Septuagesima - About 70 Days until Easter

Exodus 17:1–7

St. Matthew 20:1–16

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

The words in our Collect for today hit many of the themes from our Scripture readings: O Lord, graciously hear the prayers of Your people that we who justly suffer the consequence of our sin may be mercifully delivered by Your goodness to the glory of Your name (Collect of the Day).

O Lord, graciously hear. If there’s one point to the parable today, it is the teaching of Grace Alone. The late workers should justly suffer the consequence of working only a partial day, maybe even only an hour, and yet, they receive the Lord’s goodness. They do not work for the full day, and yet the Master gives to each of them a full day’s wage. This is what it means to say that we are saved by God’s Grace Alone. We should justly suffer the consequence of our sin, but instead we are mercifully delivered by God’s goodness. We have not worked a full day in the Lord’s Vineyard—we sin, we disobey, we are lazy—and yet, the gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation is given to us by grace. That means it’s free. We don’t earn it, we can’t work for it. It has all been accomplished by the Master of the Vineyard Himself, who paid the price and gave this gift to us.

We can see this same teaching at work in the Old Testament. The Israelites had been slaves to Pharaoh, unable to save themselves. And the Lord came down and delivered them by His goodness to the glory of His name. He broke the power of Pharaoh by His plagues, He led His people through the water of the Red Sea, and He destroyed the Egyptian army. And then, they’re barely out of Egypt, and the Israelites are already grumbling and testing the Lord. First, they come to a place that has bitter, unhealthy water, and they grumble. Well, it’s true that water is important, especially in the desert, but you would think these people, who had just seen the wonders of the Lord in Egypt and at the Red Sea, that they would trust in the Lord to take care of them. And He does, He gives them sweet, good water, and even brings them to a bountiful oasis (with a spring for each tribe), and He promises them, “I am the Lord, your healer” (Ex. 15:26). Then, maybe a month later, they start grumbling again because they’re hungry. And what does the Lord do? He provides them with miraculous manna, bread from heaven, every day.

But then, it all happens again, not long after that. They come to another place with no water, and do they trust in the Lord? Do they remember His promises and have confidence that if He saved them in the past, He would surely save them now? No, they grumble and they test the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Moses prays to God, but I think he might’ve been thinking, “Third strike, you’re out.” And yet, the Lord did not make them justly suffer the consequence of their sin, but instead, once again, He mercifully delivered them by His goodness to the glory of His name. The Lord stood on the rock, and gave the word for Moses to strike the rock, and caused water to flow out for those undeserving, ungrateful people. The Israelites were not worthy of this water. They were not worthy to be saved from Egypt in the first place. And after all their grumbling and stubborn hard–heartedness, they deserved to be left out in the desert to die of thirst. They deserved to be killed, just like their Egyptian oppressors. But the Lord is gracious. He is merciful, He delivers, He is good. He saves by His Grace Alone.

We, living in America, in the 21^stcentury, with smart phones in our pockets, multiple cars and other machines that make life easy, sitting comfortably with our savings, our clothes, our food, our place in the church—we deserve nothing more than those Israelites. We deserve nothing more than those vineyard workers. We should justly suffer the consequence of our sin. We deserve to go to hell. What’s kind of funny though, is that while many Christians will agree with that—“Oh yes, I’m a sinner. I deserve death and hell.”—when it comes to any suffering in this life, we are suddenly put out and think there has been some grave miscarriage of justice. 

Justice would be you go to hell right now. In fact, you’re long overdue. We justly suffer the consequence of our sin. If you deserve hell after this life, then what makes you think you deserve anything better than that in this life? Surely, you should suffer here on earth too. Our general confession of sin is absolutely right (even if we often mumble the words without meaning it): I justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment (LSB p.184). That means punishment in this life and for eternity. And yet, we don’t get the full force of this punishment. We get to enjoy lots of good things in this life. We are not in hell. And we have the confident hope of life in heaven because of what our Savior has done! Even if we do suffer some in this life, we are not getting the full measure of justice. So, let’s not grumble, but say, Thanks be to God for that!

Still, sin has consequences. And anything we do suffer, we suffer it justly. Sinful people, in a sin–broken world, will bear the damaging marks of sin. There are diseases and natural disasters and evil, violent people. And even though your sickness or misfortune may not be a direct consequence of some sin, you’re still getting no more than you deserve. And sometimes, particular sins do carry direct consequences. The murderer deserves to die and can be executed. The unfaithful pastor deserves to be removed from his office. Treating sex as something casual brings with it terrible diseases, no amount of human protection can keep you safe from it all. A life of laziness and disrespect to parents and other authorities will usually bring poverty and hardship. When you endeavor to keep God’s Law, even though you won’t be perfect, your life generally will go better. But the flip–side is also true: when you persistently ignore God’s Law, your life generally will get worse and worse.

So, we pray that the Lord would graciously hear us. Because whatever we suffer, we justly suffer as the consequence of our sin. And we pray that we would not suffer all of the consequences of our sin. We pray that we would be spared in this world and also in the next. We pray that the Lord would mercifully deliver us by His goodness to the glory of His name. And He does. The Lord is gracious and merciful and good. In fact, what’s so amazing is that the Lord ONLY loves unworthy people. There is no one worthy of God’s favor, and yet, He gives His goodness to us because of what He has done, because of the price He paid in our place.

Knowing all of this, let’s not think too highly of ourselves. We must be on guard against covetousness. We must not envy what someone else has, or think that we deserve more than them. That idea is pure self-righteousness. That’s what the first vineyard workers do. They deny who the Lord is—they deny the very essence of God, that He loves and forgives sinners. And if they do that, then they deny that love and forgiveness for themselves. The Master challenged those prideful workers, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to Me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” Are you envious and wicked because God is good to all? That’s the kind of God He is. Our Lord wants to be known as the God who saves sinners. That’s how He gets glory. He mercifully delivers by His goodness to the glory of His name.

So, our Lord pays what He does not owe to people who could never pay Him back. He saves and preserves people who grumble against Him and test Him. He gives generously to those who do not deserve it. Our Lord is the Rock who was struck and gives life–giving water to His people. He was pierced for our transgressions and from His side flows water and blood to cleanse us from sin and give us everlasting life. From this Rock flows the fountain of Grace Alone, filling the font, and filling the chalice, up to the brim, so that we can be saved. I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my Rock and my fortress and my deliverer (Introit: Psalm 18).

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Artwork copyright (c) 2010 Edward Riojas. Used by permission.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

Exodus 3:1–14

St. Matthew 17:1–9

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

Behold, there appeared Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, it says, Moses and Elijah… appeared in glory and spoke of Jesus’ Exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). So, here we are, on a mountain, with Moses, and the Lord who is appearing in a bright and amazing vision, and they’re talking about an Exodus, a way out. This is the Exodus of Jesus’ death and resurrection—how He would make for His people a way out of the slavery of sin and death into the promise of forgiveness and life. So, this must remind us of another time, also on a mountain, where Moses talked with the Lord in a bright and amazing vision about a different Exodus. That was the Exodus of Israel—how the Lord would make for His people a way out of the slavery of Egypt and into the promised land. And that bright and amazing vision of the Lord was the burning bush.

Let’s back up, in case you’ve forgotten. The people of Israel had moved to Egypt during the days of Joseph and his 11 brothers, and things went well for them there. But then generations later, they were enslaved by the Pharaohs. Moses, one of those Israelites, was spared death as a baby and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, but he murdered an Egyptian and fled into the desert. There, he married a Midianite woman and became a shepherd. And this is why we find Moses now in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, tending his father–in–law’s flock, when he sees a bush on fire, yet not being burned up.

