Sermon Audio

One of the hoops I had to jump through upon entering the seminary was to take some psychological exams. While I found the exams tedious and mostly spurious, I suppose there is some merit to administering them to men who are seeking to undertake the noble task of being an overseer. (cf. 1 Timothy 3:1) For one thing, there is a high rate of depression among the clergy, across all Christian confessions—even I have dealt with bouts of it—and these exams could be helpful in identifying men most susceptible to depression (or other issues) and provide them with tools and resources to help them deal with whatever issues may pop up when they do.

However, I wouldn’t put too much stock into the exams. For instance, when the results came back, one thing that stood out for me was that the exam indicated I had difficulty believing in a providential God. I approached the proctor—the synod-placed, seminary psychologist, who also happened to be ordained—with the question, “What does this mean?” In my thought, if I didn’t believe in a providential God, I wouldn’t be starting seminary training. He suggested that I might have had a traumatic childhood or an extremely traumatic event in my past. The only thing I could think of that might be interpreted as traumatic was the fact that I moved every two to three years as a military dependent—but I wouldn’t classify any of that as traumatic; in truth, I found it quite exciting.

Despite not having the stability of living in one place and going to one school, even as a military dependent, I saw and acknowledged what God had given me—what He had provided me. Even though our housing changed often, God had provided me with a loving father and mother who made wherever we lived our home, and siblings who, even though we argued and fought as all siblings do, were always there when friends came and went. He provided me with an international family—relatives and places to go in Germany and the United States—a situation that I still consider unique to this day, even if not uncommon. Clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home...all of these I had from the hand of our providential God. But more than that, He provided the stability of His Son, Jesus Christ, who was the same Savior who shed His blood and died on the cross as my substitute no matter if we lived in August, GA; El Paso, TX; or Kitzingen, Germany.

That’s the point of it all, isn’t it? This is what we confess:

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.

We confess that God provides us with all that we need to support this body and life. Additionally, trusting in our Lord and Savior, we are bold to pray for the same: “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” What is meant by daily bread?

Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

All of these things he gives us from His providential hand, without any merit or worthiness in us.

We see in today’s Gospel an example of the providence of God. Jesus is teaching a great crowd. For three days, they sat at His feet, heard Him teach, and fasted. The third day is nearing the end, and Jesus has compassion on the crowd. “I can’t send them home hungry, they need to eat.” The disciples are concerned, “How can we satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” They only had seven loaves of bread. Don’t think of the loaves as you have come to know a loaf of bread; these are more like cakes that resembled pitas or hard tack (for those of you with military connections). Jesus has the crowd sit down and He feeds them with these mere loaves and a few fish that they also had. When they were done, they had substantially more left over than when they began—seven large baskets full. Mark says the number fed was 4000; Matthew says that only the men numbered 4000.

In today’s text, Jesus miraculously provided the daily bread for a large number of people. He gave them all that they needed for the day to support their body and life. Jesus is no thoughtless or uncaring God. Jesus is a providential God. Jesus provided food for His hearers, but He also provided so much more, which we’ll get to in a moment.

The trick for us is remembering it; hence what we are taught regarding the Fourth Petition, as you already heard. We pray that God would lead us to realize that He gives us daily bread and that we receive it with thanksgiving. It’s all well and good until the day arrives when we don’t receive as much daily bread as we did before. Sure, it’s easy to recognize God as the giver of the good in times of plenty, but we have a hard time recognizing God as the giver of the lean times, too, even to the point of denying that He is the giver of plenty and lean. “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD,” (Job 1:21 KJV) a well-meaning friend might say, but those words seem to ring hollow when the times are particularly lean. I would say that I am not alone in having difficulty in believing in a providential God; we all do when times are especially tough, though it begins long before that which would be considered traumatic. It’s nothing to get depressed over, though certainly something for which to repent.

As for counsel, I would suggest in those lean times to repeatedly pray the First Article of the creed and the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer with explanations. These are the things which you confess, which Scripture declares to be true; therefore, hearing these Word of God over and over again, even in your own voice, will serve to strengthen your faith and cause you trust in Him for all of your needs. God provides His Word for your strength and faith, and it will not return to him void but will accomplish what He pleases (cf. Isaiah 55:11), and that is your faith and salvation. And, let me be clear, it’s not you doing something to yourself, but the Word of God acting upon you and having its way with you that strengthens your faith and gives you forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Today’s text speaks of the compassion of Jesus. It’s not the only time that the evangelists speak to Jesus’ compassion for the people. Out of His compassion, Jesus healed people of leprosy, restored the sight of the blind, caused the lame to walk, raised a few dead, and forgave the sins of many. Then the evangelist St. John tells us these words of Jesus: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Here is the providence of our Lord, that as He provided a bronze serpent in the exodus so that those snake-bitten may look upon it and live, so He provided His Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (cf. John 3:16) Our Father in heaven knows the condition we are in, and it pains Him that His cherished creation has separated itself from Him with no way to restore that connection with Him. Out of His great compassion, He provided the way for His snake-bitten people: His Son, Jesus Christ. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

And Jesus, out of His compassion for fallen man, perfectly fulfilled the law of God. Jesus rightly and readily acknowledged that His Father is the giver of all that we need in times of plenty and in the lean times. And in His compassion, He also took something from us: all of our ingratitude and inability to acknowledge His providence at all times and in all circumstances—all of our sins, all of our sin. He took these from us and died with them on the cross at Calvary, rising again to life on the third day. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. This is His way of restoring us to Himself—death and resurrection.

Jesus is our providential God who joins Himself to you in the waters of Holy Baptism. There in those waters combined with God’s Word, you were joined to Him in a death like His—you were crucified with Christ, died to yourself and your sin. And coming from those waters, you were joined to Him in a resurrection like His, rising to newness of life, having put on Christ. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you, and the life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who out of compassion for you provided Himself for you. You have died to yourself and risen a new man, a fellow son of God and coheir with Jesus of eternal life. Therefore, by faith, you reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus your Lord. (cf. Romans 6:3-11, Galatians 2:20)

And just as out of compassion for the 4000 Jesus fed them miraculously with a few pieces of bread and small fish, so He now, out of compassion, feeds you of Himself. You take into yourself a small piece of bread which is the body of Jesus Christ given for you and take a small sip of wine which is the blood of Jesus Christ shed for you. Just as Jesus joins Himself to these elements to give Himself to you, so in the Sacrament He joins Himself to you, again and again, to provide to you the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The Word of God is there for you, joined to you, and again you die to yourself and live to Him and He puts His body and blood in you and lives in you.

What’s more is that this is God’s free gift to you in Christ Jesus in times when He provides plenty temporal blessings and in the lean times. He gathers you here by way of His Holy Spirit, around His Word and Sacraments, and gives you forgiveness by way of Holy Absolution, bidding you to remember the words spoken over you in Holy Baptism (especially on those occasions when you get to witness another), and provides His body as true food and blood as true drink for your consumption. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), no matter your circumstances: your Redeemer, your Savior, your providential God.

Your God is a providential God. He has provided for you His Son Jesus Christ, in whom He joins Himself to you and promises to you that which your first parents had in Paradise, even better, I dare say. He provides you for all that you need for this body and life, in times of plenty and in lean times, and in His Son, He provides you with all that you need for your incorruptible and immortal body in the life to come: the forgiveness of all of your sins.