200628 Trinity 3 Divine Service

Bulletin

200628 Trinity 3 Divine Service Recording

200628 Sermon on Luke 15:11-32

Sermon Manuscript:

In our Gospel reading the younger brother and the older brother appear to be quite different from one another. The younger brother is irresponsible. He squandered the wealth that he had received from his father. He did not worry about income and expenses. All he worried about was having a good time. The older brother stayed at home. He lived responsibly. He continued to work for his father. You don’t hear about any money troubles with him. Outwardly, therefore, the two brothers are very different.

Jesus is deliberate in framing this story in just this way, because it suits his purposes at the time. At the beginning of this chapter Luke says that all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear Jesus. The Pharisees and experts in the Law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” These two groups of people corresponds to the younger and the older brother. The tax collectors and sinners lived a very different life than the Pharisees and experts in the Law. The tax collectors and sinners were obviously irresponsible. The Pharisees and scribes were responsible.

Since we are so familiar with this parable and we know how the story ends, it is easy for us to miss the valid concern of these Pharisees. We already know the moral of the story—that everybody gets forgiven, that everybody gets saved by grace—and so we don’t notice the scandal. The scandal is that Jesus is being kind and generous to people who don’t deserve it. These people who were coming to him and eating with him were not sinners in name only. They were real sinners. They hurt people. Perhaps they hurt friends and loved ones of some of the Pharisees and scribes. The Pharisees and scribes didn’t hurt people. They did what was right.

To help the Pharisees and scribes, especially, Jesus tells this parable. He teaches them about the Law and the Gospel using picture language. Let’s deal with the Law first. The way that the Law works is that if you do good, then good things will happen to you. If you do evil, then harm will come upon you. The younger brother did evil things. When he is brought into poverty, misery, and loneliness, he is only getting the punishment that he deserves. The older brother did what was right. Good things should have (and probably did) come to him—we can see that, perhaps, in how he did not experience the difficulties of his younger brother.

At the heart of the parable, though, is that the Law doesn’t seem to be working the way that the older brother thinks it should. The younger brother ends up being accepted by the father. The younger brother ends up getting good things, even though he had not done good things. This is not how the Law works. It is a contradiction like dry water or an impossible mathematical sum. Remember how on those old calculators if you did something that the calculator couldn’t compute it said “EE?” That’s what’s going on here. The Law is being contradicted because good things are happening to someone who has done evil things.

The Gospel is quite different than the Law. The Law says, “Do this!” and it’s never done. The Gospel says, “Believe this!” and it is done already. The Gospel does not threaten or squeeze or give tit for tat. The Gospel gives. It does not look for someone who is worthy. It gives to those who are unworthy, thereby making them worthy.

In the parable this is shown by all the father’s actions. When the father sees his son afar off he hitches up his robe and starts a-running. That’s not something that old men do very often. It does not say that he opens up his arms and says, “Give me a hug, son.” Instead it says that the old man fell on his son’s neck. This is not a “keep your distance, let’s see how this turns out” kind of thing. This is a full and free giving of the father to the son. Nothing is held back.

Then the father goes all out: He orders that the best robe be taken out—maybe we would speak of a tuxedo today, to kind of get the idea, but that’s not altogether correct either because we can rent tuxedos. “Go get the clothes that are really nice and really expensive.” Meanwhile the son is standing there, skin and bones, in rags. “Put some sandals on his feet. Go get that ring, that family heirloom, and put it on his finger. Go kill that corn-fed calf that we’ve been saving for a special occasion. Here is my son, whom I love. He was lost, but is found. He was dead, but, behold, he lives.”

Horse sense says that the father’s actions are not very prudent. Anybody with common sense knows that the son should be put on some kind of probation. Otherwise, what’s to stop him from heading off to the pawn shop that night, getting some cash, and doing it all over again? But the Gospel is altogether different than the Law. With the Law you get what you deserve. According to the Law this younger son could still, perhaps, have some good coming his way, but he’s going to have to earn it. As the saying goes, “Trust is not just given, it is earned.” This is precisely what the father is not doing. He trusts his son and loads him up despite his many and grievous sins. The older sees this. He’s upset.

So what is the older son’s problem? What is he failing to understand? Obviously he does not understand and rejects the Gospel. He is against the father being gracious to his brother. But not understanding the Gospel is not his only problem. He also does not truly understand the Law either, which is not surprising. The correct understanding of the Law and the Gospel go together. If you do not rightly understand the Law, then you won’t rightly understand the Gospel either, and vice versa.

So let’s speak about the older son’s false understanding of the Law. There is a superficial understanding of the Law that says if you don’t murder, if you don’t physically sleep with someone, then you are good to go. You are a good person. You certainly aren’t like those child molesters and slave owners and tax collectors. But God has a higher standard of righteousness than mere outward conformity. Jesus speaks to this in his Sermon on the Mount. He says that you have broken the fifth commandment, not just when you have pulled the trigger. It’s not the finger’s fault when someone is murdered, it’s the evil heart—the core of man—that drives the actions. Therefore you have broken the fifth commandment with you anger. So also with adultery. Maybe you can restrain yourself outwardly, but what about the fire burning within?

The world and our reason say that the outward conformity is good enough. So long as you restrain yourself outwardly with your actions, it doesn’t matter what you might feel inwardly. Hypocrisy is good enough. This is the standard of judgment that is used to set apart the good from the bad. The good manage to live responsibly. The bad live irresponsibly. This is the way that all people naturally think.

The Scriptures speak differently. God does not just look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart. When he looks at the heart he does not see goodness and truth. He sees a foul, wicked heart. Such a person is deserving of punishment. God said, “In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.” When you quit being superficial with your judgments you will see that all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible says, “No one is righteous, no not even one!”

Accordingly, apart from the atonement of Christ’s cross, apart from the reconciliation that Jesus works between sinners and a righteous God, all people would be doomed to hell. At this point a lot of people like to sputter and scoff: “Well, if God’s like that, then I don’t want to have anything to do with him,” and so on and so forth. Too bad. He’s the God you have, and there is none other. If you want to accuse him of being mean, then go right ahead. You aren’t going to hurt his feelings.

Instead of thinking that you know better than God does, you would be much better off believing what he says and fearing his punishment. The biggest difference between the younger brother and the older brother is that the younger brother has been humbled. He has nothing left. He is lost. He is dead. There’s nothing that he can do. The older brother is proud. Punishment is the furthest thing from his mind.

But the parable reveals that he actually should fear punishment, for he deserves it. His evil heart spills over in his words to his father, who encourages him to come into the feast. The older brother hates his younger brother. He wishes him evil rather than good. He also hates his father. He thinks his father is a fool who will be hoodwinked by his brother. If he were able, he would like to rip his father from his position and have himself installed instead.

I ask you, what is squandering your inheritance compared to hating your father and your brother? The greater sinner is this blind, hypocritical, but outwardly upstanding older brother. So it will be on judgment day too. Those who have lived openly wild and rebellious lives will not be so surprised that they are going to hell. It will be those who thought that they were good people, who somewhat denied their passions, who lived relatively responsible lives, who will hate God with a loathing that is only surpassed by the devil himself. If they were able, they’d like to rip God from his throne and be installed instead as the one who has the proper knowledge of good and evil.

What is needed for this older brother is to quit being a smug hypocrite. This is, in fact, what all people need. That younger son needed it too, and it came in the form of a famine. This is what Jesus was doing with his preaching and teaching. Jesus did not neglect the Law, as Christians imagine they can get away with today. These tax collectors and sinners were smug hypocrites too until God’s standard for righteousness was held up to them and they saw that they deserved God’s punishment. The Gospel cannot be believed by people who are smug. They will prefer holding on to the fantasy of their own righteousness rather than only clinging to the cross of Christ alone as their justification before God.

But I do not believe that all of you are smug. Some of you know that you deserve God’s punishment now in this life and eternally in hell. Some of you know how you have squandered and perverted the good things that your heavenly father has given to you, and you look back on your life or the past week with regret. I don’t want you to be deprived of one of the most moving and informative pictures of the Gospel in all the Scriptures. The father whole heartedly accepts this sinner. So also God whole heartedly receives you. We who have soiled ourselves have a hard time believing that it can be so. That is why it is so necessary to preach this. If it were a matter of going on probation, of making it up to God, of being his slave instead of his son—that we can understand and accept, but that is not the way that God is.

This is why we have God’s gift of preaching. Jesus is still active. He searches out his lost sheep. He does this through all those who make his Word and will known. By the preaching and testimony of Christians the Holy Spirit converts people so that they do not hold on to silly fantasies that cannot save them, but rather to their heavenly Father who loves them—their heavenly Father who has made things right by his all-availing sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood on the cross.

One Christian writer described the nature of the Gospel ministry that has been given to all Christians in a memorable way. He said that we Christians are like beggars who tell other beggars where they can get some good bread. It has pleased God that I should be called to serve you as your pastor these past ten years. In the course of my work, there are a lot of things I have to say. There are a lot of things I have to teach. But all of it is for the sake of telling you that I, as a beggar, know where there’s some good stuff. God’s gifts of salvation are here for you. It pleases me when people think of their heavenly Father with the images of this parable—of the Father falling upon your neck, the Father receiving and even honoring you. This is not just some wish on my part, but the way it really is, for Jesus has made it so. God has humbled you. Now he exalts you. See to it, though, that you do not look down on your fellow beggars. Point them in the right direction instead.

200621 Trinity 2

200621 Trinity 2 Bulletin

200621 Trinity 2 Divine Service

200621 Sermon on 1 John 3:13

Sermon manuscript:

The apostle John says at the beginning of our reading: “Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.” Let’s first understand who he is talking about. There are two groups of people here: “brothers” and “the world.” When John says, “brothers,” he is referring to Christians. He is not excluding women when he says “brothers,” as it might seem. He uses the word “brothers” because all Christians receive the adoption of sonship when they are baptized into Jesus. Baptism is a union with Jesus whereby all Christians, male and female, receive Jesus’s status before God. The only way that anybody can be a child of God is by being born again with the water and the word of Baptism. All Christians are one in Christ, God’s Son. Therefore, when John says, “brothers,” he is not excluding women or girls. He is referring to all those who are baptized into Christ and through their relationship with Jesus have become children of God.

The other group of people that the apostle John refers to is “the world.” This word has a special meaning in Scripture that isn’t exactly the same as how the word might be used by someone who is unfamiliar with the Scriptures. What is meant by “the world” are those people who remain in their original sin, who are not converted, and who therefore retain all the traits that come naturally to us all according to our sinful flesh. These traits would be selfishness, fear, suspicion, cynicism, lying, sneaking,  and so on. Christians, as well as unbelievers, have to contend with these traits, because all people are born in sin.

However, in those who believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit does not let these traits of the flesh go on unhindered. The Holy Spirit fights against these evil natural impulses. He draws us towards the opposite of these traits, such as faith, hope, love, honesty, kindness, and so on. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit, those who do not believe, are left to themselves with their sinful flesh. These are the people John refers to as being “the world.”

So another way that you could say what John says here is: “Do not be surprised, Christians, when those who are unconverted hate you.”

Here we have something to chew on. Whenever something strikes us as strange in the Scriptures we do well to stop and consider it. What John says here is something that our modern church culture does not understand. Those who are unconverted will hate those who are converted. The world will hate us if we are indeed converted, if we are indeed Jesus’s brothers.

The standard operating procedure for practically all Christian churches for a very long time has been that we want to make it impossible for anyone to hate us. We want everybody in the community to say that we are the best church in town, and that only a fool would say anything bad about us. How different this is from the way that Jesus’s closest disciple, John, speaks. It’s as though he wants to comfort us with our troubles by saying that we shouldn’t be surprised—this is just how it goes—the world hates Christians.

Since the common understanding among us is so different from what John says, we have a lot to learn here. I’d like to start to get at it by trying to answer two questions with this sermon today: (1) why does the world hate us Christians? and (2) what should we Christians do about it?

For answering the question of why the world hates us Christians, it is helpful to hear what John says just before our reading today. Our reading began with verse 13. Here is verse 11 and following: “This is the message you have heard from the beginning: Love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own works were evil, while those of his brother were righteous.” Then we have the verse that we are especially considering today: “Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.”

So what John is saying is that we Christians are in a similar situation as Abel found himself in with his brother Cain. Let’s briefly review this story from Genesis chapter 4. Cain was Adam and Eve’s first born son. Abel was their second born son. When these two brothers offered sacrifices to God, Abel’s sacrifice was found to be more acceptable than Cain’s. This made Cain angry. Cain was warned that he should control his anger, but didn’t. One day he went out to the field with his brother and killed him. The first human being born on this earth in the natural way ended up being a murderer. This tells us something about our human nature.

So what can we learn from this about why the world hates us Christians? John tells us. He says that Cain’s works were evil, while his brother’s works (Abel’s works) were righteous. Cain couldn’t stand the sight of his brother, because whenever he looked at his brother he saw his own judgment and condemnation.

Now it might seem that Cain was angry just at his brother Abel for being the way that he was, but that is not true. Cain is angry with God and the judgment that God has rendered upon him with his Word. We can see this if we do a thought experiment here.

Suppose that everything happened just the way that Moses tells us it happened, but with this one change: Suppose that Abel took the side of his brother Cain. Suppose that even though Abel’s sacrifice was better than his brother’s that Abel said, “No, God, you shouldn’t say that. I’m going to stick with my brother Cain. The way that Cain has been living is just fine. Who are you, God, to judge what’s right or wrong?” If Abel had joined his brother Cain in his rebellion against God, in his hatred against God, then Abel and Cain would have been friends. They would have been on the same side. So Cain’s anger is not so much against Abel as it is against God. It is only because Abel doesn’t abandon God and side with Cain that makes Cain see Abel as his enemy. Cain hates Abel, because Abel remains faithful to God’s Word rather than being faithful to his brother.

Here we can see the answer for why the world hates Christians. The world hates Christians because Christians do not take their side. If Christians told everybody that everything that they were doing was just swell, and they should keep it up, then how could the world hate such people? It is when Christians remain faithful to God’s judgments against wickedness that those who do wickedness get upset. So the reason why the world hates Christians is not just because they don’t like the person. It is because they don’t like the God who is shining forth in such a person.

Now that we know why the world hates Christians, let’s consider our second question: what should we do about it? One option has already been laid out. We could switch sides. Any Christian who abandons God’s judgments that others find offensive will quickly find that they are seen as kind and welcoming by those who do not believe. But if we do this, then we will no longer be Christians. We’d actually be God’s enemies, raging against his judgments like Cain did.

While this seems like it should be an unacceptable option that no Christian would actually go for, that isn’t the case. The history of God’s people, as it is recorded in the Bible, shows that they are always sorely tempted to side with the world. And this makes sense from a certain perspective. Abel would have had a much better quality of life if he would have given up on God’s judgments. His quality of life would have been much better because Cain wouldn’t have killed him.

That’s how it always is for God’s people. If you pretend that you know nothing of God’s Word, that you know nothing of God’s commandments, and that whatever your friends and family decide to do is a-okay with you, then you will have a better quality of life—at least during this earthly life. But if you correct a mocker or warn a wicked person, as it says in our Old Testament reading from Proverbs, then watch out. You will be inviting insults, abuse, and hatred upon yourself.

But this course of action is not without cost either. In fact, the cost is as steep as steep can be! When Christians do this, they are abandoning the battle field against the devil. They are essentially quitting. Nobody can be saved when God’s Word is brought to nothing—when it is silenced, or reinterpreted, or ignored, or whatever else. The way that sinners are saved is by repenting of their wickedness, that is to say, by fearing God’s judgment, and yet to draw near to him because of the promise of forgiveness for Jesus’s sake. Being saved by repenting for sin and believing in God’s mercy is the way that the whole Bible speaks of all God’s people. This is the only way that anybody will be saved until the end of this world.

So if we just quit—if we won’t stand by God’s judgments that condemn ourselves as well as everybody else—then there is no hope of salvation. The Gospel will have been taken away entirely. Instead of churches preaching God’s Word, they will become mutual appreciation societies, where everybody slaps each other on the back and says what jolly good fellows they all are. This is the opposite of preaching Christ, and him crucified. This is the devil, dressing himself up as an angel of light.

Therefore, we have to remain faithful to God’s judgments, which do good by bringing sinners into sorrow and repentance. This necessarily means that the world will hate us, as the apostle John says, for repentance does not come naturally to us. But not all the world will hate us, for some of them will be converted. There is no such thing as a Christian who resents the sharp word that was spoken to them that exposed his or her sin. All Christians are glad whenever they think back on that person who cared about them enough to say what was difficult to say, or do what was difficult to do.

Solomon also comments on this in our Old Testament reading. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One (that is, Jesus) is understanding. The one who is wise receives rebuke and instruction and becomes wiser still. It is needful for us to keep this in mind, for we are not yet dead. And it may be, that God sends a wise reprove into our life. We must not fly off the handle and go off in a huff when that happens. Let it bring about fear of the Lord’s judgment in you. Then it will do you good. Then you will look to our crucified Lord Jesus, not as someone you can take or leave, but as the one whom you need to save you from hell, where you’d otherwise rightly go.

Therefore, in reaction to the world’s hatred against us Christians, we must continue to remain faithful to God and his Word. But how do we deal with these people who get so angry with us that they might even want to kill us? Here, too, we need to have our ears wide open, for the Bible does not speak as we might naturally think. Jesus has a lot to say about this. He says that when we are struck on one cheek, we are to turn, so that they might strike the other as well. Whoever sues us for our cloak, we should give them our garment as well. Do not curse those who persecute you. Bless those who persecute you. Do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good.

We could continue to go on with these instructions to us Christians at some length, but we’ve already heard enough to get the idea. We are to love our enemies. Enemies, by definition, want to hurt you. Therefore we are to love those who hurt us. We are even to be kind and generous to them—giving them the wealth that we have worked hard to collect for ourselves. This surely does not mean that we lie to them or alter God’s Word for them so that we take their side over and against God. That would not be kind at all, for how else can they be saved except through the Word of truth? But otherwise we are to yield to them, even giving up our life for their sake if it should come to that. The willingness to give up everything, even our own life, for our neighbor, is not something unusual for us as Christians. It is simply following in the way of our Master.

This is something that is impossible for flesh and blood, but all things are possible with God. May God grant us the Holy Spirit towards this end.

Trinity 1 Matins Service--ACH! I did it again! Sorry, no audio!

Beginning this Sunday Peace Lutheran Church, Oelwein, will begin service at 8:30 in the sanctuary. The radio transmitter will be transmitting the service at 106.7 fm. Those who would like to worship in the parking lot are asked to pull up to the doors in order to get bulletins and hymnals for their car. These hymnals may either be returned at the front door after the service. You may also keep the hymnal in your car if you are planning on continuing to use the radio service in the parking lot. 

You may print off a bulletin beforehand, if you like. Here is the link: 200614 Trinity 1 Matins. 

Note that this is formatted for legal paper. If you print it on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, it will probably shrink the text.

Also beginning this Sunday Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Independence, will begin service at 10:30 in the sanctuary. The council has decided to refrain from singing for the time being. Therefore, this service with the hymns will be spoken.

A recording of the service at Peace will be made available as soon as possible, as it has been in the past.

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I'm sorry, but I forgot to turn on the recorder again. I have a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time, so if there is anything new I'm likely to forget what I'm supposed to do. I'm sorry. I will try to do better!

Here's a manuscript of the sermon:

The rich man in our Gospel reading today ended up being very dissatisfied with the congregation that he had had while he was alive. The congregation’s task is to use the Word of God so that those who hear him are led in the right way that brings them to eternal life. Evidently this rich man either wasn’t well led or he wasn’t listening. We see him in torment in hell. The suffering is so bad that he wants Lazarus to give him just a drop of water for some soothing relief. Had this man known what awaited him he would have lived very differently from the way he had.

So why did this rich man’s congregation fail him? We are not told, but it is not difficult to understand how this could have happened. All that is needed is to consider how difficult it always is to preach the Word of God rightly. The Word of God always meets resistance. We see this even with outstanding preachers like Moses. God even did many signs through Moses, but the people were always stiff necked. Discipline was carried out on the Israelites with severe punishments, but they still wouldn’t quit resisting.

Another example of this kind of thing is with the high places that the Israelites could never seem to get rid of. The best kings and the best prophets would bring about reforms so that the Word of God was preached more faithfully and often among the people, but no matter how impressive their accomplishments might have been otherwise, they could never get rid of those high places. Solomon, in his old age, even set up some of these high places. How come they can’t get rid of these idols?

Answer: the people liked them. If the prophets and the kings would have gone after these things to root them out, they would have had hell to pay. So-and-so’s grandpa had put up that high place or worked on it or who knows what else. To attack the high places was to attack the sentimentality and traditions that had been built up for many years. So it just gets left alone. If there happens to be someone bold enough to slaughter other people’s sacred cows, then they are going to have troubles. They are going to be fastened to a cross. There’s no telling if they will make it out alive.

We see this is so in the Bible. The hard life that Moses had to live was because he didn’t just live and let live. He confronted sin, faithlessness, or injustice wherever it happened to show up. It didn’t matter if the people liked it or not. He wasn’t determining his actions by what was considered popular. That made him all too often unpopular. In fact, many, most, or perhaps even nearly all the Israelites hated Moses at one time or another. They often wished that they had a different leader. Moses continued on in spite of all this, but not everybody is a Moses. So what happens with preachers who aren’t so faithful and courageous as Moses? That’s right: they keep their hands off those hot topics.

We are not told the proportion of the rich man’s income that he gave in his offerings to the Church. Maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal for the rich man to give the amount he did, but his offerings probably were pretty important for the congregation’s budget. What would have happened if the rich man’s preacher went after greed and cold-heartedness—cut-throat business practices and not giving a damn for those, like Lazarus, who could have been benefited by his wealth?

The reaction to genuine criticism that hits its mark is always the same. We are all cut from the same cloth. If a criticism hits home everybody resents it. Show me the person who likes to be told that he or she is doing something wrong? Such a person does not exist. Everybody wants to be left alone, believing that the way that they are living is the right and proper way to live.

So if the rich man heard criticisms that exposed his sin, then he would at least frown at the preacher. He might do a great deal more. He might quit giving. He might quit coming. Maybe he’d find some other church to go to. Then it might not just be the rich man who is upset at the preacher, the congregation might start to complain. Why does the preacher have to say or do what he does? That’s no way to grow a congregation! Other congregations in the synod don’t do it that way, why does he go out on his own like that? We should give the district president a call. These possibilities are dreadful, as every preacher knows. This rich man’s preacher, therefore, might have let this rich man go on like he was. He didn’t lift a finger to help him, because the customer is always right.

And so long as the horizon for our view is this earthly life only, such preaching works well both for the preacher as well as the hearer. The preacher doesn’t have the stress and heartache and hard work of dealing with people who are upset. The hearer goes home happy every Sunday. He is not disturbed by being judged and found wanting. When the hearer dies, the preacher gives him a nice funeral where everybody is assured that the deceased has crossed over into heaven.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Preachers can say whatever they want. What Jesus opens up for us today is the disturbing possibility that although we think everything is hunky-dory, it might not actually be that way. This fine upstanding citizen, this pillar of the community, goes to hell, where he belongs.

The real thrust of what Jesus is saying in our Gospel reading today is about preaching. The rich man wants Lazarus to come back from the dead to his brothers. He wants Lazarus to rattle some chains and go bump in the night. Father Abraham responds that his brothers have Moses and the prophets. That is to say, these brothers can make use of God’s revelation that has been written down in the Scriptures. Everything that they need to know about salvation, about not going to hell, has been written in the books of Moses and the prophets.

Here we see the real power that exists in a Christian congregation and in preaching. If the congregation is devoted to God’s revelation to us in the Bible, then salvation for sinners is given out in such a place. But it won’t work if a congregation devotes itself to just any old thing. For a congregation to actually be Christian it has to carry out what Christ has actually given it to do. After Christ rose from the dead, but before he ascended into heaven, he told us what is to be done:

Matthew records Jesus saying, “Go, make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo,” Jesus says, “I am with you until the end of the world.” Mark records Jesus saying, “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” Luke records Jesus saying, “Repentance and the forgiveness of sins is to be preached in my name, beginning at Jerusalem and extending into all the world.” John records Jesus saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whosoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven them. Whosoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.”

All four Gospel writers say pretty much the same thing. The disciples are going to make other disciples by preaching that we are to repent for our sins, and believe that we are forgiven for Jesus’s sake. The Old Testament says the same thing. Moses and the prophets direct people to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as the one who crushes the serpent’s head, redeeming us from the devil, so that we belong to God and God belongs to us. The reason why we do what we do and say what we say in the Christian Church is so that we may believe and ever more firmly believe in Jesus, and so that we can help others to believe in Jesus as well.

But Jesus himself says that if we are faithful to the commission that he has given to us, then we are going to have trouble. People do not want to confess their sins and turn away from them. They want to be able to continue in their sins. People are highly offended when they are told that they can’t do something that they want to do and continue to be a Christian. People want to have the status of being saints without having to live the difficult life that saints are given to live. It is when a preacher or a congregation says “no” to someone, that is when the fur begins to fly.

In the case of this rich man, he should have been told that his cold heart would land him in hell. If the seriousness of the situation could be shown to him with disciplinary measures, then that would have been all the better for him. This would have at least given him the opportunity to be sorry for his sin. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he would have. He could have remained proud and gone off in a huff. But it is also possible that he acknowledge the truth that he deserves to go to hell, so that he may embrace the further truth that has been given to us Christians to preach: that Christ died for the ungodly. In him is forgiveness and plenteous redemption.

So what can we gain from this sermon today? Should we pray for a Moses who courageously stands up for what is right regardless of the consequences? I suppose we could pray for such a preacher, but there aren’t a lot of Moseses around. There aren’t even a lot of Moseses in the Bible. We should not be looking for a one man band to do it all while we sit on the sidelines. Instead, we should all looking to do our part in making known God’s revelation so that people are turned away from sin to faith in Christ Jesus.

You have all been given this revelation. It is yours. You may speak it. Your speaking of it is no less effective than my speaking of it. One of the reasons to congregate is so that we may speak it to one another.

Another reason why we congregate is that our mere presence is important for our fellow Christians. Seeing you in Church is good for me. It is good for others. You’ll even hear people say, “So-and-so was in Church today.” Why does this make us happy? It’s because it’s actually a powerful kind of nonverbal preaching. By people being at church they are saying that it is important and helpful. They are saying that they are relying upon the Gospel for eternal life—the same Gospel that you are relying upon.

Now during these strange times it has not always seemed prudent to gather like we normally have. It still might not be prudent for some, depending on their health and circumstances. In that case, we just have to make do. But even with these strange circumstances it has been a blessing that we have been able to congregate in the parking lot. This has cheered me up. It’s cheered others up too. That’s because our presence is saying something, even if we do not speak.

It is also important that you learn and grow and become ever more active in furthering what we have been given to do as a congregation. We Christians have declared war against the most powerful forces on earth. We have declared war against the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. A lot of people think that it is the pastor who does everything in this war. They just sit in the pew. But that’s not how it works.

If the congregation is not pulling together with the pastor in denouncing sin, carrying out discipline, and supporting and encouraging one another, then this work cannot go on for long. If I, as your pastor, say or do something controversial, it is within your power to run me out of town. Or you can also just sit and watch from the sidelines. Or you can join in on that work.

This is what was very likely lacking with the rich man. When the pastor and the people are pulling together, fighting the same war, then eternal goodness is the result. On the other hand, if the Word of God is brought to nothing, if it is contradicted, if it is not preached because of the fear of the consequences, then the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh is winning. The congregational life might go on like it always has—peaceful and serene, but let’s not just consider how things go in this life. What difference does it make if this congregation is huge or tiny, if it lasts 10 years or 300 years? None of that matters on judgment day. Just ask this rich man. It’s the work that a congregation does with Moses and the prophets that matters.

Our Gospel reading today should powerfully impress upon us the importance of our war against all of God’s enemies who do not have eternal life through Jesus as their goal. It is not yet possible for us to truly know how important the spiritual gifts are that God has given to us. These gifts might be the pastors or teachers we have had. They might be our parents or siblings or friends or fellow congregation members. When these folks are faithful to the revelation God has given in Moses and the prophets there is salvation right here in our midst. People are saved from hell and enter into that blessed place instead, where no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him. But this doesn’t happen without a struggle. As Paul says, it is only by many tribulations that we may enter the Kingdom of God. Therefore we must all do our part in the roles and callings that God has given to us.

If you feel inadequate, that’s alright. In fact, that’s good. That’s how the people of God have always felt when they fight against God’s enemies. But you are not alone. We have a powerful friend who is with us on the plain with his good gifts and Spirit. Ask ye who is this? Jesus Christ it is. He is Lord of the angel armies. No true or lasting harm can come upon us with him as our friend. Rely on him and even hell itself must yield to you.

Trinity Drive in Service

200607 Trinity Drive in Service Audio

Trinity Order of Service

Sermon manuscript:

A creed is a statement of belief. The Christian Church has three creeds—the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. All three of these creeds describe what Christians believe. All three of them describe the God in whom Christians believe.

The shortest and simplest and oldest creed that we have as Christians is the Apostles’ Creed. This is the creed that we have been speaking on non-communion Sundays. It is also the creed that is in our Catechism.

The other creed that we are quite familiar with is the Nicene Creed. We speak this creed on Communion Sundays. It is quite similar to the Apostles’ creed, but it goes into more detail about who Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is. One of the earliest controversies that arose after the death of the Apostles is how Jesus Christ is to be seen. There were some who thought that he wasn’t as fully God as God the Father. Some said that he was created and not eternal. The Nicene Creed is responding to these errors when it says of Jesus: “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made.” Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in time, according to his human nature. He is eternally begotten, and true God, according to his divine nature.

This takes us to the third creed which we will speak later today. It is the longest and least familiar to us. From the way that the creed speaks, being so emphatic, you can tell that two mysteries are firmly laid out for us to believe in. There continues to be the concern that we’ve already mentioned—that Jesus Christ is true man, born of the Virgin Mary, and also true God, begotten of the Father from eternity. This is taken up in the second part of creed. The other mystery is in the first part of the creed. It has to do with the Triune nature of God.

The words “Triune” and “Trinity” are not in the Bible. They were words that were made up by Christians to describe two facts that are clearly taught in the Bible. The first part of the word is “tri” as in “triangle.” A triangle has three angles or sides. The word “tri” means “three.” The Bible speaks clearly of there being three: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The second part of “Triune” or “Trinity” is “une,” as in “uno” or one. The Bible speaks of God as singular and as the only God—not three gods but one God. God says, “Behold, the Lord your God is one.” Therefore the words “Triune” or “Trinity” are like shorthand for what the Bible says. The Bible speaks of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Bible speaks of there being only one God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

We naturally have difficulty with these mysteries because one of the ways that our brain is especially fond of operating is by relating whatever it is that we are talking about to something else that is already known. We like to put stuff into categories and compare and contrast them. Unfortunately this is something that we cannot do either with God or with Jesus Christ being true God and true man at the same time. The reason why we can’t categorize and compare and contrast with God or Jesus very well is because God and Jesus are absolutely unique. The word “unique” has that word “uno” in it, to which we have already referred. “Unique” means that there is only one of them. Since there is nothing like the Trinity where God is both three persons, but only one God, at the same time, and since there is nothing like Jesus Christ being true God and true man at the same time, our intellect has a hard time with this. It wants to be able to categorize and understand.

And so it has been the case that there have been a great many people who have tried to figure out these mysteries over the history of the Christian Church. The reason why we have the careful, clarifying language that we do in both the Nicene and Athanasian creeds is so that only what the Bible has to say is what is believed—not adding to what the Bible has said, nor taking away from it either. As the Athanasian creed says, the catholic faith (which is another way of saying Christian faith) is to worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. That is to say that we believe that God is one. At the same time we believe what the Bible reveals about this one God, that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  

It would be wrong to say, though, that the main thing about God is that we have to accept this puzzle of him being three in one and one in three. The reason why we affirm this is not because we like puzzles—either having puzzles or solving puzzles. We say what we do about God because it is how he has revealed himself to be. But you won’t find anywhere in the Scriptures where the concept of the Trinity is dwelt upon in and of itself so as to make sure that everybody has it straight—as though that were the main thing. What the Bible reveals about our God with much more emphasis is the way that he has made himself known to us in time. God making himself known to us creatures by his words and deeds is the real substance of our faith. It’s what the Bible talks about.

God made himself known to the Israelites in the Old Testament. There is a great deal that we could say about that—after all, the whole Old Testament is about that. However, it was a foreshadowing and a prophecy of what was to come. God ultimately reveals himself and his intentions in his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is why the creeds spend more time on the second article than they do on the first and the third. For us and for our salvation, God sent his Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered and died under Pontius Pilate. On the third day he rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. On the last day he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus’s words and actions you know God’s will toward this world that is otherwise damned for death and hell because of their sins. In our Gospel reading today we have such a clear statement to that effect, that it is known as the most important verse in the Bible: For God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

In Jesus, who suffers and dies, you are shown God’s heart—his will—his desire for every man, woman, and child. His desire is that we should be set free from the devil, that we should be born again as his children through baptism, and live together with him in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. God sends the Holy Spirit, together with the Gospel, so that when and where it pleases the Holy Spirit those who hear the Gospel may believe in Jesus, and not perish, but have eternal life. Amazingly, God has bound himself up together with us for our salvation. It is amazing that God should do this, for who or what are we? We, seemingly, are very insignificant. But evidently we are not. For God has loved us and saved us. This is the God in whom we believe. This is the God whom we confess in our three ecumenical creeds.

I’m going to let this suffice for our teaching on the Trinity today. I’d like to take a moment now for us to reflect on the Sacrament of the Altar. For some of you it has been a long time since you have received the sacrament, and so it is good for us to consider what is taking place.

The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ himself. He said that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. Therefore, this is indeed the case. His true body and true blood are under the bread and wine for his Christians to eat and to drink. Jesus tells us why we do this as well in his words of institution. He says that his body and blood are given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. We are poor, helpless, miserable sinners who can do nothing of ourselves. But Jesus offered his body and his blood as the great atoning sacrifice for all sinners on the cross. All sins are atoned for. All sins are forgiven in Jesus’s cross. Jesus gives you this body and blood to eat and to drink in the Sacrament so that you may know this, and believe this, and through faith in him be saved.

In summary, I’d like to refer to the Christian Questions and Answers that are a part of our Catechism. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again. The question is asked: Why should we remember and proclaim Jesus’s death? Answer: First, so that we may learn to believe that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man, could do that. Second, we should remember and proclaim Jesus’s death in the Sacrament so that we may learn to be horrified by our sins and to regard them as very serious. Third, we remember and proclaim his death so that we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone, and through faith in Him be saved.

God bless your reception of the Lord’s Supper today.