Category: Catechesis

by Rev. Matthew Harrison

My dad loved to go to the early service—always the early service, and the earlier the better. He would have loved to have Easter sunrise service every Sunday of the year! But it was a different story for my brother and me. Church? Forget it. I’d rather sleep in since my brother and I liked to stay up as late as we possibly could on Saturday night.

Dad had the habit of saying the most un-cool things at 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning: “Come on boys! Up and at ‘em!” Then, if we lay in the sack too long, he’d go grab a towel or wash cloth, soak it in the coldest water possible, and come and throw it on any exposed skin (usually a face, sometimes a back).

Then the routine was simple for me. Get dressed. Wolf down any available food. Hassle my little sister until she lodged a formal complaint with my parents—you know, normal stuff.

I thank God now for my dad’s dogged persistence and his no-questions-asked, we’re-going-to-church-buddy-so-change-your-attitude attitude. My parents gave me something very important. They taught me that Christians go to church, but it wasn’t until many years later that I managed to figure out just why we go to church!

Why go to church? To learn about God. To give our time, talent and treasure back to God. To show God how we care about him. To worship God. Great answers, but they all miss the main point—Jesus.

I once read a sermon by Martin Luther, which forever changed how I look at going to church. Luther said to think about going to church with an empty sack. What’s the first thing you do in church? You confess,“I, a poor miserable sinner…”How we love to confess,“Oh Almighty God, my brother, my dad or mom, is a poor miserable sinner,” or “I thank Thee, Lord, I’m not like other men” (Luke 17). But here, finally, there are no more excuses. The problem is ME. This is simply saying,“Dear God, I’ve got an empty sack.”

Then what happens? The pastor says, “In the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive you.” It’s as good as Jesus saying it himself (John 20)! And at just that moment, God throws a heap of grace, mercy, and peace into your empty sack! You do nothing; you only receive, mouth hanging open, looking down into your bag, amazed at the gift. And what do you say? “AMEN!” That is,“Yep! I got it God! It’s in the bag!” And then comes more.

The lessons are read, and more grace and love and mercy from God are piled into the bag! After the gospel is read you say,“Thanks be to God! Yep! In the bag!” Hymns are sung which speak of Christ and His birth, life, death, and resurrection for you. Then the sermon is preached. The gospel of free forgiveness from Jesus is dished up and delivered to you. And the very forgiveness spoken about actually happens (Rom. 1:16)! The sermon ends with an “Amen!” And don’t just let the pastor have that “Amen” at the end of the sermon. You say it with him. By doing so you say,“Yep! I believe it! Jesus is mine. It’s in the bag!”

Then comes the Lord’s Supper.“Take and eat…” and you respond,“Amen! Got it!” Then comes the blessing,“The Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face shine upon you….”You respond,“Amen, Amen, Amen! I got it! It’s in the bag! And it’s heaping full!” By the end of the service your sack is heaped full of God’s forgiveness and grace and mercy. All your sins are forgiven. Do you see how foolish it is to whine,“I don’t get anything out of it” even when the sermon doesn’t strike home?

Then, bag full, you merrily head out of church. First thing you know, your dad sins against you by thinking you did something when you didn’t; or your sister proceeds to generally make life miserable for you; or that kid at school whom you really actually hate makes you seethe with anger. What do you do? You pull that full bag off your shoulder and smack ‘em right over the head with it? –No!

You pull that sack of forgiveness off your back and say, “Christ has given me this sack of forgiveness and love and mercy. Here, I want to give you some forgiveness.”

And so it goes through the week. Mercy  and love for the teacher who drives you insane. Forgiveness and prayers for the bully who makes your life miserable. Grace to “put the best meaning” on things, instead of gossiping. Strength of faith and hope and love, to help someone in time of need. But you fail time and again, and scoop up that grace and mercy for yourself, until you’re back at church, back on your knees, confessing something true: “Dear God, I’ve got an empty sack.”

Luther got it exactly right. Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee went to church and prayed loudly,“Dear God, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I pray. I fast. I give a tenth of all I get.” He was saying, “I’ve got a full sack, God. I filled it. And I’m proud of it.”

He did not realize that our relationship with God is not primarily about what we do. It’s about what God does for us in Christ. If we won’t have an empty sack, we’ll have no God to fill it for us. But standing far off from the Pharisee, there was another man. He beat his chest, knowing full well that he was a sinner. He prayed,“God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said.“that man went away justified—forgiven.”

This Sunday, every time you say “Amen” in the liturgy, or after the sermon, or at the Lord’s Supper, take note of what just got dropped in your sack! It’s Jesus and His forgiveness, grace, and mercy.

This article originally appeared in Winter 2003 ed of the Higher Things Magazine.

by Rev. Marcus T. Zill 

Now, kids, don’t try this analogy out at home.  Just take my word on this one, okay?  

A flashlight is not very helpful if you hold it before your face and simply stare into the beam of light. In fact, if you use a flashlight like that you might just end up blind. 

A flashlight functions not by drawing you to gaze at the light bulb in it, but by throwing light on an object which you need to see. Ultimately, seeing that object is the whole point. ;

It’s kind of like that with work of the Holy Spirit. We do not gaze directly on the Holy Spirit but instead the Spirit causes His light to shine through His Word so that we see it’s object – Jesus Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit is often called “the shy member of the Holy Trinity.” He’s there. He’s at work. He’s just not about drawing attention to Himself. 

Just as we do not focus our eyes on the flashlight but on the object which the flashlight sheds light on, so we do not focus on the Holy Spirit per se but on the Savior to whom the Spirit testifies. Faith clings to Christ. We know the Father through the Son, and we know the Son, because of the Spirit’s “shy” work in pointing us to Him.

You may have friends that come from other churches where they talk about speaking in tongues and other charismatic gifts of the Spirit. They may even tell you that they are trying to draw attention to the Holy Spirit because they believe that He has been neglected for centuries.

But that is the exact opposite of what the Holy Spirit wants to happen! The Holy Spirit does not call attention to Himself. The Spirit’s focus is to illuminate Christ.  Faith’s object is Christ and so the Holy Spirit wants your focus to be on Christ too, and not on Him. 

Ultimately, the Pentecostals and Charismatics end up celebrating the flashlight and in doing so they are in danger of being blind to Christ. Instead, we celebrate Christ, which makes the Spirit quite happy, even if He goes seemingly unnoticed in the process. He is quite content to illuminate the eternal Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.   

The work of the Holy Spirit is to shed light on Jesus Christ so that we know Him alone as “the way, the truth, and the life,” the only way to the Father. And this work the Holy Spirit accomplishes through Christ’s Word, for His Word is a “lamp to our feet and a light to our path,” to paraphrase Psalm 119.  Through God’s Word, the Spirit sheds light on Christ that we may see Him and none other. 

You see, God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit go together. You can’t ultimately have one without the other. That is why our Lutheran Confessions make the point that “In these matters, which concern the external, spoken Word, we must hold firmly to the conviction that God gives no one his Spirit or grace except through or with the external Word which comes before…. Accordingly, we should and must maintain that God will not deal with us except through his external Word and sacraments. Whatever is attributed to the Spirit apart from such Word and sacraments is of the devil.” (SA III:VIII, 3/9). 

And so when Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, “the Helper” whom the Father will send in His name (John 14), He also speaks of how those who love Him will keep His Word. To keep Jesus’ Word means to hang on to what Jesus says. That, in fact, is how the Holy Spirit teaches us. He does not bubble up inside of us as a warm emotion, or turn us into some sort of ecclesiastical lip-syncers. Neither does He gives us some special, secret insight into the plans and purposes of God that is revealed outside of God’s Word. Rather, the Holy Spirit works precisely through God’s revealed Word to bring us to, and keep us in and with, Christ. 

It really is just as we confess in the words of the Small Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” 

This is what the Spirit does. He works through Means, means that are given to you through God’s Divine Service to you. The same Holy Spirit who breathed the gift of new birth into each of you through the waters of Holy Baptism, comes to you, still today in the preaching of Jesus’ words. Where these words are received in faith, we have what they declare unto us. That is the Spirit’s work.  

Jesus says in St. John 14:21, “If anyone loves Me, My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  How deeply God makes His home with us we know from the Sacrament of the Altar. There He gives you His own body and blood to eat and to drink. The flesh born of Mary and nailed to the cross as the atonement for the world’s sins is given you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of them. The blood that poured from the Savior’s veins to blot out your sins is given you to drink in the cup of the New Testament.  

And so the Holy Spirit is not given once but over and over again wherever the Lord’s words are going on. That’s the Spirit’s gig and He is quite content with it. He isn’t worried about not being noticed, rather He is thankful that we are seeing and receiving the One onto whom He is shedding His Light. 

For the Holy Spirit and for us it really is all about Jesus. This is why we speak of Solo Christo (Christ Alone) and you’ve never probably heard the phrase Sola Pneuma (Spirit Alone).

The gift of the Spirit is the gift of Jesus Himself, His peace. Yes, the Spirit does drop in sometimes in great measure once and awhile as at the first Pentecost, but He is not here today and gone tomorrow. He does not swoop down on us to give us some spiritual high, which soon fades away leaving us empty. No, He comes constantly and surely in Jesus’ words spoken to us in Absolution and Sermon, in Baptism and with Christ’s Body and Blood. These are His gifts and with these gifts we have peace because through these gifts we receive Christ. This is a peace that the Holy Spirit will never stop testifying to and illuminating for us.  Thanks be to God.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Brent Kuhlman

There he is!  He’s just hanging there.  He refused to come down. Stayed to the bitter end.  Breathed his last and said:  “It is finished”(John 19:30). The veil in the temple split in two from top to bottom.  The earth quaked.  The rocks split.  Dead people came out of their tombs (Matthew 27:51-52).  Do you see him?  Jesus of Nazareth!  Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven Jesus of Nazareth!  Yes, that’s right, he’s hanging there. His body hangs limp.   Dead.  Graveyard dead on a Friday afternoon we now call “Good!” 

Good for you that is!  “Really?  Doesn’t look that way!  Looks rather grisly and horrible.”  Indeed.  But dead on the cross Jesus is work that he does for you and for your salvation.  

Take another look at him.  Hidden in this brutally beaten and nailed to the tree corpse is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Yes, he looks so foolish.  But dead on the cross Jesus is God’s highest wisdom.  Yes, he looks so weak.  But suspended lifeless on the cross Jesus is God’s most magnificent power.  All for you!   

St. Paul puts it this way:  “God made him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  As he hangs on the cross the Father heaps all sin on his Son and says:  “Now you be Peter the denier, Paul the persecutor, King David the adulterer and murderer, Adam and Eve who ate the forbidden fruit in Eden, the thief on the cross, and Kuhlman the worst of sinners.  Be the one who has committed every sin of every sinner who has ever lived and ever will live.  See to it that you make satisfaction and pay for all sin and for every sinner!”   

And that’s precisely what Jesus does.  He offers himself on the altar of the cross as the sacrifice that atones for all sin.  Yours. Mine.  The world’s.   Despised and forsaken he is for you!  He bears your griefs and carries your sorrows.  Crushed he is into death and condemnation because he answers for all your sin.  In his death on a Friday afternoon Jesus insists on carrying your sin in his body in order to answer for it.  On the tree your sin is his.  His righteousness is yours.  He is damned with your sin.  But his sacrificial blood renders you righteous.  What a sweet swap!  What a blessed exchange!   

In the latest Star Trek movie, Kirk’s father sacrifices himself for the entire fleet by steering his ship into the belly of the Romulan enemy Captain Nero.  In the movie Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s character “Walt” dies in place of his friend Thao as an act of love and sacrifice.  Walt’s death is the only solution to an impossible situation.  His death provides freedom for Thao and Thao’s life is changed forever as he will live in the shadow of Walt’s death for him.  Both James T. Kirk’s father and Clint Eastwood’s “Walt” only hint at the power of Christ’s death for you on the cross.   

That Jesus does the salvation job as he dies there on the cross means that you cannot do it!  You’re a lost a condemned person.  You are a helpless self-centered sinner who deserves God’s temporal and eternal wrath and condemnation.  Jesus is not.  He is holy and perfect.  On the cross he is crucified as the lawbreaker sinner in your place.  He dies the death you deserve as a sinner.  He receives the damnation you deserve as a sinner.  And in his death he satisfies God’s judgment against you.  Jesus has redeemed you:  “in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins,” (Ephesians 1:7).  He has purchased and won you from all sins.   

What are your sins?  What is it that you fear, love and trust above all things?  Where do you look for all your good?  Behold your idols!  The false gods and saviors in your life!  Some of the sin and sinning you know.  There is a lot that you don’t know (that’s how bad it is with you).  Some sin you hate and desperately want to stop.  Other sin you love and want to keep on doing.  Name the sin.  Whatever the sin Jesus shed his blood on that Friday afternoon to cleanse you from it all (1 John 1:7).  Yes, all sin!  The whole enchilada of your sinning and sin!  In thought, word, and deed!  Even all the sin that has been committed against you!  Imagine that!     

So Jesus just goes and does it: a Good Friday just for you!  While you were yet a sinner Jesus died for you! (Romans 5:8)  Your sins then are forgiven.  He left none out of his dying for you!  Jesus refuses to hold them against you because he has covered them in his blood!  

So, blessed are you!  Salvation is yours.  The resurrection of the body and life everlasting are yours too.  All because of his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death on a Friday afternoon that we call good.  Good for you!  Everything has changed for you as you live in the shadow of His cross.  “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1).         

In the name of Jesus.   

Rev. Brent Kuhlman is Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Murdock, NE. He is also Vice-President of Higher Things and a Regular Guest on HT-Radio. 

by The Rev. Brent Kuhlman

“Stir up your power, O Lord, and come.”  Who prays like that?  The church!  She dares to pray that way.  Especially during this blessed season of Advent. “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come.”  And lo and behold He does!  He comes to His lost and condemned creatures.  In a way that blows you away!  Check it out.  

Go ahead.  Try to bore a way up to heaven.  Peek your head through the clouds.  See if you can find the Lord seated on a red-velvety cushioned throne.  I’ve got news for you.  You won’t find Him way up there!  Why?  Because the Lord has come way down here!   

The Lord Jesus stirs up His power and comes among us with great might.  But see how it happens. Scandalous!  Outrageous!  Illegitimate circumstances!  He stirs up His power and comes among us with great might as He is conceived by the Holy Spirit-filled sermon preached by the angel Gabriel in the virgin Mary’s-engaged-to-be-married-to Joseph-ears.   He gestates for nine months in her womb.  Born in backwoods Bethlehem. He nurses from the virgin’s breast.  He cuddles in her lap.  A cattle trough is His bed.   Infant holy.  Infant lowly.  Yes, indeed, this child – the Baby Jesus — is Lord of all in weakness, a scandalous state of affairs, and great humility.   

See how He stirs up His power to come! Who for us men and for our salvation — Jesus COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN! He comes all the way down here — into the mire, muck and total mess of our lives.  The eternal Word takes on human flesh and dwells among us so much so “that His skin smokes” as one famous German preacher named Martin Luther once remarked!  He comes to seek and to save the lost and condemned.  Baby Jesus Immanuel.  Immanuel — because He is God with us (Matthew 1:23).  Jesus – because He saves His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  He gives His people knowledge of salvation.  How?  Through the forgiveness of sins (Luke 1:77)!   

No forgiveness without the shedding of blood.  And so God With Us Immanuel Jesus offers His Blood as the Lamb of God!  Born to die on His Friday afternoon we so aptly name “Good!”  See how He stirs up His power!  See how He comes with great might!  In suffering!  In shame!  In disgrace!  In death!  Innocent, yet He is crucified as a criminal.  On the earth the cross is His throne!  And there He reigns as king.   

