Lenten Midweek Reflection on Psalm 32 (March 1st)

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no guile.

 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me:

my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

 I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;

and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

 

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee

in a time when thou mayest be found:

surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble;

thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:

I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding:

whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord,

mercy shall compass him about.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous:

and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

 

It is hard sometimes to remember that repentance is a gift, because it is fundamentally a fruit of faith which St. Paul makes clear is a gift in itself born of the Word of God.  Repentance is a turning from evil to embrace the good, a confession of the truth of our shortcomings, and a trust that God will be merciful to His faithful and repentant people.  There is no true or saving faith which is not expressed in repentance for sins, just as there can be no true repentance apart from faith in the Word of God.  Faith must embrace the truth of both Law and Gospel, so that repentance finds its motivation and fulfilment in the Cross of Christ.

 

The Psalmist also points out what has been known by people for thousands of years, that refusal to believe and repent rots a person from the inside out.  Evil unaddressed in one’s life eats at one’s bones, drains the joy out of living, and leaves one feeling dry, old, and dead.  Unconfessed sin will gnaw at the mind and the soul until it brings forth all kinds of noxious fruits, from the irrationality of self-justification, to loathing of one’s self and others.  Evil in the heart is a poison leading to death, both in the flesh and the spirit, so that the suffering and delusion of sin in this world leads to an eternity of suffering in the next.  While evil often presents itself in this world cloaked in lies and half-truths about temporary pleasures, it always draws one away from God who alone is the source of life for all created things.

 

Thus the gift of repentance born of faith is a healing draught that quickens mind and body and soul.  It clears the mind of delusions and errors which deceive one into arrogant self-righteousness; it enlivens the soul by cleansing it from the filthy stains which evil so readily imparts; it heals and subdues the body to the image of Christ, that it might be a servant of His will in this world and the next.  Repentance is a gift which receives the blessings of Jesus by faith, knowing that the promises of Jesus are more sure than any darkness which may have overtaken us.  Repentance acknowledges the Law, yet clings to the Gospel.

 

If today you are weighed down by guilt and despair, hear the Word of Jesus come to you again, that you might trust Him to be true to His Word.  Lay your sins at His feet, and believe Him when He says that He forgives you, that He has done all things necessary to pay for your sin, and to keep you in His grace.  Let go of the poison which creeps through your mind, that you might open yourself fully to the Great Physician who heals not only body and not only for a day, but the whole of your person and for all eternity.  Hear Him as He calls to you, and receive the riches of His forgiveness, life, and salvation, by faith and repentance before His Word—for it is He who desires to give you the blessedness of one whose sins are forgiven, and of one whose iniquities are blotted out through His Cross.  Amen.

 

 

Tempted for Us: A Meditation on Matthew 4 for the 1st Sunday in Lent

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

And when the tempter came to him, he said,

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down:

for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee:

and in their hands they shall bear thee up,

lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again,

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,

and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee,

if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written,

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

 

The synopsis of Jesus’ Temptation which St. Matthew records teaches us much about not only the virtue of our Savior, but the methods of our adversary.  After having fasted 40 days, Jesus as both fully human and fully divine, was suffering greatly in His flesh.  The devil waited until this point to tempt Jesus into using His divine power for selfish purposes, to which our Lord rejoined that human sustenance is achieved by much more than bread, but by every Word which proceeds from the mouth of God.  Thwarted at inducing self-indulgence, the adversary took Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple and challenged Him to prove His messianic credentials.  Jesus scolded Lucifer that God is not to be tested by those who have no faith in Him to begin with.  Lastly, the devil appealed to Jesus for pride, wealth, and power, all of an earthly nature, which the devil declared he could offer through his dark machinations, if only Jesus would bow down and worship the devil as if he were the true God.  At this, Jesus finally cast the devil away, declaring the irrevocable truth that there is only one true God that all must serve. In the end, the angels came to minister to Jesus, and Jesus returned from the desert temptations to preach His Kingdom come on His way to Calvary.

 

While it is true that we can learn much from Jesus in how to rebut the devil’s temptation, what we cannot do is be Jesus.  What man among us could even survive severe fasting for 40 days in the Judean wilderness, let alone have the presence of mind after that to rebut an appeal to feed one’s self?  Truth be told, fallen man is so obsessed with self-gratification, that we need only miss a single day’s meals before many of us will descend into anger, viciousness, and mean-spiritedness… and that’s just in relation to food.  Think of how many other trivialities we indulge, that if they were taken away for even a short time, our disposition would turn dark—social media, smart phones, morning coffee, evening beer, sports and hobbies and cults of celebrity—and these don’t even touch upon our deeper reliance on general technology, electricity, sanitation systems, clean water and indoor plumbing, etc.  Jesus’ response to temptation was indeed perfect, but there’s not one of us who could have pulled that off the way Jesus did.

 

The same is true of our weakness in resisting putting God to the test, or in our lust for wealth, power, and prestige.  In the comfort of our current situations we might be able to deny such darkness in ourselves, but let a dear family member fall deathly ill, and watch our façade crack when we challenge God to do our will rather than His, or become angry at God for having failed to do as we demanded of Him, as if the creature could command their Creator.  Our own fallen will often seeks our own pleasure or gain for selfish purpose, and there’s no reason to think that we’d be any better at resisting such impulses after 40 days of self-denial.  Think for just a moment how you might respond, if starving in the desert for over a month, the devil came and offered you the job and lifestyle of your dreams, with all the earthly prestige and honors to attend it.  Imagine if you were given the choice to simply ignore the Word of God in just a place or two, follow the devil, and you’d have the family you always wanted, the spouse you think you deserve, the vacations to which you think you’re entitled, and the social standing you covet.  Oh, the appeal is so soft and enticing, costing you what seems like nothing, and giving you all your heart desires… until, of course, it crashes down around you and leads you to hell.  Jesus’ responses to the devil’s wiles were absolutely right, but our ability to do the same is woefully short of His divine, omnipotent power.

 

But then, the hope of Jesus’ Temptation is not that we will be perfect as He is, but that He has been perfect in our stead.  Jesus is our Champion, standing in for the whole human race when He suffers deprivation without self-indulgence, and resists our human inclination to tempt God, then abandon Him for earthly baubles.  What Jesus accomplished in His engagement with the devil was a precursor to what He would achieve on His Cross, turning down every other temptation to avoid the will of His Father and save the whole world.  Jesus endured temptation on our behalf, so that He might offer Himself as our perfect sacrifice on Calvary, and be for us our perfect Intercessor between God and fallen men.  Jesus’ victory over Satan becomes our victory over Satan, and His victory over temptation likewise becomes ours.  When the devil manages to break us down and get us to fall once more into sin, it is Jesus who lifts us back up again by His forgiveness and grace, so that the devil has nothing with which to charge the faithful people of God.  We become victors over temptation through Jesus who has done what we cannot do, so that we might live a life we could not muster alone, wrapped in His love and mercy forever.  Jesus is our Champion, the One who fights and wins our battles where we would only fall to the evil foe.

 

Take heart, dear Christian, for even as we are tempted by the vile deceits of the evil one, Jesus stands between you and him.  He gives you a shield of faith to quench all the devil’s assaults, a helmet of salvation He won for you on Calvary, a breastplate made of His own righteousness, a sword constructed by His own Word and Spirit, then covers your feet with the Gospel of peace.  And even with all this, if and when your fallen nature succumbs to temptation, your Savior stands between you and your enemy offering you forgiveness and grace through faith and repentance.  Your God and King has conquered temptation for you, that by trusting in Him, you might live in His victory forever. Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

 

Ash Wednesday Reflection on Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:

according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:

 that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,

and be clear when thou judgest.

 

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:

and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness;

that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

 

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:

and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart,

O God, thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,

with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:

then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

 

In entering the Lenten season, it is appropriate to remember that not only are we dust and to dust we shall return, but the reason why this is so:  our fallen nature, and our sinfulness that reaches to our very bones.  Death pursues all people and it is the common fate of everyone who enters the world, because everyone who enters the world was brought forth in sin from their mother’s womb.  We are a fallen race without the power to save ourselves, and any pretentions to the contrary are met with the solemnity of the grave.

 

It is, however, this realization that leads all people back to the prayers of the Psalmist, that God would in His tender mercies blot out our transgressions.  It is not a cheap appeal to avoid the consequences of evil, but a heartfelt yearning to be restored in a way only God can accomplish.  There is no power in men to achieve eternal life on their own, nor to absolve themselves of guilt through clever psychology, philosophy, or politics.  Our guilt is our own, and thus salvation must come to us from our Maker, apart from our own merit or worthiness.  To know ourselves as God knows us, that we were made for far greater things than the darkness we have brought upon ourselves, is to return to the Lord our God in faith and humility to receive His mercy and grace.

 

And what is to come of such grace received in humble faith, but the creation of a clean heart and a renewed spirit?  There in the knowledge of ourselves before the Law and the yielding of our will before the Word of God, is the majesty of our Savior’s Gospel.  For there is no soul ever born under the judgment of death, for whom the Son of God has not suffered and died so that they might live with Him forever.  His Word and Spirit pour forth in a life-giving flood upon all who trust in Him, giving them a new birth from above so that they will never be cast away from their Savior’s presence, and His Holy Spirit will never be taken away from them.  This is the restoration of salvation offered freely to every soul by the crucified and risen Jesus, that they might always be upheld by His freely given Spirit.

 

Such restoration and life cannot but shout forth the glories of their Savior, to declare to all who are lost in the darkness where light and life are to be found.  Those who transgress the Law and wonder at their calamity are taught where hope flows freely, where death is overcome, and where true righteousness blossoms forever.  Those who are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, take up His Word as a sword of light to cleave the darkness, and lead others to the blessedness of forgiveness they have found… or rather, the blessedness of Christ which has found them.

 

It is God’s good pleasure to do good for His people, as He has not withheld even His own Son for our sakes.  In Jesus our sacrifices of vocation and duty are accepted, because they are wrapped in His righteousness.  While there is nothing we could offer for the forgiveness of our sins, God has offered Himself in our place, that we might never need fear sin, death, hell, nor the devil ever again.  We are restored in Jesus, that we might live in Jesus, and declare Jesus as Savior to all.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

 

Jesus As He Really Is: A Meditation on Matthew 17 for Transfiguration Sunday

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother,

and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun,

and his raiment was white as the light.

And, behold, there appeared unto them

Moses and Elias talking with him.

 

Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus,

Lord, it is good for us to be here:

if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles;

one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

 

While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them:

and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said,

 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.

And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.

And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying,

Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

 

In the Transfiguration account from St. Matthew, Jesus took a select group of disciples to a mountain top to reveal His divine nature.  The event was so disconcerting and jarring for Peter, James, and John, that the glorious nature of Jesus together with Moses and Elijah caused them to suggest worship of all three by the use of tabernacles constructed in their honor.  As their confused blasphemy escaped Peter’s lips, the Father overshadowed the vision and directed them back to the centrality of the revelation:  Jesus is the divine Son in whom the Father is well pleased, and their focus should be placed purely upon Him.  While Moses and Elijah appeared in glory around Jesus, theirs was a borrowed glory of creatures made luminescent by their Creator, while the glory Jesus shone forth with was His own.  Jesus was revealed as fully God, the Only Begotten of the Father, not be set on parity with the great Prophets of old.  Mankind may be enlightened and enlivened through Him, but never will the creature be the Creator.

 

There is both challenge and comfort in this revelation.  Jesus revealed in His full divinity is hard for fallen minds to wrap themselves around, as even the chief of Jesus’ disciples demonstrated.  It is Jesus who selected these few to behold His full glory before going on to Calvary, and Jesus who after comforting them, instructed them to keep the vision to themselves until after His Resurrection on Easter morning.  St. Matthew must have heard this story from one of those three disciples in order to put it into his Gospel account, since Matthew was not invited to this Transfiguration event.  Such is the darkness of man’s fallen mind that when confronted with authentic divinity, it becomes almost unhinged—yet the full divinity of Jesus was necessary for His disciples to understand, because apart from that truth, none of the rest of His ministry would make any sense.  Only God Himself could make satisfaction for the sins of the world, paying an infinite debt of justice so as to offer an endless flood of mercy upon those who would trust in Him.  Only God could reach across the chasm which separated Him from fallen men, the infinite to the finite, the eternal to the temporal, and make all things new in Himself.  Only God could be the Savior of the world, just as only God could be the world’s Creator, and only God could be the world’s righteous Judge.  Man could not reach up to grasp God, but God could reach down to secure us.

 

The full divinity of Jesus also helps us wrap our sinful minds around another immutable and necessary proposition:  we are not God.  The rebellion of our first parents echoes down into every age and every fallen heart, where man seeks to make a god of himself, setting his own desires above all others.  That grave and original fault in mankind makes viewing the true God so much more destabilizing, as the corrupted wiring inside our own minds cannot escape the truth that there is only one, true God, and we’re not Him.  Yet breaking through this delusion is critical, because apart from faith in the one, true God, there is no way to approach Him as Savior.  The fallen mind which demands with hubristic insanity to be regarded as the God that he is not, can only rise up in defiant war against the true God who cannot deny the reality of which He is the font.  God must be God and men must be men, and no amount of shouting absurdities into the void will change that reality.  Regardless of what man chooses to identify himself as, or how man may elect to define himself, he is still fundamentally what he was made to be:  a creature of the Creator, and one who owes both his existence and allegiance to the one, true God alone.

 

However, as the delusion of man is debunked in the revelation of Jesus as true God, man’s return to Reason and Truth transforms him into something far more than he was before.  Jesus as the Logos and Truth of God is that divine Word whereby fallen men not only encounter the divinity, but are made new creations in Him.  Jesus as the Eternal Word of the Father speaks not only Law in the exquisite physics of the cosmos, but also the Gospel of forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life in Him.  Perhaps this is why Jesus told his select disciples to hide the vision until after His resurrection, because in that post-resurrection moment, the full divinity of Jesus could speak to them of the Atonement He made for them in His Cross, and the glorious resurrection which awaited them all through Him.  Once free from the delusions of Original Sin, the Gospel of Jesus Christ—Incarnate, Crucified, Resurrected, and Coming Again—is one of grace and mercy and life that can only be received in faith.  The resurrected Jesus could approach His disciples with words of peace and reconciliation, as well as the challenge to carry His Eternal Word into all the world and to every living soul.  This Gospel is rooted in the fullness of Jesus’ divinity as well as His full humanity, so that all men who follow Him by faith, might live glorified together with Him forever by His grace, just as Moses and Elijah do.

 

It is good that the Transfiguration destabilizes our fallen minds, to make way for greater and deeper truth:  we are not God, but God loves us so much that He has come to reconcile us to Himself, that in Him we might have an abundant and eternal life that outstrips any shadow of life we perceive here below.  The resurrection of Jesus becomes the promise of our resurrection, just as His victory over death becomes our victory, and His Kingdom becomes our Kingdom.  Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day, that by the power of the Holy Spirit you might be transformed in body, mind, and spirit to live in Him now and forever by grace through faith in Him.  We are not God, but the one, true God has loved us, and come to seek and to save us, all through His Only Begotten Son in whom He is well pleased.  May we take that destabilizing and liberating truth to every deluded soul we meet, that together we might live forever in Jesus.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

 

A Light on a Hill: A Meditation on Matthew 5 for the 5th Sunday of Epiphany

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,

wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing,

but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world.

A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,

but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

 

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass,

one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,

and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven:

but whosoever shall do and teach them,

the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness

shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,

ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

As Jesus spoke to His disciples upon that mountain, His questions held a particularly sting.  God had very intentionally given to the Jewish people His Word, delivered them from slavery in Egypt, led them to the Promised Land, sustained them through the time of the Judges, and eventually set His servant King David upon the nation’s throne in Jerusalem around 950 BC.  It was the Word of God which gave the Jewish people their preservative salt, maintaining them down through the centuries, chastening them for their rebellion and restoring them by faith, repentance, and grace.  It was also the Word and Wisdom of God which made Jerusalem shine like a light set high over the earthly landscape, drawing envoys and inquirers from majestic courts as far away as Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon.  Jesus made it clear that the Jewish people were not endowed by God’s Word so that they would be hidden, but rather that the Word of God might be made known far and wide, both by proclamation and by lives conformed to its righteousness.  This is why Jesus could also declare that He had not come to destroy the Word of God which came to them in ages past, but to fulfill every jot and tittle in Himself, and to make the emphatic statement that no one who was aiming to match the righteous hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees was aiming high enough to enter the Kingdom of God.

