Lectionary Homilies from Confident.Faith

About Lectionary Homilies from Confident.Faith

Gottes Wort und Luthers Lehr', vergehet nun und nimmermehr.

Publisher

Confident.Faith

Category

education · religion & spirituality · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Feb 2020

Latest episode

5 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

25 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Sept 2026

   Lectionary Homily for 06 September 2026 (15th Sunday after Pentecost)

   (#readings)Readings Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 Psalm 25:1–10 Philippians 2:1–18 Matthew 21:23–32 (#homily-transcript)Homily Transcript I do not make a habit of bringing other work I have done into these homilies, but I also make zero effort to hide such other work (it is all readily discoverable if anyone searches my name); however, I will make an exception for this Sunday, which is, at least to my mind Stone Choir Sunday. Before we had recorded a single episode, even before (if memory serves me) we had acquired all the necessary audio hardware and software, I brought a very basic website online as a sort of placeholder, and it included in the footer Ezekiel 33:1–9 (an expanded version of our Old Testament reading for today): And a word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and you shall say to them, A land—if I bring a sword upon it and if the people of the land take one person from them and give him to themselves as a sentinel and if he sees the sword coming against the land and if he trumpets with the trumpet and if he signals to the people and if the one who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take heed and if the sword arrives and overtakes him, his blood shall be on his head! For after hearing the sound of the trumpet, he did not take heed, his blood shall be on him, and he, because he took heed, delivered his soul. And the sentinel, if he sees the sword coming and does not signal with the trumpet and the people do not take heed and the sword comes and takes from them a soul, this one was taken on account of its own lawlessness, and I will seek the blood from the hand of the sentinel. And you, son of man, I have given you as a sentinel to the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from my mouth. When I say to the sinner, “By death you shall be put to death,” and should you not speak so that the impious might take heed from his way, the lawless one himself shall die by his lawlessness, but his blood I will seek from your hand. But you, if you announce to the impious his way, to turn back from it, and he does not turn back from his way, he shall die by his lawlessness, and you have delivered your own soul. Perhaps more than any other Scripture passage (yes, even more so than the one found on the challenge coin), it was and is this passage from Ezekiel that guided our mindset regarding and even our purpose with the Stone Choir podcast. With some men in the pages of Scripture, God placed them into the office of watchman in no uncertain terms, and employing means that left no room for doubt (one suspects that Ezekiel had a pretty clear picture of matters); other men, God calls to such offices more subtly (e.g., by equipping them for it and then inclining them toward it), and this is certainly far more common than the other method. And yet many men (and, yes, even women, in a much more limited way) are clearly and unambiguously called to offices that have a watchman component. Are you a husband? You are a watchman over your wife. Are you a father? You are a watchman over your children. And, yes, you mothers are watchwomen over your children. God will require from your hands the things He has entrusted to them. And yet your duties are not unlimited and your responsibility is not unbounded. What does God command in Ezekiel? We are to issue the warning, but we cannot always turn the foolish and the perishing from their chosen path. The wise will seek the protection of the stronghold when the horn is sounded, but the foolish will ignore the warning or even seek to go see the danger for themselves. We are certainly commanded to seek and to guide the lost, but it is just as certain that some have seared their consciences and hardened their hearts. What does Christ Himself say of the wicked Jews in the pages of Matthew? “Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” — Matthew 13:14–15 (ESV) If you do not warn those entrusted to your care, then they will not hear and God will require them from your hand, but not all those whom you warn and therefore and thereby hear will understand, for some have closed eyes, deaf ears, and dull hearts. I can tell you that I saw a bear on the trail, but I cannot reasonably stop you from ignoring me — or even trying to pet or feed the bear. It is not wrong to lament the impenitence of those who refuse to heed words of wise counsel — certainly many (most) of the prophets lamented over Israel and her kings, as they were nearly all and nearly always wicked and seldom listened to the words of God spoken by those prophets —, but there is a limit: Samuel was not wrong to lament Saul, but God made it very clear such mourning should not exceed a threshold of reasonableness: And the Lord said to Samouel, “How long are you grieving over Saoul? And it is I that have set him at naught not to be king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil, and come, let me send you to Iessai as far as to Bethleem, for I have observed among his sons one to be king for me.” — 1 Kingdoms 16:1 (NETS) A man God has sent to rebuke another may be an agent of deliverance or an agent of judgement, and the man himself will not necessarily know which one. A message that is received as wisdom and comfort by one man may be seen as foolishness and rejected by another. If you have been tasked with doing so, then you must deliver the words, but God alone may infallibly see into and change the hearts of men. But let us talk about government for a while, for our Epistle surely demands it. Some read Romans 13 and take from it a blanket requirement that Christians submit to whatever entity claims to be the ‘rightful’ governing authority of the place where they live. Well, let us examine that claim. Under the various Soviet regimes before, during, and after World War II (which the United States helped the anti-Christ Communists win), many thousands (in fact, tens of millions) of Christians were murdered, and many were tortured in ways it would be inappropriate merely to repeat here. If you were living under one of those evil regimes and an official, even say Joseph Stalin himself, commanded you to torture and murder Christians, would you have been required to do so as a Christian? Of course not. We all know the correct answer, here, and so we all recognize that there is more to Romans 13 than the bare, literalistic surface reading. If your initial instinct was ‘We must obey God rather than men.’, then that was certainly correct, as that is part of the equation or answer, but it is not all of it, for Romans 13 itself gives us another piece: For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. — Romans 13:3–4 (ESV) Most miss what Paul is doing here, so we must be sure to read and listen carefully: For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. — Romans 13:3–4 (ESV) Paul is not merely saying (in Romans 13) that we must submit to the governing authorities, he is also defining rightful authority and engaging in a polemic against wrongful authority. Look carefully at the logic of what Paul is saying: The one who rightfully wields authority is the one who carries out God’s good ordering of this world; the man who punishes the good and rewards the wicked is, therefore, not a rightful authority. In fact, you must not only not obey Stalin as a Christian, but you have an affirmative duty to God (and to your fellow man) to resist such a wicked usurper. Paul further teaches (verse 5) that we must be in subjection to 1) avoid God’s wrath and 2) obey our own conscience. I would hope that your conscience would have compelled you to resist, rather than obey, the murderous anti-Christ Communists, and I would hope that your conscience does similarly compel you today to resist their intellectual (and, in some cases, literal) descendants. Of course, there is much that could be said about the Christian duty to resist evil and the contours of that duty, but that will have to wait for another time (and likely another place). The bottom line for the Christian is that there exists a hierarchy of duties with regard to the kingdom of the left hand of Christ — God trumps the king — and there are times when and conditions under which the Christian must be ready not merely to refuse to submit, but to actively resist. But let us turn back to Ezekiel and then to our Psalm. First, I would highlight that our passage clearly teaches that we should have watchmen — both in the kingdom of the left hand of Christ and in the kingdom of the right, for there are wolves prowling in both. We are, of course, familiar with many sorts of watchmen, in both kingdoms. On the left, we have kings, princes, et al., even if we give them different names today and pretend they are something else; on the right, we have pastors, bishops, and theologians, again, even if we do not always give them those names today. For any of you who now holds or one day will hold any of these offices, this goes without saying, but I will say it anyway: If you are a prince, then you will receive a prince’s judgement, no matter what your resume may say; if you are a bishop, then you will receive a bishop’s judgement, no matter what your letterhead may claim or declaim. God is neither mocked nor deceived. It may feel like we did not actually leave Romans and return to Ezekiel, and that is for good reason: ὑπερεχούσαις ἐξουσίαις — ‘superior authority’ (‘governing authority’, in the words of the ESV) — is that to which we are to be subordinate, and that is far more broad, far more encompassing than our English ears are tuned to hear. We are to be in subjection to all those who are in and who exercise rightful authority over us. You may not initially hear ‘parents’ in that phrase, but Paul ensures that he is clear by including it (in verse 7), that we are to ‘pay’ honor to whom honor is owed. I trust that a particular Commandment comes to mind. Do those of you in authority understand why God has entrusted such to you? Certainly, you are being tried by fire as gold and silver are tried, but the core purpose of the authority that has been entrusted to you is to pursue the good of others: ‘to fill full the mouth of famine, and bid the sickness cease; to seek another’s profit, and work another’s gain’. Your authority has not been given you that you might be puffed up, prideful, and arrogant, that you might engage in self-dealing and the lining of your own pockets, that you might strut across the world stage like a peacock. If you have been entrusted with high office, great power, great wealth, or any other such things, then you are to use them in service of God and your fellow man. The command of God in Micah 6:8 does not change just because your title, your rank, or your bank account does: Has it been told to you, O man, what is good or what the Lord seeks from you, but to do judgment and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord, your God? — Micah 6:8 (NETS) What we seek for others is what we know that God has already secured to us in the promises in His Word and in the waters of Holy Baptism: the forgiveness of our sins and life eternal. In the words of our Psalm: Blessed are they whose lawless deeds have been let go, and whose sins have been covered over. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will in no wise reckon sin, and in whose mouth there is no guile. You are a prince, a teacher, a father so that you might employ what God has entrusted to you in this life to correct the erring, to firm up the weak knees, to save the lost, to rescue the drowning. This life is not everything — far from it —, but this life does, in a sense, determine everything: What we believe or reject in this life determines our eternity and what we do in this life shapes our eternity (for God has promised to reward our good works). It is an honor to be given the calling of watchman, but it is also a solemn duty: Your voice may be the one God uses to call His straying sheep back to the narrow path; your governance may be the guardrails God uses to keep the sheep from straying in the first place. Do not be a slothful or wicked servant; do not bury or neglect your talents. Regardless of your station or stage in life and regardless of your callings and your tasks, you should carefully note the words of David in verses 5 and 6: My sin I made known, and my lawlessness I did not cover; I said, I will declare out against myself my lawlessness to the Lord. And You let go the impiety of my sin. We are called to confess our sins to God (private confession and absolution remains acceptable and good, but is not required) and thereby seek His forgiveness, and we are to pay such things to God at an “appropriate time” — in a kairotic moment (yes, that is καιρος there in the Greek) and He, in turn, promises to save us, even from disaster (“a flood of many waters”). There are two kairotic moments in view here: The right time to ask for forgiveness. The right time to rejoice over having been forgiven. The right time for each of these is, respectively, immediately and always. Do not ever think that your sins are too great or too grievous to be forgiven, for to do so is to insult Christ by believing His sacrifice insufficient. The life and death of Christ — His perfect sacrifice — was and is just that: perfect, complete, and sufficient to cover all sins, including yours. Do not lose sight of the fact that David was an adulterer and a murderer, and God still forgave his sins. We will all one day meet David in Paradise, because we, like David, are forgiven. Satan loves few things more than when Christians despair over their sins and run from God. Never run from God; always run to God. Come before God and confess to Him all your sins; He already knows all of them and you are already forgiven in and by the blood of Christ — nothing you confess is going to surprise Him. When you run from God, you only wound your conscience, delay forgiveness, and add sin to sin. Anger Satan and honor God: Run to God and confess your sins and receive forgiveness. Never forget: The only unworthy guest is the one who disbelieves, not the one who has sinned (even egregiously). Our Lord is One Who seeks and finds the lost. He has sent many undershepherds (n.b., not just pastors) into the world to ensure that all of His sheep are gathered into His fold — not one will be missing. What does the Good Shepherd say in our Gospel reading? So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. — Matthew 18:14 (ESV) The full number of the Elect will, without fail, be found, called, and led home; the full one hundred and forty-four thousand of Revelation (a symbolic number representing the entire Church from Adam forward) will, without even one missing, stand before the Lamb on the last day and enter into the pleasure of their Master, into Paradise. It may prove easier for us to live alongside our brothers and sisters here in time if we keep a few things in mind: 1) we are all fallen; 2) we are all struggling to navigate and survive this fallen world; 3) we are all destined for greater things, for glory; and 4) our Master desires that His hall be full and that none be lost. So, forgive your brother when he sins against you; seek forgiveness and right the wrong when you sin against your brother. It is not good to have disunity, disharmony, or strife: Look now, what is good or what is pleasant more than that kindred live together? — Psalm 132:1 (NETS) It is not in our readings for today, but we should still heed the words of Paul in Galatians: But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. — Galatians 5:15 (ESV) We should not view our brothers as competitors or look with envious eyes upon that which is not ours. The immediately prior verse in Galatians: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” — Galatians 5:14 (ESV) What God has demanded of us is not easy, but is is also not impossible. Our world is fallen and falling, but we can certainly refrain from accelerating that fall. Again, from Galatians 5: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. — Galatians 5:13 (ESV) It is love expressed in service that is the whole of the Law and obedience to God. Hark! the voice of Jesus calling, “Who will go and work today? Fields are white, the harvest waiting, Who will bear the sheaves away?" Loud and long the Master calls out, Rich reward he offers free: Who will answer, gladly saying, “Here am I, send me, send me." \ If you cannot speak like angels, If you cannot preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say he died for all. If you cannot rouse the wicked, With the judgment’s dread alarms, You may lead the little children, To the Savior’s waiting arms. \ Let none hear you idly saying, "There is nothing I can do," While the lost of Earth are dying, And the Master calls for you. Take the task he gives you gladly; Let his work your pleasure be. Answer quickly when he’s calling, "Here am I, send, send me." Our Lord would have none perish and He has tasked us to see it done. Amen.

2. 

   29 Aug 2026

   Lectionary Homily for 30 August 2026 (14th Sunday after Pentecost)

   Readings Jeremiah 15:10–21 Psalm 25 (MT 26) Romans 12:9–21 Matthew 16:21–28 Homily Transcript Καιρὸς τοῦ φιλῆσαι καὶ καιρὸς τοῦ μισῆσαι· καιρὸς πολέμου καὶ καιρὸς εἰρήνης. You will usually see this rendered into English as ‘There is a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.’, which is not inaccurate, but it is misleading for the reader who does not know the difference between English “time” and Greek “καιρός” (a term we have actually just imported directly into English). Greek certainly has a word that is truly the equivalent of our time, but it is not καιρός; it is χρόνος, from which we get such words as chronological and chronometer. Καιρός is something more than mere time. And so, permit me to provide a better English translation: ‘There exists a due season for (or to) love and a due season for (or to) hate; a due season for war and a due season for peace.’ I trust we are all familiar enough with English to recognize that “due season” is a set term that may mean anything from a moment up to an era, or even eternity; “due season” is simply our notion of καιρός, and it is, in fact, used to translate καιρός in some translations of Scripture: And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. — Galatians 6:9 (that is, indeed, καιρός there rendered “due season”). Love and hatred are centrally important concepts in Scripture, and few things are more abused by modern pastors and ‘exegetes’. In the false conception of Christianity that so many advance or defend these days, we have no enemies and we are to love everyone and hate no one. What would these moderns say to Jesus Who called Peter “Satan” in today’s Gospel reading, or to Paul who instructs us in today’s Epistle reading to “abhor what is evil”? You cannot have love without hate (at least not in this world). If you do not hate that which threatens that which and those whom you love, then you do not truly love. The Lord God hates the devil, sin, and sinners. Would these ‘moderns’ accuse God Himself of error? And it is abject nonsense to contend that something that is sin when men do it is not sin simply because God is doing it instead; moral relativism corrupts the soul and the mind. The truth is far different from what these men would like to get you to believe. In truth, you do have enemies and you are commanded to hate. One of the tricks employed most frequently by the enemy is conflation. If his minions can convince you that two unlike or distinct things are identical or that a term with multiple senses is univocal, then he wins a great victory without having to alter a single letter of the text; equivocation and eisegesis are powerful weapons indeed. Conflation is exactly what we have here with “enemy”. English, for better or worse, does not distinguish (at least not by using a different word) between different kinds of enemies. Latin has inimicus and hostis: I am to forgive inimici mei — my personal enemies. Greek has ἐχθρός and πολέμιος: I am to forgive ἐχθροί μου — my personal enemies. I cannot forgive the hostis, the πολέμιος — the public enemy —, for he is not my enemy in the personal sense. We are commanded to forgive our personal enemies, not public enemies. It takes only one example to both make this obvious and destroy all opposition to such clear truth: ‘Have you forgiven Satan?’ If the opponent says no, then he has agreed that some enemies must not be forgiven (and thereby cedes the entire argument); if your opponent says yes, then you ask him if he believes himself more merciful and loving than God (Who has most certainly not forgiven Satan). Our enemies’ positions are so very easily defeated, and yet many fall for their lies and their tricks. Ultimately, these enemies are antinomians or even nomoclasts — haters, despisers, and destroyers of God’s perfect Law. If God commands you to hate, then who are you to tell Him that He is wrong? Do you know better than God? Are you more just than He? You may gain the approval of the world if you deny that Christians must hate, but perhaps our Gospel reading has something to say about the man who gains the world by compromising the things of God and a related thing about what that will surely cost him. When the Christ returns in His glory with the angels He will recompense all for their deeds in this life. What do you suppose He will do to those who lied about His Nature and attempted to lead His sheep astray? There exists an outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Our Epistle reading for today could not be more clear about this matter: Let love be genuine: Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. — Romans 12:9 The Greek, of course, has no punctuation, but, in English, there should surely be a colon after the command “Let love be genuine”, for the balance of the verse is how we are to do this: We must not only “hold fast to what is good”, but we must also “abhor what is evil”. The Greek word there that is translated “abhor” does, much the same as the English, mean hate. This verse does not merely command you to hate; it also tells you that you cannot love if you do not hate. Our English translations rightly employ a semicolon here: These are two parts of, or even two ways to express, the same thought. I personally find it extremely unlikely that Paul was not thinking of Ecclesiastes when he wrote this part of his letter. Our ESV editors added a number of footnotes: Seek out what is fine and honorable, and not what is base, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God who rules all, shall be with you, even in the manner you yourselves have declared: “We have hated the base things and loved the good.” Restore judgment in the gates, that the Lord, the God who rules all, may show pity to those who remain of Joseph. — Amos 5:15–16 <br> I did not set before my eyes a thing beside the law; those who do transgressions I hated.<br> A crooked heart did not cling to me; as the evil one was turning aside from me, I did not know him. — Psalm 100:3 [LXX] <br> You who love the Lord, hate evil.<br> The Lord guards the souls of His pious ones; He will draw them out from the hand of sinners. — Psalm 96:10 [LXX] and these are good, but they should have also included Ecclesiastes 3:8: There is a due season to love and a due season to hate; there is a due season for war and a due season for peace. If the Ecclesiast can say, in the Spirit, that there is a time for war and hatred, then Christians surely cannot assert in good conscience that we are to love, forgive, and be at peace with all men. What does Paul say in our Epistle reading? If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. — Romans 12:18 If we were intended to live at peace with all men, then Paul would not have included a caveat; if it is necessary to include “if possible”, then there exists at least the possibility that it will prove impossible to live at peace with some men. Tell me: Has it proven possible to live at peace with all men? Was peace possible with the Jews that persecuted the Early Church? Was peace possible with Sodom and Gomorrah? Was peace possible with the Mohammedans that invaded Europe and plagued the Medieval Church? Was peace possible for Abraham when barbarians kidnapped Lot? Is peace possible today with the wicked Jews, Muslims, and Hindus? God commanded His people to exterminate His enemies in Canaan. They failed and ceased to be His people. God does not change. Incidentally, when the Ancient Israelites failed to obey God and destroy the peoples He commanded them to destroy, He let their lands be overrun by foreigners, including those they had failed to destroy. Again: God does not change. And so let us return to Ecclesiastes: There is a time for love and peace, and there is a time for hatred and war. You must ask yourself if you believe you are in the former or in the latter. When you look around, does it seem like we are in a time of love, unity, and peace or does it seem like we are in a time of hate, division, and war? Do you think that if we were to throw down our weapons, our enemies would choose to live with us in peace? Where peace is not possible, you must prepare for war. To the Greek reader, καιρός did not simply mean ‘a good time’ to do something; rather, it implied something much greater: A kairotic moment was not merely the right time to act; it was a moment that demanded action, and to fail to act was seen as foolish, disastrous, or even wicked. A wise man is one who understands the times, one who neither forces an action out of season nor fails to seize the kairotic moment when it arrives. Speeches, campaigns, battles, and much else are governed by kairotic moments that are seized or missed. In the words of the Psalmist: Every pious man will offer prayer to You [for this] in a season that is fitting; / yet in a flood of many waters they will not come near him. — Psalm 32:6 The prayers of the pious man shield him from disaster. In the words of Paul (and Isaiah): “In a kairotic moment, I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, today is the kairotic moment; behold, now is the day of salvation. — Isaiah 49:8; 2 Corinthians 6:2 God offers to men the free gift of salvation — behold, the kairotic moment! — and He does so according to His good time and plan — behold, the day of salvation! —, and some men seize this lifeline and are drawn into the Ark that is the Church and some men reject Christ’s outstretched hand and are swept away by the floodwaters. Death waits for no man, and men who ‘plan’ to confess on their deathbeds often find God has scheduled their departure earlier than they expected: Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? — Luke 12:20 The Lord God is patient, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, but opportunities for mortals to repent are not infinite. Tempt not the Lord; miss not καιρός. Christianity is a religion of peace: By, through, and for the sake of Christ, we have peace with God and adoption as sons; via the certainty of our Election, confirmed and sealed in the waters of Baptism, we are at peace with our own mortality and the inevitability of death; due to the promises of God, we are at peace in this life, even when matters seem bleak or hopeless. Christianity is a religion of war: From the Garden onward, God and His camp have been at war with Satan and his; every single day, every single Christian wages a personal war against the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil; and the children of God here in time, the Church Militant, wage war against the enemies of God. Our forefathers in the faith understood their duties to God and man when they drove the Saracen hordes from Europe and pursued the vile heathens back to their lands across the sea — lands that were once, and will be again, Christian; we find ourselves today in a worse position than they — these are not times for peace. Jehu understood his duties to God and man when he looked upon the wicked practices of Ahab and set about to purge the worship of Baal, Asherah, and other demons from his lands; we find ourselves in a worse position than he, for abortion surely outranks child sacrifice and fornication and pornography surely outrank temple prostitution — it is not a time for peace. Our ancestors from the Roman Empire onward, were surely acting in accord with their duties to both God and man when they suppressed, oppressed, persecuted, expelled, and certainly did not tolerate the wicked Jews; we find ourselves in a worse position today, for, while the Jews continue their wicked opposition to the Christ and their genocidal campaign against all mankind, our institutions (to include our government) are even more thoroughly captured and more deeply corrupt than those of nearly any past era — it is not a time for peace. If the words of the Lord God in Ecclesiastes are true, then there exists a time for hatred and war; if the words of the Lord God spoken by Paul in today’s Epistle reading are true, then we are commanded to hate that which is evil. It is my contention and my firm belief that it requires only the most minimal — even remedial — sort of spiritual discernment, or even merely natural human wisdom according to reason, to recognize that we now live in a time of war. To live in a time of war and call it a time of peace is to betray both God and man, to participate in the wicked shout of ‘peace, peace’ where there is no peace. To find yourself in a kairotic moment that demands war and to not only fail to seize upon and pursue it but to go so far as to run in the opposite direction and seek after an impossible peace is to commit a sin worse than Jonah’s, to be a fool, a coward, and a traitor. I want to make absolutely certain that I have been completely clear about the necessary exegesis of the passage from Ecclesiastes: God does not say there ‘may’ be a time for hatred and war; He says in no uncertain terms that there will be times for hatred and war; in fact, this is so certain that He employs the simple present to state it as bare fact: There is a time for hatred and there is a time for war. And of our passage from Romans: You cannot have a genuine love without both holding fast to what is good and hating what is evil. If the Christian life is one that involves love (and it most certainly is), then so, too, must it necessarily involve hatred. It may help you, in dealing with these matters, to think of yourself as a soldier in God’s army, and so you are, for you are a member of the Church Militant; as a soldier, you are not at liberty to throw down your weapons and declare the enemy forgiven — it is not your place to do so. Your rightful Lord and Commander gets to declare who is a friend and who is a foe. Your duty is to follow orders and hold the line. Whatever calls you have been given and whatever tasks have been set before you, it is your duty to love your own as dearly as God loves us, to forgive your personal enemies because God has forgiven us, to oppose the enemies of God and His children with all you can muster, and to remain loyal with all that you are. Amen.

3. 

   15 Aug 2026

   Lectionary Homily for 16 August 2026 (12th Sunday after Pentecost)

   Readings Isaiah 56:1, 6–8 Psalm 67 Romans 11:1–2a, 13–15, 28–32 Matthew 15:21–28 Homily Transcript I suppose it is about time we deal with Romans 11 — not in the sort of fragmentary way of today’s reading, but in its totality. In fact, as none of you is watching or listening to this live, I highly recommend you pause here and go read Romans 11, or even Romans 9 through 11. I will leave a pause here to make that easier. … Now that you have read part of Romans, we will turn to Galatians. Galatians 4, starting with verse 21: 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.« Why do we need Galatians to read Romans? In truth, we do not, for Romans is clear on its own to the Christian reader, but this passage from Galatians certainly makes some of the explanation of Romans easier. Also, lest we forget our maxims: Scriptura Scripturam interpretatur — Scripture interprets Scripture. Now, back to Romans. We will, today, we treating three key verses and three key concepts or terms. The verses are Romans 9:6, 11:20, and 11:26. The concepts are ‘Israel’, ‘nation’, and Election (with, perhaps, a little digression into jealously). We will take these in turn. Passages Romans 9:6 Really, Romans 9:6b. Frequently, false interpretations, false doctrines, even entire false theologies are built upon pulling individual verses out of their context and then contorting them to fit some preconceived idea. Among the Judaizers, this often happens with this verse: For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. They try to contort this verse to fit into their schema in which all ‘Jews’ are saved, despite the extremely clear Scriptural evidence to the contrary. Worse, the very next verses give the necessary interpretive context: … and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Romans 9:6b is not even a complete thought from Paul, because the thought runs through the end of verse 8, and even the sentence itself (once punctuation is added) runs through the end of verse 7. There are two Israels in our verse, and verse 8 explicitly gives us the two categories Paul had in mind when he dictated verse 6: “children of the flesh” and “children of God”. Before we go deeper into this, let us abstract the logic of the verse: $\neg \forall x, (I_1(x) \to I_2(x))$ ‘Not all individuals ($x$) who are part of Israel 1 ($I_1$) are necessarily part of Israel 2 ($I_2$).’ or $\exists x, (I_1(x) \land \neg I_2(x))$ ‘There exists (at least in theory) an individual ($x$) who is not part of both Israel 1 ($I_1$) and Israel 2 ($I_2$).’ This is the actual logic of what Paul is saying. A simple application of the law of noncontradiction tells us that an individual cannot both be a thing and not be the same thing simultaneously, so we cannot have an Israelite who does not belong to Israel if being an Israelite is defined as belonging to Israel, for that would be to declare that our individual ($x$) is both $I$ and $¬I$ simultaneously. (We could arrive at the same conclusion using the law of the excluded middle, of course.) That being said, the two Israels are ethnic Israel (“all who are descended from Israel [i.e., Jacob]”) and true Israel (i.e., the Church, the Elect). There are (or at least there were) some ethnic Israelites who were also elect, but not all of them are elect. The passage is actually quite easily understood when read in context. Incidentally, Paul’s words apply to every race, not just to the Israelites: There exists a Germany, comprised of those descended from Ashkenaz, and some portion of that Germany is Israel (i.e, Elect members of Christ’s Church). Romans 11:20 Really, Romans 11:20b. This verse is the key to the whole of Romans: They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. Set aside, for the moment, all the figures of speech — the allegory, the simile, the metaphor — what does Paul actually say here? Faith is what matters. Faith is what distinguishes the elect members of every nation from the unbelieving members; faith is what makes one a part of the only Israel that matters: the Israel of God, the Church. Did physical descent from Abraham or Jacob save the Israelites? No. And neither will descent from Japheth or Ashkenaz save you. To be a member of the true Israel, you must have faith, for it is faith alone that saves you, declares you righteous for the sake of Christ, and will preserve you from the fiery end of this Creation. If you understand this one verse, you will understand the Book of Romans, a great many passages in the Old Testament, and many core doctrines of the faith — more, you will be preserved from many errors, but we will get to Election soon. You stand in the faith, as did our righteous ancestors, or you depart from the faith and fall, as did the wicked Jews. It is that simple. Romans 11:26 Really, Romans 11:26a. The Dispensationalists and other Judaizers love this verse. Well, they think they do. If they could read or if they had the Holy Spirit, then they might reconsider. At any rate, what does our verse actually say? And in this way all Israel will be saved. Does this mean, as the heretics claim, that all ‘Jews’ will be saved? Well, it certainly cannot mean so in the sense of all Israelites; read the Old Testament: Most of them were damned. What of all of them going forward in time? Certainly not. Look at Paul’s anguish in the introductory verses of this very chapter: I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul knows full well that most of his brothers were damned. And look at their state today: They still reject the Christ and they are still damned. What then does it mean that “all Israel will be saved”? Well, which Israel is in view here? You all know the answer without my saying it. The only Israel comprised exclusively of the saved (i.e., the Elect) is the Israel of God — the Church. And the immediately prior verse confirms this: Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the nations has come in. There are Elect from every tribe and nation and language, as Revelation clearly teaches. God has used the stubbornness of the Jews to ensure the Gospel spreads to all nations and He inflamed the jealousy and the envy of the Jews to ensure that they were not all damned. He has ensured that all of His Elect will be brought to saving faith by the means (and Means) that He knew would be effective. With Paul, we should most certainly exclaim: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Terms/Concepts Israel Now, our three terms or concepts. First, Israel. We have already covered much of this one, and so we can be relatively brief here. There are four ‘Israels’ in Scripture: the man (Jacob renamed) the Old Testament nation descended from the man the elect subset of those descended from the man the Church (i.e, all the Elect). (There is also a fifth sense in that the Christ Himself is the true — or even truest — Israel, but we will leave that for another time). The third category can generally be ignored, but the other three must be carefully distinguished. Thankfully, they are easily distinguished. For the first category, seldom will it be difficult to distinguish an individual man from a nation or a conceptual grouping. The second and fourth categories are where problems typically arise, and yet Scripture provides us an easy answer: As already examined, it is faith that defines the Israel of God, the true Israel, so those without faith cannot be found in the fourth category; more, we know that all the promises of God are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Christ. Well, who are those who are in Christ? Only those in the fourth category, so the promises of God pertain only to the Elect. Nation Second, nation. More accurately, εθνος, for we are dealing with Greek when we are dealing with Scripture. The Greek does not map perfectly onto English nation or race, but that is so only in one specific way (that is relevant for us here): The Koine Greek speaker or reader could use εθνος of bees or similar (as Homer did in Classical Greek in the Iliad); we would not, in English, employ such a phrase as “a nation of bees”, except, perhaps, in some very niche circumstances, and even then more as poetry than as prose. In all other cases, the Greek εθνος and the English nation or race essentially agree (n.b., the modern tendency in sloppy use of the English language to conflate nation and country is incorrect, misleading, and worthy of condemnation). The word ‘εθνος’ appears nearly a thousand times in Scripture; it is not a minor or an unimportant concept. Paul employs the word twenty-nine times in Romans alone. If you are using a Bible that employs the abominable word “Gentiles”, you need to know the actual word there is εθνος, which should generally be translated into English as nation or race. So, Paul actually speaks of himself as being the Apostle to the nations and of the fullness of the nations being brought in. Some of you are undoubtedly thinking of 1 Peter 2:9: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Indeed, Israel (the true one) is an εθνος in the sense previously discussed (with the bees), but this is more commonly portrayed as οχλος — a multitude — or even a συμμιγης οχλος — a mixed multitude. Think of the mixed multitude that went up with Israel in the Exodus and the mixed multitude that is Israel in Revelation. The Israel of God is, indeed, an εθνος and also a συμμιγης οχλος — both a figurative holy nation and a literal mixed multitude. And yet we must not ignore the core sense of εθνος: To the Koine Greek speaker, εθνος meant nation and race. When Paul spoke to the Galatians, he used εθνος ten times, and they heard and understood nation and race; they knew that they were of the Celtic Galatian εθνος. The Romans knew they were of the Roman εθνος (Koine Greek being the common language of the empire). The Hebrews knew that they were of the Hebrew εθνος. The men to whom Paul wrote would not have been confused by the terms he employed; he used their language (and one of his) because so God ordained and thus they could understand. The educated among Paul’s audience would have been familiar with works such as those of Herodotus in which εθνος is defined as a matter of common blood, common language, common sanctuaries and sacrifices, and similar customs. Paul himself reinforces this understanding in many places in his letters, not least of all the much abused Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If there is neither Jew nor Greek in Christ, then both Jew and Greek must be real categories, or else the verse would be gibberish. Salvation is neither bounded nor scoped (although it is certainly modulated) by race: The free gift of salvation is open to all men and God desires that none should perish. Even the Canaanite woman is praised for her faith. Soteriology does not destroy ontology. You are who and what God made you. I was raised Christian and so I cannot employ myself as an example here, but if you were converted as an adult, you did not cease to be what you were before you were converted. If you were male and French before you were converted, then you are still male and French, you are simply also Christian now. You did not cease to be anything you were and are essentially. I am male and I am American (of German and Scottish descent) — I will remain those things my entire life and for all eternity, because I am those things essentially. The Church neither ‘overrides’ nor destroys essential realities like biological sex and race; you are saved regardless of such things, but you will remain them forever. To deny the reality of such essentials is to deny the Creator Who made them. You are not a genderless, sexless, raceless amorphous blob; you are either male or female, you are a specific racial composition, and so you will and must remain. Those who think they know better than God and would deny such truths would do well to read Revelation 7:9 a few dozen times: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Election Third, Election. Many have gone off the rails when it comes to Election. This is not cause for avoiding the doctrine, for it appears frequently in Scripture and is a key part of God’s plan of salvation; rather, it is warrant for deliberate and careful teaching in this area. Election is addressed in an article of the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord; if you are a teacher, to include fathers, then you should read and understand that article. But before you do so, read and re-read God’s short teaching on the matter contained in Romans 8: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Election is not Law. I will say that again: Election is not Law. If you read or conceive of Election as cause for worry or despair then you have read it wrongly or understood it incorrectly. Election is Gospel. Again, I will repeat myself: Election is Gospel. Election is not God’s foreknowledge, for His foreknowledge covers all things — good and bad — and all men — believers and unbelievers. Election applies only to believers and pertains to how God has both ordered and ensured our salvation. You are not elect because of your merit; you are not elect because of your good works; you are not elect because of your righteousness. Your election depend entirely and solely upon the merit of Christ and the gracious will of the Father. This is Gospel precisely because it does not rely upon you. As Luther put it: I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. Conclusion What is the purpose of Scripture? It seems like such a simple question, and yet far too many far too often lose sight of the truth of 2 Timothy 3: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And, again, this time from Romans 15: For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Scripture, correctly read, is never irrelevant; Scripture, correctly understood, will never cause despair. Scripture is God’s revelation — explicit revelation — of Himself and His plans to and for His Elect. God is our loving Father, and His promises pertain to us, to His beloved children. Never let anyone convince you that Scripture belongs to anyone other than the Church (i.e., the sheep who hear the Master’s voice). Never let anyone convince you that the promises of God belong to anyone other than His children (i.e., those who are in Christ). Never let anyone convince you that there is any way to the Father except the Son. The Book of Romans was written for us, just like all Scripture. The world is full of false teachers who would steal everything from you if only you would let them. They would steal from you your identity by convincing you that gender, sex, race, and other such things are not real. They would steal from you your patrimony by convincing you that borders are not real and your neighbor is every man on Earth. They would steal from you the Word and promises of God by convincing you that they were meant for other men. But false shepherds have no power over the true sheep who hear and heed only the Master’s voice. Wicked TV programming can be turned off; wicked books can be put down (or burned); and false shepherds can be simply ignored. Pray that God will give us faithful magistrates to punish such wicked men, but, personally and for your part, simply do not listen to them. There is only one Israel that matters, and that is the true Israel, the Israel of God, the Church, and she is comprised of believers from every language, tribe, and nation, which is to say race, and she is not bounded by time, for Adam belongs to her the same as you and I, and she is not bounded by corporate form or human governance, for there is but one Good Shepherd and the sheep are those who heed His voice, and she is both Militant, comprised of us who struggle here in time, and Triumphant, comprised of those who brightly shine in eternity. The men who would advance or advocate for any other ‘Israel’ most certainly have another god, and we would do well to rebuke and shun them, at least until God gives us faithful leaders to make such men a foot or so shorter. May the Lord God arise and scatter His enemies and may those who trouble His sheep flee from before Him. Amen.

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