"Amen, O hear us, Lord!"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Father, who from heav'n above

Bids all of us to live in love

As members of one family

And pray to You in unity,

Teach us no thoughtless words to say

But from our inmost hearts to pray (LSB 766).

Our Father in heaven bids us to pray, and in today's Gospel lesson, His Son, our brother, teaches us how to pray, so that we may pray not with thoughtless words and unsure hearts, but with faith and confidence, believing that He will give us all that we need.

For you, O Christians, have the joyous Word and promise that God is with His people. He is with you every moment of your life, from the instant of conception until the end of your last breath, and then He continues to preserve you in glory in His eternal, heavenly kingdom. Your God is not distant or far off or caught away in the furthest heavens, far removed from you. No – your God is Immanuel, God-With-Us.

Samaritan Ethics

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God does not need your works, but He commands you to do good works. Your neighbor needs your good works, but cannot command you to do them. This is where the love of God and the love of your neighbor intersect, as we see in today's Gospel lesson.

A lot of ink has been spilled about Law and Gospel, and the Law/Gospel turnabout in this passage, generally focusing on the account that Jesus tells, rather than the discussion in which it happens. You have heard it before: you are the man beaten and left for dead, Jesus is the Samaritan who picks you up out of the ditch, the Church is the inn, and the oil and wine and so forth are the Means of Grace.

However, this passage, in its greater context, is a discussion about the Law and about ethics, before one ever lays on the typological interpretations. Ethics is generally understood as determining, and then doing, the best good thing. Ethics is about knowing and doing the right thing, whatever the circumstances.

Who is Jesus?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We remember this day the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, missionary preachers to the Jews and Gentiles. We thank God for them. For they were men obsessed not with speculation about what Jesus would do or about how we should behave or believe. They were men inspired by God to care for nothing but the saving reality of who Jesus is. Red adorns the Altar this day not to remind us so much of the blood that they shed, but to remind us of the Blood by which they were transferred into heaven. For that Blood, shed for them and for us, by God in our Flesh, is also poured forth this day from the Chalice to cleanse your lips and inspire your confession.

On this day, we commemorate not primarily Peter and Paul, but their confession – their answer to the question “Who do you say that I am?”

Here I Am

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sometimes God gives object lessons – case studies, if you will, that show what He has said before in a more concrete way. If you do not understand what He has said before, He will spell it out in a way that might make sense before your eyes.

Today, one might say that that God has given a sort of case study on Isaiah. The prophet spoke the Word of the Lord to the people of Judah all those centuries ago, and sometimes the prophets can seem a bit murky. In today's Old Testament lesson, he speaks of the Lord coming to His people and finding a rabble who did not seek Him or ask for Him. He found a rebellious people doing their own thing, doing things which were detestable under the Law. His people were eating pork, making illicit sacrifices, and making their dwelling place among tombs and in the places of the dead.

“I Have Something to Say to You”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus is no stranger to sinners. He is surrounded by them, and He knows it. In fact, He knows every sin of everyone He meets, before a person even opens his mouth. Jesus eats with sinners, touches sinners, worships with sinners, lives with sinners, and dies with sinners.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus eats with sinners. Not just the woman, whom tradition identifies as a prostitute, but also the Pharisee who thinks he lives a more holy life than Jesus. Sinners are all around, and Jesus deals with each sort in turn. The same treatment will not apply to both the woman and Simon the Pharisee.

The woman, whom the Church has traditionally identified as Mary Magdalene, is a sinner of the worst kind, at least in the eyes of her community. She lives in open, manifest sin. Prostitution is not something one does secretly, after all. One must attract business to ply the trade. She is a woman of ill-repute, some of which is probably deserved. She probably bears the marks of her trade – well-coiffed hair, gilded and painted face, plentiful jewelry. When she walks through town, she is a marked woman, known for what she is and scorned because of it. She might as well be wearing a scarlet letter, for as much ability as she has to live privately.

Fear and Mercy

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Lord came into this world to lay down His life as a sacrifice. But He seems to get distracted, almost impatient, along the way. Consider today's Gospel lesson – the widow in Nain. Our Lord knows the boy will be raised on the last day and the widow's grief will come to an end. But when He sees her sorrow, perhaps thinking also of His own mother, He is moved by compassion. He acts right then.

It is the same with all His miracles. None of them are planned. All of them are spontaneous. All of them, even the withering of the fig tree, come from Our Lord's compassion and serve to re-order creation.

The miracle in Nain fills the people with fear. Then, immediately, they glorify God. And rightly so. Our Lord's compassion should scare you. Because it is holy, pure, and focused. It is hard for sinners, at first glance, to distinguish it from His wrath. It is more absolute, more solid, more unbending than anything of earth. Nothing of the Lord is cotton balls and marshmallows. Even His mercy is severe.

Who is Worthy?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Who is worthy to receive the gifts of God? Who is worthy to receive anything at all from God, other than wrath and condemnation? That is the question today's text sets before us.

In Capernaum, there was a centurion – a commander in the Roman army – who had a slave who was highly valued by him. This centurion was wealthy enough to have a well-filled household. He probably was also a God-Fearer, a Gentile convert to Judaism – or at least one who had heard the Torah and was what we might call a catechumen. After all, he was well enough disposed toward the Jews to build for them a synagogue. This man was respected enough by the elders of the synagogue that they would go to Jesus and intercede for the centurion on behalf of the valued slave.