Preaching on Jesus’ words “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Pastor Sorenson walks through the three estates of the Small Catechism’s Table of Duties: the church, the state and the home. In the week after the elections, he points to Romans 13 and the story of Jonah to remind Christians not to give in to despair, since every governing authority serves by God’s authority, and to keep praying for leaders and caring for neighbors, even political enemies. Because the baptized bear God’s image and are citizens of heaven, he urges them to render their faith, hope and trust to Christ alone, their true treasure and peace.

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Table of Duties found in the Small Catechism, Dr. Martin Luther sets forth the three estates in which Christians live and serve their neighbors through their vocations. We have the church, the state and the home. Such orders are given to properly establish the world and our duties to one another. The church is responsible for the preaching of the gospel and the forgiveness of sins. The state is to punish the wicked and to reward the righteous. The home is where we as Christians are to learn to love our spouses, our families and our neighbors.

The church belongs to Christ. She is his bride, and he gives her to us, his believers, as a gift, the place where he delivers to us his grace and forgiveness through word and sacrament. It’s the place he has promised to be present for you with his mercy, calling you by the gospel and preserving you in the faith. The church does not belong to a pope, does not belong to a denomination, nor does it belong to a pastor; it belongs to Christ alone. For he bought her on Calvary, where he shed his holy, precious blood to redeem her from all sin. The true church on earth, therefore, is the place where his word is faithfully preached and his sacraments are administered just exactly as he instituted them and meant for them to be used, without any human adulteration or innovation.

Christ is our king and we, the believers, are his citizens, exactly as St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians: “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able to subdue all things to himself.” You are first citizens of heaven. In your baptism, our Lord has placed not only his name upon you, but his holy, divine image, forming you in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, that you may serve and love him with your entire being. He does all of the work. He transforms you from sinner to saint. And on that last day, he will raise your body from the grave and make it to share in the glory that is his, transforming you from death to life. All of this because he has conquered sin, death, and the power of evil by his death on the cross. And by his ascension to his Father’s right hand in heaven, all of our enemies have been placed under his feet.

This is why St. Paul also warned the Philippians: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things.” These Christians are those who’ve misordered the three estates. They’ve elevated the state above the church. They look to the things of this world, including the government, for their salvation rather than to God. This is idolatry. This invites God’s wrath, for it makes you his enemy.

The elections this past week are a reminder of this. We hear in the book of Proverbs, “By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice.” And Paul builds on this in his letter to the Romans in chapter 13: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”

Most Christians tend to focus on this last part, what we owe the government: that we’re subject to their laws, that we pay our taxes on time, and so forth. Yet Paul first tells us the why: “For there is no authority except from God. The authorities that exist are appointed by God.” This is critical. Paul, in today’s vernacular, is telling us not to be black-pilled. To be black-pilled is to be depressed, despondent, to give up all hope that anything good can come. We’re not to be black-pilled if people we detest are elected to the houses of Congress or to the presidency. We’re not to despair if someone whom we believe would look better in a prison uniform rather than in a justice’s robes becomes a member of our Supreme Court, for they serve by God’s authority.

The prophet Jonah recognized this, but rather than rejoicing in it, the prophet took the black pill of nihilistic depression. God had sent Jonah to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh, to Israel’s archenemy. Jonah hated the Ninevites. He despised them. He did not want to see them repent. He wished instead that God would rain down fire from heaven and destroy them. This is why he initially got on the boat and fled. And yet God calls him back, and God sends him to Nineveh to preach repentance. And you know what? All of those people, the 120,000 people of the city of Nineveh, from the king to the poorest of the poor, repent and call upon God, every one of them. And this really sets Jonah off, and he moans to God. He moans to God: “I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Is it right for you to be angry?

Jonah’s anger, Jonah’s desire to die rather than to witness Nineveh’s repentance, is a reflection of his own disappointment that his native nation, Israel, had not done the same. Israel had not repented when God’s word was preached. They were the ones who were killing the prophets. They were despising God’s word. They rejected repentance. Jonah understood that the Ninevites’ repentance and God’s mercy upon them would eventually spell disaster for Israel. Nineveh would become the capital of Assyria, and that nation would be used by God eventually to destroy faithless Israel, the northern kingdom. This is why Jonah wished to see the entire city wiped out. And God had to remind the prophet of the humanity of the Ninevites: “Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much livestock?” 120,000 persons.

They may be your mortal political enemy, yet it is an awful thing when a person falls under God’s wrath, much less an entire city or an entire nation. Those 120,000 persons are men and women whom Christ shed his blood to redeem. They’re men and women who desperately need to hear his word that calls them to repentance. They need to hear the gospel of salvation. And this is true today as well for those people we consider to be our political enemies.

It is essential that Christians, as Christians, are involved in our government. We should be involved: getting elected, being mindful of its affairs, voting, running for office, seeking to influence our government for good according to God’s will. But whatever the results of any election, we’re called to pray for those who take office. We’re to pray that their actions would be pleasing in God’s sight. The governments of this earth, whether they be good and righteous or evil and wicked, govern by God’s authority. They serve his purpose, whether to reward or to punish. And he does this not according to the people that we consider good, not that we deem righteous or wicked, for our judgment is liable to be wrong. We’re subject to propaganda all the time; we’re subject to the lies and deceits of the enemy. But God judges according to his righteousness, according to his standards of justice and his unfathomable wisdom. And this is why he tells us in his word, “Receive my instruction, and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold; for wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.”

And so we’re brought to the third estate, the home. Our chief purpose as citizens of heaven, dwelling in this world, living under a secular government, is to seek God while he may be found. We’re to hear the gospel; we’re to share the gospel. This is our inheritance. It’s much more than any of the riches of the earth, more than all the oil in the Persian Gulf or up in Alaska or wherever. It’s more than the gold and silver and rubies and all that. The word of God, his gospel, his forgiveness, is our inheritance. It’s the riches of heaven, and it is to be our heart’s desire more than any of the wealth of the earth or political power.

And this is the meaning of the gospel that Jesus is preaching. They brought him a denarius, and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” And he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Our currency bears the images of our politicians. It bears the inscriptions of our nation. You, however, dear saint, bear the image and the inscription of God. You were created in his image. You have been baptized in his name. He calls you his child. You are his; he’s put his name on you. Therefore it is unto him alone that you must render your faith, hope and trust. It is his approval alone that should inspire your heart and guide your daily life.

It’s not simply enough to know who God is; you must strive to do his will. Jonah knew perfectly well that God was gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, that God relents from doing harm, and yet Jonah did not want to do the same. He wished destruction upon his enemies. The account of Jonah is just as much about calling the prophet to repentance as it is the people of Nineveh. It’s about changing the heart of God’s people from one seeking vengeance and destruction to one seeking to love their neighbor as God has loved them. God wanted Jonah to learn to love the Ninevites, to pray for those who persecute him. God was slow to anger not only with the Ninevites but with his rebellious servant, just as God is slow to anger with each of us today.

Christians, you are not called to take the black pill, not called to give in to despair, to nihilism, or to give up. Our church, the church, belongs to God, not to man, and he’s preserved his bride through the ages regardless of what people have tried to do to her. He preserved his bride even when Israel behaved wickedly and chased after other gods. He preserved his bride even amid the tyranny from the pope during the Reformation, and he will preserve her today, even when pastors or denominations are faithless, lukewarm or fall into apostasy, for God is in control.

And likewise our nation, the United States of America, is a gift to the American people. It is our heritage, one that we seek to preserve for our posterity. And God allows both good and evil leaders, and yet they serve by his authority alone, for he remains the King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone directs the course of human history and uses it to bless, not to curse. At times that might mean chastisement, just as a father trains his children. Nevertheless, everything he does, he does out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.

And our homes also are a gift from our loving heavenly Father, for God uses them to bless us with our daily bread: not just food and a roof over our heads, but spouses, children, everything we have. We are his stewards, who are charged to use these blessings wisely and to his glory. Why? Because each of us, not only you and I but our neighbors, are created in his image. We bear the mark of our Creator. As good citizens, therefore, we want to help our neighbors; we pay our taxes. And yet we never surrender ourselves, our spouses or our children to Caesar, for they are God’s alone.

You and I bear the imago Dei, the image of God. We are citizens of heaven. It is to Christ alone that we look for our salvation. He is our hope and our joy. He alone is our peace. He is our treasure, more priceless than gold, silver, or rubies. Christ is the wisdom of God, and he subdues all, including our own rebellious wills. Therefore let us humble ourselves before his heavenly throne and enjoy the peace of our Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

On the Feast of All Saints, Pastor Sorenson preaches from the Beatitudes and the throne room of Revelation, describing the saints in heaven and on earth gathered as one church around the throne of God and around the Lord’s altar. He explains that to be blessed is to be saved and redeemed, with sins paid for by Christ’s death on the cross, and that these blessings already belong to the baptized who are fed with Christ’s body and blood. Pointing to Moses, Mary, and the apostles as humble examples who looked to Christ alone, he tells the congregation that they too are the blessed of the Lord and have nothing on earth to fear.

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Transcript

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there are two feast days on the liturgical calendar that are observed on a Sunday, regardless of the day of the week when they actually fall. This includes the Feast of the Reformation and the Feast of All Saints. Reformation, excuse me, the Feast of the Resurrection, Easter, and Pentecost always fall on a Sunday, so there’s no adjustment to the calendar there. The Feast of the Nativity and Epiphany are celebrated regardless of the day of the week on which they fall. Other lesser feasts we observe only in the years in which they fall immediately on a Sunday. However, the Feast of the Reformation and the Feast of All Saints are important enough. All Saints is celebrated on the Sunday closest to November 1st; obviously today is November 1st. Reformation is observed the week before All Saints, so in this case, although Reformation was yesterday, that’s what you celebrated yesterday. You dressed up as Martin Luther, right? But we observed that the previous week, because they’re important. Reformation and All Saints go hand in hand. Reformation tells you how you become a saint, and so they naturally fit and are important enough that we observe them every year, regardless of the date when they actually occur.

These saints that we celebrate and remember today include both the saints on earth and those who have reached eternal glory before the throne of God. On the Feast of All Saints we give attention particularly to those who are at rest before heaven’s throne. The saints in heaven include not only the ones of biblical renown, people such as the blessed Virgin Mary, Paul, Peter, the rest of the apostles, John the Baptist, the patriarchs, even going as far back as Adam and Eve. All of these saints we give thanks for. Yet no less important are those saints we’ve known in our own lives, perhaps a faithful mother, a father, a saint, a grandfather, or an aunt, someone whose life and faith inspired you in the devotion that you now possess, someone who set a great Christian example in what they did and what they believed. They are those who join us at the Lord’s table here every time we celebrate the sacrament. They fill in the other half of our circle around the altar.

Our communion rail is intentionally designed as a half circle with space for 12 people to kneel on the cushions. This is meant to depict the reality of the heavenly throne room described in Revelation chapter 4. “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.”

In our first reading from St. John’s Revelation, chapter 7, the 12 tribes were listed. You may wonder why we read this laundry list of tribes, why that’s so important. But those 12 tribes represent the church of the Old Testament. Those 12 tribes are found in the heavenly throne room as 12 of the elders gathered around the throne of God. In this continuous circle around the heavenly throne, 12 of those elders are those 12 tribes, the church of the Old Testament. The other 12 elders around the throne are symbolized by the 12 apostles, who represent the church of the New Testament. They represent you and I. So we have this picture in the heavenly throne room of this circle surrounding the throne of God, of the 12 tribes of the Old Testament and the 12 apostles of the New Testament. This is the church of God, both the church in grace here on earth and the church in glory found in heaven.

And notice how this illustrious company worships before the throne of God. These men and women fall down before him, casting their crowns before the throne, ascribing to him all glory and honor and power. In other words, they humble themselves. They throw down those crowns, those symbols of any earthly glory they may possess, and they confess that they were poor in spirit. They were unable to save themselves, and any blessing that they now possess, every joy they have, every peace, the fact that they suffer no more tears or heat or hunger, all of this they have received from the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. All of these are gifts of his grace alone.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeats this word “blessed” nine times. Nine. Every word Jesus states is important, and we should pay attention to it. But as I always say, if Jesus repeats something, you especially need to pay attention to what he’s repeating. And if he repeats it nine times, guess what? It’s important. Blessed: to be blessed is to be saved and redeemed. To be blessed is to have your sins paid for by Christ’s death on the cross. To be blessed is to have those crimson stains washed white as a lamb’s wool, to be adorned as Christ’s bride in the garments of your salvation. It is to be a saint.

Who are the blessed of the Lord? Well, now we get another series of adjectives. To be blessed of the Lord is to be poor in spirit. Christ came to preach the good news to the poor, to seek and to save the lost. Christ came for sinners, the spiritually poor. Such men and women confess that they are dead in their sins, that they are unable to raise themselves to life again, that they need a Savior. And this confession, this poverty of spiritual wealth, drives them to mourn for those sins, which is the third descriptor that Jesus uses. All throughout the Beatitudes, Jesus is building this image of the believer. And he continues to build on this by saying that the believer is meek, or humble, as we might say today.

The Lord in Scripture described Moses, this mighty man who led the children of Israel through the Red Sea with the staff raised up, this mighty man who led the children 40 years in the wilderness. The Lord describes him as the meekest, the most humble man that ever lived. This is because Moses had learned that he was strong not by his own physical strength, not by his own intellectual ability, but because he rested in the Lord for his salvation. He rested in the power of his God. He was not a weak man, but he had learned to temper his physical strength, his mental abilities. He learned to temper them and restrain them and humble them to the will of God.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, more precisely for the righteousness of God. They will be filled. In fact, they are filled. They are filled because they are blessed. The kingdom of heaven is already their possession. They are already heirs to all that Christ possesses. They have already inherited the earth. They are already comforted in the forgiveness of their sins. All of these things are theirs. And by extension, all of these things are yours. They are yours because you possess the forgiveness of sins. They are yours because you have been baptized into Christ. They are yours because he has put his name upon you in those blessed waters. They are yours because you are anointed with his Spirit, which empowers you to do every one of the acts and deeds of faith and obedience that the Lord has appointed for you, and he nourishes you with his body and blood in the Eucharist. The blessings of heaven are yours today, right this very moment. The description of the blessed of the Lord, the description of the saints, is meant to describe not only those who have gone before us in faith, but to describe each of you here today.

We celebrate those who have gone before us because of the great example they’ve set, this great cloud of witnesses that we have, who we can look to, and we can behold and see these imperfect men and women. And yet by faith they’ve been blessed by the Lord. They set an example that runs counter to the narrative of our age that celebrates self-esteem, pride, and celebrity. One of the greatest examples is known as the Theotokos, the mother of God, St. Mary. In the words of her Magnificat, she confessed that the Lord looked upon the lowly estate of his handmaiden, the lowly estate of his handmaiden. In other words, she’s a servant, a slave of the Lord. She was a young woman of no distinction. She was a young woman who, like every single man or woman born of the flesh, bore the weight of original sin. Yet now all generations call her blessed. Why is that? We call Mary the blessed Virgin Mary not because of any innate or intrinsic aspect of who she was, but because of her faith. Because, as she confessed, “He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” She is blessed just like you and I are, because God filled her with his Holy Spirit. She bore the Christ child in her body for nine months, the Christ from whom everything he touches becomes holy, and he made Mary holy. She is uniquely called in that vocation. However, you and I today are made holy every time we come to his altar. We take his body and blood into ourselves. Everything the Lord touches with his body and blood is made holy, and you are made holy every time you come to his table.

Mary was blessed to be able to go to her son with her petitions, as she did at the wedding at Cana. However, you and I have even greater access to her son with our petitions than she ever did prior to the Ascension. Every single time we pray, our Lord has promised to hear. You and I never need experience the fear or anxiety that Mary and Joseph did when our Lord was a 12-year-old boy and they lost him for three days. For three days they didn’t know where he was. For three days they were anxiously searching for him. You and I, we know exactly where Jesus has promised to be found. He’s promised to be where two or three are gathered in his name. He’s promised to be in his word. He’s promised to be in his sacraments. We know exactly where to come to find the Lord. He’s not lost. He doesn’t hide. We could get lost at times, but the Lord is not lost, and he’s promised to hear us, and we can pray to him any time, day or night. We can pray to him as often as our heart desires, and he promises to hear and to answer those prayers every single time. What a tremendous privilege this is.

We give thanks for Mary because she modeled the Christian life. When the angel Gabriel appeared, she did not question God’s will, but she humbly declared, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.” Amen, thy will be done. What a tremendous thing for this young girl to do, to humble herself to the word of the Lord, no matter what it would mean for her life.

The blessed of the Lord look always and only unto Christ for their salvation. Every time you examine a saint in Scripture, whether it be Moses or Abraham or David or any of the apostles, you see that they look to Christ for their salvation. They point others to Christ for their salvation. Mary, at the wedding at Cana, pointed the servants to Christ: “Do what he tells you to do.” The saints worship Christ alone. The saints call on God alone. They find peace in Christ alone. As Peter declared before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

These words bring us full circle back to the Beatitudes. “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.” So they persecuted the apostles before you. So, too, they persecuted many of the saints before you. Ad leones: they sent them to the lions. The Sanhedrin had commanded the apostles not to preach in the name of Jesus. They had the apostles beaten, and then they threatened them with death. How did the men respond? Well, they reacted as each of us should when we’ve been in similar circumstances. They departed from the presence of the council rejoicing, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And then every day after that, they went to the temple, and they went to every house of every believer, and they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. They were not afraid.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Indeed, these humble men, through their preaching and teaching of the Lord’s word, inherited the earth and all that dwells therein, in their humility, placing their faith firmly in the Christ and keeping their eyes firmly fixed on him, the crucified one. They were filled with his Spirit. They were filled with strength and power, and they turned the entire world upside down by the preaching of the gospel, the word of God.

Now the mantle of such saints, men like Peter, James, and John, women like Anna, Mary, and Dorcas, that mantle now rests on each of us, the blessed of the Lord. Old or young, rich or poor, whether you be in good health or feeble, it does not matter. It makes no difference. You are the blessed. You are blessed. You have been given strength. You have been given the Spirit of the Almighty God. You are called by his name, fed with his body, washed by his blood. There is nothing on this earth that should scare you, not one single thing. Yeah, but the demons, they had their little festival last night. But no, without a doubt, they tremble at the very name of Jesus. They tremble in his presence. They cower, for their time is short. Your time, your time is eternal. Drive any such terror from your heart, your heart, and your nation. For you are the blessed of the Lord. Let us rejoice on his account. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

On Reformation Sunday, Pastor preaches from the gradual of Psalm 48, “That you may tell the next generation,” calling God’s people to walk about Zion, rejoice in Holy Baptism as the moment of righteousness by grace, and trust Christ as our mighty fortress rather than our own works.

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the liturgy of the divine service, we have various responses to our readings. It’s structured very intentionally. Before the Old Testament, we have the collect, and if you pay attention in the collect of the day, that prayer that I say from the altar, we hear all the themes that are present in the readings for the service, beginning with the Old Testament. And then between the Old Testament reading or the first reading and the Epistle reading, we have the gradual, which is what I’ll be preaching on today, the gradual from Psalm 48, and that sets the tone for the epistle that explains the themes for the epistle. And then we have the verse set before the gospel reading, which is a brief summary of what the gospel is about for the day. It’s rather brilliant the way our church fathers set this all up. These short sections of Psalms introduce the themes. Unlike some traditions where the pastor feels it necessary to stand up and give his opinion about what the readings mean, the liturgy accomplishes this by using the word of God, which is very fitting and appropriate, especially on the feast of the Reformation. Today’s gradual is taken from Psalm 48, especially the last two of the three last verses.

Walk about Zion and go round her, go round about her. Tell the towers thereof, Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces. The ye may tell it to the generation following, for this God is our God, for ever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death. The people of God are to walk around and take a look at the city of God, Zion, the holy Christian church throughout all the world, and the countless ways in which they’re blessed by living in this city, chiefly through the forgiveness of their sins, as Christ on his cross conquered our old evil foe who sought to bring us great woe. On Calvary, Jesus Christ won for us peace with God and eternal salvation through the forgiveness of our sins. This is the eternal gospel which the angel of revelation so urgently proclaimed. Fear God, give glory to him, for the honor of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. This is the message that we take unto the world as we teach all that our Lord commanded and as we baptize in his triune name. This is exactly the message that Paul preached to the Romans. The righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and to all who believe. Holy baptism is the moment of righteousness.

In these blessed waters, the waters of the font, the stain of sin is washed away, and the very life of Christ is poured out upon the sinner in water and word. In the font, you were brought into the city of God, not because you met the law’s demands, but because Christ has clothed you in his righteous garments of salvation. Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

This is the joy of the Reformation, by the faith given to you in holy baptism, by the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, you are judged righteous, holy, and innocent. You are an heir of salvation purely by God’s grace, and so the church on earth and the angels in heaven rejoice. And they continue to do so every time a person is brought to faith through the waters of holy baptism, as we will do in a few short minutes for Clara Van Horenbeck. We rejoice. We rejoice in God’s love. We rejoice in his great mercy, which is ours, apart from any work that we’ve ever done. We do not get to boast.

We did not choose Jesus. He chose us. He died to pay for our sins. He sent his Holy Spirit to call us by the gospel, and he continues to send his Spirit to strengthen us to do the good works that he’s prepared, including telling all of this to the next generation. This telling is important for Jesus warns us in the gospel. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. The violent take it by force. As our hymn stated, the old evil foe now means deadly woe.

Deep guile and great might are his dread arms in fight. The devil does not come to you with a pitchfork and burning sulfur. If so, it would be easy to recognize him and ward him off. But he comes to us with lies and deceptions, and foremost among those is that you can save yourself, that you can do enough good works or be righteous enough on your own. Our psalm hints at this deception in the Old Testament. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. Most of us have no idea where Tarshish is or what that means, but if you read in 1 Kings about King Jehoshaphat of Judah, he had rejected God. King Jehoshaphat despised the word of God. He convinced King Ahab, one of the wickedest kings to ever rule Israel, to go to war with Syria, all based on the advice of his false prophets. And Ahab, for all of his wickedness, he knew these prophets were liars. And so he asked Jehoshaphat, don’t you have a prophet of God or don’t you have a real prophet here? He said, I haven’t got one, but I don’t like what he tells me, right? I don’t like the word of God. But they call the prophet Micaiah, and he comes and he speaks the truth, and he tells Ahab, if you go to war against Syria, you will die. That’s not what Ahab wanted to hear. It’s not what Jehoshaphat wanted to hear. Do they honor the word of God? No. They have the prophet arrested. They strike him. They give him the bread of affliction and lock him away. They do violence to the kingdom of God. But no matter how much violence is done, no matter how much you or anyone else does not like the word of God, it will not change his word, one iota. King Ahab went to war, and King Ahab died. But what about these ships of Tarshish?

Jehoshaphat wasn’t content defying God by going to war. He defied God’s provision, and he sought to get more gold for Israel by building this massive fleet of trading ships. And the Lord looked at him and his arrogance and his pride and his greed, and he sent an east wind and smashed those ships to smithereens. The mighty of this earth, the kings, the princes, presidents, prime ministers, all our corporate oligarchs, they will all be cast down. None of these men are greater than the Lord Almighty. They can plot and scheme all they want, but the Lord sits in heaven and laughs. Take heed, though.

You don’t need to be a tech oligarch or a president to let your pride and arrogance lead you astray. Each of us at times despises God’s word when we break his commandments, when we put ourselves and our desires above the will of God, when we fail to make use of his sacraments or to hear his word, when we put our trust in our own works, in our own efforts, when we strive for joy and peace in our lives apart from God. Such sins all seek to usurp the authority of the King of kings. And should we allow ourselves to be led astray by such deceptions of the old evil foe, we should not be surprised when the Lord sends an east wind to dash our delusional rebellion to pieces and to bring us again to repentance, to call upon the Lord, to be sorrowful over our sins, to call upon him and receive his forgiveness, to receive his mercy. Martin Luther reminds us that the Lord is our mighty fortress.

He is a trusty shield and a weapon who fights on our behalf. And this echoes the beginning of Psalm 48. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. The joy of the whole earth is the holy Christian church. This is the place where you find your joy and peace. The psalm continues on the sides of the north of the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

He is our mighty fortress. Mount Zion, the holy Christian church, the city of God, is your refuge. It’s the place he has appointed for all who call upon his name in faith. It is here that he’s promised to be present in word, in sacrament. It is here where we behold him face to face. We partake of his very body and blood in the sacrament at his table. And it’s here where we can dip our fingers in the cool waters of the font. We can make the sign of the cross on our foreheads and recall our baptisms. The very moment of our righteousness, our baptism, is a mighty fortress. When the kings of the earth, when the devil, when our sinful flesh, when these all conspire to accuse us, to remind us of our sins, to turn us away from our salvation, then we simply point to those waters of the font. We, as God’s children, are not defined by our sins. We’re not defined by our struggles, the anxieties of our life, our temptations. We are defined by the name into which we were baptized. Likewise, the city of God, the church, is not defined by her sins, her shortcomings, or any scandal.

She is defined by the pure preaching of the gospel and the right administration of the sacrament. These are her strong towers. They are her glorious beauty. They are that which preserve her and those who dwell therein from every assault of the evil one through the Lord’s steadfast love. It’s in this place, on this mountain of God’s holiness, that we learn that though we have sinned and fallen short of his glory, yet we are justified. We are forgiven. We are made holy and free by God’s grace through the work of Jesus Christ. It was the Lord who, with the shedding of his holy precious blood, cleansed us of all sin, so that the Father’s judgment, now passes over us, that we may know his unfailing peace. Walk about Zion.

Go round about her. Tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces. Consider the sacraments, that they may tell it all to the following generation. For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide, even unto death. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org

Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org