​16th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 18)                                                 LSB #’s 848, 782, 852
Text – James 2:14
 
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him? 
 
WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?
 
 
Reinhold Biberdorf – it sounds like a name straight out of the Harry Potter books.  However, he spent his entire life farming on the plains of North Dakota.  I knew him during his years of retirement & by then he was unable to work.  He told me one day that he was good for nothing anymore, because he was no longer able to work like he was used to doing. 
Already at that point,  mostly what Reinhold could do  was to receive the care of his friends, his wife & his children.  There was very little that he could do for them.    Sometime after I met him, he fell,  hit his head  & developed a brain bleed.  Hospitalized & in a coma,  all he could do  was lie there in bed. 
But he did have one last gift to share, one last thing he would do for his wife & daughter.  I was visiting him at the hospital.  His wife & daughter were there & they were terribly worried for him.  It had been a week or more  & His condition was not improving. 
The daughter had not been attending church regularly so she was not receiving the blessings that God provides there – peace, strength of faith, courage & understanding.  She didn’t know if dad could hear her  because he never responded when she spoke to him.  At the end of my visit, I offered to pray with them. 
After finishing that extemporaneous prayer, I began to say the Lord’s Prayer.   At that point it became obvious that Reinhold was hearing us  because his lips began to move right in sync with ours.  His prayer was not audible  but it was visible.   Whether he was aware of it or not, what comfort that simple act provided to his wife & daughter.   Not many days after that, he was called home by the heavenly Father.   Yet,  almost to his dying day,  while in a coma for all that anyone on earth could tell,  the Holy Spirit,  through Reinhold,  was able to give his family one last & very precious gift.  His praying the Lord’s prayer  was the gift of comfort & peace & hope  all rolled up into one. 
Reinhold thought, that because he could no longer work, he was good for nothing.   What good  are you?     All of us do end up measuring the worth of other people.   It’s the nature of life in a broken world.  There never seems to be enough time, or enough money or … so we do have to manage our resources.   In Christian circles we call that stewardship. 
When hiring a roofing contractor,  we want to hire one that does good work.   When seeing a doctor for an illness,  you want a doctor that does good work.   We measure & evaluate how effective they are,  & we seek out the opinions of others, regarding their work.   We do it so often  that we easily conflate the value & worth of human beings  with the work they do. 
What good  are you?      Odd as it may seem,  the answer to that question does not depend upon you  at all.   First off, in Mark 10, Jesus tells us, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good  except God  alone.”  (10:18 ESV)  
So,  one answer to the question, “What good are you?” or “What good am I?” is that none of us  are good.  That is not the answer  our sinful nature wants to hear.   We want to believe  that we are good,  & we want other people  to know it.   Often, we’re tempted to base that upon the good work that we do, how useful & productive we are.   However, sin eradicates  any of that. 
Secondly, in answer to the question, “What Good Are You?” God wants you to know that in His sight you are holy  because of what Jesus has done for you.  Like the first, the answer to that question  also does not depend upon you  at all.  On our own, none of us can even be good, let alone  holy.  But Jesus earned it for us  & grants that status to us  as a gift.  Don’t get me wrong,  we are still sinful,  by what we have done  & by what we have left undone,  but God chooses not to see that  because He sees the blood of Jesus covering your sins instead.  It’s a precarious position to be in,  but far better than the alternative – which is the road to hell.  When it comes to getting into heaven on our own,  anymore  each of us is good for nothing. 
For decades now, Christians in the US have not been making faith in Christ  part of their public life.  There’s been a sort of  assumption that family & friends are all going to heaven.  The result has been that we don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable with religious talk.  All that is supported by the underlying cultural opinion  that everyone is basically good. 
Facing reality, we recognize that even strong Christians have sinful natures.  That aspect of who we are  will always feel awkward or uncomfortable with a lot of Jesus talk.  The fact that so many Christians have been sleep walking through their life of faith  has quietly put Jesus in the closet.  That’s where the warning from James is pointed:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?”  (James 2:14 ESV)      Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves  is difficult work.  It is often emotionally draining & frustrating  because everyone involved is corrupted by sin.   To love our neighbor requires taking Jesus out of our closet. 
If we have faith, our saintly nature wants to live that out, but it needs help because our sinful nature, & the devil, want to shut it down.  So where do you find that help?  In hearing the Word of God, in remembering what God did for us in Baptism, & in receiving Holy Communion.  Through those means, the heavenly Father promises to sustain & strengthen a faith that works. 
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?”  (James 2:14 ESV)    James strongly encourages us to turn from that kind of faith because in reality it is no faith at all.  It is dead & unable to save if it cannot even do works.  And that’s the point of this text from James.  Some people, for some reason, like to think of themselves as Christians, when in fact they are not.  Or maybe they still are children of God, but they’ve been resisting God’s desire to love their neighbor for so long that their faith is now in a coma & ready to expire.  James wants to rouse us out of that spiritual coma. 
James calls his reader to look at the evidence of Scripture, of history, of experience,  & realize that faith is no mere acceptance of certain facts, but, rather, reception of gifts.   It is a receiving which changes everything about how we think, speak, & act.  God has given us a great gift through Christ Jesus.  He has forgiven us while declaring us righteous & holy. 
In that forgiveness,  & only there,  is strength to love our neighbor as ourselves.  And we love our neighbor by doing things for them,  & with them.  God’s Spirit blesses us by calling us to serve Him in the lives of the people around us.  A living faith leads us gladly  to share with others  what we have freely received ourselves,  in Christ. 
Have you been putting Jesus in your closet?  Have you been lulled into a spiritual coma by resisting God’s call to love your neighbor as yourself?   Because of declining health do you think you’re good for nothing anymore?  God does not conflate the value & worth of human beings   with the work they do.  Even unborn children are of infinite worth to God. 
Even when our mind or body fail to the point  that you & I are good for nothing anymore, we can still provide opportunities for others  to do good to us.  Reinhold could still say the Lord’s Prayer.   As for God, He never shows partiality as our sinful nature tempts us to do.  God the Father offers His Son  to the whole world,  even while we are sinners. 
One of the prayers we use after Holy Communion puts it this way: “Strengthen us through the same in faith toward You  & in fervent love toward one another.”  Amen. 
 
