The Good Samaritan - Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Trinity

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity                     
August 25^th, Year of Our + Lord 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
The Good Samaritan

 Sermon Audio is available HERE

     My Good Samaritan. 

     Have you ever been rescued by a Good Samaritan?  Have you ever been in a real jam, with no way to help yourself, and someone, some passerby, someone you didn’t even know, steps in to rescue you? 

      A couple weeks ago I was visiting Jerret Gramling, one of our shut-in members, and we used today’s Gospel for our Scripture reading.  These visits are always fun, because Jerret asks a lot of questions about whatever Bible passage we use.  We got to talking about Good Samaritans.  Jerret remembered a Good Samaritan hospital in the place he grew up, where the nuns were super nice to him and his friends.  As we talked about the various ways we use the term “Good Samaritan,” it occurred to me that I have quite a number of “Good Samaritan” stories.  I’m not sure what this says about my ability to take care of myself.  But I have a lot of rescue stories.    

      Like on a late summer Saturday, back in 1996, I think it was.  I was driving from
Carlisle, PA to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, to meet Shelee and the kids, who were 5 and 2 years-old at the time.  They had flown out to Idaho to see Shelee’s family.  I was cruising through the Maryland countryside in our Volkswagen Jetta, the A/C cranked to beat the heat and humidity.  All of a sudden, thick, white, sickly-sweet smoke started pouring out of the vents.  I pulled off into the town I was passing, and happily saw a maintenance shop just up the street.  I reached the service counter at about 4:30 p.m., and I knew I was in trouble.  The mechanics who got stuck working that Saturday were bringing in their paperwork and cleaning their hands with GoJo.  The service writer was checking out several customers.  Fixing broken cars was their calling, but nobody was interested in some stranger’s new problem at the end of a long day, heading into a day off.  I finally got the service writer’s attention, but he told me they couldn’t even look at my car until sometime Monday morning. 

 “But, my wife and kids are landing at BWI in half an hour.”      

         “Sorry, nothing I can do…”

 “Can you tell me if there is a rental car place here in town?”

         “Sure, down the road about a quarter mile.  But you better hurry, I’m not sure when they close…”

      I felt completely helpless, and I was getting very stressed.  Neither Shelee nor I had cell phones, and I had no idea what number to call at the airport to try to tell her I was running late.  I was wondering whether I should risk driving my car to the rental place, or if I should just take off running.  I was about to leave, when the guy next to me at the counter said, “Wait just a minute, and I’ll take care of you.”  I turned to see a middle-aged guy, paying for the tires the shop had just installed on his car.  I tried to be patient as he finished paying his bill.  Finally, putting his check book back in his pocket, he turned to me and said, “I live just across the road.  Follow me over there with your car; I’m sure I can help you out.” 

      My Good Samaritan knew, from my description, that my heater core had burst open.  The heater core is a little radiator, up in your dash.  Hot engine coolant runs through it, from your main radiator, and when you turn on the heat, a fan pushes air across it, to warm the inside of your car.  The heater core sits right next to the A/C condenser, which does the reverse, to blow cool air into your car.  When the heater core burst, it sprayed hot coolant onto the cold condenser, making the white smoke that filled my car. 

      In about ten minutes in his garage, my hero disconnected the inlet and outlet lines of the heater core, and connected them together with a U-shaped hose that he just happened to have lying around.  The broken heater core was now isolated, no more hot radiator fluid to blow into my cabin, and no more risk of emptying my radiator and overheating the engine.  We topped off the radiator, and I was ready to go pick up Shelee and the kids.

      I was so thankful.  I offered to pay him all the cash I had in my wallet, which wasn’t that much, although as an hourly rate would have been pretty good for his quarter hour of work.  But he wouldn’t take a dime.  “Go pick up your family,” he said. 

      I obeyed my Good Samaritan, only pausing to write down his address from his mailbox, before I headed back down the road.  I know I sent him a thank you card.  I don’t remember if I stuck any cash in it.  But I really couldn’t repay the magnitude of his kindness to me. 

      My Good Samaritan changed me.  He went out of his way to help me, and reversed what was about to become a very bad situation.  I still ended up late to the airport, and Shelee did get pretty worried.  We hadn’t lived long in PA.  We had no family there, and not many friends yet.  She didn’t have anyone obvious to call.  I found her at a bank of payphones, calling in to where I worked, to see if anyone there might know where I was.  She was very relieved to see me, and I was even more thankful to my rescuer.

     I don’t think I was a heartless person before that day.  But afterward, and really ever since, I have been more alert to people in need, and more willing to risk helping.  Gratitude has the power to make us better. 

      As Jarret Gramling and I discussed the Good Samaritan and my experience, we realized that my story matches up quite well with the teaching Jesus gave to the Jewish lawyer.  You remember him, that student of the Hebrew Scripture, and an expert in God’s Law, who tried to limit the definition of the neighbor the LORD calls us to love just like we love ourselves.  Wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

      There is plenty of teaching about good works in this parable.  Samaritans and Jews were geographic neighbors and distant cousins.  Jews despised Samaritans, for being interbred with pagan peoples, and for changing things in the Law of Moses concerning how and where to worship the LORD.  In both of these actions, the Samaritans were wrong.  And yet, Jesus chooses to extol the neighborliness of a Samaritan, as opposed to the heartlessness of the Jewish Priest and Levite.  Our Lord makes it clear that religion without love for the neighbor is not the religion God gave us through Moses.  As Paul wrote: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 

      I try in my mind to cut some slack for the service writer and mechanics who did not want to help me with my broken car.  My situation was not life or death.  Still, like the Priest and the Levite had a calling to be God’s agents to help people in their lives, those guys in Maryland had a calling to help people with broken cars.  They chose not to go out of their way to help me.  Which is pretty typical. 

      But my neighbor at the checkout counter did go out of his way to help me.  In this, he exemplifies the life of love that God calls His children to live.  I did not actually find out whether my Good Samaritan was a Christian.  Regardless, God used him to rescue me and my family in a tight spot.  And he did it simply because he came upon me, stranded and helpless on the side of the road, and he had compassion.  He recognized that our neighbors are the people that the LORD brings into our lives.  Now, we have closer neighbors and more distant neighbors.  Husbands and fathers, for example, should make sure they are taking care of their own wife and children before going out to look for other needy people.  But when God brings us into contact with needy people, we have a calling to do what we can.  Which might be just a little.  Or it might be a lot.

      Even as I speak this last thought, I feel butterflies in my gut.  Helping people can be very rewarding, and the gratitude of being rescued by a Good Samaritan can be life changing.  But we also know we will get worn down, and that some people will abuse us if we try to help.  We know we will fail to do all the good we can.  I have sinned by what I have done, and by what I have left undone.  The Way of the Good Samaritan is good and right, but I cannot walk that Way to the end.  How about you? 

      The life of good works, of loving our neighbors, is wonderful, but it cannot be our fount of blessing.  Our love for others cannot be our assurance.  And so it is also wise and wonderful to remember that Jesus told this parable to an expert in God’s law, who wanted to justify himself.  If we are determined to earn our place in God’s kingdom, to make ourselves righteous and so enter into eternal glory on our own merits, Jesus says, “O.k., go ahead.  Here’s the standard: Be the Good Samaritan, every time, and you will achieve your self-righteous goal.” 

      Brothers and sisters, what can we do?  Can we meet this standard?  Can we love, selflessly, perfectly, every time?  No. 

      Thanks be to God, there is a greater love, a prior love, that we must have, before we can even try to love our neighbor.  And this love, this divine charity, to use an old word, is the greatest thing, the one thing necessary, from which every other good thing flows.  

      Jesus is the Master Teacher.  He is absolutely teaching this Jewish lawyer, and us, just how perfect God’s expectations for our behavior truly are.  And, at the same time, He is teaching us about Himself, and His limitless love for mankind. 

      You and me, we are the man, lying half-dead on the side of the road, not bloody and beaten by robbers, but guilty and broken by sin.  We are not merely at risk of physical death, but eternal death, of being justly cut off from God and every good thing, forever.  We cannot help ourselves. 

      The Priest and the Levite give a bad example, by not even trying to help the wounded man.  But there is a deeper truth in Jesus’ parable.  The God-given religious callings of the Priest and Levite were important, worthy, and good.  They are agents of God’s good and perfect Law.  But they cannot help the man, or us, with our deeper problem.  A better rescuer is needed.  An all-powerful, truly loving Savior is what we need.  Someone undaunted by human misery, who’s capable of overcoming our problem with God’s Law, that’s who we need.  And that is who Jesus is: the very love of God, made flesh, the Son of God, become also a human being, to rescue humanity, from ourselves. 

    In selfless love, Jesus has come to you and to me, kneeling down and lifting us out of the ditch alongside the Way.  His medicine to us is not merely wine and oil to wash our wounds and bandages to stop the bleeding.  His medicine heals not just body, but also soul, by washing away our sin and shame, and healing our guilty consciences.  Have you failed to love and care for someone who needed you?  Have you been neglected, hurt, shamed?  Do you feel dirty, unworthy, guilty, because of things you’ve done, or left undone, or because of things you’ve suffered?  Jesus has come to rescue you and me from all of these things.  He has washed us and adopted us as children of His Father, through the waters of Holy Baptism.  He calms our fears with His Word of forgiveness.  He has carried us to the Inn, to His House, the Church, a temple built of living stones, a congregation of other rescued sinners, which He calls His Beloved. 

      In this Inn He provides for us, as He has promised, until that Day when He returns to take us home.  Here He feeds us with forgiveness, in His own Body and Blood.  Here He teaches us to live more wisely, and to love one another.  He teaches us to stick together on life’s Way, so diabolic bandits don’t rob us and beat us and leave us for dead.  Here He even creates new hearts in us, hearts that overflow with gratitude, hearts filled with His undeserved love.  Jesus rejoices to give us joy and peace, and love to spare, which we can share with other undeserving souls.  

     My Good Samaritan.  Your Good Samaritan.  How can we be sure that Jesus will really take care of us, really hold on to us, really come back for us?  For assurance, we look to the End of His Way.  His medicine, His treatments for sin-broken people, His Words of forgiveness, love and promise, these are not merely kind dispositions of God’s heart.  Just as sin, and injury, suffering, disease, betrayal and guilt are real and historical, day to day realities in our lives, Jesus’ final resolution is also real, concrete.  His solution is historical, and it is delivered to us, day after day.  The wise Teacher who told of the Good Samaritan did more than teach.  He stepped into the role of the dying man.  He was lifted onto the Cross, and died the death we deserve, suffering all the torments of sin, death and hell, in our place. 

      His death and His glorious resurrection empower His Word of forgiveness.  His Body and Blood are the medicine of immortality, because Jesus has defeated sin and death, in His own body, forever.  For the Jewish lawyer, Jesus hid the image of the truly good neighbor under the hated identity of a Samaritan.  So also, for the whole world, the Lord has hidden love and forgiveness and life under the ugliness and terror of the Cross.  There all your sins were forgiven and there all your suffering was redeemed.  And now, since Christ is risen from the dead, never to suffer or die again, we are made alive, in Him.  And so, we can rejoice in our blessings, and we can face struggle and suffering without fear.  We can even dare to love our neighbors, because we know our Good Samaritan will never leave us.  And this is the Peace of God, which passes all understanding, and will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, our Lord, unto life everlasting, Amen.          

The Heart of Worship - Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Trinity

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, August 11^th, +D 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches, Hill City and Custer, SD
The Heart of Worship – Luke 18:9-14, 1^st Corinthians 15:1-11, Genesis 4:1 - 15

Audio of the sermon available HERE. 

   “The heart of worship.”   What is the heart of Christian worship? What comes to mind when you hear this phrase “the heart of Christian worship”?  One of my first thoughts is Jesus telling the Samaritan woman at the well that the true worshipers, the ones the Father is seeking, are those who worship the Father in Spirit and Truth.  (John 4)

 

   How about you?  What do you think of when you hear “the heart of worship?”  Perhaps you think of music, from one solo voice, pure and clear, singing the truth of God, to a large organ, or even an orchestra, beautiful music carrying the congregation on waves of divine melodies.  Or, we might think about praise and thanksgiving, about confessing and proclaiming without shame or timidness the great works of the Lord, His power and radiance: God is great. There are beautiful banners, candles and paraments, also learned sermons, using the best rhetoric to persuade and confirm the hearers in the faith of Christ, who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.

    For some, the heart of worship has to do with emotion, with the expectation that the worship experience will be moving.

    Traditionalists among us will want to talk about the form of the liturgy, whether it is acceptably linked to the Liturgy of St. John of Damascus, or perhaps to that of St. Gregory of Rome.  

    Or, maybe you've heard it said the most important thing is not what happens in the meeting, but rather what happens in everyday life, the idea that true worship is “walking the talk,” that living a good Christian life is the most important way to worship God.

    Well, to be sure, all of these things have their importance. They are all gifts from God that are part of Christian worship, and so deserve our attention.  But, speaking of worship in His parable today, Jesus does not focus on any of these things.

    To some who trusted in themselves as righteous, and despised others, [Jesus] also spoke this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray.  

    In what follows, Jesus says not a word about the music or hymns, no description of the art, furniture and altarware of the Temple.  Nothing about the liturgical precision of the ministers, nor the eloquence of the preachers.  To be sure, there are emotions in Jesus’ teaching, but not the emotions we prefer to associate with worship.  Does Jesus speak of joy and awe?  No, but rather He speaks of pride, disdain, contempt, and shame.  And yet, Jesus is teaching us about right worship. 

    To some who trusted in themselves as righteous, and despised others, [Jesus] also spoke this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax-collector.

    Interesting.  Maybe uncomfortable for us.  Unbelievers who hate the Church tend to slander Christians at worship as bunch of self-righteous bigots, who have contempt for others.  We find this characterization insulting and unfair. 

   But Jesus Himself raises the possibility.  Our Lord uses the context of worship to talk about self-righteousness.  He wants to confront pride and contempt, and so our Lord chooses to speak of praying in the Temple.  Which shouldn’t surprise us, because for the Lord, everything comes back to worship, which in its essence is actually divine service.  Worship is not so much us doing things for God, but rather God coming to serve us.  This is the Lord’s liturgy, His public work, done for the good of His people, and for the life of the world.  

    Today Jesus teaches us about the heart of worship, about the essential things needed to do worship correctly.  These encounters with God, which we call worship, are where we can receive from Him our greatness need: God’s “not guilty” verdict, which we call justification.  Declared not guilty, worship is where we learn to trust that God accepts us as his sons and daughters.

    Right worship always includes the Word and the presence of God.  For about nine centuries, with a few gaps, the Lord had commanded His people to worship Him in Jerusalem, in the Temple, the one Solomon built, and then Nehemiah rebuilt, and then even later Herod rebuilt again.  God’s Name dwelt in the Temple, and He called all Israel, indeed all of the nations, to come and encounter Him there.  For it was at the Temple where God had promised to dwell with his people Israel, and receive their worship. So, it’s natural for Jesus to use the Temple to teach us about worship.  And what does He teach us?    

    Simply put, the Lord focuses on repentance, confession, and the forgiveness of sins.  And so we are reminded that God is different from us.  Repentance and confession are unpleasant to us.  But, according to the Christ, the heart of right worship is being honest about our sinful lives, and confessing to God everything we’ve done wrong.  Which is counterintuitive.  We know that God has a law and we are obliged to comply with it. So we naturally think that our reasonable service, our acceptable worship, would be all about keeping the Law.  What’s so wrong with worship being centered on us giving a report to God about all the good we’ve done, in order to receive His approval and praise? 

    I think you know the answer: the only thing wrong with this idea of worship is us.  Crowing about our good works cannot be the heart of true worship.  There are two possible outcomes when we mix self-justification into our understanding of worship.  Both outcomes fail for the same reason: we don’t keep God's Law.  

    One possibility with such self-righteous worship is that we realize our sin and guilt, we get overwhelmed, and we lose hope.  We run from God in fear, like Adam and Eve did.  If we flee from God, there is no possibility for right worship. 

