Stewardship Is Watching and Waiting

Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Commitment Sunday
November 9, 2008
Matthew 25:1-13

One of the reasons it’s hard to listen to a stewardship sermon is because you think you know what you’re going to hear. We know what stewardship is, what new or challenging thing can we hear about it? If we hear the same old thing, that everything we have is from God and we give back to Him out of thanks, how motivated will we really be for giving to God and making godly use of our time and talents?

As you might expect, Jesus has some things to teach about stewardship. In the parable He tells in the Gospel reading He shows us what stewardship is. Stewardship is watching and waiting. A steward of God watches. A steward waits.

Our natural reaction in talking about stewardship is what we must do. How much should I give for my offering? How much time have I put in in serving in the church? How have I used my talents to serve in the church? But too often we’re left with a lot of talk about sanctification and stewardship and very little talk about Christ. He might simply be an afterthought. We know He has saved us—do we feel we need to move beyond that to what we must do, how we should live?

The antidote to this is Christ. Not just talk about Christ—Christ. Christ is our life. He is our salvation and He is our life. In the parable we don’t just learn how we are to be good stewards. We don’t just learn how to live in a godly way. We receive Christ in this parable.

It’s apparent that Jesus is the Bridegroom of the parable. He’s the one the virgins are waiting for. He’s the main one. He’s the one coming so that the party can get into full swing. So how do we get from needing Christ as our sole hope for sanctification and godly stewardship to that actually happening? How does Christ as the Bridegroom actually help us here?

We shouldn’t be focusing on those virgins, but on the Bridegroom. What happened to Him? He was delayed. Why was He delayed? Because He was waiting. Why was He waiting? Because in His waiting He is instilling in us faith. In His waiting He is strengthening that very faith.

We naturally look at the virgins and say, How is it that they are, so that we may learn how we are to be, what we are to do? But this is the problem, we get in the way. This parable, as all the parables are, is about Christ. And not simply about Christ, but delivering Christ to us. If we’re going to talk about sanctification and stewardship, where will it go? Whatever you give as an offering, should you give more? Whatever time you spend serving others, you should spend more? The problem with this way of thinking is that it is all about you. But the parable of the Ten Virgins is not about the virgins but about the Bridegroom. He’s the one they’re waiting for. He’s the one who’s coming. He’s the one that’s at the center of the action. How He impacts them is what is at issue.

Jesus never tells us what to do and then leaves us to it. He is no Master who commands and wields a punishing rod when we slip up. He is rather the Master who upon commanding us then stoops down to serve us. No doubt Jesus was disappointed in the disciples as they couldn’t keep their eyes open in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before He would be arrested. But Jesus doesn’t ream them out. Rather, He serves. He accomplishes what they could not. He stays awake. He watches and waits. He prays. He bends His will to His Heavenly Father’s will.

We are not to learn to watch and wait from the five wise virgins. But from Christ. And not even simply to learn. Isn’t Christ in the parable proclaiming Himself to us? And in that proclamation aren’t we becoming like Christ? Isn’t the only way we can bend our will to our Heavenly Father’s through receiving a new will in Christ? Isn’t the only way we would live as Christ would have us live through being formed as a new creation in Christ?

The way of the five wise virgins is the way of faith. They lived by faith. They waited. In the same way the disciples fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, even when the wise virgins fell asleep, they were sustained in their faith that the Bridegroom would come. Just as the Garden of Gethsemane was not about the disciples but about Christ, the parable of the Virgins is not about them but about the Bridegroom. Even when He delayed His return, they were ready with their lamps and extra oil. The problem is not that He is delaying, but with being unprepared for it. Everything is bound up in the delay. The reason the virgins have to wait is because the Bridegroom is waiting to come back. All the virgins were the same in that they were expecting the Bridegroom. But the five who were foolish were different in that they didn’t expect there to be a delay. If He’s going to come back, why would He delay? So when Jesus Himself delays He teaches us that we are to watch and wait.

Not taking the oil is as if to say, Okay, Jesus, come on back, I’m ready. But you’re not ready. You’re not ready because you want Him back on your own terms, not on His terms. That’s why He makes you wait. It seems foolish to take the oil. Why would you need it? He’s coming back, don’t you trust that He’ll do so? And if He does, it only stands to reason that it will be soon, why would He delay?

But the faith is in the bringing of the oil. Trusting that He will return even if it’s much longer than was expected. That there’s purpose in His delaying things. That it’s actually for good. There was time before to get oil to bring along. But instead of taking the time to do that, the foolish ones just went. Then, when they realize they need more oil, they spring into action. At this point, it’s too late.

When the people jeered Noah for building a huge boat when there was no rain in sight, let alone any kind of storm or flood so that it could actually float, Noah simply watched and waited. God delayed His action, but Noah kept the faith. When the fateful day came, he and his family entered the ark and the door was shut. No one else could come in and they were lost. In the same way, the five foolish virgins were shut out of the wedding feast and were lost.

Watching and waiting is the life of the Christian. The Christian lives by faith, not by what he must or must not do. He lives by faith because Christ has been born in him and is alive in him. The Christian has life in Christ and lives by Christ. Watching and waiting.

Like the child in Confirmation Class who can’t see the purpose for going over and over the Catechism in order to memorize it but who sticks with it because the Holy Spirit is working through that memorizing to produce understanding and strengthen faith. Watching… Waiting… The Christian faith isn’t grasped in a simple way, in a short period of time. It’s a laborious process of memorizing, learning, growing.

Like the Christian who is spending every spare moment caring for her elderly mother who is getting to the point of needing to be on life support. So much energy is spent on alleviating her pain, trying to make her comfortable, strumming up encouragement to fend off despair, wondering and praying what good God is bringing out of this. Watching… Waiting… Struggling with coming to terms that God’s blessings often come through struggles.

Like the man who is finding it hard to trust God when the economy is hitting him hard and thus his family. Waiting and watching, praying to God that He’ll get him through, that he’ll be able to take care of his family. Believing, but praying in his unbelief that man does not live by bread alone but by the very Word of God.

Like the Christian who does what Christians always do, praying for our government; praying for our leaders. Watching and waiting. Content to continue to serve our society in the various vocations God has called us to. Patiently dispensing with illusions that we Christians can change society to be godly and God-fearing, where life is cherished from the womb to the death bed. Rejoicing in the call to continue with the one message that has always been true and that goes beyond the issues we face as a society. The Gospel changes people’s hearts—including ours—not policies.

Stewardship is not about how much money you put in the offering plate. You can always give more, or be expected to give more. You’ll always be encouraged or guilted into putting more time into helping others. Stewardship is not those things. Those things come out of watching and waiting. Stewardship is patience, believing that Christ will come to you and in His own good and gracious time. Stewardship is rejoicing that His delay doesn’t mean He doesn’t care but that He instills in us a reliance on Him through His coming to us in His Word and Sacraments. Our Lord is delaying in coming again in glory, but there is no delay in coming with His forgiveness in His Word and His Holy Supper. It is good to wait on the Lord. To watch and wait and rejoice in His serving us and giving us salvation. Amen.

SDG

The Way of God

All Saints’ Day [Observed]
Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
November 2, 2008
Matthew 5:1-12

I invite you to join me on the way. It’s the way the saints who have gone before us walked. It’s a way that’s not immediately appealing. It’s the way of God.

Jesus said of Himself: I am the Way. He wouldn’t have said that had He meant that the way we are to go is so that we may be blessed. This is the way many people hear the Beatitudes. If you are poor in spirit, blessed are you. If you mourn, you will be comforted; if you are meek, you will inherit the earth; and so on. What Jesus says is, “Blessed are those who are such and such a way.”

The Beatitudes are not commands. They’re not even exhortations on how we should be and should live; although there’s as an aspect to them that certainly implies this. What they are are descriptions of who the people of God are. The people who are on the way. The people of God are the people of God because of Christ. If the Beatitudes were conditions of how Christians should be there wouldn’t be any Christians. But they are descriptive of Christ. He alone is truly poor in spirit. He alone is truly meek. He alone is the Son of God.

When God gave the Ten Commandments to His people, He didn’t say, “You’d better live this way or you’re not My people.” What He said was, “You are My people—now this is how My people live. They have no other gods. They do not misuse My name.” And so on.

We are the people of God because He has made us His people. Because of the Son of God we are sons of God. Because Jesus Christ alone is righteous and paid for our sinfulness we are declared righteous. And thus we are on the way. The way of God.

But we run into a buzz saw, don’t we? Those Ten Commandments really nail us to the wall, don’t they? They have a way of convicting us when we see that we don’t live in the way God would have us live. Staring in the face of the Ten Commandments, we are found wanting.

But this is God’s way. His way is the way of Repentance. The Ten Commandments drive home that we fall short of the glory of God. The Law impresses upon our hearts and minds repentance. A turning to God. A realization that we are our own god, that we really don’t want to live the way God would have us live. We’re very comfortable living the way we’d like. All those important things in our lives we don’t want just to be important, but left free from God’s intrusion with His curbs and rules. We’re insistent on our First Amendment rights of free speech, telling God to take hike when He insists we don’t use His name for common exclamations. And while many of us are comfortably in the habit of being in His House on Sunday mornings, we resent the constant badgering that we ought to be in His Word daily and in the consistent study of His Scriptures in Bible Class.

It’s hard enough at times to honor our parents. But God really puts us to the test when He adds government to honor and obey. For most of us it would be easy to go through life without murdering someone. But with God it’s always deeper than that. We can’t even hate, or even think ill of others. And with God it seems a never-ending litany of rules and restrictions: not just adultery or homosexuality, but living together outside of marriage and lust; not just stealing, but taking advantage of others; not just lying about others, but spreading things around that are meant to be private; not just not envying what others have, but helping others maintain what they have.

If this is a mirror, we see that we most definitely do not fit the description Jesus paints in the Beatitudes. So how is it possible? It is possible in what the Beatitudes are: not just statements of blessing—words of blessing Christ speaks to us and in the very speaking of them bringing them about in us. This is the way of God. It is the way of faith. He brings us to repentance so that we may walk the way of faith. Faith is that realization that without God and His eternal love for us in His Son Jesus Christ we are without hope. We are left to our own devices, and through the Ten Commandments we see where that leaves us.

But the way of faith is the way of trust. That when God says He will bless us He will bless us. That when He says we are His people, we are His people. That when we are poor in spirit, in mourning, meek, peacemakers, persecuted, that these are not bad things but good things. It takes faith to realize that and believe it. It takes faith to rejoice in these things. Because Satan would have us believe that these things are pretty weak and pathetic. The world mocks us that we are to rejoice in things that don’t bring us immediate gratification or wealth or prestige or security. Our sinful flesh rages against such boring things as being in the Word of God or rejoicing when we are vilified for our holding faithfully to that very Word of God.

How it is that you can rejoice in such things? Because what God would have you do, how He would have you live, what He gives you is not conditional. The very faith He demands is the very faith He gives. The description of who we are as the people of God is not simply a description—it is a gift. It is what God Himself brings about in His very speaking of it to you and me. He doesn’t tell you how He wants you to live and then leave you to it. He doesn’t tell you how He wants you to live and only then He’ll bless you. He brings about what He says. When He says to you that you’re blessed, you’re blessed. When He speaks His forgiveness to you, you’re forgiven. When He says you’re His son or daughter, you’re His son or daughter.

And that is the way of God. Holy living is not, You’d better live in such and such a way and you’ll be blessed; or, so you’ll be blessed. Holy living is the gift of God. Holy living is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer. His will is done through His Son Jesus Christ. His Kingdom comes through His Son. Our daily needs are met because He has reconciled Himself to us through His Son. We are forgiven and forgive others because it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. We are delivered from temptation because Christ has been tempted in every way as we are and yet without sin. We are delivered from evil because Christ has conquered evil. He is the Victor over sin, death, hell, Satan, and our sinful flesh.

His blessings overflow. They began in Baptism and are nurtured and sustained in His Absolution and His Holy Supper. The way of faith is the way of the cross. Righteousness is at the center of the Beatitudes. That means that Christ is at the center. We hunger and thirst for righteousness—which means we hunger and thirst for Christ. This is the way of God. It’s a way that may be disconcerting at first. It may be disconcerting all the way. The way of God is not our way. God’s way never makes sense to our limited minds and our selfish sinful flesh. But the way of God is not something to aspire to but to be received. This done for you, my dear friends in Christ, in Christ. By Him, because of Him, through Him. He gives you eternal blessings in His Holy Supper. He gives you Himself.

That’s what you need. That’s why when He gave you the Beatitudes He wasn’t saying, Here, get these straight and then we’ll talk. He was saying, Here is My gift to you: Here I am. This is the way of God, Christ for you. Amen.

SDG

Will You Please Get Out of the Way?

Reformation Day [Observed]
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Matthew 11:12-19

I think it’s fair to ask the question why we still cleebrate the Reformation in our day. Is it because we want to honor Martin Luther? Celebrate sixteenth century German culture? Lutheran theology? Maybe it’s a reason to have another festival on the Church Year calender, or a party, which we will be later on today with our Oktoberfest.

If these are the only reasons we’ll be celebarting Reforemation Day then we should get rid of the festival. Because the Reformation is not primarily about these things. It’s about us gettting out of the way. That’s what today’s Gospel readng shows us, as if it’s saying to us, will you please get out of the way? The Reformation is nothing if it’s not about Christ. The Reformation is all about Christ, which means that we need to get out of the way.

Some may think the Reformation is about Martin Luther. In a similar way, some might think that the ministry of John the Baptist was about John the Baptist. But what these men did was not about themselves. It was always about Christ. God sent them to point people to Christ. You could describe their message as, “You need to get out of the way.”

Has it ever happened to you that you read a passage in Scripture and you think it says something and then you come to find out that it really says something else? That happened to me with what Jesus says in the Gsopel reading: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” I had always took this as “from the days of the beginning of the Church until now” God’s Kingdom has suffered violence. The history of the Old Testament bears that out. But what Jesus actually says is that in the short time between John the Baptist coming onto the scene until now, when Jesus was speaking these words. This was just a short period of time, a few months, maybe a year or so. Of course, it’s true that the Kingdom of God has suffered violence from the beginning. But it’s as if Jesus is saying, as much violence as has been suffered in the Kingdom of God, you’d think it would stop when the Messiah has come on the scene. But no, it’s just the opposite.

That’s because people weren’t getting out of the way. The whole purpose of this is to see Jesus. Take John, for example. Jesus said that “the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” So was it about John the Baptist? Was his role as God called him to be the Forerunner of the Messiah about himself? No, Jesus says that he’s Elijah. It’s not about John, it’s about Jesus. John knew that he had to get out of the way. He wasn’t sent for himself, he was sent to call people to get out of the way and point them to Jesus. That’s why he said of himself that Jesus must increase but I must decrease.

This is what Jesus wants us to hear. He who has ears, let him hear, He says. What are we going to hear? Will we expect Jesus to tell us what we’d like to hear, or what He has to say? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. If we get out of the way then we will hear. If we’re in the way we won’t be hearing what He has to say, which is that it is in Christ that we have life. Not by hearing what we want to hear about ourselves. That’s getting in the way. We need to get ourselves out of the way.

What does Jesus say about those people He’s talking to? “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’” They know the rules, but even though they want to play the game, they want to play by their own rules. When children are calling others to play along with them the others refuse because they don’t want to play by the rules. If a dirge is being played, then mourning is called for. If festive music is played then dancing is in order. But people don’t want to get out of the way, they want things on their own terms. So do we wonder why we need to talk about Reformation? Are we any different than the generation that Jesus spoke to in our Gospel reading? Don’t we need to get out of the way also?

If we look at John the Baptist and Jesus we see what it means to get out of the way. John came not for himself but to point to Christ. And yet that’s not what everyone saw. For his strange ways, some accused him of being demon possessed. On the other hand, Jesus came and He certainly couldn’t be the Messiah, as He said He was, because He didn’t live in the circumspect way that the Messiah ought to. He’s no Messiah, He’s nothing but a glutton and a drunkard. And look at the kind of company He keeps, He associates with disreputable people. In each case the problem was that people couldn’t get out of the way. They wanted John the Baptist on their own terms. Jesus, on their own terms. When we refuse to get out of the way, we miss Jesus.

Oh, we might see Him. But we will miss Him. We won’t see Him for who He is. Because we won’t see our true need for Him. “Wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Because this is not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about us getting out of the way. True wisdom is Wisdom incarnate, wisdom in the flesh. Jesus Himself is wisdom made known to us and it’s by His deeds on which all of this turns. If we simply get out of the way we will see this. We will see that getting out of the way is the only way.

How do we do it? Do we stop coming here, into the House of God? That might seem a logical way to “get out of the way.” But no, this is right where we need to be. It might seem like an odd thing to do, to preach to the choir. But the choir is exactly who needs to be preached to, along with everyone else, of course. Why do we, who are here week in and week out need to be exhorted to be here week in and week out? Because we need to get out of the way. The way to do that is in being in the place where you’re not doing the work. Where you are receiving. Where God is gracing you with His gifts, blessing you by His action—through Word and Sacraments—by getting you out of the way and getting Himself into your life. So that it’s all about Him, not about you.

It’s most fascinating that when it’s all about Christ, and not about us, that with Christ it’s all about us, and not about Him. When He served, when He suffered, when He died, it wasn’t for Himself. It was for you and me and the world. If we get out of the way we’ll see that. We’ll see Him. For who He is. For what He has done. For who He has called us and created us and saved us to be. Amen.

SDG

Relentless

Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Matthew 22:15-22

It seems that the Church Year, which has been around for a lot longer than our country, has brought us a timely topic in the Gospel reading. Jesus’ famous saying to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s shows that God has something to say about our relationship to government. A timely topic with the election just weeks away and our nation facing a financial crisis. The Bible is clear that we are to obey government. God has instituted government for the good of society. Taking Jesus’ teaching on giving to the government what is owed it and to God what is owed Him doesn’t help us out much in who to vote for and how to get through the financial crisis.

There’s something bigger going on here. You and I could each give a list of all the big things going on in our lives. At the same time, we collectively are facing an onslaught of issues and disagreements and views on how best to run the country. For months we faced skyrocketing gas prices. When it seemed we were finally getting a break from them we were hit with a meltdown on Wall Street. Last year we were reeling from out of control fires, as if we hadn’t gone through enough three years before. As some are again flaring up around the region we wonder if we’ll be hit again. People are facing uncertainty with employment or with the value of their house, or if they’ll even get to keep their house. We live in uncertain times on the world stage with wars that don’t seem to have an end in sight and economies crumbling around the world and the continual threat of terrorism.

Sometimes the big problems may not seem to press down on us. They may not seem to affect our day to day decisions. The relentless pace of our lives may give us more than we can handle without having to worry about what’s going on in the world, let alone the nation. If we’re struggling with problems with our kids, facing stress at work, in conflict with our neighbors, constantly bombarded with health problems, we may wonder when we’ll get a break. When you’re living in a fallen world, the problems you face can seem relentless. When you’re surrounded by sinners along with yourself there will be no end to difficulties.

But Jesus has something to offer you. And it’s much more than a trick for knowing how to walk into the voting booth on November 4 or whether to buy or sell stocks. He has something to offer you in the barrage of difficulties you face.

If we weren’t flies on the wall, as the Holy Spirit has allowed us to be with Matthew’s comment that the Pharisees were trying to bring Jesus down, we might think that the men who came up to Jesus posed a legitimate question. In the same way, if Jesus weren’t God and had simply taken the men’s words as they stood, He would have had reason to believe that they were asking Him a fair question. After all, isn’t what they said about Jesus true? “Teacher, we know that You are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and You do not care about anyone’s opinion, for You are not swayed by appearances.”

It’s true: He’s genuine, He’s the real thing. And, yes, He does teach the way of God faithfully. At the same time, He is not swayed by the mere opinions of people. He is God. He is a Rock when it comes to being the source of truth and acting on it. The question they ask is indeed a legitimate question. We have those same kinds of questions today. The campaign this year has shown that there are many disagreements about the role of government in society. Even among us Christians, what does it mean to obey government while still being faithful to God?

The men who approached Jesus weren’t interested in His opinion. They didn’t care about His teaching on the matter. This was one more attack on Him, one more attempt to bring Him down. The religious leaders were relentless in their attempt to get rid of Jesus. And He knew it. His answer silenced them. They couldn’t believe it. They had been foiled again. How could they bring this guy down? Matthew says that they left Him. Did that mean that their relentless pace was finally slowed down? No, it means that they left Him at that moment. They would emerge again at an opportune time. We know that they would finally be successful in bringing Jesus down as they would arrange things so that He’d be hanging on a cross by the end of the week.

No, the relentless pace continued. Jesus’ entire three year Ministry was a constant barrage of attacks from them, of being tempted by the devil, and of facing struggles and problems. I don’t know how you’re feeling today, and how you’re doing with all that’s going on on the big stage of the world and the nation or in your personal life, but I don’t imagine it’s any worse than what Jesus had gone through in His Ministry.

What was different is why He went through it. You’re stuck. Sometimes you can’t get out of the mess you’re in. When life’s relentless pace seems to kick it up a notch, you may feel like you’re just hanging on. Jesus put Himself in the thick of the problems and sin of this world. When you’re struggling to overcome a habit that’s causing you heartache, before you can get a leg up on it, new temptations overcome you. If the issues facing our society are enough to cause you to despair, you may wonder what hope there is for you to be a Christian. When all the little things in your personal life pile up so that you’re racing like mad to put out fires here and there, you may wonder if there’s any solace in the new life Christ has given you.

Don’t walk away from here today glad that you have a better attitude about how you’ll vote or what you can better do to manage your money. Walk away from here rejoicing that you have received what Christ gives you. And that is Himself. With everything God commands us there is a blessing involved. When Jesus says to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s we can rejoice that God cares enough about us that He doesn’t leave societies to their designs but institutes order for the well being of people and the punishment of those who cause others harm. Before you wonder about our government, just think about the government of Jesus’ day, the government of Caesar—he declared himself to be God. When we pay our taxes we also have the opportunity to pray for our government, pray God to guide and bless our leaders, that they would lead in a godly way.

When Jesus enjoins us to render to God what is God’s we can rejoice that no matter what condition we live in, whether we live in a free country or not, all that we have is from God. Blessings in this life are granted freely by God because He loves us. But if the relentless pace of life has you wondering if there’s more to life than simply trying to keep your head above water, then know that rendering to God what is God’s means that all who we are and what we have is from Him because He has reconciled Himself to us. It’s easy to put blame on others or government for our problems, but we are too often like Caesar, putting ourselves before God. If the financial crisis has you down, do you trust that God will keep you in His care—no matter what? When you’re facing one thing after another in your personal life and you just want it all to go away, are you refusing to rejoice in the blessings God gives you even in the midst of trials?

Let us not test God. Let’s instead render to Him the confession due Him. Confessing our sins, acknowledging our lack of trust in Him, seeking our solace in Him alone. The relentless pace of problems in our lives is unmatched by the relentless pace of God in loving us and serving us. Rendering to God what is God’s is done through the Son of God. Living in peace is not being free from difficulties but in thanking God for salvation in the one who was marred beyond recognition. When all you see around you is things falling apart, look to see the one who is in the center of it all, the precious Lamb of God, the Son sent by the Father to rescue us not from financial collapse or even sickness but sin and hell. Our country may rise or fall, but God has prepared a place for you in heaven which will remain. God is relentless in His love for you, His unfailing love upholding you through the temporal things and gracing you in His presence for eternity. Amen.

SDG

Warning: Gospel Ahead

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Matthew 22:1-14

Warning concerns judgment. Warning concerns bad things to come or least things to be aware of so you don’t fall into trouble. But today’s Gospel reading shows us of another warning: there’s Gospel ahead. It’s clear that the Judgment of God is severe and He indeed warns us of that. But it almost seems to be saying: Warning, God is about to do something good. He’s about to give you a Gift beyond imagination, so you’d better watch out. Why would this be a warning? Because if someone does something nice for you you now have the opportunity to reject it.

When Jesus is telling a parable, you know that He is teaching something spiritual. So when a king gives a wedding feast for his son, you can think about the Heavenly King God giving a wedding feast for His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. He is the groom and we, His Church, are the bride. In English the king tells his servants to go to those who were invited to the celebration. But what Jesus actually said was, go call those who were called. This is Gospel language. That’s what God specializes in, the Gospel. When He calls, that’s a Gospel thing. Invited is okay, but when you’re called, that means that you’re in. You have a front row seat in heaven, you don’t even need to RSVP.

But when the servants went to the called, they were refused. This is the warning we need. When God calls, He is doing His Gospel work. When He does His Gospel work, we become aware that it’s not just me in my own little world. The King of the Universe is calling me into His eternal Kingdom—I can no longer remain in a state of ignorance that I’m fine here in my own little world. But God doing His Gospel work, never gives up. When He calls, that means you’re in. So He’s going to reach out again.

What will He tell you? That you are called. You’re in. The servants said to the people: I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. All is prepared. There is nothing for you to do. There are no forms to fill out. No background checks. No hoops to jump through. You’re called. You’re in.

But let me warn you now. When God decides that He’s not going to give up on you, that means that He’s not going to give up on you. You might just as soon that He leave you alone. You might have better things to do. But surely you don’t treat Him the way the people in the parable did. Some ignored the servants. Some went back to their own business. Some even had the audacity to treat them shamefully and even kill them. We may not want what God gives, but at least we don’t react in such an appalling manner.

The warning is here. Whenever a gift is given, there is always the opportunity to reject it. There’s even the opportunity to scorn it. Whenever God works His Gospel work, we have the choice of renouncing it. We may do this by ignoring it. We may just go about our business. We may even blatantly mistreat God. The danger would be for us, though, to think that as long as we’re not in outright denial of God’s gift of the Gospel, then we’re okay. We would be missing the warning entirely. The ones who ignored and the ones who went about their business outright denied the king just as the ones who killed the servants did. Because all of them were called. They were all in. But they all said, no thanks, I’d rather be out. I want to have nothing to do with you.

The king’s response, of course, is a warning. The king’s response was swift. In his anger, he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. The warning here pertains to the Day of Judgment. When a person dies, there is no more calling, no more reaching out. In this life if you reject the grace of God and die in that state you are separated from Him and tormented for eternity.

But God is still about the business of the Gospel. The king tells his servants that the wedding feast is ready, but that those were called were not worthy. When characterizing what it is that makes one called, there is only one thing that can be said: you are called because God calls you. There is no worthiness in you. There is nothing you have done or will be expected to do. You are called freely and solely by the grace and mercy of God. That is His Gospel work. He gives freely, not on the condition of something in return. It’s all completely one-sided.

So why does the king tell his servants that the called were not worthy? Did they somehow mess up between the calling and the actual wedding feast? No, it’s because they rejected their worthiness. In and of themselves they were not worthy. But the king called them. Therein was their worthiness. They were counted as worthy because the king wanted them to be at the feast of his son. There is no worthiness in us. God calls us and that is how we become worthy. It is Christ alone who is worthy. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain is the acclamation of the Church. Christ takes on our unworthiness and replaces it with His worthiness, His righteousness.

That’s why God does His Gospel work. His Gospel work is to call sinners to righteousness. Not by calling them to reform or try harder or live in an exemplary way. By calling them to righteousness. What that means is that when He calls you He gives you the righteousness of Christ. When He calls you, He saves you. His calling work of the Gospel brings about in you the very thing He calls you to, which is eternal life.

To drive the point home, He pictures it in this way. The king commands his servants: “‘Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.” His call goes out. It is not partial. It goes out far and wide, to the high and the low. There’s no sign on the door of heaven that some need not apply. If the first group of people don’t convince you that God has called you to eternal life in His Kingdom, this second one ought to. Because it’s the call to everyone.

The Son is the Groom and celebrating His Wedding Feast because He has laid down His life for His Bride. When you’re called, you’re called. When you’re called, you’re in. The celebration is eternal. It is fully realized in the glory of heaven but begins now. This altar is the place where our husband, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ celebrates His Wedding Feast with us. Guess what’s for dinner? He is the Host and the Meal. He celebrates our salvation by giving to us what He has accomplished our salvation: His Body and His Blood.

But warning: this is no namby-pamby invitation. This is a call. There’s Gospel ahead, and rejection of it brings disaster. An eternity of being separated from the one who has called you is real. Those who are not worthy should not partake of the Meal our Lord has prepared. While we are never worthy because of anything we have done, we are indeed worthy because our Lord has called us. Because we have confessed our sins and believe that Jesus’ Body and Blood given and shed on the cross is the only sacrifice which accomplishes our salvation and grants us righteousness, we are considered worthy by Him.

The wedding feast of the king was filled. So is heaven. But there’s still room for all of us. In fact, because God continues to do His Gospel work, we share even now in the Communion of our Lord Jesus Christ with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven when we partake of the Lord’s Supper. Those who deny that Christ is actually present in and with the bread and wine are not in true communion with Christ and His heavenly and earthly Church. If they partake of the Lord’s Supper they receive the Body and Blood of Christ, but to their harm.

