Taking the Kingdom By Force

 Matthew 11:12-15

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.  For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.  And if you care to accept it, he himself is Elijah, who was to come.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Sermon for Reformation Day                                        10/25/26

Taking the Kingdom by Force

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I have read that there are basically two ways to understand the verses before us today.  One is that men have seized the kingdom of heaven – here I think it means ‘the Church', by force.  The other is that the kingdom of heaven - in this case, the reign of God among men - has come upon us in a mighty way – with great power.

Both interpretations are plausible on Reformation Day.  On October 31, 1517 something insignificant happened.  Luther nailed an invitation for a cordial (at least for those days), academic debate on certain points dealing with indulgences and the nature of the Church to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg in the form of 95 theses.  Yet, in the next 13 years God did something marvelous and great.  We celebrate that great thing, the rediscovery of the Gospel and the freeing of the church of God, on the anniversary of that "little thing."

At the time of Luther, men had seized the kingdom of heaven by force.  The church had become rich and politically powerful.  It had also become thoroughly corrupt.  Many priests were entirely ignorant of the Bible and of Christian doctrine.  Offices in the church were sold to the highest bidder.  From local parishes, to bishoprics, to cardinalships, and even the Papacy could be bought for a price.  Greed ruled and indulgences were sold.

But worst of all was the false doctrine.  No one heard or knew of salvation or forgiveness.  Oh, they heard the words, but the truths of Scripture behind those words were unknown and untaught.  

  Works were exalted.  

  Men were taught that they still had to pay for their own sins.  

  The monastic orders, often little more than slavery for the church and houses of debauchery, were declared holier than the keeping of the whole Law of God.  

  God was pictured as utterly holy, distant from man, essentially unknowable, angry and judging.  

  Men were taught that they could not pray to God.  They were told instead to rely on the intercession of the saints.  

  Mary took her place at the throne of heaven as Queen, even over the Son of God Himself, 

  and the Sacrament became a twisted thing which was believed to sacrifice the Lord Jesus anew, each time they celebrated it, for the sins of the people.

The religion of many fell somewhere between a desperate, urgent desire to earn righteousness and appease the ever-angry Judge, and those who winked at the silly superstition of religion gone mad, and simply used the system of their society for their own ends.

Satan actually ruled.  He had hidden the Gospel, shut up the hopes of men, chained men to idolatry and pagan sacrifice again, and the kingdom of heaven – at least as it was visible on earth and open to mankind – had been seized by force, taken captive, and closed to man.

Then came the Reformation.  Luther unlocked the kingdom of heaven with the keys of the Reformation doctrine – the great "solas" of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura – by Scripture alone, Sola Fide – through faith alone, Sola Gratia – by grace alone, and Solo Christo – in Jesus Christ alone.

Luther answered the darkness and ignorance of his age with the revealed truth of the Word of God.  One did not need to wonder what the truth was, the Scriptures answered!  The darkness of human values, opinions, and attitudes were all swept aside by the light of the authority of Scripture.

God had spoken to man.  He had revealed Himself, His will, His justice, His love, and His grace.  One man standing with Scripture could stand alone against the whole world.  Luther proved that.  Scripture was right.  Let every man be proven to be a liar, God's Word is still true!

And it is clear!  No man needs the wisdom of another.  God's Word is clear for the child – and still deep and challenging enough for the greatest scholar.  Every man could read and see for himself what is the gracious will of God.  And what is the will of God for us?

God's will is that all men should come to faith and know the goodness and love of the Lord.  God has taken the Law out of the way.  Faith, not obedience to rules but faith, is now what God has appointed to receive His love and grace.  Faith was again revealed to be that obedience which God seeks.  Faith – which trusts the promises of God, Faith which takes God at His Word when He tells us that He loves us, that He wants only good for us, that He will never fail us or abandon us, that He will never allow us to be destroyed – it is such a faith that lays hold of the gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation.  Works of holiness, sacrifices, intercessory prayer and penances of great price are of no value to salvation.  That is not to say that they are without their uses, but they have no power or worth before God to grasp salvation.

But faith, which looks only to the promise of God for Christ's sake, is the chosen channel through which God has promised to pour forgiveness, and salvation, and resurrection from the grave to eternal life and bliss, and that everlasting life itself.  Such a faith trusts God, often in spite of what the believer sees, hears, and feels, simply because it is God who has promised.  It is the trust of the heart that forms and shapes every attitude and deed in the light of its confident expectation of God's goodness, love, providing and protection at every moment.

This faith receives the blessings of salvation because Jesus has won them for us already, and because God has chosen to give eternal life to all who believe.  His choice in this matter is called "Grace."  Grace is that third key of the Reformation.  It sets man utterly free from the slavery of the Law.  Man is saved by Grace Alone.

The answer to the "why?" of salvation rests not with the social status of the individual, nor with the piety and the good works of the individual, nor with the wealth and privilege or the attitudes of the individual, but with the goodness of God.  It is God's good pleasure to forgive us for Jesus' sake.  It is God's kindness which causes Him to choose from among all men to save and rescue us.

Before the work of Luther, the answer to why some are saved and others are not was thought to rest in the efforts and attitudes of man.  For some that still is the answer.  But Luther taught that anyone who is saved is saved from himself and in spite of his works and value, not because of those factors.  We are saved by God's free and gracious choice.  Every man, woman, and, yes, even child has earned death and hell, and it is grace alone which accounted for salvation.

The Reformation principles – the "solas" – changed the world.  Now it could be clearly understood, and heard clearly proclaimed:  Human effort did not save: it could only serve the Savior.  Man had no right to sell what God alone could give.  Faith replaced works.  Scripture replaced the authority of the church.  Grace made each person important and every station in life holy.  And it was all in connection with Jesus Christ – and Him alone!

Beyond the influence in the Church, the Reformation produced the political idea of individual personal worth – and of personality.  The Reformation fostered the idea of personal, human rights.  The Reformation encouraged the development of public education – in the best sense – for every man needed to be able to read God's Word for himself.  The Reformation taught mankind the concept of vocation – a calling from God – that every man in every type of labor was called by God  – placed there to do holy service to God and to the neighbor, thereby serving God and bringing true glory to him.  The ordinary work-a-day duties and tasks of life were now properly identified as glorious good works to God.  Lutheran theology has championed the freedom of religion, the concept of self-determination, and the idea that God meant life to be enjoyed, not merely endured, all to His glory.

Without the Reformation, the American Revolution – and the very principles upon which our nation was founded – would never have happened.  Look at France's revolution, with its excesses and instability for so many years.  That was a Roman Catholic nation.  They tried to accomplish what American did, only without God and in defiance of God and His existence, and so, they failed.  By grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, as taught in Scripture alone, these are the keys of the Reformation which set the kingdom of heaven among men again, and opened her gates to all who believe.

But today the kingdom of heaven is being taken by force again.

Men deny Scripture.  Men in the church!  They deny the divine Author, and therefore the divine authority.  They teach it is the word of men, and would make us dependent again upon the professional scholar and exegete to tell us what the "word of God" really means.

Men deny faith once again.  They lay before us social agendas and works and attitudes to which, they say, we must conform to be saved.  They sell salvation on television with ‘magic cloths', anointing oils, and all manner of deception.

The Church is being used again for political power, the service of human greed, and the glory of human endeavor.  Look at Pat Robertson, the Moral Majority, even Dr. Dobson.  But the worst thing is that false doctrine is rising again, even within our own Synod.  Church Growth Principles replace the power of the Word of God for many.  Novelty and variety – which is to say "entertainment" – have replaced faithfulness and confession in the hearts of many.  The Charismatics focus on feelings.  The "experience of faith" has taken the focus away from the content, the very Word of God which is to be believed.  The living of the "Christian life" – the "Christian Walk" as some of our Reformed brethren have called it – has risen to take the place of grace through faith in many hearts.  The prayer, the decision, the obedience, and the pragmatic reign.  We are now to be "Ablaze" and talking to somebody so we can score it on the Synod web-site is more important than confessing the whole counsel of God.  Now-a-days God is not simply the angry Judge, He is the inconsequential judge.  His "opinion" hardly matters today as homosexuality commands increasing acceptance in the church, and so-called Christian leaders rush to dialog with – and pray with – Jews and Moslems.  And pagan feminism has taken its stand in the church – increasingly in the pulpit.

We need to turn once again to the keys of Luther's Reformation.  We need to reclaim the marvelous grace of God, which we have through faith in Jesus Christ, as He is taught in the Holy Scriptures.  We Lutherans need to celebrate God's gifts to us and give thanks.  Romans one, verse twenty-one, begins a catalog of sin and mankind's spiral into the depravity which marks our own age.  And the first sin in the catalog is, For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

We, God's people, want to rejoice and give thanks for the treasures He has poured out on us.  That is why we alone, among so many Lutheran churches hold a Reformation Day celebration, rather than observing the pagan, druid holiday called Halloween.  Let us give thanks!

In Luther's day, the kingdom of heaven came among men with great power by the preaching of God's Word by Luther and those Lutherans.  It seized men, making powerful disciples of the truth of men such as Philip Melancthon, Martin Chemnitz, John Gerhardt, and later C.F.W. Walther.  

We need to hear that same word of God's loving and gracious gift of forgiveness and salvation purchased and won by Jesus Christ by his death on the cross in our place, and His resurrection, which boldly proclaims our forgiveness.  We need to apply the same Holy Scripture to our faith and our lives, and let it be God that guides our hearts, our minds, and our deeds.  We need to rest in that firm confidence of God's promises of forgiveness, of resurrection to life eternal, of salvation as His sure gift of grace through faith.  We can do that only by the power of God's Holy Spirit, which He only does through the hearing of the Word of God.  Then the kingdom of heaven will come powerfully among us, seizing us with power and making of this generation mighty witnesses to His eternal truth and glory.

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Called - and Chosen

 Matthew 22:1-14

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son.  And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.  

"Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."'  But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.  But the king was enraged and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and set their city on fire.

"Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.'  And those slaves went out into the streets, and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.

"But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?'  And he was speechless.  Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

"For many are called, but few are chosen."

Sermon for Twentieth Sunday After Trinity                                   10/18/26

Called – and Chosen

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Many are called, but few are chosen.  What a difficult saying.  We like to think that if we hear the call of God and join His people, we are "the chosen ones".  This passage puts that in doubt.  We feel called, and yet this seems to suggest that we may be among "The Called" without being among "The Chosen".  Look at the man in the Gospel lesson this morning.  He was invited, he came, and then he was thrown out.  He wasn't one of those who stoned the prophets.  He didn't rebel.  He just wore the wrong outfit, and, whammo!, he is cast out into that outer darkness.  What could this mean to us?  Let us take a look – our theme is Called – and Chosen.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son.  This is a parable.  We have to assume that every detail is not significant, but we can align some of the images Jesus uses in this parable to what the Old Testament used, and see what Jesus was saying.  The King, for example, represents God – the first King of Israel, and the only true King.  Until the people rejected God and demanded Saul, God was King, it is called "a theocracy."

The Son is the Son of God.  Pretty easy stuff, so far.  The wedding feast is the fulfilment of the Kingdom and the outpouring of salvation which we see as the Church.  We even talk about heaven as the wedding feast of the Lamb with His bride, the Church, yet today.  God was all set to fulfill the Messianic promises, and to send His Son and to work our salvation, and when He sent out word through His slaves, the Prophets, to the people of Israel, those who, according to the story Jesus was telling, had been invited but were unwilling to come.  They ignored the summons of the Prophets.  They ignored the call to repent.  They were all so busy with their lives and the blessings which God had poured out on them that they had no time for – and no real interest in – the God who had blessed them and made them a people.  Too many choices, too much wealth, too much to do to pay much mind to God.

Was the King to be deterred?  No.  He sent even more slaves.  Still, the people would not listen.  Their farms, their businesses, their pleasures, and their families were just more important.  In fact, they found the crying of the prophets growing more irritating by the day until they could bear it no longer and they began to punish and finally to kill the messengers.  "How dare they tell me I am sinful?!"  "How dare they tell me that my priorities are out of place?!"  "How dare they preach repentance to me?!"  "But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them."

Many are called, but few are chosen.  It is interesting to note that the Jewish presence in the Christian Church all but died out about one hundred years into the life of the Church after the death of Christ.  The whole nation had been called, and so few ever believed and received eternal life.  In fact, the destruction of which this story speaks was Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and destroying of the independent kingdom of the Jews which happened in 70 A.D.  "But the king was enraged and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and set their city on fire."

"Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  ‘Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.'  And those slaves went out into the streets, and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests."  Ahh!  Here we are.  These three verses cover the whole of the next two thousand years of history.  This is the Christian Church.  God has sent out His servants to invite everyone we can find to the wedding feast.  That means the preaching of the Gospel.  Anyone and everyone who would accept the invitation and come to the feast is welcomed.  But keep in mind how many - who call themselves Christians today - believe something other than the Gospel we proclaim, the Gospel that the Scriptures teach.

Remember the call that went out in the parable.  It is the same call today.  "Again he sent out other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."' The dinner is prepared.  Jesus has taken our sins to the cross, and paid for them and met the justice of God in our place with His death on the cross.  Our sins have been forgiven, and God is pouring out eternal life to all who hear the invitation to the feast of salvation, the wedding feast of the Lamb to His bride, the Church.  All is ready, or as Jesus put in from the cross, "It is Finished!"  The cry of the prophet is the same message as the proclamation of the pastor, "Repent and believe."

Now – this second part of the parable takes us forward to the final day, what many call Judgment Day.  The King comes in to look over the guests.  The guests are all of those who have come into the visible church – but not the holy Church as the assembly of all those who believe, and only those who believe.  This is the church as we see her on earth, with believers and hypocrites mingled together.  There are those who are truly Christ's, and then there are those who are represented by that one man without the wedding garment.

In ancient times, the kings provided the wedding garment to everyone who came to the wedding.  These clothes were festival clothes, sometimes brightly colored, always brand-new.  One of the benefits of being invited to such a wedding was that you got a new outfit.  This was in a world where people generally wore their entire wardrobe everyday.  New clothes was almost better than money – and often served in the place of money, for those who could afford to give it.

