Donald Twietmeyer Funeral Sermon, John  6:68

I bring you grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, Amen.

God’s Word for our comfort this morning is Don’s confirmation verse: John 6, verse 68, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Let us all pray: Thanks to Thee, O Christ victorious! Thanks to Thee, O Lord of Life! Death hath now no power o’er us, Thou hast conquered in the strife. Thanks because Thou didst arise And hast opened Paradise! None can fully sing the glory Of the resurrection story. Amen.

As Don’s health began its long decline, one of things that was frequently sought was advice: advice and a word from the doctors caring for him. Don would keep track of hospitalizations: how long he stayed out and how soon he was back in. He’d say “I guess the Lord wasn’t ready for me!” and then chuckle, “I’m still here!”

Not long ago he was looking at a possible surgery. He had his knee done, and made it through that, so what were the chances, how did the cardiologist feel? Could he make it through it? The answer was “no”. His congestive heart failure had reached that point. His heart was too weak.

We like to think that doctors know everything and that they can cure anybody, but neither is the case all the time. And so even doctors seek the advice of specialists: the advice of the cardiac specialist, the renal specialist, the liver specialist, and the list probably can go on.

We know that the more acute the situation, the more specialized the advice needs to be. And it was not only the word of medical personal that Don so often desired. Don would call my phone and let me know where he was. He would keep me right-up to date. Just like I was a close relative. In the hospital, or back home. And in either place, the Word of God was sought and administered. The Word of comfort. The Word of assurance. The Word of peace.

And of all the words shared over time –and it became ever more obvious with time that Don was growing weaker –it was the Word of God that mattered the most to Don, that brought him the most encouragement. oh, we’d talk in the hospital –I didn’t have to lead the conversation necessarily –but when it came time to pray: Don listened and was attentive.

It is that God’s Word that brings us to this time and place. To this hour of Donald’s funeral. To this House of God, and later to the cemetery. It is God’s Word that brings us here, and again we look to it for comfort, and assurance, and peace.

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

These words of the Apostle Peter, spoken on behalf of the disciples to Jesus, and they are also the words of Don’s confirmation verse. These are our Words of comfort this morning.

At this time of sadness, we turn to the Word of God. That is what Christians do. For everything for the child of God begins with the Word. John, the same writer of Don’s confirmation verse, starts his Gospel by saying,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

We know, of course, that “He,” is Jesus. Jesus, who at creation made all things, He is the Word that was spoken, who made all things, who became a human flesh.

We Lutherans have a high regard for the Word. We’re not ashamed to admit this, and we are rather proud to boast in it. We regard God’s Word highly, and  additionally, we are also unique in this way: we also regard preaching highly.

For we know that the Word that we need is the Word that comes from outside us. The preached Word is unfiltered, unaltered. When we gather to hear the proclaimed Word of God we have no choice but to hear what God has to say to us. And that Word tells us of sin, of death and of hell. We would avoid these truths and dwell only in the glory of it all if the Word didn’t come to us externally.

This is exactly the context of our Scripture from John Chapter 6. Jesus has been preaching about Himself and has been telling His followers that He is the Christ, the Son of God. He invites them to believe in Him. This faith was to be an intimate faith: an exclusive faith. They would have to come to Him through the Means of Salvation.

We know that this turned off many of Jesus’ listeners, and in the end all who remained with Him were just the Twelve. The Evangelist John writes,

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.  “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

The Christian Church imitates the example set here by St. Peter and says: “To whom shall we go? Where are we to turn? When life is unfair and kicks us when we’re already down. When friends desert us and we find ourselves alone. When sickness comes. When our consciences are haunted by past sins and failures. When death is knocking at the door. “Lord, I know no one but you. I know of no other message: You have words of life. Your Word has the proper ring. It is impressive and vigorous. It delivers from eternal death, from sin, and from all misery.”

Several times during his life a similar type question came to our beloved Don. At Baptism he was asked if he renounced the devil and all his works and all his ways. Through parents, sponsors and the Church we reply, “I do!” At Confirmation the same questions are asked, and the blessings of Baptism are affirmed and Christ is confessed. Again the same “I believe” is said.

So, also, in death, all of us may, rather, must, turn again to Christ and say, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Don knew how to rally. Perhaps it was the military man in Him. That Korea is again so much in the news these days makes us take notice. What will that nut running that country try and do? At least Don doesn’t have to worry about it. And he did his part 60 years ago!

But sin, death, the devil are just like that. They won’t leave us alone while we are in this life. We might think that we’ve come to a peace with them but it’s never signed. It’s more like a stand-off. They want us.

Only Jesus has the victory and vanquishes all our enemies. In John’s Gospel Jesus also says this, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

These things pleased Don. The prayers of the Church on his behalf pleased him. The Word spoken to him comforted him. The Lord’s Supper, which he frequented, strengthened him. And all along it was the same Word of eternal life.

This is the faith that carried Don through this life. You saw at home, you learned it as he brought you to this church. His love for you, Donna– and for all your family, was a natural part of his faith.

I am not sure how to bring this into the funeral sermon; and yet it would not be Don’s funeral sermon for me if I didn’t mention it. I am talking about the wine. Don had some pretty old wine he would to share with me. (I mean old!)

No doubt there was more than its actual taste that made that wine taste good to him. It had memories attached to it. It took him back to happy times and people and occasions he cherished. And I would have to sample it. Several samples.

And how much more is the Word of God which refreshes eternal! The forgiveness of sins breaths life into our weary souls. The knowledge of the resurrection fills us with strength for the day. The hope of a joyful reunion gives us faith to make it through this hour and the tomorrows.

Today you can show your love to Don by following his example and remembering his faith. Not that his faith can save you, but by imitating his faith, by finding God’s house regularly, by approaching this table frequently, by taking in the Words of life.

Don did not earn heaven. He was a sinner. He needed Jesus. But he also heard God’s Word and at the last that Word carried him through.

Jesus says, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. (John 5:24-25)

Friends, do as Don did: hear; and you too will receive the same as Don has: eternal life. For Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Amen.

Confirmation 2013 John 15:5

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

This morning’s text for our Confirmation sermon is the words of Jesus recorded by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, the fifth verse there.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Let us all pray: Lord, in loving contemplation, Fix our hearts and eyes on Thee, Till we taste Thy full salvation, And unveiled, Thy glories see. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ –and I am especially speaking to you, our 2013 Confirmation Class,

On the night in which Jesus was betrayed our Lord said a whole lot of things to His disciples gathered there, as they were, with Him, upstairs, in that upper room in Jerusalem. He said words to teach them, so that they would know about His approaching death and what it would mean. He gave them a new commandment, that they should love one another as He loved them. He prayed for them, asking the Father to help and protect them through the coming hours of His passion which would culminate with His death on the cross and burial. He spoke the words instituting the Holy Supper which you also will be partaking of this coming Maundy Thursday at your First Communion. And He spoke in a new way to them –He spoke to them as friends. Indeed, he called them that: His friends.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends. (John 15:15)

Jesus passion and death meant a lot of things, and it meant a change in their relationship, which would give them the privileges of being friends with God. Because of the cross and the atonement He would make with the Father on their behalf, and, indeed, on behalf of the whole world, they were no longer to be considered servants, but now friends; all because of what He was about to do.

My dear class, not so long ago you entered into a new relationship –a friendship –with Your heavenly Father. It happened at your Baptism. When you were Baptized, God called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light. He gave You a new birth. You were born again. By water and the Spirit. He saved you by the washing away of Your sins. He called you by name, and you are His child for all eternity.

To use another image, the one in our text this morning, you were grafted to the vine and became a branch to Jesus. Since then you have been learning about these things, and about a whole lot of other things. We heard some of what you have learned out of the Bible and the Small Catechism last week during questioning. How well you learned your answers! How confident you appeared! You have been given a wonderful start in your life-long journey of faith as God’s child. You are each a lively and promising branch on the Vine.

When Jesus sat down with His disciples that first Maundy Thursday, He also told them about the Father and the Holy Spirit. There is a great deal in John’s Gospel beginning at chapter 14 and continuing through chapter 17 that teaches us how that Jesus came from the Father, and that He was returning to the Father, and that He was sending the Holy Spirit. These words are very revealing. They tell us that the Father gave Jesus to us so that we can return to Him as His children. Since Jesus has promised to be with us always –and He is! –He does us the highest good!

We’re told that Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit so that we might know Him and believe in Him, and be brought to the Father. This is a wonderful description of the work of the Trinity in each of you. You were baptized in the name of the Triune God. And today you will confess your faith in the same Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This confession makes you a part of the vine. How wonderful! Only holy people may be connected to Jesus. This work of making you holy the Holy Spirit does through the Means of Salvation.

The Word of God declares you holy when you repent of your sins. Baptism has washed you clean of your sins and given you faith to believe. The Lord’s Supper gives you the very body and the very blood of Christ which was shed on the cross and broken. That blood is sprinkled on your soul just as it was sprinkled on the Old Testament children of Israel.

The writer of Hebrews writes,

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

 It is in the purifying action of Jesus’ blood that you are cleansed and made to bear fruit. In this way you are also the fruit of Jesus’ passion.

[And] the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,        faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Of these Jesus will give you without limit whenever you ask of Him. I pray He gives this to you now and always in overwhelming abundance.

And, today, my dear class, you enter into a different relationship with the rest of us as you are confirmed and invited to partake of the Lord’s Supper here at the Lord’s altar at Immanuel. You will kneel today and receive a blessing because of the confession you will make and the promises you will speak, and then you will hear me invite you to take part in all the privileges as communicant members of Immanuel Ev. Lutheran Church of Frankentrost, Michigan.

 While confirmation is not a Sacrament, it is a holy thing, because we do it with the Word of God and prayer. That is how we sanctify our day, our lives, and ourselves to God

There is no higher gift from God than the seal and token of forgiveness given in the Sacrament. That’s why we have withheld it from you until now. So in a sense what we are doing here this morning is in fulfillment of what Jesus promised so long ago to His disciples and to all who take up the cross and follow Him. Here we see the fruits of being attached.

The evil one will try to detach you after this hour. He will do everything in his power to convince you otherwise. He will try to pull you lose, dry you up and cut you off. He won’t succeed as long as you remain attached to Jesus.

He has given you the Lord’s supper to remain attached to Him. You have your Bible, the Catechism, prayers, and hymnal. These will help. You have our prayers. These will help you, too. You have Jesus who is doing everything to keep you attached. Remain in Him. For apart from Him you can do nothing.

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

4 Lent C 2 Corinthians 5:16–21 Regards in Christ

I bring you grace and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus. Amen.

God’s Word for our glad hearing and our glad learning is the Epistle Lesson for this Fourth Sunday in Lent as was read, from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 16–21.

Let us all pray, “Love caused Your incarnation; Love brought you down to me. Your thirst for my salvation Procured my liberty. Oh, love beyond all telling, That led you to embrace In love, all love excelling, Our lost and fallen race. Amen.” (O Lord, How shall I Meet You? Lutheran Service Book 334)

Dear fellow pilgrims traveling to the Paschal Feast,

Our second reading for today is from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. That alone should get our attention. For as we all know, the congregation in Corinth had quite a reputation.

The location of that ancient Greek city should warn us of trouble. It was served by two harbors; to use a good Greek word, it was very cosmopolitan. Yet it was a religious city, too. In Corinth there were temples to the old Greek Olympian gods and a huge, newer, temple dedicated to the worship of the emperor. The business of Corinth, and therefore also the source of a greater part of its wealth was in connection with the pagan idolatry there, and the associated temple prostitution. Paul truly came to a mission field when he came to the ancient city of Corinth.

The reception he received in the synagogue was mixed and he was rejected by most of the Jews there. Not unusual. Nonetheless, the Lord told Paul in a vision not to be afraid and not to be silent. He stayed there 18 months –this was on his second missionary trip.

Soon after leaving Paul decided he would return, but on his second trip there he was not well received and he found a strong opposition to the Gospel and also to him personally. Paul left again, and receiving reports that were disturbing, he wrote his First Letter to the Corinthians, in which he dealt very strongly with them. It is this First Letter that has formed the our general impression of the Corinthian Christians.

Luther writes,

Things got so wild and disorderly that everyone wanted to be an expert and do the  teaching and make what he pleased of the gospel, the sacrament, and faith. Meanwhile they let the main thing drop–namely, that Christ is our salvation, righteousness, and redemption–as if they had long since outgrown it. This truth can never remain intact when people begin to imagine that they are wise and know it all.

When reports were still not good, Paul wrote another letter which we do not have–one that was done in tears. It seemed to work. He then wrote again, in anticipation of another visit, and encouraged by the reports of repentance by the Corinthians. This was his Second Letter to the Corinthians. It isn’t as harsh in tone as his First Letter, but there was still much work to be done. And it is in chapter five of Second Corinthians that our Epistle Reading is from today, and beginning at verse 16, Paul tells them that he no longer regards them according to the flesh.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

What does St. Paul mean by saying, “we regard no one according to the flesh”? It is simply means not to regard a person, to think of, to hold a person in view of their human frailty and weakness. Not to recall sins and past mistakes. To forget as well as forgive. It is all these things and much more! It is to see a fellow believer as one who has been forgiven by Jesus and restored to God. As one who, on account of Christ’s death on the cross, has been justified before God and made righteous, so that the way we view each other is not by the things that have been previously been said or done, but in view of what Christ has done, making each what Paul calls here, “a new creation.”

Paul would understand this completely. One of the greatest problems at Corinth was just this: that a number of the people there in the church were against Paul and were effectively arguing and turning people against him and away from Christ by pointing out his weaknesses.

But what is even more amazing is that Paul himself admits that one time he regarded Christ in this way, “according to the flesh” –but not any longer! This can only refer to the time when Paul was a Pharisee and raged against Christ and the church and sought to bring an end to the faith; persecuting the believers and even approving of Stephen’s death.

Paul knows how things can go and he himself confesses he was scandalized by Christ. And it was because he (Paul) regarded Christ according to the flesh. But Paul learned that rather than in worldly wisdom and strength, Christ–who in all weaknesses, was, what the world regards as foolishness and indeed, shameful, Christ–was made by God our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:27-30)

So he says,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

These words should comfort each of us today and every day. We’re not the same old self to God. We’re a new person: newly created in Christ. And even if we don’t see it, and it isn’t apparent to us now, it will be one day in the resurrection!

Another good verse for this is Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Oh, my dear friends, if we only would listen to these words of the holy Apostle this day and resolve for ourselves to regard one other in the same manner! To no longer regard each other according to the flesh, but to see each other differently. To no longer judge on terms of what this world approves and disapproves. To see each other as Christ sees each of us: forgiven, made new, reconciled.

For Paul goes on,

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Now, while this is all very necessary for each Christian to regard one another not in fleshly terms but in sprit, or heavenly terms. The important thing, as Luther points out, is that we don’t drop main thing: that Christ is our salvation, righteousness, and redemption. We may desire peace and harmony in the congregation, and that is a good thing. But not at the expense of truth and especially at a loss of the preaching of Christ and the cross and our redemption.

A pastor knows this better than anyone. For the office of the gospel is the highest and most comforting of all works and is for the profit and benefit of men’s consciences. The law has its use, but does no one any good, as far as it always condemns.

So it is extremely important to regard the servant and man of God in our midst in these terms. Yet as we read further, the Corinthians were still being tempted and persuaded not to do this, so that Paul had to defend his apostleship and also himself and say,

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Here is a reminder that the righteousness of God is ours through the ministers of reconciliation whom God has given to us. This is a hard thing to accept even in our day. And most don’t.

It all comes back to whether you are willing to give in to the devil’s temptation to regard, based on a fleshly opinion,  your pastor, and reject what he has to bring as an ambassador from God! Such rejection, especially of the pastor’s authority is a sin –a sin for which full atonement has been made by the blood of Jesus who gives eternal life to all who repent and believe on his name.

We’ve seen the level of discussion and how our nation has reacted to the killing of our Ambassador Christopher Stephens to Libya in Benghazi! Do we doubt that God is any less concerned about those whom Paul here calls, “ambassadors for Christ”?

Paul is pointing out the fact that are relationship with one another in the church is a pretty big indicator of our relationship with God. And this includes not just our relatives and friends, but also those who come to us and are sent to us.

Jesus came among us as one not to be regarded. Isaiah says,

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

Yet, Isaiah also begins like so many pastors “Who has believed what they heard from us?” (Isaiah 53:1)

On this Fourth Sunday in Lent the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians a second time, reminds us of the importance of regarding one another in the same as Christ regards each of us. That the message of reconciliation between God and us in Christ applies also to us, and that this has been entrusted to pastors to bring to God’s people as they make known Christ and God’s gifts of forgiveness and his grace and the peace we have with him in Christ Jesus our Lord.

May these words work on every heart and mind so that what Paul said in closing to the Corinthians may also apply to each of us that, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14) Amen.

2 Lent C Luke 13:31-35 “Divine Desire”

I bring you grace and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus. Amen.

God’s Word for our glad hearing and our glad learning is the Gospel Lesson for this Second Sunday in Lent, as was already read from Luke, chapter 13.

Let us all pray, “Love caused Your incarnation; Love brought you down to me. Your thirst for my salvation Procured my liberty. Oh, love beyond all telling, That led you to embrace In love, all love excelling, Our lost and fallen race. (O Lord, How shall I Meet You? Lutheran Service Book 334)

Jesus knew what it meant when his enemies started acting like friends –for He Himself knew what was in man (John 2:25), and with friends like these Pharisees, who needs enemies?

Whether they were trying to be helpful and warn Jesus, or not. Or, whether they were bringing a message on behalf of Herod, or not. Or, whether they simply wanted to scare Jesus away from their jurisdiction, or not. We really don’t know. In the end, Jesus wasn’t going to change for anyone; not even the fox Herod. But He was intent on going up to Jerusalem, and to suffer and to die.

We are now two weeks into Lent. Last Sunday we heard of Jesus severe temptations by the devil at the beginning of His ministry. He did not give in to any of them. He feared and loved and trusted in God above all others. He stayed the course. He was the chosen One, the Messiah. The Son of god who was come into the world for the redemption of all people.

Now today we see another angel on things –that is what Jesus had to go through to save us. And for many people, including many Christians, there comes now a warning. Christ would include you in His Kingdom and share with you the benefits of His death and resurrection, but you will not have anything to do with Him.

And as I said, this message is even more for those inside the church, than outside.

But the worst was to happen among His own people. Jesus predicts His own death. Now we’re hearing about what’s to come later this Lent. Now we’re beginning to see that Jesus knew what His fate was. Now we begin to realize what Jesus went willing on our behalves.

For He will go to Jerusalem. That was the fate of the prophets before Him, and it was also His as a prophet. Indeed, more than a prophet! As the Messiah He would go there to Jerusalem to suffer and die: where they kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to it.

And even if he was issuing threats against Jesus, Herod wouldn’t stop Him. Herod would have no influence as to whether Jesus lived or die. He may have killed John, but that was only because God had allowed it. But he wouldn’t touch Jesus, because the Father would not allow that Herod should touch Him.

It would be Gentiles to whom He would be delivered. And they would mock Him and shamefully treat Him and spit upon Him. And after flogging him, kill him, and on the third day he would rise. Luke 18:32–33

Jesus was on a mission from God and that mission was the salvation of the world. There would be no greater mission in all of human history.

From eternity, God saw the wretched state of sinful mankind. God knew that our first parents would disobey and fall into sin, bringing the whole human race under the curse of God’s wrath and punishment.

He knew that each of us would need saving if we are to spend eternity with Him. The very fact that we have heard about the goodness of Jesus and are here in this place this morning shows us God’s grace towards each of us individually. That’s something wonderful that we shouldn’t take lightly or not consider thoughtfully. God has come to each of us by the Gospel.

Do you take His grace lightly and respond to it as Jerusalem did her prophets? Take the Third Commandment. It is also about the prophetic Word of God. It says to remember the Sabbath day.

It more than occasionally supporting the church, or coming into the church once a year.

It means that God and His matter are foremost in our lives. That we regard those sent to us from God. Who speak God’s word to us. It means to support the kingdom of God and His Word regularly.

We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it. Is that a one once a year deal? Or, when I feel like it? Or, when it only when I feel it to be agreeable?

The Pharisees, who came to Jesus thought of themselves as pretty religious. They were quick to let others see and hear all the remarkable things they did when they made their sacrifices, when they prayed, and when they helped the poor.

But they were also just as quick to reject the Word of God and Jesus who was sent to them because He pointed out that they needed more than these things –that they needed Him, and the continued indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in order to believe in Him and be saved. Jesus said to them, “I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

What did that mean to those people? It meant that even the most religious people of Jesus day were unable to make it into heaven without Him. And those Pharisees hated Jesus for saying it.

Yet don’t we often go about confidently, relying pretty much on our own good works? Would any of us want to have our offerings and prayer time and hours we spend in church related activity un-credited from our over-all spiritual report card. Doesn’t each of us some-what think that being a pretty good person in our own eyes and the fact that there are a lot worse people out there than we are count for something? Perhaps count a lot?  Maybe, since there is not much else to our spiritual life are we even depending just on this one thing: that God thinks pretty highly of us?

Well, Jesus doesn’t think so, and He uses the picture of a mother hen and her brood of chicks to tell us how it is. Either we are found safe and secure nestled under the wings of God or we are to suffer the fate of chicks that wander off to be killed by a fox.

You see, there is irony in the image Jesus uses here of a hen and chicks and fox. Certainly a hen is not stronger or more clever than a fox. But the chicks are safer under her wings than anywhere else. Surrounded by God shielded by Him we can be no safer. Outside His church we are at danger at all times.

And Jesus is making use of the same Psalm from the Temptation last week which the devil misapplied concerning tempting God and the angel’s protection.

He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.Psalm 91:11-12

Only this time verse 4,

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. Psalm 91:4

Yet there is one hindrance when it comes to the salvation of a man’s soul. That is the man himself. “I stand at the door and knock,” says Jesus in Revelation chapter 3.

And at that invitation all excuses are useless. You can’t even blame the preacher. Before our Gospel today Jesus had warned about the narrowness of the door to Salvation.

Someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, ”Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see     Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you       yourselves cast out.

And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:23-30)

We could do no better than rethink these matters, especially during this season of Lent, with Holy Week and Easter approaching. Do not make it that Christ died in vain for you.

That would be a terrible thing. Listen to His pleas that you would find shelter under His wings.; that He wants to protect you and keep you safe.

Don’t think this will happen automatically, just because you’re in the shadow of this building, or a lifelong member of this church. And don’t think that His grace isn’t for you because you are a new comer and not one of this church’s chicks. Jesus is willing to bring all under His outstretched arms. He wants all people to be saved.

There are no exclusions when it comes to the repentant sinner wanting forgiveness. It is only the arrogant, and the proud and those who trust in themselves, like the Pharisees, who don’t make it.

And if hearing that angers you, then you better rethink these things and hear Jesus’ warning.

But perhaps we best be reminded what our Christian Questions and their Answers say –what we all learned from the Catechism, about making use of the Lord’s Supper.

But what should you do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the Sacrament?

To such a person no better advice can be given than this: first, he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood. Then he should believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7.

Second, he should look around to see whether he is still in the world, and remember that   there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the Scriptures say in John 15-16 and in 1 John     2 and 5.

Third, he will certainly have the devil also around him, who with his lying and murdering day and night will let him have no peace, within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16; 1 Peter 5; Ephesians 6; and 2 Timothy 2.

Finally, comes this warning, from Galatians 6,  “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that he will also reap.”

Amen.

Transfiguration Sunday Luke 9:28–36

I bring you grace and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus. Amen.

God’s Word for our glad hearing and our glad learning is the Gospel Lesson for this Sunday of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, from Luke, chapter 9,

Let us all pray: All glory, Jesus, be to Thee For this Thy glad epiphany; Whom with the Father we adore And Holy Ghost forevermore. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ,

One of the oddest things I’ve ever experienced in my time in the ministry happened when I wasn’t a pastor at all, but as a vicar. It happened while stepping into the pulpit to deliver the sermon only to look out at a good number of the people sitting in the pews wearing sunglasses. I had never seen that before.

Yet, when I inquired about it later it made perfect sense. It was about this time of the year –when the lengthening of days becomes noticeable. The first service at my vicarage congregation was earlier than this one, because we had five services. Our first service was at 7:30 a.m. The church faced east, and almost the entire east wall was a stained glass window, so that at that crucial time, when the sun first came up, it shone rather brightly into the church. Thus the need for sun glasses.

And the theme of that window that caused the need for sunglasses? The Transfiguration of Jesus. The very same event that we hear about in our Gospel Lesson this morning. Jesus and three of His disciples, Peter, James and John, on a mountain top and His being changed before them. His face and clothes dazzling brightly. And Moses and Elijah appeared with Him.

What a wonderfully glorious thing that must have been for them. The Gospel says that Peter was so taken by what He saw that He started to say senseless things. But mostly He wanted to stay up there on the mountain with Jesus and Moses and Elijah. For them it must have been the closest thing to being in heaven.

Heaven is where Jesus is. After coming down from that mountain, fulfilling all that was written about Him by Moses and the prophets such as Elijah, Jesus was crucified, died and was buried.

The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. And when He left the disciples visibly, He promised He would be with us for all time.

When we hear God’s holy Word preached to us. Jesus is there. When we recall the promises of God that He fulfilled in Jesus, especially the sending of Savior to forgive us all our sins: Jesus is there. When we believe the Words of forgiveness spoken to us and applied to us: Jesus is there.

The people of the Old Testament, before Jesus came to earth, had men like Moses and Elijah to listen to. As we heard in our Old Testament Lesson this morning, the people thought a lot about Moses. Yet, because of a moment of doubt and disobedience, Moses was not to enter the Promised Land. He had to stand and look in on it. All of the Law Moses recorded –the Ten Commandments –and the religious laws he handed down from God to the people to do –all these could not even save Moses.

Nothing of the Law written down, or followed to the exact dotting of every “i”, or the crossing of every “t”, can save anyone. Not Moses, not the God’s people of the Old Testament, and not even the Peter and the other disciples. They needed One more faithful, as our Epistle describes Him.

They needed Jesus.

Even Elijah had his moments. God did great miracles through Elijah and yet Elijah would doubt God’s Word and God’s way’s. Through Elijah God had defeated the false god Baal prophets, demonstrating with fire from heaven that he was the one true God. No prophet since Moses had had a more dramatic and convincing proof that God was God almighty and the only true God for Elijah and all the people to believe and worship.

But what happened immediately afterwards? Elijah hid himself because he was afraid of the wicked wife of King Ahab, Jezebel. Elijah knew his mortality and the rage of the his enemies and these were what he came to fear most, not God who had caused the idolaters to be slain.

God came to Elijah and spoke to Him. Not in thunder or earthquake but in a whisper. God sent Elijah back telling Him that there were indeed those who had not worshipped Baal. They were faithful to God and would hear Elijah speak God’s Law and promises to them. Soon after that God took Elijah to heaven in a chariot of fire. He did not die.

No doubt then that remembering these things and much more were what made Jesus’ Transfiguration for impressive for Peter and James and John. They were on a Mountain top.

The Glory of God signified His presence. Jesus is changed and now appears with the greatest Law giver and the greatest prophet. He takes His place as one greater than even Moses and Elijah!

A cloud envelops the whole scene. God speaks! These men knew what it meant to be in the presence of God. They knew that no one can see God and live. Before them was God’s glory.

They were sinners. They needed Jesus.

Jesus, who is our High Priest before God. Who intercedes for us. He prays to the Father on our behalf. He pleads our case. Goes between. Showing His life and death as full satisfaction for our sins. And He is able to do so because He is alive and ascended and ever-living.

Jesus is not like Mohammed, or the Buddha, who had to be buried, never to be seen from again.

Even Moses was buried. And Elijah was transported in fire.

No, Jesus lives and reigns to all eternity because the father gave His life back to Him. Jesus pleased the Father. Jesus raised Himself back from the dead because He is God.

That makes Him deserving of our worship and praise. His Words are true that He said about Himself. And added to them is the testimony of the Father. To these are also added the Spirit’s testimony concerning Jesus through the apostles.

We might at times think we needed a special revelation of God’s presence and glory in order to keep believing in Him. We may even get like the Jewish readers that the writer of Hebrews was trying to convince not to go back to Moses and the Law because they didn’t feel the presence of God in their new faith in Jesus. But don’t do it!

Don’t ever let yourself be persuaded that there is any other way than by Jesus to come to the Father. He is the Chosen Son of God. He has been made our own High Priest. He came from God and returned from God. And He will come again to take us to live with Him in heaven.

Our Collect we prayed this morning talked about the mysteries of the faith and our one day being with Jesus in heaven. That’s what the Transfiguration of Jesus is about. Jesus is the One. The Holy One of God. The Son of God come into the world to save mankind. And all who listen to Him will be saved. Amen.