Encore Post: The Lutheran Church is a liturgical church. This means that the theme of the day is set well ahead of time by the lectionary that your parish uses. Each Sunday is normally named by the place it is in the church year — a certain Sunday in Advent, a certain Sunday in Lent, a certain Sunday of Easter, or in Epiphany, or a certain Sunday after Pentecost or Trinity.
Each day is assigned a set of propers — a Psalm, a Collect (a prayer for the the day that collects the thoughts of the people related to the theme of the day), a Gradual (a few sentences of scripture spoken between the Epistle and the Gospel lessons), Scripture lessons and a proper preface (said by the pastor during the beginning of the Service of the Sacrament). These are proper to the season and day and so change from week to week or season to season. In the long season of ordinary time (Sunday’s after Pentecost), the themes chosen traditionally shift about every ten weeks (After the Feast of the Holy Trinity, St. Lawrence’s Day and St. Michael and All Angels)
Once in awhile you will run into a Sunday that is named after a person, like Saint Peter, or an event, like the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. These days typically are called Feasts or Saints’ days. Most of these are Biblical figures or events, with Reformation Day and The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession being notable exceptions. In a church or a college or seminary chapel, where there are Services everyday, these days are observed often and on the date appointed. Most Missouri Synod parishes, however, celebrate them only when date falls on a Sunday.
Also assigned on the calendar of the church are commemorations. These are available to congregations of the church but are rarely used. They include Biblical figures, especially Old Testament ones, Christian leaders or memorable figures from the church’s history. In the Missouri Synod, they include musicians (like J. S. Bach) and other artists of various kinds and figures of the Synod’s history (like C. F. W. Walther and Rev. Smith‘s favorite — F.C.D. Wyneken)
We celebrate these people and events because they point to Jesus. Saints are not perfect, nor do they have special powers. They were sinners just like us, but now live in Heaven with all the saints. (Hebrews 13:7-8)
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
When you confess your faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and when you confess that the Word of Scripture is God’s Word, do you realize you also then must confess the fact that Satan exists? That Hell and Evil exist?
They most assuredly do, otherwise why would have the Father sent the Son? Surely, the Son was sent for the purpose of saving you from the clutches of Satan, his evil devices, and Hell itself. That is what Scripture says after all. But do you really believe it, or are you one of those people like many people in American Christianity that speak of hell and Satan as imaginary. Or if its real, Hell is empty. It is much easier these days to talk about the presence of evil. But the source of that evil?
It was not hard for the apostles to speak about all of this. They saw evil up-close and personal. The story of Matthias is not necessarily a happy one. Matthias only becomes an apostle, because of the evil that Judas committed against the Lord Jesus Christ, betraying Him into the hands of sinners.
And Peter, who was restored by the risen Christ, now stands up and speaks of the great evil deed of Judas. “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” Luke adds, “This man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.” This is not a pretty sight at all. Judas was so overcome by the evil that he committed that he had no hope of being forgiven, and he killed himself. Peter goes on interpreting the events in light of the Psalms of David, “May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it”; and “Let another take his office.”
Enter Matthias, a man who had accompanied Jesus and the other apostles during all the time that the Lord went in and out among them, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from them. There was another man also who fit this description, but the lot fell to Matthias. And He was numbered with the 11, making 12 apostles once again.
Satan and evil exist, this we know. And Matthias and the rest of the 11 now are to go out to preach the truth that evil has been overcome in the one Jesus Christ, who died and rose again from the dead, beating Satan at his own game. The apostles are to declare war on the old Satanic foe just like their Lord did when He came into hostile territory, becoming man, and then going out into the wilderness and ultimately all the way to the cross to defeat Satan for all humanity. Now Matthias and the apostles preach the victory of Christ over Satan and Evil. And one little word of Christ crucified makes Satan fall.
Matthias is barely mentioned (if ever) again in any of the books of the New Testament. The extra-biblical materials we have concerning Matthias are few, and what we do have are quite late. But isn’t that the way of many of the pastors placed into office of the Holy Ministry? Matthias was placed into the office not to make a name for himself but to proclaim Christ and Him crucified to the nations. He was placed into the Office to confront the very evil of Satan that he knew well with the triumphant word of Christ Jesus. That Christ Jesus has overcome Satan and thus has made us His own. That our own acts of evil have been forgiven for the sake of Christ Jesus. That Christ holds the keys of death and hades now and forevermore, and He gives eternal life to us.
Pastors now, are also called to confront the evils that are amongst us and even within us. They are called to preach the truth of God’s Word of the realities of hell and Satan, and evil. And they too are to confront evil with the truth of Christ Jesus. They are called to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that we be saved from everlasting death.
Jesus when teaching, called many people evil. He even called his disciples evil because of their sinful hearts. We too have sinful hearts. It’s our natural heart’s state, another way to say it is it’s the Old Adam in us. We are by nature sinful and unclean. Jesus confronts evil head on and deals with it in a way only He could. He destroys evil by his death on the cross, whereby He swallows up death, sin, and Satan, the source of evil forever, and rises victorious over it all. And He forgives. All the evil of your own heart, Christ has covered with His Blood.
And while Judas spilled his own guts over his evil and wicked deeds, your Lord pours out his blood for you in love that you might be forgiven and be at peace in the forgiveness of sins. In effect being changed from inside out, your heart of evil removed, and a living heart in its place. A new creation for the sake of Christ.
This is what those men placed into the Office of the Holy Ministry are called to confess and to preach, that you might be saved, and not be overcome by the Evil One. Satan and his evil devices are real as Scripture says, but so is their Conqueror, our Savior Jesus Christ. Trust him in just as Matthias did, that you be numbered in great multitude that no one can number singing the praise of the Lamb forever and ever. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
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
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We in the Lutheran Church seem to have a greater affinity for St. Paul than for St. Peter. Perhaps, we are drawn to Paul more because of his clarity when it comes to speaking of being justified freely by grace through faith. He says it everywhere, nowhere clearer than in Ephesians 2:8–9. Maybe too it has to do with historical reasons. Peter, of course, had been called the rock, and for some this meant it was He upon whom Christ would build his Church. Peter than became the Pope, and the Lutherans could not go along with the office of the pope as the office of the pope had become so corrupted through the centuries up to Luther’s time. Maybe that is why when I did a quick search on names of our churches, I found nearly 500 churches associated with St. Paul to around 150 named after St. Peter.
But let us remember that Peter did not always just work with the Jews. In Acts 10, Peter learns through the vision that God makes no distinction between Jew or Greek when it comes to salvation. God does not show favoritism. And in our reading from Acts 15 we get the same confession from him: We believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus, just as they will.” Those who confess Jesus to be the Christ are the Lord’s people, no matter their nationality or what we in today’s world call race. Again, God makes no distinction. God made one human race. Let us be very clear on that.
Those who are saved are the ones who make the confession: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus tells us that not even the blessed Apostle Peter could say that without the Father making it known to him. Just as we ourselves cannot by our own reason or strength confess Jesus is Lord. Rather we are brought to that knowledge when we are gathered by Holy Spirit calling us by the Gospel.
It is on this confession of Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God that everything else flows and is built. And what a beautiful body and habitation that has been built: The Church. And Peter and Paul made bold confession of Jesus being the Christ, to both Jews and Greeks. They saw how the Spirit of God was poured out by the grace of our Lord so that all might come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
This confession however does not come without cost. With the confession of Jesus as the Christ comes the cross, the one which Jesus bore in our stead, and the cross born by Peter and Paul for our benefit, as well as our own crosses, to follow Jesus where He leads. To follow Jesus through death and into life.
Peter saw Christ’s death first hand. He was the one who upon calling Jesus the Christ did not want Jesus to do the very things which the Christ came to accomplish. Peter could not accept that Jesus would have to suffer death by crucifixion. But Jesus showed him what He and the entire world would benefit by his bitter sufferings and death: redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life in a resurrected body. And Peter proclaimed this until he too would suffer death on account of Christ’s name.
Paul’s story is similar, for God desired Paul to be his servant and show him how much he must suffer for the name. And Paul would have plenty of instances where he would be persecuted against, stoned, arrested, ship wrecked, etc. He ultimately would die a martyr’s death as well for the sake of Christ.
We too face our own crosses for the sake of the Name which was placed upon us at Holy Baptism. We might not die a martyr death, but we can begin to feel the society of our nation growing more and more hostile to those of us who call Christ Lord, who believe what the bible says about Holy Marriage, about Male and Female. While a riot can have hundreds of people in close proximity to one another, a church service can only have 10 souls at a time. The voice of the faithful are being drowned out and cancelled in the public square. And it might even feel like hell is here right with us and we are being trampled. But know this: Jesus says, “On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” It may look like Satan owns the day, but he has been defeated, Christ has died and Christ is risen, and his resurrection is made your resurrection by the proclamation of Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
So the Church continues to confess the truth about Christ, a confession that we could not know by our own reason or strength but it has been revealed to us by the grace of the Triune God. The apostles’ confession and witness to Christ is still on going, for by their witness, the Church still is being built up by the grace of our Lord, calling the young and old to rest but above all to souls distressed, longing for rest everlasting. The rock is not Peter or Paul, but the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who suffered and died for the sins of the world and rose on the third day and then ascended to the right hand of the Father, who will come again to judge the living and the dead.
May we confess with Peter and Paul the truth of Christ and be built upon the rock of Christ Jesus and look to him for grace and forgiveness, that we might be saved from the assaults of death and hell now and forever. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Six months is all that separates the Baptist and Jesus at least by earthly age. And so on June 24ththe Church celebrates and remembers the birth of the Baptist. For with his coming into the world, the Sun of Righteousness also would arrive.
If we read the earlier verses of St. Luke’s Gospel, we learn that the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would bear the Son of the Most High, and in that conversation Gabriel tells Mary that its not just her who has been visited and remembered by the Lord, for Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, the one who had been called barren was now in her sixth month. And upon receiving the blessed news from Gabriel, Mary quickly went to visit Elizabeth. Luke does not say explicitly in his Gospel, but he leaves the reader to ponder if Mary was actually there for the birth of St. John the Baptist. Luke throws out this line about Mary’s stay: “And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.” Doing the math, it is very possible perhaps even plausible that Mary assisted with the delivery. It leads me to at least consider the possibility she was there, meaning also that Jesus, the one for whom John would prepare a people was there watching and working, as this was the plan from of Old as Zechariah would joyfully sing. And if Mary was there carrying the Lord Jesus in her womb, the song Zechariah sings takes on quite a bit more theological weight.
Zechariah when he was confronted by Gabriel, was confused and a bit unbelieving of the news that he and Elizabeth would have a son. As part of the sign that Elizabeth would have a son, Zechariah would be mute until the child was born. And when he named the child John, in accordance with what the Angel told him, Zecahriah’s mouth was loosed. He could speak. And the people were filled with awe and asked the question: What then will this child be?
Being filled with the Holy Spirit Zechariah prophesied the song that we commonly call the Benedictus, Latin for Blessed… What is interesting to me Zechariah’s song does not answer the question of the people right away. He first prophesies of the one that his own son would point to as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Think of this: Mary still there and Zechariah breaks out in song: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up for us a horn of salvation for us in the house of the servant David. That is not about John, but about Jesus. And He had actually been in Zechariah’s house for the past 3 months via the womb of Mary. And redemption of God’s people was the plan from of old as far back as Adam’s fall. It’s not his son that Zechariah is ooing and ahhing over when he starts singing. No it’s Jesus that Zechariah sings about. Jesus is the oath sworn to Father Abraham, that we would be delivered from the hand of our enemies and serve him (the Lord God) without fear in holiness and righteousness. Jesus would do that as the one who would do the work of our redemption by his cross, by being the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and grants us His holiness and His righteousness.
Who then will this child be? The preacher of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the preacher proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Preparing the hearts of those who listen for the coming of the One whose sandals John himself is not worthy to even untie. John never preaches of himself, and Zechariah’s song even shows this too. Zechariah does not answer the question directly but first goes to Jesus, who comes after John but ranks before John because He was before John and there in the beginning. To this Jesus John would bear witness as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
John still proclaims that message into your very ears every Advent season, preparing us for the coming of our Lord, the Sun of Righteousness. Some think John’s preaching is fire and brimstone, and it might be on that side, but how else to rattle and crack the hearts of stone of a dead people? The preaching of repentance, puts you to death but not only that: it raises you to life. John’s preaching causes the Light of the Lord’s mercy to shine upon you. It gives you the new birth of the Holy Spirit, and gives to you the Name of God by his Grace, granting you peace that passes all human understanding. John preaches not his own word but the Word of the Lord, in order that they might be made alive by the Gospel and Comfort of the coming of the Lord Jesus who would die for the sin of the world and be raised from the dead on the 3rd day and would then lead the way unto everlasting life with the Father in Heaven.
John’ preaching of repentance is the preaching of the forgiveness of sins. But John’s preaching is really the preaching of Christ! And thus by John’s preaching you are not just prepared for Jesus’ coming but it is by this way and means that Christ comes to you in love and visits you with tender compassion.
Christ did not just visit Zechariah or the people of Judea and Galilee, but He has come and visits you with tender care and mercy this day. He has redeemed you just as we swore he would do, giving you the forgiveness of sins which He won for you by his cross, now by giving you His body and blood in the Sacrament, the Covenant/Testament of His body and blood. That you may be led in the way of peace forever.
John was the forerunner, the preacher who pointed Jesus without fail. May the preachers of our day follow on coattails of John and continue to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that your ears and heart are prepared to receive Christ now and always. For it is Christ who has released you from all sins, and has removed from us all fear of death and hell and now guides our feet into the way of Peace.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
