Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for ev’ry sinner slain; thousand thousand saints attending swell the triumph of his train: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Christ reveals his endless reign.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

As we wait for Christ’s return, we are not just waiting. The reason he hasn’t returned yet is that there is still work to be done. And Christ carries out his work through us. He has given all his believers gifts and abilities, and calls on us to use them. He also gives us his holy Word to use, for living according to his will and for carrying out his mission.

As we wait for Christ’s return, it can be easy to get distracted, to lose spiritual vigilance. God forbid that Christ should return and find us spiritually asleep. The time between Christ’s first and second coming is a time for watchfulness. “Lord, keep us ever watchful for the return of your Son that we may sit with him and all your holy ones at the marriage feast in heaven.”

When it comes to pleasing God, we are not left in the dark. Serving God doesn’t require us to search out hidden knowledge. He says, “Look right next to you. That relative, that congregational member, that stranger. What I want is for you to live a life that loves me above all things, by loving and serving your neighbor.”

Lord, keep us faithful to your Word! The Festival of the Lutheran Reformation of the Church emphasizes the true Church’s unfailing reliance on the Word of God and unflinching testimony to it in the face of persecution. Jesus promised to pour out his Spirit on the Church that we might be God’s mouthpiece even before kings. Today the Church prays that the Lord give us the strength to be faithful and the peace of knowing our lives are secure in his hands.

The Christian’s relationship to government is guided by our understanding that we are citizens of two kingdoms: the kingdom of grace, ruled by gospel, and the kingdom of power, ruled by the law. We support our government because it was instituted by God, so he commands us to obey whether it is Babylon (Old Testament lesson), Rome (second reading), or Washington, D.C.

The Lord has prepared a festive banquet and has offered it free of charge to all people. Our God has gone to great lengths to bring lasting joy into our lives. He spared no expense in preparing the feast of our salvation, not even the life of his one and only Son. How we live in this world shows our appreciation for that.

Faith is the very foundation of the Christian life. Faith, worked by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, allows us to do great things for the Lord and see eternal life as our ultimate goal. Let us thank God daily for his gift of faith.

Our God wants real repentance that leads to true obedience. One day everyone will bow before Jesus and confess him as Lord. Some will do so in grief and others in joy. God wants real repentance from every sinner that they might bend the knee to Christ in true obedience and confess with gladness that Jesus is Lord.

What is God like? Over the next four Sundays, the Church hears Jesus tell four parables which reveal characteristics of our God. Today’s lesson causes us to ask: Is God fair? No, he’s not. He doesn’t give us what we deserve, and that’s called mercy. In fact, he gives us what we don’t deserve, and that’s called grace.

God tells his Church to model our forgiveness on his: a boundless, free, and loving forgiveness based on the sacrifice of Christ. How could our sinful hearts ever forgive like that? It is God’s forgiveness that moves us to forgive. It is our forgiveness that shows gratitude and a reflection of God’s grace in us.

The Church fulfills her role as her brother’s keeper. The keys of the kingdom have been placed into our hands. It is our privilege and responsibility to bind and to loose — to carry out the task Christ has appointed us to on his behalf. We reach out with Law and Gospel for the sake of those whom Jesus redeemed.

In the struggles of daily life, we can be tempted to question God or join in with the world or give up the fight. By means of contrition and repentance the Christian is renewed for service in the kingdom of God. Such service is our spiritual worship.

The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession — June 25,1530 God-fearing leaders took their stand for the gospel and presented their confession of faith before Emperor Charles V in Augsburg, Germany. Even more than October 31 this day marks the birth of the Lutheran Church. Centered in Christ and focused on the free gift of salvation by grace through faith, the Augsburg Confession continues to shape what we believe, teach, and confess today.

The Gospel of Christ calls people from all nations and races to be part of the communion of saints, the holy Christian Church.

The promises of our Lord Jesus Christ comfort our distressed hearts, calm our doubts and fears, and strengthen us in the sure hope of life everlasting.

God’s people trust in him to provide. God reveals his mighty power chiefly in showing mercy and kindness. God feeds hungry mouths and hungry souls with his gifts of grace. When we bring our problems to Jesus, he richly supplies all we need.

The Christian seeks spiritual wealth. Our lessons today show people who have come into great wealth, but still this earthly wealth only serves to illustrate where true treasure lies. Today we see that true, spiritual wealth can only be found in God and his eternal blessings for us in Christ.

Only God can truly judge anyone. And he does. And he will. In the final judgment, he will judge the world with justice, taking to heaven all who believe and condemning forever all who reject.

By means of his holy Word, God sows faith in our hearts and strengthens it. May we always gladly listen to this saving Word!

Jesus is the only rest for our sin-burdened souls!

We are so blessed to live in this great country. God has blessed our nation throughout its history, and has blessed us with its freedoms. But he gives the greatest freedom, the liberty that lasts forever, only through his Son.

Christians expect persecution for Jesus’ sake. Nevertheless, we are sustained by the Word of our God. His gospel makes us bold to confess him before the world. Only the perfect life and death of our Savior make us willing and able to make the confession and live the life of his people.

In revealing his saving work for us in Christ, God moves us to obey him and declare his praises before the world. Him making you his people makes you want to and able to act like it.

God desires mercy, not sacrifice. Only his mercy can explain his calling of us to be his people. We then practice God-pleasing mercy when we see our own lost condition and rejoice that the Son of God has condescended to suffer for our salvation. That makes us want to reach others with God’s amazing mercy and grace.

The mystery of the Holy Trinity is beyond our comprehension. Yet it is proclaimed in Scripture and believed by Spirit-wrought hearts of faith. We believe in the one true God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Triune God is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Lose this doctrine, and you lose it all.

The fifty days have passed and the promised Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Bride of Christ. The once-hidden gospel is no longer the possession of a chosen few. For the Spirit enables the message of salvation to inflame hearts for bearing witness to the ends of the earth.

Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to the Father's right hand to rule over all creation for the good of all who believe in him, and now calls us to be his witnesses to everyone.

The love of God who lives in us leads to a life of obedience. Jesus’ promise of another Counselor is a loaded one: the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do what Jesus asks. Today’s lessons teach that love for our risen Lord means obedience to his commands. Only Jesus’ promises make that possible.

I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. Christ’s message is so exclusive that it rejects all others. He doesn’t say, “I show you the way,” or “I have the truth,” or “I lead to life,” but “I AM the Way, the Truth, the Life.” The exclusivity of salvation resting in the person of Jesus Christ is a rock against which the unbelieving world crushes itself, but upon which God builds his Church.

On “Good Shepherd Sunday” our attention is fixed on Jesus, the Good Shepherd of the sheep. His care and concern are recognized by those whom he has called as his sheep. Even in suffering, his sheep know his care for them and follow him.

The certain hope of eternal life with God is founded on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God had carried this hope in his Word through the ages. How did the disciples fail to anticipate the resurrection? How did the people of his day fail to see the Messiah God had promised? They let their wants and cultural expectations color their view of Scripture, and hope was lost. But God restored hope by raising Jesus and pointing his people back to his promises.

In the face of doubt, Christ gives us proof and peace. To the doubting disciples, he gave certain proof that led to certain peace. Through his Word and sacraments, Jesus gives the same proof to all people. “Peace be with you,” said our Lord. Then he sent his people forth with this message of peace based on the proof of his resurrection.

On this most holy of days, we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord. Connected by grace, through faith, to our risen Lord, we rejoice in the victory of the resurrection and in the full confidence of our own resurrection from the dead.

Darkness descended on the world that day as God draped Creation in the darkness of mourning. For the Light of the world was flickering out. Though guiltless, he was tortured and cursed; though innocent, he died among criminals. Who could ever call this day “good?” Only those who know the truth of the cross: “Sing my tongue the glorious battle; sing the ending of the fray. Now above the cross, the trophy, sound the loud triumphant lay. Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer, as a victim won the day.”

Historically, Holy Thursday marked the day when people who had been under church discipline and had repented were restored to the church (hence the German name Gründonnerstag, or “Green Thursday,” recognizing the new life of the penitent). They were publicly welcomed back into the fellowship. Preparation for this time means self-examination, but Holy Thursday also offers a refreshing welcome and an invitation to the most unexpected place: being served at the table by Jesus and feasting in communion with God.

Lutherans have a long history of remembering the Savior’s Passion in midweek services during the season of Lent. The more common practice, in history and in the experience of the wider church, is to read the Passion history on the first Sunday of Holy Week, as we are doing today...

 

Jesus will raise us from death to life. The crown jewel of the coming kingdom is the resurrection of the dead. One day, Jesus will defeat the last enemy and life will reign in our new Eden with God. On our Lenten walk to Calvary, the Church sees the Savior who came face to face with death and defeated it. God help us remember that Jesus, the Life, has made us heirs of eternal life.

 

Jesus is the Light of the world. He shines to give sight to the blind and judgment to the blinded. Christ comes to shine his light into our darkened eyes so that we might see him and live. He gives blinding judgment to those who reject him; he displays the work of God in the lives of those who now walk in his light.

 

The gift of God comes by faith to those of all nations. Not a holy life, not our acts of obedience, but simple trust in the promise of God brings the gift of living water for thirsty souls. By faith Christ gives his righteousness to all who believe and enfolds us into the family of God.

 

 

 

The Son of God goes forth to war and defeats the devil for us. The Prayer of the Day sets the tone for Sunday: the ancient foe warred on mankind in the garden, but God promised to send a champion to battle on our behalf. The Second Adam came to do what the first could not, and in the desert the battle was joined. But for us fights the valiant one … he holds the field forever.

Jesus appears in glory as the Son of God. Before he suffers as man’s substitute, Jesus gives his Church a glimpse of the glory that he set aside to be our Savior. See how he loves us! The Majestic Glory became a man to suffer and die for us, just as Moses and the Prophets had foretold. How good to be here!

Love your enemies! What could be more counterintuitive? Yet Christ calls his disciples to a love for our neighbor that models itself after Jesus’ love for the world. As Luther said: Christi sumus in nominativo et genitivo (We are Christs — with and without the apostrophe). A heart like Christ’s has no room for vengeance, but is filled with love for all.

Let your light shine! Jesus tells us: You are … so be. You are the light of the world, so be light for the earth. You are the salt of the earth, so be salt for it. Our calling as children of God means our lives will reflect our new status, and the world around us will be blessed by us.

The Savior’s Sermon: Trust in God’s strength!
The Beatitudes are hard for us to swallow. Jesus seems to be espousing a Christianity imbued with fatalism at best or defeatism at worst. Look closer, however, and see what he says. The weaker you are, the stronger God is in your life. The weaker you are now, the more ready you are to trust in a future reward. Trust God’s grace and you will find many reasons to trust his strength.

Jesus appears as the light that shines in the darkness. Dark places remain covered in the shadow of sin and unbelief. There are, however, bright places too, and there you can find God’s children. Jesus shines his light by preaching repentance and the good news of the coming kingdom, and he invites us to follow to a new life illumined by him.

Jesus appears as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This Lamb would take away the sins of the world and bring both Israel and the Gentile nations into the kingdom of God. The hearts that see this Savior in faith cannot help but take news of this salvation to the ends of the earth.

The 12 days of Christmas culminate with the celebration of the Epiphany. Before that day, Jesus had been worshiped by those of Jewish descent. But God’s Word said the Savior would be His Gift to all nations. Epiphany proves God keeps his promises, as he miraculously leads foreigners to worship their Savior. So Epiphany is sometimes called “Christmas of the Gentiles.”

¹O blessed day when first was poured
The blood of our redeeming Lord!
O blessed day when Christ began
His saving work for sinful man!

⁵Lord, circumcise our heart, we pray,
And take what is not Thine away.
Write Thine own name upon our hearts,
Thy Law within our inward parts.

(TLH©1941, #115 “O Blessed Day When First was Poured”)

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Just as Mary, on the very first Christmas, we too meditate on the mystery of Christmas. Christ was born in order to live, die and rise from the grave for us! The Word became flesh and through faith we see his glory! Glory to God in the highest!

This last Sunday of Advent, we celebrate together the promise and fulfillment of the One born Immanuel, “God with us.” As we get closer and closer to Christmas, we ask God to prepare our hearts to receive the baby born in Bethlehem as his wonderful gift of salvation.

In this season of Advent (Coming) we focus on the three “comings” of Christ: his coming into this world as a baby to put himself in our place and to pay for our sins, his coming in glory at the last day to take us into the full enjoyment of our salvation, and his coming into our hearts through the power of his word which gives us faith and makes that salvation our own. And all three of these comings lead us to REJOICE....

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near! The Forerunner prepares for the coming Christ by preaching repentance that brings renewal of life. The Root of Jesse will come in swift judgment on the unrepentant but in mercy and grace for God’s people. His coming will end the wickedness of the world and usher in a new age restored to the perfection with which God made it.

Keep watch! The unexpectedness of Christ’s coming doesn’t change its certainty. We know he is coming with judgment on the unbelieving world and grace and rescue for his people. We are filled with hope, with love, and with light. With anticipation in our hearts, we long for the fulfillment. “Come, Lord Jesus! Amen!”