Today we observe the feast Day of All Saints, where we celebrate the victory given to all the Saints who from their labors rest. We give thanks to God through Jesus Christ for their confession of faith and lives here on earth and pray that we too might be remain faithful and be brought to that eternal rest through Christ.

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John had a vision of that eternal rest. He saw the saints in heaven. He saw what it takes to make a saint, that is, a holy one.  One of the elders speaking to John tells John the exact process for making a saint. The elder said, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” 

The blood of the Lamb is the blood of Jesus Christ as John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! The Apostle John wrote, [1 John 1:7] “The blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.” The writer of Hebrews said, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”  

Therefore, becoming “holy ones” or saints, comes only from the holiness of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It comes by the washing of regeneration and sprinkling in Christ’s Blood in the pure waters of baptism as the merits and righteousness of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sins on the cross are applied to His people by faith.

The world has the idea that saints are declared to be Saints because of their own good works or in the Roman Catholic church the designation “saint” is given only when a very pious and holy person dies and then after a drawn out process involving miracles in that person’s name the pope must designate that person a saint. This too is not the biblical definition.

Sainthood cannot be achieved by a good effort and nobody can confer it upon themselves. In this life all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Instead, sainthood is conferred from outside ourselves. It is given by God through His Grace for the sake of the perfect life, and the innocent suffering and death of Jesus Christ our Lord and savior. 

If we were to call ourselves saints according to the world’s idea of sainthood, we would be pointing to our own accomplishments and the world would be right to call us arrogant and self-righteous. If we were honest, even all our loved ones who have gone before us in the faith who now rest were imperfect in their earthly endeavors. But if we look at how sainthood is conferred according to the Bible, then we see that it is given by God’s grace despite the failings of mortal men and women. People are declared holy for the sake of the work and grace of Jesus Christ crucified and raised. It is in Him that Christians glory for what He has done, that He has redeemed them. That He has taken our polluted garments and washed them by His blood.

When we say that someone is a saint in the Biblical sense of the word, we are simply saying that the Holy Spirit has worked faith in them – that they believe that the Son of God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and earned the forgiveness of sins for them with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.

Does the description of a saint sound a lot like the description of a Christian? It should. All Christians are saints and all saints are Christians.

When we talk of all the saints as one large group of believers, we are really talking about the Holy Christian Church. The Holy Christian Church is sometimes also called the Communion of Saints.

This Communion of Saints spans two different worlds. Here on this earth, in this life, we are the Church Militant. We continue to struggle against temptation, the devil and our flesh in this sin soaked world. Even though Jesus has defeated Satan with His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, Satan still tries to wrest the victory from God’s children by tormenting and tempting them from the confession of Christ’s name. This is why we are the church Militant, we are yet in this life upon the battlefield. We would be defeated, except as we sang last Tuesday, “for us, fights the Valiant One”, Jesus Christ is our Mighty Fortress who fights by our side and continues to give us strength and power as He feeds and empowers us through His Word and Sacraments by the forgiveness of our sin so that we may reach the goal and receive the victory by faith in His name.

Cheering us on, though not able to clearly see our struggles, is the Church Triumphant. The Church Triumphant is made up of all those saints who are already gathered at the throne of the Lamb, who are now at rest from this earth’s labors. They are now without sin, without hunger, without misery, without tears, because the one called the Lamb is their Shepherd – who leads His lambs to living fountains of water. All memory of pain, death, sin, sickness, poverty, hunger, persecution, and hatred are wiped from their eyes along with their tears.

Even though this church spans two worlds, there are not two churches: there is not one here on earth and another in heaven. We “believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church.” The oneness of the church is not destroyed even by the separation of death. For where Jesus is, there are His saints – those here on earth, and those who have “come out of the great tribulation” of life in this world.

The church on earth and the church in heaven are united around the throne of God and in the presence of the Lamb through faith in Jesus Christ. When we gather around the altar on Sunday, we know that our deceased relatives and friends who have likewise “washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb” are right there with us. When we sing “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world”, we sing along with the countless Christians of every age. When we chant “Holy, holy, holy”, we do so with billions of the faithful from every time and place. And when we come before the Body and Blood of the Lord, we are joined with those whom we love and remember but can no longer embrace. We are not only in the presence of Jesus, but are also surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, this host arrayed in white, those who fall on their faces night and day in worship before the Lord Himself.

So, it is proper that we praise God for the men and women of faith who have gone before us. It is appropriate that we honor the work that God had done in their lives to give them saving faith in Jesus Christ, and through them served others including you and me. It is good to give honor to those who have preceded us into the Church Triumphant.

When we honor the redeemed, we are also honoring the Redeemer. The saints who are holy in God’s eyes testify to the only One who is eternally holy: our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His blood that covers our sin and allows us to stand in His presence. It is being baptized into His death that gives us a white robe. It is His Word and Sacraments that usher us already into the throne room and gives us a foretaste of eternity where we will never again suffer or be unhappy.

What then shall we do while we wait for our turn to leave the battle of this world and enter the rest our Savior has prepared for us? Let us live humbly before our God, in service to Him and to our neighbor as He has served us with His salvation here.

Remember the Savior promises never to leave us or forsake us. So live by His grace and the forgiveness of sin given through faith in Jesus Christ. Be fed and forgiven through His Word, be empowered by His Spirit to confess His name in worship and in your vocations to His glory.

Though we live in a mortal body decaying with sin, these bodies will be raised and made new. Though our worship is imperfect, it will be perfected. Though our voices may crack and are imperfect now, they will one day sing in perfect harmony with the angels in eternal glory. 

We who believe are already saints, holy ones. By His death on the cross, the Lord Himself clothes us with His righteousness, and through His resurrection He will one day shepherd us to everlasting life. In that blessed place we will experience the eternal joy of God’s presence along with the rest of the Communion of Saints. Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

Today is Reformation Day, also called “the eve of All Saints”, or Halloween. 506 years ago, an Augustinian friar and professor at Wittenberg University named Martin Luther posted 95 theses in Latin for theological discussion concerning the sale of indulgences on the castle church door. These statements which were concerned with answering what is true repentance?” and how can forgiveness of sins be bought or sold? This is what began what we now call the Reformation of the western church.

When you reform something, you don’t start from scratch. You conserve what you can and you fix what you can’t. A true Reformation tends to be conservative. It’s like pruning a perennial or trimming a tree. You don’t dig out the whole plant and put another in its place, nor do you whack down the whole tree to the root. You prune selectively, skillfully, carefully. Luther did not intend to split an already fractured church. Nor did he intend to start a new church, as if such a thing were possible. This was not about shaking a defiant fist at the Pope, though he did do a bit of that later on, nor was it about breaking away from the big bad Catholic Church, nor was it, as the radical reformation believed, so that some new pure church could emerge from the impure Catholic. This was supposed to be, and always is, about reformation. Correcting what is wrong, conserving what is right.

And so it is today. The Church is always and ever being reformed: including the “Lutheran church”, even this church. Every part of the church. It’s not simply a once and done deal where you can rest on your laurels. As long as there is sin and weak humanity, there is always going to be error, drift, a little sideways current or wind that blows the Church slightly off course. That’s true for each of us justified sinners too. We are ever in need of reformation. It’s not about once saved always saved. Our Baptism is not a one time thing but a daily thing, a daily dying and rising, a daily repentance and justification, a daily reformation by God’s Word. That is what the Reformation was all about: God’s Word.

Jesus spoke to the Jews who HAD believed in Him. They used to believe, but not anymore. There’s no once believed always believing security here. You dare not take the gift of faith lightly. What went wrong? Did God fail? Did the Word fail to do its faith creating, sustaining, enlivening work? No. The people refused. They had turned from the Word. Faith is born of the Word, is fed by the Word, is sustained by the Word. And without the Word, faith dies.

Jesus said, “If you abide in my Word you are truly my disciples.” But to be a disciple is to abide in the Word of Jesus, that is, to remain in the Word, to exist in the Word: being connected to Jesus by hearing His Word and having His Word have its way with you. The same word “abide” is used in Jesus’ saying of the vine and the branches. A branch abides in the vine and draws life from it. Cut off from the vine, the branch is fruitless and dead. Cut off from the Word, faith is fruitless and dead too.

There is a promise for those who abide in the Word of Jesus. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus Himself is the truth. His Word is truth. To abide in the truth is to abide in Jesus, which is the only place in which a sinner may abide and live before God.

The truth is that we are sinners. Not simply ones who commit sin, that is, do bad things, think bad thoughts, or say bad words. It goes much deeper than that. We are slaves to Sin with a capital S. “Whoever sins is a slave to Sin.”

Do you sin? Well, in case you’re not sure, the commandments say that you do. Do you fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Do you use the name of God rightly in worship and prayer? Do you gladly hear and learn God’s Word? Do you honor father, mother, and other temporal authorities? Do you help your neighbor in every need? Do you keep marriage pure and encourage others to do the same? Do you help your neighbor protect his property? Do you defend the reputation of others by putting the best construction on everything? Do you desire what doesn’t belong to you? Are you content with what you have?

The truth is that you do not abide in God’s Word as you should and therefore sin, and when you sin you are therefore a slave to sin, just as Israel was once a slave in Egypt, but then fell into the slavery of idolatry again and again: a fact that the Jews in the Gospel text seemed to have conveniently forgotten. They took God’s grace for granted. You’re freed from slavery, and forget the slavery and get enslaved elsewhere. “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.” How soon people forget. That’s pride talking, and an unusual form of pride. The worst form of pride which is spiritual pride. It’s receiving a gift and then acting as if you’d earned it all along. Or forgetting entirely that it is a gift, and so also forgetting the giver.

We are born enslaved, captive to Sin and Death. We cannot free ourselves. We’re stuck. And any attempts at self-liberation only make matters worse. When we honestly look into the mirror of the Law we find that it’s a magnifying mirror. Even things we thought were OK, even those places where we felt self-justified turn out to be so riddled with sin we barely recognize the good. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The mere fact that we sin in our thoughts, words, and our actions reminds us that we are slaves to Sin.

A slave remains for a while, a son remains forever. The Word of God in His Gospel is that which frees us. The Word made flesh, the Son of God came down to us trapped in slavery to sin. The Son joined us in our humanity. The Son stood side by side with the slave to free us. He paid the price. He redeemed us. He lived the Law flawlessly without Sin. He was not enslaved by Sin, He was Lord over Sin. Yet as Lord, He came under the Law that accuses us, that holds us accountable, that silences us before God, and condemns us to eternal death. He took up our Sin and our Death and He nailed it all to His cross. The Son became the slave so that the slave might become the son. And if the Son sets you free, you are free as free can be.

That’s what Martin Luther discovered when He looked at the cross of Jesus and for the first time in his life saw mercy rather than merit. Undeserved kindness rather than an example to follow. When he heard that phrase “the righteousness of God” and recognized that this was not something you worked for by the Law but it was something given as a gift by God’s Word in Jesus Christ through faith. The Law drives you to Jesus seeking mercy, which is what it’s supposed to do. The Law is there to shut every mouth so that no one can boast before God. The Word of the Law prepares us to receive, in joy, the Word of the Gospel. Jesus Christ died upon the cross, so that you may be set free from the enslavement to sin, flesh, and the accusations of the Devil.

There is power in God’s Word. Power to rebuke the devil and His ways. Power to rebuke our pride. Power to embolden us by the forgiveness of sins given freely by Grace in Jesus Christ. The Word which we hear in Baptism, in Holy Absolution, in the Lord’s Supper, in the study of God’s Word, in catechesis, in our hymns, our liturgy. The Reformation was not about adding to God’s Word. It was about magnifying God’s Word: magnifying Jesus Christ and His rescuing freeing act of redemption. Showing that there is power in the Word to convert, to change, to grow strong and steadfast, because it is all about Jesus Christ and God’s will for your salvation.

Martin Luther, the Wittenburg theologians and the faithful reformers ever since have tried to promote biblical literacy, a knowledge of Scripture, how to read it, to find the power therein. It is this through which God causes personal repentance, forgiveness, and reformation and recreation in His Holy Freedom: Law, Gospel, Jesus Christ. It is this Word which causes Satan to fall. He cannot accuse us or lead us astray if we are steeped in and abiding in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

In Jesus you are free. Free from the Law’s condemnation. Free from enslavement to Sin. Free from Death, free from the torments of the Devil whose power has been destroyed. You are free to live before God as a justified sinner. Free to serve your neighbor in love. The slave is made a son, a child, an heir. Should you doubt this and wonder if it applies to you, remember that you are baptized. Baptism is your adoption paper. You were a slave but now you are a son, a daughter with the full rights of sons. You have a place at the table. You have a permanent place in the house to abide with your Lord and Savior as He abides with you in His Word, His Divine Service, His absolution, His body and blood in the bread and wine.

Therefore, abide in that justifying Word, and you are a disciple of Jesus. Abide in that Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and you are forgiven. Abide in that Word, and you are free, and will remain free, for “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” In Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

“Go, your son will live”. This prognosis which Jesus spoke to the official whose son was near death was not exactly what that official wanted to hear. No, he had wanted more than a nice word. He wanted signs, He wanted Jesus to come to his home with haste.

This official lived in Capernaum which was approximately 16 miles from Cana. His son was ill and dying, but when this official heard that this same Jesus who changed the water into wine was back from Jerusalem, he had hope. Yes, it would be a 2-3 day journey to get there and back, and to leave his son and family during such a time would have been painful, (I mean what if his son died while he was gone) but maybe, this Jesus person could help.

So, the official hastily journeyed and arrived to see Jesus, asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So, Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 

This phrase speaks to people of all times. The Gospel of John tells us that many were interested in Jesus because of the signs done by Him. They were able to suffer through to listen to His preaching from time to time, but only because they expected a payoff of beholding the spectacle and wonder of some new miraculous sign of healing, of changing water to wine, or something else. Sadly, our human nature has a faith that is conditional towards each other and towards God as well, “what have you done for me lately?” Give me proof that you care, so that you can earn my care in return.” “God, you still haven’t healed my illness, you haven’t improved my finances, you haven’t brought about world peace,”… or whatever expectations we place upon Him.

We are selfish and our doubt and our conditional “faith” is really unbelief and is therefore sinful. God’s Word should be enough for us, but it rarely is. God spoke creation itself into existence, so if He tells us that He loves us, that we don’t have to be anxious, that He knows our needs and will provide for them, why isn’t it enough? Because since the fall into sin by our first parents, we still wonder, “Is God’s Word really true?” We don’t trust God. We are born separated from Him by our sin, predisposed to selfish impulses, prone to doubting everyone else’s motivations because we know our own impulses. There have been times when we have trusted people and they have let us down.

God tells us: that “you will live” “you are saved” “You are precious to me” on account of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection paying for our sins, yet, we wonder: “is there room for doubt? How can I know for sure, unless God is constantly proving His love through signs of success and earthly blessings”.

To Jesus’ declaration regarding signs, the official did not deny his desire for a sign and for Jesus to drop everything and take care of his problem, but he said to Jesus, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go, your son will live.” What did the official think in response? He didn’t plead with Jesus, “no, come on, you must come with me!” He didn’t curse Jesus, himself, or swear oaths, or try to make deals. No a miracle happens…I don’t mean the healing of the official’s son. The miracle is here: “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”

He believed the word spoken by the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. The same Word that formed the earth, and brought life to flesh, now speaks and as Jesus speaks here in Cana, new life, new hope is created as we are told the man believed the word, and the response of faith to that word is to trust and go as he was told.

Then as he traveled, it is possible that he began to doubt again. As he anxiously neared Capernaum, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 

He undoubtedly told his family all about Jesus, the time when Jesus said that the son would live, and so on. Then they all believed. And as the father, son, other family and servants believed in Jesus, then there is greater significance to the phrase, “your son will live” because it points to living as opposed to dying: As in Jesus’ words in John 11:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
The never dying refers to the fact that faith in Jesus Christ makes it that people may taste of death in this life, but they will never truly see and experience true death, meaning eternal death and punishment. Why? Because of Jesus, because of the greater and greatest sign that He performed so that you may believe and have life in His name. That sign is the sign of the cross where Jesus died for you. What has God done for you lately? He continues to forgive you your sins, He continues to reach out and comfort you in your sin and its curse of pain, suffering, amidst a world that is truly dying in unbelief and despair. He has taken that sign of the cross and placed the power of God’s loving sacrifice upon you in Holy Baptism where you were washed and a miracle has taken place. As we sing LSB hymn 593: “See this wonder in the making”
“Here we bring a child of nature, Home we take a new born creature, Now God’s precious son daughter, born again by Word and water.”

Dear friends, you are now a son or a daughter of God, by virtue of faith worked by God creating Word through its preaching and as it works through Word and Water, Word of Absolution and confirmed in His Word with wine and bread with His own body and blood. You, oh son, you oh daughter will live! Behold the signs which bring healing and confirmation of His love and testimony to you.

The official’s son may have been healed, but that does not mean that he never got sick again, that he was not persecuted later on, and that his body never died. That again is the power of Jesus declaration to the official and to you. You will live: forever. If you are sick, you may be healed in your body, but you have been healed of your sins, even if your body wears out, you will live, forever. Because Jesus Christ has conquered death. In His death, the bite of death and darkness has been dulled. Satan, the world and the flesh may try to bring you back into doubt and despair, but that is why we come here. Why we receive from the Lord, His gifts of grace, His signs of victory in Christ. So that as St. Paul says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

By faith we can put on the whole armour of Christ and leave this place ready for those daily battles, facing them head on. Rebuking and resisting, because it is God’s power, the power of His word, which is in us and all around us and the devil, the world, and our own flesh cannot overcome it.

And when we falter, we return to Christ, to Church, and we are healed and outfitted again until the day that the battle for us ceases, when we join the church triumphant about whom we will talk more next Sunday. Yes stand firm in the faith of Christ crucified even as you go on your way. You will live eternally for Jesus Christ’s sake, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

If we were invited to a great celebration and party for someone like a king or queen or president we probably and immediately ask: what should I wear? Imagine if this were to a wedding banquet? Even with regular weddings you probably wouldn’t just come as you were, you surely wouldn’t want to dress in your dingiest and dirty clothes. You would want to wear something nice and special. Why? Because to wear grimy clothes to such an event shows disrespect and disregard to the inviter. But what if you didn’t have to worry about it, if that royal host actually provided the clothing to wear? You wouldn’t even have to worry about choosing or deciding what would be appropriate, you wouldn’t have to worry about buying something or being offensive. Just wear what is provided. It would be a generous gift for just being at the party. We would praise their generosity and receive that added gift and wear it gladly, wouldn’t we? Well I would think so.

Something similar happened in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus told a parable of a king whose son was getting married. Of course, a marriage is something worthy of celebrating, and he had long before invited many people to come to this wedding. But when the time for the wedding feast, virtually none of those who had been invited showed up. When the king sent his servants to find out “what was going on?”, some of the people who were invited merely shrugged off the messengers. They all had something else to do that they thought was more important. What is worse, is that some even beat and killed the messengers. Almost unbelievable.

Remember the one inviting wasn’t just some guy down the street, this was the king. The ruler and governing authority. The reaction of the people wasn’t caused by a slight disagreement of a sense of priorities, it wasn’t that they knew that the food and celebration wouldn’t be fun. No, the reactions of the people was outright disrespect, even hatred for their king.

But why did they hate this king? It sounds like from the parable that he was loving king, a king who was generous and patient, providing for his people, yet the ones initially invited despised him for his generosity to the point of killing his messengers.

This parable is talking about God the Father, His Son was Jesus, the time of celebration was the time of salvation and the redemption of the Bride by the Bridegroom in the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The subjects of the king who had been invited but rejected it were the Jews: many who also beat the prophets of God and killed many prophets sent from God.

The king still wanted to serve and give and celebrate so his servants gathered many people from the roads, the passersby, those travelling through the countryside, many who were probably not citizens. This represents the gathering of the Gentiles, the non-Jews into the Christian Church. But even among those who were brought in there was a disrespect and disregarding of the king and his generosity. It didn’t have to do with whether people were good or bad in their state when brought in, for it says that the servants gathered and brought in both the good and the bad. It had to do with the wedding garment. The clothing.

The king had provided for his guests a wedding garment so that all the people regardless of their background, their situation previous to being admitted would no longer be seen based on that but now would be equally dressed in royal celebration garments. The king provided for them, they were probably made of wonderful material, more comfortable than anything else, a person has the privilege of being at this feast, why would they wear something other than what was provided? Why would a person insist on wearing your own clothing? Pride in themselves and disrespect or distrust of the king.

It is very interesting that this text comes around in the 1 year series near the celebration of the Reformation because it speaks very closely to one of the primary abuses of the Western church in the days of Martin Luther.

You see, the wedding garment provided represents God’s the righteousness of free grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. The garment of His righteousness won for believers in His redeeming work of salvation when He died on the cross as a payment for sins; so that those who have been bad and somewhat good (yet all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God). According to the Law, all are unworthy of coming into the presence of God because of their wretched rags of sin and pride. But Jesus died so that ALL could be saved and become citizens and guests covered in His blood and righteousness in order to celebration the feast of this victory and marriage of Christ, the Bridegroom with the Church His bride. This royal garment of righteousness is given in baptism, and daily washed in repentance and the remembrance of Christ’s promise in Baptism…but a person can reject this garment. A person can add to it or discard it, and decide that they would rather wear the garment of their own righteous deeds or their own sin.

This was really the battle that was raging at the time of Martin Luther. The Roman catholic church at the time of Luther had failed in proclaiming the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ. They did not see the garment of Christ’s righteousness to be an elegant wardrobe. They insisted, that people should add to it, they should add to it their own works, their offerings to Rome, their pilgrimages to holy sites, their prayers to the Saints, and their purchases of indulgences, or permission to receive forgiveness because they paid the price with cash.

Now if that isn’t pride and a slap in the face of the king, God the Father, and the free grace and sacrifice which He provided in His Son, I don’t know what is.

Yet this is the natural state of people: Jews, Gentiles, Lutherans, pastors, laity. We all so often take God’s grace for granted and want to wear the garments of our own design. Either we want to wear our deeds and magnify ourselves in our piety and our own holiness. Or we may make instruments of God’s grace like baptism, the Lord’s Supper into works to point to our own obedience as though God’s grace isn’t enough and it isn’t His work, it’s MY work, too often we have to add our decorations; our interpretations on His Word and grace which are not biblical and do not point to Christ. People may even make attendance at church as a thing of pride, rather than an opportunity to attend the presence of the king and His Son, receiving from Him His gifts for our good.

The other side of wearing garments of our own design is that we just not care about God and His invitation and His gifts at all. We see attendance at church as something that we do “if” we have nothing else to do. Or many will just stop coming all together because they don’t see that invitation by the king as a privilege and a source of joy. “I have other things to do” or “I don’t need it”. Or I would rather keep wearing the “lived in, beat up” shreds of cloth that the world wears and my sinful flesh enjoys.

When we sin, we are discarding the clothes of righteousness provided by God. We are saying “God, you may be the king of the universe, but I will do what I want when I want to. Take me as I am, if you love me, or don’t. I don’t care, I just gotta do what I want right now. That crucifixion of your son, well that’s nice, it makes it so that I can sin right here and now so your grace can abound by forgiving me later, right?”

OH, I don’t know how God puts up with us. If we were treated the same way as we treat God in His grace, we would be same angry and bitter. Honestly, that is what we deserve. WE don’t deserve multiple chances of repentance and forgiveness. We deserve the troops of the king to come and seize us and throw us into the place of punishment with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Therefore, let us repent of the dirty shredded clothing and garments of sin of our own making, and plead for the sake of Jesus Christ, mercy to cover over our bodies of sin. To remove our pride in ourselves and the world, and put on instead the gentleness, humility, and joy of Christ’s righteousness.

This was the message that God planted into the mouth of Martin Luther and His messengers of the Reformation. Return to Christ. Don’t put on any longer those inferior garments of our own making, there are no shortcuts, nor is there room for pride.

Let us instead rejoice in the Word of God, let us be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is far better, greater, and more splendid than any other clothing. Let us sing unto the Lord and praise Him for His generosity and His salvation which has come to us freely, saving us from eternal destruction.

Then let us attend and celebrate the feast and banquet of His victory with not with a spirit of pride, but gratitude. being filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ and the Truth which He teaches. Jesus Christ has died for your sin, we have been clothed with His righteousness the most splendid of garments. He has risen from the dead so that we may walk in His wisdom and the newness of life, into His presence in thanksgiving and joy to rest in Him, being fed the greatest of food and drink: Himself, being comforted and strengthened now and until we receive this feast in full at the last for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

In the Gospel text today, Jesus heals a man who was paralyzed, but even more than that: He first forgave the man his sins. So, which was the greater or should I say, which was the more important gift? The forgiveness of sins.

The Scribes recognized that it was a big deal that Jesus said that He forgave the man His sins. “Blasphemy” they thought. Nobody can forgive sins, but God alone. Jesus, being God in the flesh, knew their thoughts and called them out. It is easy enough to say the words: “your sins are forgiven you” but not actually have the authority or power to forgive sins, so the healing that Jesus performed actually backed up the power and authority that Jesus had to forgive sins of those brought to Him with faith. So, Jesus forgave the man, raised him from his paralyzed and helpless condition and the man gathered his bed and walked home.

One of the objections that people outside our confession have to what we as Lutheran do, is this: forgiving sins. Not just the “I forgive you for sinning against me” that every person can and should do, but specifically how we begin the Divine Service. The confessing sins to the pastor whether it be here altogether in a corporate way, that is, as it is said together, or to confess one’s sins to the pastor in private the pastor then speaking Absolution (that is forgiveness in the stead of Christ) is very strange to many in other church bodies. Many people react to this like, “wait, how can a man forgive sins? Why do you have this thing that you go through where a pastor says specifically “I forgive you your sins”? “Is that man making himself like God?” “Can’t only God forgive sins?” Well, that’s right that only God can ultimately save us and forgive sins against God and our neighbor. Does that mean that a pastor who says these words is putting Himself equal to God or placing himself in the place of God? Is a pastor telling people that he has power to forgive and not forgive as though he were God? Is the pastor doing this by his own authority?” That there is the key. Is a Pastor forgiving by his own authority or is he proclaiming it by an authority higher than himself? Any pastor who thinks that he is equal to God or Christ Jesus, or who thinks that he can just forgive sins or not forgiven sins, whenever, however, and to whomever based on his own whims or feelings, is of course, wrong. But what goes on in the absolution is not by my authority. I, Aaron Kangas, am nothing. It is the authority given to me to pronounce and announce this absolution to repentant sinners by God through Jesus Christ, as Jesus said to the Apostles on the night of His resurrection: “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’.”

A pastor is the Lutheran church Missouri Synod does not take on this responsibility or office on his own. He is not to assume the office of his own choosing. He doesn’t just start preaching or forgiving sins, because of his authority, because he has a gift of gab or because he knows Scripture. At least that should not be the case, and mistakes still happen, bad men get into office, and godly men may fall into temptation and fall from that position or simply burn out.

But we believe and confess that God calls and brings men into the office of pastor. He uses what we call a “mediate call”. Mediate means that God uses means He uses others to bring this about. Another pastor may see that a particular man has talent, ability, a faith and might want to consider the possibility and so he suggests and may encourage that man to pray about it. Then if he does follow to see what is God’s will, he must be interviewed at the seminary from the beginning and throughout his studies and then finally before he graduates. Then God uses what we term the “calling process” which involves many people, District Presidents, committees, etc. as you know. But by prayer, ultimately God uses a congregation to call a man who has been approved to serve them, and is then ordained and installed, or just installed if he has already been ordained. But a pastor is subject not to the congregation first and foremost, but rather to God and His Word to serve them faithfully with that same Word and the gifts that God gives which bring with them God’s forgiveness of sins.

Why then does a pastor proclaim an “absolution”? Because just as the act of salvation has to come from outside humanity’s dead in sin condition, faith and forgiveness must also come from outside of us. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit working through His Word and Sacraments which proclaim and deliver the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice and victory over sin to those infected, infested and paralyzed in the bondage of sin. This action of God to us from the outside or objective reality, to us personally or subjective is powerful stuff because it reminds us that the assurance of God’s love is not based on the quality of our obedience, the “sincerity” or constancy of our emotions, or whether or not things are “going well”. Living with our fallen flesh, in a sin-plagued world, we need this outside assurance and proclamation of a hope and promise bigger than ourselves.

However, the Devil works quite often by drawing people into themselves looking for assurance from within ourselves. He uses our tendency to pride: pride in our works, our desires, our own thoughts of righteousness…convincing us that we don’t need God or the church or to hear the forgiveness of sins. Or he will plant doubt and insecurity into people if they internalize their salvation and confuse the Law and doubt the Gospel. “I am a sinner. How can God love me? Can this sin truly be forgiven? I believe, I think, but how can I know this forgiveness is from God and for me?”

That is why God uses these objective (that is, outside of us) means. To draw us outside of ourselves. We are otherwise paralyzed, dead in our trespasses and cannot help ourselves. Without forgiveness, without God’s healing touch of His Word and sacraments coming from outside our own self to raise us from our sins, we will remain paralyzed in our sinful condition. That is why, much as the paralyzed man in the Gospel text needed to be brought to Jesus, and God used His friends, we needed somebody outside ourselves and God used that somebody else to bring us to Jesus. So we were brought to His Word in Holy Baptism, to His Word of forgiveness, where the Lord raised and healed us by in Christ Jesus. Our sins were placed upon Him crucified and raised to pay for our trespasses, and His righteousness placed upon us.

Throughout our lives, as we wrestle against our flesh, the devil, the world, and we fall into temptation, the Holy Spirit moves us to examine ourselves and repent anew and the Pastor from week to week speaks the absolution, Christ’s forgiveness of sins: “I forgive” “for you”, not by his own authority but as the mouthpiece of Jesus Christ by His authority, to assure repentant sinners, that God’s love and forgiveness is an objective unchangeable truth accomplished through Jesus Christ for the repentant believer in His death and resurrection. They don’t have to wonder “Am I forgiven? Do I feel forgiven? How can I know?”

That is why I as the pastor say, by the authority given to me, by Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is God’s forgiveness. In His name. The same name into which you were baptized and brought from unbelief into belief. From death to life. The same powerful name of the Trinity which brought you here to move you to see your sin, your need for His grace, and then gives it to you: In your ears in Absolution and preaching, over head in your baptism, to daily remember it, and into your mouth in the bread and wine with Christ’s true body and blood. All so that you can know that this forgiveness of sins is for you. That it is Real. This Word is Jesus speaking to you. You have been baptized, you have been repented, you are now forgiven in His name and by His authority. Both outside and in. All doubt: now flee away. Have confidence in that forgiveness of sins proclaimed not because of me as your pastor, but have confidence in the power and authority to whom I point: Jesus Christ crucified and raised for you.

Your sins are forgiven you. Receive His gifts. Arise! in Jesus Christ’s name. Walk by faith and confidence in Him by His Holy Spirit. As you have been brought to Jesus also be ready for God to use you “to bring” other people to Jesus: in your vocations as parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, students, teachers, coworkers, whatever. Speak with confidence what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. Bring them here, to hear that Word. To be served by Christ through the ministrations of the pastor in baptism and absolution, and when they are ready and able to confess the holy things here offered, then also the Holy Supper of Christ’s victory. Through these truths God will keep you healthy in faith and confidence in Him, as He comes to you, to His church, until Christ comes again at the last to carry us to our eternal home to live Him in His joy, His righteousness and purity forever, in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

What do you think about the Christ? What you think about Christ is the key to entering heaven. We are saved by faith, but in what and in whom? Who is that Christ?

Christology, that is, the study of “who is Christ?” is not just an exercise for pastors and professional theologians, but for you. It is closely connected to the previous question in the Gospel text that the Pharisees asked Jesus. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said, Love God and love your neighbor.

Love is the summary of the two tables of the 10 Commandments. Many people would say, “well I have tried. I have done better than others.” Maybe others would say: “Well, do I really need to? Isn’t God merciful, loving, and all that, anyway?”
What does that even mean to love?

In the biblical sense: love is not just an emotion but an outpouring activity. It is that to which you are willing to give of yourself, your all.

Whom do you love above all? Is it God? If you are honest, it has not been God. It has not been your neighbor. It has been yourself and the things of this world.

How does that fit into the subject of Christ? Nobody has loved God and their neighbor as they should have, and if you admit that you have not loved God or your neighbor, then you should also know that you deserve God’s wrath. You have sinned and you deserve eternal damnation, and you should repent.

This is where the Christ comes in. The One who came to do what we humans could not. This was the whole message and purpose of history throughout the Old Testament and the prophecies God sent: to point to, to lead to, Christ. Who is the Christ? A man? A god? “Somewhere in between?”

A survey before the pandemic in 2020 found that 52% of Americans believe that Jesus was a great teacher but not God. 30% of those considered Evangelicals agreed that Jesus was only a great man and teacher and NOT God. 40% of those who see themselves as Christians, believe that Christ was created by God; that He may have had some God-ness in Him, but Jesus the Christ was a creature!! These numbers are terrible and I am sure have only gotten worse.

If you think that Jesus, the Christ, was created by God, that He was only part god, or that He wasn’t God at all, you are wrong and that thinking has serious consequences.

The false teachings about Christ are very old. At the time of Jesus there were misunderstandings and false beliefs. In the early Christian church, “Christology” was at the root of all heresies and arguments. We see it today in the major disagreements between denominations. Most don’t even realize it. There is a “What do you think about the Christ?” problem. They may in their creeds confess that they believe that Jesus was the Son of God and true God and true man, but then they turn right around and in their practice and in their teaching effectively deny that Jesus is true God and true man.

Let us take the Sacrament of the Altar as an example. Most Protestants will say that the “Lord’s Supper is just an ordinance,” a law that Jesus said to do. They do not believe that Jesus is present in the bread and the wine with His body and blood. It is true that they may say that Jesus is there in a spiritual sense, but they deny that His flesh or His blood could be present in a sacramental but very real way. Why? Because they have a weak Christology.

Now wait up. Don’t get upset. Hear me out. Again, I am not saying that they are not Christian, but their dogma is dangerous. The reason why they cannot say that Jesus is there in that “real more than spiritual presence” is because Protestant/ non-Lutheran theology has been heavily influenced by the false teaching which says that “the finite cannot comprehend the infinite.” (repeat) What that means is that they believe that because Jesus was true man, His human body cannot be in many places at the same time. His body is ascended but to a literal location and that location alone. Therefore, in this belief system, the sacrificed and raised body of Jesus Christ cannot be present in the Eucharist meal in many places around the world at the same time. In this, they are actually limiting the Divinity of Jesus. They are saying that Christ cannot be where He says He can be and promises to be. Ultimately, they are confessing that the literal body of Jesus has not been given the full exercise, glory, and power of Christ’s Divinity even now that He has ascended into heaven. The problem really is finite human reason which limits the Divine mysteries to formulas of philosophy.

This is the problem for all of us, when we go above and beyond Holy Scripture which gives us all the objective truth that we need. We can comprehend God only by understanding Him through Jesus Christ who is God Himself.

Jesus the Christ is true man according to the flesh, Son of Adam, son of David all the way forward to son of Mary. Why did the Christ have to be true man?

Get ready, because here comes a list:
1st: It was necessary that He be true man and have a human body and soul, in order to do what we could not: namely keep God’s Law here in time, in the flesh, overcoming all temptations without falling into sin.
Secondly: It was necessary, that the Christ be fully man, to receive in His righteous and perfect flesh, the full penalty of the sins of mankind: receiving in His own bodily flesh, God’s righteous wrath upon sin, allowing Himself to die upon the cross.
Thirdly, it was necessary that He be True man so that He would then rise bodily from the dead, rising from the grave to show that His sacrifice was acceptable payment for humanity’s sin. Also, in His resurrection, we see the hope and promise for all those who believe in Him, a literal resurrection of the body with the soul.
Fourthly it was necessary for us, that we recognize that Jesus in His body had human needs, feelings, and we can be further assured that He and God know what we are going through in the human experience.

But what about His being true God, why must we reject limits to His power or the denial of His Divinity?
It was necessary that Jesus was and is true God equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, because:
As true God, Christ was able to be born without original sin.

As True God, Jesus was able to endure all bodily torments, temptations, and sufferings in His earthly life, even death on the cross, without sinning.

As True God, His sacrificial death on the cross could pay the sins of the world.
Having been exalted in Heaven as True God and True man: Jesus Christ now reveals God to us in all His love and mercy.
  As true God, Christ had and has authority to judge and forgive sins.
As true God, Christ is able to be with us and believers, spiritually, but also physically according to His promise. 

As true God, Christ hears the prayers of His people and intercedes for us before the Father.
As true God, Christ rules over creation and the Church.

For a time, Jesus had humbled His divinity during His earthly life and ministry, not fully exercising it but now that He has been crucified and raised, He glorified that earthly body by assuming it into the Divinity: giving unto His earthly body all the power, glory, and authority of His Divinity as He showed even in His resurrection appearances. He still retained His earthly flesh and blood: eating with the disciples and being able to be handled and touched. But He showed His mastery over physical law, by rising before the stone was rolled back from the tomb, by appearing on the way to Emmaeus, vanishing only to appear in the locked upper room with the disciples, twice… among other appearances.

You cannot separate Jesus from God. You cannot separate God from Jesus. Can Jesus as the Son of God be present without His body? No.

You cannot separate His Divinity from his humanity. This is what we confess in the creeds and the Formula of Concord. This is biblical. It is right here in the text of Matthew as Jesus is speaking. This is what Jesus was trying to get the Pharisees to see. Scripture is clear. The Christ which David foresaw was both true God and true man. His natures not separated nor mixed but unified by His Divine power. This we confess once a year in the Athanasian Creed: Although Christ is God and Man; he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood into God. One altogether; not by confusion of Substance; but by unity of Person. God and Man is one Christ; This is the catholic/universal faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.

Take heart and rejoice in this truth! God loved you enough to join Himself to human flesh for all time. Now and forever. He died on the cross for you. To free us from ignorance and unbelief, rescued from false teaching and all that would cloud the message of who Christ is for you and me. He is your Savior and God!

The blood of Jesus is the blood of God, which pays for your sin and washes it away. It is truly present in the sacrament of the Altar for us to eat and drink. Through His coming to us in His Sacraments, He desires to join us into the fellowship with the Trinity, receiving His holiness, His spiritual gifts, His love. We in turn can love Him and love others here, witnessing to the truth of who He is for the world. A God who does not desire the destruction of all but has sent Himself to be our Savior in Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The word Sabbath is rooted in God’s resting on the 7th day following the six days of creation. Genesis chapter 2 says: So, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it, God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. Sabbath comes from the Hebrew verb “sabat”, meaning to stop, to cease, or to keep. On the Sabbath, then the Jews of the Old Testament were to stop their working and rest. However, the Sabbath is more than cessation or stoppage of labor. Resting in bed all day does not amount to a keeping of the Sabbath. According to Isaiah 58 the Sabbath is to be a delight and joy (Is. 58:13).

The Pharisees in much the same way as everything else, got hung up on the keeping the Sabbath. They were so focused on the rules against work, that they actually made, “resting” a work! They used the Sabbath to exalt themselves in their sense of righteousness. “See how much I am resting, I only took this many steps today, just enough to get to the synagogue and back”. They hired others to work for them and serve them, so they could rest while others worked around them. They forgot the whole purpose as to why God had given the Sabbath.

As the explanation to the third commandment points out: the Sabbath is not just about not working, but it is about worship: about resting in God: the God who does not rest! Receiving from God through the work of the priests and Levites on behalf of the people in the OT and through the Divine Service in the Word and Sacrament in the NT. In the Old Testament on the Sabbath, additional sacrifices were offered (Num 28:9-10) at the temple, and the special shewbread was to be set out “sabbath after sabbath” to signify Israel’s commitment to the covenant (Lev 24:8). There were morning and afternoon services at the synagogue, and in their homes, the Jews would recite scripture and benedictions, that is blessings from God. To help reflect the joyous character of the Sabbath there was a Jewish tradition of eating richly on the Sabbath, (Lev 23), and they were not to fast on that day, and it was forbidden to go about with outward expressions of grief and mourning.

The Sabbath was always a gift. As Jesus would say in the Gospel of Mark: “the Sabbath was made for mankind not mankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In other words, God gave the Sabbath as a gift. His telling them to observe this is what we sometimes call a gospel mandate. This do for your good. Like eat this or drink this, it is good for you. The spirit not the letter. The Sabbath was an Old Testament means of grace a Sacramental giving from the Lord. It was not so much about physical rest as it was an opportunity to receive from Him, grace, mercy, and spiritual rest. Yet, humans seem to be wired to take the gifts of God and make them works. Even today, the Protestants or RC see Gospel Sacramental instruments as our works or evidence of our obedience. But the sacraments, the Word of God, the Sabbath are not objects or instruments of the Law, but instruments delivering God’s grace and mercy and rest from sin, sorrow, guilt, and trouble.

We saw and heard that difference in understanding in this morning’s Gospel. The Pharisees had invited Jesus to come and feast with them, but they were observing Him to see what He would do. It is possible that they arranged for this man who had this dropsy to make an appearance to test what Jesus would do. And what did he do? He showed mercy. This is the true meaning of God’s Sabbath. The keeping of the Sabbath is not about exalting oneself or being lazy or even using it as another work day, but it is a day specifically set aside to receive mercy from God and/or showing mercy to others who need help physically and spiritually. AS Jesus said elsewhere: “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”. Just as naturally as one would rescue an ox or a child who has fallen into a well on the Sabbath, so too then Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath, and God in His Word and sacraments act with the interest of life and salvation, for us, and for all people.

This is so important, because we have sinned and cannot become righteous by our keeping of the Law. We dare not try to keep the Law and say that we are more righteous than others. At the same time, we should not abuse God’s gifts as we so often do. Even though the Sabbath is given by God to deliver His grace and Gospel, how often do we see it as a day where church is optional, where we can sleep in, or go do or watch sports? Maybe we see it as an opportunity to do make up work for ourselves that we didn’t get to during the week. But what is an hour or two out of your day to receive that which is needful?

No let us humble ourselves, let us call out from the wells and pits into which we have willfully stumbled and fallen into. Crying out for God’s help to rescue us from our sin, our pride, our messed up sense of priorities.

And Jesus does come to our aid. God sends Him to rescue us from the pit or well of spiritual death into which we have fallen by our sin. Jesus who was and is the exalted son of God, humbled Himself to be joined to human flesh, humbled Himself even further by becoming the servant of all, taking upon Himself all sin and sorrow taking it to the cross and dying to pay the price of your sin and win our forgiveness. The forgiveness of sins which is given here in His Word and His body and blood. This is what we need for our life now and forever in eternity. No other gift and rest will do. No other gifts grant mercy, healing, and forgiveness from God in Jesus Christ. God rested on the original Sabbath before the Fall and in a sense Jesus rested in the tomb on the Saturday after the crucifixion, but that was it! God works on the Sabbath, He works on the 8th day to redeem you by His death and resurrection!

Therefore, do not be like the Pharisees and exalt yourself because you are here and “putting in your obligation of time”. This does necessarily not mean that you are more holy simply because you woke up and made the effort to come here this day and are therefore a better person than those who are not here. Are you here for the right reasons? The best reason is because you know what is here for you. How desperately you need God’s mercy and forgiveness in order to be refreshed and strengthened spirit, mind, and body in Jesus Christ for the new week? If that is not your main reason, then humble yourselves in sincere repentance for your sin, knowing that this is why you need God’s Sabbath grace and rest in Him. This place of all places on earth, is where He promises to give us His true rest as He says, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He gives you rest for the work that He has given you to do as His child to do it well and faithfully.

When God created all things and gave unto Adam and Eve the stewardship of creation on the 6th day, he did not put them to work immediately, instead, on the 7th day He gave them a day of rest, a day to be refreshed in His grace to have the right mindset and heart to do their duty well by faith. The Jews saw days beginning with rest at sunset and the mornings followed for the work to be accomplished after the night time rest. This is profound. People: “Rest first. Work after.” That is why even now Sunday is not the end of the weekend, but the beginning of the new week. Why you should every evening have devotions and prayers, remembering your baptism, then go to sleep and rest in Jesus to start your work in the morning refreshed in Him.

Let us see the importance of the rest which God has established for us here in His Word as He comes to serve you through Christ in the Sacraments. This is a privilege to have a place to come and be gathered and be served. This is why you should be concerned by those who are not here. They are not receiving. Without this receiving, their hearts and minds will wear down and their faith will be destroyed as it is exhausted and distracted by the things of this world. This is why you should do all that you can to support this congregation to continue this work of God among you, to rest in Him, and respond in merciful service by faith to your neighbor.

In the meantime, rest up here. Be strengthened. Do not come to church to go through the motions. Come to be healed and strengthened by Jesus and His Word. Desire the same for your neighbors, your fellow church members who are not here today. They need this too. Christ and His gifts are the most important rest, recreation, and gift that we need in answer to the troubles that surround us in this life. If you are or get ill or injured as sin’s curse continues to attack to wear you out, text or call me as your pastor to come visit you and bring you Christ’s gifts for bodily spiritual healing and strength.

So: stop, rest, and listen. Receive. Be forgiven. Eat, drink, and go forth having been exalted and served through Jesus Christ. Refreshed and renewed for the labors of the week, to serve each other in mercy and love, as the Lord serves us as we look forward to the fulfilling of that eternal Sabbath rest with our Savior in God’s heavenly kingdom for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Aaron Kangas

Today marks the 5th Sunday in a row where the effects of sin are placed in the front and center to observe. 4 weeks ago, there was a death and mute man, the next week was the man attacked on his way from Jerusalem in the “Good Samaritan parable”, next it was the 10 leprous men suffering shame, isolation and a deadly disease, last Sunday was Jesus preaching from the sermon on the mount, saying do not be anxious in the midst of all these things. Do not even be worried about what to eat, drink, or what clothing to put on, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. These sufferings and worries are all the effects of sin experienced and lived out in the flesh. Sin is the cause of sorts of suffering: physical limitations, anxiety, grief, pain, anguish, helplessness, vulnerability to those who would take advantage showing the evil intent of those around us, and yes, a whole host of other things. This all leads to today’s text which features the ultimate weapon in Satan’s arsenal against humanity: death.

Against death, humanity is helpless. When we experience any of the issues, illness, physical limitations, persecution, physical violence, disease, hunger, any of these, the problems are multiplied because we ask: “what will this lead to?” “Will I recover, how weak will this make me, will I die from this?” The reality is that no regular human can ever escape from death. Death can happen whether we are old or young. It could arrive from illness, cancer, a car crash, or anything, really. No one can know how or when death will come. Some may try to ignore this reality. For some, the fear of death controls almost every decision they make. Most people are somewhere in between. Regardless of where you or I land on this spectrum, it is human nature to fear it, when it is thought about.

Satan uses this unsureness, this fear, or it’s opposite: over-confidence in one’s health or youth. He will use either to his advantage. All these things, he uses to cause people to embrace and live to worship themselves and while doubting God and His promises. He uses these fears or seemingly random tragic events or the awful results of careless personal choices to cause people to accuse God of not caring, or being evil, unloving, or cruel.

In today’s Gospel and Old Testament lessons, we have the OT and Gospel accounts of young men who died, sons of their living mothers, both who were widows. Death is always tragic because of sin, but when it takes a young person, it always seems even worse. We are not told the how or why they died. The OT lesson gives us a bit more detail in saying that the son became ill. We have no detail for the Gospel. Both mothers were widows. You know that this meant that both women had suffered the loneliness and heart ache of their husband dying. Stung by the pain of death before, now their only sons being taken from them, they, grief stricken by the sting of death once more, cried out to the Lord, “Why?” The window of Zaraphath said to Elijah: “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” The widow of Nain is not recorded as saying such a thing, but surely the thought to ask the Lord, “Why?” had crossed her mind and perhaps her lips.

Perhaps you have said similarly to God when things have gone the wrong way, when all hellish temptation, worry, trouble, disappointments, suffering, pain, and the threat of death fall around us and upon us. “God what do you have against me? Do you hate me? Why did you allow this or these things to happen? Why, Lord?” Is it sinful to ask such questions to the Lord? I don’t think so. Because you are asking the Lord. You are going to Him and praying and pouring out your complaint before Him as a believer. This is why Job is not seen by the Lord as saying anything unworthy of forgiveness despite his laments and challenges of God in the book of the same name. He did not write God off in unbelief, but cried out to Him and complained in faith.

However, the Devil, as I said can use this impulse of complaint from grief and fear to lead us to answer our questions with an earth based, untrue, answer: yes, God does hate you. That is what the world would say. “If there is a god, he must hate you. What did you do to make him so angry with you? Don’t you look like a fool and feel like a fool for trusting in such garbage? You should trust only in yourself, or some other earth bound authority to provide and protect” That is what the world will do. That is how the world would advise us.

But they are wrong. And when we make our own conclusions and blame God and feed our anger and fear, we are sinning. We are failing the test and opportunity to grow. We could blame God for sin and death, but in reality, He and His angels keep back most everything that our sinful, ungrateful, untrusting bodies and souls deserve. The reality is that we don’t deserve any grace or mercy. We and all the world deserve a present and eternal punishment, an eternal torment in the fires of hell.

The Gospel and Old Testament lessons for today and the last weeks, all point to the reality of who God is, and what is doing and does for us and why. The reality is that God does love us. Within His Word, His Grace, and within His only begotten Son. There is the solution for all that troubles us, all that grieves and oppresses us. That last enemy which threatens us all, death? It is defeated by the giver of life.

On His way into the city, Jesus and His followers meet the funeral procession for the son of the widow. Behold the situation which has so much irony. The widow is hopeless in that moment for comfort, but they meet the hope for the world and the Great comforter. A young man and only son of his mother, meets the young man and only son of God His father. The one who lives, calls forth the one who has died, but the living one who calls forth the dead son must Himself die and lay down His life. Jesus came to meet death head on, to conquer it with His innocent suffering and death on the cross. He sacrificed His perfect flesh and life so that this momentary and temporary resurrection of the young man of Nain from the dead could become permanent. So that death could be overcome by His perfect sacrificial death. So that as the Father restores His beloved Son Jesus in His resurrection from the dead, your resurrection of the body and soul would be eternal. After Jesus called the young man to rise from the dead, he restored him to His mother. What do suppose that also points to? Because Jesus Christ has died upon the cross for you. Because He has risen from the dead for you. He restores you to your heavenly Father. Through Holy Baptism and His Word His Spirit has brought you into His death, resurrection and brought you already from death to life. By the faith given to you in opposition to the spiritual blindness of this world, you can open your eyes and behold and respond to your loving God.

From one who was dead in sin, you are now alive in Christ. You are now marked for eternal life. You have already been raised to breathe the fresh air of life and hope for now and forever. Your bodily suffering and anguish, your griefs all will have an end. Place your hope in Him and you will not be dismayed, nor lost.

Cry out to Him in faith. Stop trying to bear things alone. Know that He hurts when you hurt. He hears and comes to you. Come to where He is for you and be restored again and again, being strengthened with each reception.

Come and receive the eternal food which strengthens and nurtures your faith. It is this food that gives comfort and joy in the deep valleys of this dying world. Here is the crucified and raised body and blood of your Father’s beloved Divine son, so that you can eat and drink and be restored as His created son or daughter. This feast shows you and gives you and prepares you for the eternal restoration of life of body and soul and the last.

Christ suffered so that here your earthly sufferings may be blunted and lessened. He suffered and died so that your death would not be permanent. No longer suffer anguish, anxiety, fear. When any enemy to wrest you from the Lord, invoke His name, and wrap yourself in His grace and promises and trust in Him, He will deliver you for His name’s sake.

Let Him already now turn your sorrows into hope, your disappointments into opportunities for learning and growing, and rejoice in His deliverance. As the young man began speaking and the people began praising the Lord, let us do the same. Let us praise Him with all our life and breath here on earth knowing that He who has raised us from our sin and unbelief will raise us once and for all, in Jesus’ name. Amen

Pr. Aaron Kangas

The concept of faith is rather easy to understand. The simplicity of faith is summed up in the simple meaning to the First Commandment. “You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Faith is simply defined as trust in God above all things. Hebrews 11 states it this way: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is to truly hope and trust in God alone, that what He says and does is true and right for our good even if we do not see it immediately with our eyes. But … you and I both know that this is much easier in theory than it is in “real life.” Putting faith into actual practice is a different ballgame. 

In the Gospel for this 15th Sunday after Trinity, Jesus says more than once, “Do not be anxious” (Matt. 6:25, 31). And yet, hearing these words, we adults can’t help but laugh a little. “yeah right”. We live in anxious and uncertain times. In this media saturated world, we can’t ignore the reality of war, potential war, the growing violence in our cities and communities, even between people as they relate to one another with increasingly sensitive hair-triggers. Money is tight. Inflation and recession rage and rampage, the stock market seems volatile. Words such as “pandemic,” and “supply chain,” are now part of our everyday vocabulary.

And on top of this, there are the daily stresses of bills needing to be paid, deadlines on our calendar needing to be met, perhaps health related issues needing to be addressed with uncertain outcomes. The list of issues is almost endless.

“Do not be anxious? Sure. Nice ideal. How can we NOT grow anxious?”: we think. And yet, what is the root cause of this anxiety?… Where our faith truly lies.

Jesus stated this truth: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matt. 6:24). Literally, “You cannot serve God and mammon,” which is worldly things such as possessions, wealth, and success.

Like a slave who’s duty-bound to serve only one master, you can only serve one master – God or mammon. This brings us back to the first commandment. So, who do you fear, love, and trust above all things?

For us Christians, we want to say: “of course, God”, We’re to serve the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s the One who created you, the One who redeemed you with His holy and precious blood, the One who sanctifies you, you’re to fear and love and trust in Him above all things. You’re to look to Him as your greatest good, help, and comfort in life.

And yet, in practice, from day to day, week to week, when we are tempted to worry…Do we trust God and say, “God will provide. God will take care of us through cross or trial in this sin cursed world?” Again, easier said than done or believed.

Instead, in order to live and survive in this world, in order to feel safe and secure, we see how mammon meets those needs. We can physically see with our eyes the bank account or food on the table or the gas gauge in our car. So, we try to compromise. We say that we trust in God …and these hands, this money, that politician, whatever. Yet you cannot serve both God and mammon. You will end up loving and working for the one and hating the other. When we yoke ourselves to mammon, to this life, the inevitable slavery is to worry, to become anxious, to wonder: “whether or not there will be enough.”

Not only does mammon bring with it about anxiety and worry. It steals your heart, your peace, so that you don’t recognize the true God or look to Him as your greatest good, help, and comfort and source of hope in this life or the one to come. Yet He is where freedom and true life reside.

The words of Jesus “do not be anxious about your life,” and “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Ring hollow to the world and our flesh. The devil tells us in our experience: “God’s a liar. He is just trying to sucker you. You still need to worry. He will let you down like He has before.” But like so much in this media saturated world, those words are a twisting and revision of history, a twisting of the truth of what God has done and provided and it is a falsehood regarding the source of the troubles of this world and what plagues us.

God is not the source of evil and trouble. He does not cause anxiety for believers. He is its answer. Sin and unbelief are the cause of anxiety, of the curse of trouble and toil. God is actually the refuge in the midst of a world suffering rightly under the curse for sin. He is the only true source of hope and comfort.

Look at the Old Testament for this morning and the lesson of God’s care in the midst of suffering. Elijah is directed by God in the midst of a great famine to go outside the kingdom of Israel to a widow who God said would feed him. He doesn’t argue with God but goes. Elijah speaks to the widow who is not yet a believer and she has given up hope. She figures that she is gathering wood to make one last bit of bread and then she and her son will die. Elijah gives a command and promise. Make the bread for me and God will provide for you and not let your oil and flour run out. This widow woman could have said, “yeah right!” yet instead she thought, “what do I have to lose anymore? Why not?” Being brought to desperation, she by the Holy Spirit is being opened to a new hope: a hope in God’s promise of His Word. So, she obeyed and God rewarded that faith, first in the earthly things, but then also in the heavenly things as we will hear next week as she comes to receive a right faith in God.

Fellow redeemed, repent of looking to mammon for help in your time of need and not to the true God. Repent of the times that you have tried to justify your mistrust and unbelief. Repent of your sin and direct your attention, not to the news, but to the Word of the Lord.

Follow the example of the widow of Zaraphath or the 10 lepers from last week’s lesson. Live by faith in His Words. Know that God is the cure, the answer, the hope, the solution to our troubles: first eternal, but also to our earthly physical needs. He does not lie. His words are truth. How often we forget all the good that He has provided for us throughout our lives. A good hymn that we are not singing this morning puts it well. It is from hymn number 737 “Rejoice my heart be glad and sing” It challenges us to think thusly: “Why spend the day in blank despair, In restless thought the night? On your creator cast your care; He makes your burdens light. Did not His love and truth and power Guard every childhood day? And did He not in threatening hour Turn dreaded ills away?” It’s so easy to forget those times when trouble rears its ugly head and instead fall into unbelief and worry.

Because of our sin and mistrust, we deserve death both of the body now and in eternity, yet He continues to have mercy and gives us undeserved grace. So, when the Lord says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matt. 6:25), you can believe Him!

Jesus’ call, “Do not to be anxious,” isn’t a guarantee that you won’t face danger and extreme need and eventual earthly death. We live in a sinful, fallen world.

We sang “What God ordains is always good,” And it is true. Everything the Lord Jesus is giving to you, and allows for you, is for your ultimate benefit either to return you to Him for strength or to complete your joy in Him. All the joys and all the sufferings.

“Do not be anxious.” This fatherly divine goodness and mercy is shown to you and me for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. This Son was given so that you may have a hope which the gentiles, the unbelievers do not: a hope for forgiveness of sins, a knowledge that God loves you now, but that He has defeated your death by Christ’s death upon the cross. By faith in Jesus Christ, you are saved from death, damnation, and despair now and for eternity. You know that through Christ, God loves you and will give you grace and mercy for every moment in this life. You have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and so you have a hope and a joy established beyond yourself, your failings, your worries, and even the passing joys of this life. Christ took upon Himself all your sin and also the pain and suffering and death that comes with it, and nailed it to the cross and buried it in the tomb.

As a result, the absolute worst thing that could happen to you, is death; it has already happened to you in the waters of your baptism. “[You] were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, [you] too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

In that resurrection, there simply is no reason left for you to live in worry and anxiety anymore. Christ has died for you on the cross. All things are yours in Him. There’s no need to fear, for the Son of God took on your flesh and died in your place. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Fellow redeemed, place your eyes toward the cross and the kingdom of God which comes to you in His Word and in His bread of life and cup of blessing in the Lord’s supper. Seek and receive. Rejoice and be renewed. See by faith how your Father loves you for Christ’s sake. He tends to you individually more than the grass of the field and the birds of the air. As St. Paul says in Romans 8:2 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” Remember that, rejoice, and rest, in Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas

I am sure that you have all heard the phrase or at least something like: “life is a journey”. As you may already know, this is actually a biblical concept. And of course, the meaning of “life is a journey” in biblical thinking is much different than the world. Despite its ignorance and unbelief, the people of the world may observe from creation and understand there is a kind of movement, of journeying through time, and through life.

We are surrounded by movement and motion in this life. Even if a person stops to rest a while: time, animals, seasons, people continue to march and move around them. There is always a movement to something and away from something else. There is always a destination whether it is for a purpose or as a result: of our actions or someone else.
Think about this: Even if we are standing and sitting still it is because we are watching something or listening to something or someone, hopefully for learning and growing. Or we are still because we are waiting for something to come to us, like an opportunity, an idea, for our turn in order to conduct business, our meal, or we are resting there waiting for our energy to return.

People should be thinking of the movement of life itself in terms of goals, of growth. In each moment, we should ponder the reason we make the decisions that we do or do not make. Each decision, each movement, each moment ends up with its own destination or result. This is an important understanding. We may have a clear idea of our goals but we may forget that little decisions may distract and wind up directing us away from whatever goal it is. Or maybe we only have a hazy idea of where we would like to end up in the end, but by just going with the flow, we will definitely be guided in our decisions day to day, week to week by our selfish desires.

There is a definite spiritual and religious dimension to ALL of this, Because of sin, we don’t always make good decisions about where we want to end up or how we get there. Sometimes we think only in terms of the here and now. But spiritually and religiously speaking there are only two destinations and goals. As we live in this time on earth we are either being moved towards God by repentance and faith by His Holy Spirit to eternal life… or we are moving away from God by our rebellion, our ingratitude, our self-worship, apathy or worship of the things of this world. As we move away from God by our sin, to which destination are we headed? That’s right: eternal death and judgement.

That is partially why there is so much movement and action language in the Bible. Have you ever noticed how much movement there is?… in the Gospels, and really in the Bible in general? It is not the only concept nor even the chief concept, but there it is: Journey-ing. There is much talk of paths, roads, or the going by “the way” or along the way, (The early church and its beliefs were even referred to as “The way” in Acts 9). The Bible uses includes many details regarding feet and sandals, travel, walking and running. There are constant movements to or away. There is travel and there is standing still, but there is always a purpose or a result.

We heard this theme it in the Proverbs reading today.
“the way of wisdom;…the paths of uprightness.”
When you walk in the way of wisdom and righteousness, your step will not be hampered,
    and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
    guard her, for she is your life.
The other path is this: …”the path of the wicked,
    do not walk in the way of the evil.
Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. The wicked and evil seek to cause you stumbling.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
    which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know over what they stumble.
My son, be attentive to my words;
    incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
    For they are life to those who find them,
    and healing to all their flesh.
Put away from you crooked speech,
    and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
    and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
    then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
    turn your foot away from evil.

These are great words of advice from our Lord in Proverbs chapter 4. It describes the fact that really there are ultimately only the two paths going in directly opposite directions through the journey of earthy life. The way of life or the way of death. But who hasn’t stumbled and fallen at some point? Who hasn’t swerved to the right or left at least once, returning to the path of wickedness?

Well, that brings us to the Gospel lesson. Jesus knew where He was going and why. We need to remember that every time we hear anything regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, we should realize that there are definite answers to the questions: Why was He wherever He was or where He was going? Everything He did, He did with purpose. Why was He on earth to begin with? The purpose of that earthly ministry and life which seemed to be stopped at the cross outside Jerusalem, but arrived there and progressed from the cross of Golgotha for your salvation and the salvation of the world. So that you could be placed again and again upon the path of righteousness which leads to eternal life by the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus was not to be stopped by death, nor your sin and the sin of the world. The Son of God through His dying, destroyed death and the work of the evil and wicked plotters who still seek our stumbling. Christ Jesus has won. He lived, died, rose again, and ascended to send the Spirit for your healing and your salvation. So that you would no longer be spiritually cast away from Him but could be and would be returned to and brought back to Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

At the moment of our Gospel lesson Jesus was on His journey through Samaria and Galilee to Jerusalem, to accomplish this work of Redemption. As He passed through there were 10 lepers standing and waiting for Him. In the midst of their death sentence outcast condition because of their leprosy, they retained hope. They hoped in this Jesus of Nazareth to come to them, to have mercy on them. They called him “epistates” which means overseer, not Master…the one who is the caretaker. They did all have faith or at least hope (which has faith within it). So they hoped in Him. He passed through that way, knowing this moment would come and Jesus told them literally to “journey” to the priests to show themselves. He didn’t say that they would be healed, but they were on their way. And one turned back from His journey. He returned to the healer. This Samaritan knew that Jesus was the Messiah, God Himself, for the Gospel says that He journeyed back praising God and completely prostrated Himself at the feet of Jesus in worship and thanksgiving. After speaking with Him, Jesus sent the man forth “on his way” reminding him that he was made well by faith.

This Gospel text teaches the importance of gratitude to be sure. But not only in times of being healed of diseases or in times of joy or great accomplishment… We are to live this life’s journey giving thanks because God has healed us of our death sentence and our outcast condition, by taking our sins upon the great high priest Jesus Christ. We have been baptized into His sacrifice which has paid for our sins and have been given the knowledge of the way of salvation.

How do we know the way? As the Proverb said: “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.”

So what is the path of your feet? Where are you to be gazing straight ahead toward? What about your loved ones? If the path is not lit by the light of Christ’s crucified and raised then it is going the wrong way. If you are not looking to Christ and meditating on how and where your feet are turning, then Return. Repent. Look to the cross of Jesus. Be led by Him and His Word which is the way of salvation and all your ways in the journey of this life will be sure. That doesn’t mean life will be predictable. That doesn’t mean that life here on earth will be easy or glorious or pain free. No. But your way will be sure. The sureness is referring to your destination. The destination that is yours because of faith in Jesus Christ your Savior, redeemer, the overseer of your soul and body: eternal life with Him.

Even now He encourages you on the way. Proverbs said that the evil eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But God through Jesus Christ gives the bread of life and righteousness in Christ’s body given for you. He gives the wine of peace and reconciliation in Christ’s blood.

The liturgy itself has movement mimicking the movement of Christ’s ministry and service. Entering, processing, standing, sitting, walking, kneeling, returning, recessing…The movement of God to us, gathering us to Him, and then Him sending us out along the journey and vocation to which we have been called, having confessed, been absolved, taught, encouraged, fed, and nourished. Leaving with His blessing and promises.

Keep your gaze, your eyes of faith straight toward the cross and your way and goal will be made sure. Glorify Him, give thanks to Him, go and journey along life’s path to life eternal with Jesus Christ forever in His grace and joy. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas