Sermon for the Feast of All Saints - 1 Jn 3:1-3

 

          All Saints

                                                                                                            1 Jn 3:1-3

                                                                                                            11/3/24

 

            On August 31 I conducted the funeral service and committal for Eloise Courser.  I didn’t know Melissa.  In fact, I had never met her in my life.  Eloise was a member at Our Redeemer, Golconda.  However, Our Redeemer is currently vacant. This meant that when she died, there was no pastor to perform these last acts of pastoral care.

            The leadership at Our Redeemer contacted Pastor Holden, the Circuit Visitor for our area.  Under different circumstances he probably would have done the funeral.  However, he was already committed to speaking at an LWML event in the area.  So he sent out an email asking if any pastor in the area could do the funeral.  I knew that I was the closest pastor, and that my schedule was free for that Saturday, so I agreed to do it.

            I learned that Eloise had attended regularly at Our Redeemer until her health prevented her from going to church.  So I preached a sermon based on the fact that I knew Eloise had been baptized, had been taught the faith, and had received the Sacrament of the Altar. I spoke of how she was a forgiven sinner – a saint – who is now with the Lord.  And then I buried her body with the words: “May God the Father who created this body; may God the Son who by his blood redeemed this body; may God the Holy Spirit, who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be His temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh.”

            Today we are observing the Feast of All Saints.  We are remembering the Christians who have died in the faith.  Our thoughts naturally turn to the Christians we have known – our family and friends.  But the example of Eloise reminds us that we are also giving thanks for all of the Christians who are now with the Lord – even those we have not known.  We are rejoicing in the multitude of the saints during the whole history of the Church who have died in Christ.

            St. John begins our text by saying, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” John extolls the remarkable love that God has revealed to us.  We are now called the children of God.  And this is not merely a matter of words.  Instead, it is one of fact.  We really are God’s children.

            This is remarkable because there is nothing about us that deserves this status.  Last week in the Gospel lesson we heard Jesus say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”  We are certainly in the sinning business.  John says at the beginning of this letter, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

            It is not just that we sin.  We are in fact conceived and born as people who are fundamentally opposed to God.  Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Our Lord said that we need to be born again – born from above. And then he explained why as he said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The flesh – the fallen sinful nature – brings forth more of the same.  And as our natural abilities grow, so does our sin.

            In our text, John refers twice to what has not yet appeared, and we will certainly talk about that.  But at the beginning of the letter he uses the same Greek verb – here translated as “made manifest” – in order to describe what God has done.  John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.”

            What did John and the apostles hear, and see, and touch?  Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John tells us in the Gospel that the Son of God – the Word – “became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Father sent forth the Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

            The Father sent Jesus as the answer to our sin and rebellion against God.  When John the Baptist saw Jesus he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sin on the cross.  John says in the previous chapter of this letter, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

            Sin brings death.  Jesus died on the cross to provide forgiveness. Yet he had also come to defeat all that sin causes.  He came to defeat death itself. God raised up Jesus on the third day. On the evening of Easter he appeared in midst of his disciples and said “Peace be with you,” as he showed them his hands and his side.

            Jesus gives this forgiveness and life to us through the Spirit.  You have been born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism.  You have been called to faith through God’s word.  It has been God’s doing for John says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”

            The crucified and risen Lord promises that faith him in brings a life that overcomes death.  He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” 

More than that our Lord promised that this life continues beyond death itself.  He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  Faith in Jesus Christ provides a life with God that continues on beyond death.

In our text John says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”  Those who were baptized and believed in Jesus Christ were children of God during their life.  And they still are now.  Their status had not changed.  Their bodies may be buried in the ground, but they are still the children of God. We know that while they may have experienced physical death, their life with God continues.

St. Paul expressed it this way: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Those who have died in the faith are now with Christ. Their life continues with the Lord.  We give thanks that following the Spirit’s leading they were faithful unto death. They have finished the course. They have kept the faith. And now they are with Christ which is far better.

