The Three-Toed Sloth

 Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Fourth Wednesday of Lent                                 3/11/2026

The Three-Toed Sloth

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ;

In South America there is a very large mammal that is called a "sloth".  There are various kinds of sloths–there are very large ones and there are some-what smaller, ones, very shaggy ones, and some that are not quite as shaggy–lots of kinds of sloths, and I know very little about any of them.  But when I was in grade school I heard about one that really caught my fancy.  It was called the three-toed sloth.  I don't know why it caught my fancy, but it did.  I read about it.  It was a great big animal, it was kind of slow-moving, and nothing seemed to rile it.  It had no natural predators and no animal seemed to shake it up a whole lot.  And it occurred to me that would be a very good image for our cardinal sin tonight – the sin of "sloth".  

And so I'm going to have you imagine tonight that our sin tonight is the animal – the three-toed sloth.  Let us imagine tonight that we are standing here in our zoo looking at the this three-toed sloth in its cage.  We are going to examine this strange and yet somehow very familiar beast.  I'm going to ask you to imagine one more thing tonight.  Imagine that the three-toed sloth is like the fabled werewolf in this, that when the three-toed sloth bites you, you become a sloth.  That way as we meditate tonight on this cardinal sin we can ask ourselves, "Have I been bitten?"  "Am I a sloth?"

Now the power of the animal, the three-toed sloth, lies in the claws of the beast.  Everything it does and all the damage it can inflict, does with those three toes from which it gets its name.  And the claws on the end.  The three-toed sloth eats with those claws, it rips things apart with those claws, tree trunks and big things – I mean it's a powerful beast.  It walks on those three toes.  It climbs trees with them.  And I'm sure you have seen pictures of them, or at least cartoons of the sloths, hanging upside down from those three toes.

Well, our cardinal sin of sloth walks on three toes as well.  The first toe of our sloth is despair.  By now I'm sure you are getting pretty familiar with that one.  It shows up in a lot of our cardinal sins, "despair."  The sloth feels impotent.  It feels powerless to the effect of things that go on in its life.  Rather than seeing that  powerless, that feeling of dejection, impotence, as a challenge to get out there and do something about it, the sloth feels defeated by it.

Now you look around you today, you will see marks of that three-toed sloth all over the place.  People today feel powerless.  They feel powerless in the face of government.  They feel powerless in the face of big corporations.  They feel powerless in the face of rising gas prices.  They feel powerless in the face of crime.

Powerlessness faces everybody today.  And people despair before it.  You would think when they saw all of these things happening, people would say, "Well, I guess I've just better get up and do something about that!"  But no!  What do people do today?  They hide!  People hide from life.  They hide from voting.  They hide from standing up and making their voice heard.  They throw their hands up in the air and say, "Oh!  What's the use.  I can't do anything anyhow."  They hide!

The three-toed sloth's common reaction whenever it's threatened is to just stop all movement in the threatening area and hope the world goes away.  That's the first toe.  That despair leads to the second toe of our sloth.

The second toe of our three-toed sloth in our imaginary zoo tonight is "desire-lessness."  That's not to say that the sloth does not have any desires.  The sloth may well have normal desires – may want to be happy, may want to be comfortable.  They want to be rich and famous.  But the despair leads the sloth into the desire-lessness in that the sloth is not willing to pursue those things.  Is not willing to pay the price of trying to become rich or comfortable, or happy.  You see the sloth is hiding from life.  The sloth is hiding from any kind of commitment.  Nothing rattles the sloth.  Life can deal him what it may, there is nothing that will stir the sloth into action.  The sloth simply refuses to be moved.  In this the sloth seems to be very tolerant.

In fact one Christian writer, a woman named Dorothy Sayers, writing about sloth, says "In the world it's called ‘tolerance', in hell it's called ‘despair'.  It's the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, lives for nothing, but remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die."

Sometimes a sloth can be identified by what he says, such once-popular phrases as, "Hang loose" or "laid back" or "heavy, man".  Those are the signs of sloth.  Now those happen to be phrases that were popular among the younger half of humanity which makes it seem like sloth is peculiar to the youth.  But it is not!  "I couldn't care less," or "What's that to me?", or everybody's favorite, "Live and let live."  Those are the verbal footprints of the sloth in the older generation.  They all indicate apathy, a desire-less-ness, an unwillingness to stand or become personally involved in anything, to become committed to a cause.  In pathology sloth means a morbid inertia, that is a death-like stillness.  It means the same thing spiritually.

This spiritual immobility is the third toe of our imaginary sloth.  That is where the sloth is most damaging.  Sloth is the hatred of all things spiritual which require any effort.  Oh, sloth loves the good, sloth loves the sweet spiritual experiences.  What the sloth can't stand is the day-to-day grind in between.  What the sloth can't stand is the work needed to acquire anything spiritual, be that knowledge or experience – only that comes to it freely, what happens to move across it, will the sloth accept.  And you will see plenty of proof of it today in what we call "the Neo-Evangelical Movement" – what might be called the "new Protestantism".

Every day that "the Neo-Evangelical Movement" grows by hundreds, and maybe thousands of people who have joined it, deliriously happy over their being "born again."  But look, look for the signs of that new life.  Look for the signs that those people are newly created in Christ to live the good works that God had intended for them.  Look in our society for that.   The signs of the presence of Christ in our society are shrinking day by day, not growing, and in the "the Neo-Evangelical Movement", and in any church.  And now days when anybody does enter on that straight and narrow way they do it with a sense of repugnance and reluctance.  That's sloth!  It gives an appearance of laziness to some people sometimes.  But it is something far more lethal.  It is a state of directionless which is thoroughly self-centered.  There is no plan.  There is no agenda.  There is no cohesive meaning or purpose in life, for the sloth, only the ego.

Once people were known by what they had accomplished, or what they were striving for.  Today people want to be identified by what they happen to be thinking at that moment, or their geographic location, simply for the fact that they exist, as though everyone else did not in some weird way.

Sloth is a form of self-idolatry.  To stay with our image of the sloth in the zoo you might call this self-worship one of the parents of the sloth.  And if we do then the other parent of the sloth is despair in the mercy of God.  The sloth does not trust God.  The sloth does not believe that God's promises are true.  He doesn't believe that God loves him, that God is going to guide him and bless him day by day.  The sloth doesn't trust in any benevolent guiding force here in this life or for the next life.  No, the motto of the sloth is, "Look out for yourself, if you don't, who else will?"  For the sloth, Number One comes first – and last.  Purpose, direction, causes – these are the things that lead away from self.  The sloth is into self-actualization.  Or in the words of the sloth, "I got to be me."  That's the sloth.  "You are you," the sloth says, "And I'm me.  And if somewhere in that lovely path of life we happen to meet, fine!  And if we don't happen to meet, that's fine too."

Henry Fairley, in his book, "The Seven Deadly Sins Today," writing about sloth says that, "the slothful person has made a religion of himself.  And that of all our sins, we Americans have made sloths most nearly into a religion."  Minding your own business, not getting upset, that's what counts.

Sloth helped crucify Christ!  Think about this!  One week before His crucifixion, Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, amidst thousands of people cheering Him wildly, calling out praises to Him as God, as Savior, as "King of Israel," throwing their clothes down in the dirt for the donkey he was riding to walk on.  And now a week later the crowd is calling for His death.  You can't mark a change like that up to the crowd being fickle.  No, you mark it up to the sloth.  The people who had been lining up the road and singing praises a week earlier, were now at home.  They just didn't want to get involved.  Justice wasn't reason enough.  And that Man what they had just recently sung praises of and waved palm branches before, He was secondary.  Oh no!  Take care of No. 1 first!

Even the disciples, that night, denied their Lord rather than take a stand.  That night it was more important to save their own skins.  And because of a city full of people, and yes, even the Roman Governor, felt powerless and defeated – because they put self-interest and inactivity first rather than protecting the innocent – rather than standing up for the one that was King, because they had been bitten by the three-toed sloth, our Lord was crucified on that day.  But in that crucifixion comes the power now to put the sloth to death.

And this may be familiar too!  The first step, as always, is to repent.   Turn away from that sin – that is what repent means.   It means to change your mind from rebelliousness against God to sorrow over sin.  And then it means that you listen to the Gospel.  Nowhere is the Gospel more clearly stated than in our Scripture passage tonight which tells us "You are saved by grace".  You are saved by the free gift of God, a salvation totally unearned.  Because of God's gift you have the blessings of the forgiveness of your sins.  Because God wants to give it to you, you have life everlasting.  Because of what Christ has done, God is pouring these blessings out, just giving them away.   God is looking with favor on all those who trust Him, He is looking upon them with the same love and the same sense of favoritism with which He looks upon His only-begotten Son.  

Now far from earning any of this, our text carefully points out that it is not on the basis of what we have done, not on the basis of works, but that God is simply giving it to those who believe, because of Christ.  Think about that!  Your salvation and everything in this life has been taken care of now, because of Jesus Christ.  Almost two thousand years ago everything you could possibly do for yourself was already done.  Oh, and this Gospel is deadly to a sloth.  

Instead of directionless and purposeless, we are now God's creation and He has created us for a purpose.  We are now God's workmanship, the text says.  We are now newly created in Jesus Christ, and that for the purpose that we might do those good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do.  Most of you probably recognize that we are talking about Ephesians 2:8-10.  In our new creation we find our direction.  There we find our purpose, and purpose and direction are deadly to a sloth who must always focus in on himself.  And when we stand before God in this world, reborn in Christ, we have that purpose and that direction.  

Our purpose is to go out and live the life, to do the works that God prepared before He ever called us into Christ, works which God prepared for us to do, to walk in the path which He set for us.  That's purpose!  And what are the works that God set out for us?  

Works like faith in His promises, instead of despair in the mercy of God; works like witnessing to our Lord in His marvelous grace instead of worrying about self-actualization and singing "I've Got to be Me."  

Works like holy living with joy instead of approaching the straight and narrow with a sense of dread and despair.  Here you find purpose and direction enough to kill any three-toed sloth.

And direction?  The direction we are on is toward Heaven!  The direction of the three-toed sloth is Hell.  Opposite directions!  And as I said, "purpose and direction kills the sloth."  So our cure is God-given purpose and divine direction in faith and in the Gospel.

And that completes our examination of the three-toed sloth.  He's deadly!  And he is not just limited to imaginary cages in imaginary zoos.  You can find his footprints all over.  Have you been bitten by one?  If so the cure is in our text this evening, "For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And that not of yourself is the gift of God, not as a result of works that one should boast.  For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Beware of the three-toed sloth, for Christ's sake.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say "Amen".)

Christus Victor

 Luke 11:14-28

And He was casting out a demon, and it was dumb; and it came about that when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.  But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons."  And others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven.  But He knew their thoughts, and said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls.  And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.  And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges.  But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own homestead, his possessions are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder.  He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

"When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.'  And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.  Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice, and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed."  But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it."

Sermon for Oculi Sunday                                                            03/08/26

Christus Victor

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Sometimes following Jesus – even just believing in Jesus – is a difficult thing.  He says things that don't mesh with our world-view.  He does things that are unexpected.  Oh we expect the things He does in the Bible, because the Bible has been there all of our lives and so it seems to make sense to us.  It didn't make sense to everyone back then, any more than the things that God is doing today - or putting us through - make sense to us today, at times.  Even when it did make sense, it wasn't what they wanted to hear or wanted to see and so they chafed against it and rebelled against it.  Jesus called them on it, and explained the truth to them so that we would see it today.  

Our theme this morning is "Christus Victor", which means "Christ the Victor" or "Christ is the Victor".   I chose those words because of Jesus' words in our text, "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters."  Let us consider the words of Jesus today and see what it means is our lives day-to-day that Christ is the Victor.

Our Gospel opens with Jesus casting out a demon.  You would think that would be a good thing, wouldn't you?  His adversaries found fault with Him anyhow.  They said that He was in league with the devil, and that was how He was casting out demons.  The truth of the matter was that everyone who saw it was impressed.  The text says that "the crowds marveled."  They all knew that such a thing came from God - but to the Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes of the Temple, it was an awful blow.  This Jesus guy was just getting out of hand.  How do you compete with a man who can do the things Jesus could do?  And it was so clearly from God that they felt compelled to try to diminish Jesus' authority and stature with the people before they lost all influence with the people themselves.

So they made up the "in league with the devil" thing.  They didn't think it through, they just said what they thought would hurt Jesus in the eyes of the people.  Others of their number were demanding that Jesus do something really impressive, something clearly ‘a sign from heaven' to prove Himself to them.  Think about it – He was doing things only God can do, and He was so clearly God's man that the religious leaders felt the only way to diminish Him in the eyes of the people was to pretend that either He was in league with Satan or that He had done nothing special, and so they needed proof before they could believe what was painfully obvious to them in the first place.  Makes sense, eh?

Jesus pointed out their illogic - if the devil is working against himself, how could he possibly succeed?  Then He confronted them with the question of why they accused only Him of being in league with the devil.  When others did these sorts of things, they never challenged them.  But, as we say today, ‘what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.'  If Jesus was in league with Satan [they even used the spooky sounding name Beelzebul (or Beelzebub) for the devil - the Lord of the Flies, or the God of the Demons].  They were working on the creep-em-out factor, [not unlike the style of modern politics aimed at our President] then, Jesus said, who are the others in league with, you know the ones of which you approve - and the ones everyone else believes are good, godly men?  Consequently, Jesus said, they shall be your judges.

Then He made the point out loud that His adversaries wanted to avoid the people making in their heads - if Jesus was doing this by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has come among them - the Savior is here.  Their plot to discredit Jesus backfired, and opened the door for Jesus to make explicit what had been only implicit before.  Jesus was the Victor there.

We are often tempted to do something like those adversaries of Jesus did.  If we don't like the direction the Lord is leading us, we try to cast it into terms that favor our preferences and deny the leading of the Lord.  I am talking about when, where God seems to be taking us is going to take too much of our time, or too much of our attention, or too much of our energy, or too much of our money.  You know, when being the kind of Christian that Jesus talks about, and the Apostles taught us about, is not compatible with our modern individualism.  It is the sort of situation in which our rights and our liberties stand at odds to the sort of commitment that faithfulness to Christ seems to demand.  We want to believe that lukewarm Christianity is better than no Christianity at all - in open denial of what Jesus said in Revelation 3:16, in the letter to the church at Laodicea, "'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth."

Our vacations and our family visits and our other ditherings seem to be challenged by the concept of faithfulness to Christ and His people.  Our hobbies and our toys and our entertainments seem to be threatened by the demands of genuine Christian faith and commitment.  When we feel that tug of conscience, we want to make the preacher back up a little and lighten up - sort of like the Pharisees wanted Jesus to back off and shrink in the estimation of the people.  Note that no one has said anything to me - so I am not talking about complaints spoken to me, here.

Jesus answered them with a couple of parables: the Parable of the Strong Man Guarding His Home, and the Parable of the Unclean Spirit.  These are different answers than you might expect in the heat of conflict.  Jesus tells a parable on the devil - Satan is the strong man who guards his house until a stronger man than he comes and takes everything away.  Jesus is the stronger man.  Consequently, those who try to prop up the devil, even inadvertently, are working against Jesus.  The only way to work with Jesus is to be affirmatively on His side.  Neutrality, lukewarm-ness, and just not being involved, all serve the devil - He who is not with me is against me - and He who does not gather with me scatters.

Then Jesus describes First Century Israel as the house of the unclean spirit that has been driven out.  He was driven out by the coming of Jesus Himself.  But when Jesus has gone, the devil will return, and since Israel rejects Jesus, the last state is worse than the first, and the evil of the last state is far deeper than the first.  That worsened condition is described as the first spirit bringing seven more spirits, more foul than himself, to live with him.  And look at Israel, the people.  They no longer hope for the Messiah.  They actively oppose Him.  They were once at least the people of the covenant before Jesus came, even if they failed to keep it, and they once had the Word and the prophets.  Today they are empty, and the religion of the covenant is now a pagan and idolatrous religion, because their Savior - their God - has come, and they rejected Him.  They chose the familiar, and the personally preferable to the true and the saving.

‘He who is not with me is against me' is Jesus' way of saying Solo Christo - in Christ alone - to the Jews of His day.  If we are not pulling on the oars with Him, we are dragging the anchor.  If we are not working together with one another faithfully in the church, we stand guilty of working against Jesus Himself.

One of the women there that day was so impressed with the wisdom and truth of what Jesus said that she cried out, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed."  She meant to praise Him for His wisdom and holiness - good things, but Jesus answered her, and answered those who had been made to feel foolish by His response.  He indicated that the really significant thing was not how impressed they might be with Him, but how they dealt with God's Word.  He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it."  The true blessedness is in believing the Word of God both with your mind and with your life - not just thinking it is true, but living as though it is true.

That Word says that your sins are forgiven.  Jesus took the wrath of God against you and your sins and suffered on the cross what you have earned including death itself.  He died that you might live.  He bore your sins that you might be forgiven and live in holiness before Him.  Believe that Word!  What a wonderful gift - and what a wonderful Gospel.  Believe it with your mind and believe it with your actions.

Do we dare to behave like the Pharisees were behaving, as though this wondrous good news is not so special as it seems?  Can it be that faithfulness and holiness can take a back seat in the life of a true believer to the pleasures and priorities of modern American life, with all its wealth and possibilities?  Jesus and His obvious God-connections were getting in the way of the plans and priorities of the leaders of the Temple religion, and, although they saw the truth, they thought that they could cool it down and re-prioritize things safely.

Faith in Christ and true faithfulness will call us to changing our behaviors, re-aligning our priorities, doing things first which we would rather leave for later.  You probably feel the tug-of-war in yourself between what you kind-sorta think you ought to be doing as a faithful child of God, and member of this body here, on the one hand, and the tug to enjoy what is yours, take the time for yourself, do what is every American's right to do, and call Christ unreasonable for suggesting (even though it is your own mind doing all the talking) that you live sacrificially as a deliberate Christian rather than self-indulgently as one who has every right to own, to do, or to go as you please.

Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it.  The strong man in your life has been destroyed, and Jesus has taken his place - by taking yours on the cross.  He has set you free - from sin, and from the slavery to yourself and your flesh - to serve Him.  "Sin shall not be master over you, for you are no longer under law, but under grace."

So, what should you do?

I'm not going to tell you.  I cannot.  

Believe the Word of God, of course.  Walk in faith.  Live every moment in the presence of God, and in the light of His love for you and the marvelous gift of your forgiveness and salvation. 

 And remember the principle, "The Lord loves a cheerful giver."  That applies to your time.  It applies to your morals.  It applies to your energy.  It applies to your talents.  It applies to your entertainments, and it applies, finally, also to your money.  

You have the Word of God, now how you respond, by the power of God within you, is up to you.  Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it.  And here, too Christ is victor!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

A Test of Faith

 Matthew 15:21-28

And Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed."  But He did not answer her a word.  And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, "Send her away, for she is shouting out after us."

But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"

And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."  But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."  Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once.

Sermon for Reminiscere Sunday                                                       03/01/26

A Test of Faith

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our Gospel, this morning, is a wonderful account of a woman in prayer, and, in the words of Jesus, expressing a profound faith.  It is sort of like situations that we find ourselves in at times.  Our situations are not always as extreme as this woman's, and our results are not always as much the way we desire them to be as this woman's results were, but she can serve us as a lesson, illustrating the way prayer works, and demonstrating how faith works as well.  This woman passed a test of faith.  And that is our theme, this morning; A Test of Faith.

The narrative is simple and clear.  Jesus is walking alone, accompanied by His disciples, minding His own business.  He is apparently trying to avoid just the sort of attention that this woman gives Him.  I say "apparently" because I suspect Jesus knew she was there and what would happen if He withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon on that particular day.  

Jesus was walking through Gentile territory, where it might be reasonable to think that people would not pester Him - since they were not Jews and not looking for the day of the coming of the Messiah.  Although He might have known where this woman was, and sought out her opportunity for her.  In any case, as He is walking, this Canaanite woman comes out to meet Him on His way, crying out after Him about her daughter.  

And Jesus ignores her.  Wow.  Is that a familiar feeling?  We pray and pray and hear nothing, and see nothing happening, and wonder if God is going to intervene in our situation on our behalf.

The woman seems undeterred.  She continues to follow Jesus and cry out to Him.  She confesses her faith by calling out to Him as the ‘Son of David', a Messianic title.  She acknowledges Him for who He is, Lord and Savior, the promised One of God.  His disciples, on the other hand only notice that she is continuing her caterwauling and ask Jesus to send her away and give them some peace.  Apparently, this goes on for a while, as Matthew notes that she continues to call out after them, and Matthew says the disciples "kept asking Him" to send her away.

Finally, Jesus speaks to the woman.  He tells her that He "was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  These were words of dismissal and rejection.  I have no business with you, is what it meant.  Worse than getting no answer at all, she seems to meet an affirmative rejection.  She doesn't seem to notice that.  What she notices is that He is paying attention, and talking with her, even if it is just to tell her to go away.  She seems encouraged by this and renews her plea, "Lord, help me!"

Then Jesus tells her that it is not right to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs.  He tells her that He is not there for her, and that it is not right to take what is meant for the children of Israel and give it to Gentiles like her.  He even ends up calling the woman a "dog".  The woman takes it all in stride.  She doesn't even try to argue.  She takes what Jesus says to her and uses it as part of her prayer - saying that if she is a dog, well, even dogs get to lick up the crumbs that fall from their master's table.  She keeps pushing for her need, asking again for the blessing she seeks.  Nothing turns her aside, not rejection, not insults, not being ignored.  She believes that Jesus is able and ultimately wiling to help her, so she continues to pray.

Finally she receives what she asked for.  Jesus speaks admiringly about her faith - "You have great faith, woman!"  We don't know what she knew, or specifically what she believed, but we can see how tenacious it was, how faithfully she believed, and nothing could turn her away!  Responding to her faith, and to her request, Jesus gave her what she wanted, "be it done for you as you wish."  And her daughter was healed at that very moment.

The woman confronted a test of faith, and she passed.  She was clearly not merely a curiosity seeker, or someone who was giving Jesus a try as a last resort, "just in case".  She knew Jesus could help her, and she was confident that He would, even when it seemed otherwise.  So kept praying persistently.

Jesus did not answer her because she bugged Him, or to get her off His back, or even because she was so persistent -He answered her prayer because she trusted in Him to do so.

We also face times when we want or need something, and so we pray.  We should pray like this woman - persistently and believing.  You also know who Jesus is, and what He is like, and what He can do, and what His will is like toward you.  So, you should be able to pray and pray with confidence, and expect an answer, and pray with persistence until you have what you pray for, or clearly see that it is not going to be the way you want it because God knows a better way or a better answer.

You should never doubt the will of God toward you, sinking to the feeling that God doesn't want to bless you.  I often do not know what to pray for because I want something, but I am not certain that having what I want is the best thing for me or anyone else - and I am uncertain as to what the will of God is, so I pray, but I pray that His will be done.  And I pray that prayer until I see the answer.

But there are times in life that we need or want something so strongly that we want to push God's hands, as it were.  In those cases, although we want to pray, "Thy will be done", we have a strong interest in seeing a particular resolution to the situation.  In such cases, we need to be like this woman, asking God for our outcome, and accepting that although it may not work out the way we want it, we will ask until we see the answer, and plead our case before the throne of heaven - because it pleases God when we do.  He is pleased when we trust in Him and in His good will toward us and we boldly come before Him to pray and plead and seek our relief.  He has commanded that we do so, and promised to hear us and answer us.  The Old Testament says, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me."  In the New Testament, Jesus says, "Whatever you ask the Father in My name, believing, He will give it to you."

But be prepared.  You may face a test of faith, too.  God doesn't always answer as quickly as we would like, nor does it always come the way we expect.  God will let you hang out there for a while, and the old evil foe will be glad to make you frustrated and depressed about the length of time you plead your cause and hear no answer.  Sometimes God is testing you, to see if you trust Him, or you are just taking a chance that you might get "lucky" and get something out of the prayer.  And, by the way, He already knows the answer, just as Jesus knew the woman would be there, and would jump all of the hurdles because she had such great faith.  Her predicament and her prayers were done, and recorded, for us, and for our learning.

How can you know what the will of God is?  In specific requests, you cannot.  But you know what His will is toward you.  You know His love, and how deeply He is committed to your welfare.  You can see it on the cross.  The pain and the death of Jesus Christ are the testimony to how far God is willing to go for you.  He became one of us to rescue you.  As Paul observes in Romans 8, if He has gone this far, what can you imagine that He will withhold from you now?  "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?"

The woman in the account had heard about Jesus, but she had not seen much.  She took the word about Jesus to heart and believed - undoubtedly believing because she had heard the Old Testament promises.  You have heard the Old Testament promises, and have seen the New Testament fulfillment - and you have been baptized and have eaten of the Holy Supper.  How much more you have than the woman had.

God will not perform like a trained animal, nor will He do ‘wish fulfillment' like some mail-order catalogue company.  He will always be God.  But you know who that is, and what His will toward you is.  

And what is the will of God toward you?  (Our Salvation).

So let us face the test of faith, and meet it with faith.  That means we want to act as though the things we say we believe are true - and that we actually believe them.  We cannot give up, or decide that God doesn't want to be good to us any longer.  Doing either of those things means that you are no longer a Christian.  Whether we are praying, or witnessing, or just living out what we confess, we can be faithful.  The things we confess are true, and we can and we must dare to live as though they are true, if we want to be found faithful.

So, trust God when you weigh your moral decisions.  Trust God when you plan your stewardship.  Trust God when you plan your weekly, or your daily schedule.  Trust God when you pray.

And trust God as we worship.  Come and eat and drink and be forgiven and strengthened and equipped for life here, and prepared for everlasting life there.  Consider the Canaanite woman, and her test of faith, and face your own challenges as similarly a test of faith.  You can trust God.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

The Green Eyed Monster: Envy

 Philippians 4:8-9

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.  The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

The Second Wednesday of Lent                       2/25/2026

The Green-Eyed Monster: Envy

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ;

Tonight we continue our look at the seven cardinal sins.  They used to be called The Seven Deadly Sins, except that led many people to think that other sins were somehow less deadly.  Not true.  They were called the "deadly" ones because they were so common, so hard to shake, and usually behind any other sin we might commit.  So, to get everyone's attention, they were called deadly.

Our cardinal sin for this evening is Envy.  This has always been my favorite.  Oh, not to do, but to hear about.  My mother used to call envy the "green-eyed monster."   As a kid, this sort of lit up my imagination.  He was always tugging at someone's nose or ear, so I always figured he was about six inches tall, dressed like the little green sprout in the Green Giant commercials.  Kind of cute.  I don't think he is terribly cute any more.

No, that green-eyed monster isn't cute at all.  He isn't even a monster.   Envy is a disease.  Like any sin, envy is sickness, sickness unto eternal death, and it is this disease that turns people into very un-cute green-eyed monsters.

Like any biological disease, envy has symptoms.  Singly, none of these symptoms indicates envy, necessarily, but if you or I have all of them, we  probably have envy.  Everyone is guilty of envy now and then, myself included, but there are those who have literally become infected with it.

The first symptom is dejection.  The envious person feels unworthy and ashamed.  There is usually no focus for these feelings, but they are there anyhow.   The envious person feels that he or she ought to be better, ought to be as good as, as pretty as, as wealthy as others who appear to have no specific advantage over   them.  This symptom sometimes surfaces in the desire to "keep up with the Joneses."  Dejection by itself is deadly, causing a remarkable number of suicides, but it is not envy all by itself.  Coupled with other symptoms it indicates probable envy, though.  

The second symptom is the desire to devalue or destroy.  This desire may be focused at individuals or groups.  Finding one's self in a supposedly inferior position, the envious person tries to bring everything down to his level rather than strive to achieve the greater position.  If, for instance, my neighbor were a wealthier man than I, I might remind people that he probably cheated and swindled and overcharged to get there.  If his children are better behaved, I might suspect that they are only putting on a facade and are secretly quite evil or closet drunks, or something equally silly.  The very least I could do is point out that he is really no different than I am, just blind chance set him, or them above me.  No silly talk about talent, or effort, or achievement.

Our society lives on such ideas.  If we cannot write like Keats or Browning, we bring the standard of poetry down by heralding something we can imitate quite nicely as quality poetry, just of a different style or genre.  Then it is clear that those who "made it" really have nothing over me, they were just lucky.

The third symptom has already been hinted at, backbiting.  In order to point out how not-superior the person I really think is superior is, I must tell it to somebody.   That's where backbiting come  in.  Gossip, slander, innuendo, they are all the tools of the backbiter.   Our national cult of the celebrity thrives on backbiting.  We set up our celebrities, carefully chosen for their real lack of superiority to us, and then we knock them down with talk (or print) of their failings and their weaknesses.  This one drinks, this one is divorced, that one takes dope.  You see, they really aren't as good as I, they just had connections, and slept with the right people until they got what I really think I deserve.

When you see that, dejection, the desire to devalue and destroy, and backbiting, you are looking into the eyes of a green-eyed-monster.

Envy, like the flu as causes.  Certainly we must recognize the sinful nature of man, and his enormous pride, but these are not the specific cause of envy.  Envy is caused by an emaciated self-esteem, and a bloated self love.

The envious person is an absurd contradiction.   He has an abysmally low image of who he is, what he is capable of, and what he has achieved, yet he loves himself with a perverse sort of love that tells him that he ought to be just as talented, just as successful, and just as (anything good,  you fill in the blank) as any other human being.  Sometimes envy will not focus on truly blind fate, such an being born rich, or winning a lottery, but let it be an issue that the person feels measures the value or worth of a person, and envy jumps right in.  We envy even when we are not capable of measuring up to the imaginary standard the other person seems to have set.  He's lighter, that one is stronger, she makes more money, he's too good to be true.

The green-eyed monster belittles his or her own achievements, qualities, and potential, and then says, "but I ought to be every bit as good as so-and-so."  And then the green-eyed monster sets about to bring the other down to his/her level rather than try to achieve, because he believes that he is so much less capable and worthwhile.

Envy has been called the "Revenge of Failure."  Practically everyone does it once in a while, and that is strange because nobody likes it.  Almost any sin is more easily confessed than envy.  Most sins at least begin by offering some reward, some pleasure or gratification to the sinner, but not envy.  Even when the envied person is brought down to our level, in our eyes, it does nothing to raise our self esteem.  Think on this: envy is the only sin that hasn't got a song. No one has ever written about that glorious night that he/she stepped beyond the rules and envied – because there is nothing even faintly pleasant about it.   It is just malice toward others and a state of constant evil-mindedness with no profit, real or imagined.

Envy played a large part in the suffering and death of our Lord.  First there was the envy of the priests.   They envied Jesus for its popularity.  They, the teachers of the Law, could never draw a crowd like that!  And Jesus taught with authority.  Scriptures says that He "taught with authority, not like the priests and the scribes."  Mark, chapter 15 even tells us that Pilate knew that the high priests had delivered Jesus up because of envy.

There could well have been some envy involved with Pilate too.  Envy over the quiet peace of this hounded and abused man, a peace even the governor of the mighty Roman Empire in Judea could not find.  And Jesus was so certain of what He said and what He was doing, yet Pilate, with all of his power, could only face Jesus' declaration that He was come to bear witness to the truth with a show of unsureness and insecurity, and ask, "What is truth."  Yes, Pilate had reason to envy.

And everyone involved in the crucifixion, aside from our lord, tried to do  what every green-eyed monster does to one who is seen as superior, they tried to destroy, this time by death.

Now we have examined this dread disease; its symptoms and its roots.   The question is, what can we do about it?  If we see it in others we can only pray, but If we see it in ourselves, there is a treatment.

First there is the Law of God.  We must believe it.  We must recognize that envy is sin, sin unto death, and if we find envy in us we must confess that sin, repent, and ask God's forgiveness.  But the Law can do more!  It can show us that all men have sinned, and while we are not better than others, we are certainly no worse – for all have sinned, and there is no need to pull anyone down to our level, they're there!

Then we must believe the Gospel.  We must believe that we are forgiven and that any value we have as human beings comes not from ourselves, but from Christ!  We don't compare ourselves to our standard, or to anyone else's   In fact, we don't judge ourselves at all, but stand forgiven by Christ and wearing His righteousness and being valued, even by God, with Christ.  The Bible calls us co-heirs with Christ.  We inherit along side of Christ and because of Christ.  Who we are, and what we are or can do is of no importance now, only Christ crucified.

Then that's where our text for tonight finally comes in.  We respond to the Gospel with love, love for God and therefore also love for man.  We love others as God does, without concern or comparison to self.  With this love we can rejoice in the achievements of others, really praise God for their blessings, and honestly celebrate the good and beauty we meet without feeling diminished  personally by it.  Far from being diminished, we feel enriched and further blessed by the blessing of our brother or sister in Christ.  It doesn't happen all at once, and this feeling doesn't spring full blown into our hearts automatically, but it is there for the one who believes, and prays, and studies God's Word.   It will grow and grow, until it reaches perfection in heaven, but it can be had, by  the grace of God, here.

So, there it is, the cardinal sin of envy.  Look at it carefully and beware.  And here is the answer of God to it; Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.  The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.  Beware of the Green-Eyed Monster, for Christ's sake.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say "Amen".)

Temptation

 Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.  And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  But He answered and said, "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

Then the devil took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU'; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"  Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me."  Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan!  For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Sermon for Invocavit Sunday                                                                                   02/22/26

Temptation

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our Gospel this morning is the familiar account to the temptation of Jesus.  These temptations echo the temptation of Eve.   Jesus was recapitulating the testing of mankind, taking a second run at it if you will, only Jesus didn't fail – He faced the same fundamental temptations as Adam and Eve, only His were in a far more dramatic and urgent setting – and He resisted.  When Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil that day, He passed the test that Eve, and Adam, had failed.  He resisted precisely the temptations that mankind had failed, and so became, as it were, the second Adam.

As Jesus faced the tempter, the playing field is not quite level.  On the one hand, Jesus is God.  That gives Him an advantage.  On the other hand, He is living in humility, clothed in human flesh and blood and human nature, not taking advantage of all of the powers and prerogatives of God.  That gives the devil an advantage.  Jesus has just spent forty days and forty nights without food.  Matthew highlights this disadvantage for Jesus in saying, seemingly without any real need to, that Jesus was now hungry.  Matthew says it, however, so that we don't get some fancy philosophical notion that Jesus was immune to hunger, and that this wasn't a real test.

The playing field of temptation is never level.  You should learn that here and now, if you didn't understand it before.  Everything was pretty much stacked in favor of the devil, when he confronted Jesus.  Things are usually that way when he tempts us.  He cannot grow tired, while we can and do.  He knows our every weakness, while we rarely understand them ourselves.  He is perfectly deceitful, while we are not perfectly anything, and not always looking to be deceived, or capable of discerning when we are.  He has power and we simply do not. 

The next lesson we should draw from this is simple:  Temptation happens – it will happen.  This law is irrevocable for us while we live in the flesh.  We will face temptations - although we may not always recognize that we are being tempted when it happens.  

We can also note that temptation always hits you where it hurts.  Jesus was hungry, and so it was food.  He tempter also knows where you are sensitive and where you are weak.  Temptation never comes where you are strong and unconcerned.  If it does, it doesn't seem much like a temptation.  It always hits where you are vulnerable.  That is why this lesson is so important for us.  We need to learn from Jesus about the best defense against temptation.

First Jesus faced the temptation of food – physical need.  Eve faced it too, when the devil said, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"  He was challenging the goodness of God and the confidence she had in God's providence.  She answered, and in answering she added to the command of God, indicating that just maybe she thought God was unjust, or extreme, or something. 

How did Jesus confront this temptation?  He responded with the Word of God.  Jesus never went on offense.  I image that He could have, but He did not.  He showed us we can do it when we are tempted.  Instead of claiming power, He claimed the fortress of God's Word.  Jesus expressed His confidence in God:   "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" He resisted the temptation to doubt God's provision.  When Eve sinned, she failed that test.  Genesis tells us that one of the reasons that she took from the tree was that the fruit was good to eat.

The second temptation of Jesus listed in Matthew was the one in which the devil took Jesus to a high pinnacle of the temple and tempted Him to jump down, quoting Scriptures and saying, It is written.  That was actually a temptation to doubt the Word of God.  You might say, Jesus was tempted with bad exegesis.  The devil took the Word of God right out of Jesus' hands and attempted to tempt Him with it.  He set before Him an impossible situation, and then said, "Don't you trust God?  Here is His Word saying that He will catch you and take care of you and protect you!"  The devil was suggesting that the only way to demonstrate faith is take the most extreme action and dare God to prove His promises true.  If you cannot ask, you must not believe.

The temptation also came once again with the "If you are the Son of God," clause.  It was as much as saying, "Surely God will do all of this for you, since you are His Son!"  The temptation was to doubt God's Word, and so test Him, to see if He would keep His promise.  It looked like faith, and it sounded like a legitimate promise, but neither was true.

We face disbelief in God's Word disguised as bad exegesis all of the time.  Nearly every debate about doctrine with another confession is a debate about a misunderstanding of the Word.  Some swear that alcohol is forbidden, so they cannot see using it in church, as we do in communion.  Some cannot comprehend how a child can believe, so they reject baptism for infants.  Others cannot imagine how water can work forgiveness of sins, so they deny baptism's power altogether.  Some demand that we worship on the Sabbath because the Jews had to, some insist on keeping the Law - as though we could, some think that the Jewish people are the chosen people and the true Israel of God.  Every one of them marshals Scripture to their cause.  They all have their passages.  And they are all wrong.  They apply half-verses and half-truths just as Satan did, that day against Jesus.

Eve faced the same sort of temptation, when the Devil said,  "You surely shall not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  The devil was tempting her to doubt the Word and promise of God.  God had spoken the truth about sin and death, and His will was not to restrict her or deny her anything, but to protect her.  The devil invited her to doubt God's Word about the result of sin - and God's goodness and honesty as well.  Sadly, Eve doubted God.  Happily, Jesus trusted God, and refused to be deceived into a test which would actually show that he did not trust God's Word, but trusted His own judgment more.  Jesus answered with the Word of God – sound doctrine.  He answered a temptation clothed in a Bible passage with the Scripture which answered the real temptation, "On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

Finally, the devil stopped hiding and simply offered Jesus the easy way.  He knew what Jesus had come to do.  He knew that Jesus could see the cross and all the pain and torment.  He knew that Jesus had years of difficult work ahead, and he offered Jesus the easy route.  Just bow down to me, worship me once, and I will let you off the hook.  You can have the whole kit and kaboodle.  Genuflect to me and recognize me as your superior, worship me as your God and I will spare you the cross and give you the whole creation as your prize.

This also teaches us that temptation is never convenient.  It never seems to come when you are ready for it.  It always comes at inconvenient times and when you are least prepared to face it.

Like every temptation, this final temptation was filled with lies.  First, the world does not belong to Satan.  It is not his to give.  The price that Jesus was going to pay for our redemption was not going to be paid to the devil.  It was to be paid to satisfy the justice of God.  If Jesus had given in to the temptation, He would have become just like us, only more so.  That would have been Satan's victory over God and our absolute ruin.  There would have been no glory to give to Jesus, nor would the devil have given it, if there had been.  He is a liar, and the father of it, as Jesus once pointed out.

Eve faced the same temptation.  The devil told her that the fruit would make her just like God.  This was a good thing that Eve expected God could give her.  The devil wanted her to doubt God's goodness, and take matters into her own hand, and grasp the imagined good for herself, rather than wait for God to give her every good thing.  – and she yielded to the temptation.  Genesis tells us that one of the reasons she ate of the fruit was that it was desirable to make one wise.  She became like God only in that she suddenly understood both good and evil.  She understood good (having once been holy) and evil (having become evil).  God understood both without ever becoming evil, so, although she became like God in some respects, she wasn't much like God.

Jesus answered with the Word.  "It is written, YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY."  He answered with the Word of God, and faith. The thing that Eve forgot, which Jesus kept in mind, was that God is first, and we come second. That is the only position that a Christian can take.  The constant theme of humanistic unbelief is that we are of such significance that we cannot set our own desires and felt-needs aside for anything else.  God cannot ask us to suffer, or do without, or wait patiently.  What kind of God could do that!?  The answer, of course, is the God who suffered for us, and waits with patience and earnest desire for our faithfulness and trust in Him.  He is the God who has our true blessing and welfare at heart, and only asks us to trust Him for a moment, so that we may share eternal bliss.

It does not matter what the stakes are in any temptation, or what is offered to us, or how appealing the temptation may be made to appear.  When we know who God is and trust Him and place Him in the proper place in our lives and consideration, then we wait on God, and we accept from God what He gives to us with thanksgiving and faith.  We are called to be faithful, and we must first be faithful to God. If we fail in that, there is no genuine faithfulness left for us to assume. 

Of course, we face temptations similar to Jesus' – similar in kind if not in scope or power.  First is the temptation of physical need – or physical desire.  Many times we are not able clearly to distinguish between the two.  We just know what we want or need, and it seems more important – more urgent – to us to meet that need or fill that desire than anything else.  The temptation is always to take care of Number One first.  The temptation is that we cannot let some theology, some bit of religious stuff – we cannot let some mere rule stand in the way of our need.  That is how the temptation often presents itself.

Like Jesus we want to answer this first temptation with the Word of God and place God first, trusting Him in all our needs.  We want to take Him at His Word that He will not forsake us, that He will always provide – as Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

The second temptation was the temptation to doubt God's Word.  Funny thing is that it doesn't usually look like a temptation to doubt the Word of God.  Jesus' temptation looked like a challenge to Him as to whether He really trusted God.  The faithful and sincere thing seemed to be to jump off the temple and trust God to do what He had said that He would do.  But that would have been a species of unbelief.  That would have proven that Jesus didn't trust God, because He would have foolishly put God to the test for nothing more than proof.  Faith is not seeing, not having the proof in front of it, but still trusting.

We are tempted in this way by false doctrine.  False doctrine always does what Satan did on that mountain – it presumes to challenge our faith something that sounds Biblical, but actually it challenge us to doubt God's Word or to act or speak on the basis of false doctrine and confused interpretations of Scripture which place God at odds with Himself.

This sort of temptation is often little more than an appeal to ignore God's Word for the sake of feelings.  To do that is to deny the truth of God's Word, and count something or someone as more important than God.  Jesus answered with faith, and clear doctrine – you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.  We need to do the same; put the truth first, and trust God's Word no matter what.

The final temptation Jesus faced is the most common sort today.  We face this temptation each and every time we are offered the faster way, the easier way, the more effective way than what God teaches us to do.  Jesus said, you shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only!  We need to remember whose is God, and who we are.  We worship God by being faithful, and trusting God, and doing the things He has given us to do.  We can even win by losing — when we are faithful.

We can trust God, after all.  We serve Him not by what we do, so much, as by trusting Him.  Jesus once said to the Pharisees, Learn what this means, I desire compassion not sacrifice.  And His will, summarized in the First Commandment is that we hold Him first in all things, and trust in Him alone, and love Him more than life itself.  And love for God is a love that is seen in love for one another.  This is the same will as what we see on the cross, where He died for your sins so that you might be forgiven and come to know Him as He is, gracious and merciful, full of love and compassion, and desiring your salvation first and last.

When we confront temptations, we can have no better pattern than that which Jesus provided.  Hold fast to His Word, and trust in God.  That is how to deal with temptation.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

The Parable of the Sower

  Luke 8:4-15

And when a great multitude were coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to Him, He spoke by way of a parable: ""The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up.  And other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  And other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it, and choked it out.  And other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great."  As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

And His disciples began questioning Him as to what this parable might be.  And He said, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, in order that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND.  Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.  And those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.  And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday                               2/08/26

The Parable of the Sower

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our Gospel lesson has always been one of my favorite lessons; The Parable of the Sower.  It is a picture of the Church, and more specifically, of the Gospel as it is proclaimed.  Our theme this morning is the Parable of the Sower.

I grew up hearing that a parable was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  I guess that is as good a description as any.  I think of a parable as a picture, drawn with words, to help us understand the reality of something – or to keep us from understanding, if we are not God's people.  Jesus said it in our text, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, in order that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND."

That's hard to believe, isn't it?  Jesus taught in parables so that only those who were chosen by Him to be His people would understand.  He intended that others would not understand.  That doesn't fit our popular picture of Jesus, but it is the truth.  Those who believe are not believers by their own choice, but by the will of God.  It is to those who believe that God chooses to reveal the secrets of life and of the truth.  Those who refuse to believe, He leaves in darkness - deliberately.

But to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom.  And the mystery we are given this morning is the parable of the Sower.  In the parable, the Sower goes out to sow.  The Sower is Jesus.  He doesn't tell us that.  That has been the judgement of the Church.

The seed the Sower is spreading is the Word of God -- more specifically, the Gospel.  Jesus tells us that.  It is useful to remember that the method of sowing in those days was "broadcast sowing".  They cast the seed everywhere in the field, rather than planting it in specific spots as we do with our planters today.  After they cast the seed about, they would plow the field and thereby work the seed into the soil.  That is how the seed ended up on the path and in the rocks and among the thorns.

Naturally, the paths were not plowed, so the seed would lay on the ground like bird-food.  They would not work in the really rocky areas because the going was just too rough.  The seeds among the weeds were at the edges of the fields, or where things just got too overgrown.  They did not have the equipment or the technology to cultivate or apply a herbicide.  Some of the seed was simply wasted.

It is a wonderful image for the preaching of the Gospel.  I am the Sower's hands.  Preachers and pastors are the equipment, if you will, which is used to scatter the seed.  We preach it everywhere.  We proclaim the goodness of God and the salvation He has purchased for us wherever and whenever we have the opportunity.  Even here on Sunday morning, anyone who walks in the door is welcome to join us and listen and hear about the marvelous grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Of course, not everyone who hears believes.  Some people are like those seeds that land on the path.  The ground - their heart - is too hard.  The Word doesn't penetrate.  The devil comes and snatches away before they have opportunity to really think about it and come to faith.  For them the Word of God is utterly fruitless.

Others are like the seed on the rock.  You have probably all known someone who came to faith and was so happy that they were a Christian and their joy burned so bright and loud.  Then, one day or another, they seemed to slip away.  Maybe they lost interest all at once, and maybe they just grew less and less regular, and less and less enthusiastic, and finally simply stopped coming.  Before long, they didn't want to come.  They found other priorities.  They are the temporary Christians.  Typically, they think they are still Christian, just not so "on fire for the Lord".  Sometimes they know that they don't believe anymore.  It is all too sad, and all too common.  Some of these people chase from church to church looking for the experience – that fire of the first faith.  What they lack is depth and substance and root in the truth, and sadly, they will not believe that it is true when we try to help them see it.  Like a seed growing in very shallow soil, they whither and die, spiritually.

Then there are those who hear and believe, but whose faith is choked out by the cares and worries of life, just like the seed that fell among the thorns.  Some of these people wind up leaving the church, and some of them remain members of the local church for the rest of their lives.  Notice that Jesus did not say that they lost their faith, just that they "bring no fruit to maturity".  These are the people who get lost in life, and for them the Christian faith and the church is just one thing among many.  Maybe it is family that distracts them.  Perhaps it is their money.  Sometimes it is sports - playing or spectating.  There are those who are always going to games, or going hunting, or going to races, or playing in some sort of tournament, and so they miss church regularly.  At first it bothers them, and after a while it is the normal state of things.  For some it is camping, or traveling, or visiting family – or having company, which just naturally keeps one away from church.

Such people may never leave the church rolls, but they leave the faith.  Our congregation's average attendance is around 50%, which indicates that for everyone of you who comes faithfully, there are two or three who are absent more often than they are present.  Does that mean that those who are here less often are not Christians?  Not necessarily, but it suggests that something else is more important than forgiveness of sins, more real to them than resurrection from the grave and eternal life, and more worthy of their time and attention than Jesus Christ Himself.  Usually, those who are here only infrequently do not serve the congregation, and rarely bring others to the Gospel that they themselves grant such a low priority in their lives.  God commands that you shall have no other gods before Him.  Imagine how He must view it when virtually everything comes before Him.

Then there are those Jesus likens to the seed that falls in good ground.  They are the ones who hear the Word of God and believe it.  They not only believe it is true, they live in that truth.  You see, saving faith is not merely ‘accepting propositions of low probability,' it is accepting the Word of God as true, and living in it.  Luther called it "Fiducia Cordis", a trust in the heart that causes one to risk everything on the faithfulness of God.  It means living your life as though you cannot die, except physically, and that only for a time.  It means living as though you cannot lose, and all that you need is certain and sure, so you can think more about others than yourself.  Living in faith means that you take God at His Word and live in it.

His Word says that He has rescued you out of sin and death and hell.  If you understand and believe that, it would difficult to ignore Him, or to resist coming to His house and hearing this wonderful news, participate in the fellowship of the saints with your brothers and sister in Christ, and receiving the refreshment of both Word and Sacrament.  Jesus thought it was so important that your sins be forgiven and that you have eternal life that He died for you on the cross – dying in your place for your sins.  Just before He died, He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, taking care to guarantee to us the gift of His true body and true blood, hidden beneath the elements of bread and wine for our blessing and strengthening and comforting.

If Jesus believed it was worth all of that, and He did, how could anyone that believed it was true count our weekly gathering for Word and Sacrament as not worth their time?  How could they value it as something to attend to only if there is nothing better going on that week?  How could such a one count the fellowship Christ died to create for their support and encouragement in the faith as less important to their lives than, say, football or company visiting or sleeping in another hour?  How could anyone who believed that in the Supper was forgiveness, life, and salvation grumble about how the celebration of Holy Communion "makes the service go too long"?

Those in whom the Word grows, in what Jesus calls "good and honest hearts" and who "hold it fast" will "bear fruit with perseverance."  That means that those who genuinely believe it will add patience and perseverance to their hearing.  They will listen and live in it with tenacity, and as a result, will bear fruit to the glory of God.  They don't come and go, but stand firm and steadfast.  They find their treasure in the Word and they do what they must to keep that treasure uppermost in their lives and in their hearts.

It is interesting that Jesus ended the parable of the Sower with the words, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."  This isn't for everyone.  God's people will recognize it, and live in it, but those who are not God's will find it hard to hear.  They will not agree, or  they will see themselves in the parable and be insulted.  But Jesus presents the parable as though to say, be careful how you listen!  The Sower is always Christ, even though He may use my hands to scatter the seed.  The seed is always the same, the powerful and life-giving Word of God.  It is the power of the seed to create faith in those that hear it.  The only difference is the listener.

Some don't pay any attention, their hearts are too hard.  Some love what they hear, but they never allow it to take root in them, and so their faith comes and goes.  Some allow life to distract them, and the troubles, or the joys, strangle their faith, and choke out all the fruits that they might present to the Lord.  In the end, they end up unbelievers, too.  The difference is in the listener.  The difference is in your response.  So what are you going to do with this Word?  How are you going to treat the seed of the Parable of the Sower?

I hope and pray that you plant it deep in the rich soil of a heart humble before God.  Cultivate it regularly by hearing often, and studying the Word so that it takes root in you and doesn't just lie on the surface.  Fertilize that plant of faith by receiving the body and blood given and shed for you with great regularity.  And walk in your faith.  Live as though all the precious promises of God are absolutely true and trustworthy – because they are!  Walk in the truth, and live out what forgiveness of sins means -- because your sins have been paid for and forgiven!  Live as though God will not desert your or forsake you, because He will not.  Act as though you are reconciled to everyone around you, because when you partake in the reconciliation of Christ, you are!  Live as though you have a written guarantee that you will go to heaven, because you do!  Here it is!

He who has ears to hear, let him hear the parable of the Sower!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Grace Vs. Works

 Matthew 20:1-16 

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.  And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.'  And so they went.  Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?'  They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.' He said to them, ‘You too go into the vineyard.'

"And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said  to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.'  And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.  And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius.  And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'

"But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.  Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'

"Thus the last shall be first, and the first last."

Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday                                                       2/01/26

Grace Vs.  Works

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

As hard as it may be for you to imagine, some people would rather have God demand works of them than simply give them eternal life and salvation.  Maybe that isn't so difficult for some of you to imagine.  I don't know.  We were all raised by Depression-Era parents, or perhaps some of you grew up in the Depression.  Self-sufficiency was a virtue and strongly stressed, so that understanding the welfare mentality, the "give-me" mentality that some people have is just alien to you.  Well, this grace vs. works thing is the point of the parable in our Gospel lesson this morning.  So, let us consider the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard under the theme, Grace Vs. Works.

The Kingdom of heaven is something like this parable.  Jesus says so.  But what Jesus is describing is not what the experience of heaven is about as much as what getting there is all about.  Jesus is addressing this particularly to the Jews of His day.  They were historically the "Chosen People."  They had been chosen of God in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and so on through the ages.  They were the laborers in the parable who had been hired right away in the morning.  The others, hired later, were the proselytes – Gentile converts to Judaism.  Jesus was picturing in the parable the attitude of the Jews that they were something different, something special by virtue of their long association with God.  They were sure that they were better and deserved more than the "Johnny-come-lately's" of the proselytes.

Jesus was explaining to them that the relationship with Almighty God didn't work the way they thought it did.  To them it was all about earning and deserving.  With God it is about His generosity and giving.  They were thinking "works", and Jesus was saying "Grace."  They believed that the length of time in their relationship to God – which was pure purely legal for many of them – meant that they deserved something more than others.  It is an attitude which is still prevalent among Jews today.  They have done more, they have suffered more, they have earned more.  

But the truth which Jesus was trying to illustrate by means of this parable is that it is by grace, and if God chooses to include others in His goodness and generosity, He can and will.  With God, it is all gift.  Life is a gift.  His Word is a gift.  Our faith is a gift.  We were all standing about in the marketplace until He came and got us, and put us to work.  We have the agreed wage – we have the promises of God of forgiveness and life and salvation.  These are the same promises the Jews had, although they tended to interpret them in terms of worldly comfort and pomp and power.  The problem that Jesus confronted with the Jews was that they thought that God owed them something, that they deserved more, that they had God over a barrel, so to speak.

Christians often think the same way.  You've heard the slogans – Name it and claim it, Expect a Miracle, the Abundant Life for God's People.  Those slogans reflect a theology of glory which says that we deserve something more and something better because we are God's people, because we have done something, because of our time of service.  Jesus says that it is gift, not deserving – that it is grace, not works.

The Jews were in for a surprise.  The Christian Church was that surprise.  Suddenly, the all of those centuries of history did not count for much.  Those who had been there and had been faithful received what they had been promised.  The faithful were saved by faith.  God forgave them their sins in view of the coming sacrifice for sins, just as He now forgives us in view of the sacrifice once made for us by Jesus.  Those who thought that they had something more and better coming because of their national heritage have been disappointed.  God spoke through St.  Paul, saying, they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants.

That is why we preach the Law.  The Law shows us our sins and teaches us that whatever we receive from God is not because we are such good people.  The Law tells us that we are sinners – and we do well to keep that clearly in mind.  God gives to us out of His generosity and love – grace.  We don't get what we deserve – nor should we want to.  We receive so much more and better than what we earn.  We earn death and hell.  We get life and salvation instead.

Part of this attitude to which the parable speaks is reflected in the idea that our religion is about us.  We want it to be fun.  We want it to be entertaining.  We want it to make us feel good, and we want it to fit neatly into a sixty-minute package.  But when we say those things, we are revealing that we think church is about US!  But it is not about us.  It is about Jesus and His great love, and His great gift to us.

It is actually good for us to have our flesh disappointed in the worship service, as long as it is disappointed by the Word of God and the faithful worship of God.  Then we are forced to place God and His will and His Word first, and humble ourselves before Him.  When we grumble about this or that in the face of God's Word, we are like those laborers in the vineyard who grumbled because they just naturally thought that they were going to get more, somehow.  We need to discipline our flesh to serve God and to hear His Word.

But we do not need to leave the service feeling good.  It would be nice, but it is not always possible, and to expect it is to have an unrealistic expectation.  We are sinners.  We should feel guilty.  We should be ashamed of our sins.  We need to repent.  Only when we genuinely repent can we actually understand, believe, or receive forgiveness.  Only in true sorrow over sin can we appreciate how much God does for us when he forgives us our sins.  Only in the shadow the mountain of our own sinfulness can we estimate how deep and great the suffering of Jesus was – how great it had to have been – for our sins.  Only the one who is forgiven much can love much.

And if we know our sins, it is impossible to always feel good.  When we then have faith in our Lord and believe that our sins are forgiven, we will usually feel thankful, and the knowledge of His goodness will bring us joy – but it is always a joy tempered by the humiliation of facing our corruption and sin.  Some days the sin part is overwhelming the joy part, and then we rest in a quiet joy in faith, knowing that Jesus died for us and took our punishment, guilt and death, even when we are not "feeling good" or bright and chipper.  The gospel is true no matter how I feel today.

If we require a certain feeling, we have a "work" which we have imposed on ourselves or others before we can have salvation.  If we demand that worship be entertaining, or that it meet some other criterion than faithfulness to the Word of God, we have made it about us.  The Gospel is for us, but it is not about us.  Our salvation is God's gift to us, but it is about His love, and Christ's substitution for us, and about the grace of God, freely given to all who believe.  It is about grace, not works.  It is about what God has done and give to us, not about us, except as the grateful recipients of His abundant generosity.

In the parable, the issue was deserving versus generosity.  For us, this morning, it is grace vs. works.  We want to keep grace clearly in our minds, for it is by grace that we have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not at all on the basis of works, so that no one may boast – save in Jesus Christ alone!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)