was certainly a big deal back in the Midwest). It also isn’t just a penitential season where we grieve over our sins and the fact that it was for our sins that Jesus had to die. This season of Lent should also be a time of learning, a time for making good changes. Changes like: daily devotions, maybe even more than once a day. A time of getting into Scripture. If you haven’t been coming to Bible Study, maybe now is a good season to start attending. Maybe also a time to crack open your old catechisms and read through the questions and answers. A time to review what it is that we believe and confess. Now is the time to become prepared by hearing, receiving, studying, and consuming God’s Word as much as we can. We cannot know God’s Word too much. This is God’s power of God for our salvation. It is His way of speaking to us to come to faith, then to be strengthened in that faith, and then by His Word in that faith, we are empowered, prepared, and armored to rebuke the Devil and His lies. The Devil is always on the attack, trying to drive us away from God or make us suffer the cross in faith. The Devil knows God’s Word and he knows how to twist it based on our ignorance of it. So, the devil preys upon us to tempt us in various ways through the very real spiritual battles that happen every day. Many decisions we make in a day have a spiritual element to it whether or not we realize it. Some are as obvious as whether or not we will get up, get ready, and go to church. Some spiritual conflict and challenge come upon us suddenly, like when a family member or coworker tells a joke, asks a question about your faith, shares gossip, or says a harsh word that demands answer. How will you answer? How will you handle it? Will you go along with the gossip and share some of your own? Will you laugh at the joke even if it is off color or at someone else’s expense? Will you downplay your faith and your confession as a Lutheran because you are afraid of offending or coming across as hyper-religious? At a harsh word, do you get angry and rage in response or do you not know how to answer, but later in your bitterness, do you plot vengeance or nurse your victimhood? Or how about this one, you have a big day the next day, whatever it is, and you cannot sleep, your children will not sleep or they are sick or an emergency arises. Do you lose your temper? What if your illness continues to linger, your loved one is failing. The bills are piling up? Do you lose heart? Lose faith? These are the times of suffering in this life’s journey when the Devil comes to steal faith and hope from our weak flesh so that we lose our way.

And so often we fall and fail. We give in to the flesh, the world, the lies of Satan, we make a mess of things. Then we make excuses for ourselves and make it worse.

Then Satan smiles and exults. He then accuses us in our sin and would cause us to despair even of God’s love. To embrace wholly the easy way, the way of the glory of this world, the way of the selfish flesh.

With might of ours can nothing be done. Soon were our loss effected, But for us fights the valiant one whom God Himself elected.

This brings us back to the Gospel text. After having taken the repentance and sin of every human in His baptism, as a scapegoat He was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Jesus went out into the wilderness specifically to do suffer in great weakness, deprived of food for 40 days, to do battle, to face every temptation common to mankind and even uncommon. Notice the temptations from the Devil come at a time of greatest weakness in the flesh of Jesus. As the Devil arrives, he, you could almost imagine, with a sneer taunts Jesus “If you are the Son of God…” He was challenging the very words of God the Father at Christ’s baptism!! He then attacked Christ’s hunger, attacked the weakness of flesh to avoid the cross itself. He said, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” The final temptation recorded has the Devil again, saying, “If you are the Son of God…” and connects it to a temptation to test God’s protection.

But Jesus was equal to the task. The words of Jesus are significant. Up to this point no words of Jesus had been recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. In St. Luke, the only words recorded of Jesus prior to His temptation by Satan were His words to Mary and Joseph when He was 12, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The words that Jesus used to answer the Devil is only the first or second time that Jesus speaks according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The words which they recorded the Holy Spirit had them record because What He said was important. Yet, what does He say? How does He answer the Devil? He doesn’t say anything new or original or extraordinary. Even to the bit of Scripture that the Devil misused, Jesus turned back the Devil citing Scriptures written previously. Whose Words were they? God’s. In fact, they were His Words; the words of the preincarnate Christ: the Word now made flesh who had already put them into the minds and pens of the OT prophets.

The Devil having tempted Christ in every way left Him until an opportune time, the days and moments before the crucifixion. But in this text, behold the power of God’s Word! Behold the power of God’s Love in His Word. The power of His Word for you. His Word is that power to rescue even in the greatest weakness, because Jesus has already gone to battle and then as we see Him at Calvary He has won the war. In our journey we are also led and empowered by the Word of God. It is only by His power and Word that the Devil is and can be rebuked.

But let us not get comfortable, after one rebuke, the Devil will not rest. He will continue to attack, to try to catch us weak and flat footed, unprepared without an answer, if not this time, then he hopes, the next, to catch us reacting by leading with our flesh rather than God’s Word.

In the Large catechism, Martin Luther had written: “the devil plies his force against you, and lies in wait for you without ceasing to seize and destroy you, soul and body, so that you are not safe from him one hour. “Now, what is the devil? Nothing else than what the Scriptures call him, a liar and murderer. A liar, to lead the heart astray from the Word of God, and to blind it, that you cannot feel your distress or come to Christ. A murderer, who cannot bear to see you live one single hour. If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are every moment aimed at you, you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible.”

So what do we do? If we are weak and heavy laden, remember Jesus is our refuge. His cross, our shade in our journey through this life. The banner of victory that leads to the end of this journey. Our eternal destination and promised land. The cross means that Jesus Christ has died for your sins and your failings. Yes, Repent and confess your sins, then receive assurance of forgiveness for those sins. Pray and do not lean on your own might, luck, or human wisdom in the battles that lie ahead. Lean upon the Lord.

Make use of the time. Be prepared with the tools and weapons that God gives you and His church. Come and worship and hear God’s Word at every opportunity, and learn God’s Words for you to rebuke anything that would cause you doubt and temptation. Eagerly receive Christ’s body and blood in the bread and wine; for there is God’s strength for you for the journey. In Christ, you can withstand the darts of Satan without fear or trembling. Christ is here to be by your side upon the plain with His good gifts and Spirit. Leading us, guiding us, and encouraging us even through the sufferings caused by sin in this life. Giving us His wisdom, joy, hope, and faith by His Word and Sacraments to remind us that Christ crucified and raised is victorious. He will bring us through Lent, through life, to the cross, to the empty tomb, to the glory of eternal life which He is even now preparing for you and all believers in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Ash Wednesday is a day in the life of the church to stop and take stock of our priorities in the midst of our own mortality. A day to examine our lives in our thoughts, our actions, our goals. Ash Wednesday is not the most favorite holy day of the church year, but it is among the most sobering. It reminds us that we are dust and to dust we shall return… unless Christ comes again first, of course. But the main point is that it is a very real message of sin, sin around us, sin upon us, sin inside us and the result of that sin. Sin which is rebellion, falling short of God’s Law, sin is an act or thought motivated by unbelief in God which is actually an act of worship of self, the flesh, and the world: the very things which are dying and passing away. Ash Wednesday reminds us that the wages of sin is death.

We have all sinned again and again, why should God have any mercy upon us when we have taken His Law, His Grace, His forgiveness, His Word and taken it for granted again and again? We deserve death here on earth and forever in hell. We can’t put a smiley face on Lent, we can’t pretend that our sin isn’t a serious matter. It is because our sin is such a serious matter that Jesus came as a perfect sacrifice on behalf of our sin. This is why Jesus had to be betrayed into the hands of sinners to suffer and die on the cross. It was to pay for our sin. As we behold and look upon the Son of God and the Son of Man upon the cross during these 40 days, we are called to reflect upon the fact that because our sin was and is so great, He our innocent loving God, had to die in our place to pay for our sin. So, we repent, yet this is not a time for navel gazing and feeling sad, it is not a time of hopelessness, it is not merely an opportunity to jump start our diet with some sort of fast, it is certainly not a time to brag about our outward austerity and repentance as the Pharisees and hypocrites did and still do. It can be a time of disciplining the flesh and training ourselves not to be so driven by our desires but rather focusing on living by God’s Word and not on bread alone. If that is your rationale, good, but do not believe that your penitent actions save. No, what saves is the hope and trust within the very act of repentance and to whom we are turning. The hope and trust that comes through faith, faith that moves us to rend our hearts and not our garments alone. Faith that looks up from the dust and ashes of our dying bodies and looks for hope not in us but to Jesus the Christ, to His cross and by that faith in what He has done for us…because He has died upon the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sins, we see God’s love, and in the midst of our sorrow and tears over our sin, we see victory and forgiveness over and from these sins, for Jesus’ sake who has died but is raised triumphant over death. Though we have received ashen crosses of repentance, we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and for Christ’s sake, we are forgiven, and we know that our future is not just ashes and dust. Our bodies will not be thus destroyed forever because of our sin. Our eternity is not going to be one of weeping and gnashing of teeth, but joy… and these bodies which began in dust, which may return to dust will at the last day return in redemption to our Lord and Savior. These bodies sown in corruption shall be raised incorruptible. These mortal bodies will for the sake of Jesus Christ put on immortality.

So on this Ash Wednesday, we may have joy. Joy that God hears us, that He knows that we are dusty and dead sinners, yet He has mercy on us. Joy that we can repent and be cleansed again and again, that we can return to the waters of baptism, that we can hear again from the pastor “Your sins are forgiven for Jesus Christ’s sake.” Joy that these are not empty words and empty promises. Joy that the words which Jesus spoke from the cross, in Holy Scripture, in true teaching and preaching and in the sacrament actually has power: the power to change us mind and heart. To reorganize our priorities: from preoccupation with the things of this hopeless dying world without Christ to a life of dying in our flesh to Christ by repentance. All so that we may live now and forever in the joy and forgiveness that Jesus Christ brings in the teaching of His Word, and in receiving of His death and resurrection in His body and blood given and shed for you in the sacrament of the altar.

Therefore we gladly and willingly observe these 40 days of Lent as a time of precious cleansing, healing, and reordering from death to life as we go with Jesus to the upper room, the cross, the tomb, His rising again and ascension. These are the realities of your salvation as He does these things for you.

God made Jesus to be sin for us. Placing all our guilt on His sinless head, the Father sent Him forth as the payment for our sins, receiving in His Body the just penalty for all that we by our sins have deserved. Being made a curse for us, He died our death in our place after horrible suffering of body and soul. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

All this Jesus did for us and our salvation. All this so that we might in Him be absolved of our sin and cleansed from our iniquity.

So as we have come clean tonight and admitted our sin and laid bare our iniquities upon the altar of Christ’s sacrifice, Christ has washed you clean by His blood from the cross. Our bodies may die and be laid in the grave, but even now He is preparing these same bodies of dust and ash to be resurrected at the last day because in His death and His resurrection He has conquered death. These same bodies that have been baptized, absolved, fed with His body and blood at His Holy Eucharistic banquet will be raised again incorruptible at the end of this age when He comes in the fullness of His glory. His grace and mercy, His gift of life in His body and blood incorruptible is here for you during your suffering and during your joy to reorder our priorities and redeem the time He has blessed us with.

Should you fail, remember, A broken and contrite heart He will not despise for the Lord has had pity on His people by His Son, and He will turn your sorrow into joy. Rejoice, for “Behold, now is the day of your salvation in Jesus Christ”, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Today is the last Sunday before Lent begins, but it is also the Sunday right before Valentines Day which also happens to be Ash Wednesday. St. Valentine’s day is so often associated with romantic love. A day looked forward to or dreaded for many. It is interesting that on this day as we anticipate St. Valentine’s Day, the assigned readings include 1 Corinthians 13, the often referenced chapter on what love is.

How different the Bible’s understanding of love is from that of the world and our flesh. Quite often we speak and think of love as conditional, that is for us to love something or keep on loving something or someone, whatever it is, it has to follow our very personal and subjective conditions. How do we become aware of what we love or might love, how do we often judge what is love worthy? Quite often with our eyes. With our experiences.

We may romantically declare that “love is blind”, but more often than not, for most of us it is by our eyes that we judge beauty, or desirability. “Love at first sight” is more what we do. By our eyes, we often will first judge a person romantically or personally: being attracted to or repulsed away from someone, whether or not, our prejudgments are accurate. Many people may “fall in love” because they desire a person for their own uses, pleasure, or to upgrade their status.

Paul said that Love, (that is “true love”) does not seek its own way. That is, true love is not motivated by its own selfish reasons. When love takes a stand, it does so for the sake of another, to defend, protect, rescue. True love delights in Truth, an objective truth, a truth that is not based on movable feelings, or the most recent fads. Truth is not changeable. The way we understand what Truth is may change, but Truth itself cannot and does not change. Real Love does not delight in wrongdoing, but conditional love will justify its temptations, and its wrongdoing, because of its own way, its own changing truth, based on what it desires at any given moment.

All too often, this way of “true and selfless love” is not how it works for us living with our fallen flesh. Once we get past the first impressions in relationships, we begin to measure love based on what we get in return. It may devolve to how we use our eyes of experience to observe the deeds and acts of others toward us as to whether or not we will love in return. If we only love because we can testify by our experience that this person has “earned my love”, then that love is merely a “conditional kind of love”.

Conditional love is by its very nature selfish. It thinks in terms of desiring and having, possessing, and conquering. This kind of love wants what it wants and wants it according to its own terms. It sees what it desires and will take it. It sees what is not given to it and becomes bitter. Conditional love is not a satisfied love, but a jealous, mistrustful, protecting its own interests, “what have you done for me lately?” kind of love. Is that even love of anything other than self? It certainly is NOT the unconditional love spoken of in 1 Corinthians. The Bible warns against us using our selfish eyes and experiences to judge a person romantically or personally.

In our Old Testament text Samuel was grieved that God had removed His Spirit and favor from Saul because of Saul’s unbelief, but Saul had looked every bit the part of a king. He was tall and physically strong, but he had lost his faith because of his pride.

When Samuel looked upon the sons of Jesse, he thought that he knew which one God would choose to be the next king, because of appearances. But God told him: “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 

This is such an important truth for us to remember on this Quinquagesima Sunday, as we prepare for Lent, for Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day when we will be gathered here and reminded of our mortality because of sin. The Lord looks upon the heart, not the outward appearance. For our sinful and selfish selves, this is a terrifying statement of the Lord. He knows what is going on in your heart. He knows what you are thinking and what you are doing and have been doing. If we honestly look at ourselves according to the Law of God, we should see that we have been terrible Christians. Terrible failures. We are not lovable according to the demands of the commandments. The conditions of God’s Law which are right and true show that we are eminently unworthy, hideous, putrid, and unfaithful people: people who do not deserve to be loved, but by our own disobedience and selfish cheating on God with the love of our selfish idols, should be thrown out of God’s sight. Thrown away from His presence and His grace into eternal hellfire and judgement. This is not unfair, but what we rightly deserve. So often we have been like the disciples who have seen Jesus, even as we see Him in the Sacrament of the Altar and in His Working of grace in His Word and water, and yet, we don’t understand nor appreciate it. We forget and take for granted what Jesus has said He and God would do, did, and will continue to be for us. We take His gifts for granted until something bad happens then we blame Him. We don’t trust Him. We are jealous and upset because God hasn’t met our conditional list of allowing us our way, our sin, our success, our pride.

“The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Let us repent. Let us finally see not with our selfish, lustful earthly eyes, but be turned to the eyes of faith and turned to the Love of God which does not fail, which hopes for you, so that you may hope in Him and His unconditional love.

A person is not saved because they have merited grace by their works, nor because they look pleasant or that they have it all together. No, salvation comes by admitting that you do not have it all together, by admitting that you are weak and that you need God’s strength, you need His forgiveness, His love, His guiding into His unchangeable truth. Cry out with the blind man who cried out with faith greater than those who had eyes to see but could not see God’s grace in Christ. Cry out in hope and faith: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Look to the cross of Jesus Christ. There see God’s unchangeable, unconditional love for you. A love that did not seek its own way, but sought for your salvation. Despite your sin, your miserable wretchedness, God saw you, me, and all people in the midst of our sin, and said: “they are worthy of my Love for the sake of Mercy, because if I do not love them, if I do not come to them, rebuke, rescue, and protect them, they will surely die eternally. So, with a true and selfless Love that only God could offer and give, He sent of Himself to join Himself to our flesh so that by His suffering and death in Jesus Christ crucified, our flesh could be redeemed, and made clean from our sin. Jesus died on the cross taking our sin upon Himself to reveal God’s love for you, and the hope for your salvation, the hope for your redemption. He has already given you salvation in your baptism when you were brought into Christ’s all atoning sacrifice for your sin. Now it is renewed as you have confessed your sins and you have heard His word of Grace and His love to you in forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ.

Now look by faith how He prepares you and gives you joy in the midst of a world still plagued with sin and temptation, with death, and hardship. Here for you (pointing to altar) is a taste of heaven already. Here is rest for your flesh, where the Spirit of God rushes upon you anew to uphold you in your spirit, by the crucified and raised body and blood of your ever loving, ever giving Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper is your strength for the journey of this life. Here you receive the benefits of His sacrificial love for you in the forgiveness of sins. This is true love; love that is not fickle based on feelings that change. It is not the love that is conditional, the incorrect selfish love which delights in wrong doing. No, this Love is that which rather delights in the rightful truth of your salvation and the power to live anew in Him.

Therefore, receive from Him, and live in Jesus Christ by faith. Continue to live in His love given for you where He says He is: in His Church with His Word and Sacraments. Then you may see by faith to do what is true and right and good, not as you earn God’s love, but as you are changed by His love, to understand His Truth, and His love for you, and then others may see God’s work in you and be led to Christ by the witness He gives for you to do. Live in His love, share in His love. Rejoice in His love, until we are brought from this world to be with Him: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to see Him as He is to receive His love in full forever, in Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Roots are very important. When we are weeding, we say: make sure you get those weeds out by the roots or… what is going to happen? Yeah, the weeds will grow right back. For the plants that we want to keep and nurture, we want them to have good roots. We prepare the soil “just so”, we plant the seed, we do everything to nurture the root of the plant as best we can. Why? Because we know that the plant, whether it is in the garden, the field, or if it is a tree, the better the soil, the more healthy the root, the stronger the stem, the more sturdy the growth, the more likely that plant, crop, or tree will survive until maturity and harvest despite all the enemies that seem to not want the plant to survive.

Some of these enemies are mentioned in the Gospel text: compacted soil, rocks, thorns, various weeds, another text mentions birds, but there are other enemies to the young plant which could be included in the parable: disease, insects, drought, flood, wind, and so on. There are so many things that could go wrong, and do go wrong when it comes to growing crops and there is only so much you can do to protect them, that you ultimately have to just trust. Yet, you do everything that you can in the meantime. Don’t you?

A good farmer and gardener plants in a place appropriate for the crop, tills and breaks up the soil, fertilizes that soil, irrigates if they can and as necessary. A farmer might spray, might weed around the roots, clip off dead or diseased parts of the plant, and so on. It is truly a time and effort intensive enterprise but it is all to promote the root growth downward as the plant grows outward and upward in the hope that in time it will bear its fruit and seed in due season.

We, in the Church, recognize the application of this parable to our lives as Christians. Jesus explains it for us just in case we didn’t understand. The seed is the Word of God. The sowing of this Word is the preaching of God’s Word and we would say, the application of Holy Baptism for those who are baptized as infants and babies. This planting of God’s Word into the hearts and minds of people is the sowing of the seed.

Yet not all the seeds grow to maturity. People will hear but not listen. They will bring their children to be baptized or they will come to church for a while but then, for various reasons, they don’t return. They essentially rejected that seed of God’s Word. They didn’t nurture it to bring forth a root. By closing their hearts, they essentially stomped upon God’s Word saying “it is unnecessary or inconvenient.” Maybe they had only attended out of curiosity. Maybe they baptized their child to temporarily please a family member or friend. They attended church but had closed their ears and hearts to it while they attended. So, the roots never grew because the seed was not allowed to penetrate the soil of their hard hearts.

Then there are those who seemed to have had the seed of God’s Word planted home: who had the root of faith in God through Jesus Christ growing but then something happens: they meet a boy or girl who leads them astray. They go to college and worldly friends influence them. They go into the workplace and the world and its various temptations and worldly cares choke their faith as weeds crowd out the plant. They have so much work that they are “too tired” on Sunday or at the end of the day to tend to the roots of faith, therefore, the roots of the weeds are allowed to grow and dig deep around the root of faith, and squeeze it to death. Yet, we still maintain hope as we speak His Word and pray that the Holy Spirit would revive that faith through the seed of the Word.

But the Devil will not let up. In addition to those already mentioned attacks used by the devil, there are also the sudden great storms, winds, floods, and droughts, that arise in this fallen world. What are those? Things that attack our bodies and our state of mind through material means as though to damage and kill the living faith. These are threats and hardships that come upon us unexpectedly. They destroy the things of this life near and dear to us and can make us doubt God’s love. Events and tragedies like floods, house fires, accidents, job loss, cancers, illnesses of various kinds, wars, threats of wars, political unrest, any tragedy small or large can threaten to blow over you, to blow you over, and try to break you and snap you off from the root implanted in you in Jesus Christ. Who knows when they will come and how strong we will be when they arise?

These are the times when the strength of the roots and the plant of faith are tested. How mature and balanced is its growth? When the storms and winds rise, will that plant of faith hold steady by its roots, but be green enough to bend with the wind until the storm ends and once again stand tall? We must remember in those times in whom that faith is rooted and that He is stronger than anything that may happen.

The church has always recognized the reality of these threats, just as famers, gardeners, and others understand when it comes to plants. God has also recognized this for you and me. He knew that we would be lost eternally and be only as wild weeds destined for the fire because of our sin without His aid. He also knows how weak we are against such forces without His help. That is why He sent Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sin and plant us in Himself, who is crucified and raised for our transgressions. That is why He has established the Church itself, so that each individual plant: planted in Him can be protected, strengthened, and nourished in Jesus Christ. So that seedlings and the roots of each Christian can be tended and strengthened as they live and mature in Christ and for Him unto eternal life. That is why He established the office of the Holy Ministry: to water, to exhort, and to end the plantings of faith in His people by God’s Word and Sacrament.

To strengthen those plants of faith to withstand the temptations and storms and other enemies in this life, the Church has always emphasized lifelong education in God’s Word. It starts with baptism in the church but is reinforced in the home. Bible Study, devotions, and the singing of good hymns and psalms. Then joining with other believers to receive at church the sunshine, water, and nutrients of God’s preached Word and Sacrament.

In this way, by consistent exposure to the Truth of Scripture, by repenting of sin, by being refreshed in Christ’s Absolution, and Christ’s body and blood you may become mature in the faith to withstand any assaults of the devil, the world, and the flesh by God’s power. Because God has given you good roots. Mature and healthy roots; rooted deeply in Jesus Christ to become immovable to the plots of the Devil, the world, and flesh which would try to destroy the living plant of your faith. Therefore, continually feed your faith and be made strong now, by coming to where He feeds you through the means that He has given.

Know that when you feel the temptations of the flesh and the world beginning to choke you, you must repent before they take hold and destroy. Then receive the waters that come from the Lord to refresh and renew you in remembrance that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and your sins. He will strengthen you against temptation and the threats that may come. The Lord says this to you from the Old Testament.

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not return there, But waters the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
What is the thing which shall prosper because He sent it? Your faith and your salvation.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God. He is the original and ultimate seed which died upon the cross to give you life, by His death. In John 12, Jesus said just hours before His death: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Christ died to give you life with Him. That is the fruit that comes from Jesus Christ and His victorious death and resurrection. Faith, life, and hope.

So be watered, be nurtured in this Word which is Christ your life. Take care to receive from Him who is more mighty than death; than the devil; than the cares and worries of this life. Living rooted in Him, nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Not Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation. None of it will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You will be kept rooted in His strength, and when the storm has passed, in Jesus Christ: you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. Amen.

As we approach the Lenten season, and we prepare the time of repentance, we hear this morning’s Gospel text as Jesus told a parable describing the workings of the reign of heaven. He said: “The kingdom of heaven is like…”

  A man who needed some help in his vineyard and so he went to the market to hire some laborers. He hired some at daybreak agreeing to pay them a denarius, then went again and he hired some more about three hours later, some more about lunch time, and some a while after that. Each time he found men being idle, he hired them. 

Even into late in the afternoon, he kept on hiring even with only one hour left in the day. By the time they got to the actual vineyard they would have labored for almost no time at all. Then it was time to pay them all. He began with those he hired last. Those workers who barely had time to get out to the vineyard before the sun went down received a full denarius, a full day’s pay even though they hadn’t worked all day. The other workers seeing this thought that maybe they would get more for having worked more, but they were shocked and upset to receive the same wage. It certainly does not seem fair to the workers who had put in more hours, who had more “total productivity” toiling even under the heat of the sun.

Yet, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like this man who hired all these laborers paying them all the same regardless of the amount of work. The kingdom of heaven does not make sense from an earthly point of view. That is, if you get hung up on the concept of “earning” salvation.

The “wage” is not really a wage in the kingdom of God, but is actually a promised salvation at the end of earthly life, or the end of time when all judgement will be given. So, the wage represents: salvation, the vineyard represents the work and toil within the Church for the kingdom of God and those outside represent the world existing in lazy unbelief.

This parable puts forth this truth: “Regardless of when you are called to faith or come to faith, it is the same promised salvation, the same forgiveness of sins given by the owner of that so-called “wage” at the end of the day.” You do not receive an extra portion of salvation for having been Christian the longest, nor for suffering the most trouble or persecution. To those who have been life-long Christians it may not seem fair. “But we have worked so long and so hard in your name, Lord, shouldn’t we get more?”

But then again, our own salvation is not fair. We need to be honest, when it comes to wages and how that salvation came to be. The true wages that all people deserve is death. That is the wages of sin: death eternally and physically. Who earned the opposite of death? He who came into the vineyard and marketplace and earned a wage. He who truly worked faithfully, perfectly, fulfilling the law in totality. He seemingly received for His labor, the heat of persecution and hatred by humanity, and being forsaken taking upon Himself the wrath and the punishment of death from His Father which sins deserved. The Creator of the entire universe took on human flesh, suffered, and died so that sinners could have a hope of eternal life. 

How is that fair? Even as the Son suffered on the cross for the sins of the world He turned to the thief and said, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” A thief who would be able to “contribute” nothing to the kingdom by his labor is granted paradise because of the labors of the innocent Son of God.

Is it unfair that Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross offers the same forgiveness, life, and salvation to the best of saints as well as to the worst of sinners?

Yes, because we don’t deserve any grace or any wage at all. The conversation that the landowner had with the resentful laborers at the end of today’s parable warns us against begrudging God in His giving of grace. It is a warning against thinking we deserve anything because we have done XYZ or have been Christian for “so long”. Satan will surely tempt us to think more highly of ourselves than we should. That we deserve more power, glory, and honor because we have been Christians for a longer time and have in a sense labored longer than others in His vineyard, the Church. 

There is a place that continuously doles out things in fairness: the fair and just punishment that sin deserves. That place is Hell. Hell is filled with people who the Lord went to the cross to save. They are there because they are getting what their sins deserved. They are there because they rejected the gift of salvation which the Lord earned for them with His totally unfair yet merciful suffering and death. God does not want them there, but they insisted on an eternity that was fair, thinking they could be saved by works, without God’s grace. Or they rejected the message of salvation and the work and change that comes with faith. Instead, they embraced the worldly temptation of spiritual sloth and laziness, doing whatever the flesh desired, taking the easy way.

The fact of the matter is that when people are called into the kingdom, it is a rescue from pointless, hopeless, temporary existence. No one is worthy to be called and nobody’s labor is perfect when entering the kingdom, but the entrance to the vineyard is Christ, the failures are covered over in Christ. Though blisters may form as we work faithfully our earthly vocations with repetitive witnessing to a world that cannot understand the purpose of our labor, nor the fact that we are different in hope and life from the world. Though we receive the hatred and scorn from the world for speaking humbly the truth in love that there is an objective truth which says something is bad and unhealthy and contrary to God’s will, but there is a way of hope, forgiveness and change. Yet, we are encouraged. We labor joyfully. Because it is a privilege to labor in God’s kingdom. But we do not work and labor as hired hands, but as sons and daughters. Those who share in the profits of the wage of salvation earned for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s true and Holy Son.

We deserve nothing, but He has offered us the everything in His kingdom. We spiritually dead and lost, He called by His Word, baptized into the blood and death of Jesus Christ, brought forth by His resurrection as those brought into the vineyard, to eat and to drink the fruit of Christ’s labors. So, for those who understand, who repent, who believe, who labor, and desire rest in the true objective realities of God’s Grace here offered is the fruit of the vine, Christ Jesus. In the wine, we receive His blood shed for you, poured out from the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. His wages: to you, His grace, so that you know the victory of life eternal that is yours through faith in Jesus Christ, the life you shall receive in full at the end of the day when your labor is done and you are received into His full presence. Received: not to be handed over for your just wages of your sin and cast into Hell. No. Received into the fullness of His presence for joy, life, eternal refreshment, and comfort. What we receive here in part in the labors of the vineyard shall there be received in full.

How thankful we can be that God’s salvation is not fair. If God were utterly fair, then we would all have to spend an eternity in hell for every slander, every adulterous thought, every jealous grumble, and every time anything or anyone has been more important than God in our lives. 

The parable in today’s Gospel illustrates the unfair nature of God’s generous grace. No matter when we receive saving faith from the Holy Spirit, we all receive the same heaven, the same righteousness of Christ.
Some may then say “If God is gracious regardless of when I come to faith, why not enjoy life in dissipation and then become a Christian at the last minute?”

Why not? Because no one really knows when the sun will set on their life. Sometimes death is the result of a long illness and there is time to prepare. But accidents and tragedy happen and sometimes quickly. If you have heard the Truth, why continue to live in that which does not give life? Why not already live in His hope, in His forgiveness, His peace, to be prepared, and ready?

God’s grace is for you now. As you labor in His vineyard fulfilling your vocations, have that confidence and knowledge that because of God’s generosity, for the sake of Christ, your sins are forgiven through faith in Him. Jesus is with us in this world. We never labor alone. We have the privilege of talking to God in prayer at any time, giving Him our anxious cares, and then thanking Him for all His blessings as He come to us in His Word and Sacraments. 

The parable in today’s Gospel reminds us that the Lord promises to deal with us not according to our sins, but according to His great generosity, mercy, and love in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our salvation. May He keep each and every one of us in that faith, in His service, until He comes again in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

This morning we heard in the Gospel how the glories of heaven were brought to earth for a little while in the person of Jesus Christ on the mountain of Transfiguration. It was the last and greatest earthly manifestation of God’s glory in Jesus Christ until His death and resurrection. It was that event which Peter in His second epistle would refer to when he said, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

Mountains are pretty, but the problem with mountains is that they are always surrounded by valleys. In fact, in this world there are more valleys and low places of elevation than mountains. In this life, there are also emotional and spiritual mountaintops and valleys. Throughout a person’s life there are usually moments of emotional highs and lows. The highs are those moments when things seem to going well. You feel secure, happy, hopeful, maybe some pride mixed in at how you got yourself there. Maybe that mountain high was caused by an accomplishment in school or work; good grades earned, a project completed, or even a promotion forthcoming. Perhaps the cause of this emotional high is a life event like graduation, your wedding day, or the birth of a child. During those times a person seems to momentarily forget about any negative realities that may still be present in one’s life, such as debts, bills, or illness. Looking back on these high moments, we may wish that they would never end and the feelings would last forever. Sadly, emotions, which are not bad in and of themselves, act as a drug or as a spiritual measurement for some people. Many may not feel like they can cope with the reality of coming down from those emotional mountain tops to live down in the everyday. If they are not feeling high, they are feeling low. Some end up chasing the artificial means of giving them positive feelings, experimenting with alcohol, sex, drugs or overdosing on internet stimulation or some other thing.

The problem is once you get that emotional or even that drug induced high, it is that much more difficult to attain the same levels again, and so the cycle of self-abuse begins and accelerates, often spiraling out of control.

Emotions and feelings can be very tricky and unstable. Any person could be misled by their feelings which may or may not be based on reality. Satan can use human emotion to fight against humans’ spiritually. He takes what should be a gift from God and twists it to an evil end. We see this even in religion and the Church. We would never say that emotions are evil in themselves, but many people confuse their emotions and their faith. They see emotion and faith as one and the same. In other words, they test their own faith and the reality of Scripture based on their emotional reactions. “So if they ain’t feeling it, it ain’t real” to them. This is bad. What will a person do then when they aren’t feeling warm and fuzzy all over, when they aren’t feeling high on the Holy Spirit, when trial, tribulation, or persecution occurs? Satan will come a calling and take that person who has been trained to trust their emotion rather than God and His objective realities and twist that person and try to steal them away. He will whisper in their ear using friends, false teachers, or their minds. He will drive them to rage in anger one moment, to joyous rapture the next, and dive deep to the depths of woe in a heartbeat. Then he whispers “are you feeling down? Well, maybe you never had faith, maybe you aren’t really saved? Maybe salvation in Jesus isn’t really true? Maybe you aren’t worthy.” Satan, that liar, needs to be rebuked in the name of Jesus Christ, and silenced at the mention of God’s Word, but a person trapped in their emotion is just like anyone of us trapped in our sin: Dead, powerless, helpless.

This is why Jesus came to earth, to stop the mouth of Satan and His lies, to bring to completion the promises of God the Father who promised a Savior from the woes of our sin, the enslavement to our fallen flesh, and the punishment which we have deserved: to save people lost in the valley of death and unbelief. He descended to our valley, joined Himself to our flesh, suffered and took on the humility of our sin. To then offer Himself on high as the perfect sacrifice for sin to His father on the mountain of death. Golgotha, the place of the skull. Raised upon the cursed tree of the cross. All so that we might have life and hope as we live by faith even in our spiritual and emotional valleys. So that we can look to the promise of the resurrection of this flesh by the reality of Christ’s resurrection.

So that we would not have to trust in our fickle emotions, He gave us the assurance of His mighty Word along with the physical waters of Holy Baptism to wash us in His blood and confirm us as His children. Here He first gave us faith with His Word and Spirit working forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation. Now we have the name to rebuke Satan, the name with which we have been anointed: Jesus Christ along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus has died for you and Satan cannot handle that word of truth.

This was the point of today’s text, this is why Jesus was transfigured and glorified before Peter, James, and John on that mountain. It was to encourage them for the valleys and trials about to come. He showed them that He really was the Son of God, that He was the fulfillment of the Law which Moses represented, He was the fulfillment of prophecies which Elijah represented. Peter, James, and John would soon bear witness to what Jesus was to accomplish in Jerusalem and it would be shocking to them. The disciples did not understand that in order to redeem the world, Jesus would have to submit Himself to abuse, rejection, humiliation, and death. The disciples had seen His glorious miracles, heard His preaching, seen some rejection but nothing compared to what was to come. Jesus descended this mountain of glory to walk into the valley of the shadow of death and ascend the mountain of Golgotha.

Peter wanted to stay on that mountain of Transfiguration because it was so glorious, but then again who wouldn’t want to stay on the mountain and bask in the glory of God? That place where you feel secure; that place where the world can’t seem to touch you, where there is no fear, no one to persecute you for what you believe or for whom you follow. Who wouldn’t want to stay?

Yet Jesus had to leave. If He hadn’t left, who would have gone and redeemed Adam and His descendants? He had to descend so that the rock that the builders rejected could become the rock upon which the Church would be built.
Therefore, the voice of the Father spoke saying “this is My Son, My chosen One, listen to Him.” Yet the disciples continued to misunderstand Him; continued to get it wrong; they denied Him during the trial, they deserted Him at the cross, and they hid out of fear during and after the crucifixion.

Even so, they saw what had taken place; they heard what was said; and eventually they would remember and understand what they had seen and take courage from it.

The very act that they witnessed on the mountain is nothing short of a Gospel proclamation in its plainest form: what they saw was for them. It wasn’t a miracle that they would ever be able to do, but rather a witnessing of what they themselves, by virtue of Jesus’ death, would become.

This is our hope and reality too. The glories of heaven were brought to earth for a little while in the person of Jesus Christ on the mountain of Transfiguration, but the glories of heaven are brought to us for a little while in the miracles of Holy Baptism, Absolution, Preaching of His Word, and Christ’s reappearing in the Sacrament of the Altar under the bread and wine and all the saints and host of heaven gather near. Such wonderful Good News, that despite our failings, our sin, our changing emotions, God still redeems us here through Jesus Christ. He still calls us through His Word and restores us through His Absolution and Holy Supper so that we may know objectively and truthfully that the realities of the cross, His forgiveness, and life eternal are ours through faith in Him by His Grace and mercy and be transfigured by the Holy Spirit into believers, justified and cleansed of our sins. To shine forth the glories of God through Jesus Christ.

As we leave this glorious place of God’s special presence and revelation today, we may experience events and emotions in our lives which would distract us from the glory and joy which is ours and is yet to come. Let us then all the more look to the cross and the empty tomb for ongoing joy and comfort. Christ has gone before us, He has already faced the worst for us, and He will not leave our side. He has prepared for us the place where we shall forever remain joyously in His presence, in His glory, free from fear, sin, and sadness. Now, you are forgiven for Christ’s sake through faith regardless of what your emotions tell you. This promise will keep you strong during and throughout your life as you continue to listen to Him, who calls us out the darkness of our valleys into the redemption and hope of His glorious heavenly light, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The Old Testament Law of Moses is clear. Concerning the first born, it states:
The LORD said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” (Exodus 13:1–2, ESV)

During the final plague in Egypt God had sent the angel of death to slaughter the first born of every man and animal in the land of Egypt. The angel of death only spared those households that had the sign of the blood of the lamb painted on their doorposts. From that moment on, God claimed the firstborn of every man and animal in Israel. As Jesus was Mary’s firstborn, they had to keep this law. That law required Mary and Joseph to bring Jesus to the temple and consecrate Him to the Lord and offer a sacrifice, shedding blood in order to redeem. Even as Jesus had given of His blood earlier in His circumcision.

Also, according to the law, mothers who had just given birth were ceremonially unclean for forty days after giving birth to boys and eighty days after giving birth to girls. At the end of that time they had to present themselves for purification. This was a blessing in disguise. In many ways it was like maternity leave. You see, anyone who was unclean was forbidden from participating in the normal routine of the community. For a woman, this included normal household duties. The indirect result was that she was forced to rest up for forty days, or eighty days in the case of a baby girl, before she could rejoin the community and resume her normal duties.

So, we have one reason for Joseph to take Jesus to the temple, and another reason to take Mary to the temple.  The simple thing was to kill two birds with one stone … perform the presentation of the firstborn and the purification of the mother on the same day. That is why in today’s Gospel Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus came to Jerusalem: to keep the Law.

Let’s just stop right here and consider this. Remember who this little child is. This little child is the Word made flesh. He is God incarnate. This temple in Jerusalem is His temple. The sacrifices in this temple are made to Him. Now, He, through Joseph, is placing Himself under the law to keep it Himself. In other words, the consecration of Jesus is kind of like He is being consecrated to Himself.

The temple itself was in the Old Testament, to be the special place where God would dwell with His people. However, Mary and Joseph carry into the stone temple a baby who is even more the presence of God, the truer temple, the living temple of flesh and blood: Immanuel, God with Us: Jesus Christ, the infant true temple and the greatest priest who was already beginning the redemption and salvation of all who were waiting for Him and all those who believed on His name in the future.

The two Old Testament saints waiting for Jesus at the temple: Simeon and Anna, represent all the Old testament believers who had been waiting for the age of the Messiah, the truer Passover lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. The Holy Spirit had given Simeon a special promise by revelation: that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Anna was also ready for the Christ as we are told “she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.”

People often wonder about the faithful who live at the time of Jesus. The Old Testament Christians were saved by faith in God’s promises in the Christ who would come sometime in the future. New Testament Christians are saved by faith in the Christ who has already come in the past. But what about the faithful people who lived between the time Jesus was born and the time He ascended? What were they to believe?

Simeon and Anna provide one answer to that question. They too were saved by faith in the One who was fulfilling God’s promise. Simeon and Anna were special, much like the Shepherds, and later the wise men, in that it was revealed to them earlier than for most that the messianic age had arrived and that God was beginning to fulfill His salvation promise in Christ Jesus. Until His crucifixion, salvation was still based faith in the promise because it hadn’t yet been fulfilled. After Christ’s ministry, salvation came by faith specifically in Jesus Christ as He had fulfilled the promise of God by paying for sin in Himself. The sacrifice long awaited had been accomplished so that all believers could be declared clean, pure, and free from the slavery to sin.

The reaction of Simeon to the presence of the Christ-child is marvelous. Mary and Joseph must not have minded, but Simeon scooped up Jesus in His arms.

Simeon knew exactly who he enfolded in his embrace.  As he looked down into the face of this infant, he prayed, not to the heavens, but to the baby in his arms, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Simeon’s faith was in the baby who laid in his arms.

I can almost imagine that Simeon might have been reluctant to give the infant back to Mary and Joseph, but as he did, he had a word for them as well.  Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Even in this account from Jesus’ infancy, we already see God preparing Mary for the road ahead. It was not going to be all popularity, with shepherds worshiping or later magi worshiping and bringing gifts. No there will be pain and grief, for this Jesus and for those who love Him. The Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of Simeon to begin preparing Mary for that day when she would look upon this son as He hung on a cross paying for the sins of the world. When Mary saw that her innocent Son had been condemned and was crucified, it must have cut through her heart like a sword piercing it. When all sinners look upon the crucified Christ and observe the price God paid to redeem them from sin, it too can pierce our hearts with grief over our sin even as we give thanks to God. It is this sign (the sign of the cross) upon which people will rise or fall. Raised to life eternal by faith and the forgiveness of sins or fall in condemnation by their unbelief.

The events of today’s Gospel finally came to a close as Luke once again reminds us that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had done everything according to the law. Jesus did this as part of His salvation for you and me. So that we too could recognize, by faith, our redeemer and salvation in Jesus Christ and be saved from our sins in repentance and faith.

So, in Baptism God swoops in and gathers us in His arms, and washed us and declares us clean for Christ’s sake. As we are raised in His Word and hear the cross of Christ applied to us, faith can continue for us and our children as by His Word and blessing we can grow and become strong, and be filled with wisdom. As the favor of God is upon us here where He promises to be. As the fleshly temple of God’s presence in Jesus Christ descends to us in His Word and sacrament, we are encouraged, we are strengthened to see God’s grace and mercy. Just as the Holy Spirit worked in Simeon to bring him into the temple to see the Lord’s Salvation, so also the Lord gives us His Holy Spirit to gather us where He is, has given us His sacrament so that we may also see the Lord’s salvation as we eat His body and drink His blood.

Therefore, the church today joins Simeon and Anna as we too celebrate the coming of the Lord to His people. Today and every Divine Service, we and Christians everywhere join in Simeon’s song as He comes to us in His body and blood and we too by faith recognize Him as our Savior and even taste the Lord’s salvation of that which is yet to be fully revealed. 

We end the old calendar year and begin a new one able to rejoice that He keeps His promises and will never leave or forsake His people who continue to gather by faith to pray and receive His gifts. So it is that the Lord will always dwell with His people and bring about the rising and salvation of many through the message of Jesus Christ crucified and raised, who forgives our sins and gives us faith and eternal life in His name.  Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

A very merry and Blessed Christmas!

Behold I bring you good news of great joy! You have heard the words of the angels once more this evening. May we never grow weary or tired of these words, the account of Jesus’ birth, nor the rest of God’s Word which speak to the reason why He was born.

There are so many interesting and important details in the nativity account: all of which have the potential for explaining and teaching in several short sermons, all which should cause more wonderment and awe at God’s great plan, His timing, and how He used creation; even pagan governments to accomplish His will and prove His plan in the fulfilling of prophecy.

Take for example the wording at the beginning of Luke 2. “In those days” in the ESV translation or “It came to pass” in the King James. The Greek is Egenetw which has more of the meaning of something coming into completion on the stages of history, like a miracle, a momentous event which will change everything.

And so it was. God was moving all the pieces together as He had since creation to bring about the fulfillment of Scripture. He had already visited Mary by the Gabriel and with His Spirit conceiving in her, He had spoken to Joseph by the angel and spoken of the name to be given. But Mary and Joseph were in Nazareth, but what of the promise in Malachi that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem? How would they get there; what would compel them so it did not seem that they chose it in order to manipulate the prophecies? Enter Caesar, the Emperor. God used the man who declared himself a living god to serve the true living God by moving Caesar to take a census. A census which would have Joseph return to his hometown with Mary to Bethlehem at the time when she was due to give birth. Therefore, this was not a plot of Mary and Joseph to manipulate the fulfillment of Scripture, to give it a nudge. This was God moving history.

Why Bethlehem? The name is significant as it means “house of bread”. Jesus in John 6 declared that He was “the bread which comes down from heaven that if anyone eat of it, they may live”. It is bread that Jesus chose to use as one of the two elements in instituting the Sacrament of the Altar, and there is so more that could be said. Therefore, it is prophetically significant that Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, the “bread of life” would be born in the “house of bread”. The shepherds out in the hills surrounding Bethlehem were keeping sheep in the same hills and valleys that David had kept sheep before he became king of Israel. Now the fulfiller of the kingship of David, the truly Good Shepherd who has come to save His sheep by becoming the sacrificial lamb is born in the stomping grounds of David before he was glorified. So, Jesus was born in a humble town, laid in a humble manger, attended to and greeted by mother, Joseph and humble shepherds. This child would not even be given His name officially until His circumcision on the 8th day. This Bethlehem baby with no name, but a name to be given was God. God who reverses His status of glorious Divine one to become the most humble servant of all in the flesh of mankind. And this humble servanthood would be His glory, the glory of the cross which was proved by the glory of the empty tomb and the transfiguration. Proven by that name which He would be given: Jesus: which means “Yahweh saves”. This sacrifice is what the world needed to accomplish peace on earth between God and man. It was the union of God and man in the flesh that would mend the division caused by our sin and the sin of our parents. Therefore, the birth of this miraculous child was showing that the Salvation of mankind was drawing nearer to being accomplished. God was moving all things according His plan to prove His love to the world: to those who were waiting and those who would believe.

God continues to move and to work His will for you using the events of this sin plagued world. Plans not for your destruction, nor your sorrow, but that in the darkness, sadness, and events that often occur, you would all the more grasp onto Him by faith. So that you would enjoy His gifts in His Word and sacraments as the instruments of His good news in Jesus Christ. That you can see them as a continuation and personal affirmation of the gift given at Christmas. Then the joys and the good things and the happinesses of this life are that much sweeter more awesome, more wonderful because we know that the good comes from His hand pointing us to the goodness that will be ours forever.

On this Holy night, let this message of Great joy remind you that these events and all the events of your lives, God has used to bring you to Him, to Jesus at the manger, at the cross, at His Word and Sacraments…all so that you may believe and be saved from fear, death, and the power of the devil. Oh, and on more thing: “Phatnay” the Greek word for “manger” comes from “pateomi” to eat. Jesus was born in Bethlehem which means “house of bread”. Jesus is the “bread of life” come down from heaven. As He said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51

This same Christ instituted the Sacrament of the altar in which He gives His body to eat in the bread. Is it not a wonder that God provides a prefigurement of the Sacrament in the manger? The One who gives His flesh to eat for forgiveness and life is first laid upon the most humble plate and feeding trough. This He did so that we may no longer remain beasts and brutes but receive His perfect humanity and Divinity being brought into fellowship once more with God as sons and daughters. Reconciled to the Father through the Son by His death and resurrection, invited to come to Him who has come to us we rejoice and sing: Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth in Jesus Christ! Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

There are many hymns of joy that we sing during Advent and Christmas: all celebrating the coming into human flesh our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He who was born in Bethlehem to Mary the blessed Virgin as we will celebrate tonight. But as our Gospel lesson for this morning began, there is one who did not have a song of joy in his heart at the news that Mary was pregnant, he was singing the blues perhaps, but not a song of joy. Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, the betrothed husband to be, had found out that Mary was with child. Joseph could not have known at this time that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. No doubt Mary had told him about the angel visitation and Gabriel’s message, but honestly how could Joseph believe her? He knew how things worked biologically. He also knew that he, himself, could not be the father. Even though betrothal in the Hebrew world meant that Joseph and Mary were legally bound, during their betrothal they did not yet live together or have physical relations. Could it be that Mary was just making excuses for having sinned with someone else? The time to make some hard decisions had arrived for Joseph. His options were two; he could take Mary to be his wife and claim responsibility for the unborn child. This to the Jews would have been an admission of guilt. The remaining option was to divorce her. By divorcing her, he would be absolving himself of any responsibility and guilt for the sin of fornication. However, the usual form of divorcing in such a situation was public denunciation which would then have exposed Mary to public humiliation and possible stoning.

Joseph is described as a just and righteous man; as such, he certainly wouldn’t admit guilt when he had been innocent, but he also didn’t want Mary to suffer shame and execution… so he ultimately resolved that He would find a way to divorce her as quietly as possible.

Joseph’s plans to be married to Mary had been changed by circumstances beyond his control; now he had resolved to take control, to absolve himself while protecting Mary by divorcing her, but God had other plans for Joseph.
As Joseph slept that night, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and addressed him as “Joseph, son of David” not only would an angel in your dreams be unusual, but this greeting too was unusual. Why did the angel call Joseph, Son of David? The Gospel writer, Matthew had just given us the full geneology of Joseph. Joseph’s father’s name was Jacob not David. It is true that Joseph was a descendant of King David, but he was 28 generations down the line from him. In fact, for the last 14 generations, the royal lineage of David had no throne to rule. Therefore, this formal greeting of the Angel referring to Joseph’s royal ancestry already indicates the significance of this child’s birth: He would restore the throne to David, and His kingdom would have no end.

The angel after greeting Joseph by name, told him to change his plans again, to take Mary as his wife, and to do so without fear. She was innocent of the sin of fornication. The child in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, a miracle of God’s purpose. A purpose and plan revealed in the name that Joseph and Mary were to name this son once He was born, Jesus. Jesus is the English version of the Hebrew Yeshua which means Savior or literally “God saves” as we have been talking about in our midweek services. The name is the same as Joshua, like the Joshua who led the Israelites into the promised land by God’s hand after Moses. Yet, that Joshua only prefigured and pointed to the greater work of this Joshua, this Savior, announced to Joseph. This son born of Mary named Yeshua was born to be a savior by saving His people from a greater enemy than the Caananites or the Egyptians. To bring His people to a greater promised land. He was born to save His people from their sins. To save them from eternal condemnation and the enslavement to sin and the hands of Satan!

How could He do this? Because this Son of Mary was not just a man, but He was also the Son of God. He was and is Immanuel, “God with us”.

In the meantime, God’s plan for Joseph was to bless him and use him in the vocation of husband and adoptive father of Jesus. He was to protect them both Mother and unborn child, the miracle of God’s salvation plan. He was to be the earthly hands of the heavenly Father taking care of Jesus until the time was fulfilled for Jesus to enter into His public office of Christ.

We are not told a whole lot about what happened to Joseph from Scripture, we assume that by the time Jesus began His teaching and preaching office of Christ, Joseph had been called by God to His eternal rest so He never saw the active earthly ministry of Jesus. We know that He was a righteous man, but He knew that that righteousness came not from himself, but from God. Now the righteousness of God which, he, Joseph needed, was coming to earth through Mary. Joseph believed that this son of Mary was going to save him and all of God’s people from their sins. Here revealed to him in the words of the Angel was the news that the long promised, long awaited Savior, was now God with us in human flesh. Ready to conquer in the spirit of King David, to deliver in the name of Joshua, battling against sin, death, and the power of the devil.

We cannot begin to imagine the mindset of Joseph after the angels, visit, but we he believed. We know that in this life, very often our earthly plans also get changed. We may have had the best intentions, but then something changes those plans. All too often the reason for the change in plans is because of sin and the failures within ourselves. This is part of the curse which we inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve, who decided that it was not enough to be loved by God as His subject, but wanted to be equal to God and so fell into temptation and sinned. The punishment for that sin is that sin is passed down from generation to generation through the sin that clings to this flesh. Sin which enslaves many to live in darkness without hope by their unbelief.

But God has better plans for you and me. Because of this inherited sin and fallenness of humanity, Jesus had to be conceived the way He was, He who was begotten from eternity was conceived and born outside the plans or desires of the flesh by the Holy Spirit so that even as He took on flesh and blood, it was perfect and sinless. Jesus the perfect man and Son of God allowed Himself to be despised, rejected, and crucified so that the natural outcome of our sins would not occur in full, rather believers could be redeemed from their sins. He took the punishment of sin upon His flesh so that your own flesh might be redeemed. So that the enemies of sin, death, and the devil could be defeated through His death and resurrection. This was and is the good and gracious plan of God the Father who sent His Son, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, men and women who receive this message of grace through the Gospel can believe and be saved and receive forgiveness for their sins.

