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Text: Matthew 16:21-28
Date: Pentecost XI + Proper 17 + 8/28/11

Before entering into the third and most crucial part of his Gospel account St. Matthew gives us a seminar on the topic of faith. It began with Peter walking to Jesus on the water and, when he almost drowned, Jesus addressed him as “you of little faith” (14:31). Then we witnessed Jesus addressing a Canaanite woman, whom we would assume is as far away from the family of faith as you could get, saying, “O woman, great is your faith!” (15:28). Whether “little” or “great” we are to discover that faith is far more than mere human positive thinking and, in fact, is not something anyone can even conjure up or produce by their own “reason or strength.” At Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” Peter gives the mighty confession of faith that can only be revealed by God working through His Word (16:16), namely, accurately identifying who Jesus is. Last Sunday we all hoped that we are as bold and inspired as St. Peter. Today, however, we are reminded that if you are going to take Simon Peter as your example you must take all of him. And we are to know that, like Peter, as long as we walk by faith we are in a constant struggle. Today Jesus announces for the first time the necessity of His sacrificial death on a cross. Peter doesn’t like that talk. He rejects it with what he thinks is loud and proud loyalty. But Jesus rebukes Peter. His once great faith and confession of who Jesus is has suddenly failed him when it comes to what Jesus came to do. Today we learn that as Jesus’ mission must include the cross, so a great faith and confession must go the same way and include the denial of self, taking up your cross and continual following of Jesus wherever He leads. Continue reading “When Faith and Confession are Not So Great”

Text: Matthew 16:13-20
Occasion: 50^th Anniversary of Trinity Lutheran School
Date: Pentecost X + Proper 16 + 8/21/11
Trinity Lutheran Church, Jackson, Michigan

“Who do you say that I am?” asked Jesus of His disciples. Peter answered, “The Christ, the Son of the living God.” “Good for you, Pete!” “Blessed are you” responded Jesus. “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

This is the heart, the hidden part, the real wisdom behind a Lutheran school and of our Trinity Lutheran School for the past fifty years. Only things that are somehow hidden in the first place need to be revealed, revealed to us by someone else. Whether that means pulling away or removing those things that are covering up that “something” or just opening our eyes to see what should be, after all, plainly visible is the task of those sent to bring that “something” to change people’s perspective, worldview, vision and life. Thus it was that God sent His only Son into this world not to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). In Jesus alone a person can clearly see God, the God of grace and glory. So also in Jesus’ sending of His apostolic ministers to preach and teach people God’s truth. Such has been the heart of our Lutheran schools ever since Lutherans first set foot in our land. Of course certain things of life in this world can be taught and learned by (almost) anyone, “reading, writing, arithmetic.” But the things of God, the eternal things must be revealed, revealed by God working through His Word the gift of faith in the heart. And this, above all, is what we are celebrating this year as we mark fifty years of God’s blessing of our beloved Trinity Lutheran School of Jackson, Michigan. Continue reading “50 Years of Revealing Faith”

Text: Matthew 15:21-28
Date: Pentecost IX + Proper 15 + 8/14/11

It is interesting how St. Matthew contrasts the “little-faith” of water-walking Peter in our reading last week with the “great faith” of a Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel. It is interesting, for one thing, because while Peter and those to whom the promise of the Messiah belong are slow to believe, mysteriously a woman who is not only a Gentile but even of the ancient hated religious and idolatrous enemies of Israel, the Canaanites, is pronounced by Jesus as demonstrating an exemplary faith that is “great.” This, of course, serves as another hint at God’s complete plan of salvation through the Jews to all nations reflected in today’s Old Testament reading (Isaiah 56). The woman is already, ahead of time, one of those foretold by the original promise to Abraham, “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2). She is among those of whom the hymn sings, “A multitude comes from the east and the west To sit at the feast of salvation” (LSB 510). That God’s mercy came through the disobedience of the Jews to embrace both them and all nations is the concern of Paul’s words in today’s Epistle. This dynamic is behind Jesus’ statement, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It is in the woman’s further response that the greatness of her faith is shown. Continue reading “When Faith is Great”

Text: Matthew 14:22-33
Date: Pentecost VIII + Proper 14 + 8/7/11

What is frightening you of late? What is it that causes your deepest fears? Is it the state of the economy and your sincere doubt that those currently in control of it have the first clue as to how to turn it around? What makes you afraid these days? What is so unsettling? Maybe it’s your physical wellness and worry over what the doctor might find after a battery of tests. What do you fear most? What sends you into a panic? Unemployment numbers keep rising. And you wonder if there is anything to the dire predictions of whether or not Social Security checks will continue or if the program itself will even survive. I like it a lot when the doctor smiles and says, “You’re in good shape” because he ought to know what he’s talking about. I’m quite a bit less confident when a politician tries to reassure me that things will improve if we only first insure his or her reelection. Everything depends on who’s talking. Is it just a spin of encouragement to a blind faith in some nebulous hope of a better tomorrow? Or is there something more certain than that? Continue reading “Do Not Be Afraid”

Text: Matthew 13:44-52
Date: Pentecost VI + Proper 12 + 7/24/11

Dearly Beloved,

God loves you.

Now, that may not strike you as being any big, new news. And that would be unfortunate. God loves you. But you’ve heard it before. Don’t we already know that? John 3:16 and all; ‘God so loved the world,’ etc.? “Jesus loves me, this I know….” Continue reading “God Loves You”

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Date: Pentecost V + Proper 11 + 7/17/11

This is the way the kingdom of heaven is, the way God rules His Church and His world for now. “For now” is all the days between our Lord’s earthly ministry and the Last Day of His return in judgment. We’re not there yet. When that Day happens, when this era is over, then will be unveiled the direct, complete, full reign of God in all the splendor, glory and perfection of the life of the world to come. But “for now” God’s rule is hidden. It is happening already and yet it is not seen fully with the eye. In the parable of the Weeds our Lord is reassuring and encouraging us to keep following Him, to “hang in there,” to endure patiently the struggle of living in this world, by faith, “on this side of the kingdom of heaven.” Continue reading “Endure Patiently”

Text: Matthew 13:1-23
Date: Pentecost IV + Proper 10 + 7/10/11

Up to now Jesus had been teaching the people and His disciples in a pretty straightforward manner. Today, suddenly something changed. And His disciples noticed. He got into a boat when the crowds gathered, and He sat down in the boat, the crowd standing on the beach. He began to speak. But He began telling little stories. They weren’t jokes for entertainment because there were no punch lines and they weren’t funny stories. Well, some of the details were a little strange, but nothing to make you slap your knee and double over in laughter. Just little stories. So what changed? Continue reading “Hear the Word”

Text: Matthew 11:25-30
Date: Pentecost III + Proper 9 + 7/3/11

In the first half of Matthew’s Gospel the Evangelist tells of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah promised of old, and His rapidly developing reputation. “His fame spread throughout all Syria” and he healed many sick people. “Great crowds followed him from Galilee…and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (Mt 4:24-25). Crowds were “astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Mt 7:28). Finally Matthew relates our Lord’s Calling of the twelve disciples or apostles. Beginning with chapter eleven, however, things begin to turn and the opposition increases especially among the religious leaders. Continue reading “My Yoke, My Rest”

Text: Matthew 10:34-42
Date: Pentecost II + Proper 8 + 6/26/11

Our Lord Jesus Christ chose twelve men whom He appointed to follow Him, learn from Him, and tell others what they had learned. They were to be the eye- and ear-witnesses of “all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning, from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us” (Acts 1:21-22), witnesses of the resurrection. All of them would be missionaries and preachers. Some would write parts of the inspired New Testament scriptures. However, in addition to them, all believers also serve in a missionary activity of witness, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Such is the burden of Jesus’ great Missionary Discourse of Matthew chapter ten. The first part concerns especially the outreach of the Twelve to the Israelites alone. The second part has in mind the outreach also to the Gentiles, all nations, and as such the task that is before us to this day through the twenty-first century to our Lord’s return on the Last Day. Continue reading “Equipped for Peace”