​4th Sunday in Lent – C                                                                                    LSB #’s 435, 560, 611
Text – Luke 15:14
 
And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, & he began to be in need. 
 
BEING IN NEED
 
 
Do you remember back to your days of being in elementary school?  There would have been a time or two  when one of the students tried to play around with cutting in line.   Do you remember the disgust  with the unfairness of it?  “I have been patiently waiting in line; what gives you the right  to deem yourself better than me?” 
Our distaste for those who cut in line remains unchanged as we grow up.    Whether someone cuts to the front of the lunch line or the airport security check in,  we find ourselves dealing with the feeling  of being annoyed.  Our annoyance is not just about  being orderly & following the rules.  Instead, we rue the flouting of justice & fairness.  
And that is the powerful dynamic at play  as Jesus deals with the grumbling religious types of His day.  People who are deeply involved in the church are not immune from the temptations of Satan.  One of the devil’s tricks involves  stoking our instinctive belief  that salvation is about fairness. 
For example, the Pharisees had been patiently waiting in line for Messiah to bring God’s kingdom to earth.  Meanwhile, they took it upon themselves to determine who  would be in the kingdom  & who would not.  Two main categories of people had been ruled out – tax collectors & sinners.  Tax collectors were obviously rejected  since they were traitors to their nation. 
The category of sinners was not defined as you might guess.   The prevailing theory of the day was that anyone who was poor,  disabled,  lame or blind was in that condition  as direct punishment from God because they were sinning in some continuous way.   It was their misfortune that barred them from the kingdom of God.  The Jewish leaders did not consider this conclusion  to be up for debate.  Tax collectors & sinners cutting in line,  or even attempting to enter God’s kingdom, would not be fair  because they did not live pious lives.  To associate with them  brought their uncleanness upon you,  & Jesus  was associating with them. 
When chapter 14 ended, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  (14:35b ESV)   Opening chapter 15, Luke set the scene: “Now the tax collectors & sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus].  And the Pharisees & the scribes grumbled,  saying, ‘This man receives sinners & eats with them.’  So [Jesus] told them this parable.”  (15:1-3 ESV) 
It may sound like Jesus is lining up the Pharisees to get some of their own medicine,  & He is, but this parable addresses both sides of His audience.  The Son of God will speak words to encourage the tax collectors & sinners who’ve been treated as outcasts.  At the same time,  Jesus will challenge the Pharisees to see what extravagant love  God the Father has for His children. 
As we are born here on earth  we don’t respond well to God’s blessing.   As St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, “…you were dead in your transgressions & sins.”  (2:1 NIV)  Dead people do not respond well to blessings,  & the younger son in the parable was certainly dead.  No godly son would even consider asking his father for the inheritance. 
That this younger son was truly dead is announced by the father at the end of the parable: “It was fitting to celebrate & be glad, for this your brother was dead,  & is alive…”  (15:32 ESV)  Asking for the inheritance was saying he’d rather have his father’s money  than his father.   This younger son was not responding well to either blessing – money  or father. 
He finally begins to respond appropriately once all  of his blessings run out.  He’d left behind his loving father,  & all the community to which he belonged,  when he took that journey to a far country.  Now, “…when he had spent everything,  a severe famine arose in that country, & he began to be in need.”  (Luke 15:14 ESV)   That’s when the son finally begins to think,   & Jesus highlights the severe state of his poverty by stating that the son hires himself out to feed pigs.  There is nothing lower that a Jewish man could do.   To Jesus’ original audience,  the son was now outside the covenant of God,  just like they believed the tax collectors & sinners were. 
At this point  the son comes to a crucial realization: “…How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread,  but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise & go to my father, & I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven & before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’  (Luke 15:17-19 ESV) 
The son had to reach the absolute end of all his blessings  before he began   even to recognize that he had them, let alone  to appreciate them.  At the very least, the son is physically returning to the father who loved him & showered those blessings upon him:
“But while he was still a long way off,  his father saw him & felt compassion, & ran & embraced him & kissed him.”  (Luke 15:20b ESV)   Note, that the father doesn’t wait to hear any sort of repentant speech from his son.  The moment he sees him,  he runs out to greet him.  That alone would have made the Pharisees & scribes livid. 
To their chagrin, the father would not only eat with this tax collector & sinner,  the father would make him the guest of honor  at the impromptu homecoming celebration.  Jesus then uses the older son to reflect the attitude of the Pharisees, as they see the tax collectors & sinners cutting in line ahead of them:
“Look, these many years I have served you, & I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!”  (Luke 15:29-30 ESV)   The Pharisees were refusing to celebrate with Jesus as the tax collectors & sinners drew near to hear the words of Jesus.  Yet, as reprehensible as his attitude is, the parable does not conclude with judgment upon the older son  who represents the Pharisees.  Luke leaves the resolution open ended that we might recognize ourselves in the parable. 
How am I like the younger son who wishes his father dead,  & how am I like the older son who wishes his brother dead?  The main point of the parable isn’t about either son.  It’s about the father: “And [Jesus] said, “There was a man who had two sons.”  (Luke 15:11 ESV)    The father represents Yahweh Himself who always welcomes us home  whenever we return. 
The point of the parable is that God in heaven loves you fiercely,  vulnerably,  foolishly, courageously & unendingly.   Whether you or I have wasted opportunity after opportunity  or have been quietly working  faithfully & wondering  if we’ll ever be noticed, God loves us.   As Isaiah wrote, “…the Lord God …has become [your] salvation.”  (12:2 ESV) 
Whether you have welcomed others who are down & out  or have judged others for not measuring up, God loves you!  Whether you’re in the church reluctantly or with joy,   whether you’ve had a lifelong relationship with God,  have just come to know Him,  or aren’t even sure God really exists,  yet  our Father in heaven loves you, truly, madly, & deeply. 
God’s salvation is never about fairness,   & that is a good thing.  Amen.
 
