Reformation Day [Observed]
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
October 25, 2009
John 8:31-36
A historian once said that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. We all need to be historians. Because it’s true. If you do not know history you are a slave. You have no freedom. If you’re behind bars, it’s clear to you that you aren’t free. But if you go through life ignoring reality and truth you think you are free when in fact you more of a prisoner than one who is behind bars. We are shortsighted. We often see what we want to see. Jesus has an everlasting perspective.
He proclaims an eternal Gospel. That’s what the First reading from Revelation says, an eternal Gospel is proclaimed. But doesn’t that sound odd to us? Why should there need to be an eternal Gospel? Doesn’t the Gospel only come into play when Adam and Eve fall into sin? Why would the Gospel need to be in existence from eternity? And isn’t there no longer a need for the Gospel when Christ returns in glory and puts an end to this world and we reign in heaven forever without sin and condemnation? Why does the Gospel need to remain for eternity?
Jesus answers that question in the Gospel reading. It’s something along the lines of, those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. The people Jesus was speaking to had short memories. Never had been enslaved to anyone? Had they forgotten the Egyptians? And the Babylonians? And what about the Roman occupiers in their own day? But even all of this misses the point, which is why Jesus doesn’t bring it up, as obvious as it is. Their refusal to learn from history is to not acknowledge their slavery to sin.
Paul is forced to make this clear in his letter to the Christians in Rome in our Epistle reading. The Law of God breaks through in this life so that every mouth may be stopped. That doesn’t keep us from talking though, does it? Me, a sinner? Well, yes, but I’m not really that bad. I don’t sin all the time. And the sins I commit don’t really hurt people that much. I could be a lot worse.
By this way of thinking we have shown ourselves to be slaves to sin. We’re so convinced we’re not that bad of sinners we forget the root problem: Original Sin. Yes, you don’t always do really bad things. And some of the really bad things you do don’t come close to comparing to the heinous acts that some, even many, people commit. But you are bound up in your sinful flesh—you are a sinner not just because you sin, but because you are born in sin and are enslaved to it. Those who ignore this are condemned.
Since our memories are so short, God has a way of dealing with this that is outside of our realm of dealing with time and figuring out which sins are really bad and which ones aren’t as big of a deal—it’s His eternal Gospel. It’s the truth that will set you free. If His Gospel is from eternity and lasts for eternity there’s no way you can wonder if your being bound up in your sinful flesh is not covered by His grace, His mercy, His love. It is. It’s eternal. He always had in view, from eternity, loving you and being in relationship with you.
You are free by what God has done in His eternal action of the Gospel. Believing in Christ is abiding in this eternal Gospel, something that is outside of yourself, from before you were ever around and that will last forever. When the people talking to Jesus wanted to place the ground of their faith in themselves He insisted that it must be grounded in Him and His eternal Gospel.
Jesus says those who commit sin are slaves to sin. He doesn’t go down a list to help them sort out whether they’re really bad sinners or sinners who just do some bad things now and then. Those who commit sin are slaves to sin because they are born in sin and are wrapped up in their sinful flesh. To be freed from this you must be freed from it. You cannot free yourself from it. You must be freed from it by something outside of you. By someone who is not bound by sin. You are set free by the Son who from eternity is your Savior.
It’s not easy to abide in Jesus’ Word. It means doing what we do when we confess our sins. That we are by nature sinful. That there is nothing good within us and nothing good we can do in the sight of God. That we deserve His temporal and eternal punishment. There’s nothing easy about this.
But there is something freeing about it. There’s something amazingly revolutionary about it. Standing before God and not making a case for yourself. Not justifying your sinful actions or rationalizing them away. Simply confessing them. Simply saying, God, what you say is true, I am a sinner, condemn me because it’s all that I deserve. There’s something freeing about this, because as we stand before God in this condition—sinful, unworthy, condemned—we are standing before a God who tells us to lift up our head. To turn our gaze to a hill that stood just outside of a small city. A hill upon which was another sinner. A sinner who was crucified on that hill. A sinner who is God the Father’s very own Son.
But this is all wrong! He’s not the sinner, I am. How is it that God points us to the one on the cross as the sinner when we are the ones? How it is is the eternal Gospel. Jesus becomes the sinner so that we may be set free. Free from sin. Free from the condemnation of the Law. Free from any notions that we’re not that bad and only need to keep trying a little harder. And even more, freed from the Law that is constantly beating us down that we haven’t loved enough, shared the Gospel with enough people, haven’t been in the Word of God as much as we should be. Freeing us up from this condemnation to simply live in His grace. To be freed to serve in our simple, humble, often awkward ways. Even our sometimes faltering ways.
That’s what the eternal Gospel always does. When you are freed you are not then put under a new Law in which you must now do stuff for God. When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed! He has had this in view from eternity! Jesus is your Lord eternally. He is your Savior eternally. You are free eternally. You are not condemned. You are not bound. You are Baptized. You are fed by Your Savior Himself. His very Body, His very Blood, placed in your mouth for you to eat and drink and be filled and refreshed and forgiven and freed.
This is not of anything you do. Thank God! It’s everything of God and by God, eternally, for you. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
An Alternative Way
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke, Evangelist
October 18, 2009
Mark 10:23-31
The man who came to Jesus in last week’s Gospel reading asking how he could gain heaven walked away from it all because He didn’t want the way Jesus offered him. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus fleshes out what it means to follow Him.
In one word it is humility. Jesus doesn’t tell us how to be humble. He doesn’t even tell us to be humble. But that’s what He’s preaching. The way Jesus gives us is a different way than the world offers us.
What does the world offer you? Why not get the most out of life you can rather than submitting to the demands or wishes of others? Even so, there are many people in the world who are not Christians who are very kind and generous. They help others and even put others before themselves. But what happens? The world points to those people and says, See how humble they are! They’re enamored with the person, which kind of takes away from the humility. The world offers in the form of many religions a system in which you attain reward because of who you are or what you do. This way is no more possible than passing through the eye of a needle, something you no more can do than can a camel. What is demanded in all these religions is not humility but perfection. There is no point in even attempting to meet the demands of these religions because you’re sunk before you even begin.
Jesus offers an alternative way. It’s getting out of the way. He embodies this Himself. He is the embodiment of God. God doesn’t sit on His throne and command us to be humble. He humbles Himself to come to us. We entered the House of God this morning in His Name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Moments ago we confessed our faith of who He is in the Nicene Creed: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the true God, the only God. And the thing about the true God… He gets out of the way. He humbles Himself by passing, so to speak, through the eye of a needle knowing that we cannot. In other words, what is impossible for us, but demanded of us in order to be saved, He accomplishes, because all things are possible with Him.
The Holy Spirit is fully God, the Lord and Giver of Life, and yet gets out of the way. He points to Jesus, delivers Him to us. Jesus is true God—God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God—and yet points us to the Father. Jesus’ concern is glorifying His Heavenly Father. The Father is God—Almighty, maker of heaven and earth—and yet points us to His Son, Jesus Christ. This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.
In a sea of people boasting of their humility, looking for ways to humble themselves, attempting to be more humble, God offers an alternative: Himself. The Lord above all humbles Himself and gives Himself to us. In our attempts to gain recognition for what we do either by others lauding our efforts, or our listing our accomplishments to God, He simply shows us one thing that has been accomplished. And it has been accomplished by Him. It is truly the greatest accomplishment and yet done in the humblest of circumstances. Our Lord suffering in our place, taking upon Himself our sin.
It’s really hard to talk as Christians about humility. Once you point it out it becomes the focus, and that kind of takes out the point. The way to be humble is to get out of the way. What is our tendency? The disciples don’t want to take Jesus’ way as the way, so they exclaim: “Then who can be saved?” Humility would simply accept Jesus’ word for what it is. Peter doesn’t want to get out of the way and focus solely on Christ so he mentions a fact his Lord apparently wasn’t aware of: “We have left everything and followed You.”
The amazing thing about God is that He really gets out of the way. He knows that we’re constantly wanting to go back to our own notions of how we’re in the good favor of God, and He still uses us for His eternal will of accomplishing salvation for the world.
I like to give the Confirmation kids quizzes. And I think they like them, but you can ask them. So here’s a quiz, but don’t answer them out loud, just answer in your head these two questions, true or false:
1. You don’t do the works God has called you to do in your life.
2. You do the works God has called you to do in your life.
In a humorous vein, you can test out your humility by seeing your reaction if you get both answers right whether you congratulate yourself or not. Or, conversely, if you get one or both wrong, if you congratulate yourself on your humility because you failed the test.
But to the serious point of the answers to the two questions, the answer to the first question—you don’t do the works God has called you to do in your life—that’s true, you don’t. The answer to the second question—you do the works God has called you to do in your life—that’s true also, you do.
This is God offering an alternative way of humility, some would say nonsensical. And they would be right. Jesus doesn’t spend His time explaining that His way is logical, He just says it. The truth is, we don’t do the works God has called us to do. We fail miserably. We try. Sometimes we don’t even try. But try or not, we don’t accomplish what God demands. If trying were all that were needed the Bible wouldn’t have been nearly as long as it is. But in the manifold pages of Scripture it becomes abundantly clear that what God demands is perfection, and that is where you come up short. Convince yourself all you want to the contrary, but the answer to number 1 is No, you don’t do what God has called you to do.
But there’s another truth. And that is the truth of statement 2. You do what God has called you to do. You do the works He commands of you. And this is not some sort of trying thing either. You do them perfectly. Exactly as the Law of God demands. God the Father is as pleased with your works as He is with His own Son, Jesus Christ. And this is the key to it all. Jesus is the one who brings about humility in us, not our attempts at it.
Jesus is the reason we can say without doubt that we don’t do what God demands of us. Otherwise, why did Jesus suffer eternal condemnation in our place? Jesus is also the reason we can say in full confidence that we do what God has commanded us. Otherwise, why did Jesus accomplish the perfect fulfillment of the Law in our place? The way Jesus talks in the Gospel reading shows us how both of these things are possible at the same time. “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for My sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time.” On the one hand, when you stand before the altar of God to confess your sins, can you honestly say that you have done what Jesus demands, what Peter was convinced of that he did? Instead, haven’t you put all of these things before God in your life? At the same time, as you stand before the altar of God and hear His proclamation of the Absolution of your sins, can you not but thank Him for the amazing opportunities He gives you in your life to serve Him right where you’re at? In your home, loving and taking care of your family. Helping out your neighbors when they’re in need.
There is no one who has not left “houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” who has not done so by Jesus Christ Himself accomplishing it. It is indeed no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you. No wonder you’re able to live as God has called you to live! He accomplishes even this. He frees you up to serve Him. He frees you from the constraints of the Law to practice the Law of love, humbly, joyfully serving those God has placed in your life. When you get out of the way the Holy Spirit has a field day working through you to serve others.
But if you wonder at the many ways the world offers; the appeals of your sinful flesh; the temptations of the devil; know that there is an alternative to all of that. It’s not just another way. It’s the way. The way of humility is not trying to be humble, it’s simply the way of Christ. It’s Christ being humble on your account. “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Christ is first of all and became last for all. Christ is Lord of Creation and yet humbly offers you His body and blood in a simple meal at this altar. The Holy Spirit fills you up with the righteousness of Christ so that the Heavenly Father may look upon you and be pleased and pour out upon you all His eternal blessings. Amen.
SDG
Luke, Evangelist
October 18, 2009
Mark 10:23-31
The man who came to Jesus in last week’s Gospel reading asking how he could gain heaven walked away from it all because He didn’t want the way Jesus offered him. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus fleshes out what it means to follow Him.
In one word it is humility. Jesus doesn’t tell us how to be humble. He doesn’t even tell us to be humble. But that’s what He’s preaching. The way Jesus gives us is a different way than the world offers us.
What does the world offer you? Why not get the most out of life you can rather than submitting to the demands or wishes of others? Even so, there are many people in the world who are not Christians who are very kind and generous. They help others and even put others before themselves. But what happens? The world points to those people and says, See how humble they are! They’re enamored with the person, which kind of takes away from the humility. The world offers in the form of many religions a system in which you attain reward because of who you are or what you do. This way is no more possible than passing through the eye of a needle, something you no more can do than can a camel. What is demanded in all these religions is not humility but perfection. There is no point in even attempting to meet the demands of these religions because you’re sunk before you even begin.
Jesus offers an alternative way. It’s getting out of the way. He embodies this Himself. He is the embodiment of God. God doesn’t sit on His throne and command us to be humble. He humbles Himself to come to us. We entered the House of God this morning in His Name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Moments ago we confessed our faith of who He is in the Nicene Creed: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the true God, the only God. And the thing about the true God… He gets out of the way. He humbles Himself by passing, so to speak, through the eye of a needle knowing that we cannot. In other words, what is impossible for us, but demanded of us in order to be saved, He accomplishes, because all things are possible with Him.
The Holy Spirit is fully God, the Lord and Giver of Life, and yet gets out of the way. He points to Jesus, delivers Him to us. Jesus is true God—God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God—and yet points us to the Father. Jesus’ concern is glorifying His Heavenly Father. The Father is God—Almighty, maker of heaven and earth—and yet points us to His Son, Jesus Christ. This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.
In a sea of people boasting of their humility, looking for ways to humble themselves, attempting to be more humble, God offers an alternative: Himself. The Lord above all humbles Himself and gives Himself to us. In our attempts to gain recognition for what we do either by others lauding our efforts, or our listing our accomplishments to God, He simply shows us one thing that has been accomplished. And it has been accomplished by Him. It is truly the greatest accomplishment and yet done in the humblest of circumstances. Our Lord suffering in our place, taking upon Himself our sin.
It’s really hard to talk as Christians about humility. Once you point it out it becomes the focus, and that kind of takes out the point. The way to be humble is to get out of the way. What is our tendency? The disciples don’t want to take Jesus’ way as the way, so they exclaim: “Then who can be saved?” Humility would simply accept Jesus’ word for what it is. Peter doesn’t want to get out of the way and focus solely on Christ so he mentions a fact his Lord apparently wasn’t aware of: “We have left everything and followed You.”
The amazing thing about God is that He really gets out of the way. He knows that we’re constantly wanting to go back to our own notions of how we’re in the good favor of God, and He still uses us for His eternal will of accomplishing salvation for the world.
I like to give the Confirmation kids quizzes. And I think they like them, but you can ask them. So here’s a quiz, but don’t answer them out loud, just answer in your head these two questions, true or false:
1. You don’t do the works God has called you to do in your life.
2. You do the works God has called you to do in your life.
In a humorous vein, you can test out your humility by seeing your reaction if you get both answers right whether you congratulate yourself or not. Or, conversely, if you get one or both wrong, if you congratulate yourself on your humility because you failed the test.
But to the serious point of the answers to the two questions, the answer to the first question—you don’t do the works God has called you to do in your life—that’s true, you don’t. The answer to the second question—you do the works God has called you to do in your life—that’s true also, you do.
This is God offering an alternative way of humility, some would say nonsensical. And they would be right. Jesus doesn’t spend His time explaining that His way is logical, He just says it. The truth is, we don’t do the works God has called us to do. We fail miserably. We try. Sometimes we don’t even try. But try or not, we don’t accomplish what God demands. If trying were all that were needed the Bible wouldn’t have been nearly as long as it is. But in the manifold pages of Scripture it becomes abundantly clear that what God demands is perfection, and that is where you come up short. Convince yourself all you want to the contrary, but the answer to number 1 is No, you don’t do what God has called you to do.
But there’s another truth. And that is the truth of statement 2. You do what God has called you to do. You do the works He commands of you. And this is not some sort of trying thing either. You do them perfectly. Exactly as the Law of God demands. God the Father is as pleased with your works as He is with His own Son, Jesus Christ. And this is the key to it all. Jesus is the one who brings about humility in us, not our attempts at it.
Jesus is the reason we can say without doubt that we don’t do what God demands of us. Otherwise, why did Jesus suffer eternal condemnation in our place? Jesus is also the reason we can say in full confidence that we do what God has commanded us. Otherwise, why did Jesus accomplish the perfect fulfillment of the Law in our place? The way Jesus talks in the Gospel reading shows us how both of these things are possible at the same time. “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for My sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time.” On the one hand, when you stand before the altar of God to confess your sins, can you honestly say that you have done what Jesus demands, what Peter was convinced of that he did? Instead, haven’t you put all of these things before God in your life? At the same time, as you stand before the altar of God and hear His proclamation of the Absolution of your sins, can you not but thank Him for the amazing opportunities He gives you in your life to serve Him right where you’re at? In your home, loving and taking care of your family. Helping out your neighbors when they’re in need.
There is no one who has not left “houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” who has not done so by Jesus Christ Himself accomplishing it. It is indeed no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you. No wonder you’re able to live as God has called you to live! He accomplishes even this. He frees you up to serve Him. He frees you from the constraints of the Law to practice the Law of love, humbly, joyfully serving those God has placed in your life. When you get out of the way the Holy Spirit has a field day working through you to serve others.
But if you wonder at the many ways the world offers; the appeals of your sinful flesh; the temptations of the devil; know that there is an alternative to all of that. It’s not just another way. It’s the way. The way of humility is not trying to be humble, it’s simply the way of Christ. It’s Christ being humble on your account. “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Christ is first of all and became last for all. Christ is Lord of Creation and yet humbly offers you His body and blood in a simple meal at this altar. The Holy Spirit fills you up with the righteousness of Christ so that the Heavenly Father may look upon you and be pleased and pour out upon you all His eternal blessings. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, October 11, 2009
What Must I NOT Do to Be Saved?
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 11, 2009
Mark 10:17-22
You do a lot of things. Conversely, there’s a lot of things you don’t do. A lot of what you do you do purposefully, a lot you simply do with no thought to it. At the same time, there are things you don’t do because you choose not to do them, just as there are things you don’t do because it never comes to mind.
Today’s Gospel reading is all about doing and not doing. In other words, it’s just like life. There are two people here, Jesus and a man who comes up to Him, both of whom are doing distinct things and not doing distinct things.
Jesus is as He always is. He is doing something but not just anything. He is going about His specific work of salvation. Mark says Jesus is setting out on His journey. We know where that journey led Him, to the cross. Nobody else around had a clue that that’s what Jesus was doing.
Certainly not the man who showed up who likewise was doing something very specific. Accomplishing a lifetime of obeying God’s Law, he found in his life there was still something missing. Jesus, what must I do to be saved? There’s got to be something more than what I’ve already done.
His focus was on what he must do. Jesus answers that it is not what he must do but what he must NOT do. What He is getting at is the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.
Interesting, then, that He doesn’t mention that commandment at all. He lists seven commandments. The first three of the Ten Commandments He doesn’t state. The ones He does all deal with the second table of the Law, the ones dealing with our relationship with others. The first three commandments, the first table of the Law, deal with our relationship with God. The first table is the one Jesus is concerned with with the man who seeks to gain eternal life. The whole Law is summed up in the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.
What must you do to be saved? It’s what you must NOT do. You must have no other gods. This was this man’s problem. This is our basic problem. We have other gods. We put all kinds of things in place of God. Actually, that we place many things in place of the true God is the way we place ourselves in front of God.
If we search for what we must do we will not find it. Rather, God says, You shall have no other gods. Jesus was the one rightly doing something in this episode. He was on His way. He was heading to the cross. That’s where salvation takes place. Not in your heart where you are proud of yourself for obeying the second table of the Law. You take care of your ailing parents and patiently put up with their eccentricities and demands. You bite your tongue when your co-worker makes backhanded insults to you. You obey copyright laws even when no one would ever know if you didn’t. These are all good things. And we should do them. God’s Law is clear on that. But do these things end up becoming our gods? The apostle Paul even said of himself that before he became a Christian “as to righteousness under the Law, I was blameless” (Philippians 3:6).
The man who was seeking salvation from Jesus went to the right person. But he had it all wrong. Jesus, what must I do? No, it’s rather what you must not do. Why did Jesus go to the cross if you could gain salvation from obeying the Law? Why was Jesus so intent on getting to that cross if it came down to you doing something in order to be saved?
It’s what you must not do to be saved that Jesus drives home in His directive to the man, to sell all he has and follow Him. The man was convinced he had kept all the commandments. Jesus doesn’t dispute that. His reply is simple: “You lack one thing.” The one thing is the only thing. It is the main thing and the thing without which you have you have nothing. It is having no other gods. It is fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things.
Money may not be your thing, like it was for that man. It may be your charisma, or your unwavering service to others, or your comfortable habit of being here in God’s House when it’s convenient, or your consistency in being here in God’s House. There are a lot of things we do. So often in our lives what we do reflects our natural penchant toward ourselves rather than having no other gods.
The man walked away from Jesus and what he had been seeking, eternal life, not because his wealth was his god, but because he himself was his god. If what you do gains for yourself eternal life you don’t need Jesus. The man didn’t want Jesus, he wanted Jesus to clue him in on what he was still lacking. Or perhaps he just wanted Jesus to confirm the man’s worthiness. You’re good to go, pal. Keep up the good work. Wish there were more guys like you.
But Jesus gives us the one thing we lack, and that is, well, it’s Him. Jesus gives us Himself. He is the heart of the First Commandment. Having no other gods means nothing other than Jesus is your hope of salvation. Jesus didn’t go to the cross for nothing. He went to the cross for the world. Nobody was doing anything that accomplished their salvation while Jesus was hanging on the cross. Jesus was doing it all. Salvation is in Him: His suffering, His death, His resurrection.
What you must not do to be saved is have other gods. What you must do is nothing. You’re very good at doing all the things you do and very good at not doing all the things you don’t do. Don’t continue down that road. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s also the road of a lot of people doing a lot of things; many of them good, wonderful things—loving people, being kind to them, obeying God’s Law.
The road to salvation is the road Jesus walked. It’s the road that led to the cross and continues on from the empty tomb. This is the road you follow. You’ll still be tempted to think of this road you’re on, the one of following Jesus, as one in which you’re doing good things for Jesus. I’m following Jesus, it’s a good thing I’m doing this! I serve Jesus, it’s a good thing I’m doing what He wants!
But on this road Jesus will keep bringing you back down to earth: There is one thing you lack, and that is Me. What I accomplished on Calvary. What I give to you in My Holy Supper, My very Body and Blood, given and shed for you. In this way He raises you up to heaven. Amen.
SDG
October 11, 2009
Mark 10:17-22
You do a lot of things. Conversely, there’s a lot of things you don’t do. A lot of what you do you do purposefully, a lot you simply do with no thought to it. At the same time, there are things you don’t do because you choose not to do them, just as there are things you don’t do because it never comes to mind.
Today’s Gospel reading is all about doing and not doing. In other words, it’s just like life. There are two people here, Jesus and a man who comes up to Him, both of whom are doing distinct things and not doing distinct things.
Jesus is as He always is. He is doing something but not just anything. He is going about His specific work of salvation. Mark says Jesus is setting out on His journey. We know where that journey led Him, to the cross. Nobody else around had a clue that that’s what Jesus was doing.
Certainly not the man who showed up who likewise was doing something very specific. Accomplishing a lifetime of obeying God’s Law, he found in his life there was still something missing. Jesus, what must I do to be saved? There’s got to be something more than what I’ve already done.
His focus was on what he must do. Jesus answers that it is not what he must do but what he must NOT do. What He is getting at is the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.
Interesting, then, that He doesn’t mention that commandment at all. He lists seven commandments. The first three of the Ten Commandments He doesn’t state. The ones He does all deal with the second table of the Law, the ones dealing with our relationship with others. The first three commandments, the first table of the Law, deal with our relationship with God. The first table is the one Jesus is concerned with with the man who seeks to gain eternal life. The whole Law is summed up in the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.
What must you do to be saved? It’s what you must NOT do. You must have no other gods. This was this man’s problem. This is our basic problem. We have other gods. We put all kinds of things in place of God. Actually, that we place many things in place of the true God is the way we place ourselves in front of God.
If we search for what we must do we will not find it. Rather, God says, You shall have no other gods. Jesus was the one rightly doing something in this episode. He was on His way. He was heading to the cross. That’s where salvation takes place. Not in your heart where you are proud of yourself for obeying the second table of the Law. You take care of your ailing parents and patiently put up with their eccentricities and demands. You bite your tongue when your co-worker makes backhanded insults to you. You obey copyright laws even when no one would ever know if you didn’t. These are all good things. And we should do them. God’s Law is clear on that. But do these things end up becoming our gods? The apostle Paul even said of himself that before he became a Christian “as to righteousness under the Law, I was blameless” (Philippians 3:6).
The man who was seeking salvation from Jesus went to the right person. But he had it all wrong. Jesus, what must I do? No, it’s rather what you must not do. Why did Jesus go to the cross if you could gain salvation from obeying the Law? Why was Jesus so intent on getting to that cross if it came down to you doing something in order to be saved?
It’s what you must not do to be saved that Jesus drives home in His directive to the man, to sell all he has and follow Him. The man was convinced he had kept all the commandments. Jesus doesn’t dispute that. His reply is simple: “You lack one thing.” The one thing is the only thing. It is the main thing and the thing without which you have you have nothing. It is having no other gods. It is fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things.
Money may not be your thing, like it was for that man. It may be your charisma, or your unwavering service to others, or your comfortable habit of being here in God’s House when it’s convenient, or your consistency in being here in God’s House. There are a lot of things we do. So often in our lives what we do reflects our natural penchant toward ourselves rather than having no other gods.
The man walked away from Jesus and what he had been seeking, eternal life, not because his wealth was his god, but because he himself was his god. If what you do gains for yourself eternal life you don’t need Jesus. The man didn’t want Jesus, he wanted Jesus to clue him in on what he was still lacking. Or perhaps he just wanted Jesus to confirm the man’s worthiness. You’re good to go, pal. Keep up the good work. Wish there were more guys like you.
But Jesus gives us the one thing we lack, and that is, well, it’s Him. Jesus gives us Himself. He is the heart of the First Commandment. Having no other gods means nothing other than Jesus is your hope of salvation. Jesus didn’t go to the cross for nothing. He went to the cross for the world. Nobody was doing anything that accomplished their salvation while Jesus was hanging on the cross. Jesus was doing it all. Salvation is in Him: His suffering, His death, His resurrection.
What you must not do to be saved is have other gods. What you must do is nothing. You’re very good at doing all the things you do and very good at not doing all the things you don’t do. Don’t continue down that road. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s also the road of a lot of people doing a lot of things; many of them good, wonderful things—loving people, being kind to them, obeying God’s Law.
The road to salvation is the road Jesus walked. It’s the road that led to the cross and continues on from the empty tomb. This is the road you follow. You’ll still be tempted to think of this road you’re on, the one of following Jesus, as one in which you’re doing good things for Jesus. I’m following Jesus, it’s a good thing I’m doing this! I serve Jesus, it’s a good thing I’m doing what He wants!
But on this road Jesus will keep bringing you back down to earth: There is one thing you lack, and that is Me. What I accomplished on Calvary. What I give to you in My Holy Supper, My very Body and Blood, given and shed for you. In this way He raises you up to heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, October 4, 2009
A Messy Affair
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 4, 2009
Mark 10:2-16
This came in the email just in time for today’s Gospel reading which is about marriage and family. Questions about marriage are asked of children:
“How do you decide who to marry?”
Alan, age 10, says: You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
Kirsten, age 10, says: No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.
“What is the right age to get married?”
Camille, age 10, says: Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
And you have to wonder what kind of home Freddie, age 6, grew up in to say: No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.
“How can a stranger tell if two people are married?”
Derrick, age 8, opines: You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
Out of the mouths of babes often comes the harsh reality of how sin has impacted God’s instituting of marriage. One of my favorite comic strips, the Wizard of Id, shows us exactly the problem here. A woman in a funeral home standing next to the coffin of her deceased husband says to another woman: An operation might have saved him, but our insurance denied it. Apparently he had a pre-existing condition. To which the other woman asked, What was it? This met with the response: He was alive.
Jesus shows us that this is our problem in the Gospel reading today. Whether you are married or single, divorced or have never been married or are widowed, have children or not able to, grew up in a big family or are an only child, adopted or orphaned, there is something you all have in common: you are all part of a family. In families genes are passed along. We carry on certain traits. One thing that has been passed along from Adam and Eve was alluded to in the comic strip and evidenced by the children who were asked how they view marriage: we are all born in sin. This is called original sin and we can no more escape that genetic trait than we can our eye color or a congenital disease.
God’s creation is perfect, our sin has damaged it. How we approach the good things God has created is even tainted with sin. Today’s Gospel reading gives us some good examples of this. How the Pharisees approach God’s gift of marriage betrays their approach to it. They ask a question consistent with the Law. But this begs the question, doesn’t it? After all, who is the author of the Law? It is God. Jesus even affirms that the Law in the Old Testament permitted divorce. Here Jesus is speaking against it and then admits that God allowed divorce. Oh, He gives a reason. But He allowed it. I hate it when God gets things wrong. How are you supposed to teach that divorce is against God’s will when He gave people an out because of the hardness of their hearts? Wouldn’t that just give people an out today?
Actually, what Jesus is doing is what He always does. He responds according to what is in our hearts. He responds according to what He knows we need. If you seek what you want according to the Law what you will get is the Law. If you are given the Gospel it will be Law to you. On the other hand, if you seek the Gospel that is exactly what you will get. If you get Law you will think it is Gospel, only, it won’t be. God always gives you exactly what you need. Sometimes you need Law. Sometimes you need Gospel.
It all gets to be a very messy affair, this business of Law and Gospel. It’s kind of like a family. Having a family is a messy affair. There’s all kinds of people running around the house complaining about how so and so isn’t doing enough work and so and so messed up my homework and so and so won’t leave me alone and so and so said she’d play with me but now is playing with so and so and some people in the family are just wondering if there will be any peace and quiet at some point in this day or if the yelling and the TV and other annoying sounds will continue on into eternity.
Families do not always seem to be a place of refuge of love and peace and quiet. Maybe that’s why the Pharisees come at the whole situation to Jesus from a Law perspective. If it gets to be where being in this family is bringing me down, can I just get out? I notice Mark yet again doesn’t tell us what the disciples asked Jesus but he does give us Jesus’ response, and if we can judge from that we can see that the disciples still weren’t getting it. Though not testing Jesus as the Pharisees were, they were approaching marriage and family from the same Law perspective as the Pharisees were.
There’s not a whole lot of difference between the Pharisees and the disciples. Conversely, there’s a universe of difference between them and Jesus. They approach marital and family matters the way they approach life. What do I need to do to make this better? How can I make this work? What can I do to get out of it what will be best for me? We are heirs of an astonishingly pathetic tradition. It can be summed up in the cartoon. It’s a condition we all suffer from. We’re alive. Which means, we’re dead. Living for us means what can we do to satisfy ourselves in this life. What that means for us is death. It means if we approach these matters, and life itself, from a Law perspective we’ll get a Law answer. And the Law always condemns. It doesn’t only condemn, but it always condemns. It guides and instructs and shows us the best way, but it never leaves you where you need to be. It always leaves you coming up short. It always ends up condemning you.
On the other hand is the Gospel. But this too is a messy affair. Because the Gospel only comes in when you’re in the mess of sin and need. The Gospel comes in for you, a sinner. Those cute little kids that were being brought to Jesus were cute little sinners. We can smile all we want at the cute little baby in her little white Baptismal outfit. But the true joy that comes from that baby’s life is not in being cute but in being drowned in the waters of Baptism and raised to eternal life.
There will come a point where God will leave you to your own desires. Your ways are the ways of the Law. He will not force the Gospel upon you. He will always offer it to you, but never beat you down with it. If you want to get out of marriage or life only what you want to get out of it He will let you go your own way. But He will always be there for you, offering you the blessing you need. That’s why He blessed those children, because they needed it. They weren’t just cute. They were sinners. They needed to be forgiven. That’s why they were brought to Jesus. That’s why we bring babies and children and adults to the font to be Baptized. To be blessed. To receive the blessing of Christ. To receive salvation. To receive eternal life. To be forgiven of all their sins. To go from that font a child of God.
No matter, our sinful flesh will sit there and step into the role of Pharisee or ignorant disciple. But the Kingdom of God belongs to children! Why do they need Baptism if Jesus says to such belongs His Kingdom?! Yes, our Old Adam loves to approach things from the Law. That’s what got us into the mess we’re in and the need for the Gospel in the first place. We’re shackled by the Law. It’s like being in a marriage you feel like you’re suffocating in. Your consuming thought is How can I get out of this? It’s like longing for the day you can get out from under the demands of your parents so that you can have the freedom that will make your life so much better. The Law will always get you to a place that will leave you coming up short.
Jesus does not say the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. You don’t get into heaven simply because you’re a child. You get into it when you are such as they are. And how is that? Well, they certainly didn’t do anything. They didn’t come to Jesus. They didn’t ask Him for anything. They were brought. They were brought to Jesus by their parents. And that is how we must be. We must be brought to Jesus. We can’t come to Him on our own. They didn’t do anything; neither can we.
We get in not because of what we do but because of what has been done to us. We are brought into the eternal Family of God through Baptism. Our Lord is our Savior. Our Master is not ashamed to be called our brother. He has brought us into His family in which there is no longer any genetic strain of sin. We are born of God and inherit the righteousness of Christ. We are brought into a relationship that is of unconditional love. Our Lord is our Husband. We are His Bride. We are joined to Him in Baptism. He invites us to celebrate the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
We await that day. We await it by celebrating a foretaste of it in His Holy Supper. It was a messy affair what Jesus did in instituting His Holy Supper. About to die. To put His life in place of ours. To be the sacrifice, the one slain, the one whose blood was shed. There was no messier affair, the sins of fallen humanity shouldered by the sinless Lamb of God, and yet no more beautiful thing in all of history, no greater love shown. The risen Lord and Christ now comes to you in His very same Body and Blood to grant you His life, His forgiveness, His salvation. Amen.
SDG
October 4, 2009
Mark 10:2-16
This came in the email just in time for today’s Gospel reading which is about marriage and family. Questions about marriage are asked of children:
“How do you decide who to marry?”
Alan, age 10, says: You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
Kirsten, age 10, says: No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.
“What is the right age to get married?”
Camille, age 10, says: Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
And you have to wonder what kind of home Freddie, age 6, grew up in to say: No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.
“How can a stranger tell if two people are married?”
Derrick, age 8, opines: You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
Out of the mouths of babes often comes the harsh reality of how sin has impacted God’s instituting of marriage. One of my favorite comic strips, the Wizard of Id, shows us exactly the problem here. A woman in a funeral home standing next to the coffin of her deceased husband says to another woman: An operation might have saved him, but our insurance denied it. Apparently he had a pre-existing condition. To which the other woman asked, What was it? This met with the response: He was alive.
Jesus shows us that this is our problem in the Gospel reading today. Whether you are married or single, divorced or have never been married or are widowed, have children or not able to, grew up in a big family or are an only child, adopted or orphaned, there is something you all have in common: you are all part of a family. In families genes are passed along. We carry on certain traits. One thing that has been passed along from Adam and Eve was alluded to in the comic strip and evidenced by the children who were asked how they view marriage: we are all born in sin. This is called original sin and we can no more escape that genetic trait than we can our eye color or a congenital disease.
God’s creation is perfect, our sin has damaged it. How we approach the good things God has created is even tainted with sin. Today’s Gospel reading gives us some good examples of this. How the Pharisees approach God’s gift of marriage betrays their approach to it. They ask a question consistent with the Law. But this begs the question, doesn’t it? After all, who is the author of the Law? It is God. Jesus even affirms that the Law in the Old Testament permitted divorce. Here Jesus is speaking against it and then admits that God allowed divorce. Oh, He gives a reason. But He allowed it. I hate it when God gets things wrong. How are you supposed to teach that divorce is against God’s will when He gave people an out because of the hardness of their hearts? Wouldn’t that just give people an out today?
Actually, what Jesus is doing is what He always does. He responds according to what is in our hearts. He responds according to what He knows we need. If you seek what you want according to the Law what you will get is the Law. If you are given the Gospel it will be Law to you. On the other hand, if you seek the Gospel that is exactly what you will get. If you get Law you will think it is Gospel, only, it won’t be. God always gives you exactly what you need. Sometimes you need Law. Sometimes you need Gospel.
It all gets to be a very messy affair, this business of Law and Gospel. It’s kind of like a family. Having a family is a messy affair. There’s all kinds of people running around the house complaining about how so and so isn’t doing enough work and so and so messed up my homework and so and so won’t leave me alone and so and so said she’d play with me but now is playing with so and so and some people in the family are just wondering if there will be any peace and quiet at some point in this day or if the yelling and the TV and other annoying sounds will continue on into eternity.
Families do not always seem to be a place of refuge of love and peace and quiet. Maybe that’s why the Pharisees come at the whole situation to Jesus from a Law perspective. If it gets to be where being in this family is bringing me down, can I just get out? I notice Mark yet again doesn’t tell us what the disciples asked Jesus but he does give us Jesus’ response, and if we can judge from that we can see that the disciples still weren’t getting it. Though not testing Jesus as the Pharisees were, they were approaching marriage and family from the same Law perspective as the Pharisees were.
There’s not a whole lot of difference between the Pharisees and the disciples. Conversely, there’s a universe of difference between them and Jesus. They approach marital and family matters the way they approach life. What do I need to do to make this better? How can I make this work? What can I do to get out of it what will be best for me? We are heirs of an astonishingly pathetic tradition. It can be summed up in the cartoon. It’s a condition we all suffer from. We’re alive. Which means, we’re dead. Living for us means what can we do to satisfy ourselves in this life. What that means for us is death. It means if we approach these matters, and life itself, from a Law perspective we’ll get a Law answer. And the Law always condemns. It doesn’t only condemn, but it always condemns. It guides and instructs and shows us the best way, but it never leaves you where you need to be. It always leaves you coming up short. It always ends up condemning you.
On the other hand is the Gospel. But this too is a messy affair. Because the Gospel only comes in when you’re in the mess of sin and need. The Gospel comes in for you, a sinner. Those cute little kids that were being brought to Jesus were cute little sinners. We can smile all we want at the cute little baby in her little white Baptismal outfit. But the true joy that comes from that baby’s life is not in being cute but in being drowned in the waters of Baptism and raised to eternal life.
There will come a point where God will leave you to your own desires. Your ways are the ways of the Law. He will not force the Gospel upon you. He will always offer it to you, but never beat you down with it. If you want to get out of marriage or life only what you want to get out of it He will let you go your own way. But He will always be there for you, offering you the blessing you need. That’s why He blessed those children, because they needed it. They weren’t just cute. They were sinners. They needed to be forgiven. That’s why they were brought to Jesus. That’s why we bring babies and children and adults to the font to be Baptized. To be blessed. To receive the blessing of Christ. To receive salvation. To receive eternal life. To be forgiven of all their sins. To go from that font a child of God.
No matter, our sinful flesh will sit there and step into the role of Pharisee or ignorant disciple. But the Kingdom of God belongs to children! Why do they need Baptism if Jesus says to such belongs His Kingdom?! Yes, our Old Adam loves to approach things from the Law. That’s what got us into the mess we’re in and the need for the Gospel in the first place. We’re shackled by the Law. It’s like being in a marriage you feel like you’re suffocating in. Your consuming thought is How can I get out of this? It’s like longing for the day you can get out from under the demands of your parents so that you can have the freedom that will make your life so much better. The Law will always get you to a place that will leave you coming up short.
Jesus does not say the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. You don’t get into heaven simply because you’re a child. You get into it when you are such as they are. And how is that? Well, they certainly didn’t do anything. They didn’t come to Jesus. They didn’t ask Him for anything. They were brought. They were brought to Jesus by their parents. And that is how we must be. We must be brought to Jesus. We can’t come to Him on our own. They didn’t do anything; neither can we.
We get in not because of what we do but because of what has been done to us. We are brought into the eternal Family of God through Baptism. Our Lord is our Savior. Our Master is not ashamed to be called our brother. He has brought us into His family in which there is no longer any genetic strain of sin. We are born of God and inherit the righteousness of Christ. We are brought into a relationship that is of unconditional love. Our Lord is our Husband. We are His Bride. We are joined to Him in Baptism. He invites us to celebrate the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
We await that day. We await it by celebrating a foretaste of it in His Holy Supper. It was a messy affair what Jesus did in instituting His Holy Supper. About to die. To put His life in place of ours. To be the sacrifice, the one slain, the one whose blood was shed. There was no messier affair, the sins of fallen humanity shouldered by the sinless Lamb of God, and yet no more beautiful thing in all of history, no greater love shown. The risen Lord and Christ now comes to you in His very same Body and Blood to grant you His life, His forgiveness, His salvation. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A Simple Faith
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 27, 2009
Mark 9:38-50
Sometimes you’re met with a passage of Scripture and the only thing you’re convinced of is that you don’t know what it means. You struggle with interpreting it, understanding the meaning of it, and you walk away with an uneasy feeling, that maybe your faith is now a little weaker. You wonder that if it’s this hard then maybe it’s better just to stick with the basics, Jesus died for you and has saved you. You know that. Faith ultimately tells you that. Your faith at least clings to that.
If you look at the words of Christ in the Gospel reading and you’re left scratching your head, know this—He is doing His usual thing: He’s preaching Himself into your life. He’s calling you to and instilling in you faith. And if it seems it makes no sense then take comfort that He’s calling you to a simple faith.
This in no way means a simplistic faith. You might not want to hear it, but it doesn’t mean an easy faith, either. But it is simple.
Life often is not easy. Some seem to have a simplistic life. Most people I know have anything but. Lots going on all over the place and difficulty trying to keep up with it all. We might wish to come in here on Sunday morning, away from our hectic lives, and hear a nice simplistic message from God. But God’s life and message are not simplistic anymore than our lives are not simplistic.
But simple is something He is very willing to offer. Simplistic things don’t have much to them. Simple things can be as profound as anything. This is what we have here. Far from not having much to it, the simple faith Jesus calls us to and instills in us has more to it than we can ever imagine.
We tend to approach faith, our Christian life in a simplistic way. We get a little too full of ourselves and think that the Kingdom of God will go astray if it’s not under our tight control. Jesus nudges us back a little and says, “Don’t worry about it, the Kingdom of God will increase by all those people over there preaching the Gospel in a way that doesn’t fit into our mold.”
But what about heresy? What if they’re teaching false doctrine? Shouldn’t we be spending our time preventing those people from engaging in Ministry that could lead people astray? Jesus Himself vehemently attacked those who were leading people astray. Didn’t He strictly warn us about those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Is Jesus going soft on us in today’s Gospel reading?
No softer than when spoke on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Preaching or teaching false doctrine is an attack on Jesus Christ even as nailing Him to a cross was. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, even those who oppose Him in their false teaching. Jesus died on the cross for everyone—it includes them. Paul says to the Philippians: “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” (ESV) It’s as if Paul was taking his cue from Jesus, hearing the simple message from his Lord: Chill out.
Jesus’ ways are never our ways. We desire a strong faith. A mighty faith. A faith that can move mountains. Jesus calls us to a simple faith. That is what He instills in us, through His very preaching as we have it here today in this Gospel reading. He never justifies false teaching, but even He can work through it. He even uses us in our lives even though we remain sinners.
And maybe that’s the point. We get caught up in personalities and mannerisms and customs and Jesus wants us simply to see Him. A simple faith. That’s what He is calling us to. How else could a simple cup of water be such a big deal in God’s eyes? Anyone can give a cup of water to anyone who’s thirsty and go on their merry way feeling pretty darned pleased with themselves. But to Jesus this is as if it is the very key into the gate of heaven. He will by no means lose his reward.
A simple faith has no thought of it this way. A simple faith simply clings to Christ. It sees in one who is in need not an opportunity for extravagant claims to God of righteousness within oneself but rather simply an opportunity to serve. A simple faith does that. With no thought to it. With no claim to eternal reward but simply out of thanks for that eternal reward. If this were simplistic Jesus would just say: Help people out who are in need so that you may be rewarded for it. That is the way of the world and is therefore the dominant world religion. Jesus counters with a simple faith: cling to the one who hung on the cross and thirsted so that we may drink freely of the water of life and share that simple cup with others.
That’s where a simple faith is always looking to. Where it is always focusing on. Jesus. Christ and Him crucified. It takes the words that He says and takes them for what they are: an opportunity to be slain by the Lord Himself in order to be raised to new life in which we are sustained daily in simple faith. Being sustained in this faith means a daily dying and rising. While the picture of a man being weighted down to the bottom of the sea is a frightening one, and a warning to those who are in the faith, one who is in the faith cannot help but notice this is the kind of God we’re dealing with. One who likes to operate in this dying and rising mode. Jesus Himself going to the cross. Jesus Himself conquering the very death that had captured Him by rising from death. Jesus Himself slaying our sinful nature in the waters of Baptism. While His words of the Gospel reading are a warning, the actual occurrence of what happens in Baptism is that we drowned in those waters. We die. We are joined to Christ in His death. This is what faith always clings to and it is first given in Baptism. Faith makes that Old Adam come alive in the form of a New Man. The old sinful nature that clung to us is drowned and raised to new life.
It is a life of faith. Simple but never simplistic. It is a constant battle, one of scratching our heads of what is Jesus talking about? We look at His words in the Gospel reading and He seems to be all over the map. Maybe He’s trying to keep up with us. Because our faith, simple as it is, often seems to us simplistic and we find ourselves searching more. Things that entice us sometime get a hold of us. Our clinging to Christ seems to slip away. You are Baptized. You may lose your grip but He’s not going to let you go. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Our sinful nature says: There won’t be any of me left! A simple faith says: Maybe that’s the point.
There shouldn’t be any of you left. Only Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. It is by faith I live. Simple. Constantly clinging to Christ, not those urges I have to tell a white lie, or think that that other guy over there is going about things all the wrong way, or sneaking a peak at someone else’s wife, or using your feet to go into places you shouldn’t be going—even if it’s a restaurant during the time you should be here.
A simple faith sees in the life God has given us an opportunity for sacrifice. Thank God you don’t have to get out your knife and start chopping yourself up when you sin. Christ has made that sacrifice. It was whole and it covers your sins. A simple faith clings to that and that alone. Your life is now a sacrifice. You can thank of it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. This is the sacrifice of the whole body. Or rather, your whole life. Old Testament sacrifices were seasoned with salt—it’s amazing what you learn when you keep going back to the Scriptures. I didn’t know that, or had forgotten it long ago. You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. “You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” (Leviticus 2:13 ESV) Now Jesus is saying that we are the sacrifice. Rather than cut off your hand or pluck out your eye, your whole being, your life, all who you are is seasoned with the salt of fire.
A simple faith clings to Christ. It seeks what our Lord seeks. We subdue our selfish desires and seek to be at peace with one another. Have you tried that? It’s hard. It’s easy to argue, to get the upper hand. In fact, hey, I know some people like that. The disciples had just gotten through with a session of who is the greatest apostle. They had just tried to tell off an outsider that he wasn’t one of them so he should bug off. But to be at peace with one another, that often seems a fantasy rather than a reality.
But Jesus is simple in His call to faith and instilling it in us: Be at peace with one another. Have salt in yourselves. He doesn’t simply exhort us to that way of life but brings about what it says. Paul in Colossians says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” I can only attribute it to the power and grace of God that I have held my tongue at times and have been at peace with certain people. A simple faith does that. Because Christ is, simply, your Savior. Amen.
SDG
September 27, 2009
Mark 9:38-50
Sometimes you’re met with a passage of Scripture and the only thing you’re convinced of is that you don’t know what it means. You struggle with interpreting it, understanding the meaning of it, and you walk away with an uneasy feeling, that maybe your faith is now a little weaker. You wonder that if it’s this hard then maybe it’s better just to stick with the basics, Jesus died for you and has saved you. You know that. Faith ultimately tells you that. Your faith at least clings to that.
If you look at the words of Christ in the Gospel reading and you’re left scratching your head, know this—He is doing His usual thing: He’s preaching Himself into your life. He’s calling you to and instilling in you faith. And if it seems it makes no sense then take comfort that He’s calling you to a simple faith.
This in no way means a simplistic faith. You might not want to hear it, but it doesn’t mean an easy faith, either. But it is simple.
Life often is not easy. Some seem to have a simplistic life. Most people I know have anything but. Lots going on all over the place and difficulty trying to keep up with it all. We might wish to come in here on Sunday morning, away from our hectic lives, and hear a nice simplistic message from God. But God’s life and message are not simplistic anymore than our lives are not simplistic.
But simple is something He is very willing to offer. Simplistic things don’t have much to them. Simple things can be as profound as anything. This is what we have here. Far from not having much to it, the simple faith Jesus calls us to and instills in us has more to it than we can ever imagine.
We tend to approach faith, our Christian life in a simplistic way. We get a little too full of ourselves and think that the Kingdom of God will go astray if it’s not under our tight control. Jesus nudges us back a little and says, “Don’t worry about it, the Kingdom of God will increase by all those people over there preaching the Gospel in a way that doesn’t fit into our mold.”
But what about heresy? What if they’re teaching false doctrine? Shouldn’t we be spending our time preventing those people from engaging in Ministry that could lead people astray? Jesus Himself vehemently attacked those who were leading people astray. Didn’t He strictly warn us about those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Is Jesus going soft on us in today’s Gospel reading?
No softer than when spoke on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Preaching or teaching false doctrine is an attack on Jesus Christ even as nailing Him to a cross was. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, even those who oppose Him in their false teaching. Jesus died on the cross for everyone—it includes them. Paul says to the Philippians: “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” (ESV) It’s as if Paul was taking his cue from Jesus, hearing the simple message from his Lord: Chill out.
Jesus’ ways are never our ways. We desire a strong faith. A mighty faith. A faith that can move mountains. Jesus calls us to a simple faith. That is what He instills in us, through His very preaching as we have it here today in this Gospel reading. He never justifies false teaching, but even He can work through it. He even uses us in our lives even though we remain sinners.
And maybe that’s the point. We get caught up in personalities and mannerisms and customs and Jesus wants us simply to see Him. A simple faith. That’s what He is calling us to. How else could a simple cup of water be such a big deal in God’s eyes? Anyone can give a cup of water to anyone who’s thirsty and go on their merry way feeling pretty darned pleased with themselves. But to Jesus this is as if it is the very key into the gate of heaven. He will by no means lose his reward.
A simple faith has no thought of it this way. A simple faith simply clings to Christ. It sees in one who is in need not an opportunity for extravagant claims to God of righteousness within oneself but rather simply an opportunity to serve. A simple faith does that. With no thought to it. With no claim to eternal reward but simply out of thanks for that eternal reward. If this were simplistic Jesus would just say: Help people out who are in need so that you may be rewarded for it. That is the way of the world and is therefore the dominant world religion. Jesus counters with a simple faith: cling to the one who hung on the cross and thirsted so that we may drink freely of the water of life and share that simple cup with others.
That’s where a simple faith is always looking to. Where it is always focusing on. Jesus. Christ and Him crucified. It takes the words that He says and takes them for what they are: an opportunity to be slain by the Lord Himself in order to be raised to new life in which we are sustained daily in simple faith. Being sustained in this faith means a daily dying and rising. While the picture of a man being weighted down to the bottom of the sea is a frightening one, and a warning to those who are in the faith, one who is in the faith cannot help but notice this is the kind of God we’re dealing with. One who likes to operate in this dying and rising mode. Jesus Himself going to the cross. Jesus Himself conquering the very death that had captured Him by rising from death. Jesus Himself slaying our sinful nature in the waters of Baptism. While His words of the Gospel reading are a warning, the actual occurrence of what happens in Baptism is that we drowned in those waters. We die. We are joined to Christ in His death. This is what faith always clings to and it is first given in Baptism. Faith makes that Old Adam come alive in the form of a New Man. The old sinful nature that clung to us is drowned and raised to new life.
It is a life of faith. Simple but never simplistic. It is a constant battle, one of scratching our heads of what is Jesus talking about? We look at His words in the Gospel reading and He seems to be all over the map. Maybe He’s trying to keep up with us. Because our faith, simple as it is, often seems to us simplistic and we find ourselves searching more. Things that entice us sometime get a hold of us. Our clinging to Christ seems to slip away. You are Baptized. You may lose your grip but He’s not going to let you go. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Our sinful nature says: There won’t be any of me left! A simple faith says: Maybe that’s the point.
There shouldn’t be any of you left. Only Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. It is by faith I live. Simple. Constantly clinging to Christ, not those urges I have to tell a white lie, or think that that other guy over there is going about things all the wrong way, or sneaking a peak at someone else’s wife, or using your feet to go into places you shouldn’t be going—even if it’s a restaurant during the time you should be here.
A simple faith sees in the life God has given us an opportunity for sacrifice. Thank God you don’t have to get out your knife and start chopping yourself up when you sin. Christ has made that sacrifice. It was whole and it covers your sins. A simple faith clings to that and that alone. Your life is now a sacrifice. You can thank of it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. This is the sacrifice of the whole body. Or rather, your whole life. Old Testament sacrifices were seasoned with salt—it’s amazing what you learn when you keep going back to the Scriptures. I didn’t know that, or had forgotten it long ago. You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. “You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” (Leviticus 2:13 ESV) Now Jesus is saying that we are the sacrifice. Rather than cut off your hand or pluck out your eye, your whole being, your life, all who you are is seasoned with the salt of fire.
