230625 Sermon on Matthew 10:21-33 (Pentecost 4) June 25, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Our Gospel reading last week, our Gospel reading this week, and the reading that you will hear next week, is all from the same section. It is from when Jesus sent out his 12 apostles. He told them what they were supposed to do. They should tell people that the kingdom of heaven had drawn near. The kingdom of heaven has at its core the word kingdom. With kingdoms there is reigning and ruling. So with the kingdom of heaven drawing near that is another way of saying that the reigning and ruling of God is near.

That could be good news or bad news depending on what you think of the reigning and ruling of God. If you want God to come and rule over everything, then that message is good news. If you don’t want God and his ways to be uppermost, then this would be like hearing that a very powerful enemy was coming to get you.

This message that the apostles were given to preach was not unprecedented. It is very similar to the message that Jesus himself preached and John the Baptist preached. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” They all said, “Repent,” which means, “Change your ways.” All people everywhere must change their ways. You must change your ways because you are not holy and perfect. God is coming.

But not everybody wants to change their ways. That’s an understatement, actually. The truth is that nobody wants to change their ways. The very reason why we have the ways that we have is because we like our ways. Nobody has to hold us down with our arms tied behind our backs so that we forget to pray. Nobody has to force us to roll our eyes at our parents. Nobody has to punish us and whip us so that we are forced to look at dirty things or gladly hear and learn dirty things with the latest dirty gossip. We do these things precisely because we want to do them. Nobody forces us. We even usually know what’s right and wrong, but that doesn’t always stop us, especially if no one is looking or if nobody will ever find out. We do what’s wrong because that is exactly what we want to do.

True Christian and apostolic preaching fights against what we want to do. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” is a declaration of war. The kingdom of heaven is opposed to all evil, no matter where it might be found. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” is the most serious declaration of war that has ever been spoken, cosmic in its proportions.

The declaration of war is so serious that Jesus even says outrageous stuff like: “Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, then come, and follow me.” Or, on another occasion he says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

The extremeness of statements like these (and there are more I could give you, by the way), the extremeness of statements like these shows how dire the situation is. Take what Jesus says about money. What good can millions or billions do you if all is coming to an end? Or take what he says about your body. What good can your eye or your other members do you if you should be cast into hell? From hell you might wish from the bottom of your heart that you had torn your eye out, that you had cut your hand off. God is coming. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

There were some more extreme statements that you heard in our Gospel reading. I’m sure you noticed them. “Brother will hand over brother. A father will hand over his child. Children will rise up against their parents so that they are killed.” Jesus says that this kind of thing is going to happen as a side effect of preaching the good news that Our Father who art in heaven’s kingdom is coming. Households will be divided. The closest social bonds will be broken.

Jesus says it. It’s all there black on white. But if we are being honest, I think this all sounds quite strange to us. Really? Families divided? People handed over to be killed? Isn’t this all too overheated? Isn’t the situation much more mundane?

I can understand folks thinking that way. It’s quite common. People don’t think that religion is very important. A myriad of things seems more important. Plus, even in churches—those places where you’d expect Christianity to be taken seriously—it isn’t too hard to find churches and preachers that promote an unserious Christianity. Don’t get to upset about anything.

And I’m not talking just about other church bodies. I’m also talking about our own circles. It’s not hard to find promoters of Christianity as a kind of side light to one’s life, as a hobby, as fundamentally optional. Their preaching can sound pretty good too. It might be a little boring, but it does at least have this saving grace: It sounds a lot more reasonable than Jesus’s teaching. No extreme statements. They don’t see preaching as a declaration of war against evil no matter where the evil might be found. For them, the customer is always right. You won’t have to quit doing what you want. You should do whatever would make you happy. After all, doesn’t the good book say God wants you to be happy? Sounds plausible enough.

But misleading people in spiritual things is the worst possible breaking of all of God’s commandments. It’s the worst because misleading people with spiritual things not only affects them in this life, but eternally. Any preacher can say easily enough that this or that is not a sin to make people happy. A church can just mimic whatever their chosen audience might want to hear, whether they might be targeting a liberal audience or a conservative audience. But let’s not forget what this is all about. Neither liberalism nor conservatism will do anything for you when you stand before God in the judgement. If a pastor says that this is that is not a sin, that you can do what you want, even though it is against God’s Law, that pastor’s reassurance won’t do anything to stave off God’s righteous judgement. You are responsible.

What’s helpful is Jesus’s preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What’s helpful is Jesus’s preaching even if his preaching sounds to you unreasonable or implausible. With Jesus’s preaching of the Gospel comes the Holy Spirit—and that’s no small matter. The Holy Spirit convinces us to believe that God is well pleased with us for Jesus’s sake. The Holy Spirit fights against our sinful flesh so that we do not always helplessly do whatever our sinful desires dictate, but we begin to live a life of righteousness. God is the one who takes hold of our will instead of being helplessly ridden by the devil from one evil to another until he rides us all the way down to his intended destination in hell.

When Jesus declares war against evil—including, especially, the evil in ourselves—this is God’s reigning and ruling. What is amazing about God’s reigning and ruling is that he doesn’t simply destroy us or obliterate us—evil though we are. He redeems us so that we may live and not die. God’s reigning and ruling is for our benefit, even as he crucifies us together with Christ. The more God takes over the better. The more that what we want is set aside, and what God wants is worked within us, the better.

God’s reigning and ruling is what is most important. It’s at the heart of the Gospel. God’s reigning and ruling is why Jesus says two times in our reading, “Do not be afraid,” even though he says stuff that probably was frightening to you if you were paying attention and believing what Jesus was saying. After all, Jesus says that divisions will take place all the way down to those who live under our own roof—and that these divisions can even be deadly. And yet Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” The only reason why a person is able not to be afraid in otherwise very frightening situations is because God is in control.

This is of great comfort if you have the courage to accept it. When the apostles went out to preach God’s declaration of war against evil, God was in control. And when they were unjustly punished and denounced as evildoers, God was in control.

This is applicable to the preaching of the Gospel that has been given to us to do in our times too. It is enough for a disciple to be like his master. So we must simply speak the things Jesus has given us to speak. What he has given us to speak might not always sound nice. What he has given us to speak might not always appear as though it is going to work. It will work, though, because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus. What Jesus speaks truly is helpful. If we believe him, take up our cross and follow him, then we will find that we can stand in God’s judgement. The reigning and ruling of God will make it so.

Of all possible things that could ever possibly happen, there is nothing more profound or good than this reigning and ruling of God in the souls of those who hear Jesus speak. Eternal life breaks in to this sin-sick, loveless world with the preaching of the Gospel. If it meets opposition, so what? If it is opposed even within ourselves, by our flesh, should we really be surprised? We, who are evil, are blessed by Jesus, who is good. Do you really think that this is something that should be easy?

Jesus tells us beforehand in our reading that it won’t be, but that’s alright. God will prevail.

Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

230611 Sermon on Matthew 9:9-13 (Pentecost 2 Proper 5A) June 11, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

Are you sick? It’s not easy to say “Yes, I am sick.”

Let me illustrate. Sometimes pastors get asked to visit non-members who are terminally ill. I’ve made more than a few visits like that. I usually ask someone who is dying, regardless of membership, whether he or she believes that he or she is a poor, miserable sinner. You’re familiar with that language because we say that in church: “I, a poor, miserable sinner confess unto you…” When someone has never heard those words, or been absent for a long time, those words seem to strike them as being overly harsh. More than one such person has responded to my question by saying, “Yes, okay, I’m a sinner, but I’m not so sure about that poor and miserable part.” I appreciate these folks’ honesty. They are only saying what we all would probably say if we weren’t trained to say something different.

People usually aren’t afraid to admit that they are sinners in general. I’ve never met anyone who says that he or she is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But everybody wants to believe the best about themselves too. “Ok, fine, I screwed up, but now I’m on the right track.”

Maybe sometimes we feel very strongly that we are poor, miserable sinners. That can happen when sin is hot and fresh and stinks to high heaven. But with the passage of time we can kind of forget about what we’ve done. Moss grows over the sin so that we can’t see it anymore.

Plus we can usually find some other poor schmucks who are worse off than we are. I haven’t murdered anyone. I haven’t smoked crack. I drag my butt out of bed so that I keep my job. Not everybody does that good. Plus, you might think, I go to church. That’s getting rarer and rarer these days. And not only have I gone to church, I go to the right church, thank you very much. My church is in the right synod. My church doesn’t do bad stuff like those other churches. So, come to think of it, I’m doing alright! I’m not perfect. Nobody’s perfect. But I can find a whole bunch of other people who are a lot poorer and more miserable than me!

This kind of reasoning doesn’t sound too bad. It doesn’t sound too bad, if, for no other reason, it is quite common. Nevertheless it reveals that we are much worse off than any mere murderer or drug addict. Justifying yourself by always being on the lookout for others whom you suppose to be worse than you is a very serious sin. It is a sin against the first commandment. You are your own justifier. You are your own God. Thus your sin is worse than the sins of those who might just be breaking the fifth, sixth, or seventh commandment. You believing in your own goodness and righteousness means you are spiritually sicker than those whom you might be judging.

You probably have a hard time believing that, and I can sympathize because I have my common sense and reasoning just like you. If I were to put one of you fine, upstanding citizens next to troubled soul and asked people to judge which is better, they would probably pick you every time.

So it was at Jesus’s time too though. One time Jesus told a group of fine, upstanding pharisees that tax collectors and prostitutes were going to enter the kingdom of God before they ever would. The pharisees were quite diligent, lawful people. If you put one of those fine upstanding church goers next to a thug or a lady of the night, which one would appear to be godlier? Common sense gives you the answer.

But Jesus means what he says when he says that tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of heaven before the pharisees. The outside might look as good and respectable as can be, but inwardly there can be the most devilish things—spiritual sins that common sense and reason are not so good at understanding. And there is nothing more devilish than pride. There is nothing more devilish than pointing, sneering, accusing, judging.

Something that we can see from our Gospel reading today is that Jesus is very different than us. Jesus is good and kind. He doesn’t point and sneer at the sinners. He doesn’t say, “Look how sick he is! Ack! How disgusting!”

Imagine if there were a doctor doing that—going from one room to the next in a hospital, pointing at the poor sick people and laughing at them. “Oh, how sick you are! Look how sick you are compared to me! How can you sit there and be so sick when I’m so well?” We would rightly wonder if such a physician were more profoundly sick than the patients whom he is supposed to be treating.

But Jesus is a good physician. He helps people who are sick. He isn’t disgusted by them or avoid them. He goes to Matthew and says, “Follow me,” even though Matthew was a notorious sinner. Jesus stays with some tax collectors and sinners at his house. He eats with them.

When we consider Jesus’s kind actions towards these folks it is important to know why Jesus did what he did. Jesus did not associate with these notorious sinners because he loved how tax collectors abused, manipulated, and cheated people. Jesus also doesn’t love how the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, or any of the other commandments are broken. Jesus doesn’t like any destructive and sinful things. Jesus is the enemy of these things and wants to set them free from them. So he forgave their sin. They were sick to death with unrighteousness. They were poor and miserable. Jesus made them well, giving them his own perfect righteousness.

The pharisees were concerned that Jesus was being too nice to these people who weren’t doing right and living right. That’s understandable from a certain perspective. The pharisees were concerned about the example that Jesus seemed to be setting. It might appear to some that Jesus didn’t seem care about sins. It was like Jesus was saying that sins didn’t matter. So, the Pharisees thought, Jesus should shun them and not have anything to do with them. Otherwise everybody is going to think that sinning doesn’t matter.

As I said, the pharisees’ line of reasoning would be valid from a certain perspective. If there were no cure for what ailed these people, then Jesus should probably stay away. Imagine a doctor who can’t help. It’s impossible to help. And yet he goes and pokes and prods, slices and dices—nothing good can come from that. In like manner, if there was nothing that Jesus could do for these spiritually sick people, then all that Jesus probably would accomplish is to desensitize folks to the seriousness of sin.

But Jesus is able to help these people who are sick. Jesus can help people who are very, very sick. They can be downright poor and miserable. In fact, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, your spiritual condition is so bad that you were “dead in your trespasses and sins…” Then he goes on, “But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.” Death is not an obstacle too great for our great physician.

If that is so, if Jesus is such a great physician that he gives life to sinners who are so bad that they are dead, then in the midst of sinners is exactly where this physician must be. The Christian Church is a spiritual hospital. Sick sinners belong here. If you don’t want to be a sinner, then you are in the wrong place, and have no business being with Jesus.

If there is one thing that I hope you take away from our Gospel reading today it is that your spiritual sickness is not an impediment to you being saved. In a way it’s true that sin doesn’t matter. Sin or the lack of sin isn’t why a single sinner will be saved. God is the justifier of the ungodly. You are not the justifier of yourself.

We can see this in our Gospel reading: Jesus called notorious Matthew, a veritable tax collector, to be his disciple. Jesus says very plainly, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Your salvation does not depend on you making yourself well. Your salvation depends on the skill and power of the physician. He simply says, “Follow me.” That is, “Listen to me. Believe my words.” The first task, and almost only task, that the Christian Church has is to speak Jesus’s words of forgiveness to poor, miserable sinners.

So let me conclude with the question with which I began: Are you sick? Usually we like to cheer people up. Politeness almost demands that we say, “You’re doing just fine. You’re getting better and stronger.” But we all know that being polite and being truthful are often not the same thing.

Although it might not be altogether polite, I hope that you feel worse about yourself than when you came in here today. I hope you see that your are poorer and more miserable. On the other hand, I hope that you see how good of a physician Jesus is. He is so skillful and mighty that he can even raise someone who is so sick that they are even dead. Maybe you weren’t thinking you were all the poor and miserable when you came here today, but maybe you also weren’t thinking how skillful and mighty Jesus is.

Following Jesus, clinging to him, is how we will receive eternal life. Jesus is how we will stand in the judgement and be welcomed into heaven instead of going to hell, which is what we all deserve. Jesus makes us well.

Now the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will surely do it.