211031 Sermon for Reformation Sunday, October 31, 2021

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504 years ago today, October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses, or statements, against the Church’s sale of indulgences to the door of St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg. Luther making this protest is the reason why October 31^st was the date that is chosen to commemorate the Lutheran Reformation of the Catholic Church. But October 31, 1517 was just the beginning of the story.

The pope’s sale of indulgences was not going to be the main point of contention. Fairly quickly much bigger questions were raised. Who or what is authoritative for Christians? Do Christians need to submit to the pope or to the Scriptures? Who or what determines the doctrines that are taught? What if there are discrepancies and conflicts between the authorities in the church and the Scriptures?

We could talk a long time about these questions and issues. But what I’d like to spend our time on today is what became the most important issue during the Reformation. The most important conflict was concerning how a person could be found to be acceptable in God’s sight. When God renders his verdict concerning an individual, what will that verdict be? And why? What is the basis for God’s verdict concerning the individual? These are the questions behind an important church word that it is good for you to know and understand, which is “justification.” How can a person be justified in God’s sight? That is a pretty important and practical thing to know, since our eternal fate is dependent upon it.

Before we speak about what Luther and the other reformers rediscovered from the Bible, let’s first briefly describe how justification was understood in the Roman Catholic Church. Overall, the most important thing to understand is that according to the Catholic Church if we are to be justified before God it is because of a cooperative effort between God and I. God does his part. I am to do my part.

God’s part is largely a matter of several different graces or gifts, such as the seven sacraments, and some other less important things. (Included, by the way, among these less important things would be indulgences, which Luther posted the 95 theses about.) God gave these graces to Peter and the other apostles. Therefore, through the ministers of the church, God dispenses his grace to those who wish to receive it. This is God doing his part, and you can count on God doing his part.

But, according to Roman Catholic teaching, I also have to do my part. What is my part? First and foremost, I must receive these graces that are given out by the clergy. Then I must live a good life, keeping God’s and the church’s commandments.

Whereas God can be counted on for doing his part, the Christian is not so trustworthy. Even the Catholics recognize that. But there is a remedy for that. The Christian can go to confession with the priest. He can buy indulgences. If the Christian sins a lot, then (even if all else fails) he can still work off his guilt in purgatory after he has died. Purgatory is not taught by the Bible, but eventually it came to be understood as a place where imperfect Christians who have died can go to get cleaned up through suffering, through being purged of the guilt that has been accumulated. Eventually the Christian will have done his part and will be holy enough to become a saint and can enter heaven.

There is a lot more that we could say about the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings about being justified before God. Great big books have been written about this. Let it be said that the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching is not wild and nonsensical. It is not something that can just be written off as stupid. There is a good deal of truth in Roman Catholicism, particularly with what they say about God doing his part. Indeed, the whole overall arrangement makes a lot of sense to our natural way of thinking. There are so many things in life where the one party does his part, and the other party does their part. It seems reasonable that a person’s relationship with God should be that way too.

But, as we heard in our reading from Isaiah 55 a couple weeks ago, God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways.” What is often reasonable and helpful in our daily, earthly life can be a roadblock if we transfer that thinking over to the kingdom of God. God doing his part, and we doing our part, sounds reasonable, but that’s just not how it works.

From long and bitter experience Luther learned how unreliable our reason is when it comes to the things of God. He tried his hardest to do his part. One of his problems, some Roman Catholics have said, was that he was too honest about his efforts. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t achieve what the church taught him he should be able to achieve. This made him very concerned about how he might be judged by God. How would God render his verdict concerning Martin Luther?

Wanting to know God’s will and judgments led Luther to search the Scriptures. What he found in the Scriptures was different from what the Church had taught him. It is not a situation where God does his part and I do my part. It is a situation where God does everything. I do nothing—at least not anything good.

Our being justified before God is completely God’s doing. God chose those whom he would save from eternity, before they were even born. The Son became man in order to redeem sinful mankind as the great atoning sacrifice. God causes his Word of salvation to be spoken so that sinners are justified through faith in Christ, through Christ’s goodness, instead of the life that they had lived and are living.  

The end point for the Christian is not purgatory. It is not a self-improvement project. It isn’t a big fat bill of what we owe in order to do our part after God has done his part. The end point for the Christian is joy and thanksgiving at what God has done and is doing.

It’s like when the Angel spoke to the shepherds on Christmas Night. The Shepherds were encouraged to rejoice: “Fear not, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this night in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” God gives a great gift of salvation to poor, miserable sinners. He distributes his salvation through the Word and the Sacraments. To receive these things we believe them, and thereby make good use of them. It is a dreadful thing to disbelieve these things, because that is calling God a liar.

“But,” you might be wondering, “what about our part?” “Isn’t there something that we have to do?” “What about our good works?” “The Bible talks a lot about us doing good works.”

This is true. The Bible does talk a lot about good works. What is important is that we properly understand these works that a Christian does. They are not our part of the bargain, like it is in the Catholic system. They are an added gift, separate from how God regards us. Good works do not enter in to whether or how we are justified before God. If our works are considered for that judgment, it cannot result in any other verdict than condemnation. But we are not judged according to our works—good, bad, or otherwise—when we believe in Christ. Through faith in Christ we are judged according to a different basis, which is Jesus alone.

Instead of good works being something that is required from us for our end of the bargain, good works must be understood as yet another gift from God on top of his justification of us sinners. He declares us not guilty with Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. Jesus died for all our sins and atonement has been made. On top of that, together with faith in Christ, God begins to heal our sin-sick heart. Instead of being sold to sin and enslaved to the devil, we are set free to walk in the good works that God has prepared for us beforehand to walk in.

The best picture for what is going on here is a picture that Jesus himself uses. He says, “Every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.” As we are of ourselves, as we were born by nature, we are bad trees. We live in ignorance of God, or, if we learn of him, we rebel against him and his will. We care for nothing and for no one except ourselves and what is ours. We are bad trees. We cannot help but produce bad fruit.

God creates a good tree by killing the old tree and uniting us with Christ. This is brought about by God converting us to faith in Christ. Those who believe in Christ are well pleasing to God. After all, it was for the purpose of believing in Christ that God sent his only begotten Son to begin with. Thus, through faith in Christ, a person’s whole life is sanctified, is made holy. God does not count our sins against us, and all the activities that we do otherwise while believing in Christ are sanctified so that they are acceptable and pleasing sacrifices to God. Even if we pick up a single straw or give a cup of water to a child, such humble acts, done with faith in Christ, are better than anything we might come up with in our sinful flesh to establish our justification before God.

Faith has the power to change our whole life. It doesn’t change our life in an outward way, where people can see it. It might not even be changed in the way that we can always feel and know. But faith changes our life before God—which is all that matters.

Entire lifetimes could be spent studying all the different facets of what happened and what was discussed in the Reformation. There are many other important, godly, and helpful things that we could talk about. But the most important thing that happened during the Reformation was the return to what the Bible says about our justification before God. Our relationship with God is not a matter of the Law. It is not a situation where God does his part and we have to do our part.

Our justification before God is a matter of the Gospel. It is a situation where God pardons and forgives us for Jesus sake. He also gives us his Holy Spirit to fight against our sinful flesh. Even where you might anticipate that we are supposed to do our part—with our good works—it is a matter of grace.  For good works to be genuine, and not self-serving, they have to be created by the Holy Spirit. This is what the Bible teaches about our justification before God.

Luther understood how hard it was to believe what the Bible says about our justification. He always warned those who were younger than him, who didn’t go through the struggles that he went through, that this teaching could easily be lost. That is true. It can be and has been lost in vast swaths of our own Lutheran Church. Our Synod, also, is not immune to this being lost.

This is not surprising. The fact of the matter is that our old Adam doesn’t like the Gospel and cannot understand it. The grace of God, the giving and giving of God, is incomprehensible to our Old Adam. That is why the miracle of a conversion is necessary. It is only by the almighty power of the Holy Spirit that we can see God and his will for what it really is. If God has bless you and enabled you to know him from the Scriptures and to see from the Scriptures how God regards you, then you will rejoice even while you bear your cross.

In order that we may enjoy this good life of knowing God and believing in Jesus, let us not forget to pray in all seriousness what Jesus taught us to pray. Let God’s Name be regarded as holy among us. Let God’s kingdom come among us. Let God’s good and gracious will be done among us.

211024 Sermon on Ephesians 6:10-17 (Trinity 21) October 24, 2021

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There are two common errors when it comes to fighting against the devil and other evil powers. A person can either think too highly of these enemies and have an exagerrated response against them, or a person can think too little of them as though no response were needed at all.

Those who think too highly of the devil, demons, and other evil things can get carried away. They often want to know more about these things than what the Bible tells us. The Bible doesn’t speak that much about such things, and certainly the Bible never explains how these things work. Often people can develop an intense desire to understand what has not been revealed. Doing that seems pious enough. The thought is that if we understand how these things work, we can take reasonable action against them.

It is also rather exciting to see the world as a drama where the devil and his demons take center stage. How might they be involved at the top echelons of power? What do the world leaders do behind closed doors? Knowing or learning about such secrets is very interesting and exciting. But that is the very reason why we need to have our guard up concerning such things.

Our flesh is easily bored. Grand narratives involving secret powers can attract us like a moth to the flame. But the flesh profits nothing. Being fascinated by such things doesn’t enable anybody to do anything against them. The only way to overcome evil is by the new creation in Jesus. Oddly enough, becoming fascinated with secret knowledge about spiritual evils might be part of their very own strategy. What harm does it do them if people get whipped up about them, but are completely powerless to defeat or hamper them.

So one of the errors when it comes to fighting against the devil and other evil powers is that a person gets carried away with movie-like conspiracies and explanations. This is not so common an error among Lutherans. Pentecostal-like groups are much more likely to fall into this. Among Lutherans the other, the practically opposite error, is much more common. We are prone to believe that such things do not exist. Or, perhaps we believe that they exist on paper, but we are prone to act as though such things do not matter. They have no impact on our life.

Of the two errors, this second one is worse. It betrays a rank, unbelieving, secular outlook. According to this outlook life is nothing more and nothing less than making do and trying to have a good time. God doesn’t matter. The devil doesn’t matter. What matters is me—my paycheck, my fun, my memories. To such a person Paul’s statement that we wrestle with evil spiritual powers is backward, pre-enlightenment superstition. It is as though somewhere along the line some really smart people discovered that neither God nor the devil exist. But this has never been discovered or proven. It has only been assumed. As an assumption it’s really not that impressive or original. This assumption goes all the way back to the first human beings who became convinced in their heart that there is no God, so we might as well do whatever it is that we feel like doing.

So it is no good to believe that the devil and demons do not exist or have no impact on our life. It is also bad to go overboard about these enemies of God. So if both of these alternatives are bad how should we think about them and counter them? We are given some practical and sober things to think about with our Epistle reading today, Paul’s letter to the Christians at Ephesus.

He says: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

The first thing that I’d like you to notice from these words is the very first word. He says, “Finally.” These words are a conclusion to things that he has been speaking about previously in the letter. I think this context is very important for a proper attitude concerning these evil forces. Immediately prior to where our Epistle reading picks up the apostle is speaking about the various callings in life that a Christian might have.

He speaks at length about the proper relationship between husband and wife. Husbands are to love their wives. Wives are to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. He tells children that they should be obedient to their parents. Those who honor their parents will enjoy long life, full of good things. Employees should be submissive and helpful to their employers. They should work, not as though they were just trying to earn a buck, but as though they were serving the Lord. Employers should act similarly towards their employees. They should not be abusive. They are cut from the same cloth as their workers, and God is not a respecter of persons.

Think about the realms of life that Paul is talking about here. What could be more practical and immediately relevant? Whom do you associate with from one day to the next? Is it not all these relationships that Paul lays out here? He is talking about the people who live in your house that you see every day. He is talking about the people whom you see at work. These are the people who make up the vast majority of our life. We, as Christians, are to fill these callings with submission towards one another, with love, and with honor. It is after saying all these things that Paul says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Fight against the devil and all the evil spirits.”

So where do the devil and the evil spirits do their work? They work within these ordinary callings. They do not want us to be loving towards the people who live with us. They do not want us to be cheerful and helpful at work. They want us to grumble and complain. They want us to treat each other badly, so that we isolate from one another. They want us to heap up sins in our daily walk of life so that we bring down God’s wrath upon ourselves and upon our nation.

In order to combat this we must put on the full armor of God. Notice that all these pieces of armor come from God. They do not come from us. It won’t work just to try harder. We must receive what God gives in order to be at all effective. Gird your loins with the belt of truth. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. Shod your feet with the gospel of peace, that is, being forgiven, forgiving and moving forward. Take up shield of faith. Paul is not talking about one of those little circular shields here. He’s talking about one of those great big ones, shaped like a door, covering the whole body. The devil can do nothing against the one who continues to believe. Have your mind encased on salvation like a helmet. The only offensive weapon here is a dagger, which is the Word of God.

Armor brings to nothing the efforts the enemies undertake to bring about your demise. The devil and the evil spirits want to destroy your faith, hope, and love. Generally speaking, they do not go at us with visions, apparitions, dramatic possessions, and so on. Can they do such things? Certainly! But it is far more effective for them to sow hatred wherever they can. People do not think that hatred comes from evil spirits. They think that it comes from the other person being such an despicable specimen of the human race! It is within our homes and within our workplaces—those places in life where we spend 90% of our time—that is where we must be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might.

The focus, therefore, with the devil and the demons is not against some grand or vast conspiracy. It is not on the skull and bones society, the illuminati, or other secret clubs. Can these things be full of occult and evil activity? Certainly! And I believe that they are evil and occult. Furthermore, can the devil and the demons be active at the top positions of power? Certainly! If I were preaching to senators and presidents, that might be something worthwhile taking up. But I don’t see any presidents here today. What I do see are people who have families, jobs, and other important relationships. We all have enough to handle with looking after ourselves. We don’t need to get involved in grand narratives, where the villain is always black as coal, and always someone else, and never myself.

In our callings in life we must take seriously the schemes of the devil, the principalities, the cosmic forces at work in this present age of darkness. We must not think, for example, that everything can be explained simply by brain chemicals or hormones. Nor is it a purely natural, sociological matter of getting along or not getting along. The front lines of your battle as a Christian are in your living room, at your kitchen table, and in your bedroom. They are on your work floor and in the breakroom. In these places we are to be salt and light. Those around us should see the good works that God works in us by his Holy Spirit, and glorify God for them.

It is very easy to be misled into thinking that only the big stuff matters. Only the people sitting in the halls of power matter. But it’s actually the other way around. The only reason a government exists is for the sake of the lives that we live every day. The government is God’s gift so that our daily life may continue to go on in relative peace. Life is not for the purpose of having a government. The government exists for the sake of everybody’s homelife. It is our homelife that is primary. Furthermore, when God judges and punishes, it is not just for the serial murderers, devil worshippers, and other monsters. It is for the sharp words, the sharp looks, the hatreds, the little disobediences that have the power to make a homelife miserable.

So when you think of the devil and the demons do not think that they are somewhere else with séances, baby’s blood, or other esoteric practices. Are the devil and the demons involved in such things? I have no doubt about that, and you should have absolutely nothing do with such things! But the devil and the demons are closer than you think. The enemy is in your daily life. Your daily life matters a great deal.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. The devil knows that too. Our faith can be attacked through the front door, through the back door, or through the window. The evil forces do not act the way that people expect them to, with dramatic fanfares and blood-soaked rituals. They know how important our daily life is. What they’d like is for us to leave our armor in the closet, thinking that our enemies are far away in Washington or wherever.

So fight the good fight in your daily life. Be strengthened in the knowledge of God’s love toward us in Christ. Put on God’s truth, God’s righteousness, God’s salvation. The closer these things are fastened upon you, the better. They are your life. They are your destiny. Stand against the devil in the evil day when you are tempted to be angry, disobedient, lazy, and selfish. Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil, and there is no more important place for the devil’s works to be destroyed than in our daily life.

211017 Sermon on Isaiah 55:1-9 (Trinity 20) October 17, 2021

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It is a part of our human nature that we like to fix things. Wherever there might be a problem, let’s figure out a way to fix it. So if you’re naked, go make some clothes. If there is pain with childbirth, let’s give an epidural. If there’s oppression against women, let’s start a movement. If the work is heavy or boring let’s get some hydraulics and robotics. If thorns and thistles come up let’s spray some Roundup. If there is sweat on our brow, let’s fire up the air conditioner. If we are to turn back into dust go get the formaldehyde. Whatever the problem might be, we figure there must be a way to eliminate it or at least make it easier.

Because we are more or less successful in eliminating problems, we come to believe that we must be doing alright. Our civilization is doing quite well. All the different parts keep humming along. The future looks bright because just look at all the problems that we’ve been able to solve in the past. Surely we will be able to solve some more in the future.

But all of this problem solving only has to do with one side of life. It has to do with created things. We manipulate the created things of this world in order to bring about our desired outcomes. What about the things that have to do with our Creator? Are there problems there? Certainly. But here we can see another way of dealing with things besides fixing them. We can also ignore things.

This has been the natural strategy with God from the beginning. As soon as Adam and Eve came to believe that there was no way that God could be their friend, they tried to put God out of mind. God had said, “You will surely die.” The devil had said, “You won’t surely die.” Adam and Eve hoped the devil was right.

Then they got busy fixing what they took to be problems. First things first, let’s cover up this nakedness. That will make us more comfortable and secure. Then let’s figure out other ways to make ourselves more comfortable. When God started to walk through the garden in the cool of the day it sounded horrible to Adam and Eve. They worked harder at ignoring God by climbing into some bushes.

This is so typical and programmatic for how we deal with God, particularly when we have fallen into sin. When we feel and know our sin we want to stay away from God just like a criminal wants to stay away from the police station. The criminal doesn’t want to get caught. Sinners don’t want to get caught. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get away with it. Let’s hope so. In the meantime, let’s get busy trying to get some more money so that we can buy ourselves some more comfort. Maybe if we can get more comfortable we can just forget about all this God business.

But God still exists whether we ignore him or not. Whereas we might be very impressed with ourselves in the way that we can fix problems, God is not impressed. We might think that we are at the pinnacle of civilization, achieving great things, God is totally bored with our fumbling and bumbling. Like an adult watches a toddler play with blocks, that’s how God looks at us with our nano-technology and nuclear reactors. God has an expectation of us as his creatures, and it is not that we should know many things about many things or be able to do this, that, or the other thing with his creation. Of all the creatures God has created, human beings are the only ones who have been made in his image. Human beings are the only ones who can hear him, believe in him, and pray, praise, and give thanks. That is what God intends for his people, because God intends good things for his people.

In our Gospel reading Jesus spoke about a landowner who planted a vineyard. He took good care of that vineyard. He put a wall around it. He dug a winepress for it. He built a watchtower to keep it safe. These words of Jesus’s would have been quite familiar to the Jews to whom he was speaking. The prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before, used the same picture to describe the relationship that God had with his chosen nation. God chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be his people. He put them in the vineyard that he had made for them. He made it quite safe and free from anything that would adulterate and ruin it. But, as Isaiah said, instead of sweet clusters of grapes it only produced sour grapes. The Lord had an expectation for the vineyard that he had planted, but the vineyard didn’t produce anything good.

What God would have us produce as his vine is, first and foremost, faith. We should believe in him. We should not ignore him. We should not go after other gods who promise to give us comfort and happiness. Faith is the fountain and source from which all other spiritual goods must come. Without faith everything else is going to be hypocritical, shallow, and self-seeking.

Another fruit that God would have us, as his vine, produce, is a happiness in God’s Word. We should want to hear and learn more about God. We should want to learn about how he has dealt with his people in the past, how he deals with his people now, and learn what he has in store for his people in the future. What an amazing thing it is that we have either no desire or such a coldness towards learning about our Creator. We’d much rather spend our time doing this, that, and the other thing. No matter how important these earthly things might be, they are necessarily trifles compared to God’s Word.

So we should take in God’s Word. We should also send our words to him. It’s kind of like breathing in and breathing out. We breathe in. We take in God’s Word and will. We should also breathe out. We should call upon his Name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. Just as human beings can’t be healthy and vigorous if they are only breathing in or only breathing out, so also our spiritual life is quite hampered if we only breath in and never out, or if we are only breathing out and never taking in God’s grace through his Word. There needs to be both. We must hear God speak to us. We must speak back to him.

The good fruit that is to be produced in God’s vineyard is this relationship with God. We are to believe in him. We are to hear him. We are to speak to him. This is all that God wants from us. He couldn’t care less about all our other accomplishments. They do not impress him. In so far as they are good, they come from him anyway. What he desires is that we become like a little child. We should love him, listen to him, and speak to him in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This is what it meant to be created in God’s image. The reason why God sent his only-begotten Son was to restore that image that was lost through sin, to reconcile us to God, so that we could gladly be his creature and he could be our God. Without Christ it is impossible for the vine to produce good fruit.

Now that we know about this other side of our life, the side that has to do with our Creator, the side that we are so prone to ignore, we might start to think about how we can solve this problem too. Our Old Adam is a Mr. Fix-it. He always hopes he can fix things up in a jiffy. Barring that, he believes with his whole heart that he can fix things if only he tries hard enough and never gives up. While this might be the case, somewhat, with earthly things (but even here I’m skeptical), it definitely is not the case with our relationship with God.

When it comes to our relationship with God there is no self-help that will work. This relationship flows from faith, and there’s no way to have true faith unless the Lord himself should give it to you. There is no way to try hard and never give up and thereby create faith. Whatever such a technique might produce would not be true faith. It might, indeed, be something that you hope is faith—something selfish, where you can thereby believe that you won’t be condemned—but that is a far cry from the real deal.

True faith is created by God. Since it is something that is not dependent upon us, or our efforts, or our fixing, it necessary kind up jams up the gears of our brain. Faith is different from the way we think things should go. Nevertheless, it is something that God works in us by his Word.

Consider our Old Testament reading. God says, “Hey, all of you who are thirsty, come to the water, even if you have no money. Even though you have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” How can you buy something without money? How can something be purchased that has no cost? You might think that God is just speaking gobbledy-gook, but I assure you he is not. He is making a very important point about our relationship with God and faith.

When it comes to that relationship we do not have any merit or worthiness in us. We don’t have any money, you might say. There’s no amount of effort, tears, or sacrifice that can fix that relationship—no matter how pious or churchy those efforts might appear to be. Everything comes from God. He is the one who establishes the covenant. He is the one who provides the atoning sacrifice. He is the one who will even give us faith in his promises. Since it is all his doing, it is just a matter of making a happy announcement.

That is what is going on in that Isaiah reading. It is a happy announcement which is completely one-sided. God is providing everything that is necessary. He gives water to the thirsty. He gives wine and milk without money and without cost. What he has to say is able to satisfy one’s soul. So incline your ear to him and listen to him. Make sure that you don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Call upon him when he is near.

The only way that we can really appreciate and appropriate this message is when we are no longer trying to fix our relationship with God, but instead are happy to receive a gift. If we still think that we have some merit or worthiness we are going to be working on fixing things. But our fixing of things is always tainted. It’s always looking for self-advantage. It’s looking for a way we can use God—use him for what we want, but then we can get away with not doing other things. We like being in charge of our own salvation because then we decide what we want to do and not do, believe and not believe. We need to just stop all of that and receive with empty hands the gift that God gives to us.

The gift is perfect reconciliation and friendship for Jesus’s sake. He invites us to fear, love, and trust in him. He’d like to establish us more firmly in Christ with his Word and Holy Spirit so that our joy may be full in God’s love towards us. He would like us to come to him in every trouble instead of trying to fix everything by ourselves. He would like to us pray and give thanks to him for his goodness and his mercy that never ends.

But the only way that this can come to us is when we are quiet and behold the works of the Lord. That is what God told the Israelites when they were at the Red Sea, convinced that they were about to be slaughtered by the Egyptians. He said, “Be still and know that I am God. You will see your salvation.” Then God fulfilled his Word and promise to them. Then the Israelites gave God thanks and praise.

God’s Word comes to you. He speaks to you in the Scriptures. He speaks to you through preaching and teaching that is in accord with that Word. He gives his covenant to you in Baptism. He gives you the New Testament in Jesus’s blood for the forgiveness of your sins in the Sacrament. These are all things that no amount of money can buy. And yet he says, “Come, eat; come, drink.”

God is at work in you, creating spiritual fruit. Jesus is the vine, and you are the branches. Apart from him, you can do nothing. In him you can have faith in God and all the goodness that flows from that. This is the fruit that our God is looking for. He does not care about buildings, technology, or mountains of cash. He is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. God’s Word to you today would have you embrace this gift of friendship with God and enjoy it to God’s glory.

211010 Sermon on Genesis 28:10-17 (Trinity 19) October 10, 2021

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In our Old Testament reading we heard about a man named Jacob—a name with which you are surely familiar. But oftentimes our Bible reading is not what it should be, so we have a hard time putting together the things that we have learned over the years. So today I’d like to talk about the events leading up to what happened with Jacob so we can better understand and apply to ourselves the way God works.

Where I’d like to begin today is with Jacob’s grandfather. His name was Abram. Later God gives him the name Abraham. We are introduced to this man in Genesis chapter 12, and, in a sense, the rest of the Bible and the rest of world history is all about him and his descendants. God chose Abraham and told him to move to the land of Canaan. God promised that this land would be his and his descendants’. God would make a mighty nation of him. In him and in his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. (This promise about Abraham’s seed refers all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God promised that Eve’s seed would crush the serpent’s head.) God appeared to Abraham several times, repeating these promises to him, and Abraham believed these promises. This faith was accredited to him as righteousness.

Abraham’s faith, which is accredited to him as righteousness, is the way that the rest of the Bible and the rest of world history is about him and his descendants. God caused his flesh and blood descendants to flourish outwardly, but the people of God, properly speaking, have always been such inwardly, by faith. All or almost all of you are Gentiles. You are not related to Abraham by blood. But you are children of God’s promises, just like he was. God made a covenant with Abraham. God has made a covenant with you. God gave Abraham an outward sign of that covenant in circumcision. God has given an outward sign of his covenant with you in baptism. If you remain faithful unto death, just like Abraham, you will be given the crown of life. That is an even greater inheritance than what God promised Abraham.

So Abraham is one of the greatest men of the Bible. It is important to understand that the rest of the Bible and the rest of world history is about him, and his descendants, and God’s promises to these descendants. The Bible is also about tests to people’s faith, and that’s the case also with Abraham. God said he would make a might nation of Abraham and his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the sea shore. But Abraham didn’t have any children when God said that. And Abraham and Sarah were getting old. In fact, the Bible says, the way of women had ceased with Sarah. But Abraham believed God. Eventually, after a great deal of time, probably much more time than Abraham would have liked, God fulfilled his promise. Isaac was born to them in their old age.

Isaac was not the same kind of man his father was. There are not nearly as many adventures in Isaac’s life as there were in Abraham’s life. Isaac’s sons, also, had much more adventurous lives. Isaac, for his part, seems to have been a very peaceable man. If someone took his well, he would just dig another one. He was not feisty like his father or his sons after him.

Just as Abraham and Sarah had a hard time conceiving and bearing children, so also Isaac and Rebekah had a hard time conceiving and bearing children. No children came for a long time. Finally, when Rebekah did become pregnant, it was with twins. She inquired of the Lord what was happening to her because already in the womb they were fighting with one another. God told her that two nations were fighting within her, and that the older would serve the younger. And so it happened that when it came time for the delivery that Esau was born first, then Jacob. But Jacob was holding Esau’s heel. They were tremendous rivals.

They also were quite different from one another. Esau was hairy and an outdoorsman. Jacob had smooth skin and didn’t hunt. Esau was the favorite of his father, Isaac. Jacob was the favorite of his mother, Rebekah. Eventually Isaac grew very old and feeble. He became blind in his old age. The time came for Isaac to give his blessing, and he intended to give it to the firstborn, Esau. But Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, found out about his intentions. She wanted Jacob to be blessed. So she worked it out so that her husband would be tricked into thinking that Jacob was Esau. She made him hairy and fixed a meal just like Esau would have. Although it seems that Isaac was skeptical when he gave his blessing, nevertheless, he blessed Jacob instead of Esau. The word of the Lord to Rebekah was fulfilled. The older will serve the younger.

When Esau figured out what had been done to him he was furious. He intended to kill his brother once his father was dead. Isaac knew that it was dangerous to keep them together so he told Jacob to go away. Jacob was to go back to the homeland where he might find a wife. Isaac and Rebekah did not like the native, idolatrous women of Canaan. They wanted Jacob to have a wife from their own people.

This brings us to our reading this morning. Jacob left Beersheba, where Isaac lived, and was on his way to Haran where his parents’ relatives lived. Night fell at a certain place and Jacob lay down to sleep. There is this odd detail where he used a stone for a pillow. When he fell asleep he dreamed. He saw a staircase or a ladder. The Lord was at the top of it and angels were ascending and descending upon it.

God said to him: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, I give to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back again into this land. Indeed, I will not leave you, until I have done what I have promised to you.”

This had to have been a very welcome and cheerful word to Jacob. I can’t help but think there had to have been some guilt, or at the very least, uncertainty over what he had done to his brother Esau. That wasn’t the most honorable thing he had ever done. Now his brother hated him so much that he wanted to kill him. He was sent off from home all alone. It seems as though he had nothing better to lay under his head than a stone he had found at that place. What was going to come of all this?

Then God spoke to him. God told him many things that he already knew. Jacob was told of the God of his father and grandfather from the time that he was a little child. He himself was circumcised, the sign of God’s covenant. But now God reaffirmed his covenant with Jacob, in the midst of his turmoil and doubt, just as God had done with Abraham and Isaac before him. At that moment it certainly didn’t look like Jacob was going to have much for blessings. He was sad and lonely. But Jacob believed God, and it was accredited to him as righteousness.

The story of Jacob’s life would go on. He would be blessed according to the Word of the Lord. He would get married. He would have 12 sons. Those sons would go on to become the 12 tribes of Israel. His descendants would eventually settle to the north and south, east and west of Bethel, where Jacob had this dream. Jacob was blessed according to the Word of the Lord, but all of these blessings did not come about in the way that a person might expect.

Anybody who is familiar with the details of Jacob’s life knows that his dealings with his father-in-law were fraught with grievances and rivalry. When Jacob comes back home with his wives and children he is met at the ford of the Jabbok by God, who wrestles him all night long until God finally puts his hip out of joint. Jacob walked with a limp the rest of his life, but he managed to wrestle a blessing out of God and received the new name “Israel.” Jacob’s sons would disappoint him in all kinds of ways. They even went so far as to almost kill their brother Joseph, but instead sold him as a slave. Finally, Jacob’s descendants would come to inhabit the land of Canaan, but only after 400 years of slavery in Egypt.

Jacob believed in the Lord his God and was accredited as righteous, but that did not mean that everything went the way that Jacob thought things should go. The Bible records the story of faith, but also records tests of faith. The way that we think things should go is not always the way that God makes them go. I might even go so far as to say that God hardly ever lets things go the way that we think they should go—at least not down to the very details.

I think there is a good reason for this. It is so that we do not think that we are God, but rather that he is God. God has explicitly said as much, for example, with the judge Gideon. Gideon was in a war with the Philistines. God told Gideon to send away practically all his troops. God wanted to make it clear that he was the one who was giving them the victory. They did not achieve it for themselves.

We, of course, do not enjoy being humbled. We do not enjoy being made weak. It seems that we would like it if we just became stronger and stronger so that we could be our own God. But God, in his mercy, does not allow us to do that. It is by faith that we are righteous, and if we come to believe in ourselves we most certainly will not be believing in the Lord our God.

So we cannot look at the circumstances of our life to determine whether we are ones who are blessed. What would happen if we did that to Jacob and to Israel? Jacob was a limping man with a broken heart in his old age. He never got over what he supposed to be the death of his favorite son Joseph. He even died in a strange land, in Egypt, instead of in the land that God had given him. Judging by outward appearances it would appear that Jacob was cursed rather than blessed.

But Jacob was blessed. He had the covenant of the Lord his God. He had circumcision as an outward sign of that covenant. The Lord was his God, and he was God’s chosen and beloved. He knew that according to the Word of the Lord instead of by examining his circumstances in life. He believed in this promise of God and was accredited as righteous. God prevented him from false belief and despair. He did not believe in himself or in any other gods. God did not let him down.

We, as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by faith, may learn from this. God has caused his promises to come to you. He has chosen you. He has given you the sign of baptism. He has given you the sign of the Lord’s Supper. He causes his Word and his promises to be spoken to you week in and week out. You are in no less of a favorable situation than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, and arguably you are in a better situation because you see the fullness of God’s love and mercy in Christ the crucified.

But what might be going on in your life? Does it appear that you are blessed or cursed? What things might happen in the future? Perhaps you might be afflicted with great sadness or pain or sickness. In the midst of these things we must remember that God is faithful to his promises. The most important thing in your life is that you keep your faith in the Lord your God, because there is no other way to be accredited with righteousness. Is it really surprising, then, that God might work things in certain ways in order to keep you in that faith? We are not God. God is.

So we must not attach ultimate importance to the way that we are feeling, whether good or bad, or the things that God gives us or takes away. Job, a man who was severely tested, said, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” The Lord our God is good. His mercy endures forever. Though your faith in that might be tested from time to time, do not despair. When the time is right, God will cheer you up just like he did to Jacob while he lay sleeping on that rock.

211003 Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 (Trinity 18) October 3, 2021

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

You’ve probably heard it said that there are two tables or tablets of the Law. The Ten Commandments can be divided into two groups. There are commandments that have to do with God—that’s the first table of the Law. Then there are commandments that have to do with other people—that’s the second table of the Law. The first three commandments, “You shall have no other Gods,” “You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God,” and “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,” have to do with God. The last seven commandments have to do with your neighbor. “Honor your father and your mother.” “You shall not murder.” “You shall not commit adultery.” “You shall not steal.” “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” And, “You shall not covet.”

When it comes to how well people understand the commandments, there is a big difference between the first table of the Law and the second table of the Law. People well understand that a person should not murder or steal. Our government has strict laws on the books about these things. Anybody who is found guilty of murdering or stealing is severely punished. This earthly punishment does quite a bit in instructing us about what is right or wrong.

Most people also know that committing adultery is wrong, but this isn’t nearly so clear as the wrongness of murdering or stealing. Our government’s laws against adultery, divorce, and other sexual perversions have been so relaxed that people might think that there’s nothing wrong with any of these things. However, the damage that these sins can do to the victim whom we can see and know will still make most people understand that there is something wrong with it.

That seems to be a key part to whether we understand how something is wrong or not. If we can see the damage that it causes it is easier for us to understand. Coveting, for example, doesn’t seem to be too big of a deal to most people. It doesn’t seem to harm others that I am envious of them—so long as I don’t act on that envy. When someone is murdered, on the other hand, the hands are red, there is a mess to clean up, and people mourn the destruction of life.

So perhaps you can see why people are much less sensitive to the seriousness of the first three commandments versus those commandments that have to do with our neighbor. Our government is practically built on the principle that no laws should be made about faith in God, worship, or religious instruction. This gives a very strong impression to people that a person’s relationship with God is totally optional and a mere matter of personal preference. This may not have been our forefather’s intent, but it has certainly been the result. The government gets involved in the important matters of life. Since the government does not get involved in our relationship with God, it is inevitable that people will think that religion is unimportant. Whether a person believes, prays, or hears God’s Word is seen as though it is hardly more than a hobby. Some people like to pray. Other people like to play tennis. Who cares?

It is also the case that people have a hard time seeing the harm their breaking of the commandments against God might have. Where’s the blood? Where’s the destruction of property? Where are the tears of the victim? There aren’t any. It’s a victimless crime, seemingly. It doesn’t appear to make any difference whether a person believes in God or not, whether God is prayed to or not, whether a person gladly hears and learns his Word or not.

So if we, like Jesus in our Gospel reading, were asked, “Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” we would almost certainly respond, “Murder. Definitely murder.” After all, that is what we have been taught. Who receives the longest prison sentences? The harm that murder causes to our society is such that punishment should be severe. Since there are no punishments for the commandments about God, they must be unimportant.

Of course, as you know, Jesus answers the question of which is the greatest commandment quite differently than we might: “The first and greatest commandment is that we love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.” Maybe Jesus is a champion of lost causes. Maybe he likes to cheer for the underdog when it comes to the ranking of commandments. But, of course, I’m joking. Jesus choosing this commandment is not a mere whim or personal preference. He is completely serious and has good reasons for saying what he did.

To believe in God is to raise our eyes beyond the horizon of this present life. This is something that makes us different from other animals. We were created in God’s image. We have been given an ability to understand God’s Word. In the garden Adam and Eve understood when he said, “In the day that you sin, you will surely die.” We can know that we will die. We can at least have some kind of intuition that we might be responsible to a Creator for the way that we have lived our lives. Animals, on the other hand, have their sights fixed on this present life and cannot look beyond it. Cow, pigs, cats, and dogs are concerned with food and shelter. So long as they have these, so long as they are comfortable for the moment, they are more or less content.

Human beings can live that way too. Their sights can be set only on the things of this world. In fact, that is what we’ve been talking about today. People cannot see the importance of the commandments that have to do with God if all that they are concerned about is having a comfortable life. Work, school, extra-curricular activities, vacation—if any of these things come into conflict with worship or religious instruction they will always pick the one over the other. It is as Jesus says, “No servant can serve two masters.” One or the other is always going to be picked, always going to be preferred. And if life is simply a matter of this world, then God and his commandments are always going to take the back seat.

Now you should not misunderstand me here. I’m not trying to introduce God to you as some kind of victim so that you no longer regard sinning against the first three commandments as a victimless crime. I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for God so that out of the goodness of your heart you’ll pray or come to church. That would make you an equal with God, or even his superior—as though he is eagerly awaiting to receive scraps of your attention. God’s not like that. He doesn’t mope or weep over people despising him. Those who despise him are simply not worthy of him.

I’ve always been struck by the severity of Jesus’s words to this effect, even when I was a child. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Good fathers and mothers and good sons and daughters are probably the best things that this life has to offer us. If you have been blessed with such things, then you know that you can’t help but love them ever so deeply. But if these are the highest and best things in your life, then you already have your god. The truth is that there is another, higher, better God than these. He is the source of all good things. He richly and daily provides you all that you need to support this body and life. Furthermore, he has redeemed you with the holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death of his beloved Son. He has given you the spiritual gifts through which your sins are forgiven and you may live happily with God in all his holiness, righteousness, and glory.

If you love the good things of this life, then you should love, thank, and praise God even more, for those good things did not appear by random chance. They are given by God. Plus you should raise your eyes above the horizon of this present world. This world and this life are not everything. In fact this life is a veil of tears, despite all that is good about it. There is altogether too much sadness, boredom, meanness, pain, and death. Life wasn’t supposed to be this way. Our love and our forefather’s love of darkness and disobedience to God is what brought it about.

God certainly could have consigned us all to the ash-heap. He’s done that before with his fearsome wrath—such as with the flood or Sodom and Gomorrah. But instead he planned for your salvation from before the foundation of the world. He decided to send his eternally begotten Son to redeem you by dying in your place the eternal death that you deserve. Thus, beyond this life, there is a purified and holy life, an inheritance from God, that is laid up for you.

Must we not, then, agree with our catechism when it says, “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey God”? Must we not agree with Jesus when he says that the first and greatest commandment is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind? There is no greater ambition that we could set for ourselves than that. People have all kinds of ambitions for life. They want to go to the moon, do this, that, and the other thing. They want to be the greatest. All these ambitions pale in comparison to the ambition of loving God.

God does not give his commandments because he is such a drag and a stick in the mud. He isn’t trying to make us miserable with his commandments. His commandments promote and protect life for all who keep them. Thus the first table of the Law is given for our good. Those who keep these commandments about our relationship with God will find that they will not be disappointed.

And Jesus says there is another commandment besides this first and greatest commandment. He says the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” You who are children of your heavenly Father are to become like chips off the old block. John says in his epistle: “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love.”

God is unbelievably generous with his love. He causes his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. He opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing, regardless of whether they thank and praise, serve and obey him. You have been baptized. You have become a child of God. Thus you should strive to become like our Father who is in heaven.

Here we have another wonderful ambition to go alongside of the one that I already mentioned. There is no higher ambition than that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. So also there is no higher ambition than that we should do good to our neighbor. We should forgive those who trespass against us. We should be kind and friendly to all those whom God puts in our path.

This is especially the case with those people we easily overlook—the people within our own household. We get tired of the people we live with. They annoy us. They don’t notice the nice things we do. They don’t do anything nice for us. (So we stupidly think.) These are the kinds of poisonous thoughts we might have. Banish them back to hell from whence they came. Regardless of how the people in your household treat you, make it your ambition to be helpful, kind, patient, forgiving, and so on towards them. Try to be a chip off the old block. Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

There is no more practical advice that a person could ask for than what Jesus points us towards in his answers about the Law. People have all kinds of advice for how to live life. They should do this, that, and the other thing. They should have this job, this sport, this diet. All that stuff is supposed to make you happy. The deepest happiness comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit who gives us a good conscience for Jesus’s sake, and begins to make us love God and love one another. Instead of our evil, selfish heart, God gives us a new heart that loves.

Let me sum up today with the words from the close of the commandments in our catechism: God threatens to punish all who break these Ten Commandments. Therefore we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them. But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore we should also love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.