Weeding the Garden - July 19, 2026 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11) - Text: Matthew 13:24-30 (36-43)

Last week we heard Jesus tell the parable of the Farmer who sowed his seed on the path, on the rocks, among the thorns and weeds and on good soil. We were also told by Jesus that the meaning of that parable was that He was the one who sows the seed and He still sows the seed today through the proclamation of His Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the means of Grace. Those people who reject the Word of God, either outright or because of the cares and concerns of this world, those people who reject the message of salvation, that Jesus alone is the way to be saved are like the seed sown on the path, on the rocks and among the weeds and thorns. Those people who hear the Word of God, those people who hear the message and are given faith in Jesus alone for salvation are those seeds sown on good soil that produces a crop, a hundred, sixty and thirty times what is sown. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This week we continue listening to the parables of Jesus as He continues to use the imagery of the sowing of seeds.
 

Our text begins with Jesus telling the parable, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matt. 13:24-30).
 

Our Lectionary System for this morning then takes the liberty to skip past the parable of the mustard seed  in which Jesus reminds us that, although the mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds, the plant that grows from it is so big that the birds of the air can build a nest in it, reminding us that although our faith may begin small, it can grow as we grow and mature in our faith. Also, the parable of the leaven is skipped. This parable reminds us that a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, that is that a little sin causes a great amount of trouble and a little forgiveness also goes a long way. Finally, what our text skips is the fact that Jesus spoke in parables for a purpose, in order that the message of salvation is not wasted on those who refuse and reject it.
 

Finally, after we have skipped these parts, Jesus tells the meaning of the parable. We pick up at verse thirty-six: “Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (36-43).
 

So, just like the parable from last week, Jesus is the one who sows the good seed. Jesus is not the author of evil, nor does He condone it. Jesus gives good gifts and blessings. Jesus comes to give faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Jesus came to save us through the giving of His life for ours. He sows the seeds of His Word and as we were reminded in the Old Testament lesson from last week, that Word which He sows is a Word with power. His Word is a Word which does what it says. As His Word is sown, it will not return void or empty, because it is His Word.
 

On the other hand, the one who sows bad seed is the devil. This one is the one who often times takes his own words and twists them to make them sound like God’s Word, but instead they are words of deception and lies, coming from the devil, the father of lies. The devil would have us believe that there are many ways to the same eternal enlightenment, that is that all religions are valid. The word of the devil is a word with power as well, not the power to save, but the power to condemn.
 

The end result is that on judgement day the fruit of the good seed will be separated from the fruit of the bad seed. The fruit of the good seed will gain eternal life in heaven. The fruit of the bad seed will reap destruction, eternal death in hell with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 

The people to whom Jesus spoke this parable understood what Jesus was saying. And yet, this parable was not spoken only to the people of His day, Jesus speaks this parable to us today. Today God continues to sow good seed through the means of Grace. This parable reminds us of the importance of making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. This parable reminds us of the importance of coming to divine service and Bible class. This parable reminds us of the importance of reading God’s Word on our own and having personal and family devotions. This parable reminds us of the importance of remembering our Baptism, the importance of confessing our sins and hearing those most beautiful words we can ever hear, the words of absolution, that our sins are forgiven, and it reminds us of the importance of coming to the Lord’s Supper to be given His body and blood and the good gifts and blessings He has to give to us.
 

Today we live in a pluralistic society. We live in what is called a tolerant society, even though we know it is intolerant of Christians. We live in a world where there are many religions, cults and sects, where there are many weeds. There are many religions, cults and sects vying for our time and attention. There are many “opportunities” for doing many things, many things except doing the one thing needful as Jesus so pointed to busy Martha. There are many weeds in our world which try to choke our faith in Jesus alone.
 

And, as Jesus told His disciples, so He reminds us, we will live this way until the end. Life will not get any easier. As a matter of fact, if you have been watching the way things have been going in our world, you may have noticed that it is getting harder and harder to be a Christian. It is getting harder because a Christian is one who believes what Jesus says in His Word and that is, that there is no other name, given among men, whereby we must be saved, in other words, there is only one way to eternal life and that is by God’s Grace, through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross alone. Yes, we Christians are intolerant. Think about it like this, if there were any other way to eternal life, why in the world would Jesus go through the pain of suffering and dying for our sins? As I say many times, all the religions of the world, all the cults and sects, can be divided into two categories, those who believe in self for salvation, that is, those who believe that one must do something, that we must be obedient, that we must live a certain way, that their character is what saves them and we, those who believe that we are saved by God’s Grace alone because of something outside of us, namely, because of Jesus’ life, suffering and death for our sins.
 

Thus, we realize that our work until the end of the world is to share the good news of Jesus with others. No this is not explicitly stated in our text, but it is there nonetheless. It is only at the end, it is only at Judgement day that we will see the results of faith and unbelief. And rest assured, we will see the results.
 

So, what? Jesus says, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Yes, there were those in Jesus’ day and there are still those in our world today who hear the Word of God and yet refuse and reject His good gifts and blessings. There are many in our world today who would just as soon go along with the philosophies and ideologies of this world, there are those who would just as soon go along with the ideas of cultural tolerance and pluralism rather than make waves, rather than stand up for what Jesus says, because it is a lot easier. It is very difficult and it is getting even harder for us in our world today to take a stand and to proclaim the difficult truth of what Jesus tells us in His Word, that is that there is only one way and that way is only through faith in Him. And yet, that is what we are to do.
 

So, we are continually reminded of our need to hear the Word of God. We are continually reminded of our need to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace, to read our Bible everyday, to daily remember our Baptism, to come to divine service every Sunday, as well as to come to Bible class and to come to the Lord’s Supper as often as we can so that we might be strengthened in our faith so that we might be able to face the struggles and accusations of this world.
 

“He who has ears, let him hear.” “We hear,” when the Word of God is proclaimed in its truth and purity and when we believe that Word of God. But faith is not simply something in our mind, it is what we do. We hear when we act, that is when we live lives of faith. We hear when we believe and trust in Jesus alone for our forgiveness and our salvation and when we live our lives in such a way that we are not apathetic, but are boldly proclaiming our faith in Jesus alone, no matter what the cost, because we imply cannot help but do so.
 

You know, it is fascinating that even though we are hearing Jesus’ Words some 2000 years after He first spoke them, the world has not changed very much. Jesus’ Word is still being sown as the Word of God, it is rightly proclaimed and taught in its truth and purity and the devil, the enemy is still sowing weeds as the Word of God is mis-proclaimed, twisted and outright thrown out, and as other weeds of other religions, cults and sects are sown. And we will go on living this way until the end, until the day of Judgement, when God will sort out the wheat from the chaff, when the chaff, when those who believe in something or someone other than Jesus alone for salvation will be cast into the fires of eternal death and that will happen.
 

For us, Christians, the good news, the greatest news is that when we, those of us who believe in Jesus alone are gathered before the Lord’s throne, we will be robed with Jesus’ robes of righteousness. It all begins and ends with Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the one who created us to love us. Jesus is the one who loved us so much that He gave up the glory of heaven in order to take on flesh and blood. Jesus is the one who lived for us, perfectly. Jesus is the one who fulfilled all the law and prophecies of the Old Testament, for us. Jesus is the one who paid the price for our sins, suffering eternal death and hell on the cross for us. Jesus died for us. Jesus rose for us. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to give us faith. At our Baptism Jesus gives us faith. Through our hearing God’s Word, through our confession and absolution, through our participation in the Lord’s Supper we are given faith, strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Jesus works in us to do the good works He has for us to do. Jesus does it all and in the end, He will gather us with all the saints and we will give praise and glory to Jesus alone. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ - July 12, 2026 - Sixth Sunday after Trinity - Text: Romans 6:1-11

Interestingly enough, this text from Romans is the Epistle reading for the Baptism of our Lord in the three year lectionary series. And this morning we find this text sandwiched between the Old Testament text of the Ten Commandments, God giving Moses the Moral Law, and the Gospel reading of Jesus telling us that He came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill the Law, whatever that means.
 

To set the stage for our text for this morning, we want to make note that Paul’s words in our text come after his explanation of justification, that is that we do not justify ourselves, we do not  make ourselves right before God, especially by anything we should think we do, but we are made right before God by grace, through faith. Again, we are made right, we are passively made right, even apart from anything we do. Now we move to our text.
 

Paul’s question is, “Does Grace give license to sin?” We begin at verse one, “1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 1-4). Our human thinking and logic is that more sin means more forgiveness means more grace, so in order to help grace abound we should sin more. And I guess, according our human, tainted by sin logic, that would be the logical conclusion. And we might add that this is the way of the law and of law thinking, which, again, is the way we, as sinful human beings, tend to think.
 

The fallacy of our law logic is that we have forgotten the gospel. We have forgotten that faith means one does not want to sin. Perhaps we have forgotten that when we live according to the law the temptation to sin is even greater. We all know how it is, when we are told not to do something the temptation to sin is greatest. “Don’t eat the cookies you will spoil your dinner.” “Oh, I have got to have one of those cookies.” However, to live according to the Gospel frees us from temptation. The Gospel reminds us that we are already forgiven. We are forgiven because Jesus paid the price for our sins, He died for our sins. Because we are forgiven, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will want to not sin.
 

As Paul puts it, death causes one to no longer be susceptible to temptation, in other words, being tied to Jesus’ death means one is no longer susceptible to the stimuli of temptation. Certainly temptations will continue to come, but being reminded that our sin caused Jesus to die, the Holy Spirit stirs in us to resist temptation and sin.
 

But Paul is not finished, he continues, “5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin” (v. 5-7). Paul reminds us of the importance of Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is not simply a ritual. It is not an act of obedience, that would be pointing to us as if it were something we are doing. Holy Baptism is a sacrament, a sacred act, instituted by God and connected with His Word which ties us with Jesus. Paul says we have been united with Jesus. The word united literally means we have been planted with Jesus. When a seed is planted in the ground it dies and then comes to life. Likewise, through Holy Baptism, our old nature is drowned, is killed and we arise as new creatures.
 

In this uniting with Christ, His life is our life. Here we are reminded that this understanding is the fullness of the Gospel, not simply that Jesus died for us, but that He lived for us. God’s demand is that we are perfect and we fail at being perfect. We fail miserably at being perfect, and it is getting worse. You know, I believe one of Satan’s greatest victories today is that our churches are beginning to look like the rest of the world. Instead of the Christian community shaping our society, too often our society is shaping our Christian community. Have you noticed that what was taboo and illegal in our society a few years ago is now legal and even encouraged. The same can be said for what was taboo and prohibited in our churches. Things that would not be thought of years ago as being allowed in church are now hailed as meet, right and salutary, and anyone who opposes such is called intolerant, a bigot and mean spirited. You may recall that this hatred is indeed what happened to Jesus during His earthly life as He called all people to repent. The fact that Jesus’ life becomes our life through our being united with Him in Holy Baptism first and foremost gives us confidence in our forgiveness and salvation and it also gives us courage to stand up and, at least according to our society, be intolerant, bigoted and mean spirited.
 

Not only has Jesus’ life become our life, by faith in Him His death is our death. Remembering the fact that if we are born once (physical birth only) we die twice (physical death and eternal death), but if we are born twice (one’s physical birth and Holy Baptism) we only die once (physical death), we rejoice that Jesus has suffered eternal death and hell for us in our place so that we will only suffer physical death, we will only fall asleep in the Lord. By His death Jesus has paid the price for our sins.
 

And finally, Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection. Because Jesus rose again we know that death and the grave have no power over us, we know that we too will rise again. Thus, the fulness of the Gospel is that Jesus has taken care of everything for us in His life, death and resurrection and He offers everything free to us.
 

But Paul is still not done. He goes us to remind us that we need not fear. “8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 8-11). At Christmas we celebrate Jesus birth. Then we move ahead and we celebrate His baptism and the beginning of His earthly ministry. Then we enter the season of Lent which begins our trek to the cross on Good Friday. On the cross Jesus defeated death. Not only did He defeat death, but He rose from the dead.
 

The reason Jesus was born was to give His life as a ransom for all. As our substitute, His death was once and for all, in other words, it never needs repeating. So, because He died, because we are united with Him in His death, we no longer need to fear death. For us, the only death we may face is a falling asleep in faith, a passing on from this world into heaven.
 

Again, Jesus’ defeat of death and our connection to Him means we never need to fear death. By faith in Jesus we are not subject to the second death, eternal death and hell, because that is the death He faced and defeated for us.
 

What does this mean? Paul’s words remind us that Jesus took care of our sin. That Jesus took care of our sin does not give us a license to sin. That Jesus took care of our sin does not gives us a license to emulate the world. Yes, there are a lot of things that are legal in our country today, things that were not legal years ago, and for good reason. Just because something is legal does not mean it is good or not sin. And just because we know we are forgiven does not give us encouragement to go out and sin either. As a matter of fact, the fact that we are forgiven is what gives us the encouragement to not sin.
 

Temptations do abound in our world today. In times of temptation we fall back on our faith in Jesus who helps us especially during times of temptation. As we are reminded of Jesus’ baptism we might also be reminded that right after His baptism He was lead into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days and yet during those forty days He never sinned. And as He has suffered all the temptations we might suffer and even greater temptations, and never sinned, so we know that He is with us to help us to fight against temptation and sin as well.
 

But getting back to Jesus’ words in the Gospel, that He came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. What does He mean? As Lutheran Christians we believe the authority and power of the external Word of God, the external Word of God which does what it says and gives the gifts it says it gives. We believe God’s Word and the Word of Jesus who completely fulfilled all the Words, Laws, demands, and promises of God and who gives that fulfillment to us so that the Law is no longer demanding. Rather, our desire as children of God is to strive, with only the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit working lives of faith in and through us. We desire to live as priests in the priesthood of all believers, being living sacrifices in our vocations, and serving God by serving others. We are no longer under the Law, but we willingly obey the Law as a response of faith as God works good works in and through us. Again, we always get it right when we point to Jesus.
 

Thus, it is most certainly true that Christ has fulfilled the Law and not abolished it. He has completely and utterly fulfilled all the demands of the Law, and He freely gives us His fulfilled life so that we are no longer under the demands of the Law. He has not abolished the Law because the Law continues to serve the purpose of pointing out sin so that the Gospel of sins forgiven might move all to repent and be given forgiveness.
 

This morning then, we are reminded that Jesus gives gifts. Jesus gives faith and forgiveness. Jesus gives these gifts through means, namely through the means of grace. He gives faith through His Word, the Bible as well as through Holy Baptism. He gives forgiveness through these means as well and through Holy Absolution and through His Holy Supper.
 

And Jesus gives life and salvation, again, through His means of grace. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have.
 

Unfortunately the fact remains that we do continue to sin, that is our nature. We sin and then we come up with excuses, or exceptions as to why our sin is valid. Paul’s words to us this morning remind us of the good news, the Gospel, that through our baptism, through faith given to us, we are united with Jesus so that our sins have been taken care of, so that we do not need to be afraid of the consequences of our sins, eternal death and hell, but instead we may be confident that we are forgiven and that we have life, even eternal life. It is this good news, this Gospel that encourages us to live God pleasing lives. And even when we fail, which we do daily, even when we backslide, which we do weekly, there is still forgiveness. As always then, we are pointed to Jesus who does all and gives all. To Him be all the glory. For His names sake. Amen.

Rest for the Weary - July 5, 2026 - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 09) - Text: Matthew 11:25-30

Rest, that thing we all desire, yet that thing that seems to allude us the most. As children we do not want to take a nap, as adults we wish we could take a nap. You know how it is, we work all week and we look forward to the weekend when we can sleep in. For too many people it seems that all there is to this world is “working for the weekend.” And then, on the weekend we do not rest (voice inflection). No, we play hard, we garden hard, we do everything except rest and we are glad to get back to work on Monday so we can rest. And then we look forward to the next weekend when we can get some rest, or so we say.
 

One of the difficult issues Jesus faced while on this earth, and still today, was and is His identity crisis. Who is this Jesus? In His day, and still today, suggestions as to His identity range from His being a good man, a good person, a good teacher, a good prophet, and the like to Peter’s confession and our confession, that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world. Jesus is true God and true man, that is one hundred percent God and one hundred percent human, not fifty-fifty. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the One promised in Genesis three. Still today there are those who would deny Jesus identity, usually because it is not logical or reasonable. I would suggest and I like the fact that God is beyond my comprehension. Think about it this way, how puny God would be if He were so small and so simple and so logical that I, with my little brain, of which scientists tell us that we only use about 10% of anyway, how puny He would be if I could completely understand Him. Thanks be to God that we worship a God who is so much bigger than we are and a God who is beyond our own comprehension. However, we also worship a God who has revealed to us everything we need to know for our salvation. We worship a God who has done everything for us and given everything to us. We worship a God who is so much greater and beyond us, but who has made Himself very personal to us. But let us get to our text.
 

Earlier Jesus had sent His disciples out in order to get some “on the job training.” He “gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” Now, they had returned and Jesus turns to His Father in prayer for their experiences. Jesus praises the Father for concealing hidden things from the wise and the learned, that is, the self wise and the self learned. Jesus’ prayer speaks through the ages as we see the same self wise and self learned today who think they are so much bigger and smarter than God and announce certain things, certain characteristics about God, such as His inability to do miracles, to be in more than one place at a time, to work through simple earthly things like water, bread and wine, and the like. The god about which they speak is a god of their own creation, in other words, an idol. That is why they do not know Jesus, the one true God and that is why He is hidden from them. Of course, we know that, in our text, Jesus is referring to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and they know it too. In His prayer we come to understand even more about Jesus, our Savior.
 

In His prayer, and in many other places in Scripture, Jesus establishes Himself as God. He is not explicit in His words and in His prayer and that may be why so many miss it, why it is hidden. Jesus’ prayer reminds us that He is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In other places in Scripture He is more explicit reminding us that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, God who died and was raised to life.
 

Very often, in the Gospels, we hear Jesus speak the “I Am” words, that is, Jesus says, “I am . . ., “I am the way, the truth and the life.” These words go all the way back to the Old Testament and the call of Moses in the wilderness. When God called Moses from the burning bush to bring the children of Israel out of bondage of slavery in Egypt Moses asked, “who shall I say sent me?” and God said, “tell them ‘I Am’ has sent you.” “I Am,” that is God’s name, Yahweh. When Jesus says, “I Am” He is claiming to be Yahweh, God, and that really grates on the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
 

In our text, in His prayer Jesus says, “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.” Jesus, the Son, and the Father are known by each other and through each other because they are one. Here again, we see Jesus establishing Himself as God, with the Father.
 

Jesus, true God, comes to bring rest, true rest. Here, again, Jesus is aiming His words at the Pharisees and teachers of the Law and at the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in our world today. These Pharisees and teachers of the Law were bringing a burden, a yoke on the children of Israel. And for those of you who do not know what a yoke is, a yoke is that thing which goes around the neck of an ox or a mule or a horse in order to attach a plow or trailer or other object and the reins to drive the animal. The yoke with which the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were burdening the people was the yoke of ceremonial laws. Today it is the yoke of obedience. So many laws they put on the people, in order to keep the ten commandments, it was unbearable, it was unrealistic for the people to be able to carry such a load.
 

The third commandments says the we are to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Simply stated, in good Lutheran terms we ask, “What does this mean?” and answer, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” Simple enough we might suggest. This commandment reminds us of the importance of not despising the Word of God and the preaching of such Word, because of our love for God and it reminds us of the importance of gladly reading our Bibles, having family and personal devotion, and attending Divine Service and Bible class, again, because of God’s love for us and because of our love for God. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law, however, made up many tedious rules and regulations in order to “help” the children of Israel to keep this commandment. Rules such as, a person can walk only so many feet on the Sabbath day. A person could lift only so much weight on the Sabbath day, a person was not able to cook a meal on the Sabbath day and so on. It was these rules, to which Jesus was referring, which were a yoke and a burden to the children of Israel.
 

Instead of giving the people a difficult yoke to bear, Jesus simply gives gifts. He tells us that His yoke is a yoke of peace and rest. And when I say peace and rest, I am not speaking about the type of peace and rest we think of in our world today, an hour or so, maybe a day of peace and calm. No, His is true peace, a peace which surpasses all understanding. His yoke brings true rest, not just a nap or a time to sleep in, His is a true rest, a rest of mind and spirit, a rest of forgiveness of sins which brings a rest of body.
 

And even more than just giving us an easy yoke, Jesus takes our yoke, our burden of sin and guilt. He who was without sin became sin for us. Our Old Testament lesson for this morning is the promise of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem where He came to give His life on the cross for us, in our place. Paul reminds us in our epistle lesson, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Christ comes to rescue us. He comes to take our heavy yoke of sin and to give us His easy yoke of forgiveness.
 

The trials and tribulations of this world are indeed heavy. The struggles of this world weigh heavy on us. Day in and day out we struggle against sin and temptation and we lose. Our fight is not against powers and principalities but is against the spiritual forces which fight against us. Every day there is the temptation to sin, not against just one of the commandments, but against all of the commandments. And have you ever noticed, when we do sin against one of the commandments, we have probably sinned against two or three others as well. I would suggest that our temptation and sin today is not that we have so many rules and regulations to help us to keep the Ten Commandments, but that we have so much freedom to not keep the commandments. The question is not how much we should not do in order to keep the Sabbath day, but the fact that we have the freedom to do whatever we want, even, not the freedom of religion, but the freedom from religion.
 

Thanks be to God that He is a God who gives and we are His people to whom He gives. He has given us Jesus who is God. Jesus is God who comes with power, might and authority. And if we question if Jesus is God all we need to do is to go to His Word and in His Word Jesus shows Himself to be God. He shows Himself to be God through His signs, wonders and miracles which He performed while on this earth.
 

It is important that Jesus is both God and man. It is important that Jesus was a man that He is truly human, so that He might be our substitute, that is so that He might give His life for ours. It is important that Jesus is God so that He might be holy, and so that He might be able to live for us, the perfect life demanded of us, for us, in our place. So that He might take our sins, all of our sins, our sins of commission, those sins we actually commit and our sins of omission, those sins of failing to be the people God would have us to be, helping and serving our neighbor. He took all our sins and suffered the eternal penalty of eternal death in hell for us, in our place. And He died. Yes, our God, in Jesus died, but He did not stay dead, but on the third day He rose from the dead. Indeed, He lived, suffered, died and rose for us, in our place. Thus, the ultimate showing of Jesus to be our God and Savior is the fact that He gives His life for ours on the cross. He takes our burdens, He took our yoke, He took our sins  upon Himself. He suffered and died the eternal death penalty for us in our place.
 

Jesus gives all things, faith, forgiveness and life and we are given to. He takes our yoke and gives us His which is a light yoke, a light burden. And what is more, He also gives to us so that we respond according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
 

Yes, a nap would be a good thing. Physical rest is important. Unfortunately, the reason many people are unable to get enough physical rest is because they are needing spiritual and emotional rest. Sin, temptation and guilt are overpowering. The world imposes a heavy burden, very much like the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. Jesus comes to take that burden and to give us His yoke, a yoke of forgiveness, a yoke of love, a yoke of gifts, a yoke of eternal life. And with His yoke comes rest, a rest the world cannot give, a rest of spirit and soul. Yes, Jesus prayer is for us, for you and for me, His offer is to us, to you and to me, “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Thanks be to God for His gifts of forgiveness and rest and to Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

We Confess Because of Our Value - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 07)/Father’s Day - Text: Matthew 10:5a, 21-33

Today we again celebrate a social holiday, that of Father’s Day. Indeed, it is well that we celebrate Father’s Day as we celebrated Mother’s Day because it is specifically through the vocation and gift of fatherhood and motherhood that God gives us the core of our families and as He instructs parents to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So, we welcome especially our Father’s and wish you a blessed and happy Father’s Day. Now, let us get to our text.
 

There once was a young man, college age, who decided to take a summer job as a lumber jack in order to earn some money for the next school year. While visiting his home congregation, before heading up to the camp, he was approached by several of the members and ask how he thought he would fare at this camp. He was reminded by some that this was a very rough and rugged lumber camp that was known for its lack of Christians. He was also told stories of how years ago a man went there proclaiming to be a Christian and how he was mistreated and abused. The young man, self confident in his faith, answered that he thought he would be alright. After the summer months were over the young man returned to his home congregation before returning to college. When asked how he had fared at the lumber camp and if he was mistreated or abused for being a Christian he answered that he had no trouble, as he said, “no one found out that I was a Christian.” I do not know if this is a true story or not, but it does serve to some degree to illustrate our text for this morning. The theme of our text might be stated as, “confession is good for the soul,” whereas this story illustrates Jesus warning in the text that we be not afraid of men lest we fail to confess faith in Him, which would be devastating for the soul.
 

Our text is a part of Jesus commissioning His disciples before He sent them out to bear witness to Himself. By this time the disciples have seen Jesus perform miracles. They have listened to Him as He has told them a lot about Himself. And yet they do not know everything about Him. He has even asked them to keep some of the things He has told them secret, at least until they fully understood what He told them, and as was the case many times, until the time for Jesus arrest and crucifixion was near. Something similar is true for us today. Jesus has told us a lot about Himself. We read about His life, the signs, wonders and miracles He performed, and the parables He spoke in His Word, the Bible. We are the students with His disciples that He is referring to in verse twenty-four of our text. There are some things in the Bible which we may not fully understand, but as we grow in our faith we will understand more fully, and then can even more fully and confidently bear witness of our faith in and relationship to Christ.
 

Jesus goes on to tell His disciple and us that we should not expect to be treated any better than He was treated while we are here on earth. We remember how He was beaten, mocked, and spat upon. He was even called Beelzebub, which is another name for Satan. As His students, His followers we can expect no better treatment. Of course, we can be and we must admit that we are often like the young man in our story who went to the lumber camp. How often do we find ourselves hiding the fact that we are a Christian so that others will not make fun of us? How often do we find ourselves sounding and acting like those around us so that we “fit in?” How often do we find ourselves keeping our mouths closed and not letting anyone know we are Christians? But that is not what our Lord wants from us? Perhaps you have heard the saying, “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” When it comes to professing and confessing our faith, too often we do not do a good job, instead we fail miserably.
 

However, Jesus goes on to tell us that this cannot be so, because we are Christians, we cannot hide that fact. All those things He told His disciples to keep secret, when they finally understood what it all meant, they could not keep it to themselves, but proclaimed it to the ends of the world. The same is true for us. Have you ever seen a new Christian? How bubbly they are. They want to tell everyone about their new found faith. We remember at Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, when the Pharisees told Jesus to ask His disciples to be quiet, Jesus said that even if they were quiet the stones would sing praises. We are so excited about the good news of Jesus and eternal life that we can not keep quiet, but sing and shout His praise.
 

Now here at verse twenty-eight the stage is set. We have been given God’s Word, the Bible. We have been told how we can expect to be treated, and we have been told how we will not be able to keep quiet about our faith. Now Jesus puts our call to bear witness into perspective. Verse twenty-eight reads, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” He is not necessarily asking us to be martyrs, at least not for martyrdoms sake. As another saying goes, “Martyrdom is the gift you can only give once.” If it is possible to retreat from a situation without denying the truth of the Gospel, then it is better to leave and begin anew elsewhere than to be martyred. God is only calling us to not fear humans in our witnessing.
 

I agree with the commentator (Dr. Lenski) who put it this way, “What Jesus says is this: ‘If the disciple is going to yield to the low motive of fear, then let him be scared, not of the minor danger, but of the supreme danger.’” If we are going to be afraid of someone, it should be God who can do much more damage than any human being. The main point is that we should act with boldness. Why should we not be afraid? The reason is that Jesus will be there to protect us. He is the one who has given us life. Each one of us is a precious person to Him. He planned for our conception, birth, and life. He brought us to faith, some of us through Holy Baptism as we were brought in by our parents, some through His Word, either way, it is He who brought us to faith and He keeps us in that faith.
 

He has blessed us abundantly. My favorite example to show how much He has blessed us is this thought: Think about what we had when we came into this world. I will give you a hint, nothing. Now think about what we will take with us when we die. I will give you another hint, nothing. Now put these two together and you will have the answer to what is actually ours. Your last hint is nothing. Everything we have is God’s, He has created everything we have to use while we are here on His earth, and He would have us use it to His glory. Obviously, if He has given us all that we need we must be of some value to Him. In our text He says that we are worth more than many sparrows. There are other Bible passages which say the same thing, as in Matt. 6:26 when He says that the birds neither sow nor reap yet He takes care of them. We are of so much value to Him that He even knows how many hairs, or lack of hairs, we have on our head. With all this in mind it should be easy for us to not fear him who only can destroy the body. However, our young man in the lumber jack story is a good example of how easy it is for us to deny our faith in Jesus.
 

The ultimate value Jesus has given us is shown by the fact that He gave His life for us. Paul says that for a “very good reason” one person might die for another good person, but Jesus loved us so much and valued us so much that while we were His enemies, that is, while we were actively fighting against Him, which is our nature, He died for us. He lived the perfect life for us, in our place. He suffered the pangs of hell for all of our sins for your sins and for my sins, in our place. He rose on the third day declaring victory over sin, Satan, and death. He did all of this because of His great love for us, for you and for me, love which shows we are of such value to Him.
 

Our text ends with Jesus’ promise that if we will confess Him before men, He will confess us before His Father in heaven. As another commentator (Dr. Kretzmann) expressed it, “A confession of Christ in word and deed, an open proclamation of the truth and a steadfast defense of the truth, is demanded for every follower of Christ.” “There is no neutral ground: for every one the choice is only between confession and denial.” How do we confess Jesus? We confess our faith in Him by our deeds, what we do. We are all witnesses of Him. When it is known that we are Christians, others will look at us and judge what a Christian is by how we act. So, we definitely confess our faith in Jesus by our actions. If you are like me, however, sometimes we do not make a good or positive confession. Sometimes we make a rather bad or negative confession. And for these Jesus also offers us His forgiveness.
 

We also confess Him by our words. I have found it interesting or should I say thrilling that no matter how confusing our verbal confession, and our confession by action, of Him might be, Jesus uses it in great ways. Confessing our faith in Jesus does not mean giving an hour lecture or a testimonial of our faith. Confession of faith in Jesus may be as simple as being there for someone in their time of need. It may be as simple as a few words of comfort or encouragement. It may be answering a question a friend has about our church or our faith. We confess our faith in Jesus in many ways. Almost  every Sunday morning we confess our faith through either the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed which are both confessions of our faith. It does not matter how we confess our faith, but rather that we do confess, because Jesus last words in our text are that if we deny Him, so He will deny us. He makes no bones about it. That means eternal death!
 

I believe that the young man in our story did confess his faith. He confessed that he had no faith, at least no faith in Jesus. Today we might say he simply “identified” as a Christian. You see, there is a distinct difference between identifying and confessing. Too many people attempt to identify as something they are not. As Christians we confess because God gives us that confession. Remember Peter? When Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, they offered Moses, or Elijah and Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Remember Jesus’ words to Peter? This confession was not from flesh and blood but from my Father in heaven. Indeed, our confession of faith is never ours alone, but is always a confession given to us by the Holy Spirit through His Word. And that confession is not simply a verbal confession, but wells up in us as a living confession
 

Our whole text for this morning is a section of great encouragement. Jesus is speaking to us as He speaks to His disciples. He has come, and continues to come to us in His Word, bringing us to faith, strengthening us in faith and keeping us in faith in Him, and forgiving us when we fail. He reminds us that we should expect to be treated as He was, that we will not be able to keep our faith to ourselves, that we are to not be afraid of how we may be treated as others can harm us only in our body. He goes on to encourage us by telling us how valuable we are to Him and He ends by promising that when we do confess our faith in Him He also will confess knowing us to His Father in heaven, which means eternal life. This morning it is especially great to see our father’s confess their faith and bring their families to Divine Service. Finally, I pray that you will go boldly out into the world, into your various vocations and confess your faith by word and deed. And ultimately your confession will be a confession that rejoices and says, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.