People everywhere are asking, “Who is in charge here?” It seems that no one wants to take responsibility for what the wrongs and evils see in the world. Crime is left unpunished. Laws are made and then broken. Corporations refuse to pay a living wage to their workers. Parents neglect their children. Spouses abuse each other. The question is good: Who has the authority to respond appropriately? According to the law, the appropriate response to lies is objective truth, evil with punishment, and goodness with reward. This is what we expect from those in authority over us. But if they neglect these duties, we are left asking again, “Who is in charge here?”

The church, the temple of God with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, and we, as living stones, live according to the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins. This is for all people, nations, and languages, that is, everyone who once rejected Him. There are two pillars joined together by the capstone Jesus. Their unity is in the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins. The Gospel always unites people around Jesus and the common need to be forgiven for rejecting Him. All sin revealed by the law results in the rejection and death of Jesus. But the Gospel always reveals that that rejection, suffering, and death of Jesus on the cross is the very means that God has used to bring about forgiveness, life, and salvation for you and all who believe. This is the only means for unity among people, to be united in the same promise, the Son, to forgive sins. 

Today, Jesus is asked a question and speaks in terms we can understand. But then He asks a question in the second half, and no one can understand and are silent. The first way of speaking makes complete sense to us, but the second way is beyond any capacity—our heart, soul, strength, or mind. In a shocking turn, what Jesus says that we can comprehend cannot save us, but what He says that offends us is precisely the truth that keeps us! 

Your whole faith and life hinges on the question, “By what authority? And who gave you that authority?” Jesus’ authority is from God the Father in heaven, preaching the Law to reveal sin but preaching the Gospel to unbind that sin through His innocent suffering and death and shed blood. Jesus can do something no one can do: bear your sins and forgive you. What an authority but so contradictory to anything we could believe or imagine! Everything in this world and life outside the Gospel requires you to bear the weight of your actions. But the Gospel promise accomplishes what the Law cannot do: absolve you and set you free.

In today’s Gospel, we see that intelligent, clever, and wise people will use God’s Law to misinform consciences and move far astray as to despise God’s word. Since in the Old Testament, the law was neither understood nor moderated according to love, God gave the people prophets who should explain the law not according to its strictness but according to charity. When you serve your neighbor and help him, you have kept the Sabbath right and well, even though you have done work on it, because you did a divine work. First, hear God’s Word in faith, and then His Spirit will work love in you for your neighbor. 

All that Jesus purchased and won by His suffering and death is Kelsie’s by promise and divine right. As He died once and for all to forgive sins, Kelsie’s trespasses and transgressions against God’s Holy Word are forgiven. As He abolished death by His death, Kelsie has not died but is sleeping in the Lord’s safekeeping. And as Christ rose from the dead, Kelsie lives with Christ, and we will see her again in the resurrection of all flesh. This is the glorious promise put into Kelsie’s ears when she was baptized and repeated to her with Confirmation blessing. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Her hope and trust are in Christ and Him alone. Apart from Him, she could do nothing. But grafted onto the vine, a holy branch of God’s making and redeeming, Kelsie was given to bear much fruit.

Resilience is a trait rooted in thoughts, choices, and behaviors. Spiritually speaking, the means for resilient people and congregations are already yours. The Spirit is at work daily to return you to Jesus, to listen to His Word, and to guide your words and deeds. Immediately after Pentecost, the Spirit-gathered Church was given the gifts that make for resilient people—people who would be persecuted, slandered, attacked, and even killed. All but one of the Apostles died a martyr’s death, yet remained faithful unto death. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers… And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-27). 

Death is interrupted in Jesus. He comes up to our coffins and says, “No more! Son or daughter, I say to you, arise!” And with the cry of the archangels and the sound of trumpets, all the dead are raised, now by faith and then by sight. Because Jesus lives, all those who are in Jesus will never die but shall live. Yes, it is hard to live in that paradoxical tension between the now and the not yet, just as it is to believe that we are sinners deserving nothing but death and punishment but at the same time believing that we are forgiven children of God, who thus also have salvation and eternal life. Indeed, this can only be believed by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word. 

You’ll note that the things that cause us the most worry, anxiety, and fear are those that God promises to give and protect. He gives them in the Creed and the Prayer and protects them with the Ten Commandments. In the Creed, God the Father and Maker promises everything you need for your life. God the Son gives you everything needed for salvation through His suffering and death. God the Holy Spirit gives you faith in His Church to keep you with the Father and the Son. So, why do you worry? Why are you anxious? What are you afraid of?

One key to understanding is that children don’t take the kingdom for themselves. They are not innocents who deserve Jesus and his kingdom, any more than the disciples could somehow merit a higher status in the kingdom through their righteous doing. They receive Jesus as a gift by faith, which is also a gift. Children, especially infants, can do little for themselves but depend on their loving parents for everything. There’s no hierarchy of merit but reception by identity as children of God. Of course, this is why Holy Baptism is given to all as the gift that gives adoption as sons regardless of any distinguishing mark. And with the adoption comes forgiveness, faith, life, and Spirit. 

Jesus isn't just a wise teacher or a philosopher; He embodies divine wisdom. In a world inundated with conflicting ideologies and self-proclaimed gurus of enlightenment, we must remember that our true source of wisdom is found in Christ alone. He is the One who illuminates our path, guiding us through the labyrinth of moral ambiguity and intellectual chaos. 

Science is making great strides in restoring hearing and overcoming speech impediments. Nerve endings can be replaced. Electronic signals can be sent directly to the brain. Surgery can restore the speaking function of the tongue and lips. Stuttering children can take speech therapy. But hearing the Gospel so that we believe is a miracle only God can perform. “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Co 12:3). For 168 years, the Holy Spirit has worked the miracle of faith in this place by a succession of faithful pastors through their preaching. 

God never abandons or forsakes us. He remains amidst the struggles and chaos of our own making, amidst the debris of our shattered promises. 

You cannot serve God and the pursuit of happiness any more than you can serve God and life or freedom. And what does God do when your worship is not on him but on the gifts He gives? He takes them away. The unanimous witness of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalmists, Wisdom, Evangelists, and Apostles is that God removes whatever and whoever gets in the way of you trusting Him. Whether patriarchs, Israel, or Gentile, God ceases to give when the gift is received apart from praise and thanksgiving to Him. 

The economy of the Christian Church is impossible and absurd. But that’s only to reason and experience. And it’s the voice of unbelief speaking. Jesus’s kingdom is not governed by power and wealth. It doesn’t mimic our poor attempts at community-building and providential care. Fundamentally it can’t because Christ’s kingdom is ruled by the very Word that made and kept making all things out-of-nothing. Jesus is the Word of the Father that said, “Let there be!” Matter can be created or destroyed but only by God the Creator. 

The theological constitution of our congregation asserts: “Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4 [3:21–26; 4:5].” (Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Augsburg Confession, Article IV, 33)

If we are to feed ourselves by the work of our hands, God's blessing must accompany it. If God is to bless our work, we must celebrate His Sabbath both inwardly and outwardly—because breaking the Sabbath is punished by the curse. Peter first loaned Christ his boat, and then he caught the great haul of fish, even though previously he had caught none. Therefore, take care first of your soul; take Christ into the little boat of your heart; let Him teach and work in it; then your work will be blessed. The Third Commandment comes first, and then the Seventh follows. Obedience to the Third Commandment should be first to us, for then we will follow the Seventh Commandment.

If the law of God or the commandments have helped us see that we do not live up to the standards and have no right to judge others, then they can aid us further in a matter that is even more important. They can become for us "a tutor to Christ" (Gal 3:24). They can teach us to begin to listen seriously to the Gospel. He who allows what compelling reason God has for judging him will begin to listen freshly to the Savior who does not judge—not because Jesus needs forgiveness and not because he had no occasion to judge, but because he has taken upon himself his brothers' destiny and has died in place of sinners.

Today we celebrate the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. These men called to be apostles are radically distinct and often at odds. So, both get their days: the Confession of St. Peter (Jan 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan 25). Yet, those festivals are only a week apart. Despite their disagreements, the Church has taken great pains to show that these two apostles share a confession in one Lord—God the Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. And so, on June 29th, we celebrate these men together.