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Adam and Eve were created pure and given a divinely planted garden. But they were deceived by the Devil. They doubted the goodness of God and ate of the forbidden fruit. Their fall plunged all of humanity into sin and are cast us all into the wilderness. But even with this severe consequence of sin, a Promise is made: The Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The head of Satan and deliver to them life.

Jesus begins to reverse the curse at his baptism. It is there that the Great Exchange begins. He purified the waters of Baptism and took upon himself our guilt. The heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and the Father spoke. Immediately after this, the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus, who had freshly taken upon himself our guilt, is taken into the wilderness. He is cast out as were Adam and Eve.

When there, he fasted for forty days and forty nights. At the end of this time, the Tempter came. And he used the hunger of Jesus in the first temptation. He tempted Adam and Eve with food, and he does it with Jesus too. The temptation of Adam and Eve was to doubt God’s goodness. The temptation of Jesus is to use his divine abilities to serve himself rather than the people he has come to save. Jesus answers the devil with Scripture. The devil sought to make him selfish, but Jesus declares that the true bread that truly sustains us is the very Word of God.

After this swing and a miss, the devil took Jesus to the highest point of the Temple. There he again sought to get Jesus to be selfish. And he this by quoting Scripture. Well, by misquoting Scripture. Jesus again rightly used and quotes Scripture: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” He would not fling himself off the Temple, by testing the Lord God to protect him., Jesus would draw attention to himself. And since it was not yet his time or hour for glorification, this is something he could not do.

But beyond that, the devil is twisting Scripture yet again. This should not surprise us as he is the father of lies. The Psalm isn’t about being reckless and forcing the protection of God. It isn’t about making a show for people to see that Jesus is the Christ. It is a Psalm of comfort for the afflicted Christian. In it we confess God as our shelter, our shadow, our refuge, and our fortress. God is our defender and deliverer. The Christian is not exempted from trials and tribulations, but he is protected in the midst of them. And even if our physical bodies are tarnished or destroyed, our soul is kept and preserved.

And so, now with an 0-2 count, the devil desperately tries once more time. He takes Jesus to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. And he again tempts Jesus to turn away from his Father and bow down to the devil. “All these I will give to you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Sure, Satan has some dominion over this world. But this is an offer of something that is not his to give. He does not have the authority to give what is not his. Let alone at the cost of worshiping him. And so, Jesus replies, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

With that third swing and a miss, the devil goes away. And as he leaves, angels come to Jesus and minister to him. They support him and, I am sure, provide his weary earthly body with food and drink. In the end, we see Psalm 91, the Psalm he devil twists and the Psalm we heard as our Introit this morning, is fulfilled.

With the devil defeated, Jesus does what Adam, Eve, Moses, Israel, and everyone since them including us could not: Perfectly resist the temptations of the devil. Jesus won a victory for us in the wilderness, and his march to the cross is already well underway. More trials and temptation will come his way. The devil will return and try to get him again. But the course is set. Jesus eyes the cross. Eyes your redemption.

While we concern ourselves with food and importance and power, Jesus is focused on saving his creation. While we are easily and constantly fooled by the Tempter, Jesus rebuffs him even when starving after a fast. We can be tricked by twisted Scripture, but Jesus wields the Sword expertly as it is his own Word.

In about forty days, we will gather at the altar on the night Jesus is betrayed, we will observe his death, the church will stand vigil on Holy Saturday, and then we gather to celebrate his victory over sin, death, and the devil with his resurrection. But today we begin the road to victory. Begin the road to the Great Reversal. And so let us come to Jesus.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. 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.

Georg Burkhardt, the son of a Bavarian tanner, was born in 1484, a year after his friend Martin Luther, and died in 1545, the year before the reformer. Like Luther, his father sent him to school, first in Nuremberg, and later in Erfurt, about the same time Luther attended the same university. He became a humanist scholar and changed his name to Spalatin, after the small town near Nuremberg in which he grew up.

He was ordained a priest in 1508. Frederick the Wise appointed him first as a tutor to his nephew, John Frederick, then the court librarian and later the court chaplain and his secretary. In these positions he would function much the same way a chief of staff serves the President of the United States. He would serve three Electors of Saxony during his lifetime.

In Wittenberg, Spalatin became friends with Dr. Luther and whole-heartedly embraced the theology he came to teach. From the very beginning of the indulgence controversy, Spalatin advocated for Luther with his sovereigns and communicated the will of the Electors to Luther. His diplomatic skills made him a key figure in the Lutheran Reformation, although not very well known.

Spalatin often counseled Luther on which works to write, which ones not to write and which ones to tone down. He was responsible for the successful plan to “kidnap” Luther after the Diet of Worms and put him in the Castle Wartburg while controversy cooled a bit and where the Reformer could have a much needed sabbatical.

Five Hundred years ago, in February of 1520, Spalatin reminded Martin Luther that he had promised the Elector to write a sermon, a treatise really, on the subject of good works. Now that the doctrine of salvation by faith alone was becoming known, the Elector and other rulers sympathetic to Luther’s theology were concerned their subjects would believe they did not have to do good works at all, including obeying their rulers!

The Treatise on Good Works would take until summer to complete. More about that later this year. It isn’t often talked about, since three other major works were published that year. Yet in it the familiar understanding of good works taught by Lutherans is first stated in detail. Christians do not do good works to become Christians and be saved, but do good works because they are Christians, are saved and want to please God.

©2020 Robert E. Smith. 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

Sermon on Matthew 5:43, 48
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana
February 16^th and 17^th, 2020

“Love your enemies and pray for the one who persecutes you … You will then be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  (Matthew 5:43, 48)

Intro: “Like Father, like son…” As Christians, we don’t need to seek out God and form a personal relationship with him. He sought us, bought us, made us his children in baptism and give us faith so that we trust him. We do not do good works to become Christians; We do good works because we are Christians. We want to please our Heavenly Father so…

1.  Jesus urges Christians to be like their Heavenly Father
   1.  Forgive like your father forgives you
   2.  Be merciful like your father is merciful
   3. Love your enemies
   4.  Perfect like your father is perfect
2.  As both saints and sinners at the same time, we cannot do this perfectly
   1.  We can often manage outward obedience
   2.  Yet inside our emotions can sneak up on us without warning.
   3. The result is we are constantly at war with ourselves.
3. Jesus lived like his father for us.
   1. Jesus was born as the exact image of God.
   2. He lived a life of perfect obedience to his father heart and soul.
   3. He died to pay for our sins.
   4. We are now being made over in his image

There is a vineyard, and it needs to be worked. Its owner goes and calls workers into his vineyard. Throughout the day, he continues to go out and call others in. At the end of the day, the wages are to be given. And when they are, it is those who worked only an hour who come first. They are given a full days’ wages. In fact, everyone gets the same. No matter if you worked an hour or the full day. All are made equal. To no one’s surprise, those who worked a long day are upset. But the master reminds them that they are receiving exactly what they were promised. Exactly what they agreed to.  

Like work in a vineyard, the Christian life is not a life of leisure or sloth. We are not called to loiter around and simply wait for heaven. We have been called into the vineyard. Christ has come to you and for you. He has chosen you to work in his vineyard; to be a part of his church. He has redeemed and saved you by grace.  

This parable speaks of God’s goodness and his grace. The workers receive out of the generosity and goodness of the master. They have work because they are invited. Their calling into the vineyard is by grace. So also, for us. We are brought into our Lord’s vineyard by grace and grace alone. And we receive life and forgiveness of sins out of His mercy and grace.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. 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.

For churches that use the historic, one year lectionary (cycle of readings), Epiphany has passed and, last week, they celebrated our Lord’s Transfiguration. They now focus on our Lord’s Resurrection, the victory Christ won for us as he died on the cross and then triumphantly rose from the dead. They do this in stages: Pre-Lent, Lent, and the Passion. Today, they are in Pre-Lent (nicknamed the ‘gesima’ Sundays for the Latin titles of the Sundays). For churches using the three year lectionary, Epiphany lasts a few more weeks. When Lent comes, all of the churches will be on the same calendar again.

In the early church, catechumens (learners) were baptized on Easter, and Lent was a sort of final and intense preparation. And so, the Sundays before Lent aim to equip the students for Easter and to remind the baptized of what is to come. The Epistle texts will present the Christian life as a race, as a contest that requires constant self-discipline and self-control, as a demanding life filled with labor and suffering. In a few weeks, Lent will teach that the Christian life is selfless and motivated only by love. Our Gospel texts speak of God’s call for us to be laborers, of the education and training in God’s ‘school of life,’ of the enlightenment of God’s rich grace upon all who seek it. Pre-Lent seeks to prepare for Lent and Easter in this way because the new life we are raised to live is one that lasts forever.

This summer the world will turn their eyes to Tokyo. Some of the most elite athletes in their various sports will take the field or arena or ring. They were born with natural gifts in whatever their sport is. Yet despite this natural gift, they have still had to prepare for this moment since they were young children. They are always laser-focused not just on qualifying and competing, but on bringing home gold. They will have trained and competed with little to no regard for their body. All that matters is being on top of that podium in July and August.

The Olympic games were centuries old when St. Paul writes his first letter to the Corinthians. That said, they were a much different event then than they are now. What isn’t different, however, is the effort put in. And Paul knows it.We each have a race to run, and none of us knows how long it will last. This is why continual training is required. Why self-discipline and focus are paramount. Lent is a time of battle. It is a time of preparation and repentance. But it is also about grace. About hearing what Jesus has done for us in his coming, culminating in his death, burial, and resurrection that all  your sins are put away and forgiven.

Rev. Brent Keller 
Peace Lutheran Church 
Alcester, SD  

©2020 Brent Keller. 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.

Martin Luther described two ways to think or talk about God. One starts with what people do — how can we please God? It begins below with us and climbs up a staircase to heaven by our own efforts. The other starts with what God does: the Father sending his Son to save the world, the Son dying so we might live and the Holy Spirit bringing the gifts to sinners. The theology of glory is from below and gives glory to people, the theology of the Cross and is from about, focusing on Chris who died of us all.

These two approaches to understanding God end up in two very different ways of thinking. The theology of glory is not satisfied with what the Bible says about him, salvation and they way we should live our lives. It peers into the unknown things of God, using human logic and experience to form theories about him and believe them as if they were facts. Ironically, the result is making God over in our own image rather than in allowing God to remake us in the image of his Son. In reality, it makes us into god and god into our servant.

The theology of the cross, instead, knows nothing but Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) It is the theology that begins with the way that God has revealed himself to us in his word, in the cradle and on the cross. It begins with the mindset of Jesus, who did not hold onto his glory as God, but emptied himself of it, became man for us, suffered and died for us. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Rather than look for our own glory, taking credit for our works, our understanding and looks for rewards in this life, the theology of the cross calls on us to think like Jesus thinks, to set aside our interests to serve God and our neighbor. It is content to take up its own cross and follow Jesus, through suffering, to death and to life eternal.

©2020 Robert E. Smith. 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.

From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have used the sign of the cross to remember the sufferings and death of her Lord and Savior. Not only did they use the sign to identify each other and during worship, they hung artistic versions of the cross. On the wall of a large room in Herculaneum, destroyed with Pompeii in 79 A.D., a cross-shaped mark was found in one of their walls.

Beginning at the end of the Fifth Century (400s AD), representations of the body of the dying Jesus began to appear on crosses. These became known as crucifixes. Churches throughout Christianity used crucifixes universally. It wasn’t until the 16th Century (1500s AD) that anyone objected to them. During the Reformation, the Reformed and Anabaptist traditions objected to them, thinking that crucifixes and Christian art in general were idols. Luther and the Lutheran tradition rejected this charge, contending that such depictions were an aid to devotion. No one was worshiping them. They were inspired by their art and their imagination turned to the events they represented.

So Lutherans continue use crucifixes until this day. Many of the great artists and musicians since that day were Lutherans and used their talents to enhance their churches and worship. Only in the last century, and in the United States, when Lutherans began to worship in English, did this begin to change. Their friends, families and neighbors accused them of being “too catholic,” not realizing that they were out of step with a sixteen hundred year old practice of the Christian Church.

There is, however, a deeper theological issue. When asked why they feel the empty cross is better than a crucifix, our non-Lutheran friends often object that Jesus did not stay on the cross, but is now risen from the dead. They think we need to focus on the Resurrection. Yet this is not what St. Paul tells the Corinthians, who said, among other things, ” I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) The focus of Christian preaching is to be on the cross. The crucifixes do just that. Christ is indeed risen from the dead, but he retained his wounds eternally to proclaim that sacrifice. And because he is risen, that sacrifice is now wherever Christians gather in his name.

So, far from apologizing for crucifixes, Lutherans are proud of them. For they are a symbol, pointing to the sacrifice that won our salvation. They remind us of the Lamb-who-was-slain for our sins and sins of the whole world.

©2020 Robert E. Smith. 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.

The cross is precious to Christians. It stands for our salvation, paid for by the sufferings and death of God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Over two thousand years, we have drawn it, worn it as jewelry, sung about it in our most beloved hymns, woven in it cloth and into the words of our sermons, teachings and conversations. In our liturgy, we make the sign of the cross to remind us that all the gifts being given by God in worship come to us by the power of that cross.

The cross is the deepest wisdom of God It is God’s answer to sin, suffering, grief and death. We are tied to it when we receive his body broken there with bread and when we drink his blood shed there with wine. When Jesus died on the cross, we died to sin and when he rose from the grave, we rose to new life. To this day, Christians literally die rather than forsake the cross.

In the cultures shaped by the faith, the cross is everywhere, you only have to look. It is hard for us to imagine why non-Christians either do not understand it, think it doesn’t make sense, or worse, are offended by it. Even though they see the evil in this world, they do not believe they themselves are evil. They do not understand the depth of God anger against the evil that has ruined his world, brought death and suffering into it and separated him from his children, whom he loves. They don’t realize that only death and eternal destruction can be the only way to satisfy that anger. They don’t get that means every person must pay that price. Finally, it doesn’t make sense to them that God would pour all that wrath out on his son — himself really — rather than let us suffer it. They think the whole plan is stupid.

But in the cross, which appears to be weakness, is really God’s strength. It is the power of God that destroys death and sin in us. It is the greatest wisdom, for it is the solution to our dilemma. He pays the price we cannot pay and forgives them forever. There may not be a free lunch, but there is free salvation. This is the good news that we preach.

©2020 Robert E. Smith. 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.