There He willingly bears the sin of many.  Of all.  Yours too.  You name the sin.  The ones you hate. Even the ones you like, love, and don’t want to quit doing.  Include the ones you don’t even know.  Didn’t even realize you’ve committed. That’s how bad it is with you – and me!  But Jesus – Immanuel God With Us – comes and answers for them all.  He leaves none out.  He is the sacrifice that atones for the sin of the world.  Consequently, there is no condemnation for you as far as God is concerned.  None!  Jesus took the damnation.  And you’re forgiven.  God is most pleased with you because in the Body of Jesus His Son all your sin and it’s hellish punishment have been dumped in the black hole of His death.  That’s how He stirs up His power.  How He comes in great might.  He does it save.  To save you!  To win your salvation.   

Now today He bestows what He won for you.  He came to you and brought you paradise – heaven – in the water of Holy Baptism.  Baptized in the Triune Name you are (Matthew 28:19).  And to be baptized in God’s Name is to be baptized by God Himself.  You are buried with Christ into His all atoning death (Romans 6).  Given the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-39).  Born from above (John 3:3-5; Titus 3:4-7).  Washed, sanctified, justified, SAVED (1 Corinthians 6:11; Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21)! 

He comes to you in the preaching of the Gospel.  When you hear the preacher proclaim that Jesus died for you and that He rose for you and that your sins are forgiven, in those words you’ve heard the Lord Jesus Himself.  “He who hears you[the preacher] hears me,” (Luke 10:16) is His promise.  He comes in the words of Holy Absolution.  “Do you believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness,” the pastor asks in confession (see Lutheran Service Book, p. 293).  And in that spoken word of forgiveness you hear the living voice of Christ Himself (viva vox Christi).  He speaks to you just as he spoke to the paralytic:  “Be of good cheer my son.  Your sins are forgiven,” (Matthew 9:2; see also Matthew 16:19; 18:18; John 20:19-23). 

And there is more!  He stirs up His power and comes in the Sacrament of the Altar.  With His words Jesus does and gives what He promises.  He bestows His Good Friday Body and Blood with the bread and wine for you to eat and drink with your mouth.  And He adds this most remarkable promise:  “It’s for you.  This is for the forgiveness of your sins,” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25; Matthew 26:28).  In this eating and drinking – in this blessed receiving of His last will and testament — we proclaim that His death is for you, for me, and for all until He comes on the last day (1 Corinthians 11:26). 

And on that last day He stirs up more of His power.  He will come to judge the living and the dead.  But you’ll be ready.  Really.  No need to be afraid.  For you’ve been rehearsing for the last day all your life.  After all, every time you hear the Gospel, the Absolution, and receive the Lord’s Supper you’ve heard Judge Jesus and you know His judgment over you.  And what is that?  That you’re died for, that you are forgiven, and that heaven is yours.  Every time you attend the divine service it’s judgment day in miniature – the last day ahead of time.  The Lord Jesus comes and stands in your midst (Matthew 18:20) to render His last day judgment:  “Acquitted!  Set free!  I died for you.”  So that when the last day comes you will see with your eyes what you’ve always had by faith.  And the judgment will be no different for you who trust in Him.     

And so you together with the church dare to pray:  “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come.”  After all, we know the end game.  That by the Lord Jesus Himself we are rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Him who comes in great might:  at Bethlehem and Calvary, in the Word and Sacraments, and finally on the last day.

Until then, the Lord Jesus will bless you, defend you from all evil, and bring you to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.  Have a happy Advent and blessed Christmas.

Rev. Brent Kuhlman is pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Murdock, NE. He is also Vice-President of Higher Things and a regular guest on HT-Radio

by Seminarian Jeff Dock

This article takes a look at the words and message of the great Lutheran Hymn, “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth,” LSB #438.

Paul Gerhardt, a 17^th century German hymnist, wrote ‘A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth’. It’s been a welcome addition to Lutheran hymnals ever since.

Stanza 1 tells us that there is a Lamb of God who bears the sins of mankind.

“A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth,The guilts of sinners bearing.
And, laden with the the sins of earth, None else the burden sharing.”

