Reflections

Today’s Reading: Mark 8:27-9:1

Daily Lectionary:  Ezekiel 40:1-4; 43:1-12; Romans 8:18-39

 

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:34–35)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. “Hey, I realize you’re God, but you’re really screwing this up. Let me tell you a better way to do it. I’d know. I spend most of my time imagining what I’d do if I were in charge. Never mind my motto, ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’”

It isn’t just that we jump right in with Peter and tell Jesus not to die on the Cross and seek power instead. It’s that we love to talk about bearing our own cross for all the wrong reasons. The entire discussion of taking up your cross to follow Jesus gets framed in all the same selfishness as rebuking the divine. I should be the one determining good and evil.

We love to talk about bearing our cross. It lets us see ourselves as the victims. Poor, good, us. Evil world. Jesus sacrificed for the good of the very people who are hurting Him. But the Cross is God’s love that sacrifices for sinners and calls them righteous, not a framework that lets us write them off as evil oppressors.

Take up your cross and follow me. Stop seeing the world as “us vs. them.” The Cross is what unites us. My cross, your cross—there’s really only one: Jesus’ Cross. His suffering and death unites sinners in the forgiveness of what divides us. We are not called to suffer independently of Jesus. We are called to recognize that the people who make us suffer are tied to us in the same Cross Jesus bore on Calvary. We are called to be united with Him in His suffering even as we are united with our neighbors, for whom He suffered. That won’t happen by putting on a brave face or telling God what to do. It comes from looking to the Cross where Christ also died for you. The thing that knits creation together is mercy. The whole world can’t save a soul, but the Son of Man already lost His life for our sake.  We can face all, even death, unashamed of the love that knits us together unto resurrection. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

O Lord, fix our minds on the things of God, that we may see your cross. Amen.

Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 8:6-13

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 39:1-10, 17-29; Romans 7:21-8:17

 

Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.” (1 Kings 8:12)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The descriptions of the Holy of Holies all sound about like what we’d expect if God needed a house. The Ark was a thing of beauty, history, and glory. The gold and the handiwork, the tablets of the Law, the cherubim who guarded it: These sound like God things. These are the things that seem bigger than we are.

But when the Lord shows up, it’s in a cloud of darkness so thick that the priests could not minister there. It covers everything. Those things that seem bigger than we are still can’t save us from darkness. Not the gold, not the Law, not even the angels. So much of our religion consists of trying to figure out why the things we put our trust in don’t deliver us from the dark. So much of our faith is recognizing that the dark is exactly where God puts Himself.

He won’t bind Himself to any one city. He goes with His people wherever they go. The cloud was a sign of it. The Lord makes His home in the darkness. It’s the story of the incarnation and the crucifixion. The suffering servant entered death to pull you out of the tomb even as He rose from the dead. Christianity is the God who enters the darkness to be with you there, that the darkness would not overcome the light that is Jesus. The closer you get to the darkness, the closer you get to the Lord. You don’t need to escape what’s wrong to be near God. You won’t find the Cross in a perfect sunset. You’ll find it where the sun was blotted from the sky. God was in the darkness for you, dying that you would live. Be not afraid of the dark. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. (Abide With Me, LSB 878:1)

Today’s Reading: Luke 2:41-52

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 38:1-23; Romans 7:1-20

 

And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There’s a lot of speculation about  Jesus as a child. We expect Him to be different. Twelve-year-old me was different from me today. Knowing me back then gives insight into who I am today. So we figure if we knew more about kid Jesus, we’d know more about God.

The thing is, He really only has one story. It plays itself out over and over again throughout time, even here. His parents were in Jerusalem for the Passover, a remembrance of the blood of the lamb that saved God’s people from death. He was gone for three days, then appeared again in the temple. It really should sound familiar.

Jesus was the Passover Lamb, sacrificed to save you from death. He was apart from us for three days, then rose from the grave. Now we find Him in Body and Blood in the temple, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Same story. Over and over. Now and forever more. We don’t need more. Young Jesus is the same as adult Jesus, is the same as the pre-incarnate Son of God, is the same as Jesus for you given in the temple today. It’s not a letdown. It’s good news. The story of saving you is the only story God wants to tell. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Jesus has come as the King of all glory! Heaven and earth, O declare His great pow’r, Capturing hearts with the heavenly story; Welcome Him now in this fast-fleeting hour! Ponder His love! Take the crown He has for you! Jesus has come! He, the King of all glory!  (Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal, LSB 533:4)

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 37:15-28; Romans 6:1-23

 

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear it and learn it. (The Small Catechism: Third Commandment)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God commands us to remember the Sabbath Day for a reason: that it would be kept holy. That last word matters: holy. It shows why the premise we usually understand regarding the Sabbath Day is completely wrong. Holiness never comes from us, but it always comes from God.

The Sabbath Day was not quarantined from the week as a lightning round for extra Jesus-points. It was not set aside for us to do the work of not working, or even for us to do the work of worship. If the day is going to be holy among us, it’s not going to be based on anything we do.

Holiness comes from God. What if He set aside the whole day because He actually wanted to spend it with you? What if He set the day apart so that there would always be room to receive His gifts of Word and Sacrament?  It’s these things that make us holy. Jesus, given in Word and Sacrament, forgive sinners. Any day that happens is a holy day.

The premise of the Sabbath is that God wants to give you real gifts in time and space. Don’t just spend time thinking about Him, but understand that He enters reality to give you real gifts on a specific day. God isn’t hiding in heaven. The day is holy because He shows up to make it that way, and you are holy because He gives you the gifts that accomplish it. He commands them to be received because He loves you enough to insist you receive a gift. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

“Come unto Me, ye weary, And I will give you rest.” O blessed voice of Jesus, Which comes to hearts oppressed! It tells of benediction, Of pardon, grace, and peace, Of joy that hath no ending, Of love that cannot cease. (Come Unto Me, Ye Weary, LSB 684:1)

Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 36:33-37:14; Romans 5:1-21

 

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. (1 Corinthians 1:28)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There are already too many sermons and devotions that lament the workings of this world, as if it weren’t already on our minds. The problem is that we’re all waiting for the God who promises to fix it, to out-world the world in rhetoric, satire, or even violence. To do something to make people nicer to us.

He showed up in the face of all the same ridicule, born of the Virgin Mary to be called the son of a whore. Born into of the same violence, carried off to Egypt while the king slaughtered every male child his age.

Our God entered into our world to bear it, not to outdo it. It was to enter into the Jordan River, to be baptized by John into sin, blood, humiliation, and destruction, and to carry it all to the only place that road could lead: the Cross. It’s foolish. Low. Despised. It brought to nothing the things that are. The sin. The humiliation. The destruction. The death. Christ left those things buried at Calvary.

So when the world does worldly stuff and we want to complain about it, look instead to the Cross, where Christ not only conquered, but also forgave the world. God doesn’t need to fix the world. He forgave it. Christ never calls us to see sheep and goats. He is the judge of that. He calls us to love our neighbors. That’s not rooted in our overcoming them, but in our seeing that He died for them, too—seeing those in the world that hate you and calling them friend, worthy of love because God paid the price in blood: That’s foolishness, too. But it’s what God chose to do. You don’t need to be afraid of them. You are baptized into Christ Jesus, who has already brought to nothing the evils that are. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Almighty Father, in Your Son You loved us when not yet begun Was this old earth’s foundation! Your Son has ransomed us in love To live in Him here and above: This is Your great salvation. Alleluia! Christ the living, To us giving Life forever, Keeps us Yours and fails us never! (O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright, LSB 395:4)

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 42:1-7

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 36:13-28; Romans 4:1-25

 

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. (Isaiah 42:3)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Nobody wants justice except the wounded, the trampled on, and the sinned against. Everyone quotes “judge not, lest ye be judged,” but “an eye for an eye” is the verse we really have in mind. The broken want their pound of flesh. Someone told me God didn’t give us the “eye for an eye” verse to set a minimum on punishments, but rather to place upper limits on them. It wasn’t that He was worried that we’d be too lenient with each other. He was worried we’d be too harsh. Makes sense.

Our Lord promises to open the eyes that are blind to the justice I want. There is a sad state of affairs down here, where we’ve so lost track of sin that we don’t know whether it was the blind man or his parents who sinned. But I think God wants to open the blind eyes taken in judgment. I think He wants the eye taken for an eye restored. I think this because the Lord promises justice with one breath, and with the next, promises to free the prisoners, who don’t deserve it. He will bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.  There is no justice in bringing out the prisoners. Justice by the Law does not let loose the prisoners. The Gospel does that.

Our Lord’s promise is not to break those who’ve broken you. It’s that He will not break the bruised reed. He will not crush the sinners, but will bring forth justice all the same. It’s the Gospel. Wrong was done and needs to be punished. Jesus would bear the cost Himself in the name of justice. Your pound of flesh was paid on the Cross. He died that you would live. And not just you: There is enough justice here for your enemy, too. Look. See their sins punished. See your God’s mercy, not just as a guilt trip so you will forgive them as well, but as a promise of mercy that doesn’t rest on your heart’s being pain-free. Mercy rests on His promise. Your sins are forgiven you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Thine the kingdom Thine the prize Thine the wonder full surprise Thine the banquet then the praise Then the justice of Thy ways Thine the glory Thine the story Then the welcome to the least Then the wonder all increasing at Thy feast at Thy feast. (Thine the Amen, Thine the Praise, LSB 680:4)

Today’s Reading: Matthew 3:13-17

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 34:1-24; Romans 3:19-31

 

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. (Matthew 3:15)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There’s a lot of confusion over who God is. We do that on purpose. It leaves room for us to invent the god we want, who believes what we believe and hates who we hate. This god follows the laws we make and only wants us to be happy. Sin always tries to create God in our own image.

In the Baptism of our Lord, we see who God is: triune, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But if we look closer, we see more. God is more to us than just triune. The Epiphany is seeing God at work. We know Him by more than just His Name. He reveals Himself in action. The Father speaks from on high, the Son is incarnate to fulfill all righteousness, and the Spirit remains with and conveys Jesus. God is what He does.

God does something. The revelation of the triune God was shown to us through the Baptism of Christ in order to fulfill all righteousness. God is what He does. He fulfills all righteousness for us. Jesus climbs down into filthy waters for forgiveness He doesn’t need. He assumes our sin and carries it to Calvary. There, the Father is well pleased. Wrath is abated. Love abounds. The Spirit conveys this Jesus to us in the same waters. You are baptized, not into syllables, but into the triune God who fulfills all righteousness for you. You have life in His Name. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Father in heaven, at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River You proclaimed Him Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in His name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the Baptism of Our Lord)

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 33:1-20; Romans 3:1-18

 

My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. (From the Introit for the Baptism of Our Lord)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The ruler has come: Jesus, son of David, yet David’s Lord. Anointed with sin by John the Baptist. The firstborn and highest of kings, with whom the Father is well pleased. The covenant will stand. The Lord promises He shall fall for the sins of the world. The steadfast love of the Lord looks like Jesus, hanging on a cross for you.

The psalms twist into knots when we try to figure out where we fit in them. The Bible is about Jesus, not about you. Take, for example, Psalm 22. The opening line is “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Read the remaining verses and it becomes obvious that this psalm is ultimately all about Jesus. Sure, David wrote this psalm because he was suffering from profound loneliness during his own circumstances. And sure, we can draw great comfort ourselves just by reading David’s words. But at the end of the day, the psalms are focused on Jesus, and Jesus for us.

There’s a reason our liturgy is packed with the psalms. The liturgy is God’s giving and sinners’ receiving. Even when we “praise” God, we give Him His own words back. They’re words of the covenant, the recognition of His faithfulness and love. Our words echo what we’ve received. “You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation” (Psalm 89:26). In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

There stood the Son of God in love, His grace to us extending; The Holy Spirit like a dove Upon the scene descending; The triune God assuring us, With promises compelling, That in our Baptism He will thus Among us find a dwelling To comfort and sustain us. (To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord, LSB 406:4)

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 19-32; Romans 2:17-29

 

And if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? (Romans 2:19–21)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. If you want to live by the Law, you’ll die by it. If you want to die by the Gospel, you’ll live in it. The latter has caused no small amount of hard feelings and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

The truth is that we’d much rather live by the Law. Watch kids play tag: There’s no grace involved. New rules pop up every 30 seconds. With each new law comes an increase in trespass. It doesn’t seem to make them happier, but they can’t seem to quit.

I wish this was as simple as reminding you not to be a hypocrite. If the Law could bring about peace, we’d have found a way. If you want to live by the Law, you’ll die by it. Sing “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,” all you want, but first actually look at the Law. Finding someone worse than you are to condemn doesn’t actually make the sins you hide any less wrong. It just leaves us condemning each other along our way to the grave we’ll share with those we spent our whole lives calling sinners.

God does not desire this to be the last word. He calls even the wicked to turn from the religion of the Law and live. Turn from your sins and hear the Gospel. Jesus fulfilled the Law for you, and for all. Jesus died for you, and for all. Your neighbors’ public sins are atoned for, and so are your secret ones. More rules can’t do this. But a merciful God already has. Our religion is to die with Christ, that we would live in Him. Our hope is not that we can save others by our works, but that Christ can save us from our works. Christ has given you life in Him. Turn from your works and live. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Thy works, not mine, O Christ, Speak gladness to this heart; They tell me all is done, They bid my fear depart. Refrain Refrain To whom save Thee, Who canst alone For sin atone, Lord, shall I flee?  (Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ, LSB 565:1)

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 3:1-12

Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 3:12-27; Romans 2:1-16

 

This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:11)

 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The mystery is not that God exists. That is so poor a secret that we’ll try and find Him in every idol we craft, convinced that He’s finally on our side. It’s so poor a secret that atheists are mad at Him in whom they don’t believe, which is harder than it sounds. How often are you mad at a unicorn?  The mystery is not even that He’s for the Gentiles. Today it’s harder to convince people that a God who made everyone wouldn’t be thrilled with us no matter what we look like.

The mystery is not God. The mystery is not for the Gentiles. The mystery is Christ for you. God has an eternal purpose: to save sinners. He came to save Jews and Gentiles, but more specifically, to save you. Before He ever spoke and said, “Let there be light,” He knew what would happen. He knew your sins—all of them. Then, when creation fell with Adam, God followed us down, all the way to the tomb. That’s the mystery. Jesus died for you. God became man to die and rise so that you, who are dead in your idolatries, and are enemies of God, could be reconciled. The mystery has a name. Paul calls it the Gospel. It lets us stop trying to control God by finding Him in idols. It makes peace between God and the sinners who could not by their own reason or strength believe. It names us something more than a race. We are the sinners Jesus died for. Our confidence is in Him. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. –Rev. Harrison Goodman

 

Giver of grace, descend from high; Your sev’nfold gifts to us supply; Help us eternal truths receive And practice all that we believe; Give us Yourself that we may see The glory of the Trinity. (Creator Spirit, by Whose Aid, LSB 500:3)