Lectionary Homilies from Confident.Faith

Confident.Faith
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Gottes Wort und Luthers Lehr', vergehet nun und nimmermehr.

  1. Jul 25

    Lectionary Homily for the 26 July 2026 (9th Sunday after Pentecost)

    Readings Deuteronomy 7:6–9 Psalm 125 Romans 8:28–39 Matthew 13:44–52 Homily Transcript Scripture is full of metaphor, analogy, symbolism, and dozens of other such rhetorical devices and figures of speech. This is, of course, not to say that there are not parts of Scripture that are simply literal — we do not want to wander off into the desert with those who try to torture everything into symbolism — or allegory. And yet we must recognize symbolism when and where God has employed it and then endeavor correctly to exegete and understand it. And so we must discuss ‘Jerusalem’. First, there is not one Jerusalem — there are two: Galatians 4:21–31 (ESV): »21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.« Second, the Jews are children of the slave woman, of the earthly Jerusalem, and we, the Elect, are children of the free woman, of the heavenly Jerusalem. Third, the heavenly Jerusalem is the eternal city, the city spoken of in Revelation; ultimately and truly, the heavenly Jerusalem is Paradise itself, for that is the eternal home of the Elect. We should expand these a bit. I want you to look at Psalm 125 in your Bibles. Unless you have acquired and are using a Septuagint (which you should do), then the second clause speaks of Mount Zion as being immovable, but that is not what God actually said, for the true referent, as we see in the Greek, is the same as that of the first clause: He who ‘inhabits Jerusalem’ is he who trusts in the Lord, is he who will never be shaken. This verse is comfort for the Elect; it has nothing to do with the earthly Jerusalem. In their great wickedness, the Jews altered this verse in their so-called ‘Masoretic Text’ and attempted to transfer a promise from the Elect to themselves. They truly are, as Christ called them, children of their father below, who is a murderer, a liar, and a thief. The earthly Jerusalem is just a city, like any other earthly city, and the earthly Mount Zion is like any other earthly mountain (really more a hill in this case) and both will pass away along with the rest of this Creation — they have no relevance to future prophecy or anything of that sort except for their use as symbols. All forms of Millenarianism are heresy. The issue of the Jews is certainly a tired one, but a patient with cancer cannot reasonably expect to stop hearing about that disease just because he is tired of it, and so we must discuss wickedness and heresy. It was the Jews that led the so-called ‘civil rights movement’ that tore our country apart and destroyed our national fabric. It was the Jews that spied for the Communists (and gave them nuclear weapons) and led the Communist groups in the US. It was the Jews that overturned our blasphemy, anti-sodomy, and obscenity laws. It was the Jews that pushed to legalize abortion, and they are vastly overrepresented as ‘doctors’ in that field. It was the Jews that pushed for the legalization of all manner of drugs. It is the Jews that own and promote the pornography ‘industry’. Hear the Word of the Lord: The Jews killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and they have persecuted His disciples; the Jews please not God, and are contrary to all men. And yet there are many who claim the name of Christ and rabidly support the Christ-killing Jews. And if you recoil in the slightest from calling the Jews Christ-killers, then I encourage you to examine yourself to know the state of your heart; hear the Word of the Lord: The God of our fathers raised Jesus, Whom you (Jews) killed by hanging Him on a tree. Was Peter speaking to the ‘Jewish leaders’ as modern eisegetes would tell you? No, he was speaking to a crowd of ordinary Jews. The Jews are Christ-killers and this enormous sin, this incomprehensible wickedness will follow their race unto eternity. We leave the eternal disposition of those who dedicate themselves to the Jews to the perfect justice of God, but we also surely know that He will not commend as faithful servant those who serve the very men who murdered Him. For our part, we might call that ‘aiding and abetting’. At least in some ways worse are those who rabidly — and heretically — insist that the Jews are ‘chosen’. Well, we should examine that term: What does it mean to be chosen? There are two senses; we will categorize them with two Greek verbs: προαιρεω and καλεω. The first verb appears in our first reading as ‘chosen’ and the second (in adjectival form) appears in our Epistle reading as ‘called’. Pharaoh was chosen, or, in the words of Romans 9:17: For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. in the waters of Holy Baptism, you were called — more, you were called by name, for the Good Shepherd Who numbered and named all the stars in the sky knows also all His sheep by their names (and so καλεω truly means). Would you rather be προαιρεω pharaoh or a καλεοω child of God (please forgive me the bad grammar for the sake of the point)? Perhaps I am somewhat partial because Romans 8:28 is my Confirmation verse, but I would strongly prefer, if asked to choose, to be chosen in the sense of καλεω (called) instead of merely chosen in the sense of προαιρεω (‘chosen’ for a specific purpose). This is, of course, not to even imply that these categories are mutually exclusive; pharaoh was chosen, but not called, but, to pick just a few, Moses, David, and Mary were all both chosen and called. The error that we must avoid here is the conflation of the Zionist and the heresy of the Dispensationalist: The Jews are not, by virtue of their descent from Abraham, chosen in the sense of called: For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. If anything, the unbelieving Jews are all the more damned for rejecting the Scriptures that God entrusted to them and the Christ Who came from their line; it is far worse to know God and explicitly reject Him than simply to be an ignorant heathen. The nation of Ancient Israel was chosen for the specific purpose of being the line from which the Christ would descend, but this affords them no advantage before God’s tribunal. We are bound to ask how any Christian would miss the clear heresy of any system that would even hint at another path to the Father. ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’ The Jews do not have some ‘second way’. Adam was the first Christian, and he entered Paradise long before Moses, to whom God entrusted the Law to be protected and spread by Ancient Israel, was even born. It has only ever been by faith in the Christ that one may be called. May the Lord God erase both Zionism and Dispensationalism from the Earth and thereby defend His great Name. Amen. We do not look forward to the earthly restoration of any particular nation to any particular chunk of territory. We do not pin our hope on an earthly mountain, city, or hill. The only hill to which we (symbolically) assign any abiding hope is Golgotha, but our hope in Christ crucified exists because we believe in Christ raised. The existence of modern ‘Israel’ is a matter of geopolitics and corruption, not a matter of prophecy, for we know that it is only the Israel of God (i.e., the Church) and the heavenly Jerusalem (i.e., Paradise) that have any promises or ultimate meaning. The earthly Jerusalem will pass away in fire; the heavenly Jerusalem will endure for eternity with her lord and Savior as a light to all the Elect from every nation and language. None of this should be taken to diminish or demean and certainly not to denigrate the importance of the here and now. What you do in this life not only echoes in eternity, but decides your eternity. Certainly, we are saved — alone — by the free gift of faith in the forgiveness of sins won for us by the perfect work of the Christ Who lived and died for us, fulfilling the righteous demands of the Law that we could never fulfill, but there are two judgements: There is the Judgement, which asks if you are or are not in Christ, and there is the judgement of works. For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. — Matthew 16:27 \ For God will bring every work in judgment, in everything overlooked, whether good or evil. — Ecclesiastes 12:14 \ He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighte

  2. Jun 20

    Lectionary Homily for 21 June 2026 (4th Sunday after Pentecost)

