Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost

LISTEN (coming soon, when I return from travel)

Jesu Juva

“The Demons You See and the Demons You Don’t”

Text: Luke 8:26-39; Galatians 3:23-4:7; Isaiah 65:1-9

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Some demons you can see. 

Some you can’t.

Some demons you can see. Like with the man we heard about today, this fearsome man who wore no clothes, lived among the tombs, and exercised super-human strength, breaking chains and shackles. He was a wild man, and everyone knew it.

But some demons you can’t see. They lurk in respectable, normal places and people. Those who wear nice clothes, live in fancy homes, and have respectable jobs. Those who just want to live and let live. Don’t rock the boat. Like those who lived in the country of the Gerasenes.

And I say that because I want you to notice . . . what was the reaction of the clearly demon-possessed man and the reaction of the “normal” people who lived in that area? Was it not the same? Both were afraid of Jesus. Both didn’t want Jesus around. Both wanted separation - the demons begged to flee from Jesus, the Gerasenites begged Jesus to flee from them. They weren’t leaving. This was their country, and you’re not welcome here, Jesus. Not if you’re going to befriend people like that! Not if you’re going to hurt our economy. Get back on the boat. You’ve done enough.

Some demons you can see. 

Some you can’t.

I often get asked why we don’t see demon-possession like in this story anymore. Perhaps we do but we’re just blind to it. Perhaps we do but we don’t think in those categories much anymore and so attribute anything out-of-the-ordinary to more rational, medical, acceptable causes. Christians in other countries report things like this, what we heard today . . so maybe demons work in different ways in different places at different times. Hiding at times, fearsome at times. I wouldn’t be surprised at that. Whatever it takes to get you in their grip. To destroy you. To destroy or prevent you from having life in Christ.

So in our day and age, are there not those who, like that man, wear no clothes in our super-sexualized culture? And billions (yes, billions with a “b”) profited by those who do so. Are there not those who live among the dead in our culture which so often sees death as the answer to the problems of the world, be it war, genocide, suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, or abortion? Are there not those who act like mad men among us, instilling fear with their rantings and ravings?

And are there also those who don’t mind Jesus, don’t mind Christianity, don’t mind the Church as long as it stays in its place and doesn’t rock the boat? As long as my income, my pleasures, my wants and desires, my comfortable life aren’t affected? As long as I don’t have to change; as long as I don’t have to be around “those” people . . . I mean, if we let them in the church, what will “respectable” people think? Then they won’t want to join!

Some demons you can see. 

Some you can’t.

So how is it with you? What demons are you battling? And don’t look at others! I mean, in you. What sins, what temptations have you in their grip? What part of your life is Jesus not welcome in? I’ll follow then, and there, for that, but this part . . . no I really don’t want you there, Jesus. I don’t want to change that. I don’t want to give that up. Get back in the boat, Jesus, if that’s where you want to go in my life.

Think about that, hard as it might be to do so, and then repent of it. Of that thinking, of that attitude, of those sins. For of the demons you can see and those you can’t . . . Maybe the ones that can’t be seen are worse. They’re easier to get away with and live with.

But Jesus sees them all. 

In the Rite for Private Absolution, we say this: Let us begin in the name of God, to whom all hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid. You might look good and respectable to the world, and maybe even to yourself, but Jesus sees what we cannot. So we might as well come clean. He knows anyway! And when we come clean, when we come for cleansing, that’s the very thing He has come for. To wash us clean, to forgive our sins, to set us free, and to give us a new life to live. Like that man so long oppressed. There could not have been a greater change. From ranting and raving to sitting, from naked to clothed, and from crazed to in his right mind. 

Thy Strong Word (LSB #578), did that. The strong, Spirit-filled, bringing-everything-from-nothing, forgiving Word of Jesus. That Word now here for you.

For Jesus has come here to you - not in a boat across the Sea of Galilee - but in His Word, to set you free. From the demons and sins that can be seen and from the demons and sins that can’t. The demons and sins that are so destructive in your life, that hurt faith, family, and friends, that isolate and separate, that cause sadness and fear, that cause you to hate others or to loathe yourself. All of it Jesus has come to forgive, to set you free from, and to give you a new life to live. 

And He can because He did. Jesus took all the sin and shame that’s weighing you down and making your life less than it should be - He took it all to the cross. That it crush Him, not you. So that you rise to a new life with Him. 

So to free that man so long-oppressed, at His word, Jesus allowed the demons to enter a herd of pigs. And I sometimes wonder: did the demons cause the pigs to rush into the sea and drown? Or did the pigs rush into the sea to try to get away from the demons? Anyway, we have water, too, that drowns us and set us free from our demons - the water in the Font. But this water is greater, because here we die and rise with Jesus. The pigs just died and drowned. But for us, at Jesus’ word, the old sinful man in us is drowned and a new man emerges and arises to live a new life.

And now it is we who sit at Jesus’ feet, listening and learning, clothed with His righteousness, and with a mind made right, thinking according to the Word of God. And while maybe we would rather depart and be with Jesus, it is more necessary for us to return to our homes, and declare how much God has done for us. 

And one of the best ways we can do that is by speaking His Word of forgiveness. The greatest thing Jesus has done for us. How much damage has been caused by grudges, hatred, bitterness, and division because we refuse to forgive? But it is exactly Jesus’ forgiveness that gives us a new life to live, unhindered and unhampered by the shackles and chains of sin and shame that seek to keep us captive and drag us down. 

Better is to forgive. And if you can’t, if you have trouble doing that, come here and receive the forgiveness you need to give. Be washed again with His Absolution, eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus that won and gives this forgiveness, fill up with His words and life, and then go and declare how much Jesus has done for you. Give us lips to sing Thy glory, Tongues Thy mercy to proclaim. Throats that shout the hope that fills us, Mouths to speak Thy holy name (#578 v. 5). And I guarantee you, that even though it may not feel like it, what Jesus has done for you is far more and far greater than you will ever do for others. 

And yes, there will be those who don’t want your forgiveness, who don’t want Jesus in their life. Get back in the boat, Jesus. Go back to where you came from, Christian. Leave us alone. And Jesus did. And though I don’t know, I’ll bet, I’ll just bet, that the next time Jesus went off by Himself to pray, He prayed for them. That one day He could do for them, with their demons that could not be seen, what He did for the man whose demons you could.

And so we pray. For Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female - all people. For God desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). That’s why in the fullness of time . . . God sent forth his Son . . . to redeem us . . . that we might receive adoption as sons. That we cry out, Abba! Father! and live new lives, forgiven, set free, and raised up as children of God. 

Or as we prayed today: O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as surpass our understanding. Cast out all sins and evil desires from us, and pour into our hearts Your Holy Spirit to guide us into all blessedness (Collect of the Day).

Do that, we pray, O God, until that day when the demons you can see and demons you can’t are alike thrown into the abyss, never to return. 

Until that day, lead us, guide us, strengthen us, help us.

Until that day, bring us to repentance and the joy of Your forgiveness.

Until that day, protect us and preserve us, for without You, we have no hope.

Until that day, feed us at Your altar until we feast with You forever. 

Some demons you can see. 

Some you can’t.

Thank God we have a Saviour who is greater than them all.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Congregation at Prayer

For the Week of Pentecost 2 (June 23-28, 2025)

Invocation: In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: Acts 15:11 – “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #644 “The Church’s One Foundation”

Hymns for Sunday: 650, 644, 617, 518 (v. 19), 826, 816

Readings for the Week: [The readings for Thursday-Saturday are the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.]

Monday: 1 Kings 19:9b–21

Do we usually look for God in the ordinary or the extraordinary? Why? Why does God come to us as He does? Why is this good?

Tuesday: Galatians 5:1, 13–25

What does it mean to be free? Free from what? How do we use our freedom – self-indulgence or service? Why? What is the Spirit working in us? How is serving really freedom?

Wednesday: Luke 9:51–62

What was Jesus determined to do? Did He? Why? Why did He have to? What is our determination often like? Why?

Thursday: Acts 15:1–21

Is keeping the Law necessary for salvation? Why or why not?

Friday: Galatians 2:1–10

How was this disagreement in the church resolved? On what basis? Why is this important? What about among us today?

Saturday: Matthew 16:13–19

How is the confession of Jesus as the Christ the foundation of the Church and the key to heaven? Is there any other?

The Catechism - The Lord’s Prayer: The First Petition [Part 2]: Hallowed by Thy name. How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

Collect for the Week: Merciful and eternal God, Your holy apostles Peter and Paul received grace and strength to lay down their lives for the sake of Your Son. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit that we may confess Your truth and at all times be ready to lay down our lives for Him who laid down His life for us, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregational Board of Elders.

+ the Portuguese Evangelical Lutheran Church, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, and provision for Lutheran Braille Workers.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268

Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“All That Really Matters”

Text: John 8:48-59; Acts 2:14a, 22-36

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus wants the Jews to know who He is. Not for His own glory and honor. But to save them. 

It would have been easier for Him not to. To just walk away from them. To not bother with the arguments. To not bother with the insults. To not bother going to the cross. If they don’t want Him, fine. Go to hell.

But that’s not who Jesus is. That’s who we are. At least, sometimes. People argue with us, insult us, bother us, inconvenience us, hurt us - fine. I don’t need this. I don’t need you. And we walk away. It’s easier. Ever done that? I know I have. 

But thank God . . . thank God that’s not what our God does! Though He had plenty of opportunities to do so. From Adam and Eve, to the days of Noah, to rebellious Israel, to the Jews of Jesus’ day, and just about every day in between! It would have been easier for God to just walk away from us. Let us be who we want to be, do what we want to do, think what we want to think . . . and die and go to hell.

But God doesn’t do what’s easy, He does what’s loving. For that’s who God is. He is love. He doesn’t just love; He is love. And as Jesus is God in the flesh, Jesus is love in the flesh. So what Jesus does is because He loves and is love. 

So He doesn’t walk away from the Jews. Oh, He does eventually. At the end of the Gospel today, we hear that Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. But that’s only after the Jews picked up stones to stone Him! So Jesus then walked away from them. But why? To save himself? No. He did because He loved them. Because He is going to lay down His life for them, He is going to let them take his life - but not by stoning, but by being hung on the cross. For that is how He is going to save them. 

So even when the Jews call Him a Samaritan and demon-possessed, Jesus patiently endures their insults. He wants them to know Him, and by knowing Him know the Father. And know the Father’s love! For as Jesus told Nicodemus earlier, God so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son. That’s why He’s there! The Father gave Him to us. Gave Him to death on the cross. That whoever believes in Him not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

And doesn’t that sound like what Jesus told the Jews today? Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. Which sounds to the Jews like the ramblings of a madman! Everybody dies. Abraham died. Moses died. All the prophets died. That’s quite a claim you’re making for yourself Jesus! You’re saying that you’re greater than Abraham and Moses and all the prophets. Never see death, huh? Let’s see how big your words are once a few of these rocks rain down on your head!

But there would be no rock throwing this day. And the nails would come soon enough. But Jesus wanted them to know who He is, for the same reason He wants you and I to know who He is, and for the whole world to know who He is - that we know that this man hanging on the cross is our God. Is our God, in love, laying down His life for us. Dying to abolish death. Dying that we might live.

Because that’s really all that matters. 

Oh, maybe you have a lot of things you’re worried about for yourself right now. But one day, all those worries are going to go away, when you’re staring death in the face and the only thing you can think about is: what’s going to happen to me? Those old arguments and disagreements won’t seem so important then. How big your house or bank account or car won’t matter. That thing your neighbor borrowed and never returned - who cares? Who’s in the White House or controls Congress can’t help you then. There’s just you and death . . . and we know who’s going to win that battle, even though our friends and family stay with us and fight with us and encourage us, death’s going to win. And if Jesus was just a friend who came to be with us like that, and die with us like that . . . uh, thanks, I guess.

But if Jesus is more than that . . . the one who came to rescue us from death, to defeat death with His death, one who is greater than Abraham, greater than the prophets, and, in fact, is the one they all talked about and pointed to . . . that matters. Not for his own glory and honor, but for ours. 

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

Truly, truly. That is, amen! amen! That is, write this down and know that it is absolutely true and sure! If anyone keeps my word . . . which, as I said last week, doesn’t just mean to obey, but to believe what He has said, and all He has done, and treasure that in your heart, he will never see death. Notice: Jesus didn’t say, he will never die. The Jews were right. Abraham, who believed in the coming Saviour, died. The prophets, who believed in the coming Saviour, died. Death is the wages of sin for us sinners. So like them, you and me, even though we believe, we’re gonna die, unless Jesus comes back first. So when Jesus says, he will never see death, that’s more along the lines of when we say things like: Let’s see, or see it through. It means the end result, the completion. So if anyone keeps my word, Jesus says, the end for him will not be death, but life. And not just life, but eternal life. For Abraham, for the prophets, for you and me, and, what Jesus wants, for ALL people. Even for those who put Him on the cross.

So Jesus tells the Jews another truly, truly truth: Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. And again notice: Jesus doesn’t say, before Abraham was, I was. That would be grammatically correct, but theologically wrong. Jesus is telling them He is God in the flesh. He is the I AM, the great I AM, the unchangeable, eternal God. The God who created all things. The God who spoke to Abraham and was Isaac’s substitute. The God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. The God who led Israel through the Red Sea and the wilderness to the Promised Land. That God is now standing before them, to save them. Just as He saved in the past, so is He now.

Keep that word, believe that word, treasure that word, and live. 

Jesus wants everyone to know who He is. And that’s why we will confess today the Athanasian Creed. To confess that this man who died on the cross and rose from the dead is the one true God. And that in Him is life. 

And so when we say to start this Creed, Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith - that is, the faith that is not just the truth, but the truth for all people of all time - we are really saying the same thing that Jesus said: that anyone who keeps my word will never see death. This word, this truth, this God, is life and the way to life. And there is no other way. This is who God is and this is what God has done and is doing for us. This is the faith that saved Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses, all the prophets and martyrs, and that saves us. 

We heard Peter stand up with the other eleven apostles and proclaim that on the Day of Pentecost, when, as we remembered last week, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church. And that truth has been proclaimed ever since. And that word has been giving life ever since. As it has to you. That word combined with the water of baptism gives you this life. That word of forgiveness proclaimed to you gives you this life. That word preached to you gives you this life. That word that makes bread and wine the Body and Blood of Jesus gives you this life. 

Keep this word, believe this word, treasure this word. 

Which means . . . when someone sins against you, there’s something more important than getting revenge or holding a grudge or picking up rocks to hurl. That’s not the life you received; forgiveness is. So forgive.

And when something in your life seems so important and begins to take over your life and make you do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do - that’s not the life you received! Let that go and cling to Jesus.

When doubts and fears get the best of you and drive you to anxiety and despair, that’s not the life you received! Don’t believe the ravings and rantings of your mind. Look to the cross. Believe the words and promises of Jesus.

And when you want to feast on the pleasures of this world and life and satisfy yourself with what you can get and do, and what the world says is right and good and will give you life . . . that’s not the life you received! Feast instead on what truly, truly gives you this life: the Body and Blood of Jesus.

And then when you get to the end of your life, whenever that is - after many, many years, or if your life is cut short - you will have what truly, truly matters. This life, and the one who IS life. For you have kept, believed, treasured, washed in, and feasted on the word of Jesus, which is the Word of God, which is life. The life God the Father created, God the Son redeemed, and God the Holy Spirit sanctified. The life God the Father sent His Son to die for, and that God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit to give. One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. The Trinity we confess, and the Unity we worship, that is, receive all good from. Who gives us life. 

This is what Jesus wants you to know, and all people to know. His love. Who He is and what He has done, in love, for you. Not for His own glory and honor, but for yours. To save you. He didn’t walk away. He went to the cross. He didn’t tell us to go to hell, He went there Himself and conquered. And when He comes again in glory, He will raise our bodies to life. We will die, but we will not see death. Life is our end. Life eternal. 

So knowing that, knowing that, how are you now gonna live? The old way, the death way? Or the new way, the life way? 

Blessèd be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. 

Let us give glory to him [in our lives] because he has shown his mercy to us [in His].

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.