With Intrepid Hearts, We Believe, Teach and Confess - Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost and the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 25^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
With Intrepid Hearts, We Believe, Teach and Confess! 

   With intrepid hearts, we believe, teach and confess! 

   Intrepid means fearless, undaunted.  As in the words of Zechariah, singing praise to the Lord at the birth of his son, John the Baptist.  Through the work of the Christ, for whom Zechariah’s infant son would one day prepare the Way, we would be delivered from the hand of our enemies, and so be free to serve God without fear, intrepid, holy and righteous in His sight, all the days of our lives.  With intrepid hearts, to boldly proclaim that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to fearlessly serve God by confessing His Christ, now that is living. 

   With intrepid hearts, on the 50^th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession to Emperor Charles V, the theologians who wrote the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, the final confessional document in the Book of Concord of 1580, boldly signed their names to this Lutheran confession of faith.  Specifically they declared:  By God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we are willing to appear before the judgment seat of Christ with this confession.    

   Intrepid hearts.  I wonder how intrepid Christian Beyer really felt as he stood before Charles V?  Christian certainly showed himself to be bold and steadfast, like his boss, John, the Elector, ruler of Saxony.  John ruled his territory in the German lands, but he did so under the aegis of Emperor Charles V.  Did Beyer at least have butterflies in his stomach?   Christian Beyer was not a theologian, but a lawyer, a layman, not ordained.  He was John the Steadfast’s Chancellor, or chief administrative officer of Saxony.  It fell to Chancellor Beyer to stand before the Emperor and read the confession of faith of the reformation that had flowered in German lands, following the Gospel discoveries of Martin Luther.  By all accounts, whatever turmoil he may have felt inside, Christian read clearly, loudly and boldly on that June day in 1530, 493 years ago today. 

   There were plenty of reasons to worry for the seven German princes and two independent city administrations who appeared at Charles V’s command, at the Diet, or Imperial Assembly in Augsburg, Germany.  While Charles V needed them, and their money and armies to fight the Turk, they were also his subjects.  Defying the Emperor was to risk everything earthly. 

   Nine years earlier Luther had been summoned to appear before Charles at Worms, Germany, called there to recant, that is to repent and deny his writings concerning the pure Gospel, which the Lord had allowed him to rediscover in the words of the Holy Bible.  Luther’s prince had secured a promise of safe passage for the reformer, to and from Worms. 

   This was thought to be necessary, because a century before another reformer, the Czech, Jan Hus, voluntarily appeared before a papal council in Constance, Germany, and ended up being burned at the stake for his teaching. 

   At Worms, after Luther famously refused to recant, refused to go against the Word of God and his own conscience, the Emperor declared Luther, already excommunicated by the Pope, to be a heretical outlaw, subject to arrest and execution anywhere in the Emperor’s realms.  Luther’s prince protected him, first hiding him in the Wartburg Castle, and later simply refusing to allow anyone in his territory to carry out the Emperor’s decree.  And so the Lutheran Reformation bubbled along and consolidated in Saxony, and other parts of the German lands.  

   Whether these bold confessors, lay and clergy, were truly without fear in their hearts is not so important.  What they said, the confession of faith they made, and the actions they took to live out that faith, this is what mattered.  Many dedicated their lives to teaching and proclaiming the pure Gospel.  Many others gave richly and risked greatly to support this Gospel ministry.  Imprisonment, persecution, economic and military attacks all came against supporters of the Reformation.  Many Lutherans even submitted to the flames of the Roman Inquisition’s pyre, rather than deny Christ’s teaching as they had come to believe it from the Bible. 

   Their words and actions have echoed through the centuries, down to our day.  Luther, a priest and a monk, and above all a pastor and a theologian.  Beyer, a layman, a lawyer and government official.  The Elector John, a prince, and many others, great and small, took their places alongside Peter, John and Paul, and all the Apostles.  You see, being dragged before hostile authorities, religious or governmental, and being ordered to deny Christ and the truth He taught, has always been a common occurrence in the Christian Church, just as Jesus predicted.   

   But why?  Why risk your life?  What is so important?  Simply put, the pure Gospel.  The unadulterated Good News that in Christ Jesus, crucified, resurrected and ascended to reign at the right hand of God the Father, there is free and full forgiveness of sins for all people.  And that this gift of salvation is not earned by our works, but rather is received by faith.  Simply said, when the Holy Spirit causes hearts to believe that for Christ’s sake, they are forgiven and beloved by God, today, and forever and ever. 

   The German reformers did not want to leave the Roman Church.  They simply wanted to be free to proclaim the gift of salvation, apart from works, achieved 100% by Christ Jesus, and received by faith alone.  That’s all they wanted, but the Roman Pope and his minions would hear none of it.  For some, holding sins over the head of sinners is simply too profitable to let go.  Lord, preserve our Church from this temptation. 

    Like the Jewish priests and Pharisees in the Book of Acts who forbade the Apostles to preach free salvation in the Name of Jesus Christ, the very church officials who supposedly led the 16^th century Christian Church forbade, on pain of death by fire, that anyone should proclaim salvation is by God’s grace alone, received by faith alone, based only on the Words of Holy Scripture.  Like Peter, and despite the risks, Hus and Luther and Beyer and the Elector John also declared, “We must obey God rather than men.”    

   Why do it?  Because eternity depends on it, as well as a clean and good conscience today.  We cannot and do not have to earn our salvation.  But once we have been saved by the Gospel and enlightened by Christ’s gifts, we are called to confess it, to speak the truth, come what may.  As Jesus told the Twelve:  ³² So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, ³³ but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.  To deny the faith is to hack away with a machete at the branch which connects you to Christ.  This, by the grace of God, Hus, Luther, Beyer and John the Steadfast refused to do.  For no suffering in this life, not even death, can compare to the eternal blessing and joy of God’s salvation.  He is preparing a place for you, in the glorious forever and ever life to come.  And, God also will not leave you in the midst of persecution in this life. 

   Fearlessly confessing Christ and His pure Gospel also leads to the best possible life, now.   Although admittedly, the goodness of the bold Christian life can be hard to see with our eyes.  Suffering for Christ may come.  But don’t believe the lie that “going along to get along” is better than standing up with Christ and His Gospel. 

   Oh, denying Christ’s truth will often help one avoid bad things temporarily, but such is not the road to freedom and peace.  For the persecutors always enslave you, to false gods, perhaps, or to a false Gospel, a twisting of Christ’s doctrine that puts you back in chains, back under an obligation to earn God’s favor, a requirement that you cannot fulfill.  Life as a modern Pharisee, pretending you are making yourself right with God by your efforts, may look impressive from the outside.  But inside it is a life of doubt, misery and even hatred toward God.  Just read about Luther’s life in the monk’s cell, before the Gospel set him free.  And the reality of the miserable pharisaical life on earth is nothing compared to the eternal separation from God that the Bible warns is awaiting all who deny Christ and His free gift. 

   The time to boldly confess Christ and His pure Gospel is today.  It has always been time to confess, and there has always been an earthly price to pay for doing so.  But, as we prayed in the Introit: In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.  What can flesh do to me?  In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?  When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. 

   Grant this, Lord, to us all.  Grant this to us, dearest Jesus, for we are not strong enough to confess You on our own.  Only by your Spirit will we stand and speak the truth, come what may.  Grant this, O Father, to us all.  For you are our only hope, and also the hope of the world. 

   Yes, the world around us needs you and me to speak the truth about Christ and His salvation.  We are still not likely to be dragged before rulers and religious powers and be ordered to deny Christ.  Not yet.  Although certainly this is more common today than when I was born, and the trend seems to be growing.  Lord have mercy. 

    You may never stand before a ruler of state or church and be called to deny Christ.  But, it is all too common these days for Christians to have their jobs or their status in life threatened, to be pressured into silence, or perhaps to have forces demand you celebrate sinfulness. 

   I could point to examples in many different areas of life, but one looms large this month.  Mothers, fathers and veterans all only get one special day to be celebrated each year.  But pride in perversity, and the denial of God’s good creation and plan for men and women, this blasphemy claims the entire month of June.  Thank God for those who refuse to go along with the celebration, and instead point out its brokenness and the immense damage being done to people.  Such brave souls face losing jobs or customers, or being sued and drug into court, just for agreeing out loud with what Jesus says about humanity and men and women and sex.  

    By God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we believe, teach and confess Christ and His Truth.   Now, I suspect that all of us here this morning have not done this perfectly, nor every time.  The good we wish to do, we all too often do not do.  But praise be to God, even this wretchedness, even the sin of failing in our witness, this too is covered by the blood of Jesus.  Now, don’t accept and stay mired in your failures.  Neither try to deny them, nor excuse them.  Confess to Jesus your failures in witness.  He will take them off your shoulders and give you His forgiving grace.  In Christ, you are forgiven.      

   Then, by God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we will believe, teach and confess Christ and His Truth.  For ourselves, and for our children and grandchildren, we stand on God’s True Word, for these are the words of eternal life!  We can do no other.  It is time for us to dust off our Bibles and steep ourselves in the Lord’s truth, so that we will be prepared with a good word, when our turn comes. 

   And we do not do this only for ourselves.  Christian Beyer truly prayed that Charles V would be converted to the truth, and rejoice together with all those who have been set free from lies and sin by Jesus.  So also we speak God’s truth, for the sake of those who oppose it.  For faith comes by hearing, and those duped into believing the lies of the Devil will not hear the truth from anyone else, except us: Christians with intrepid hearts, washed clean and made bold,

   in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.     

God's Call and God's Way - Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 18^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
God's Call and God's Way

    “I can’t do this, Sam…”    Many of you know Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.  Two little folk from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, these hobbits from the Shire are unlikely candidates to save Middle Earth.  But at least Frodo is honest.  Our diminutive protagonist is the bearer of the One Ring of Power, which must be destroyed, lest it’s forger, the Dark Lord Sauron reclaim it.  Because this missing Ring is the only thing that limits his awesome power.  With it, Sauron will quickly and easily overwhelm the forces of free men, dwarves and elves, and usher in a dark age.  From the relative safety of the elf lord Elrond’s enchanted forest, Frodo naively and bravely volunteered for the task.  (How often true bravery is somewhat naïve.)  Frodo agreed to bear the Ringto Mt. Doom and throw it back into the volcanic cauldron where it was forged, the only force on earth capable of destroying it.  One small problem: Mt. Doom is the very heart of the Dark Lord’s lair, surrounded by hordes of orcs, evil men and frightful creatures, all bent to Sauron’s will.   

    All hell breaks loose wherever Frodo carries the Ring, hidden on a chain under his shirt.  It attracts evil powers who are ranging all over Middle Earth, preparing Sauron’s final war, while always and ever seeking his missing Ring.  And the danger is not just from without.  The Ring corrupts from within as well, tempting its bearer, and those who travel as his helpers, to seize it and use it, to become a great warrior lord.  Men who side with good against evil imagine in their hearts that they could wield the Ring for good, and defeat Sauron.  This of course is a fantasy.   Frodo also feels and understands this inner temptation, and he fears the violent chaos that follows him wherever he goes.  So, in a particularly bad moment, hiding from a raging battle with his friend and servant Sam, Frodo speaks the frightening truth:  “I can’t do this, Sam.” 

    J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian, and Biblical themes and truths infuse his writing, even his imagined fantasy world of Middle Earth.  Chief among these themes are the weakness and fallibility of Frodo and the rest of his companions, which threaten their noble aims.   The nine souls who form the Fellowship of the Ring, four hobbits, a wizard, two men, an elf and a dwarf, commit themselves to helping Frodo achieve a seemingly impossible task.  But they are grimly aware that their chances of success are minimal. 

 

   Not so God’s people Israel, gathered at Mt. Sinai.  The call to be God’s holy people, of following His instruction, of rejecting evil and choosing the good, this noble task is set before Israel.  They know quite a lot about who God is, having witnessed and experienced the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, God’s decisive victory over the greatest power then known on earth.  They hear the most basic outline of God’s plan, His covenant proposal, that they should hear and obey His voice, and in turn the LORD will make them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  Hearing God’s proposal, with one voice, Israel declares: “all the LORD has spoken we will do.”

    No, they won’t.             Israel was not wrong to commit themselves to God’s covenant offer, no more than Frodo was wrong to volunteer to carry the Ring of Power to Mt. Doom.  In Tolkien’s fantasy world, Frodo had no idea of what really lie ahead of him.  In the real world, ancient Israel didn’t know what it really meant to live by God’s covenant.  But more details would begin to come shortly, the Ten Commandments and what not, recorded in the rest of Exodus 19, through chapter 23.  Then again in chapter 24, the Israelites, now somewhat better informed, repeat their commitment to the covenant, and promised to do all the words the Lord had said. 

    But no, they wouldn’t.  Sad to say, even after twice promising to keep God’s covenant, Israel abandoned their commitment very quickly.  Moses goes back up on Mt. Sinai, this time for forty days, to hear the LORD’s detailed instructions concerning worship.  While they wait, Israel loses patience, and demands that Aaron, Moses’ brother and assistant, build them an idol, a god fashioned by human hands.  A manageable god, not so frightening as the Holy One, hidden in thick darkness and thunder up on the mountain.  They choose their own way and even pretend to be worshiping the LORD God, while they dance and party around the Golden Calf.  So much for keeping the Covenant.   

    The New Covenant of God, the New Testament agreement that Jesus Christ inaugurated and gave to His people, is different from the Old Testament, the Old Covenant agreement between God and Israel. 

    The Old Covenant was good and true and right, a very fair deal.  God said: I will do these things for you, and if you do these other things for me, then I will bless you and we will be together forever. 

   Yes, we will do it, said Israel, we will keep our part of the covenant. 

   But no, they wouldn’t. 

    Israel failed to do their part.  So Jesus came, with a new plan, a New Covenant, or Testament, a new agreement for the relationship between God and His people.  The way of salvation which had been God’s ultimate plan all along. 

    The Old Covenant announced at Mt. Sinai was a regular two-way covenant, essentially a contractual agreement with obligations of performance by both sides, of the kind we deal with every day.  The New Covenant Jesus brought is different; it is all one-sided.  God would do it all, because God had to do it all.  The Old Covenant was of the Law, good and right, a very good offer, very fair terms.  But since neither Israel nor anyone else could keep it, God planned a new way of gaining and keeping a people for Himself, a human family for God to love and bless and enjoy forever.  God would do it all.  Or maybe better to say, God would do all the critical bits, the things required to seal and maintain the New Covenant all belong to LORD. 

    Because, of course, New Testament Christians, that is, you and I, have all kinds of things to do!  And we do many things.  You managed to get yourself here this morning, good for you!  But you don’t imagine that your eternal salvation is due to the very mundane and doable task of choosing church attendance over another hour of sleep or a walk in the park.  God does want you in the pew.  But He doesn’t only want to see you in the pew.  The Lord wants, indeed, only accepts, holy people, with pure hearts, guiltless and good, inside and out.  Our going through the outward motions of Christian behavior is not enough to cleanse our hearts and minds. 

    No, God must do that, and in and through Jesus Christ, He does!  This re-creative, “make all things new” work, which we desperately need, is finished!  God achieved the deed, and God delivers the goods, down to this very day, here, in this very place.  The Holy Spirit, using the Gifts of Christ, comes and remakes us, gives us new birth.  This second birth, just like our first, is not something that we “do.”  Oh, we were intimately involved in our first birth, and also in our second.  But we were never the protagonist.  Birth, biological and spiritual, is something that happens to us.   

    God does all the essential work required in the New Covenant.  And then, paradoxically, He puts us to work.  We see this in our Gospel reading this morning.  The Lord of the harvest wants His beloved people to be involved in His ongoing harvest.  And so He calls them and sends them to work in that harvest.  And yet we can see that Jesus hasn’t stopped driving the work, even when He works through others. 

    Listen to the words of our Gospel.  First, Jesus went through all the cities and villages, teaching and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and affliction.  And then He calls and sends 12 disciples to, wait for it, go and proclaim the kingdom, and to heal every disease and affliction.  The 12 simply do what Jesus does, and only by His authority and power.  He works through them, or they will do nothing.  For, as Jesus would later declare in the Vine and Branches, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” 

    There’s another interesting point in our Gospel reading that drives home the “God does it all” nature of the New Testament.  Jesus tells His followers to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to “send out” laborers into His harvest.  Jesus then tells the 12 to “cast out” demons.  In Greek, “send out” and “cast out” are the same verb, (“ekballo,” for those of you keeping score at home.)  I hope it is clear to all of us that casting out a demon who has possessed a human soul has to be a work of God, even if done through a Christian.  So does sending out workers.  Indeed, while Jesus before His Ascension would commission the disciples to go into all the world and make more disciples through Baptism and Teaching, the missionaries of the Church barely left Jerusalem, until persecution forced them out.  Cast them out, you could say.  The nudge required to get us to go and do things for His mission comes from the same God who drives demons out of people. 

    The New Testament is full of declarations that the work of the Church is really the work of God through the Church.  Whether you are an Apostle, a Deacon, a prophet, prophetess or lay member, everything we Christians do to benefit the Church’s mission is, in its essence, God working through us.  We are intimately involved.  And we get the joy of seeing the Holy Spirit at work through the Gospel.  But we know to give all the glory and credit to the Lord, because He does the real work.  As the Apostle Paul said:  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”  

    Since we know it is God who is with us, who goes ahead of us and is our rearguard as well, we should never cry out like Frodo Baggins: “I can’t do this.”  Again, St. Paul is helpful when he declares, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Whatever role the Lord calls us to in support of His mission, and we all play a part, we should eagerly respond:  “Yes sir, let’s do it!”  “Here am I, send me!”  Whether the call is to sacrifice time and effort to deeply teach your family the faith, or to show your neighbor the love of Jesus, and maybe also tell him or her about Christ.  Whether the call you feel is to give more to support the ministry of your congregation, or to support a Lutheran missionary in Africa, even if it is to consider going to seminary, whatever the call might be, we should never protest, “I can’t do it.” 

   But of course we do.  We do say: “I can’t.”  We see the resistance and opposition of the world around us, and we quail.  We feel the inner turmoil, the indifference to God’s mission from the sinner that still exists in us, and we whine and resist doing what we are called to do. 

    And so once more, Frodo Baggins offers us a reminder of how God gets things done.  Our hobbit friend said he couldn’t do it, and he was right.  But, against all odds, he and Sam do make it to the foot of Mt. Doom.  All that remains is to climb to the crest of the cauldron and throw the Ring into the fire.  Easy-peasy.  Sam even carries Frodo much of the last stretch.   But when he reaches the edge, Frodo succumbs to the Ring, refuses to destroy it, and declares himself its master, taking it out from hiding, and slipping it on his finger.  This would have ended very badly, with Sauron coming to reclaim it, except for a great surprise.    

    Just at this moment, here comes Gollum.  Gollum is a strange and twisted creature who had once owned the Ring and who had been trailing after Frodo for months, seeking to regain it.  Gollum jumps on Frodo, and tries to steal back the Ring.  They struggle desperately at the edge of the cauldron, until Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger with the ring on it.  He falls backward, eyes entranced with the sight of his precious Ring.  But his fall takes him over the precipice and into the magma below.  In the end, Frodo could not destroy the ring, but evil Gollum unintentionally did it for him. 

    All of the difficult and essential stuff of salvation must be done by God, and the LORD will even work through evil things and people to achieve His ends.  Including the greatest part of the work, the overcoming of sin, death and the devil.  As evil Gollum accidentally destroyed himself and the evil Ring of Power, so also Satan, through the wicked men who crucified Jesus, achieved the plan of God by killing His only begotten Son.  Because in Jesus’ death, and only in Jesus’ death, could all our sins be paid for, and all our guilt washed away. 

    Because Jesus died, Satan no longer has real power to accuse sinners, for Jesus paid for all sin, and so all who trust in Jesus and not themselves are washed clean, forgiven, made new, declared holy and righteous and good by God.  And because Jesus rose from the dead, death no longer rules over those who are joined to Him by Baptismal faith.   

      This is the great mystery of God’s love.  People at their best are sometimes willing to lay down their lives for friends and family.  But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us.  We have now been justified, declared not guilty, by the blood of Jesus.  And so, we don’t need to listen to Satan’s accusations, nor need we fear the wrath of God against sin.  Because our union with Jesus will save us.  For in Christ, joined to Jesus, God sees us as perfect, holy, totally good people. 

    We by our sins and sinfulness were all once enemies of God.  But the death of God’s Son has reconciled us to God, ending the warfare between us, and makes us pleasing to the Father.  And so in the end, at the Last Day, we will be saved, by the life of Jesus.  And in this we rejoice.  We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

   So, can you do the work God calls you to do?  In and with Jesus, of course!  Some of you probably have a neighbor, friend or relative who needs your help, and who also needs you to speak of Christ and invite them to Church.  The Holy Spirit is nudging others to give more of your time, talents and treasures to support the Gospel.  Some of you perhaps have a feeling that you might serve the Church in a larger, more formal way, maybe even as a missionary or Church worker.  You need not fear any of these calls.  For your Jesus has already done the hard part, and He is still doing all the important stuff, for you, and even through you.  Rejoice, and fear not, whatever comes, your God will bring you through,

in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.   

 

 

 

Mercy for Matthew - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 11^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Mercy for Matthew – Matthew 9:9-13

   Mercy for Matthew.  Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' 

   Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose Matthew the tax collector to be one of the Twelve?  I bet Matthew wondered.  For the Savior did not call him to an easy road.  Come, follow me, the Savior spoke, and I can imagine the swarm of butterflies that likely swirled in Matthew’s belly.  As a tax collector for the Roman overlords of his own nation, Matthew would have understood very well what people are like. 

   Matthew could have been a cheat, using his position as a way to enrich himself at the
people’s expense, like Nicodemus.  Or Matthew could have been entirely scrupulous, never taking a single penny beyond what was required.  I doubt this mattered much to his Jewish neighbors.  Rome was going to have tax collectors, and it was better for everyone if these bureaucrats understood and even had concern for the Israelites.  So all the better that a Jew should serve in this role.  But no matter what, Matthew would have been hated, because he was the outward facing representative of the occupying Roman regime, seen as a traitor by many of his countrymen.  Matthew would have received the worst of Israelite venom against Rome, regardless of how he did his job.  Not a likely candidate to be chosen as one of the twelve foundation stones of the New Israel, the Church that Jesus built. 

   And yet, Jesus chose Matthew.  Come, follow me. 

   Did the whispers and innuendos ever stop for Matthew?  Hard to say.  Because only the LORD forgives and forgets, Matthew’s past would have been remembered by people, even people who became Christians.  Of course, as an Apostle, we know that Matthew was God’s instrument for working miracles of healing, along with teaching and preaching the resurrection victory of God’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.  This would have made him beloved.  Nevertheless, I doubt Matthew’s lofty calling stopped the earliest Christian sinner/saints from sometimes whispering about him behind his back, or maybe to his face, casting aspersions about his dubious background. 

   Matthew no doubt ministered to some people whom he had taxed.  When the Apostle Matthew had to reprove, rebuke and call sinners to repentance, as all faithful preachers must do, it’s hard for me to imagine that some of his hearers didn’t sometimes denigrate his authority by pointing out his prior trade, as an agent of financial extraction for the Romans.  “Where does that tax collector get off, calling me a sinner?”  I suspect that Matthew the Apostle faced some resistance due to his career before Jesus called him.  Because that’s how people are.  And yet, Jesus called Matthew to follow him, which he did.  And thank God for that! 

   On a human level, Matthew had talents that served him well as an Apostle.  Including mad literary skills.  As a 1^st Century Roman government agent, he was likely quadri-lingual, knowing Latin, the language of government, Greek, the language of commerce, Aramaic, the day to day language of the Jews, and Hebrew, the language of Scripture.  In any case, Matthew’s Gospel is remarkable.  He knew the word of Moses and the prophets in great detail.  He organized his telling of Jesus’ story to especially reflect and reference the five books of Moses.  Beyond revealing Jesus to be the promised “prophet like Moses,” the new and final leader of God’s people, the first Gospel is also a clear and monumental theological treatise.  Matthew gave the Early Church, and us, a blueprint for how to be Church, and a clear exposition of the teaching of Christ and His Gospel.        

   Certainly, Jesus also chose Matthew to prove a point, to give an living example of the remarkable good news that no human being is beyond the reach of God’s mercy.  Offended that Jesus eats dinner with Matthew and other tax collectors and notorious sinners, the Pharisees did not seem to understand what the LORD had always proclaimed:  God’s salvation is for all people, Jew or Gentile, outwardly pious or clearly sinful, a free gift of purification by forgiveness, a divine remaking of sinners into God’s holy ones, His saints.  As Jesus said at the dinner at Matthew’s house, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ^[13] Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 

   Now, to be sure, Jesus’ call to sinners does include the Pharisees, and all people.  For we are all sinners.  But if we, like the Pharisees, stubbornly cling to the idea that we are not really so bad, we would lying to ourselves, and cutting ourselves off from the only Savior.  Calling Matthew the tax collector to be one of His inner circle, one of the founding Apostles of the Church, kept the amazing grace of God for all sinners front and center.     

   Maybe there was another reason for Jesus to call Matthew, kind of a contextual and contrasting lesson.  God saved tax collectors, but God is not a tax collector.  It is all too easy for us to fall into such thinking.  Oh, yes, yes, we know God has set up a salvation plan through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus.  But Christians again and again fall into the error of adding extra steps to God’s completed plan.  Like suggesting God also requires things of us that we must do, taxes, financial or spiritual, that we must pay, in order to be fully saved, or in order to stay on God’s good side.  If you don’t pay your taxes, you will get in trouble with earthly authorities.  But your God is not a tax collector. 

   Or, as Jesus said: Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” 

   I have always struggled to remember this truth about the Old Testament sacrificial system: it was a merciful gift. The LORD’s instruction to do all those ritual sacrifices for sin, goats and bulls and sheep and what not, that whole sacrificial system was a gift.  It was not how Israel earned God’s mercy, but rather a gift, designed to create and sustain Israel’s faith in God’s mercy.  It had to be a gift, because mercy that is earned is not mercy; it’s wages, salary.  Something you earn is a just reward.  If you’ve earned God’s favor, then there isn’t any need for mercy. 

   It's hard not to think of the required sacrifices of ancient Israel as works required to earn God’s favor.  They were, after all, required, things God gave Israel to do.  It was the Law for Israel.  And yet it was also a gift.  It was also Gospel, good news pointing to the coming Savior.  Because the blood of bulls and goats cannot atone for human sin.  The animals didn’t sin!  How weird and empty would it be for salvation to be earned at their expense?  

    No, God gave the animal sacrifices as signs of His mercy, to foreshadow the coming Sacrifice that would truly do the job.  The sacrifice that is infinite divine mercy, the once for all loving sacrifice of God’s Son for the sins of the whole world.  And so we begin to see what the LORD meant when He declared through Hosea:  I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 

   Real and truly valuable sacrifice was necessary, because sin is real, an insult to God, a crime worthy of divine rejection.  Sacrifice was necessary, if God and mankind were to be reconciled, brought back into a good relationship.  But no creature on earth, no bull, no goat, no sheep, certainly no sinful person, was truly a worthy sacrifice.  So, we see that sacrifices for sin are, by necessity, gifts from God.  By His grace, true sacrifice is always a gift. 

   Through Moses, God did give Israel sacrifices to perform, a very strange-to-us religious system filled with the blood of bulls, goats, doves and lambs.  This system was always a sign, always a foreshadowing, always looking forward to the one truly valuable sacrifice.  To be sure, God used the sacrificial system to save ancient Israelites, by maintaining their faith in the coming promise, the promise of mercy, perfect mercy, poured out in the self-sacrifice of Jesus on Golgotha.   

   Through the greater Moses, through Jesus of Nazareth, we have also received rituals to perform.  These are not done to earn God’s favor, but to receive His finished work of mercy.  Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Perfect mercy, sinful orphans adopted as children of God.  And of course: Do this in remembrance of me.  That is, take eat, take drink, my Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  Perfect mercy delivered, flowing from the mercy of God, perfected and revealed in the sacrificial Cross of Jesus.  Rituals of mercy, through which we receive the blessing of that once-for-all sacrifice.  We are not earning God’s favor by our performance of these rites, these commands of God we call Sacraments.  No, like Matthew, we are blessed to be washed clean by God, to sit down to dinner with Jesus, to receive His perfect mercy.     

   We pray that God the Holy Spirit always keeps our faith clear and true, confessing that only God can do the work of salvation, and that He has done it, and that He delivers this gift to us.  As Jesus had mercy on Matthew, so also He is merciful to us.   

   None of us are Roman tax collectors.  But, like Matthew, we hear voices that point to our past, and our present, and say we can’t possibly be pleasing to God.  We know how people can be, eager to point fingers and cut each other down.  We know these voices, from people around us, even from supposed friends.  We know these voices because we have made similar accusations.  And they echo in our own heads and hearts as well.  How could Matthew the tax collector really be God’s beloved?  How could that sinner be part of God’s family?  How could I really be God’s child?

    Know these voices for what they are: accusing lies from Satan.  We shouldn’t say them, we shouldn’t listen to them, we needn’t believe them.  Because Jesus’ mercy is perfect, for Matthew, and for your neighbor, and for you. 

   God grant us to rest in His perfect mercy, to believe in it for ourselves, and for others. 
And God grant us to also desire mercy, not sacrifice, in our day to day lives.  For the sake of others, for the sake of those notorious sinners who need Jesus, God help us to remember that we too are notorious sinners, forgiven and restored by Jesus. 

   In joyful thanks to the God who has given us the merciful sacrifice that saves, God grant us to extend His mercy to others.  That through us the Holy Spirit would show mercy to a world of sinners who all need Jesus.  For Jesus came to call sinners, not the righteous, to heal the sin-sick, and invite them to His table, today, and forever and ever, Amen.     

Reasons for Optimism - A Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity

Feast of the Holy Trinity, June 4^th, A+D 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Reasons for Optimism – The Holy Trinity

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

   You have great reasons for optimism.  Almighty God Himself is the reason you should be optimistic. 

    Who is the Creator and Ruler of the Cosmos?  What is He like, and what is
His disposition toward us?  These questions are at the heart of Holy Trinity Sunday.  We have heard the account of God’s creation of everything, including us.  And we have heard about God’s creation or launching of His Church, both Jesus commissioning the Eleven Apostles to build her by baptizing and teaching, and from Peter preaching at Pentecost, kind of the coming out birthday party of the Church.  All of these accounts reveal an all-powerful God who is for us.  So you and I have every reason to be optimistic.   

    But are you optimistic?  It’s no newsflash to observe that we are not living in very optimistic days.  We should be optimistic, but I certainly get why this seems hard.  For all the benefits of the digital age, we have known for some
time that it comes with a cost, an isolating, mind-and-soul-numbing cost. 

Now serious thinkers are worried that Artificial Intelligence, computer neural networks that can in some sense think and learn and make choices, well, some are truly worried they could turn on us.  SkyNet and Terminator come to life.  

    I don’t know what to think about AI.  But it's clear that society is fraying at the edges.  Our collective human response to the recent pandemic revealed many weaknesses and fractures in our cultures and communities.  Our politics is abysmal.  The loosening of sexual mores and changes in the family were all touted to be good for us, freeing and empowering.  But the results are the opposite.  Finding healthy, lasting relationship is harder than ever.  Unsurprisingly, the Christian Church, which both supports traditional families and is supported by traditional families, is also in numerical decline.  I could go on, and on, about reasons for pessimism.

    Following along in the way of the world, Christians, and sad to say, Christian pastors don’t tend to be very optimistic these days.  I am certainly not immune to glum thoughts and defeatism.  Because, after all, we are not living in optimistic days. 

    But that’s garbage.  That’s a lie from Hell.  We have every reason to be optimistic.  Rejoice in the Lord always, says the Apostle Paul, who suffered stonings and persecution, arrests and slander, throughout his missionary career.  Paul said “rejoice in the Lord always,” (Philippians 4:4) because it’s true.  In the Lord, in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is joy, for you.  When we get depressed about how things are going in our world, when we lose our hope and our optimism, it is not because things are worse than ever.  They could be, but Christian optimism is not based in this world, in this life.  Never has been.  When we lose our optimism, it’s because we are looking to the wrong places, we are fixing our eyes on things that are passing away.  Those things have no power to give lasting hope.  

 So, this morning, a few rock solid reasons for optimism, for us to fix our eyes upon. 

 1^st Reason for Optimism:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  And God said, let us make man, male and female, in our image, in our likeness.  You have value, you have the potential of a joy-filled existence, now and forever and ever, because the Creator went out of His way to make you, in His own image.  You, for all your warts and weirdness, for all the things you’d like to change about yourself, you are God’s favorite.  Along with 8 billion others, you are why God decided to create. 

 2^nd Reason for Optimism:  The Son of God, the 2^nd person of the Holy Trinity, became a man, a human being, in order to die for you, washing away all your sins.  The joy of being God’s creature will not get us all the way to eternal optimism, because we messed it all up.  Christian optimism is not some pollyanna, rainbows-and-unicorns unrealistic fantasy world.  The wonderful mystery of being created in God’s image breaks down as a source of confident optimism, because we are natural rebels, poor miserable sinners, subject to the chaos and death that our sin brought into God’s very good creation. 

    But our evil was not and is not greater than God’s love.  The curse of death is not more powerful than God’s will to live with us.  And so, Jesus came.  This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave Jesus as the atoning sacrifice to wash away all our sin. (1 John 4:10)  Fix your eyes on that!    

3^rd Reason for Optimism:      Jesus, dead and gone on Friday afternoon, rose from the dead on Sunday morning, destroying the power of death to hold Him, and by extension, to hold us.  Jesus rose, appeared to His followers, ascended into heaven, and rules over all things, proving that God’s crazy plan to save sinners has worked.  No matter how messed up this world gets, you are reconciled to God, you have a loving heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ.   

  4^th Reason for Optimism:      Jesus is with you, right now.  He has given you His Holy Spirit in your Baptism, who keeps you with Jesus by faith, that trust of the heart created and maintained by the proclamation of Christ’s story.  Jesus is with His Apostles and the Church they built, ever with us, in and through the Apostles’ teaching, to the end of the age.  Jesus hosts you at His table, feeding you with the medicine of immortality, strengthening you to live optimistically, and to love others, as you have been loved.     

    So, no matter what, you are winning, in and through Jesus Christ.  

   Christian optimism is a strange optimism, to be sure.  For outwardly we suffer, we struggle, we are all dying.  But in reality, Christians have the only true optimism.  All the other reasons for hope, the food at the grocery store, the wonder of the information age, your pickup truck that lets you escape into the mountains, the comfort of your own bed and your own pillow, all these lack staying power.  You can and should receive them with thankfulness, as gifts from God.  But they will not sustain your optimism.  Only Jesus, and the Three-in-One and One-in-Three God that He reveals, can do that.    

    You are free to live optimistically, because God is for you and with you.  And optimistic Christians are free to infect others with their hope and confidence, by loving others, and by sharing the reason for our optimism.  By telling the mighty works of Jesus.  By proclaiming the truth about man and about God. 

    The world seems more and more to be working overtime to beat us Christians down.  And this is truly a 5^th reason for optimism.  For the persecution of Christ’s Church is a sign of His Final Coming.  Chaos in the world is a sign of the End, when the victory of Christ and His Christians will be fully and finally revealed.  We don’t get to know dates.  But the world’s opposition to Christ and His Church is a reminder that the new heavens and the new earth are drawing closer.  And that will be wonderful.  Fully wonderful. 

   And, it’s already yours.  Because “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-8)  By your faith connection to Jesus, you already are sitting with God in glory.  This is God’s promise, and your reality, in Christ Jesus your Savior. 

   The world loves to ridicule the Church and Christians, seeking to drive all optimism from our souls.  But they are the foolish ones.  Opposing God is a losing proposition, eternally losing.  But you are not fools, you are made wise in Christ Jesus.  So you are free to be optimistic, and love the world by letting it show, in your words and in your deeds.  The world needs your optimism.  And there is more than enough optimism in Jesus for everyone. 

   So you can rejoice, smile, expect great things, even in the midst of difficult things, even in the midst of tears.  Because God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is truly with you.  You can’t lose.  Even if in the world’s judgment, your life is filled with great troubles, you have eternal optimism, hope and joy to spare, even enough to share,

  in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.