Better Than the Best

 Matthew 5:20-26

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.  You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.'  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

"If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.  

"Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent."

Sermon for Sixth Sunday After Trinity                                               07/07/24

Better Than the Best

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Sometimes planning only makes things harder.  Have you ever noticed that?  As some of you know, I plan the services a month or more at a time.  I do that primarily to plan the hymns so our music people have time to make their plans.  It is more challenging to produce the music for the service than it might seem, if you have never participated in doing so.  When I plan the services, I read the text and try to plan the theme of the sermon - that is how I know which hymns to pick.

Usually this sermon-theme planning works out okay.  Sometimes, however, I come back to the text and discover that I overlooked something, or I cannot imagine what I was thinking of when I planned the theme that I put on the planning form.  The hymns are almost always appropriate - but writing the sermon can get to be a challenge, trying to fit into a theme I no longer see or resonate with.  I am sure you have had the same experience now and then, you know, reading a Bible passage and seeing one thing in it at one time, and reading it again weeks or months later and seeing something else, or something more -and wondering how you missed it earlier.

The reason for that is that the Word of God is living and active - according to the Bible itself.  God is at work through His Word, and He opens up certain things to us at the time we need them - as they apply to our situation at the moment.  It is the same Word, and it says the same things, and means the same things - but we just pick up on how it applies differently in different situations and according to the need of different moments.

I only mention that because each time I read our text for this morning, I see something more - something I either did not see earlier, or saw and dismissed from my planning, and cannot put out of my mind as I consider the text anew.  So, while we wrestle with this Gospel lesson, this morning, we will do so under the theme, Better Than the Best.

The theme came from the first sentence of our Gospel, "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."  Although we carry a prejudice against the Pharisees because of the condemnation of Jesus, the truth is that they were pretty good people.  They were ultra-moral.  They were the most diligent of the Jews in minding the Law and keeping their religion's rules and regulations.  They were the kind of people who made others feel unclean by comparison, and they didn't have to brag about it to do so.  They did brag, but they didn't need to in order to make others feel less religious or less righteous.  They were really the Best.

Jesus didn't condemn them for keeping the Laws, but for their hypocrisy.  They were keeping the rules, but they had forgotten God.  They had the form of their religion, but they did not love God.  They didn't understand the reasons for the rules they were keeping.  They were just about being the best without really thinking much about why or how their observance of their own religion matched up with the religion they were supposedly observing.  Some of them were masters of putting on a good show publicly, and accommodating every vice and lust privately, without anyone seeing it.

Jesus knew the truth, however.  He saw their empty formalism.  He saw the pride behind doing outwardly and slavishly what God desired they do from their heart - out of love for their God and Savior.  The Pharisees didn't even call themselves "Pharisees".  That name means the "separated ones".  They initially called themselves "Haberim", meaning "The Associates" or "The Brothers".  Their public nick-name is the one that stuck, however, because they thought they were better than anyone else.  And, in terms of keeping the rules, they were.

And Jesus said "that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."  You need to be better than the best.  Then Jesus goes on to sharpen the Law for us so that we understand that even if mere formalism were our goal, we would find it far more difficult than we might imagine.  It is not just enough, for example, to refrain from killing our neighbor.  We must also not speak ill of him or call him a rude name.  Even being angry is as bad as murder, but calling tem a name or saying "You fool!" is enough to send you to hell.  The demands of the Law are far more exacting than we like to think.

They are so exacting that if we were to try honestly to measure up for ourselves, we would find ourselves failing miserably.  And that is the point of the Law.  It accuses.  The Law always accuses.  The law should always remind you forcibly that you are fit for hell, and you deserve no good thing from God whatsoever.  If you hear the Law preached and come away from it feeling pretty good about yourself, and think that you're not so bad after all, either I haven't done my job right, or you have not been paying attention.

So, just in case, listen up: the Pharisees were the very best at outwardly observing the Law and keeping the rule, and Jesus said that unless your righteousness was greater than that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Note that Jesus did not say "might not" or that you could miss - but that you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.  You've got to be better than the best. 

Then comes the part that jumps up and grabs me - the part I didn't think about before.  Jesus talks about making friends with your opponent at law.  "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent."

I have to confess that I have preached this as I have heard it preached in the past - reconcile with your brother now - you know, make hay while the sun shines.  But as I prepared to write this sermon it just didn't fit.  The thought is okay, God would have us reconcile with one another - its just that it really never seems like that is what Jesus is getting at there.  He does that in the verses before, when He tells us to leave our gift at the altar and go and be reconciled with our brother before we present our gifts.  More than just saying, "God loves a cheerful giver," Jesus is saying there that God doesn't want anything from you - not offerings or worship or anything until you get right with your brother down here.  It is like where John writes, in 1st John, "If someone says, ‘I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

Jesus tells us in our Gospel that we have no business even approaching God with anything standing between us and our brother - that is, a fellow believer.  He speaks there of reconciliation and setting things right man to man and woman to woman so clearly that it cannot be what He is talking about in these last verses of our Gospel.

Then it struck me, our ‘opponent at law' is God Himself.  The judge will be Jesus at the end, and jail from which we shall never escape ‘until we have paid the last cent' is hell.  Jesus is preaching the Gospel here, sort of.  He is saying fix the problem of sin while you are on the way - you know while you are alive, before you face God at the end.  But we cannot.  We need to be better than the best.  We need to be better than we can be, and each one of us has dared countless times to come before God with anger and hard feelings standing between us and someone else, even between ourselves and those who also profess faith in Christ.  So what are we to do?

Since we are lost already - and we cannot make friends with our opponent at law while we are on the way - we need Him to rescue us.  And that is precisely what He has done.  He took the entire burden of our sins and paid the price, bore the penalty, endured the wrath of God which was ours by right and by deserving.  Jesus did all of that on the cross with His brutal death, and He invites us to make friends by taking Him at His Word and trusting His promises and believing that because of His death, and it is proclaimed by His resurrection, our sins are fully and freely forgiven, and that He that believes and is baptized shall be saved!

How do you make friends?  Trust Him.  Take Him at His Word.  If you do, and you take that seriously, you have that righteousness which surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you have the righteousness of Christ by His gift and grace.  You are cleansed by the waters of Baptism, and you are filled with the righteousness of Christ by forgiveness and by the indwelling of Jesus Christ in you which you receive as you eat of His body and drink of His blood in the Holy Sacrament.  In Christ, you are declared by God to be better than the best – at least the best that man can accomplish by his own powers and natural abilities.

Our lesson this morning is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount.  Many people love the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus taught it and they interpret it as pure Gospel, somehow.  It is not.  It contains some of the sternest Law of the entire Bible.  Jesus made the Law more demanding and exacting and comprehensive – as He did in our Gospel lesson this morning – so that no one could misunderstand and dream that they could earn eternal life.  Obviously, that hasn't stopped most people – not even most who call themselves Christians – but you should not allow yourselves to be deceived.

The message this morning is, give up on yourself.  You are not good enough.  Throw yourself on God's mercy, and He will have grace and forgiveness and salvation for you, if you humble yourself and repent, and trust Him.  When you do, the Holy Spirit will work in you through Word and Sacrament, and your life will demonstrate the sincerity of your faith as He leads you to live a changed, repentant life.   Sadly, your life on this earth won't be perfect even then, but our life and our perfection is not our hope.  Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.  In Jesus Christ, and only in Jesus Christ, are we better than the best.

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Success Is the Lord's

 Luke 5:1-11

Now it came about that while the multitude were pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them, and were washing their nets.  And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the multitudes from the boat.  And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."  And Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding I will let down the nets."

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish; and their nets began to break; and they signaled to their partners in the other boat, for them to come and help them.  And they came, and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.  But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"  For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men."  And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

Sermon for Fifth Sunday After Trinity                                        06/30/24

Success Is the Lord's

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

One of the interesting developments in home video in the past decades has been the DVD.  When it came out, the producers of the DVD promised great wonders, which they have failed to deliver, but one of the small things that I get a kick out of is the "Special Features" on some DVD's.  They promised great stuff in the Special Features that they have rarely produced, but I am thinking of those features that talk about how they make a movie.  The movie, "The Day After Tomorrow", the environmental horror flick, had a feature in which they showed the layers of sounds added to the photography that made up the scene.  They took us from a silent film of the scene to where they had added the conversation, the sounds of the helicopter, the sound of air rushing by, the background noises, the radio transmissions just at the level of noise you would notice, and so forth.  It was interesting to note how the scene wasn't quite right until all of the sounds were in place.

If you had to choose, you would have trouble deciding which sounds were more important to the realism of the scene on the screen.  The little noises that I might forget about, if I were assembling the scene, were just as important as the voices of the characters, or the sound of the helicopter rotors turning through the air.  In a way that is analogous, every part of the world around us is significant as well.  Every person has a role to play in the plan of God - particularly His holy people.  That is the focus of our attention this morning as we look at the Gospel lesson about Jesus preaching, and the miraculous draught of fishes.  Our theme is, Success is the Lord's.

Our Gospel opens with Jesus teaching.  He has quite a crowd - a multitude - gathered around Him.  You know how crowds are, they gathered too close to Jesus for effective communication with the whole group.  His voice was lost in the press of bodies and clothing right next to Him.  It is helpful to remember that the personal space of the middle-east culture is a lot smaller than ours today in America.  We like people with whom we are having a private conversation to be at least a foot and a half away, sometimes just a bit farther.  We are not comfortable when people invade our personal space without our explicit invitation.

In the Middle East, people tend to talk literally nose-to-nose.  Imagine, then, the crowd gathered around Jesus.  Luke tells us that they were pressing around Him, and we can imagine that with personal space measured in inches, rather than arm's-lengths, His voice would be easily absorbed by bodies and clothing around Him, so, to teach the whole crowd effectively, He needed to put some space between Himself and the crowd – just like the space between the pulpit and the first row of pews here.

To accomplish that, Jesus climbed into Simon Peter's boat and asked him to put out a little way from the shore.  The choice of the boat and His presence at that particular place on the shore were not coincidences, although it probably appeared that way to everyone else.  Jesus had Peter in mind, and He led his multitude to this spot to accomplish what He was intending to do.  So, He climbed into the boat and had Peter put out a couple of yards from the shore, and He sat down in the boat, as a teacher in those days would do, and began to teach from the boat.

There was nothing random here.  God doesn't do random.  Every detail was part of His plan, although no one but Jesus was probably aware of how deliberate each element of this scene was.  When Jesus was done with teaching the lesson for the day, He simply asked Peter to put out into the deep water, and let down His nets for a catch.

Mind you, fishing of this sort was traditionally done at night.  Peter and his brothers and partners had been at it all night and without a catch.  It was likely quite unusual to fish all night and catch absolutely nothing, but that is what they had done last night.  Peter kind of complained that they had already spent the night fruitlessly, but, at Jesus' request, he would put down the nets one more time.  He already knew that Jesus was something special.  Not only had he heard Jesus teaching that morning, but in the previous chapter of Luke, Jesus had healed Simon's mother-in-law of a high fever, had driven out demons that cried out that Jesus was the Son of God, and had healed many people of various illnesses in the presence of Peter and, possibly, his brothers.  Peter wasn't a full-time disciple yet, but he had seen Jesus at work, and knew He could do amazing things, so he let down his nets.

You all know what happened, because I read it as the Gospel lesson this morning.  Peter immediately enclosed in his nets a great quantity of fish, so great, in fact, that the nets began to break and Peter had to call for the guys in the other boat to come out and help him.  When they came out, there were so many fish that they filled both boats with fish to the point where the boats began to sink - they were swamped with the success of the fishing.  It was a very profitable morning indeed.  Peter recognized the truth of our sermon theme - Success is the Lord's - and he realized again that he was standing in the presence of someone who was more than merely a man.  He could see that something divine was there, and he knelt down before Jesus, which actually means that he began to worship Jesus, and he said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!

Peter understood at some level that he was in the presence of the holy God, and the first reaction he had was to become suddenly aware of his sin.  Peter was beginning to learn about Jesus - who He was and what He could do, and what He could accomplish.  Success is the Lord's, and God gives it where He chooses, for His own reasons.

What we often do not pay attention to is the night before.  I mean, why would we pay attention to that?  Jesus wasn't there yet, and nothing happened.  It was a singularly bad night of fishing.

And yet, if it had been a great night of fishing, or even an average night of fishing, Peter and his brothers would have doubtless been less impressed with the catch Jesus gave them.  The contrast between nothing and the unimaginable abundance makes the point that Jesus wanted to make so much more pointed.  So, why do you think that they caught nothing the night before?  Ever thought of that?  Do you think that it was just coincidence?

Remember, God doesn't do random.

Success is the Lord's - not just great success, but appalling success - also known as failure.  I don't want to blame God for every human endeavor that fails to accomplish something, but wherever God's people are, there He is.  He is with them, guiding them, blessing them, and granting them success.  When we are the Lord's, and we are faithful, we cannot fail.

God tells us that His Word never returns to Him without accomplishing that for which He spoke it.  When we preach it, or tell it to someone else, and see nothing happen, we must conclude that either God isn't done doing what He spoke His Word through us to accomplish, or we have witnessed what His Word was intended to accomplish, although we see nothing we would call success.

Remember the movie scene at the beginning of the sermon?  Just as every sound, no matter how soft or seemingly insignificant, was important to the completed scene, just so, every one of us, and all of our faithfulness is important to the plan of God, to what He is doing in us, and around us, and through us.  The hours of fishing with no catch played a vital role in accomplishing the plan of God for that day for Peter and his brothers and the work of Jesus.  In the same way, our time spent with no visible results, our faithful worship and our confession of the Lord day-by-day, and our inviting one person after another who ignore our invitation, plays an important part in the plans of our Lord for us and for those among whom we live and confess the faith.

It is important that we keep in mind that our entire salvation rests on what appeared to be defeat and failure.  Jesus' enemies triumphed over Him.  They arrested Him, humiliated Him, abused Him and then executed Him under false pretenses.  On Good Friday, Jesus looked to be a failure, the one man in Israel who had no friends, no ability to play the system, and not even a tomb to call His own.  Measured by any human standard, Jesus was a failure on Good Friday.

And yet, we know that Jesus scored His victory, and ours, on Good Friday.  He accomplished precisely what He had come to do.  He died, although innocent and actually deserving eternal life.  He carried our sins instead, because He had none of His own.  He paid the penalty and set us free from sin and death, hell and the power of Satan, by dying in a way that appeared so helpless and defeated.  By His stripes you are healed, and because He suffered for your sins, you are forgiven!  We all are!

Success is the Lord's.  We may feel insignificant.  We may judge our own efforts as futile and ineffective.  It may seem to us and everyone around us that our faithfulness is foolish - and pointless - and inconsequential.  They may point at this congregation and say, "Your church will never survive!"  The devil will certainly suggest it to you, and invite you to despair.  But success is the Lord's.

We are God's holy people, and, as such, we cannot fail.  God Himself is with us to bless us, and guide us, and keep us.  He doesn't ask us to know, or to understand every moment or every detail of His plan.  He calls on us to be faithful.  He invites us to believe His promises, to trust in Him with all our hearts, to let down the nets even when we have spent the night fruitlessly working and have nothing to show for it, and to remain faithful.

Some have despaired and given up.  Only they have failed.  Jesus has not failed, nor has He broken His promises to us.  He never promised it would be easy, or fun, or impressive in the estimation of the world around us.  

Individually, we don't get to see everlasting life until we die.

But the promise of Jesus is, "Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life."

Besides, in the middle of that long night of fishing without a catch, we cannot see what part it plays in the plan, or how God is working through us.  Our sicknesses, our pains, our sorrows - they are all parts of life, and yet because we are God's people we not only know that we do not go through these things alone, but God has a reason for letting these tribulations come to us, and when we are faithful, we cannot fail, but we succeed, and accomplish what God sent us to accomplish - or, better yet, what He set out to accomplish through us.

Success is the Lord's.  He cannot and He will not fail - ever.  While we stand with Him, we cannot and we will not fail - ever.  So, come and refresh yourselves at the banquet of forgiveness and life set before us this morning, and hear the voice of Jesus invite you to drop down those nets again, this time for a catch.  Be faithful, and do not give up hope.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall make your paths straight.

Success is the Lord's.

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Forrest Gump Was Right!

 Luke 6:36-42

"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.  Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he?  Will they not both fall into a pit?  A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.  And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye."

Sermon for Fourth Sunday After Trinity                                                                                  06/23/24

Forrest Gump was Right

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Forrest Gump was right.  He was basically a moron - intellectually challenged by almost everything in the world.  He was too stupid to be dishonest.  He wasn't bright enough to know that he couldn't do things, so he went ahead and did them.  He was faithful and consistent and pleased with the simple things of life.  His creators viewed all of those qualities as retarded.  We wasn't bright enough to be unfaithful, too challenged to make a promise he would not keep, too slow or too thick to abandon his friends.  By placing all of those qualities in the mentally challenged Forrest, they were saying something about decency - and about everyone else who thinks they are so very clever.  What they were saying about either of those things was not nice.  True, at least in part, but not nice.

Forrest Gump said a number of things - "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get."  That is true, life is not always what we expect.  Most of what he said was proverbially true.  The one saying I thought of as I read the Gospel text was "Stupid is as stupid does."  Basically, Forrest was saying that you live out what or who you really are.  Jesus says pretty much the same thing in our text, and couples it with some promises.  I want to take you through that gospel lesson, this morning, with the theme "Forrest Gump was right."

Jesus did not say in our Gospel that what you do determines things, but what you do that reveals who and what you are.  People in the movie would ask Forrest, "What, are you stupid?"  And Forrest would answer, "My Momma always said, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.'" For Forrest, stupid was not so much a state of being as a behavior.  You aren't stupid if you don't act stupid.  He proved the point by being successful in almost everything he did while those who were supposedly ‘smart' around him made stupid choices and made messes of their lives, and ended up being rescued, often more than once, by stupid old Forrest.

The words of Jesus tell us that the conduct of a Christian flows out of who they are.  It doesn't cause them to be who they are, but it reflects their true nature.

"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."  If your Father is merciful, you are too.  If you are not merciful, then your father is not the merciful Father.  Jesus says it like a command, and yet we know that these things are not possible for us by our own devices, and are given to us by God.  So what Jesus is saying here is that the true child of the merciful heavenly Father is like that merciful Father, merciful.

"And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned."  This is more of that ‘the child of God is as the child of God does' stuff.  Forrest Gump was right.  He wasn't original with these thoughts, but he was right.  Now, if you look at what Jesus says, and read it simply, it sounds like Jesus is saying that if you do not judge, then you will not be judged, as though your refraining from judgment causes God to not judge you.  Just the opposite is true, if you go about judging others, then you force God to judge you, too.

It's that forgiveness thing.  Jesus is indicating that he who is forgiven is also forgiving - just like the one who is forgiven much loves much.  Jesus also taught us, as He taught the Lord's Prayer"(Matthew 6:14-15) "if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." And He also taught, ,  If you actually understand your own sin, if you know the grace of God in forgiving you, and believe it, you will forgive others too.  It isn't just that you should, but you will.  It doesn't come natural, however.

Natural for us is sin.  Natural for us is selfish and angry and violent.  Forgiveness is the grace of God, and it works in us to produce the same fruit from us - but our flesh is always going to be pulling us toward the sinful side.  We will be tempted to judge another, to condemn others.  It will seem natural and just and right and good to us.  It will feel right.  But it is not grace.  

Judging and condemning others repudiates the grace of God toward us, and calls it wrong, and so God returns our rejection of His grace with justice and judgement and condemnation.  So Jesus warns us not to listen to the flesh.  Pardon, he says, and you shall be pardoned.  It isn't our forgiveness that causes or merits His forgiveness, but it is what happens when someone trusts God and believes that forgiveness is what He has done.

It works the same in stewardship.  "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."  This is "Christian is as Christian does".  Forrest Gump was right.  We are all recipients of such rich blessings and abundant goodness.  If you know it, and believe it, and believe it is aimed at you personally, how could you be anything else?

God gives, and He gives abundantly.  He doesn't wait for us to be good and generous.  He gives to us as Jesus describes it - good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over!  What do you need that God does not supply?  I am sure you can name things you want, or that you think it would be nice to have, but what needs do you have that aren't answered - and more!?  We live in the richest nation in history, and at a time of great wealth.  We have such abundance we cannot afford to scrimp and hoard and save.  We have just too much for that!  There is a multi-billion dollar industry in providing extra, off-site storage for our excess possessions.  We dispose of perfectly good things, serviceable stuff, simply to upgrade to the next generation or the newer model, or the latest thing!

God doesn't wait for you to be abundant to you, and when you know that, and believe His goodness to you is no accident, but flowing from His great love for you, you know you can afford to be similarly generous.  Where you see the need, you can give, so that your abundance fills in the need of others, just as the abundance of mercy in God filled in your need for salvation and hope.

Jesus doesn't say what to give to.  He just says, "Give."  It might be stewardship toward the congregation, or giving to a fellow-member of the congregation who is in need.  It might be a neighbor who is in need, or the poor, or the sick, or a mission field somewhere.  When you see the need, you should also be aware of the supply - God's abundance towards you - and be able and willing, even eager - to give.  

Grasping and greedy are natural to us human beings, but our greed in the face of the grace and generosity of God towards us repudiates His goodness and abundant blessing, and denies by our behavior the thought - the doctrine - that He will provide and He will take care of us.  If you tell God you don't expect any good from Him, He will deal with you according to your faith and give you what little you expect from Him - or withhold from you, as you expect Him to do.  But if you live in expectation of His marvelous supply, He always does provide – sometimes in the most unexpected ways.

Jesus tells us that God will deal with us as we expect Him to - Forrest Gump was right.  "For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

The second half of the Gospel lesson simply illustrates what Jesus said in the first half.  Jesus spoke a parable.  He talked about a blind guide.  What sort of parable is that?  The only point of comparison is blindness.  In order to navigate around the obstacles, one needs to be able to see them somehow.  

Who are the blind?  The answer is, we are.  We are spiritually blind and dead, and enemies of God by nature.  We need a guide if we are going to find our way at all.  Human wisdom, on the other hand, is all on the same plane.  It is all blind.  A human guide cannot improve our wisdom because a human guide can only make us as wise as he is - and he is born just as dead to God and blind to holiness as we are.  Stupid is as stupid does.  "A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher."

Our teacher, our guide is to be  Christ.  He taught us love - in that He loved the world so much that He gave Himself for our salvation.  He set the pattern and gave us an example while He rescued us from sin.  He gave it all - suffering and dying in our place and enduring what we deserved so that we might have what we do not deserve, but so deeply need.  He died for us: He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.  Give and it shall be given to you.

He did not judge us.  He knew us in our guilt and sin, and although He possessed both the right and the power to judge and condemn us, He did not, but gave Himself for us that we might have forgiveness life and salvation.  Our judgment was handed down on Good Friday.  Jesus was condemned, and Jesus was executed for our transgressions!  Your sins are forgiven for Christ's sake!  He who is holy and pure endured not just our sins, but took them onto Himself and bore the righteous wrath of God against us in His flesh so that we would not.

And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.

How can we look at another and see their sins against us, which are truly minor?   If we consider our own sins against Christ, the log must blind us to the dust-specks of others sins against us.  If we can hope in Christ for the log to be forgiven, and thereby removed, what other course can make sense to us than to remove the mote from our brother's eye by the cleansing washing of forgiveness?  Forgiven is as forgiven does!  Forrest Gump was right.

What do you have, after all, that wasn't given to you?  Give freely, then.  Forgive freely.  Follow the guide who can see, and whose leadership is true, that is to say, follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Again, what Jesus calls on us for in this text is not possible by our own powers and nature.  It is, however, His gift to us, through the cross and by the power of the Word and Sacraments.  But while we live, our flesh will always see things differently, and will try to draw us to what seems right and good to it, but does not follow Christ.  So, Jesus gives us guidance and warning, and His teaching sounds to my ear a lot like the message repeated by Forrest Gump - another one who the world considers retarded.  Stupid is as stupid does - and Christian is as Christ has done!  Forrest Gump - adjusted a little for our consideration this morning - was right!

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

(Let the people say Amen)

The Joy of Salvation

 Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him.  And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."  

And He told them this parable, saying, "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'  I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!'  In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Sermon for 3rd Sunday After Trinity                                06/16/24

The Joy of Salvation

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Most of my life I have heard about the joy of salvation.  Of course, it is only natural since I sang about it almost every Sunday in the words of the offertory, drawn from Psalm 51.  I remember the popular slogans of my youth, "J is for Jesus, J is for Joy!"  There was a great emphasis on the joy the Christian life.  It was the first real challenge to my life in faith because, frankly, I didn't feel all that much joy.  I still don't.

Some people do, or at least they seem to.  They smile a lot and talk about the joy of the Christian life.  I used to feel cheated, when I heard about all that joy and felt so little of it.

  Then I read.  I read the Bible.  I read Luther.  I read the Confessions, and slowly it all began to make sense to me.  Our life in Christ is not about joy right now - not the "tickles your fancy and makes you want to dance a jig" kind of joy.  Our life in Christ is promised to be a life of suffering like Christ, of the hatred of the world, and of our being faithful in all circumstances, good or difficult.

Jesus talks in our text about joy over salvation.  He tells the parable of the Sheep that was lost and found, and the Coin that was lost and found.  It is a lesson about salvation and tells us about that joy.  Our theme, this morning, is the joy of salvation.

Before I go any farther, I want to be clear on this "feeling the joy" thing.  I have felt some joy, pure joy in my life over the faith..  For me, it is not a continuous experience.  It is not even a frequent thing.  Some people seem to have this on-going sense of wonder and joy of which they are conscious.  I want to do nothing to diminish that.  I don't want to be understood as discouraging it or judging it in any way negatively.  If you feel excitement and joy about your salvation, go with it and have a good time.  There is nothing even remotely wrong with feeling it.

According to all that I have been able to learn, however, most people don't have an ongoing sense of joy in faith.  There is often peace, comfort in times of distress and fear, and a pleasant hope for blessings and life beyond death - but not too many people report joy as their constant companion in faith.  But some people tell us that we are supposed to feel it, and they (and others, at times) make many people think that they should be feeling it, and cause many people to wonder what they are lacking, and where they are deficient in faith because they don't have this constant awareness of joy.

One of the messages I want to deliver this morning is that there is nothing necessarily wrong with those who do not have that sense of joy.  The Bible does not promise it or command it, and Jesus tells us that we will have sorrow, suffering, and pain as our part in the Christian life.  What can be so very dangerous here is the expectation of that joy, the idea that we should be feeling it and if we are not, something is missing and we need to go out and find (or generate) those feelings.  If mean, if you got ‘em, enjoy ‘em, but don't depend on them, and don't expect them, or make them the measure of true faith.  That expectation will betray you.  

The joy we will often possess is the quiet joy of the confidence that death is not the end, that we will see our loved ones, who also believed, again, and that our troubles are not outside of God's control or awareness, but we have a loving Father who will care for us, and that when the worst happens in this world, we have eternal life and peace and joy to look forward to, awaiting us at the end.  Not Yahoo! joy, but Ahhhhhh! joy.

The other message this Gospel lesson speaks of is the joy of salvation which has nothing to do with how we feel, but is the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.  The joy spoken of in our Gospel is the joy of God, and those who are His heavenly host, over the rescue of the individual sinner.

You might ask yourself at times, "How could God send His only-begotten Son to become one of us, to suffer and die in such an awful way?"  Yet, He did it for us, and, yes, He did it for our salvation.  The cross is the sign of the love of God for us and of the payment Christ made for sins we have committed that we might be forgiven.  But how could anyone do such a huge and horrific thing?  This text begins to open the door to understanding, when we see the joy which God has over each and every one who repents.

We can understand the nature and the depth of that joy by thinking about the parable.  Imagine being a shepherd.  The sheep were not merely the job of the shepherd - not if he was a good shepherd.  They were his passion.  Sheep can be pets, as you get to know them, and they get to know you, and they are a form of wealth.  Sheep provided milk, and therefore cheese, and wool for clothing, and the very occasional meal of meat.  The more sheep you had, the richer man you were.  The man in the parable had one hundred sheep, and one of them was lost - a significant portion of his wealth and future earnings potential.  

When Jesus asked, "What man among you . . . ?", He indicated that this was not an unusual thing to do - probably not an unusual occurrence among shepherds.  He expected them to understand and maybe even feel the urgency of the search and the joy of finding the lost sheep.  We have each misplaced things of value and searched for them, and we know the relief and delight in finding them at last.  That delight and joy is the response of all of heaven over every single sinner who repents.  It is heaven's response because it is the joy of the Lord.

Generally, shepherds were men.  Jesus told the next parable to make the point clear even to a woman.  A woman would often be in charge of the family resources around the home.  A woman without a man, in that society, would be absolutely without a provider, so her resources would be far more important to preserve.  The value of the coin is not particularly important, but it was one tenth of what she had.  Losing it, she sweeps and cleans and does not cease to search until the coin is found, and when she recovers it, it is a cause of joy and relief and celebration.  That is what the joy of your salvation is, for God in heaven.

"God loved the world in this way", says John in chapter 3, verse 16 of his Gospel, "He gave His only-begotten Son that anyone that believes in His should not perish, but have life everlasting."  And having loved us with such a love, He delights and rejoices, as does all of heaven, when His love bears such fruit that any man or any woman repents and believes, and fulfills the goal and purpose of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Scholars debate whether the parables should be called the Parable of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin, or the Parable of the Found Sheep and the Found Coin.  It really doesn't make any difference.  It is the explanation of Jesus for His taking the time to sit and fellowship with the sinners, the really unsavory people of His day.  It is the explanation of the great love of God for us that each of us, insignificant and weak and sinful as we are, bring such joy to all of heaven when we hear the Gospel, turn from our sins, and call upon God for grace and forgiveness.

We are the weak and unsavory, over whom there is joy in heaven.  Each one of us was brought – one at a time – each in our own order and way – into the presence of God with joy.  The joy of salvation will one day be shared with us in a fullness we cannot comprehend right now, but today, we have reality of life here and now.  We have aches and pains.  We have sicknesses and troubles.  We have people telling us ‘it doesn't matter', that ‘we are too picky about truth', that ‘there is no difference between the various religions because we all want to go to heaven, and we all believe in God in some way, and it is just a matter of insignificant particulars of doctrine'.  Besides, who knows which of us is right?

These are the tribulations and persecutions that we face today.  It could be better.  And it could be worse.  Our calling is not ‘to know all the answers to every question someone can dream up'.  We are not commanded to win every battle, or even understand why it is worth fighting for.  Our call is to trust God, to take Him at His Word, and to be faithful.  We are to confess the truth we have been taught to believe, and know that when we do, and stand faithfully in His grace, God will do what needs to be done so that the joy of heaven will increase as one by one, as sinners repent and find peace and forgiveness and life everlasting in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Don't look for the giddy ‘joy of salvation' that we hear much about in our society.  If you have it, enjoy it, but don't depend on it.  Depend on Jesus, and trust the Word of God even when life doesn't feel so good, and we are not having such a fun time.  No one said it was going to be easy, or that we would enjoy the ride.  God has only promised that He would make the journey down that narrow and difficult road that leads to salvation with us, and that when we arrive at our destination, we will find that it was well worth it to have remained faithful.

Jesus explained in our Gospel His willingness to spend time with sinners by telling His critics of the joy of God over each one that repented.  He has that same joy over each one of us.  As we confess the faith day by day, we search with Jesus for the lost, and, God willing, now and then we are the tools of causing even more of God's great joy in saving us, poor miserable sinners.

To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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

Setting Priorities

 Luke 14:16-24

But He said to him, "A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.'  But they all alike began to make excuses.  The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.'  And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.'  And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.'

"And the slave came back and reported this to his master.  Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.'  And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'

"And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.'"

Sermon for Second Sunday After Trinity                                      06/09/24

Setting Priorities

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

"First things first."  That is the saying I have heard all of my life.  It is all about setting one's priorities.  For most of my life, the temptation has always been to do everything first but that which needed to be done, and then to do that only when confronted by a deadline.  I have had a great deal of success managing things by facing a deadline - and I have often found it difficult to organize myself and motivate myself to do things before they needed to be done.  When I am really under the gun, I often find myself helplessly drawn to read a good book, further increasing the pressure to get things done.  One might suspect that I have trouble setting priorities.

But I do not.  I know what is important, generally, and I always have my eye on the ball, so to speak, even if I don't seem to be paying any attention at all.  My seeming inattention is simply how my brain works and organizes things.  So far, I have never shown up for church without my sermon ready, the paper I was to deliver in hand, or my assignment incomplete.  If it sounds strange to you, how I approach things, imagine how it seems to me, since this is not a conscious avoidance thing.  It just works that way.

The people in the parable Jesus tells have lost their sense of priority, or they have set their priorities poorly.  Jesus tells us this parable to focus on two aspects of the story - the ones who were invited, but did not come, and the response of the man who was giving the dinner to the casual disrespect of his invitation.  Israel was the invited guests, and the host is God, the dinner is salvation, and we are the ones along the highway and in the hedges, the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  Our theme is Setting Priorities

.

To be honest, the parable is not properly understood without the context of the entire chapter of Luke in which it appears.  Jesus is facing a test at the home of Pharisee to which He had been invited to eat.  They bring a man in to see if Jesus will heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus asks them for their judgment in the situation, and they refuse to speak, so He heals the man.  Then Jesus explains His action by asking them about which one of them would allow an ox or a son to fall into a well on the Sabbath, and not rescue it or him?  Clearly, it is an issue of priorities: Sabbath Law or Ox or son?  Just as clearly, Jesus expects them to choose the ox or the son, but to say so might be seen as blasphemy, so they keep silent.

Then Jesus talks about humility.  He suggests that they not seek the place of honor when invited to a dinner, but take the lowest seat, and allow themselves to be honored by being moved up, rather than shamed by being made to give the place of honor to someone else, and be humiliated.  Of course, there are risks with humility.  Your host might not see anything amiss in your taking the place of least significance, and then you will find out where you really belong, in his estimation.  The question is, which is more important, the place of honor with the risk of embarrassment, or the opportunity for recognition and honor with the risk of finding out that you do not merit any - but without the humiliation before others?  Again, it is a question of setting priorities.

Then Jesus tells the man who had invited Him that when he gives a luncheon, he should not invite family and friends, people he would like to impress who might also return the kindness of his invitation, but rather invite those who would have need of the invitation, and no means to repay his kindness - the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  Jesus says that such kindness would be repaid by God at the resurrection.  This presents another setting of priorities - good times and good will here and now,    . . . or later with the Lord.

At this point in the narrative, someone spouts off with the seemingly out-of-place comment, "Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"  I have kind of puzzled over that for a while, but I was always wanting to preach about the invitation, and our gracious inclusion in the banquet of salvation.  Still, it seemed to be an odd interjection.  At first, I thought the person was crying out some odd praise of God and of salvation, but the more I thought about it, the less it seemed to fit.  Why say that now, in this place in the story?  And why, in seeming response to the outburst, does Jesus tell the parable of the banquet spurned?

Then it struck me.  It is just like when I preach about how rich we are, and how God gives us our riches for His purposes, and I get the sort of responses that say, "There is nothing wrong with my going on vacation, 

or owning nice things, 

or visiting my children in another state.  

When you preach about how we use our time or our things, Pastor, you make me feel guilty.  But I have every right to do with my life and my possessions what I please.  You can't tell me I have to do this or that to go to heaven."  Of course, I cannot - and I really do not want to.

Jesus was talking about priorities, and confronting how everyone tends to deal with life, and with one another, and with God.  He was explaining how God looked at things - the divine values and priorities, and the guy who shouted out the "Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" was trying to excuse their priorities, and dismiss what Jesus was saying by saying "We are all going to eat bread in the kingdom, and no one is going to be unhappy to be there, so what difference does it make if do this or that, how we manage the little stuff, or how we treat the poor?"  

It was a "Just get off our back!" kind of thing.  Being Jews, you know, the Chosen People, they knew they were going to go to heaven, and they really wanted to pay more attention to life on earth, right now, and worry about heaven once they got there.

Jesus' response said, in effect, that might be true for those who are going to heaven - but how do you know that you are going to make it?  Jesus took the presupposition which lay behind the man's statement, and told him the truth – showed him the truth about it and what it meant.  Israel - as individuals, not just as the entire nation - lived more or less just as the man had asserted.  They lived like so many of us twenty-first century Christians live today; taking God and eternity for granted, and making the most of the day we live in, but according to the purposes of the flesh, not according to the purposes of God.

The moment came - and it is never at convenient time that it comes - and the call went out, the dinner is ready, everything is prepared, come to the feast.  But those invited - the Chosen People - found themselves too wrapped up in the affairs of life to heed the invitation.  The first one was busy with land he had purchased.  The next was occupied with oxen - five yoke of ‘em.  The third was newly married.  Who could deny them the right to business, wealth, or family?  Surely, they had every right, and it was all God-given, so no one could say it was evil gain or something they ought not to have or ought not to be doing.  Still, when the call to the dinner came, it took second place to the other things.

Was the dinner less important?  I don't think so.  Did they not care about the dinner?  I would guess that is not true either.  It was just a matter of priorities.  Israel had gotten so wrapped up in living in the blessings of God that they lost sight of both the Giver and of the purpose of the gifts.  The land, the oxen, and the wife were more real and more urgent to them than God and salvation.  They didn't say they didn't want God or eternal life, they just wanted them on their terms and when they were ready.  They forgot that love and hate in the sight of God is not the same as it is in our thoughts.  With God it is a matter of setting priorities, and anything preferred to or more urgent than God means you love that thing and despise God.

Because they found everything more urgent and real than God and faith and salvation, they were found to be unworthy - and God went out and dragged the common unworthy in and gave them the banquet.  You and I are those blind, crippled, lame, and worthless people who just happen to have stumbled into the riches of life and salvation.  We did not find it or choose it, but we were found in the hedges and the back-alleys of life and compelled to come in.  That is the grace of God.

Jesus prepared the feast of salvation by His death on the cross for our sins, and dragged us into the dinner hall without asking our consent.  See, the banquet rests on the table before you this morning!  Here is life and salvation, forgiveness and peace, and resurrection and joy.

Of course, now that we have become the chosen ones, we also run the risk of taking it for granted, and finding other things more exciting - and more urgent - and more pleasurable -- and skipping the meal anyhow.  But this parable does not tell you ‘to beware', it tells you of the wonderful grace of God in bringing you into this banquet of life and forgiveness and peace and salvation, so that you may rejoice and give thanks!  Still, we can see what ‘taking it for granted' can lead to, or rather, lead away from.

It is about setting priorities.  The argument about priorities is not with me, or with Jesus.  It is an argument with your flesh.  God will not be put in second place, and salvation will not wait for you to exercise your perfect rights as an American Citizen to have and to do and to go and to enjoy.   If there are more urgent things in your life, well, then there are more urgent things in your life.  We ask nothing you cannot freely give or do.  The Lord loves a cheerful giver.

But remember, while everyone in heaven is going to be delighted to be there, not everyone who thinks they are going is going to be in heaven.  Those who take it so much for granted that they can count other things more precious or more urgent run the risk of finding that the call to the banquet that they were waiting for came while they were busy with something else - too busy to come to the banquet.

Look at what you've got.  Count the blessedness of being dragged in, unworthy though we are, to the banquet of Salvation.  Give thanks, and keep your wits about you.  You are chosen for something you don't deserve, but which you really want and need.

 Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.  He who does not love abides in death. . . .  We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  . . .  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)

A Picture of Reality

 Luke 16:19-31

"Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day.  And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.

"Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.  And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.'

"But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

"And he said, ‘Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house – for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'

"But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

"But he said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'

"But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"

Sermon for First Sunday After Trinity                                                                                  

A Picture of Reality

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I have preached this Gospel lesson at least two dozen times.  I have heard it preached at least a dozen more.  Most of what I remember about the preaching I have heard is a misapplication of the text.  The text is so inviting for misunderstanding.  This is one where the reader must struggle to apply the principle of the tertium, of the point of comparison.  When one does, this parable is a picture of reality, drawn in terms of life in the first century.   Our theme is, A Picture of Reality.

One of the reasons that this parable is so hard to keep straight on is that it is so real.  Jesus doesn't indicate, for example, that this is a parable.  He is talking just before this pericope about the permanence of the Word of God and about divorce, and suddenly we are into this lesson about the Rich Man and Lazarus.  It sounds like a story, and yet Jesus gives one of the characters a name - so some have speculated that Jesus was telling about a real event, learned by divine observation of two real people.  It is a parable, however.  The  contents of the story are realistic, but stylized and the name given to the poor man is an explanation of why the rich man and the poor man are differentiated.  "Lazarus" means "He whom God helps", and indicates that this one is a faithful child of the heavenly Father.

Knowing that this is a parable tells us that not every detail is significant.  Some details are there to inform the story – like the details of the moral character of the rich man – and some are there just to make the story work - like the dogs licking the sores of poor Lazarus - but have no meaning in terms of the truth which the story is intended to teach.  Knowing it is a parable means that we look for the point of comparison - the touch-point between the parable and reality.  In this parable, it is all very real, and so it is easier at times to sort out what the parable does not teach than to tell what it does teach.

Most preaching on this parable is Law - but the parable is Gospel.  Let me explain what this parable does not say.  The parable talks about the rich and the poor.  It is true that there are and always will be both rich people and poor people.  Neither condition all by itself automatically indicates anything about our standing before God.  Some of God's people will be affluent, and some, probably many, will be financially challenged, if not downright poor.  Neither condition means that God loves you more, or loves you less, or that you stand in His favor or His displeasure.

This parable also does not suggest the promise that everyone will eventually have both "good things" and "bad things".  Some people will never know hardship, and yet they will be found to be God's people, and others who are poor and desperate will go to hell for their unbelief.  I have often seen this mistake made when people go to foreign countries and see the intense fervor of the religion of the poor and judge them as "wonderfully Christian" for their fervor, without recognizing that their fervor is established on false doctrines and sometimes pagan rather than Christian foundations.  Some people are fervent about their religion because it is all they have - no other forms of entertainment or public contact is permitted by their culture and their poverty.  The "pious poor" can and will be condemned to eternal destruction if their piety is not Christian piety.

Another thought you often hear in connection with this parable is that the rich man was facing his troubles because of the way he used his riches during his lifetime.  There is nothing to indicate that this is true, in this parable.  The use of his wealth did not determine where the rich man was going - it only reflected it.  How he used what he possessed was a reflection of what sort of man he was, and what was going on inside of him.  His hoarding of his money and ignoring the needs of Lazarus did not earn his sentence to hell - it just illustrate that he was the sort that goes to hell.

By the same token, the poverty of Lazarus did not determine his eternal destination, nor did his use of it, but his use of it also reflected who he was, as shown by his name, and therefore where he was going.  He did not go to heaven, called "Abraham's Bosom" here in accord with the custom of Israel in those days, because he was poor, or sick, or maltreated.  He went to heaven because He believed.  He was identified by Jesus as one of those whom God helps - the faithful.  He remained faithful in spite of his outward state - although there is no indication of that in this parable other than his name, and his final disposition.

So, we learn from this that your condition in this life does not tell us anything about how you stand in the favor of the Lord.  We also observe that how you use the things with which you are blessed - the "stuff" of life - does not determine either your standing with God, nor you eternal destination, but can only reflect who you are as you stand before God.  In other words, the details that seem to scream so loudly, because we can relate to them, are just there to hold the story in shape so Jesus can get to the tertium - the point of comparison and the point of the story.

The description of the chasm between heaven and hell may or may not be realistic.  Such judgments are way outside of our ability to make.  You may not be able to see from one to the other - no one knows except those who are there, and they are not talking, at least, not to us.  The details of the parable do underline the teaching of the finality of the judgment, but that is not the point of the lesson, just a truth that happens to fit into the story-line.

We come close to the meaning of the parable when the Rich Man and Abraham are talking about the brothers of the Rich Man.  Here he pleads for special assistance for his brothers.  Here he blames God for his circumstances - saying that the Word preached is insufficient for salvation, and that we need signs and wonders - like someone rising from the dead - to get our attention and bring us to faith.  That is a common theme of television religion, pentecostalism, and really, of most religion - Protestant and Roman Catholic included - today.  They all want you to feel something, to be impressed, to have a wonder or a sign to look at, an experience to validate your faith-commitments, a relic to adore, or a decision that you made to look back on.

Abraham is the voice of God in this story, and Jesus speaking through him says, "No!"  He says, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them."  When the Rich Man argues, I hear in the back of my mind, in the response of Abraham, the words of Jesus in another place, in John, "He that is of God hears the word of God."  But what He says, and what the parable is all about, is this, "If they will not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded even if someone should rise from the dead."

Only the Word of God has power to convert.  Only through the Word can anyone be saved.  The messenger is of secondary importance, if that much.  Only the Word has the power to work faith, and cause one to be born-again to living hope which Jesus purchased for us with His own blood and death on the cross.  Jesus proved the absolute truth of this statement of Abraham in the parable by rising from the dead.  His resurrection did not change the hearts of His enemies.  It made them more bitter and determined to destroy Him.  It has the same effect today.  Wonderful signs and terrifying natural disasters do not have the power to change men's hearts.  The tragedy of the collapse of the twin towers of September 11th only made people go to church for a couple of weeks.  Within a couple of months, the bubble in church attendance was gone, and in its place was an even more furious rejection of the simple truths of the Gospel - both from inside the churches and out.

Should we have compassion on those less fortunate than we are?  That is the meaning of this parable I have heard preached before.  Surely, that seems like a reasonable idea - but it is not what this text is about, nor what it teaches.  If you want to do that, it is a godly thing to do, but find your motivation in the love of God for you - it is not part of this parable.

Should we use our resources for the welfare of others?    Again, this is another nice idea - it just not part of this lesson.  You can find that thought in the Law, but that is not what this parable is about.  It is about finding the truth where it is, and hearing the Word of God - not trusting feelings, or signs, or whatever else may appeal to our sinful flesh.

I could preach abut the torments of Hell, based on the description in this parable, but it isn't really taught for that purpose.  The depiction of the agony of hell is impressive, but the reality of the agony of hell is, I suspect, beyond our comprehension.  It simply fills out the motivation of the rich man in the story.  It isn't the love of the truth that moves the rich man, it is the realization of what awaits his brothers - everyone who, like him, lives their lives without thought for God and eternity and judgment and justice and  – well, everyone who lives like modern Americans tend to live - for the moment, in the pleasures of life and for the sake of enjoying it to the fullest.

Is this a condemnation of you and your life?  You might hear it that way, but that isn't what Jesus was saying.  If you think your life ought to be different than it is because you are the redeemed and chosen child of God in Jesus Christ, perhaps you ought to listen to yourself and be faithful and do something to make it different.  But not so that you get to go to heaven.  Jesus already made that difference, and has done everything you need done for your salvation, and has poured it out on you in baptism and feeds you eternal salvation in the meal of His body and blood which brings us also forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

All Jesus is really saying, in a most persuasive way, I might add, is, "Be careful to hear – and believe – the Word of God."  That is why this is such a great picture of reality.  This is true for rich or poor."

 6 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  17 By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  19 We love, because He first loved us.  20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

My, what a perfect picture of reality we have in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

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

Baptism – Birth from Above

 John 3:1-15

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."  Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"  Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.'  The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and you do not receive our witness.  If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.

Sermon for Trinity Sunday                                              05/26/24

Baptism – Birth from Above

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

This morning is Trinity Sunday.  Normally, the sermon should focus on the doctrine of the Trinity.  I am not going to do that today.  I am going to preach on the gospel, which deals with being "born again" - which is better translated "born from above", I think, and which is described by Jesus as being "born of water and the Spirit."  As to the doctrine of the Trinity, I could not describe it better than the creed which we just spoke together - the Athanasian Creed.  What we can say, and what we cannot say about who the Trinity is or how it works is set forth in short order there.

Today we are going to talk about that washing – Baptism.  Although our Gospel lesson doesn't state this explicitly, it is taught elsewhere, that this baptism is "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."  So, we are baptized in the name of and into connection with the Holy Trinity.  This morning, however, I want to talk with you about Baptism, starting with the words of Jesus in our text.  Our theme is, "Baptism - Birth from Above".

Our Gospel begins with Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night.  Nicodemus was identified as "a ruler of the Jews", which indicates that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Israel in those days.  He was also a rabbi, a teacher, for Jesus says to Him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?"  So Jesus was not speaking with a novice in theology, but a teacher, and clearly He was teaching Nicodemus things that Nicodemus had never even considered before.

Jesus spoke about being born again.  The word used there to mean, "again", means "from above".  We can see how Nicodemus took what Jesus said, at least at first, because He asks about how a man could crawl back up into His mother's womb to be born a second time.  That is part of what Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand - but surely not all of it.  The common word for the idea "again" in Greek is pavlin.  It is the most commonly used word in the New Testament, used 141 times.  The word Jesus used here is the Greek word, a[nwqen, which is used 13 times in Scripture and is translated "again" only three times - and two of them are in this Gospel lesson.  Jesus chose that specific word to couple the ideas of a re-birth, and a birth from above.

That is what Baptism is, a second birth, not from the womb, but rather from above.  It is a birth by water and by the power and working of the Spirit.  Nicodemus was a good Protestant.  He could not imagine what Jesus could have meant, and the only way he could think of "birth" was natural birth from the womb of a woman.  That seems to have suited Jesus' teaching intention, too.  Jesus used natural birth as "born of the flesh", and the birth from above - Baptism - as "born of the Spirit".  He teaches us that we are inadequate, as we come from the womb, "to enter (or see) the kingdom of God."

That is the witness of Scriptures in general, as we have often discussed.  1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "But a natural man [the way a person is when they come from the womb - untouched by God in any special way] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."  Romans 8:7 says, "because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so".  Again, 1 Corinthians 12:3 tells us, "Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed'; and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit."

The reason we need that birth from above is our spiritual condition as those born of the flesh, Ephesians 2:1, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins."  Paul also calls us "Children of wrath, just like the rest" and "dead in your transgressions" before the Spirit "made us alive together with Christ", working life in you by the new birth in Baptism.  This is what Paul is getting at in Romans 6, when He writes, "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

These words of Romans 6 also remind of the reason this birth is called "born again."  We are buried with Christ by Baptism into His death - that is we literally die with Christ - spiritually - and are raised, then, to a new life through baptism, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, as Romans 6:11 says.  This is a real death and a real re-birth to new and everlasting life with Christ.  That is why it is worse for a man to fall away once he has tasted the goodness of the Lord.  Peter says it is better to never have known than to know and turn away from Christ.

Jesus answers all of the modern objections to the doctrine of the sacramental power of Baptism when He speaks to Nicodemus.  Nicodemus cannot fathom how these things can be, and Jesus tells him to simply trust God and know that the Holy Spirit can do far more than he, Nicodemus, can imagine, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  And Jesus tells Nicodemus this in the context of telling him that you must be born of water and the Spirit.

He even chides Nicodemus,  "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and you do not receive our witness.  If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"  If anyone should have been able to understand these things, it should have been Nicodemus.  Nevertheless, he did not.  What the words of Jesus mean, basically, is that we should not trust our wisdom and powers of reason in matters theological, but trust and depend on the Word of God.  What God's Word tells us is true, and it means just what it says, even when it doesn't quite make sense to us.

The word for "Spirit" and the word for "wind" in Greek is the same word.  When Jesus describes the wind and says you hear it and see its results, but you don't know where it came from or where it is going, He was describing a common human experience.  With modern weather maps and such, people might think they know more about the wind - and they surely do - but the message is really unchanged: just as the wind goes where it goes, without our permission and without our understanding - we simply experience it - so, too, with the Spirit of God.

But Jesus doesn't actually say that.  He says, "so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  Like the wind, we cannot see the Holy Spirit, but only see some of what He is accomplishing.  We cannot always tell what He doing - nor control where He will go next.  The Church Growth Movement appears to believe that it can dictate where and when and how the Spirit will move - - - but they are wrong.  So, too, we cannot predict who will become a Christian, or who God will use, or how.  All we can do is experience what the Spirit is doing, and what He works in those around us.

Some times we think we have made a good confession, and yet, the hearers just cannot accept what we say.  At other times we think we have said everything wrong, and yet they hear the Word, and the Spirit works in them, and they are moved by the Spirit to work powerfully and effectively where the Lord has called them and placed them.  It is not under our control, how all that we do and say works, and it is not our work, actually.  It is God's.  And He promises to work through baptism.  All of this, "You don't understand how it works" talk is for Nicodemus, about Baptism.  Luther said it this way for us,

"How can Water do such great things?  It is not the water indeed that does them, but the Word of God which is in and with the water, and faith which trusts such Word of God in the water; for without the Word of God, it is just plain water, and not Baptism, but with the Word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and the washing of regeneration and renewing in the Holy Spirit as St. Paul tells us in Titus, chapter three, "He saved us, not by deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit."

Who you are and what you are is the work of God, through your Baptism – and life since then in the Word – and in the Lord's Supper.  You didn't make it happen, God did.  You are not really in charge of what you will be doing next.  You can decide about coffee and cookies after service, but God has your life in His plans — and in His hands.  Meanwhile, your life in Christ is the plan of the Father, the gift of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

This birth from above is not the result of a decision you make.  It is the gift of God.  It is not merely "as if" you were born again, but a truth which we do not perceive with our senses, but hear of only in the Word.  In your Baptism, you were clothed with Christ, your sins were washed away, you were made righteous, and given a good conscience towards God through the work of Jesus.  These are not merely what we think or how it feels, but truth revealed in God's Word.

This new birth makes you alive to God and dead to sin, and promises that sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  It is not a ceremony without power, but the very power of God at work in you to bring you to Christ, and to guide you into holiness of life - both growing and imputed - and you got to see it happen for Kennedy Sue last Sunday.

And it is the sine-qua-non of the Christian life.  Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Without this work of God in you, you cannot be a child of God.  Your doing it doesn't earn anything, it receives the promise of God.  But have no fear - this precious gift is already yours, in your Baptism.

You have been born ‘from above'.  Your life is no longer earth centered, but Christ centered.  Your family is no longer simply those connected to your flesh by genetics, but those who have been born in Christ by Baptism into this new family, the household of God, as St, Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:19.  You are truly children of God in Christ, both by adoption and by new birth from above.  Don't ask how it can be, or why you cannot feel it, just know that the Spirit works where He chooses, and He has chosen you, with the outcome that you will have everlasting life in Jesus Christ.

And if it seems hard to comprehend, just think about the Holy Trinity, who works this great thing in us.  He is, in His own being, beyond our ability to comprehend - even when He tells us about it.  So, why should we be able to understand all that He is able to do?    Just take Jesus' word for it, Baptism is a birth from above.

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