Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Romans 6:19–23

St. Mark 8:1–9

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

They had been with Jesus for three days, listening to Him preach, following Him out into the wilderness, hanging on His every Word, not even realizing that they had nothing left to eat.

Jesus had compassion on them. That means His heart suffers with them and moves Him to do something for them, something only He can do. Jesus wants to feed them. But the disciples are right. Feeding any number of people in this desolate place is difficult. There are no stores, they are far from home. Not to mention there are over 4000 hungry mouths. The math just doesn’t work.

Jesus says He wants to feed them. He doesn’t say with what. He is the Lord who led a lot more than 4000 through deserts before. He could’ve brought a new batch of manna from heaven. He could’ve made the rocks gush forth with milk and honey. It’s the disciples who mention bread: “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” I’m guessing they have bread on their mind because they’re thinking of their own. Jesus asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” I think it’s safe to assume we’re talking about the disciples’ own lunch. Seven loaves and a few small fish—it’s not a feast when you split it 13 ways, for 12 disciples and Jesus—but they’d get by.

Jesus has other plans. For us who know the Lord’s Supper, we immediately notice something special is going to happen as we see Jesus take bread, give thanks, and break it, handing it back over to the disciples for them to distribute. But were the disciples a bit reluctant at first in sharing it? “There goes our food, and for what? Not enough for everyone anyway.” I wonder, when did they begin to realize it wasn’t diminishing? And then, can you imagine their excitement? The more they gave, the more there was to give! Eventually their reluctant giving is changed completely into joyful, generous giving. And on top of all that, they get to gather back up seven full baskets, in exchange for their original seven loaves.

If the disciples had not listened to Jesus, if they had kept their food for themselves, how much would they have had at the end of the day? Only seven loaves and a few small fish, or nothing at all, after eating it. But because they listened to Jesus and trusted Him, they got what they needed and much more besides. What’s given up for the Kingdom of Heaven is never lost, but multiplied. Whatever we must sacrifice for the sake of Jesus and His Word, Jesus has a way of taking it, blessing it, and causing it to overflow back into our lives, here on earth and forever in heaven. When you listen to Jesus and trust Him, and so give up your idols, God has a way of giving them back to you, but sanctified, and better than ever.

You might sacrifice the idols of selfish lust, and God gives back the far greater blessings of marriage. Or sacrifice the small blessings of a “successful” or comfortable life, and in exchange God multiplies His blessings for you in the multiplication of children. Or you might sacrifice a tenth of your income, and hand it over to God’s church, and you will be blessed with a church that much more faithful, that much better able to meet the needs of her members and her community, and able to do it with joy and gladness, without the worries of running a deficit. And for years to come you and your children will have a church where you can receive more and more of God’s blessings.

And if it’s sports or movies or books that sit in power at the center of your life, then recognizing that these things are not so important as your relationship with God or with those around you can be quite freeing. More often than not, God will give these lesser loves back to you in their proper place, so it’s no longer an idol that controls your life and keeps you away from God. Then you can enjoy your favorite sport with your kids, or find a way to use what you love to serve others. Giving things up for the Kingdom never leaves you poorer, but always richer in the blessings that God has in store for you.

St. Paul says the same thing: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness—you got to do whatever you wanted. But, he asks, what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? Was the sin really worth it? Were you really happier with your loves all out of order? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Whatever’s given up for the Kingdom is never lost, but multiplied. You don’t just give stuff up, you bear fruit. You grow in holiness, which overflows in life everlasting.

This is what we prayed for in our Collect today: O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and give to us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That’s all God wants from you, what He wants to do for you: take away the things that hurt us, that keep us away from Him, and give to us all the good things overflowing out of His heart for us.

This is all Jesus’ plan. He gave up His very own life. He gave everything away. He was a grain of wheat, dead and buried in the ground, but after three days, bore much fruit, not only for Himself, but salvation and life for us all. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You came here today with next to nothing. It’s the same every Sunday. The week of sin and earthly life has taken its toll, exacted its wages. And you don’t have a crumb of righteousness to your name.  But you leave this place with a multiplication of blessings. Not just bread or fish. Not even milk, honey, or manna. You get here the most miraculous food of all: the choicest bread and richest wine of heaven, the true body and blood of your Lord.

And so you don’t get just enough forgiveness to cover each sin. The Lord doesn’t set a limit on His forgiveness, life, and salvation so you have to scrape by. You have Jesus living in you. You leave here today with what you need and with a whole basketful of blessings besides. Doing it Jesus’ way, putting what we have in His hands and leaving the multiplication up to Him, even when it doesn’t make sense to our math, our way of thinking, that is always the path to blessing on top of blessing. Our God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Exodus 20:1–21

Romans 6:1–11

St. Matthew 5:17–26

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

There’s no shortage of “Big Problems” in our time. I suppose it keeps the 24 hour news people raking in the money, if nothing else. There’s no shortage of opinions and discussions, polls and arguments and campaigns, on things like (in no particular order): Racism, Marriage, Sex and Gender, Abortion, Fake News, Government Monetary Policy (you know, taxes and how they’re spent), Government Control, Religious Liberty, Depression and Suicide, Health, Quarantines, Safety, Illiteracy and Ignorance of History, Environmentalism, Protests, Fascism, Communism, and a kind of tolerance that tolerates nothing.

That’s quite a list, and there’s more. And obviously, I’m not able to give a solution for even one of these things here today. In fact, this mountain of problems and controversies can often cause Christians to throw up their hands, turn off the TV, and say, “I’m done with it all. I give up. It’s too much for me to handle so I’m not even going to try dealing with it or thinking about it.”

Now, I actually would recommend watching less of the 24 hour news people, or Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever place you get your news. There is only so much of that a person can take, in a healthy way. And it’s likely that whatever source you use is going to have some kind of bias, so you’re never going to hear another point of view and be left listening to the echoes of your own ideas.

Plus, here’s what we really need to consider if we actually are Christians (not just say we’re Christians, but actually think and talk and live like Christians): if all we ever do is listen to and talk about all the problems on the news, that leaves us with very little time for listening to and talking about God. He has something to say to all these problems, and only when we listen to Him and let His Word inform our ideas will we be able to begin finding a solution.

And Christians really can’t just bury their heads in the sand when it comes to the problems that face our world. Christians actually do have to care about these things in some way. That doesn’t mean you have to be an environmentalist or an expert on marriage issues or racism. It doesn’t even mean you need to read lots of books and articles on history or science. But we have to care about these things, because this world is full of problems because of the sins of mankind, our sins, whether we are directly responsible or not. By our sinful nature and our individual sins, we participate in the sins of the world. This does not mean we have to confess other people’s sins, sins we didn’t commit. But it means that no one gets to sit back and say, “Not my fault, not my problem.” We have to care because this world, so full of problems, is the world given to us by God, and we have to learn what God says about all these problems.

Some good news is that none of these problems are really new, or “unprecedented” as so many people like to claim today. All of our problems have to do with the 10 Commandments. Because the 10 Commandments describe God’s created order, how God made this world to work and who God made us to be. The 10 Commandments are not just rules. They describe a perfect world. They tell us…

1. There is a God.

2. He has a name and wants you to know Him.

3. He speaks to you and with you so He can have a good relationship with you.

4. He creates order in His world and He provides us with parents and other authorities to keep that order for our good.

5. He gives us life.

6. He gives us marriage and family.

7. He gives us good stuff to use and enjoy, possessions for the good of ourselves, the good of our family, and the good of our neighbors.

8. He gives us a name, a reputation, so that you can have good relationships with the people around you.

9. and 10. He gives us everything we need, including the gift of contentment, trust that He and all His gifts are enough and we don’t need anything more.

That is a perfect world. The 10 Commandments would ideally protect that perfect world that they describe, like a nice fence around the playground that keeps us all safe and carefree.

But we sinners always think we know better. We think the fence is stupid, old-fashioned, it gets in the way of our fun. We think it would be better to play on the other side. The fence has to go so that we can be free to do what we want. We are wrong.

And all the problems I mentioned earlier fit into these Commandments because they all arise when we screw things up in this world. Racism, abortion, depression, and suicide—they all come from tearing down the 5th Commandment, for Jesus says that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Or as St. John puts it, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). Marriage, sex, and gender fall under the 6th Commandment, along with lust of all kinds. Fake news is a problem with the 8th Commandment. Government, taxes, and lawful authority goes with the 4th Commandment. You could also include illiteracy and ignorance of history here, since parents are the true authorities on earth and it is their job to teach their children. And concerns of health and safety fall under both the 4th and the 5th Commandments. Environmentalism has to do with jobs, possessions, greed and how to use God’s creation, which would deal at least with Commandments 7, 9, and 10. When it comes to religious liberty, what we’re concerned about is our duty as the Church to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments according to God’s institution. And if the government or society order us to go against God’s Word, then we must obey God rather than men. This is why the Commandments regarding God and His Word come first, numbers 1, 2, and 3. And finally, the issues surrounding many protests, and the support or accusations of Fascism or Communism, these hit on all the Commandments, because these ideologies set up their own alternatives to all of God’s Commandments.

Okay, enough of all the examples. Everything in life has to do with at least one of the Commandments. They are the blueprint for the life God wants for us. But our sin destroys that life. And so the Commandments bring down God’s wrath and judgment upon us. Look at Israel at Mount Sinai. Every Commandment from God’s own voice came down on them like an avalanche, piling up more problems, listing more ways they had done wrong or good things they had failed to do. Faced with that burning mountain of sin and judgment, with thunder and lightning and billows of smoke, they were afraid. They threw up their hands and covered their ears. “We can’t handle anymore. We are going to die.” 

But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.” Don’t be afraid. God does not want to destroy you or this world with His Commandments. He comes to test you, to diagnose you, to show you what’s wrong with your life so that you will trust Him to put it right. He wants you to recognize your sin so that you may turn away from it and turn to Him for salvation, and live the life He wants for you. God comes to you in the 10 Commandments to make you ready for His coming to you in the Gospel. The life that God wants for you is the very life of Jesus Christ.

And so all of those problems that I mentioned earlier—everything that’s wrong with the world—not only do they have to do with the 10 Commandments, they all have to do with Christ. Jesus is true God and true Man. He is the Holy God who gave the 10 Commandments, and He is the Blessed Man who fulfills and embodies the 10 Commandments. He is God and Man, so He unites heaven and earth, uncreated and created. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together… For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:17–20).

So, as God, Jesus is the giver of the Law. And as Man, Jesus receives the Law and keeps it. He is the pattern and exaltation of who God made us to be. If you want to know what man should do or how man should live, if you want to know what it means to be human, you can look at the 10 Commandments, or you can look at Jesus—they both tell the same story. And together, they tell the story of a perfect life and a perfect world as God intends it to be, and as God has in fact made it to be in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. All the world’s problems are pointed out by the 10 Commandments. And we can at least cope with the world’s problems by learning what God wants for us in the 10 Commandments. But all the world’s problems are truly solved in Jesus.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” And He told us when it was all accomplished. While hanging on the cross, just before He died, Jesus declared, "It is finished. It is all accomplished." Jesus fulfills the 10 Commandments. They all meet their goal and purpose in Him. And if all the Commandments are kept in Jesus, if all of that perfect life and world is met in Jesus, then you also have it, because you are in Jesus. We 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, we too might walk in newness of life… For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

By your Baptism you are united closer with Jesus than husband and wife, closer than body and soul. You are a new creation in your Baptism. You have a New Man—and that’s not sexist, it doesn’t leave out the women—you literally have The New Man Jesus Christ living in you and you living in Him. His life is your life.

There is only one perfect life, one perfect world—that’s found in Jesus. By your Baptism, you’ve got it. You ALL got it, for we all share the same life in Christ. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:4–5). And we all participate in that one life, commune with that life, with our Lord, as we eat His body and drink His blood. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Corinthians 10:16–17).

The perfect life of the 10 Commandments begins here, in the font and at the altar. We’re not going to solve all the world’s problems. We’re not going to create that perfect world here and now before Christ’s return. But it begins here, in the water, in the body and the blood. Being truly human begins here in Baptism and in the Supper. The life that God created for us, the life that God redeemed for us, the life that God wants for world, the life that God gives to us and for the good of our neighbors, tt all begins here, in Jesus.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Psalm 27

1 Peter 3:8–15

St. Luke 5:1–11

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

Psalm 27 is our Introit this morning, and it asks this rhetorical question: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The answer to that questions is “No one.” Because Jesus brings light and salvation. So, there is no one and no thing that a Christian needs to fear. Not poverty or sadness, sickness or persecution—a Christian’s life is already safe and hidden with God in Christ. Not enemies—what’s the worst an enemy could possibly do? Kill you? Then you go to heaven. So, not even death—a Christian does not need to fear death. Jesus lives and so do all His disciples. This verse from Psalm 27 is a boast—a confident, humble, and joyful bragging in the Lord: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Bring. It. On.

And yet, obviously this kind of Christian boasting is never in ourselves, never supposing that we’ve got everything we need, that we’ve learned it all, and we can take care of things on our own. The psalmist, King David—a prophet and king, a man after God’s own heart, full of the Holy Spirit—he still prayed this other verse as well: Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. He still needed the Lord’s teaching. He still needed the Lord to lead him, to help him understand the ways of God, because there were enemies all around him. It was too much for him to take care of on his own. He was never done listening, learning the right way to go, especially because there was always something trying to lead him astray.

So, throughout this psalm, we are taught to rely completely on the Lord. We depend on Him. And this theme comes to its crescendo at the end of the psalm: Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! This is another way to describe faith. Faith is passive, it waits for God to do something. Faith is also active, we have our work to do as Christians. But first, faith must wait on God. Faith rests in God. So, the first work that faith produces is steadfast patience. No matter what happens, faith expects God to be good, and waits for Him to do His good.

Of course, while you’re waiting, things are not always going to go well. We are sinners and we are surrounded by sinners. Pandemics and mobs are not really that unusual in the grand scheme of this world. We sin, others sin, nothing in this world works quite as well as it should. 

In the psalm, David cries out to the Lord: Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! O You who have been my help, forsake me not, O God of my salvation! Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. This is not exactly the joyful and confident boasting from verse one. David had real threats, on his life, on his kingdom. He had some enemies because of his faith in the Lord. He had other enemies because of his own selfish mistakes and deliberate sins.

Or take Peter. He fished all night and got nothing. And that didn’t just mean no fish fry that weekend. No fish meant no food at all for his family for the next week. We’re talking about his livelihood. And then, when he does get a miraculous catch, it threatens to sink his boat, taking him down along with it.

All this, what happened to David or Peter, it’s common to man, common to sinners and to life in this sinful world. Who hasn’t cried out like David, and felt that God had turned away? Like He had forsaken us. David was right to cry out desperately for grace and salvation. Who hasn’t fallen down like Peter, exhausted, beaten, terrified, thinking that he must be experiencing God’s wrathful and deserved punishment for sin? “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” And Peter was right, almost. You just have to change two little words in Peter’s response. Instead of saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” just say, “Stay with me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” That little change makes all the difference. That is faith—wanting to stay with the Lord, wanting the Lord to stay with you, waiting for the Lord to act.

The psalm says, Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage. But much of the time, our faith will not feel strong, and we will not seem to have the courage we want. That’s why we wait. Waiting for the Lord is our strength and courage, because He is our light and our salvation. So, when you feel like you don’t have faith, confess the faith anyway. Repeat the words God has given you, and wait for Him.

It’s like if a wife says that she just wants her husband to hug her. And he says, “Well, I don’t feel like hugging you, I wouldn’t really mean it if I did, and I can’t control my feelings.” Okay, maybe not. But you can control your arms can’t you? So, use your arms and just hug her. You can control your mouth can’t you? So, use it and tell her you love her, whether or not you happen to really feel it at the moment. It’s good for her, and it’ll be good for you. That’s real love anyway—doing for the other what they need.

And if your sinful heart doesn’t feel like it believes, if you think you can’t believe, and you can’t control your heart, you can still confess the faith. Confess in spite of yourself. Say the faithful words God has given you to say, and wait for Him.