You may not have had an angel come to you in a dream to deliver the message of Jesus Christ, but you have heard His message in His Word preached and taught. Jesus, the Savior of the Nation comes and is God with us as He washes clean by the waters of Holy Baptism where He took you, into His crucifixion leaving your sins on the cross. Then in baptism you were raised into His resurrection and given new life through faith. No longer are you slaves to sin, but you are set free to live holy lives by God’s Spirit in Jesus Christ’s name. God not only promises eternal life through Jesus Christ by the forgiveness of your sins, but He will guide, bless, and direct you in your life now. Pray that God would guide you in all wisdom even as you make your earthly plans that God’s will would be done in your life, but remember that all wisdom begins and ends here. Here is where we become centered for all things in life, for Christ is our center. And here is where He comes in His most clear way. He is the One who speaks to us by His Word to tell us of His Love. It is here where Jesus descends to His creation with His saving, merciful, Divine flesh to eat and to drink, where He abides with us in this special way. This is where He brings us to heaven on earth so that our fears, worries, sorrows, our sad songs, may be placed upon Him, and we are made free to sing songs of praise and adoration joined with all the heavenly host during the fast approaching Christmastide.

Our Savior has come to earth, He has conquered, He has risen and ascended and He is coming again to bring us to Himself. Your Immanuel, your, Savior and king, Jesus the Christ. Therefore, O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption! Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee, o Israel. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

I begin this morning with a fable by Aesop.
There once was a giant oak tree that stood near a brook in which grew some slender reeds. When the wind blew, the great oak stood proudly upright with its hundred arms uplifted to the sky. But the reeds bowed low in the wind and sang a sad and mournful song. In pride, the great oak boasted of his strength to the reeds, how he stood upright and firm before the wind. The reeds on the other hand weren’t too concerned. “The winds do not harm us,” they said. We bow before them and so we do not break. You, in all your pride and strength have so far resisted their blows. But the end is coming.” And it did. As the reeds spoke a great hurricane rushed out of the north. While reeds bowed low against the wind, the oak stood proudly at first. But as the wind redoubled in fury, the great tree fell, torn up by the roots.
This fable accurately describes the spirit of the times in which we live. According to the world, in order to be successful, better yet, in order to survive, you must be flexible. You must bend to the ever-changing winds of the culture. To resist, to stand firm against the raging tempest, that is this culture, is to be destroyed like the oak. Consider why corporations, politicians, actors, sports figures – who take a stand but reverse course, backtrack, bend once they receive blow back? They don’t want to be destroyed. They want to maintain their power and fame. So, it is that, the wisdom of the world is that “you must be flexible like the reeds.”
But is that how Christians are to be? Bending to the ever changing winds of the culture? By all means, no! We are called to be oaks as written in Psalm 1.
“Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

If there was ever a man who was like a mighty tree, who wasn’t swayed by its winds of popular opinion, it was John the Baptist. He didn’t wear the latest style of clothes, but wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He didn’t eat the finest meals, but his food was locusts and wild honey.

While his clothes and food were certainly counter-cultural, his message was more so. It wasn’t politically correct. “John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'” (Matt. 3:2). Whether Pharisee or Sadducee, peasant or king, no one was safe from his call to repentance. He wasn’t swayed by earthly power and might. He wasn’t, “A reed shaken by the wind” (Matt. 11:7), as Jesus indicates. He was like an oak tree in his preaching. He stood firm in this message because at the center of this message was Jesus and the forgiveness and life that He alone offered.

While some were cut down by John’s message to be planted as trees, that is repented of their sins, others did not. In sinful pride, they swayed away from his preaching in their unbelief. Pharisees and Sadducees, priests and Levites, and King Herod all despised John’s preaching, and as a result, they all sought to get rid of him and “cut him down”. King Herod would silence John eventually by locking him in prison, specifically because John stood firm in speaking the truth of God’s Word, that it was sinful for Herod to have an affair with Herodias, his brother’s wife. And it’s here where we find John in Gospel for this day, confined to prison, awaiting his death.

Fellow redeemed, it’s never easy for Christians to stand firm in the true faith. The Word of God that we confess is counter-cultural, it stands against the desires of the flesh, making enemies with the world and the devil’s minions. Where the world says you don’t have to marry or you can marry and divorce whoever you like, whenever you like, the Word of God says that marriage is between one man and one woman for life. Where the world says you can determine your gender, the Word of God says that He created us male or female. And so, standing firm on this Word of God, the winds of world rage against us. They try to break us.

And yet, while we stand firm against the winds of the world, it sometimes feels as if it redoubles in fury when these issues hit closer to home, and the fear of this wind causes us to break. The unbelieving child coming home for Christmas. Running into a member who hasn’t attended church in months. Being at work and school and being somebody else in thought and action in order to fit in. Fearful of offending them, that maybe they won’t come home or they leave the church, fearful that we will be ostracized for not being like the world, we bend. We don’t stand firm in the faith by calling out their sin, or by standing firm and resisting the temptation to go the way of the world.

Fellow redeemed, repent. Repent for the times that you’ve bent like the grass – bending to the winds that blow around you. While the grass survived the wind according to Aesop, they don’t according to the Word of God. The Old Testament for this day speaks of grass withering and flowers fading.

“All flesh is grass” writes the Prophet Isaiah. And though we want often bend to the wind of the devil and the world and the sinful flesh, there’s a wind that is far more fearsome, and that’s the breath of God’s judgment. “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it…” And though we deserve to be cut down and thrown in the fire to be burned forever, He would have us repent of our sins and turn in faith to that which endures. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” the prophet Isaiah writes. It is this Word which can make us trees planted by the water of Holy baptism and strengthened in the fountain of life in Jesus Christ.

This helps us understand why Jesus responds the way He does to John’s question from prison, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” In saying, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them…”, Jesus isn’t directing John to experiences or feelings. Jesus is directing John to the solid and certain and enduring pages of Holy Scripture. The physical signs that Jesus did were the fulfillment of God’s promise concerning the Messiah. It’s as if Jesus was saying, “Look what I’m doing. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. All of this is in accord with the solid Word of God. And because it is, you can trust that I’m your Messiah, your Redeemer, your Savior. In the face of death, I’m your life and salvation. You have nothing to fear!”

Jesus’ words would’ve brought sweet comfort to John as he sat in prison awaiting his death. They would have strengthened John to stand firm in the true faith, and to boldly confess until the end, “I shall not die but I shall live, even when Herod takes off my head.” And the pages of Holy Scripture do the same for you.

While the raging winds of this world and the devil and the sinful flesh fiercely blow against you, seeking to uproot your faith and to throw you down in order to destroy you in death, God seeks to strengthen you through His Word in order that you may stand firm in the one true faith. It’s a Word that reveals that Jesus is true God in human flesh. And having been tempted in every way that you are, He didn’t bend to the lying wind of Satan and of sinful man. He stood firm in order to fulfill the Law of God for you. He was and is the Tree of Life for John, Isaiah, me, and all believers, who bore the fruit of God’s mercy even as He received the full blast of God’s judgment upon the cross.

And while He appeared knocked over and defeated in death and laid in a tomb, three days later He rose. He lives to this day planting the acorn of His Word transforming us by His Spirit to be bold so that you may not be a reed shaken by the wind. He lives and preaches to you, so that you may stand firm and tall, like a great oak tree, having been grafted into Him and planted by Him who is the great tree of life which will never more die.

He waters you in the Holy Absolution receiving forgiveness and life. His salvation and strength are in His Body and Blood which fortifies you as the medicine of immortality. It strengthens you to stand firm in the face of opposition, to endure all manner of suffering without fear, and to be faithful even unto death.

Fellow redeemed, only the Scriptures can work this confidence, this sturdy hope, and this comfort in the face of opposition to the faith. Nothing else will do this. Only the Scriptures creates faith in you to, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” even in the midst of suffering. And do you know why this is true? Because only the Scriptures give you Jesus.

Through the Word of God, you have God’s certain promise that you belong to Jesus, that you stand righteous and justified before God, that you need not fear anything in life or in death, because Jesus was born for you, He died and rose for you, He ascended to the right hand of the Father and now intercedes for you. While the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, to us who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). So, may the God of all grace grant us His strength to stand firm in this word of truth until the day then He calls us to Himself from the fierce winds of this life for Jesus’ sake. Amen!

Pr. Aaron Kangas