A God who loves the widow and raises the dead

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 16

Deuteronomy 32:39-40  +  Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

The love of Jesus goes out in our Gospel today to the widow and the fatherless.  So if there are widows among us, or children without a father in their life, there is special comfort here for you today.  Even if you’re not a widow and have a father, there is comfort for you here, too.  And if you’ve had a loved one die, or when you do have a loved one die, or if you just realize that death surrounds you in more ways than one, then today’s Gospel is, again, full of comfort.

Not that our Gospel contains anything “new.” Over and over in the Old Testament, God declares Himself to be the defender of the widow and the fatherless.  He says, for example, in the book of Exodus: You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.  Or again in Deuteronomy: For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.  Or again in the Psalms:  The LORD watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

Nor should it surprise us that Jesus brings the widow’s son back to life, because as we heard in the Old Testament lesson today, Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.  That’s the kind of God we have, a God who punishes and a God who forgives, a God who disciplines and a God comforts, a God who loves the widow and raises the dead.

Now, to be a widow in Bible times was especially terrible, because not only did a woman suffer the emotional loss of her husband, which was terrible enough; she also suffered the loss of income, with little hope of replacing it, since women didn’t commonly have paying jobs back then.  The husband and father didn’t bring in just half or ¾ of the family’s income.  He generally brought in all of it. So to be a widow and to be fatherless in Israel was to lose everything.  Remember Ruth and Naomi in the Old Testament, both widows.  When they returned to Israel, Ruth had to pick up the leftovers in Boaz’s field, which is sort of the Old Testament equivalent of going on welfare, except that she had to work in the field even to get the welfare check.

Of course, if a widow remarried, as Ruth did, then she would be taken care of.  Or if the widow had a son, she had hope, because when her son grew up, he could earn a living for the family and bring them out of poverty.

The widow in our Gospel had just such a son, but only one, as Luke is careful to point out for us.  And he had just about grown up; he was no longer a boy, but a young man.  Finally there was hope for this family!  And then the widow’s hope died with the death of her only son.

Why?  Why would a loving God allow this to happen?  Why does He let women become widows and children become fatherless in the first place?  All the tragedy around us, all the death.  It happens around us, and it doesn’t make sense.  It happens to us, and it’s hard not to ask, “Where is God? How could He let this happen? Doesn’t He care?”

And you know what?  It’s OK to ask those questions, as long as you look for the answer in the right place, namely, in God’s Word.  See, this is what the devil does.  He’s been doing it since the beginning in the Garden of Eden.  He always wants people to go looking for God where God isn’t, asking questions God doesn’t answer, seeking reasons other than the ones God has provided. He directs people away from God’s Word for answers, and leads them instead to look on the inside, to try to figure out the reasons for themselves; he leads you to ask, “Where is God?” but he doesn’t want you to find Him.  He wants to leave you standing there, shaking your fist up at heaven.  He wants you to leave you crumpled up in a whimpering heap of despair.

And, vile creatures that we are, we would fall for the devil’s trick, again, as our race has been doing for six millennia, off in search of the god on the inside, or the god who is out there, somewhere, with answers, maybe. But the Gospel draws our attention back away from ourselves and turns us toward Jesus, toward God in human flesh.  Where is God?  Why did this happen?  Does He care?  Watch Jesus.

Jesus knew all that the widow was suffering as He approached the city of Nain and saw the funeral procession coming out of the city.  He knew how this widow had suffered, and how she would suffer, and what was behind all her tears.  But it’s for our sake, not hers, that the Evangelist St. Luke, some 30 years later, recorded the following words: When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”  Jesus was deeply moved by her sorrow.  Does God care?  Watch Jesus.  When you see Jesus, you see God.  And God doesn’t change and He is no respecter of persons.  The compassion you see here for this widow is the same compassion that goes out to all who suffer tragedy or loss.  You don’t have to wonder whether God cares.  Watch Jesus.

Well, then, why?  If God is all powerful, why does He allow tragedy in the first place?  Why doesn’t He just snap His fingers and get rid of tragedy and loss and death?  Because God keeps His promises.  “If you eat from this fruit, you will surely die.”  When God threatens punishment for sin, He follows through, every time.  And all the tragedy and loss that exist in this world are because Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and we, their children, cannot claim to be better.  Tragedy and loss and death are part of the curse that rests upon this world and will rest upon it until the end of time.

But you know what God did about that curse.  He didn’t remove it.  Instead, He suffered it Himself.  Christ became a curse for us, and so has redeemed us from the curse of the Law.  Christ suffered loss, suffered death in order pay our debt of sin and reconcile us to God.  Christ rose from the dead to begin the great reversal of the curse.

We see a small foretaste of that great reversal in the miracle Jesus performed in our Gospel.  Only One who has conquered death and has power over the curse can just walk right up to a coffin and say to the dead man in it, “Young man, I say to you, arise,” and have His words obeyed.  I kill and I make alive, says the Lord God.  And He does.

But see, the miracle at Nain wasn’t the end of the curse on this world.  Even Jesus’ own resurrection didn’t end the curse on this world.  Instead, it gives us an escape route from the curse that this world is under.  Faith in Christ is that escape route.  The law accuses till the end of time; sin will keep corrupting this world, and death will keep calling as long as this world exists.  But where there is faith in Christ, the law has no power to accuse; sin has no power to harm; and death has no power to hold. We have been baptized into Christ.  God has forgiven us our sins. Christ has promised to put an end to this dark world, to raise us from the dead and to give us new life in a new heaven and a new earth, where the curse is no more.

So, if what you really want is for God to wipe out all evil and wickedness and death, then what you’re really asking for is for Christ to return and make all things new, which is most certainly something He will do.  But understand, when Christ comes to wipe out all evil and tragedy and loss, that will be the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, the day when it’s too late for everyone who doesn’t trust in Christ for forgiveness.  At what point do you think Christ should have ended the world and made all things right?  Before you were born?  After you were born but before you were baptized?  Before your children were baptized?  You are here in the holy Christian Church, you are now heirs of eternal life because Christ has postponed His second coming long enough to get you into His house.  And God is still postponing it for a little while, because there are others who will become His children before the end by hearing and believing His Word.  For the sake of the elect, He has not ended all things yet, and that includes tragedy.  For the sake of those who will believe in Him through His Gospel, He allows this world to keep turning, with all of its sin and covered in death.

Until then, we keep turning to His Word for answers, and nowhere else.  Until then, we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray it with all the meaning expressed in our Small catechism, and we mean every single petition.

We pray especially the sixth petition: And lead us not into temptation. What does this mean? God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.

And we pray the seventh petition: But deliver us from evil. What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.

We pray, and we trust that God will deliver us, because we have seen in our Gospel that in Christ we have a God who loves the widow and raises the dead, a God who has a good reason for all He does and a good purpose, even behind the suffering of His children.  And if you ever wonder what that purpose is, all I can tell you is, watch Jesus.  And listen to Him.  Amen.

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Propers for Trinity 16

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

INTROIT              Ps. 86:3,5; Ps. 86:1

(Antiphon) Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day long.
For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Bow down Your ear, O LORD, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT

Lord, we pray that Your grace may always go before and follow after us and make us continually given to all good works; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

OLD TESTAMENT READING          Deut. 32:39-40

39 “Now see that I, even I, am He,
And there is no God besides Me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.
40 For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, ‘As I live forever. ’” (NKJV)

GRADUAL            Ps. 102:15-16

So the nations shall fear the name of the LORD, And all the kings of the earth Your glory.
For the LORD shall build up Zion; He shall appear in His glory.

EPISTLE READING             Eph. 3:13-21

13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.   (NKJV) 

VERSE   Ps. 115:11

Alleluia. Alleluia. You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.  Alleluia.

HOLY GOSPEL    Luke 7:11-17

11 Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. 12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.

16 Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”

17 And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.   (NKJV)

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Your Father is a better God than money—or anything else

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 15

Deuteronomy 6:4-7  +  Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

The message of Jesus today is very simple.  You can only have one God whom you fear, love and trust in above all things.  You can trust in God, or you can trust in something else, like money.  But you can’t trust in both God AND something else at the same time.  You can love God, or you can love money.  But you can’t love both God AND money.  Either one, or the other.  You cannot serve both God and mammon.

Mammon, by the way, is the Aramaic word for “wealth,” and there’s kind of a pun in Jesus’ words, because this word for “wealth” comes from a similar word that means, “that in which one places his trust,” which makes sense, because most people do put their trust in wealth. And that’s called idolatry, just as much as making an idol out of stone or wood and bowing down to it.  And idolatry is unbelief.

