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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is on vacation, but, before he left, for our reflection this morning on today’s First Reading, Pastor Galler edited a sermon by The Rev. Dr. James E. Butler, pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Dedham, Massachusetts. Rev. Butler’s sermon was published in the current volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (29:1, pp.34-36), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when our pastor is away and the congregation has not otherwise supplied the pulpit. The edited sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you ever thought about how powerful fear and worry are in our lives? In his book Fearless, Max Lucado says that when fear moves in, happiness moves out. When our hearts are filled with fear, he reasons, there cannot be room for anything else. He says you cannot be confident and afraid at the same time. Nobody says he has a new spring in his step now that he worries more. (Lucado, Fearless [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009], 5.) Fear grabs us. Worry holds us. We find ourselves held by “fear knots” (K-N-O-T-S). Those are knots in our stomach when we think about tomorrow’s surgery or the court date we have coming up. Fear knots are the things that bind our hearts when we are concerned about our children. Fear knots tie us up and refuse to let us go. Fear exhausts our energy and makes us weak. The Lord comes to release us from our fear. To those who are fearful and worried, He says, “Fear not” (N-O-T). We can be hopeful. We can have confidence in God and His promises. Today’s First Reading tells us that By His Word, “Fear Not,” God Releases Us from the Worries and Fears, the Fear Knots, That Bind Us.
At the time of the First Reading, the people of Israel were bound up by fear knots. They were worried about how God felt about them. After all, they had disobeyed God time and again. Beginning in the wilderness with Moses, the people of Israel complained against God, doubted His goodness, and turned to idols. Those sins continued through the days of judges and the kings. God warned His people against their idolatry, but they refused to listen. Instead of changing and repenting, they told the prophets to stop preaching, and the people even imprisoned some of the prophets and killed others. Finally, the Lord had had enough. At the end of Isaiah 42, immediately before our Reading, the Divinely‑inspired Isaiah reminded the people of Israel of what the Lord had done:
“Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? . . . [The Lord] poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle” (Isaiah 42:24-25).
The people of Israel were also afraid of the future. Yes, God had promised that their exile would last only seventy years, but would He keep his promise? They had sinned against the Lord. They deserved His anger. They had earned His punishment. Would God still be faithful to his Word? Could God ever forgive them? Would God ever forgive them? Would the Lord take them home? These knots of fear bound them like chains.
We are often bound by fear knots. Like Israel, we have disobeyed God. We also may complain against God, doubt His goodness, and turn to idols—false gods, anything we fear, love, and trust in more than the God. We even admit our disobedience. Before Divine Services, we poor sinners regularly confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. We really do deserve His temporal and eternal punishment. So, we also may be afraid of God and worried about what He thinks of us. Because we may be afraid of God, our lives are further tied up in fear knots. We may not trust God to take care of us, so we may worry about tomorrow. We may not have confidence in God, so we may get filled with anxiety. Sometimes, that worry and anxiety can come out in anger at God and other people. In many ways, we are tied up in worry; we are bound with fear knots.
We cannot say that our Lord Jesus was bound with fear knots; certainly He was without any sinful worry; He was never tied up, prevented, or paralyzed from doing what He needed to do. But, as He, about to begin his ministry, as we heard in the Third Reading (Luke 3:15-22), came to John the Baptizer at the Jordan River, with the prospect of Satan’s attacks, certain horrific death, and the duty of saving the world before Him, He surely knew the terror that was ahead. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7).
Today’s First Reading begins with the words “But now . . .” With those words, Isaiah comes to comfort us! Yes, the Lord was angry, but now his anger is taken away. Yes, he punished his people Israel, but he will do so no longer. Now he will save them. Now he will protect them. He tells them that they are precious and honored in his sight and he loves them. The Lord comes to release Israel from their fear knots. He says to them, “Fear not.” “Fear not!” says the Lord. “Remember what I have done for you! I created you. I formed you. I redeemed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.” Those words are so powerful. “Created” and “formed” take Israel back to the very act of creation. The Lord made them into a nation. More than that, He redeemed them from Egypt, punishing Pharaoh and drowning him in the Red Sea. He made Israel His people. He called them by his Name. He made them a nation of priests. They belonged to Him. “Remember who I am!” says the Lord. He is not just the Creator; he is Israel’s Creator. He is not merely the Holy One, but the Holy One of Israel. He is not just the King; he is their King. Because the Lord is their God and Israel is his people, they can be freed from fear and have confidence. Passing through the waters, walking through the fire—it makes no difference. God is with His people, and He will bring them through. The water will not overwhelm, and the fire will not burn; God will protect them. “Fear not,” says the Lord, “for I am with you”.
What God says to Israel, the Father said to His Son at the moment of Jesus’s Baptism. With Jesus facing the road that three years later would take Him to the frightful cross for us, like the voice over the waters at creation, as mentioned in today’s Psalm (Psalm 29; antiphon v.3), God the Father spoke from heaven, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased”. When His Son would need Him the most, the Father would be there. “I am with you.”
Now in our Baptism, God says the same thing to us one hundred times over. As we heard in the Second Reading (Romans 6:1-11), we are baptized into His death and walk in newness of life. God has created us. In Baptism, He made us his own. He formed us so that we are His people. As Peter reminds us, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:10). God has made us His people. God has made us a nation of priests. We belong to him. He has redeemed us. The Lord told Israel that He gave Egypt for them and that He gave “men in return for you”. The Lord has done much more for us. He did not give men in our place; He gave one Man in our place: His Son, Christ Jesus. At the cross, the Lord redeemed us. He paid for our sin. He made us his own. At the cross, something miraculous happened. We had disobeyed God. We, like Israel, deserved His punishment. But, the Lord did not punish us. He punished His Son. Our disobedience, all our sin, was laid on him. As Isaiah would say later, “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The Lord created us, He has redeemed us, and He has called us. In our Baptism, God reached down from heaven and placed His Name on us. And, He individually absolves us in that same Name, and He also forgives us with Christ’s Body and Blood with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar. He calls us by name, and He says that we belong to him. We are the Lord’s because of what He has done. We do not deserve grace, but God is gracious. We are not faithful, but God is faithful. We did not choose God, but He chose us. Therefore, the Lord is not just “the Savior;” He is “your Savior.” He is not just the Lord God, but He is “the Lord your God.”
Since God has done all that for us, we do not need to be afraid of Him. We are His children. Since we are His children, we do not have to be afraid of what it seems that life throws at us, but what really is what God in His wisdom is permitting us to face. We will be tested by many trials. We will be confronted by many challenges. But, the Lord promises to be with us along the way and to bring us through them all. “In the world you will have tribulation,” says Jesus. “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Fears besiege us. Worries attack us. We often find ourselves tied up in fear knots. But the Lord comes to us. He says, “Fear not.” “Fear not, for I have created you. Fear not, for I have redeemed you by the blood of My Son. Fear not, for I have summoned you by name in your Baptism. You are mine.” Be confident in the Lord. Let his Word undo your fear knots. Remember His promise: “Fear not, for I am with you.” Amen.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +