Notes

The Lord be with you!
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame. This is the first Sunday in our new Church year, the first Sunday in Advent. Our lectionary, or readings schedule, sometimes includes special names for certain Sundays. These names often come from the Introit’s opening words. There are parts of the liturgy that remain the same from week to week: Lord, Have Mercy; the Creed; Holy, Holy, Holy are consistent. The Introit and Scripture readings, of course, change each Sunday and give us a theme of the day for us as we hear the sermon to focus on the gifts of our Lord for us. This Sunday’s name is Ad Te Levavi, or To You I lift up, which is the Introit, the opening words unique to this day. As we enter into His presence, we lift up our souls in prayer to Jesus Christ our King who has desired to come in lowliness while at the same time He stirs up His almighty power.

Let us pray:
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Jeremiah 23:5–8
Jesus was prophesied as the righteous Branch from the kingly tree of David, the true wise ruler greater than Solomon. These several names tell us that He alone can preserve and protect His kingdom, the holy Christian Church. His name is important to remember, because in the Bible, the name is more than a reputation or a label. Jesus’ name is more than any human name. Since He is God in human flesh, Jesus has other Biblical names by which He is called, as here Jeremiah says He shall be called “The Lord is our righteousness.” God’s name is the means by which He works, by which He saves us. Jesus saves us by becoming for us the righteousness by which we are forgiven and accepted into our Lord’s everlasting kingdom.

Romans 13:8–14
Pay your debts. When you promise to pay someone, pay them, and they will respect you. The world may attempt to function on principles like these, but it will all crumble to dust one day. The Christian has a different outlook from the world,
even though Christians still live in the world and fulfill their obligations in what Martin Luther taught as the kingdom of the left hand. Since we also belong to God’s kingdom of the right hand, that is, His spiritual rule of grace and forgiveness that blesses us in the Church, we have a new debt that should be honored far above the ordinary worldly debts we may incur. We are commanded to owe nothing to one another than to love our neighbor, do them no wrong, work with Christ’s love for them now filling our hearts with that same love and serving their needs above our own. And the reason we have that new outlook is clear: our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Jesus’ coming is ever closer to us each day, thanks be to God!

Matthew 21:1–9
Hosanna! Hoshia-na! Either way you say it, we’re calling out to our parading King Jesus for salvation. Typically we think of the Hosanna of Palm Sunday as our pleading to Jesus to save us right now, as He has promised to do for us. Most pointedly do we sing Hosanna every week in the Sanctus, the Holy Holy Holy sung in the liturgy just before the Sacrament of the Altar is handed out. But think of this also, we know that Jesus would dismount that lowly donkey and within a few days’ time, would ascend the cross. That would be His painful, tortuous throne and His crown would be made of thorns as He received the punishment for sins in our place. Then, with that in mind, we could also pray, Hosanna! Save Jesus, Lord! Vindicate Him for the innocent death that He would die for me! And so Jesus would be raised on the third day, on Easter. He was saved because of His perfect sacrifice, which means He has now given that salvation, that righteous vindication, to us.

Here’s hymn 332, stanza 2:
    Your Zion strews before You Green boughs and fairest palms;
    And I too will adore You With joyous songs and psalms.
    My heart shall bloom forever For You with praises new
    And from Your name shall never Withhold the honor due.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent: November 29, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord!” Picture ourselves there with the crowd welcoming Jesus on that first Palm Sunday in Jerusalem. Let us make our way in a pilgrimage of faith to Zion, one of the Bible’s many names for the Church who firmly believes and trusts in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Advent has begun and you and I both know that with Thanksgiving now behind us, Christmas is in the air and this Christmas this year can’t seem to come soon enough! But first, while we still have an opportunity to give it our attention, we need to remind ourselves of this important fact: “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

Believe it, O Daughter of Zion! Awake from your sleep, O children of God! This is big news for you! What does it mean that salvation is nearer to you now? It’s not to say that you have to work to make yourself closer to being saved. It’s not that Jesus deceived you into thinking that you were saved, because His perfect and unbreakable promise remains: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. No, salvation is nearer to you now, means that the time is getting ever closer and closer to the Day when you will see the salvation that you already have. Faith will be replaced by sight. Trusting only in His Word will soon make room for you to experience that Word of God in utter fullness. Advent is just as much a reminder of Christ’s glorious return as it is a preparation for the celebration of His birth in long-ago Bethlehem.

This is why Advent begins with Palm Sunday. I’ll admit, it doesn’t sound like a very Christmas-y story, but I count as many as eight hymns in our hymnal’s Advent section that refer in some way to Palm Sunday. On the first Palm Sunday in the city of Jerusalem, the crowds gathered to greet the arriving Messiah. The golden setting sun was shining on the face of Jesus as He was riding on that donkey that had never been ridden before, meandering down into the shady valley as He got closer to the base of the high city wall. Then, as the road turns back up the steep hill toward the city gate the cheering crowd lined both sides of the dusty street, threw off their expensive outer garments, leaving on their plain- looking robes that they were wearing underneath. The people held palm branches in their hands, symbols of victory a little bit like the wreath of olive branches that the Greeks used to place with honor on the heads of Olympians and valiant soldiers.

The words of praise from their lips bounced off that imposing Jerusalem city wall: “Hosanna! Blessed be the Son of David! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Prince of Peace entered the reputed City of Peace, fully aware of the Price of Peace, that for your forgiveness and mine to be a reality, His holy Blood must be shed and handed over. The exultant crowd of pilgrims and disciples will disperse and soon another crowd will assemble to shout in a mad rage, “Crucify Him!” As unlikely as it sounds, these events are exactly the way the Lord has chosen to raise up, in the words of Isaiah, the Mountain of the House of the Lord, namely, the Church, so that it will be the highest of all the mountains. How does Jesus execute justice as King of the Jews and thus acquire the name of “The Lord is our Righteousness,” foretold by Jeremiah? He must be lifted high on the cross. As our brand-new church year will unfold for us yet again, we will relive all those moments that make for our own story of Hosanna, of salvation.

But the Palm Sunday that you and I participate in today is not merely a reliving of a past event. It is so much more. “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord!” Our spiritual pilgrimage to Zion that we are walking in our hearts this morning is not meant for us to see Jesus die yet again, because that was done once and for all. Instead, we are called together today to receive the gifts earned for us in Christ’s death and resurrection, most especially the forgiveness of sins.

The night of your blindness to the wrongs you have done and the “rights” you have left undone—that night is far gone; the day is at hand. Your lack of love for your neighbor, your quarreling and jealousy, whether spoken or left in the darkness of your thoughts, must now be abandoned! Those who were there that first Palm Sunday took off their fancy overcoats. You instead on this First Sunday in Advent, take off all from this world that covers you, all that you use to make yourself impressive in the eyes of this world, and leave what remains underneath, a simple garment of repentance, a spiritual garment that Jesus has washed white with the forgiveness you received in your baptism.

Let the light of a new day, a fresh start, shine on your face with the blessing that comes with God’s face, His countenance that shines with favor upon you and gives you peace. Though there will be days when you must pass through a time of shadow, the road will be steep, and the walls will be imposing that seem to keep you outside of the borders of God’s love, you will keep the simple prayer “Hosanna” on your lips, for your King will truly save you when you call on Him. You will one Day hold the palm branch of victory, as John’s vision recorded in Revelation 7 shows—see, that’s you, you’re there somewhere in that massive crowd that he saw! That’s the Palm Sunday to end all Palm Sundays!

For now, as St. Paul instructs us, walk properly as in the daytime through this new church year and for the rest of the pilgrimage of your life in Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, feed your soul with pure spiritual food of all those fruits of love that are pleasing to God, and withdraw all provisions, starve out the sinful flesh that pesters you for self-gratification. You’ll find that it would be better to owe no one anything, other than to love them sincerely, since focusing just on earthly obligations will only distract you from what is truly most important in this spiritual pilgrimage that you are walking in faith this day until the final Day when you see Jesus with your own, resurrected eyes.

Prepare our hearts for Christmas? Yes, we will do that this Advent. Marvel in the prophets’ words over centuries coming true in the womb of the Virgin Mary? Most certainly we shall. But for now, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord!” Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed, so today let us take hold of that Salvation. Eat and drink that Body and Blood that has already paid the Price of your Peace. Rejoice and praise your true King who comes in the name of the Lord, for blessed is He, indeed!

Let us pray our Hosanna to the Son of David once again: Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance; for You now live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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

Readings:
Jer. 23:5–8 The LORD our righteousness
Psalm 24 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Rom. 13:8–14 Owe no one anything except to love one another
Matt. 21:1–9 you will find a donkey tied

Notes

The Lord be with you!
We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
This is the last Sunday in our current Church Year; next Sunday will begin a new Church Year with the season of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. The Church’s Biblical teaching about the end of the world would certainly not be complete without a strong emphasis on the entire goal of our salvation, and that is, in the words of the Creed, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Let us pray:
Eternal God, merciful Father, You have appointed Your Son as judge of the living and the dead. Enable us to wait for the day of His return with our eyes fixed on the kingdom prepared for Your own from the foundation of the world; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Ezekiel 34:11–24
The prophet Ezekiel was inspired by the Holy Spirit to describe not just the first, humble coming of Jesus Christ, but also His final, fully-glorious coming as well. As the meek and lowly Savior, Jesus came as God Himself who would shepherd His sheep, those believers who would hear His voice and receive His saving forgiveness of sins for life everlasting. As the mighty Judge who is to come at the end of the world, Jesus will distinguish between believing sheep and unbelieving, hypocrite sheep. Ezekiel presents both these offices and their actions as the righteous activity of God Himself, who is both Savior and Judge. Christ the Shepherd has saved you and the same Christ the Judge will welcome you into His fold for eternity.

1 Corinthians 15:20–28
For more details on the two concluding phrases in the Creed, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, there’s no one better place to go in the Bible than this chapter in First Corinthians. When the dead are raised, they follow the lead of Jesus Christ, who Paul was inspired to name as the Firstfruits, guaranteeing that we are to be raised after Him. Adam’s curse brought everlasting death, Jesus’ blessing brought everlasting life. Then, there’s a striking bonus transaction that we are told will happen in the heavenly courtroom of Judgment Day. The risen and glorious Jesus will hand over to the Father the kingdom that He purchased with blood, and in turn the Father will place the Son over all things in subjection to Him. This, like the doctrine of the Trinity itself, is a vast mystery, but the reason for this to be believed is this: “that God may be all in all.” Salvation most emphatically affirms who God is, and can never be set in opposition to what He has revealed to us even now, before the End comes. We always need this comfort, that God has never changed and never will change. No blessing that we have by faith will ever be at risk.

Matthew 25:31–46
Our works appear before God, even when we the believers, signified in this Gospel reading by the sheep, don’t even realize that we have done the good works. That should tell us that our efforts to measure and evaluate our good works will fail. Instead, we should acknowledge that it is Jesus Christ Himself who does the good that we do, since His good is counted in our favor, and cling in faith to Him who saved us by grace. He will take care of the rest.

Here’s hymn 509, stanza 2:
    See the holy city! / There they enter in,
    All by Christ made holy, / Washed from ev’ry sin:
    Thirsty ones, desiring / All He loves to give,
    Come for living water, / Freely drink, and live!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Last Sunday in the Church Year: November 22, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. …” By the time of the prophet Ezekiel, those words of King David had already been on the lips of the people of God for at least four hundred years. They would have most likely sung those familiar verses many times in the liturgy of both the temple and the synagogue. The metaphor of shepherd and sheep was certainly not new or foreign to the people of Israel. Even in their faraway land of Babylonian exile many could still recall their former lives of following the flocks and raising the animals that they relied upon for food and religious sacrifice. Today, on the other hand, and especially with our fast-paced, technological lives, you can run into someone who has no idea how a shepherd might lead his sheep to pasture, protect them from danger, or search them out when they run astray. But with a little help, and some of the most familiar words that are found in Scripture—namely, the Twenty-third Psalm—the image can quite easily become greatly comforting—and prophetic of the future at the same time.

However, before Ezekiel can posit the comforting shepherd image for their good, he needs to correct first what had been going wrong among the people of God, the people whom He called the sheep of His pasture. What was going wrong? The Lord had him start with the shepherds, the leaders whom He had placed among them to teach them God’s Word and lead them in the path of His Commandments. They had been given a pastoral task, that is, reveal to them the will of the one, true Shepherd, and keep them diligent in faith as they awaited His prophesied coming in the fullness of time. But instead of preparing the people for Jesus’ arrival, they were taking advantage of these so-called “sheep” for their own benefit. Instead of teaching and preaching God’s Word, they exploited their positions of authority. Rather than humbly leading the people to trust in the promises of the coming Christ, they turned them aside to the favorite gods and idols of their day.

This is not to exempt the sheep from their own guilt, however. The people themselves should have known better, since they have heard God’s Word for themselves. Parents were commanded then, as they are even now, to teach the Commandments, impress them like a seal on their children, to ensure that they would not turn from them to the right nor to the left. But what did these sheep do? They trampled through the pure drinking water with their feet, making it muddy and impossible to drink without getting sick.

What does that mean? It means mixing in falsehoods with the pure truth that gives life straight from God. They made the promise of free forgiveness that is sweet to the believer’s taste, and turned it into a bitter swill of required works that Christians are told to do for themselves, and that leaves a horrible residue of doubt on the conscience. Instead of showing love toward one another and caring for each other’s needs, these sheep preferred to bite and devour at their fellow members of the flock, pushing them away with a selfish shoulder thrust, misusing the horns of their God-given authority and talents that were originally intended to serve and protect instead. Both pastors and people, shepherds and sheep disobeyed the Lord, and they faced a severe judgment, to be rendered from the mouth of the Chief Shepherd Himself at His appearing.

This is the judgment that God’s Law hangs over your head, too. You have resisted the gentle lead of Jesus as you live your day-to-day life. Even if it was only an impure thought in your mind or a little word from your mouth, it still poisons the well for those around you. If you refuse to forgive and assume the worst will always come from your neighbor, then you have become no better yourself. You didn’t have to murder somebody or worship another god—you still stand before the throne guilty in sin. Your heavenly Father means for you to hear about the coming Judgment Day, the magnificent appearance of Christ our King and our Judge, not merely to “scare you into submission,” but to reveal to you how serious He really is about your sin. You must repent, and turn back to the meek voice of Jesus, while He is still available to you as your merciful Savior who sacrificed Himself for you. It’s not that He’s going to change, but the free standing Gospel offer of salvation and the accompanying renewal of forgiveness will one day come to an end. You and I are seldom aware of the great damage that sin causes in our lives, our church, and our families. And when we try our human, imperfect solutions and excuses, our pitiful coping and compensating mechanisms, we make our own lives even worse than they were before.

Look up with great encouragement, however, at Christ your King! Behold the Shepherd who sacrificed Himself on the cross for the sake of you, His sheep. “Behold, I, I myself, will search for my sheep and seek them out.” Before you could even realize for yourself that you were lost, your Lord came to rescue you. “I will bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, strengthen the weak.”

This is quite the dramatic twist, even for Ezekiel, and he was inspired to reveal something more, something beyond all the doom and judgment. “I, (emphasize I) myself, will feed My sheep.” Really? God is going to come and do those shepherd jobs that His appointed representatives refused to do? Yes—He will bring to perfect fulfillment Psalm 23’s little “prophecy:” when God Himself comes into human flesh among us to be our Good Shepherd. This arrival of the Messiah, whom the Lord names here, “My servant David,” will inaugurate a new covenant of peace and a new, secure existence for the human sheep who by faith know the Voice of Jesus and follow Him.

When the time comes for judgment, the Lord reveals to us how that will look. He will take His flock and make distinctions between fat and lean sheep, between those of His people who truly believe, and those who inhibit the faith of the rest. They trample the grass and muddy the drinking water with their feet, but the true shepherds, that is, worthy servants of the Lord, the preachers who have “beautiful feet,” will preach the Gospel of peace.

Yes, judgment will happen, and the fat sheep who are bloated on their own self-righteousness, those who assert their own rules for morality and reject what Jesus says will bring peace on earth, goodwill to men, those imposters will be destroyed. You, however, have no fear for the appearance of Christ the King on Judgment Day—not because you have managed to escape your just judgment, but rather because the Lord, your Shepherd has restored your soul, and led you on the paths of His righteousness.

“For His name’s sake” in the Psalm means that you have received a perfect standing before the throne of God simply and solely because Jesus died and rose to achieve that gift for you. The promised servant David, whom Ezekiel preached to the exiles in Babylon 500 years ahead of time, was actually Jesus, the Son of David, born in David’s hometown Bethlehem, whom we will welcome again in grand procession next week, and one day we will shout Hosanna to our King when He trades in that lowly Palm Sunday donkey for His glorious, fiery chariot. He will usher in the kingdom that He purchased with His blood and rose to triumph in ascension when all became complete.

The entire church year has been laid out for us in a big circle. Today, at the end of the church year, we now see to where Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost have been leading us all along. The Lord who was always true God and in the fullness of time became true and perfect Man will return again to give that same perfection to you. The excitement and expectation that Advent brings to Christmas is part and parcel of the Christian’s eager anticipation of the glory that has been promised at the end of the world. When wise men from all nations worship the Christ Child with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, they foreshadow a gathering of believers from all nations before the throne of Christ the King. He who once was transfigured on the mountaintop in the sight of His disciples will once again appear bright as the sunlight to bring us to His eternal dwelling place. His suffering, death and resurrection that are revisited every church year at Easter are the precise evidence that acquits us of all wrongdoing before the presence of our mighty Judge. And Pentecost also comes to fulfillment at Christ’s return because the Holy Spirit’s work to spread the faith and make the Church grow will finally reach its completion on the Last Day.

Till that time, listen for your Savior’s voice, the Good Shepherd. He will feed you with His Word, forgive your sins and strengthen you in body and soul to life everlasting. Your King does not rule by forcing you to do things that show honor to Him. He prefers to serve others instead, using your loving service as His means to bring blessing to everyone around you. And when your neighbors hear the Word of your Shepherd, they too shall enjoy together with you the Kingdom of glory that will never end.

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

Readings:
Ezek. 34:11–16, 20–24 My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.
Psalm 95:1–7a Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
I Cor. 15:20–28 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death
Matt. 25:31–46 as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats

Notes

The Lord be with you!
Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
This is the second Sunday after the festival of All Saints’ Day and the End Times or eschatology themes continue with a spotlight on our works and the attention that they are given in the last judgment. Our faith has renewed us in the image of our Savior Jesus, so our works for our neighbor, given to the glory of God also reflect that renewal that has started in us and the faith that will be perfected and completed when He comes again.

Let us pray:
Almighty and ever-living God, You have given exceedingly great and precious promises to those who trust in You. Dispel from us the works of darkness and grant us to live in the light of Your Son, Jesus Christ, that our faith may never be found wanting; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Zephaniah 1:7–16
Can you find Zephaniah in your Bible? He’s one of the minor prophets, so called only because the volume of writing that the Holy Spirit inspired through his pen does not take up as much space as do the likes of Isaiah or Jeremiah, who are two of the major prophets. But don’t let the word minor mislead you—Zephaniah’s message about the coming Day of the Lord is anything but minor! God’s prophet still gives God’s message, however short or long it may be: The Day of the Lord is coming quickly! He will bring the justice that He has promised. He will punish those who are complacent in their hearts and who refuse to receive the forgiveness that He has paid for through the Blood of Christ. In short, Zephaniah reminds us to be ready with faith and joy in the Lord, so that the coming Day will be for us not wrath but salvation instead.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–11
The Apostle Paul acknowledged that the members of the Christian house churches in Thessalonica already knew the basics about the glorious return of Jesus Christ on the Last Day. He and the preachers after him had already taught them what was necessary to know. But Paul also knew that the Thessalonians had others around them, influential people it would seem who conducted their lives in a way that betrayed the fact that they had no regard for Jesus and the Way to everlasting life that He is. How did these others act? They spiritually slept, drunk on the things of darkness of this present world. They felt secure in their worldly existence, saying to one another, there is peace and security. But the children of the Day know better, for they look for true peace and security not in themselves or this world, but to the Lord who has given us the gift of true peace in Christ.

Matthew 25: 14–30
How do our good works figure in the final judgment following our Lord Jesus’ glorious return on the Last Day? Our works do not save us, because the death of Christ and His resurrection on the third day already accomplished that. Instead, our works are outward signs, the fruits of our saving faith. That which He has already given us, we put to use in our lives for the good of our neighbor until the time of our work for the Lord is done. Whether we are given much or little, it is a stewardship to which we are called to be faithful, confident that whatever we have been given will produce the results that are pleasing to God, and the reward will be ours in Jesus Christ.

Here’s hymn 508, stanza 7:
    O Jesus Christ, do not delay, / But hasten our salvation;
    We often tremble on our way / In fear and tribulation.
    O hear and grant our fervent plea: / Come, mighty judge, and set us free
        From death and ev’ry evil.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Second Sunday after All Saints’ Day: November 15, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Remember when the workers in the vineyard were paid their wages at the end of the day? No matter how long they worked, or how much of the heat of the day they endured, they all received the same coin. That parable meant that no matter how great our differences of abilities and service in God’s kingdom, we’re all granted the same salvation by grace through faith in Christ.

Today’s parable of the talents has a notable difference from that, doesn’t it? Here Jesus teaches from the opposite angle. Here, the master of the household doesn’t give equal shares to his servants. One gets five talents—a huge amount—of money. One gets two and the last gets one. He gives according to their ability. They’re all equally his servants. They’re all equally in the household. But while the master is away, they have different abilities and responsibilities; so the master has different expectations for each one. Our Master, Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven and He’s coming back in glory at the end. As Christians, you are all equally His servants, and equally in the household of God. You are equally forgiven, because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all your sin. In the meantime, as you await His return, He has different callings and plans for each of you. And because He gives you certain callings and responsibilities, He entrusts you with talents, what you need to get the job done. It’s all part of the plan to keep the world in order and the body of Christ going until the Last Day.

Different people will have different callings for the good of all, by God’s design. This applies to all sorts of things. Some will have more money and others will have less. Some will have more talent and others will have less. God doesn’t make us identical, but He gives us various gifts. Together, we make up the body of Christ.

We sinners take this truth, however, and it discourages us. We sum it up this way: life isn’t fair. Yes, if you must push me to admit it, life isn’t fair, and people are different because God made them that way. This is hardly profound, but it’s part of the parable. Jesus adds this, too: to whom much is given, much will be expected. If God has given you much, then you are a steward of much and you’re called to exercise that stewardship faithfully. If you are blessed with abundant wealth, then it is given to you to use that wealth wisely. If it is abundant talent, then it is given to you to make use of that talent according to God’s will. It’s given to be used within your callings in service to others, and in service to God.

This should be good news. This should all be a great comfort from this parable. For one thing, you’re already in the house—you’re not trying to earn your way in. You’re part of the family of faith, not because of what you’ve done with what you’ve got, but because Jesus has already redeemed you. That’s Good News. God has given you what you need to accomplish what you need to do. This doesn’t always mean that things will go easily according to your plan. Life might be very difficult, as the Lord teaches you to trust in Him, and not in the abilities He’s given you. There will be failures along the way, there will also be times when you learn what you’re not suited for, how God’s gifts to you don’t match up with what you were hoping to do. Frustrating as it can be, it’s part of discovering what God has shaped you to do, and not to do.

What matters is, you belong to the Lord. Until Christ’s return on the Last Day, He has plans for you. And because He has different plans for different people, He gives different talents and gifts to different people. All of this is designed for the good of all, as each uses what he has—and who he is—in service to those around him. Here’s the problem, though. As sinners, we don’t see God’s careful planning and entrusting as wise or good. Instead, we often resent it and we resent God. We, or the people we are trying to impress, are seldom happy with who God has made us to be.

Rather than give thanks for what you are by God’s design, you’ll be tempted to focus on what you aren’t. Dissatisfaction and discontent are two big temptations for the devil. And not only will you be dissatisfied with who you are, but in jealousy you may also resent who God has made others to be.

And when people find something about themselves that they do like, what is the temptation? Self-centered pride. Rather than give thanks to God for the gift and use it in service to others, the big temptation will be to use it in service to yourself, to gather recognition, power, wealth and a sense of superiority.

Or you may not want to use the talents that you have, reasoning that to do so would take too much time or be embarrassing or below your status. Or, another of the devil’s tricky temptations: you’ll be tempted to covet especially what the world glorifies, which may not be at all the greatest gifts for service in the household of faith. Physical beauty and strength are well-known idols. Riches are another attractive god, yet even some who have amassed a great amount of things are not content with them. You and I will also be tempted to covet those showy things every day. All of this is true, and it’s not good. But none of this pride or resentment or jealousy or discontent or coveting is the worst part.

For when you resent who you are, or resent what God has entrusted to you to take care of, you actually accuse God. It’s more serious than a self-esteem problem. You are saying God is messing up in what He has given. By thoughts, words and actions, you say that He isn’t wise, that He doesn’t know what He’s doing, that He’s untrustworthy. That is where discontent leads—to the accusation that God is not to be trusted, that He’s not compassionate like He tells us He is. What next? When a sinner thinks that God is not compassionate, then he concludes that God is a hard master. A sinner isn’t going to want to serve a God who reaps where He didn’t sow. Resenting all that God has done for him, he’ll harden his heart and deny that God has given him anything. That’s what happens to the servant with the one talent in the parable. He’s the only one who thinks the master is a hard man, and so he does nothing with what the master has given him. By failing to use what the master has entrusted to him, he’s effectively saying, “I don’t want to be your servant anymore.”

That is where the devil’s temptations ultimately lead. That’s his goal, to get you to resent God’s gifts for you and others until you say, “This is a hard God. I don’t want to belong to Him.” It would not be God who has become hard, but your heart instead. You would be opting for the outer darkness, for weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So, what’s the solution? It’s not just telling yourself to try to be more thankful and helpful. It’s repentance. Repentance begins with confessing the resentment that your heart feels toward God for what He hasn’t given to you and for what He has given to others. It includes confessing envy, jealousy, coveting, thanklessness and discontent, along with all other sins that would lead you to doubt God’s mercy, to portray Him as a hard master just because He opposes your sinful will.

But then there’s more. When you realize that staying out of His household is not a good idea, then your repentance is met with the Lord’s absolution—you are assured as you are today that you are forgiven for all of these sins all because of what Jesus has done. And here is what Jesus has done for you. For you and for your salvation, He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. According to His human nature, He became a specific person with a specific appearance—and, says Isaiah, a plain and unremarkable appearance. According to His human nature, He took on weaknesses and frailties of man. He could be weary, hungry, sad…bruised and wounded. But rather than resent those limitations or envy others, He remained without sin, using His humanity fully in service to those around Him—and fully in service to all the world.

That service led Him to the cross. There, He was the object of anger, wrath and resentment. They sought His death by the cruelest of means. He submitted to that—not because He was powerless against them, but because He was there to suffer God’s judgment for sin. For theirs and yours.

Risen from the dead, your Savior comes to you. By His Word and Supper, He continues to forgive you all of your sins, keeping you clothed in His righteousness and strengthened in the one true faith. Because of His cross and His grace, you can be sure of this: it is God who made you to be who you are. It is God who has entrusted you with gifts and abilities for service, and it is God who still preserves you and your stewardship. He uses your strengths and your weaknesses for your good, as well as the good of others. Because of the cross, you can be certain that God works this for your good, and not for evil. Because of the cross, you’re set free from resentment and envy and discontent and the rest of those temptations that would harden your heart toward Him. And when you’re tempted again, you repent again; and His grace is sufficient for you.

Dear friends, rejoice. The Lord has made you who you are for service where He has placed you. Until He comes again, that means there will be inequality in the eyes of man. But what the world calls inequality, unfairness, discrimination, the Lord calls suitability—indeed, He has suited and equipped you for the things He would have you do in service to your neighbor and in service to Him. And while those gifts may be various and unequal in our eyes for service in this world, His grace is the same for all. In other words, no matter what the Lord has entrusted to you for this life—great or small, you can be sure of this: you are a saint in the household, sealed with baptism’s forgiveness.

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

Readings:
Zeph. 1:7–16 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD
Psalm 90:1–12 a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday
1 Thess. 5:1–11 the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night
Matt. 25:14–30 to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one

Notes

The Lord be with you!
The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost is also the first of the Sundays that follow after the festival of All Saints’ Day. These last few Sundays in the Church Year have readings that focus on some aspect of the Last Things. Since the Greek Word for last is eschaton, the usual theological category for last things is eschatology, or the subject is described as eschatological. To put it simply, the End has many things to consider, like the Last Judgment, the Glorious Return of Jesus, the Resurrection of the Dead, the New Creation, the Life Everlasting, and so on. This season’s teaching gives us a proper viewpoint of what all these Last Things mean for us, since in our day there are many opinions about the Last Things that may attempt to distract us from the one thing we must always treasure, whether the Last Day is tomorrow, or centuries still to come: that One thing is Christ our Savior, who has claimed us as His beloved bride, the Church.

Let us pray:
Lord God, heavenly Father, send forth Your Son to lead home His bride, the Church, that with all the company of the redeemed we may finally enter into His eternal wedding feast; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Amos 5:18–24
Is the coming Day of the Lord a good thing or a bad thing? God’s answer, which Amos gives us here in strong language is, both! For those who despise God’s Word, who think little about sin and forgiveness and eternal things, the Last Day will be a fearful, bitter day of sadness and gloom. For those who are despised by the world, who suffer at the hands of evil persecutors of the truth, those who through their struggles hang on in faith to the divine promises that have been fulfilled in Christ, for them the Last Day will be justice rolling down like waters, and a flood of righteousness whose stream will never fail.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
We miss our loved ones terribly. They have fallen asleep in the Lord Jesus and are with Him, so that blessed truth is comforting for us to know that they are with Him and no longer suffering here. But there is something even more comforting than knowing that the saints who have died are in a better place! Even more comforting than that is knowing that we too shall join with them. “We shall always be with the Lord” says our reading. If it should happen that Christ returns and the world ends before our death, we still won’t miss out, for then we shall be caught up in the air to greet our Lord, with the blessed saints rising from their graves to meet Him with us. All of us caught up together, not in a secret rapture but in a majestic parade of triumph with a never-ending joy that is just getting started! That’s truly comforting.

Matthew 25:1–13
“Oh, where are ye, ye virgins wise?” That’s the call from the watchman singing his song from his post at the fateful moment when the Lord returns in glory. We want to be wise, to have oil in our lamps and plenty on hand so that we are ready for Jesus the Bridegroom when He comes. Jesus tells this story to impress upon us the importance of our faith in Him. This is not a lesson on when and how much we should share with others. We cannot believe for others’ sake. If they continue to refuse to believe in Jesus Christ their Savior for themselves, there is little more we can do for them spiritually than pray for them to realize their need to repent. But for us, we need not worry whether we are fully prepared for the Lord’s great Coming, because we hear His Word, we receive His forgiveness, we eat the Supper of His Body and Blood in Holy Communion. These precious gifts that we receive as often as we can, at the times when He comes in a hidden way every week, they are the oil in our lamps, that is, they fully prepare us for the Last Day, when He will come in an impressive and visible way.

Here’s hymn 514, stanza 2:
    There shall we see in glory / Our dear Redeemer’s face;
    The long-awaited story / Of heav’nly joy takes place:
    The patriarchs shall meet us, / The prophets’ holy band;
    Apostles, martyrs greet us / In that celestial land.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the First Sunday after All Saints’ Day: November 8, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Saint Gregory many centuries ago read Jesus’ parable about the wise and foolish virgins and then warned his congregation, “You should be very fearful and circumspect about the good things you do.” Of course, he didn’t mean that you should refrain from doing good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith, for that is what St. Paul in fact urges us to do. And surely, it’s not that you should live as you please and so gratify the desires of your sinful flesh. On the contrary, the Apostle clearly instructs us, “Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Gal. 5:13) And finally we are comforted in our doing good for others with these words from Galatians: “Do not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

So even though we have been given some time-tested advice to be careful about the good things we do, we still should not be discouraged from letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven. The warning, however, stands as Gregory gave it: “You should be very fearful and circumspect (that is, deliberate and mindful) about the good things you do.” Why should you be fearful in doing what is good? The reason is that in doing good you might take comfort in the good that you do. The fear is that you might even take pride in what you do, and then expect to be rewarded somehow because of it. The fear is that you will dwell on those gracious works that the Holy Spirit has produced in you, to the point that you believe in yourself and some inner ability to do what is right. But above all, the greatest fear is that your opinion about the good you do will produce a false confidence within you. That as you approach the Almighty Lord on His judgment throne you may be tempted to present your good works and nice qualities as noble and worthy before the Lord, expecting that He will praise you for what you have done.

Now, if we are to learn nothing else from today’s Gospel, which is the story of the wise and foolish virgins waiting with their lamps for the bridegroom at the wedding feast, if you take nothing else home with you, learn and take to heart that the good you do cannot hold a candle to the brightness of Our Lord’s arrival or to the good that He has accomplished within you. In fact, compared with glory of the Lord and the living Light He is, what you do on your own that looks so good to you is as blackest night. In comparison against Christ’s works, your works that you do in hope for a Divine reward deserve to be thrown away into the darkness.

But you as a baptized child of God are not of the night nor of darkness. Christ has rescued you from the weeping and gnashing of teeth that you deserved. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. That means that Christ works within you, and the good you do is really the good that Christ does. It is pleasing to the Father not because you did it, but because God the Father is pleased with Jesus who is standing in for you, which is really a much better arrangement. So as we follow the direction of God’s Holy Word, may we who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For that is what the wise virgins do in today’s Gospel. Although they do something good and commendable, that is, prepare and wait for the coming guest of honor, they still place no confidence in themselves or in their good deeds. Rather, in their waiting they rely solely on the bridegroom, that is, the Lord Jesus and the good that He has planted within them. That is why they have oil aplenty. And that is why they are wise. Not because they were clever enough to stock up for the future. And not because they were shrewd in their dealings with the foolish virgins, refusing to let them have their extra oil. The point of this story is not supposed to be how nice it is to share with others. This is a matter of faith, not of Christian love. The wise in Christ’s example here are wise because they have the wisdom of the Lord. And with that wisdom, they trust not in what they have done but in what the Lord Jesus has done for them and they’re humbly thankful for what He accomplishes through them.

So whatever good the wise virgins do, they do not call their own good. Rather, the good they do they trace back to the Spirit of Christ who lives within them, since they stand for those who have been baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They do not wait for the Bridegroom in this parable with the hope that they will be in the right place at the right time. They await the Bridegroom’s arrival with the expectation that He will make good on the invitation He has already issued. They wait with the confidence that they already share in His joy, even while at the moment they are standing in darkness with only a little lamp light in their hands, and they simply look forward to the full brightness of that joy in the near future.

The foolish, however, are those who hang around hoping to edge in with the others. Their hope is that they will be caught up in the crowd and swept inside with the others. And so these hangers-on pin their hopes not on the Bridegroom and His arrival, but on their own cleverness and their ability to make it happen. For this reason, they do not strain, like the wise, to hear the proclamation of the Lord’s coming. Instead, they chatter away, listening to their own self-motivating speeches, believing that in the end everything will work out for the best all by itself, without the Lord’s mercy making it happen.

I urge you today from this pulpit that you avoid your inner desire to live according to the flesh even while you do good to others and work hard for the betterment of your fellow man. For the desires of the flesh are not finally the debauchery and depravity that is so evident outside our doors. Ultimately, the desire of the flesh is pinning your hopes on anything you say or on the good deeds that you fervently believe will make things better. And the desire of the flesh is not to hear the proclamation of the Bridegroom’s Gospel, but to hear and believe in and rely on the feel-good self-improvement lies of this world.

Romans chapter 8 says, Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Therefore, my beloved, I urge you to live according to the Spirit by imitating the faith and constancy and perseverance in hope that the wise virgins exhibit in today’s Gospel. Live not by the dim light of your own good deeds, but live always by the bright light of Christ.

For it is His light, His Spirit, His faith, His righteousness which you received in the waters of Holy Baptism. And it is the lamp oil which He supplies you in the Blessed Sacraments that keeps His light burning within you. And upon the confession of your sins and inner desires, it is His declaration of absolution together with the proclamation of His arrival that enkindles your hope and raises your expectation to be united with your loved ones who have already fallen asleep in Him.

Let this light of Christ illumine the darkness of your heart, even as it illumines the darkness of this world’s night. Let this light, which is Christ dwelling in the Word that you hear and meditate upon at home, the Word planted within you by His Spirit, allow it to kindle in you the fire of love for God and for your neighbor. Let this light, which Our Lord Jesus Himself fuels and tends by His Sacraments, burn ever brighter unto the perfect day. Finally, and with circumspect fear, let this light of Christ so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Then, by God’s grace and grounded in His mercy, shall we behold and rejoice in the day, the hour “when we shall be forever with the Lord, When disappointment, grief and fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored…all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.” Yet at the same time, before our heavenly Bridegroom’s great second coming, we may by His grace meet here as often as we can around His blessed table of the Holy Communion.

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

Readings:
Amos 5:18–24 Let justice run down like water
Psalm 70 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You
1 Thess. 4:13–18 the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout
Matt. 25:1–13 the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins

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

Dearly Beloved:
We know that on this earth we do not have an abiding city. You could probably think of the names of several saints whom God has called home to final rest in Him, awaiting the resurrection at the Last Day. At All Saints’ Day one thinks of not only the so-called “heroes” of Christian history, but also those who humbly and quietly believed in our Savior and trusted in His forgiveness. They are here no longer, while you and I are still here on earth. Their suffering is over, their pain is gone. They join with the departed saints of all the times past, the famous as well as the unknown, who lived and breathed only by God’s mercy, who have confessed His name and received His forgiveness for all of their sins. And now they have and enjoy to the fullest what you hope for yourself—they have the final release from this valley of sorrow where we have temporarily taken residence. These saints are truly blessed by our Lord, and we have been blessed because of their witness and their life of faith while they were still here with us.

How easy it is for us, then, to apply to our departed loved ones what Jesus says in these Beatitudes, the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” and so on. The saints who have died believing in Jesus could be seen wearing white robes and singing the praises of Christ the Lamb of God on the throne of heaven along with the angels, elders, living creatures and everything else in St. John’s vision as recorded in Revelation. But while they were living on earth, Jesus describes these saints down to a “t” when He speaks of who God’s blessed ones are. God’s saints are not the powerful ones, or the self-satisfied, or the successful, nor are they even the ones who always insist they should get a fair deal. They are the meek, those whom the world has called pushovers, submissive, and it wants nothing to do with them. But in the eyes of God, they are truly blessed.

Is this blessing, though, just for the do-gooders? Are there really only a few real saints out there? At first hearing of these Beatitudes out of the mouth of Jesus, you may think that this is the way you have to live in order for God to love you and assure you of His blessing. You have to let the world walk all over you and just turn the other cheek; you have to be the one who is out there making peace instead of creating the fight. In order to be blessed, so it seems, you first have to be nice and merciful to everyone who has ever sinned against you, to say nothing about being absolutely pure in heart. If these are the true, Biblical requirements of being a saint, then as a sinner you are not as sure that you have done enough for God to bless you.

For if you actually receive from God what you deserve, it would certainly not be blessing. God does not bless those who curse, He does not smile upon anyone who despises his neighbor or grumbles about doing their duty. There is no place in the kingdom of heaven for lawbreakers, and our Lord absolutely despises anyone who might think that he has a holy, virtuous, godly life all figured out and that they are better than everyone else. God’s curse, rather than blessing, rests upon all of sinful humankind. It is a curse of death, an eternity of separation from His kingdom, that you and I ought to receive. Who, then, is worthy of God’s blessing? Is there anyone who is truly a saint?

Listen now to the one who speaks the blessing. Is it not Jesus Christ your Lord Himself? He is truly the Blessed One because He is God’s own Son. He was sent from heaven to earth to perfectly obey God’s law and earn God’s blessing for you and all of mankind. A saint is someone completely holy, or sanctified, and that is precisely what Jesus is, down to a “t”: perfect, righteous in every way! And out of love for you, He hungered and thirsted for you to receive the gift of His righteousness. There is nothing you could do to earn such a gift, but He gives it freely when you trust in Him for your salvation. He alone is worthy of God’s blessing, but He wants nothing more than to share that blessing with you!

It is Christ’s greatest desire to become one with His faithful people, the lambs of His flock who hear His voice. He intimately joins Himself to you in the waters of your Baptism—when He made you His own and gave you His Holy Spirit to sanctify you, to make you a saint just like He is. He takes your sins and nails them to Himself on the cross where they were paid-for once and for all. He invites you to become joined together with Him even as you eat His holy, saintly Body and drink His precious Blood. This is what it means to be the Church, the mystical body of Christ, meaning you are in a hidden but real way connected with Him in His death on the cross and in His resurrection from the grave, all right here at this altar.

As you are joined to your savior Jesus, your sins are taken away, and so is the curse of death that plagues you and your loved ones every day of your lives. You are blessed, you are holy, you are saints. God’s salvation, otherwise known as the kingdom of heaven, is yours because you are poor in spirit. That means you say, “No merit of my own I claim, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.” God made peace with you, the sons of God, through His Son, and so you now bring His peace to your neighbor even as you pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And He speaks His blessing especially for you when you are persecuted and falsely accused on His account, for the same persecution happened to Him. All these Beatitudes that Jesus speaks to you today are not your requirements for getting God’s blessing. Rather, they describe the blessing that you already have because you believe in Him, you were baptized and because you hold on to His promises.

There is something else that happens because you are joined to Jesus. You as God’s saints still here on earth are also united with all His saints “who from their labors rest.” This includes you not only with those whom you remember today, but all people who by the Lord’s merciful hand have finished the race and kept the faith. You may be thinking about them even now, and you miss them. Everywhere else on earth, the chair at the dinner table, the pew at church, the spot in the family photo, these are noticeably empty. But since you and they are all joined to Christ, here as you kneel at the Lord’s Table you are closer to them than you ever were before. You might as well be in heaven right now along with them! Hebrews, chapter 12 tells us we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses—this cloud includes the saints who share with us the one true faith, and who on earth modeled for us the faith that trusted not in self but in God alone.

You as God’s saints, still here feebly struggling on earth, and they as God’s saints who now shine in His glory, are together as one Body of Christ, the Church. Together we pray for our Lord to come quickly and rescue us and our dying world. We eagerly await along with them the Great Judgment Day when we all will at last in our resurrected and renewed bodies see our living Lord and Redeemer, even as the Old Testament saint Job cried out while still in the anguish of this world, “I know that my redeemer lives.”

We are gathered here on this day as those who mourn. It’s just a fact of life, a result of the sin that is in the world that we miss our departed loved ones. But remember Jesus also says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Blessed are you on this day for you are God’s saints, not because of anything you have done or earned but because you trust in Christ, who is truly the Blessed One. Let Him comfort you this day while you are still on earth and forever because you are His honored guest at the marriage feast of the Lamb at which all saints in heaven and on earth have dinner together with God.

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

Readings:
Rev. 7:2–17 I heard the number of those who were sealed … a great multitude which no one could number
Psalm 149 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth
1 John 3:1–3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us
Matt. 5:1–12 Blessed are the poor in spirit

Notes

The Lord be with you!
The week of the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost concludes with the 503rd Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, so along with the regular week’s readings we celebrate that milestone this Sunday, then next Sunday will be All Saints Day. Next year, Reformation Day will fall on a Sunday.

Let us pray:
Almighty and gracious Lord, pour out Your Holy Spirit on Your faithful people. Keep us steadfast in Your grace and truth, protect and deliver us in times of temptation, defend us against all enemies, and grant to Your Church Your saving peace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Leviticus 19:1–2, 15–18
God’s holy people lead a holy life, so this excerpt from Leviticus is a summary of the holiness that is described in the Ten Commandments. But since God’s people fail to lead a perfectly holy life, these laws also describe the life of Jesus the Messiah as He lives in and through His purified saints. We have been remade in the image of the true Holy One, Jesus Christ, and His holiness is what we bear in our relationships both to God (Commandments 1-3) and to our neighbors (Commandments 4-10).

Romans 3:19–28
After we have just heard and read a portion of the Law, it is fitting on this Reformation Sunday that we read that the Law could not bring us justification. Justification is a pronouncement from the throne of Almighty God that our righteous heavenly Father has accepted the payment of Jesus Christ our Savior in our place. For His sake, we have been forgiven and what we have fallen short of the glory of God has been totally made up and more because we have been given faith in Christ for our everlasting life.

Matthew 22:34–46
Today we follow the Gospel reading that continues through the Gospel of Matthew, and in it Jesus Himself poses a question to the religious leaders who were constantly questioning Him. You know the Law, you experts and teachers, but do you know the Christ? You see, they fell into the trap of thinking that the Old Testament was only about God’s laws, but the truth is that the Old Testament also contains the promises of God, and the Law would be misunderstood if it is studied apart from those promises that have been fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus. They couldn’t speak when Jesus pointed out that the Messiah was at the same time son of David (true man) and also Lord of David (true God). But for you and me, our Lord has opened our lips, so that our mouth may declare His praise.

Here’s hymn 656, stanza 2:
    With might of ours can naught be done,
        Soon were our loss effected;
    But for us fights the valiant One,
        Whom God Himself elected.
    Ask ye, Who is this?
    Jesus Christ it is,
        Of Sabaoth Lord,
        And there’s none other God;
    He holds the field forever.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for Reformation Sunday: October 25, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Our Lord responded to the lawyer who was trained in God’s Law, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” He then goes on to make this remarkable statement: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:37-40).

Jesus was declaring at this critical moment that love of God and love of neighbor are the two greatest commandments. These are the two greatest laws, for indeed they sum up the Ten Commandments. This is the whole thing about God’s Law. It’s all about love. We read in Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” What is the purpose of the Law? It is not to save us, for we can never love enough. The purpose of the Law is to accuse us, to show us our sin (remember learning that it’s like a mirror?). Its purpose is to demonstrate that we in our sinfulness cannot save ourselves, but remain lost and condemned in our efforts. When Jesus commands us to love, He does so to show us how much we can’t love. He’s telling us that we are neither loving nor righteous.

If you want practical examples of this love, look to what Jesus said before He was made man, when He speaks to Moses as recorded in Leviticus 19: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” If you want to love others, you don’t live by emotion or class warfare. You work hard to clarify the issues and make the true judgment, no matter who’s up for discussion. “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people,” because gossip hurts your neighbor while it inflates your pride that you would know scandalous secrets that may or may not be true. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart,” even if your brother or your neighbor really is a jerk by the way, but you’ll work hard to take care of him anyway. “You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, reason with him frankly, lest you incur sin because of him.” Love doesn’t excuse wrongdoing and pretend it didn’t happen; it calls people to repentance and forgiveness. If the offence concerns a misunderstanding, then letting it go is much worse than a bumpy road leading toward reconciliation. “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Vengeance is selfish, seeking to inflict harm for personal satisfaction. Love works hard for good, even for the wellbeing of one who has done harm to you.

That’s a pretty good list of examples in that reading from Leviticus. That lawyer who questioned Jesus would probably be able to tell you too: love isn’t easy. It’s hard work. But then again, good things don’t come easy in a sinful world; and you have to admit that the more people work hard at love, the better off this world would be. There is a real danger of love growing cold, of Christians failing to love their neighbor as they should. If we stop working hard in our love of neighbor, the neighbor who is in need will suffer while we look only to our own interests. Furthermore, our failure to work hard at love for others is a bad witness to the faith that we confess—for if God is love, how can His people not be loving? Finally, your faith delights to love and do good works for others; this happens by God’s design in you as a new creation. If you hold back your faith from being active in love, then you’re doing your faith great harm.

Dear friends, it is important that we love, for God has commanded us to do so. And sadly, you and I cannot end any day saying that we have truly loved enough. Martin Luther’s evening prayer was written assuming that everyone who prays it will need to say “…and I pray that you would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong,…” praying those words at the end of every day of your life. Check it for yourself: there’s no footnote in the Catechism giving you a different prayer if you just happened to be perfect that day. There will always be times when we gave into selfishness. There will always be more people who needed love than we were willing or able to give. That’s the harsh truth of God’s Law.

Notice then what happens in the conversation Jesus has with the lawyer and the other Pharisees with him. After they test Him with a question of the Law, Jesus then asks them a question about the Christ, the Messiah who was promised in the Old Testament Law and Prophets. What do you think about the Christ, whose son is he? They were stumped! These scholars were so caught up in parsing out the Law and how to keep it perfectly that they totally excluded the big promise that sums up all of the Bible: Jesus the Savior! Son of God and Son of David both, all in one. They would hear something like what St. Paul said in Romans 3 “The righteousness of God has been revealed,” and they could think no further than those two tablets of stone that Moses took down the holy mountain in his hands.

Without Christ Jesus, true God who came into real human flesh for you, the Law would always and only be pointing out where you’ve gone wrong. That’s what Martin Luther discovered in his moments of terror prior to discovering Christ as the fulfiller of the Law, as the one who died in place of the sinner in order to give His perfect law-keeping righteousness as a free gift to the sinner to make you a saint instead. This is why we celebrate the Reformation every year—if you don’t understand that forgiveness is the point of God’s love toward you, then you’re not going to obtain true and lasting joy and peace. Without forgiveness, there is no good news for you in the Bible. Instead there would only be the condemnation of the Law that all sinners deserve.

This, however, is your Good News, your joy which will not depart this Reformation Day or ever, your hope which will not disappoint: you are not saved by your love and loving, but by God’s love for you. By God’s love, we mean His hard work. We mean His sacrificial service. As in “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). As in Jesus’ words to His disciples at the Last Supper, just hours before the nails are driven into His hands: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). That’s the love, that’s the hard work and sacrificial service that has achieved salvation for you.

Love is the fulfillment of the Law. In perfect love for you, Jesus has fulfilled the Law in your place. Look again at those examples of purity in Leviticus 19. Where you have done injustice, He has been perfectly just. Where you have unjustly favored the poor over rich or rich over poor, He has dealt with all men mercifully, regardless of what they have or don’t have. Where you have spread tales and gossip and groundless speculation, He has only spoken the truth. Where you have borne a grudge against others, He sacrificed Himself to save even His accusers. Where you have failed to rebuke your neighbor and call him to repentance, Jesus proclaimed His Law and called all to repentance. He did not take vengeance upon those who hated Him, but prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they were truly forgiven.

And having perfectly kept all of the commandments, He then suffered God’s judgment for every sin and every lack of love that was committed by all mankind. He laid down His life as the Sacrifice, the propitiation for the sins of the world. He laid down His life out of love for you, to redeem you from sin for eternal life.

Your Savior still works hard in love for you today. He sits at the right hand of God not to rest, but to continue to deliver grace and faith and life to you. In love and service to you at the baptismal font, He declared, “I baptize you. I have kept all the commandments in My life, and so I share that life with you. I have died for your sins, and so I join you to My death so that you don’t have to die for yourself.” In His Holy Absolution, He declares, “I forgive you all of your sins, because I have already borne them to the cross out of My love for you.” And when He invites you to His Supper, He is the host who serves, giving you His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. That’s why it is called Divine Service, because first and foremost it is the divine Son of God and Son of David who serves us. It is His love that matters, not ours. And because He first loves us, we are then set free to love others.

So as we the Church celebrate yet another year since the Reformation, we gladly and joyfully proclaim Christ and Him crucified, for that is the message of God’s love for your salvation. I can truthfully say that it is a privilege and joy to declare Jesus’ love for you—His love which saves all sinners for eternity. This is, after all, why “all the Law and the Prophets” depend on these commandments of love. All the Law and the Prophets, that is, the whole Bible points to Jesus, your Savior who has justified you by grace as a gift. It all comes down to love, and that’s the kind of love we could truly use more of each day that God gives us life. Happy Reformation!

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

Readings:
Lev. 19:1-2, 15-18 you shall love your neighbor as yourself
Psalm 1 Blessed is the man
Rom. 3:19–28 a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law
Matth. 22:34-46 which is the great commandment in the law?

Notes

The Lord be with you!
October 18th is the Church’s celebration of Saint Luke the Evangelist.
We thank God for giving His Word to us through the Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists and writing it down for us in Scripture. Luke wrote the third Gospel as well as the book of Acts. He recorded many teachings of Jesus and the unique accounts of the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to Zechariah and to Mary, as well as the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and the announcement of the angel host to the shepherds abiding in the field. The Collect of the Day recites our reason for commemorating this day.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, our Father, Your blessed Son called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul. Grant that the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments may put to flight the diseases of our souls that with willing hearts we may ever love and serve You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
For the rest of the week, we are still observing the 20th Sunday after Pentecost. This is what the LCMS worship committee has prepared as a summary of the regular readings for this week in the Church Year:
  Isaiah 45:1–7
  1 Thessalonians 1:1–10
  Matthew 22:15–22

We Are Recreated in the Image of God by the Cross of Christ

Plotting against Jesus, the Pharisees attempted “to entangle him in his words” by asking about the payment of taxes to Caesar (Matt. 22:15). The Lord pointed to coins required for the tax, and He answered that we should “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). But if coins bearing the image of Caesar should be rendered to him, then man — who is made in the image of God — must be rendered to the Lord. That tax is paid for us by the Lord Jesus, the image of God in the flesh, by His self-offering on the cross. And from His cross, as the Lord’s anointed, He reigns as the true Caesar over all nations “from the rising of the sun and from the west” (Is. 45:6). The Lord once called and anointed Cyrus “to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings” (Is. 45:1). Now by the preaching of the Gospel, “in power and in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:5), foreigners from all over the world are “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9–10).

Once again, the theme gleaned from these readings is:
We Are Recreated in the Image of God by the Cross of Christ

Here’s hymn 518, stanza 26, in observance of St. Luke’s Day:
    For that belov’d physician / All praise, whose Gospel shows
    The Healer of the nations, / The one who shares our woes.
    Your wine and oil, O Savior, / Upon our spirits pour,
    And with true balm of Gilead / Anoint us evermore.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Festival of Saint Luke: October 18, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Where’s the peace? We talk about peace, we wish it for our world, we hear at Christmas “Peace on Earth, goodwill to men,” but still, complete peace at all times, seems to evade us. It can be very frightening now to step out into our world from which peace has fled. Violence has made our streets unsafe, as we see the horrible images on the news. Europe is currently being overrun by an invasion that had been dreaded even back in the days of Martin Luther. In the US, state after state is on the one hand strict on Covid regulations, but then on the other hand they allow and promote one degradation after another. It’s hard to tell which card in this hellish deck does the worst damage to peace: is it gay marriage, assisted suicide, insurgent Islam, rampant divorce, abortion, which way you should wear your mask, or the outright persecution left and right of Christian beliefs and values? Peace and goodwill to men are hard to find, so that we question whether it really does exist after all. Where is this peace we so love to talk about? Where are we to look for it?

Saint Luke was a Christian like you and I; he also, like us, desired the peace that God had promised to the Church. He probably did not himself get to see Jesus during his lifetime, but in spite of that, the Holy Spirit moved him to make a diligent search for accurate historical testimony of our Lord’s ministry, and then to write it down in masterful order so that believers themselves could travel along with Jesus, hear the actual words from His mouth that established a heavenly kingdom, and then commune together with other baptized Christians in the same faith and be filled with a purified, holy love for God and each other. Simply put, Luke found peace. He knew it came from Jesus, and he was inspired by God to write it so that all people of all times would receive this lasting, permanent peace.

The mission of our Lord’s seventy-two servants, other than the Twelve disciples, and divided into 36 teams of two, is a part of the grand Jesus history that you’ll only find in the Gospel of Luke. These heralds had a specific, narrow job description: first they proclaim peace to the house where they’ll stay, then they eat whatever they’re given. Once they heal the sick with the powerful Word of Jesus, then they finally are to announce: “The kingdom of God has come near.” Did Luke include this event just for us to listen to it, then say: “That’s interesting. I wonder why Matthew didn’t write about that.” No. There was a specific reason, and the Holy Spirit wanted you to see yourself and your role in Christ’s holy Church as you reflect and meditate on this passage. We are to consider how the Kingdom of God has also come near to us, today, here in this place. Where are the “sons of peace” in Yucaipa in the year 2020? How do we have the same peace among us now, as those 72 heralds had in their lips and in the towns where they went?

If we are going to face the facts, we will have to acknowledge that there is going to be no peace without violence. The very Son of God Himself had the power to say, “Let there be peace!” and there would have been peace, right then and there. But just like in the human world, peace will not reign until evil is defeated. At first, Jesus’ battles didn’t look bloody and violent. They were very one-sided. He would appear, the demons would shriek, but they had to leave upon His command. Sicknesses and disabilities had to obey His bidding and instantly go away. Bread and fish even had no choice but to multiply themselves once the Savior broke the bread and prayed. Hunger was banished. Yet Jesus was very clear with His disciples, especially with the Twelve closest to Him: the Son of Man will be handed over to be killed, then rise again on the third day. That’s the violence that would bring peace. It had to be that way. The sacrifice of Jesus’ precious blood was necessary because mankind, including you and me, violently turned against our God and we have sinned against Him in thought, word and deed. We tired from hearing the Word, and neglected to hold it up for ourselves, our family, or our world as the Holy Word of God that it is. We exalted ourselves and lifted our desires ahead of God’s or our neighbor’s.

When you hear your pastor’s word of forgiveness, however, you are hearing peace in the face of violence—both the violence of sin that you suffer from others, and the violence against God that you have done. The kingdom of God has come near to you, not that you see anything different, but it still is here, announced and handed out in this very place. You say Peace be with you to your neighbor, that means you forgive them, too. And so, Jesus has promised to be right here, building His kingdom, even though we look around and on a given day we tend to see more distance between us in these pews than just social distance. Be not discouraged, for whether we are only a few, or the Lord blesses us with many more friends to join us, Jesus still has won the violent battle that guaranteed you peace. Will He heal you from what is currently bothering you, or will He allow you to suffer some more? Be not afraid, for His precious Word is all that you need, and the rest He will provide according to His loving will. Remember, Luke was a physician, yet with all his scientific learning and knowledge of the body’s abilities, he had to know that the most important healing was a healed heart, forgiven and made clean and new by the Blood of Christ.

Beware that you simply take it easy, though, because forgiveness doesn’t work like that. Temptations to sin will constantly attack and entice you. The Church is always going to be a lamb among wolves in this world. There will be opponents to the truth who will succeed at doing you great harm—like what happened to Paul. But they will never succeed in reversing Jesus’ victory or His peace. Paul’s confidence is the same as yours; he said: The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. He also said, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. What a comforting thing that will be for you, too, since you will get to say that for yourself! Jesus fought the good fight, and therefore peace, true and lasting peace, is yours. You didn’t have to prove yourself worthy of it, you did not have to make yourself good enough. You simply loved Jesus and hated your sins. He did the rest.

How did you get this healing? Where’s this peace for you? Just ask Saint Luke. The Peace of God that passes far beyond our human understanding is found and actually obtained when you hear the announcement from Christ’s appointed man, the pastor: The Kingdom of God has come near. You may recognize that announcement better as: Upon this your confession, I by virtue of my office as the called and ordained servant of the word, forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That’s where your peace comes from: forgiveness. In Baptism you are bonded with Him. In Communion you eat together with Him as well as with all who are bonded together in one, unified and agreed confession of faith. In a common mission, you the entire church have a role to play as you are sent out in your own callings into the world to serve your neighbors, loving them in place of and instead of yourself. Is this going to instantly make our world a safe place and shield us from suffering of all types? No, but we are assured that our Lord of peace will be with us always, and at the very end, that is, at the final appearing of Jesus at the end of the world, all this that has gone awry in our world will be set right. The present world, with which many unfortunately are in love with all its temporary pleasures, will one day pass away and we will finally see the great kingdom to which right now, you and I belong as permanent citizens.

Like Luke, and Saint Paul too, be filled with eagerness to get more and more familiar with the Bible, the Holy Scriptures. Notice the interesting detail in Paul’s letter to Timothy—I think it is fascinating. You can understand why he would want Timothy to bring his cloak when he comes to meet him in prison, since he is bound with chains as though he were a criminal. There would have been no other way he was going to keep warm. Paul also wanted his books, and then this—above all the parchments. The animal skins that have the more recent writing on them. These are by all accounts truly one of a kind documents. I have wondered whether or not this tidbit might be mentioning the first records of Jesus and His disciples that would eventually be written as the Gospels. Maybe Luke, who is there with Paul, would be interested in including what Paul has in mind in his two volumes that would be preserved up to this very day. But whatever those precious writings were, you have writings just like them preserved and translated for your use right there in your own Bible. Thanks be to God that He gave faithful, dedicated disciples like Luke and Paul to write the Lord’s words down for us to heal us with forgiveness and give us unending peace. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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

Reading:
Is. 45:1–7 I will go before you and make the crooked places straight
Psalm 96:1–13 Give to the LORD the glory due His name
1 Thess. 1:1–10 remembering without ceasing your work of faith
Matt. 22:15–22 Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

Is. 35:5-8 then the eyes of the blind will be opened
2 Tim 4:5-18 do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry
Luke 10:1-9 the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them

Notes

The Lord be with you!
The Lord has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

This is the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, the theme of which employs the Biblical image of a wedding feast. Our Lord created and honored marriage right from the very beginning in Eden, and it fittingly pictures the close relationship of faith with Him. The robe of righteousness that is spoken of in our Introit is the forgiveness that grants us the wedding ring of unity with Christ as His bride, the Church. Everything that belongs to Him is ours, and everything that we had as our sinful burden is now His.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, You invite us to trust in You for our salvation. Deal with us not in the severity of Your judgment but by the greatness of Your mercy; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Isaiah 25:6–9
A large feast in the Old Testament presumes the fact that a harvest has just taken place. We need to remind ourselves every once in a while that there was in fact a time when there were no Staters stores or Costcos! The Lord has invited all peoples to a rich feast of salvation upon completing the great harvest, the end of time itself. And while you and I and all those whom God has called to faith in Christ are feasting, the Lord has promised to swallow up death forever! He will gobble up our shame that had covered us like a shroud. We have much to look forward to when it comes to this great feast—let us rejoice!

Philippians 4:4–13
What is this strange, upbeat tone from this prisoner Paul? Rejoice in all circumstances! The Lord is at hand! I can do all things through Him who strengthens me! He sounds crazy! Even though Roman guards may be watching over him in his cell, the Lord is the one who is guarding his heart and mind, watching over him with peace. The reason why the pastor says verse 7 of this chapter as a closing blessing to every sermon is so that the words that the listener hears from God’s Word may produce the same rejoicing faith that gave Paul reason to endure even the greatest suffering for the sake of Christ. He alone strengthens us, and with Him, we have no other need—all has been fulfilled.

Matthew 22:1–14
In Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast there are two requirements for the wedding guests who attend the feast. The first requirement is the king’s invitation. Without this invitation, they would not have been let in the door. It had to be the king’s own will and generous desire to reach out to the invited that enabled them to come. When the invited chose to reject the invitation, that justly enraged the king to punish them severely and revoke their invitation and give it to others. The other requirement needed to attend the wedding feast, once the invitation has let you in the door, is a wedding garment. Again, this is solely due to the will of the king, and it is through his generosity alone that the guests receive the required garment. Through the Holy Spirit, we the members of the Kingdom of God have received both of the required gifts: the invitation and the wedding garments. The invitation was our call to faith in Christ and the wedding garment was our baptism into His name that purified us from our sin.

Here’s hymn 636, stanza 8:
    Jesus, bread of life, I pray You, / Let me gladly here obey You.
    By Your love I am invited, / Be Your love with love requited;
    By this Supper let me measure, / Lord, how vast and deep love’s treasure.
    Through the gift of grace You give me / As Your guest in heav’n receive me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost: October 11, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Readings:
Is. 25:6–9 He will swallow up death forever
Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd
Phil. 4:4–13 whatever things are true
Matt. 22:1–14 all things are ready. Come to the wedding.

Notes

The Lord be with you!
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This is the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and in the Gospel for this week Jesus refers to the necessity of His suffering and death for the forgiveness of our sins. Our Epistle identifies our salvation as the most valuable thing in the Christian’s life, even counting all other good things as though they are rubbish. With the confidence that has been granted us through our baptism,

Let us pray:
Gracious God, You gave Your Son into the hands of sinful men who killed Him. Forgive us when we reject Your unfailing love, and grant us the fullness of Your salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Isaiah 5:1–7
A vineyard is truly a prized possession. It is also a hobby that completely consumes your time. You just don’t care for a vineyard casually because if you do, it will not produce the grapes that you want. Following the analogy from the lesser to the greater, how much more has God invested in the salvation of His precious possession, the kingdom of believers who are purchased by the blood of His dear Son, Jesus Christ! When the Lord looks for the fruits of righteousness in us, He looks for what Christ has produced in our hearts. Without the Holy Spirit’s work of cultivation of gifts, we would not have been the productive vineyard of our Father’s pleasure that we are in Jesus.

Philippians 3:4–14
What is gain? What is loss? What is the prize for which we sacrifice all in order to win? When it comes to knowing Christ our Lord and Savior, all that the world values as gain and all that the world despises as loss has been flipped around and stood on its head. With Christ, suffering and cross become valuable prizes. Likewise, earthly riches and fame become despised rubbish. All of this is because our heavenward call to faith far surpasses the allure of this world, and Paul encourages us to follow his example in leaving them behind, if not in reality, at least in our attitudes toward the temporary earthly things. Instead we strive for the ultimate prize, our resurrection from the dead, which very thing has been assured by the resurrection of Christ the firstfruits from the grave.

Matthew 21:33–46
Jesus told a parable that builds off the vineyard analogy that He gave to Isaiah to write about in our Old Testament reading. The vineyard of the Lord is His chosen believers and the workers were the religious leaders to whom He had entrusted their care through Word and the system of sacrifices that foreshadowed the Cross. When prophets were sent to set right what had gone wrong in the teaching of God’s Word and the life was not lived according to it, those messengers were treated shamefully and most of them suffered and died because of the Word of truth. Finally, the Son Himself was sent and He was crucified and thrown out of the vineyard, that is, excommunicated from the congregation that He was sent to save. Yet this very act of defiance and violence and murder was what God used to give us the ultimate salvation that Jesus paid for us to receive. There will come a time of judgment and reckoning for those who reject the name of Jesus, but for now, there is the opportunity for all sinners to be crushed by the cornerstone and resurrected as a forgiven, redeemed heir of everlasting life with Christ.

Here’s hymn 566, stanza 6:
    By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying; / In Jesus’ promise I rejoice;
    For though I know my heart’s condition, / I also know my Savior’s voice.
    My heart is glad, all grief has flown / Since I am saved by grace alone.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost: October 4, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

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

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

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

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

And so, prophets will be persecuted for the sake of God’s Word. Isaiah was said to be murdered by being sawn into two pieces, as mentioned in Hebrews 11:37 but Hebrews itself doesn’t say who in particular that was. God sends one servant after another into His vineyard, and the workers continue to beat, kill and stone them. But not only did God not stop sending preachers at crucial times pleading with His people to repent, He then sent Jesus! His death, and the deaths of every prophet who preached before Him, these deaths were none other than the Lord’s doing. Every time we remember it, it is marvelous in our eyes. Isaiah himself says about Jesus: “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” (Is. 53) As it happened to the prophets, so it also happened to Jesus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Readings:
Is. 5:1–7 a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard
Psalm 80:7–19 visit this vine and the vineyard which Your right hand has planted
Phil. 3:4b–14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call
Matt. 21:33–46 a certain landowner who planted a vineyard

Notes

The Lord be with you!
The LORD lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked to the ground.

This is the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, and the repentance of the heart lies at the heart of this Sunday’s theme. In no way does God make His forgiveness contingent on our repentance, rather, He grants us the gift of repentance so that we may partake in faith of His gracious gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, You exalted Your Son to the place of all honor and authority. Enlighten our minds by Your Holy Spirit that, confessing Jesus as Lord, we may be led into all truth; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32
God reveals His true desire toward sinful human beings and it runs counter to mankind’s typical experience. From the perspective of man, God punishes the wrong people. Good children seem to suffer on behalf of their evil fathers. But in reality, God’s true desire is for the sinner to repent and be saved. He wants all to be saved, but sadly, some reject that salvation. When those who reject God complain about His lack of justice, He turns it around on them and asks them plainly, Why will you die, when repentance and turning to Me will give you life?

Philippians 2:1–18
Paul continues his letter to the Philippian Christian churches with a full spotlight on Jesus Christ, the author of our faith and forerunner of every Christian’s journey through life. The description of Jesus’ work and mission in verses 4-11 is most likely an ancient Christian hymn that these new believers would have sung in their churches. These verses outline for us beautifully the two states of Christ’s glory as the eternal Son of God began to dwell in human flesh and to this day continues to do so. When He suffered to the point of death on a cross, we describe this as our Lord’s state of humiliation. When He rose from the dead and resumed the full use of His divine power and exhibiting His majesty, that is termed His state of exaltation. It is in this latter state that Jesus remains for us today, and guides us by His Spirit as we live in the pattern of the cross for the remainder of our earthly lives.

Matthew 21:23–32
When God gave us the Commandments, He expected us to follow them. When we reject His Commandments, we also reject our heavenly Father and His loving gifts to us that are also implied in each of the Ten Commandments. When we promise to obey our Lord, then later refuse, that also is an offense against God. What matters to Him the most, however, is the sinner’s repentance while the opportunity exists. In this point we have a tie-in with today’s Old Testament reading from Ezekiel. God does not desire that anyone break His Commandments, but He does desire that the law breakers change their ways and believe in Jesus. This is why those who are undesirable and undeserving in the eyes of the world are the ones who are the precious heirs of eternal life in the eyes of God.

Here’s hymn 512, stanza 3, which draws from the ancient hymn to Christ that Paul quotes in our Epistle:
    Humbled for a season, / To receive a name
    From the lips of sinners / Unto whom He came,
    Faithfully He bore it / Spotless to the last,
    Brought it back victorious / When from death He passed.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost: September 27, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The third Son, Jesus, finished telling His parable and then asks the religious experts a question concerning the other two sons, namely, the first son who said he wouldn’t go and then repented; and the second son who said he would go but didn’t. Surely there is but one answer and it is an easy answer. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” What other answer could there be? Certainly no other, for Jesus constructed and told the parable in such a way that the answer was clear for everyone who heard His Word that day and this day. The first was the correct answer. And Jesus then said to the exposed hypocrites, ‘Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the Kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.”

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

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

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

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

Readings:
Ezek. 18:1–4, 25–32 “The fathers have eaten sour grapes…” … I have not pleasure in the death of one who dies
Psalm 25:1–10 Do not remember the sins of my youth
Phil. 2:1–18 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus
Matt. 21:23–32 The baptism of John–where was it from?