But before he can get too close, the Lord speaks to Moses from the burning bush and introduces Himself: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then the Lord goes on to talk with Moses about the Exodus, which He was about to accomplish, for His people—bringing them out of Egypt and giving them a new identity and a new home. And He says that Moses will be the one to lead them. Moses makes his excuses about why he’s not the right man for the job, but the Lord knows better.

Then, Moses asks God a very important question, “What is Your name?” Clearly Moses knows this God in the bush is real. In a similar way, the First Commandment tells us that there is a God. But that doesn’t tell us that much about who exactly this God is, what kind of God, or what He does. In fact, you cannot know God, and Moses could not know God, if God did not introduce Himself to us. So, the Second Commandment tells us that this God has a name. And the Third Commandment tells us that this God speaks to us. Moses came to know this God by God telling him His Name and speaking to Him about what He does. Likewise, you know there is a God, and you know what kind of God He is because He has told you His Name and spoken to you His Word. We need all three commandments in order to fear and love and trust the one true God.

So, Moses’ question is important: If the people of Israel ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”God said to Moses, “I AM Who I AM.” I AM—in Hebrew the name is “Yahweh,” in English we sub–in the title “Lord.” I AM Who I AM. What a name! What does it mean?

It means a great deal. It means, “I AM Myself and no other”—totally unique and not limited by anyone else. It also contradicts any pagan ideas where there are gods of trees or gods of rivers or gods of the son or moon: “I AM not a local desert god that lives in this bush.” And it contradicts other pagan, Far Eastern ideas where god is indistinguishable from the natural universe, where god is in everything and everything is in god: “I AM not the world and the world is not Me.” There is a difference between this I AM, the Creator, and His creation.

In fact, this name means that He is the One Eternal Being who made all other beings. “I AM the God who spoke the world into existence. And because I speak, I can tell you who I AM. I can tell you the story of Myself and this world, and that story can be repeated and told so that others may know who I AM.” He told Moses, “I am the God of your fathers.” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob told the stories of this God who is, who has the name above all names, this God who can be heard and known by the Words He speaks.

So, what does all this tell us? It tells us that we can know who God is and we can know things about this world He has made. Maybe you think that’s obvious and nothing new. But that’s not how many think in our world. People doubt everything today. “Fake news” is just the tip of the ice berg. People think that you can’t know anything for sure, or that there is no truth that applies across the board to all people. Others think there’s no way to know if any god exists, or that if there is a god, you can’t say anything about it definitively. 

            But the Lord, the I AM, tells us this is not so. There is such a thing as knowledge and certainty and truth. The world is good as the Lord, the I AM, has declared it good. And that means this world is worth knowing. This is why real science and philosophy and art can exist, and why these things do not need to contradict Christian truth, unless sinful men twist them. Real science and philosophy and art is responding to the good and knowable God, the I AM, and responding to His Truth, wherever He makes it known, both in the “book” of nature and in the book of His Holy Word.

The Lord invites us to know Him and to know His world. Christians can and should ask questions, and seek answers. We don’t have to be afraid of who we are, or what this world is, or who God is. He is good and you can know Him. He has given you His Name and spoken to you so that you may speak back to Him and know Him better. That is the basis for a good relationship after all: communication. And rightly knowing this good God makes you good, and helps you to better know others and this world.

So, who is the one true God? Yahweh, I AM, the One Who Is, who speaks and creates, the One who gives meaning and truth. But what’s even better than that? How do we know this I AM, this Lord, even better? He became a man like you and me. The Lord, Yahweh, perfect God and perfect man in one person: Jesus. He’s kind of like the burning bush: the divine nature is in Him but not burning up His human nature. Actually, Jesus is better than a burning bush, because in the burning bush, God was in the bush but God was not the bush and the bush was not God. Yet, in Jesus, God is not only in this man, but God is the Man and the Man is God. He is Yahweh, I AM, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His eyewitnesses saw the blazing fire of His divine nature shining through His human face as bright as the sun.

Faced with such a bright and amazing vision, we might ask like Moses, “Who are you? What is your name?” Or in other words, “How can we come to know you better?” Like Peter, we may want to know, “How can we be with you? To stay with you?” And once again, this Lord gives an answer to our questions: A bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”

Listen to Him. This means He is good and you can know Him. He speaks, so you can know who He is and what He wants for you. You can learn from Him. In fact, you must learn from Him. You must be His disciple and listen to the Truth He speaks: Truth that you cannot know without Him, Truth that you may not always want to hear, but Truth nonetheless, because He is I AM, the Source of all Truth, and it’s Truth that’s good for you.

If you want to be good, if you want to have meaning in your life, then you must begin by listening to Him. He is not an obscure god, or hidden, carved by human hands or invented by human ideas. And He is not difficult to understand. He has caused His Word to be written down, in plain language. He has caused His love to be shown by dying to rescue us from evil and by rising again. And He has caused His forgiveness to be made known in the speaking of His Word, and in the washing of water with His Name, and in the eating and drinking of His divine body and blood. This Jesus on the mountain, this Jesus here today, is the Lord, I AM. He is good and you can know Him. In fact, you do know Him. So, listen to Him. Because rightly knowing Him makes you good, and it helps you to better know others, and to better know your place in this world that He has given you.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The section on the Name “I AM” is based on a CiRCE podcast episode with Andrew Kern on the Biography of Reason.

Artwork copyright (c) 2010 Edward Riojas. Used by permission.

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

St. Matthew 8:23–27

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

In the middle of the storm, before He rebukes the winds and the sea, our Lord rebukes the disciples, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” This is not because they were wrong to wake Him, but they are wrong to panic. I suppose that their request, “Save us, Lord,” is legitimate, but their statement, “We are perishing,” goes too far into panic mode. 

Now, they’re probably only concerned with physical life and death. “Save us, we are perishing” could mean nothing more than, “Keep us from dying in this moment.” And if that’s all their prayer is, then they also have little faith because they don’t ask Jesus for enough. Both of these statements have theological significance. “Save us,” in Hebrew is the word, Hosanna, and it means, “Redeem us. Rescue us from our sins.” And “perishing” doesn’t simply mean to die, but it means to go to Hell. This is the word that Jesus uses in John 3:16, whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

So, with all Christian prayer, we pray for ultimate salvation and we do not panic, but we trust in God’s promises. That is why, whether we say it or not, all of our prayers must follow the example of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying, “Thy will be done.” Because we don’t know what is best for us. We think we know, but we don't. God knows what is best. And sometimes drowning in the Sea of Galilee or being crucified upside down in Rome or being killed in battle is best. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. The Lord calls us to trust in Him above all things, and to trust that He works all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28).

However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t ask to be spared or rescued from these things. We can and we should ask God for this. The Lord healed King Hezekiah and gave him 12 more years of life after he prayed. The Lord spared Israel for the sake of Moses’ intercession. With all boldness and confidence, we come and pray to God as dear children ask their dear father. Even though we don’t know what is best. We can be unashamed not only to pray that we be spared pain and sorrow—pray for things you need, pray to be healed or to keep your job—but we can even pray that we would be spared inconveniences or that we get fun things that we want. Christians can pray for things we don’t need. You can pray that you get to go on a cool vacation or pray for your puppy to get house-broken. We can also pray for big things, seemingly impossible things: for God to end legalized abortion in the United States, for the conversion of Muslim nations, for an end to hunger and bullying and lying politicians. We can pray for all this and more. Our Father wants to hear from us.

But what we aren’t free to do is insist on our way. We don’t bargain or give God ultimatums: “If you love me God, prove it by curing me.” Or “If you heal me, I will never commit that sin again.” And, just as importantly, we don’t panic. We trust that even in the middle of terrible circumstances—when we’ve suffered unjustly, been lied about, or lost our income, or even when we are dying, or we are losing our loved ones, or we’re about to drown in the Sea of Galilee—we don’t panic. Because God is good and God is in control. At least, our New Man doesn’t panic. The new you—the created–in–Christ–you—doesn’t panic.

But we are not entirely the New Man. We still have the Old sinful Adam in us and hanging on. So, when we do panic, when we give into the temptation to doubt God, we are like the disciples in the boat. We sin. We fail to trust God. And that is why they got rebuked. So, we also need to be rebuked by the Law, and we need to be taught to know what is good and to repent.

Notice, that despite their weakness and the littleness of their faith, the disciples do pray. They have little faith, but they do have faith. They aren’t unbelievers. They do look to Jesus for help. They seek to wake Him, to rouse Him. I’m afraid that often our prayer is too passive. “Thy will be done,” turns into “Whatever will be will be,” or “If it’s meant to be, that’s what will happen.” Those are not Christian attitudes. Neither we nor God are bound by some unknown fate. Christians pray, “Thy will be done,” because we know our God will act. 

This is what the Psalms teach us. By praying the Psalms we learn to bring our complaints to God. We go to Him to wake Him up. We dare to say to God that we are suffering because He isn’t looking at us, because we aren’t in His presence. We beg Him to act. We call upon Him to get His attention, to move Him to come and save us. The disciples’ prayer, “Save us, Lord,” is to their credit, even though it’s not perfect. They wake Jesus up and demand His salvation.

I don’t mean to minimize Jesus’ rebuke. The disciples sinned by panicking and not trusting. They needed the Law’s correction. Just compare their panic and little faith to the Roman centurion from last Sunday. He had great faith because he trusted the Word of the Lord, that whatever Jesus did it would be good, and so he did not panic. The disciples’ sanctification wasn’t yet as great as that centurion’s, and maybe they would never be as holy as he was on this side of glory. So they got corrected, rebuked and instructed. Not only was Jesus accusing them, slaying them by the Spirit so that He might forgive them, but He was also showing them how to live by the Spirit, how to be calm in the face of tragedy and danger, how to trust that God is good and in control.

By His example and by calming the storm, Jesus strengthened their faith. He answered their prayer. He saved them, not only from the waves in that moment, but also from eternal death. The disciples aren’t perishing—neither in the Sea of Galilee nor in Hell. They never perish. May this also be true for us. God in His mercy sends us crosses, trials, burdens, in order to teach us to pray. And He saves us from true peril.

God sent that storm with the intent of swamping the boat. If the winds and sea obey Him, then He is also the agent behind the storm. The entire purpose of the storm was to threaten the disciples with death, so that they would repent and they would pray. You can compare this with Jonah, where it is even more obvious that God is the One sending the storm because of Jonah’s unbelief, not punishing him and sending him to hell, but pushing Jonah, rebuking him, pressing him to repent. And you can compare this with your own life. God sends the storms of life, He sends crosses to us to teach us to pray, and to repent, and to rely on His saving action. 

Christianity is not a religion of prosperity and a care-free life. It’s a religion of suffering and crosses. After all, we are disciples of the One who suffered and bore a cross. Christianity is not a religion of accomplishments and great works either. It’s a religion of rebukes and repentance, and a religion that loves learning and loves the Scriptures. And Christianity is not a religion where God is asleep or far away, or where He only shows up once in a while in some fantastic flash, like a superhero. Christianity is the only religion where God came to earth as a man to be with us in our suffering and our sorrow, to suffer for us, and to die in our place. 

Ultimately, God sent that storm on the Sea of Galilee because Jesus was in that boat, and Jesus was going to pay for the sins of the world, and all of this sinful, fallen creation was turned against Him. It was not yet His hour on the Sea of Galilee. But that hour did come, when He was thrown overboard, into the surging wrath of God, when He was crucified and put to death for those disciples, and for us. So, those disciples actually do us a great service. On their lips is the prayer that God most wants to answer, the prayer of all humanity, our prayer: Save us, Lord! And so He does.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Adapted from Rev. David Petersen, Epiphany 4, 2017.
Artwork copyright (c) 2010 Edward Riojas. Used by permission.