Not What Most People Expect

 Genesis 28:10-17

Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set: and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Trinity                                           10/15/23

Not What Most People Expect

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

So, what did you expect?  That is the way so many responses to situations in life begin.  Usually, this is the response to a situation when life gets ugly.  Something costs more than you anticipated.  So, what did you expect?  Murphy s Law proves itself true one more time.  So what did you expect?  A politician fails to keep his promises and do the things we need him to do.  So, what did you expect?  Something goes wrong and everyone holds you responsible.  So what did you expect?

Then we come to God.  What do you expect from God? This isn t a frivolous question, nor should it be the sort where you give the answer you are certain I want to get.  The answer to the question "What do you expect from God?"  doesn't have a right answer or a wrong answer.  It only has an honest one, or dishonest one.  In our text, we see God presenting himself in a way that doesn't fit the real expectations of most people, not even of most Christians.  Our theme, then, is "Not What Most People Expect."

Most people, to illustrate my point, don't expect God to be good, kind, loving, or generous.  They may have the theological expectation of grace and mercy and blessing, but generally they do not have the real-life expectation of the goodness of God.  It's like we know what we should say, but we don t really believe it.  People expect sickness.  They expect pain.  They expect that God is going to punish them for what they have done wrong.

Many people don't expect those things right off the bat.  We usually start by expecting to be healthy and happy and successful.  That expectation isn't necessarily connected to our faith in God, either.  The truth of our experience is that God is so faithful and good and we so consistently experience His blessings that we naturally - not religiously, but just as human beings - begin to believe that we are something special, that we just somehow deserve to go from one good thing to another.  This expectation is about us, and not actually connected to any thought about God or blessings at all!  I imagine that was pretty much how Jacob dealt with life.  His father was rich, and life was about as good as it could get.  He probably expected it.  He was accustomed to servants, and nice clothing, and abundant and good food.  I suspect he never imagined that it would be any other way.

Then he listened to his mother, and deceived his father, and stole his brother's birthright blessing from him, while Esau was out hunting.  Suddenly, his life became something entirely different.  Now he was on the run.  He was off to try to find his mother's brother.  He was not going to be the beloved son of a rich man, but the uninvited nephew of a man that we learned from later in the book of Genesis was not so very nice, or so very honest.  He was on his way to become something like a hired hand, something like an indentured servant.  At this point, I would imagine that Jacob began to expect life to deal him a "not-so-nice" hand.

That is more or less what happens to most of us.  To be honest, not everyone ever expects life to be good.  Some people are born with troubles, born with deformities, or born to abusive parents, and they never expect life to be just wonderful.  But most of us walk along with the dream that it can only get better, and that we are going to have it made.  Since we live here in Northern Minnesota that expectation has seemingly come true for many of us.  But eventually, later rather than sooner for some, hardship, illness, or sorrow finds our door.  We discover the pain of life, and it challenges us and our faith, and it often twists our perspective on what life is supposed to be, or going to be.
That is when we might begin to expect God to be less generous.  That is when we sometimes begin to greet bad news with, "Well, what did you expect?".  We have been sick before, and we just expect that it will come back.  We run from that expectation, but it is there.  Or, life takes a left-turn, and we have one problem after another.  It could be about money.  It could be neighbors causing us trouble.  It could be one friend or beloved relative after another passing away.  It is always something, and the devil always knows where our heart is, so he knows where he can hurt us most with the least amount of trouble.  And so, we may begin to expect it.  We always figure that God has a hand in it, and we usually connect it to our sins because we know our sins, we feel our guilt, and hidden away from everyone else, our shame is always right there.

You see, we are sinners, and the law is so natural to us that we cannot escape the sense that the bad things in our life are deserved somehow.  The awareness of the law is just natural to us — but the keeping of it is not.  It is, in point of fact, impossible to us.  We cannot do it, and we know it.  There is a part of every one of us that feels the guilt of our sins, and knows that we deserve nothing good from God.  This reality is part of the reason why people who suddenly find fame and wealth have such a problem dealing with it.  It is part of the reason so many turn to drugs and outrageous behavior.  They cannot escape the feeling that they don't deserve what they have, and it seems so transient and temporary to them.  They have a sense that it is going to disappear on them just as suddenly as it appeared.  They expect something unhappy and unpleasant from God, even if they never consciously frame the issue in those terms.

The result of all of this is that we all eventually come to "that certain place" in our lives, and lie down with Jacob, with the rock pillow, and expect justice from the most worthy Judge eternal.

And we get justice — but not what most people expect!  We get justice from God, but it is poured out on Jesus.  He goes to the cross — went there already, actually.  He bore our guilt and shame and sin to the cross and died there in your place, and in your place, and in my place.  He is our Substitute.  Vicariously we pay.  Vicariously we die.  Vicariously we receive every awful thing that we have earned and deserved by our sins.  Jesus takes all these things for us, and dies our death.  And then the Father proclaims that the payment made and the death that Jesus died was enough and more than enough for our sins by raising Jesus from the grave on Easter morning.

That is why God did not tell Jacob how grievously he had sinned.  That is why God did not curse or threaten Jacob.  Instead, God did what most people would not have expected; He promised good and blessing to Jacob.  And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to This land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.  Of course, the promises to Jacob were the land, and the family, and the Messiah coming through His family line.  Those promises were for Jacob, but this promise is for us all.

God promises by Himself to be with us, to keep us wherever we go, and not to let go of us until He has done all that He has promised to us.  Now, He did not say here that this promise was for each and every one of us.  He said it in the Gospel.  It is just that the promise is so well-stated here, and so clear.  What God promises us in Jesus Christ is that He will be with us to bless us and keep us until He has accomplished all that He has promised us.  Until God accomplishes His will for us, He is with us to take care of us.  And what is the will of God for us?    [Our salvation.]

That is absolutely correct! His will is that we rise from the grave just like Jesus did.  His will is that we live with Him eternally, just as Jesus does.  His will is also that we know Him and His love, and trust in Him, and have no fear.  Which is what He was telling Jacob.  But this is just not what most people expect.  This is not even what most religions teach.  Men are still looking for the justice, even though they fear it and do not want it.  We just naturally expect it.

Now God wants you to expect the unexpected.  He wants you to expect His love.  He wants you to expect that He will be with you in everything.  He has explained in the Scriptures that He is not going to turn all of the troubles of life away from anyone.  He wants us to know, however, that He is right there with us when we are sick, or in trouble, or in sorrow, or whatever.  It is a difficult thing to keep that straight.  Look at Jacob.  After God appears, and says all these things, and makes him such marvelous promises, how does Jacob react?  Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven!  It is the house of God because God's people worship here, and God comes here to be with us.  Here God speaks with you through His servants who are called to preach His Word.  Here God invites you to the feast of Holy Communion.  It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This meal, of course, is but a foretaste of the heavenly banquet of salvation - sort of like God took from the table in heaven and gave us just a taste before we actually come to that heavenly feast.  In doing so, however, God has delivered to each of us personally forgiveness and righteousness and our share in the promises — including this promise today that He will never leave us or cease to bless us and keep us until He has done all that He has promised to us. You know that it is a promise meant for you when you receive the body of Christ, and you drink His blood, hidden beneath the forms of this bread and wine.  It is given and shed for you, and sealed to you in this heavenly meal.

Many people think that our worship is what we do, and we make this place a church — but it is all from God.  He comes through Word and Sacrament to claim us and to bless us and to cleanse us and to bestows His gifts of life and righteousness and salvation.  It sounds like we are doing something here, but it is really God at work, assuring us that He loves us, and He is with us to bless us and keep us until He has accomplished everything that is in His will for us, everything He has promised us.  This place, and this worship is just like the Gospel, Not What Most People Expect.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Wisdom

 Proverbs 25:6-14

Do not claim honor in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men; for it is better that it be said to you, "Come up here," than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.

Do not go out hastily to argue your case; otherwise, what will you do in the end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?  Argue your case with your neighbor, and do not reveal the secret of another, lest he who hears it reproach you, and the evil report about you not pass away.

Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.  Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.  Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest Is a faithful messenger to those who send him, For he refreshes the soul of his masters.

Like clouds and wind without rain Is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely.

Sermon for the Seventeenth after Trinity                              10/1/23

Wisdom

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Preaching on the Proverbs.  It is a difficult task.  As you heard the words of our text, what did you hear?  Yes, you heard the Word of God.  Yes, it was true and wise.  But did it have a unifying theme?  How did it sound to you?  Can you tell me where these seemingly disconnected proverbs are going?

Obviously, this set of proverbs was chosen because Jesus used them, or the same wisdom, in the Gospel lesson this morning.  He, too, said that it would be better to be invited up into higher glory than to be humiliated before others.  But the rest of it – it speaks about arguing with your neighbor – real disputes that could land you in court.  These proverbs address keeping confidence and not being a gossip.  They speak about faithfulness and about both reproof given and reproof received.  Finally they speak about boasting falsely.  What they have in common is Wisdom.  Our theme this morning is "Wisdom".

My dictionary at my desk says, "[Wisdom is the] power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action, based on knowledge, experience, understanding, etc.".   My favorite definition says that Wisdom is defined as the proper application of knowledge.  I want you note that neither definition said that wisdom is the  "best" or "most useful" or "most expedient" use of knowledge.  The point is that Wisdom is proper, good, right, and helpful, but it is not always what seems "best", whatever that means.  Wisdom is not always going to be popular.  It is simply ‘wise'.

Wisdom is the point of Proverbs.  Some proverbs address specific pieces of wisdom and some talk about wisdom itself.  Our text today talks about specific points of wisdom.   If you think about them, they mostly speak about humility.  Be humble before the king, be humble with your neighbor – at least humble enough to deal directly and personally with your neighbor rather than some other route.  It also says not to reveal the secrets of another, another way of saying that we should let our grievances be between us and our neighbor, and not the subject of public gossip.  Our text reminds us to be humble enough to receive reproof when it is spoken to us, and to treasure anyone who has the wisdom to offer us "wise reproof".  We are urged to be humble enough to be faithful, and finally reminded not to boast, particularly falsely.

Wisdom is contained in those words, and yet they are recorded for us to teach us, that we may be wise and exercise wisdom.  The very thought of wisdom begs us to ask the question, "What is the best use of the information contained in these very proverbs?".  How do we apply these proverbs in our lives wisely?

The answer is – or at least the answer begins with – listening to the proverbs and taking them to heart.  We can profit from them only is we apply the lessons to our own lives and to what is going on in our world today.  It is applied by doing precisely what Paul says in our Epistle lesson today, "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

We need to remember who we are and how we got to be here, as part of the body of Christ.  We are sinners.  The word is thrown around so much in churches that it seems to have lost its sting.  "Of course we are sinners," you say.  We say it as though it means nothing.  What it really means is that we are not nice people.  We are not good or wholesome.  We are not the kind of people we want others to think we are, that we like to pretend to be.  We dress nice, and we live in swell homes.  We drive nice cars, and we hang out with "church people."

But we judge.  We gossip.  We do things with no thought for the other person.  We do and say things for our own advantage or our own reasons without thinking how we would feel if we were the recipients of such words or behavior.  Everything we do or say may not evil be or destructive – but there are times and places in which we take care of number one first, and forget the other guy.

Most people feel pretty good about themselves.  They haven't actually murdered anyone.  They haven't stolen things out of their neighbor's garage or house.  They don't do drugs – leastwise not illegal drugs.  We manage to keep our lives outwardly respectable, and publicly decent.

But God sees the heart.  He sees the secret thoughts and desires, like the desires to dominate, the desires to injure, the desires to be just like someone else, or to be utterly different from them.  He sees when we do or say things to get our way without considering how they impact others.  He sees when we put ourselves and our goals above others, or above Him and His will and His Ways and His Word.  God sees our sins even when no one else does.  He knows the truth that we can hide from others by putting a good face on and speaking very pleasantly.  He even knows the truths that we manage to hide from ourselves.

Yes, we are sinners.  We are not nice people.  If we saw one another as God sees us, I suspect we could never trust one another, or particularly like one another.  We would know that most of the time other people are trying to take advantage of us for their own benefit, and putting another face on it and calling it "business," or "friendship," or "being helpful."  

And I am sure that most of you are grumbling inside right now and saying, "How cynical!  I am not like that!  I am genuine with my friends."  And sometimes you are, but sometimes you are not – that is what being a sinner by nature means – and I can see the truth of it in myself, so I know it fits you as well.  Listening and believing what I tell you here is what our text spoke about when it said "Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear."  Solomon wasn't writing so much about the reprover here, as he was about the wisdom of listening to the truth, even if it doesn't strike one as happy news.

So, wisdom reminds us that we are not God's people because we are so good or such swell men and women that we just had to belong.  We are God's people because He forgave us, and called us to be His own through the preaching of the Gospel, and has kept us as His own by Word and Sacrament ever since.  We didn't come walking in the from door, God snuck us in past the purity sensors and washed us clean in Baptism, and refreshes us each week with the holy meal of Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament.  There, but for the grace of God  .  .  .  we would be just like everyone else outside of the church – lost and condemned.

So humility is appropriate.  It isn't fun, but it is the proper use of the knowledge of who we really are, and how we got to be God's people.  So, we walk in that "manner worthy".  That means visible humility toward others – even those we don't think deserve it, or who are "just not our type of people."  It means gentleness with someone, even if we think they are a jerk! – or wrong! – or evil and manipulative.  After all, we aren't so clean ourselves, except that God cleans us regularly!  It means patience with one another, and with the processes that we go through in life.  The "manner worthy" means that we bear with one another for the sake of one another and for the sake of the unity of the body of Christ.

Paul says that we do this "in love".  We do it in love toward God, and from God.  We also do it in love for one another.  That wisdom stuff should teach us that we are all alike, and connected by God's choice of us.  It isn't the "other guy" who doesn't belong here!  We are the ones redeemed, restored, and forgiven.  We have been called out darkness into Christ's marvelous light of love and salvation!  The others, however we may perceive them with out flesh, are just like us, chosen and select of God, fit into this great puzzle together.  None too good, and none too evil for our association.

Of course, that is all within the congregation.  Of course there are people outside who are too wicked for our association.  We can witness to them of the love and salvation which is in Christ Jesus, but we do ourselves a favor if we don't make professional criminals our associates, or hang out with the drug crowd, invite prostitutes into our homes.  We can invite them here, with the hope that they will hear the Word of God and be saved – but outside of that, there are undesirables out in the world.

But within the church, here in the congregation, every single person is family.  Every one here has been called by God, and their presence is God's choice, just as ours is.  And when we are tempted to doubt that, or act as though it is not true, wisdom teaches us humility.

And knowing the Gospel, that Christ died on the cross for you, to pay the penalty you earned by your sins, Wisdom, that proper application of knowledge, works within you by the power of God to comfort you when you feel the pain of your sins.  Knowing the love of Christ for you, and the gift that He has given you in this blessed Sacrament, brings you faithfully to the altar to receive that gift and be strengthened in your faith and in your life in Christ day to day. Knowing that you have been Baptized, called by name by God, through His chosen servant, and forgiven, having been cleansed by the washing of water with the Word, you can daily return to your baptism and find strength and comfort there by contrition and repentance.  As Luther tells us in the Small Catechism, you can daily drown that old sinful self in the waters of your baptism, and allow God to raise up that new man of righteousness and faith, to walk before God in holiness each day.

All of these things are wisdom, the proper application of knowledge about Jesus Christ, and about the love of God, and about who and what we are, and who and what we were, and how we got to be here.  Our text speaks about wisdom, and the chief characteristic our text speaks about is humility.  We should pray God blesses us with ears to hear, and hearts to believe, and the wisdom to live in it, for as Jesus said in the last verse of our Gospel lesson today, "For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Our text says, "Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest Is a faithful messenger to those who send him, For he refreshes the soul of his masters."  You know what Solomon meant.  You know how refreshing a little cold air is in the heat of the harvest.  God's Word is what we need for our refreshing and strength, even when it calls us to humility and repentance.  What we really need is a little Wisdom.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

This, Therefore, That

 1 Kings 17:17-24

Now it came about after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him.  So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to death!"  And he said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.  And he called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?"  Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD, and said, "O LORD my God, I pray Thee, let this child's life return to him."  And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.  And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son is alive."  Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

Sermon for Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity                                      9/24/23

This, Therefore That

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Have you ever had one of those experiences?  You do your best and you give your all and you try to be faithful, and what happens?  You get trouble.  You have what is called "bad luck"?  Things go against you and you want to ask yourself what you bothered for?  Everyone has those times.  It seems to us like life should pay back the investment.  If I try, and if I am good, I expect to succeed and find rewards and just compensation.  Instead, I find pain and frustration and trouble.

That is the situation of this good woman of Zarephath.  She fed the prophet with the very last of her food.  She had just enough to make one more meal for herself and her son, and then, because the famine was so severe, she was going to sit down and wait for death.  But Elijah told her to feed him something first, and then she could go and fix that last meal.  So, she did.  And God caused the little bit of flour and the little bit of oil to last for many days – long enough for the drought to end, and a new crop to grow and new flour and oil to be produced.

So she thought that she had a reason to expect a special relationship – special and good treatment from God on account of her faithfulness and generosity in difficult times.  So, imagine her surprise when her son falls ill and dies.  But she makes a connection between her troubles and her sins of the past, whatever they may be and she figures it is a case of this, therefore that.  And that is our theme.  This text shows us how there is a connection between things - logically and theologically.  Our theme is This, therefore that.

The woman made the connection between her misfortune and her sins.  I cannot say that she is right or wrong, because the text doesn't say it.  I suspect that she is making a connection that she doesn't need to make.  Surely trouble comes in our lives because we are sinners.  Life is filled with pain and illness and sorrow because we live in a fallen world, but every problem is not connected to a specific sin we have committed.  Some are – sexually transmitted diseases result from unchastity and fornication, for example.  Colds and heart trouble and strokes and cancer, however, are not necessarily traceable to specific sins, or even specific patterns of behavior.

But what the woman did that was correct – and natural – was make the connection between human troubles and sin, and between her close contact with God through the prophet, and guilt.  Because God is holy, when we come into close contact with God, either through His Word, or His messengers, the Law of God is always brought to the fore.  We don't have to look for it.  We don't need to want it.  God is holy, and wherever His holiness is seen or felt, our sin stands in bright relief.  The Law of God is preached, even when no one says a word.

Life will be painful and difficult at times, even for Christians.  That pain and those difficulties will preach the Law to us.  They will scourge us and may make us question the love of God and His good will toward us.  We won't necessarily think of it that way - we may just expect pain.  Pretty soon, we will begin to think of sickness and trouble as the lot we have been given by God.  That is when the troubles begin, troubles like those that haunted this widow of Zarephath.  Some might even begin to despair of any hope from Him because they continue to battle troubles – even while they think of themselves as believers.  

That is the danger.  We might allow our troubles to preach false theology to us.  We might listen to our aches and our sorrows and think that we hear the heart of God toward us in those troubles.  I have seen it happen more than once.  If it does, we then may have a head of faith –  and a heart of fear and worry and despair.  When that happens, we are no longer believers, at least in the sense of saving faith.  We have the faith of the head, which means we still think we believe – but we don't trust God.  In this situation, we despair of His love, or of His good will toward us, or of His ability to make things better for us.  We call this being "nominally Christian" – Christian in name, but not in reality.

That is not what this text is about, however.  The woman's despair and fear and guilt were in the lesson to highlight the other part.  The other part tells us about the power, and the good will, of God.  God can do anything, and He is merciful.  This is also the point of our Epistle lesson this morning, and Paul concludes the verses of our Epistle with these words, Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Elijah takes the child and prays.  Trouble and need brought the prophet to prayer.  This, therefore that.  Sometimes God uses affliction to draw His people closer to Him.  When life is good and we are pleased with everything, we tend to get sloppy about prayer and worship.  For example, statistics tell us that during the Great Depression, over ninety-five percent of Christians attended worship each and every Sunday.  In the last five years, the average church attendance by church members was 20 to 35% per week - only about one church-member out of three bothered to come to church on any given Sunday.

Another example of the principle is stewardship.  When I was a vicar in Austin, Minnesota back in the ‘70's, the Synod released some statistics that indicated that the average "tithe" of Christians across denominational lines during the Great Depression was 4.9% of their income. The tell-tale statistic was that at that time, the average "tithe" (during the 1970's) was 1.9%.  And it isn't as good today as it was back then.

The evidence is, and human experience shows, that we tend to grow less attentive to God and His Word, and our prayers when life gets easy and pleasant, and we grow rich.  So, God often uses sorrow, trouble, pain, and affliction to draw us back to Him and catch our attention in order to remind us of Him and our need for His presence in our lives and in our hearts.  He may give us trouble to teach us to pray.  And when trouble comes, we should pray, and pray fervently and in faith.

But that isn't exactly where this text takes us, either.  God answers the prayers of Elijah, and brings the boy back to life!  What an amazing thing!  God can do anything.  He has the power to do whatever it is we need done.  We can trust in Him.  And the woman takes the healing of her son, this great blessing from God, and she understands that this blessing is the evidence that Elijah is God's prophet, and that what Elijah says, when he preaches God's Word, is truth.  
That is the "This, therefore that" of our theme.

When God shows His power and His good will toward us, then we should be brought to trust in His Word and His promises and His will for us.  And what is the will of God toward us?  (Our Salvation).

And how do we know that?  We look at the cross of Jesus Christ.  When we want to see what is in the heart of God, we do not measure His love for us or His will toward us by the moment - how we feel or whether we experience the moment as good or bad, as happy or sad, as comfortable or painful.  The moment changes constantly, but God does not change.  He says so.  His will toward us is always the same - and we find it not by feeling ourselves or by gazing at our navels like the Buddhists, but by lifting our eyes to the cross.

God demonstrated His love for us and His will to save us by giving us His Son.  Jesus was born one of us, fully human.  What a humbling step that was!  But there was more.  He lived – poor by any standards, abject poverty by our standards today.  He lived in a backwards nation in a backwards time.  He faced all of the temptations to sin that are common to man.  He endured hostility toward Himself for nothing more than being holy and righteous.  Finally He allowed Himself to be falsely convicted and willingly bore our sins and guilt to the cross.  He suffered almost unimaginable agony of body - and the wrath of God against our sins in His soul.  He who is God was forsaken by God!  He died, even though He had earned the right to life without end.  He died in your place, and in yours, and in mine!  He paid the price demanded by the justice of God for our sins.

Then he rose again from the grave.  Just like the son of the Widow in our lesson – except He did not need a prophet throwing His body over Him and interceding with God for His life.  He laid down His life for us, and He took it up again of His own power - raised by the Spirit of God to proclaim that sin was done with, the guilt was no more, and that death had been conquered by life.  His resurrection tells us that God loves us and wants us to live with Him beyond death and every symptom and consequence of sin.  He that believes and is Baptized, shall be saved.

This, therefore that.  Because Jesus has died -- and has risen from His grave, your sins are forgiven!  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  It is by grace, and it is received by faith.  It is possessed by taking God at His Word and trusting Him and trusting His promises.  You want to be like the widow of Zarephath.  You want to see the great things that God has done - particularly the great things that He has done for you - and you will find in them the evidence that God's Word is truth.  His love for you is as real as His Word say that it is.  His will for you is life and health and peace – but not merely today and tomorrow in this corrupt and painful world.  He wants you at His side for all eternity.  He desires that you live for Him today and with Him forever.

His will is so complete that He preaches to you each week, and brings you this Holy Supper of the body and blood of Jesus Christ to strengthen and establish you in His love.  Here He hides the body and blood of Jesus under the form of bread and wine so that it is visible only to faith.  Those who have seen the great deeds of God for them may know that His Word is truth, and that His Word delivers the very things that He promises through it.  In this Supper He promises forgiveness and everlasting life and salvation, and health that endures eternally, and a home with God and joys eternally.  This is the Medicine of Immortality that bestows all that Christ has won for you - so that you may receive it and know individually that God was speaking about you and that He loves you, and that He means to rescue and save you!

So you do not need to fret and worry.  No matter what the moment may seem like, or what the danger may appear to be, or what ever, God can handle it, and His will toward you is good -- it is life and hope and peace and salvation -- and resurrection from your grave, just as He has risen from His grave!  It doesn't matter whether you are tempted to worry about your children, or your health, or your family finances, or your church, or whatever.  God can handle it, and His will is for your blessing and salvation.  You can see what God has done on the cross - and in the empty tomb of Easter.  This, therefore that.  You can trust God – and His Word is true.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Two Paths

 Proverbs 4:10-23

Hear, my son, and accept my sayings, And the years of your life will be many.  I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths.  When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; And if you run, you will not stumble.  Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.  

Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not proceed in the way of evil men.  Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.  For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.  For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.  The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.  

My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.  For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their whole body.  Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity                                 9/10/23

Two Paths

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

This time of year in the Church Calendar, the readings tend to focus on Christian living.  Our lessons this week are no exception to this rule.  The Gospel talks about faith and thanksgiving and compares those that believe with those that do not in the account of The Healing of the Ten Lepers.  The Epistle lesson compares the life led by the Spirit of God and the life lived for the flesh.  It seems quite natural, then, that the Old Testament Lesson should compare those same two conditions, and what results from them.  The results are likened to two footpaths - the path of the wicked and the path of the righteous.  This morning we will examine these two, and what really makes the difference, under the theme, "Two Paths."

Our theme comes directly from the text which speaks of "the path of the wicked" and "the path of the righteous".  They are two paths that a man or a woman might choose - but only if he or she is the child of God.  The words of Solomon, who spoke so many of the proverbs, are intended for the believer as a guide for living.  Notice the intimate, fatherly way he proceeds:  Hear, my son, and accept my sayings, And the years of your life will be many.  I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths.  When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; And if you run, you will not stumble.  

Solomon was not directing these word to his own son in specific, but as the wise man, was playing kindly father for us all.  He calls us "son" just as the New Testament calls all Christians "sons of God".  You see, the term is not even gender specific here, for all who believe are counted as sons.  There are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.  We all rank as sons - and because of Jesus we are all counted as first-born and as precious as His only-begotten Son.

He encourages us to take his words to heart, and you have got to know that these words are not merely the words of Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, but God speaking through Solomon to His chosen people - to us!  If we pay attention to these truths, we can live a good life, a satisfying life.  These words will be a solid guide even if life becomes rich, abundant and wildly successful.  That is what it means to run, and not stumble.

What are the things which we are counseled to do that we might have this good life?  First, Solomon says, "Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life."  He is not referring to just any instruction, mind you.  Learning is good, but learning a trade, for example, is not going to make you stumble proof.  The learning here is the moral instruction and the instruction in the faith to which God is drawing our attention.  This is the kind of instruction that the world wants to have nothing to do with.  This is what children - of all ages - object to at home and in church.  This is what Rosie O'Donnell was reacting to when she said that radical Christianity was as threatening to America as radical Islam.  People don't mind learning, per sé, they object to the truth as truth, and to holiness in principle.  They don't want to hear that they are wicked, or that they have no automatic path to whatever good there might be in the next life, or that their conduct is sin.  Since they do not place their trust in Jesus Christ, they do not want to hear that salvation is in Him alone.  To them, as to Rosie, the idea of the free gift of eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone is dangerous, because it threatens them and their eternity with whatever the other alternative might be – and whether they admit it or not, human nature is wired to understand what the alternative to salvation and "heaven" is.

This instruction in the faith is your life - eternal life - and yet it is also useful and effective and salutary - that's the old word for beneficial - salutary for daily life in the here and now.  That is the substance of the other points of our text.  Secondly, God warns us, "Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not proceed in the way of evil men.  Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.  For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.  For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence."

Notice that there is no detailing here of what that path entails.  We all kind of know what it is, and other passages here in Proverbs and in the rest of Scripture fill that in for us.  Here, we are simply told to avoid it.  Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men.  One of the two paths is evil.  We are not to join the wicked in their ways, or to turn to wickedness, nor allow ourselves to be seduced into the ways of sin.  The world around us will do that.  Sometimes we call it "peer pressure".  Other times it is just temptation to fit in, or belong to a group, or to achieve something - success or wealth - or something - the easy way.

God says,  Avoid it.  Do not even pass by it.  Turn away from it, and keep moving.  These words remind me of my Sunday School memory work - "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not" or "Flee youthful lusts".  The way to avoid the paths of the wicked is to stay away, turn away to another direction when you see it in front of you, and run - physically - from temptation when it confronts you.  Put space between you and the immediate cause of your temptation.

The nature of the evil path is hinted at here, as well.  It is addictive, in a sense.  The Bible says that they cannot sleep unless they do evil.  There is something compelling about sin.  It puts me in mind of the passages that speak of us as slaves of sin.  Once you embark of the path of the wicked, you are compelled to do wicked things.  For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.  Perhaps you can identify examples of this in your own life - not big things, of course (at least I hope so), but you may remember times when you were not going to say something - or do something, but you couldn't resist.  You spoke what you know you should not have spoken in the heat of anger in an argument, or you went ahead and did something you knew better than to do because your just felt compelled.  It is the sort of thing Flip Wilson used to joke about when he said, "The devil made me do it."

The path of the wicked is also infectious.  Once you go wrong, there is a powerful urge to drag others down with you.  You cannot let good enough alone.  "They are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble".  You can see that in how false teachers want to destroy the churches from which they arise.  How often haven't we heard the cry, "Why can't they just go somewhere else, where they agree with their false teachings"?  This is apparently why.  The path of evil compels one to seek recruits.  Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it."

He also said, "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."  The way is so narrow, in fact, that Jesus likened it to the eye of a needle.  It is the path of the righteous.  Our text doesn't tell us to choose the path of righteousness, or to decide for it, or to walk on it, as though it depended on us.  That is because it does not.  It describes the path briefly.  The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.  It sounds good, but then, goodness tends to sound good.  The description is clearer, actually, by comparison to the other path:  The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.   The path of the righteous is bright and clear-sighted and only gets better and clearer as you go.  But it is a path which we are given, not a path which we may choose.  You can only choose to depart from it.

It is, in fact, the path of faith.  Proverbs doesn't say it explicitly, but then it would be foolish to expect to find the New Testament explicit in the Old.  But even here, it is pretty clear.  Solomon speaks of His words and sayings as giving life and health.  The real indication, however, is the last line of our text where he says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life".  The only other place where I remember hearing this language is John 7, where Jesus says, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"

The path of the righteous is path that Jesus walked.  He walked it perfectly because you and I could not.  We are far too easily drawn to the path of the wicked.  He walked that path alone and hated.  And He died - but not for walking that path, because that path is the way of life - the narrow way that few find.  You know, "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."  Jesus found it, and He gives it to us and places us upon it, and causes us to flow with rivers of living water.

The words which are life, according to our text, are the words which tell us about Jesus and teach our hearts to believe, and through which the Holy Spirit creates in us that faith which receives all the riches of forgiveness and life for the sake of Jesus Christ.  He places us on the path of the righteous by declaring us righteous and giving us life and salvation.   We cannot choose this path, but once there, we can choose to remain on it and flee from the paths of the wicked.  This is the instruction to which you are to cling and never let go.  These word of God's love and grace are life and health to your body - both now and in eternity.

Solomon speaks of directing us in the way of wisdom in the first verses of our text.  Wisdom, as you know, is the proper application of knowledge.  The proper application of the knowledge of the gospel is faith.  Trust in the Lord.  There are times when doing something else will seem wise and good.  People around you will encourage you to step out, and be bold, and fit in, and run with them.  The temptation may be subtle and it may be bold and blatant and compelling.  The truth is, when you confront those moments of temptation, you are facing the moment of decision between two paths, the path on which Christ has placed you - His path, the path of the righteous - and the path of the wicked.  Wisdom tells us to turn away from that second path, flee in another direction, refuse to enter - and to refuse to continue in the company of the wicked.

God will give you the strength - and He has already given you the instruction.  When you face the Two Paths, walk in the path of Christ.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

But and Just

 Leviticus 18:1-5

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the LORD your God.   You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes.   You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God.   So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.'"

Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Trinity                  9/03/23

But and Just .   .   .

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

My father was a writer.  It was one of his many hobbies.  I think he was a good writer, although he was never published.  He wrote about the things that happened while raising six children in the fifties and sixties.  He submitted a lot of things to Reader's Digest that just didn't quite make the cut.  One piece I particularly like, and some of you may have heard me mention it before, is called "But and Just."

"But and Just" is about my older sister.  She was always coming home with some plea to be allowed to do what everyone else was doing, or wear what everyone else was wearing, or go where everyone else was going.  She would say "But Daddy, just everyone is doing it."  And my father would counter with, "Not everyone, .  .  .  you re not."  He told the stories in a very humorous way.

Sometimes the point of the refusal was safety.  Sometimes it was to keep her from giving a bad impression, without realizing she was doing so.  But now and then my father would not let us do what it seemed like everyone else was doing to teach us that we did not need to go along with the crowd.  He wanted us to think for ourselves.  He taught us that peer pressure is not a good foundation for decision making.  Let the crowd follow you, or let the crowd go its own way, but you must choose your own path, he would say.  You are responsible to think for yourself  –  whether you understand your responsibility or not.

Our text touches on the issues of following the behavior and attitudes of others, or going your own way, and the issues of personal responsibility and such.  In it, God calls on the people of God to be the people of God in their actions and values in the face of the temptation to do otherwise.  The admonition of Moses put me in mind of my father's lessons, and that reminded me of his story.  I've borrowed his title for our theme, this morning.  Our theme is "But and Just."

When we would want to act just like everyone else, my father would tells us that we were not everyone else, we were us -- unique individuals -- "You are a Fish!"  That was his emphatic point.  "The Johnsons may be doing that.  The Petersons may be doing that, The Knudsons may be doing that, but the Fish family is not."  We were different from others; not better, not worse, just different.  The Fish family simply did not do something or go somewhere just because others were doing it.  We did what was right, according to our best judgment, or at least what we chose for our own good reasons, because we were the Fishes.

God tells His people, Israel, that they are not to do what others do, but what is right and good in His sight, and His reason is very simple; they are not just any other people, they are His people!  Three times in just five verses, God says that the reason they shall not do this or that, but shall do His will, His statutes, and His judgments is because He is the Lord their God.  His claim to the right command, and to their need to be different is because He is their God, and they are His people.  This is a call to be "holy" -- to be different, to be set aside for God and His purposes.

That is what Peter meant in 1 Peter 2:9 when he called Christians a "peculiar people".  Our course that is the King James Version.  Our NASB says, "a people for God s own possession."  We are also called to be unique, to be different from the world, to be holy to God -- just as He is holy: unlike anyone or anything else, in a class of His own, the only true and almighty God, and without sin.  We are called to be holy to Him and holy for Him and holy on account of our relationship with Him.  This Old Testament text applies directly to us.  We are to be holy too.

Of course, the temptation we face is to be profane, which fundamentally means "not religious, not initiated to the mysteries of the religion."  Profane runs the gamut from blasphemous to simply not having any reference to God or religion in your life or conduct.  That is what "secular" means to many people.  But the distinction for Christians is not between "sacred  and "secular", as many imagine, but between "holy" and "profane."  Secular simply means "of this world and age."  Profane means that it – whatever it is – doesn't recognize God as God.

We are called to be holy.  We are tempted -- that s the old-fashioned word for peer pressure in this case -- to be just like our family, or just like our friends, or just like our co-workers, or just like our neighbors, in short, profane.  We are expected to like to go where they like to go.  We are expected to do the same sorts of things that they do.  We are expected to share the majority opinion on politics, religion, morals, and entertainment.  The pressure to be just like everyone else is tremendous – and it isn t just a teen-age phenomenon, as each one of you knows.

What this text says is that if we are the people of God, we must live His way and not our own.  We are to act the part of the people of God if we are the people of God.  "You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statues.  You are to perform My judgments and keep my statues, to live in accord with them."  We are not to do like those around us, but as God instructs us.   His Word is to shape our lives, not the word of family, friends, or neighbors.

We are not even to think like them.   Our values are to be God's values, not the values of men -- not even what seems right to us personally, but what God has said.   The talk in our text about statutes is talk about behavior -- but the talk about the judgments of the Lord is talk about values and attitudes.   We are expected to shape our attitudes and values around what God reveals to us, if we are His people.

There are clear differences in what is considered right and wrong, acceptable or unacceptable between our culture and what our Lord has revealed as His "judgments".   We disagree with our culture and our world on issues like abortion and homosexuality.   God's Word still considers premarital sexual relations to be immoral and sin.   God reveals that He considers gossip and grumbling to be major sins, not minor peccadilloes.   And we, His faithful people, hold the confession of the truth to be vital to a saving faith, not merely an act of religious peculiarity -- and we underscore that confession by our practice of closed communion while most of the world around us refuses to understand or accept either the truth we confess or the sacrament we celebrate.   Let us be clear, these values which we confess as Christians are not ours.  They generally are not popular in our society, and standing firm in them and clearly confessing them is not comfortable at all times for any of us.   Nevertheless, they are God's values, clearly taught in His Word, and therefore they are the values of the People of God.

We also confess these values and conduct ourselves according to His will in the light of our salvation.  Our own forgiveness colors our approach to others.  We can condemn sin - but we must be careful not to hate the sinner or condemn the person while we speak a clear confession about the values and behaviors which contradict the will and Word of God.  The act of condemning any person belongs to God, the final judge.  Our confession is the truth, but our hearts must be hearts of compassion and forgiveness, just as His heart is toward us.  Our enemies are not the people around us that disagree with us.  Our enemies are the "spiritual forces of darkness" that dominate the lives and thoughts of so many in our world today.  We want to rescue the people caught in the web of evil just as zealously as we want to confess the truth against error and uphold what is holy against the corruptions of our age.

What our text doesn't say, verbatim, but surely intends to imply is that we must live as the Lord's people or we are not His people.   The verses following our text say as much explicitly.   If we will not live as God's people, and follow God's ways and adopt God's values, then we are - by that act or those decisions – rejecting Him and His relationship to us as our God -- and therefore we are not His people.  If we cannot forgive, we are rejecting forgiveness.  If we live in fear, we are rejecting the very truth of the providence and protection of our Lord.  If we choose to act against the expressed will of God, or refuse to act out what our gospel faith tells us is true, we are rejecting God.

He adopted our troubles, and He took our burdens on Himself in Jesus Christ.   He bore our sins and our guilt, and took them to the cross and endured there what we have earned in sin -- extreme suffering and death.   He purchased us to be His own, and He has laid claim to us by calling us with the Gospel and forgiving each of us our personal sins, and giving us eternal life.   He marked each one of you as His own in Baptism, calling you by name and adopting you as His child and making you a member of His family and a fellow-partaker in His salvation and glory.

God has paid dearly for you and has purchased the right to stand before you and say, I am the Lord your God, and on the basis of that relationship to command you to live according to His statutes and to walk in His judgments.   His right to demand it is Jesus Christ - and is written in blood on the cross, and in grace on your forehead in Baptism.   He has made us holy, by the forgiveness of sins, and He tells us in our text that we are to live in that truth and reality deliberately.

If we refuse to do the things which we know God commands us to do, and we reject His values and judgments, we are not simply exercising freedom, we are rejecting Him and denying His claim on us and His right to us.   None of us can live perfectly.   Not one of us is capable in this sinful world of absolute obedience or perfect forgiveness toward those who sin against us -- but that truth is not a valid reason to not set our minds and hearts on Him and to refuse to seek to do His will.

If we reject His will and refuse His values, we are not His people.   That is not to say that if we stumble, or if we err, or if we in weakness do the wrong thing, or in ignorance hold a value that God does not share, that we are not Christians.   It means that if we don't care, and we choose to live otherwise, or with better knowledge simply elect to hold a value that is clearly wrong, clearly not His, we are despising Him and denying our relationship to Him and are -- deliberately and by our own choices -- not His people.

When we do that, we are like those who choose to believe something directly contrary to the clear words of Scripture.  They admit that the Bible says something, but they deny that it means what the words clearly say, or that those words hold any application to us today.  One example is the so-called Christian who teaches evolution, and calls the Biblical account of creation a myth.  Another example might be the woman who admits that the Bible teaches that a woman cannot be a Christian pastor, but pursues the ministry anyhow, saying, "That part doesn't apply any longer."

It was much the same thing for the children of Israel.   God had rescued them from slavery, and was bringing them to the promised land.   It was on this relationship of grace and blessing that He said I am the Lord Your God.   He set before the people life and death and said, You are to perform my judgments and keep my statues, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God.   So you shall keep my statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them.

Imagine standing before the Lord one day, and trying to explain your life by saying, But God, just everyone was doing that.   But God, the whole world held to those values.   But God, just everyone.   It s but and just.   And God's answer is in our text, I am the Lord your God -- on that day He might say to some,  or at least I should have been.   Bask in His love, rejoice in His forgiveness, be comforted and strengthened in His salvation -- and be His holy people in thought and word and deed, for He is faithfully the Lord your God.   But and just didn't work for my sister with my dad, and it won't work for any one of us with our heavenly Father either.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

The End Is in Sight

 Isaiah 29:17-24

Is it not yet just a little while before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, and the fertile field will be considered as a forest?  And on that day the deaf shall hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.  The afflicted also shall increase their gladness in the LORD, and the needy of mankind shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.  For the ruthless will come to an end, and the scorner will be finished, indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off; who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate, and defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.  Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, "Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale; but when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they will sanctify My name; indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.  And those who err in mind will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction."

Sermon for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity                                              8/27/23

The End Is in Sight

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our world today is rocked with scandals, and bad news is everywhere.  The President is publicly accused of coercing millions of dollars in bribes.  His son is now famous for his drug use and the infamous laptop.  There appears to be a two-tiered justice system where one can do almost anything with impunity if you belong to the "right" group, and, conversely, you can rot in jail for years for doing nothing more than being in the wrong party.  The myth of America – of truth, justice, and the American way – seems to be unraveling around us.

Those are sad and worrisome object lessons on the corruption of this present world, and the total depravity of man.  Isaiah didn't know our time in history, but he was speaking about just such men and public corruption when he prophesied the words of our text, this morning.  And those words are words of comfort because they tell us that the end is in sight.  And that is our theme, this morning: The End Is In Sight.

Of course, these specific people aren't the only ones Isaiah was addressing.  He was addressing all sorts of evil people.  Listen to the words he uses:  For the ruthless will come to an end, and the scorner will be finished, indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off; who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate, and defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.  The targets here are those who take advantage of the little guy, of the powerless and the innocent.  God has a word of judgment for those who abuse the righteous.  And that word is, the end is in sight.

The end of all the pains, the end of all the frustrations, is in sight.  Is it not yet just a little while?  God says it is almost here.   And on that day the deaf shall hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.  The afflicted also shall increase their gladness in the LORD, and the needy of mankind shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
 
Actually, that day is here!  We were the deaf - and we have heard the words of a book – the Bible!  We were blind, 1 Corinthians 2:14 says that a natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit because you need to possess the Spirit to understand.  And what is it we say when comprehension dawns?  "Oh, I see!"  We are the blind mentioned in this text.  The gloom and darkness is the gloom of sin and the darkness of our condemnation for our sins and evil.  When the Holy Spirit comes, He enlightens us with the light of the Gospel and of faith, and we see the goodness of the Lord and of salvation, and we rejoice.

We are the afflicted.  We are afflicted by the devil, the world and our flesh.  They entice us to sin, and they punish us for holiness, and ridicule us for faith, and persecute us for Christ's sake and for His name.  We are those whose gladness is increased in the Lord.  We are gladdened by the forgiveness of our sins, and gladdened by the hope of everlasting life.

After all, what can the world do to us, really?  The world can make us hurt now, and the world can kill us.  While we suffer now, we can look forward to the hope of the resurrection where there is no more pain and sorrow.  Almost anything can be better endured when we see that the end is in sight.  Besides this truth, God also promises to strengthen us and help us to endure and bear up.  And if the world should do its worst to us, and kill us, it merely hurries us on toward heaven!  As Paul said in Philippians 1:21, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Those days promised by Isaiah are hard to imagine and difficult to wait for.  The pains and fear are very real and are happening right now.  It will seem like a long time, but already in Isaiah's day, God was telling us that it is just a little while.  The end is in sight.

It has to be in sight, because it began already, on Good Friday.  When Jesus died, He ended the old world, and destroyed sins and death.  That was Judgment Day!  God judged your sins – and mine – and punished them.  He poured out His wrath on Jesus.  And Jesus pours out His love and forgiveness, and everlasting life on us.  We take hold of it by faith, and we look forward to it, knowing that the end is in sight!

Those evil people who take advantage of others and abuse others will be dealt with by God.  That is part of our joy!  The power of those who do evil will be gone, and God will settle with them in justice.  They will come to an end and be finished entirely, just as Isaiah says.  But even now, we know that the end is coming.  We can see it in the Word and hear it in God's good news, proclaimed to us by His will.

God guarantees it!  He speaks through Isaiah about how He will teach, "And those who err in mind will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction."  You aren't here by accident, and your faith and hope in God isn't by chance.  It is by the work and plan of the Lord.  God finds a way.  He pushes you through the door. It is the work of God.

He says so in our text.  He says that His people are "the work of His hands."  Each one of us has been chosen by God, called by name in our Baptism, and kept by Him for eternal life.  When we stop and consider what God has done to call us and gather us and keep us, we will sanctify His name, as Isaiah says, and finally, all men will stand in awe of the God of Israel.  He has made the things happen that we needed to happen.  He paid for our sins, and then caused the Gospel to be preached to us.  Some of us were carried in to the church for Baptism as infants, and some of us have come to it the long way around, but God has claimed each one of us.  It is His handiwork, and it is awe inspiring and praiseworthy and we thank Him.

And we know that the end, which began the day that Jesus died, is almost come to completion.  Some of us here may yet be alive in this world when Jesus calls all things to an end and raises the bodies of all men from their graves.  It will be a wonderful and terrifying day.  For those who rise to be with Jesus, it will be wonderful beyond all telling.  For those who stand on His left, and hear Jesus speak those four most horrible words in all of human history, "I Never Knew You!" it will be a day of unmatched and unimaginable terror - a terror that will never end.

And the end is in sight.  God is going to end the power of evil men and women to hurt us.  He is going to silence the liars.  He is going to stop the ruthless evil.  He is going to end the power of the wicked to defraud and cheat us.  And He will show the true joy of the Lord to His redeemed.  That is what the Bible says.  That is what we confess.  The end is in sight!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

The Choice We Must Face

 Genesis 4:1-15

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a man, the LORD."  And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel.  And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.  And Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.  And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.  So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.  Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."  And Cain told Abel his brother.  And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?"  And he said, "I do not know.  Am I my brother's keeper?"  And He said, "What have you done?  The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.  And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.  When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you; you shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."
And Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear!  Behold, Thou hast driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Thy face I shall be hidden, and I shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and it will come about that whoever finds me will kill me."  So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold."  And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should slay him.

Sermon for Eleventh Sunday after Trinity                                              8/20/23

The Choice We Must Face

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The story of Cain and Abel is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible.  I think it may have been preached about more times than any other Old Testament story.  Usually, the sermon is about the question Cain asks the Lord, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  I have never heard the question analyzed for its sarcasm or its open disrespect for God.  It is usually answered in the light of social ministry commitments that we have toward those in need.  The answer to Cain's question is invariably "YES!"

But Cain's question actually insults his brother – the brother whose sacrifice was pleasing to God while Cain's own was not.  "Am I my brother's keeper?"  The question also dismisses God as though He were a household servant of no importance.

It is like those times when we dismiss someone by saying "It is not my day to watch him," when asked where a neighbor or troublesome relative has gone.  Most importantly, it is part of Cain's answer to the challenge of evil which God encouraged Cain to resist and master.  Cain failed.  But the challenge of the temptation stands before every one of us daily.  It is, in the words of our sermon title today, the choice we must face.

Cain was angry.  He was angry with God and angry with his brother.  He had just experienced the most colossal put down.  He had been snubbed by God.  The Bible doesn't tell us why God preferred Abel's offering.  It hints at it a little, I think.  Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground - of his labors, but Abel brought of the firstlings – the first born of his flocks – and he brought of the fat portions – the very best of the best!  In a way it points forward to the gift of` the Lamb of God.  There is also a stewardship message in here somewhere –  –  – about giving God the first and the best rather than the left-overs and "what you can spare at the end of the month," but I am not going to go there.  

You are all grown-ups, and mostly long-term Christians, and if you haven't figured that out yet, you probably won't learn it today anyhow.  Besides, some of you will think that I am trying to pick your pockets and that all we are interested in is your money.

Cain's offering reflected his heart.  He gave the offering out of a sense of duty, I imagine, rather than the gift of love for God and heart-felt thanksgiving for God's goodness to him, as Abel appeared to have done.  He gave it the perfunctory ‘umph', and then he got irritated when his gift was received by God as perfunctory and not as the open-hearted gift of the true child of God.  God knows!  

And Cain got angry - not jealous.  The Bible tells us he was angry!  He was angry at God for seeing the truth and not pretending that Cain was something he didn't even really care to be, and angry at Abel for being holy, and being perceived by God as holy.  Abel was the first "goody-two-shoes ".  And he paid an awful price for his brother's anger.

Cain was like those people who want to call themselves "Christian" but don't want to take the time or expend the effort to actually be Christian.  It is the man or woman who doesn't bother with Church, but is "just as good a Christian as you are."  Or, he was like those people who belong to a church that no longer preaches the Word of God clearly or faithfully, and yet they get really irritated by us, and our focus on the truth, and our practice of closed communion.  They know they should be where the Word is preached, but they don't bother.  It seems to be easier to just despise those who cling to God's Word and call them "Holier-than-thou," than it is to actually do what they know they ought to do.

The choice that Cain faced was the choice of wallowing in his anger and feeling sorry for himself and continuing to stand in the path of temptation, or to see his sin as sin, resist the temptations, and put to death the deeds of the body, as St. Paul describes it in Romans 8:13.  "Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be lifted up?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.'"

God asked Cain the question even though He knew the answer.  He wanted Cain to think about it, and to take control of himself and exercise some self-discipline, and do what it right.  What He said to Cain, in effect, was, "If you do what is right and good and holy, you will be accepted too.  I haven't rejected you completely.  I just made the point that what Abel did was done the way it ought to be done, and from the right heart and attitude.  So do what is holy and good and I will accept you, too.  But if you sit and stew, sin is lying in wait to take you down and destroy you.  The devil as marked you as a target and is stalking you like prey!  You must take control and master this temptation!"

We don't always face God's immediate and unmistakable approval or rejection, as Cain did.  God doesn't generally deal with people that way any longer.  It would be kind of cool if He did.  Then we would know if we were faithful or not, or if we made the right choice in that last temptation or not.  We could all tell if we were all sincere Christians or if someone was a hypocrite.  We would have no need for any debate about closed communion, because we could all see who should and who should not stand the altar and receive the treasures offered there.  But that is not the way it works.  We walk by faith, not by sight.  We must walk in the light of God's Word, even when we cannot see its truth.

But we each face the choice that Cain faced.  We face the choice of wallowing in our feelings and emotions, our needs and the temptations that the devil throws at us, or we can stand up, by the power which God gives us in Jesus Christ, and do what is right and good and holy.  The Bible gives us some ideas on how to handle this temptation.  It seems to suggest here that we should not allow ourselves to wallow in anger or jealousy.  We should simply apply ourselves to doing what we know is right – forgiving, doing the things that God gives us to do, rather than savoring our hurts and our angers and our sense that we deserve more - or better - or faster - or greater respect - or more influence - or whatever it is that we are being eaten up by at the moment of temptation.  The Bible tells us to flee from lust and temptation, and to decline to join in when sinners entice us.  It tells us to turn to God in prayer in our hour of trial.

Of course, we fail.  We have the same problem that Cain had.  We are sinful people.  We often like the feeling of anger.  We are titillated and tantalized by temptation.  We respect ourselves, but not much else.  Others need to listen to us.  Others need to cater to us.  You can see this tendency, which resides in every one of us, most easily in those individuals who say the cruelest things about others and expect them to take it in stride, and consider it to be humor or somehow appropriate comments, but if anyone questions them, or says anything - even things not intended to be critical - they fall apart, they complain about being attacked, and they cry about how everyone - especially the Pastor - treats them!

Sin has its desire set on us.  And sin works on us, if we are not diligent and deliberately holy in what we do and say and even in what we allow ourselves to think.  I have seen people who were life-long Christians, and active in their churches, suddenly stop going to church – even disavow the Christian faith – over some imagined hurt, or because their personal sin became an obsession and their guilt drove them away from the church.  Sometimes it was anger.  Sometimes they just suddenly became "too wise" for the church.  Now and then it was just that they lost their faith.

Sin works on us by luring us deeper and deeper in until we cannot stand anything holy – or until we feel so ashamed of ourselves that we cannot believe that God would still forgive us.  We have sinned and repented, and sinned and repented, so often with the same sin that we know that if we were God, we would not forgive us – and so we begin to doubt God's grace and forgiveness, and that is unbelief – or we decide that our sins are nothing and that we are just fine, and we don't really repent – and that is also unbelief.  In one case sin has torn us from the faith, and we know it.  In the other case, sin has seduced us away from the faith, and we still imagine that we are God's faithful children.  We simply ignore the evidence and make believe.

But Jesus does forgive – He has paid for all of our sins, and He has forgiven us every one.  He paid the price – "the soul that sins - it shall die!"  He died already - not as Abel died by the violence of Cain's sin, but willingly, for us.  He bore our sins to the cross and now He forgives us.  He also feeds us with His own body and blood to strengthen us for the fight, because we still must face the same choice bested Cain.  Sin still has us in his sights.  The Word of God to Cain is still fitting for us.  If you do what is holy, you will be lifted up – and if you do not do what is holy, sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is for you - but you must master it.

Jesus has taken your sin away, and nailed it to the tree of the cross.  Your sins have been forgiven!  The apostle Paul writes in Romans 6, "For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,  and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

The choice that we must face is the choice of being content in sin and complacent in the face of temptation, or the choice of putting to death the deeds of the body and being wholly and deliberately Christian.  Even though we do not believe in decision theology - because we know that the unregenerate man cannot choose to come to God– we do know that once you are in Christ, by His power you have the choice of living in faith or, by your own power, living in sin.  Cain chose one way.  We see the tragic results.   By the power of God in you, choose to fight sin and temptation, and walk in the grace and love of God, for Christ's sake.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Empty Words

 Jeremiah 7:1-7

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, "Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!'" Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.  Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'  For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever."

Sermon for Tenth Sunday after Trinity                                              8/13/23

Empty Words

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

In Acts 19, Luke relates the account of some Jewish exorcists who were jealous of the blessings which God had bestowed on Paul.  Paul was working wonderful miracles, even people who were touched by handkerchiefs Paul had handled were being healed of their illnesses.  Those who were not Christians, but thought that they had the right to God's power and blessings were trying to take advantage of Paul and what He was doing – not understanding that the power was real and that the power was not in Paul, but in God.  The Bible says, and let me read you a couple of verses:

But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."  And seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.  And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"  And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

I share this account with you as an example of what our text is speaking about, this morning.  Jeremiah is speaking the Word of God to the people of God, telling them that God can tell the difference between the truth and a lie, between sincerity and hypocrisy.  God warns those who would be His people not to indulge in self deception and place their trust in anything but Him alone.   The priests in our account from Acts did not know God, and did not believe in Jesus, but they tried to claim something there anyhow, and when they spoke in their unbelief, they spoke words without any real authority or power.   They spoke ‘empty words'.  Our theme, this morning, is "Empty Words".

Let me begin by reading the verse just following our text.  It will save a lot explaining.  "Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.  Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and cry, 'Deliver us!'-- that you may do all these abominations?  Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the LORD.

They were used to calling on God when it was convenient and when they had a need, and ignoring God when things were good.  They used His house for whatever purpose struck their fancy -- even when it was a purpose for which He had expressly forbidden the use of His house.  They ignored Him in their daily lives, and even in their worship, and did the very things He had commanded them not to do.  They acted as if He did not exist, or He could not see them, until they got in over their heads, and real trouble came a-calling, and then they were all pious and called on God.  When the prophets warned them of the dangers of what they were doing, they would hide behind who they were - or who they were supposed to be – and the fact that they had the temple of God among them.

God's message to them was simple and abrupt:   "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.  Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'"

The words of the people who did not live as the people of God, nor honor His covenant, words intending to identify them as God's people and expressing their certainty that they were under some sort of divine protection, were empty words.  They were empty because there was nothing behind them.  Oh, God was real.  His love for them was real.  His power was real, and His house was real.  It was His people and their faith in Him that was not real.  They were leaning on a covenant with God which they freely ignored.

Oh, they said they were Jews.  They claimed to be God's people.  But they did not live it out.  They worshiped other Gods.  They did evil.  They treated one another and foreigners in ways expressly forbidden by God.  They did not live as the people of the covenant.  They refused to be holy, and yet they assumed that they God tied up with a bow and that He was going to have to take care of them and rescue them.  They were trusting in deceptive words, empty words, because they were merely pretending to be God's people and living out something quite different.

The Word of God, here, underscores the truth that what you believe determines what you do, and, on the other hand, that what you do and how you behave, reveals what is in your heart.  Holy people do holy things.  God's people walk in the light of His will.  Those who refuse to do so, demonstrate that they are not God's people.  And anything they might say to the contrary is just empty words.

The application of this word to our lives would seem pretty clear."Amend your ways and your deeds!"  We don't want to be the sort of people who rest their comfort and hopes on empty words.  There are a lot of those sorts of people around today.  They talk about being Christian, but they do not let God's Word change their lives or how they live them.  They lie to one another and cheat one another, and then go to church on Sunday and claim that they are God's people.  They gossip about others, gamble, take advantage of others, manipulate people and then call themselves God's Children.  But those are empty words.

Then there are those who want to call themselves Christians without even coming to church.  They miss weeks at a time, sometimes months at a time – some just about never make it to church, and yet, heaven help you if you criticize them or suggest that they are less than faithful.  They want to believe that they are due every blessing of being the child of God without actually being the child of God.

It is not about behavior, or church attendance, or religion, really, it is about reality, and about faith, and about what is in you and is a priority for you.  Too often, people get caught up in debates about religion, and about what they can or cannot do and still be a Christian.  But that is not the point.  The real point is Jesus.

The real focus of our faith is not on what we do, or how we behave.  The real focus is on Jesus, and what He has done.  He has carried our sins to the cross.  He has died an ugly death on an instrument of torture in our place.  He has borne the wrath of God against our sins, so that we might be forgiven.  He has done what needed to be done, and now He pours out forgiveness of sins and life and salvation upon us.  Those riches are received by grace through faith.  So, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

The question is, what do you actually believe?  The children of Israel of  Jeremiah's day knew about God.  They knew His name, and they knew His promises.  They had an understanding that God rescued and that God saved.  They even had some sort of expectation about God and the temple and their security in this world.  But they did not believe.  They did not have trust in God in them, or a relationship with God.  They simply knew about Him, and according to legend, God would do such-and-so for them.

They didn't ask who God was.  They thought they knew, and didn't really think much past that simple point.  They did not ask what God expected from them or wanted from them.  They knew what they expected from Him and they felt a sense of entitlement.  It was like God owed it to them, no matter what.

How does your life reflect your faith?  Do you stop to consider who God is and what He expects from you?  Or, do you just figure that God owes something to you because you call yourself a Lutheran, and count your blessings as entitlements?  Have you stopped to consider the seriousness of sin?  Look at the price God paid to set you free!  So, do you then casually wander back into sin, as though it really means nothing?  God has to take you any way He finds you, right?  Just like it doesn't matter which church you belong to, or how often you worship, or whether you have any respect or regard for those people God sets among you for your teaching and encouragement.

What is it that your life says about God and His place in your life?  Does it say that you know the rich grace of God, and how little you deserve His forgiveness and salvation?  Or, does your life say that you haven't really thought about it?  Are you a Christian, or a pretender?  Are you a Lutheran, or a spiritual epicurean at a smorgasbord of theological traditions?  Are you a member of Immanuel (and, visitors, you may insert the name of your home congregation there), or are you merely a spectator?  "Member" means "body part."  You are part of it and it is part of you.  We are part of you!

A lot of people call themselves "Christians", but for many it is just an empty word.  It doesn't shape their life.  It is just another brand-name label in their wardrobe.  Christians live in connection with Christ.  It means that they cannot live or choose what they do or say without taking Jesus Christ into account.  Truth is what He tells us it is, and right and wrong are determined less by public opinion and more by God's clearly revealed will.  If these things are yours, they show themselves in how you live.

"Lutheran" means many things - it means forgiveness from God first, and from us to others second.  It means clear doctrine, not taken for granted, but insisted upon.  It means the true body and blood of our Lord in the Sacrament.  It means the historic liturgy, and life of the congregation as fundamental to the life of faith of the individual members.  If you are a Lutheran, these truths are precious and vital for you – and it colors how you deal with faith and church and church fellowship with others.  If your faith-life is not shaped by these truths and values, then calling yourself a "Lutheran" is just "empty words".

Ours is an age of sound bites and "image".  Our culture is lost in how things appear, and what people say, without actually looking to see what the truth is or what is real.  Many people allow themselves to get caught up in deceptive words, empty words that suggest something is real, or that they value something when, in fact, they haven't stopped to even think about it, or what it means.  We have become accustomed to doing things without comparing what we do with what it says about us.  Jeremiah reminds us by the Word of God, that what we do reveals who we are and what we believe.  As John wrote in his first epistle, "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth."

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)