Sermon for Saint Michael and All Angels

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“No Ifs, Ands, or Buts”

Text: Revelation 12:7-12; Psalm 91; Luke 10:17-20; Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3

 

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

War in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and his angels. 

I don’t know what that means, really. How do angels fight each other? Does their war look like our wars? What weapons do they use? I don’t think I really want to know. I’m just glad the good guys won.

But unlike our wars, angels don’t die. We see the horrid pictures from Ukraine and Israel, the destruction, the devastation, the mourners. Not so in this war. The great dragon and his angels did not die but were thrown down to the earth. And not in sadness, but in great wrath. They were like a stirred up hornets nest that gets knocked down - swarming, looking now for men and women to sting with their evil venom. No wonder John heard the voice in heaven say, woe to you, O earth and sea. Woe to us who now endure their wrath.

Thank goodness we’re not alone! We’d stand no chance. Stirred up hornets are bad, but how much worse a foe we cannot see, and more powerful and crafty than us. But as we heard in the Introit today: He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. God’s good and faithful angels are not in heaven celebrating their victory or relaxing that the foe has been cast out. No, our Father commands them to come here, where the evil angels were cast down, to guard us, to continue the fight here. Imagine how mad that must make satan and his angels! Bad enough they got thrown down from heaven. Only to continue to be opposed. To continue to lose! Making them only want to fight harder. They couldn’t topple God, they couldn’t defeat their good brothers. So now they’re after the low hanging fruit: the Church and Christians here on earth.

So what does this fight here that continues look like? What are the weapons in this war?

Well, we have a few examples in the Scriptures. The first one in the very beginning of creation, when the devil when on the attack against Adam and Eve. His weapon was his words. For his target was not Adam and Eve’s physical life, but their spiritual life. And how do you attack and kill a spiritual life? You remove it from its source of life. And if the source of spiritual life is faith, then that’s what you attack. Undermine their faith in God as their good and loving Father, and their trust in His Word. And that’s what we hear him do. Did God really say? Sting them with doubt. Get them to rely on their own reasoning instead of God’s Word. Convince them to believe that what seems good to them must be good, even if God said it isn’t. Do that, and now he’s got them on the road to spiritual death, of trying to find life apart from their heavenly Father.

There’s the story of Job. The devil stung Job over and over, inflicting all kinds of physical hardship and harm against Job, but the goal was for all that to affect his faith and spiritual life - that he curse God and die. The devil also attacked Jesus in the wilderness . . . with words. If you are the Son of God . . . He even tried to use God’s Word in going after Jesus, though what he did reminds me of the political commercials we hear today: use the words of your opponent out of context, or just enough to twist them for your own purpose, even if that’s not really what they said. ‘Cuz it doesn’t matter. All that matters is sting them with doubt, and chip away at faith and belief, that they look for life apart from their heavenly Father.

And I think the devil has a favorite word that he uses to do that - especially today - to achieve these ends with us. Did you even think about that? If you had to come up with the devil’s favorite word, what would you pick? I think it’s the word BUT. Yes, God said that BUT . . . Of course you shouldn’t do that BUT . . . You know you shouldn’t say that BUT . . . Yes, God defined marriage this way, BUT those two people love each other! How can we say no to them? Yes, all life is important and valuable, BUT that person is suffering a whole lot, BUT that baby isn’t wanted, BUT that person is saying things I disagree with. I know I should forgive BUT . . . I know I shouldn’t gossip BUT . . . I know I should love my spouse BUT . . . All those BUTS aren’t just wrong thoughts, words, and deeds, but wrong faith. That’s what God said isn’t right, or isn’t good enough, which means my heavenly Father isn’t right, isn’t good enough, isn’t trustworthy, isn’t true. The devil’s ifs, ands, and buts lead us away from life to death.

So in this battle now being waged here on earth, you fight fire with fire - you fight words with words. And we heard that today, in John’s vision, that they have conquered the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Victory comes by the Word and the blood, or, if you will, by the Word and Sacrament. The devil wants wiggle room. The devil wants loopholes, doubts, uncertainty. The devil wants to make the clear unclear, to lead us astray. And so against that our weapon is the sure and certain, clear and steadfast Word of God. What God said is true, good, and reliable. Period. That’s how Jesus fended off the devil’s attacks. That how Adam should have done so. And it’s how we can. 

And the blood of the Sacraments heals us when we are wounded in the battle. The blood that washes us, that absolves us, that feeds us, strengthens our faith and revives the life of God in us. When we baptize here, when we confess our sins, when we come to the altar, these are not peaceful things! This is the front lines of the battle for your soul, for your spiritual life. And the devil knows it. That’s why he wants to keep you away from these, for he knows how damaging they are to him and his cause. Now, how is he trying to do that with you? Maybe by making you too busy. Maybe by stirring up controversy. Maybe by making these gifts seem insignificant, or boring, and other things more important and exciting . . . 

Maybe if we could really see what’s going on here . . . like the disciples in the Holy Gospel we heard. Jesus had sent them out with His authority, and they returned with amazement, reporting to Jesus, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! Maybe if we got to see that! You know, some demons writhing on the ground here, or flying away, screaming . . .

But just because we cannot see that, doesn’t make it not true, doesn’t mean it’s not happening! And maybe it’s better that we don’t see that, just like we weren’t given a glimpse of the war in heaven. 

Instead, when the disciples pointed this out to Jesus, so filled with excitement that Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! Jesus points them to something even greater than that. He says: don’t get so worked up about that. Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. 

You see, we like the spectacular. The fast and flashy video games. The sensational stuff on the news. Satan being cast down from heaven. Big crowds, miracles, stuff like that. Stuff that’ll really bring ‘em in! Jesus points to a book. Now compare this! 100,000 people filling a stadium, cheering for their team . . . and people in a library filled with books. Jesus! Look at that! We want that! And Jesus says: look at this! This is greater. That your name is written in the book, as Daniel said.

And to continue with Daniel for a moment . . . there shall be trouble, he was told. Maybe we haven’t even seen the worst of it yet. But your people shall be delivered, he is promised. And there will be life and righteousness, forever and ever. The trouble will end, the life will not. When Daniel wrote that, God’s people had seen some trouble. They were living in Babylon. The Temple had been destroyed. Jerusalem had been destroyed. Their nation was no more. Gone. It seemed like the bad guys were winning. The hornets were swarming, with no end in sight.

When Jesus’ disciples came back to Him that day and said, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! they saw hope. Cracks. The beginning of their deliverance. A deliverance that would be completed not in a grand show of power for all the world to see - not yet. It was a deliverance witnessed by just a couple of women, in a garden, on a quiet and peaceful Sunday morning. A few days before that, it was all hornets! The swarm all mercilessly attacking Jesus, all on Him who couldn’t swat them away for His hands and feet were nailed down. Until they took Him down. Until He died an ugly death. Because it was not enough for Jesus to just deliver us from the devil and his angels - He came to deliver us from enemies even greater: sin and death. And for that, He had to die Himself. And then the victory was an empty tomb. 

And because of that, not only are the demons subject to Jesus’ name, so is sin and so is death. So we baptize in Jesus’ name, and with that water your name is written in the book in blood. We absolve in Jesus’ name, and your sins are cast down. We feast in Jesus’ name, His table, His food, His Body and Blood - and the Bread of Life gives you everlasting life. And when Jesus returns - on that day when there will be a great and mighty show for all the world to see - the heavens that the devil and his angels were kicked OUT of, you will be ushered INTO. And so in one of our hymns we sing, Lord, let us last Thine angels come, to Abram’s bosom bear me home (LSB #708 v. 3).

The war in heaven was a great victory, no doubt. But it was the fight waged on the cross that was even greater. So that’s what the devil doesn’t want you to see, doesn’t want you to believe, doesn’t want you to receive. Don’t eat that food, from the tree of life! Look at this fruit! Doesn’t it look good? You’ll love it! Oh, I know, God said don’t do that, say that. BUT . . . your life will be better, happier, richer! Trust me. Would I lead you astray? I’m on your side . . . 

Don’t click on those words! They kind of sound like that email or text you got recently, from that “Nigerian prince” or that “poor widow” with millions of dollars that they want to give to you! Don’t they sound like that? Put your phone down, close the computer, and read and hear and receive the Word of truth, the words of life. God’s Word with no ifs, ands, or especially no buts! Only truth, only life, only Jesus.

And one day you’ll see. One day those angels will come for you, to bear you home. The angels who won the war in heaven, who proclaimed Jesus’ birth, who announced His victory at the grave, and the angels and archangels who join us here. They don’t save you, they can’t. But they serve the one who can, and did. The one wrote your name in the heavenly book in His own blood. 

So today we remember and thank God for the angels. But as the angels are always reminding people in the Bible who saw them, don’t thank them! Don’t worship them! They’re just doing their job. Thank the Lord who won the war, and even better, gives that victory to you.

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

Sermon for Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“A God of Mercy”

Text: Matthew 9:9-13

 

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

Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’

How insulting! Go and learn? The Pharisees were the teachers, not the learners. They knew their catechism. They knew God’s Word. Do you Jesus? You’re the one hanging out with the sinners. Maybe you better go and learn what God desires! Or come to us. We’ll teach you. And here’s a clue: it ain’t hanging out with and eating with tax collectors and sinners!

Or is it?

Jesus was just quoting the prophet Hosea, so maybe He’s right. But at the same time, God did lay down the Law regarding sacrifices. We’re learning about that in our Bible Study on Leviticus. And He gives some pretty strict rules there about what they are and how to do them. So this does seem a little confusing, doesn’t it? Maybe we do need to go and learn. Become catechumens again.

And the first thing we need to learn that God doesn’t desire sacrifice. Yes, He set up that whole sacrificial system, but not because He likes it, but because His people needed forgiveness. Forgiveness which is not just overlooking or ignoring their sin, but dealing with it. The wages of sin is death. So either they die, or God provides a substitute. So God provided a way of dealing with sin, and provides substitutes, until the real and final substitute would come. 

And the second thing to learn is that what pleases God is mercy. He is a merciful God and wants us to be like Him and have mercy on others. Ah, but that’s the rub, isn’t it. I like mercy, when it is given to me. I want mercy, but don’t always like having mercy on others. I ask forgiveness for my sin but hold the sins of others against them. I ask for understanding but don’t want to listen to others. I hold others to a standard I myself cannot meet. 

All that is a symptom, that too often, faith, religion, is whittled down to me and God. My personal relationship with God. Me and Jesus. And others? They kind of get in the way; take me away from what I want. They’re annoying. Inconvenient. Messy. They take up my time and energy. They’re frustrating. Needy. It’d be so much better if I didn’t have to deal with all them. But . . . no. The God who said love me with everything you’ve got is also the one who said love your neighbor as yourself. The God who loves mercy. And for mercy, you know what? You need an “other” to have mercy on.

So the sacrifices were needed, but the mercy is, too. And of the two, the mercy is the greater.

You see, that’s what the Pharisees had backwards. They sacrificed a lot. They gave a lot. They tithed. They “corban-ed” their wealth. They were really good at sacrifice. But mercy? Not so much. 

And that was their big beef with Jesus. He didn’t seem to appreciate their sacrifice and He hung out instead with . . . “them.” Hung out. Sat down. Whiled away the hours. Had a good time. Even yukked it up with them over food and drink, all the while teaching them about His Father. Well, that’s not right! You’re defiling yourself and demeaning yourself by hanging out with them, Jesus. Don’t you see that?

And Jesus replies, I’m the doctor attending the sick. They need me. I’m not worried about catching something from them. I just want to heal them. 

Yeah, but you might! You might catch something from them. Their uncleanness, their sin, their stench, their unworthiness on you! And you might die with it, Jesus. Not us! Uh-uh. Not us.

And here’s the answer to that: Yup! You’re right. I might. I might catch something. No, that’s not quite right. I shall. And that’s what I want. Their disease will kill me. Yours too. I’ll catch sin-sickness from all of you. That’s not going to stop Me. That’s what mercy is. My mercy.

And that is what mercy is. Mercy doesn’t calculate the outcome based on me and what it’s going to do to me. Mercy asks only what the other needs, and then mercy acts. Mercy is there for others, even if it’s an inconvenience, or frustrating, or annoying, or tiresome, or even dangerous. 

And Jesus came in mercy. So where else would you expect to find Him? He’s where the sick ones are. They are His clients. The broken, the bruised, the battered. The ones who’ve been hurt and torn up by sin. He has come to mercy them. To mercy you. For are you not all those things? 

And Jesus wants to mercy the Pharisees, too. Blind as they may be to their own need. But maybe . . . they can see their need? Maybe their own need for healing? Their own exhaustion from trying to do it themselves? Learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and let me mercy you, heal you, save you, too.

And so it was . . . until that day came when the sin-sickness, our sin-sickness, seized hold of Jesus. That day when He was stretched out on the cross. There with all our sin, our uncleanness, our rebellion, the sin and sickness of all the world coursing through His veins. And it killed Him. His contact with us, His breathing our poisoned air, His touching our foul uncleanness and death finally took Him down. He was the sacrifice all the others pointed to AND the mercy God desired. To provide the forgiveness, life, and salvation we need. 

And the Father was well pleased. And so the Father raised Him up. And that Easter morning, sin was atoned for, death was undone. It’s power over us broken once and for all by our substitute. By the sacrifice AND mercy of God’s only Son.

That’s the sacrifice and mercy Matthew wrote about. Matthew the tax collector preached and wrote about Jesus the sin collector. The one who collected his sins. The one who came for him and called him. The one who loved him when no one else would. The one who mercied him. Jesus would use him. And he wanted all the world to know. About this Saviour, this doctor, who can save us from sin and death. About a God who welcomes sinners and eats with them. And loves to do so.

And so He still is! He doesn’t wait for us to invite Him. He comes to us here to mercy us. To embrace with us His love in Baptism, to mercy us with His Absolution, and to spread a table and invite us to His feast, to sit down with Him and eat and drink. And still touching us - the very same body and blood that touched and healed Matthew and all those tax collectors and sinners so long ago, still touching us today. Still saving us today. And it’s only a foretaste, a teasing anticipation of the feast to come, where the healings are final and the sorrows are forgotten and the feast never ends.

Follow me, Jesus said to Matthew that day. He surely didn’t know what he was in for! What he would see, what he would hear, what he would do, what he would receive. It would all be beyond his wildest imagination. 

We don’t know either. Life can be hard, and inconvenient and messy and annoying and frustrating and tiring. But the mercy and gifts of God are even greater. His forgiveness for our unmercifulness. His strength for our weakness. Follow me is still His call today. To us. And so we follow Him first here, to His table, to His feast, to be with Him, to receive from Him, to live with Him. A table big enough for all, and a feast that will never run out. And if you’re a sinner, an outcast, an undesirable, the poor, wretched, refuse of the world - there’s especially a place for you here. With the one who came to heal and forgive and raise and save. 

And then second, at the end of the service today, as our Narrator will explain, we’ll follow Jesus as He leads us out of this place and back into the world, back into our vocations, back to our messy lives. But a little less messy, a little less hopeless. And we will follow Him out, to the others, giving to them the mercy we here receive

Like Matthew did. 

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

Hat tip to Rev. William Weedon for his study of this text and inspiring this sermon. Concondia Pulpit Resources, Vol 35.4, p. 65-66.

Sermon for the Funeral of Reinhardt Wing

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Two Funerals, One Saviour”

Text: Matthew 9:1-8; Isaiah 35:3-10; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

 

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

There is a funeral taking place . . . tomorrow. It will be in a football stadium. There will be tens of thousands of people there. Many more who want to be there. Millions probably watching on TV and online. Important people will be there, too. To speak. To pay tribute.

And there is a funeral taking place . . . today. It is not in a football stadium. There are only a few dozen here. And of those who aren’t here, if we said the name Reinhardt Wing, they would not say, oh yes, but who? 

Two funerals. The world looks at this and sees significant, insignificant. Important, unimportant. Someone who mattered, someone who didn’t matter. Someone who did great things, someone who couldn’t. Someone who will be missed, someone who won’t. 

The world is wrong. 

Not that Charlie Kirk isn’t all those things, and more. They are wrong about today. And they are wrong about Reinhardt. And I can say that not because it’s my opinion or your opinion or because of what Reinhardt did or accomplished in his life, but because there is really only one opinion that matters - and it’s not the world’s, it’s Jesus’. 

Jesus looks at these two funerals and sees not how they’re different, but how they’re the same. He sees two sinful men, both in need of saving. Two men who no matter what they did or how they lived, could not save themselves. And so He did. First by ascending the cross and dying for their sins, and then second by baptizing them as His children. That He die with them, and they could rise with Him to life again. Because that’s what Baptism does. In Baptism, the once-dead-by-now-resurrected-Jesus takes us who are dead in our trespasses and sins and raises us to a new life. A life of faith. A life measured not by how much we do for God, but how much He has done for us.

And what Jesus has done for us, we heard a story about that today. A group of friends brought their friend to Jesus. A friend who was paralyzed. A friend who could do nothing, except maybe beg. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And what does Jesus say to this man? Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. And many people think: Well that’s not what they came there for! How disappointing that must have sounded! But I don’t know about that. Maybe it was what they came for. Because when something bad happens to you, or keeps happening to you, when God isn’t helping, what do many people think? Why God? Why aren’t you helping me? Why are you punishing me? Why are you doing this to me? So Jesus’ answer reassures this man. That while there is sometimes difficulty and hardship and unpleasantness in our lives, it is not because God hates us. His love remains constant and sure. He forgives us. It’s what He does. It’s what He came and died for. And it is the most important thing. Because while forgiveness may not improve our life here and now, it gives us the promise of eternal life, whenever and however our life here and now ends. 

But still we would like healing. It’s true. We often pray for it. And did with Reinhardt. And God promised healing. We heard it today. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said that when the promised Saviour comes, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. So how ‘bout it, Jesus? Talk is cheap. Back it up with some action.

And Jesus did. That paralyzed man, brought to Jesus on a mat, walked out of that place. He rose and went home.

But Reinhardt didn’t. He died as he lived for the last 20 or so years. But let us not forget - though Reinhardt died, Reinhardt is not dead. Today we will commit the body of Reinhardt to its resting place, but Reinhardt is already at rest with His Saviour. And he will be healed. With a healing even greater than that of the paralyzed man that day. For that man, who walked out of that house that day, would one day, sooner or later, find himself back in the same condition. Old, weak, unable to do anything but lie in bed. But when Jesus returns and Reinhardt’s body is raised, it will be with a healing that will not end. His perishable body will be imperishable, and his mortal body immortal. And his death swallowed up in victory. The victory of Jesus and His resurrection, which swallowed up sin and death forever.

Reinhardt heard those same words that man heard from Jesus that day. He heard Jesus say to Him, I forgive you all your sins. I spoke them to him. And Reinhardt will be healed. It was not God’s plan to do that here and now. I don’t know why. But more important than knowing why is knowing who - who Reinhardt’s Saviour is, who Reinhardt’s Good Shepherd is. His Good Shepherd who found him, cared for him, blessed him, and now has gathered him to Himself.

Blessed? Yes. Maybe not with health, but with blessings seated here today. And more. 

Now, was Reinhardt a greater sinner than the rest of us? Some would say so. And some would consider him unworthy of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. But no one is too unworthy, no one beyond the reach of our Saviour. And if the apostle Paul considered himself the greatest sinner (1 Timothy 1:15), maybe we should, too. Maybe we should look at our own lives and realize, I need a Saviour just as badly as anyone else. Even more. 

And the good news for us today, is that you have one. Just like Reinhardt. And so we have hope. Hope in this world that so often seems hopeless, and unfair, and cruel, and ruthless. Jesus wants to tell you, too, Take heart, your sins are forgiven. And to raise you, too, with Him, to eternal life. Not because you’ve earned or deserved it, because you haven’t. And not because there will be thousands at your funeral, and millions watching, because there probably won’t. But because to Him, whether your name is Charlie Kirk or Reinhardt Wing, He sees and knows His little lambs. His lambs that are significant, important, and who matter to Him. So much that He died for us. For you.

And when He comes again in glory, then this promise will be true for Reinhardt:

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Sorrow and Sighing. Reinhardt did a lot of that these past few weeks, months, and years. And you have, too. Either caring for him, watching what is happening in our world, or because of what happened or is happening in your life. But it will not always be so. On that day, for all who are in Jesus, sorrow and sighing shall flee away. You shall obtain gladness and joy. Everlasting joy shall be upon your heads. And for one reason only: you will be with Jesus, your Saviour.

So while some men carried Reinhardt here today, it was Reinhardt who brought you here today. To hear the words of Jesus. Words of forgiveness and life. And hope. What he could not do in life, he did in death. So that you, too, hear, and hearing, believe, and believing, rise from this place in confidence. Confidence not in yourself, but in the words and promises of Jesus. That in Him there is forgiveness. In Him there is life. In Him there is resurrection to eternal life. For while you and your funeral may be small, your Saviour is big. 

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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