    The second possibility with self-righteous worship is that we become hypocrites, faking and then bragging about our righteousness, based on our good works.  Like the Pharisee, who, “standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’”  Look at me, God!  The Pharisee is proud and confident.  And dead wrong.  He, and we, are all sinners, all of us very much alike in this flaw, everyone, without exception.

     The difference between these two failures and right Christian worship is the difference between living under the law, with all its demands and the perpetual torture of never achieving them, or living under the Gospel, the Good News that, despite our sinfulness, despite our failure, God in his love has gathered us together here, to show us mercy.  The difference is stark.  We can live under the pressure of a goal that is unattainable for us, or we can live under the freedom of Christ, who has achieved the goal, for us.

    The heart of worship is really to depart from a dishonest world and enter another, honest one.  The dishonest world is outward, all about the visible and the apparent, such as the pride and self-righteousness of the Pharisee.  The other world is interior, the world of an honest heart, which the tax collector has toward God.  From the outside, this world looks bad; the tax collector is on the verge of despair over his sin.  But, his faith in the promises of the Lord, weak as it may be, leads him to the Temple to pray.  And by God’s amazing grace, the tax collector knew how to pray rightly, honestly, faithfully.  He knew simply to pray:  God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

    Notice how the tax collector prays alone, spiritually naked before God, making no comparisons to others, no excuses.  This is the posture we all need when we approach the heart of true worship.  For it is through such humility that God prepares us to receive His gift.  Through such worship God meets our greatest need.  And, such honest repentance is the starting point for everything else in Christian worship and life. 

    Before the Lord, the essential thing is a contrite and believing heart, which confesses all sin, but which also knows and trusts in the good news that the Lord has mercy for sinners. Repentance and faith make us acceptable to the Lord, because they take us to the point where He wants to bring us.  God wants to bring us to the point of not trusting in our own righteousness, which is a fiction, but rather to trust only in His merciful heart, revealed in the righteousness of Jesus.  

    We might even say that right worship has to do with two hearts, the contrite heart of the sinner, and the gracious heart of God.  When these two hearts meet, all manner of other good things begin to flow.  Praise, music, confession of faith, singing, joy, prayer, thanksgiving, fellowship and care within the body of the congregation, love for our neighbors, all these good things flow from the encounter of an honest, repentant heart and the merciful and forgiving heart of God. 

    This morning’s Old Testament and Epistle readings deepen our understanding of Jesus’ parable.  The Pharisee despised others, just as Cain despised Abel, his brother.  The first murder was the poison fruit of bad worship.  Cain’s fratricide flowed from an angry, self-righteous man who was offended when the Lord was not impressed by his worship.  Unable to strike back at God, Cain took his anger out on Abel.  Cain hates Abel, because he worshiped rightly.  Abel trusted that God was giving His very best to him, and so he gave his very best to God.  Not so Cain.  And so God had regard for Abel’s offering, but not for Cain’s.   

    The criticism of Christians by militant atheists may be unfair.  But we do need to be wise to the dangers of self-righteousness.  Contempt for others might only make our life miserable.  But if it festers, contempt can lead to sin against our brother, or even violence.  And contempt grows best in the heart that thinks too highly of itself.  Being honest about our sinfulness is essential to right worship, and also to peaceful living. 

    Most of all, honest repentance is needed to open our eyes to what Paul in our Epistle today declares is of first importance, the central message that he received from Jesus and delivered to his hearers: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”  The heart of right worship is contained in this wonderful phrase. 

    First, the reality of my need, my sin, my guilt, is revealed in the tragic fact that it was necessary for Christ to die, because of my sins.  I am the sinner, the cause of His suffering.  You may be too, but that doesn’t matter when I’m standing before the Lord.  Before the Judge, I must plead guilty of all sin. 