This is how we persevere by grace. We keep on going in this life of faith, not by our own power, but by the Lord’s. Consider how St. Peter, who was so scared and full of sin and doubt by the Sea of Galilee, would later write in the Epistle we heard today: Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Whom shall I fear? No one! What shall trouble me? Nothing! Not an enemy, not my own weakness, not death. Because the holy Lord is always working. He has not forgotten me. I wait for Him.

You see, the only thing that can really hurt you is whatever keeps you from the good that God wants for you. What He wants for you above all is His love and mercy and help, His washing, His Word, His body and blood. He wants to stay with you and share His life with you. The only thing then that can hurt you is whatever would keep you away from Him—that is unbelief, not waiting, not expecting, not staying and enjoying what He gives. 

So, God does allow our lives in this fallen world to frustrate us, to push us and stretch us, but only so that His Spirit can work to create in us the steadfast patience we need. Do not be afraid, says Jesus, to David, to Peter, and to you. Your sins are forgiven by His blood. You don’t have to fear God. He is your light and your salvation. So, if you don’t have to fear God, then you really have nothing to fear. This is a promise from God. He will keep it. All that remains is for us to wait for Him.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Genesis 50:15–21

Romans 8:18–23

St. Luke 6:36–42

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

A few weeks ago, back on Trinity Sunday, I said that we all want mercy on ourselves and justice on everyone else. When we do something wrong, we want mercy, leniency. When someone else does something wrong—especially when someone does something wrong to us—we want justice, punishment. But it’s one or the other really. Either mercy for me and mercy for all, or justice for everyone including me, and we all end up dead. This is ultimately true, and just another way of saying what Jesus says: With the measure you use it will be measured back to you. If you want to measure everyone up against the Law—whether that’s God’s Law, the nation’s laws, or your own personal ideas of right and wrong—if you want to hold everyone to that standard and not allow for mercy and forgiveness, then that’s exactly what you’ll get too. And sooner or later, you’ll also fall short.

That being said, justice is not wrong. And there is need for justice in this world. There is a need for the Law and for the Law to be upheld. Judgments must be made. Jesus’ words do not mean there is no right or wrong. Judge not, and you will not be judged—that means you are not the final arbiter, you don’t get to decide what the standard for judgment is. That is ultimately God alone. His Law defines justice. His Law makes the judgments, says what’s right and wrong.

But below God, there are other earthly authorities, instituted by God for each area of life: Parents in the Home, Civil Government in the State, Pastors in the Church. And these authorities are commanded by God to say what is right and wrong, to make judgments.

This being the weekend for our nation’s independence, our thoughts easily go to the civil authorities. And the word that most comes to mind when thinking of our nation and government is the word, “liberty.” But just as Jesus’ words, Judge not, are often misused to say there is no right or wrong, this word “liberty” is often misused in a similar way to say that you can do whatever you want—it’s a free country, right? That is not at all what this nation was founded upon.

One of the bedrock principles of this nation’s fathers and mothers was the very traditional, very classical idea that only those who can rule their own thoughts and actions can truly be free. This means governing yourself according to God’s Law and good human wisdom. This means you do not follow every whim or feeling or thought, but you judge it, you test it against God’s Word and against history and the wisdom that has come down from the past, and so you rule yourself accordingly. You put limits on yourself, for the good of yourself and for the good of others, and then you can truly be free. People who are blown about by every new idea, or get swept up in the mob, or who give in to every selfish desire are not fit to be free but should be compelled and forced to obey what is right.

This nation was founded upon this idea of liberty, not on licentiousness. Being free does not mean you get to do whatever you want. Judge not, Jesus says. You are not the one who gets to decide what’s right or wrong, what you want to do or get to do. So, an idea like “liberty and justice for all” means that all must be accountable to God’s Law, must govern themselves according to it, and judgments must be made and upheld in order to teach what is right and preserve what is good.

There is certainly a need for justice in this world. There is a need for God’s Law to rebuke sinners, for the nation’s laws to punish criminals, and for each of us to rule ourselves according to these laws in our own minds and bodies.

But in the end, Law and justice can only do Law and justice. In a fallen world, eventually, we all end up dead. We will not establish a perfect society on this earth. America was never and could never be that shining “city on a hill.” As we’ve seen in the last month or so, our nation is a far cry from what it was founded to be. After 70 some years of radical, progressive education and the expansion of government power, our society is crumbling. Of course, there’s a chance this could be reversed and we might rebuild, but that’s a subject for another day. The point for now is that this is the way of all civilization—it doesn’t last.

And this is why we must take hope in St. Paul’s words from Romans 8: The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Law and justice must be upheld in this fallen, sinful world. And so creation groans under the burden of our sin and the punishment for that sin. This world wastes away in its bondage to sin and death. But there is a true freedom promised to us. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. The true freedom that we wait for and groan for in this world is not the liberty of America, not the liberty of this world that only comes from force or self–restraint. What we groan for is the perfect life of liberty of knowing and doing only the good and holy will of God—the life promised to us in the new world of the resurrection.

And that new life and new world is already begun here and now in the Church on earth. It’s not yet perfected here. It’s still quite weak and hidden, while this world lingers on. But the new life begun in us makes the Church a different kind of place. This is the place where we receive mercy and we give mercy.

Your heavenly Father is merciful, so He wants you to be merciful—full of His mercy and showing His mercy. He is merciful to you for the sake of His Son. He does not judge you because He judged Christ for your sin. He does not condemn you because Christ shed His blood for you. He forgives you because Jesus died in your place. And here, in this new place, His Church, He gives gifts to you, in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over… in Baptism, washing you clean; in Absolution, declaring you holy; in the Supper, feeding you His Son’s body and blood for eternal life. He gives all that and more for you, so that you may know His mercy, and so that you may be merciful just as He is.

This is the place where you can get your eye cleaned out so that you can mercifully help your brother. If you get the log out of your own eye by confessing your sins, owning up to them and hating them, and getting God’s mercy touched to you, in Baptism, in the Word, in the Supper, then you can begin to help your brother. It’s no good for a blind man to lead a blind man, but it’s a merciful thing for a Christian to help a brother find his sin and get touched by the mercy of God. Helping a brother with his speck of sin is not an unloving, condemning, judgmental thing to do. It’s a rescue operation. So, even where there is a need for us to speak the Law to sinners, we do it mercifully. We do it with the hope of repentance and a new life.

This only happens in the Church. Christians are the only ones who care about mercy, repentance, and forgiveness. Look at Joseph and his brothers. The brothers were sure Joseph would pay them back for all the evil they had done to him, threatening his life and selling him into slavery. They were only thinking about justice. They were only thinking like this world. But Joseph was thinking like God. He was thinking about mercy. And to those who so grievously wronged him, he spoke words of forgiveness: Do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.

We do not see this much today. Certainly not among the “Woke,” among the social justice warriors. Whether it’s MeToo accusers, or the Black Lives Matter Organization, or Antifa, or white supremacists—none of them care about forgiveness. You can plead with them all you want, you can tell them how sorry you are, but you’re never forgiven. You’re rejected, canceled, torn down or kicked out. At best you’re just left in a perpetual state of penitence with no hope.

Christians really are to be different from the rest. Christians really are the only ones who truly believe in mercy and forgiveness, who do not hold past sins against people, who desperately pray and work for peace in this world. Everyone else wants to be the judge, wants their idea of justice. Everyone else, eventually, pursues the way of violence—the path of justice only—and everyone ends up dead. Christians are different. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. This means that Christians are called to be like God. He sacrificed His own Son for us—for sinners who hate Him and want to be god in His place. But the death of God on the cross is the definition of love. The work of God in the flesh is the very icon of mercy, the image that Christians then reflect in their lives with others.

This is why we baptize our babies, why we learn His Word, why we feed on His body and blood, why we then help the poor, and give witness to His love, and pray for the peace of the world, so that we become more and more like our God—more like His love, more like His mercy, more like the new world He has in store for us in the resurrection—a world created by His mercy, full of His true justice—a world where we all live with Him.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.