Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity - Deut 10:12-21

                                                                                                Trinity 18

                                                                                                Deut 10:12-21

                                                                                                10/20/19

            The history had produced a sense of inevitability.  No one living had ever seen any other result.  And so for many people there was no reason to expect any other outcome.

            More than a hundred baseball seasons began and ended with the same result: the Chicago Cubs did not win the World Series.  Seven times in a row the Cubs lost in the World Series. Since the last loss in 1945, the Cubs had rarely been in the playoffs and had never been back to the World Series.  The few times when they had success were marred by memorable collapses: the 1969 team that failed to make the playoffs; the 1984 and 2003 teams that failed to make the World Series.

            In the discussion that leads into our text, Moses has been describing a similar history of failure punctuated by epic acts of disobedience. In the previous chapter he said, “Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.”  There was a long history of Israel failing to trust in Yahweh and disobeying him.

            At the very beginning, when they arrived at the Red Sea and saw that the Egyptians were pursuing them they said, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’”

            Their repeated grumbling, complaining and doubting had been capped off by two huge acts of disobedience.  At Mt Sinai they had made and worshipped a golden calf instead of Yahweh.  And then when Yahweh brought them to the land of Canaan and told them to go in and take possession of the land, they did not believe God and refused. Moses was able to summarize their history this way: “You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.”

            But now, after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, they were about to enter the promised land.  In a series of sermon like addresses, Moses was urging Israel to be faithful to Yahweh, to trust him, and to obey him.  He begins our text by saying, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?” 

            Moses called Israel to fear and love God.  He urged them to walk in his ways and to keep the Torah that Yahweh had given to them as his covenant people.  This relationship – this covenant God had made Israel – had not been caused by anything Israel had done.  Instead in our text Moses says, “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.” 

            The whole creation belongs to God, yet in his grace he had called Abraham, and reaffirmed his promises to Isaac and Jacob.  God’s saving action for Israel was grounded in the promise he had made to the patriarchs. As Moses had said earlier, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

            Despite God’s love, Israel’s track record was one of disobedience.  And so in our text Moses urges Israel: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.” Moses called Israel to repentance and faithfulness. The reason was very simple.  God is the awesome judge who shows no partiality and judges justly.  And Yahweh had warned Israel that continued disobedience would bring his judgment.

            It would be great if I could tell you that Israel finally broke out of her history.  I wish I could say that like the Chicago Cubs in 2016 they shook off their past and did the unexpected. Yet that’s not how things turned out. They entered the promised land where they worshipped other gods and did not walk in God’s ways. The result, as God warned them in Deuteronomy, was God’s judgment of exile from the land he had given to them.

            I also wish I could say that we are all that different from Israel.  In the opening verse of our text we hear echoes of the Small Catechism’s explanation of the First Commandment: we are to fear, love and trust in God above all things.  Like Israel we have our false gods.  They are not Asherah poles or golden calves, but instead the money that gives us a sense of security and value; the possessions that we just can’t be without; the sports that occupy so much of our time and attention.

            God had told Pharaoh, “Israel is my firstborn son.”  Yet because Israel was an unfaithful son, God sent his own Son into the world to fulfill what Israel was meant to be.  In our text Moses says that “the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers.”  When God first set his love on Abraham and called him, he promised, “and in you all families of the earth will be blessed.”

            Unlike Israel, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, walked in all God’s ways, loved and served God with all his heart soul, and kept the commandments and statutes.  He did this for Israel.  And he also did it for you.  At his baptism Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit as he took on the role of the suffering Servant.  He took the sins of Israel upon himself. He took your sins upon himself.  And then he walked in the way of the Lord that led to the cross on Good Friday. 

            As Moses says in our text, “The LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.” He is the impartial and just God who condemned your sin in Christ. As St Paul wrote, “For our sake he made who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  In obedience to the Father, our Lord Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath against our sins.  Though without sin of his own, Jesus received the wages of our sin as he died on the cross and was buried in a tomb.

            Jesus loved, trusted and obeyed the Father all the way to death and the tomb.  But he did so knowing that God’s Spirit had promised through David in Psalm 16 about the Messiah: “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.”  On the third day God’s Spirit raised Jesus from the dead as he won victory over death.  Now the risen and ascended Lord has given us the Spirit as we received the washing of regeneration and renewal in Holy Baptism.

            It is the Spirit of Christ who now leads us to fear and love God as we serve him and walk in his ways.  Though no longer bound by the specific commandments and statutes of the Torah given to Israel, we still find that the things God commands us in his Word are for our good.  They describe how God has ordered his creation and so they are always best for us.  They bring blessings as we walk in the way of the Lord.

            God’s saving action for you in Christ is the ultimate demonstration of his loving character.  It is a reflection of who God has always been.  In our text Moses says, “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” God is the One who loves and cares for the helpless.  That’s why he sent his Son to suffer and die for you.  That’s why he raised Christ from the dead. That is why he has called you to faith through his Spirit.

            And because we have received this love, it is now something we share with others.  Moses goes on to add in our text, “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”  We are called to help others, because God has helped us.  We are called to serve others, because Christ served us. We are called to love others because God loved us.  The love that God has given us in Christ cannot stop with us.  It can never end there.  Instead it sets us in motion to help and assist those around us.  By his Spirit, Christ leads us to support and encourage those in need. We do this wherever Christ places us in the various callings in life – our vocations. You don’t have to look for people who need help. God has placed them right there around you where you are in your family, your church, your job and your school.

            At the end our text Moses says, “You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.  He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”  Like Israel, we are called to fear the Lord and serve him.  And we are to hold fast to him. 

            We hold fast to God by clinging to his Means of Grace.  We return daily to our baptism, as we believe God’s promises about what he has done for us through water and the Word. There we were buried with Christ and clothed with Christ.  We receive Holy Absolution as the risen Lord speaks forgiveness here and now through his called servant.  We receive the Sacrament of the Altar in which Jesus gives us his true body and blood, given and shed for us.  We receive his Word both in its reading and preaching in the Divine Service, and in our own reading of Scripture at home.

            We cling to God in these ways by which he comes to us. And then we respond in the life of prayer that turns to God in every need. We pray for others in their difficulties. We give thanks for every blessing.  We do all of this because of the great and awesome things that God has done for us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

           

                   

Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist

Today is the Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist. According to Colossians 4:14, Luke was a physician.  He joined Paul during his second missionary journey (Acts 16:9-11) and accompanied him during several portions of his travels.  He traveled with Paul to Jerusalem and was with him during the two years that he was imprisoned in Caesarea (Acts 21-26).  It is likely that Luke used this time to gather material he used in writing the Gospel of Luke.  Luke wrote the Book of Acts as the second volume that accompanies the Gospel of Luke (Acts 1:1-2).  More than one-third of the New Testament was written by Luke.

Scripture reading:

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ (Luke 10:1-9 ESV)

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, our Father, Your blessed Son called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul.  Grant that the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments may put to flight the diseases of our souls that with willing hearts we may ever love and serve You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Commemoration of Ignatius of Antioch, Pastor and Martyr

Today we remember and give thanks for Ignatius of Antioch, Pastor and Martyr.  Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch in Syria at the beginning of the second century A.D. and an early Christian martyr. Near the end of the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98–117), Ignatius was arrested, taken in chains to Rome, and eventually thrown to the wild beasts in the arena. On the way to Rome, he wrote letters to the Christians at Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, and Smyrna, and also to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. In the letters, which are beautifully pastoral in tone, Ignatius warned against certain heresies (false teachings). He also repeatedly stressed the full humanity and deity of Christ, the reality of Christ’s bodily presence in the Lord’s Supper, the authority of the bishop, and the unity of the Church found in her bishops. Ignatius was the first to use the word catholic to describe the universality of the Church. His Christ-centeredness, his courage in the face of martyrdom, and his zeal for the truth over against false doctrine are a lasting legacy to the Church.

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, we praise Your name for Ignatius of Antioch, pastor and martyr.  He offered himself as grain to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts so that he might present to You the pure bread of sacrifice.  Accept the willing tribute of all that we are and all that we have, and give us a portion in the pure and unspotted offering of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity - Eph 4:1-6

                                                                                                Trinity 17

                                                                                                Eph 4:1-6

                                                                                                10/13/19

            “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.”  This saying captures a reality of life. We do indeed choose our friends.  We decide which people we like – the people with whom we want to spend time.  We meet people with whom we “just click” – our personalities and interests fit with each other and we enjoy being around them.  These are people with whom we choose to be friends.

            On the other hand, you have no choice in the members of your family.  You are simply born into a family.  Your father and mother are the ones who created you. They are your parents, and you have no say in the matter.  Likewise, any siblings you have – any brothers and sisters – are your siblings because your parents created them too. And beyond the immediate family, your grandparents, aunts and uncles, nephews, nieces and cousins are your family because of the connections of blood and marriage.  These connections of family are facts of life.  They are realities in which you have no choice.

            The amazing thing about families is that children produced by the same parents and raised in the same house can be so very different in their personalities.  Within this diversity it can be the case that members of the family don’t always get along all that well.  And of course as you consider the extended family, the potential for this simply grows.  Family members may have characteristics and habits that rub each other the wrong way and create tensions. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are still family.

            In our epistle lesson this morning, the apostle Paul addresses the fact that the same thing is true in the Church.  Now of course, for many of us, our family and Church are one and the same.  And if personality characteristics and habits can create problems among people who grow up in the same family, it’s not surprising that they also exist within the larger group of the Church.

            Paul had experience dealing with many different congregations.  He ministered for extended periods of time in settings such as Antioch, Corinth and Ephesus.  He kept in touch with congregations through his letters.  He knew that the Church was a collection of sinners – forgiven sinners to be sure in whom the Spirit is at work.  Yet in the struggle against sin, there were times when Christians failed and wronged one another. And beyond that, Paul knew from firsthand experience that sometimes the personalities of Christians just didn’t mesh all that well. Sometimes the issue was not sin, but just that Christians annoyed each other.

            And so Paul begins our text by saying: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, 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.”  The apostle urges that Christians live in a way that is worthy – that matches – the calling we have received.

            He gives a description of what this looks like when he says that it is a life marked by humility and gentleness.  To live in humility is to put the needs of other before ourselves, rather than thinking only of what I want and what is easiest for me. To live in gentleness is to speak and act in kind ways, rather than reacting brusquely by doing and saying whatever comes to mind even if it harsh and likely to offend.

            Paul says it means being patient with one another.  And then he explains what this involves, it is “bearing with one another in love.”  You can just as easily translate the Greek here as “putting up with one another in love.” Christians will sin against one another.  Christians will rub each other the wrong way.  We will not always have personalities that are a perfect fit with one another.  Yet the apostle says that are to put up with one another in love.  Love is to cause us to forgive.  Love is to cause us to overlook and ignore the source of these tensions. And finally, Paul says that we are to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  The Spirit worked unity of our life in Christ is maintained as we live in peace with one another.

            Paul says that this life is “worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”  The apostle talks about how we are to live with one another as Christians.  But he reminds us that the source of this life is not found in us.  Instead, it is based in the God’s gracious calling – our election and predestination by God in Christ. Paul begins this letter by saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

            God called you.  He chose you.  He elected you from eternity in Christ. This is the ultimate demonstration of his grace. Before you could do a thing, God chose you in Christ to receive salvation.  As Paul goes on to say, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”  It was God’s grace that sent our Lord Jesus Christ to die as the sacrifice for our sin.  It was God’s grace to call you to faith through his Spirit.  It is God’s gift from beginning to end.  As Paul says in the second chapter of this letter, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

            You didn’t choose your family.  And you didn’t choose the Church. God chose you.  He did it because of his great love.  Paul tells us, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ.” 

            Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has given you forgiveness and hope.  He has applied the forgiveness won by Christ to you when he sanctified you by the washing of water with the Word in Holy Baptism.  God raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to his right hand.  Because you have been joined to Christ through faith and baptism, Paul says that God has made us alive together in Christ – that he has raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.

            Now through this gracious work – through his calling – God has united us together.  The apostle emphasizes in our text the many ways God has joined us together when he writes, “There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

            God has done this for you in Christ through the Spirit.  He has graciously called you to this salvation that we have in the Church. And so Paul says in our text, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, 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.” 

            Because God has done this for us and joined us together in this way, we now seek to walk in a manner worth of this calling.  Christ humbled himself to the point of death – even death on a cross – for us, and so now as those who are in Christ we humble ourselves as we serve and help others in the church.  We seek to put the needs of others before ourselves, just as Christ put our needs before himself.  We live with gentleness towards others as we show care and compassion, knowing that God has treated us this way in Christ.

            And we as live in the Church we show patience, bearing with one another in love.  There are times that we have to put up with one another in love.  We are still fallen people.  We struggle with sin.  We sin against one another.  But because of Jesus Christ we do not look to take offense or to hold on to a grudge.  Instead, Paul says later in this chapter, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  The forgiveness that God has given us in Christ is the forgiveness that we pass on to one another.

            God called you to be in his Church, just as he has called all those who sit around you this morning – and that includes the members of your own family.  He has called people with many different personalities.  Some you might not choose to be your friends in the world. But it is God who has called us of us together in Christ. He has united us as one body through the work of his Spirit. And so now as we live together in the Church, we do so “with patience, bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” 

            We overlook the shortcomings of others, and choose not to focus on those things they do and say that annoy us.  We put up with one another in love.  We do this because of Christ. For Paul says in the next chapter, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

            These are all things that we do as we live with one another in the Church.  We are humble and kind.  We are patient and bear with one another in love. We seek to maintain the unity of the Spirit on the bond of peace.  But this life of faith is always the response - it is the life prompted by what God has done for in Christ.  It is a response to God’s gracious saving election that he carried out in Christ before the foundation of the world.  And so as Paul exhorts, we seek to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called.

             

                       

           

           

           

 

           

           

           

Commemoration of Philip the Deacon

Today we remember and give thanks for Philip the Deacon.  Philip, also called the Evangelist  (Acts 21:8), was one of the seven men appointed to assist in the work of the twelve Apostles and of the rapidly growing early church by overseeing the distribution of food to the poor (6:1–6). Following the martyrdom of Stephen, Philip proclaimed the Gospel in Samaria and led Simon the Sorcerer to become a believer in Christ (8:4–13). He was also instrumental in bringing about the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26–39), through whom Philip became indirectly responsible for bringing the Good News of Jesus to the people on the continent of Africa. In the town of Caesarea he was host for several days to the Apostle Paul, who stopped there on his last journey to Jerusalem (21:8–15).

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God, we give thanks to You for Your servant Philip the Deacon.  You called him to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Samaria and Ethiopia.  Raise up in this and every land messengers of Your kingdom, that Your Church may proclaim the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Commemoration of Abraham, Patriarch

Today we remember and give thanks for Abraham, Patriarch.  Abraham (known early in his life as Abram) was called by God to become the father of a great nation (Genesis 12). At the age of 75 and in obedience to God’s command, he, his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot moved southwest from the town of Haran to the land of Canaan. There God established a covenant with Abraham (15:18), promising the land of Canaan to his descendants. At the age of 100 Abraham and Sarah were finally blessed with Isaac, the son long promised to them by God. Abraham demonstrated supreme obedience when God commanded him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. God spared the young man’s life only at the last moment and provided a ram as a substitute offering (22:1–19). Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried in the Cave of Machpelah, which he had purchased earlier as a burial site for Sarah. He is especially honored as the first of the three great Old Testament Patriarchs—and for his “righteousness before God through faith” (Romans 4:1–12).

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, You promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, You led him to the land of Canaan, and You sealed Your covenant with him by the shedding of blood.  May we see in Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, the promise of the new covenant of Your Holy Church, sealed with Jesus’ blood on the cross and given to us now in the cup of the new testament; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 7:11-17

                                                                                                Trinity 16

                                                                                                Lk 7:11-17

                                                                                                10/6/19

            On Monday I was at Barnes-Jewish hospital in St. Louis for Barb Faries’ surgery.  Out of habit I parked in the south parking garage – the first one you come to after getting off I-64.  I didn’t realize that Barb’s room was on the north end Barnes-Jewish complex.  The very helpful lady at information desk gave me a map, and used a highlighter to draw the route that I needed to take get to the other end of the hospital and Barb’s room.

            As I made the walk, I was again struck by what a massive complex the hospital is.  The size of it all is truly impressive.  More impressive still was the sea of doctors that I passed by as I made the walk.  They were not all the same. They were, of course, at different stages in their training and careers. But if they are at Barnes-Jewish it’s a safe bet that they are really good.

            The level of expertise present at Barnes-Jewish, the technical capabilities present there, and the specialization is remarkable.  This is a hospital that has its own Neuro ICU – an intensive care unit dedicated to people who have had brain surgery and issues.  It has an entire floor dedicated to Neuro patients who are recovering from brain surgery.  Its Siteman Cancer Center is ranked among the top ten in the nation.  We are blessed to live within easy driving distance of such a tremendous resource.

            But as I walked through the hospital I was also struck by the fact that while this tremendous facility and those who work there can win battles, they are always destined to lose the war. I am thankful for the remarkable battles they can win – such as removing Amy’s brain tumor. But no matter how big the hospital is; no matter how smart and talented the doctors are; no matter how sophisticated the technology is, they will always lose the war.  Ultimately, death always wins.  The hospitals and doctors are fighting a losing war. They can bring relief. They can win battles. They can buy time. But they can’t win.  Death always wins.  Death always gets the last word and renders the hospital and all of its doctors and technology impotent.

            Because of the blessings of modern medicine, we treat death as a surprise. Our life expectancy is longer than people in any previous century. In fact, we are living so long that this produces it own problems of how to care for the ever growing number of elderly individuals.  We see how procedures and medication resolve issues that used to be life threatening. And so when someone who isn’t truly elderly dies, we are surprised. Because after all, someone like that isn’t supposed to die.

            Those who lived in the first century world had no such illusions.  Death was an ever present reality.  We see an example of this in our Gospel lesson this morning.  We learn that Jesus and his disciples were accompanied by a great crowd as he went to a town called Nain, which was located southwest of the Sea of Galilee.

            As he drew near to the gate of the town, he met a large funeral procession.  Luke tells us that “a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.”  The woman’s husband had already died.  She had only one son. And now he had died too.  In those two deaths she had not lost merely these two loved ones. She had also lost everyone who could provide for her.  Even in a world where death was common, this was still an obvious tragedy.  And so it’s not surprising that a sizable group of people were accompanying the widow as she went out of the village to bury her son.

            Luke tells us that when the Lord saw the widow he had compassion on her.  We are reminded that as the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ lived in the midst of this fallen world – in the midst of our world.  He encountered firsthand the pain and suffering that sin and death produce.  And as the loving God, he had compassion on those who were suffering.  He had compassion on this poor widow and said to her, “Do not weep.”

            Now on its own, that seems like a strange thing to say. Actually, it seems completely inappropriate. Who tells a grieving mother about to bury her only son not to weep? But in this case Jesus does, because his compassion it not just a feeling.  It is accompanied by the power to address the cause of the grief.

            Next Jesus did something completely unexpected – something that was shocking.  He came up and touched the bier on which the dead body was being carried. The bearers stood still, surely because they were shocked.  After all, the act of touching the funeral bier would make a person unclean.

            But Jesus didn’t just touch it.  He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise,” and the dead man sat up and began to speak.  Jesus’ word had returned the son to life, and then our Lord gave him to his mother. Then Luke tells us: “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’”

            The crowd was fearful because they knew that they were in the presence of God’s powerful work.  They glorified God because clearly, Jesus was a great prophet.  Just as the mighty prophet Elijah raised the dead son in our Old Testament lesson, so Jesus had raised this son. They saw in Jesus that God was visiting his people to help them.

            They were correct in ways they could not understand. At the naming of John the Baptist, his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about what God was doing in Christ as he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”

            Jesus Christ was God visiting his people.  He had come to bring the reign of God. He had come to overcome sin and death.  When Jesus encountered this widow, he had compassion on her. He told her not to weep. And then he removed the cause of her weeping by raising her son from the dead.

            As we listen to our text, perhaps we think: Well that’s great for her, but what about me?  After all, I still have cancer, or diabetes, or depression.  I am still living as a fallen person in a fallen world on a journey that can only end in death. Is this really what it looks like when a great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people?

            We are not the first ones to wonder this.  Immediately after text our Luke tells us that the disciples of John the Baptist reported all these things to him. John had gone forth as the prophet sent by God to prepare the way of the Lord.  He had prepared the way for Jesus.  Yet now, because he had spoken the truth, he sat in King Herod Antipas’ prison.  John sent two of his disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  If Jesus was the coming One; if in Jesus God had visited his people, why was John sitting in prison?

            Jesus told the disciples: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  Using language of Isaiah that described God’s end time salvation, Jesus declared that yes, he was the One. But he also cautioned: “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

            Jesus was the great end time prophet.  In him God had visited his people.  But here’s the thing about God’s prophets.  They were frequently rejected, and even killed.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had come into this world to be rejected and killed. He had come to be numbered with the transgressors – with you and me.  He had come to be the suffering Servant who received God’s judgment in our place.  He had come to fulfill all that God had said through the prophets.  Jesus told his disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 

And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

            Jesus did rise on the third day as he defeated death.  For forty days the risen Lord was with his disciples, teaching them about the kingdom of God. And then he ascended into heaven.  He was exalted to the right hand of God.  As the exalted Lord he has poured forth his Spirit. And he has promised that he will return on the Last Day.

            This wasn’t how John the Baptist expected things to work.  It’s probably not how we want things to work.  Like John the Baptist in prison, we find that God has visited his people.  However, it has not yet provided the complete and final salvation we desire.  And so Jesus says to us, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

            In Jesus, God has visited his people.  He has visited us. By his visitation he has freed us from sin.  By his visitation he has conquered death.  Our Lord still has compassion on us.  He has called us to faith through his word and baptism.  He has washed away our sins and we have shared in his death through baptism.  He has given us his Spirit to comfort us and sustain us in faith.

            For now, this does not mean that the struggle against sin has ended.  It does not mean that the health issues have ended.  It does not mean that death has ended.  But because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection everything has changed.  We may lose in battles against sin.  We may lose the battle against illness as sin brings death. But because of Jesus Christ we have already won the war.

            Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, in repentance we have forgiveness. We confess our sin and believe in Jesus the risen Lord.  We turn in faith to the promises God has made about our baptism. And in doing so we know that through Christ we are saints. We are God’s children and because of Jesus that will not change.

            And because of Jesus’ resurrection we know that we already share in the victory over death.  Yes, our body may die. But to live is Christ, and to die is gain – to die is to depart and be with Christ. Our body may die but because of Jesus’ resurrection the New Testament refers to death as “sleep.”  Because of Jesus it is no more threatening than a nap.

            The war has been won.  It was won on Easter when God raised Jesus from the dead and defeated death forever. And so we live in faith and confidence knowing that our ascended Lord will return on the Last Day.  He will return in glory to raise us up and give us a share in his resurrection.  The Lord who raised the widow’s son at Nain will raise us in bodies that will never die again.  So we live now in the peace of knowing that God has visited his people, even as we pray, “Come Lord Jesus.”