The Fulfillment

"Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down." -Matthew 24:2 

The temple buildings must have been impressive. After all, this is the only occasion where the disciples came to Jesus and pointed something out. They never came to him and said, “Check out this tree,” or “Check out this snake,” or Have you ever seen a well like this.” At least not that we know from the holy evangelists. But they did point out the temple buildings, those magnificent edifices that began with King Solomon, ended with King Herod, and were utterly destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.

 

It is not as if the One through Whom and by Whom the heavens were made did not know every detail that went into those buildings. As for the disciples themselves, as far as we know, they had no part in using their own hands to build them. It could very well be that, as they spoke and pointed to those buildings, the builders were still at work, putting the finishing touches on them. And of course, there is always cleaning and maintenance to be done.

 

The bottom line however, is that they must have been impressive to the eye. Impressive, even though the Tower of Babel and long since been largely forgotten and the Great Pyramids of Egypt were already weather worn and beaten.

 

This arrangement of matter by human hands, the fashioning and building of temple buildings that are not only meant to endure, but also to glorify God, indeed, were to be the very place on earth where God manifests Himself gloriously in the presence of men. Not just a holy God, but a Holy Holy Holy God Whom no eye has seen or can see directly without the consequence of sudden and eternal death.

 

As for fashioning things with the hands in general, you do that a lot, don’t you? You might not be building the Empire State Building or the St. Louis Arch, but your hands have been busy, haven’t they? So has your mind and body in general. What kind of edifice have you been building?

Take all of your cooking, all of your cleaning, your planting, harvesting, drilling, lifting, exercising, hunting, searching, rearranging, shopping and buying more things to rearrange and lose, your digging, hammering, filing, creating and saving, your talking, planning, collaborating, and everything else you do or have done.

 

What do you come up with? What do you have? Does it even come close to those temple buildings? How about your reputation. Are you trying to build that? How about your body? Are you trying to build that? Your bank account? Your future home? Maybe you cast forth in your mind that time when you can experience what Van Halen sings about: “All the bills are paid. I’ve got it made in the shade.”

 

But you don’t experience that, do you? That garden you dream of, it’s never done. The dream home you want, it’s never complete. You might have that one bill paid, but here comes another one, and it’s bigger. The vanities written of in Ecclesiastes are yours by experience. The struggling and striving never cease.

 

There is a reason for that. You inherited it. It is an unholiness unfit even to draw near to the temple of God let alone look at it or dwell in it. It is your sin.

 

Are you a sinner? “Yes,” you say, “I am a sinner, but so is everybody else.” You take comfort in that don’t you? That, since everyone else is a sinner and we’re all in the same boat, at least you don’t have to fear anyone else condemning you since they are right there with you, right?

 

You forget, however, it is the Holy Holy Holy God Whose temple is being discussed here, and that you, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, must stand before His holy and perfect judgement. Do you think He is impressed with all your work? All your attempts to build an edifice for yourself, whether it is your home or your reputation before God and man, with man coming first?

 

The LORD of heaven and earth declares there is not one stone that will be left stacked upon another. It was true for the temple in Jerusalem the disciples laid their eyes on, and it is true for you even as the Holy Spirit speaks to you through St. Peter only one week ago: “The heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

 

Nothing will be left out of this new arrangement of matter. Nothing you built. Nothing King Solomon or King Herod supervised to be built. Nothing Joseph Son of David the carpenter who taught Jesus the Carpenter built. Nothing any man has ever built, whether it be a great building built by great men, or a Lego town built by a young child, will be left out of the remaking and completion of all things at the Last Day, because that completion will be tied into the LORD of the Heavens and the Earth, Whose intent is not to leave things as they are, but to make them new. New. New, not in a way you can imagine because you, by virtue of your inheritance from Adam, are stuck in the old, but new because the Creator will rearrange things in such a way that no man has yet directly to know.

 

Yet this He has begun and done as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. This He has begun and done in and through His Only Begotten from eternity, and He has done it for you. You need not marvel in any other edifice or have any other edifice. You need not build your own, or struggle on your own, even as before you call, He will answer; and while you are still speaking, He will hear, because from the foundation of the world He ordained to plunge Himself out of pure love into the very heart of the fallen creation you now experience, using His own blood sacrifice to draw you from this  wobbly world of crumbling chaos and into His very presence.

 

That is what He is doing here. That is what He has done by baptizing you into His name. Baptizing you with water. Again as the Holy Spirit says through St. Peter: “By the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” That same water comprehended in the Word of God has been applied to you in such a way that everything Christ Jesus has accomplished in His flesh as a perfect sacrifice of love before the Father has now been delivered to you, concretely and bodily.

