The Feast of St. Simon & St. Jude the Apostles

1 Peter 1:3–9

St. John 15:12–21

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

It’s said: “You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.” But friendship with Jesus is different. He says to His friends, His 12 apostles, You did not choose Me, but I chose you. He calls His apostles not slaves or servants but friends. They are His confidants. The ones who can confide in Him, who listen to Him. Also the ones He confides in, and the ones He listens to. It is a great honor to be a friend of the King. This is not the same as being His drinking buddy or coffee companion. This is not ordinary, casual friendship. To be the King’s friend means to have special access to Him, to have His ear, and to have His protection and service. To be the King’s friend means to be favored by Him, to be loved by Him.

And so it is also not ordinary love that Jesus talks about when He says, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. It’s true that the sacrifice of a soldier for his brothers in arms is a great love. How much more so for the love of Jesus? There is no greater love than this, that Jesus laid down His life for the ones He chose to make His friends by His grace. He laid down His life for sinners who hated Him, for you and me who fail to love Him purely in return. And that sacrificial love makes us His friends.

You did not choose Me, Jesus said, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. Remember, Jesus is speaking to His 12 apostles on the night when He was betrayed, sometime during that final meal and the institution of our Lord’s Holy Supper. He says He appointed them to go and bear fruit, fruit that will abide and last. The fruit of the apostles is the holy Christian Church—all those who hear their preaching and believe. And in these verses, Jesus also describes the Church herself, who bears fruit (that is the faith and love of believers); the Church who asks the Father in Jesus’ name and receives from His gracious hand; the Church who keeps the command of our Lord and loves one another.

But this is also the Church who suffers in this world, just as her Lord suffered. Jesus also said to His apostles: If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ Christ suffered the hatred of the sinful world that rejected Him. So His apostles suffered the hatred of the sinful world that rejected their message of Christ. And the Church, who is built on the foundation of the apostles with Christ as the cornerstone, she also suffers the hatred of the sinful world. As it goes with Jesus, so it goes with those who follow Jesus.

If they persecuted Me, Jesus said, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. Those who reject the Word of God, also reject the ones sent to preach it. But those who love and keep the Word of God, also love and receive the ones sent to preach it. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, said Jesus, because they do not know Him who sent Me. The world didn’t hate the apostles because they were mean. The world doesn’t hate the Church because she seems politically incorrect or unwelcoming. The world hates the followers of Jesus because it hates Jesus. It does not know Jesus or the Father who sent Jesus. It does not believe in Him, because the world does not want to know Him. To know Him would mean to rely on Him and obey Him. The world wants to rely on itself, obey no one, and go its own way.

But thanks be to God, you, dear friends of the King, you know Him. As St. Peter exclaims: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You know Him, and despite suffering in this world, you have a living hope. Jesus is risen. And no matter what suffering or hatred comes your way, you will be raised too. For the Lord has given you an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Not only are you friends of the King, you are His children, heirs with Christ. And you are being guarded now for that great Day to come.

But St. Peter also reminds us of the suffering Christians must face in this world, even while we rejoice in the inheritance waiting for us. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Here, Peter tells us the purpose of our suffering as Christians. If perishable gold must be tested by fire, then your faith, which is much more valuable and eternal than gold, must also go through the testing fire. 

But pay attention to the metaphor. Gold is tested by fire, that is, it is refined, purified, separated from the other lesser metals mixed in with the pure gold. The testing of gold is not something the gold does. It’s what happens to the gold to make it pure. So also you, by the fire of persecution and suffering, you are purified. Your faith is refined and separated from the sins and weaknesses that still cling to you. Getting through the testing of your faith is not something you do. The testing is what God does to you to make your faith pure.

So, in times of trial, in the face of temptation, when you feel the fire of suffering or hatred, your faith is purified by loving Him who is pure. Your faith is proven by crying out to Him who is strong. Your faith is shown to be your salvation by relying on the Savior. St. Peter wrote: Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. This takes us back to that night when our Lord was betrayed. And during His final sermon to His apostles, St. Jude, whom we remember with St. Simon tonight, spoke up and asked a question we all would probably have: Judas (not Iscariot) said to Jesus, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” In other words, how will you show yourself to us, Lord, but not to everyone else at the same time? Jesus answered Jude, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:22–23). He doesn’t show Himself to our physical eyes, not yet. He shows Himself to the eyes of faith.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. And so you do, as you hear it and learn it and let it guide your life. And My Father will love him. And so He does, even while you suffer here. And We will come to him and make Our home with him. And so they do—the Holy Trinity comes to you and makes their home with you in Holy Baptism and in the Holy Communion.

That’s how Jesus makes Himself manifest to the Church, to His friends, and not to the world that hates Him and His Church. St. Simon and St. Jude the Apostles learned this as they went and bore fruit, keeping Christ’s commands. They went, preaching the Gospel, forgiving sins, baptizing in the Triune Name, giving out the Lord’s body and blood, and also suffering for the sake of His name. The fruit of their preaching and suffering abides to this day—it’s you, the holy Church, who love the Lord they preached and died for.

Apart from that, we know very little for sure about these two friends of Jesus. They were always listed side by side in the Gospels. So, according to church tradition, they travelled together and preached in Persia (modern-day Iraq and Iran), where they suffered martyrdom. The church’s symbol for St. Simon is usually a fish with a book, reminding us that he was a fisher of men by proclaiming the Word of God. And the church’s symbol for St. Jude is usually a ship with a cross on its billowing sail—just like the one on our banner there in the middle. This reminds us of the apostles travelling throughout the world, pushed and filled by the wind of the Holy Spirit, bringing the Gospel to all and pulling up believers into the boat, the holy ark of the Christian Church.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Festival of the Reformation

 St. John 8:31–36

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

      A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.

      A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.

These paradoxical lines were written by Martin Luther in 1520, in an essay called The Freedom of a Christian, 500 years ago. Ever since we celebrated the 500th anniversary in 2017, of Luther posting the 95 Theses, we are coming up on many more 500th anniversaries of events and writings from the Reformation. So, 1520, Luther publishes this small but very important work.

Luther begins by discussing what he calls Christian freedom, and the first thing he points out is that there is one thing necessary for sinners to be righteous, for believers to live holy lives, and for Christians to be free—one thing is needed: the Word of God. Of course, Jesus tells us this: “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” This Word and Truth is the Gospel, the Good News about God’s Son, who was made flesh, and suffered death for sin, and rose from the dead in glory and victory over death and hell. 

This Word and Truth is the message Jesus was speaking to the Jews. But they did not all receive it as good news. They catch on the word “free” and rightly imply that if you are set free, you must first have been a slave. And they reject such a ridiculous idea. They were children of Abraham, God’s holy people, not slaves. They didn’t need to be set free. But the lesson to learn from Abraham is that he trusted God’s Word, His promise. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3). He was justified by God through faith alone in the Word alone. Or to put it another way, Abraham counted God as trustworthy. He knew that God was worthy of his trust, that God does not lie, that His promises are sure. This is what it means to know the Truth. You know God is truthful, and so He is trustworthy. 

The Jews did not consider God to be trustworthy in His promises. Instead, they relied on their works. They listened to the lie of their own hearts, their pride. And any of us can do this too, if you put anything in that place where God’s promise is supposed to go, anything you think is more worthy of your trust than God’s Word. “I’m basically a good person; I’m not a slave.” “I’m a dedicated member of this or that church; I’m not a slave.” Jesus says we are slaves to sin. And slaves remain slaves, unless they are set free by the Son.

Luther uses one of Aesop’s Fables to illustrate his point. A dog is running along beside a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth. He looks down into the water and, look, there’s another dog with another piece of meat in his mouth. The dog snaps at his reflection, lunges for the deceitful meat, while his own real piece falls into the water. He’s lost everything. If we try to get salvation with anything other than faith in the Word, we will end up losing everything.

If you could be justified by anything else, by your works, by your decency, by your smarts, then you would not need the Word at all. But the one thing we need is the Word from the Son. We are justified by faith in that Word alone. So if you do not believe in the Son’s Word, you lack all things—you’re like the sad dog who was fooled and lost everything. But if you believe, you have all things—you have Christ and everything He does. Luther writes: The promises of God give what the commandments of God demand… so that all things may be God’s alone… He alone commands, He alone fulfills. So, salvation is by God’s grace alone, His doing, not ours. And He gives this salvation as a gift—a free gift that gives freedom.

So, a Christian is free from the burden and accusation of the Law. He is free like the Son is free. Not a slave to keeping the Law, but free because it’s already done, already kept in Christ, and in the Christian by faith in Christ. Do we even imagine what a great change faith makes in us? We are fellow-kings and fellow-priests with Christ. By faith we are free, meaning we are allowed, to boldly come into the presence of God the Father, just like the very Son of God does. We are free from fear of all evil, free from the fear of sin, the fear of enemies, the fear of death. Whatever evil comes our way, we are ready to hope in the Lord and rely on His rescue. Sin is swallowed up by Christ’s righteousness. And so even death is swallowed up by Christ’s victory, and by our victory! By faith His victory becomes ours and so we are also conquerors with Him.

I’m sure you can see then that the freedom of a Christian is spiritual. And it does not always mean a care-free and easy life in this world. In fact, the more Christian a man is, the more evil and suffering he must endure. Just look at Christ Himself, or any of His saints. Jesus, the Son of God, is totally free. And as a perfect Man, He is still perfectly free. But out of His freedom, He became a servant to all. He did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Christians are given the freedom of the Son. And in that freedom, Christians imitate the Son in His service. Like Jesus, we die to self and serve others. He was crucified for us, we crucify our sinful desires. He lives for us, we live for others.

But whenever Christian freedom is taught, the question always comes up: If we’re free, why do we still bother with trying to keep the Law? Two reasons: We still have the sinful flesh, the Old Adam hanging on us. And we still have suffering and death in this world so our neighbors need our help. So there are two kinds of good works for us to do. There are works to keep ourselves under control, to kill our sinful desires. The free man is able to govern himself. Giving into every craving you have is slavery—being unable to resist your flesh is slavery. The free man can say No. He has self-discipline, and he subjects his flesh to the Spirit, so that it obeys Christ and does not hinder him on the way of faith. Then there are also works we must do for others. The free man is able to work for the good of others, because he’s not worried about himself. His relationship with God is right, so he doesn’t need his good works to be for God. He’s free to give his good works to his neighbor.

You were saved freely, so you live freely. You are able to give yourself as a little Christ to your neighbor, just as Christ offered Himself to you. This is why we are named after Him: Christians. He dwells in us and we in Him. So, Luther writes: A Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.

In order for those beautiful words to become real, we’ve got to get the order right. First faith, then works. First, we are set free by Christ, and then we are able to work freely for others. This order was one of the main points for the Reformation. Only a free man does free works. Only a good man does good works. It’s not the other way around. A good tree produces good fruit. A good builder makes a good house. Only when the Christian is free from relying on his works for salvation, can he start doing truly good works. Slaves cannot free themselves. The free Son has to set you free by His Word, give you faith and new life, and so set you free to doing good.

Jesus said, Abide in My Word. Use the Means of Grace—the Word, Baptism, the Absolution, the Holy Supper. Making use of those gifts is how you abide and live in His Word. And you will know the Truth. You will know Christ who is the Truth. And you will know Him to be truthful, worthy of your trust. That is faith in Christ. And the Truth will set you free. With faith in Christ, you are free like Christ. And the free man lives like Christ, for God and for others.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Based on Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (Luther's Works 31)

The Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist

Feast Observed 

Actual Date: October 18

2 Timothy 4:5–18

St. Luke 10:1–9

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

In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul says that Luke the beloved physician greets you (Col. 4:14). So, St. Luke was a doctor of medicine, a very learned man. But he is not remembered by the Church for healing diseases, for being a doctor of the body. We remember him today for being a doctor of the soul, especially for writing the Gospel that bears his name and the Book of Acts.

As far as we know, Luke was not one of the followers of Jesus during His earthly ministry. His name is Greek, and so most suppose that he was a Gentile who came to believe in the Savior through Paul’s preaching. We first get a glimpse of Luke in Acts, journeying with Paul on his first trip into Greece, and so, as far as we know, the first time the Gospel came into Europe. I say we only get a glimpse of him, because he never mentions himself by name in the Book of Acts. But while the book has been referring to Paul and his companions as “they,” right when they are about to cross over into Greece it switches to “we,” so the author is included. This happens two other times, indicating that Luke was then accompanying Paul. The second time is on his trip to Jerusalem where Paul was arrested and imprisoned. The third time is on Paul’s trip to Rome as a prisoner. We know Luke was a close companion of Paul, as he was the only one with Paul during his final imprisonment at the end of his life as Paul said in 2 Timothy. In this way, even though Luke was not chosen by our Lord to be an apostle, he was close to the apostle Paul and so Luke’s Gospel is still closely connected to the ministry of an apostle.

But Luke didn’t just rely on Paul to write his accounts in the Gospel or Acts. At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke says that he interviewed those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word (Luke 1:2). Probably, while Paul was in prison, Luke visited with the 12 apostles who had known Jesus personally. And he must have talked with Mary, the blessed mother of Jesus herself.

Luke’s Gospel gives information that no one else could know, other than Mary. More than once, he tells us that Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19). So we hear about Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah and the birth of John the Baptist; Gabriel’s visit to Mary; her visitation with Elizabeth; the birth of Jesus; the family’s trip to the temple where they meet old Simeon and Anna; and the time when 12 year old Jesus stayed behind at the temple. These are clearly the remembrances of a mother.

We also get several of our great canticles from the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel (again, probably from Mary’s memory): the Benedictus, which we often sing at Matins – the song of Zechariah at the birth of his son, John; the Magnificat, which we sing at Vespers – Mary’s own song of praise; the Gloria in Excelsis – the song of the angels to the Bethlehem shepherds; and the Nunc Dimittis – Simeon’s song while holding the Lord’s salvation in his arms, the infant Jesus.

And there are other unique parts from Luke’s Gospel that he must have heard from others: the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Prodigal Son, and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. All of this gives us an important theme in Luke’s Gospel, what we might call the Great Reversal. The poor become rich, the hungry are fed, the mighty are brought down but the humble are lifted up, the first become last, the last become first, those who think they are righteous are turned away, but sinners are made righteous and welcomed into the kingdom.

This is the message that Jesus gave his ministers to proclaim: Peace be to this house! And, The kingdom of God has come near to you. True peace, heavenly peace comes when sins are forgiven in the name of Jesus. It’s the blood of Jesus that makes peace between God and men. It’s the blood of Jesus that allows men to enter the kingdom of God. Luke may have been a physician, but Jesus is our true physician of body and soul. He is the One who heals and gives life, not only for life in this world, but even more so for the life of the world to come.

By the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. Luke proclaimed this Jesus in the writing of his Gospel and the Book of Acts. And still today, that proclamation is heard as we read and listen to those holy writings. The peace and the kingdom of Jesus still come today to our house here and to your homes whenever His Word is read. In fact, Luke pointed this out at the beginning of his second book, the book of Acts. He wrote: In the first book (his Gospel) I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. The Gospel of Luke was only the beginning of Jesus’ doings and teachings. Jesus continued to do and teach throughout the Book of Acts through the work and words of the apostles and His other servants like St. Luke. And so even today, Jesus continues to do and teach through His Church, through His ministers and through all His servants as they confess their faith in words and deeds.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

St. Matthew 22:34–46

The Pharisees question Jesus - James Tissot

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

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him. It might help you to better understand what’s going on, if you knew a little about who these Pharisees and Sadducees are, and what’s the difference between them. Just like in our day, there were factions among the people—groups, movements, political parties. The Pharisees and Sadducees were two of these groups.

The Sadducees were what we might think of as the liberals, but not the radical left. They were not the kind that led protests or riots. The Sadducees were the establishment. They held the levers of power in Jerusalem around the Temple and in the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews. They were liberal in two ways. They were culturally and politically liberal because they had adopted the decadent culture of the Greeks, and they collaborated with the political power of Rome. Remember, the Jews at this time did not have their own kingdom. They were under Roman occupation, with a Roman governor and Roman military officers in charge. But the Sadducees managed to keep some power for themselves by colluding with their Gentile overlords. The Sadducees were liberal theologically as well. They only accepted the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, and disregarded the writings of the prophets. And they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, which was the debate they started with Jesus just before our reading. But they lost—He silenced them.

So, with their political and religious enemies licking their wounds, the Pharisees took their turn with Jesus. The Pharisees were the conservatives. They were known to be righteous, rigorous keepers of the Law. They were the Bible-believing, hard-working, decent people. And they were not impressed by the wealthy or powerful who were caught up in a corrupt and immoral society. We tend to just think of the Pharisees as the “bad guys,” but there’s a reason Jesus spends so much of His time arguing with the Pharisees: they were the closest to Him! They took God’s Word seriously, but they were still blind. They saw God’s Law, but they couldn’t see that they were incapable of keeping it perfectly. They saw this Teacher from Nazareth, but they refused to see Who He really is.

This is why Jesus asks them His question. Who is the Christ? Jesus is trying to get them to see that the Messiah, the Christ, cannot only be King David’s son, a man. He must also be David’s Lord, the Son of God. Only this Christ, true God and true Man, could make satisfaction for their sins, die for all, rise for all, and give forgiveness and life to all. See, you have to get to the Christ, or the Law will do you no good. The Law, without Christ, only leads to the death of sinners. Sinners need the Law to realize their sin, but then they also need the Christ who saves them from the Law, from sin and death. 

Jesus wants them to see this. He wants the Pharisees to be saved! This conversation actually happened during the last week of Jesus’ earthly life, after Palm Sunday and before His arrest. He’s trying, even in those last days, to save these stubborn, blind fools. Sadly, they will team up with their rivals, the Sadducees, in order to get Jesus condemned. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And people who disagree on a lot of things, can still find ways to unite in their hatred of Christ.

The Pharisees knew what Jesus is claiming here—that He is David’s Lord. In fact, they will use this conversation against Him at His trial. They will say to Pilate, “We have a law, and according to that law He ought to die because He has made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7). But no matter what they say on Good Friday, Jesus wants them to have heard the truth from Holy Scripture. They might still reject Him, but He wants them to know Him, because He still loves them.

If we were to look for comparisons in our day, it’s actually very likely that many of us would fit in with the Pharisees. Like them, we care about the Bible, and God’s Law, right and wrong, justice. We might not like the rich political insiders, the liberal fat-cats pulling the strings in New York and DC. We might think the country’s falling to pieces and somebody’s got to lay down the law.

But without Christ, the Law does you no good; certainly not man’s law, but not even God’s Law. It can’t save you. There are decent, moral people who are not Christians, and they do what’s right and benefit society. But they don’t know Christ, so they are not saved from sin, death, or hell. Outside the Christian Church, you will not hear about the Christ, the Savior, David’s Son and David’s Lord. We’re the only ones preaching this message. We’re the only ones with a message that can actually save the world. I don’t mean save it in a political sense, or make it a bit better for right now. I mean save it for eternity. The only way we get to the resurrection and the life of the world to come is to know the Christ who died and rose again.

I’m all in favor of working for a better society. In fact, God is in favor of this as well. It is His will that all things good, true, and beautiful should flourish and be protected among us. We should care about the kind of education are children are getting in history, science, and literature. We should pay attention to our political system (there’s nothing technically wrong with politics). We should elect wise leaders who will make prudent decisions for our nation. And we must teach and learn God’s Law. And we must condemn the sin we see in society and in our own lives. 

But as the Christian Church, the Gospel is our main thing. Like Jesus, we want to get people to see the Christ. We want to get sinners to the justification of God on account of Christ’s innocent suffering and holy blood. We’ve got something for the world that nobody else has. We’ve got a message that brings real peace, a washing that cleanses every sin and stain, guilt and shame, and a food that makes you immortal and will carry you into a world you can’t even imagine. That’s what we’re all about.

If people know anything about us Christians, that’s what we want them to know. People are going to hate the Christian Church, no doubt about it. There’s always going to be unlikely allies who team-up to take her down. But if people want to hate the Christian Church, let’s make sure they know our real message first. If enemies want to team up like the Pharisees and Sadducees, then let’s meet them head on with the Gospel: the story of the King who was hated by this world, was hung on a cross, and did it all out of His own great love. We don’t need them to just know the commandments of the Law, but to also know the Christ, whose Son He is, and what He does for you.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Introit: Psalm 119:1–2, 5–6, 124, 137

1 Samuel 2:1–10

Ephesians 4:1–6

St. Luke 14:1–11

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

Humility is not a popular virtue, is it? Maybe even less than usual these days. Everyone seems to be pretty confident in their opinions, proud of their life choices, and unwilling to listen and discuss anything as a community. Many are also unwilling to be patient and allow people to make their own decisions. But instead of pointing out the lack of humility out there, we probably have to take a good look in the mirror ourselves. And this Sunday helps us do that and teaches us what real humility is. God’s Word today teaches us how to live humbly before Him, and it may help us in our lives with our neighbors too.

The Psalm verses in the Introit this morning came from Psalm 119, the great psalm about meditating on God’s Word. But the verses we sang today, not only tell us about the Word, but give us the proper mindset we should have when coming to the Word. Righteous are You, O LORD, and right are Your just decrees. This is a humble attitude, where I must empty myself, and confess to God, “You are always right, I’m not. Your ways are best, not mine.” Don’t go to God’s Word expecting you already know all the answers, or expecting His answers to always agree with yours. Go to God’s Word prepared to repent in humility and accept correction.

But then we pray, Deal with Your servant according to Your steadfast love, and teach me Your statutes. So, God’s Word does not only empty us out of our opinions, but it also fills us with truth, goodness, and beauty. In His Word, God gives us His mercy and love. He teaches us, and His teaching is life. Then, the psalm declares, I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments. From God’s Word we learn humility, but not humiliation, because we are not ashamed of God’s Word. We have what is right, and we can be confident in that. We don’t need confidence in ourselves, but in God.

This last point is the basis of Hannah’s song in the Old Testament reading. Hannah’s prayer to God for a child was answered, and in grateful response she sang: My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. At first glance, that might not sound very humble. But Hannah is not exalting in herself or thinking she was better than others. She exults in the Lord. She can look down on her enemies because God answered her prayer. She is humble in herself, but in confident in God.

So, in her song she also instructs others to realize this for themselves: Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. How do you know what is true or good or beautiful? God tells you. He reveals knowledge. And if your opinions are not informed by God’s Word, or by clear God-given reason and God-created nature, then your opinions are arrogance. You will be weighed and found wanting.

Hannah goes on to describe God’s work in this world: The LORD kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. The Lord is at work in this world, not only in His Church, but in history. Trust that He is working, even when it doesn’t look like it, even when it looks like He has turned a blind eye. He will bring this world to His own good and proper end. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His Anointed. The Lord’s anointed King mentioned by Hannah at the end of her song is none other than Jesus the Christ. So ultimately, everything the Lord does is for the glory of His name, the good of His kingdom, and the salvation of His children. Don’t set yourself up in arrogance, but trust with humility that the Lord is doing what’s best.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul also had something to say about humility—humility in the church. I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Psalm 119 told us to have a humble attitude toward God’s Word. Hannah told us to have a humble attitude toward God’s work in this world. St. Paul is telling us here to have a humble attitude toward God’s saints, our brothers and sisters in the church. It doesn’t matter if you especially like each other, you are together in the one body of Christ. So, you have to approach one another with humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

What’s more, while we should have this humble attitude toward individuals, we should also have this attitude toward God’s Church as a whole. The Church belongs to God, not to us. We cannot make the Church in our own image, the way we like it. God brings us into the Church, which is something bigger than ourselves, something bigger than our congregation. The Church is the body of Christ, with a history of 2000 years across the globe. So, in humility we receive the wisdom of that history and learn from our fathers and mothers in the faith. But even more importantly, we cannot create unity and peace in the Church. St. Paul says that we should be eager to maintain it. This means that in humility we receive unity and peace from the Holy Spirit, from His Word. By holding to His Word, His teaching, we keep His unity and peace among us.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus gives us what might be the theme verse for this Sunday of humility: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And this verse is illustrated by how Jesus exposes the pride of the Pharisees in two ways. First, we see that they are proud of how they keep the Sabbath laws. But they are hypocrites because they criticize Jesus for doing good on the Sabbath. God’s Law to not work on the Sabbath did not mean that you don’t help people! So, Jesus healed the man, and so passed judgment on the Pharisees’ pride. Second, Jesus exposed how they sought honor for themselves in the eyes of men. They all tried to get the best spots at the table. And Jesus mocked them with His “advice”—if you want to be honored you should go sit in the low spot and then maybe you’ll get a parade up to the high spot. Jesus is not actually interested in teaching people how to get honor.

And yet, Jesus wanted them to learn true, spiritual humility: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And so the first thing we should recognize as followers of Jesus is that He is the type and model of true humility. Jesus humbled Himself for our sakes by taking on our sin and obediently suffering in our place. He was humble and gentle toward all people. He trusted His Father to work all things for good and to exalt Him at the proper time. He is the humble student of God’s Word. And being faithful to God’s Word, recognizing His judgments to be right, Jesus went with humility to the cross.

So also, the followers of Jesus must humbly go the way of the cross. We are crucified with Christ. We bear our crosses and follow Him. This means sacrificial service for others, likely without any acknowledgement. But your reward will be in heaven. The way of the cross means suffering now and glory hereafter. It also means that your cross will not be self-chosen. We really get this backwards. We think that we should just get to do what we like rather than what needs to be done. This goes for work in the church, as well as in a marriage and a family. God humbles and He exalts. God drowns the prideful Old Adam in us who wants to have his own way, and God raises up the New Man in us to live before God and others with humility. God has prepared for us what good works we should be doing. In humility, we live out our Baptism and do what God has given us to do.

The Collect of the Day also teaches humility: Lord, we implore You, grant Your people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow You, the only God; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Following the only God means going His way, not ours. The church has believed for a long time that the devil’s sin was pride. He was, of course, originally created good by God, perhaps the most powerful of all the holy angels, but then he rebelled against God because he pridefully thought he could be equal to God. There are hints of this in Isaiah, but we also get the idea from how the devil tempted Adam and Eve. He told them that they could be like God. In a way, pride is the origin of all sin—thinking you know better than God.

So, in humility, we pray for God to grant His people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow Him, the only God. And we can begin to see what that looks like with a review of all we’ve heard today about humility. First, empty yourself of your own opinions. Don’t expect to be right every time. Be open to correction. And then be filled with what God says is true, good, and beautiful. Eagerly learn from Him in His Word. And this kind of mindset can apply to many areas of life, not just in the church. Think about how much better our society or our congregation or our families could be, if we were willing to admit when we’re wrong and learn something new.

Then also humility means trusting that God is working and His ways are best. He will exalt Christ and preserve and enlarge His kingdom in the way that He determines to be right. Let God be God. So also then, receive and maintain what He gives to you. Treasure His Word, His Church, His sacraments, His unity and peace. These are not your things to do with as you please, but you are to keep them and share them. And finally, do not fear to humbly follow the only God on the way of the cross. It most certainly means spiritually dying to self, and probably suffering and dying in physical ways too. But the way of the cross ends in resurrection, where those who are humble like Christ, will also be exalted like Christ.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.