Be Careful: Don’t Fall! - February 28, 2016 - Third Sunday in Lent - Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

If you have ever worked with children, been around children, or been a child yourself, you know that children are not always logical, at least not in the way we think of logic. To many of us, children are not logical in their thinking, speaking and acting. Maybe that is why God refers to us as His dear children, because when it comes to our spiritual life and the things we do and do not do, what may seem logical to us, is not always right in God’s eyes. I am sure that there are many times when God shakes His head in wonder; wondering why we are the way we are and even wondering why He bothered creating us in the first place. Well, that’s the bad news anyway. The Good news is that no matter how illogical we may be, God is still God, He still loves us and He is always there to take care of us. Paul’s words to us this morning reminds us of these logical facts and he reminds us that God’s will is that we would serve Him alone.
 

Paul begins by pointing to the past, “1I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (v. 1-4). What Paul is doing is that he is reminding the people that God really is their God and He really does love and care for them. Paul points to the deliverance of the children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt as “proof” of God’s love for them. It is almost as if Paul were saying, “you would think that would be enough to convince the people that God is God, that He loves them, and that they should not and would not go running after other gods and idols.” But that was not the case. Time and time again the children of Israel would forget God. God would allow for them to be taken over by another country. The people would realize their sin, repent and turn to God for help and God would deliver them.
 

“Nevertheless,” Paul says continuing on in our text, “with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (v.5). How often they tried the Lord’s patience, once too often, and the Lord allowed for them to suffer the consequences for their sin. God allowed for some of them to die there in the desert, a physical death and for some, an eternal spiritual death.
 

And now Paul writes to tell us that these things were warnings so that we do not do the evil that they did. Yet, we often times follow right along in their footsteps. We know that God is God, and that He is our God. We know that He has redeemed us, lost and condemned creatures. We know that He has purchased and won us from all sin, from death and from the power of the devil. We know that He has done this with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. We know that He has done this without any merit or worthiness within us. We know this because this is what we have learned and been taught from early on. And yet, we continue in our sins.
 

Continuing on in our text, Paul hits us with the truth of the Law. How fitting it is that we have these words of law as we continue through the Lenten season. Remember, Lent is the time we take the time to contemplate our sins and our part in putting Jesus on the cross. Yes, Lent is the time we really look at our sin and look at our Savior as He suffers and understand that He is suffering because of us and for us, because of our sins, your sins and mine and for us, for you and for me. Unless we can confess our sins, unless we can admit to our part, there can be no forgiveness.
 

Paul says continuing on in our text, “6Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.” (v. 6-10). Our natural inclination is to sin as God tells us, ever intention of our heart is evil all the time. We do tend toward idolatry. While we may not bow down and worship a graven image or an idol made of stone, yet we do tend toward idolatry nonetheless. We often put other things before God. We let the busy-ness of our lives interfere with our prayer time, with our time for reading God’s Word, with our personal and family devotion time, and sometimes it even interferes with our times of divine service. With so many things going on in our lives here on this earth, we get so caught up in the things that we think “must” be done that there is little time left for God. Thus, our idol becomes the busy-ness of this world.
 

We do indulge in immorality. We may not be out having affairs, but we do indulge in immorality nonetheless. How often do we find ourselves looking lustfully at a member of the opposite sex, or even today, some lust at a member of the same sex. How often do we find ourselves saying, “excuse me,” when words of profanity slip past our lips. How often do we find ourselves sharing with a friend, either sharing “in love” or even sharing the truth about someone else and what an awful person they are, as we sit at the gossip fence. How often do we find ourselves telling little “white” lies to “protect” someone else or ouselves? How often do we find ourselves running down our own church and then wonder why no one wants to come with us to visit? How often do we find ourselves blaming others and even blaming God for our struggles in life? How often do we refuse to acknowledge and confess our part in the struggles we face? How often do we find ourselves putting God to the test? And how often do we find ourselves justifying our thoughts, words and actions?
 

Yes, we do put the Lord to the test. How often do we find ourselves putting ourselves into situations where we know we will be tempted and then justify the sin by saying we were unable to overcome the temptation. How often do we tend to blame God for the things that happen in life when we are the ones who are responsible for our words and actions. Remember Paul’s warning, “11Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (v. 11-12). That last verse almost sounds like the old cliche, “pride goes before the fall.” Perhaps we would do well to read and reread Paul’s Word, which are God’s Word, then look in the mirror and make our confession.
 

How often do we find ourselves grumbling. “Nobody loves me, everybody hates, think I’ll eat some worms.” “Poor me, everyone has it so much better than I do.” “No bodies on my side, everyone is against me.” And, “If you think you have it bad, you should hear how bad I have it. Why doesn’t God just give me a break.”
 

Paul’s words of Law remind us that we are no different than the children of Israel and that we need to watch out, just as they did not do so. We need to remember what happened to the children of Israel, so that what happened to them does not happen to us.
 

Paul does not stop with just the words of the Law. He goes on to give us words of encouragement, even words of good news, “13No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (v.13). Paul reminds us that the Lord is still our God. He is with us, and He will help us. That does not mean we can get all puffed up and challenge the devil, the world and our own sinful nature. No, instead, we must face each temptation with fear and trembling and take it to the Lord in prayer. In the time of temptation the Lord will help us. He will help us, either by removing the temptation from us, so that it is no longer there to tempt us. Or He will help us by providing us a way of escape, by opening a door to another option, or putting someone or something in the way of temptation so that we will have to go another way. Or He will help us by giving us strength to endure. God may have in mind to use this temptation to work strengthening of faith in us, so that as we work through the temptation you will be a stronger Christian and closer to Him.
 

Paul’s words are words we need to hear and we need to hear them quite often, whether we want to hear them or not. Paul reminds us of our need to admit our past sins. We need to admit that we have not been the people that God wants us to be. We need to admit that we do desire evil, that we have been idolaters, that we have indulged in immorality, and that we have grumbled.
 

Paul’s words remind us that we are not to lean on ourselves. We are not to be boastful of our ability to resist sin and temptation. Because if we depend on ourselves we will fail. We will fall into sin and temptation. We will be very much like the children of Israel.
 

Paul’s words reminds us, instead, we are to lean on the Lord who will help us. We are to pray in every situation. We are to pray and know that God will provide help, either by removing the temptation, or by giving us a way out, or by giving us the strength to endure.
 

Paul’s words reminds us that we are to look to the cross of Christ. It is because Jesus took our sins upon Himself, all of our sins, our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of omission and commission it was because He suffered and paid the price for our sins, because He died on the cross that we are forgiven. It is to Jesus that we pray, knowing that He suffered even more than we will ever suffer. He suffered being tempted by the devil. He knows what we are going through, even more than we can imagine, because He has already experienced everything we are experiencing, and even greater temptations and  suffering, so we know that He can help. Again, because of His suffering and death, we know that we have forgiveness and life. The very reason Jesus came to earth, was born, lived, suffered, died and rose was to pay the price for our sins, to earn our forgiveness which He freely pours out on us.
 

And so, Paul’s words remind us that we are to go to where the Lord gives His good gifts and blessings. We are to go to His Word and sacraments, the means of grace. Through these means the Lord gives us forgiveness of sins as well as the faith and strength we need to face the temptations and challenges of each new day, so that we may live each day to His glory.
 

Our text for today reminds us of Paul’s words in first Corinthians thirteen when he says, “now these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” Our faith is based on the past, that Jesus is the Messiah, that He did die for our sins and that He did rise from the dead. We do not forget the past, but we keep the past in mind to remind us to keep from sinning so that what happened to the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, does not happen to us. Thus, our hope is a sure confidence in eternal life in heaven. And we show our faith and hope through our love for the Lord and for each other. Our lives, then point to Jesus and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Scripture Readings and Sermon - Lent Midweek Three - February 24, 2016 - Text: Luke 4:16-22a; 2 Timothy 3:10-17

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we are looking at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and seeing how the various parts of our service reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. The parts of the service are not necessarily be presented in the order of our service but are being presented in an order which will prayerfully give consideration to the day of Lent on which it is presented, as per example, the Lord’s Supper will be presented on Maundy Thursday, the evening in which our Lord gave us His Holy Supper.
 

Last week we moved on in the Divine Service to the Introit, the Kyrie and the Hymn of Praise. We were reminded how these parts of the service flowed out of the ceremonial laws of Leviticus wherein the penitent sinner would bring a sacrifice, lay hands on the sacrifice, slaughter the animal, shedding its blood which was splashed on the altar  and in so doing the penitent would recognize that the price for sin was death, that blood had to be shed. We noted that these sacrifices really and truly did nothing to bring or earn forgiveness but simply pointed to the one promised Messiah who would be the once and for all sacrifice on the cross for us, Jesus. We were reminded that our liturgy flows out of and follows the ceremonial law of Leviticus in a fulfilled manner, in that the law in Leviticus pointed forward to Jesus, and our liturgy points us back to Jesus as well. Finally, we were again reminded that our worship, our liturgy is divine service, that is it is first and foremost God service, God coming to us to give us the gifts and blessing He has to give and our response to those gifts. This week we move on to another of the means of grace that holds prominence in our divine service.
 

Two readings from Scripture will help make our point this evening. First, Luke’s account of Jesus during Sabbath worship in His home town, “16And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” (Luke 4:16-22).
 

Second, Paul’s second letter to Timothy regarding the importance of the Word of God, “10You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:10-17).
 

Now for a question, “How does God give us the gifts and blessings He has to give?” Or, “Through what means does God gives us the gifts He has to give?” So, if I want to give you some ice cream, I do not simply ask you to hold out your hand. I put the ice cream in a bowl and serve you the ice cream using the means or instrument of the bowl. The bowl is that thing which delivers the ice cream to you. God gives us His gifts, faith, forgiveness of sins, strengthening of faith, life, eternal life and salvation. How does God give these gifts to us. He could give them to us directly, that is He could appear to us and impart His gifts to us, but that is not His usual way of giving His gifts, at least not in our world today. Today God uses means or instruments through which He gives us His gifts and those instruments or means are what we call the means of grace. The means of grace, the means through which the Lord comes to us today are His Word, the Bible, Confession and absolution, as well as His Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these means our Lord bestows on us and gives us the gifts He has to give.
 

In our liturgy in our divine service we notice that our service is permeated with the means of grace, that is our service is filled to the full with the means of grace. As we have heard, our service begins with a remind of our baptism and our faith in God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our service then moves on to the place wherein we confess our sins and hear God’s Word of absolution that our sins are forgiven. We moved on and spoke, sang, chanted back to God the very word He has given us to speak to Him through the introit, the Kyrie and the hymn of praise. This evening we are reminder of the importance of the means of Grace of God’s Holy Word. Just as Jesus read from the Bible, just as Paul outlined to Timothy, it is the Word of God that is so important for without the Word of God there would be no need for a service indeed there would truly be no divine service, because it is through the Word of God that the Divine speaks to us.
 

And so we are reminded that God’s Word is a word with power. Unlike any other book by human writing, a science book, a social studies book, an English or Math book, God’s Word is a book with power. Certainly these other books, written by fallible humans can be and are often times good books used to learn good lessons, but they do not have any power. As a matter of fact, more often than not these man written books must be rewritten in order to “keep up with the times.” Whereas God’s Word is a book that is infallible and never needs to be rewritten. God’s Word never contradicts itself but only complements itself. Indeed, if we ever think there is a contradiction then the problem is not with God and His Word but with us and our own misunderstanding.
 

We are reminded that God’s Word is a word with power and so it gives and does what it says. When God’s word says we are given faith, then we know we have faith because it has been given to us. When God’s Word says our sins are forgiven, then we know our sins are forgiven because His forgiveness has been proclaim, bestowed and given to us. Indeed, as Jesus read the Word and announced that these words have been fulfilled, so that same Word is read today and the same pronouncement is made, that His Word is fulfilled for us and in us. And as Paul tells young pastor Timothy so He tells us, these are the “sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
 

God’s Word is a word with power to give the gifts He has to give and to do what He says it will do. God’s Word is true, perfect and holy because it is His Word. And so we are reminded that God’s Word points to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Indeed, all of Scripture and all of time point to Jesus. Ever since the Garden of Eden and the fall into sin and God’s promise of a Savior, a Messiah, a Christ, all of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. Today, we look back and we have our New Testament which points to Jesus. Even our calendar, B.C. and A.D. point us to Jesus, the center of time and eternity. And so rightly our divine worship, our liturgy, our reading of His Holy Word all point us to focus on Jesus who had done everything necessary for salvation for us and gives it all to us and we are done to and given to and so we say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Introit, Kyrie, and Hymn of Praise - Lent Midweek Two - February 17, 2016 - Text: Mark 10:47; Luke 2:14; John 1:29

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we will look at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and see how the various parts reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. The parts of the service will not necessarily be presented in the order of our service but will be presented in an order which will prayerfully give consideration to the day of Lent on which it is presented, as per example, the Lord’s Supper will be presented on Maundy Thursday, the evening in which our Lord gave us His Holy Supper.
 

Last week we began, appropriately enough with the invocation. We were reminded that the invocation reminds us of our baptism and initiation into the Church and the Christian faith, that we worship a God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and we invoke or invite Him to be in worship giving us the good gifts and blessings He has to give through the means He has given to give us those gifts, the means of grace. This week we move on in the Divine Service to the Introit, the Kyrie and the Hymn of Praise.
 

The Introit or the entrance hymn follows the confession of our sins and our hearing God’s word of absolution, that is that our sins are forgiven, which part of the service we will appropriately take up on Good Friday. Immediately following our confession and absolution, that is immediately after our sins have been forgiven and we now stand before God in a state of forgiveness, we are prepared to enter into God’s presence, thus the introit or entrance hymn. If you have never noticed, next Sunday you will, but the introit if pretty much a part of or parts of one or more psalms with an antiphon that introduces and concludes the introit. Certainly it is appropriate that the introit is chanted or sang, but can be spoken. The introit points us to the Sunday of the Church year and focuses our attention on the gifts of God of which we are about to be given.
 

After the introit we sing the Kyrie or the Kyrie Elison which is Latin for “Lord have mercy.” The Kyrie is the plea of blind Bartimaus to Jesus for healing and reflects our cry to Jesus for spiritual healing as well. As noted in our hymnal the Kyrie is a quote from Mark, “And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (Mark 10:47). And so we cry out in our plea to our Savior and triune God with the three-fold, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” We speak words calling for mercy because we know that our Lord and God is a merciful and gracious God who is full of compassion. Indeed, it is the Gospel message of forgiveness that moves in us and stirs in us to cry out knowing with all confidence that our plea will be heard and answered.
 

Following the Kyrie we sing a hymn of praise. On special occasions we sing the hymn of praise “This is the Feast” which comes from Rev. 5:12-13; 19:5-9, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:12b-13).  “And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants,  you who fear him, small and great.” Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God” (Rev. 19:5-8). In the Hymn of Praise This Is the Feast we sing of our ultimate dining at the Lord’s Heavenly Banqueting Table, singing praise to the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world and more especially our sins.
 

On the not so special occasions, every other Sunday, which we might contend are special occasions as well we sing words spoken by the angels at Jesus’ birth and spoken by John the Baptist in reference to Jesus. The words of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14). And the words of John, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29). In the hymn of praise we Praise God for giving us a glimpse of His glory in Jesus. How fitting, we have invited God to be a part of our service, and actually to be the main giver in our service, which is what Divine Service means, that is it is God’s service, first and foremost to us. So, we have invited God to our service of Him giving His gifts to us and at the same time were reminded of our Baptism. We have confessed our sins and heard His Word of absolution so that now we can with confidence enter into His presence robed with His forgiveness so we have no fear in approaching His altar. We have approached His altar singing His words of praise. We have cried out our plea for mercy and now we rejoice in His glory.
 

In Leviticus, when God gave the ceremonial laws to His people, those laws which governed the sacrifices which were demanded as price for sins, the purpose of the ceremonial laws was to point out that the price for sin was death, that price having been set in the Garden of Eden, that blood had to be shed. The ceremonial laws specified what sacrifices were to be made according to the sins one had committed as well as the sins of the community as a whole. The person or family or at times the whole community would offer sacrifices for sins. The sacrifice was brought. The person or family would lay their hands on the sacrifice, transferring their sin to the lamb. The lamb was then slaughtered, killed, its blood shed to pay the price for the sins of those offering it. This shedding of blood truly did nothing as far as paying the price for sin, rather it merely pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And yet, all throughout the Old Testament and up to the point of Jesus, these sacrifices were demanded because the price for sin is death and all people needed the reminder of what their sins cost. It was only as the sacrifice was offered and sins were declared forgiven that one would then be able to enter into God’s presence in the temple. And one would enter into God’s presence in the temple with songs and hymns of praise. Thus we see how our liturgy follows this pattern set by God in Leviticus, that of confession, absolution, sins forgiven and entrance into God’s presence.
 

Our entrance hymn celebrates the fulfillment of what was given by God in Leviticus. Certainly their worship pointed forward to Jesus and now our worship points back to Jesus. Just as they worshiped God in faith, looking to and believing that God would send a Savior, we worship in faith as well looking back and seeing that Jesus is our Savior. So our entrance hymn celebrates God’s victory in Jesus over sin, death and the devil. Our hymn of praise celebrated the glory of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, as well as His ascension wherein He has returned to heaven and is again ruling in all His glory.
 

What a great gift we have in our liturgy, in our divine service, the gift of God pointing us to Jesus and the forgiveness He has won for us, paid for and given to us, through our words, psalms, prayers, hymns and His Holy Word. Our liturgy helps us to focus, not on ourselves, not on things not promised or given by God, but on Him, on Jesus, on His means of grace, on the gifts He has to give. Yet, not only does our liturgy help us to focus on these things, because it is God’s Word, it is efficacious, that is it through the word of God we are given the gifts God has to give. And so we celebrate, we rejoice and give thanks to God for faith, forgiveness and life, saying, to Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Invocation - Ash Wednesday - February 10, 2016 - Text: Matthew 28:16-20

This year during the season of Lent and all the way through Easter morning we will look at the various parts of our Divine Worship Service and my prayer is that we see how the various parts reflect God’s working in our lives; God’s giving His gifts to us, our being given to and our response of faith. The parts of the service will not necessarily be presented in the order of our service but will be presented in an order which will prayerfully give consideration to the day of Lent on which it is presented, as per example, the Lord’s Supper will be presented on Maundy Thursday, the evening in which our Lord gave us His Holy Supper.
 

This evening we begin, appropriately with the invocation. First and foremost the invocation is an invoking or inviting of our Lord to be a part of our service. And the invocation, God’s name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit should be a reminder of the means of grace of Holy Baptism and our own Baptism and initiation into the Holy Christian Church when God’ Name was put on us with the water, making us His children. Indeed at our Baptism we were given faith and forgiveness of sins, the Lord put His name on us marking us as His own dear child and our names were written in the Book of Life.
 

Way back in the beginning, yes, in Genesis, God begins to reveal Himself to us as a God who is three persons in one Godhead, or at least that is the way in which we describe what He reveals to us. In Genesis, at creation we are told that God created the world. The word God is in the plural, yet is translated in the singular, thus we know that our God is a plural God in a singular Godhead. In the New Testament Jesus tells us that He and the Father are one thus solidifying our understanding that we are not polytheistic, that is that we worship many gods, nor are we pantheistic that is that we worship a god who is in everything, but we are monotheistic in that we worship one God who reveals Himself to us in a plurality.
 

Just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus met with His disciples. The account went like this: “16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:16-20). One of the first things I find interesting in this text is the fact that we are told that some of Jesus’ own disciples who had been with Him for three years, listening to Him preach, watching Him do miracles, and having witnessed His death and resurrection, we are told that they doubted. Makes me feel pretty good about the times that I have some doubt.
 

Unfortunately this passage of Scripture has been mislabeled “The Great Commission.” As we look at this text I believe we should re-label it, “The Great Giving of Authority and Promise.” Notice that Jesus begins by saying that He has been given all authority, which was His and which He had given up when He took on human flesh and blood being born as a man, but what is implied is that He is giving this authority to us so that when anyone asks us, “by what authority do you say these things?” telling people of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we might well say, by Jesus’ authority. And what is more, we have added at the end of this text Jesus’ promise that He will be with us. Thus we have His authority to speak and His promise to be with us when we do speak.
 

We have Jesus authority and promise to be with us as we are going about our lives, not an imperative, but an indicative, that is that as we are living in our vocations, as we have opportunity we are to give an answer, a defense of our faith in Jesus. Interestingly enough, Jesus tells us to make disciples by first baptizing and then teaching. And notice that we are to make disciples of all nations. Today we hear interesting language about how we are to make disciples of a certain target audience, but Jesus says our target audience is all nations. In other words, His Word and His Sacraments will work to give faith to all people. And notice as well, when a child is born they are born as a citizen of the nation in which they are born, thus another clue that we should be baptizing infants.
 

So, we are to make disciples by baptizing and teaching. We are to make disciples using the means our Lord has given us to use, those means through which He promises to work to give the gifts He has to give; faith, forgiveness and life. God’s promise is not that we are to make disciples by surveying the social group we intend to target, as a matter of fact He never gives us a target social group, except all nations. He does promise that His Word will not return void. He does promise that He is with us. He does promise that He will give His gifts when and where He pleases through the very means He has given to give His gifts. Thus, when we fail to baptize and teach, we fail to use the means through which God gives the gifts He has to give.
 

We might also make note, especially as we begin our service with this invocation that it is God who gives first. We come with nothing of our own, except our sins, which we will get to next week. We come with nothing because all that we are and have must first come from God. We love because He first loved us. We give only as He first gives to us. Naked we came into this world and naked we leave, all that we have is only ours as a gift from and on loan to us from God who owns all and gives all. God gives and we respond.
 

So, we begin our service as our life in Christ was begun, by having God’s name put on us, by invoking God to bless us and our service. We invite Him, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We invite Him as our dear Father, the Creator of all things, the Preserver of all things, indeed our own Father as our life is a gift from Him, as He gives life at conception. We invite Him as our spiritual Father as He gives new life, even eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism.
 

God gives first and He gives His all and His best. God does not do fractions. He does not gives us some of His gifts now and more later. He does not put any restriction or qualifications on the gifts He gives, in other words He does not tell us if we are obedient or do our part, or do anything that He will do His next part or give any more of His gifts. He gives and we are given to. Certainly our only response would be to refuse and reject His gifts, which is what we would do left to ourselves. God gives and we are given to and we now invite Him to give to us and to fill us with more of His gifts
 

We begin our service by invoking, by inviting God to hear our requests and response of faith, thus we see an ebb and flow to our worship, our being given to by God and our response of faith through our prayers, offerings, and hymns of praise.
 

And notice, through the very words of our invocation, we make it very clear to whom we have come to worship, to whom we rejoice in, that One who is the One who is giving us the gifts and blessings He has to give. We do not come to worship just any god. We do not come to do for our God as if He needs anything from us. Rather we come and invoke and invite our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be a part of our service just as He is a part of our very lives and has been a part of our lives since putting His name on us, putting faith in our hearts, giving us forgiveness of sins and writing our names in the book of life at our own baptism.
 

We begin with the invocation which is a microcosm of our lives and our worship. We begin in the name of our God: Father, Creator, Preserver; Son, Redeemer and Savior; and Holy Spirit, Sanctifier and giver of faith, the One who does all and gives all. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.