 

The demands of the Holy Holy Holy LORD God of Sabaoth have been met in this Christ Jesus, and now they are delivered to you, completely and fully, so that your works need not be considered or worried about, because His works have become yours.

 

No, it does not look like it or feel like it. Why should it? All things are not yet complete. The Gospel has not been preached in all the world. The end has not yet come.

 

And yet the end and the beginning are all comprehended in Christ Jesus, and it is He who has delivered Himself up for your sin and has joined Himself to you, so that your hope, your building, your works, are His, given to you. The tree of the cross is that building most precious. Sweet, and pure. The snake eats dust and his head is crushed. Your food of heaven is brought to you here in the very body and blood of Christ given up for you. Death and the shedding of blood are attached to His name, a death and shedding of blood that completes and satisfies the wrath of God against all sin. This is precisely what you proclaim when you kneel and partake of Him at this altar.

 

You know that no creature could make satisfaction for your sin; your propensity to build your own edifice in honor of yourself. Only Christ Jesus, Whose works are complete, and Whose works are bundled up and delivered here, can do that.

 

As the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed you by His holy and precious blood, purchased and won you by His innocent suffering and death, and as you are justified and righteous by His grace, through faith in His Resurrection, so then, live an orderly and disciplined life in faith and love. Not to justify yourself or build for yourself, but in the sure and certain hope of His perfect righteousness given to you and for you. For even now you live under Him in His Kingdom, in His righteousness, innocence, blessedness and purity.

 

Sure, there seems to be no end to the apparent worries of this life on earth, no lack of things that are incomplete even as lawlessness is aiming to make your heart turn cold — you name it — but none of these worries undo the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus; nor can any or all of them separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Do not give yourself over to pride or despair, but be on your guard and keep on the alert by listening to the Word of Christ and by availing yourself of His Gospel. Hear and heed His Word, receive and trust His good gifts, no matter how you feel.

 

Yes. Enjoy the many good gifts of His Creation, for they are His, and it is good. Receive His benefits in faith and with thanksgiving, sanctified by His Word and prayer. It does no good to “get drunk” on any of His good gifts, to worship or abuse what you receive  daily and richly from His hand, but let your grip on this world be light and easy. Don’t throw it all away, but hold on loosely, and be ready at any time to let go of anything and everything that is not Christ Jesus.

 

After all, look around you, and notice that everything in this world is passing away. This is not your future. This is not your true and permanent home. This is a pilgrimage in a foreign territory.

 

But your dear Father in heaven has opened His heart to you in Christ Jesus, and He has His eye on you in love. His Kingdom is your fatherland. His holy city is your hometown. His house and castle is your real home, and this sanctuary is a simple start, where you are welcome, where you belong. He is with you, here and now, in the Word of the Cross, and in the fruits of that Tree.

 

Thus, dear ones in Christ Jesus, He grants you the strength to escape all perils, to stand before the Son of Man in His glory, justified by His blood and redeemed by His victory, to live by His grace, mercy and peace, both now and forever, even as He has spoken from the Cross for you: “It is finished.”

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The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity 2024
St. John 3:1-15

It comes around every year. That one day of the year that you, together with those in the midst of this congregation who have been catechized and sing the praises of God together week in and week out, that you confess the Athanasian Creed. Obviously it is the longest one of the three ecumenical creeds, the others being the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed.

These creeds are God’s gift to you. They place upon your lips the very same things Adam and Eve knew and believed and were taught, and taught their children, though some did not believe as it is to this day. In fact they embody in the most succinct form what this day in the Church Year is all about: The Holy Trinity. This is the feast of the Holy Trinity.

It would be very tempting to take this occasion and use it to explain The Holy Trinity. To expound upon the doctrine. To show all the things the world inserts that corrupt the proper confession of The Holy Trinity into Whom you were baptized.

But this is not a school class. This is not an education to be received. This is the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life obtained for you by the flesh and blood, the innocent sufferings and death of the Holy Son of God for you. What The Holy Trinity has spoken into your ears this day is hardly a school lesson. It is life itself.

But what has the Holy Trinity spoken into your ears this day?

Based on the first two spoken sentences – the first by Nicodemus, the second by Jesus - it sounds like a non-sequitur. A series of statements that do not follow one another. It just doesn’t make sense.

Listen to these two statements side by side. The first is from Nicodemus, an individual whose office among the seed of Abraham is very high. He is a “ruler of the Jews.”

He comes to Jesus at night. He does not want to been seen. He has a fear of men, not unlike the fear of men you have right now. He comes to Jesus and says: “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

So Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus has authority that is in accord with Jewish teaching, which teaching acknowledges that the seed promised to Abraham would bring the ONE, the Christ, the Messiah, to save the world from sin and death. If Nicodemus did not consider this fact he would not have bothered to give Jesus a single word.

But what does Jesus say in response? This is where the non-sequitur comes in. The thing that does not follow.

Think about it. If Jesus had responded in accord with what Nicodemus was expecting to hear, he would have said something along these lines: “Yeah. I know. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I am the son of God. I am God in human flesh. I will prove it to you some day and you will be sorry if you do not believe in me.”

No. He says something so radical, so contrary, so “not following,” as to boggle the mind. You have to wonder how Nicodemus received what Jesus said in response, and this is what He says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

As said in the past, Jesus does not say born “again.” He clearly says born “from above.”

That is what you are. It is His baptism of you through His holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It came from Above to you. It used the one substance of all creation that is most ubiquitous, most present in all of creation, the thing you drink. The thing you swim in. The things you are mostly made of besides the dust of the earth. You know what it is: water. Not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word.

God’s Word is Jesus, Who suffered for you upon the Cross while bearing your sinful flesh and blood yet without sin in Himself.

So just put the two together again. Nicodemus says he knows Jesus is divinely sent on the basis of the signs. The Wedding at Cana. The healings. The following.

Of what Nicodemus’s eyes can see and the wonder of the crowds, Jesus says, in so many words “No. It is not my signs. It is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Who actively is working to save all human flesh from the sin of Adam, and that requires a covering. A payment. A ransom. An atonement. A sacrifice, not of bulls and of goats and of all the law of Moses prescribed for the people of Israel until this time, but of one Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Who suffered – He truly did suffer -under Pontius Pilate, a governor who could not govern. You know the rest.

He says this by saying, “Unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is not something you do any more than you could have caused yourself to be born in the first place.

Christ Jesus was born from above in order that you might be born from above and born up in His life, His body, His righteousness obtained for you by the shedding of His innocent blood for you. And now born from Above are you, you who sit in this house of God to receive His Word and spirit.

But do you see the kingdom of heaven now? You do, but darkly. Mostly you hear it and sing it. As for appearances what do you have? Not much, really. The daily routines. The worries about how the world is going. The sicknesses, sometimes so distressing and worrisome that they change your whole outlook on life. The bills. The career ahead. The little ones on the way that will soon be born and sing the praises of God in the midst of this congregation while being catechized in word and song. These are all heavy weights, but they are weights the LORD God knows and has born up in Himself as your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

Again, all of this is comprehended in what Jesus says to Nicodemus in so many words: It is not in the wonders and signs, but in the Cross whereupon the precious blood of the Holy Son of God was spilt for your sake that you must see God. That is where His mercy is. That is where His love is. That is where HE is.

So how do you get there, O you who are born from Above?

You are already there. You are already there. You sit right now in the midst of the apostolic ministry Christ Jesus established from eternity for your benefit. The Holy of Holies, the thrice holy that Isaiah was so concerned about because of his unclean lips, it is delivered into your lips right here at this altar. The tongs are your pastors. The delivery is by their preaching. The substance is the body and blood of Christ Jesus in the Holy Communion He established on the might in which He was betrayed. It is all of the blessed Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity that would have you saved from your own sin and death, and deliver you from your

Listen to this passage in the Athanasian Creed: “Perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh.” This perfect God and perfect man says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen . . . .” It is abundantly clear from this, that Christ Jesus does not just speak for Himself. He is inextricably bound to and through the Father and the Holy Spirit, who as One God speak and do what must be done to save you.

This is God reaching down from heaven to make you born from above! He has done this for His whole creation. He has done this both for those who are good and for those who are evil. This is Who He is. A God of mercy. A God of comfort. A God Who begs you to call upon His Name because His name counts.

It counts because He is the Creator of all things and sustains them for your blessing. It counts because all of creation is comprehended in Himself as the One Who was put to death in the same flesh and blood you have to satisfy the demands of His law.

So when St. Paul, who once persecuted the Church writes, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

When he writes that, how can you not agree and say “Amen” together with him.?

The depth. The riches. The depth extends to Christ Jesus paying for your sin while occupying your flesh. The riches are what the world with all its wealth cannot give you, no matter how hard you work to win it, namely the forgiveness of all your sin and everlasting life. The wisdom as begotten from eternity and from the foundations of the world; the foundations that trembled as Isaiah bore witness in His day, that Wisdom is nothing more and nothing less than the Holy, Holy, Holy Triune God Who loves you and greets you, baptizes and feeds you in His holy sanctuary here this day.

Holy because God the Father Almighty preceded you in His creation of You.
Holy because Christ Jesus, begotten of the Father from eternity is without sin yet bears your own flesh and blood.
Holy because the Spirit testifies through the apostolic ministry which Christ established for you, having ascended to the Father, so that you may be joined to Him by hearing, by water, by body, by blood, and by Spirit.

It's really something, isn’t it? Actually, it’s everything. You have your smart phone. You have your entertainment. Your job. Your worries. All that stuff that fails and is failing, and it all will at some point, namely when all things are complete, because it is all subject to the Crucified and Risen One, who right here and right now will deliver what He has accomplished upon the Cross of His holy, bitter, innocent, sufferings and death into your weak, frail, mortal, sinful, dying body, so that you shall live and abode with Him forever and ever.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +

Cantate 2024, St. John 16:5-15

Now this is something to sing about: Your Father in heaven has won the battle. He has won the battle against sin, death, and the devil for you. Those are enemies so enormous that all your might and all your life together with the lives of all other people who ever lived could not fight or win.

He has laid down the life of His only Begotten from eternity and taken it up again to live and to rule before His face as your advocate and your friend.

The chasm was too great for you to jump across. No effort on your part would ever make things right. Just as God created you out of love to be here and now, He also redeemed you then and there in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Jesus, Who is here and now, preaching to you

His anger is turned away,
And He comforts you.
Behold, God is your salvation,
You will trust and not be afraid;
For the LORD GOD is your strength and song,
And He has become your salvation.

Your song. Your song indeed. A song He has given you to sing even if you cannot sing in tune. It’s okay. His flesh and blood paid the price. You need not sulk. You need not worry. You need not be afraid. The forgiveness of sins and everlasting life shall be lavishly bestowed upon you, and already has been by the washing of regeneration, which is His baptism of you, as God your Father in heaven reached down with water and Word to encompass you into Christ Jesus, His life, his body, His love, His work for you, all of which He gladly imparts to you not just on this day, but forever and ever.

That’s something to sing about.

When your LORD Jesus Christ, Who laid down His life freely and took it up for you says, “He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you,” He is doing that very thing here and now. He is presenting first into your ears that His life is your victory. His death is your victory. His resurrection is your victory. He is your victory. He is all things. He came from the Father out of His everlasting love. He laid down His life out of that same everlasting love. And by His Holy Spirit He takes of what belongs to the Father and imparts it to you.

That has always been His aim. He did not , and does not, do this under duress. He does not whine, complain, balk, hesitate, or wish, but does what must be done to cleanse you from your filth.

There is no possible way you could wash yourself from sin. You might give it a try. You might try to cover it up so no one notices. But, as you know, in this day, God knows your heart. He made you. He brought you into this world. You’ve heard it. Every hair on your head is numbered.

So do not go about thinking He does not know. The rest of us may not. But we are not your judge when it comes to eternity. No man is. The One Who took upon Himself your flesh and blood and Who was crucified and is now risen from the dead for you is your judge, and He says this: The price has been paid in full. You are free. You need not fear.

That’s something to sing about.

When someone you love says they are going away, and you do not know if you will ever see them again, it fills your heart with sorrow. Their presence brings you friendship and joy. They speak your language. They know what you know. They share in your life in some way, even though, because of sin, there is a kind of distance. There’s always that distance, isn’t there? Even if it is between you and your spouse or your own children.

In this day, Christ Jesus tells you that it is to your advantage that He depart from the world in bodily form.

Let’s just ponder this from the most basic perspective: Just imagine that Christ Jesus, after laying down His life for you and taking it up again were still hanging around in His risen body for TV cameras and social media to make a spectacle of Him? You know that is exactly what would happen. He would be a star greater than Ringo Starr.

But no. He ascends to the Father, and embeds all that He is and says by His Holy Spirit into the Word that is preached to you this day, so that you, to your advantage, may partake of His glory in the midst of the communion of saints. There is no distance now between you and the Maker of the heavens and the earth.

He takes what is the Father’s and imparts it to you. This He can do, because as the Maker of all things visible and invisible, He has taken upon Himself your flesh and blood without sin, and made payment for your sin. He is risen from the dead.

That’s something to sing about.

It is difficult to believe. It is impossible to believe apart from the Holy Spirit. But it remains as a fact, that the benefits, the substance, the very being of God the Father are delivered to you in this place, and also daily and richly through the apostolic ministry He has set forth right here and right now.

That’s something to sing about.

And you do. How can you not? You say you cannot carry a tune in a bucket? I say you carry the most beautiful tune in your body and life as one who has been joined to Christ Jesus and his benefits, even if all you do is cry and scream like an infant.

This love. This love of God. This love which is from everlasting, and endures throughout time and eternity, is a love that will never die, will never grow tired. Will never grow old.

So sing some more, sing loud. Sing in tune our out of tune. Sing while putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. Sing while in humility you receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. Sing as you, together with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, come to this altar and receive into your mouth and body His body, and His blood, for indeed He is risen in His body, ascended to that Father, and on this day delivers you from all evil forever and ever.

+ In the Name of the Father, And of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +