“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:9-10)

What do you do when you mess up? Confess your sins, out loud. Silence is not an option. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found…” (Ps 32:3-6a) And thanks be to God, it is a time when the Lord may be found. He is found in His church where His Word is proclaimed and His sacraments rightly administered. So we confidently confess our sins when we gather for Divine Service, and we hear Christ speak forgiveness to us through His called and ordained servant. 

We are not stuck in our sins, sitting in silent guilt, stewing in remorse, crushed by their weight. But Jesus opens your lips to declare His praise and a whole lot more. 

Scripture gives us plenty of words and bold requests to cry out to God in our sinfulness. Psalm 51 is a great example. This is King David’s psalm of repentance and contrition after the prophet Nathan had confronted the king about his adultery with Bathsheba. David confesses his sin and evil, and he asks God to “blot out” all his transgressions, to “wash” him thoroughly from his iniquity, to “cleanse” him from his sin, to “create” in him a clean heart, to “renew” a right spirit within him, to “not cast” him away from God’s presence, to “not take” God’s Holy Spirit from him, to “restore” to him the joy of God’s salvation, to “uphold” him with a willing spirit, and to “open” his lips. An astonishing prayer from a depraved sinner. All David has to offer God in exchange is “a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart”. And yet, this is exactly the sacrifice God would not despise. This is because of the Lord’s steadfast love and mercy – the basis of this bold prayer.

The words of this psalm were given to David by the Holy Spirit to speak, sing and cry out to God in his sinfulness. These words and all the words of Scripture are given to us as well.

The Lord knows your sins, and He invites you to confess them out loud, so that He may forgive, renew, and restore you with the joy of His salvation through the words of the pastor. In addition to joining the congregation Sunday mornings in speaking words of confession and hearing the words of absolution in the Divine Service, I also encourage you to go through with me the rite of Individual Confession and Absolution (LSB pp292-293) where you hear God’s words of forgiveness spoken directly to your sins. You may stop by my study when I am at church or schedule a time that is convenient for you. 

“The great treasure of the church is the message of forgiveness of sins. Where there is forgiveness of sins there are also life and salvation. To dispense this treasure God not only instituted the ministry and gave us the sacraments but also instituted the office of the keys. He bestowed upon his church the authority to remit or retain sins in the power of the Holy Spirit. Only where this authority is exercised can the church live. For unforgiven sin destroys the fellowship; forgiveness creates it. Therefore every Christian is called to confession.” (statement presented for discussion in the Lutheran Church in Germany, 1949)

Luther’s Lectures on the Psalms contain many declarations concerning the Scriptures, including the following where he points out the need to constantly go back to them and to approach them with humility (bolded by me):

“What pasture is to the beast…, the nest for the birds, the stream for the fish, the Scriptures are for the believing souls. To the arrogant, of course, they are a stumbling block; he will have nothing to do with them, since they offer him nothing. But to him who approaches the Scriptures with humility they open themselves and themselves produce humility, change man from a desperate sinner into a child of God. They give everything which the soul needs, and it is to tempt God, if anyone will not be satisfied with the Scriptures. They are the fountain from which one must dip. Each word of the same is a source which affords an inexhaustible abundance of water to everyone who thirsts after saving doctrine. God’s will is completely contained therein, so that we must constantly go back to them. Nothing should be presented which is not confirmed by the authority of both Testaments and agrees with them, It cannot be otherwise, for the Scriptures are divine; in them God speaks and they are His Word.” Lectures on the Psalms, 1513-1515

I encourage you to “constantly go back to” the Scriptures with humility, knowing that that “in them God speaks and they are His Word” that they may give to you “everything which the soul needs”. 

To help you and your family to regularly go to “the fountain” of Scriptures and be “satisfied”, we introduced A Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation on November 27 (the start of the new church year). With the help of the Lord, we hope to further develop the guide to be a beneficial tool for you. Each week, the guide will be prepared and included with the Sunday bulletins and posted on the Zion website. We hope you will use it to enhance your current practice or to develop a new practice of daily prayer and meditation in God’s Word. As you try it out, please let me know how it is working for you and if you have suggestions on how to improve its use. 

As we have now entered the Season of Advent, the church emphasizes our Lord coming to us in four ways: 1) coming through the prophets pointing to Christ’s birth, 2) coming in the flesh as a baby in Bethlehem, 3) coming to us now in Word and Sacraments, and 4) the final coming at the end of the world. In addition to Sunday Divine Services, please join us for Wednesday meals (5:30p) and worship (6:30p) as we gather to contemplate and prepare for His coming. Then on Christmas Eve at 6:30pm, we’ll have a candlelight service before returning 9am Sunday, December 25, to celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord.

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Holy Scripture is unique. God’s Spirit brought about these writings. They were willed by God. God determined their content. The Spirit moved the writers to write in the way they did. The Scriptures truly are the Word of God. In the verses above, we receive encouragement to spend more time in Holy Scripture. 

The ability to make a person wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ makes Scripture a treasure beyond measure. It is only the Holy Scriptures that reveal the way of salvation, which is through faith in Jesus Christ. God wants you to be acquainted with Scripture so that you and those you love may be made wise for salvation. 

And church is to be teaching the Scriptures as part of fulfilling the Great Commission. When Jesus said, “make disciples of all nations,” he said to do this by “baptizing them” and by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). The “all that I have commanded you” is what God has given us in the Holy Scriptures.

The Scriptures are profitable for “reproof,” for exposing and convicting of sin. The world is full of confusing and contrary opinions and values. God determines what is sin. In Scripture, God gives us the only reliable criterion on which to determine what is right and what is wrong.

Scripture is useful for “correction,” for restoring or improving those who fall. The law rebukes, convicts; but to restore the sinner, the gospel is essential. The gospel moves the heart, strengthens faith, builds up so that correction takes place. Only Holy Scripture proclaims the saving gospel that leads us to Christ, without whom we can do nothing (John 15:5).

And Scripture is profitable for “training in righteousness.” The Christian during his life on earth needs ongoing training to attain to the righteousness of life (sanctification) that is part of the being a Christian in this world of sin. The temptations of the flesh must be resisted. Scripture reveals to us the grace of God that brings salvation, that “trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” (Titus 2: 11,12)

God has given us his holy, inspired, infallible, powerful Word. Having this, every Christian “may be complete, equipped for every good work” the Lord may ask of him.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” John 15:5-6

These words were read to the high school students in front of a blazing fire on September 25. Perhaps the fire helped to catch their attention and their imagination as Jesus warns of the judgment that awaits those who do not continue to abide in Him. Jesus was preparing his disciples for His departure so that they would endure threats and challenges to their faith. Jesus’ words still warn us today of the consequences of falling away. He continued a little later, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away” (John 16:1).

Jesus was warning his disciples while assuring them of who He is and what He has done. “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you…” (John 15:3-4a) Loved by Jesus, they were to abide in Jesus and His love and bear fruit. 

How do you abide in Jesus? He says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:10) We are to keep our Lord’s commandments. On our own, we cannot do this. Therefore, like a branch is sustained by the life-giving vine, we hold fast to our life-giving Lord and His Word.

In an earlier related discourse, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.” (John 6:53-57) What more reason do we need to regularly receive the Lord’s body and blood in the Divine service, than to abide in Him?

The Lord calls us to regularly receive the gifts transmitted through the divine service, so that we abide in Him rather than fall away. But more than simply to sustain us, we abide in Christ so that we will bear fruit. For this you were chosen and appointed.

“Together with all (members of the congregation) pursue peace and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord, by watching out that no one misses out on the grace of God, that no bitterness springs up and causes trouble and through it many become defiled, that no one is a fornicator or unholy person like Esau, who gave up his birthrights for the sake of a single meal.” (Heb 12:14-16, translation by John W. Kleinig) 

Through Jesus you have ongoing access to the peace and sanctification that God provides for you. We “pursue” peace and sanctification by our faithful participation in the Divine Service and our avoidance of everything that desecrates their holiness.

Pursuing peace together is God’s will for us, His saints. It is a gift from God which we need for mutual cooperation and encouragement as we run together as one body in the race of faith.

We are also to “pursue” sanctification together, which is actually something done to us communally by Jesus (Heb 2:11). He does this throughout our lives as we participate in the Divine Service with the body he offered for us (Heb 10:10) and the blood he shed for us (Heb 10:19; 13:12). Through Jesus as our High Priest, we participate in God’s holiness. Without this sanctification “no one will see the Lord”. 

We are told in Hebrews that the vision of the Lord is available to all of the saints both when the Lord returns to bring salvation to those who wait for him and by faithful participation in the Divine Service. There we see Jesus by faith crowned with glory and honor (Heb 2:9). There we see Jesus at God’s right hand (Heb 1:3; 12:2). There is where we get a preview of him before he returns in glory when he “will appear a second time” (Heb 9:28).

Practically, the congregation pursues peace and sanctification by exercising communal oversight of itself and its members and “watching out” for three things. First, the congregation watches to make sure none of its members “misses out on the grace of God” by falling behind and dropping out of the race. The grace of God can be lost by refusing to listen to his Word and participate in Christ’s holy meal. So, the congregation’s first duty is to encourage its members to keep on seeking God’s grace by faithful participation in the Divine Service. Second, the congregation needs to watch out for any embittered members and deal pastorally with them, so that it is not polluted by them. Third, the congregation needs to watch that none of its members do as Esau did by desecrating his holiness by sexual intercourse outside of marriage, damaging the peace of the community and hindering its sanctification.

Lord, help us to pursue peace and sanctification together with You. Amen.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Col 3:16) Paul’s letter to Christians in Colossae is helpful for Christians today. Paul writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Col 2:8) We are exposed to various philosophies and empty deceit conveyed through the media we absorb and the people around us who follow these. When the word of Christ does not dwell in us richly, we are vulnerable to being taken captive and deceived. 

One deceitful belief that some hold onto is that God’s Word is simply data, and we process it like computers. In other words, once we download the data to our memory, we are good to go. But we are much more than lifeless computers made by man. We are living, breathing children of the Almighty, fearfully, and wonderfully made by and in the image of the Creator. We are loved, redeemed, and renewed. We are joined to Jesus Christ in our baptism – He in us and us in Him. Though hidden in Christ, we are living our eternal lives now by faith. That faith comes by the hearing of the Word of God, which, “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). God works faith and life through His Word. It was written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, we may have life in His name (cf John 20:31).  

Rather than trying to understand God’s Word in human terms, such a data in a computer, we let God Himself tell us about His Word and its purpose. The Lord declares, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Is 55:9-11). 

As Paul writes, “the sacred writings…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:12-17 

So, “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. It will succeed in the thing for which God sent it.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Thomas