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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

210926 Sermon on Proverbs 25:6-14, Luke 14:1-11 (Trinity 17) September 26, 2021

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Let me tell you something strange: On the one hand, nobody likes being corrected. On the other hand, everybody likes correcting others. It’s like there’s a one way street. All correction is to issue forth from us unto others. We resent it when any correction might come from others upon us.

Jesus once asked, “Why do you focus on the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? How will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ when, in fact, you have a beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Try to imagine what that might look like. Whenever the person moves his head, this big beam or log is swinging around. Regardless of that log, all the correcting is a one way street. Wherever that beam happens to swing is where that critical eye will notice something wrong. Everybody else is subpar. You alone are right. It must get lonely as you sit atop that mountain of righteousness, all by yourself.

So how might we fix this? Certainly something must be said for Jesus’s advice: “Judge not, lest you be judged.” Stop judging. Stop correcting others. Just for the sake of outward peace and harmony it is often good to hold your tongue. There is a common false belief that judging and censuring and condemning is the sign of a great intellect or a vigorous prophetic spirit.

Thus, particularly in the church, it is easy to find people who are never satisfied with anything that is not their own. Martin Luther called these people “sour-faced saints.” Their faces always looked as though they had been sucking on lemons. Because they were always so sour about everybody else’s supposed misdeeds, they thought that they were very saintly.

Unfortunately for them, judging is not named as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The whole tone and tenor of that list of the fruit of the Spirit goes against these sour-faced saints. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” There is an openness in this list. We are to be open to others. If we meet others with intending to shoot them down, we always need to have our pistol at the ready. Be ready to shoot, lest the other person get their shot off first. Such a person is closed rather than open—always on the defensive, always ready to strike back. They do not want to be corrected, so they always have their attacks ready to put a stop to being corrected before it even starts.

This way of protecting one’s self, of closing down, of shutting one’s self off from others, is a natural response. Here we see that what is “natural” is not what is godly. It is natural to shut down and protect yourself, but that isn’t godly. There are a lot of things that are “natural” but nevertheless ungodly. Lust is natural. Anger is natural. Greed is natural. Loving your friends and hating your enemies is natural. Yet Jesus says, “Love your enemies, and do good to those who persecute you.” Loving those who want to hurt you is impossible for our flesh, which is always looking out for numero uno. It is that same looking out for numero uno that shuts people off from others, guns drawn, finger on the trigger.

The alternative is an openness that is manifested in patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But with this openness, honesty, laying your heart out there, there is the possibility of getting hurt.

Let me try to explain. Perhaps you can see this most easily with children, for they have not yet become so guarded and jaded. Suppose there’s a child who likes to play with a toy that his peers might think is for younger kids. The child doesn’t know there’s anything wrong with playing with that toy. But one of the other kids (and there are always plenty of these around) makes fun of that kid. And the other kids (and there are always plenty of these around too) can’t stop laughing at the gullible child. That kind of suffering makes a kid retreat within himself. Blessed is that child (and adults know this is true) who can resist this bullying and can continue to express his love openly. But this is rare, because we don’t like to suffer. The easiest way to make the suffering stop for that kid is to shut down.

Something we should learn as Christians is that suffering is not the worst thing. We don’t have to avoid suffering at all costs. If we have decided that we are going to avoid suffering at all costs, then we are going to retreat to our mental fortresses, ready to shoot at anything that moves. Being open makes a person vulnerable to other’s attacks.

It seems like being willing to suffer is a terrible idea. And yet this is what our Lord Jesus did by going to the cross. He most certainly did not need to go to the cross. There was no law that said he had to suffer so severely. His friend, Peter, thought it was a terrible idea for him to go about the Christ in that way. But Peter was wrong. What Jesus did was good. So we, too, should be open and vulnerable, and not be afraid of suffering.

This means that we should also be open to being corrected. Remember how I started today. Nobody likes being corrected. We only want to correct others. There’s a good reason why we don’t like to be corrected. It’s because it hurts to be corrected. We don’t want to suffer, and so we might retreat into some fortress, guns drawn, and refuse to be corrected in any way. Here’s the thing, though: Sometimes we need to be corrected. That’s an understatement. We often need to be corrected.

This is something that sets Christians apart from others. By nature everybody hates to be corrected, but those who are converted to faith in Christ eventually become grateful for being corrected. Wise King Solomon says in our Old Testament reading: “To ears that listen, a wise person’s correction is like a gold ring or like jewelry made of pure gold.” A wise person corrects. The person listens and is corrected. That correction is like a gold ring or jewelry made of pure gold. The reason why we like gold rings and jewelry is because we like to look at them. We find them beautiful. The one who is converted to faith in Christ is thankful that they have been turned away from the broad, easy road that leads to destruction.

Blessed is the person who hears a hard word, who takes it to heart, and is humbled by it. There is pain and suffering that goes along with this, but it is a good kind of suffering. It is a suffering that is healthy. It’s like when a doctor cleans out an infected wound. It might hurt like the dickens to have the doctor poking around in there, cleaning out the filth, packing it with gauze. It hurts, but it is good. So it is, also, with the sinner who is brought to repentance. It hurts, but being corrected is a good thing.

Sometimes people turn Jesus’s statement, “Judge not, lest you be judged,” into an absolute principle. They take it to mean that nobody should ever be corrected. That is incorrect. It is obviously incorrect. Jesus judges and corrects a lot. In our Gospel reading you see him correcting others. In fact, it is obvious that the whole situation is quite tense and awkward.

Jesus asks them, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Silence. Nobody wants to stick their neck out. Nobody wants to be corrected. Jesus heals the man suffering from edema. Then he asks them another question: “Which of you, if your son or an ox would fall into a well on a Sabbath day, would not immediately pull him out?” Silence. The answer is obvious, but they are probably angry with Jesus for making them feel embarrassed. And when Jesus sees how they are jockeying for the best seats, engaged in that ridiculous contest for who is the most popular, Jesus tells them that they should take the lowest seat. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Being corrected like this might have made their ears burn and their cheeks bright red. Ouch. So embarrassing! But if only they could embrace what Jesus has told them as though it were a gold ring, or some jewelry made from pure gold! Jesus is a good doctor. He is working to heal them. The pain involved is for their good.

Jesus is also talking about correcting others with that parable about the man who has a beam in his eye. It is not as though Jesus is forbidding any and every correction in that parable. After all, he himself says, “First remove the beam that is in your own eye. Then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” The speck’s no good. It’s good to get that out of there. But imagine the bumbling and fumbling that would take place if your eye doctor had a beam swinging around the examination room every time he turned his head! Nothing good is going to come from that.

Whether it is right to judge others or not depends on the heart of the one who is doing it. If the heart is good, then the judgement is going to be good. If the heart is evil, then the judgement is probably going to be self-seeking. Correcting others with the motive of helping them can be one of the most loving things a person can do. It is very loving because often correcting others is not appreciated (to say the least). Trying to correct someone might get you a whole lot of abuse and scorn in return. They might unload that machine gun of theirs on you in return.

But not all correcting of others is done this way. Sometimes people correct others to show the world how wonderfully pious they are, what a fine grasp of science they might have, or how especially suited they are to judge. It’s a way of dominating over others. It feels good to dominate. Dominating over others makes a person think that he is better than others. When God’s Law is used for this activity it is a misuse of holy things for vain and idolatrous purposes.

Some very evil so-called Christians like to see others squirm in the pain they can cause with their judgements. This would be like a doctor who is interested in torturing and killing his patients rather than healing them. That would be a very evil doctor. This is very thing that the devil likes best. In a way, he is very good at judging. He knows just where to hit. His goal is to have people be in despair and remain in despair. He wants them to hate themselves. If possible, he’d like it if people would murder themselves. Often the judgments that he throws around are true, but he doesn’t want anyone to move on from these truths to the higher truths of God’s mercy. He wants them to remain in their misery. He does not want them to have a good conscience.

All genuine, Christian correction is going to have the goal of giving the sinner a good conscience. When a sinner has been humbled, the sinner must be urged to embrace Christ’s redemption and salvation. It is not enough to just clean out the wound with all the pain that goes along with that. Salve must be applied. Medicine must be given. And that medicine is God’s full and free pardon and acceptance of the sinner for the sake of Jesus. To the one who has been humbled, God himself says, “Come up higher, my friend. Sit next to me.” That is a wonderful thing.

Let me sum up what we’ve talked about today. First, it is good to be open, even though being open makes you vulnerable to being hurt. Second, it is good to be corrected, even though being corrected causes pain and suffering. Being corrected is healthy and leads to life. Refusing correction will bring about gangrene and death. Third, it is important that when we correct others we do it for their good, and not for our own perverse pleasure. We must be like a good doctor who wants the patient to do well. Correcting and judging others for one’s own benefit is evil. May we all be corrected by Jesus, the good physician.

