Awake and Alert

Last Sunday of the Church Year

Sunday of the Fulfillment

November 25, 2012

Mark 13:24–37

It’s a difficult position our Lord puts us into today. Directing us to stand guard. To keep watch. To stay awake and alert. There’s nothing here about what we’re to do, how we’re to go about it, how to occupy the time our Lord gives us on this earth. It would be much easier if He were to lay it all out, as in some other passages of Scripture where it’s clearly defined of actions we are take, ways we are to think, things we are to do for one another.

But here today it’s a simple, “Don’t fall asleep.” Picture the security guard working the night shift. Picture soldier stationed on a remote island with no sound or movement around him.

There’s but one duty here: stay awake and remain alert. Dozing off could get someone killed. Not paying attention could invite treachery. And Jesus in today’s Gospel reading is not talking about some matter of keeping these things about the Last Day in mind. He’s talking about being vigilant. Always on guard. Always awake. Always alert.

He gives no indication about how you are to make use of your time and what things to do with your time. You are to keep watch.

That might make for a very short sermon, in that, what else is there to say about it? Jesus pretty much leaves it at that. So what are we to do with it? Just sit around and wait? From a purely practical and physical standpoint it’s impossible to stay awake. We need sleep. We can’t go, go, go. We have to rest and need to recuperate on a regular basis. The guard and the solider themselves take shifts in their guard duty.

Jesus is waking us up. The fact that we have to ask how to do this shows that we are asleep at the wheel. We are not alert, we are focused on getting by day to day. We are spiritually asleep, concerned more with our problems and being unsatisfied with things in our lives. There’s no time for Jesus to lay out what we should do, He’s gotta wake us up! He is rousing us from our drowsiness. He is shaking us so that we don’t sleep through and be unprepared for when the Hour comes.

Judgment Day is not on our radar. It needs to be. If you’re not prepared, you will stand under the Judgment. You will be judged. Only He knows when He is returning in glory. And only He knows when your life will come to an end on this earth. When you die, if Christ has not yet returned in glory, you will face your Judgment Day. You need to be prepared now. If you’re asleep, wake up! If you’re thinking it’s not a big deal, you need to be alert. It is an eternal deal.

So how do you be ready? What do you do to stay awake and remain alert? As it happens, it’s not just that our Lord says, “stand there like a  guy who’s the doorkeeper and keep watch.” It’s true that what He gives us to do is compared to the doorkeeper keeping watch. This is the way Jesus says it in the Gospel reading:

It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

But a careful hearing of what He’s saying is not that we’re just to stand around and make sure we stay awake. He’s saying we need to be vigilant; just as a security guard would, just as a soldier stationed at his post would, just as the doorkeeper Jesus spoke of would. The way they keep watch is by standing there guarding what they have been given to guard.

What we are to keep watch of is our very lives. We need to stay awake and alert in the life God has given us here on earth to live. The only way you can do that is by being focused, the same way a guard is. Concentrating on the task at hand, which is to keep watch, to stay awake, and remain alert. What Jesus is not saying to us in His warning and exhortation on the coming of the Last Day is to consume our thoughts with it every waking hour. The Bible gives us the calling of actually living out our lives in service to one another, so we can’t take our Lord’s words here and conclude that we need to think of nothing else than when He’s coming back again in glory.

At the same time, we need to take our Lord’s words here to heart and not just go about our everyday lives without realizing the earnestness of this for our daily lives. We can’t become complacent, apathetic, unaware of the urgency—Judgment Day could come at any moment and our death could come at any moment.

But how do you be awake and alert for it if you are not to constantly think about it? The first thing is to listen to Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. It is a sobering and compelling description of what will happen. It is also a warning that it could happen any time. We don’t know when it will happen. We need to be vigilant. It would do us well to go back and read the words again on our own slowly and consider them as something we should not forget.

The second thing, as already stated, is not to take this for granted. Don’t fall into apathy, stay alert!

The third thing, and this is where you get into what our Lord has given us to do in this life, is be in the things that He has given us to be in where He is the one who wakes us up and sustains us so that we don’t fall asleep spiritually.

The first way is, as they say, preaching to the choir. You need to be here. You need to be in this House, the House of God, hearing the Gospel, receiving the Lord’s Supper, being filled up with all the blessings your Lord gives you. You can’t stay awake and alert if you are not receiving what He gives you to spiritually enliven you and sustain you.

This is the blessing of what God gives us to do. It’s stuff to do but it’s really not stuff we do. We’re in this House of God; we’re hearing what is proclaimed; we’re eating and drinking the very body and blood of Christ; but we’re not the ones doing the things that are being done to awaken us and keep us awake and alert. The Holy Spirit is. He’s the one doing the work. He is always vigilant in His work of creating and sustaining faith in you. He is also on guard to forgive you of your sins in the Gospel that is proclaimed and applied to you in your Baptism, and in the Absolution, and in the Lord’s Supper.

The second way is similar in that each day you need to be in this same way of living in which you are receiving. Beginning each day in prayer. Closing each day in prayer. Making some time each day to be in the Word of God. Here again, in these things you are doing things, but really you are receiving. God is the one who is active when you are in His Word and when you are remembering that you are a Baptized child of His.

The third way seems the one most about what you do and not what God does. It is called various things, such as serving, doing good works, vocation, sanctification. Whatever people might like to call it, it is active, and dynamic, and anything but standing around waiting. It is God’s people in service to others. It is His children loving others, caring for others, and submitting to others. It may seem the opposite of standing there at the door keeping watch, being the doorkeeper. But it is the same thing. When you serve—carrying out your vocation, your calling—you are staying awake, remaining alert.

You are not just standing around. You are not idle. You are living in the way your Lord has called you to live. If you live to yourself you will fall into spiritual sleep and apathy. You will not be awake and alert. You will forget about the urgency of Christ’s Return in glory even as you will forget about the calling and the opportunity to serve others. You will forget and even begin to disdain the Gospel, that it is your very life and sustenance.

Part of being awake and alert is being awakened by the Law. God’s Law comes in like a freight train and wakes you up. If you’re near train tracks and a train comes rushing by you are startled and you have to catch yourself at the force of the wind. The Law of God wakes you up to the realization that you have sinned against your Lord in thought, word, and deed. The Ten Commandments shine more brightly as a mirror the more you peer into them and see that you have fallen short of the glory of God. You have fallen asleep at the wheel, not trusting in your Lord and His good gifts to you but rather seeking out your own pleasure and glory.

Wake up now before it’s too late and your own death comes or your Lord returns in glory at any moment! Be alert and repent.

But the other part of being awake and alert is being awakened to new life by the Gospel. The Law wakes you up to the reality of your spiritual death but the Gospel wakes you up to new life. The Gospel actually spiritually awakens you. Think about the warning, or rather, the prophecy given that Christ would go to the cross. He was alert as ever, refusing any sort of alcoholic mixture on the cross to deaden the pain. He was wide awake to the reality that He was taking on Himself the sin of the world. He was aware that His Heavenly Father was bringing upon Him the judgment of holiness against sinners, all on His shoulders; His very life being claimed.

It is in this suffering and death that sinners are brought to life. In your Baptism you are awakened to this life. When you receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper—the very body and blood that were given and shed at the cross—you are sustained in that new life, awake to the eternal life your Lord secured for you and will bring you to the glory of when He returns on the Last Day.

