TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

God provides the food of eternal life for the entire world.

7/30/2020

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Trinity 7 
Mark 8:1-9 

July 26, 2020 
 
Our Lord Jesus fed 4,000 people with just seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. St. Matthew tells us that the 4,000 didn’t even include the women and children. This miracle shows us that Jesus is God, who opens his hands and satisfies the desires of every living thing. This shows us that God will provide for our bodies. As the birds of the air need not worry, neither do we. Our heavenly Father knows what we need and he will provide for us. This also teaches us that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, because God will add all the rest of our needs to us. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. God cares for our bodies so generously, so that we will not worry but will look to him for our spiritual and eternal needs.  
Yet, didn’t we learn this very lesson not too long ago? Indeed, we heard nearly an identical story just four months ago when Jesus fed the 5,000 with just five barley loaves and two small fish and they had twelve baskets left over. Is this an accidental repetition? Perhaps Jesus fed a large crowd of people; some said it was 5,000 and others said it was 4,000, so we are really just reviewing the exact same story? No. In fact, Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000 men and a short time later he fed another crowd of 4,000 men. Both St. Matthew and St. Mark report both of these miracles in their Gospel accounts and Jesus reminds his disciples of both of these feedings later on in this same chapter of Mark.  
Yet, why do Matthew and Mark record both of these miraculous feasts? St. John only records the feeding of the 5,000. Aren’t these two miracles similar enough, that they could have recorded just one or the other. Certainly, Jesus performed many other miracles that are not listed in the Gospels (John 21:25). And why did the ancients deem it necessary to record both of these feedings in the lectionary, so that we hear them both every year?  
Well, certainly the main emphasis of both of these stories is worth repeating. God will provide for your physical needs and he wants you to seek from him even more your eternal spiritual needs. Yet, as similar as these two stories are, they are not identical.  
The feeding of the 5,000 was primarily a feeding of Jews. Jesus fed them with five loaves of bread. The five loaves of bread symbolized the five books of Moses, which make up the Torah. There were twelve baskets of fragments left over, which symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel. Even the Greek word for basket was distinct from the word for basket used with the 4,000. These baskets referred to containers used in Jewish ceremonies. This feeding of the 5,000 Israelites demonstrated that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy from Deuteronomy 18, which stated that God would raise up a prophet like Moses from among the Jews. As God fed the people of Israel bread from heaven in the wilderness through Moses, so now Jesus, who is greater than Moses feeds God’s people.  
The feeding of the 4,000 is different. Jesus uses seven loaves of bread and seven baskets of bread are left over. The number seven can symbolize completeness. It could also represent the seven Gentile nations around Israel. The place where this feeding takes place is populated with many Gentiles, as shown right before this miracle when Jesus meets the Canaanite woman as he left the region of Tyre and Sidon. So, while the feeding of the 5,000 shows that Jesus is the Messiah promised to the Jewish people, the feeding of the 4,000 shows that Jesus did not come only for the Jews, but for people of all nations.  
This of course is wonderful news for us and all people around the world. You do not have to follow your genealogical line to discover whether God’s mercy is meant for you. We marvel that God fed the nation of Israel in the wilderness for forty year without them putting a plow to the ground or planting any seed. Yet, we should also mark that God continued to provide food for all nations around the world, clothing and sheltering them as well. When God cares for the body of people, he shows that he cares for them. It is a sign that he desires also to save their souls. You won’t trust in a god for your eternal salvation if he is unable to provide for you temporal needs. So, God provides for the needs of all people everywhere, to show his desire to save both their bodies and souls forever.  
Of course, this lesson is consistent with all of Scripture. God told Abraham, the father of the people of Israel, that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blest. And St. Paul repeatedly declares that God shows no partiality and makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile, but rather all are children of Abraham and of God himself through faith in Jesus. And by feeding this great crowd of Gentiles, Jesus shows that he comes to feed the bread of life to all peoples everywhere. The number four represents the four winds, which go across the whole earth. The number 1,000 represents completeness. By feeding 4,000 Gentiles, Jesus shows that God has compassion on all people and desires to satisfy their every need.  
