Peace Lutheran Church
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 08, 2024
July 21,2024
A Righteous Shepherd-King
Text: Jeremiah 23:1–6
Sermon Theme: The days are coming when God will “raise up for David a righteous Branch, and a king shall rule and act wisely and do God’s judgment and righteousness in the land.”
Sermon Outline
1. You need a king.
2. The world’s kind of king will mislead people and serve only himself.
3. But God promised a different kind of king.
The Days Are Coming When God Will “Raise Up for David a Righteous Branch, and a King Shall Rule and Act Wisely and Do God’s Judgment and Righteousness in the Land.”
4. God sent his Son to be our righteous Shepherd-King.
5. Through this Shepherd-King, you receive true righteousness from God.
Sermon
1.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Jeremiah chapter twenty-three verses one through six.
You need a king. You might not think so. Americans don’t like kings. We rejoice every year that the founding fathers tossed off the yoke of King George III. We affirm government of the people, by the people, and for the people. As a worldly political policy, our American system of checks and balances is good and beneficial. It works. But before God Almighty himself, you need a king. You need not an earthly king. You need God’s kind of human king.
2.
You don’t need the world’s kind of king. The kings of the world can prove to be incredibly violent and murderous. One thinks of all the blood that was shed by the kings of ancient Assyria and Babylon and Greece and Rome and, in more recent days, absolute rulers such as Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot, and many others.
Kings of the world are typically not righteous in God’s way of righteousness. They rule in very unrighteous ways, with wicked policies toward the people and in turn leading the people in wicked ways. As goes the king, so go the people.
The root of the problem is this: kings of the world are self-serving. The adage is apt: “It’s all about power, getting it and keeping it.” Worldly kings seek their own glory and prestige. They often don’t really care about their people or their people’s plight. They’re interested only in feathering their own nest.
What results from these policies and practices? The sheep scatter. Every sinner does his own thing. Every sinner goes his own way, and that way is always away from the true God, their Creator—always. Without a righteous shepherd-king, the sheep disperse and wander aimlessly. At an archaeological dig in northeast Syria, you will often see\ flocks of sheep daily pass the site. Each sheep would wander off in its own direction until the shepherd came and gathered them together. Sinners are like that. Without a good shepherd-king, everyone does what is right in his own eyes, instead of what is right in God’s eyes. As Isaiah confessed for us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (Is 53:6).
Ancient Israel can function as a visual aid, as a model of what happens without God’s kind of human king. In ancient Israel, the king was supposed to be a good shepherd who would gather his sheep and lead them in the ways of the Lord. Jeremiah states God’s own expectations for God’s kind of king: “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place” (Jer 22:3).
But a bad shepherd-king will mislead the people and serve only himself. Jeremiah, as well as Ezekiel in Ezekiel 34, condemned the last shepherd-kings of Jerusalem in his day. They attended only to themselves. They were only self-serving. They built their own magnificent palace but did not care for the people by doing what was right before God. Their eyes and heart were oriented toward only their own covetous desires. Their practices consisted of shedding innocent blood and practicing violent oppression. And the worst thing was that they led the people away from the true God toward idols. They corrupted the people, and the people themselves became corrupt and guilty as well.
They were supposed to be good shepherds, to rule the people in true righteousness, to lead the people in God’s ways, and to unite the people to serve the Lord in true unity. But in fact, the corrupt practices of the kings corrupted the people and would lead to their dispersion. Jeremiah announced the words of Yahweh, the God of Israel: “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” (Jer 23:1). And in fact, the sheep were scattered among the nations. In 587 BC, Babylon came, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and exiled the people.
3.
But God did not end his message there. Through Jeremiah, God announced a wonderful promise of a different future. In the future, God will regather the remnant of his flock out of the other lands and bring them back to the sheepfold. Not only that, but The Days Are Coming When God Will “Raise Up for David a Righteous Branch, and a King Shall Rule and Act Wisely and Do God’s Judgment and Righteousness in the Land” (v 5).
In contrast to the wicked and unrighteous kings Jerusalem was used to, this future king will be a righteous Branch, which will grow into a tree that will bear much fruit. This future king will rule wisely and do what is truly righteous. He will unite Judah and Israel in salvation and safety. No longer will they fear conquering enemies. And through the messianic King, the gift of righteousness will come to the people from God. The Messiah’s name will be “Yahweh is our righteousness.” Through the rule of the Davidic Messiah, Yahweh is the author and source of our righteousness.
4.
Hear the good news. God fulfills his promises of old. He began to restore his exiled people back to the land of Israel in 538 BC and then more in 457 BC. And in the fullness of time, six hundred years after Jeremiah’s promise, God brought his ancient promises to fulfillment. God sent his only-begotten Son to join the human race, to become Israel’s human King from the line of David. God gave you a righteous Shepherd-King. And what did he do? During his public ministry in the land of Israel, he had compassion on Israel as sheep without a shepherd. He gathered to himself the lost sheep of Israel. He did what a righteous king was supposed to do. He had compassion on the helpless, the widow, the fatherless, the weak, the overlooked nobodies. We can read about his public ministry in the Gospel appointed for this season, the Gospel according to Mark. Jesus saw the people of Israel as sheep without a shepherd, and he gathered them to himself. He continues to do that even to this day. Remember the Day of Pentecost, how the Holy Spirit was sent by the exalted Messiah Jesus and came upon Israelites who had gathered in Jerusalem from around the world.
God gave you a righteous Shepherd-King. Jesus is the Shepherd-King who unites his people like a shepherd unites his sheep. And he adds even more to his flock, those beyond native Israel. Through holy baptism, he brought even us Gentiles into his sheepfold. He gathers his own from around the world and brings us to God his Father. Jesus is the Shepherd-King of Israel, who is better than any of the preceding kings of Israel. In fact, he does something surprising. This Good Shepherd laid down his life for his sheep, for you. And God raised him up on the third day and highly exalted him. Now Jesus as the Davidic King rules over you by his Holy Spirit. To live under his rule is a blessed life. He brings you to the God of ancient Israel, the true God and makes you part of his own flock. Through his sacred meal, he nourishes you with his body and blood and gives you eternal life with him. You by faith belong to his flock and enjoy salvation and safety under his rule. You need not fear anything. For your Shepherd-King is all for you, no matter what. After those woeful shepherds, “behold, the days” of “a righteous Branch [who] shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
5.
Jesus is the righteous Shepherd-King. Through him, you receive true righteousness from God himself. God laid on Jesus, the King, your iniquity and sin. And God reckoned to you the righteousness of Jesus, which he achieved by his own righteous doing and suffering. By faith, you now stand righteous before God. Yahweh, the true God, is now the source of your righteousness. His righteousness has replaced your wickedness. And by his Spirit, he promises to lead you in righteous ways. You belong to the righteous Shepherd-King of Israel. Follow his paths, the righteous paths of your righteous King. And wait with eager anticipation for when Jesus comes again in glory to gather you and all his flock together into his glorious, eternal kingdom. God has given you a righteous Shepherd-King. Enjoy by faith his rule now. Hear the Word faithfully preached and taught by his called undershepherd, your pastor. Receive the Lord’s Supper rightly administered by his called undershepherd. And look forward to the day of bodily resurrection when you will see your righteous Shepherd-King face-to-face.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 08, 2024
July 14, 2024
Amos—A Prophet For Our Times
Amos 7:7-15
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for our meditation to-day is the Old Testament lesson of Amos chapter seven verses seven through fifteen.
Today’s text presents us with some unique challenges. The Law of God is the predominant preaching. The plumb line is God’s Law at work judging the crooked ways of a perverse and obstinate people. Amos’ mes-sage of impending desolation and ruin about to come crashing down of Isra-el for their sins is not so much a challenge for us. We raise little objection to pointing out the sins of others. Israel had it coming to them for their dis-regard for the holy sanctuary of the Most High God. We learn from the con-text that the worship of foreign false gods was taking place there. We learn that this is sanctioned and promoted by Amaziah and King Jeroboam.
The challenge we face in hearing this text is applying the same trans-parent Law of God to our own nation and our own church. Another chal-lenge we face is seeing Jesus at work in the text and how this text sheds its foreshadowing light on the cross. This is the preacher’s task. Your task is to hear it and believe it. So we begin with our sin and the plumb line that sets the standard of perfection God expects. You might want to buckle up. This exam has all the makings of a rough ride.
Israel had their woes in their day, and they paid dearly for their apos-tasy. In today’s democracy it is reprehensible and appalling that under the law unborn children are being discarded under the guise of a woman’s right to choose and hailed as a personal freedom. In today’s democracy it is shameful that under the law marriage is dismantled and redefined to justify the sin of homosexuals. In today’s democracy we can no longer call our-selves “one nation, under God” because such a claim tramples the rights of a chosen few. Under the laws of the state, you and I can exercise all kinds of freedoms that violate and transgress the Laws of God with no apparent con-sequences. The print of our liberal press trumps the “Thou shalt not…” in-delible mark that God has written on our hearts. Violate the conscience and cross the line one too many times and the sin becomes the status quo.
It’s no surprise that visitors to our worship are puzzled by the words of our confession of sins that acknowledge “I, a poor, miserable sinner…have ever offended You and justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punish-ment.” Not only visitors, but even members of our own fellowship may ex-press difficulty seeing themselves as poor or miserable in their sin. Objec-tions to sin set forth by the plumb line of God’s Word tramples one’s com-fort and intrudes upon one’s right to the pursuit of happiness. So you begin to see the challenge we face to be steadfast and faithful to our just and right-eous Lord while we are beset by such resistance to the truth.
Sadly, the woes of an apostate nation have infiltrated Christ’s Church. The priest of Bethel takes the political route when accusing faithful Amos of conspiring against the nation and the king. His objection raised to Jeroboam is heavy-laden with political rhetoric and hints of a bid for re-election. In today’s church there is no lack of Amaziah-types who use their positions for political gain and power brokering. Recent attempts by the faithful to point out false doctrine and practice in our own synod has been met with calls of extremism and accusations of lovelessness. Can’t we just all get along? The plumb line is an obsolete means of measuring. For the sake of mission opportunities can’t we just forego doctrinal integrity and compromise a lit-tle here and there? It would go a long way to healing divisions among the brothers if we could just turn a blind eye to our black eyes in the synod.
Why is it so hard for us as God’s people to listen when He speaks to us? Why must we put political spin on “what does this mean” and raise ob-jections to what God declares clearly and emphatically in His holy precious Word? You and I are indeed “poor, miserable sinners” who call on the Lord in the words of the Kyrie: Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy. This is the Church’s prayer in our day. Should the sanctuaries in which we worship today be laid waste? Will the Lord raise His sword against the house of Biden? Must the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod go into exile away from her land? What prophet will speak of such treasonous news? Can’t we all just get along?
I told you that you might want to buckle up for the bumpy road. The Law of God is always an accusing word. It condemns such that the plumb line is true and accurate in its measurements. The just judgments of God are miserable for the poor sinner forces to his knees in confession. They bring low in order that in due time they might also raise up with the forgiveness of the Gospel.
The Gospel? Oh yes, the other challenge of the text I mentioned be-fore is seeing Jesus in the text. How is His holy cross foreshadowed in light of Amos’s confession and faithful proclamation? Think of Jesus as the em-bodiment of the plumb line. He comes as Israel reduced to one in order to fulfill all that the Law of God demands of us as a nation and as a church. He’s the standard we are to be but fail to be because of our sin. Therefore, the sentence of desolation falls on Jesus who stands in our place at the cross. The sanctuary of Israel is laid waste in the crucifixion of God’s Son under Pilate’s sword. The high places of Isaac are made desolate that we might look up upon Him who was pierced for us. He is the new Isaac, the nation Israel redeemed and brought back anew from exile in Christ’s body, the Church.
Amaziah looks short-term to his political future and stability in a time when the nation is crumbling and the kingdom is falling. Amos sees long-term beyond and puts his trust in the words of the Lord to bring low in order to raise up again. The Messiah will bring this about in a future hope. He will redeem as the Word made flesh suffers and dies under the weight of the peoples’ sin and unbelief. Jesus is this Messiah. Jesus is this Redeemer for you and for all people. His kingdom has no end. This is the sweet Gospel of our heavy-laden text. In the midst of taking away His presence from this re-bellious people, the Lord God is preparing to send His Emmanuel who is “God with us.” The Old Testament plumb line is enforced and exceeded be-yond all measure in Jesus, the New Testament plumb line employed on the cross for you. There you see the magnitude of your sin as poor, miserable sinners (and mine too) as they result in the death of God’s only-begotten Son. There you see the magnitude of God’s mercy and forgiveness in that you are spared. You get to live. You are spared the God-forsaken desola-tion. The angel of death passes over you. The sanctuary of your soul is not laid waste, but filled with forgiveness, life, and salvation in that Plumb line.
Today’s text presents us with a number of challenges as we consider our rightful place before the perfect plumb line of God’s impending Law. We like to point the finger at Israel and say, “They got what they deserved!” When we turn the condemning finger inward at us both as a nation and as a church, we fare no better. We believe that Christ will come to be our Judge. In many ways, Amaziah reflects our short-sighted, here and now mode of preservation. The accusations of the Law always hurt when we take them seriously. Sin carries consequences. Thankfully, Jesus met the challenge and bore the consequences of our sin on the cross. Thankfully, the challenge of the plumb line we could not endure Jesus endured for us in His sinless life and innocent death. Thankfully, you and I are members of a kingdom that does not fade or perish.
Thanks be to God!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. sAmen.
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 08, 2024
Text: Ezekiel 2:1-5
Goal: That the hearers repent of their ignorance.
Outline:
1. In his grace, mercy, and love, God speaks to a rebellious people.
2. God, in grace and mercy, changes people through His Word.
Sermon
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Today we hear about the call of Ezekiel. It is a sad call. God calls Ezekiel because the people of Israel have become Insolent. Do you know what that word means? It means to be rude, disrespectful. Are you that way with mom and dad sometimes? Yes, you are. Sometimes, we still are even in old age because of our sinful natures. The people of Israel were rude. They broke God’s commands. They did not respect or honor God. Do we still do that today? How does God act when we are insolent? How does God still speak to an insolent people today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
By the time of the Prophet Ezekiel, the nation Israel had divided into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom (Judah). Both kingdoms were brought to an end by a foreign power at different times. After the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom continued for another 136 years. But by Ezekiel’s time, the Babylonians from Mesopotamia dominated the Southern Kingdom and had taken many of its people into exile. One of the captives was Ezekiel himself, who lived among the exiles. Eventually, the Babylonians would end the Southern Kingdom.
Why were Israelites in exile in Babylonia, and why did the Northern and Southern Kingdoms come to an end? This happened because the large majority of people in both kingdoms were wicked. They engaging in false worship of idols and in many other ways going against the will of God. They were unfaithful to the covenant God had established with them through Moses; they rebelled against the Lord.
Our text from Ezekiel is about God and a rebellious people, specifically the Israelites, mainly those from the Southern Kingdom, but not entirely excluding descendants of those from the Northern Kingdom. We’ll focus on how God Deals with Rebellious People,
Amazingly, in His Grace, Mercy, and Love.
This will lead us to consider God acting in the same way with rebels of all times and places.
I. In his grace, mercy, and love, God speaks the Law to a rebellious people.
God spoke to the rebellious Israelites (vv 3–4) in exile in Babylonia through the prophet Ezekiel. God called and prepared Ezekiel to be his prophet—his spokesman or messenger, who would receive messages from the Lord and deliver them to the people (vv 1–3). He warns Ezekiel from the very beginning that the people will not listen to him.
Ezekiel in his prophetic ministry spoke to the people God’s Law, showing them their transgressions. He explained to them that they were in exile because of their violations of God’s commandments. God was chastening them because of their many sins against Him, because they constantly broke His commandments. Because of the continuing wickedness of their countrymen back in the Southern Kingdom, that kingdom would be terminated by the Babylonians. Their political authority, wealth, and prosperity would come to an end.
1a. Ezekiel in his prophetic ministry spoke God’s Gospel to the people.
That was not all that Ezekiel said. He reminded them of God’s promises that someday a Savior, the Messiah, would come. This deliverer would be an Israelite and would save his people from their sins. In fact, he would make atonement for the sins of the whole world. Even though the people do not want to hear it, even the rebellious Israelites would have to admit that a true prophet of the Lord had been among them (vv 4–5).
God speaks to rebellious people of all times and places through his Word, Scripture. God caused Scripture to be written—both the Old and New Testament—through his inspiration of prophets and apostles. They wrote the very words God wanted to be recorded.
Through Scripture, God speaks to a rebellious people his Law. He spoke though Ezekiel to the people of his day and God continues to speak likewise to us today. All people by nature are rebels against the Lord, his enemies, including you and me. Every day, we evidence our original sinful nature with our evil thoughts, bad words, wrong actions, or lack of proper action. The Law shows our sin and that, left to ourselves, we would be damned forever in hell. We could never earn our salvation because God is holy and demands perfection. Through Scripture, God also speaks to all people the Gospel. He announces that his Son became a holy human being and lived a perfect life in the stead of everyone else. This God-man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, also took on himself all our sins and those of the whole human race and made full payment for those transgressions with his suffering and with his death on a cross. His resurrection from the dead proves that he is truly the Savior of the world who has done all that is necessary for our salvation.
Scripture—Law and Gospel—is presented and proclaimed throughout the world today by the Christian Church, which is used by God as his instrument for the preaching and teaching of his Word and the administration of the Sacraments.
2. God, in grace and mercy, changes people through His Word.
God changed many of the rebellious Israelites in exile in Babylonia through the Word proclaimed by Ezekiel and through his written Word as it existed at that time (36:22–36; 37:1–28). Through his Law, God caused rebellious Israelites to recognize their sins and to feel sorrow over them. Through his Gospel, God changed many Israelites internally. He brought them to faith in the one true God and in the Messiah that he would send, or God restored them to such faith.
Through faith, they had forgiveness for their rebelliousness, for all their violations of God’s will. They were transformed from God’s enemies into his dear children. They became true Israel, a purified remnant from the whole nation of Israel. These believers had fellowship with God and everlasting life. As new people, they in the power of the Lord, lived the life of faith. They were obedient to God’s commands and eager to serve the Lord. God ended their Babylonian exile and brought this purified remnant to Judah, where they settled and lived.
God changes rebellious people of all times and places through his Word. He changed you and me. Through his Law, God caused and causes us to recognize our sins, feel genuinely sorry for them, and sincerely confess them. Through his Gospel, God brought us to saving faith, and he preserves us in this faith through the same Gospel that we read and hear, and through the Lord’s Supper. We believe in the triune God and in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ, we have forgiveness for all our transgressions, all the ways we go against God’s holy will. God has changed us from being enemies and rebels into those who love him. He is our dear Father, and we are his dear children. We have blessed fellowship with the Lord here on earth, and this will continue forever in heaven and the new creation. God strengthens us to live as his children, willingly obeying and serving him. Our life of faith is characterized by good works, done in gratitude and praise to God, to honor the Lord, and to help other people.
How blessed we are to be living for the Lord!
As God dealt with the Israelites in exile in Babylonia, so he has dealt with us. God spoke to us through his Word and changed us from a rebellious people into his loving children who will live with him forever. We have everlasting life through faith in Christ. Let us, then, keep on living for the Lord, in thanks and praise to him!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
June 27, 2024
Text: 3rd Article and it’s meaning
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
What does this mean? I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.
This is most certainly true.
Outline:
1. We are dead in sin
2. Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments makes us alive again
3. With Holy Spirit in us, we can lead sanctified lives
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Third Article and its meaning.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. If I were dead, could I do anything? No, I could do nothing but lay on the ground. Nothing you could do would make me alive, it would take an act of God. Today we get a chance to discuss how God makes us alive through the Third Person of the Trinty, the Holy Spirit. How can we believe in what Jesus has done for us? How does God make us alive? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. Dead in Sin
So what does the Holy Spirit do? In Lutheran circles we do not talk about the Holy Spirit as much or as glamorous as the Pentecostals or Reformed churches. If you go to one of their churches, it seems as though the Holy Spirit is doing great things, speaking in tongues, prophesying. Here? It does not seem like the Holy Spirit is active, at least not in the same extreme ways. So what does He do? Is He active?
Indeed, the Holy Spirit is active, always though the Word as He has promised to be and do. He has not promised to be in prophecies or tongues. Thus why we do not look for Him there. Rather, we look for Him where He has promised to be where the Word is proclaimed.
So what does the Holy Spirit do? The first thing He does is call. He calls us through the Gospel because we cannot believe by our own reason or strength. Holy Scripture often refers to original sin as being dead in sin. What can dead people do? Nothing, they can lie on the ground. That is all! That is us because of original sin inherited from Adam and Eve at the Fall. We are dead. We can do nothing good. In fact, we choose evil time and time again. Just look at the continued struggle that you have against the Devil, fallen world, and your sinful flesh. You sin greatly and daily in thought, word, and deed. You do not always honor the Word of God. You lie, cheat, steal. How often have you thought badly about those placed in authority over us? You do all of this because you are dead in your sins. There is nothing that you can to save yourself. You could sooner believe that the sky was neon green than you could believe the truth of the Gospel without the Spirit first calling you to faith.
2. Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments makes us alive again
How are the dead ones to be made living? It is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit. We do not focus much upon the Holy Spirit because He never focuses on Himself. He always points you to Jesus Christ. He points you to what Jesus did for you on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation of your soul. He calls you through the Gospel and creates saving faith in you. “To this he called you through our gospel,” Paul writes, “so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:14; see also 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 4:4; Rev. 22:17). When the Holy Spirit calls, He does so through the Word. God always works through means. In the Word, read, preached, and physically applied in water, bread, and wine, the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith. He takes your dead bodies and makes them alive by connecting them to Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead. Even better, He does not leave us alone as individuals. Rather, He gathers us together into the Holy Church, the Body of Christ, that we might support, encourage, and mutually edify each other as we go throughout our earthly lives.
3. With Holy Spirit in us, we can lead sanctified lives
It is within the community of the church that the Holy Spirit acts in the lives of believers. Because He has justified us in Christ, He also sanctifies you. He makes you holy that you can do the good things that God has called you to do. As James writes, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27) God doesn’t just demand that you love and show compassion; instead, God creates a heart that loves and shows compassion. God helps you to mature into people who strive to do good in the world. Like a beautiful piece of art designed to bring joy, God turns His people into a masterpiece created to do good in the world (Ephesians 2:10). With the Holy Spirit living within you, you are empowered to do His will. As we state in the Formula of Concord (Th. D., II, para. 66, Triglot, p. 907) “This is to be understood in no other way than that the converted man does good to such an extent and so long as God by His Holy Spirit rules, guides, and leads him, and that as soon as God would withdraw His gracious hand from him, he could not for a moment persevere in obedience to God. But if this were understood thus, that the converted man cooperates with the Holy Ghost in the manner as when two horses together draw a wagon, this could in no way be conceded without prejudice to the divine truth.”
This working of God plays itself out in our everyday lives. We do not grumble over the actions of those in authority over us. Rather we graciously submit to them as to God, calling them to repentance when they err. We forgive when people sin against us, graciously forgiven as we have been forgiven. When others admonish us, we admit our faults and gladly seek to amend them. We put the best construction on everything that we hear concerning others always speaking well of them and putting everything in the best possible light.
Let us rejoice, that God has justified us by the working of His Son, Jesus Christ. He has given us of His Holy Spirit to sanctify us, and graciously keep us in the true faith, until life everlasting.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
June 23, 2024
Text: Job 38:4-18
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Job chapter thirty-eight verses four through eighteen.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. One of my favorite games growing up, that we spent hours playing in the car, is the game of “twenty questions”. For those of you who have not played that game. It is one where you can only ask twenty yes or no questions then you have to determine who the person is that the questioner has in mind. That is what we see in our text for today. God asking questions and seeking answers of Job.
Job is seeking the answer to a very simple question. He wants to know why he is going through all of the pain and suffering that he is. Job is called one who is “blameless and upright.” Yet, calamity and disaster befall him. He loses every single one of his possessions. His sons and daughters are killed. His body is plagued with terrible oozing and itchy sores. He has lost everything he loved and cared about. Job wants to know why. His friends say it is because of some sin that Job has committed. That he is being punished for what he has done somewhere down the line. Yet, Job knows better. He knows that he has been upright. Therefore, often throughout the book, Job challenges God to come that Job might inquire of God directly, face to face.
At the beginning of our text, Job gets his request answered. God comes to him and his friends in the midst of the whirlwind. Immediately God starts to question Job and it becomes clear that Job, and us, are out of our league. God starts at the very beginning with creation. Creation is something that we marvel over and are still trying to figure out to this very day. It is why we have the wonders of modern science, because Christians were attempting to figure out God’s creation in order to praise Him more for it. It is truly marvelous. Scientists around the world still cannot explain all of it. We wonder in confusion at the complexity and sheer scale of it all. Take for example the complexity of a human eye, how do birds sing and fly, how do quarks and atoms hold our bodies together? There are even some scientists who are in the midst of studying how the human brain works and if it is possible to make robot brains as fast as ours. Even if you had a whole server room of computers. It would still be slower at making calculations than a human brain. It takes 40 minutes for a computer to process 1 second of our brain activity. And all of this is not even considering the scale of creation. From cells and planes to ships and planets, galaxies and whole universes. Thus, God says, “Where were you when the world was formed? Where were you when the stars were created? Where were you when the mighty sea was told ‘thus far you shall go and no farther.’? Well answer me!
What is our response? It is the same as Job’s. We can do nothing but stand in mute wonder. We were not at creation. We do not know the answers to these questions. Only God does as He is the Creator. If we cannot answer even these simple questions, what right do we have to cry ‘Unfair!’ when things do not go our way? We have no right. We can only leave it to God to do as He will. I am glad that God’s will is not about knowing everything or about fairness. If fairness was the goal, we would be in trouble. If we got the fair justice that God’s Law demands, where do you think we would be? We would be in Hell because of our great and many sins. Yet, God in His grace and mercy, in His unfairness, sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. Upon the cross of Calvary, Jesus took upon Himself our sins, as many as they are. He bled, suffered, died and rose again on our behalf. Unfair? Yes, but because of God’s will and actions, we have the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls.
What therefore can we do? We stand in mute wonder, marveling at God’s creation, at His unfair will shown for our salvation. We give Him the thanks and praise due His name. That God the Almighty Maker has built you upon the true Foundation which is Christ. He has measured you out - not by your measurement, which is sin, but by the measurement of Christ's image placed upon you, which is holiness and perfection. When you were recreated in Christ, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy, because great is the rejoicing of the angels in heaven over each sinner who repents. Great is their joy now over you, because your rebirth in Christ is more glorious than the creation of the whole universe.
The same God who set limits on the sea and controls the waves, He has created even more marvelously in you. He who brought forth life in the sea has brought forth life from the waters of Baptism in you. He who knows every drop of water in every ocean, He gave His Son and sent His Spirit so that He could know you eternally.
Everything that God created, from the tiniest to the grandest, from the most beautiful to the most powerful, among all the wonders of God's masterwork of the universe, the great treasure that He cherishes above all things is you. He did not send His Son to die for any other part of His Creation. He sent Christ in human flesh to redeem mankind. The pinnacle of God's wisdom is His plan of salvation that culminated in the Cross and the Blood of the Lamb shed for you. The incredible love of the Father for you is a love more limitless than a thousand oceans.
Therefore, let us rejoice like the angels in heaven, for great is the salvation He has given us. How wonderful is the new creation in His Son Jesus Christ! For He has declared it in His Word, which cannot be broken.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.