These are the things it means to be awake and alert. These are the things your Lord gives to you in order to be awake and alert. As you see this world go by with all its end-time devolution you remain awake and alert. As you see yourself daily slipping back into the ways of your sinful flesh, wake up; be alert. As you become more and more aware of the devil hitting you hard each day with temptation, be awake; stay alert.

Your Lord is the one who is coming again in glory. This is what you know because He has told you. You have His promise. Your Lord is the one who sustains you in the life He has given you and called you to. Your Lord is the one who forgives you and never forgets you. He is always awake, always alert, always with you, both now when you fall asleep and forever when He comes again in glory to take you home to heaven. Amen.

SDG

In Everything, Thanksgiving

Day of Thanksgiving

November 21, 2012

Philippians 4:6–20

Do you need something good to happen to you in order to be thankful? The answer is no. How about this question: do you need to be given something in order to be thankful? The answer to that is yes. The difference makes the difference between being a truly thankful person and a truly ungrateful one.

If you are depending on good things to happen in order to be thankful you will end up a very ungrateful person. If you realize that the source of your thanksgiving is having received good things from God you will be a truly grateful person. If the difference doesn’t sound like much it’s because we are so conditional. We operate circumstantially. If good things happen, we’re grateful. If bad things happen, we’re ungrateful.

But we have received abundant blessings from God. We ought simply to be grateful, no matter our circumstances. We shouldn’t place conditions on God but rather rejoice in what He has given us.

Have you ever thought about why Jesus Christ gave thanks before He broke the bread of His Holy Supper and gave thanks before He gave His disciples the cup? These are the words of Luke and Matthew as they describe the scene:

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you”… And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

He gave thanks because He had received something. It’s not that good things were happening to Him or things were going well for Him. In looking at the circumstances, things actually weren’t going all that well for Him. He would be betrayed shortly, and He knew this. He would be placed on trial and mocked and tortured, and He knew this. He would be nailed to a cross shortly after that, and He knew this.

You don’t give thanks unless you have received something. What was it that Jesus had received? He was the Lord of the universe, having all things in His possession, what could He possibly have received? Well, with you and me, when we receive things we think of things that make things better for us. When Jesus receives things they are things that entail loving and serving us. What He had received was the commission of being sent to serve. He came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

It pleased the Father to give His Son to us for our salvation. Our Lord and Savior was grateful for the will of His Heavenly Father to become man, to suffer and die for the sin of the world. This is how we are taught to be thankful. Instead of looking at our circumstances, we learn to be thankful for the greatest gift we have ever received, our Lord Himself. Instead of looking for good things to happen to us, we learn that they already have! Our Lord was given to us and He is given to us often in the Gospel and the Sacraments.

When we sit at the table to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast we give thanks for that blessing. Think about what Jesus did when He hosted His disciples at the Passover Meal. He gave thanks at a meal in which He was giving to them. They were receiving, yet He was the one giving thanks. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper we receive what our Lord gives to us. We give thanks for what our Lord has done, which is what He was given to do by His Heavenly Father.

That’s why in the Epistle reading Paul talks about “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” He doesn’t say in the good things. He doesn’t urge gratitude for those times when things are going well. He doesn’t use simple logic and tell them to look around at their circumstances and if they’re amenable that they had better be grateful.

In everything, thanksgiving. It just so happens that what we see anyway isn’t always what really is. God looks at things differently than we do. God sees how truly good things come about through things that we simply view as not good. So while it was tragic that Jesus suffered as He did, died as He did, and lay in the tomb as He did, God brought about the greatest thing there is through that: peace with Him. Atonement of our sins. A restoration of relationship with Him through the willing sacrifice of His Son laying down His life for all sinners.

Paul says that this “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Think not about your circumstances. Think not about what your reason or your logic tell you. Think not about how you would like for things to be different. Simply rest for a moment in gratitude as you consider this peace that surpasses all of your understanding. Consider for a moment how, no matter your circumstances, God’s peace guards your heart and your mind. This is why, and also how, you can be thankful—in everything. The peace of God which bypasses your capacity for understanding, guards you in all circumstances. You aren’t subject to how things are going, you have in everything the opportunity to give thanks because of what you have received from your Lord.

So how do you do this? When you’re naturally inclined to wish your circumstances were better, how do you give thanks in everything? Paul goes on to say, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Is this what you do? Do you think about these things? When you think about these things you are taking your focus off yourself and your circumstances and onto the things of God. In the midst of or despite your circumstances you see more and more how in everything you can give thanks because you see more and more all the many blessings He gives you.

Paul speaks directly to the Philippians: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” The kind of language he uses is receiving language. Language that focuses on what is given, not on how things are going. He exhorts them to consider what they learned in him and what they received in him and what they heard in him and what they saw in him. These are all things that were given to them. That is why they could be thankful, because God gave them blessings through His servant Paul.

Interestingly, Paul then actually goes on to talk about his circumstances. But it’s not for the purpose of saying, when things were going this way, I was this way. And when things were going that way, I was that way. Rather, he says, in all things I was content. Whether he was in need or had plenty he gave thanks. He knew God was taking care of him in all circumstances. His gratitude toward God was not based on circumstances but rather what he had received from God. These blessings received by the Philippians flowed freely back to Paul as he describes how they helped him in his needs. When you give thanks in everything you see how much opportunity there is to help others.

And if we still have trouble with this business of giving thanks in everything, the clincher argument Paul makes is this: “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” It’s not really an argument so much as a statement of fact. Every need. God will supply everything you need. And why is this? Because of the riches of the glory of Christ.

When you look at your circumstances you are being very close-minded. You are looking at only part of the picture and basing your status on that. When you look beyond your circumstances and see everything that God has given you in Christ, the glory of the riches of His suffering, death, and resurrection, you see that in everything there is nothing else but to give thanks. Another way of saying this is how he closes with this doxology: “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

SDG

Being an Observant Christian

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

November 18, 2012

Luke 17:20–30 [alt.]

The observant Christian not only seeks answers from Jesus but also takes Him at His word. The observant Christian does not peer into the secret things of God but hears the words of his Lord and rests in them. If someone else asks a question and after answering it Jesus speaks to one of His disciples, that disciple listens.

The Pharisees asked Jesus about the Kingdom of God and Jesus gave a brief answer. Jesus then turned His attention from the Pharisees to the disciples. He had told the Pharisees that “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.” So what did the disciples need to know about the coming of the Kingdom of God? If you can’t observe its coming, how are you directed to approach it? The Pharisees wanted to know when it would be coming; and wouldn’t we all? Had the disciples asked a similar question? Or did Jesus just take the opportunity brought up by the Pharisees to guide the disciples in their view of the coming of the Kingdom of God?

Not only would the Kingdom of God be coming but so would their “desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man.” Here’s the deal, disciples: “you will not see it.” People will say, “Here it comes!” Or, “Look, here!, it’s coming!” But Jesus said to them, don’t follow those people. The observant Christian will observe that these people are false prophets. They are pointing away from Christ. The observant Christian will stick with the words of Christ and not be swayed by the words of men.

Here is how you will know when the Kingdom of God has come: “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.” You don’t know when, but you will know it has happened because everyone will know. There are many who long to peer into the secret things of God. They are the ones who seek after others, who point people away from Christ. The observant Christian sticks with Christ. The observant Christian sees the signs and recognizes that some of those signs are false prophets saying, “It’s coming, this is when it will be. This is how it will be.” Stick with Christ, He knows a lot more than ordinary men, who are just like you by the way. If you are an observant Christian you know a lot more than those false prophets because you know, and stick with, what Christ has given you to know.

Notice how this whole thing started? When it will it happen, Jesus? When? We want to know. Now I will freely admit that I sympathize with those Pharisees. If I hadn’t asked Jesus myself I would have been thinking in my mind that I was glad that they had. But that is because I am so often not an observant Christian. I am often looking elsewhere. I so often want to know what God has not given me to know instead of sticking with what He has given me to know.

Be observant. Pay attention to what Jesus is saying. You need to know that it’s going to happen, you don’t need to know when. You know that you will know when it happens because Jesus will make it abundantly clear. If you’ve ever seen an electrical storm at night in the desert you know exactly how this will be. The lightning flashes and lights up the whole sky. When Jesus comes in glory on the Last Day you will know. Everyone will. That’s what you need to know. It may seem to you that it’s not going to happen because it’s been a long time already and the world keeps spinning. Be an observant Christian and stick with His words. Don’t wonder when it’s happening, be content that it will happen. He will come again in glory.

The observant Christian takes note of what Jesus says. The observant Christian recognizes that Jesus is not going to promise that He will return again glory without directing us to why He came in humility. Before this happens, Jesus says, before I return on the Last Day, I must accomplish the purpose for which I came. “But first,” He says, [the Son of Man] must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” The observant Christian recognizes that there is absolutely no point in Jesus returning again glory without Him having gone to the cross to suffer for the sin of the world. Without salvation being accomplished on the cross there is no glory for us to obtain on the Last Day.

The observant Christian looks around sees what is happening as this world spins around. But he doesn’t notice what everyone else notices. He observes that because people go about their lives as they do that there aren’t many people who are truly observant. The observant Christian will therefore realize that he is always in danger of going about daily life and forgetting about Christ and His Word. Or being swayed by others who would point him away from Christ. Jesus makes this observation: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.” And how was that? “They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

We’re used to expecting opposition from the world and wickedness. But people also have a remarkable capacity for plain old apathy. Noah warned people that a flood was coming to destroy the earth and what were people doing? Eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage. Guess what people are doing today? Pretty much the same thing. Our Lord has said that He is coming again in glory and along with it this world as we know it will be destroyed. But what are people doing? Going about their business. Carrying out their daily lives without any thought of Jesus’ promise of returning and bringing judgment. The observant Christian recognizes that being observant is constant vigilance. It’s all too easy to go about your life without giving thought to the things Jesus has given you to know and be prepared for.

The observant Christian sees that he all too often is not as observant as he perhaps thinks he is and perhaps that is the reason Jesus emphasizes things by repeating them. That’s the way it was in Noah’s time, Jesus said, and it also was the way it was in Lot’s time: “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all.” The reason God brought His judgment upon people in those times, Noah’s time and Lot’s time, was because of the outright wickedness of the people. The people’s reaction was apathy. They just went on as they had been going on. You ignore Christ’s return in glory to your peril. He gives the warning and as an observant Christian you don’t go on as you are but go on holding fast to the word of Christ, taking it to heart, and being prepared rather than apathetic.

The observant Christian notes that Jesus isn’t just promising to return in glory but that He is saying that just as it was in Noah’s and Lot’s time so it will be when He returns in glory. There will be plenty of people going about their business and will be awakened from their apathetic slumber suddenly. The observant Christian holds to Christ’s word so that He doesn’t fall into this apathy.

Christ spoke all of this to the disciples. Are you an observant Christian? Do you recognize that when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees when they asked Him when the Kingdom of God would come that He said to them that that can’t be observed? Do you see what they didn’t, that the Kingdom of God is among you? As He said, when people are pointing you away from Christ that the Kingdom of God is in the Person of Christ Himself? When Jesus said to the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you, they simply refused to see that God makes Himself known, in other words, the Kingdom of God comes to us, in Jesus Christ, the one who was born of Mary and who suffered on the cross. Look for the Kingdom of God anywhere else and you will miss it. God comes to you in the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

The observant Christian stops thinking about when Christ will return in glory and rejoices that He will return in glory. The observant Christian stops listening to those other voices and listens to the voice of His Lord when He says, I Baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The observant Christian more and more sees the futility of asking when and revels in the now where his Lord says to him, “This is My body, for you; this is My blood, for you.” The observant Christian is ready for Christ to return in glory and joyful that Christ comes to her, in the midst of His of people, in the Gospel that is proclaimed, the Absolution that is pronounced, the Baptism she daily lives in, the Holy Supper her Lord presides over and invites her to.

So it will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed, He will be with you always, as He always has. Amen.

SDG

Holy Ones Are Hearing Ones

All Saints Day [Observed]

Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

November 4, 2012

Mark 12:28–37 [alt.]

Perhaps it’s ironic that All Saints Day always follows Reformation Day. Reformation Day reminds us we’re always in need of reformation. We are sinners who wake every day to the need of dying and rising to new life. That’s what our God does, He reforms us. He continually refashions us, recreates us, renews us. What He does is He makes us saints. Saints are holy ones. And there’s the irony. We are made holy by the perfect sacrifice of Christ, His blood shed for our very imperfect and very unholy lives. By His blood we are declared righteous and holy.

The irony, and even tension, is found in the fact that He declares us holy even as we live in this fallen world. We are surrounded by evil, by tragedy and suffering, by sin in the world and within ourselves. And let’s not forget the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We are holy ones who are in constant need of being forgiven and reformed. It’s not as though we go back and forth. At one moment we’re in the grace of God and fully redeemed, in the next we lapse and are outside of the grace of God and in need once again to be converted. The mystery of this has been described as being saints and sinners simultaneously. At the same time we are holy ones, pure and in the grace of God as we stand before Him on account of His Son even as we are still wrapped up in our sinful flesh, the Old Adam which is constantly rebelling against God’s grace and sinning against Him.

Do you sin? Yes, daily. You are in a constant state of being a sinner. You are by nature sinful and unclean. In His grace and mercy, God does not count this against you. He looks at you and does not see one who is stained and unclean but one who is holy and pure and righteous. How is this so? It is because when He looks at you He sees His Son. He sees you robed in the righteousness of His holy, pure, unstained Son. You are a saint and a sinner. Simultaneously.

On All Saints Day this is the central thought. If you were to go away from here with the notion that as long as you are seeking to improve then you’re being a good saint, you would miss the entire point of what it means to be a saint. Not that you shouldn’t seek to improve. That should go without saying. But that you do doesn’t make you a saint. You are a holy one of God because of Christ and what He has done for you, not what you continue to do.

In fact, the whole notion of trying to suppress your sinful nature goes against this fact of God declaring you a saint. Your sinful nature doesn’t need to be suppressed, it needs to be slain! Drown that sucker! That’s what repentance and daily dying and rising are all about. That’s why each day you arise to the knowledge and joy that you are Baptized. Begin the day making the sign of the cross on your forehead and your heart in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This sign points you to your Baptism. The sign of the cross points you to what happened in Baptism. You were slain, crucified, drowned. Your sinful flesh was joined with Christ in His death and you were then raised to new life, joined with Christ in His resurrection.

This is each day. Each day you die and rise. Each day you wake as a sinner who needs to be slain. Each day you are raised to new life in remembering your Baptism, that instance when you were made a holy one, a saint.

The Old Testament reading today talks of impressing the Word of God upon our children and ourselves. His Words are varied, of Law and Gospel. We talk of them while we’re on the way, we write them on the doorposts of our homes, we make them a part of us, of our daily lives. This doesn’t begin at the moment our children are able to understand and comprehend rational and logical thought. It begins from Baptism. We Baptize them and then nurture and sustain them by the Word of God.

And do you know what happens when we do this? Something amazing. Something we might never expect if we look at things the way we often do. Something we would never fully appreciate if we were to determine how these things ought to work. It’s so amazing that we often miss it because when we look for amazing things from God we too often think in terms of spectacle.

What happens is that they hear. This is the amazing work of God. They hear. Now parents do well to note a difference between hearing and listening. Our kids can hear the words we say but too often don’t listen. Too often we adults fall into the same trap. We hear what we want to hear from others instead of actually listening to them. There is a lot of wisdom in this and we would do well to take this to heart.

But this is not what we’re talking about here. Note well that in the Old Testament reading it does not say, “Listen, O Israel.” The word is very specifically ‘hear’. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This is the amazing work of God. If God were going to tell us how to become saints He would have said, “Listen up people!” Moses would have said to the people, “Listen, O Israel!” But he didn’t. He said ‘hear’. The work of listening is our work. As stated before, we are wise to listen. To pay attention. To take to heart what is being said. But when it comes to being a saint, don’t try to make it happen. Don’t rely on your work of listening or improving or whatever other bright idea you have.

Hear.

That’s how saints are made. By hearing. Paul said it in Romans, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” He didn’t say ‘listening’. He didn’t say by doing something. He said by ‘hearing’. This is amazing. It is the amazing work of God. He is saving you, making you holy, producing faith in you by what He does. Namely, speaking it into you. This is exactly what happened in your Baptism. As the water was poured on you the words of Christ were spoken. And something amazing happened. You heard. You were saved by hearing. You were declared a saint of God, a holy one, because those words penetrated your eardrums and went straight to your heart.

Holy ones are hearing ones.

When the scribe in today’s Gospel reading asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was Jesus didn’t jump straight to the part about loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and the part about loving your neighbor as yourself. If He had, well, it would have been meet, right, and salutary being as He’s God. But amazingly, He didn’t. He was asked to quote a commandment. The greatest commandment. What He gave was a statement of how you are made a saint: hear. Jesus quoted the words of the Old Testament reading, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Jump straight to the commandment if you wish; talk all you want about loving God; loving Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, and will all your strength, and with all your mind; talk about how you must listen to Him; about how you must follow Him; how you must serve Him. But if you do before you have heard you have done it in vain. Holy ones are hearing ones. You are made a saint by hearing and you live by faith. That means you live as a saint by hearing. Hearing the Word. Listening to it, yes, of course. There’s no point in hearing the Word of God if you’re not going to pay attention. If you find your mind drifting you might need a kick-start and get focused back on the task of listening, taking to heart, engaging with the Word. But this is not at the heart of being a holy one.

Hearing is. Hearing ones are the ones who are holy. The saints are the ones who hear. In other words, the saints are the ones who stand in the presence of God not of their own worthiness or on account of something they have accomplished. No, they stand before God as holy solely because they stand under the mercy. They have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. They stand as holy ones because God spoke this holiness, this righteousness, this forgiveness, this salvation, into them. Holy ones are hearing ones.

This can be seen by the way God works. What do we believe happens when we partake of the body and blood of our Lord in His Holy Supper? We believe He forgives us. Does He do so on the basis of what we do? On the contrary, it is on the basis of His Word being spoken, just as it was in our Baptism. It’s exactly the same thing. It’s the Gospel that saves us, makes us saints. In Baptism it’s water that’s connected with this Word of the Gospel, in the Lord’s Supper it’s bread and wine that’s connected with the Word of the Gospel. That is what you hear. He speaks, you hear. He speaks into you, you are the passive receiver of His amazing work of salvation, of making you a saint.

Hearing ones recognize that they are holy ones. They recognize they are holy by grace, as a gift, purely by the mercy of their Lord, that they are, simply, hearing ones. They recognize the joy to hear their Lord. They rejoice in the many opportunities their Lord gives them to make known to others the salvation they have received by hearing. They give thanks their Lord calls them into a fallen world where they can serve others and where others too have the opportunity to hear and be saved.

They recognize, by grace, that they are saints in exactly the same way as the saints who have gone before them are, by grace. By hearing. The saints in heaven have gone before us and await as we do the glorious day when Christ will come again to call us to join with them in the everlasting Banquet in which we will hear our Lord speak to us and lavish His love and grace on us.

In the meantime we hear here on earth. We gather around this altar hearing our Lord say to us, Take, eat, this is My body; take, drink, this is My blood. We gather around the altar at this rail. When you look at it you see that it forms a half circle because there’s the wall that prevents it from continuing on to form a full circle. And yet, because we are those who are hearing ones we recognize that this isn’t simply a feature of the church’s architecture but rather of a visual sign of what is happening at this altar. What is happening is that the holy ones of God here on earth are gathering with the angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven to hear and receive from their Lord. We kneel at this half of the circle knowing that the part that is unseen is occupied by the saints who have gone before us, holy ones. Holy ones as we are. Hearing ones now and always. Amen.

SDG

Why Is Reformation Necessary?

Reformation Day [Observed]

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Commemoration of Simon and Jude, Apostles

October 28, 2012

Mark 10:46–52 [alt.]

Today we celebrate as Reformation Day. The Reformation is a big deal to us. But why? In a sense, the Reformation is an odd thing. The Holy Christian Church is truly the one, universal Church. Why is it that some church bodies have a celebration of reformation while others don’t? That doesn’t seem to speak very well to unity in the Church. We wholeheartedly celebrate the unity of the Christian Church even as we celebrate the Reformation. So why is reformation necessary? Perhaps one way to look at this is to see what Mark is doing in the Gospel reading.

He starts off by saying that Jesus went to Jericho. In the very next sentence he tells us an event that occurred when Jesus was leaving Jericho. Wouldn’t you like to know what happened while Jesus was in the town? What we know is that we don’t need to know. We need to know what happened as He was leaving the town. The reason Mark tells it is because he is delivering Jesus to you. You need to know what occurred with Bartimaeus because that’s how Mark is delivering Jesus to you. And that’s what the Church does.

The Holy Christian Church delivers Jesus to people. When it doesn’t do that there’s something wrong. That’s why we have the Reformation. The Reformers weren’t saying that the Holy Christian Church was in error. Here is where we agree with all those who say that the Church doesn’t need reformation. The problem isn’t with the Church but with the people in it. In His infinite wisdom God chose to make up His holy, pure, universal Church with sinners. That’s what the Reformation was about, not attacking the Church, but rather the teachings that people in the Church were delivering to the people of God that directed them not toward God but toward themselves. The Church delivers Christ to people. When those within the Church deliver something else to them there’s a serious need for reformation.

The Holy Christian Church is not merely an organization. The Church is a living entity, the Communion of Saints. The Church is where we get the forgiveness of sins. This is not done generally but specifically. Mark tells us of Jesus moving out of Jericho with a great crowd. But it wasn’t the crowd Mark was interested in, it was this one particular individual who found himself on the side of the road. He was blind but could hear very well that Jesus was about to move on away from him. So he cried out.

What is it that the Church teaches us about who you are? You are dead in your sins. You are laying on the side of the road, blind and unable to get out of your condition. What is it that prompted Bartimaeus to cry out to Jesus? Was there something within him that moved him to approach Jesus? This is a remarkably frequent understanding of how one comes into a relationship with God. You must cry out to him. You must make the first move and then He will come to you.

What does Mark show us, though? Jesus was the one who came to Jericho. It’s very possible Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus before Jesus even came to Jericho. It’s also possible in the time, whether brief or a few days, that Jesus was in Jericho that word got around about this man who came into town with a large crowd on His heels. That Bartimaeus cried to Him as the Son of David shows us that Bartimaeus knew who He was. Even before Jesus passed by Bartimaeus Bartimaeus knew who this man was; the Son of David, the Messiah. This is how faith comes to a person, through the Word getting out and by hearing that Word. Even before Jesus passed by Bartimaeus Bartimaeus had heard. He had received the message that Jesus, the Savior, was here.

But he was laying there. Would he miss out? The cry of faith prevented that. He cried out to Jesus and even so he still seemed to be prevented from receiving from Jesus the help he needed. The crowd rebuked him. You need to stay silent. Here in this detail also Mark is showing us how he is delivering Jesus to you. The Word rings out and cannot be silenced. At the same time, the cry that goes out to God for mercy will be attempted by many to be squelched. The crowd wanted to leave Bartimaeus to his own wretched state. They tried to silence him.

What does faith do in this circumstance? It cries out all the more. It is fixed on Jesus, not on the pressing cries of silence. Jesus hears this cry. When all seems to go against you you cry out all the more to Jesus. He hears this and responds to it. That’s exactly what He did with Bartimaeus. “And Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart. Get up; He is calling you.’” Jesus called to that man in His wretched state. He didn’t demand anything of him in order be freed from his wretched state. He simply called him. He met Bartimaeus where he was at.

And so He does with you. The crowd that tried to silence him now spoke words that should remind you of the importance of reformation and why it is always necessary: “Take heart. Get up; He is calling you.” This is the message the Church must always make known. Take heart. Get up. He is calling you. When those in the Church tell you of what you must do in order to gain God’s favor reformation is needed. When those in the Church tell you that you aren’t in fact in a wretched state, that you aren’t by nature sinful and unclean, reformation is of utmost importance. When those in the Church tell you that you must be the one to come to God in order for Him to come to you, reformation is the order of the day. This is shown when Mark tells us what Jesus did for the man and what He said to him.

First, what did the man do when he heard the message that Jesus was calling him? “And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” This is a picture of repentance. Repentance is so misunderstood, which is one of the reasons the Reformation happened and one of the reasons reformation continues to be necessary. Repentance is the work of God. We think of it as our work because we are the ones who turn, we repent. But when you repent you are not producing anything. And how could you? You are by nature sinful and unclean. How could you produce and accomplish the good work of repentance? You couldn’t just as Bartimaeus couldn’t. He was blind even as you are. Even though your eyes see you can’t find your way to heaven any more than Bartimaeus could have. When you throw off the cloak of your sinful nature and leave it behind and spring up and come to Jesus, this is solely the work of the Holy Spirit. Bartimaeus was given this ability to do this by Jesus Himself when He called Bartimaeus.

What did Jesus ask Him? And Jesus said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Notice these words of Jesus to Bartimaeus. They are to Bartimaeus. There’s a throng around Him, there are multitudes of others who are in need, and yet Jesus’ words to this man are to this man specifically. “What do you want Me to do for you?” This is at the heart of the Reformation and of reformation as it continues in the Church. The ‘for you’ of the Gospel. Jesus died for the world and He died for you. Who is the one doing the for you? It is Jesus. The Reformers saw that there was entirely too much focus on what we must do to appease God and the ‘for you’ of the Gospel was getting pushed to the back. “What do you want Me to do for you?” The Gospel is always what Christ does for you and never what you do or must do for Him.

Because the Church is made up of sinners and sinners always carry around their sinful flesh it’s natural for us to take the words of Scripture and gravitate toward those words that seem to indicate that we must make some effort toward God in order to be saved. Bartimaeus cried out; Bartimaeus threw his cloak down and went to Jesus. Bartimaeus had faith. There’s no doubt these describe action on the part of Bartimaeus, a human and a sinner just like you and I are. The question is, how was he able to accomplish these actions? Of his own power? Of his own will? This is what many in the Church teach and this is the reason why reformation is still necessary.

Mark gives Bartimaeus’ answer to Jesus’ question, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” Faith. When we confess the faith in the Creed, what do we do? We say, “I believe.” I believe in God, the Father Almighty. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. I believe in the Holy Spirit. This is faith. When you believe in God, in salvation in Christ alone. This is what Jesus was talking about when He said to Bartimaeus that he had faith.

This is all well and good, but it’s so easily misunderstood by people in the Church. Why that is is because we’re all sinners. Sinners have their focus on themselves. So when the Word of God talks about us having faith, we jump up, ready to please God, and say, “Yes, I have faith! I believe in Jesus.” This is the kind of thing the Reformation sought to expose for what it is: idolatry. The Church exists to point people outside of themselves, not within themselves. You are not to come up with faith. Look to God for that. He is the one who gives you the very faith required of you.

The First Commandment demands it: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should, fear, love, and trust in God above all things. So there you go, do that and your golden. The problem is when people in the Church actually impress that on people as if that’s something they can actually do! Try it. You will fail. You will not get pretty close, or do pretty well, or make a good effort of it. You will fail. And you will fail miserably. Because you are a poor, miserable sinner.

You must have faith but you do not have it. So how it is that you believe? You have faith, how? What do we confess in the meaning of the Third Article of the Creed? I believe that I cannot believe. “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” This is what the Reformation is all about. It’s what the daily Christian life is all about. Jesus is delivered to you, you don’t go after Him.

When Jesus gave sight to Bartimaeus he followed Jesus on the way. Jesus was going the way of the cross. Jesus has since gone that way. He went to the cross. He accomplished salvation there, for the world, for you. He doesn’t go that way again, but the Church continues to go back to it, constantly proclaiming Christ crucified for sinners, for people in the Church and out. For everyone and for you. He still makes His way but it is not the way of the cross but rather is the way of being delivered directly to you in the Church. In the proclaimed Gospel He is delivered to you. In your Baptism He is delivered to you. In His Holy Supper He is delivered to you. Sinners are the ones who hear the Gospel proclaimed and who are Baptized and who eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of all of their sins.

