Category: Articles

by The Rev. Marcus Zill

Psalm 2, Hebrews 1:1-6; Matthew 1:18-25

 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

How does one even begin to comprehend the enormity of the holiness and the glory of God? Imagine a being so great and powerful that He created everything that is, everything that ever was, and everything that ever will be. Almighty, eternal, knowing all things. It’s just plain beyond all of our understanding.

Now there was a time when we did seek to grasp the wonder and power of the almighty God. In the Garden man had a perfect relationship with God, one based on love and trust, not fear. But Satan, that great deceiver, stole that away from us. He blinded our eyes to God, so that all we can now do is look inward at ourselves and think that we understand everything.

But it is not so. There is nothing inside you that is worth looking at. A great chasm separated you from God because of your sin. The only way that God could give you Himself, the only way He could restore your blindness and raise you up from the death of your own sin was by taking on your very life.

And so, as our conference hymn puts so well:

“He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame,
And to this world Himself He came.”
(LSB 544:2)

Yes, God became one of His creatures.

So when you see Jesus, poor and helpless, an infant lying in the manger, you see God Himself. Hard to imagine? You bet. It’s more than hard. It’s impossible to imagine. But it is true. This is the very nature and character of faith. We can all imagine a God of judgment and fear and wrath. That somehow seems to come naturally to us. But a God who would come as a baby? Now that seems pretty strange.

And yet in that sublime mystery lies the heart and soul of the Christian faith. As we confess in the Creed: “Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was made man.”  Did you catch that? For us men, that is, for us sons and daughters of Adam, He became Man. It’s incredible, and beyond all imagination. And God did it all for you.

And this is no small task.

The Bible declares that God is holy, and God’s holiness burns so hotly against sin that no one can see His face and live (Exodus 33:20). [You just don’t want to get close to someone like that!]

God warned Moses at Sinai that His people Israel must not approach the mountain, because if they forced themselves through to see God, they would perish (Exodus 19:21). Much later, the prophet Isaiah despaired of his life, because his eyes had seen “the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). St. Paul described this holiness as an “unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16), and when St. John realized in the book of Revelation that he was looking at God Himself enthroned in splendor, he passed out cold (Revelation 1:17).

So how can we be restored in the presence of a holy God without being consumed by His wrath?

Well, let me try an analogy on you: Nuclear power.

Nuclear power gets generated when a high-speed neutron strikes an atom and splits it in half. The resulting energy is so violent and so destructive that special containment buildings must be constructed around the nuclear reactor to control its wrath.

Of course, God’s wrath is unimaginably and infinitely hotter and more violent than any nuclear reactor. And so a special containment building had to be built to house and to hold this all-powerful divinity whose holiness ferociously destroys sin.

And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

God gave us Jesus. He built Him. He knit His eternal Son in the womb of an earthly mother. An infant child who sleeps in a hay-filled manger and suckles on His mother’s lap. Jesus is the special containment building that God has provided so that we would not be obliterated during His special forces operation.

When this Holy nuclear Child was miraculously conceived in Mary’s womb, it is as if our God said, “Mankind cannot see Me and live. Therefore I must bury My holiness and hide it somewhere so that they will not be afraid of Me any longer. I will conceal the fullness of My godhead and holiness here in the flesh and blood of this woman’s Son.”

And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus’ physical body became the covering and the shield by which Mary and Joseph and you and I are all protected from the righteous wrath of God. Everything that God is and does now reduces itself to the confines of a baby boy.

Do you want to see the God of eternity, the one through whom the heavens were made, the one who fills all things? Well here he is! And guess what? The Gospel according to Ricky Bobby is actually true – He really is some 8 pounds and 6 ounces. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9).

Some people fear their earthly governments or those in power. But what does the Almighty and all powerful God do for you? He comes to earth in the most helpless and harmless form of all – the form of a baby.

This little infant holds in His clenched little hands the full scope of your existence! He possesses, beneath His swaddling cloths and his well-sucked thumb, the divinity and might necessary to overcome every enemy who would oppose you. He is God Himself, not the God who comes to inspire your fear, but the God who hides and conceals everything you might fear about Him so that He can destroy everything that makes Him seem so fearsome in the first place – your sin that would damn you from His presence if you were left in it.

When Jesus takes your sin from you and carries it upon Himself, God’s wrath no longer burns hot against you. When He robes you in His holiness and washes you with His perfection, nothing unclean remains in you that would stir God’s holiness against you. Jesus is God’s containment building and shield and defense for you, for in this Child even death gets swallowed up in victory.

And so the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And “blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The Rev. Marcus Zill is pastor of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Laramie, Wyoming, which serves as the campus congregation for the Lutheran students at the University of Wyoming.  Pastor Zill also heads the Christ on Campus work of Higher Things.

by The Rev. David A. Kind

John 3:16-21

You have come to a conference entitled “For You”. I’m sure as you’ve planned for this trip you’ve considered just what that title is meant to convey. Simply put, God is “For you”. Christ is “For You”. His love is “For You”. His gifts are “For You.” But every Christian wonders at one time or another whether or not all of this, God, His love, His blessings, really are for him or her. You know what the Gospel says about Jesus’ love, but you are also assailed with other voices that want you to doubt that love – the voice of your own conscience as you consider your sins, the voice of the devil who wants to amplify what conscience says so that you are lead not to repentance but to despair, the voice of the world that calls your faith foolish. This deadly chorus cries out that God surely can’t be for you. And yet the Gospel says very clearly that Jesus loves you and died for you. But when your feelings and your experiences cry out something different, you find yourself wondering if it’s really true. And if it is true, as it surely is, then how can you be sure about it? How can you know that God is “For You”?

The ancient Israelites must have struggled with the same questions. In the Old Testament lesson you heard today they are just about to cross over the Jordan river into the promised land when Moses addresses them as to the faith God desires to give them and to find in them. At one point Moses says: “The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.” The people’s own recollection of history and of their own experiences in the wilderness, could have been interpreted in a completely different way by them, and probably was by many of them. Where Moses proclaims God’s love to them, they see only trouble and wrath and hardship. The Lord chose Abraham, but then caused him to leave his homeland and his family and go to a foreign land, and to trust in a promise that he would not live to see fulfilled. The Lord sent the offspring of Abraham down into Egypt where after a brief period of prosperity they were enslaved and suffered for some 400 years. The Lord at last raised up Moses to lead the people of Israel out of their captivity, but instead of taking them directly into the land promised to Abraham, caused them to wander around in the desert for 40 years until the generation that came out of Egypt as adults had died off. And now as their children were about to enter into Canaan, a land they would have to take by force of arms, they hear again the message that God loves them. And many of them must have wondered if God really was “for them”.

And yet the Lord God had shown His love for them throughout all of their trials and hardships. He had called Abraham out of the land of Ur in order to make a great nation of Him, and in order to fulfill His promise of sending the Messiah to save mankind. He had sent the children of Israel into Egypt to save them from famine, and though they ended up being enslaved there, the Lord kept them and blessed them, so that by the time Moses leads them over the Jordan they are “as the stars of heaven in multitude.” Yes even in this darkest period of their collective memory God was bringing about good for them. Moreover He brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand, gave them the wealth of Egypt to bring with them, brought them through the Red Sea in safety while destroying their pursuers in the same waters, fed them with heavenly bread for forty years and provided them with water in the desert. And above all He provided for the forgiveness of their sins by giving them the Tabernacle and the liturgy of the sacrifice. And these to whom Moses spoke had seen the Lord’s presence among them and had received His blessings in a very direct and tangible way, so that Moses can say to them: “He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.” Surely God was for Israel and for each person in Israel. He explicitly stated His love for them. He proved His love for them by pouring love out upon them even in what felt to them like the worst of times. And His love would continue to be poured out upon them in the promised land and later in the sending of His Son as their Savior. If you were an ancient Israelite you could say for certain that God was “For You”.

But looking out from this pulpit, I do not see any ancient Israelites here today. So what about you? Is God for you or not? Your life at times may seem to testify that God is not for you, but against you. When you find yourself being treated as an outcast by your classmates or find yourself the brunt of their jokes; when you are rejected by one whom you care for deeply, or even just by one whom you think cute and interesting. When you are persecuted for being a Christian by your friends and maybe even by your teachers; when you see one of your parents or grandparents or someone else you love dying; you may well wonder is God really “for me”?

God is certainly for you, even in the most difficult times. Your conscience may accuse you of being a terrible sinner unworthy of God’s love. Your life may cry out to you that God has abandoned you or is perhaps punishing you. But Christ cries out even more powerfully with His Gospel and with His love. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Yes God has sent to you and to the whole world a new Moses; one who not only speaks about the promises of God, but who is the fulfillment of those promises; one who is not only God’s prophet, but is God’s Son. His having been sent is the living expression of God’s love for all people. His having become the propitiation for our sins is the enactment of that love. And what is that about, being the propitiation for our sins, that is about being the atoning sacrifice, that is about death and blood, that is about the cross. But in that sending and propitiation is found our forgiveness and life. Jesus said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” And so just as with the ancient Israelites, God has explicitly stated His love for you. And He has proven His love through what He has done.

But how can you know for sure that you are on the receiving end of these promises? How can you know that you are included here, especially when there are so many who are part of the world, but have not received Christ’s grace? Look not only at what God has done for all, but also at what He has done for you individually. That which God has accomplished in Christ Jesus, our salvation, after all, is given to each one of us and applied to us individually. Have you been baptized? If you can answer “yes” then you know that what Christ has done has been given to you and that God really is “for you”. Here you have crossed the Red Sea from bondage and death into freedom and life. Here you are sealed with God’s name. Here you are washed from your sins and given eternal salvation. Jesus has promised it after all, and has sealed His promise with His own death. This is why Luther anchors baptism first of all in the promises of God. He writes in the Small Catechism: “What does Baptism give or profit?” It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. “Which are such words and promises of God?” Christ, our Lord, says in the last chapter of Mark: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” If you are baptized you have proof that God is “for you”. God is not tricking or deceiving you here. Do not doubt, but believe Him and trust His promise.

And having taken you from the wilderness of your own Egypt in Baptism, He also feeds and nourishes you on your way. He gives you the living heavenly manna of His own flesh and His own blood. Is God for you in this? Of course He is. Again Luther quotes Jesus words in the Catechism: “What is the benefit of such eating and drinking?” That is shown us by these words, ‘Given and shed for you for the remission of sins’; namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words…” This is Jesus own promise to you. Eat and drink Him in faith, and believe what He says. Know by this also that God is “For You”.

And by these things you can know that in all things this is true: that God, His Son, His love, His gifts, are all “for you”. He has given His Word and that cannot be broken. His love cannot be broken, for Christ has died and rose again to prove it, enact it, and fulfill it.

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you…?” He requires you to believe. That’s it. Just trust Him. Just believe Him. And such belief looks to Him for all good and all blessings. Such belief loves Him in return. Such belief loves others too for His sake. But these are not additional requirements. They are simply the results of believing and of receiving God’s love and living in it. Hard times will certainly come. Your faith will be tested. But remember that all of these things will eventually pass away. Christ’s love never will. Believe Him and trust Him. In all times He is “For You”; to whom be all honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, to life everlasting.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

by The Rev. William Cwirla

The Light of the world hangs in darkness. The Light no darkness can overcome is plunged into the darkness. The Splendor of the Father’s light who makes our daylight lucid bright is swallowed up into black hole of the world’s sin and death. On a Friday – the day man was made, the day God spoke His “very good” over all creation. Between Noon and three pm – the bright hours of the day. This is good Friday. Behold, it was “very good.”

He is the beloved Son, the only-begotten of the Father, God enfleshed in humanity, yet He cries out as one damned by God in the miserable isolation of your sin and death. This hell on earth is your hell which He bears for you, what you deserve for what you’ve done and for who you are. He has become your sin, the ultimate Substitute Sinner in place of sinners, the Sacrifice, so that you in Him might become the righteousness of God.

“While we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly.” For you. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For you. While we were still enemies we were reconciled to God by this one dark death on a Friday afternoon between Noon and three.

Would you be willing to die for another? Perhaps you would. Maybe there’s a little super-hero in you. If the cause were just, if the person were noble, if the time were fight, perhaps you would. Would you be willing to die for your enemy, your slanderer, your betrayer, one who would wish you dead?

In the world of religion, you climb up to your god; in the faith of the cross, your God comes down to you. In the world of religion, you die for your god. You might even take a few of your enemies along with you into death, thereby ensuring your place in paradise. But in the faith of the cross, your God dies for you. In the world of religion, you must make peace with your god. In the faith of Jesus, your God makes peace with you while you are still His enemy.

Eli, eli lama sabachthani? The first verse of Psalm 22. The prayer of the God-forsaken believer. He trusts in God and yet is abandoned by God. And in His abandonment, he asks why. Jesus prays it in Aramaic, His mother tongue, as He learned it from His youth. It’s the question on the lips of every sufferer. Why? Why, do you let the innocent suffer? Why have you forsaken me in the hour of my need? Jesus asks the question for all of us, for all of humanity, and receives only the silence of the darkness. There is no adequate answer to this question, in spite of all our attempts to fill in dark silence with the noise of our speculations.

There is only faith, trust in the One who meets us in the darkness of our own death and says, “Trust me. I am with you to forgive you, to save you, to bless you.”

He drinks the sour, bitter cup. Jesus told His disciples He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until He drank it new in the kingdom of heaven. He drinks the bitter cup of wine long gone sour, so that you might drink the sweet, new wine of His blood poured out to save you.

He dies, forcefully, intentionally, with a shout not a whimper. This is His victory, His hour of power, His glory. This is His “jihad,” His holy war alone to fight, and in His death He conquers.

This is salvation’s time and place – on a cross on Friday between Noon and Three – where God in the flesh hung in the darkness suspended between heaven and earth to save fallen humanity. You have peace with God in this one, dark death. You have access to God’s undeserved kindness. You have hope, a bright future in a dying world; you are already glorified at the right hand of the Father in Christ the Son.

You are given to rejoice even in your sufferings. Yes, you heard that correctly: rejoice in your sufferings. Jesus is not a detour around suffering; He’s the only way through it, for He has gone through it. Your pain is absorbed in His pain and redeemed for good. Your sufferings in the cross-pierced hands of Jesus are the raw material of endurance, character, and hope. There is no other way. There is no such thing as a baptized believer of character, endurance, and hope who has not suffered and despaired of God in the present. You will have your own dark day, your less than happy Fridays when we see nothing, hear nothing, when God seems absent, when there literally is nothing for you to do but trust in the Promise of baptismal water, of bodied bread and bloodied wine, and words of forgiveness.

And there He is for for you, making all things new, reconciling all things to the Father, embracing you in a death that will not let you go. In His darkness is your light; in His death is your life; in His lonely forsakenness, is your acceptance by God and your peace.

Good Friday. Good for you.