 
 
 
Thou knowest all my griefs & fears,  Thy grace abused,  my misspent years;  yet now to Thee  with contrite tears,  Christ crucified,  I come.     Wash me & take away each stain;  let nothing of my sin remain.   For cleansing,  though it be through pain,  Christ crucified,  I come.    And then for work  to do for Thee,  which shall so sweet a service be  that angels well might envy me,  Christ crucified,  I come.  Amen.  LSB 560:2-4. 

​Midweek 4 – 2025                                                                                         LSB #’s 839, 419, 615
Text – Jonah 3:8
 
…let man & beast be covered with sackcloth, & let them call out mightily to God.  Let everyone turn from his evil way & from the violence that is in his hands.
 
REPENTANCE
 
 
The people of Nineveh were vicious & violent, not the sort of people you’d think would be receptive to repentance.  But Jonah delivered the Lord’s message to them: “Yet forty days, & Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  (3:4 ESV)   It worked brilliantly.  You could not ask for a more thorough-going repentance than that of Nineveh.  
The people repented even before the king decreed it, & by the end, everyone in the city, from the king all the way down to the animals, was wearing sackcloth & sitting in ashes.  It is a model of repentance in Holy Scripture.  Tonight, we consider it as a model for our repentance. 
They did much better than Adam.  After the 1st two human beings ate of the forbidden fruit, God called to Adam, “Where are you?”   He replied, “…I was afraid, because I was naked, & I hid myself.”  (Genesis 3:9–10 ESV)  
When confronted by God’s call to repentance in this season of Lent, will we find the courage to be honest about who we are & sit in ashes like Nineveh, or will we be afraid & hide like Adam? 
HOW DO WE HIDE   
St. John wrote, “Everyone who does wicked things hates the light & does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”  (3:20)   It’s our natural tendency as well.  Who wants to have their sins made public?  Repentance means exposing your deeds to your own conscience & to God; perhaps to a pastor or fellow Christian – if it’s a sin that particularly bothers you.  
That is intimidating, even though we know Jesus forgives our sin.  We naturally react like
Adam: I was afraid, so I hid.  One way of hiding is to confess our socially acceptable sins.  Yes, I get angry with family members, or sometimes I’m lazy, or sometimes I don’t obey my parents.   By confessing those sins, we figure we’ve done our duty.  We’ve met the requirement, so to speak, & come up with something to confess.  
It can be a smoke screen so we don’t have to confess the deeper rage or lust or unbelief we’d be ashamed of, if others found out?   The sins doing the greatest damage to our relationships with God & our neighbors are the ones we most try to hide. 
Not that superficial repentance is false.  It’s probably true that Adam was afraid because he was naked.  But by confessing that, he was hoping he would not have to confess the real issue: he ate the fruit in direct disobedience of God’s command.   “I was afraid, so I hid.”  
Another way to hide is by moving our thoughts along quickly to keep our attention off of ourselves: “Yes, I’m a sinner, but aren’t we all?  Besides, I’ll try really hard next time.”  My track record may show I’m not good at amending my sinful ways, but if I promise to do better, I can get past this uncomfortable part of the service & move on to something less threatening. 
HOW WE CAN STOP HIDING
Hiding was not what the Ninevites did.  They sat in ashes & spent time contemplating their sin – another way of saying that they spent time being honest about who they were.  What does it mean to sit in ashes?  
Ashes remind us of the curse that God pronounced on Adam & Eve after the fall: “Dust you are & to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)  Ashes remind us that our sins have catastrophic consequences.  This is not just a matter of violating arbitrary rules.  God’s law determines the structure of the universe.  To sin against God’s law is to sin against the way we are designed.  
To sin is not only rebellion against God.  It is to fall short of what we could be.  It is
destructive, like knocking out the walls of your house until you’re sitting in a pile of rubble.  To sin is to settle for living in a hell of our own making rather than in the boundaries that God established where life can flourish.
You may think we need to get rid of those parts of us that are sinful so we can fit into the demands of God’s law.  With that thinking, God’s law is like Cinderella’s slipper.  You can only be the princess if you can fit into the shoe.  In the Grimm’s Fairy Tale version, Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters wanted to be the princess, so they cut off their toes trying to fit into the shoe.  
Because of our sinful nature, we are the wicked stepsisters of Cinderella.  How are we ever going to fit into the shoe?  Our Creator knows that is impossible.  Honest repentance confesses that we can never fit ourselves into God’s Law.  Honest repentance recognizes our sin, mourns over it, & sits with it a while.  Honest repentance stops hiding from Yahweh. 
In fact, this evening I ask you not to promise to do better.  It doesn’t even matter whether you think you can.  We’ll take that question up next week.  For tonight, just focus on being who you actually are before God.  He wants to rescue you.   Recognize too that when we repent, we are not thinking only about the things we feel ashamed of.  
Isaiah says, “All our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.”  (64:6)  This is reflected in Jonah by the fact that the entire city repented from the king down to the animals, from the highest to the lowest.  Not just the corrupt parts of us need repentance, but our highest faculties: our reason & intelligence, our love, our self-sacrifice – none of it is pure.   It is all shot through with sin. 
HOW DOES GOD SEE US
Repentance is not only feeling sorry for sin.    It is also faith in God’s promise of forgiveness.  Yet even there, we feel the instinct to hide.  We’ve been told that when God looks at us, He sees only Christ.  There is certainly truth in that, but it doesn’t go far enough.   After all, what is our ultimate hope?  On the Last Day, we want to hear the words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  (Matthew 25:34 ESV)  So, Christ ushers us into the kingdom, & then what?  We hide behind Him forever?  That sounds more like Adam.  “I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.”  
What if, at some point in eternity, God were to peek around Jesus & figure out who we really are?  Would He say, “How’d you get in here?”  No!  Our faith is in the promise that Christ has reconciled us with God.  That means God says:
“I know exactly who you are, & with full knowledge of that, I welcome you into my kingdom.  I know your shame, & with full knowledge of that, I seat you in a place of honor.”  Your honored welcome into God’s kingdom has nothing to do with how well you fit into God’s law, nor a sincere promise to be better, nor your ability to do better.  
Your welcome into heaven is determined only by the work of Christ, whose death has redeemed you from every aspect of yourself that would destroy you.  The issue of turning from sin & doing better is important.  We’ll take up that question next week.  But your success or failure at that can never add to, or subtract from, what Christ has done. 
Only Satan’s corruption of our heart, mind & soul causes us to hide from our Lord instead of run to Him.  The next time you’re tempted to hide, think of Nineveh & trust in the almighty God’s love for you.  He will restore your heart, mind & soul.  Amen. 
 