Christian faith looks to God to provide, not money.  Unbelief looks to money to provide, not God.  Faith takes God at His Word and doesn’t need to see any money in the bank or even any potential for putting money in the bank.  Faith rests easy on God’s promise to provide.  Unbelief always needs to see money in the bank, or it is restless. What’s more, unbelief isn’t satisfied with enough money for just today, but needs to see proof that there will be enough money for tomorrow, and next week, and next year, and for the kids’ education, and for retirement, and not just enough to get by, but enough to enjoy life and do the things one wants to do.

Now, let’s make sure we understand how this works.  If we’re talking about unbelievers—those who have not been baptized into Christ and who do not trust in Christ as their Savior from sin…Unbelievers are pure unbelievers.  Not trusting in the true God is what makes them unbelievers in the first place.

But if we’re talking about believers in Christ—as Jesus is in the Gospel, where He is preaching this sermon to His disciples… Believers are comprised of the faith part—the spiritual part—as well as the unbelief part—the flesh part.   But as long as there is a faith part, the believer will serve God, not money.  The believer will rely on God, not money.  Faith will win the day, not unbelief.  But it’s a struggle—a daily struggle that makes up the Christian life.

In whom do you trust?  Well, you’re Christians.  You answer, “God!”, don’t you?  And so I say to you with Jesus, Good!  Then why do you worry about money—or anything else, for that matter? Jesus then lovingly and patiently shows His worried disciples how foolish we are to worry.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

And here, we have to pause and reflect on the sad fact that many people who have plenty to eat and drink and wear, still spend their time worrying about all sorts of other things, like having enough money to get the latest and greatest cell phone, or cable TV, or, not just a house, but a nice house, or, not just a car, but a nice car, or, not just clothes, but nice clothes.  You get the picture.  Some people still worry about the basics of food, drink and clothing.  But for many Americans, the idolatry extends far beyond that.

Either way, asks Jesus, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Will you put a price tag on love and friendship?  Will you put a price on your immortal soul?  As Jesus says elsewhere, “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  Isn’t the wellbeing of your eternal soul worth a whole lot more of your time and thought and energy than putting food on the table for a body which will die anyway?

But see!  Jesus is not unaware of your need for food.  It’s just that, Jesus takes it as a given, as an obvious fact that your Father in heaven will provide food for you.  He proves it from the creation.  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And the answer is, Yes!  You are of more value than the birds.  God made the birds on Day 5 of creation week.  But on Day 6, He made man in His own image.  In the image of God He created him.  Male and female He created them.   And God breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. You are more valuable than the birds.  You are God’s special creation.

What’s more, God did not send His Son to die on a cross for birds, but for people, for all people.  Every person is valued in the eyes of God far more than any other creature in all creation, because God has paid the price for every soul with the holy precious blood of His Son.

What’s more, God has given you Christians new birth into His kingdom and a place in His family through Holy Baptism and faith in Christ.  The unbelieving world doesn’t have God for a Father, because they do not believe in His only-begotten Son.  But you have God for a Father.  And if your heavenly Father feeds the birds, Jesus assures you that He will also feed you.

Again, Jesus points out the futility of worrying.  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  Or “one foot to his height”? Can you worry food into your pantry?  Can you worry money into your bank account? Someone will say, “Well, no, but if I can think hard enough about how to earn more money, if I stay awake at night making plans in my head and figuring out how everything is going to go, then I’ll be able to get things going in the right direction.  Then I’ll be able to…”  Will you?  You will not even wake up in the morning unless your heavenly Father keeps you through the night.  You will not be able to carry out all these careful plans, unless your Father makes it happen.  As the Psalm says, Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.

Jesus goes on, So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies. Consider the lilies. God makes them beautiful, even though they only last for a day and then are mown down, or they wither and fall.  But you—God has redeemed you for time and for eternity.  He has made you His own children through faith in Jesus and is preparing eternal dwellings for you.  Do you really think He will not provide clothing for you?

“O you of little faith,” Jesus says.  There’s that struggle between faith and unbelief in the believer, and sometimes the unbelief side rears up and tries to squash the believing side.  But with these very words of today’s Gospel, Jesus beats down our unbelieving flesh, so that the little faith is sustained and strengthened.

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

If I might use an illustration, think of that great ocean liner, the Titanic, as it was sinking into the ocean. Imagine the people on board the Titanic worrying about what to eat for their next meal, or what to drink, or what to wear.  Well, that would be foolish, wouldn’t it?  They have a much bigger concern, don’t they?  Getting off the sinking ship!  Seeking refuge in a life boat.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” Jesus says.  Your concern shouldn’t be feeding your dying self.  Your concern should be that you are a sinner who deserves God’s wrath and eternal punishment, like the rest of this dying world.  Your concern should be seeking refuge in Christ, for yourself and for your family, and for others, too.  That’s repentance.  That’s Baptism.  That’s receiving absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar.  That’s trusting in Christ Jesus to cover you with His own righteousness, so that you stand before God clothed, not in your own righteousness, but in His.  Then, it’s studying the Scriptures and learning the catechism by heart, and praying and going out from these doors on Sunday to live according to God’s commandments in your vocations as parents, spouses, children, workers, citizens and church members.  That is “seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness.”

If your heart is focused on that, then it will not have time to worry about the things of this life.  Nor does it need to, because the God whom you seek will give you every spiritual blessing in Christ, and will add those bodily things, too, as icing on the cake. “All these things shall be added to you,” Jesus says.  You’re in God’s own life boat, the Church.  He is and always will be the Father, and you are and always will be little children who eat at His table. It’s His job to provide the food and clothing on this boat, not yours.  It’s His job to worry about you, not your job to worry about yourself.  God has done everything necessary to rescue you from sin, death and hell in giving His beloved Son into death and hell for your sins.  He’ll give you food, too.

Now, the Apostle Paul says to Pastor Timothy, “Be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”  As your pastor, I strive to be that example to you, and when I fail, God forgive me, and may you forgive me, too.  But I remember very well preaching on this Gospel last year about this time, when I didn’t know yet what the synodical district was going to do or how our congregation was going to respond to the threats coming from the district. I didn’t know how much longer I would be receiving financial support from anyone, and I didn’t know if any confessional Lutheran pastor in the world would stand together with me on the Gospel.  We were told that no one would.  But Jesus told us in this Gospel, “Do not worry about tomorrow,” and only by His grace and the power of His Gospel, I believed Him.  You believed Him, too.  We stood together on the Gospel, in faith. And see what our Father has done!  There’s still food in our pantries and clothes on our backs.  And now, we rejoice today in the new fellowship we enjoy with the ELDoNA, as they stand with us and we with them on the truth of God’s Word.  It is truly amazing and unbelievable, humanly speaking, that those pastors would tackle the doctrine of justification as they did and take a stand on it as they have.  No amount of human planning or worrying could have ever accomplished what has been accomplished to this day.  Only our Father in heaven could do it.  Great is His faithfulness.

So.  Do not worry about tomorrow.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  Ain’t that the truth!  Tomorrow may bring financial ruin, or the cancer diagnosis, or even death.  But sufficient for the day is also God’s help.  He is your Father, and a better God than money—or anything else.  Let Him worry about tomorrow, and also about today. Amen.

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Propers for Trinity 15

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

INTROIT              Ps. 86:1a,2b,3; Ps. 86:4

(Antiphon) Bow down Your ear, O LORD, hear me; You are my God; Save Your servant who trusts in You!
Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day long.

Rejoice the soul of Your servant,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT

O Lord, we beseech You, let Your continual pity cleanse and defend Your Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without Your aid, preserve it evermore by Your help and goodness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

OLD TESTAMENT READING          Deut. 6:4-7

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”  (NKJV)

GRADUAL            Ps. 118:8-9

It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes.

EPISTLE READING             Gal. 5:25-6:10

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For each one shall bear his own load.

6 Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.     (NKJV) 

VERSE   Ps. 108:1

Alleluia. Alleluia. O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.  Alleluia.

HOLY GOSPEL    Matthew 6:24-34

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”   (NKJV)

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Need, love, faith, mercy, locating God, thanks, salvation: The Ten Lepers and the Divine Service

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 14

Jeremiah 17:13-14  +  Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

The Holy Spirit packs just about every aspect of the Christian life into today’s account of the healing of the Ten Lepers.  Let’s dig right in and consider them one by one.