    Readings Jeremiah 20:7–13 Psalm 91 Romans 6:12–23 Matthew 10:5a, 21–33 Homily Transcript Persecution has not been the universal experience of all Christians at all times in all places; there have been periods of peace, prosperity, and tranquility. (That these have virtually always been under the aegis of a Christian State with an established Church should not go without mention, but it will have to be a passing one today.) And yet, persecution has often been the fate of Christians down through the centuries (or even ages, if we want to include such men as Abel and Noah). And the existence of a supposedly Christian State is no perfect guarantee against persecution — Luther was persecuted by an Emperor and a pope, both of whom claimed to be Christian. Today, our government would not be called Christian by any but the most delusional of men, but Satan is never content; having virtually complete his conquest of the various Western governments and their attached or aligned institutions, he turned his attention to the churches decades ago (centuries ago, in some obvious cases). This should surprise no one; hear the words of our Lord from today’s Gospel reading: »Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.« — Matthew 10:21–22 (ESV) Does our Lord speak of persecution by the State or some other such authority? No, not even (exclusively, anyway) in the portion of this passage immediately before today’s reading, where He speaks of being “dragged before governors and kings”. He speaks, instead, of a more personal sort of betrayal. Our Lord was certainly persecuted and murdered by the Jewish authorities (and the Jewish people generally), but He was also betrayed by Judas, His former friend; it is that sort of personal betrayal of which Jesus speaks in this passage. Despite the parallelism, we should not limit our understanding of what Jesus means when He says ‘brother’ (or ‘child’ and ‘parent’, for that matter) to the familial; what is in view here is every sort of intimate or personal betrayal, and that certainly includes all those who are brothers by ways other than blood — close friends, brothers-in-law, brothers-in-arms, brothers-in-Christ. And that last category is certainly Satans’s focus today. Mercifully, most of you are not in a position to hear many, and certainly not most, of the stories of all the ways our churches are betraying so very many men today (and it is mostly [relatively] young men who are being betrayed), but I am in a position to hear them. And I do not think for a second that the faithless men pushing for expulsion, excommunication, and blacklisting (among many other forms of persecution) would hesitate to use the State to literally execute (which is to say murder) the men they are persecuting, if they thought the State would cooperate. In fact, such persecutors and slanderers and blasphemers have engaged in attempted murder: doxxing and false reports to law enforcement. If such ‘men’ were not so cowardly (itself a grievous sin), then they would certainly have taken up arms themselves and murdered the men they have persecuted; and they would have firmly believed that they were rendering service to God in doing so. Of course, their assessment would have been half true: They would, indeed, have been rendering service to their god, who is most certainly not the Lord God. The very persecution of which Jesus warns in this passage is rampant in the churches. In fact, things are so bad these days that it would be accurate to say that we are in a period of widespread persecution, and — more importantly — we can ‘use’ that persecution as an indication of who is faithful and who is faithless: In times of faithlessness and persecution, those who are not persecuted are not faithful. If you have never suffered for the faith, then I encourage you to examine yourself — and particularly you men, for cowardice, which is to say a lack of courage or manliness, is damnable sin. For most, such suffering need not be the sort of ‘grand’ or high-profile persecution that has been inflicted on some of us; for many, suffering for the faith will take a more ‘mundane’ form: lost friends, estranged family, perhaps some other social or economic consequences. The point is that Satan, for the moment, controls the board, and a faith that he ignores is a faith that is in some way lacking. We do not live in a time of a Christian ruler and a faithful established Church under him; rather, we live in a time of a wicked government, a pervasively evil bureaucracy that invades almost every facet of our lives, and a nearly universal apostasy among the so-called churches; under such circumstances, the Christian should not — and the Christian will not — expect to escape persecution. You will suffer for the faith. You may not be martyred — even Luther died of old age, but both the Emperor and the pope sought his head for many years, and we, unlike Luther, do not have faithful German princes to hide, provide for, and protect us. We can certainly rely upon God, but not all saints escaped the lions. If you must go the lions, then to the lions you must go. The Christian proclamation is one of eternal comfort, not one of temporal comfort. Temporal peace relies upon having a righteous, competent, and powerful State; that is a valid and important consideration for Christian men, but it is not the core concern of the Christian faith. Whether the king is righteous or wicked, whether the culture is Christian or not, whether it will cost you nothing or everything, you must confess Christ and Him crucified in both your words and your deeds. A faith that produces no good works is a dead faith, and it is only a living faith that saves. Or do you think that the Christ so often employed plant metaphors idly? As any gardener (or keeper of houseplants, at least) will tell you: Living plants always grow, and healthy fruit tree always bear fruit. Learn the lesson of the fig tree: It was not the season for figs, which certainly ‘excuses’ the fig tree, but the Christ did not curse the tree as punishment of the tree, but as a lesson for you: There are no ‘seasons’ for the Christian faith; you must produce fruit in season and out. There will be no excuse or defense on Judgement Day that you lived under a wicked State or in a wicked culture or that you ‘had to’ do this or that. The Christians of the Early Church went to the lions rather than deny the Real Presence. That is the minimum to remain faithful. ‘But it was not the season for figs.’ ‘Depart from Me, for I never knew you.’ We can ask the Lord why us and why now — certainly righteous Job did so —, but after we pray or lament, we stand up and carry on. Here, perhaps, we should thank the Lord God that we are sons and daughters of Japheth, for it has always been in the nature of our race to rise from the ashes, to endure, to carry on, to rebuild. Our people have endured great hardships and suffered great calamities in centuries past, but we have, by the grace of God, always risen to the challenge and the occasion; we are here today because our ancestors did not fail and, one day, our far-distant sons and daughters will say the same of us. It is a tragedy and a crime that our forefathers in the preceding handful of generations squandered, failed to maintain, and destroyed so much that was entrusted to their care, but we cannot change the past — only the future is mutable. We must do what they failed to do; we must be like the tiny handful of faithful kings who ruled Old Testament Israel — we must repent in sackcloth and ashes. And yet repentance alone is not enough, for talk is cheap; yes, God demands our repentance, including of the sins of our fathers — ‘both we and our fathers have sinned’ —, but true repentance is not just words but also actions. We must not only denounce and turn from the evils both of the past and of our present, but we must also seek to destroy them. What does it even mean to renounce the worship of Baal if his high places and his priests remain? What does it mean to renounce the worship of Astarte if her perversions (such as prostitution and pornography) and her shrines (such as strip clubs) remain? What does it mean to renounce the worship of Moloch if abortion ‘clinics’ remain and abortionists go unpunished? What does it mean to denounce the worship of Saturn (Satan) if his synagogues, his mosques, and his false priests remain? “Who is with the Lord? Let him come to me!” We must put to death the weak and decadent and easy faith that has masqueraded as ‘Christianity’ for the better part of a century. The Christian religion is not weak; the Christian religion is not easy; the Christian religion is not passive or pacifist, cowardly or craven, supine or submissive, inactive or indolent or inconsequential; the Christian religion is not ‘tolerant’. Do you think God will praise you for your ‘tolerance’ or reward you for your ‘restraint’ if you restrain your hand from opposing His enemies or tolerate those who blaspheme His Name? »Maledictus qui facit opus Domini fraudulenter et maledictus qui prohibet gladium suum a sanguine.« — Jeremiah 48:10 (VUL) »Accursed is the one who does the work of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his dagger from bloodshed.« Jeremiah 31:10 In the waters of Holy Baptism you died to sin, death, and the devil, and you were raised to new life in Jesus Christ to fight sin, death, and the devil. You are part of the Church Triumphant with regard to eternity, coram Deo (with respect to God), and every time you participate in the Divine Service, but you are also part of the Church Militant with regard to the temporal, coram mu

  3. May 9

    Lectionary Homily for 10 May 2026 (5th Sunday of Easter)

    Readings Acts 17:16–31 Psalm 66:8–20 1 Peter 3:13–22 John 14:15–21 Homily Transcript There is only one extant example of a theatre trilogy from the Ancient Greeks: the Oresteia of Aeschylus. Now, the plays of Aeschylus are certainly a worth topic (although, tragically, only seven of his nearly one hundred plays survived into the modern era), but it is a topic for another time. Here, I wish to pull just one line, spoken by Apollo himself, in The Eumenides (or, The Furies), the third play in the Oresteia cycle: But when the thirsty dust sucks up a man’s blood / once shed in death, he shall arise no more. / No chant nor charm for this my Sire hath wrought. The Oresteia cycle is still performed today, but, more relevant to our purposes here, the cycle was also performed in Paul’s day — and yet more relevant, it was performed in Athens, and yet more relevant still, it was performed right on the other side of the Acropolis from the Areopagus (in the Theatre of Dionysus, which was also where it premiered). Let me be clear: Paul stood and declared αναστησις αυτου εκ νεκρων — the resurrection of the dead — in the same place — the exact same place, in terms of the location within the play — where Greek actors would stand and declare, in the person of the god Apollo, ουτισ εστ᾽ αναστασις — there is no resurrection. Paul even used the same word; his educated Greek audience would not have missed this. Further, Scripture names two groups: the Epicureans and the Stoics; both of these schools denied the immortality of the soul (the psyche). We could even say that God used the foolish things of the world (i.e., a claim one could return from the real of the dead) to shame the wise. There is even an additional layer in that the common Greek people (some of whom were undoubtedly listening) did not agree with the Epicureans or the Stoics, and held, instead, the classical belief in the realm of the dead as a sort of shadowy limbo; similarly, the elites in Greek society were more likely to be Platonists, who also did not agree with the Epicureans ot the Stoics, because the Platonists did affirm a form of immorality of the soul. It must be noted that when Apollo speaks of his sire, he is, of course, speaking of Zeus, the chief god and his father. Paul is saying to these educated Greeks that what the chief god of the Greek pantheon did not (or could not) do, God the Father did. Further, Paul is very heavily implying that others, too, may be raised from the dead (that is part of why some mocked him, as the next verse after our reading clearly states). Some of you may be familiar with Greek myth and will undoubtedly be wondering about Alcestis, Heracles, Odysseus, Orpheus (and, I suppose, Asclepius, but we will leave his case for another time); two points: 1) educated Greeks believe these myths to be illustrative or symbolic instead of literal and 2) anyone who returned from Hades in Greek mythology did so only temporarily — they would die again. Contrast the words of Christ: “[E]veryone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” We will get to Baptism shortly, on the topic of death. Even if Paul did not know all of this (and much more), God is very clear: “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.“, and let us not forget that Paul was well educated, or, in the words of Festus: “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.”, and Paul had just twice quoted Greek poetry. God knew precisely what He was doing, and the mass conversion of Greece (and then the rest of Europe) to Christianity surely proves it. God fulfilled His promise declared through Grandfather Noah: Japheth (i.e., the European race) shall dwell in the dwelling of Shem (i.e., become and build Christendom). God can work wonders with ordinary tools and ordinary men; perhaps the men who created the lectionary knew how excellent of a job they did in selecting today’s Psalm to go with today’s first reading, perhaps they did not; at any rate, the Psalm says the Lord is the One Who places my soul (psyche) into life (ζωη) — He is the One Who resurrects me. Further, when the Psalm says that God ‘led us into refreshment [or revival]’, the word there is quite literally αναφυχη — He re-souled us. Is there a better word for the resurrcetion on the final day when we will be raised bodily to new life in a new Creation? It is appropriate that Paul speaks of a sort of inversion before the Athenians — what Apollo says Zeus cannot do, the Father demonstrates by raising Christ — for the Christian religion truly is one of a central inversion from all other religions: Whereas every other religion says that man must work his way to god or the gods, by living a good life, making sacrifices, et cetera, Christianity bluntly states that this is impossible; the chasm between man and God is infinite and no finite can ever cross an infinite; rather, the Infinite must Himself do the work — He must cross the chasm (i.e., become incarnate) and then bridge the chasm (i.e., live a perfect life and die on the cross and return from the dead) for us. The world (and every worldly religion) tells you that you must work your way to god; God the Son tells you instead: “It is finished.” And so let us turn to Baptism. In the waters of Baptism, you are called from and through death into new life; in the words of the Psalm, you are refreshed or revived, and, as already noted, the word there could be quite literally translated ‘re-souled’, and ’revive’ means ‘to live again’. The central good news of the Christian religion is that death is not the end, and not in the sense of the reincarnation of the East, the conflagration of the Stoics, eternal return, or any other such thing; rather, the Christian truth is that all things will be made new — only once to die and thereafter to enter, for the Christian, into the restored Paradise, Creation as God always intended it to be. And it is Baptism that is our portal, our entry into this new life. Never look at Baptism, like the Enthusiasts do, as mere water, for Baptism is water and Word, and there God’s Word is, there there can never be no effect, for His Word does not return to Him empty, and only blasphemous fools deny that God’s Word has the power to accomplish all that He wills. And yet Baptism is not Word alone, but water and Word, for God knows our frame, He knows that we are dust. We are not soul alone, for we are also flesh; in the water of Baptism, God gives us something that is real and knowable by and to the flesh, while the words enter our mind and soul; it is the fullness of the Gestalt of man that God meets in the water and Word of Baptism. Baptism is the first resurrection. Prior to your Baptism, you were dead in your sins and your trespasses and, in your Baptism, God raised you to new life. When Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again, He speaks of Baptism and of faith. Those who are part of the first resurrection have already passed from death to life, and so we will never taste the second death — Hell. Just as there are two deaths (physical and eternal), so there are two resurrections (Baptism and the Resurrection of the Just); if you would not taste the second death, then you must receive the first resurrection in the waters of Holy Baptism. And yet there are always those who search for edge cases. If Christ offers you a life preserver, are you truly going to refuse it and drown in the hope that He will reach down and pull you up, fool that you are? Now, certainly, Christ will lose none from His hand and all of the Elect will be saved, but the Elect do not despise the Sacraments. So, first, we must condemn — in no uncertain terms — the pernicious and sinful desire to find exceptions. Satan seeks ‘exceptions’; Christians obey. Second, we must look at what Baptism does. IN the words of Peter: Baptism saves you. Now, in truth, we have the fullness of our answer in those few words, but let us expand and examine them for the sake of certainty and clarity. Helpfully, the word that immediately precedes “Baptism” in this passage in our Bibles is, indeed, “water”. As we all know, Baptism is water and Word, but Peter forecloses certain ‘objections’ of the Enthusiasts when he compares Baptism to the Flood. Only a particular sort of wicked fool would deny that water is clearly in view here. Of course, many of our translations fall short here (for various reasons) and thereby fuel heretics of various stripes. Baptism does not ‘correspond’ to the Flood (at least not in the mind and ear of men not deeply steeped in philosophy, particularly the philosophy of truth); our translators failed here. What Peter actually says is that Baptism is the αντιτυπος of the Flood, which is the τυπος — we are dealing in typology. As a refresher: The antitype is always greater than its types — it must be so. The Flood, as type, saved Noah from the wicked world and temporal death. Peter says that Baptism, the antitype of the Flood, saves. Well, what is the only thing greater than temporal death? Eternal death. Baptism saves you from Hell. And yet we know that salvation is sola gratia sola fide — by grace alone through faith alone. How do we square this? Rather easily: Unlike the Enthusiasts, we do not deny the plain teaching of Scripture that God works through means. We are certainly saved by faith alone, but that faith is a gift from God, and He has ordained Means by which we receive that gift.; one of the Means of Grace is the Word, read or heard, and Baptism is another. Via the waters of Holy Baptism, God bestows the free gift of faith that saves from eter

  4. 11/01/2025

    Lectionary Homily for 02 November 2025 (All Saints’ Sunday)

    Readings Revelation 7:2–17 Psalm 149 1 John 3:1–3 Matthew 5:1–12 Homily Transcript We do not commonly use seals these days (at least outside the legal profession and certain hobbies, and, even then, they are still rare), and so it is worth mentioning what a seal actually is. The word used here in the Greek is σφραγις — a combination of sounds that is not particularly pleasing to the English ear, but the Greeks are another people, and other peoples are, indeed, other, and have different sensibilities. At any rate, a σφραγις (I will go back to calling it a seal) has two core meanings: first, the instrument (often a ring) used to make a seal and, second, the seal itself. Figuratively, then, it may be anything that confirms or authenticates. When a man seals something, he is affirming that the contents are as he intends or he is asserting ownership. Such seals are still used by some of us who write physical letters. Now, some may immediately think of the opening of Romans (among other parts of Scripture): Παυλος δουλος Χριστου Ιησου — Paul, a servant (or slave) of Christ Jesus. This is a good instinct, but there is a nuance here that must be highlighted: Letters, for examples, are sealed — σφραγιζω, σφραγις; slaves, for example, are branded — στιγματιζω, στιγμα. Yes, Galatians 6:17: εγο γαρ τα στιγματατου Ιησου — ”From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.“ —, but that is a topic of another time. The two — the seal and the brand — are related. We are, of course, slaves of God, for that is one of the senses of δουλος, but we are certainly more than that, for we are called sons (and daughters) of God, and so Revelation speaks of the mark on the forehead (a place where one might brand, for example, a runaway slave — a fugitivus [from which we get “fugitive”]) not as brand, but as seal. But what is this seal? We know that a seal is a mark of ownership (this is obvious enough from the passage even without knowing anything of etymology, et cetera), and so the question is: When does God mark us as one claimed by Him in Christ? Again, the passage itself gives us (most of) the answer: “I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.“ There is only one ceremonial washing in which all Christians participate: Holy Baptism. Those who deny that Baptism is a Sacrament will simply prove incapable of exegeting this passage. The seal is placed by God, not by men. Now, some will try to contend that faith itself is the seal, but faith is the thing sealed, not the seal, for it is faith that distinguishes you as one claimed by Christ, and Baptism is the seal of that faith. It is in the waters of Baptism that you are washed in the blood of the Lamb and your dirty, sin-stained rags are transformed into white robes. Never let anyone — be it by foolishness or by malice — rob you of the truth of what Baptism is and what Baptism does: In your Baptism, God reached down from Heaven and sealed you as His child, redeemed and washed clean. There are those who will grasp at the fact that a minister did the actual sprinkling, pouring, immersing, or submersing, and say that that man baptized you and not God. Granted, the hands of a man poured the water over you or immersed you into the water. What of it? Who seals the saints in our passage from Revelation? Angels, acting on behalf and at the command of God. Would anyone deny that these saints are sealed by God Himself? Certainly no Christian would deny it. The same for Holy Baptism. What the hands of the agent do at the command of the principal is done by the hands of the principal himself. Your pastor or your father did not baptize you — God did. The same as I can say: Your sins are forgiven. In fact, I can — and certainly would — go beyond this privately. In private, I can very well say: Ego te absolvo. — I absolve you, I forgive your sins. To be absolutely clear: I am not doing so here and I will never do so publicly, for I hold to Article XIV: Niemand in der Kirche öffentlich lehren oder predigen oder Sakramente reichen soll ohne ordentlichen Beruf. — No one should publicly in the Church teach or preach or administer the Sacraments without a rightly ordered call. I am not a pastor, and, absent a rather large fish (or whatever the Appalachian equivalent is — I assume Bigfoot), I never will be one. It is your pastor’s duty to absolve you in the gathered congregation, and when he does so he speaks with the voice of God. Similarly, the man who baptized you did so with and as God’s hands. What then of those who are never baptized? First, I must address the spirit that all too often underlies such questions. When God gives a command, it is a sinful impulse to look for exceptions. God commands us to baptize all nations (yes, including the infants — hence all), and He commands you to be baptized. Second, I will address the actual question: Is Baptism absolutely necessary to or for salvation? I am tempted to give the default attorney response: “It depends.”, but I find this one better and more accurate: “Yes, but no, but yes.” I will explain. Yes, it is necessary to be baptized to be saved: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16). No, it is not absolutely necessary to be baptized to be saved — Baptism is one Means of Grace and edge cases do exist (I will not insult your intelligence by commenting on the thief on the cross). Yes, you must not denigrate the Sacrament of Baptism or refuse to be baptized to be saved — denigration and rejection of Baptism are both signs of apostasy and apostasy damns. So, yes, Baptism is a necessary part of the Christian life, but it is not absolutely necessary to be baptized to be saved, but only in the sense that there exist edge-case exceptions. Perhaps similarly, there are cases in which a poison may be prescribed as part of a specific medical treatment, but that fact does not mean you should consider the poison generally good. We can hardly think too much of Baptism, nor can we praise it too highly. Fools are they who would take the work of God and transform it into the work of men (as if such a thing could even be done). By what work of men could we ever be kept safe from the Day of Judgement, from the day of darkness and not light, from the day of gloom and not brightness? Surely the works of man cannot save: ‘We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, because by works of the Law no one will be justified.’; we are indeed saved by works — those of Christ. And yet there are those who will cry: ‘What of Sola Fide — by faith alone!?” To them we reply: Yes, certainly, we are saved by faith alone, but how does God bestow this faith that saves? We know the answer to this question, no matter how much other Christians may (to their great detriment and shame) hate the answer: the Means of Grace. Yes, of course, God the Holy Ghost kindles faith via the Word read or heard, but so, too, does He use Holy Baptism. And we must never forget what a Sacrament actually is: a physical sign plus the Word. Even in the Sacrament of Baptism, the Word is not absent, for water alone saves no one. Was Noah saved by the Flood? No. Was he saved by the Ark? No. He was saved by his faith in God. Do you believe Noah owned the only boat in the antediluvian world? And yet he alone was saved, because he believed God’s word. Similarly, it is not the water alone that saves us, for mere water only makes us wet (and, perhaps, cleans the body); no, it is the Sacrament of Holy Baptism — water and Word — that saves us by bestowing the free gift of faith. To those who would deny this truth, we can repurpose Luther’s comment on the Real Presence: “If a hundred thousand devils, together with all fanatics, should rush forward, crying, How can bread and wine be the body and blood of Christ? I know that all spirits and scholars together are not as wise as is the Divine Majesty in His little finger.” I do not care what the world says about Baptism, for I know what God says about Baptism. And yet I would be remiss if I did not comment on ‘infant Baptism’. And so let me begin by saying there is no such thing. Is there such a thing as ‘man’s Baptism’ or ‘woman’s Baptism’ or ‘German Baptism’ or ‘French Baptism’ or ‘American Baptism’? No. And so, also, there is no such thing as infant Baptism, for the Baptism of an infant is simply a Baptism. There is a great irony inherent in the arguments of those who deny Baptism to young children — perhaps they should read what Christ said about preventing little children from coming to Him; those who argue (to be unduly charitable) against baptizing young children would take Baptism and make it the work of human hands, which is to say that they inevitably believe they they did something when they were baptized. One would think that the passive verb would tell them something. But let us, here, recall what Christ says of those who have not been converted: He says that they are dead in their sins and trespasses. In my experience, corpses do not act. In fact, infants, have an advantage, as their wicked wills do not yet resist the Spirit so actively nor so vigorously as those of adult sinners. In Baptism, the Spirit finds the infant no so much more cooperative as less uncooperative than the adult. But what of the adult convert who comes to the font having already been converted by the Word? Such a man was surely dead in his sins and trespasses prior to his conversion, but he comes to his Baptism already believing the promises of God. Does such a man do anything in his Baptism? The answer, of c

  5. 12/31/2023

    Lectionary Homily for 31 December 2023 (Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus)

    Numbers 6:22–27 Psalm 8 Galatians 3:23–29 Luke 2:21 We will ignore the Gospel today — the Gospel reading anyway, and, even then, only until the end of this homily. Instead, let us, somewhat appropriately, begin with the first reading: For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, / and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, / and her salvation as a burning torch.   — Isaiah 62:1 (ESV) Before we turn to the Christian understanding of this verse, let us look at how a Dispensationalist or a so-called American ‘Evangelical’ might interpret it. First, they will typically conflate Zion and Jerusalem — this is sometimes permissible and so of only minor concern. Second, they will interpret both terms as referring to physical locations: the city of Jerusalem and the hill on which David built his city. This is the heart of their error, but they go further. Third, they will restrict both of these terms by making them refer explicitly to the Jews. This, of course, gives away the game even more obviously than the second point: They are simply rank Judaizers. From a little earlier in Isaiah: It shall come to pass in the latter days / that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains — Isaiah 2:2 (ESV) The Judaizers would have us believe this is a literal, physical mountain. Well, we have survey data and satellite imagery. How tall is ‘Mount’ Zion? It is a hill outside Jerusalem and it is approximately twenty-five hundred feet above sea level. There is a peak nearby, under which the Appalachian Trail passes; that peak, Clingman’s Dome, is the tallest peak in Tennessee, and it is six thousand, six hundred, and forty-three feet tall. It is more than two and a half times the height of Mount Zion, which the Judaizers would tell us is literally the tallest literal mountain. I have included in the written (which is to say online) version of this homily a picture of my dog from one of my camping trips with him; the picture was taken on a rock outcropping just north of Big Baldy, which is the same height in meters as Mount Zion is in feet, which is to say that Big Baldy is more than eight thousand feet tall. The claim of the Judaizers is laughable, but is is even more pernicious. If the Old Testament is meant merely for the Israelites — the ‘Jews’ —, then it is not actually good news at all. But the Old Testament is good news and it is not the ‘book of the Jews’ or any other such nonsense. Was Adam a Jew? Was Noah a Jew? Was Japheth a Jew? Was Job a Jew? Was Abraham a Jew? The answer for all of these is, of course: No. The Gospel was first delivered to Adam and Eve (and Satan, but it is not good news for him, or for his children); neither Adam nor Eve was a Jew. When Scripture speaks in terms of promises and ultimate things, ‘Jerusalem’ is the true city of God — the heavenly Jerusalem, the new Earth. Similarly, ‘Zion’ is the gathering of all believers into the presence of God; where God is, there Zion is. These terms are, thus, somewhat interchangeable, even if there is a difference in nuance. As a Christian, you should find comfort and truth in the Old Testament; and you should read the Old Testament with the sure, certain, and firm faith that the promises therein contained apply to you as an adopted son of God. We, the Church, are the true Israel of God, the promises have always been ours and will always be ours. Thus, let us turn to the twin issues of adoption and inheritance. A central part of the Christian religion is the adoption of Christians as sons of God. Now, there are some very important differences between Roman adoption (the context of Scripture) and modern adoption (a false lens), but I will write more on that in the near future. For our purposes, it suffices for us to recognize that what is in view is inheritance. To be an adopted son of God in Christ is to inherit eternal life. This, of course, is the heart of the Gospel. Christ’s work, His life, His death, and His resurrection are good news because they enable us to become adopted sons of God and inheritors of eternal life in Paradise — in Zion, in the new Jerusalem. But what do we say to those who would draw some distinction between Israel and the Church? On the one hand, we should not forget that mockery is a Christian option, but, on the other hand, we should also give a substantive answer, if not to the Judaizers, then at least for our Christian brothers. One of God’s names in Scripture is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For now and here, I will not focus on why this is one of God’s names; rather, I will focus on what it means, in the context of Scripture, to be a ‘son of Abraham’. Hear the words of Christ as recorded by St. John: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did. …. “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” John 8:39b–41a, 42b–47 (ESV) He calls those Jews sons of Satan instead of sons of Abraham, and He says that true sons of Abraham would follow in his works. Now, we must remember that the works for which Abraham is praised were undertaken in faith — only those works undertaken by the faithful have any value. But let us turn to the great Epistle to the Galatians to see what Scripture says about the ‘sons of Abraham’: Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; / break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more / than those of the one who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. — Galatians 4:21–31 (ESV) It is not those who are born “according to the flesh”, sondern those who are “born through promise” who are these true sons of Abraham. How is one born through promise? Look no further than the baptismal font. To be born through promise to be born again — it is to have faith. It is those who believe whom Scripture calls sons of Abraham. But what of the physical, blood descendants of Abraham who have no faith in Christ? Christ Himself calls them ‘children of their father, the devil’. For Christians, then, the matter is closed. Christians (i.e., those who believe in Christ) are children of Abraham according to the promise, and the Jews are children of Satan. But let us look at another aspect of this. Naturally, adoption and inheritance are matters of headship and to be children of Abraham means to be inheritors of the promised Seed (i.e., Christ), but the promise did not come first to Abraham. The promise traces to the Garden: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” — Genesis 3:15 (LXX) It is to Adam — the father of us all — that the Gospel is first delivered — from the very mouth of Christ, no less. We speak often of ‘the old Adam’, but we would do well to remember that there is also ‘the new Adam’, which is often used to refer to Christ, but is also true of Father Adam. Adam was no dullard — he heard and believed the promise of God spoken in the Garden. Adam believed; Adam was and is a Christian. With regard to this new, reborn Adam, you and I and all Christians are sons of Adam — both literally by blood descent and according to promise, for Christ is His head as well as ours. Adam in his day was prophet, priest, and king and he taught the faith to his sons; not all were faithful, but the one true faith was preserved down the line to faithful Noah, who taught his sons: faithful Japheth, faithful Shem, and faithless Ham. (We could draw, here, an interesting parallel: Satan took one-third of the angels with him and one-third of man found damnation in Ham’s wickedness, but let us leave that aside for now.) We — and I mean my European brothers and sisters — are true sons and daughters of Japheth, for we share his faith. It is no less correct to call ourselves sons of Japheth than to call ourselves sons of Abraham, for the promise was for Urvater Japheth no less

  6. 11/12/2023

    Lectionary Homily for 12 November 2023 (24th Sunday after Pentecost)

    Amos 5:18–24 Psalm 70 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Matthew 25:1–13 I assure you, the balance of the homily will be in English, but: Mit ihrem heil’gen Wetterschlage, Mit Unerbittlichkeit vollbringt Die Noth an Einem großen Tage, Was kaum Jahrhunderten gelingt; Und wenn in ihren Ungewittern Selbst ein Elysium vergeht, Und Welten ihrem Donner zittern — Was groß und göttlich ist, besteht. — If you will permit me, an English approximation, also in rhyme: Necessity, with bolt and thunder, inescapably she weaves, what scarcely centuries may ponder, one great day she achieves. And when she with tempest razes, e’en an Elysium secure, And with her storms worlds unsettles, — the great and godly does endure. Surely the day of the Lord swiftly approaches, and, just as surely will all flesh stand before the Lord and give account. As the plans of princes perish with them, so all the plans — whether they be the construction of a utopia or the construction of a new hell — of all mankind pass away with the passing of this creation on that ultimate Day of the Lord. And yet there is not one day of the Lord. Yes, if we capitalize “Day” or emphasize the definite article, then, certainly there is but one Day of the Lord, for that is the Last Day (of this creation) — the great and terrible Day of Lord, the Last Judgement —, but there are many (lowercase, indefinite) days of the Lord, for every day in which the Lord visits judgement upon a man, a family, a tribe, a nation, a race, is, indeed, a day of the Lord. I may not live to see the Day of the Lord; you may not live to see the Day of the Lord; no man knows the day or the hour, and, personally, I refuse to speculate on such things (and I suggest you also refrain from such speculation). It hardly matters anyway — whether we are raised from the dust or merely changed on that day, we will certainly stand before the Judge and Lord of all things, and we are all always only a moment away from that day. I could drop dead here and now (although, as I am writing and recording this homily, and not delivering it live, it would be fairly unlikely you would read or hear any of this if I should die before I finish writing, recording, et cetera). You are neither more nor less mortal than I. We are all but a moment — but a heartbeat — away from the great and awesome Day of the Lord. But we are also some unknown period of time away from any number of other days of the Lord. How long will God ‘tolerate’ our worship of Moloch — abortion and hormonal ‘birth control’ — before He destroys us as He did the Canaanites and the Carthaginians? How long will He ‘tolerate’ our not mere acceptance but promotion of sodomy and all manner of sexual perversion before He wipes us away like Sodom and Gomorrah? How long will He ‘tolerate’ our worship of Mammon before He destroys us with a foreign foe as He did the Northern Kingdom with the Assyrians or at least takes us into captivity as He did the Southern Kingdom with the Babylonians? How long will He ‘tolerate’ our obstinacy before He sends upon us plague and desolation as He did with the Egyptians? How long will He ‘tolerate’ our impenitent, high-handed wickedness before He gives us up to our sins as Romans 1 warns? There have been many days of the Lord and there will undoubtedly be more before the end finally comes. Or are we such fools that we hold to some sort of theological version of the secular foolishness that is the ‘end of history’? ‘Oh,’ the fool says, ‘God may have judged and intervened in ages past, but surely now, in these modern days, He no longer does so.’ Do you not know that God kills each man who dies? And I do mean ‘man’ in the general sense, for He surely kills every woman and child as well. Were you operating under the delusional belief that death is a part of nature? Hear the Word of the Lord: »Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned[.]« — Romans 5:12 (ESV) Death was not part of God’s good plan, part of His good ordering of Creation; rather, death entered the world only through and as a consequence of sin. God hates sin and God hates sinners. Without sinners, there would be no sin, and you are not a sinner because you sin, but, rather, you sin because you are a sinner — it is an inborn and inescapable (in this life) corruption of your nature. You are inwardly tempted by your fallen and corrupt nature — this we term concupiscence; even when you do not actively sin, you still desire to sin, and that desire is itself sin. The Gospel is good news precisely because we cannot avoid sin in this life. We are born under an irremovable death sentence, and God will carry out His perfect justice just as surely as He has, does, and will uphold each and every one of His promises. In Adam, as the federal head of all mankind, we all fell, and so our status, from birth until death, is sinner, and God will kill every sinner, for God will see all sin destroyed. For those of us who are being prepared for everlasting glory, this means that, having already passed from death to life in the waters of Holy Baptism, we will never taste the second death, which is the eternal and inescapable fires of Hell. The perfect justice of God requires atonement for sin. Christ’s work on the cross (and during His perfect earthly life) atoned for all sin — not just the sin of the Elect, not even just the sin of men. Why, then, are not all men saved? Because it is possible to reject this free gift. If I were to ship you a nice bottle of wine, you could refuse shipment, and you would, therefore, not be able to enjoy said wine; this would not in any way change that I had paid for the wine. Similarly, the refusal of any man to believe is not in any way relevant to the fact that Christ redeemed all things in and by His work. And let us take heed lest we fall: Those who believe may fall away. Look to the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Did the five foolish virgins have fake fire? Certainly not. They had true fire — saving faith — and they allowed it to die. ‘If you were of your father Abraham, then you would do his works.’ ‘Faith without works is dead.’ ‘Show me faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works.’ Are you saved by works? Yes. You are saved — as are all who are numbered among the Elect — by the works of one Man, Christ. Your own works surely cannot save you — cannot contribute anything to your justification —, and yet sanctification is synergistic — in sanctification, we coöperate with the Spirit. Or we do not coöperate and we permit our faith to die. All ten of the virgins were given faith (the fire) and yet only five of them kept that fire alive (i.e., produced works — the oil). A living faith will necessarily produce good works. A bit of grammar and philosophy: It matters where we place the modifier and what the modifier is. If someone says that ‘works are necessary for salvation’, then he is a heretic; if someone says that ‘works are necessary to salvation’, then he is being dangerously vague, and should be corrected; if someone says that ‘works will necessarily flow from saving faith’, then he is speaking the truth, for he is just echoing Scripture — a living faith will produce works. To be abundantly clear: Your works will not save you, but, if you have been given the gift of faith and it is a living faith, then it will necessarily produce good works. The good news is that your good works will not save you (in isolation, this certainly sounds like bad news), but Christ’s good works will save you — through faith. You are accounted righteous via the attribution to you of the alien righteousness of Christ; His righteousness is not yours by nature or by right, but by the grace of God, Who applied this righteousness to you when He claimed you as His own in the waters of Holy Baptism. Baptizatus sum ergo salvatus sum — I am baptized, therefore I am saved. If just those two works — Baptizatus Sum — were on my headstone, they would surely be sufficient. Now, Baptism does not destroy or change our nature — I am still male, German, and pertinacious — my Baptism changed none of these things, for they are my nature, and God made my nature, just as surely as He made me —, but Baptism is, in this life, your most important attribute, for it is Baptism that marks you as a child of God. As a great Christian king once said: I think more of the chapel where I was baptized than of the cathedral where I was crowned king. So the dignity of a child of God which was bestowed on me at Baptism is greater than that of the ruler of this kingdom. The latter I will lose at death, the other will be my passport to everlasting glory. The great and the small alike take nothing with them when they leave this world, but your Baptism is your ticket to everlasting life. Your works may demonstrate that your faith is living — and God will reward you for them —, but you cannot plead them at the Judgement. Like your wealth or your intelligence, your works contribute nothing to your justification, which will be the matter at issue when you stand before the Judgement Seat; it is only Christ’s blood that you may plead, and you were washed in His blood in Holy Baptism. Your pastor did not baptize you — God did, using your pastor’s hands. Thus, on the ultimate Day of the Lord, we must all plead sola gratia sola fide solo Christo — by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone. With empty hands, but white robes, we will plead only the blood of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world: ‘I know that there is nothing good in me, that is in my fallen flesh, but I know beyond all doubt that He Who dwells in me is my righteousness, my justification, my salvation — and He

  7. 11/05/2021

    Lectionary Homily for Reformation Day [2021]

    Revelation 14:6–7 Psalm 46 Romans 3:19–28 John 8:31–36 Matthew 11:12–19 The Jews were incensed: ‘We have never been enslaved.’ How could this Man tell them that He could set them free if they were not slaves? Surely some heard His words as holding the promise of deliverance from Rome — surely a sentiment with which we can nearly commiserate on Reformation Day. Others seemed to call to mind more literal, physical chains than those that bind Satan in the pit. Undoubtedly, they recalled to mind the slavery of their ancestors in Egypt, but they had never — themselves — been slaves. How could this Man set them free from a slavery they had never known? "Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." Christ immediately clarifies the matter for them. They are not slaves in irons — at least not physical ones; they are spiritual slaves — slaves to sin. All men are slaves to sin. This is what the Law — as mirror — shows us. Lex semper accusat. (Do carefully note that that is semper, not sola — always, not only.) As slaves, we could not remain forever in the house — in this case, the Kingdom of God. The Son remains forever, and we must be reborn — adopted by the Father through the blood of the Son — to remain in the House. ‘We have never been enslaved.’ He went to His own people, but they received Him not. The Jews rejected the Messiah — they still do so today. They were judged temporally for their faithlessness in AD 70 when Rome sacked Jerusalem and burned the Temple. Could the symbolism be more clear? The curtain rent in twain upon Christ’s death — He bridged the divide between God and man; the Temple destroyed in AD 70 — God dwells in the hearts of believers, not in a house of stone, and the apostate Jews are judged and condemned. To this temporal judgement will be added eternal damnation for all who do not repent and believe. And yet, do we not hear the same refrain from many today? ‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!’ Ah, but you are a slave. Irony upon irony, many, today, who are slaves are slaves to ‘freedom’, to ‘liberty’. But let us be more specific: Many today are slaves to the idea, to the concept, to the abstraction of freedom or liberty. There is nothing of freedom or liberty in what many advance as an unfettered good. Is it freedom to believe a lie? Is it liberty to be damned for eternity? Fool, do you believe that the laws of men will carry any weight in the Courts of God? ‘Lord, Lord, did we not preserve ‘freedom of religion’? Did we not uphold ‘freedom of speech’?’ You who would elevate the laws of men to idols, who would raise the Constitution above the Second Commandment may one day pay the price for your sins. ‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!’ Fool, you are enslaved to a thousand desires, serving a thousand different masters. You are a slave to the device in your hand and the views in your heart. You are a slave to your unbiblical ideology and your venal desires. You are a slave to worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, and despair. You do not trust God as you ought. In what do you place your hope and your trust? What do you fear, love, and trust? Those are your idols. It is from those that Christ would set you free. ‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!.’ When you think of slavery, you almost certainly think first of irons and slave ships. You are a product of the Enlightenment and you do not even realize it. Search the Scriptures for a condemnation of chattel slavery — you will not find one. Do you believe that chattel slavery is a moral evil? You expose your slavery to the spirit of the age. Fool, would you set the things of men above the things of God? His thoughts are higher than your thoughts and His ways higher than your ways, and yet you would elevate your ways and your thoughts above His? What you call ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ God calls slavery, and the slavery you call a moral evil God does not condemn. The sons of God have a different Spirit from the spirit of this age. Which one do you have ears to hear? ‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!’ And that is the problem. Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ. Can you, with Paul, declare — truthfully, honestly, earnestly — that you are a slave of Christ? (Let us not engage in the modern nonsense of "bondservant".) Of course you cannot, because you believe slavery to be a natural evil. How could you possibly be a slave of Christ if slavery is an inherent evil? Fool, you have chosen slavery to the world and her ‘god’ over slavery to the one true God. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but the devil and the world appeal to your sinful flesh with the appearance of wisdom and promises of pleasure. Our culture has chosen ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ over God, lies over truth, and Hell over Paradise. What we see around us today is only the beginning of the judgements to come. The Israelites were not special — the Jews are not special. Jerusalem was not special — no city build by human hands is. Do not fall to idolatry in believing that your tongue or your hands will save you — vain are the works of men. Lex semper accusat. Hear the voice of the Law and tremble. See your sins and despair. Recognize the wickedness of our culture and fear. God will not be mocked and His patience can be exhausted. How long do you think He will bear with a nation that murders tens of millions of children, that produces countless hours of pornographic so-called ‘entertainment’ (and it matters little whether such is sexual, violent, or both in nature), that pursues foreign policies that are — at best — at odds with Scripture, that sexualizes and mutilates those children it does not outright murder, that not only tolerates but promotes — at home and abroad — all manner of sexual and other perversions, that deifies freedom and liberty, that tolerates an endless array of false teachers, that calls evil good and good evil? Do you presume upon the mercy and forbearance of God? The axe is laid to the root of the tree and the fire is kindled — repent, turn, and live, or follow our culture into the abyss, into the outer darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Do you tolerate false teaching? false teachers? Our culture — under the old refrain of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ — calls this good; Scripture would call this a violation of the Law. Tolerance is not a moral good. God alone is good, and God is Truth. All false statements — all lies — about God’s Word or God’s Creation are pernicious, vile sin, and to tolerate such sin is to become complicit in it. Do not fall for the siren song of our culture; do not follow the devil and the world into the pit; do not obey your sinful flesh; do not enter into the fire that does not consume; do not choose eternal death. The lies of the world seem, at first, pleasant. ‘You can be free.’ ‘You can be liberated.’ ‘You don’t have to be a slave.’ ‘You can forge your own path.’ Ultimately, all such lies boil down to one central, false claim: ‘You can be your own god.’ or, in the original Snake: ‘You [can] be like God.’ A truly ridiculous lie. God is the one true Infinite; you are a finite. He is the Creator; you are a creature. You would make more progress trying to extinguish the sun by spitting at it than you will make if you try to elevate yourself to God’s level. What became of the last creature to mount such an attempt? »"I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven."« The last creature to attempt to rise to God’s level was cast down from Heaven — and took many with him. It was for Satan and his fallen angels that Hell was constructed, but many — most, even — men will join him where the fire does not consume and the worm does not die. There is only one God, and you are not He. We are fallen; we are sinful; we are doomed to die; but thanks be to God that we are men and not angels, for Christ has died for us. By the Passion and the blood and in the waters of Holy Baptism we are made sons of the Kingdom, coheirs with Christ, our one true Head. Do not reject the gift of faith, do not neglect the Word or the Sacraments. Christ comes to you as He has chosen to do so — in Word and Sacrament. Many listen to the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh, but the sheep hear the voice of their Shepherd. Do not attempt to work your way to God, "[f]or by the works of the Law no man will be justified in His sight[.]" Yes, you must do good works, but these flow from faith — they do not justify you. In fact, you cannot do good works except in faith. Hear the words of Christ: »"Apart from Me, you can do nothing."« And do not make the Roman mistake — good works are not such things as pilgrimages, monastic life, and other such nonsense. What does Scripture say of good works? ‘God has prepared them beforehand that we should walk in them.’ God, in HIs perfection, does not need our good works — He is never hungry or cold or in prison, but our neighbors are. Feed the hungry; clothe the cold; house the homeless; visit those in prison. Do these according to your vocation and your means. Talents, abilities, gifts, resources are not distributed evenly, and this is according to God’s wisdom; use what you have been given to serve your neighbor — and ‘neighbor’ does mean neighbor, the man beside you. If you have been given the ability to teach, then teach the things of God, teach the truth. If you are a parent, then raise your children well and instruct them in the things of God. If you are a tradesman, then do good work for a fair wage or a fair price. If you are a magistrate, then seek justice and do not show partiality. If you are wealthy, then care for the poor and provide for the Church. Do according to your station, your a

  8. 10/15/2021

    Lectionary Homily for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost [2021]

    Amos 5:6–7, 10–15 Psalm 90:12–17 Hebrews 3:12–19 Mark 10:17–22 Perhaps I am not prudent. On who is prudent shows a great deal of care and thought for the future. As our Old Testament reading states: Those who are prudent will often hold their tongues in an evil age — the implication that speaking the truth may be futile or even harmful (most likely to the speaker). And we are to walk as the wise, not as the foolish. And yet, we must, as Christians, speak the truth. Although the days are evil, to us falls the imprudence of speaking the truth. God is Truth. To deny the Truth is to deny God. Those who deny God before men will one day answer before the Judgement Seat. Praevaleat veritas ruat caelum — let the truth prevail though the heavens fall. We are not permitted to deny the truth; we are not permitted to look to the consequences and then decide if we will speak the truth. The Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for us it is the truth and power of God. Now, we must be careful to distinguish what is and what is not truth, in the sense we are employing here. I have a Golden Retriever — this is a true statement. If I tell you that I have a Chihuahua, then I have lied to you (and, God willing, that will forever be the case), but I have not denied the truth. The truth is something more than mere correspondence with reality, mere accuracy. On the other hand, if someone tells you that men and women are the same or that men can become women or women become men, then that person has denied the truth. Truth is fundamental; it flows from the nature of God. Truth also pervades Creation — dogs are not cats, men are not women, light is not darkness. Simple lying is not a denial of the truth — if a murderer asks if your wife and children are home, it is your duty to lie. (n.b., the Eighth Commandment is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.", not ‘Thou shalt not lie.’) We live in an age when people do not even echo Pilate: ‘Quid est veritas?’ — ‘What is truth?’; instead, we are surrounded by those who simultaneously deny the existence of objective truth and advance clear lies that ‘must’ be believed. Worse, so very many Christians simply go along with these lies. You may lose your job for speaking the truth, but would you rather lose your soul for holding your tongue? The wise of the world hold their tongues to preserve their hides, but we fools for Christ gladly proclaim the ‘foolishness’ of the Gospel — and all the rest of God’s truth — for we know that to die for Christ is gain. In a worldly sense, it would have been prudent for Martin Luther to remain silent in the face of Rome’s errors and lies. Instead, he took his stand upon the only firm ground of truth — the Word of God. He brought down upon himself the wrath of the secular authorities — both pope and Emperor. For much of his life, he was a wanted — and even a hunted — man, but God preserved him through to the end, and he died of old age in bed. God may have another end in store for you — you may not die comfortably in your bed — but praise Him and give glory to His Name in all things. Remember your Confirmation oath: You sword to ‘suffer all, including death’ before you would fall away from our shared Confession. The times are evil, and they are certainly not getting better. However, we are not required to win the battles God gives us; we are merely required to fight. So, stand for the truth no matter the cost. Do not deny God in word or deed. Run the race to win; hold your original confidence firm to the end. If we are faithful, the Lord may yet turn to use and be gracious to us. God willing, we may live to see a resurgence of the Church, and of our people. But nothing in this life is guaranteed — we may not even live to see tomorrow. We must always remember that we are sojourners here, and this is not our true home. Nevertheless, there is work to be done while it is still day. Part of the good works you render to your neighbor as service to God is speaking the truth. To partake of — or, worse, to advance — the lies of our evil age is to fall below the Christian duty of care. Every person who speaks the lie further entrenches it; every person who fails to speak in opposition to the lie weakens the resolve of others and thereby strengthens the lie. When it comes to the truth, one who refuses to yield may alter the course of nations or of history, but surely such men have a better go of things when they are surrounded by others who similarly cleave to the truth. Further, your highest duty is to God, and unflinching adherence to the truth is unwavering obedience to God. Our present society is not founded upon Christ, but upon a collection of lies. We are under no obligation to adhere to such lies or to support those who do. To the persecutor of God and His Church, we owe only unwavering opposition, eternal enmity. We are called to hate evil, for there is no love without hate. However, it is certainly possible to hate without love. The world will hate you, as it hated Him first. If you speak the truth, reprove in the gate, and seek justice — or even merely support those who do so — then you will be hated by the world. And let us be clear, here: We do not mean so-called ‘social justice’, for such is an evil from the very pits of Hell; no, we mean justice as commanded by God and contained in His good Law. So-called ‘social justice’ is a perversion and a denial of justice and is, consequently, a denial of God before men. But where is the comfort in this? It is everywhere. We may be comforted knowing that God prepared our good works for us; we may be comforted knowing that Christ will not lose a single sheep from His hands; and we may be comforted knowing that the war has already been won. We are fighting a defensive action — we must merely hold out until our Lord returns, or we are relieved from duty. Sin, death, and the devil have already been defeated. Although the times are dark and the days evil, these are but the birth pangs of the new Creation; this old world is passing away, is doomed to fire. We, however, are being saved by the Gospel, by the very power of God. In the waters of Baptism, you were united to Christ in His death and resurrection. You will not taste the second death. Do not worry overmuch about the state of the world, for the outcome is wholly in God’s hands. Do your duty as father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister, or neighbor. Even if the world is to end tomorrow, do your duty. As Luther put it: ‘Even if I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree today.’ Amen.

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