Reflections

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 31:1-18; Luke 6:1-19

In those days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Anything you can say about God, you can say about any of the Three Persons of The Holy Trinity with one big exception to the rule: only the Son--very God of very God--took on flesh, becoming a man. So, we may say that Jesus created the heavens and the earth, and we may say that the Father saves us, and we may say that the Holy Spirit knows all things, but we may not say that the Father prayed or that the Holy Spirit struggled. No, it was only Jesus who did these things.

Philippians 2 describes what Jesus did as the God-man: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. . . he humbled himself" (Philippians 2:5, 7a & 8a). Our LORD always possessed the full power of God, but He voluntarily limited Himself ("made himself nothing") so that He was fully able to be like us in every way, except without sin. So Jesus, also as true man, truly prayed to the Heavenly Father. Jesus was always God, but we may correctly say, "He was a man praying to God."

And here is the big lesson for us about prayer: even Jesus who was a sinless person needed to pray. He felt the weight of sin in the world and the attacks of the devil. As a result, He yearned to pray. Lutheran Christians know how to pray: We engage in a two-way conversation. We hear God speaking to us through the Word of Christ and then we speak back to God in prayer, often just praying God's Word back to Him as we do in the psalms. If Jesus needed to pray, then we need to pray infinitely more. He heard the Father speak to Him as He had perfect communion with the Father, and He prayed to the Father. We emulate our Savior, take His Word into our hands and upon our lips and listen to God speak to us, and then we pray, since we are His baptized children. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord Jesus, our Sabbath rest, You called the twelve apostles to go out into all the world to carry on Your proclamation of the kingdom of God and Your miracles of release. May Your Church with its apostolic foundation continue to announce the Good News that in You there is healing and forgiveness; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 25:1-22; Luke 5:17-39

"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)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The evangelist Matthew was once very sick in his spirit, and he urgently needed a physician. Such was his condition when Jesus called him to follow, and everyone knew it. It is well-known that the two types of people considered to be the lowest of the low, during this place and time when Jesus walked the earth, were prostitutes and tax collectors. Matthew was a tax collector, and the people viewed tax collectors as robbers who took more than was owed, completely taking advantage of people for personal gain. Matthew was not ignorant. He knew what he had been doing. He knew that he was a sinner. He knew that his spirit was sick. What a remarkable text here from Luke 5:27-32 when Jesus called Matthew. Unlike Jesus' conversation in John 4 with the woman from Samaria, for example, there was no discussion about his past sin. Jesus did not moralize or lecture; the LORD did not accuse nor psychoanalyze. He saw Matthew, the sin-sick man, and just called him: "Follow me." That's it. Done deal. Jesus just called him to follow, and the rest was history. Luke 5:28: "And leaving everything, he rose and followed him."

We know that if a person is complacent, ok and satisfied in their sinning, we must rouse them and ask the Holy Spirit to convict them through the Law, but on other occasions people already know that there is something wrong with them. They are already full of shame before we utter a syllable to them. When we meet folks like this, we don't need to beat them down with Law, we just need to love them with Gospel and tell them that Jesus is loving them, too.

This is true for us as well. Sometimes we feel stuck in our shame, taking our sin to mean that we are just defective, rejected people. But Jesus won't stand for this. He calls us when our lives are all messy and full of shame, and in the greatest love and mercy the world has ever known. He calls to us, "Follow me." We don't have to jump through hoops, but get to leave our lives of serving sin, and then by God's grace, put one foot in front of the other as we follow Jesus. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O LORD, absolve Your people from their offenses that from the bonds of our sins, which by reason of our frailty we have brought upon ourselves, we may be delivered by Your bountiful goodness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our LORD, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Small Catechism: The Close of the Commandments

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 24:1-18; Luke 5:1-16

What does God say about all these commandments? He says, "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep my commandments." (Small Catechism: The Close of the Commandments)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Luther teaches on the meaning of the close of the commandments: "What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them. But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore, we should also love and trust in Him and gladly do what He commands."

Too often we hear a watered-down version of what it means for the Christian "to fear God." It is true that we don't walk around waiting for God to zap us with lightning. God wants us to know that on account of Christ He truly loves us. At the same time, we should be afraid to break God's commandments. We should hate the thought of doing so. Therefore, as Luther teaches, if we break God's commandments, we should fear God's wrath. Is this for Christians, too? Absolutely! So, our Lutheran confessions in many places teach us that Christians are familiar with the "terrors of conscience," because according to our sinful nature, we break God's Law.

What does God want us to do? Does He want us to run and hide from Him like Adam and Eve did in Genesis 3? No way! Does He want us to rebel against Him and act like we don't care? Ridiculous! Does He want us to pretend that we don't sin? Definitely not! Instead, He says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). This is what we do every day as we live in our Holy Baptism into Jesus! What should motivate us? The fact that God is "a jealous God." This doesn't mean that God is insecure (that's the sinful meaning), but that God loves us so much that He fights for us at all cost, even to the point of giving up His own Son to forgive us for our law-breaking. As we live as Christians now, we do not live fearing God, but we live fearing the prospect of rebellion, and when we do break His commandments, we run to Jesus, the friend of sinners. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

"You have this Law to see therein That you have not been free from sin But also that you clearly see How pure toward God life should be." Have mercy, LORD! ("These Are the Holy Ten Commands" LSB 581, st.11)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: 1 John 5:4-10

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 23:14-33; Luke 4:31-44

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There is a real impact upon our lives when the Holy Spirit, through the Word and Sacraments of Jesus, creates in us the gift of faith. Luther in his preface to his Romans commentary wrote, "Faith is God's work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God (John 1:23). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts, and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it." How can we be sure of this? "For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree" (1 John 5:7). John 19:34 records: "But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water."

After Jesus rose from the grave, He gave His Holy Spirit to His Church (breathing the Spirit upon the apostles and pouring His Spirit upon the Church) and guess what? The Holy Spirit still uses the water of Christ and the blood of Christ to flow upon and into Christians. You have received Christ's water in Holy Baptism and you receive Christ's Blood in Holy Communion. Through these, the Holy Spirit protects you! Christ for you means that you have the Victor over anything and everything in the world that threatens the forgiveness of your sins, your eternal life, and your great salvation in Christ.

This does not mean that sin, the world, and the devil will not still harass you and even cause you great pain (we get to taste some of His suffering for us), but it does mean that nothing in this world is stronger than the One your faith clings to! Nothing! "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life" (1 John 5:11-12a). And who overcomes the world? "The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:5). Your Savior is so strong for you that your enemies cannot snatch you out of His hand (John 10:28). In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord Jesus, in Your ministry of teaching, casting out demons, and healing the sick, You proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom of God. Send us into all the world to announce that today, in You, Scripture has been fulfilled, the new creation has come, and the healing of the nations is here; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the LORD God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. (Ezekiel 37:12)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. While the Old Testament teaches the resurrection of the flesh as we see in Job 19, Ezekiel 37 is not about the resurrection of the body, but it is about the renewal and "resurrection" of hope and vitality for living in faith. The powerful scene of the valley of dry bones describes the people of Israel in exile in Babylon before their liberation by the powerful Persian emperor and conqueror Cyrus the Great (as history knows him). But before Cyrus, God's people had lost their homeland, they were like slaves in a far-away land, and the confidence they once had as the people of God seemed like a distant memory. They had lost hope, so that they were full of dryness in spirit, and full of the feeling of death in their collective soul. That is why God describes His people here as a great valley of dry bones.

Have you ever felt dry? Have you ever lost hope? The psalmist proves to us that it is possible for a believer to feel this way. Psalm 32:3-4 says, "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer." For us, though, we don't need any mere man, even a powerful mere man like Cyrus the Great, but only Jesus Christ, who is not a mere man, but the very Son of God!

This is how Jesus rescues us from our sinful exiles; this is how Jesus raises our "dry bones." "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin" (Psalm 32:5). As Jesus keeps us in our baptismal grace, we are lifted up and renewed day by day. We are no longer exiles and slaves to sin, but we are released from bondage to sin and we have a new Master, the LORD of life who showers upon us new hope, and this hope does not disappoint nor put us to shame (Romans 5:5). In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, Your Son announced in the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth that as the Messiah, His teaching and miracles demonstrated His presence in creation to release it from bondage and bring healing by making all things new. Give us faith to see that His teaching and miracles continue today in the healing medicine of Your Word and the Sacraments, which put to flight the diseases of our souls; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: John 20:19-31

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 20:1-24; Luke 4:1-15

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. (John 20:19)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. This marvelous Easter text is one of the most important in leading us to worship our Risen LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. At the same time, it is teaching us something about our Risen LORD according to His Person as true God and true man. In our Lutheran Confessions, Solid Declaration, Article VII on The Holy Supper, we learn that there are three ways in which Jesus can be in a given place. One of those is the way He was present as recorded in John 20. Here, space cannot contain Him, so Jesus was able to leave "the closed grave and came through closed doors" [John 20:19]. So locked doors and hard walls can't keep Jesus from really and actually coming to you and being with you. At the same time here in John 20 the disciples were able to know Jesus' real presence. He was actually there with them in His body! In fact, Thomas got to touch Him! (John 20:27). In other words, Jesus can do both at the same time: have nothing touch Him as He passes through locked doors and walls, and yet be touched and touch at the same time! How does He do it? He's God! It is not too difficult for Him.

So, what is really important about this fancy schmancy theological overview? Just this: This is the same way that Jesus comes to you in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar! He does not need bread and wine to contain Him (they can't), and yet when you receive the sacramental bread and the sacramental wine, He really and truly and actually comes to you! In the Holy Sacrament, His Body and His Blood enters your mouth, enters your whole life, and this is one way that He is keeping His promise to be with you always (Matthew 28:20). In our sin, we doubt that Jesus can do this, but in this very Holy Sacrament and in His Word proclaimed, we poor sinners are given and increased in holy faith so that we may walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, grant that we who have celebrated the Lord's resurrection may by Your grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Introit for the Second Sunday of Easter (Psalm 81:1, 7a, 10, 16b; antiphon: 1 Peter 2:2a)

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 19:1-25; Hebrews 13:1-21

Like newborn infants, Alleluia, long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word. Alleluia." (From the Introit for the Second Sunday of Easter)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Introit for tomorrow, the "entrance" or "beginning" that tells us the theme of the service, is for the special Sunday known as Quasimodo Geniti, "like newborn babies." That is, this Sunday's theme teaches us that we should be like newborn babies. But in what way? So that we would "long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word."

Have you ever observed a hungry baby? Getting fed is basically the only thing on their minds! Christians still have a sinful nature and because of that, one of our worst problems is being complacent and no longer feeling the need for God's Word. In sin, we do not long for or thirst for the Word of Christ. Or course, this is exactly where our sin, the world, and the devil want us to be. In time, we might just turn away from God's Word altogether (may it never be!).

When the Holy Spirit convicts us of this sinful way of no longer longing for the Word of Christ, we confess our sin, and receive Christ's forgiveness and then we live not as unwise, but as wise. We train ourselves by the grace of God and through the Word and Sacraments (the Holy Spirit always working through these) to enter each day with a longing. The longing that says once again this day, "I need Jesus, and I know where to find Him! I receive Him through His pure spiritual milk, His Word. For this I long." Luther taught this in respect to receiving Holy Absolution, through which the forgiveness of Christ is imputed to us. Luther wrote: "If you are a Christian, then you ought to be happy to run more than a hundred miles to Confession and not let yourself be urged to come." This is what longing for the Word looks like. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it; and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Like newborn infants, Alleluia, long for the pure spiritual milk [of the Word.] Alleluia. (From the Introit for Quasimodo Geniti Sunday)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 18:5-27; Hebrews 12:1-24

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. (1 Corinthians 5:7)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. "Leaven" here is a metaphor, so Paul is not talking about yeast that makes dough rise. In 1 Corinthians 5:7, "leaven" stands for the old life, the old man, the sinful nature; the flesh. Before you were baptized (or if you were baptized later in life, before you came to saving faith through another means of grace), you were only "leaven," only unregenerate, only against God. The state of being "leaven" is described thoroughly in Romans 5:6-10: You were weak, ungodly, a sinner, and an enemy of God. This condition is so permeating that this leaven infiltrated your very core, or perhaps better said, your heart, so that nothing but more leaven could rise out of you (Matthew 15:18-20). Such leaven spreads to everything you do, and say, and think by nature, all of which is the old leaven of sin and death. In this condition, a person is spiritually dead.

But God in His mercy saw us in this old leavened state, and loved us so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to come and do something about our old leavened lives. Jesus put on our humanity, became our brother, even while still being Almighty God,and did something about the old leaven. Through Himself, He has given us His perfect unleavened bread, His very body to make our lives holy and unleavened. We now have the new life of Christ that covers our old leaven of sin. His sinless and unleavened life has covered you ever since you were baptized into Him, so that now the Holy Spirit is busy daily doing something in and through you: leading you to confess the old leaven, to "clean it out" according to what Jesus has done for you.

We confess it to God, and through Christ, God takes it from us, and then reminds us where He put it all: on His Son when His Son was on the Cross with all our old leaven. In Christ, God sees you as unleavened. On account of Christ, all the old leaven is gone! You are now His new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, You show those in error the light of Your truth so that they may return to the way of righteousness. Grant faithfulness to all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Church that they may avoid whatever is contrary to their confession and follow all such things as are pleasing to You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Job 19:23-27

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 17:1-16; Hebrews 11:1-29

"And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh in my flesh I shall see God." (Job 19:25)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. People say a lot of things that either criticize Scripture or reveal their lack of familiarity with Scripture. For example, many perpetuate the idea that the Old Testament does not teach the resurrection of the body. Job 19 disproves this assertion. In fact, Job in chapter 19 is adamant about what he is saying here. It is so important that he wants the truth of his words to be "with an iron pen and lead, engraved in the rock forever!" (Job 19:24) Nothing can contradict this truth. What truth? That after we die, our physical bodies will turn to dust . We will be reduced to practically nothing. The Greeks taught that our atoms would just dissipate into the rest of the universe. Job admits that yes, his body would be "destroyed"; reduced to ashes. Yes, this is true, but that is not everything.

Job then states the rest of the story: Something happens after death that will enable him to see God with his own eyes! (Job 19:26-27) How could Job possibly testify so strongly to this? It appears at first glance to be a contradiction, but it is not. Job was describing the effects of the resurrected body. The Gospel is not just that God put your sins on Jesus for Him to cover your sins with His blood, but the Gospel includes what God promises you on account of Jesus' rising from death. And this is no silly metaphor or "spiritual" resurrection, but it means that His body that died (the same one buried) came back to life.

Yes, bodies that die turn to dust, and the rest of the story is that God reassembles the body--in a miraculous way--so that not only will our bodies be restored, but they will be better than ever before (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). In other words, the Good News is that death is not your end, dear Christian, because after you die, you shall be raised and you will see Jesus with your very own eyes! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life. We humbly pray that we may live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

Today's Reading: Small Catechism: The Tenth Commandment

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 16:13-35; Hebrews 10:19-39

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Text from Luther's Small Catechism drawn from Exodus 20:17)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. "What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor's wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty" (Luther's Small Catechism). Have you heard the old saying, "The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence?" Well, for our sinful nature, this is a highly accurate statement. The flesh is never satisfied. Its cravings and desires are insatiable. Our sin is never satisfied.

King Solomon described this problem in respect to the love of money: "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money [or "will never have enough"]" (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Why is this true? God tells us why: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) These dark cravings easily turn toward our neighbor and what our neighbor has in his or her life, like their close relationships.

Have you ever been jealous of someone else? If so, then maybe it was because you envied their popularity, or even because they had or have a friend that you always wanted to be close to. When our sin zeros in on envy, coveting, and evil desire, then we don't want our neighbor to have what they have. Instead, we want what they have. This is how the Tenth Commandment is broken.

But your sin was put on Jesus! He took it out of obedient love to the Heavenly Father for you. He went to the Cross and covered your sin, including all your coveting, on the Cross; and He rose to prove that since you are baptized into His death and His resurrection you do indeed have a new life! That life realizes this: You have the Kingdom of God (Luke 12:32). You already have the best of the best of life; in Christ, you have all things good and holy and lasting and rich! You don't need anything else! Now, because God takes care of what you have, in Christ you can help your neighbor take care of what they have. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

"You shall not crave your neighbor's house Nor covet money, goods, or spouse. Pray God He would your neighbor bless As you yourself wish success." Have mercy, LORD! ("These Are the Holy Ten Commands" LSB 581, st.10)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch