What Becomes of Our Boasting? Sermon for Reformation Day, 2021

Reformation Day, October 31, anno + Domini 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota                       
What Becomes of Our Boasting?  Romans 3 and John 8 

     Ah, Reformation Day.  Today we celebrate the amazing events of the 16^th century, when the honest
questions of a German priest and monk named Martin Luther led to the recovery of the pure Gospel, the true and joy-filled teaching of Jesus Christ.  Martin Luther started a great storm, without meaning to.  He sparked the great uproar we call the Reformation on October 31^st, 1517, a momentous day of which we may take understandable pride. 

    After all, Lutheran teaching is unsurpassed by any confession.  Even Christians who disagree on some articles of the faith depend deeply on Luther and Lutherans.  Many of us may also boast in both religious and ethnic connections to the heady days of the Reformation, when brave Germans and Scandinavians stood up to the great power of Rome.  These days we might even think to boast in our own little synod, as we see other church bodies with similar historic roots abandon the teaching which started it all.   Not us. They may choose to go where they wish, but we cling to the pure doctrine, and of this we boast. 

     It feels right to boast about our church and our faithfulness.  We feel good about this pride.  Unless of course we bother to actually listen to Paul, and Jesus, as they speak to us this morning.  If you are feeling proud of yourself for being a Lutheran this morning, I have bad news: your boasting is excluded.  Paul is explicit.  After gloriously declaring the free gift of salvation by God’s grace, through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, Paul asks: “What then becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.”

    In this rejection of boasting Paul is only following Jesus, who goes right after the pride of some Jews who had believed in Him.  These people want to follow Jesus, which you might expect would please the Lord.  But instead of coddling them with praise and thanks, Jesus calls them slaves.  Not true heirs of God, but rather sinners in need of being set free.  Jesus tells His new followers they are slaves who need to be set free, by the Son, by Him.  These proud Jews can’t accept being called slaves.  They respond by boasting in their freedom as descendants of Abraham.  Jesus rejects their boasting, and calls them slaves to sin.  If you read on in John 8, you’ll see that it gets worse.  Jesus says they are not only slaves to sin, but children of Satan.  Jesus bursts their bubble, their pride in being biological descendants of Abraham.  Jesus, just like Paul, excludes the very idea that we should boast about ourselves. 

   We can celebrate and rejoice and give thanks for the Reformation, and even more for the profound blessing that God has preserved His pure teaching for us, in the 21^st century.  But take care, lest your celebration of the gifts you have received should turn into a prideful boast.    

     No boasting allowed.  But why is our boasting excluded? Well, first of all, boasting about ‘our faith’ and ‘our church’ is excluded for Christians because such boasting implies that we have something to take credit for, that we have contributed something to our salvation.  This we cannot, we must not claim, because it isn’t true, and we need the Truth to set us free.  Remember, the Reformation, and more importantly the True Gospel, is all about salvation by God’s grace alone.  A free gift, received not because of anything we have done, but rather the salvation of sinners is God’s great work, received by faith alone, by simply believing the promise of forgiveness in Jesus’ blood. 

   Luther’s great rediscovery was that salvation is entirely God’s work, not some uncertain mixture of God’s grace and our response, our love, or our works.  When it is taught that salvation depends in some part, great or small, on what we do, we sinners are left in doubt, doubt of whether we have done well enough. 

    The Truth is God saw our sin problem, and the sad fact that we are powerless to solve it.  So, God designed the solution, which was to save us, by the exclusive work of the Son, Jesus Christ.  Drawing on the work of Christ, the Holy Spirit saves us by His Word, making us believe, and also maintaining our faith in God’s forgiveness.  And it is even God who generates good works in us.  Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be glory. 

   The bad news is there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.  The Good News is there is nothing we have to do to save ourselves.  God must do it. God has done it, and God is doing it.  So all the credit, all the glory, all the boasting goes to Him. 

     Our boasting is excluded because of the Truth that salvation is entirely God’s work.  And there’s a second reason to shut our mouths.  Remember the old saying: Pride goes before a fall.  Doubt about the truth of God’s Word was the first problem that came before the big Fall, the original Fall, back in the garden of Eden.  But then, after planting the seed of doubt, the carrot that Satan used to tempt our first parents over the edge was pride.  “You will be as gods!” the serpent lied.  Adam and Eve’s egos took the bait, and pride and the boasting it engenders have been among our biggest problems ever since. 

     Strictly speaking, selfish pride is excluded for Christians in all of life.  The farmer should give all the credit for the bountiful harvest to the Lord, who makes the grass to grow and the sun to shine.  Parents who want to take credit for the successes of their children are forgetting that they are merely placeholders for God, who is the One who truly gives and guides all the good growth and development of their children.  The star athlete ought to acknowledge that her skill and the will and opportunity to use it are gifts from God.  The businessman should acknowledge that the unseen hand that provides the opportunity for his buying and selling is the very hand of God. 

    But we are not like that.  Humility is not popular.  We do not easily give up our pride of self.  We want credit for what we do, and to make ourselves look as good as possible.  It is the way of the world.  Every group develops a pecking order, every relationship has a measure of competition, and every ego loves to be stroked.  We consider the opportunity to boast to be precious.  And so we have Facebook, and coffee shops, and ever nicer cars and homes. 

     Our pride creates trouble throughout our lives, but it is downright dangerous in the Church.  Boasting of ourselves puts salvation at risk.  This is what happened with many of the Jews who heard Jesus call them slaves to sin.  In reality, Jesus was speaking the truth in love.  He was trying to separate them from their pride, which was blocking their salvation.  But many of them, their pride insulted, left Jesus when He proclaimed their slavery to sin, and their need for a Savior.  Their desire to boast of themselves excluded them from Jesus and His saving love.  Pride went before their great fall. 

     It may seem harmless to be proud of your faith, or to be proud of your church body or congregation.  I mean, it’s not like we’d ever forget that the real center of everything is Jesus Christ and His forgiveness, would we? 

   Be careful.  Pride in yourself gives Satan the opportunity to make you fall in love with yourself, with your knowledge, your goodness, your faithfulness, your piety, your contributions to the Church.  The Evil One will tempt your heart to run off with whatever you boast in.  This could be good things, like the Reformation, or our church, or our good works.  Satan hopes that you will learn to love and desire the things that you boast of, more than you desire the grace and mercy of God. 

     Boasting of ourselves is dangerous.  Puffing oneself up can put salvation at risk.  And, I am sorry to say, pride and boasting are very hard for us to overcome.  Really we can’t do it, not in any complete way.  God must overcome our foolish pride. 

   And so I declare to you again this morning this truth.  There is no distinction: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Our pride, our boasting, our evil desires exclude us from God, the source of all good.  We all fall short.  And that’s nothing to be proud of. 

   But at the same time, in the mystery of God’s love, in Jesus, all are justified.  Everyone is declared righteous before God, by His grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  God put forward Jesus as a propitiation.  Propitiation means the seat or the place of God’s mercy, and it means Jesus Himself is the sacrificial payment for our sin.  A payment made with His precious blood.  And there is only one way to receive this gift; it is received by faith.  It’s true!  Believe in Jesus, crucified and resurrected, for you!

    This is good news for you: Jesus Christ the Son of God is perfectly righteous, and He shares His righteousness with you.  He has removed the guilt and paid the debt of all sin, on His Cross.  His resurrection is proof of His victory, a declaration from heaven that Jesus is eternally righteous, sinless, perfectly just and holy.  So, in and through Christ Jesus, God is the justifier.  That means, God is the One who declares every soul that believes in Jesus to be not guilty, innocent, welcome to enter God’s heavenly presence.  

   It’s all God.  Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.              But who cares? 

   Looking hard at the tremendous saving work of Jesus on the Cross makes it clear that we have nothing to boast about.  But who cares about being able to boast?  God gives Jesus and His salvation, to us, for free.  God has forgiven all sin, in Jesus Christ!  What amazing Good News.  What a relief.  Rejoicing and thanking and celebrating are in order, and glorifying God for His grace.  In the light of Christ, boasting in ourselves would really just be silly. 

     Boasting is excluded, that is boasting in anything we do, however churchly and good it may be.  Pride of self is excluded as contrary to the reality of our sin and God’s grace.  But we can boast about something.  We can boast of God and His Truth.  We can brag about Jesus.  We can boast in the Cross of Christ, the Cross which eliminates our pride, yes, but gives us forgiveness and new life in exchange. 

   And through our boasting about Christ, the Word of His free forgiveness gets out, and will save even more souls.  So go ahead!  On this Reformation Day and every day: boast about Jesus.  He is truly your Savior, and the Savior of the world, Amen. 

Take Heart! Get Up! Jesus Is Calling You!

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
October 24, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Take Heart!  Get Up!  Jesus Is Calling You!                  
Mark 10:46-52

   Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you!  All who cry out to Jesus the Son of David for mercy are heard by Him.  And He has perfect mercy, just the right healing touch, for each person.

 

   Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you!  The call of the crowd to Bartimaeus was repeated to Tyler this morning, as the Church called him to the font, to be healed by Jesus through the washing of the water and the Word.  The Lord has connected His mercy, His kindness and forgiveness to plain water.  Regular water, H₂O, three atoms making up one life-giving molecule.  Common, and yet precious water, combined with the highest and most Holy Word of God, His powerful and wonderful Name.  I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.  God’s mercy flows out, finding the lost, giving eyes of faith to a blind sinner, adopting another orphan soul into the family of God.  The Father declares again, publicly sealing the verdict:  This one is also my beloved son, for Jesus’ sake. 

   Chuck Kaus, 79 years young, recently rediscovered his Baptismal Birthday: October 11, 1942, at Holy Cross Lutheran in the Twin Cities.  When Chuck reached out to the congregation where his older sister thought he had been baptized, Chuck was rewarded with a treasure trove of details, stories that flow to and from that day when he was baptized as a newborn child, born again from above at the first opportunity, another faithful work by the people of God, walking in the Way of Jesus.  You may or may not know the details of your Baptism, but it is just as wonderful, just as glorious.  Because Jesus gets Baptism right, every time. 

    The Baptism of infants makes it most obvious that Baptism is not our work, but God’s.  God’s work, done through the hands and hearts and mouths of His people, to be sure.  Believers know that every human being needs the mercy of God, right from the beginning, and so parents and godparents bring the child.  The preacher plays his part.  The choir sings and the angels rejoice.  Because God is at work, by His Word, in our midst. 

   It looks like Tyler did something this morning, and he did.  Chuck was carried to the font in the arms of his parents, giving no indication that he knew what was happening.  But Tyler got up out of the pew and walked to the font.  Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you! 

   So, good for Tyler.  And good for all of you, for getting up out of bed and making your way to the Lord’s house this morning.  Jesus warns all of us to not give up meeting together, as is the habit of some, but to continue gathering together, encouraging each other in the faith, all the more as you see the Day of the Lord drawing near. 

    But Bartimaeus didn’t heal his own eyes by walking to Jesus.  Neither did you earn the forgiveness of sins by coming to church this morning.  Tyler did not become a child of God by getting out of the pew and walking up to the font.  The real work, the miracle of regeneration, can only be accomplished by God.  Because we were all dead in our trespasses and sins.  Dead people don’t do anything.  We were all conceived and born sinners, spiritually dead before our first breath, from our very beginning in need of a merciful rebirth from above. 

   Now, we, the reborn people of God, have much to do, as we walk with Jesus on the Way.  But getting onto and staying on the Way both depend on the Work of Salvation.  And Salvation depends on God.  By His merciful power, the Lord credits the righteous sacrifice of Christ on the Cross to the spiritual account of a dying sinner.  Take heart, the Lord has mercy.  Jesus’ life of love; His sin-and-guilt-washing death; and His indestructible resurrection to new life, God credits all these to you, by faith.  He did this at the font, for you, adopting you, forgiving you, giving you new birth, and a new heart.  There He made you the dwelling place of His Holy Spirit, to guide and keep you in the faith, faith in the Cross and Empty Tomb of Jesus, which through Baptism, are now yours. 

   God, and God alone, saves you.  Now, today, again.  Because you are still a sinner, in
need of forgiveness and renewal.  God saves you through the Word of grace, the Gospel, absolving you, forgiving you, setting you free.  Truly forgiven, on earth as it is in heaven, Amen.

   The Lord saves you through the Good News that you eat and drink, the mysterious Supper in which we are invited to dine in repentance, for the forgiveness of all our sins, delivered to us in the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. 

   Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you!  The Missionary Task of the Church is to call sinners in need of mercy to Jesus, so that Jesus can heal them.  As Pastor Anderson loves to say, we are sent out to fish, with these instructions from Christ:  You catch ’em, and I’ll clean ’em.  The Church is called to cast the net, to seek to draw people within earshot of Jesus, so that by His saving Word He can do the real work. 

   The Church has not always taken up her task with zeal and enthusiasm.  Sometimes the Church’s message about Jesus is wrong-headed.  The crowds outside Jericho, following Jesus, proved to be just as obtuse as the 12 disciples.  Remember what the 12 did when parents were bringing little children to Jesus, that He might bless them?  The disciples rebuked them.  They yelled at the parents, and tried to prevent them from bothering the Master.  “Get your grimy little kids away from here.  Can’t you see that Jesus doesn’t have time for such unimportant things?”   

   But of course Jesus always has time to bless little children.  The Lord’s anger flared, and the 12 received His rebuke.  And then Jesus welcomed the little ones, taking them up in His arms, laying His hands on them and blessing them.  The Lord has mercy, and loves to deliver it.    

    In today’s Gospel, just as the disciples had done to the parents, the crowd did to the blind beggar Bartimaeus.  He is a grown man, but almost as helpless as a child, in some ways more so.  But Bartimaeus has a voice, and faith.  He believes Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, and he believes Jesus can help him.  So he cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” 

   And the crowd following Jesus, what is their response?  They rebuke the blind beggar.  “Shush, be quiet, Bartimaeus! Don’t bother the Master; can’t you see He has no time to pay attention to you?” 

   But Jesus has time.  Jesus makes time.  Jesus doesn’t seem to get angry with the crowd.  He simply stops, and says, “Call him.”  So now the corrected crowd exclaims to Bartimaeus, “Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you!”

   Lord have mercy.  You may have noticed over the years that the Church says and sings that phrase, a lot.  The liturgies of Christianity are filled with “Kyrie Eleison,” which is Greek for “Lord have mercy.” 

          Blind Bartimaeus could see that Jesus was the coming Messiah, the new King of the Jews, and so as the Lord passed by, he called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” 

          The Canaanite woman, seeking mercy for her daughter, believed firmly that Jesus is Lord, the Son of David, and that He has crumbs of mercy for all nations.  Lord have mercy on me. 

          Lepers, souls suffering from rotting skin, also knew that in the Man Jesus, the Lord was pouring out cleansing mercy and healing on the world.  Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. 

          Tax collectors and prostitutes saw in Jesus a merciful welcome they had never known. 

          From Genesis to Revelation, and especially in the four Gospels, hurting, outcast, sinful, dying people cry out for mercy to Jesus, trusting that He will respond.  And He did.

   The Church over the course of 2,000 years has spoken and sung Kyrie Eleison countless times.  Because we know that we are those same hurting, outcast, sinful, dying people.  To be in the Way of Jesus is to live in the joy of knowing that we, ... that I was lost, but now am found.  Blind, but now I see. Condemned, but now forgiven.  An orphan, but now a beloved child.  Dead in my trespasses and sins, but now made alive together in Christ Jesus. 

   And yet we know that in this life, even though we have received mercy and are children of God, we are also still sinners.  So of course we still cry out, again and again, “Lord, have mercy.”           

And He does. Every time.         

Then restored, like Bartimaeus, we follow in the Way of Jesus. 

    Which is not for the faint of heart.  Read on in Mark chapter 11, and consider the road on which Bartimaeus followed Jesus.  Life in the Way started out great for our newly seeing brother.  Leaping and singing for joy, Bartimaeus followed Jesus, who was walking from Jericho to Jerusalem, for the last time.  Hosanna to the Son of David, cried the crowd, as Jesus rode a donkey into the city, copying David’s son Solomon, anointed to be the New King of Israel. 

    But the celebration sours, and quickly.  The New King is not received with joy.  And Jesus’ teaching turns so dark.  A woman pours out expensive perfume on the Son of David, a prophetess in action, for Jesus tells us she was preparing His body for the tomb. 

   Then comes the bitter debate with the Pharisees and Priests, plotting and scheming.  Frightening teaching about the End Times.  A strange final Passover with His friends, transformed into a mysterious and awesome meal.   The Way of Jesus begins to get lonelier and lonelier.  Sweating blood, praying by Himself.  The enemy frightens off His friends, until finally, He is all alone.  Betrayed by one of the 12.  Abandoned, even by Peter and the others.  Lord have mercy, the enemy comes and arrests Him, and He is taken away.  What is going on? 

    The Lord is having mercy.  The Lord is revealing the true source of mercy, the true font of forgiveness.  The Lord has mercy, not on Jesus, but rather on you.  On that night, and the day following, the Father did not have mercy on Jesus.  Jesus for the joy set before Him accepted the opposite of mercy, suffering and dying in your place.  So that your merciful calling and adoption be guaranteed.  So that your healing be complete.  The Son of God mercifully sacrificed Himself so that your forgiveness would be limitless.  So that your eternity be filled with joy. 

     It is finished.  The strife is over, the victory is won.  Mercy has been perfected, by your Savior, for you.  God’s Son has died and risen, once for all: for all sins and for every sinner.  And so with this rich gift to share, Jesus continues to call each one of you.  In your Baptism he publicly declared that you are His.  Through the years of your connection to His Church, He has again and again called you back from your mistakes and falls, calling you to get up, and come to Him for restoration.  He is always calling you to come and receive His mercy, calling you to follow in His Way, and to do the good works He has prepared in advance for you to walk in. 

   Central to the works He would have you and me do together is to call others to Him.  We are not called to excuse sin.  But we are also not called to rebuke sinners.  Rather, as we daily need mercy for ourselves, we also call the sinners around us, those in the pews and those in the world, inviting them to come and hear Jesus, our merciful Savior, and theirs.    

   The Way of Jesus, the Way of walking in repentance and faith, is not always an easy path.  But it is full of joy, the joy of receiving mercy, and sharing it with others.  The joy of seeing blind hearts recognize the mercy of God for them, in this crucified and risen man, Jesus Christ. Take heart!  Get up!  Jesus is calling you!  Amen.  

Possibilities - Sermon for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
October 17^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
Possibilities     (Ecclesiastes 5:10-20, Hebrews 4:1-16, Mark 10:23-31)

 Impossible!  Impossible.  Impossible? 

   No.  The short answer to the question of whether anything is impossible for God is no.  With God all things are possible.  Which is Good News.  Truly.  But the fact that God’s omnipotence, His all-powerfulness, is good for us fallen creatures is not always obvious.  So much of what Jesus taught about Himself, about God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, seems impossible to us.  Or perhaps God’s possibilities don’t attract us. 

In last week’s Gospel, which immediately precedes our text from St. Mark this morning, Jesus raised the possibility that a rich man, who wanted to do what it takes to inherit eternal life, might achieve that goal by selling all his possessions, giving his money to the poor, and following Jesus.  Jesus’ suggestion was impossible for the man, and he went away, sad, even though he still had all his money.  As King Solomon taught us in Ecclesiastes, money can’t buy lasting happiness.  But we sure like to think it can.    

    Only God is good.  That’s what Jesus said to the rich man when he ran up asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.  The man addressed Jesus as “Good Teacher,” and Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good?  Only God is good.”  Jesus is hinting at the fact that He is God, but also demonstrating that the rich man doesn’t yet believe this astonishing fact.  The gift of God is standing right in front of him, the Savior in the flesh.  But the rich man is caught in the way of the Law: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

    The only God, come to give eternal life as a gift, is the man Jesus, eternally begotten of the Father, now born of Mary.  It seems impossible, but don’t doubt it.  Jesus has come to reveal the Father to us, and to do that, He will save us.  The heavenly choir sings that Salvation, entrance into God’s Kingdom, belongs to God, and to the Lamb, Jesus, who takes away the sin of them world.  How can Jesus and the Father be One?  How can the only One who is good, the one true God, be Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  One God, and yet also three distinct persons?  Seems impossible to us.   

   And yet the Gospel, the Good News of salvation, depends on this Truth.  For it is only because God is three in one that the Father could send the Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, for the sins of the whole world.  Only the Holy Spirit, who proceeds

from the Father and the Son, can work through the Word to bring people to forgiving faith and unity with Jesus, who in turns presents us to the Father as beloved children.  If God were utterly one, as Islam teaches, then there would be no way for God to both be the righteous judge, and the victim in our place.  So then, no Gospel, no free gift of salvation.  Which is what Islam teaches.  No wonder we give thanks that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for in and from Him we sinners receive eternal life.

   The rich man knew this Word the Holy Spirit uses to save, the first part of it, anyway.  From this Word written down by Moses and the prophets, the rich man learned of the Creation, and the Fall, and God’s Commandments, and of the Kingdom, the place of eternal life.  From the Word the rich man knew that we dying sinners somehow need to gain entrance to God’s favor.  This man knew God’s Word as Law. 

   But this same Word, from Genesis to Malachi, also speaks of the mysterious Good News, that the One True God is also somehow more than one.  “Let us make man in Our Image,” spoke God, speaking to... Himself.  God sent His Spirit and His Word to create the universe, and yet the Creator is One.  God appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre, and the appearance the Lord took on was ... you guessed it, the appearance of three men. 

   Then there’s the Angel of the Lord.  Sometimes the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sent created angels to speak and to do things for Him.  But other times, the Angel of the Lord appeared.  Like when the God appeared to Moses in the burning bush that was not consumed by the flames, (that seems impossible).  And this Angel of the Lord speaks as God Himself.  The Angel of the Lord even demands the worship which belongs only to God.  That seems strange, almost impossible.  What’s going on here? 

   It’s helpful to remember that the word “angel” means, most simply, “messenger.” And of course the Messenger of the LORD who could speak as the LORD Himself is the Son, the Logos, the eternal Word, who in the fullness of time would take on flesh and be born of a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem, to buy back from Death and Hell those who stood condemned by the Law.  Like us.   

   The reality of God as three in one is impossible for us to totally comprehend, and it was not yet fully declared in the Old Testament.  But this impossible seeming Truth is in the Old Testament Scripture, for God is the Author and the primary actor in the writings of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalms.  The same God as always, who is who He is, unchanging, from eternity to eternity. 

   Truly, God’s Plan and Word of Salvation is full of impossibilities, promises that again and again contradict what our reason says can be.  Human reason is amazing, and results in many blessings.  Human reason is a driving force behind the material prosperity we enjoy today. But it is a common heresy, a false teaching, to imagine that sin does not corrupt human reason.  Sin perverts our will, making us desire and do evil things.  Sin twists our emotions into destructive rages and debilitating depressions.  Sin brings death to our bodies.  And this same ugly sin also corrupts our reason.  The Lord through Isaiah is pretty clear about it: My ways and my thoughts are higher than your ways and your thoughts.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, that’s how much greater and higher are the Lord’s ways and thoughts than ours.  And yet, we again and again imagine and insist that God must do things the way that we can understand them, according to our logic and reason.  Otherwise, God and His salvation would be illogical, and we can’t have that. 

   But of course we must have just exactly that. 

     My one-year-old granddaughter Rosemary can’t understand why it is right and logical that she be strapped into a car seat.  But that doesn’t mean her parents are mistaken in their judgment to protect her in this way, for her good.  There is a great difference between the reason of a good parent and an infant.  There is an even greater difference between God’s knowledge and reason and ours.

   And notice how Jesus addresses the Twelve Disciples in our Gospel reading.  These grown men are amazed at Jesus’ words declaring that it is very difficult for those having wealth to enter the kingdom of God.  It is entirely human to assume that material blessings are a sign of God’s favor.  But not necessarily, says Jesus, and the Twelve are confused.  In response, Jesus continues:  Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!  Did you catch that?  He calls them children.  ²⁵ Listen, children, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 

   Our Lord must deal with His future Apostles as my son and daughter-in-law deal with their little children.  Let me break it down for you.  Can a camel, a six-foot high, 1,200 lb. beast, pass through the eye of a needle?  That’s how much chance a human being has of making their own way into eternal life.  Which is to say, none.  No chance.  Who then, can be saved?  “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”    

   It is not wrong that you enjoy your possessions and have money saved in the bank.  It is not sinful that you want to give good things to your family, your children, your grandchildren.  It is not contrary to God’s plan that you work hard and try to better your living situation.  It is certainly not wrong that you also want to be Godly, to be a good person who lives as God would have you live.  All of these things are gifts and holy callings from God.  Family.  Material possessions.  The call to work, to build and make things, and to serve others.  The law which shows you how best to live the life God has given you.  Your very life itself.  All of these things your good and generous Father in heaven has given you, for you to use and enjoy, for your benefit and for the benefit of others. 

   But, despite what our human nature and the world constantly teach us, there is no salvation in these things.  And especially not in your money.  Solomon told us 3,000 years ago that money won’t even give you satisfaction in this life, if you make the mistake of letting possessions and wealth become your highest good.  And pursuing wealth as an idol is a particular temptation for us, 21^st century Americans.  Compared to the vast majority of people in the world today, and even more compared to the normal level of human existence throughout history, we are all fabulously wealthy.  And yet, despite this happy fact, contentment, happiness, joy and peace are less and less common amongst us.  Because great wealth not received as a gift from God can and often does become a slave master.  It drives us to get more, and fills our hearts with anxiety and envy and the fear of losing what we have. 

   What must we do?  The answer is not to sell all you have and give it to the poor.  But the answer is to put nothing ahead of Jesus and His Gospel, to follow Him and trust the impossibly Good News He came to fulfill for you. 

   It is impossible for us to fulfill God’s call to set aside all temptation of earthly goods and fully keep God’s Law by loving the neighbor perfectly, and God more than anything.  We cannot make ourselves truly good sons and daughters of the Lord.  These impossible tasks, impossible for mere sinful men and women like us, the God-man Jesus Christ has completed for us.  He is our High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, for He has been tempted as we are, in every way, and much further.  Jesus was tempted like us, but with this crucial difference: Jesus overcame all temptation, without sinning. 

   And His final temptation was to deny the path His Father had sent Him to walk.  To turn away from completing the final,

          once for all sacrifice,

                    of His own life,

                               under God’s wrath,

                                         on a Roman cross. 

   Jesus rejected the temptation to avoid suffering and abandon us to our well-deserved punishment, which is eternal separation from God and every good thing.  No, Jesus would not abandon you.  Instead, because He loves His Father and because He loves you, Jesus kept the faith.  Jesus made the good confession.  He trusted His Father completely: “not my will, but Thy will be done.”  Jesus, God in human flesh, poured out His life as the atoning sacrifice that washes you clean from all your sins and errors and weaknesses. 

   Jesus is your peace, your place of rest.  In Jesus, you have uncountable wealth, an eternal home in God’s glorious kingdom, and a family, innumerable brothers and sisters, all around the world, and in heaven, fellow redeemed sinners, who rejoice and sing to Christ with all God’s angels.  The impossible is complete; salvation unto us has come.  The Word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword, has come to you, entering your ear and your heart, convicting, rebuking, forgiving, redeeming, resurrecting, and strengthening you, by the Gospel of the forgiveness of all your sins. 

   Rejoice, all God’s best possibilities are guaranteed, in Jesus, for you, forever and ever, Amen.