January 31, 2011 - Epiphany 4

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These past few weeks we have noted that during the season of Epiphany our texts offer us every week a revelation of Jesus our Lord. They give us an epiphany, an “Aha” as we come to realize that Jesus the man is the Christ, the Son of God. We began Epiphany with His baptism and saw we heard the voice of the Father speak from heaven that this Jesus was his beloved Son. We heard the Baptist say that he was the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. Last week, the Vicar pointed out for us that Jesus is the Light of the World who came to overcome the darkness of sin, as Jesus set about calling to himself disciples. Today our Gospel text offers us another revelation of Jesus; who he is and what he does and how he does it.
In our Gospel text today we see Jesus revealed to us as a preacher. In the time line of Jesus' ministry, following his baptism and then his 40 days in the wilderness, the first work that Jesus does as the Christ the Lords anointed is to preach. Jesus climbs a hill with his disciples, sits down in the customary posture of a teacher and he begins a sermon. Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God is a preacher. And so that is our Epiphany today. Do you want to see Jesus? Do you want to know him and who he is and what he does? Then listen to his preaching.
Now Jesus came to wage war on sin and death. He came in to the territories over run by evil, by the Devil. He came as the conquering hero to overthrown the enemy and free the captives. And usually, when we think of a warrior, of a soldier or a hero our minds and imaginations move toward the weapons of war. In Jesus day Roman soldiers fought with steal, with swords and spears. They were outfitted with the best that ancient technology had to offer. Today modern day soldiers are equipped with rifles and side arms, they are aided by satellites and laser guided air support and gps and computer guidance systems. All these gadgets have made our military even more efficient and deadly to our enemies.
But Jesus, the Son of God who has come into the world, Jesus who will claim to have all power in heaven and on earth, has no use for laser guidance systems and gps units. He doesn't use a gun, missiles or bombs. There are no heavy artillery or machine guns. Jesus doesn't carry a sword or even a knife. Jesus has come to wage war. There is no mistaking that. But for Jesus, his war is a war fought with words. With The WORD. The Word of God. Jesus is a preacher. His weapons are his words. And the Words of Jesus, the preaching of Jesus cuts straight to the heart.
This idea of a battle fought with words is not entirely new to us. We have seen it from time to time. After all, consider our political system. When one side has an agenda they want to accomplish they pile up the rhetoric around them and spin their agenda with words that create a perception favorable toward getting that job done. When the other side is not in favor of that agenda, they arm themselves with competing rhetoric, they criticize and tear down. Construct words that are designed to undermine and even sabotage their opponents. Today in our political system, when one side doesn't like the agenda of the other they attack the ideas with their words and when that doesn't work or isn't as effective as they would like, they attack each other. The war of words is fought out in the world on a daily basis and we are witness to it.
Yes, but there are times that we are even participants in it. How often do we wage war on one another with our words. The Epistle of James reminds us that the tongue is a restless evil, that it is the spark that can set an entire forest ablaze. Our tongues can just as easily become weapons in a war of words. Sometimes it is a full frontal assault fought in direct confrontation. Sometimes we are more subtle with our words, firing them from a distance and behind someone's back like a sniper hiding out of sight. But the words are weapons. They hurt and they destroy. We are only all to familiar with a war fought with words.
But this is not how Jesus fights. His words are not harsh or cruel. His words are not designed to diminish your reputation or you good name, rather his words restore your reputation. His words change your standing and your station in life, not just before men, but actually before God. The words of Jesus are truth and they are life. They are like that double edged sword of Hebrews that pierce to the division of soul and spirit, that discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) Jesus words are God's Word. His is the Word made flesh. And Jesus preaches that word that delivers to us life and salvation.
And so, in our text, Jesus the preacher sat down and began to preach. He took his disciples up on a hill and he began his famous sermon on the mount. His sermon begins with the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The sermon continues beyond this first beatitude, this first blessing, but this one is important because it reveals to us just what Jesus is here to do, what he is all about and why he has come. Jesus has come and he has come to preach because it is his intention to deliver the Kingdom of Heaven.
The words of Jesus, the actions of Jesus, the intentions of Jesus are all related, they are all aimed at the same thing. They all point to the kingdom of heaven, and specifically, the kingdom of heaven for you. The words of Jesus came to proclaim to you and to deliver to you God's Kingdom, God's reign on heaven and earth in glory where your sins are forgiven and where you live with him in blessing and glory. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I guess a question to be answered, then, is what does it mean to be poor in spirit. We are all well aware of the contrast between being rich and being poor. The rich have the advantage of wealth, but often with that wealth comes power and influence. It seems that people who have money also have the ability to construct the world around them in a way that is favorable to their own agenda. The poor, on the other hand, lack wealth, but they often also lack power and influence. They are often subject to the will and the influence of the rich.
But we are not talking about worldly wealth and wordly power, we are not talking about being cash poor but spirit poor. Poor not toward man, but toward God. The spiritually poor, those who have no righteousness of their own, those who are weak and who need, who depend on the Lord for his spiritual gifts and blessings. The spiritual beggars, those who come to God with nothing and ask from him everything. The sinners, the spiritually destitute. These are the one who inherit God's kingdom. It isn't the ones who seem to have it all figured out, the spiritual know it all's, the spiritual power brokers of the world, our religious elites and the spiritual ruling class. After all, it turns out they have no use for God. They have no use for Jesus, because they have no use for his forgiveness.
And this is why it is so necessary for us to watch out for and be careful of our words. Certainly they can be weapons that kill and destroy and sometimes we do these things intentionally. But there are times when our words are even just carelessly spoken.
James calls the tongue and spark, a flame that is fueled by hell.
I once knew a pastor of a small country church who lived in the parsonage beside the church. This pastor had a young son and since they were far removed from any town or village the church would often remain open. This pastors son once, while he was out playing happened to venture into the sacristy and found the matches that we used to light the candles for worship. He got them out, began to play with them and then threw them in the trash. The fire from the matches began to smolder and burn and soon enough the entire church went up in flames.
Again, the tongue is a flame, a fire fueled by hell. Careless words spoken behind closed doors can light fires that you are not able to put out. Once the flames begin to burn often there is no stopping them and before you know it the whole place has gone up in flames.
But Jesus' words are different. His Words are far from incendiary. They don't incite fear or anger or gossip or any of our other vices. The words of Jesus put out the flames. They douse the fire. They cool the burning.
The words of Jesus are like a fire hose sprayed on the flames of our sin. We become drenched in the Spirit, soaked through to the bone – first in Baptism that washes us clean but then squelches the smoldering embers. And then continuously this spring wells up in us and flows from us in love toward our neighbor as the spring is fed by the aquifer of the Spirit found in those Words and preaching of Jesus. We go to church. We eat the body and drink the Lord's blood and we swim in his grace and forgiveness.
Words. Words are indeed powerful. They can bind and condemn, but they can also set free. The words of Jesus are Gospel words. Forgiveness words. Life words. And those words are given today to you from Jesus himself, who takes the poor in spirit, the mourners, meek, the hungry and thirsty and he gives them the Kingdom of Heaven.
Amen.

Epiphany 2

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Epiphany 3 Matthew 4:12-25

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Light and dark. Without the darkness there can be no light, and without the light no
darkness. The rhythm of our lives is defined and shaped by the simple elements of light and dark.
For most of us, we rise from our slumber before dawn and ready ourselves to work during the
hours of light. We retire to our homes at dusk to rest and refresh ourselves for the next day of
work by the sleep of the night. Light and dark - they are such basic things, yet like food and
water they are essential to life.
Light and dark are central also to matters of theology and spirituality. God’s first creative
act at the beginning of all things was the creation of light and separating light from the darkness.
Adam and Eve were created perfect creatures, and given all good gifts of the Earth that come
from God’s hand. But sin entered into the world through our first parents and mankind fell into
the darkness of sin, having lost the fellowship of light we had with the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
Yet the deep and abiding love of God would lead Him to work out our salvation through
His son Christ Jesus. In the darkness of our sin, the true Light of Christ would come into the
world to seek and save us from our sin. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5). In this
season of Epiphany, we celebrate the revealing of Christ, the Light of the World, who came to
rescue us from the darkness of our shame of sin, death and Satan. Today, the Word of the Lord
enlightens us by declaring that:

THE LIGHT OF CHRIST OVERCOMES THE DARKNESS OF YOUR SIN AND THE
SHADOW OF DEATH.

Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And
leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun
and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land
of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the
Gentiles - the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in
the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began
to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:12-17) Jesus
hears of John the Baptist being arrested and withdraws into the region of Galilee. The time of
John the Baptist’s ministry has come to an end, and Christ is about to start His ministry. Matthew
records that Jesus eventually would make his way to the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali in
accordance with the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken through Isaiah, our Old Testament
reading this morning. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former
time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the
latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of
the nations. (Is 9:1). Zebulun and Naphtali were part of the the Northern Kingdom of Israel
during the time of the Assyrian invasion. They suffered greatly as part of God’s judgment against

them. They had abandoned worship of the living and true God for false idols and cults. In the
darkness of their sin and God’s judgment they were continually occupied by foreign invaders and
made to endure oppressive enslavement because they had turned away from the light of God for
the darkness of false worship. Through their enslavement, God sought to bring them to
repentance and salvation.
Yet, even now, that same enslavement to the darkness of sin endures. Naphtali and
Zebulun’s sin becomes our sin. We abandon God for the man-made objects and religions and
thus sin against God through false worship of them. We worship ourselves and our status and
achievements, being filled with sinful, self-justifying pride and arrogance. We worship our
selfish desires, lusting after what we want and don’t have and coveting until these desires become
our new god. We are Zebulun and Naphtali, spiritual wastelands of darkness. We’ve been taken
captive by the darkness of our sin and the shadow of death. We cannot escape the oppressive
enemies of sin and death and their tyranny of our body and souls. For the enemy has pursued
my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those
long dead (Ps 143:3).
The weight of the darkness of our sin would appear to make all seem hopeless, if it
weren’t for the coming of the great Light. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great
light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned
(Matt 4:16 [Cited from Is 9:2]). This light is the divine light of Christ, who now enters into the
spiritual darkness of Zebulun and Naphtali to begin His ministry. He comes as the fulfillment of
Isaiah’s prophecy as the Light of the world. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5). Zebulun
and Naphtali, once held captive by the darkness of foreign invaders and freed by the light of
Gideon and his army of three hundred men, is now freed by the True Light of Christ. Jesus comes
as the New Gideon, the bearer of the True Light of life and men, to free the people of Naphtali
and Zebulun from the darkness of their sins. He comes preaching the message of repentance -
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17). Christ, the Light of the world
pierces and overcomes the darkness of sin and the shadow of death. He is full of mercy and grace
and light, forgiving sin and healing every disease and affliction among the people (Matt 4:23)
of those living in the shadow of death.
Today, the light of Christ has dawned upon us and He has freed us from the darkness of
our sin and the shadow of death. He comes and pierces the darkness to seek and save the lost;
that is, He comes to seek and save you and me. The True Light comes to defeat the darkness of
sin and the shadow of death by going to the Cross and suffering the punishment rightly deserved
by all of us. Christ dies on the cross and in the midst of His pain and suffering, He cries out not
with anger and vengeance. He cries out with words of forgiveness, saying “Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.” Jesus forgives us for abandoning Him for false worship of the
things of this world. He forgives us for our self-justifying pride and arrogance. He forgives us our
selfish desires and worship of the god of coveting. He forgives us our sin and brings us out of the
darkness into the light of the kingdom of heaven, where He promises that even today we will be
with Him in paradise.
In His forgiveness of sins, the True Light makes us into children of light, being born into
the kingdom of Heaven through baptism and nourished with the Holy Supper. But what does this
mean that we are now children of the Light? Jesus speaks to this when He says, “You are the
light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put
it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let

your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your
Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16). Having been rescued from the dark night of our sin,
we now go forth into the world with the Light of Christ and we shine this light as Christ-bearers,
serving our neighbors and the world through acts of mercy. In this way we do battle against our
own sinful flesh and the principalities of this world. St. Paul exhorts us in this way, when he
encourages the church of Rome, saying “for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first
believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of
darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:11b-12).
Pastor Luther says this about St. Paul’s exhortation: “You can see from this how much we
need an exhortation and warning to be wakeful and to put on the armor of light...But what
manner of Christian life is it that we hypocrites live, if we cannot have our ways laid open before
our neighbors, when they are actually long since laid bare before God and his angels and all
creatures, and at the day of judgment will be known to everyone? Therefore Christians should
live as they wish to be known by all persons and at the last day. Live as children of light.” Live as
children of Light, living lives of repentance, mercy and forgiveness. For the Lord is my light
and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Ps 27:1a)

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep you hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus. AMEN.

-Vicar Duncan Sprague

January 9, 2011 Baptism of Our Lord

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Isaiah 42:1-9
This past week, in our weekly chapel service, I asked our school children if they could define the word Epiphany. It was Thursday, the first day of the liturgical season of Epiphany. And I was hoping that they would understand what the season of Epiphany is all about. Epiphany is a liturgical season. But it is also just a word, a word that is used in common speech, and we were observing how the two things are related.
One student defined an epiphany quite well as "a sudden realization". There was something you didn't know, or didn't understand that all of a sudden has become clear, a eureka moment. I suppose we might compare it to Thomas Edison when he invent the light bulb - there was a problem of materials and understanding and then suddenly he hit upon the solution and the proverbial light bulb came on (pardon the pun). He suddenly understood and the problem was solved.
The Church season of Epiphany is really the very same sort of a thing. Jesus was a person, a man, as much a regular guy as you could meet. To look at him there was nothing special or spectacular to cause him to stand apart from the rest...
Except there was.. This man was the result of a miraculous conception; the Holy Spirit and Mary. This man was the Son of Man, the Son of God who had come to save his people from their sins. But he didn't look it. One could look into his eyes and look right past the most significant part of who he was. To get this, to understand this, to believe this required that eureka moment, that epiphany, when the Spirit who was the origin of his conception infused faith in the heart to open eyes and prove to that one the divinity in Jesus. It happened with the Magi who experienced their own epiphany when they bowed to worship the baby as their lord and it happened today in our Gospel text when the Lord himself from heaven pointed out this man just baptized was His Son, his beloved, one with whom he was well pleased. It was truly an 'Aha" moment. An epiphany. A sudden realization. This Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter is the Son of God.
For you and I, we live in a world that needs just such an epiphany, just such a revelation. We live in a world that needs to have the darkness taken away, the blinders removed from their eyes so that they can see. so that they can acknowledge Jesus the way the magi did, with worship on their knees, with gifts and devotion and service and love. The world doesn't know its Lord. these people are darkened in their unbelief.
Our Old Testament text, which is the basis for our meditation today, is the first of Isaiah's Servant songs. These songs are poems of the Lord written about His Servant. Here in chapter 42 the Lord says that his servant will bring forth justice to the nations.
Now, usually when we think of Justice we think of retribution. We think of that typical courtroom scene where the family of the victim of some crime shows up in court to demand justice from the court and to confront the accused. This is not the sense to be implied here. There is another way that the word can be used. The word can also indicate a decision or a verdict. we might say something like, "The high court has pronounced judgment on the issue." We mean to say that they have reached a verdict and have come to a decision. This is what the Lord intends to say here. The Lord has made his decision, reached his verdict, and the Lord's servant is to pronounce the judgment, the decision, to the nations. He is to deliver the verdict to those who have been appointed to hear.
And here is that verdict:
"I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness."
The people are blind. The people are in prison. The Servant of the Lord will give sight to the blind and release for the captives. Or, to put in another way, the Lord will bring about an epiphany a eureka or an "aha" moment for those who do not know and who have not heard.
If you back up from where our text begins, back into chapter 41 of Isaiah, the Lord further elucidates what he means and what he intends here. The Lord offers a fuller explanation.
In this previous section the Lord is confronting the idolatry of the nations, the worship of false gods and idols. He challenges these idols to offer any hope or consolation, to accurately predict those things that are yet to happen. They cannot. The Lord responds to the false gods who would challenge him; (Isaiah 41:28-29 28) But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. 29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind."
They are a delusion; "their works are nothing, their metal images only an empty wind." The gods of this world are nothing. They are Zip. Zero. Zilch. the Lord would have us think back to Genesis 1:1 when as he puts it the world was formless and void. The world was nothing. There was nothing, no light, not even dark. no earth. no land. no water. no air. no gold or silver. no mountains or streams. no fish or birds or livestock. No ipods or cell phones either for that matter. There were no HDTV's. no internet. nothing. Completely formless and empty. That is the power and the strength of false gods, they take us back. They undo God's creation.
Baal, Thor, Zeus, Ra, different cultures have name their different gods. Our own culture has her own gods. Whether you worship wealth or power or entertainment or fashion or personal happiness or fulfillment. whether your god resides in the vault at your local bank, or can be purchased at the mall, made from leather with a heal and can be worn either casual or dressy. Whether your god carries the pigskin, or has a retina display, our world today is filled with all sorts of gods. God's that people worship and gods that we are tempted to worship too. idols that we look to for our happiness and fulfillment, that we look to for our safety and security. idols that we allow to displace the one true God. Lets call them what they are. "A delusion, nothing, an empty wind." The world needs an epiphany, the world needs to wake up from its delusion, shake off the sleep of idolatry, and come to a sudden realization that her gods are not going to save her. The world needs a god, a true God. The world needs that servant who can proclaim release to captives, a god who can give sight to the blind, a god who can provide salvation to that people who walk in great darkness.
When the Lord came into this world that was formless and empty, that was dark with nothing way back before the beginning of life and even time. The Lord came and he spoke. Let there be light and there was light. Light in the darkness. a flash of brilliance and radiance where there had been pitch black. Can you imagine how glorious that first light must have been. Strap on your Ray Bans, grab your Oakleys, because the Lord has come. With light and truth.
In a very similar way, this is what the Lord has done for us. In the darkness and death of our sin he has come to us with the light, with the truth, with the revelation of his glory found in his word. His word that gives the sudden realization that these gods we have been holding on to and holding out for are worthless junk and that the true value and glory and light lies with the Light of the World, the Light for the Nations, the Light that shines in the darkness. The Word made flesh. He came to us and gave us that very Epiphany, that Eureka, that discovery so that we could see the light.
All those years ago Thomas Alva Edison sat alone in his workshop tinkering with electricity and bits of filament until he hit upon the formula to get that little strand to glow. Today the world is awash with light because one man took the time and the effort to create light from what was dark.
How much more illumined are we because of the Gospel, because that one man Jesus Christ sat not at a workbench in a workshop, but fixed to a cross. In that moment he absorbed the darkness of sin and became the electricity for the light of our faith. His glory shines out from the cross and those who have eyes to see know the crucified lord to be God and Savior.
This God is your god. God for you. God in your heart and God in the world.
May the light that is in your heart be reflected to the nations.
Amen.

Sunday Jan 2, 2011

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Adapted from Complete Series of Luther's Sermons V.I

Grace mercy and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The sermon today is preached from a collection of sermons by Dr. Martin Luther. It is based on our Gospel text from Luke 2.

I. This is a Gospel that presents to us an example of the holy cross, showing us through what experience those have to pass who are Christians, and how they aught to bear their sorrow. For whoever wants to be a Christian must expect to bear the cross. For God will place him between the spurs and thoroughly test him that he may be humble and no one will come to Christ without suffering. Of this we have here an example, which we ought to imitate and shall now consider
Although the holy mother Mary, who was highly blessed and upon whom many favors were bestowed, had undoubtedly the greatest delight in her child, yet the Lord so ruled that her joy was not without sorrow and like all others she did not attain complete blessedness until she entered heaven. For this reason she had to suffer so much sorrow, pain and anguish here on earth. It was her first great sorrow that she had to give birth to her child in Bethlehem, in a strange town, where she found no room with her baby except in a stable. Then her second sad experience was that soon after the six weeks of her purification she was compelled to flee with her child unto Egypt, a strange country, which was indeed a poor consolation. She undoubtedly experienced many more trials, which have not been recorded.
One of them is related here, when her son caused her so much anxiety, by staying behind in the temple and letter her seek him so long, and she could not find him. This alarmed and grieved her so that she almost despaired, as her words indicate: "Behold this child is only mine, this I know very well, and I know that God has entrusted him to me and commanded me to take care of him; why is it then that he is taken from me? It is my fault, for I have not sufficiently taken care of him and guarded him. Perhaps God does not think I am worthy to watch over this child and will take him from me again." She was undoubtedly greatly frightened and her heart trembled and was filled with grief.
Here you see what she experienced. Although she is the mother of a child in whom she might have gloried before all mothers, and although her joy was immeasurably greater than any she had ever felt, yet you perceive how God deprives her of all happiness, in that she can no longer call herself the mother of Jesus. In her great dismay she probably wished she had never known her child and was tempted to greater sins than any mother had ever committed.
In the same manner the Lord our God can take from us our joy and comfort, if he so desires, and cause us the greatest sorrow with the very things that are our greatest joy, and, on the other hand, give us the greatest delight in the things that terrify us the most. For it was the greatest joy of Mary that she was the mother of this child, but now he has become the greatest cause of her sorrow. Thus we are afraid of nothing more than of sin and death, yet God can comfort us so that we may boast, as St Paul says in Romans 7 that sin served to the end that we became justified and that we longed for death and desired to die.
The greatest sorrow of the mother of Christ, who was deprived of her child, came upon her in order that even her trust in God might be taken from her. For she had reason to fear God was angry with her and would no longer allow her to be the mother of his Son. You won't understand what she suffered unless you have endured similar experiences. Therefore we should apply this example to ourselves, for it was not recorded for her sake, but for our benefit. She is now at the end of her sorrows; therefore we should profit by her example and be prepared to bear our sorrow if a similar affliction should fall upon us.
When God entrusts to us a strong faith and a firm trust in him, so that we are assured he is our gracious God and we can depend on him, then we are in paradise. But when God permits our hearts to be discouraged and we believe that he takes from us Christ our Lord, when our conscience feels that we have lost him and amidst trembling and despair our confidence is gone, then we are truly in misery and distress. For even if we are not conscious of any special sin, yet in such a condition we tremble and doubt whether God still cares for us; just as Mary here doubts and knows not whether God still finds her worthy to be the mother of his Son. Our heart thinks in the time of trial thus: God has indeed given me a strong faith, but perhaps he will take it from me and will no longer want me as His child. Only strong minds can endure such temptations and there are not many people whom God tests to this degree. Yet we must be prepared, so that we may not despair if such trials should come upon us.
We find many examples of this in the scriptures; for example Joshua 7. God had given to Joshua great and strong promises, telling him that he would exterminated the heathen and charging him to attack his enemies courageously and vigorously, which he also did. But what happened? When his faith was strong he sent three thousand men against a city to take it. They were proud, seeing that it was small city with only a few people to defend it. When the men of Israel approached, the enemy spilled out of the city and defeated the people. Then Joshua fell to the ground on his face before the Ark of the Lord until evening, crying out before God saying, "Alas, O Lord, why have you brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and cause us to perish?" His faith had become so weak and utterly discouraged so that God himself had to raise him up again. Thus God deals with his great saints, whom he sometimes deprives of Christ, that is, of their faith and confidence.
But God does all this out of superabundant grace and goodness in order that we might perceive on every had how kindly and lovingly the Father deals with us and tries us, so that our faith may be developed and become continually stronger and stronger. And he does this especially so as to guard his children against a twofold danger which might otherwise threaten them. In the first place, being strong in their own mind and arrogant, they might ultimately depend upon themselves and believe they are able to accomplish everything in their own strength. For this reason God sometimes permits their faith to grow weak and be prostrated, so that they might see who they are and be forced to confess; "Even if I would believe, I cannot. Thus the omnipotent God humbles his saints and keeps them in their true knowledge. For nature and reason will always boast of the gifts of God and depend on them. Therefore God must lead us to a recognition of the fact that it is he who puts faith in our heart and that we cannot produce it ourselves. Thus the fear of God and trust in him must not be separated from one another, for we need them both to keep us from becoming presumptuous and overconfident, depending on ourselves. This is one of the reasons why God leads his saints through such great trials.
Another reason is that he wants to give us an example. For if in the Scriptures we had no examples of saints who passed through the same experiences, we would be unable to bear our trials and would imagine that we are alone in our suffering, that God never dealt with anyone in this manner; therefore my suffering must be a sign of God's displeasure with me. But when we see that the Virgin Mary and other saints have also suffered, we are comforted and do not need to despair, for their example shows us that we should calmly wait until God comes to strengthen us.
We find many examples of similar trials in the scriptures and here we might offer the words of David in Psalm 31:22 "As for me, in my haste, I am cut off from before your eyes," just as we sometimes think that God does not want us. Such trials are unendurable and severe beyond measure, and the saints who pass through them lament greatly, and if God would not deliver them they would be in hell. compared with these trials other temptations and sorrows are trivial, as for instance when our possessions and honors are taken from us, or when the innocent babes were murdered and Jesus was forced to flee into Egypt. The prophet speaks of this in Psalm 94, "Unless the Lord had been my help my soul would have soon dwelt in silence." So great is the terror and anguish of such visitations. But God permitted them that we might lay hold of these examples, be comforted and saved from despair. At the end of our lives we must also pass through similar trials. Therefore we must be armed and prepared for them.
II. An Example of Comfort Under the Cross.
Such is the narrative and example of the great sorrow as it is portrayed in this Gospel, but we are also shown where comfort may be found. The parents of Jesus lost him, going a day's journey and seeking for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances, but they could not find him. The returned to Jerusalem and after a three day search found him in the temple. Here God has pointed out how we are to find consolation and strength in all our sorrows and especially in these great trials and how we can find Christ the Lord, namely by seeking him in the temple. Jesus said to his parents, "Did you not know that I must be in my Fathers house?"
This consolation is that Christ is only to be found in the temple. that is to say in the House of God. But what is that house of God? Is it the whole creation? It is indeed true that God is present everywhere, but he is especially present in the Holy Scriptures, in His Word more than anywhere else. We learn therefore here that no one can presume to have any comfort from anything other than the Word of God; you will find the Son only in the temple. Now look at the mother of Jesus who does not yet understand this and does not know that she must seek him in the temple. When she looked for him among her family and friends, and not in the right place, she did not find him.
Therefore I have often said and will say again, that in the Christian church nothing should be preached but the pure Word of God. With this the Gospel agrees when it says that they did not find the Lord among their family and friends. We must point to what Christ has said, to the place where he may be found, which he points out when he says that he must be in his Father's house, which means that he can only be found in the Word of God. We should not derive any comfort from any other man made source.
We know that consolation may be found only in the Scripture, the Word of God. For this reason God caused this to be recorded, as St Paul writes to the Romans: "For whatsoever things were written down before hand were written for our learning, that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope." Rom 15:4 Here he says that the Scriptures are comforting, that they impart patience and comfort. Consequently there can be nothing else that comforts the soul, not even in the most terrifying temptations. For everything else with which man comforts himself, however great it may be, is altogether uncertain and the heart inquires constantly: Who knows whether it is right? If only I were sure about it! But when the heart clings to the Word of God it can say without wavering; This is the Word of God, which cannot lie or err, of this I am certain. And this is our greatest struggle, that we keep and hold firmly to the Word; for if it is taken from the heart, man is lost.
This is then the sum total of the Gospel and if anything is to be said on it we will let those explain it who have leisure; but whoever studies it faithfully will easily understand it.
Amen.