Matthew 10:34-42; Second Sunday after Pentecost; June 28, 2020;

Matthew 10:34-42; Second Sunday after Pentecost; June 28, 2020;

Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN;

 ³⁴"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ⁴⁰"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. ⁴¹The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. ⁴²And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”  (Matt 10:34-42, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You know, life would be much easier if Jesus hadn’t said things like, “I have not come to bring peace but a sword.”  It really doesn’t sound much like “good news” does it? To you and me and our everyday lives “good news” would be an end to conflict, and an end to trouble. An end to conflict in our cities, and end to racially charged riots, and end to conflict over COVID lockdowns. That's what we think of when we think of peace. But just try to explain Jesus' words to those skeptical relatives that we all have. You know; those people who would just love to point a verse like this and tell you Jesus is advocating violence, just like any other religion trying to get power. What are you going to say?

After all when I read it, it sure sounds like Jesus, the “prince of peace,” says that he’s come to bring strife and trouble into our lives and not only that but to break up our families too… Listen again; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  …to set children against their parents, parents against their children. He’s come to make enemies inside of families. It’s a difficult verse for us to swallow. Jesus can’t mean what he’s saying, can he? Does Jesus, the baby in the manger sleeping in “heavenly peace” surrounded by angels singing about peace on earth, bring peace or strife?

Well, many people believe that Jesus comes to bring peace, in spite of what he says. In fact, in general people, even those who don’t call themselves Christian think highly of Jesus. One of the leaders of today’s unrest said, “Jesus was the greatest racial radical of his day!”  They love Jesus when He tells stories about how to get along with each other, and to care for those who are less fortunate than we are. They love Jesus when He says, “love your enemies.”  They love Jesus when He tells a good story about how we should care for other people, like the “Good Samaritan.”  But they don’t want to hear from Jesus when He says that without Him, without His death on the cross, they are lost. They don’t want to hear Jesus when He says that without Him, they face an eternity of God’s punishment in hell. They don't want the Jesus who says with him life will be full of conflict. The don’t want to hear about a Jesus who violently drives the money changers out of the temple. And when he says, “And people will want to kill you if you follow me.” People don’t want to hear Jesus when he says stuff like that.

Think about the family that peacefully co-exists with one another, until one of them begins to say what they believe about Jesus. Suddenly the family is in conflict. Those who don’t know Jesus don’t want to hear about Him as their only Savior. They don’t want to hear about sin and repentance. They don’t want to hear about changing their lives to conform to God’s will. Those who have ideas about Jesus that don't come from scripture don't want to hear that what they believe is wrong. From the outside, from the world’s point of view this family was better off before the “good news” came to them. The members of the family will push toward compromise, “for the sake of peace.”  “You keep your Jesus to yourself.”  "We all believe the same things anyway."  The only real thing that is true about all religion is that they are all incompatible with each other. The problem is Jesus calls us all to be witnesses of what He has done and speak the truth about what he teaches. He calls us all to bring the life saving Word of Jesus to those who are around us. He doesn't promise that it will be easy. He does call us to be faithful.

June 25 is the anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg confession (1530). That's the document that Luther and the princes in Germany stood in the face of certain death to testify about Jesus and say that the church had forgotten what Jesus really taught. They stood before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and risked everything and said this:

Our Churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by there own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight. (Romans 3:21-26; 4:5)

And don't think this confession of faith brought peace! It put them in direct conflict with the Roman Catholic church and the Holy Roman Emperor. They had decided ahead of time they would rather die than compromise the truth. It would have been easier, more peaceful, to compromise their confession. Instead they confessed what the bible teaches about Jesus clearly and strongly. They did it because they knew that Jesus was at stake. They did it because they knew that real life, true life is only found in Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins he won for us on the cross. And that forgiveness only comes through faith in Jesus.

And it happens for us too. We are daily under pressure to keep silent at work and not speak about Jesus. We are under pressure to not point out the errors in other churches for the sake of community togetherness. We are under pressure in our families when we are told just to keep quiet, keep Jesus to ourselves for the sake of peace in the family. We are under pressure when we are scolded for not taking communion with them in their churches and not letting them commune in ours. When Jesus talks about bearing your cross, this is exactly what he is talking about.

The consequences of failure to confess Jesus is dire. There is no middle ground when it comes what Jesus teaches. We may not face death for our confession, but we are often tempted to give in to family pressure. The problem is, to give up Jesus is to give up the only real life there is.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (v39)

When we accept the sword, carry the cross and suffer the loss of family or community relationships, or even the loss of our physical life, we find what Jesus offers is worth more than all. We find real life forever with him.

Our confession is this:  You and I are sinful people we fail all the time. That’s why we need a Savior. That’s why Jesus lived a life that was always headed for the cross. He didn’t just die on the cross; He died on the cross on purpose. When He was pinned up there on the wood, He had you in His heart and your sins on His shoulders. He died to take your sins away and give you a new life a real life free from the effects of sin. Through faith in Jesus Baptism makes you dead to sin. Dead as Jesus was in the tomb. Dead as all sin deserves. That’s how you were with Jesus on the cross, dying to sin. That’s how He is with you now living a life that isn’t controlled by sin. You are alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:1-11)

So, you know what? You’re going to see some conflict when you say these things about Jesus, when you dare to confess the truth about Him. That’s ok, that’s to be expected. In a way it means that you’re on the right track. Martin Luther once said that when everything was going smoothly in his life, he worried that he wasn’t doing anything to get Satan’s notice. There will be conflict when you speak the truth about Jesus, it is to be expected. But there is nothing more important then the message of new life in Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Jeremiah 23:3-8; Third Sunday after Pentecost; June 21, 2020;

Jeremiah 23:3-8; Third Sunday after Pentecost; June 21, 2020;

Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN;

Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jeremiah 23:3-8, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah had gained a reputation, and it wasn’t good. “The complainer,” he wasn’t the kind of guy you’d invite to one of your summer bonfires. Beside the fact that he never attended social events, (he said God forbid him to attend any at all, no matter what the reason) whenever you found him in a group of people he was always shouting out his doom and gloom. It was a real downer for any gathering when Jeremiah showed up. He also had other ‘social deficiencies.’  He had no family, he was well of marrying age and yet, no wife, no children. According to Jewish custom that just made him weird. Even his own relatives refused to claim him, and his ‘friends’ made a plot to have him killed. He was more than the black sheep from his hometown of Anathoth. He sat in prison for a lengthy time because he had the gall to tell the King to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s army, who were pounding at the gate demanding tribute. “It was God’s will!” he said. For much of the time in his ministry, Jeremiah’s words were ignored. He didn’t have popular things to say.

Jeremiah didn’t like his role as prophet ‘against’ Israel. He pleaded with God not to be given the burden he was carrying. He himself mourned for his beloved Jerusalem, at the fate that was coming to it because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. But he continued to speak what God wanted him to say. Weather it was popular or not. But, always tucked in Jeremiah’s message of God’s displeasure at Israel, was a little fragment of hope, a ray of light that shown through, that told of God’s great love, and God’s plan to save his people from the problem they’d gotten themselves into. Today’s text is one of those little fragments. Right before this text he condemns the Kings of Israel, as the ones who have led the people astray. “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!”  They had allowed the people to slip away from the true worship of YHWH, and some had even promoted worship of false gods. And now God’s people were now going to pay the consequences. They would be scattered over the whole world, separated from their land and separated from each other, just as they were already separated from God. But God’s warning was ignored, and so was His promise…  The promise is what we really want to concentrate on today.

