Reflections

Daily Lectionary: Judges 15:1-16:3; Galatians 3:23-4:11

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4–5)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Law was our guardian. The lLw's job is not to love you, but to hold you captive. The Law can't make you hate sin, just punishment. The heart is still full of lust and evil and envy and hate. The Law can't make you love what God commands, only fear what happens if you don't. The Law can't give you a good conscience. The Law can't give you righteousness. The Law can't give you freedom. The Law can't give you anything. It can only demand. The Law is one thing. The Gospel is another.

The Gospel cannot demand. It can only give. Christ gives you His righteousness, His holiness, even His identity. Now, you are no longer under a guardian, but sons of God, through faith, and heirs according to the promise. You are baptized. The Law doesn't own you or hold you anymore. It cannot speak to your conscience. That is the job of the Gospel. You have put on Christ, who is your righteousness.

The Law doesn't cease to exist. It is still a reflection of the Law giver. The Law reflects the character of God. It shows how things are supposed to be. So for you, it shows what you are not. Christ was not born into the world to eliminate how things are supposed to be, but to set aright what sin broke. So He was not born apart from the Law, but under the Law. He allows the Law to hold Him captive. He suffers the wages of sin. He dies to forgive you all your sins. He redeems you from the Law that held you captive, and adopts you into His own family. This isn't so that you would hate the Law, but so that you would be free from it. We love the Law because we wear Jesus in our Baptism. He fulfills all the Law demands. Where the Lord is, there is freedom from the captivity of the Law. You are free from the curses of the Law. You are free from sin, free from death, free from terror. You are in Christ. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

In Baptism we now put on Christ—Our shame is fully covered With all that He once sacrificed And freely for us suffered. For here the flood of His own blood Now makes us holy, right, and good Before our heav'nly Father. ("All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" LSB 596, st.4)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Small Catechism: Lord's Prayer, Fourth Petition

Daily Lectionary: Judges 14:1-20; Galatians 3:1-22

Give us this day our daily bread. (Small Catechism: Lord's Prayer, Fourth Petition)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. This petition, probably more than any others, drives us to prayer. We have daily needs we see going unmet. We somehow figure this petition is supposed to fix that if we just do it right. God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. If you don't pray, God still gives you daily bread. If you're evil, daily bread is for you. Prayer isn't currency. It's comfort.

God doesn't give everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body only to the well behaved or the ones who pray enough. He gives it to sinners, even unbelieving ones. Because Jesus loves sinners. He loves you. He even loves the sinners who don't believe yet. He loves them enough to die for them. A grilled cheese falls under the same banner of grace as forgiveness of sins. God won't deal with you according to what you deserve, but according to His love for you. He would give good gifts for your good. All of it is an undeserved gift.

And in this petition, He reminds us that it's okay to look in normal places for it. He gives daily bread through means. He could float said grilled cheese in front of you and make it glow in the dark. Instead, He gives you a grocery store. It's a freeing thing. Prayer isn't a way to make God work apart from means, but a reminder that He works through them, even fallen means. If God has promised to work through fallen sinners to provide daily bread to you, you can see and know that God is caring for you here. God doesn't need a sinless farmer to grow crops. He doesn't need sinless families to care for you. Yet this is exactly how God has promised to take care of you. He doesn't just do it for this life, but to drive you to the next. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Give us this day our daily bread, And let us all be clothed and fed. Save us from hardship, war, and strife; In plague and famine, spare our life, That we in honest peace may live, To care and greed no entrance give. ("Our Father, Who From Heaven Above" LSB 766:5)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Romans 6:3-11

Daily Lectionary: Judges 13:1-25; Galatians 2:1-21

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:6)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Guilt is potent stuff. We drag it around behind us. We attach it to others. We let a singular event define us. The accident, the mistake, the divorce, the incident. The sin. Everywhere we go it follows us. It's on our minds. It's on everyone else's. We can't seem to go anywhere without being known as that guy. Or we might be her. . . you know the one.

It's like that one little moment owns us. More people understand what it's like to be a slave to sin than you'd think. As hard as you struggle against it, as much as you want to put it behind you, it owns you, it holds you captive.

It's like we come to church to set it down. Hear about the love of God, about forgiveness. Lay that sin on Jesus. Hear Absolution. Then, when church is over, pick it up again on our way out the door. How many times does someone have to confess the same sin over and over before they're finally forgiven? How many times before you can look at yourself in the mirror? How many times before you can look at your neighbor as anything other than undeserving of any good thing for their sin?

The singular event that defines you is not your sin. It is your Baptism. You are baptized. Tied to a real Cross where Jesus suffered and died to forgive the sins that have such power over you. Tied to a real resurrection where you are free from those sins. Today, you are baptized. You have this identity today. That means there is actual salvation, not IF you manage to accomplish something yourself, but BECAUSE Christ has given you this gift. Your identity is not "sinner." You are a child of God. Be free from your past. That past was crucified with Christ. You really are forgiven. He bled and died for you. You're baptized and united to forgiveness. He is risen from the dead, and you are united to that freedom from the sin that's really gone. You are baptized. Reckon yourselves forgiven. Dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. When you can't forget your sin, remember your Baptism. Remember who you really are. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

In Baptism we now put on Christ—Our shame is fully covered With all that He once sacrificed And freely for us suffered. For here the flood of His own blood Now makes us holy, right, and good Before our heav'nly Father. ("All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" LSB 596, st.4)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

Daily Lectionary: Judges 7:1-23; Galatians 1:1-24

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Exodus 20:2)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. This is who your God is. Not just the first couple verses, but the whole thing. The Law is a reflection of the Law maker. In my car, there are 11 commandments. God gets His 10. I add one more. Thou shalt not listen to country music. It's a reflection of who I am: someone with taste.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is who your God is. The Lord who absolutely insists on being your God. There's no room for any others. He wants to be the One to care for you.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Your God has a name so powerful it has to be used with care, and He wants you to have it, to call upon Him, pray, praise, and give thanks.

Your God wants to spend time with you, so He rests with you and gives you gifts on the Sabbath. Your God wants to work through sinners to love you, so He gives you parents worthy of the same honor due to Him. They sometimes fail to earn it. That never stops God from working through them for your good. He loves you so much that He wants you to have people to represent that love. Honor your father and your mother as gifts from Him. Life goes better that way. Sin breaks stuff.

Your God loves life, and insists that you live. Nobody's allowed to kill you. Your God wants you to have a healthy marriage. He walls it off and demands it be defended. He wants you to have and keep your stuff. He values your name and gives it all the protection He gives His own. He even cares about your heart, and knows what will pollute it. He calls us out of sin because sin breaks stuff. He calls us toward that which builds up because He loves us.

We don't listen. The Law shows us our sin. It shows us we're not God. We don't need to be. He is, and He brought Israel out slavery to Egypt and us out of slavery to sin and death. The Law paints a picture of God. The Gospel paints a picture of you. You are the one He saves. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Law of God is good and wise And sets His will before our eyes, Shows us the way of righteousness, And dooms to death when we transgress. ("The Law of God is Good and Wise" LSB 571, st.1)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Matthew 5:17-26

Daily Lectionary: Judges 6:25-40; Acts 15:6-21

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. But the Pharisees weren't villains who twisted fancy mustaches. They were men who thought family mattered. They stood for morality and the good of their people. They supported their church. They were the upright people you'd expect to see standing against the darkness of the day. They were the ones building something that would last another generation. But that wasn't enough. Their temple was torn down. Not one stone stood upon the other. Everything they fought for wasn't enough, not for this world, and not for the next. If doing better is the goal, they didn't do enough.

It cuts deeper than the outward actions. It's about the heart. Hate is murder. Lust is adultery. If your identity is found in the Law, you're lost. If this is about what you do or feel, it's not enough. That's why Jesus starts by saying, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." The Law still stands, but the Law is fulfilled in Him. Your identity isn't from the Law, but is found in the Gospel. You are righteous.

This identity lets you face the fullness of the Law without fear. You don't need to downplay it or excuse it. You don't need to justify yourself by abolishing the parts that would make you look like a sinner. Your sins are forgiven. You are in Christ. When the Son of God calls you holy and forgiven, the Law can't give you an identity. You don't need to work around the Law. Jesus fulfills it for you. The more you relax the Law to flee from what it would call you, the more you try to not need Jesus.

If we could fulfill the Law perfectly, it wouldn't be that hard. To relax the Law is to point away from Jesus. To see the Law fulfilled and not relaxed one iota is to see Jesus. To teach the Law fully is to teach Jesus. To call on you to actually strive to do the same is to hope in Jesus. Be not afraid of your failure or your sin. Christ has fulfilled the Law. Christ has won your forgiveness. This is just who you are now. Righteous. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord of all power and might, author and giver of all good things, graft into our hearts the love of Your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Your great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Introit for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

(Psalm 28:1-2, 7; antiphon: vs.8-9)

Daily Lectionary: Judges 6:1-24; Acts 14:19-15:4

The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (From the Introit for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The tense matters. The Lord is the strength of His people. He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Right now. Today. I am helped. It started in the past. Christ was crucified for you. It's still true now. The tense matters because if you understand what God has done, and who God is now, it makes the things you're afraid of much less scary.

The psalmist has real fears. Real enemies. Sometimes life falls apart in the kind of way that words can't really describe with appropriate language. I'm amazed at pious Christians who sit in the dumpster of what was and try to figure out whether or not it's a sin to wonder if God isn't listening, or how He answers. Digging through the damage sin does and looking for more sin doesn't actually fix anything.

You have the feelings. Here, God gives you something to do with them. He gives you the tenses to answer them. The Lord IS the strength of His people. He IS the saving refuge of you. Right now. Today. You are helped. You have these fears. Bring them to the Lord. Recognize that, even as it was His job to do the saving before, it still is now. The things that leave you sleepless wouldn't have stopped Him as He dealt with David, nor will they stop Him today. You might be overwhelmed, but God isn't. He gives us more than we can handle, teaches us to curse any Hallmark card that says otherwise, then holds us in our Baptism while He handles it and drags us along.

To pray the psalms is to realize that God isn't deaf to you. He's already worked to save. Praying them will help you to hear that God isn't silent, but has already given you a place to put your concern as He drags you along towards salvation. It's to meditate on everything God has done in the past, focus on His character, and realize that He hasn't changed, so the things that leave you rocking in the fetal position are faced by the God who shepherds you in mercy. He speaks about the thing you're going through as if you're already saved from it. Because you are. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

From God's joy can nothing sever, For I am His dear lamb, He, my Shepherd ever. I am His because He gave me His own blood For my good, By His death to save me. ("Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me" LSB 756, st.4)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Daily Lectionary: Judges 4:1-24; Acts 14:1-18

He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well. . . (Acts 14:9)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Miracles aren't the cause of faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. It wasn't the signs and wonders that made Jews and Greeks believe. It was what was spoken: the Gospel. Christ is risen from the dead. They did miracles, too, but that really only served to further the divide between those who believed and those who didn't.

At Lystra Paul met a man who had faith to be made well. That doesn't mean he believed enough to earn a miracle. It means he believed enough to see it done. Miracles aren't a prize for believing enough. They're a down payment on the resurrection. Miracles are the undoing of the damage sin does. The resurrection is a good example. Miracles are from the same God who rose. Miracles are something we who by faith believe in the resurrection finally see where all the world doesn't. Only in faith will you ever see a miracle. Because a miracle is God working to undo sin. If you don't believe in sin, the miracle will always have a different explanation. From Pharaoh and his magicians to YouTube atheists of today, apart from faith, everyone finds an excuse.

Some miracles are harder to explain. Some are just so common to us we're not impressed anymore. If you put this man from Lystra in a modern hospital he'd call that a miracle, too, not because of the means God used to heal what sin broke, but because he received it from the Lord. All of it points to the same. God wants sinners to be forgiven. God wants you to rise from death like His Son. God even gives miracles to the people who refuse to see them that way. He gives rain from heaven to good and evil alike. He provides daily bread for the ones He redeemed, not the ones who supposedly had enough faith to get more than someone else.

The miracle here is that the apostles preached and pointed only to Christ. The people went from trying to kill them to trying to kill others for them. They pointed only to Christ. And by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit, people believed. They rose from death. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Thy strong Word bespeaks us righteous; Bright with Thine own holiness, Glorious now, we press toward glory, And our lives our hopes confess. Alleluia, alleluia! Praise to Thee who light dost send! Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia without end! ("Thy Strong Word" LSB 578, st.3)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: 1 Peter 3:8-15

Daily Lectionary: Judges 3:7-31; Acts 13:42-52

But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. (1 Peter 3:14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. "Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?" For some reason we read that and assume there should be no answer. If we really love God, how can He let us suffer? Peter wrote that line to a church experiencing martyrdom. Turns out he'd die a martyr himself, crucified upside down. He made his defense for the hope that was in him upside down. On a cross. I don't think he's trying to make the point we think.

We imagine that Christian witness is about power, intellect, charisma. "Look how that person found Jesus and got his life together." We imagine a witness apart from lowliness, humiliation, suffering. Nobody signs up for that stuff. We want a Christianity that makes our lives easier. It leaves us in the awkward position of trying to witness about a religion whose symbol is the Cross. When we imagine a Christianity apart from suffering, we imagine a Christianity apart from the Cross. When you flee from suffering you flee from the Cross. Peter calls suffering for righteousness' sake a blessing. As someone who hates paper cuts, that's discouraging. I don't want to hurt.

Peter doesn't promise a religion apart from suffering, but He doesn't speak of a God apart from it, either.

You will not find God in a place with no suffering. You find Him on the Cross for you. That doesn't just change how we see suffering. It changes how we see ourselves. Jesus didn't bear the Cross for those who were zealous for what is good. He bore the rCoss for the people who got what they deserve, who suffer for doing evil, for the sinners. For us. And that Cross names you forgiven. Righteous.

I don't know if Peter had courage or cowardice upside down on that cross, but I know he's baptized. I know that afraid or not, God had already saved him. The upside down cross they put him on became a joke we tell each other. The world calls it satanic, but the Petrine cross is an ancient Christian symbol, a reminder that salvation is ours today no matter what they call us. God bore the Cross first, so that ours would be like His. We are the baptized. We don't stay dead. Here is your hope. Here is your defense.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The band of the apostles in glory sing Your praise; The fellowship of prophets their deathless voices raise. The martyrs of Your kingdom, a great and noble throng, Sing with the holy Church throughout all the world this song: "O all-majestic Father, Your true and only Son, And Holy Spirit, Comforter--forever Three in One!" ("We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God" LSB 941, st.2)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Small Catechism: Lord's Prayer, Third Petition

Daily Lectionary: Judges 2:6-23; Acts 13:13-41

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Small Catechism: Lord's Prayer, Third Petition)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. On behalf of the almighty Lord, thanks for the permission, I guess. . . Now the creator of heaven and earth who worked just fine without you can finally act. Who knows what would have happened without your help. Nobody actually believes that God is impotent to act without your permission. It's just we're wary of what we can't control. God's will is done even without our prayer. We pray in this petition that it be done among us also. We pray in this petition to remember that God's will being done is a good thing.

God doesn't need your permission to do His will because He's stronger than you. This petition is a chance to remember that He's smarter than you. He can even understand how to work the fancy settings on your washing machine. If you can't do that, don't presume to know better than God. Oh, also, He's holier than you, too. He doesn't have to start church by saying "I, a poor miserable sinner," which means His will doesn't get tainted by sin like yours does.

Thy will be done, because God's will is to be merciful to sinners. To you. The world is still full of things we don't understand. "Why?" isn't a super helpful question when the answer is so complex that only the maker of heaven and earth would understand it. This petition is a focus on the "who." Who is your God? The One who redeemed you by dying. The One who won't stand back from your distress. There are some parts of His will that He hides from you because you wouldn't understand, but even more so because you shouldn't have to trouble yourself with having to solve those problems. I don't make my kindergartener prepare dinner. I just tell her she's loved and then I feed her.

So God points us to where His will is visible. Where He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh: on the Cross. Where He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die only to rise again: in the church. Here, God makes clear that His will is to save sinners like us. It's done even without our asking. We get to pray and find comfort that it's done among us also. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Your gracious will on earth be done As it is done before Your throne, That patiently we may obey Throughout our lives all that You say. Curb flesh and blood and ev'ry ill That sets itself against Your will. ("Our Father, Who from Heaven Above" LSB 766, st.4)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

"And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God doesn't play well with others. Put away foreign gods. He is a jealous God. It's not that He can't handle competition. He very clearly can. Look back at how He led Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Look at how He brought Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt. Look at what He did to their armies and the false hopes they had in themselves. He exposes the false gods for what they are. This isn't just an "our God can beat up your god in a fight" boast. This is why: Those false gods can't save the people who trusted in them. They couldn't save Pharaoh or Balak. They couldn't save Jericho or any of the various "ites," either. They don't have the power to save. As they stand against His people, it becomes clear. Those who would destroy the ones God calls blessed dash themselves to pieces. But that isn't what God is concerned about.

Even this is about the forgiveness of sins. False gods only work in power, not mercy. The Lord works not only power that they can't, but mercy that they won't. The reason that He won't share you, that He absolutely insists that you serve Him and Him alone, is that no other gods forgive sins. They are law gods. Ours is the God who promises not just to save us from the world, but from ourselves, from our sins. He is the God who works in mercy to those He loves, and to you.

We hear this, say Amen, and then try to mix the two. I want mercy from Jesus, but a little power from money, from fame, from popularity, from strength. "I love Jesus and." But the "and" at the end can't forgive your sins. When you mix the two together, you stop looking to God for mercy, because the "and" makes it all about power. The Lord becomes a means to an end. He did more than lead slaves out of Egypt through the Red Sea. He led them out of death through the forgiveness of sins. He died for us that we would live. As for us, we will serve the Lord. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

A righteous Helper comes to thee; His chariot is humility, His kingly crown is holiness, His scepter, pity in distress. The end of all our woe He brings; Therefore the earth is glad and sings. To Christ the Savior raise Your grateful hymns of praise. ("Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates" LSB 341, st.2)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch