The Heart (or the Hand, or the Eye) of the Matter

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Commemoration of Jerome, Translator of Holy Scripture

September 30, 2012

Mark 9:38–50

There can be a tendency in making use of the liturgy and being a little too formal, as if there’s no place for any human emotion. The fault is not with the liturgy but rather if you just go through the motions. It’s easy to do. The liturgy can seem rigid and unfeeling, formal, with no room for individual expression.

But at some point the liturgy meets every person right where they’re at, even if they may be going through the motions and at the moment miss it. Somewhere along the line, as you make your way through the liturgy Sunday in Sunday out, through a lifetime of the back and forth of the liturgy, there is a realism and a relevance there that really is missed only if you are looking for something else.

And so today the liturgy offers us a bit of comic relief even if the matter at hand is deadly serious. And we will see that ‘deadly serious’ here is not entirely symbolic in meaning. We’re so used to hearing the response upon reading the Gospel for the day, “This is the Gospel of the Lord,” that the response to that is almost automatic, “Praise to You, O Christ.” We have just heard the words of the Lord, the very Gospel itself. Praise to You O Christ! There’s nothing better that we could hear!

And so it’s moments like these that we experienced a short time ago that give us a little comic relief and then a chance to ponder, what exactly is the Gospel of the Lord? Today’s Gospel reading sure sounded a whole lot more like a lot of Law. Judgment, doom, warning. But there was the liturgical response, “This is the Gospel of the Lord.” Even so, comic relief aside, there is a method to the madness, so to speak, of the liturgy. Why is it that the liturgy would have us think of a Gospel reading as Gospel that is largely Law?

Because there’s some Gospel in there and it can therefore be said to still be Gospel? That’s not the way the liturgy works. It’s more along the line of, Christ is in there, and where you have Christ you have Gospel. We most certainly have Christ here in the Gospel reading for today. And it is therefore most certainly the Gospel of the Lord. That the words He is speaking are a heavy dose of the Law doesn’t negate the blessed Gospel that Jesus incarnates and gives.

That fact is, there is no Gospel without Law. With no judgment, no conviction of sin, no going to the heart of the matter of where you are at and who you are as you stand before Him, there is nothing bringing you to repentance. Without His gracious work, although difficult to receive, of Him calling you on the carpet and calling you to repentance, there is no work of Gospel He can do for you.

Of course, your Lord Jesus Christ can do anything. But His forgiveness and salvation He gives to you is without benefit to you if you hold on to your own comforting notions of your own peace of mind, or your understanding of yourself as a decent and kind person, or your satisfaction with your spiritual life to the point where you become complacent.

This is why Jesus uses such startling imagery. Do not be the cause of a brother or sister Christian stumble in their faith to where they lose it because the consequences for you are dire. So much so that it would be better if you were shackled to a large weight that pulled you down to the bottom of the sea. Cut off your hand if it is the cause of your sinning against the Most High God because being in heaven without your hand is preferable to being in hell with all body parts intact. Pluck out that eye that roams in the hopes of finding something that isn’t yours for the taking because it’s better not to have full sight in eternal glory than to fully see the terrors of eternal agony.

The only problem with immediately jumping to the fact that Jesus is speaking metaphorically here, and He is, is that it’s all that easier to dismiss it. Thank goodness, He’s just using imagery here. He’s not speaking literally, so I don’t have to worry about getting to the sordid work of hacking into myself and leaving body parts behind.

The sordid truth is, there is no imagery that could change the sinful condition of your heart. Because that is what Jesus is really getting at here—the heart of the matter. How many body parts would you have to cut off before you would be able to stop sinning and finally enter into eternal life? You’d have to hack everything away and then you would still have your heart. And your beating heart, the one that’s pumping blood to all your other body parts isn’t what Jesus is getting at here either.

What is in your heart of hearts? Good things? Pleasant things? Things you’re proud of? Things you would be perfectly at ease sharing with your Lord Jesus if it were just you and Him face to face with each other? What is deep in your heart that keeps you awake at night? All those missed opportunities where you failed to help someone in need. All those times you convinced yourself you need to take care of yourself and your children would have to wait. All those moments where your words of conviction of trusting in God betrayed your thoughts and your worries that you really weren’t sure if God was on your side. All those times where you were the cause of someone to stumble in their faith, a fellow Christian who was struggling in their faith, and you didn’t take the time or effort to sympathize with them, to be there for them, to listen to them, to not just say you care for them, but really care for them by showing them that you would not judge them because they were struggling in their faith.

There’s too much in there, in that heart of yours, to fully do justice to just how much sin and guilt there is. If Jesus can’t drive the point home by using potent imagery of cutting off your body parts, I’m not sure what else will work. The heart of the matter is that it’s not your hand, or your foot, or your eye, that causes you to sin. It’s your heart. All those sins you commit against others, all those times you failed others, all those times you caused others to stumble; they bring out your deepest problem, and that is that you call the shots for yourself rather than trusting that your Lord’s way truly is the best way.

Even though we confidently say, “This is the Gospel of the Lord,” and “Praise to You, O Christ,” always remember that the Law must do its work. You will squirm when the Law nails you to the wall, but give thanks that your Lord does this to you. Without it you would be enduring far worse than chopped off body parts. His Law is designed not to nudge you but to nail you to the wall.

Recently there was an article in the Union-Tribune on human trafficking. No to go into the awful details of what people to do to often underage children, but human trafficking, forcing others against their will to do sordid things for money, is a very real problem. And it’s not just ‘over there’ in those third world countries where things like these are easily done. It’s right here in our own city and in our own backyard in Mexico. It makes your heart go out to those who are used in this way. One striking thing mentioned in the article was from a person who is trying to help these innocent children who have basically become slaves. She said that the greatest enemy of children is indifference.

Think about that for a moment, about indifference. If you ignore the problem you are part of the problem. If you don’t do something about it you are promoting it. Indifference is deadly. Jesus said something in a similar vein, I would that they would be hot or cold rather than lukewarm.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s hard to be indifferent when met with Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel reading. They nail you to the wall and you either repent or rebel. Ignore them at your peril.

The Gospel in all of this is not so much in Jesus’ words, as we have said that they are significantly Law, but in the Word made flesh; in Jesus Himself. He didn’t come simply to blast you out of the water, to nail you to the wall. He certainly didn’t come to get you to break out the large kitchen knife and start hacking away at yourself. He came to call you to repentance. He came to bring you life. There is no life, there is no doing away with that guilt and sin heavy on your heart, without hitting it straight on.

A much easier to digest Jesus would be preferable, wouldn’t it? Much easier. But also deadly. So don’t get caught up in the, Oh good, it’s all just metaphorical stuff from Jesus today. Rather, get caught up in the Jesus who loves you so much that He comes to do the hard work of calling you to account, of nailing you to the wall. The Jesus who loves you so much that He would never be indifferent to you and your plight. But rather who would come to you right where you’re at and rescue you. Yes, who would come to you not just to say, Hey cut out all that stuff in your life that’s going against My sovereign Law, but also to say, My Father, if it be Your will, let this Cup fall on Me. Let it be to Me instead of the precious people who are our joy and delight.

And there, my friends, is truly the heart of the matter. It’s not just about your hand, or your eye, or whatever body parts causing you to sin, and the sins you’re struggling with. It’s about your Lord who loves you and lets you know that by not leaving you in the Law. It’s your Lord who is nailed to the wall Himself in your stead, nailed, in fact, to the cross. It’s your Lord, whose heart is pure, who is convicted and suffering the wrath of the holy God so that you may live in righteousness and purity forever.

And the heart of the matter is this as well, as with Jesus there is always more, that you may use your hands, and your feet, and your eyes, and your whole being to praise Him and serve Him. And if that all sounds wonderfully spiritual, well, it is. But it’s also immensely practical, because what do you use your hands, and eyes, and your body for? To serve others. To get down in the dirt with them, right where they’re at, to love them, and cherish them, and serve them. Praise to You, O Christ, that this is all accomplished by You, in Your precious Gospel. Amen.

SDG

Commemoration of Jerome, Translator of Holy Scripture

 Jerome was born in a little village on the Adriatic Sea around the year A.D. 345. At a young age he went to study in Rome, where he was baptized. After extensive travels, he chose the life of a monk and spent five years in the Syrian desert. There he learned Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament . After ordination at Antioch and visits to Rome and Constantinople, Jerome settled in Bethlehem. From the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, he used his ability with languages to translate the Bible into Latin, the common language of his time. This translation, called the Vulgate, was the authoritative version of the Bible in the western Church world for over 1,000 years. Considered one of the great scholars of the early church, Jerome died on September 30, 420. He was originally interred at Bethlehem but his remains were eventually taken to Rome. [Commission on Worship of the The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

 O Lord, God of truth, Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. You gave Your servant Jerome delight in his study of Holy Scripture. May those who continue to read, mark, and inwardly digest Your Word find in it the food of salvation and the fountain of life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Commemoration of Michael and All Angels

 The name of the archangel St. Michael means “Who is like God?” Michael is mentioned in the Book of Daniel (12:1), as well as in Jude (v. 9) and Revelation (12:7)… Tradition names Michael as the patron and protector of the Church, especially as the protector of Christians at the hour of death. [Kinnaman, Scot A. (2008). Treasury of Daily Prayer. Concordia Publishing House.]

 John Gerhard said of the angels: “What is the [angels’] attitude toward men? This the Lord Christ reveals with one word when He calls them “their angels,” that is, the angels of the little ones, the servants of the children and all believers… They render this service to every Christian in manifold ways. While we are children, God assigns our angels to us, as Christ tells us in the holy gospel. When we grow older and go our own way, that is, walk in the ways of our calling, God also assigns angels to us (Ps. 91:11,12).” [Kinnaman, Scot A. (2008). Treasury of Daily Prayer. Concordia Publishing House.]

The Collect of the Day

 Everlasting God, You have ordained and constituted the service of angels and men in a wonderful order. Mercifully grant that, as Your holy angels always serve and worship You in heaven, so by Your appointment they may also help and defend us here on earth; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Daily Prayer

Daily devotions. Quiet time. Whatever you might like to call it, being daily in the Word of God and prayer is vital to being a Christian and growing in the new life God gives us. That I’m writing about daily prayer doesn’t mean that I’m an expert or have it all figured out. It means that it’s important to me and I want to share the wealth. I’ve grown tremendously in my devotional life because others have taken the time to share their insights and offer help in this matter. So if can help in even a small way that will be a blessing.

This blog is ‘a place to sit down and talk theology’. It’s a virtual tavern of sorts. There hasn’t been much ‘talking’ of theology around here. But perhaps there shouldn’t be without talking about what’s at the heart of theology. It’s prayer. It’s devotion and worship. The ancient Church said that as we pray so we believe. I had always thought that backwards but in actually being in prayer and devotions I have come to learn that it’s exactly right. Of course we need to believe correctly. But belief is not somehow disconnected from prayer and worship and devotions. As you pray you will learn to believe and you will grow in faith. The one who looks at this intellectually will miss the point. And I’m not discounting the intellect and understanding doctrine. It’s where I’d rather spend my time. That’s why devotions are so hard for me. It’s hard to just pray. To be in the Word and be in it as one who hears it, not just as one who thinks about it and studies it and prepares to teach it and preach it.

The first thing to say about daily prayer I suppose is simply to do it daily. If you’re not in daily devotions today is the day to start. And if you need to start off slowly, making it short and sweet, you have permission. Take five minutes. Read a Psalm. That’s probably as good a place to start as any. It’s the Word of God and it’s prayer. Read the Psalm. Take your time reading it. Pray it. As you’re reading it, make the words your own, even if they don’t seem to say what you’re thinking or thinking you need to pray.

The peace of the Lord be with you as you take time today to be in prayer and each day.

The First. And the Last.

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 23, 2012

Mark 9:30–37

It is the preoccupation of man to think first of himself and not of His God and Lord. It is an eternal fact that the Lord is the First and the Last. He truly is greater than all, above all.

It is the mystery and paradox that the One who is First has become the last, the greatest has become the least. When Jesus taught His disciples He didn’t just teach them stuff that if they were to take a test they’d be able to get a decent grade on it. Jesus taught them by being among them. He who is the First became the Last and that is how He was teaching His disciples who more often than not were too dense to get the point.

Perhaps that was because Jesus’ teaching seemed so impractical; predicting all this stuff about how He would be suffering and dying and rising. Perhaps it was because they were at times preoccupied with themselves, as with this time here where they each made their case to each other—but notice not to Jesus—of why they were the greatest among themselves.

If it weren’t so deadly of a thing it would be comical. I can imagine Jesus laughing upon hearing their pathetic attempts to outdo one another with their supposed greatness among each other. Did they really forget that God Himself was among them and that He was their teacher, their Rabbi? Yeah, Jesus is the greatest, of course, but it’s obvious that I’m second in importance.

So when Jesus teaches them it’s not just that He’s with them, among them, God in the flesh, it’s that He’s being clear with them why exactly this is. It’s that I’m going to be delivered over. Betrayed. Handed over. It’s that I will be suffering, and being killed on a cross. It’s that when that has been accomplished I will be raised from the grave.

It’s a sad commentary that we often, and it’s probably more like all the time, hear this and react in the same way those pathetic disciples did. As if it doesn’t matter. As if we hadn’t heard it in the first place. As if we really don’t understand what He’s saying; what He’s really getting at.

Don’t you see? We do the same thing they did. We act and talk as if we’re so much greater than those disciples were because we really get it, unlike them. We know exactly what it means that Jesus suffered and died and rose. But we really aren’t any better than they were. We really don’t understand it any better than they did. Just because you don’t hear conversations in the fellowship hall as we’re chomping on donuts about who is the greatest among us doesn’t mean we haven’t done exactly the same thing they did. When you hear the Gospel, who Jesus is and what He has done for you—suffering, dying, rising—and then you begin thinking how some of your fellow congregational members just aren’t up to snuff as you are, Jesus’ question to you is, what are you thinking about on the way?

Jesus had taught them. It is hard to get clearer than what He had told 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.” It is the glory of the Lord, who is the First, to become as the one who is last. Jesus came, the one who is the greatest, the Lord of all, in order to become the least among us.

But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. That’s what Mark says as he’s recounting this event. Jesus makes this amazing prediction, prophecy, teaching. But they didn’t have a clue. Oh, and they were afraid to ask Him. And I suppose if my Lord and master were telling me He was going to be betrayed and killed I’d be a little hesitant to ask Him for clarification. Instead, I’ll go back into my comfort zone and build up myself. When those other guys try to convince me that they are better than me I’ll show them exactly how they’re wrong, because it’s clear that I’m the greatest among them.

It is the preoccupation of ourselves to dwell on ourselves. But Jesus has come among us as one who serves. It is the astonishing fact of history that the true God has revealed Himself not primarily as the Almighty, Powerful, Glorious God of all, but the humble servant of all. The First who chose to be the last. The greatest who humbled Himself as the least.

So that’s what all that being delivered over and suffering and being killed is all about. They didn’t get it. But in time they would. We often don’t get it. But upon hearing it again and again; upon receiving His gracious word of the Gospel, the forgiveness of our sins, lifting us up from our lowly state; we slowly begin to get it.

It’s not about us. It’s about Him. It’s not about ourselves in relation to our brother and sister Christians insofar as we are greater than them but rather about ourselves in relation to them in regard to how we may serve them. It is the preoccupation of Christians to consider what they need, when Jesus comes in considering what we need—blessing us and lifting us up so that we may be preoccupied with others’ needs; serving and loving them.

Things aren’t all that different from what Jesus did with His disciples to what He does with us. He was teaching them, He teaches us. He was the First, but became the last among them. He was unquestionably the greatest among them but became the least. He taught them, yes, but He wasn’t just imparting information. He was really teaching them. He was serving them. He was being among them, He was giving them what they needed.

He cut them down to size, and notice how He did it, with simple question: Oh yeah, hey guys, what were talking about on the way? Silence. Embarrassment. Conviction. Heads drooping a little in shame. It’s at this point that Master Jesus, the greatest of all, the Lord of all, once again teaches, humbly being among them instead of once and for all giving up on these self-absorbed nobodies. He brings a child among them.

Imagine this scene. The God of the universe taking a child and putting him before the disciples. Taking this child in His arms. Jesus doesn’t teach in a manner in which He’s got information to get across, and oh good, now they’ve gotten that information. He really teaches. He serves. He comes among us. This child before them must have sliced through their consciences as their attempts at proving who among them was the greatest came to the forefront of their minds.

A little child. One who is in need of being received. One who is in need of being received in the name of Jesus. Who are you to think anything of yourself when there are those among you who are in need? Who are you to ignore the servant work of Jesus by considering yourself over your brother or sister in Christ who is more in need than you are? When you receive such a one in the name of Jesus, you receive Jesus. And whoever receives Him, receives not Him but Him who sent Him.

It is the eternal joy and delight of God the Father to send His Son. It is His delight because it is His eternal joy to love us, to bring us what we need. And that is why we prayed in the Collect of the Day “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.” It was the prayer of our Lord to suffer and die and rise on the third day. It continues to be His prayer that His serving us brings about more joy as we serve others.

Jesus said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” It is the eternal gratitude we have for Him that He didn’t lay this upon us without first having done it Himself. He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He who is so is the First, and the last. He, the First, having become the last, and He the greatest having become the least and the servant of all. Amen.

SDG

The Life of Faith Is a Life of Prayer

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Commemoration of Cyprian of Carthage, Pastor and Martyr

September 16, 2012

Mark 9:14–29

It’s a pipedream to think that everyone in the Church is going to see eye to eye on everything. That there will never be arguing or dissension. This is what Jesus came upon in the Gospel reading for today. “What are you arguing about?” He asked them. The point of today’s Gospel reading, however is not that we shouldn’t be arguing, because, what if Jesus shows up and He finds us disagreeing with each other? It’s not even how we are to deal with each other when we have disagreements or don’t see eye to eye.

There are plenty of other passages in the Bible that deal with that sort of thing. What Jesus is dealing with in today’s Gospel reading is something far more important. He gets at the heart of things. There will be times we feel all warm and cozy with each and times we’re ready to go out one another’s throats. But through all of that there is faith. Or perhaps there is through all of that the lack of faith.

This is what Jesus is getting at here in today’s Gospel reading. It is the heart of the matter. And you might say He is doing it by going for the jugular. He’s not exactly being all warm and fuzzy with those people now is He? “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”

Wow. Just think for a moment being in the presence of Jesus and hearing those words come out of His mouth. If the arguments we have with one another don’t always make us squirm, the Lord calling into question an entire generation their faith, or lack of it as the case may be, and finishing it with the rhetorical question, “How long am I to bear with you?” will certainly cause some squirming.

It’s not that they’re arguing. It’s not that they’re having trouble seeing eye to eye and they just need to learn to get along with each other. It’s faith. Or rather, it’s the lack of it. It’s being a faithless generation. What’s striking in today’s Gospel reading is how utterly ordinary the setting of the argument is. This boy was afflicted with an unclean spirit. I have talked with people who seen firsthand demon-possession and the effects of witchcraft and other satanic activities. It’s not something I personally want to experience or witness. I have a hard time comprehending it when I live in a world where it’s ordinary to turn on a TV and witness images and sound coming from it and if I really think about what is happening I can only marvel at the amazing technology that produces something that I’d have to describe as magical. But in our society it’s ordinary. It’s the things like the spiritual world and spiritual forces that seem foreign and incomprehensible to us in twenty-first century America.

Jesus was going for the jugular in their lack of faith. And He is doing the same of us. We don’t really understand what it is. We cling to our own notions of being able to overcome our own weaknesses and sin and doubts, just as the disciples in the Gospel reading did, baldly asserting they were capable of exorcising that unclean spirit only to find out how powerless they were. And were those who were so secure in their own denunciations of the disciples any different? No, they didn’t believe it could be done but Jesus showed them differently.

The poor man whose boy was ravaged by this demonic spirit was caught in the middle of all this. “Lord, if you can, please help. Please drive the evil spirit out!” Let’s just say that there are a lot of people, and if we’re really honest, we might include ourselves here to an extent, who would be very uncomfortable to have Jesus as their pastor. The man pleaded to Jesus for compassion and in response what he got was: “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” Well, who knows what the man was feeling at that point. But against all odds, he cried out, “Yes, Lord, I believe. I do believe. But you’re right, I also struggle. I have doubts. Sometimes I even wonder if I do believe. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!”

And here’s where Pastor Jesus again shepherds His flock, giving the man the very compassion he asked for. He rebuked the unclean spirit. He spoke to the spirit, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” There was no more rebuking of the man. There was no more crying out to the crowd of their lack of faith. There was action. Action by Jesus. Jesus, in His power and even more so His grace and His compassion, rebuking the unclean spirit. Do you find it amazing that Jesus drove out an evil spirit simply by speaking to it? We shouldn’t. When Jesus speaks, His words bring about what they say. Jesus isn’t driving out this unclean spirit by His power but by His salvific work. What Jesus is doing here in today’s Gospel reading concerns faith, not, “Oh look!, Jesus is really powerful, He even drives out demons.”

Jesus wants to put faith into those faithless people. And how does He do that? By speaking. By speaking His Word. It is the word that brought into being the universe and all that is in it. It is the word that also brings into being salvation for you. It is the word that creates faith in you. Those people were arguing, not because they just couldn’t figure out this demon possession thing and how to help this poor little boy. They were arguing because they didn’t have faith. Jesus came in and spoke, creating faith. Helping the man in his unbelief, just as he had asked.

The thing about Jesus as a pastor though, is that His ways are unorthodox. He does things in ways where we look at the result and we say, “Well, now it’s worse!” He drove out that spirit and the boy laid there lifeless. People began stating the obvious, “Now he’s dead.” The poor man, after all he had been through, now looked down on his little boy and saw that Jesus’ work of driving out the demon resulted in his son’s death. This was no accident. Jesus works that way. He doesn’t derive pleasure from seeing the man struggle with the emotions of his son now being dead, He simply works in the way He works because otherwise we would keep arguing amongst ourselves how we’re going to accomplish what needs accomplishing in saving ourselves—whether it’s from an unclean spirit or our sin. Jesus doesn’t just help. He gives new life. The way we have new life is by dying. Jesus took the boy by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. He now had new life.

And so did the father. The father was given faith by Jesus. What had Jesus said to him? “All things are possible for one who believes.” The man said he did. He also confessed he needed help because of his unbelief. Notice what his words were. They were prayer. He was speaking to Jesus. He was praying. This is what faith is. It is a life of prayer. Faith is not, “God, I have it all figured out, here’s what You need to do for me.” Faith is a life of prayer. Of humble submission to the Lord and what He gives. The disciples later on asked Jesus, “So Jesus, what’s the deal, why couldn’t we cast out that unclean spirit?” And Jesus said, “Here’s the deal: it’s all about faith. This is kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” The life of faith is a life of prayer. If you’re under the assumption that it’s up to you you are not living the life of faith. If you’re under the belief that you believe, but Lord, help my unbelief!, then you are living the life of faith.

The life of faith is not arguing with God. It is rather trusting in Him, resting in Him, being at the receiving end of all His blessings, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation. The life of faith is not so much something you do—as in, you have faith, you believe, you pray—but rather something that your Lord speaks into you; that your Lord brings about by sending the Holy Spirit to produce and sustain faith in you. What it really is is what that man and his little boy experienced—Jesus coming into their lives in their need and bringing new life to them. The life of faith is a life of prayer.

What that means is that it is life in Christ. It is life united with Him in His death and His resurrection. It is life in which your prayer is not so much, “Lord, here’s what I need,” so much as it is, “Lord, I am Baptized, I have new life in You and my entire being, my entire life, all my needs are entrusted to You.” The life of faith, which is nothing else than a life of prayer, is really a lifelong calling upon your Lord, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I believe You give me Your very body in and with the bread I eat at Your Table. I believe You give me Your very blood in and with the wine I drink in Your Holy Supper. In this Meal, in Your Holy Supper, through Your very body and blood, help my unbelief. Give me faith. Strengthen my faith. Give me new life.”

He’s pretty good at that you know. He did it Himself. He died. He rose. He does the same for you, now and forever. Amen.

SDG

Jesus Opens the Book

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

August 26, 2012

Mark 7:1–13

The Christian who wants to live by the Law opens the Bible but is reading a closed book. The Christian who lives by a standard that human beings have drawn up looks at other Christians and sees people who fall short, in comparison with himself. The Christian who supersedes the commandments of God with man-made commandments does not understand the purpose of God’s commandments and is therefore unable to keep what God has commanded. The Christian who opens the Bible and does not see Christ as at the center and as what the entire Scripture points to sees the words on the page but it is a closed book.

That’s not to say that’s all there is to the Bible. There’s a lot of good stuff you can get out of it and not even be a Christian. The Bible contains wisdom rivaling the world’s great thinkers and philosophers. The Bible gives us good old common sense. The Bible teaches us many lessons and morals that are extremely helpful in day to day life. The Bible shows us how to live in a way in which we are guided by positive values and lasting virtues. You could simply read the Bible for the great literature that it is. There’s a lot of good here and more power to those who read the Bible and get all this good stuff out of it.

Sadly though, it remains a closed book to them. They see the words but they are lost in their sin. They read and even understand the words written on the pages of the Bible but they are darkened in their understanding of what the Bible truly is communicating. It is a closed book to them and they may as well be reading their shopping list for the week. There’s value in the shopping list as well, but it is not a message which imparts to you salvation. You could see your shopping list for what it is or if you’re the literary adventurous type you could probably draw some symbolic value out of that shopping list in order to see it as more than just a list of food. But it will not open to you the way of eternal life.

And neither will the Bible. Only Jesus opens up the Bible in showing you what the Bible is for. It’s for salvation and salvation is only in and through Christ. The Bible itself shows this and the Bible itself opens itself up to us in and through Christ.

One thing in that Bible is commandments. Each of us is born into sin and the sinful flesh opens the Bible and sees the commandments of God as something we must do in order to gain God’s favor. Our sinful nature opens the Word of God and it is a closed book. We see those commandments and we begin determining what we ought to do. Of course, our sinful flesh just as easily dispenses with those commandments of God, not wanting the stranglehold God places on us. Who is God to tell me what I should do and not do? Ironically, it’s the sinful flesh that does God one better. Why do we need God’s commandments when we can come up with our own? So many of the things we do as Christians are things that other people and we ourselves have enjoined on us. We feel restricted by God’s commanding of us but then we turn around and restrict ourselves even further with an abundance of man-made rules and regulations.

There’s nothing wrong with rules, regulations, commandments, restrictions, etc. that we or anyone else have come up with. We Christians are not free to disregard the law of the land or the rules of others when we visit them in their home. What Jesus pounced on in the Gospel reading was the same thing God seized on in the Old Testament reading: our tendency as Christians to honor God with our actions, putting on a good show, but in our hearts placing our trust in ourselves rather than in God. Salvation is at stake here. Our sinful flesh looks to itself for salvation, God points us to His Son.

We miss the point of the commandments of God because in our sinful flesh we see them the way we see man-made commandments, as rules we need to follow. Jesus shows us that the point of the commandments of God is not placing a burden on us in order to gain His favor but is rather the natural outflow of His love for us. God gave us His commandments, specifically the Ten Commandments, in order for us to love others in the way He has loved us. And how is that? He gave Himself to us. He placed Himself before us. That is love and that is the essence of the Ten Commandments. The problem we run into with the Ten Commandments is that in our sin we are condemned by those very commandments of God. That’s why we can’t be saved by them.

But that’s also why Jesus does what He does. He opens the Bible to us. He shows us that the commandments of God are more than just a list of rules. He shows us that we get nowhere with God when we attempt to gain His favor by following a bunch of rules. What He does is open the book to us. The Bible as it stands is a closed book to us because we see it in our sinful eyes. He opens it up. He shows us that what is in there is all about Him. It’s not just that it’s information about Him. It’s that it delivers Him to us. It’s that it points to Him and is centered in Him and is fulfilled in Him.

Consider what Jesus is showing the Pharisees here. They are the ones who are constantly doing things to please God. They put everything and everyone else in the background so that they can do things that will be pleasing in the sight of God. The very first commandment says to put nothing before God, right? So this they do. They must do things to please God at the expense of doing things that will help others. What their eyes are blinded to see is that they are putting something before God. It is themselves. They are seeking to be counted as worthy by what they do rather than what God has done for them and then keeping the commandments as the natural outgrowth of that.

But aren’t the Ten Commandments what God has given us to do? Yes, in fact. But that’s the point. For those Christians who seek God’s favor by what they do they place that over the Ten Commandments. The Bible remains a closed book to them. The example Jesus gives to the Pharisees shows this. They put their works over loving their own parents. They put their own traditions over the commandment of God. The purpose of the traditions is to gain advantage for themselves, by doing good and wonderful things so that God may look at them and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Here are ten kingdoms just for you!” But this is not the purpose of the Ten Commandments. The purpose of God’s commandments is love.

How does the Fourth Commandment, the example Jesus uses, read? Does it say, “Obey your father and your mother”? Does it say, “Be kind to your parents unless it impinges on your ability to obey God”? Does it say, “Give your parents their due”? It doesn’t say any of those things even though those are all wonderful man-made things that we should gladly do. The problem the Pharisees, and so often we, had was not that they were doing these things or not doing them. The problem was they, and so often we, were not seeing the commandment for what it was. How it reads is this: “Honor your father and your mother.” There may be times you must disobey your parents. If they command you to go against God you must disobey them. But you never stop honoring them. You may not see eye to eye with them in every way but you never stop loving them. Obeying can be done without love. True honor cannot be done without love.

Showing honor or respect out of a sense of duty misses the point of the commandment. Anyone can do that. What Jesus is talking about here is God’s love for us in loving us as His people, because of His grace, and giving us those in authority over us to care for us. To show them honor is to respond to God’s love for us in honor and humility and love. God didn’t give us His commandments in order that we may do what we need to do. He saved us and then gave us His commandments so that we may live in this free-flowing way of living: loving others not out of a sense of duty or in order to please God but simply because we love as God has loved us.

This is how Jesus opens up the Bible to us. He shows us Himself. No sense of duty or desire to obey His Father drove Him to the cross. Pure love did. Jesus went to the cross purely for love. For you, for me, for those Pharisees who condemned Him, for everyone. This is how the Scriptures are opened up to us, by Jesus showing us that it is all centered in Him and what He has accomplished on the cross.

What does this mean for you? In your life, for eternity, how you live, what you do? What does it mean for us as a congregation in Allied Gardens? For you it means that you are forgiven. You don’t need to wonder what God thinks of you. You are forgiven, you are in His favor. He doesn’t love you because you obey His commandments. He doesn’t love you more because you try really hard. He loves you, pure and simple. Jesus assured you of that in going to Calvary. What it means for us as a congregation is mission, evangelism, stewardship, and serving. We serve one another, we love the people in our community, we make known the Gospel to our community and even to the ends of the earth. We serve God with what He has given us, our time, talents, and treasure.

This is who we are as individual Christians and as Christians gathered together as a congregation. Christ is at the center. Jesus is who we point people to. If Jesus opens the book then we open it up for others. Rather than be a closed book to them we can show them how it all is centered in Him. We can show them how it all points toward His love for them in their life, both in this life and forever.

Jesus opens the book. He is the one, after all, who has the words of eternal life. Amen.

SDG

Why Is the Easiest Thing the Hardest?

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Commemoration of Bernard of Clairvaux, Hymnwriter and Theologian

August 19, 2012

John 6:51–69

The nature of grace is that it’s free. There’s nothing you do, nothing that’s up to you, nothing about you that you have grace. It’s given to you, it’s not of you or by you or from you. It’s the easiest thing there is. Salvation is accomplished entirely by God and given you entirely by grace. There are some things you do that are pretty easy but you are still doing something. With salvation there is nothing you do. You can’t get easier than doing nothing.

Consider if you were extremely hungry and someone gave you food. You would be happy that you are being fed. You would be thankful that the person gave you food. You wouldn’t be consumed with thoughts of, “I’m glad I’m taking the food in my hands and exerting the energy to put it in my mouth. I’m glad I’m doing the work of chewing so that I can get the benefit of the food.” When we eat we’re thinking about the food, not the work we do of actually eating it. The food has been given you by grace, not by anything you have done.

Think about if you were given a lavish meal by a wealthy person or by a king. Your focus wouldn’t be on all that you do to get the food in your mouth. You would be amazed that you have been given this gift of this lavish meal.

This is the nature of grace. This is what God’s gift of salvation to you is all about. It’s Him giving it to you, it’s you being the recipient of love and mercy you don’t deserve.

So it’s easy, right? In that He does it all and you are simply the recipient of it, yes, it’s pretty easy. It’s so easy that it seems that everyone should be in possession of this gift. It seems that everyone should be saved. You hardly have to look around to know this isn’t remotely true. We hear often of the new atheists who are hell-bent on drowning out Christ and the religion of Christianity. We know people in our families, our neighborhoods, and where we work who are staunch members of Judaism, or Islam, or Mormonism, or any number of religions. You never have to travel to other parts of the world to meet and know followers of the world’s religions.

Most definitely, not all people are in possession of the gift of salvation from Christ. Why is this? It’s so easy, He simply gives it to us, why are so many people without it? Why is the easiest thing the thing that so many people do not have?

It’s because the easiest thing is also the hardest thing. Being in possession of eternal salvation is the hardest thing in the world even though it’s the easiest thing to receive. Why would this be? Why is the easiest thing the hardest?

In today’s Gospel reading after Jesus details how people receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation many of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Take note of who these people were. They weren’t the hard-core atheists that want nothing to do with Jesus. They weren’t Muslims who view Jesus as merely a prophet. They weren’t your run-of-the-mill humanists who could appreciate the timeless wisdom Jesus taught even if they viewed Him as nothing more than a great teacher. These were disciples of Jesus. They were His followers. And it wasn’t just a few of them who couldn’t stomach Jesus’ teaching. There were many of Jesus’ followers who took issue with what Jesus was teaching here.

Such an easy thing, and yet so hard to swallow.

You heard the words yourself when the Gospel reading was being read a short while ago. I’ve read those words many times and have to fight the thoughts that come naturally to mind and that are eerily similar to what those people said when they heard Jesus speak them. Jesus giving His flesh to us to eat? Giving us His blood to us to drink? If I weren’t a Christian I really think I would hear these words and think of this religion of Christianity as one that has some disgusting elements to it. Some religions throughout history have had elements that are just too much for most people to bear. Sacrificing children, self-mutilation, commanded to view yourself as a worthless person. These are teachings and rituals that rightly turn many people away.

We are Jesus’ disciples. We are His followers. How do we react to these words of Jesus? What is He teaching us when He says to us, “I give you My flesh to eat and My blood to drink?” Isn’t it a little disgusting to think of, eating flesh and drinking blood? Why does Jesus say, “Here, eat this, My flesh”? Is it any wonder that John tells us that many of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” and then rejected Him?

There’s a reason we normally think in terms of our belief in Jesus as just that, belief in Him; or having faith in Him. If someone asked you, “Do you believe in Jesus?” you probably wouldn’t respond with the affirmation, “Yes, I wholeheartedly eat of His flesh and drink of His blood.” This way of talking that Jesus used in the Gospel reading about believing in Him is one of the many ways He and the Scriptures talk about believing in Him. As it is with the all the others, this faith in Him is completely the work of God in us. As Jesus Himself said in the Gospel reading two Sundays ago when His disciples asked Him what they must do, He responded, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” If it’s true that believing in Jesus is something you do it’s true this thing you do is actually the thing God does. It’s His work. You believe because God works it in you.

This is at the heart of why this is so hard. Who can listen to a teaching that removes you from the equation? What part do you play in your salvation? None. Who can listen to that? Who wants to be in a religion like that? So many people say, “No thanks, I’ll go to a religion where I hear that I have some good in me and it counts for something.” Not Christianity. Not Jesus. With Him what you get is, “Eat of My flesh and drink of My blood,” as if to say, “It’s all Me.” If you want salvation you can get it only if you believe that it’s not of you but of Him. If you are to be forgiven of your sins you must recognize that you are so utterly sinful that you are unable to do anything to get rid of your sin.

That’s why it’s the hardest thing. Jesus turned to His twelve disciples and asked them if they were going to turn away also. Every so often we are met with a confession of faith that we can simply step back and marvel at. We would do well not only to meditate on the words of Jesus in the Gospel reading but the confession of faith from the lips of Peter. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life? We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” At this point the furthest thing from Peter’s mind was how much he inserted himself into the relationship between him and his Lord. His confession of faith was of the one who had been sent by God, who worked in him the desire and ability to believe in the one whom God has sent.

Peter had many problems, as you and I often do in our faith life. But it is purely by the grace of God that we see that when we believe we are saved by grace we are saved solely by what our Lord has done and by nothing we have done. That it is purely by grace that we who are sinful are actually given the grace to do something amazing, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of all of our sins.

But there’s another reason that the easiest thing is the hardest thing. When Jesus talks of giving His flesh for the life of the world and offering us His blood He is speaking in terms of who He is and what He came to do. His flesh was offered on the cross for the life of the world. His blood was shed on the cross for the taking away of the sins of the world. This was not easy, it was something no one could do but Jesus Himself. It was in fact the hardest thing and that’s why Jesus came, in order to accomplish it. He came in order to do what none of us could. He who has the words of eternal life is He who gave His flesh and blood for the life of the world.

This hardest thing that Jesus Himself has accomplished has now been given freely to you, by grace—His mercy, His forgiveness, His eternal salvation, all given to you. To whom shall you go? There is no one else who gives you such gifts. Your Lord has the words of eternal life and He gives them to you freely in your Baptism, which you live in daily. He is the one who gives them to you by grace and mercy in His Holy Supper where He gives you His body and His blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins, for your salvation, for your life. Amen.

SDG

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Congregational Retreat

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Commemoration of Mary Magdalene

July 22, 2012

Luke 11:1–4

I’m really struggling to determine which is the greater prayer: the prayer our Lord has taught us or the prayer of the disciples to Jesus. The Lord’s Prayer is considered the preeminent prayer, and rightly so. How can you improve upon the prayer God Himself has taught us to pray? You may not know what to pray for but you always have the prayer your Lord has given you. In the Lord’s Prayer is contained everything that we need to pray for. The Lord’s Prayer cannot be exhausted. We can mine the depths of it and still find more treasurers. It is a no-brainer that there is not a greater prayer. It is the prayer our Lord has taught us to pray and it is the prayer that encompasses all that we know we need as well as all we’re not even aware of that we need.

So why do I have such a strange notion that the prayer of the disciples may be the greater prayer? I’m fascinated by how the Holy Spirit inspired the words of Scripture to be written as they were. It’s not that Jesus said to the disciples one day, “Okay men, today I’m going to teach you how to pray.” That certainly would have been a wonderful thing. I would love to have been in on that session. For all we know Jesus may well have done just that. But in giving us the Lord’s Prayer in the Holy Scriptures the Holy Spirit did not give us any such account of Jesus taking the initiative of teaching His beloved disciples to pray. No, it was those beloved disciples who said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

There’s a big part of me that hears that and says, “I can’t think of a greater prayer.” We have it right there in black and white in the pages of the Scriptures. The disciples coming to Jesus and asking Him to teach them to pray. I wonder how different our prayer life would be if we approached Jesus in that same way. I wonder how different our Christian life would be if we approached Jesus in the humility of knowing that we need to be taught to pray and that we need to be taught by our Lord to pray. It’s one thing to jump right to the Lord’s Prayer and pray it. It’s another thing to learn to pray by learning from the Lord’s Prayer and by praying it and making it a part of us.

But we also need to realize that we need to learn to pray. We learn from our Lord. And perhaps, “Lord, teach us to pray,” should be a part of our daily prayer life. Even if we don’t speak those words as we do when we say the actual words of the Lord’s Prayer, then with the understanding each day that, Lord, I need to learn to pray. I need You to teach me to pray. Lord, teach us to pray.

In a sense, these words are indeed the greatest prayer. They are so in that they are at the heart of what is being prayed in the Lord’s Prayer. If we begin to understand our need to learn to pray we will see more and more that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Lord, teach us to pray,” is exactly what we are praying. It’s so easy to recite the words of the Lord’s Prayer and forget that not only are we praying to our Heavenly Father when we pray those words, we are also praying this prayer: Lord, teach us to pray. It’s easy to forget that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are learning to pray. When we pray the prayer our Lord has taught we are not only praying as He has taught us we are being taught to pray.

The apostle Paul said something that has fascinated me my whole life: pray constantly. How do you do that? How do you pray all the time? How does one pray, as some translations have it, without ceasing? The answer, I think, is in this amazing prayer, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Praying is not just engaging in the actual act of saying words to God. Praying is assuming a posture, or perhaps better, a disposition, of humility and asking your Lord to teach you to pray. This is the posture Jesus assumed. It wasn’t in constantly walking around with folded hands and speaking words to His dear Father in heaven. It was in being one with His Heavenly Father’s will. It was in joyfully submitting to His Heavenly Father’s will.

Jesus didn’t need to learn to pray. He was in perfect communion with His Heavenly Father. His life was the perfect picture of what it means to pray constantly. But us? We need to learn to pray. We’re like the disciples coming to Jesus, with the request, the fervent prayer, “Lord, teach us to pray.” There is something immensely freeing about this prayer. It’s something of a confession of sin. Lord, I don’t know how to pray. Lord, I need to be taught by You to pray. When we don’t submit to our Lord and how He teaches us to pray in His prayer He has given us we end up with prayers that go far astray from what He has given us in His prayer He has taught us to pray.

Not that we shouldn’t pray for what we want or need or think are good things to pray for. We are the children of our Heavenly Father, after all. If children can’t come to their father in their needs and even their wants, what good is there for them to have a father? A loving and good father, though, will listen to his children and respond with what they truly need and what is truly beneficial to them. Children need to learn how to ask their father for what they need and want, learning to trust him that his answers may not always be what they want to hear but often are what is truly best for them. God our Heavenly Father bats .1000 every time. We don’t need to wonder about what He gives us. In the Lord’s Prayer we see what we truly need. In the prayer our Lord has taught we learn what ultimately benefits us. And so as we pray we do so with the mindset, that Lord, we need You to teach us to pray. Bend our will to Yours. Re-orient our desires with Yours.

Did you notice the prayer of the disciples in today’s Gospel reading? Lord, send these people away. They’re tired. They need food. They ain’t gonna get it here. Their prayer to Jesus wasn’t one of, we have a situation here Lord, teach us to pray. It was, this is the situation Lord, act according to what seems to us the best course of action. No, that won’t do at all, Jesus told them. I will teach you how to pray. His way was by taking the little that was there and providing for them in abundance. He didn’t need even the little that was there of course, Him being the Lord who brought into creation things from nothing. But it’s powerful to see abundance of bread and fish from five and two, so much so that there was a lot left over. Lord, teach us to pray.

The little we have, an Introduction, seven petitions, a conclusion, it’s not much, but out of it our Lord produces an abundance. In the few words our Lord has given us in what we call the Lord’s Prayer there is more than what appears to be. The beauty of it also is that it’s not even ours to begin with. He gives us the words. These few simple words He gives us and produces out of it an abundance. And in them He teaches us to pray. The words He has given us, the words of the Lord’s Prayer, He gave us in view of the cross. Just as He gave us the words to pray in His Prayer, “Thy will be done,” He prayed the very same words as He was about to approach the cross. We need to learn to pray, to pray to our Heavenly Father in light of the cross.

Our asking our Lord to teach us to pray may certainly be done by speaking to Him what the disciples did: “Lord, teach us to pray.” We also ask our Lord to teach us to pray by praying the Lord’s Prayer. Remember what is behind this. It’s not you. It’s not up to you. Learning to pray is not something you go to school for or in which you need to keep trying harder. God Himself is behind this. He is the one who has given you His word, where you are given an amazing prayer such as “Lord, teach us to pray.” And so you do. You pray your Lord to teach you to pray. To which He responds, Amen. It shall be so.

SDG

The Gospel Cannot Be Stopped

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

July 15, 2012

Mark 6:14–29

The Gospel cannot be stopped. A constant barrage of people and things try to stop it. There are people outside the Christian Church who try to stop it. There are even people inside the Church who try to stop it. Satan tries to stop the Gospel. Even you try to stop it, but we’ll get back to that in a bit. People acting alone and people gathered together attempt to bring the Gospel to an end but it cannot be stopped.

When what appears is that the Gospel has come to a crashing halt you can know that the Gospel cannot be stopped. This is invaluable knowledge when it seems that the Gospel has lost its power. You can hang on to this certainty when the world and your sinful flesh and Satan cause you to wonder if the Gospel really is all that powerful or beneficial. When this happens, know that the Gospel cannot be stopped. This is a fact. How things appear is that the Gospel may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. But the Gospel doesn’t operate in the realm of how things appear to be. Often it works in ways that appear to be the opposite of the power it’s really operating in.

You can see this in what happened to John the Baptist. Mark tells us about John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading. I suppose if we were watching this as a movie this would be portrayed as a flashback. Mark begins with Jesus. Jesus is doing His thing and more and more people are taking notice. It’s so much so that Herod the king takes notice. In fact, Herod starts getting a little nervous, even scared. You see, he’s the one that got rid of John the Baptist and now here’s this prophet teaching all kinds of God things and doing all kinds of miracles and gathering a following. When you see the story of how Herod dispatched John you begin to see how Herod was becoming a nervous wreck. This guy who’s doing all the teaching and miracles must be John the Baptist! He must have come back from the dead!

But it wasn’t anything like that. John was safely dead, just as Herod had brought about, having him executed by beheading him. What Herod should have been worried about was that what he had really attempted to do was to stop the Gospel. The Gospel cannot be stopped. What he should have been fearful of was that he continued in his state of unrepentance and therefore he was not able to experience the Gospel as it was meant to be experienced. Herod continued to hold on to the things of this world rather than seeing that in the one he had executed was the voice of the Gospel; the thing that could bring him to things of value far behind what his kingship could bring him. But he was once again trying to stop the Gospel, in fearing that John had come back from the grave.

This Gospel cannot be stopped. God had called John the Baptist to be a preacher of the Gospel. When he was beheaded his voice stopped preaching the Gospel. But the Gospel wasn’t stopped. It continued on. It continued to be proclaimed and made known. Jesus Himself was proclaiming the Gospel and making it known. If Herod thought that he had had a problem on his hands with John the Baptist, what would He do with Jesus?

People don’t know what to do with the Gospel. That’s why they try to stop it. Mark says in the Gospel reading that “Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, ‘John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘He is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’ So many people didn’t know what to make of Jesus. Instead of just seeing Him for who He was, the Gospel incarnate, they through one way or another tried to stop the Gospel.

What had first brought about all this angst on Herod was Herodias, his brother’s wife that he stole. Herodias hated John the Baptist. Why was this itinerant preacher telling powerful King Herod how to live his life? Herodias wanted her new husband to just get rid of John. What she didn’t realize is that the Gospel cannot be stopped. There was one problem. There was something about this prophet that caught Herod’s attention. He was perplexed about him but there was something about him that made him want to continue to listen. The Gospel has a way of doing that.

Herodias was undaunted. She found a way where she could put an end to this once and for all. She used her own daughter to bring it about. Young daughter danced before Herod and that brought about the vow that Herod made; the kind of promise where you wake up the next morning, wondering what in the world you were thinking. He promised her whatever she asked for and obedient young daughter went to mommy for instructions in what to ask. This couldn’t have worked out better for scheming Herodias. Precious daughter of mine, go to the king to tomorrow and ask for a very simple thing: the head of John the Baptist. That will stop the Gospel. I will finally get my way and be able to do what I want without God getting in the way. The only problem is, the Gospel cannot be stopped.

Not that she wasn’t successful. That she was is obvious. She had a problem and she got rid of the problem. In doing this she may have thought her life was going to be easier but she didn’t realize that she couldn’t stop the Gospel. We’re not told what ended up happening to Herodias and Herod. But this isn’t about them. It’s about the Gospel. It’s about the fact that the Gospel cannot be stopped. If the likes of Herod and the evil woman he committed adultery with couldn’t stop the Gospel, what makes us think we could? Perhaps you don’t see yourself as one who would do what they did. But Satan is very persuasive in his temptations. The world is very enticing in its attempts to get you to join its ranks rather than letting the Gospel reign free in your life. So, yes, as stated at the outset, you are much more like Herod and his wife then you might care to admit in acting just like them and trying to stop the Gospel.

The good news is that the Gospel cannot be stopped. Herodias had her prize, unthinkable for most of us, but for her a perverse satisfaction, receiving the head of John the Baptist on a platter. For her, the final act was victory, his disciples coming for the body so that they could bury it. For them this final act was perhaps one of despair, certainly of sorrow. Their beloved teacher would never preach the Gospel again. But that is the way it is with the Gospel. All preachers at some point have no more voice to preach the Gospel. That doesn’t mean the Gospel is stopped. It means that in this fallen world we die. But the Gospel is not of this world. The Gospel can never be stopped by the things of this world and not even by death.

If the disciples of John were stunned by burying their teacher, imagine what the disciples of Jesus went through as they saw their Lord now lying in a tomb. It appeared to them that the Gospel had come to a crashing halt. But only we in our sinful flesh see it that way. Jesus laying in a tomb actually shows how the Gospel can never be stopped. Death could not hold Jesus. He is the Gospel in the flesh and that very body rose from the grave, the Gospel shown to be something that can never be stopped. At the moment when all seemed lost and their Lord succumbed to death while hanging on the cross, where Satan appeared to have the greatest victory, all eternity was given meaning. The Gospel cannot be stopped. It was in that very suffering and death of Christ that the Gospel was shown in all its glory. It was in this event salvation was accomplished, forgiveness attained for you. You see, the Gospel cannot be stopped. What this means for you is that you will live forever. Amen.

SDG

The Progression

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

July 8, 2012

Mark 6:1–13

There is a progression in today’s Gospel reading and it’s the same progression begun in the Garden when God promised to Adam and Eve that He would send them a Savior. The irony is not lost on God, that at the moment of man’s fall into sin, God begins a progression in order to restore man to his previous good and blessed state. While the world seems to be in a constant regression, with natural disasters and individuals and groups of people causing disasters of their own on other people, there is a distinct progression God has been bringing about throughout history. This has absolutely nothing to do with the notion many people have that the human race continues to get better and will continue to accomplish greater and great achievements. This notion really is at the heart of God’s command to have no other gods. The first and foremost god in mind here is not gods of any other religion but of man himself. There’s no doubt we as a human race have achieved remarkable feats and there are many to come. It seems even more clear, though, that mankind continues not to progress, but to regress, going back again and again to that first sin Adam and Eve committed of wanting to be their own god; of feeding the sinful flesh and all its evil desires.

Whether things are getting worse or getting better or staying the same, there is a distinct progress in the midst of it all. God never stops in His relentless carrying out of His salvation work first promised there in the Garden and first begun. The very speaking of the promise was the very first act and work of God in this accomplishing of salvation. His Word has power and that is why even though Adam and Eve were told that in the day they would eat of the fruit of the tree they would surely die, God’s salvation was already in effect. They were not dead but rather given salvation.

Much of the Old Testament is history and in that history we see this progression. How many times must Adam and Eve have told the story to their sons and daughters of that fateful day in the Garden? How often must they have reminded their children of the amazing salvation God promised to them on that day and that in fact had already come into play as they were given mercy by their God whom they had thrown under the bus? Some of the descendents of Adam and Eve and their children were some of the well-known people we know from our being in the Scriptures. Abraham and Noah and David come to mind. There are many others. How often did these people marvel at the grace of God even as they often continued to question God and go their own way over God’s way, going back again and again to the same sin Adam and Eve had committed? Much of the history of the Old Testament reads like a lesson in, Did you learn anything from your ancestors?

Through it all was this progression. God at work in His people, calling them to repentance. Giving them His grace and mercy. Pointing them forward to the Savior He would send. A striking example of this is in today’s Old Testament reading. God sends Ezekiel to the Israelites, God’s very own people, and God calls them nations of rebels, people who have rebelled against Him. His message to them is judgment. He is calling them to repentance. That’s what God does for His people. He loves them and is unwilling to sit by while His people go their own way. That’s why God didn’t abandon Adam and Eve in the Garden when they had abandoned Him. He reached out to them, calling them to repentance, embracing them with His love and forgiveness.

God says to Ezekiel that if he will speak God’s Word to the people, whether or not they will take it to heart they will know that a prophet has been among them. God has continued all along to make known His Word to His people through people who are sinful as they are. When they speak it’s not their own words they speak. It’s not their own opinion. It’s not something new or progressive. It’s the same word of God that was first spoken in the Garden when Adam and Eve desperately needed to hear that God was still for them, would never give up on them, would always love them, would give them a Savior and salvation.

In our day and age we think we’re so far beyond all those in the past. We know more, we’ve achieved more, we’re on the cusp of spectacular things never dreamed of in former times. But who are we kidding? We’re no different than anyone else throughout history. We think we know better than God. Sounds a little bit like all those people who went before us, doesn’t it? We think we’re so advanced. Sounds a little bit like Adam and Eve thought they could be. We never learn. We continue to regress even as God continues His progression of coming to us in His Word and with His salvation.

Paul knew something of being advanced and beyond all others. In many ways he was. But when Jesus came to him to bring him to his senses, Paul realized—well, I’ll just let him do the describing of himself—he realized he was the chief of sinners. He came to see that he was no better than anyone who had gone before him, that he needed salvation as every other person, that his heart and soul were rotten to the core. And in his new life given him by Jesus he realized something else. That in this life on earth there are problems, and hardships, and trials, and that he was very, very weak. His realization of this as a new creation in Christ was that he could, and even should, boast in these weaknesses. As he says in the Epistle reading, a thorn was given him in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him, to keep him from being too elated. “Three times” he says, “I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

This is always the challenge our sinful flesh faces. It is the moment we face every day, and many times throughout each day, where we are met with the Word of God which says we should fear, love, and trust in Him above all things and our sinful flesh says that it’s got way better ideas than that. When God says to us that we should love Him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, our sinful flesh says that we should do what we think is best, what we feel like doing, what will not impinge on our own desires.

So the world, the devil, and our own sinful flesh will appeal to us: we don’t have to step out of our comfort zone and share the Gospel with our neighbor because the relationship there is nice and comfortable just in being good neighbors. We know we’re forgiven and don’t need to spend time each day in reading and pondering the Word of God. Since we have to take care of ourselves, our health, our peace of mind, we shouldn’t place extra burdens on our ourselves when others are in need.

Sound familiar? It should. You know these things to be true in your life. If for some reason none of these actually apply to you, never fear, because the Ten Commandments have you covered. God in His Law pins you to the wall in every corner of your life. You have no better chance of hiding from God than Adam and Eve did.

And it should sound familiar to you in another way as well. You are just like the people Jesus went to in the Gospel reading. God’s description of His people to Ezekiel sound a lot like them, don’t they? And if you are wise enough to hear it, you will see that it’s an apt description of you. It all boils down to this. Who you are, what you have done, how you have continued in the downward spiral as your ancestors in the faith have, means something. It means you need to repent. And it means that Jesus will keep coming to you. Just as He did with those people in our Scripture readings this morning. He continues His progression.

It’s remarkable how Jesus came to those He knew would reject them. God had said to Ezekiel that you need to go to them. Whether they listen to you or not, they’ll know a prophet has been among them. When Jesus came to those who had known Him as the guy who grew up down the street, they refused Him as their Lord. But they knew a prophet had been among them. And there’s another thing. Even though He marveled at their unbelief, even though He went on to the next towns, and continued His Gospel message to others, He nevertheless, and even was the reason, He went to the cross for those very people who rejected Him. He paid for their sins. He died for them, He took in His place what was rightfully theirs—their sin, their guilt, their shame of rejecting Hm.

While we should never think that it’s okay for us to do the same, we should marvel at the fact that we are just like them. And marvel at the fact that Jesus, just as He did for them, went to the cross for us. And knowing this, you can also know that He continues to come to you, calling you to repentance, and forgiving you of your sins. His progression never ceases, He continues on in His progression, always loving you and forgiving you. And when you hear Him as He is proclaimed to you and as He comes to you in His body and blood in His Supper, you will know that He has been among you. Amen.

SDG