John 8:31-36, Romans 3:19-28
Reformation

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  Martin Luther knew well the meaning of those words.  He knew what it was like under the old papal system to feel enslaved to the Law, to be in captivity to his sins and unable to set himself free.  The thing he most felt was the burden of an angry God on his back, driving him, demanding a holy life and penance for sin.  So much did he want to escape his slavery that, instead of a becoming a lawyer like his father wanted, he thought becoming a monk might do the job.  If he just devoted himself fully to being righteous and worshiping God, perhaps then he could break free and the shackles would come off.  But things didn’t get better; in some ways constantly being reminded of the demands of a righteous God, constantly going to confession under the requirement of confessing every single sin only caused him to feel his chains all the more.  This attempt at righteousness by his own efforts and works became a torture.  “Whoever commits sin a slave of sin.”

    The same thing is true for us, too; only we tend to experience this in an opposite way.  In our culture, the wrath of an angry God isn’t what runs the show.  For us it’s the absence of any wrath at all that’s runs things, spiritual permissiveness, being free to do as we please.  And that supposed freedom is where we experience our slavery.  For the sins that we enjoy promise us freedom and happiness, but they only ensnare us and bind us and imprison us in the long run.  Our desires and passions end up ruling us.  The technologies that make us feel like we’re lords of our own lives end up being what we serve, what we chain ourselves to for hours a day.  Gluttony enslaves us to our belly and our food, as does alcoholism to drink.  Lust enslaves us to our passions, to pornography, to adulterous behavior that tears people apart.  Laziness enslaves us in a cycle of dependency and pessimism and excuse-making and blame.  Gossiping enslaves us to the never-ending game of one-upsmanship, and really only ends up tearing everyone down, including the gossiper.  Greed enslaves us to our possessions and all the things we have to do to get and hold on to our stuff.  Pride chains us to having to keep up our image and prop up the facade, when deep down we know it’s just hypocrisy.  And on and on it goes . . .  We may not be running for the monastery like Luther, but we, too, often find ourselves grasping at straws because we know that things aren’t right with us, that we’re not truly free.  “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  And the wages of sin is death.

    Repent.  God doesn’t just accept your best efforts as being sufficient to make yourself right with Him.  He doesn’t just say, “Try your hardest, be sincere, do what is in you, and that’s good enough.”  What does His Word say?  “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”  It is a misuse of the Law to try to justify yourself.  We can often be successful in justifying ourselves and our behavior before others in this world.  But that just won’t fly before God.  Besides, if you’re trying to do a good deed so that you can get some sort of reward for yourself–in this world or the next–is that really a good work at all in God’s sight?  What did the Epistle say?  It said the purpose of the Law is “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh [no one] will be justified in [God’s] sight.”  You can’t free yourself from the slavery of sin by your own doing.

    So what is our only hope of being saved and set free?  St. Paul writes in the Epistle, Since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Pay close attention to those words.  Don’t let them become passe’ because it’s familiar Lutheran talk.  You are justified freely by His grace–freely!  God grant that we never lose our gratitude for that!  It’s a gift of God to you, without any strings attached.  That’s what grace is, an undeserved gift of love.  God justifies you, He declares you righteous, He puts you right with Himself solely and completely based on the works of Christ Jesus His Son–not what you have done for God but what Christ has done for you.  

    And here is in particular is what Christ has done for you: the Epistle says that the Lord Jesus redeemed you.  In other words, He bought you back.  He found you in your slave chains, being driven and abused by sin and Satan, and He asserted Himself as your rightful owner, your gracious Master.  He purchased you out of your slavery with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.  He went so far as to trade places with you.  He allowed Himself to be enslaved, captured and condemned as if He were the sinner, guilty of every wrong that’s ever been done and every failure to do what’s right.  He was your stand-in on the cross to set you free, so that you stand in His place in “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).  Through His death, Jesus conquered your slave masters so that they have no eternal power over you any more.  In the Son of God, Jesus, you are truly free–released, forgiven, alive–as Jesus Himself said, “If the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed.”

    Martin Luther puts it this way in the Large Catechism: “The Lord Jesus has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and all evil. For before, I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness.  For when we had been created by God the Father, and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited and deserved.  There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us.  Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness.”

    This is where Martin Luther finally found his liberty.  Before, he had understood the righteousness of God to be referring to God’s righteous demands on us, what we must do to get into God’s good graces.  But then, when studying the Scriptures, he came to understand the truth of the Gospel in Romans 1, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . .  for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.”  In other words, the Gospel makes known the righteousness of God, not as demands on you, but as a gift to you.  God gives you His righteousness, so that through faith in Christ, you are clean and guiltless in His sight.  Believe that.  God declares it to be so through Jesus and what He has done for you.

    That understanding of the Gospel, which had largely been lost, made all the difference for Luther.  And so began the Reformation and the restoration of the Gospel to its rightful place in the Church, a heritage we are beneficiaries of down to this very day.

    We summarize this belief with the four so-called “solas” of the Reformation: Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, and Christ alone.  Eternal life and a right relationship with God are a pure gift of His grace alone, not because of anything we have done.  We receive that grace by faith alone, apart from our decisions and spiritual efforts.  Our faith is in Christ alone and in no one and nothing else.  And God brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith through His life-giving Word alone and not by anything that comes from within us; all our teaching comes from Scripture and not man-made wisdom or tradition.  To sum this all up, all the glory for our salvation belongs not to us but to God and His abundant mercy.  All boasting on our part is excluded.  Romans 3 states, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [in Christ] apart from the deeds of the Law.”

    So hear the Word of God to you this day clearly: you have been set free in Jesus.  And remember, then, what you have been freed for: You are freed from slavery to sin so that you might have a new life, the life of Christ in the household of God.  Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  To abide in Jesus’ word is to continue to receive His Word in the many ways that it comes to you and find your life in it.  It is to live in the gift of your baptism, where the Word of God was applied to you with the water, drowning the old Adam and bringing you forth to a new life.  It is to hear the preaching and teaching of the Gospel, by which the Word is applied to you and its gifts are given to you.  And it is to receive the Lord’s Supper, where the Word made flesh is truly present, giving you His flesh and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  Our freedom from sin’s slavery is freedom for life with God.  That’s what we set our hearts on; that’s our goal: to be with the One who made us and redeemed us, to live in fellowship with Him, to bask in His presence, to glory in His gifts to us, to worship Him forever.

    The Reformation was about standing against anything that stood in the way of that: whether it’s the Pope with His man-centered works-righteousness, or whether it’s radical reformed churches that reject the words and promises of Christ in the sacraments and instead make it all about man-centered personal spiritual experiences.  False teaching on both sides had to be rejected.  No, Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”  The Word in the water, the Word proclaimed from the pulpit, the Word in the bread and wine.  Abide in this, continue in this, trust in this, and you are Christ’s disciple, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free–free children of God who will abide in His house forever.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

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Genesis 1:1 - 2:3
Trinity 21

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” All things have a beginning except God.  He alone is eternal and uncreated.  We reject the evolutionist belief that the stuff of this universe has always been here and somehow formed itself into what we see now.  For then we would be declaring the universe to be eternal, making a god out of creation rather than the Creator.  That is the very definition of idolatry.

    The God who created all things out of nothing is the Triune God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–three eternal Persons in one divine Being.  Even in the beginning, we have a glimpse of God in His three-in-oneness. The Father creates. The Word of the Son is spoken. The Spirit of God hovers over the water. The Father creates through the Word, His Son, and He does it by the Holy Spirit who is in and with the water. You can see here that creation and baptism are intimately connected with one another.  Both are beginnings, creation and new creation, the work of the Father through the Son in the Spirit with the water.

    Interestingly, the Gospel of John in the New Testament begins just like Genesis, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  Through Him all things were made.”  The Word is Jesus, the Word made Flesh. Through the living Word of His Son, God created everything out of nothing. “Let there be light,” the Word says, “and there was light.” The Word is powerful and creative.  He brings about what He says.  Through the Word all things were made–water and sky, plants and trees, fish and birds, animals and man. All creatures owe their existence to Christ the Word, whether they know Him or not.  In fact, it is written in Colossians 1 that not only were all things were created through the Son of God but that in Him all things hold together still.  Jesus is the Logos, He is the logic, the wisdom of the universe.  The Laws of nature, the intricate complexities of the smallest strand of DNA to the largest galaxy, the beauty and the orderliness and the liveliness of creation all find their source in Him.  

    One of the many reasons we reject the theory of evolution, then, is because it’s opposed to this Scriptural truth of the centrality of Christ.  It imagines that all this beauty and order and life can be produced by chance random processes, that chaos can order itself, without any person doing the designing and organizing and sustaining.  To use a familiar example: if I were to say that an auto assembly plant exploded, and out of that Big Bang, after a long, long time, came a perfectly assembled car, you’d think I was a little nuts.  And yet what evolution proposes is infinitely more improbable than that; for our eyes, our brains, our DNA are vastly more complex in their design than a car.  Not only does evolution fail to say where all the stuff in the universe came from (which is no small matter); the key question that evolution has yet to explain is:  how can life come from something that’s not alive, as evolution proposes?  Such a thing has never ever been done in the laboratory in even the most rudimentary way.  We know that life only comes from another living thing, and that the Source of all life is God.  The fact that there are similarities among living things is not a sign that we have the same ancestors, but that we have the same Creator.  Our God is like a great artist who in His creatures shows a definite style to His work.  

    Of course, there are some who try to embrace both sides of the debate:  Believe in God and believe in evolution.  They propose that God created all things through the process of evolution.  But that is mere fantasy and a delusion when compared to Scripture.  For not only do the time frames not work–7 ordinary days of evening and morning vs. billions and billions of years–but the way in which all life, especially human life, comes into being couldn’t be more different.  For the evolutionist, to get to human beings like you and me, death has to be in existence right from the start.  It’s a necessary factor in the process of only the strong surviving and supposedly developing into higher and higher forms of life.  There’s all sorts of death and bloodshed before human beings ever come on the scene.  But there is no death at all in Genesis 1 and 2, not even among the animals.  Full-fledged human beings are present before there is any death.  What does Scripture say? “The wages of sin is death.”  First God creates human beings, and then there’s death after they fall into sin.  Evolution turns that Scriptural truth completely upside down and replaces it with a lie.  For by denying that death is the wages of sin, it denies the need for a Savior from sin.  It denies Christ.  It undermines the Gospel which says that Christ took the wages of death upon Himself to free us from the curse of sin when He died in our place on the cross.  Denying the Biblical narrative of creation undermines and contradicts belief in Jesus.  For Jesus is the creative Word made flesh who alone breaks the curse of sin on this fallen world by His death and resurrection and brings the new creation.

    It is only after the fall of mankind in the Garden that we see and experience death and disorder and decay all around us. It is written, “The whole creation groans.” The groanings can be heard in the earthquakes and tornadoes and hurricanes and fires that turn order into a pile of disordered rubble. Many creatures no longer multiply as they once did. Species go extinct.  Weeds grow in our garden. Our attempts to rule over and use this creation often end up harming creation.
    
    Above all, we see that death and disorder in ourselves.  Our first parents, Adam and Eve, turned away from God’s creative and ordering Word and believed the father of lies, who said that God is not to be trusted.  The Lie turned the creature against the Creator.  Turned inward on ourselves, the image of God is broken in us.  There is disorder in our homes and our relationships with others.  There is disorder in our hearts, where what we desire and what we know is right are  in conflict.  There is disorder in our bodies, where sickness and bodily ailments take their toll, leaving us finally in the disordered dust of the grave.  

    This is how it is.  The Word brings life.  The Lie brings death.  The Word says, “Be fruitful and multiply.”  The Lie says, “Children are a burden, not a blessing.  Better not have too many.  Separate the sexual relationship from the creation of life.”  The Word says, “The two shall become one flesh.”  The Lie says, “You don’t need God to join you together in the life of marriage to have sex.  Follow your heart’s desires and needs and passions.”  The Word says, “Male and female He created them.”  The Lie says, “Male and male is fine; female and female is fine.  People should be free to love whomever they want, even to live according to whatever gender they choose.”  The Word says, “Have dominion over creation; fill the earth and subdue it.  Continue God’s creative and ordering work.”  The Lie says, “Human beings have no more right to life than the animals, perhaps even less than they do.”  The Word says, “God is your Father; you shall be as He is.”  The Lie says, “The animals are your ancestors; you shall behave as they do.”  The Lie says, “You’re fine just the way you are; no need to change.”  The Word says, “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”  

    And here is that Gospel: Just as He did in the very beginning, yet again 2000 years ago God spoke His Word into the chaos and darkness of this fallen world.  The Father spoke His Word by the Spirit to a young girl named Mary, and the creative Word was made Flesh in her womb. The creative and ordering Word who made all things and set them in order in the beginning was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in the person of Jesus.

    Jesus entered this world bearing our humanity to set things in order once again, to battle the darkness and the disorder. He healed the diseased. He cast out demons. He brought mercy and forgiveness to tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners, calling them out of darkness into His marvelous light.  He brought order to our disordered humanity.  He undid the damage of the Lie and took the curse of the Law against our rebellion.  Jesus took into Himself the disorder and the darkness and the decay and the death and He put it all to death in His body on the cross.

    When Jesus rose bodily from the grave on the first day of the week, a new creation dawned. It is the chief reason that Sunday is called the Lord’s Day in the new testament. The resurrection marks the beginning of a new creation. Just as light first shone into the darkness on the first day of the old creation, so the light of Christ broke through the darkness of our death on the first day of the week. A new creation has broken in even as this old one is passing away.

    And the creation account itself in Genesis actually foretells and foreshadows this saving work of Christ.  For notice how the days are marked: it’s not morning and then evening the way we usually think of it, but first evening and then morning.  First it’s darkness, then it’s light.  First it’s the shadow of death, then it’s the light of life.  Jesus dies in the darkness of Good Friday to subdue creation, which literally shook at His death, and then He rises at the dawn of Easter on the first day of the week to be the Light of the world, to put an end to death and to bring about a new creation.

    Man was created on the sixth day, and then God rested on the seventh.  In Jesus who is the new Adam, man was redeemed and recreated on the 6th day of the week, Good Friday.  He then rested in the tomb on the seventh day, having finished His work of redemption.  And He rose again to bring about an eternal eighth day, a day of unending light and life.  The Scriptures say that in the new creation there will be no night.  For the Lord God will be its light at all times, and the Lamb will be its lamp.  We will need no rest; for He Himself is our rest and our peace.  For from Him flows mercy and forgiveness and life.  In Jesus the image of God is restored to us.  In Jesus our lost humanity is given back to us, and we are made fully human again, prepared body and soul to live in the joys of God’s presence.

    And again, all of this is accomplished by the words of God.  He speaks, and it is so.  “Let there be light,” and there was light.  Jesus says to the nobleman in the Gospel, “Your son lives,” and indeed he lives and is well.  Jesus’ Word accomplishes what it says.  And so it is for you.  Jesus speaks His Word to you, and His Word creates what He says.  “Be still and know that I am God.”  And your hearts and minds are stilled and calmed.  “I forgive you all your sins.”  And your sins are truly removed from you as far as the east is from the west.  “This is My body; this is my blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  And indeed, by that Word, the bread actually is His body and the wine actually is His blood, that you may be cleansed and filled with His life and light.  God’s creative Word is still in effect for you.  Like the nobleman in the Gospel, trust in that Word.  Cling to it.  Believe it that you may receive its blessing.  For only the Word of Christ can recreate you and put you back in order again.  It is written, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”  “Then God saw everything that He had made in Christ, and indeed it was very good.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(The first paragraphs above are adapted from a sermon by the Rev. William Cwirla.)

Romans 10:9-17
Trinity 12

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    Frequently I have preached to you about how, as Christians, our most important sense is our sense of hearing.  We’re all about the ears, not the eyes.  For we walk by faith in God’s words, not by sight or experience.  And words first and foremost are heard.  They’re spoken with the mouth and listened to with the ears.  You could come into divine service blindfolded and not really miss a thing, especially if you know the liturgy by heart.  The main thing here is the speaking and the hearing.  Educators like to point out how learning is best achieved by involving as many senses as you can in the process.  And of course that is true.  However, we’re not simply talking about learning here, but about faith, the trust of the heart.  And the Epistle states it very straightforwardly, “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.”  

    We do use all five of our senses when we are gathered for divine service.  There is the smell of the candles and the wine, even incense in churches that use it.  Our sense of touch and taste are involved, too, in the Sacraments.  Though even then, what is it that makes Baptism or the Lord’s Supper what they are but the spoken Word of God?  Likewise, we do have enduring visual imagery here that is drawn directly from God’s Word, like the cross and the icons (though nothing so shallow as video screens with their fleeting and sometimes manipulative images).  But we never put our trust simply in what we see.  We trust in what we hear–the sure words and promises of God which never fail, which most assuredly bring about what they declare.

    So it’s an interesting statement that we hear in today’s Epistle, when the Apostle Paul quotes the words of Isaiah, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace.”  You could understand if he said, “How beautiful is the voice” or “How beautiful is the mouth.”  But instead he says “feet.”  What do feet have to do with it?  

    We don’t usually think of feet as beautiful.  They get calloused and dirty and smelly sometimes.  And consider your feet also in a spiritual sense.  How often have you “voted with your feet” against hearing or learning or following Christ’s Word?  How often have you used your feet to keep your distance from those around you who are in need?  How often have you run with those feet to share the latest bit of juicy gossip? How often have you used those feet to storm away from your spouse or your parents in anger? How often have you strutted around with your feet in pride or just kicked them up on the couch in laziness?  No, our feet are not beautiful.  Just as Adam and Eve were marched out of the Garden when they sinned, so God’s judgment on our rebellion is that we are driven out and cannot step foot in His presence.

    But thankfully, there is One who walked in our shoes for us, who has human feet just like us, though He Himself is without sin.  The beautiful feet Isaiah refers to, first and foremost, are the feet of Jesus.  These are the feet of God’s Son, who was born with ten little toes just like the rest of us. These are the feet that stepped into the water of the Jordan River to be baptized for you. These are the feet of Him who walked from town to town preaching the kingdom of God and healing the sick, even walking right into a funeral procession to raise a widow’s son.  These are feet of the One who spoke mercy to sinners, feet that became so beautiful to a sinful woman that she washed them with her tears and hair!  These are the feet that stood before the religious leaders and the Roman Governor when Jesus was on trial. These are the feet that stumbled as they carried the cross to Calvary. And there, on that mountain, behold the beautiful feet, pierced with nails, fastened to the cross–all this to bring you the Good news that your sins are forgiven. His feet and hands and side and brow are pierced for you, for your sins. His blood washes it all away and cleanses you.  Your sins are wiped out once and for all.  The price has been fully paid.  With His feet Jesus has crushed the devil’s head and ground the power of the grave to powder.  In Jesus there is peace between you and God. How beautiful indeed are those holy feet of Jesus that walked this earth on their way to the cross for your salvation!

    And it gets better still.  For these feet of Jesus, that lay cold and lifeless in the tomb, walked again when He rose from the grave in glory.  And these feet of Jesus, that Mary Magdalene clung to at the empty tomb, were planted firmly on the mountain in Galilee where Jesus said to the eleven, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  Jesus, who had washed the disciples feet, was now sending them on their way to use their feet to bring the good news of salvation to every nation and language and people.  

    This is also what the Epistle reading is speaking of, then, when it refers to the beautiful feet.  It all starts with the beautiful feet of Jesus; but He sends out others in His name, that by His grace their feet may become beautiful, too, as they go and preach the Gospel and bring the gifts of Christ to His people.  

    “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Scripture says.  However, Paul reminds us that you can’t call on the name of the Lord if you don’t believe in Him.  So if there is going to be calling on the Lord, there must be believing in the Lord.  But you can’t believe in a Lord that you’ve never heard of or learned about properly. So before there can be believing in the Lord, there must be a hearing of the Lord’s words.  But you can’t hear the Lord’s words without someone preaching and teaching them to you.  So before there can be hearing the Lord’s words, there must be a preacher.  But you can’t be a preacher without being sent by Lord.  So before there can be preachers and missionaries, there must be the means by which the Lord’s sends out men, calling them and ordaining them for the task.  You see, it all starts with the sending.  First Jesus is sent by the Father to redeem the world.  Then Jesus sends His apostles to proclaim the good news, and through His church He continues to send preachers and ministers.  That’s why it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace.”  Saving faith that calls on the Lord’s name is traced back to the feet and the Lord’s sending.  It’s about Him, not the messenger.

    In our age of the Postal Service and UPS trucks and the internet, we forget the importance in ancient times of couriers who could carry a message with their feet over many miles.  Especially someone bringing good news from far away would refresh the souls of those who heard it and bring joy to their hearts.  You can imagine in that context how someone might praise the feet of the messenger as much as his speaking.  In fact the distance race we now know as the marathon comes from a Greek legend where a soldier was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated.  It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming “We have won.”  This is in a very real sense what the preaching of the Gospel is, an announcement that we have won in Christ; the enemy has been defeated.  Now in the Greek legend, the messenger then immediately collapsed and died.  And I suppose there would be no more blessed way for a pastor to die, after proclaiming the Gospel.  But this is the good news, that the One who died now lives.  And that is why we have won.  The risen Jesus holds the field forever.

    So a preacher’s feet are only beautiful because they have been washed by Christ’s mercy, and because he is now given to proclaim the glad tidings and distribute the good things of Jesus.  I remember a seminary professor once telling us seminarians to think about what the people see when they come to take holy communion.  He reminded us that what they see with their heads bowed at the altar rail are the pastor’s feet.  His advice was more practical than theological–he told us to make sure, therefore, that our shoes were always clean and polished for the service.  That’s fine advice, I suppose, which I should probably follow more often.  But the theological point is the key thing: When you see any minister’s feet, remember the feet of Jesus that walked this earth for you, that bled for you, the feet of Him who sent out His ministers to proclaim the Gospel of peace, to give out the body and blood that purchased your peace.  

    That’s how it works: from the feet of Jesus to the feet of preachers, who deliver the Gospel into your ears so that you may confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from dead and be saved.  “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news!”  And fellow believers, today you are given to do just as the women did at the empty tomb and cling to Jesus’ beautiful, risen feet.  For the heavenly Christ makes this earthly altar to be His footstool.  Come and worship the risen Jesus; He is truly alive; He is truly here.  Receive His life-giving body and blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins.  Share in His victory.  We have won.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. Mark Beutow for some of the beautiful feet material above)

Matthew 7:13-23
Trinity 8

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets.”  Our Lord wouldn’t warn us like this unless there was a real and present danger to us.  In fact, the threat a false prophet poses is worse than that of disease or violent crime or terrorism or financial ruin.  For while those things endanger your earthly lives, false teaching endangers your eternal life.  

    A big part of what makes false prophets so dangerous is that we actually like what they have to say very often.  False teachers tell us what we want to hear.  It is written in 2 Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”  

    A true prophet preaches repentance.  But false prophets know that condemning sin and warning people to be saved from the coming judgment doesn’t sell too well these days.  It’s so negative and harsh.  Nobody wants to be told that they need to turn from their self-absorbed ways.  What people want is something practical to help them in their families and at work, something uplifting, a spirituality that helps us to feel better about ourselves.  

    This is what the prophet Jeremiah spoke of in the Old Testament reading.  The false prophets say to those who despise God, “The Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace’ And to everyone who does whatever they want to do, the false prophets say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’” False prophets will often come across as very inclusive and loving.  But in truth, they let people get away with their self-justification and rationalization of sin.  They let fraudulent spirituality sit unchallenged next to Christian truth to avoid offending anyone.  While they may seem to be so nice, there is nothing caring or loving about tolerating false teaching or ungodly living.  For such things are lethal to the soul and invite God’s judgment.  That is the broad path that leads to destruction.

    False prophets are also a real threat to us because they look like the real thing.  Jesus said, “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves.”  False prophets look like sheep of the Good Shepherd.  In fact they may look more godly and holy than a true prophet and preacher of God’s Word.  For while many false prophets will overlook and bless sin--especially in the realm of sexual immorality, many other false prophets will stress very strongly that Christianity is all about your own personal holiness.  They’ll be all about doing good works and being a good person and following these rules and those regulations for right living.  You’ll look at them and say, “They must be from God.  Look at how religious and devoted they are.  Look at how piously they talk.”  The pope with his pomp looks good.  The evangelical preacher giving you step by step instructions on how to become a better you looks good.  The passionate Jehovah’s Witness, the family-values Mormon looks good.  But in the end, they are in the same camp as the Pharisees, who falsely believed that living an obedient life is the way you gain God’s favor.  Those who look within themselves for the answers, those who trust in their own good works to keep themselves close to God or to make themselves better candidates for heaven are just engaging in a more spiritual form of self-absorption.  They’re in love with their own righteousness.  The devil is perfectly happy with that sort of religion.

    Repent, then, of your own succumbing to the spirit of false prophecy.  Confess where you’ve misused your keeping of God’s commands as a way to try to exalt yourself and earn His blessing.  Acknowledge where you’ve ignored God’s Law for the sake of convenience and rationalized away your sin.  Turn from all of that and humbly seek His mercy.  Turn your attention to true prophetic words.

    But how can you be sure of who a true prophet is?  Well, to begin with, there is really only one true Prophet, and that is Christ himself.  He alone speaks the words of God without flaw and without fail.  He is the Word of God in the flesh and the fulfillment of all prophecy.  His alone are the words of eternal life.  Do not put your trust in any man.  I am called and sent by God to be your pastor, but your faith should never be in me or my opinions, but only in the Word of God which I am given to speak.  In the second reading for today, Paul reminded the pastors at Ephesus that false prophets would arise from among themselves.  Good prophets would go bad.  So make sure, first of all, that it is the word of Christ that you are hearing, the holy Scriptures that are being proclaimed to you and not just some pious human wisdom.  The solid rock upon which the Church is built is the words of Jesus.  Everything else is sinking sand.  When what is preached is not a vision of the preacher’s own heart but that which comes from the mouth of the Lord, then you are hearing a true prophet.  

    But you might rightly say, “I’m not a theology major.  False teachers quote the Bible just like genuine teachers.  How do I tell the difference?  How can I tell whether or not someone is misusing Christ’s Word?”  The simplest answer that I can give to you is one I’ve told you many times before:  Know your Catechism by heart.  For there in the Catechism and the Creeds is summarized for you the fundamental teachings of the Scriptures and all that you need to know and believe to be saved.  There is confessed God’s holy Law and Gospel by which you are brought to repentance and to faith in Christ.  There you have what the church has taught and believed from the Word of God since the days of the apostles.  If what someone is preaching sounds a little weird to you, different from the Catechism and the Creeds and the Word of God you’ve heard preached here, then beware of it; flee from it.  

    Jesus says in the Gospel when judging between true and false prophets, “You will know them by their fruits.”  The fruit refers not simply to their lifestyle, since that can be the deceptive clothing of the wolf.  The fruit refers to the doctrine.  What spiritual food do they offer?  What do they hold forth for your souls to feast upon?  Is it solely Christ the Bread of Life, the food that fully satisfies you, or are other “ingredients” and requirements added, like arsenic on your plate?  It is written, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

    I John 4 gives us one test, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”  A true prophet of God will not shy away from affirming the flesh and blood realities of our salvation, that God the Son became a real flesh and blood human being, that He offered up His body on the cross to save us, that He rose again in the body, tangibly, and that He comes to us now with His real and literal body and blood in the Sacrament.  Those who contradict any of those things are false prophets.

    Here’s one more test: St. Paul said to the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified.”  If Jesus and His sacrifice are not the center of everything that is proclaimed, if the Passion narrative is treated just as history that you have to give lip service to so that you can get to the real important and relevant stuff, then that prophet isn’t true.  Paul told the pastors at Ephesus “to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”  That blood of Christ is the thread that runs through all true prophecy and preaching.

    And don’t forget this: a false prophet may not know that he is one.  He may be very sincere.  But sincerity is not a reliable test.  Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that Day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me.’” It’s not the impressiveness of the works or the success or the numbers that you should go by.  Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”  

    He who does the will of the Father is Christ Himself.  Consider that night in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus prayed to His Father, “If it is possible, take this cup [of suffering] away from Me.  Nevertheless not My will but Your will be done.”  It was the will of the Father that Jesus lay down His life for you to rescue you from hell.  It was the will of the Father that Jesus be cut down like a bad tree and thrown into the fire of judgment in your place.  It was the will of the Father that Jesus be a sheep in wolves’ clothing, the pure Lamb of God who allowed Himself to be cloaked in sin and evil at Calvary in order to put them to death in His body, so that you might be delivered from all evil forever.  The wolf has been conquered.  You have been cleansed from all sin by Christ’s blood.  You are given entrance into the kingdom of heaven in Christ.  He has ascended to heaven, and holding on to Him like a child on His back, you have ridden with Him there.  The kingdom is yours in Jesus, by faith now, by sight at the close of the age.

    And so, to do the will of the Father, for a pastor, is to preach that, to proclaim Christ alone as the Savior from sin and death.  And to do the will of the Father, for a hearer, for you, is to believe that Gospel of Christ and stake your whole life on it.  That is the true prophetic Word for you today, the same prophetic Word proclaimed by John the Baptizer, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; it is here.  Believe the Gospel of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”  The will of the Father was done when you were baptized, squeezed through the narrow way of the cross.  The will of the Father is done as you live in the narrow way of your baptism, dying to your sin and rising to the new life of Christ, the life of faith and love, receiving from God His free gifts and giving of yourself to others in your daily vocations.  And the will of your Father is done as you come to the Lord’s table in simple faith.  For the tree of the cross has borne the most abundant fruit, the body and blood of Christ which gives you His mercy and which will raise you up on the Last Day.

    Beware of false prophets.  Behold the true Prophet, Jesus.  His are the words that give you life.  By His fruits you will know Him.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

✠  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned having a couple of my own relatives in the nursing profession, it’s that you don’t want to have an in-depth conversation about their workday over dinner unless you have a strong stomach.  The nature of the job is that all the realities of the body are being dealt with, and nurses develop a certain comfort level and their own unique sense of humor talking about these things.  There’s no avoiding the truth of our fleshly existence when you’re in the medical field.

    And this is not a bad thing.  For this is the way Lutherans talk theology.  Martin Luther said that a theologian of the cross calls a thing what it is.  No spiritualized platitudes or euphemisms.  Lutherans like to speak in direct, physical, tangible, concrete language.  

    And that’s true then also when it comes to marriage.  On days like today you’ll often hear a lot of flowery language about love and happiness and two becoming one.  And that’s all fine.  But it’s a little too Platonic and ethereal if we just stop there; that comes short of what the Bible actually says.  We heard it a couple times in the readings today, “The two shall become one flesh.”  Marriage is the union of heart and mind and body.  There’s no point in avoiding that reality.  For not only is it how God created things to be, but it also teaches us about our relationship with Him, too.

    God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life.  But with the creation of Adam, humanity was not yet complete.  Not only is it not good for man to be alone, but man alone does not yet fully reflect the image of the God who is love, the Holy Trinity.  The Trinity is a relationship of persons; those created in the image of God are also a relationship of persons–the Lover, the Beloved One, and the Love that they share together.  Humanity is complete, then, only when Eve comes on the scene.

    God created her differently, from Adam’s side, forming her to be like Adam and of equal worth and humanity, but certainly not the same.  Man and woman are uniquely connected in how they were made.  Then the Lord brought Eve to Adam and presented her to him.  That is the reason behind the tradition of the bride being brought down the aisle to her groom.  The one who escorts her, the father, stands in the place of God the Father, presenting this Eve, Cacia, to her Adam, Samuel.  God brought Eve to Adam, and they became the first husband and wife.

    Man and woman in marriage, then, are not simply two independent partners bound by a piece of paper, a contract.  Rather, what was one flesh at creation now becomes one flesh again, both figuratively and literally.  God Himself gives you to each other in marriage, and that is why you have permission now to give yourselves fully to each other.

    The one flesh union created by God is intended for your mutual happiness and companionship.  There is a very real sense in which the two of you complete each other–not just in some Hollywood movie sense, but in the theological sense of the complementarity of male and female.  Your individual personalities and unique characteristics come together to form a whole that is greater than the both of you.  One of the great gifts God is giving you today is the unique fellowship you will share as husband and wife–the ability to confide in each other, to lean on each other in the challenging times,  to rejoice together in the good times.

    And of course, this one flesh reality of marriage is manifested in the procreation of children who are quite literally one flesh of their father and mother.  When and if God grants it, children are the public testimony of the one flesh union that God has created.  Though our culture tends to downplay it, being fruitful and multiplying is integral to what marriage is all about as God instituted it.  That’s one of the many reasons why an actual marriage in God’s sight can only be between a man and a woman, regardless of what any court says.  God seeks to continue His work of creation through your marriage, that your children may be brought up as you were, in the fear and instruction of the Lord, that they may be baptized and brought to trust in Christ and receive the gifts of His salvation.

    And that then brings us to the even greater reality of what marriage is all about.  Ephesians 5 speaks of the man leaving his father and mother and being joined to His wife and becoming one flesh, and then it says: “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”  All along we thought St. Paul was speaking primarily about husbands and wives, when the main point was about Jesus.  It is written, “We are members of His body, bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.”  Jesus is the new Adam and the Church is the new Eve.  

    “A man shall leave His father and mother and be joined to His wife.”  And so Jesus, the Son of God, left His Father in heaven to be joined to His elect wife, His chosen people.  In order to save us who had fallen into sin, who were cursed to return to the dust in eternal death because of our rebellion, Christ literally joined Himself to our flesh and blood and became man.  Jesus even had to leave His mother Mary behind for a time on the cross.  The second Adam was put into the deep sleep of death for us on the sixth day, Good Friday.  As the first Adam brought death into the world through sin, so Jesus brought life into the world by dying our death for us, taking away our sin and conquering the grave Easter morning.  In the same way that Eve was created from Adam’s side, the Church is created from Christ’s pierced side, from the water and blood that flowed, the living water of Baptism which makes us members of His body, the blood of Christ poured out in the chalice of the Lord’s Supper, by which we are cleansed of all sin.  Through these Sacraments, the Church is Jesus’ radiant bride, dressed in the beautiful white garment of His righteousness.

    Sam and Cacia, that eternal reality is what God has given to form the heart and the foundation of your marriage.  Because Christ has forgiven you freely and without your earning it, you are free to forgive each other without making the other earn it.  In leaving your father and mother, Sam, you are doing as Christ did, that you may give of yourself and lay down your life for your bride.  In receiving him as your husband, Cacia, you are a picture of the Church, who honors her groom and submits to Him and His love and returns that love with a glad heart.  Sam, you die for her.  Cacia, you live for him.

    Which brings us finally to the part of the sermon where people expect me to give you advice.  Not my forte, but I’ll do my best.  First, Sam, as the husband, remember this one simple truth: it’s your fault–it is, even when it’s not.  For you are in the role of Christ, and He counted all of our sin as His own, as His fault.  Though you both will have things to confess and forgive each other for–and saying “I forgive you” out loud is of the utmost importance–it is especially for you to be the man and not to point the finger and blame, but to take any flaws and failings as your own and cover them as Christ did for us.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  Thankfully we have a Savior who bears our burdens with us and for us to deliver us.

    And Cacia, as Sam’s wife, seek your happiness in marriage in the unique ways that he shows love to you, and be a gracious receiver.  Just as it is Christ’s joy to give us joy, so also what makes most husbands happy is when they can make their wives happy and draw their bride freely and willingly to themselves.  So avoid putting up barriers because his attempts to express love may fall short at times, or because you know your own imperfections and don’t feel deserving.  We operate not by merit but by grace.  We haven’t deserved anything from the Lord, and we certainly can’t repay Him, but it is His joy to give to us freely anyway.  Give your husband the joy of freely receiving and responding to his self-giving–just as it is the church’s happiness to receive the love of Christ.

    Sam and Cacia, as you are being joined together today, so are your names–your individual names remain the same, your last names become one.  The name Samuel means “God has heard.”  We rejoice with you both of you today that God has indeed heard your prayers for a faithful spouse; you are His good gifts to each other.  And Cacia, as I recall it, your name was given as a shortened form of the acacia trees mentioned in Scripture.  It was the acacia that was used in the construction of the tabernacle where God’s presence dwelt and to make the ark of the covenant.  As Jesus tabernacled in our flesh, as you who are the temple of His Spirit enter into the covenant of holy matrimony, may He make your new household to be His dwelling place.  May He send His angels to guard and keep you.  And may He richly bless the one flesh union of your marriage for your good and for the glory of His name.

✠  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Luke 6:36-42
Trinity 4

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    I’m sure many of you have had the experience of hearing your voice on a recording and saying, “I sound like that?!  That doesn’t sound like me.”  Or you’ve seen yourself on video at some event and you’ve thought to yourself, “Gee, I didn’t realize that’s how I acted.  I didn’t realize my laugh was so annoying.  The camera sure makes me look fat”–or bald, or whatever the case may be.  Sometimes that outside, more objective perspective can give us a better understanding of the way things really are with us and free us from the illusions of our own self-perception.

    There’s a spiritual lesson to be learned from that, I think, which ties in with Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel, where He says, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?”  Sometimes from our limited perspective we cannot see our own failings and sins.  We tend to rationalize our flaws, anyway.  We put the best construction on our own behavior and fail to recognize that we’ve got the equivalent of a 2 x 4 sticking out of our eye.  We’ve grown so used to our sin that it becomes like the rims of our glasses that we no longer see or notice.  And yet we can see all the nit-picky problems with others so clearly.  They’ve got this character flaw and that stupid way of doing things.  “If they would just listen to me; but no, they never do.”  Especially when we’re in an argument, it’s easy for us to come up with all the specks in our neighbor’s eye.  And besides, noticing and pointing out our neighbor’s problems makes us feel all the better about ourselves.  It places us above them.

    This is one of the reasons why God gives us His Law, so that we can see from an outside perspective the way things really are with us.  The Law is like a video camera, zeroing in on the plank in our eye, exposing and revealing every prideful thought and hypocritical word and sinful deed that we’ve engaged in.  Through the Law we learn that one of the reasons we’re so good at seeing other people’s sins is because we’ve got first hand knowledge of how the sinful heart and mind works.  Why else would we be so skillful at identifying other people’s problems, right?  By condemning others so readily, we’re really condemning ourselves.  “The camera doesn’t lie,” they say, and neither does the Law.  It tells the painful truth about us.  It judges you and condemns you.  There is no denying the verdict of the Law: You are damned for your sin.

    Repent.  For there is yet hope for us.  For the Law is not God’s final Word to us.  Though we are indeed judged and condemned for our sin, there is One who took the judgment and the condemnation for us, our Lord Jesus.  “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  Thankfully, Christ Jesus did not come to beat us over the head with all our shortcomings and nag us and hound us into trying to straighten out our life.  Instead, He came to give us a new life, His own life.  All of the specks of sawdust and the planks in our eyes were fashioned into a cross upon which He poured out His life for our sakes.  There Jesus was damned for our sin so that we would be shown mercy for His sake.  And so it is written, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  None at all.  If you are in the risen Jesus, who was already condemned for all the sins of the whole world, then there’s no condemnation left, is there?  He took it all for you.  You are baptized into Christ, and so now you are forgiven and free children of God.  The Lord’s mercy toward you is abundantly greater than His judgment.  Believe that; it is true.  The Gospel is His final Word to you, which fulfills and overcomes the Law every time.

    To live by faith in this Gospel, then, is to live freed from judgment.  We are freed from God’s judgment of us.  And as His beloved children, we are freed from a life of judging and tearing down others.  To live in the way of condemnation and revenge is to go back to the way of the Law, which is dangerous territory for us.  That’s why Jesus says not to judge, lest we be judged ourselves; not to condemn lest we be condemned ourselves.  Rather, He invites us to live in the forgiveness of the Father and forgive others and give generously to them, even when they don’t deserve it.  For we most certainly have not earned or deserved the Father’s generous mercy either.  And yet He still gives it to us, no strings attached.  Our Father is One who causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, who gives daily bread both to believers and unbelievers.  Living in Jesus as the children of God, we are given to reflect His nature–showing His overflowing goodness to others, be they friend or foe; not holding on to grudges or engaging in gossip, but defending our neighbor, speaking well of him, and explaining everything in the kindest way.

    Now, I should add as a side note here that Jesus is speaking to us in a general way as individuals.  However, there are times when according to our specific vocations we are called on by the Lord to judge.  For instance, a judge in a court obviously is given by God to condemn the guilty, as are other civil officials who make and enforce the Law according to the authority God has given them.  Parents can without sin judge the behavior of their children; indeed, they must teach right and wrong and discipline their children according to God’s command.  Pastors are called to judge and condemn sin as well as proclaim God’s mercy in Christ.  And all Christians are called to judge doctrine, to test the spirits to see whether they are of God, to reject false doctrine that doesn’t agree with the Scriptures.  

    So Jesus’ words here don’t mean that we should approve of sin and ungodly teaching or be OK with it.  It is for us to stand up for the truth of God’s Word, especially when it is publicly rejected.  We are to do so with humility and love; but it is for us to confess the truth, especially living in an age and a culture of lies.  It’s not judging to say something is immoral and wrong which Scripture says is immoral and wrong.  The Supreme Court and our society are entirely in error on the topic of gay marriage.  That’s not sinful judging; that’s just telling the truth.  Homosexual behavior is sin; approving of and condoning homosexual behavior is sin.  And lest we forget the log in our own eyes, a man and a woman living together or having a sexual relationship outside of marriage is sin; tacitly condoning those relationships so as not to offend family or friends or business associates is sin; divorce for unbiblical reasons is sin, husband and wife trying to lord it over each other and enjoying cutting down the other spouse and reveling in making a stinging remark is sin, encouraging division in the marriages of others with meddling and gossip is sin.  The breakdown of marriage certainly didn’t start with the acceptance of same-sex marriage.  

    Pointing all this out is not the church’s main message, but we can’t let that truth of the Law be watered down either.  For since the most important thing in the church is the forgiveness of sins and the Gospel of Christ, we have to be able to call sin what it is so that we all will see our need for that forgiveness and cling to Christ alone for mercy and life.  It’s certainly not sinful judging to stand up for the pure teaching of the Word and to speak against anything which undermines the truth of the Gospel of Christ the crucified, that we are saved through faith in Jesus alone.  The truth needs to be spoken precisely for the good of our fellow man.  Again, Scripture says that we are to speak the truth in love–not simply out of a desire to be right or to win an argument–but because we seek the ultimate good of our neighbor and the glory of God.  It is written in Galatians 6, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

    We are the children of the God of mercy, who are given to extend that mercy to our fellow man.  St. Peter said, “Love covers a multitude of sins.”  As God’s love covers our sins and takes them away, so we are given wherever we can to cover over our neighbor’s sins and failings, to help him to be brought back to God, and to put the best construction on everything.  Such godly love builds up the neighbor and brings peace.  And even when we are called to judge according to our vocation, we do so for the good of others, that they may not be lost to sin and false belief, but that they may be led to repentance and faith in Christ our Savior.

    So today’s Epistle, then, is not so much meant to be new Law, but rather a description of what it means to live by faith in Christ.  Put yourself in the position of the other person, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep.  Walk humbly and do not be wise in your own opinion.  First take care of your own problems, and then with a repentant and humble attitude you will best be able truly to help and love your neighbor.  “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”  Bless even those who persecute you and cause you trouble.  Love your enemies.  Do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good.  Do not seek vengeance and payback, but trust that God will take care of things in His own way and in His own time.

    And when you struggle to do this–and you will–return to Him who has already done all of this for you.  Jesus put Himself in your position to redeem you.  He associated with the poor and humble.  While you were yet sinners and enemies of His, Christ died for you.  Our Lord on the cross did not avenge Himself but blessed those who did evil to Him, saying, “Father forgive them.”  He overcome evil with the ultimate good of His self-sacrifice.  In Him you are forgiven and holy and loved.  Jesus is your Joseph, who reveals Himself to you not as an avenging judge but as your strong and loving brother.  He comforts you and speaks kindly to you.  He is with you; He is on your side.

    And just as Joseph provided grain for his brothers and an abundant meal at his table, so our Lord Jesus gives to us of the finest wheat.  Mercy in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over is poured out upon us.  Come, dine at His table.  Be freed from judgment.  Receive His true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