(Sorry, no audio recording)
Sermon manuscript:
King David says in Psalms 14 and 53: “The fool says in
his heart, ‘There is no God.’” It is easy for solid, Midwestern people to
think that this verse of the Bible hardly applies to them. The vast majority of
the people in our neck of the woods would say that there is a God if you asked
them. If there are atheists among us, they don’t seem to be very militant. Plus,
when it comes to you, not only do you believe that there is a God, but you
actually come to church—even on a Wednesday in addition to Sunday. Surely you
are no fool who says that there is no God.
But I think there is a significant qualifier that David adds.
He says, “In his heart.” “The fool says in his heart that there is no God.” There are a lot of things
that we know with our heads that don’t get translated into our lives. A great
many of the things that we do which are wrong are not done because we are
ignorant of what is supposed to be done. We all know what we are supposed to
eat and to drink, how we are supposed to spend or not spend our money, how we
should treat one another, and so on. Does that mean that we actually do it? You
know the Ten Commandments. Have you kept them? You know that the Ten
Commandments came from God, right? You know that he threatens to punish all who
break his commandments, right? So why have you not kept them?
The reason why is because we are fools. We foolishly believe
that we will get away with whatever we have done. We foolishly believe that we
won’t be held accountable to God. We act as though there were no God. The first
temptation and the first sin already establishes this pattern. God said, “Don’t
eat from this tree.” The serpent said, “Ach! You won’t surely die.
You’ll get away with it! Plus you’ll enjoy it!” So Adam and Eve said in
their hearts, “There is no God.” At least, that is, there is no God who
is going to act according to what he had told them.
To be sure, since that time we human beings have not gotten
better. We can easily say with our heads and even with our mouths that there is
a God. We can even say that we have his Word and know it to be true. But we
betray what is really going on in our hearts by what we do. When it comes to
God we have a very hard time keeping him in mind. Isn’t it true that hours upon
hours will go by in your life without you giving a thought to him? Dare I say,
can’t there even be days and weeks that go by?
Or when we are gathered together for the Divine Service are
you actually thinking about God when we sing, “Lord, have mercy! Christ,
have mercy! Lord, have mercy!” Where might your mind wander as you hear
Jesus say, “Do this in remembrance of me”?
Over the years a lot of people have tried to solve this
problem by revamping the church service. If we do this or do that, pump up the
jam, and continually innovate, then we’ll have people’s attention. In a sense
this is true. If I came out of the sacristy dressed in a clown suit, I know
that I’d have your attention. You won’t be bored—at least not for a while. But
it is not just a lack of attention that we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with
an incredibly deep spiritual problem, not just an attention problem. And the
problem is that we do not pay attention to God. We live as though he doesn’t
exist. We neither fear, nor love, nor trust in him.
Even the things that are supposed to be directly connected
with God can be put towards other purposes. This is what Jesus is talking about
in our Gospel reading tonight from the Sermon on the Mount. “When you do
something nice,” Jesus says, “do not blow the trumpet so that everyone
can admire you for your surpassing greatness.” In this way your good work
is done for you own glory. God, his commandments, and his approval or
disapproval have nothing to do with it. It’s all about you.
Or when you pray or fast, do not leave one eye open to keep
track of the impression that is being made on other people—to see if they think
you are pious. When we do this, are we really praying to God? Aren’t we more
intent on the impression that we are making for others to admire? Isn’t the
goal, in a sense, to be worshipped by others? That’s sick! You’d be better off
if you didn’t pray at all!
Or why do you come to the divine service? Is it because
that’s just the tradition? Is it because you were raised that way? Is it
because your parents make you? Is it so that you can keep things on an even
keel with friends and family—so that they don’t look down on you? Doesn’t God
have anything to do with it?
The divine service is an opportunity to lift up your heart
unto the Lord, to call upon him in prayer and praise, and to pay close
attention to what he says to you in his Word. God exists! He curses and
blesses. He damns and saves. He speaks specifically to you by the Word that he
lays out before you. If you let this go in one ear and out the other because
you are thinking about who-knows-what, then you will be responsible to him for
that—whether you like it or not. It’s best that you realize this, take it to
heart, and repent. That is, change your ways. Quit being a fool.
Today we enter into Lent. It is a season of repentance, of
changing our ways, before the highest feast of the Christian calendar—Easter.
Repentance is becoming mindful of God, with his commands and his promises, in
all aspects of our life and throughout our whole day. We have a dreadful
congenital defect, spiritually speaking. We are by nature all fools who give no
mind to God. We might think that this sin or that sin is what is really bad
about us. The deeper problem is that we unwittingly say in our hearts, “There
is no God.” Our greater sins are against the first table of the Law, the
first three of the Ten Commandments, which have to do with God. If we were to
get those straight, then we would find that the others would quickly and easily
fall into place.
So the season of Lent is not about a smudge of ash. It is
not about fish on Fridays. It isn’t about any self-chosen good work of giving
up this or that. These things are silly. They don’t get to the root. “Rend
your hearts, and not your garments,” the prophet Joel says. Pay attention
to God. Fear his threats and punishments. Embrace and find joy in his promises.
Call upon him in prayer as he commands you to do. He also promises to hear your
prayers. In this way you will find that the Holy Spirit will do his good work
in you. Instead of being a fool, who plunges stupidly into disobedience,
angering God, you will be made wise unto salvation.
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