 

Like the Jewish people Jesus addressed, His words strike home for Christians today, as well.  The Church was also gifted with the Word of God Incarnate, and the testimony of the Apostles to make complete the prior testimony of the Prophets.  While the Jewish people were given the Holy Spirit in only particular times and places, the Christian Church received the gratuitous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon every baptized believer, and in every preached witness to the Word of God, which has continued now for nearly 2000 years.  Even as Jerusalem was set upon a high hill in the land of Judea to enlighten the world, the Church was set upon countless hills all over the world, carrying the Light of Jesus and His Word to every tribe and tongue under heaven.  The preservation of the Jewish people was added to the Gentile believers in Jesus with His promise that He would never abandon nor forsake them to the end of time.  And to the Church today the same Words of Jesus interrogate and inquire:  if your salty preservation by His Word be lost through apostasy, how shall it ever be useful again?  If your light given through His Word is hidden or darkened by a lack of faith, what shall make your reflected light helpful again?  And if your hope of salvation is to imitate the hypocrisy of your popular, well dressed, but feckless clergy, neither you nor they will enter into His Kingdom.

 

It is a jarring and illuminating Word which the Lord gives to His people, and one we must consider in every age.  Worldly trappings of purported holiness mean nothing to God.  Big, fancy hats, ornate vestments, jewel encrusted sanctuaries, pomp and flair from performance artists, stage shows and smoke machines, overhead screens and viral videos—all are worthless apart from the Word of God.  Those who think they can create a new business plan to grow their church membership or fill their coffers to support new programs, or perhaps who think the latest sociological survey of generational attitudes and proclivities will yield the hidden formula for renewal of the church in their place, are missing the crux of their own existence.  The Church is not empowered to make its own salt salty, or its own light brighter, or to define its own terms of righteousness, or the standards by which any soul is reconciled with God.  On the contrary, it is God alone who gives salt to His people, makes them a light to shine in the darkness, and gives to them the righteousness of faith, so that they might be vessels of salt, light, and salvation to the world around them.  The Word of God forms every authentic Christian by the power of His Holy Spirit, and grafting them into the living vine of Jesus Christ—this is the preservation, the witness, and the grace of the Church set as a bulwark against the machinations of vain men.

 

Into the darkness of our delusional age, Jesus comes to His Church as He came and sat with His people in Judea.  He reminds us that His Word is all that matters, both as it is written in the testimony of the holy Prophets and Apostles, and as it lives in Him as the Eternal Word of the Father.  There is nothing in heaven above or on earth beneath which holds a candle to that most brilliant of Lights, nothing which we savor below which is so fulfilling as that Bread from Heaven, and no philosophy of men which reconciles to God as the Word of God Himself.  Where the Church has lost its luster and become a tepid witness to the King of Glory, it is Jesus alone who can restore her by the glory of His Word.  Where Christians have lost their sense of preservation by abandoning their faith, it is Jesus who speaks His Word to them so that His people might be made sure again.  When the people of God feel distant from God because of their sin, their suffering, and their own fallen nature, it is Jesus who seals them in Holy Baptism, feeds them by His Holy Supper, and forgives them through His Holy Absolution.  It is Jesus who affirms them in their confession of His Word by Holy Confirmation, and blesses their families in His gift of Holy Marriage.  It is Jesus who establishes and empowers them according to their myriad vocations and the gift of Holy Orders, where His Word has sanctified their every good work of love and service be they laity or clergy.  It is Jesus who comes to heal body, soul, and mind through His Word of grace in Holy Unction, with the faithful laying on of hands and prayer.  The Eternal Word is the life and light of His people in every age—even ours, and until the end of this world.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you again today, to preserve, enlighten, and reconcile you to the King of the Universe.  It is Jesus who has done all things necessary for you through His Incarnation, His Cross, and His Resurrection, and it is Jesus who shall be your life and hope and strength until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  He has given you His Word and Spirit that you might always be sustained in every day of your life, and that forgiven and free, you might shine forth the Light of His saving Word to all you meet.  It is His Word which has made you, His Word which has saved you, and His Word which has made you His witness in your time and place.  Let go every impotent idol, theology, or philosophy which draws your mind and affections away, and receive again the power of the Eternal Word by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

To a Brother in Arms

Evening and Morning

A New Day

When Conflict turns to Victory

And Trial revealed as Triumph.

 

We were not raised together

But we surely grew together

As only brothers can

When faced with common strife

And earning common scars.

 

We were not perfect then

Nor are we perfect now

Having lived real lives

Where pain and pleasure

Tear at mind and body.

 

In one day we trained

In another we fought

In one night we listened

In another we slept

In rhythm prepared for combat.

 

Often enemies hid

Knowing their peril

Afraid of the direct war

Waiting for weakness

Striking upon opportunity.

 

Sometimes we attacked

Sometimes we defended

One day we repelled invasion

One night we took back ground

Never did we retreat.

 

Battlefields turned to houses

Training sites to neighborhoods

Units turned to families

Battalions became communities

Always warriors watched.

 

Brothers in arms are known

By those who take up arms

And watch from the field

For enemy action

Refusing to yield.

 

Spouses and siblings

Friends and coworkers

The warrior walks among them

To protect and guard them

From the enemies in shadow.

 

One day a business is built

One night a crisis averted

One day a strategy created

One night a tactic adapted

Constructing providence for others.

 

Enemies watch from without

They measure time and season

Prey upon the young

Torment minds of the old

Turn one against another.

 

Warriors know their weakness

Only mortal, broken

Minds that wander

Attention distracted

Scars that ache more by year.

 

In one day a love is lost

In one night a heart broken

In one day a child rebels

In one night a friend is angry

The wounds grow heavier.

 

Old warriors now

No longer young, impetuous

More restrained, cautious

Each new battle takes a toll

Leaves a scar unhealed.

 

Together they reminisce

Compare their notes, concerns

Look for patterns

News of enemy actions

Prepare, adapt, reengage.

 

Burdens are heavy, moving

Enemies know the aging

Warriors lose a step

Minds and bodies slower now

Perception growing dim.

 

Brothers in the twilight tavern

Games, drinks, foods

Conversation and camaraderie

Strength reassures strength

Faith remembers the Promise.

 

Warriors see their enemy

Clearly in the darkness

More proud now, violent

They do not slow nor slumber

Ancient evil pursues them.

 

Enemies wait for opportunity

Warriors know their time approaches

Mortals are bound by time

Evil corrupts ages

The final battle looms.

 

One day a warrior rises

One night he fails to sleep

One day he sees his allies

One night their splendor dawns

The hosts of warriors unnumbered.

 

Warriors steel their hearts

Brace their fractured bones

Clear their muddle minds

Now in company formation

The war they enter again.

 

Enemies hurl their worst

Attacks on every front

Bodies break and minds collapse

Warriors bleed, but do not bend

Upheld by heavenly brothers

 

Into the night they press

Enemies and warriors

One committed to destruction

One to life defended

Mortal meets spirit in combat

 

Terrible the fight

Weapons drawn, presented

Concussion and confusion

Ferocity and passion

Life and death.

 

Warriors face the final battle

Knowing they will fall

As all mortals must

Upon this fallen world

Engage an enemy superior.

 

The flesh laid low, contorted

The mind made still, quiet

The earth receives their blood

Their sweat, tears, and hope

Enemies crow over their kill.

 

In one day, the fleshly heart stops beating

In one night, the brain ceases function

In one day, a new heart pounds

In one night, the mind is restored

Warriors find resurrection.

 

Warriors rise, immortal

Faith made sight

Hope made present

Grace poured out in abundance

Bloodied garb replaced with splendor.

 

Into new ranks the Warrior presses

A host uncountable, irresistible

The Legion of the King Almighty

Empowered by the divine Word

Rank upon rank swelling.

 

Now enemies see their failure

Howling in fear, hatred

Their prey is now their predator

Hunted they flee as cowards

Before the glory of the Lord of Hosts.

 

Warriors find their home

A vanguard always sure

A wall never breached

A community in perfect harmony

All enemies forever conquered.

 

The celebration halls ring out

To welcome the new warrior

Who fought the good fight

Who finished the race

Who kept well his duty and charge.

 

Warriors see here their brothers

Purged of their prior sins

Washed from their old weakness

Bright shining like suns

As he now has become.

 

Stories of battles and victories

Flow like the wine of revelry

Conquered evil sent to perdition

The humble and virtuous elevated

The communion sweet, savored.

 

Warriors hear again the cheer

Another has pressed into their ranks

Another has spent their last strength

And risen to glories of grace

From the King of Glory given.

 

There in that hall I will meet you

When my last battle is fought

And we shall embrace again

In fondest remembrance

Of wars we won by grace.

 

Till then, cheer us on, brother

That our hearts not falter

And our faith not fail

That we meet our enemy with courage

And keep our duty clear.

 

That with all the saints and warriors past

We might know the victory of our King

Our enemies dashed upon the gates of hell

Our brethren safe on those hallowed shores

Our fellowships all restored.

 

One day, the heat of battle fierce

One night, the terrors of evil near

One day, the dawn rises forever

One night, there shall be no night again

One Eternal Day awaits.