210919 Sermon on Luke 7:11-17 (Trinity 16) September 19, 2021

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Probably none of you have seen someone resurrected from the dead. Sometimes you hear unusual stories about people’s hearts stopping for a period of time, and then they are revived. I’ve never heard of someone being revived after they are placed into the morgue or in a coffin.

That’s what happened one day, though, on the outskirts of a town called Nain. A sad scene was unfolding there. A young man had died. He was his mother’s only child. She was a widow. A lonely future was in store for her.

But Jesus saw her miserable plight and had compassion on her. He was going to help her in an unheard of way. Just as we are unfamiliar with any resuscitation of someone long dead, so it was then too. Jesus used the authority that he had as God’s Son. He restarted the young man’s heart so that it began to pump life-giving blood again. He healed all those cells and tissues that had been damaged or destroyed by natural processes of death and decomposition. The gray sunken cheeks of the dead turned pink and lively. The boy sat up in the coffin and began to speak. Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Luke does not tell us anything about the mother’s reaction. That had to be quite something. The death of a child is so painful. We can hardly bear it. It would be cruel to prolong that pain by hoping for a resurrection in this life. Only a tiny handful of people have been resurrected in this life such as we hear about in this case and a few others from the Bible. So she had to have been beyond surprised. I’m kind of amazed that she didn’t have a heart attack and die. It must have been so shocking.

We like shocking and unusual things. They are able to hold our interest. Many people at Jesus’s time liked to see the unusual things he did. The people at Nain enjoyed seeing the man raised to life. The people who were fed with the five loaves and two fishes followed him around, waiting for him to do another miracle. The Pharisees were always wanting Jesus to do signs to confirm his teachings, which they found strange. Herod was glad to see Jesus on the day Jesus died because he was hoping to see him do something unusual.

But people are fickle. If they are not constantly entertained with new and interesting things they go in search of other things to do. This is what seems to have happened also with Jesus. After Jesus ascended into heaven, but before Pentecost, the believers gathered together. It says in Acts that there were about 120 of them. 120! Where were the 5,000 from the feeding of the 5,000? Where were the 4,000 from the feeding of the 4,000? Where were the people from Nain? Where were the crowds who were singing Hosanna not too many weeks before that on Palm Sunday? People are fickle.

So it is to this day. Grander things than what took place at Nain happen in the midst of this congregation, but few believe it. Few appreciate it. The young man who was raised from the dead was resurrected physically and temporarily. He went back to being the young man that he was before. In that way it is similar to those Emergency Room resuscitations. He was returned to the life that he had been living.

I say that there are grander things that take place among us. The cure that Jesus works among us is deeper and gets down to the very foundations. There is a death and a resurrection that already happens in our midst with Baptism. Paul says, “Do you not know that when you were baptized, you were baptized into the death of Christ?” He flatly states in another place: “You have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” This death, however, is not just any ordinary death. It is the saving, atoning death of Jesus—that is the death that we have died in with our baptism. Jesus’s death is the death that brought an end to death. And, again, as Paul says, if we have been united with him in his death, then we are certainly united with him for the resurrection.

Here with baptism we are not just dealing with superficial, physical dying and rising. We are dealing with the soul and spirit. The cure reaches deeper. We are not just brought back to life so that we can continue to enjoy the created things of this world. We are brought back to life in order to enjoy life with the Creator himself. That’s what God’s Word says.

Let me finish one of the quotations I started just a moment ago. Paul says, “You have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Paul is talking about the new heavens and the new earth. The glory that he speaks of is God’s own glory—the glory that the Bible says no man may see and live. This is something far more profound and long-lasting and unexpected than what happens at Nain. The resurrection of Baptism allows someone who is otherwise a sinner to see God, and enjoy seeing God. But people are fickle.

Suppose we did an experiment. On the one hand we could offer the spectacle of Baptism. We would baptize someone and that person would be killed and resurrected spiritually and made a partaker of everlasting life. That’s the one option we could offer. What if, on the other hand, we offered to raise somebody from the dead physically? We would make a cold, stiff corpse sit up and begin to speak. For which of these shows do you think we could sell more tickets? You already know the answer. Baptisms are a dime a dozen. They don’t even cost any money. Bringing back somebody from the dead, however, is rare. It must be much more valuable.

We could apply this same reasoning to many things that take place within the Christian Church. I’ve met a Pentecostal or two who have told me that if I really wanted to be effective I should try speaking in tongues. Perhaps you’ve seen some preachers on TV who lay hands on the sick and they shake convulsively and roll around on the ground. These kinds of things are unusual. Thus they can hold the interest of fickle people—at least for a while. But can these things hold a candle to God’s Work in Baptism or in the Lord’s Supper? These are the deep and everlasting cures for sinners.

Allow me to make one more application along these lines. It’s a little more subtle, so bear with me. We know that when we have died and been raised with Christ we have been set free from the devil and the lusts of our flesh. We are to make progress in crucifying our old Adam and doing the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in.

But all too often we find that Christians don’t live up to that. Sinners in the Christian Church are a dime a dozen. Saints, on the other hand, are rare. And so it is only natural for our reason to go after these rare saints. They must be really something. They are rare. We want to be rare and unusual. So which would you rather be: The successful Christian who has smacked down one sin after another and shown the world who’s boss, or the frustrated Christian who’s always needing to be forgiven?

Martin Luther was very fond of saying that our reason is totally blind when it comes to spiritual matters. He was totally right! What we think is not what God thinks. What we think will work is not what God does. What God actually does we think is not that good of an idea. Haven’t you thought, at one time or another, that we could do things better for growing the church than baptism or the Lord’s Supper? Haven’t you occasionally thought (and be honest!) that some things that the Bible teaches are really off-putting, and we shouldn’t talk about them if we hope to have the church grow?

But think of Jesus. What more could possibly have done to grow the church? He did all kinds of unusual, interesting things. He cast out demons. He healed the sick. He performed one miracle after another. But after his ascension into heaven and before Pentecost ten days later there were only about 120 who were congregated to hear Peter preach. Where were the 5,000? Where were the 4,000? Where were the people from the town of Nain?

This shows that faith is not a matter of impressing people’s reason. It’s not a matter of putting on a show or winning debates. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit when and where he chooses among those who hear the Gospel. It is not a matter of our striving, of our figuring out the right methods. It is a matter of God’s choosing. God chooses those whom he will save. To those whom he has chosen he will preach the Gospel. He baptizes. He distributes Holy Communion. Those whom God has chosen will believe it. Those who have been blinded by the god of this world will follow their preferences for something else.

So do not be led astray into believing that what is common and offered to all is ineffectual because we get bored by things that are common. There’s nothing more common in the Christian Church than baptism. We’ve all been baptized. There’s nothing more common than the Lord’s Supper. We have it almost every week. But what matters is not what we might think about these things, but rather what God does through them. He kills our old Adam and resurrects us with Jesus in Baptism. He gives us the salutary, that is, beneficial, gift of Christ’s body and blood that forgives our sins and increases our faith towards him and our fervent love towards one another. Whether Jesus should do these things many times or only a few times doesn’t change what is actually going on. What’s actually going on is up to him, regardless of how we might feel about it.

Consider the way that Jesus raises this young man from the dead. Everybody was astounded by it because it was so unusual. What if the people didn’t have that reaction? What if they were totally bored? Would that in any way change what Jesus did by raising the dead man? If Jesus wants to raise the dead man, then the dead man is going to be raised. Whether a person is impressed by that or not doesn’t change what he does.

The same thing is true with what we have been talking about today. I’ve told you that something deeper and more fundamental takes place in our midst than what took place at Nain. I’ve not said this because I’ve been trying to impress you. I’ve said this to you simply because it is the truth. It is what Jesus and his apostles teach. Whether you are impressed or excited is beside the point. What matters is that Jesus does what Jesus does. If he wants to heal you through baptism so that you can happily live together with God in his glory, then that is just what he will do. How you feel about that doesn’t undo what Jesus does. Jesus does what he wants.

But the devil most certainly does not want us to believe in Jesus, in the Gospel, or in the Holy Sacraments. He wants us to believe in things that won’t work—things that can’t deliver salvation. And if he can make us believe in churchy kinds of things, then that’s all the better for him, because it puts a veneer of piety on those things that cannot save sinners.

Don’t be fooled by him into believing in things that don’t work. God has told you what works. Believe in those things. The fact that they are a dime a dozen shouldn’t deter you. If anything, the way that they are so common, points to the fact that they are genuine. After all, isn’t God’s grace such that he gives it out unbelievably liberally? Doesn’t he cause the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust? Doesn’t he open his hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing? It is no surprise, therefore, that we should find our God busily ruling in his spiritual kingdom, bringing about resurrection and everlasting life here, there, and everywhere, by forgiving sinners for Jesus’s sake.

210912 Sermon on Matthew 6:24-34 (Trinity 15) September 12, 2021

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Not believing in God, not believing that God will act, is behind much of the rationale that we tell ourselves in order to justify our sins. Our internal dialogue inside our heads convinces us that other factors are much more important for our happiness rather than God. God is nowhere to be seen, so we have to do things on our own.

Take the fourth commandment, “You shall honor your father and your mother,” for example. God attaches a promise to this commandment. He says that those who honor their fathers and mothers will have life go well with them. They will enjoy long life on the earth. But what have we told ourselves when we have been disobedient to our fathers and mothers? Haven’t we sounded just like the serpent in the Garden? “We surely won’t enjoy any happiness from obeying our father and mother. There’s no way that’s going to happen, regardless of what God might say about it. After all, what they are requiring me to do is the very thing that I do not want to do! I’m not enjoying that at all.”

So there is no trust that God is able to make it so that even though things might not be going how we want them to go at that moment, that God will turn it all for the good in the end. It’s as though God didn’t exist and hasn’t made his will known.

Or take the sixth commandment as an example, “You shall not commit adultery.” Why do people commit adultery? Why do people leave their spouse for somebody else? Isn’t it because they believe that they have to take their happiness into their own hands? If they don’t look out for themselves, then who will? In the midst of trouble they do not call upon God or consult his commandments and promises. They have another plan in place that they believe will make them much more blessed or happy.

And why do people steal? Isn’t it because they believe that if they do not cheat their neighbor they will be in the poor house? They have to screw over other people otherwise they will be screwed over. If they don’t get such-and-such an amount, then woe to them. If they do get such-and-such an amount, then they have won at this game called life. God does not enter into it at all.

Understanding how it is as though God were completely absent or irrelevant goes a long way in explaining why people do what they do. It also sheds light on something people often don’t agree with in the Bible. The Bible teaches that not only do people sin, but they are dreadfully sinful. Often people don’t understand why there is such a drastic condemnation of ordinary folks. When we think of people being bad we think of somewhat exotic, somewhat rare activities. We do not think of the countless ways that we ignore God or disbelieve what he says. Most people, including Christians, just don’t realize that that’s a problem.

Most people are simply doing what they have been doing ever since they were born. They are looking out for their own interests. They want what’s best for them. They’ve always cut corners to bring about their desired outcomes. They’ve always believed that happiness comes apart from God. A great many people, including Christians, never hear what God has to say about how to live. If they do happen to hear what God has to say, they probably don’t believe it because his advice seems terribly impractical.

I could give all kinds of examples of Jesus’s advice seeming impractical just from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, from which our reading this morning comes. Jesus says, “Do not be angry.” “Do not lust.” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” “Give to the one who asks, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” “Do not worry.” “Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth.” “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” I hope that you are not so blind that you haven’t felt at least a couple zingers in there, where you have to admit that you have not believed Jesus.

Jesus says these things, and many more like them, not because he is evil. He does not want us to be unhappy and cursed. He wants us to be blessed. That’s why he says what he says. But what do you make of Jesus’s words? Perhaps you just let them go in one ear and out the other. Perhaps you do think about them, but you immediately start to come up with arguments about why you can’t possibly do what Jesus says you should do. To live the way Jesus says would be bad. It doesn’t look like it will turn out well for us. We have alternate plans that will actually work. Our plans are better. All we need to make sure that we do is that we carry them out to the letter. Our scrupulous, clever plans will work.

This brings us to another saying of Jesus’s from our reading this morning. He says, “Do not worry about your life.” “Consider the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying?”

Note that Jesus does not say, “Do not work.” That’s how it can sometimes get translated in our heads. He is saying, “Work, but do not worry about the outcome.” God is the one who either crowns our work with success, or humbles us through failure. Whatever is needful for us is precisely the thing that our heavenly Father will give us. “What God ordains is always good… I take content what he has sent; his hand that sends me sadness will turn my tears to gladness.”

But a lot of people don’t like the idea of living this way—of doing our duty and leaving the outcome to God. It is too passive. It isn’t serious enough. It doesn’t plan for possible problems and cover all the bases. What if there is something that a person has missed? If we don’t worry enough we might end up in a disaster!

Here we must recall what we began with this morning. God exists. He does stuff. He’s God, not you. If you are doing the work that God has given you to do, then he will see to it that you do not starve or go naked. If you end up in some kind of trouble do you not believe that God will provide a way out? Or are you an unbeliever? Do you think that God won’t help or can’t help? Do you believe that your success is dependent upon your own cleverness and superior work ethic? With such vain imaginations you have a god, but that god isn’t the Lord God. It’s a god of your own making. You should not believe that you can forestall disaster only by worrying yourself to pieces.

Someone might raise another objection here. They will say that if you do not fill yourself with anxiety you won’t be motivated enough to achieve greatness. This objection has a little more substance to it than the one we just considered, because greatness can be understood in more than one way. The way that greatness is generally understood is that it is a matter of having the most money, having the biggest business, being the prettiest, being the funniest, being the smartest, being the best at sports, and so on and so forth. To be the greatest at these kinds of things maybe you do need to whip yourself into shape with some good old anxiety. If you do not fear and love whatever it is that you’ve decided to pursue with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, then you might not be able to achieve it. Fame and fortune don’t come free.

But this is not the only kind of greatness. Did you know that Jesus taught his disciples about greatness? One time he was asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus called a little child, had the child stand in the middle of them, and said, “Amen I tell you: Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

How’s that for greatness? Not great enough? Not unusual enough? Perhaps you prefer fame and fortune? Perhaps you want your name written in the history books or the Who’s Who? Jesus says elsewhere that that which is highly exalted among men is an abomination before God—it’s disgusting to God. We fall all over ourselves admiring the striving, the self-discipline, the cleverness of those who are regarded as great. Jesus, on the other hand, put before the disciples a little child. The child couldn’t yet have been strong or clever or wealthy. The one thing that Jesus points out about the child is that the child was humble. Humble people usually don’t make it into the history books—at least not those that are written by men. They do get written into the history books that are penned by God.

Here we might mention a couple people from the Bible. It is said of Moses that he was very humble, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. But God highly exalted him. He did not ask for it. He did not stretch every fiber of his being to attaining greatness. He simply obeyed God, and God made him great.

Another person we might mention is King David. He also was extraordinarily humble. Just read his Psalms. Nobody talks like David talks in those Psalms. He was the apple of God’s eye.

So when people object to Jesus’s teaching that we should not worry, realize that they might have a point from a certain perspective. If you want to be regarded as being great in this world, then I don’t recommend that you try to be a Christian at the same time. Jesus’s teachings will only hold you back. The greatest ones of this world have had to pull a lot of people down from the monkey pile on their way to the top. They’ve had to punish themselves with self-loathing when they’ve done wrong. They’ve intoxicated themselves with self-praise when they’ve achieved success. These are the ingredients for worldly greatness. Humility, passivity, patience, turning the other cheek—all of these things are regarded by them as being womanish and weak.

The life that Jesus would have us Christians live couldn’t be more different. We are not to sing our own praises, but God’s praises. We are to work, but God alone determines the outcome. We are to love one another, particularly as we carry out the callings that God has put us in. You’ll never get on the six o’clock news for simply doing your job. Often the very people that you serve with your work will not recognize what you do or will even reward you with ungratefulness or something worse. That is no matter to you, though. You are pursuing something different than recognition and praise from men.

Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Seek Jesus’s righteousness. This is the righteousness that is given to those who believe in him. This is higher and more important than any honor that a person could possibly strive after.

But the fact that Jesus’s righteousness is the highest and most important will remain completely hidden from the unbelieving world. Who among our children wants to be like Moses, the humblest man on the face of the earth? Who wants to see God’s glory like he did? Precious few.

The way that we become like Moses, or Mary, or the other great saints, is not by trying to transform ourselves into little gods and goddesses in the imaginations of our heart. It is by recognizing that we are creatures who are taken care of by our Creator.

Do those things that come to hand and trust in the Lord to give you what you need. Learn from the birds of the air and the lilies of the field that God is good. He will see to your every need, but realize that he might know better than you do what is needful at any given moment. Cast your cares on the Lord, for he cares for you. Be at peace. You are in God’s hand.

210905 Sermon on Luke 17:11-19 (Trinity 14) September 5, 2021

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

At Mt. Sinai God gave Moses and the Israelites laws about cleanness and uncleanness. Things that are clean are available for use and consumption. Unclean things are to be avoided if at all possible. Unclean things make the person who comes into contact with them also unclean. Those who are unclean need to be made clean before they can participate in worship or be exposed in any way to God’s presence.

Generally speaking, practically all things in this world were clean. What was unclean was specifically laid out in the laws given to Moses. One common denominator among many of these laws was that contact with what was dead, and especially contact with putrid things, would render that person unclean. Dead and dying things were to be avoided.

Leprosy is a disease where a person’s skin gets covered with bumpy, disfiguring rashes. The flesh deteriorates until there is a loss of feeling. Eventually fingers and toes and other body parts can simply fall off. As far as cleanness is concerned, here we have death within a person’s own body. Obviously it made the person unclean. Anybody with leprosy was removed from common society lest their uncleanness be communicated to those who were clean. If a person recovered from the disease, he or she would have to go to the priest, so that they could be examined for any signs of the disease. Then, after rendering a sacrifice, they could return to society.

In our Gospel reading Jesus came into contact with ten men who had been excluded from society because of their leprosy. They cried out to him, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us!” Jesus responded, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” It was as though Jesus already regarded them as healed and clean. All they needed to do now was to go to the priests to make it official. Fortunately, they believed Jesus’s promise of being healed. They followed his instructions, and as they were on their way they all saw that their leprosy had gone away.

The focus of Luke’s account of this miracle, however, is not so much on this removal of leprosy. It is on what follows afterwards. One from the ten did not continue his journey to the priests. He turned back. He glorified God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’s feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan.

The Samaritans believed and taught many things that were wrong about God and God’s Word. The Jews understandably looked down on them. But here was somebody from outside the orthodox camp who was worshipping God in spirit and in truth. Although the theology of the other nine presumably was in better shape than this foreigner’s, they were nowhere to be found.

This is a breaking of the second commandment. The second commandment requires us to use God’s name rightly. Using God’s Name rightly means that we should call upon him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. The nine did not give thanks. This commandment condemns them.

So what might be done with these nine or with others who, like them, are ungrateful? Perhaps we could go after them with a birch branch and start smacking them. We could punish them by beating them until they fall on their knees with folded hands and start to say their prayers. “Let that be a lesson to you!”

So long as we have been put in a proper position of authority, according to the Law we would be entirely within our rights to carry out something like that. God threatens to punish all who break his commandments. They broke the second commandment. They are liable to punishment. Parents and other authorities have the right to compel those under their charge to do outward things like getting on their knees and folding their hands. And yet, we can tell that this won’t exactly work.

Requiring a certain posture is one thing. Bringing about a change of heart is another. All of God’s commandments can compel outward compliance if the punishments are severe enough. But those commandments and punishments do not have the power to bring about any inward change. Outwardly we might comply with any number of rules and laws. That doesn’t mean that we agree with them. It doesn’t mean that we have any special love for the one who has made those decrees. We all know intuitively that the person who is brought to their knees with a gun to their head will not be worshipping God in spirit and in truth. As soon as the threat of punishment is removed, that person will get up off their knees, because they were being compelled against their will.

The Samaritan who was praising God and giving thanks to Jesus was not doing this according to the letter of the Law. That is to say, regulations were not going through his mind such as: Step 1: Lift up your voice so it is loud. Check. Step 2: Say nice things about God. Check. Step 3: Fall on your face. He also was not doing what he was doing out of fear of being punished for breaking the second commandment. He did what he did because he wanted to. His heart was in it. This was nothing other than a whole ‘nother miracle.

This second miracle was worked by the Holy Spirit. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that anybody can truly call on the Name of the Lord, pray, praise, and give thanks. All true and God-pleasing prayer and praise has to be worked by the Holy Spirit. If it doesn’t come from the Holy Spirit it is necessarily going to be merely outward, mechanical, compelled, or done with some ulterior motives. Whatever the case, the praise cannot be genuine and honest. Only the Holy Spirit working miracles in our heart is capable of overcoming what otherwise lies within us.

This has immediate practical implications for us. The order of service that we follow, the liturgy, has words that praise God. But it is not, in itself, capable of bringing about genuine praise. We have all sensed this to one extent or another. Some from our circles have gone in search of something better. If only we said things in a different way, with different clothes, and with different instruments, then we would truly be praising God!

I will not deny that there are Christians in other churches that look very different from the way things are in our congregation who are genuinely praising God in their worship service. I have no doubt that there is genuine praise in mega-churches as well as in churches that are filled with incense and all kinds of ancient ceremonies. But the genuine praise is not because some clever people have come up with something that produces results. The only reason why there will be genuine praise in any place is because the Gospel is there, and thus the Holy Spirit is there. The Holy Spirit alone is capable of bringing about a change of heart.

Many people who do not like the way that we worship with our liturgy, hymns, and so on, might disagree with me here. They might recall their own experiences as proof for their argument. They might say that they didn’t feel anything while they were at a service like ours, whereas they did feel something at a different kind of service.

This is a common trap. I mentioned before that we can design our worship services with ulterior motives. One of the ulterior motives our flesh might have is that we would like to believe that we are believers. That is to say, we possess something called faith, instead of not possessing faith. The primary way that we usually believe that we are believers is by the feelings that we might have. One way that feelings can be changed is by the use of stirring music, smoke machines, and lasers on the one hand, or by chanting, incense, silk, and bowing and kneeling on the other. So long as we are not bored we assume that we must be in good shape. We believe that we are believers. The more stirred we might be, the better the believer we believe ourselves to be.

This is a dreadful poisoned apple, straight from the devil’s kitchen. The devil’s specialty is messing around in spiritual things. Convincing us to believe in our own believing is a very subtle trick. It works very well because it feels good to believe that we are believers. Feeling that way must mean that we are one of the good ones. We are like the Samaritan instead of the nine. We must be well on our way to heaven.

Genuine worship, however, does not come from a focus on our own feelings. Genuine worship is only brought about by the Gospel. No regulations or rituals, rewards or punishments can bring it about. At the time of the Samaritan’s giving thanks, insofar as his worship was genuine, his whole world was dominated by his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. His faith and praise, in so far as it was genuine, was not looking at himself or at his feelings. He was paying attention to Jesus. This was brought about by the Holy Spirit.  It was not brought about by any outward techniques.

You should not go in search of the perfect worship service in order to give praise to God. You do not need a guitar to worship God, just as you don’t need an organ to worship God. You need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not given through the Law or the manipulation of various outward techniques. The Holy Spirit comes through the preaching of Christ.

So instead of thinking about where a worship service does or does not measure up, perhaps you can turn that critical eye on yourself. Maybe the reason why a worship service is not fulfilling is not the worship service’s fault, but my own fault. Perhaps I care nothing for the absolution or for the Lord’s Supper. The healing and health that is offered in these things is of a much higher caliber than the healing of any disease like leprosy. So why is my heart so cold?

It is, indeed, mysterious how cold Christians can be. This is not fixed, however, by guitars or incense. It is fixed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Whether he comes or not is not dependent upon our own feelings or emotions. Jesus promises that the Father will give us the Holy Spirit if we ask him. This is the thing that we are praying for when we say, “Thy kingdom come.”

But we should not become obsessed over whether or not we have the Holy Spirit either. That can be just another way of wondering if we are a believer or not. That’s usually not a helpful thing to wonder about because we end up looking in the wrong place. Instead of looking within ourselves we should put Christ, with all his acceptance of us and his promises to us before our eyes. What caused the Samaritan to give thanks was the goodness of Jesus. Jesus is also good to you. He has had mercy on you. He has died for you. He has been raised for you. He gives you his body to eat and blood to drink. He gives you everlasting life.

And if you should still feel that you have some leprosy in your soul, if you still feel as though there is altogether too much deadness and the loss of feeling in you, do not despair. You are not saved by believing that you are a believer. You are saved through faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Though you are weak, he is strong. Believing in the Savior whom God has sent is the highest worship there is. That might or might not be accompanied by feelings.

When the sun gets covered over by clouds so that you cannot see it, do you despair and think that the sun is no longer present? Of course you don’t. You know it is there, even though you cannot see it. So also, if your faith in Christ gets covered over by some gloominess, does this mean that Christ has gone away? No. Our feelings might be absent for a time—even for our own good. He might be training us to rely on him instead of relying on how we feel. Don’t you think that might be a good lesson for him to teach us? That we should rely on him instead of on how we feel?

Feelings, though, are good, and one day the cloud will go away. That is something that we can all look forward to, even if we already feel as though the sun is fully shining down on us. Our calling on God’s Name, praying, praising, and giving thanks is so terribly hampered in this life because of our flesh, the devil, and the world. It’s so hampered that even when our heart is filled with joy there is still some limping along—some leprosy that clings to our soul. Not least among the joys of heaven will be the tremendous use of God’s Name that we will make at that time. So be patient, and keep your eyes on Jesus.