191110 Sermon on Luke 17:20-30 (3rd Last Sunday) November 10, 2019

191110 Sermon on Luke 17:20-30 (3rd Last Sunday) November 10, 2019

Today I’d like to speak about the kingdom of God. When people hear the phrase, “kingdom of God,” they might think of many different things. A king, a throne, a crown might come to mind. Politics and borders and wars might come to mind. All these things can be incorporated into the understanding of the kingdom of God and it wouldn’t be wrong to do so. But I think it is helpful to have something that pulls all this stuff together. The thing that does that is the verb that is hidden behind the phrase “kingdom of God.” The verb is “reigning” or “ruling.” What makes a kingdom a kingdom is that you have a king who reigns and rules. If the king isn’t doing what kings do in a certain place, then that is not part of that kingdom. So with the kingdom of God we are talking about the way that God reigns and rules.

There are at least two ways that we can speak about God’s reigning and ruling. One way is to speak about the way that he is in control over all things as the Creator. He keeps the oceans and seas in their places. He keeps the heavenly bodies on their regular and predictable paths. He knows when one sparrow falls to the earth or one hair falls out of your scalp. There is nothing whatsoever that does not happen without God being behind it.

Trying to understand what God is like while he does all this stuff was something that occupied philosophers for many hundreds of years until recently when people decided that he doesn’t exist. God’s people, unlike the philosophers, do not try to pry into these things beyond what is proper. Like St. Paul says in Romans 11: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his advisor?”

The other way that we can speak about God’s reigning and ruling is according to what God has spoken to his people through the ages, beginning with Adam and Eve. Studying nature or mathematics or any other aspect of creation will not help us understand God’s reigning and ruling in this second sense of the word. Only the Bible is of service here. Only the Bible teaches us that all people are born under the reign and rule of the devil because of original sin. We voluntarily became subject to him when we obeyed him rather than God. But God promised liberation from the devil’s tyranny. In the Garden of Eden, God said that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. The reign and rule of the devil would be brought to an end, and the Messiah, the Christ, would rule in his place.

This is exactly what happens when people are baptized. The devil is renounced with all his works and all his ways. This is similar to the way that a citizen might renounce his citizenship in a certain country. By renouncing the devil and all his works and all his ways we are declaring our desire to no longer live under his rule. Then the Creed is confessed so that we may know our new king—God himself. Jesus is now to be the Lord of the person who is baptized, for he has redeemed, purchased, and won the person from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil—not with gold or silver—but with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. Because of what Jesus has done we are now his own and will live under him in his kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.

This second way of speaking about the kingdom of God is different from the first. There are a lot of people who believe that God exists and that he is in charge of all things, but who don’t believe that Jesus is God, or that God reigns and rules in him. People might be convinced by philosophy or a study of nature to believe in the existence of God. The only way that someone can believe in Jesus is by believing the Gospel. The word “Gospel” means “good news.” God has good news of great joy that is for all people. Jesus is the Savior who has redeemed us from the devil’s reign and rule. When we believe in him we will not perish, but have eternal life. By the proclamation of the truth in Jesus—by the proclamation of the Gospel—God reigns and rules in his kingdom. He converts sinners from the lies that everybody otherwise naturally believes.

And so we can see that the kingdom of God, the reigning and ruling of God, is done using the means of words—specifically the words of the Gospel. The devil’s power over people is brought to an end by them hearing Good News. Sinners are adopted as the beloved children of God when they believe the announcement of the forgiveness of their sins for Jesus’s sake. Those who believe are in the kingdom of God, because God is reigning and ruling in them through faith in the Gospel.

This creates a bit of an odd situation as far as kingdoms are concerned. God’s reigning and ruling is done solely by the means of words, by speaking. You can’t see words. You also can’t see faith. Earthly kingdoms are much more visible. The king is visible. His might is visible in the armies and police that are under his command. If seeing is believing, then there is no reason to wonder whether an earthly kingdom exists so long as you can see it. But Jesus, our king, is not yet visible to us. There are no borders and so there are no maps that can be made of what is Christian or not Christian. Christians only exist where the Gospel is preached and believed. If the Gospel is there, then there will be Christians. If the Gospel departs, then there won’t be Christians.

In our Gospel reading the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come. When they ask Jesus this, they are obviously not talking about the kingdom of God in the first sense that we spoke about where God is in control of everything. They are asking about the reign and rule of God that God’s people have been looking forward to since the fall into sin. They are wondering about the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of David. When is it going to happen that God will set things right again through him?

Jesus responds, “The kingdom of God is not going in a way you can observe, nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

The Pharisees were not expecting such an answer. Even Jesus’s own disciples and apostles were not expecting this kind of answer about the kingdom of God. What they were expecting was a kingdom that was quite visible. They thought that when the Christ came he would assume power and rule over the territory that God had given to Abraham and his descendants. They thought that he would be a king like his father David who would be wise and strong and kick out all the enemies that had ruled over the Jews for so many years. The Jews to this day are waiting for just such an earthly king to show up.

When you understand that the people were expecting a Christ who would sit on a throne and rule over a visible kingdom, then you can understand why Jesus’s crucifixion was so devastating to his friends and delightful to his enemies. When Jesus was crucified the disciples were crushed. They had believed that Jesus was the Christ. Now he’s dead! How can someone who is dead be king? Are you going to try to prop up his slumped body on a throne? Even that can’t be done for more than a couple days before corruption really starts to set in. The disciples believed that they had been terribly mistaken about Jesus. Jesus’s enemies were delighted for the opposite reason. They believed that they had been proven right. They had believed that Jesus was an evil doer from the moment he healed someone on the Sabbath without their say-so. They believed that he was a blasphemer when he said that he was God’s Son and that God and he were one. “Now look at him on that cross!” they said with glee. “That will teach you not to blaspheme!”

Jesus knew that his kingdom would be a kingdom of preaching and faith. In point of fact, God’s kingdom had always been a kingdom of preaching and faith. Abel believed. Cain did not. Noah believed. The rest of the world did not. Abraham believed. Isaac believed. Jacob believed. The kingdom of God was at work in these people through the Gospel, but if you looked at them you wouldn’t necessarily be able to see God’s reigning and ruling. On the outside they did not look any different from anybody else.

The same is true to this very day. God’s reigning and ruling is hidden from those who do not believe. Consider this place where we gather together. We have the Gospel here. We have the Sacraments here, which bestow the Gospel. We have the reigning and ruling of God here unto the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But supposed you grabbed some stranger from off the street and showed him our Divine Service and asked him whether God was reigning and ruling here. What do you think he would say?

But maybe we don’t even need to be grabbing strangers. Do we ourselves understand the greatness of the reigning and ruling of God that we have because of the Word of the Gospel that is given to us? I don’t think so. It is quite hidden even to us even though we believe. We’re prone to thinking that the congregation is just a group of people thrown together by history or happenstance, rather than being a family of God’s children who have been gathered together in God’s war against the devil. People cannot see this war just as they cannot see God’s reigning and ruling in the hearts of his people, but that does not mean that it does not exist.

Jesus warns us against those who would point to a certain place or to a certain person and say, “Look, here,” or “Look, there,” as though the kingdom of God came in a visible way that can be observed. If anyone says, “I am the Christ,” do not believe him. If anyone says, “If you are not under the authority of the Pope then you are not really a Christian,” do not believe him. If anyone says, “You have to be a part of such and such a Church or you cannot be saved,” do not believe him. Salvation is not found in outward associations and organizations and memberships. The kingdom of God is within you. It’s faith. St. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

This hiddenness of the kingdom of God will not go on forever, however. We are entering into the end of the Church year and looking ahead to the season of Advent. During this time of the Church year we focus on the end of this world and Christ’s second coming. When that happens our king will become visible to all people. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise. This will be unmistakable and will come all at once. That is why we should not be deceived by those who say that Christ has come here or come there. Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “The Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning that flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other side.”

There are a lot of misguided teachers in Christianity who trouble themselves and their hearers about end times things. It’s as though the signs of Jesus’s coming were pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and they try to put it all together. This easily grows into an obsession where it becomes the only thing that is talked about. Weighty matters and edifying instruction are pushed aside for more exciting talk about the admittedly stupendous things that will happen at the end.

These folks are quite like the Pharisees in our Gospel reading who are wondering when the Kingdom of God will come, and they should take instruction from Jesus’s words, “The kingdom of God is not coming in a way you can observe, nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Until the time when Christ comes in glory the reign and rule of God takes place through the preaching of the Gospel to be received by faith. The end of the world is up to God. He will bring it about. When the time comes nobody will be confused about whether it is the end or not. In the meantime we have enough to teach and believe and do. The reign and rule of God is not something we have to wait for. It is among us now as Jesus faithful dispenses our forgiveness and salvation day after day, week after week.

191106 Funeral Sermon for Marty Wendel (Job 14 Matt 10)

191106 Funeral Sermon for Marty Wendel (Job 14 Matt 10)

I received the phone call from Lavonne on Saturday around noon. She was at the emergency room. Marty had died. I was shocked. What happened? We don’t really know. He just got suddenly sick and died.

Everybody who has heard about Marty since then has had the same reaction. It is unusual for people to die suddenly. We’re used to hearing about people being sick before they die. That provides some kind of warning. Unexpected deaths hit the loved ones harder than deaths that come after extended illness or old age. I’m sorry for the shock and grief that this has caused.

What shall we say about these things? How can we explain this? Is this just bad luck? The answer that the Bible provides is an emphatic “no.” Jesus says, “Two sparrows are sold for a penny, and yet not one of them falls to the ground without the knowledge and consent of God.” His point is that birds aren’t that important, and yet God orders the course of their lives. Or how important is it that a hair should fall from your head so that you have one less than you previously had? God knows this knowledge also. How many hairs we have on our head isn’t very important to us, for what difference does it make?

Something that we care a great deal more about is also known by God. This thing we learn from Job in our Old Testament reading. God determines how long each will live. The number of months has been set by him. There’s a limit, and nobody is able to live one day past that limit. So God determined that Marty was to live exactly 56 years not one day more or one day less. Of course, also, then, God knew the way that Marty would die—that it would be unexpected and come as a shock to us.

What we can see from all this is that God is not far away. He is not detached from his creation. He knows everything, great and small. Not a single hair falls from our head without his say-so.

Because God is so close and determines everything, we should see the importance of a good conscience. When we are burdened by a bad conscience we wish that we could be far away from this God who is so intimately tangled up in our lives. It’s like how a kid, who has done wrong, stays away from its parents, or the way that a criminal stays away from the police. It is very unpleasant to be together with the judge and the executioner when a person has a bad conscience. Therefore, when it comes to God, people will retreat to hopes and dreams that God isn’t real, or that he isn’t close, or that he doesn’t care about how I live my life. This is wishful thinking that will not come true, but if we don’t have any hope of having a good conscience, then maybe this is the best that we can do.

God does not want us to have a bad conscience. He wants us to have a good conscience. In the Christian Church we hear a lot about the word “peace.” That’s talking about having a good conscience towards God. A good conscience is another way of saying that there is peace between God and you and you and God.

How can there be peace between God and you? Is it by living a good life? Theoretically, and perhaps ideally, that would be the case, but that ship sailed long ago. How, then? It is by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The sin of the world was placed upon Jesus’s shoulders and he was punished for the sins that we have committed. By this atoning sacrifice the air has been cleared. Through faith in Jesus we may have a good conscience towards God because in Jesus is the forgiveness of all sins. St. Paul says, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It can be hard to believe that there is peace between God and you for Jesus’s sake. As soon as just one past sin comes to mind it is easy to believe that God could never approve of you. That is where it is necessary to remind yourself that Jesus took your sin away from you and suffered God’s fearsome wrath for it on the cross. You’re right: so far as you yourself are concerned, apart from Christ, it would be good to be a million miles away from God, if that were possible. But that fear is not necessary. This is the privilege of being a Christian. The good conscience toward God is given to us as a gift to be received and held to by faith.

Having a good conscience for Jesus’s sake changes everything so far as the nearness of God is concerned. Instead of being a bad, terrifying thing, it is recognized by faith as being a good thing—even the very best of things. Jesus, in our Gospel reading, says that God is very near and he knows and works everything that happens to us. Not a sparrow falls from the sky or a hair from our head without his say-so. Then he says, “So do not be afraid.” No matter what might happen, God is near and God is for you.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friend that is rich and powerful and could help you out of every possible predicament? We’d be quite delighted just to have a friend like that who is a normal human being. God’s Gospel reveals that that friend is God himself. There is no trouble that is too much for God. If God is for you, then who cares what might possibly be against you. If God is for you, then even the devil, even death, even your sins, even hell itself must submit to him, for he is God.

Think of Marty’s last moments on this earth. There isn’t a single one of us who wouldn’t like to have been there so that we could help him in whatever way we could. But who was there? It’s not inconceivable to me at all that when Marty knew that he was in trouble that he asked his Lord Jesus for help. Jesus heard his prayer and shepherded him through the valley of the shadow of death. Marty feared no evil once he learned that Jesus was near him, his rod and his staff comforted him.

A goodly part of the training that Christians undergo is to learn about God’s nearness, how God is for us in Jesus, and that we have been given God’s name to call upon in every trouble. Marty was faithful in his training as a Christian. He knew what to do when death came calling. No matter how strong death is, Jesus is stronger. Easter is testament to that. Although death holds Marty in its grip at this moment, death’s back is already broken. It can only hold on for a little bit longer. For soon, very soon, Jesus will come on the clouds and say, “Marty, my friend, get up.” His body will rise again to life, just as we hear about in the Scriptures.

Now that Marty has gone through what he has gone through, he has witnessed the saving power of his God. He has learned even more thoroughly the importance of a good conscience towards God. So I imagine that if he could give all of you who love him a message it would be this: “What a friend we have in Jesus.” Come out from whatever rebellion you have had against God and embrace the gift of peace that God gives you in the crucified and resurrected Jesus.

191103 Sermon on Rev 7:7-17 Matt 5:1-12 (All Saints' Day) November 3, 2019

191103 Sermon on Rev 7:7-17 Matt 5:1-12 (All Saints' Day) November 3, 2019

A way of life is a way of looking at our existence. What is life all about? What is going on? What is significant about what has happened in the past and what can we expect in the future?

Unfortunately, asking questions like these is usually seen as decadent or highfalutin.  This is the stuff of Philosophy 101 and other unproductive, impractical classes like that. Normal people are too busy working.

Well, without realizing it, that, in itself, is a way of life. Those questions I started with end up getting answered, even though the person doesn’t realize it. What is life all about for such a “normal” person? It’s about doing the best for yourself that you can. What is going on? Each day is another dollar. If you get enough dollars then you can buy something or do something. What has happened in the past and what can we expect in the future? The past and the future don’t hardly exist for these folks. They are too busy thinking about what they are going to do for the day to think about the past or the future. One thing they are sure off—it is good to make money. There’s no doubt about it—this is a way of life. It is a way of looking at our existence.

This is a very common way of life here in the rural Midwest and so people do not even wonder whether this way of life is good or bad, wise or foolish. It is just assumed that everybody who is normal thinks and lives this way. If someone doesn’t have this way of life then they are probably one of those highfalutin people who don’t have to do real work for a living. Normal people live day by day, working hard and playing hard. To ask whether you are looking at life in the right way does not even come onto the radar.

I don’t think it is an accident that people don’t want to think about serious questions about life. The devil is wise in his own way. He is quite pleased to have people continue to eat and drink, marry and be given in marriage, without giving a single thought about judgment day when all people will be judged. Jesus says, “No one knows the day nor the hour. Watch, therefore!” What does it mean to watch? It means that we should pay attention to our way of life. How do we look at our existence? What is life all about? What has happened? What does that mean? What is going to happen?

The Bible has answers to all these questions. That is why we read it and consider it. The Bible is quite practical. Christians are the ones who are practical. They know what’s what. They know that they are God’s creatures. They know that they have been sold so deeply into sin that they don’t have a prayer of escaping hell by themselves. They know that God is gracious and merciful. Therefore, he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Christians know that Jesus will come at the hour when it is least expected to judge the living and the dead. Those who are righteous will go to heaven. Those who are sinners will go to hell.

This is unbelievably practical information. It tells you about the past and about the future. It tells you what life is all about—namely, it is all about the love of God shown and given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who is wise will live mindful of being judged by his Creator. This life is actually quite short, in the end. Eternity is laid out before us. Shouldn’t these things be thought about?

The fellow who keeps his nose to the grindstone and despises any questions that don’t have to do with either work or play is incredibly impractical. We hardly even need God’s Word to show us this. All that is necessary is to consider that each of us will die (unless, of course, Jesus comes back first). It is not possible to take our money with us. Many think that they can take their memories with them, but what if their memories accuse them of their sins? Then I would much rather be without my memories. When Abraham speaks to the rich man in hell he says, “Remember.” “Remember how it was? You had pleasure upon pleasure while Lazarus laid outside your gate. Now he is in paradise and you are in anguish.” Our memories have to be forgiven and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb if they are ever to be a joy to us instead of a terror.

And so God gives us his Word, not to bore us, as many suppose. The Word of God is not boring. If anything it is a bit too lively. It gives us thoughts that we certainly wouldn’t otherwise think. These thoughts are not the thoughts of short-sighted Man, but the thoughts of God.

Our reading from the book of Revelation, this morning, focuses on the center of God’s thoughts. Behold a host arrayed in white! They are gathered around the throne and around the Lamb with palm branches in their hands. They cry out with a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.” This is a revelation of heaven. The Lamb that is spoken of is the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world. It is the will of God that all people should look to Jesus and be saved. Jesus says, “God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall 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.” Jesus Christ the crucified and the resurrected and exalted is the center of the universe. Jesus Christ the Savior is God’s great message towards mankind. That he should be refused and despised is a great mystery, and yet he is. But not in heaven. Those sinners who had believed in him now worship him. Because of Jesus they are without stain, spot, or blemish, for they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

It is necessary for us as Christians that we understand the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’s sake as the main element of our way of life, our understanding of our existence. There is more, though, that we can learn and should learn about our way of life. Jesus explains some of this in our Gospel reading. Jesus lists off many blessings. The word “blessings” is often misunderstood. It’s thought to be churchy language that isn’t terribly practical. It’s one of those highfalutin things that pastors talk about, but not normal people. To be blessed, though, is nothing other than to be happy. Or another word that works here is “successful.” Do people care about being happy or successful? You better believe it! A lot of drugs are prescribed and a lot of books are sold that promise happiness or success. So with this list of blessings, Jesus is teaching us how to be happy or successful.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, because they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, because they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, because there is the kingdom of heaven.

It would be a good thing to take a look at each one of these blessings and consider each one on its own. We won’t do that right now, but why don’t you take this bulletin home and think about each one of these later today. You will be blessed by doing so. I’d like to look at them in an overall way altogether.

All these blessings can be tied together when you understand that Jesus is talking about selfless love. Selfless love is quite different than selfish love. Everybody is capable of a love that enhances the quality of their own lives. Jesus here, however, speaks about being poor, mourning, being gentle, hungry, thirsty, merciful and so on. If you go to the self-help section of a bookstore, or the business section of a bookstore, you are never going to find this kind of advice for being happy or successful. In fact, basically the opposite of these things is what those books will say will make you happy and successful.

What’s going on here? Is everything turned topsy turvy just for the sake of being topsy turvy? No. What’s going on is that Jesus Christ, who is at the center of existence of the universe and is even God, is taken as the model for what is good. He, though he was by nature God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for his own advantage. Instead, he emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant. He humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is good. God has set his seal of approval on his selfless love.  Jesus loved his enemies—all the godless sinners of this world without exception—and suffered and died for all of them. Perhaps a worldly-wise smartaleck would say that Jesus was foolish to do that. He should have lived for himself. Surely the devil would say that—that is the way that the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness. “You don’t have to go through all that trouble. Live your best life now,” the Devil said.

But Jesus was ever so highly blessed particularly in his bitter sufferings and death. This is happiness. This is success. In this action all the world was blessed through him. Loving in this way is good with a capital G. We know this to be true even though Jesus sweat blood, and prayed to the Father that if it is possible this cup should pass from him. But not his will be done, but the Father’s will be done. And so we have a mystery here that Reason cannot even begin to understand. What Jesus did on the cross was so, so good, and yet it wasn’t what you might call pleasurable. That is also what we see in these blessings in our Gospel reading. They are all very good because they are everything that Jesus himself is all about, but they are not pleasurable to our flesh. In fact, the flesh must be crucified in these blessings.

The word “Christian” means “little Christs.” It was a name that was given to those who believe in Jesus because they have a different way of life than the rest of the world. Christians know what is truly good. They try to follow after their teacher—doing the things that he has done, having the values that Jesus has. Christians are certainly not perfectly successful in this. Christians have their sinful flesh, are taught philosophy by the world, and are lied to by the devil. The Christian life consists of trying, failing, falling, and getting up again. This keeps us humble and reliant upon the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus our whole life—no matter how much progress we might make as a Christian. But knowing what is good and striving after it is a good thing. It is our goal. It is not yet accomplished.

But one day it will be accomplished. This is worthwhile thinking about here on the observation of All Saints’ Day. It is not until we die that the sin in our sinful flesh dies. That shows how powerful the fall into sin has been. No matter how hard we might try, we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition. Although the Holy Spirit works sanctification in this life, the sanctification is not complete until we have died and been resurrected with bodies that are purified from sin. In this life we struggle and so often fail in our struggle to love. That is a bitter thing. I don’t know of anybody who doesn’t want to be able to accomplish what they set out to do, but that is what happens with every single Christian. None of us loves as we ought so long as we have this maggot sack of a flesh holding us down.

But finally, in the end, we will be filled with love from the top of our heads to the soles of our feet. This might not sound like much, but that is only because even with the very best conditions we haven’t experienced even the tenth part of it in this life weighed down with sin. Being filled with love is beyond our imagination. It is our hope. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled.” It is a good thing to die believing in Jesus. It is a step in the right direction. Here we can’t help but be estranged from God to some extent. Not so there. St. John says in our epistle reading, “Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is.” This is a good way of life. May we all make progress in it.

On the observation of this All Saints’ Day we also remember those who have finished the race by dying with faith in Jesus this past year: Mary Lou Block, Ann Olander, Marty Wendel, John Barker. Thanks be to God for his mercy!

191027 Sermon for Reformation Day (observed) October 27, 2019

191027 Sermon for Reformation Day (observed) October 27, 2019

Last week I spoke about the two great doctrines of the Christian religion: the Law and the Gospel. These two teachings both come from God, but they are quite different from one another. The Law consists of God’s commandments for how we are to live. Last week we heard about the way that all these commandments can be summed up: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” The Law says, “Do this and don’t do that. If you do as you are told, then God will bless you. If you do not do as you are told, then God will punish you.”

The Gospel is very different than the Law. The Gospel does not make reference to us and our actions, but rather to God’s actions. God saw that we were fast bound in Satan’s chains, that we were sinners who are damned by the Law. He had compassion upon us from eternity and planned for our salvation. We needed to be redeemed from the devil. Jesus of Nazareth, true God begotten from the Father from eternity, and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary is our Redeemer. One drop of his blood is enough to redeem the whole world, but he has provided for us a costlier ransom than that. By his death for our sin he has destroyed the power of death, and by his glorious resurrection he has opened the way of eternal life to all who believe. Because of Christ God has forgiven us for our sins and draws us near to him by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.

The Law and the Gospel are the ABCs of the Christians religion. And yet, even though these teachings are so simple and fundamental, they are what are most important for properly understanding the Lutheran Reformation.

The Lutheran Reformation gets interpreted in all kinds of different ways. It is seen as a turning point in politics between church and state. It is seen as a turning point for academic freedom. It is seen as the story of a great man, Martin Luther, swimming against the stream and achieving astounding results. There is a bit of truth to all these interpretations, otherwise nobody would talk about them, but they all miss what is truly great. Martin Luther taught his nation, and whoever else would listen throughout the world, what the Bible says. The Bible pronounces curses and woes upon sinners, for sin is extremely offensive to God. The Bible pronounces sinners to be children of God for Jesus’s sake. The cross of Jesus Christ is what brings these two together. Sin is punished when Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Luther learned and proclaimed the simple biblical truth that sinners are saved when they believe in Jesus.

But why was it necessary for this simple biblical truth to be relearned and proclaimed afresh? It’s because it is always under attack. It is in the nature of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature to obscure and obstruct the simple and plain truth of the Bible with all kinds of sophisticated arguments. I’ve talked with you about this several times in the past. The Bible’s teaching is very easy to learn and believe. It is so easy that even an infant can understand and believe it. It is that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We are his sheep. A sheep is going to stick close to the shepherd whom it trusts. Proof that even an infant can understand such a simple teaching is found in the way that an infant knows its mother and is calmed by her. An infant can know its mother. So also it can know its God who makes himself known to it. Sheep are calm and confident when they are protected by the shepherd, and that is the way that Christians are when they are trusting in Jesus, listening to his voice.

But there is no end to the number and sophistication of the arguments that are designed to modify or destroy this simple truth. Dealing with these problems can get very complicated. This is one of the things that we have to do together as a congregation with sermons and Bible classes: we have to look into these distortions and try to sort them out. It’s kind of like yarn that get knotted into a big ball of mess. It takes patience and diligence to get to the bottom of things.

Errors and distortions of God’s Word have been a part of this miserable earthly life from the very beginning and they won’t stop until Christ comes again in glory to put all that stuff away. Error and distortion were there with Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. The whole Old Testament testifies how God’s people fall victim to error. The New Testament church had to deal with errors at the time of the Apostles. You can read about their struggles in the Epistles. In the hundreds of years that followed after the Apostles the Christians tried to deal with the errors and distortions the best that they could, but they were not always perfectly successful. No one ever is. They didn’t get to the bottom of things. That is when false teachings, false preaching, and false practices take hold among a group of Christians in a whole new way. Instead of the yarn being unraveled it only gets tangled all the more. Furthermore when false solutions are insisted upon the knots are pulled tighter and are only harder to undo.

At Luther’s time, basically all of Europe was part of one Church—the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the Pope in Rome. Many errors made a mess of the simple Christian teaching. Almost all of these errors were false attempts to deal with certain problems that had come up in the past, but those solutions never got to the bottom of things. Accordingly, the Roman Catholic Church was full of teachings and regulations that were supposed to make the Church healthy and strong, but these man-made solutions actually made the Church weaker and weaker.

The farther any Church gets away from the two chief teachings of the Law and the Gospel, the weaker that Church becomes. Instead of preaching sin and Christ’s grace, the Roman Catholic Church preached about becoming monks and nuns and how this trinket or that trinket would make a person spiritually stronger. The Lord’s Supper was looked at almost as though it were a vending machine. The people paid their money and this is what helped them stay out of hell and get into heaven. Understanding and believing were deemed unimportant for the common people—the pastors would take care of all of that for them. But then it was expected that everybody follow the priests and the Pope no matter what they said or what they did. Maybe we could sum up this rather complicated situation by saying that the people were expected to pay and obey and not ask too many questions.

This worked out well for both the laity’s flesh and the clergy’s flesh. It worked out well for the laity’s flesh because they could live carefree lives. They didn’t need to trouble themselves with learning of God or his Word, or be concerned whether they were under his judgment. So long as they remained loyal to the Church and gave their offerings, the priests assured them that all was well with their souls. 

This situation also worked out well for the clergy’s flesh. They got paid well and they didn’t have to do any work. They didn’t have to study God’s Word and confront and admonish people accordingly. They could just say the mass, grant the indulgence, and cash their paycheck. With all of this activity—and sometimes it was quite a bustling activity—nobody paid attention to what God says in his Word. Everything was directed towards keeping the machinery of the church organization running smoothly.

Martin Luther was not satisfied with the churchly solutions that were offered to him by his teachers. Martin Luther was concerned about being judged by God and going to hell, for he was a sinner. His teachers told him that his best shot at getting to heaven was to become a monk, so he became a monk. When becoming a monk didn’t stop his sinning, he tried going to confession. He spent hours in the confession booth with his father confessor, wracking his brain to confess every sin that he had committed. This didn’t stop him from being a sinner either. So he punished his body severely. He didn’t eat and didn’t drink and slept on the cold stone floor. He got up to pray at the specified hours in the middle of the night until he collapsed in exhaustion. All the manmade rules and regulations that the Roman Catholic Church offered him did not give him the assurance that he desired.

Slowly, over the course of many years, Martin Luther unraveled the rat’s nest that theology had become over the centuries. The way that questions and problems had been quickly and easily answered by the Church with reasonable responses were not satisfactory to him. When he started to read the Bible came to love more and more what it taught even though it was not as satisfactory to his reason and was not highly esteemed by his colleagues. The ABCs of God’s revelation are simple but stark. The way I’d like to look at what Luther discovered in God’s revelation about our life as Christians is one of his hymns: “Dear Christians One and All Rejoice.” This is one of the best hymn in all of Christendom.

First, the Law: In verse 2 he says, “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, Death brooded darkly o’er me. Sin was my torment night and day, In sin my mother bore me. Daily deeper still I fell, My life became a living hell, So firmly sin possessed me.” In verse 3 you can hear how Luther tried to fix himself, but in vain: “My own good works all came to nothing, No grace or merit gaining. Free will against God’s judgment fought, dead to all good remaining. My fears increased ‘til sheer despair, Left only death to be my share. The pangs of hell I suffered.”

What you see here is the consideration of God’s Holy Law instead of lame churchly regulations.  If Luther would have been satisfied with following the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, then he would have been highly regarded by everybody and lived a peaceful life. In like manner, you all can ignore God’s Law and  yet follow the rules of this congregation. If you follow the rules and are not put on the ban or excommunicated, then, when your death comes, you’ll get a nice funeral. But all of this is merely earthly. You are God’s creature, and you will be judged by him. The expressions that Luther uses in this hymn of his do not belong to him alone. It is good for all of you to see how miserably damned you are because of the sins that you have committed, and the sins that you have been able to stop even though you have tried. This is God’s Law. It works terror and despair. Luther pulled it out from where it had been stored in the Church’s attic, and it shook his soul.

But God, in his mercy, also revealed to him the Gospel. Verse 4 of this hymn says, “But God had seen my wretched state Before the world’s foundation, And mindful of his mercies great He planned for my salvation. He turned to me a Father’s heart—He did not choose the easy part—But gave his dearest treasure.” And then in verses 7 through 10 there is this wonderful conversation between Jesus and you, the sinner. Verse 7: “To me he [Jesus] said, ‘Stay close to me. I am your rock and castle. Your ransom I myself will be. For you I strive and wrestle. For I am yours and you are mine, And where I am you may remain. The foe shall not divide us.”

The only thing that could give peace to this sinner’s heart was Jesus, the Son of God, who made friends with him, fought for him, and stuck with him so that he would not die and go to hell. This is the fundamental teaching that Luther learned afresh from the Bible. Because it contradicted and brought to nothing many of the Church’s teachings and practices that were imagined to be solutions, he was excommunicated by the Pope. He is branded by the Roman Catholic Church as the worst heretic who has ever lived to this very day.

You can judge for yourself whether Martin Luther was a heretic. As far as I’m concerned, I would much rather have Christ as my defender and comforter than the miserable pope together with their horde of clergy and saints. My sins are much too awful and powerful to be healed with any manmade medicines. Only the blood of Jesus Christ will avail. This was Martin Luther’s joyous hope and it is mine too.

191020 Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 (Trinity 18) October 20, 2019

191020 Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 (Trinity 18) October 20, 2019

One of the techniques that wise people use to get things accomplished is a checklist. You put on the checklist the things that you would like to accomplish during the day. As each task is completed the item on the list is checked off. It feels good to check off those things. I know a person who puts stuff on a checklist that has already been accomplished just for the joy of crossing it off. When you are done with the checklist you sit back and look at all things that are checked off. The feeling of accomplishment and pride is the payoff that a person gets for working wisely and efficiently.

Checklists can be made on paper, or they can be made in a person’s head. One way or another something like checklists are made by everybody as they plan out what they are going to do. It’s not surprising, then, that something similar might be done with the Law of God. The Law of God can be turned into a checklist of things to do and not to do. The items can then be checked off one by one. This might have been the mentality of the expert in the Law in our Gospel reading who asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?” Another way of asking the same thing would be, “What should be at the top of the list?”

Jesus responds, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That is what should be at the top of the checklist. In fact, these two things can be the entire checklist. But here we run into a problem as far as checklist gurus are concerned. One of the rules for good checklists is that the tasks on the checklist actually have to be accomplishable. If a person puts something on a checklist that can never be checked off, then what good is the checklist? For example, if I put on my checklist, “1. Grow twelve feet taller, 2. Swallow the moon with one gulp?” What good are such goals? It doesn’t matter how hard I try or how much money I spend, such things are impossible. I can never check them off.

What Jesus says we are supposed to do is also something that cannot be accomplished. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind means that we would be completely consumed or obsessed with the Lord God. Sometimes people become obsessed with certain things—maybe a hobby, maybe a job, maybe a love interest. When that happens all that they want to think about and talk about and do has to do with the obsession. But even with these things that we might enjoy getting obsessed with, we are not doing it with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind—maybe a good chunk of these things, but not all of them. God says that we are to love him with every fiber of our being so that there isn’t a scintilla left over for anything else. Even those who are converted and are possessors of the Holy Spirit cannot do such a thing in this life.

With the second part of Jesus’s answer we see something similar. Loving God means that we thereby love our neighbor as ourselves, but this is something that we cannot do in a genuine way. If you haven’t read the quotation from Luther on the back of your bulletin yet, you should read that sometime today. We might be friendly and nice to those who are friendly and nice to us—a kind of “I’ll scratch your back; you scratch mine”—but such friendliness and niceness dries up in a hurry when the other person does not treat us nicely. Jesus does not say, “Love the neighbor who is your friend, but hate and treat like dirt everybody else.” He simply says, “Love your neighbor.” That includes those who would like to hurt you and do hurt you, commonly known as your enemies. The very best that can ever happen in our dealings with those who hurt us is hypocrisy. Maybe we can, with great effort, pull off something that looks nice on the outside, but on the inside there is going to be resentment and ill will. Even those who are converted and possessors of the Holy Spirit, will find that there remains some part of them that is not kindly disposed towards their enemies.

So with both elements of this checklist of the Law that Jesus gives us, we have things that cannot be accomplished. We can’t love God and we can’t love the neighbor. Nobody—not a single person—is able to do what Jesus says we should do. Jesus himself is the only exception. So what do you do with a checklist that you can’t ever check off? You pitch it. It’s a bad checklist. Another checklist should be made. This is so obvious that we don’t even really think about such things because they are ridiculous to think about. For example, it is stupid for me to open my mouth bigger and bigger, working hard at it every day, in the hopes that one day (if I never give up) I can swallow the moon in one gulp. That is a waste of time. Some other goal or goals should be set to make up our checklist.

This is what happens with Jesus’s words. They are not taken seriously. Who tries to love God and the neighbor with even half their being? And yet, nobody feels bad about this. Perhaps this is because nobody can do it, so why feel bad? Nobody can swallow the moon in one gulp, either, so I don’t feel bad about not being able to accomplish that. So what if I can’t love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind? We’re all in the same boat. God can’t judge and condemn everybody, can he?

The answer, so far as the Bible is concerned, is that he can and he does. The Bible says that no one is righteous, no, not even a single one. The tragedy of sin is so massive that there isn’t a single one who hasn’t been totally corrupted by it. And God means it when he gives this standard, even though nobody is able to live up to it.

History proves this. At the time of the flood he wiped out the entire human race save eight souls who were kept safe in the ark. He destroyed the whole magnificent cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus says that at the time of the end of the world it will be like it was at the time of the flood and at the time of Sodom. At the time of the end of the world there will be very few believers. The rest of the world will be condemned as evildoers.

This shows that God is not a liar like us. When he gives a standard, you can be sure that that standard is not going to change. Whoever does not love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind and his neighbor as himself is a bad person. That’s what God’s Law says. It doesn’t matter that the whole world is thereby condemned. God is God, not you.

And so we would be making a terrible mistake if we allow ourselves to be led astray by our reason into thinking that some other goals for life is what we should be after instead of the ones that Jesus gives us in our Gospel reading. That is a terrible mistake that is made all too often. We want to be proud. We want to feel good. We want to be justified in whatever way we live our life. The Law of God will not allow for any of these things. In despair, even those who should know better go whoring after other gods.

But this is very foolish, because it is not just the Law that God has given to us. He has also given us the good news of great joy that is for all people. Unto us a child has been born. He is the Son of David, and yet he is David’s Lord. He took upon himself all our sin. He took upon himself the way that we have despised God, paying him no mind, and the selfishness that has worked itself out in coldness toward our neighbor or even active hostility. Jesus took upon himself the sins that you committed and suffered and died the punishment that is due because of them. You made Jesus suffer with your sins. And yet, Jesus did this gladly, for in this way atonement for sin was accomplished, and sinners were saved.

God’s free grace is therefore offered to the entire world without exception. No one is excluded because Jesus died for all. Yes, it’s true that you are a poor miserable sinner. You have not loved God with your little finger. But God has loved you and ransomed you, so that you no longer belong to the devil, but to the Lord God. Through faith in Christ you have a complete justification and righteousness before God that you could never achieve on your own by trying to fulfill the Law. The Law says, “Do this,” and it is never done. The Gospel says, “Believe this,” and it is done already.

God’s Word teaches us two things about ourselves that couldn’t be more different from one another. God’s Word of Law teaches us that we are damned sinners who deserve God’s punishment in this life as well as in the next one in hell eternally. It is not God’s fault that this is so, nor is it his Law’s fault. It is our fault. We are the ones who have not kept his Law. The other Word of God, the Gospel, says that we are perfectly righteous before God because we have the righteousness of Jesus that has been given to us as a gift. According to the Gospel we do not have a single spot or blemish before God for Jesus’s sake, even though we have sinned and, unfortunately, will continue to sin because of this wretched sinful flesh.

Therefore, you must believe that God loves us completely, just as he has loved his own dear Son Jesus. Jesus and we are one, we’ve been united with him, and so the love of God radiates down upon us now in this life as well as in the next in heaven eternally. This is what the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has accomplished. What no man could do because it is impossible, Jesus has done. According to these two Words of God we are evil and belong in hell according to the Law, but according to the Gospel we are holy and belong in heaven together with God.

These two teachings must both stand for the Christian Church to continue to exist. Our reason is opposed to both of these teachings. Our reason can never understand the Christian situation where we are both sinners and saints at the same time. When reason takes the wheel, either the fullness of the Law is pared back or the fullness of the Gospel is pared back to make all this more understandable and seemingly believable.

However, wherever the fullness of the Law and the Gospel rings out in spite of the protests of our reason there you are going to find Christians—people who believe that they are loved by God for Jesus’s sake. The Law and the Gospel creates a new life in the one who hears, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, believes. New thoughts, new goals, new loves, new hopes are instilled in such people so that they are set apart from the unbelieving world. Christians want to go to heaven so that they can see Jesus who has sacrificed himself for their salvation. They also want to go to heaven so that they can finally begin to love God with all their heart, all their soul, and all their mind, and be filled with love for every creature. Even with the first fruits of the Holy Spirit that are given to us in this life, we do not really understand the transformation that will take place with the resurrection from the dead when our purification and sanctification will be complete. If we have ever looked forward to anything, then we should realize that whatever it is, it pales in comparison to heaven. No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.

Wisdom dictates, therefore, that we set aside whatever thoughts come from our Old Adam and our reason and to embrace the teaching that comes from the Holy Spirit. Jesus has redeemed us. He gives us his righteousness as a gift. The Holy Spirit will sanctify us completely on the day of Jesus’s second coming. This is what God says, and you should believe it.

191013 Sermon on Luke 14:1-11 (Trinity 17) October 13, 2019

191013 Sermon on Luke 14:1-11 (Trinity 17) October 13, 2019

I’d like to speak today about what it means to have a station in life. Your station in life consists of the relationships that God has put you into. If you are married, you have a relationship and responsibility to your spouse. If you are a father or mother, then you have responsibilities toward your children. If you are a child, then you have responsibilities towards your parents. If you are employed, then you have responsibilities towards your boss. If you are a boss, then you have responsibilities toward your employees.

Within these different roles there are going to be different responsibilities. The two people who form the relationship are not the same; they are not symmetrical. The responsibilities that a husband has toward his wife are not the same as the responsibilities that a wife has toward her husband. So it is with almost all the relationships that we have in life. Things don’t work well if you don’t have both leaders and followers. You need both. Both positions of being leaders and followers are good and honorable.

It seems to be hard-wired into us human beings, though, that one of these positions is better than the other. Leaders are considered more valuable than followers. They are held in higher esteem. They normally get paid more. Followers, on the other hand, are regarded as having very little worth. People might think that they shouldn’t get paid anything but the bare minimum. They might even be thought of as being sub-human. This is what happened with the enslavement of the blacks in this country. This is also the mentality in India’s caste system. In India, the people at the top are thought of as almost being gods. Those at the bottom are not deserving of any more consideration than that you would give to some nasty animal.

It is evil to regard another human being as being something less than human. Whenever and wherever people think this way, atrocities are certain to follow. When you regard someone else as being less than human, then you feel justified in treating that other person badly. The world is actually on to something when it says that inequality is bad. It senses that it is wrong for one group to be super-exalted as though they were gods and to have the other group regarded as scum. They are right about that.

But the way that the world tries to fix the problem isn’t good. They propose that instead of there being any difference of leader and follower in these relationships, there should only be equality. Equality means that people are the same. If things are the same, it means that they are also interchangeable.  But leaders are not interchangeable with followers. They are different, and they are supposed to be different. Men are not interchangeable with women. They are different, and they are supposed to be different. It is sheer nonsense to say that men and women are the same and that they are interchangeable. Men and women have been made different from one another by the Creator, and it is good that they have been made different. The world’s solution to the problems that almost always crop up in the relationships of life is to pretend that there are no differences. But the differences are obvious. This pretending leads to asininity and atrocities and abominations—only one example of which is the world’s current demand that we say that a man is a woman or a woman is a man depending on whatever the person in question says instead of what their body actually is.

Whenever anybody is critical of the world’s solution to the problems that accompany inequality, it is almost always assumed that they must be supporters of all the antiquated ways. If a person will not concede that everybody is interchangeable, then it is assumed that they must think like the white slave owners of the Confederacy, or that they support the dehumanization that happens in a caste system. Or it is assumed that husbands should think of themselves as tyrants and wives should think of themselves as slaves. Or it is assumed that such persons must be in favor of pure capitalism—such as it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s where business owners were able to get away with paying their workers practically nothing, to have unsafe work environments, and all the other abuses that the newly formed labor unions tried to address. A caricature is made of those who refuse to get on the world’s bandwagon. They must all be a bunch of bigots who have not realized that we are living in the 21^st century. This name-calling makes a lot of people afraid to even think about the issues involved. They then mindlessly line up behind either the liberals or the conservatives.

I would like it if you, as Christians, would be different than the shrieking crowds. I believe that you can be different by learning from the Scriptures. The New Testament epistles, especially, have a lot to say about the relationships that we have as human beings and how we should remain and live within them. The majority of the apostolic letters have exhortations that address their hearers’ stations in life. Instructions and encouragement are given to fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, employers and employees. The apostles do not dismiss these roles like the people of today who think that they have discovered that there is no such thing as men and women or leaders and followers. Because the apostles do not dismiss these different positions as being nonexistent, the so-called smart people of today assume that the apostles were bigots. But that is a stupid thing to say.

Instead of dismissing these relationships, the apostles urge that all these relationships should be filled with love. Love is the opposite of selfishness. Instead of looking out for one’s own interests, each one of us should look out for the interests of the other person. So this means that a husband should not look out for whatever might be pleasurable or advantageous for himself, but, as the head of the household, he should look out for the interests of his wife and children—considering what will be good for them. An employee should not just care about his or her paycheck. A Christian employee should never say stuff like, “I’m getting paid by the hour, not by the job,” or other selfish things like that. That’s breaking the seventh commandment. The Christian should understand that his or her work is for the good, and for the betterment of those that they are serving. In an employee’s relationship with the employer, he or she should anticipate what will make the boss happy and do it. The boss, on the other hand, should not just care about profit, but what is good for the employee’s livelihood and family. That means, obviously, that wages are not set by whatever the employer can get away with without having the employee quit. It means that we should be generous, that is to say, loving, in the way that we deal with one another.

The asymmetrical, unequal nature of the relationships that we have in this life are not to be undone. They can’t be undone. There will always be leaders and followers no matter how much we pretend that it isn’t so. What pleases God is that these relationships should be filled with love on both sides. And it doesn’t matter if both sides are not filled with love. Whoever wishes to be Christian is not going to quit loving even if that love is not returned. The Christian will continue to try to please God by doing good. This will mean the Christians have to suffer. They inevitably will be taken advantage of, at least to some extent. They will turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile and love their enemy—even if that person who has evilly set out to hurt them is living in the same house. They will bear the cross that God has given them, and commend themselves to God who judges justly.

The Bible’s teaching is quite remarkable. You won’t hear this kind of advice from anybody else. The world advises that we all fight for our rights with sharp elbows. “Nobody gives it to you, you have to take it. Only the fittest survive. If you don’t make your own mark on the world, then you are kind of a loser.” This is the opposite of love, because the only thing that is cared about is one’s own reputation and welfare. What the Bible teaches is that we should be loving.

Jesus gives us quite a picture of what our love should be like on the night on which he was betrayed. He rolled up his sleeves, took out a washbasin and a towel, and proceeded to wash the stinky, dirty feet of his disciples afterwards. Jesus, in his conversation with the disciples, points out how he is the leader. And yet, though he is the Son of God and ruler of the universe, he gladly and willingly washes the feet of those who are under him. That is the work of a slave. Why does Jesus do this? Because he is loving and wanted to. Also, as he himself says, he has left us an example that we should do likewise.

As far as honor is concerned, the Bible tells us that we should not think highly of ourselves. We should think highly of other people, but not of ourselves. This is certainly what Jesus is teaching in the parable that we heard today. We should not take the highest place. We should take the lowest place and be content to dwell there. Even if we are placed into a position of leadership, we follow the example of the Lord Jesus. Although he is lord of all, he made himself to be nothing and took on the form of a slave. Jesus says in another place that we as Christians are not supposed to exercise lordship over one another and throw our weight around. He says, “Whoever desires to be great among you, must be your slave, and whoever wants to be first, must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”

True greatness is not when we are like the devil, who is an exceedingly proud spirit. True greatness is when we have become like God, who is love. Those who are proud are often able to cut a good figure before men. People will think that they are high and great and extraordinary. But what is held in high esteem by men is an abomination to God. God is not impressed by what we think is powerful or impressive. The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. The weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men. Jesus, with his sacrificial love by which he has redeemed and saved the whole world, is who is truly great. Think about what Jesus does. He laid down his life for nasty, disgusting sinners. There isn’t a single sinner for whom Jesus did not lay down his life. I certainly hope that you are honest enough to class yourself among those who are nasty and disgusting. Jesus has loved you in this way. Beloved, shall we not, then, also love one another?

A necessary element of the love that we are to have as Christians is that we be humble. The world cannot understand humility as anything but bad. Being humble is embarrassing, and something that is supposed to be outgrown by personal achievement. By working your tail off, you can finally bask in your own glory as an outstanding person. Such people have their reward. God is not impressed.

God is not a respecter of persons. He does not want us all to be CEOs and doctors and whatever else is regarded as honorable by the world. He wants us to be faithful in whatever situation he has put us in. We are to love and serve within these vocations. The way that we can be truly great is by becoming the slave of all. The world thinks that this sacrificial love is terrible or even immoral. You know better though. You know that what Jesus did for you is not immoral. How can it be immoral, then, to love and sacrifice and suffer for those whom God has put into your life.

Because God judges things so differently from the way that the world judges things, there will be a lot of surprises at the final judgment. There will be housewives and factory workers and slaves and mentally retarded people and many others whom the world sneers at as being worthless, who are treasured by God and will be honored by him at the end of the world. That is when it doesn’t matter if we are a leader or a follower, a Jew or a Greek, a freeman or a slave. God is not a respecter of persons. What matters to God is the love that has been at work in our lives according to the station in life that God has given to us. Have we been faithful in the work that God has given us to do?

The answer, of course, is that we have not been. The devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh see to that. But we were never meant to save ourselves by our own work. This is something that Jesus did for us. But this also doesn’t mean that we should sin all the more, because we are saved by grace. God points us to what is good. What is good is not that we erase all distinctions in the natural relationships that exist on earth. That can’t work. It is fighting against the very Creator. Instead, all these relationships are to be filled with love—considering and acting upon what is good for the other person instead of what is good for ourselves. May God grant us his Holy Spirit toward that end.

191006 Sermon on Luke 7:11-17 (Trinity 16) October 6, 2019

191006 Sermon on Luke 7:11-17 (Trinity 16) October 6, 2019

We are confronted with two tremendous facts in our Gospel reading today. The first thing that we can see is that a young man is dead. This is a dreadful fact. When it happens among us, we do whatever we can to shy away from it. We don’t want to look at the body until some makeup has been put upon it. We don’t want to say that the young man is really dead, but that the young man will live on in our hearts and memories. Much of the funeral industry’s profits are built upon the desire to not have to consider the fact of someone being finally and totally dead. The products they sell are meant to further the delusion that the person will live on somehow.

This is unnecessary. We don’t have to pretend that a person continues living in some contrived sense of the word, for there is another fact that is presented to us in our reading. Jesus says, “Young man, I say to you arise,” and that is what happens. He sits up in that coffin that the pallbearers are carrying, gets out, and goes to his mother. The other great fact besides the boy being dead is that the boy is alive, because Jesus made him alive by speaking a word.

These two great facts are at the heart of our religion. Isn’t it true that the two greatest days that have ever been are Good Friday and Easter? Two great facts are presented to us on these days. On Good Friday Jesus is dead. There’s no doubt about this fact. The disciples did not miss the significance of this fact. They scattered in despair. They thought that he was the Christ. They thought that he would be the king. How can he be the king when he is dead? The factuality of his death made such an impression on them that they were very slow to believe that he was actually risen from the dead. When the women reported what they had seen and heard at his tomb, the rest thought that they were indulging in wishful thinking. It seems as though hardly any of them believed until they actually saw Jesus. Their hearts were hard and slow to believe. It wasn’t really until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them, that the disciples began to boldly testify to these two great facts as the salvation God has extended towards us.

Nobody is saved through the death and resurrection of the young man who lived in Nain. Nobody is saved by the death and resurrection of the boy whom God raised through the prophet Elijah. Even these two boys weren’t ultimately saved by their own resurrection, for that was a resurrection to this life only, not an eternal life. And so we can see that two great facts of Jesus’s death and resurrection are different from these others that we hear about in the Scriptures. I’d like to consider today how there are at least three different ways that Jesus’s death and life are different from the others.

First of all, Jesus is the Son of God incarnate. He has no earthly father, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. According to his human nature he is the seed of the woman, a son of King David, from the tribe of Judah. According to his divine nature he is the eternally begotten Son from the Father. There was never a time that he didn’t exist. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. Therefore, it was not just a man who died on Good Friday. It was the one person of Jesus Christ—true God and true man—who died.

The Good Friday hymn, “O Darkest Woe” has a stark and shocking line that speaks to what has taken place: “O sorrow dread, our God is dead, upon the cross extended.” “Our God is dead.” Let that sink in. No matter how deeply you think you have taken it in, you have not even begun to take it in. How can it be possible? And yet, it is a fact. Whether you believe it is possible or not won’t change what has actually taken place.

The first way that Jesus’s death and resurrection are different than the others that we hear about in the Scriptures is that Jesus was not just an ordinary man. He is true God and true man. God, who by definition cannot suffer or die, suffered and died in Jesus. The second way that Jesus is different than the others is in the nature of his death. When Jesus died, he drank the cup of woe down to its last dregs. Jesus did not die under the delusion that death is just a part of life, or that everybody experiences it sometime, or whatever other philosophy people have about it. He knew what death really was and didn’t lie to himself about it.

In order for us to understand this better, it is necessary to speak a bit more about this understanding of death. The Biblical understanding of death has been severely repressed in our times by the kinds of thoughts that I mentioned at the beginning of our sermon today. The severity of it all has been avoided. False hope and comforts have been dished out by the barrel. The reason why people die is because God punishes sin with death. This is no great secret so far as the Bible is concerned. God said that in the day that Adam sinned, he would surely die. God killed the whole world, save eight souls, with the flood. God put to death those who grumbled and were disobedient to him in the wilderness. God struck down king after king in Israel and Judah who sinned against him. Ananias and Sapphira were killed in the New Testament Church for lying about their offering not long after Pentecost. People die because God kills evildoers. It wasn’t meant to be that way. We were not created to be evildoers. But that’s what happened when we became sinners.

So the way that Jesus understood death and the way that we should understand death is that it is brought about by God because we are guilty. Perhaps you came to church today with the guilt of some certain sin that you have committed lying on your conscience. We find that to be bad enough. What about all the other sins that you have committed? You’ve forgotten about those. That’s the old Adam’s way of dealing with sin. Adam and Eve tried to forget about their sin in the Garden by getting busy with making clothing and whatever else they could find to pass the time. The horror of Judgment Day for unbelievers is that they won’t be able to forget anymore. The weight of all their sins, all at once, will crush them when they awaken from their sleep in the grave. This is a tremendous and awful thing that we cannot understand beforehand. God save each and every one of us from ever experiencing it!

And so you can see that the weight of guilt and the severity of God’s wrath for the sin of but one person is enough to drive us to madness and despair. What was it like for Jesus to know and experience the guilt for every sin of every man, woman, and child who has ever lived? The bitter sufferings and death of Jesus was not just a matter of the physical agony. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Much more is going on spiritually below the surface. He is experiencing in his conscience God’s righteous anger against him, because he became Sin for us. The “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!—My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” is the despair of each one of us when we should be judged for the way that we have lived our lives.

By Jesus’s suffering and death, satisfaction is made for God’s righteous anger against sin. Jesus was like a lightning rod for God’s wrath. Instead of it striking out here and there on each individual, it gathered up all its power and released it all upon the strong shoulders of the God-man, Jesus Christ. The severity of it is so great that it killed God.

And so Jesus’s death and resurrection is different from these others, first of all, in that he was not just an ordinary man, and, second of all, that he did not die for his own sins (because he himself was sinless), but for the sins of all mankind that he willingly took upon himself. It is unsurprising, therefore, that his resurrection was also different than these others that we hear about in the Scriptures. Jesus’s resurrection is not just about himself. His resurrection is the announcement of the justification—that all people who are otherwise sinners, are just and righteous because Jesus has redeemed them. The era of sin and death is over. That is what Good Friday accomplished. The era of righteousness and life is begun. Easter is God’s great benediction, great announcement of grace, that is for all people. God is not angry with us for our sins, because he was already angry and punished Jesus in our place. He did this because he has loved us from eternity and wanted to defeat death and hell, which we voluntarily brought upon ourselves through sin. Because Jesus lives, we will live also. Just as Jesus was resurrected from the dead without sin, so also we will be resurrected from the dead without sin. Jesus and we are one. Jesus became one with us in our death, and so we are one with him in his resurrection. Jesus is raised and so we will be too.

Through Jesus, death—as I have spoken about it today in the true, Biblical way—is defeated. Death with a capital “D,” death in the true sense of the word, is inextricably tied up with God’s wrath. But God’s wrath against us has been taken away because Jesus has taken our place. The wrath of God for sin has fallen on him, and so it cannot not fall on us who believe in him. Therefore, the death that Christians die doesn’t really deserve to be called death, because God’s wrath isn’t part of it anymore. It is much closer to the truth to think of it is as sleep.

Here our Gospel reading is instructive. This young man is as dead as dead can be. He is discolored and stiff and cold. But look how easily Jesus awakens him. All it takes is a word. The young man is sleeping more lightly than we do in our beds, for in order to awaken us it often takes some shaking, and then we are groggy until we’ve gotten some caffeine into us. Not so here. The young man doesn’t have the faintest whiff of death about him. He is alive and ready to go.

And do not think that this is just for somebody else or that such things could not happen to you—nothing so exciting or extraordinary could happen to you. Not so! In fact, something much greater is going to happen for you. This young man was not raised with the final resurrection that we see in Jesus where the reign of sin and death are forever put away. He was raised to this earthly life that is still partly under the curse. When Jesus on that final day says, “Get up,” to you, you will be raised in a different and better and more lively way than this young man. The corruptible will put on incorruptibility, the mortal will be swallowed up by immortality. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, “O Death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The life we now live is weighed down in a tremendous way by sin and death. We’ve never known anything different, and so we’ve gotten used to the sadness and slavery to sin that hounds our flesh our whole life through. There is no evil or sadness in the resurrection we are given in Jesus.

And so we can see how death and resurrection, the two facts that confront us in our Gospel reading today, are at the heart of our religion. Jesus died and now he lives and reigns eternally. Because he lives, we also will live. Whoever lives and believes in him will never die. Because these two great facts are so certain and wonderful, I’ve developed a definite distaste for the cheap substitutes that that the old Adam has come up with, to comfort himself in the face of death. They are like a blanket that is too small on a cold night. No matter how you finagle it, it never satisfies. Instead, commend yourself to God. Believe that Jesus has died for you and for all your sins, and that you will live just as Jesus lives.