The Heart of the Matter - August 29, 2021 - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17) - Text: Mark 7:14-23

Again this week we pick up where we left off last week as we continue reading through the Gospel of Mark. Last week, you might remember, Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees concerning their man-made ceremonial laws concerning outward washings. Jesus showed the Pharisees their pietistic hypocrisy in how they elevated their own laws over God and His Word. And we were reminded how often the same things happen in our world today when we elevate our own human opinions over and above God’s Word.
 

Perhaps you have heard someone say that we are no longer under the Law because Jesus fulfilled the Law. Let me tell you that statement is only partially true. Yes, Jesus did come to fulfill the Law and the prophets and He did so, perfectly, that is He fulfilled all the ceremonial laws all the moral laws, the Ten Commandments, all the civil laws perfectly. All those ceremonial laws pointed to the once and for all sacrifice of Himself on the cross. So, although the ceremonial and moral laws have been fulfilled, we remain under the civil law, which are the laws of our land. And the moral law, the Ten Commandments has for us Christians become a guide to our lives.
 

Concerning these ceremonial laws, last week the Pharisees were insistent that a person must abide by certain ceremonial washings. These ceremonial washings were given by Moses and yes, they were to be observed. The problem was that the ceremonial washings with which the Pharisees were concerned were not simply the ones given by Moses, but the ones they had added over the years. They were concerned about their own man-made laws over and above what God had actually given.
 

Among the ceremonial laws were the laws that regulated that persons must eat and not eat certain foods. The Levitical law given by God to Moses made it unlawful for the Children of Israel to eat certain unclean foods. Jesus came into the world to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets and He did and as He fulfilled all the Law and the Prophets, especially the ceremonial laws, the laws which pointed to Him, those laws are no longer under effect. In other words, the price for sin that was set in the Garden of Eden; death, human death, that blood must be shed; and all the sacrifices that were offered by the Children of Israel, pointed to the one sacrifice, the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, so, as Jesus fulfilled all these laws, they became unnecessary.
 

In our text, Jesus explains, as for certain foods which were previously ceremonially unclean, now He declares all foods clean (v. 19). So, why are all foods now clean? As I pondered this question, I read the notes in the Lutheran Study Bible which I believe gives a good and valid explanation, “Jesus’ teaching will affect the future Christian mission. Simply put, Gentiles will not need to observe Jewish dietary laws. The question of food laws caused much controversy in the first-century Church.” In other words, this goes back to the Garden of Eden and the fact that when God promises a Savior, a Messiah, a Redeemer, His promise was given before there was a Jew and a Gentile, His promise was to all people and now after Jesus’ death and resurrection, nothing would hinder taking that Gospel message to anyone, Jew or Gentile.
 

And now, Jesus gives a bit of an anatomy lesson. He says that what goes into a body, passes through the body. What enters the mouth, moves into the stomach, is digested, moves into the small intestine, the large intestine, and then exits as waste. This physical food is not what makes a person spiritually unclean.
 

As for what makes one unclean, spiritually unclean, it is what is already in the body and what comes out of the body. Here we are reminded that we are conceived and born in sin. The sin of Adam and Eve is in our DNA, our genes and so is genetically passed on from one generation to the next generation.
 

We are conceived and born in sin and so our natural inclination is toward sin. As God pronounced back in Genesis, “every inclination of man’s heart is evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Our natural inclination is to be disobedient, to not share, to speak evil and listen to evil, to not put the best construction on everything, to not hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it, to not help and be of service to others. All the good things that we do are things we have to learn to do and are actually against our natural inclinations.
 

Thus, our sins are naturally sins against the commandments as Jesus enumerates. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (v. 21-23).
 

Sin is not simply sin when one does something against the commandments, rather sin begins in the heart in our thoughts. For the person who does not believe a person can sin in their thoughts, what do you think God means when He says, “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell  of fire” (Matt. 18:9). How can your eye cause you to sin except that it is connected to your thinking brain? And there is the account of Cain and Abel where the sin of Cain began in his heart in his thoughts as he was jealous of his brother Abel. Sin begins in our heart, in our thoughts.
 

Sin begins in our thoughts and shows itself in our words. Our words reflect what is in our heart, either words of encouragement or words of discouragement. We speak words against God, against our neighbor, and at times even against our own family and friends. And we fail to speak up for and put the best construction on everything especially when everyone around us is bashing another person. We omit to speak up for our neighbor.
 

Ultimately sin does show itself in our actions. We actually commit sin by doing the things God commands us not to do. We put other things, idols before God, not blatantly, but subtly. We curse, swear and misuse God’s Holy name. We despise preaching and God’s Word, even despising His pastors. We disobey our parents and those in authority over us. We kill, we commit adultery, we steal, we bear false witness and spread rumors, and we covet what is not ours. Yes, we actually commit sins against God and one another and these sins have their beginning in our hearts, in our thoughts.
 

Jesus reminds us that we are conceived and born in sin, which means that our nature is to sin and He enumerates our sinning against all the commandments. Again, we are told that it is what is on the inside that defiles us, yet in our world today we are constantly told to look for the answers to life’s questions by looking inside ourselves. Look deep inside yourself we are constantly told. In the movie Star Wars Luke Skywalker was told to trust his instincts and to be lead by the force. I like the person who asked the question, “How would you like it if you were in an airplane and the captain came over the loud speaker and announced that he was going to turn off all his instruments, close his eyes and allow the force to help him land the airplane.” Frankly I would rather he allow the co-pilot to land the airplane using all the instruments. Yet, that is how many people make many decisions in our world, we turn off what we know, we neglect to seek God’s wisdom, instead we make our decisions, even important decision by what we feel or by what we think, by looking inside ourselves. If we neglect the Word of God and only follow what we feel, what we think, this ultimately leads to our own destruction and death, even eternal death.
 

What does this mean and where is the Gospel in our text for today? All three of our texts for this morning encourage our striving, if you will, with God’s help, to be the people He would have us to be. “Take care, and keep your soul diligently,” “keep alert,” and “from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts.” We live in a cursed world were sin abounds and where we are constantly being tempted to do what comes naturally and join in. And yet, we are called by Jesus to resist.
 

Thanks be to God for Jesus. Jesus was born and came into this world to do for the nation of Israel what all the people of Israel could not do and for that matter, to do for us what we are unable to do. Jesus came to live perfectly for us in our place, to fulfill the demands of God’s law which is to live perfectly as our Father in heaven is perfect. Jesus came to do what all the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament simply pointed to. Yes, Jesus came to abolish the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament which point to Himself.
 

Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets and He did. Every prophecy concerning the coming Messiah, Jesus fulfilled perfectly. The odds of one person doing everything prescribed by the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament are too great to imagine and yet, that is what Jesus did. He came and fully and perfectly fulfilled all God’s promises. He fulfilled all things perfectly and then He freely of His own free will took all our sins upon Himself, all our sins and all the sins of all people who ever have lived, who are living and who ever will live. And He suffered the price for those sins, by dying on the cross, by suffering hell. Jesus earned and paid for all sins on the cross of Calvary. And now, He freely offers to us and gives to us this forgiveness that He earned. He gives us these gifts through His means of grace.  As we are Baptized and as we remember our baptism we are given His gifts. As we confess our sins and hear His words of absolution we are given His gifts. As we hear His Word and as we read and respond with His Word, we are given His gifts. As we come to His Holy Supper and eat and drink His body and blood, in, with and under the bread and wine, we are given His gifts. And what gifts are we given? Faith, blessings upon blessings, forgiveness of sins, strengthening of faith, life in this world, salvation and life in the world to come, even eternal life. And even more, while we remain in this world, Jesus helps us to overcome.
 

What a great God we have. What a gift giving God we have. What a loving God we have. I would simply encourage you, do not look inside yourself, rather look outside yourself. We cannot save ourselves that is why Jesus came. Jesus came to live for us, to die for us, to rise for us. He comes to us from outside of us through His external means of grace, His Holy Word and His Sacraments, to give to us all the gifts and blessings He earned on Calvary. As we make regular and diligent use of His means of grace, He gives us blessings upon blessings and He stirs in us to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lip Service or Hearts Desire - August 22, 2021 - Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16) - Text: Mark 7:1-13

Last Sunday we witnessed an exodus of people from following Jesus because what He was teaching was too hard for them. They decided it would be best for them to follow someone whose teachings were more in line with what they believed. Sounds pretty familiar to what happens in our own world today. Too often people do not like what they read in the Bible, so they stop reading it. People do not like what they hear the pastor preach from the pulpit so they label him as not being in touch with today, or they simply stop listening and maybe stop coming. People do not like what is taught in Bible class, so they stop coming. They do not like their fallible, sin stained opinions contradicted by the Word of God so they do not show up to talk about the issue. We live in a country where, to a great degree we still have the freedom of religion and we have the freedom from religion. Too often people exercise the later and instead of looking, shopping for a church which teaches the Word of God in all its truth and purity, no matter how hard it is, they look for, they shop for a church which teaches what they want to believe. Instead of going to Bible Class and asking the hard questions they stay away and make up their own doctrine. We must admit, we all like to have our own way, and we like to have our own opinions validated and unfortunately, our own way does not always lead to Christ.
 

After reading our text for today, two clichés came to my mind. The first cliché was “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” We have all heard this cliché and we understand it to mean that what is on the outside is not necessarily what is on the inside. Yet, how often do we look at someone and immediately make an internal judgement about that person. I confess, I tend to be that way, and the worst part about it is that I know that I, personally, do not always make a good first impression. So, I do try very hard to not “judge” people by their first impression, but to give people two, three or more chances to make an impression.
 

The difficult thing about this tendency is the fact that we live in a society were presentation is everything. There was even a television show called Spin City (and not that I would advise watching it) with the understanding that truth is not what is important, but the spin you put on the truth, that is what is important. As Christians we might better understand this cliché in the context of our understanding ourselves as being at the same time a sinner and a saint. We are sinful human beings and if looked at from the outside, that is what is seen, yet we are at the same time saints, forgiven children of God, but that is only seen by God as He alone can look into our hearts. Certainly we would agree that we would not want to “judge a book by its cover.”
 

The second cliché that this text brought to my mind was “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” This cliché brought to mind the fact that there are two type of dirtiness and two types of cleanliness. There is physical dirtiness which happens when we go out and work and play and get dirty. The opposite of this is physical cleanliness which occurs when we take bath. And there is spiritual dirtiness which is what we know and call sin. The opposite of this is spiritual cleanliness which comes with forgiveness and which also reminds us of Holy Baptism. Through the waters of Holy Baptism we are made clean, we are made a part of God’s Kingdom. We are washed clean of all sins and we are made saints in God’s Kingdom.
 

The problem in our text is in this discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees on cleanliness and uncleanliness and on believing the Words of Jesus or believing the words of humanity. The problem or the question started over a discussion of ritual cleansing, but that was not the real problem or question. As so often is the case in our world today, we do not always talk about what is on our minds instead we talk about something else, hoping we will get an answer to what is really on our minds. I call this “the question behind the question.” If there is a teaching of the Bible we do not like, we talk about all the exceptions which we believe might be acceptable, instead of talking about the specific doctrine which is on our minds. We talk to everyone we think will agree with us instead of going to Bible and discussing what the Bible really does say. The Pharisees finally cut to the chase in our text and asked “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” In other words, the question behind their question about clean and unclean was a question concerning the traditions of man versus the will of God.
 

For the Pharisees the man made traditions of washing, literally of baptizing of hands, of the ritual, ceremonial washing, even a sprinkling, were more important than faith or even why they did these things, why they followed these rituals and traditions. Too often in our world today we have a problem with tradition, either we put too much emphasis on tradition, or we do not respect tradition enough, we sin on both sides, but really that is not the crux of our text. For the Pharisees, the problem was that the disciples did not follow their human, man made traditions. For Jesus, the problem was not the traditions, but the question behind the traditions. Although some traditions might not be good traditions and might need to cease, some traditions are good. However, again, the questions is not so much about traditions, but what is behind certain traditions.
 

Because Jesus did not faithfully follow all the man made traditions and enforce that His disciples do the same, He was accused of being blasphemous, a fake, a phony, even a heretic. He certainly could not be a prophet, at least not a fit prophet, at least not in the eyes of the Pharisees. According to the Pharisees, a true prophet, a fit prophet, was one who knew and followed all the Laws of the Bible, but more importantly, who knew and followed all the traditions of the fathers.
 

Jesus, Himself, cuts to the chase as well and states, from the prophet Isaiah, a prophet with whom they were well familiar and who they respected. Jesus states, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And then, just in case they do not understand, Jesus gives a specific example of the Pharisees doing just this, worshiping God in vain and following the rules taught by men instead of by God.
 

Jesus gives the example of the fourth commandment, of honoring our father and mother. Jesus says that the Pharisees believe that it is okay to disobey God’s command in order to follow their own law which states that if one is a Pharisee it is okay to not honor one’s parents by taking care of them. For the Pharisees and even more so for many in our world today, what is important is not what God says in His holy Word, but our own man made laws and traditions.
 

The point Jesus is making is a very valid point for us today. The question is “do we live by the fallible rules of mankind or do we live by faith?” And the answer is seen in our actions. The solution according to Jesus is that it all begins with faith. Now remember, as you have heard me say many times, faith is the instrument through which God gives us all the gifts He has to give. Faith is the instrument which is given to us through the Word of God and Holy Baptism and which takes hold of and makes all of God’s gifts ours. Like I have said in my ice cream illustration, when a friend gives us a bowl of ice cream they also give us the spoon, the instrument we use to move the ice cream from the bowl to our mouths. So, likewise, God gives us faith, forgiveness and life through His means of grace and also the instrument, the faith to make those gifts ours. Faith has its basis, not in man made traditions, but in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Faith in His Holy Word.
 

And this faith which God has given to us in our hearts is not simply lip service. Saving faith is not acted out by just showing up for church on Sunday morning and thinking that we have done our duty for the week. Faith, true saving faith shows itself in action, in being used to make God’s gifts ours and in sharing those gifts with others. Faith shows itself in being more interested in the truth of God’s Word rather than following fallible man made rituals and traditions, especially if it is simply for the sake of following man made rituals and traditions.
 

Faith, true saving faith comes from outside, it comes through means, namely the means of grace, the Word, the Bible and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Faith comes from outside, and it springs up inside as a living faith. As the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to give us faith through the means of grace, He also works in our hearts, using the gifts God gives so that we cannot help but respond by living lives of faith, that is by living lives hungering and thirsting to eat and drink Jesus’ flesh and blood as we heard last week. God’s desire is that we worship Him in spirit and truth, that we hunger and thirst to make regular and diligent use of His means of grace, those means through which He comes to give us all the gifts and blessings He has to give. God’s desire is that our desire is to be where His Word is preached in all its truth and purity and His sacraments are distributed according to His Word. God’s desire is that we read and hear His Word, that we confess our sins and hear His most beautiful words of forgiveness, that we remember our baptism and that we come to His Holy Supper where we eat His body and drink His blood, participating in Him so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life, His death becomes our death, His resurrection becomes our resurrection and His new life in heaven becomes our new life in heaven.
 

