The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 20)

(Audio)

Matthew 22:1-14; Ephesians 5:15-21; Isaiah 55:1-9

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a party, a festive wedding banquet, in which everything is prepared, ready, and free, to which you are invited, so that you need do nothing at all but come. You don’t even have to buy a new suit or gown, for wedding clothes are included in the invitation. And yet, you refuse to come. You make excuses. Or, you insist on paying for your dinner, wearing a suit or gown of your own purchase and choosing. Haven’t you heard the saying, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?” The kingdom of heaven is a gift to you. You cannot buy it. You cannot earn it by your works. And, you certainly don’t deserve it. But it is yours for the taking, absolutely free, no strings attached, as a gift. You are in, by the Father’s, by the King’s gracious working. Only you can make yourself to be out.

But, this is a parable, an analogy. The kingdom of heaven isn’t really a wedding feast, although there will be a feast and a wedding, but the kingdom of heaven is a relationship of love between a father and a son. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” Long before the invitations were sent, the guests invited, the beasts slaughtered, and the dinner prepared, long before all that, there was a father and a son. The son is getting married, and the father is going to throw a wedding feast for his son whom he loves. It’s all about the son. The banquet is for him and his bride whom the father loves. Indeed, the father’s love for his son is what makes the wedding feast to be the incomparable free gift of grace that it is. For, the father has done everything for the sake of his son because he loves him. And, that’s why absolutely everything that is necessary is already prepared and there is nothing for you to do, nothing for you to bring, nothing for you to buy, nothing for you to earn or to deserve, but it’s all free, absolutely, completely free by grace, and by grace alone, because of the father’s love for his son.

Yet, this isn’t any ordinary wedding banquet, for the kingdom of heaven isn’t any ordinary kingdom, and the King of Heaven isn’t any ordinary king. Likewise, the invitation isn’t any ordinary invitation, but it’s more like an offer you cannot refuse. Of course, you actually can refuse it, and, sadly, many do, but what I mean is that you shouldn’t refuse it, you shouldn’t want to refuse it, and, if you truly knew the nature of the invitation you have received and the implications of its refusal, you wouldn’t want to refuse it. No, this is no ordinary banquet, but this banquet is life, and its refusal is death. To refuse the King’s gracious invitation is to say, “No thank you, I’d rather die first.” Be certain of this, you will! This is why Jesus warns you of the grave implications of refusing to come to the wedding feast, or of insisting that you come on your own terms. Twice the king appealed to the invitees to come to the wedding feast, but they refused. Some even killed the king’s messengers! Therefore, “the king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” The wrath of God is not His proper disposition towards us, but rather His alien, or foreign disposition towards those who refuse and reject Him, but it is nevertheless real and uncompromising. Yet, no one need face God’s wrath against sin, for the invitation is to all through Jesus Christ – It is His wedding feast, and the Father, the King, would have His banquet hall filled.

Thus, the king said to his servants, “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.” You see, badness or goodness are not conditions for participating in the wedding feast, but it is acceptance of the king’s gracious invitation. It was, and it is, by the king’s grace alone, for love of his son, that anyone is invited. It is by grace alone that you are saved, it is by grace alone that you must be saved, for it is by grace alone that you can be saved. Those initially invited were found unworthy because they refused and rejected the king’s gracious invitation. However, those invited later were not found unworthy even though some of them were bad. It is not badness that condemns you, or goodness that saves you, but you are saved by grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Still, one of those guests gathered from the highways and the hedges was found by the king in the wedding hall without a wedding garment. The king had him bound hand and foot and cast into the darkness outside the gates. Why such harsh treatment to one who had responded positively to the king’s gracious invitation? Well, again, it is by the king’s grace alone that anyone enjoys his banquet, which includes, not only the invitation, mind you, but the proper attire as well. In order to demonstrate the totality and completeness of his grace upon his invited guests, the king in Jesus’ parable even supplied the proper wedding attire. His guests need not purchase, borrow, or worry about having the proper clothing, for all would be provided by his grace alone. Free means free – period! Thus, the king asked the man, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” To put it another way, “What arrogance and disrespect, to reject and to refuse the wedding garment I have provided for my guests!” Grace is the only way in. You are invited by grace, and you must be clothed by grace. Anything that you do and put your trust in will surely put you out.

But, again, this is a parable. Therefore, we’re not even really talking about a wedding or a banquet, and we’re certainly not talking about the proper tux or gown! The wedding garment is Christ’s righteousness, given to you by grace alone in Holy Baptism. The only way that you can enter into the kingdom of heaven is through Christ: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Christ’s righteousness must cover you. Jesus’ blood must cover you. And, holy Baptism gives this gift to you, purely and freely by grace alone – no strings attached. You don’t even have to understand it. You don’t even have to believe in order to receive this gift. But, this gift gives all that is required: It forgives sin. It clothes you with Christ’s righteousness. It even creates faith that clings to Christ alone. It’s a gift of God’s grace – perfect, pure, and holy, unlike any other gift you could ever imagine or receive! That’s what the man who was cast out had refused and rejected. He had refused and rejected God’s gift. He had refused and rejected Christ’s righteousness. Therefore, he had no standing before the King, and necessarily, he was cast into His alien wrath.

But, here’s the real kicker: You’re not just guests at the wedding. You’re the Bride! The wedding garment of Holy Baptism isn’t a tux or a gown, but it’s a wedding dress, pure white and spotless. Jesus says that “many are called, but few are chosen.” Indeed, only one is chosen – You, His precious Bride, the Church! “From heaven He came and sought Her to be His Holy Bride. With His pure blood He bought Her, and for Her life He died.” Though you are many, you are one body, His body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. He will never leave you or forsake you, and nothing can separate you from His love. His Father loves you because He loves His Son. Graciously He gives you all things, for He sees you as one flesh and one body with His Son. In Him, nothing is spared or reserved, but all things are yours. But, apart from Him, you have nothing.

That’s why Jesus warns, “Whoever is not with me is against me” and “You cannot serve two masters,” for you are wholly His by grace alone, or you have no part with Him at all. That is why the Prophet exhorts you to “seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near,” for the time is coming when the gates to the wedding hall will be shut, and outside there will be darkness, weeping, and the gnashing of teeth. But, the good news, the Gospel is this: No one need be found outside! The invitation is to all, whether Jew or Gentile, good or bad, believer or unbeliever. It is delivered by the Holy Spirit through the Word of the LORD and it has the power to create faith when and where He pleases. But, don’t try to buy or to work your way in, and don’t try to wear your own garment of works and pride – you will be cast out. But, come without money. Come without works. Just, come, and receive. For the LORD is good, and He graciously gives to all whose eyes look to Him, to those who desire the goodness of the LORD.

Come, now, and receive His gifts. The invitation is for you today to feast on this foretaste of the Great Wedding Feast of the kingdom of heaven. All is prepared for you, the Bride, to receive the goodness of your Groom. “Our Bridegroom and our Lord is He, who gives us our identity; and He whose promise can’t grow old has nothing that He will withhold. For this is He who did ascend and preaches still to all earth’s end through all His preachers who proclaim salvation in our Savior’s Name.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 19)

(Audio)

Matthew 9:1-8; Ephesians 4:22-28; Genesis 28:10-17

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus saw their faith. What did Jesus see? What does faith look like? We shouldn’t be surprised that faith can be seen. It was St. James, Jesus’ brother, who famously wrote in his epistle, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” What Jesus saw was some people bringing to him a paralytic so that He might heal him. Their faith was shown forth in their works. Their works were an outward confession of what they believed in their hearts. Clearly, they believed that Jesus could and would heal the man. Clearly, they loved the man enough to bring him to Jesus for healing. Because they believed in Jesus, they had faith in Jesus, they also produced the fruit of good works in their love for Jesus and for their neighbor. Jesus could see their faith. Their faith was evident in their good works towards both God and neighbor.

Because He saw their faith, Jesus’ response was different than what we might expect. Jesus spoke to the paralyzed man and proclaimed that his sins were forgiven. We might have expected that Jesus would address the man’s illness, his paralysis, and tell him to get up and walk. No doubt, that’s what the people who brought the man to Jesus expected. But Jesus didn’t say that. Instead, Jesus proclaimed that the paralyzed man’s sins were forgiven. Notice, however, there is no indication that the paralyzed man, or even those who brought him to Jesus, were dismayed or disappointed. They may very well have been disappointed, but it is not recorded for us. Let’s be honest, even though we believe, the LORD doesn’t answer ever request we make in the affirmative, nor in the timeline we might desire. The LORD’s ways simply are not our ways, and the foolishness of the LORD is wiser than our wisdom. Truly, the LORD has not promised to give us what we want, but what we need, which, let’s be honest once again, is often not what we truly need or even want. In fact, because He saw their faith, Jesus gave the paralyzed man precisely what he needed, which is precisely what we all need, Jesus gave Him the forgiveness of his sins.

Because He saw their faith, because they believed, Jesus went straight to the heart of the matter, sin. Sure, the paralyzed man believed that his paralysis was his chief problem, and likely so did those who brought him to Jesus, just as you and I likely believe that our diseases, marital and relationship problems, financial problems, and so much more are our chief problems, but the paralyzed man and his friends, along with you and I, all share a common problem that is the very worst and ultimate problem we have – sin, which leads always and only to death. Paralysis, diseases, marital and relationship problems, financial problems, and everything else we suffer are not the disease, but only the symptoms. Sin is the common disease we all share, and sin leads only and always to death. All the people whose diseases Jesus healed, even those He raised from death, died, or died again. And even should we recover from our present ailments, not a one of us will enter heaven before passing through death.

What does faith look like? Faith looks like calm in the face of uncertainty, contentment in the face of want, peace in the face of trial, tribulation, disease, and even death. And because faith looks like this faith is free to act in love towards others, bringing others to Jesus, sharing all things with those who need it, never fearing we will not have what we need, living freely without fear and resentment, peaceful and content. Faith is not lifeless, but it is a living faith. Faith is always acting outward, at once receiving and giving and therefore living.

However, there were some present who were scandalized and offended by Jesus’ words. Some scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” They believed that only God could forgive sins. Notice that they had no quarrel with Jesus that the paralyzed man was a sinner, but only that Jesus could forgive sins. Neither were they concerned that Jesus did not heal the man’s paralysis. They were only concerned only with Jesus’ proclaiming forgiveness. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus asked them, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” Again, Jesus equates the disease, paralysis, with its cause, sin. It is no easier to say one rather than the other. However, the scribe’s rejection was less about the nature of sin than it was about who can forgive it. Theirs’ was a question of authority, and they maintained that Jesus didn’t have it. One group of people believed and trusted in Jesus’ authority. Jesus saw their faith. Another group of people did not believe and trust in Jesus’ authority. Jesus knew their thoughts, that they were evil. Nevertheless, to demonstrate that He indeed has authority to forgive sins, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When they saw it, the crowds were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.

The scribes were right, only God can forgive sins. However, they refused to see with the eyes of faith that God was in their midst, in and through Jesus, to forgive sins and to heal the sin-sick unto death. The scribes could not see what the people who brought the paralytic to Jesus could see. The scribes could not see that God was with them because their eye was evil, and they refused to believe.

We cannot ascend to heaven. Therefore, heaven has descended to us in Jesus. That is what Jacob came to realize in his dream. He envisioned a ladder set up between heaven and earth with angels ascending and descending upon it. The ladder was a type of Christ, God reaching down to earth and humankind in grace, mercy, peace, love, and forgiveness. When Jacob awoke, he exclaimed, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” The LORD was present with Jacob, though he did not know it, and He renewed the covenant promise with Jacob that He had first made to his father Abraham. And because the LORD descended from heaven to bless Jacob, the LORD was also present to bless, forgive, and heal the paralytic. The LORD was present in Jesus who, in His incarnation, has forever bridged heaven and earth, God and man. Wherever Jesus is, there is also God and His kingdom. Wherever Jesus is, there is also grace, mercy, peace, love, and forgiveness. And where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

“Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it,” Jacob exclaimed. “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Jacob’s words are as true today as they were in his time and in the time of Jesus. The Lord still has power on earth to forgive sins. In holy absolution He raises up the new man and bestows the healing medicine which will bring about our resurrection on the Last Day.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 15)

(Audio)

Matthew 6:24-34; Galatians 5:25 – 6:10; 1 Kings 17:8-16

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

“I’m about to prepare the evening meal for my family, so that we might eat it and die.” I think my wife has said something like that from time to time. But do you hear the desperation in the widow’s remark? Do you hear the hopelessness and the despair in her words? “All I’ve got left is a handful of flour and a little oil, enough only for my son and I to eat tonight, and now you want me to bake you a little cake. Well, why not! It all ends the same way anyway. At least it will come a little quicker!”

We’ve all felt like that from time to time. The money is tight – no, the money is gone – but there’s still a pile of bills to be paid. All you see and hear on the news and the internet is the continuing dissolution of values and morals in America, the uprising and advance of extremists and people who hate us and want to kill us, drugs and violence, graphic displays of pornography and sex in everything from music awards ceremonies to fast food restaurant commercials. It’s easy to be become anxious and worried. It’s easy to become overcome by hopelessness and despair. It’s easy to want to throw in the towel, to give up, to let it all go to hell, to just let death come, the sooner the better.

