Category: Trinity 12

The Letter Kills, but The Spirit Gives Life

9/1/2020

Moses with the Ten Commandments, Rembrandt, 1659, Public Domain

Trinity 12
2 Corinthians 3:4-11
August 30, 2020

St. Paul tells us that ministers of the new covenant are made competent by God. God makes them sufficient by the message that he gives them to preach. This is commonly misunderstood today. I’ve preached much on the importance of judging one’s pastor. It’s not because I think people are reticent to judge, but rather, because Jesus commands us to judge with right judgment and beware of false prophets. But Jesus does not command us to judge our pastors based on whether we like their personality or style or whether we agree with what he is preaching or not. Jesus commands us to judge whether the preacher is preaching the truth according to Christ’s word.
This is what makes a preacher sufficient; not how flashy or entertaining he is; not how elegant his speech is; not that you like everything he says. Pastors are not sufficient in themselves at all. Their sufficiency is from God, who has sent them to proclaim the saving Gospel. So, it is important that every Christian make this distinction when judging whether you should or should not believe what the pastor preaches. Judge not whether you like what is said. Judge whether it is the truth. And judge whether your pastor is a minister of the covenant of the letter or whether he is a minister of the covenant of the Spirit.
The covenant of the letter kills. It does not save. The letter is the Law, which was engraved in letters on stone. This Law, which was given to Moses, was glorious. It was so glorious that Moses needed to cover his face so as not to frighten the Israelites, because his face shone with the reflected glory of God’s Law. The Law of God is good and wise and sets God’s will before our eyes. Just listen to God’s Law:
You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Can you find anything wrong with these commandments? Of course not! They are holy and good. If we actually lived according to these commandments, there would be less crime in the world, less heart break, less senseless deaths, less suffering. Those who devote their lives to these commandments do find some glory in this life, for a time. In fact, most religions in the world are devoted in some way or another to living according to these commands in order to acquire glory. Most religions in the world teach that you reach the glories of heaven by living a good life and doing good.
Yet, St. Paul says that this ministry of the letter brings death! How can this be? He explains it in the seventh chapter of the book of Romans. “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”
So, St. Paul maintains that the Law is good, yet the Law kills. Why is that? It’s not because the Law is bad. It’s because we’re bad. We are sinners. So, when the Law shows us what we ought to do to be good, instead of it glorifying us and giving us eternal life, it shows us our sin and that we deserve to be punished, as Romans 3:20 says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.”
This is why God calls his ministers, ministers of the new covenant of the Spirit, not of the letter. God wants his ministers to proclaim the words of eternal life. Only the ministry of the Spirit gives life. The ministry of the letter kills. Those ministers who preach only the letter, who give you hope only in your own works for your salvation are ministers of death. There is no set of rules that you can perfect that will earn you eternal life.
Yet, that does not mean that ministers of the Spirit should not preach the Law! In fact, ministers of the Spirit are required to preach the Law precisely because it kills. The letter must serve the Spirit, so that the Spirit can bring the dead back to life! St. Paul goes on in Romans chapter 7, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”
The Law, these commandments of God do not give life, but rather they expose the sinner to be sinful beyond measure. Now why would God want his ministers to do this? Why would he want people’s sins to “become sinful beyond measure”? It is so that he can save them by grace! St. Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3, “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
The Letter imprisons everyone under sin, so that no one can deny the reality of his sin. If you can’t escape the reality of your sin, what can you do? All you can do is ask God for mercy. That is the condition a sinner must be in in order to receive the gospel. If you think that you can overcome your sins yourself or that they are not a big deal, you will not accept the Gospel.
This is why faithful pastors must preach the Law. The Letter must do its work and kill, so that souls may be saved on the Last Day. This is why it is of the utmost importance that when the Law is preached to you and your conscience is pricked and you don’t like what it says, that you do not try to resist the preaching of the Law, but confess yourself to be a sinner, so that God may have mercy on you.
The letter serves the ministry of the Spirit. The ministry of the Spirit is the ministry of the Gospel. Now, it is not as some imagine, that the Spirit comes apart from the words of Holy Scripture. Rather, the Gospel of the Spirit is proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures.
The Gospel is that Jesus Christ is true God and true man. He was born without sin. He is the only man to never sin. He fulfilled the Law perfectly. The letter had no right to kill him. Yet, Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, took upon himself our sins. Scripture says, “God made him who knew no sin to become sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) And St. Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Christ is the righteous one, who died in exchange for the unrighteous ones.
This is the message of the Gospel. Christ Jesus has taken away the power of the letter to kill us, by himself dying in our stead! He takes away our sin, which gave the Law the power to slay us! Jesus is our life, which is given to us not by our works, but through faith.
The letter demands works; the Spirit produces faith. This is the difference. The reason the Law cannot save you, is because you cannot save yourself. The Law simply demands works, but gives you no power to accomplish them. The Gospel saves, because it does not require works, but rather gives you the gift of life to be received by faith.
The Gospel must predominate a preacher’s sermon if he is to be a minister of the Spirit. This does not mean that a preacher preaches lots of Gospel and only a little Law. Rather, it means that the Law serves the purpose of the Gospel and not the other way around. It is important for sinners to hear that they should not worship other gods; that they should put aside their work and pleasure and hear and learn God’s Word; that they should obey authority; love their neighbor; be chaste and not fornicate; not steal, and not covet. It is important for sinners to hear this, so that they can beware of their sin and repent. It is important for the Law to kill you now, so that you are not sentenced to eternal death on the Last Day.
The Gospel predominates by responding to the killing of the Law by bringing sinners to life. Are you guilty of loving other things more than God and neglecting to worship and serve him? Have you been disobedient or lazy? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you been unchaste? Greedy? Have you been dishonest? Have you coveted what does not belong to you? Has the Law exposed you to be sinful beyond measure? Then repent and believe in the Gospel! Jesus forgives your sins. He paid for them with his blood. He died for the idolater, the sloth, the rebel and criminal, for the fornicator, homosexual, and adulterer, he died for liars and covets and thieves. Jesus’ blood makes atonement for all sins. Repent of your sins; don’t cling to them or defend them. Cling to Jesus, who forgives and saves.
The ministry of the Spirit makes alive. Obviously, that means that the Gospel gives eternal salvation to all who believe it. Yet, the Gospel makes you alive today. St. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God has done all that for those who believe in the Gospel. You see, the Law commands you to do, but does not give you the power to do it. The Gospel calls you to believe something that has already been accomplished and also gives you the power to believe it! To be made alive by the Spirit is be given faith in Christ!
And this new life that you receive through the Gospel produces good fruits now in this life. We are not called to continue in our sin, but to die to sin and to live to Christ. The Spirit who dwells in you through faith, also empowers you to love, to be merciful, patient, and forgiving. The Spirit accomplishes in this life, what the Law cannot because of sin. Even more, the Spirit gives us the promise of eternal life, which was denied us by the Law. This eternal life has been given to us as a gift from the Father by the Spirit through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The Triune God Restores His Creation

9/9/2019

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Bartholomaeus Breenberch, Jésus guérissant un sourd-muet/Jesus healing a deaf-mute, 1635. Public Domain

Mark 7:31-37

Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 8, 2019

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” (Genesis 1:1-4) The Triune God created the heavens and the earth. The Father created all things through his Son and with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hovered over the face of the waters. God the Son is also known as the Word of God. St. John’s Gospel begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) God said. He spoke a word. He did not create anything without speaking a word. And so, he showed from the beginning that all things were created through the Word. The Father created nothing without the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and giver of life.
The Holy Trinity created the race of man. Man and woman are a special creation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Scripture writes that on the sixth day, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. …' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Here the one God uses the plural pronouns “us” and “our” to show that humans are created in the image of the Holy Trinity.
And in Genesis chapter two Scripture goes into even greater detail of how the Holy Trinity worked to create the first man, “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (vss. 5-7)
In this marvelous account we see the workings of the Holy Trinity. The Father formed the man out of dust. He used water to make the mud. He spoke; the particular work of the Son of God. And he breathed life into him; the work of the Holy Spirit, the giver of life and breath. The heavens and the earth are God’s creation. The Father created nothing without his Son and the Holy Spirit. Mankind is the crown of God’s creation. “And God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good.”
Of course, we know it did not stay good. “All mankind fell in Adam’s fall; one common sin infects us all. From one to all the curse descends, And over all God’s wrath impends.” When our first parents sinned, they changed the entire creation from good to bad. The life that reigned before gave way to the rule of death. And love and peace with God were replaced with enmity. God’s creation was broken. Man lost God's image and became sinful. And sin brought death.
Only God created the universe. No one and nothing else could. And no one except God can restore God’s creation to its previous glory. Adam and Eve tried to cover up their mistake, but they failed. God found them. He knew what they had done. It is like when a small child finds his mother’s knitting project and decides to play with the needles. When mom returns, he hastily tries to put the needles back. But it’s too late. He’s ruined the project and he does not know how to fix it. His mother must take away the needles and mangled yarn and fix it herself. This is what God must do. We cannot fix the creation. We cannot fix ourselves. We need God to fix us.
To fix his fallen creation, God needed to address the cause of its ruin: sin. So, God went to work, much like he did when he first created the universe. God spoke through the mouth of his prophets and finally through an angel. The Holy Spirit descended upon a virgin daughter of the man of dust. And God the Son, the eternal Word through whom and by whom and for whom all things were made, became a son of the first man of the ground. In the womb of the Virgin Mary, God formed the second Adam, by whose obedience the earth would be restored.
Adam deserved to die, because of his sin. And all his children deserve to die, because of their sin. Yet, this second Adam committed no sin. Yet, on behalf of Adam and all his children, he died, laden with the sins of the world. He obeyed his Father’s command. He did what the Holy Spirit anointed him to do when he was baptized in the Jordan River. Jesus Christ died to conquer sin and death for us.
As with the creation of the world and of the first man, God saves without our help. His creation was good without our work. And so, God accomplished the work of salvation for all mankind, the restoration of his lost creation, without our work; without our help. And this teaches us that we are saved by grace, apart from our works. This grace is received through faith.
In our Gospel lesson Jesus demonstrates the work of the Holy Trinity. He restores the broken body of this deaf and mute man in the same manner that he created the world and indeed restores the world. Jesus looked up to heaven. He shows that he can do nothing apart from the Father, even as the Father creates and restores nothing apart from his Son. Jesus sighs. He lets out a deep breath, demonstrating that the Holy Spirit and giver of breath works through his word. As with the creation of the world and of Adam, he uses water. He spits. He touches the man, even as God touched the earth and mist to form Adam. Yes, here we see the Holy Trinity restores in the same manner in which he creates.
And the restoration of this deaf and mute man is not independent of Christ’s cross. On the cross Jesus let out a cry to God the Father as he gave up his last breath, and so he finished his work of taking away our sins. And so, this sigh from our Lord as he restores the ears and tongue of this man shows that all our ailments are healed through Jesus’ cross. This miracle is only a foreshadow of what Christ will do for all of us through his cross. We’re all going to die. Our whole bodies will need to be restored, not just our ears and tongues. And through the work Jesus accomplished on the cross, it will be done. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will restore us to our intended perfection, our intended goodness, through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
We are saved through God’s work, not ours. It was impossible for us to save ourselves. Rather, we are saved through faith when we believe that God has redeemed us through Christ Jesus. As Scripture says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. … For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:9-10, 13)
Yet, there is a problem. In order to believe, you must first hear the Gospel. And in order to confess, you must first have a tongue ready praise your God. Yet, in our sinful state inherited by the first man of dust, we do not have such ears and tongues. We have ears, but we cannot hear the words of God. We hear sounds. We hear words and sentences and we can understand the grammar, but because of our sinful flesh, we cannot truly understand and believe the Gospel. In such a state we cannot confess Christ. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. And Jesus teaches us that out of the heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. Such a heart cannot make a tongue sing praises to God!
So, for us to truly hear and understand and believe the Gospel, we need God to open our ears. And for us to confess God rightly, we need God to loosen the bonds of our tongue and purify our hearts. And our Gospel lesson shows us how this is done. It is done through the work of the Holy Trinity. The God who created the universe, the God who restores all creation through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of his Son, is the same God who must open our ears and loosen our tongues, so that we may believe and confess this Gospel.
A couple weeks ago Lane and Drew Brown were baptized. They were about a month old. They don’t speak English yet. I might as well have been speaking Aramaic. Yet, through the words of Christ spoken through this unworthy pastor, and through the water poured upon their heads, the Holy Trinity opened their ears to hear God’s Word and loosened their tongues to confess the name of Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit himself hovered over those Baptismal waters, even as he did at the creation of the world. We believe that the words spoken joined those babies to Jesus’ cross. And through those words, Christ has granted them healing that only his suffering and death on the cross can give.
This is how our God works. This is how he restores his creation here and now. All of us, when we were baptized experienced the work of this Holy Trinity, who creates and restores. God speaks. He sends the Holy Spirit. He saves us not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-8) When you were baptized, God healed you through the power of Jesus’ cross.
This work of the Holy Trinity continues throughout our life through the ministry of the Word. God the Father continues to send forth his Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word and through the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood to give to us the merits of Christ. Through the word of Christ, God continues to open our ears and loosen our tongues, so that we can believe this Gospel and be saved. It is through hearing the word of Christ that we continue in the grace of our Baptism, and that we finally defeat death.
A few days after Lane and Drew were Baptized, our sister in Christ, Eveline Benn died. Yet, she too was baptized into Christ 97 years ago. The Holy Trinity opened her ears to hear the Gospel. And he loosened her tongue to confess his name. And not even death can take that away, because she was baptized into Christ’s death and Christ has conquered death. She will rise again and live forever.
The Holy Trinity has indeed restored his creation, which was corrupted by our sin. He is indeed growing his Church as he opens ears and loosens tongues to hear and confess Christ’s holy name. And as it was said at the creation of the world, and as it was said when Christ healed the deaf mute, and as it is sung by the Church throughout the world, so will it be declared for all eternity in the new creation: He has done all things well. Amen.

