Sermons

What is preaching? St. Paul writes in Romans: “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14-15)

Therefore our Lutheran Confessions state: “It is also taught among us that one holy Christian church will be and remain forever. This is the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.” (Augsburg Confession VII:1-3)

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“The Jesus Christ Evangelism Explosion” – Luke 7:11-17

23. September 2012
The Sunday of the Widow’s Son
Luke 7:11-17

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

Back in the 60’s (and for the LCMS the 80’s—always late to the party) Coral Ridge Presbyterian Pastor D. James Kennedy made popular an outline or technique for evangelism. Everything revolved around two questions: 1) Have you reached the point in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven? and 2) If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into heaven,” how would you answer?

The point of these questions were to expose any thought that works could gain your entry into heaven. Rightly, this provided the opportunity for the interrogator to confess Jesus Christ’s blood as our merit and our entry into heaven for His sake. After the baby boom explosion of the 50’s, Pastor Kennedy was looking for a technique to continue the rapid expansion of Christianity. Unfortunately, the already decreasing birthrate and the rise of generic easy-believing Evangelicalism yielded no such growth.

There is no such thing as a magic bullet for sustainable church growth, despite what the multitude of gurus will tell you. True Christianity is marked by confession, discipline, faithfulness, persecution, and cross-bearing. It is sustained through unremarkable gifts of Word, preaching, forgiveness, water and Word washing, and body and blood under bread and wine. From a business or pragmatic perspective, we’re nuts. We’re committed to a cult that has little benefit and costs more than it seems to put out. Without a multitude of programs and other busyness, the cost of keeping these doors open is outrageous.

Yet, here we are, gathered at the feet of Jesus, listening with baited breath to His every Word, hungering and thirsting for righteousness or at least the crumbs of which fall from His table and into our mouths. It is outrageous that this would be enough and or would be worth the effort. That’s what your neighbors think. Why bother with the effort of Sunday morning when you can watch somebody more “uplifting” or at least with a better light show? Why put money into the plate when the whole enterprise is doomed to fail? Why commit your time and energy in service to the church and her ministry? What’s the point in the end?

That’s where Dr. Kennedy’s questions fail today. People don’t seem to care that much about heaven or dying. At best, they’re mildly curious. If there is even a god, why would he even ask if you’ve been bad or good in this life? Your friends and family are more concerned about their best life now and don’t even care if there is a life to come. In religious parlance, this theology is called annihilationism. They think: when you die, you go into the great abyss or are absorbed back into the one life force. No one has any personal value and is utterly disposable in the end.

The Holy Gospel gives us a glimpse draws our eyes away from magic bullets, programs, strategies, and revitalization onto the real work of Jesus’ own ministry and therefore the ministry here at Grace. First, from Jesus perspective everyone matters. No one is immaterial or unnecessary. He gives life purposely and generously. Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow,  and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Jesus goes to Nain in Galilee. Can anything good come out of Nazareth (of Galilee)? Nain, which means green pastures, never looked so from the Jerusalem side of the fence. Jesus had already healed the most unlikely of people, the Centurion’s servant. What’s he doing with Gentiles? Now, Here’s Jesus in Nain of all places visiting a widow with her dead son. Jesus fulfills the Psalmists word: The Lord protects foreigners and helps the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked. (Psalm 146:9)

Nain, full of heathens, is without likelihood of conversion, we think. They are ill-prepared, having a lack of moral compass, the right worldview, nor any of the Old Testament foundation. They are hardened by centuries of unbelief and are lazy slobs. Better to go into faithful Judea and enter her synagogues. They’re a hard-working bunch, with fat wallets and warm bodies.

No, not Jesus. He goes to the widow, cold in her sorrow with no one to support her in those final hours. Her husband has died and now her only son is lost to the abyss. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” The Lord did not think: “This is sooo typical for Nain. Deadbeat dads and grieving widows. When are they going to get their act together and take care of themselves? Why should I bother with this woman? She can’t financially support my mission trip and I bet she’ll take off the moment I give her a bit of good news. Better not waste my time on her.”

No, not Jesus. Compassion is that sinking feeling in the gut that compels us in love to mercy, care, and sympathy. Do not weep. The most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places during the most unlikely of events, a widow in Nain walking in funeral procession, is the recipient of Jesus’ compassion. Jesus ignores the demographics and the chances of success and does His Messiah thing.

Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Earlier Jesus said to Levi after He called him to be a disciple: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. (Luke 5:31-32) Here Dr. Kennedy was right. People are sick and they don’t know it. They need to learn how sick they are to appreciate the healing remedy Jesus has in mind.

The problem is that the people Jesus evangelizes aren’t merely sick. They’re dead. Like the young man in coffin dead. Being processed to the tomb, to be buried six feet under. Not just the man, but his mother is next to dead. Even the procession, the crowds following Jesus, and his very disciples. All walking dead. And thus, Jesus is always about forgiveness of sins leading to the resurrection of the body.

St. Paul says it this way: And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. (Colossians 2:13) And also: God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4)

The problem with evangelism programs, schemes, techniques, marketing, and the like is that it doesn’t take the state of people seriously. Everyone has intrinsic worth, for whom Jesus died (John 3:16). Jesus is relentless in His pursuit of you. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9). So, Jesus died for all. He does not consider any demographic, status, or even hardness of heart to stop evangelizing all.

Jesus evangelizes all relentlessly but recognize that he doesn’t approach them like a salesman would the potential customer. He’s not on a mission to convince you to believe in Him. Why not? Because you’re dead in trespasses. Dead people don’t listen. Dead people aren’t interested in a savior. Dead stay dead. Unless they’re called from the tomb by Jesus. Unless they hear Jesus’ voice calling out “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

Death and resurrection is what its all about. Knowing this frees us in the call to be evangelists. We can talk about the content, share in strategies, learn how to defend the Christian faith, and the like. In the end, we have not the ability to convince anyone to believe. Not through Dr. Kennedy’s two questions. Not with clever preaching. Not with generous charity. Not through works of mercy. Dead people don’t care.

Conversion requires is a miracle which comes only by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t just true for our efforts to witness to Jesus Christ crucified in our community and world, this is true for even our children and for you. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)

Holy Baptism is the time that Jesus said to you “Young man or woman, I say to you, arise!” Out of the grave of the font you arose to new life in Christ. That’s why all this Jesus stuff makes sense to you and not to the unbaptized multitude. They’re still dead, unable to love God or neighbor. How can you convince a dead person to believe? It’s not happening unless the Lord himself grants new life.

Therefore, you see that Jesus cares not about the who or the where of His evangelism program. Everyone is loved by him even while dead in their trespasses. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Even while we were dead, Christ loved us and sought to save us. And when? That’s immaterial, too. No one is innocent. All are equally condemned and need the full atonement of Christ’s blood. Jesus comes and touches the young child newly born and says “arise!” He touches the teenager’s bier and says “arise!” He calls out the middle-aged yuppie “arise!” He even says to the elderly man whose doubts overwhelm him “arise!” We cannot by our own reason or strength come out of the tomb or call Jesus Lord.

The beautiful thing about the death and resurrection methodology of Jesus is its all on Him from start to finish. When the Holy Spirit calls by the Gospel, enlightens hearts through preaching, absolution, baptism, and supper, Jesus works as promised. His Spirit calls, gathers, sanctifies by what seems most outrageous and too simple to ever work. He works through His means of salvation. Everything else is nice fluff.

You can package the Gospel anyway you like. You can learn the helpful techniques of the Christian apologist. You can learn about the worldview of the other religions. You can try being more casual or more formal with your church services.  You can play music that sounds more appealing and less German. You can give hugs, shake hands, and be a friend. Its all been tried before.

In the end, nothing makes a dead-in-trespasses person become an alive-in-Christ person without Jesus himself preaching, forgiving, and calling out “Young man, I say to you, arise!” Its just what we confess: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. I believe that Jesus has done it all for me, has given me life and salvation by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and keeps me in this faith and communion through the Holy Christian church, which is Christ’s own body.

So here’s the Jesus Christ Evangelism Program: go and disciple all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them of all things Jesus, forgiving their sins and eating together. That’s how dead people become alive people. That’s evangelism, the Jesus way.

Oh, and it does work, as outrageous as it might seem. When a dead man rises to life, here’s what happens: Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. May the same report of your own resurrection travel from your lips throughout the whole region of Dyer and to the ends of the earth. God truly has visited and redeemed His people.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

“The Birds and Lilies Don’t Worship Idols” – Matthew 6:24-34

16. September 2012
The Sunday of the Birds and the Lilies
Matthew 6:24-34

The source of every anxiety is idolatry. Your fear, panic, and every trembling comes from trusting something or someone other than your heavenly Father. As long as you are sinner, you cannot avoid anxieties nor the idols that drive them. So it was from the beginning with Adam, Eve, and you, their children.

To the woman [God] said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:16-19)

From the first act of idolatry, trusting our own word about a tree and its fruit over the Lord’s own Word, our lives are full of anxious labor. Children are come into the world with pain. Then we wait anxiously for the heartbreak they often inflict. Wives impatiently overrule their husbands, while husbands refuse to love their wives. Each sit on a pins and needles, anxious to avoid the next blow-up. Our toil does not always yield enough money to pay the rent, feed the flock, or keep the lights on. We struggle with what tomorrow may bring.

Is our anxiety manageable? Can we get a grip on the panic over what hardships the next presidency might bring, the changes at corporate, the ignorant choices of our children, the retirement benefits running out, the tanked portfolio, or the rising cost of fuel and corn? What about the fear that tomorrow may be our last day, through accident or tragedy or heart attack, we breathe our last breath? Idolatries. We have placed our hopes and confidence in our stuff—the mammon of this life. We’re okay if we’re safe, employed, loved by our obedient children, well fed, comfortable, and our future is certain. If the rug is pulled out from any one of these, what then?

Anxiety. The idol fails and we panic. Such it will always be in this body of flesh, just as it was for our cursed parents. Sorrow, pain, domineering, toil, and sweat mark everyone who trusts in their pantheon of idols. It’s not that we don’t love God. We certainly call on his name at least a couple times a month, maybe weekly, or even daily. It’s that we do not love and trust in Him above all things. We do not call upon Him in every trouble. We do not listen attentively to Him when He speaks. We have mammon that we trust. We call out to others for help. We listen to advice of world and demon.

We’ve created a soup of mixed loyalties. We turn to our heavenly Father only for churchy stuff and then infrequently. In the next breath, we turn to government for protection and economic welfare, friends for comfort, children for love, spouses for companionship, doctors for health, capitalism for employment, and the like. Once you taste this soup, all the bitter idols overwhelm the sweetness of the Father. Only when we’ve got a taste for God, then we fish Him out of the soup. The rest of the time we swallow Him without a thought of even needing His providence.

Thus we are utterly captive to our anxiety. God is not some extra aid, a tasty frosting for the cupcake of life. He’s not the spoonful of sugar that will help the bitter medicine go down. He isn’t the emergency service you call when life’s toilet won’t drain. When your doctors and specialist throw up their hands, is that when you start praying? Every anxiety of body and life is the ugly child of our trust in something other than our heavenly Father.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. It’s all or nothing. If God is not our God alone, will be anxious about everything: money, conflicts with family and others, our work, and even the laundry. We go to bed worried about the morning and forget to even take the God-given rest the darkness grants us.

And so Jesus says emphatically: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Jesus is the stubborn pastor who allows no excuse for forgetting to pray, failing to teach the children the faith, using the Sabbath as a vacation day from God, or ignoring the church in her need. Jesus doesn’t care if your friend is leaving town, you’ve got work to do, plans to make, packing to do, or the like. His friend Martha was scolded for busing herself with the idol of chores when she should have let Jesus be her God. If God is to be our only God, then the old man that loves his idols must be put to death. Every idol trashed, burned, or eviscerated.

O you of little faith… do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Right now, Jesus is here, God in the flesh, to give you every good gift of His kingdom. Every idol is cast down from its throne. He suffers, dies, and rises on the third day so that you may never die, sins forgiven, and eternal life inherited.  Jesus sits enthroned between the cherubim. He sits upon His mercy seat. He speaks and forgives. He sheds His blood. He gives to you bread from heaven. He washes you of every spot and blemish. He claims you as His own. He is your refuge and strength. He is your hope in every struggle. He is the provider of every good thing for the life to come and even now.

We work because God gave us work. We carry each others burdens. We share with the one who teaches. We do not grow weary of doing good. Especially for those of the household of faith, we never grow weary. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. For he lives in us and we walk by Him. So also, the Spirit has crucified the flesh in us, along with its nagging restlessness and painful worry. Can we do our part? What will tomorrow bring? God only knows. Cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you.

Your are children of the heavenly Father, safely in His bosom gathered. There within the arms of the Father, you rest as beloved children. His rod and His staff guide you. He knows your needs and well provides for them. Our hope is not founded on today or tomorrow. Our days are full of toil and trouble, sorrow and heartache. Our hope is grounded in the eternal future of heaven. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Your anxiety is cleared when your walk is heavenward all the way. There is no need to worry about today or tomorrow. In Jesus Christ you are forgiven. By His death and resurrection, death is destroyed and the gates of heaven are opened to all believers. Our eternal fate is assured in Christ’s righteousness, washed over us in our Baptism, declared over us in Holy Absolution, and given to us to eat and drink in the Holy Communion. We share together in this hope.

Not only that, look at the birds and the lilies! Look how your heavenly Father takes care of them and they work without anxiety, fear, or panic. They serve God and God clothes and feeds them. So our Lord thinks of us, we who are of more value than they. He knows our needs and well provides for them. No need to worry. No need to rely on idols like a crutch. He will provide in part now and completely in eternity. On that day, we will be clothed in His righteousness, feast in His heavenly mansion, and be restored to vitality forever.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

The International Jesus Rally Convention – Luke 17:11-19; Galatians 5:16-24

09. September 2012
The Sunday of the Ten Lepers
Luke 17:11-19; Galatians 5:16-24

* Despite the audio quality, I’m including it because of the changes I made as this text was preached. This is typical and I always encourage you to listen and read along or simply listen.*

Every fall, after a summer of leisure and holiday, the call rings out: “it’s time for Sunday school again!” That’s right, today is the so-called Rally Day. And by rally, we mean something like what the Republicans and Democrats just finished. It’s our annual church convention when we again commit ourselves to studying God’s Word and teaching the faith to our children.

It’s kind of strange really. What have we been doing all summer? Did we vacation from Jesus? Did we ignore our fatherly duty and let the catechesis of our children lapse? I pray not. I hope this strange practice is simply born of a want to give the Sunday school teachers a break.

You may have noticed that we never stopped Bible class this summer. Just as our faith compels to hear God’s Word and received His body and blood regularly, ought not this same faith commend us to stick around for an hour and consider this same Word in study, in contemplation, and mutual conversation? It seems to me there is a time and season for everything but there is always time for a Sabbath rest.

Are Sunday school and Bible class optional nice things to do if one so desires? That’s not how Luther understood God’s Word nor is it what you promised with an oath to do. Do you remember the Third Commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

And then at your confirmation, you were asked: “Do you confess the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from the Scriptures, as you have learned to know it in the Small Catechism, to be faithful and true?” You responded: “I do.” Part of that vow included that you would gladly learn that Word. Thus, we’re back to this silly notion that we can either ignore or the regular study of God’s Word or take a break from it until we’re good and rested.

Luther said in his Large Catechism: “We Christians should make every day a holy day and give ourselves only to holy activities—that is, occupy ourselves daily with God’s Word and carry it in our hearts and on our lips. However, as we have said, since all people do not have this much time and leisure, we must set apart several hours a week for the young, and at least a day for the whole community, when we can concentrate upon such matters and deal especially with the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Thus we may regulate our whole life and being according to God’s Word.”

These few hours that we dedicate to the hearing, receiving, and learning of God’s Word govern our whole life and the rest of our week. Luther also said: “Since so much depends on God’s Word that no holy day is sanctified without it, we must realize that God insists upon a strict observance of this commandment and will punish all who despise his Word and refuse to hear and learn it, especially at the times appointed. Therefore this commandment is violated not only by those who grossly misuse and desecrate the holy day […] but also by that multitude of others who listen to God’s Word as they would to any other entertainment, who only from force of habit go to hear preaching and depart again with as little knowledge of the Word at the end of the year as at the beginning. […] Remember, then, that you must be concerned not only about hearing the Word but also about learning and retaining it. Do not regard it as an optional or unimportant matter. It is the commandment of God, and he will require of you an accounting of how you have heard and learned and honored his Word.”

Maybe then Rally Day is silly after all? If we’re going to meet on Sunday to hear preaching, receive the Sacrament, but neglect to learn this Word and take it heart, what will happen? It’ll be a lot like the last two national conventions. All buzz and excitement and then days later, no one remembers anything that happened but some vague recollection of Clint Eastwood and Bill Clinton. There’s a big hoopla, with special snacks, installation of the teachers, and renewed commitment to the faith as it is confessed in the Catechism, and then what?

Repent. Do not fall back into your old habits. You who desire to be led by the Spirit need to receive the Spirit where He’s promised to be, in Holy Absolution, Baptism, and Supper, in the Word preached and taught. Attend to these and do not neglect one of them.

Perhaps you need an analogy? Consider the Ten Lepers of today’s Holy Gospel. These ten all were sick, ritually unclean and spiritually damaged goods. They knew well enough and believed that Jesus could make them right. [They] lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourself to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

Just so, you are too well aware of the sinful baggage you brought with you through those doors. When it comes to sin, each of us pay outrageous fees for all the checked sin luggage. The desires of [your] flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against [your] flesh. These works of the flesh are evident. You know them well. You feel their weight upon your conscience. Sins against the home and marriage: sexual immorality, sensuality, idolatry. Sins against true religion: idolatry, sorcery. Sins that destroy society, first creating hatred: enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger; and then disunion: rivalries, dissension, divisions. Your flesh seeks to overthrow the Spirit with evil: envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.

But you are a Christian! You know the works of the flesh. You know there is a real battle and you must be on your guard. You have named these sins publicly and privately saying “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess!” You confess you are a sinner, something only someone who has the Holy Spirit can do. You lifted up your voice just like the ten lepers and said Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 

And so He has! He has forgiven you your sins. You are cleansed. As we began the Introit, you enter into worship cleansed and whole again. Go and sin no more. Follow the commands and live. But the war is not over. The Divine Service is the continual battle of the Lord’s Spirit against your flesh. And how does your flesh perceive our worship? Just like that. It’s our worship—what we do for God—and not His service for us from start to finish. You’ve heard the Word of absolution but Jesus is not done with you yet. He gives you more Law and Gospel in the Introit, readings, Gradual, Verse, and Gospel, to kill the old Adam and bring to life the new man according to the Spirit.

The battle continues even now as your flesh struggles with the Spirit. The flesh says: “I’m in a hurry, I’ve got better things to do than sit in a boring Bible class.” But the Spirit of Jesus says within you: “I really should study the Word more, especially from my pastor who God has given me.” Sin was crouching at the door and already polluted your clean heart. So you will sing, “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me.” And so, the Lord will once again forgive you and grant you His Spirit to guide you into the kingdom of God. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it passions and desires. Those who belong to Christ have nailed to Christ’s own cross their every opposition and resistance to faithful hearing and study of the Word.

You will recall that of the ten lepers who went away cleansed, only one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. It’s not simply that only one was thankful. While this is true, also only one wanted to worship God in truth in purity. All his fellow sinners went back to their old ways, doing worship according to the Law but not responding according to the Spirit. They fell back onto the Law with its great what-must-I-do-to-be-saved question. Go to the priests, follow the purity rules, be restored.

You might say they received this totally awesome gift in cleansing from God himself but rather than respond with thankfulness, praise, and attention, they saw fit only to jump through the necessary hoops, and go back to their business. That’s how many of us approach God’s Word. He blesses us with a great gift of forgiveness. He speaks into our ears and onto our tongues. We listen, eat, and drink. But what next? Say a prayer, receive a blessing, sing a hymn, and then go back to our humdrum life.

Not so with the one Samaritan leper. Just like last week, it wasn’t the priest or Levite who knew better that helped the man in the ditch. Nope, it was the one who simply acted according to faith. He saw a man in need and helped without compulsion or obligation but compassion. So today, this Samaritan, who had no idea about right worship — all the proper hand motions, rising and sitting, singing and praying, who stumbles through the service each week—this outsider and weirdo acts in great faith.

He’s not thinking about his work. He’s not thinking about the Sunday buffet. He’s not thinking about the Bears game. He’s not even worried about whether he’ll be an embarrassment. Seeing himself clean, he does the thing clean people do: he sits at the feet of the giver who is master and Lord. The priest thing can wait. Right now, its all about Jesus. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.

And so He is commended by Jesus: Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise and journey; your faith has made you well.” The now-healed Samaritan wanted as much Jesus as he could get. Never satisfied but always desiring to kneel at the master’s feet and hear, listen, receive, and learn. There is nothing more profitable to our salvation that to be with Jesus. To meditate upon His precepts. To fix your eyes on His way. To never wandering from His commandments.

On this Rally Day, there’s nothing wrong with a renewed call to be attentive to God’s Word. Today, as we begin another season of catechesis, I urge you to be like the Samaritan leper, who after being healed, did not simply go back to the old way but turned over a new leaf in Jesus. Crack open your Bibles each day. Struggle to read and understand. Memorize again your catechism. Pray these chief texts of our faith back to Jesus and let His Spirit work new fruit in you. Use the prayer guides. Pray for each other. Come to Bible Study. Pop in for Lutheran Catechesis on Mondays and Old Testament Catechesis on Tuesdays. Let the Spirit return you to the Word and so be commendable to Jesus. Arise and journey on the way; your faith has made you well.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana