Category: Lectionary Meditations

Meditations on this week’s lectionary readings from Pr. Eric Brown

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Lectionary Meditations

Lent 3 Meditation

“But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”

What does it mean if a kingdom comes upon you? That’s not how we normally think of it. You think of a kingdom coming TO you or you coming TO a kingdom. But upon? Upon is battle language. When the Marines come landing on to your island, when the army hits the beach on D-Day, that means the US Military has come upon you.

The world sees Jesus preach and heal, cast out demons. Those don’t generally seem like violent actions (maybe the casting out of demons), but in reality they are acts of war against Satan and his kingdom. They are the Kingdom of God and His might and power bursting in upon this world that Satan had claimed as his own, upon people that Satan had claimed as his own. Jesus, throughout His earthly ministry was constantly waging warfare against Satan and his powers.

Jesus continues to wage this war against Satan, Sin, the world, and our flesh, whenever His Word is preached. The Word of Christ breaks down the powers of evil and rescues us from Satan. Baptism drowns the old Adam. The word of forgiveness destroys sin. And the Supper gives us life and strength for the week to come as we venture into hostile territory. This is the battle Christ fights for you, this is the battle He wages even against your own sin, as He takes it away from you and kills it upon the Cross.

It’s a battle. And battles often become loud and scary and confusing. Yet take heart; the victory remains with Jesus, and you are won to eternal life by Him!

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Lectionary Meditations

Lent 2 Lectionary Meditation

“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

She had been ignored. Then it got worse – then the insults came. To call a woman a “little dog” was as much an insult back then as it is today. There Jesus was standing, acting so imperious, putting on airs before His disciples – and every single stereotype she had heard about those Jewish men was being reinforced right in front of her face. And I suppose some folks might have left in a huff, might have let the insult drive them away. Some might have reviled back in return – some “Messiah” you are pal!

But this woman doesn’t. Instead, she says something wondrous. “Yes.” Yes, I am a little dog, and frankly I could insult myself with many words that would be worse and even more accurate. I could fulfill every stereotype your disciples might think of a woman “like me.” But that’s not the point here – it’s not who I am, it’s who You are, Jesus – and I know that you take care of even the weak and lowly and the undeserving. Crumbs will fall from Your table, and my daughter will be healed.

Jesus then praises her faith – see here, disciples, this is what faith looks like! She’s not praising herself, she’s not using Me to make everyone go “ooo” and “ahhh” about how great she is. Nope – she’s simply looking at Me and knowing that I will provide what is good for what, provide even things she in no way could hope to earn.

Pride and faith are opposites. Pride looks at myself and tells me that everyone else ought to praise me. Faith looks at Jesus and says that He is great and loving even to someone as lousy as me. Pride elevates the self – faith looks to Jesus to come down and serve the lowly. Pride would kill your faith – twist it into some self-worshiping cult. Faith draws your eyes to Jesus, to where you see Him and Him alone.

This Lent Jesus draws our eyes to Him again, makes us to see who He is and what He does for us. Though we are little dogs, though we are poor, miserable sinners, He will come down from heaven and win us salvation by going to the Cross. Not because we deserve it, but simply because that is who He is. He is the God who saves, the God who isn’t interested in His own pride but rather in blessing and serving you.

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Lectionary Meditations

Lent 1 Meditation

“Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these I will give You, if you fall down and worship me.” – Matthew 4:8-9

Satan here lays out for Jesus a very simple fact. One that we don’t like. Satan owned us. Satan is ‘this world’s prince’ as Luther has us sing it. And that’s not something we think about. It’s not something we ponder. We toss Satan off into a corner and like to forget about him once the Sunday service is over. We don’t talk about evil either – even when there’s a disaster we can’t say that someone was evil; there’s surely some systemic flaw or we were lacking some law that would have kept everyone safe.

Satan cuts across all that. See this world, Jesus? It’s mine, and its full of wickedness and evil and I like it that way. And yet, Satan seeks to cut a deal. The Evil One knows that Jesus is out to win you and I away from Satan’s clutches. He knows Jesus comes to take us out of Satan’s Kingdom into God’s Kingdom. So, Satan offers a solution. Jesus, just be my number two fella. You can have all of these people to do with as you please. All you have to do in return is worship me instead of destroying me.

Satan offers Jesus a plan of “salvation” (if you can even call it that) without the Cross. No messy Good Friday. No battle stupendous. No pain. But, you could still gain, Jesus! And as we know from the Gospel account, Jesus will have none of it. Of course He wouldn’t. It was false worship that got mankind into this mess, therefore false worship won’t fix it. We were not created by God just to spend a few years living out lives of sin. We were created to live forever with God.

And so Jesus Christ came down from heaven into a world full of real sin and violence and wickedness. A world that always tries to justify and explain all that sin away. But, instead of mollycoddling sin and death, Jesus took it all up and destroyed sin and death upon the cross. He rose on the Third Day to trample Satan under His feet. From this alone, we can believe that Jesus is determined to deliver us from evil, no matter what, all thanks be to God.

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Lectionary Meditations

A Meditation for Quinquagesima


“And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.”

Even when Jesus spelled it out, even when He told them point blank about His death and resurrection for a third time, the disciples didn’t get it. They didn’t want a suffering and dying Messiah, they wanted a Messiah who was going to kick some backside and take some names! They wanted a Messiah who was going to rule and give them goodies galore. Isn’t that what we want a Messiah, a “god” to do? Give us more and more “blessings” – by which we mean stuff and might and power? By nature, we’d prefer a God who is like a kindly uncle who shows up, gives us a bunch of gifts, and then leaves us alone.

Jesus can’t do that, though. He won’t. Why? Because Jesus knows what sin is. Sin isn’t something to be brushed off lightly – sin is death. Sin breaks and destroys and kills. How often has sin broken friendships, destroyed your joy and peace, killed things you hold dear? We try to brush that under the rug, move on; pretend it never happened, and pretend it will never happen again. But Jesus doesn’t ignore sin. He doesn’t pat it on the head. Jesus doesn’t affirm sin. Instead, He becomes man and takes up your sin onto Himself, and He drags it to the cross in His own flesh, and He kills sin even with His own death.

Then, He will rise. He will rise triumphant over sin and give you life. True life. Life that isn’t defined by how much money you have, or how many likes and favorites. No, Jesus gives you true life – Himself. Jesus gives Himself to you. Having taken away your sin, He doesn’t leave you empty and on your own, He makes you to be His own holy temple. He promises to be with you all your days, because He knows that you still wander a sinful world and still have your own sinful flesh that fights against you. And He will not abandon you to that, He won’t treat your temptations lightly. Instead, He will be with you to return you to your Baptism and strengthen you with His Body and Blood over and over – even until you die and rise and sin is made truly a thing of the past. This is the blessing, this is the victory Jesus is determined to win for you, and He will let nothing get in the way of His love and salvation for you.

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Lectionary Meditations

Meditation For Septuagesima

“You have made them equal…” – Matthew 20:12

Americans are an interesting sort of people. We claim that we love equality – it is a catch phrase for some politically, even. Yet, so often we really don’t – at least not in real things that count. In school, group projects where the freeloading kid either drags down our grade (or gets a good grade even though he didn’t work) tend to annoy us. We hope to get raises and promotions at work. We like to be recognized for our strengths and successes. Even in the politics of the day, we might say we like equality, but we LOVE proving that we are better than “them”.

In the parable of the vineyard, the owner is straight forward. Work today, and I’ll pay you a denarius – a day’s wage. Think around $100 or $120 bucks. That’s enough to live off of – that’s not bad if you are a day laborer with no prospects for that day. Then the owner pulls in more and more people over the course of the day. And what does he do? He pays them all the same thing – even the folks who just worked an hour – they all get that full daily wage. And there’s anger – how dare you! You have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!

The master isn’t bothered by the complaints. I was straightforward with you and I was generous with them. What’s the problem? Why does the fact that I show kindness and goodness to them make you so upset? Because that’s where the rubber meets the road in our desires for elevation and promotion and more and more – we so often get upset when we see others receive kindness or good things that they didn’t earn. That they didn’t… earn.

Except, what we remember is that we don’t receive from God what we have earned. If we did, it wouldn’t be a day of hot labor in a field; an eternity in hell is what we’ve earned with our sin and hatred and callous disdain of our neighbor. Instead, God chooses to give the salvation won by Christ upon the Cross to us, and to us equally. My works won’t get me a better Jesus – nor will the fact that I’m not as good as you get me less Jesus. Instead there is one faith, one hope, one baptism, one Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Savior. And this really, really is better for us. God doesn’t give us what we deserve – He gives us life and salvation because He is good.

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Lectionary Meditations

A Meditation for Sexagesima upon Luke 8:4-15

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God.”

As a Pastor, few things get me more antsy than getting ready to hear someone talk about the “Parable of the Sower” – you know, there’s some seed that falls on the path and is eaten by the birds, and some that falls in rocky soil and withers, and some that falls in the weeds and thorns and is choked out, and some that bears a great harvest. Jesus even goes on to explain the parable, but I have heard more lousy presentations on this text than any other.

The push so often is a “how do we sow the Word of God better or more efficiently” – and the parable gets used as a pretext talk about some new “strategy” that we have. But that’s not the parable. We call it the parable of the sower, but Jesus says, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God.” And in the story, the Word of God goes all over the place – generously. Even to places we wouldn’t expect. It’s not a very efficient tale.

But what the parable does do when we consider that the seed is the Word of God is that it shows us three ways that Satan attacks the Word of God that is given to us. The birds come – Satan will simply try to cut you off from hearing the Word. Be on guard against anything that would pull you away from hearing God’s Word! Or there are times of temptation, and if there are no roots, we get into trouble. So be rooted in Christ; remember always that you are His baptized child, both on good days and bad, and remain attentive to His Word. Or there are times of plenty, where we get tempted to be just too busy or too focused on “stuff” for God’s Word – and we get into trouble then.

Over and against all of that, be in the Word. Remain in it. Hear it again and again, because it is in His Word that you learn to see and understand God’s love for you, where you receive it. It is by the Word that the Holy Spirit is given to you so that you would believe. It’s by the Word that you are forgiven of all your sins and strengthened for whatever trials come your way. That’s why Christ generously gives His Word to you over and over again.

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Lectionary Meditations

Hitting the Dirt – The Transfiguration

HT Meditation – Transfiguration

They hit the dirt. All of them. Peter, James, and John had been invited to the mountaintop to see Jesus transfigured, to hear Him talking with Moses and Elijah. It had been a great and awesome thing! Wonderful to behold. Perhaps a little too wonderful for Peter, because he says, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Yeah, it’s great hearing you talk to Moses and Elijah, but maybe I should go get busy doing something instead of just listening.

Then the voice of the Father rings out, cutting Peter and his plans off. “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” Stop yammering and planning Peter and just listen! And they all the dirt. Peter does, and James and John too. And rightfully so. Sinners who have gone against God’s plans tended to die, so three sinners duck and cover.

And there stands Jesus, seeing His three cowering disciples. By rights they should die, by rights their bodies should return to the dirt from which man was created. Sinful man had spent generation after generation not listening to the Word of God. But Jesus is not done with them. Instead, He goes to them and He touches them. “Rise, and have no fear.”

God’s plan isn’t centered around smiting. Nope. It is centered in Christ Jesus who Himself becomes man (see, He touched them, physically). And Jesus becomes man so as to go to the cross and die as sinful man deserves to die. He dies to forgive sins, so that man would not have to be terrified of God any longer. He dies so that He would rise and then be able to say to Peter, to James and John, to us come the last day, “Rise!”

And on that day, we will have no fear. Our own bodies will become like His glorious and resurrected body. And until that Last Day, Jesus continually comes to us in His Word, pulling us away from all our busy little plans, and He tells us again of His love, His salvation, His forgiveness. Jesus draws us unto Himself, so that we see Him, now and forever.

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Lectionary Meditations

Meditation Upon John 2:1-12

Mary was basically chomping at the bit. Her Son, Jesus, had been invited to a wedding in the hill country of Galilee, and He hadn’t come alone. No, Jesus had brought His disciples with Him. And so Mary has put two and two together. Now, finally, her Son would start off this whole Messiah thing!

When the wine runs out (which would have been most embarrassing), Mary just casually notes to Jesus that they are out. Almost the way might mom might note that the trash can was full or that my room was messy. There’s the problem – go fix it. Go to it, Son! Go and be the Messiah. Oh, the might and glory and the power that we’ll see! Yet, Jesus tells her that His time hasn’t come, that now isn’t the full moment of glory. Still, Mary hopes. “Do whatever He tells you,” she says to the servants.

And then she sits and waits to see. But, then again, what does she see? The miracle isn’t obvious. No one at the party notices. Neither the master of the feast nor the bridegroom know what is going on. The guests may never have noticed. Only the servants (and probably the disciples who would have been following Jesus) knew what happened, and even they couldn’t pin down exactly when the water became wine. There’s no big hullabaloo, no big flash of lightning or peal of thunder announcing this miracle. Just a party that doesn’t have to end early anymore.

John tells us that this is how Jesus manifests His glory. The glory of God doesn’t (usually) show up with neon signs or trumpets. It isn’t even normally accompanied by anything that the world would recognize as a miracle. Yet even in some of the most simple things – someone preaching the Word, a bit of water and the Word in Baptism, some bread and wine now also His Body and Blood – Jesus continues to manifest His glory. And because He does, we receive eternal life. We are forgiven, and whatever comes down the pike this week, our joy in Christ isn’t crushed. We know that we will rise, that we will have life in His name, that we will be headed to the feast that never ends, the eternal party of the life of the world to come. And there, nothing will ever run out, for Jesus is a great host.

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Lectionary Meditations

Lectionary Meditation – Epiphany

“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” – Mt 2:4

Jerusalem was a town that knew trouble coming when it saw it. Think about it. Jerusalem was always a bit of a town on edge in the New Testament times. You have multiple riots in just the book of Acts alone, to say nothing of Good Friday, or even 66 AD when they rebel and are utterly destroyed by the Romans. Things were always just a bit on edge in Jerusalem in the New Testament era.

So, when a bunch of magi from the East come into town looking for the new king, that sets off warning bells. We think of the magi as the noble wisemen of our nativity scenes, kindly old men with gifts for Jesus. That’s not how Jerusalem would have seen them – the magi were the court advisers of Babylon. These were the villains who had tangled with Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were from Babylon, the town that had wiped out the old Davidic Kingdom – and Herod wouldn’t be one to just sit back and take that! What’s coming next!

Well, we know that ruthless Herod sets out his plans to protect his throne, that he ends up slaughtering all the young boys in Bethlehem. The people of Jerusalem were understandably and rightly troubled. Of course, whenever we look at the halls of power and wealth, whenever we see the mighty trying to protect themselves, we are probably often troubled ourselves, and rightly so! In this life there is much miscarriage of justice and violence and all that.

Yet, what else do we see when we see the wisemen. We see the old and ancient enemies of Israel come to Jerusalem, looking for the King of the Jews. The magi of old couldn’t beat Daniel; their followers had listened to him. They knew that a Messiah, a Savior, a true King of Kings would be coming from Judah, and so putting aside all politics and history, they sought Christ Jesus. They learned of Him from the Scriptures. And they lived in His peace, even if the troubles of the world meant they had to take the long way home.

Likewise, while we see the troubles of this world, we have been given faith to see Christ Jesus, our Savior, who conquers over the sin and death of this world with His own death. We learn to see not only trouble, but our Savior who will deliver us from all our sin and from all our troubles.

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Lectionary Meditations

Meditation for the First Sunday of Christmas

So, when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus into the temple to do all the 40th day sacrifices for Him, Simeon runs up and grabs Jesus and says the words that we sing after communion – the Nunc Dimittis. That’s familiar. But do you note what happens next?

Simeon hands Jesus back and blesses Mary, but then he says something quite strange. “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed…” Think about the shock of hearing that. It’s been joy to the world, happy holidays, have a holly jolly Christma… what? Talk about throwing cold water on the parade! This Child is going to cause chaos because of who He is, Mary – and people are going to hate Him. The wicked of the world will rally and fight against Him.

And it’s true. Think about Jesus’ crucifixion – you have Herod and Pilate and the Priests all conspiring together – that was something unheard of. The priests hated anyone who was gentile, and Herod and Pilate hated each other until the events of Good Friday – they only became friends afterwards. Christ Jesus ends up being one of if not the most hated person in all of history. His very name is a curse, a vulgarity.

Of course Jesus is hated – we hate anyone who is better, richer, prettier, or more successful than us. That’s why the media has such a field day with celebrity scandals. We love seeing folks brought down. It’s part of our dog eat dog sinful human nature. And then, suddenly, there is Jesus. And He’s without sin. And every moment that He lives perfectly just shows how wretched we are – and the response of the sinful flesh is to hate Him. To want to prove that we really are better than Him.

This is why God uses the Law to work upon us, to crush our sinful ego that would hate Jesus, hate God. God uses His Law to show us our lack, to show us that we need to be rescued. Then, and only then, will we see Jesus differently. Also in the temple that day was old Anna, and she came thanking God and speaking “of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel.” There’s the difference! When you are not actively trying to prove yourself better than everyone else and are rather waiting to be saved – like Simeon and Anna were – then Jesus is the most wonderful thing. He is your Savior and Redeemer. He is the Light to lighten the gentiles and the Glory of Israel. His perfection and holiness are no longer just things that show that He is better than you; instead they are gifts you receive from Him by faith. God grant that we always receive such great gifts from Christ Jesus our Lord!