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Trinity 12: Jesus prepares your ears to receive the Gospel and your mouth to confess his name

8/20/2018

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Mark 7:31-37
August 19, 2018

The short story we heard in our Gospel lesson is a true story. It really did happen. There was a man, who was deaf and had a speech impediment. You can imagine how difficult it was for this man to live with these disabilities. He could hardly communicate with anyone and was dependent on others to help him just to do daily tasks. This man existed and had real hardships. And Jesus really healed him. The man’s quality of life became exceptionally better. This account demonstrates our Lord’s immense compassion and mercy.

It also demonstrates that Jesus is God and he has come to restore his lost creation. It’s a misconception that God created a faulty world. At the conclusion of God’s creation, he called it very good. There was no flaw in what God had made; no design flaw, no disease, nothing wrong at all. Mankind was perfect and without sin; perfectly made in God’s image. It was sin, which God did not create, which altered God’s good creation. Satan’s pride led to the temptation and fall of man. And through one man’s sin all became sinners and subject to death.

But we don’t consider this, do we? Instead, we often live our lives as if we live in the perfect creation, not desiring from God something much better. People take for granted that they have two working arms and two working legs, functioning lungs and heart. God is so merciful with so many of us as to give us good health, that we assume that this is just the way it is. People become so used to things working out well, they say that it is all just natural. So, we have no need for a creator, because nature just produces perfectly functioning eyes, ears, mouths, and limbs all by itself. Evolution replaces the intelligent God. Yet, what about faulty limbs and senses, disease and chronic pain? These the atheist claims are proofs of unintelligent design; flaws, which prove the absence of God.

We of course know that it is God who created us and still preserves us. And these ailments we experience: aches and pains, faulty hearts and backs, diseases and cancer, these are all direct results of our sinful condition. God is much more merciful to us than we realize, that he lets us live for the most part healthy lives with whole bodies. But, believe it or not, it is also merciful of our God that he does not completely remove these signs of death. Every ailment suffered by us is a reminder that sin has corrupted our race. Such suffering in the body reminds us of our final wages of sin: death, which is followed by eternal punishment. Would God completely spare us of temporary suffering in this life, we would be left with no physical warning to repent and to seek a greater life in Christ Jesus.

So, Jesus visits his fallen creation, much like an engineer or mechanic inspects a machine, which he has created flawlessly, yet has been vandalized and damaged, and he repairs it to its original perfect condition. However, Jesus does not restore the deaf and mute man perfectly. The man’s body will still perish. Yet, this restoration of his ears and mouth does foreshadow what Jesus will do. He will raise all our bodies from our graves and restore them to their original perfect glory.

But this story is not only about what Jesus did do nearly 2,000 years ago nor about what he will do at the end of the age. This story is also about what Jesus is currently doing right here and now; it describes for us the life of the Christian Church on earth.

The man was brought by others to Jesus. These people surely heard about Jesus and his mighty works of mercy, for faith comes by hearing. But this deaf man obviously didn’t hear. His ears didn’t work. And apparently, he didn’t understand, because others had to bring him. This teaches us a lot about what our faith can do for others. You can’t have faith for someone else! This reality has resulted in many tears and broken hearts of spouses and parents of unbelievers. Yet, you can use your faith to bring others to faith. You can bring others to faith in three ways: First, through the word of God and its preaching. You can tell people about Jesus; about what God’s word says about sin, death, forgiveness, and life. And you can point them to the preaching of the Gospel. Secondly, through a godly life. Simply by living your life under the law of love you can bring people to be willing to hear the Gospel, as St. Peter encourages wives of unbelievers in his first epistle, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.”(1 Peter 3:1-2) Finally, you can pray. While St. Augustine and his father were still pagans, his mother St. Monica prayed earnestly for their conversions. His father confessed Christ on his deathbed. And St. Augustine became one of the most influential bishops in church history. In these three ways God uses faithful Christians to bring others to him.

Yet, perhaps what the episode in our Gospel lesson reflects most is what we saw last Sunday when Brantley Cordray was baptized. Just as that deaf and mute man was brought to Jesus, a man he did not know anything about, so the little baby was bought to the font. The baby wasn’t able to confess the creed or even say that he wanted to be baptized, so his parents and sponsors had to answer for him. Likewise, the people spoke to Jesus on the mute man’s behalf. Baby Brantley showed absolutely no indication of faith. Neither do we see any expression of faith from the death mute. Yet, Jesus healed him. He opened his ears and loosened his tongue, so that he could hear his words and confess his name. So, Jesus did the same thing for Brantley. He opened his ears to hear the Gospel meant for him.

So, we learn from this episode that God can use the faith of believers to bring others to him. This is especially the case for Christian parents, who can bring their children to baptism and raise them in the daily fear and admonition of the Lord. And we also learn that faith is a gift from God. Long before a believer trusts in Christ as his Savior, Christ is working to save the individual. Many believe that conversion and accepting Christ as your personal Lord and Savior is a work of the individual. But this is not what Scripture teaches. Faith is a gift from God. And your conversion is a work of the Holy Spirit, who is given to you by God.

We also see a strange behavior from Jesus in this episode, which helps us understand how God works with us in the Church today. We have heard many times how Jesus healed people from various diseases and raised them from the dead simply by speaking a word. In some cases, he wouldn’t even go and see the person whom he was healing. Yet, in this Gospel lesson Jesus takes the man aside, puts his fingers in his ears, spits, and touches the man’s tongue. What’s with all the unnecessary touching and spitting? Why doesn’t Jesus just speak as he has done before?

Well, it might be “unnecessary” for Jesus to touch and spit for his own sake, but this reflects how God has chosen to communicate with his people from the beginning. God could have just told Noah that he will never destroy all life on earth again by means of a flood, but he chose to show him a sign, which we still witness in the sky today. God could have just told the people of old that he would send his Son to make satisfaction for our sins by means of his sacrificial death, but he chose to give them a sign they could see, touch, and taste by means of the many sacrifices offered throughout the Old Testament.

And so, it is today. Christ could have just given us the Gospel through the preaching of the Word, but he is so generous and knows our weak frame that he gives us the physical and visible signs of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And with this in mind, we should recognize that Jesus’ actions are not unnecessary, even as the water in Baptism and the bread and wine in Communion are not unnecessary. Rather, Jesus uses these physical elements to perform mighty works, which our faith can trust in.

As Jesus’ words bring power to the waters of Baptism and make present his life-giving body and blood in the Supper, so Jesus’ word here completes his work, so that the deaf man can hear and speak plainly. Yet, there is something we should notice that happened so fast you’d miss it if you read it only once. Before Jesus commands his ears to be opened, he sighs. And this is not just an ordinary sigh, but a deep sigh, a groan. By recording this sigh, St. Mark gives us a subtle hint toward the passion our Lord will soon suffer.

Words are cheap. It’s the easiest thing in the world to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” And our Lord chose some of the most abundant things we have on earth to be the elements in his Sacraments: water, bread, and wine. And so, it is easy to despise these things along with the words that go with them. But here we are reminded that everything Jesus says comes at a cost. St. Matthew writes in the 8th chapter of his Gospel that when Jesus healed the sick he fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah 53, “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” These aren’t cheap words. They come at a cost. Jesus isn’t some wizard, who says a magic spell. He has taken on our human flesh, so that he might bear our iniquities and infirmities. In Baptism all sins of the baptized are washed away, because Jesus bore them on the cross. Your sins are forgiven in Holy Communion, because Jesus shed his real blood to wash them away. Your body will rise from the dead, because Christ has borne the price of your sins on his body. The words you hear here in church week after week are not cheap words. They were purchased with great groaning and sighing from Christ.

After Jesus healed the man, he spoke plainly. This obviously caused great joy to the man, as you can imagine. Yet, when we consider what we know about the tongue, this was also a dangerous thing Christ did. St. James writes, “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. .. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (3:6b, 7-8) And Jesus got a taste of this poison, when others disobeyed him and proclaimed his deeds prematurely, endangering his ministry.

And any of us, who has spoken words he’d rather take back knows the wisdom in Proverbs 17, “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” So, we might see the loosing of the man’s tongue as a dubious blessing. Yet, it was a blessing. It is true that at many times, it is wiser to remain silent. Yet, there are also times when we must and ought to speak, as St. Paul writes, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:10) And so, the Psalmist prays, “O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth will declare your praise.” (Psalm 51:15) This is how it was with this healed mute man. He spoke rightly and confessed the name of Jesus. And so, it is with us. Through the working of God’s Word in our hearts, our lips have learned to praise God rightly. Yes, sin still pollutes our lips, even as the deaf and mute man restored to good health eventually went to the grave. Yet, just as that healing was a foreshadow of the resurrection of all the dead, the praises we sing today are also a foreshadow of the eternal bliss we will enjoy when we will join the heavenly ranks of saints and angels in singing our Savior’s praises.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Trinity 12: O Lord, Open My Lips And My Mouth Shall Declare Thy Praise

9/3/2017

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Mark 7:31-37

There is a difference between hearing and listening and between listening and understanding. Likewise, there is a difference between talking and speaking wisely. It is one thing to hear God's Word and quite another thing to listen and understand it. Scripture speaks of those who have ears, but do not hear or understand (Jeremiah 5:21; Is. 6:9; 42:18-20; Matt. 13:13) When I first received my call to serve Trinity Lutheran Church in Ottumwa, a healthy fear came over me because of the great task of preaching God's holy word, which had been entrusted to me. I prayed that I would preach God's word faithfully and truthfully. I also prayed for the people of Trinity Lutheran, that you would be given ears to hear. Ears to hear; that means that you would not only hear the sound coming out of my mouth, but that God would grant you faith to understand and believe those words for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Ears to hear are not natural. You aren't born with the ability to comprehend God's Word and come to faith. Rather, we are spiritually like the deaf man in our Gospel lesson. And unless God opens your ears to hear his holy word, you will remain incapable of making anything out of the Gospel. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew chapter 13, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven." It is by grace that you are able to believe the Gospel preached to you. Unless God gives you ears to hear, you will find the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus as pure folly, even if you can hear the words clearly.

Before you can learn to speak, you need to listen. My grandmother was deaf. And although I don't think there was anything wrong with her tongue, she could only say a few words, and none of them clearly. She was a smart woman, but she didn't know how to talk, at least not with her mouth; she used her hands. Likewise, if you do not have ears to hear, you will not learn how to speak God's language. If you do not listen to and believe God's word, you will not know how to speak God's Word.

And do not be mistaken. It is very important that you speak God's Word. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 10, "For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." And our Lord Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12, "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." And again, our Lord says, "So everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 10:32-33)

And because it so important that we speak God's Word and confess Jesus in this life we pray Psalm 51:15 to open every Wednesday night Vespers Service, "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise." Indeed, the Lord must open our lips. How does he do this? First by opening our ears.