You see, you cannot serve two masters. And, whether you realize it or not, that is exactly what you are doing. You are serving your master the devil. Well, you’re not serving God with your fretting, worrying, anxiety, and despair, so just who did you think you were serving? Jesus says that you cannot serve God and mammon. I know, our English translation says “money.” Sure, mammon is money, but it is much more than that. Mammon is all manner of material wealth, and fleeting and worldly things that we are tempted to possess and amass and put our fear, love, and trust in. Mammon includes money and possessions, but it also includes fame, power, popularity, respect, and honor. Understand, these things are not evil or sinful in themselves, but they are, in truth, God’s blessings upon you. However, what you do with them, what you make with them, and how you receive them is what makes the difference. It’s truly a spiritual matter: Do you receive the LORD’s blessings as gifts over which you have been given stewardship in your vocations, or do you believe them to be the fruits of your own labors for which you have merited money and possession, fame, power, popularity, respect, and honor before your fellow man and before God?

Satan tempts you towards the latter. Thus St. Paul exhorts you saying, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” This is to say, you must walk and think and choose and decide to use your gifts in the right way, in accordance with the purpose God entrusted you with them. But, if you give into the devil’s temptation, then you will become conceited, thinking too highly of yourself and your fruits, and envious of others and their gifts. Then, God’s gifts become your master instead of God who gave them to you. Then your fear, love, and trust is in mammon, and not in God above and before all things. You will be tempted to believe that you are free and independent, but mammon is no easy master, but it is a cruel tyrant, and you are its slave. And, the fruits that your master mammon will produce in you are against the Spirit. Therefore, St. Paul exhorts you to test your own work to see if it is pure and in accord with God’s will and command.

In this regard, we are here to help each other. St. Paul also exhorts you saying, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” You are your brother’s keeper; thus, St. Paul says, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” They say, charity begins at home. Well, this place is your spiritual home, and these people are your spiritual brothers and sisters. Right here, in your family of faith, is where your walking in the Spirit begins and is honed and perfected so that you will be empowered and well-trained in guiding others to life in the Spirit.

Now, what does all this have to do with worry and anxiety? Everything! For, worry and anxiety are the worship you pay to a false god, to a tyrannical slave master, to mammon, and to Satan. In contrast, peace and contentment are the fruits of fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and they are also the proper worship of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is not speaking something mysterious, but He is speaking plain old common sense, though in a profoundly perceptive and ontologically true way. Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” No one improves or extends their life in any way by being anxious and worried. In fact, you will most certainly shorten your life and make your living less enjoyable. So, why do it? Why give in to this temptation?

I know it’s hard. And your Lord Jesus knows it’s hard too. That’s why He has gathered you into this family, His body, the Church. You are not alone. And, when you suffer the affliction of temptation, and even when you fall – especially when you fall – your brothers and sisters in Christ are supposed to be here to pick you up, to direct you to the healing oil of Baptism, Confession, and Absolution, and to the cleansing wine and nourishing food of the Lord’s Supper. And your LORD promises you that, until He returns, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty.”

Do not be afraid! Rather, in faith, reach out, go out, do the loving thing, the merciful thing, the compassionate thing, even if it seems the foolish thing, the thankless thing, or even the dangerous thing. When the widow expressed her despair and hopelessness that she was down to her last rations and was about to die, Elijah directed her to her faith in the LORD and in His promise, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.” Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.”

Go and do. Those are words that, as Lutheran Christians, you have been somewhat conditioned to hear as Law and not as Gospel. I say to you, that is a good thing. You must always be on guard against legalism and the slavery to works and the works righteousness that it produces – a fear, love, and trust, not in God, but in yourself and your own faith, piety, and works. And, yet, the Holy Scriptures, even the Gospels, the Apostles, and Jesus Himself regularly command you to go and do. As I spoke to you two weeks ago concerning Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan, how you hear and understand Jesus’ go and do has everything to do with what you believe about Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. For the baptized, for the regenerated, for the faithful, for you, Jesus’ “go and do” is not a commandment of the Law, but a fruit of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit equips you to perform these works of love and service for your brothers and sisters in Christ and for your neighbor, not for merit before God, but in love of God and the people He loves, and to His glory above all things. Jesus gives you what you need to go and do, and He works in you and through you as you go and do them.

However, if you are filled with anxiety, worry, and fear, then you will be unfruitful, but not fruitless. You will bear fruit, to be sure, but not the fruit of the True Vine Jesus, but the fruit of the evil one: pride, envy, jealousy, wrath, lust, sloth, greed, hatred, etc. Jesus would have you live by the Spirit. Jesus would have you live, not in slavery and its trappings – fear and bitterness and resentment –, but in true freedom and its fruits – love, mercy, compassion, charity, selflessness, etc. “Do not be deceived,” writes St. Paul, “God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

The answer lies in Jesus’ words, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” You shall have no other gods. You shall fear, love, and trust in God above all things. “No one can serve two masters.” “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Do not let yourself be overcome with fear and anxiety, hopelessness, and despair. These are the temptations of the evil one, and your flesh is weak to withstand them. But, instead, be filled with the gifts of Jesus – faith and forgiveness, life, now and for eternity – and serve Him by being served by Him and by serving others with what He has served you. Go and do this, not in fear, or out of coercion, with resentment or pride, but go and do them out of freedom and love.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Well, you’ve found it! The kingdom of God is right here with you now, before your very eyes, to clothe you and to comfort you and to empower you with His righteousness that you may live without fear, in love and freedom, all the days of your life, glorifying God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in service of your brother and sister and your neighbor in Jesus Christ. Here, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 14)

(Audio)

Luke 17:11-19; Galatians 5:16-24; Proverbs 4:10-23

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There were ten lepers. All ten were healed. But one leper returned to give thanks to God. Now, you, go and do likewise. Amen. Have you heard that sermon before? I know I have. I’ve probably even preached that sermon before. And to be sure, there’s a bit of that teaching in the story of the ten lepers. However, if that is all that you take away from Jesus’ teaching today, then what you will have received is but a nice lesson in morality, a teaching in the Law that says to you, “You, go and do likewise,” a command that you do not and cannot keep, but you will have missed out on the rich and profound Gospel that Jesus would lavish upon you today. For, the story of the ten lepers is about thanksgiving only in a secondary, or even a tertiary, way. But what the story of the ten lepers is truly about is finding life in death.

For, the ten lepers in the story were dead. Because of the disease which ravaged their skin and made them unclean, they were dead to their families, they were dead to their friends and their community, they were dead to all manner of livelihood and providence, and they were dead to worship and prayer and making the necessary sacrifices at the temple. In fact, their flesh was literally dead and dying, for leprosy is a disease caused by an infection which deadens the skin to feeling, particularly pain. Thus, lepers would accidentally cut, tear, and puncture their flesh without knowing and the wounds would become infected. In some severe cases, lepers became living, stinking, decaying, corpses of men.

But what should get your attention immediately in this story is Jesus’ response to the lepers’ cry for mercy. Jesus doesn’t acknowledge their leprosy, He doesn’t wave His hands or touch them or do anything physical at all, He doesn’t even give them His typical “I am willing, be healed,” but He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Now, showing oneself to the priests is what the law required after one had been healed from leprosy. A healed leper must show himself to the priests to be pronounced clean and thus restored to their families, communities, and the rites of the temple. But Jesus didn’t heal the lepers. Rather, He instructed them to go, in their leprosy and uncleanness, and present themselves to the priests. What must they have been thinking? What would happen when they appeared before the priests? Wouldn’t they be sent away in disgrace, maybe even arrested, or worse?

Nevertheless, away they went. What faith they must have had in Jesus to go, in their leprosy, to show themselves to the priests as He commanded? Yes, it appears that all ten lepers trusted in Jesus despite what their eyes and their ears told them. I posit to you, however, that these ten lepers could only place such faith in Jesus because they were effectively dead to this life and this world. They had nothing to offer, they had nothing to boast of, they had nothing to fall back on, therefore they had nothing to lose. The ten lepers were so lost that they had nothing to lose by trusting in Jesus with all their heart, all their soul, and all their mind. They were brothers in faith with both the Good Samaritan of last week’s Gospel and the man left half-dead in the ditch. Did they know that they would be healed on the way? I don’t think so. But, you see, it didn’t matter! They couldn’t be any worse off by trusting Jesus and obeying His command. What, would they become even more leprous, more cut off, more dead than they already were? No, of course not.

But then the story takes a turn. As the ten lepers journeyed to show themselves to the priests, all ten were cleansed and healed. Then, one leper, when he realized that he has healed, returned to Jesus and fell at His feet giving thanks and praising God. Presumably the other nine continued on their way to show themselves to the priests and return to their lives and livelihoods. And therein lies the crux of the story. Jesus doesn’t raise the dead so that they can return to their old way of life, living to themselves and to the flesh and the world, but Jesus raises the dead to live a new life in Him. All ten lepers believed and trusted in Jesus. All ten lepers went at Jesus’ command to show themselves to the priests despite what their own eyes and ears told them. But when they discovered that they were healed and clean once again, nine of the cleansed lepers thought to themselves “Hallelujah! I’m free! Now I can get back to living once again!” But the one leper realized that, despite his healing and being made clean, he was still a leper – a cleansed leper, to be sure – but a leper nonetheless. That is to say that his cleanness and his healing was because of, and dependent upon, Jesus, even still. Alone, he knew that he was nothing, that he was dead in his sin and uncleanness. But in Jesus alone, and still, was he clean and whole. And, because of this, the cleansed leper returned to Jesus and laid down his life before Him, thanking Him and praising God. He would not return to his former life, for, there was no former life to return to. Only by confessing his deadness could he receive and live a new life, Jesus’ life, in the world but not of the world.

You see, to understand the story of the ten lepers as a story about giving thanks is really to miss Jesus’ point altogether. As wonderful and precious to God as thanksgiving is, thanksgiving is but a fruit and a response to the even greater and more precious thing that has happened, which God Himself has worked, faith itself, bringing life out of death. The thankful leper returned to Jesus because he knew that he was alive, in every way that you can understand that word, in, through, and only because of God’s Word in Jesus Christ. Now, I’m fairly certain that the other nine lepers were very thankful for their healing and cleansing too. But the difference is that they thought that they had been raised from death to live a life like their old life, to continue to love all the same things they used to love and to desire all the same things they used to desire, to live as if this life were our own to do with as we please in amassing possessions and pleasures and platitudes and power. In contrast, the thankful leper knew that he shouldn’t be alive at all, thus the life he lived, he lived to Christ, and his death was, and is, and will be, only gain.

But are you not often more like the nine healed lepers who did not return to give thanks than you are like the one leper who returned and fell at Jesus’ feet? Do you not treat your forgiveness as the beginning of a new life, a second chance to go forward and live a better life in this world much like the life you had before you believed? Do you give thanks for the mercy and forgiveness shown to you, for the life given you, or do you take that for granted? How have you lived differently from when you first believed? How have you lived differently from when you last received absolution?

Do these questions make you uncomfortable? Good! They should, for that is the Law of God reflecting how far you fall short of what the He in His Law demands. That is why you should focus much less on the giving thanks in this story and much more upon the deadness of the leper who returned. For, the leper who returned was truly grateful because he realized how dead, how truly lost he was, and he realized how found, healed, and alive he was made to be. Likewise, you are found lost sheep, healed and cleansed lepers, and raiseddead. That is to say that you always live in Christ as forgiven sinners and that you carry your failings, even after mercy and forgiveness, as glorious scars. Along with the thankful leper at Jesus’ feet you may see yourself whole: dead and risen, an outcast and accepted, a leper and cleansed.

Ten lepers received life that day two thousand years ago, but only one recognized that the life He received was Jesus’ life. Nine of the lepers understood their new life as a second chance to try do better. Only that one leper was willing to confess that he was still dead, still a leper and an outcast, but that, despite this, by grace alone, he was blessed to live a new life that was not his own, not merely a second chance to better himself, but a chance to live to Christ and in Christ, and through Christ to his neighbor.

The Samaritan leper returned to give thanks to Jesus and to praise God. This was not the first work of his new life but it was the first fruit of his death. Only those who are truly dead to themselves can bear the fruit that the True Vine Jesus causes them to bear. One of those Christ-borne fruits is thankfulness, but the first fruit to be borne in death is faith itself. You are carried to Jesus as helpless infants. You are found by Jesus as lost sheep. You are raised by Jesus out of death. And you are restored by Jesus to sonship with the Father even though you are prodigal sons and daughters. And, as St. Paul teaches, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires and have died to themselves, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake will save it.

For you to live is Christ and to die is gain, for, Christ and His Word are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. And, your Jesus, who is Himself alive out of death is present for you now in His life-giving Word and healing Wounds for the forgiveness of your sins, the strengthening of your faith, and for your communion in His holy and perfect life. Return to your Great High Priest who has raised you from death to His most glorious life and has washed you clean in His precious blood. Give thanks to Him in this Holy Eucharist and live in Him who is life today, tomorrow, and forevermore.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 13)

(Audio)

Luke 10:23-37; Galatians 3:15-22; 2 Chronicles 28:8-15

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The lawyer’s question betrayed his fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the Law of God. He asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” From that question alone, Jesus knew all that He needed to know about this man. For, the Law of God is not about I – it’s not about you – but the Law of God is about others, your neighbors. The lawyer was interested in himself, thus he asked, “What must I do to inherit?” But, the purpose of God’s Law is not what you must do to get something you want, but the purpose of God’s Law is for you to love your neighbor.

“What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” Jesus asks, not only the lawyer, but you. Do you hear and read the Law as instructions and commands for what you must and must not do? That is only part of the Law of God. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not slander, do not covet – what these prohibit is clear enough. However, do you not hear and see the command within them to love your neighbor? For, the command “Do not murder” means much more than merely “do not harm your neighbor in his body,” but it includes also the command “to help and befriend him in every bodily need.” This is why Jesus teaches, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

The same is true with the other prohibitive commandments. Each also has a prescriptive component rooted in love for your neighbor. The prohibition against adultery prescribes that “husband and wife love and honor each other.” The prohibition against stealing prescribes that you help your neighbor “to improve and protect his possessions and income.” The prohibition against slander and gossip prescribes that you defend your neighbor and speak well of him, explaining everything in the kindest way. And the prohibition against covetousness prescribes that you help and be of service to your neighbor in keeping what he has. Even the commandments that are not directly prohibitive – Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy; honor your father and your mother – these are about love, love for the Word of the Lord and love for your parents and authorities over you as you love the Lord Himself.

Love is the only commandment, therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, if, like the lawyer who put our Lord to the test, you’re doing the Law of God in order to gain something for yourself, then you are focused on the letter while you miss the Spirit of the Law entirely.

Jesus said to the man, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” The lawyer got Jesus’ point. Do you? You see, the lawyer spoke the correct words, he answered correctly: the love of God and the love of neighbor is the fulfilling of the Law. Love is the Spirit of the Law which undergirds and accompanies the letter. But, even though he answered correctly, Jesus’ Words piqued something in the man’s heart. The lawyer felt the need to justify himself. What this means is that he understood that Jesus was pointing him to something other than doing the Law to gain something for himself. Jesus was, in fact, pointing him away from himself and to his neighbor. Therefore, when Jesus said to him, “Do this, and you will live,” the lawyer felt the crushing weight of the Law coming down upon him, for he was self-interested, selfish, and self-righteous, and he realized that the keeping of God’s Law is not about the self at all, but about love for God and for the neighbor. No doubt, the lawyer did a pretty good job of keeping the letter of the Law. In fact, Jesus doesn’t chide the man for his works, but instead, he tells him a story to help him to truly see what the Law of God is all about. That story is the well-known and beloved Parable of the Good Samaritan.

As the story goes, a traveler “fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” I’m not certain that it’s wise to make too much of it, but the use of the words “fell among” seems to indicate a certain passivity, even innocence on the part of the traveler. It’s not that the traveler was doing anything wrong, but he simply “fell among robbers” and found himself in a predicament where bad things happened to him that he was powerless to stop. Perhaps Jesus’ purpose in using this language is that we identify with the traveler. For, too often we are stripped and beaten and left half dead by life, and by the sinful men and women who live it, through no particular fault of our own.

However, another possible way to understand this language is in terms of the letter of the Law, particularly the Levitical Law and its code. After all, that is what the lawyer knew so very well and put his fear, love, and trust in performing so that he felt self-righteous and justified. But, the lawyer’s reading of the Law was of the letter and not of the spirit, therefore, it brought no comfort to the terrified sinner, no hope to those despairing of salvation, but instead left them stripped, beaten, and half dead lying in a ditch that would soon become a grave.

Therefore, when first a priest and then a Levite pass by, they do not help the man. They cannot help the man, for they are bound by the same robbers that left him naked, bleeding, and dying in a ditch – but they don’t know it (or, do they?). You see, again, what is Jesus’ purpose in telling this parable? He is trying to get the lawyer to see that he is misinterpreting the Law that he believes he knows so very well. He is trying to get the man to understand the spirit of the Law, love, which he is able to state in a perfunctory manner from rote memory, but which he does not know personally, and therefore cannot show to his neighbor. Jesus tells this parable to the lawyer in order to pique his heart of mercy and compassion, that he may see, and know, and believe that this is the true meaning, purpose, and fulfillment of the Law of God.

When the despised Samaritan comes along, he alone does the priestly work that the Law requires, which the priest and Levite of the letter of the Law neither would nor could do. The Samaritan was moved by compassion, by love, to step down into the ditch with the bleeding, wounded, and dying traveler and to pour out his selfless gifts of oil and wine, to bind him up and bear him upon his own beast of burden, pay what was necessary to keep him and provide for him, and leave him with the promise that he would return. “Which of these three,” Jesus asks, “do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” Both the lawyer, and you, and I must answer, “The one who showed him mercy.” And that is the purpose and the fulfilling of the Law: Love.

Love is the spirit of the Law. The lawyer, who was an expert in the Law, couldn’t see that. Jesus helped him to recognize it in the works of the Good Samaritan. For, works of the Law, even performed to the very letter of the Law, without love, are, as St. Paul has written, noisy gongs and clanging cymbals, or as Isaiah has written, filthy rags. Yet, moreover, on our own, we can no more fulfill the spirit of the Law than can we the letter. We cannot love God or our neighbor as the spirit of the Law requires, therefore, once again, we must identify with the half dead man in the ditch. We are Adam, who, upon sinning, his eyes were opened and he saw that he was naked and he was ashamed and afraid. This is what the Law does to sinners, it exposes you and leaves you vulnerable and unable to help yourself.  God asked Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?” Like Jesus, God the Father gets to the root of the matter – sin. Adam was always naked, and his nakedness was good. It was sin that caused him to see the good things of God as bad. Likewise St. Paul confesses that he didn’t know what sin was until the Law came. The Law cannot save us, but it has “imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Indeed, as we heard last Sunday, Jesus “has done all things well!” He has fulfilled both the letter and the spirit of the Law. He has been the Good Samaritan, binding up the wounds you have suffered under the Law, pouring on His selfless gifts and paying the price for your life. And, He has been the man in the ditch, taking your place upon the cross, suffering mocking, beatings, scourging, and piercings at the hands of robbers, dying, and being buried in the earth that He might rise again to life and redeem you out of death and the grave. And, He is the innkeeper who cares for you and provides for you in this inn of His Church. And, He is the true Priest and Levite whose office is to serve you in love, mercy, and compassion, which He Himself receives in superabundance from His gracious and merciful Father in heaven.

Indeed, He has done all things well! He has fulfilled the Law of His Father in letter and spirit. He has done this for you, in your stead, so that you are healed, forgiven, made righteous and holy in the sight of His Father once again. Now He commands you, He exhorts you, He sends you as holy priests and Levites to “Go, and do likewise.” Go, and love like Jesus, with Jesus’ love. Go, and have compassion like Jesus, with Jesus’ compassion. Go, and show mercy like Jesus, with Jesus’ mercy. He has done all things well! He has fulfilled the Law in letter and spirit so that you are free to do it, without compulsion or coercion, without fear of failure and punishment, but you are free to do it, you are free to be it, in Jesus’ love. But first, you must be served by Him, here in this inn, His Church, where He cleanses you with water and anoints you with the Holy Chrism of His Spirit in Holy Baptism, where He forgives you with the healing balm of His Holy Absolution, where He feeds you with His faith creating, sustaining, and life-giving Word, and where He communes with you in life, through death, unto life that never ends in the Holy Supper of His Body and His Blood. Through these Holy Means He showers His mercy upon you, that you may go and do likewise to the glory of His Father.

In Jesus’ + Name. Amen.

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 12)

(Audio)

Mark 7:31-37; 2 Corinthians 3:4-11; Isaiah 29:17-24

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus teaches you that it is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but it is what comes out of your mouth.For, what comes out of your mouth proceeds from your heart, and this is what defiles you. For, it is out of the abundance of your heart that your mouth speaks, and out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile you.

As you were when you came into your life, and then, with what you have done with it since, it would have been better that you were born deaf and could not hear, that you were mute and could not speak. For then these evils in your heart would not be unleashed upon the world. But then, also, you would remain alone, isolated, and cut off from family and friends, cut off from life as it was meant to be, unto death and eternal isolation and solitude, which may be the worst hell imaginable.

But thanks be to God, He did not leave you alone in that state, but having boundless mercy, love, and compassion for you, He visited you in your own flesh and blood and He spoke His creative and life-giving Word into the deadness of your ears. He opened them and He loosed your tongue to speak, not the wickedness of your sin-corrupted heart, but His praise rising from a heart cleansed by His holy blood shed for you, a new heart of flesh to replace your heart of stone.

Jesus’ touch is powerful and healing to be sure, but even the touch of His hands is empowered by His creative and life-giving Word. And so, you need not worry that Jesus hands are not present that He may place His fingers into your ears, that He does not spit and touch your tongue, for you have His creative and life-giving Word, you have His ephphatha spoken to you in and through His holy Word in the Holy Scriptures, and through the lips and mouths, hands and touch of pastors and priests in Law and Gospel preaching, in Holy Baptism, in Holy Absolution, and in Holy Supper. Through these humble means He is present to serve you with greater gifts than hearing and speech, but with the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” The Church sings these words of King David at the beginning of the day in the Matins liturgy. They come from Psalm 51, the great penitential Psalm of David, which he composed after he was brought to repentance through the words of Nathan. In Psalm 51, King David confessed that he was in need of a new heart, and he asked that the LORD would create a clean heart within him and renew a right spirit within him, words that the Church still sings at each Divine Service in the Offertory. For, along with David, each Christian must confess that he was conceived and born in sin, spiritually deaf to the Word of God and unable to speak His praise until the LORD opens our stopped ears and looses our mute tongues. It is nothing less than an act of creation and a resurrection each and every time a sinner repents. He who was deaf can hear. He who was mute can sing. He who was blind can see. He who was lame can leap like a deer. He who was dead lives, all because of the creative and life-giving Word of a Book spoken into death and nothingness.

You and I need to be cleansed and healed, resurrected, and created anew from the inside out. That good work has already been begun in you, and your LORD will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. Thus, we are God's children now, yet what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

What you are now is God’s new creation. God has spoken His ephphatha into you. He has opened your ears to His Word and He has filled you with His Holy Spirit so that you are His temple, free from the bondage of sin and death, free to live life in the Spirit of God, the life of Christ to the glory of God the Father. This is what St. Paul means when he says that “we are not sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.” “Such is the confidence we have through Christ toward God,” believing, trusting, and knowing that He has done all things well for us in Christ. No longer is the Law of God cause for fear or a cause for self-righteousness, for Christ has fulfilled it and satisfied it for you, but now you are free to do it without fear of punishment when you fail or misplace faith in your own works unto death. You are free to serve and love God by serving and loving your neighbor knowing that you cannot lose what has been given to you by grace, and that all that you have is God’s, who gives to you in abundance that you may give from the abundance of your heart what He has given to you: love, mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness.

The creative and life-giving Word of God that first clove the darkness in the beginning, that brought forth life out of death and nothingness, that opened deaf ears and blind eyes, that loosed mute tongues still calls out to you, still fills you, still feeds you, still strengthens you, and still re-creates you that you may live and be fruitful in the fruit of the Spirit of God: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things as these there is no law. But, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. […] Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” St. Paul warns you that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

What this means is that, your God, who would not leave you alone in isolation unto sin and death, but in mercy, love, and compassion visited you in your own flesh and blood and spoke His creative and life-giving Word into the deadness of your ears and loosed your tongue to speak His praise, your God also will not leave you or forsake you, he will not give up on you, but continually calls you, again and again, and cares for you to preserve you and keep you that you may remain His child and heir forever. He knows your flesh all too well. He knows your weakness and the temptations you face. Therefore, He gives you His Word and His Spirit and He dwells in you and with you, He joins you into a family of faith, the Church, the very body of Christ for mutual support and fellowship to keep you from straying into harmful beliefs and behaviors.

Likewise, you are indeed your brother’s and your neighbor’s keeper. Just as the disciples brought the man who was deaf and mute to Jesus that He might heal him, so too should you share the goodness, love, and forgiveness you have received from Jesus with others. More than that, bring them to the creative and life-giving Word of God in the Holy Scriptures read and preached and the Holy Sacraments which are the very means through which God bestows His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. You are not like Cain, self-centered and a solitary wanderer upon this earth, but you are a member of the body of Christ and the family of faith in Him.

The ears that He has opened, the tongues that He has loosed, they cannot help but hear and speak and sing His Word and His praise. This is who you are – healed sick, raised dead, forgiven sinners, called out of death into life and sent out into the world as salt, leaven, and light that God may be glorified. It is His Word that has called you. It is His Word that has raised you. It is His Word that sustains, empowers, and enlightens you – that makes you a blessing unto others. His Word is your life and your salvation. Read it. Hear it. Eat it. Live it. It is your life, for the life of the world.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 11)

(Audio)

Luke 18:9-14; 1 Corinthians 15:1-10; Genesis 4:1-15

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.” This is a parable of disordered love, of loving the right things in the wrong way. Dante Alighieri, the 14^th century Italian poet, wrote of this in The Divine Comedy, specifically in Book One, The Inferno. Disordered love is how Dante describes sin. He assumes that mankind, created in God’s image, was created to love like God. Thus, when we sin, it is not that we don’t love – that’s impossible – but it’s that we love the right things in the wrong way. Take lust for example. Lust is a disordered form of love. When we have lust we have a disordered love for the body, beauty, and sexual intercourse, all of which God created as very good and to be desired, in the right way. Similarly, what is avarice or greed, but a disordered love of the good things God gives to us. Both sins are idolatry, a sin against the First Commandment, because we have loved something or someone before and more than we have loved God.

Trust in ourselves that we are righteous is also disordered love. Our fear, love, and trust are to be in the LORD above all else, even ourselves. That also is a transgression of the First Commandment. God is the creator of all things. God is our creator. He is good and just and righteous, and He is the source, origin, and creator of all things. Therefore, everything that is is in relation to God. If something or someone is good, that goodness must be measured in relation to God’s goodness. Before the Fall, our first parents Adam and Eve were good. God made them to be good, declared them to be good, and they truly were good. All their thoughts and deeds, even their free will, was in alignment with God’s good thoughts, word, and will. The serpent’s temptation was to think and to act according to a different word and will. A different word and will. Take note of that! God created Adam and Eve and gave them free will, but what would it mean for them to exercise it? It would mean that they had thought and acted according to a word and a will that was not God’s. Truly, that was the essence of their fall into sin. Until the serpent asked, “Did God really say?” Adam and Eve had never contemplated anything other than that which was of God.

Then their eyes truly were opened to both good and evil, for what is evil but opposition to good, and what is sin but a disordered love of that which is good. What their eyes were open to were thoughts, words, and deeds that were not God’s thoughts, words, and deeds. They became aware of their own will, which was not God’s will. They began to resent God and to believe that He was holding out of them something good. They thought evil of God, for they now thought Him capable of not being good, capable of not loving them. That is what sin does. Sin corrupts our reason and our senses so that we cannot perceive things as they are, so that we put the worst construction on things and people and our love for them grows cold as our resentment grows hot. Our love becomes disordered, misdirected, twisted, and curved inward on ourselves. We were created to receive the love of God and to love Him in return through our love of others. But sin has so corrupted us that we cannot rightly love God, and so we cannot rightly love our brothers and sisters and our neighbors.

Genesis chapter three records our first parents’ fall into sin. Genesis chapter four records the fruit of that sin, resentment, jealousy, anger, hatred, and murder. Adam and Eve’s firstborn son Cain murdered his younger brother Abel. Both men had offered appropriate sacrifices to the LORD. Cain offered the first fruits of his harvest and Abel offered the first of his flock. As the story goes, the LORD favored Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. No reason for this is stated, but it becomes obvious in Cain’s reaction. Cain became sullen and resentful, jealous and angry towards God and towards his brother Abel. It is the preacher to the Hebrews who informs us that the LORD accepted Abel’s sacrifice because it was offered in faith and love but rejected Cain’s because it was not offered in faith and love. This is clear in the LORD’s words to Cain: “The LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.’” Why was Cain concerned about how the LORD felt about his brother’s sacrifice in the first place? If he obeyed the word and the command of the LORD, what had he to be concerned with? Should he not have rejoiced with his brother that the LORD so favored his sacrifice? You see, bitterness, resentment, and disordered love were already long at play in Cain’s heart and mind even before he made his sacrifice, and this was the reason the LORD had no regard for his sacrifice. Cain resented the LORD and his brother. He convinced himself that he was being treated unfairly and unjustly. Cain’s self-righteousness blinded him to the LORD’s goodness, justice, and righteousness so that he judged his brother unworthy of God’s favor and worthy of death, and he judged the LORD’s justice and righteousness and found it wanting.

Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.” This is a parable of disordered love, of loving the right things in the wrong way. The Pharisee feigned to love the LORD so much that he boasted about it, “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get,” never mind the fact that these things were required under the Law of Moses. Like Cain, the Pharisee did not offer these sacrifices in faith and love for the LORD but out of a sense of obligation, and he took pride in that he fulfilled the Law and considered himself justified before God because of it. As Jesus teaches concerning works of the Law, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Even worse than the Pharisee’s self-righteousness, however, was his lack of love and utter contempt for those he deemed beneath him and to be sinners, like the tax collector in Jesus’ parable. “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’” Just as Cain did not offer his sacrifice out of faith and love for the LORD, so the Pharisee did not offer his tithes and prayers out of faith and love for the LORD but out of a sense of obligation believing that he merited the LORD’s favor. Consequently, because their love of God was disordered, they did not and could not love their brother and neighbor.

In contrast, the tax collector did not approach the front of the temple or raise his head before the LORD and the assembled worshippers, but he prostrated himself in the back and would not look up at all. He did not boast of his tithes and prayers, nor was he concerned about what anyone else was offering or how they were received by the LORD, but he emptied himself, confessed his sins, and plead for mercy trusting that the LORD is good, just, righteous, and above all loving and merciful and forgiving. And as Abel’s blood cried from the ground for justice, so Jesus says that it was the tax collector who went home justified that day. Because he knew and confessed that he didn’t deserve it, the tax collector was in a position to receive all good things from the LORD. For, only sinners can be forgiven, and only the dead can be raised to new and everlasting life in Jesus. If we do not love our brother whom we have seen, we cannot love God whom we have not seen. And if we do not put our fear, love, and trust in God above all things, we will have no love for anyone at all, but will fall into disordered love, loving the right things in the wrong way, which is sin and leads only to death and damnation away from the love of God and men somewhere east of Eden.

Self-righteousness is a sin that is a fruit of disordered love, loving the right things in the wrong way. Such disordered love threatens to cut us off from God and from those He has given us to love, our spouses and children, our extended family, friends, and neighbors, and each other in this congregation. We are all guilty of self-righteousness and countless other fruits of disordered love. But the God of love is present here today and every time we gather to receive His gifts to wash us clean in the blood of Jesus, God’s greatest gift of love for all the world, and to restore us to a right relationship, a relationship of love, with Him and our neighbor once again. That is why we are here. That is why we will gather here again next week and every LORD’s Day until He comes again. We are like the tax collector in Jesus’ parable. We do not gather here to boast before the LORD of our sacrifices and good works, but we gather here to receive from the LORD His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness so that the fruit and works we bear in our lives, words, and deeds will be His fruit and His works of love towards others to the glory of God. Our Divine Service is not our service of God, but it is God’s service of us. Here in this place where two or three are gathered in His Name to receive His gifts is where He forgives, restores, and renews us, and from whence He sends us to be a gift of love to all the world. We, the Church of Jesus Christ, are how God so loves the world.

Interestingly, the lowest level of Dante’s Inferno, hell, is where Lucifer resides for all eternity. You might be surprised to learn that it is not a place of fire and heat, but it is frigid cold and in its very center Lucifer is frozen in ice up to his chest, for disordered love is not full of the fiery heat of God’s love, but it is curved in on itself, always resentful, dissatisfied, discontent, unloving and unmerciful, cold and lifeless, dead as ice. The antidote to this is the love of God poured out in Jesus Christ. That LOVE is present for you here and now. Come and receive God’s gift of love, the only thing in this dying world that can enliven you to live and love.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral For Marvin Ernest Redies

(Audio)

John 14:1-6; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Isaiah 43:1-3a, 25

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Marvin was a philatelist. Now, don’t get upset with me. I’m not saying anything rude or crude about Marvin, I’m saying that he was a lover of stamps. Marvin was a stamp collector. He collected hundreds, even thousands of stamps over many, many years and he kept them and cared for them and enjoyed sorting them and cataloging them and simply looking at them. Stamps are common things. Most people buy them and use them and don’t think twice about it. They can be found on nearly every piece of mail that comes into our homes, businesses, schools, and places of employment. We throw countless canceled stamps in the garbage every year. But that was Marvin. Marvin loved the simple things in life: Collecting stamps, spending time with family, teasing Darlys and the grandkids. Life was simple and good from Mavin’s perspective, and nothing was so bad that a hearty belly-laugh couldn’t make it better. Marvin’s advice was, “You just plant a seed and watch it grow.” Now, that may seem obvious, common sense, but that is a perspective that is in short supply these days. That’s a gift. That’s contentment and peace. That’s what faith looks like bearing trials, tribulations, and crosses without being crushed, but actually being an encouragement to others. That was Marvin.

Marvin grew up in Bremer like so many here at St. John and in the Waverly community. He was baptized and confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bremer and attended school there as well. After marrying Darlys in 1949, the couple raised their family on a family farm just north of Bremer. From my limited experience talking with Marvin and Darlys and with so many others from Bremer, there was something special about that community. Folks were simple and common, down to earth, good people. They may have lived simply, but they were wise. They worked hard. They knew where their food, clothing, and shelter came from and what was necessary to have it, keep it, and maintain it. They were both humble and proud at the same time, and there’s no sin in that when you’re proud for the right reasons. Family, faith, farm, friends, honesty, integrity, and keeping your word, resilience fortified with hope, these were the core values that characterized Marvin and made him the father, husband, grandfather, friend, and brother in Christ we remember and give thanks to God for this day.

Marvin learned much growing up on a farm and then farming himself for over forty-five years. Marvin knew much about cows. He loved and was proud of his dairy herd, which was one of the top herds in Bremer County. Darlys was known to say that he loved his cows more than her. Now, we know that is not true, but he did love his cows! Later Marvin worked for the American Breeding Service (ABS) and he would visit farms and advise farmers which cows and bulls to breed for the best milk production and overall health and strength. In fact, Marvin was so knowledgeable and skillful that he and Darlys traveled all over the country and even to Mexico to provide his counsel and advice. It goes without saying that Marvin’s knowledge and skill with dairy cows made him an excellent judge at county fairs for 4H and FFA, but he never judged the Bremer County Fair because he knew and had worked with the youth who showed there and didn’t want to risk being partial to them. Marvin was a mentor to children and youth. He taught them a good work ethic, good pride in their work, and resilience, endurance, and perseverance. Marvin’s grandchildren benefitted from his calm, steady guidance and encouragement as he guided them in the right direction and encouraged them to complete what they started and persevere through a setback.

I realize that I’ve used words like resilience, perseverance, endurance, contentment, and peace in describing Marvin. That’s what I think of when I think of Marvin, and after talking with his family a bit this past week I got the sense that you think of him in this way as well. You may not have used the same words, but the sentiment was the same. Marvin was kind, accepting, joyful, and a fun guy to be around. Do you realize how rare these qualities are today? Such qualities flow from a heart that is content and at peace, not restless and always seeking pleasure and fulfillment in things it doesn’t have or cannot obtain. How does one obtain such peace and contentment? Where does such peace and contentment come from? I maintain that it came from that simple, common farm life in Bremer and from a little church in that community that shaped and formed Marvin’s faith.

Jesus teaches, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Why should your hearts be untroubled? Because you “believe in God,” and you also believe in Jesus. That is to say that your peace and contentment come from outside of you, and that’s why you can trust it, stand upon it, and persevere and endure. Jesus is our rock and a solid foundation that will not move no matter what may threaten us. Our God is not a God who is far off, but a God who is so very near to us because He actually became one of us in the incarnation of His Son Jesus. Jesus knows our needs, wants, and desires; Jesus knows our temptations, weaknesses, and fears; Jesus knows our pain and suffering, grief, and sorrow, both for ourselves and for those we love. Jesus knows it all, experienced it all, suffered it all and persevered and endured through it all for you, for me, for Marvin, and for all humankind. Through our Lord Jesus God calls each of us by name to be His children: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

Jesus’ peace and contentment, Jesus’ forgiveness and reconciliation come from outside of us, therefore we can trust in it and be at peace. The LORD called Marvin to faith and sealed Him with His gracious promise in Holy Baptism so many years ago. The LORD blessed Marvin with the peace of the Holy Spirit and promised him, “I will never leave you or forsake you,” “I am with you always,” and “Nothing can separate you from my love in Jesus Christ.” “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” If God is for us, who can be against us? Jesus was the source of Marvin’s peace and contentment, his joy in the face of trial, tribulation, and suffering, and the source of his resilience, perseverance, and encouragement of others.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus passed through the valley of the shadow of death, a valley we created by sinful rebellion and sin-ruined hearts and minds, and He defeated death and the grave that would have kept us in that valley for eternity. Jesus destroyed that gate, removed the stone that kept us in our tombs, and made death a welcome mat at the entrance of our Father’s home in heaven. Jesus has gone there to prepare a place for Marvin and for you that you may dwell with Him in His Father’s kingdom forevermore. Marvin “fought the good fight,” “finished the race,” and “kept the faith.” Let God’s promises kept for Marvin be encouragement and comfort for you until you meet him again in our Father’s house.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.