God’s promise to the people, who weren’t listening, was that, even though they would be scattered, God himself would gather them again. It would be such a significant thing in the lives of His people that they wouldn’t talk about the Exodus from Egypt anymore, but they would remember their return from being scattered. It would be a ‘new’ exodus, a new event to remember God’s salvation of His people. And Jeremiah tells them this Good News in wonderful, easy to understand terms. Even though they would be scattered, God would be their shepherd and gather them together again. The people that Jeremiah was talking to, they understood what a shepherd was, this was a picture they could understand and relate to. There were shepherds all around them all the time. A simple walk outside the city walls would find shepherds keeping watch over their flocks. And don’t forget one of our favorite passages of scripture was also very likely one of theirs. “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want...” They already had a beautiful example of God as their good shepherd. The Psalm told them how he would lead them, take care of them, and bring them home. And Jeremiah explained that that is exactly what God is going to do… again. He was going to lead them home from exile, back to their beloved city. He would supply them with new shepherds that would care for them properly. Then they would not be afraid anymore. Even though there would be the exile, God, their good shepherd, would gather them together again, and lead them home.

But Jeremiah’s beautiful words went unheeded. In fact, at one point in time they were burned line by line by the king. As he tore each line from the page…  First, it seemed, the people would have to face the exile, then they would understand and appreciate God’s good news for them.

So what does all this have to do with us? What does something that happened nearly 3000 years ago have to do with us… sitting here Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN at the cusp of the 21^st Century?

“‘The days are coming,’ says the Lord.” Jeremiah wrote. Right in the middle of his proclamation to the people of Israel. “The days are coming…” it was like an exclamation point, or a neon pointer. “Pay attention to this! It’s about more than just returning from exile. It’s about more than replacing bad kings with good ones. It’s about the time when God himself will come.” Right in the middle of telling the people about how God was going to deliver them from exile, how he was going to return them home, he tells them about how God himself is coming.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

You see all of the sudden Jeremiah was talking about more that a regular king, more than a regular shepherd. He was talking about the promised Savior, the ‘righteous branch’ from David. The King who was greater than any of the kings they had previously known. This king would make it possible for them to live in safety. He would bring them righteousness, that is, he would make it possible for them to be counted right in God’s eyes.

What Jeremiah told the people of God was more than good news following bad news. It was more than telling them that even though they would have to go into exile, they would eventually be able to return. He was telling them about the promised Advent of God. He was telling them about the coming day when God himself would come and save them from their sin. Jeremiah was sharing with them the Good News about the coming of Jesus Christ. That is the very heart of Advent.

Today, we have gathered to tell the Good News about the coming of Jesus Christ. The Righteous Branch has come. We have seen the Shepherd / King. The story is impressed in our minds; Mary and Joseph, Bethlehem, the Angels, and the Shepherds; the baby lying in a manger. The adult Jesus walking, talking, breathing, dying and rising again. The days have truly come, just as God said they would through Jeremiah! And it is Good News. The Good Shepherd came for a reason. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14-15, ESV) The baby whose coming we remember, whose coming we look forward to celebrating, is the Lord our Righteousness. His purpose, his plan was to save the people of God.

 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26, ESV)

Jesus Christ, the baby in the manger, the Suffering Servant from Isaiah, the Good Shepherd in the 23 Psalm, the True King of Israel laid down his very life, to bring to us the righteousness of God. The cross and the cradle are forever linked…  He came to us in the cradle. He saved us through his death on the cross.

That’s the Good News Jeremiah was telling the people who weren’t listening to him. It’s the Good News the he’s telling us. Amen.

The Peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

John 3.1-17; Second Sunday after Pentecost; June 14, 2020;

John 3.1-17; Second Sunday after Pentecost; June 14, 2020;

Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN;

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ” (John 3:1–17, ESV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Everyone wants to make sense out of life. As we live and work and play we want there to be meaning. The problem is it isn’t always clear; meaning isn’t all that easy to find. It’s difficult to find meaning in watching people swept away with their houses by a giant wave. It’s difficult to find meaning in a struggle against nuclear power gone haywire. There just isn’t an easy answer. No one can say they know exactly how the death of those thousands of people fits into the over all plan for life on earth.

Gas prices continue to climb as revolution erupts in the Middle East and Africa. Are the rebels good guys seeking democracy or are they bad guys looking for an in for Sharia Law? Why can’t world leaders take a stand while hundreds die? What does all this unrest in that eternally unstable part of the world mean for us? It’s difficult not to be frightened and confused when with all this going on all over the world. What is it all about? No one can really answer the question. But many people try.

With all these questions about why floating around, this entire struggle, it’s easy to feel lost and in the dark. If only I could find the key to understanding these problems… If I watch just one more hour news coverage, I’ll understand what it’s all about. Just one more expose about mad dictator … Just one more interview with Japanese woman who saw her whole life swept away in angry muddy water… then I’d be able to make sense out of it all. And everything would fall into place. But it never happens. It’s like wandering around in the dark hoping to find the path. It is very danger dangerous to bump around in the dark. We so easily stumble into dangerous places. But we can’t see where we are going; the way is hidden from us. The key to understand the whole thing is hidden from us in the darkness.

There was another man who felt this way. He was trying to understand the struggles that were going on around him. Something unexpected was happening and he was in the dark, groping for answers. Nicodemus wanted to know who Jesus really was. He was looking for the key to understanding Him. We hear about him in the verses immediately preceding the Gospel for today, in fact Chapter 3 is all about a discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Nicodemus came to Jesus, at night, in the dark, to talk, to understand, to shine light on the darkness in his mind. “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who comes from God, no one does the things you have done without having God with him.” What he was asking, what he dare not really say was, “Jesus, who are you really? What makes you tick? What makes you do things like driving all the sacrifices out of the temple? What makes you say things like ‘destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days’? I’m in the dark and I want to know what all of this means.”

But, Jesus gives and interesting answer. He tells Nicodemus that it is not that he lacks the key to understanding. “If you are not born again you can’t understand the things of God.” It’s not a matter of knowledge; it’s not figuring out the puzzle, it’s not finding the light switch. What is born of the flesh is flesh.” The flesh only gives birth to evil things. Human beings are sinful. You feel like you are lost because you are lost. You feel in the dark and dead because you are dead.”

That’s were we find ourselves, too. The bible tells us that we are evil. It’s not just criminals and the mad dictators. There’s more than enough evil and sin in even our hearts. We can try all we want to shield ourselves from the light God’s law and hide our evil from Him, but it penetrates us and shows our most secret sins… the lust, the greed, the self-service… It sends us cowering back into the cover of darkness.

We don’t need just some secret knowledge to help us. It isn’t knowing some key to life that brings light to our darkness. The key is looking to the one who is the Light. All the knowledge in the world won’t help us make sense out of the darkness, and trouble in our nature and war torn world. If we are missing the foundation, the One and True Light, we will stumble around in the darkness all our lives.

Light has come into the world.

That’s what Jesus told Nicodemus. “Light has come into the world.” He said. That’s the Good News. We blindly search for meaning, and God has provided what we need to survive, to avoid the dangers in the darkness. We don’t have to crawl up a high mountain to get knowledge from some guru, to find the secret to life. Jesus was lifted up for us to plainly see.

Just like Moses lifted up the snake for the Israelites to be saved from their snake venom. Jesus saves us from the darkness in our hearts. He is lifted up on the cross for our sins. He dies our death there, he dies because of sin, the evil in us goes into the darkness of death with him, and when he comes to life again darkness is changed into light.

Our attempts to make sense of life find completion in Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world, the way the truth and the life. We have seen Jesus lifted up, we have seen God’s answer to all the questions of sin, death and destruction in life. God gave us this light not by taking us out of it but by coming into the darkness himself. He came, in Jesus, and was enveloped in the darkness of our death. He was oppressed by the darkness of our evil, and lived among the darkness of our ignorance.

We look to Jesus Christ, lifted up and crucified. He shines the light of forgiveness from the cross into your dark heart and makes it light again. He dies for you, goes into death’s darkness where you should go, but don’t have go to anymore. When the light of day, shined into the dark tomb on Easter morning, Jesus ended the reign of death in your life. The brightness of Easter, the Light of the promise of life is yours, through Baptism, in the name of Jesus.

We don’t live in the darkness anymore. The light of Jesus, lifted up, still shines on us to bring light to our darkness. Even though darkness is all around us, even though we struggle to understand what’s going on in the world. What does it mean that there is war in Iraq? Why do people want to kill us? All of that darkness threatens us every day, but we live as “children of the light.” We know the answer for a world that is still groping around in darkness, looking for meaning. We have seen the Way. We have seen the Light. It is Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Romans 11:33; Festival of the Holy Trinity; June 7, 2020;

Romans 11:33; Festival of the Holy Trinity; June 7, 2020;

Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN;

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33, ESV)

(Thanks to Norman Nagel)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

What is God like? You probably don’t get asked that question very much. But if you did I’d be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that you wouldn’t answer the question with the Athanasian Creed. In some ways it feels more like the “Athanasian Confusion” rather than a statement of what we believe. And yet again I guess we shouldn’t expect it to be all that easy to understand it is after all speaking about God. God is well beyond our understanding. To attempt to describe Him in human language is to attempt the impossible. God is farther above us then we are above insects. The author of The Letter to the Romans says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Rom 33:34, ESV). So, any creed that tries to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity is going to be tricky. And yet, it is a confession of what we believe. Its purpose is to state what the Bible tells us about God in as clear a fashion as possible. To say a creed is to say what God’s Word says. To confess what God tells us about himself. To “Same-Say.”  We say what we say about God because it is what He tells us about Himself.

I said God was far beyond our understanding. It’s true. Our brains can’t do it. They just don’t have the ability since sin has corrupted us. We can’t understand “depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.”  In Isaiah it tells of God looking down on the earth and the people are like grasshoppers. Think about holding a grasshopper in your hand. What would it think of you? It probably only understands that it can’t escape as you hold it, but it will try to escape to preserve its life, because it fears being crushed. There is nothing else it can understand about you. It can’t understand anything about who you are, or what you are like. Its brain isn’t big enough to understand. It can’t fathom the depth of your knowledge. Its reaction to you is based on its fear and desire to preserve its life. If grasshoppers had a language, how would that language be able to describe you?

If you want to know what humans think about God, you only have to look at the world religions outside of Christianity. You’ll see that same kind of fear. Without God’s Word nature is our only information about who God is and nature is a dangerous place. If it is God’s creation and human beings are routinely swept away in tsunamis and swallowed up by earthquakes what language can be used to describe Him? Consider the billions of people on the earth and the insignificance of a single person among billions. The human reaction to the God of nature is to do whatever it can to appease Him. We must live the best life we can to keep His anger away from us. We must make something of our lives to be noticed in the right way. Or even more common today, deny the obvious and ignore the Creator so as to not be accountable to Him.

Human beings who fear God do so naturally. We have been given a conscience that tells us what is right and wrong, what pleases God and what makes Him angry. Human beings have every right to be afraid of God. You know what He expects of you, and when you look at yourself you know you don’t live up to it. It is remarkably similar to the fear the grasshopper in your hand feels. You have the power to destroy. God could just as easily destroy you.

How could that grasshopper come to understand who you are? Well there is no way it for you to communicate with it except to become a grasshopper yourself. As one of his own you could tell him about you in grasshopper language.

When we want to know what God is like, we only have to look to Jesus who did that very thing for us. Jesus is God become man, to tell us what God is like in human language. He tells us that He is God. He does things only God can do. He says things that only God can say. He is worshipped by people who see Him for who He is. There are people who don’t believe He is God. They call Him crazy. And it’s true, Jesus is either God or He is insane. You can’t just make Jesus a great moral teacher. If what He says is true, then He is either crazy, or He is God.

Jesus is God, expressed in human person, language, and action. Jesus is God speaking to human beings about who He is and what He wants for us. St. John even says that Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is God speaking about Himself in a living and breathing way. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, ESV) If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. He is God that can be heard, and seen and touched and most importantly, understood.

Jesus says to us, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. (John 15:13, ESV) He’s telling us something about God that we can’t know any other way. He shows us of God’s love for us at the cross. The cross is what God thinks of us, we are His friends. But friends just doesn’t quite cover it does it. Jesus laying down His life is even more than we expect. It isn’t what we would do. In Jesus, God becomes human and suffers the eternal agony of hell’s punishment. He dies for everyone, not just the ones who say they love Him. God’s love is expressed even for those who reject Him and wish Him out of existence. His love is for those who hide from Him in fear. It is for those who know what God expects and know they can’t do it. Let me say it very clearly. The love of God you see in the death of Jesus Christ is for you.

There is no greater love. God loves the un-lovable. God loves sinful people. He loves you. He loves me, even in the depth of our sin. That is what God is like. God dies to set aside our sin, to bring us forgiveness instead of punishment. When punishment is set aside fear of the Judge is gone. Because of Jesus’ paying the punishment for our sins we no longer need to be afraid of God. In fact, we now call God our Father.

“Our Father…” we pray in the prayer that Jesus gives us. “I believe in God the Father…” we confess in the other creeds of the church. We have that relationship with God, the Father, because of Jesus. He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, ESV)  Faith believes in the forgiveness that Jesus has made. With that forgiveness in hand we can approach God, the Father, as Martin Luther put it: With these words [Our Father Who art in Heaven] God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father. (Luther’s Small Catechism).

Without faith is to be without forgiveness. God is no longer Our Father, but only Our Creator and Righteous Judge. When the cross of Jesus is rejected, Jesus is rejected, and forgiveness is rejected. A Jesus without the cross is not the true Jesus. Where there is no forgiveness there is only God’s inescapable wrath and punishment.

So, Jesus shows us God the Father, and our relationship to Him through the forgiveness of sins, blood bought by His death on the cross. He also shows us the Holy Spirit. It’s important to know about the Holy Spirit because if it weren’t for Him we’d have no faith. No human being can believe that Jesus is God any more than we could believe that a person could become a grasshopper. Jesus Christ completely God and completely man is nonsense. It’s not something that we can believe on our own. Lot’s of people out there say that Christianity is right because it makes sense. The truth is that Christianity is the most non-sense-ical religion there is. You can’t prove it with science. You can’t convince people its true by arguing with them. God become man to die a criminal’s death, to take punishment he doesn’t deserve, is foolishness. You can’t believe it without God giving you faith.

Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was. Peter confessed it clearly. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  (Matthew 16:16, ESV) Jesus reply tells us of the work of the Spirit. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”  (Matthew 16:17, ESV) It isn’t specifically the work of the Father that Jesus is talking about; St. Paul clarifies it for us. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 13:3, ESV)  The Holy Spirit works faith in us to believe and confess that Jesus is Lord, faith to see that Jesus is God’s son sent to be the sacrifice for our sin and restore our relationship to God the Father.

The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God, which is all about Jesus. The Spirit never points to Himself; He’s only interested that we see Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus enters our ears and hearts and the Spirit turns us to Jesus so that we can see who He really is. When the Holy Spirit works in us, He points to us He points at our sinful hearts. Then He shows us Jesus, our only hope for freedom from sin’s punishment. He shows us Jesus, our only way to the Father. Since you can never quote Martin Luther too much:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. (Luther’s Small Catechism, The Apostle’s Creed, The Second Article: On Redemption)

The Holy Spirit enlightens me with His gifts, Luther says. The gifts he’s talking about are God’s Word, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The Holy Spirit has confined himself to those means of working. He doesn’t work outside of those ways. That’s God, doing what God does, active in our lives bringing us Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins.

What is God like? Did you notice that in answer to that question we talk about what God does?  God is a living and active being. He is best known for what He does, most clearly in what He has done in Jesus. God’s action shows us that He is a unity in trinity, three persons in one God. We speak most clearly about The Trinity when we speak about God and say what He does.

Look at the Apostle’s Creed. God creates. God saves. God makes us holy. God is three persons, unified in action, unified in purpose, unified in love for you and me. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.