17th Sunday after Trinity

St. Luke 14:1–11

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit –

Every Sunday morning is Easter morning. Sunday is the one day of the week that has been forever marked by the resurrection of Jesus. Every Sunday is a celebration of our Lord’s victory over sin and the grave. It is the Lord’s day. That’s why we come to church on Sunday.

But why come to church at all? Usually at this point, someone mentions the Sabbath Day and the 3^rd Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. But that doesn’t exactly answer the question: why come to church? To get that answer we really have to ask: what is the Sabbath for?

Naturally, we expect the 3^rd Commandment to be the final answer, but the commandment actually points us back to something far older than the Ten Commandments, far older than Mount Sinai or the Law given on stone tablets. It points us back to the very beginning – back to creation itself. From Exodus 20: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex. 20:8–11) The Hebrew word “Sabbath” means “rest.” A Sabbath is a day of rest – and in the Old Testament, the seventh day of the week was a Sabbath because it was on the seventh day of creation that God rested from His work of creating the world. He worked for six days creating all that there is and then He blessed the seventh day and made it holy because He was finished.

So every seven days there is a holy day. Holy things belong to the holy Lord. So every seven days there is a Lord’s day – it belongs to Him and His holy things. And it is a day of rest – a Sabbath – for us.

But of course, sinful humans have to mess this up. And the Pharisees were very careful about what you could and could not do on a Sabbath. And so when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, they were not pleased. “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent… And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. But this was not the first time Jesus argued with the Pharisees about the Sabbath. Previously, Jesus said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. (Mark 3:4) On another occasion Jesus gave them the answer: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27–28)

So what is the Sabbath for? It is for us! It is for our benefit. It does not exist for God’s benefit - so that we do something for God. But the Son of Man, Jesus our Lord, is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Lord of His holy day that He blessed and made for us and for our benefit. The Lord of the Sabbath made the Sabbath for men, so that He might serve men on this holy day with His good and holy gifts. And so that’s why we come to church.

Christianity is the only religion in the world with a command to do nothing. Rest – don’t work. Instead, come to church – do nothing – hear God’s Word – rest. Luther gets all this in his explanation to the 3^rd Commandment. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Luther boils down the Sabbath to its main point – what it’s really all about – it’s a time for us to hear God’s Word. Don’t work – rest and hear God’s Word. Do you think it sounds contradictory to say, “Do nothing. And come to church”? Do you think coming to church is doing something? You might think that, but it’s not. You might think coming to church is doing something for God. But it’s the exact opposite.

The Sabbath was made for man – not for God. It’s for you. Coming to church means doing none for your things. It means having the Lord do His holy things for you. At Church, in the Divine Service, with His Holy Word and Holy Sacraments, God is serving you. He is doing all the work. Just as He did all the work of creation. Just as He blessed the Sabbath and made it holy. Just as He did all the work of healing that man. Just as He did all the work of saving us from our sins. Just as He gives salvation to us entirely by His grace and mercy. The Lord serves you. Today, on His holy day, He does the work, and you rest.

We need a holy day. Did you know that’s where we get the word “holiday”? Holiday – holy day. A holiday is a day for resting and celebration. Think of that when you come to church. It’s a holy day – a holiday just for you from the Lord.

So stop working. Stop worrying about bills. Stop sports. Stop your plans. Your work is not more necessary than the Lord’s Supper. Your family fun is not more valuable than God’s forgiveness. Your way of life is not more important than His Word. Repent. Stop your work. Stop your ideas. And let us gladly hear and learn the Lord’s Word.

Because we need this day with the Lord’s holy things: Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Word, Holy Communion. Those are what make it such a holy day. And those are what make us the Lord’s holy people.

So really, what better day for this holy day than Sunday? In the Old Testament, the holy day, the Sabbath was on the seventh day of the week. It matched up with the days of creation. But that part of the old Law is fulfilled in Christ. And He has brought us into something new. A new testament in His blood. A new way is made for us to have peace and rest. A new Sabbath is given that matches up with the days of Good Friday and Easter. Your Sabbath Lord calls out, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest… My peace I give to you.” (Matt. 11:28; John 14:27)

So we come on Sunday, the new Lord’s Day – the first day of the week, because it is the day He has blessed and made holy by His resurrection. We worship the crucified and risen Lord of the Sabbath. Here today, Jesus comes to heal you. He gives you His body and blood to eat and drink and so gives you His peace and rest. Now that is a true Sabbath. And a true reason to come to church.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus –

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Charlotte, IA

September 27, 2015

16th Sunday after Trinity

St. Luke 7:11–17

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit –

Luther’s great Easter hymn, “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands,” has this line that has always fascinated me: “It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contended.” For some reason I always pair those words with this scene outside the village of Nain.

I imagine a country road, just after sunrise, and coming down the road from the town is the funeral procession – mourners and pallbearers dressed in black. Weeping had tarried through the night. The widow kept vigil by her son’s lifeless body. Maybe there were a few kind women to sit up with her during the long dark hours. But now it was time to go out to the cemetery. And leading the procession I picture Death himself.

Then coming up the road from the opposite direction is quite a different procession – I picture it full of color, laughter, and joy. And leading this procession is the Lord of Life. And then the two processions meet. They stop. It’s as if all creation holds its breath – what will happen? Which one will give way? All that you can hear in the still morning air is the soft weeping of the widow. “It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contended.”

But Luther’s Easter hymn and our Scripture reading go on: “The victory remained with life, the reign of death was ended. Holy Scripture plainly saith that death is swallowed up by death, its sting is lost forever. Alleluia!” The dreadful silence was broken by the Lord’s strong and compassionate words: Stop weeping. Young man, I say to you, arise.

Most of us have joined in a procession out to the cemetery. Most, except for maybe the very youngest among us, know the pain and tears of losing a loved one. Only some of us know the grief of burying a child. The ordinary progression of things is that children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around. I’m not sure if there can be a sharper pain or more bitter tears than that of a parent who has lost their child. Perhaps that has something to do with our Lord’s compassion on this tormented mother. Of all the hundreds of people that surely died during Jesus’ three-year ministry, He only raised a handful of them. So for His own good purposes He came to this grieving woman and showed His compassion to her. He said to her, Stop weeping.

That sounds so offensive to us, helpless people. What can we offer the grieving mother or father? What can we do besides hug them and cry with them? Most of the time, the words we try to muster are woefully inadequate, if not downright unhelpful. As awkward as it might feel, we might actually try just using the words of Scripture the next time we go to a wake. We might say something about the forgiveness of sins, the peace of Jesus, and the resurrection of the body.  Our made-up words definitely won’t help, so we might as well speak God’s Word.

Jesus just says, Stop weeping. And He is not being mean – He has compassion on her. He is not scolding her weeping or telling her that her tears are wrong. Her tears are right. Mothers should not have to bury their sons. Actually no one should be buried, no one should be taken. Death is wrong – it comes from sin. It is not what Jesus wants for this young man, or that weeping mother, or for us. And so He tells her to stop weeping because He is going to make things right. She won’t need to weep anymore because Jesus is going to return her son to her. He is going to give life to the dead. That is what Jesus does.

He is the Lord of death and life. This is true, not only because He is God, but because He is a Man. And from Nain this Man, our God, went on to Jerusalem where He suffered death. He became like all men, subject to death. He suffered the pain and the tears. His soul was torn from His body and that means He died. He died our death – the death of sinners – in order to conquer death. “Holy Scripture plainly saith that death is swallowed up by death.” Our death, including the death of that young man, is all swallowed up by the death of Jesus. And with the reign of death ended, the true King arose. His soul and body was reunited – a living person. This Man, our God, stepped out of our grave and now He lives and reigns forever. That is why Jesus can say Stop weeping and Young man, I say to you, arise. That is why Jesus alone can say that and actually make it all happen.

And of course you know when Jesus achieved all this – on a Sunday morning. On a Sunday morning He rose from the grave. That’s the day of the week forever marked with the victory of life over death. And that’s why Christians made it the practice to come to church on Sunday. It is the day of Resurrection. Not just the annual celebration of Easter – but every Sunday – every Resurrection Day.Every Sunday morning is Easter morning. In the Sunday Communion liturgy the pastor sings, “It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who on this day overcame death and the grave and by His glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.” This is the Day that the Lord has made. Sunday is the Day that the Lord has made. This is the Day of our Lord’s victory over death. And that means Sunday is the Day of our victory over death. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Now, it’s still ok for Christians to cry in church. Even on a Sunday. It is ok to miss our sons, daughters, parents, and grandparents, even as we gather on a Sunday to celebrate the resurrection. Because we do not grieve without hope. On Sunday, we are celebrating our Lord’s resurrection and the resurrection that is coming for our sons, daughters, parents, grandparents, and for ourselves. We say it in the Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” We may still weep for now but we have hope. For it is here on Sunday, the Resurrection Day, that your Lord meets you and says to you once again, “Stop weeping. I forgive you all your sins. My peace be with you. Take, eat and drink My body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. For wherever there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (Ps. 30:5) We are still waiting for that final Sunday morning. The widow of Nain had a taste of it. For her dead son sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. I can only imagine how the silence was broken as those two processions mingled together, laughing and singing, praising and glorifying God.

On that final and greatest Sunday morning – that final Resurrection Day – the Lord will meet us like He did at Nain. Death’s reign is done, the silence of death will be broken, and the funeral procession finally will be stopped for good. And the Lord of Life will say, Stop weeping. I say to you, arise. And indeed heaven and earth, all creation and all believers, will shout and laugh and sing for the joy of that morning.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus –

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Charlotte, IA

September 20, 2015

14th Sunday after Trinity

St. Luke 17:11–19

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit –

Who was a neighbor to the ten lepers? The One who showed them mercy. That would be Jesus. The Lord God of Israel – merciful and compassionate, abounding in steadfast love. His mercy endures forever.

The ten lepers asked for exactly the right thing: mercy. They saw Jesus. They knew who He was – they had heard about Him. They believed. So they lifted up their voices. They prayed. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Kyrie eleison.

That’s a part of our liturgy. Kyrie eleison – Lord, have mercy. We sing it after the Introit: Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. In the ancient world, when a king was passing through a town, often the poor would gather along the road and cry out like these lepers: Kyrie eleison – Lord, have mercy. They were asking for help, for protection, for food, money, and whatever else their king might give them. What specifically were these ten lepers praying for? They recognized Jesus as their King, their Master, but what kind of mercy did they have in mind? Were they just begging for money? Did they want Jesus to heal them because they had heard about His other miracles? Or were they crying out for the forgiveness of sins, for salvation from God in the flesh? Maybe it was some of all these.

We don’t know exactly what they had in mind for Jesus to do, but they trusted in Jesus to do it. And whether they meant it this way or it was a blessed coincidence, they prayed for mercy to the Merciful One. Jesus answers even imperfect prayers. He doesn’t wait to answer only if you get the words just right or say them enough times. Jesus is merciful already in listening to our prayers. He is just as merciful in answering them.

So what do we pray for in the Kyrie, when we lift up our voices, Lord, have mercy! We might pray for pardon and forgiveness. We might pray for cleansing from our sins, and cleansing from the sins that others have done to us. We might pray for our families, our jobs, our country, the world. That short, little prayer, Lord have mercy, encompasses all of that. It acknowledges that we are sinful and ruined people living in a sinful and ruined world. We need the mercy of Jesus and so we ask for it because we are in the presence of our King, and we are confident in how He will hear us and answer us.

One of the ten lepers, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. This healed Samaritan performed three acts of worship: He glorified God – singing praise to God. He bowed down before Jesus – he worshiped Him. And he gave thanks to Jesus – he recognized Jesus as the Giver of the gift. And this gift from Jesus turned out to be even more than a simple healing. Jesus tells the Samaritan foreigner, “Your faith has saved you.” This man, although he was not a true and good child of Israel, he had faith in Jesus for his salvation. And so he returned, glorifying and thanking Jesus. He went back to the One who had saved him. He knew who he should give thanks to. It wasn’t necessary for him to go all the way to the Temple and the priests in Jerusalem. He had the true Temple – God in the flesh – right there in front of him. He had the true High Priest – the one who gave Himself as the sacrifice for all sins. All that was left for this man to do was glorify, praise, bless, and thank this Savior.

Like that faithful Samaritan we follow our liturgy from a prayer for mercy to a song of glory. First, we sing the Kyrie – Lord, have mercy. And then, confident in our Lord’s merciful answer, we glorify Him and give Him thanks. Glory be to God on high! We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee, for Thy great glory.

Our liturgy teaches us that we are in these Bible stories. They are not made-up, they are not just moral lessons, and they are not just historical documents about people long ago. The liturgy teaches us that the Bible is about you – it is your story. The liturgy puts us in the place of these real, historical people and events. So we sing the Psalms with David. We cry to the Lord for mercy with blind Bartimaeus, the Syrophoenician woman, and these ten lepers. We sing glory to God with the Bethlehem angels. We sing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel with Zechariah. Our souls magnify the Lord with the Mother Mary. We sing Holy, Holy, Holy with the seraphim. We shout Hosannas to greet our coming King with the Palm Sunday crowd. We look to Jesus, the Lamb of God, with John the Baptist. And we sing of the Lord’s peace with old Simeon. Your story is the same as for the whole Church throughout the ages. You have the same sins. And you have the same Savior. Jesus, our merciful Lord, is just as present to us now as He was to that Samaritan. We have Jesus – God in the flesh – right here in front of us with His Word and Sacraments, giving us His Spirit and peace, His mercy and forgiveness, His life and salvation. Why would we want to go look for Him anywhere else?

This then is the point of worship. It is not in order to pay Him back for what He has given us. As if we could. It is not because He needs our thanks and praise. But we worship Him in order to be with Him. Like that one Samaritan we return to the merciful Lord. We go back to Jesus and stay with Jesus, glorifying and thanking Him, in order to get more from Jesus. And this isn’t selfish – it’s what God wants us to do. In Psalm 116, we ask the question, What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? What can I possibly do for the Lord in exchange for all that He has done for me? The answer: I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. There’s really only one thing you can do in return for the Lord – receive more of the good gifts that He wants to give you. Like that one Samaritan we go to be with Jesus, and we want Jesus to be who Jesus is, the One who has mercy – and gives it to us.

The liturgy repeats the Samaritan’s pattern of prayer for mercy and then song of glory. We saw it first with the Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis. But then we do it again, even clearer, around the Sacrament of the Altar. In the Agnus Dei we lift up our voices to Jesus, praying for mercy: O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us. And He gives His mercy – His salvation – to us with just a few words, a bit of bread, a sip of wine. He gives His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins to hearts that believe and look to Him. And we are saved. So we bow down like the Samaritan, at the feet of Jesus, worshiping this merciful God who is present with us in the bread and wine.

And then, once more like the Samaritan, and for the rest of the liturgy, we sing glory and thanks. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good. And His mercy endureth forever. We give thanks to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this salutary gift. Bless we the Lord. Thanks be to God.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus –

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Charlotte, IA

September 6, 2015