Second Sunday of Easter + Quasimodo Geniti

John 20:19-31

“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

As a pastor, I often receive the question: "Who gives you the right to forgive my sins?"

The answer is timeless and never changes - “Jesus!”

It's the best answer and place to start for all things theological – Jesus, and His words.

Just as we heard Jesus speaking to the Apostles in the Gospel today,

[He] said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The Word of Christ is the authority granted to the Church on earth for lowly pastors (human men) to announce the forgiveness of sins to the repentant sinner, true words of comfort and peace.

But, I fear our love of self and independence hinders our faith and the churchly order God has established to announce His grace to His Church on earth.

Luther rightly stated in the Large Catechism:

“Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs (sacraments), to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here” (LC II 55).[1]

The Augsburg Confession goes on to say, “Our people are taught that they should highly prize the absolution as being God’s voice and pronounced by God’s command.” (AC XXV 3)

But the conscience that does not audibly hear the peace of Christ Jesus in the absolution of sin cannot know this joy. Remember, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) So, without this hearing of God’s Word of absolution, the conscience remains bound up in the terrors of sin and death.

In other words, one remains intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually locked up behind the doors of sin. The door is only opened when Christ opens it through His peace. He now speaks to His Church through the apostles and pastors He sends to be among those who remain shut up from the sin caused by the fears of this life.

A new phobia I’ve learned of is Cleithrophobia, which is the fear of being trapped or locked in a confined space.

If you recall, the disciples in the Gospel today found themselves locked up behind closed doors – “For fear of the Jews.”

At the root of this locking and shutting of the door for the disciples and those who suffer from Cleithrophobia is κλείω – “to shut or to lock.”

The challenge is that if you have been shut in or locked up in your conscience and heart, you cannot release yourself from what consumes you.

What kept the disciples held up was "Fear."

And guess what the Greek word is for fear? That's right, φόβος. Which means phobia.

Just as the Apostles were fearful of the Jews, the world will tell you today to fear your neighbor, fear change, fear the person of opposite views, especially political views, and fear the government.

But are these really the genesis of your phobias in life? Are they really what keeps you trapped and locked behind the walls of your heart? Or is there a more profound fear that has brought disorder to your life? Silencing your confession.

Maybe the greatest fear in life is a loss of control. Perhaps you can't handle others taking the lead.

Or maybe your fear resides in your inability to enter where the seeds of sin and distrust have been sown between you and your neighbor, co-worker, or family member.

Or do you suffer from bouts of melancholy and anger that have you bound in isolation?

You will never have any semblance of peace if you are unwilling to open your ears and permit Christ’s greeting of peace to pierce your darkness. So, likewise, and in good order, you will never be able to enter and confess this peace to your neighbor in need unless you are willing to enter their darkness with this Word of peace.

Quite honestly, it’s all so frightening, confronting the phobias of your life, the fears that lead you into unbelief – your sin and the people of your life.

As you know, one thing you should avoid online is looking at the signs and symptoms of a disorder or disease. Still, I did anyway, and did you know the signs and symptoms of Cleithrophobia can also be related to the signs and symptoms of sin and a lack of confession:

• Chest pain

• Chills

• Difficulty breathing

• Dizziness

• Fear of losing control

• Insomnia

• Nausea

• Racing heartbeat

• Shaking

• Sweating

Isn’t this how you feel when you are at odds with a spouse or a friend? Isn’t this how you feel when you are unwilling to forgive another who stands before you, or find yourself trapped in that sin of unbelief?

If so, you aren't alone, and the website is correct when it says these signs may be life-threatening if left untreated. That is why these feelings of sorrow and guilt should drive you to hear and exclaim the Easter message of peace again: “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

This message of peace frees you, the captive, from the fears and phobias that threaten to paralyze and trap you.

This message is a corporate confession of faith—it confesses with all of Christendom that great Easter message of peace—or, in other words, that the day of forgiveness has arrived.

So, as the antiphon for the introit for this Sunday says, we need to “put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

He is good, kind, and charitable. For even as your faith falters like that of the disciples, Jesus does not leave or forsake you but returns to you again and again and again.

So rejoice as I do that Jesus continues to enter into your lives of disorder to speak the words of absolution through His pastors. And then He opens His wounds to you as you are invited to take the flesh of His body into your hands, and the chalice upon your lips at this rail, and He says to you again, His troubled little lamb, “Peace to you!”

“Peace to you!” - This is why pastors stand not only before you today but are called to crossover into the muck and dwell with you in your homes, your lives, your misery, and personal prisons - to announce the good news they’ve been called and sent to proclaim – the news that frees you from your fears and the imprisonment of your heart.

So rejoice for the incredible ways Jesus continues to reveal Himself to you today. Having heard with your ears and received with your lips, let your heart join Thomas in confessing before Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

And then depart and confess these words of Easter joy in your lives for all to hear:

“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

There are no truer words of peace! Amen!

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

[1] Luther. (2017). Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (p. 315). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

The Resurrection of our Lord

April 20, 2025

1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We live in a world of transformation.

Transform the government, transform our laws, transform education, transform your health, transform your life, and transform who you are, down to your very character and nature.

But do we ever stop to ask what it means to be transformed?

The Greek here is derived from μεταμόρφωσις. It’s the process of experiencing a visible or internal change that alters what something is or who a person is. An easy example of this is when a caterpillar dies an ugly death in order to become a beautiful butterfly.

And just as this transformation is somewhat of a mystery to those of us who have not majored in biology, an even greater mystery is described by the Apostle Paul this morning as he wrote in the epistle,

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:51b-53)

The passage should cause us to stop and meditate. What does Paul mean by “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed?”

He means we shall not all sleep the sleep of death.

Why?

Because Paul says you shall be changed at the sound of the trumpet, you shall be transformed, “The perishable body must put on the imperishable.”

Or, as the very literal translation of the text says, “The corrupted body must now be clothed with incorruption.”

In other words, the rotting and dying flesh that now clothes and clings to you is to be clothed and become immortal and eternal.

This is a difficult saying for us today because culture tells us that death is no longer to be feared; instead, death has been transformed into man’s friend, simply a part of life. So, embrace it, get over it, and move on.

But not so fast, the Apostle Paul writes a little before our epistle this morning, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26)

This leads us to remember that man was not created to die but to live.

A man should fear death in the sense that it is a hostile enemy of God’s children, delivering the punishment and wages for both man’s transgression now and the sin inherited from their first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden.

It’s in this Garden where God spoke to Satan after the Fall into sin and said,

I will put enmity

            Between you and the woman,

            And between your seed and her Seed;

            He shall bruise your head,

            And you shall bruise His heel.

For Martin Luther, the word “bruise” in his German Bible means “Crush, bite, or sting.”

He writes about the use of the word “bruise,”

That word really means to bite as a serpent bites as it shoots the venom in. It means to say that the serpent will bite Christ’s heel, but He (Christ), in turn, will bite its head, that He will be a mortal venom and a pestilence for it.

Here is the image of Christ’s death upon the cross, where the fatal blow of His death puts an end to death, and the power of the grave is undone.

For this reason, we can hold the cross before our closing eyes and say with Paul and all the faithful when death draws near.

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

(1 Corinthians 15:55)

Now, this doesn’t remove the physical consequence of our sin; our bodies will also enter the grave, just as those before us. However, the grave has been overcome because Christ Jesus died on the cross for you. No longer do you die in your sins, but now rest as one who has been liberated, absolved, and transformed into the likeness of your resurrected Savior.

So, where does this transformation occur for you now?

It begins outside of you, at the font of Holy Baptism, where you were clothed and received the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. There, you entered the grave of Christ Jesus and died with Him so that you might be raised again to new life.

This transformation continues even now as you gather each week with the saints on earth to confess the sins that have left you in the most wretched and corruptible state so that you might hear God’s Word of peace and forgiveness.

And it continues as we gather around this rail and receive the very flesh and blood of Christ bodily, where He now dwells and transforms our hearts from the inside out, forming our character and nature into the likeness and image of His love.

This is how we are to be transformed and made ready for the day of resurrection, the day when the trumpet shall blow, the day that comes in the twinkling of an eye, so confess with all the faithful of heaven and earth…

O Death, where is your sting?

O Hell, where is your victory?

Christ is risen, and you are overthrown.

Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen.

Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.

Christ is risen, and life reigns.

Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.

For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

The Great Easter Vigil

In the beginning, God said, "Let there be…."

and there was light, and there was darkness,

there was an expanse,

there was land, seas, and vegetation,

there was sun and moon,

there were swarms of living creatures upon the earth and in the sea,

and there was man – created in God's image.

But through the devil's temptation and one man's disobedience, all creation fell into sin and darkness.

Having been expelled from the Garden, the corruption of mankind propelled creation towards destruction…. God would now send a flood to blot out the wickedness of man.

Still, Noah and his family were kept safe in the ark.

Departing from the vessel of God's protection, He promises Noah and mankind that He will never again permit such destruction to occur.

God keeps His promise, and He keeps Israel safe from the wrath and hardness of Pharoah's heart as they are led through the dry ground of the Red Sea.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God speaks again, calling His people to repentance and promising salvation through His redemptive Word.

A Word that abides with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they enter the fiery trials of faith. He grants them protection through this time of testing so that they would boldly confess the name of God in the darkness of this idolatrous world.

We remain in this world of sin and darkness today. The testing of one's faith continues.

But the Father kept His promise and sent His only begotten Son to be your light and salvation.

Still, you are like Mary Magdalene, who approaches the Lord's tomb in the darkness of the morning.

The gloom of sadness haunts your eyes.

Your hearts are weighed down as the world crumbles around you and despair grips you.

Your faith has been shaken with Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and John – where is your hope when the body is in the pit of the grave?

But out of the grave's deep darkness, out of its prison, Christ arose, and we now join in saying,

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today, death is undone, and the grave is but a portal to life everlasting.

Today, Satan and all that haunt you have been defeated and are continually drowned in the life-giving flood of baptismal waters.

Today, the Father has kept His promise, and His Son Jesus Christ has led you out of the darkness of death to the light of life everlasting; He forgives all your sins and has given you His abiding Word.

So shout for joy, for creation is restored, sing with the saints and angels heaven's song - your Savior lives.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Good Friday

John 19:5

“Ecce homo!”

These are the words of Pilate to the crowd, “Ecce homo!”

Meaning, “Behold, the man!”

If you were standing among the crowds that first Good Friday, what image would form within your mind as you heard these words of Pilate?

How would you see Jesus?

Would He still be your Savior?

Or, as the blood dripped down His brow, was He, as Pilate said, simply a man?

Pilates’ words are those of mockery, emphasizing the perception of Jesus’ weakness and vulnerability. They are to say, “Look at this poor fellow here.”

But there is a sermon for us in these words of Pilate, “Ecce homo!”- “Behold, the man!”

This sermon must have its genesis at the beginning of Holy Scripture when God creates Adam and places him in the midst of the Garden to tend and care for it.

You see, the meaning of the name Adam is “man.” And this man was created in the perfect image of God.

But as you know the creation story, you are aware of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin – which signifies that you understand how humanity lost the image of God in which we were created. For this reason, the face of mankind became unrecognizable and marred by sin, a sin that still separates us today from our Father in heaven.

Yet, God the Father speaks to Adam and Eve, declaring that a seed and offspring of the woman shall come into this world not only to defeat the great tempter of God’s children but to redeem His creation.

For this reason, the Psalmist writes,

            What is man that you are mindful of him,

                        and the son of man that you care for him?

            Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

                        and crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:4-5)

Here, the Psalmist foreshadows Jesus’s humility as the incarnate one takes on your flesh in Mary’s womb and becomes a man. He breathes your poisoned air as He departs the womb, bears your sins and transgressions, and fulfills His Father’s will so that He might restore the image of man.

But to do so, Jesus must, as the Psalmist wrote, be crowned in glory and honor.

And this is where tonight leads us, to Christ’s enthronement and exaltation, to His cross and Passion.

As Jesus stood before the crowd and Pilate declared, “Ecce homo!” The words of Isaiah are fulfilled,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

            He is despised and rejected by men,

            A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

            And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. (Isaiah 53:2b-3)

Just as the disciples ran and hid from Christ’s cross and Passion, you too have rejected Him and cannot bear to look to His image now as He hangs upon the cursed tree, nor see His sorrow or your guilt reflected in Him.

Because upon the cross, Jesus is a mirror of your image. When you look to Him this night, you see yourself - a poor fellow, a sinner.

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV)

Isn’t that something, the One who knew no sin, nor possessed even a sinful motive, had our iniquity placed upon Him? This was done so that you might become righteous, reconciled, and redeemed in Christ Jesus.

So, yes, hear these words of Pilate tonight and look to the cross, see the Man, see yourself, a new Adam, a new man, whose image has been redeemed and restored by the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for you. +INJ+

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-15, 34-35 & 1 Corinthians 11:23-32

St. John wrote at the beginning of this evening’s Gospel,

“When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)

This is an intimate statement, “Having loved his own who were in the world.”

“His own”

From this, one can surmise that there are those individuals who do not share in Christ Jesus and who are not His.

But these words also speak to the exclusiveness of being a disciple of Jesus, which conflicts with today’s world, where everything is to be inclusive. But is anyone or anything ever truly “inclusive?”

Can anyone simply enter your home unannounced, make themselves comfortable, and take a place at your table for supper?

Absolutely not, because the table is reserved for the family or invited guests. It’s a place of intimacy, where there is trust among those who converse, and the deepest matters of life and faith are discussed, prayer and supplication are made on behalf of the family, and Jesus is revealed in the breaking of the bread.

For this reason, the table is a sacred place.

Likewise, the table before the Lord’s altar is also a sacred place set aside for Christ’s body and blood. In fact, it’s His table where His meal is served; for this reason, the meal has been called “The Lord’s Supper.”

He is the one who prepares the meal. He invites us to partake, but only if we are His.

As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians,

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread… You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 21, KJV)

The word communion here comes from the Greek word Koinonia, which means fellowship, proof of unity, and the intimacy of a shared confession of faith.

This shared confession is confessed externally as we partake of the bread and receive from the one cup because this meal is a familial meal among brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

For this reason, Paul warns not to participate in a table of demons and pagan worshipers. Meaning you cannot worship and participate in a table of unbelievers as the world does.

You cannot have it both ways; you cannot be a child of the devil and a child of God. Where you eat and partake of this holy meal instituted by Christ confesses whose family and table you belong to.

Sadly, this understanding can rip the earthly family apart because the world does not appreciate the exclusivity of being God’s children. We no longer fear nor respect evil, let alone the judgment of God.

But what did Paul say in this evening’s Gospel?

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord... For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. (1 Corinthians 11:27,29)

These are legal declarations of sin and disobedience, the breaking of God’s Word, where the bonds and unity of God’s table are broken.

This not only happens when we commune at another table of another church, or someone approaches this table unworthily, or another confession, but it also occurs when we approach the table of the Lord without first being made worthy.

So, where does worthiness begin?

The Small Catechism states,

“That person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’”

But what about the forgiveness of sin between the brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus?

Jesus said,

“If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15)

Where there is no forgiveness, there is no unity and no family.

It’s for this reason, Jesus says in tonight’s Gospel,

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

How did Jesus love you? He loved you by humbling Himself to the point of death upon the cross to grant you His forgiveness and His life.

Likewise, you are to have this same form of humility and love among one another.

It begins where the benefits of Christ’s cross are present for you now: at the Lord’s table, the place of true fellowship and love for one another - the forgiveness of sin.

You see, this table is where we as a family are intimately and exclusively connected beyond human understanding, carrying the burdens of one another’s life, rejoicing with the brother who has been reconciled, and crying with your sister who grieves.

It’s the location where faith’s deepest conversations occur, and prayers and supplications are made on behalf of you, God’s family. Because it’s where Jesus continues to be revealed in the breaking of the bread, and the joys of heaven are present, even now.

All because Jesus loved you, His own, to the end. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Palm Sunday

John 12:12-19

In the events preceding our opening Gospel this morning, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This news of resurrection spread and captivated the people of Jerusalem, who then gathered to welcome Jesus that first Palm Sunday with palm branches in their hands and loud shouts of Hosanna from their lips, meaning “Save us now!”

Little did the people know or understand in what kind of way Jesus’ salvific work would occur by the week’s end, a gory death upon a cross. A death that would now give life.

It’s for this death and resurrection of Jesus that the early Church, all the way back to the Fourth Century, would traditionally gather outside the city of Jerusalem each year on Palm Sunday to process into the city with palm branches, repeating the words of Scripture, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (John 12:13)

Throughout the centuries that have followed these first practices, churches throughout the world have continued the tradition of processing into their sanctuaries with palm branches in their hands; in fact, since the ninth century, it has been tradition to make this yearly pilgrimage by singing the hymn “All Glory, Laud, and Honor,” as we did this morning.

But what’s up with the palm branches? Where did they come from, and what is their significance?

Well, first, the palm tree is a symbol of magnificence, grandeur, and steadfastness. In some cases, a palm tree may live for around 200 years, and for this reason, in Biblical times, it was seen as a symbol of life and immortality.

In Exodus, after Moses led the people of Israel through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, the people were thirsty and in need of water. But it was a desert all around them. Yet, in this desert were palm trees with springs of water to quench the thirst of God’s people. These trees often signaled to those lost in the wilderness of life and an oasis near to them.

In other accounts throughout the Old Testament, Palm trees and their branches were a refuge and protection for God’s children. As time went on, the tree was minted on coins and placed in temples. The palms were an intimate part of history and life, known to all.

So, how do we regard the continued use of these palms today?

They are a symbol of God’s victory and triumph.

As St. Augustine wrote,

See how great the fruit of [Jesus’] preaching was and how large a flock of the lost sheep of the house of Israel heard the voice of their Shepherd. . . . “On the next day many people that came to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees.” . . . The branches of palms are psalms of praise for the victory that our Lord was about to obtain by his death over death and his triumph over the devil, the prince of death, by the trophy of the cross.

I love this line from Augustine: “The branches of palms are psalms of praise.” In other words, these palms are songs and hymns of praise to God. They tell a story even today.

It’s the story we sing of in the Sanctus as our voices unite before the Lord’s Supper, “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”

For this reason, these palms and their hosannas are the church’s song. They direct our voices of faith in calling out to Jesus to save us—to save us now.

To save us from discord and strife among one another, from pestilence and famine, war and bloodshed, calamities of fire and water, and even sudden and evil death.

This is all why Jesus came, isn’t it?

As today’s epistle said,

Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross… so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8, 10-11)

He humbled Himself and came to suffer your death and put an end to death itself.

And this is where this great week leads us, the cross of Jesus, with palms in hand, singing hosanna all the way.

But it’s also interesting to note that palm branches are only mentioned twice throughout the New Testament. Once in the opening Gospel today and secondly in the book of Revelation, as St. John writes,

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. (Revelation 7:9)

In a fascinating way, the first palms appear after the raising and resurrection of Lazarus. They continue as a means of welcoming Jesus, the resurrection, and life into Jerusalem and then find their way into the hands of God’s children, who now stand in His eternal presence.

For this reason, besides the cross, there may not be a more profound symbol of Christ’s victory than the palm branch.

So don’t be bashful, but join the train of God’s Church on earth processing to the cross and grave of Jesus this Holy Week with palm branches in hand and hosannas on your lips—trusting that God has saved you through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

And then, as you look and see these palms throughout the year as they hang behind your crosses, permit them to be a reminder that you, as all the faithful who have gone before,

[are] blessed heirs of heaven,
You’ll hear the song resound
Of endless jubilation
When you with life are crowned.
In your right hand Your maker
Will place the victor’s palm,
And you will thank Him gladly
With heaven’s joyful psalm.
(Entrust Your Days and Burdens, St. 5, LSB 754)

So do not grow weary and weighed down, but pick up your palms, sing hosanna, and like Lazarus, know that God will raise you too. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Lent 5 + Midweek

Psalm 90

We don’t enjoy it, but the whole season of Lent forces us to contemplate our sins and the life hereafter.

This is the cause of the Psalmist’s lament in the middle of this evening’s Psalm,

            For we are brought to an end by your anger;

                        by your wrath we are dismayed.

            You have set our iniquities before you,

                        our secret sins in the light of your presence. (Psalm 90:7-8)

The Psalmist admits that we cannot hide our faults from God. He is omniscient, meaning all-knowing. He sees and knows your heart.

But this doesn’t dissuade you from trying to conceal your trespasses, like a child who tries to superglue the family heirloom back together after they knocked it off the end table, hoping their mother and father won’t notice the cracks.

As we know, this doesn’t always work; you can’t always piece back together what was broken. So, then the confrontation and interrogation come, and how do you respond, “It wasn’t me?” Or, “I didn’t do it.”

In the end, maybe you outrun your parents’ anger and wrath; perhaps, as they look into your eyes, they don’t see the guilt in your heart.

However, what this has all done is laid a foundation for trying to conceal your sins, your most secret and personal sins, from your youth.

St. Jerome, an early translator of the Holy Scriptures wrote,

Our life hurries on at a great pace, and when we least expect it, it slips away, and we die. These very words we speak are of death, and we do not take thought. “We have spent our years like a spider…” In the same way that the spider produces, as it were, a thread and runs to and fro, back and forth, and weaves the whole day long, and his labor, indeed, is great but the result is nil; so, too, human life runs about hither and thither. We search for possessions, and we accumulate wealth; we procreate children; we labor and toil; we rise in power and authority; we do everything; and do not realize that we are spiders weaving a web.

What is the web that you have weaved throughout this life?

Contemplate this question with me tonight, for the Psalmist wrote regarding the Lord,

            You return man to dust

                        and say, “Return, O children of man!”

            For a thousand years in your sight

                        are but as yesterday when it is past,

                        or as a watch in the night.

            You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,

                        like grass that is renewed in the morning:

            in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;

                        in the evening it fades and withers. (Psalm 90:3-6)

These are frightening words—words that remind us how fleeting this life is. Not only is our time dwindling, but it is a moment compared to God’s timing; the frailty of our mortal life is like a dream that is quickly forgotten, like a flower that withers and dies in the heat of the day, returning to the dust of the earth.

And yet, this is where our lives also lead, returning to the dust of the earth, the consequence of sin and disobedience.

As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

This is where our lives ought to lead us “to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So we pray and petition God to,

            Teach us to number our days

                        that we may get a heart of wisdom.

We pray that God grants us the Holy Spirit so that we can understand the frailty of this life and its fleeting days, that we would learn to confess our sins, all of them, due to the number of days we have… because through this confession, we exercise faith, which in turn, leads us into the way of wisdom.

And in return, the Lord hears your pleas; He returns and has pity upon you. He grants you the forgiveness of His Son, Jesus Christ, won for you upon Calvary’s cross – He undoes the web of your sin so that you may arise tomorrow, seeing each new morning as a reminder of His steadfast love for you that’s what each new day is.

If you should take nothing else from this evening’s Psalm, realize how short this life truly is. While the flowers will soon bloom in these days of spring, their demise is not far, as they will fade away in mere months. This, too, is a picture of our lives, and as we enter these final weeks of Lent, they serve as preparation for life’s end – do not delay confessing the sins of your heart so that the Savior may draw you close to Him and bring you into His eternal presence. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Lent 5 + Judica

John 8:42-59

Who are you?

This is a complicated question today. It’s unlikely any of our ancestors are from here. Many of our families came to the United States from Europe. We move more now than ever, and few people can say they were born here, live here, or die here. It’s just not how we live anymore—even in rural Wisconsin. Take the military, for instance. How many people moved here for Fort McCoy or the VA and didn’t leave?

But this doesn’t mean we don’t want to know who we are, and this can become tricky, especially with the rise of genetic testing.

Genetic testing has been in the news recently because the popular DNA testing company 23andMe is going bankrupt. Individuals who used the company to learn about their heritage, medical history, or gene makeup are being told to contact the company to have the spit they submitted for genetic testing and their results destroyed before they can be sold to other companies. Who knew your salvia would be worth money one day…

Honestly, I contemplated taking one of these tests years ago. As a child, I learned my mother was adopted, and there’s always been a part of me that wondered, “Who am I?”

Am I German, Scandinavian, Irish, or maybe Russian?

My mother didn’t speak of her adoption. But as the years went on, I learned that she had searched for her biological parents; she wanted to answer the question, “Who am I?”

She did locate her biological mother – but for reasons unknown, the woman preferred not to meet with my mother. I have no ill will for that; I can’t imagine what either woman went through over the years.

But all of this brings me to this question: as one searches for who they are, their ancestry, and so on, will you like what you learn?

The Gospel today is very much about who Jesus is, and He draws a line in the sand between being a child of His heavenly Father and a child of the Devil.

In many ways, this is what the season of Lent does; it reveals who you truly are. Whose genes and life are pumping through your veins?

Are you a child of your heavenly Father, or are you a child of your father, the Devil?

What reveals which side of this line in the sand you stand are the desires of your heart. This is why Jesus says to the Jews,

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. (John 8:44)

As St. Augustine writes,

You are [the Devil’s] children because of your desires, not because you are born of him.

What are his desires? “He was a murderer from the beginning.” The devil, too, harbored ill will toward the human race and killed it. For the devil, in his envy of the human race, assumed the guise of a serpent and spoke to the woman, and from the woman he instilled his poison into the man. They died by listening to the devil, who they would not have listened to had they but listened to the Lord.

For man, having his place between [God], who created, and [the devil], who was fallen, should have obeyed the Creator, not the deceiver.

Therefore “he was a murderer from the beginning.” The devil is called a murderer not as armed with a sword or steel. He came to humanity, sowed his evil suggestions and killed him.

Who you are comes down to the voice you listen to.

It’s no different than you become what you eat. Or as parent warns their child to be careful whom they associate with because, as the Apostle Paul writes, “Bad company ruins good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

So, who are you?

Do your words, desires, and actions reveal a child of the Devil?

Or do they reveal a child of God?

Jesus says, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” (John 8:51)

So, do you awake each morning with God’s Word in your ears, a prayer upon your lips, or does the heritage and genetics of your first parents, Adam and Eve, cling mightily to your heart, telling you another time? After my morning coffee or after the kids get off to school. Or worse, is there a whisper in your ears that says, “I don’t need God’s Word; I’m not that bad of a person; I’ll be okay.”

When this occurs, when you fail to hear God’s Word and make it the priority for life, or have been led to believe that you do not need God, you should listen to these words of Jesus in your ears,

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”

Is this who you really are?

If so, then confess your sin of unbelief, renounce the devil and all his ways, and return to your baptism because there in that water, along with God’s Word, you received adoption and were made God’s child.   

As we enter these final two weeks of Lent, the time is at hand for you to return to your Lord, Jesus Christ. If you have been lax in reading His Word and praying, the time is now.

Are you a son or daughter of the Devil?

Or do you join your Savior, Jesus, in calling out to your heavenly Father?

And if you don’t know where to begin, start by simply praying the prayer we’ve all been taught and instructed to pray. Do it every day,

“Our Father who art in heaven….”

Because with these words, God tenderly invites you to believe that He is your true Father and that you are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence you may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.

Then, conclude by praying, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us not only from evil but the evil one.”

Pray that you would not be deceived or misled into false belief, despair, or other great shame and vice. But instead, be rescued from every evil of body and soul so that when your last hour comes, you might receive a blessed end and be taken from this valley of sorrow to your Father in heaven.

This is why your heavenly Father sent His only Son to the cross, to traverse this valley of sorrow or broken and divided families for you, to redeem you.

It’s a redemption now shielded from your eyes as the cross has been veiled; this signifies the consequence of the unbelief we heard in this morning’s Gospel and the violent death Jesus would suffer. (LSB, Companion to the Services, p. 233)

But while the cross remains veiled, you are invited all the more to draw near and, with your ears, hear the story of your Savior’s Passion and take it to heart, because as Jesus said, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” (John 8:51)

No, you won’t taste death but instead receive the great inheritance of your Father in heaven, eternal life, because you are His child. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Lent 4 + Midweek

Text: Psalm 77

We’ve all been there, filled with emotion, grief, and sorrow that keeps us from sleeping. The insomnia is unbearable, like in the Psalms of Lament before; you can relate with the Psalmist as you watch the neon lights of the alarm clock tick by… You just want to sleep.

But is this personal Psalm of Lament tonight about a man suffering from insomnia, or is it, as one theologian believes, “A deliberate vigil of a man  fighting sleep precisely so that he can pray and meditate?”

The theologian Patrick Reardon believes this because of these words by the Psalmist, “In the day of trouble I sought God, my hands raised up to Him during the night…My eyes stood sentinel through the watches…I meditated in the night and communed with my heart and stirred up my spirit.”

As Reardon points out, “This is the prayer of a man struggling to stay awake, not someone unable to fall asleep.”

These thoughts raise some interesting questions, don’t they?

What is sleep meant for? First, the body needs rest to operate. Sleep can help one remain healthy or recover from an ailment or injury, too.

But let’s reflect on the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane momentarily. As Jesus brought His disciples to the Garden that first Maundy Thursday, where He had prayed before, He instructed the disciples to sit and pray. Then the Gospel of St. Matthew says,

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.

So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” (Matthew 26:37-46)

What do you suppose is causing such a great sleep to come upon these disciples? Some believe the reason for their sleepiness is found in these words of Jesus, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

The reason for their slumbers is the incredible weight of grief and sorrow. And at this moment, sleep has not become a means of rest and refreshment but a refuge for the weary…the way of avoidance.

Sleep in these instances reveals just how real Jesus’ words are: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is oh so weak, isn’t it?

This is the challenge with true vigils; they force us to remain awake well into the evening hours, to keep watch, and to pray.

Prayer is a challenge for us, just as it was for the disciples, too. Did you notice how the first verse of Psalm 77 also teaches us to pray? The Psalmist writes, “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.”

Now, it was common practice for prayer in the days of the Psalmist and for Jesus to be made aloud. But is this how we pray? Aloud?

If I had to guess, most tend to be more the praying in thoughts kind of people. Meaning, thinking, and pondering the words one would like to speak to God, but never making them known to God, never permitting them to flow off the lips or allowing them to become audible.

Yet, isn’t this how we make our thoughts known to one another, by speaking them audibly? We do this because we know that when we communicate in such a way, the person we have chosen to converse with will hear us and know our thoughts. When we pray aloud, we also learn to express our faith in God because we know He is listening and can help in our times of great need.

The Psalmist had this faith; it’s why he raised his voice in prayer.

In fact, the closing portion of the Psalm, beginning with verse 13, brings to light God’s redemptive act of saving the children of Israel from captivity and leading them through the Red Sea, where Pharoah and his armies would be drowned and killed. Israel would be relieved of Egypt’s night terrors and the threats of evil that pursued them at that time.

As your lives are filled with terrors, griefs, and sorrows, remember how God has brought you through the waters of Holy Baptism. He leads you as His flock through the darkness of this life because His Son, Jesus, died upon the cross for you. He entered the darkness of that first Good Friday for you. So, you would know where to turn and where to call out for help.

As the season of Lent is nearing its end, let us learn not to sleep on the troubles of life. When the night of affliction comes, pick up your Bible or hymnal and speak your pleas for help to God aloud. Pray the Psalms, read the Scriptures, and sing the hymns – for in them, God comes to you with His peace. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Moving First Communion

I arrived at my current Call in October 2023. Coming from a congregation where First Communion and Confirmation were separated, some of my children had begun receiving the Lord’s Supper at a younger age. This raised some questions at my new congregation: “Can we work towards receiving the younger children to the altar here?”

While this was a surprise to me, I was also ecstatic. Now, to be clear, we are not doing infant communion. Instead, children need to be able to recite the Ten Commandments, the Apostles Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer without help. Their families must be in the Divine Service at least 75% of the time, attending Sunday School and growing in the faith. Then, they can be admitted to the First Communion Class in 3rd grade.

The First Communion Class follows the rite of First Communion for the most part. However, we also study the Ten Commandments and the Small Catechism regarding the Lord’s Supper. Children need to be able to express their understanding of having faith in the words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” They also need to be able to articulate how one examine themselves before receiving the Sacrament of the Altar. My experience has shown that these children are often better at examining themselves than adults. This class typically lasts approximately ten weeks.

In the process, we’ve also adapted the entirety of our Confirmation program to begin sooner, with boys starting to serve as acolytes and girls serving as junior Altar Guild members in 2nd grade. Then comes First Communion, followed by in-depth studies of the Small Catechism between the 4th and 7th grades.

The goal is to stretch out our Confirmation program so it doesn’t seem like a box to check. We want families to grow in their faith beyond the younger years, have joy in learning God’s Word, and be with Jesus eternally.

If you are curious about the resources I used to teach the congregation, you can access them here.

You’ll notice that I found papers written by Pastor Todd Pepperkorn and Pastor Rick Stuckwisch to be incredibly helpful.

Writings by Re. Dr. Todd Pepperkorn regarding First Communion can be found here.

Writings by Rev. Dr. Rick Stuckwisch regarding First Communion can be found here.

Lent 4 + Laetare

***On this day we celebrated nine young people of the congregation receiving their First Communion. Communing children prior to Confirmation is a new practice at my congregation and for this reason, the sermon took on more of a teaching theme.***

Text: John 6:1-15

What makes you worthy to approach this altar and receive the blessed flesh and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?

This is an important question, but regrettably, it often slips our minds, even on a Sunday morning.

As the Small Catechism asks,

Who receives this sacrament worthily?

The Catechism goes on to say,

Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

But anyone who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, for the words “for you” require all hearts to believe.

When we think of worthiness, we think in earthly ways; we view it as being a good person or as deserving. But we know none of us are worthy in the sight of God based upon the thoughts of our hearts, the words of our lips, or the deeds of our bodies.

So again, how can we be worthy of receiving this meal?

It begins with faith and trust in the words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Worthiness begins and ends with believing that Jesus’ words actually mean what they say—it starts with faith.

That present in this little piece of bread and in the smallest drops of wine from this chalice - one receives forgiveness.

But if one can worthily approach this altar, they may also be able to approach it unworthily.

And here is a good time to reflect on the words of St. Paul written to the Corinthians; he says,

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)

Unworthiness occurs when a person does not believe Jesus’ words that the forgiveness of sin is present in this bread and wine.

And so, the text says, we must examine ourselves.

The examination can begin simply enough, do you have faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins?”

But then the examination expands and forces the Christians to ask themselves, “Am I truly sorry for my sins?

Well, how do you know whether you have sinned?

The first place I would point you for self-examination is the Ten Commandments: ask yourself…

“Do you have only one God?”

“Do you keep His name holy or attend the Divine Service regularly?”

“Do you or have you honored your parents?”

“Have you murdered with your thoughts and words?”

“Is your marriage bed and sexual life holy?”

“Have you taken or stolen what isn’t yours?”

“Do your lips drip with betrayal?”

“Do you covet what God has not given you?”

If you are honest, and if God is truly the all-powerful, all-knowing God we confess Him to be, then these are really tough questions.

But are these questions only accessible to adults? Or children of a specific age?

I’d argue that while many adults forget these questions in time, the child truly knows them best. It’s the child having them drilled into their minds through the repetition of catechesis; it’s the child being questioned by the parent whether they have done as they (the parent) have instructed. It’s the child being told to watch their words. It’s the child being called to confess their sin aloud, to apologize for their misdeeds, so that forgiveness may be pronounced upon them.

It's quite something, isn’t it? Why do we, as adults, struggle with God’s Word so mightily? Why do we scoff or fight to confess our sins aloud?

In a wonderfully peculiar way, it’s the child who can often become God’s teacher.

As Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark, words that we hear in the Baptismal rite, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:14b, NKJV)

This continues today as we welcome some of the children of this congregation and confession of faith to the Lord’s Supper. In this way, the children of God continue to be led from the waters of Baptism to where His kingdom is present for them, now in the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Because, like you, those receiving their First Communion today are God’s children, living the Baptismal life.

But why would we begin to commune the younger children among us?

Now, Martin Luther was also asked why the Church might commune the disabled and the young, and here is what he said,

Therefore if they are rational and can show by [unquestionable] signs that they desire [the sacrament] in true Christian devotion, as I have often seen, we should leave to the Holy Spirit what is his work and not refuse him what he demands. It may be that inwardly they have a better understanding and faith than we; and this no one should maliciously oppose. Do we not read of St. Cyprian, the holy martyr, that in Carthage where he was bishop he even had both elements given to the children.[1]

Luther raises the point that the disabled and the child alike can display not only a desire but, in many instances, an even better understanding of the faith than many of us. Further, he reveals that this was also the practice of the early Church at a time to commune the children, too.

But most of all, Luther's words support the understanding that it’s not a person’s age or intellect that makes them worthy to receive the Supper; it’s faith in these words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” along with the ability to examine oneself.

Now, how do we guard against falling away from faith or knowing how to examine ourselves? You keep coming to the Divine Service and continue taking advantage of opportunities to learn God’s Word.

As the children will be asked in a moment,

“Do you intend to continue to hear and receive the instruction of your Lord, confess your sins, and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully throughout your life?

Their response, “Yes, with the help of God.”

Listen to these words again, “With the help of God.”

As we heard in the Gospel today, the crowds followed Jesus because of the miracles and signs He was doing for the afflicted and sick—He was healing them. But the people also followed Jesus so far that there was no food for them to eat. They were in a wilderness of sorts. They had been captivated by His Words, the Words of eternal life.

All the five thousand men, plus women and children, could do here was depend upon the great teacher to help them and care for them. So, while the disciples of Jesus are of no help at this moment, there is a boy, a small child, as the Greek says, who had five barley loaves and two fish. (John 6:9)

The Gospel proceeds, “Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.” (John 6:11)

How wonderful is it that God uses the smallest among us as a means to care for His creation, and in doing so, Jesus conducts another miracle and sign before the people and His disciples in the feeding of the five thousand.

You see, to be a disciple is to be a student. Like the disciples and these crowds in the Gospel, we are to follow Jesus too; we are to depend on Him for help, to sit at His feet as they did, and to hear and learn His Word without regard for the world around us. We are to be led from the waters of Holy Baptism to this altar, where Jesus continues the great miracle of His supper and comes with the whole company of heaven every time we gather to grant us His forgiveness and a little foretaste of the life to come.

And in this way, the altar now is the enduring sign of His love for you, and it points all of us to look beyond this life and to the wonderful day when He will return to gather us into the eternal feast that has no end.   

But until that day, we must continue to journey in this wilderness, to traverse the life of a baptized child of God, to be led by the cross of Christ from the font to this altar each and every week, examining ourselves along the way, demonstrating faith and dependence on God to care not only for our mortal bodies but to be our great help in times of need, to be our forgiveness and life.

So, as these children of Good Shepherd are now received to the Altar, let us all be like them; let us be as disciples and students of Jesus, eager to follow Him, hungry for His Word, and ever thirsting for His forgiveness. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 35 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 110–111.

Lent 3 - Midweek

Text: Psalm 74

Our psalm this evening was originally prayed in the aftermath of the temple of Jerusalem being destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.

The Psalmist began by inviting God to come and see the destruction of His sanctuary as it was written, “Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!” (Psalm 74:3)

Of course, this wasn’t the only time the temple of God was destroyed; it occurred again around 70 A.D.

In one sense, in battle, if you attempt to destroy a person’s faith, you may be able to destroy them.

Of course, you may look around today and like to think the world has progressed beyond such horror. Still, even in the past year, Christian churches have been destroyed by military might in Myanmar (or Burma) because Christianity is not the faith of those leading the military coup.

In such instances, can you blame a person for praying and asking God to come and see the ruins? Can you blame one for lamenting and calling out to God to remember them as the events make it appear He is nowhere to be found?

I mean, it’s not the people’s sanctuary that was destroyed; it was God’s.

In reality, it’s also not the name of the people being reviled by the pillagers; it’s God’s name.

The enemies, these are God’s enemies, those who revile Him.

But also, while the Psalmist today has experienced this great destruction and horror, his lament and prayer are done to hand things over to God, placing his needs and the needs of the Church into the Lord’s care.

We call this trust. We call it faith.

The third portion of the Psalm begins with this theme as the Psalmist writes,

“Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.” (Psalm 74:12)

These words are so wonderful that even amid destruction, the Psalmist confesses his unwavering faith that God continues to work salvation through these dark days.

This is why he hands the church’s needs over to God. He trusts that God will intervene to work salvation in the midst of His creation.

The challenge here is that we humans do not possess patience. The salvation God brings to His Church on earth would not occur in the Psalmist’s lifetime. Instead, this destruction of the temple in Jerusalem is foreshadowing another destruction, the death of God’s very own Son, Jesus.

At the beginning of John’s gospel, Jesus now foretells His death as He drives out the money changers, traders, and those conducting everyday business from His Father’s temple. He told those gathered there, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” (John 2:16)

But the Jews now challenge Jesus to show them evidence that He is the Son of God. They said to Jesus,

“What sign do you show us for doing these things?” but Jesus responds, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:18-19)

Of course, the Jews do not understand or grasp these words of Jesus, that He is speaking of His body. But this is what occurred at the incarnation of Jesus, God took on human flesh and began dwelling or tabernacling among us. In a very literal sense, God pitched His tent and began to live among man, among us – to redeem us and bring salvation to His Father’s Church.

The Psalmist’s prayer for God to come and visit the perpetual ruins of His creation is realized in Jesus. Remember these words of the Psalmist, “Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! (Psalm 74:3)

In a way, as Jesus hung upon the cross, that first Good Friday, it appeared that the great enemies of God had destroyed everything, even the temple of the Lord, now realized in the flesh of Jesus.

What did the disciples of Jesus do as He hung and died? They scattered and abandoned Him.

Isn’t that what we do when calamities come to us? When destruction comes to the church?

Maybe it’s a fire or vandalism. Perhaps a dreadful day will arise when governments rise and come to destroy this building down to its foundation. Or worse, what if the devil sowed seeds of distrust among us, tearing us apart from the inside out? 

What would today’s Psalm lead us to do in such sad and dreadful situations?

Place your laments in the hands of God and remember that this is not our church, but it is God’s. It’s His.

No, we do not understand why various trials are permitted to occur. Still, in all of the tribulations of the Church, they are opportunities to grow in faith, and this is a great joy for you and me because, like the disciples of Jesus, we know how the story ends. Jesus did not only die, but He rose again, and as He ascended to His Father’s right hand, He said, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

And how is Jesus with us now?

In His Word as it is read, preached, and proclaimed. He is at the font of Holy Baptism as our lives are joined to His, and here at this altar, we receive His flesh and blood to forgive all our sins.

The Church today is the gathering of God’s children and saints around Word and Sacrament – gathered around Jesus.

My friends, if destruction and calamity should come to us as a church or gathering of God’s children, let us cling to Him, remembering that those who assault us are truly assaulting God. So let us learn to pray and entrust the needs of God’s Church to Him because our salvation is already secured in Jesus! +INJ+

Lent 3 + Oculi

Text: Luke 11:14-28

I’m not sure we fully grasp what is occurring at the beginning of today’s Gospel.

“Now [Jesus] was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.” (Luke 11:14)

What does it mean to “cast out a demon?”

This wasn’t the first time Jesus had done this; as Jesus began His ministry in the Gospel of Mark, it’s recorded that He was preaching throughout all of Galilee in the synagogues and casting out demons. (Mark 1:39)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus encounters two demon-possessed men who “cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, O Son of God?’” (Matthew 8:29) Per the demon’s request, Jesus cast them out and expelled them into a herd of pigs, which then rushed over a steep bank and drowned in water.

A little earlier in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus had come down from the Mountain of Transfiguration to encounter a great crowd, and a man cried out to Jesus, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. Behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.”

Jesus had compassion upon the boy; He cast out the demon that was convulsing him and returned the boy to his father.

But again, what does it mean to “cast out a demon?”

The Greek word for “cast out” is ἐκβάλλω (ekballo), and this is where the Church gets the word “Exorcism” from.

Now, the idea of an exorcism might make you feel uncomfortable. It may make you think, “That’s nothing we do today.” Or that’s the stuff of movies!

But that’s not true.

In fact, Martin Luther retained what is known as an exorcism in the Baptismal rite of the Church.

It reads, “Therefore, depart, you unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

These words do not presuppose that the prince of darkness bodily possesses the baptismal candidate. Instead, they testify to the biblical truth that the candidate is a victim of the usurper and of [Original] sin. (Companion to the Lutheran Service Book, page 768)

Remember the words we heard from Luther a couple of weeks ago? He wrote concerning Holy Baptism,

It is no joke to take sides against the devil and not only to drive him away from the little child, but to burden the child with such a mighty and lifelong enemy. Remember too that it is very necessary to aid the poor child with all your heart and strong faith, earnestly to intercede for him/her that God, in accordance with this prayer, would not only free him from the power of the devil, but also strengthen him, so that he may nobly resist the devil in life and death.

And this leads us back to our Gospel today. Having cast out the demon from the mute man, the people marveled, while some accused Jesus of casting out demons by the hand of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. But Jesus responds to these individuals by saying,

“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul…

But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

As Lutheran Theologian Dr. Arthur Just writes, “The choice here is clearly between Satan and God. Jesus challenges his accusers to think about their own relationship to the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God.”[1]

This is also true of us; we must also hear Jesus’ words, keep them, and reflect on our relationship with Satan’s kingdom and God’s kingdom.

Whose kingdom do you belong to?

What are the things of life that lead you away from Jesus?

This morning’s epistle from Ephesians raises a few of these issues that you, too, may struggle with. Paul encouraged the Ephesians to avoid sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, foolish talk, and crude joking. When you permit these things to take root in your heart, you become sons of disobedience, children of darkness.  

But as Paul concludes the epistle, he writes, Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).

So, how do you now walk as children of light? Go back to where this battle of light and darkness began and continues today, go back to your Baptism.

It’s at the font by daily contrition and repentance that the darkness of all sins and evil desires are drowned so a new man may arise to live and walk as a child of light. 

To return to your Baptism and live the Baptismal life means to exercise a life of constant confession—a confession of sin, a confession of Jesus, the stronger Man, who went to the cross for you to free you from the chains of sin and evil that possess you.

For this reason, one exercises faith in Christ Jesus through confession.

You see, the word exorcism is derived from the word you know as exercise.

To confess your sins before God is to exercise your faith now so that the sins and demons that possess you might be expelled and cast out from your heart so that the Holy Spirit might take His rightful place. You are brought back from the darknesses of this life and led into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God.

As we travel deeper into this Lententide and wrestle with the powers of darkness, cling to your Baptism, exercise your faith in Christ Jesus, and call out to Him to cast out the demons of your life so that you might walk as children of the light. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI

[1] Arthur A. Just Jr., Luke 9:51–24:53, Concordia Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997), 478.

Lent 2 + Midweek

Text: Psalm 44

The past two Psalms we’ve mediated upon, Psalm 51 and Psalm 6, are individual Psalms of Lament. However, tonight, we shift to a congregational or communal Psalm of Lament—one prayed by a church or possibly a nation.

Psalm 44 is prayed by the people of Israel. The reason for their lament is due to their bewilderment with God; they have been dealt a crushing defeat and carried off into captivity.

The first verse reveals why Israel is bewildered with God; they prayed,

            O God, we have heard with our ears,

                        our fathers have told us,

             what deeds you performed in their days,

                        in the days of old…

The stories of God’s care and providence for them were well-known among the people. They were the story of Salvation, repeatedly told throughout generations as they gathered to hear and learn about God's wondrous deeds.

 The first portion of the Psalm says…

            “You with your own hand drove out the nations…but them you set free.” (Psalm 44:1,2b) It was not human might but the hand of God that removed Israel’s enemies.

            “For not by their own sword did they win the land,

                        nor did their own arm save them,

             but your right hand and your arm.” (Psalm 44:3)

God is described in human terms; His hand and arm care for them.

And this is why the first section ends with Israel saying,

But you have saved us from our foes

                        and have put to shame those who hate us.

            In God we have boasted continually,

                        and we will give thanks to your name forever. (Psalm 44:7-8)

What great words and testaments to God’s providence and care! Even as trial and tribulation came, they did not boast in themselves; instead, they boasted and glorified their heavenly Father.

But how quickly does the tone of this Psalm change? No longer are they praising their God for His wonderful deeds of salvation, but now all of their uses of “YOU” are accusative.

“You have rejected us…”

“You made us turn back…”

“You have made us like sheep for the slaughter…”

“You have sold your people for a trifle…”

“You have made us the taunt of our neighbors…”

“You have made us a byword among the nations…”

It’s all in the negative. All of the accusations cast blame on God rather than man. You can hear Adam and Eve in the background here, can’t you? As they had partook of the forbidden fruit, God addressed them and asked,

“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:11-13)

Nothing is ever our fault, is it? Whether our lives are a mess, the nation, or even the church, it’s not our fault.

In fact, we are rejected because of Christ. This is why we often feel like sheep being scattered or how we’ve become the target of our neighbors' taunts.

How is it fair that we, as Christians, suffer for the name of Jesus?

As the middle portion of the Psalm closes,

            All day long my disgrace is before me,

                        and shame has covered my face

at the sound of the taunter and reviler,

                        at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. (Psalm 44:15-16)

A key to understanding the Psalms is how Jesus is the thread woven and unites all of Scripture. Meaning He is present, even in these Psalms of Lament, and as we hear these words of shame, taunting, and revilers, the image of Christ upon His cross should appear in our minds as it is written,

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. (Matthew 27:29-44)

Do you see the connection between our Psalm of meditation and Jesus? It’s easy to feel pity for ourselves and forget how Christ Jesus was rejected and reviled for us. 

Now, this doesn't mean there aren’t times when we, as a gathered people, may feel abandoned and helpless as the world attacks our faith in Christ, or doubts creep into our faith, and we find ourselves wavering. But in these times, we are to learn to be all the more persistent in our prayers and petitions for help.

Psalm 44 gives us a voice to these pleas as we pray with Israel,          

Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?

                        Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!

And know that you are in good company if you should call out to God and plead with Him to awaken Himself. This is the prayer of Jesus’ disciples as He had fallen asleep, and a great storm arose, tossing them to and fro in the waters. As they came to believe they would perish, they called out to the sleeping Jesus, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” (Matthew 8:25b)

And how does He respond? By asking, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a)

Why are you afraid, dear children of God?

As the Apostle Paul writes,

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

             “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

                        we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

And this is the truth: nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Sure, there will be tribulations and instances when following Jesus brings distress, or you might even feel abandoned. 

But look to His cross and see all He has done for you. He died for your doubt. He slept in your tomb. And He was aroused from your death for you.

So, when the times arrive, and we feel abandoned, turn, pray, and give voice to our faith in the God of heaven and earth; see how He not only arose and came to your help but came to redeem you for the sake of His steadfast love. (Psalm 44:26) +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI

Lent 2 + Reminiscere

Text: Matthew 15:21-28

Every so often, The Pew Research Organization performs a Religious Landscape Study. The data collected reveals whether Christianity is decreasing, plateauing, or increasing. How many individuals within the United States identify as Christians or another faith, how many actually attend services regularly, or how many individuals exercise their faith regularly through the daily reading of God’s Word and of prayer?

The study results are fascinating; you should read them if you have time.

Something that caught my eye is how the study says there is no longer a decline in Christianity; instead, those who identify as Christian have stabilized or plateaued. This was a change dating back to 2007, when the numbers had been in a downward spiral.

However, Americans reported being less likely to attend church regularly, if at all today, than in the past, and less than fifty percent of Christians read the Bible or pray daily.

To summarize, identifying as a Christian is steady, but exercising the actual faith of a Christian is down.

In some ways, I wonder if this is an appropriate image of the Church, visible and invisible. The visible church is the physical gathering of God’s people each Sunday as we are now. But the invisible church is only known to God, for only He knows man's faith and true heart. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11)

I believe the Gospel today also presents an aspect of the visible and invisible church. However, to gain context, you need to go back to the beginning of Matthew 15. There, we learn that the Pharisees and Scribes went out from Jerusalem to speak with Jesus.

They wanted to know this: "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

You have to listen carefully here. They are questioning why Jesus’ disciples do not keep their traditions, the traditions of the world.

Jesus responded to them by asking, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”

You see, the Pharisees and Scribes had been placing their traditions before and above the commandments of God. They were putting the needs of this world above the will of God.

As Jesus says to them,

          These people draw near to Me with their mouth,

            And honor Me with their lips,

            But their heart is far from Me.

            And in vain they worship Me,

            Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:8-9)

The Pharisees and Scribes were visible members of Israel, but their hearts did not lead them to be God’s children through faith.

So, fast-forward to today’s Gospel reading. Jesus left those “great” teachers of Israel and withdrew from the confrontation to the gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, a land of unbelievers.

But something happens as Jesus enters the region: a Canaanite woman, a descendent of pagan idol worshippers, sought Jesus and began to cry out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”

The Greek tells us that this woman would continue to cry out, too; she would not relent in calling out to Jesus in her time of great need.

And this is where things appear to get a little weird, right?

Jesus’ demeanor and continence don’t even acknowledge this Canaanite. Instead, as Luther remarks, Jesus is “as silent as a stump.” (Martin Luther, AE 76, Page 379)

Think about this for a moment. The Pharisees and Scribes, who are supposed to be God’s children, will not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ and their Savior, but here is a woman who left behind everything in life on behalf of her possessed daughter to seek out this Jesus.

As an aside, how far are you willing to go for those you love? How persistent are you willing to be for the mercy of God, not only for you but for a son, daughter, or even a friend?

Your heart will reveal the truth, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, [and] blasphemies.”

The heart reveals what truly possesses you throughout this life and where you turn for help in difficult times.

The Pharisees and Scribes were unwilling to humble themselves before Jesus and, for that matter, the Word and will of His Father.

I wonder if part of our problem today is that our unwillingness to humble ourselves before one another now prohibits us from humbling ourselves and confessing our sin before God. This, too, is taught from a parent to a child. Yet, how does one teach a child to pray, humble themselves before God, and sing the Kyrie or Agnus Dei unless they are also willing to get on their knees and open the door of their lips themselves both in and out of the Divine Service?

You see, humility places us in submission to God, and this is precisely what the Pharisees and Scribes were unwilling to do.

However, this is exactly what faith calls us to do: recognize our inability to fulfill God's will, consistently submit to Him, and cry out to Him as the only One who can grant us relief from the many things that possess our family and us throughout this life.

Now, you may sympathize with the Canaanite's repeated requests of Jesus as you have also experienced times when it appeared your prayers were met with deaf ears.

But we must also remember to seek God where He has promised to be, where He continues to speak to us and reveal His will for us—in His Word.

As we heard in last week’s Gospel, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

Or as Peter responded to Jesus in the Gospel of John, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68a)

Where else is one to go for eternal life, then Jesus? Where is one to turn for the forgiveness of sin or to be freed from the torments and possessions of life?

Jesus is the object of the Canaanite Woman’s prayers, as she calls out to Him, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!” She recognizes Him to be the promised Messiah, born of Mary, born of man.

Do you recognize Jesus as your Messiah and Savior with the same persistence?

Meaning, do you keep His Word ever before you, within your heart and upon your lips?

Or, again, the Apostle Paul wrote,

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:8-10)

As we journey through Lent, it would be appropriate to examine how persistent we are in reading God’s Word and praying. When we do not exercise our faith daily, we become weakened and susceptible to the cares of this life, in fact, they can even possess us.

As we look at today’s Gospel, we see that the Pharisees and Scribes were visible members of God’s chosen Israel, but they lacked the faith to be His children. In contrast, the Canaanite, the outsider, the new kid on the block, not only possessed true faith but exercised it with great vigor. This faith not only saved her, but it also freed her daughter from the very demons of life. 

My friends, do not put off God’s Word or your prayers to the Son of David; it’s not only a matter of being part of the true Church on earth; it’s a matter of forgiveness, being made free from the things that possess your life, and everlasting life for you and your family. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Lent 1 Midweek

Our Lenten theme midweek services are the Psalms of Lament.

Text: Psalm 6

During Lent, we will examine the Psalms of Lament. As we discussed last week, a lament is addressing God in deep despair, expressing grief, sorrow, and regret, acknowledging or confessing sin, and expressing your dire need for the help that can only come from God—the forgiveness of sin.

You could hear David's deep despair as we read through Psalm 6 this evening. Some scholars believe this Psalm responds to the many happenings in David’s life, primarily when his son, Adonijah, seeks his throne. He is actively plotting and working to keep his brother Solomon from receiving it. The turmoil is deep within these family roots.

Have you experienced such a deep familial pain that it leaves you feeling hopeless, defeated, and physically and emotionally paralyzed?

What is your prayer and lament in times such as this?

Psalm 6 began,

            O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,

                        nor discipline me in your wrath.

            Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;

                        heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.

            My soul also is greatly troubled.

                        But you, O LORD—how long? (Psalm 6:1-3)

This is the initial lament of David. It is a prayer for mercy and grace. David understands God’s wrath, as we heard last week how he lost the child conceived in sin with Bathsheba.

But did you notice how he speaks of his pain? He says, “For my bones are troubled.” This speaks to the deep hurt inside David, and his desire for healing goes beyond the physical; it also speaks to internal, emotional, and spiritual healing.

David says,

            Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;

                        save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

            For in death there is no remembrance of you;

                        in Sheol who will give you praise? (Psalm 6:4-5)

Here, David is implying that God has turned away from him. But is it God who turns from us, or is it we who turn away from God?

As we learned last week, to sin is to miss the mark. Another way of understanding sin is as a turning away from God, His word, and His will. In simple terms, this is done when children do not obey or honor their parents, when couples break their wedding vows, violate the marriage bed, or speak ill of one another.

To reconcile these sins, we repent, and repentance is seen as a turning back to God.

So listen to these words of the church father, John Chrysostom,

[When the psalmist says] “for in death there is no one to remember you,” [he is] not implying that our existence lasts only as far as the present life: perish the thought! After all, he is aware of the doctrine of resurrection. Rather, it is that after our departure from here there would be no time for repentance. For the rich man praised God and repented, but in view of its lateness it did him no good. The virgins wanted to get some oil, but no one gave any to them. So this is what this man requests, too, for his sins to be washed away in this life so as to enjoy confidence at the tribunal of the fearsome judge.

In other words, there is no time to waste. We must learn to lament our sins now, not later. Look to the cross and see the Son's steadfast love. He is your deliverer, so pray to Him.

As the Psalm goes on, the verses reveal the raw anguish of David’s lamenting.

            I am weary with my moaning;

                        every night I flood my bed with tears;

                        I drench my couch with my weeping.

            My eye wastes away because of grief;

                        it grows weak because of all my foes. (Psalm 6:6-7)

David’s exhausted. He cannot help himself; he’s beyond that. The grief he feels, the sadness, anger, and guilt are unbearable. You, too, have felt this grief, have you not? Maybe it was the physical death of someone you loved, but perhaps it was the betrayal of a friend or family member, much like David experiences with his son. An instance where the fracturing of the relationship still felt as if someone died because the relationship had become shattered. You don’t even speak anymore.

These tears and yoke of grief constantly abide with you, as you awake each morning and as you attempt to sleep each night.

It’s for this reason that the bed is where the sick and feeble mind resides. The mind that stirs without ceasing and loses sleep over the matters of this life. It’s a dreadful lot in life as one lays awake and counts each tick of the clock as morning never seems near.

But then David concludes the Psalm by saying,

            Depart from me, all you workers of evil,

                        for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.

            The LORD has heard my plea;

                        the LORD accepts my prayer.

            All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;

                        they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. (Psalm 6:8-10)

The ninth verse is key to this section: “The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.”

Lamenting entrusts God with the griefs and tears of sin and life. It says, “God, I cannot help myself, I need you, O Lord, to help me.”

How often do we try to “fix” family turmoil rather than entrust it to God’s care? This doesn’t mean the hurt is not real; it is, as David’s lament attests.

However, the proper way of dealing with such hurt is not to become vengeful but to earnestly lament it, confess the sins that led to it, and trust in the forgiveness Jesus won for you upon the cross. And if doubts still arise if God has heard your prayer, look to the cross; he hears your prayer; that’s why Jesus was nailed to it, and He’s the reason your prayers are accepted.

So let His forgiveness be the peace that not only abides within your homes and families but permit it to be the peace within your heart, even as you lay your fragile bodies to rest this night. +INJ+

Lent 1

Matthew 4:1-11

Today's Gospel began: "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

While it may appear innocent, the first word of this sentence, “Then,” is significant. It reveals a time-based transition, meaning what occurs in today’s Gospel is part of a more extensive sequence of events. So, what just happened before the Gospel today?

St. Matthew wrote, 

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

All right, so now we have some context for today’s events. Jesus was baptized, and “Then” He was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Not exactly what one might expect to occur immediately following baptism, is it? Wilderness, temptation, and the devil.

However, this context also reveals how we must examine the chapters and verses before and after a reading to get the full context of what often occurs in a reading.

But first, for today, who leads Jesus into the wilderness? It’s the Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus from above. 

Why would the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the Wilderness?

Well, there is a parallel in the Old Testament to what is occurring here today. Reflect on when God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt; where were the people led? Into the wilderness. These Israelites struggle mightily, though. They grumbled for food; they often lacked trust and faith in God. They even chased after other gods.

So here we are; Jesus has been led into a similar wilderness.

What is a wilderness?

A wilderness is often seen as an uninhabited region or locality, desert, grassland, or wilderness. But for the individual who resides in one of these regions, let’s face it, a wilderness is a place of isolation.

Isolation is, of course, the action of being disconnected and cut off from others. It’s the feeling of loneliness. Isolation is a bad place for man; heart disease and stroke increase, immune systems are weakened, and there’s immense cognitive decline, which increases the risk of depression and anxiety. All of these factors lead to reduced life expectancy, too.

But are you indeed ever alone in the wildernesses of life? Jesus wasn’t, the Devil, or as the Greek translates his name, διαβολος, was there too.

Now, διαβολος, or the Devil, engages in slander and makes false statements with the intent to lead the hearer away from the truth. He desires to use temptation to entice and deceive man.

He did this in the Garden of Eden as he led Adam and Eve into temptation, ate from the forbidden tree, and sinned. We read in Genesis,

Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13)

Did you catch that? Eve said the Devil “Deceived” her.

Deception is the act of seducing, deluding what one knows to be morally right, to lead them away from the truth. This is who the Devil is and who Jesus is now led to engage in the wilderness and do battle. 

This is why “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,” for Israel and for you.

As Jesus said to Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)

Yes, the Devil will twist and misuse God’s Word with every temptation, but with every engagement with Jesus, He does what Adam, Eve, Israel, and you do not – He clings to His Father’s Word.

As Jesus says regarding the Devil in the Gospel of John, “When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

But the Father’s Word is truth. (John 17:17)

At its core, the Gospel today is about truth. While the Devil tempts, seduces, and lies, by the words and actions of Jesus, He is the truth that sets man free. (John 8:32)

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians,

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 emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

Ultimately, the cross is where Jesus would ultimately be led, abandoned, and left alone. But His death is the final word of victory and deliverance against Satan’s temptations.

You see, there is a pattern of the Christian life present for us today. Jesus was baptized, His Father speaks, and He is then led into a wilderness of temptation for you.

While God does not tempt you, your Baptism into Christ does lead the Devil to assault you. As Martin Luther wrote regarding Baptism,

Remember, then, that it is no joke to take sides against the devil and not only to drive him away from the little child, but to burden the child with such a mighty and lifelong enemy. Remember too that it is very necessary to aid the poor child with all your heart and strong faith, earnestly to intercede for him/her that God, in accordance with this prayer, would not only free him from the power of the devil, but also strengthen him, so that he may nobly resist the devil in life and death.

In short, if you were not baptized, the Devil would not need to assault, deceive, and attempt to lure you away from Christ. But also, do you see how your life follows the pattern of Jesus’?

You, too, were baptized; your Father in heaven speaks over you, and in many ways, as you depart this church, you too are led into wildernesses, but not by the Spirit of God.

What is your wilderness? Where are you most isolated from the world and God?

This past week, we at Good Shepherd have discussed technology quite a bit, for good reason. Smartphones, tablets, and computers are excellent gifts to the world. They even give us the idea of community. However, they often isolate us from the people and world around us.

Just look at the family or couple out to eat. Are they conversing with one another, or are their eyes glued to a screen?

But man was created from the beginning to be in fellowship, to dwell, communicate, and live with one another, just as Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)

Sadly, research has revealed the isolation we are experiencing in the palms of our hands today also brings a reality of loneliness; it affects our overall health as we are not as active as we ought to be, and our cognitive abilities are not increasing but decreasing. Depression and anxiety are skyrocketing too, and if that’s not enough, it’s not just our physical life expectancy that’s shortening; it’s your spiritual life that is suffering due to the ease of online gambling and the seduction of pornography.

Today, we invite the tempter and his deceptions into our lives and homes.

But how can you defeat such a powerful enemy and addiction?

You can’t.

That’s why Jesus came in the first place. To be your victor.

Today’s Gospel is a reminder that temptation will come in this life and does. It’s not a moral example of how we are to defeat the Devil; that victory belongs to Christ. But we are given and instructed to hold onto God’s Word firmly, for it’s His Word that delivers us from temptation and ultimately leads us through the valleys of this pilgrimage to everlasting life.

The season of Lent is often a time of deep spiritual conflict—or at least it should be if you’re doing it right. In the days to come, examine where the Devil is tempting you. Where is he leading you into a wilderness of isolation and sin?

Is it found in the use of some form of technology? Are you gaming too much? Are you gambling not only your income but your relationships away? Is pornography seducing you and wrecking your marriage and family?

Or do you speak with one another as you used to? Do you pray as you ought? Do you read the mighty weapon of God’s strong and powerful word?

If not, return and be led by the Holy Spirit to your Baptism, confess and drown these sins, so that a new man may arise this Lententide—a forgiven man whose very life is found and united in Christ Jesus. 

Because only as we live in Christ and hear His word can we begin to be brought out of our wildernesses and united, brothers and sisters living and dwelling among one another as God ordained it.

Ash Wednesday

Text: Psalm 51

As you entered the sanctuary this evening, you had the opportunity to receive ashes. This tradition of placing ashes on the forehead began around the 11th century. But why would we do this?

The first reason we place ashes on our forehead goes back to the first sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After their sin, God said to Adam and Eve, because of your disobedience, you and all your offspring will return to the ground from which you were created, “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19b)

In other words, because of your sin, you will die and return to the earth. For this reason, the use of ashes throughout Scripture has been associated with sin and death. They are a sign of mourning and sadness.

Now, what does it mean to sin?

To sin means to miss the mark. Think of an archer shooting an arrow; when they miss the target, they miss the mark.

How do you miss the mark? How do you sin?

The Ten Commandments provide a mirror for Christians to look into and examine their lives and where they have transgressed and fallen short.

The season of Lent is a time when the Christian is invited and expected to examine their lives and where they have missed the mark or sinned.

For instance, do you have other gods outside your heavenly Father? Do your words confess Jesus as your Savior, or is his name a means of expressing anger and displeasure? What about attending church? Is it a priority for you and your family? Have you loved your parents as you ought? Has the anger of your heart burned hot, murdering your neighbor with your thoughts and words? Or has your love been reserved for the wife or husband God entrusted you?

This last one was challenging for King David, the writer of Psalm 51. As he lay with Bathsheba, he broke the Sixth Commandment, among other things.

The whole situation became a snowballing of sin…

First, David saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof, and rather than turning away, he grew with desire for her. Then, to cover up his infidelity with Bathsheba and her pregnancy, David had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, brought back from battle so that he, too, might lay with his wife. However, Uriah was a loyal soldier who could not do such a thing while his fellow soldiers remained in the thick of battle. So what would David do? He’d have Uriah sent to the frontlines, where his death would be all but certain.

David’s sin was great. He attempted to fix what he could not. The consequence of his sin was the death of the child he and Bathsheba conceived.

What does a person do when such situations arise? When you cannot fix what has been broken?

You learn the art of lamenting.

To lament is the action of addressing God in your deep despair, expressing your grief, sorrow, and regret, and acknowledging or confessing your sin and your dire need for the help that can only come from God – the forgiveness of sin.

This is what David did after Nathan, the prophet, came and rebuked him for his sin with Bathsheba and the trail of destruction it left. David learned to lament, and the familiar words of Psalm 51 are the voice of his confession for the sins committed against Bathsheba, Uriah, and God as he stood convicted by the words of the prophet Nathan. 

David began by saying,

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression” (Psalm 51:1).

David begins by rightly confessing only God can reconcile sin. Only He can make right what was wrong. Only He can blot out the transgressions and evils of man’s heart.

David went on to say,

            For I know my transgressions,
                        and my sin is ever before me. (Psalm 51:3)

In other words, I can’t outrun these transgressions of my heart.

In fact,
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
                        and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)

I have been a sinner from the moment of conception.

 But in light of this, my confession of sin,
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
                        and renew a right spirit within me.
            Cast me not away from your presence,
                        and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
            Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
                        and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12)

This prayer of David can only be made and acceptable to God with “a broken and contrite heart.” (Psalm 51:17b)

And this is what is at the core of lamenting, “a broken and contrite heart.” (Psalm 51:17b)

Throughout this season of Lent, we will examine similar Psalms of lament so that we might rightly learn to examine the sins of our hearts and confess them to God. 

When we do not know how to confess our sins, the Psalms give voice to our pleas for mercy and forgiveness; they become our teacher.

Let us mourn and lament the sins of our hearts with David; let us call out with him from our pits of shame and despair, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression” (Psalm 51:1).

And then know that He does. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into your flesh to bear your sins and transgressions upon the cross, to die in your place. This is love, and this is mercy.

So, look to the ashes upon your forehead in the mirror this night, rightly mourn your transgressions, but then look to the cross of Jesus, confess with your lips, and see how He has blotted and erased your every sin. +INJ+

Quinquagesima

Luke 18:31-43

Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus speaking to His disciples. What is He saying? He’s giving them the plan; He’s telling them what will happen next; in a way, He’s giving the blueprint of what must happen for the house to stand and the people of God to live in harmony and peace once again. Hearing this Gospel, you, too, hear the blueprint. You know when Ash Wednesday begins and where the season of Lent is taking you.  But how many of you won’t listen? How many of you won’t understand or comprehend what Jesus has said? How many of you won’t believe these words of Jesus?

Until now, Jesus had already warned the disciples of His pending death. This is the third time Jesus foretold the events ahead for Him. But the disciples do not comprehend what He says. You see, it’s like children growing up; they have a limited ability to understand and are limited by the world, their experiences, and the events around them. The disciples had been told the cross was coming, three times to be exact, but they didn’t listen or comprehend.

Why don’t they comprehend? Because they think as mere humans. They have heard the preaching of Jesus day in and day out; they’ve witnessed the lame walk, and demons cast out of humans, but they still struggle and fail to distinguish between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of Christ. The disciples think in the ways of children; they believe and comprehend through the lens of this world, by their previous experiences, and the events that have shaped their lives. So, for them and often for you, when a kingdom is established, you will see it as you see temporal governments today: government emblems adorn official buildings, their armies display power and majesty, and their coins reflect images of rulers present and past.

But the kingdom Jesus speaks of can only be grasped by faith. It’s for this reason Jesus lays it all out to the disciples. Jesus instructs the disciples that He will be delivered into the hands of enemies first. Then He will suffer. He will die. In an almost matter-of-fact way, Jesus instructs and provides the details and blueprint of the days ahead for His disciples. They, too, will have to travel with Him to His cross; they, too, will suffer in this life. But His Words should also give them hope; His Words should provide them with faith. Because on the third day, He will rise from the dead.

But the disciples find themselves sitting at Jesus' feet, blind to the teachings they have heard and the miracles they have witnessed: the calming of the storm on the sea, the healing of Jairus’s daughter, and the cleansing of the Lepers.

But then comes the second part of today’s reading, the part when a blind man sees, comprehends, and believes that Jesus is the Christ, the one who is called Savior. The part where none of the disciples who follow Jesus comprehend His words, yet this man, this blind man, sees. How does he see? By listening and hearing. He listens and hears the Word that has gone out among the people regarding Jesus; by this Word, he hears, understands, comprehends, and believes what the disciples don’t. That Jesus is the Christ, and in Him is the blind man, this beggar has mercy, forgiveness, and healing. In Jesus, the Kingdom of heaven is already present for him.

Now, the blind man is in a different place from the disciples, in the darkest corner of life. The only thing this man can do is sit along the side of the road and beg. Begging wasn’t such a faux pas in ancient times; it was commonplace for villagers and those in greatest need to line the streets as dignitaries arrived and cry out for food, lower taxes, gifts, and, most importantly, peace and mercy from their government.

But we are much more civilized. We often see ourselves above asking for help. In fact, we’ve become so hardened that campaigns have been launched to break down barriers when it comes to mental illness, addictions, and the darkest corners of our hearts and minds. We sit comfortably in the shadows of despair, the shadows of our sin; we allow them to become who we are, and we sometimes choose not to seek help; we choose not to beg for mercy and relief from the despairs and sins of this life. We’re too proud. Begging reveals you can’t do something on your own, strips you of personal victories, and reveals a heart in need. But when you are in the darkness of this life, what else is there to do?

The blind man in today’s Gospel provides us with an example of the Christian faith and life. He shows us again that we are not above begging or asking for God’s help. But instead, we need it. Kyrie Eleison is the beggar’s plea, it’s our plea, it’s our prayer: “Lord, have mercy.”

This is what faith looks like: complete reliance on God—trusting not in your own abilities, your mental toughness, or false confidence but in complete and utter dependence on God. 

What does God do when He comes upon this blind man? He stops. That’s right; He stops. This is important because Jesus has a date with the cross. He’s on His way to somewhere important, but He stops and grants mercy to this man; he calls the blind man out of darkness and gives him his sight.

What saved the man? Why did Jesus restore the blind man’s sight? Because of His faith. Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.” Faith is the key; faith receives, faith carries you through the valleys, and remains through the joys of this life. Faith hears the Word of God and believes. Faith makes the Christian; it comes from outside of you; as Paul writes, “Faith comes by hearing.” (Romans 10:17) The beggar heard God’s Word and believed. He was healed.

So, after being healed by Jesus, this man follows him. He goes where Jesus goes, and Jesus is going to Jerusalem. He is going to the cross, and we must also go now.

There are crosses, times of darkness, sadness, and times of lacking understanding or comprehension in everyone's life. But today, you are invited to listen to the Words of Jesus as the blind man on the side of the road. Jesus comes, and He hears your pleas for mercy, your prayers of great need in this life, and bears them on the cross. He does this out of his immeasurable love for you.

In a way, today’s Gospel lays out the blueprint for the season of Lent that we embark on this Wednesday. It also reveals the blueprint of the Christian life. It’s a pattern of bearing crosses, following Jesus to Jerusalem, dying with Christ, and arising anew. It’s the life of a baptized child of God—a life that cries out for mercy and puts faith solely in Jesus.

The past three weeks have served as preparation for Lent, the journey, battle, and the ups and downs that it can be. These past weeks teach us to despair of ourselves, and these Sundays, known as the Gesimas, highlight our Lutheran heritage and theology: the Solas of Grace Alone, Scripture Alone, and Faith Alone. In these three, we are continually invited to look to Jesus Alone, for in Him, your pleas for mercy are always heard. So, cry out as the blind man, begging for the mercy of Jesus, trusting He has won the victory, He has loved you to the end, and He will surely give His mercy to you, both, in His Word, and now in the Sacrament. +INJ+  

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Sexagesima + Second Sunday Before Lent

Luke 8:4-15

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The topic recently arose in our home about planting tomato seeds for a bountiful harvest this summer. The snow and cold made us question if it’s too soon, yet sowing seeds must begin early and in a controlled environment. The plant must take in the good nutrients only good soil may provide; the seed must sprout forth into a strong and fortified plant that will be able to sustain life outside the controlled climate of the home. Once outside, the plant will often appear helpless against the birds of the air or the squirrels that constantly patrol the parameter. It will be a battle for life and death.

The Gospel we heard today is another parable meant to reveal the profound truths of the faith using analogies that should be familiar to the disciples. Yet, even they asked Jesus, “What does this parable mean?”

Many today probably join the disciples in asking, “What does Jesus mean?”

Why? Because many of us no longer sow seeds or farm as the generations of our families before us did. These once necessary and challenging tasks for survival are simply lost on many of us.

Just as the Landowner last week was God, the Sower is Christ Himself, and the seed is the Word He preaches. The parable provides an image of the Church and how the preached Gospel is received in various ways, yet it brings forth the fruit of faith in very few hearts.

Thus, Jesus presents a parable with four types of soil and four types of reception of the seed, which, as mentioned previously, is the Word of God.

The first type of soil is the bare road; seeds sowed or tossed freely upon this road fall and yield no reward. In fact, they do not even have the opportunity to implant themselves. Instead, the birds of the air come down as seagulls looking to feast upon breadcrumbs scattered along a body of water. They are little devils who swoop down to snatch the Word of God that has entered your ears before it will ever even reach your heart.

How so, the Christian asks? This endeavor of these devils does not even wait for you to depart these doors either. Instead, the temptations already exist that would prevent the seed from penetrating your ears. There can be a temptation to converse with your neighbor during the Divine Service if a thought occurs; it’s not just children who chatter in church. Even the bulletin and its announcements can keep you from hearing the sermon if tempted. There are plenty of ways for the little devils of the world to snatch away the Word God is trying to sow into your ears.

Well, at least with the rocks, the seed has a chance, right? Some individuals hear the Word of God and receive it with great eagerness and joy. But with just the right balance of carelessness and temptation, the seeds never take root—the rocky soil leads to a quick death.

This is a scary situation. How many congregations have young people brought up in the Church but no longer possess faith? The seed was planted in a safe environment, in the Church, but they fell away when temptation approached outside the home.

As noted above, life is not a question of “if” temptation comes but when it comes. Before His arrest on the Mount of Olives, Jesus said to His disciples, “Pray not to come into temptation " (Luke 22:46). Yet, we all succumb to temptation, just as the disciples fell asleep while the Lord prayed.

For some, the temptations of life lie in the people they associate with, their friends and co-workers, or the doctrines of false churches that allure them. What lacks for seed sowed upon the rocks is proper and sustaining nutrients for man's life - what is required and needed is the water of life found in the daily drowning and rising of Holy Baptism.

But the person who has entered temptation has turned away from this life-giving water; they are like Judas, who believed for a little while but fell away and succumbed to the temptations of the world.

Judas is a good segue to the third type of soil, the soil of thorns. Judas believed for a little while before turning to his heart's desires; one of the causes of his fall and death was his desire for riches and pleasure.

You see, the soil of rock is of no benefit, as is the soil of thorns. We learn in verse twelve of our Gospel that seeds sown in either of these settings will survive “for a time,” but death is inevitable apart from good soil.

Over time, the thorns will literally suffocate and impede any plant growth you wish to grow.

Here is an image of competing worldviews. Children are prepared throughout their youth, but as they depart home and enter the uncontrolled environment of the world or a college campus, the cares and pleasures of this world and the desire for riches lead them astray and choke the very life of God from their veins.

Saint John wrote in his first epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

This is not easy though, is it? You, too, come to church but once a week and then depart into the world and are expected not to be conformed by your surroundings.

For this, I believe it is essential to go back to the conclusion of the first section of the Gospel when Jesus says, “‘But other [seed] fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.’ When He had said these things He cried, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’”

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

To be one who “hears” is to be a catechumen - the word catechumen derives from the Greek as “one under instruction” and often refers to a young person or adult participating in the ongoing instruction of the Christian faith. Paul writes in Romans, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

Therefore, the process of tending to the soil of one’s heart, to be confirmed in the Christian faith, and being brought into eternal life begins and ends with the intentional and continual hearing of God’s Word, the seed of the Sower.

And yet, as we learn from the Gospel, not everyone who receives the seed will remain in the Sower. This is often a mystery to us, but it also reveals why the Sower sows indiscriminately; He casts His net wide. His aim is for His seed to reach every highway, every crevice, every thorn-infested portion of the earth, and every tilled acre of soil prepared for the spring season of planting - His aim is for His seed to take root and to grow, sometimes in the most mysterious of ways.

When Jesus called His first disciples, He did not tell them to lower their nets into the best-known fishing holes but to go to the deep waters, the most unlikely of places. That is where you will catch men, and you will catch them alive. Dear brothers and sisters that is what this Word does: it rescues, nourishes, conforms you, forgives, and provides the nutrients for life.

Throughout the sermon today, I’ve referenced children often, and for good reason…

My children often remind me, “Daddy, you are a child too!” This is followed up with, “You are a child of God.” Yes, I am, and that is the correct way to view our relationship with God; we are all His children. As His children, we are hearers of His Word; we are catechumens, and our time hearing and learning the Word stretches beyond being a newborn, infant, or adolescent. It includes all of you.

My friends, the season of Lent is upon us, and with it will come the rigors of the penitential season. Much like life, the season will expose you to the elements of the world. You will be faced with the aspects of life that assault your faith, that lead you into temptation, tribulation, and despair. Still, ultimately, you are invited back into the house of God where the Sower awaits with His seed - tilling the soil of your hearts and preparing you for the harvest to come in the resurrection of life everlasting. +INJ+

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI