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

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The words are simple and profound, one of the best known verses in the Bible. Their statement is so clear that it’s difficult to explain it any more than the Holy Spirit has already done. So what we can do is take a closer look at these very familiar words and catch up on anything that we might have missed since the last time we read them. Then, since it’s already easy to know John 3:16 by heart, we can better use it for applying it to ourselves and in our talking with others about our Gospel assurance in Jesus Christ. Three of the key words in this well-known verse are verbs—the actions. Those verbs are Loved, Gave, and Believes.

God so loved the world…. Loved. You hear much talk of God’s love, even from non-Christians. However, what’s the reason they give for God’s love? Too often, that old sinful nature tempts us to believe that God loves us because we’re so loveable. Sure, we have faults; but we’re trying to live our lives as best we can. Just like the movies with a loveable but flawed hero, we’re still trying to do our best, and that’s why God loves us.

This gives us entirely too much credit. Remember the truth that God’s Law speaks: Apart from Christ, we are dead in sin, and enemies of God. Far worse than a broken plastic toy, we can’t be repaired. We can’t be reformed. We can’t be patched up so that we’re good enough to belong in God’s kingdom. Furthermore, we’re not just a one-time broken thing; we’re constantly sinning against the Lord and offending His holiness. The only option for us is our sinful nature’s death. All that should have been left for God to do would be to throw us away and move on; based on the cold facts of our sin, it only makes sense.

But “God so loved the world,” says Jesus to Nicodemus. He doesn’t love the world because we are somehow loveable. That would be bad news for you, because His love for you would change depending on how loveable you were that day. No, God loves the world because of who He is: He is by nature loving. His is not a cheap, emotional feeling that comes and goes; no, this love of God is a desire to serve-and to serve no matter what the cost. Remember, our only option as born sinners was death; so the Lord in His love launched His plan to give us life. This is the next verb.

…that He gave His only-begotten Son…. Gave. Note two things about that word. First of all, He didn’t “leverage” His Son or offer Him as part of a Divine trade deal. He gave His Son as a free gift, no strings attached; this is how great God’s love is, that He would save sinners at no cost to them. Second, when He gave His Son, He gave Him up to death on the cross. This is the world’s salvation. Death was our only option, so God figured out how to die our death for us! Sinners sin, so Christ died. That’s how God has loved the world: He’s freely given His only-begotten Son to die for the sins of the world. Even though most will not believe in Jesus-even though most sinners will give Jesus no thanks for His death for them, God has still given His Son to die for them, too! That love is truly great.

So, God loves the world. He has given His Son for the world. This means that He has also given His Son for you. This is the Good News in the rest of the verse.

…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This time the verb is whoever believes. When one gives a gift purely out of love, it is a gift: It is not a forced obligation. In other words, if you give a gift in love, you do so with the understanding that the recipient has the option of rejecting the gift-and that your love will not change because of that rejection. Jesus died for the sins of the world, but salvation is a gift: He will not compel people to be His people. He will not force them to be saved or have eternal life. If people choose sin and death and judgment and hell, He will not require them to accept holiness and life and salvation and heaven.

This is why, although Christ has died for the world, not all the world is saved: Only those who believe have everlasting life. Remember though, this third verb, “believe,” is widely misunderstood, even by lifelong Lutherans. “Salvation then isn’t quite free,” you might hear. “I have to believe to be saved. That becomes my part, my doing, in God’s plan.” But this misunderstands what faith is and actually seeks to diminish God’s great love. Faith is not our part of the deal; it’s not something that we come up with in order to be saved. Along with forgiveness, our faith is also a gift that God gives to us. This is the proclamation of today’s epistle from Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Along with grace, faith is a gift. Whenever the Lord tells you to believe in Him, He is at the same time giving you the faith to believe. When He told the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and walk” (Mk. 2:11), He gave the man the ability to arise and walk. When He says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” He gives you faith to believe.

The Lord gives you faith-it comes with the gift of forgiveness, and it’s a package, together with life and salvation. In your Baptism, Christ joins you to His death on the cross for you, so that you don’t have to die your own death punishment. He also joins you to His resurrection-He gives you His eternal life. Although your body is still playing catch-up, and your sinful nature still clings and tries to drag you back into the grave, you have eternal life-because Jesus has given you His. He has died your death. He keeps giving you His life. You are not destined to death anymore, because He has died His death for you. By water and the Word, He gives forgiveness, faith, life and salvation.

And so that you do not perish once again, He continues to sustain this faith you have received with forgiveness that is handed out to you throughout your life. When you hear the proclamation of the Word, God gives His only-begotten Son, crucified and risen, to you; your sins forgiven and your faith strengthened. In the Holy Communion, God yet again gives you His only-begotten Son: You eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of sins-so that you should not perish, but have eternal life.

This is the Good News of your salvation: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Memorize this verse, and you can constantly remember your salvation through those three verbs.

You are also, just with this verse, well-armed with Biblical facts to respond to any challenge you may ever have to answer. The words are simple, but they are adequate in explaining to anyone the hope that is within you. Maybe you’ll hear something like: “Clearly, God doesn’t love the world because He has made the path so narrow. There’s only one way to heaven? There is only one Savior? Why does God make it so hard to be saved if He really loves us?”

You know better, because you know John 3:16. Here’s the proof of God’s love: He gave His Son for the salvation of the whole world. It’s true, apart from Jesus, there was no hope of salvation. But because Christ has already died for the sins of the world, anyone who believes in Him will be saved. It is a foolish argument of the sinful nature to fault God for providing only one escape from hell. No one ever criticized Jonas Salk because he only came up with one vaccine for polio; rather, they give thanks that a vaccine was finally found. No one criticizes parents of a soldier for losing only one child on the field of battle; we honor those parents whose son or daughter has made that sacrifice, right along with those who lost more. Yet when God gives His only-begotten Son to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world, He gets faulted for not doing enough.

The world will fault God for providing only one way to heaven, and try to invent other ways instead. You know this is disastrous. Instead, you give thanks that God has provided a way to heaven: His only-begotten Son-the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn. 14:6). This Way to heaven is so great and all-encompassing that He offers salvation to all the world.

You will also hear this: “The real reason Jesus came is to show us how to live. We just need to follow in His footsteps and imitate His example.” You know better, because you know that God gave His Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That’s what John 3:16 says. It doesn’t say, “So that all who imitate His life might not perish.” Does trying to live like Jesus save us? No. We can’t perfectly follow Him, and His perfect example shows us how sinful we are. We stand condemned. But God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jn. 3:17). While Jesus did set an example of a perfect life, this is not why He came. He came to pay sin’s price. His life and death-not your imitation of Him-is your salvation.

The Old Adam, the sinful human nature inside us, responds like this: “All right. I can’t live perfectly, and I sin. So since Jesus has died to forgive me, I can now do whatever I want.” It’s attractive, this notion that we have a license to sin and still be forgiven; but it’s a false, damning teaching. The Lord has died to save you from sin; how could a Christian go on indulging in it? It would be like saying, “I’m thankful that the Coast Guard pulled me out of the water and saved me from drowning. Now that I’m safe, I think I’ll tie some bricks to my feet and jump back in.” Sin kills, and Jesus has died to make you alive. When temptation beckons the next time, you have this Good News: God so loved you that He has given His only Son to die for you-to save you from sin and death. It is this Good News that strengthens you against all the temptations of the devil and your sinful flesh inside you.

Someone, maybe even a despairing loved one, might have thought: “Yes, God gave His Son to set me free from sin and death. But then, if I sin again, I am lost once again.” What a horrible thought, to believe that any little sin robs you of salvation! But you know better, because you know John 3:16: it doesn’t say, “So that all who never sin again might not perish but have eternal life.” The sins that you commit each day do not condemn you, because Jesus has died for all of these sins. In fact, there is only one sin left to condemn anyone: that’s unbelief. Whoever believes will not perish, declares the Lord here; and in Mark 16 He says “whoever does not believe will be condemned.” The most heinous crime or the grossest immorality does not condemn the one who repents of sin, because Christ has died for everyone. It is only the impenitent one who is not forgiven. It is only the one who says, “I do not believe in Jesus,” or “I choose to continue in my sin and not repent” who stands in peril of judgment. Therefore, if your sins trouble you, take heart: Your sins do not condemn you, because Jesus has died for you. The devil would have you believe that you’ve sinned more than God’s grace allows. He would have you believe that you should give up confessing your sins because you’ve gone too far, because he wants you to stop being forgiven. No, don’t listen to the devil, for he knows only corruption and lies. Instead, let your sins be a constant reminder of your need for your Savior; confess your sins every day, and rejoice that Christ has redeemed you-so that you would have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Rejoice in these simple words of salvation. Meditate especially on the three important verbs Loved, Gave, Believes. God’s love gave us Jesus, and by the faith He has given in your heart to believe, you know this to be true. You have forgiveness and life.

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

Readings:
Num. 21:4–9 a bronze serpent…on a pole
Ps. 107:1–9 they cried out to the LORD in their trouble
Eph. 2:1–10 you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses … His workmanship
John 3:14–21 As Moses lifted up the serpent

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
March 2018

Where’s the accountability? Who is going to own up, come forward, take the heat, stop the passing buck? That is something that our sinful human nature wants to avoid if at all possible. If there is a way to get out of admitting fault, then great effort and ingenuity will go “all-out” in order to find that escape hatch. About a generation ago, the great push to update the older hymnal gave opportunity to some false teachers to soften some central doctrines essential to the forgiveness of sins. Under the guise of, “We only wanted to update the language…” there was a change made in the confession of sins at the very beginning of the Divine Service liturgy. Can you spot the difference?

It used to say, “I…confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended Thee and justly deserved Thy temporal and eternal punishment.” (And our current hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, kept this wording, except for words like “Thee” and “Thy.”)

But the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), for just one example, introduced these words in the same spot: “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”

It sounds okay when you read it for the first time, but then you compare it, and you notice that the confession has lost the sense of accountability! All we would confess is, “Poor us! We were duped and victimized by someone else who unleashed all their sin on us. Come, Jesus! Help us out of this jam, will ya?” Gone was the sense of temporal and eternal punishment. Gone was the condemnation of the law, to which we must be held accountable. And so also, gone was the full comfort of Gospel forgiveness, too.

God is angry at sinners! How can this be? Weren’t you taught that God loves everybody? Sure, that’s true! But it would mean absolutely nothing if you water down or ignore altogether the deep sense of our sinfulness, our disease of corruption that renders us unclean before the Lord, our rebellion against Him that has earned nothing but wrath against us.

Wait a minute! You have heard, have you not? God hates sin, but loves the sinner! Actually, that rule is meant to apply to us, as we are called to deal with sinners in our everyday life. We treat our neighbors with love, and make every effort to regard them with the forgiving love that our Savior has shown toward us. On the Last Day, before the absolute judgment throne of God, however, there will no more be any distinction of sin from sinner. If someone does not believe in Jesus, or rejects His forgiveness, then that person and his sin will be condemned! The Almighty Judge will not say “Depart from me, you cursed,” but then add right after that, “but I’m only talking to your sin. The rest of you can stay right here with me, if you promise to be good!” No, the law rightly condemns all of us entirely, not just our sins.

That’s what we have been hearing full-force during this season of Lent. The law should impress the sense of condemnation upon us so forcefully, that we ought to feel crushed and repulsed by what we have done and left undone. However, when that role of God’s Holy Word has done its work, then we have moved from Lent and Good Friday straight to Easter. With the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, all condemnation has been removed from you! Sinner no more! Therefore God no longer hates you as a sinner, either. He hated Jesus, actually, as He hung on the cross in your place, but on the third day the hatred was fully satisfied, and now for you, there is nothing but your heavenly Father’s love. You were not given some “easy way out” from the accountability of the law; instead Christ was the one who became fully accountable in your place.

He wants you to partake abundantly of love and forgiveness. God desires to bestow His rich gifts upon you like a generous, refreshing spring rain shower. He has sent you a man called and ordained to speak absolution, that is, forgiveness as though He were speaking it to you Himself. Where’s the accountability? Squarely on the shoulders of your Savior. Isn’t it ironic? The people who want an easy way out always end up going the route of works-righteousness, and thus they make salvation utterly impossible. Yet if you believe in Jesus Christ alone, eternal life cannot come any easier!

Blessed Lent and Easter! Yours, in service to Christ, Pastor Stirdivant

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

Jesus taught in the temple quite often—even going back to the time when He was a boy and He taught the teachers and referred to the place as His Father’s house. Everything was peaceful. Then, you see Him in a story like this one where He all of a sudden “cleanses” the Temple. But does the Temple seem cleansed to you? Every table in that outdoor courtyard is turned over, the goods and coins strewn out all over the stone floor, the sheep and oxen running off, birds maybe flying around, and perhaps not a few shocked and unhappy people might have been on the wrong end of that whip that Jesus flung about. Whew! That sounds more like making a mess rather than cleansing anything!

Why did Jesus take such drastic action? Is He really saying that it’s wrong to sell anything at church? How can His anger, even if it’s justified anger, take over like it did? What I mean is, He may have had every right to protest whatever was going on and calmly bring it to a stop, but He doesn’t do it that way. Does He need anger management training, you think? Does our Lord need to get checked out by a psychiatrist so He can get on the proper medication? OK, so those are dumb questions. But they drive home a point: and that is, Jesus has a specific thing to say about the Temple and about what it says about His mission to pay for the sins of the whole world. If a person would not want to accept what Jesus says about this, then that person would not only have a messy temple courtyard, but more urgently, an eternity in hell apart from God. So Jesus takes this kind of action to wake you up now while you have the chance, so you realize you need this kind of messy cleansing within you, too, since by faith you have also been made a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, Jesus was there all along, the whole time that the Temple was there. In fact, He was there and laid out the measurements of the tent structure, or tabernacle, that was used before the Temple was built. Who else would have given Moses those instructions on Mount Sinai? He graciously set aside a place in which God’s holy people would know He would be there for them. The Almighty Lord who is at the same time everywhere at once, wanted close contact with His chosen nation. And not as the righteous, angry judge who had every right to destroy the sinful earth, but as the loving, heavenly Father who promised forgiveness in the name of a substitute whose life was offered up in their place. This was the presence of the Lord God among and with His people, complete with animal sacrifices and the reading of Holy Scripture, that spoke over and over again through the centuries about the coming Savior. He would be the One, true sacrifice of which all other sacrifices are but a mere shadow.

So, here is Jesus, in Jerusalem’s crowded Temple, at the Passover. This is the festival where a lamb would give its life both as a remembrance of God’s people’s rescue from slavery in Egypt, and as a prediction of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for God’s rescue of everyone from slavery to sin. He points out that this Temple, with all of its Old Testament history, was originally meant to get God’s people ready for His death for them. This impressive structure’s job is
about to come to an end; the Temple will soon become obsolete. God wanted the Temple to be there, constantly reminding the people that Jesus is coming. But now Jesus is here, and where the Son of God was once with His people by means of a building complex, now He is walking among His creation in actual human flesh.

But it’s not as simple as “out with the old, in with the new.” Jesus does not turn over tables and spill coins and drive away animals merely to say to His people, “Here I am! Believe in me now!” No, He’s there to correct something, too. He needs to preach the Law to the people in this Temple, just as He must preach the Law to you, too. The Temple was being misused and abused, and it goes much deeper than buying and selling in God’s house. It’s even a bigger problem than people being greedy or charging extortion, which could have been there too, just that was not the main issue. The Lord had specifically wanted the Temple to be a shining beacon to the whole world that His grace and forgiveness was free to all people. The salvation that Christ would win for all nations could not be bought or sold, whether then or now. Jesus saw the hearts of those in the Temple courtyard, and He knew that they believed falsely to their peril. They believed that someone could work for and earn God’s grace. It’s not just that people were making profits from exchanging money and coins, but they were engaging in a very good-looking, but also very evil activity, and that was works-righteousness. That means that the people saw the good things they were doing as something that helped improve their spiritual condition. The whole operation had to stop, and it had to stop right then and there, or else peoples’ souls would be in danger of being lost forever. So Jesus cleansed the Temple by overturning the tables and making a mess.

Many of you remember that Martin Luther was angry about a similar thing that was going on, just across the border from where he was teaching in Wittenberg. Some of his students and fellow churchgoers were coming back from across the river with huge smiles on their faces and what little money they had left was gone from their pockets. They had just bought a piece of paper called an indulgence that said they have just paid for enough of God’s grace to save themselves, or even save one of their dead loved ones from the imaginary place called purgatory. Martin Luther’s public challenge to debate this practice was considered the beginning of the Reformation, which his opponents felt had turned the whole church upside down in a short amount of time.

Where are your money-tables that need to be overturned in your heart? In what way do you face the temptation for self-pride that comes along when you do something good for others? Perhaps you feel that you’ve put in your time of devotion to God, and now it’s time to see some of the benefit of your efforts. Where potential volunteers sat on their hands and hadn’t gotten involved, you have been first to respond. When others you know stay home from church or let that offering plate pass them by, your attendance and your contribution has got to count for something.

Oh, so what are you saying, Pastor? These good things are wrong now? No, not at all, just like Jesus was not saying it was wrong for people to acquire the animals they needed for the sacrifices in the Temple. What is wrong is the same thing that Jesus points out in this Temple cleansing: the Father’s grace is not for sale. Don’t think that anything you do gives you faith or forgiveness, nor does it improve those things in any way. Don’t follow the gimmicks that are out there, like: Jesus is your savior? Great! Now you have to make Him your Lord. Or: Now that you’re a believer, it’s time to be a disciple. So commit your life to Him, promise that you’ll be a better son, daughter, mother or father, and straighten up your behavior so that you make sure to do everything the way you imagine Jesus would have done it if He were you. Now do you see why this is dangerous? You get the free meal of forgiveness given to you one moment, and then the next moment, just as you’re leaving the restaurant, you get stuck with the huge bill that no one can ever pay. That would make church just another one of those deceptive con-games that sound to the wise world’s ear like everything was just too good to be true.

When you confess your sins and remember the grace of your baptism, then your merciful Lord overturns those tables on which you try to buy off the grace and favor of God, even if you do it without realizing it. Your sin is too great to pay for yourself. Your false temple to yourself and your sinful desires has been torn down, and in its place Jesus builds the real Temple of His own Body. All the sins that you couldn’t remove have been swept away in the flood of forgiveness, namely, the blood and water that poured out from the pierced side of Christ as He gave His life for yours on the cross. As forceful and severe as your Savior was in cleansing the Temple, making a big mess, He is even more powerful as He declares that all your debt to God has been paid with the words: “It is finished!” That announcement echoes all over the world and through every century of the world’s history, so that it sounds like this: “In the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you of all your sins.” Those are the words of God Himself; they are announced to you in the public service by the called and ordained servant of Christ, and you get to announce those words in private situations to those who have sinned against you. But whether you say it, or I say it, really it is Christ who says it through us. And such a gift can never be bought or sold, it is ours to receive freely, and to give away just as freely.

The Temple that Jesus cleansed is now gone, not one stone is left upon another, even to this very day, except for the remainder of an outer wall, the “Wailing Wall.” The animals are no longer sacrificed, and the priests no longer serve. But the true Temple in the flesh of Christ still stands. That Temple is erected wherever you hear God’s Word proclaimed purely and where the Body and Blood of Christ are handed out the way Jesus said to do so. You who receive that Word and Body and Blood, you are the real priests who pray and sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. He has thrown out your evil urge to buy or earn the grace of God for yourself, and He plants in its place the simple, receiving kind of faith that Jesus says is exemplified in a young child. Your Lord’s work of turning tables in this sinful world is not quite finished. And wherever the truth upsets the false notion of being “good enough” or “holy enough” to be saved, you’re going to find conflict and opposition until Jesus returns again in glory. For a while, it may look like a mess, and might seem quite uncomfortable and horribly impolite. But do not be discouraged, the Lord is truly with you, not because you stayed close to Him, but because He came near to you and rescued you from yourself, and joined you as healthy branches to Himself who is the life-giving Vine. And the God who once dwelt in a building known as a Temple, now makes His dwelling here among you and He lives forevermore within you.

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

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

Why do nitwits have no problem having kids? I haven’t felt that way, certainly not recently! But I’m pretty sure that over the decades, that thought might have crossed Sarah’s mind once or twice. All around her, people were reproducing prolifically, yet she was left with the ancient-world shame of barrenness. And not only that, she compounded frustration because Abraham had received promise after promise from God that he would be the father of a multitude of nations. The Lord specifically said, Sarah will bear you a son, and so far…nothing. And even though Ishmael was now a member of the family, Sarah couldn’t stand the very presence of him and his smug mother Hagar in the same tent with her. The suffering was too much to bear. I don’t understand. I should be the one with Abraham’s child, not this servant girl who now considers herself entitled over and above me. God Himself even promised it. Shows you how much you can trust Him!

Saint Paul doesn’t seem to be making it sound any better. “Suffering produces character!” Well, you may think, I must be on my way to becoming quite a character—a cartoon character at that—all stretched and distorted and caricatured out of proportion with all that comes my way in daily life. And what does it all get me? More suffering! Fewer blessings! More and more tangles in this complex web of relationships and conflicts. When am I going to have this peace that passes all human understanding that I keep hearing about? When will all my life’s struggles begin to make sense?

These are not sinful questions. Not on their own. They may even be on your heart right now. It feels terrible to be left with things in your life out of your control. We are transfixed by natural disaster. The thought of it impresses upon us how quickly the forces of nature can render people just like us completely powerless. Violence rears its ugly head on our televisions and also close to home. When illness or the threat of death impends, everything, including our sense of time, priorities, and our hectic schedules, immediately realigns. If there’s trouble at work, school, home or even church, you can easily get the feeling like you’re left all alone and everyone has turned their back on you, maybe God Himself, or so the way it seems. And you may be surprised to hear it from me, but there’s nothing wrong with pointing that out—with complaining, even! There was a church in the Kansas City area that a decade ago or so started giving out the rubber wrist bands advocating for a complaint-free world? I wonder, have they considered the parts of the Bible that have complaints of believers in them?

Think of Psalm 74, which leads off with a stinging complaint: “O God, why do you cast us off forever?… Why do you hold back your hand?” Or the 77th, in which the author is so bold as to say: “Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion?” These are inspired, Holy Spirit-filled words! And the psalms are recommended to us as a hymnal for believers to meditate and pray these very thoughts! Or consider St. Paul, who pleaded with the Lord three times to take away the thorn in his flesh, the messenger of Satan himself who was tormenting him with suffering (2 Corinthians 12). And there’s even Jesus Christ our Savior who, although in perfect obedience to the Father’s will, nevertheless brings up to Him repeatedly the preferable option that the cup of anguish be passed away from His lips. These are all positive, encouraging examples for you to speak honestly about your suffering, and bring the whole load of it to dump into your heavenly Father’s lap in prayer. Having the complaint itself isn’t sinful or a sign of no faith.

Our problem really is that we don’t handle our crosses and trials the way God commands. The last thing we think to do, most of the time, is turn the suffering over to Him. We’re often not listening when He is speaking His words of grace, of forgiveness and His promise of peace. Perhaps you have heard God’s Word during a great time of difficulty, but your heart refused to let it comfort you. How could God possibly use this bad ordeal to help me? I don’t buy it!

What resonates better with our sinful human nature is the world’s way of making sense out of suffering. Because in the world, there is no good news; there is only law and consequences and some people who want to hold people responsible, and other people who want to shift their proper responsibility away from themselves—we can experience that for ourselves and the only one who can make things better for us is ourselves. Christina Aguilera recorded a good song that summarizes quite clearly that worldly understanding and the self-focused use of suffering—she actually thanks the people who have betrayed her, lied to and backstabbed her, because those bad times made her fall back on her own strength and made her into a fighter. And you get the sense that, instead of forgiveness, she will be quick to take revenge with her unique emphasis on the words: “I remember!”

That’s where suffering precisely does not help us. Like Christina, we want to take action on our own, handle our suffering without God. Put our own ingenuity to work in order to relieve it. Take it out on others when the time is right. Make ourselves into the judge, jury and executioner wherever we can; or else stew in our own brand of righteous anger against all the unfair circumstances that we didn’t feel we deserve.

From the standpoint of our Old Adam inside us, we don’t want to hear the answer that we fear we will get when we entrust our whole life to our Lord and Savior. Everything will be out of our control then, and we feel vulnerable, alone, and dependent. We tell ourselves we can be fine enough Christians without suffering. I’m actually strong enough in my faith that I could handle a few more good times to come my way—do you see how easy it is to get that feeling? But when others seem to get all the blessings and I get all the setbacks, that’s what offends my twisted sense of justice, the same way it does yours.

That’s the same as Peter standing in front of Jesus, with Satan gleefully pulling the sinful, selfish puppet strings, forbidding the Lord to proceed to the cross. This shall never happen to you! That doesn’t fit my made-up fantasy world of Christian glory! It’s Sarah laughing inside the tent in unbelief at the promise of a son when the holy Angel was speaking with Abraham. Yeah, right-who will take seriously a baby shower for a ninety-year-old? The incidents and the statements themselves seem harmless, but Jesus reveals that there is the risk of great harm to our faith if we take our eyes of faith off of Him. You may not realize the danger until it is too late, so you must trust God’s Word of warning, even when the world, or even fellow believers at times, tell you there’s nothing to worry about. It’s all right—God knows you didn’t mean it. People tell you: This is just your coping mechanism; it’s what you do so you don’t drive yourself nuts with all you have going on in your life.

But watch out! Whether it helps you feel better or not, what matters is whether it turns your trust to your Lord or away from Him and to yourself. When Christina sings to her enemies about what she suffered at their hands, she is proud to announce that, only after turning inside to herself for inner strength, she has now become a fighter. But when St. Paul boasts about being beaten, stoned, scorned, kicked out of the temple, and wrongfully imprisoned, that’s because he didn’t at those times of suffering, summon some sort of strength within, rather that in all of those ordeals he was putting full trust in the Lord who will pull him through. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego even informed the King of Babylon that even if God does not save us this time—we know that He can, and we know that we will never, even when death by fiery furnace is the consequence, we will never turn our faith away from Him.

So that is how we are rightly to understand those preachy-sounding words from the book of Romans: we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. If that axiom was the only thing you heard, then you would still be poorly trained on how to understand and use your suffering that God sends your way. Suffering needs God’s promise in His Word to make it truly the cause of joy for the Christian heart. The rest of Romans 5 says that we have been justified—declared forgiven—by faith in Christ, just like Abraham believed God’s promise, and God counted it as if he had perfectly kept every law there was. Not by doing, but by believing in Jesus who did the doing for us. You have peace with God, not because you toughed it out when you faced a time of pain and rejection, but because you stand in the Lord’s everlasting grace, paid for in blood by your Savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead. You are reconciled to your enemies, not because you are waiting for the right time to get them back, but because while we all were still enemies to our Creator, Christ came and made peace by taking God’s wrath in your place.

And now that you are forgiven and made new in the image of Jesus Christ our Lord, you have much more blessing than wiping your slate clean of sin—you have the fullness of Christ’s life. You have access to the Lord’s exalted throne of grace so that you may pray with confidence. And when something happens that just doesn’t make sense to you, like Sarah who went so long without a child that she laughed when one was finally promised, that’s when you bring it up to the Lord, confessing your heart’s doubts and fears, but trusting that God will see you through, even when you cannot figure it out yet for yourself. As the Lord said to Abraham, so He says in His solemn promise to you, sealed in Baptism and in the Body and Blood of Christ, I will give you your heavenly inheritance as an everlasting possession, and I will be your God.

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

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

The Gospel of Mark uses very striking language. “The Spirit immediately drove [Jesus] out into the wilderness.” In the Greek original the phrase is more like, “He threw Him out.” Now, when Jesus was baptized just before this, and God the Father’s voice came out of heaven and said, “This is my Son, whom I love,” that was nice, wasn’t it? You would think that the Holy Spirit would be just as nice. I mean, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all together and all in agreement. There is no division or conflict among the Holy Trinity, right? Remember that the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus in bodily form like a dove. So can you imagine what it would look like if this crazy bird was flapping around and pecking at our Savior’s head until He left the Holy Land for a walk in the wilderness; no meals included? That kind of kills the holy mood of that solemn occasion there with John in the Jordan River. Of course, despite the fact that it happened “immediately,” as Mark says, it is not necessarily true that the Holy Spirit had to stay in that particular dove form in order to drive Him into the desert, but it does make you think. And you should also keep in mind that Mark was inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself to write this account down for you in the Holy Bible.

Why would Jesus have to be “thrown out” into the wilderness? Wouldn’t He, as the perfect Son of God, willingly go in obedience to the heavenly Father? Why is the Holy Spirit so swift, so sudden, and so gruff with our Lord and Savior? And look at where Jesus has to go: a harsh desert with hardly any shade except some thin shrubs. He’ll be lacking food for 40 days, He’s out there with the wild animals (Mark has in mind the kind of animals that hunt you down and kill you), and of course, there’s the temptation by Satan, which isn’t described in any detail here like it is in Matthew and Luke. Good thing the angels were there to serve Him, but still, Jesus doesn’t deserve this. That’s at least how it looks to us reading about it. And yet, maybe the fact that Jesus does receive harsh treatment right after He was baptized—perhaps that helps explain what He really took on when that Jordan water came in contact with that Holy Body.

It’s like God the Father abandoned His own Son here too, early on in His mission, and not just at the cross, where we hear the familiar words quoted that Jesus quotes from the Psalms: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” Once His Baptism happened, the rubber met the road, that is, our Lord’s difficult task really started in earnest. You see, when you were baptized, your sins were taken away. When Jesus was baptized, your sins stuck on to Him, and He who knew no sin, became sin for us. And so, the only so-called “sinner” who never committed a sin Himself, He must face the temptations and struggles that you face, but that you could never handle on your own. And the time was right. The hour of salvation had arrived, as Jesus Himself said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus’ mission to save the world from sin had to happen immediately, which is why the Holy Spirit had to throw Him out into the wilderness, dripping wet, as it were, from His baptism water.

What’s the wilderness like where God has led you lately? Probably not a whole lot of fun at times, I might guess. What wild animals are hunting you down for a snack? You may feel you don’t deserve this, or perhaps it’s more like, I don’t have time for this! Has Satan recently spoken to you through something enticing and desirable, and yet even with the veneer of possibly looking good and getting away with it? Perhaps you have deceived yourself sometimes into thinking you were beyond all this simple stuff, as if only new Christians have trouble struggling with it. Sure, you might have never doubted the Lord. You were brought up right. Others should follow your example more, so you might think.

But if you were honest with yourself, you would easily find within you that stubborn sinful nature. Often you hear it called by the name of Old Adam. That Old Adam was drowned first at your baptism, then again and again as each day you remember that holy washing when you confess your sins and receive forgiveness. Yet each day, this sinful nature of yours sets up his terrorist training camp within the borders of your very soul, so that you are constantly vulnerable for the devil’s assaults in this world that we live in now. Difficult situations, stress at work or school, illness or death of loved ones, and temptations constantly happen in your life. And you might even know that these things are used to drive you to the Lord and His Word so that He may strengthen you through them. But they feel so overwhelming at the time, so paralyzing, that you’d do anything, even give in to it all, just so your life would get just a little easier.

Do not fear. Though you may fall into these traps, your Lord Jesus Christ prevailed. He resisted Satan’s temptations. He braved the wild animals, and was obedient to God His Father even through 40 days’ worth of hunger. All this He did after He soaked up your sins into His flesh. He bore your burden through the forbidding desert so that He could lead you safely to the promised land of heaven. For it isn’t your good intentions, or keeping your promises to do better or your attempts to please God that will ever count. What counts is what Christ has done for you, starting from the very moment after He was baptized and the Holy Spirit threw Him out to start rescuing you. There was not a moment to lose, and you should remember that the next time you think you can put off your prayers for His strength and guidance in your life. After all, He did take the time to teach you to pray those very words: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (which also includes Satan, the Evil One).

At times you will feel overwhelmed, but you need not fall for what your feelings tell you. Remember what you have heard from God’s Holy Word, the Word that can never lie, and that will never change: Jesus faced it all ahead of you, and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. His blood that cried out for nourishment at the end of 40 days of fasting was the same holy Blood that stained His thorny crown and dripped down the cross. One drop of that precious blood is able to pay for the sins of the whole world, and yet He poured it out for your forgiveness. He still pours out that Blood into the cup of Holy Communion, the chalice that is shared by all who believe in full agreement and are joined together in the One Body of Christ. And since Jesus has joined you to Himself, as branches are joined to the vine, God the Father does not see your sins any longer, but rather He sees the perfection of His own Son, counted in your favor. He hears your prayers as if Jesus Himself were speaking them, for that is really what is happening when you pray.

There may have been a moment where there appeared to be conflict between God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, since Jesus was thrown out into the wilderness right after His baptism to begin His ministry. For sure today, and until our Lord returns, conflict will come and go among the Church Militant here on earth, just as there is conflict raging within each Christian between the sinful nature and the new creation that has now been planted inside you. Yet it all happens while this message is preached, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” This is the message that brings to you the Body of Christ, it is making you together to be the Body of Christ, so that even to this very day, the voice of the Father that spoke at Jordan River applies to you, saying “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” And the same Holy Spirit who first drove Jesus into the wilderness, will strengthen and comfort you in whatever wilderness you may face.

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

Readings:
Gen. 22:1–18 Take now your son, our only son Isaac … your descendents as the stars of heaven
Ps. 25:1–10 To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
James 1:12–18 every perfect gift is from above
Mark 1:9–15 baptized by John in the Jordan Repent and believe in the gospel

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

The face of Moses was exceedingly bright—so bright that the Israelites and even Aaron his own brother were afraid of him. As bright as the face of Moses must have been, it obviously paled in comparison with the brightness of Jesus in His transfiguration. The face of Moses sent out radiant beams after He, an earthly, fallible human being just like Peter and just like you, went up the holy mountain to speak face-to-face with God. Our Lord, on the other hand, is God Himself who came clothed in human flesh. In Him there is no fault, no sin to hide the Brightness of the heavenly Father’s face. He just let His awesome glory, which was in Him all the time, shine forth on this other holy mountain for a brief time. It is a transfiguration, or a change in form, only from your point of view, from the earthly perspective. From God’s perspective, Christ would normally look like this, glowing with heavenly glory. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels in the sky, so the song goes.

But there is yet another difference between these two transfigurations, a difference between the brightness of Jesus and the face of Moses. Both times you hear that these events caused a lot of fear. The disciples Peter, James and John who saw Jesus were just as afraid as the Israelites who trembled when they saw Moses, maybe even more so. But the people who ran from Moses had good reason to be afraid. His brightness was the shining of God’s holy law. Moses had already gone up Mt. Sinai to receive two stone tablets with God’s own commandments and laws inscribed with His own divine finger. Now his prophet came back down the mountain and His people had to make sure they listened to him this second time. The glowing of Moses’ face was too much for any human being to look at and it would blind you if you gazed intently on it. It’s the very same thing with the law of God.

God’s commandments to be holy and righteous, free from sin, shunning every kind of evil are too much for you, like they are for every other person. There is no way that you could completely and perfectly commit yourself to the law and be totally free from God’s righteous accusation. You have already come into the presence of God here today and admitted it yourself: I am a poor miserable sinner. O Lord, I deserve not glory and praise from you, but rather punishment. I have nothing to claim on my own. When the liturgy calls for a time of silence before we all speak the confession of sins, that time is intended for you to measure yourself against God’s requirements and realize how much you need His forgiveness and cleansing for your life.

But you know, you could study the law of God too much. If you follow your natural inclinations, you would find yourself constantly making comparisons to it. You would easily find yourself wondering what more is there to do, or have I done enough? Another way you could overdo the law is to compare yourself with others and pride yourself over how great you are living out your Christian life. You may read the Bible and pray often, but the temptation is there to make that the reason why God will listen to you—that you’ve got some closer connection. Then the Bible becomes for you a book of mere moral guidelines which you could study the same way as this year’s tax code. The law dazzles you and the devil deceives you into thinking one of two possible extremes. Either there is no hope and the promises of God were not meant for you because you haven’t completely turned your life around, or that you actually have done what it takes to please God, thinking I’ve done my part, now someone else can pick up the rest. It’s all the same lie.

It is the lie of seeking out eternal life, or just simply the favor of God, looking for answers in the law. Have you fallen for this lie? You’re in good company. The Jews in the time of St. Paul looked for righteousness and God’s blessing by carefully following all the laws passed down to them from the Old Testament. Instead of looking to Jesus and believing in Him to fulfill the law in their place, they looked to themselves and what they have done to deserve God’s attention. It’s what God’s Word describes in one of our readings as these stubborn people listening to the Bible, the books that God used Moses to write, with a veil over their hearts, meaning that they heard every word, but it just didn’t register right, and every wife can tell you how frustrating that is.

Now, completely the opposite, you have the transfiguration of Jesus. The law is not proclaimed here. There’s a lot of heavenly talking going on: Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah, the two giants of the Old Testament talking to Jesus, and God the Father speaking from the cloud. But in all this heavenly conversation, there’s not a syllable on what the human race has to do to save itself. It just isn’t there. Instead of law, there is Gospel. It’s all about what Jesus has done and what He would be just about to do, that is, go to Jerusalem, suffer as an innocent victim, and be sacrificed to death on the cross—all so that mankind—so that you, may have life forevermore.

There is no need to be terrified as Peter and the other two disciples were. Your Lord does not here reveal His glory on the mountain to show you how far you have fallen short. Nor does He show you a glory that you could attain by yourself. He shines with the unearthly whiteness of divine majesty to remind you that God Himself went to great lengths, even to the suffering and pain of the cross, to save you. He causes you to remember who He really is, despite what you see and what the world sees. Here you have the glory of God, found in the face of Jesus Christ.

But normally, from the earthly perspective, that face of Jesus is not shining gleaming white. Normally, your life in Christ isn’t a glorious, mind-numbing rush or a mountain-top experience. That may happen from time-to-time, but it’s nothing that you can build your faith on. The revival preacher can breeze into town and stir up a whole lot of power, glory and Holy Spirit, but in the long run, there’s no solid Word of God to keep the flock well-fed. No, the glory of Jesus is hidden—it’s still all there in all its glory, but it’s under a veil. The dazzling brightness of Jesus is in the water of Holy Baptism that washes you, the word of your pastor that forgives you, and the bread and wine that feeds you in body and soul. Jesus is in, with, and under all those plain, ordinary things, but He’s hidden, so that you may know and believe with God-given faith, what is really there in that water, word, bread and wine, is all there in the Transfiguration of Jesus.

And so, the Father’s words, “Listen to Him,” are not a stern, harsh command of the law.

This isn’t another Moses coming down with bigger stone tablets with more laws to follow, but rather, the Father’s voice is a loving, surprisingly sweet invitation. He says, you no longer have to look to the law, you don’t have my condemnation and punishment hanging over you any more. The veil no longer is on your heart. You can put down your tentmaking tools, Peter, because this gift is yours for the keeping, even in that valley of sorrow where you live for the rest of the week. No one else needs to be with you, but Jesus only.

“Listen to My beloved Son,” the Father says, “and you will have life. Because I am pleased with Him, I am also pleased with you for you are in Him.” By the doorway of Baptism you enter into the holy place as God’s child, adopted by His grace. The blinding condemnation of the law does not hurt your eyes. Here in His presence, at His altar and communion rail, the once-transfigured, glorious Jesus gives His life-giving body and blood into your mouth so that He might be united with you and you with Him. And as your relationship with God is restored, so is your relationship with those who sinned against you and you against them. Listening to Jesus is not something more you have to do to help yourself—it’s how God gives you the forgiveness, life and healing that you need.

At the Last Day, when Jesus raises your body from the grave, or should He come before you die, you too will be transfigured, appearing in all the glory that Christ displayed on the holy mountain. You will join with your departed loved ones whose bodies have given up the struggle with death, but their souls, waiting for the resurrection, now live victorious in heavenly splendor. Together again, you will sing in praise of your radiant Lord in a glory that even Adam and Eve couldn’t have imagined. And yet you have that right here, right now, in its fullness, though for a little while longer it is still hidden. May this Holy Communion with your Lord and Savior be for you a transfiguration as the Father says, “With you, I am well-pleased.”

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

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

Saint Paul wrote to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth that he has “become all things to all people.” If you neither read nor heard any of the Apostle’s explanations or examples that surround this little phrase, you would probably be a bit suspicious. Does this mean that Paul is a deceptive chameleon, a politician refusing to show his true colors wherever he goes? Does he propose that Christians should keep changing who they are in the presence of non-Christians, all with the noble purpose, “that by all means I might save some?”

Liturgical Lutherans often suffer the attack from those of a lower-church persuasion that we are ordered by Scripture not to hang on to out-dated, irrelevant statements of the Gospel but adopt newer, ever-fresh presentations to speak to an ever-changing audience that needs to hear it for their eternal salvation. And in preaching, sin and justification and confession-absolution may have worked as helpful terms for your grandfathers, but now you need to focus only on relationships, transformation, community and mission, so they say. And it strikes a chord, because it’s right there in Scripture, so there’s at least some of it that is right… isn’t there?

The example of Jesus may help you figure this out, but you must not pick and choose the things Jesus does and says that sound good to you and leave out the rest. That’s what happens for those people who claim Jesus was only about love and peace and tolerance of others, but they leave out His words on sin and judgment and most importantly, His sacrifice to take your rightful judgment and remove your sin. It also wouldn’t do merely to imitate Jesus or Paul as a moral example (even though you are encouraged to do so) but without also paying attention to what they say for your benefit.

That being said, think about when Jesus met with the woman at the well on the outskirts of a town in Samaria. It’s in John chapter 4. He was in the wrong area, speaking with a woman, which could have been easily considered scandalous, and the woman was definitely not a Jew, and to understand how uncomfortable that could have been, think about how you would relate to an Arabic-looking woman walking around in this local area. She’s covered in flowing robes and only her eyes are showing through a solid black veil. You wouldn’t know what to say to her, for fear that anything would only cause undue trouble. Yet Jesus accommodated Himself to speak with this woman. He asked for a drink, which submitted Himself to her unique service, yet still pointed out the hard truth that she was sinning by living with a man who was not her wedded husband. He didn’t say what she did was OK, His words were correctly judging, yet they didn’t sound “judgmental.”

Holding steadfastly to the pure and undeniable truth, along with reaching out in love and service to your neighbor is a fitting summary of Paul’s desire to become “all things to all people.” However, it can’t satisfy you as a fully adequate answer. How am I going to do this? This is all fine for Jesus to do because He’s perfect. I’m not; so I can’t possibly imagine that I could follow even a shadow of His example. What is there for me that I can fall back on in case I screw it all up?

As only one of many possible examples, what about when that friend or family member finally reveals to you that he or she is gay? You don’t know what to think at first, but only because multiple thoughts immediately start shouting at you from within. As a faithful Christian committed to the undeniable truth of the Bible, you’re aware that this is clearly wrong and full of the shame of sin. You’re probably partly embarrassed that I’m even talking about it now. Yet the moment just one syllable of the statements of Scripture on this person’s life choice passes your lips, you are condemned as judgmental, unloving, no different from Fred Phelps and the Westborough Baptist picket line. But on the other hand, in loving and accepting that friend or relative no matter what, you see the temptation either to jump in with both feet to defend the so-called “gay rights,” or at least half-heartedly you cave in when you get an unfair question like, “You can’t blame me for how God made me, right?” You see, your genuine concern for their soul’s condition in this persistent sin and your loving desire to serve and support the loved one, these seem like equal and opposite forces pulling your heart apart. And no one, not even your trusty, well-read Bible seems to be giving you the comfort and help you need in this or any other tough situation that you can think of.

Saint Paul said a little after this reading, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1, NIV) And with Lent coming soon, you know the path down which Jesus is headed. His destination is the cross, where He performed the ultimate loving service to the entire world, yet also He met the cold-hard truth of the world’s sin head-on. This would also include all the signs of sin’s fallout, including murder, homosexuality, divorce, suicide, loss of work, and so on. And all along His way to the cross, as you follow Him from raising Peter’s mother-in-law up from her sick bed, driving away her deadly fever, to His gentle rebuke of a strange, outcast woman, you witness Jesus taking on your sin, your mess-ups, your missed opportunities to be both firm and loving. Once you see your ugly spiritual reflection in the mirror of God’s Law, your Savior has no further word of condemnation for you, rather He bids you turn to Him and let Him take your burden away.

Keep your attention fixed on the Blessed Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that He suffered and died to forgive you and make you holy in all that you face in your daily life and calling. He didn’t just set an impossible example and demand you to follow it. That Cross of His is the true eagles’ wings bearing you up and renewing your strength. The Body and Blood of Christ that were sacrificed on that Holy Cross are the hand of the Lord that gently lifts and resurrects you from the death-bed of your sins and failings. It is simply not true that you have too great of a sin that your Lord is not willing to or capable of wiping it clean away. It is never impossible for God to reconcile you to Himself in perfect peace, nor is it impossible for Him to restore a pure, untainted relationship between you and that person in your life who through some sort of sin or another is separated from you, and for whom you approach this throne of God’s grace in prayer every day. That’s because Jesus has come to this sad world to make all things new and to bring the true joy of heaven under this very roof.

So it is this cross, this promise of forgiveness and resurrection that frees us from all things. And it is this same cross, forgiveness and resurrection that places in you the desire to serve your neighbor in whatever way you can. He has given you unique talents and even a little creativity to submit your own self-interest in deference to what others around you need. Perhaps you could talk a little sports like Paul does, when he mentions in our reading the Corinthian equivalent of the Super Bowl. We’re not after a flashy champion’s ring that’ll require sunglasses to see, but we do look forward to our Savior shining brighter than the sun, and we’ll be reflecting Him on that great last Day. As you can see, being “all things to all people” is far from being deceptive, rather the opposite is true: it’s proving that the true, never-changing Christian faith and living a life that is loving and confident in the forgiveness of your sins are the most real things that there are.

Be renewed in your strength, trust in Christ who forgave you and who promised you the Holy Spirit. Run and be diligent in good works and service to your neighbor, but do not remain weary with guilt over the commandments you may have broken. Walk with God your loving, heavenly Father, and not faint.

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

Readings:
Is. 40:21–31 mount up with wings like eagles
Ps. 147:1–11 the stars…He calls them all by name.
1 Cor. 9:16–27 all things to all men that I might by all means save some
Mark 1:29–39 Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick

Transfiguration of Our Lord— Collect of the Day

O God, in the glorious Transfiguration of Your only-begotten Son
You confirmed the mysteries of the faith
by the testimony of Moses and the prophets,
and in the voice that came from the bright cloud
You wonderfully foreshowed our adoption by grace.
Therefore mercifully make us co-heirs with the King of His glory
and bring us to the fullness of our inheritance in heaven;
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

That’s what we will hear as the all-encompassing theme of the last Sunday in the Epiphany season, which for our current church year will be February 11, with Ash Wednesday occurring on Valentine’s Day, and Easter on April Fools! But before we get to Easter, we count back six weeks, forty days plus the Sundays in Lent, and begin our season of repentance with Ash Wednesday. The contrast between the brightness and the glory of Transfiguration with the ashes and darkness three days later seem to offer a mirror-image of Holy Week’s drama. Transfiguration helps us prepare for the austerity of Lent because in that magnificent event, our Lord revealed to us a glimpse of what all this suffering is truly worth. What are we going to reap once we have sown all our tears of earthly trials and struggles with sin? The Collect above fleshes it out as we see it in our Lord’s Transfiguration.

only-begotten Son– More than just one-and-only (as in John 3:16, NIV) but one with the Father who sent Jesus the Son for us and for our salvation (Nicene Creed).

confirmed the mysteries of the faith– What was once hidden in dark prophecies whose fulfillment had to wait centuries before they would be fulfilled, was gloriously revealed in a magnificent way when the chief human authors of Scripture (the Law-Moses; and the Prophets-Elijah) appeared and conversed with Jesus about His “exodus”—His death on the cross, His resurrection on the third day, and His ascension into heaven in order to send us His Holy Spirit, all to establish His Church for whom He will return one day.

the voice that came from the bright cloud– God’s presence with His people in the Old Testament was signified by a cloud, sometimes the cloud had a bright light within it, the light of God’s greatness, or glory, that testified to His almighty power to defeat sin and save His people, as demonstrated in one example by His rescue of Israel from Pharaoh by means of the waters of the Red Sea.

foreshowed our adoption by grace– When the Father said from heaven, “This is My Son, whom I love…” that meant that when we confess our sins and believe in Jesus, we may be assured that God the Father has also adopted us as His own, for we have been cleansed from sin and renewed in the image of God (Jesus, see Colossians 1:15) in which we were made.

mercifully make us co-heirs– Not only are we forgiven and renewed, but we also now join with our Lord Jesus as possessors of rights to His kingdom of everlasting glory. We didn’t deserve this special status, but Jesus earned this right to become children of God (John 1:12) and gave it as a gift to us.

bring us to the fullness of our inheritance– Thanks to Jesus, when we die, we go to heaven, free from sin, sorrow, crying, disease, or pain. And yet there’s even more! The “fullness of our inheritance” will include the resurrection of our bodies and the life everlasting in His new creation, of which heaven itself can even be described as only the beginning, but never the end.

The request of this ancient prayer has been fulfilled for us already when Jesus completed His mission and won our salvation through His cross. Yet we continue steadfast in our faith, by God’s grace alone, confident that while we endure sins, hardship, persecution, and sometimes grief, we are nevertheless comforted that the glory of Christ that dazzled the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration will one day be seen in us for eternity. May this highlight of our Church Year prepare you for a fruitful reflection on all our Lord has done for you!

Yours, in Christ’s service,

Pastor Stirdivant

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

I don’t know if the paranormal explorers that are popular today are really prepared for what they are getting themselves into. For one thing, all of their assumptions seem to be the same: ghosts only come out at night, when the lights are out, they have to be the disembodied souls of people who used to live in a certain haunted place, even dressing and acting like the person they once belonged to, it always seems to help the hunters’ efforts in getting in touch with these spirits if they knew what life history they had and especially if they were to uncover what tragic event led to their demise. Their fancy instruments pick up electromagnetic fluxes, infrared temperature signatures, and you always get a kick out of it when they ask them questions. Most disturbing, however, is when they want to make further contact with ghosts, they sometimes turn to demonic practices like séances, consulting with mediums and psychics, or using voodoo or ouija.

Jesus does not treat the realm of evil spirits, or what the Evangelist St. Mark calls “unclean spirits,” as mere child’s play. This is serious business, and it can get pretty ugly and downright frightening or repulsive. We are not above this fray, because ever since the sin of Adam and Eve, you and I were born in sin, and kept in bondage as hostages to the Old Evil Foe. Saint Peter, to whom Jesus one time even said, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” warns us about the devil prowling around like a roaring lion seeking to devour you at any minute. (1 Peter 5:8) We need to treat his onslaught seriously, not just in our private, so-called religious life, but in every aspect of it. One of my seminary professors wrote: “To be sure, the world is interested in the eradication of evil, but evil is treated like some chemical imbalance that can be corrected by the right proportions of legislation, education, and money.” (David Scaer, What Do You Think of Jesus?, 33) That limp, lackadaisical approach is precisely why the world is listed in the catechism as one of the two enemies who are allied with the devil.

The other ally is our flesh, or our sinful nature. It’s that part of us that is constantly after serving the self. It is that part of you against which you fight a daily battle so that by forgiveness and the regular cleansing of God’s Word you would be purified from all unrighteousness. So the old line, “The devil made me do it,” is only half right. Because Satan knows his friends pretty well. He is aware of how he can, on the one hand, lure your flesh into the sin that tempts you the most, and on the other hand, use and twist God’s holy law to make you feel guilty and condemned, deceiving you to believe that you are out of the heavenly Father’s loving reach. You may know right now for a fact that is impossible, but later when trial and testing come, the good can easily be turned to bad and the bad made out to be good, and you-know-who is behind all of it.

And here is Jesus meeting His enemy in broad daylight; He’s not hunting for some erratic bump in the night. The confrontation took place in the middle of the day, in the midst of the teaching and preaching of the Word that was going on at Capernaum’s synagogue. How unsettling would that be if an episode like that happened here during the Divine Service! The massive foundation stones of the Capernaum synagogue are

actually still there for people today to walk over the very place where this happened. This unclean spirit is no faint apparition, but this time it has taken control of a certain man, and it can do nothing but scream in pain at the holy Words Jesus was teaching on that holy Sabbath. The Words of Jesus possess authority, and though most of the people were still stuck in incredulous wonder, the demon himself acknowledges the Lord very clearly, convinced that he’s done for: I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Here’s the seed of the woman, poised with heel raised up, ready for Good Friday when by His crucifixion and death He’ll crush the serpent’s head, and that means the utter destruction of all these evil minions, as well. There is no hope for their escape from God’s holy wrath, and all these spirits can do is plead for a little delay until the inevitable happens. James says in his epistle: “The demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19) As well they should.

What is bad for Satan and the unclean spirits is good for you. Notice from the Gospel reading that the Lord’s calm words are all that is needed to drive the demon away, and thrash and kick though it might, the poor man is thrown down, but not hurt. No mumbo jumbo, no flashy incantations nor any mysterious summons of supernatural powers. It wouldn’t get good TV ratings these days, since there’s no pizzazz. Take care to realize as you read the Gospels that whatever Jesus does to drive out spirits, He does the very same thing to cure fevers, open the eyes of the blind, make the lame jump for joy in the forgiveness of sins, and raise the dead. He rebukes the hold of the forces of evil and sin, setting the human victim free—all with a simple, ordinary, unimpressive Word.

That plain, ol’ Word, however, is the very kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims as good news. It is the very same Word that you hear today. You may not be thrown to the ground with demons possessing your body, but you have been afflicted all the same. Martin Luther realized that every person who was about to be baptized, whether newborn, young or old, was about to leave the grasp of Satan and be numbered among the Christian saints. He even “lamented” a little, if you could call it that, warning that newly baptized believer and his parents that now they’ve got a nasty enemy in the devil, who will not stop his evil attack upon those who now belong to Christ. What a powerful, mind-blowing Word that is, that we have connected to plain, ordinary water!

And Satan’s attacks don’t let up as you grow in the Christian faith, either. That healed man from the Gospel account, being a redeemed sinner, is going to need that wonderful Good News every day, just like you need it. No matter how often you’ve heard it, forgiveness keeps coming back to you to strengthen you in the one, true faith. The Body and Blood of Christ strengthen you in believing the promises that became yours when you were baptized. Though Satan will try his best to scare you, repulse you, or deceive you with good feelings and phony delights, you still have the calm, yet powerful Word of Jesus Christ preserved for you in Scripture and useful for your training in righteousness.

So whether it’s evil spirits masquerading as spooky phenomena, and I’ll grant you, that may very well happen, or an agonizing trial that you’re suffering, whether in health or otherwise, or, more likely, those everyday temptations that your sinful nature loves to justify that you just had to do it, even though you knew it was wrong, that evil needs to be brought out into the light of day. Shine the light of God’s Word on it, confess to the Lord all that is your burden of sin, and trust in the Gospel promise that Jesus has taken that burden away. That Word of assurance, paid for by the blood of Jesus, is the armor you need to withstand the attacks of the devil, the world, and yes, even your own sinful nature that’s going to stick with you until you die.

Now, if the publicly declared absolution announced here in Church doesn’t seem to cut through all that you’re up against, and you want to believe the words that you pray in the Lord’s Prayer, forgive us our trespasses, then maybe you ought to confess your sins one-on-one with your pastor. He is called and ordained to speak the very same simple, yet powerful words of Christ specifically to you in absolution. I mention that, not to lay a requirement on you, but to offer you a wonderful gift that our Lord meant for you to have as often as you seek it out.

Whether you read it in the Bible, hear it in church, receive it personally from your pastor, or eat and drink it in Christ’s Body and Blood, the calm, simple and mighty Word of the Kingdom of God that makes devils shriek and flee, that heals the sick and raises the dead, that Word is yours. It is not some magical power that you get to wield at your pleasure, but rather it is the power of God to convict you of your sins, and remove them, giving you the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life that your heavenly Father assures you is pleasing to Him, because it is the life that you live by faith in the Son of God, (Galatians 2:20) crucified with Christ and risen to new life with Him who has destroyed evil—including all those nasty unclean spirits—forever.

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

Readings:
Deut. 18:15–20 a Prophet like you from among their brethren
Ps. 111 The works of the LORD are great
1 Cor. 8:1–13 beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block
Mark 1:21–28 He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.

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

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Wait, what was that? Those words beginning with Grace, mercy and peace, have introduced literally hundreds of sermons that you may have heard. Those words come from the Bible, from the opening words of the epistles in the New Testament, which are in their own way sermons themselves, and examples for our sermons today. The pastor could certainly just start talking, just like a prayer can be said without having to say the actual words, in Jesus’ Name, or even the word Amen. But when you do hear those words, you should regularly remind yourself why they are there. Grace, Mercy, and Peace are yours at this very moment, for these are gifts sent to you straight from God the Father who has revealed Himself in His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. The Holy Spirit isn’t explicitly mentioned, but He is still there wherever the Word is preached purely. There is a definite order, too: Grace, Mercy and Peace. Your peace with God doesn’t automatically happen of itself, but it comes from the reconciliation that was established by the first two gifts: Grace and Mercy. Of these two does Jesus speak when He preaches the blessed invitation, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

When you think of mercy, consider it for starters using a negative, as in, God’s not giving us what we deserve. When Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, He said, “Repent.” Though it is a hard-sounding Word from the Lord, “repent” is a declaration of God’s mercy. We don’t see that connection at first because part of the proclamation “repent” means pointing out that you are sinful – that you have sinned – that you are a sinner. None of this proclamation sits very well with the old Adam that we have in us. The Gospel points out that John was forced into prison and eventually beheaded, and we know this is because he did not let up on an uncomfortable preaching of repentance. Powerful rulers wanted to silence his accusing voice. You are by nature a child of wrath – you have transgressed the will of God – this is who you are, as well as what you have done. As a result, you deserve nothing less than the venting of God’s holy wrath upon you now as well as condemnation and destruction for eternity. Every split-second that God does not do this immediately, right this very moment, is an example of His mercy.

Think of when Jonah preached to the Gentile people of the city of Nineveh, after his little episode with the big fish. How long was it going to be until the day God would destroy the people? Forty days. Even though Jonah was mistakenly looking forward to the big spectacle of a huge, catastrophic overthrow, his sermon unwittingly included God’s mercy because there was a time of forty days that God allowed for the people to repent and believe. Even those Ninevite Gentiles understood mercy because their leader said, Who knows? Maybe Jonah’s God will relent from this disaster that he is threatening against us. And so their humble acts were evidence of faith and repentance, which the Lord granted them by His Holy Spirit. When Lent arrives, we’ll hear again about the connection between forty days and repentance.

Now the invitation to “repent” may lead to at least three different responses. First, one can say “no.” This is one who rejects God’s Law and refuses to believe or accept forgiveness. Second, a person might reply, “I’m sorry that I’ve broken Your Law, O Lord, so give me a manageable list of do’s and don’ts and I will work at it. I’ll make some goals and personal resolutions that will challenge me to be better and make the grade by myself. You can even give me some grace to provide a little boost.” But even though this person lives under God’s Law, believes in the grace of God and wants to do better, yet that Christian is not crushed enough to the point of true repentance. If you are not crushed by the Law’s impossible demand, then you are still relying upon yourself, even if it’s just a little bit, and you must repent. Third, consider the individual who confesses his Sin, admits that he or she is a sinner, lays out all sins before the Lord and says, “I can’t do it on my own…God, be merciful to me.” This means, Lord, I beg you for mercy. Do not give me what I deserve. In Your mercy, grant me Your continual pardon. For this repentant sinner, in a merciful answer from God, the negative (that is, not giving you what you deserve) turns into a positive, which is a full and free forgiveness and acceptance, plus a promise of renewal and everlasting life guaranteed in Christ.

Indeed, repentance itself is a gift from God out of His abundant grace and we pray that by His mercy we may always be recipients of a repentant heart, cleansed and renewed with the Lord’s free Spirit. We pray also for those people who continue to refuse repentance and forgiveness, recalling the words of the Apostle Paul, “God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).

So in God’s mercy He does not give us what we deserve; in His grace God is giving us what Jesus Christ deserved through what He did for us. The Gospel of Mark says, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel.'”

But what is this Gospel of God that we should believe in it? The Gospel is everything that God has done, going way back to creation and coming to perfect fulfillment in what Jesus came to do in and for our sin-filled world. Specifically from the creed we confess … Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven – was Incarnate by the Holy Spirit – was born of the virgin Mary. This is Jesus the Christ, true God and true man. This sinless, perfect Lamb of God, Who came to bear the sins of the world, did the Gospel when He fulfilled the Law perfectly, when He defeated Satan in the wilderness by His Word and atoned (that is, made full and final payment for) all transgressions of all transgressors. The Good News is that Jesus the Christ paid a sufficient ransom and then rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. In this one act of real history, the eternal Lord has entered time and taken away your sins from you and removed them as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. The world has been and, mystery of mysteries though it seems these days, the world still is redeemed. This is the Good News. This is the Gospel that, by the Holy Spirit alone, you believe.

In His grace, God has given you what Jesus deserved … forgiveness of all your sins, salvation in His Name, and eternal life now and forever. Grace and mercy are a prelude to and are sufficient for the peace of the Lord. This, dear baptized saints, is the Good News of peace with God. Therefore we can and may “repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Even though all of these events happened long ago, this Grace, Mercy and Peace continue today, because God’s Word continues in all its Gospel purity to this day. Even now, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus continues to keep His promise that He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is mercifully and graciously present with His people as they gather together in His Name, even if it be but two or three. When called and ordained servants of the Word announce that you are forgiven of all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is really God’s forgiveness.

Where the King is mercifully and graciously present with His people, there the Kingdom of God is – not because of something God shows us and we see, but on account of God’s Word of promise that is spoken and what we hear and believe in our hearts. For “the Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21). It is not just any old word, or a bunch of talk, or simply getting together as a group … for even the pagans can do that. Paul reminds us, “For the Kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

The righteousness that covers you completely and perfectly is Christ’s righteousness that is yours in Him through Word and the Sacraments. The peace that you have is peace with God on account of Jesus’ sin-atoning suffering and death. Joy is a blessed response to this Word of promise. “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Romans 10:17). What is the preaching of Christ? We just read it: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel.'”

That Word was proclaimed a long time ago. That Word applies to you, not only when you first heard it, but also this very day and for as many days as God grants you in this life and on this earth. For, “repent, and believe in the Gospel” is a continuous thing. You don’t just believe once and then you’re done. You continue believing for the rest of your life. The ascending, enthroned and reigning Christ says to His Church, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of Life” (Revelation 2:10).

You the faithful have gathered today in the Presence of the Lord to repent, that is, to be sorry for your sins, to confess them, to seek the Savior Christ who has promised to meet you here, for you to trust in Him and to hear the words, “You are forgiven of all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And so we conclude where we began concerning the Gospel of Peace with God, namely, Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

I Tim 1:2 – Grace Mercy Peace

Lectionary Readings:
  Jonah 3:1–5, 10 – Arise, go to Nineveh
  Ps. 62 – I shall not be greatly moved
  1 Cor. 7:29–35 – the time is short
  Mark 1:14–20 – Repent, and believe in the Gospel.