By Your Word You formed creation  filled with creatures great & small;  as we tend that endless treasure  may our care encircle all.     In His earthly life,  our Savior knew the care of faithful friends;  may our deeds of dedication offer love that never ends.      Heavenly Father,  may our caring bear the imprint of Your grace;  with the Son & Holy Spirit,  praise be yours in every place!  Lord, we pray that we,  Your people  who Your gifts unnumbered claim,  through the sharing of Your blessings  may bring glory to Your name.  Amen.  LSB 782:2-4. 

​15th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 17)                                                 LSB #’s 655, 867, 698
Text – Deuteronomy 4:2
 
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
 
NO MATH ALLOWED
 
 
When someone mentions the word math, what comes to mind?    Is it  addition & subtraction?   If so,  you’re on track with God’s Word in Deuteronomy 4.   From Adam & Eve onward,  human beings have endeavored to do math with the commands of God.  We love to tweak His guidance & direction  to suit our own desires. 
In the Gospel lesson, Jesus describes them: “…from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts,  sexual immorality,  theft,  murder,  adultery,  coveting,  wickedness,  deceit,  sensuality,  envy,  slander,  pride,  foolishness.  (Mark 7:21-22 ESV)     It’s a long list, & because of those evil desires,  you & I often seek  to add to  or subtract from  the commands of God. 
That’s what sin has done  to God’s once perfect creation.  It has corrupted our heart, soul & mind with evil  that is always centered  upon me, myself & I.   Love God & love my neighbor as myself?     Maybe some other time!      So you may ask, “Where do I  add to God’s commands?”   “Where do I  subtract from God’s commands?” 
Let me give a few examples.   Some Christians have taught  that you can’t drink alcohol, play cards,  dance  or go to movies.  But that example  is not going to convict a church full of Lutherans of their sin,  because God does not prohibit any of them.   For us, adding to God’s commands runs more along these lines. 
Have you ever been really,  really  frustrated with someone & were struggling to forgive?   We’ve all been there,  might still be there.   Satan tempts us to feel  like this person needs to earn our forgiveness by doing something to deserve it.   When thinking like that,  we are adding to the commands of God,  because nowhere does He command anyone to earn forgiveness.  In fact, whenever we demand respect & authority where God has not given it to us,  we are adding to the commands of God.   Adding to the 1st commandment   is an easy trap to fall into.    Parents, teachers & pastors  are all particularly susceptible to it.   Thank God,  He offers forgiveness. 
As for subtracting from God’s commands,  our culture is rife with it,  but you have to know  that we can’t just leave it there.   That does nothing to foster our own salvation.   The heavenly Father desires that every one of us turn back to Him in repentance.  Wouldn’t you know  that’s probably the command you & I  most often  subtract from. 
Adam got caught in the very first sin,  & what did he do?  He blamed the only other human being on earth,  & he blamed God  for giving her to him.  That is not repentance & failing to turn back to his Creator  was cutting Adam off  from the very source of his life.  Sinning by subtracting from the commands of God  is the most natural part of being a sinful creature. 
Where does that leave us?  Not any place  that we can rightfully brag about.  Each of us violates the commands of God  each day,  & we do it  both by adding to & subtracting from  each one of our Lord’s commands.  The letter of James,  in the NT,  makes sure we cannot easily  let ourselves off the hook:
“For whoever keeps the whole law  but fails in one point  has become guilty of all of it.”  (2:10 ESV)   When it comes to the commands of God,  there is no math allowed – no addition, no subtraction.   And if you can avoid that, Moses gives the purpose: “…that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God  that I command you.”  (Deuteronomy 4:2 ESV) 
It’s easy to struggle with that statement, because I’ve just laid out,  & we well know,  that none of us is able to keep the commandments of the Lord our God.   It is helpful if followers of Jesus distinguish between failing by design & failing by accident.  Failing by design is when we willfully add to or subtract from  God’s commands.  Failing by accident  is when we sin because we are too weak  to do what is best for us.  Failing by design is plotting to have Jesus killed.  Failing by accident is falling asleep while Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Failing by design is to reject the Holy Spirit’s efforts to call us  out of darkness. 
Resisting the temptation to do math to God’s commands, is done solely by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That is what Moses is speaking of when he writes, “…that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God  that I command you.”  (Deuteronomy 4:2 ESV) 
We have a conflicted relationship with the commands of God.  Our sinful nature always experiences a kneejerk reaction against them & seeks to do math to those commands.  Our saintly nature loves the commands of God & recognizes in them  His perfect wisdom.  A Jewish blessing connects torah, the commands of God,  with eternal life, saying:
“Blessed is our God, who has… separated us from them that go astray,  & has given us the Torah & planted everlasting life in our midst.”[1]  The saying recognizes that the commands or instruction of God offer life to us.  Our problem is that we have a very powerful sinful nature that renders us incapable of following the Torah. 
If I asked, “What is life?” what would you write?   How would you describe the essence of life, as the heavenly Father created it?   The reason those questions are difficult to answer, or pin down, is that sin has completely corrupted our ability to live.  If fact, it’s so corrupted that each one of us is,  this very moment,  in the process of dying.
That’s what sin has done to us  even if we do not see it,  or refuse to face that ugly truth.  If we were truly to follow the commands of God, life would be perfect as in the Garden of Eden, up until The Fall.  In Deuteronomy, Israel waits, on the eastern side of the Jordan River, before crossing into the Promised Land.  Moses looks back on their history.  He recalls all of God’s gracious deeds toward His people & renews before them the promises they have with their God.  Moses warns them not to add to God’s Word  nor take away any of it.  God’s Word is life.   If only we could keep it,  it would perfectly guide & curb how we live.  
God established the Sinai covenant for their good.  They were to live within it.  His promise of unmerited blessing was subject to their response to it; summarized in the Ten Commandments.  The inability of people to live according to the covenant necessitated their replacement by the true Son, who would keep the covenant perfectly in their place. 
Today, we have reason to be grateful that we know how to order our lives successfully according to the God-given wisdom & understanding of His commands.  Unbelievers do not have this wisdom or understanding & it is showing up very clearly in our nation today. 
Our politicians & bureaucrats, our military & educational institutions,  are led by people with little sense of right or wrong, with little sense of wisdom or understanding.  Still, God does not leave us alone, to find our own way & stumble around in the dark.  The Lord draws personally near to us in His Word, in Baptism & in Holy Communion.  
The Law, though good & holy, is powerless to make us acceptable to God.  Instead, God accepts us, not because of what we do, but because of what Christ Jesus did for us!  Thus, St. Paul wrote, “Finally, be strong in the Lord & in the strength of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”[2]  Amen. 
 
 
Our sons & daughters we shall tell  & they again to theirs  that generations yet unborn  may teach them to their heirs.    O teach them with all diligence  the truths of God’s own Word,  to place in Him their confidence,  to fear & trust their Lord.      To learn that in our God alone  their hope securely stands,  that they may never doubt His love   but walk in His commands.  Amen.  LSB 867:3-5.


[1] The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, ed. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky & Geoffrey Wigoder. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 696.

[2] Ephesians 6:10-11 ESV

​14th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 16)                                                 LSB #’s 589, 577, 862
Text – Mark 7:13
 
Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.  And many such things you do.
 
VOIDING THE WORD OF GOD
 
 
Rules are made to be broken.  It’s well-known saying.    It drives some people crazy, & other people love it.   What’s ironic, if you think about it, is that ‘rules are made to be broken’ is actually just another rule.   Some people have more rules than others, but in reality, all sinful human beings live by some kind of rules. 
Each of us appreciates the value of our own rules & how we use them.   If other people agree with my rules, I’m fine with that, but I’m not interested in your rules unless they agree with mine.  In the end, the rules created by our sinful human nature are always about excluding those people who are unwilling or incapable of keeping them. 
For example, I do not appreciate it when people eat in my car.  The rule is meant to exclude those who end up making a mess.   In itself that desire to keep my car clean is neither good nor bad.  My sinful nature will always use it wrongly.   My saintly nature will use it in a God-pleasing way.  The question is, “Which nature is taking charge?” 
Do I use my rules only to satisfy myself?  Or, do I use my rules to bring glory to God?  Are my rules & regulations more important than relationships?  If your rule is something like, “No shooting guns in the house,” someone could really get hurt if it’s violated.  If your rule is, “No eating in the car,” the worst-case scenario is that someone will need to clean up the mess. 
In the Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus confronts a problem with the religious rulers of His day.  They treat their own rules as far more important than their relationships.  The shepherds were supposed to care for the sheep, not devour them.   Jesus was healing the sheep.  The small communities of Galilee were seeing the great kingdom work of God.  Whether a village or a town or the countryside, people were bringing their sick out into the marketplaces & Jesus was bringing God’s Kingdom into their lives.  People were seeing God’s gracious rule coming to Galilee in a very powerful way as Jesus brought healing & hope to His people. 
Instead of seeing the great kingdom work of God, the religious leaders were seeing something different.  Rather than look at Jesus & the people who are being healed, they looked at the disciples.  They saw these followers eat without washing their hands according to tradition.  In their eyes, that small infraction of tradition overshadowed the whole point of God’s kingdom. 
To help you grasp the magnitude of it, here’s a broad overview.  God creates the entire universe & everything in it in magnificent perfection.  Adam & Eve fall into sin & corrupt it all with evil.  The Holy Trinity sends Jesus to begin the new creation of the entire universe & of all who would believe it.  Meanwhile, the religious leaders are worried about washing hands. 
They ask Jesus to explain His disciples’ actions.  Jesus, however, does something else.  Instead of explaining the actions of His disciples, He explains the actions of the religious leaders.  He uses Scripture to awaken them to this fact – they loved their human traditions more than, not just God’s people, but more than God Himself.   In fact, they were voiding the Word of God. 
Their rules & regulations had become so important that they were blinded to the merciful work God was doing among His people.  Jesus further explains the actions of the religious leaders by reaching back into Israel’s history.  He quotes from the prophet Isaiah:
“…This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  (Mark 7:6-7 ESV)  Whether you’re in the 8th century BC, the 1st century AD, or the 21st century, the problem is perennial.  Whenever God’s people gather, they are in danger of putting their human traditions above people & thus above their Creator & Savior.  God does something different.  The Great I Am puts sinful human beings first.  He comes to cleanse not the hands   but the heart.   This leads to Jesus dying so that sinners could live again – without clinging to traditions for their standing before God.  
When Jesus was crucified, the religious leaders had Pilate remove His body before evening.  Why?   Because they wanted to keep the Sabbath.  (John 19:31)  In crucifying Jesus, they lost their God, & the people they were supposed to lead, but they kept their tradition!  Failure to love God’s will was concealed behind the pious appearance of outward conduct. 
Jesus, however, did not stay dead.  He rose & ascended into Heaven.  Now, He rules over all things.  He has borne the consequences for any uncleanness & suffered the punishment for any & every sin.   In Him, you are forgiven.  There is nothing now that can separate you from God’s love.   We are His, with or without our traditions. 
God’s Word teaches that if we love God, we will love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  It’s not a rule to obey just for the sake of obeying rules.  It’s a description of what happens once the Holy Spirit creates faith in your heart. 
To love human traditions more than our neighbor requires suffocating & killing the faith that the Holy Spirit created.  To love human traditions more than our neighbor is to void the very Word of God.  It’s to render that Word ineffective & useless.  It’s the very nature of unbelief.  It is hypocrisy to attempt outward obedience while the heart does not cling to God in faith. 
As we gather in worship today, we do so in the midst of traditions.  Whether our worship is historic   or contemporary, there are traditions that guide our interaction with one another & with God.  Because this is so, it is good for us to hear the lesson from Mark where Jesus calls us to experience the mercy & the love of our Creator & Savior.  
The heavenly Father’s grace is present for you, with or without traditions, because Christ
is present for you, with or without traditions.  The presence of traditions is not the problem.  Trouble arises in how we experience those traditions,   & in how we practice them.   Which is more important, rules or relationships?   Every one of us has broken every one of God’s rules.  That’s why Jesus came to die & rise from the dead, to restore our relationship with Him. 
1 John 3 informs us: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; & so we are.”  (3:1a ESV)   That is the new relationship our Lord has earned for us.  That is the relationship that gains us entrance into heaven.  Human traditions can be a useful teaching tool, but holding too tightly to them also carries a human cost. 
To God, a heart without traditions is better than traditions without heart.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had plenty of tradition but no heart.  In following Jesus, God’s people form patterns of life which honor Him & His work in the world.  Those patterns are not wrong.  Often, they are helpful & give shape to our lives.  
But there is something more important to God than these patterns, & that   is His people.  God would rather have people without the patterns of religion than the patterns of religion without people.  To God, a heart without traditions is better than traditions without a heart.  Traditions with no heart for God actually void the Word of God. 
Repentance is God’s gift to us to turn us back to Him that we might receive again a heart that loves Him & therefore loves our neighbor as ourself.  Our sins are forgiven.  Though our sins are as scarlet, our Lord declares us to be holy in His sight.   It’s that news which gives us comfort & courage, not how well we keep our traditions.  Amen. 
 
 
Almighty God, Your Word is cast like seed into the ground; now let the dew of heaven descend & righteous fruits abound.  Amen.  LSB 577:1. 

​13th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 15)                                                 LSB #’s 904, 850, 688
Text – Proverbs 9:6
 
Leave your simple ways & live; & walk in the way of insight. 
 
WALKING IN THE WAY OF INSIGHT
 
 
Computer viruses, worms & malware  are part of your lives,  whether you ever touch a computer or not.  For one, you’re hearing about them in the sermon.   It makes a fair introduction for today’s theme; “Walking in the Way of Insight.”   What seems like a harmless piece of mail that your computer received, can render useless   all the information within. 
Because of the insidious nature of viruses,  computer operators  need to be cautious.  There are people out there actively trying to tamper with or destroy your files.   If you aren’t careful  you can end up  very sorry.     But that’s no different  than our lives as Christians.  There are forces in this world  trying to tamper with or destroy  your soul. 
If we aren’t careful,  spiritually speaking,  we can also end up very sorry,  & in that case it will be for eternity.   The antagonist in our lives is similar to a computer virus.   Satan’s temptations  are subtle & attractive,  yet very damaging.  He’s invisible,   powerful,  & his sole purpose   is to damage or destroy any personal relationship with the true God.  
Computer hackers create viruses for the fun & the intrigue of it.   Satan sneaks into our lives for the lust of it.  There’s no fun or intrigue involved.  He longs to devour each & everyone of you  for eternity.   He desires to absorb you into his very essence.  Lucifer wants you for his slave  & he will enjoy  every moment  of watching your life go to hell.   
The devil takes pleasure  in misery & bitterness.   He enjoys the hatred & the anger boiling up within.   He revels in our feelings of uselessness & inferiority;   yet   he comes into our lives as a friend.    He comes as someone bringing hope  & tantalizing possibility.   On the Internet, in social media,  on the TV news, & from lips of human beings, messages come from Wisdom,  & messages come from Folly.  It helps if a person can distinguish between the two, then make an accurate decision as to which one to follow.   The wrong choice can have a disastrous impact,  not only on your smart phone or computer,  but on your soul.  A few verses after the OT reading, the book of Proverbs portrays Folly as someone calling out loudly:
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!  …Stolen water is sweet, & bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”  (9:16-17 ESV)   But the simple one does not know  that the guests of Folly  are in the depths of hell.   Proverbs calls to us: “Leave your simple ways...”  (9:6 ESV) 
Our Creator calls us to resist the devil & flee from him  because on our own  we cannot succeed in fighting him.  Only with Christ, & through what He did in our place,  can we resist the devil & defeat him.  Jesus calls us to put on the full armor of God, so that we can be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 
God’s Spirit longs to help us screen those messages from Wisdom & Folly.  Only with the help of our Creator can we choose Wisdom & reject Folly.    The Lord created & sustains the church on earth for those very reasons, for the purpose of teaching us, strengthening us & guiding us.  It’s through the church that Jesus has promised  to work. 
Adult Bible class, Sunday School & the confirmation program are  meant to educate you & help you choose life  rather than death.   God’s call to wisdom is the call  between life & death.  The wise person avoids destruction,  in this life & the next,  by making good choices in the light of devotion & commitment  to God  alone. 
People who try to make a go of it apart from the church  are the simple & the foolish ones who succumb to the siren call of Folly.  Satan is the master of disguising death  in order to make it appealing.  When drifting away from God, eventually a person’s sinful nature reasserts control  & chooses to die.    “Leave your simple ways, & live.  Walk in the way of insight.”  (Proverbs 9:6 ESV)   Those are God’s Word to us.  He gives them as a gift to those whom He loves,  not as a restriction on our right to choose.   The book of Proverbs was written with specific readers in mind,  namely, the children of God “those who are in the world,  but not  of  the world.” 
Walking in the way of insight  is equated with wisdom,  & Biblical wisdom points away from itself  to the only true God.   Public education has instilled a concept of wisdom that is unrelated to the Maker of heaven & earth.  It’s been forced to define wisdom  in secular terms. 
As a result,  in worldly ways of thinking,  to be wise  means to have professional knowledge,  a high degree of education  or financial success.    Biblical wisdom, however, is based upon one simple, overarching concept: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning  of wisdom.”  (Proverbs 9:10 ESV)    You cannot walk in the way of insight  if you do not fear the Lord. 
Now,  that fear  is not the same as terror.  Slave like fear is afraid that God will come, but child like fear  is afraid that He will leave.   A child like fear of the Lord refers to joyous,  loving,  willing reverence of the Lord that grows out of the news of salvation.  It is a fruit  of faith in what Christ did in your place,  & it’s worked by the Holy Spirit  without our help. 
A child-like fear of the Lord is a spontaneous attitude of a heart that has experienced the full & complete forgiveness of every sin,  fault  & weakness.   It’s found only in those who are converted, the regenerated children of God who obey His words in faith & love.  That fear  is the beginning of wisdom,  & knowledge of the Holy One  is insight.  (Proverbs 9:10 ESV) 
Likewise, the book of Job tells us, “Behold, the fear of the Lord,  that is wisdom;  & to turn away from evil  is understanding.”  (Job 28:28 ESV)   Wisdom in the Biblical sense is an openness to God’s Law & instruction, a willingness to be mortal,  & to allow God  to be wise.  It’s the willingness not to ask, “Why?” but to trust God  & follow the path in which He leads. 
The way of the Lord  is the righteous & blessed path.  The person walking in the way
of insight makes all the important choices of life  in light  of what Holy Scripture teaches.  That makes for choices that are far more integrated with God’s will  than we could ever make on our own.  St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  (5:17 ESV)   
Jesus summarized it clearly: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your strength & with all your mind, & your neighbor as yourself.”  (Luke 10:27 ESV)   That  is God’s will.  It is easily understood.    Living up to it – that’s another matter.   None of us can,  because our sinful nature rejects God’s will  at every turn. 
Our sinful nature rebels against obedience to the Word of God.  It does not want Jesus to be Lord.   As a result,  walking in the way of insight has to involve more than God’s instruction.  Understanding the will of the Lord includes more than knowledge  of what is right  & what is wrong.   The will of the Lord includes  the death of His Son to pay for our rebellion. 
The horrific price that Jesus paid on the cross erases the entire debt of everything that anyone  has ever done wrong.   God’s will  is that you would understand & respond  in joy.  No one can stop sinning, because sin is what sinners do,  & all of us are sinners.   Yet, “…though [our] sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...”  (Isaiah 1:18 ESV) 
God knows that we’ll continue to sin, & because of Jesus Christ, He promises that, in His sight,  He will make us clean again.   He’ll cast away our sins,  & God’s true children appreciate that release from the burden of guilt.  That appreciation is the response of faith,  & it does not stop there.  Now the battle is joined  between our sinful  & our saintly natures.  The war is on!  
Are you walking in the way of insight,  or the way of folly?    Will you live,  or will you die?   Once you’ve been made a child of God, you still have a choice in the matter.  You have the ability to walk away from God & to ignore Him.   Satan  & his angels are waiting for you   with open arms.  Christ has given you knowledge of your salvation.  Do you apply that knowledge to the choices you make?   Or,  do you still live in a slave like fear of a God  who will someday return?    If you are, look at the cross.  Look at the cross & see there the price  that your heavenly Father was willing to pay.  That price reconciled you   to Himself. 
A God that does not spare His own Son  will never reject you.  You don’t have to look out for number one, because someone much more powerful & all knowing is watching out for you.  Jesus stated that He is the Way, the Truth & the Life.  Therefore, walking in the way of insight  is nothing more complicated than walking  in Christ. 
Living your life in Christ,  trusting in Him,  following Him,   will allow your heavenly Father to protect you from any spiritual viruses  & from any harm to your soul.   He wants the opportunity to bless you,  but He will not cram it down your throat.  
Jesus promises, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”  (John 6:51ab ESV)   That eternal life began for you already at your baptism  & it continues even now,  this very day.  Amen. 
 
 
Lo, the hosts of evil round us  scorn the Christ,  assail His ways!   From the fears that long have bound us  free our hearts to faith & praise.  Grant us wisdom,  grant us courage  for the living of these days,  for the living of these days.      Cure Your children’s warring madness;   bend our pride to Your control;  shame our wanton, selfish gladness,  rich in things & poor in soul.  Grant us wisdom, grant us courage  lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal,  lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal.  Amen.  LSB 850:2-3. 

12th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 14)                          LSB #’s 424, 918, 642 (tune TLH 316)
Text – John 6:35
 
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, & whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE
 
 
After spending months continuously at sea, submarine sailors can tell the difference when you get back to walking on land.  There is a noticeably more solid feeling to it that is still difficult to put into words.  And submarines are a lot more stable than surface ships  that are frequently rocking from side to side,  or to & fro. 
Many people prefer to have the solid feel of land beneath their feet, which is why earthquakes strike terror into the hearts of people affected by them.  Earthquakes, in a terrifying way, remind us that all of our world is broken.  Though we may not see it, massive rock formations move over time, & in so doing, they encounter resistance.  
If those formations become locked, stress will build & build until it finally ruptures along a fault line.  Powerful forces we cannot easily see will fundamentally reshape the surface landscape from miles below ground.  And those fault lines are invisible to the human eye. 
What is true physically, is also true spiritually.  Our faith exists in a fractured & broken world with fault lines running everywhere.  Unseen forces suddenly erupt & drastically alter our lives.  The doctor orders a biopsy.   Differences in faith separate a mother from her daughter.  Your dad’s forgetting the day of the week, turns into him not knowing your name.  
As that “land beneath our feet” becomes less stable, we become disoriented.  We lose our bearings.  Things we long thought were stable & settled, can suddenly turn into one unending question after another.    How do we take the car keys from our parents?  What should we do to protect dad from all the scams that target older people?  Can I keep working while going through cancer treatment?  Who will watch over & care for the children?  Who will get the bills paid, & where will that money come from?   In our particular context, who will be chairman of the congregation?  Who will head up the teams that count the offerings?     Finally,   where is God hiding while all these fault lines are causing families & congregations to quake? 
In last week’s sermon, God was raining bread from heaven.  Today, we heard the Bread of Life teaching from Jesus.  The dialogue falls right along a fault line in His ministry.  Fractures in the spiritual landscape are growing & beginning to erupt. 
As chapter 6 opens, Jesus sees large crowds following Him.  Faced with their physical hunger, He miraculously feeds them.  After the miracle, they are full of zeal, but tremors reveal that the fault lines are beginning to slip.  They want to take Jesus by force & make Him a king, but it’s an earthly king they desire, to provide physical food & healing. 
By the end of chapter 6, the landscape is erupting.  Jesus sees large crowds of people leaving.  Faced with the disappointment & abandonment, He turns to His disciples.  Even there Jesus sees that one of them will eventually betray Him.  (6:70-71) 
In the span of one chapter, we move from thousands following Jesus   to thousands turning away; from a celebration of life in the wilderness (6:6), to a foreshadowing of His death in Jerusalem.  (6:70-71)    Between these major shifts in the landscape, Jesus proclaims He is the Bread of Life.  In that, we can hear the tensions that are tearing His ministry apart.  
It is along the fault lines, along those areas of resistance, where God breaks forth to transform our world.  The fault lines are God’s work in our lives – God’s rule over our lives, & God’s closeness to our lives.  Today, we consider Jesus as The Bread of Life. 
Whether you’ve thought of it or not, one of the blessings of Christianity is we do not have a “watchmaker” God.  Yahweh did not simply wind up the universe & walk away.   No!    God is intimately involved in the experiences & suffering of His creation.   He walked in the Garden with Adam & Eve & not a bird falls to the ground, but He is aware of it.  (Matthew 10:29)   God is at work orchestrating counter moves to our fault lines, our mistakes, failures & sins.   What is frustrating to our pride is that God’s work is often not what we expect it to be. 
Consider the Gospel reading.  Jesus has just fed 5000 men with five loaves of bread & two fish.  You’d think things would be great, but no.   Not every miracle leads to a happy ending.  God’s miracles run along the fault lines of life.  Those lines appear because our wants & desires commonly move against what God knows is best & chooses to do. 
Like two giant moving tectonic plates, the pressure builds until something ruptures.  What do the people want in John 6?  They want to make Jesus a king, but Jesus tells them, “You are seeking me... because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  (6:26)    God has given them bread & they want more.  They want a God who caters to all their wants & desires. 
The fault line is the tension between what we want God to do in our lives   & what God chooses to do.   Humanity has always been prone to this fault line & our culture teaches us to think of ourselves as consumers.  We expect others to fill our needs.  We cultivate this attitude in stores & restaurants, our government & schools, sometimes even in our churches. 
When we hear that Jesus does miracles, we begin to wonder what He can do for us.  Areas of our life need improving, like relationships, health, & finances.  We ask God for help, & if He does not help in the way we desire, we wonder whether we can have our needs met by someone else.  Maybe we’ll find success in education or sports or business. 
Responding to the fault lines, Jesus teaches the people, “I am the Bread of Life.”  (6:35)   Notice how Jesus turns their attention away from what He gives to who He is.   Jesus gives them bread, but He is also giving them Himself.   He is the true Bread – the Bread of Life.   Our relationship with Jesus is more important than sports or food or careers.  Regardless of the stuff we have, or do not have, when we have Jesus, we have everything we need.   He’s fully aware that He will not always meet our needs in the way we desire.  That does not mean He is no longer with us.  It just means His plans are different than ours.  He sees us with eternity in view.  
Today is only part of a much longer journey.   Jesus invites you & me to stop looking at what He gives & to live by looking to Him instead.   In Jesus’ ministry, many people walked away from Him.  The pattern has not changed since Adam & Eve fell into sin.   But those who turn back & follow Jesus see Him go to the cross, offering His life for their sin.  
The Bread of Life was broken.   Then the earth quaked & Jesus rose from the dead, revealing His rule over all things – even over death.   The Bread of Life was broken for all, but His payment benefits only those who trust Jesus & the good news that He freely offers.  Life in paradise is waiting if you simply receive the gift. 
While God will not always give you exactly what you want, He will give you what you need: His presence.  Jesus is with you in all things, so like the apostle Paul, you can say, “…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”  (Philippians 4:11)    Regardless of what you want God to do, He chooses to do what is best for you. 
Once the Lord takes your soul to heaven, your sinful nature will be gone & all the fault lines between you & God will be eliminated.  There will be no more earthquakes in your relationships or in your health.  For eternity you will exist on solid ground, resting in the perfect love of the heavenly Father.  Amen. 
 
Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.   I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand.   Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.     When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; death of death & hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.   Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to Thee; I will ever give to Thee.  Amen.  LSB 918:1, 3.