My prayer is that the Lord will continue to help us to move from simply honoring our Lord with our lips only to desiring to be in divine service and Bible Class, to desire to make regular, every Sunday and even every day, and diligent, as often as offered, use of His means of grace. So that we might grow in our own faith life and ultimately so that our faith might shine forth so much that others will see the faith that is in us and be brought into His kingdom as well. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Living Bread - August 8, 2021 - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14) - Text: John 6:35-51

You have heard me harping on this before and you will no doubt hear me harping on it again, but I get a bit upset by the media, the people who are interviewed on the news, and especially by talk show hosts who continually talk about the fact that, “My god is not like that.” And then they go on to talk about their god who loves everybody, not matter what they do, who is tolerant of all kinds of deviance, and who thinks that we can do whatever we want to do as long as it feels right and is not hurting anyone else. It appears that not only have the clothes style from the 60's come back to haunt us, so have the sayings, “If it feels good, do it!” The people of today sound a lot like the people of our text who suggested that they know the Savior and He is not this Jesus because about Jesus they said, “Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” And this Jesus was not doing the things that they thought their savior should do. Remember, at this time the people were under Roman rule and they had so twisted God’s Word that instead of looking for a spiritual Savior, a Savior from sin, they were looking for a social-political savior, an earthly savior, a savior from the Romans. And this Jesus did not fit their picture.
 

I would suggest that before we come down too hard on these people that we need to take a step back and look at ourselves and our own picture of who we think Jesus is. We think we know Jesus, but do we really? We know about Jesus from the stories we hear as little children. And those are good stories, but sometimes, especially as little children, we do not completely understand these stories and we do not necessarily understand all the implications of these stories. Sometimes, then, we fill in what we do not understand with our own imagination of who Jesus is and what He should do.
 

We think we know Old Testament Bible characters and Jesus from art. There are actually people who believe that Jesus had blonde hair and blue eyes, like the picture they too often see, the picture of what some call the “American Jesus.” Jesus was probably dark skinned, dark haired and probably had dark eyes. He was after all, a Jew. Also, too often we think of Old Testament, even New Testament characters, and Jesus Himself as having long hair. Certainly that would go against what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him,” (1 Cor. 11:14). Now Paul is speaking about the customs of his day, but would it not be logical to think that Jesus followed the customs of His day?
 

We think we know Jesus from our reading of extra Biblical material. There are many story books and novels on the market which are fictional accounts of Biblical characters. These are stories which often romanticize characters from the Bible. There are many novels on the market which quote the Bible or I should say, misquote the Bible, by taking certain verses out of context and making them look like they mean what the fictional writer says they mean. The “Left Behind” series is one such prominent set of fictional books. And unfortunately we do not always take the time to be as the Bereans and double check the verses that are quoted in these books and look at them in their proper context in the Bible and we end up believing the fictional story.
 

We think we know Jesus from our watching TV movies and shows. We might believe that God looks like George Burns or in more recent times like Morgan Freeman or that Moses looks like Charlton Heston. The older movies, because of their reverence for God, leaned more toward showing the divinity of Jesus, that is that Jesus is true God. In these old movies we would never see Jesus do anything that would make Him appear to be too human. The other side of this is that some of the newer movies have moved to the other extreme of showing the humanity of Jesus and neglecting to show that He was also God. In other words, the newer movies try to show only the fact that Jesus was a man and unfortunately some have gone too far in this, showing Jesus as a man. I say that because in some movies Jesus is depicted as committing sins, just like the rest of humanity.
 

We think we know Jesus from our pondering Him from our imagining of who He is and what He may have been like. We have moved from a society which once prided ourselves on empirical data as proof of what we say to being a society which is now driven by our feelings being what validates what we believe. Listen to the way people talk and you will know what I mean. No longer do we hear people talk about what they know, now we hear people talking about what they feel. And we know that feelings cannot be contradicted, so whatever someone feels must be true for them. When we bring this into the realm of Jesus it takes on new life in that Jesus is no longer the person He has revealed Himself to be, but now He is the person we feel Him to be. Unfortunately, if we believe all of what we are told about Jesus from art, from the media, from fictional stories, from televison and from movies, then we will be lead to believe in a false god which ultimately leads to eternal death. We must be discerning in what we read and hear and in what we believe. We must take care in what we think we know about Jesus.
 

