230129 Sermon on the message of the cross as foolishness (Epiphany 4) January 29, 2023

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You’ve noticed, I’m sure, graffiti etched into the walls or etched into the stalls of bathrooms. The grafitti might say, “So and so was here.” Often, at least in the men’s bathroom, they are off-color. Sometimes they can be about other people. So and so likes to do this or that, and the this or that is usually not flattering.

I’d like to begin today by speaking about some ancient graffiti that scholars believe is from around 200 A.D. in the city of Rome. Somebody drew a picture of a cross with a man’s body hanging on that cross. But instead of that body having a man’s head drawn atop it, this fellow drew the picture of a donkey’s head. So there’s the body of a man with a donkey’s head being crucified. Then, to the side there’s a figure of a man drawn next to that cross. Finally, there is a caption to help the viewer understand what is being depicted. This caption is of the kind you might find etched into a bathroom stall. It says, “Here is Alexamenos worshipping his God.”

Evidently Alexamenos was a Christian, and this associate or friend or whatever of Alexamenos was making fun of him. This friend of Alexamenos believes that it is absolutely ridiculous to worship a dead man hanging on a cross. Just to make sure you wouldn’t miss his point he drew Christ with an ass’s head. Probably something else that’s going on here is the contempt that Roman people had for those who were crucified. Only losers, white trash, and slaves were crucified. So the whole thing is contemptable and embarrassing. Maybe to put yourself better into the mindset of this friend of Alexamenos you should think of a turd. Here’s Alexamenos worshipping his God. Here’s Alexamenos worshipping a turd.

Because we hear the word “cross” so often, and because we even hear Paul’s words in our epistle reading fairly often—that we preach Christ crucified, we can easily lose sight of the offensiveness of our God being crucified and dead. We, of course, are eager to add: “and resurrected.” I don’t worship a crucified, dead man. Jesus rose with power.

But note that Paul does not have those words added on to what he says. He says, “We preach Christ crucified.” He doesn’t say, “We preach Christ crucified and resurrected.” This does not mean that Paul doesn’t believe that Jesus was resurrected. Paul obviously believes that Jesus was resurrected. He gives a powerful and extended defense for the resurrection later in this very same letter, in chapter 15. But even though Paul obviously believes that Jesus was also risen from the dead, he purposely only says, “We preach Christ crucified,” instead of “crucified and resurrected.” And, in fact, as you’ll hear in the reading next week he says, “I had no intention of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

So why is Paul so focused on this turd-like thing that is so offensive and foolish? This seems to be what was in the back of the minds of the Corinthians too. When you become familiar with 1 and 2 Corinthians it becomes plain that the Corinthians are a little fed up with Paul. Why does he always have to talk the way he does? Why can’t he be more like Apollos? It’s always gloom and doom and weakness and humility with Paul. We don’t want weakness. We want power! I have the power! That’s a message that will sell; not this turd-like cross stuff.

But, as you will also hear next week, Paul by no means came to sell them anything, much less the cross. That’s not how Christianity works. Nobody gets sold on Christianity. Nobody is converted by the persuasiveness of the message or the charisma of the preacher. That is, nobody is truly converted by such things. Preachers, certainly, can gain a following by doing any number of different things. But Christians are created and sustained only by the Holy Spirit doing a miracle in them. The Holy Spirit makes them like Alexamenos. They worship that crucified and dead ass, that turd-like cross.

What does such worship look like? How can we picture it? Let’s apply it to the end of our lives by looking at a couple of well-known hymns. Maybe one day I will sing this at your graveside: “Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.” “Hold Thou Thy cross before my dying eyes.”

Another hymn, “O Sacred Head, now Wounded,” prays this prayer to Jesus: “Be Thou my consolation, my shield, when I must die; Remind me of Thy passion When my last hour draws nigh. Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, Upon Thy cross shall dwell, My heart by faith enfold Thee, Who dieth thus dies well.”

This hymn verse is saying that when my last hour has come, and I’m gurgling away on that deathbed, let me think of Jesus, bloody, gory. Grim death with cruel rigor has robbed him of his life. This very old hymn says that that’s the way to die: “Remind me of Thy passion When my last hour draws nigh.” The one who dies that way, this hymn says, “dies well.”

I feel that we all have something to learn from these hymn verses, do we not? It’s so easy to dismiss such a suggestion for the deathbed: “Uh! Yuck! Gross! The last thing that I want to be thinking about on my deathbed is the pain and misery, the gasping, gurgling death of Jesus on the cross.” Why would anyone want such a turd wafted under their nose at such a stressful time?

The answer, of course, is that this is no turd. True, as Paul says later to the Corinthians, the knowledge of Christ the crucified is the smell of death to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the smell of life leading to yet more life. For what is the cross of Christ? It is the Son of God saving you. He is being punished for your sins. Jesus didn’t cry out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” because of sins that he committed. Those were your sins. And the forsakenness of God is what should happen to you at your death if it weren’t for Jesus’s cross. Jesus’s death reconciles you to God, for the punishment that you deserve was instead poured out upon him.

So if we are not supposed to think about the cross of Jesus when we are dying, then when should we think about it? When is the appropriate time to be reminded of Christ’s passion? There is, in fact, no more appropriate time than when our own turd-like nature is being made manifest. What is death but the conclusive proof that we are not God, we are not strong, we can’t fix this. We are stuck! But there is hope.

However, there is only one hope. The doctors can’t do anything. Trying harder can’t do anything. But Jesus died on the cross to set me free from death. He defeated death so that it can’t hold on to us forever. The hope of the Christian who is dying is that because Jesus died on the cross I will be resurrected just like Jesus was resurrected. The one who dies with faith in Jesus’s cross dies well. Such a death isn’t hardly a death at all. It would better be understood as merely a sleep, the lightest of naps, from which we will so easily awaken to everlasting life.

So instead of being ashamed of Jesus the crucified being our God we should proudly embrace him, particularly at his death, as our very own. He died for us to set us free. We are too weak and sinful to do anything, so he takes our place. Thus we are saved by the foolishness of such a preached message.

And make no mistake, this message is still regarded today as foolish. Consult the self-help gurus. I guarantee you that they will not say you are blessed if you do what Jesus says—if, for example, we are poor, or weak, or merciful. Or consult our experts on dying well. I guarantee you again that they will say nothing about bringing to mind how Jesus was tortured and killed. If the world would only be honest, they’d have to admit that they hate what is said in the Bible. It all looks like terrible advice designed to make people miserable.

But let us hear again from our reading. These words are as applicable to our times as they were to the Corinthians’: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are strong, and God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to do away with the things that are, so that no one may boast before God.”

Paul is actually being quite bold and if people will pay attention to him here they will be offended. You think you’re wise? You think you’re strong? You think you’re a good person? You think that you’ve lived a good life? God pulls down all these things with the cross. No one may boast before God.

If we want to boast, then we can boast in the Lord. If we want to boast, then let’s boast in the cross. The message of the cross has this ever recurring refrain: “I am weak, but he is strong; yes, Jesus loves me.”

To go back to the graffiti with which we began, we don’t know how Alexamenos reacted to that graffiti which was designed to mock him. The fellow who drew and wrote those things wanted to shame Alexamenos for worshipping such an obviously worthless God. But if Alexamenos understood what Paul teaches in our reading today, he shouldn’t have been phased by it. So also we should not be surprised if the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, as Paul says. The works of God have always been thought of as bizarre, offensive, unlikely to succeed. That was even what Jesus’s disciples thought when they saw Jesus die. Their hopes of Jesus being the Messiah were dashed.

But what we think, what people think, doesn’t matter nearly so much as what God thinks. Lots of people look for power. Christians say, “Christ the crucified is power.” Lots of people look for wisdom. Christians say, “Christ the crucified is wisdom.” Thus, as Paul says, “We preach Christ crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

230122 Sermon on divisions that happen in the church (Epiphany 3) January 22, 2023

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In our epistle reading we learn that there were divisions in the congregation at Corinth. Paul tells the congregation what he has been hearing: “Each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’” We know who Paul is. He is the one writing this letter. Apollos was one of the preachers that spent some time in Corinth. Cephas is the Apostle Peter. “Cephas” is Aramaic for “rock.” So what Paul has heard is that some are saying, “I’m one of Paul’s disciples.” Others are saying, “I’m one of Apollos’s disciples.” Others: “I’m one of Peter’s disciples.” As you heard, Paul is not pleased. They are all to be Christ’s disciples.

This gives us the opportunity to take up a difficult topic when it comes to our own church. We have divisions too. Congregations can be divided into factions. For example, some might be for the pastor; others, against the pastor. Some might think we should do one thing with Communion. Others might think we should do something else. Some might be satisfied with the worship. Others might want something else.

We might have some divisions and factions in our own congregation, but, by God’s grace, I don’t think they are too bad. However, you probably know that other congregations in the Missouri Synod are much more divided. It wouldn’t be hard to come up with a list of hot-button issue: Open vs. closed communion, women in positions of leadership vs. women being submissive, so-called “traditional worship” vs. so-called “contemporary worship.”

Often the highly politicizing words of “liberal” and “conservative” get used in the way these things are talked about. The liberal platform solves the problems one way. The conservative platform solves them another way. So then one congregation is “liberal,” and another congregation is “conservative.” Paul had heard that in Corinth each individual was saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Cephas.” That sounds a lot like what you could hear among us in the Missouri Synod: “I belong to the liberal wing,” or “I belong to the conservative wing.”

What do conservatives and liberals do when they get together? They fight. Or, perhaps, if they are sick of fighting, they despise one another. One congregation goes one way. Another congregation goes the opposite way. The hostility can be tremendous, as some of us who have spent some time in synod activities have experienced over the years. Ruthless, mean-spirited tactics have been used by one side as well as the other. In my opinion the conservatives have probably been meaner and more ruthless, but such words would be a sure-fire way to pick yet another fight.

So how should we think about this? Paul sums up what is going on with these factions fighting one another in chapter three. We’ll hear this three weeks from now in our Epistle reading. Paul says: “Brothers, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as people who are led by the flesh. … You are still people who are following the flesh. Indeed, insofar as jealousy, strife, and factions have a place among you, are you not people who are following the flesh? Are you not behaving in a merely human way? When one says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ and another, ‘I belong to Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?”

Paul says that jealousy, rivalry, and division are of the flesh. When Paul uses the word “flesh,” he means how we naturally are—the fallen, sinful nature that we have inherited from Adam and Eve. And isn’t what Paul says the truth? We’ve all experienced the truth of what he says. Take, as just one poignant example, what is so common in middle school and high school. The kids divide up against one another. They form groups. They hate each other. They’re mean to each other. One wants to be better than the other. Jeering, mocking, sarcasm, and so on get used as weapons in the fight. The goal is to make the other person feel horrible, to defeat them—perhaps even to make them hate themselves.

This rivalry and harassment can get so bad that in the past 20 years or so several of these kids have decided to come back to school armed with guns to get revenge. Every single one of the shooters in these school shootings have been kids who were picked on. Let that be just one proof of the truthfulness of Paul’s words: “Jealousy, rivalry, and division are of the flesh.” They are from that loveless, murderous, evil spirit that we have all inherited from our parents. Jealousy, rivalry, and division in the church are of the flesh too.

But perhaps some of you are thinking, and understandably so, that some divisions in the church are good. And that’s true. Some divisions are good. Paul in this very letter says later, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.” This means that there is to be a division when it comes to the Lords Supper. Those who are believing and behaving wrongly and unrepentantly are not to share in the cup and the table of the Lord. He also says in this same letter that there must be divisions among them so that those who are approved may become evident.

So on the one hand Paul says that divisions are of the flesh, and then, on the other, in the very same letter, he says that divisions are good and necessary. Why does Paul seem to be saying one thing at the beginning of the letter, and then later in the letter something that sounds like it is the opposite?

There actually is no contradiction here, because Paul is talking about two different kinds of division. When Paul speaks about jealousy, rivalry, and division being bad he is talking about how these Corinthians were attaching themselves to certain teachers. The other kind of division is from being divided from Christ. Divisions in the church are not to be made because of persons and factions and rivalry. However, there should be division when people are not being faithful to Christ.

Let’s look more closely at how we should not have jealousy, rivalry and division. Jesus lambasts the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. What Jesus says of them is easily applicable to what commonly happens among us. Jesus says of the scribes and Pharisees: “They love to be seen. They love having power. They love being called, ‘Rabbi,’ by people. But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher and you are all brothers. Also do not call anyone on earth you ‘Father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. And you are not to be called ‘leaders,’ for you have one Leader, the Christ. But the greatest among you will be your servant.”

You can tell that what Jesus says is of a different spirit than the evil spirit we have in our flesh. I, also, have an evil spirit that whispers in my ear: “Michael Holmen is just the best pastor ever. The best teacher. Always right; never wrong. If only others would acknowledge my greatness I could achieve great things!” How stupid and evil! We all have only one Teacher. We are all equals.

And if you want to be great, Jesus says, then serve and suffer more than all the rest of them. Be more truthful, more open, more long-suffering. That certainly is of a different spirit than that of the flesh. Jesus says greatness is in serving and suffering. How it works among us is that the conservatives want to get rid of the liberals, because then we’ll be done with our work and have a pure church. The liberals want the same. Once the one side has vanquished the other, once the mastery of the one over the other is acknowledged, then all our problems will be solved. I’m right. Everyone else is wrong.

But notice how Paul includes himself in what he says. He says that there were some in Corinth who said that they belonged to Paul. They were on Paul’s team. This seems to disgust him more than anything else. In our reading he says, “Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the Name of Paul?” Then he seems to even say that he is glad that he didn’t have that much more to do with them. He only baptized Crispis and Gaius. And, oh yeah, he also baptized Stephanas’s family. But that’s it—and thank God! Otherwise their devotion to Paul might have been even worse! Their devotion doesn’t belong to Paul but to Christ.

The same thing is true with me. If I were to cease to be your pastor because I died or was called to some other place, there is a part of me that would like you all to say, “Pastor Holmen was the best pastor ever.” And there’s a part of me that would like it if you’d compare the next pastor to me and say, “Our new pastor isn’t nearly as good as Pastor Holmen was.” But this is evil. To act that way is to act like those evil, cool kids in school. They think they’re the best. And why are they the best? Is it because they love so much, because they serve so much? No. It’s because they’re so cool, so smart—if only everyone were like them as though they were little gods. That is obviously of the flesh.

The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, convinces us that we have one Teacher, and one Father, and one Leader, and that leader is Jesus Christ. Paul speaks very passionately at the beginning of our reading: “Brothers, I am making an appeal to you using the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I ask that you all express the same view and have not any divisions among you, but that you be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” How does Paul want them to be joined together with the same mind and the same judgment? Does he want them all to be following him? No! He explicitly rejects that. Who is Paul? Who is Michael Holmen? They are nothing unless they are pointing away from themselves. They are nothing unless they are helping people to trust more and more in Jesus. In fact, Paul and Michael Holmen would be enemies of Jesus if they would seek for themselves partisans and disciples, instead of pointing people to Jesus.

And, supposing something like that were to happen and go on unchecked, it would be necessary for there to be a division. Division is good and necessary when people are not following Christ, but are following someone or something else instead. “What has darkness to do with light?” Paul says. Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.”

Now let’s think again about the divisions that exist among us. It is very easy and convenient to divide into groups: “I belong to Ft. Wayne.” “I belong to St. Louis.” “I’m a liberal.” “I’m a conservative.” Behind these labels is the belief that if only we can rally our forces, get the right people elected, politicking meanly and ruthlessly, then we will stride gloriously into a golden age. Against such silly but powerful persuasive dreams we must sober up with Paul’s statement: “I came to preach Christ crucified.”

Christ the crucified doesn’t seem like it will work. It has never seemed like it will work. Jesus’s disciples lost their faith in him as the Christ when he was crucified. But Christ crucified is the power of God unto salvation.

With Jesus as our Savior instead of ourselves or our own party as the Savior that means that we can be open, loving, accepting, merciful, kind, cheerful, optimistic, and so on. This can be a real challenge for people like me who can be defensive or suspicious. It is very helpful to others to get to know Christ when we are open, kind, and gracious. Paul, I believe, was like that.

But we also know what’s true and not true. Our goal should not be just to impress people with how nice we are. Is niceness the Savior? No. Our loyalty is to Christ the crucified. It is only in Christ the crucified that there is wisdom and power. It is only in him that there is true unity and goodness. And so if there are people who don’t want to submit to Christ and his Gospel, and if they won’t repent, then division from them is not only necessary, it is good. But we must be careful that this is because they are not following Christ, and not because they don’t belong to our own little club. The closer and more faithful we are to Jesus, the better.

To critique and correct the Corinthians is a large part of why Paul writes this letter. If you are al all familiar with 1 and 2 Corinthians, then you know that he is not just telling them what a great job they are all doing! No, he has many struggles with these people. He even writes a letter to them in tears. He strives mightily. He suffers much. But this was not so that he could create a Pauline appreciation society. It was so that they would believe more and more in Christ the crucified.

So also with us. We would do very poorly if we were striving to create a Missouri Synod appreciation society, or be a conservative congregation, or a traditional congregation. None of these things are our Savior. Jesus alone is our Savior.

230115 Sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 (Epiphany 2) January 15, 2023

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Today I’d like to look closely at our epistle reading. We heard the opening verses of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. These words address what is fundamental about being a Christian. It is helpful to know what is fundamental. When we lose sight of what is fundamental we get confused. What are we really about? What is going on? How should I see myself and my future? These are fundamental questions that Paul answers in our reading this morning.

Before we get into the particulars, I’d like to give you an overall statement that I’d like you to remember. The shortest, most fundamental Christian creed, or statement of faith, is: “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord.” Everything that we will be talking about is an elaboration of that statement: Jesus Christ is my Lord.

Let’s look at Paul’s words more closely. I’d like to begin with his “to” statement. The very beginning of the letter says, “From Paul.” Then he says, “to the gathering of God which exists in the town of Corinth.” Then he goes on to describe them: “sanctified, that is, made holy in Christ Jesus, called ‘holy ones.’”

Let’s talk about what it means to be holy. The word “holy” often is misused. People will talk about having sacred or holy experiences—during a concert or while seeing a beautiful landscape. This makes holiness almost a synonym for special, serious, or very beautiful things. The main this I’d like you to understand about holiness is that it is something that is 100% God’s own property. We sing in the Gloria: “Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord.” God alone is holy, and then those things are holy to which God communicates his own holiness. When God communicates his holiness to other things, then those things become holy. Since God is the only source for holiness, without that connection to God, nothing can be holy.

So if we go back to Paul’s words he says, “to the gathering of God in Corinth, to those who are sanctified, that is, made holy in Christ Jesus, called saints, that is, called holy ones.” These people, Paul says, are holy in Christ Jesus. God has communicated to them his own holiness. Then he goes on: “Along with everyone in every place who call on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is both their Lord and our Lord.” The Corinthians are holy, but it is not just them. Whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.

This is important for correctly understanding what the Holy Christian Church is. We say in the Creed, “I believe in the Holy Christian Church.” The Holy Christian Church is made up of all those who have faith in Jesus—all those who call upon his Name as their Lord. Each individual who hears the Gospel, hears the voice of the Good Shepherd, and follows him, such an individual is a member of the Body of Christ, the Holy Christian Church.

So Paul is connecting these Corinthians to all the others who believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord. He is also connecting us to all these others as well. It doesn’t matter who the other people might be. They could be rich or poor, on different continents, of different races and skin colors, we are all one in Jesus. We are all made holy in Jesus.

It is even the case that people from different church bodies and denominations make up the Holy Christian Church. There are so many different church bodies with so many different teachings and emphases. Nevertheless, if the Gospel, the good news that Jesus is the Savior of sinners, is present in these places, then, by the power of the Holy Spirit in that Word there will be believers in Jesus as their Lord.

This does not mean that it doesn’t matter what church a person might attend and belong to. It is a grave and unbelievably destructive sin when the Word of God is falsified in any way by anybody or any church body. It is breaking the second commandment. The very first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is for God to bless us with his Word in its truth and purity, and that we, as children of God, may lead holy lives according to it. One of the reasons why Paul writes to the Corinthians is so that they may be corrected concerning a whole host of false practices and errors that are present in their congregation.

So when I say that wherever the Gospel is, there are Christians, don’t misunderstand me to be saying that this is some easy prerequisite. Almost every church has the Gospel, so no need to worry or talk about anything else. What I’d like you to understand is that the Gospel is so extraordinary and powerful that it brings about salvation even where there are many and grievous sins. And the worst sins are spiritual sins, the sins against the first table of the Law, but those who call on the Name of Jesus, as Paul says, wherever they might be, are saved, are made holy. If we have been made holy, If we actually believe, then we certainly don’t want to make friends with stuff that perverts and destroys that which is true and saving. The Gospel, when it is correctly understood and believed, will not make us apathetic, lazy, and indifferent. It will make us zealous for what is good—good for us and good for others.

So Paul opens his letter by tying together these Corinthians and also us with everybody else who calls on Jesus as their Lord. Then he gives them a blessing: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!” As Christians we live by being blessed like this. We live by God saying, “I forgive you. My grace and my peace, I give to you.”

Paul goes on to speak about how they’ve been blessed: “I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus.” Paul gives thanks, not for himself or some boon that has come to him, but for them. Paul is always giving thanks. It would be good for us if we would follow his example generally, but especially when it comes to our fellow Christians. Whenever anyone has been called out of darkness and alienation from God to receive eternal life in Jesus, this is best possible thing that can ever happen. We should keep this eternal greatness in mind with our fellow congregation members also. Instead of grumbling and complaining about the shortcomings of your fellow congregation members, be thankful that the grace of God has been given to them.

This grace is effective, as Paul goes on to say: “You were enriched in Jesus in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge, because the testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. As a result you do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ on the last day.”

Here we get to the Christian’s way of life. Paul says that you were made rich in Jesus in every way. We all want to be rich, don’t we? If we could choose between being rich or poor, wouldn’t we choose to be rich? And in this quest to become rich—whether that be rich in money, rich in prestige, rich in good looks, what-have-you—to try to get rich we put in a lot of thinking and effort. But Paul says you are made rich in Jesus in every way.

How so? Jesus makes you holy. God’s holiness is communicated to you. God, who is love, pours into you his love. Instead of becoming rich by exploiting other people, you have the opportunity to make other people happy instead of just yourself by loving them. You could become rich in many different ways by dedicating your life to any number of different pursuits. No matter what your ambitions might be, though, they are destined to decay and pass away in the grave. Not so with Jesus. Jesus makes you rich in that which is eternal, in love.

You’re familiar with one of Jesus’s sayings in this regard. He says, “Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

That saying from Jesus is the kind of thing that Paul is talking about when he says that you have been enriched in Christ in every way. You no longer have to be a slave to your own desires and your own ambitions. You can live for others in love, in suffering, and in sacrifice.

And Paul says that the Corinthians have been enriched in their speaking and their knowledge. To be rich in speaking and in knowledge is to say and believe the kind of thing that we just quoted from Jesus. If you want eternal knowledge, I don’t recommend that you read the Wall Street Journal or self-help books. You already know the way to blessedness, that is, to happiness. The one who loves the most wins. The one who loves the most is like Jesus.

And Jesus is coming again. Paul says, “You do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eagerly waiting for Jesus our Lord to be revealed—“When is he coming? Is he here yet?—this is not foolish, but wise. Whenever we eagerly await something, we are quite active. When Grandma and Grandpa are coming we get ready for their visit. We greet them at the door. So it is with the waiting for Jesus too. You don’t want to be in the basement playing video games. You don’t want to be caught naked. You don’t want to be embarrassed when Jesus comes. Jesus has enriched you so that you are not embarrassed when he comes.

Finally Paul says, “And God will also keep you strong until the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

The Gospel is powerful. It has called you out of darkness and foolishness into light and everlasting life. It has caused you to believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord. When Paul says that God will keep you strong until the end, so that you are blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, he does not mean that you are done now. You know the secret knowledge. Now you can live your life however you want because you will be kept strong until the end no matter what.

No, he says, “God is faithful, who called you into fellowship with his Son.” The faithfulness of God is in the way that he has brought his Gospel to you, bringing you into fellowship with Jesus. God is faithful in baptizing you, in bringing you the Lord’s Supper, which is fellowship and communion. God will keep bringing his Word to you so that your faith may live off that word. By faith in Jesus you will, as Paul says, be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To conclude, in these verses Paul lays out what is fundamental about being a Christian: Jesus Christ is your Lord. In him you are rich. In him you are wise. In him you know how to live. In him you are prepared for the future when Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. In him you will be blameless and perfected in love.

230108 Sermon on the nature of true faith (Baptism of our Lord) January 8, 2023

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Sermon manuscript:

It is fairly well known that in order to be saved from what we deserve for our sins we must have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many passages that could be cited as proof for this. I’ll give you just one. Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Faith and baptism make for salvation. Unbelief brings condemnation.

Since faith in Jesus is so important, it shouldn’t be surprising that the devil should want to mess around in this area. The devil’s specialty is theology. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, it was through the devil’s false theology. They weren’t brought into temptation by their lower passions. It was by means of their higher, spiritual abilities that the devil convinced them that the rule God had given them was rather arbitrary. Maybe God was holding out on them. Do not think that the devil only deals with filth and blood. He dresses up as an angel of light, puts on his preaching gown, and teaches religion.

So it is also, then, when it comes to what I’d like to talk about today—deceiving people about faith. But before we get into how we can be deceived, we should first know what it means to have true faith. The main thing that you should always remember about true faith is that it is absolutely mandatory that it be connected with the Word of God.

Adam and Eve’s first sin was despising the clear words that God had spoken to them and preferring something else that seemed better and wiser. Faith must stick with what God has said and refuse to be moved from what God has said. Adam and Eve should have told that snake to take a hike, but unfortunately they were charmed by it.

Faith must absolutely be tied up with the Word of God. But what, then, does that mean? Beware the devil here too. It’s easy for us to fall into a chain of logic that goes like this: Faith must only rely upon the Word of God. The Word of God is recorded for us in the Bible. The Bible is an awfully big book. I’m not a very good reader, and even when I try to read the Bible I often find it confusing. So I guess I won’t ever know the Word of God because I’m not going to master the entirety of the Scriptures.

Now the more honest and direct conclusion that should be drawn from this chain of logic is that I guess I don’t and I won’t have a true faith. But since people know that unbelief means hell for them, that’s not the conclusion that most people draw. Instead most people just kind of throw up their hands and say, “I guess I’ll just have to hope that I have faith. I’m sure not going to read the Bible. That’s way too much work and I’m not smart enough.” So what that means is that you won’t do anything seriously when it comes to God’s Word, and you’ll just have to hope that that’s good enough.

This is dreadful and unnecessary. It is dreadful because it is the very opposite of faith. Everything is left in doubt. If you can’t master all of the Scriptures, then you’ll have none of it—even though no human being has ever mastered the Scriptures. This is also unnecessary. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that we have to memorize or master everything that has been revealed.

The Scriptures do say about themselves that they are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that therefore they are profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So you should never believe that it is not worthwhile to learn more and more from the Scriptures. But there are some things that God has said which are more essential and upon which our faith is necessarily dependent.

Getting to know these essential teachings has been the primary task of the Christian Church from the very beginning. Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Matthew, “Therefore, go, and make disciples.” A disciple is a follower or a student. And so Christians from the very beginning have been teaching others the very things that they themselves have been taught. And what did the Apostles and Christians teach? They didn’t just sit down with the Bible and start at Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. They could have. That wouldn’t necessarily have been bad. But probably those ancient people weren’t too different from us today. And so they collected the most essential teachings and taught that to those who might become Christians.

We have a very handy and time-tested tool from that tradition in the Christian church with the little pamphlet called “Luther’s Small Catechism.” I’m not talking about the book called Luther’s Small Catechism with the explanation. The explanation greatly expands the content so that we end up dealing with a pretty big book again, and then we end up with all those same complaints and laziness that people have with the Bible. No, I’m only talking about the original Small Catechism, but a little pamphlet. It is simple and small enough to be read by a child; profound enough to never be mastered—even by Luther himself, who says as much.

And I can even make the material smaller yet. In the Catechism the first two chief parts, the Ten Commandments and the Creed, are what is quintessential—the essential of the essential. These two first parts of the Catechism answer two utterly and absolutely fundamental questions: Who am I? and Who is God?

The Ten Commandments answer the question of who I am. I am a sinner. Why? Just because I say so? No. I am a sinner because I have broken all ten of the commandments. So next time someone asks who you are, if you really wanted to get down to the fundamental and nitty-gritty about yourself, you could answer: “I’m a sinner.”

And who is God? God is the justifier of sinners. God created me. God sent his Son to be my Lord and to redeem me. God sanctifies me by the Holy Spirit giving me faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord. God justifies sinners. God has tied himself up in his very nature with justifying us sinners by the Christ’s holy, precious blood, and his innocent suffering and death.

So when it comes to having a true faith, which absolutely and mandatorily must be tied up with the Word the comes from God, these two fundamental questions tower above everything else: Who am I? I’m a sinner. Who is God? He is the justifier of sinners. If you don’t have these two fundamental things straight it is impossible to do anything true or beneficial with anything else that the Word of God might say.

So if you want to go to heaven, that is, if you want to have a true faith, I can give you no better advice than to diligently read your Catechism—again, the pamphlet, not the book. We give these catechisms out for free. If we run out I’ll print some more. And even within the Catechism itself, the Ten Commandments and the Creed are the essential of the essential. They are tremendous guides if you will take them seriously. Examine your life and your faith by them and you will be able to avoid countless errors and tricks of the devil.

Now let’s get into some of those tricks just a little bit. In a way there’s no end to the devil’s tricks. What I’d like to talk about today is one that commonly afflicts folks in our circles. It is very common for our people to pretty much follow the rules, and go with the flow, but we certainly don’t want to go overboard when it comes to how we are supposed to live. This is a kind of Christianity we can develop for ourselves where we are choosing for ourselves which commandments we might want to keep.

Maybe we don’t like to pray all that much, and so we break the second commandment. Or maybe we’re just really independent and forceful characters—leaders, you might say—so of course we don’t want to honor our parents or the other authorities God has placed over us. Or maybe we have a thriving business, but the successfulness of that business depends upon lying, cheating, and abusing our customers or our workers. Or maybe we have a hot head, and we can’t help it, and anger burns within us. Or maybe we twitter about what is going on with everybody else and can’t keep our mouths shut. Or maybe we don’t like hearing God’s Word, we don’t like the pastor of the church service, or we had a fight with someone at church.

Now realize that all the while, and in the midst of all these sins and more, it is not uncommon at all for us to believe that we just totally believe in Jesus. Boy oh boy do we ever believe in Jesus. We just believe in him so much! Start playing Amazing Grace, and don’t be surprised if you see a tear come into our eye.

Our society and especially our churches would be much better off if there were less bragging about a faith that just might be imaginary and hypocritical, and instead paying more attention to the Word of God. And not even to the whole Bible, which, of course, would be fine, but just the Ten Commandments and the Creed. If we payed attention to the Word of God, we’d then know that we are sinners, and we’re in the wrong. We might repent and change our ways. The Word of God says that the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit. A broken and contrite spirit God will not despise.

But not a lot of people are going to do that because it’s awfully convenient to ignore God’s commandments while relying on the belief that you are a believer. This is very convenient, because then you get to do all the things that you want to do. You can basically be the god of your own life. You have the knowledge and you determine what is good and what is evil. Pity the fool who might tell you otherwise. And then, after you’ve lived your life just the way that you want to live your life you get to go to heaven. Because the Scriptures say, do they not, that “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” And there’s one thing you know for sure about yourself, and that is that you are a believer in Jesus! Boy oh boy are you a believer in Jesus.

But what if your fake, made-up faith is just that? And, frankly, how could it be anything but fake? Any so-called faith that allows and basically encourages you to go deeper and deeper into lawlessness and sin can’t come from the Holy Spirit. It comes from an evil spirit.

So how should we handle all those breakings of the Ten Commandments, that even Christians with a true faith find themselves doing? Again, remember that true faith is utterly bound up with the Word of God. So may God bless you by having the Word of God come to you so that you may repent. May God’s Name be hallowed among us and may God’s kingdom come among us so that you may repent.

Having the Ten Commandments around, having a true interpretation of them, is a gift from God. Those who despise and ignore those commandments also usually end up having God take away his Word from them. Realize that you are not in control of your own faith. True faith is worked only by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, so those who make themselves deaf to God’s commandments can end up having God make them totally and irrevocably deaf. He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

So do not despise and neglect the Ten Commandments which reveal your sin. When God reveals your sin to you, that’s never fun, and you shouldn’t expect it to be fun or easy, but you should understand that it is good and that it is a gift. Thank God that he reveals afresh, once again, who you are. Who are you? You are a sinner. So turn away from your self-justifying and believe what God reveals about himself. Who is God? He is the justifier of sinners.

This true faith, which lives on the Word of God, is kind of like a bird. Birds don’t sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. They are dependent upon their heavenly Father feeding them their daily bread, day by day. So it is also with the true faith of a Christian. Our faith is in need of constantly being fed, day by day, bringing us to repentance and faith over and over again until we finally die with faith in Jesus.

Whenever anybody talks about faith in a different way from this humble and needy kind of process, I’m immediately skeptical. Maybe I might give some credence to someone saying that he or she has gobs and gobs of faith if they scrupulously keep the Ten Commandments, if they are gathering with and encouraging their fellow sinners, and are giving their all in a life that is lived in God. But that’s not what’s usually going on. Instead, they talk about how much faith they have for the very purpose of you leaving them alone. They don’t want to hear God’s commandments. They don’t want to repent or change. They’ve been tricked.

Instead of boasting about how strong your faith is, I think it is much closer to the truth to boast about how good God has been to you by faithfully bringing his Word to you. This is what is behind Paul’s advice that if we are going to boast, we should boast about our weaknesses. Christians are thankful when they realize how God has pulled them out of the pit of unrepentance and unbelief again and again. And we should believe that God will continue to be faithful to us, bringing his Word to us. We shouldn’t live in terror of God withdrawing himself from us. On the other hand, when God speaks to us we should listen. Don’t make yourself deaf to it or remove yourself from it, lest God should remove himself from you.

230106 Funeral Sermon for Larry Lillibridge, January 6, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

It is customary for the family to provide input as to the hymns and Scripture readings that are used during the funeral service. So it is also today. The hymns were chosen by the family. The readings, also, were from their input, especially the second reading from Ephesians about marriage. That was because Larry and Jeanette were married for 57 years. The Gospel reading, John 3:36, was chosen because Lance saw this reference on a billboard when he learned that his father had died.

I’m grateful for the input. These are all fine selections, teaching us much. And that, I believe, is one of the most important opportunities that a funeral is to provide. We can learn from God’s Word stuff that will help us poor sinners escape God’s judgement by believing in Jesus. But I’ve had to put a lot of thought into what I should say this morning. Sometimes we pastors have to work harder at some sermons compared to other sermons, and this is a sermon that I’ve thought a lot about.

I’d like to speak with you especially about one thing that has been on my mind. I really wanted to do justice to what is said in John 3:35-36: “The Father loves the Son and has put everything into his hands. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead the wrath of God remains on him.” Those are very strong words, full of truth. They are blunt words, you might even say: “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead the wrath of God remains on him.”

So what are we to make of these words? And what are we to make of these words even when it comes to Larry? Larry grew up Catholic, but then he wasn’t a church-goer for almost all of his adult life. Forgive me for being a little blunt, but that wasn’t right. It’s not hard for a person to say that he or she believes in Jesus, but I’m not sure I know what that means if that person at the same time doesn’t ever want to hear what Jesus has said, doesn’t want to gather with fellow believers, and doesn’t want to receive the Lord’s Supper. A disciple, a follower of Jesus, receives Jesus’s words and puts his or her trust in him.

But about a year and a half ago things changed in this regard with Larry. I won’t go into all the details about how it all came about, but Larry and Jeanette agreed to receive Catechism instruction from me. We spent many hours together. We thoroughly went through the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the sacraments. These are the essential teachings of Christianity. At the end of the instruction Larry was free to continue on as he had before. Nobody forced Larry to do anything. But he voluntarily and solemnly declared that he believed.  What the Catechism teaches is true, he solemnly said. He became a member of this congregation. From that point on he regularly confessed his sins, was absolved, and received the Lord’s Supper. He received the Lord’s Supper, in fact, just about a week before he died.

Now what is important about everything that I have just said is not that he has accomplished something. What’s important is not even him becoming a member of this congregation. What was important behind all of that activity was that God’s truth from the Scriptures was being delivered to Larry. God, in his providence, caused this truth of the Scriptures to be taught to him. I was just but one instrument that God used for that process. And God gave Larry the gift of faith to make this truth his own.

And what is the content of this truth? You heard the heart of that truth in our Gospel reading: “The Father loves the Son and has put everything into his hands. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead the wrath of God remains on him.” Or, there is an excellent description of God’s truth a little bit earlier in John chapter 3: “God loved the world in this way that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall 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.”

Knowing that God has wrath, that is, anger, because of our sins is not something that is commonly known and commonly believed. You have to be taught that. And understanding the love that God has for sinners so that we do not perish eternally as we deserve is especially not common. In fact none of us, including myself, truly understand that love of God. Only now is Larry gaining a fuller understanding of that love. He understands the love of God now better than any of us because he now sees God, and sin and doubt no longer stand in the way.

Now maybe everything I’ve said so far might strike some of you as strange, as not really being Larry. You didn’t know Larry as a church-goer. Isn’t this pastor blathering on about his own stuff, and not giving a fitting tribute to Larry? Just this last week, for example, I heard from a former co-worker that Larry was a very good electrician. Shouldn’t we be saying more about that kind of stuff?

I can understand someone thinking that I’m not really getting at who Larry is, but let me perhaps give you another way of thinking about it. Do any of us really know one another? We know ourselves somewhat, but that’s not really what other people know. We show a certain side of ourselves to others, but we all know that there are things about ourselves that nobody else knows. Nobody else, that is, beside God. God, in fact, knows each of us better than we know ourselves.

God knowing us better than we know ourselves can actually be a very frightening thought. There are things that we have done that nobody else knows about. We’d be deeply ashamed if anybody else found out. All the while, of course, God knows full well what we’ve done. What does God think about us, knowing all this?

But listen to what the angel said on Christmas night. I talked to Larry about this the last time I saw him, just a day after Christmas. Jesus was just born and the angel came to announce that fact to the shepherds. When the shepherds saw they angel they were terrified. But the angel said, “Do not be afraid, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Do not be afraid. A Savior has been born for you. God knows us better than we know ourselves. Nothing is secret to him. And yet God has a strange love for us sinners. The glad tidings of great joy which is for all people is that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. Jesus took on himself our sins, suffering and dying in our place, being crushed by the wrath of God for the sins that we have committed. In this way reconciliation has taken place between us sinners and God. Therefore, even though we are sinners, when we believe in Jesus, we may even enjoy the thought of God knowing everything about us. Yes, God knows our sins, but for those who believe and are baptized, the wrath of God is not upon them. Those sins have been forgiven.

All the relationships that you all have had with Larry are important and good. They are gifts from our generous God. But Larry’s relationship with God is even more important, just as your relationship with God is the most important. The truth of God that Larry heard, received, and confessed as his own is also available to you. Imagine God knowing everything about you, absolutely everything—more than anyone can possibly know about you including yourself—and yet God receiving you and welcoming you when you repent and believe in Jesus. And this is not just something that must be left to the imagination. It is the truth. Jesus has made it so by his death and his resurrection.

There is no higher, better, or profounder thing that I can say about Larry than that God has taken Larry to himself in peace. Larry is someone for whom Christ died, and Christ has died for all of you as well. He did this to set you free from death and hell. And so we will commit Larry’s body to the ground today in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of that body on the last day. God’s goodness and mercy has overflowed to Larry, and the way that Larry received that goodness and mercy is through the truthfulness of God’s Word in his Scriptures and Sacraments. May you also receive that truth so that you may be reunited with Larry, and, even more importantly, that you may see God.

230101 Sermon on Galatians 3:23-29 (Circumcision and Naming of Jesus) January 1, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

The relationship that we human beings have with God is of the greatest possible concern. Even though how we stand with God is so important, it seems that our fallen, sinful nature makes us very sleepy about this standing. There is nothing more common and natural than for people not to think about God or to think about how God is regarding them. All manner of different things capture and hold our attention instead. It’s not hard for hours, days, maybe even weeks to go by without giving a thought to God, his commandments, or his promises. Instead our minds and souls might be focused on all sorts of things—maybe they are high, prestigious, and important things. Maybe they are dumb things. The net result is the same: these things keep us occupied and distracted.

To wake us up from our almost dream-like state God speaks to us. We are not meant to be like cattle or any other dumb animal. We were not meant to just go to the trough, eat, sleep, breed, rinse and repeat until we are slaughtered. We human beings are different from the animals. We are made in the image of God. We have the ability to know God, to fear him, love him, and trust in him. We are able to hear his Word. We can pray, praise, and give him thanks. We are responsible to God, who has created us.

Because we are capable of believing and worshipping not just the true God, but other things that are not God, the first of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods.” That means we should only worship the Lord as God. We shouldn’t be using our food or drink or recreation as our gods. Nor should we have our own personal ambitions as our god—as the thing we are constantly thinking about and wanting to further. Nor, even, should we have what appears to be much less selfish things as the ultimate ambitions of our life—world peace, or ending hunger, or what have you. The commandment, “You shall have no other gods,” is the same as what is said elsewhere: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” This is because, as God also says when he gives that first commandment: “I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

It’s understandable for a person to react to just this first commandment from God by saying, “I don’t want a God like that. I don’t want a jealous God. I don’t want to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, and mind. I just want God to leave me alone so that I can pursue my own things.”

This is, in fact, perfectly reasonable. We’re all born that way, born of flesh, descendants of Adam and Eve. We are born selfish and covetous. Maybe if God can just be my sidekick, my good luck charm, then I’ll let him come along so long as he behaves himself, but we want to do what we want to do.

To have anyone thwart our will is very unpleasant. We don’t want to be told “no.” And so when God tells us “no” we resent that terribly. It’s like when your parents or other authorities told you you couldn’t do something you wanted to do. Wrath and rage well up within us. This is what Paul talks about in our epistle reading when he says that before faith came, we were held in custody under the Law. The Law was our chaperone, our eagle-eyed inspector, until Christ. The Law makes us rage and fume.

That raging and fuming might sound something like this: how can God command us to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind? Doesn’t that idiot God know that that’s impossible? He must be a pretty bad law-giver if he gives out laws that we can never keep. If I were God, I would come up with a lot better laws than his laws.

But most people never even get to the point where they take any God’s commandments seriously enough to have such thoughts. Most people, including most of those who self-identify as Christians, sleepwalk through life. They are perfectly happy to remain ignorant of God’s commands. In their ignorance they figure that God is probably on their side—after all, God is love, right? And God probably thinks pretty much along the same lines as they think. They haven’t done stuff that’s too outside the norm of what everybody else is doing, so they’re probably alright.

This is their made up religion. It is made up in purposeful ignorance of what God actually says. Since this religion is just the foolish thoughts and hopes of sinful humans, this religion is very shallow. But it does have one saving grace: it is extremely convenient. You never have to be troubled a day in your life if you are your own lawgiver and judge. Everything that you do is understandable and justifiable. You’re not bad. If anything you’re the victim.

God’s Law—with him as the lawgiver instead of you—God’s Law, in contrast, is always and relentlessly saying you’re not okay. If, of course, you actually kept God’s Law that would be a different matter. It would testify about you that you are good. But you haven’t kept God’s Law. You haven’t kept the first commandment, to say nothing about all the rest. So you’re not good and fine. And this is like being imprisoned. It’s like being handcuffed and put into confinement against your will. We don’t want that. We don’t want to be guilty. One way to get what we want, then, is to ignore the Law.

So it is with the murderer, the thief, the cheat, what-have-you. Before they are caught they go along on their happy way, as though they were in a dream, as though they were just fine. When the Law comes, throws them against the wall, frisks them, puts handcuffs on them, and throws them in prison, they don’t like this one bit—even though they are 100% guilty! Oh, how they rage and fume! They hate the policeman. They hate the judge. They hate the prosecuting attorney. If they had their way they’d like to be free and throw all those against them in prison.

That is how we all are too when it comes to God’s Law. We want to sleepwalk our way through life with our fake sense of our own respectability, our fake relationship with God, which is always on our terms. When God’s real Law shows up we hate it. We hate God for making the commandment. We even more so hate the one speaking God’s commandment to us, so that we now are feeling guilty. We want everybody else to ignore God’s Law, just like we’ve been ignoring God’s Law. We’ve been doing fine, you see, and everybody should just leave us alone to live how we want.

But, of course, this is all just perverse fantasy. It’s like the criminal who wants to get revenge on the proper authorities who are only doing their job. God is not going to cease being God just because you want to ignore him. The inmates are not going to run the asylum. Maybe the inmates can believe that they are running the asylum in this life. Maybe they believe they can get away with all their wickedness. But heaven and hell are real. The reason why people go to hell is because that is where they are supposed to go. The Law says so. Just the first commandment is more than enough to merit hell.

And if you don’t like that, that’s too bad. I’m not making this up. Read it for yourself, or are you too lazy? You’re not too lazy to cash those checks and take those vacations, but maybe your relationship with your Creator isn’t that important.

Contrary to what you might think, becoming a Christian, being converted, remaining a Christian by having to be converted again and again, is not the most peaceful thing ever. What’s peaceful is to continue on with the sleepwalking, ignoring God’s Law, hoping that you will be blessed nevertheless with your made-up religion.

We see this already with Adam and Eve. After they disobeyed God and started to obey the devil they weren’t exactly happy or at peace. Their countenance was fallen. Their trust in God was shattered. But they weren’t dead either, which is what the devil had promised them. What they feared was God possibly carrying out his sentence of death. While they were in that state, before God came to them in the cool of the day, they much preferred to go on with their sleepwalking through life rather than face the living God.

So it is also with us their descendants. We don’t want to get caught. We don’t want to go before the judge. Let’s all just pretend that everything is fine. To keep up this charade we have to keep God and his Law away. If the Law shows up we hate it like a criminal hates going to jail. Becoming a Christian, being converted, being continually converted as a Christian, is not peaceful and serene. It’s like getting arrested! It is not until we get arrested, so to speak, that we begin to fear God.

And let me mention one more thing. God’s Law is wonderfully stimulating. God has other ways of waking us up too. He can prove to us that he is still God with some rough handling. Instead of God being your good luck charm, your handy-dandy sidekick who is always affirming you, God can be a real monster, so to speak. He can dish out pain and horror. You thought, and you planned, and you slaved so that you could have your life one way. God can make it so that it is totally another.

Again, if you’ll allow yourself to be honest about this, this makes you feel some horribly strong things about God. You can, of course, avoid such feelings if you explain stuff away with unluckiness or a whole bunch of coping mechanisms and philosophies that have been invented to dull the pain. And those can be some powerful narcotics. But it is better to rage and fume at God than to plod along like tranquilized cattle. But to be awake means that you are in the wrong, and God’s Law is bearing down on you like a 300 pound cop who cackles at how you’ve gotten caught and are going to hell. That’s how God’s Law works as Paul describes it in our epistle reading.

But as horribly as we hate God’s good and holy Law, let us also note that Paul places a limit on the Law. He says, “before this faith came,” the Law was like a horrible, hateful, overbearing cop. And he says, “Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under that big, fat cop.” Now when Paul says this, it is not just some wishful thinking—some more self-made religion. It is because of Jesus Christ.

Paul says in another place, “But now a righteousness apart from the Law has been revealed… This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ.” Thank God there is a righteousness available to us apart from the Law. You’ve blown it according to the Law. I think I see that cop lumbering down the street to your house. But there is a righteousness that is apart from the Law, that isn’t dependent upon the Law. It isn’t based on your actions, but instead on God’s actions. It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. Yes, you are guilty. You have broken the Law. But you do not have to ignore God on that account. Maybe if there were no alternative it would be better to ignore God. I’m sure the murderer, the thief, and the criminal are happier by ignoring their crimes and whatever possible punishment might be coming to them. But that is not the only option. There is a righteousness apart from the Law that has been revealed, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is given freely to any and to all who believe in him.

Paul speaks this way in our epistle reading: “In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Indeed, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is not Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

There is quite a bit that we could unpack from that statement, but let me just zero in on the main thing. You are flatly declared to be sons of God through the one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ. How? By keeping the Law? No, it is by faith in Christ Jesus. That is your standing before God: You are children of God!

Furthermore, are you naked and ashamed of your nakedness? Have you done things that are awful and disgusting—things that are deserving of death? Is that 300 pound cop on you like stink, having almost concluded his investigation? Paul says, “Be assured of this, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.” I know that that’s kind of a strange way of speaking, but here’s the point: If you are clothed with Christ, then you are not naked. If Christ covers you all over, then that cop is the one who is actually in the wrong. He has no business investigating you. You’re not guilty. You’re forgiven. You’re righteous.

So do not sleepwalk through life like the great herd of humanity. They are all hoping that God doesn’t exist, or that they won’t get caught, or that there won’t be punishment. These dreamy delusions are not the only hope available. You have a much surer and certain hope in Christ who was crucified for you.