Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 4th,
Year of Our + Lord 2014
Zion and St. John Lutheran Churches, Gwinner and
Oakes, ND
Broken Missionaries - Matthew 21:33-46
Grace,
mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and Our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a distinct pleasure for my wife
Shelee and I to be with you here this morning, receiving God’s gifts in Word
and Sacrament, and also telling you a little about our journey to Spain, where
I have been called to serve as a Church Planter. The day to day content of this first part of
my missionary call is raising prayer and financial support, by going around,
preaching and presenting to Lutherans in America, in order to find the people
God will raise up to partner with the Lutherans in Spain. So, as I stand before you this morning, I
have to ask a question of your pastor.
Rev. Dr. Richard, “What kind of Mission
texts are these?” The LORD’s lovely
vineyard yields wild grapes, so God is going to remove the protective hedge and
allow the vineyard to be destroyed? God
seeks justice, but behold, bloodshed;
God looks for righteousness, but behold, an outcry? I have suffered the loss of all things and
count them as rubbish? And
finally, from the mouth of our Lord, “the one who falls on this stone will be
broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”? Where’s the happiness, the Word of the Lord
growing, rejoicing in the Lord always, the sweetness and light passages? Where’s the bold commission text, the
fearless servants bravely venturing to the end of the earth? Come on, Pastor Matt, this is what you give
me to work with?
I’m kidding. The readings are not your pastor’s
fault. Indeed, they are not anyone’s
fault. Taking what the lectionary, the
reading system of the Church year, gives us to read is good for us. For pastors to pick their own readings is a
dangerous thing, because we all have the parts of the Bible we like, and the
parts we like to avoid. But we need to
hear the full council of God, not just our favorite passages, or our pastor’s
favorites. Using the assigned lectionary
readings is a good thing.
And, despite the
harshness they contain, today’s readings are excellent texts for understanding
God’s Mission, and our role within His Mission.
Because there is a necessary harshness, a brokenness even, to being
involved in the Mission of God.
What comes to
mind when you hear the word Mission? Maybe
you think first of helping people?
Certainly Jesus helped people. We
are in the middle of a series of readings all set during Holy Week, the days
leading up to His Cross. Jesus does a
number of things which heighten the anger of the religious elite, including
riding into Jerusalem like a king, accepting the praises of children, and
telling very pointed parables against the scribes and priests, as He does
today. But back at the beginning of
chapter 21, you’ll also notice Jesus was healing the lame and blind. Helping people in need has always gone hand
in hand with God’s Mission.
In fact my new
boss, Rev. Ted Krey, Area Director for Latin American and Spanish Missions, and
also a missionary pastor in the Dominican Republic, wants every Church within
his mission area to also have a Mercy House.
In the Dominican the Mercy House is a home for developmentally disabled
youth. In other places it might be a
school for the poor, or an orphanage. In
Spain we are going to be looking for the opportunity to pursue life ministries,
as my wife Shelee has years of experience serving women in crisis pregnancies. This is how it should be. Christ in his earthly ministry was always
caring for the sick and hurting, so Christians share His concern for helping
people in their earthly needs.
But helping
people with their earthly hurts and needs is not the heart of mission. Jesus
healed many sick and lame and blind, but these healings did not save their
souls. So also, while Christian mission
is rightly accompanied by human, earthly
care, and while serving our neighbors is an important way we earn opportunities
to tell them about Jesus, God’s Mission finally requires something different. In fact, true Christian Mission requires harshness. Scandal even.
An offense. God’s Mission is
centered on a rock that either breaks you, or pulverizes you, a stone of
stumbling and offense, of scandal.
Certainly harsh.
In fact, as
strange as it seems, Jesus is doing mission work as he verbally attacks the
elders and scribes and priests. This is the
harsh part of mission work, the preaching of the law, in this case the
declaration of the truth that these religious leaders were in truth working against
God’s mission. Despite their outwardly
religious appearance, the Pharisees,
Elders and Chief Priests of the Jews all rejected God’s way of salvation. They were fine with a certain amount of
helping the neighbor, and very happy to go about appearing pious and
law-abiding, making a show of setting a good example. And they thought they were very much a part
of God’s mission in doing these things.
Jesus is the rejected
stone of Psalm 118 which becomes the chief cornerstone. Jesus is the stone of stumbling, the rock of
offense, of scandal. In Jesus God fully
reveals the central mystery of His plan of salvation. And this mystery is one we sinners quite
naturally reject. Yes, it’s not just the
chief priests and elders. We all like to
sidestep, ignore or outright reject the scandal that is Jesus, because it is
unpopular with the world, or maybe because of what it says about us. The fact that saving sinners like you and me
required the unjust execution of the sinless Son of God is crushing news to our
spiritual egos. But it is the truth, a
truth without which we cannot be ready for the Gospel.
And so we see Jesus
is the rock. He will either break you,
or He will pulverize you. Jesus said,
“the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on
anyone, it will crush him." This is
His warning to the chief priests, scribes, elders, to anyone who is proudly
confident that by their own contributions and efforts and goodness they are
earning their place in the kingdom of God.
If you persist in your self-righteous, stubborn resistance to the
cornerstone, you will be crushed.
The alternative
to being crushed doesn’t sound much better.
The alternative is to be broken, but then restored. That is, everyone of us must be broken on the
rock that is Christ, in order to be restored and brought into the kingdom. For we are all sinners, naturally opposed to
God and His Way. To complete His Mission
of Salvation, God must break us from our love of sin. Consider Peter, broken by his threefold denial,
as the rooster crowed, broken by his inability to follow Jesus to the Cross as
he had sworn. Or consider Paul, an enemy
and persecutor of the Church, broken by the light, the blinding appearance of
Christ to him on the road to Damascus, asking him Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting Me? Consider Martin Luther,
torturing himself in a monk’s cell, trying to earn the favor of God, until the
Word of God broke through, revealing that God gives righteousness as a free
gift, received by faith, for Jesus’ sake.
As for all these
famous Christians, so also for you, and for me.
We must be broken out of our complacency, or out of our pride and
self-assurance. We must be broken from
our habit of loving earthly pleasures more than God and His Word. We must be broken of our love of sin. We all must be broken by the Law, both at
conversion, and also throughout our earthly lives, broken so that with His Good
News, with His Gospel of forgiveness and mercy, Jesus can restore you to
wholeness, and present you to His Father, whole and blameless and beloved.
Jesus is the
cornerstone of the Church, which is a building made of living stones, sinners who
have been broken, but are now restored, made new, and joined to Jesus. And as in all things, Jesus leads the way. For He has already given Himself into
brokenness, in our place. Jesus is One
man who had nothing to be broken for, the One with no sin for which to suffer. But out of love for His Father, and love for
us sinners, Jesus chose to be broken, even crushed, by all our sin, the sin
which requires our death and punishment.
Jesus, the sinless one, the Son of the Master of the Vineyard, Jesus, Almighty
God become a man, was crushed, becoming the sinner in your place, body broken
and blood shed on His Cross, in order to restore you, with free and full
forgiveness. You are forgiven, all your
sins are washed away, by the blood of Jesus.
This is the
Mission of God, restoring broken humanity through the once broken but now
resurrected body of the Son, Jesus Christ.
The Cornerstone is now set. Jesus
Christ, the head of His body the Church, now rules over heaven and earth. By
His Spirit He now empowers His mission, which takes the Lord’s marvelous doing
out into the world, proclaiming peace between God and sinners. And, when God has brought us through the
harsh things, then there is great joy. Being caught up and involved in God’s Mission
is wonderful, amazing, the best thing in the world. It is also the one thing in this world that
lasts forever, the gift of righteousness and eternal salvation delivered to a
sinner, today, by the power of God’s Word.
This is the
message that God has called Pastor Richard here to preach to you. This is also the message that I have been
called to preach in Spain, a land that very desperately needs to hear this
truth. For in Spain, the way of the
Chief Priests and Scribes and Elders, the way of human pride and human
accomplishment, the way of human works required to complete salvation, this false
way is, sadly, the way the Christian faith has been presented for centuries.
Spaniards through
their history have been taught a very works righteous misunderstanding of
Christianity. They are very much in need
of the pure Gospel, and, since 2000, the Lutheran Church of Argentina, with
LCMS support, has begun proclaiming it.
The Lutheran Mission in Spain is small, and spread out. But Lutheran Mission is there, and the people
are hungry for more Good News. My
particular task in Spain will be to come alongside the first Spanish Lutheran
pastor, Juan Carlos Garcia, who serves a small congregation in Seville. I am very much looking forward to working
with him to reach out with the Gospel in Seville, and then see God grow His
Church.
But first, my
work is finding partners, Lutherans in America who want to partner with the
Lutherans in Spain, and see the Gospel spread there. God will raise up the partners He has in mind,
prayer partners, and financial partners.
My wife and I are very thankful for the commitment you have already made
to this work as a congregation. As we
rejoice in our shared restoration, I ask you to ask God how much more He might
want you involved.
Are you feeling a
desire to be more involved in God’s Mission?
Being involved is pretty straightforward.
Step 1, be fed,
be filled. As you are doing today, hear
the Word, receive God’s Absolution, take, eat, and drink, for the forgiveness
of all your sins. Be filled with the
Gospel, for this is how God prepares His people to be of service in His Gospel
Mission. When you are filled to
overflowing with the Good News of God’s love in Christ, His Spirit then moves
you to be a part of giving the gift to others.
Step 1, be filled, and keep on doing step 1. The more you are filled with the Gospel, the
more you will be ready to be involved in God’s Mission.
Step 2, attend to
your own congregation’s mission first.
Zion/St. John Lutheran Church is God’s mission in this place, for God is
always working through congregations, pastors and people together. Step 2, attend to home first.
Step 3, look
beyond. Ask God how you can best be
connected to efforts to proclaim His Law and Gospel to a world so much in need
of God’s Truth and Love, revealed in Christ.
By your invitation for Shelee and I to join you today, and by the
prayers and commitments you have already offered, you are already doing step
3. I will go to Spain as your
missionary, and that is an honor. What
more might God want to do through you for Spain?
As we move
forward together in service within God’s Mission, first, last and always, rejoice
in the righteousness of Christ that God has given you, rejoice that Christ has
made you His own. Marvel at the Stone
the builders rejected, who has become your Cornerstone. And the Peace of God, that passes all
understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
