On the occasion of the baptism of Luke Brandon Bertz

Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

The head of John the Baptist on a platter.  That’s what Salome, the daughter of Herodias, asked for when her sick step-father offered to give her anything, up to half of his kingdom.  I can think of a lot better ways to use that kind of genie-like wish.  What good was the dead head of John going to do her?

She was probably about twelve years old, a child by most people standards, except for twelve year olds.  Certainly she was a pawn in the very adult games that adulterous Herod and his new wife were playing.  I’m sure their behavior made sense to them.  All of our sins make sense to us at some level.  We call it rationalizing.  We might also call it willful ignorance or even rebellion.  But every one of us here has done things we aren’t proud of.  Things that make us fit right in with the crazy games of Herod, his wife and stepdaughter.  While we may step back at their actions, it’s not that far off from many of the things that we do every day.

That’s what got John the Baptist in trouble.  God’s Word isn’t a game, and John was in no humor to set aside or ignore their sinful behavior.  And for John’s fearless and faithful preaching, he lost his head.

At first glance, this seems like a pretty tragic ending to the forerunner of Christ.  Dying because he made a half-rate king mad for speaking the truth that everyone already knew?  What kind of a death is that?  And if we were to take even a cursory look at the martyrs, those Christians that died  for confessing the faith to an unbelieving world, we would probably find that many of their stories were not exactly movie material, either.

Being faithful in the Christian faith isn’t about what it looks like on the outside.  That’s what John the Baptist understood.  If it is, then he was in big trouble.  Crazy clothes, crazy food, and an even more crazy message.  Repent, John cried.  Repent, turn around from your sinful ways, for the King of Glory is near!

What John understood is that our lives are not about outward appearances.  What makes the difference, what changes things for sinners like you and me, is not what we look like, what we wear, how much money we have (or don’t have).  No, what makes the difference is the life and death and life again of Jesus Christ.  St. Paul put it this way:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3–4 ESV)

What that means for you and me and little Luke, who was baptized this morning, is that you are already dead.  You died with Jesus almost two thousand years ago.  It doesn’t look like it.  You’re all holding up pretty well for being dead.  But it is true nonetheless.  You died when you were baptized.  Your baptism, which on the surface didn’t look like much, was the event that changed everything for you.  Your baptism means that Jesus death was your death, and even more importantly, His resurrection was your resurrection as well.  He is the first-fruits of them that sleep, as St. Paul says in I Corinthians.

For John, this meant he could preach without fear, knowing that he was already dead.  For little Luke, it means that no matter what turns his life takes, no matter the ups or downs, no matter what may come for him, he is baptized, and that means that he is in Jesus and Jesus is in him.

On the Last Day, Luke, and you and me and John the Baptist and all of God’s baptized children, will be reunited around the Lamb who was slain for us.  It begins here, at the font, but this life in God never ends.  Some of us may be martyred for the faith, some may live a long life reflecting Christ’s love to the world, but no matter the path our Lord takes you on, the end is the same.  You are in Him.  The tombs will be opened, the dead will be raised, and there will be life eternal to all who trust in Him.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
The Festival of the Most Holy Trinity (June 7, 2009)
John 3:1-17
The baptism of Amelia Mary Noble

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Divine Love of the Holy Trinity”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read from John chapter 3 as follows: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Jesus has a conversation with a man, Nicodemus by name. Nicodemus is a rabbi, a teacher of the Jews, and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. He is a man in the know, a man of influence and power, rich in both money and stature among his colleagues, friends and enemies. And he has come to Jesus by night, wanting to hear from our Lord what the story was about His work as the Messiah. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”” (John 3:2 ESV)

When it comes to our questions about God, who He is, what He does and how He works, you and I are not so different from Nicodemus. It doesn’t take a lot to figure out that there are grand and mighty things at work in the world. Some of these things are wondrous and beautiful: the gift of a new child, life, all of the freedoms that God has given us in this world, even the prosperity of our land this day is greater than most any other time or people in the history of the world. Yet at the same time, we can look at wars, sickness, death, heartache and trouble all around us, and recognize that things are not rosy, they are not perfect and everything happy. Nicodemus is on safe territory by saying that God is with Jesus, but it doesn’t answer any of the really tough questions of life.

God is not like us. I know this isn’t profound, but it is true nonetheless. And we need to understand this basic fact before we can really understand the nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter eleven, ““For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”” (Romans 11:34 ESV) Isn’t that the truth! God’s ways are mysterious to us, hard to fathom. Sometimes they are wondrous, but sometimes they seem from our perspective to be cruel or even vindictive. Why did one person die and another live? How come this person’s job was cut and not that person?

We don’t know the answers to these questions. Life is full of more questions than answers. But every time, like Nicodemus, you try to fit God into our little categories, our cookie cutter view of how the world is supposed to be, you are trying to be God and not worship God. Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to see the kingdom of God he must be reborn. Nicodemus can’t get it yet, because he is trapped into trying to be God and not worship God.

So to help us worship God rightly, in a few minutes we will confess that ancient Christian confession known as the Athanasian Creed. One of the first sentences goes like this:

And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

Notice the word used there, dearly beloved. Not the word catholic. Catholic just means general or universal. No, the word I want to draw your attention to is the word worship. We worship one God in Trinity. Three in one, triune. But the word is worship, not understand, not give orders to, not make into a pretty greeting card saying. Our God, the true God, is to be worshipped.

But what does that really mean, to worship God? To worship God is to live under Him in His kingdom. Worshipping God means receiving what He has to give to you. Worshipping God means being born again, or born from above, as Jesus tells Nicodemus. Worshipping God changes you, transforms you, makes you anew in His holy image, wrought in the waters of your Baptism, just as little Amelia received this very morning. Our Confessions put it this way:

So the worship and divine service of the Gospel is to receive gifts from God. On the contrary, the worship of the Law is to offer and present our gifts to God. However, we can offer nothing to God unless we have first been reconciled and born again. This passage, too, brings the greatest comfort, as the chief worship of the Gospel is to desire to receive the forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness. (Ap V, paragraph 189)

So in other words, when we talk about God, who He is, how He works, and what He does, the chief thing for you and I is to recognize that God’s work is to give us every good gift. The chief gift that God gives is His Son, Jesus Christ. Right after our Gospel for this morning we have that most famous of all Scripture passages, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but might have everlasting life (John 3:16). God loves so that He gives. He gives of Himself over and over again. Maybe we don’t always see it. Certainly we don’t always understand God’s ways. But do not doubt that God is at work this day, giving of Himself to you. Amelia reminds us of that this morning, as God puts His own name on her and makes her His own.

God is at work this day and every day, forgiving your sins, giving you Jesus, drawing you into His loving embrace. Come, partake of the meal which He has given of Himself to you. Feast upon the God who gives all things to you. Worship Him, for He loves you with an everlasting love. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Epiphany 1 – (January 11, 2009)
The Baptism of Our Lord
Matthew 3:13-17
For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Least and the Most”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Baptism of Our Lord from Matthew chapter 3, as well as St. Paul’s words from I Corinthians, “Let him who boast, boast in the Lord.”

Boasting. It is our national pastime I think. Whether it is a child talking about how much faster, smarter or better they are than another child, or an adult boasting about their house, job, family or whatever, we all love to toot our own horn. Now to be fair, we don’t always do this in obvious ways. Sometimes we cover it up in a false humility, but it is there nonetheless. We are all selfish by nature. We all want to make sure that everyone else knows what we do, what we are worth, and that we are worth more than others.

But saint Paul reminds us that this is not the way it is with God and His holy Kingdom. He wrote in his introduction to the book of Corinthians:

1Cor. 1:26   For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

This is hard for us to grasp, it really is. We don’t want to buy it. We want to believe that God rewards a good effort, and that as long as we try really hard, God will makeup the difference. You know the adage: God helps those who help themselves. Of course, that’s not from the Bible. It’s from Benjamin Franklin (1757 in the Poor Richard’s Almanac), but it’s still close enough. Right? No.

Boasting of course is another word for pride. Pride means to be puffed up, to be convinced that you are right and that you are better than anyone else. Now sometimes pride can be a healthy thing. We can talk about school pride or pride in our community. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. Here we are talking about believing especially that it is your own works before God that matter, your attitude, your belief that you are a better Christian than others. All of us have this prideful, boasting attitude within us somewhere. No matter how bad of a Christian you think you are, there is always someone you know that is worse. That makes it easy. At least you aren’t at the bottom of the pile. Of course, God is not fond of this mindset. St. Paul writes, “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.” (Romans 2:23 ESV)

So all of this talk about pride and boasting brings us back to our Gospel for today, the Baptism of our Lord. When Jesus stands in the waters of the Jordan river, He does so as the Son of God and the Son of Mary. John doesn’t want to baptize Him: “I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me!” But Jesus replies with this wonderful Gospel proclamation, ““Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”” (Matthew 3:15 ESV) In other words, Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of the universe, the king of kings and lord of lords, let’s John in on this work of salvation. Only not just John. I would contend that the “us” there actually includes us, you and I as well!

This is what I mean. Jesus was born the Son of Mary. He is quite literally our brother in the flesh. When He does something, you do something. It’s that simple. Everything Jesus does, He does for you. So when Jesus is baptized in the Jordan river to fulfill all righteousness, you are there. This is what our Lord’s baptism does. God declares Jesus His beloved Son, and now, by your baptism, you fall under that
selfsame blessing.

St. Paul calls this “boasting in the Lord”. God ties himself to your future so much that it’s a little unnerving. Yet that is the love God showers upon you in Holy Baptism. What baptism does for you is makes your glory, your boasting be in God, not in yourself and your failings, big and small. Perhaps Luther wrote it best in the Large Catechism:

“Thus we see what a great and excellent thing Baptism is, which snatches us from the jaws of the devil and makes God our own, overcomes and takes away sin and daily strengthens the new man, always remains until we pass from this present misery to eternal glory. Therefore let everybody regard his Baptism as the daily garment which he is to wear all the time.” Large Catechism [Tappert p.446 #83]

God clothes you in Holy Baptism. Jesus stands in those waters, and God declares Him the beloved Son. When He does this for Jesus, He does it for you as well. You have been rescued from sin, death, and the power of the devil. You no longer have to find your identity simply in yourself, and your accomplishments and failures. Now your identity is in the ONE who stands in the water with you, loving you with a whole heart, forgiving your sins, and drawing you into His loving embrace. Boast in the Lord, dearly beloved! He has done all things for you. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Trinity 8 (July 13, 2008, 2003, 2004, 2007)
Matthew 7:15-23
On the Baptism of Ethan Tobalsky

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Fruits of the Gospel”

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Epiphany 1 – Alt (January 13, 2008)
The Baptism of Our Lord
Matthew 3:13-17
For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

[This sermon really only exists in audio format.]

TITLE: “The Least and the Most”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Baptism of Our Lord from Matthew chapter 3, as well as St. Paul’s words from I Corinthians, “Let him who boast, boast in the Lord.”