Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Matthew 6:24-34

Jesus mentions anxiety six times in the eleven verses of today’s Holy Gospel reading. He knows that anxiety sells. Whether it’s war or sickness or the daily ups and downs of Wall Street or even our own pocketbooks, Jesus knows how anxious we are. He names two things about which we are anxious: food and clothing. He names two other creatures, birds of the air and lilies of the field, to illustrate the foolishness of anxiety. Then He gives the solution to the problem of anxiety: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Of all the things that stirs up anxiety, the kingdom of God and his righteousness probably doesn’t make our list. Perhaps this is because we rarely give the kingdom of God and his righteousness first place in our lives. We might talk about the importance of being a child of God. We might even be proud of our baptism, our confirmation, our marriage, or any other church event with personal meaning. We might boast of regular church attendance, although with the national average of regular church attendance at around once a month that’s not something worth boasting. But what we really boast about is how involved we are in so many things. Those activities tend to take first place in our lives. Those that don’t get pushed aside. One activity that is often pushed aside first is resting in the true presence of the Lord in Word and Sacrament each week.

Why? Because we are anxious about so many things. So was Martha in Luke chapter ten. Jesus had to remind her about the one thing needful: the Word that He teaches and preaches. Another reason why is that we figure what goes on here will always go on here. Jesus has delayed His second coming for so long that it seems as if there will always be a church that does churchy things. If I miss a few weeks, months, years, or even decades, oh, well, church will always be church and when I need church I can have church.

The consumer mentality permeates us so much that we catch ourselves seeing Word and Sacrament as a commodity like food and clothing, two things Jesus says we shouldn’t worry about. I’ve never seen birds fly back and forth in a tizzy about where the rations for the day after tomorrow are going to be found. They are concerned with today. Birds find their meals one at a time. Birds do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. I’ve also not heard roadside flowers gripe about how pretty they are going to look next Thursday. After all, they’ve looked the same for so long that someone, somewhere, is going to comment about dressing the same way all the time. Lilies of the field are what they are and do not concern themselves with looking another way. God provides for them as He provides for birds…and for you and me as well.

But we don’t believe Jesus. Maybe we believe Him to a point. We believe that all good things come from His Father, Who loves us and cares for us both in providential and in spiritual ways. We might believe our heavenly Father does His part to care for us, then He drops the stuff He wants us to have and tells us that it’s our turn to come get it. That’s not to say He doesn’t want us to work or that He doesn’t want us to suffer poverty. It is to say that we have a hand in what He gives us.

We have no hand in what He gives us. All that we have is a gift from Him. He know what we need, when we need it. We ask, and He provides. Often we ask and receive something for which we did not ask, yet needed. Often there’s the blessing of the unanswered prayer, too. We receive from Him all good things, whether earthly or heavenly. When we don’t get what we want, we get anxious. Even when we get what we want, we still get anxious. What we want is more: more control, more power, more authority, and always more mammon.

Mammon. There’s a word not often used these days. Mammon is the excess of abundance. You have one Yeti coffee cup and think you need seven, one for every day of the week. When someone is in need of a Yeti, you won’t let go of yours because, well, it’s yours. You need one for every day. Even if you gave it away you’ll still have six of them. But no. You must have seven. Substitute anything else for a Yeti coffee cup. That’s mammon. You have more than enough and you won’t get rid of it, even when someone else needs it.

What will you do with your mammon when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead? You can’t drag it with you into the new heaven and the new earth. You can’t leave it behind because all things left behind will burn. You have enough, but enough is never enough, or so you think.

For what, then do you seek? More mammon? Jesus says more of His kingdom and His righteousness. From those two things flow everything else. Maybe you won’t get a Yeti but you’ll have a coffee cup. You’ll even have the coffee and the water. It may not be Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee or glacier melt water, but you’ll have the means to buy some coffee and obtain the water to brew the coffee. All those things are gifts that God gives us. All those things are given after Jesus gives you His kingdom and His righteousness.

What does God’s kingdom look like? God’s kingdom looks like you letting go of controlling Him. God’s kingdom looks like His Son Jesus giving you forgiveness for sins, eternal righteousness that covers the blackness of sin, and holiness that bespeaks you perfect in Christ before your heavenly Father. There is no anxiety when you are clothed in this righteousness that comes down from above. Jesus has done everything necessary for your salvation. That’s what you hear each week from this pulpit and that lectern. You hear it each week because you forget it each week. Sin makes you deaf and blind to eternity. Jesus opens your ears and your eyes to hear and see His kingdom before you.

The righteousness that covers you carries you from here into the world, where His righteousness always looks to love and serve your neighbor. You have more of something than your neighbor in need. You give your neighbor what he or she lacks not to be indebted to them or to receive brownie points from the Lord. You give from your abundance, whether in money or in property, because you love them as the Lord loves them and as the Lord first loved you.

The tendency for redeemed sinners is to want to do these things alone. Church can be a disappointing place. Pastors fail us. Fellow Christians fail us. It seems as if everything except God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness is proclaimed here. Remember that Christ’s church this side of eternity is composed entirely of sinners…sinners in need of the certain hope of Jesus’ blood and righteousness given to them in preaching, in baptism, in absolution, and in the Lord’s Supper. Sinners come together as sinners, yet as sinners redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God Who cleanses us from all sin.

God knows what you need. It is a gift not to be anxious about money or possessions or gaining more of both and then build your future on it. Your future is in Christ Jesus, for His future is your future: resurrection and eternity. You can’t take your food and clothing with you. You can take Jesus with you, for His kingdom and His righteousness is the one thing needful.

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity – Luke 17:11-19

Homiletical surgery performed from a previous year.

“One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do/Two can be as bad as one/It’s the loneliest number since the number one.” If you invite a number of people to a party and only one shows up, that’s embarrassing. The number one in the Christian Church, however, is just another number. If there’s even one other person here besides me, the Lord’s Supper may be offered. There is someone to say “Amen” to the prayers and liturgical text. One is better than none. There is nothing wrong with the number one.

Or is there? One, we are told, can always be better. Of course everything can always be better. One more person in worship each weekend is nice. One more person for Sunday morning Bible study means an opportunity to learn something new. Even a newborn child being baptized adds one to our numbers.

Yet one is never enough according to earthly ways. You can always do better but who measures what is better? Why have one when you could have many more? The Lord has blessed us with more than one person or one family returning to church or joining our congregation the last few months. Some congregations, though, struggle to see one person or one family join them for Word and Sacrament.

Church officials ask with good intentions if we are reaching more than one with the Gospel in our community. The question often turns into a contest. Who can bring in more people to the great banquet feast? How many new things must we start to bring in new believers? How much more money should we give to help draw people to Christ? One new believer is great, but, next time, let’s shoot for more than one.

One is never enough according to worldly standards. One cleansed leper returning to Jesus to worship Him and give Him thanks is pitiful. Is one actually a lonely, bad, and sad number? Jesus takes this all in stride. Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner? One is better than none in Christ’s church, but you can’t prove that with the world or sometimes with church officials. There’s always room for one more.

The need for more gives congregations in small villages like ours a big complex. We see how population shifts over time. We see how generations shift over time. The “good old days” that we seem to remember never were the “good old days” after all. There was more than one person here then. There is still more than one person here today. The Lord grows His church when and where He wills, not when and where we will. There’s still nothing wrong with one.

One returned. That’s good news! One person that day recognized in Jesus Christ the Savior of the Nations. One person that day stopped dead in his tracks, saw that the Word of Christ made him clean, and turned him around to run back to Christ’s feet in gratitude. So one isn’t all that lonely after all.

We hear this miracle and want to wag our fingers at those who aren’t here to hear it. If only they could hear it. What about you? You, like the nine running men in Luke chapter 17, keep running at times. You received from the Lord what you came to receive. You followed His orders. Mission accomplished. Or perhaps you keep running because you have no idea why you are here in the first place. You know something is going on here but it never makes sense. So you run. You’ll find what you’re looking for someplace else, maybe where there are more people. You’ll find what you’re looking for from your home where you can watch church from your bed. You don’t have to get dressed and you don’t have to people, a win-win situation.

There’s nothing wrong with one. That one may be you. Jesus will turn your heart to His mercy when and where it pleases Him. We are, after all, in His Church. His Spirit works in His Word to bring both physical and spiritual healing as it pleases Him. Sometimes it’s a feast. Sometimes it’s seemingly a famine. To our eyes and ears, one returning in thanksgiving to our Lord is a famine. Looking through the eyes of faith, however, we see a feast. What joy we have when one returns, giving praise to God for what He has done!

What joy we have when that one is me. All week, all month, all through the years perhaps, you’ve run. You’ve run to Jesus before and seemingly nothing happens. So you keep running. Our Lord seeks you, finds you, and brings you back to the fold with Him. The Word of Christ that dwells in you richly shows you what Jesus has done for you. It may not be physical healing, but it could be an unexpected answered prayer or even restoring the joy of your salvation. You run, but this time you run to Him in joy, just as the Samaritan did. Jesus shouldn’t be His Savior, but He is His Savior. Jesus is also your Savior, the only One you have.

One isn’t a lonely number. It’s enough. It’s as if Jesus finds the irony of one returning to be the way it is in His kingdom. Yes, they all should have come back. Yes, there’s always room for more in His house. Yes, His children could always do more to welcome more into His house. For now, though, one is enough. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one bread, one cup, one body we, one God and Father of us all, seeking, saving, and welcoming the lost, one person at a time.

