Jacob Hercamp – Page 12 – What Does This Mean?

Advent and Hope

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I don’t remember how many times this happened for me but I remember going to the mall a few times to sit on old St. Nick’s knee. You know how that went. Santa would ask some questions about being a good child, and what you hoped to unwrap on Christmas Day. And like the Christmas Story, you could hear all kinds of gifts being hoped for, from BB guns, fishing poles, to ponies and dollies. And the kids I remember being around walked away talking about how much they hoped Santa was listening.

Imagine the surprise awaiting John the Baptist who announces Jesus to be the One who was to come with a winnowing fork in his hand, to bring the wrath of God to bear, and then he sees Jesus doing nothing of the sort. And to throw in another wrinkle, John has been put in prison for his preaching! Had John hoped in the wrong guy?

What was going on? Where is the fire and brimstone Jesus, the one whom John preached? We must investigate. So, John, who was in prison directed his disciples to go and seek Jesus. The direction to ask the question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Or in the words of our advent wreath: Are you the one we should put all our hope in?

The promise of the one to come begins all the way back in Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve hooked their wagons to the offspring of the woman’s seed who would crush the head of the serpent. And the waiting game would begin. The first one to come was Cain. Eve when she gave birth to him, announced in Hebrew, “Behold, I have gotten God, a man.” She hoped that Cain was the One. And we should know the story of how that goes. And the story of hoping for the One to come went all through the Old Testament, from Noah to Abraham to Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, etc. Every male child was hoped to be the One. Until many gave up hope. The light of the promise flickered and nearly when everything fell apart in Jerusalem. When Israel lost its standing as a nation and went into Exile, only a small remnant had hope in the One who was to come. But they had the hope of the promise of Isaiah 61, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” To comfort all who mourn, and to give a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.

Was Jesus the One? Jesus does not answer the question with a direct answer. But he teaches us something very important. He says to the inquisitors, “Look at you see. Look at what you hear.” And then He then quotes from our Old Testament Lesson and then also Isaiah 42 which also speaks of the servant of the Lord being anointed by the Lord’s Spirit. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the dear hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” The Good News which Jesus has to offer to all is that it is the time of the Lord’s favor. The One long hoped for has arrived. He is on the scene, and He is working. And John’s disciples knew as did many others. And the disciples of John went away back to John having their faith and hope in Christ as the One strengthened. And their faith and hope would need that as they would be burying their own teacher in the not so distant future when Herod would have him executed. They would go to the One for whom they had hoped.

And He still is working granting you mercy now in these dark and dreary days that offer little hope. Hope in the Lord for no one else keeps His promises. No politician, no king, not even a father keeps every promise made. But the Lord? Indeed, he does. And He even bids us to remind him over and over again of the promises He has sworn to us. Jesus has been sent to bind up the brokenhearted, down trodden by sin and death. He has come to release you from the prison of sin by taking sin upon Himself and dying your death on the cross.

John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask a question. The disciples left with the answer. Of course Jesus is the One. There is no other to look for. He is the guy, John was right all along. But before the axe is laid, the proclamation to the those bound must go out. Jesus actually quotes Isaiah 61 at the beginning of his ministry in Luke 4 when He takes up the scroll of Isaiah in the Synagogue. Jesus reads up to the first line of the second verse. Jesus does not speak about the day of vengeance. It will come, but first mercy for sinners like the tax collectors and the prostitutes, soldiers and every other sinner out there, sinners like you.

The Day of vengeance will come when all the world will be brought to account, and the Lord’s faithful will be gathered to the kingdom prepared for them. But the vengeance first comes upon Jesus’ own head at the cross. He gathers all his wheat first to His cross, and places them in to the barn of the church until He will return in glory and power on the Last Day that they may not face the judgment but be covered by His blood and saved. John’s hope was not ill placed. Neither is your hope. Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to grant mercy to you, proclaiming forgiveness for his sake, giving you hope in the life and the world to come even as we live in this life now.

Look at the advent wreath, remember the first candle, the candle of hope. Know it points to Christ, the One for which the world longs to see. You see Him here at this altar still working for you and your salvation, giving you mercy, forgiveness, faith, hope, and love in His body and blood.

The root of Jesse has and will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you abound in hope.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Rend the Heavens and Come Down

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down! So prays Isaiah and all of faithful Israel with him.

The Old Testament and Gospel lesson for today, Mark 13:24–27 go hand in hand with the imagery of what will take place on the day the Lord comes down. Can you imagine though for yourselves what all this would look like? What kind of terror would that cause? The sky literally being ripped out and something, someone, the very Son of Man coming down to earth just as He promised.

You might be asking for what reason or purpose does Isaiah and Israel desire their Lord to rend the heavens open and come down? To destroy God’s and their adversaries of course! The prayer of Isaiah goes on, “to make your name known to your adversaries and that the nations might tremble at your presence.”

Your adversaries. Think about that for a moment. An adversary is a person who gets in your way. One who opposes your way. One who impedes your will. The very people who pray this prayer with Isaiah have been the Lord’s adversaries and you also.

The season of Advent is one of preparation for the Lord’s coming. Of course, Advent comes in the church year right before Christmas. Many people think Advent is a season preparing for the birth of Jesus, how the son of God came in human flesh by being born of the Virgin Mary. In the age of fact checking, this is not entirely wrong, but its not completely correct either. Look at the readings for the season, and you will not get a story about the impending birth of Mary until the final Sunday of the season right before Christmas. The readings chosen via the lectionary committee and the church universal from generations past place a lot more emphasis on being prepared for the final coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You might say the final weeks of the church year and the first weeks of Advent have the same kind of tone. Be prepared and stay awake for you do no know when the Bridegroom/Master of the House will come.

Hence, why it is so interesting to return to Isaiah’s prayer in the Old Testament lesson today? Isaiah and Israel want their Lord to come back. And they want Him to return now. Wouldn’t that cause destruction, mass fear, and death? It is the Lord’s adversaries, those who do not listen to his word, that will face these things. But those whose trust in the Lord and hold the Word of Christ as precious this is a day to look upon with great joy and great anticipation. The Last Day for the Sheep of Christ, the good Shepherd is not going to be one of dread.

And so even though Israel, along with Isaiah, know themselves to have sinned greatly against the Lord their God and to be adversaries of the Lord. They were so evil the sight of their Lord they were kicked out of the land that the Lord had promised to their fathers and we see them plead with God for mercy for He is their Father. They plead to Him to not hold on to their sin in anger forever. Yes, they chased after false gods, worshiped them inside the house of the Lord. And God was indeed angry, and rightfully He disciplined them. He chastised them and sent them packing. He sent first the Assyrians then the Babylonians to beat the city of Jerusalem into oblivion. But in the preaching of the prophets like Isaiah, warning them of the wrath to come for their sins as well as the events themselves taking place to fulfil the promised wrath, God was working to turn the hearts of his people from their sin and back to Him that they might know and receive mercy. And to Him they turn, pleading for mercy even as they look forward to the last day.

“Thy Kingdom come,” we pray in the Lord’s prayer. “Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven.” It is easier to pray when we know our standing before our Lord. The kingdom will come and His will will be done. But how will His will affect us? And will we and the world be welcoming Christ’s kingdom or will we be actively working against it?