Do you wonder why the man who somehow got into that wedding feast was speechless? We know what the king would have done if met with an excuse or a defense. But do you wonder what the king would have said if the man had realized his guilt, apologized, and repented of his sin? We know what kind of a king he was. He was a king who called. He was a king who wanted people to share in the joy of the wedding feast. Many rejected his gift. There was a guy who was in there physically, but not really in, because He didn’t want to be in there on the king’s terms. He held on to the fleshly clothes of his own worthiness. It is only by stripping those off that we’re truly in. It is only clothed with the righteousness of Christ that we celebrate in full communion at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Our God is a giving God, He is a Gospel God, He is the God who does His Gospel work. If you are ever in doubt; if you ever sin to such a great extent that you don’t see how God can forgive you; if you ever wonder if it’s all just too far above your head; if you have any question or objection whatsoever, be warned. We’re prone to these thoughts because we want to wrap ourselves in our sinful flesh. But there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. There is Gospel ahead. There is Gospel here, for you now. It was given to you in your Baptism. It is delivered to you here, at His altar, often. He has called you. Everything is prepared, He has done it all. You are in. Welcome to the Feast. Amen.

SDG

It’s Good to Be In the Vineyard

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Matthew 21:33-46

The parable of the Tenants of the Vineyard presents us with the grand scheme, the very Plan of Salvation God has laid out in the Bible. As God has given Himself in taking on flesh so in everything Jesus does He is giving us Himself. God created human beings and yet we often attempt to step outside of God’s providential care and make a name for ourselves.

A famous example of this is the tower of Babel. Man reaching up to heaven with all of his power only to be foiled by God in causing them to speak in different languages, causing them great confusion. It also happens in subtle ways. The world began in a garden. The Garden of Eden was perfect. Adam and Eve lived in paradise and Adam’s taking care of it was not a burden. But upon the Fall man’s work in caring for himself and his family would be toil.

Not long after God had brought Noah and his family to dry land after the Flood Noah began to be a man of the soil. He planted a vineyard. With a new lease on life, could there have been some thought that in planting a vineyard he could establish a new paradise? Even if it were possible, he ruined it soon enough in taking a good gift of God in wine and indulging in it. Just as Adam and Eve had done, taking the good gifts of God but wanting more.

When it comes to God, the problem is never with the Gift. Nor is it ever with the Giver. When Joshua and Caleb and the other spies sent by Moses came back from checking out the land of Canaan they brought with them a cluster of grapes they had cut down. God had promised them the land of Canaan, but as the Promised Land it would by no means be a restoration of Paradise. Sadly, that’s what they were looking for, just like Noah had done.

But that didn’t mean God wouldn’t restore Paradise. Our Old Testament reading shows us how God describes His beloved people, as a vineyard. When God does something He does it right. He created the Garden of Eden in perfection. Upon the Fall into sin He immediately set in place a Plan—the Plan of Salvation for all people. He planted His people, His vineyard, with great care. He did everything He could to nurture it and care for it.

But what happened? He says in Jeremiah, “Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard.” What did God do? Just as the owner of the vineyard in Jesus’ parable sent servant after servant, God had sent to His people prophet after prophet. As the tenants in the parable mistreated the servants and even murdered some, so the people of God did to the prophets. God anguishes—What more could I do for My Vineyard that I have not done?

What He could do and did do is send His Son. As the owner of the vineyard sent his son as his last effort, so God our Father has sent His only-begotten Son as the fulfillment of His Plan of Salvation. We know what happened. We know that He, too, was brutally murdered. And we know why. Jesus is speaking this parable specifically to those religious leaders, the shepherds Jeremiah had been talking about, who were to be nurturing the Vineyard—the people of God, not destroying it and persecuting the prophets.

This, now, was the last chance. They would get rid of Jesus, they would be done with Him once and for all. But what will He do to them? The chief priests and Pharisees answered the question, indicting themselves: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” The Vineyard has been let out, my friends. You and I are the recipients of God’s care and nurture of His Vineyard. Because of the promise given to our father in the faith, Abraham, all nations of the earth are blessed. God sent His very own Son as the Redeemer for the world.

Will we go the way of the people of God over all the centuries? Constantly kicking against the goads. Always seeking greener pastures. Thinking that somehow we can restore Paradise in our lives apart from the Word of God and His Sacraments and the Holy Christian Church. After all, what do vineyards do? They produce fruit. Vineyards well tended overflow with wine. If you and I simply take for granted that the promise has been extended to us and we’re good to go, then not much fruit will bear.

But we must not also trap ourselves into thinking that bearing the fruit God desires of us and delights in is something we can produce on our own. If anyone could have—apart from Christ, that is—it would have been the Apostle Paul. He makes his case in the Epistle reading:

"If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people 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 righteousness, under the Law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."

We could make our own list. We’re proud of our achievements. We produce good results at work, we help out in our communities, we raise good children, we get them involved in all kinds of activities that make them better people. But before we know it, it’s all about us, and all the activities we’re involved in. God gets crowded out. Being in the House of God, being dedicated to Bible Study and the daily exercise of prayer and devotions, meditating on the good Gifts God has given us Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper go by the wayside. Here we are, attempting to build our own little paradise on earth and the righteousness of Christ becomes an afterthought.

But God has placed us in His Vineyard. We count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. The grand and eternal plan of God, His Plan of Salvation, is met in this One, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. When Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden after they fell into sin Adam was given to working the ground in toil. But restoring Paradise would not come through this toil. It would come through the suffering of the only-begotten Son. It would come through His own flesh and blood. His body given, His blood poured out for the sin of the world. There is no toil we do that will restore Paradise for ourselves, get us in favor with God, gain us entry into heaven. But His sacrifice will.

And He will nurture His Vineyard. He will sustain you in the faith. He will continue to offer You His Son, often, as He does today in His Son’s Holy Feast. He will once again give His Body to you and pour out His Blood for you to eat and to drink and be refreshed in your soul. He will strengthen and keep you both in body and soul, both now and to life eternal. It’s good to be in the Vineyard. Amen.

SDG

Who Do You See?

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Matthew 21:23-32

Feelings are often confused with compassion. Feelings are good. God created us with feelings. But feelings are not compassion. You can have compassion on someone even if you do not have strong feelings or no particular feelings for that person. Likewise, you can have strong feelings and actually not act compassionately toward a person because you are acting on feelings rather than doing what will actually help the person.

Feelings are good, but we can’t rely on them. They are wonderful, but they don’t always help. We’d all agree that we need to be compassionate. That it’s wrong not to have compassion. We look favorably upon compassionate people. We trust our leaders to be compassionate rather than rule with an iron fist.

The religious leaders in Jesus’ day were charged with the spiritual care of God’s people. We’d expect them to do that with compassion. One thing they understood was that you cannot be compassionate as a leader without authority. You yourself must submit to authority and must exercise authority over those you are leading. If your feelings are your guide then you’ll be all over the map. Not a sound way to be a leader. There are times leaders don’t feel like being compassionate. But if they are truly good leaders they will do what’s best for the people. If there is an outside solid authority they’re going by then they’ll be being compassionate on the people they’re to serve, even if at times they don’t particularly feel like helping them.

The religious leaders of the Gospel reading knew this. They knew that the crowds were excited about this guy Jesus. Were the people just going on their feelings? Was Jesus playing to their feelings and that’s why He was so popular? The religious leaders cut to the chase: by what authority are You doing what You’re doing? Because we see through You—You’re not falling in line under our authority. We’re the ones charged with the spiritual care of God’s people and You’re doing all kinds of things to undercut our authority.

They were right—He was undercutting their authority. But there’s the problem. They had taken the authority God had given them and took it for themselves. They even asked Jesus, who gave You this authority? They rejected it, but the answer is the same Person who gave them the authority to lead God’s people. Namely, God. The difference is that Jesus used the authority God His Heavenly Father had given Him in service to God His Heavenly Father. The religious leaders became full of themselves and didn’t use it in service to God’s people but for themselves.

Jesus wasn’t doing what He was doing for Himself but for people. The very people He created were the very people He was serving. That’s what authority is all about for God. Serving us. Loving and helping us. His compassion is not in addition to His authority, it is His very Authority carried out. Delivered to us.

The Christian Church has always stood on the authority of the Word of God. But even in the Church people can tend to think that it’s compassionate to go on feelings rather than the authority of the Word of God. One church leader put it this way: “I think sometimes we get bogged down and feel that people of faith all feel a certain way, and that’s so far from the truth.” Well here is the real truth: what we feel is not the basis for authority. God’s Authority determines what is right and wrong, what is good and evil—that’s why He gave us the Bible.

So the religious leaders were carrying out their duty of making sure that what was being taught in the temple was legitimate, but actually they weren’t doing that at all. In their discussion among themselves they were determining what they would do based on the reactions of other people. Their authority was themselves.

When they saw Jesus they saw someone getting in the way of their authority. Someone standing between them and their own self-proclaimed rightness. Jesus was getting in the way of their power and their very comfortable lifestyle. They were right where they wanted to be. They were holders of authority and had molded it into authority of themselves. They had come to convince themselves that God was pleased with them because of who they were. They didn’t need some Jesus coming in to straighten out their lives and tell them that all their secret sins had to go.

When you look at Jesus who do you see? Do you see the Lord over all and the Lord of your life? Or do you see a man who has a place in your life alongside all the many other important things to you? When you are confronted with the words of Jesus, what do you make of them? Do you submit wholeheartedly to them acknowledging that what He has to say is true and what is best for you? Or do you pass them off as another opinion among the many that may or may not apply to you personally? When you look at Jesus do you see Him for who He is or do you disregard the authority He holds?

If you’re honest you will admit that your feelings aren’t always reliable. You will conclude that you like yourself being your own authority because then you don’t have to deal with God and His Word telling you that you can’t do everything that makes you feel good. That though you often say yes to God you really have no intention of conforming your life to His holy will. And if by the grace of God you come to this knowledge you will see something else. You will see that you have changed your mind. That it’s a joy to serve the Holy God.