Christian Education – Luke 18:15-17

It’s Rally Day this Sunday at the congregation I serve. The sermon focuses on Christian Education and is revised from a 2010 sermon.

Jesus says let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. If we hold our children back from coming to Divine Service because they are restless or because they “don’t get anything out of it”, then we might as well hold ourselves back too. Before our heavenly Father’s eyes, we are little children; His precious lambs. We would know nothing about repentance and forgiveness of sins unless a preacher taught us from God’s Word. The words of Deuteronomy chapter six, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength would never be heard unless we gave our children Bibles and let them discover it for themselves.

Some of you have grown children with children of their own. You’ve done the best you can in raising your children. You had them baptized. You brought them to Sunday School. You made the commitment for confirmation instruction. You didn’t hinder them from Christ. Now they are adults. You no longer control every aspect of their life. Sometimes a child clings to what they have been taught. Sometimes a child rejects it all and goes their own way.

It’s not all your fault. We pastors have to carry some of the blame. We have done you a disservice by turning Sunday School, Confirmation instruction, and Vacation Bible School into times of mastering information. It’s as if we pastors prepared you for a Scholar Bowl competition rather than everyday life. We teach the facts, but don’t teach how this applies to your children’s lives. Merely presenting the faith as facts to be mastered creates dread. You learn them, repeat them, and forget them. We sometimes treat Christian Education like the TV show “Survivor”. Pastors and parents teach young people to outwit, outsmart, and outlast the competition only to get off the island that is church.

Take a look at the bulletin cover. Children are clinging to Jesus. Our Lord’s face is calm and loving. The children are content in His presence. Take a closer look at the children’s faces. They are your faces. No matter how old you are, you are a child before God. I am Jesus’ little lamb, ever glad at heart I am; for my Shepherd gently guides me, knows my need and well provides me, loves me every day the same, even calls me by my name.

If you strayed from the flock for a while, Jesus welcomes you with open arms. If you have guilt over how your children have failed to model the Christian faith, you taught them, Jesus welcomes you with open arms. There is nothing but comfort in those open arms, especially when you consider those arms stretched out wide on the cross. Jesus draws the world to His cross in order for them to see and believe what He does to save them from sin, death, and hell. Jesus draws the world to His cross so they remember this is not merely kids’ stuff. Saint Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, the promise is to you and to your children. The opportunity to learn more about Jesus does not close at your confirmation. Confirmation is the end of the beginning. When you spend time resting in the arms of Jesus, Who loves you and loves all children of the world, you can’t help but want to spend more time with Him.

There’s another image I want you to consider, but it’s in my study. You’re welcome to come see it sometime. It’s a woodcut from a textbook that taught future pastors how to interpret Holy Scripture. The woodcut features the Ethiopian eunuch and Saint Philip from Acts chapter eight. The eunuch sits in his chariot while Philip stands alongside the eunuch. Below the woodcut are two verses from Acts chapter eight: “Do you understand what you are reading?” And [the eunuch] said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” Philip is pointing to a hill where three crosses are displayed. Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

How will a child, no matter his or her age, understand anything they read or hear in Holy Scripture without someone to guide them? That is why we have men and women who give their time to teach your children Jesus Christ and Him crucified in Sunday School. That is why I offer three Bible Studies a week. That is why we gather as the body of Christ in this place each week to be fed with God’s Word in sermon, song, and sacrament. We could be spiritual, not religious, and do the work for ourselves. Then we would have our own personal interpretation of the Bible that makes it say what I mean. The Jesus way, however, is to gather together as the body of Christ as one from your midst, a shepherd of the Good Shepherd’s flock, shows you Jesus forgiving your sins and giving you life.

It’s time for all of us to go back to preschool: the preschool of God’s Word. Approaching Divine Service and Bible Study like one of our preschool children with insatiable curiosity is a good way to start the good habit of resting in the arms of Jesus. His nail-scarred Hand touches your head to bless you, to feed you with His Word, and to nourish you with His Supper. Rest a while with your family in the arms of the Savior. Rest a while in the words of King David: Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – Mark 7:31-37

Our Lord’s actions in Mark chapter seven seem over the top for the situation. Why couldn’t He put on appropriate personal protection equipment before He takes the deaf-mute man aside? Doesn’t He know how unsafe it is to deal with someone like that? He could get sick! And what about social distancing protocols? Jesus needs to keep His distance. I don’t want what He might have.

You need everything He has. So does the deaf-mute. [The people] brought to [Jesus] a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. The deaf-mute man does not come to Jesus alone. People bring him to Christ. So it is today.

Our congregation has a social media presence. We share a sign with the Methodist congregation inviting people to attend one of the churches in Arlington. There’s word of mouth, too, as I’ve discovered in my short time here how many people outside of our congregation know who I am without them being in our building. Of all the ways the Lord draws people to Himself, the way that means more than word of mouth or any advertising is to bring them with you. Invite them to join you in the pew to rest a while in the presence of the Lord. Welcome them to hear Christ’s forgiveness of sins in the preached Word. Bring them to the fount of every blessing.

That’s what the people do with the deaf-mute man. They don’t point him in the direction of Jesus and say, “Son, you’re on your own.” They lead him to the God-man Whom they believe is able to help him. They even suggest to Jesus how He is able to help him. Jesus does more than lay His hand on the man. Taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.

Now we’re back to Jesus seemingly violating the man’s personal space. Perhaps this is what keeps so many people away from what our Savior desires to give them. Perhaps this is what keeps Christians at a distance from their Lord. We can’t handle a Jesus Who gets up close and personal. We’ll perhaps take a Jesus Who puts His arm around us and gives us a pep talk to get us through the day. We might even take a Jesus Who will give us a cliché, a mantra, or a worn-out saying that we cling to in order to get us through the hard times. “If God’ll get you to it, then He’ll get you through it.” “This, too, shall pass.” Like a halftime pep talk, you leave His presence ready to take on the day.

You get a Jesus Who does more than dispense pious platitudes. You get a Jesus Who deals with you where you need healing. Jesus put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. Christ’s kingdom stands only in His Father’s Word. His Father’s Word cannot be deal with except by the tongue and the ears. The tongue speaks the Word, and the ears hear the Word. The tongue must confess what the ears hear and the heart believes. If you take away the tongue and the ears, there’s no distinction between a Christian and one who does not believe in Jesus as Lord. Only the tongue and the ears distinguish them.

A Christian has ears that hear both God’s Word and the cry of the poor. He has a tongue that gives God thanks and praise, glorifies Jesus Christ the Son of God, and speaks the truth. Saint Paul says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. This is the gift that the crowd wants the deaf-mute man to have. This is the gift Jesus will give the man. The gift is given not in the way of the crowd, but in the way Jesus gives: up close and personal.

But why does Jesus sigh before He heals the man? Consider what goes into your ears and comes out of your mouth. You, too, would sigh if you think of what goes in and out of these two things every day. The greatest harm is done by that piece of flesh that flaps behind the teeth. The tongue is the most dangerous muscle in the human body. You can quickly ruin a person’s life by using that muscle and it’s hard to walk it back once it comes running out. Consider also the harm done by false preachers who soothe their hearers with lies cloaked in truth. They take the verbs of Holy Scripture out of Christ’s possession and put them in your lap. Now you are able to do something about your salvation, whether it is totally up to you or whether you can give our Lord a little help along the way.

The ear hears this nonsense and wants to believe it is true. Saint Paul warns Saint Timothy the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Who would you rather have scratch your ears, a preacher who undoes a lifetime of truth in one sermon or a preacher who puts before your ears the Lamb of God Who alone, with no help from anyone, takes away your sin, as well as the sin of the world. You, too, would sigh if you were in our Lord’s place.

Instead of giving up, our Lord sighs and says Ephphatha, be opened. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. The deaf-mute man has received the gift the crowd desired for him and the gift Jesus loves to give him. He is able to hear the Word that saves him from everlasting death. He is able to confess with his mouth the hope He has in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You have your Ephphatha day just like this man in Mark chapter seven. Your baptism is your Ephphatha, the day when your deaf ears were opened and your mute tongue was loosed. Someone, whether your parents, a family member, or a friend, brought you to the Lord to be welcomed into His kingdom. They wanted you to have the gift of forgiveness and life. Jesus’ promise put with water and His Word in Holy Baptism opened your ears and loosed your tongue. You were made an heir of His treasure, eternity. As you grow in years, your ears hear the Truth of God’s Word in preaching. You are taught the Holy Scriptures, the story of His story that saves you from death, the devil, and hell. You then receive the gift of the Lord’s Supper, Christ’s true Body and Blood under bread and wine, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

The story doesn’t stop there. By God’s grace you meet other spiritually deaf-mute people. As you build a relationship with them, you want them to receive the gift that you have received. You tell them about the certain hope you have in Christ. Then you bring them with you to His house where, by God’s grace, they, too, will receive what you have received. They, too, will say with you, He has done all things well. He opened your lips to declare His praise. He opened your ears to hear His Good News. The same finger of God that wrote the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone has touched your tongue and your ears in baptism, in the supper, in the proclamation of His Word, to set you free from death and give you life. He has done all things well indeed.