Living and Dying in Christ - Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost

Living and Dying in Christ
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 24^th, A+D 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota

What shall I render to the Lord, for all his benefits to me? 

I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving,                                                                     and will call on the name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation, and will call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people,

In the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. 

 

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. 

You have loosed my bonds.

   A few minutes ago, we heard St. Paul’s famous confession:  “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  Yes, yes, very nice.  But how often do we, the Jerusalem of God, the New Israel, the Church of Christ, really wrestle with the significance of these words?  “To live is Christ” sets up faith in and communion with the Savior as the essential core of existence, the center of our lives.  “To die is gain” establishes that, for all our thankfulness for this life, we Christians hold on to it lightly, knowing that what awaits us on the other side is far better.  Both sides of this bold claim make us uncomfortable.  We are Bible-believing Lutherans, and so we do not reject what Paul says.  But do we linger over these words?  Do we measure our days and our hours against them, to see if our walk fits Paul’s talk? 

   It will be a shame if we don’t wrestle with Paul’s words, a missed opportunity.  Because they are full of wonder, and joy.  And wisdom.  “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” captures and explains the exuberant joy of our Introit this morning, that bit of Psalm 116 which began our contemplation of God’s Word, and which we also sing as an offertory in Divine Service settings 1 and 2.  It also helps us comprehend and internalize the upside-down world of working in the Master’s Vineyard, where what you do and what you receive don’t seem to match, not to human eyes at least.  And yet, despite this mismatch of labor and capital, despite the seeming injustice, Jesus calls us to rejoice, even though the last are first, and the first are last.  

    Our Introit this morning is a divinely inspired expression of the proper thankfulness and optimistic perspective of a Christian, a forgiven member of God’s family, a worker in the Vineyard of the LORD. 

    It surely seems unfair for those who only work an hour or two to receive the same wages as those who work all day.  But being admitted to the Vineyard is the real reward.  Working and living there is a privilege, a gift.  The wise vineyard worker rejoices to be included, and also rejoices to see other underserving workers brought on board, no matter how late in the day.

    But work is hard, and so we struggle to beat back our selfish, “give me what’s mine” attitude.  We live day to day in a world where you must earn everything you get.  So, it’s hard to believe that in God’s vineyard, we work cheerfully because we’ve already received the greatest gift, all that we will ever need.  How can we understand this mystery?

    Work in God’s kingdom is not like working in the world.  Nevertheless, maybe the earthly example of some exceptional people that I’ve run into over the years can help us grasp the concept.  For example, some years ago Shelee and I took an Uber in Chicago.  Our driver was a Lebanese man, and as we crawled through the downtown traffic, we learned he had been a college professor back home.  Now, in America, he was holding down three jobs, two part-time service positions, and driving for Uber in his spare time.  Quite a step down, wouldn’t you think,?  He went from having a prestigious and good-paying job teaching classes at a university, to scrambling and hustling at three jobs to make ends meet, and slowly try to save and get ahead.  You might expect this man would be bitter with his new work reality.  But no, he was cheerful, optimistic, and thankful for his new situation.  Because he understood that hustling at three jobs in America was way better than whatever apparent stability and status he had enjoyed in Lebanon.  Because America is a way better vineyard.  Lebanon, his homeland, surely had a special place in his heart.  But instability, intermittent warfare, sectarian violence, and real physical danger were inescapable there.  He was glad to be in America, working three jobs.  He was thankful to have arrived safely with his family, to have secured a green card, and the chance to live without fear.    

    Over the years I’ve met numerous people who told me similar stories.  Sadly, many countries in Latin America are chaotic, unsafe places to live, despite all their potential and beauty and resources.  So, many Latinos take great risks to find their way into better vineyards, very often into Spain. 

   Spain has problems, but it is still a comparatively modern, wealthy economy.  And, because of her historic colonial ties with Spanish speaking South America, and because of her need for younger workers, Spain makes it pretty easy for any Latino to gain legal residence and go to work.  I met lawyers working as waiters, accountants on construction crews, businessmen working in oil refineries.  Did they wish they could work in the better paying careers they had back home?  Probably.  But their attitude was primarily shaped by gratitude.  Above all, they were thankful to be living in a new place, safe from the crime, corruption, civil unrest and even open warfare that plague their homeland.  What job will I have, how much will I be paid?  Not so important.  I just want to get in, to gain residency and a work permit.  I just want to be admitted into a better vineyard.            

    And here’s the thing: the improvement such folks have experienced, to go from Venezuela to Spain, or from Cuba or Lebanon to the United States, this improvement is nothing.  It is nothing, compared to the improvement you have been granted when the Master made you a worker in His vineyard. 

    When Christ your Savior baptized you and drew you to Himself and into His Church, He gave you the best gift you could possibly receive.  In every other vineyard, you would be a dying sinner, living under the illusion that by working super hard, you could secure a bright future for yourself, you could gain God’s favor.  But only in the Vineyard of God are you given the whole enchilada on the first day.  When the Holy Spirit converts a sinner into a believing disciple of Jesus, when, by the washing of water with the Word, God the Father adopts you as His child, nothing is held back.  Joined to Christ by faith, covered by His righteous robes, the words the Father spoke to Jesus at His Baptism in the Jordan are applied to you:  “Now you also are my beloved child, my son, my daughter, with whom I am well pleased.”  Rejoice, you have been chosen to join in the work of the vineyard, the work of hearing and singing and sharing and rejoicing in the harvest of souls that God is achieving. 

   In the first century world, being hired to work by a master meant being included in his extended family.  Being called to work in the LORD’s Vineyard means to be brought under the rule and reign of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who lived, served, preached, suffered, died and rose again, in order to make possible our inclusion in the family of God.  To be hired into the Vineyard is to be included in all the blessings won by Christ.  Or as Paul said, “for me, to live is Christ.” 

   To be hired into the Vineyard Jesus speaks of is to be rescued from the “get-what-you-deserve-by-your-works” kingdom of Hell, and to be transferred by the grace of God into the “get-what-Jesus-has-freely-won-for-you” kingdom of Heaven.  Paul, who had been a persecutor of the Church, saw with great clarity the radical and underserved salvation Christ had given to him.  So, Paul worked tirelessly and joyfully at the task he was given in the Vineyard, the task of being Apostle to the Nations.  Paul was sent to carry the Good News of the Vineyard to many peoples and places, to create branch offices of the Vineyard by founding Christian congregations all around the Mediterranean world.  Our congregation is a descendent of Paul’s mission work and writing.      

   No one else has been given the job Paul had in the Vineyard.  But every baptized believer has tremendous reasons to be cheerful and optimistic, whatever the circumstances of our day to day work in the Vineyard.  Every Christian has been given important work.  Whatever your place in life, by your faith in Christ, your work is a holy calling.  Through you, and all Christians, the Holy Spirit is working out His Mission, through the work and words of Paul, and through the loving and faithful lives of His people. 

    And yet, this is still not the best.  “To live is Christ,” so there is great joy in Christian living, even in the midst of the struggles and trials.   And yet, “to die is gain.”  And so the Psalmist, in the middle of celebrating his place within the people of God, sings out: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints,” His holy ones.  Workers in God’s Vineyard whistle while they go about their work, happy to be included in God’s great enterprise, happy to be saved, declared holy.  And happy to serve.  At the same time, God’s workers keep one eye on the future, on the eternal promise of Christ, that all who believe in Him have already passed from death to life.  Now physical death is but a transition from this vale of tears to the eternal and sinless future that awaits all who trust in the forgiveness and love of Jesus.    

    Your heavenly Father loves to have you in His Vineyard, and He loves to see you working at the tasks He has given you.  But the day that your contract here expires, and you are transferred to the other side of the Vineyard, to the Department of Heavenly Glory, that day is even more precious to God.  Another soul, delivered from suffering and temptation and the sin that clings, bonds loosed forever, now set eternally free to rest and rejoice in the nearer presence of Christ. 

     To die is gain, and this reward, this blessing, is also already yours.  For when God put the seal on your welcome into His Vineyard, when He baptized you into His Holy Name, He connected you in a mysterious but real way to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  You do not need to fear death, for Jesus has already defeated death, for you.  As faithful workers, we know well that this life is precious, and we rightly celebrate life, especially by extolling Christ.  And yet we also look forward, beyond this life, and beyond our physical deaths, knowing that because Jesus rose, we who are joined to Him will also rise from the dead. 

    In the original Vineyard, the Garden of Eden, our first parents listened to the Serpent’s lies and began to question whether their wages were fair.  Adam and his wife began to suspect the Master was holding out on them, and they tried to take what had not been given them.  Their foolish sin caused God to eject them from that blessed Vineyard, and also messed up every earthly vineyard, every job, every relationship that followed.  Unhappy work, strife, sin and death dominated this world, all the way up to the night that the New Adam, Jesus Christ, prayed in another Garden.  The next day, the Friday we call Good, He drank all the wages of the sin of Adam and all his descendants, draining the Cup of God’s wrath to the dregs. 

    So now, in Christ Jesus, you are set free from sin, and invited to live and work in God’s New Vineyard.  You have been given the hidden wisdom that the way to overcome sin is not through your work, but through the finished work of God’s only begotten Son.  Through Him, you have been included in the family of God.  You have been sealed in the promise that living in Christ, your death will turn out to be gain.  You are safe in God’s Vineyard, even in the midst of this sin-filled world. 

    So rejoice.  Take up your assigned tasks, and sing a happy tune.  Lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord!  Offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving, for your bonds are loosed.  Call on the name of the Lord, the One who has called you His beloved worker, His holy child, for Jesus’ sake, Amen. 

Justice - Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Penteost

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 17^th, A+D 2023
Our Savior´s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
Justice                        Matthew 18:21-35

'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?'  And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.  So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

            That's not fair.  I demand justice!  Oh, how we want justice.  If a kid is being punished unjustly, the whole school may rise up in protest.  If you are not considered for a promotion that you deserve, you and all your friends at work will fume and agitate.  If we think a referee is taking sides against our Hill City Rangers or Custer Wildcats, we will boo and heckle and right letters to the editor. 

            But do you really want justice?  Consider the first servant in our Gospel today.  He didn't want justice.  Not applied to himself, anyway.  He owed the king a lot of money.  A ridiculous sum, if you do the math.  A talent was a measure of money based on a silver coin, the denarius, the standard day’s wage of the first century Roman Empire.  One talent was worth 6,000 denarii.  It is hard to equate these things exactly, but a talent would probably be worth at least $200,000 today.  This servant owed 10,000 talents.  That's two billion dollars.  A ridiculous sum, one that almost no human being could ever pay back, and definitely not if they are rotting in jail .  The King who was owed 2 billion dollars certainly had a right to demand justice, to punish this servant since he would never get his money back.  But the servant doesn't want justice to be applied to him.  So he begs.  Please, spare me!  Spare me and my family the just punishment for costing you 10,000 talents.  Lord, have mercy!

            "O.K.," responds the King. 

"What?"  You can just imagine the court recorder, taking notes on the King's official business, choking on his coffee as the King agreed to pardon this servant, to completely forgive his debt.  "I’m sorry, what did you say, your Highness?"  "Ten thousand talents, just forgiven: are you kidding me?  You’re not going to punish this servant?  I mean, O.K., I get it, you want to have mercy.  But you’re going to let him off scot-free?  What kind of justice is this?"

            As you’d expect, the pardoned servant didn't wait around to allow these questions to be considered.  Off he goes, unbelievably fortunate.  What was it?  Is he lucky, blessed, or just that important and pleasing to his master?  Who cares?  Off he goes, you might think to throw a big celebration. 

But no.  Sadly, his first order of business is justice.  Some other man, a fellow servant, has fallen into his debt, 100 denarii, that is 100 days' wages.  A large sum, but not impossible to repay.  And you might think, considering the king's forgiveness of his 10,000 talent debt, that the first servant would find it in his heart to cut the guy some slack.  But no.  Justice must be served.  Grab him and choke him and demand your money.  Demand justice.  Mercy?  No!  Go to jail!  Work off your debt!  That's what the law says.  Justice must be served!

            Not a good move, friend.  All the other servants know this stinks.  And they are going to talk.  The King is going to hear.  He does, and he is not impressed.  "Oh, now you demand justice, on your terms?" asks the king.  "So be it.  Off to jail, till you pay the last penny of your debt to me."  Which of course will never happen. 

            Today's Gospel reading is really challenging.  For one thing, salvation by grace through faith seems to be at risk.  The center of the Gospel is that, because we could never meet God's law, Jesus has done so in our place, and freely shares his blood bought justice, his righteousness, with us.  But today’s teaching from Jesus seems to establish one exception.  Jesus declares at the end of the parable, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” You could easily get the idea that there is one work you must do to earn salvation, you must forgive your brother from your heart.  That is very disturbing, because it seems to go against what Scripture says elsewhere.  And there is a second, greater problem: this word of Jesus condemns us. 

            Sometimes I think I can forgive.  Once in a while, someone sins against me, not too badly, mind you, and I find it is easy enough to let it go.  But all too often, I find it very hard to forgive.  Repeat offenders, big offenders, really horrible sins, or, those committed against us by friends or family, or by those who confess the same faith in Christ as we do, these are not so easy to forgive from the heart.  I can maybe say the words, but inside I'll nurse the grudge.  I may set your offense aside for now.  But I'll know just where to reach and grab it, to wield it as a weapon, the next time you sin against me. 

We may say ‘forgiveness,’ but too often we really mean ‘suspended sentence,’ a crime held in reserve, ready to be used again if the perpetrator offends me again.  When I think about those who sin against me, I all too often want justice to be served, against them, to please myself.   

            When such feelings, thoughts and actions well up in us, the Baptized, well then Jesus must put us in our place: “You wicked servant.  Consider all that I've forgiven you.  Shouldn't you forgive these things that others have committed against you?  You want to deny my forgiveness, and have your own justice instead?  Fine, have justice.  Go to your place. Go away from me, until you have paid off all you owe me.” 

             O wretched man that I am. I know the good that Jesus has done for me, and I want to do the same for others.  I know that God has forgiven all the countless sins I have committed, washed away by the blood of Jesus, His Son.  But the good that I know I should do, the good that I want to do, the good of forgiving my brother or sister, this I do not do.  No, instead I do the opposite.  The evil that I don't want to do, the evil of bearing grudges and settling scores and remembering past sins, this I do.  Within me I see a war, a war between the good that the love of Christ impels me toward, and the evil that my love-of-self desires.  O wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? 

            Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.  Yes, we must forgive from our hearts.  This is a work that God requires.  And so, out of His great love for us, God supplies what we need.  Forgiving others is also a good work that God prepares for us and works in us.  Good fruit does not grow from an evil tree, good works do not come from a wicked heart.  If we are to forgive, God will have to give us a new heart.  Which is exactly what He does when He saves us.  With King David we often sing:  Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.  This is exactly what it takes to forgive.  Only when God supplies a new heart, a clean heart filled with His love, only then can we begin to forgive. 

            We are caught in a terrible struggle.  God has come to us with His love.  He creates new hearts in us.  But for reasons we do not and cannot yet understand, He does not remove all the evil that lies within us.  We are saints, declared holy and righteous by our Baptism into Jesus, called into His Kingdom by the Word of grace.  At the same time, we are also still sinners, still given to spite and anger and demands for personal justice.  This is not a comfortable spot to be in.  Read Romans 7 and see how the great Apostle Paul struggled with the evil that remained in him.  Read Romans 7, and pray.  Pray that the Lord will give you a new heart today, and every day.  Pray that God will give you the grace to forgive. 

Pray, and know that grace is available, always, forever, in the blood of Jesus Christ.  You see, there is one part of God's justice that today’s parable leaves out.  In the parable, the king forgives the debt owed to him simply because the servant begged him.  In God's courtroom, there's a little more to it.  God does not forgive our sins simply because we beg.  No, there is a greater reason, a reservoir of forgiveness that God draws on each and every time He forgives.  The Master of heaven and earth is always ready to forgive because Jesus has achieved perfect, limitless justice.  Jesus has paid the debt owed by all, an infinite number of talents.  In so doing, He has given us free access to an account we can always draw on, a reservoir of forgiveness that will never run dry.  His justice is complete, infinite, everlasting.  And it is His gift to you.  Free justice, for us unjust servants.  Free justice, from God's limitless reservoir.   

            That reservoir of justice is the blood of Jesus.  As John tells us in his first letter, the blood of Jesus, [God's] Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)   We dare not imagine we can mock God, and sin willingly, treating God’s mercy as a license to sin.  Such thinking is unbelief; it is rebellion and hatred of God.  This is what the first wicked servant did in his heart, that did not believe in his master’s mercy.  Believing hearts struggle against sin, with all their might.

Believing hearts struggle against sin, with all their might.  And yet in this life, believing hearts still fail, we still fall into sin.  And so it is good news indeed that there is no limit to how much sin God can and will forgive, for Jesus’ sake.  The merciful merit earned by the sacrifice Jesus made on Golgotha is as big as God Himself.  It is without limit.  So pray that God would forgive you, and help you to forgive.  Pray for the new heart that overflows with the love God has given to you.  Pray that God would help you to forgive by giving you a mind that understands this: we do not forgive our brother from our own mercy.  No, as Joseph taught us and his brothers, nearly 4,000 years ago in Egypt, we forgive by drawing on the mercy of God, and simply passing it on to another.    

Pray that God would fill you with His mercy, and then come to Him in the places He has promised to do just that.  Come where Jesus promises to be present for you.  Come to where two or more gather in His Name.  Gather with His people around His Word and around His Table.  Come and receive the work of the Holy Spirit, as He takes the forgiveness won at on the Cross 2,000 years ago, and applies it to you.  Forgiveness for you, and all who gather today, here and all around the world.  Lose yourself in the mystery of God's forgiving love, and God will complete His good work in you. 

Lord have mercy.  The Lord has mercy, for you, and for your neighbor, Amen.  

Just One Thing - Sermon for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 10^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Just One Thing – Matthew 18:1-20

   “Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal, that we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin, through the Word and Signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here.”  Luther’s Large Catechism, Second Part, the Creed, Article III

   I am, in most things, against “one-thing-ism.”  I think focusing exclusively on one thing as the cause of a situation, or as the only thing to be worthy of concern, is a mistake.  For example, this year’s bad forest fires in Canada, smoke from which we have enjoyed in recent days, are routinely blamed on man-caused climate change.  That may be part of the issue.  But poor forest management, driven by environmentalist concerns, or short-term weather patterns, or just regular forest cycles, all might be part of the problem as well.  But the one thing our media and federal government want to talk about as the cause of these fires is climate change. 

   Or consider the way most of the world determined in 2020 that the Covid-19 novel coronavirus was the only public health concern that mattered.  To be sure, Covid-19 was terrible.  Whether it was a freak jump from a pangolin to wet-market workers in Wuhan, China, or it was a human-modified virus from the coronavirus lab just down the street, Covid-19 rocked our world.  A new respiratory virus against which we have no immunity spread quickly around our interconnected world, and millions of people fell gravely ill, and many, many died.  On top of this tragedy, public trust in governments and media have tumbled to disturbing levels, as officials and talking heads proclaimed one thing one day, and the opposite the next, all the while denying any inconsistency, and scolding the public for asking questions.

   Worse, with the exception of the Swedes, virtually every government of the so-called advanced world lost their minds.  Do you remember: “three weeks of lockdown to bend the curve”?  This strategy, designed to help our medical systems cope with the initial onslaught of infections, quickly morphed into a Zero-Covid strategy, an effort to completely stop the virus.  Lock downs went on and on.  Only “essential” business operations were allowed to go on normally.  Schools were shuttered.  Nothing else mattered. 

   I specifically remember the moment in Cartagena, Spain, when I heard Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish president, announce that Spain was going “to defeat this virus, stop it completely.”  Under Sanchez, with draconian measures, we would end it.  What arrogant foolishness.  And news flash, it didn’t work. 

   Public leaders all over the world transformed their approach from dealing rationally with the unavoidable consequences of a terrible virus, to the magical-thinking goal of “Zero-Covid.”  This new problem became the ONLY problem worthy of our attention.  Covid-19 must be stopped, no matter what cost.  No matter the damage to souls from loneliness and social isolation.  No matter the nursing home patients who could not understand why their families stopped visiting. No matter businesses destroyed, and jobs lost.  No matter the learning loss of millions of children banned from school, and then told to plug in even more hours of their young lives to internet connected screens.  No matter the psychological effects of relentless fear-mongering across the media.  A small price to pay, we were told, because Covid must be stopped at all costs, no matter the other problems the Zero-Covid approach caused.    

   Even worse, in many places, churches were closed, forbidden by the state to gather to pray and worship.  Now, to be sure, many churches volunteered to close and stay closed, many forever, they are gone now.  But those who wished to be faithful to Christ’s instruction to gather and hear the Gospel preached without ceasing often found themselves running-a-foul of local laws.  Diabolically or unintentionally, the result was that many, far too many churches shut down.  And that is a huge problem. 

   We as a nation cannot afford to close Christian Churches.  You won’t learn this in history class anymore, but our prosperity was built on the foundation of the Christian family, and Christian values.  I don’t want to go into the argument about whether the United States was or is a Christian nation.  But the values of Christianity and the effect of many Christians in the population have had a huge effect on our culture and economy. 

   America, and the whole world, needs faithful congregations to continue doing their thing, or our societies will decline.  Which we can see all around us every day, as the decline of the Church in our land is accompanied by polarization, epidemic depression, mental illness and substance abuse.  Fractious, angry debates break out over every issue.  For maybe the first time ever, life expectancy in America has been declining recently, and Covid has very little to do with it. 

   But injury to our society, economy and public health, for all its importance, is not the real problem with governments trying to shut down churches, during Covid, or any other time.  The Christian Church must continue to do her thing in America, and the world, because human sinfulness, its just consequence, and God’s miraculous and loving work to overcome our sin-addiction must be proclaimed.  Sin and Grace, Law and Gospel, the overwhelming love of the Savior, these must be the center of our life as Church, because the Church, which is simply Christ gathering His faithful people around His Word and Signs, is the only place that one can be sure to find the forgiveness of sins.  

   As I said, I’m generally against “one-thing-ism.”  Treating Covid-19 as the only problem worthy of our concern was a colossal error.  Life is complicated, and those who propose mono-causal explanations for our various and complicated problems consistently make things worse.  But, when it comes to our souls, when it comes to men and women relating to Almighty God, when it comes to religion, there truly is just One Problem, One Need, and, thankfully, One Savior.    

    Peter seems to be slowly beginning to understand that mercy and grace are pretty important to Jesus.  Earlier, in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus praised Peter for correctly identifying Him as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Our Lord went on to say that He would build His Church on that confession, and that Peter would have divine authority to forgive or retain sins:   I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  ‘Binding’ in this context means leaving a sinner bound in their sins, while ‘loosing’ means to set them free, by forgiving them.  But just a few moments later, when Peter rebuked Jesus for predicting His crucifixion, the very place where the forgiveness of sins would be won, Jesus rebukes Peter in return. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling stone to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  To deny God’s plan to forgive sinners is satanic, almost as if forgiving sinners is the only thing Jesus is concerned about. 

    Our Lord’s laser-like focus on sin and forgiveness continues in Matthew 18.  After praising the
greatness of a humble child, Jesus returns to warnings about sin: “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, (literally, to stumble, like the stumbling stone in Matthew 16), it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!  [8] And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. [9] And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.”

    Jesus goes on and on about sin and forgiveness.  He tells the unlikely parable of the Shepherd who leaves 99 sheep on the mountain, going in search of the one foolish lost lamb, searching until He finds it and rescues it.  In case the Twelve begin to think animal husbandry is nearly as important to God as forgiveness, Jesus immediately follows with an explicit instruction about sin and forgiveness:  "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.  Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." 

   Note, as Luther did, that Jesus’ promise to be present with His Church, whenever even just two or three gather together, flows from and is connected to the purpose of forgiving sins.  So all things in the Church are ordered toward this goal, that sinners daily receive forgiveness, through the Word and Signs. 

    This brings us to the end of today’s Gospel.  But spoiler alert, Jesus still isn’t done talking about forgiveness.  In next Sunday’s Gospel, our reading from Matthew 18 will continue.  And Peter, thinking he is finally wrapping his brain around just how sharply Jesus is focused on forgiveness, asks his Master the famous question:  “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus will reply, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”   How’s that for focus?  But we’ll leave that for next Sunday.  When we will gather again, to receive the forgiveness of sins. 

   Really?  Seriously?  Perhaps the thought occurs to you, I must confess that it has to me, that this focus on forgiveness seems a bit much.  That even with forgiveness, “one-thing-ism” is a bad idea.  I mean, I know I’m forgiven.  If that’s all were ever going to talk about, why should I even come back next Sunday?  I’ve got it, I understand already.

    Why should you come back next Sunday?  Why has God, from the beginning, set a pattern that His people gather regularly, at least weekly, to receive His gifts and sing His praise?  What could it be about our lives that makes it so important that we have regular, ongoing access to Christ’s forgiveness? 

    Oh, yeah.  Not to be too personal or too depressing, but the Bible clearly describes the desperate state of our hearts, and we all know just how right the Holy Spirit is about that topic.  Sin is all around us, and in us, every day.  We don’t need to tie every difficulty that we face to particular sins and particular sinners, although often that is easy enough to do.  Because far too often the sinner who is responsible for my problems is… me. 

   Luther suggests that if you aren’t aware of your sin and your need for forgiveness, just examine your life using the 10 Commandments.  Think about your relationships, to husband, wife, children, parents, bosses, employees, co-workers and friends.  Think about your relationship to Christ.  Have you cheated, stolen, been lazy, gossiped, or spoken badly of others?  Have you loved things in your life more than God, made them more important that Jesus?    

    Luther’s method is very effective.  Another way to perceive your sinfulness is to get serious about living without sin.  Really try hard to avoid sin, to choose the high road, the better path, every day, all the time.  I really pray you do, and I should too.  Our earthly lives would be tremendously blessed if we all worked much harder to avoid sin.  Let’s do it!  Let’s do it, for we will enjoy better days.  And, we will also come running back to Christ for His forgiveness.  For the more seriously we take not sinning, the clearer our remaining sin, and our inability to leave it totally behind, will become. 

   It's like this:  Zero-Covid, the thoroughly unscientific goal to totally eradicate the virus from our lives, was a hopeless and harmful exercise in collective foolishness.  From the moment Covid-19 first infected humans, stopping it’s spread completely was a pipedream. 

   In this life, in this fallen world, Zero-Sin living is even more impossible.  Jesus tells us to cut off our hand and tear out our eye if they cause us to sin.  Sin kills, and we should take it deadly seriously.  But Jesus doesn’t literally want you cutting off your hand, because your hand doesn’t cause you to sin.  Your heart does.  Sin is not a virus that infects us from the outside, but rather it rises from the inside.  From the heart come evil desires, wicked thoughts, murders, hatred and adultery. 

   We Christians are called to live each day in a strange tension.  We are to try with all our strength to keep God’s Law, and pray for the strength of the Holy Spirit to flee from sin, and to do the good works God has prepared for us to walk in.  And, at the same time, we must never place our hope and confidence in our success, but rather we are to flee daily to Christ, bringing Him our sins, and eagerly receiving His gracious forgiveness, again, and again.  Overcoming sin is the one thing we absolutely need, and it’s a wild ride.  It is a human-logic and human-pride frustrating ride, that is also the best possible life. 

    And of course, avoiding sin is not the only thing.  God wants forgiveness at the center of His Church, so that then all His other blessings can flow.  Joy, love, fellowship, wonder, beauty, laughter, peace, a useful life, a blessed death, all these things and a thousand more blessings will flow, when forgiveness reigns.  When by God’s grace we keep first things first, and all things are ordered in our midst toward the goal of sinners receiving daily forgiveness, from God the Father, for Jesus’ sake.   

So, let us pray:  Gracious heavenly Father, Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and lived on this earth for one purpose, to gain the forgiveness of sins and salvation for us sinners, that we might be reconciled to You and live in your blessing and glory forever.  Today, You send us Your Holy Spirit to deliver the grace of Jesus.  Your Son is truly present with us to teach, correct, forgive and renew us.  We thank You for this most excellent of all gifts, and pray that you would give us wisdom to always return to You to receive forgiveness, for the rest of our earthly lives, or until that blessed Day when you send Jesus to gather Your whole Church into your eternal kingdom.  Keep our eyes and hearts ever focused on this, Your goal for us, through our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.   

Delight Yourself in the LORD - Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 3^rd, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Delight Yourself in the LORD 
Psalm 37:4 and Matthew 16:21-28

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

   That sounds pretty good.  That sounds good, and kind of easy, doesn’t it?  Almost sounds like the prosperity Gospel, the “name it and claim it” approach to Christianity, which promises that if you say the right things to God, and believe them, if you really believe God will bless you, then He will bless you, right now, with health and prosperity, surpassing riches, and your best life now.  Maybe Joel Osteen is right after all? 

   Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Does this mean: “Make God your highest good, and you’ll be blessed with all the toys and goodies you’ve ever wanted”?  The other side of prosperity preaching is, of course, that if somehow you’re not blessed, well then you’re not doing it right.  Your heart’s not really in it, you’re not really making God number one, not really committing.  Because if you were, you’d be blessed, like me, the prosperity preacher.  Maybe you better buy my book, or sign up for my video series, to get yourself over the top.  Cash or credit card only, please.  

   Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Did King David, the author of Psalm 37, intend to say by this declaration that we can manipulate the LORD with our attitude and commitment into giving us whatever we want?  When it’s put that way, the answer is obviously ‘no.’  We fallen, frail creatures do not make God be anything. We do not manipulate the Almighty.  The LORD God is our highest good, but you and I don’t make it so. 

   So, what does ‘Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart,’ actually mean?  

   To delight in the LORD is to love the things He loves, to agree with the truth as He declares it to be, and to desire in your heart to pursue His delight.  And this desire will come naturally, because when you delight in the LORD, the desires of your heart are changed.  Like David wrote in another famous Psalm:  “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  And the Holy Spirit does just that.

   ‘Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart,’ is a wonderful promise.  It’s not only the key to having a good life now, it is the key to living, period.  It means to be conformed to the mind and will of God in your inner being.  It is the goal of Christian faith.  However, such Godly delight does not come easily, as we learn from the exchange between Jesus and Peter in our Gospel reading from Matthew 16.

   Last week’s Gospel, the section just before today’s, was a wonderful high for Peter.  Peter correctly confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Savior sent from God to save Israel, the very Son of God, made man.  Jesus commends this confession, and declares that it was His Father who gave this knowledge to Peter.  Peter was no doubt delighted to receive such high praise from Jesus, and to hear the promise that his confession of faith will be the rock upon which the Church of Christ will be built.  To correctly know the identity of Jesus is the necessary foundation for saving faith.  Delightful indeed. 

   Today, we wince as Peter falls from his pedestal.  Correctly confessing who Jesus is, the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the necessary first step, but it is not yet delighting in the LORD unto salvation.  Delighting in the LORD does not mean loving the ways of God as we imagine them to be.   Rather it means to know the way of the LORD and to embrace it, to trust in it, to love it.  And the way of the LORD, the delight of the Almighty, is to save sinners by the crucifixion of Jesus.  So now that Peter has correctly identified Him, Jesus lets the 12 in on the Way of the LORD.  He tells them they are approaching the final and greatest stage of His plan of salvation, His death on a Roman cross. 

   Peter hears of this Way of the LORD and cries out: ‘God be merciful to you, Jesus, this will never happen to you.’  Simon the son of John is not delighted to hear that his Master, Teacher and Friend would be cruelly executed. 

   There are many reasons to struggle with the Cross.  It was so wrong, so cruel.  Unless one understands that it was necessary, indeed that it was the central goal of Jesus’ life and ministry, the barbarity of crucifying the One truly and perfectly good man who ever walked the earth is too much too take. 

   The Cross is also an indictment of each one of us.  Cross-avoiding people for 2,000 years have loved to debate who was really to blame for Jesus’ unjust execution.  Was it the Jewish leaders?  Or was it Pontius Pilate and the Roman Empire he represented?  Or was it Judas, who betrayed him?  Yes, yes, and yes are the answers, but not the complete answer.  Because it was also me.  It was also you.  We too, are sinners, for whom it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and die. 

   Accepting the Cross puts to death all the schemes and ideas of mankind for achieving holiness by our efforts, of justifying ourselves, of proving ourselves to be worthy, good people.  But, we do not like to be indicted, convicted of being sinners.  And so our ears itch for other religious talk, Cross-less talk full of encouragement to good works, and of course, lots of praise of us workers of good.  But there is no lasting peace in Cross-less Christianity.  Without the Cross, there is no firm foundation upon which to stand when strife and guilt and sickness and death come for us.  And come for us they will.  Saving faith has no other foundation except the one established by Jesus, on a tree outside Jerusalem.   

   Delight yourself in the LORD, love what He loves.  Turn away from your natural
rejection of the Cross of Jesus, and embrace it.  Because there at Golgotha, the LORD loved being merciful to sinners, by the only way possible, which was to accept within Himself the penalty human sin deserves and requires.  And so St. John teaches us the mystery that the greatest act and revelation of love is the sacrificial death of Jesus, the propitiation for all our sins.

   And yet still, for Peter, and for you and for me, it is so hard to accept the Cross.  Some Christian churches today, in a misguided attempt at evangelism, remove the symbol of the Cross, so as not to offend outsiders.  Many Christians especially don’t want to see a Crucifix, a cross with the body of Jesus depicted upon it; too negative, too gory. 

   Worst of all, far too many supposed Christian teachers and preachers avoid speaking of the Cross.  Which is the greatest danger.  Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins can be preached without the symbol of a Cross or a Crucifix.  But without the Word of the Cross, without it being applied to our sinful lives, without the Atonement in our ears, today and every day, the faith that saves begins to starve.  Eventually, starved of the Cross, faith can even die. 

    And so it is no surprise that Jesus rebukes Peter in the harshest terms: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."  Delight yourself in the LORD and His way, and you will receive the desires of your heart, which will be to receive the fruit of the Cross, to receive the righteousness of God delivered to sinners through the blood of Jesus.  Delight in the miracle of love that Jesus finished on the Cross, and your greatest desire will be to be in the blessed and joyful presence of God.  And this joy is already yours, because Jesus is truly with you, today by faith, and one day, face to face in glory.    

   As Jesus continues, he explains the way of delight in the LORD: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  Real life, not to mention never-ending life, only comes through the Cross of Jesus. 

   Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will create a new heart in you, a heart that learns to desire Godly things.  And with such delight in your heart, life in this broken world changes for you.  Jesus makes no guarantee of earthly prosperity.  Some Christians do very well, others suffer and never achieve worldly wealth or status.  But the heart that delights in the LORD doesn’t care, because it has Jesus, crucified, resurrected, and ascended to God the Father’s right hand.  The glorified God-man Jesus is ruling heaven.  Also, by the power of His resurrection, He can also truly be present with His people, His Body, the Church, present to teach and forgive and feed us for everlasting life.  In Jesus, we have the desire of our new hearts, the highest possible good, Jesus and His resurrection life, shared with us, given to us, as a free gift. 

   And there’s more.  Because delighted Christians live differently.  Struggles, illness, doubts, death and even persecution will come.  But the delight of trusting in the indestructible life and overflowing love of Christ Jesus gives you strength and peace, come what may. 

   Life in 21^st Century America seems more and more to be a meaningless rat race, but the delighted Christians sees through Cross-shaped glasses, and so knows that the LORD is working all things for the good of His people, even when it seems the opposite. 

   Technological marvels and creature comforts tempt all of us to idolize them and build our lives around pleasure and distraction.  But hearts made new by the forgiveness of Jesus remember that every good gift comes down from the unchanging Father of lights, and so we give Him thanks for all we have, and above all seek Him in His means of grace, wise to know fellowship with God is the only source of real life. 

   Living as a fallen creature in the midst of so many other fallen people tempts us to devalue life and close in ourselves, to only deal with our closest family and friends, and forget the world.  But the value that the death and resurrection of Jesus gives to every human life transforms our minds to see strangers not as bothersome, but as neighbors, souls to be loved with the love we receive in Jesus. 

   And so we delight to take up our crosses, knowing that Jesus has lifted, and been lifted up on, the One Cross that makes our crosses good, light and temporary burdens which we are privileged to carry.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we bear our crosses in the Name of the LORD who has claimed us, and who feeds us with His delightful forgiveness, life and salvation, today, and forever and ever, Amen.