Reformation is always necessary because we are always in need of forgiveness. The unity of the Holy Christian Church is found not in Christians coming together and feeling good about each other or putting aside differences but rather in the observance and celebration of those means in which Jesus is delivered to them. Reformation is necessary because God loves you too much to leave you in your wretched state and so He calls you, He tells you to take heart, He delivers Jesus to you. Amen.

SDG

In Body and Soul, Now and Forever

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

October 21, 2012

Mark 10:22–31

What do all these men have in common: Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and Job? They were all patriarchs of the faith. They are paragons of faith. As the saints of old did, we look to these men as fathers in the faith; our Lord points us to them as examples of being His children. There were others in the Old Testament who are lifted up as saints as well that we should give thanks to God for: Hannah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Joshua, and countless others. These saints don’t quite have the status of those in the first list. Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Job, there is one thing they have in common that at least in part accounts for that—they were fabulously wealthy. These men had it all. They were men in powerful positions, men who were highly honored, and along with that status, men of immense wealth. Why is this? Was there something special about them? Did they have stronger faith in God than most others?

There is an aspect of faith and the Christian life that there are strong Christians and weak Christians. Some are strong in their faith and others are struggling. Yet faith is faith. You either have it or you don’t. Weak or strong, a lot or a little, if you have faith you have faith. In terms of every human being being born in sin there was nothing more righteous about Abraham and David than there was about Hannah or Jeremiah or your average believer in God in the Old Testament. We, like they were, are saved solely on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not our own.

But think about those men the Bible holds up as saints par excellence. Is it just a coincidence that they were wealthy beyond compare? Or is there no correlation to their having extraordinary wealth and their being in a category unlike every other believer in God in the Old Testament?

The disciples in the Gospel reading may very well have been thinking along these lines. A couple of these men Jesus called to be His apostles actually had wealth of their own when Jesus called them. Even so, their wealth in no way compared to the likes of Abraham or King David. Most likely, it didn’t come close to the man who had just walked away from Jesus in great sadness because he had great wealth. What prompted this sadness was Jesus’ call to him to sell all he had and follow Him. Now Jesus is telling His disciples that it’s nearly impossible for a rich person to get into heaven. Accurate or not, in the minds of the disciples there likely was a direct correlation between the riches of Abraham, David, and company and their status as saints par excellence; as paragons of the faith. Now this wealthy, upstanding follower of God comes to Jesus and upon leaving Jesus Jesus declares to the disciples that it’s nearly impossible for the wealthy to enter into eternal life? The disciples were seeing a major disconnect with what they saw the Old Testament teaching them and what Jesus now was teaching them.

They were astonished at Jesus’ words. If what you’re saying is true, Jesus, then who can be saved? It wasn’t that they thought that these men were wealthy and therefore God blessed them with eternal life. It was the notion that these men were men of great faith, ones who obeyed the Law of God, and therefore God rewarded them and blessed them. There’s no more obvious way of seeing this than of being endowed with fabulous wealth. The man who came up to Jesus was so endowed and so when he in all sincerity responded to Jesus that he had kept the commandments of God from his youth the disciples were not surprised. Here was a man who was abundantly blessed with wealth. And of course, he was an outstanding example himself of what a believer in God should be.

If we’re looking for resolution from Jesus on this matter of the correlation between wealth and being blessed by God then we’ll likely be disappointed. Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question of who can be saved is simply, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” They’re thinking, if this man has little hope of salvation, what hope do the rest of us have? And perhaps that’s what prompted Peter’s rationale to Jesus: “See, we have left everything and followed you.” We may not be wealthy, we may not be in the same league as Abraham and David and the rich man who just walked away, but we have given up all we have. You just called that man to sell all he had and follow you, and we have done something of the sort. We’ve put everything of value to us behind us and have put you in front of us so that we may live our lives in submission to you.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for My sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” Jesus had made clear to them how someone, anyone, everyone, can be saved—with man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Salvation is in God alone. With you, dear disciples, with that man who just walked away, with Abraham, and David, and Moses, and everyone. There are no special blessings upon people because they are in any way more righteous or better or good in the sight of God. Salvation is in what God accomplishes alone. If only the disciples had realized that the way God does this was in the person who was standing before them telling them all of this. They would come in time to see this and believe it. For now they were as puzzled as ever, still caught up in their notions that they somehow had to do something, or live a certain way, or give up something, or accomplish certain good works, in order to gain salvation. This is exactly what the rich man had thought and he went away sad because he didn’t want to give up what he had in order to gain salvation. He didn’t see that salvation is by grace, not by doing something.

We spend far too much time quantifying things, far too much effort trying to determine what effort we must exert, far too much rationalizing what we have done that should matter as we stand before God. We are so much like the rich man. We are far too much like the disciples. For the record, we are so similar to Abraham, and Moses, and David, and all those men of renown who seem on such a higher plane than us. The news flash from Jesus is that we are all the same. We are in the same boat with every other person. There is no one who deserves anything from God, in this life or in eternity.

Thankfully, His news flash doesn’t end there. His main thing He has come to bring is Himself, and with Him you get it all. “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” These are remarkable words from God Himself, God in the flesh. He laid aside His glory to serve. He came not just to help but to accomplish. His serving took the form of suffering in the place of every person, high status or low. The call He gives to each of His children is that, yes, when the rubber hits the road, God comes before your mom and dad, your brother and sister, your valuables, your life. If you hold on to those with the notion that you truly can’t live without them you have already lost them because you can’t hang on to them for eternity.

We truly leave all and cling to Christ alone. That’s a stunning statement, but not so much in comparison with what He says comes next. What we leave behind is everything we have. What we get in return is so much more. His words are clear, we do not live in this life waiting for the all the blessings to come to us in heaven. Even now He blesses us. We “receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” When you are in the Church, you are in a new family, God’s family. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are your spiritual family, but you don’t have to wait until heaven to receive this gift from God.

The blessing upon receiving the Lord’s Supper captures this nicely: The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in body and soul to life everlasting. The Lord’s Supper is a spiritual meal, no doubt. But its blessings are for your body and soul. Not just your soul, your body as well. His blessings to you are not just for the life to come but also for now in this time. He blesses you in body and soul, now and forever. Amen.

SDG

Jesus Loves You. How Does He Love You?

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

October 14, 2012

Mark 10:17–22

If it were enough to say that Jesus loves you every sermon would need only be as long as it takes to state that fact. And maybe some people would be happy about that. It can be tough to listen to sermons week after week as they unpack the message of Jesus’ love for people. If all we needed was to know the fact that God loves us His message to us wouldn’t have needed to be in form of the Bible. A post-it note from heaven or a text message from God would have been sufficient: Dear people whom I have created, I love you.

There’s one problem with this: it’s not true. It’s not actual real true love. If God truly loved us He wouldn’t just tell us that. Love is not simply stated, it is acted upon. It’s not really just showing love either. It’s actually loving the person. You can tell someone you love them. You can even give them signs of your professed love for them. But to actually love them, well, that must come from actually loving them.

The only way that is done is to put yourself in the background and the other person in the foreground. True love sacrifices for the other person. Actual, real love serves the other person when there is absolutely no reason on the part of the person for being loved. If you tell someone you love them but you don’t actually love them you are not actually loving them. You may be able in some way to explain it as something good, but it’s not love.

In the Gospel reading there’s a man who comes up to Jesus and we learn what exactly God means, not what it means when He says He loves us, but what it means that He actually loves us. Jesus was continuing on a journey. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John there are recorded many instances of Jesus teaching and preaching, of healing and helping, of interacting with people, and here is one of those. It seems a bit as if the world has stopped because Jesus is intent on continuing His journey. His journey is a goal that this man and pretty much everyone else is oblivious to. The disciples should know at this point but they are a lot like we are and do not have a clue as to what Jesus is actually up to when He does what He does. Here in today’s Gospel reading when He is continuing on on His journey it’s not that He’s just saying, “Okay, time to go somewhere else and do more ministry.” He’s making His way to the cross. He knows where He’s going and this is the context of His love for this man when it appears that the man is detracting Jesus from His journey to the cross. But no, Jesus loves this man and so He stops just as He’s ready to resume His journey to the cross.

In our English language the word ‘love’ is used in so many ways it may seem a clash of our understanding in how it is that Jesus loved this man when we see how He responded to him. The man runs up to Jesus, kneels before Him, and asks his question. Even in his question we see what would seem to be respect for Jesus, calling Jesus ‘Good teacher’. Jesus seems to take him to task for addressing Him that way: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” But giving no chance to respond to that Jesus then goes into His list of things the man requests: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”

It’s not until the man responds to this that Mark tells us that Jesus loved this man. But we don’t need to be told this to know that Jesus loved him. We know this because of what Mark has already told us. Jesus was on His journey to the cross. He was making His way to the place where He would suffer and die for this man’s sin. That’s not how much Jesus loved him it’s simply how He loved him. The man came to Jesus asking Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. The word ‘inherit’ in the original is probably better understood as “How can I come to share in eternal life?” What can I do so that I am in possession of eternal life?

The great irony here that was lost on him but not on Jesus was that there was nothing he could do but he was asking the person who was heading to the place where He Himself would be accomplishing what was needed for this man to be in full possession of eternal life. He was asking this ‘good teacher’ not realizing he was asking the very God of heaven who came to earth so that the man could gain heaven. This is how Jesus loved this man. This shows that Jesus truly loved this man. He was attempting to gain heaven through the Law while Jesus was journeying to the place where He would deliver this man from the Law. He was seeking heaven by what he could do when he was talking to the person who would give him heaven purely by grace, not by anything he would do but rather by what Jesus Himself would do.

But putting the best construction on things, the man was likely sincere in his declaration to Jesus, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” Jesus had just rattled off the entire Second Table of the Law, the Fourth Commandment, the Fifth Commandment, and so on, all the way through the Tenth Commandment. Haven’t murdered anyone. Haven’t been unfaithful to my wife. Haven’t stolen anything. Etc. And this guy probably was a very good guy. He was probably the kind of guy you would want for a neighbor. So in all sincerity he could say to Jesus, “Jesus, I know about the commandments. I’ve been keeping them. There’s got to be more. What am I still missing?”

This is where Mark inserts his comment that Jesus looked at this man and loved him. The question for us today is, how did Jesus love him? Well, Mark answers that: Jesus said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Jesus could have pointed out to the man that he had in fact not kept all those commandments he had been certain he had kept. Jesus could have pointed out to him that there was that whole other table of the Law, the First Table, with essential things such as having no other gods and not misusing the name of the Lord God and remembering the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. But Jesus truly loved this man. He wasn’t going to play games with him. He wasn’t going to get into an argument with him or even a friendly philosophical discussion with him.

He was going to love him. And if you want to know how Jesus loves a person look at what Jesus said to the man: “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” How does Jesus love people? How does He love you? It’s easy for us as Christians to go straight to the cross, it’s there where Jesus loves us. It’s there where He shows His love and demonstrates His love. That’s true. There’s no doubt about it, at the cross you see Jesus’ love being carried out. So when we talk about how Jesus loves, yes, we go to the cross.

I guess the question becomes, how do we go about going to the cross? Jesus answers that as well. As we saw, Mark was telling us that Jesus was heading that way. He was on His way to the cross. Along the way He didn’t put blinders on. He didn’t stop people short, “Sorry, no time for teaching or miracles, on My way to the cross where I will accomplish salvation for all of you.” In this particular instance He shows us how all-encompassing His love for us actually is. When the guy says that he has kept all the commandments from His youth, one gets the sense that there must be something more. In his confidence of keeping the commandments he is far from confident that he has done all that is needed. It happens that even what he has claimed isn’t that case. Far from showing us how good of a standing we have with God, the Ten Commandments show us how far we have fallen short of what God wills.

The statement the man makes is true only if it is spoken by the man he is speaking to. This is how God loves us, He in fact has kept all these commandments from His youth. He alone has accomplished all that the Law requires, knowing that we have not. Before bringing us to the cross Jesus must first shatter any illusions we have that we can somehow do something or be a certain way in order to obtain eternal life. If this doesn’t seem like love it’s because to our sinful flesh it’s an assault on us. But that is the very thing that shows us that this is true love from Jesus. He assaults our sinful flesh so that it doesn’t end up winning out over us and we end up in eternal death.

“You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” To this man before him, Jesus was showing him that he really had nothing. All his possessions would come to nothing. Treasure in heaven not only surpasses all earthly treasure it lasts forever. Jesus didn’t want this guy’s money. He didn’t even want him not to have it. What Jesus wanted was the man. He loved him so much that He would do whatever was necessary to save the man. The man couldn’t be saved if he got in the way. His basic problem, his sin that got in the way of him being in possession of eternal life, was not money, or even greed, or arrogance. His basic problem was breaking the First Commandment, You shall have no other gods. Jesus needed to lead this man to the cross. To do that He had to show him his need for the cross.

You know Jesus loves you. How He loves you is by accomplishing everything needed for you to share in eternal life. You don’t need to wonder if there is ever more to be done or if you have done enough. He has kept every commandment you have failed to and has suffered in your place for those very failings and faults. This is how He loves you. He goes to the cross. He brings you along with Him in Baptism where you are crucified with Him and you are given eternal life. Amen.

SDG

Ready, Aim… Engage!

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Commemoration of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Pastor

October 7, 2012

Mark 10:2–16

The writer of the book of Hebrews gives this warning in today’s Epistle reading: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” When he was the dean of Duke University Chapel, William Willimon on one occasion got up into the pulpit said something along the lines of, “We now do something not often done today, we go to ancient book and read from it.” While there are brilliant people in the world and profound insights are put forth in our day and age, when we gather here we do something that the culture often ignores—we read from an ancient book.

That’s what Pastor Willimon was there for for those students. It’s what the Church continues to be for for us. Each Sunday we go to an ancient book and hear from it. The Bible is thought by some to be just another ancient book with no more relevance to us today than any other ancient book. We know differently. We hear the words from the Bible as the very word of God. The author of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells us plainly, we need to pay attention, note how he says it, to what we have heard. Not what was written, not even what was spoken—what was heard. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. The Holy Spirit brings faith to us through this act that is really not an act on our part at all, for we are the receivers. He is the giver, the one doing the action. He does it by speaking. We hear the Word of God. We must continue to do so or we will drift away from it.

So if the world thinks us foolish in hearing the Word of God proclaimed, we will continue to revel in our foolishness and hear what He proclaims to us. Today’s Gospel reading is an important confluence of teachings that speaks to each of us here today, to how we interact with the culture, and to how we are taught by our Lord Himself that doctrine is not doctrine for doctrine’s sake but rather that it all works together in a holistic way. Specific doctrines do not stand on their own but interact with each other.

The best way to hear our Lord is to submit to Him and take His words to heart. The Pharisees came to Jesus in the opposite way. They wanted to trap Him. So many people in the world come at Jesus already with their minds made up that He’s wrong. To those people Jesus will do what is necessary to call them to repentance. So Jesus’ answer to them is not what we might expect. He directs them to the Bible, yes, but in such a way in which they think that they have been successful, where they can use the Bible to back up what they want.

The Pharisees test Jesus on the matter of divorce. It so happens that an allowance for divorce is in there. That is, the Bible. There you go, Jesus, we got You. If You say divorce is wrong, well, You’re going against the Word of God, aren’t You? And if you say it’s right, well, you’re just giving a green light to married couples to ditch each other at their convenience. So we gotcha. They quote the relevant passage, the one Jesus asks them about, and it’s clearly there before Jesus: the Scriptures say that you can divorce.

Now Jesus shows them how to rightly interpret the Scriptures. It’s true it says that, right there in the Bible. But look again at what today’s Old Testament reading is from. It’s from Genesis, not Deuteronomy, where the Pharisees quoted from. It’s from Genesis, where Jesus quoted from. These two aren’t in contradiction of each other, they’re both fully the Word of God. But why did Moses allow for divorce? Because of your hardness of heart. That’s what Jesus says to the Pharisees. Because of your hardness of heart. Not, “Well, you see Moses did that because of the Israelites’ hardness of heart.” It is yours and that is what you rest on.

Not on the creation and design of marriage in the first place which God gave to Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis. This is what Jesus quotes from Genesis: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” That was the quotation from Genesis, now listen to what Jesus says in regard to this: “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” That’s quite a bit different than allowing for divorce. God created marriage for our blessing, how dare we go against His design and will by separating what He has joined together.

Here is where we learn how this ancient book speaks to us today; to us as well as the culture. These are the kinds of things that many in the culture and many of us won’t want to hear. One way to deal with this would be to not deal with it so as not to turn people away. A much better way though is to deal with it in a way in which we can show people that God’s way is a truly great way. Today’s Gospel reading deals with at least two major issues the culture is dealing with, marriage and family. The Gospel reading also deals with at least two major issues that the Church is dealing with and that it should engage the culture with, the Word of God and Baptism.

The Pharisees started this whole thing off by asking Jesus about divorce. After their exchange with Jesus the disciples follow up on the matter, asking Him about it. The difference is that the Pharisees asked Jesus about it for the purpose of testing Him, to try to trap Him in His words. The disciples simply asked. There are many people in the culture who will come at us as the Pharisees did Jesus. But there are also those who have all kinds of questions as the disciples did. Notice how Jesus’ response was different to each group. It’s not that His answer was different. But the way He responded was in correlation to how they approached Him in asking Him.

We need to do so as the writer of Hebrews exhorts, to pay attention to what we have heard. We need to do so as the disciples did, asking our questions of the Lord and seeking what He gives us rather than having our minds made up at the outset.

Too often the culture will come at the Christian Church in this way. Too often our response is something along the lines of “ready, aim, fire!” We set our sights on those who attack marriage as being one man and one woman, as God designed it, and we fire away. You can be totally right in what you say, but so often what you say is not heard because of how it’s said. Rather than firing away at the culture, it’s often better to engage the culture. Instead of “ready, aim, fire!”, we should make much more of an effort of “ready, aim, engage!”

We’ve already seen how to be ready. We pay closer attention to what we have heard. We need to be in the Word ourselves, we need to hear it proclaimed, we need to receive our Lord’s gifts in His Holy Supper. It’s so easy for us to condemn the culture when our own house often is not in order. While we lament the breakdown in society of marriage as one man and woman and the belittling of the importance of family, how are we treating one another in our own households? Do we cherish our own spouse? Do we honor our own father and mother? Do we treat our children, our siblings, our spouses with respect and love and honor? Do we seek to serve each other in our home? Are we content and grateful for the spouse and children and siblings God has given us or do we covet what others have?

God gets us ready by first taking aim at us. He does that with His Law and you can see that in how Jesus addresses the Pharisees. If you want to live by the Law then that is what you will get from Jesus. And His Law will point out to you your hardness of heart. You can see it in His indignance with the disciples as they attempted to prevent the children from coming to Him. The Hammer of God’s Law swings down hard and woe to us if we only see it as needing to come down hard on the culture. We must first get our own house in order, we first must be the ones to repent. In this we then hear and pay attention to the light as a feather yoke He places upon us, the glorious Gospel. The forgiveness of every sin we commit against our family and against those in the world. He forgives, period. Of our sins, of our sinfulness.

He then prepares us for engaging the culture. This is where the ‘aim’ in ready, aim, engage comes in. Simply speaking the truth to the culture doesn’t necessarily do the trick. We need to aim at the culture, not for the purpose of blasting away at it but for the purpose of applying Law and Gospel to the specific things they say and the specific struggles they have with the teaching of the Word of God. Do they have honest questions or concerns? Firing away at them with condemnations and proclamations of pure doctrine wouldn’t exactly put them in a mood to listen to that pure doctrine. Are they simply confused because they have heard well meaning Christians explain the truth of God’s Word in a way that wasn’t clear or that was inaccurate? Blasting them out for their misconceptions wouldn’t exactly put them in the mindset of wanting to hear what God’s Word really has to say. Are they indeed antagonistic? Perhaps patiently and calmly responding to them will get their attention more so than ourselves going for the jugular. The aim part takes work. It means listening to others and recognizing what they say and acknowledging its importance to them.

This leads into the third part, engaging them. Instead of firing way at the culture we can engage the culture. We have something to offer them they can’t get from the culture! Whatever people think of the Word of God it speaks to every human and their deepest needs. When we are treating our own family members with love and honor people notice that and we are able to show them the blessings God has intended in marriage and family. When we sin against one another we can also show the blessings that come from confessing our sins to each other and forgiving each other.

It may seem like what Mark tells us next in the Gospel reading is a different topic but it’s really what flows out of marriage. When people were bringing children to Jesus they were doing what is characteristic of what happens in the Church. We are brought to the Lord. That is, we don’t come to Him of our own accord. This happens in Baptism. In Baptism we are blessed by Jesus and given the Kingdom of God. This is why it’s so important that, even as we take care of our children from the moment they are born and give to them what they need, we also give to them what they need spiritually. We bring our children to Jesus when we bring them to be Baptized. Just as babies are in need of physical care from the moment they’re born, so are they in need of spiritual care from the moment they’re born. That’s why we bring them to Jesus to be Baptized.

Just as our Lord has engaged us we are then set to go engage the culture. Just as our Lord came to us as a servant, even suffering and dying for us, we’re equipped to go to those in society with all their questions and problems and engage them with the Gospel. Just as we have been brought to our Lord in Baptism we can bring the Gospel to those in the culture. Ready, aim, engage! Amen.

SDG