Well, how does God open our ears to hear and believe the Gospel? This is very interesting. You don't have the power to believe the Gospel. So, what does God use to give you the ability to believe the Gospel? He uses the Gospel! The Gospel is the power of God to salvation. God uses his holy and powerful word to open closed ears and loosen bound tongues.

Many people think that you need to look at yourself to understand God. Perhaps go off into the woods, experience nature, or lock yourself in a room with just you and your thoughts. But this is not the way you learn to listen to God nor is it the way you learn to speak God's language. Jesus says, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34) And what comes out of the heart? "Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." (Matt. 15:19) How can such things teach you to confess Jesus and speak God's word?

Jesus said, "Ephphatha" and the man's ears were opened and he spoke plainly. And so, God must speak to us, so that we can believe and confess and be saved. We must never doubt the power of God's word. The Gospel spoken at the bedside of a dying Christian does not fall on deaf ears, even if the person has lost consciousness. God's word is supernatural and all powerful.

Likewise, we should not doubt the work of the Sacraments. So many scoff at the idea that Baptism can make a child a Christian, forgive sins, and give everlasting life. They think they are doubting the power of ordinary water, but they are denying the extraordinary power of Jesus' word. "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" are not the words of an ordinary man, but the words of Christ himself. Christ's words have the power to make the deaf hear, the mute speak, even to raise the dead. And they certainly have the power to forgive your sins and give you new life. When the pastor says, "I baptize you etc.," Jesus is saying "Ephphatha" to your spiritually deaf ears and giving you the ability to hold onto his word in faith.

The water does not make Jesus' words weak. Rather God puts power in the water. Jesus could have simply said a word and the man would have heard and spoke. But instead Jesus touches his ears, communicating to the man that he is going to do something to his ears. He spat and touched his tongue, telling the man that he would loosen his tongue. Out of love Jesus communicates in sign language to the poor man. And so, our Lord uses water to communicate to us what the Holy Spirit is doing through his word; he is washing us clean from our sins.

Do not be disturbed by the lowliness of water, bread and wine nor be scandalized by the weakness of the man speaking God's words of forgiveness. God's Word is powerful. And when added to such base things and simple men, it does not become weak, but makes them strong. And this should be of great comfort to you. "O Lord, open my lips!" Will he? He certainly will! When? Where? See the font? See the pulpit? See the altar with the bread and wine? There! You can identify the workings of God. He opens ears and loosens tongues where his word is taught in its truth and purity and where his sacraments are rightly administered. Oh, that I had a thousand voices. God produces something much more beautiful from your mouth through your faith, which trusts in the Lamb of God who takes away your sins.

You can't have faith for someone else. That really hurts sometimes, because you want to. How I wish I could just cause those to have faith, who are straying from Christ, ignoring God's word week after week. And Christian parents certainly feel this pang. They want their children to speak the language of God, to confess and be saved. They can't believe in Jesus for their children, but they can bring them to where Jesus opens ears and loosens tongues. The poor deaf and mute man in our lesson was brought to Jesus by others, who believed Jesus could heal him. So, you bring your children to the font, so that Jesus can say, "Ephphatha" to them and give them ears to hear. Bring your children to church so that the powerful Gospel can work on them. And at home, God's word is not weak coming out of your mouth. Have devotions with your children, sing hymns, pray with them, confess Christ to them and listen to them confess Christ to you. This is how you keep those ears open and that tongue loose.

Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed. It took something out of Jesus to restore his broken creature. And the words Jesus speaks to you, in your Baptism, in the Lord's Supper, yes, every time forgiveness is proclaimed to you, these words also come with a groaning sigh. That sigh came when Jesus breathed his last, having suffered all for your sins. The words Jesus speaks to you are not only powerful, they are priceless. These words were earned with the blood, sweat, and groanings of our dear Lord on the cross. And for that they are all the more precious. And for that they are all the more securing.

We can never tire of hearing these words. They keep our ears open to hear, to listen and trust in the love of our God. These words give us tongues to proclaim God's name. And we will never tire of confessing Christ. Because even after we've sung our final Nunc Dimittis we will continue to praise Christ's holy name with the angels and saints in glory forever. Let us pray.
O Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will proclaim Thy praise. Amen.

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

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Rev. James Preus

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