Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Matthew 16:21-28
There is the cross. Nearly everyone knows about the cross. It is that which is the center of Christianity and the decisive point of history. It is the basic proclamation of the Gospel: we preach Christ and Him crucified. It is the great reversal God has brought about: through this brutal instrument of suffering and death life is brought about for all.
But wait, there’s more! This certainly isn’t the end of the story. Jesus tells us there’s much more to the cross than just the cross. There’s the cross and then there’s the cross. But it’s this other cross we don’t like to hear about. It’s one thing to hear about Jesus suffering on the cross. It’s quite another to hear about us bearing the cross of suffering.
Peter actually was not all that hot on Jesus suffering on the cross. And who would be? But we already know what happened. We know that it’s a good thing that Jesus suffered and died. Jesus put an end to Peter’s protests and speculation about a Christianity devoid of the cross: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” We, too, must set our minds on the things of God and not of man. We, too, must continue to preach and hear Christ and Him crucified. We, too, must deter Satan by putting before us always who Jesus is and what He has done.
His cross is the basis for our setting our minds on the things of God and not on the things of man. How this happens is through another cross. It is not the cross of Christ. It is your cross. He says: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
If anyone knows about bearing a cross it’s Jesus. Listen to Him about what it means to bear your cross. Your life is shaped by the cross. Bearing your cross means being shaped by the cross of Christ. Christ alone bore the cross for the sins of the world, you bear your cross because of His. He bore the cross for you. He bore the cross to give you life and His eternal blessings. He didn’t do it so you could go on your merry way and live the life that suits you with no regard for Him and His will.
Jesus says you must deny yourself. He doesn’t mean you don’t matter. He’s not saying you’re no longer an individual and have no dignity. He knows that left to your own devices you will make your way down that broad path that leads to eternal damnation. The Old Adam in you hears that you’re not saved by good works and says, “All right! I don’t have to do good works! I can just live for myself.” On the other hand, when the Law of God tells you to follow God’s will and do good works, your Old Adam looks at those works and says, “Wow, look at me and all my good works—God must be pleased with me.” Both of these miss the point and so you need some cross-bearing placed upon you to turn your gaze back on Christ and His cross rather than on your comfortable little life.
What does bearing your cross look like? When it would be a very easy thing to lie so that things can work out much easier for you and you do the right thing because that’s what you do as a Christian. That’s who you are. You are not your own, you are Christ’s. He bore the cross for you and you now bear your cross so that you may be reminded that you are not your own. In the Epistle Paul gives guidance in what cross-bearing looks like: be patient in tribulation; bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them; repay no one evil for evil; rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. What do you want to do? You want to live as though your life is your own. But Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?”
What does it look like, this life of being a Christian in a world that so easily chooses the wrong thing? It looks in many ways like that of the life of those who do not believe in Jesus and His bearing the cross for them. Jesus said, “What shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done.” What it looks like may not necessarily be what others see, but what you see. You see in the mirror a person who has been bought by the works of Christ, ultimately His bearing the cross for you. And you see one who will be rewarded for this. That’s the great difference between the one who looks to Christ crucified and the one who looks to himself. The one who looks to himself seeks to be rewarded because of himself. The one who looks to Christ crucified seeks to be rewarded because of what Christ has done.
Luther said that for a Christian it’s this way: “He neither boasts if he does good works, nor is he disturbed if God does not do good works through him. He knows that it is sufficient if he suffers and is brought low by the cross in order to be annihilated all the more.” Bearing your cross means that doing what is right is never a waste of time, that you can safely leave the results up to God. You do them because you are not your own, you are Christ’s. You do them because it’s not about you being comfortable and satisfied and successful in life, but brought low so that God may lift you up with His refreshing gifts in water and bread and wine.
Bearing your cross means that your life is going to be more difficult as it goes on, not less. You will struggle more. You will ask why. You may have more doubts than you did before. And you will ask, as you might be now, why would I want this? The answer is, you wouldn’t. But that’s exactly why Christ gives you your cross to bear. It’s not about you or what you want but what He wants. But what He wants is what is best for you. This is why you must set your mind on the things of God, not of men.
When you bear your cross you will probably think that God made a mistake, that this isn’t how it’s supposed to be, that He got it wrong. Isn’t that what it seems when Jesus concludes by saying to His disciples that “there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom”? Jesus has not come again in glory on the Last Day and those disciples died a long time ago. But what has Jesus been talking about? He’s been talking about His cross. He’s been talking about your cross. The Son of Man came into His Kingdom when He ascended the hill of Calvary and suffered the sin and guilt of the world.
You, too, have not tasted death until the Son of Man has come into His Kingdom. He has brought His Kingdom to you in the water of your Baptism. He brings His Kingdom to you today in the bread and wine of His Holy Supper. Know this as you bear the cross your Lord has placed upon you: it is not in vain. It is to make you who you are and strengthen you by refining you. If it seems too much to bear, go again to your Baptism and the words placed upon you there—you are His child and He will not forsake you. If it seems that God is not quite right in how He is doing things in your life, come again soon to Christ’s altar to receive His Body and His Blood. Because of His cross He will guide and guard you to bear yours. Is it any wonder Paul said in the Epistle to be constant in prayer? The Collect we prayed earlier can be your continual prayer: “Almighty God, Your Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption. Grant us courage to take up our cross daily and follow Him wherever He leads.” He will indeed lead you through the valley of the shadow of death, all the way to heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Even If It’s Just Crumbs
What do we want from God? Well, all that He’ll give us, right? And what does He give us? The fullness of His grace and salvation. We couldn’t ask for more, right?
But we do, don’t we? We ask for more than simply what is according to His will. We hope and pray that His will will be in line with our will rather than simply rejoicing in what He gives us.
Even if that’s just crumbs. Well, that’s the way we should think, anyway. That’s the way the Canaanite woman thought [Matthew 15:21-28]. And that was after Jesus called her a dog. Her thought was, if this is an insult, it’s still not such a bad thing, because even dogs get something. Even dogs get to live in the house. Even dogs get the scraps from the table. (And they love those!)
And that’s better than being treated worse than a dog. That’s better than receiving nothing. Because when it comes to Jesus, when He gives it’s a lot. Even if it’s a little. Even if it’s just crumbs.
We want so much from God that we forget that He already gives us more than we can imagine. Maybe we don’t realize it because we’re too busy thinking about and asking for simply what we want and not what His will is for us.
If the woman was happy just to receive crumbs from the Savior, how much more should we rejoice in receiving the Vault of Heaven from our Lord? When we ask for things from our Lord, how much more should we be grateful that we don’t just receive crumbs but the very Bread of Life?
When we are searching and seeking for His will, how much more content should we be that He doesn’t just leave us in the dark but gives us His Very Word, the Bible, so that we may have an entrance into the Holy Will of God for us and for our lives?
Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”
Even if He only gave us crumbs we would have reason to rejoice and be eternally grateful. As it happens, He gives us all things. He gives us His very own Son. He gives us eternal salvation in the suffering and death and resurrection of our Lord.
When He gives us all things in His Son He produces in us a desire to want more from Him. That’s because He wants to give more and more. He does so in His Word, in our Baptism, and in the Holy Supper of our Lord.
These are not just crumbs. They are the eternal gifts of God. But even if they were, they’d still be greater than anything for which we could ask or imagine.
But we do, don’t we? We ask for more than simply what is according to His will. We hope and pray that His will will be in line with our will rather than simply rejoicing in what He gives us.
Even if that’s just crumbs. Well, that’s the way we should think, anyway. That’s the way the Canaanite woman thought [Matthew 15:21-28]. And that was after Jesus called her a dog. Her thought was, if this is an insult, it’s still not such a bad thing, because even dogs get something. Even dogs get to live in the house. Even dogs get the scraps from the table. (And they love those!)
And that’s better than being treated worse than a dog. That’s better than receiving nothing. Because when it comes to Jesus, when He gives it’s a lot. Even if it’s a little. Even if it’s just crumbs.
We want so much from God that we forget that He already gives us more than we can imagine. Maybe we don’t realize it because we’re too busy thinking about and asking for simply what we want and not what His will is for us.
If the woman was happy just to receive crumbs from the Savior, how much more should we rejoice in receiving the Vault of Heaven from our Lord? When we ask for things from our Lord, how much more should we be grateful that we don’t just receive crumbs but the very Bread of Life?
When we are searching and seeking for His will, how much more content should we be that He doesn’t just leave us in the dark but gives us His Very Word, the Bible, so that we may have an entrance into the Holy Will of God for us and for our lives?
Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”
Even if He only gave us crumbs we would have reason to rejoice and be eternally grateful. As it happens, He gives us all things. He gives us His very own Son. He gives us eternal salvation in the suffering and death and resurrection of our Lord.
When He gives us all things in His Son He produces in us a desire to want more from Him. That’s because He wants to give more and more. He does so in His Word, in our Baptism, and in the Holy Supper of our Lord.
These are not just crumbs. They are the eternal gifts of God. But even if they were, they’d still be greater than anything for which we could ask or imagine.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Who Does Jesus Say that He Is?
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Matthew 16:13-20
Almost everybody loves the Olympics. It's thrilling to see the very best athletes compete against one another. The challenge, the drama, the drive, draw us in. But there's also something else that draws us to the Olympics. It's the rules. Everybody comes into the Olympic Games knowing the rules and everyone expects them to compete according of the rules. When there's talk of unfair advantage, of some athletes not abiding by the rules, it casts a cloud on the competition. We may not like every single rule as it stands but we like the fact that the rules apply to everyone because then there is fairness to the competition.
This is the way we want life to be also. We want it to be fair. We want everyone to have to play by the same rules we have to. Everyone gravitates toward this way of thinking and acting. We naturally assume it's the way life should be. The Bible tells us what this stems from: the Law.
In contrast to this is something else the Bible tells us about—it is the Gospel. What is the Gospel? It is what Jesus has done. It is who Jesus is. It is salvation for the world. It is pure grace, no strings attached, unconditional.
What is it about this that we don't understand? What is it about the Gospel that we just can't take as it is? There's got to be something more. There's got to be something about it that's not so, well, simple. Easy. You know, we don't want people to take the Gospel for granted. We don't want them thinking they're saved by not doing anything. We want Christians to be excited about salvation. We want them to have a hunger and desire to spread the Word of God and the Gospel. We want them to jump at the chance to tell people about Jesus. We don't want people just resting on the laurels of Jesus saving them solely by His work and not by anything they have done.
When we get to heaven we are going to have a clear understanding of what it means to be saved by Christ alone. In this life our understanding of it is warped. It's not just off a little bit. Or even a lot. It's seriously out of control. Find me the most ardent advocate of salvation by grace and I will show you someone who does not really understand what it means to be saved by grace and not by anything that he does.
That is because there's still something within him that believes that it can't be that easy. Yes, we're saved by grace, but aren't I a pretty good person? Yes, we're saved by what Christ has done, but isn't it wonderful how much better of a Christian I have become? I believe with all my heart that I am saved by what Jesus has done for me, and I'm sure He's glad I'm not nearly as bad as those people who are descipable human beings with the brutal way they treat others.
We don't really believe we're saved by grace. Well, yes we do. But deep down in our hearts, we tell ourselves that we're glad of ourselves. Our heart, mind, strength, and soul are not fixed on Jesus. They are fixed on ourselves. Doesn't this happen to us a lot? We're thinking things are going really well in our spiritual walk. We're calm and patient and loving in disciplining our children. We take the time to explain that what they did was wrong, and why it was wrong, and what they need to do to make amends, and ask God to help them to do better. The next thing we know our children do something that strikes a chord in us and we lose it. We grab them forcefully and speak, or yell, even more forcefully, and strike terror into their hearts.
This is an example of how we live by the Law. This may sound as if it's just the sinful flesh acting out. And it is that. But it is that very thing that is us living by the Law. Everything we do is against God. You may think that's not true or ask how it can be. We see that this is the case by the different responses Jesus got to His question about who people say that He is. "John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet." So many people did not believe who He really is, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. That's because they live by the Law. There's gotta be salvation in something more or other than just Him. They all gave nice answers. Even good answers. Religious answers. But they weren't the right answers. Because they were answers that said this is the kind of Jesus we want, not the kind that He is.
And then there's Peter's response. The right answer, of course. A great response—it couldn't have been better. So what's the problem? Well, there's no problem, of course, with his answer. The deal is that it wasn't his answer. Jesus says to him, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." So Peter got the right answer, and that's great, but it wasn't because he was. It was because God the Father revealed it to him. Peter, of his own, is not drawn to Jesus but to himself. But because the Father reveals Jesus to him as the Christ, Peter is blessed.
That's why Jesus says to him, "Blessed are you." God loves to bless us. But He doesn't do so because we get the right answer or do what He commands us to do. He does it because of who He is. In other words, "the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter is blessed because of who Jesus is, not because there's anything special within Peter. Peter is blessed because of what Christ has done, not because of anything special that Peter would do.
We are drawn to the Law, not the Gospel. There's a reason someone came up with the saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Someone might in fact give you lunch. But the reason the saying came about and resonates with us is because deep down inside we all believe that there has to be a catch. There's something that we gotta do. Or want to do. Or will be expected of us. Deep down we look to ourselves to earn what we get. What did Jesus say to the sheep when He welcomed them into the Kingdom? "For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." Their response was, "What are you talking about? When did we do those things for You?" When we get to the gate of heaven there will be no list Jesus will go through—Did you do this, this, this? We won't say, "Hey Jesus, let me into heaven because I did this and this and this." He'll say, "Welcome into heaven" and we'll say, "What? You're letting us into heaven? Why? Oh yeah, because you died for us!"
What is the picture of Jesus in the Book of Revelation, the picture of the glory of heaven? It is of the Lamb Who Was Slain. Not the glorious powerful Jesus-the Lamb who was slain. If we want power and glory and emotion then we're not looking to Jesus. There's a reason He saved us in the way He did. Not in glory, not in power. In weakness. God became a man. Jesus suffered and died. We must look to Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else. Anything else is of the Law. Anything else is us looking within ourselves for salvation.
Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is. He then asks them who they say He is. But what Jesus is really getting at is who He says that He is. Because this is of the Gospel. It is the Gospel. He is the Gospel. How do we find God? Is it through the Law? No, it is through the Gospel. It is His grace, His unconditional giving of forgiveness and His eternal love. In His Holy Supper He gives of Himself freely. It is all gift. There are no expectations He places upon us, there is simply the invitation to receive Him in the fullness of His grace and mercy. This is why He Baptized you and why He will welcome you into heaven. It is why you have life and may rejoice. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Matthew 16:13-20
Almost everybody loves the Olympics. It's thrilling to see the very best athletes compete against one another. The challenge, the drama, the drive, draw us in. But there's also something else that draws us to the Olympics. It's the rules. Everybody comes into the Olympic Games knowing the rules and everyone expects them to compete according of the rules. When there's talk of unfair advantage, of some athletes not abiding by the rules, it casts a cloud on the competition. We may not like every single rule as it stands but we like the fact that the rules apply to everyone because then there is fairness to the competition.
This is the way we want life to be also. We want it to be fair. We want everyone to have to play by the same rules we have to. Everyone gravitates toward this way of thinking and acting. We naturally assume it's the way life should be. The Bible tells us what this stems from: the Law.
In contrast to this is something else the Bible tells us about—it is the Gospel. What is the Gospel? It is what Jesus has done. It is who Jesus is. It is salvation for the world. It is pure grace, no strings attached, unconditional.
What is it about this that we don't understand? What is it about the Gospel that we just can't take as it is? There's got to be something more. There's got to be something about it that's not so, well, simple. Easy. You know, we don't want people to take the Gospel for granted. We don't want them thinking they're saved by not doing anything. We want Christians to be excited about salvation. We want them to have a hunger and desire to spread the Word of God and the Gospel. We want them to jump at the chance to tell people about Jesus. We don't want people just resting on the laurels of Jesus saving them solely by His work and not by anything they have done.
When we get to heaven we are going to have a clear understanding of what it means to be saved by Christ alone. In this life our understanding of it is warped. It's not just off a little bit. Or even a lot. It's seriously out of control. Find me the most ardent advocate of salvation by grace and I will show you someone who does not really understand what it means to be saved by grace and not by anything that he does.
That is because there's still something within him that believes that it can't be that easy. Yes, we're saved by grace, but aren't I a pretty good person? Yes, we're saved by what Christ has done, but isn't it wonderful how much better of a Christian I have become? I believe with all my heart that I am saved by what Jesus has done for me, and I'm sure He's glad I'm not nearly as bad as those people who are descipable human beings with the brutal way they treat others.
We don't really believe we're saved by grace. Well, yes we do. But deep down in our hearts, we tell ourselves that we're glad of ourselves. Our heart, mind, strength, and soul are not fixed on Jesus. They are fixed on ourselves. Doesn't this happen to us a lot? We're thinking things are going really well in our spiritual walk. We're calm and patient and loving in disciplining our children. We take the time to explain that what they did was wrong, and why it was wrong, and what they need to do to make amends, and ask God to help them to do better. The next thing we know our children do something that strikes a chord in us and we lose it. We grab them forcefully and speak, or yell, even more forcefully, and strike terror into their hearts.
This is an example of how we live by the Law. This may sound as if it's just the sinful flesh acting out. And it is that. But it is that very thing that is us living by the Law. Everything we do is against God. You may think that's not true or ask how it can be. We see that this is the case by the different responses Jesus got to His question about who people say that He is. "John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet." So many people did not believe who He really is, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. That's because they live by the Law. There's gotta be salvation in something more or other than just Him. They all gave nice answers. Even good answers. Religious answers. But they weren't the right answers. Because they were answers that said this is the kind of Jesus we want, not the kind that He is.
And then there's Peter's response. The right answer, of course. A great response—it couldn't have been better. So what's the problem? Well, there's no problem, of course, with his answer. The deal is that it wasn't his answer. Jesus says to him, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." So Peter got the right answer, and that's great, but it wasn't because he was. It was because God the Father revealed it to him. Peter, of his own, is not drawn to Jesus but to himself. But because the Father reveals Jesus to him as the Christ, Peter is blessed.