 
Savior, when in dust to Thee  low we bow the adoring knee;  when, repentant, to the skies  scarce we lift our weeping eyes;  O, by all Thy pains & woe  suffered once for us below,  bending from Thy throne on high,  hear our penitential cry!    By Thy deep expiring groan,  by the sad sepulchral stone,   by the vault whose dark abode  held in vain the rising God,   O,  from earth to heaven restored,  mighty,  reascended Lord,   bending from Thy throne on high,  hear our penitential cry!  Amen.  LSB 419:1, 4. 

​3rd Sunday in Lent – C                                                                      LSB #’s 609:1-3; 579, 609:4-7
Text – Ezekiel 33:20b
 
O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.
 
JUDGMENT ACCORDING TO YOU
 
 
Years ago,  it was well-known among college students  that certain courses were meant to “weed-out” the average  scholar.  They were made to be difficult to pass  & even more difficult to earn a top grade.  Tests had to be graded on a curve  so that some students would survive.  The courses were that tough,  & for obvious reasons, they were the object of much criticism. 
Students complained that they were impossible.  The administration warned departments against having them,  because they tended to hamper  enrollment.   Nonetheless, the courses were useful.  They produced humility in students who need to be humbled.  They crushed dreams that were unrealistic or misguided.  
Something like that is going on in Jerusalem around 600 B.C.   The prophet Ezekiel had been sent by Yahweh to teach a “weed-out” course  to the nation of Judah.  For many years those people had struggled with a lack of humility & a profusion of arrogance.  Against Ezekiel’s better advice  they were willfully violating the 1st commandment on a routine basis. 
“You shall have no other gods” had become merely an old-fashioned suggestion  to the people whom Yahweh had rescued from slavery in Egypt.   After years of decline, due to ignoring the true God,  & then years of suffering under His discipline,  many of the people were saying, “The way of the Lord is not just.”  (Ezekiel 33:17 ESV)   They were rejecting His discipline. 
That follows right in line with their rejection of Yahweh as the only true God, but another portion of the nation did accept His discipline.  Their problem was despair.  They no longer believed in Yahweh’s love for them & had given up all hope.  As they said, “Surely our transgressions & our sins are upon us, & we rot away because of them.  How then can we live?”  (Ezekiel 33:10 ESV)  What reason is there to trust in God  if you’re going to end up dead  anyway?   Those who rejected God’s discipline & those who despaired, neither group was putting faith in their Creator.  This in spite of His statement in V. 11:
“As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,  but that the wicked turn from his way & live;  turn back,  turn back from your evil ways,  for why will you die, O house of Israel?”  (Ezekiel 33:11 ESV)   To turn back from sin is repentance.  A repentant heart trusts in God,  & that brings life instead of death. 
God’s commandments are the way of life for those who are already saved.  They are not a way of salvation  for those who are lost.  People who overlook their sin & charge God with injustice  are merely demonstrating that they are already  dead.  Only the true God can bring them back to life.  If you reject the Lord’s offer of life  you bring judgment upon yourself. 
 That’s what God means when He says, “…why will you die, O house of Israel?”  (Ezekiel 33:11 ESV)   Yahweh is offering them life.  He’s pleading with them to accept His gift,  & He pleads with you & me  as well, “…why will you die, O house of St. Matthew Lutheran?” 
You see,  even if we are doing good,  especially  if we are doing good,  the Devil will be stalking us,  always looking to take us down.   And the life that Christ gives to you is not something you can store up  for a rainy day.   We need a new supply of life from our Savior every single day.  That’s what the manna in the wilderness illustrated so well: 
“This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat.  You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’  And the people of Israel did so.  They gathered, some more, some less.  But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over,  & whoever gathered little had no lack…  And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.’  But they did not listen to Moses.  Some left part of it till the morning, & it bred worms & stank.”  (Exodus 16:16-20 ESV) 
 
If the people tried to gather more than they could eat in a meal, to store it up & save it for
the next day,  then it got wormy & stank.  Instead, except for the Sabbath, they needed to gather more manna  each morning.  They needed a new supply every day.   You & I need to turn back to our Lord & Savior each day.  If we don’t, the fruit of our labors will stink.  We cannot store up the life God gives to us  & then take a day off  from turning back to Him. 
It is our Lord’s desire that we do good  out of love for Him,  but He understands all too well  that our sinful nature will never love Him.  Jesus recognizes that we need to relate to Him as our Lord  as well as our Savior.  All three readings for this Sunday in Lent  are meant to put fear into our hearts,  that we shy away from our evil ways  & do good instead. 
In the Gospel lesson, people were being tempted to judge others as inferior.  So Jesus said, “…those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell  & killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?   No, I tell you; but unless you repent,  you will all  likewise  perish.”  (Luke 13:4-5 ESV) 
It’s not a warm & fuzzy thing for Jesus to say,  but He’s highlighting that there should be an aspect of fear when we think of Him as Savior.   It’s not fear because Jesus is cruel.  There should be an aspect of fear  because we are evil  while Jesus is holy & righteous & almighty.  On Judgment Day, anything evil that is not covered by the blood of Jesus  will be sent to hell. 
On the far  other hand,  anything that is covered by the blood of Jesus  will be holy & righteous  just as He is now.   Anything covered by the blood of Jesus  will be in paradise,  & will be there for how long?    Heaven  will never get boring  &  it will never end.   Yes, a huge aspect of love  is involved in thinking of Jesus as Savior,  but He is our almighty Lord as well. 
This text from Ezekiel is emphasizing repentance & God gives repentance to His children as a gift.  Ezekiel is strongly encouraging us to use that gift.  It is the way of life.  The people of Judah despair because they realize they have rejected that path.  Any other “way” certainly leads to death.  There are not many paths to heaven.  There is one.  That way is the grace & mercy of Jesus Christ, Son of God.  It is easy for us to ignore, especially because of our comfortable lives, but the Day of Judgment is on its way.   Not knowing when that Day will arrive  also adds to our complacency.   As our Creator,  Lord  & Savior,  Jesus is concerned  even if we are not! 
As a nation, we have not experienced the crush of God’s judgment on sin  the way that Judah did.  As a result, many people sitting in the pews & many preachers, will frown upon calls to repentance & “threats” of punishment from God; they are too “unfriendly” & not “uplifting.”  What will the visitors think?   They may never come back again. 
Lent itself is optional in many circles today.   A danger we face regularly – just as did Judah in exile – is to minimize or rationalize our sin,   to think too highly of our “righteous deeds,”  & to dismiss the reality of God’s judgment.   Nevertheless, His basis of judgment is unavoidable: “…I will judge each of you according to his ways.”  (Ezekiel 3:20b ESV) 
The following verse is the purpose of any warning & judgment = “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way & live; turn back,  turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”  (Ezekiel 33:11 ESV)   The words of Ezekiel, while sharp & uncompromising, are also words of urgent joy. 
We can live & thrive,   forever,  if we accept the Holy Spirit’s gift of turning back to our Creator & Savior  each & every day.   In Jesus,  there is life everlasting.  He has no desire to “weed-out” anyone.  Why will you die, O house of St. Matthew Lutheran?  Amen. 
 
The Law of God is good & wise  & sets His will before our eyes,   shows us the way of righteousness,  & dooms to death when we transgress.    It’s light of holiness imparts  the knowledge of our sinful hearts  that we may see our lost estate  & turn from sin before too late.    But those who scornfully disdain  God’s Law shall then in sin remain;  its terror in their ear resounds  & keeps their wickedness in bounds.    To Jesus we for refuge flee,  Who from the curse has set us free,  & humbly worship at His throne,  saved by His grace through faith alone.  Amen.  LSB 579:1-2, 4, 6. 

Midweek 3 – 2025                                                                                         LSB #’s 584, 587, 702
Text – Genesis 22:10
 
Then Abraham reached out his hand & took the knife to slaughter his son.
 
FAITH
 
 
God tells Abraham to kill his only son, & he is willing to go through with it.  The Bible highlights this as a picture of faith.    If that   is what faith is,   do you really want it? 
We may try to console ourselves with the thought that everything turned out all right in the end.  God did not make Abraham go through with it.  He provided a ram for the sacrifice instead.  That leads us forward in time to the sacrifice of Christ, where God really did offer up His only Son.  But how could God ask this of Abraham in the first place?  
The question becomes more pointed when you realize that this is not just any example of faith in the Bible, it is The example of faith in the Bible.  When Paul provides the definitive example of justification in Romans 4, he turns to God’s interaction with Abraham. 
God promises Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, & “Abraham believed God, & it was counted to him as righteousness.”  (4:3 ESV, citing Genesis 15:6)  Abraham believed God’s promise, & God considered Abraham’s faith to be righteousness.  
Following St. Paul, Lutherans call this “justification,” & we hold that we are justified by faith alone.  The fact that Abraham actually did offer his son is then cited as proof of his faith by James & Hebrews.  We cannot get around this text.  This incident is at the very heart of the Lutheran understanding of salvation. 
Making matters worse, God is not just asking Abraham to kill his son, but to kill the one through whom all nations would be blessed & through whom his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  The order to sacrifice Isaac is not only a catastrophic event in Abraham’s family.  It has the potential to be a catastrophic event for the whole world.  God’s test does not only contradict Abraham’s natural affection for his son.  It contradicts God’s own promise!  Jesus was going to be born from Isaac’s line, so God is telling Abraham to wipe out all hope for humanity.  It’s as if God had commanded Mary to smother Jesus in his crib.  #379:1 
In the face of all this, how does Abraham react?  What does he feel?  The astonishing thing about the text is that it doesn’t tell us.  Abraham is silent.  He does not tell Sarah what he’s planning.  He does not tell Isaac what he is about to do.  He doesn’t tell the two servants.  He says nothing at all to anyone about what God has commanded.  
How does he feel about destroying his family, destroying his marriage, destroying the one hope for the human race?  He doesn’t say.   Perhaps Abraham hates God for putting him through this.  Why would God mock him by giving him a promise & then taking it away in this manner?  Perhaps what he wanted to do was tell God, No!  You can’t have my son.  Take me instead!  
Whatever bitterness may have been roiling in Abraham’s heart did not win the day.  God’s promise turned out to be stronger than any bitterness. 
Perhaps Abraham was filled with resignation. Perhaps he thought he’d go through with it & then return to Sarah a broken man.  At the age of 100, he had still wanted to be a father, but no more.  Once he’s done this, he’ll resign himself to the fact that life has passed him by.  He will give up hope.   But the promise turned out to be stronger than any despair. 
Perhaps he was filled with anxiety.  What will happen to him afterward?  Will he be branded a murderer & expelled from human community?  How could his wife Sarah live with him after he does something like this?  How could he live with himself?  But the promise turned out to be stronger than the guilt & the fear.[1] 
No matter what painful emotions he experienced, whether these, or others we can’t
Imagine, the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham was willing to go through with it because “he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.”  (Hebrews 11:19 ESV)   God promised numerous descendants through Isaac, & Abraham believed that promise, even though God Himself seemed to be taking it away.  #379:1 
God’s promise was stronger than any bitterness.  God’s promise was stronger than any resignation.  God’s promise was stronger than any anxiety.  And God makes that promise to us in various forms.  The promise in baptism is, “You are my child.  I am well pleased   with you.”  
Another promise is found in the Lord’s Supper, “This is my blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.”  More generally, God’s message to us in the gospel is, “I am your God, & you are my people.  Your sins will not break that relationship or interfere with it in the future.” 
But sometimes tragic events collide head on with these promises.  One father, whose little daughter was hospitalized with a serious illness, said to the pastor, “I don’t understand why God would let this happen to a child.”  The pastor replied, “I don’t know either.”   How are we to respond when we feel that God has done us wrong? 
One approach is be to put God in timeout.  You won’t trust Him until He shows Himself worthy of your trust.  If the little girl gets better, maybe the father will trust God again.  If she dies, he’ll never be able to walk through the door of the church again.  The psalms are filled with complaints against God for seeming to fail in keeping His promises.  
Psalm 13: “How long, O LORD?   Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I take counsel in my soul & have sorrow in my heart all the day?”  (13:1–2 ESV)    Psalm 88 ends with the words, “Darkness is my closest friend.”  (88:18 NIV) 
These Psalms model for us a way to voice our complaint.  What is dangerous is waiting until you figure it all out before you move forward in faith.  Taking that approach will paralyze you.  Abraham did not wait until he could reconcile God’s test with God’s promise.  Hebrews says Abraham considered that God could raise him from the dead.  (Hebrews 11:19)    Abraham didn’t know how God’s promise could still be true, but he ascribed to God the power to keep His promise anyway.   Better than putting God in timeout is to live your faith & see how it goes. 
A Lutheran school teacher went through a divorce & was struggling with the question of whether she still believed in God or not.  She felt God had let her down & could not figure out where she was with her faith.  But when she taught the faith to her students,  she noticed that it still came out of her mouth with conviction,  even though she might have doubts later at home. 
Luther’s advice in a case like this is to go ahead & experience the doubt (you can’t help it anyway), but do not jump to conclusions.  He said that doubts are like birds.  You can’t stop the birds from landing on your head, but you can stop them from nesting in your hair.[2]  
It wasn’t so much a question of the teacher intellectually figuring out whether she still had faith in Jesus.  She just had to watch herself over time & perceive who she really was.  She was still a child of God.  We act out faith, even when we cannot articulate it.  
In the end, the promises of God are what we have.  Either they are enough for you or they aren’t.  But if they are enough, then not even God Himself can shake them.  God could not shake the faith of Abraham, & for that we are thankful, because you & I are among his countless descendants.  Amen. 
 
 
I know my faith is founded on Jesus Christ, my God & Lord; & this my faith confessing, unmoved I stand on His sure Word.   Our reason cannot fathom the truth of God profound; who trusts in human wisdom relies on shifting ground.   God’s Word is all sufficient, it makes divinely sure; & trusting in its wisdom, my faith shall rest secure.  Amen.  LSB 587:1.


[1] These speculations about Abraham’s reactions are inspired by Kierkegaard, Fear & Trembling (Princeton University Press, 1954), 26–37.

[2] Luther, Lectures on Genesis, LW 6 (St Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1969), 133.

​2nd Sunday in Lent – C                                                                                  LSB #’s 424, 586, 673
Text – Jeremiah 26:11
 
Then the priests & the prophets said to the officials & to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.” 
 
PROPHESYING AGAINST THIS CITY
 
 
If you have a driver’s license,  & a car,  you’ve probably run into this situation.   You’re cruising down the road & suddenly you spot a police car  lying in wait,  in case the officer needs to nab someone who’s flying over the speed limit.   What  is your natural reaction   upon seeing the car?  Is it not  slowing down?   You want to avoid the hassle  & the cost  of being pulled over. 
Ultimately,  laws against speeding are not meant to hassle us,  but to encourage safe driving.   That is a blessing to everyone.   Obviously,  there are differing opinions on what constitutes safe driving.   That’s why traffic court exists.     
If we know how to react  at the sight of a police car,  how much more  should we know  how to react  when we see death  lying in wait?      Have you thought about that?    After all,  that’s what the OT reading  is trying to point out – death is lying in wait  for the people of God.   Jeremiah  is simply trying to encourage  safe living.  
When it comes to speeding tickets,   reflexively   we slow down to avoid the hassle.  When it comes to death lying in wait,  we don’t react in the same logical way.   Instead, we suffer from a knee jerk reaction  against repentance.  From God’s perspective,  our refusal to repent is like seeing the police car  & speeding up instead of slowing down. 
Our knee jerk reaction against repentance  just adds sin  upon sin.   And that’s what Jeremiah was facing as he called the leaders & the people of Jerusalem to repentance.   How did you react to the reading from Jeremiah?   Maybe you can’t recall  ever hearing about the city of Shiloh,  Jeremiah’s reference to which  so upset the prophets,  priests & people  that they demand he be killed.   Are you struggling to understand  why it’s relevant to your life?   The Holy Spirit guided Timothy to give us instruction in that regard: “All Scripture is breathed out by God & profitable for teaching,  for reproof,  for correction,  & for training in righteousness,  that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”  (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV) 
Since God’s Word tells us that it is relevant to people of God, that they may be complete, listen again to the sermon text: “Then the priests & the prophets said to the officials & to all the people, ‘This man deserves the sentence of death,  because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.’”  (Jeremiah 26:11 ESV) 
What the prophets,  priests & people were hearing   as rejection & destruction  was actually given by God as an invitation  to life & hope!  It’s similar to speed limits.  They are put in place as an invitation to drive safely & preserve life,  but we often look at them as  an infringement upon our rights.  We make a choice to regard speed limits  as good   or as evil. 
Jeremiah was warning the people of the punishment that was coming  for their refusal to repent & turn from their evil ways.   Death was lying in wait for them & they looked at Jeremiah’s prophesy as rejection & destruction.  However, they also could have heard his warning  as an invitation to turn back to God in order to have their life renewed. 
We know what happened.  Death was lying in wait, & the people refused to slow down.  They chose to add sin upon sin.  They chose death over life,  & in 586 B.C., Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian army.  God will not allow evil & death to remain forever.  He will act to cleanse His people from sin, but that cleansing entails the death of our sinful nature. 
If that which is evil is removed by repentance,  then God does not need to remove it  with His purifying judgment.  When the Holy Spirit calls us to faith in Jesus, He gives us the means to rid ourselves of sin.  It’s the gift of a repentant heart.  It’s a heart that turns back to God when it realizes  it has chosen death over life.  We practice this on Sunday mornings when we confess our sins & receive God’s forgiveness.  You probably don’t think of it in these terms,  but during confession & absolution,  you are actually rejecting the death that comes with sin  & you are accepting the life that our Father in heaven is renewing  within you. 
It may sound like splitting hairs, but instead of dying with sin,  in Baptism we die to sin, we die to our old sinful nature & we put on the new  saintly nature.  We are living out our baptism every time we do confession & absolution.  St. Paul wrote about that in Romans 6:
“We were buried therefore with [Christ] by baptism into death,  in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,  we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”  (6:4-5 ESV) 
When we see death lying in wait for us,  it is always wise to heed the Holy Spirit’s warning.   That’s what the OT reading is about, & it is very relevant to our lives even 2600 years later.   As we think of the people who were suffering the pain of loss in Jeremiah’s day,  it is wise to “slow down” & consider our own sinfulness,  & our own desperate need for salvation. 
When we realize these things, we should not delay repentance, any more than we should blow past the highway patrol at ninety miles an hour  & hope the officer doesn’t notice.  It’s not healthy to abuse God’s grace & try His patience.  Rather, we call out to God in confession that we might receive the gift of forgiveness, & true life, every moment  of every day.  
The season of Lent is meant to be a reminder of our need for that life,  a reminder of the need to turn away from the death of our sin.  God desires that everyone be saved & He alone knows the real truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth.  Jesus is the Truth,  & He is the Way to real Life.  What God means as an invitation to that life, however, can be twisted by our sinful nature & then heard as rejection & destruction.  Crass sin needs repentance, but so does casual sin, before we end up in crass sin.  Not that any one sin is worse than another.  All are equal in that they are against the same holy Creator.  But some sins do have more serious earthly effects. 
Paul, in the reading from Philippians, & Jeremiah of the OT reading, were sent among people who had wandered into the danger of crass sin.  These hardened people had rejected & attacked the Word & the messenger.  The Word was sent to draw them into refuge.  Their refusal to hear the Word sent them even further from the safety of Christ’s loving redemption. 
Jeremiah & Jesus offered life.  Many in their audience chose death.  Again & again, Jeremiah tried in vain to move the people back to God & away from the priests who led them astray & into great danger.  These prophets & priests would rather sell their souls, & the souls of their people, than give up what they’d worked so hard to achieve – power & status. 
In order to save, God cannot work to appease the lost.  Instead, He must work to kill their sinful nature.  Yet, even when we kill His Son,  the Father resurrects Him  for us!  It’s in that Son that we have life.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen. 
 
 
 
The sower sows;  his reckless love  scatters abroad the goodly seed,  intent alone  that all may have  the wholesome loaves that all men need.    Preach you the Word & plant it home  & never faint;  the Harvest Lord  who gave the sower seed to sow  will watch & tend His planted Word.  Amen.  LSB 586:3, 6.