The world’s wisdom and God’s foolishness

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Judica

Genesis 12:1-3  +  1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Genesis 12:1-3

1 Now the LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country and your relatives and your father’s house for a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and you will be a blessing: 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And in you all families of the earth will be blessed.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will cause the wisdom of the wise to perish, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since by the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. 22 For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. 24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26

Consider your calling, brothers: not many wise men according to the flesh are called, not many mighty, not many noble. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world in order to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world in order to shame the mighty, 28 and the dishonorable things of the world, and things which are despised—yes, even the things that are not—God has chosen in order to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should boast in His presence. 30 And it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,31 so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

On Sunday we looked at reason and rationality from two perspectives: from that of the world, and from that of God. From a worldly perspective, it made sense for the Jews to hate Jesus, but according to the wisdom of God, rejecting Him was the most foolish thing in the world they could have done.

Our readings this evening continue that line of thought. From a worldly perspective, Abram was doing just fine in Ur of the Chaldeans. He had a home. He had relatives there. He knew the land and belonged where he was. So when God came along and called him to leave it all and go to an unknown place, to do unknown things, with promises of great things, including Abram’s impact on “all the families of the earth,” it didn’t make any earthly sense. Such was the call of God to Abram.

The call created faith. And then faith acted upon the call and promise of God. Abram went and became a “sojourner,” a temporary resident of the land of Canaan. He owned no property—except for, eventually, the burial plot for his wife. He had no friends at the beginning, although he eventually made some allies. He eventually saw some of God’s promises begin to be fulfilled, but most of them wouldn’t happen in his lifetime at all. As the writer to the Hebrews says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents, along with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he was waiting for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

St. Paul was a physical descendant of Abraham. He saw how God had fulfilled many of His promises to Abraham, especially the growth of the people of Israel and the coming of the Christ. That didn’t make the “word of the cross” any easier to swallow, though. Most of the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, still mocked Jesus and His people. Most of them thought the Gospel didn’t make sense—this preaching that the man Jesus was the eternal Son of God, that He was the true sacrifice for sins, that justification is by faith alone in Him. Paul himself didn’t believe it, at first, until God called him in a special way, first on the road to Damascus and then by the mouth of His servant Ananias. Paul was a persecutor of Christians when he was called.

But even Paul was just barely beginning to see what it would mean that “all families of the earth” would be blessed in Abraham, as he preached the Gospel to the Gentiles and saw the Gentiles beginning to come into the Christian Church and so become spiritual children of Abraham. He reminded the Corinthians who had been called by his Gospel, who had been brought to faith, that their faith was not and had never been based on human reason. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Most of the “smart” people in the world, most of the wise, most of the prudent insist that God didn’t make this universe in six days or in the order recorded in Scripture. All the same people insist that Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, and that, if any of the so-called “miracles” of the Bible happened, that there’s a rational explanation for it. All the same people deny that Jesus by His death on the cross, made atonement for all sins. All the same people deny that He rose from the dead.

Most of the same people insist that abortion is good and necessary, and that there are dozens of genders. And it’s the same people who are telling Christians right now that it’s irresponsible for you to gather around the preaching of Christ. Why isn’t it clear to you that there is a slightly increased risk at the moment that you could catch or pass on a disease to the people you gather with? Why doesn’t the science convince you? If you must worship God, then worship at home is good enough. It’s good enough for the Jews. It’s even good enough for the Roman Catholics. Why isn’t it good enough for you? It doesn’t make sense. Listen to our wisdom!

The truth is, we Christians, we who have been called by God through the Gospel to believe all those unbelievable, irrational things about Jesus, have a different source of wisdom than the world has. That doesn’t mean everything secular science or secular wisdom says is wrong. It means that we learn wisdom from God, and then we judge worldly wisdom by God’s wisdom, not the other way around. We judge human reason by God’s reason, not the other way around. And it means we trust in God’s wisdom, even when it goes against everything that the wisdom of the world declares.