A simple faith clings to Christ. It seeks what our Lord seeks. We subdue our selfish desires and seek to be at peace with one another. Have you tried that? It’s hard. It’s easy to argue, to get the upper hand. In fact, hey, I know some people like that. The disciples had just gotten through with a session of who is the greatest apostle. They had just tried to tell off an outsider that he wasn’t one of them so he should bug off. But to be at peace with one another, that often seems a fantasy rather than a reality.
But Jesus is simple in His call to faith and instilling it in us: Be at peace with one another. Have salt in yourselves. He doesn’t simply exhort us to that way of life but brings about what it says. Paul in Colossians says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” I can only attribute it to the power and grace of God that I have held my tongue at times and have been at peace with certain people. A simple faith does that. Because Christ is, simply, your Savior. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Greatness of Weakness
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 20, 2009
Mark 9:30-37
He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Why are you praying for strength when you ought to be praying for weakness?
Are you still caught up in the way the world looks at things that you would seek the opposite of what God thinks you ought to have? Do you so easily go through the motions of the liturgy that you don’t take time to meditate on what each part is saying to you, the faith that you are confessing, what it means for you?
In the Collect we prayed: “O God, whose strength is made perfect in weakness, grant us humility and childlike faith that we may please You in both will and deed.”
I have prayed for strength many times. I desire it often. Especially in times of need. Especially when I’m weak. It’s natural, isn’t it? Maybe that’s the problem. We’re weak, so we need strength.
But that’s not what the Collect says. It’s not what we prayed. It’s not what we ought to seek. What we’re praying for is weakness. It is in our weakness that we are strong. Not when we’re strong. When we’re strong we’re weak. Paul says God’s power is made perfect in weakness so that’s what we pray in the Collect.
We pray for strength. We pray everything will be all right. We ask God to turn things favorably our way.
But we don’t pray for weakness.
That’s why we need the liturgy. The liturgy helps us pray for what we ought to pray. It guides us in praying in the way we ought to pray.
And so we pray for weakness.
God is great, of course. We are comforted in knowing that we have an all-powerful God. But His greatness is not in His greatness but in His weakness. The genius of God is that He makes Himself known in weakness, humility. His power is made perfect in weakness.
Why were the disciples discussing among themselves who was the greatest? Was it because they were arrogant? Were they like many men who couldn’t keep from making a competition out of everything? Had one of them issued a challenge and the others couldn’t help but accept the challenge?
Mark says they didn’t understand what Jesus had been saying to them. Here’s the thing, it was the opposite of who was the greatest. Jesus wasn’t trying show them how He was greater than all of them combined, He was preparing them for His suffering and death and resurrection. They didn’t understand what He was getting at. And they were afraid to ask. We don’t have to deal with that now. It was a long trip back to Capernaum and they had to talk about something. Perhaps the failed attempt at casting out the demon from the boy was still fresh in their minds, sparking protests of fault and rationalization to go around.
There’s no weakness here. There’s no talk of Christ. It’s all about strength. It’s all about how you’re consumed with yourself and how pleased you are with yourself. How much better off you’d be if things would work out a little better in your life than they do. It certainly should follow that a great God—the Almighty God, Lord of Creation—would bring about great things in your life. But instead, He invites us, pleads with us, to pray for weakness. That’s where power is known. That’s how His greatness is perfected.
In weakness.
They didn’t understand. Will we? Will we see in His words what we need to know so that we may be content, even seek weakness? Jesus wasn’t just telling them He would suffer and die. He was laying out on the table how God brings about His power. It is in weakness. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” He doesn’t say that He will walk up to that cross to die on behalf of the world. He will be handed over. Betrayed. He will willingly suffer the indignity of being falsely accused and arrested and mocked and led to the slaughter. He will walk to that cross in humility, in weakness.
The whole way through Jesus never prays for strength. He never seeks power from His Heavenly Father. He humbly goes the way in weakness.
How can you receive strength if you are praying for it? How can you expect power from God if you are seeking it? Instead, learn from the liturgy and pray for God’s strength to be made perfect in weakness. Learn from how we pray in the liturgy that after we are absolved of our sins we pray the Kyrie. The words “Kyrie eleison” mean “Lord, have mercy.” Why do we pray for mercy right after being absolved of our sins? Are we ever not in need of Christ’s mercy? Might we go from the Absolution and think that now we’re good to go? Might we walk away from there forgetting that it is always the mercy of God we need? Not power. Not strength. Not greater.
The Absolution is, of course, pure mercy. It is the pure forgiveness of sins, God’s mercy toward us in His Son Jesus Christ. But we tend to forget that, don’t we? Perhaps even in the seconds after being absolved. So there is the Kyrie to turn us back toward Christ. The plea for mercy. The prayer of the one who is weak, not strong.
Why are you seeking greatness and strength from God? Rather, seek weakness. He comes to you plainly. In ordinary bread. In ordinary wine. He said it to His disciples but embodied the words Himself: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” There will be multiple times this week you will wish you had stronger faith—turn your thoughts back toward the very Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is in the humble means of bread and wine—not in power—that He has delivered Himself over to you so that you may receive Him in His Holy Supper.
God’s greatness is in His weakness. He made Himself weak so that you may be strong. Your strength is in weakness. When you are being bugged by people you will recall in the liturgy that it is in your weakness God has called you to be their servant. Glory in the fact that you are a poor miserable sinner. Mercy is your plea and mercy is what your Lord God grants you. He has come, after all, to serve you. Amen.
SDG
September 20, 2009
Mark 9:30-37
He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Why are you praying for strength when you ought to be praying for weakness?
Are you still caught up in the way the world looks at things that you would seek the opposite of what God thinks you ought to have? Do you so easily go through the motions of the liturgy that you don’t take time to meditate on what each part is saying to you, the faith that you are confessing, what it means for you?
In the Collect we prayed: “O God, whose strength is made perfect in weakness, grant us humility and childlike faith that we may please You in both will and deed.”
I have prayed for strength many times. I desire it often. Especially in times of need. Especially when I’m weak. It’s natural, isn’t it? Maybe that’s the problem. We’re weak, so we need strength.
But that’s not what the Collect says. It’s not what we prayed. It’s not what we ought to seek. What we’re praying for is weakness. It is in our weakness that we are strong. Not when we’re strong. When we’re strong we’re weak. Paul says God’s power is made perfect in weakness so that’s what we pray in the Collect.
We pray for strength. We pray everything will be all right. We ask God to turn things favorably our way.
But we don’t pray for weakness.
That’s why we need the liturgy. The liturgy helps us pray for what we ought to pray. It guides us in praying in the way we ought to pray.
And so we pray for weakness.
God is great, of course. We are comforted in knowing that we have an all-powerful God. But His greatness is not in His greatness but in His weakness. The genius of God is that He makes Himself known in weakness, humility. His power is made perfect in weakness.
Why were the disciples discussing among themselves who was the greatest? Was it because they were arrogant? Were they like many men who couldn’t keep from making a competition out of everything? Had one of them issued a challenge and the others couldn’t help but accept the challenge?
Mark says they didn’t understand what Jesus had been saying to them. Here’s the thing, it was the opposite of who was the greatest. Jesus wasn’t trying show them how He was greater than all of them combined, He was preparing them for His suffering and death and resurrection. They didn’t understand what He was getting at. And they were afraid to ask. We don’t have to deal with that now. It was a long trip back to Capernaum and they had to talk about something. Perhaps the failed attempt at casting out the demon from the boy was still fresh in their minds, sparking protests of fault and rationalization to go around.
There’s no weakness here. There’s no talk of Christ. It’s all about strength. It’s all about how you’re consumed with yourself and how pleased you are with yourself. How much better off you’d be if things would work out a little better in your life than they do. It certainly should follow that a great God—the Almighty God, Lord of Creation—would bring about great things in your life. But instead, He invites us, pleads with us, to pray for weakness. That’s where power is known. That’s how His greatness is perfected.
In weakness.
They didn’t understand. Will we? Will we see in His words what we need to know so that we may be content, even seek weakness? Jesus wasn’t just telling them He would suffer and die. He was laying out on the table how God brings about His power. It is in weakness. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” He doesn’t say that He will walk up to that cross to die on behalf of the world. He will be handed over. Betrayed. He will willingly suffer the indignity of being falsely accused and arrested and mocked and led to the slaughter. He will walk to that cross in humility, in weakness.
The whole way through Jesus never prays for strength. He never seeks power from His Heavenly Father. He humbly goes the way in weakness.
How can you receive strength if you are praying for it? How can you expect power from God if you are seeking it? Instead, learn from the liturgy and pray for God’s strength to be made perfect in weakness. Learn from how we pray in the liturgy that after we are absolved of our sins we pray the Kyrie. The words “Kyrie eleison” mean “Lord, have mercy.” Why do we pray for mercy right after being absolved of our sins? Are we ever not in need of Christ’s mercy? Might we go from the Absolution and think that now we’re good to go? Might we walk away from there forgetting that it is always the mercy of God we need? Not power. Not strength. Not greater.
The Absolution is, of course, pure mercy. It is the pure forgiveness of sins, God’s mercy toward us in His Son Jesus Christ. But we tend to forget that, don’t we? Perhaps even in the seconds after being absolved. So there is the Kyrie to turn us back toward Christ. The plea for mercy. The prayer of the one who is weak, not strong.
Why are you seeking greatness and strength from God? Rather, seek weakness. He comes to you plainly. In ordinary bread. In ordinary wine. He said it to His disciples but embodied the words Himself: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” There will be multiple times this week you will wish you had stronger faith—turn your thoughts back toward the very Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is in the humble means of bread and wine—not in power—that He has delivered Himself over to you so that you may receive Him in His Holy Supper.
God’s greatness is in His weakness. He made Himself weak so that you may be strong. Your strength is in weakness. When you are being bugged by people you will recall in the liturgy that it is in your weakness God has called you to be their servant. Glory in the fact that you are a poor miserable sinner. Mercy is your plea and mercy is what your Lord God grants you. He has come, after all, to serve you. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 13, 2009
A Life of Prayer
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 13, 2009
Mark 9:14-29
I imagine you haven’t attempted casting out any demons lately. Probably, you’ve never done so in your life. The disciples had. Why couldn’t they do it now? What was wrong? Why wasn’t it working? Things had worked so well previously when Jesus had sent them out with authority over demons. But now, nothing.
Why couldn’t they do it?, they asked Jesus. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer,” He told them. So there you have it. If you’re ever in need of casting out a demon, you have the method straight from Jesus.
Does this imply that the disciples had not prayed in this instance? Does it mean that when they had been casting out demons previously that they had done so in prayer? And for some reason this time they forgot? Or that they had begun thinking a little too much of themselves and thought they could simply waltz over to the boy and cast that demon out?
We don’t know. What we do know is that they didn’t approach this situation in a prayerful manner. What we know is that Jesus cast out the demon immediately. Did He pray beforehand? Was he, as Paul similarly exhorts all Christians to pray constantly, in a state of constant prayer?
Jesus utters no prayer in this incident that Mark records. But could we see in Jesus’ cry of exasperation a cry of prayer? He is speaking of a world that is in unbelief, and yet, in that very cry we also see infinite longsuffering and mercy. “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” How long would He bear with them? Well, as long as it would take. Here we see the life of prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. His life was a prayer. A willingness to offer Himself up as the servant of His Father to a lost and foundering world. His cry was not one of giving up but of a longing for the people He created to trust solely in Him.
This life that Jesus lived consisted not only of dying on the cross and rising from the grave, His life was one of living in such a way that you and I cannot. And perhaps more to the point, that you and I are unwilling to do. We all too easily pronounce the work of God as dead when He is at His most powerful. How many times have we thought that God was unable or unwilling to act when our loved ones lay helplessly on their death bed? How often have we questioned His power or His will when we are unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we are experiencing difficult times?
We’d like the work of God to be clean and easy, painless. Instead, we see God at work and it’s messy and even brutal. When Jesus came on the scene and discovered the affliction of the boy He could very well have ousted the demon and been done with it. But instead Jesus prolonged the agony of the boy by asking the father questions. Then, when Jesus finally ousted the demon, He allowed it to have one last hurrah, so much so that the boy was violently convulsed and looked to be dead rather than freed from the demon.
And though the child was not dead Jesus certainly showed what His work is all about. Or perhaps a better way of saying it: how He works. Through death and resurrection. The boy they thought was dead was now being raised up by Jesus’ own hand. The demon who appeared to have so much agonizing power over the boy was now merely a wisp in the wind. Jesus did indeed allow that demon to shake up the boy so that we can see that even when it appears that the forces against us are more powerful than God that God indeed is the one who is mightily at work, and who Himself is having the last hurrah. This was a prelude for Jesus’ own death and resurrection. Satan Himself was allowed by God to violently shake the world of Jesus, even bringing Him to His knees in death. But who was really exerting the power? It was Jesus Himself. In His humble and merciful way. Choosing a destiny far worse than what that boy had experienced. Jesus took on that boy’s sin. And the sin of his father. And every person’s sin, including yours and mine.
Some had accused the disciples of being fakes, they couldn’t even exorcise a demon from a boy. People said worse about Jesus Himself. The one who vanquished the demon from the boy was Himself vanquished on the cross. “Come down from the cross and prove to us You are the Son of God.” None of this becomes clear of why Jesus did this and what it means until He walks out of His grave. Things certainly hadn’t been clear to the disciples. They asked Jesus what was wrong. They didn’t understand that their Lord was the God who takes on Satan and sin head on by dying and rising.
How could they understand this if they were focused on this power they had over demons? The power they had over demons had nothing to do with anything inherent in themselves. It had solely to do with Jesus giving them the power. They had gone in headfirst without any thought of their Lord and Savior and their reliance on Him. This kind cannot by driven out by anything but prayer. They were following along with Jesus, but did they trust solely in Him? Following Jesus is living a life of prayer.
The father questioned whether Jesus could heal his boy. Jesus could have shown the father what was what—that of course He could heal the boy—but instead said that all things are possible for one who believes. This is what the disciples had been missing. A life of prayer. A life of faith. A life in which you see that you are not your own, your life is bound up in the one who is in the dying and rising business.
If the disciples had any further questions; if we have any doubts still; we can see what living a life of prayer means in the response of the father: “I believe; help my unbelief!” The life of prayer is one of constantly being aware that we are ever lacking in our faith, that we are always in need of the help and power and work of God. That in Christ alone is our hope of living even though we die. Of help even when all seems lost. Of comfort even when we’re in despair. That little or weak though our faith may be, the Holy Spirit has indeed given us faith.
That we prayerfully approach our Lord’s Table, knowing that without Him we can accomplish nothing. That the reason we need our Lord’s body and blood is because there is nothing inherent within us that can overcome the power of Satan. That no matter what we’re facing—spiritual struggles, or problems at work, or frustrations at home, or struggling against temptations, we may cry out, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” That as our Lord has lived a life of humility in prayer He will hear yours. As He has gone to the grave Himself and walked away from it, He has united Himself with you in your Baptism so that you also have died and risen. He sustains you in the faith He has granted you in body and soul, now and to life everlasting. Amen.
SDG
September 13, 2009
Mark 9:14-29
I imagine you haven’t attempted casting out any demons lately. Probably, you’ve never done so in your life. The disciples had. Why couldn’t they do it now? What was wrong? Why wasn’t it working? Things had worked so well previously when Jesus had sent them out with authority over demons. But now, nothing.
Why couldn’t they do it?, they asked Jesus. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer,” He told them. So there you have it. If you’re ever in need of casting out a demon, you have the method straight from Jesus.
Does this imply that the disciples had not prayed in this instance? Does it mean that when they had been casting out demons previously that they had done so in prayer? And for some reason this time they forgot? Or that they had begun thinking a little too much of themselves and thought they could simply waltz over to the boy and cast that demon out?
We don’t know. What we do know is that they didn’t approach this situation in a prayerful manner. What we know is that Jesus cast out the demon immediately. Did He pray beforehand? Was he, as Paul similarly exhorts all Christians to pray constantly, in a state of constant prayer?
Jesus utters no prayer in this incident that Mark records. But could we see in Jesus’ cry of exasperation a cry of prayer? He is speaking of a world that is in unbelief, and yet, in that very cry we also see infinite longsuffering and mercy. “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” How long would He bear with them? Well, as long as it would take. Here we see the life of prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. His life was a prayer. A willingness to offer Himself up as the servant of His Father to a lost and foundering world. His cry was not one of giving up but of a longing for the people He created to trust solely in Him.
This life that Jesus lived consisted not only of dying on the cross and rising from the grave, His life was one of living in such a way that you and I cannot. And perhaps more to the point, that you and I are unwilling to do. We all too easily pronounce the work of God as dead when He is at His most powerful. How many times have we thought that God was unable or unwilling to act when our loved ones lay helplessly on their death bed? How often have we questioned His power or His will when we are unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we are experiencing difficult times?
We’d like the work of God to be clean and easy, painless. Instead, we see God at work and it’s messy and even brutal. When Jesus came on the scene and discovered the affliction of the boy He could very well have ousted the demon and been done with it. But instead Jesus prolonged the agony of the boy by asking the father questions. Then, when Jesus finally ousted the demon, He allowed it to have one last hurrah, so much so that the boy was violently convulsed and looked to be dead rather than freed from the demon.
And though the child was not dead Jesus certainly showed what His work is all about. Or perhaps a better way of saying it: how He works. Through death and resurrection. The boy they thought was dead was now being raised up by Jesus’ own hand. The demon who appeared to have so much agonizing power over the boy was now merely a wisp in the wind. Jesus did indeed allow that demon to shake up the boy so that we can see that even when it appears that the forces against us are more powerful than God that God indeed is the one who is mightily at work, and who Himself is having the last hurrah. This was a prelude for Jesus’ own death and resurrection. Satan Himself was allowed by God to violently shake the world of Jesus, even bringing Him to His knees in death. But who was really exerting the power? It was Jesus Himself. In His humble and merciful way. Choosing a destiny far worse than what that boy had experienced. Jesus took on that boy’s sin. And the sin of his father. And every person’s sin, including yours and mine.
Some had accused the disciples of being fakes, they couldn’t even exorcise a demon from a boy. People said worse about Jesus Himself. The one who vanquished the demon from the boy was Himself vanquished on the cross. “Come down from the cross and prove to us You are the Son of God.” None of this becomes clear of why Jesus did this and what it means until He walks out of His grave. Things certainly hadn’t been clear to the disciples. They asked Jesus what was wrong. They didn’t understand that their Lord was the God who takes on Satan and sin head on by dying and rising.
How could they understand this if they were focused on this power they had over demons? The power they had over demons had nothing to do with anything inherent in themselves. It had solely to do with Jesus giving them the power. They had gone in headfirst without any thought of their Lord and Savior and their reliance on Him. This kind cannot by driven out by anything but prayer. They were following along with Jesus, but did they trust solely in Him? Following Jesus is living a life of prayer.
The father questioned whether Jesus could heal his boy. Jesus could have shown the father what was what—that of course He could heal the boy—but instead said that all things are possible for one who believes. This is what the disciples had been missing. A life of prayer. A life of faith. A life in which you see that you are not your own, your life is bound up in the one who is in the dying and rising business.
If the disciples had any further questions; if we have any doubts still; we can see what living a life of prayer means in the response of the father: “I believe; help my unbelief!” The life of prayer is one of constantly being aware that we are ever lacking in our faith, that we are always in need of the help and power and work of God. That in Christ alone is our hope of living even though we die. Of help even when all seems lost. Of comfort even when we’re in despair. That little or weak though our faith may be, the Holy Spirit has indeed given us faith.
That we prayerfully approach our Lord’s Table, knowing that without Him we can accomplish nothing. That the reason we need our Lord’s body and blood is because there is nothing inherent within us that can overcome the power of Satan. That no matter what we’re facing—spiritual struggles, or problems at work, or frustrations at home, or struggling against temptations, we may cry out, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” That as our Lord has lived a life of humility in prayer He will hear yours. As He has gone to the grave Himself and walked away from it, He has united Himself with you in your Baptism so that you also have died and risen. He sustains you in the faith He has granted you in body and soul, now and to life everlasting. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Why the Cross Is the Center of History
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rally Sunday
September 6, 2009
Mark 7:31-37
If the Gospel reading were the crucifixion of Jesus you would obviously have good reason to focus on the suffering and death of Christ. If the Gospel reading were of Jesus speaking of His suffering and death it would make good sense to emphasize that.
What about today’s Gospel reading? There’s no talk of the cross. There’s no mention of Jesus suffering and dying. There’s miraculous action He accomplishes. There’s mercy shown. There’s a bunch of people making known how great all of this stuff is.
But no talk of the cross.
It would be a great passage to show how God exhibits His power in our lives today as He did with the man who had his ears and mouth opened. A jumping off place to encourage us to make known far and wide the glory of Jesus and His miraculous power even as the crowds did back then. An obvious place to remind us that the Lord who showed mercy on that man is the same Lord who shows mercy upon us.
Yes, this passage would be great for all of that.
But better to do is ask, What is this passage telling us? What is it getting at? If we look at it simply for what it’s showing us we will come to see that the thrust of the passage is how the cross is the center of history.
With no mention of the cross, how can that be? It can be because that’s what Jesus is all about, the cross. Who He is and everything He does is all about the cross. This passage shows us that.
The people bring the man in need to Jesus and they beg Him to lay His hand on him. Even in our day of modern medicine we understand the healing power of touch. There’s something about a loved one or a person of authority holding your hand or placing their hand on you that immediately makes you feel better. But perhaps because of our reliance on modern medicine we have lost much of the significance of laying on of hands and of touch. The request of Jesus had as much to do with the wish to receive a blessing as it did to receive some sort of healing touch, if not more.
Jesus’ response shows us that there’s more to His answer of the request than meets the eye. He’s not helping out that day simply to give these men, and that man specifically, more than they had expected. No, He was wanting to show above all how the cross is the center of history.
And how is that? In the very act of opening the man’s ears and releasing his tongue Jesus was fulfilling what Isaiah prophesied in the Old Testament reading we heard this morning: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” Isaiah prophesied not of a miracle worker. Not of a healer that would be the talk of the town. Not of glory and power to be made known throughout the land. He prophesied of the Messiah. This was one of those many prophecies, allied with countless prophecies in the entire Old Testament, of the Messiah. The Messiah, the Savior of the world, would come to suffer and die in the place of sinners. This man who couldn’t hear and who had a speech impediment was one of those sinners. He received mercy that day. Not just in being able to hear and speak plainly, in being forgiven his sins because the one who touched Him was the Messiah, the one who went to the cross.
How we know the cross is the center of history from this remarkable event is because Jesus’ response to their response to Him doesn’t make sense apart from the cross. They had just witnessed a miraculous display of power and mercy. How could they not speak of it? Well, they could have obeyed Jesus. He charged them not to tell anyone. Why was that? Because the cross is the center of history. Not Jesus’ healing of people and not even His merciful helping of people in their needs. The cross.
The reason they disobeyed Him is because they didn’t understand this. They didn’t know. If we look at this passage and see no mention of the cross and deduce from that that the passage and the incident is not about the cross, then we’re as little understanding of who Jesus is as they were. They didn’t know about the cross. They were just gonna’ go tell everybody what they saw!
How the cross is the center of history is shown by Jesus trying to keep those people quiet about what they saw until after. After the cross. Because it doesn’t mean anything without the cross. Nothing.
It means nothing.
Apart from the cross nothing in the Bible makes any sense. Apart from the cross we have in Christianity one more religion among many. How the cross is the center of history is shown in Jesus’ emphatic but failed efforts to keep those people quiet. Because when it was time for the cross there was no one there. No one to speak of the glory or the power or the mercy or the miraculous. There was no one there because Jesus came for the cross, not for miracle working. There was no one there because no one wanted to have anything to do with a Messiah who would be beaten up and crucified.
But how the cross is the center of history is great and all, yet doesn’t quite tell us what we need to know. The sermon title isn’t how the cross is the center of history but why the cross is the center of history. You can know all about God’s power and miraculous work all you want, but you won’t get from that what you need to know, not apart from the cross. You can even know how the cross is the center of history but it will mean nothing to you if you don’t know why the cross is the center of history.
If we can rejoice in how people can blindly stumble into something good, then we can rejoice in those people who said something they didn’t understand but was very much true and of far greater importance than they had realized. “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Yes, He did indeed do these things. And yes, He has indeed done all things well. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you know the reason He has? The cross.
The cross is how our Lord has done all things well. What those people spoke of was miraculous power, not suffering and death, and yet, even in their feeble attempts to glorify God, they spoke of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, that the Messiah would come to do these things. What those people would soon find out, and what we gratefully know, is that in doing those things He showed He is the Messiah. And what did the Messiah come to do? Die on the cross. Suffer on behalf of the world. Receive the punishment every sinner who has ever lived deserves. That’s why the cross is the center of history.
God comes to you in your life in the same way He did with that man that one day as recorded by Mark. In mercy. In power. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Your Savior. Baptizing you so that your ears may be opened to continue hearing His Gospel your whole life through. Daily forgiving your sins as you die and rise remembering your Baptism, confessing your sins, rejoicing in His manifold forgiveness. Giving you His very Body and Blood in His Holy Supper so that your mouth may be opened to eat and drink of them and then to proclaim His death until He returns in glory. Calling to your mind His promises as He brought them through Isaiah and the prophets, Paul and the apostles, when you’re flat on your back in the hospital and could use some miraculous healing, if not simply a hand to hold yours. Strengthening you in those dark times when you’re hurting because you feel alone or are carrying a burden. Your Lord is the Lord who opened the ears and mouth of a man who needed a Savior. He is the one you know is your Savior because He is the one who went to the cross.
Without the cross there is no salvation, no forgiveness, no restoration of God’s creation. The cross is the greatest miracle, it is the most astonishing display of power and mercy in all of history. Why the cross is the center of history is because God saw humanity in its lost condition and looked upon it as He did that one man and opened to us the gate of heaven. Amen.
SDG
Rally Sunday
September 6, 2009
Mark 7:31-37
If the Gospel reading were the crucifixion of Jesus you would obviously have good reason to focus on the suffering and death of Christ. If the Gospel reading were of Jesus speaking of His suffering and death it would make good sense to emphasize that.
What about today’s Gospel reading? There’s no talk of the cross. There’s no mention of Jesus suffering and dying. There’s miraculous action He accomplishes. There’s mercy shown. There’s a bunch of people making known how great all of this stuff is.
But no talk of the cross.
It would be a great passage to show how God exhibits His power in our lives today as He did with the man who had his ears and mouth opened. A jumping off place to encourage us to make known far and wide the glory of Jesus and His miraculous power even as the crowds did back then. An obvious place to remind us that the Lord who showed mercy on that man is the same Lord who shows mercy upon us.
Yes, this passage would be great for all of that.
But better to do is ask, What is this passage telling us? What is it getting at? If we look at it simply for what it’s showing us we will come to see that the thrust of the passage is how the cross is the center of history.
With no mention of the cross, how can that be? It can be because that’s what Jesus is all about, the cross. Who He is and everything He does is all about the cross. This passage shows us that.
The people bring the man in need to Jesus and they beg Him to lay His hand on him. Even in our day of modern medicine we understand the healing power of touch. There’s something about a loved one or a person of authority holding your hand or placing their hand on you that immediately makes you feel better. But perhaps because of our reliance on modern medicine we have lost much of the significance of laying on of hands and of touch. The request of Jesus had as much to do with the wish to receive a blessing as it did to receive some sort of healing touch, if not more.
Jesus’ response shows us that there’s more to His answer of the request than meets the eye. He’s not helping out that day simply to give these men, and that man specifically, more than they had expected. No, He was wanting to show above all how the cross is the center of history.
And how is that? In the very act of opening the man’s ears and releasing his tongue Jesus was fulfilling what Isaiah prophesied in the Old Testament reading we heard this morning: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” Isaiah prophesied not of a miracle worker. Not of a healer that would be the talk of the town. Not of glory and power to be made known throughout the land. He prophesied of the Messiah. This was one of those many prophecies, allied with countless prophecies in the entire Old Testament, of the Messiah. The Messiah, the Savior of the world, would come to suffer and die in the place of sinners. This man who couldn’t hear and who had a speech impediment was one of those sinners. He received mercy that day. Not just in being able to hear and speak plainly, in being forgiven his sins because the one who touched Him was the Messiah, the one who went to the cross.
How we know the cross is the center of history from this remarkable event is because Jesus’ response to their response to Him doesn’t make sense apart from the cross. They had just witnessed a miraculous display of power and mercy. How could they not speak of it? Well, they could have obeyed Jesus. He charged them not to tell anyone. Why was that? Because the cross is the center of history. Not Jesus’ healing of people and not even His merciful helping of people in their needs. The cross.
The reason they disobeyed Him is because they didn’t understand this. They didn’t know. If we look at this passage and see no mention of the cross and deduce from that that the passage and the incident is not about the cross, then we’re as little understanding of who Jesus is as they were. They didn’t know about the cross. They were just gonna’ go tell everybody what they saw!
How the cross is the center of history is shown by Jesus trying to keep those people quiet about what they saw until after. After the cross. Because it doesn’t mean anything without the cross. Nothing.
It means nothing.
Apart from the cross nothing in the Bible makes any sense. Apart from the cross we have in Christianity one more religion among many. How the cross is the center of history is shown in Jesus’ emphatic but failed efforts to keep those people quiet. Because when it was time for the cross there was no one there. No one to speak of the glory or the power or the mercy or the miraculous. There was no one there because Jesus came for the cross, not for miracle working. There was no one there because no one wanted to have anything to do with a Messiah who would be beaten up and crucified.
But how the cross is the center of history is great and all, yet doesn’t quite tell us what we need to know. The sermon title isn’t how the cross is the center of history but why the cross is the center of history. You can know all about God’s power and miraculous work all you want, but you won’t get from that what you need to know, not apart from the cross. You can even know how the cross is the center of history but it will mean nothing to you if you don’t know why the cross is the center of history.
If we can rejoice in how people can blindly stumble into something good, then we can rejoice in those people who said something they didn’t understand but was very much true and of far greater importance than they had realized. “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Yes, He did indeed do these things. And yes, He has indeed done all things well. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you know the reason He has? The cross.
The cross is how our Lord has done all things well. What those people spoke of was miraculous power, not suffering and death, and yet, even in their feeble attempts to glorify God, they spoke of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, that the Messiah would come to do these things. What those people would soon find out, and what we gratefully know, is that in doing those things He showed He is the Messiah. And what did the Messiah come to do? Die on the cross. Suffer on behalf of the world. Receive the punishment every sinner who has ever lived deserves. That’s why the cross is the center of history.
God comes to you in your life in the same way He did with that man that one day as recorded by Mark. In mercy. In power. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Your Savior. Baptizing you so that your ears may be opened to continue hearing His Gospel your whole life through. Daily forgiving your sins as you die and rise remembering your Baptism, confessing your sins, rejoicing in His manifold forgiveness. Giving you His very Body and Blood in His Holy Supper so that your mouth may be opened to eat and drink of them and then to proclaim His death until He returns in glory. Calling to your mind His promises as He brought them through Isaiah and the prophets, Paul and the apostles, when you’re flat on your back in the hospital and could use some miraculous healing, if not simply a hand to hold yours. Strengthening you in those dark times when you’re hurting because you feel alone or are carrying a burden. Your Lord is the Lord who opened the ears and mouth of a man who needed a Savior. He is the one you know is your Savior because He is the one who went to the cross.
Without the cross there is no salvation, no forgiveness, no restoration of God’s creation. The cross is the greatest miracle, it is the most astonishing display of power and mercy in all of history. Why the cross is the center of history is because God saw humanity in its lost condition and looked upon it as He did that one man and opened to us the gate of heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Are You Also Without Understanding?
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 30, 2009
Mark 7:14-23
There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
Mark says the disciples asked Jesus about His little parable. I wonder what they asked. They had just seen the Pharisees go down in flames, Jesus upholding the action of the disciples in eating with unwashed hands. Now Jesus speaks to everyone within earshot this little parable. Were the disciples embarrassed to ask Jesus what He meant by that? Or did they maybe want to preserve Jesus’ honor by challenging Him in private: Jesus, You’ll have to convince us of that. Whether they were honestly trying to understand or they simply recoiled at the notion Jesus put forth, the result was the same: they were without understanding. As if that weren’t enough, they now came to find out that there was nothing within them consonant with the will of God—there was only their own depravity.
Jesus had made clear that even stellar actions on the part of the Pharisees could not cover up their hearts which were far from God. They placed their own ideals above the Word of God. They sought their righteousness in themselves, not in God and His Son Jesus Christ.
The disciples? They were still hangin’ with Jesus. Jesus had not blasted them as He had the Pharisees. But then Jesus had to go on talking, this time to the disciples; and to everybody else. He now made clear to them that they understood no better than the Pharisees had. There was nothing within them that was any better than what was in the hearts of the Pharisees. The disciples maybe were now wishing they hadn’t asked.
We don’t know how this episode ended. Did Jesus continue on with His explanation? Did He immediately leave the house, giving the disciples a chance to mull His words over? Did the disciples continue to question Him, trying better to understand this major blow to them? We don’t know. All we’re left with are the words He spoke to them, and they don’t exactly make us feel warm and fuzzy. We’re left simply with this: we are utterly corrupt from our hearts, and left to ourselves we design and conspire to feed our sinful flesh whatever the cost.
We’re not only left hanging—Jesus blasting us away and our utterly depraved hearts—the very next thing we find is that He goes away from there to another place. And He was specifically trying to get away from people. As you might expect, His plan failed. A woman came right on in where He was and pleaded for help for her daughter who was demon possessed. It’s apparent why she was doing this. She knew she was powerless over the grip Satan had on her daughter. Her daughter was powerless, she was powerless. Her only hope was in Jesus. He had power over Satan. He alone could release the girl from the grip of Satan. He shows us how He exercises this power over Satan, with His Word. He declares to the woman that her daughter is freed from the demon.
What could help us understand what Jesus is getting at when He says three times in our Gospel reading that it is what comes out of our heart that defiles us? That our sinful flesh has a grip on us as Satan did on that little girl. That we are in fact without understanding, even thinking that we can’t be all that bad. Aren’t there some things that come from our heart that are good? Or are we really as corrupt as Jesus makes us out to be?
In seeing the hold Satan had on that little girl we see the hold our sinful flesh has on us. With Jesus showing the power of His Word over Satan, to release her from Satan, we see the power of Jesus’ Word over our sinful flesh, to release us from it.
Jesus doesn’t leave us hanging, after all. He is intent on getting the message across. How much would we see the need for His death and resurrection, His Baptism He washes us with, His Body and Blood He gives us for forgiveness, without understanding the depth of our depravity—which is total.
The Old Testament reading draws the line in the sand in the same way: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” When obvious examples are known to the world, it’s easy for us to understand that some, such as the church body the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have departed from the Word of God; thrown it under the bus for the sake of the tradition of being tolerant and nonjudgmental and working toward compromise and consensus. Declaring something to not be a sin—namely, homosexuality—when the Word of God plainly declares it to be a sin comes from the depraved heart of man. We rightly see this as a travesty.
What may not be so clear to us is that we also are without understanding when it comes to such things. That it is out of our hearts that come the very same things. Jesus makes it clear that there aren’t some who are virtuous while others are in the doghouse. Look at His list. You can’t read it and escape the truth that you’re included. It all begins with our evil machinations within us, scheming to fudge the rules. Waiting for the chance to park your car in front of your neighbor’s house because you’re sick and tired of him parking his five cars in front of your house. Scheming for a way to get an undue advantage over your coworker in order to get a raise or a promotion. Jesus’ list isn’t just for those people out there who have publicly disdained the Word of God, but also for those of us in here who have disdain for them and haughtiness of ourselves, glad that we are not like them. This is the foolishness Jesus is talking about to close out His list, that we are somehow exempt from all the rest. He asks of us today: Are you also without understanding?
May we answer in humility, Yes, Lord, we too are without understanding. We too have thrown Your Word under the bus. We need to be here. To hear Your Word and trust in it alone. We need to approach Your altar in meekness but also expectancy, with a hunger and joy to receive Your very Body and Blood as food to our soul. We confess to You, O Lord, that out of our heart comes nothing good and everything evil, but as You, as we prayed earlier in the Collect, are the source of all that is just and good, we pray You to nourish in us every virtue and bring to completion every good intent that we may grow in grace and bring forth the fruit of good works.
Jesus did this for a little girl right after the words He spoke in our Gospel reading. He does this for you today and each day, as you are Baptized—given a new heart, a new mind, a new life. Amen.
SDG
August 30, 2009
Mark 7:14-23
There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
Mark says the disciples asked Jesus about His little parable. I wonder what they asked. They had just seen the Pharisees go down in flames, Jesus upholding the action of the disciples in eating with unwashed hands. Now Jesus speaks to everyone within earshot this little parable. Were the disciples embarrassed to ask Jesus what He meant by that? Or did they maybe want to preserve Jesus’ honor by challenging Him in private: Jesus, You’ll have to convince us of that. Whether they were honestly trying to understand or they simply recoiled at the notion Jesus put forth, the result was the same: they were without understanding. As if that weren’t enough, they now came to find out that there was nothing within them consonant with the will of God—there was only their own depravity.
Jesus had made clear that even stellar actions on the part of the Pharisees could not cover up their hearts which were far from God. They placed their own ideals above the Word of God. They sought their righteousness in themselves, not in God and His Son Jesus Christ.
The disciples? They were still hangin’ with Jesus. Jesus had not blasted them as He had the Pharisees. But then Jesus had to go on talking, this time to the disciples; and to everybody else. He now made clear to them that they understood no better than the Pharisees had. There was nothing within them that was any better than what was in the hearts of the Pharisees. The disciples maybe were now wishing they hadn’t asked.
We don’t know how this episode ended. Did Jesus continue on with His explanation? Did He immediately leave the house, giving the disciples a chance to mull His words over? Did the disciples continue to question Him, trying better to understand this major blow to them? We don’t know. All we’re left with are the words He spoke to them, and they don’t exactly make us feel warm and fuzzy. We’re left simply with this: we are utterly corrupt from our hearts, and left to ourselves we design and conspire to feed our sinful flesh whatever the cost.
We’re not only left hanging—Jesus blasting us away and our utterly depraved hearts—the very next thing we find is that He goes away from there to another place. And He was specifically trying to get away from people. As you might expect, His plan failed. A woman came right on in where He was and pleaded for help for her daughter who was demon possessed. It’s apparent why she was doing this. She knew she was powerless over the grip Satan had on her daughter. Her daughter was powerless, she was powerless. Her only hope was in Jesus. He had power over Satan. He alone could release the girl from the grip of Satan. He shows us how He exercises this power over Satan, with His Word. He declares to the woman that her daughter is freed from the demon.
What could help us understand what Jesus is getting at when He says three times in our Gospel reading that it is what comes out of our heart that defiles us? That our sinful flesh has a grip on us as Satan did on that little girl. That we are in fact without understanding, even thinking that we can’t be all that bad. Aren’t there some things that come from our heart that are good? Or are we really as corrupt as Jesus makes us out to be?
In seeing the hold Satan had on that little girl we see the hold our sinful flesh has on us. With Jesus showing the power of His Word over Satan, to release her from Satan, we see the power of Jesus’ Word over our sinful flesh, to release us from it.
Jesus doesn’t leave us hanging, after all. He is intent on getting the message across. How much would we see the need for His death and resurrection, His Baptism He washes us with, His Body and Blood He gives us for forgiveness, without understanding the depth of our depravity—which is total.
The Old Testament reading draws the line in the sand in the same way: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” When obvious examples are known to the world, it’s easy for us to understand that some, such as the church body the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have departed from the Word of God; thrown it under the bus for the sake of the tradition of being tolerant and nonjudgmental and working toward compromise and consensus. Declaring something to not be a sin—namely, homosexuality—when the Word of God plainly declares it to be a sin comes from the depraved heart of man. We rightly see this as a travesty.
What may not be so clear to us is that we also are without understanding when it comes to such things. That it is out of our hearts that come the very same things. Jesus makes it clear that there aren’t some who are virtuous while others are in the doghouse. Look at His list. You can’t read it and escape the truth that you’re included. It all begins with our evil machinations within us, scheming to fudge the rules. Waiting for the chance to park your car in front of your neighbor’s house because you’re sick and tired of him parking his five cars in front of your house. Scheming for a way to get an undue advantage over your coworker in order to get a raise or a promotion. Jesus’ list isn’t just for those people out there who have publicly disdained the Word of God, but also for those of us in here who have disdain for them and haughtiness of ourselves, glad that we are not like them. This is the foolishness Jesus is talking about to close out His list, that we are somehow exempt from all the rest. He asks of us today: Are you also without understanding?
May we answer in humility, Yes, Lord, we too are without understanding. We too have thrown Your Word under the bus. We need to be here. To hear Your Word and trust in it alone. We need to approach Your altar in meekness but also expectancy, with a hunger and joy to receive Your very Body and Blood as food to our soul. We confess to You, O Lord, that out of our heart comes nothing good and everything evil, but as You, as we prayed earlier in the Collect, are the source of all that is just and good, we pray You to nourish in us every virtue and bring to completion every good intent that we may grow in grace and bring forth the fruit of good works.
Jesus did this for a little girl right after the words He spoke in our Gospel reading. He does this for you today and each day, as you are Baptized—given a new heart, a new mind, a new life. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 23, 2009
got water?
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 23, 2009
Mark 7:1-13
Our retreat theme last week was “got water?”. It was a take-off on those commercials for milk in which someone would be eating, for example, chocolate chip cookies, only to find out that the milk jug was empty. Each commercial would close with the words “got milk?” on the screen. Water may not go as well with cookies as milk does, but water is essential to life. We can picture a commercial about a person who just finished exercising only to find their water bottle empty. The words “got water?” would then be put up on the screen.
This is what the Pharisees were saying to Jesus. Water was essential to living according to God’s will. When the disciples ate with unwashed hands, they should have seen that it was the same as if they had no water after exercising. Or no water when they needed to take a bath. Or no water to clean their dishes after a meal. It’s inconceivable to not drink after exercising or not to keep yourself clean or wash your dishes. It was inconceivable to them to disobey the tradition of the elders.
How many hurt feelings have been caused in families because certain beloved traditions were thrown out in favor of something new or different? How many factions have sprung up in churches because concern wasn’t taken for the way things had always been? A husband thinks it’s not a big deal at all to visit his in-laws on a regular basis, when the wife is set to do it for the rest of their lives. One group has always taken care of the Christmas decorations in a church which were donated by founding members of the congregation when another group comes along and decides that different decorations should be used. It is not hard for us to understand where the Pharisees are coming from at all. Traditions have a way of becoming law to us. Traditions are the way it is; the way it should always be; the way it must be.
This where the Pharisees were coming from. Why couldn’t Jesus see it? Jesus, don’t you have any water for your disciples? It’s an easy enough thing to do, to wash before you eat. Why do you let them defile themselves by not abiding by God’s will?
This is where the Pharisees tip their hand. If they were to exhort the disciples to a salutary practice, that would be fine, even laudable. If they were to show them the benefits of this, both physical and spiritual, they would be helping the disciples. But that is not what they do. They force upon the disciples something that is not God’s will. Something that is their own will. They seek to control others by what they think is right.
Jesus does not speak out against traditions. He knows traditions are beneficial. He knows they can provide physical and spiritual guidance and grounding. But He does speak against placing traditions over the will of God. And this is where water comes in. God is not afraid to use physical things to do His spiritual work. He is not above using common things to bless people in a heavenly way.
The Pharisees were all too ready to seek their justification in washing. Washing their hands before eating, washing of cups, of pots, of copper vessels, of couches. By following this strict code, they knew they were purified—not just physically, but also spiritually. They could look into their own hearts and see that they had done what was necessary to cleanse themselves inside and out.
But Jesus shot down such a notion. Washing yourself with water does nothing more than washing the outside of yourself. Washing a cup does nothing more than make it clean so that when you use it you won’t get sick. There’s only one thing that can cleanse you inside. Only one washing that will purify you spiritually. That’s the washing God gives you.
Amazingly, He uses water. But the key in His washing is not the water. It’s what the water is connected with: His Word. That’s the thing the Pharisees were missing: the Word of God. The Tradition of their own elders, laudable as it was, was more important to them than the Word of God. It had for them replaced the Word of God. They had come to put their trust in the tradition of the elders rather than keeping their trust in the Word of God. Jesus comes along and says, Yeah, use the water, but not just by itself. Wash your hearts. Wash your minds. This can only be done by the washing of water with the Word. God’s Word tells us what His will is, not any tradition or any other human source.
God’s will is that everyone be saved. Jesus died for every person. God’s will is that we be cleansed of our sin. That’s why He’s all for the washing idea the Pharisees proposed to Him. Just not in the way they proposed it. They proposed a righteousness in themselves. He proposed a righteousness outside of themselves but applied to them. They proposed a washing they could see, He proposed one that would cleanse what they could not see, their sinful hearts.
The Pharisees come at Jesus with a challenge. It’s really an attack. They see themselves as righteous in themselves. They don’t need Jesus, they have themselves. They are righteous in their own eyes because they have their tradition they keep, and therefore they are certain God is pleased with them. Jesus responds with a counter attack. An attack on their undeniable unrighteousness, their wholehearted sin against a holy God. But we ourselves miss the point of Jesus’ words if all we see is an attack on them. His point is not to tell them they’re wrong so much as it is to free them from their bondage. In attempting to be holy they have placed themselves in the place of God and have bound themselves in their sin and therefore eternal damnation.
Jesus wants to give them true freedom. A washing that will free them up not just to follow salutary traditions, but to serve others, to rejoice in God’s grace, to live under the favor of God rather than their own attempts at self-righteousness. Baptism is life giving water. It is a doing away of all that is inborn in us, the sin, the curved-in-on-ourselves nature we bear, and the incessant drive to convince ourselves that we’re okay as we are. Baptism purifies us. It cleanses us. The words Jesus speaks to the Pharisees are as true for us as they were for them.
Next time you drink a cold glass of water, think of the refreshing waters of your Baptism. Next time the waters flow over you when you take a shower, be reminded of the cleansing and purifying waters you were washed with in your Baptism. Know the will of God for you. It is in His Word. It is in the washing that is connected to His Word. He cleanses you so that you may be clean. He washes you so that you may rejoice that what He desires of you He grants you in Baptism and forever. Amen.
SDG
August 23, 2009
Mark 7:1-13
Our retreat theme last week was “got water?”. It was a take-off on those commercials for milk in which someone would be eating, for example, chocolate chip cookies, only to find out that the milk jug was empty. Each commercial would close with the words “got milk?” on the screen. Water may not go as well with cookies as milk does, but water is essential to life. We can picture a commercial about a person who just finished exercising only to find their water bottle empty. The words “got water?” would then be put up on the screen.
This is what the Pharisees were saying to Jesus. Water was essential to living according to God’s will. When the disciples ate with unwashed hands, they should have seen that it was the same as if they had no water after exercising. Or no water when they needed to take a bath. Or no water to clean their dishes after a meal. It’s inconceivable to not drink after exercising or not to keep yourself clean or wash your dishes. It was inconceivable to them to disobey the tradition of the elders.
How many hurt feelings have been caused in families because certain beloved traditions were thrown out in favor of something new or different? How many factions have sprung up in churches because concern wasn’t taken for the way things had always been? A husband thinks it’s not a big deal at all to visit his in-laws on a regular basis, when the wife is set to do it for the rest of their lives. One group has always taken care of the Christmas decorations in a church which were donated by founding members of the congregation when another group comes along and decides that different decorations should be used. It is not hard for us to understand where the Pharisees are coming from at all. Traditions have a way of becoming law to us. Traditions are the way it is; the way it should always be; the way it must be.
This where the Pharisees were coming from. Why couldn’t Jesus see it? Jesus, don’t you have any water for your disciples? It’s an easy enough thing to do, to wash before you eat. Why do you let them defile themselves by not abiding by God’s will?
This is where the Pharisees tip their hand. If they were to exhort the disciples to a salutary practice, that would be fine, even laudable. If they were to show them the benefits of this, both physical and spiritual, they would be helping the disciples. But that is not what they do. They force upon the disciples something that is not God’s will. Something that is their own will. They seek to control others by what they think is right.
Jesus does not speak out against traditions. He knows traditions are beneficial. He knows they can provide physical and spiritual guidance and grounding. But He does speak against placing traditions over the will of God. And this is where water comes in. God is not afraid to use physical things to do His spiritual work. He is not above using common things to bless people in a heavenly way.
The Pharisees were all too ready to seek their justification in washing. Washing their hands before eating, washing of cups, of pots, of copper vessels, of couches. By following this strict code, they knew they were purified—not just physically, but also spiritually. They could look into their own hearts and see that they had done what was necessary to cleanse themselves inside and out.
But Jesus shot down such a notion. Washing yourself with water does nothing more than washing the outside of yourself. Washing a cup does nothing more than make it clean so that when you use it you won’t get sick. There’s only one thing that can cleanse you inside. Only one washing that will purify you spiritually. That’s the washing God gives you.
Amazingly, He uses water. But the key in His washing is not the water. It’s what the water is connected with: His Word. That’s the thing the Pharisees were missing: the Word of God. The Tradition of their own elders, laudable as it was, was more important to them than the Word of God. It had for them replaced the Word of God. They had come to put their trust in the tradition of the elders rather than keeping their trust in the Word of God. Jesus comes along and says, Yeah, use the water, but not just by itself. Wash your hearts. Wash your minds. This can only be done by the washing of water with the Word. God’s Word tells us what His will is, not any tradition or any other human source.
God’s will is that everyone be saved. Jesus died for every person. God’s will is that we be cleansed of our sin. That’s why He’s all for the washing idea the Pharisees proposed to Him. Just not in the way they proposed it. They proposed a righteousness in themselves. He proposed a righteousness outside of themselves but applied to them. They proposed a washing they could see, He proposed one that would cleanse what they could not see, their sinful hearts.
The Pharisees come at Jesus with a challenge. It’s really an attack. They see themselves as righteous in themselves. They don’t need Jesus, they have themselves. They are righteous in their own eyes because they have their tradition they keep, and therefore they are certain God is pleased with them. Jesus responds with a counter attack. An attack on their undeniable unrighteousness, their wholehearted sin against a holy God. But we ourselves miss the point of Jesus’ words if all we see is an attack on them. His point is not to tell them they’re wrong so much as it is to free them from their bondage. In attempting to be holy they have placed themselves in the place of God and have bound themselves in their sin and therefore eternal damnation.
Jesus wants to give them true freedom. A washing that will free them up not just to follow salutary traditions, but to serve others, to rejoice in God’s grace, to live under the favor of God rather than their own attempts at self-righteousness. Baptism is life giving water. It is a doing away of all that is inborn in us, the sin, the curved-in-on-ourselves nature we bear, and the incessant drive to convince ourselves that we’re okay as we are. Baptism purifies us. It cleanses us. The words Jesus speaks to the Pharisees are as true for us as they were for them.
Next time you drink a cold glass of water, think of the refreshing waters of your Baptism. Next time the waters flow over you when you take a shower, be reminded of the cleansing and purifying waters you were washed with in your Baptism. Know the will of God for you. It is in His Word. It is in the washing that is connected to His Word. He cleanses you so that you may be clean. He washes you so that you may rejoice that what He desires of you He grants you in Baptism and forever. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Submerged
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 16, 2009
John 6:51-69
The life of faith is daily taking a plunge, often wondering if you’re going to drown, even though you know that through it you’ll be saved. Being a Christian is being submerged when the world and your own brain tell you that you’re done for. The life of faith begins with Baptism. One becomes a Christian when the waters rush over him and drowns the Old Man that was born in sin.
And while we have gathered for our retreat under the theme of “got water?” and are seeing how God saves us through the waters of Baptism, in seeing this we are seeing nothing less than the salvation God gives for a life of faith. Jesus preaches that life of faith in the Gospel reading. It could appear that Jesus’ words with all of its imagery of eating His flesh and drinking His blood have nothing to do with Baptism and being brought through the waters to salvation.
But Baptism doesn’t just concern water. It doesn’t just concern what happened to you that day when you were Baptized. It concerns your entire life. It has everything to do with your daily life. It is not only the entrance into eternal life but also at the heart of the daily life of faith.
Living the life of faith is as difficult for the Christian as believing in Christ is for the non-Christian. The people in the Gospel reading heard the words of Christ and couldn’t wrap their minds around an individual who would use such grotesque imagery for believing in Him as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But is what happens in Baptism any less unnerving? Where one is actually drowned in the waters of Baptism? Where the sinful flesh is crucified with Christ?
Many on that day turned away from Christ. He turned to His twelve disciples and asked them if they would go too. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” was their response. “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” This is what we have. We have what our Lord gives to us and not a carefree existence in which we don’t have to think about what it means to believe in Jesus and live in the trust that He brings us through the waters even when they rise.
What Jesus says in the Gospel reading may have nothing to do with water but it has everything to do with the life of faith. He already laid the groundwork for this in John chapter 3 where He says that unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven. The is where you are submerged. Daily you take the plunge and realize that the beginning of life begins with death. Death to the Old Man. The drowning of our sinful nature. The crucifixion of our sinful flesh. And the life of faith only brings you deeper and deeper into waters that seem increasingly to rise.
Your sinful flesh hangs on, not wishing to drown but to thrive. To get a hold of you and seek ways for that carefree existence. Where we can blame our difficulties on a God who obviously doesn’t care or evidently is not powerful enough to prevent problems and financial hardships and illnesses and doubts.
It’s no wonder so many people walked away. Who wants to hear about eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking His blood when it can be a challenge to put food on the table? When it’s hard to get out of the cycle of eating each other up with our snide comments and impatient demands. When it seems that our time is consumed just keeping our head above water with all the demands on our time and energy in daily life.
It’s no surprise that those who left Him were also disciples. Jesus is preaching the life of faith, preaching Himself as the substance of faith, driving His point home with the reminder that “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Remember His words to Nicodemus in chapter 3?: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
If you are submerged at the beginning of this new life and throughout the life of faith and you feel like you’re barely able to keep your head above water, then know that it is your Lord who daily drowns you so that daily you may arise to new and eternal life. That when the waters rise it’s not a reason to give up hope but an opportunity to be washed anew and renewed through those trials.
The people of God at the Red Sea thought that they had come to an end but God brought them through those waters. The flood meant destruction for every person but in His mercy God brought eight people safely through those flood waters. In this same way Baptism saves you. As a Baptized child of God daily you eat of the flesh of Christ and drink of His blood as you recall your Baptism and repent of your sins; as you read and meditate on the word of God. A torrent of sins flooded Jesus on the cross, the mercy of God overflowing to you, that you may bathe in the promise that He will bring you through the waters that rise up in your life to bring you safely to the shore, where He will welcome you into the eternal rest of heaven. Amen.
SDG
August 16, 2009
John 6:51-69
The life of faith is daily taking a plunge, often wondering if you’re going to drown, even though you know that through it you’ll be saved. Being a Christian is being submerged when the world and your own brain tell you that you’re done for. The life of faith begins with Baptism. One becomes a Christian when the waters rush over him and drowns the Old Man that was born in sin.
And while we have gathered for our retreat under the theme of “got water?” and are seeing how God saves us through the waters of Baptism, in seeing this we are seeing nothing less than the salvation God gives for a life of faith. Jesus preaches that life of faith in the Gospel reading. It could appear that Jesus’ words with all of its imagery of eating His flesh and drinking His blood have nothing to do with Baptism and being brought through the waters to salvation.
But Baptism doesn’t just concern water. It doesn’t just concern what happened to you that day when you were Baptized. It concerns your entire life. It has everything to do with your daily life. It is not only the entrance into eternal life but also at the heart of the daily life of faith.
Living the life of faith is as difficult for the Christian as believing in Christ is for the non-Christian. The people in the Gospel reading heard the words of Christ and couldn’t wrap their minds around an individual who would use such grotesque imagery for believing in Him as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But is what happens in Baptism any less unnerving? Where one is actually drowned in the waters of Baptism? Where the sinful flesh is crucified with Christ?
Many on that day turned away from Christ. He turned to His twelve disciples and asked them if they would go too. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” was their response. “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” This is what we have. We have what our Lord gives to us and not a carefree existence in which we don’t have to think about what it means to believe in Jesus and live in the trust that He brings us through the waters even when they rise.
What Jesus says in the Gospel reading may have nothing to do with water but it has everything to do with the life of faith. He already laid the groundwork for this in John chapter 3 where He says that unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven. The is where you are submerged. Daily you take the plunge and realize that the beginning of life begins with death. Death to the Old Man. The drowning of our sinful nature. The crucifixion of our sinful flesh. And the life of faith only brings you deeper and deeper into waters that seem increasingly to rise.
Your sinful flesh hangs on, not wishing to drown but to thrive. To get a hold of you and seek ways for that carefree existence. Where we can blame our difficulties on a God who obviously doesn’t care or evidently is not powerful enough to prevent problems and financial hardships and illnesses and doubts.
It’s no wonder so many people walked away. Who wants to hear about eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking His blood when it can be a challenge to put food on the table? When it’s hard to get out of the cycle of eating each other up with our snide comments and impatient demands. When it seems that our time is consumed just keeping our head above water with all the demands on our time and energy in daily life.
It’s no surprise that those who left Him were also disciples. Jesus is preaching the life of faith, preaching Himself as the substance of faith, driving His point home with the reminder that “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Remember His words to Nicodemus in chapter 3?: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
If you are submerged at the beginning of this new life and throughout the life of faith and you feel like you’re barely able to keep your head above water, then know that it is your Lord who daily drowns you so that daily you may arise to new and eternal life. That when the waters rise it’s not a reason to give up hope but an opportunity to be washed anew and renewed through those trials.
The people of God at the Red Sea thought that they had come to an end but God brought them through those waters. The flood meant destruction for every person but in His mercy God brought eight people safely through those flood waters. In this same way Baptism saves you. As a Baptized child of God daily you eat of the flesh of Christ and drink of His blood as you recall your Baptism and repent of your sins; as you read and meditate on the word of God. A torrent of sins flooded Jesus on the cross, the mercy of God overflowing to you, that you may bathe in the promise that He will bring you through the waters that rise up in your life to bring you safely to the shore, where He will welcome you into the eternal rest of heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 9, 2009
No Better than My Fathers
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 9, 2009
John 6:35-51
Elijah was in despair but he was right, he was no better than his fathers. How many times had he seen the hand of God in his life and in the life of the people of God, and yet, there he was, wanting to give up on it all.
The people in dialogue with Jesus in the Gospel reading did a pretty good job of showing that they, too, were no better than their fathers. They just couldn’t get their minds adjusted to the fact that this man they knew, the son of Joseph and Mary, was God and the only one in whom there is salvation.
It would be easy for us to sit here today and content ourselves with the notion that we know better. We have seen with our own eyes the Scriptures which tell us of the death and resurrection of Christ for salvation. We have been Baptized, we have the assurance that we are a new creation in Christ. We believe what our Lord tells us in the Gospel reading “that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Does this mean that we are better than our fathers? Have we come to a point where we can say that we are better than those who have gone before us? It’s easy enough for us to look around us and compare ourselves to those we know, thinking of ourselves as better because we don’t use profane language like they do, and we don’t treat others condescendingly like they do, and we are here every Sunday, unlike them. And, well, we could go on and on, couldn’t we?
We do think we’re better than others, don’t we? But how does Paul talk to the Ephesian Christians in our Epistle reading? They are distinct from those who “are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. [Those who] have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Why then does Paul go on to exhort the Ephesians to live like they are distinct? Why does he have to tell them to live the way God commands us to live and not live in the way He commands not to?
The answer is simple: they are no better than their fathers. And we must hear the words of Paul in the same way they did, as the Word of God to Christians who are always on the verge of despair as Elijah was, because there is never any hope of ourselves but only hope in the one who has made us a new creation. That’s why we must continually confess that we are no better than our fathers.
Jesus is blunt because He tells us what we need to hear. He says in the Gospel reading: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” I don’t mean to sound morbid, but this is a great verse. They were fed bread from heaven. God gave them manna so that they could live. And yet, they all ended up dying, didn’t they? Food will keep us alive only in this world. The Bread of Life will ensure life without end. There’s really no point in trying to fool ourselves. Elijah was right. He was no better than his fathers. The people in the Gospel reading were no better than their fathers. All those in the church at Ephesus who thought they could be Christians and keep living in the way of the world were no better than their fathers.
Jesus has no interest in helping us get better than those who have gone before us. He has one goal in mind and that is to slay our sinful flesh. Beat it down and bring it to an end. His work is to bring us to life eternal. To give us life in which we are a new creation. To free us up so that we may freely serve.
All this talk in the Gospel reading about fathers was going nowhere so Jesus turned things in a new direction. He would talk to them about the Heavenly Father. Jesus is equal to the Father. His claim to be so irritated them to no end. And yet, Jesus’ claim to be God, His declaration that He and the Father are one, did not detract Him from submitting to the will of His Heavenly Father. He did not consider Himself slighted in the least that He would give Himself up for the life of the world.
He had no problem stating straight out that He is God and that salvation is only in Him. He’s not simply better than our fathers, He is the only one born of a woman who is without sin. The only one in whom there is no guile. The only one who has lived in accordance with the perfect and holy will of the Heavenly Father. The only who can stand and not need fear to fall.
His purpose is not bragging rights, as if to say, we’re no better than our fathers and He is better than we are. No, His purpose is simply to make clear that it’s not that we’re no better than our fathers, it’s that we stand before God condemned, in a state of spiritual death. That our only hope is in Him but that our life is wrapped up in Him so that we may have hope. That He who is without end chose to die so that we who deserve eternal death may live forever.
Today, take a page from the life of Elijah, and realize and confess that you are indeed no better than your fathers. You are by nature sinful and unclean. But realize also that you need not despair as he did, because confessing your sin is for the purpose of repenting. Your confession is responded to by your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with Absolution. He forgives you all your sins. Elijah needed to be lifted up, to be fed. So that’s exactly what God did for him, He fed him.
It’s what He does for you as well. He forgives you. He feeds you with His Body and Blood often in His Holy Meal. He strengthens you for the journey ahead, which ultimately leads to eternal life in heaven. Amen.
SDG
August 9, 2009
John 6:35-51
Elijah was in despair but he was right, he was no better than his fathers. How many times had he seen the hand of God in his life and in the life of the people of God, and yet, there he was, wanting to give up on it all.
The people in dialogue with Jesus in the Gospel reading did a pretty good job of showing that they, too, were no better than their fathers. They just couldn’t get their minds adjusted to the fact that this man they knew, the son of Joseph and Mary, was God and the only one in whom there is salvation.
It would be easy for us to sit here today and content ourselves with the notion that we know better. We have seen with our own eyes the Scriptures which tell us of the death and resurrection of Christ for salvation. We have been Baptized, we have the assurance that we are a new creation in Christ. We believe what our Lord tells us in the Gospel reading “that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Does this mean that we are better than our fathers? Have we come to a point where we can say that we are better than those who have gone before us? It’s easy enough for us to look around us and compare ourselves to those we know, thinking of ourselves as better because we don’t use profane language like they do, and we don’t treat others condescendingly like they do, and we are here every Sunday, unlike them. And, well, we could go on and on, couldn’t we?
We do think we’re better than others, don’t we? But how does Paul talk to the Ephesian Christians in our Epistle reading? They are distinct from those who “are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. [Those who] have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Why then does Paul go on to exhort the Ephesians to live like they are distinct? Why does he have to tell them to live the way God commands us to live and not live in the way He commands not to?
The answer is simple: they are no better than their fathers. And we must hear the words of Paul in the same way they did, as the Word of God to Christians who are always on the verge of despair as Elijah was, because there is never any hope of ourselves but only hope in the one who has made us a new creation. That’s why we must continually confess that we are no better than our fathers.
Jesus is blunt because He tells us what we need to hear. He says in the Gospel reading: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” I don’t mean to sound morbid, but this is a great verse. They were fed bread from heaven. God gave them manna so that they could live. And yet, they all ended up dying, didn’t they? Food will keep us alive only in this world. The Bread of Life will ensure life without end. There’s really no point in trying to fool ourselves. Elijah was right. He was no better than his fathers. The people in the Gospel reading were no better than their fathers. All those in the church at Ephesus who thought they could be Christians and keep living in the way of the world were no better than their fathers.
Jesus has no interest in helping us get better than those who have gone before us. He has one goal in mind and that is to slay our sinful flesh. Beat it down and bring it to an end. His work is to bring us to life eternal. To give us life in which we are a new creation. To free us up so that we may freely serve.
All this talk in the Gospel reading about fathers was going nowhere so Jesus turned things in a new direction. He would talk to them about the Heavenly Father. Jesus is equal to the Father. His claim to be so irritated them to no end. And yet, Jesus’ claim to be God, His declaration that He and the Father are one, did not detract Him from submitting to the will of His Heavenly Father. He did not consider Himself slighted in the least that He would give Himself up for the life of the world.
He had no problem stating straight out that He is God and that salvation is only in Him. He’s not simply better than our fathers, He is the only one born of a woman who is without sin. The only one in whom there is no guile. The only one who has lived in accordance with the perfect and holy will of the Heavenly Father. The only who can stand and not need fear to fall.
His purpose is not bragging rights, as if to say, we’re no better than our fathers and He is better than we are. No, His purpose is simply to make clear that it’s not that we’re no better than our fathers, it’s that we stand before God condemned, in a state of spiritual death. That our only hope is in Him but that our life is wrapped up in Him so that we may have hope. That He who is without end chose to die so that we who deserve eternal death may live forever.
Today, take a page from the life of Elijah, and realize and confess that you are indeed no better than your fathers. You are by nature sinful and unclean. But realize also that you need not despair as he did, because confessing your sin is for the purpose of repenting. Your confession is responded to by your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with Absolution. He forgives you all your sins. Elijah needed to be lifted up, to be fed. So that’s exactly what God did for him, He fed him.
It’s what He does for you as well. He forgives you. He feeds you with His Body and Blood often in His Holy Meal. He strengthens you for the journey ahead, which ultimately leads to eternal life in heaven. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, August 2, 2009
This Is the Work of God
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
August 2, 2009
John 6:22-35
Are you weary? Then be renewed in the grace and mercy of Christ. This is the work of God.
Are you hurting? Then receive the healing balm of Christ. This is God’s work He does for you.
Are you weak? Then be strengthened by the power of Christ. God is at work for you.
You are in need and yet you continue to labor in vain. The work of God is to bring about what it is you need. What you need is faith. So believe in God. Trust in Him. Rely solely on His grace, mercy, and power.
Take comfort in this, that it is not of you or from you. It is you doing it because God is at work in you. What He requires of you He accomplishes in you and for you because of and in His Son Jesus Christ.
The people in the Gospel reading couldn’t wrap their minds around this kind of religion. What kind of religion—what kind of God—tells you that you don’t work to gain the favor of God? To get yourself out of the trouble you’re in. To get what it is you need. Doesn’t God want us to work hard rather than let Him do all the work for us?
This is why we have such a skewed view of our Christian lives. Do we think of ourselves primarily as Christians, or merely as people like everybody else but who happen to be Christians? God is the only source for our lives. Do we think of ourselves as people who deserve more from God or as people who are endlessly blessed by a God who for all we know could have better things to do than help us out in our own little world?
The simple truth is the God of heaven and earth loves you. The eternal God helps you out in your day to day affairs. He heals you, is compassionate to you, strengthens you, and is with you.
How does He do this? Jesus. What does Jesus say in our Gospel reading? God gives us the eternal blessings we need by giving us “the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Everything we need is given us in the man Jesus. Because Jesus is God in the flesh. All we could ever ask for is answered in the work that He accomplishes. Because all the power of God is concentrated in what Jesus has done and does.
But we live in the real world, don’t we? We don’t think of the spiritual realm as being as real as the physical world we live in. But it’s very real. In a sense it’s even more real in that it will last, whereas this world will not. But this world we live in is the one we tend to set our sights on for what we need in this life. Not that that doesn’t necessarily make sense. It’s just shortsighted if that’s all we want. God wants to take us to heaven. He wants to give us those blessings that last forever.
The people in the Gospel reading had been fed by Jesus in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. Wouldn’t it be great if He kept it up? That’s what, after all, God did for the Israelites in the wilderness as they wandered around for forty years. But is that why Christ came? To feed people bread?
No, He came to bring life. He came to feed people with the Bread of Life. To give Himself to people. Yes, the manna was bread from heaven—God was the one who gave them the bread. But Christ is truly Bread from heaven—heaven is His dwelling place and He came down from heaven to bring to people on this earth true life.
Have you ever thought about what a person who is dying needs? One who perhaps is slipping into an unconscious state and cannot rationally understand what is being said when the Gospel is proclaimed to him or her? If that person’s salvation depended upon them doing something to show evidence of their faith how could we be sure that they have any?
That’s where the work of God comes in. He accomplishes the faith in that person. We speak to that person of their Baptism. What God accomplished in that person when the refreshing waters flowed over him. When their sinful flesh joined in Christ’s death only to be raised up to eternal life. We speak to that person the Gospel, which sustains them in faith.
Let this be our comfort, that there is a purpose in any adversity we may face, whether we be weary, or hurting, or weak. Such adversity must cause us to look even more so to the Gospel. This is the work of God, that even in those times we are spiritually depleted, or physically, or emotionally, that God is at work. That it is in our weakness He is most powerful. That when our flesh and blood is not enough we may eat and drink of His flesh and blood. That we may draw deeply from the well of everlasting life and be refreshed in His abundant mercy. His forgiveness and His comfort. His strength and His power.
There’s plenty of room for us to work. We will help others. We will be there for them, serve them, and comfort them. But we will do this because it is the work of God at work in us. This is what Paul means when he exhorts us in Philippians to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling.” He goes on to say: “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV)
Otherwise we simply labor in vain. What Christ rather wants is for us to draw deeply from His well, to feast sumptuously on Heavenly Bread, Christ Himself. He delights in working for us, helping us in our need. It was joy that brought Him to suffering at the hands of sinners as we are. Joy that drew Him to the cross to suffer on behalf of the world. Because this is the work of God, in Christ, for us. Amen.
SDG
August 2, 2009
John 6:22-35
Are you weary? Then be renewed in the grace and mercy of Christ. This is the work of God.
Are you hurting? Then receive the healing balm of Christ. This is God’s work He does for you.
Are you weak? Then be strengthened by the power of Christ. God is at work for you.
You are in need and yet you continue to labor in vain. The work of God is to bring about what it is you need. What you need is faith. So believe in God. Trust in Him. Rely solely on His grace, mercy, and power.
Take comfort in this, that it is not of you or from you. It is you doing it because God is at work in you. What He requires of you He accomplishes in you and for you because of and in His Son Jesus Christ.
The people in the Gospel reading couldn’t wrap their minds around this kind of religion. What kind of religion—what kind of God—tells you that you don’t work to gain the favor of God? To get yourself out of the trouble you’re in. To get what it is you need. Doesn’t God want us to work hard rather than let Him do all the work for us?
This is why we have such a skewed view of our Christian lives. Do we think of ourselves primarily as Christians, or merely as people like everybody else but who happen to be Christians? God is the only source for our lives. Do we think of ourselves as people who deserve more from God or as people who are endlessly blessed by a God who for all we know could have better things to do than help us out in our own little world?
The simple truth is the God of heaven and earth loves you. The eternal God helps you out in your day to day affairs. He heals you, is compassionate to you, strengthens you, and is with you.
How does He do this? Jesus. What does Jesus say in our Gospel reading? God gives us the eternal blessings we need by giving us “the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Everything we need is given us in the man Jesus. Because Jesus is God in the flesh. All we could ever ask for is answered in the work that He accomplishes. Because all the power of God is concentrated in what Jesus has done and does.
But we live in the real world, don’t we? We don’t think of the spiritual realm as being as real as the physical world we live in. But it’s very real. In a sense it’s even more real in that it will last, whereas this world will not. But this world we live in is the one we tend to set our sights on for what we need in this life. Not that that doesn’t necessarily make sense. It’s just shortsighted if that’s all we want. God wants to take us to heaven. He wants to give us those blessings that last forever.
The people in the Gospel reading had been fed by Jesus in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. Wouldn’t it be great if He kept it up? That’s what, after all, God did for the Israelites in the wilderness as they wandered around for forty years. But is that why Christ came? To feed people bread?
No, He came to bring life. He came to feed people with the Bread of Life. To give Himself to people. Yes, the manna was bread from heaven—God was the one who gave them the bread. But Christ is truly Bread from heaven—heaven is His dwelling place and He came down from heaven to bring to people on this earth true life.
Have you ever thought about what a person who is dying needs? One who perhaps is slipping into an unconscious state and cannot rationally understand what is being said when the Gospel is proclaimed to him or her? If that person’s salvation depended upon them doing something to show evidence of their faith how could we be sure that they have any?
That’s where the work of God comes in. He accomplishes the faith in that person. We speak to that person of their Baptism. What God accomplished in that person when the refreshing waters flowed over him. When their sinful flesh joined in Christ’s death only to be raised up to eternal life. We speak to that person the Gospel, which sustains them in faith.
Let this be our comfort, that there is a purpose in any adversity we may face, whether we be weary, or hurting, or weak. Such adversity must cause us to look even more so to the Gospel. This is the work of God, that even in those times we are spiritually depleted, or physically, or emotionally, that God is at work. That it is in our weakness He is most powerful. That when our flesh and blood is not enough we may eat and drink of His flesh and blood. That we may draw deeply from the well of everlasting life and be refreshed in His abundant mercy. His forgiveness and His comfort. His strength and His power.
There’s plenty of room for us to work. We will help others. We will be there for them, serve them, and comfort them. But we will do this because it is the work of God at work in us. This is what Paul means when he exhorts us in Philippians to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling.” He goes on to say: “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV)
Otherwise we simply labor in vain. What Christ rather wants is for us to draw deeply from His well, to feast sumptuously on Heavenly Bread, Christ Himself. He delights in working for us, helping us in our need. It was joy that brought Him to suffering at the hands of sinners as we are. Joy that drew Him to the cross to suffer on behalf of the world. Because this is the work of God, in Christ, for us. Amen.
SDG
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The God of Conflict
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 19, 2009
Mark 6.30-44
No one likes conflict. Okay, there are some who thrive off conflict. But most people try to avoid it like the plague. People have different ways of dealing with it, they’ll get angry, subdued, or defensive, but most people would do almost anything to avoid it.
God is not one of those people. God actively engages in conflict. He seeks it out.
How do I say this? The Bible gives ample description of God’s engaging in conflict with a host of things—but they really boil down to two things: Satan and our sinful nature.
Galatians 5 says that the Holy Spirit opposes the flesh and the flesh opposes the Holy Spirit. This is God actively engaging in conflict with us, opposing our sinful nature.
The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are filled with God’s active engagement with people and Satan in conflict in the Person and Work of Jesus, God in the flesh. The Pharisees and other religious leaders are well known examples of this. They sought to destroy Jesus, and Jesus did not shy away from the conflict. He actively engaged in it with them.
There are a number of examples of Jesus fighting with Satan and the demons in His healings of people’s various infirmities. There are the conflicts He had with His own disciples; perhaps the most famous one when He called Peter Satan. You can read the four Gospel accounts with an eye toward Jesus engaging in conflict with Satan and the sinful flesh of man and you’d have a good understanding of what Christianity is all about.
So why did I choose this as the theme for the sermon this morning when the Gospel reading is the account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, rather than one of those examples I just mentioned? There doesn’t appear to be much, if any, conflict here. It really appears to be the opposite, speaking of Jesus’ compassion for all and His action in serving them; of His power and love at work.
But this passage is precisely a clear example of God’s conflict with us, His people, who are by nature sinful and unclean. It is a great example of God’s continuing war against Satan who actively seeks to destroy us and against the world which wants to have nothing to do with God and His salvation in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel reading picks up where we were two weeks ago when Jesus had sent His disciples out on a mission. “The apostles returned to Jesus and told Him all that they had done and taught.” Jesus sending them out to proclaim the Gospel and heal people produced some conflict, with some rejecting their message. Now the apostles had returned to Jesus “and He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.”
We know how these things go. At the moment there was no conflict. They were on a high. They had much to report to Jesus. They were excited to tell Him about all that had happened. They were also glad to have some downtime. Time where they could be by themselves, to rest, to get away from some of the pressure. But while they were feeling good now, could they hope it would last? Serving can drain a person. Did they know in the back of their minds that Jesus was expecting more of this from them, and their rest would be brief?
As if on cue, guess who showed up? The curiosity seekers. Along came the crowd that had seen and heard about the mighty things that had been done. “Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When He went ashore He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” That was Jesus for you, always having compassion on people, especially ones that didn’t seem to deserve it or that most people wouldn’t give even a glance to.
And this certainly is the opposite of conflict, but have you thought about how this affected the disciples? What did they think about Jesus ignoring them after He had planned to have some downtime with them? We can imagine that Jesus’ actions here were in conflict with the disciples’ need for rest and rejuvenation. But that’s exactly why Jesus came, to produce this conflict in our lives. Where we would like to sit comfortably with Jesus and He wants to get us up off of our seats and keep serving others—even when they barge in on our times of needed rest. How many times have you declined to help people in need because it wasn’t convenient for you? How many times because you yourself were in need of someone serving you?
Well, no rest for the weary. Jesus welcomed the crowd gladly. “And He began to teach them many things.” He had compassion on them. He saw them and His heart went out to them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So what did He do? He taught them. He gave them what they needed. They came seeking a Jesus they had seen and had heard about, He gave them what would benefit their souls. He taught them many things.
I’m one of those people that wants to know what’s not said. Mark says Jesus taught them “many things.” I wonder, what things? How many things? Did He cover a bunch of the main doctrines of Christianity? Did He open it up for a question and answer session? We don’t know the words of what Jesus said that day when He taught them. But we do know what He taught them. We have ample passages in the Scriptures of Jesus’ teaching that we know what He taught them. He taught them God’s love for them in Him. He called them to repentance and proclaimed the Gospel of salvation in Himself. You can bet that there were many people there that day who were conflicted with His message that they were sinners in need of salvation—and that it could only come through Him.
What was their reaction? Speculation can take us only so far. Were there some who got up and left because they were offended? Perhaps. We know it happened on other occasions. We know that there were a lot who stayed because we’re told there were five thousand men in addition to the women and children who there. So even if no one or a few people left, we can imagine some sitting there the entire time taking issue with Jesus and not taking His teaching to heart.
“…It grew late, [and] His disciples came to Him and said, ‘This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.’ But He answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ And they said to Him, ‘Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?’” There Jesus goes again with more conflict. To the crowds He’s all about serving them. To His disciples, however, He’s an enigma. Why aren’t you just sending them way so they can get food for themselves and get home? But no, Jesus needs to stir up conflict. He needs to get the disciples out of their mode of serving people on their own terms and doing it on God’s terms.
You give them something to eat. How in the world are we supposed to do that? Now, what do you think is the kind of answer Jesus was expecting? Was He expecting the common sense answer that they obviously could not do such a thing? Or was He expecting some creative thinking on their part of how they might attempt to accomplish such a thing? No, what Jesus was expecting is what He always expects from us and that is the answer of faith. He was expecting them to acknowledge that while it was indeed impossible for them to do such a thing, He could indeed accomplish it through them and so they would trust that He would bring it about.
Why didn’t Jesus just do what He had planned to do? Because then there’s no conflict. And with no conflict there is no growth in faith. Have you ever noticed that it’s easy to believe in Jesus when things are going well but hard when it seems that you have no time for the rest and rejuvenation you need? This is why He is intent on being in conflict with us, because our sinful nature is all too eager to take the easy way out rather than the hard way of serving even when it’s inconvenient.
Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and feeds thousands and thousands of people. This doesn’t seem to be much in the way of causing conflict in the lives of the people. It is in fact pure Gospel, Jesus feeding people who are hungry, feeding those He has just fed spiritually with His teaching. But Jesus is also doing much more than feeding people food for their stomachs. The language used to describe Jesus feeding the multitude is sacramental: taking the loaves “He looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples.”
Jesus hadn’t yet instituted His Holy Supper. But He knew what He would do. He knew He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners. He knew that He would suffer at the hands of sinners. He came to suffer and die for those very sinners, for every sinner. He came into the world to save the world. He came to produce conflict. It is the Gospel the Bible says is an offense. God brings conflict into our lives by bringing the Gospel into our lives.
Jesus coming to be our Savior means that we need to be saved. Calling us to eternal life means that we have no life of eternal value apart from Him and only eternal suffering without Him. Feeding us with His Body and Blood means that we need to be fed. It means that He calls upon us to respond to Him with the answer of faith, not of convenience or self-centered needs. This is the conflict He brings into our lives, always in opposition to our sinful flesh. But always to save us from our sinful flesh and Satan. Always to feed us and finally to bring us to that eternal Home where is no conflict but only eternal glory. Amen.
SDG
July 19, 2009
Mark 6.30-44
No one likes conflict. Okay, there are some who thrive off conflict. But most people try to avoid it like the plague. People have different ways of dealing with it, they’ll get angry, subdued, or defensive, but most people would do almost anything to avoid it.
God is not one of those people. God actively engages in conflict. He seeks it out.
How do I say this? The Bible gives ample description of God’s engaging in conflict with a host of things—but they really boil down to two things: Satan and our sinful nature.
Galatians 5 says that the Holy Spirit opposes the flesh and the flesh opposes the Holy Spirit. This is God actively engaging in conflict with us, opposing our sinful nature.
The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are filled with God’s active engagement with people and Satan in conflict in the Person and Work of Jesus, God in the flesh. The Pharisees and other religious leaders are well known examples of this. They sought to destroy Jesus, and Jesus did not shy away from the conflict. He actively engaged in it with them.
There are a number of examples of Jesus fighting with Satan and the demons in His healings of people’s various infirmities. There are the conflicts He had with His own disciples; perhaps the most famous one when He called Peter Satan. You can read the four Gospel accounts with an eye toward Jesus engaging in conflict with Satan and the sinful flesh of man and you’d have a good understanding of what Christianity is all about.
So why did I choose this as the theme for the sermon this morning when the Gospel reading is the account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, rather than one of those examples I just mentioned? There doesn’t appear to be much, if any, conflict here. It really appears to be the opposite, speaking of Jesus’ compassion for all and His action in serving them; of His power and love at work.
But this passage is precisely a clear example of God’s conflict with us, His people, who are by nature sinful and unclean. It is a great example of God’s continuing war against Satan who actively seeks to destroy us and against the world which wants to have nothing to do with God and His salvation in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel reading picks up where we were two weeks ago when Jesus had sent His disciples out on a mission. “The apostles returned to Jesus and told Him all that they had done and taught.” Jesus sending them out to proclaim the Gospel and heal people produced some conflict, with some rejecting their message. Now the apostles had returned to Jesus “and He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.”
We know how these things go. At the moment there was no conflict. They were on a high. They had much to report to Jesus. They were excited to tell Him about all that had happened. They were also glad to have some downtime. Time where they could be by themselves, to rest, to get away from some of the pressure. But while they were feeling good now, could they hope it would last? Serving can drain a person. Did they know in the back of their minds that Jesus was expecting more of this from them, and their rest would be brief?
As if on cue, guess who showed up? The curiosity seekers. Along came the crowd that had seen and heard about the mighty things that had been done. “Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When He went ashore He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” That was Jesus for you, always having compassion on people, especially ones that didn’t seem to deserve it or that most people wouldn’t give even a glance to.
And this certainly is the opposite of conflict, but have you thought about how this affected the disciples? What did they think about Jesus ignoring them after He had planned to have some downtime with them? We can imagine that Jesus’ actions here were in conflict with the disciples’ need for rest and rejuvenation. But that’s exactly why Jesus came, to produce this conflict in our lives. Where we would like to sit comfortably with Jesus and He wants to get us up off of our seats and keep serving others—even when they barge in on our times of needed rest. How many times have you declined to help people in need because it wasn’t convenient for you? How many times because you yourself were in need of someone serving you?
Well, no rest for the weary. Jesus welcomed the crowd gladly. “And He began to teach them many things.” He had compassion on them. He saw them and His heart went out to them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So what did He do? He taught them. He gave them what they needed. They came seeking a Jesus they had seen and had heard about, He gave them what would benefit their souls. He taught them many things.
I’m one of those people that wants to know what’s not said. Mark says Jesus taught them “many things.” I wonder, what things? How many things? Did He cover a bunch of the main doctrines of Christianity? Did He open it up for a question and answer session? We don’t know the words of what Jesus said that day when He taught them. But we do know what He taught them. We have ample passages in the Scriptures of Jesus’ teaching that we know what He taught them. He taught them God’s love for them in Him. He called them to repentance and proclaimed the Gospel of salvation in Himself. You can bet that there were many people there that day who were conflicted with His message that they were sinners in need of salvation—and that it could only come through Him.
What was their reaction? Speculation can take us only so far. Were there some who got up and left because they were offended? Perhaps. We know it happened on other occasions. We know that there were a lot who stayed because we’re told there were five thousand men in addition to the women and children who there. So even if no one or a few people left, we can imagine some sitting there the entire time taking issue with Jesus and not taking His teaching to heart.
“…It grew late, [and] His disciples came to Him and said, ‘This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.’ But He answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ And they said to Him, ‘Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?’” There Jesus goes again with more conflict. To the crowds He’s all about serving them. To His disciples, however, He’s an enigma. Why aren’t you just sending them way so they can get food for themselves and get home? But no, Jesus needs to stir up conflict. He needs to get the disciples out of their mode of serving people on their own terms and doing it on God’s terms.
You give them something to eat. How in the world are we supposed to do that? Now, what do you think is the kind of answer Jesus was expecting? Was He expecting the common sense answer that they obviously could not do such a thing? Or was He expecting some creative thinking on their part of how they might attempt to accomplish such a thing? No, what Jesus was expecting is what He always expects from us and that is the answer of faith. He was expecting them to acknowledge that while it was indeed impossible for them to do such a thing, He could indeed accomplish it through them and so they would trust that He would bring it about.
Why didn’t Jesus just do what He had planned to do? Because then there’s no conflict. And with no conflict there is no growth in faith. Have you ever noticed that it’s easy to believe in Jesus when things are going well but hard when it seems that you have no time for the rest and rejuvenation you need? This is why He is intent on being in conflict with us, because our sinful nature is all too eager to take the easy way out rather than the hard way of serving even when it’s inconvenient.
Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and feeds thousands and thousands of people. This doesn’t seem to be much in the way of causing conflict in the lives of the people. It is in fact pure Gospel, Jesus feeding people who are hungry, feeding those He has just fed spiritually with His teaching. But Jesus is also doing much more than feeding people food for their stomachs. The language used to describe Jesus feeding the multitude is sacramental: taking the loaves “He looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples.”
Jesus hadn’t yet instituted His Holy Supper. But He knew what He would do. He knew He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners. He knew that He would suffer at the hands of sinners. He came to suffer and die for those very sinners, for every sinner. He came into the world to save the world. He came to produce conflict. It is the Gospel the Bible says is an offense. God brings conflict into our lives by bringing the Gospel into our lives.
Jesus coming to be our Savior means that we need to be saved. Calling us to eternal life means that we have no life of eternal value apart from Him and only eternal suffering without Him. Feeding us with His Body and Blood means that we need to be fed. It means that He calls upon us to respond to Him with the answer of faith, not of convenience or self-centered needs. This is the conflict He brings into our lives, always in opposition to our sinful flesh. But always to save us from our sinful flesh and Satan. Always to feed us and finally to bring us to that eternal Home where is no conflict but only eternal glory. Amen.
SDG
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