    Second, the Good News of justification, God’s not guilty verdict, rings out in Paul’s great “for our sins.”  Jesus did not die without purpose; His death was not a waste.  He died for us, for our benefit, in accordance with the Scriptures, in keeping with God’s plan and foreknowledge, the pinnacle of Divine Service.  As painful as is the reality of our guilt, even more wonderful is the reality of His death, “for sinners.”  In order to have you for His very own, Christ died for you, and for me, for all, in accordance with the Scriptures.  He died, burying our sin and guilt, and He has risen again, to reveal our justification.  Just as God had promised. 

    So, as Luther said: Everything…in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin, through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here.  (Large Catechism, Apsotles’ Creed, paragraph 55)  This is the heart of true worship, sinners coming to God so He can serve you with His grace and mercy.  

    So, let us come to pray and worship honestly.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we come confessing our need, and relying 100% on the great work of Jesus, for us sinners.  Then, forgiven, restored, and renewed, we pray, praise and give thanks.  We rejoice, and proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.  We leave this New Testament Temple refreshed, and with a desire to live differently, because Christ lives within us.  Indeed, by God’s indwelling, our own bodies become temples of the Holy Spirit.  Connected to Christ by faith, fed by His Body and Blood, we desire to walk in God’s Way, to follow the 10 Commandments, and love God with all our heart, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, most especially by telling them about the reason for our hope, our joy.

    As we pursue this Christian life, the Spirit of Jesus calls us to return to the Temple, again and again.  That is to say, pursuing the Christian life will lead us to return to the places that God is delivering forgiveness.  This is because in this life, we will not achieve our goal of always loving and never sinning.  As we stumble, as we fail, and as others fail us, we will feel again and again the need and the desire to return to God in repentance and faith.  We return because, like the tax collector. we know our sin, and we know His mercy.  We return out of necessity, and we return eagerly, because we know and trust in the merciful heart of God, revealed in the face of Christ Jesus.  And this is the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and which will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting, Amen.

 

Visitation - Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Trinity

Tenth Sunday after Trinity
August 4^th, Year of Our + Lord 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Visitation – Luke 19:41 - 48

Sermon Audio available here.

   O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!  If only you had known the things that make for peace! But “you did not know the time of your visitation."

   Visitation.  What do you think of when you hear the word ‘visitation?’  Does the
thought of being visited fill you with joy, or apprehension?  Depends on the visitor, I suppose.  Well, this morning I need to tell you that visitation is central to the life of Christ’s Church.  In an important sense, it is the life of the Church.  So, we should talk about it. 

   Visitation is not always popular among Christians, members and pastors alike.  This is probably because visitation is misunderstood, taken to be an examination or an interrogation, instead of being received as a blessing.  Or, perhaps visitation is not overwhelmingly popular in the Church because it is understood, all too well.   

   As is so often the case, seeking understanding means going back to Genesis.  The first recorded Godly visitation comes in chapter 3.  Unless you count God forming the dust and breathing life into the man, then taking his rib and making for him the perfect helpmeet.  If we don’t count the actual creation of the man and the woman, then the first recorded Godly visitation comes in Genesis 3:8-9.  [The man and the woman] heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 

    Sad to say, ever since that dark day, this moment, immediately after the Fall, has mostly formed our attitude toward visitation.  Whether we speak of visitation as any authority figure coming to see you, like the tax assessor, or a pastor meeting with the members of his congregation, or the LORD God Himself visiting His people, we often don’t like visitation because we feel like we have something to hide.  

    Which of course is true.  True for me, as much as for you.  I have been blessed with good District Presidents and Mission Region Directors during my almost 20 years of ministry.  And yet, when one of them shows up in the pew on a Sunday, whether announced or unannounced, I tend to worry about what warts he might see.  In theory, I want to receive honest, faithful feedback on how we conduct the service, and about my preaching and teaching, for the good of the Gospel.  In theory, I’m pro-visitation.  In reality, I’m not always so enthused. 

    Visits by pastors sometimes create the same feelings in members, or so I’ve heard.  Which is troubling for every pastor I have ever known.  Supposedly there are pastors out there who sneak around trying to find out the deep, dark secrets of their members.  They are said to make visits, but only to point out their people’s sin and error, and condemn them.  I have yet to meet this mythical clerical beast.  Visiting to condemn is what the serpent did in the garden; it is not what Christians are to do. 