Because you will see that God’s holy will is not met in your feelings or your self-convinced rightness. It is met in the One who was given authority by His Heavenly Father and used that authority to be beaten and bloodied on a cross. He used that authority to submit Himself to be subjected to the damnation you and I and the religious leaders and the tax collectors and everyone else deserve. Jesus doesn’t give moral lessons. He gives you righteousness. He gives you Himself. He doesn’t tell you to be good, He gives you His Body and Blood and in so doing forgives you all your sins and strengthens and preserves you. He doesn’t tell you you must submit to His authority or else—He freely and joyfully gives up His life so that you may freely and joyfully live under His gracious and compassionate authority. When you want to know what God has to say or what He thinks about you, who you need to see is Jesus, the one who is your life and salvation. Amen.

SDG

What the Christian Life Looks Like

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Matthew 20:1-16

Today’s Gospel reading shows us that being a Christian seems unfair. The world may say, if the end result is the same, then I’ll just hang around and convert toward the end of my life. The Christian looks at it and says that that’s unfair. What you end up having is non-Christians and Christians thinking and living in much the same way.

But Christians are to be different. We’re to be in the world but not of the world. We are to think differently, and we should be living differently. In order for us to do this Jesus has given us the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. The point is not that being a Christian is like getting hired to work a day job. The point is the grace of God.

The grace of God is by definition unfair. If God were fair we wouldn’t have anything here to discuss because we’d have no hope of salvation. God doesn’t save us according to fairness but according to mercy.

So if you think about the Christian life in terms of grace, doesn’t it stand to reason that the longer you’re a Christian, the more you get to rejoice in the grace of God? The Christian who’s been so for a hundred years will be in heaven alongside the thief on the cross who was a Christian in this life for only a few hours. But that thief went through a life separated from God and not under His blessings. The other person received a lifetime of gracious blessings from God.

What would you rather have? Our sinful flesh looks at the parable and the Christian life the way the world does and complains that it’s unfair. The new man in us, however, rejoices in a lifetime of receiving God’s grace.

Would you rather be born into a loving and caring family or be adopted into that same family much later in life? Both would be a blessing, of course, but the one receives a lifetime of those blessings whereas the other comes into it later on.

Those of us who have the joy of being Christians our whole lives need to quit our thinking about how things are unfair to be a Christian and start living as God has intended us to live. How, then, does a Christian live? What does the Christian life look like?

We may compare the bearing the heat of the day of the parable to the servanthood life of being a Christian. It’s hard. There’s blood, sweat, and tears involved. There’s a lot of pain in this world. Sometimes, that pain is in our own lives. But as Christians, when we bear one another’s burdens we bear their pain, too. When they hurt, we hurt. When they’re suffering, we’re suffering. When their lives are consumed by trouble, our hearts go out to them, we pray for them, we are there for them.

This is probably the most obvious way a Christian lives out his or her life, in helping others when they’re in need. When someone is having troubles, they can count on us. But is that all there is to it? What about in the day to day stuff? There is indeed difficulty in helping others in need. It can be an emotional drain on us. It can take up a lot of our time. But it can be even more difficult to live out the Christian life in the normal day to day living.

There are many reasons for this. We may be lazy. We may not think that the ordinary things we do are all that holy. We may not take too kindly to hearing how we are to live. We may simply not think much about it. But the main reason is that we carry around that old sinful flesh with us our whole lives long and it’s always wanting to go back and live the way the world lives.

Our sinful nature doesn’t want to give offerings. It doesn’t want to spend time each day in the Word of God and pray. It doesn’t want to be in the House of God for worship each Sunday. Or if it does, it wants to think about other things that are pressing at the moment. It doesn’t want to take the time to be in the Word of God with other Christians in Bible Study in order to grow and be strengthened in faith.

The new man within us sees possibilities. The new man sees that God desires our all and that there are all kinds of opportunities to serve Him. That since God doesn’t need money, that a portion of our money is given in order to help bring the Gospel to others. The new man within us sees that when we give a portion of our money as offerings, it’s not really our money we’re giving at all, but that everything we have is because God loves to give us His grace and loves to bless us. When we’re thinking things are unfair, we’re missing out on the blessings God loves to give us.

The new man sees that when one is united with Christ in Baptism that it is no longer he who lives but Christ who lives in him. The new man sees that if it seems boring to daily and often be in the Word of God and prayer that it is by this very sustenance that He receives the grace of God. The new man rejoices in the coming of his Lord in the Sacrament as his Lord gives to him His very Body that was given into death and His very Blood that was shed on the cross. The new man sees more and more that, far from being unfair, he is the recipient of continued undeserved love, grace, and strength. That, far from having the right to complain, he has only the opportunity to give thanks for all the benefits His Lord bestows on him.

What the Christian life looks like to the world is probably not much. They might even feel sorry for us because of how unfair it all seems. But what it looks like to the Christian is the ever new and daily opportunity to receive, rejoice, and share in the grace of God. Amen.

SDG

What Will You Do?

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Holy Cross Day
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Matthew 18:21-35

What will you do when your brother Christian sins against you? You will forgive him, of course. That’s what Christians do. What will you do when he sins against you again? And again. And then again? And, you probably know where this is going. It would get wearisome to keep forgiving the one who keeps sinning against you after he has repented each time. Wouldn’t you be giving him the message that what he’s doing is really okay? Is this really what Jesus wants us to do?

We can imagine this is what was on Peter’s mind. He was thinking maybe seven times would be a very gracious gesture. After all, we can only put up with so much. But Jesus isn’t interested in gracious gestures. He’s interested in mercy. He concerned with compassion and forgiveness. For all you math people, you can figure this out, don’t forgive seven times, but seventy times seven. And for those of you who need to use a calculator, I’ll save you the trouble: it’s 490 times.

But His point is not really the math of it all. It’s more about what forgiveness actually is. To do this, He does what He so often does, He tells a parable. He tells us of a king whose mercy is immeasurable. Strangely, the parable goes on and the king’s action toward the man at the end seems excessively harsh. Jesus’ summary of the parable is disturbing—there’s no Gospel here, only the harshest of Law.

So what is Jesus teaching us about forgiveness with this parable? Which is harder to say, I’m sorry, or, I forgive you? It’s really hard to say you’re sorry. To admit you’re wrong, to humble yourself in order to be reconciled to a person you’ve harmed, that’s hard. But is it easy to forgive? Maybe one time it is. But what if the person keeps sinning against you? How easy is it to forgive them then? Won’t you start feeling like they’re taking advantage of you? Won’t you just be giving them the green light to keep doing what they’re doing to you? Are they really sorry, or are they just taking advantage of you?

These are questions we have. We have them because it’s hard to forgive. We may forgive, but do we forget? We may let bygones be bygones, but do we wonder if they might do it again? Wouldn’t we feel better if they somehow made it up to us, then we’d know that they’ve really seen how badly they hurt us and might think twice about doing it again?

What does Jesus show us in the king of the parable? Does he ask questions of the servant? Does he put stipulations on him? The servant owes a debt to the king that is impossible to pay back. Summoned to the king, he has no hope except to appeal to the king to give him more time to get the money. But there will be no getting the money. The debt is beyond what he could ever imagine owning. But the king has no interest in hearing the man’s plea for more time. Instead, he forgives him the debt. It’s impossible for you to pay it, but I won’t sell you off, and your effort to pay it back is just that, an effort. The man walks away from the king as if he had never owed him a thing.

That’s what forgiveness is. The king is a picture of God. We know what kind of a God He is, He is the God who forgives. So we know what forgiveness is all about. It is not about holding accountable.

This is all fine and well when it comes to God forgiving us. That’s easy. We can hear about that all day long. What about when it comes to us forgiving others? If we like to hear about God forgiving us, do we want to hear that we don’t have to forgive others? Does free grace from God mean that we are free to hold others accountable? Are we uneasy with Jesus’ portrayal of the merciful king who turns in anger on the servant to send him to prison to be tortured and never to be released?

And this is not just some story about a servant who did not forgive as he had been forgiven. Jesus says why He told this parable: “So also My heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” So there is God’s forgiveness of you—and that’s fantastic!—but then there is the injunction upon you to forgive others. As He even teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Are we eager to hear the second as much as the first?

But the even more pressing question is this: How? How are we to do what Jesus is here commanding us to do? We’re well aware of how unwilling we are to forgive others as we have been forgiven by our Lord. We know that we tend to hold on to grudges rather than freely absolve those who sin against us. If we are to forgive others as we have been forgiven by God, what hope do we have? How do we reconcile the mercy of God upon us with the demand to forgive others willingly, freely, gladly? We can’t.

His parable ends with no hope. His closing warning leaves us in judgment. We are in the position of the servant who owed an insurmountable debt to the king but held accountable to him. Jesus doesn’t give us the answer in the parable. But He does give us the answer. Why would He have come all the way down to earth only to tell us of an insurmountable debt we have to God the Father? He is the answer. He came to be the reason why our Heavenly Father forgives our debt. The very judgment He proclaims upon us He Himself undergoes. He has no debt to pay to God the Father, He Himself is God. Yet, He paid the debt. Tortured, condemned, forsaken by God, He paid the debt as if He was the one who was the sinner. We’re often so unwilling to forgive when Jesus willingly, even gladly, walks the path, not to prison, but to suffering for the sin and guilt of debtors such as you and I.

So what will you do? There is nothing you can do. You are too often like the servant who is freely forgiven and then walks away unwilling to forgive others. The only thing you can do is ask what Jesus has done for you. After all, why did Jesus give us the parable? To show us that He is the answer, right? There is only hope in Christ and only despair or self-congratulation in ourselves. God does not put us through hoops. He simply forgives. Because of Christ. In Christ. Through Christ. On account of Christ. And because it is so, you will forgive freely and joyfully because it not you who live but Christ who lives in you. Amen.

SDG

The Church—What It’s All About

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rally Sunday
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Matthew 18:1-20

Today is Rally Sunday. It might not seem like a big thing like Christmas and Easter. What is Rally Sunday? For years I’ve wondered why we call Rally Sunday, Rally Sunday. So I looked up “rally” in the dictionary. It’s what Jesus in the Gospel reading is teaching us about His Church. Rally means “to bring into order again; to gather and organize or inspire anew; to draw or call (persons) together for a common action or effort; to concentrate or revive, as one’s strength, spirits, etc.; to come together for common action or effort.”

We might think of Rally Sunday as simply the beginning of the new Sunday School year. But why is it we have Sunday School? Why do we have Bible Class? What is so important about gathering each week to study God’s Word together? Jesus shows us in the Gospel reading. He shows us why we need to bring into order again; to gather and organize or inspire anew; to draw or call each other together for a common action or effort.

In a word, it’s reconciliation. Reconciliation is something we don’t think about much. We go through our lives without thinking much about how we relate to one another. We know who everybody is. That’s my neighbor. He’s my co-worker. She’s a parent of one of the kids my daughter plays soccer with. He’s a member of our church.

This shows us how we know each other. Even how we’re related to each other. But how do we relate with one another? And this is for all those we know, whether they are Christians or not. Do we just know them casually? Do we lean on them for emotional support? Do we just get together with them for exercise? Do we live in the same neighborhood they do? Do we happen to go to the same church they do? Are we related to them?

We know a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Things may go just fine, they way we’d like them to go. But what happens when they take advantage of the relationship? Now all of a sudden you’re relating to them in a way in which this isn’t beneficial to you, and you’re even being burdened. What do you do? Do you try to get out of the relationship? Do you try to act as if nothing happened? Do you let them know in some subtle way that you’re hurt? Do you talk to a mutual acquaintance to let them know so that they can try to get them to apologize? Or do you just talk behind the person’s back so that other people will know what a rotten thing they did to you?

Jesus shows us a better way. It’s not necessarily easier. And things may not end up the way you’d like, but it’s the true way of love. God has brought us into the Church. There’s a way things go in the Church, and it’s not the way where we try to shove things under the rug and hope they’ll go away. It’s not the way of bitterness or revenge, either. And it’s not the way of dissolving the relationship because it’s not working out the way you anticipated.

It’s the way of reconciliation. In the Gospel reading Jesus describes a people who are in the Word of God and living out that Word. This is why we teach our children the Word at home and in Sunday School. This is why we’re in the Word daily and in Bible Class weekly. Our sinful flesh is all too willing to reciprocate a slight with a slight. We’re all too ready to put the worst construction on what someone does rather than put the best construction on what they do. We’re more ready to criticize one another than we are to build up one another. We’re often more concerned about what will make us satisfied rather than what will not cause another person to stumble in their faith, or if they’re not a Christian, to be turned off to Christianity.

Christ’s Church is like a house. It doesn’t matter if you’re upstairs or downstairs, it matters if you’re in or out. Christ has brought you in. He wants you in. But we who are in the Church sometimes act like those who are out, don’t we? We don’t always treat each other, and those outside as well, lovingly. We’re in the Church, we need to act like it. The way we do that is by reconciling with one another, with those within and those without.

Reconciliation is an action word. It’s not a static thing. It’s an actual thing. Without reconciliation there’s always that guilt, that grudge, those hard feelings, hanging around. Reconciling means apologizing. It means admitting your guilt to the other person, seeking restoration. It means gently telling the other person of their sin against you so that they may make amends and receive your forgiveness. It means bringing to the other person’s attention how they are bringing harm to a child or one who is weak in faith so that that person may repent and be restored to the person they have harmed.

Jesus says that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He is. It’s true that Jesus is everywhere. He’s God. But being everywhere doesn’t help us out, because He’s just “there.” We need Him among us in an action way. Apart from where He is among us actively giving us His grace, we receive only judgment. That’s why we need those things that give us Him. Those things that we gather around where we can know He is among us and with His grace, mercy, and peace. God is reconciled to us when we are united with Christ in Baptism. We are restored to right standing before God when we hear the Gospel proclaimed. We are forgiven when we receive Christ’s very Body and Blood in His Holy Supper.

Being Baptized doesn’t just mean that you’re forgiven. It means you’re born into the Family of God. You are a part of the Church of Christ, with brothers and sisters in Christ. You need them. They need you. Treat them as brothers and sisters. Bring the Good News of Christ to those who are outside of the Church so that they too may know of the power of reconciliation in Christ. Treat them always in love and humility.

Receiving the Lord’s Supper doesn’t just mean that you are communing with Christ. You are communing also with your brothers and sisters in the Family of God. You are communing with the Christian Church, including those who have gone before you. You are not alone. As they have been reconciled to God and are now in heaven, so you will follow in their footsteps. Nothing separates you from reconciliation, not your sin, your guilt, not the distance between you and God, not even death.

What the Church is all about is reconciliation. In other words, it’s about Christ. Because of Christ we are reconciled with the Father. In Christ we may be reconciled with one another. That is something to rally around. It’s something to rejoice in. It’s something to dig deeper and deeper into, through the hearing and receiving and studying of His Word—and for that there is ample opportunity. Amen.

SDG

The Cross and the Cross

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Matthew 16:21-28

There is the cross. Nearly everyone knows about the cross. It is that which is the center of Christianity and the decisive point of history. It is the basic proclamation of the Gospel: we preach Christ and Him crucified. It is the great reversal God has brought about: through this brutal instrument of suffering and death life is brought about for all.

But wait, there’s more! This certainly isn’t the end of the story. Jesus tells us there’s much more to the cross than just the cross. There’s the cross and then there’s the cross. But it’s this other cross we don’t like to hear about. It’s one thing to hear about Jesus suffering on the cross. It’s quite another to hear about us bearing the cross of suffering.

Peter actually was not all that hot on Jesus suffering on the cross. And who would be? But we already know what happened. We know that it’s a good thing that Jesus suffered and died. Jesus put an end to Peter’s protests and speculation about a Christianity devoid of the cross: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” We, too, must set our minds on the things of God and not of man. We, too, must continue to preach and hear Christ and Him crucified. We, too, must deter Satan by putting before us always who Jesus is and what He has done.

His cross is the basis for our setting our minds on the things of God and not on the things of man. How this happens is through another cross. It is not the cross of Christ. It is your cross. He says: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

If anyone knows about bearing a cross it’s Jesus. Listen to Him about what it means to bear your cross. Your life is shaped by the cross. Bearing your cross means being shaped by the cross of Christ. Christ alone bore the cross for the sins of the world, you bear your cross because of His. He bore the cross for you. He bore the cross to give you life and His eternal blessings. He didn’t do it so you could go on your merry way and live the life that suits you with no regard for Him and His will.

Jesus says you must deny yourself. He doesn’t mean you don’t matter. He’s not saying you’re no longer an individual and have no dignity. He knows that left to your own devices you will make your way down that broad path that leads to eternal damnation. The Old Adam in you hears that you’re not saved by good works and says, “All right! I don’t have to do good works! I can just live for myself.” On the other hand, when the Law of God tells you to follow God’s will and do good works, your Old Adam looks at those works and says, “Wow, look at me and all my good works—God must be pleased with me.” Both of these miss the point and so you need some cross-bearing placed upon you to turn your gaze back on Christ and His cross rather than on your comfortable little life.

What does bearing your cross look like? When it would be a very easy thing to lie so that things can work out much easier for you and you do the right thing because that’s what you do as a Christian. That’s who you are. You are not your own, you are Christ’s. He bore the cross for you and you now bear your cross so that you may be reminded that you are not your own. In the Epistle Paul gives guidance in what cross-bearing looks like: be patient in tribulation; bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them; repay no one evil for evil; rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. What do you want to do? You want to live as though your life is your own. But Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?”

What does it look like, this life of being a Christian in a world that so easily chooses the wrong thing? It looks in many ways like that of the life of those who do not believe in Jesus and His bearing the cross for them. Jesus said, “What shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done.” What it looks like may not necessarily be what others see, but what you see. You see in the mirror a person who has been bought by the works of Christ, ultimately His bearing the cross for you. And you see one who will be rewarded for this. That’s the great difference between the one who looks to Christ crucified and the one who looks to himself. The one who looks to himself seeks to be rewarded because of himself. The one who looks to Christ crucified seeks to be rewarded because of what Christ has done.

Luther said that for a Christian it’s this way: “He neither boasts if he does good works, nor is he disturbed if God does not do good works through him. He knows that it is sufficient if he suffers and is brought low by the cross in order to be annihilated all the more.” Bearing your cross means that doing what is right is never a waste of time, that you can safely leave the results up to God. You do them because you are not your own, you are Christ’s. You do them because it’s not about you being comfortable and satisfied and successful in life, but brought low so that God may lift you up with His refreshing gifts in water and bread and wine.

Bearing your cross means that your life is going to be more difficult as it goes on, not less. You will struggle more. You will ask why. You may have more doubts than you did before. And you will ask, as you might be now, why would I want this? The answer is, you wouldn’t. But that’s exactly why Christ gives you your cross to bear. It’s not about you or what you want but what He wants. But what He wants is what is best for you. This is why you must set your mind on the things of God, not of men.

When you bear your cross you will probably think that God made a mistake, that this isn’t how it’s supposed to be, that He got it wrong. Isn’t that what it seems when Jesus concludes by saying to His disciples that “there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom”? Jesus has not come again in glory on the Last Day and those disciples died a long time ago. But what has Jesus been talking about? He’s been talking about His cross. He’s been talking about your cross. The Son of Man came into His Kingdom when He ascended the hill of Calvary and suffered the sin and guilt of the world.

You, too, have not tasted death until the Son of Man has come into His Kingdom. He has brought His Kingdom to you in the water of your Baptism. He brings His Kingdom to you today in the bread and wine of His Holy Supper. Know this as you bear the cross your Lord has placed upon you: it is not in vain. It is to make you who you are and strengthen you by refining you. If it seems too much to bear, go again to your Baptism and the words placed upon you there—you are His child and He will not forsake you. If it seems that God is not quite right in how He is doing things in your life, come again soon to Christ’s altar to receive His Body and His Blood. Because of His cross He will guide and guard you to bear yours. Is it any wonder Paul said in the Epistle to be constant in prayer? The Collect we prayed earlier can be your continual prayer: “Almighty God, Your Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption. Grant us courage to take up our cross daily and follow Him wherever He leads.” He will indeed lead you through the valley of the shadow of death, all the way to heaven. Amen.

SDG

Even If It’s Just Crumbs

What do we want from God? Well, all that He’ll give us, right? And what does He give us? The fullness of His grace and salvation. We couldn’t ask for more, right?

But we do, don’t we? We ask for more than simply what is according to His will. We hope and pray that His will will be in line with our will rather than simply rejoicing in what He gives us.

Even if that’s just crumbs. Well, that’s the way we should think, anyway. That’s the way the Canaanite woman thought [Matthew 15:21-28]. And that was after Jesus called her a dog. Her thought was, if this is an insult, it’s still not such a bad thing, because even dogs get something. Even dogs get to live in the house. Even dogs get the scraps from the table. (And they love those!)

And that’s better than being treated worse than a dog. That’s better than receiving nothing. Because when it comes to Jesus, when He gives it’s a lot. Even if it’s a little. Even if it’s just crumbs.

We want so much from God that we forget that He already gives us more than we can imagine. Maybe we don’t realize it because we’re too busy thinking about and asking for simply what we want and not what His will is for us.

If the woman was happy just to receive crumbs from the Savior, how much more should we rejoice in receiving the Vault of Heaven from our Lord? When we ask for things from our Lord, how much more should we be grateful that we don’t just receive crumbs but the very Bread of Life?

When we are searching and seeking for His will, how much more content should we be that He doesn’t just leave us in the dark but gives us His Very Word, the Bible, so that we may have an entrance into the Holy Will of God for us and for our lives?

Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”

Even if He only gave us crumbs we would have reason to rejoice and be eternally grateful. As it happens, He gives us all things. He gives us His very own Son. He gives us eternal salvation in the suffering and death and resurrection of our Lord.

When He gives us all things in His Son He produces in us a desire to want more from Him. That’s because He wants to give more and more. He does so in His Word, in our Baptism, and in the Holy Supper of our Lord.

These are not just crumbs. They are the eternal gifts of God. But even if they were, they’d still be greater than anything for which we could ask or imagine.

Who Does Jesus Say that He Is?

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Matthew 16:13-20

Almost everybody loves the Olympics. It's thrilling to see the very best athletes compete against one another. The challenge, the drama, the drive, draw us in. But there's also something else that draws us to the Olympics. It's the rules. Everybody comes into the Olympic Games knowing the rules and everyone expects them to compete according of the rules. When there's talk of unfair advantage, of some athletes not abiding by the rules, it casts a cloud on the competition. We may not like every single rule as it stands but we like the fact that the rules apply to everyone because then there is fairness to the competition.

This is the way we want life to be also. We want it to be fair. We want everyone to have to play by the same rules we have to. Everyone gravitates toward this way of thinking and acting. We naturally assume it's the way life should be. The Bible tells us what this stems from: the Law.

In contrast to this is something else the Bible tells us about—it is the Gospel. What is the Gospel? It is what Jesus has done. It is who Jesus is. It is salvation for the world. It is pure grace, no strings attached, unconditional.

What is it about this that we don't understand? What is it about the Gospel that we just can't take as it is? There's got to be something more. There's got to be something about it that's not so, well, simple. Easy. You know, we don't want people to take the Gospel for granted. We don't want them thinking they're saved by not doing anything. We want Christians to be excited about salvation. We want them to have a hunger and desire to spread the Word of God and the Gospel. We want them to jump at the chance to tell people about Jesus. We don't want people just resting on the laurels of Jesus saving them solely by His work and not by anything they have done.

When we get to heaven we are going to have a clear understanding of what it means to be saved by Christ alone. In this life our understanding of it is warped. It's not just off a little bit. Or even a lot. It's seriously out of control. Find me the most ardent advocate of salvation by grace and I will show you someone who does not really understand what it means to be saved by grace and not by anything that he does.

That is because there's still something within him that believes that it can't be that easy. Yes, we're saved by grace, but aren't I a pretty good person? Yes, we're saved by what Christ has done, but isn't it wonderful how much better of a Christian I have become? I believe with all my heart that I am saved by what Jesus has done for me, and I'm sure He's glad I'm not nearly as bad as those people who are descipable human beings with the brutal way they treat others.

We don't really believe we're saved by grace. Well, yes we do. But deep down in our hearts, we tell ourselves that we're glad of ourselves. Our heart, mind, strength, and soul are not fixed on Jesus. They are fixed on ourselves. Doesn't this happen to us a lot? We're thinking things are going really well in our spiritual walk. We're calm and patient and loving in disciplining our children. We take the time to explain that what they did was wrong, and why it was wrong, and what they need to do to make amends, and ask God to help them to do better. The next thing we know our children do something that strikes a chord in us and we lose it. We grab them forcefully and speak, or yell, even more forcefully, and strike terror into their hearts.

This is an example of how we live by the Law. This may sound as if it's just the sinful flesh acting out. And it is that. But it is that very thing that is us living by the Law. Everything we do is against God. You may think that's not true or ask how it can be. We see that this is the case by the different responses Jesus got to His question about who people say that He is. "John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet." So many people did not believe who He really is, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. That's because they live by the Law. There's gotta be salvation in something more or other than just Him. They all gave nice answers. Even good answers. Religious answers. But they weren't the right answers. Because they were answers that said this is the kind of Jesus we want, not the kind that He is.

And then there's Peter's response. The right answer, of course. A great response—it couldn't have been better. So what's the problem? Well, there's no problem, of course, with his answer. The deal is that it wasn't his answer. Jesus says to him, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." So Peter got the right answer, and that's great, but it wasn't because he was. It was because God the Father revealed it to him. Peter, of his own, is not drawn to Jesus but to himself. But because the Father reveals Jesus to him as the Christ, Peter is blessed.

That's why Jesus says to him, "Blessed are you." God loves to bless us. But He doesn't do so because we get the right answer or do what He commands us to do. He does it because of who He is. In other words, "the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter is blessed because of who Jesus is, not because there's anything special within Peter. Peter is blessed because of what Christ has done, not because of anything special that Peter would do.

We are drawn to the Law, not the Gospel. There's a reason someone came up with the saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Someone might in fact give you lunch. But the reason the saying came about and resonates with us is because deep down inside we all believe that there has to be a catch. There's something that we gotta do. Or want to do. Or will be expected of us. Deep down we look to ourselves to earn what we get. What did Jesus say to the sheep when He welcomed them into the Kingdom? "For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." Their response was, "What are you talking about? When did we do those things for You?" When we get to the gate of heaven there will be no list Jesus will go through—Did you do this, this, this? We won't say, "Hey Jesus, let me into heaven because I did this and this and this." He'll say, "Welcome into heaven" and we'll say, "What? You're letting us into heaven? Why? Oh yeah, because you died for us!"

What is the picture of Jesus in the Book of Revelation, the picture of the glory of heaven? It is of the Lamb Who Was Slain. Not the glorious powerful Jesus-the Lamb who was slain. If we want power and glory and emotion then we're not looking to Jesus. There's a reason He saved us in the way He did. Not in glory, not in power. In weakness. God became a man. Jesus suffered and died. We must look to Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else. Anything else is of the Law. Anything else is us looking within ourselves for salvation.

Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is. He then asks them who they say He is. But what Jesus is really getting at is who He says that He is. Because this is of the Gospel. It is the Gospel. He is the Gospel. How do we find God? Is it through the Law? No, it is through the Gospel. It is His grace, His unconditional giving of forgiveness and His eternal love. In His Holy Supper He gives of Himself freely. It is all gift. There are no expectations He places upon us, there is simply the invitation to receive Him in the fullness of His grace and mercy. This is why He Baptized you and why He will welcome you into heaven. It is why you have life and may rejoice. Amen.

SDG

He Is I AM

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Matthew 14:22-33

The disciples had wanted Jesus to send the crowds away so that they could get some food for themselves, because, you’ll recall, there wasn’t enough with just five pieces of bread and two fish. But Jesus had different plans. We’ll feed them with what we have.

Now Jesus was sending the disciples away. Get into the boat and go to the other side. And Jesus was also now sending the crowds away as well. Now He would have His time to be by Himself to pray. Presumably, He would meet up with the disciples later. But how would He get there? He was sending them to the other side, was He planning on walking around the lake? Or did He already have in mind to meet them out there on the water by simply walking on it?

Whatever He had in mind, we know that what He really needed was the time in prayer. A phone call in the middle of the night is the last thing we want. Jesus wasn’t awakened from sleep, but was once again interrupted from His prayer time. He saw the disciples out there in the middle of the lake being battered by the wind and the waves. He created those things so He decided He’d come out and give them a hand. No need to find a boat, He’ll just walk on out there.

Now, I’m with the disciples in being terrified at the sight. It’s the middle of the night, they’re being hit hard by the elements, and here’s this figure walking toward them on the water. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I think that’d be my first thought as to what I was seeing. But ghosts don’t talk. Well, in the movies they do. But an apparition is a ghostly appearance of a person. This ghost they were seeing began to talk. He says, “Hey guys, it’s me, relax.” He doesn’t even say His name. He just says, “It’s me, don’t be afraid.”

So how did they know it was Jesus? Well, if they thought they were seeing a ghost, they may have thought they were seeing a ghost of Jesus. But it’s not only what they were seeing, it’s also what Jesus said. He didn’t need to say, “It’s me, Jesus.” All He needed to say were the words that He said. And although every English translation I looked at used the words, “It is I,” what He actually said was, “I am.” In other words, He wasn’t just saying, “Hey guys, it’s me, it’s going to be okay.” What He was saying is “Don’t be afraid, I’m not a ghost, I’m God.” I am the one who parted the Red Sea in order to bring the Israelites out of their slavery. I’m the one who created the very waters of the earth. I am the one who always has been, who is, and who always will be. I AM. No matter the circumstances, I AM.

There’s something very important about what Jesus is doing here. There were moments when Jesus made a big deal about His glory and His grace, moments that were removed from the day to day lives of the people of God. Moments that weren’t in the thick of difficulties and real life dangers. At His Baptism it was abundantly clear who Jesus was. At His Transfiguration He clearly made known who He was.

But we need more than just a mountain top experience to know who our God is. He is also the one who comes down that mountain and into our lives where we have real needs like being fed. Where we face real dangers like being dumped into the swelling waters. Jesus is all over that. He’s there. He’s been there and done that. He, the Lord of all creation, is the I AM. That’s all we need to know.

And so Peter, ever the impetuous one, takes Him up on His statement that He is Jesus, the One who has come claiming to be the Messiah, the one who is equal to God the Father. “Tell me, then, to come out to You.” “Come on out, the water’s great!” came the response from Jesus.

Was it faith that prompted Peter to step out of the boat? Was it his infamous impetuousness? Whatever it was, he stepped out and walked on the water. Did the other disciples, seeing this, want to go out also? Well, they didn’t really get the chance, because Peter decided it wasn’t enough to focus on what had gotten him out there—Jesus, the I AM. He decided he needed to take stock of his situation. After all, it wasn’t every day that he was out on the lake literally on the lake. And even more so, in the midst of some pretty bad weather. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, after all. He began to focus on all that temporal stuff. Not that it was easy to ignore it. But what was more powerful in his mind at the moment was the stuff of the moment. The wind. The waves. The new-found ability to walk on water! This wasn’t a good thing at the moment. All this was more powerful than the one in front of Him, the I AM, the one who was and is and will always be. The one who created all the stuff he was afraid of with the simple speaking of a word.

There’s comfort in the words of the I AM: “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” It sounds like a rebuke because it is a rebuke. But the comfort is abounding. He doesn’t say, “Peter, where is your faith?” He rather affirms that he actually has faith, little though it be. What does faith do? It always looks to Jesus. Never to ourselves. Never to the wind and the waves. To the troubles of our lives, the dangers we face. The doubts we harbor deep inside our hearts. Faith looks to Christ alone, the great I AM. And that’s what Peter did, He cried out to His Savior. “Lord, save me.” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He reached out and saved. His hand went out and grabbed hold of Peter. Isn’t it interesting that Matthew says that Peter started to sink? Peter knew how to swim. Couldn’t he have gotten back into the boat by himself and be hauled in by his friends? Of course, but some people drown because of panic. He had been walking on water because he was focused on Jesus. When his focus went elsewhere he became afraid.

His cry for Jesus to save him was exactly what he needed to do. Jesus alone can save us from ourselves. From our desire to look elsewhere. From our tendency to focus on the here and now rather than the one who is always with us and always in existence. But not just as all-powerful Being, as Savior. Walking on water and on to the cross where He also cries out to His Heavenly Father. A cry of desertion, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus did not forsake Peter out on the water because of his little faith. He reached out and saved him. Neither does your Lord forsake you, for your very Lord was forsaken in your place.

The Ruler of the Universe walks on water. He doesn’t just tame the storms, He comes to you in the very storms of your life. He comes not to berate you for your at times little faith. He comes to save you. He comes to give you courage and hope. The Lord of Life walked the land in order to suffer on the cross. He is not proud. He doesn’t take joy in our suffering. He simply comes to us in the midst of it and offers us Himself. That’s why, whatever you’re experiencing in your life right now, your Lord invites you to partake of Him. He reaches out His hand to you and gives you Himself, His Body, and His Blood, for you, for your forgiveness. For your life and eternal welfare. Take heart, it is Him. The I AM is with you, always. Amen.

SDG

Amen

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Matthew 14:13-21

Amen.

[Turn as if stepping out of pulpit as if sermon is over. Pause, then turn back.]

“Amen” really is the sermon. And some might actually wish a one word sermon. But there’s so much to that word “Amen” that it really needs to be unpacked.

We’re so familiar with the ending of the sermon being “Amen,” that we might not think much of the word. As if it’s a spiritual way of saying, “The End.” We’re so used to saying “Amen” at the end of our prayers that we might not think anything of it. As if it’s just the way we end our prayers and nothing more. This sermon will be like every other sermon and end with “Amen”—it has also begun with it.

One of the things I love about being a Christian is that there is always more to learn. Sometimes this leaves you feeling a little foolish, as I did a few weeks ago at the Higher Things Youth Conference. The Conference theme was “Amen.” I must confess that I wondered why that was the theme. It didn’t seem to me a very Lutheran theme. Lutherans love to emphasize grace and what God does. The word “Amen” is a word we say. It’s our response to what God does and says. How were they going to turn that around and get a conference that emphasized grace and what God does for us?

Did I ever find out. Amen, I discovered, is all about God and what He does for us, including our response to what He does for us. You’ll recall from the Catechism that the explanation of the word “Amen” at the end of the Lord’s Prayer that it means “Yes, yes, it shall be so.” At times Jesus began His sayings, when He wanted to emphasize His point, with “Amen, amen, I tell you…”, or “Truly, truly, I tell you…” I’ve always thought of the word “Amen” at the end of a prayer or a blessing from God simply as a response: “Yes, we believe it.” “Yes, it shall be so.” Or, in the case of Jesus, simply to make a point: “What I’m saying to you is the truth—believe it.”

But the reason that we can say “Amen” is because of who Jesus is and what He has done. It might seem that the Gospel reading has nothing to do with “Amen.” But that’s because we take that little word for granted. The Gospel reading shows us how much is there when it comes to that little word. It begins with Jesus saying “Amen” to the tragic death of His cousin and Forerunner, John the Baptist.

How is this so? When Jesus heard of the death of His dear friend “He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself.” We all have times where we need to be alone to pray, especially to grieve. Jesus Himself has given us the words to pray in these situations in life in His Holy Prayer, “Thy will be done.” This is another way of saying “Amen” to those things God tests us with or allows to happen. Even in His grief, Jesus gave His “Amen” to His Heavenly Father’s divine will that John the Baptist was now called to eternal glory. Amen has nothing to do with God answering our prayers the way we’d like and everything to do with His will being done. That is why Jesus could grieve even as He could say “Amen” to the reason for His grief.

But can we continue to say “Amen” when in our difficult situations in life more gets piled on? When the crowds found out where Jesus went they raced after Him. Did Jesus pray to His Heavenly Father for a reprieve? No, He said “Amen” once again. He had compassion on them. This is why Christ came. Jesus Christ is Lord over all and yet submits to the will of His Heavenly Father. In grief, He says, “Amen.” When His grieving is interrupted He says “Amen.”

When the day goes long we’re ready to go home and rest, aren’t we? That’s what the disciples had in mind. Jesus, send them home so we can rest. They’re getting hungry and we can’t do anything for them. But Jesus’ “Amen” to His Heavenly Father’s will is for the long haul. It wasn’t convenient for Jesus when they showed up and it wasn’t convenient now for the already long day to be extended. Being the Creator of all there is, what the disciples had for food was enough to say “Amen” to the need of the crowds. Of course, what the disciples said was true, it wasn’t enough. But God’s “Amen” doesn’t deal with what is or isn’t enough. It simply deals in grace. God who made the earth and heaven can give bread to thousands out of little.

Before He did, though, Jesus gave thanks to His Heavenly Father. This was His verbal “Amen” to the opportunity to give them the food they needed. The very ones who wanted to go home and be done with the crowds were the very ones Jesus had hand out the bread and fish to the crowds. The very ones who said that it wasn’t enough were the very ones who continued to hand out more food to the multitudes. “Amen” always means that in Christ there is always more—even when, and especially when, it seems that there’s not enough. This is especially seen in their taking up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

Matthew says that they all ate and were satisfied. I imagine that there were more than a few people that day who were saying “Amen” to what they had received. God’s Amen is always about what He desires to give us and our Amen is always about what we receive from Him. Both Amens are met in Jesus Christ. God’s answer is always “Yes” in Jesus Christ.

“Amen” shouldn’t just be the way we end our prayers. Amen should be the confession we make in response to God’s miracles. We might think it would be easy to say Amen to a miracle of feeding thousands of people with just a few pieces of bread and fish. But our Lord gives us a greater gift, a greater miracle, a greater meal in our day. At this very altar, often, our Lord takes a few pieces of bread and some wine and gives us more. He gives us His very Body and Blood for us to eat and drink.

If a human being could become God, that would be a miracle. Isn’t it all the more miraculous that God became a human being? That God, eternal and glorious, suffered and died? That God heard our prayer and said “Amen” to it in His Son? That, as He gave His Son to suffer on the cross, He forgives our sins in the giving to us of His Son to feed us? Jesus on the cross is God’s Amen to us, I have accomplished your salvation. Jesus’ Body and Blood, given and shed for you in the Sacrament, is God’s Amen to you, He forgives you all your sins. The washing of renewal and regeneration of your Baptism is God’s Amen to you, you have new life in Him.

Amen isn’t just a way to end a sermon, a creed, or a prayer. But it is the perfect way to declare that all is accomplished in Christ. Amen.

SDG