God has clothed each one of us who believes with the wedding garment of holiness, the robe of Christ's righteousness which is ours in the forgiveness of sins.  In other words, you are both called – and chosen.  To keep this image clear, remember Adam and Eve in the Garden.  When they sinned, they were naked.  Sin is nakedness, and God's forgiveness, and the gift of righteousness which is ours in Jesus Christ, is true clothing.  The wedding garment, then, is the forgiveness of sins, and salvation, and the righteousness which is the gift of grace to all who take God at His Word and trust Him – in other words, to those who believe.  That is what tells me that this man was the hypocrite among us.  He was in the wedding hall and among the wedding guests, but he was not wearing the wedding clothes.  This is not just any unbeliever.  They did not enter the wedding hall.  They are already outside in the darkness throughout the story.

The question was simple.   "Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?"  If you are in the church, you are expected to be wearing the righteousness of Christ.  Can some in the Church not wear the garment?  Sadly, yes.  They are in the vicinity of the Church, and look to be part of the Church, but they are not, they are merely part of the visible church - the local congregation.  Some belong to churches that claim to be Christian, but teach dependence on one's own works - or on one's own preparation for salvation –  or on one's own decision and prayer for salvation.  They think they have heard and accepted the invitation to the banquet, but they came in without the garment of the grace of God in the Gospel because they never really heard it - but they were told they were just as Christian as anyone else - more Christian, even.

On the other hand, how can anyone who actually hears the Gospel regularly not wear the wedding garment?  Answer:  They do not believe.  One group of this sort does not believe that they are all that bad – you know, sinners.  So they do not really ever repent, and therefore they never have forgiveness as their own, because they don't see any point in it.  The Gospel has no value to them, and they don't bother with actually believing.  There are people like that in the church.  They think everyone else is just like them.  They come for the music, or how it makes them feel to come to church, or they come for the social interaction.  They never understand that they are different – except for being not like those religious fanatics who make them feel uncomfortable with all their God-talk and exaggerated (to them) piety and stuff.

Others don't wear the garment because they don't believe, period.  They don't trust God.  They want to earn it all for themselves.  They don't understand this forgiveness stuff – after all, they know that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Some of these people believe some of our doctrines, but they know that they can't accept all of that nonsense that the pastor preaches.  They say, He has his opinions and they have theirs.  It is a matter of interpretation, right!?  They like the crowd, they feel comfortable in the congregation, and, so what if they don't believe all of that stuff the pastor preaches?  They look around themselves and see that it is obvious many in the Missouri Synod don't believe it either.  They tell everyone they meet that they are just as good a Christian as any of them, and they pretend that they belong as much as the next man. And they are hypocrites.

Still others just can't stop moving long  enough for the Gospel.  They have their riches.  They have their pleasures.  They have their sins.  Surely God isn't going to hold them accountable for that.  They don't repent because they don't need to.  They have a "right" to their sins, their unfaithfulness, their lukewarm-ness to the Gospel.  They don't need to be in church every Sunday.  They don't need to go to Bible Study to get into heaven.  They give God that one hour out of the 168 He gives them each week, and they are sure that they have done what they need to do.  They never look back.  They never examine themselves.  They never give God another thought as they do that Old Testament thing of getting lost in the blessings and forgetting the One who blessed them.

The important point is that however they do it, they make it to the wedding – that Last Day – without every really wearing the wedding garment they have been given.  They may have even worn it for a while, but it got too hot, too restricting, too old-fashioned, and they took it off and never looked back.  When the King enters, He will know the difference.  He can see what we cannot.  He can see who is wearing the wedding garment and who is not, who is real and who is just faking it.  The result, the outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, is hell.  It is eternal misery and torment, augmented by the knowledge that they are cast out into it because they did not take care to wear the garments of salvation which Christ has won and God has freely given to everyone to wear.  And notice that there is no excuse for not wearing the wedding clothes.  He was in the hall, he clearly had been given the garment.  Not wearing the gift is a deliberate act of rebellion, just as unbelief in the church is never an "OOOPs, I didn't realize" but always a cold-hearted and wicked rejection of God, of His grace, of His love.  Jesus said, And he was speechless.

Many are called, but only those few who place their hope and their confidence in Jesus and what He has done will enter the wedding feast of eternal life in glory with Christ.  Those who trust in Him are also called "the Chosen".  The number of the saved will not be small, it will just be few in comparison to those to whom the invitation has been given.  The hypocrites will be separated from the people of God by the only Person who can see the difference, the person of the Son of God, who sees into your heart and knows what you believe and who you trust.

The feast is ready.  You are all standing in the banquet hall.  We have the foretaste of the feast here at the altar today.  Today we invite you once again.  Everyone who enters this church and hears the Word of salvation is invited - called.  Each of you has been presented the wedding garment, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.  You are Called, and chosen!  Take care to wear the garment of salvation.  Let the good news of the gift of forgiveness and of the love of God for you guide your thoughts and humble your hearts, and shape your actions.  Your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus.  Repent and believe.  Examine yourselves daily, whether you are in the faith, and cling to Christ in His Word and in the Sacrament.  For many are called – all of humanity, in fact, – but few are chosen.  Stand fast as one who is called – and chosen!

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

(Let the people say Amen)

The Look of Faith and of Unbelief

 Matthew 9:1-8

And getting into a boat, He crossed over, and came to His own city.  And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven."  And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow blasphemes."  

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?  For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, ‘Rise, and walk'?  But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" – then He said to the paralytic – "Rise, take up your bed, and go home."  And he rose, and went home.  But when the multitudes saw this, they were filled with awe, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity                               10/11/26

The Look of Faith and of Unbelief

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our Gospel, this morning, is another of my favorite Gospel lessons.  Jesus demonstrates His power to heal, and His authority to forgive sins, and He puts His adversaries in a quandary, and He does it all with such style and simplicity.  It is a marvelous text, and I love to preach it, and I have preached it often.

This morning, I want focus on one specific element of the account.  These men carry their paralyzed friend to Jesus.  Mark and Luke also tell of this moment, and they tell us the other details - about how crowded it was around Jesus, and how the men climbed to the roof of the house that Jesus was in, and how they tore up the roof tiles, and lowered their friend into the room near Jesus.  Matthew did not tell us these details, but they help us understand what the text says, that Jesus saw their faith.  That is our focus this morning, the look of faith - and of unbelief.

It is an exciting account!  Jesus has begun to draw crowds wherever He goes.  He is home in Capernaum, where He lived during His adult life.  Once people found out, Jesus was swamped.  The crowds around Him were so thick that these friends of the paralytic could not shoulder their way into the presence of Jesus.  So, being creative, and convinced that Jesus could heal their friend, they climbed to the roof of the house, and lifted the roofing material out of the way.  It wasn't like one of our roofs, all nailed down and weather-proof, but it took some work - and they had to fix what they tore up later, but the Bible doesn't go into that detail.

Anyhow, they lower their friend into the room.  He was undoubtedly lying on a stretcher-type thing.  It made for easy transport, and did not it make for easy lowering into the room.  Just a rope at each corner, and they could lower him safely, as though it were an elevator of sorts.  Jesus saw how desperate they were to bring this man to Him, and how hard they worked to do it.  He could look into their hearts, too, and see what drove them to such extremes, but it was clear that they just knew that Jesus could heal their friend, so they came on.

Jesus' response tells us that He saw that they believed that He was the Messiah, the Savior promised for so long.  I can tell that by Jesus first words, "Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven."  Why would Jesus speak these words of comfort and encouragement, except that He saw that they would be met with faith?

His bold pronouncement was met with immediate anger by the Scribes.  They didn't say anything out loud, but they were thinking, perhaps even muttering to themselves, that Jesus was blaspheming.  They judged Him so, because it was a fundamental article of their faith that only God could forgive sins.  By saying, "Your sins are forgiven", Jesus was declaring that He was God, or equal to God, which to the Jews of Jesus' time was the same thing.

Jesus could see that, too.  The text says "Knowing their thoughts" Jesus said, "Which is easier, to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,' or to say ‘Rise, and walk'?"  The difficult part of the question was that only God can do either thing.  Of course, it would be easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven".  No one could see if it was true.  That was the basis of the charge of blasphemy.  Who could tell?

On the other hand, "Rise, and walk" required that the paralytic be healed, made whole, and be able to get up and walk away.  I would guess that this paralyzed man was known in the community, perhaps well-known.  They knew that he could not simply get up and walk.  So, the answer was obvious, but no one could have spoken the answer out loud without also being charged with blasphemy!  But Jesus doesn't wait for any answer.  He never tempts people to think or speak evil.  He made His point with the question, and then He proved His authority.  He said to the Scribes, "‘But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins' – then He said to the paralytic – ‘Rise, take up your bed, and go home.'   And he rose, and went home."

Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, just as He has the authority to heal.  That is where the authority of the absolution you heard this morning comes from.  Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, and He has given it to the Church, and commanded us to do so, in His name.  That is why your hear me say, "I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God to you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins."  It is the command of Jesus, who had the authority to forgive!  Your sins are forgiven, when I speak His absolution on your confession, just as surely and as truly as that paralyzed man got up and walked home, healed and whole!

What I want you to take note of is that Jesus could see the faith of those men.  He could see it in their actions.  He could see that they believed that He had the power to heal, and He could see that they believed that Jesus was the sort of God who was willing to heal.  That they thought He was God showed in the fact that they asked Him to do what only God could do!  Their faith - even specific things that they believed about Jesus - was clearly visible in their actions.

The unbelief of the scribes was not so readily visible.  Jesus could see it, but many others might not have.  They were simply accepted as good and faithful church members.  They were leaders.  Some may have had their doubts about them, but there was no outward sign.  Evil doesn't always leave an outward sign.  It shows ultimately, but it can lie in wait for a time, and simply fester in the hearts and thoughts of evil men.  But it is evil.

The evil was first unbelief.  They doubted that Jesus had the authority to do what He was doing.  They dismissed the power of the Word He spoke.  They accused Jesus of a terrible sin – and all of that falsely, because they would simply not accept Jesus for who He was, nor believe the truth that He spoke.

It works the same way today.  Faith cannot help but work, doing things that reveal the specific things that the believers believe.  Do you believe that your sins are forgiven?  That faith will show in how you handle guilt, and how you deal with your sins when you come to see your behavior as sinful.  You don't hide it or deny it, not even to yourself.  You confess it, and repent, and believe the gracious words of forgiveness which Jesus speaks to you.  

Do you believe that the will of God toward you is good?  Then the hard parts of life are not so spooky and confusing.  Yes, pain is still pain.  When it is your loved one that dies, it is still a tremendous sorrow.  But You know that God is working all things for good for those who love Him, for those whom He has called according to His own purposes - and those purposes are good.  They are life and salvation!  So, when sickness raises its head, you know that God is still with you and will hold you by the hand and sustain you.  It doesn't make the illness less, it simply mean that it doesn't rob you of the comfort of knowing that everything will be all right, in God's good time and way.

Do you believe that God has the power to heal, repair, and put things right?  Can God guide the course of your life?  If you believe that, and you trust that His will toward you is good, then prayer is one action that shows your faith.  Faithfulness is another - because you know that what it looks like and what it is may be two different things!  God can make anything possible, and turn every situation into blessings.  He doesn't call on us to win every battle, or to feel good at the end.  That is how fairy-tales work.  This is real life, lived in the presence of God, who loves you enough to send His Son to die a gruesome death in your place, and who pays such close attention to you that He knows the number of hairs on your head at any given moment!

Faith shows.

And so does unbelief.  It looks timid in the face of challenges.  It may roar with a false bravado, but it cannot face the guilt of sin, so it pretends that good is evil and evil is good.  Unbelief cannot trust God to fix things, so it has to fix them, often by denying God and doing what is wrong, rather that counting on God to make it work out all right.  Unbelief does not expect God to have a good will toward itself, and so it rails against God and grumbles about blessings and difficulties alike.  It expects no good thing, and so it gets angry, just like the Scribes in our Gospel.  Unbelief expects no healing from God, and so it falls victim to despair.

And every one of us stumbles at one time or another into the behavior of unbelief.  We do not believe as we should, and our flesh works to overthrow the Spirit that God has given us.  When we discover that we have been less faithful and less believing than we know we can be, it is no good to pretend that it is not so.  We need to confess our weakness and our sin, and ask God to create that "clean heart" that we sing about so often in our services.  We need to humble ourselves, and acknowledge our sins, and ask for forgiveness.

And when we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  It is that simple, and it is that hard.  Have you sinned?  Then repent, and hear the word of forgiveness - Your sins are forgiven!  Those are the same words Jesus spoke to comfort the man who lay paralyzed before Him.  Your sins are forgiven.  But don't stop with my words, come and kneel at the altar, and ask God to give you His assurance.  He will, you know.  He will feed you with the very body He nailed to the cross in your place so long ago.  He will give you the blood that He shed for your sins, to drink.  He will fill you up with Himself, and cleanse you of your sins.  And when you eat His body and drink His blood you can have no illusion that maybe it was meant just for the man or woman next to you, and that God did not intend to be gracious and forgiving to you.  He places His body in your mouth, and His pours His blood through your lips for you, so that you may know with utter certainty, and you may be confident that Jesus loves you!  Your sins are forgiven.

Then you may arise and go home, just like the man in the Gospel lesson.  You can walk, and walk in the way of faith, comforted by forgiveness, and living out your trust in God.  That is the look of faith.

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Humility

 Luke 14:1-11

And it came about when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching Him closely.  And there, in front of Him was a certain man suffering from dropsy.  And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"  But they kept silent. And He took hold of him, and healed him, and sent him away.

And He said to them, "Which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"  And they could make no reply to this.

And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table; saying to them, "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both shall come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,' and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.  But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher'; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.  For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Sermon for The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity                       09/27/26

Humility

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

It had to be a difficult way to live.  Jesus probably experienced the reality of modern celebrities way back then.  People were watching Him, looking for an opportunity to do Him in.  They were not merely content to wait, they were baiting the trap, setting up situations where Jesus would do something they thought they could use against Him.  They would quiz Him, hoping for a sound-byte that would serve them.  In our Gospel, they set a man in front of Him who was sick and just waited for Jesus to do something they could use against Him.  Our theme is "Humility". 

Not that the adversaries of Jesus had any.  They apparently had no shame either.  He is invited out to dinner at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, and they set a seriously ill man in front of Him.  They knew that Jesus had this proclivity to heal, and I suspect that they wanted to use the Sabbath as a weapon against Jesus, if He should heal the man.

Jesus took the question directly to them.  He asked them, speaking directly to the head Pharisee and the Bible Experts who stood around him.  He said, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"   They could not answer – or they chose not to, and since they could not condemn that action in principle, they lost the ability to use it against Jesus in this situation.  So, Jesus healed the man.  Score one for Jesus.

But He didn't just leave it there.  They had put Him to the test, and He returned the favor.  He pointed out that what He had done was just common decency and concern, something that every one of them would likely have done, if the situation were just a bit different.  And He said to them, "Which one of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"  And they could make no reply to this.  He pointed out that even if it were an animal, they would have rescued it.  There was no shame, no violation of the Law of God in rescuing one of their fellow-men from evil, even on the Sabbath.  Their silence speaks clearly.  Jesus was right, and even their test was wrongly conceived.

Their problem was their pride.  The word you probably hear used in such circumstances is "Hubris", although it is usually pronounced "Hyoobris."  They were the leaders, or so they thought.  They were the clever ones and They were to be respected and feared!  Their pride showed itself in the way they went about seeking the best places at the dinner.  The Greek doesn't actually say "at the table" because they did not use what we would call a table.  That is why the words were in italics in the text - which will all see when you rush home and read the text so you can review the sermon in your mind and not lose the thought of today's sermon too quickly.

They lay around the "table" on pillows.  The "important people" would have certain places where they would lay, and everyone else sought the good spots, close to the important people, where they would be able to participate or at least hear the conversation.  Jesus seizes upon the competition for the best spots and uses it as a parable about pride and humility.  The elements of the parable are drawn from the activities around them, but are extreme, to focus on the lesson.

He says to choose the lowest spot - the least desirable place, rather than going for the best spot.  If you choose the best spot, and someone more important than you, in the eyes of the host, arrives, you will be humiliated and forced to slink off to the lowest place, the place everybody avoided, and so it is the only one open.  Jesus says to choose the least desirable spot.  Then the host will see you, and invite you to move up, and you will have honor in the eyes of everyone else.  

Practically, does it work that way?  I don't know.  I suspect sometimes, yes, and sometimes, no.  But this is a parable - and everyone can clearly see the principle here.  Pride can lead to humiliation.  Jesus says, in fact, that before God it always does.  Humility avoids the pitfalls of pride - and can bring the delightful moment of what Jesus calls "exalting" when you are asked to move up.  Again, in the presence of God, humility is always rewarded.

But this is about the Gospel.  Within the Gospel, there is no room for pride.  We don't earn or deserve a thing.  Earthly position and human effort accomplish nothing, and holding them out as our rationale, our hope, or our sense of entitlement is pointless.  Not one of us deserves the invitation to the dinner which is eternal life.  If we don't just naturally belong at the dinner, our place at the dinner is also not ours to choose.  We may think that we are something, or that we deserve something – but we don't.  I think St.  Paul was pointing at this very thought in Philippians 3: "If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:  circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.  But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ."

It doesn't matter who we are.  It is of no account what we are able to do, or what good things we have done.  Our sense of deserving is wrong, because it always overlooks our sins and measures our worthiness by the wrong standards.  In the Gospel, everything is gift.  Everything is Christ!  He died, not us, even though the sin and the guilt is ours.  He gives us undeserving people His life and His eternity and His love.  If we presume to claim a place, an honor, an importance even here in our little congregation, we claim something that belongs to Jesus, and it is His to bestow as He wishes.

Only true humility can see that and accept that.  True humility is to see yourself in the Law, and know that there is no way you can deserve what you so long for – God's favor, and salvation.  Our hope is not found in self-assertion, or self-promotion.  Our hope is found in humility - that is in repentance.  We have to be humble enough to see ourselves as we truly are and confess our sins and seek God's forgiveness.  Only when we take that lowest place at the dinner, can our Savior invite us to ‘come on up higher' and give us a place at the table of salvation.  Then we truly have honor in the eyes of all, not the honor of someone who thinks he is something, but the honor of being chosen, beloved, truly valued by God Himself, and made a member of the household of God and invited by one no less glorious than Jesus Himself to break bread with Him and eat at His table.

Then, in life, we go where He sends us and do the things He gives us to do.  Who we think we are isn't important.  What we want or what we think we may deserve for whatever reason is irrelevant.  Our very presence at the Supper is the delightful gift of our Lord.  Better the lowest seat in the kingdom of heaven than the highest glory in the kingdom of Hell.  Our salvation is all about Jesus.  He won it, and He gives it.  He forgives you all of your sins, and He calls you by name into His family and makes you are sharer in His glory both now and for eternity!

So what if life didn't turn out the way you had dreamed?  You have everlasting glory instead.  So what if you are bearing a cross you would rather not bear, a cross which you did not anticipate?  Jesus already bore the cross on your behalf, and He is giving you something important to do - but important in His eyes, not necessarily in your own.  Humility.  It is the state of those who know themselves, both as sinners, and as those who have possession of something that they just have no business having – the grace and favor of God.  But they have it because Jesus has seen them and invited them to move on up, and exalted them in the presence of all humanity.

When Jesus teaches the importance of the attitude of humility, He is not engaged in some abstract speculation on ethics.  In fact, while He was teaching it, He was already living it out.  He humbled Himself to be born human.  He humbled Himself to live among sinful men. He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.  He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  And therefore, by His stripes, we are healed!  So, when Jesus is urging humility, He is not just recommending a successful approach to social engagements, He is telling us how we may be like Him, and what it is that shapes the minds and the lives of those who will sit at table with Him at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God in glory.

So, your life is the gift of God, both here and now and in eternity.  It is grace and forgiveness and not deserving or self-chosen glory.  But you can only accept that, if you exercise true humility.  So, repent, and believe, and trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding (or preferences) In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  The name of the game is "humility".

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Do Not Be Anxious

 Matthew 6:24-34

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?

"And why are you anxious about clothing?  Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.  But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?  Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?' or ‘What shall we drink?' or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?'  For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."

"Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Sermon for Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity                                  09/13/26

Do Not Be Anxious

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

There are times when preaching this text is simple and safe.  Life is good, and everyone is happy and telling people not to be anxious or worried about life is a comfortable thing.  At least that is what it seems like it should be.  We all remember those days. Right now, the economy is confusing, the politics of our nation are frightening, our society seems to be devolving into something different and unpleasant, Islam is knocking on the door nationally, and our personal lives are beset with new challenges.

The truth is that we recognize the goodness of our lives and the abundance of our blessings best in the rearview mirror.  That is, in part, why the good old days are so good.  Our memories tell us the truth somewhat more reliably because memories are not clouded with emotions and all of the day-to-day, present, urgent realities that make a circumspect judgment of our condition so difficult.  Today we have today's problems and pressures.  Today, life is the challenge before us, and we have not yet seen how God is going to bring us through, so today is not as bright, many times, as we imagine the past was or the future could be.  It is in the face of these realities that the Word of God speaks to us today and tells us, in the words of our Lord, Do Not Be Anxious.

Our lesson today is all about faith.  Our Lord reminds us in our Gospel of the familiar facts that God feeds the birds, and He clothes the fields in beautiful flowers.  Neither one of them labors for what they get.  The flowers of the field simply grow there.  They are, none the less, beautiful.  The birds do not sow or reap or store up grain, and yet God feeds them.  In the same way, we may depend upon God.  He knows what we need, and He will provide.  But to get our minds to where we think like Jesus is telling us to think, and to find comfort in the midst of the realities that life presents to us in the present will take faith.

Let's face it, a lot of birds die in a variety of ways - and people too.  There are people starving around the world.  There are natural disasters, violent crimes, the new threat of home-grown jihadi's raping women, killing people and beheading them, even in such unlikely places as Oklahoma and even Montana.  It is tempting to look at the news and our own personal needs and say, "how do our present realities square with the text?"  "Where is the supply of which Jesus was speaking?"

The first part of the answer is to take note that Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Let's face it, are we witnessing a lot of seeking of God or His righteousness in the midst of modern society, here or abroad?  But that question isn't the whole answer.  Part of the answer is in whether we experience every moment as richly supplied or not, we experience each moment.  God has preserved us.  We do not have to deal with the deprivations of many people throughout the world.  We see it, and we can respond to it - we should respond to it somehow.  But it is not our suffering, and so God has been true to His promises and provided us with all that we need, even when it may not be all that we want.

He has also preserved all those who live.  They might prefer to have comfort, and have worldly possessions - but, as in the book of Job, when we start judging God on the basis of how we respond to how He is blessing us, we are trying to suggest that we could do a better job of being God than He does.  Of course, that is silly - and blasphemous - on its face. 

Besides, we want to remember what Jesus actually said.  He did not promise that we would always have everything we desire just the way we want it.  He said that God knows where we are and who we are and what it is that we need, and that all of our fretting and worrying cannot make it better.  Jesus asked, "which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?"  While I am not certain how much 18 inches - a cubit - of life adds to your span of life, when measured in years, the point is that our worry alone doesn't empower us to change the immediate circumstances of our lives any more than the clear frustration and depression of the victims of some natural disaster makes them able to make edible food or clean water appear out of nowhere.  Someone has to bring it into circumstances like theirs, and when they do, that someone was sent by God - whether they realize it or not.

And of course some people will die for lack of water, or food, or shelter, or because of some disease.  When they die, it is because God has appointed that moment for their death - and death will find them in Montana, fishing on a clear and cool lake - if it is their time - as we witness in the news day after day.  God will take care of each of us while we are here, and summon us out of this world when our time is done.  It is precisely at that moment of God's summoning that the kingdom of God and His righteousness will be of paramount importance for us.

The promise of our Gospel is that when we have sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things - the stuff of life - will be added unto us.  Now Jesus knows that we cannot search for God or choose to believe - so He is telling us to pay attention to the most important stuff, and trust God to handle the rest.  As the beloved children of God, can we imagine that God will short us on the necessities of life?  I would say no - and looking about the room, I see that all of us have had all that we have needed for life up to today - and many of us have enjoyed a whole lot more than simply what we needed.

We are the chosen of God.  He has set His love upon us.  He has loved us with the greatest love: a greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for His friends.  Jesus laid down His life for us on the cross, to redeem us from sin and death and hell.  Because of Jesus your sins are forgiven, and when your body dies, that is not the end, nor is it the worst moment - but merely the beginning of the better and more lasting life with Christ in glory.  He has promised that you will even get your body back, refreshed, renewed, and repaired; better than when you laid it down.  He has taken care of you here, and has planned and executed your rescue and redemption for the hereafter.

While we live in this world, we live as God's favorite people - favored with His love and under His watchful care.  Nothing can happen without God's care for you.  All of your needs will be met, and many of your desires, right up to the time appointed for your home-going.  At that moment, it may appear to the world around you that your needs have failed to be met.  It might seem that you lack the needs of the moment.  But the truth is that your greatest need has already been fulfilled: life beyond the grave, a life that has no ending or sorrow, or sickness - only fulness of joy and glory with Jesus Christ.

Between this day and that, you can trust God.  You don't have to worry about what you shall eat or what you shall drink or what you shall put on.  Your heavenly Father knows that you have needs of these things.  Everyone is looking for them.  The ungodly who survive the natural disasters of this world and the horrible violence of evil men, by the kindness of God, are searching for food and water and shelter and safety.  The chosen people of God who survive those same evil circumstances are searching for those same things.  God knows – and He will provide.  He says so – and by faith, we may trust Him and depend on Him and not worry.

So, do not be anxious.  Just look around you.  Breathe in and out.  Take note.  You are alive.  You have food enough for the moment.  If you don't, there are refreshments in the back, run back and grab a bite to eat or a drink – or wait for the rest of us at the end of the service.  You have plenty of air to breathe.  The needs of this moment are taken care of, and the reason that they are taken care of is the goodness and kindness of God.

Tomorrow may present new needs, but that is tomorrow.  Jesus says that the troubles of today are enough for today.  We take it one day at a time.  You cannot do tomorrow today, nor can you fix yesterday tomorrow.  You have one day, today, and a loving heavenly Father who will take care of you.  So, do not be anxious.  Live in today's blessings today, and have a little faith in God.  He loves you with a proven love - and He has promised to add all the rest that you need - now that He has clothed you in His righteousness and marked you as one of His chosen and beloved children.

Do Not Be Anxious.

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Who Is My Neighgbor?

 Luke 10:23-37

And turning to the disciples, He said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them."

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?"  And he answered and said, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."  And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; DO THIS, AND YOU WILL LIVE."  But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied and said, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead.  And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,  and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.'

"Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?"

And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him."

And Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

Sermon for Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity                                      08/30/26

Who Is My Neighbor?

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

It is called the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  Everyone knows it, even those who are not Christians often know the substance of it.  It has changed the perception of the word "Samaritan".    We now think of them as nice people – and  they probably were, but that wasn't how they were seen by those to whom Jesus told the parable.  They were the first century B.C. equivalent of the modern   Palestinians.  They were from outside Israel, originally, although they had lived there for generations.  They had their own religion.  In the case of the Samaritans it was a corrupted form of Judaism that did not see the Temple in Jerusalem as the holy place.  And Samaritans were hated - and hated the Jews in return - with the same sort of hatred we see distorting the middle East today.

The point of the parable was not to instruct us in good works or charity, as most people understand it.  The parable was the answer to a question.  The question is our theme this morning, and we shall look at our Gospel lesson and try to find the answer to the question, "Who Is My Neighbor?"

The whole thing began when the disciples of Jesus – the Seventy, not the Twelve – returned from their preaching mission.  Jesus had sent them out to heal the sick and proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  It was kind of like a vicarage, except they had the authority our modern vicars do not.  They could heal the sick, and drive out demons, and do other miracles.  When they returned, they were all a-twitter with excitement at the things that they had seen and heard, and that they were actually able to do the miraculous things they did.  And Jesus told them, as our text opens, that they were blessed - for they had seen and heard things that the greatest men of old had desired to see and hear, but had not been granted the blessing of seeing them or hearing them.

Then this lawyer – that meant a Bible scholar in the days of Jesus – stood up to try to catch Jesus in an error.  Apparently things were going too well for Jesus, and they had to do something to slow Him down, or embarrass Him.  He asked Jesus "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  He clearly understood that what Jesus was preaching was eternal life, and if He had the authority to share healing power with His disciples, it seemed clear that if He wasn't stopped soon, He would soon be unstoppable.  Obviously, he did not understand that Jesus was born unstoppable.

Jesus answered the challenge with the perfect answer.  He let the Bible scholar answer it to the best of his knowledge.  The answer from the lawyer, of course, was the Law, summed up in the two summary statements of the Law; "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."  And Jesus agreed with Him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."

The answer, of course, was, "Keep the whole Law perfectly."  "Love God with all of your emotions, with your will, with everything you do, and with everything you think or take the time to know."  That is what the summary of the First Table of the Law means.  And which one of us can even imagine that we have done a good job of keeping that command?  Then we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves.  It appears that the lawyer thought that there might be a chance for him here, if he could get a favorable ruling on the definition of neighbor, so, suffering from a guilty conscience and an apparent sense that this test of Jesus was turning on Him and not turning out well, our text says, "But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘and who is my neighbor?'".

Jesus was quite clever in His answer, if you think about it.  He didn't tell the man, He simply told the parable and let the lawyer deduce the answer to the question.  Jesus let the man answer the question himself, and then gave His seal of approval to the answer.  So, you see, the parable was given to answer the question of who my neighbor is, particularly as it relates to the commandments, not simply to instruct us in how to be Good Samaritans.

Who is my neighbor?  Most answer the question by saying that our neighbor is anyone we meet.  But the robbers were clearly not acting as neighbors.  Another answer I have heard was ‘anyone who has need of us.'  It sounds good, and very pious, but the definition didn't work in the case of the priest or the Levite.  The man who was beaten nearly to death needed their help, but they did not give it, and they were not neighbors to him.  Even the lawyer could see that.

My neighbor, however, is the one who shows mercy toward me, or toward whom I show mercy.  In other words, we make people our neighbor by our compassionate dealings with them.  And the parable makes it clear that being a neighbor – showing compassion – is not something we can necessarily expect from those we might think would do it.  The ties of blood relations did not work for the Jew who had been beaten and robbed.  The ties of religion were not sufficient to make either priest or Levite act as a neighbor, although one would think they should have.  Neither blood relation nor religious obligation can work compassion in those who choose to be without compassion.

The man who felt compassion and showed mercy was the hated enemy.  He was guided by compassion to overlook the fact that the man before him would surely hate him, and was such a man as he would normally have hated him in return.  It was compassion, seeing the need and caring about the other that made the difference.  And then Jesus spoke to the man who would have cleansed his conscience by rationalizing his failure to be a neighbor away by carefully parsing his words.  There is no escape there.  He was found guilty of failing to have compassion, failing to show mercy, and therefore failing to love his neighbor.  Jesus simply said, "Go and do the same."

I think we can look at the parable through the lenses of a couple of questions: Is the parable of the Good Samaritan Law or Gospel?  Are you and I supposed to be the Good Samaritan, or are we the injured man, lying on the side of the road?  And, what is the medicine, the oil and wine for us?

First, is the parable Law or Gospel?

The best answer, I think, is "Yes".

The parable is both Law and Gospel.  As Law, it commands us and condemns us.

Who is my neighbor?  You are, and I am your neighbor – unless you convict yourself of failing to show compassion.  The people across the aisle are your neighbors, or should be, unless you withhold yourself from being their neighbor.  

Second, are we the Good Samaritan in the story, or the beaten, helpless, injured man?

In one sense, you and I are the Good Samaritan.  The question is a question of compassion.  It is a question of caring, of loving the neighbor, and of putting yourself in their shoes, and feeling with them and feeling the desire to help them through their pains and sorrows.  It is such a powerful thing, this compassion, that it does not let the most ancient and powerful and firmly rooted animosities stand in the way.  In that sense, it is Law, showing us how we are to be, and accusing us of our failures to be like the Good Samaritan.

The parable is also Gospel.  Jesus is, for us, the true Good Samaritan, and we are the wounded and helpless victim or the roadside assault.  Our sins are an absolute offense to Him, and an attack on Him.  They are hatred for God and all that is holy in action, in word, and in thought.  That sets up the natural animosity of the original story - our hatred for God, by nature, and His wrath against our sins.

Then, we are victims of sin.  We have been beaten bloody, so to speak, and are unable to help ourselves.  We wait on the side of the road, beaten and in desperate need of rescue.  Our sins are the cause of our misery.  And yet Jesus' great compassion for us as our Good Samaritan led Him to do the most amazing things!

He took on flesh and blood for us and became one with His creatures who had rebelled against Him.  He endured their hatred and scorn, and returned only truth and love.  He took upon Himself our guilt and shame and sin, and stood before His heavenly Father in our place to take the wrath of God which we have deserved and earned.  He bore our sins to the cross and nailed them there in His flesh, and died in our place, so that we might live in His place, and be clothed with His righteousness just as He was clothed with our sin.

Just as the Good Samaritan poured out oil and wine to soften and cleanse and disinfect the wounds of the man who had been beaten, Jesus cleanses us with Baptism and "disinfects" us from sin with the healing balm of forgiveness.  He pronounces your sins forgiven in the Absolution, and here in the sermon as I speak these words – your sins are forgiven!!  He then places you in the inn and supplies all that you need to recover and grow strong.  The inn is the Church.  Here is the place of forgiveness and love.  Here is the heavenly banquet where He not only declares us forgiven, but gives us forgiveness to eat and drink as we receive both His true body and blood in the Heavenly Table set before us.  In fact, the true medicine in this story is the Holy Supper of Christ's body and blood – the Medicine of Immortality given for us Christians to eat and to drink for forgiveness, strengthening and healing from the dread violence of our sins.

As the Church, the body of Christ, we are to be "God with skin on" in the world.  We are to be holy.  God doesn't wait for us to work it up in ourselves, but He declares us to be holy, and what He declares is so.  We are to be like Christ, and since we do not have the healing powers of the body, we must exercise the healing powers of the soul which He has given us.  We have His Word to preach and proclaim.  And we have His compassion to feel, and share with one another, and with the world outside of the Church, a world that likes to pretend that such a thing is foolish and not workable in the world of reality, in the twenty-first century.  God doesn't wait for us to work that up in ourselves either, but He creates that compassion by the same Word through which He does all of His work within us.  "Go and do the same," is not a suggestion, or impossible goal, it is the life of those who are called to be members of the body of the great Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ.

Doing this, feeling and showing compassion toward one another, and then those who do not know Christ, is a fundamental part of what the Holy Spirit works in us.  He works it through the Word which you hear preached today and every week.  He works faith, that "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."  You have now become those disciples about whom Jesus has said, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them."   You may not be able to work the miracles of healing or the casting out of demons that those original Seventy did in our Gospel, perhaps, but you can work the miracle of life by sharing the Gospel, and miracle of healing by loving one another and showing compassion toward those around you.  And it is good to remember that not all injuries are on the outside, where you can see them.

Your are God's people, forgiven and healed by His great compassion.  Unlike the lawyer in our Gospel, you have no need to justify yourselves.  Christ has done that for us.  Your sins are forgiven.  And now we know the answer to the question, "who is our neighbor?" - and we have the word Christ commanding – and encouraging us – to go and do the same. 

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

(Let the people say Amen)

Compassion and Supply

 Mark 8:1-9

In those days again, when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat, He called His disciples and said to them, "I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and if I send them away hungry to their home, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a distance."  And His disciples answered Him, "Where will anyone be able to find enough to satisfy these men with bread here in a desolate place?"

And He was asking them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven."

And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well.  And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.  And about four thousand were there; and He sent them away.

Sermon for Seventh Sunday After Trinity              07/19/26

Compassion and Supply

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Terrorism.  Shootings,  Rapes and murders.  It is all over the news.  We have a daily feed of this terror stuff and it seems most of the perpetrators are Moslems.

+The almost automatic reaction to all of this is to wonder where and when it will all stop.  When will we be safe?  When can we stop worrying about all of this terrorism stuff?  

There are two answers; one is theological and the other practical and more politically-realistic.  The second answer is "Never."  Islamo-fascism is here to stay.  The war they are fighting has been going on for at least 1400 years.  Luther mentions it in his writings.  As long as Islam exists, and other religions survive, the war against the infidel will continue.  Terrorism is simply the form it has taken for the last thirty years, and it shows no signs of growing less fanatical or committed.  This is the war between Islam and Christianity, and it will outlive us all - particularly when our leaders find it inexpedient to recognize it for what it is and call a spade a spade.

The first answer, the theological one, is that we can stop worrying right now.  It is in the hands of God.  The victory is already ours in Jesus Christ.  Nothing will happen - either to us or to our nation - except what God permits in order to accomplish His good and gracious will.  Our task is merely to be faithful in what we do and what we say and how we do it.  They - whomever "they" are - don't control things even as far as they like to think.  God is in charge – and God loves us!  In every time of need, He has compassion on us in our need - and He has the supply of that which we need.  That is the message of our Gospel this morning.  So, let us consider the Gospel with the theme, Compassion and Supply.

The Gospel doesn't start with anything nearly as urgent or frightening as the London bombings.  Jesus has been teaching the multitude - which, in this case, means about four thousand people.  Mark calls it a "great multitude."  This crowd has gathered to listen to Jesus and has been together for three days.  Jesus notes that they have nothing to eat.  This doesn't mean that no one has had anything for three days - but their food has run out.  Jesus recognizes the reality of the situation: they have been with Him for three days, they have nothing to eat, and some of them have come from quite a distance.  Some of them may not have eaten for several days, and Jesus is worried because some of them will collapse on their way home, if He doesn't feed them.

Seeing their need, Jesus feels compassion for them.  They didn't need great things.  They weren't in any great danger - just hunger.  It was a common, physical need, but Jesus felt compassion for them in their need, and supplied them with what they needed.  Hence our theme, compassion and supply.  He has compassion and He has the Supply.

And what a supply!  Jesus starts with seven loaves of bread – although "loaves" is a misnomer.  Their bread was probably those little flat pancakes of bread, an inch thick, or so, and probably six or eight inches across.  It wasn't slicing bread, it was hardtack and tear-off-a-hunk sort of bread.  The word for "loaves" in the Greek means literally, "bread", and nothing more.  So Jesus starts with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, and He distributes the bread and the fish to His disciples, and they start handing them out to the crowd, as they sit on the ground.  The miracle is that they never seem to run out of bread or fish until everyone has some, and everyone has had enough.

One of the comments I read about this was that Jesus gave all of the food to His disciples.  He didn't keep any for Himself.  He gave them everything and they distributed it.  Whatever Jesus may have needed for Himself to eat was apparently shared with Him by His disciples from their abundance, which He gave to them.  I don't know if that is true because the Bible doesn't go into those details, so it wouldn't be fair of me to preach on them as though it were absolutely sure and settled and so it means something.  But it is an interesting thought.  Jesus gives us all that we need, indeed all that we possess, and then whatever He needs to work in the world today, He gathers from the sharing of His disciples today with Him.  It is our offerings and stewardship and serving one another and meeting the needs of the ministry among us that echoes this sharing of the bread and the fish by those first disciples.  He serves us and then waits for us to serve Him back.

Then Jesus asks His disciples to gather up the leftover fragments.  When they gather them, they fill seven large baskets with the left-over bread.  These seven baskets together are more than the leftovers in the twelve smaller baskets when Jesus fed the five thousand.  We know that by the names of the baskets in Greek.  The point of this detail is simply that they had more left over than they began with.  Jesus provided abundantly!  He had the supply!

The whole thing is sort of like God feeding the people of Israel in the wilderness during the Exodus with the Manna.

One lesson we can take away from our Gospel this morning is that food is no problem.  We never need to worry about that because God can feed us when there is little or nothing at hand.  We have trouble believing that, most of the time, because we trust our eyes and our judgment too much and trust God too little.  But supply is never a problem - and Jesus demonstrated that He is compassionate.  He has compassion even in regard to those things we need only for our physical comfort and well-being.  Physical supply is no problem - and there is no shortage of compassion either.  Compassion and Supply.

Now, that is the meaning of this miracle.  All of the commentators say so.  I could end the sermon right here.

But what would be the fun of that?  We can take this miracle as an illustration of a greater principle, too.  We have a need.  We are sinners, and we are justly under the sentence of death for our sins, if we look at things without Christ.  We are hungry for what Jesus alone can give - forgiveness and life and resurrection from the dead.  Is that what this miracle means?  No.  But what I just said about our need is true.

And Jesus has compassion.  If He is compassionate about physical hunger, we know - because He has revealed it to us - that He is genuinely concerned about our greater and more urgent need.  He is so concerned that He took on our human nature and flesh and blood and bore the burden of the law for us, so that He could die in our place.  He did not need to do any of it, but He felt compassion on us.  So He bore the burden of the Law, and then bore the burden of the wrath of God over against our sins..

That is what the Gospel is about.  Jesus died for us to bear the justice of God over sin and to bring us what we really need - salvation!  He has compassion and He has the supply - forgiveness, life and salvation!

If we want to take it a step farther, we can look at the miraculous meal, and see there a sign pointing our hearts to our own miraculous meal, provided by Christ, who gives to His servants the food which He has blessed, and makes it sufficient to feed them all - us - with His body and blood to refresh us so that we do not faint on the way.

It all of this part of the meaning of the feeding of the four thousand?  No.  Not really.  But every bit of it is true - He has had compassion on us, and He has supplied us with everything we need, and feeds us with a meal the likes of which no one else could feed us.  He gives us His body to eat and His blood to drink for our blessing, our forgiveness, our refreshment, and our salvation.  It is just as it was back there, only better. 

But the miracle teaches us that we need never fear need, or lack of anything.  Jesus knows our every need, and He has compassion, and He will supply all that we need.  His willingness to do this for strangers just because they took a few days off and listened to Him should embolden us.  He does this for strangers!  What will He be willing to do for His own people, chosen and precious, adopted into His household as brothers and sisters?

We have no need that He cannot see, and will not fill.  We might have to wait for it - like these people waited three days for the feast - but He will provide what we need.  All that is left for us is to be faithful.  Trust Him.  Learn from the example of the feeding of the four thousand, and live in the moments you are given to live in as though it is true, and Jesus can and will provide.  Live as though it is true, because it is!

What we face today is not a lack of groceries, but a world of Islamic terrorists and a culture increasingly hostile to our confession.  Nevertheless, we still have all that we need to do what Christ would have us to do.  We simply need to be faithful, and trust Him - and now and then offer to Him from the abundance He has given us whatever He may need to accomplish His work in the world around us.

Compassion and supply.  That is our Lord and Savior - and we are His beloved people.

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

(Let the people say Amen)

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                07/12/26

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 that 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 rules they were keeping - or the reasons for them.  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 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 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 them 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 in-dwelling 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 piece 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 that 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)