Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
October 24, 2010
Luke 18:9-17
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector…
And you thought Jesus was telling a parable of two men. Nope, His parable was of the Two Gods. There’s the god who will make you feel good about yourself and the God who will actually do you some good.
Two men went to the temple to pray and each one prayed to a different god. The Pharisee was praying to the god he felt very comfortable with. This was the god who made himself feel good, told him what he wanted to hear, gave him comfort when he needed a lift in his spirits. This god was always around. The Pharisee could look up and not fear because his god would love him as he was. And why not? There was a lot to love. He was not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like that tax collector over in the corner. In case there was any forgetfulness on the part of his god, there was this helpful reminder: “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”
With a god like that, it’s smooth sailing. You can keep comparing yourself to others who aren’t nearly as righteous as you are, if at all. Is there any reason not to have contempt on them? After all, they are not living as God would have them live. If only there were more people in this world like the Pharisee, the world would be a better place. And God would be so pleased. It’s the way God wants it, but sadly so many do not live as He has commanded.
This god is the god you’ll hear about the most. He’s the god that does a lot of good, if by good you mean that you will be able to feel good about yourself and stand in the comfort of knowing that you really are a good person. This is the god of every religion but one, Christianity. It’s even the god of every religion that people don’t want to think of as a religion. Even atheism, the religion that supposedly doesn’t believe in God, even atheism has this god that the Pharisee was praying to.
One of the basic things we learn as we grow in the faith is that there is only one God. In terms of how many gods being truly God, there’s only one, the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All other gods are not the true God, they are false gods. The Large Catechism says that your god is whoever or whatever you look to for all good. If you believe in the Triune God you believe in the true God. If you don’t, you believe in a false god. The Pharisee went to the temple but prayed to the wrong god. He prayed to a god in his own image, a god he could count on to make him feel good.
Who was this god? It was himself. Luke says that Jesus “told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” He was telling a parable to those whose god was themselves. They look at themselves and are pleased. Look how good they are! Who needs God, I’m very capable of myself in being a good person. But to make themselves feel even better they set the true God up as their god. The only problem is that they don’t look to him for all good but to themselves. You know the great thing about this god? You can always count on him. Because you will always be able to find someone who is worse than you. Someone who certainly isn’t as good as a person as you. Someone God certainly isn’t as pleased with as He is with you. And there’s great comfort in that. It makes you feel good. If you got inside the mind of the most wicked person you could think of I’ll bet you’d see a person who has convinced himself that he’s a really good person. So how can you go wrong with a god like that? When you’re your own god you call the shots. You get to determine how you need to be in order to be in good standing. And there’s always the added bonus that you get to look down on others who aren’t at your level.
So if this is what you want, there’s really nothing you need to do. You’re already doing everything necessary, you’re just being yourself. Looking at yourself in the mirror and being satisfied that, overall, there’s a lot to be pleased with. And when the doubts come, you can turn your gaze from the mirror onto other people—and you will never run out of people you can plainly see are worse people than you are. What comfort this sweet rationalization gives! Just by being you you have excluded the Triune God—the true God—because you have all you need in yourself, the god you really want.
It’s always one of the hardest things to come to terms with when it comes to evangelism. When you want to tell someone the Good News of salvation, when you share with them what a great opportunity we have at our church for worshiping the true God and receiving His many blessings, and when they show up they hear words that we are poor miserable sinners. We are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. We are unworthy and deserve only eternal and temporal punishment. That’s not quite the uplifting, feel-good message a lot of people want to hear. They want to hear good things about themselves. They want to hear things that will make them feel good about themselves. Imagine that. And that explains why there’s a lot of people who go to other religions or to Christian churches that tell them what they want to hear, that say things that make them feel good about themselves. It brings in the people, but it’s not evangelism.
The thing Jesus really wants to tell us about in His Parable of the Two Gods is the second God, the true God, the Triune God, the God who doesn’t make us feel good, but does us a world of good, even an eternity of good. He’s the God the second guy prayed to. The one the miserable tax collector couldn’t even lift his eyes up to, he was so ashamed. The God that that guy couldn’t even bring himself to go forward to the altar to, he was so aware of his sinfulness, his unrighteousness. The God to whom the guy tried to show some way of communicating his unworthiness that he beat his breast.
The Pharisee prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men.” The tax collector prayed: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” The Pharisee prayed to the god who was himself, because he put his trust in himself. The tax collector prayed to the true God because he knew that there was nothing within himself that was of any eternal worth or value or goodness. He might be able to convince himself he was a pretty good person, but where would that really get him? How far would it really take him? His life was already consumed with himself, was that really the kind of life he wanted to live? Not thinking of others, not helping them in their need, not serving them for the simple joy of serving them, not putting others before himself, so that he could see that without that he really would be left with only himself and all of his wretchedness, the stain of his sin, the pride that was bringing about his downfall.
Jesus says that one man was justified—declared righteous, right with God—and that one man was not. The one who put his trust in himself felt good in his own mind, the one who cried out for mercy to One who was outside of himself actually received something good, something that lasts. Something that gives true comfort when all you can see in your life and your heart and your thoughts is selfish desires and sin. So you could think of this parable as the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, in which case you’d be focusing on two men. Which one are you more like? Which one should you be like? And you would be missing the point. If you hear Jesus’ words, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” and think that the lesson you need to learn is that you shouldn’t be like that Pharisee and exalt yourself but be more like that tax collector and humble yourself, you will not have heard Jesus’ parable. It is about God, not about the two men.
Jesus really wants you to see the true God, the one who does you real good. When you see the tax collector you should see a picture of Jesus. I’m not saying that Jesus was saying He was the tax collector in the parable. But I am saying that He is giving us a picture of Himself in the tax collector. Jesus Christ came to us as a man and suffered in our place. He took upon Himself our sin. He hung on the cross as a sinner before God, not receiving mercy from Him but wrath. This is not some cosmic injustice but Jesus willingly bearing our guilt in our place. It is because of this that our cry to God can be, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He is the one who is exalted and yet has humbled Himself so that we who are poor miserable sinners may in the mercy of God be exalted to eternal glory.
Unfortunately, those who exalt themselves are not easily brought down. Those who look to themselves for all good are not easily convinced that it’s all about God and not at all about them. So Jesus took the lowly among them to drive home the point. If an adult can point out to others, but especially himself, how good he is and all the good he has done, an infant can’t do any of that. We can’t point to an infant and say, Look at what a good person that is, for all the good they have done. We can say babies are cute. And we can say they bring joy to our lives. But we can’t say that they are able to determine good things to do and then actually do them. And yet, these are the ones who were being brought to Jesus. These are the ones Jesus lifts up as He did the tax collector. These are the ones we are to look to so that we can see who Jesus really wants us to see, and that is the true God. Jesus does not say that it is to children belongs the Kingdom of God, but “to such belongs the Kingdom of God.” And He doesn’t say that they attain it by anything they do, even by anything good they do. He says they simply receive it. It is given them. Whoever receives the Kingdom of God as one in whom there is nothing one can point to within himself for any worthiness, merit, or hope, will enter the Kingdom of God.
Pray all you like how God should respond to your invented worthiness. But you will be setting yourself up as your god, ultimately pleasing yourself. God is pleased in His Son Jesus Christ who alone has done all things well. But God is also pleased in placing your unrighteousness on His Son so that you may live as it pleases Him. This is life now and forever. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
When God Wrestles with You
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Ignatius of Antioch, Pastor and Martyr
October 17, 2010
Luke 18:1-8
Usually when Jesus tells a parable He just tells it. There might be some explanation afterward but usually He just goes into a story and then you can think about what it means. Here we alerted at the outset of the purpose of this parable. Jesus tells us the story to make us aware that as we live out our lives as Christians, God will be wrestling with us.
I know, that’s not what the words say. But what is Jesus communicating to us when Luke tells us that Jesus told a parable so that we Christians would be persistent in our prayers and not lose heart? Well, He’s communicating that being a Christian is not going to be easy. There are many difficulties, as we know. Satan is constantly battling us, the world is continually trying to sway us to its side, and our own sinful flesh is persistent in its own selfish desires. But there’s more. Jesus tells us as much in giving us this parable. God is not going to be always seeming to be on our side. He will at times, and perhaps oftentimes, seeming to be going against us.
Why did Luke say what he did about Jesus’ parable? “[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Why would Jesus need to direct us to be persistent in prayer? If it were a simple matter of us praying for what we need and God in His love and grace simply gave those things to us, there’d be no need for this parable. But we need to be persistent, is what He says. We need to not lose heart. That’s because God is not our buddy. Sometimes He comes from out of nowhere and wrestles with us. Jacob was just trying to protect his family and out of nowhere God shows up and wrestles with him.
God is not a vending machine where you punch in the number of what you want and it’s delivered to you. God comes to you often at times seeming to be against you. Wrestling with you. Challenging you, not giving you what you want, or even what you think you need. What kind of a God do we have where Jesus so matter-of-factly can compare Him to a pagan judge? Does Jesus really want us to view God that way, that He’s just like that judge in the parable who neither believes in God nor has any respect for others? Evidently, yes, since that’s exactly what He did in the parable. And what He said afterward, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.”
Recently, two sociologists from Baylor researched people’s conceptions of God. They found that Americans have four different views about what God is like. There is The Authoritative God, that God is involved in history and meting out harsh punishment to those who reject Him. Some believe in the Benevolent God, where He is engaged in our world and loves us when we love and care for others. A third conception of God is the Critical God, in which those who suffer in this world often believe in a god who keeps an eye on this world but reserves justice in the next. Finally, there is the Distant God. Here, God started the universe but then left humanity alone.
There is some truth to all of these. God certainly is authoritative, as well as benevolent, and even critical and distant. People have to come to terms with God whether they believe in Him or not and so often our view of Him is pigeon-holed according to our limited understanding. While these four views of God accurately reflect how many people view God, they do anything but accurately reflect who God really is. These four views tell us what people think of God but not much of what God tells us about Himself.
I wonder what those sociologists would do with the Old Testament reading today where God wrestles with Jacob? How would they come to terms with the Gospel reading today which compares God to a pagan and forces His beloved children to wait for His perfect justice? But actually, I really don’t wonder at all about what they think of it. What I really wonder is what you and I do. We really believe in God. Not some Authoritative Supreme Being who calls down rules and regulations and zaps you if you don’t toe the line. Not some Lovey-Dovey Grandfatherly type who loves to see people being kind whether they believe in Him or not. Not some God who sits around checking on the progress in the world but gives only good things in the life to come. And not some God who got the ball rolling only to leave us to our own devices.
There are plenty of religions and non-religions that believe in some form of those kinds of gods. There are plenty Christians who fall into the trap of pigeon-holing God in such a way. Maybe that’s why He wrestles with us. He knows we too easily put Him in a box. He is far greater than we could ever imagine Him. He’s not afraid to give Jacob a challenge that is directly from Him, not just the difficulties in everyday life. Jesus has a twinkle in His eye when He gets to talk about God in terms of a judge that none of us would want to stand before.
And Jesus is nothing if not persistent. He will keep coming at us with the truth about God, even if it causes us to step back and wonder if that’s the kind of God we want. We may want to retreat to the security of the Authoritative God or the comfort of the Benevolent God or the vindication of the Critical God or the easy way out of the Distant God. God Himself will keep coming at you as He is, wrestling with you, challenging your notions of Him, calling you on your sin, going head on with you and your self-righteousness. He will not cater to your needs. He won’t make you feel good just because that’s what you’d like from Him. He will call upon you to call upon Him. He will call you to a life of prayer. That’s a life of prayer. Persistent prayer. Prayer that is not based on whether you think God has answered your prayer, but on simply praying to the God who is your God and Father, your Lord and Savior. He calls upon you to pray for what you need, not what you want. You are invited, of course, to pray to Him for what you want, as He has given you the green light for doing so, praying according to His will.
But mostly we need to see what our real need is. As much as I might not want for God to wrestle with me and bring me through struggles, I am more haunted by Jesus’ words of conclusion to His parable: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” We know that the Christian Church will remain forever. God is clear about that in His Word. So why the speculation of Jesus when He returns in glory on the Last Day of whether or not He will find faith on the earth? This is the wrestling of God with us. It is never easy. You are a Christian, but that doesn’t mean you float easily through life taking God’s grace for granted, what has been described of as cheap grace. You are saved by grace, it’s a gift, it’s free, there’s no strings attached, it’s by nothing you do—but it’s not cheap. It comes at a cost. It’s not cheap grace, it’s the grace of God in which He not only saves you but He engages with you. He even wrestles with you.
Jacob wasn’t the only who wrestled with God. The woman in Jesus’ parable is a picture of each one of us Christians, or at least who we are to be as Christians. One example is Ignatius. Today in the Church Year we observe the Commemoration of Ignatius who was the bishop of Antioch at the beginning of the second century. His life ended in martyrdom, something that may seem distant and irrelevant to us Christians today, or at least we Christians who are American. Nobody’s banging down our door and dragging us off to the electric chair. But 1900 years ago, near the end of the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan, Ignatius was arrested, taken in chains to Rome, and eventually thrown to the wild beasts in the arena.
On the way to Rome, he wrote letters to the Christians at cities such as Ephesus, Rome, and Smyrna. His letters were those of a pastor to his people warning them of false teachings that would lead them astray. In these letters he constantly drew people back to the true doctrine of Christ and His salvation in His suffering, death, and resurrection. How’s that for a God? Not distant or authoritative or critical, but humble and serving. How was Ignatius able to write in this way as he was led off to certain, and agonizing, death? Because he was persistent. His prayer to His Heavenly Father was not that of escape from murder at the hands of those who persecuted Christians. His prayer was that of the woman in Jesus’ parable. He prayed for God’s justice. In His time. In His way. We may not face imminent martyrdom as Ignatius did and countless Christians down through the ages have. But haven’t we all cried out to God as that woman did in the parable? That is the way of life as a disciple of Christ. The reason we need to be persistent is because God keeps wrestling with us.
But if you say, Yes, but why does Jesus say that the whole reason for giving us this parable is so that we may be confident that, in His own words, “will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily.” Adults usually learn to be more patient than when they were kids. When they want ice cream, they want it now. As we grow older and gain in wisdom and perspective, we’re better able to see that not everything we need comes to us immediately. So why does Jesus say that God will not delay when we lift our prayers to Him? How is it true that He says God will give us justice speedily?
It’s true because the more we’re in the Word of God, the more we pray, the more our prayers will be conformed to His will and not ours. When we’re praying in conformity with what He knows we need rather than what we would like to see be the case then we will see that God’s answer is always the best answer and His timing is always the perfect timing. We often get so caught up in the here and now, in the day to day, that we lose sight of our eternal existence. Do you live in such a way that Jesus will return at any moment? I specifically worded it as ‘will’ return at any moment, not ‘may’ return at any moment. The truth is, most of us think that way. Yes, He may, but then we go on about our day to day stuff giving it no more thought. That’s because we don’t think He will return at any moment, just that He may.
What Jesus is getting at here is that He will. Will He find faith on the earth? Will He find those who are wrestling with God and driven further and further into His Word in order to receive a blessing? Will He find those are persistently, faithfully praying to Him for justice, what they truly need, instead of just those things that they’d like? The world and your sinful flesh will persuade you to take your pick from the list of four different gods the sociologists can tell you all about. God Himself will simply show you who He is by directing your gaze upon the cross where justice is meted out on His only-begotten Son.
Salvation is accomplished. And if you see your end like Ignatius did, not in the arena where his flesh was torn to bits, but in the eternal glory of heaven, you will see exactly what that woman was praying about and what we have the invitation and privilege to pray about every day of our lives. Amen.
SDG
Ignatius of Antioch, Pastor and Martyr
October 17, 2010
Luke 18:1-8
Usually when Jesus tells a parable He just tells it. There might be some explanation afterward but usually He just goes into a story and then you can think about what it means. Here we alerted at the outset of the purpose of this parable. Jesus tells us the story to make us aware that as we live out our lives as Christians, God will be wrestling with us.
I know, that’s not what the words say. But what is Jesus communicating to us when Luke tells us that Jesus told a parable so that we Christians would be persistent in our prayers and not lose heart? Well, He’s communicating that being a Christian is not going to be easy. There are many difficulties, as we know. Satan is constantly battling us, the world is continually trying to sway us to its side, and our own sinful flesh is persistent in its own selfish desires. But there’s more. Jesus tells us as much in giving us this parable. God is not going to be always seeming to be on our side. He will at times, and perhaps oftentimes, seeming to be going against us.
Why did Luke say what he did about Jesus’ parable? “[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Why would Jesus need to direct us to be persistent in prayer? If it were a simple matter of us praying for what we need and God in His love and grace simply gave those things to us, there’d be no need for this parable. But we need to be persistent, is what He says. We need to not lose heart. That’s because God is not our buddy. Sometimes He comes from out of nowhere and wrestles with us. Jacob was just trying to protect his family and out of nowhere God shows up and wrestles with him.
God is not a vending machine where you punch in the number of what you want and it’s delivered to you. God comes to you often at times seeming to be against you. Wrestling with you. Challenging you, not giving you what you want, or even what you think you need. What kind of a God do we have where Jesus so matter-of-factly can compare Him to a pagan judge? Does Jesus really want us to view God that way, that He’s just like that judge in the parable who neither believes in God nor has any respect for others? Evidently, yes, since that’s exactly what He did in the parable. And what He said afterward, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.”
Recently, two sociologists from Baylor researched people’s conceptions of God. They found that Americans have four different views about what God is like. There is The Authoritative God, that God is involved in history and meting out harsh punishment to those who reject Him. Some believe in the Benevolent God, where He is engaged in our world and loves us when we love and care for others. A third conception of God is the Critical God, in which those who suffer in this world often believe in a god who keeps an eye on this world but reserves justice in the next. Finally, there is the Distant God. Here, God started the universe but then left humanity alone.
There is some truth to all of these. God certainly is authoritative, as well as benevolent, and even critical and distant. People have to come to terms with God whether they believe in Him or not and so often our view of Him is pigeon-holed according to our limited understanding. While these four views of God accurately reflect how many people view God, they do anything but accurately reflect who God really is. These four views tell us what people think of God but not much of what God tells us about Himself.
I wonder what those sociologists would do with the Old Testament reading today where God wrestles with Jacob? How would they come to terms with the Gospel reading today which compares God to a pagan and forces His beloved children to wait for His perfect justice? But actually, I really don’t wonder at all about what they think of it. What I really wonder is what you and I do. We really believe in God. Not some Authoritative Supreme Being who calls down rules and regulations and zaps you if you don’t toe the line. Not some Lovey-Dovey Grandfatherly type who loves to see people being kind whether they believe in Him or not. Not some God who sits around checking on the progress in the world but gives only good things in the life to come. And not some God who got the ball rolling only to leave us to our own devices.
There are plenty of religions and non-religions that believe in some form of those kinds of gods. There are plenty Christians who fall into the trap of pigeon-holing God in such a way. Maybe that’s why He wrestles with us. He knows we too easily put Him in a box. He is far greater than we could ever imagine Him. He’s not afraid to give Jacob a challenge that is directly from Him, not just the difficulties in everyday life. Jesus has a twinkle in His eye when He gets to talk about God in terms of a judge that none of us would want to stand before.
And Jesus is nothing if not persistent. He will keep coming at us with the truth about God, even if it causes us to step back and wonder if that’s the kind of God we want. We may want to retreat to the security of the Authoritative God or the comfort of the Benevolent God or the vindication of the Critical God or the easy way out of the Distant God. God Himself will keep coming at you as He is, wrestling with you, challenging your notions of Him, calling you on your sin, going head on with you and your self-righteousness. He will not cater to your needs. He won’t make you feel good just because that’s what you’d like from Him. He will call upon you to call upon Him. He will call you to a life of prayer. That’s a life of prayer. Persistent prayer. Prayer that is not based on whether you think God has answered your prayer, but on simply praying to the God who is your God and Father, your Lord and Savior. He calls upon you to pray for what you need, not what you want. You are invited, of course, to pray to Him for what you want, as He has given you the green light for doing so, praying according to His will.
But mostly we need to see what our real need is. As much as I might not want for God to wrestle with me and bring me through struggles, I am more haunted by Jesus’ words of conclusion to His parable: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” We know that the Christian Church will remain forever. God is clear about that in His Word. So why the speculation of Jesus when He returns in glory on the Last Day of whether or not He will find faith on the earth? This is the wrestling of God with us. It is never easy. You are a Christian, but that doesn’t mean you float easily through life taking God’s grace for granted, what has been described of as cheap grace. You are saved by grace, it’s a gift, it’s free, there’s no strings attached, it’s by nothing you do—but it’s not cheap. It comes at a cost. It’s not cheap grace, it’s the grace of God in which He not only saves you but He engages with you. He even wrestles with you.
Jacob wasn’t the only who wrestled with God. The woman in Jesus’ parable is a picture of each one of us Christians, or at least who we are to be as Christians. One example is Ignatius. Today in the Church Year we observe the Commemoration of Ignatius who was the bishop of Antioch at the beginning of the second century. His life ended in martyrdom, something that may seem distant and irrelevant to us Christians today, or at least we Christians who are American. Nobody’s banging down our door and dragging us off to the electric chair. But 1900 years ago, near the end of the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan, Ignatius was arrested, taken in chains to Rome, and eventually thrown to the wild beasts in the arena.
On the way to Rome, he wrote letters to the Christians at cities such as Ephesus, Rome, and Smyrna. His letters were those of a pastor to his people warning them of false teachings that would lead them astray. In these letters he constantly drew people back to the true doctrine of Christ and His salvation in His suffering, death, and resurrection. How’s that for a God? Not distant or authoritative or critical, but humble and serving. How was Ignatius able to write in this way as he was led off to certain, and agonizing, death? Because he was persistent. His prayer to His Heavenly Father was not that of escape from murder at the hands of those who persecuted Christians. His prayer was that of the woman in Jesus’ parable. He prayed for God’s justice. In His time. In His way. We may not face imminent martyrdom as Ignatius did and countless Christians down through the ages have. But haven’t we all cried out to God as that woman did in the parable? That is the way of life as a disciple of Christ. The reason we need to be persistent is because God keeps wrestling with us.
But if you say, Yes, but why does Jesus say that the whole reason for giving us this parable is so that we may be confident that, in His own words, “will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily.” Adults usually learn to be more patient than when they were kids. When they want ice cream, they want it now. As we grow older and gain in wisdom and perspective, we’re better able to see that not everything we need comes to us immediately. So why does Jesus say that God will not delay when we lift our prayers to Him? How is it true that He says God will give us justice speedily?
It’s true because the more we’re in the Word of God, the more we pray, the more our prayers will be conformed to His will and not ours. When we’re praying in conformity with what He knows we need rather than what we would like to see be the case then we will see that God’s answer is always the best answer and His timing is always the perfect timing. We often get so caught up in the here and now, in the day to day, that we lose sight of our eternal existence. Do you live in such a way that Jesus will return at any moment? I specifically worded it as ‘will’ return at any moment, not ‘may’ return at any moment. The truth is, most of us think that way. Yes, He may, but then we go on about our day to day stuff giving it no more thought. That’s because we don’t think He will return at any moment, just that He may.
What Jesus is getting at here is that He will. Will He find faith on the earth? Will He find those who are wrestling with God and driven further and further into His Word in order to receive a blessing? Will He find those are persistently, faithfully praying to Him for justice, what they truly need, instead of just those things that they’d like? The world and your sinful flesh will persuade you to take your pick from the list of four different gods the sociologists can tell you all about. God Himself will simply show you who He is by directing your gaze upon the cross where justice is meted out on His only-begotten Son.
Salvation is accomplished. And if you see your end like Ignatius did, not in the arena where his flesh was torn to bits, but in the eternal glory of heaven, you will see exactly what that woman was praying about and what we have the invitation and privilege to pray about every day of our lives. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, October 10, 2010
God Gives So Much More
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
October 10, 2010
Luke 17:11-19
Nine were healed. Only one was made well.
Ten walked away from Jesus having been cleansed of their leprosy. You can safely assume they were glad of their new lease on life. One of them returned to actually express his gratitude. They all had been healed. It is this one who was made well. He was like all the rest in that he was no longer shrouded in a disease that had consumed his body. We was distinct from the rest in that he had been given something else.
The others, nine of them, could show themselves to the priests and be declared clean. They could now go about in normal society and do the everyday things normal people do. But they we were not well. That’s because they had not been made well by the one they had cried out to for mercy. Was it that Jesus didn’t want to give them more than just what they had asked for? Maybe they didn’t want more than that. Perhaps they didn’t realize there was more than that. When you are defined by a disease that rots away your skin and your are barred from society, being cleansed of that is all you could really ask for.
As it happens, the one who returned to Jesus didn’t want more. He had asked for mercy and had received exactly that. He walked away in recognition that he didn’t deserve it for a moment. The priests would have to wait. Jesus needed to hear his confession. No, Luke doesn’t tell us he confessed his sins to Jesus. But it’s there in what this man did when he is now before Jesus. His falling on his face, his giving thanks, these were signs that he was unworthy. He could ask nothing more of Jesus, he had received more than he could have ever imagined.
And that’s when he now saw that he was receiving exactly that. More than he could ever have imagined. Your faith has made you well. Go on your way. Isn’t it interesting that this time He doesn’t tell him to go to the priests? He had already been cleansed. He has now been made well.
Is it because he was more thankful than those other nine ungrateful slobs? Was it because he had more, or better, faith? Could it have been because he was a Samaritan and therefore unencumbered with all the religious baggage of the other nine?
No, it wasn’t because of himself. That’s why he went back to Jesus and fell on his face before Jesus. He knew he was unworthy, he knew he was sinful, he knew that he could do nothing but simply give thanks and praise God. He was made well because his faith was in one who was not himself. It was in one who was another. And his faith was not just in some other person. Say, for example, in the priests he had been sent to. No, it was faith in the one who is the only one in whom you can be made well.
You probably have known people who do not believe in Jesus who have been healed of illness or injury. But you will not find anyone who does not trust solely in Christ for their salvation who has been made well. We see this here in these ten men. Nine were healed. Only one was made well. The account of the Ten Lepers isn’t so much about the one leper as compared with the other nine. Of course we should be more like the one leper who was grateful. But mostly we should see the one in whom we have our wholeness, our being made well, our salvation. Things start off with eleven people, Jesus and ten lepers. Nine are out of the picture quickly and we’re left with two. But almost as quickly, he’s out of the picture as well and we’re left with only Jesus. We’re left with His words to the man: “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And even as He says those words to the man He Himself will continue on His way He had already been going on. Luke tells us that at the beginning. He was on His way to Jerusalem.
He was going there because it was the place where He would accomplish the act that would make people well. Jesus could have been born, grow up, set up shop in Nazareth, or perhaps Jerusalem, and accomplish all day long every day what He had done for those ten lepers. There’s lots of sick people. Lots of people who need help. Many people cry out to God for help. Jesus could have been more than busy just taking care of all these needs.
But what did He do? He made His way toward Jerusalem. He didn’t buy a permit and set up a clinic. He entered Jerusalem and got Himself killed. He proclaimed a message that was blasphemy to the religion in power: salvation is in the one whom God has sent. Oh, and by the way, that’s Me. If all you do is help people you’ll probably get government funding. But if you’re telling people that they are lost forever apart from you, you’ll get yourself killed. This is why Jesus was heading to Jerusalem. He didn’t come to help people, He came to save them.
I looked at twenty-nine English versions of the last verse of the Gospel reading, and all but five of them gave the words of Jesus as “your faith had made you well,” or something similar. Only five gave His words as “your faith has saved you.” Languages usually allow words to be used in several different ways. If you say, “God saved me,” you’re referring to the fact that you are a sinner but God has saved you from your sin and its punishment. You could also say, “I was out in the hot sun all day and working hard, drinking that water really saved me.” No one is going to think that you believe that drinking that water is your literal salvation from your sins and hell. You are using the word ‘saved’ in a figurative way: without it, things would have been much worse for you, but with the water you were able to make it through.
On one particular day ten men were lepers but walked away from Jesus no longer as lepers. They walked away cleansed, healed. But one walked away from Jesus a second time, because he had returned to Him. He walked away having been made well. Or perhaps we could use the literal word Jesus used in the Greek: saved. So did Jesus make him well, or save him?
Ten men asked Jesus for mercy and received exactly that. One man received something more: he was made well. Ten lepers asked for mercy on their condition and received that. Their lives were consumed with leprosy, but now no more. They were cleansed, free. But one man received more than that. His faith was in this man who had freed him from his leprosy. Could he do anything to repay Jesus? No, he could only prostrate himself and express his gratitude. A new life had been opened up to him when he looked upon his clean healthy skin. But now he saw deeper within himself. A disease that infected his heart, that went to the core of his very soul. If the outside of me looked like that, what must I be like in my innermost thoughts? He didn’t need a priest, he needed the one who could make him well, save him from the illness that infected his soul.
When God’s people in the Old Testament, and still in Jesus’ day, were healed of their leprosy they were declared clean by the priests. Today we go to the doctor. But God was showing His people that the outward infections of our body are signs of our inward illness. Jesus is the High Priest. He is the only one who can declare you clean from the illness you carry with you from your birth and to the grave. He does it by His Word. He declares it in the speaking of it. “Go your way, your faith had made you well.” You are cleansed, healed, saved.
This particular man realized it. Often when you do, you’re speechless. Or at least in a way where you’re not able to give a cogent analysis of your unworthiness, amazement, and gratitude. So your actions usually speak louder than your words and your words are often simple. The man fell on his face and simply gave thanks and praise. From his perspective, Jesus had just happened to be passing his way. He didn’t know Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. And if he did, he didn’t know that Jesus was on His way to take on Himself the man’s sins. He just saw Jesus and cried out for mercy. Jesus healed Him and continued on His way to the cross. The priests could still declare lepers clean, but they couldn’t take on themselves the lepers’ disease. They couldn’t do that anymore than they could take on themselves another man’s sins. But Jesus could, that’s why He was on His way to Jerusalem, to take on Himself the sin of every person. Every person has been born into this illness. It doesn’t eat away at their skin, but their soul. You may not know the words to say to describe your unworthiness. You may not be able to formulate your thankfulness for your Lord making you well, saving you from your sin. But He doesn’t come down on you for that, He simply says to you: “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.”
So what did the man do? He went his way. He went having been made well to live out the new life His Lord had given him. There’s a big difference between having the blessings God showers down on everyone and living a life of gratitude in the particular gifts of salvation God has granted in His Son’s suffering and death. Do you see that your Lord has not just simply blessed you with the gifts He showers down on all people but has delivered to you the particular gift of salvation in your Baptism and that He gives to you often in His Holy Supper?
You could go from here and try to be more like that one man, as opposed to the other nine. You could resolve to be more thankful, to express your gratitude, and try to give God more praise in your life.
Or you could realize that nothing you can give back to God would ever be enough. No thanksgiving, no praise, no dedication of your life to Him could ever compare to what He has given you. He desires not simply to give you blessings in this life but so much more. He gives you salvation. Don’t be content with just enough to get by. God has in store for you the very vault of heaven. You may go in peace. Your faith has made you well. The leper was the recipient of Christ’s words even as you are when He says to you, “Take and eat, this is My body; Take and drink, this is My blood, for you.” You go forgiven, restored, cleansed, renewed. If you want to express your thanks to God, live as one who has been made well, forgiven and redeemed. Read and study His Word. Share with others what Christ has done for them by suffering and dying and rising for all of their sins. Don’t just go, don’t just live, rest and rejoice in His giving you a whole new life, even to eternity. Amen.
SDG
October 10, 2010
Luke 17:11-19
Nine were healed. Only one was made well.
Ten walked away from Jesus having been cleansed of their leprosy. You can safely assume they were glad of their new lease on life. One of them returned to actually express his gratitude. They all had been healed. It is this one who was made well. He was like all the rest in that he was no longer shrouded in a disease that had consumed his body. We was distinct from the rest in that he had been given something else.
The others, nine of them, could show themselves to the priests and be declared clean. They could now go about in normal society and do the everyday things normal people do. But they we were not well. That’s because they had not been made well by the one they had cried out to for mercy. Was it that Jesus didn’t want to give them more than just what they had asked for? Maybe they didn’t want more than that. Perhaps they didn’t realize there was more than that. When you are defined by a disease that rots away your skin and your are barred from society, being cleansed of that is all you could really ask for.
As it happens, the one who returned to Jesus didn’t want more. He had asked for mercy and had received exactly that. He walked away in recognition that he didn’t deserve it for a moment. The priests would have to wait. Jesus needed to hear his confession. No, Luke doesn’t tell us he confessed his sins to Jesus. But it’s there in what this man did when he is now before Jesus. His falling on his face, his giving thanks, these were signs that he was unworthy. He could ask nothing more of Jesus, he had received more than he could have ever imagined.
And that’s when he now saw that he was receiving exactly that. More than he could ever have imagined. Your faith has made you well. Go on your way. Isn’t it interesting that this time He doesn’t tell him to go to the priests? He had already been cleansed. He has now been made well.
Is it because he was more thankful than those other nine ungrateful slobs? Was it because he had more, or better, faith? Could it have been because he was a Samaritan and therefore unencumbered with all the religious baggage of the other nine?
No, it wasn’t because of himself. That’s why he went back to Jesus and fell on his face before Jesus. He knew he was unworthy, he knew he was sinful, he knew that he could do nothing but simply give thanks and praise God. He was made well because his faith was in one who was not himself. It was in one who was another. And his faith was not just in some other person. Say, for example, in the priests he had been sent to. No, it was faith in the one who is the only one in whom you can be made well.
You probably have known people who do not believe in Jesus who have been healed of illness or injury. But you will not find anyone who does not trust solely in Christ for their salvation who has been made well. We see this here in these ten men. Nine were healed. Only one was made well. The account of the Ten Lepers isn’t so much about the one leper as compared with the other nine. Of course we should be more like the one leper who was grateful. But mostly we should see the one in whom we have our wholeness, our being made well, our salvation. Things start off with eleven people, Jesus and ten lepers. Nine are out of the picture quickly and we’re left with two. But almost as quickly, he’s out of the picture as well and we’re left with only Jesus. We’re left with His words to the man: “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And even as He says those words to the man He Himself will continue on His way He had already been going on. Luke tells us that at the beginning. He was on His way to Jerusalem.
He was going there because it was the place where He would accomplish the act that would make people well. Jesus could have been born, grow up, set up shop in Nazareth, or perhaps Jerusalem, and accomplish all day long every day what He had done for those ten lepers. There’s lots of sick people. Lots of people who need help. Many people cry out to God for help. Jesus could have been more than busy just taking care of all these needs.
But what did He do? He made His way toward Jerusalem. He didn’t buy a permit and set up a clinic. He entered Jerusalem and got Himself killed. He proclaimed a message that was blasphemy to the religion in power: salvation is in the one whom God has sent. Oh, and by the way, that’s Me. If all you do is help people you’ll probably get government funding. But if you’re telling people that they are lost forever apart from you, you’ll get yourself killed. This is why Jesus was heading to Jerusalem. He didn’t come to help people, He came to save them.
I looked at twenty-nine English versions of the last verse of the Gospel reading, and all but five of them gave the words of Jesus as “your faith had made you well,” or something similar. Only five gave His words as “your faith has saved you.” Languages usually allow words to be used in several different ways. If you say, “God saved me,” you’re referring to the fact that you are a sinner but God has saved you from your sin and its punishment. You could also say, “I was out in the hot sun all day and working hard, drinking that water really saved me.” No one is going to think that you believe that drinking that water is your literal salvation from your sins and hell. You are using the word ‘saved’ in a figurative way: without it, things would have been much worse for you, but with the water you were able to make it through.
On one particular day ten men were lepers but walked away from Jesus no longer as lepers. They walked away cleansed, healed. But one walked away from Jesus a second time, because he had returned to Him. He walked away having been made well. Or perhaps we could use the literal word Jesus used in the Greek: saved. So did Jesus make him well, or save him?
Ten men asked Jesus for mercy and received exactly that. One man received something more: he was made well. Ten lepers asked for mercy on their condition and received that. Their lives were consumed with leprosy, but now no more. They were cleansed, free. But one man received more than that. His faith was in this man who had freed him from his leprosy. Could he do anything to repay Jesus? No, he could only prostrate himself and express his gratitude. A new life had been opened up to him when he looked upon his clean healthy skin. But now he saw deeper within himself. A disease that infected his heart, that went to the core of his very soul. If the outside of me looked like that, what must I be like in my innermost thoughts? He didn’t need a priest, he needed the one who could make him well, save him from the illness that infected his soul.
When God’s people in the Old Testament, and still in Jesus’ day, were healed of their leprosy they were declared clean by the priests. Today we go to the doctor. But God was showing His people that the outward infections of our body are signs of our inward illness. Jesus is the High Priest. He is the only one who can declare you clean from the illness you carry with you from your birth and to the grave. He does it by His Word. He declares it in the speaking of it. “Go your way, your faith had made you well.” You are cleansed, healed, saved.
This particular man realized it. Often when you do, you’re speechless. Or at least in a way where you’re not able to give a cogent analysis of your unworthiness, amazement, and gratitude. So your actions usually speak louder than your words and your words are often simple. The man fell on his face and simply gave thanks and praise. From his perspective, Jesus had just happened to be passing his way. He didn’t know Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. And if he did, he didn’t know that Jesus was on His way to take on Himself the man’s sins. He just saw Jesus and cried out for mercy. Jesus healed Him and continued on His way to the cross. The priests could still declare lepers clean, but they couldn’t take on themselves the lepers’ disease. They couldn’t do that anymore than they could take on themselves another man’s sins. But Jesus could, that’s why He was on His way to Jerusalem, to take on Himself the sin of every person. Every person has been born into this illness. It doesn’t eat away at their skin, but their soul. You may not know the words to say to describe your unworthiness. You may not be able to formulate your thankfulness for your Lord making you well, saving you from your sin. But He doesn’t come down on you for that, He simply says to you: “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.”
So what did the man do? He went his way. He went having been made well to live out the new life His Lord had given him. There’s a big difference between having the blessings God showers down on everyone and living a life of gratitude in the particular gifts of salvation God has granted in His Son’s suffering and death. Do you see that your Lord has not just simply blessed you with the gifts He showers down on all people but has delivered to you the particular gift of salvation in your Baptism and that He gives to you often in His Holy Supper?
You could go from here and try to be more like that one man, as opposed to the other nine. You could resolve to be more thankful, to express your gratitude, and try to give God more praise in your life.
Or you could realize that nothing you can give back to God would ever be enough. No thanksgiving, no praise, no dedication of your life to Him could ever compare to what He has given you. He desires not simply to give you blessings in this life but so much more. He gives you salvation. Don’t be content with just enough to get by. God has in store for you the very vault of heaven. You may go in peace. Your faith has made you well. The leper was the recipient of Christ’s words even as you are when He says to you, “Take and eat, this is My body; Take and drink, this is My blood, for you.” You go forgiven, restored, cleansed, renewed. If you want to express your thanks to God, live as one who has been made well, forgiven and redeemed. Read and study His Word. Share with others what Christ has done for them by suffering and dying and rising for all of their sins. Don’t just go, don’t just live, rest and rejoice in His giving you a whole new life, even to eternity. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Word, Promise, Savior
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 26, 2010
Luke 16:19-31
Abraham says to the rich man about his brothers that they have Moses and the Prophets.
We do too.
Lazarus died and went to heaven. The rich man died and landed in hell. Used to a life of luxury, he was now crying for some relief. Could Lazarus come down to give him even a drop of water? Even if Abraham had wanted to say yes, it was impossible because there was a chasm between them. People on either side could not cross over. Could Lazarus then go back to his brothers so they would be spared this torment? Again, Abraham’s answer was final: No, they have Moses and the Prophets. Just as the rich man had had. It was as if Abraham was saying to him: You also had the Word of God. You didn’t listen to it. You rejected it. If your brothers likewise don’t listen to the Word of God they won’t listen to a man who comes back from the dead.
Jesus tells this story so that we may know of what is available to us. The rich man had it. His brothers had it. Lazarus had it. We have it too. It is the Word of God.
Jesus is making it clear that the Word of God is sufficient. That’s what Abraham in Jesus’ story is making known to the rich man. He tells him that his brothers hear the same Word that Lazarus had heard. If they reject it that’s why they won’t spared, even as the rich man wasn’t.
When Jesus was telling this story the New Testament hadn’t been written. There was only the Old Testament. They didn’t know it as the “Old Testament” but simply as the Bible. And just like us, they had other names for it: the Word of God, the Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, and the one Abraham uses in Jesus’ story: Moses and the Prophets. What Abraham was saying to the rich man is that just like he had had when he had been alive on earth, his brothers had the Bible, the Word of God. It was sufficient for salvation. That’s what was given to them. That’s what they needed. They didn’t need a man coming back from the grave to warn them of eternal punishment.
There’s something else given by God. It’s given in His Word. It’s the promise. It is the promise of salvation and of the Savior. Jesus told a seemingly story simple with Lazarus and the rich man. There’s a poor man who longs for just the scraps from the rich man’s daily feast and there’s a rich man who feasts lavishly every day and doesn’t seem to care that there’s a poor man outside his gate every day. The poor man dies and goes to heaven and the rich man dies and goes to hell.
But there’s another guy in there. He’s the one we know about. Abraham is straight out of the pages of the Old Testament, what was in Jesus’ day known simply as the Bible. And in that Bible was a very important teaching: the promise. The promise of a Savior. Salvation granted to God’s people through the Savior He would send. Abraham was the guy He made this promise through. You had to be a descendent of Abraham to be brought into the umbrella of the promise of salvation. Either that or be brought in through circumcision if you were born a Gentile. The New Testament tells us that being a descendent of that very promise is through faith, not through genealogy.
That’s how we know what the deal was about Lazarus. Yes, he was poor. Yes, he was deprived of many good things in this life. But the main thing is the thing we learn about when he was carried to heaven. He went to Abraham’s side. He was a recipient of the promise. He believed the promise of the Savior. He believed in the Savior. He may have actually been a physical descendent of Abraham. He may not have. We don’t know. That’s because we don’t need to know. He wasn’t saved by that. He was saved by faith. He was brought to heaven through the promise.
When there’s the Word there is the promise. And where there’s the promise there’s the Savior. The promise was of the Savior and the Savior has brought about His salvation. The Word is there for all to hear. It’s sad that so many would rather lavish themselves with the things of the world rather than the eternal blessings God grants in His Word through the promise by the Savior. However, there’s nothing in Jesus’ story of how ungodly it is to be rich and how honorable it is to be poor. There is only the Word that is made known to all and the promise that rings forth from it. Rich or poor, too many cling to the things of this world rather than take their delight in the things of God. The rich man woke every day to his riches and they were his god. Lazarus, even as he longed for a scrap of food, clung to the promise that His Savior would get him through—and He did, all the way to heaven.
That Lazarus was so poor he would have rejoiced to get a piece of bread shows us how great a Savior we really have. He is one that lifts us up from our depths to the heights of heavenly glory. The kind of Savior we have is not one who will tell the poor man to find a way to lift himself up out of his desperation. The kind of Savior we have is one who Himself became poor that we might become rich. The Savior who was promised in the Word is not one who came as a king, though He is the King of Kings. He is not the one who came as one who flaunted His glory, though He owns all glory and honor. The Savior promised, that the Word makes known, is the Servant of all. The one who suffered on behalf of all, even those who have no use for Him. He is the one who brought on Himself all sin, though He Himself is without sin. He is the one who suffered in our place the torment of hell, though He Himself is innocent.
The only way to see the glory of God is to be stripped of all self-glory, self-righteousness, and pride. Rich or poor, we must fall to our knees before the throne of the Almighty God. We must confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean, utterly corrupt, without anything good within us before the holiness that is God Almighty. And there is where we will see what Lazarus saw. What the rich man was blinded from seeing by his own desire for opulence. What we will see is the very God who is rich in grace and mercy. The God of the Bible who gave the promise of the Savior. The God who still loves to bring us to His side in the refreshing waters of Baptism. We may have hard times or not much to live on but there is refreshment in the forgiveness of those waters of Holy Baptism.
You can look all you want outside the Holy Scriptures. You can listen to the vain promises of other religions. You can seek your salvation or even just a good life apart from the Savior who sought only the cross. He sought only to make good on the promise of salvation for sinners. The word of God does make that clear, that we are sinners in need of salvation. Thank God it also makes known the promise. And the Savior. Amen.
SDG
September 26, 2010
Luke 16:19-31
Abraham says to the rich man about his brothers that they have Moses and the Prophets.
We do too.
Lazarus died and went to heaven. The rich man died and landed in hell. Used to a life of luxury, he was now crying for some relief. Could Lazarus come down to give him even a drop of water? Even if Abraham had wanted to say yes, it was impossible because there was a chasm between them. People on either side could not cross over. Could Lazarus then go back to his brothers so they would be spared this torment? Again, Abraham’s answer was final: No, they have Moses and the Prophets. Just as the rich man had had. It was as if Abraham was saying to him: You also had the Word of God. You didn’t listen to it. You rejected it. If your brothers likewise don’t listen to the Word of God they won’t listen to a man who comes back from the dead.
Jesus tells this story so that we may know of what is available to us. The rich man had it. His brothers had it. Lazarus had it. We have it too. It is the Word of God.
Jesus is making it clear that the Word of God is sufficient. That’s what Abraham in Jesus’ story is making known to the rich man. He tells him that his brothers hear the same Word that Lazarus had heard. If they reject it that’s why they won’t spared, even as the rich man wasn’t.
When Jesus was telling this story the New Testament hadn’t been written. There was only the Old Testament. They didn’t know it as the “Old Testament” but simply as the Bible. And just like us, they had other names for it: the Word of God, the Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, and the one Abraham uses in Jesus’ story: Moses and the Prophets. What Abraham was saying to the rich man is that just like he had had when he had been alive on earth, his brothers had the Bible, the Word of God. It was sufficient for salvation. That’s what was given to them. That’s what they needed. They didn’t need a man coming back from the grave to warn them of eternal punishment.
There’s something else given by God. It’s given in His Word. It’s the promise. It is the promise of salvation and of the Savior. Jesus told a seemingly story simple with Lazarus and the rich man. There’s a poor man who longs for just the scraps from the rich man’s daily feast and there’s a rich man who feasts lavishly every day and doesn’t seem to care that there’s a poor man outside his gate every day. The poor man dies and goes to heaven and the rich man dies and goes to hell.
But there’s another guy in there. He’s the one we know about. Abraham is straight out of the pages of the Old Testament, what was in Jesus’ day known simply as the Bible. And in that Bible was a very important teaching: the promise. The promise of a Savior. Salvation granted to God’s people through the Savior He would send. Abraham was the guy He made this promise through. You had to be a descendent of Abraham to be brought into the umbrella of the promise of salvation. Either that or be brought in through circumcision if you were born a Gentile. The New Testament tells us that being a descendent of that very promise is through faith, not through genealogy.
That’s how we know what the deal was about Lazarus. Yes, he was poor. Yes, he was deprived of many good things in this life. But the main thing is the thing we learn about when he was carried to heaven. He went to Abraham’s side. He was a recipient of the promise. He believed the promise of the Savior. He believed in the Savior. He may have actually been a physical descendent of Abraham. He may not have. We don’t know. That’s because we don’t need to know. He wasn’t saved by that. He was saved by faith. He was brought to heaven through the promise.
When there’s the Word there is the promise. And where there’s the promise there’s the Savior. The promise was of the Savior and the Savior has brought about His salvation. The Word is there for all to hear. It’s sad that so many would rather lavish themselves with the things of the world rather than the eternal blessings God grants in His Word through the promise by the Savior. However, there’s nothing in Jesus’ story of how ungodly it is to be rich and how honorable it is to be poor. There is only the Word that is made known to all and the promise that rings forth from it. Rich or poor, too many cling to the things of this world rather than take their delight in the things of God. The rich man woke every day to his riches and they were his god. Lazarus, even as he longed for a scrap of food, clung to the promise that His Savior would get him through—and He did, all the way to heaven.
That Lazarus was so poor he would have rejoiced to get a piece of bread shows us how great a Savior we really have. He is one that lifts us up from our depths to the heights of heavenly glory. The kind of Savior we have is not one who will tell the poor man to find a way to lift himself up out of his desperation. The kind of Savior we have is one who Himself became poor that we might become rich. The Savior who was promised in the Word is not one who came as a king, though He is the King of Kings. He is not the one who came as one who flaunted His glory, though He owns all glory and honor. The Savior promised, that the Word makes known, is the Servant of all. The one who suffered on behalf of all, even those who have no use for Him. He is the one who brought on Himself all sin, though He Himself is without sin. He is the one who suffered in our place the torment of hell, though He Himself is innocent.
The only way to see the glory of God is to be stripped of all self-glory, self-righteousness, and pride. Rich or poor, we must fall to our knees before the throne of the Almighty God. We must confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean, utterly corrupt, without anything good within us before the holiness that is God Almighty. And there is where we will see what Lazarus saw. What the rich man was blinded from seeing by his own desire for opulence. What we will see is the very God who is rich in grace and mercy. The God of the Bible who gave the promise of the Savior. The God who still loves to bring us to His side in the refreshing waters of Baptism. We may have hard times or not much to live on but there is refreshment in the forgiveness of those waters of Holy Baptism.
You can look all you want outside the Holy Scriptures. You can listen to the vain promises of other religions. You can seek your salvation or even just a good life apart from the Savior who sought only the cross. He sought only to make good on the promise of salvation for sinners. The word of God does make that clear, that we are sinners in need of salvation. Thank God it also makes known the promise. And the Savior. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Means at Your Disposal
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 19, 2010
Luke 16:1-15
Have you ever come across a passage in the Bible and you say, What’s up with that? You don’t know how to interpret it, what to make of it, or what to do with it.
That’s kind of like some things that happen in life, isn’t it? You’re going along and something comes up you don’t know what to make of. What does it mean? How do you handle it? How do you ascertain what God is doing with you or how He’s going to work this out for your good?
On one hand, without even determining what today’s Gospel reading means it teaches us a powerful lesson. One that if we go no further we will be far ahead of the curve in life. Especially in those times where we’re scratching our head as to what God is doing in our lives or at least allowing to happen in our lives.
It makes sense that not everything in the Bible is going to be easily understood. God knows everything. He is above us in everything, including intellect, wisdom, and understanding. He is God, after all. His ways are not ours and His thoughts are not ours. His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Not only that, we are dulled in our understanding by our sinful minds. Our thoughts are not centered on God but ourselves, so how can we even understand the spiritual things of God on our own?
Just take a look at many of the events of Jesus’ life on earth with His disciples and many others. Many times the disciples didn’t have a clue as to what Jesus meant in His teaching and even in His actions. The greatest example of all is the cross. They didn’t know why He must suffer and die. And yet Jesus was never deterred. He kept right on teaching and accomplishing His works and making His way to the cross. Whether people understood or not He was doing what He knew to be what needed to be done.
So if you go no further than that you will have understanding that is from God. Knowledge that blows away feeble human attempts at figuring out what’s going on in life. Wisdom that can only come from above. If you take from today’s Gospel reading this doctrine: that no matter what happens to you, God knows a whole lot more than you, can see a lot better of what you need than you, is more powerful than you, and can accomplish amazing things even through weakness and tragedy and those things we just don’t understand.
At the same time, there is the fact that there are passages in the Scripture that are tough to understand, but they’re there. What do we do with them? Ignore them? Pass them by so we can get to those parts that we can deal with easily? Those aren’t good options.
But what is a good option is to see an opportunity. When faced with difficulty you can take the easy way and despair. Or you can go toe to toe with the challenge. You can see the opportunity there that God can do amazing things even in, and even especially in, difficulty.
This is what the man did in the Gospel reading. He was staring at his life crashing down on him. He had had a good position. A manager of a wealthy man. He had it made, as many people would think it. But he either wasn’t very good at what he did or he just got careless. He was wasting his master’s possessions, which obviously wasn’t good for his master. So he was fired, which seems the sensible thing for the master to do. He needs to get someone in there who will manage the money in a way where it won’t be squandered away.
So this guy’s in trouble. He knows he has no chance. The master is in his right. So what is he going to do? He does what many people in this world will do. He takes advantage of his situation. He makes the most of it. He doesn’t despair or give up. He sees opportunity in the midst of his tragedy. He sees the tragedy *as* opportunity. He uses his position as manager one last time for his benefit so that he won’t be out on the streets when he’s sent packing.
The means at his disposal were the things of this world. He uses them in a way where he’ll make it in this world. This is what the “sons of this world,” as Jesus refers to them, do. They are much better at this than the “sons of light,” as Jesus refers to them. We usually refer to these two types of people as non-Christians and Christians, unbelievers and believers. It’s true, isn’t it, that Christians often aren’t very wise in the ways of the world. If we are to be moral and ethical and humble and selfless it’s pretty hard to get ahead in this world according to the world’s standard. Thus the difficulty with the sons of light in a world surrounding by sons of the world.
All of that is fairly easily understood. But why is the master commending the guy for this one last act of deception? We do much better when Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. To forgive others as He has forgiven us. What is He doing to us here when He seems to be saying that it’s commendable what that guy did? As if that’s not confusing enough, He goes on to say: “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” It’s as if Jesus was thinking, “I’ve gotta throw something in there every now and then to keep them on their toes.”
But it’s in the Bible and so we have to deal with it. It’s the Word of God and so we can’t ignore it. Our Lord Himself is teaching us and so we must learn. One thing that’s helpful in hearing the Word of God and studying it is to remember that God is the one who has given us His Word and therefore is the one who interprets it. That means the Bible is the thing that interprets the Bible. There are a few times Jesus tells a parable and then interprets it. Here Jesus tells this story and then gives some words of teaching. The things He says are somewhat hard to understand themselves. They almost seem to go against what He was just saying in His story He told about the manager.
But they also show us where He is coming from. He is coming from an eternal perspective. We so often see our lives from a temporal point of view. He knows what will happen, we’re often just trying to figure out how we’re going to get by. Rather than see the difficulties in our lives or the things we don’t understand as problems, we can see them as opportunities. No one can serve two masters. If we latch on to the things of this world we will serve ourselves, not God.
He does give us the things of this world, though. And they are ready and available for our use. This is another principle for us to remember in life. The means at our disposal are there for just that. We can be faithful to God—humble, sincere, moral, ethical—and still make use of the things of the world.
One way to think about this is by looking at your life and seeing what is most important. Think about the things that are most important to you. Now think about the things you spend time on. Are they the same? Are they different? If you find that the things that are most important to you are those things you don’t spend time on, and the things you spend time on are things that are not most important to you then have an opportunity. Use the things of this world to spend your time on those things you really should be spending time on, rather than just those things that you do.
Take your family as an example. They’re important to you. But how much time do you actually spend with them? How much effort do you actually put into loving them and caring for them and cherishing them? I know, you’re busy. You’ve got a lot on your plate. You have responsibilities. Plus, they’re busy. Sometimes you feel like you hardly live in the same house with them. Or maybe you’re with them a lot but you’re not really together. There’s no magical way to love them. But there are many practical ways to do it. One simple way is to just spend time with them. You may not feel like it. You may be thinking about all the stuff you have to do. But another important principle is that feelings follow behavior. If you constantly rely on feelings and think that your behavior will come from that you may never end up doing anything. It would be great if we could always turn our feelings around and our behavior would follow suit, but sometimes those feelings never come, or at least in a lasting way. Show your family signs that you love them and it will make a world of difference. Give them a compliment on something important to them. Ask them how their day was and actually listen. Give them a small gesture of how important they are to you, maybe a note. Or for those of you who don’t do that anymore, texting them would do just as well.
You see, you can make friends for yourself, as Jesus says, with the means at your disposal. That’s the stuff of this world. Just don’t let those things become ends to themselves. It’s easy to get caught up in the things of this world. But how awesome is it if we can use the things of this world for purposes that are pleasing to God? So use those things that God has given you. Use that brain of yours, your abilities, the things you own. Use them to love and serve others. Use them to glorify God. Use them to be a disciple of Christ. Spend time in God’s Word. Read it daily. Take a little time each week to study the Bible with your brother and sister Christians in Bible Class so that you’re challenged by the Word and grow in the Word in a way you can’t get when it’s just you and God.
The more you’re in the Word the more you’ll see that each passage in the Scriptures lies at an intersection. The intersection is that portion of Scripture and the cross. Every passage of Scripture meets with the cross. You can try to understand each portion or the thing as a whole apart from the cross but you will get nowhere but where the sons of this world do. As a son of Light, however, you will see that the darkness of Calvary enlightens you. The Suffering of Christ on the cross sheds light on the suffering and confusion you encounter in your life.
Use the means at your disposal each day of your life and throughout it. You have the Word of God. You are Baptized. You are fed by the Very Body and Blood of your Lord. You are commended in His sight because of His mercy. These are the means He uses to commend you, to shine His favor on you, to forgive you. Look around and see those who will welcome you along with your Lord into the eternal dwellings. Amen.
SDG
September 19, 2010
Luke 16:1-15
Have you ever come across a passage in the Bible and you say, What’s up with that? You don’t know how to interpret it, what to make of it, or what to do with it.
That’s kind of like some things that happen in life, isn’t it? You’re going along and something comes up you don’t know what to make of. What does it mean? How do you handle it? How do you ascertain what God is doing with you or how He’s going to work this out for your good?
On one hand, without even determining what today’s Gospel reading means it teaches us a powerful lesson. One that if we go no further we will be far ahead of the curve in life. Especially in those times where we’re scratching our head as to what God is doing in our lives or at least allowing to happen in our lives.
It makes sense that not everything in the Bible is going to be easily understood. God knows everything. He is above us in everything, including intellect, wisdom, and understanding. He is God, after all. His ways are not ours and His thoughts are not ours. His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Not only that, we are dulled in our understanding by our sinful minds. Our thoughts are not centered on God but ourselves, so how can we even understand the spiritual things of God on our own?
Just take a look at many of the events of Jesus’ life on earth with His disciples and many others. Many times the disciples didn’t have a clue as to what Jesus meant in His teaching and even in His actions. The greatest example of all is the cross. They didn’t know why He must suffer and die. And yet Jesus was never deterred. He kept right on teaching and accomplishing His works and making His way to the cross. Whether people understood or not He was doing what He knew to be what needed to be done.
So if you go no further than that you will have understanding that is from God. Knowledge that blows away feeble human attempts at figuring out what’s going on in life. Wisdom that can only come from above. If you take from today’s Gospel reading this doctrine: that no matter what happens to you, God knows a whole lot more than you, can see a lot better of what you need than you, is more powerful than you, and can accomplish amazing things even through weakness and tragedy and those things we just don’t understand.
At the same time, there is the fact that there are passages in the Scripture that are tough to understand, but they’re there. What do we do with them? Ignore them? Pass them by so we can get to those parts that we can deal with easily? Those aren’t good options.
But what is a good option is to see an opportunity. When faced with difficulty you can take the easy way and despair. Or you can go toe to toe with the challenge. You can see the opportunity there that God can do amazing things even in, and even especially in, difficulty.
This is what the man did in the Gospel reading. He was staring at his life crashing down on him. He had had a good position. A manager of a wealthy man. He had it made, as many people would think it. But he either wasn’t very good at what he did or he just got careless. He was wasting his master’s possessions, which obviously wasn’t good for his master. So he was fired, which seems the sensible thing for the master to do. He needs to get someone in there who will manage the money in a way where it won’t be squandered away.
So this guy’s in trouble. He knows he has no chance. The master is in his right. So what is he going to do? He does what many people in this world will do. He takes advantage of his situation. He makes the most of it. He doesn’t despair or give up. He sees opportunity in the midst of his tragedy. He sees the tragedy *as* opportunity. He uses his position as manager one last time for his benefit so that he won’t be out on the streets when he’s sent packing.
The means at his disposal were the things of this world. He uses them in a way where he’ll make it in this world. This is what the “sons of this world,” as Jesus refers to them, do. They are much better at this than the “sons of light,” as Jesus refers to them. We usually refer to these two types of people as non-Christians and Christians, unbelievers and believers. It’s true, isn’t it, that Christians often aren’t very wise in the ways of the world. If we are to be moral and ethical and humble and selfless it’s pretty hard to get ahead in this world according to the world’s standard. Thus the difficulty with the sons of light in a world surrounding by sons of the world.
All of that is fairly easily understood. But why is the master commending the guy for this one last act of deception? We do much better when Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. To forgive others as He has forgiven us. What is He doing to us here when He seems to be saying that it’s commendable what that guy did? As if that’s not confusing enough, He goes on to say: “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” It’s as if Jesus was thinking, “I’ve gotta throw something in there every now and then to keep them on their toes.”
But it’s in the Bible and so we have to deal with it. It’s the Word of God and so we can’t ignore it. Our Lord Himself is teaching us and so we must learn. One thing that’s helpful in hearing the Word of God and studying it is to remember that God is the one who has given us His Word and therefore is the one who interprets it. That means the Bible is the thing that interprets the Bible. There are a few times Jesus tells a parable and then interprets it. Here Jesus tells this story and then gives some words of teaching. The things He says are somewhat hard to understand themselves. They almost seem to go against what He was just saying in His story He told about the manager.
But they also show us where He is coming from. He is coming from an eternal perspective. We so often see our lives from a temporal point of view. He knows what will happen, we’re often just trying to figure out how we’re going to get by. Rather than see the difficulties in our lives or the things we don’t understand as problems, we can see them as opportunities. No one can serve two masters. If we latch on to the things of this world we will serve ourselves, not God.
He does give us the things of this world, though. And they are ready and available for our use. This is another principle for us to remember in life. The means at our disposal are there for just that. We can be faithful to God—humble, sincere, moral, ethical—and still make use of the things of the world.
One way to think about this is by looking at your life and seeing what is most important. Think about the things that are most important to you. Now think about the things you spend time on. Are they the same? Are they different? If you find that the things that are most important to you are those things you don’t spend time on, and the things you spend time on are things that are not most important to you then have an opportunity. Use the things of this world to spend your time on those things you really should be spending time on, rather than just those things that you do.
Take your family as an example. They’re important to you. But how much time do you actually spend with them? How much effort do you actually put into loving them and caring for them and cherishing them? I know, you’re busy. You’ve got a lot on your plate. You have responsibilities. Plus, they’re busy. Sometimes you feel like you hardly live in the same house with them. Or maybe you’re with them a lot but you’re not really together. There’s no magical way to love them. But there are many practical ways to do it. One simple way is to just spend time with them. You may not feel like it. You may be thinking about all the stuff you have to do. But another important principle is that feelings follow behavior. If you constantly rely on feelings and think that your behavior will come from that you may never end up doing anything. It would be great if we could always turn our feelings around and our behavior would follow suit, but sometimes those feelings never come, or at least in a lasting way. Show your family signs that you love them and it will make a world of difference. Give them a compliment on something important to them. Ask them how their day was and actually listen. Give them a small gesture of how important they are to you, maybe a note. Or for those of you who don’t do that anymore, texting them would do just as well.
You see, you can make friends for yourself, as Jesus says, with the means at your disposal. That’s the stuff of this world. Just don’t let those things become ends to themselves. It’s easy to get caught up in the things of this world. But how awesome is it if we can use the things of this world for purposes that are pleasing to God? So use those things that God has given you. Use that brain of yours, your abilities, the things you own. Use them to love and serve others. Use them to glorify God. Use them to be a disciple of Christ. Spend time in God’s Word. Read it daily. Take a little time each week to study the Bible with your brother and sister Christians in Bible Class so that you’re challenged by the Word and grow in the Word in a way you can’t get when it’s just you and God.
The more you’re in the Word the more you’ll see that each passage in the Scriptures lies at an intersection. The intersection is that portion of Scripture and the cross. Every passage of Scripture meets with the cross. You can try to understand each portion or the thing as a whole apart from the cross but you will get nowhere but where the sons of this world do. As a son of Light, however, you will see that the darkness of Calvary enlightens you. The Suffering of Christ on the cross sheds light on the suffering and confusion you encounter in your life.
Use the means at your disposal each day of your life and throughout it. You have the Word of God. You are Baptized. You are fed by the Very Body and Blood of your Lord. You are commended in His sight because of His mercy. These are the means He uses to commend you, to shine His favor on you, to forgive you. Look around and see those who will welcome you along with your Lord into the eternal dwellings. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 12, 2010
What God Has for Dinner
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 12, 2010
Luke 15:1-10
You really can’t get a handle on God. The only way we know about Him is that He has made Himself known to us. God, as He makes Himself known to us in His Word, is spirit. He doesn’t have flesh and blood as you and I have. Except, He has become as one of us. He is above us and yet has come down below. He is almighty and yet laid aside His glory to become a man, just as you and I are men and women, human beings.
God doesn’t need anything. He has everything. Everything has come from Him. We, on the other hand, need a lot. There’s a lot that goes into our very survival. We need air, water, sleep, food. There’s no need to ask what God needs, He needs nothing. There’s every reason to ask what we need, we need everything.
Everyone has an opinion on God. Whether they’re atheists, people of different religions, or people of different denominations in Christianity, everyone has a take on God. They think He’s this way or that. They think He’s benevolent or taking us for a ride. They wonder what He’s up to or if He’s around at all. They believe He’s a loving God or doesn’t even care about us.
The thing they all have in common is that they all want to get a handle on Him. Whether they believe in Him or not, like Him or not, understand Him or not, trust in Him or not, they all want to be able to say, This is who God is, I have Him all figured out. And if I don’t understand something about Him, then I should be able to. Our natural inclination is frustration at not being able to have a handle on Him.
But God is God. We don’t know Him except that He has made Himself known to us. He is above us, apart from us, unable to be put in a box. The thing about God, though, is that He becomes a man. He needs air, food, water, sleep. And if we thought we couldn’t get a handle on Him as the Almighty Lord what do we do with Him when He’s a baby resting in His mother’s arms? Or eating a meal with ordinary people like you and me? Is this the kind of God that is supposed to help us understand Him better? Do we now have a better way of relating to Him?
Everybody has a different take on God, everybody’s trying to get a handle on Him, and now we’re not only trying to deal with a God who is up there and above us, but a God who actually comes down here and becomes as one of us. What do we do with that? Normally, if you were talking about God, you wouldn’t be asking questions like, What does God need? Where does God go when He needs some peace and quiet? What does God have for dinner? He doesn’t need to eat, doesn’t need food, and for that matter, He’s God, He’s got everything—He has no needs.
Today’s Gospel reading tells us of a need He has that we all share. Every day around dinner time, guess what Jesus did? He ate dinner. Yes, it’s pretty amazing that He tells us that He’s like that shepherd who leaves the whole flock to find the one so that he’s no longer lost. It is definitely great that He’s like that woman who turns her house upside down so that she can find that one lost coin and that when we realize that we’re like that coin, we have an amazing God.
But those stories He told weren’t just so that we could get a better idea of what kind of God we have. They were told to tell us who He is. He’s not just God—up there, saving us, seeking us, doing everything in His power to rescue us. He’s also God who is down here because He comes down here. He’s above us and yet eats with us. He has everything and yet shares a meal with us. What does God have for dinner is actually not that bad of a question after all. When it was time for dinner He ate what was served. He, though God, ate actual food, because He became an actual flesh and blood person.
But God didn’t do this just to say, Hey, I’m really like you after all. You can trust Me. You can know that you can relate to Me because I became like you. The point of Jesus becoming a man wasn’t just so that He could be like us. He could have gotten a TV dinner every night and ate by Himself. But He didn’t. He ate among people. With them. He came down to us to be in solidarity with us. God up there can tell us He loves us but that ends up being only so much words. God down here, among us, with us, having dinner with us, means that He is in fellowship with us, He is in a relationship with us, He wants to be with us. It’s not just what God has for dinner, it’s that He has dinner with us.
The reason it’s so remarkable that God will go to any lengths to reach the one lost sheep, to search for the one lost coin, is that this is the God who doesn’t just become a man for the sake of identifying with us but for the very sake of us. Jesus doesn’t just eat food, and He doesn’t just eat with certain people, He eats with sinners. This was the trouble the religious leaders had with Him. If He’s really God what kind of a god is He really? If He’s God, and therefore holy, He wouldn’t be defiling Himself by eating with sinners. But that’s exactly what the holy God does. He eats with sinners. He communes with them, identifies with them, reaches out to them, seeks them where they’re at. He joins in solidarity with them.
This is sinners. Not the big shots. Not the ones who are worthy. Not the ones who are the really strong Christians. The ones we would say Jesus has no business dealing with, let alone having a nice meal with them. You can’t get a handle on a God like this because you will never be able to comprehend a God who says “Be holy as I am holy” and then asks you to pass the salt as He receives you into His Kingdom and dines with you. No meal with Jesus is just a meal. What God has for dinner is not just food but a feast. What God desires to share with you is not just some enjoyable moments around the dinner table but the very Marriage Feast of the Lamb. That eternal and glorious feast that celebrates the Lamb who was slain. The Lamb who took upon Himself fallen humanity’s sin and sinfulness and guilt and attempts at boxing Him in. The Lamb who is one with the Father and yet a man in every respect that we are except without sin. A man who is blameless and yet was imputed with the unrighteousness of our fallen nature.
When you are Baptized you are a new creation. You are a child of God. You are in solidarity with Christ, the living God. You are promised a mansion in the eternal glory of heaven. And as long as you draw breath in this life you are a sinner. But don’t ever think that takes away from God’s love for you, from the promises of new and eternal life, from the fact that you are a new creation. It’s just the opposite. It shows you the greatest truth of all. You are the one Jesus receives and eats with. It was a horrifying fact to the religious leaders that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. It is the greatest Gospel for you. He receives you. And when He has dinner, it’s not just a meal, it’s a feast. You are welcome at His table. You are fed at His eternal banquet.
There’s no need to get a handle on God. No matter how hard you try, you wouldn’t be able to. There’s no getting around the fact that God is God. He is above you and incomprehensible. What’s more, is that He is forever merciful and wants to dine with you at His feast. You can try to figure this out, mutter at what kind of god would do this, or simply rejoice that it is His eternal will and pleasure to welcome you to His eternal feast. Amen.
SDG
September 12, 2010
Luke 15:1-10
You really can’t get a handle on God. The only way we know about Him is that He has made Himself known to us. God, as He makes Himself known to us in His Word, is spirit. He doesn’t have flesh and blood as you and I have. Except, He has become as one of us. He is above us and yet has come down below. He is almighty and yet laid aside His glory to become a man, just as you and I are men and women, human beings.
God doesn’t need anything. He has everything. Everything has come from Him. We, on the other hand, need a lot. There’s a lot that goes into our very survival. We need air, water, sleep, food. There’s no need to ask what God needs, He needs nothing. There’s every reason to ask what we need, we need everything.
Everyone has an opinion on God. Whether they’re atheists, people of different religions, or people of different denominations in Christianity, everyone has a take on God. They think He’s this way or that. They think He’s benevolent or taking us for a ride. They wonder what He’s up to or if He’s around at all. They believe He’s a loving God or doesn’t even care about us.
The thing they all have in common is that they all want to get a handle on Him. Whether they believe in Him or not, like Him or not, understand Him or not, trust in Him or not, they all want to be able to say, This is who God is, I have Him all figured out. And if I don’t understand something about Him, then I should be able to. Our natural inclination is frustration at not being able to have a handle on Him.
But God is God. We don’t know Him except that He has made Himself known to us. He is above us, apart from us, unable to be put in a box. The thing about God, though, is that He becomes a man. He needs air, food, water, sleep. And if we thought we couldn’t get a handle on Him as the Almighty Lord what do we do with Him when He’s a baby resting in His mother’s arms? Or eating a meal with ordinary people like you and me? Is this the kind of God that is supposed to help us understand Him better? Do we now have a better way of relating to Him?
Everybody has a different take on God, everybody’s trying to get a handle on Him, and now we’re not only trying to deal with a God who is up there and above us, but a God who actually comes down here and becomes as one of us. What do we do with that? Normally, if you were talking about God, you wouldn’t be asking questions like, What does God need? Where does God go when He needs some peace and quiet? What does God have for dinner? He doesn’t need to eat, doesn’t need food, and for that matter, He’s God, He’s got everything—He has no needs.
Today’s Gospel reading tells us of a need He has that we all share. Every day around dinner time, guess what Jesus did? He ate dinner. Yes, it’s pretty amazing that He tells us that He’s like that shepherd who leaves the whole flock to find the one so that he’s no longer lost. It is definitely great that He’s like that woman who turns her house upside down so that she can find that one lost coin and that when we realize that we’re like that coin, we have an amazing God.
But those stories He told weren’t just so that we could get a better idea of what kind of God we have. They were told to tell us who He is. He’s not just God—up there, saving us, seeking us, doing everything in His power to rescue us. He’s also God who is down here because He comes down here. He’s above us and yet eats with us. He has everything and yet shares a meal with us. What does God have for dinner is actually not that bad of a question after all. When it was time for dinner He ate what was served. He, though God, ate actual food, because He became an actual flesh and blood person.
But God didn’t do this just to say, Hey, I’m really like you after all. You can trust Me. You can know that you can relate to Me because I became like you. The point of Jesus becoming a man wasn’t just so that He could be like us. He could have gotten a TV dinner every night and ate by Himself. But He didn’t. He ate among people. With them. He came down to us to be in solidarity with us. God up there can tell us He loves us but that ends up being only so much words. God down here, among us, with us, having dinner with us, means that He is in fellowship with us, He is in a relationship with us, He wants to be with us. It’s not just what God has for dinner, it’s that He has dinner with us.
The reason it’s so remarkable that God will go to any lengths to reach the one lost sheep, to search for the one lost coin, is that this is the God who doesn’t just become a man for the sake of identifying with us but for the very sake of us. Jesus doesn’t just eat food, and He doesn’t just eat with certain people, He eats with sinners. This was the trouble the religious leaders had with Him. If He’s really God what kind of a god is He really? If He’s God, and therefore holy, He wouldn’t be defiling Himself by eating with sinners. But that’s exactly what the holy God does. He eats with sinners. He communes with them, identifies with them, reaches out to them, seeks them where they’re at. He joins in solidarity with them.
This is sinners. Not the big shots. Not the ones who are worthy. Not the ones who are the really strong Christians. The ones we would say Jesus has no business dealing with, let alone having a nice meal with them. You can’t get a handle on a God like this because you will never be able to comprehend a God who says “Be holy as I am holy” and then asks you to pass the salt as He receives you into His Kingdom and dines with you. No meal with Jesus is just a meal. What God has for dinner is not just food but a feast. What God desires to share with you is not just some enjoyable moments around the dinner table but the very Marriage Feast of the Lamb. That eternal and glorious feast that celebrates the Lamb who was slain. The Lamb who took upon Himself fallen humanity’s sin and sinfulness and guilt and attempts at boxing Him in. The Lamb who is one with the Father and yet a man in every respect that we are except without sin. A man who is blameless and yet was imputed with the unrighteousness of our fallen nature.
When you are Baptized you are a new creation. You are a child of God. You are in solidarity with Christ, the living God. You are promised a mansion in the eternal glory of heaven. And as long as you draw breath in this life you are a sinner. But don’t ever think that takes away from God’s love for you, from the promises of new and eternal life, from the fact that you are a new creation. It’s just the opposite. It shows you the greatest truth of all. You are the one Jesus receives and eats with. It was a horrifying fact to the religious leaders that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. It is the greatest Gospel for you. He receives you. And when He has dinner, it’s not just a meal, it’s a feast. You are welcome at His table. You are fed at His eternal banquet.
There’s no need to get a handle on God. No matter how hard you try, you wouldn’t be able to. There’s no getting around the fact that God is God. He is above you and incomprehensible. What’s more, is that He is forever merciful and wants to dine with you at His feast. You can try to figure this out, mutter at what kind of god would do this, or simply rejoice that it is His eternal will and pleasure to welcome you to His eternal feast. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Is It Worth It?
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Zechariah and Elizabeth
September 5, 2010
Luke 14:25-35
It was a brief conversation. But I’ve never looked back. My brothers and I asked our dad if we could have a dog. His response was simple: if you clean up after it, feed it, and take care of it, sure! We didn’t really need to respond. We knew immediately we didn’t want a dog that bad.
Now the problem with this illustration is that those of you who love dogs will be thinking that the benefits of having a dog far outweigh the not so pleasant aspects of taking care of a dog. But actually, that isn’t a problem with the illustration at all. It actually makes the point.
If you’re going to get a dog you can’t just go to the pet store and buy one. Well, you could. But you’d find out quickly that there is a cost involved. There’s the cleaning up, and the feeding, and the taking care of it, and of course the actual cost in money. If you’re going to get a dog you should consider the cost first.
With many important things in our lives or things that will impact our lives there is a cost involved. We would do well to consider the cost ahead of time. If you’re going to buy a home you have to take into account many things that will affect your life, the basic of which perhaps is the actual cost in money involved. If you’re going to go back to school you’re going to have to figure out a lot things, if you can rearrange your schedule, have the time for the homework, how it will affect your family members. Oh yeah, and there’s also the actual cost in money. There are a lot of choices in where you can send your children to school. The neighborhood school may not be the best one. But the one you’d like to send them to may be too far away or too expensive. Many people want to get married and have a family without considering the cost. As my dad told me when I was growing up, when you marry someone, you’re not just marrying one person, you’re marrying into a family. It’s good to be prepared for this ahead of time so you’re not blindsided by things like where you’re going to celebrate Christmas, or if you’re in-laws are going to stay with you when they visit or in a motel.
Jesus uses two illustrations of His own. If you’re going to build a house, get your ducks in a row ahead of time, otherwise people will think you’re a fool when you’re half way through and find that you can’t finish. The other one concerns a king who is facing war and has to decide quickly if he can win with a smaller force or if he’d be better off sending a delegation for a peaceful resolution. Whether you are wanting to do something that’s important for yourself or you’re forced into a situation you’d rather not be in, you are wise if you count the cost. Getting a dog may sound like a great idea, but is it really worth it? Going back to school is admirable, but is it really the best thing to do at this particular time?
As Christians we’re inclined to think that being a Christian is a pretty good deal. What we might not consider as often is the cost involved. Even more, we might be inclined not to consider it at all. Wouldn’t we be happier if we just didn’t think about the hard stuff? It might seem that way but Jesus speaks forcefully about what it means to be a Christian. He speaks in terms that make us uncomfortable. If you take Jesus at His word you can’t ignore the words He sets before us. His words might even make us wonder what kind of a God He is. Why would He say that unless you hate your father and mother, brother and sister, and even your own life, you cannot be His disciple? Where’s the love? Where’s the command to love your neighbor as yourself? God in His Word commands us to love even our enemies. The Fourth commandment exhorts us to honor our father and mother.
In no uncertain terms He is warning us that we must count the cost. You want to be a Christian? Then be aware of what’s at stake. Hate your father and mother. Renounce all you have. Consider now if this is worth it. You’re not deciding on whether to own a dog or buy a house or go back to school. You’re talking about your life. You’re talking about your family members, those who are most important to you and those you love the most. You’re talking about your life you live each day and your eternal destination when you die. You want to be a Christian, but is it worth it?
For some, this will seem a no-brainer; the benefits far outweigh the cost. For others, it won’t seem nearly as comfortable. For some, it will seem easy because it’s easy enough to dismiss these hard words of Christ and just go straight to the easy-to-digest words. For others it will be the stumbling block, the thing that will prevent them from signing on—why would I want to follow a Lord who calls on me to hate my own father and mother?
Whatever your reaction to the words of Christ, consider this: who is the one speaking them? It is Christ. Does He bring something to the table that I can’t? Does He offer something that no other God or religion does? Is He giving us something that is so hard for us that we can’t come to terms with it?
Or is He giving us something that is really what we need? These words are hard but we must put first things first. Our Lord is the one who is speaking them. What this means is that He isn’t just saying, Look, I’m God, you have to love Me and hate your mom and dad and even yourself. I’m the only important thing in your life, you have to get rid of everything in your life.
God says a lot of things in His Holy Word, the Bible. You’ll begin to see the difficulty here when it says that God creates the world and gives the crown of His creation, human beings, dominion over the earth. He is the God of blessings and gives us many things in this life to enjoy. He does command us to love others, most especially our father and mother, and certainly ourselves. Maybe Jesus didn’t really mean ‘hate’ your father and mother when He said to hate your father and mother.
But no, that takes away everything. If He didn’t mean what He says here how do we know He means what He says elsewhere? He says what He means and means what He says. But the way to understand this is not by trying to figure out how you’re supposed to love your parents and hate them at the same time. The way to understand it is only possible when you hear the words of Jesus as words He brings about, not what you’re supposed to try to figure out or accomplish by your own ability. Even when I’m frustrated with my family members I still love them. So how am I supposed to hate them so that I can be a faithful disciple of Christ?
I can’t. And Jesus knows this. He knows that too often the most important things in your life, including your family and your possessions, are more important to you than He is. You know what else He knows? He knows that you don’t even love your family members as you ought. So you can’t accomplish what your Lord calls you to no matter which way you slice it.
But you can count the cost. You can ask if it’s worth it. When you sit down to consider the cost involved don’t just hear the words but who is speaking them. It is Christ. He is the one bringing about what it is He speaks. We know this because He doesn’t speak apart from what He Himself does. He Himself considered the cost. He above all prayed to His Heavenly Father as to the worth of it all. The cost was too great. How could He bear it? Because we have a great God! He bore up under the temptation and the suffering and the cost involved. If you see Jesus’ words of the cost of discipleship apart from the cross of Christ then you will only see a God who is malevolent in His call to discipleship. Hate your own father and mother. Renounce all you have. This is a God of judgment demanding every fiber of us to be loyal to Him. Is this worth it? No, it can’t be worth it.
But if you stop looking at yourself, stop seeing a god who simply demands, who takes everything away from you, expects all from you, then you will see a Lord who is only there for you. Who gives you everything. Who loves you beyond compare with love that overflows to those who are closest to you in your life and even to your enemies. You will see the God who counted the cost and paid the cost. You will see a God whose vocabulary doesn’t include the phrase, Is it worth it? All He knows is that you are worth it. What He knows is that you are worth the forsaking of His only-begotten Son. What He more than anything wants you to know is that He pours out upon you grace and mercy and love by His beloved Son receiving damnation.
When you do consider the cost, consider it from the only way that your Lord calls you to consider it, through lens of His suffering, death, and resurrection. Consider the fact that He counted the cost and paid it and calls you to new life. Then you will see that the only way to truly love those you love the most is by putting God first, even if that means your relationship with them will be strained, or even broken off. You won’t see that it’s easy, only that it’s the truly best way and the way it needs to be. When your Lord and His cross are at the center of your life and your relationships you see what true love is and the freedom to love as He loves; that it’s worth it, no matter the cost. Amen.
SDG
Zechariah and Elizabeth
September 5, 2010
Luke 14:25-35
It was a brief conversation. But I’ve never looked back. My brothers and I asked our dad if we could have a dog. His response was simple: if you clean up after it, feed it, and take care of it, sure! We didn’t really need to respond. We knew immediately we didn’t want a dog that bad.
Now the problem with this illustration is that those of you who love dogs will be thinking that the benefits of having a dog far outweigh the not so pleasant aspects of taking care of a dog. But actually, that isn’t a problem with the illustration at all. It actually makes the point.
If you’re going to get a dog you can’t just go to the pet store and buy one. Well, you could. But you’d find out quickly that there is a cost involved. There’s the cleaning up, and the feeding, and the taking care of it, and of course the actual cost in money. If you’re going to get a dog you should consider the cost first.
With many important things in our lives or things that will impact our lives there is a cost involved. We would do well to consider the cost ahead of time. If you’re going to buy a home you have to take into account many things that will affect your life, the basic of which perhaps is the actual cost in money involved. If you’re going to go back to school you’re going to have to figure out a lot things, if you can rearrange your schedule, have the time for the homework, how it will affect your family members. Oh yeah, and there’s also the actual cost in money. There are a lot of choices in where you can send your children to school. The neighborhood school may not be the best one. But the one you’d like to send them to may be too far away or too expensive. Many people want to get married and have a family without considering the cost. As my dad told me when I was growing up, when you marry someone, you’re not just marrying one person, you’re marrying into a family. It’s good to be prepared for this ahead of time so you’re not blindsided by things like where you’re going to celebrate Christmas, or if you’re in-laws are going to stay with you when they visit or in a motel.
Jesus uses two illustrations of His own. If you’re going to build a house, get your ducks in a row ahead of time, otherwise people will think you’re a fool when you’re half way through and find that you can’t finish. The other one concerns a king who is facing war and has to decide quickly if he can win with a smaller force or if he’d be better off sending a delegation for a peaceful resolution. Whether you are wanting to do something that’s important for yourself or you’re forced into a situation you’d rather not be in, you are wise if you count the cost. Getting a dog may sound like a great idea, but is it really worth it? Going back to school is admirable, but is it really the best thing to do at this particular time?
As Christians we’re inclined to think that being a Christian is a pretty good deal. What we might not consider as often is the cost involved. Even more, we might be inclined not to consider it at all. Wouldn’t we be happier if we just didn’t think about the hard stuff? It might seem that way but Jesus speaks forcefully about what it means to be a Christian. He speaks in terms that make us uncomfortable. If you take Jesus at His word you can’t ignore the words He sets before us. His words might even make us wonder what kind of a God He is. Why would He say that unless you hate your father and mother, brother and sister, and even your own life, you cannot be His disciple? Where’s the love? Where’s the command to love your neighbor as yourself? God in His Word commands us to love even our enemies. The Fourth commandment exhorts us to honor our father and mother.
In no uncertain terms He is warning us that we must count the cost. You want to be a Christian? Then be aware of what’s at stake. Hate your father and mother. Renounce all you have. Consider now if this is worth it. You’re not deciding on whether to own a dog or buy a house or go back to school. You’re talking about your life. You’re talking about your family members, those who are most important to you and those you love the most. You’re talking about your life you live each day and your eternal destination when you die. You want to be a Christian, but is it worth it?
For some, this will seem a no-brainer; the benefits far outweigh the cost. For others, it won’t seem nearly as comfortable. For some, it will seem easy because it’s easy enough to dismiss these hard words of Christ and just go straight to the easy-to-digest words. For others it will be the stumbling block, the thing that will prevent them from signing on—why would I want to follow a Lord who calls on me to hate my own father and mother?
Whatever your reaction to the words of Christ, consider this: who is the one speaking them? It is Christ. Does He bring something to the table that I can’t? Does He offer something that no other God or religion does? Is He giving us something that is so hard for us that we can’t come to terms with it?
Or is He giving us something that is really what we need? These words are hard but we must put first things first. Our Lord is the one who is speaking them. What this means is that He isn’t just saying, Look, I’m God, you have to love Me and hate your mom and dad and even yourself. I’m the only important thing in your life, you have to get rid of everything in your life.
God says a lot of things in His Holy Word, the Bible. You’ll begin to see the difficulty here when it says that God creates the world and gives the crown of His creation, human beings, dominion over the earth. He is the God of blessings and gives us many things in this life to enjoy. He does command us to love others, most especially our father and mother, and certainly ourselves. Maybe Jesus didn’t really mean ‘hate’ your father and mother when He said to hate your father and mother.
But no, that takes away everything. If He didn’t mean what He says here how do we know He means what He says elsewhere? He says what He means and means what He says. But the way to understand this is not by trying to figure out how you’re supposed to love your parents and hate them at the same time. The way to understand it is only possible when you hear the words of Jesus as words He brings about, not what you’re supposed to try to figure out or accomplish by your own ability. Even when I’m frustrated with my family members I still love them. So how am I supposed to hate them so that I can be a faithful disciple of Christ?
I can’t. And Jesus knows this. He knows that too often the most important things in your life, including your family and your possessions, are more important to you than He is. You know what else He knows? He knows that you don’t even love your family members as you ought. So you can’t accomplish what your Lord calls you to no matter which way you slice it.
But you can count the cost. You can ask if it’s worth it. When you sit down to consider the cost involved don’t just hear the words but who is speaking them. It is Christ. He is the one bringing about what it is He speaks. We know this because He doesn’t speak apart from what He Himself does. He Himself considered the cost. He above all prayed to His Heavenly Father as to the worth of it all. The cost was too great. How could He bear it? Because we have a great God! He bore up under the temptation and the suffering and the cost involved. If you see Jesus’ words of the cost of discipleship apart from the cross of Christ then you will only see a God who is malevolent in His call to discipleship. Hate your own father and mother. Renounce all you have. This is a God of judgment demanding every fiber of us to be loyal to Him. Is this worth it? No, it can’t be worth it.
But if you stop looking at yourself, stop seeing a god who simply demands, who takes everything away from you, expects all from you, then you will see a Lord who is only there for you. Who gives you everything. Who loves you beyond compare with love that overflows to those who are closest to you in your life and even to your enemies. You will see the God who counted the cost and paid the cost. You will see a God whose vocabulary doesn’t include the phrase, Is it worth it? All He knows is that you are worth it. What He knows is that you are worth the forsaking of His only-begotten Son. What He more than anything wants you to know is that He pours out upon you grace and mercy and love by His beloved Son receiving damnation.
When you do consider the cost, consider it from the only way that your Lord calls you to consider it, through lens of His suffering, death, and resurrection. Consider the fact that He counted the cost and paid it and calls you to new life. Then you will see that the only way to truly love those you love the most is by putting God first, even if that means your relationship with them will be strained, or even broken off. You won’t see that it’s easy, only that it’s the truly best way and the way it needs to be. When your Lord and His cross are at the center of your life and your relationships you see what true love is and the freedom to love as He loves; that it’s worth it, no matter the cost. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Glory of Humility
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
St. John the Baptizer
August 29, 2010
Luke 14:1-14
If you are truly humble and someone asks you if you are you would not hesitate to say no. How could you claim to be humble if you really are? Those who are truly humble will see clearly just how self-absorbed they really are.
That’s why we need the saints. The Scripture lifts up the saints so that we may follow their example. The saints that fill its pages are people just like you and me. People who are sinners. They mess things up even when they are seeking to be faithful to their Lord. They are examples for us so that we know that it’s not just us, out on our own, wondering if we got it right or not, if we’re living as God has called us to live or not.
One person the Scriptures lifts up as an example for us is John the Baptist. He was martyred for faithfully proclaiming the Word of God to the world. Since the commemoration of John the Baptist falls on this day, August 29, we might be able to make a case that there is no greater summary of what Jesus is teaching in our Gospel reading for today than the words of John the Baptist himself, speaking about Jesus: He must increase, but I must decrease [John 3:30 ESV]. It was Jesus Himself who said that of all people born of women, none was greater than John the Baptist [Matthew 11:11].
This is exactly the kind of contrast Jesus is painting in the Gospel reading. It is the paradoxical nature of the Gospel that presents opposite things like humility and glory and doesn’t deny either.
If you think of glory when it comes to the people of this world you would think along the lines of kings. You wouldn’t think of lowly John the Baptist, unkempt and clothed in camel’s hair. And yet, in our Lord’s Kingdom John the Baptist holds the position of honor and the king is relegated to the folding chairs in the back. But any king worth his salt would surely see that it is only in humility that he can rule his kingdom in a way that brings true glory to himself and the office he occupies. If he treats the people of the kingdom as not nearly as important as he is they will resent him and not see in him or the kingship glory but disdain. But if the king treats his subjects with dignity and governs in a way that provides what is best for them they will gladly give him honor and glory.
We don’t hold up John the Baptist as an example for us because he was such a great man. We hold him up because he pointed us to Christ. His glory was in the wardrobe he got from the thrift shop. John the Baptist didn’t seek glory, he sought Christ. Christ exalted him not because of any earthly value but because he humbled himself to point people away from himself and to Christ.
The glory and exaltation and honor John received was not by men. It wasn’t in the eyes of the world. It was the opposite. The world disdained him. The world mocked him and wanted him out of the way. And it was easy enough to make that happen, just get the man who has the power and means, to separate John from his head. No more dealing with a man who’s got nothing better to do than tell people what God has to say.
So why are you worrying about what’s coming to you? Why are you concerned with what you deserve and what you need and what you want? Why are you laser-focused on getting the best place when it is up to God who gets that? Why are you scanning the scene and comparing yourself with others, who has what, and what they deserve and don’t deserve, and what you have and don’t have? Why are you not content with what God has given you? Why are you not humble and laser-focusing on what will make others happy and what will help them? Why are you not rejoicing in the blessings of others instead of envying them? Why are you questioning why God has not blessed you more abundantly?
You hear the Word of the Lord and you exchange it for your own desires. You hear ‘humility’ and you desire glory. You hear ‘spiritual and eternal blessings’ and you long for temporal and physical ones. You hear ‘suffering and hardship’ and you seek a life free from those things. You hear the Law of God and push it aside for only the good news.
To this Jesus can only come with more Law. Paul says that “whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped” [Romans 3:19 ESV]. This is what Jesus does in our Gospel reading: “And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?’ But they remained silent.” After healing the man He said to them: “‘Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?’ And they could not reply to these things.” We don’t know what’s in the heart of others, but Jesus does. He pours on more Law because they need to be chopped down to size.
Jesus is not malicious. He doesn’t derive pleasure from driving us down. He brings us down, He lays us out, so that we may be raised up. They say that an alcoholic can’t see his way out until he has hit rock bottom. If you can’t go any lower there’s only one way to look and that’s up.
The funny thing is, Jesus doesn’t sit up there at the edge of the pit and yell for you to come on up. When you look up you will find the answer staring you in the face, right beside you. Jesus has come down into the pit, right where you are. He hit rock bottom Himself because He stepped down from His highest and glorious seat to the lowest, right where you and I are at.
When Jesus attempted to wash Peter’s feet Peter recoiled in horror. You are the Lord, I’ll wash your feet. But Jesus stopped him in his tracks: If I do not wash your feet, you have no part in Me. Jesus told the slaves to take the day off, He was taking over the dirty job. When John the Baptist was busy with his baptizing Jesus stood in line. John the Baptist would have none of it. I need to be Baptized by you! But Jesus silenced him. He doesn’t tell us to get on board with Him, He comes to us and brings us into union with Him.
The Scriptures are loaded with examples of people who took their position of power and abused it rather than seeing that all they have is from God and ought to be used in service to others. King David wasn’t satisfied with all the material wealth and pleasures he had amassed. His desires took over him and he committed adultery and in order to cover it up, murder. The Scriptures are equally filled with examples of servants of God who rejoiced in their lowly status. Mary wasn’t a queen or even the most popular kid in school. But she realized that she had ultimate glory because the Lord had brought His favor upon her. She knew she didn’t deserve it and even wondered why God had chosen her, but she submitted to the will of the Lord.
God does an amazing thing to pull off this kind of paradox, where those who seek glory are brought low and those who know they don’t deserve anything are given glory. All the religious leaders wanted to do was celebrate the Sabbath day. Jesus dropped the bomb on them, should we leave this guy in a helpless state one day longer so that the Sabbath can be enjoyed with our feast? It might seem ironic that time and again they accused Jesus of breaking God’s Law by healing people on the Sabbath while they themselves were having this feast, with the very best food and invitations sent out to honored guests. But in their celebration of the Sabbath they got it right. This was the way to observe the day of rest. Enjoy the blessings Almighty God rains down on you. Receive. Eat up and enjoy the company of those close to you.
What they failed to recognize is that it wasn’t just for them to enjoy. Why not share the wealth? Why not invite those who don’t feel all that special to share in the celebration? This is what Jesus brings to the table. Namely, He brings Himself to the table. But He doesn’t pass everyone by, muttering, excuse me, pardon me, VIP needing to get to the front. He serves. He takes off His clothes and wraps a towel around His waist. One man there was suffering from an ailment. But Jesus takes on Himself the ailment we all suffer from and then spreads a feast before us.
How you celebrate is by rejoicing that it is Christ Himself who makes it all happen. He silences you so that you don’t have to offer up all your great reasons of why you deserve His blessings. He throws them in the trash. He kills you, bringing to an untimely death your sinful nature so that you don’t have to enjoy the blessings of God while keeping an eye on those worldly passions that are catching your eye. Jesus suffering on the cross was the supreme glory of God, bringing His Son down in order to raise you up to new life. He raises you up to where He is because He got down on His knees where you are to lift you up. If you’re in the back, don’t worry, He has saved the best seat for you. It is up here at His Table. It is where He gives you Himself, His Body and Blood, for you, healing you of your pride, giving you new life so that you may serve and truly enjoy all His eternal blessings. Amen.
SDG
St. John the Baptizer
August 29, 2010
Luke 14:1-14
If you are truly humble and someone asks you if you are you would not hesitate to say no. How could you claim to be humble if you really are? Those who are truly humble will see clearly just how self-absorbed they really are.
That’s why we need the saints. The Scripture lifts up the saints so that we may follow their example. The saints that fill its pages are people just like you and me. People who are sinners. They mess things up even when they are seeking to be faithful to their Lord. They are examples for us so that we know that it’s not just us, out on our own, wondering if we got it right or not, if we’re living as God has called us to live or not.
One person the Scriptures lifts up as an example for us is John the Baptist. He was martyred for faithfully proclaiming the Word of God to the world. Since the commemoration of John the Baptist falls on this day, August 29, we might be able to make a case that there is no greater summary of what Jesus is teaching in our Gospel reading for today than the words of John the Baptist himself, speaking about Jesus: He must increase, but I must decrease [John 3:30 ESV]. It was Jesus Himself who said that of all people born of women, none was greater than John the Baptist [Matthew 11:11].
This is exactly the kind of contrast Jesus is painting in the Gospel reading. It is the paradoxical nature of the Gospel that presents opposite things like humility and glory and doesn’t deny either.
If you think of glory when it comes to the people of this world you would think along the lines of kings. You wouldn’t think of lowly John the Baptist, unkempt and clothed in camel’s hair. And yet, in our Lord’s Kingdom John the Baptist holds the position of honor and the king is relegated to the folding chairs in the back. But any king worth his salt would surely see that it is only in humility that he can rule his kingdom in a way that brings true glory to himself and the office he occupies. If he treats the people of the kingdom as not nearly as important as he is they will resent him and not see in him or the kingship glory but disdain. But if the king treats his subjects with dignity and governs in a way that provides what is best for them they will gladly give him honor and glory.
We don’t hold up John the Baptist as an example for us because he was such a great man. We hold him up because he pointed us to Christ. His glory was in the wardrobe he got from the thrift shop. John the Baptist didn’t seek glory, he sought Christ. Christ exalted him not because of any earthly value but because he humbled himself to point people away from himself and to Christ.
The glory and exaltation and honor John received was not by men. It wasn’t in the eyes of the world. It was the opposite. The world disdained him. The world mocked him and wanted him out of the way. And it was easy enough to make that happen, just get the man who has the power and means, to separate John from his head. No more dealing with a man who’s got nothing better to do than tell people what God has to say.
So why are you worrying about what’s coming to you? Why are you concerned with what you deserve and what you need and what you want? Why are you laser-focused on getting the best place when it is up to God who gets that? Why are you scanning the scene and comparing yourself with others, who has what, and what they deserve and don’t deserve, and what you have and don’t have? Why are you not content with what God has given you? Why are you not humble and laser-focusing on what will make others happy and what will help them? Why are you not rejoicing in the blessings of others instead of envying them? Why are you questioning why God has not blessed you more abundantly?
You hear the Word of the Lord and you exchange it for your own desires. You hear ‘humility’ and you desire glory. You hear ‘spiritual and eternal blessings’ and you long for temporal and physical ones. You hear ‘suffering and hardship’ and you seek a life free from those things. You hear the Law of God and push it aside for only the good news.
To this Jesus can only come with more Law. Paul says that “whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped” [Romans 3:19 ESV]. This is what Jesus does in our Gospel reading: “And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?’ But they remained silent.” After healing the man He said to them: “‘Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?’ And they could not reply to these things.” We don’t know what’s in the heart of others, but Jesus does. He pours on more Law because they need to be chopped down to size.
Jesus is not malicious. He doesn’t derive pleasure from driving us down. He brings us down, He lays us out, so that we may be raised up. They say that an alcoholic can’t see his way out until he has hit rock bottom. If you can’t go any lower there’s only one way to look and that’s up.
The funny thing is, Jesus doesn’t sit up there at the edge of the pit and yell for you to come on up. When you look up you will find the answer staring you in the face, right beside you. Jesus has come down into the pit, right where you are. He hit rock bottom Himself because He stepped down from His highest and glorious seat to the lowest, right where you and I are at.
When Jesus attempted to wash Peter’s feet Peter recoiled in horror. You are the Lord, I’ll wash your feet. But Jesus stopped him in his tracks: If I do not wash your feet, you have no part in Me. Jesus told the slaves to take the day off, He was taking over the dirty job. When John the Baptist was busy with his baptizing Jesus stood in line. John the Baptist would have none of it. I need to be Baptized by you! But Jesus silenced him. He doesn’t tell us to get on board with Him, He comes to us and brings us into union with Him.
The Scriptures are loaded with examples of people who took their position of power and abused it rather than seeing that all they have is from God and ought to be used in service to others. King David wasn’t satisfied with all the material wealth and pleasures he had amassed. His desires took over him and he committed adultery and in order to cover it up, murder. The Scriptures are equally filled with examples of servants of God who rejoiced in their lowly status. Mary wasn’t a queen or even the most popular kid in school. But she realized that she had ultimate glory because the Lord had brought His favor upon her. She knew she didn’t deserve it and even wondered why God had chosen her, but she submitted to the will of the Lord.
God does an amazing thing to pull off this kind of paradox, where those who seek glory are brought low and those who know they don’t deserve anything are given glory. All the religious leaders wanted to do was celebrate the Sabbath day. Jesus dropped the bomb on them, should we leave this guy in a helpless state one day longer so that the Sabbath can be enjoyed with our feast? It might seem ironic that time and again they accused Jesus of breaking God’s Law by healing people on the Sabbath while they themselves were having this feast, with the very best food and invitations sent out to honored guests. But in their celebration of the Sabbath they got it right. This was the way to observe the day of rest. Enjoy the blessings Almighty God rains down on you. Receive. Eat up and enjoy the company of those close to you.
What they failed to recognize is that it wasn’t just for them to enjoy. Why not share the wealth? Why not invite those who don’t feel all that special to share in the celebration? This is what Jesus brings to the table. Namely, He brings Himself to the table. But He doesn’t pass everyone by, muttering, excuse me, pardon me, VIP needing to get to the front. He serves. He takes off His clothes and wraps a towel around His waist. One man there was suffering from an ailment. But Jesus takes on Himself the ailment we all suffer from and then spreads a feast before us.
How you celebrate is by rejoicing that it is Christ Himself who makes it all happen. He silences you so that you don’t have to offer up all your great reasons of why you deserve His blessings. He throws them in the trash. He kills you, bringing to an untimely death your sinful nature so that you don’t have to enjoy the blessings of God while keeping an eye on those worldly passions that are catching your eye. Jesus suffering on the cross was the supreme glory of God, bringing His Son down in order to raise you up to new life. He raises you up to where He is because He got down on His knees where you are to lift you up. If you’re in the back, don’t worry, He has saved the best seat for you. It is up here at His Table. It is where He gives you Himself, His Body and Blood, for you, healing you of your pride, giving you new life so that you may serve and truly enjoy all His eternal blessings. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Are You Asking the Wrong Questions?
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 22, 2010
Luke 13:22-30
True theology is asking the right questions. What you need to know as a Christian is dependent on you listening to God and hearing what He has to say to you, not what you’d like to hear.
So when you come to portions of Scripture where someone asks a question of the Lord, you ask, Is this the right question to ask, or the wrong question? If you ask the wrong question, Jesus’ response will show you that you are not seeking what He wants you to know but rather how you would like things to be. If you ask the right question, you will already know that what He has to say to you is what you truly need, because He has come to bring about for you what is best for you.
What prompts us to ask the wrong questions of God? Our sinful flesh clings to us so tightly that we too often want our walk with God apart from the cross. The world wonders why we’d want to be in a religion where you are to be humble and where you are to let others take advantage of you. Our sinful flesh is pretty compelling for us and we admit that it’s hard to live a life in which it doesn’t always appear that God is working for what we need, certainly not always for what we want. And so we ask our questions of God, so often the wrong ones.
Who of us has not wondered what that man in the Gospel reading was wondering? Will those who are saved be few? Who of us has not looked around and wondered that if God is so great and Christianity so true, why are there not more who believe? Why are there so many religions out there? So many different beliefs that, according to the Bible, are wrong? Who of us has not wondered what is the mind of God in these things? But we are asking the wrong questions, desiring to know the things that God knows and that only He has the right know.
Since the man asked the wrong question, he got an answer that dealt with his problem, not what he was wanting to know. Why are you concerning yourself with things that are beyond your reach? Why are you not looking to yourself and your own need for salvation? It’s one thing to be concerned about others, to have a genuine heart for others. It’s another to place yourself in the position of God and want to know what is not given you to know. What is given you to know is your own need.
Jesus says: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” What if you were to see everything God sees? What if you knew everything He knows? You would understand completely. You would see things as they are and would know why they are that way. You would have no questions. You would not seek answers. You would not wonder why things are the way they are.
But you are not God. It is not given you to know all things. It is given you to narrow your focus. It is not given you to see how many will be saved. But it is given you to know how salvation is gained. It is not given you to know who is in and who is not. But it is given you to know that before it is too late that there is a too late. It is one thing to wonder why so many are not saved. It is another to admit that you in no way deserve salvation.
We Lutherans are always making the point that of all strains of Christianity we alone get the Word of God right. That we alone state the doctrine of the Bible most clearly and faithfully. But in our zeal for that do we boast of our salvation? Are we ready to meet our Maker because we were faithfully in God’s House every Sunday? Because we lived a good life, doing many good things, staying away from many bad things? From that stance do we then ask our questions of God, why only a few, and thank God we’re among them!
Jesus turns our questions on ourselves. Take all the energy you use in asking the wrong questions and expend it on the narrow door of salvation. On that door is a sign: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” It really is that clear. You stand before that door and see the message. Believe in Jesus and you’re in. The Kingdom of heaven is yours. There is no room for boasting in who you are or what you have done or how you are as a person. A room is just that. It has lots of room, to fill our heads up with all kinds of stuff that leads us on the wide road to destruction. But Jesus talks about a door. It is a narrow passageway that leaves no room for anything we’d bring to the table.
Once you open that door, you will see on the inside of it another sign, it reads: “It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works.” Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV] Listening to Jesus means hearing what He has to say to you, not what you’d like to hear. We want to be able to enter the Gates of Heaven being able to hang our hat on a few things. We don’t want to have to stand there with the only thing to offer a darkened and filthy heart. Jesus’ response tells us that we by our sinful selfish nature want heaven the easy way. We want good things from God because we’re pretty good people. Jesus says there is no easy way. You must strive. You must enter only through the narrow way. You are not in just because you think you’re in.
This is the amazing irony that we sin-filled, stubborn, prideful, selfish people don’t get through our thick heads! We want God to give us the easy road to heaven but we don’t want it in the no-strings-attached way He gives it to us. And that’s just it, we don’t want it given to us. We want the easy way, we want to be able to have it our way, so that we don’t have to submit to His eternal unfathomable will. That’s outside of our control. That’s not easy.
So He tells us we must strive. He tells us that it’s a narrow way. He makes it clear that it’s His way or the highway. He tell us that when we come knockin’ that He will take one look at us and not recognize us. What He will see are workers of evil that He can only turn away.
This is what happens when we ask the wrong questions.
So what are the right questions? The right questions are what our Lord points us to. He says that we will see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God. How did they get in there? Well, it’s true that they are pillars of the faith. It’s a fact that they are held up as examples for us to follow. It goes without saying that they were godly men who carried out the vocations God called them to.
Oh yes, there’s one more thing. None of that had anything to do with why they were saved. There was only one thing. And all those people who stood before Christ as He spoke His words of judgment could say that they ate and drank in His presence and that He taught in their streets, never really saw Him for who He was. Never believed in Him as the one who was on His way to a cross. Never stripping away their own self-righteousness so that their eyes could focus on the One who was taking anything but the easy way. The one who was striving toward that one thing. That one thing that is the only reason Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or David, or Peter, or Andrew, or you, or me could get into the Kingdom of God.
There is no easy way. There is only the way of the cross. The narrow path Christ walked led to Jerusalem and the hill of Calvary. When you stand before the Gates of heaven there will be only one thing that your Lord will show you and that is the righteousness that flowed from the cross as surely as the blood flowed from His body. The ones from the east and west, the north and south, from the ends of the earth, will be in the Kingdom of God for the same reason—not of works, or any easy way, but simply the way of the cross, the way of grace.
Will there be few? Will there be many? If we’re intent on asking the wrong questions we will have an eternity of going over them even as we can’t think straight from the torment of the weeping and the gnashing of teeth of hell. But if we listen to our Lord and hear what He has to say to us, the right questions will come. Even if it’s, Lord, can you teach me the way? He is ever patient, ever merciful, ever stretching out those blood-stained hands to us as welcoming us into the Kingdom.
SDG
August 22, 2010
Luke 13:22-30
True theology is asking the right questions. What you need to know as a Christian is dependent on you listening to God and hearing what He has to say to you, not what you’d like to hear.
So when you come to portions of Scripture where someone asks a question of the Lord, you ask, Is this the right question to ask, or the wrong question? If you ask the wrong question, Jesus’ response will show you that you are not seeking what He wants you to know but rather how you would like things to be. If you ask the right question, you will already know that what He has to say to you is what you truly need, because He has come to bring about for you what is best for you.
What prompts us to ask the wrong questions of God? Our sinful flesh clings to us so tightly that we too often want our walk with God apart from the cross. The world wonders why we’d want to be in a religion where you are to be humble and where you are to let others take advantage of you. Our sinful flesh is pretty compelling for us and we admit that it’s hard to live a life in which it doesn’t always appear that God is working for what we need, certainly not always for what we want. And so we ask our questions of God, so often the wrong ones.
Who of us has not wondered what that man in the Gospel reading was wondering? Will those who are saved be few? Who of us has not looked around and wondered that if God is so great and Christianity so true, why are there not more who believe? Why are there so many religions out there? So many different beliefs that, according to the Bible, are wrong? Who of us has not wondered what is the mind of God in these things? But we are asking the wrong questions, desiring to know the things that God knows and that only He has the right know.
Since the man asked the wrong question, he got an answer that dealt with his problem, not what he was wanting to know. Why are you concerning yourself with things that are beyond your reach? Why are you not looking to yourself and your own need for salvation? It’s one thing to be concerned about others, to have a genuine heart for others. It’s another to place yourself in the position of God and want to know what is not given you to know. What is given you to know is your own need.
Jesus says: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” What if you were to see everything God sees? What if you knew everything He knows? You would understand completely. You would see things as they are and would know why they are that way. You would have no questions. You would not seek answers. You would not wonder why things are the way they are.
But you are not God. It is not given you to know all things. It is given you to narrow your focus. It is not given you to see how many will be saved. But it is given you to know how salvation is gained. It is not given you to know who is in and who is not. But it is given you to know that before it is too late that there is a too late. It is one thing to wonder why so many are not saved. It is another to admit that you in no way deserve salvation.
We Lutherans are always making the point that of all strains of Christianity we alone get the Word of God right. That we alone state the doctrine of the Bible most clearly and faithfully. But in our zeal for that do we boast of our salvation? Are we ready to meet our Maker because we were faithfully in God’s House every Sunday? Because we lived a good life, doing many good things, staying away from many bad things? From that stance do we then ask our questions of God, why only a few, and thank God we’re among them!
Jesus turns our questions on ourselves. Take all the energy you use in asking the wrong questions and expend it on the narrow door of salvation. On that door is a sign: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” It really is that clear. You stand before that door and see the message. Believe in Jesus and you’re in. The Kingdom of heaven is yours. There is no room for boasting in who you are or what you have done or how you are as a person. A room is just that. It has lots of room, to fill our heads up with all kinds of stuff that leads us on the wide road to destruction. But Jesus talks about a door. It is a narrow passageway that leaves no room for anything we’d bring to the table.
Once you open that door, you will see on the inside of it another sign, it reads: “It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works.” Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV] Listening to Jesus means hearing what He has to say to you, not what you’d like to hear. We want to be able to enter the Gates of Heaven being able to hang our hat on a few things. We don’t want to have to stand there with the only thing to offer a darkened and filthy heart. Jesus’ response tells us that we by our sinful selfish nature want heaven the easy way. We want good things from God because we’re pretty good people. Jesus says there is no easy way. You must strive. You must enter only through the narrow way. You are not in just because you think you’re in.
This is the amazing irony that we sin-filled, stubborn, prideful, selfish people don’t get through our thick heads! We want God to give us the easy road to heaven but we don’t want it in the no-strings-attached way He gives it to us. And that’s just it, we don’t want it given to us. We want the easy way, we want to be able to have it our way, so that we don’t have to submit to His eternal unfathomable will. That’s outside of our control. That’s not easy.
So He tells us we must strive. He tells us that it’s a narrow way. He makes it clear that it’s His way or the highway. He tell us that when we come knockin’ that He will take one look at us and not recognize us. What He will see are workers of evil that He can only turn away.
This is what happens when we ask the wrong questions.
So what are the right questions? The right questions are what our Lord points us to. He says that we will see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God. How did they get in there? Well, it’s true that they are pillars of the faith. It’s a fact that they are held up as examples for us to follow. It goes without saying that they were godly men who carried out the vocations God called them to.
Oh yes, there’s one more thing. None of that had anything to do with why they were saved. There was only one thing. And all those people who stood before Christ as He spoke His words of judgment could say that they ate and drank in His presence and that He taught in their streets, never really saw Him for who He was. Never believed in Him as the one who was on His way to a cross. Never stripping away their own self-righteousness so that their eyes could focus on the One who was taking anything but the easy way. The one who was striving toward that one thing. That one thing that is the only reason Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or David, or Peter, or Andrew, or you, or me could get into the Kingdom of God.
There is no easy way. There is only the way of the cross. The narrow path Christ walked led to Jerusalem and the hill of Calvary. When you stand before the Gates of heaven there will be only one thing that your Lord will show you and that is the righteousness that flowed from the cross as surely as the blood flowed from His body. The ones from the east and west, the north and south, from the ends of the earth, will be in the Kingdom of God for the same reason—not of works, or any easy way, but simply the way of the cross, the way of grace.
Will there be few? Will there be many? If we’re intent on asking the wrong questions we will have an eternity of going over them even as we can’t think straight from the torment of the weeping and the gnashing of teeth of hell. But if we listen to our Lord and hear what He has to say to us, the right questions will come. Even if it’s, Lord, can you teach me the way? He is ever patient, ever merciful, ever stretching out those blood-stained hands to us as welcoming us into the Kingdom.
SDG
Sunday, August 8, 2010
What If You Were…
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 8, 2010
Luke 12:22-40
What if you were to not be anxious about your life? What if you were not so consumed with what you will eat, or if you’ll have enough money to take care of yourself? What if you were to live as if life is more than food, and the body more than clothing? What if you were to consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them? What if you were to believe wholeheartedly that you are much more valuable than the birds? What if you were to live without undue care for the things you need in this life? If you were to believe and actually live as knowing that worry cannot add a single hour to your life? What if you were to actually live with the conviction that if you are not able to do as small a thing as that, then there is no reason to be anxious about the rest? What if you were to consider the flowers of the field, how they grow; that they neither toil nor spin, and yet are more spectacular than even the glory of Solomon? And what if you were to realize and actually give no thought otherwise that if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you?
What if you were to hear Jesus’ words to the disciples, “O you of little faith!” and take them to heart, acknowledging that you, too, are of little faith? What if you were to admit that it’s true, that you are more concerned than you should be about having enough to eat and that you worry that you might not have enough if things get worse? What if you were to simply realize that these are the things the nations of the world seek after but that your Heavenly Father knows that you need them? What if, instead, you were to seek His kingdom? What if, instead, you were to live in the simple comfort and trust that the things you need will be added to you?
What if you were to actually have no fear. Not like those bumper stickers and T-shirts you see that say No Fear. What if you were literally to have no fear for your life. That no matter what happened to you you would rest secure in knowing that you are in God’s care. That He is your Shepherd. That it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. That when all is said and done you are the recipient of the eternal Kingdom of God Himself. That whether you have a lot or a little, you have all things in the eternal God who has given you His Son.
What if you were to actually sell your possessions, as Jesus says, and give to the needy? What if you were to actually live in such a way where it doesn’t matter what you want or need or have? Where your concern was with others and not yourself? What if you were to provide yourself not with the things you need in this life but with a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys? What if you were to wake up to the reality that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?
What if, instead of being so focused on what you need and want you were to dress for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks? If you were so blessed as a servant whom the master finds awake when he comes? What if in those times where it doesn’t seem you have enough or there’s more that you’d like and you’re not content, that you were to ponder the reality, the truth, that your Lord will dress Himself for service and invite you to recline at table, and will come and serve you?
What if these things were really true? What if you lived this way? Thought this way? Acted this way? Really believed it? What if nothing were so important to you as what your Lord gives you? What if you really did live as if He will come back at any moment? That you lived at the ready, knowing you are blessed simply because He has called you to stay on the watch for His return in glory?
Now, what if you were to take all these questions and ask one more? What if you were to take it on faith that these are not what ifs, but rather that this is who you really are? You would think, well, it can’t be, because I don’t live this way all the time. I am anxious about the things in my life. I’m battling illness, difficult relatives, addictions, depression, a hectic schedule. I’m barely making it through each day, and you want me to think about eternity? God may think more of me, but I see myself for who I really am. I fall short of what He has called me to. I don’t deserve the Kingdom He has promised me. I’m not worthy of being in His eternal Kingdom now.
And this proves that it’s true. That you are exactly what Christ has called you to be. Because he doesn’t hold out a carrot and motivate you to run after it. He gives you all that is His. He welcomes you into His palatial estate of grace. He rains down in your life favor that washes away despair and fear and hopelessness.
So why do you still feel those things at times? Or even a lot of the time? Because His perfect peace and grace doesn’t empty your life of difficulty and sin. It is through those challenges, and trials, and temptations that your Lord tears you down so that He may lift you up. If you are content because you have everything you need in this life then why would you look to God for help? It is when we are without those things we need and want that we look to God for what we truly need.
That you are able to see that you fall short of God’s call to you to rely solely on Him shows you that His grace is sufficient for you. Otherwise you would not see your need for God and His grace and forgiveness and salvation. Instead of being anxious, rejoice. Instead of worrying, give thanks. Instead of being afraid, take heart, your Lord has given you the Kingdom. He dresses Himself for service and invites you to dine at His Table. Instead of wondering where you’ll find the strength to carry on, rest in the gift He gives you at this Table often, His very Body and Blood. In other words, He gives you Himself.
You know how it pleased your Heavenly Father to give you the Kingdom? He gave His Son. There on the cross you see God giving His Kingdom to the world. You know how the Holy Spirit actually delivers this Kingdom to you, personally? Here at the Table of your Lord. Here at the font, in Holy Baptism. When you were washed with the waters of Baptism you were given the Kingdom. Your Lord dressed Himself for service and gave you all His grace, mercy, and peace He secured in His suffering, death, and resurrection.
Next weekend, some of us in our congregation are going to be at our annual congregational retreat. The theme is “Be Who You Are.” The theme verse is “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” from 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV). A retreat is a good opportunity to get away from it all. To be in a different setting, to have some time to ponder the blessings of God in your life where you’re away from the daily pressures of life. But what your Lord calls you to in today’s Gospel reading is a daily renewal. A daily walking in faith. A daily living out of the new creation He has given you in Baptism. When anxiety runs high, when worry overwhelms you, remember who you are. Be who you are. You are a new creation in Christ. It has pleased your Heavenly Father to give you the Kingdom. Your Lord has dressed Himself for service and serves you daily with all His grace and blessing. Seek His Kingdom. Everything else you need will be added unto you.
What if it were true that you could be as your Lord has called you to be? What if you were to be as your Lord describes? What if you were to not ask the question but rather rest in faith in Him? In the promise He has declared to you: it is true. You are a new creation. It is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you.
Imagine a conversation among God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—going something like this: What if We were to deliver fallen man by doing it Ourselves? Not calling on them to make it happen. But delivering to them forgiveness, life, and salvation. What if it pleased Us to simply give them the Kingdom? What if we simply served them rather than expecting them to accomplish salvation?
Well, we know no conversation ever took place, because we know the heart of God: it is with us. It is with being gracious and merciful and loving. No conversation was necessary, just simply God being God. God being who He is. And that is how it is all true. That we are who we are as God has called us to be. Because He has made it happen. He has made it happen in what He has done: giving us His Kingdom in our Baptism; blessing us eternally in Holy Communion; forgiving us in the Gospel. As we go through life we at times have questions. Not God. He has only answers. His answers are His promises. Amen.
SDG
August 8, 2010
Luke 12:22-40
What if you were to not be anxious about your life? What if you were not so consumed with what you will eat, or if you’ll have enough money to take care of yourself? What if you were to live as if life is more than food, and the body more than clothing? What if you were to consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them? What if you were to believe wholeheartedly that you are much more valuable than the birds? What if you were to live without undue care for the things you need in this life? If you were to believe and actually live as knowing that worry cannot add a single hour to your life? What if you were to actually live with the conviction that if you are not able to do as small a thing as that, then there is no reason to be anxious about the rest? What if you were to consider the flowers of the field, how they grow; that they neither toil nor spin, and yet are more spectacular than even the glory of Solomon? And what if you were to realize and actually give no thought otherwise that if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you?
What if you were to hear Jesus’ words to the disciples, “O you of little faith!” and take them to heart, acknowledging that you, too, are of little faith? What if you were to admit that it’s true, that you are more concerned than you should be about having enough to eat and that you worry that you might not have enough if things get worse? What if you were to simply realize that these are the things the nations of the world seek after but that your Heavenly Father knows that you need them? What if, instead, you were to seek His kingdom? What if, instead, you were to live in the simple comfort and trust that the things you need will be added to you?
What if you were to actually have no fear. Not like those bumper stickers and T-shirts you see that say No Fear. What if you were literally to have no fear for your life. That no matter what happened to you you would rest secure in knowing that you are in God’s care. That He is your Shepherd. That it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. That when all is said and done you are the recipient of the eternal Kingdom of God Himself. That whether you have a lot or a little, you have all things in the eternal God who has given you His Son.
What if you were to actually sell your possessions, as Jesus says, and give to the needy? What if you were to actually live in such a way where it doesn’t matter what you want or need or have? Where your concern was with others and not yourself? What if you were to provide yourself not with the things you need in this life but with a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys? What if you were to wake up to the reality that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?
What if, instead of being so focused on what you need and want you were to dress for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks? If you were so blessed as a servant whom the master finds awake when he comes? What if in those times where it doesn’t seem you have enough or there’s more that you’d like and you’re not content, that you were to ponder the reality, the truth, that your Lord will dress Himself for service and invite you to recline at table, and will come and serve you?
What if these things were really true? What if you lived this way? Thought this way? Acted this way? Really believed it? What if nothing were so important to you as what your Lord gives you? What if you really did live as if He will come back at any moment? That you lived at the ready, knowing you are blessed simply because He has called you to stay on the watch for His return in glory?
Now, what if you were to take all these questions and ask one more? What if you were to take it on faith that these are not what ifs, but rather that this is who you really are? You would think, well, it can’t be, because I don’t live this way all the time. I am anxious about the things in my life. I’m battling illness, difficult relatives, addictions, depression, a hectic schedule. I’m barely making it through each day, and you want me to think about eternity? God may think more of me, but I see myself for who I really am. I fall short of what He has called me to. I don’t deserve the Kingdom He has promised me. I’m not worthy of being in His eternal Kingdom now.
And this proves that it’s true. That you are exactly what Christ has called you to be. Because he doesn’t hold out a carrot and motivate you to run after it. He gives you all that is His. He welcomes you into His palatial estate of grace. He rains down in your life favor that washes away despair and fear and hopelessness.
So why do you still feel those things at times? Or even a lot of the time? Because His perfect peace and grace doesn’t empty your life of difficulty and sin. It is through those challenges, and trials, and temptations that your Lord tears you down so that He may lift you up. If you are content because you have everything you need in this life then why would you look to God for help? It is when we are without those things we need and want that we look to God for what we truly need.
That you are able to see that you fall short of God’s call to you to rely solely on Him shows you that His grace is sufficient for you. Otherwise you would not see your need for God and His grace and forgiveness and salvation. Instead of being anxious, rejoice. Instead of worrying, give thanks. Instead of being afraid, take heart, your Lord has given you the Kingdom. He dresses Himself for service and invites you to dine at His Table. Instead of wondering where you’ll find the strength to carry on, rest in the gift He gives you at this Table often, His very Body and Blood. In other words, He gives you Himself.
You know how it pleased your Heavenly Father to give you the Kingdom? He gave His Son. There on the cross you see God giving His Kingdom to the world. You know how the Holy Spirit actually delivers this Kingdom to you, personally? Here at the Table of your Lord. Here at the font, in Holy Baptism. When you were washed with the waters of Baptism you were given the Kingdom. Your Lord dressed Himself for service and gave you all His grace, mercy, and peace He secured in His suffering, death, and resurrection.
Next weekend, some of us in our congregation are going to be at our annual congregational retreat. The theme is “Be Who You Are.” The theme verse is “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” from 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV). A retreat is a good opportunity to get away from it all. To be in a different setting, to have some time to ponder the blessings of God in your life where you’re away from the daily pressures of life. But what your Lord calls you to in today’s Gospel reading is a daily renewal. A daily walking in faith. A daily living out of the new creation He has given you in Baptism. When anxiety runs high, when worry overwhelms you, remember who you are. Be who you are. You are a new creation in Christ. It has pleased your Heavenly Father to give you the Kingdom. Your Lord has dressed Himself for service and serves you daily with all His grace and blessing. Seek His Kingdom. Everything else you need will be added unto you.
What if it were true that you could be as your Lord has called you to be? What if you were to be as your Lord describes? What if you were to not ask the question but rather rest in faith in Him? In the promise He has declared to you: it is true. You are a new creation. It is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you.
Imagine a conversation among God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—going something like this: What if We were to deliver fallen man by doing it Ourselves? Not calling on them to make it happen. But delivering to them forgiveness, life, and salvation. What if it pleased Us to simply give them the Kingdom? What if we simply served them rather than expecting them to accomplish salvation?
Well, we know no conversation ever took place, because we know the heart of God: it is with us. It is with being gracious and merciful and loving. No conversation was necessary, just simply God being God. God being who He is. And that is how it is all true. That we are who we are as God has called us to be. Because He has made it happen. He has made it happen in what He has done: giving us His Kingdom in our Baptism; blessing us eternally in Holy Communion; forgiving us in the Gospel. As we go through life we at times have questions. Not God. He has only answers. His answers are His promises. Amen.
SDG
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
You’re Already a Fool, so Be Foolish
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 1, 2010
Luke 12:13-21
Have you ever had to work with someone who is incompetent? It seems the harder you try to get them to do their job right the more frustrated you become. You wonder why they can’t or don’t learn. It took me a long time to realize it, but incompetent people don’t realize they’re incompetent.
That’s the way it is with a fool. A fool doesn’t realize he’s a fool. Does anyone want to be a fool? If he becomes aware of it, won’t he want to change so that he is no longer a fool?
But a fool doesn’t realize he’s a fool. What’s even worse is that it’s easier to see that someone else is a fool than it is yourself.
This is where Jesus is going with this parable. If you don’t see that you’re a fool then you’re in big trouble. This very night your soul may be required of you and then what? The Bible is clear: eternal separation from God and eternal torment. But the fool hears that as nonsense. The fool thinks it is foolish. The fool thinks God is a fool. And we know of plenty of people who think that Christians are fools for believing in God. After all, we believe in things like God being born a baby and rising from the grave and salvation as a pure gift without having to earn it.
If you look in a Bible that has headings you’ll see this parable designated as the “Parable of the Rich Fool.” But it would be foolish to say, I’m not rich, so I don’t need to worry about the message of this parable. It would also be a mistake to say, I’m rich, but thank God I’m not like that idiot in the parable.
This parable is about you. It’s about me. The parable of the Rich Fool is spoken by Jesus to turn the heart of every person from being foolish to trusting in Him for everything they have and need. The wise person doesn’t see himself as wise but as foolish. The wise person realizes he is a fool. It is the fool who doesn’t think he’s a fool.
So don’t play games with God and yourself. Stand before Him as you are. A fool. A beggar. A person with nothing you deserve. A person who wants what you want, not what God desires for you. Stand before Him and confess that you are a fool.
The man who came up to Jesus didn’t seek Jesus’ wisdom, he just wanted what he wanted. He may not have known Jesus was God but he nevertheless came up to God to get Him to get what he (that is, the man) wanted. It seemed like a fair enough request. He should get his fair share of the inheritance, right? But who deserves an inheritance? No one. An inheritance isn’t something that’s yours by right. If your parents choose to give it to you, great. But if not, be content without it. The man not only wanted it, he wanted God to get it for him.
This is not the way it works. We don’t dictate to God what we want so that He can get it for us. Well, we do, but that’s because we’re fools. The way it works is that God has everything and He gives us blessings beyond measure. It’s hard to imagine the kind of money Bill Gates has. But even so, for all that he has, how much is it, really? After all, the rich man in the parable had more than he could handle and what good did it do him? His life was taken from him that very night and so it was all as if it were nothing.
We can’t treat God as if we can just go up to Him and get Him to our bidding. God is God. We are, well, we are fools. We too often think of ourselves as our own god. Maybe we don’t go around thinking we’re God, but we sure act like it. We think like it. We talk like it.
Listen carefully to what the man was saying it Jesus. He was calling the shots. He was dictating to Jesus. He was wanting Jesus to do for him what he wanted. He didn’t go up to Jesus and seek help. Jesus, can you help me out with this problem? I’ll admit, I really want my share of the inheritance, but maybe I’m not seeing things clearly. Can you help me out? Too often when it comes to the things of this world, all we see are the things of this world. We see what we have and we want to hold on to it as if that’s what is most important to us. Or we see what we don’t have and we’re consumed with acquiring it. And hey, God, if you’re God and you love us, then why aren’t you getting it for us?
But don’t think of this in terms of just being a wealthy person. Many of us have no desire to have a yacht. But rich or poor, we all want things, don’t we? The question is, is what we seek according to God’s will or simply what we want? The problem with the rich fool wasn’t that he had wealth, the problem is that he was consumed with himself. The problem is that he had no regard for the fact that all he owned was a gift from God. He was a fool because he sought his contentment in himself and not in God.
If you are willing today to admit you are a fool then you will have wealth beyond what you can imagine. If you don’t admit you are a fool you will never know what you’re missing but you will be called to account on the Last Day. It may be tonight as it was with the man in the parable. But if you see that God really is God, that He is the one who owns everything and calls the shots, then you will see that He also did a very foolish thing. At least, foolish in the eyes of our sinful and fallen lives. He gave up everything for sinful fallen foolish human beings. We are fools because we lusted after what we could see that was not given to us. He created us in perfection. He created us, giving us everything we need and more. We seek more and more, God became less. We seek greatness, He chose humility. We want what we don’t have. He has everything and became a servant. He gave up all to suffer on the cross to restore us to eternity with Him and all the riches of His grace.
Listen to this contrast Jesus draws in His parable: “‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” We lay up treasures for ourselves and are not rich toward God. He, on the other hand, is rich toward us in the laying down of His life for us. So if our life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, in what does it consist? How are we to use what God has given us, whether we are rich or poor, to be rich toward Him?
The way is only through the treasure He has given us. Consider the treasure that I hold in my hand. The Bible is a book, but it is more than just words on pages. It is a treasure beyond compare because it contains what God gives you, not what you seek for yourself. You don’t do anything to receive the grace and mercy, the forgiveness and salvation of God. But if you do want to do something, then read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Word of God. Take refuge in your Baptism when you long for the things of this world. Hunger and thirst for the Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of your sin and the strength you need when you are dissatisfied with your lack of what you want.
God calls you a fool because He loves you. He is calling you to repentance. And if you hear this and are grateful for His mercy toward you, hear also His appeal to you to do something foolish. Trust in Him. For everything. In all things. If you have a lot of possessions and money, thank God. Enjoy them. Be content that it is a blessing from God and that He gives you the opportunity and call to use your money and possessions to help others. If you don’t have very much, thank God for what He has given you. Enjoy the small blessings He gives you and be content in Him. Rejoice in the opportunity that even with a little you can still help others and be a blessing to them.
Whether you’re rich or poor, if there are things you don’t have that you want, leave them in God’s care. Be so foolish as to keep reading His Word. Rest your soul in the new birth He has given you in Baptism. Approach the altar of your Lord often in humility and awe that He feeds you and gives you Himself in simple bread and wine. No storehouses can contain the wealth your Lord pours out to you in your life. You stand simply with an empty hand and are given it all. Amen.
SDG
August 1, 2010
Luke 12:13-21
Have you ever had to work with someone who is incompetent? It seems the harder you try to get them to do their job right the more frustrated you become. You wonder why they can’t or don’t learn. It took me a long time to realize it, but incompetent people don’t realize they’re incompetent.
That’s the way it is with a fool. A fool doesn’t realize he’s a fool. Does anyone want to be a fool? If he becomes aware of it, won’t he want to change so that he is no longer a fool?
But a fool doesn’t realize he’s a fool. What’s even worse is that it’s easier to see that someone else is a fool than it is yourself.
This is where Jesus is going with this parable. If you don’t see that you’re a fool then you’re in big trouble. This very night your soul may be required of you and then what? The Bible is clear: eternal separation from God and eternal torment. But the fool hears that as nonsense. The fool thinks it is foolish. The fool thinks God is a fool. And we know of plenty of people who think that Christians are fools for believing in God. After all, we believe in things like God being born a baby and rising from the grave and salvation as a pure gift without having to earn it.
If you look in a Bible that has headings you’ll see this parable designated as the “Parable of the Rich Fool.” But it would be foolish to say, I’m not rich, so I don’t need to worry about the message of this parable. It would also be a mistake to say, I’m rich, but thank God I’m not like that idiot in the parable.
This parable is about you. It’s about me. The parable of the Rich Fool is spoken by Jesus to turn the heart of every person from being foolish to trusting in Him for everything they have and need. The wise person doesn’t see himself as wise but as foolish. The wise person realizes he is a fool. It is the fool who doesn’t think he’s a fool.
So don’t play games with God and yourself. Stand before Him as you are. A fool. A beggar. A person with nothing you deserve. A person who wants what you want, not what God desires for you. Stand before Him and confess that you are a fool.
The man who came up to Jesus didn’t seek Jesus’ wisdom, he just wanted what he wanted. He may not have known Jesus was God but he nevertheless came up to God to get Him to get what he (that is, the man) wanted. It seemed like a fair enough request. He should get his fair share of the inheritance, right? But who deserves an inheritance? No one. An inheritance isn’t something that’s yours by right. If your parents choose to give it to you, great. But if not, be content without it. The man not only wanted it, he wanted God to get it for him.
This is not the way it works. We don’t dictate to God what we want so that He can get it for us. Well, we do, but that’s because we’re fools. The way it works is that God has everything and He gives us blessings beyond measure. It’s hard to imagine the kind of money Bill Gates has. But even so, for all that he has, how much is it, really? After all, the rich man in the parable had more than he could handle and what good did it do him? His life was taken from him that very night and so it was all as if it were nothing.
We can’t treat God as if we can just go up to Him and get Him to our bidding. God is God. We are, well, we are fools. We too often think of ourselves as our own god. Maybe we don’t go around thinking we’re God, but we sure act like it. We think like it. We talk like it.
Listen carefully to what the man was saying it Jesus. He was calling the shots. He was dictating to Jesus. He was wanting Jesus to do for him what he wanted. He didn’t go up to Jesus and seek help. Jesus, can you help me out with this problem? I’ll admit, I really want my share of the inheritance, but maybe I’m not seeing things clearly. Can you help me out? Too often when it comes to the things of this world, all we see are the things of this world. We see what we have and we want to hold on to it as if that’s what is most important to us. Or we see what we don’t have and we’re consumed with acquiring it. And hey, God, if you’re God and you love us, then why aren’t you getting it for us?
But don’t think of this in terms of just being a wealthy person. Many of us have no desire to have a yacht. But rich or poor, we all want things, don’t we? The question is, is what we seek according to God’s will or simply what we want? The problem with the rich fool wasn’t that he had wealth, the problem is that he was consumed with himself. The problem is that he had no regard for the fact that all he owned was a gift from God. He was a fool because he sought his contentment in himself and not in God.
If you are willing today to admit you are a fool then you will have wealth beyond what you can imagine. If you don’t admit you are a fool you will never know what you’re missing but you will be called to account on the Last Day. It may be tonight as it was with the man in the parable. But if you see that God really is God, that He is the one who owns everything and calls the shots, then you will see that He also did a very foolish thing. At least, foolish in the eyes of our sinful and fallen lives. He gave up everything for sinful fallen foolish human beings. We are fools because we lusted after what we could see that was not given to us. He created us in perfection. He created us, giving us everything we need and more. We seek more and more, God became less. We seek greatness, He chose humility. We want what we don’t have. He has everything and became a servant. He gave up all to suffer on the cross to restore us to eternity with Him and all the riches of His grace.
Listen to this contrast Jesus draws in His parable: “‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” We lay up treasures for ourselves and are not rich toward God. He, on the other hand, is rich toward us in the laying down of His life for us. So if our life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, in what does it consist? How are we to use what God has given us, whether we are rich or poor, to be rich toward Him?
The way is only through the treasure He has given us. Consider the treasure that I hold in my hand. The Bible is a book, but it is more than just words on pages. It is a treasure beyond compare because it contains what God gives you, not what you seek for yourself. You don’t do anything to receive the grace and mercy, the forgiveness and salvation of God. But if you do want to do something, then read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Word of God. Take refuge in your Baptism when you long for the things of this world. Hunger and thirst for the Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of your sin and the strength you need when you are dissatisfied with your lack of what you want.
God calls you a fool because He loves you. He is calling you to repentance. And if you hear this and are grateful for His mercy toward you, hear also His appeal to you to do something foolish. Trust in Him. For everything. In all things. If you have a lot of possessions and money, thank God. Enjoy them. Be content that it is a blessing from God and that He gives you the opportunity and call to use your money and possessions to help others. If you don’t have very much, thank God for what He has given you. Enjoy the small blessings He gives you and be content in Him. Rejoice in the opportunity that even with a little you can still help others and be a blessing to them.
Whether you’re rich or poor, if there are things you don’t have that you want, leave them in God’s care. Be so foolish as to keep reading His Word. Rest your soul in the new birth He has given you in Baptism. Approach the altar of your Lord often in humility and awe that He feeds you and gives you Himself in simple bread and wine. No storehouses can contain the wealth your Lord pours out to you in your life. You stand simply with an empty hand and are given it all. Amen.
SDG
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