Lent 1 Midweek Vespers 2025

It’s a strange business, this bronze serpent. It seems to directly contradict the command to make no graven images. But the command was never about making no sacred art. It was about worshiping an image as a depiction of God. “You shall not bow down to them or serve them,” says the commandment [Deut. 5:7].

What distinguished Israelite worship from the pagans was not a lack of imagery, but the confession of YHWH as not being resembled by any animal or object in creation. He is not likened to a bull, or a reptile, or the sun or moon. His representative, his icon, his image in the tabernacle was a man, the high priest. Through this living man God spoke to His people.

Images were present in the tabernacle, at God’s command. The ark of the covenant had golden cherubim, whose wings covered the mercy seat. Engravers and carvers were hired for the preparation of the golden vessels, candelabra, embroidered hangings. In the tabernacle was a bronze sea, held up by twelve oxen made of bronze. Animals and vines with grape clusters were in the second temple, by men who severely and most strictly interpreted the law. It was not the image that was outlawed, but the worship of the image as YHWH. The men who spoke for YHWH were adorned in elaborate vestments rich in symbolic meaning.

Standing out in all of this was the erection of a cross on which hung a serpent of bronze. The rebels in tonight’s first reading were instructed, “Look at this, and you will live.” Were sacred properties infused into this cross with the statue of the cursed serpent? Certainly not. What happened was that God attached His word of promise there. It was not that medicine was transmitted by rays of light into the eyeballs of the repentant rebels. Now, their eyes saw what the Word said. This action of looking was really an action of hearing and believing. …

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Have We Failed?

Christians are now a minority in America. When I mentioned this somewhere else I was speaking, someone asked me afterwards, “Does this mean we’ve failed?”

What do you think? If you look at our statistics, the Missouri Synod is in decline, and doesn’t seem to be turning around. How’s the Ohio District doing? What about your own congregation? If the answer is, “Not great,” then does that mean you failed? Have we failed? …

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Invocabit 2021

Max Lucado— a prominent evangelical author and preacher—recently apologized for a sermon years ago where he said that homosexuality is a sin. Actress Gina Carano was fired from her show for saying that hating people for their political views is dangerous, likening it to the complicity of the German people in the holocaust.

The views expressed by Lucado and Carano are judged to be on the “wrong side of history.” That kind of language—being on the wrong or right side of history—reflects the idea that the world is inevitably moving towards the progressive utopia.

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Letter to the Church in Response to Governor Northam's Statements on Worship

I wrote the following to the members of Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, Virginia.


Dear Christians,

One of the great blessings of America is the First Amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of religion (and the right to peaceably assemble). The government's job is to protect the rights of the people, not make religious pronouncements.

Yesterday the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, crossed that line. Blaming churches for the spread of the Coronavirus, he said that going to church is unnecessary. “This year, we need to think about what is truly the most important thing. Is it the worship or the building? ... For me, God is wherever you are. You don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers.... Worship with a mask on is still worship, worship outside or worship online is still worship.”

It is important that we show honor and respect to our government and its officers. In matters of Christian doctrine, we must respectfully correct the governor's erroneous statements.

Christians gather together around Christ's Word and Sacraments (Acts 2:42, 46). The Lord's Supper is by its very nature communal (1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:17-21, 33). It is true, "God is wherever you are." However, God's omnipresence is not His gracious presence. The Lord Jesus established means of grace. These means are tangible, coming to us in water, bread, wine. The Word, while we can encounter it through print or electronic media, is intended to be proclaimed to the assembly of the faithful (Heb. 10:23-25), where the shepherd (pastor) is instructed by Holy Scripture to lay his hands on the people, pray for them, call them by name, etc.

We all want the Coronavirus to go away. Let's listen to the governor in his recommendations to wear masks, practice social distancing, cleanse our hands, and practice other mitigation measures. We will honor and pray for Governor Northam and all our federal, state, and local leaders. But in matters of theology, remember that the gathering of the Church is essential, receiving the sacraments is essential, and in these matters we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

Every good wish in Christ, 
Pastor Esget