First Sunday after Trinity – Luke 16:19-31

There are many facets to stewardship than merely money. There’s stewardship of time. What receives priority in your schedule? There’s also stewardship of talent. What do you do with the talents and abilities with which God has blessed you? How do you put them to work in His kingdom?

Our Lord’s account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter sixteen gives us a look at what happens when you refuse to be a steward of both His time and His treasure. The treasure Jesus talks about here is your everlasting salvation that He has earned for you. Jesus’ words about the rich man show us that much can get in the way of that treasure. Earthly treasures especially like to cloud our vision of the heavenly treasure. Earthly treasure in and of itself does not obscure heavenly treasure. What our sinful nature believes about heavenly treasure skews the priority of fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things.

Jesus says the rich man was clothed in purple and fine linen. He feasted sumptuously every day. It is not sinful to wear expensive clothes and eat the best food. It is sinful, however, when what you wear and what you eat receive priority over hearing what the One Who gives you these things says to you in His Word. It is sinful when high fashion and Epicurean dining become your god at the expense of putting these things to use in furthering God’s kingdom among us, including helping those who have less.

Lazarus has less. He desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Lazarus’ only help seems to be dog spit. The rich man is in a position to care for Lazarus. Purple clothing and fine dining shows us that he could provide physical care for Lazarus. The rich man’s stewardship is lacking. He seems to steward only himself, especially as he sees Lazarus daily laying at his gate. Scripture is silent as to whether or not the two men had passing knowledge of each other. Scripture is not silent about their eventual futures.

Both men die. One lies at Abraham’s side. The other is in torment in Hades. Which man is the rich man now? Lazarus. Lazarus has always been the rich man. That’s what Jesus is telling us. Though our Lord doesn’t come right out and say it, we can use context clues to see that Lazarus is the true rich man in our Lord’s story. The rich man now comes to realize that he has neglected what was given to him. His purple clothes and sumptuous fare does him no good in eternal torment.

The rich man still thinks he has the advantage. He pleads to Abraham to send Lazarus to him. He begs Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers. Lazarus’ appearance before them will certainly change their minds about their lack of stewardship. All the rich man’s bossing around of Abraham and Lazarus is futile. Lazarus has his comfort. The rich man has his torment. There can be no passing between the two realms. There can be no going back to where you came to warn family members. The rich man had every opportunity to steward true riches among his family and friends. He had the opportunity to help Lazarus, who lay right outside his gate. Those opportunities are over.

Those opportunities are still there for you and me. We still have Moses and the prophets. Moses teaches us in the Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. The Sabbath day is kept holy when we do not misuse preaching and God’s Word but gladly hear it, learn from it, and hearken to it. That means we don’t let anything get in the way of God working on us in preaching, in baptism, in absolution, and in Holy Communion.

The rich man built his wall of affluence around Moses and the prophets. You and I build our wall of affluence around preaching and God’s Word. The proclamation of Moses is the proclamation of breaking down our walls of affluence and, perhaps the greatest enemy of Christians today, indifference.

You heard Vicar say a few weeks ago that atheism isn’t so much Christ’s enemy as indifference. Jesus shed His blood for me? Meh. Jesus meets me in the Divine Service with forgiveness and joy? Whatever. Now if I could see some signs and wonders, that might turn my meh into wow. The signs and wonders many seek are found in Moses and the prophets. Listen to them. Don’t discount their words, for they are spirit and truth. They show you Jesus, the priceless treasure Whose death and resurrection gives you a place at Abraham’s side for eternity.

Blessed are you, for you have riches beyond measure. You have Jesus. You have His Word. You are an heir of His treasure of eternal life. Money, possessions, and all our heavenly Father gives you will fall into place, for eternal treasure is a Christian’s greatest treasure.

The Feast of the Holy Trinity – John 3:1-17

(Homiletical surgery performed from 2008)

When the sun went down over Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the real learning and application of what went on in the classroom begun. Guys would flock to the dormitory lounge or a nearby watering hole to discuss God’s Word and how it might apply to our future situations as pastors. Some of my classmates thought they had everything figured out. They had all the answers to every possible situation they might face. Others were scared to death of what might happen.

These late night seminary discussions are reminiscent of Jesus, Nicodemus, and their late night doctrinal discussion in John chapter three. Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He knows God’s Word well. Nicodemus says, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. No mortal man can change water into wine. No mortal man is born of a virgin mother. No mortal man can discern the heart and soul as Jesus does.

Jesus quickly gets to why this Pharisee is here: Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Many Bible translations use the phrase “born again”. When we hear “born again”, we think of Baptist revivals and Billy Graham evangelistic meetings. People come forward to the preacher and give their life to Jesus. Their personal testimony of a private salvation event between themselves and God becomes public when they “get themselves baptized”.

Here is the heart of the matter between Jesus and Nicodemus. Being born from above is not a decision. You can no more decide to be born from above as you can decide when you wish to pass through the birth canal. Just as there is much mystery in how human beings are wonderfully made in their mother’s womb, there is much mystery in being born from above.

All this misunderstanding about being born from above stems from a misunderstanding about how the Holy Trinity works. Scholars spend entire lifetimes examining the inner operations of three Persons in one God. We put young children through hours of Biblical instruction before they receive the Lord’s Supper. Most of that instruction focuses on the Holy Trinity: how God the Father created the heavens and the earth by speaking it into being, how God the Son redeemed the fallen world by His death and resurrection, and how God the Holy Spirit keeps the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church with Jesus Christ in the true faith. Yet after months of tireless training, children and adults alike have so many questions. Even pastors and seminary professors throw up their arms and say, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.”

How can these things be? They can be because God says so. It sounds like a non-answer answer, but it’s the answer we’re given not to understand but to believe. The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds begin: I believe, not “I know” or “I comprehend”. Jesus teaches Nicodemus: we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. When we want to comprehend how God works rather than believing God works in the ways He promises to work, we are Nicodemus. Jesus also says No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. It’s not given to us to understand the complete knowledge of all things pertaining to our salvation. When it comes to the Holy Trinity, outside of what is revealed to us in Holy Scripture, we throw up our arms and say, “It’s a mystery.”

Our God saves. Everything the Trinity does is for our own benefit. When we are born from above, the Triune God puts the Divine Name upon us in Holy Baptism. God brands you not with a white-hot branding iron but with cool water. There was water at our first birth from our mother’s amniotic sac. There is water springing from the wells of salvation bringing us into the life of the world to come.

Our God saves. He puts salvation in our mouths under bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. His True Body and True Blood strengthen our faith and keep us steadfast as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death here and now. In the Communion rite of the Roman Catholic, the priest holds the Body and Blood of Christ before the people and says, “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.” Maybe there is something to that phrase. We can’t explain how bread and wine are also Christ’s Body and Blood. We believe it. We believe that these Holy Things are for our highest good. We frequently receive these Holy Things because we frequently sin and need the medicine of immortality that cleanses us from all sin.

The Christian faith is a mystery that cannot be solved by Scooby Doo or Sherlock Holmes. It is a mystery that is believed. It is put in our ears, poured over our heads, put in our mouths, and lived before the world. We are wrapped up in this mystery to all eternity because God chose us to be His precious children. How can these things be? Thanks be to God they are.

Ascension of Our Lord – Luke 24:44-53

Jesus tells His disciples, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

What are these words? You first learned them in Sunday School, or from dad and mom at home. As you grew in stature and in knowledge, you picked up a Bible and read them. As you read, you learned more of these words. By now you should have a good working knowledge of everything written about Jesus in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.

But you don’t. Neither do I. Maybe you know the Green Bay Packers starters in the Ice Bowl of 1967. Perhaps you know the plot line of all the Harry Potter novels. You have facts and figures at your fingertips, but you don’t know what the Scriptures say concerning what Jesus fulfills.

Neither did the disciples. Jesus sends them into the world to proclaim the Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Even after our Lord’s resurrection they still struggle with what is happening. They saw Jesus alive. They saw Him eat fish and bread for breakfast and were invited to dine with Him. They caught 153 fish after Jesus gave them fishing advice. They saw His hands and His side. Yet the disciples process these things like trying to listen to distant radio signals. It was all pops and cracks for the first eleven pastors of Christ’s church.

Jesus tells them, though, and tells us, too, that Help is on the way. That’s why we’re here tonight celebrating the Ascension of Our Lord. Tonight is about looking backward and looking forward at the same time. Jesus says, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. There’s a lot of comfort in the words, it is written. Jesus promises the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to help the disciples proclaim the Good News. Jesus promises the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to you and to me to keep us connected to the Good News in sermon and song, at the font and the altar, through water, bread, and wine.

We do not have a Spiritless Word. The Holy Spirit does not come to perform miracles apart from the Word. The Holy Spirit does not point us to places and things apart from where Jesus promises us He will be. We do not have a Wordless Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not silent. He speaks to us where Jesus promises He speaks to us. Even now as we are gathered in this place, the Holy Spirit shows us in the preached Word and in the Word with bread and wine, shown for us to be His Body and His Blood, where forgiveness and salvation are found.

Luther’s Small Catechism puts it this way: “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps her with Jesus christ in the one true faith.” We are unable to receive these gifts unless Jesus first ascends into heaven. If Jesus does not ascend, all that our Savior does for us is worthless. If all is worthless, then our Father’s words concerning the Living Word, Jesus Christ, are worthless and a lie.

Don’t look at Ascension Day like the little boy at the end of the Schoolhouse Rock video on interjections does. The boy, after yelling “YEAH!”, then realizes the song is over. He says one more interjection, “Darn! That’s the end.” Don’t look at Ascension Day as if tonight is the final night that all the neighborhood friends are able to play baseball one last time before school starts the next day or before one of the friends moves away. Ascension Day is when Jesus’s mission is accomplished, yet the mission is not yet completed. Now the mission is on the move and the Holy Spirit is the powerhouse of the mission. Using the preaching of the Gospel, the pronouncing of the forgiveness of sins, baptismal water, and eucharistic bread and wine, the Holy Spirit propagates the Good News when and where our heavenly Father wills. He willed the Word to be proclaimed in Arlington, Wisconsin. That’s a miracle of the Holy Spirit right here among us!

With an ascension there must be a descension. Jesus will descend again, this time not as a baby in Mary’s womb, but as triumphant Redeemer and Judge of the living and the dead. His return begins the life of the world to come, where all His children are gathered without sin, without death, and with an everlasting home in His presence. While we wait, we cling to our Lord’s certain words: I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. He comes to us right here, right now. He will come again. Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come!