200223 Sermon on Luke 18:31-43 (Quinquagesima) February 23, 2020

200223 Sermon on Luke 18:31-43 (Quinquagesima) February 23, 2020

Our Gospel reading today takes place right before Palm Sunday. They are on their way, passing through the town of Jericho. At the beginning of our reading Jesus says to his disciples, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that was written about the Son of Man will come to pass. He will be handed over to the Gentiles, mocked, mistreated, spit upon, flogged, and they will kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

In a succinct way Jesus plainly tells them what was going to happen in about a week. This is not the first time that Jesus had told them that this would happen. On at least two other occasions Jesus told them that he would suffer, die, and be resurrected. You already know about one of those other times. It was soon after Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the promised Messiah, when Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus told Peter that this knowledge did not come from flesh and blood. It came from God. Peter’s confession would stand as a rock, against which the gates of hell would not be able to prevail. That is how Peter gets his name—Peter means rock. His given name was Simon.

Right after this Jesus told the disciples what would happen to him as the Christ. He told them what we heard today—Jesus would be betrayed by his people, shamefully treated, killed, and rise on the third day. When Peter heard this he said, “Far be it from you, Lord, that such things should happen to you.” Jesus responds, “Get behind me Satan! You are not thinking the thoughts of God, but the thoughts of men.” Simon quickly went from being called “the rock” to being called “Satan.” The reason why there is the change is because of what he says about Christ’s cross. Peter had different ideas, manmade ideas, about how Jesus should go about being the Christ.

Obviously, things didn’t change. I don’t know how Luke, the Gospel writer, could be more emphatic. He says, “They did not understand any of these things. What was said was hidden from them. They did not understand what had been said.” They didn’t get it. They didn’t get it. They didn’t get it.

This would be proven by their actions, as well. They were content to be Jesus’s disciples when he rode into Jerusalem with everybody shouting, “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.” They were content to be Jesus’s disciples when he was driving all the greedy people out of the temple. They were content to be his disciples when he was putting to shame all the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes who were trying to catch him in his words during Holy Week.

They were not content to be his disciples when he allowed himself to be arrested without even putting up a fight. They were not content to be his disciples when he was mocked and shamefully treated, stripped naked and nailed to a cross. The game was up when Jesus cried out in agony, bowed his head, and breathed his last. There’s no point in being the disciple of a Christ who is dead. On Good Friday it was obvious to them that they had been mistaken. If Christ had not gone out to find his disciples after his resurrection, then they would have remained in their unbelief even though they had been told beforehand. Peter really speaks for all these disciples when he says, “Far be it from you, Lord, that such things should happen to you.” That is not how the disciples wanted the story to go.

I think we could go even farther and say that Peter speaks for all of us as Christ’s disciples. The knowledge of Christ’s cross does not come naturally to anybody. There is an old complaint among a certain segment of Christianity about crucifixes. It is said that crucifixes are inappropriate because now Jesus is risen from the dead. Since he has arisen, we should no longer look at this disturbing, shameful episode when he was so weak and despised on the cross.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that a triumphalist view of the Christian life is taught in these same kinds of churches. Consider a typical testimonial. A testimonial is when a Christian testifies to the powerful effect that God has had in their lives. Testimonials often follow a certain train of thought, and they often go like this:

The Christian says, there was a time in my life when I did not know Jesus. When Jesus is not known, then a life of shame and vice is all that there is. And so some of these folks got involved in alcohol. Some of them got involved in drugs. Some of them were enslaved to sexual perversions. But then—somehow, someway—they came to know of the love of God for them in Jesus Christ. They know that Jesus died for the forgiveness of their sins. They, therefore, choose Jesus. They ask Jesus into their hearts. Then their lives are changed. They don’t drink alcohol anymore. They don’t do drugs. They get their lives together and become respectable citizens. The shame, the weakness, the guilt, the cross, are in the past. Now they are living resurrection-lives-of-power-and-success. Forgiveness and justification are in the past. Now they are working on getting better and better and sanctification.

There is something very good and Christian about these testimonials, but there is also something that is very off—something that is very much the thoughts of men rather than the thoughts of God. What is good about these testimonials are the confessions of sin on the one hand and the grace of God in Jesus Christ on the other. These testimonials are often very powerful songs of praise that every Christian can’t help but be glad to hear—“Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.” The sinner believes in Jesus, the Savior of sinners. It doesn’t get any more Christian than that. But here’s where the false note enters in—it’s with the second part of the story where now the Christian has been able to turn his life around. Something very human is going on here.

The other day I was watching a rather disturbing YouTube video. It was the court testimony of a mother who was on trial for killing her infant son. The 3 or 4 month old infant was found dead with many injuries. His little arm was broken. Several of his ribs were broken. There seemed to be evidence of bones being broken previously and some healing had started before he died. Obviously this baby boy was terribly mistreated by his very own mother.

The mother admitted that she was the cause of her baby’s injuries, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit the awfulness of what had happened. The prosecutor went after her hard in the cross examination and wanted to know how the baby had gotten those injuries. The mother didn’t want to say. All she said over and over was that it wasn’t intentional. Eventually, after much harassment, she said something about dropping him, but she didn’t want to say a word more. She said she couldn’t remember how the baby got those injuries. She was on drugs, so that’s why she couldn’t remember. By looking at her face you could tell that she was lying. She could remember. She just didn’t want to admit that she was cruel and selfish and did what she did because that was the very thing that she wanted to do. She said what she said because she wanted everyone to believe that she wasn’t that bad.

I know how this gal feels. So do you, if you have the courage to admit it. I remember as a child doing things I wasn’t supposed to do. When I got caught, I’d immediately start to think of reasons why I did what I’d done. Liars like me get pretty good at this kind of thing. It’s somebody else’s fault. I couldn’t help it. I was curious. I didn’t mean to.  Unfortunately, this hasn’t gone away with age. Sometimes I go to confession. One of the reasons why you go to confession is to confess that you are a sinner. I can’t help myself—before I go I think about my sins, and immediately I’m thinking about how I can present these sins in the best light to my confessor so that I don’t look as bad as I really am. I’m no different from this murdering mother: I don’t want people to think that I’m a monster.

Now let’s get back to that typical testimonial. Here is what is so human about that story of improvement after asking Jesus into one’s heart: we don’t want to admit that we are monsters. We might be willing to admit that we have been a monster, so long as we are monsters no more. The life of shame and vice is over and done with; now I’m on the straight and narrow. That used to be me, but that’s not me anymore. I promise.

Martin Luther had a friend named Staupitz. Staupitz once said to Luther, “I have promised God a thousand times that I would become a better man, but I never kept my promise. From now on I am not going to make any more vows. Experience has taught me that I cannot keep them. Unless God is merciful to me for Christ’s sake and grants me a blessed death, then I shall not be able to stand before him.”

We cannot—and so we should not—outgrow the cross while we live this life. Jesus was tortured as punishment for the sins that we have committed and still commit. We’d like to believe that we won’t sin anymore. We’d like to believe that we can put the cross behind us and live resurrection lives now. We’d like to believe that we are good people and not monsters. It is just like all those plot lines of books and movies. The main character starts out bad, but then he turns his life around. In the end he turns out to be a great guy, and he lives happily ever after. That’s what we all want to believe about ourselves. We all want to believe that we can learn by the object lesson of the cross so that we don’t sin anymore. Now we are good people. We are marching towards glory.

The last words Martin Luther spoke before he died were, “We are beggars. This is true.” That is a plot line that is a bit different. It corresponds to the second part of our Gospel reading with Bartimaeus, the blind man from Jericho. He was a beggar. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he cried out, “Kyrie Eleison!” “Lord, have mercy on me!” And some of the people around him thought he was a piece of trash and he probably was a piece of trash. They told him to shut up and get a job—to pull himself up by the bootstraps—but this was a stubborn fellow. The more they told him to shut up and gain some self-respect, the more shameless he became. Louder and louder, “Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me!” Wouldn’t you know that Jesus heard him? He came over and gave him his sight. His faith saved him.So it has to be for us sinners who still sin because of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. We are beggars.

Do you know how it is with white trash? They have no shame. They sit around all day doing nothing, but then when they hear about some give-away somewhere, suddenly they are propelled into action. They jump into their jalopies and might even be first in line. They open their money sack big and wide and say, “Fill ‘er up!” That’s how beggars act. There’s not much that is commendable about beggars, but, you know, if they find somebody rich enough and generous enough, they might come out alright.

When Christians come to confession they say, “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess all my sins and iniquities.” That’s like us opening our sack wide and saying, “Look, there isn’t a darned thing in there!” Then Jesus says, “I know. That is why I suffered so much. But I did it for you because I love you and want you to be forgiven and blessed forever.” Through the office of the keys, the authority to forgive sinners that has been given to the Church, the pastor of fellow Christian is authorized to forgive sins. Therefore it is Jesus who is speaking when the sinner hears, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Thereby the pauper is made into a prince—literally. The sinner is given adoption as a child of God. We do not confess our sins so that we can explain how we used to sin, but now are on the mend. We do not confess our sins to merit our forgiveness through the humiliation of revealing our secrets. We confess our sins because we are as poor as poor can be, but we know of a treasure that’s being handed out for free!

We do not outgrow the forgiveness of sins. We do not outgrow the cross. We remain beggars, but we have a benefactor who is rich!

200216 Sermon on Luke 8:4-15 (Sexagesima) February 16, 2020

200216 Sermon on Luke 8:4-15 (Sexagesima) February 16, 2020

Harvest is a time of judgment. The amount of the harvest determines the judgment. If the harvest is bountiful, then the judgments will be positive. The farmer did a good job in planting and tending the crop. The weather was cooperative. When the harvest is scant, then the judgments will be negative. Something bad happened along the way. Perhaps the seed was planted too deeply or too shallowly. Perhaps there was too much rain or not enough. These are explanations that might be used when a farmer goes out into his field in the fall to see what is there.

Because harvest is a time of judgment, it is used in several instances in the Bible to describe the final judgement—when all people will be judged. Those who are worthy of it, will be congregated into heaven. Those who are unworthy will be cast into the outer darkness, the unquenchable fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Who, then, is worthy? Nobody is worthy of eternal life. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of us deserve to have hell as our eternal home rather than heaven. But because God loved us from eternity, he planned for our redemption and salvation. He sent his eternally begotten Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, died on the cross, and was buried. The third day he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father. In this way atonement was made for our sin. Jesus suffered and died and bore God’s wrath. It fell upon him so that it might not fall upon us.

You are quite familiar with these wondrous facts. These are the things that have been done to work our forgiveness and the forgiveness of the whole world. But this is not the end of the story. As Christ sits at the right hand of the Father—the position of authority—he reigns and rules as King in a spiritual kingdom. This spiritual kingdom does not consist of weapons or courthouses. It consists of the preaching of the Gospel—the Good News of forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation in Jesus’s name. Jesus causes his Word to go out over all the earth. It is by faith in the word of promise that we receive what Jesus did on Good Friday and Easter to make us worthy of eternal life. Good Friday and Easter are followed by Pentecost. Pentecost is when the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ was made known. The Holy Spirit created faith in those who heard it. That is when their eternal life as the children of God began.

Although the times and circumstances have been altered a bit, the same is true for you. Your eternal life began when you were given a promise from God that you would be saved. For most of you, this happened when you were baptized, for I believe that most of you were baptized as babies. This Word from God to you did what it said by the power that is in that Word. When you were baptized, you received adoption as God’s child by being baptized into Jesus, God’s Son. To use the language of Jesus’s parable—the seed was sown.

What has happened to that seed? Into what kind of soil was that seed sown? Will that seed come to maturity so that it produces a bountiful harvest? It might seem as though Jesus’s parable is designed to lead us into uncertainty. Who, after all, has been able to withstand all the tests that have been made to one’s faith? Who has not had their energy sapped for making money and keeping money—trying to make our earthly life as pleasant as possible? The yield, therefore, has suffered, just as surely as a hailstorm takes its toll on a soybean field. Jesus’s parable can sound as though we should wonder about ourselves—whether there will be anything left come harvest time.

Understanding Jesus’s parable this way is not totally wrong, but it is mostly wrong. We seem to have a perception about faith, deeply planted within us, where we think that doubting and struggle is good. We think that a tortured faith is commendable. Therefore, among Christians, there is a common mistaken notion that we should not be sure of our salvation because we don’t know if we will remain believing. While our reason is impressed with this kind of thing, it isn’t the way that the Bible speaks of having a strong faith.

According to the Bible we should have the faith of a child. Children are not wracked by doubt. They do not torture themselves over whether what they are told is true or not. When you tell a child that something is true, then the child will take that for granted. That is why it is so important that you do not fill a child’s head with lies, but with the truths that come from God. It is only when a child gets older that it starts to become skeptical. In the eyes of the world this is a magnificent advance, but it’s not all that impressive. It is much better to hold to God’s truth with a single-minded devotion than to wonder whether or not God might be a liar. Faith is strong, not when it doubts, but when it doesn’t doubt.

And so when it comes to how you fit in with Jesus’s parable today, you should consider yourself to be the good ground into which the seed has been sown. Why should you think that? Because you have the Word of God right in front of your noses at this very moment. As we speak, right now, you are hearing God’s will for you. As the Scriptures say, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Are you not a part of this world? The Scriptures also say that it is God’s will that all people should come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. Are you a part of that group that is called “all people?” Of course you are! Now the only question is whether or not God is lying when he says that Jesus is the Lamb of God, or when he says that it is his will that all people should be saved. Do you think God is a liar? No? Good! Then I assure you that you are good soil, for God has brought it about that you should be hearing his Word. It would not be impressive or sophisticated for you to disbelieve this. All that you would be doing is saying that God is not trustworthy.

The purpose of Jesus’s parable is not so much to describe what faith is like for you who believe, but to describe the way that God’s Word is brought to nothing by those who do not believe. Jesus says to his disciples, “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of God, but to the rest I speak in parables so that ‘even though they see they may not see, and even though they hear, they do not understand.’” You know the mysteries of God. Others do not. You know the mysteries of God because you are being told them right now, and so long as you do not reject them as untrue, then they are yours. But there are others who do not hear this Word. With the three types of soil besides the good soil, Jesus is describing these people. He is not describing you. You should be confident that God, who has begun a good work in you, will bring it to completion. You have been chosen for salvation by God. God is greater than all, and so no one can pluck you out of his hand.

It can sound as though this confidence in our salvation is presumptuous. Who are we to say that we will be able to maintain our faith? But that only makes sense if you think that your faith is your own accomplishment, that it is the part that you play in bringing about your salvation. That’s not how your salvation works. It’s not that God does his part, and now you’ve got to do your part. Rather, God has done everything for your salvation. Then he comes to you and says, “Here, this is for you. Christ’s redemption, the adoption as a child of God—this is for you.” Faith is nothing other than saying, “Amen. This is for me. Yes, yes, it shall be so.”

Mysteriously, there are those who hear this Word, but do not believe it. Likewise, there are others who believe it for a while, but then something happens. They have to choose between the truth of God and the lies of men or of the devil. They choose the lies rather than the truth. Others believe, but they get sapped of all their strength. Their heart clings to things besides this promise God makes to them.

Perhaps these kinds of things described you at some time in your past, or yesterday, or even this morning. But you should not consider this to be you anymore, nor should you trouble yourself with wondering whether this will be you in the future. Jesus is sowing his seed right now. He is causing you to hear that Jesus died for you. For his sake, you are forgiven. He gives you his body and his blood, by which you were redeemed, to eat and to drink. He says this is the New Testament—this is the new arrangement between God and you—the nature of this arrangement is that God forgives you for Jesus’s sake. Sin, death, the devil, hell—none of these things can harm you. You are his and he is yours.

Jesus is saying this to each and every one of you right now. How can you know this is for you? Because he has made it so that you hear it. There are a lot of people who are not here right now. There are a lot of people still lying in their beds. There are a lot of people who do not want to be here and so they are somewhere else. You are here. What I’ve said to you I have not made up for myself. I’m only telling you what God has said to his prophets and apostles in the Scriptures. Those Scriptures tell me and all other Christians that I am supposed to say this to you. This is not my Word and Sacraments. These are God’s Word and Sacraments. You lucky duck: God has brought it about that you should receive it! God is faithful. I know that he will see you through—all the way to the grave—keeping you in the true faith, for he will keep sowing the seed, bringing the Word to you.

I’d like you to notice what a difference there is between believing God when he speaks on the one hand and doubting whether you believe or will continue to believe on the other. When you believe that salvation is yours because God tell you so and God does not lie, then you can be happy. Why shouldn’t you be happy? The most sublime gift there ever was, the most valuable gift there ever was, has been given to you even though you are a poor, miserable sinner. You know this because God says it to you in his Word and Sacraments. This mentality is very different from the misguided Christian who thinks that doubt is an essential ingredient to faith.

The misguided Christian wrings his hands and wonders whether his faith will hold out or not. This leads to a ridiculous situation where God, through his Word and Sacraments, tells the Christian that his salvation is for the Christian. He says, “Here, this is for you,” but this misguided Christian says, “Well, I don’t know! Who’s to say whether or not I’ll hold on to it in the future?” God says, “Here, take it!” But the misguided Christian says, “I don’t know—there’s a whole bunch of people who haven’t believed. Who’s to say whether I believe it or will continue to believe it?” This hemming and hawing might make for a good novel or a good movie. Our stupid reason thinks it is ever so deep and clever. But I think it has to annoy God to no end. It is so foolish.

Do you want to know if you are forgiven? Then come to me or to any other Christian. Tell them that you are a sinner. If there is some sin that Satan keeps throwing up in your face, then you can tell them about that too. Then ask them to use the authority to forgive sins that Jesus has given to them. Then, when they tell you that you are forgiven for Jesus’s sake, believe them. The forgiveness a Christian or a pastor gives is Jesus’s forgiveness, because he’s the one who told us to do it.

And keep coming to church. Start coming to Bible study. Are you interested in listening to a podcast? I could suggest a couple of them to you. That is to say, don’t cut yourself off from the Word. If you cut yourself off from the Word, then you do not and cannot believe. Unbelievers who want to pretend that they are believers, even though they do not listen to God, will get upset at me saying this. So be it. If anybody does not want to hear God talking to them, then let them go their way. As for you, rejoice that God has revealed your salvation to you by his Word and Sacraments. That’s a pretty good deal.

200209 Sermon on Matthew 20:1-16 (Septuagesima) February 9, 2020

200209 Sermon on Matthew 20:1-16 (Septuagesima) February 9, 2020

The parable we are considering today is difficult. It stands in sharp conflict with the way that we normally operate. It is similar in this way to another of Jesus’s parables—the parable of the unjust steward. In that parable there is a manager of his master’s business who was accused of mismanaging funds. The boss tells him that he is done. He needs to turn in the books. But before he turns in the books he writes down the debts that are owed to his master so that he can become friends with these debtors. Then when he is put out by his master, he has a shot at being taken in by the debtors whom he helped out. This, frankly, is fraud. He should go to prison for it. But his master does not call the police. He praises his manager for being shrewd. This is an extremely odd way of doing business.

We have a very odd way of doing business in our parable today too. The owner of the vineyard goes out to hire workers at 6:00 in the morning. He tells them that he will pay them a fair day’s wage—a denarius. This must have been fair enough, for the workers willingly come to work. Then he goes out at about 9:00. He sees others who have nothing to do. He tells them to go to his vineyard and he will pay them what is right. He goes out at noon and at 3:00 and does the same thing. Then, at 5:00 in the afternoon, one hour before quitting time, he goes out again and finds more people who have nothing to do. He sends them into the vineyard as well.

When it’s quitting time the owner tells his foreman to pay the workers beginning with the last and up to the first. Those hired at 5:00 got a denarius. So does everybody else. It doesn’t matter if they worked 1, 3, 6, 9, or 12 hours. They are all paid the same. They all get what the workers agreed to at 6:00 in the morning. What gives?

Jesus’s parable will not work very well as a business model. What do you suppose would happen at the marketplace the next day? I don’t think the owner of the vineyard would find very many workers at 6:00 in the morning. I bet there’d be a whole bunch of people one hour before quitting time. If a man can get paid the same for doing one hour of work versus 12 hours of work, then which do you think he would pick?

Self-interest—the looking out for one’s self—is baked into the way that we naturally and normally think. This way of thinking is frustrated by these two parables. The boss of the unjust steward should look out for himself and therefore call the police rather than giving compliments. The owner of the vineyard should look out for himself and pay his workers with as little wages as he is able to get away with. His generosity irritates the workers who worked all day long, sweating in the heat. Their looking out for themselves tells them that they should have the stuff that was given to those who did not work as much as they did.

So what is the alternative to looking out for one’s self? The alternative is to be free. What does it mean to be free? Being free means that whether you are compensated or recognized or rewarded is not important. It is neither here nor there. You are not working for the reward, but for the sake of the work itself—whether there is a reward or not.

Let’s apply this to the parable at hand. A worker who is free would be satisfied with the work that he was doing in the vineyard without regard to how he was being compensated. The worker works because the work is good. End of story. Being rewarded or compensated is good and enjoyable, but this worker is willing to forgo that pleasure. That means that the worker is free. The worker who is not free is going to count out every penny and will not be satisfied with anything that is not according to his standards. The one worker is free. He is not looking out for himself. The other is not free. He is a slave to his own advancement. The worker who is free from the need of promoting himself is able to look on with happiness at the goodness of the owner that came to that worker who only worked one hour. He can recognize the generosity that is in it. The worker who is not free can’t help but be envious. He wants that money for himself, and even has a pretty convincing argument for why it should be his rather than going to that lazy fellow who only worked an hour.

Another way of saying that a person can be free from seeking after his own good is to say that he is free with regard to justice. Justice means that a person gets what he or she deserves. Everybody has a right to justice—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But if we want, we can give up our claims to justice. We can say, “No, that’s okay. I don’t need compensation.” If someone has done wrong to you, then you have the right to have that injustice corrected one way or another. But you don’t have to exercise that right. You can forgive instead of demanding justice.

Consider these words of Jesus from his sermon on the mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evildoer. If someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone wants to sue you to take away your shirt, give him your coat too. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.”

What we learn from Jesus’s words here is very different from the way that we naturally or normally think. Instead of looking out for ourselves, we are urged to look out for the other person. But there’s more. We are not only to look out for the other person who is good and nice to us, we are to look out for the good of the one who has been harmful to us. We are to relinquish our claims for justice and give and for-give instead.

Let’s apply this to another scenario. Husbands and wives can’t help but wrong one another. If we weren’t sinners, then we wouldn’t do this, but since we are sinners, we can’t help it. Your spouse is going to do things that you don’t like. This might very well entitle you to some justice. The rationale might go something like this, “Since he spent money on something that he wanted, then I’m entitled to spend money on something I want, even though I know that he will not like it.” Or, “She didn’t do this nice thing for me, so I will not do this nice thing for her.” These claims for just compensation for the wrongs of the other are extremely dangerous. Beware! Vicious circles are bound to develop where the punishment gets punished by the other person in turn. Lists of grievances start to take shape in the minds of husband and wife. These grievances have the power to end the marriage—if not by divorce, then by estrangement from one another while living in the same house.

What is the alternative? The alternative is to relinquish your claims for justice. Give and forgive. If your spouse does something that you do not like, do not hold it against them. Do not punish them for it. Do not create mental lists of their wrong-doings. Do not gossip with your friends about it. If you need to talk to somebody about it, then talk to God about it. Ask him for the grace to love this person who has hurt you—to do good to them, rather than requiring an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Now what do you call someone who does nice things for you even though you have not done nice things to them? Do you not call someone like that “good”? Do you not all want to have someone who would love you in such a way? You have the opportunity to be that good person for your spouse, or your parent, or your boss, or your friend. You have been set free to love as God loves. God does not give out his goodness according to whether the recipient is worthy. If he did that, then nobody would have anything but his wrath and punishment. Instead he gives freely and generously even to those who despise him. That is how we, as Christians, should be too.

But we need a lot of help in this regard. Nobody has to teach us to look out for ourselves and our own interests. We’ve done that naturally from the time that we were born. Loving those who have not deserved our love—that is not natural, but rather supernatural. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit to become God’s children, and therefore, as his children, to be somewhat like a chip off the old block in the way that we deal with people. We need help and encouragement to put away our flesh’s objections to this way of living. Whenever we sacrifice for somebody else or relinquish our right for justice, then we will hear a nagging in our heads that says this is a very unwise thing to do. The nagging will say that if we sacrifice like this, then we will become a doormat. If we give up our rights to justice, then nothing will be left to us. If we don’t fight for our wages, then we’ll end up working for free. If I allow my spouse to go on doing things that annoy me, then they will only do more and more annoying stuff. I won’t be able to take all this sacrificing and serving!

These are reasonable fears. Worldly shrewdness predicts that we will be miserable, and, indeed, something of this misery might come with it. We are not yet perfectly sanctified and our sinful flesh will noisily protest. But we have not been left without help. We have a God above. When we are out of resources, who can replenish them? Or do you believe that your goodness and blessing come from you and your works and your shrewdness? No, all that we have comes from God. If we get worn out and run down and at the end of our rope, then we can turn to the Father of Lights, the Giver of all good things. We can ask him for our daily bread and believe that he will provide it day by day.

Our faith is exercised when we give and forgive and do not have much for ourselves. We have to rely on God to replenish our love, our energy, our patience, our generosity. But God is trustworthy. Try him out. Give and serve and sacrifice. See if he doesn’t fill you up. Jesus says that Christians become like ever-flowing springs. Nobody knows where the water comes from. It just keeps bubbling up out of nowhere. So also, with the gift of love given by the Holy Spirit, Christians are set free from their slavery to themselves to love others. When it seems like it is impossible to keep loving and serving and sacrificing, the ability to do so is given by God. Christians do not just believe the miracles that are recorded in the bible. Christians believe that miracles of faith and sanctification happen every day to them and their fellow Christians.

Jesus concludes our parable today by saying, “The last will be first and the first will be last.” Those who give and who relinquish their right to justice and do not look out for themselves look like they are last. They look like they are the losers in this game of life. But the truth is that they are first. When they are living by faith in God’s promises, they come to learn the goodness of God. There is nothing higher or better than love. Love never ends. The stuff and the riches and the memories of this world will cease. God, who is love, is eternal. God gives this gift of love to his Christians so that they are set free to love others instead of just themselves. “The last will be first.”

On the other hand, “the first will be last.” Those who cut a good figure for themselves, those who fight for every last penny, those who demand justice for themselves, those who look down on others who are not as good as them—these are the successful people in a worldly sense. They know how to run a business. They know how not to be short changed. But they know nothing about taking up their cross and following Jesus. In fact, they are enemies of this way of life. They teach that this will not lead to blessedness and success. For that, they say, you need to look out for yourself. They act as though this is some great wisdom, but this is the philosophy that even a hog understands and lives by.

Therefore, pluck up your courage to love, to serve, to sacrifice, to relinquish your right to justice. You will not be disappointed.

200202 Sermon on Exodus 3:1-14 Matthew 17:1-9 (Transfiguration) February 2, 2020

200202 Sermon on Exodus 3:1-14 Matthew 17:1-9 (Transfiguration) February 2, 2020

I’d like to begin today by speaking about the word, “mundane.” We don’t use this word a great deal, but I’m sure you’ve heard it. The way that it is used today is to describe something that is ordinary, dull, and boring. Taking out the garbage is mundane. Doing the dishes is mundane. Bunge jumping or sky diving are not mundane. Those activities are thrilling.

So the way that we use the word “mundane” is as a synonym for “boring.” But there is more to this word than just “boring.” “Mundane” comes from the Latin word “mundus” which means “world.” “Mundane” means “world-like,” as in “that’s the way things go in this world.” The opposite of “mundane” would be “other-worldly.” Here you can perhaps think of aliens or spirits or gods or out-of-body experiences. Such things are not mundane. They are very much out of the ordinary.

Ever since we were knee high to a grasshopper we have all been taught that mundane things are the only things that exist. Anything that is other-worldly is myth and fairy tale. The most powerful institutions in our society insist on this point of view as being the only acceptable one. Our whole education apparatus teaches that only what is physical and material and natural is true. The entertainment industry also takes this for granted. Other-worldly ideas might be used for plotlines, but everybody knows that that is just for fun. Spirits and superheroes and all kinds of mythical creatures do not actually exist.

The things that we are surrounded by can’t help but leave their effect on us. When our culture says that the only things that exist are the things that we can touch and test and see, then this gets into our bloodstream. This has its effect on the way that we understand the Scriptures as well. A lot of Christians for a long time have wondered what is happening to our Christian churches. They are all shrinking. And they wonder what we should do about it. It’s not just the music that is keeping people away. There is something much deeper. People don’t believe that the things that are talked about in the Scriptures are actually possible. They believe that reality is mundane. They don’t believe that God interacts with his creation the way that the Bible describes him interacting with it. According to them, believing in this stuff is like believing in aliens or mythical creatures.

Lots of dreams have been dreamed about how we might fix this problem for the Christian Church. It’s not something that can be fixed by any earthly means. There is no curriculum or program that can make anybody believe. The only way anybody is going to believe is by the grace of the almighty Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit making us believe, we inevitably will believe that mundane reality is where we have our hope, rather than in God. It is part and parcel of our idolatrous hearts that we should look to the things of creation for our wisdom, help, and blessing, rather than to our Creator. Unbelief is not unusual or impressive. It’s the darkness that all people are stuck in, unless God, in his grace, should shine his light on us.

What is this light? We have a couple of impressive lightenings in our Old Testament and Gospel readings today. In the Old Testament God spoke to Moses from the midst of a burning fire, surrounding a bush, but the bush itself was not consumed from the flames. He said, “Moses! Moses!” Moses said, “I’m here.” God said, “Humble yourself. You are standing in the midst of holiness. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your forefathers.” This was God’s invitation to Moses to believe in him. He announced himself as God to Moses so that Moses might know him, listen to him, and follow him. The bush being on fire and yet not being consumed is something impressive, but it is nothing compared to the enlightenment that took place within Moses’s heart. The darkness of unbelief, doubt, and despair was replaced with the light of God.

In our Gospel reading Peter, James, and John learned more about their teacher, Jesus, than they already knew. Jesus turns dazzlingly white—white like lightning—so that the disciples could not bear to look at him. Moses and Elijah came. Luke, in his Gospel, tells us what they were talking about. He says that they were discussing Jesus’s departure that he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. This means that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were speaking about his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This resembles God’s call to Moses, but in a higher and better way. By this conversation God is speaking to the three disciples. This is the God of their forefathers. This is the God who will redeem and save them by the sacrifice of his Son on the cross. A God who loves and therefore saves all the way down to emptying himself completely in death and damnation is a God worthy of trust.

But some rather mundane thoughts entered into Peter’s head at this point. Peter was reminded of Mt. Sinai, where God showed his glory and gave the Old Testament people the tabernacle with it cloud of his presence that went before them. “Aha,” Peter thought, “Here we have the greater culmination in the Glory of God’s Son! Here we have the Temple of all temples. Let’s institute a worship and a religion.” But before Peter could get all his words out God put a stop to his philosophizing. There was to be no more holy mountains or particular worship practices like there were in the Old Testament. There is a New Testament here in Jesus’s blood. It is shed for the forgiveness of sins. Instead of tents and vestments, there would be shameful nakedness on the cross. Instead of the sacrifice of sheep and goats, there would be the sacrifice of the God-man Jesus Christ. God did not allow Peter to go on with his mundane thoughts, but directed him to Jesus—“listen to him,” he says, rather than to your own thoughts.

These instances, where God invites and creates faith by revealing himself to people, are examples for us that we should believe as they did. But perhaps you are wondering about the unusualness of these examples. There were unusual signs that accompanied both of these lightenings. What about us when we don’t have unusual signs? This is something important for us to learn. The Bible tells us about some unusual things that have happened. It doesn’t tell us as much about the hundreds of thousands of people who believed in a way that is very similar to us. Generation after generation of God’s people were content to believe the revelation of God that was passed down to them. This was something that began already with Adam. Adam, as the head of the household, taught what God had revealed to him to his family. Seth, his son, did likewise. So it has been through the ages.

The Scriptures are records of God’s revelation that have been written down as God revealed and inspired them to their authors. The Scriptures are given to us in order to teach, in order to invite faith in the God who reveals himself in them. When and where it pleases the Holy Spirit, he creates faith in those who hear this revelation. What happens to us when we believe in God, is no less important or impressive than what happened with the stories that we’ve considered today. We believe in the same God as Moses, Peter, James, and John did. The God who helped and redeemed them is the same God who helps and redeems us. We are very much like them.

In fact, just as the people in the Bible had prophesies which had not yet come to pass, so it is also with us. The most important prophesy—the prophesy concerning the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus—has come to pass. This is what the people of God were waiting for before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But the Scriptures also tell us that Jesus will come again on the clouds with power and great glory, with all the angels with him. Then the dead together with those who are still alive will all be judged. To you who believe in him and are baptized he will give everlasting life. Those who do not believe will be condemned to hell—the place that we all deserve to go, but Jesus has redeemed us by his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.

When these things come to pass, we will behold almost infinitely greater things than the impressive sights and sounds that we hear about in the Bible. There is a very common defect among Christians where they read the Bible as though it is about other people, and nothing even close to being so exciting could ever happen to them. Our tendency to think that life is mundane gets the better of us. We think that this life with its various activities, seasons and times is the only life there is. Anything other-worldly is put out of mind if not outright rejected.

This is not true. The Scriptures are like a lamp shining in the dark place of our hearts. The Scriptures reveal to us how things truly are and what things will be like when they come to pass. Just as Moses heard God speak from the burning bush, so also you will hear God. Just as Peter, James, and John saw Jesus with the glory of his divinity being made manifest, so also you will see Jesus in his glory. In fact, all people will see God, without exception, even as all people must give answer to God for the life that has been lived on this earth.

But we do not need to wait until we die or are resurrected from the dead to hear and to know God. God has brought it about that you should be invited to believe in him already now. God has introduced himself to you as your God and made wonderful statements about who you are and how you are in Jesus. He gives us signs to believe in him. He baptizes us with his name, making us his adopted children. He speaks to us when we read his Scriptures and when we hear people teach and preach according to that Word. He gives us Jesus’s very body and true blood in the Sacrament of the altar. The body and blood that was sacrificed for our atonement and reconciliation with God is given to us to eat and to drink. Jesus himself tells us what this is all about. This is his body given for you. This cup is the New Testament, the new arrangement between God and mankind, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Mundane thoughts can easily enter in here, just as it was with Peter. We are prone to think, “Isn’t this just a religion? Isn’t this just something that is earthly and doesn’t really have to do with God so much? After all, almost anybody has access to these things.” That is not how we should think . We should think of God’s Word and Sacraments as God speaking to us just as truly and individually as he spoke to Moses. To understand how this can be, that God has and continues to speak to you as an individual, you must understand how God is in control of all things. It is no accident that you were baptized. It is no accident that you are a member of this congregation. It is no accident that you are here today. The one behind all of these things is God. God has brought you here. There are plenty of people who have not been blessed with God’s Word and Sacrament as you have, as you surely know, but you have. God could certainly rip heaven open and speak to you from above, scaring you to death, if he so desired, but he has given us an ordinary way of making himself known to us. This ordinary way of dealing with is very much biblical, for God only works in an extraordinary way when such action is necessary.

Realize that your life is far from mundane. God has spoken to you so that you may know him as he knows you. When you die, you shall meet your Maker, not in terror, but as his redeemed and ransomed child. Then he will speak with you in what is an ordinary way for that life—face to face, beholding his glory. You are bound for an other-worldly life together with Jesus. If people don’t want to believe that, then fine, but know that they are rejecting God’s calling to them. It’s as though God were speaking to Moses and he turned away—assuming that this were some mirage. His eyes and his ears were playing tricks with him. So also in hearing God speak to you today there are 1001 ways to deflect this message so that it does not take root. But it is his voice whether it is believed or not. Therefore, believe it and make use of it. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart, but rather believe that God is your Father who has saved you from all your sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.