In the end, we will see for certain the wisdom of God’s wisdom and the foolishness of the world’s wisdom. But right now, it doesn’t look that way. Right now, God’s wisdom looks foolish, the wisdom that says that the prayers of God’s people have the power to preserve a community from harm. Right now, God’s wisdom, calling His people to gather around Word and Sacrament, seems foolish and harmful to the world. Right now, the world, and the experts, and the scientists, and the scholars seem to be the wise ones, while the Bible appears foolish. Right now, it’s hard to see or hear beyond the din of society’s, “You’re safer at home than you are at church!” It seems wise. It appears safe. And God’s command to assemble around His Word seems foolish. But in the end, we will see that God’s foolishness really is wiser than men, and God’s weakness really is stronger than men.

For now, and for as long as we have life and breath, We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Amen.

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The world’s rational hatred of Jesus

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

The world has always hated God. And by “the world” I mean the unbelievers among mankind. And by “unbelievers” I mean everyone who does not believe in Christ Jesus, true God and true Man, the only Savior and Redeemer of the world. Unbelievers, including Adam and Eve after they fell into sin, until they were converted again and made believers. They came to hate God for a little while when they chose to love the devil and his lies instead of loving God and His word. Oh, most people don’t come out and say they hate God. They may not feel a seething hatred bubbling up toward Him when they think of Him or speak of Him (although some do). They may even claim to worship Him. But here’s the thing: according to the Bible’s use of the words, you either love the true God, or you hate the true God. There is no fence-sitting. To deny God’s existence is to hate God. To believe that God is not always good is to hate God. To believe that His word is not always true is to hate God. To love a false god is to hate the true God, just as to love a lie is to hate the truth.

In a sense, it’s entirely irrational to hate God. He does exist. He is always good. His word is always true. And so to hate the One who is good and true, not to mention the One who is the all-powerful Creator to whom everyone owes obedience and worship, is foolish. It’s irrational.

But if we’re just talking about fallen human reason, then it does “make sense,” it is “rational” for unbelievers to hate God, and by extension, to hate His people. For example, He tells them that He created the world and that He still preserves it. Nonsense! Evolution! “Science!” He tells them that their self-absorption and pleasure seeking is evil. He tells them that they are evil. Nonsense! “My body, my choice! Stop telling me what to do!” He tells them that He reigns over all things, which includes coronavirus and its spread, and they say, “Nonsense! We reign over it. We will either spread it or contain its spread. We will conquer it with our science and our behavior. And you Christians with your foolish belief in God and with your denial of ‘science’ had better stay home and not gather to worship God, or else you’re just a menace to society!” If you don’t believe in God, then everything they claim makes sense. Their hatred is rational according to fallen human reason.

In today’s Gospel, we see plenty of that “rational hatred” toward Jesus, and in this case, the hatred really was bubbling up and seething out of the Jews who confronted Him that day. He made some claims and promises in our Gospel that were so contrary to human reason, so direct and bold and “irrational” to the unbelieving Jews that their hatred for Him came shining through. And yet, to all who believe, the very same claims and promises inspire nothing but love for Him and peace and joy at being counted among His people.

Let’s look at Jesus’ first claim, in the form of a question: Which one of you convicts Me of sin? And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words. This is why you do not hear, because you are not of God. First, Jesus challenges the unbelieving Jews to prove Him guilty of any sin, and, of course, they couldn’t. Instead, Jesus convicts them of sin. He claims that, by not hearing (and believing) His words, they were shutting their ears to God’s words. God’s people don’t do that. God’s people hear and listen and believe. And so He draws the conclusion for them: if you don’t hear and believe, you are not God’s people.

To which they responded: Do we not rightly say that You are a Samaritan and that You have a demon? To them, Jesus’ words were nonsense, hateful, even. So hateful they figured He must be demon-possessed. How could He claim to speak for God? How could He claim that they weren’t God’s people? They were Abraham’s descendants. They were circumcised. They did their part; they kept the Law. They went to church. They prayed to God. But Jesus claimed that none of that was enough, that they were still sinners who needed a Savior, that He was the promised Savior, God in the flesh. To them, it was irrational, and they hated Him for it. But to us, we stand in awe of God’s grace for revealing to us that Jesus does speak for God, that Jesus is God, that in Him we have forgiveness, and that because of Him we have nothing to fear, either in this life or in the next.

Jesus answers their objection, I do not have a demon, but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks it and who judges. He claims God as His Father, not in the generic way, as God is the Father of all creation, but in a personal way, as His very own. And He claims that God His Father seeks glory for His Son and judges everyone who fails to give it. That’s a claim that defies human reason. If it’s false, then it makes sense for the unbelievers to mock Jesus, because here He is, just a man, claiming that God means to share His own glory with this man. But what if it’s true? What if Jesus really is the eternal, only-begotten Son of God, worthy of all praise and honor and glory? And what if everyone who fails to honor Him as such will be eternally condemned? Then to hate Jesus is to bring the full weight of God’s wrath and condemnation down on oneself.

But that isn’t what Jesus wants to happen. Listen to what He offers: Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death. What a silly thing to say. A man who claims that His word is powerful to keep a person from seeing death. The world laughs. The world mocks. More than that, the world hates Jesus for that claim, because, you see, it’s tied to keeping His word and believing in Him, whereas the world, if they believe in life after death at all, they want it on their own terms, not on Jesus’ terms.

But for those who believe Jesus words, there is no greater promise, no greater source of joy and peace and hope than this. It’s what brings us together in the midst of a pandemic, to worship the One who keeps us safe from death. It’s what keeps us from panicking. It’s what makes us bold to step out the door and face the world and do the things the day requires. Not that we won’t die at all; we know that earthly death will be the end of all of us, and we still avoid it as long as possible. But we won’t “see” death. We won’t “taste” death, because Jesus, our great High Priest, stepped into the Holy Place of God’s presence with His own blood, with His own death, to make atonement for our sins and to give us eternal life as a gift. And so we worship Him and trust in Him and live in hope.

Perfectly rational to the believer, but still irrational to the unbelievers. The Jews were astonished at Jesus’ claim. Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do You make Yourself out to be?

Jesus replied, If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. 55 You do not know Him; but I know Him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know Him and keep His word. 56 Your father Abraham was glad that he would see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” You are not yet fifty years old! And You have seen Abraham? Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

A 33-year-old man who claiming to be older than Abraham, claiming that they, the descendants of Abraham didn’t know God and were liars like the devil? Nonsense. Irrational. Hateful. Dangerous. So dangerous, the Jews tried to lay hands on Jesus and kill Him right there on the spot. It wasn’t quite time yet for Him to die, but almost.

Jesus didn’t shrink back from telling the truth to the world, and in the end, they did with Him whatever they wanted, whatever their hatred drove them to do. And yet it was all part of His plan to use the world’s hatred to accomplish His purpose to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil.

The world’s rational hatred of Jesus will always spill over onto those who are connected to Jesus. The more you live like Him, the more you talk like Him, the more you talk about Him as He truly is (and not as the Facebook memes make Him out to be), the more the world will grow to hate you, too. Know it. Expect it. And even rejoice in it. The world’s hatred of God’s people is part of God’s plan to punish the world on the one hand and to glorify God’s people on the other. The prayer of the Psalmist is the prayer of Jesus, is the prayer of all true Christians as we face the world’s hatred: Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength. You will suffer the world’s hatred and injustice. But in the end, you will be vindicated, even as Jesus was. Follow Him to the cross, and you will surely follow Him to the resurrection. Amen.

 

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A holy thing is introduced into the world

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for the Annunciation

Isaiah 7:10-16  +  Luke 1:26-38

This evening, March 25th, we’re taking a break from Lent. We’re also taking a break from fixating on the pathogen that has been introduced into the world. You know the word “virus” comes from a Latin word that means “venom”? As in a serpent’s venom. You see how it all goes back to the Garden of Eden, how the devil first introduced the venom of sin into our race through our first parents, who then passed on that sickness to their children. That’s why the devil was allowed to introduce other forms of venom, like disease, into our cursed world. But on this day we celebrate a much more important thing that was introduced into the world, the only truly healthy, holy thing that has been introduced into the world since the fall of Adam and Eve. On this day, nine months before Christmas, we celebrate the conception of Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary, also known as the Annunciation.

The Annunciation transports us out of New Mexico for a little while, back to the region of Galilee in northern Israel, to the city of Nazareth, some 34 years before Jesus was crucified. It was a world that knew its share of pestilence and filth, war and injustice and oppression and poverty. Into that world stepped the angel Gabriel—a holy spirit-creature, untainted by sin. He only stepped in for a moment, though, to deliver a very important message. Then he stepped back out again. He wasn’t the one who coming to live with us in this dark place.

What do we know about Mary? All we really know about her ancestry is that she was descended from King David. It may be that Luke gives us her ancestry, while Matthew gives us Joseph’s ancestry, since they’re different from David on. Then again, some Church Fathers explained how both Matthew and Luke might give different sides of Joseph’s ancestry. Either way, Jesus is called the “seed of David according to the flesh,” according to His human nature. So we conclude that Mary, like Joseph, was a descendant of David.

We also know that she lived in Nazareth in Galilee, and that she was somehow related to Elizabeth, Zacharias’ wife, who lived down in Judea. Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but they weren’t married yet, they weren’t living together yet, and they had never slept together. Mary was a virgin.

The angel Gabriel startled her with his greeting:  “Greetings!” Ave, Maria! Hail, Mary! (Ave means “Greetings!”) But not, Hail, Mary, full of grace. That has always been a poor translation. He calls her “favored one,” one who has been shown grace, who has been favored or given a gift by God.

The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women! To this day we still sometimes refer to Mary as the blessed virgin, not because she has any blessings to give us, but because, above all women, she was given a special blessing. She would play a unique and special part in His plan to save sinners. Not that she would save anyone, but she would carry God’s Son in her womb for nine months, give birth to Him, take care of Him until He was an adult, accompany Him at various points of His ministry, accompany Him at the foot of His cross, become an early witness of His resurrection, and find a place among the early disciples in the early Church. No other woman in history has had a blessing or a gift like that.

Of course, Mary knew none of that. She was confused and frightened by Gabriel’s greeting and by the very sight of an angel.

But Gabriel quickly explained: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” What do those words tell us?

First, they tell us that Mary was one of those believers in the God of Israel and in His promise to send a Savior, the Christ, to redeem Israel. Many of the Jews had given up waiting for the Christ by that time. But Mary hadn’t. She had faith in God; she trusted in God, “her Savior,” as she would later sing in the Magnificat. And by faith in Him, she had received grace and favor and the forgiveness of her sins.

That faith had also produced in her a willingness to submit to God’s Word and to God’s will. That’s already demonstrated in her proper behavior with Joseph, her “fiancé.” She is engaged to a man, but doesn’t come together with him or with any man, until after they’re married. Seems so simple, and yet the rest of the world outside of Israel was just as promiscuous as our world has become, and even within Israel there was plenty of adultery. So we shouldn’t dismiss Mary’s chastity. She is held up for all young women (and young men) as an example to be followed, an example of faith, humble obedience to God, and chastity.

Then the angel told Mary the amazing plan God had for her: See, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name JESUS. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end.

This is the wonder Isaiah had prophesied: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call His name Immanuel.” Note several things about Him. He would be the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. He would be born with a pre-determined name that would characterize His entire life: Jesus, Savior. He would be a “King,” the Son of David, but His kingdom would be so much bigger than David’s kingdom ever was. David reigned over the physical nation of Israel. Jesus would reign over the true “house of Jacob,” the Holy Christian Church, made up of all whom He would bring into His kingdom through faith. And His kingdom would have no end, either in space or in time. It would stretch throughout the universe, and it would last forever and ever.

Mary then asked the obvious question: How will this be, since I do not know a man? There are two ways to ask a question of God. There’s the Zacharias way when the same angel told him that he and Elizabeth would have a son in their old age. “How can this be?”, for which the angel scolded him. Or like Mary, trusting that God is not lying, knowing He can do whatever He wants, that He will do whatever He says, but wanting to know how? After all, in Zacharias’ case, it was very unlikely Elizabeth would conceive a child because of her age and her barrenness, but not unheard of. Even Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had a son in her old age. But Mary’s case would be unique in all of history. It was a reasonable question, “How?”

The angel told her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy thing which will be born of you will be called the Son of God.

Here we see the proper role of the Holy Spirit: to bring God’s Word to the world. He did it first in creation. He did it through the words of the prophets. But now He will bring the very Word who was in the beginning with God and who was God, into the world through a great miracle, so that the eternal person of the Word took on human flesh. And Gabriel calls Him, not just a holy person, but a “holy thing.” Something brand new and unique, in two ways: First, as a one-of-a-kind person who was fully God and fully Man. Second, as a Man who was conceived of a sinful woman, and yet who was holy, untainted by original sin. The phrase “immaculate conception” is used by the Roman Church falsely to refer to Mary, which is why we never use that phrase. But it does describe well the conception of Jesus.

Mary gives us another beautiful example of submission to God’s will: Here I am, the Lord’s maidservant. May it be done to me as you have said. She could only begin to imagine the hardships such a pregnancy would create in her life. She couldn’t begin to imagine how challenging it would be to raise the Son of God, or one day, to watch Him die on a cross. But whatever would come, whatever the Lord’s will was for her, she was ready to accept it. And for that, we give thanks to God. Her words are a model for all Christians of all times of what it looks like to simply believe the seemingly unbelievable promises of God. Nothing is impossible with Him. If He promises, He will fulfill.

Nine months from today, Lord willing, we’ll be gathered together again, celebrating Christmas, almost certainly in a world that looks quite different than it did last Christmas. So hold onto the things that don’t move, that don’t change. Hold onto the introduction of the holy thing that is Jesus into the world. Because no matter how unholy the world around you is and becomes, no matter how unholy you are by nature, it’s your connection to that holy thing, to Jesus Christ, the Son of David, that will be your salvation, both now and in eternity. Whatever He wills in this world around us, whatever He does, it will be for the best. Learn from Mary always to respond, “Here I am, the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me as you have said.” Amen.

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Put your body and soul in God’s hands

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Laetare – Lent 4

Galatians 4:21-31  +  John 6:1-15

You remember just a few weeks ago, when we began this Lenten season—seems like a whole different world today from what it was then—we heard about when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. The devil’s first temptation was to get Jesus to turn some stones into bread, to focus only on His immediate bodily need, which was to eat after fasting for 40 days. He was very hungry. Now, if He had simply been committed to following the best recommendations of proven science on how to care for the body, He would have fed it if at all possible. In fact, He wouldn’t have deprived it of food for 40 days in the first place! But these were the words Jesus threw back in the devil’s face: It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What does that mean? It means you can’t focus only on the body, for as much as the devil wants you to. Eating bread and supplying the needs of the body aren’t all that’s necessary for life. You have to listen to what God says, believe every word that God says, do what God directs you to do, even if it seems to deprive you of the needs of the body for a time. Why? Because God is the Maker of our bodies. He knows more about them than we do. He knows how to preserve them better than we do, both by natural means and by supernatural means, if necessary. And He also knows that we are body and soul creatures—that if the soul is unhealthy, if the soul is unfed, if the soul is far from God or fighting against God, then it will have both temporal and potentially eternal effects on the body, too.

How does this apply to us right now? Well, the whole world is laser focused on the goal of preserving people’s bodies from one particular threat, to the extent of pretending that all the other needs of humanity must fall in line behind that singular goal, including the needs of the soul, which is why many states have resorted to ordering churches to close. The devil would love more than anything to have Christians ultra-focused on the body, thinking about nothing other than how many germs might be in the room, or on your hands, or in your bodies, or in the bodies of the people around you. And while he has you focused there, he is more than happy to have you believe that the lives of 70 million people or more are in your hands, to save by doing enough, or to doom if you fail to do enough to keep your germs to yourself.

But Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We simply cannot live to preserve these bodies at all costs, as our only or even as our primary goal. We cannot live at the mercy of unseen contagions and potential contaminations. We cannot let the devil put such a burden of the Law on us, as if man’s fate were in man’s hands, as if we sinned against God and our neighbor every time we forgot to cover our cough, or gathered with 11 people instead of 10. God knows our weakness. God knows our frailty. God knows our susceptibility to illness because of the sin that infects our race. He knows that we’re all dying from the moment we’re conceived. And His solution wasn’t to send His Son into our flesh to teach us better hygiene or even to give us better medicine. His solution was death—the death of His only-begotten Son on the cross, and our baptismal death into His death, through which we receive the forgiveness of each and every one of our sins, together with God’s love and favor and promise of protection from earthly and from spiritual danger. All guilt is removed, and eternal life for both body and soul is guaranteed.

But no one should conclude from that that God doesn’t care about our bodies here and now or doesn’t see to it that we have the things we need for our bodies when we need them. That’s what today’s Gospel is all about, and it’s a refreshing Gospel for us to consider this morning, with its own applications to our times.

Jesus had spent the day healing the diseases and sicknesses of those who came out to Him on the other side of the lake. They had heard how powerful He was over sickness and how willing to heal. They had “seen the signs,” John says, and so they went out to Him to see some more and to have their own diseases healed, and the diseases of their loved ones.

By the end of the day—just the one—the people were surely getting hungry, but they weren’t focused on that, or at least we’re not told they were. You know who was focused on their bodily needs? First, it was Jesus’ disciples. Matthew’s account clarifies that they first came to Jesus, out of concern for the bodily health of the crowds and suggested that He send them away so that they could go take care of themselves. They genuinely cared about the people’s bodily well-being and suggested what they thought was best. Nothing wrong with that.

But what man thinks is best, even what Christians sometimes think is best, is not always God’s idea of what’s best. Jesus had better plans. He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Jesus had another lesson to teach at the end of the day, and it became a pretty famous lesson.

Philip and the other apostles needed to learn it, too. They couldn’t imagine how they could fulfill the bodily needs of so many people—5,000 men, plus women and children. Philip simply concluded, it can’t be done. Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little. Andrew wondered how it could possibly be done. There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many? The math just didn’t add up. It was clear: human efforts were useless. No matter how much those well-intentioned apostles wanted to help, man didn’t have it in his power to provide for the needs of so many bodies.

But the Man Jesus did. No problem whatsoever. Five loaves of bread and two small fish defied all the laws of science and of nature. They multiplied at the word of Jesus to fill the bellies of over 5,000 people, with 12 large baskets of pieces left over. Everybody received more than enough.

Now, the lesson the crowds were supposed to learn was that Jesus cared for their bodies just as much as He cared for their souls; that He was the Almighty God who was powerful to provide for their bodies and for their souls; that they should put their bodies and their souls in His capable hands and trust in Him to be their Savior from sin and all its consequences.

It isn’t what they learned, though, unfortunately. John is the only Evangelist to tell us what happened at the very end of the day. But Jesus knew that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, and so He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. Why would they do such a thing? The rest of the chapter tells us why. They followed Jesus to the other side of the lake and found Him and asked Him why He left. He answered, Truly I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

They wanted Jesus to keep providing miraculously for their bodies, but they weren’t interested in having Him care for their souls. They didn’t believe in Him as the One sent by God to bear their sins, to earn forgiveness, to give them eternal life. They didn’t want to hear or live by His Word. They only wanted an immediate solution to their physical ailments.

It doesn’t work that way with God. He insists on being the God of both your body and your soul and promises to take care of both. He has already taken drastic measures to redeem you, body and soul, and Christ will continue to run the universe from the right hand of the Father to see that you end up safe with Him, body and soul. Trust in Him to do what’s right for you at all times, to work all things together for your good, because that’s His promise. And don’t get so focused on taking care of the needs of your own body that you forget all God has done and all God has promised to do to care for your body and soul, including the help He promises right here in His house.

Now, as I told you all in the e-mail I sent this week, I’m offering you no guarantees that you will not get sick if you come to church during this time of pandemic. I don’t think you will, but you may. I’m not telling you that you must come, even if you feel uncomfortable coming. I’m simply telling you that, if we all die tomorrow, it’ll still be OK for all who trust in Christ Jesus. I’m simply telling you that you’re not tempting God by coming to hear His Word, and you’re not sinning against your neighbor by being here (unless you know you’re contagious or have good reason to suspect that you are). I’m telling you that, even if you die because of it, it’s a good thing to be in the presence of Jesus. Where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in our midst as we come together to receive His gifts, to seek His help, to praise His name, to worship Him, to honor Him, and to confess Him. Put your trust in Him, not in your own safety precautions. Put more trust in Him than you put fear in a disease that is ultimately His to control.

And finally, in the midst of it all, don’t forget to rejoice in the Lord, O Jerusalem, children of the promise, because as we sang today, As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever. Amen.

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A good time for believing and confessing

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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2 Samuel 22:1-7  +  Romans 10:5-17

Romans 10:5-17

5 Moses, indeed, describes the righteousness which comes from the Law: “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But the righteousness which comes from faith speaks in this way: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above); 7 “or, ‘Who shall descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.) 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart”; that is, the word of faith which we preach: 9 that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth a person confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “No one who believes in Him will be put to shame.”

12 There is no difference here between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is over all and is rich toward all who call upon Him. 13 “For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 But how shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, unless they have been sent? As it is written, “How lovely are the feet of those who announce the gospel of peace, who announce the gospel of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what we have preached?” 17 So, then, faith comes from hearing what is preached, and the preaching comes through the word of God.

The words of the First Lesson this evening are truly excellent words to go back and read with all that’s going on around us. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; the God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge. David faced a terrible situation, with Saul, the king of Israel, and the whole army of Israel out to get him. For years he had to live on the run; he had to live in hiding, in isolation from Israel, gathering a band of stragglers and malcontents and foreigners as his only allies. He could do all that, he could live like that, because he had a promise from the Lord: that he would one day sit on the throne of Israel as its king. Armed with that promise, he trusted that the LORD would shield him from harm. He had confidence that his enemies would not be victorious over him. He could endure all the hardships he had to. And, of course, his confidence proved to be well-founded.

Now, those were earthly enemies from whom the Lord had delivered David, according to His promise. We have promises of earthly deliverance, too, and earthly rewards as we trust in Him and as we live as those who trust in Him, though the promises we have are not as specific. David had God’s promise that he would survive Saul’s attacks; the Lord hasn’t promised any of us another day on this earth. Here’s what we can say: Our times are in His hands. And we can say that, and live by that, and take comfort in that, because of the promises God has given for an even greater deliverance and for even greater rewards. St. Paul deals with those promises in our Second Lesson.

The Law of Moses made promises of its own: The man who does those things shall live by them. That’s not a promise that comes from grace. Grace is God’s free-of-charge favor. The Law doesn’t include favor, doesn’t require favor or kindness or mercy. It’s a simple transaction, a simple bargain: You do your part, you pay the price of doing everything the Law commands—loving God wholeheartedly, loving your neighbor in all the ways God commands you to love him—and God will do His part; He’ll pay you the wages you earned: You shall live; you won’t die. At all. Ever. You won’t suffer. You won’t get sick. You won’t be harmed. Great promises! But good luck fulfilling your end of the bargain. To date, no one ever has, except for Jesus Himself.

That’s why St. Paul urges people so urgently to abandon the Law as the way to avoid death and obtain life, as the way to satisfy the God who controls the door to heaven. Stop trying to offer Him your supposed goodness. Stop despairing over your very real badness. And listen to the word of faith which we preach: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth a person confesses, resulting in salvation.

The “word of faith.” The message of faith. This is the Gospel in a nutshell, just as much as John 3:16 is. It’s a beautiful summary of everything God has revealed about how He wants to save us, how He wants to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. He wants us to confess, as Peter did, that Jesus is the Lord, the Christ, the Son of the living God. He wants us to believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead, which means we also have to believe that He was delivered over to death for our sins, and that His was the death that satisfies God, His was the death that fulfilled the Law’s demands for punishment. God wants you to believe that it is through faith in Christ that He justifies you and frees you from condemnation and eternal death.

He also wants you to confess this with your mouth. And what better time to do it than now? We confess that Jesus is the Lord just by being here together this evening, as most of the world cowers in fear on the one hand, or on the other hand boasts of their cleverness in knowing just what to do to avoid the plague. What better time than this Lenten season to confess that Christ took all our sicknesses, sufferings, and even death on Himself to free us from fear and from slavery to these things? What better time to confess that God has raised Jesus from the dead than on Easter? Because we know that the risen Christ reigns at God’s right hand over life and over death.

God wants all people to believe this, to call upon Christ Jesus as Lord and to know that by believing in Him we’re safe, we’re saved from everything that could harm us. We Christians want all people to believe that. But, as Paul points out, no one can believe it unless they hear the Gospel, and no one can hear it unless a preacher has been sent to preach it. Faith comes from hearing what is preached, and the preaching comes through the word of God.

So if you can’t come to church for a time because you’re sick, or you can’t travel, or you’re concerned about your health, so be it. You’ll have to hear what is preached from home, which does not fulfill all the purposes of our gathering together, but it does fulfill some. If you’re healthy (as far as you know) and can come to church, then it’s a good time to come. This is the Church’s opportunity to shine in a dark world and to confess the power of Christ while others rely on the power of man. Regardless of who comes, the Gospel will continue to be preached from this pulpit until God Himself makes it impossible for me to do it. Because no government, no society, no man at all will be your savior from sickness or from death, or from eternal condemnation in hell. Only God can save you. And He will. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and through the word of faith which we preach. Amen.

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