First, we see a great need.  Ten men with leprosy, a debilitating skin disease that ate away at the flesh; a disease that ejected a person from his home, from his town, and caused him to be shunned and avoided by his countrymen, forced to live in a colony of sick people on the outskirts of the towns and villages.

Leprosy was a horrible disease, but in a way, it was a blessing, because it forced the leper to recognize his uncleanness, to deal with his need.  He couldn’t pretend that everything was OK in his life.  He couldn’t just live his life day to day and get fat on this world’s self-deception that life on earth is supposed to be easy and pleasant and happy.  It’s not.  In reality, life on this earth, for as beautiful as it can be at times, is still always infected with ugliness and disease and death.  People with healthy bodies may buy into the deception that they are spiritually healthy, too, even as they’re rotting away on the inside from sin.  But the leper—the leper’s every waking moment is a testimony to his great and desperate need.

Sin makes us needy before God—needy of His healing, the healing of forgiveness.  But as mortals living in a world corrupted by sin, you have other needs, too.  You need food and clothes and daily bread.  You need help when the sins of other people cause you pain and grief.  You need comfort in distress and in the face of sickness and death.  You need guidance.  You need support and strength as you bear the cross of persecution and affliction and temptation as one who bears the name of Christ in a world that hates Christ.  A day—an hour!— does not go by when you are not needy of God’s help, as the lepers knew they were, and those times when you feel no need of God’s help are the times when you need it most.

Second in our Gospel, we see love—the love of Jesus, who is on His final, purposeful journey to Jerusalem to lay down His life out of love for the world that hated Him, and still does.  We see the love of Jesus as He chooses not to just get to Jerusalem as fast as possible and get it all over with, but instead goes through these towns and villages of Samaria and Galilee, as our Gospel tells us, to preach to the people there, too, to heal their diseases and call them to repentance and faith in Him.  What personal gain would He get for making these journeys?  What had these people ever done for Him?  Nothing.  It was just love for His neighbor that made Him become the servant of all.

In the same way, God calls us to love our neighbor and to serve our neighbor, not in order to get something in return, but to walk as Jesus Himself walked.  Part of that love is telling people the truth about their sin, whether their sin is homosexuality, as we see paraded in the news these days, or regular old adultery or men and women living together outside of marriage, or whether their sin is despising the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.  Christian love is truthful and honest.  It gives and doesn’t worry at all about receiving anything in return.  It gives gladly, knowing full well that the one who loves will not always be loved back, and in most cases, will never even be thanked for it, as we at the end of our Gospel.

Third in our Gospel, we see faith—a great example of faith in the ten lepers, all of them.  Their faith in Jesus came from hearing the word about Jesus, that He is kind and merciful and receives all who come to Him, even lepers, even sinners.  So they went out to meet Jesus when they heard He was coming by.  They offered Him nothing—just presented themselves before Him with their uncleanness, their disease, their unworthiness and their miserable condition.  They stood there, confident that Jesus would hear and help, and they called out from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

What an excellent prayer!  “Have mercy on us!”  In fact, faith is prayer.  Not just any kind of prayer.  Lots of people babble things to God and think their babbling is praying.  True prayer, like true faith, looks to God to be gracious and merciful, for the sake of Jesus Christ.  Faith is the earnest plea for mercy, combined with the confidence that Jesus will have mercy.  It is the confidence that His every Word is true, and His every promise, reliable.

That brings us to the fourth key element in the Christian life: mercy.  The lepers pleaded, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  And Jesus did.  See how His mercy was given.  “Go,” He said, “show yourselves to the priest.”  The priests in Israel were charged with examining someone who had had leprosy to see if he was cured yet or not.  So, Jesus didn’t heal them on the spot of their leprosy.  Instead, He gave them a word of hope, a word of promise, that by the time they walked to the priest in Jerusalem, they would be clean.  In faith, the lepers sought mercy from Jesus, and in mercy, Jesus rewarded their faith.  And they believed Him again, and started walking to the priest.

Mercy is God’s desire to help needy people.  It can’t be bought.  It can’t be earned.  God’s mercy is inspired only by man’s wretchedness, and that’s a good thing for us sinners.  But the most important mercy we need from God is not the cleansing of our bodies, but the cleansing of our record of sin, and that’s mercy that God always promises to show to the one who seeks it from Jesus. The mercy of sins forgiven, for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Christ, is guaranteed to all who believe, and is given in Holy Baptism and in the Holy Supper.  The mercy of eternal life and resurrection from death and glory in the Paradise of God is guaranteed to all who believe in Christ, and is given at the end of our earthly life.

The mercy of God’s fatherly, divine goodness and providence is also guaranteed to believers during this life.  But that mercy looks different for different people, as our Father determines.  It doesn’t always include riches or the healing of sickness or the prevention of tragedy.  On the contrary, sometimes God’s mercy includes earthly poverty, bodily sickness, and even death.  To our flesh, it doesn’t look like mercy.  But to our flesh, neither did the crucifixion of the Son of God.  And yet we know by faith that the cross is the surest sign of God’s mercy and fatherly love and goodness.

A fifth aspect of the Christian life is locating God.  Where is God when you need Him?  Where is God when you want to thank and praise Him?  Where is God present to help you and give you His grace?  The answer is not “everywhere!”  The answer is, in the Person of Jesus Christ.  The ten lepers were cleansed of their leprosy as they walked along the path.  And when that one (former) leper realized it, he returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  That’s the NKJV, which we’ve been using for some time now, and it’s so much better than the NIV.  The NIV says, “came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet.”  But the Greek and the NKJV don’t have the word “Jesus’.”  It makes it much clearer for us: the Samaritan glorified God and fell down on his face at “His” feet, giving “Him” thanks.  God is located for us in the Person of Jesus.  The leper wanted help from God? He went to Jesus.  The leper wanted to give thanks to God?  He didn’t look up to heaven.  He returned to where Jesus was and gave Him thanks.

God is located for us in the Person of Jesus, with all His mercy and grace.  Jesus is located for us in the preaching of the Word of God and in the administration of the Sacraments, where He promises to help and heal and guide and strengthen you until your dying day, until He returns in glory.

And our response is the response of that one leper, the Samaritan.  We return over and over again to Jesus to give Him thanks, which is a sixth aspect of the Christian life.  But not all the cleansed lepers continued to locate God in Jesus.  Not all ten returned to Jesus to give thanks to God, and that should give us pause.  It’s a sobering warning, a demonstration of the truth that many who once believe in Jesus fall away.  Their temporal need is fulfilled, and so they forget that they are still needy.  They take God’s love for granted and their love for their neighbor grows cold.  Their faith withers.  They forget about Jesus, or marginalize Him as they go off and get on with their earthly life. Mercy is off their mind.  They stop locating God in Jesus; they stop looking for Jesus in the Means of Grace.  Nine out of ten lepers ended up this way.  “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

But to that one, to that foreigner, that Samaritan who fell down at God’s feet, the Word of God was sweet: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”  As I have pointed out before, a better translation would be, “Your faith has saved you.”  Salvation through faith is the seventh and final aspect of the Christian life portrayed in our Gospel today. Why?  Why does faith save?  Because the leper’s faith was a good work?  No, but because, in faith, the leper clung to God and to God’s mercy in Christ, and that means salvation every time, for every one.  Faith makes you well, because faith means looking to Christ for mercy, and mercy is always there with Him to be found.

Now, think about this as we conclude the sermon for today. All seven of these aspects of the Christian life are not only packed into the Gospel of the healing of the Ten Lepers.  They’re also packed into each and every Sunday in our Divine Service.  Here needy people come, with needs of body and soul, with needs caused by sin and caused by the cross. Here God’s love is on display as He invites you to come to Him for help and as He teaches you to love one another. Here you come to Him in faith, praying for and seeking His mercy for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Here He has mercy on you and forgives you your sins.  Here, in this ministry of Word and Sacrament, God locates Himself for you, and gives you His own body and blood in bread and wine.  And you have come here to find God, not only to plead for mercy, but also to give Him thanks for the mercy He has shown.  Here God Himself speaks to you life and salvation.  “Your faith has saved you.”  As you study the back of your service folder today and review the purposes of the Divine Service, remember the Ten Lepers, and remember why you come here and keep coming here each week, to receive God’s help in your every need, to not be like the nine lepers who went away from Jesus, but to remain faithful until death, so that you, like the one leper, may give eternal thanks and praise to God for saving you, too.  Amen.

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