The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 16)

(Audio)

Luke 7:11-17; Ephesians 3:13-21; 1 Kings 17:17-24

 

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

Back on August 10, The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, you heard the Gospel account of Jesus’ visitation of the Holy City Jerusalem. Then Jesus wept over the city because of its unbelief and apostasy, and for the destruction that He foresaw would befall it but thirty years later at the hands of the Romans. For, when Jesus entered the temple courts in visitation He found moneychangers and vendors of sacrificial animals extorting the faithful and stealing from them. In His righteous anger Jesus cleansed the temple of this corruption and disease, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and vendors, crying out, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Back then I explained to you that the word visitation meant ecclesial oversight, such as a bishop conducts when he visits the parishes of his diocese. Jesus had visited His people in grace, but what did He find? Greed, selfishness, lack of mercy, compassion, and love. And, what will Jesus find when He visits His people, even you, on the Last Day, in judgment? What will you be found doing? Will you be found extending His love, mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness, or will you be found robbing and stealing from Him, and selfishly and unmercifully withholding, even stealing, from others, especially the weakest among you and those in greatest need? Truly, Jesus may come in visitation on any day, at any hour. What will you be found doing? Will you be found waiting, watching, and prepared? Therefore, keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith and you need not fear His visitation, for you will be found doing the loving, the merciful, and the compassionate thing, for even your imperfect and sin-corrupted deeds will be counted as righteousness through faith in Him. Therefore, always show mercy and compassion, always love and forgive, for love covers a multitude of sins: your neighbors’, and comfortingly, your own as well.

The people of Jerusalem did not recognize the time of their visitation. But, the people of Nain did. When Jesus entered the city with a procession of His disciples and followers, He met another procession on the way out of the city carrying a dead young man, the son of a widow, on a funeral bier. It was literally a collision of two processions – a procession of life, lead by Jesus, and a procession of death lead by the mourners and family of the dead young man. “It was a strange and dreadful strife when Life and death contended. The victory remained with Life, the reign of death was ended.” When Jesus raised the dead young man and restored him to his mother and his family, the crowds glorified God saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us! God has visited His people!”

Once again, your Lord was moved with compassion – a gut-wrenching empathetic grief. The widow’s loss was His loss, one for which He was even then making His own journey to death on the cross. Jesus approached the woman directly and He said to her, “Do not weep,” or, more literally, “Stop weeping.” You see, there was no need for her to weep, for, in the presence of Life Incarnate, the Word of Creation and Life made flesh, the boy was not dead but only sleeping. Then Jesus did the unthinkable in her mind, and in the minds of the crowds, He reached out and touched the funeral bier. The law forbade such a thing, for the body and the bier were unclean, and to touch either would make you unclean and in need of ceremonial purification before you could be restored to community and to worship in the temple and synagogue. However, that was of no concern for Jesus, just as it was of no concern for Him when the ten lepers approached Him, or when the Good Samaritan ministered to the man left beaten, bloodied, and left for dead in the ditch. It is not that the law did not apply to Jesus, but it was that His love was the fulfilling of the law. The loving thing is always the lawful thing.

It was a desperate situation the widow was in. She had lost her husband to death, and now she had lost her only son to death as well. In that culture, at that time, the widow herself was, socially, as good as dead, having no source of income, protection, or even a voice in her community. She was nearly as desperate and hopeless as the nothing into which God first spoke His Word, “Let there be light.” But, Jesus was that Word in the beginning, and Jesus was that same Word spoken to the dead young man. Jesus raised the young man by speaking His creative Word, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” As it was in the beginning, so it is now, and so it ever shall be, world without end. In fact, no one even asked Jesus to help this time. No one cried out to Him in faith and pleaded for mercy. No one in the funeral procession seems to have even noticed or recognized Him. But, Jesus came to the dead young man. Jesus came to this desperate situation. Jesus was moved by compassion for His people because they were lost and hopeless, like sheep without a shepherd. Mercy is who Jesus is. Mercy is who God is. Mercy is what Jesus shows, and what you, His people also show to others because you are in Him and He is in you.

Then Jesus reached out and touched the funeral bier. Yet, He did two things at once: He reached out and touched the bier, and He spoke His Word, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus often used His hands along with His Words. He put His fingers in the ears of the deaf-mute, and He spat and touched His tongue. At His Transfiguration He raised up His fearful-unto-death disciples by touching them and speaking, “Rise, and have no fear.” And, Jesus rebuked His disciples who forbade that their Master should be bothered by little children saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” that He might bless them with His holy hands and absolving Word. Even still, your Jesus comes to you in your weakness, sin, and death and He speaks to you, and He touches you with cleansing water, His precious body, and His holy blood, ministering to you in your body and in your soul, in your flesh and in your spirit in which He created you, that you may be forgiven, cleansed, and healed, strengthened in faith, equipped for service, and sent to love and to show mercy and compassion to the most desperate and hopeless bodies and souls He places before you.

Jesus touches and He speaks. Forgiveness, healing, and cleansing come to you from outside of you. They come to you from God the Father, through Jesus His Son, in His most Holy Spirit. They come to you through the Gospel preached and through the Sacraments administered. They come to you here, in this holy house where the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps you in the true faith until Jesus returns for you on the Last Day to take you home. Jesus came to Nain. Jesus came to the mourners, to the widow, and to her dead son when all they could think about was their grief, their loss, and their sorrow. Jesus came to them with His Words and His touch and He spoke into being a different reality. “Let there be light.” And there was. “Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.” “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’  ‘God has visited His people!’”

Truly, God visits His people still, even now. Your God comes to you in your sinful uncleanness and death. He comes from outside of you to raise you from death to new and eternal life, to heal you, to make you clean again, and to restore you to a right relationship with the Holy Trinity and with Christ’s body the Church. More than that, He enters you and He abides with you, He communes with you, He fills you even as He sends you, He goes with you, “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Indeed, He answers your prayer that His grace may always go before and follow after you, that you may continually be given to all good works, through Jesus Christ, His Son.

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.

Jesus says to you, “Do not be anxious about your life.” Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Easy for Him to say,” right? After all, there are an awful lot of things to be anxious about in your life, aren’t there? Money: Will you have enough of it when you retire? Will you have enough of it to send your kids to college? Will you have enough of it to buy groceries for the next week? Health: Will you develop heart disease, diabetes, or cancer? Will you maintain a sound mind into your old age, or will you suffer from senility, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease? If you suffer a stroke or a completely debilitating health incident, who will make decisions concerning your treatment, whether you are given life support or whether they pull the plug? Kids: Will they remain safe from predators and abusers? Will they make smart and moral choices concerning sex, drugs, and alcohol? Will they get into a good college, find a good spouse, continue to practice their faith and attend church? And that’s just a smattering of personal, home and family life anxieties. That’s not to mention things like terrorism and war, crime, taxes, politics, etc. “Do not be anxious about your life?” “Right, easy for You to say, Lord!”

And, besides, you think, isn’t anxiety natural? Isn’t it irresponsible to not worry? Why, then, does Jesus exhort you to not be anxious? He exhorts you to not be anxious because anxiety and worry are a type of worship and bondage to a false god, an idol. He indicates this by saying, “No one can serve two masters.” Now, have you thought of anxiety and worry as a master? Likely not, but they most definitely are. Anxiety and worry can be all encompassing and enslaving. They can rob you of contentment, peace, and joy in your life, and they can be serious distractions to the work that you should be doing, the care that you should be giving, and the love that you should be sharing. Moreover, Jesus asks, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” You can’t, and you don’t! So, then, what’s the point of being anxious? Why worry? What does it benefit you? Absolutely nothing! Rather, instead, anxiety robs you. Worry kills you, little by little, each and every day of your life that you are consumed with fear of what tomorrow will bring, each day of your life that you live and love for fleeting, worldly pleasures and possessions, and each day of your life that you place your trust in people and things that do not, will not, and cannot last.

“Therefore I tell you, 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?” Well, is it? For some of you, food and clothing are a pretty big part of your life and what gives it meaning and purpose. However, for others of you it’s success, your own, or your children’s. For others of you it’s sports, health, material possessions, the right car, the right house, the right husband or wife. But, are these things truly your life? Are they the meaning and the purpose of your life? Do they give definition to your life? If you are honest with yourself, and you might as well be, they probably do, at least in some small way. You see, Jesus didn’t teach against this because it was an uncommon human temptation and sin. Jesus would have you see that these created things are gifts of His Father, your Creator. If you are anxious and worried about obtaining them and keeping them, then you have placed your fear, love, and trust in created things, God’s gifts to you, instead of giving Him thanks and praise for them and receiving them as gifts, rich and abundant, to meet your own needs and to share with others. These gifts are for you, but they do not define you and give your life meaning. You are created in God’s image, therefore He must define you and give your life meaning.

Moreover, you are of much more importance to Him than the created material things He has made. Jesus’ point is that, “if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” The irrational beasts of the earth crave these things and are consumed with their pursuit, but God has created you and blessed you with a rational soul that you may be self-aware and aware of God. Therefore, you have the ability to see and to know that, not only does God provide you all that you need for your body and your life, but He provides these for you in abundance. You have enough for yourself, and surplus to share with others. You can freely give your last “handful of flour” and “a little oil” trusting that the Lord will provide for you and yours. For, when you give to others, your Lord promises that it will be given back to you, “a good measure, shaken together, pressed down, running over” which will be poured into your lap.

It is in this regard that Jesus makes a distinction between the faithful Jews and the uncircumcised Gentiles. He speaks of the Gentiles here much in the same way in which I did of the carnal beasts – they are driven by fleshly, carnal instincts to pursue carnal desires and passions. But not so you, Jesus teaches; not so you, children of the New Israel, who place your fear, love, and trust in Him. To you, Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow.” You see, it’s all about faith, which is, itself, a gracious gift of God your Father. God the Holy Spirit creates faith within you through the Word of God. It is faith that trusts God to keep His promises. It is faith that fears God’s righteousness and holiness and what it would mean if God were to renege on His promises. It is faith that loves God, His Law, His Will, and His Word, love that flows from His love for you poured out in His Son, Jesus Christ.

You do not live in continual pursuit of carnal desires and passions, but you live “by the Spirit” and you “walk by the Spirit.” Therefore, worry and anxiety over mammon – that is worldly, material goods and fleshly desires and passions – these are not your masters. Yet, you do have a master, the Lord. Here is where some Christians try to straddle the fence. While they try to shun worry and anxiety over worldly and fleshly things, they also remain unwilling to surrender completely to God and to submit to and confess Him as their Lord and Master. However, Jesus doesn’t speak this way, and neither does He allow for fence-straddlers. Indeed, He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” No, Christ has not set you free to fend for yourself, but you still have a master, the Lord, and, in a sense, you are a slave. Yet, though you may be a slave, you are truly free in Christ. You are freer even than the birds of the air who neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet are fed by their heavenly Father. And, you are freer even than the lilies of the field who neither toil nor spin and yet are arrayed more than Solomon in all of his glory. This is similar to Jesus’ teaching, “He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” You either belong to God in Jesus, or, well, you don’t. But, if you don’t belong to God in Jesus, don’t bother kidding yourself that are free. Indeed, apart from Christ is the worst kind of slavery, even death.

St. Paul has words for you today about what it means, and what it looks like, to walk by the Spirit, to have the Lord as your Master, to be a slave of Christ. You must have a spirit of gentleness towards all, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ, bearing each other’s burdens, tolerating, enduring, and even suffering each other’s boorish behavior and annoying idiosyncrasies. You must seek to restore a brother who is enmeshed in sin, showing him mercy and compassion and forgiveness, keeping watch yourself that you are not tempted. You must be humble, for we are all slaves together under the same Master, members of the same body, brothers and sisters sharing the same Life and Breath, and “if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Let your work be of and for the Spirit, doing good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Herein St. Paul describes the life of the Christian – you are an extension of Christ to others in this world, His hands, His heart, His voice, to the glory of His Father.

But, in your life and in your labors, do not worry and do not be anxious, for the Lord is working with you, and in you, and through you that you will be fruitful, having enough for yourself and abundantly more to give to others. Therefore, do not permit mammon – the world and your flesh – to distract you from the task at hand and the one thing needful, but in faith, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This is especially important to remember at this time of the year, even this very day, as children return to school, vacations are over and you return to your busy, work-a-day lives – remember what is the purpose and meaning of your work and your striving: Are you sowing to your own flesh, or are you sowing to the Spirit? Further, has the fruit of your labors become the thing in which you place your fear, your love, and your trust – the thing that you worry about having enough of and are anxious of losing? If so, then repent; return to the Lord in contrition, asking forgiveness. He will restore you and give to you and bless you that you might be a blessing to others, always, to the glory of His holy Name.

But now, come and receive of His gracious plenteousness. Be still and let the Lord work for you. He is present to pour into your lap a good measure, shaken together, pressed down, running over – His grace, mercy, love, and compassion in Jesus Christ. Come, eat and be satisfied. Come, drink and be renewed. The Lord feeds you with wholesome food and clothes you with His righteousness. He blesses you, that you might be a blessing – and you are.

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.

The Christian faith and life is one of mystery and paradox. Many of its claims and teachings are counter-intuitive – they do not follow or make sense according to human reason, wisdom, and perception. For example, if you want to be rich with heavenly treasure, then you must be poor in spirit. If you want to save your life, then you must lose it. If you want to live, then you must die. For, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, came, not to save the righteous, but sinners, and only sinners can be saved. This is the lesson that your Lord would teach to you again, today, from yet another perspective, that if you hope to enjoy resurrection to new life, then you must face and accept your death.

So, the Holy Spirit has inspired St. Luke to include in his Gospel an account of Jesus miraculously healing ten men afflicted with leprosy. In the story, there were ten lepers who, because of their leprosy, were dead to ordinary social life. They were unclean and thus cut off, separated, from the community. They had to stay a good distance from other people and shout out “Unclean!” when in the presence of others to warn them of their disease. They could not participate in the ceremonies of the temple or the fellowship of the synagogue. They were lepers, outcasts, dead to their families, dead to their former friends, dead to ordinary social life, and utterly incapable of being healed or changing their status on their own. They had nothing of their own – not health, not wealth, nor good reputation – so they had nothing to keep, and they had nothing to lose. Thus, they were in the perfect position to receive mercy. And it was mercy, and only mercy, that they cried out for from Jesus.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” all ten lepers cried from a distance. And what did Jesus do? How did Jesus respond to their plea for mercy? Jesus looked at them, and then He spoke to them saying, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Did Jesus touch them, wave His arms in the air, and shout “Be healed”? No! Jesus did nothing of the sort. Rather, He told them to go and to show themselves to the priests. While they were still lepers, still outcasts, still dead to ordinary life, Jesus commanded them to act as if they were healed and no longer outcasts. “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” That was the protocol according to Leviticus 14:2-3 which specified the necessary ceremonies for the removal of ritual defilement from a leper who was already physically clean. Luke does not tell us what the lepers thought about Jesus’ response to their plea for mercy: Did they take Jesus seriously? Did they merely walk away confused and in dismay? They came to Jesus pleading for mercy, and He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Regardless of what they thought of Jesus’ response, however, they went as He commanded, and, as they went, they were healed.

Jesus did not heal them then and there on the spot, though He certainly could have done it that way. But why not? Why did our Lord choose to heal the lepers in such an unspectacular way, in a way which allowed for the likelihood that most would not see a connection between the healing of the lepers and Himself? Indeed, the Christian faith and life is one of mystery and paradox in which we walk by faith and not by sight, confident that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore us to wholeness in the resurrection. The ten lepers had nothing to lose and anything, everything, to gain; they were dead to the world and couldn’t help themselves in any way. Thus, they were prepared to receive mercy as a gift. They had the gift of faith, and it doesn’t matter if it was great faith or small faith, strong faith or weak faith, they had the gift of faith, first to call upon Jesus for mercy, and second to do as He commanded even though it seemed unspectacular and useless foolishness. They went as Jesus commanded, and, as they went, all ten were cleansed of their leprosy.

“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.” One of the ten ex-lepers makes the connection. He knows that His cleansing was the result of God’s mercy in and through the unlikely means of this man Jesus. The man recognized that Jesus had not only cleansed him of his leprosy, but that he had restored him to his people, his community, his friends, and his family – that he was a son again! But to drive the point home all the more Luke informs us that this man was not only a leper, and therefore dead to ordinary social life and an outcast, but he was also a despised Samaritan. Thus, he was a twofold outcast, a double loser, a duck twice dead. Ten lepers were cleansed, but only one returned to give thanks, and he was a Samaritan.

Doubly dead, that is how you must see yourself in relation to your Lord. You have nothing to bring to the Lord to merit His favor. You have nothing to do for the Lord with which to earn His favor. You have only to pray Kyrie eleison, “Lord, have mercy.” You must walk by faith and not by sight, confident that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore you to wholeness in the resurrection.

Yes, in the resurrection – your confidence and faith is in that future and final healing and restoration. Through Holy Baptism and faith in Jesus Christ you are, even now, healed from the leprosy of sin and death, and you have, even now, the gift of eternal life. You live, even now, as a forgiven sinner, every bit as much as the ten men lived as cleansed lepers. You have died to sin in Christ and you have been resurrected to new life in Christ. But, just as this resurrection has occurred spiritually, so must it, and so will it occur physically in the resurrection of the body. Just as you died spiritually to sin in Holy Baptism and were raised to new life in Jesus, so too must the body die and be raised to new life in Jesus. Thus, by dying, you live and by losing your life in this world you save it. For, the Christian faith and life is mystery and paradox, and you must walk by faith and not by sight, confident that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore you to wholeness in the resurrection.

And this is where thanksgiving comes in. By returning to Jesus to give thanks and praise the Samaritan leper confirmed his faith in God through Jesus that it was God who had mercy on him and granted him cleansing and healing from his leprosy. God does not need our thanksgiving or our offerings, but we need to give them. In giving thanks, by offering our praise, our time, or talents, and our treasures and wealth, we are acknowledging that all that we have comes from the gracious hand of God. We give back to Him only of what He has given to us and thus glorify Him as our God, the Creator, giver, and sustainer of all things.

As we celebrate Labor Day this weekend, it is an opportunity for us to reflect upon how God provides for all our needs of body and soul through the multitudinous vocations of others. God heals through the vocations of doctors, nurses, and surgeons. God feeds through the vocations of farmers, millers, butchers, and grocers. God protects through the vocations of military service, policemen and firemen, and government. If God wants people to glorify and honor Him, why does He hide Himself in lowliness and weakness? God hides Himself in these ways because we need Him to. We need to become like the thankful leper and recognize with the eyes of faith how dead we are before God and merciful He is towards us, forgiving our sins at His own cost and providing for all or needs of body and soul.

Even now He requires nothing of you, He needs nothing from you, but He has called you here to receive His gifts: mercy, grace, forgiveness, faith, love. He is the God who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to lay His life down for the sins of the world. Let us return in thanksgiving, glorifying the Lord our God for the mercy He has shown to us in His Son Jesus.

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