Brent Kuhlman

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Thanksgiving Eve
24 November 2009                                             

St. Luke 17:11-19

Jesus is hoofing it to Jerusalem.  He has important work to do there.  And that’s what’s on His mind.  Steadfastly.  Relentlessly. He’s headed to the capital city.  To give His life as a ransom for many.  And for you.

Who would dare to interrupt?  Take Him off course?  Watch out Jesus! Leper colony of ten on your right!  Don’t get too close.  The last thing you need is to contract leprosy.  After all, there’s no vaccine.  And if there was who knows if there’d be enough.  You know how that goes.  And if that isn’t bad enough one among them isn’t even an Israelite.  He’s a mongrel, heterodox Samaritan.  A double loser.  A twofold piece of scum.     

But Jesus gets within earshot.  With loud voices all ten zombie lepers beg:  “Jesus, Master, pity us!” 

Lepers are as good as dead.  No hope for them.  The least Jesus could do is have some pity before all their flesh rots off.  Maybe leave a few pennies to buy some bread.  Perhaps a few kind words like:  “Sorry to hear about your condition boys.  Good luck!  Now I’m off to Jerusalem.”

Instead, Jesus looks right at them.  Indeed, they are lepers.  Then He tells them:  “Get out of here.  Show yourselves to the priests at Jerusalem.”  Good for you Jesus!  Let somebody else deal with these poor diseased devils!  You’ve got to high tail it to Jerusalem too! 

Now if you think that’s what Jesus is up to, then you’ve completely misunderstood.  “Go show yourselves to the priests” was the biblical procedure for lepers who had been cured!  Did you hear that?  You showed yourself to the priest only after being healed from this death trap disease.  And yet before they’re healed Jesus tells them to do this.  How bizarre!  What a twist!  While they are still lepers, losers, dead to everything in this life, Jesus tells them to act as if they are healed and no longer outcasts. 

“Off to Jerusalem chaps! Show yourselves to the priests.”

And as they go all ten are healed.  Jesus did it.  Jesus gave it.  Raised them from the dead if you will.  Gave them new life.  With His words. 

Nine keep going.  Never come back.  One does.  That twofold outcast.  The double loser.  The duck twice dead.  The Samaritan!  He knows who healed him.  He knows who more than pitied him.  Throws himself at Jesus’ feet.  “Thanks a ton Jesus!  Can’t thank you enough!  Praise be to God!  Praise be to God!  Praise be to God!”  At Christ’s feet the Samaritan is whole.  Alive.  Accepted.  Cleansed. 

It’s at that point that Jesus looks around and speaks to you and me:  “Hey, what’s this?  Didn’t I heal ten?  Why is it that only one comes back to thank God?  And he’s a foreigner to boot!”  The Lord’s divine love risks betrayal.  Risks unfaith.  Chances a bunch of “No thanks” and the abuse of His extravagant giving.     

Then Jesus speaks to the Samaritan:  “Get up man!  Go.  Your faith has saved you.”

Faith saves because faith trusts in Jesus the Savior.  With Jesus you receive more than you ever expected.  He received healing and on top of that salvation.

How does faith talk?  What does faith in Jesus say?  Faith says, “Thank you.”  Just like we do in the communion liturgy in the song “What Shall I Render To the Lord?”

What should you give back to the Lord for all His benefits to you? 

He’s given Himself.  The Father has given Himself to you wholly and completely with all that He is and has.  So too Jesus.  Given Himself into death for you.  Taking on the leprosy of your sin in His Body and answering for all of it on the Cross. 

What shall you render to the Lord for all His benefits to you?  The answer from Psalm 116 is this.  “I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”  I will say:  “Thank you.” 

And then more:  “And will call on the name of the Lord.”  I.E. I will come to church, fall at His feet, and invoke His name just like the lepers so that the Lord Jesus will be with me to bless me. 

And bless you He will.  That’s His promise.  His promise is this:  “I am your Savior.  I died for you.  Rose for you.  You are forgiven.  I baptized you.  You are saved.  Eat my Body.  Drink my Blood.  It’s my last will and testament.  You are the heirs of the salvation I won on the cross.”

What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?  His saving you?  I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.  And will call on the name of the Lord.  I will take the cup of salvation and will call on the name of the Lord.  In other words, you give thanks for all the Lord’s giving by receiving His gifts all the more.  By letting Him give you more and more.  His giving know no boundaries. 

So get up.  Your faith has saved you.  That is to say, Jesus has saved you.

Have a happy Thanksgiving. 

In the Name of Jesus.        
 

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Last Sunday in the Church Year
22 November 2009

St. Mark 13:24-37

"2012."  Have you seen it?  That’s the new end of the world movie starring John Cusack.  If only the governments of the world would have heeded the ancient Mayan calendar.  In this end-of-the-world tale the Mayans warned that December 21 would be the end.  Cataclysmic calamities leashed upon the world beyond imagination.  Volcanoes.  Earthquakes.  Tidal waves.  But the character played by John Cusack must survive.  He must save his family and the world.  Escape.  Survival.  It’s all up to him.  Typical Hollywood end of the world movie – there’s a savior (small “s”).  It’s man himself.  He has to look deep inside himself.  Find the resources within himself.  Man saves himself.  No need for the crucified and risen Jesus when mankind is able to save himself.        

Well, there will be a Last Day.  A Judgment Day. Jesus says so.  His words “will never pass away.”  He says:  “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” 

“At that time.”  When will it happen?  What’s the time?  Can we get out our calendars and mark down a date?  Better listen to Jesus.  He says:  “No one knows about that day or hour.  All the angels in heaven don’t even know.  I don’t even know,” Jesus says.  “But the Father does.  He knows the day and hour.   That’s in His hands.  We’ll leave it up to Him.  But know this.  When I am revealed on the Last Day all people will see Me coming in the clouds.  And you’ll see Me for who I am:  God’s Son who died as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.” 

Jesus tells you ahead of time. He gives you ample warning.  And when He comes on that Last Day to judge the living and the dead, no one will escape it.  You won’t be able to run away and hide.   

But you won’t want to.  Because on that day Jesus will “send his angels and gather his elect from all over the world.”   To gather his elect into heaven.  Into His kingdom that will never end. 

The elect.  That’s you.  You for whom He died.  God chose you in Christ before the creation of the world.  God predestined you to be adopted as His sons through Jesus. You are redeemed by His blood.  Your sins are forgiven.  You are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  You are His elect.  His chosen.  His died for people. 

So now what?  What are you, the elect, supposed to be doing in the meantime?  Better listen to Jesus again.  He says:  “Be on guard!  Be alert!  Watch!”  

After all, He’s coming in glory some day.  When?  We don’t know.  He could come at midnight.  He could come at dawn.  He could come in the middle of the afternoon. 

Not knowing the day or the hour is good for you.  Really, it is!  Think about it.  If you know the day or hour, what will you do?  You’ll blow off what Jesus says!  “Be on guard?  Alert?  Watch?”  We’d do just the opposite.   Turn a deaf ear.  Look the other way.

“No one knows about that day or hour.  Don’t ask Me,” Jesus says.  “Don’t ask the angels either.  They’re ignorant about the timing of that day too.  I just got done telling you:  only the Father knows.  But He’s not saying when.  Only that it will happen.”

That’s good for you and me.  It allows us to exercise our faith in Jesus who died for us.  Jude put it this way:  “build yourselves up in your most holy faith.  Pray in the Holy Spirit.  Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”  All that takes place when the Lord gathers you to hear His Word and eat at His Table in His holy house, the church. 

You are to trust that when Jesus comes in glory on the Last Day He will treat you just as He does today.  The absolution that you heard today was the judgment of the Last Day in miniature.  And in that absolution Jesus spoke to you.  He rendered a judgment.  What was it?  That you are acquitted.  Set free.  Forgiven.  Because He is the one who died for you!

And more!  The bounty overflows!  More from Judge Jesus who bears the scars of Good Friday.  He gives you His Good Friday -- all atoning -- sin forgiving Body and Blood to eat and drink.  And He gives you a promise that will last until the end of time:  “I forgive you.  You are my elect ones!”  That’s His judgment right now in the presence of the Father as well as all the angels, archangels and all the company of heaven.

There will be a day when you will “see the Son of Man coming in clouds with power and great glory.”  And when that day comes (only the Father knows) there is no need to fear.  Even on that day Son of Man Jesus remains the Savior who died for you His elect.  And whether you’re alive or buried the angels will gather you wherever you are for the resurrection of the body and eternal life with the Holy Trinity and all the communion of saints in heaven. 

What great joy!  After all, the salvation that Jesus bestows “lasts forever.  [His] righteousness never fails.” 

In the Name of Jesus.     
 

Second-Last Sunday
15 November 2009 – Good Shepherd, Lincoln

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Hebrews 10:11-25 (This sermon borrows heavily from the teaching of Dr. John Kleinig)

This text is so loaded with great stuff – it’s a proverbial gold mine -- that I might preach a longer sermon than Pastor Poppe.     I know that’s hard to do.  But believe me, if I do, it’s because the text is so pregnant with theological meaning for our lives before God and with one another.  So I’d better get going.  I’ll highlight three things from the text.  Hang on tight.  Here we go.

Because Jesus our great high priest offered His Good Friday Body and Blood as the atoning sacrifice for all your sin for all time, you have supernatural assets.  We may look bankrupt spiritually but in the divine service Christ Jesus provides us with supernatural resources.  And we are rich beyond belief!   

Point Number One.  ACCESS.  The text proclaims entrée.  When I teach at the seminary in Siberia the students have access to me in the class room but not usually at professor’s flat.  Only my three children have access to me as their biological “father.”  Only one woman in the world has the right of sexual access to me:  my wife.  Who has access to your credit card accounts or credit rating?  The right of access to your money is always restricted otherwise your bank accounts will be drained by online criminals.  Our country restricts who can cross our borders.  Or else we’d be overrun by terrorists.  Only a very few people have the privilege of access to the president of the United States.  Just try to show up at the White House and say, “I’d like to see President Obama please,” and see how far you get.

Now try to it with God the Father!  And lo and behold His door stands wide open!  Jesus has arranged that for you! You have Jesus to thank!  Because of Jesus you have complete and open access to the Father’s presence in the heavenly sanctuary.  Jesus is your “great high priest.”  He holds the key to the Father’s “house.” 
Access to the Father!  And you can approach the Father in the “Most Holy Place” with “confidence . . . by the blood of Jesus . . . and through the curtain, that is, His body.”  

For you, access to God the Father is not restricted.  You have complete freedom to approach Him.  But the key here is through Jesus’ Body and Blood.  In the divine service you have Christ’s own right of unrestricted access to the heavenly King.  You can approach the Father with the audacious assurance that He will treat you just as He treats His own Son, Jesus!  That’s because Jesus died for you.  Shed His Blood for you.  All His assets are your assets.   

At church Jesus bestows all the benefits of His Good Friday death to you.  For instance, in the Lord’s Supper Jesus rolls up His sleeves and as your Servant gives you His own Flesh and Blood with the bread and wine.  This is your physical way into the Most Holy Place, that is, the heavenly sanctuary.  

His tabernacle/temple curtain replacing Flesh, puts you into the very presence of the Father’s inner sanctum.  With His most holy Body and Blood Jesus comes to you and ushers you into the very presence of the living God.  In the Sacrament of the Altar you have access to heaven right now as you live on the earth.  And His promise is that all your sin is forgiven.

Because this gift of access to the Father for Christ’s sake, you have another magnificent asset.  POINT TWO:  It has to do with your conscience.  Yes, that’s right, your conscience. 

Perhaps all this talk of having complete access to the Father’s presence made you feel a wee bit uneasy.   A tad bit uncomfortable. You know, like a criminal on the run when he’s surrounded and penned in by the presence of the police.  After all, you’ve defied God.  You know you’re not who you should be.  To be in God’s presence as a sinner is awkward to say the least.  You feel unclean, dirty, polluted.  And you fully expect God to be like a heavenly SWAT TEAM to take you out.  To criticize, condemn, and snuff you out.   

Your guilty conscience distorts your view of God.  Your guilty conscience turns every thing God says into disapproval and a condemnatory critique of you.  And so some, perhaps even you, have some reservations of attending the divine service.  You just can take the chance to show up.  You know who’s there!  Your guilty conscience tells you that God is very unhappy with you.  That He’s out to get you. To zap you.  To incinerate you.

But the text says just the opposite.  You are cleansed.  You are holied.  Sanctified in body and in soul.  By Christ Himself in the water of Holy Baptism.  “Let us come near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”  In Holy Baptism you have Christ’s holiness that cleanses you in the Father’s eyes.  Having been gifted by Christ’s purity in the washing of Baptism’s pure water, you are qualified to come into God’s presence. 

After all, Jesus has taken all your sin and all its impurity in His Body on the cross.  He answered for it.  All of it.  Now in Holy Baptism Jesus gives you His purity and holiness as your very own.  And it’s only through Him that you have a clean and clear conscience.  Because of Jesus who has purified your heart and body in Baptism, you can “draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”   

And that takes us to POINT THREE.  All this then “spurs us” to “love and good deeds” as we are gathered in the divine service and as the Last Day approaches.  In other words, the unrestricted access to God and the reception of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in the divine service are meant to stir you to action!  To stir you up with love and good works.  Love stirs up more love just as generosity stirs up generosity. 

The gifts Christ gives have their way with you so that you stir up each other and bring out the best in each other.  But again, all this is from Jesus.  He lavishes His loves on you.  He is among you and in you.  You are Christ’s holy people.  Citizens of heaven.  He demonstrates His love to you and offers His help to you through each other.  As you are gathered by Him in church you build each other up in love as you wait patiently for the Last Day and His glorious revelation. 

Until then, you are to affirm and build each other up as the communion of saints.  “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  You need to be activated and energized spiritually by your contact with each other.  Or to put it best:  you need to let Christ enrich and empower you through your fellow believers.  You commit spiritual suicide if you habitually isolate yourself from the body of Christ.  If you stop attending the divine service on a regular basis, you drift away from Christ and lose your place in the heavenly Jerusalem.  And your congregation will be all the poorer for your not attending.  

In the divine service Christ gathers you as a kind of Saints Anonymous for mutual encouragement and support.  And this really is quite important.  More than you would imagine. 

Habitual, on purpose absence from the divine service demonstrates your total disregard for me as your brother in Christ.  Your regular attendance, on the other hand, proves your love for me in a very practical, down to earth way.  In church you recognize me as a fellow saint, even though I am a sinner.  Your customary attendance at the divine service provokes me to appreciate you and your contribution to my spiritual welfare.  By meeting together at church in the Father’s presence through Jesus Christ, we encourage each other as we wait the glory to come and rehearse every Sunday for eternal life with the Holy Trinity and all the communion of saints.

Access.  A clean conscience.  Hearts and bodies purified.  Holied.  All for Christ’s sake.  And now the Lord has good use for you.  To stir each other up!  To provoke one another with love by attending the divine service.  How magnetic and attractive Good Shepherd, Lincoln is, as you treat each other in the way God treats you in Christ.  I don’t dare preach any longer.  Now let’s get ready to enter in to the Holy of Holies:  the Lord’s Supper and rejoice in Christ’s most holy gifts.     

In the Name of Jesus.   
 

Click here to listen to this sermon.   I apologize for the poor quality of the sermon recording.  Try to listen with headphones.

Third-Last Sunday (Trinity 22 / One Year Series)
8 November 2009

St. Andrew’s, Laramie, WY

St. Matthew 18:21-35

“You know Reverend. I’m quite generous.  Very forgiving person.  I can forgive someone once.  Even twice.  And possibly even a third time.  Especially if it’s just a little thing.  But there comes a time when you have to draw the line Reverend.  You just can’t go on forgiving losers, scum, trash, and deadbeats.  Especially when what they do is so mean and hurtful.  And they do it on purpose over and over again.  If I keep saying, ‘If forgive you,’ they’ll take advantage of me.  I’ll look weak.  Stupid.  Three strikes and you’re out I say.  My forgiveness only lasts for so long.  And then I’m done.  The forgiveness dries up.”

The apostle and man with his eyes on the bishop’s office in Rome -- Peter likes to keep score too.  He’s a bit more generous on the sin score keeping.  How many times do you forgive a brother who sins against you?  Peter is willing to stretch it out to seven times.  That’s really magnanimous.  But then the forgiveness must stop. 

“Right Jesus?  Surely you agree with our generosity!  Our willingness to forgive up to a point!  His majesty Peter I is on our side.”

Are you sure you want to hear what Jesus has to say?  His answer may just send you and Peter sprawling with His typical bizarre answers to our scorekeeping questions.  You want to hear from Jesus?  Really?  All right. 

“Seventy times seven!” Jesus announces.  I.E. not just three.  Not just seven.  But forgiveness without limits.  Without boundaries.  Isn’t that how you want Him to forgive you?  Imagine if Jesus treated you the way you treat others!  It wouldn’t be good.  It would end hellaciously. 

You and I owed King Jesus more than we could ever repay.  We couldn’t atone.  Ever!  Enormous, astronomical, beyond belief debt.  Sell the kids.  Sell the wife.  Work a million lifetimes.  Hire a credit consolidation firm.  Make all kinds of deceiving promises.  But the accounts would never get reconciled.  Not even close.  Ever! 

And yet the King – King Jesus makes a decision.  He decides to have mercy.  Pity.  So gracious.  So giving.  So forgiving.  He dies to all the scorekeeping, audits, and accounting.  Rips up the debt documents.  And He settles your account – BY FORGIVING IT!  Wipes all your debt of the books.  All of it! Forgets it ever existed! 

Kingdom of Heaven King Jesus is categorically and recklessly generous with forgiveness.  Unlimited, unconditional, full and complete absolution for you that flows from His bloody Good Friday wounds.  “Father, forgive them,”  He prayed.  And this prayer was for His enemies who wanted Him stone cold dead and who stopped at nothing to get that done.  That’s you and me.  Our sin put Him there.  We saw to it as well!  “Crucify Him!”  was our demand too!

And yet He prays:  “Father, forgive them.  Father, forgive these dyed in the wool sinners.  All of them.  Forgive every last one of them and every one of their sins for my sake.”  No limits.  No boundaries.  No forgiveness statute of limitations.  The forgiveness job for all sin and every sinner gets done.  Yours.  Mine.  The world’s.    “It is finished!”  Indeed.

All your sin is forgiven.  The whole enchilada.  None left out. 

Now if you don’t believe that or want nothing to do with what appears to be such an idiotic King and His ridiculously weak and foolish kingdom, then you won’t be forgiving your brother from the heart.  Instead, you’ll just go on in the relentless and unforgiving slavery of getting even, being at each other’s throats, settling unfinished business, and paying people back who sin against you – no matter how trivial the hurt.  And we all know what pay back is . . . payback is HELL!  Not for the other person but for you who won’t forgive.  And all that the King will have to say to you is:  “You wicked servant.  I died for you.  Forgave everything of yours.  And now you won’t forgive?  Jailers!  . . . This is how my heavenly Father will treat you because you insist on not letting my forgiveness have its way with you.”   

Today, Kingdom of Heaven King Jesus stands before you.  He is as generous and as reckless with His forgiveness as always.  He forgave you in the absolution.  And in a few minutes He’ll forgive you again with His promise that His Body and His Blood is for the forgiveness of your sins.  All of them.  None left out. 

And He has taught you to pray:  “Our Father who art in heaven . . . forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  

And you are forgiven.  For Jesus’ sake.  And now He sends you out into the world to speak His forgiveness to others who desperately need it.  To forgive as freely and (dare I say it) as recklessly as He has forgiven you.

In the Name of Jesus.  
 

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All Saints’ Day
1 November 2009

Revelation 7:9-17

Today a glimpse into heaven.  Your loved ones who have died in the faith are there.  They are in Christ.  Christ is in and with them.  Angels are there too.  Millions of them.  But angels are angels.  Part of God’s invisible creation.  When you die you don’t become an angel.  Please teach people that.  Our loved ones and friends who trusted Jesus for their salvation are in His presence.  He’s got them.  They only await the resurrection of the body on the last day. 

Do you see it?  No.  But John did.  And he’s written it down for you to hear.  So, if you’ve ever asked, been asked, or wondered about what heaven is like, what the saints are doing there, here’s your opportunity for a sneak peek. 

Behold!  There is an enormous multitude of people.  From all over the world.  Name the country.  Name the language.  Name family.  There are so many you can’t even begin to count them all.  Heaven’s not going to be empty.  More there than you could ever imagine.  Better get used to a heaven busting at the seams!   

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages – standing before the Lamb – wearing white robes – palm branches in their hands.  And they shouted very loudly:  ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’”

Heaven is God’s doing.  God’s giving.  His creation.  His very, very, very good new creation.  A new heaven and a new earth that is the home of righteousness.  Sin, suffering, death, and decay are no more.  The butchery of war, famine, sickness, and the grave have been conquered by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in His Good Friday Death.  In heaven such evil is excluded in the presence of the Lamb reigning in His heavenly kingdom.

Believers that have died are with Jesus.  To be with Jesus or in Jesus is to be in heaven.  And there is extravagant praise.  Giving God the Father and Jesus His only-begotten Son their due.  “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!”  

All Saints’ Day draws us homeward to heaven.  Today we sing:

“Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee for all are Thine.”

We feebly struggle.  We’re still in this world where the evil of the world, the devil, and our sinful nature battles and batters us constantly.  Our bodies get older and wear down.  And when the Sunday divine service is over, God sends us back out in to that battlefield – the hard realities of daily living.  Tests.  Paying bills.  Impatiently waiting on the weather to get the crops in.  Family frustrations.  Dealing with people that dislike or even hate us.  We encounter opposition for believing in Jesus.  The devil uses our sins to accuse us and threatens us with damnation.  Death snatches away people we love.  Sometimes when they’re too young.  Some of us are old and ready to die.  We’re homesick for heaven.  But the earth is where we live now.

And so All Saints’ Sunday.  The bigger picture.  Revelation 7 puts this troublesome life with all its disappointments, heartaches, and miseries into perspective.  The perspective of heaven!  The Book of Hebrews reminds us that we are like our father Abraham:  “looking forward to new city whose architect and builder is God,” (Hebrews 11:10).  In other words, the Holy Trinity has created, redeemed, and sanctified us to be fellow citizens with all the saints:  Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, Samuel, King David, Isaiah, Mary, Joseph, Peter, Paul, Luther, ect.  In fact, you too are a saint because you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  The white robes you wear are the robes of Christ’s righteousness given to you in Holy Baptism.

Lutherans do talk about saints.  We are not shy about it.  Saints are sinners that believe their sins are forgiven in Christ’s blood.  We remember those who have gone before us in faith so that “our faith may be strengthened when we see what grace they received and how they were sustained in faith.”  In addition, “their good works are to an example for us, each of us in our own calling,”  (Augsburg Confession).  Only by God’s grace that is given to us through Jesus are any of us saints.  We are “holy ones” because Jesus has given us His holiness in His Blood sacrificed on Good Friday and that same Blood in the cup of the Sacrament.  We are saints, that is, holy ones, only because of Jesus.  By what He’s done for us and by what He gives us. 

For the saints in heaven they see with their eyes what they always had on this earth by faith in Jesus.  Done is the daily dying to sin.  Their eternal Sabbath rest is won.  No more struggling with sin.  No more temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  They live in pure victory as they sing with the angels of heaven:  “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.  Amen.” 

Where Christ is with His gifts there are His saints who believe in Him.  In heaven and on earth!  The saints in heaven and the saints on the earth sing in the presence of the Lamb who was slain.  Today we confess His gracious presence with His Body and Blood as we sing:  “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world.  Have mercy upon us . . . O Christ, Thou Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world.  Grant us Thy peace.”

If only our eyes could see.  But we hear the Lamb’s voice in His Word:  “Take eat.  Take drink.”  He is here.  And He’s brought all of heaven with Him.  All the angels, the archangels and all the company of heaven.

Dr. Hermann Sasse correctly taught that, the Sacrament of the Altar is our heaven on earth.”  That’s because Jesus grants us access to Himself and to the Father who sits on the throne by His Blood. 

You don’t have to wait until you die to go to heaven.  When you’re at the Sacrament of the Altar all of heaven is there with Jesus.  Millions of angels.  All those who have died believing in Jesus too.  Yes, that’s right, the people you loved in this life are where they’ve always been:  with Christ.  At the Lord’s Supper you are given to remember them properly:  that Christ has them and they are with Him.  And in the Lord’s Supper all of heaven is right here in our midst.  It is your heaven until you enter heaven.  Happy All Saints’ Day!’

In the Name of Jesus.