The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Athanasian Creed

St. John 3:1–17

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There’s an old story about a group of blind men encountering an elephant for the first time: the first blind man felt the elephant’s trunk and said, “This creature is like a thick snake.” The second blind man touched the elephant’s ear and said, “No, this creature is like a thin fan.” A third wrapped his arms around a leg and said, “This animal is like a pillar or a tree trunk.” Another blind man touched the elephant’s side and said, “It’s like a big rough wall.” Another felt the elephant’s tail and said, “It’s like a small rope.” The last blind man touched the elephant’s tusk and said, “No, this creature is smooth and sharp like a spear.” Of course, they are all wrong, and this story shows the incompleteness and inadequacy of human knowledge.

But, to put a little spin on the story, what if the elephant could speak? What if the elephant said, “I am an elephant,” and then went on to describe himself to the blind men? Our God is the God who speaks. We cannot fully and truly know Him from our own investigation, thoughts, or feelings. He reveals Himself to us. He tells us who He is and what He does. He says, “I am one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

No human would manufacture something so incomprehensible. No other religion has ever come up with a deity so unfathomable. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak of what We know, and bear witness to what We have seen, but you do not receive Our testimony.” That “We” is none other than the Holy Trinity, and that “We” speaks. Christians receive the testimony of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We stick to what the Triune God has revealed and we worship Him. We worship this God like the seraphim do around His throne in Isaiah 6, with their wings humbly covering their faces. We worship Him like St. Paul did in Romans 11, rapturously bursting in praise: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33). The Athanasian Creed does not say that we must UNDERSTAND the Trinity. It says that we WORSHIP one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

This Creed that we confessed was named after the great north African bishop and teacher, Athanasius. This Creed was not written by him but it explains what he so clearly taught and defended during one of the greatest controversies of the Church. In the early 300s there was another north African pastor named Arius, who taught that Jesus was the first and most powerful creation of God but not true God. He taught that there is no Trinity. This false teaching was corrected in the year 325 at the Council of Nicaea with the formulation of the Nicene Creed, which confesses Jesus to be begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.

Unfortunately, in the decades after Nicaea, the followers of Arius actually grew in number to the point that they began to outnumber the faithful followers of the Nicene Creed. In fact, it seemed at times, that Athanasius was the only one to stand up for the Trinity. Later, he was called “Athanasius against the world.” Despite the opposition, Athanasius defended the catholic faith, which we still confess today. And to say, “the catholic faith,” means “the faith that the true Church of all times and all places has confessed.” Athanasius stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, whole and undefiled, at a time when it looked as if all the civilized world was slipping away from Christianity into the religion of Arius—into a sensible, understandable, man-made religion, (and we still have lots of those today). It is to Athanasius’s honor that he did not move with the times. It is his reward that his teaching based on God’s Word now remains, even when those times have passed away (C.S. Lewis, Introduction to On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius, p.9).

I said that we still have many sensible, understandable, man-made religions today. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are basically the modern-day followers of Arius. They deny the Trinity and claim that Jesus is a creation of God but not true God.

Islam and Judaism are religions that get connected to Christianity, and many even assume all three religions worship the same God. Judaism, of course, shares the Old Testament Scriptures. And Islam shares some of the same Biblical figures like Abraham and even Jesus. But ever since the Jews rejected the Messiah Jesus, Judaism ceased to be a true religion and they no longer worship the one true God. They do not have God the Father, because their god does not have a Son. There’s a similar problem with Islam: they deny the Trinity and believe Jesus is merely a man and a prophet. The god of the Muslims is Allah and he is not the same as the Trinity. Once again, you can’t call Allah God the Father because this god has no Son.

And then in our country you have lots of references to “God” without ever giving Him a proper name. Many Christians assume that saying “God bless America” or “one nation under God” is a reference to the Holy Trinity, but it’s not that specific, especially nowadays, when people want to be inclusive. If you come to the Memorial Day program tomorrow (and you should come), you’ll notice that I will pray a Christian, Trinitarian prayer: it will begin in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and it will be prayed to the Father through the Son and in Spirit. There will be no doubt that this is a Christian prayer to the Christian God.

But the most common of the sensible, man-made religions today is a blending of many religions, called universalism—the idea that all religions lead to the same place. Universalism would say that the blind men feeling the elephant are all explaining the same thing but from different perspectives, so in other words they all get some part of God, and they’re all right in their own way. But the fact remains, they all get the elephant wrong, they still don’t know what an elephant is!

The Athanasian Creed states whoever does not keep the faith whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally. I know that makes us uncomfortable, or at least sad. In some way, I think we all want to be universalists, we want to believe that everyone will go to heaven, or at least no will be punished in hell for eternity. But we can’t think that way—it is sinful, and goes directly against what God has said in Scripture. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he CANNOT enter the kingdom of God.” Or in the verse following our reading today, Jesus continued by saying, “Whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). There is one true God, and for those who do not believe in Him there is judgment. This is not popular. But we must stand with Athanasius against the world and confess that if you don’t have the Trinity, you don’t have salvation.

Still, we often struggle to explain what the Trinity is. It is a concept that our minds cannot completely grasp. But the good news is that we know something better than concepts or stuff about the true God. We know the true God Himself because we know what He does for us. The way the Trinity works is simple: the Father sends His only-begotten Son to save the world. The Son sends the Holy Spirit. The Spirit grabs us, giving us faith and bringing us to know the Son. And then the Son brings us and presents us to His Father. Notice how at the center of the Trinity’s work is the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know the one true God, and more importantly we know the one true God loves us, because we know Jesus. For God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father and the Giver of the Holy Spirit. Knowing Jesus is how we know the Trinity.

And once again, when I say “know,” remember I don’t strictly mean “understand.” Above all, we worship the Trinity. Or in other words, we go to the Trinity as the Giver of all good gifts and we get the gifts from the three Persons who are one God. Our banners might be helpful here: on the one side of the nave we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the other side we have the gifts. First, Baptism: we are born again of water and the Spirit, baptized into the Son and so adopted as children of the Father. Then the Word: we hear the Word that the Father speaks through His Son and that the Spirit caused to be written down. And then the Lord’s Supper: we eat and drink the body and blood of the Son that was offered up to the Father in payment for our sins and is now given to us to forgive, strengthen faith, and keep us in the unity of the Spirit. By receiving these gifts we worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of Pentecost

Acts 2:1–42

The Baptism of Hayden R. Hartig

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On the sixth day of creation, the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (Genesis 2:7). The breath of God is the Spirit and He gives life. He is the Creator Spirit, by whose aid The world’s foundations first were laid (LSB 500:1). He is the Exhalation of the Father and He put life into the dust of man. He is rightly called the Lord and Giver of Life. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s Word and ate from the Tree, the Holy Spirit forsook them. The Breath of Life was taken away and the sentence of death was pronounced: You are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19).

This is our fate as well. As the father and mother of the human race, Adam and Eve represented us. As members of the human race we are complicit in their sin. That which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6). We are born with original sin, that is, the origin of sin is within us: a heart that does not fear, love, or trust in God above all things, but rather a heart that doubts, hates, and despises God above all things. Conceived and born in sin, we no longer have the Holy Spirit. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). Rather than being alive in the Spirit, we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). We are hopelessly weak (Romans 5:6) in our ability to please God. Worse than all of that, we are enemies (Romans 5:10) with the One who created us.

This is what human nature looks like apart from the Spirit: blind, dead, weak, enemies of God. We are zombies, a gross perversion of the life once given by the Creator Spirit. And we would like nothing more than to kill our Lord and do away with the one true God once and for all. Do you think you can choose what is true, good, or beautiful? Do you think that you can prepare yourself for the Holy Spirit and make yourself acceptable to the holy God? Do you presume to offer your heart to Jesus? Your disgusting, hate-filled, sin-riddled heart? No, you cannot by your own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, your Lord, or come to Him. You cannot believe. But the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel, He enlightens us with His gifts, He sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith. This is exactly what He did on Pentecost and continues to do daily and richly in His Christian Church.

On Pentecost, Peter reminded the Jews of what God had promised them through the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.” Those last days arrived with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Peter proclaimed, “Being exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” Jesus was put to death for our sin. Then the Father vindicated His Son by raising Him up again. And now, at His ascension into heaven, the Father has given the Spirit to His Son so that their promise might be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus poured out His Spirit on all flesh. The sound of the mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire showed that the Creator Spirit, the Breath of Life, was once again being given to men.

But we hear no mighty wind today and we see no tongues of fire. For that matter, the sound of the wind did not fill all the houses of the Jews, and all their heads were not anointed with fire either. These signs were only given to the apostles. We might naturally, and desperately, ask, “Where is the Spirit given? How is He poured out on us?” We might echo the terrified Jews, “What shall we do?” And Peter said to them, and he says to us, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”

Today, the Lord our God has called Hayden to Himself. In the Word and the water, the Holy Spirit called Hayden by the Gospel. He enlightened her, sanctified her, and gave her true faith in Jesus Christ.

It is a vile doctrine of the devil that says babies cannot be baptized because they are not old enough or they can’t think and choose for themselves or even that they cannot believe. It is evil that some people would hinder the little children from being brought to Jesus in Baptism. They reject God’s gift of Baptism and turn it into a work of man. But how much clearer could the Apostle Peter be when he said, “this promise is for you and for your children”? God’s promises give what they declare. His Word does what it says. Baptism bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Lord pours out His Spirit in that Word and water.

I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Right there, the Lord God breathes the breath of new life into the dead dust of sinful flesh. Today, you witnessed an even greater event than the creation of Adam. You saw and heard a new creation—a sinful daughter of Eve was reborn to be a holy child of God.

            Today, you witnessed an act of God just as great as the day of Pentecost. Because the greatest miracle from that day was not seeing tongues of fire or hearing a mighty wind. The greatest miracles of Pentecost were the baptisms of those who repented of their sins and believed in the name of Jesus Christ. And you witnessed that today. You saw the water and you heard the Name of God as Jesus poured out His Spirit on Hayden, washing away her sins and giving her faith in Him. Today, you witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, and you acknowledged His work in the one Baptism for the remission of sins. Every Baptism is a modern-day Pentecost.

We are living in the last days that Joel and Peter talked about, when God is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. Jesus has accomplished our salvation with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. So now, our risen and ascended Lord sees to it that salvation is delivered to us by sending us His Spirit in the Word and the Sacraments.

When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying (Titus 3:4–8). It is a trustworthy saying for newly baptized Hayden. A trustworthy saying for all baptized Christians, for all of you whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph - A Meditation on the Hymn

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

See, the Lord ascends in triumph;

Conquering King in royal state,

Riding on the clouds, His chariot,

To His heav’nly palace gate. (LSB 494:1)

This hymn begins by describing the scene of the ascension with dramatic imagery. See Jesus in all His glory. The clouds are His chariot and heaven is opened to receive its King. The angel choirs bow before Him and greet Him with songs of praise.

The second stanza gives us more of heaven’s perspective to the ascension:

Who is this that comes in glory 

With the trump of jubilee?

Lord of battles, God of armies,

He has gained the victory. (494:2)

The angels are watching Christ enter into heaven and they name Him as their Lord, the true Commander of their hosts. They call Jesus the Lord God of Sabaoth– that means the God of the heavenly armies. That’s also what we call Him in the Sanctus during the Holy Communion: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth. Our God is a warrior, the Commander of a great and mighty army. He leads both His heavenly division (the holy angels) and His earthly division (the Church on earth). So, with the angels we recognize the Lord Jesus as our mighty leader in the fight against sin, death, and the devil. 

The hymn also reminds us where and when our Lord fought His decisive battle and won His victory: 

He who on the cross did suffer,

He who from the grave arose,

He has vanquished sin and Satan;

He by death has crushed His foes. (494:2)

This is why Jesus is able to ascend into heaven and sit at the Father’s right hand—because He is the One who made satisfaction for our sins. His holy blood took away our sins and broke the devil’s power. Satan can no longer accuse us of sin because it has been atoned for by Jesus. His holy death meant the destruction of death and the beginning of new life for all who believe. And so because Jesus died and rose again, He is given all authority in heaven and on earth. The Father seated Christ at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And the Father put all things under Christ’s feet (Ephesians 1:20–22).

But now we come to the really interesting stanzas of the hymn. The hymnwriter used Old Testament figures to describe the ascension and its meaning. These men are called types—meaning they prefigure or foreshadow Christ. They’re not strictly prophecies, but their very lives are prophetic. They point forward to Christ by their deeds and by what God did for them.

First comes the patriarch Enoch.

He who walked with God and pleased Him,

Preaching truth and doom to come,

He, our Enoch, is translated

To His everlasting home. (494:3)

Enoch was one of those ancient fathers mentioned in Genesis before the Flood. Like so many other patriarchs, he was a prophet and preacher of God’s Word. But Enoch gets a mysterious mention in Genesis: Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24).The writer of Hebrews explains: By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:5–6). But what does this have to do with Jesus? Jesus is our greater Enoch, so to speak. He perfectly walked with God in His sinless life. He pleased God by trusting in His Father and doing His Father’s will by dying for us. He preached the truth and even the impending doom upon those who would not repent and believe. And just as Enoch’s faithfulness was rewarded by being taken bodily into the heavenly home of God, so also, Jesus was taken up bodily to sit on God’s throne.

The Old Testament symbolism gets even deeper in stanza 4.

Now our heav’nly Aaron enters 

With His blood within the veil;

Joshua now is come to Canaan,

And the kings before Him quail.

Now He plants the tribes of Israel

In their promised resting place;

Now our great Elijah offers 

Double portion of His grace. (494:4)

Aaron was the first High Priest, whose job it was, on the Day of Atonement, to take blood from the sacrifices, go behind the temple curtain and enter the Holy of Holies where God dwelt. There he sprinkled the blood on the Ark of the Covenant and made atonement for the sins of the people. Now, Jesus is our greater Aaron, our eternal High Priest, and by ascending into heaven He entered the true Holy of Holies. But He was not a sinful man like the human priests, and He did not bring animal blood which can never really cover sin. Jesus is our perfect High Priest who entered God’s presence with His very own holy blood and so made atonement for the sins of the world. Now, Jesus forever stands in His Father’s presence, serving as our priest, interceding for us, as the one Mediator between God and man.

Next we sing about Joshua. Both he and Jesus actually share the same Hebrew name: Yeshua, meaning, The Lord saves. Joshua was the commander of God’s army, who led the tribes of Israel into the promised land of Canaan. The kings and armies of the Canaanites trembled and fell before the Lord just as those mighty walls of Jericho fell. And our greater Joshua, the Lord Jesus, is the One who leads His people into our promised land: the kingdom of heaven. By faith in Jesus we come to our true resting place and know that we are at home with God.

And then we sing about Elijah, one of the greatest Old Testament prophets. He is also the only other Old Testament figure to ascend bodily into heaven. At the end of his ministry, he was taken up into heaven by the fiery chariot. But before he left, Elijah directed Elisha to succeed him and gave him a double portion of his spirit. To be honest, it’s not completely clear what that means, but Elisha did end up doing more miracles than Elijah did. And it also meant that Elisha was set apart from the rest of the prophets at that time. Of course, Jesus is greater than Elijah or Elisha. Jesus is the greatest prophet of God, for not only does He come with a message from God, but He is the true and eternal Word of God. And Jesus also says that whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12). Not that what we do is more miraculous than what Jesus did, but that the work of the Church continues and goes beyond what Jesus did during His earthly ministry, because the ascended Lord is still at work through His Church. 

So, again, what are all these Old Testament figures doing in this Ascension hymn? Well, they show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises. The lives of those old saints were not random or inconsequential. They prepared and pointed forward to the long-awaited Savior. And as the ascension of Jesus is really the completion of His redemptive work—the final step of His going to the Father—then singing about these Old Testament types reminds us that this culminating moment was also predicted ahead of time. Long before it ever came to pass, God had His plan that His Son would become a man, live, suffer, die, rise, and return to His heavenly throne where He would then continue to reign as a man.

And that brings us to the really big point of Ascension, and the final stanza of this hymn. What’s even better than Jesus fulfilling and representing Israel is that Jesus fulfills and represents the whole human race. He is our Second and greater Adam. Our victorious Lord Jesus is a man like you and me and He represents you and me. That’s why we can sing these stunning words in stanza 5:

He has raised our human nature

On the clouds to God’s right hand;

There we sit in heav’nly places,

There with Him in glory stand.

Jesus reigns adored by angels;

Man with God is on the throne.

By our mighty Lord’s ascension

We by faith behold our own. (494:5)

Jesus, true God and Man, reigns in heaven. Really think about what that means for the human race. “Our poor human nature was carried up in Christ above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond those heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father” (Leo the Great, ACC: Mark, p.254). This means that “the ascension of Christ is our elevation.” Not only does Jesus restore us to the perfection of Eden, which we had lost due to sin, but He does us one better (ACC: Luke, p.393). He takes us up higher. We belong with God in His eternal and holy presence. We share His divine life.

Jesus made this new pathway for us. In His ascension, we see our own glorification. By faith, we are with Him now, seated in the heavenly places. And in His Word and Sacraments, He is with us now, giving Himself to us even here on earth. And by faith in what our Lord Jesus has done, we know that one day we will be with Him in His glory that will never end.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

            He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Sixth Sunday of Easter - Rogate & Confirmation

Confirmation of Nathan C. Lorenzen 

James 1:22–27

St. John 16:23–33

In the Name of the Father and the + Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In his Epistle, James tells us to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. That means being a Christian is more than just going to church or claiming to believe in God. You can’t just nod your head and smile on Sunday, and then do whatever you want the other six days of the week. Listening to God’s Word is important, but there’s more to it. You need to do what the Word of God tells you. You must put your faith into practice.

Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. What’s implied here is that you do have to be a hearer of the Word first. In order to know what you should do, you also need to listen and learn. That’s what a Catechumen is—one who is instructed in the Word. This Christian learning must be the basis for our Christian doing. This is a good message for Nathan, on the day of his confirmation—a day when he begins to put into practice what he has heard. And this is also for all of you, if you call yourself a Christian: hear the Word and do the Word.

James’ Epistle warns us though about how easy it is to forget what we have heard: like with looking in a mirror—the image doesn’t stick with us. It makes me think of how I check my phone to see what time it is, and then two seconds later I realize I don’t remember what I saw and I still have no idea what time it is. These are human examples, but forgetting what we’ve heard from God is a far deeper problem. And it’s not just a natural forgetfulness, as in a symptom of old age. It’s not just something to shrug off and say, Gosh, I’m so forgetful, oh well. No, forgetting God’s Word is a sin, and it comes from a sinful heart that does not want to remember what it has heard and does not want to do what it has heard.

This sinful forgetfulness means we must never stop being hearers of the Word. We don’t graduate from the Catechism. We need to hear God’s Word of Law and Gospel again and again, spoken in different ways and at different times of our lives. What we heard one day might strike us in a completely new way another time, because each time we hear God’s Word, the Holy Spirit is at work using the Word to create and nurture our faith. We need to be instructed by God more and more so that we remember what to do, so that we know how to do the Word in our lives.

Being doers of the Word means more than just being nice. Maybe that’s it for some man-made religions. But the Christian religion is more than that. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Serving others who are in trouble—not when it’s comfortable or convenient for you, but when your neighbor needs you—that’s one of the ways to be a doer of the Word. And staying away from the temptations of this sinful world—saying no to what the people around you are saying yes to, standing up for what you believe, living differently, living the way God tells you to live—that’s also how to be a doer of the Word.

Turns out being a Christian is not exactly easy. Being a hearer and doer of the Word is a struggle. It’s a struggle against the devil and the sinful influences in this world. And it’s a struggle against yourself and the sinful desires you come by naturally. But if you are doing this struggle, then that is a sure sign you truly are a hearer and a doer of the Word. Christians have a new attitude on life. We are not perfect, but we have a different perspective. We don’t want our sin, in fact, we hate our sin. And when we do desire and enjoy our sin, we hate that. Christians want to be hearers and doers of the Word. We want to hear and do what is right. We want to struggle. But it’s hard, and we could never do it on our own.

In a little bit, Nathan will be asked to make some promises that every confirmed Christian has made: Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully? Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death? Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it? (LSB p.273) And the answer for each question is: I do, by the grace of God. Only by God’s help can we keep these promises. And only God’s grace can cover us when we fail to keep them.

Being a faithful hearer and doer of God’s Word is not easy for a poor miserable sinner. But Jesus tells us, Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Here is your Lord’s command to pray and His promise to answer you. So, in the face of difficulty, in view of how hard it is to be a Christian, recognizing that you need so much from your heavenly Father—pray. Pray, lest you fall into temptation. Ask for the strength to resist sin and choose what is good and right in God’s eyes. Pray that God would keep you in the faith that He has already given to you for free. He gave His only Son into death to save you, so it is His desire that you stay firm in the faith of Jesus Christ. Pray that you would be His servant in this life, His servant for the others around you. Ask for His blessing and protection as you do the tasks He has given you to do in your place in life.

And then, once you have prayed, be ready to receive God’s answer. Jesus promised that you will receive so that your joy may be full. So go to the places where God delivers His grace and help and joy. Go to your Pastor to confess, get the burden of sins off your shoulders, and hear the Word of forgiveness spoken by the pastor as from God Himself. And go to the Supper that your Lord prepares for you, where He meets with you, gives Himself to you, to cleanse you and make you holy by His true body and blood. These things are some of God’s answers to prayer, if we would but receive them. And if we receive these answers to prayer, these gifts will help us to better recognize God’s other answers to prayer. In the Means of Grace, He gives us the free gifts our Lord won for us by His death and resurrection. In the Word and the Sacraments, our Lord shares His victory with us so that we may live like Him.

Being a hearer and a doer of the Word is not easy. Jesus said, In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Jesus’ death conquered our sin, our death, and the devil. His resurrection has brought His life and light to all who believe. Nothing can overcome Jesus. And nothing can overcome those who trust in Jesus.

So, when Nathan gets confirmed today, we recognize that it was the Lord Jesus who has been teaching Him, making Him a hearer of the Word. And it is the Lord who will be helping Him to continue as a doer of the Word. The same goes for all you Christians. It is the Lord Himself who will keep you unstained from the world. He forgives and He makes holy. As you continue to be hearers of the Word you will be reminded and strengthened to know that it is the Lord who began a good work in you. So, He will also give you the power to be a doer of the Word, for He will bring His good work in you to completion.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

            He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.