Sin is open rebellion against the Lord God. When we do not take our Lord’s words to heart and do not follow them, we sin against God and those commanded to proclaim His Word. We might want to think God is merely joking about the fire that will come upon the earth, that He will do neither good nor bad to us. We have been lulled to sleep, being led by Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh that this world is all we have. That there is nothing else, so as one company had as their slogan for many a year: “Just do it.” It won’t matter. You only live once, and you better live it up. Carpe Diem, Seize the Day. We have seen the fruit of Satan, good to our eyes, and also with the so-called ability to make one wise, we, like Eve, took and ate of it. And into sin and open rebellion we did fall. We openly fight against the coming of the Kingdom of God. We are God’s adversaries fully deserving of punishment, death, and hell. We need the proclamation of God’s Law. We need to have God’s name made known to us. To make us tremble but also that we might be saved from the fires of eternal destruction.

And that is what is so wonderful. God’s name has been made known to us. When He did awesome things which we did not look for. When He came down not in judgement but in grace, He came born of the Virgin, as He promised He would, to be with us. To be Immanuel. To be our savior, who would go to the cross, to do that thing we did not expect. To announce His favor upon us. There at the cross mercy was poured out on the all the world. The very Son of God came down to save us. To remove our iniquities and the iniquities of all people because we are all God’s people. Indeed, we were all unclean because of our sins but the Son of Man came down to make us clean in His own blood. Washing us clean, making us pure before His heavenly Father.

And so, we pray with wonderful prophet Isaiah, yes Lord come down! Come down now! Make all things right! Your people are being hurt and persecuted. Your saints are being put to death for Your name. Congregations can’t meet. Your people can’t sing your praise. Yes, Lord come down and save us. Take us to be with You.

The Lord has not yet seen it fit to come down. We are told to wait and make known His deeds among the peoples. One thing we are told not do: we are not wait without hope, nor are we to wait without being strengthened during this time of waiting. He gives you every good gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what does He give? He gives you His Word. He gives you His Promise that He will indeed grant you mercy for sake of Him who died for you. Though you may feel that you eaten the bread of tears, He will lift up his face upon you that you may be saved. And He has done so. He has come bearing your sin all the way to the cross. And now he feeds you with the bread of heaven, His own body and blood in His Supper. He gives you the water of life to drink. It is a deep well that never goes dry. His Words will not pass away.

Jesus tell us to stay awake. But let’s face it, we will fall asleep. We will not hold Christ’s word in highest esteem all the time. We will fight against our brothers and our sisters. We won’t stand up for the reputation of the man being gossiped about. We will not fully love and honor our spouses as we ought. We who trust in Christ will still fall into temptation and sin. The Spirit may be willing but our flesh is weak and unable to stay awake for coming of Christ. But we know how our Lord sees us. He sees us as His Own. For we are His own creation, purchased and won by the work of Christ Jesus at the Cross, who rose from the dead, ascended to right hand of God the Father, and who will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead. And He continues to call us to be near where His gifts are that we might receive them often. Just like keeping oil in your lamps, be near the sellers of oil. For we do not know the day or the hour.

So come to this table. Come be refreshed be wakened again. Be strengthened in these last days. May the Lord rend the Heavens and come down soon as Isaiah prays. We are no longer adversaries, but have been made sons and daughters for the sake of the One who has come, Who comes presently in Word and Sacrament, and the Who has promised to come on the final day. We can see the sign of the times. Things are pointing to Christ’s return. The fig tree is ready. The fruit just hasn’t set yet. Jesus warns the world to be ready. He warns us, his Church, to not lose heart, nor to be weary in the time of waiting. Trust His Word for it is true. And it will come to pass just as He says it will. Let us be sustained by His Word and Sacraments as we wait for that day when we shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory that we may be saved and brought to live with Him in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Thanksgiving and the 2nd Commandment

Encore Post: A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! It is that special day of the year where everyone (hopefully) gets together with loved ones and gives thanks while enjoy all the food that their eyes desire and (hopefully) there stomachs can handle. And probably around the table before the meal begins you might go around saying what you are thankful for this year. And most of the time each person has something to add to the list. Most people desire to give thanks. The question that should be asked of us all, to Whom should this thanks be directed?

But we as Christians should come to a day such as this with a different mindset. In his fine explanation of the Second Commandment, Luther first tells us what the improper ways of using God’s name. And in the second half, Luther tells us the proper way to use the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are to pray, praise, and give thanks to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So giving thanks is something that should not just happen one day a year, but rather it should be a part of our daily prayer life. Jesus is the foundation. Christ is our life, the very source of all our blessings for this life we live now. As Christians then, we can give thanks in a very distinctive way.

Jesus came into our sin burdened world, took on human flesh, became like us in every way, yet without sin. By Jesus’ redeeming work of suffering and dying on the cross, we receive forgiveness. His resurrection is the guarantee of our everlasting life. And you are united to Jesus’ death and resurrection by being baptized into His name. Jesus is the very foundation of our life and our giving thanks!

Thanksgiving has a higher and greater meaning for us as Christians. That word that is translated as thanksgiving in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 means “grateful acknowledgement for the past mercies of God.” This leads to our humble and honest requests we bring before our Father in prayer. We have so much for which to thank our Lord. Not only does He care for our spiritual needs of forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death and resurrection, but He cares for our earthly and bodily needs too. He tells us that much in His Holy Word, especially in the 4th petition of His prayer: “give us this day our daily bread.”

Let us continue then to call upon the Lord offering up prayers, supplications, and thanksgiving for all that He has done for us for this life and the life that is to come.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

For All The Saints

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This year has been quite a wild ride. All Saint’s Day last year we were not even aware of the virus that would wreak havoc well into this year. We had no idea that nursing homes would close up and keep family members and pastors from doing their visiting with their loved ones and shut in members. It changed a lot of what could be done for folks in compromised health situations. I don’t honestly remember the last visit I made to a person in the hospital.

We all were humbled and are continuing to be humbled this year in one way or another. The things we have taken for granted have been taken away in large part. Science and Medicine once something considered all knowing has been questioned repeatedly from all kinds of people for their lack of knowledge about this virus. I think it is right to say that God has knocked down many of our idols, cutting off their hands or smashing their faces, showing how useless they are when it comes to life and death.

Some may ask, why is God doing this? What kind of judgement is this? It is the kind that is supposed to lead all to repentance, turning to Him and receiving from the forgiveness of sins He so richly and lovingly provides to us poor miserable sinners who need his forgiveness, mercy, and love.

That’s what the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ know. They know where to turn when life turned sour, when a plague hit, when things got rough, they knew to call upon the name of the Lord, coming to him in repentance, seeking His mercy. When they sinned in thought, word, or deed, they came to the Lord confessing their sins and seeking God’s grace and favor. For that is God’s character. He is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love.

I think about those men and women who were called home in our congregation since the last All Saints’ Day service. I was not able to do some of their funerals. Funerals I longed to do, for I knew that their funerals would have been a glorious last testimony speaking of the mercy and grace of their Lord Jesus Christ, in whose blood their own robes were made white, pure, and holy. They were covered in the blood of the Lamb, and thus made holy for the sake of Him who died to save the world from its sin.

Many of you probably have been paying attention to the additional services that we have been hosting on random days of the week. And if you watch the live streams you might remember seeing the names of various saints. Like James of Jerusalem, Luke, Peter and Paul. The list goes on. You might ask yourselves why we remember them and why have a service on Nov 1st for All Saints. First and foremost, the men and women remembered with their own day in the church, God used them to point us to Christ. Think of the writers of the New Testament books. They have left for us the very Words of Christ so that we might believe and have life in Christ with them. They even allowed their own blunders and sins to stand so that we might learn from them and see the grace of God in granting the forgiveness of sins on account of Christ. Christ used the quick to speak but slow to think Peter. He forgave and used a murderer in St. Paul to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. He used a tax collector to write the great catechetical Gospel we call Matthew. The list goes on and on. They want us to be in everlasting fellowship with Christ, and thus also with them. But they also give us examples in the faith to follow. Paul for instance on a few different occasions speaks to the church, saying, “Imitate me and the Lord.” God used them to glorify not themselves but to glorify the salvation won for them over sin, death, and hell, by their Lord Jesus Christ. It is ultimately always about Christ and what He has done for us by his death and resurrection.

So it is also, with the saints in our own day. We can give thanks to God for their lives of faith through which they looked to the Lord God for grace and mercy but also loved and served their neighbors. Perhaps it was mowing the church yard or making sure the widow down the street was being taken care of and able to get her groceries. Maybe it was teaching the children of the town in the old country school. Maybe it was using their voice to lead the choir and congregation in singing praises to the Lord. But what was their motivation? Like the saints of old, to glorify Christ and to give thanks to God by serving their neighbor just as God had served them in love, removing their sins from them for the sake of their Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.

All Saints’ Day remembers and gives thanks to God for the unnamed saints, those from every tribe and nation who were called by the very Gospel, which you yourselves have heard and believed, into faith in Jesus Christ the Lamb whose blood sets us free to be the people of God. We may sing this hymn today, we may not, but I do encourage you to look at it if you get the chance. The hymn is 678. We sing for all the unsung saints, that countless nameless throng, who kept the faith and past it on. With hope steadfast and strong Through all the daily griefs and joys, No chronicles record, Forgetful of their lack of fame, but mindful of their Lord.

You might not now all the saints. But you are bound to them by the bond of love that is Christ Jesus. You make up one body, Christ’s body, the Church. While you might not know them all, the more important thing is that Christ knows you and He knows you by name. For He called you by name at the waters of your Holy Baptism where you received that white robe of righteousness, His righteousness. There were watched clean of your sin and made God’s own Child. You then are a saint already. Having been made one at your Baptism.

So God looks at you and sees Christ’s righteousness. You have been clothed, as have your sins. You in your Baptism are made new, regenerated, reimaged in Christ’s image and likeness. A living faith in the Lord will naturally produce works that are good and loving towards your neighbors. But will you always do that? Will you love your neighbor as yourself as the Lord requires in His Law? Of course not, while you are a saint you are also a sinner on this side of Heaven. You are still in your sinful flesh, and you are still fighting against the Old Adam daily. That is why we confess the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die that a new man should arise and emerge to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. This life in which you now live by faith in Christ Jesus is one that is a daily battle. It is one where the world, our own sinful flesh, and Satan himself will fight and battle against us. You will be persecuted for your faith in Christ Jesus. You will be ridiculed for holding the line of Scripture when it comes to 6-day creation, God’s institution of Marriage, life beginning at conception, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the list goes on and on. The world, you own weak flesh, and Satan will work mightily to make you doubt all of these things and ridicule Christ.

Yet, here we are. Where Christ promises to be for you and for your salvation. And where Christ is, that is where His Saints gather. And no, I am not just talking about ourselves here in these pews. But really the whole host of Heaven who are already singing the praises of the Lamb who was slain for their salvation, whose blood makes their robes white.

The life and faith of the saint is a daily battle. We need to be strengthened. We need the cleansing of Christ’s saving blood often because our robes are often dirty with our sins. Only Christ’s blood covers the stains and blots them out, as far as east is from the west. And we get that every time our Lord comes to serve us in His Divine Service. He gives us the forgiveness we need and also gives his body and blood to strengthen us in this faith. Rejoice and be glad and be at rest in your Savior Jesus.

And here is Christ with all his faithful, those who have gone before us, those who have written their testimonies, those who are unnamed and unknown to us, and those saints we hold most dear, and we are participants together with them all singing the great hymn of praise. Not looking to ourselves but to the Lamb who was slain.

This year has been hard. It has been a battle for everyone on many fronts. But let us not lose hope. But let us hold even more fervently to Christ and His promise. For Christ saves us! He covers our sins that we might be called saints not just here but also in eternity that we might live in His Kingdom forever! We, along with all the Lord’s saints from all tribes and nations, will be before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. We shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike us, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from our eyes. These are words for All The Saints. These are words for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

You are Holy

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you recall last week’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes the bold statement to give to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. The main point of it all boiled down to that you are made in the image of the God. You belong to Him, and by being redeemed from your sins by the Lord Jesus Christ who came in our flesh and in our likeness, we are made new in His image via Holy Baptism and thus are indeed able to our thanks and praise to Him by loving him and loving our neighbor as our stations in life bring our way.

So, brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, it should come to no surprise to you that God would speak such words as He spoke to his people in Leviticus 19. You shall be holy, just as I, the Lord your God, am holy. And that holiness is shown by how we love our neighbors and deal justly with them in all circumstances. I imagine some of you are humming the hymn: “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

But herein lies the problem. You are not holy like the Lord. At least your actions do not testify to your holiness. You are not kind and gentle with one another. You show partiality. You show hate towards one another and disdain. You hold grudges against one another for the way a farm deal went down years ago and can barely say one word to your own brother. You speak lies about one another behind one another’s back. We all have been part of the gossip chain. It’s not hard to do at all.

Like James said in his epistle we would rather associate ourselves with the better off families than with those who are poor. James accused the church of committing this sin of partiality. And we have our own sins of partiality to deal with today, perhaps it’s the same kind perhaps not. Perhaps we are partial to like minded individuals and would rather spend our time with them rather than try to walk a mile with someone who is different than us. Partiality comes in all shapes and sizes. And we all have fallen prey in some form or another. It is our human nature to do the very opposite of what God commands. We are sinners and it is our nature to fight against and to rebel against the Lord and His Law. You shall be Holy? It sounds more like a joke rather than an indicative statement concerning your state of being before God. Because we are all far from standard of God’s holiness.

God says that He is concerned about us incurring sin upon ourselves. This shows that He knows we will mess it all up. And He knows that we will not be able to live up to the demands He has made of His chosen.

Why else would the prophets of the Lord speak about the One who is to come. Hear the prophet Isaiah in the 11^th chapter of his book: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jess, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”

Did you hear that? The shoot from the stump of Jesse would do all these things. God knows we certainly couldn’t do it but the one who is called the Son of David but also David’s Lord would. Our Gospel lesson for the day gets to the heart of the confession of God and Man being in one person: Jesus Christ. Jesus is both God and Man at the same time. And He is perfect for you. And perfect for me.

He is the one that perfectly loved the Lord His God with all His heart and with all His soul and with all His mind. And also loved his neighbor as himself. It was the Father’s will for His Son to be born of the Virgin and to serve the world as the perfect example and substitute. Jesus the God Man stood up and did what you could not. He was indeed holy. He did not judge folks according to their standing, but in all things He dealt with all in righteousness and equity.

In fact, it was Jesus who had these done against Him. He had injustice done to him in court. The Late Maundy Thursday night court was a kangaroo court if there ever was one. False witnesses could not even make their lies fit together. And yet, the condemned Jesus to die. Pilate saw nothing in him deserving death, and yet the voices overran him, and the crucifixion occurred.

Jesus sought out the poor and lost, he called out the hypocrites like the Pharisees who were supposed to care for the widows and others but were only concerned about themselves and their standing in the eyes of others. And Jesus calling out their hypocrisy ultimately gets killed for speaking out. He was literally fulfilling Leviticus 19 and all the law of God not to gain himself glory but to give this righteousness and holiness to you.

You shall be holy. You are not holy because of what you have done. Absolutely not. But because of Christ, the Son of David yet David’s Lord, you have been made Holy. For He is the Lord and He has not only declared it to be so, but He has in fact acted to make it so.

A sinful human being cannot be made holy without atonement. Think of Isaiah when he sees the Lord in Isaiah 6. He realizes that he is a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips. The Seraph comes flying to him with a burning coal from the fire on the altar and touches Isaiah’s lips with it. The Seraph told him, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” As I told you last week to be atoned means to covered. To be made holy before the Lord is be atoned for by Jesus, literally to be covered by Jesus who died on the cross to take away your sins and give you everlasting life forever.

The question of how someone became holy was one of the most important questions of the Reformation. How is one deemed holy by God? What must one do? Luther was confused by this for many a year. He always had been taught that one must work and do in order to be saved, to be called holy by God. But for Luther all he saw was his wretchedness. He believed the word of God which said: “I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and forth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” And being a pious man, Luther was petrified because how could He love God enough? How could Luther keep the commandments perfectly? He was looking at himself and saw only failure. And the burden of the Law of God was great. And it should be because by it we realize that we cannot do enough by the Law to be called holy at least in the sight of God. We are filthy and unclean sinners in thought, word, and deed.

But the real Reformation for Luther came when he heard the words of Romans 1:16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” The one who is righteous is also holy. Those words the righteous shall live by faith made all the difference in the world.

We are made holy not on account of our works but because of faith in the one was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered and died under Pontius Pilate, descended into hell and on the third day rose from the dead, and thus ascended to the right hand of God the Father to judge both the living and the dead. That is how one is made holy. Becoming holy is not something you do to yourself. No, you are acted upon by the Holy Spirit via the preaching of God’s Word of Christ Jesus.

Those who have ears and hear are declared holy for the sake of Christ, for He has died, was buried, rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father for them. He declares that they are holy just He is holy. You have been declared holy and righteous for the sake of Christ. Because you have been made in His image in your Holy Baptism.

Remember from last week, you are regenerated in Christ’s image. You are the spitting image of Him who has created you, redeemed you, and now says to you, “You are holy.” You are holy not for the sake of your own works but deemed holy by the works of Christ for you. That was what the Reformation was all about. Christ and Him Crucified that is what makes you holy in the sight of God the Father.

Being deemed righteous and holy for the sake of your Lord Jesus Christ transforms you.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners, not sits in the seat of scoffers: but his delight is in the Law, that is the Torah, or Word of the Lord, and on his Torah, he meditates day and night. For by this Word, in which Jesus declares you Holy for His Sake, you are like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding the fruit that is good, and your leaves do not wither. What a thing. Jesus calls himself the vine in John 15 and you are his branches. You are being fed by His Word and Sacraments. By them, you are being made holy so that the works that you do towards your neighbors – as imperfect as they may be due to still living in our sinful flesh and world – are seen as good by the Lord, not because they are perfect works but because you called holy for the sake of Jesus Christ. You are living the life of faith in Christ Jesus, and you will do good works toward your neighbor because that is what the One in whose image you are regenerated did. Should we not walk in His ways? We are called to walk in manner worthy of the Lord for He has called us holy. Just as He is Holy. Let us live with one another and encourage one another in this life to which we all have been called by His Word.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Children of the Heavenly Father Forgive

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ever the great catechist, Jesus, gives us, his catechumens, the same lesson in a different form. We ought to forgive one another so that we might be reconciled to one another but more importantly be reconciled to God our heavenly Father who forgives us or debts for the sake the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered on the cross for the sins of the world. We are after all children of a Father who forgives.

Peter’s question gives Jesus the opportunity to give the parable of the unforgiving servant. We might want to be like Peter, “Lord, how many times do I have to forgive?” He still does the same thing over and over again. He never says he is sorry for what he does. There does not seem to be any genuineness. Do I really need to give forgiveness? When is enough, enough?

It is so much easier to give forgiveness when the person who committed the sin against us says they are sorry. But perhaps we need to take a step back. In today’s world repentance, confession, and absolution are all confused. Peter along with the disciples didn’t seem to get it right away either, as his question reveals.

Let’s go back to last week for a moment. God says he hates sin. He takes sin so seriously that he sends his men to speak his warnings as well as how sin is dealt with. Acts of sin bring judgment and if the warnings are not heeded that judgement will come. And it will not end well for the sinner. So, we need to know what our sins are. We need to know what God says is sin, and we learn that by his 10 commandments. Jesus does a deep dive excursus on these commandments in the Sermon on the Mount and now here we are where Jesus starts talking to his disciples about when they are being sinned against no matter the context, go to the person who committed the sin against you call out the sin that was committed, call it by name and be reconciled, granting forgiveness.

Only when we identify sin as sin, are we able to then move on towards repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Knowing sin comes by knowing God’s Word where He defines it. Because let’s face it, if we do not know what God defines as sin, we will not be able to tell a person that they sinned against us in order that we forgive them properly as God desires us to do. Also, when we sin against someone else it difficult to repent of something, we don’t know to be a sin. And if we don’t believe what we are doing to be sin, then we certainly will not seek the forgiveness of sins found in Christ Jesus.

So first we need to know what sin is. And we should also add in we need to know what the consequences of sin is. God tell us straight up: “The consequence of sin is death.” But God does not desire the death of the sinner. That is already established. In His great mercy, God has given us His Son Jesus Christ as the one who stands in our place, taking into himself the punishment of death and hell that should be for us. Christ comes proclaiming that God has been reconciled to his creation in the giving of the Son at the Cross. Forgiveness of sins comes by way of the cross where the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ flowed.

Yet, we keep on sinning. We still transgress against every single one of those 10 commandments. We are sitting ducks for the hungry serpent seeking to devour his next victims, especially if our consciences are so seared that we feel no guilt, regret, or shame for our sinful words and deeds. The world has thrown the Law of God out the window and the really the word sin, except for the most egregious things or the sin of being politically incorrect, or speaking against the tide of culture. You can see the moral degradation all around us. And what is worse is that we, who ought to know better being Children of God by Holy Baptism, go along with it. Like the World, we sin against God thinking we know better than He. Or we think we can declare God’s Word to be obsolete and behind with the times and thus follow the flow of culture. We allow our own children and grandchildren to follow in the ways of the world far too often, to do things which are contrary to God’s word. Sins which we let go unchecked causes pain to not just the person who commits the sin but there is also collateral damage done. A so-called individual sin that shouldn’t hurt anyone hurts a lot more people than you think and can lead many to their own sins too. And he heard what should happen to someone who causes a little one who believes in Christ to sin. Repent. Yes, we all have left sin unchecked. We have failed to identify sin as sin. We have failed to seek out our brother when we have been wronged. And we have tried to cover up our own actions and deeds where we have sinned against someone else.

We need to be made aware of our debts. And if we are honest our debts are to numerous to count. Unfortunately, this practice has all but been lost, especially in our Lutheran Churches, but when Luther lived He went to confession. Private Confession. Now at the time it was taught that you must confess every sin that you had ever done since your last confession. In other words, you had to innumerate your sins. Luther could spend hours at a time in that confessional booth. On one occasion Luther left the confessional only to come running back to the booth because he forgot one or two sins. The Church no longer says that we need innumerate our sins. For who can know all of his errors? But knowing our debts and our sins are important because then we just can see how merciful our Lord and God is to us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by our Lord’s messengers, the Gospel is proclaimed so that faith in Christ be created. We hear Christ was crucified for Me. He died for Me.

For we are like the one with a 10,000 talent debt. We have sin up to our eyeballs and we won’t stop sinning. There is no way we can pay what we owe. We can only throw ourselves at the mercy of the Judge. Lord, mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. And God has had mercy on us for the sake of Christ, who came to die for the sin of the world, paying the debt we owe. Paying not with gold or silver but with his holy and precious blood poured out for us and the world at the cross.

Last Sunday we talked a little about how God deals with the problem of sin in the Kingdom of Right, the Church, by going to the heart and changing them. Ezekiel talks about a heart transplant. When our hearts are changed by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we then can forgive those who have brought us pain, suffering, and grief because of sins. A sinful heart will not forgive. But a heart made new in the image of Christ will. Mercy has been shown to you by God your Father in Heaven. If you are children of the Father in Heaven, you then will also show mercy to your brothers and sisters. For God did not send Christ only to pay for your debt, but Christ paid the debt of all mankind. Christ died for the sins of that person who has sinned against you, so then you also should forgive them. Just like God forgives you. It plays out time and time again when you hear the news of a senseless death, if Christians, the family will speak forgiveness to the person. One such event the brother of such a victim spoke directly to his brother’s murderer and said “I hope you go to God with all your guilt, all the bad things you might have done in the past, I know I speak for myself, I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask Him, He will forgive you. And I love you just like anyone else.” The world cannot even begin to deal with this type of behavior. At the time political activists and journalists came unglued and unhinged at the forgiveness given by this man to the murderer of his brother. They wanted hate to spewed. The did not want forgiveness to be offered but anger to held on to. But you, a child of the Heavenly Father, forgive your brother, for your Heavenly Father has forgiven you.

But it is hard to do! It is hard to do because we are still sinful and we are still sinned against! We still agonize over the hurtful and angry words spewed our way because of our own positions and opinion. We don’t like to give forgiveness to some who can’t say “I am sorry.” We hurt when people do not take our words in the kindest way. We can get burned by those whom we confront about a sin they do not really want to have exposed. And it hurts too when you know you have sinned against someone and try to ask for forgiveness but rather than hearing “I forgive you,” you get “its okay.” That is not the same as hearing absolution. Use the words Jesus has given us to speak his love to one another. Forgive one another for the sins that you commit against one another.

So how are we able to do all this in the midst of being so hard and so contrary to the way of the world? Be where Jesus is, acknowledge your own debts to the Lord, your own sins for what they are, deserving of death and hell. But call upon God to be merciful and Just, as He has promised to be. For again, he does not desire the death of the sinner, but that the sinner turn and be reconciled to Him. And God has done all the work to forgive and reconcile us to Himself. He has had mercy on you. He sent His Son to be your Savior from sin, death, and hell. And having been made a child of the Living God, be like your Father, who continues to show His mercy to us who sin constantly against him, let us show mercy to those who sin against us.

Be made ready and capable to pass this mercy of your Heavenly Father on by filling up with Christ’s mercy at His Supper. Therefore be a vessel through which the mercy of the Lord may be made known to those who may have never seen God’s mercy before. Forgive richly because you have been richly forgiven by your Heavenly Father for the sake of Christ Jesus your Lord.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Confession Time

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The salvation of the Lord has gone out. He is walking from village to village announcing the time of the Lord’s Jubilee. Comfort and peace, making the waterless places an oasis, making the wilderness and the desolate places like Eden, that is paradise. Listen. Look at Him, and know Who He is by what He says, and confess Him.

We have learned by reading Matthew now for a little bit that his book is written like a catechism of sorts. He has set the goal for you, the reader, to be taught the truth of Jesus by hearing the words of Jesus, Himself. Matthew desires you like John to know that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you will have life in His Name. So far this summer you have gotten to listen to the teaching of Jesus, some of his parables, and throughout it all you were being given lessons about who Jesus is and what He has come to do. Remember the parables of the sower, the weeds, and the treasure. Those three parables lay down the work of Jesus in great imagery. Jesus is the sower of the seed which is His Word, which enlightens you to know Him and know Him as your Lord and Savior. The parable of the weeds speaks to the condition of the current world, after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin in the garden of Eden, everything that had been declared good went bad. Nothing good was in the world and all the fruit of the people were like sour grapes unsuitable for anything. But in the same parable we learned that the Lord of the field had planted the good seed, the seed which corresponds to the Sons of the Kingdom. The very Son of the Kingdom was sent into the world, and planted into the heart of the ground when He was buried in order that He bear a harvest of many brothers and sisters.

The parable of the treasure tells us how much your Lord cares for you. He takes his time searching for you, and once he finds you, He gives everything He has in order to have you forevermore. He purchases you, paying for you with his own body and blood at the cross.

So, you the catechumen, like the disciples, have been hearing the Son of the Kingdom’s Word, and it has been transforming you into a Son of the Kingdom. By the preaching of the only begotten Son you are being conformed to His image. Being made new, you actually desire to pursue righteousness, actually seeking to walk in the Way of the Lord. So now in our Gospel Lesson after a number of lessons learning the cost of our Redemption, God paying with his very own blood, Jesus has a midterm exam for the disciples and us.

Jesus hardly ever speaks of himself as anything but the Son of Man in the book of Matthew. This should always make you recall the image from Daniel chapter 7. There, Daniel the prophet who was in Babylon, saw at the end of days, coming on the clouds of heaven one like a son of man, taking the place on the seat of judgement. All authority was given to one who looked like a Son of Man, in other words human. When Jesus speaks about the Son of Man, He is really speaking of himself. And this is confirmed at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me.”

So, the first question of the confirmation midterm if you will, is this question: Who do the people say the Son of Man is? The disciples answer with the answers of the people: People say the Son of Man is John the Baptist, Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. All the answers they had gathered from the people were partially right in that each one of these men mentioned embodied some aspect of the Son of Man in one way or another. They all served as types and shadows of the one who was to come. But being partially correct means you are totally wrong, as some people as in Acts made John the Baptist into the person deserving worship and not the Son to whom John pointed and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Thankfully these men were corrected by the Apostle Paul, but yet still there are some people who hold to John being the Messiah even to this day. And in the Jewish Religion they still await Elijah’s return and have an empty seat for him when it comes to the Passover.

The first question was an objective question; it did not involve saying the disciples own thoughts or at least outright. But Jesus does not let them off so easily. They had been walking with him for a good while now. They had been called to be his disciples and bear witness to what they had seen. So, Jesus asks them that personal question: Who do you say that I am? Yeah, what do you believe? What do you believe about me?

And Peter gives the answer: You are the Christ the son of the Living God. Bingo! Winner winner chicken dinner! But note that Jesus does not commend his answer but commends the one through whom Peter has been brought to this confession. The confession of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the Living God is not something that a person finds on their own. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

So who do you say that Jesus is? Yes, who do you say He is? The world might still call him a good teacher. But if you watched some news outlets you might have seen a bible or two burning at one of the many riots across our country. Jesus is just another teacher, just another man, who was probably overall good, but is no longer right with the times. Certainly not confessed to be the son of the living God. But who do you say that Jesus is?

Friends in Christ Jesus, you, like Peter, have been granted this knowledge to know the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God by the grace of your Heavenly Father. For God the Father has called you to be his own child in the waters of Holy Baptism. You have been brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, who has died and risen for you and your eternal salvation. And via Holy Baptism you enjoy the rights of being united to Christ’s death and resurrection: forgiveness, eternal life. The Son of Man comes into the world to accomplish your redemption. The Christ, as we will learn as we read Matthew just verses after where our reading ends today, has a mission to accomplish. He is to suffer and die and then rise from the dead. It must be that way. He does it in order that the weeds of this world be made new and produce the fruit that is right in the eyes of the Heavenly Father. Fruit produced in you, which really is his own.

Confessing Christ as the Son of the Living God is a confession that will come with a cost. You will not be liked in this world. You will be persecuted for it. You will likely have a difficult time coming to church. Look to a few particular states, and you will see how the church is treated. Look to the Middle East and the faithful are being led like sheep to the slaughter, dying for the sake of confessing the truth of Jesus Christ. “The world will hate you because it first hated me” says Jesus. And this confession will also have an enemy in your own flesh. Yes, your sinful flesh will fight against the desires of the new man created in you in the waters of holy baptism. That is why we are called to daily put to death the Old Adam in us by contrition and repentance.

Things are getting a bit dicey out there even in our neck of the world. Covid-19 has only made hatred towards the Church and her confession more visible. Being a confessor of Christ is more difficult now than ever before for us in America. But don’t lose a grip on this confession. It is the only solid ground you have. Everything else is sinking sand. For by this confession you have the keys of the kingdom of heaven along with St. Peter and the rest of the faithful who confessed Christ until their own deaths. And they are not really dead but alive with the Living God, The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know Christ by the preaching of his Word which has been proclaimed to you. By that Word the Holy Spirit has worked faith into your heart. The good seed has been planted and has sprouted forth. Feed it. Feed it. Feed it. Be where Christ promises to be so that you might be nourished in the trying days ahead. Our days will likely only get more hostile. There will be days when you will be attacked for this confession of Christ. Stand steadfast. For the battle has already been won, Christ has done what he set out to do when He came from the right hand of His Father. He accomplished your salvation by taking your sin, the sin of the world to the cross, and died with it all there. He broke the stranglehold that sin, death, and Satan had on you. And having now beaten death by being raised from the dead on the 3^rd day, we can stand steadfast on the Rock, Jesus Christ, knowing that whatever happens, whatever befalls us in this body and life, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Christ and those who take refuge therein.

The true Church confesses the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. May we never walk away from the confession of our namesake, St. Peter, but now more boldly than ever confess Christ as the only way, the only truth, the only life, knowing that this has been made known to us by the grace of our Heavenly Father. That grace of our Lord was shown to you likely in the form of your parents, grandparents, and your pastors of yesteryear. That grace of God came via hearing the word of Christ. May we all be the vehicles which God uses to extend his grace to another generation, another family, and neighbor, so that all may come to right confession of Jesus Christ and be receive adoptions as Sons, having been adopted unto to life everlasting with the ever living God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we ever be ready to stand and confess.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

A Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost: The Parable of the Weeds

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Something that every Christian ought to be doing is reading their bibles. Some folks like to read from start to finish, and that’s fine, but we can easily get distracted if we began in Genesis and Exodus and then we hit Leviticus. The laws of Israel get us bogged down and we lose interest and stop reading. However, if we were to sit down and read through a Gospel say, Matthew, in one sitting it might surprise you how many connections the Gospel has interwoven throughout the book. Matthew was a master at this, as He was crafting and using his Gospel to teach new Christians about Jesus, the faith granted to them and the new life of faith in Christ.

Consider Matthew’s gospel as a catechism book, God’s Word, but crafted and put together in such a format that every chapter builds on the themes before it, word choice and ideas that show up in the beginning get refined, and more poignant as the book progresses. Jesus’ parable of the weeds picks up a few ideas from St. John the Baptist primarily the fire at the end, and the parable that precedes it with the words and ideas of the seed, planting, and the field. It also deals with some of the themes from the Sermon the Mount, primarily the part of judging. Reading the Gospel of Matthew in sitting certainly helps begin to see how masterfully Matthew was in tying together any loose ends.

So, lets imagine shall we that we are students of St. Matthew and the best catechist ever: Jesus and see what this parable says to us in our day and our age. It is nice that Jesus like the parable of the Sower gives an explanation for us because if he had only given us the explanation of the first parable we would just assume the seed had the same meaning, as well as the field, etc. And we could certainly see how this would fit. But Jesus has another meaning in mind, which is why he gives this parable an explanation as well.

He explains the parable: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

While Jesus does not say it this way, we can take this parable as analogy of what happened at the beginning in the other book of beginnings: Genesis. There God called everything he had made good, especially his prized creation: man, made in his image, able to reflect his love in the rest of creation. But we know the story, the Serpent came and disrupted all that was good. He seduced Adam and Eve to eat of the tree which God had commanded them not to eat. All that was deemed good and fruitful by God, turned bad and fruitless, everything became weeds and barren.

The workers, the angels were at the ready to pluck the weeds from the word go. But the Lord knew better because what had been made good in the beginning had been so corrupted that nothing of man was good, there would be sons of the kingdom, unless God Himself acted on behalf of his creation. His own son would need to be planted into the world. The Son, born of the virgin, the seed of the Woman would have to come into the world in order for there to be any fruit at harvest. Without the coming of this “son of the kingdom” there would be no additional sons and daughters of the kingdom. It would only be a harvest of weeds ready for the fire. And God did not want that. God does not desire the death of anyone. Jesus later in another parable concerning the last day speaks of the fires being first and foremost created for the devil and his angels, not for people, but people who reject this preaching of Jesus and the promise Jesus gives in this preaching will be sent their as well.

So, having heard the first parable of this chapter the parable of the sower, you see that God has shown mercy upon his creation. He did not destroy it when He saw the corruption of sin and the fruit of that sin: death. He has sent His Son into the world, to sow the seed that is His Word into the hearts of men, who have been corrupted. But by that word, the men who hear and believe, in others words have been called to a knowledge of Christ Jesus as the Son of the living God, Emmanuel, would be transformed from weeds to a plant that bears fruit and a harvest, making them sons of the Kingdom. Note this is strictly being done by the grace and power of the Lord’s Word. And this merciful and powerful work has taken place in you, for you gladly hear it, and learn from it. By hearing Christ’s preaching, you have been called by His Gospel to faith in Him, and have been made a son or daughter of the kingdom by the waters of Holy Baptism. And you are made righteous for the sake the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came to restore and reconcile you to your heavenly Father.

You have been made and accounted Righteous before God in Holy Baptism, but you still live in a sinful world, and you yourself still live in a body marred and corrupted by sin. You still have evil thoughts that come out. You still show your weediness. You having been called sons don’t always act like sons of the kingdom. More often than not we are just like the weeds when it comes to the kind of fruits we produce, good for nothing but the fire. But remember the promise given you in Baptism. You are deemed righteous for the sake of Jesus. And you have forgiveness and life everlasting because Jesus has granted it to you.

And let’s remember folks, Jesus is pretty clear that the enemy is still sowing his seed. We see evil still around us, and its easy to spot as it does not even seem that enemies of Christ and his Church try to hide any more. They are coming from all angles. Even within the tent that is “called Christianity” we have folks who speak the opposite of what Scripture speaks. So how much longer until the end? How much longer do we have to wait? We don’t know. I don’t know, and if you hear someone give an exact date, run from them for they are not speaking for God. Jesus even says he does not know the day or the hour of the return of the Son of Man.

But what is clear also is that Christ is still sowing his own seed. He who has ears let him hear. Jesus still showers us with his mercy and his grace. He has not returned yet for harvest. Until that day, there is still time for his mercy to work to on the hearts of those who are his enemies. He has made you his own. He has given His Words to preached, in order for faith in Him be created in the heart of men and women alike. Weeds can be transformed. You who were once weeds, have been made wheat for the sake of Jesus’ death on the cross, and you have been granted the name of son and daughter of God. And having been made wheat, you bear a harvest because you are grafted into Christ.

Jesus also teaches us to be diligent and remain awake. One of my favorite hymns for this day puts it this way:

Rise my soul to watch and pray, from your sleep awaken! Be not by the evil day Unaware’s o’ertaken; for the foe, well we know, is a harvest reaping while the saints are sleeping. Watch against the devil’s snares Lest asleep he find you; For indeed no pains he spares to deceive and blind you. Satan’s prey, Oft are they Who secure are sleeping, and no watch are keeping.”

The hymn is 663 and I strongly encourage you to learn this hymn and keep it on your lips during these days. Satan, the world, and our own flesh are fighting against us and the church, and we cannot let our guard down lest we lose what Christ has given us. He who has ears let him hear.

So, in catechetical fashion: How does one remain diligent and awake? And how does one with ears hear? Be where the word of Christ is preached. Be where the food which nourishes us and works in us good works is provided. Receive the watering of Christ’s Holy Gospel and the free forgiveness won for you by Christ’s bitter sufferings and death at the cross. Receive the “miracle grow” that is his body and blood, that works in your own heart to trust Christ at his word more and more as well as doing good works toward your neighbor. For by these things you are made ready and kept for the harvest when that day comes.

Out of faith and trust in Christ flows the fruit of the harvest. What those works look like are different depending on your stations and vocations. Perhaps you are a nurse, so caring for the patients put under your charge. Maybe you are a son of elderly parents, so making sure they don’t need to be mowing their grass in the heat of summer by mowing it for them if called upon to do so. Maybe you are the wife of a farmer and so perhaps it’s the simple act of driving the truck to the field with his lunch. What makes these good in the sight of God is that they are done in faith in Christ. Maybe you are student and you have to put up with the false teaching of evolution and listen to the dogma of the secular world, grin and bear it, yet speak the truth when able.

Though you might not feel it now, and you might not feel like you are shining, soon all that seems to have overtaken the truth and the sons of the kingdom on earth will be gathered into bundles and burned at the last. And you, being deemed righteous and good for the sake your Savior Jesus, will be made to shine like the sun, like you were supposed to always shine before our heavenly Father in his Kingdom. May God continue to protect us night and day from the assaults of the Enemy, strength and faith increasing, so that still mind and will shall unite to serve him and forever love him. Amen.

Note: If desiring to hear how this sermon came out in the service, email pastorhercamp@gmail.com. Blessings in Christ!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

A Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

No one really knew what was coming as 2020 came into focus. Many of us myself included figured a few weeks of isolation would stem the tide sweeping the nation that was the virus. I know for myself I was not really prepared to face a longer period of the “stay at home” stuff. Much was needing to be done. I felt more busy than ever. Much of my busyness being brought on through anxiety. Trying to navigate how to best serve a church in the middle of the pandemic. Every move, every decision, wore me down. I felt pretty helpless.

As God has a way of using events of the world to bring folks to their knees in repentance, I too was brought to my knees in a few ways. I was reminded and perhaps you have been as well, that you have little strength in and of yourself. And the strength you have in yourself in the long run does not last, nor are you able to add one day to your life by it. I was reminded time and time again not to lean on my own understanding, my mind and my body were going through the wringer. I was burdened and heavy laden with anxiety about how everything would be heard and received. As like many workers in the midst of the pandemic I was being reminded that I was not the savior. In my office as an installation gift I received an icon, depicting Christ walking on the Water. In the icon on my office wall Jesus is lifting St. Peter from the water. It reminds me of something I should have never forgotten: Jesus is the savior of St. Peter, not me.

I am one who needs to come and put off the yoke of my heavy burdens. I am weak. Christ is the strong one. O that we might all have this revealed to us by the Father in Heaven. May we be made into little children and trust in the gracious will of our Lord, instead of try to trudge through our burdens of sin/shame/anxiety alone.

Think about your own situations and lives. There are plenty of situations that you have in your life that likely make you feel helpless and hopeless. Maybe it is something along the lines of family dynamics which we have touched on in previous weeks as the Gospel lessons have brought to the fore. Maybe you teachers are feeling lost in the sea of Covid-19 classroom preparedness. Maybe you are concerned for all your students who have not received the last months of school and now summer is really here and you are anxious where they are in life and in education. Just how far down the ladder have they fallen? Maybe you are trying to do it all, working and trying to make sure no child is left behind. But how can you do that? Feeling the burdens? Do you feel like you have failed? And those are some secondary and tertiary vocations. We aren’t really even talking about the vocations of mothers and fathers. Fathers, have you been burdened by the fact that your livelihood and the lives of your family members have been affected economically? I don’t think this has been the case for our members as much thanks be to God, but many have lost months of income and the standard of living has fallen for many around us. Anxious about what comes next? Burdened by worry? What do you do and where do you turn?

Turn to the one who cries out, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:25-30).

Jesus Christ offers freely rest for our wearied souls. Worry and anxiety are symptoms of a failure to fully fear, love, and trust in the promises of God our Father in heaven. They are sins against the first commandment. We worry because we don’t think we can handle what’s been put on our plate. And usually we are right about being unable to handle it because our focus is on the wrong thing. Our focus is on ourselves and our own strength. We find ourselves to be weak, especially when the burden of our failings mount up against us. Repent. That is the only way to have relief for our souls and conscience.

Jesus tells us a bit more about how this happens. This rest comes to you in knowing Jesus and by knowing Jesus we know His Father. It’s a trinitarian act: For The Holy Spirit is the Person who speaks to us knowledge about Jesus and his Gospel, that is what we confess as the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gathers us to Jesus, and Jesus reconciles us to His Father. And there is our rest knowing that our burdens and our sins, our worries, our anxieties have been taken on by Jesus and dealt with once and for all. We are not the savior, Jesus is. And that is rest to our weary souls indeed.

Like anything, our anxieties and our worries come and go, our feelings of helplessness ebb and flow. Sometimes we feel like we are on top of the world, other times we are feeling like we are walking through the valley of death. Sometimes we will want to give up and give in, throwing the pity party that can come when we feel alone and the load is too much for us to bear alone. Yet, in all circumstances, Christ calls you to walk with him in his way, carrying the easy yoke that leads to eternal life.

He calls you to be like little children. Children do not do much for themselves. They need to be fed. They need to be reminded of a parent’s love for them. They need hugged. They need picked up when they fall off their bike. They need a kiss on the scuffed-up knee. They need to know you care for them. So too you being a child of God you need that same kind of encouragement, a better love that never ends nor fades, a love that picks up all the pieces of your weary body and life and makes it all well in the cross of Jesus.

You are little children, beloved by your Father, made God’s own Child, because you are baptized into Christ. By baptism you are connected to Christ, both his crucifixion, and his resurrection. All your anxiety, all your worry, all your sin, and the shame that burdens your conscience taken away there in Christ’s death. And you participate in that by being washed clean in the waters of Holy Baptism. St. Peter talks about Baptism in this way: Baptism now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are given a light yoke; you are given knowledge of Jesus who has died and risen from the dead that you might live forever with your Heavenly Father.

In some churches, the font is in the back of the church and each parishioner passes right by the font as they go to their pew. In those churches, if you have ever been to one, you might have seen some folks take the liberty of dipping their finger into the water and making the sign of the cross upon themselves. What an awesome way to be reminded of the gifts Christ gives to us in Holy Baptism. We are called by the grace of our Lord into a life that is ours on behalf of Jesus, a life that is not to be burdened with the cares of being the savior of ourselves or our families or anyone else. No, that job has been covered and taken forever by Jesus. Look to the font and know your burdens have been taken up by Christ and he has dealt with them once and for all.

And know too that if we falter and do worry and fall into sin, we have the Son who comes to us and picks back up and takes those sins away. This is the continued out-flowing of God’s love for you. That love is made manifest to you in the Divine Service, where you repent and confess your sins and receive rest for you souls, rest that lasts through eternity, receiving that rest by receiving Christ on your ears in the hearing of His Word and on your very lips as you eat his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and strengthening of your faith.

Christ cries out, come to me, and I will give you rest. St. Augustine that great 4^th Century Church Father put it this way: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Thanks be to God that Christ continues to call to us, calling the young and old to rest but above all to souls distressed longing for rest everlasting. And you have been brought into that rest who is Christ by Baptism and He has been put into you by Holy Communion. So be at rest, you souls distressed. Be at rest, Christ is your savior and he has come and carries your burdens far from you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

A Sermon for the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

We in the Lutheran Church seem to have a greater affinity for St. Paul than for St. Peter. Perhaps, we are drawn to Paul more because of his clarity when it comes to speaking of being justified freely by grace through faith. He says it everywhere, nowhere clearer than in Ephesians 2:8–9. Maybe too it has to do with historical reasons. Peter, of course, had been called the rock, and for some this meant it was He upon whom Christ would build his Church. Peter than became the Pope, and the Lutherans could not go along with the office of the pope as the office of the pope had become so corrupted through the centuries up to Luther’s time. Maybe that is why when I did a quick search on names of our churches, I found nearly 500 churches associated with St. Paul to around 150 named after St. Peter.

But both Apostles were called for specific purposes and both are celebrated together. We should not see Peter and Paul set up against one another but rather fellow workers in the same harvest field. Paul says Peter was set up for ministry to the circumcised and he to the Gentiles.

But let us remember that Peter did not always just work with the Jews. In Acts 10, Peter learns through the vision that God makes no distinction between Jew or Greek when it comes to salvation. God does not show favoritism. And in our reading from Acts 15 we get the same confession from him: We believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus, just as they will.” Those who confess Jesus to be the Christ are the Lord’s people, no matter their nationality or what we in today’s world call race. Again, God makes no distinction. God made one human race. Let us be very clear on that.

Those who are saved are the ones who make the confession: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus tells us that not even the blessed Apostle Peter could say that without the Father making it known to him. Just as we ourselves cannot by our own reason or strength confess Jesus is Lord. Rather we are brought to that knowledge when we are gathered by Holy Spirit calling us by the Gospel.

It is on this confession of Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God that everything else flows and is built. And what a beautiful body and habitation that has been built: The Church. And Peter and Paul made bold confession of Jesus being the Christ, to both Jews and Greeks. They saw how the Spirit of God was poured out by the grace of our Lord so that all might come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

This confession however does not come without cost. With the confession of Jesus as the Christ comes the cross, the one which Jesus bore in our stead, and the cross born by Peter and Paul for our benefit, as well as our own crosses, to follow Jesus where He leads. To follow Jesus through death and into life.

Peter saw Christ’s death first hand. He was the one who upon calling Jesus the Christ did not want Jesus to do the very things which the Christ came to accomplish. Peter could not accept that Jesus would have to suffer death by crucifixion. But Jesus showed him what He and the entire world would benefit by his bitter sufferings and death: redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life in a resurrected body. And Peter proclaimed this until he too would suffer death on account of Christ’s name.

Paul’s story is similar, for God desired Paul to be his servant and show him how much he must suffer for the name. And Paul would have plenty of instances where he would be persecuted against, stoned, arrested, ship wrecked, etc. He ultimately would die a martyr’s death as well for the sake of Christ.

We too face our own crosses for the sake of the Name which was placed upon us at Holy Baptism. We might not die a martyr death, but we can begin to feel the society of our nation growing more and more hostile to those of us who call Christ Lord, who believe what the bible says about Holy Marriage, about Male and Female. While a riot can have hundreds of people in close proximity to one another, a church service can only have 10 souls at a time. The voice of the faithful are being drowned out and cancelled in the public square. And it might even feel like hell is here right with us and we are being trampled. But know this: Jesus says, “On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” It may look like Satan owns the day, but he has been defeated, Christ has died and Christ is risen, and his resurrection is made your resurrection by the proclamation of Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

So the Church continues to confess the truth about Christ, a confession that we could not know by our own reason or strength but it has been revealed to us by the grace of the Triune God. The apostles’ confession and witness to Christ is still on going, for by their witness, the Church still is being built up by the grace of our Lord, calling the young and old to rest but above all to souls distressed, longing for rest everlasting. The rock is not Peter or Paul, but the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who suffered and died for the sins of the world and rose on the third day and then ascended to the right hand of the Father, who will come again to judge the living and the dead.

May we confess with Peter and Paul the truth of Christ and be built upon the rock of Christ Jesus and look to him for grace and forgiveness, that we might be saved from the assaults of death and hell now and forever. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO