Category: New Testament Episodes

Even the Wind and the Waves Obey Him

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

It is often the case that what Jesus preaches and teaches one day, He reinforces again not too many days later. In the parable from last week, Jesus spoke about the seed which is sown and how it grows. He took us back to the image of creation. We were reminded that He himself identified as the Seed of the Woman who would come and make things new, reconciling us back to God. He came into the world, becoming flesh, to save fallen humanity from eternal death and hell. He was making things new by sowing into our hearts and the hearts of all mankind His Word via the preaching of those He has sent to sow the Word abroad.

With today’s lesson from Mark 4:35 and following we are taught the lesson again of who Jesus is. He is the Word of God made flesh. And we learn also that it was through Him that all things were made. The Word of God, that is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, gave the seas their limits. It was by Him that the foundations of the earth were laid. (Also see, Proverbs 8) And now He is the world, in the flesh and He only needs to speak, “Peace, be still!” and the winds of the waves of the storm cease immediately.

Jesus’ words have power. They God’s Word, for He is God. His Words are life giving. If the winds and the sea obey His Words, do you not think we should fear Him? If He can make the natural world listen to Him, do you not think He can also bring about disaster by one little word too? We are right to fear Him. Jesus does have power over wind and sea, but He has power over all things. And He as a man born of the blessed Virgin has been given power, dominion, and authority over all things, and will execute that power on the last day. And He do all this as a man.

The disciples were still utterly confused even after meeting with Jesus privately to discuss the last parables. They didn’t get that Jesus was the Seed long promised from the time of Adam and Eve. They did not understand that He was truly God in the Flesh, Immanuel, God with us.

The disciples and we too should really not receive the mercies that we do. We gripe about a lot of different things. We are bound to say something like this: “Life isn’t fair God. You took the love of my life from me via cancer. You gave me bad eyes. Can’t you see this congregation of yours is perishing? What are you doing? What did we do? Do you care, God, that your servants are languishing under this suffering?” Have many of those things reverberate in your mind? Have we done what Job did and say that we are pure and without transgression, that we are clean and there is no iniquity in me? Are we too good for all these bad things to happen to us? Are we just innocent victims of all this? Or are we getting something that we deserve. The truth is if we got what we truly deserved it would be a drowning in the boat, eternal death and hell for us all. For nothing in us is good, our hearts continually commit evil. There is none of us who are good, no not one. We are full of sin of one kind or another, deserving the full wrath of God.

We should do what Job did in the presence of the Holy God. We should despise ourselves and repent in dust and ashes. Confess your sins to God our Father and at the same time trusting in His promise that He shows mercy to the repentant sinner and forgives sin.

When the disciples cry out, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Christ our Lord shows His compassion and mercy upon the poor disciples. So also, He shows us mercy when don’t deserve it.  The Lord Jesus loves us, as He loved Job and His disciples. He brought them to repentance and faith by the preaching of His Word. You get a bit of that preaching from Him in Job, and you hear the disciples question who Jesus is because they were still filled with fear of what they had just witnessed. Both Job and the disciples saw Jesus doing what Jesus does. He has command over all creation. He is great, they are small and lowly. They fear, but He has mercy on those who fear Him. He speaks, creating in them repentance and faith. The disciples were learning to trust what Jesus said because when He speaks the thing which He speaks happens.

Jesus, who is the Word of God incarnate, has power over wind and sea. It is only fitting then that the Word which He speaks also has the power to create faith in His people. Think about the man who was paralyzed. Not only did Jesus forgive the man’s sins but also told him to rise and walk in order to show that the Son of Man had authority to forgive sins. All of it happened instantly. The seed is sown and faith grows in the heart. A new creation begins. This is a faith which clings to Christ’s Word, rightly fearing Him, but also loving Him because His Word is not just a word that rains down gloom and doom but rather the promise of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life in Him because He poured out His blood at the cross for the world, for you.

Christ promises to build His church on earth, and by Him speaking it, so shall it be. And so, if we take this a step further, Jesus showers upon all the world his forgiveness by the preaching of his atoning sacrifice at the cross, His resurrection from the dead for our justification, as well as his Ascension to the right hand of the Father, from thence He now rules over His Church on Earth until He returns the same way He came into Heaven. You hear His Word, so you receive Him, and you grow in your faith in Him.

If Jesus is indeed God, what is for Him to tell His Disciples that Baptism is the means by which a person enters into the Kingdom of God, and is cleansed from all sin? Jesus’ Word does what it says. The same for Holy Communion. What is it for Jesus to take up bread and say to His disciples, “Take and it, this is My body?” And taking a cup and saying, “Take and drink all of you, this cup is the New Testament in my Blood for the forgiveness of your sins?” If he has power over wind and sea, certainly He has power over bread and wine and they will be exactly what He says they are.

And now He, who loves His creation and the delights in the children of man having died to redeem and reconcile them to His heavenly Father, speaks through the mouths of those ministers He has placed into His churches that your faith in Him may grow and His kingdom increase. His Words still have power to do exactly what they say, and remember, His Word never returns void but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.   

So why do we doubt what He says, when wind and sea obey Him? Why do we doubt that Christ has come to give us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with Him, purchased and won by his sacrifice at the cross? Have we fallen into the lie of Satan that God does not really love us but rather would love to see us perish in anguish? If that be so, why did He not just let the boat perish? Why did God not just allow Satan to take Job at the beginning? Why did God take Israel out of Egypt? The Israelites believed that God was going to just kill them in the desert. But the Lord God is not sadistic. But He teaching us His way. Suffering comes before exaltation, even for the only begotten Son Jesus Christ. He is not exalted before His suffering and death on the cross. So, we trust in what our Lord is doing, because by these things we are being brought to a right and proper knowledge, fear, love and trust in our Lord that we may be saved from eternal torment.

The 2nd commandment, which we recited this morning, deals with the name of the Lord. In all times and situations, we are called to call upon Him. In times of suffering call upon Him. In times of temptation, call upon Him. In times of thanksgiving, call upon Him. You have that right, for you are his child and He your Father by the waters of Holy Baptism. He has placed His name upon you at Holy Baptism. He has marked you His own child by the sign of the cross, so talk to your Heavenly Father. In other words, pray to Him. It does not need to be anything polished. Most of the time it will be like the disciples in our reading calling out our gripes and our fears. But this is what our Lord desires because He loves granting you mercy and love. That is His nature. “Call upon me in your day of trouble, I will deliver you and you will honor me.” Our Lord desires to hear our prayers.

Our Lord especially loves to hear you tell Him what He has promised He will do. A prayer might be something like this, “Lord God, you have promised all things work for the good of those who love you. Grant me courage to trust your promise as I carry the heavy burden of cancer in my body. I do not know why you laid this upon me, but help me O Lord to put my trust in you to carry me through the trials and tribulations, as you have promised to do, for the sake of my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” Or it might be even less, “God, you promised. Now help me in my sufferings!” Our Lord binds up those who are suffering and are hurting, and renews their strength. Now it may not be exactly what we expect. Healing may not come in this life time, but it will be done because He has spoken, and He will do it.

So come to Him, as children come to their dear Father, and receive from Him everything He has for you in Christ Jesus, who lived, died, and rose that you might know the fullness of God’s love for you. In 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  

©2021 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Good Seed

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

The words of our Lord Jesus should make your ears perk up, as it most assuredly made the ears of His original hearers perk up. Seed, sower, and ground. A word picture of creation. That is what you see when a seed is scattered on the ground, it sprouts up and begins to produce its flower and fruit or grain. It just happens. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind (Gen 1:11-13). So also, in the beginning when God gave dominion to man and woman, He said to them, “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:26-28) They were to grow and scatter, filling the earth, living before the Lord God forever in gladness.

But the unthinkable happened, the serpent, the murderer from the beginning, came and brought upon Adam and Eve and the fruit of their union and every union since, death (Gen 3:1-19) You plant a seed, but you bury a body. A planted seed sprouts, a buried body is food for the worms. The children of Adam and Eve would be going back to the dust from which they came without any hope.

But in this moment of utter disaster, when all hope of living before God was lost, the Lord God came to the defense of Adam and Eve and spoke that beautiful promise you heard last week. A new Seed, the Seed of the woman who would come and defeat the serpent at his dirty game. This Seed would be planted into the earth and would bear the fruit which the Old Adam no longer could even dream of producing before God.

The Seed is none other than Jesus Christ. His father sent Him, and He was planted into the womb of the Virgin Mary by the preaching of the Angel Gabriel. He was born to the Virgin, in the town of Bethlehem. He came just like a tiny mustard seed in the eyes of the world. Hardly a soul paid a bit of attention to the babe in the stable. And this Seed would grow in wisdom and stature. He was becoming like the noble cedar prophesied by Ezekiel in our reading from his great prophetic book.

Christ would go one to preach and teach these very parables that we heard today and many others. You see He is the seed. He is the Word Incarnate, so when you hear His word preached today, you are dealing with the living and breathing Jesus Christ.  You are dealing with the Seed Himself. And He came to redeem you from the dust of sin and death that you might live forever with Him in His Kingdom.

It is He who came to crush the head of the serpent. Jesus reminded His disciples in what manner this would come about. In John 12 Jesus says, “Truly, Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” There are those who would say Jesus is wrong, that the bible has an error here. A seed has to germinate to produce fruit say the scientists, and they are true. But this Seed, Jesus, He must die in order for you to have life again. He is speaking about the manner in which your redemption would come about. He must go to the cross and die and be buried and in three days rise from the dead. He gives up His life for you.  Paul says in his first epistle to the Corinthians, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28). Jesus went through death and rose from the dead that you, who confess faith in Him, would as well.

The cross of Jesus is the tree which is the refuge of all who are weak and heavy laden with sin and sorrow in this life. Come and take up refuge here in its shadow. The benefits of Christ’s cross comes to you in the Sacraments which Christ our Lord instituted. Through them you are given the fruits of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Your sins are forgiven. They are washed away by His cleansing blood. You are made new in Christ Jesus in the waters of Holy Baptism. You are made in the image of a new seed, the kind that no longer dies. You will live forever with Christ in the Kingdom that has no end. Your faith is sustained in the eating and drinking of his body and blood.

This is the message which we have received by the preaching of God’s Ministers of the Gospel. This is the promise of Christ Jesus by which you have been called to faith in Him. That yes, while still live in our sinful flesh and still sin much because we fall into many temptations, we have a Lord who has come and has saved us from the wages of sin. Death no longer has dominion over Him, and by faith in Him it no longer has dominion over us. This is our confession. Indeed, we deserve punishment and eternal death for our sins, but for the sake of Jesus our Lord who died for us, we have the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in His Name. Thanks be to God. We have found shade and refuge in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The world does not look favorably upon our Lord, His cross, our His sowers of the blessed Gospel. But the Word of our Lord is powerful, and will sustain you unto the time that the Lord deems the harvest ready. His Word speaks to you, you literally have the seed planted into you by the preaching of it, and it sprouts and faith grows in the fertile heart. God sends His Word, and it will not return to Him void. Therefore do not stop being edified by the word of God and the preaching thereof. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Joyfully hear Christ’s Words for you in order that you be sustained in this faith delivered to you in the waters of Holy Baptism as you traverse this life. Remember you are not alone as you walk in this world. He promises He is with you and never will leave you nor forsake you.

He promises He will create something new. And He has by His Son’s death and resurrection. We may not look like much right now in the world — nothing more than the tree from Charlie Brown’s Christmas — but we appear glorious in the eyes of our heavenly Father.  John the beloved disciples says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

And you are sustained by the hearing of His Word and the reception of His Sacrament, His Body and His Blood. You are being kept safe in His love, the love poured out for you at His cross. And being seed of His kind by the waters of Baptism, you will bear the same fruit. You are called to a life faith in the Lord as well as a live of service and love to one another. As Paul said last week, “so we believe, so we speak.” So, speak about the new creation you are because of Christ Jesus because He has come to save you. You are of good seed, seed that is imperishable. We are called to talk about what has happened to us in Christ Jesus. It might not look like much with earthly eyes, but the message is true. Let hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

The Sower of Christ’s Word is called to simply sow the Word abroad. God, Himself, gives the growth. And the seed will grow where it will in the time that God has appointed. We will likely not see the fruits of such scattering, but rejoice and be glad that you are called to the labor of proclaiming Christ to those who surround you in this life. And rejoice all the more if the Lord lets you see the fruits of faith come to maturity in those you have spoken the good news of Christ. The Kingdom might look tiny, just like the baby in a manger, or man naked on a cross, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it known also in your conscience. You are of good seed, you are Christ’s. Therefore, you are a new creation and will be numbered with the fruit following the firstfruits of Christ.  

David speaks thus of those who trust in Christ for their eternal redemption and it is a fitting way to close this sermon. May we, by God’s grace, be like this, and we are for the sake of Christ Jesus: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” 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  

©2021 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

A Life of Washing Feet

Note: The following is greatly indebted to the edifying sermon from the Rev. Dr. Robert Preus, preached at Concordia Theological Seminary on Maundy Thursday, 1988. Find it here.

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

The day we know as Maundy Thursday was a very full day for our Lord. The day began with His disciples asking him where He wished to have what would be the last Passover meal. He likely taught in and around the Temple, as was his custom when He was in the holy city. And then in the upper room, our Lord institutes what we know as the Sacrament of the Altar, where our Lord gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In so doing, He ushers in the New Covenant in His blood. Even later that same day Jesus then went to the Garden of Gethsemane as was His custom to pray there. While there He would be betrayed by one of his own into the hands of sinners. He was tried before the chief priests, scribes, and elders. And He looked on in love when Peter denied him those three times. A very long day in deed.

But particular to this service for Maundy Thursday, we will recall the events in the upper room recorded for us in St. John. Jesus gave himself over to His disciples in love and service. As John aptly states, He loved His own to the end. Not just Thursday or at the beginning, but that He loved them to the very end. And I suggest He still is in the process of loving His own until the end of the age.

What does Jesus’ act of washing His disciples’ feet on the night he was betrayed and instituted His Supper mean? What should we take away from this act that John records for us? It certainly teaches us his love for his own. He displays divine love, a love that is humble, a love that is unlike any love known to man in the world. A love not of this world. It is a love that motivates the incarnate God to go to the cross for his fallen creation. The love he displays in the act of washing his disciples’ feet is made even more manifest and apparent when he is nailed to the cross for our sins.

Washing feet is an act of humility. And Christ our Lord calls His disciples to imitate this act of humility. But people do not understand humility. The act of Jesus washing feet and any other act of humility is more often than not understood as a sign of weakness rather than a virtue that should be emulated. Peter, speaking for all of the disciples, gives this vibe when he says that he will not be washed by Jesus. “It’s below my master to do this thing.” It’s eerily similar to the event when Jesus told Peter and the disciples what the Christ must do, suffer, die, and then rise. There Peter thought it all beneath his Master to suffer in that way. But like there, Jesus rebukes Peter, “If I do not wash your feet, you have no part in me.” Peter takes the rebuke and gets the hint that what Jesus is doing is at least signifying something very important. So, he goes whole hog the other direction, “not just my feet but also my head.” He wants it all. But then Jesus teaches him that its only his feet which are dirty and need washing.

So, it is with us. What does it mean then that Jesus is washing his disciples’ feet? He does this to show that his love is perpetual and ongoing. His love does not come and go but remains. It becomes our refuge, our home. It does not fade away, but it continues on. But the disciples of Jesus fail to understand it most of the time. As do we. He’s trying to prepare his disciples for the events that will take place the next day, when He will go to the cross. For there the very nature of God’s love is on display. God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He gave His son to offer Himself as a propitiation for the sin of the world. He was given a body and offered himself as a sacrifice for our salvation. That is God’s love. He humbles himself to the point of going to death, death on a cross. This is how we are won salvation. And when a person understands that the Son of God humiliated and humbled himself in this way for our salvation, then we know and understand God. And we glory in it. We cannot help but say in great wonder, “My God, How Great Thou Art.”

Another lesson that we receive from our Lord’s washing of his disciples’ feet is not so different than our first lesson. But now we see that Jesus teaches that his forgiveness is also perpetual. Sometimes we are led to believe that I have to do something first before I get forgiveness. That forgiveness is dependent upon me rather than dependent upon the work of Jesus at the cross. But this night Christ our Lord teaches again that the forgiveness of sins is His to give, and He gives it abundantly.

Think about the times that Jesus walked the earth. There were no sneakers or boots like we have nowadays. The roads were dusty, people wore sandals if they wore shoes at all. People did not drive cars, some rode on the backs of various animals, but more often than not people walked. If people were walking around, even after a bath, their feet were always dirty. And it was custom that servants would come and watch the feet of anyone sitting at the table. They would wash the part of the body most susceptible to being dirty from the day, feet. So it is with the spiritual life.

You are clean, You are justified, sanctified, forgiven, through the life-giving word of Jesus. Remember what Peter confesses, ‘You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus words are life giving, and his words speak of his love and his words match his action of going to the cross for you and your salvation. You are pardoned for your sins. But until the day of your death, when your soul and body are separated, your feet will get dirty in this world (see stanzas 5 and 6 in particular). You will continue to sin, for you are still in your sinful flesh and you will be tempted to fall. We need the forgiveness of Christ Jesus every day. And you have it every single day. Remember your baptism! Luther would say when being tempted by Satan, “I am baptized.” There is no greater comfort than returning to the promise made by Christ in your baptism. And you can do that whenever you want. Luther encourages us each day to begin the day in Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is in accordance with what Luther writes in the 4th part in the confession about baptism: “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” See the effects of baptism is daily. We are returning each day to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can go and confess our sins to God daily in the Prayer He has taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” You can confess your sins to your brother and sister in Christ and receive the mutual consolation. Or you can speak to your pastor and hear the absolution spoken over you individually. But the point is that God’s forgiveness for you in the Gospel is a continuous thing for you to receive and rejoice in constantly. That is why Christ gives you that forgiveness via different means: baptism, Lord’s Supper, the Word. Rejoice and be glad in them and have your feet washed by your willing Lord and Savior. It is difficult for us to believe this good news of our Lord’s love and forgiveness being continuous and perpetual unto the end, but that is what Scripture says and so we believe.

One final lesson which our Lord clearly wants to teach his disciples on the night before His death is that his disciples follow in his example. So, does that mean we should have had a ceremony to begin the service where we all washed each other’s feet? Not exactly, so what does it mean that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and what does it mean for us to follow in his example? Washing feet is not something that we do just one day a year but it is a command. That is why we call this Thursday Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word Mandatum. This is where we get the word mandate. Jesus gives his disciples a new command. Its Command Thursday. And feet washing is the command. To wash feet means to humble ourselves as our Lord humbled himself.

That means we are to look at ourselves in our various stations in our life, as a husband, wife, son, daughter, worker, boss, student, and take stock of our God given talents and assess how we can use God’s gifts that he has given us not for ourselves but for our neighbors. We aren’t to use our talents for our own gratification but God’s glory. We are to serve them not despise them. Even though they might deserve it because they are sinful and have wronged us in the past. It means we are not to take offense at people when they wrong us and sin against us.

This is what feet washing looks like. And it is hard! It is hard because you are commanded to wash the feet of not just your friends but your enemies! And you are called to do this daily. Humble yourselves before your enemies? Daily you will meet people with dirty feet need to be encouraged, who need to hear the good news that Jesus died for their sins and that they are forgiven. These people will not always be nice people even though they are Christians. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are gloomy, others proud, arrogant, mean.

In the book and class called Love and Respect, there’s a lesson about the different cycles. One is called the crazy cycle. In the crazy cycle, the wife won’t show respect until she is shown love and the husband won’t show love until he is shown some respect. You see how that makes the cycle a continual spiral downward. But we find a connection here. It would be easy to serve those who were nice and appreciative. It takes someone to be mature to break the cycle. To get over the fact of being disrespected or unloved. To show love and respect when it isn’t deserved.

Christ our Lord did that. He came to His own and they did not understand. He came and died while we were still His enemies. He washed the feet of those men who would run away from him when he was arrested. He showed love and forgiveness to His enemies, and He commands us to do this as well. We are commanded to wash feet.

Have in your own mind the mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Receive His life blood and His body into yourself and be enlivened to live in righteousness and purity before him. Receive the washing which Christ has given to you in Holy Baptism. Return to the promise of the Gospel often. Receive the forgiveness of sins. Go wash your neighbors’ feet. Love them as Christ loved. Humble yourself before them. And the love and the forgiveness He has goes until the end.

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

©2021 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Held Captive by the King Who Comes in Hope

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

When we think of Palm Sunday there is a lot going just with the reading from John that began our service. But then throw in the other lessons and the entire reading of our Lord’s Passion and it’s a whole different animal. But what we see when we hear the words of our Lord’s passion is the fulfillment of the word of hope that Zechariah that obscure post exilic prophet spoke of in our Old Testament lesson for the day.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.”

The people who first heard Zechariah preach this had a very hard question before them. Would God do what He promised and give them a king from the line of David who would sit on the throne forever? They had no king; the line of David already then was in shambles and near obscurity. Had God gone back on his promise? Are you also questioning God about something? Does God really love me? Has God forgotten about me and my pains in this life? Am I going to receive relief in my time of languishing?

But rejoice! Yes, shout aloud! Rejoice for the Lord has not forgotten you but brings you this word of hope. Your king comes! He is righteous. And has salvation for you. A word of great hope. God has not forgotten you, but He is working in his time to bring about your salvation. And the son of David, Jesus Christ would come fulfilling the prophesy proclaimed.

But the king would not be like the kings anyone was used to. This king would not come in riding on a war horse but rather a donkey, a beast of burden. He is not wearing armor for war, nor is war what he is about. But rather its all about removing the weapons of war, the chariot, the war horse and bow. Peace and reconciliation is His Word to His people.  He does not coerce submission and obedience by force, but rather He showers you with mercy and love. He comes with salvation. He comes to fix the broken relationship between His Father and us. He comes also to fix our broken relationships on earth. Christ’s Forgiveness and mercy rule the day. What a great promise of hope!  

And this word of the Lord spoken by the prophet captivated the hearts of his hearers. Just like Jesus captivated those whom He healed and cared for during his earthly ministry. There was hope, and this hope held their listeners captive.

What about you? As we enter into Holy Week, we as Christians celebrate and revel in the Lord’s grace, mercy, and love for us. May the proclamation of hope in Christ Jesus be made your own!  We hear again the passion accounts of our Lord. We recall the words of our Lord at the cross, “Forgive them Father”. We remember his crown of thorns. We recall his title: “King of the Jews“. We know why He does it all. He does it all out of love. He does it so that we would have forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. He has come to you and grants you salvation, having received salvation from Him in Holy Baptism. You have everlasting life for the sake of your Lord Christ Jesus who died in your place on that cross and rose again on the third day.

But what now? Are we not like the people of Zechariah’s day? Are we not waiting for the return of the King? Are we not all wondering why He hasn’t come already? When everything will be made right? When the relationships on this earth will be reconciled, when the spears will be beaten into plowshares? When His peace shall reign from the river to the ends of the earth. It has been a long time. But we, like the Israelites of Zechariah’s day, have been granted a word of peace and hope to trust in. Christ our Lord and King who has come now promises to be with us and give us his peace. He is with us always even to the end of the age. And we have his signs and tokens of love in the means of Grace: Baptism and His Supper. They are the ways by which His love, mercy, and grace shown at the cross are delivered and made yours. Your hope is anchored in the one who has come, and He has promised to come again to take us to where He is.

We know the end of the story. We know how this week of our Lord’s passion ends. We see the King of Glory, the King of Peace go to a cross for the sin of the world. Christ the King, battles against Satan, He sizes him up, and beats him at his own game. He rises from the grace on the third day, defeating death once and for all. He swallows up death forever so that you are brought out of the waterless pit and be given new life in Him.

You are living the new life promised to you by Christ now by your baptism. You are a child of the kingdom of peace. Do not forget that, hold on to the promise of your Lord who has bled out for you and gave up his life for you. Be at peace and hope in him. Look to the covenant which he spoke and now gives to you, “the new covenant in my blood,” He says. That is a token and pledge of the forgiveness won as well as the reconciliation between God and us in a vertical direction, and that same meal also promises and reconciles us to one another. Be forgiven by the Lord and forgive one another for the sins committed against each other.

Return to your stronghold. The stronghold is your Lord and Your God, who goes to his throne of the cross to win for you salvation over sin, death, and devil. Be held captive by His Word of Hope and Peace.

Rejoice and Hope in the one who has come, who brings righteousness and salvation to you, now and always, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

©2021 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

A Sermon for the Purification of Mary and Presentation of our Lord

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

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, “If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Then shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed … And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove … and if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. (Various verses from Leviticus 12)

These words come straight out of the Law of the Lord preached to the people of Israel by Moses. This is why we find Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the temple forty days after our Lord’s birth. It was to be in accordance of the Law. Also, as part of this day Jesus was being presented back to the Lord as the Lord had spoken in Exodus 13 that every firstborn belongs to the Lord. Mary is following in the train of Hannah, giving back to God the gift He had given to her. While Mary might have been at the Temple for her own purification, the events surrounding Jesus take a bit more of a center stage. With this day we see the faithfulness of both the Lord and his people. The Lord was and remains faithful to His promise of sending the world’s redemption, and in thanksgiving His people happily keep the Law. And they rejoice over the redemption so given. And in the words of our Epistle lesson, we see Jesus begin His service as a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God by the act of Mary presenting Him to the Lord, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Being the firstborn son of Mary, he is holy to the Lord, and at the same time He is the only begotten Son of God ready to be the perfect and once for all sacrifice for the sins of the world, saving the offspring of Abraham from everlasting death.

No one is happier or more joyful to see His redemption face to face than Simeon who was a righteous and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And He had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before He had seen the Lord’s Christ. This promise affirms the Incarnation of the Son of God. Salvation only comes from the Lord, and in Jesus, Simeon sees salvation in that little child. It’s Christmas all over again!

The very tangible peace of God is shown to Simeon. He sees Jesus and in Him He has peace, the very peace for all the earth which was proclaimed at Jesus birth is made Simeon’s. It was a promise worth waiting for, worth being in the temple, the very image which testifies to the greater reality that God would dwell in the midst of His people forever, only now the temple of God is the body of Jesus Christ, which is why Simeon takes the child into his own arms and probably didn’t take his eyes off of the child when he began blessing God singing his song. God was there as a Man, a 40 day old baby. Simeon saw his salvation with his own eyes. And in that child, the very Son of God in the flesh, he has his peace.

We should note that the mission of Jesus to be the redeemer of the world is not something placed upon him at his baptism or some other time. No, this mission of the Son of God to be the redeemer of the world was given to him from the very beginning. Jesus does not assume this position or take it up, but He always had it. The angels confess Jesus to be the Savior just minutes after his birth, and here Simeon confesses Him to be His redemption 40 days out of the womb.

Something else that we should praise God over is the fact that Simeon explicitly confesses the mystery that the gentiles also are made a part of God’s redemption. We are brought and welcomed to the table! God’s salvation will be made known to us Gentiles. For you and I have heard the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He came to save from sin, to bring consolation to us poor, miserable sinners who were sitting in the darkness of sin and death. He, himself likewise partook of the same things (flesh and blood), that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.  

So on the day of his mother’s own atonement offering, that she might be cleansed and re-enter the temple and join in the worship of the Lord God, Jesus is given back to God that he might enter into His Father’s service and be the atoning sacrifice for all the world. Jesus still is working in service to His Father for your salvation now. He has gone to the cross for you. He dies for your rebellion against the Laws of God. He consoles you with His words of forgiveness, speaking kindly to you in gentleness and love, showing his great mercy and love for you, calling you to believe in this Gospel. He has pulled you out of the great slavery, has cut the shackles of sin around your ankles and gives you freedom in Him. You are free from sin, rejoice and live in Christ Jesus. Be at peace in your salvation just as Simeon was.

May we be at peace even when temptations come because they will come as we still are in our sinful flesh and sinful world. May we not lose our heads and our way but call out to Him who is able to help us who are being tempted for He Himself suffered when tempted. Only when we are in Christ Jesus do we prevail over temptation, otherwise we will fall back into sinful shame, and vice. May our Lord keep us from entering back into the shackles he has broken us out of by his bitter sufferings and death! And if we have done just that, repent, confess your sins to God. For the Lord is gracious and merciful and does indeed forgive our sins for He has died for them and has atoned for them by his own blood.

Come. Hear, and see your salvation. See your Savior at the font where He made you God’s own. There He cleansed you with Water and His Word. And at the Altar he now feeds you His own body and blood. You see your salvation just as Simeon did. And that is why we sing His song right after the distribution of the Sacrament. We have beheld with our own eyes our salvation. We have received the very body and blood that paid our ransom at the cross into our very mouths that we might have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And where those things are there is peace for us. This is no peace which the world can give, but a peace which surpasses all understanding. A peace which only God can give. A peace which is confessed by the faithful: “Yes, Lord, I am ready to go. Ready to go and sleep unto the day of the resurrection knowing that I have seen your salvation, salvation which you have made mine for the sake your Son my brother, Jesus Christ, my faithful high priest.”

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

©2021 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

  

(Re)Building a House

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

David had a fine desire. He, who was building his own house in Jerusalem, desired for the Lord to have such a house as well. A temple to dwell in the midst of His people. For no longer were the people wandering in the wilderness, but had finally been brought into the promised land and had taken over Jerusalem and made it their own. It was time for the ark to stop dwelling in a tent, a more permanent structure ought to be built on Mt. Zion. And David had the blessing of the prophet Nathan to go and pursue it.

But then we hear God’s own words about the situation. God did not ask for such a house in all of the time of the people’s wanderings. And in fact, God tells David it will not be you who builds me a house, but rather I am going to build you a house. A house that will not fall. That one of your own offspring will sit upon the throne forever. It’s the continuation of the promise made to Adam and Eve, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and the list goes on. The house of David, which the Lord promised to establish comes all the way down to a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph who was of the house and line of David. Joseph was a nobody. David and his house were just a stump, a nub, a memory of better days for Israel.

From an earthly view point, the house of David had fallen on extremely hard times. The earthly kingdom and rule of the Davidic Dynasty did not last very long at least as one united kingdom. David united the 12 tribes; Jerusalem was the capitol. But already, David’s house was filled with strife. Just a few chapters later in 2 Samuel we learn of David’s sin with Bathsheba, the attempt to cover up of a sexual indiscretion, then ultimately having Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle. The same prophet Nathan who gives approval of David’s desire to build the Lord a house is the man who comes and calls David to repentance and speaks to him the consequences of his sin. David’s sons would fight over the throne, Solomon would become king and remain king over the 12 tribes, but with his son Rehoboam, the country unraveled. Split in two. And the kings that followed in David’s line were pretty awful more often than not. Only a few actually had a desire to follow in the ways of their father David, having a living faith and trust in the Lord. And then the kingdom was taken from them. Babylon came and carried off their king. They carried off the nobles and the rest of the people is subsequent years as the Lord has warned for years by the mouths of his prophets.  In the day that Gabriel visited Mary, the people of Israel are no longer free, but under Roman occupation. They don’t really have their own place any more. And violent men still afflict them. The house of David was full of violent men, the sword would not leave that house. The promise of the David’s house remaining forever? Not even close.

But God does not work according the ways of the world. As Paul says, the world considers God’s actions and ways foolish. Consider the cross of the Christ. “The Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ” 

Here is the folly of the Lord now. He sends his Angel Gabriel to Mary to speak to her that she who is a virgin will bear a son. And its not just any son, but the very Son of God. The Son of the Most High. That house of David, in all its shambles? Yep, its being rebuilt. A shoot is coming from Jesse’s stump. The throne upon which this Son will sit forever? It’s not a kingdom of this world. It is the throne of heaven. And even in the womb of Mary, God would be there sitting on His throne. And He would be coming to establish the house of David forever. But it’s a crazy promise. How can this be? Mary is still a virgin. Gabriel speaks the truth, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

It must be this way otherwise the Son would not be holy. This is a confession of Original Sin. We pass that original sin from Adam and Eve is transmitted through carnal conception and birth from father and mother. But in Christ’s birth? No seed from the father, no original sin. Christ is born without sin and is the perfect man for you. Yet He is also true God come to save and remove from you and all people the sins and the ultimate consequence of your sins: death.

And Mary believed the words of Gabriel, the messenger of the Lord. And like her Father Abraham many generations before, it was credited to her as righteousness. Mary is called the favored one. We sang it today: Most highly favored Lady. She is the Mother of God and rightfully should be remembered. And yet at the same time, she is not a perfect person either. She was a sinner just like you and me. By nature, sinful and unclean. Hence why she goes on to sing her song: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” She knew she also needed a savior. The human house and line she was a part of needed to be redeemed.

You all know the song, Mary Did You Know?, And you probably have seen the facebook memes floating around with that question to the Virgin Mary and words in the mouth of Mary, “Yes, Gabriel told me.” She was told her son would be called the Son of God, but I doubt that she had any idea of when He would be called the Son of God. The Disciples would call Jesus the Son of God, when in the boat after watching Jesus walk on the water. But other than that, only Satan, the demons use that title of Jesus. It’s used very seldomly. But it’s used most prominently during the time of Christ’s passion. And it’s a Roman Centurion who says, “Surely, this was the Son of God” upon seeing what all took place at the time of his death.

Jesus would be known as the Son of God in his act of love for his people. The King would come into the holy city, to much and great fanfare but his crown would first be one of thorns. He would take his position as King at His cross.  “Nails, spear, shall pierce him through, the cross he borne for me, for you. Hail, Hail the word made flesh, the babe the Son of Mary” (LSB 370 What Child is This, stanza 2).

And by his birth, life, death and resurrection, He establishes a house. And it’s a house that lasts forever. It’s a house which you have been brought into, like Mary by the hearing and trusting of the Word. “Behold I am a servant, let it be to me according to you word.” And Christ speaks to you words of comfort and joy. You who were once in the darkness of sin and death, know that Christ has come to carry your burden of sin and death to the cross. You are forgiven for Christ’s sake and welcomed into the house prepared for you.

God speaks wonderful promises. He spoke to David of establishing a house, and now he speaks to you promising that you are part of that house. You are welcomed into that house as His child by the waters of holy baptism. The world says its foolish and weird. How can water do such great things? Its not just water but rather its water with the Word of God along with the faith that trusts this word of God that makes Holy Baptism what it is, a lavish washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. Nothing is impossible with God. Why doubt the Lord’s promises made to you now if he kept even a bigger promise in the past? He sent His Son, born of the Virgin, as He promised David and those before Him. Jesus came and dealt with sin and death by the cross, and rose from the dead. Just as He said He would. Why we sit back and doubt the promises made by God to us in Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper now is beyond me. But we all do from time to time. Repent. The Lord is faithful and true. Do not spurn His Word and His promises but take them to heart and trust them.

If we cannot be like Mary and say, “Let it be to me according to you word, may we be like the Father of the demon possessed son. “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” Because we will have times of forget the Lord and doubt his promise to show us mercy and steadfast love. Even Mary seemed to have forgotten who Jesus was when they searched frantically for Jesus in Jerusalem. He had to be in His Father’s house doing His Father’s business. But that is the reason to run to the altar and to receive the body and blood of your Lord all the more. It is the meal of those of the house. Christ welcomes you with open arms to His table. “Come, you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” “Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.” Be strengthened in your faith, trusting the words of promise spoken to you: This is my body, This is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. What grand promises made to you.  

God’s promise to David was kept. The throne of David was established forever, through the sending of His only begotten Son into the flesh via the womb of Mary. And God continues to keep His promises He has made to you. You are part of that house that Christ has established. Let it be. Amen, Lord. Yes, Lord, let it be me to according to your Word.

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

©2020 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Advent and Joy

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

There has not been a lot to rejoice over in 2020, at least if you were looking at 2020 from say 38,000 feet. We have seen loved ones die. We have seen businesses shut down and close their doors. We have seen wildfires out west. Riots in the cities. Political and cultural discord becoming much more prevalent in every day life. We have seen friends go to the hospital with the virus. We have not been able to see loved ones in the ways we normally do. We couldn’t celebrate the 165th anniversary of our congregation with the fanfare it deserved. Events cancelled. From 38,000 feet 2020 looks like a dumpster fire that will still be smoking well into 2021.

But if you land that plane and begin walking around, you would find things that would cause one to have joy and rejoice. Maybe it was getting to be an eye witness of a friend’s wedding. Getting to witness the Lord bring another dear child into His Family via Holy Baptism. Watching your son graduate high school, albeit in a socially distanced manner. Perhaps it was just spending time at home going through those closets that needed cleaning but never got the time due to your busy schedules. Maybe it was the summer months being outside and enjoying the pool deck. Getting your beans planted and harvested, and seeing a good yield. Or having the opportunity to be in this place Sunday in Sunday out, Wednesday in Wednesday out. When we begin to look deeply at 2020, I think we all could find more things to rejoice over than what meets the eye at 38,000 feet.

The prophet Zechariah was a prophet to the people of Israel after they had returned to the land of Israel from exile in Babylon. From 38,000 feet life looked like a bit of a dumpster fire. Yeah, they had returned to their land, but the temple, it paled in comparison to what they had before their exile. They had their own social issues to work through: what do they do with the numerous widows, orphans, and foreigners in their midst? It did not always go well. The once large population was decimated to a mere remnant. Israel was a shell of its former self at best. Broken and beat down, licking their wounds even though they were now back in their own land. Not a lot there to rejoice over either, at least from the altitude of 38,000 feet.

But get down on the surface and you find reason to rejoice. Listen to Zechariah to this despondent lot. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And the Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”

And the prayer that God actually bring this to fruition: the prayer that we heard back on the first Sunday of Advent is happening. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down! “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He has roused himself from His holy dwelling.” God is coming. He is coming to save. So, rejoice Daughter of Zion. Rejoice and be glad. God is coming to be with you: Emmanuel. To save you.

There’s much to rejoice over for God promised to be dwell in the midst of his people and to bring many nations into his fold. For in the middle of the dumpster fire of our time, while we were yet sinners, God the Son came and dwelt among His people. The time had come.

Tonight’s reading from the Gospel gives us Mary’s song. When Mary was told that she would be the mother of her Lord, it had to at least bring upon her some questions. A year when she was betrothed and to be married to Joseph, a very joyous occasion, now would have to clear a very difficult hurdle. I can only imagine that conversation. We know what Joseph set out to do. He had planned to divorce her quietly over the situation. From 38,000 feet Mary was in the middle of her own dumpster fire situation. A lowly girl of humble estate, nothing to look at. But she is not concerned with that. She rejoices in God her Savior. For He was coming to the world which was created through Him that the world might be saved and reconciled to the heavenly Father.

It’s Mary’s womb by which the Word would become flesh and tabernacle among His people. And Mary rejoices in God her savior, playing the part of the faithful servant. She sings and we with her those beautiful words of her song of praise. For in midst of our own times of suffering, Christ, the Lord comes to be with His people. He chose to come and save you. He roused himself from his holy dwelling and came to dwell with you. To give you light in the midst of the darkness of our sin and sin-filled world. To bring you great joy and peace. To make you heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Rejoice. For the Lord whom Zechariah and the faithful remnant of Israel hoped did indeed. He is the babe, the son of Mary.

God literally gets his hands dirty and works to put out the fires and make things right. And He begins by turning the whole world upside down. It’s the humble who will be exalted. It’s the hungry being filled with Good Things. The poor have good news preached to them. The rich are sent empty away. Sins are being dealt with and are being forgiven. The author of life is here for you. And He grants you new life in Him. By His death on the cross and His resurrection you have the promise of everlasting life with Him forever. And it is there at the cross that the nations are joined to Him and together. Rejoice for God has come, He is Emmanuel, God with us. His Name is Jesus. The Lord saves. God is with us to save us. Rejoice, O Daughter of Zion.

Even in the trials and tribulations that we face now we can still rejoice and have joy. It does not mean that everything will be easy in this life. Far from it. And it does not mean that this life will be “fair.” But we can still rejoice knowing that our God cares and actually came to be with us in our sufferings, having promised that our time of suffering will end. In His coming, He has made everything right. And continues to do so, even when we don’t feel it is. When Christ returns at the last, you who put your trust in Him will be vindicated. For now, rejoice in all circumstances. Look at St. Paul as an example. In all circumstances He is able to rejoice in God His Savior. When times are bad, rejoice and lift up your head and know the day of your salvation draws nigh. When times are good, rejoice in the plentiful blessings that God has granted to you for the day. Rejoice in the Lord always.

So, we come here to our Lord’s altar, rejoicing in the faithfulness of God who promises to come and be in our midst. He is here for us in Word and Sacrament that we might be saved from our sin and eternal death. He comes bearing you gifts of forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, filling you with the good things: His body and blood. Remembering you in mercy. Rejoice, for God has shown his mercy and continues to shower you with His mercy. He has not forgotten you but has indeed come into your midst to save you.

The third candle of Advent is the rose color, pointing us to the find our joy and rejoice in the One who has come into our midst to save us. Let us then rejoice with the Mary and the whole church in God our Savior, who did what He promised, and the promise of His return.

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

©2020 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

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  

©2020 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

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 4th 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

©2020 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Discipleship: Following Where Jesus Goes

Encore Post: So just where does Jesus go? Well he goes to places that are pretty messy sometimes. If we just consider the 12 disciples who Jesus called to himself at the beginning of his ministry, we see a man in Matthew who was a tax collector. We see a zealot in Simon, we see a couple of brothers who want honor and glory. And that’s just a few of them! What we see in the 12 disciples are sinners! And all the disciples of Jesus including us are sinners! Jesus preaches to sinners like the 12 and still to you and me.

A term that comes from the bible is that of disciple. And that is a great thing to recall. We who follow Jesus as taught in the Bible according to the words of the apostles are disciples of Jesus. We believe the teaching that was handed down by Jesus to the first disciples who were later called apostles who then wrote their Gospels, Epistles, and Prophetic books that make up the New Testament.

The season of Epiphany is a great time to be talking about the disciples because we just heard the reading of Peter, James and John being called to be “fishers of men” and soon we will be hearing the words from the Mount of Transfiguration, “Listen to Him!” Disciples are and to follow and to listen to their master, their Lord Jesus. Peter on the mount shows a desire to stay on the mountain and bask in the glory, but that is not where Jesus stays. No, he goes, setting his face like flint towards Jerusalem, getting ready for the Cross, where He would atone for the sins of the world. Many people, even Peter, don’t want this to be the case, but it must be so. That is why Jesus was sent.

A disciple then follows Jesus to the cross. That is where our journey takes us, the place where our salvation is won. The place from which comes all our blessings including the blessing of being able to tell others about Jesus’ wonderful work there for all humanity. Disciples then don’t just keep this message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to themselves, but rather disciples tell others who do not know about Jesus to follow Jesus unto that Promised Land which he has entered and will ultimately gather us together with all the faithful disciples who have gone before us.

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

©2019 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com