That's why Jesus says to him, "Blessed are you." God loves to bless us. But He doesn't do so because we get the right answer or do what He commands us to do. He does it because of who He is. In other words, "the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter is blessed because of who Jesus is, not because there's anything special within Peter. Peter is blessed because of what Christ has done, not because of anything special that Peter would do.
We are drawn to the Law, not the Gospel. There's a reason someone came up with the saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Someone might in fact give you lunch. But the reason the saying came about and resonates with us is because deep down inside we all believe that there has to be a catch. There's something that we gotta do. Or want to do. Or will be expected of us. Deep down we look to ourselves to earn what we get. What did Jesus say to the sheep when He welcomed them into the Kingdom? "For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." Their response was, "What are you talking about? When did we do those things for You?" When we get to the gate of heaven there will be no list Jesus will go through—Did you do this, this, this? We won't say, "Hey Jesus, let me into heaven because I did this and this and this." He'll say, "Welcome into heaven" and we'll say, "What? You're letting us into heaven? Why? Oh yeah, because you died for us!"
What is the picture of Jesus in the Book of Revelation, the picture of the glory of heaven? It is of the Lamb Who Was Slain. Not the glorious powerful Jesus-the Lamb who was slain. If we want power and glory and emotion then we're not looking to Jesus. There's a reason He saved us in the way He did. Not in glory, not in power. In weakness. God became a man. Jesus suffered and died. We must look to Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else. Anything else is of the Law. Anything else is us looking within ourselves for salvation.
Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is. He then asks them who they say He is. But what Jesus is really getting at is who He says that He is. Because this is of the Gospel. It is the Gospel. He is the Gospel. How do we find God? Is it through the Law? No, it is through the Gospel. It is His grace, His unconditional giving of forgiveness and His eternal love. In His Holy Supper He gives of Himself freely. It is all gift. There are no expectations He places upon us, there is simply the invitation to receive Him in the fullness of His grace and mercy. This is why He Baptized you and why He will welcome you into heaven. It is why you have life and may rejoice. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 10, 2008
He Is I AM
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Matthew 14:22-33
The disciples had wanted Jesus to send the crowds away so that they could get some food for themselves, because, you’ll recall, there wasn’t enough with just five pieces of bread and two fish. But Jesus had different plans. We’ll feed them with what we have.
Now Jesus was sending the disciples away. Get into the boat and go to the other side. And Jesus was also now sending the crowds away as well. Now He would have His time to be by Himself to pray. Presumably, He would meet up with the disciples later. But how would He get there? He was sending them to the other side, was He planning on walking around the lake? Or did He already have in mind to meet them out there on the water by simply walking on it?
Whatever He had in mind, we know that what He really needed was the time in prayer. A phone call in the middle of the night is the last thing we want. Jesus wasn’t awakened from sleep, but was once again interrupted from His prayer time. He saw the disciples out there in the middle of the lake being battered by the wind and the waves. He created those things so He decided He’d come out and give them a hand. No need to find a boat, He’ll just walk on out there.
Now, I’m with the disciples in being terrified at the sight. It’s the middle of the night, they’re being hit hard by the elements, and here’s this figure walking toward them on the water. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I think that’d be my first thought as to what I was seeing. But ghosts don’t talk. Well, in the movies they do. But an apparition is a ghostly appearance of a person. This ghost they were seeing began to talk. He says, “Hey guys, it’s me, relax.” He doesn’t even say His name. He just says, “It’s me, don’t be afraid.”
So how did they know it was Jesus? Well, if they thought they were seeing a ghost, they may have thought they were seeing a ghost of Jesus. But it’s not only what they were seeing, it’s also what Jesus said. He didn’t need to say, “It’s me, Jesus.” All He needed to say were the words that He said. And although every English translation I looked at used the words, “It is I,” what He actually said was, “I am.” In other words, He wasn’t just saying, “Hey guys, it’s me, it’s going to be okay.” What He was saying is “Don’t be afraid, I’m not a ghost, I’m God.” I am the one who parted the Red Sea in order to bring the Israelites out of their slavery. I’m the one who created the very waters of the earth. I am the one who always has been, who is, and who always will be. I AM. No matter the circumstances, I AM.
There’s something very important about what Jesus is doing here. There were moments when Jesus made a big deal about His glory and His grace, moments that were removed from the day to day lives of the people of God. Moments that weren’t in the thick of difficulties and real life dangers. At His Baptism it was abundantly clear who Jesus was. At His Transfiguration He clearly made known who He was.
But we need more than just a mountain top experience to know who our God is. He is also the one who comes down that mountain and into our lives where we have real needs like being fed. Where we face real dangers like being dumped into the swelling waters. Jesus is all over that. He’s there. He’s been there and done that. He, the Lord of all creation, is the I AM. That’s all we need to know.
And so Peter, ever the impetuous one, takes Him up on His statement that He is Jesus, the One who has come claiming to be the Messiah, the one who is equal to God the Father. “Tell me, then, to come out to You.” “Come on out, the water’s great!” came the response from Jesus.
Was it faith that prompted Peter to step out of the boat? Was it his infamous impetuousness? Whatever it was, he stepped out and walked on the water. Did the other disciples, seeing this, want to go out also? Well, they didn’t really get the chance, because Peter decided it wasn’t enough to focus on what had gotten him out there—Jesus, the I AM. He decided he needed to take stock of his situation. After all, it wasn’t every day that he was out on the lake literally on the lake. And even more so, in the midst of some pretty bad weather. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, after all. He began to focus on all that temporal stuff. Not that it was easy to ignore it. But what was more powerful in his mind at the moment was the stuff of the moment. The wind. The waves. The new-found ability to walk on water! This wasn’t a good thing at the moment. All this was more powerful than the one in front of Him, the I AM, the one who was and is and will always be. The one who created all the stuff he was afraid of with the simple speaking of a word.
There’s comfort in the words of the I AM: “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” It sounds like a rebuke because it is a rebuke. But the comfort is abounding. He doesn’t say, “Peter, where is your faith?” He rather affirms that he actually has faith, little though it be. What does faith do? It always looks to Jesus. Never to ourselves. Never to the wind and the waves. To the troubles of our lives, the dangers we face. The doubts we harbor deep inside our hearts. Faith looks to Christ alone, the great I AM. And that’s what Peter did, He cried out to His Savior. “Lord, save me.” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He reached out and saved. His hand went out and grabbed hold of Peter. Isn’t it interesting that Matthew says that Peter started to sink? Peter knew how to swim. Couldn’t he have gotten back into the boat by himself and be hauled in by his friends? Of course, but some people drown because of panic. He had been walking on water because he was focused on Jesus. When his focus went elsewhere he became afraid.
His cry for Jesus to save him was exactly what he needed to do. Jesus alone can save us from ourselves. From our desire to look elsewhere. From our tendency to focus on the here and now rather than the one who is always with us and always in existence. But not just as all-powerful Being, as Savior. Walking on water and on to the cross where He also cries out to His Heavenly Father. A cry of desertion, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus did not forsake Peter out on the water because of his little faith. He reached out and saved him. Neither does your Lord forsake you, for your very Lord was forsaken in your place.
The Ruler of the Universe walks on water. He doesn’t just tame the storms, He comes to you in the very storms of your life. He comes not to berate you for your at times little faith. He comes to save you. He comes to give you courage and hope. The Lord of Life walked the land in order to suffer on the cross. He is not proud. He doesn’t take joy in our suffering. He simply comes to us in the midst of it and offers us Himself. That’s why, whatever you’re experiencing in your life right now, your Lord invites you to partake of Him. He reaches out His hand to you and gives you Himself, His Body, and His Blood, for you, for your forgiveness. For your life and eternal welfare. Take heart, it is Him. The I AM is with you, always. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Matthew 14:22-33
The disciples had wanted Jesus to send the crowds away so that they could get some food for themselves, because, you’ll recall, there wasn’t enough with just five pieces of bread and two fish. But Jesus had different plans. We’ll feed them with what we have.
Now Jesus was sending the disciples away. Get into the boat and go to the other side. And Jesus was also now sending the crowds away as well. Now He would have His time to be by Himself to pray. Presumably, He would meet up with the disciples later. But how would He get there? He was sending them to the other side, was He planning on walking around the lake? Or did He already have in mind to meet them out there on the water by simply walking on it?
Whatever He had in mind, we know that what He really needed was the time in prayer. A phone call in the middle of the night is the last thing we want. Jesus wasn’t awakened from sleep, but was once again interrupted from His prayer time. He saw the disciples out there in the middle of the lake being battered by the wind and the waves. He created those things so He decided He’d come out and give them a hand. No need to find a boat, He’ll just walk on out there.
Now, I’m with the disciples in being terrified at the sight. It’s the middle of the night, they’re being hit hard by the elements, and here’s this figure walking toward them on the water. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I think that’d be my first thought as to what I was seeing. But ghosts don’t talk. Well, in the movies they do. But an apparition is a ghostly appearance of a person. This ghost they were seeing began to talk. He says, “Hey guys, it’s me, relax.” He doesn’t even say His name. He just says, “It’s me, don’t be afraid.”
So how did they know it was Jesus? Well, if they thought they were seeing a ghost, they may have thought they were seeing a ghost of Jesus. But it’s not only what they were seeing, it’s also what Jesus said. He didn’t need to say, “It’s me, Jesus.” All He needed to say were the words that He said. And although every English translation I looked at used the words, “It is I,” what He actually said was, “I am.” In other words, He wasn’t just saying, “Hey guys, it’s me, it’s going to be okay.” What He was saying is “Don’t be afraid, I’m not a ghost, I’m God.” I am the one who parted the Red Sea in order to bring the Israelites out of their slavery. I’m the one who created the very waters of the earth. I am the one who always has been, who is, and who always will be. I AM. No matter the circumstances, I AM.
There’s something very important about what Jesus is doing here. There were moments when Jesus made a big deal about His glory and His grace, moments that were removed from the day to day lives of the people of God. Moments that weren’t in the thick of difficulties and real life dangers. At His Baptism it was abundantly clear who Jesus was. At His Transfiguration He clearly made known who He was.
But we need more than just a mountain top experience to know who our God is. He is also the one who comes down that mountain and into our lives where we have real needs like being fed. Where we face real dangers like being dumped into the swelling waters. Jesus is all over that. He’s there. He’s been there and done that. He, the Lord of all creation, is the I AM. That’s all we need to know.
And so Peter, ever the impetuous one, takes Him up on His statement that He is Jesus, the One who has come claiming to be the Messiah, the one who is equal to God the Father. “Tell me, then, to come out to You.” “Come on out, the water’s great!” came the response from Jesus.
Was it faith that prompted Peter to step out of the boat? Was it his infamous impetuousness? Whatever it was, he stepped out and walked on the water. Did the other disciples, seeing this, want to go out also? Well, they didn’t really get the chance, because Peter decided it wasn’t enough to focus on what had gotten him out there—Jesus, the I AM. He decided he needed to take stock of his situation. After all, it wasn’t every day that he was out on the lake literally on the lake. And even more so, in the midst of some pretty bad weather. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, after all. He began to focus on all that temporal stuff. Not that it was easy to ignore it. But what was more powerful in his mind at the moment was the stuff of the moment. The wind. The waves. The new-found ability to walk on water! This wasn’t a good thing at the moment. All this was more powerful than the one in front of Him, the I AM, the one who was and is and will always be. The one who created all the stuff he was afraid of with the simple speaking of a word.
There’s comfort in the words of the I AM: “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” It sounds like a rebuke because it is a rebuke. But the comfort is abounding. He doesn’t say, “Peter, where is your faith?” He rather affirms that he actually has faith, little though it be. What does faith do? It always looks to Jesus. Never to ourselves. Never to the wind and the waves. To the troubles of our lives, the dangers we face. The doubts we harbor deep inside our hearts. Faith looks to Christ alone, the great I AM. And that’s what Peter did, He cried out to His Savior. “Lord, save me.” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He reached out and saved. His hand went out and grabbed hold of Peter. Isn’t it interesting that Matthew says that Peter started to sink? Peter knew how to swim. Couldn’t he have gotten back into the boat by himself and be hauled in by his friends? Of course, but some people drown because of panic. He had been walking on water because he was focused on Jesus. When his focus went elsewhere he became afraid.
His cry for Jesus to save him was exactly what he needed to do. Jesus alone can save us from ourselves. From our desire to look elsewhere. From our tendency to focus on the here and now rather than the one who is always with us and always in existence. But not just as all-powerful Being, as Savior. Walking on water and on to the cross where He also cries out to His Heavenly Father. A cry of desertion, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus did not forsake Peter out on the water because of his little faith. He reached out and saved him. Neither does your Lord forsake you, for your very Lord was forsaken in your place.
The Ruler of the Universe walks on water. He doesn’t just tame the storms, He comes to you in the very storms of your life. He comes not to berate you for your at times little faith. He comes to save you. He comes to give you courage and hope. The Lord of Life walked the land in order to suffer on the cross. He is not proud. He doesn’t take joy in our suffering. He simply comes to us in the midst of it and offers us Himself. That’s why, whatever you’re experiencing in your life right now, your Lord invites you to partake of Him. He reaches out His hand to you and gives you Himself, His Body, and His Blood, for you, for your forgiveness. For your life and eternal welfare. Take heart, it is Him. The I AM is with you, always. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Amen
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Matthew 14:13-21
Amen.
[Turn as if stepping out of pulpit as if sermon is over. Pause, then turn back.]
“Amen” really is the sermon. And some might actually wish a one word sermon. But there’s so much to that word “Amen” that it really needs to be unpacked.
We’re so familiar with the ending of the sermon being “Amen,” that we might not think much of the word. As if it’s a spiritual way of saying, “The End.” We’re so used to saying “Amen” at the end of our prayers that we might not think anything of it. As if it’s just the way we end our prayers and nothing more. This sermon will be like every other sermon and end with “Amen”—it has also begun with it.
One of the things I love about being a Christian is that there is always more to learn. Sometimes this leaves you feeling a little foolish, as I did a few weeks ago at the Higher Things Youth Conference. The Conference theme was “Amen.” I must confess that I wondered why that was the theme. It didn’t seem to me a very Lutheran theme. Lutherans love to emphasize grace and what God does. The word “Amen” is a word we say. It’s our response to what God does and says. How were they going to turn that around and get a conference that emphasized grace and what God does for us?
Did I ever find out. Amen, I discovered, is all about God and what He does for us, including our response to what He does for us. You’ll recall from the Catechism that the explanation of the word “Amen” at the end of the Lord’s Prayer that it means “Yes, yes, it shall be so.” At times Jesus began His sayings, when He wanted to emphasize His point, with “Amen, amen, I tell you…”, or “Truly, truly, I tell you…” I’ve always thought of the word “Amen” at the end of a prayer or a blessing from God simply as a response: “Yes, we believe it.” “Yes, it shall be so.” Or, in the case of Jesus, simply to make a point: “What I’m saying to you is the truth—believe it.”
But the reason that we can say “Amen” is because of who Jesus is and what He has done. It might seem that the Gospel reading has nothing to do with “Amen.” But that’s because we take that little word for granted. The Gospel reading shows us how much is there when it comes to that little word. It begins with Jesus saying “Amen” to the tragic death of His cousin and Forerunner, John the Baptist.
How is this so? When Jesus heard of the death of His dear friend “He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself.” We all have times where we need to be alone to pray, especially to grieve. Jesus Himself has given us the words to pray in these situations in life in His Holy Prayer, “Thy will be done.” This is another way of saying “Amen” to those things God tests us with or allows to happen. Even in His grief, Jesus gave His “Amen” to His Heavenly Father’s divine will that John the Baptist was now called to eternal glory. Amen has nothing to do with God answering our prayers the way we’d like and everything to do with His will being done. That is why Jesus could grieve even as He could say “Amen” to the reason for His grief.
But can we continue to say “Amen” when in our difficult situations in life more gets piled on? When the crowds found out where Jesus went they raced after Him. Did Jesus pray to His Heavenly Father for a reprieve? No, He said “Amen” once again. He had compassion on them. This is why Christ came. Jesus Christ is Lord over all and yet submits to the will of His Heavenly Father. In grief, He says, “Amen.” When His grieving is interrupted He says “Amen.”
When the day goes long we’re ready to go home and rest, aren’t we? That’s what the disciples had in mind. Jesus, send them home so we can rest. They’re getting hungry and we can’t do anything for them. But Jesus’ “Amen” to His Heavenly Father’s will is for the long haul. It wasn’t convenient for Jesus when they showed up and it wasn’t convenient now for the already long day to be extended. Being the Creator of all there is, what the disciples had for food was enough to say “Amen” to the need of the crowds. Of course, what the disciples said was true, it wasn’t enough. But God’s “Amen” doesn’t deal with what is or isn’t enough. It simply deals in grace. God who made the earth and heaven can give bread to thousands out of little.
Before He did, though, Jesus gave thanks to His Heavenly Father. This was His verbal “Amen” to the opportunity to give them the food they needed. The very ones who wanted to go home and be done with the crowds were the very ones Jesus had hand out the bread and fish to the crowds. The very ones who said that it wasn’t enough were the very ones who continued to hand out more food to the multitudes. “Amen” always means that in Christ there is always more—even when, and especially when, it seems that there’s not enough. This is especially seen in their taking up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
Matthew says that they all ate and were satisfied. I imagine that there were more than a few people that day who were saying “Amen” to what they had received. God’s Amen is always about what He desires to give us and our Amen is always about what we receive from Him. Both Amens are met in Jesus Christ. God’s answer is always “Yes” in Jesus Christ.
“Amen” shouldn’t just be the way we end our prayers. Amen should be the confession we make in response to God’s miracles. We might think it would be easy to say Amen to a miracle of feeding thousands of people with just a few pieces of bread and fish. But our Lord gives us a greater gift, a greater miracle, a greater meal in our day. At this very altar, often, our Lord takes a few pieces of bread and some wine and gives us more. He gives us His very Body and Blood for us to eat and drink.
If a human being could become God, that would be a miracle. Isn’t it all the more miraculous that God became a human being? That God, eternal and glorious, suffered and died? That God heard our prayer and said “Amen” to it in His Son? That, as He gave His Son to suffer on the cross, He forgives our sins in the giving to us of His Son to feed us? Jesus on the cross is God’s Amen to us, I have accomplished your salvation. Jesus’ Body and Blood, given and shed for you in the Sacrament, is God’s Amen to you, He forgives you all your sins. The washing of renewal and regeneration of your Baptism is God’s Amen to you, you have new life in Him.
Amen isn’t just a way to end a sermon, a creed, or a prayer. But it is the perfect way to declare that all is accomplished in Christ. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Matthew 14:13-21
Amen.
[Turn as if stepping out of pulpit as if sermon is over. Pause, then turn back.]
“Amen” really is the sermon. And some might actually wish a one word sermon. But there’s so much to that word “Amen” that it really needs to be unpacked.
We’re so familiar with the ending of the sermon being “Amen,” that we might not think much of the word. As if it’s a spiritual way of saying, “The End.” We’re so used to saying “Amen” at the end of our prayers that we might not think anything of it. As if it’s just the way we end our prayers and nothing more. This sermon will be like every other sermon and end with “Amen”—it has also begun with it.
One of the things I love about being a Christian is that there is always more to learn. Sometimes this leaves you feeling a little foolish, as I did a few weeks ago at the Higher Things Youth Conference. The Conference theme was “Amen.” I must confess that I wondered why that was the theme. It didn’t seem to me a very Lutheran theme. Lutherans love to emphasize grace and what God does. The word “Amen” is a word we say. It’s our response to what God does and says. How were they going to turn that around and get a conference that emphasized grace and what God does for us?
Did I ever find out. Amen, I discovered, is all about God and what He does for us, including our response to what He does for us. You’ll recall from the Catechism that the explanation of the word “Amen” at the end of the Lord’s Prayer that it means “Yes, yes, it shall be so.” At times Jesus began His sayings, when He wanted to emphasize His point, with “Amen, amen, I tell you…”, or “Truly, truly, I tell you…” I’ve always thought of the word “Amen” at the end of a prayer or a blessing from God simply as a response: “Yes, we believe it.” “Yes, it shall be so.” Or, in the case of Jesus, simply to make a point: “What I’m saying to you is the truth—believe it.”
But the reason that we can say “Amen” is because of who Jesus is and what He has done. It might seem that the Gospel reading has nothing to do with “Amen.” But that’s because we take that little word for granted. The Gospel reading shows us how much is there when it comes to that little word. It begins with Jesus saying “Amen” to the tragic death of His cousin and Forerunner, John the Baptist.
How is this so? When Jesus heard of the death of His dear friend “He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself.” We all have times where we need to be alone to pray, especially to grieve. Jesus Himself has given us the words to pray in these situations in life in His Holy Prayer, “Thy will be done.” This is another way of saying “Amen” to those things God tests us with or allows to happen. Even in His grief, Jesus gave His “Amen” to His Heavenly Father’s divine will that John the Baptist was now called to eternal glory. Amen has nothing to do with God answering our prayers the way we’d like and everything to do with His will being done. That is why Jesus could grieve even as He could say “Amen” to the reason for His grief.
But can we continue to say “Amen” when in our difficult situations in life more gets piled on? When the crowds found out where Jesus went they raced after Him. Did Jesus pray to His Heavenly Father for a reprieve? No, He said “Amen” once again. He had compassion on them. This is why Christ came. Jesus Christ is Lord over all and yet submits to the will of His Heavenly Father. In grief, He says, “Amen.” When His grieving is interrupted He says “Amen.”
When the day goes long we’re ready to go home and rest, aren’t we? That’s what the disciples had in mind. Jesus, send them home so we can rest. They’re getting hungry and we can’t do anything for them. But Jesus’ “Amen” to His Heavenly Father’s will is for the long haul. It wasn’t convenient for Jesus when they showed up and it wasn’t convenient now for the already long day to be extended. Being the Creator of all there is, what the disciples had for food was enough to say “Amen” to the need of the crowds. Of course, what the disciples said was true, it wasn’t enough. But God’s “Amen” doesn’t deal with what is or isn’t enough. It simply deals in grace. God who made the earth and heaven can give bread to thousands out of little.
Before He did, though, Jesus gave thanks to His Heavenly Father. This was His verbal “Amen” to the opportunity to give them the food they needed. The very ones who wanted to go home and be done with the crowds were the very ones Jesus had hand out the bread and fish to the crowds. The very ones who said that it wasn’t enough were the very ones who continued to hand out more food to the multitudes. “Amen” always means that in Christ there is always more—even when, and especially when, it seems that there’s not enough. This is especially seen in their taking up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
Matthew says that they all ate and were satisfied. I imagine that there were more than a few people that day who were saying “Amen” to what they had received. God’s Amen is always about what He desires to give us and our Amen is always about what we receive from Him. Both Amens are met in Jesus Christ. God’s answer is always “Yes” in Jesus Christ.
“Amen” shouldn’t just be the way we end our prayers. Amen should be the confession we make in response to God’s miracles. We might think it would be easy to say Amen to a miracle of feeding thousands of people with just a few pieces of bread and fish. But our Lord gives us a greater gift, a greater miracle, a greater meal in our day. At this very altar, often, our Lord takes a few pieces of bread and some wine and gives us more. He gives us His very Body and Blood for us to eat and drink.
If a human being could become God, that would be a miracle. Isn’t it all the more miraculous that God became a human being? That God, eternal and glorious, suffered and died? That God heard our prayer and said “Amen” to it in His Son? That, as He gave His Son to suffer on the cross, He forgives our sins in the giving to us of His Son to feed us? Jesus on the cross is God’s Amen to us, I have accomplished your salvation. Jesus’ Body and Blood, given and shed for you in the Sacrament, is God’s Amen to you, He forgives you all your sins. The washing of renewal and regeneration of your Baptism is God’s Amen to you, you have new life in Him.
Amen isn’t just a way to end a sermon, a creed, or a prayer. But it is the perfect way to declare that all is accomplished in Christ. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 27, 2008
What Do You Do with Treasure?
If you came upon a treasure beyond imagination, what would you do? You would undoubtedly do all you could to secure it. You would keep it safe and enjoy the fruits of it.
There is a treasure available to us that we do not “treasure” as we should. It is the Word of God. It doesn’t look or feel like a treasure. It’s so commonplace to us that we probably don’t think of it as a treasure. The Word of God is a treasure that cannot be exhausted. In it there are always new “treasures” to be found.
An example of this is Jesus’ parables on treasure: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46)
In each parable the person who finds treasure of extraordinary value sells everything in order to obtain the treasure he has found. Shouldn’t we value the treasure of God’s Word more than anything?
But as a treasure of incomparable value, the Word of God yields even more treasure. In the verses before these two parables (Matthew 13:1–43) Jesus tells several parables having to do with the Kingdom of God, with God as the subject. Likewise, in the verses after the two parables about treasure, Jesus tells yet one more parable of the Kingdom, also with God as the subject (Matthew 13:47-50).
Could it be that God is also the subject of the parables of treasure? That He is the one who finds treasure of great value and does all He can to secure this treasure?
What if the “The kingdom of heaven [that] is like treasure hidden in a field” is showing that we are the treasure, and that the “man [who] found [it] and covered [it] up” is showing us that God is that man? What if we have here a picture of God seeing us and rejoicing in His greatest treasure, rejoicing so much that in “His joy He goes and sells all that He has and buys that field”? That He, in fact, gives His very own Son in order to redeem (buy) the world (the field).
And what if “the kingdom of heaven [that] is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, [and] who, on finding one pearl of great value” is showing that we are the pearl of great value, and that man who “went and sold all that he had and bought it” is showing us that God is that man?
What do you do with treasure? You treasure it, of course. That’s what God did. He created us and He has redeemed us. He treasures us and gives us the very vault of heaven. The Word of God is a treasure that is ever enriching with us the Good News that our Lord loves us and forgives us.
There is a treasure available to us that we do not “treasure” as we should. It is the Word of God. It doesn’t look or feel like a treasure. It’s so commonplace to us that we probably don’t think of it as a treasure. The Word of God is a treasure that cannot be exhausted. In it there are always new “treasures” to be found.
An example of this is Jesus’ parables on treasure: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46)
In each parable the person who finds treasure of extraordinary value sells everything in order to obtain the treasure he has found. Shouldn’t we value the treasure of God’s Word more than anything?
But as a treasure of incomparable value, the Word of God yields even more treasure. In the verses before these two parables (Matthew 13:1–43) Jesus tells several parables having to do with the Kingdom of God, with God as the subject. Likewise, in the verses after the two parables about treasure, Jesus tells yet one more parable of the Kingdom, also with God as the subject (Matthew 13:47-50).
Could it be that God is also the subject of the parables of treasure? That He is the one who finds treasure of great value and does all He can to secure this treasure?
What if the “The kingdom of heaven [that] is like treasure hidden in a field” is showing that we are the treasure, and that the “man [who] found [it] and covered [it] up” is showing us that God is that man? What if we have here a picture of God seeing us and rejoicing in His greatest treasure, rejoicing so much that in “His joy He goes and sells all that He has and buys that field”? That He, in fact, gives His very own Son in order to redeem (buy) the world (the field).
And what if “the kingdom of heaven [that] is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, [and] who, on finding one pearl of great value” is showing that we are the pearl of great value, and that man who “went and sold all that he had and bought it” is showing us that God is that man?
What do you do with treasure? You treasure it, of course. That’s what God did. He created us and He has redeemed us. He treasures us and gives us the very vault of heaven. The Word of God is a treasure that is ever enriching with us the Good News that our Lord loves us and forgives us.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Now, But Not Yet
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Most of the words are Jesus’. The parable and its explanation are from Him.
But it’s the reaction of the disciples that pinpoint what this about. This parable of Jesus is usually called the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. But that’s not what the disciples call it. They’re troubled by the parable Jesus says and when they ask Him to explain it they call it “the parable of the weeds.”
Where did these weeds come from? Who is that enemy that planted them? They’re very concerned about these weeds. They will fall to a fate far worse than the wheat. The disciples perceive Jesus is describing to them the end result of all people. They reason that if they’re the wheat then they’re in good shape. But if, on the other hand, they’re the weeds then Jesus has just sent shudders down their spine. Can we get some more explanation there, Jesus, please? Can you please assure us that we’re the wheat and then we don’t need to worry or fear?
What Jesus is teaching here is, in one sense, for everyone. The problem is, those who are the weeds may not listen. They may be offended, they may not care. But in another sense, this parable is for those of us who are the wheat. The problem here, however, is that while we listen to our Lord we fail to take it to heart. What does it mean for us that the wheat and the weeds grow together?
At the Judgment, we know what it means for the weeds—they will be damned to hell for eternity. Likewise, for the wheat, we know it means that we will be welcomed into the eternal Kingdom of glory in heaven.
But that’s what it means then. What does it mean now? What does it mean for us that the weeds will be in torment forever? What does it mean for us now that we will be forever in perfection?
What it means is that we live in the now but not yet. Or we could say the soon but not yet. The reason we might say the soon but not yet is because Christ is coming again in glory on the Last Day, but it’s not far off. It’s soon. It doesn’t seem that way because we’re going on 2000 years now since Jesus ascended into heaven and promised to return in glory on the Last Day. How long is soon in God’s thinking? Well, it is soon but since He is not bound by time it’s not long to Him like it seems to us.
This is so much more important than we realize. When it seems like it’s not soon, what do we do? We get lackadaisical. We think that He’s in no hurry. But this is deadly. And this is exactly why Jesus tells this parable. It’s going to happen. He’s going to come again in glory. And when He does, it will be too late for those who are the weeds.
This is one reason why it’s so important for you and me to know what this parable means for us in regard to the end result of the weeds. If they don’t know, or don’t believe, then it’s tragic if we sit by and let that result happen to them. Not that we’re going to save any of them. We’re not. Only God can do that. But we can tell them what will happen. Jesus makes it clear so that we clearly know of the call we have to warn the people of the judgment that will occur on Judgment Day.
But there’s a warning here for us regarding ourselves. The disciples noticed it right away. What if we’re among the weeds? Jesus begins His parable with the Gospel: He sows the wheat. But there’s judgment hidden even in the purest Gospel message. Behind the Gospel is the reason for the Gospel: the sinfulness of man. The fact that Jesus died attests to our need of salvation. It shows us that we are utterly sinful. That we are, in fact, the weeds but for the merciful action of God. Paul spells out the painful details to the Ephesians: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”
The prince of the power of the air is Satan—the enemy of Jesus’ parable, the evil one, the devil. We belong to him because of our sin. This is the domain of Satan. But Jesus entered into His very own creation. He came down into the domain where Satan likes to prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He met Satan head on in his own territory. And what Jesus did in the battle is to lay down His life. If it were simply a battle between Jesus and Satan Jesus would simply crush Satan under His feet. But Jesus didn’t go to the cross to prove His might over the evil one. He did it to appease the wrath of God upon sinners. Satan thus had a victory of sorts, he nicked Jesus on the heel.
But what the devil could never have seen because of His blindness to the mercy of God is that Jesus in dying for the sins of the world crushed his head.
When God sows seed He sows good seed. When He makes you His child forever, you are His child forever. You may hear the news that there are weeds in the Church and wonder if indeed that’s you. Maybe you’re not a child of God after all. But know that you are indeed a child of God, even now. Not yet enjoying the fullness of the glory of heaven, to be sure, but a child of God forever, nonetheless.
He sowed the seed in your heart and waters it daily. That’s why we return to our Baptism daily. We are weak and often turn to the desires of our sinful flesh, so daily we go back to our Baptism and repent of our sins. There we are once again drowned to the old sinful flesh and are raised up anew to new life.
He sowed the seed in your heart and tends and nourishes it. That’s why He feeds us with the very Body and Blood of His dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We at times wonder if there are greener pastures than the field of wheat that is the Holy Christian Church. But that’s why we hunger and thirst for Christ’s invitation to come and feed upon His eternal Bread and life-sustaining Blood. There we are renewed in heart and mind and soul. There we are forgiven and strengthened.
Can we feel the reality of glory in Christ where there is no sadness or sin, no pain or evil? No, that’s not yet. It’s the promise of our faithful God, but it’s not yet. It’s the hope, but it’s nevertheless in the future.
But even now our Lord gives to us the strength we need. He sustains us. He provides for us and cares for us. He takes our sin and wipes it out. Not because He ignores what we have done, because He has reconciled Himself to us in His holy Son, the very Lamb of God. Behold, He takes away the sin of the world. This promise is for you and your children and all who are far off. It is yours in your Baptism. It is yours in His Holy Supper. It is yours—yes, even now. And forever. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Most of the words are Jesus’. The parable and its explanation are from Him.
But it’s the reaction of the disciples that pinpoint what this about. This parable of Jesus is usually called the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. But that’s not what the disciples call it. They’re troubled by the parable Jesus says and when they ask Him to explain it they call it “the parable of the weeds.”
Where did these weeds come from? Who is that enemy that planted them? They’re very concerned about these weeds. They will fall to a fate far worse than the wheat. The disciples perceive Jesus is describing to them the end result of all people. They reason that if they’re the wheat then they’re in good shape. But if, on the other hand, they’re the weeds then Jesus has just sent shudders down their spine. Can we get some more explanation there, Jesus, please? Can you please assure us that we’re the wheat and then we don’t need to worry or fear?
What Jesus is teaching here is, in one sense, for everyone. The problem is, those who are the weeds may not listen. They may be offended, they may not care. But in another sense, this parable is for those of us who are the wheat. The problem here, however, is that while we listen to our Lord we fail to take it to heart. What does it mean for us that the wheat and the weeds grow together?
At the Judgment, we know what it means for the weeds—they will be damned to hell for eternity. Likewise, for the wheat, we know it means that we will be welcomed into the eternal Kingdom of glory in heaven.
But that’s what it means then. What does it mean now? What does it mean for us that the weeds will be in torment forever? What does it mean for us now that we will be forever in perfection?
What it means is that we live in the now but not yet. Or we could say the soon but not yet. The reason we might say the soon but not yet is because Christ is coming again in glory on the Last Day, but it’s not far off. It’s soon. It doesn’t seem that way because we’re going on 2000 years now since Jesus ascended into heaven and promised to return in glory on the Last Day. How long is soon in God’s thinking? Well, it is soon but since He is not bound by time it’s not long to Him like it seems to us.
This is so much more important than we realize. When it seems like it’s not soon, what do we do? We get lackadaisical. We think that He’s in no hurry. But this is deadly. And this is exactly why Jesus tells this parable. It’s going to happen. He’s going to come again in glory. And when He does, it will be too late for those who are the weeds.
This is one reason why it’s so important for you and me to know what this parable means for us in regard to the end result of the weeds. If they don’t know, or don’t believe, then it’s tragic if we sit by and let that result happen to them. Not that we’re going to save any of them. We’re not. Only God can do that. But we can tell them what will happen. Jesus makes it clear so that we clearly know of the call we have to warn the people of the judgment that will occur on Judgment Day.
But there’s a warning here for us regarding ourselves. The disciples noticed it right away. What if we’re among the weeds? Jesus begins His parable with the Gospel: He sows the wheat. But there’s judgment hidden even in the purest Gospel message. Behind the Gospel is the reason for the Gospel: the sinfulness of man. The fact that Jesus died attests to our need of salvation. It shows us that we are utterly sinful. That we are, in fact, the weeds but for the merciful action of God. Paul spells out the painful details to the Ephesians: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”
The prince of the power of the air is Satan—the enemy of Jesus’ parable, the evil one, the devil. We belong to him because of our sin. This is the domain of Satan. But Jesus entered into His very own creation. He came down into the domain where Satan likes to prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He met Satan head on in his own territory. And what Jesus did in the battle is to lay down His life. If it were simply a battle between Jesus and Satan Jesus would simply crush Satan under His feet. But Jesus didn’t go to the cross to prove His might over the evil one. He did it to appease the wrath of God upon sinners. Satan thus had a victory of sorts, he nicked Jesus on the heel.
But what the devil could never have seen because of His blindness to the mercy of God is that Jesus in dying for the sins of the world crushed his head.
When God sows seed He sows good seed. When He makes you His child forever, you are His child forever. You may hear the news that there are weeds in the Church and wonder if indeed that’s you. Maybe you’re not a child of God after all. But know that you are indeed a child of God, even now. Not yet enjoying the fullness of the glory of heaven, to be sure, but a child of God forever, nonetheless.
He sowed the seed in your heart and waters it daily. That’s why we return to our Baptism daily. We are weak and often turn to the desires of our sinful flesh, so daily we go back to our Baptism and repent of our sins. There we are once again drowned to the old sinful flesh and are raised up anew to new life.
He sowed the seed in your heart and tends and nourishes it. That’s why He feeds us with the very Body and Blood of His dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We at times wonder if there are greener pastures than the field of wheat that is the Holy Christian Church. But that’s why we hunger and thirst for Christ’s invitation to come and feed upon His eternal Bread and life-sustaining Blood. There we are renewed in heart and mind and soul. There we are forgiven and strengthened.
Can we feel the reality of glory in Christ where there is no sadness or sin, no pain or evil? No, that’s not yet. It’s the promise of our faithful God, but it’s not yet. It’s the hope, but it’s nevertheless in the future.
But even now our Lord gives to us the strength we need. He sustains us. He provides for us and cares for us. He takes our sin and wipes it out. Not because He ignores what we have done, because He has reconciled Himself to us in His holy Son, the very Lamb of God. Behold, He takes away the sin of the world. This promise is for you and your children and all who are far off. It is yours in your Baptism. It is yours in His Holy Supper. It is yours—yes, even now. And forever. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Palatable Jesus?
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Jesus was not given to the telling of nice little stories. But that is what we’d like to hear from Him, right? We hear it often: Jesus spoke in parables because He wanted to teach in a way that ordinary people could understand. That’s why He told nice little stories about ordinary things.
This is just one way we make Jesus palatable to us. If He tells us nice little stories then we can do the same. We can tell people nice little stories, too. We can tell them things about Jesus that are palatable to their ears. We don’t have to tell them about their sin or about hell, because they might not be too agreeable to those kinds of things. But nice stories about how God loves everybody too much to damn anyone to hell will go down well. We can lead them to believe that God shows His love for us by telling us that we’re okay as we are—after all, we can convince ourselves of what good people we are. And we certainly don’t need to tell them that we’re not okay as we are and are in deep trouble without Him. We can put them at ease by assuring them that Jesus is not so insensitive as to offend us or judge us.
The very notion that Jesus told nice little stories really says a lot more about us than it does about Him. I think the people who say this are well-intentioned. But we take away what Jesus is teaching us if His parables are just nice little stories.
So what are they, then? They’re stories that do in fact use ordinary things. But they’re anything but normal stories. In the parable of the sower, what kind of farmer would throw seeds on a path? This is our first clue that Jesus is not just telling a nice little story but a challenging one.
What Jesus gives us in the parable of the sower is the very same thing He does when He tells it. It seems like no big deal, Him going out on the boat to teach the crowds. Jesus did not come just to do ordinary things. He did do ordinary things, but that’s not why He came. He came to do extraordinary things. But He did them using ordinary means. Just like His parables. He told stories with ordinary things, but they were anything but ordinary stories. They weren’t just nice little stories. Jesus getting into the boat and teaching the people wasn’t just simply Him doing little ordinary things. There’s eternal significance to what He was doing, as with all things He did. The very fact that Jesus has come to earth shows us something important about us. And it’s troubling. It’s that we are at odds with God. We are, in fact, His enemies. Why else would Jesus come to earth? To go on a vacation? To check on how things were going on this earth He created? He could do that just as easily in heaven.
Jesus didn’t come to be a nice little Jesus. He’s not a good luck charm. He didn’t come to make us feel all nice and warm and fuzzy. He’s not necessarily a palatable Jesus. He didn’t come to tell nice little stories.
The one for today is actually rather unnerving. It’s wonderful, this picture of Jesus the Sower. It’s comforting to know that He sows His seed. But then He goes into all that stuff about how the birds eat the seed up, the plants withering and dying under the scorching heat, and the weeds choking out the plants. Not necessarily a nice little story. Is Jesus just a man, a teacher, who came to be palatable to the world? A man who met the need for people who like to hear nice little stories?
In three instances of soil Jesus describes enemies that are against us: Satan, the world as it seeks to demoralize us, and the world as it seeks to entice us. But as sure as those are our enemies, seeking our eternal downfall and damnation, who really is our enemy? Satan comes after us, but why do we let him? The world tries to bring us down, but why do we succumb? The world also holds out its pleasures, but why do crave them?
Jesus pictures Satan here doing what Satan does, taking the very Word of God and snatching it up. He did this in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. “Did God really say?” he asked of Eve. The seed had been sown in Adam and Eve but Satan was right there, ready to snatch it up. He’s always there in our lives, ready to do the same thing to us. Whereas Jesus is the Way and the Truth, Satan is the Father of Lies. He is the Deceiver. Jesus Christ sows His Word in our hearts but Satan will do anything to snatch it away from us.
Satan is our enemy of enemies. People have the ability to take our life—Satan has the power to take our soul. But who is the enemy here? Yes, it is Satan, but what about us? If we fall away, do we get to walk away and be able to blame it on the devil, as Flip Wilson liked to do? Or are we also our own worst enemy? Why did Eve listen to the serpent? Why did Adam even let Satan talk to his wife? Why do we listen to the very same Deceiver? Because he is the Angel of Light and we often like what we see when he comes along and snatches up the Word of God. We begin to listen to him rather than our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some nice little story. It starts off just fine with the Good News of the Sower sowing His eternal Word. But then He tells us about how things don’t always turn out so well. Why would He want to tell us a story about how the devil comes along to crash the party? And then we don’t even get the luxury of blaming him because it’s actually our fault for listening to him. But in this nice little story others come along also to crash our little Christian party. We’re going along just fine, rejoicing in the Word, feeling strong as a Christian when suddenly the world gives what it sees as a reality check. Are you sure you want to believe in something like that? You know that religion is just a crutch. And what about all the problems you experience as a Christian? It doesn’t appear you have it any better than those who don’t believe in Christ. Why not just give up on the little stories that the Bible is made up of.
And do we respond to these voices with the Word of God? Do we stand firm in faith? Or do those taunts stay in our head and trouble our sleep? Do we ourselves begin to question the truth of the sown Seed, the power of it? We again become our own worst enemies.
But the world really knows how to throw a party. If it would have us believe that we’d have things so much better with God and His Word, without Jesus and His talk of sacrifice and love, it also attempts to show us. The world doesn’t just taunt us, it entices us. Enjoy the pleasures of the world. You only live once, don’t miss out. Before we know it, the Word of God becomes like a mist in our memory. We hardly even notice that it’s gone.
Jesus doesn’t make any of this better. If we think it’s bad that the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh are against us, it’s even worse that Jesus comes along and tells not so nice little stories. But very troubling stories. Stories that show us who we really are. That’s not palatable. And it never will be. You think Satan is going to jump on that? You bet he will. You think the world is going to ridicule us for believing that we are by nature sinful and unclean—and that they are, for that matter? Without question. You think the world will relish the chance to offer us something that seems far more pleasurable? You can count on it.
Jesus knows all this. But that’s why He tells His story. Because it’s really about Him. It’s not so much about us as who He is and what He does for us. He knows the depravity of our hearts. But you know what He does? He sows the Seed. And when He sows seed, He’s not a proper little farmer. He’s a terrible farmer. He just starts sowing that Seed. It’s more a scattering. Here. There. Everywhere. Good soil. Bad soil. Rocky ground. Paths. Highways. Byways. In season and out of season. Jesus didn’t come at any old time. He came at the right time. He came to save to save sinners. If you hear one thing, hear that. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
What Jesus loves to do is not tell nice little stories. What He loves to do is come to us. What He loves to do is actually be the Story. John says that He is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. He took on flesh to die in the place of sinful flesh. He came into the world to save sinners. Along the way He healed some people, He even raised a few from the dead. And he told a lot of stories.
Were they just nice little stories? Do we need just another storyteller? Or do we need a Savior? His stories, His life, tell us just that. It’s Jesus Himself. The Sower. Scattering that Seed. Planting that Seed into the hearts of sinners. A nice little story for Him would never be one in which we don’t hear about who we are and our eternal need for His salvation. His stories are the very Story of eternal love and mercy. His Word does not return to Him empty but accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it. That is to save and redeem. To produce fruit, a hundredfold, sixty, and thirty. In other words, beyond what we could ever imagine. That’s not just a nice little story, that’s the truth. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Jesus was not given to the telling of nice little stories. But that is what we’d like to hear from Him, right? We hear it often: Jesus spoke in parables because He wanted to teach in a way that ordinary people could understand. That’s why He told nice little stories about ordinary things.
This is just one way we make Jesus palatable to us. If He tells us nice little stories then we can do the same. We can tell people nice little stories, too. We can tell them things about Jesus that are palatable to their ears. We don’t have to tell them about their sin or about hell, because they might not be too agreeable to those kinds of things. But nice stories about how God loves everybody too much to damn anyone to hell will go down well. We can lead them to believe that God shows His love for us by telling us that we’re okay as we are—after all, we can convince ourselves of what good people we are. And we certainly don’t need to tell them that we’re not okay as we are and are in deep trouble without Him. We can put them at ease by assuring them that Jesus is not so insensitive as to offend us or judge us.
The very notion that Jesus told nice little stories really says a lot more about us than it does about Him. I think the people who say this are well-intentioned. But we take away what Jesus is teaching us if His parables are just nice little stories.
So what are they, then? They’re stories that do in fact use ordinary things. But they’re anything but normal stories. In the parable of the sower, what kind of farmer would throw seeds on a path? This is our first clue that Jesus is not just telling a nice little story but a challenging one.
What Jesus gives us in the parable of the sower is the very same thing He does when He tells it. It seems like no big deal, Him going out on the boat to teach the crowds. Jesus did not come just to do ordinary things. He did do ordinary things, but that’s not why He came. He came to do extraordinary things. But He did them using ordinary means. Just like His parables. He told stories with ordinary things, but they were anything but ordinary stories. They weren’t just nice little stories. Jesus getting into the boat and teaching the people wasn’t just simply Him doing little ordinary things. There’s eternal significance to what He was doing, as with all things He did. The very fact that Jesus has come to earth shows us something important about us. And it’s troubling. It’s that we are at odds with God. We are, in fact, His enemies. Why else would Jesus come to earth? To go on a vacation? To check on how things were going on this earth He created? He could do that just as easily in heaven.
Jesus didn’t come to be a nice little Jesus. He’s not a good luck charm. He didn’t come to make us feel all nice and warm and fuzzy. He’s not necessarily a palatable Jesus. He didn’t come to tell nice little stories.
The one for today is actually rather unnerving. It’s wonderful, this picture of Jesus the Sower. It’s comforting to know that He sows His seed. But then He goes into all that stuff about how the birds eat the seed up, the plants withering and dying under the scorching heat, and the weeds choking out the plants. Not necessarily a nice little story. Is Jesus just a man, a teacher, who came to be palatable to the world? A man who met the need for people who like to hear nice little stories?
In three instances of soil Jesus describes enemies that are against us: Satan, the world as it seeks to demoralize us, and the world as it seeks to entice us. But as sure as those are our enemies, seeking our eternal downfall and damnation, who really is our enemy? Satan comes after us, but why do we let him? The world tries to bring us down, but why do we succumb? The world also holds out its pleasures, but why do crave them?
Jesus pictures Satan here doing what Satan does, taking the very Word of God and snatching it up. He did this in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. “Did God really say?” he asked of Eve. The seed had been sown in Adam and Eve but Satan was right there, ready to snatch it up. He’s always there in our lives, ready to do the same thing to us. Whereas Jesus is the Way and the Truth, Satan is the Father of Lies. He is the Deceiver. Jesus Christ sows His Word in our hearts but Satan will do anything to snatch it away from us.
Satan is our enemy of enemies. People have the ability to take our life—Satan has the power to take our soul. But who is the enemy here? Yes, it is Satan, but what about us? If we fall away, do we get to walk away and be able to blame it on the devil, as Flip Wilson liked to do? Or are we also our own worst enemy? Why did Eve listen to the serpent? Why did Adam even let Satan talk to his wife? Why do we listen to the very same Deceiver? Because he is the Angel of Light and we often like what we see when he comes along and snatches up the Word of God. We begin to listen to him rather than our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some nice little story. It starts off just fine with the Good News of the Sower sowing His eternal Word. But then He tells us about how things don’t always turn out so well. Why would He want to tell us a story about how the devil comes along to crash the party? And then we don’t even get the luxury of blaming him because it’s actually our fault for listening to him. But in this nice little story others come along also to crash our little Christian party. We’re going along just fine, rejoicing in the Word, feeling strong as a Christian when suddenly the world gives what it sees as a reality check. Are you sure you want to believe in something like that? You know that religion is just a crutch. And what about all the problems you experience as a Christian? It doesn’t appear you have it any better than those who don’t believe in Christ. Why not just give up on the little stories that the Bible is made up of.
And do we respond to these voices with the Word of God? Do we stand firm in faith? Or do those taunts stay in our head and trouble our sleep? Do we ourselves begin to question the truth of the sown Seed, the power of it? We again become our own worst enemies.
But the world really knows how to throw a party. If it would have us believe that we’d have things so much better with God and His Word, without Jesus and His talk of sacrifice and love, it also attempts to show us. The world doesn’t just taunt us, it entices us. Enjoy the pleasures of the world. You only live once, don’t miss out. Before we know it, the Word of God becomes like a mist in our memory. We hardly even notice that it’s gone.
Jesus doesn’t make any of this better. If we think it’s bad that the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh are against us, it’s even worse that Jesus comes along and tells not so nice little stories. But very troubling stories. Stories that show us who we really are. That’s not palatable. And it never will be. You think Satan is going to jump on that? You bet he will. You think the world is going to ridicule us for believing that we are by nature sinful and unclean—and that they are, for that matter? Without question. You think the world will relish the chance to offer us something that seems far more pleasurable? You can count on it.
Jesus knows all this. But that’s why He tells His story. Because it’s really about Him. It’s not so much about us as who He is and what He does for us. He knows the depravity of our hearts. But you know what He does? He sows the Seed. And when He sows seed, He’s not a proper little farmer. He’s a terrible farmer. He just starts sowing that Seed. It’s more a scattering. Here. There. Everywhere. Good soil. Bad soil. Rocky ground. Paths. Highways. Byways. In season and out of season. Jesus didn’t come at any old time. He came at the right time. He came to save to save sinners. If you hear one thing, hear that. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
What Jesus loves to do is not tell nice little stories. What He loves to do is come to us. What He loves to do is actually be the Story. John says that He is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. He took on flesh to die in the place of sinful flesh. He came into the world to save sinners. Along the way He healed some people, He even raised a few from the dead. And he told a lot of stories.
Were they just nice little stories? Do we need just another storyteller? Or do we need a Savior? His stories, His life, tell us just that. It’s Jesus Himself. The Sower. Scattering that Seed. Planting that Seed into the hearts of sinners. A nice little story for Him would never be one in which we don’t hear about who we are and our eternal need for His salvation. His stories are the very Story of eternal love and mercy. His Word does not return to Him empty but accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it. That is to save and redeem. To produce fruit, a hundredfold, sixty, and thirty. In other words, beyond what we could ever imagine. That’s not just a nice little story, that’s the truth. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 6, 2008
And Now for Something Completely Different
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Matthew 11:25-30
Those familiar with Monty Python’s Flying Circus will remember one of their gags: “And now for something completely different.” That would be followed, of course, by something having nothing to do with what had been happening. It was goofy. But it’s true, isn’t it? There are things that are different in life. Different doesn’t necessarily mean bad, it can just mean different. A TV show had two best friends confronted with a challenge. The one was going to get married and the other one was afraid this would affect their friendship negatively. The one getting married was straightforward: yes, things are going to be different—but different doesn’t mean bad, it just means different.
We might also think that different means weird. There are plenty of people out there who revel in being so different that it can seem pretty weird. You’d think that acupuncture is just for people. But there’s a guy who goes around Portland, Oregon, doing acupuncture to the city. He sticks needles into the earth in order to help maintain the city’s vital energy.
But different doesn’t have to be weird. It doesn’t have to be bad. It can be simply different. Distinct. Distinctions are inherent in God’s creation. On the first day of creation, He created light. Then He separated the light from the darkness. Do you know what He created on the second day of creation? An expanse. The sole purpose of this expanse was to separate. “He separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And God called the expanse Heaven.” Throughout creation and life we can see that there are differences. That doesn’t mean bad, it means different. Men and women are different. That’s a good thing, they complement each other. Day and night are different. God made it that way. We have time to work and play and time to rest and sleep. Work and play are different. We have time to accomplish things and serve others and time to rejuvenate. Our lives are filled with differences, and this is good; it would be pretty boring if everything were the same.
God Himself is wholly different from us. In our Gospel reading Jesus rejoices in God the Father hiding His glory and grace from the wise and understanding. That might seem strange, even wrong. Why would He be happy about that? We prefer fair play. But God deals in justice and mercy. The cause of Jesus’ rejoicing in was in God’s hiding of His glory and grace from the unrepentant and His revealing of them to the repentant. What do you do when you have done everything you can do? You rejoice in having done everything you can do. Jesus had done everything He could do for the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, all He got was rejection. He preached, He provided miracles. They refused Him. What they would then receive would be judgment on the Last Day.
The Psalm says, “All men are liars.” The Word of God says that God is the God of truth. Whether the truth of God is received or rejected, it is still the truth. The Psalm says, “O Lord, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand?” John in his first epistle says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” They had rejected Him, but Jesus rejoices nonetheless. Though He had done all He could do, God the Father was still God the Father. Though people rejected Christ, God was still the Creator and Lord over all of creation. The one who realizes that the God who has come in Christ is a holy God and that he himself is a sinner and without hope before the holy God, confesses his sin. But John goes on in his epistle to say, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us.” God, above all people, agonizes over those souls that reject Him and His grace and salvation. While He is above us and greater than us, He nevertheless appeals to us with His offer of free and eternal life.
Christ’s offer is different from what we may think we need. We may be thinking we need help in our problems. We may think we need healing from our illnesses. We may think we need reprieve from our boss that’s too hard on us. All that would be great, and Christ does indeed offer us help in those things. He gives us wisdom and strength and at times even reprieve. But if that’s all He were to offer, how would that really be any different from what we could receive from the world? Go to any bookstore and you’ll see a self-help section that will offer more than your share of help for your problems. What would Christ really be offering if it were nothing more than that? He would be no God and no Savior at all.
What He offers is something completely different. In his letter to him Paul exhorts the young pastor Timothy to rightly divide the Word of truth. What our Lord does is call us to repentance. This is so different from what our sinful flesh wants to hear it’s no wonder many reject Christ as God and Savior. But this is His first act of love in reaching out to us who have more to deal with than just our problems. We must answer for our sin. We must stand before God. He deals in justice, and we are hanging in the balance and found wanting. Paul in the Epistle talks about how for us Christians, we are who redeemed and forgiven, are nevertheless in a battle against our sinful flesh. Sin lies close at hand. The first person ever born, Cain, murdered his brother, Abel. God said to him, “sin lies crouching at the door, but you must master it.” What happens when we try to stop doing those things that are wrong and hurtful? We think we can just try harder to get better. But who are we fooling? You can’t stop cancer. We, as Paul says in the Epistle, are a body of death. Trying to get rid of our sin is like putting a Band-Aid on cancer. Our disease is sin.
So what does Christ offer? Rest for our souls. Taking His yoke will not make our lives easy, but it will give rest for our souls. We might ask for an easier life, but He offers us what we truly need, refreshment for our weary souls. “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
In giving us His Holy Supper, our Lord not only commands and invites us to eat and drink, The Large Catechism reminds us that
"there is besides this command also a promise, as we heard above. This ought most strongly to stir us up and encourage us. For here stand the kind and precious words, “This is My body, which is given for you.… This is My blood … shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, I have said, are not preached to wood and stone, but to me and you. Otherwise, Christ might just as well be silent and not institute a Sacrament. Therefore consider, and read yourself into this word you, so that He may not speak to you in vain. Here He offers to us the entire treasure that He has brought for us from heaven. With the greatest kindness He invites us to receive it also in other places, like when He says in St. Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is surely a sin and a shame that He so cordially and faithfully summons and encourages us to receive our highest and greatest good, yet we act so distantly toward it. We permit so long a time to pass ‹without partaking of the Sacrament› that we grow quite cold and hardened, so that we have no longing or love for it. We must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body also is relieved."
Are you ready for something completely different? Rest in the Lord. The yoke of the Law, of sin, guilt, and condemnation, was laid upon Him. In His suffering on the cross, we have rest. Receive His body and blood. Receive His eternal rest for you souls. His promise to His people in the Old Testament is the same to you and me: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Matthew 11:25-30
Those familiar with Monty Python’s Flying Circus will remember one of their gags: “And now for something completely different.” That would be followed, of course, by something having nothing to do with what had been happening. It was goofy. But it’s true, isn’t it? There are things that are different in life. Different doesn’t necessarily mean bad, it can just mean different. A TV show had two best friends confronted with a challenge. The one was going to get married and the other one was afraid this would affect their friendship negatively. The one getting married was straightforward: yes, things are going to be different—but different doesn’t mean bad, it just means different.
We might also think that different means weird. There are plenty of people out there who revel in being so different that it can seem pretty weird. You’d think that acupuncture is just for people. But there’s a guy who goes around Portland, Oregon, doing acupuncture to the city. He sticks needles into the earth in order to help maintain the city’s vital energy.
But different doesn’t have to be weird. It doesn’t have to be bad. It can be simply different. Distinct. Distinctions are inherent in God’s creation. On the first day of creation, He created light. Then He separated the light from the darkness. Do you know what He created on the second day of creation? An expanse. The sole purpose of this expanse was to separate. “He separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And God called the expanse Heaven.” Throughout creation and life we can see that there are differences. That doesn’t mean bad, it means different. Men and women are different. That’s a good thing, they complement each other. Day and night are different. God made it that way. We have time to work and play and time to rest and sleep. Work and play are different. We have time to accomplish things and serve others and time to rejuvenate. Our lives are filled with differences, and this is good; it would be pretty boring if everything were the same.
God Himself is wholly different from us. In our Gospel reading Jesus rejoices in God the Father hiding His glory and grace from the wise and understanding. That might seem strange, even wrong. Why would He be happy about that? We prefer fair play. But God deals in justice and mercy. The cause of Jesus’ rejoicing in was in God’s hiding of His glory and grace from the unrepentant and His revealing of them to the repentant. What do you do when you have done everything you can do? You rejoice in having done everything you can do. Jesus had done everything He could do for the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, all He got was rejection. He preached, He provided miracles. They refused Him. What they would then receive would be judgment on the Last Day.
The Psalm says, “All men are liars.” The Word of God says that God is the God of truth. Whether the truth of God is received or rejected, it is still the truth. The Psalm says, “O Lord, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand?” John in his first epistle says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” They had rejected Him, but Jesus rejoices nonetheless. Though He had done all He could do, God the Father was still God the Father. Though people rejected Christ, God was still the Creator and Lord over all of creation. The one who realizes that the God who has come in Christ is a holy God and that he himself is a sinner and without hope before the holy God, confesses his sin. But John goes on in his epistle to say, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us.” God, above all people, agonizes over those souls that reject Him and His grace and salvation. While He is above us and greater than us, He nevertheless appeals to us with His offer of free and eternal life.
Christ’s offer is different from what we may think we need. We may be thinking we need help in our problems. We may think we need healing from our illnesses. We may think we need reprieve from our boss that’s too hard on us. All that would be great, and Christ does indeed offer us help in those things. He gives us wisdom and strength and at times even reprieve. But if that’s all He were to offer, how would that really be any different from what we could receive from the world? Go to any bookstore and you’ll see a self-help section that will offer more than your share of help for your problems. What would Christ really be offering if it were nothing more than that? He would be no God and no Savior at all.
What He offers is something completely different. In his letter to him Paul exhorts the young pastor Timothy to rightly divide the Word of truth. What our Lord does is call us to repentance. This is so different from what our sinful flesh wants to hear it’s no wonder many reject Christ as God and Savior. But this is His first act of love in reaching out to us who have more to deal with than just our problems. We must answer for our sin. We must stand before God. He deals in justice, and we are hanging in the balance and found wanting. Paul in the Epistle talks about how for us Christians, we are who redeemed and forgiven, are nevertheless in a battle against our sinful flesh. Sin lies close at hand. The first person ever born, Cain, murdered his brother, Abel. God said to him, “sin lies crouching at the door, but you must master it.” What happens when we try to stop doing those things that are wrong and hurtful? We think we can just try harder to get better. But who are we fooling? You can’t stop cancer. We, as Paul says in the Epistle, are a body of death. Trying to get rid of our sin is like putting a Band-Aid on cancer. Our disease is sin.
So what does Christ offer? Rest for our souls. Taking His yoke will not make our lives easy, but it will give rest for our souls. We might ask for an easier life, but He offers us what we truly need, refreshment for our weary souls. “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
In giving us His Holy Supper, our Lord not only commands and invites us to eat and drink, The Large Catechism reminds us that
"there is besides this command also a promise, as we heard above. This ought most strongly to stir us up and encourage us. For here stand the kind and precious words, “This is My body, which is given for you.… This is My blood … shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, I have said, are not preached to wood and stone, but to me and you. Otherwise, Christ might just as well be silent and not institute a Sacrament. Therefore consider, and read yourself into this word you, so that He may not speak to you in vain. Here He offers to us the entire treasure that He has brought for us from heaven. With the greatest kindness He invites us to receive it also in other places, like when He says in St. Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is surely a sin and a shame that He so cordially and faithfully summons and encourages us to receive our highest and greatest good, yet we act so distantly toward it. We permit so long a time to pass ‹without partaking of the Sacrament› that we grow quite cold and hardened, so that we have no longing or love for it. We must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body also is relieved."
Are you ready for something completely different? Rest in the Lord. The yoke of the Law, of sin, guilt, and condemnation, was laid upon Him. In His suffering on the cross, we have rest. Receive His body and blood. Receive His eternal rest for you souls. His promise to His people in the Old Testament is the same to you and me: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Bearing Your Cross
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Matthew 10:34-42
You’ll remember Simon of Cyrene, of course. The man who has been immortalized as the one who carried the cross of Christ. When Jesus could go on no longer, the Roman soldiers grabbed this guy out of his innocent-bystanderness in order to pick up Jesus’ cross so that He could go on to the Place of the Skull. The cross of Christ is the crux of history. We talk about Jesus bearing the cross. Does it take away from what He did knowing that He couldn’t even carry His cross to Calvary? Is it presumptuous of Jesus to say to us that we must bear our cross when He Himself didn’t even carry His own?
No, it doesn’t take away from what He accomplished, because He didn’t come to bear His cross but ours. He has no cross to bear. He did choose, however, to bear our cross. In the Roman form of punishment, the criminal was compelled to carry his own cross to the place of crucifixion. But though the Romans were crucifying Jesus, they weren’t dictating the form of punishment He suffered. God Himself was. Christ did not come to carry a wooden cross to a hill. He came to bear the burden of our sin. He walked that path to the hill on which He was crucified in order to carry a burden beyond what those Roman soldiers could imagine. Little did they know that the man they were prodding up the hill of Golgotha was the one who would be taking away all their sins.
So if Christ has born the cross for us, why does He say that if we do not carry our cross and follow Him we are not worthy of Him? It’s important for us to understand what carrying our cross is and what it isn’t.
What it is is suffering. What it isn’t is looking for suffering. Suffering on account of Christ doesn’t mean we go moping around. You know those people Jesus talked about who pray on the street corner so others can see how holy they are? In the same way that we’re not to do that, we are not to go around making sure everyone knows we are bearing a cross for Christ. Seemingly the opposite of what Christ is calling us to, it may not seem to the world at all that we are bearing a cross. We are in fact to be joyful in our enduring of our suffering.
Living as a Christian is kind of like a achieving a balancing act. If you think what the gymnasts have been doing the last four years in preparing for the Olympics this summer is impressive, they’ve got nothing on us. And I’m being serious. Obviously, physically speaking they are without peer in regards to balancing. But what a Christian needs to do in his or her life in carrying one’s cross doesn’t require talent, but something that has nothing to do with what a gymnast does. It requires faith. No matter how much talent, how much drive, how much work you put in, an Olympian, or even the greatest Christian, cannot accomplish the single thing that is needed to bear one’s cross—faith.
Faith is simple trust in your Lord Jesus Christ who bore the cross for you. It sounds simple doesn’t it? So why do you fail so miserably so often in your following of Jesus? It’s because you don’t see your life as a balancing act. You see it as a means to achieving happiness for yourself. Faith, by contrast, locks on to Jesus. Faith does not see bearing one’s cross as a necessary evil but as a natural part of following Jesus. But this is so unnatural to our sinful flesh, which is constantly concentrated on itself. Jesus’ call is to discipleship. To denial of self. To accepting suffering as the will of God in your life as a Christian. It means denial of self even to the point of loss of life itself.
What bearing one’s cross means is not that we can’t do anything we enjoy. God, after all, did create life and created it for our enjoyment of it. Bearing our cross does not mean we don’t have any fun. It doesn’t mean we become a monk or are miserable every second of the day. What it means is that we don’t seek our enjoyment of those things at the expense of bearing our cross. We certainly are not to hate our parents and family. God commands us to honor our parents and love our family. But we may be more concerned about how they feel about us than about what our Lord Jesus Christ thinks of us. If the things of this world are more important to us than what God wills for us, even if it means suffering, even if it means suffering unto death, then we are not worthy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Bearing our cross is not a way to gain favor with God. It is a way for God to show His favor to us. This might sound odd. If God wants to show His favor to us, why make our lives difficult? It’s like the saying, with friends like these, who needs enemies? But here is where we see one of the most important things that God does for us and how He does it: and this that He loves us. We know He loves us, of course. But the way He does it is not only by the Gospel, by the pure abounding grace He pours out upon us in His Son Jesus Christ. It is also through the Law. It is through His hammering work upon our stone cold hearts. This is truly an act and work of love by our gracious God. If something’s broke, it needs fixing. That’s what God does in His work of the Law. He breaks our stony hearts so that we may see our guilt and our need for His salvation. How loving would He be if He ignored our sin and let us go on our merry way to hell?
His work of giving us a cross to bear is similar. We may not like it, but it is His loving work He does in our lives. Without a cross to bear we would get soft. We might even think we don’t need God. But bearing your cross is not a demand on you. Our sinful flesh sees it as that and rebels against it, but it is actually a blessing from God. Jesus brings this home in the last two Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” He doesn’t say we are blessed by Him if our cross is removed from us, but if we bear our cross.
How do we bear our cross? We prayed this morning in the Collect of the Day for our Lord to “grant that we may gladly hear [His] Word proclaimed among us and follow its directing.” One of the simplest things we can do as Christians to bear our cross and follow Jesus is also one of the hardest: be in the Word of God. Read it. Study it. Meditate upon it. When there are so many other appealing things to read; or to watch on TV; or simply things to do—it’s hard to hunker down and really get into the Word of God.
Why did Jesus use the term “cross” to describe what a person must bear if he is to be a follower of Him? Because the cross is the premiere symbol of self-denial. Jesus makes this clear in His very next words: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Consider the cross the Christian bears in light of the cross Jesus bore. Jesus denied Himself. He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” Jesus is not asking of us to forget who we are or to get rid of everything that is important or enjoyable to us.
But He is straightforwardly telling us that He comes first in our lives. If we can’t do something as simple as be in the Word of God on a daily basis, how worthy can we expect ourselves to be? If this sounds like Law, that’s because it is. It is exactly what our selfish hearts need to hear. Because in hearing it we see what is behind it, and that is pure love; grace, mercy, and peace from God our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. He invites you to be in His Word so that you may be strengthened by Him to stand firm in the day of trial. He invites you to His Holy Supper so that you may be comforted and forgiven. He reminds you daily of your new Birth in Christ through the water and the Word so that you may know that this reminder is really nothing else than His granting to you of eternal life. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Matthew 10:34-42
You’ll remember Simon of Cyrene, of course. The man who has been immortalized as the one who carried the cross of Christ. When Jesus could go on no longer, the Roman soldiers grabbed this guy out of his innocent-bystanderness in order to pick up Jesus’ cross so that He could go on to the Place of the Skull. The cross of Christ is the crux of history. We talk about Jesus bearing the cross. Does it take away from what He did knowing that He couldn’t even carry His cross to Calvary? Is it presumptuous of Jesus to say to us that we must bear our cross when He Himself didn’t even carry His own?
No, it doesn’t take away from what He accomplished, because He didn’t come to bear His cross but ours. He has no cross to bear. He did choose, however, to bear our cross. In the Roman form of punishment, the criminal was compelled to carry his own cross to the place of crucifixion. But though the Romans were crucifying Jesus, they weren’t dictating the form of punishment He suffered. God Himself was. Christ did not come to carry a wooden cross to a hill. He came to bear the burden of our sin. He walked that path to the hill on which He was crucified in order to carry a burden beyond what those Roman soldiers could imagine. Little did they know that the man they were prodding up the hill of Golgotha was the one who would be taking away all their sins.
So if Christ has born the cross for us, why does He say that if we do not carry our cross and follow Him we are not worthy of Him? It’s important for us to understand what carrying our cross is and what it isn’t.
What it is is suffering. What it isn’t is looking for suffering. Suffering on account of Christ doesn’t mean we go moping around. You know those people Jesus talked about who pray on the street corner so others can see how holy they are? In the same way that we’re not to do that, we are not to go around making sure everyone knows we are bearing a cross for Christ. Seemingly the opposite of what Christ is calling us to, it may not seem to the world at all that we are bearing a cross. We are in fact to be joyful in our enduring of our suffering.
Living as a Christian is kind of like a achieving a balancing act. If you think what the gymnasts have been doing the last four years in preparing for the Olympics this summer is impressive, they’ve got nothing on us. And I’m being serious. Obviously, physically speaking they are without peer in regards to balancing. But what a Christian needs to do in his or her life in carrying one’s cross doesn’t require talent, but something that has nothing to do with what a gymnast does. It requires faith. No matter how much talent, how much drive, how much work you put in, an Olympian, or even the greatest Christian, cannot accomplish the single thing that is needed to bear one’s cross—faith.
Faith is simple trust in your Lord Jesus Christ who bore the cross for you. It sounds simple doesn’t it? So why do you fail so miserably so often in your following of Jesus? It’s because you don’t see your life as a balancing act. You see it as a means to achieving happiness for yourself. Faith, by contrast, locks on to Jesus. Faith does not see bearing one’s cross as a necessary evil but as a natural part of following Jesus. But this is so unnatural to our sinful flesh, which is constantly concentrated on itself. Jesus’ call is to discipleship. To denial of self. To accepting suffering as the will of God in your life as a Christian. It means denial of self even to the point of loss of life itself.
What bearing one’s cross means is not that we can’t do anything we enjoy. God, after all, did create life and created it for our enjoyment of it. Bearing our cross does not mean we don’t have any fun. It doesn’t mean we become a monk or are miserable every second of the day. What it means is that we don’t seek our enjoyment of those things at the expense of bearing our cross. We certainly are not to hate our parents and family. God commands us to honor our parents and love our family. But we may be more concerned about how they feel about us than about what our Lord Jesus Christ thinks of us. If the things of this world are more important to us than what God wills for us, even if it means suffering, even if it means suffering unto death, then we are not worthy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Bearing our cross is not a way to gain favor with God. It is a way for God to show His favor to us. This might sound odd. If God wants to show His favor to us, why make our lives difficult? It’s like the saying, with friends like these, who needs enemies? But here is where we see one of the most important things that God does for us and how He does it: and this that He loves us. We know He loves us, of course. But the way He does it is not only by the Gospel, by the pure abounding grace He pours out upon us in His Son Jesus Christ. It is also through the Law. It is through His hammering work upon our stone cold hearts. This is truly an act and work of love by our gracious God. If something’s broke, it needs fixing. That’s what God does in His work of the Law. He breaks our stony hearts so that we may see our guilt and our need for His salvation. How loving would He be if He ignored our sin and let us go on our merry way to hell?
His work of giving us a cross to bear is similar. We may not like it, but it is His loving work He does in our lives. Without a cross to bear we would get soft. We might even think we don’t need God. But bearing your cross is not a demand on you. Our sinful flesh sees it as that and rebels against it, but it is actually a blessing from God. Jesus brings this home in the last two Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” He doesn’t say we are blessed by Him if our cross is removed from us, but if we bear our cross.
How do we bear our cross? We prayed this morning in the Collect of the Day for our Lord to “grant that we may gladly hear [His] Word proclaimed among us and follow its directing.” One of the simplest things we can do as Christians to bear our cross and follow Jesus is also one of the hardest: be in the Word of God. Read it. Study it. Meditate upon it. When there are so many other appealing things to read; or to watch on TV; or simply things to do—it’s hard to hunker down and really get into the Word of God.
Why did Jesus use the term “cross” to describe what a person must bear if he is to be a follower of Him? Because the cross is the premiere symbol of self-denial. Jesus makes this clear in His very next words: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Consider the cross the Christian bears in light of the cross Jesus bore. Jesus denied Himself. He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” Jesus is not asking of us to forget who we are or to get rid of everything that is important or enjoyable to us.
But He is straightforwardly telling us that He comes first in our lives. If we can’t do something as simple as be in the Word of God on a daily basis, how worthy can we expect ourselves to be? If this sounds like Law, that’s because it is. It is exactly what our selfish hearts need to hear. Because in hearing it we see what is behind it, and that is pure love; grace, mercy, and peace from God our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. He invites you to be in His Word so that you may be strengthened by Him to stand firm in the day of trial. He invites you to His Holy Supper so that you may be comforted and forgiven. He reminds you daily of your new Birth in Christ through the water and the Word so that you may know that this reminder is really nothing else than His granting to you of eternal life. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Drowning in Pain
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Matthew 10:5, 21-33
When I saw the headline in the Associated Press article, I thought maybe I was reading an article on the End Times. “Out-of-control weather, gas prices, economy chip away at American self-confidence.” The Bible is well known for giving lists of how bad things will get before the end comes. The thing is, those lists were written about 2000 years ago. Natural disasters and tough economic times have been around for that long also. Things can get pretty bad, but Christians are already warned about that from the Bible.
Nevertheless, it’s always hard, isn’t it? Something I heard recently has been haunting me ever since. A commentator on society said that if pain were water in the world, we would drown. I think that’s absolutely true. It’s discouraging how much pain is in the world.
When you see your spouse wasting their life away through the bottle, your heart breaks. When you yourself turn to the bottle because you’re looking for solace from your abusive spouse you wonder if there truly is a way to escape the pain. When you visit your loved one in the hospital or nursing home and you walk by cries of pain, you wonder why that kind of suffering is necessary. It’s almost impossible to bear when it is your own loved one who is in so much agony and you feel helpless to provide comfort and relief.
When you finally find someone to love intimately and they break your heart by cheating on you you don’t see how you can ever trust anyone again. When your child wants to have nothing more to do with you you wish that you could endure intense physical pain if it meant taking away the unrelenting emotional pain of wanting your child back.
You may not have experienced these particular things, but you won’t need long to think about the struggles you have gone through that cause you no shortage of pain. At times it may feel like we’re drowning in a sea of pain, at others we can’t help but be discouraged at the human capacity to inflict evil and pain on other humans. Wicked dictators leaving their citizens to live in unsanitary conditions. Leaving them to scrounge for food. To live with all sorts of illnesses with no chance of medicine or medical care. And some of them simply torture their citizens, even to death.
Where is God in all of this pain? Why does He allow us to suffer so much? He is good and created a perfect world, why does it seem to be drowning in despair?
One thing about God, He doesn’t hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz. Jesus is forthright in dealing with the question. If we think it’s bad, He knows even more so how bad it can get. He knows what will come upon the disciples as He sends them out to bring the Gospel: “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.” At this point the disciples might have had second thoughts about what Jesus was sending them out to do. But as we struggle with the pain in our lives and look for what to say to those we love who are struggling, doesn’t it make a difference to know that our God is not so far away that He doesn’t know what we’re going through? That He in fact knows how bad it can get? That it’s not just powerful dictators that inflict evil on others but it can even come from our own family members.
When we’re suffering we want it to end. But Jesus says, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Enduring the hatred of others often prompts us to question God or where He is. The answer, though, is in Jesus’ own words: “you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.” Where is God when others hate you because of Him? The answer is right with you, you know He’s with you by the fact that others hate you for being a Christian.
You think it’s going to be easy to speak the truth in love when when you do speak the truth people will think you’re being unloving? When we teach our kids that homosexuality is wrong and that marriage is only between a man and a woman, do you think people are going to stand in line wanting to hear the message of Christianity? That’s not the kind of God they want to hear about. We will be maligned and accused of being hateful and prejudiced. You think it will be easy for us to stay the course? To endure to the end, as Jesus says? No, Jesus is telling us that it will not be easy. Otherwise, why would it be necessary to endure?
Pain surrounds us. Pain wells up inside us. Pain weighs down on us. God is bigger and more powerful than all of it, but we feel so very inadequate to endure all of it. Where is He in all of it? We can say as a confession of faith that we know He’s with us, but when it doesn’t seem like it it’s hard to believe it, isn’t it? We want the all-powerful God to give us some stability. We want a straight path. What Jesus spells out for us, however, is the transitory nature of this life. His instruction to His disciples when they would face opposition was this: “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.” Now, granted, Jesus is not saying to you and me that if society or our neighbors bring the hammer down on us that we should up and move. He has given each of us a vocation and that usually involves being where you’re at, being a light of the Gospel in your community. But that Jesus sent His disciples on this mission trip and told them to keep going if they ran into opposition, does tell us something about our calling from God. We cannot expect a comfy little life while being a light of the Gospel. We are indeed strangers and pilgrims on this earth. And if while we are struggling through the pain of it all we go again and again to the question of where God is in all of this, we should again and again go back to His words: “for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
This seems something of an odd statement. It seems like He’s saying that the Second Coming, the Last Day, Judgment Day, will be coming even before they finish their little mission trip. When He said this Jesus had not yet even suffered and died on the cross and risen from the grave, let alone come again in glory on the Last Day, which still has yet to happen. So what does He mean by saying that they won’t get through all the towns before the Son of Man comes? One aspect is expressed in the Collect of the Day, which we prayed a little bit ago: His “abiding presence always goes with us.” The disciples were sent out by Jesus but were never all alone. He goes before us and with us. But the other aspect is just as important, and that is that Matthew never says that they did finish going through all the towns of Israel. They in fact did not complete their mission, as evidenced by Jesus’ own words before His ascension to go into “all nations,” Baptizing and teaching. He exhorted them, “keep going, I am with you.” What it tells us is that we can’t sit around waiting for something to happen. There are people out there who need to hear the Gospel, we’re the ones to tell them!
We sometimes forget, don’t we, that we’re the servants of Christ. He is our Master. We are not above Him. We won’t understand everything that happens. But we know that He is our Master for our good. When the world is crying out for answers in the midst of pain and suffering, we have something to offer them.
Look around you in life, what do you see? You see a world and lots of people and things in it. This is a physical world, but a temporary one. Your life on this earth is temporary also. We get discouraged at times with the pain we endure in this life. But Jesus’ words put perspective on our temporary suffering. There’s more to life than this life. He says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” As bad as things are, they do not compare to what Satan can do to your soul. Your Lord saves you from that.
These are His words of comfort: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” How you know this is that He gave His life for yours. Pain that we cannot imagine He endured so that we may enter eternal life where there ultimately will be no more pain. Your very value in His sight is confirmed in Him Himself becoming a man. Taking on our flesh, suffering in our place, enduring the eternal torment God’s judgment. Our God is not a God who is far off, but one whose love extends even into our pain-filled world and our often painful lives.
It’s hard at times to hold fast to the confession of faith we make to our God. But make no mistake, the one denies their Lord Jesus Christ before men, He also will deny before His Father in heaven. Do not fear if you have done this, however, because such fear comes from those who know that their only hope is in their Lord Jesus Christ. It is that very one who has also this promise: “So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven.”
Whatever you are experiencing is no worse than any who have gone before you. We heard Jeremiah’s cry of pain to God in the Old Testament reading. He came from a family of priests and his family rejected him. In the Old Testament reading we see how God’s call to follow Him is not easy but painful. Jeremiah spoke the Word of God faithfully to people—many false prophets surrounding him were telling people what they wanted to hear. If we do the same, people will be glad to hear us, but at what cost? Possibly of the loss of their souls for eternity. Sticking with the Word of God will guarantee people hating us or accusing us of being unloving. That is the price we will pay. Being a Christian will not remove pain from your life.
But in the midst of pain there is always hope. Nowhere was there more hope than in the suffering of Christ on the cross. If you’re drowning in pain, take heart. You are Baptized. You are the very child of God. For you Christ died. He drowned your Old Adam in your Baptism. You are forever His. He is with you through the pain here and throughout eternity in heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Matthew 10:5, 21-33
When I saw the headline in the Associated Press article, I thought maybe I was reading an article on the End Times. “Out-of-control weather, gas prices, economy chip away at American self-confidence.” The Bible is well known for giving lists of how bad things will get before the end comes. The thing is, those lists were written about 2000 years ago. Natural disasters and tough economic times have been around for that long also. Things can get pretty bad, but Christians are already warned about that from the Bible.
Nevertheless, it’s always hard, isn’t it? Something I heard recently has been haunting me ever since. A commentator on society said that if pain were water in the world, we would drown. I think that’s absolutely true. It’s discouraging how much pain is in the world.
When you see your spouse wasting their life away through the bottle, your heart breaks. When you yourself turn to the bottle because you’re looking for solace from your abusive spouse you wonder if there truly is a way to escape the pain. When you visit your loved one in the hospital or nursing home and you walk by cries of pain, you wonder why that kind of suffering is necessary. It’s almost impossible to bear when it is your own loved one who is in so much agony and you feel helpless to provide comfort and relief.
When you finally find someone to love intimately and they break your heart by cheating on you you don’t see how you can ever trust anyone again. When your child wants to have nothing more to do with you you wish that you could endure intense physical pain if it meant taking away the unrelenting emotional pain of wanting your child back.
You may not have experienced these particular things, but you won’t need long to think about the struggles you have gone through that cause you no shortage of pain. At times it may feel like we’re drowning in a sea of pain, at others we can’t help but be discouraged at the human capacity to inflict evil and pain on other humans. Wicked dictators leaving their citizens to live in unsanitary conditions. Leaving them to scrounge for food. To live with all sorts of illnesses with no chance of medicine or medical care. And some of them simply torture their citizens, even to death.
Where is God in all of this pain? Why does He allow us to suffer so much? He is good and created a perfect world, why does it seem to be drowning in despair?
One thing about God, He doesn’t hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz. Jesus is forthright in dealing with the question. If we think it’s bad, He knows even more so how bad it can get. He knows what will come upon the disciples as He sends them out to bring the Gospel: “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.” At this point the disciples might have had second thoughts about what Jesus was sending them out to do. But as we struggle with the pain in our lives and look for what to say to those we love who are struggling, doesn’t it make a difference to know that our God is not so far away that He doesn’t know what we’re going through? That He in fact knows how bad it can get? That it’s not just powerful dictators that inflict evil on others but it can even come from our own family members.
When we’re suffering we want it to end. But Jesus says, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Enduring the hatred of others often prompts us to question God or where He is. The answer, though, is in Jesus’ own words: “you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.” Where is God when others hate you because of Him? The answer is right with you, you know He’s with you by the fact that others hate you for being a Christian.
You think it’s going to be easy to speak the truth in love when when you do speak the truth people will think you’re being unloving? When we teach our kids that homosexuality is wrong and that marriage is only between a man and a woman, do you think people are going to stand in line wanting to hear the message of Christianity? That’s not the kind of God they want to hear about. We will be maligned and accused of being hateful and prejudiced. You think it will be easy for us to stay the course? To endure to the end, as Jesus says? No, Jesus is telling us that it will not be easy. Otherwise, why would it be necessary to endure?
Pain surrounds us. Pain wells up inside us. Pain weighs down on us. God is bigger and more powerful than all of it, but we feel so very inadequate to endure all of it. Where is He in all of it? We can say as a confession of faith that we know He’s with us, but when it doesn’t seem like it it’s hard to believe it, isn’t it? We want the all-powerful God to give us some stability. We want a straight path. What Jesus spells out for us, however, is the transitory nature of this life. His instruction to His disciples when they would face opposition was this: “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.” Now, granted, Jesus is not saying to you and me that if society or our neighbors bring the hammer down on us that we should up and move. He has given each of us a vocation and that usually involves being where you’re at, being a light of the Gospel in your community. But that Jesus sent His disciples on this mission trip and told them to keep going if they ran into opposition, does tell us something about our calling from God. We cannot expect a comfy little life while being a light of the Gospel. We are indeed strangers and pilgrims on this earth. And if while we are struggling through the pain of it all we go again and again to the question of where God is in all of this, we should again and again go back to His words: “for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
This seems something of an odd statement. It seems like He’s saying that the Second Coming, the Last Day, Judgment Day, will be coming even before they finish their little mission trip. When He said this Jesus had not yet even suffered and died on the cross and risen from the grave, let alone come again in glory on the Last Day, which still has yet to happen. So what does He mean by saying that they won’t get through all the towns before the Son of Man comes? One aspect is expressed in the Collect of the Day, which we prayed a little bit ago: His “abiding presence always goes with us.” The disciples were sent out by Jesus but were never all alone. He goes before us and with us. But the other aspect is just as important, and that is that Matthew never says that they did finish going through all the towns of Israel. They in fact did not complete their mission, as evidenced by Jesus’ own words before His ascension to go into “all nations,” Baptizing and teaching. He exhorted them, “keep going, I am with you.” What it tells us is that we can’t sit around waiting for something to happen. There are people out there who need to hear the Gospel, we’re the ones to tell them!
We sometimes forget, don’t we, that we’re the servants of Christ. He is our Master. We are not above Him. We won’t understand everything that happens. But we know that He is our Master for our good. When the world is crying out for answers in the midst of pain and suffering, we have something to offer them.
Look around you in life, what do you see? You see a world and lots of people and things in it. This is a physical world, but a temporary one. Your life on this earth is temporary also. We get discouraged at times with the pain we endure in this life. But Jesus’ words put perspective on our temporary suffering. There’s more to life than this life. He says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” As bad as things are, they do not compare to what Satan can do to your soul. Your Lord saves you from that.
These are His words of comfort: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” How you know this is that He gave His life for yours. Pain that we cannot imagine He endured so that we may enter eternal life where there ultimately will be no more pain. Your very value in His sight is confirmed in Him Himself becoming a man. Taking on our flesh, suffering in our place, enduring the eternal torment God’s judgment. Our God is not a God who is far off, but one whose love extends even into our pain-filled world and our often painful lives.
It’s hard at times to hold fast to the confession of faith we make to our God. But make no mistake, the one denies their Lord Jesus Christ before men, He also will deny before His Father in heaven. Do not fear if you have done this, however, because such fear comes from those who know that their only hope is in their Lord Jesus Christ. It is that very one who has also this promise: “So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven.”
Whatever you are experiencing is no worse than any who have gone before you. We heard Jeremiah’s cry of pain to God in the Old Testament reading. He came from a family of priests and his family rejected him. In the Old Testament reading we see how God’s call to follow Him is not easy but painful. Jeremiah spoke the Word of God faithfully to people—many false prophets surrounding him were telling people what they wanted to hear. If we do the same, people will be glad to hear us, but at what cost? Possibly of the loss of their souls for eternity. Sticking with the Word of God will guarantee people hating us or accusing us of being unloving. That is the price we will pay. Being a Christian will not remove pain from your life.
But in the midst of pain there is always hope. Nowhere was there more hope than in the suffering of Christ on the cross. If you’re drowning in pain, take heart. You are Baptized. You are the very child of God. For you Christ died. He drowned your Old Adam in your Baptism. You are forever His. He is with you through the pain here and throughout eternity in heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Was Jesus Bitter?
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Matthew 9:35—10:20
Generally speaking, when people think about Jesus, what do they feel about Him? He’s nice. He’s loving. He’s a servant. Generally speaking, people think of Jesus as a great person. He was a famous teacher who did a lot of good for this world.
Have you ever known someone who was like this? They were a good person, dedicated to helping others, selfless with their time and kind-hearted. But as time went by they became hardened. Their words and demeanor showed an increasing bitterness. It was sad to see how this person who had been such a positive influence on others now was becoming more and more of an emotional drain on others. You would listen to them and wonder how it was that after so much giving that they could now be so bitter.
Does this describe Jesus? As Christians, we’re probably quick to react against such an assertion. Jesus? Bitter? Of course not! Jesus was, in fact, loving, kind, generous, a force for good in the world. The things He said were positive. There’s a reason so many people think of Him as a nice person—because He was.
But there are two definitions of bitter dictionaries that give a telling story:
• characterized by intense antagonism or hostility: for example, bitter hatred.
• resentful or cynical: for example, bitter words.
Do these apply to Jesus? Can we say that He was bitter? I can think of someone people who would not hesitate to say that Jesus was in fact bitter. The Pharisees, I would think, would characterize much of Jesus’ words to them as bitter words. The relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees was very much antagonistic and hostile. And it wasn’t that the Pharisees were the mean guys and Jesus was always like a dove. It wasn’t even that the Pharisees perceived Him as bitter. Jesus’ words toward the Pharisees were often harsh and judgmental.
So does this mean that Jesus was bitter? Our Gospel reading today paints a picture at the beginning of the Jesus we know and love so well: compassionate and humble. Here to serve and help. No bitterness there, only positive and loving things to offer. But as the Gospel reading goes on, do we see a change toward a darker and bitter Jesus? It’s almost a subtle enough of a change that it might not be noticed at first. He’s talking about reaching out, helping, bringing the Gospel to others. Sending out servants to carry out the good work of the Gospel.
But what about when things turn sour? Does Jesus continue with a positive disposition? Or does His disposition turn sour as well? How are the apostles to react when they are met with resistance? Jesus says that “if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” What is behind this kind of treatment? Couldn’t the loving and nice Jesus just say to His trusted disciples, “If they don’t listen to you, that’s too bad for them, but just be on your way”? Wouldn’t it be kinder and gentler not to go on about the horrific judgment that will befall them? After all, do these words sound like one who isn’t bitter?: “Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”
Plus, what is all this judgment about anyway? Why does a loving God need to hand down judgment against those who reject Him? Doesn’t it take one who is bitter to bring down upon others such harsh punishment on others? Jesus is God. He is the Creator of humans. Is there some bitterness, then, to Jesus’ prediction about what the apostles will find when they go out? “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” These aren’t very high hopes for those whom He has created.
But it gets even worse. Remember what He ended up saying about these very own apostles: that they would all fall away from Him. Did Jesus become cynical toward the end when He knew it was all about to come crashing down? He did pray three times for His Father to take the cup of suffering from Him. Was He bitter that the cup of God’s wrath had to fall on Him? Was He bitter that He stood before Pontius Pilate, a peon in the scheme of the universe that Jesus Himself had created, when He was humiliated before this peon who thought that he, Pilate himself, was really something as Roman ruler? Is that why Jesus attempted with His words to “put Pilate in his place”?
You and I may think some of these questions as strange. You and I may wonder why they would even be brought up. But there are many in the world who do not see a kinder gentler Jesus. They see a bitter Jesus. They see one who acts out upon the people of this world with undue harshness. In fact, out of bitterness. Pettiness, even. Shouldn’t the God of the universe be above that sort of action? But they also look at Jesus’ followers. They look at you and me. They look at Christians. And make no mistake, they base judgments on Christ and Christianity on you and me and how we act. Bitter Christians reflect poorly on Christ and the Christian Church. They wonder either why Christians would be bitter if God is so great or they would say that it’s expected that Christians would be bitter considering that their Master, Jesus Christ, was bitter.
We have to cut through all of this to get at who the real Jesus is. Was Jesus bitter? We know better. We know He wasn’t. But it is true that Jesus was “characterized by intense antagonism or hostility.” There’s no doubt about this. We’ve already pointed this out in His dealings with the Pharisees. His relationship with them was antagonistic. He was intentionally hostile to them. It’s even more important for us to recognize, though, that Jesus is this way with us. How, you wonder? And maybe why? Well, first it’s important to realize that it’s not in the way of the other definition of bitter that we heard, resentful or cynical. But it is actually in a way that is the opposite of bitter. It’s perhaps best described at the beginning of the Gospel reading, telling us that Jesus was compassionate toward the people. His heart went out to them. His words and His actions followed. Ultimately, His life itself followed. Delivering Himself even up to death. Taking the bitter pill of the Cup of God’s wrath upon sin and sinners.
No, there’s no bitterness in Jesus. There’s nothing in Him that seeks retaliation, revenge, or even hatred. It’s all pure love for us and all of the crown of His creation, the human beings that He created in His very own image. Every once in a while you hear something that goes to the essence of an issue. For me, one of those things was what I heard on Monday: a professor from the Fort Wayne seminary giving an answer to the very troubling question of why people have to go to hell. His response was that everyone—note, everyone—gets better than what they deserve. We might wonder how it is that those who are in hell get better than what they deserve. It’s because God is in fact not a God of bitterness but of mercy. What we all—again, note, all—deserve is eternal damnation. There are any number of twists we can put on this—God is too harsh, God is unfair in this judgment, etc.—but the fact remains that God is just and we deserve nothing—nothing—from Him of His blessings. But blessings are exactly what He gives. Grace and mercy are exactly what He rains down upon us. People don’t deserve life, they deserve eternal damnation. But God doesn’t go around damning everyone, He gives freely and willingly life to people. He provides them with many blessings in this life. But especially, He gives His most precious gift of all: His own Son.
This is not what can be described as bitter. It is what can be described as indescribable. Beyond comprehension. It is pure mercy. It is receiving what we do not deserve. It is being offered freely and without strings attached, eternal life and glorious life beyond compare. It is being handed keys to the eternal mansions of glory in return for no price to you. It is all at the cost of His own Son who was in fact not bitter but joyful in His serving you in this way.
Even though Father’s Day is a day to honor and give thanks for the gift of fathers, for those of us who are fathers, today is a day also to give thanks for the privilege of being a father. But how often do we end up not graciously and lovingly guiding our children but instead being bitter over our frustrations with them? How much can we provoke our children before we end up embittering them? We fathers are to love our children in a patient and gentle way, but so often we let our pent up stress and annoyances get the better of us and our children see in us not God’s grace but fear. Let’s not be bitter but joyful in our loving and disciplining our children, being compassionate with our children as our Heavenly Father is with us.
It’s so very sad when we know of those we love who are Christians who become bitter. It eats away at them inside and spews forth on the outside. It’s sad when we begin to see in ourselves bitterness welling up. Questioning the goodness of God and harboring ill thoughts toward others because they are causing us hurt and harm. It is a tragedy when faithful people of God lose sight of the grace and immeasurable mercy of God and can think only on what is wrong and what might have been and what should be. Who can only count the grudges they have against others and the reasons why they have so many doubts about God.
The world and our own sinful flesh would respond to this by either blaming God or giving up on Him. Thank God He has given us hope. It is in the bitter pill swallowed by Jesus Himself. If He appears to be bitter it is only because His eternal and compassionate love for all of us is driving His every word and action. The only way we can know this is because of what He actually came to do and that is suffer in our place. That is to die the death of eternal damnation so that we may not know the bitterness of eternal separation from God but eternal life with Him. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Matthew 9:35—10:20
Generally speaking, when people think about Jesus, what do they feel about Him? He’s nice. He’s loving. He’s a servant. Generally speaking, people think of Jesus as a great person. He was a famous teacher who did a lot of good for this world.
Have you ever known someone who was like this? They were a good person, dedicated to helping others, selfless with their time and kind-hearted. But as time went by they became hardened. Their words and demeanor showed an increasing bitterness. It was sad to see how this person who had been such a positive influence on others now was becoming more and more of an emotional drain on others. You would listen to them and wonder how it was that after so much giving that they could now be so bitter.
Does this describe Jesus? As Christians, we’re probably quick to react against such an assertion. Jesus? Bitter? Of course not! Jesus was, in fact, loving, kind, generous, a force for good in the world. The things He said were positive. There’s a reason so many people think of Him as a nice person—because He was.
But there are two definitions of bitter dictionaries that give a telling story:
• characterized by intense antagonism or hostility: for example, bitter hatred.
• resentful or cynical: for example, bitter words.
Do these apply to Jesus? Can we say that He was bitter? I can think of someone people who would not hesitate to say that Jesus was in fact bitter. The Pharisees, I would think, would characterize much of Jesus’ words to them as bitter words. The relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees was very much antagonistic and hostile. And it wasn’t that the Pharisees were the mean guys and Jesus was always like a dove. It wasn’t even that the Pharisees perceived Him as bitter. Jesus’ words toward the Pharisees were often harsh and judgmental.
So does this mean that Jesus was bitter? Our Gospel reading today paints a picture at the beginning of the Jesus we know and love so well: compassionate and humble. Here to serve and help. No bitterness there, only positive and loving things to offer. But as the Gospel reading goes on, do we see a change toward a darker and bitter Jesus? It’s almost a subtle enough of a change that it might not be noticed at first. He’s talking about reaching out, helping, bringing the Gospel to others. Sending out servants to carry out the good work of the Gospel.
But what about when things turn sour? Does Jesus continue with a positive disposition? Or does His disposition turn sour as well? How are the apostles to react when they are met with resistance? Jesus says that “if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” What is behind this kind of treatment? Couldn’t the loving and nice Jesus just say to His trusted disciples, “If they don’t listen to you, that’s too bad for them, but just be on your way”? Wouldn’t it be kinder and gentler not to go on about the horrific judgment that will befall them? After all, do these words sound like one who isn’t bitter?: “Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”
Plus, what is all this judgment about anyway? Why does a loving God need to hand down judgment against those who reject Him? Doesn’t it take one who is bitter to bring down upon others such harsh punishment on others? Jesus is God. He is the Creator of humans. Is there some bitterness, then, to Jesus’ prediction about what the apostles will find when they go out? “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.” These aren’t very high hopes for those whom He has created.
But it gets even worse. Remember what He ended up saying about these very own apostles: that they would all fall away from Him. Did Jesus become cynical toward the end when He knew it was all about to come crashing down? He did pray three times for His Father to take the cup of suffering from Him. Was He bitter that the cup of God’s wrath had to fall on Him? Was He bitter that He stood before Pontius Pilate, a peon in the scheme of the universe that Jesus Himself had created, when He was humiliated before this peon who thought that he, Pilate himself, was really something as Roman ruler? Is that why Jesus attempted with His words to “put Pilate in his place”?
You and I may think some of these questions as strange. You and I may wonder why they would even be brought up. But there are many in the world who do not see a kinder gentler Jesus. They see a bitter Jesus. They see one who acts out upon the people of this world with undue harshness. In fact, out of bitterness. Pettiness, even. Shouldn’t the God of the universe be above that sort of action? But they also look at Jesus’ followers. They look at you and me. They look at Christians. And make no mistake, they base judgments on Christ and Christianity on you and me and how we act. Bitter Christians reflect poorly on Christ and the Christian Church. They wonder either why Christians would be bitter if God is so great or they would say that it’s expected that Christians would be bitter considering that their Master, Jesus Christ, was bitter.
We have to cut through all of this to get at who the real Jesus is. Was Jesus bitter? We know better. We know He wasn’t. But it is true that Jesus was “characterized by intense antagonism or hostility.” There’s no doubt about this. We’ve already pointed this out in His dealings with the Pharisees. His relationship with them was antagonistic. He was intentionally hostile to them. It’s even more important for us to recognize, though, that Jesus is this way with us. How, you wonder? And maybe why? Well, first it’s important to realize that it’s not in the way of the other definition of bitter that we heard, resentful or cynical. But it is actually in a way that is the opposite of bitter. It’s perhaps best described at the beginning of the Gospel reading, telling us that Jesus was compassionate toward the people. His heart went out to them. His words and His actions followed. Ultimately, His life itself followed. Delivering Himself even up to death. Taking the bitter pill of the Cup of God’s wrath upon sin and sinners.
No, there’s no bitterness in Jesus. There’s nothing in Him that seeks retaliation, revenge, or even hatred. It’s all pure love for us and all of the crown of His creation, the human beings that He created in His very own image. Every once in a while you hear something that goes to the essence of an issue. For me, one of those things was what I heard on Monday: a professor from the Fort Wayne seminary giving an answer to the very troubling question of why people have to go to hell. His response was that everyone—note, everyone—gets better than what they deserve. We might wonder how it is that those who are in hell get better than what they deserve. It’s because God is in fact not a God of bitterness but of mercy. What we all—again, note, all—deserve is eternal damnation. There are any number of twists we can put on this—God is too harsh, God is unfair in this judgment, etc.—but the fact remains that God is just and we deserve nothing—nothing—from Him of His blessings. But blessings are exactly what He gives. Grace and mercy are exactly what He rains down upon us. People don’t deserve life, they deserve eternal damnation. But God doesn’t go around damning everyone, He gives freely and willingly life to people. He provides them with many blessings in this life. But especially, He gives His most precious gift of all: His own Son.
This is not what can be described as bitter. It is what can be described as indescribable. Beyond comprehension. It is pure mercy. It is receiving what we do not deserve. It is being offered freely and without strings attached, eternal life and glorious life beyond compare. It is being handed keys to the eternal mansions of glory in return for no price to you. It is all at the cost of His own Son who was in fact not bitter but joyful in His serving you in this way.
Even though Father’s Day is a day to honor and give thanks for the gift of fathers, for those of us who are fathers, today is a day also to give thanks for the privilege of being a father. But how often do we end up not graciously and lovingly guiding our children but instead being bitter over our frustrations with them? How much can we provoke our children before we end up embittering them? We fathers are to love our children in a patient and gentle way, but so often we let our pent up stress and annoyances get the better of us and our children see in us not God’s grace but fear. Let’s not be bitter but joyful in our loving and disciplining our children, being compassionate with our children as our Heavenly Father is with us.
It’s so very sad when we know of those we love who are Christians who become bitter. It eats away at them inside and spews forth on the outside. It’s sad when we begin to see in ourselves bitterness welling up. Questioning the goodness of God and harboring ill thoughts toward others because they are causing us hurt and harm. It is a tragedy when faithful people of God lose sight of the grace and immeasurable mercy of God and can think only on what is wrong and what might have been and what should be. Who can only count the grudges they have against others and the reasons why they have so many doubts about God.
The world and our own sinful flesh would respond to this by either blaming God or giving up on Him. Thank God He has given us hope. It is in the bitter pill swallowed by Jesus Himself. If He appears to be bitter it is only because His eternal and compassionate love for all of us is driving His every word and action. The only way we can know this is because of what He actually came to do and that is suffer in our place. That is to die the death of eternal damnation so that we may not know the bitterness of eternal separation from God but eternal life with Him. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 8, 2008
On the Way with Jesus
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Matthew 9:9-13
We’re all traveling through this life. We’re all on the way. The question is, which way? On the way, some of us make our way into this place once a week. Why is that? Why do some of us see the need for making a stop in here along the way every week? Why do some think that it’s a nice place to drop into only once in a while? And there are those, of course, who don’t see the need at all to find their way in here as they travel through this life.
It would be easy enough to divide everybody up in that way. There are those who go to church, those who do not very much, and those who pretty much don’t at all. But along the way, as we travel through life, there’s another traveler. And this traveler isn’t so much concerned about which category we fit into. What he cares about is which way we are making our way through this life. But that’s why he’s making his way through it, also. He wants us to join along with him on the way.
You can register for a tour of the Holy Land or the journeys of St. Paul or the significant historical places of Luther’s life. A tour guide who knows the history and the geography will guide you through those places and tell you all about them. You will follow that guide along the way and be enriched for the experience. But that’s not the way it will be done in your journey through life. Your life is not a tour, it is a journey.
They have these people now who will be your personal life coach. They won’t take you on a tour, but they will put together a personal life plan, just for you, tailored to what you need for a fulfilling life. But that’s not really the way your journey through life should work either.
You don’t need a tour guide or a life coach. You don’t want to just be along for the ride. And when it comes to your life, you certainly don’t want someone dictating to you your every action. What you need is someone to follow. While you’re on the way in this life you need to be on the way with someone who will get you through. We don’t really know what it means to follow because we simply think of it as the opposite of leading. But Jesus doesn’t lead. He goes on the way with us and invites us into His eternal glory.
It really doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you find yourself in life, Jesus comes directly to you. He finds you as you make your way through life. When we hear about Jesus’ call of Matthew we may not think much about it. God has called quite a few people in history and here’s another one. But really think about this one. Matthew as the inspired writer of this Gospel account does not paint himself in a glowing light. He in fact describes himself to us as he is—an outcast and not a very likable person. The reason is that he made a pretty nice living by ripping off his own countrymen.
But here he is, doing exactly this and the God of the universe comes up to him. If this doesn’t present hope for us all, nothing will. Because while we’re on the way in this life, Jesus comes down to walk the way with us. He didn’t wait for Matthew to get it together first. He didn’t compel him to straighten up and fly right. He just came right up to him, right where he was at, in the midst of his own misguided way through this life, and called him out of it.
And the call was to follow Him. To follow Jesus. But that didn’t mean walking around behind Him. There were plenty of people who did that. Very few times Jesus actually used the words “Follow Me,” to people. But there are many instances in the four Gospels of people following Him around. And we know where they all were when it came time for them to really put their actions where their mouths were. They were nowhere to be found. They didn’t follow Him to the cross. They didn’t follow Him into His suffering and death.
What it means to follow Jesus is to live a life of repentance. If it were just going through the motions, walking around following Jesus, like going to church, doing all those nice things we can think of to do which good people do, then it would be easy enough to do. But what happens instead is Jesus going to Matthew’s house. It almost seems odd, Jesus in fact following Matthew home to be with him in his home. But that’s what Jesus does, He comes to us where we’re at. Even if we’re outcasts. Even if we don’t fit in. Even if we’re undesirable. Even if we don’t deserve it. He comes to us in our lives, the way we are, with all our faults, mistakes, and unpleasantness.
Jesus not only ate with Matthew but told him he could invite all his friends. Well, you know who they were. More of the same undesirables. More of the same kind that decent people wouldn’t associate with. As you’re making your way through life, who do you find yourself identifying with? Matthew and the ones who were looked down upon? Or with the Pharisees who wondered why Jesus might just as well have been saying to that vagabond group that they were okay just as they were?
It seems as though Jesus is writing off the Pharisees. Since they’re stuck in their self-righteousness, He hasn’t come for them. Only those who are broken down by the Law of God. Who see their need for forgiveness. But that isn’t the case. Jesus came for the Pharisees also. He came for everyone. It is not the healthy who need a physician but the sick. If only the Pharisees would see themselves as sinners just as Matthew and his cohorts were! If only we could see that we are suspect in our actions as Matthew and company were as well as a bit too full of ourselves as the Pharisees were.
We have these masks on as Christians. We show up to church with faces that show each other that we’re good people. But during the week when we’re full on in our journey through life we’re suddenly cut off by someone who sneaks into the parking space that we were already taking. Our thoughts are not of how grateful we are that that other person got such a good parking space but of how angry we are that they stole it from us. We’re so caught up in our journey through life that we may not think twice about all the many thoughts of ill will we have toward others, while on the other hand we may get so bogged down in guilt from our sin that we end up not trusting that God truly can free us from our sin.
While we’re on the way, it’s necessary for us to know where we are in our journey. Without that we’ll be wandering aimlessly. What Jesus wants is to come into your life and dine with you. In other words, He wants to come to you where you’re at and befriend you. He won’t treat you as if you don’t belong. He will welcome you, saying that you do belong. His words are a comfort but they might cause us to pause. For those who are at the end of their rope, His invitation is to dine with you. For those who are wondering why He invites those who don’t deserve it, His call to you is a call to repentance.
If our journey as a Christian were as simple is being in church every week we really wouldn’t need to draw any lessons from the call of Matthew. But the journey we take involves a lot more hours than just the one we spend here. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus spoke the words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The force of His Words were that the entire and daily life of a Christian should be one of repentance. So here with the call of Matthew and to us: when He says, “Follow Me,” the force of those words are that our entire and daily life should be that of following Him.
How we do that is not by wandering around behind Him putting on a good show for the world, watching what we say, doing good things so that we can be worthy. It’s by going with Jesus to the cross. It’s by daily dying and rising with Him. It’s by daily calling to mind your Baptism and the new life you have which flees from envious and lustful thoughts and thinks on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, and the like. It’s by reclining at the Table here at this altar so that Jesus may dine with you. Not just eating with you, but giving Himself to you as the staff of your daily and eternal life in Him. We don’t celebrate Christmas and the Transfiguration of Christ and Easter and Pentecost as the religious equivalents of secular holidays. We celebrate them because we are following Him. We are on the way with Jesus. We are on our way through this life and He comes along the way with us. Our life is taken into union with His life. We’re not just making our way through this life, we’re sojourning toward eternity. On the way, our Lord invites us to bring others also. So that they may know that He indeed has come to save sinners. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Matthew 9:9-13
We’re all traveling through this life. We’re all on the way. The question is, which way? On the way, some of us make our way into this place once a week. Why is that? Why do some of us see the need for making a stop in here along the way every week? Why do some think that it’s a nice place to drop into only once in a while? And there are those, of course, who don’t see the need at all to find their way in here as they travel through this life.
It would be easy enough to divide everybody up in that way. There are those who go to church, those who do not very much, and those who pretty much don’t at all. But along the way, as we travel through life, there’s another traveler. And this traveler isn’t so much concerned about which category we fit into. What he cares about is which way we are making our way through this life. But that’s why he’s making his way through it, also. He wants us to join along with him on the way.
You can register for a tour of the Holy Land or the journeys of St. Paul or the significant historical places of Luther’s life. A tour guide who knows the history and the geography will guide you through those places and tell you all about them. You will follow that guide along the way and be enriched for the experience. But that’s not the way it will be done in your journey through life. Your life is not a tour, it is a journey.
They have these people now who will be your personal life coach. They won’t take you on a tour, but they will put together a personal life plan, just for you, tailored to what you need for a fulfilling life. But that’s not really the way your journey through life should work either.
You don’t need a tour guide or a life coach. You don’t want to just be along for the ride. And when it comes to your life, you certainly don’t want someone dictating to you your every action. What you need is someone to follow. While you’re on the way in this life you need to be on the way with someone who will get you through. We don’t really know what it means to follow because we simply think of it as the opposite of leading. But Jesus doesn’t lead. He goes on the way with us and invites us into His eternal glory.
It really doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you find yourself in life, Jesus comes directly to you. He finds you as you make your way through life. When we hear about Jesus’ call of Matthew we may not think much about it. God has called quite a few people in history and here’s another one. But really think about this one. Matthew as the inspired writer of this Gospel account does not paint himself in a glowing light. He in fact describes himself to us as he is—an outcast and not a very likable person. The reason is that he made a pretty nice living by ripping off his own countrymen.
But here he is, doing exactly this and the God of the universe comes up to him. If this doesn’t present hope for us all, nothing will. Because while we’re on the way in this life, Jesus comes down to walk the way with us. He didn’t wait for Matthew to get it together first. He didn’t compel him to straighten up and fly right. He just came right up to him, right where he was at, in the midst of his own misguided way through this life, and called him out of it.
And the call was to follow Him. To follow Jesus. But that didn’t mean walking around behind Him. There were plenty of people who did that. Very few times Jesus actually used the words “Follow Me,” to people. But there are many instances in the four Gospels of people following Him around. And we know where they all were when it came time for them to really put their actions where their mouths were. They were nowhere to be found. They didn’t follow Him to the cross. They didn’t follow Him into His suffering and death.
What it means to follow Jesus is to live a life of repentance. If it were just going through the motions, walking around following Jesus, like going to church, doing all those nice things we can think of to do which good people do, then it would be easy enough to do. But what happens instead is Jesus going to Matthew’s house. It almost seems odd, Jesus in fact following Matthew home to be with him in his home. But that’s what Jesus does, He comes to us where we’re at. Even if we’re outcasts. Even if we don’t fit in. Even if we’re undesirable. Even if we don’t deserve it. He comes to us in our lives, the way we are, with all our faults, mistakes, and unpleasantness.
Jesus not only ate with Matthew but told him he could invite all his friends. Well, you know who they were. More of the same undesirables. More of the same kind that decent people wouldn’t associate with. As you’re making your way through life, who do you find yourself identifying with? Matthew and the ones who were looked down upon? Or with the Pharisees who wondered why Jesus might just as well have been saying to that vagabond group that they were okay just as they were?
It seems as though Jesus is writing off the Pharisees. Since they’re stuck in their self-righteousness, He hasn’t come for them. Only those who are broken down by the Law of God. Who see their need for forgiveness. But that isn’t the case. Jesus came for the Pharisees also. He came for everyone. It is not the healthy who need a physician but the sick. If only the Pharisees would see themselves as sinners just as Matthew and his cohorts were! If only we could see that we are suspect in our actions as Matthew and company were as well as a bit too full of ourselves as the Pharisees were.
We have these masks on as Christians. We show up to church with faces that show each other that we’re good people. But during the week when we’re full on in our journey through life we’re suddenly cut off by someone who sneaks into the parking space that we were already taking. Our thoughts are not of how grateful we are that that other person got such a good parking space but of how angry we are that they stole it from us. We’re so caught up in our journey through life that we may not think twice about all the many thoughts of ill will we have toward others, while on the other hand we may get so bogged down in guilt from our sin that we end up not trusting that God truly can free us from our sin.
While we’re on the way, it’s necessary for us to know where we are in our journey. Without that we’ll be wandering aimlessly. What Jesus wants is to come into your life and dine with you. In other words, He wants to come to you where you’re at and befriend you. He won’t treat you as if you don’t belong. He will welcome you, saying that you do belong. His words are a comfort but they might cause us to pause. For those who are at the end of their rope, His invitation is to dine with you. For those who are wondering why He invites those who don’t deserve it, His call to you is a call to repentance.
If our journey as a Christian were as simple is being in church every week we really wouldn’t need to draw any lessons from the call of Matthew. But the journey we take involves a lot more hours than just the one we spend here. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus spoke the words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The force of His Words were that the entire and daily life of a Christian should be one of repentance. So here with the call of Matthew and to us: when He says, “Follow Me,” the force of those words are that our entire and daily life should be that of following Him.
How we do that is not by wandering around behind Him putting on a good show for the world, watching what we say, doing good things so that we can be worthy. It’s by going with Jesus to the cross. It’s by daily dying and rising with Him. It’s by daily calling to mind your Baptism and the new life you have which flees from envious and lustful thoughts and thinks on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, and the like. It’s by reclining at the Table here at this altar so that Jesus may dine with you. Not just eating with you, but giving Himself to you as the staff of your daily and eternal life in Him. We don’t celebrate Christmas and the Transfiguration of Christ and Easter and Pentecost as the religious equivalents of secular holidays. We celebrate them because we are following Him. We are on the way with Jesus. We are on our way through this life and He comes along the way with us. Our life is taken into union with His life. We’re not just making our way through this life, we’re sojourning toward eternity. On the way, our Lord invites us to bring others also. So that they may know that He indeed has come to save sinners. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Does Jesus Want You to Be Better?
Third Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Matthew 7:15-29
There is a trend in Christianity today in America to seek the good life. To improve your lot. To become a better Christian. A better person. A better force in this world, in our society, in your home. There’s a natural tendency for us to latch on to this. That’s certainly God’s will, isn’t it? To become a better person. A better Christian. A better follower of Jesus Christ.
But that’s not the way Jesus speaks. With Him it’s all or nothing. You’re not a better or worse Christian—you’re either one or you’re not. Your spiritual house is either built on the rock or not. If it is you will stand on Judgment Day. If it’s not you will not.
There’s something missing in today’s pop Christianity. When it’s reduced to how you can become a better person, there’s no mystery, no majesty. The Gradual uses the word “unsearchable.” It says God’s “greatness is unsearchable.” Where do you find that kind of mystery in modern pop Christianity, which is often nothing more than pop psychology? Presenting Christianity as being a better you, or finding the drive to improve yourself as a person, is taking Jesus’ Words as nothing more than a motivational speech.
But Jesus is talking about life and death. He’s talking about much more than a better life. He’s talking about life itself, in direct contrast to death. You can build a better house, improve your life, become better and better, be as good of a person as you can be, but if you’re not building on the Rock, your house will fall. And great will be the fall. The man who built his house on the rock didn’t work at being better, he simply built his house on the rock. And the house stood firm in the midst of the storm. He lived whereas the foolish man entered into eternal damnation.
It may come across as judgmental or petty to attack the many out there who are popular and presenting a message that sounds Christian but really is just telling people what they want to hear. But Jesus did not come to be popular. He definitely did not come to tell people what they wanted to hear. Who was glad to hear Him call them wolves in sheep’s clothing? It was Jesus who hours before His death stood alone, as all either led Him to the cross or fled from Him in His hour of trial. Jesus didn’t come to be popular, He came to save. Our downfall will be great unless He warns us of it. Our destruction will be eternal unless He dies for us.
So will you be content to hear what the world says but under the guise of the Christian message? Will you satisfy yourself by knowing that you are trying to get better every day? Or will you listen to the Words of Jesus and do what they say? He says, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” His warning is likewise clear: “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.”
It sounds right that we should want to be better. But this is slippery. Try building anything other than a sand castle on sand. Your structure will not stand up against the forces of nature. Your best life now will not stand up against the wrath of a Just God on Judgment Day. It is now that you are building your house for eternity. Will it stand or fall? Build it on what will last. On the Rock. On Jesus Christ. Not on psychology. Not on improvement. Not on motivation. Build it on what will last. On what will stand the test of time and stand into eternity.
Those who teach that we follow God’s will by being the best we can be are telling you to build your house on sand. Don’t fall into their trap. Matthew says that “when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as One who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Don’t listen to the many voices out there. There are false prophets in the Church. They sneak into your living room through your TV. They ride along with you in your car by way of the radio waves. They launch themselves onto the bestseller lists. They lure you with their promises of a purpose driven life and your best life now.
They will quote the Scriptures. They will look good. They will sound good. They will tell you about Jesus. They will get you excited about doing good works and being a good person and serving God. Jesus tells us about those false prophets: they will stand before Him on the Last Day and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” Christ the Lord Himself will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.”
If this sends shudders down your spine, you are hearing the Word of Christ. It is never an easy sell. It is never what you want to hear. But it is always what you need to hear. Jesus loves you too much to send you away feeling good about yourself while your spiritual house erodes into the sand. He cares too deeply for you to leave you in the lurch. When the storm of Judgment Day comes upon you, He wants you standing before Him, not annihilated.
But how could Jesus really pour out His wrath upon those who are trying so hard to live a good life? How could He actually damn people for eternity if they’re not vile people like the worst of the worst, like an Adolph Hitler or a Saddam Hussein?
The question should rather be, why are we taking the grace of God and trampling it under our feet? Why are we despising the holy God who has given us His only-begotten Son? Why are we taking the mercy of God Almighty and slapping Him in the face by our continual sin against Him? We are drawn to the message that we can try harder and be okay, when all we end up with is improvement in rationalizing away our sin and feeling good about how better of people we are becoming.
Instead, may our prayer be that of the Collect we prayed earlier: “Lord of all power and might, author and giver of all good things, instill in our hearts the love of Your name, impress on our minds the teachings of Your Word, and increase in our lives all that is holy and just.” This prayer takes Jesus’ Words for what they are: the work that He accomplishes in bringing about in us new life and sustaining us in this life. Is there improvement that will be occurring in our new life in Christ? You bet. Will we want to seek to do better? Most definitely. But our focus will be on Christ. It is by His authority and power and grace and mercy that we are who we are. That we have new and eternal life. And that we have the opportunity to live it out in service to others.
We will look and live more like Christ. But it will all be by the grace of God and because of Christ. Our focus will be on Him and the life that He lived, living in humility, not seeking better or greater, but compassion and suffering. He didn’t come to stir people on to do better but to call them on their sin and die for them. He wasn’t slick or motivational, but ended up blood-stained, hanging limply on a cross. His work of salvation was a matter of giving up all. This won’t make the bestseller lists or motivate people to be better people. But it will save them. It won’t be glorious, but it will stand the test of time.
That’s a mystery we don’t want to get a handle on, but rather marvel in. His greatness is unsearchable, but never out of reach, for Christ comes to you in His flesh and on Him you will stand for eternity. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Matthew 7:15-29
There is a trend in Christianity today in America to seek the good life. To improve your lot. To become a better Christian. A better person. A better force in this world, in our society, in your home. There’s a natural tendency for us to latch on to this. That’s certainly God’s will, isn’t it? To become a better person. A better Christian. A better follower of Jesus Christ.
But that’s not the way Jesus speaks. With Him it’s all or nothing. You’re not a better or worse Christian—you’re either one or you’re not. Your spiritual house is either built on the rock or not. If it is you will stand on Judgment Day. If it’s not you will not.
There’s something missing in today’s pop Christianity. When it’s reduced to how you can become a better person, there’s no mystery, no majesty. The Gradual uses the word “unsearchable.” It says God’s “greatness is unsearchable.” Where do you find that kind of mystery in modern pop Christianity, which is often nothing more than pop psychology? Presenting Christianity as being a better you, or finding the drive to improve yourself as a person, is taking Jesus’ Words as nothing more than a motivational speech.
But Jesus is talking about life and death. He’s talking about much more than a better life. He’s talking about life itself, in direct contrast to death. You can build a better house, improve your life, become better and better, be as good of a person as you can be, but if you’re not building on the Rock, your house will fall. And great will be the fall. The man who built his house on the rock didn’t work at being better, he simply built his house on the rock. And the house stood firm in the midst of the storm. He lived whereas the foolish man entered into eternal damnation.
It may come across as judgmental or petty to attack the many out there who are popular and presenting a message that sounds Christian but really is just telling people what they want to hear. But Jesus did not come to be popular. He definitely did not come to tell people what they wanted to hear. Who was glad to hear Him call them wolves in sheep’s clothing? It was Jesus who hours before His death stood alone, as all either led Him to the cross or fled from Him in His hour of trial. Jesus didn’t come to be popular, He came to save. Our downfall will be great unless He warns us of it. Our destruction will be eternal unless He dies for us.
So will you be content to hear what the world says but under the guise of the Christian message? Will you satisfy yourself by knowing that you are trying to get better every day? Or will you listen to the Words of Jesus and do what they say? He says, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” His warning is likewise clear: “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.”
It sounds right that we should want to be better. But this is slippery. Try building anything other than a sand castle on sand. Your structure will not stand up against the forces of nature. Your best life now will not stand up against the wrath of a Just God on Judgment Day. It is now that you are building your house for eternity. Will it stand or fall? Build it on what will last. On the Rock. On Jesus Christ. Not on psychology. Not on improvement. Not on motivation. Build it on what will last. On what will stand the test of time and stand into eternity.
Those who teach that we follow God’s will by being the best we can be are telling you to build your house on sand. Don’t fall into their trap. Matthew says that “when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as One who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Don’t listen to the many voices out there. There are false prophets in the Church. They sneak into your living room through your TV. They ride along with you in your car by way of the radio waves. They launch themselves onto the bestseller lists. They lure you with their promises of a purpose driven life and your best life now.
They will quote the Scriptures. They will look good. They will sound good. They will tell you about Jesus. They will get you excited about doing good works and being a good person and serving God. Jesus tells us about those false prophets: they will stand before Him on the Last Day and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” Christ the Lord Himself will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.”
If this sends shudders down your spine, you are hearing the Word of Christ. It is never an easy sell. It is never what you want to hear. But it is always what you need to hear. Jesus loves you too much to send you away feeling good about yourself while your spiritual house erodes into the sand. He cares too deeply for you to leave you in the lurch. When the storm of Judgment Day comes upon you, He wants you standing before Him, not annihilated.
But how could Jesus really pour out His wrath upon those who are trying so hard to live a good life? How could He actually damn people for eternity if they’re not vile people like the worst of the worst, like an Adolph Hitler or a Saddam Hussein?
The question should rather be, why are we taking the grace of God and trampling it under our feet? Why are we despising the holy God who has given us His only-begotten Son? Why are we taking the mercy of God Almighty and slapping Him in the face by our continual sin against Him? We are drawn to the message that we can try harder and be okay, when all we end up with is improvement in rationalizing away our sin and feeling good about how better of people we are becoming.
Instead, may our prayer be that of the Collect we prayed earlier: “Lord of all power and might, author and giver of all good things, instill in our hearts the love of Your name, impress on our minds the teachings of Your Word, and increase in our lives all that is holy and just.” This prayer takes Jesus’ Words for what they are: the work that He accomplishes in bringing about in us new life and sustaining us in this life. Is there improvement that will be occurring in our new life in Christ? You bet. Will we want to seek to do better? Most definitely. But our focus will be on Christ. It is by His authority and power and grace and mercy that we are who we are. That we have new and eternal life. And that we have the opportunity to live it out in service to others.
We will look and live more like Christ. But it will all be by the grace of God and because of Christ. Our focus will be on Him and the life that He lived, living in humility, not seeking better or greater, but compassion and suffering. He didn’t come to stir people on to do better but to call them on their sin and die for them. He wasn’t slick or motivational, but ended up blood-stained, hanging limply on a cross. His work of salvation was a matter of giving up all. This won’t make the bestseller lists or motivate people to be better people. But it will save them. It won’t be glorious, but it will stand the test of time.
That’s a mystery we don’t want to get a handle on, but rather marvel in. His greatness is unsearchable, but never out of reach, for Christ comes to you in His flesh and on Him you will stand for eternity. Amen.
SDG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)