Which brings us to the fact that Jesus has revealed Himself to us so that we do not need to speculate on who He is or what is His will. We can know Him, but only as He reveals Himself to us. He does reveal Himself to us. He reveals Himself to us through the Bible and not through these other ways. But here again we see our difficultly, because we do not always like the Jesus of the Bible. He is not tolerant at least not tolerant of sin as we would like. He is just with true justice, which we may not always like, especially if we are on the side of deserving something other than what we want. Yet, it was and is first through the Bible that Jesus reveals Himself to us. He tells us that He is true God. He tells us that because of His great love for us He took on human flesh and blood, that is that He was born as a human, like us, except without sin.
 

Jesus reveals Himself to us through His Word, the Bible and through Holy Baptism. At our Baptism God put His name on us, His name as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God chose us and claimed us as His children. He put faith in our hearts. He gave us forgiveness of sins. He showed us His great love for us in Holy Baptism as the old sinful nature is drowned and the new saint comes forth. And He daily reminds us of His claim on us as we daily remember our baptism.
 

Jesus reveals Himself to us through the Lord’s Supper. At the Lord’s Supper we come to His table where He is the host and where He is the meal. We come to His table to eat His body and drink His blood. As we eat and drink the bread and wine and the body and blood of Jesus we participate in His life, death and resurrection. His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. His eternal life becomes our eternal life. The very reason Jesus came was in order to live the perfect life demanded of us, for us, in our place and to give His life into death for us, to pay the price, the wage, the cost for sin, human death for human sin, for us, in our place. He is the very Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. To take away your sins and mine. And in much the same way as the family ate the lamb which was sacrificed in the Old Testament, so, as New Testament people, we eat of the Lamb who died for our sins.
 

Jesus reveals Himself through confession and absolution. As we come to the Lord and open ourselves up to Him, as we confess our sins, that is that we are by nature sinful and unclean, that we have sinned against Him in thought, word, and deed, that we sin sins of commission, doing the things we should not be doing and sins of omission, failing to do the things we should be doing, and that we deserve nothing but His eternal judgement, as we confess, so He is faithful and just and He gives us forgiveness of sins. Every Sunday morning we have the opportunity to come here, to confess our sins and hear from the pastor as from Jesus Himself that our sins are forgiven and we know that when we hear those words, that is what has happened, our sins are forgiven. Jesus Himself tells us who He is as He reveals Himself to us through His means of grace, His Word and Sacraments.
 

As we read in our text for this morning, Jesus gives Himself to us. He gives Himself to us through His living for us in our place. He lived perfectly for us. What we could not do, He did for us. He obeyed all of God’s laws perfectly for us. He loved and still loves perfectly for us. He held up under temptation and did not sin, for us, and now He helps us in time of our own temptation. He reached out to and helped others in need because of our neglect to do so and now He helps us to reach out and help others. He never sinned, sins of commission, not doing the things that He should not be doing, nor did He sin sins of omission, not doing the things that He should have been doing. He lived perfectly.
 

Ultimately He showed His great love for us through His dying on the cross for us in our place. Not because He had to, not by coercion, but because of His great love for us, Jesus took all our sins upon Himself, our sins of commission and our sins of omission. He took all our sins, all your sins, all my sins, all the sins of all people, of all places, of all times, and He suffered and died the eternal death penalty for us, in our place. He paid the price for sin, the wages of sins is death, He suffered the eternal death penalty of hell for us in our place.
 

He also continues to come to us through His providing for all our spiritual blessings. He provides for our spiritual blessings through His means of grace, His Word and His Sacraments. Through these means He comes to us to give us all His good gifts and blessings, His gifts of faith, strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
 

And finally we are reminded that He also comes to us and provides for all our physical needs. Notice I said needs, not wants. I would suggest that He does also provide for many of our wants as well, but we do know that all our needs are provided.
 

Jesus describes Himself as the living bread and that is exactly what He is. He is living. We worship a living God. He is bread, He is food for our spirits. And He is a God who continues to reveal Himself, show Himself to us so that we can know Him. Yes, there may be times when we disagree with Him or who He is, but the fact of the matter is, our disagreeing with Him does not change who He is. He is our God and we are His people. He loves us and shows His love to us. His ultimate showing of love for us is the person of Jesus Himself. My prayer for each one of you is that as you come to the Lord through the means that He gives, that you will be strengthened in your faith life so that you may be encouraged to go out and share Him with others. And that ultimately we may live our lives in such a way that our very lives say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Bread of Life - August 1, 2021 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13) - Text: John 6:22-35

Two weeks ago we followed along and watched as Jesus feed the crowd, the five thousand men, not counting women and children, perhaps over 15,000 people with bread and fish. He provide for their physical need. He fed the crowds with “five small barley loves and two small fish” (John 6:9). The crowds liked having a full stomach, not unlike a lot of people in our world today. How true the cliche is, “feed them and they will come.”
 

Last week we followed along as Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him in the boat to go to the other side of the lake. As they were going across the lake, and this was while it was night, so it was pitch dark, a strong wind blew up and began to make the waters rough. The waters got so rough, in fact, that the boat began to fill with water until the disciples thought they were going to sink. We also heard that when He was finished praying, Mark tells us that Jesus looked up and in the dark of night from perhaps two to three miles away He saw what was happening. So, Jesus walked out on the water and we were told that He meant to pass them by in order to test them. When they saw Him, at least at first, they were afraid, thinking they were seeing a ghost. So much for passing His test. Jesus reassured His disciples that He was not a ghost, got into the boat, the winds ceased and the sea became calm.
 

Our text for today picks up the narrative in the morning. The once fed crowd, that was still on the other side of the lake noticed that Jesus was not present and began to look for Him, probably to be fed again, remember in the Gospel from last week it was noted that their desire was to make Jesus their king, their bread king, their king in order for Him to take care of them. In their search, the crowd took the long way around the lake to the other side and there they found Jesus and His disciples. When they told Jesus they were looking for Him, He bluntly tells them that He knows why they were looking for Him in order to be fed by Him and He proceeds to explain to them a better hunger than physical hunger. You see Jesus came not merely to physically feed the crowd, and us, but to spiritually feed the world. Jesus knew that they did not come looking for Him because of the miraculous signs which He performed, one of which was to feed the great crowd, signs which showed that He was the Christ, the Messiah. Remember, John is the gospel writer who reminds us again and again of the signs and wonders, the miracles Jesus performed as proof of His divinity and His Messiahship, that He is truly God in human flesh. And so, Jesus suggests to the crowd that instead of continually coming to Him to be fed with physical food that they instead come to Him for spiritual food. But the crowd still does not get it, so they ask, “What must we do, to do the works of God?” And Jesus’ answer is “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
 

And again, confused, the crowd asks for another sign, like the one mentioned in the Old Testament lesson for today, like the feeding of the children of Israel with quail and manna in the wilderness. Here Jesus seizes the opportunity to teach them about spiritual food, namely that He is the bread of life.
 

In our world today, we are not too much different than the people of Jesus’ day. We look for food and God gives food. Unfortunately, when we look for food, our eyes are focused on the food of the things of this world. Certainly we need clothing and shoes, meat and drink, a house and home, and these God provides as we need, the key is that God does not promise to provide in excess, but according to what we need.
 

Jesus reminds us that although we live in this world we are not to be of this world and our sin is that very often we live as if we are of this world. Our eyes are focused on this world and the things of this world, wanting the newest and the latest, the biggest and the best, more and more. Our ears are in tune to the sounds of today, listening to the philosophies and theologies of this world rather than the sound teaching of God’s Word. Our feet and hands participate in the sins of this life rather than turn aside and walk in the ways of the Lord. Our mouths speak the half truths of our world of today, not building up but tearing down, not encouraging but being discouraging, not complementing but complaining. Too often rather than simply being in this world we live as if we are of this world.
 

As we live lives of this world we miss all that God has to give. We miss His food, His true spiritual food which comes down from heaven because of our misplaced focus. Or if we do hear His Word, we hear it as we want to hear it because we hear it through the filters of this world. We miss walking in His paths of righteousness for the sake of walking our own paths of unrighteousness. We miss the truth of His Word for the relativistic half-truths of this world. We miss the world to come because we live in and for this world alone.
 

What is the answer? God provides the answer, His Son. Yes, we are very much like the people of Jesus’ day even like the Children of Israel in the wilderness, we have a short memory and every week and yes, even every day we need to be reminded again and again of all our Lord has done, does and will continue to do for us.
 

God’s answer is the same answer since the beginning of time and the Garden of Eden. God is the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. God is the one who created all things out of nothing and who created us to love us and now as always He continues to love us lavishing us with all the gifts and blessings He has to give. God is the one who provides for us, and all our needs. God is the one who provides for us a Messiah, a Redeemer, one to trade His perfect life for our imperfect life. God is the one who provides Jesus to live for us in our place. God’s demand is perfection and because we cannot be perfect God provided Jesus to be perfect for us.
 

Jesus lived in perfection and then because of His great love for us, He took all our sins upon Himself, freely without coercion. Jesus took our sins and then paid the price for our sins suffering eternal death and hell for us on the cross. Jesus gives His life for ours. On Calvary Jesus paid for our sins and earned our forgiveness. Jesus died and rose. Yet, we know that the gifts Jesus earned are not delivered on Calvary, but are delivered through God’s means of grace.
 

God gives us the means of grace, the very means, the instruments, the tools through which He delivers the gifts of grace He earned. In order to eat a bowl of ice cream you need a spoon to move the ice cream from the bowl to your mouth. In much the same way, in order to be given the gifts God gives we need an instrument to move His gifts from Him to us and that instrument is the means of grace, namely and in particular Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, the very Word of God which does what it says, and the Lord’s Supper and the instrument of faith, which is also given in the means of grace. For God it is a package deal. He does not simply give us the ice cream, but the spoon as well, to move the ice cream from the bowl to our mouth. He does not simply give us the means of grace, but the faith to take hold of and make the gifts ours. So, again we are reminded of our need to make regular and diligent us of the means of grace.
 

As we remember our Baptism we remember that with water God’s name was put on us, faith was put in our hearts, we were given forgiveness of sins and our names were written in the book of life. Through the very means of Holy Baptism God delivers to us the gifts Jesus earned on the cross of Calvary.
 

As we do every Sunday morning, as we confess our sins, our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of omission, not doing what God would have us to do and our sins of commission, doing those things God tells us not to do, when we confess our sins then we then hear God’s Word of Absolution, the most beautiful words in the world, “Your sins are forgiven.” As we hear these words we know that this is what we have, what His words says, forgiveness of sins. And with forgiveness we have life and salvation.
 

As we hear God’s Word, either on our own through personal and family devotions, in Sunday School and Bible Class and especially in Divine Service, God’s Word does and gives what it says. God’s Word gives faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

As we come to the Lord’s Supper Jesus gives His body and blood to eat and drink, in, with and under the bread and wine. As we eat and drink His body and blood we participate in Him and His sacrifice so that His life, His perfect life becomes our perfect life, His death becomes our death and His resurrection becomes our resurrection. Through His Holy Supper we are given strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
 

Once again we see that God provides for all our needs. God created all things out of nothing, providing us with a world in which to live. God provides for each of us life at our own conception. God provides a Savior, a Redeemer in His Son, even in Himself taking human form in the flesh in the person of Jesus. Jesus earned forgiveness of sins for us and through His means of Grace He distributes all the gifts and blessings He has earned, faith, forgiveness, strengthening of faith and eternal life.
 

God gives and we are given too. And even when we fail to recognize our needs, even when we fail to admit our sins, even when we reject all that God gives, He is there ready to give anyway. What a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. And thanks be to God He continues to stir in us the desire to make regular and diligent use of His means of grace through which He gives us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

This morning, as we need to be reminded every Sunday morning, we are reminded that not only did God provide for His people in the wilderness, not only was Jesus the bread of life for the people of His day, He continues to provide for us today as He is our bread of life, filling us with His presence, giving us His good gifts and blessings, stirring in us to say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.