In the Old Testament, God the Father had appointed that an innocent lamb be the animal marked as the sin bearer. Only an animal such as this was pure enough to have sin placed upon it. These lambs all point to Christ who bears the sin of the world. It doesn’t seem fair. Cute cuddly lambs get sacrificed. The innocent Son of God has the sins of the world placed upon Him. He (without complaint) is beaten, wounded, mocked, and finally crucified. What made such a sacrifice necessary?

Stanza 2 of this hymn answers that question. It was the Father’s will for our salvation It was necessary for us that Jesus do His Father’s will by going to the cross because that alone was the cure for sin. That is how sinful man is saved.

“Go Forth my Son” the Father said “And free my children from their dread of guilt and condemnation.
The wrath and stripes are hard to bear, but by your passion they will share the fruit of your salvation.”

Sin is not something God could just overlook, forget about, or ignore. You don’t just sweep this under the rug. It doesn’t work that way. Heaven is perfect. Sin is the opposite of perfection. We’re sinners and therefore we’re not perfect. We wouldn’t fit. Picture Heaven as a field of pure light, of pure beauty, of pure holiness. A sinner would be a smudge on the horizon, a dark blot, something ugly. Something you couldn’t look away from. Something bad in a place of good. Something imperfect in a place of perfection.

But God wants you in Heaven. He created you to spend eternity with Him. Even though sin was keeping us out of Heaven, God wouldn’t stand for that. Sin isn’t something He could just ignore. It had to go somewhere. It was on us, and so God placed it upon His Son. Only the perfectly innocent Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, was able to bear all that sin. Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness. We’re able to enter Heaven because our sin is removed. It was borne by Christ. He suffered it, shed His blood for it, and died for it. We are forgiven.

Stanza 3 of our hymn starts with Jesus speaking

“Yes Father, yes most willingly I’ll bear what you command me.
My will conforms to your decree, I’ll do what you have asked me.”

None of us could have borne the world’s sin the way Christ did. We can’t even handle our own sin, much less the sin of the entire world. But Jesus does it willingly. He does it because He trusts in the Father’s good and holy will. He knows that the Father’s gracious will is to give mankind forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Stanza 3 reminds us of the price that needed to be paid for sin.

“The Father offers up His Son, desiring our salvation. O love, how strong you are to save! 
You lay the One into the grave who built the earth’s foundation.”

We can’t fully understand how destructive sin is because we’re so mired in it. It never looks as bad to us as it actually is. We can see just how serious sin is by looking at the price that was required to fix it, by looking at Jesus upon the cross. We see how terrible sin is when we realize that the Creator of the world had to die in order to fix it.

Part of the Christian life is coming to a deeper awareness of how bad our sins really are. We do this not so we can sit around feeling bad about ourselves, but instead so that we can rejoice in Christ. Coming to grips with the fact that we’re (to quote our liturgy) “poor miserable sinners” is good, for Jesus said “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Seeing ourselves as “poor miserable sinners” isn’t as bad as it first sounds. For Christ came into this world to save sinners.

The hymn ends with the following words which stand as our hope always

“And there, in garments richly wrought, as Your own bride shall we be brought to stand in joy beside thee.”

Jeff Dock is a 2^nd year student at Concordia Theological Seminary studying to be a Lutheran pastor. While not occupied by video games and his baby daughter, he occasionally studies.  

by the Rev. Rich Heinz

If you have ever watched The Biggest Loser, one of the bits of information you may have gleaned is this: skipping meals does NOT help weight loss.  Long-term fasting is not going to make you healthy.  Changing which foods, or the serving size can make a difference, but skipping meals altogether actually has the opposite of its desired outcome.

Our spiritual life also can be harmed by “skipping meals.”  If we slip out of the habit of weekly coming to be fed in the Divine Service, our faith’s health suffers.  Coming to church once or twice a month is like skipping a couple meals each day.  It wreaks havoc on our systems, and actually harms us.
 
As Lutherans, we do not believe the non-biblical saying: “Once saved, always saved.”  There is a true danger of faith starving and drying up…dying a slow death until a supposed Christian is actually an unbeliever.  It is a frightening and deadly reality that avoiding church may reach the point of killing faith and damning to hell.

This danger to faith is greatly strengthened when one skips services.  The danger increases when we do not take advantage of attending Bible Class or Sunday School to be fed His Word even more.  The danger takes hold when we start believing the excuses we make for “despising preaching and His Word.”

Lent provides a great opportunity for every one of us.  During this holy season, we are given great opportunities to be nourished by the Lord.  He bids us come to hear and be fed in the Sunday Divine Services.  He builds us up on Wednesday evenings with His Word in Vespers.  He keeps calling us to study His Scriptures together.  He encourages us to exercise our faith in increasing our giving to the poor and those in need.  And He encourages us in brief, thought-filled fasting, to train our bodies and keep us focused on His Holy Gifts.

As we enter these sacred days, if you decide to fast for your body, remember not to let your soul fast as well!  Don’t refuse to feed on His Holy Word!  Don’t cut down on how much or how often you are eating from the Lord’s Table!  Increase the portions for your nourishment!  Come to the Supper Table to hear our Father speak, and to feast on the life-giving Lamb.
 
In spiritual terms, this will actually cause you to exercise and grow in strength – not through your own strength, but through the Gospel; through the loving mercy of God, as He showers His mercy and grace on you through these same, nourishing Gifts!

Yes, cutting calories can be so extreme that it is unhealthy.  So don’t abstain; come to the Table.  Our Savior will lead you to “eat right” so that He might make you right with the Father.  And here your health will be nourished, “steadfast in the true faith, unto life everlasting.”

Rev. Rich Heinz is Pastor of St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church in Lanesville, IN.

Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come and help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by Your grace and mercy; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is the last time the Church will gather together before the Nativity of our Lord. We pray these words in the Collect of the Day as our final plea and petition to Jesus who is coming. The Lord’s Coming is what advent is all about. The Lord comes to us in by means of Word and Sacrament, and He comes to Bethlehem in the form of a lowly child.

There doesn’t seem like a lot of might in a manger, does there? Yet we pray that the Lord would come and help us by His might. There’s an awful lot of humility for the power of God to be consumed by mere flesh and blood in a stable with the donkeys and other barn yard animals. Here though, in Bethlehem, in the manger, is the might of God, the power which He is stirring up to win salvation for you on the Cross.

The power of the Lord is often hidden from the sight of man. We just can’t handle God’s power. God’s power throws lowly men to their knees begging and crying for mercy. So God, for the sake of sinners, has to not be so mighty in human terms. Instead He comes to us in the might of grace and forgiveness. He comes to us in ways in which we can comprehend, in forms of water and the word and bread and wine. The power and might of God is there in His Amen For You at the font and at the altar.

Our sins weigh us down. They present a burden which we often cannot carry in life. We stumble and fall and drown ourselves in even more sin. The burden is heavy and there are times it seems like we just won’t make it. Then we look back to our baptisms, and despite how good of a swimmer our Old Adam seems to be, we dunk that stinker one more time and splash around in the Lord’s forgiveness.

There at the forgiveness point is where our sins are lifted from us just as we pray in this coming week’s collect. Our sins are lifted from us high above the world so that they might hang on the Cross. Our sins are nailed to the cross, and water and blood flow from the side of our sins. There at Golgotha our sins are consumed in the lowly flesh and person of Jesus Christ. There at the place of the skull our sins are lifted from us not by our work or righteousness but by the grace and mercy of God. And it all begins here in Advent!

Advent is about our Lord’s coming. It’s about getting ready and preparing for Jesus to take on flesh and blood. But even more it’s about preparing for this little baby, the Christ child to suffer and die on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins. It’s about preparing for Good Friday. The lifting of our sins we pray for today is the lifting of Good Friday and the grace and mercy we pray for today is the grace and mercy of Easter.

Come soon, Lord Jesus. Amen.

The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. (Introit for Rorate Coeli, the Fourth Sunday in Advent)

by The Rev. William Weedon

Isaiah 40:1-5 / Luke 1:5-25

God commands a word of comfort to His people: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” A word of comfort, pardon, grace, and huge gift. And yet this word from God is often met with skepticism. Can He mean me? Surely not. Not after all I’ve done. Such a word of comfort and grace cannot be meant for the likes of one whose sin is like mine.

And there are none who so feel their sin as those who live closest to His holiness – those whom He regards as righteous by their faith and trust in Him. They see their sin and feel its weight in a way that the world never can understand. It takes the nearness of God to bring the weight of sin to bear on the conscience and the heart.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were such. The evangelist tells us that they were “both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord.” If you asked them, they’d have told you a different description. They’d have said: No, we are poor sinners, who plead the mercy of God and wait for His redemption. But such people who live by faith and who are righteous because they see their own sin and utterly despair of themselves and put all their hope on the mercy of God – they are the ones who above all struggle to believe that God could be gracious and kind to the likes of them.

And so the old man stood there attending to his duty, offering the sacred incense and as the smoke began to swirl toward the heavens and the sweet smell filled the darkened room, he became aware of a presence. There at the right side of that altar where he had so lately thrown on the coals the offering of incense, the sign of prayer, stood an angel.

What is the response of a man who knows his sin when he sees such a thing? Does he rejoice and thank God that he is counted worthy of such a vision? No. Zechariah shows his righteousness by his humility. He is troubled and fear falls on him. But the angel was not sent to scare him, but to comfort him. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” Gabriel was sent to announce the dawn of the redemption for which Zechariah had longed, and in which he would play a key role.

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.”

“My prayer?” thought Zechariah. “But that was years ago. I’ve long since stopped hoping or even dreaming of such a thing. Why, it’s just not possible.” So his thoughts must have run as the angel went on, heedless of the perplexity on Zechariah’s face. “You shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. He will turn the hearts of the children of Israel to the Lord and will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
Zechariah is blown away that God could be so good, so gracious, so kind to Him. He can’t get his mind around it. And his unbelief and fear conquer him. “How shall I know this?” he asks. “I am old; my wife beyond the years of bearing a child. How can this be?”

If it is terror to see an angel to those who know their sin, even more terrifying is seeing an angel riled. Gabriel speaks a word of judgment that turns out also to be a word of promise. Not a word can pass from Zechariah’s lips until they open in praise of what God has done, for the words He gave to the angel will come to pass, fulfilled in their time. God’s words cannot and do not fail.

And then the angel was gone. And Zechariah was struck dumb before the goodness and the mercy of the Lord – goodness and mercy unlooked for. That he and his wife would have a child. That that child would be the long awaited prophet to go before the Lord Himself, preparing his way. That their child would be the appointed ambassador of the King of kings to announce the ultimate comfort. That God has come into the flesh to triumph over the enemies of the human race – to make common cause with the flesh He now shares and to raise the fallen sons of Adam to their high destiny as children of God.

And like Zechariah, we stagger at the promise. Me? Can He possibly mean this comfort for me? That I who fail Him so often every day will be forgiven, made welcome in the home of the Eternal Son, made to sit with Him at His table and to reign with Him over all things? Me? How can it be?

Advent invites us to enter the silence of Zechariah and to wait and see the Words of God come to their fulfillment at the proper time. As he left the temple and couldn’t even given the final blessing because of his sealed lips, his heart was burning with the hope that words of God had given him. And he began to see their fruition not many days later. Elizabeth laughed and thought “Why, it’s Abraham and Sarah all over again.” The prayers that they long since had given up on were answered by God in His goodness in a way beyond their imagining.

People loved by God, your God commands comfort to be spoken to you too. His love for you will indeed astound and silence you, as you behold Him taking flesh from the pure Virgin and coming among you as your own brother to lift you to His glory. The comfort of this message is for you – you who think yourself hopelessly sinful and a failure. He says to you: For you I have come. For you I have sent my messenger to prepare my way. Do not fear. I am your Emmanuel. Watch in silence and see my salvation unfold! Amen.

The Rev. William Weedon is pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Hamel, IL. Pastor Weedon is a plenary speaker at next summers Higher Things Sola Conferences. This homily originally appeard on his blog.