If you do not believe that God will satisfy the wants of your body now in this temporal life, you will never believe that God will provide eternal life for you. If God cannot do a little work, he certainly cannot do a mighty work. So, with every meal you eat that fills your belly, God wants to remind you that he desires to feed your soul as well. When you put on your clothes and fall asleep under your roof, he wants you to know that he cares for you beyond what you can see or feel. Because, it is not food for your belly or clothes for your body, which are your greatest need, but the teaching of Christ, which gives you eternal life.  
After Jesus fed the 5,000 Jews the Jews searched for him, because they wanted more bread. They were disappointed when Jesus wanted rather to feed them the Bread of Life from heaven, which gives eternal salvation to all who feast on him in faith. This is the curse of our mortal bodies. We focus on the temporal needs of the body and fret over them, as if our fretting ever gave us a morsel to eat, and we ignore the greater gift God seeks to give us. Likewise, shortly after Jesus fed the 4,000, he told his disciples to beware of the false teaching of the Pharisees by telling them to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees. His disciples began to bicker, because they had only packed on loaf of bread and did not have enough for everyone. Jesus marveled at their lack of faith. They had just witnessed him feed a crowd of 5,000 and then a crowd of 4,000 with just a handful of bread, yet here they worried about not having enough bread. Jesus did these signs, so that they would focus on his teaching rather than worry about their next meal! So difficult it is for us to focus on what is most important and stop fretting over that which God has already taken care of.  
And we need to learn this lesson today. What should you be most concerned about today? Money to pay your bills and feed your family? Your job? The economy? Our nation? What you will eat, wear, and where you will live? Has God not already shown you over and over and over again that he will provide all these things for you? What then does God want you to be concerned for? Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of false teaching. Make sure that you are learning the pure word of God. That is your most pressing need. It is always your most pressing need. The Bread of Life from heaven will be lost if you follow false teachings invented by men. That you cannot afford to lose. But the food you need for your body? Don’t worry about that. God already knows how he will provide that for you, as he has already shown you many times before. Sure, he may make you wait as the crowd waited three days before Jesus satisfied their physical hunger. They desired more the food for the soul, and for that they were rewarded.  
The leaven of the Pharisees covers up Christ Jesus and his work of salvation for you. The Pharisees focused on their own outward works instead of trusting in the mercy of God promised in his Son. They despised the sacrifice Christ made for the sins of the whole world. As Jesus told his disciples to watch out for this leaven, which will poison the loaf and make it no good, so he tells us today to beware of false prophets and their teaching. Beware of anything that covers up Christ Jesus and distracts you from him.  
It is common today to try not to focus on the different teachings of different groups, but rather focus on how we all love the same Jesus. Some even go so far as to say that as long as we believe in God, that it doesn’t matter what else we believe, claiming Christians, Muslims, and Jews worship the same God. But such simplifying of religion does not reveal Christ as the only Savior, but covers up him and his work. It puts a muzzle on Jesus, so that we cannot learn from him. And since not everyone can agree on what Jesus has done, they focus not on Jesus’ work, but on their own works. The mission of the church is then changed into carrying for people's bodies instead of carrying for people’s souls. Now, Christians should certainly help to provide for the needy. As God has been generous to us, so ought we to be generous to others. But the mission of the Church is to feed the souls of sinners. Only the Bread of Life, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a sacrifice for all our sins can feed the souls of the world.  
To listen to Jesus and to learn from him takes faith. You must believe and trust that God will provide for your physical needs, so that you look to be fed spiritually as well. And you must trust that the words that Jesus says are true and important for you to believe and confess. In this lesson, Jesus shows that God will always provide for the needs of our body, even if we must wait for him. And he shows us that our greatest need in this life is to listen to him, to believe what he says, to trust in his promises, and to pay attention to reject any teaching that rejects or covers up Christ. If we learn to so trust in Jesus, we will find that we will be satisfied in both body and soul. Amen.  
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God Grants Us Success by His Word

7/12/2020

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Picture
James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (La pêche miraculeuse), 1886-1896. brooklynmuseum.org, No Known Copyright Restrictions
Trinity 5  
Luke 5:1-11 
July 12, 2020 
 
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the Church Growth Movement engulfed the Christian Church in America. The Church Growth Movement seeks to grow the church by using sociological and behavioral science, which means, they use marketing tactics, which focus on potential church members as consumers. Countless books were written and programs were employed that promised congregational growth and success in the mission field by focusing on people: what they want; what they feel like they need. Ironically, as churches around the country employed these Church Growth measures, Christians throughout the church practiced measures to restrict growth of their own families (largely in pursuit of material gain), which of course meant Christians were bringing fewer children to church. As the church sought to satisfy the desires of the people, the people sought to satisfy their own desires, whether that involved church attendance or not. And now, after well over half a century of concerted effort by the Church Growth Movement, the Christian Church in America has shrunk dramatically. Far fewer people attend a Christian service on a regular basis. Yes, some congregations experienced isolated and sporadic growth, and megachurches have become a regular site around the country. But the number of practicing Christians has dwindled in our land steadily over the past two generations. The Church Growth Movement failed.  
Yet, that does not mean the Church Growth Movement died or that churches stopped trying to morph themselves to match the changing desires of the fickle masses. Churches continue to find ways to get people to attend apart from preaching the pure Gospel that all people need. People know better than God much like children know better than their parents. If we can turn evangelism into a science, we’ll worship our science instead of believe the clear words of Jesus. We will make idols of our own intelligence instead of listening and believing what Jesus says.  
Simon Peter was an experienced fisherman. He made his living on Lake Gennesaret. He’d toiled all night trying to catch fish, and he got skunked. He had nothing to show for his labor. When Jesus came to preach from his boat, he was cleaning his nets for storage. He’d given up working for the day. Yet, after Jesus finished preaching God’s word to the people, Jesus tells Peter to push out into the deep and drop the nets down for a catch. Peter knows that this won’t work. It’s the wrong place and the wrong time. He even explains to Jesus that they had already labored all night when one could expect to catch fish. Yet, Peter shows remarkable faith. He says, “At your word, I will let down the nets.” And as we just heard, they caught such a large catch of fish that their nets began to break and both of their boats began to sink! And this illustrates to us how God’s Word is superior to our intellect.  
The word of God is foolishness to those who think they are wise. And the greatest word of God, which is the power of salvation to all who believe, is that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world. Jesus’ crucifixion earns for us eternal life! This is folly to the Greeks. This is a stumbling block to the Jews. But to those who believe (both Jews and Greeks), this is the righteousness of God! God chose what is foolish to shame the wise and what is weak to shame the strong. It is the word of the cross of Christ which saves, despite what our intellect and life experience tells us.  
We are a proud people. We boast of great achievements in science and technology. We’ve split the atom. We’ve landed men on the moon! We’ve sequenced the genome of the coronavirus so to pursue treatments at a rapid pace. How can we believe in a God, who created the world in six days by the power of his word? How can we believe that God became man and that his death on the cross could make atonement for our sins? How can we believe that water poured on the head of a baby while the pastor says a few words could do anything, but get the kid’s hair wet? How can we believe that bread and wine could be the body and blood of a man who lives in heaven? These are not things that scientific people believe! These statements go against our experience and reason! Yet, Peter was an experienced man. He knew what he was doing. And he believed Jesus’ word over his own experience. And in so doing, he experienced the power of God.  
As we use our reason and our experiences, we must remember that it is God who gave us our reason and our senses. We may have split the atom, but God created the atom and engineered the entire universe. We may have landed some people on the moon, but God created the moon and set it on its orbit around the earth, so that our planet could sustain life with perfectly orchestrated seasons. We may be able to dissect genomes, but God is the one who designed life in all its forms. He is our Father, who created us. His word is more trustworthy than our reason.  
Sometimes God humbles us in order for us to learn to trust in him. Farmers are smart people. They need to be biologists, mechanics, economists, and accountants all in the same day. They learn these skills through experience. Yet, no matter how much experience the farmer has or how much he labors, it is God who provides the growth. And whatever your source of income is, this is an important lesson to learn. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. … It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:1-2) 
Peter labored all night trying to catch fish, but he got nothing. Why? Was he a bad fisherman? No. Everyone who labors knows that your labor does not necessarily result in success. And God withholds success from us at times, so that we remember that it is not actually our labor that feeds us, but God himself. God opens his hands and satisfies the desires of every living thing. He is the one who feeds your children and provides for their needs. Jesus tells us to look at the birds of the air, who neither toil, nor spin, nor gather into barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them all. How much more valuable are we than some birds! Yes, God commands that we must work. We must eat our bread by the sweat of our brow. But it is God who provides for our needs. And while learning this lesson can be painful and worrisome as you try to crunch the numbers to see how you’ll make ends meet, this message is comforting to those who wait. When times were good, it was not your labor that accomplished this, but God’s most gracious hand. And God is no less gracious now. Trust in him. He will provide for you.  
And this message is all the more important when we consider our spiritual needs. It is a blessing when you’ve got your act together; when you’ve resisted those temptations that bring you shame and guilt, when you’ve come to church and feel like a real Christian. You feel comfortable to be with God. That seems rational. Yet, when you’ve broken God’s commandments and ignored his word; when you’ve done what you know is wrong and feel ashamed, it seems rational to hide from God. It makes sense to try to make up some spiritual ground before you can come before God. Yet, that is not what God’s word teaches us. Rather, God bids us to flee to him when we are ashamed! When your conscience strikes you with guilt, go to Him who alone can take your guilt away! Simon Peter, when he realizes who it is who is standing in his boat cries, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Yet, Jesus tells him not to be afraid. Jesus forgives his sins! 
Jesus tells Peter, the sinful man, that from now on he will catch men alive. Jesus calls sinners to catch sinners and bring them into his Church. They do this by preaching God’s Word. Our church confesses in the Augsburg Confession Article V, “So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.” 
Jesus called Peter, the sinner, to preach the Gospel, so that people would be gathered into his Church. And as Scripture records, Peter did not stop being a sinner. He continued to struggle with sin even as he proclaimed the Gospel to sinners. Well, how can this be that sinners can be used to save sinners? Well, it’s because it is not the sinful men who are adding these people to the Church, but God. As St. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) 
The Holy Spirit works through the word of God spoken by the ministers of the Gospel to create and sustain faith. The word of God is the net, which catches men alive. We see this in our Gospel lesson as the crowd is pressing in on Jesus in order to hear the word of God from him, so much so, that Jesus needs to get into a boat and push off into the water.  
Yet, just as sometimes the fisherman casts his net all through the night and does not catch any fish, so sometimes the word of God is preached and no one comes to hear. Moses, Elijah, the apostles, even Jesus himself were rejected at times and the word of God from their mouths was ignored. Did that mean that the word of God was lacking? Does that mean that sinful men must add something to God’s word or take something away from it to make it more effective? No. Just as the farmer must wait on the Lord to cause the growth and the fisherman must trust in the Lord to bring the shoal of fish into the net, so must the preacher trust in the Gospel to create faith in the hearts of sinners. 
Every congregation wants its numbers to grow. Yet, getting warm bodies into a building is not our end goal. It is bringing sinners to salvation, which can only be done through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this to be done, the Gospel must be preached. Everyone is a sinner. Everyone needs to be saved from sin and hell. All people share the same need. Only the Gospel that God forgives sinners for Christ’s sake can save. Only the Gospel can create faith.  
The greatest fear I have as a Christian parent is that my children would reject the faith. I want them to trust in Jesus. I want them to be in heaven with me. Yet, there is no power in me that can make them trust in Jesus. Only the power of the Gospel, which we all have. Do you want your children to go to heaven? Teach them about Jesus! Confess that he forgives sins and saves. Bring them to church. Do we want our church to grow? The better question is, “Do we want sinners to be saved?”. Then we should confess Christ. Then the Gospel that God saves sinners by grace for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection must be preached here every week. We cast the net Jesus gives us. God provides the success. And he promises, just as he provides for the needs of our bodies, even more so will he fill his Church by means of the Gospel. May we be among those saved for Christ’s sake. Amen.  
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Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

7/6/2020

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Picture
Sankt Matthaeus Kirke Copenhagen Altarpiece, Henrik Olrik, Public Domain.
Trinity 4 
Luke 6:36-42 
July 5, 2020 
 
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We pray this whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer. With our lesson today, Jesus is trying to get us to understand what we pray for every day. When we pray that our Father in heaven would forgive our trespasses, we are asking that he would have mercy on us, not judge us, not condemn us, but rather forgive us. And we also promise that we will likewise show such mercy on others. This is what it means to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven is merciful.  
This lesson can only be understood through the light of the Gospel. “Judge not,” Jesus says. Why? Because God did not judge you. “Condemn not.” Why? Because God did not condemn you, but rather condemned sin in the flesh of his own Son, Jesus Christ who committed no sin (Romans 8:3). “Forgive.” Why? Because God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32). We love, because God first loved us. We have mercy, because God has shown mercy to us.  
Yet, when you remove the light of the Gospel from these words, they become distorted into devilish teachings. Few words have been so grossly misapplied than Jesus’ words, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” These words of Jesus have been used by unbelievers and false teachers to rebuke Christians for holding to the teachings of the Christian faith. You must not say that Jesus is the only way to heaven, because that is being judgmental toward other religions and Jesus says, do not judge. You must not say that the sexual revolution was evil and that sex belongs only between a husband and wife in marriage and that all other sexual relations are sinful. That is being judgmental and Jesus said not to judge. You must not condemn false teaching or sinful behavior of any kind, because Jesus says not to judge. And many Christians have fallen for this lie. Christians remain silent and even condone false teachings like universalism and unionism, and sinful activities like fornication, homosexuality, and abortion, because unbelievers tell them that their Lord tells them not to judge.  
But when Jesus tells us not to judge, he obviously is not telling us to condone what is evil or believe what is false. In fact, there are times when Jesus tells us to judge. In John chapter 7, Jesus says, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” And when Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets, who come to us in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves, he is teaching us to judge our teachers and preachers, so that we will know whether they are true or false teachers. Christians are commanded by Jesus to judge between false teachings and the one true teaching, and to make distinctions between the fruits of the Spirit and the sinful works of the flesh.  
Likewise, parents must make judgments concerning their children, otherwise they cannot discipline them or raise them in the fear and love of the Lord. And governments must make judgments in the court of law. This is why Scripture teaches that no charge should be established except by two or three witnesses and that all people should obey the governing authorities. And Scripture teaches that if anyone is caught in any transgression, those who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1), which of course is impossible, if you do not make a judgment between what is and is not a transgression. And to forego making that judgment and leaving someone to perish in his sin is neither merciful nor loving.  
So, it is clear, unless Jesus is going to contradict Scripture, which is impossible, that when Jesus says, “Judge not,” he does not mean do not ever judge. Rather, Jesus is warning against unauthorized and loveless judging. Do not pass judgment when you have not been given the job to pass judgment in that situation. And when you must pass judgment, do it in love. When you see your brother or sister sinning, do not seek to destroy them, but try to save them! 
Despite its great abuse that has led many astray, this lesson from Jesus still needs to be heard and learned. We all need to hear that we should not judge! 
As we celebrate our nation’s independence and feelings of patriotism rise with every crack of a firework exploding in the distance, many of us are noticing how many of our national monuments and historical figures are under attack. Many are demanding the removal of statues while others are vandalizing them or tearing them down themselves; not just statues of confederate soldiers down south, but of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as notable abolitionists and even saints. Those attempting to tear down these statues argue that the men they depict represent great evils, because of things they did or said in their lifetime. Now obviously, all these men did do bad things in their lifetime, but their effigies were not erected for the bad things, but for the monumental things they did for our nation.  
And those who are condemning these men for their real or perceived flaws, would do well to remove the log out of their own eyes before they point out the speck in the eyes of these historical figures, who cannot defend themselves. For surely, future generations will have more than enough to condemn them if they ever do anything worthy of a monument. Our generation has been complacent in the face of evil just as much as previous generations, as we put up with the harm done to unborn babies and the innocence stolen from children. We Christians should see clearly enough to know that as we pray, “God, bless America” we should also remember to pray, “Lord, have mercy on America for her many sins.” For ultimately, it is not history that will judge us, but Almighty God.  
Yet, it is not for the sake of statues or dead historical titans that Jesus says these words, but for your husband or wife, brother or sister, co-worker and fellow Christian. No talking heads on the television will debate whether the character assassination you committed against your sister or neighbor is justified. No one is going to write his congressman about whether you judged your wife’s tone of voice too harshly or whether you were too dismissive of your father’s words. When we deal with one another, we need to keep these words of Jesus in our mind. Remove the log out of your own eye before you point out the speck in your neighbor’s.  
This means that we should repent of our own sins and recognize that we live by grace. God paid the debt you owed him for your sins, so be quick to forgive any debt that someone might owe against you. This does not mean that we condone sin. Rather, it means that with our interactions with one another, we always have the goal to forgive and be reconciled, not to destroy and condemn.  
Christians should be more equipped to pass judgment than unbelievers, because we have been taught by Jesus Christ himself what is right and wrong. We should be able to identify sin, so to avoid it and to recognize good, so to pursue it. Yet, Christians should be the last ones to pass judgment and condemn, because we live in the light of the Gospel. God has forgiven us our great trespasses. When we recognize sin, we see sins for which Jesus shed his blood. When we recognize sinners, we see sinners for whom Christ died to save. When we see sin, we see our own sin and show humility and penitent hearts and thank God who has forgiven us for Christ’s sake.  
Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful. These words are often interpreted to mean that you must show yourself merciful in order for God to show mercy on you. Yet, that is a distortion of Jesus’ words. If that were so, you would only be required to show mercy upon those who had likewise proven themselves to be merciful or otherwise deserving of your mercy. But the point is that God our Father in heaven shows mercy upon us when we do not deserve it. While we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. God does not forgive those who deserve it, but those who do not deserve forgiveness. And that is how merciful you should be. Forgive those, who do not deserve to forgiven. 
You can only give mercy if you yourself have received mercy. It is by the renewing power of the Gospel that you are able to show the love of God, which he shows to you. Unless you are motivated by the Gospel with a renewed spirit within you, your motivation will be tainted with sin and your mercy will be sinful. Jesus says, a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Unless God make you a good tree, you cannot bear good fruit. Unless God make you merciful, you cannot show mercy.  
A student is not greater than his teacher, but every student, when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. We will never be more merciful than God. Those who claim a mercy greater than that revealed to us in Jesus often are revealed to have a deeply cruel mercy; a mercy that does not forgive; does not protect; does not seek after good, but judges and condemns the righteous. And we Christians will never be greater than our Lord in his mercy. But we will be like him. As he has shown mercy on us, so will we show mercy to others. Even as we do it in weakness; even as our sinful flesh fights against the renewed spirit within us; God will cultivate good fruit in us by his grace revealed in his Son.  
The words, “Be merciful” are a command. Yet, they also reveal a promise. As we groan inwardly eager to be revealed as God’s son and heirs with redeemed bodies, the Spirit bears witness to us that we are children of our Father in heaven. What has been shown to us and what our renewed selves desire to be is what we will be when that final Day shall come. We shall be like him even as we see him as he is. Amen.  
 
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    Rev. James Preus

    Rev. Preus is the pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ottumwa, IA. These are audio and text of the sermons he preaches at Trinity according to the Historical Lectionary. 

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