It is far better because they no longer face the opposition of the world. John says in our text, “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  The world rejected Jesus, and it continues to do so to this day.  Therefore the world does not recognize us as the children of God. 

Instead, quite the opposite, we are the object of its hatred.  Jesus said, “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.” The saints who have gone before us were chosen out of the world in faith. And now in death they are no longer in the world. They no longer experience the opposition that we do.

In the previous chapter John says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  John’s words capture the fact that our lives are lived in the continual battle against sin.  However, for the saints who are with Christ the struggle is over.  No longer do they know temptation.  No longer does the old Adam draw them into sin.

What a comfort to know that the saints who have died before us are with Christ! Their life continues with the Lord as they no longer know the world’s hatred, or temptation, or sickness and pain.  What a comfort to know that, for us, death also means being with Christ.  Our life will continue with him, even as we are freed from the hardships of this fallen world.

Yet on this All Saints’ day, we must also remember that the present life of the saints who are with Christ is not God’s final goal and purpose for them – or for us.  John says in our text, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

John says that what we will be has not yet appeared.  We have not yet seen the final outcome for all of God’s saints.  We haven’t because Jesus has not yet appeared. We are awaiting the return of our risen and ascended Lord.  John says, “but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

God created us as the unity of body and soul.  This is what he declared to be very good. This is his ultimate intention for our life.  Sin brought death that rends the two apart and places the body in a grave.  But the Son of God became man and lived a bodily existence in order to redeem it.  Jesus Christ did this through his resurrection.  St. Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

The Lord Jesus will return on the Last Day, and when he appears we will be like him because he will raise and transform us.  Paul told the Philippians that “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Not only that, the Lord will also renew creation so that it is very good once again. We will live with our resurrected bodies that can never die in God’s good creation as he intended it.  We will live with the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the way that God desired it.

On this All Saints’ day we thank God for the knowledge that those who have died in Christ are with the Lord.  They believed in Jesus Christ the crucified and risen Lord. They were born again of water and the Spirit.  They were children of God, and they still are today.  They are with Christ as they no longer suffer the difficulties of this fallen world.

And at the same time we know that God’s final saving goal is still to come.  “We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  He will raise and transform our bodies to be like his own.  He will renew creation.  And so we pray: “Come Lord Jesus!”

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation - Rom 3:19-28

 

          Reformation

                                                                                                Rom 3:19-28

                                                                                                12/27/24

 

            “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Paul makes this statement later in Romans, and it explains the setting and circumstances in which we need to understand what he says in our text today.  The apostle tells us that on the Last Day we will stand before God as judge.

            Now this is not like the court room setting that we see in a tv show.  We expect a court room to have a judge who runs the court room and makes sure they are done according to the law.  Then there is the prosecutor who makes the case against the accused.  There is the attorney who defends the accused and seeks to prove his or her innocence.  Finally, there is the jury. They are the ones who really have the power, because they will decide the guilt or innocence of the individual.

            However, none of this is present in the setting Paul describes.  Instead, there is only God the judge, and the individual who is being judged.  And here it is God alone who makes the judgment. He decides whether a person is guilty or innocent.

            Scripture teaches us that God is just.  This means that he judges in a way that is completely in accord with his will that he has revealed in the Law.  And Scripture repeatedly tells us that God shows no partiality.  He shows no favoritism.  Everybody receives the exact same just treatment.

            Paul says in the previous chapter, “He will render to each one according to his works.”  God judges on the basis of whether you have kept his law.  If you have, then you are justified. This means that you are declared to be righteous.  You are declared to be innocent and in a right standing with God. As the apostle says, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

However, if you do not keep God’s law, then you will receive God’s eternal judgment.  Paul describes it as the “day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.”  He says that “for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”

            Now this basic framework makes sense to us.  You do something to get something.  After all, there is no such thing as a free lunch. It also appeals to us because it gives us a role to play.  And if we have a role to play, then we can get some credit for what we do.

            This way of the law appeals to our reason.  It also appeals to our pride.  It’s not surprising then that it is the basic principle upon which every religion in the world is based. They are all religions of works – religions of the law.  They all say that you must do something in order to have the blessing of god or the gods.

            However, at the beginning of our text Paul declares that the way of the Law will not work for those who wish to have fellowship with the one and only true God.  The apostle says, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

            Paul says that instead of providing a way to live with God, the law holds us accountable to God.  Rather than bringing the means to be justified before God, it gives the knowledge of sin.  He says that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.”

            The problem is not the law. Instead, we are the problem.  Earlier in this chapter Paul says, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” The apostle describes the fallen existence of man that has been true since Adam.  We are sinners who keep on sinning in thought, word, and deed. As Paul says in our text, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – where the Greek verb is a present tense indicating that we are continually falling short.

            The way of works – the way of the Law – will always appeal to fallen man.  And there is always the danger that the Church will be tempted to include it in the understanding of the faith. This is what had happened in medieval Christianity.  God’s grace and the saving work of Christ were not denied.  But human works became included in the process by which a person was saved.

            In particular, the practice of penance put human effort at the center of experiencing the blessing of salvation.  The Church taught that absolution forgave the guilt of sin.  However, this did not change the fact that a person had offended God.  He or she still owed God the penalty for their sin, and this penalty could only be paid off by penance – by doing various religious activities.  The problem was that if the penalty was not sufficiently paid off before death, then the person had to receive purification in purgatory which was described as place of great suffering. No one wanted to spend thousands of year in purgatory.  So they bought indulgences, and went on pilgrimages, and paid for Masses to be said.

            If you were really serious about your salvation, you entered the “religious life” – you became a monk or a nun.  Here all of life was considered to be a form of penance.  This was where you had the best chance of receiving salvation and spending as little time as possible in purgatory.

            Martin Luther was very serious about his salvation.  He entered a rigorous Augustinian order that was also known for its intellectual excellence.  He applied himself as fully as a person could to living out the theology he had been taught.  Yet he found that the theology of works could not bring him comfort.  He was always left asking whether he had done enough; whether he had done it well enough.  The exertion of human effort could never provide the assurance of peace with God.

            As Luther studied Scripture he began to understand what Paul says in our text about sin and its impact upon us.  He began to recognize why works could not be involved in a right standing with God. More importantly he gradually came to understand God’s own answer to the problem.

            After describing how no one will be justified by works of the law because of sin, Paul announces in our text that God has done something radically new.  He says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

            The saving action of God to put all things right has been revealed now in Christ.  It takes place apart from the law, though the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.  Paul declares that we are justified by his grace as a gift. The apostle says that we are declared to be righteous – that we are declared to be innocent and in a right standing with God.  But of course, as we have already discussed, as sinners we aren’t.  So how can the just God do this?

            Paul says in our text that we are justified by his grace as a gift, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”  We can be declared righteous because of the redemption – the freedom from sin – that we have received through Christ.  And God did this by putting Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood.  He put forward Jesus as the sacrifice for sin on the cross.

            God is the just God, and so sin must be judged and punished.  God did this when Christ bore our sin upon the cross.  Our sin was judged and condemned in Christ on Good Friday.  Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death, God is now the one is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

            Luther came to understand that this justification is purely a matter of God’s grace and gift.  And he learned that it was received by faith alone – faith in Jesus Christ who is the crucified and risen Lord.  This faith is not a new kind of work.  In fact, in the next chapter Paul uses Abraham to define this faith as the opposite of doing.  He says, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

            This truth stands at the heart of the Reformation that we are celebrating today. We are saved by grace alone. Salvation and forgiveness are God’s unmerited gift.  We are saved by Christ alone.  His sacrificial death on the cross has won forgiveness for us and made it possible for God to declare us justified.  We are saved by faith alone.  Belief in the crucified and risen Lord is the only thing that receives the precious gift of justification.

            The Reformation break through - the return to the biblical teaching of Paul – has two important implications for how we now live.  First, it drives away uncertainty.  There is never place to wonder about whether we are forgiven or have salvation.  As Paul says later in Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We live in the confidence that by God’s grace we are justified through faith in Christ.

And second, our works and effort are now freed and redirected.  We no longer seek to do things in order have a right standing with God.  We don’t have to worry about that.  Instead, faith in Christ created by the Holy Spirit now seeks to work in ways that serve our neighbor.  We live in faith toward God and love toward our neighbor.  God doesn’t need your works.  However, he has placed the neighbor in your life – your spouse, parent, child, congregation member and co-worker – who does need them.  So help, assist, and support the people that God has placed in your life.

The apostle Paul tells us in our text this morning that we are justified.  We have been declared righteous and innocent by God.  This is the verdict that we already have now.  It is the verdict that will be spoken on the Last Day. We live in the joy and confidence of grace alone, Christ alone, and faith alone. And because we have received this gift, our faith never remains alone, but instead is active loving our neighbor.

             

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

           

 

Sermon for the Twenty first Sunday after Trinity - Gen 1:1-2:3

 

          Trinity 21

                                                                                                Gen 1:1-2:3

                                                                                                10/20/24

 

            At the end of September, Hurricane Helene hit Florida.  It then continued north as a storm through Georgia and the Carolinas, dropping a tremendous amount of rain.  Especially in North Carolina, this water was trapped and funneled by the mountainous terrain.  Streams surged out of their banks and turned into raging rivers. This torrent of water brought chaos as it swept away buildings and even small towns.  It washed out roads and left destruction everywhere.  At least 300 people were killed by the storm.

            Then, about two weeks later Hurricane Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico.  It grew to be a massively powerful storm – a Category 5 hurricane – and moved toward Florida.  Thankfully it weakened to a Category 3 as it then passed through central Florida. But it flooded streets and left three million people without power as it caused destruction.

            In a very short period of time, we have seen the disorder and chaos of nature.  We have seen its destructive power as it takes life.  In our Old Testament lesson this morning we hear about God’s act of creation. We learn that what we experience now is completely different from what God intended because God created an ordered world that was very good.

            Our text is the first chapter of God’s Word.  We hear, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

            God’s first action is to make the “stuff” of creation.  He creates from nothing and brings it into existence.  We learn that this initial action resulted in something that was “without form and void.”  It was disordered, and was a setting of darkness as the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

            Then God proceeded in his act of creation.  He brings order to what had been disorder.  And he does so by speaking.  The power of God’s word creates and brings life.  God says, “Let there be light” as he separates light from darkness. God makes the expanse and separates the waters that are under the expanse from the waters that are above the expanse.  He creates dry land as he separates the water from the land.

            Then God creates life for his creation.  He creates vegetation for the land.  He makes sea creatures and birds.  He creates livestock and creeping things to live on the land.  Each time, God’s word brings forth the parts of his creation.

            And next, God creates the crown of his creation. We hear in our text, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” and we learn, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  God creates man in his own image.  He creates him to be like God.  Man is not God. But he is the only part of creation to be like God.  Man knew God as God wants to be known and lived perfectly according to his will.

            God created man as male and female.  We learn in the next chapter that God created Eve as the helper who perfectly corresponded to Adam – the one whom Adam needed.  God created man and woman in their difference to be joined in sexual union as one flesh.  And God is clear in our text about what that sexual union is meant to do.  We hear, “And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

            In our text as God makes things we repeatedly hear, “And God saw that it was good.”  Finally, when he has finished creation by making man we hear, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  God had brought perfect order to his creation.  He had made man in his own image to live in fellowship with God.  He had created man as male and female to live in marriage.  He had placed man as his representative in the midst of creation.

            Adam and Eve lived in this perfect ordering as they shared in life with God, with one another, and with the creation.  They did, until the devil caused them to question whether the ordering was in fact good.  God had told Adam that they showed their worship toward God by not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They demonstrated that God was God, and they were not, by obeying God’s command about this tree.

            But the devil tempted Eve. God had said eating of the tree would lead to death.  The devil replied, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  The devil said they could be more if they just disobeyed God.  So Eve ate of the tree, and then gave it to Adam who also ate.

            Adam and Eve sinned.  Sin entered into the world through them and it brought disorder and chaos into creation.  Creation is no longer the perfectly ordered setting in which we live. Instead nature sees the disorder of hurricanes and tornadoes, of earthquakes and tsunamis. It is no longer the setting that naturally produces food for us, but instead requires the hard work of man – work that is not always successful.

            Sin has brought disorder into our personal relationships.  Husbands and wives get frustrated with each other and speak angry words that they wish they could call back.  Children disobey parents and parents feel exasperated with children.  Co-workers deceive and gossip is passed around the office.

            And sin has brought disorder into our own lives.  We do not fear, love and trust in God above all things, but instead have no difficulty finding other things to put before God and his Means of Grace.  We act in selfish ways and in so doing hurt the very ones we claim to love.  We find ourselves ruled by impulses for things which we know to be wrong.

            And in the end, this will lead to the ultimate example of disorder for us – death.  Sin brings death- it always does.  And death rends apart what God had ordered as a unity.  Death tears apart body and soul – it undoes what God made us to be.

            When sin entered into creation, God did not abandon us.  Instead, right from the start he promised a Savior who would descend from Eve – a Savior who would defeat the devil.  God made promises that this Savior would descend from Abraham through Israel.  And in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

            The Son of God became man, without ceasing to be God. True God and true man, he is the creator of the universe.  True God and true man, he is the descendant of Eve promised by God.  Jesus Christ came as the second Adam in order to provide the answer to sin.  Where Adam disobeyed God, Jesus obeyed the Father’s will by giving himself as the sacrifice for sin on the cross.

            St Paul wrote about this to the Romans when he said, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”  Through faith in Jesus Christ we are now justified.  We have been declared “not guilty” by God, and that will be the verdict of the Last Day.

            The final disorder of sin is death.  Christ died to win forgiveness for us. He also passed through death in order to defeat it forever.  On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.  Here too, he was the second Adam.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

            Jesus Christ’s resurrection was the beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day.  In Christ the new creation has arrived. Jesus has already now included us in that new creation in Holy Baptism.  We hear in our text about how the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters in the time when God created the world.  Now the same Spirit has worked through water to give us new life and make us a new creation in Christ.  We have been born again of water and the Spirit.

            This means that now through the leading of the Spirit we seek to live according to that ordering that God established when he first made his creation.  We seek to live in God’s way because it is the way that is best for us, and for those around us.  So seek to fear, love and trust in God above all things as you turn to him in prayer and you receive his gifts of the Means of Grace during the week and especially on Sunday.

            Children and youth, obey your parents, and look for ways to assist them at home.  Parents take up your responsibility to raise your children in the Christian faith by bringing them to the Divine Service and Sunday school, and by having devotions with them at home.

            Husbands, love your wife by putting her needs ahead of your own, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. Wives acknowledge the headship of your husband in marriage, and support him.  All Christians – and especially youth and young adults: Follow God’s will that sexual intercourse is to be shared only within marriage.  Wait until you are married to have sex so that you may know it as the blessing God intends.  And husbands and wives, see to it that you fulfill the sexual needs of one another because you are married.

            Help your neighbor to protect what they have, and don’t take from them.  Defend your neighbor’s reputation and speak well of him or her, while refusing to pass on gossip.  As Paul told the Philippians, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

            God has forgiven you and made you a new creation in Christ so that you can live in these ways.  And he encourages us with the hope of what awaits us and creation as a whole because of Jesus Christ.  Paul told the Romans, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For 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.”

            When Jesus Christ returns, he will renew creation to make it very good once again.  And he will raise and transform our bodies to be like his resurrection body.  Never again will we know of sin, sickness, or death.  Instead we will live in that perfect ordering with God, one another, and creation that has been intended for us since “In the beginning….