    Not to say that sin never gets revealed and confronted.  Regardless of the reason for a visit or a meeting, if in the course of conversation between Christians something plainly unfaithful or untrue comes to light, it should be confronted.  Whether the sin is revealed in the member or the pastor, Christian love says that, with gentleness and respect, we call a thing what it is, and seek to let Christ’s truth correct and forgive. 

    I’d like to make more visits.  Concerning the visits that we have benn able to do, I don’t think they’ve gone too badly.  But of course, your mileage may vary.  But it is certainly challenging to visit, even just logistically.  Some of the difficulty of pastoral visitation comes from the way we live today, scattered all over the place, and from the fullness of our schedules. 

    Visitation does not easily occur in the rhythm and geography of life in the 21^st century.  More and more our days are overly busy, and we treat our homes as fortresses of solitude, instead of places of hospitality.  We Americans less and less welcome visitors of any type into our homes, certainly not as much as generations past.  Maybe, if I were a McGas deliveryman on the side, and so I just showed up at your homes on a regular basis with your propane, maybe then pastoral visitation would be easier to achieve. 

    In days gone by, without T.V., internet, and especially if we go way back, before radio and newspapers, back then, a visit by anyone, even the preacher, was likely to be welcomed.  It would even easier if we lived in a medieval village, if I were the only pastor at the only church, and we mostly only spent time in town, or nearby, since walking was our only mode of transport.  But this is not our reality, and I don’t think it’s coming back. 

    More importantly, all these challenges of pastoral visitation in a Christian congregation are downstream of the real problem.  Too often we don’t want God’s visitation, and so we also don’t want visits by anyone whom we associate with God, whether another believer, or a minister.  Sometimes we don’t want God’s visitation, because, like Adam and Eve, we know our guilt and don’t want to be confronted.  Or perhaps we pretend not to know our guilt, but we still resent God visiting.  Perhaps we think, mistakenly, that the things God would like to see in our lives aren’t as good or as enjoyable as the things we prefer.     

    This was certainly the problem in Jerusalem in the Year of Our Lord 33.  Jesus had been busily visiting His people for three years.  Those in need of healing or looking for better teaching than what was on offer from the scribes and Pharisees welcomed Jesus, at least for a while.  But those who had convinced themselves of their own holiness didn’t want anything to do with this new teacher from Nazareth.  They rejected Christ’s visitation, precisely because, using the ancient teaching of God contained in their Hebrew Bible, Jesus again and again poked holes in their carefully cultivated self-righteousness. 

    This was the problem in 33 A+D, and it is still a big problem today.  While Shelee and I were in Spain, we found that many, maybe most Spaniards wanted to run away from the Roman Church, and given their history, it was somewhat understandable.  But instead of rejecting errors in the dominant church body, and then looking for another more faithful church to belong to, most Spaniards were all too happy to paint all Christian churches with the same brush, and reject them all.  Similar trends are obvious in the U.S. today.  Every congregation and church body has its particular weaknesses and sins.  Such failures are widely used as an excuse to reject God and His Church and His Word, altogether.  

    But, no matter how many “COEXIST” bumper stickers we put on our cars, no matter how fervently we try to “just get along, without God,” rejecting the Prince of Peace is not what makes for peace, not today, and certainly not in eternity. 

      Of all the visitors ever, God is the most misunderstood and the most commonly rejected.  It’s true that right and wrong, and the guilt that being wrong brings, all these flow from the reality of God’s justice.  So, it is easy to imagine that God is nothing but a killjoy at best, or a vengeful tyrant at worst.  But, despite the fact that He hates sin, God does not seek to visit us in order to punish and restrict us.  So, what is visitation really about?  Visitation is about God coming to us, to bless us, care for us, and enjoy being with us.  We can understand the fear of Adam and Eve, trying to hide their sin with fig leaves.  But did the LORD destroy them?  No.  He confronted their sin, in order to save them from themselves, and show them the way to reconciliation and restoration. 

    We can see this merciful heart of God in Jesus crying out to Jerusalem and her citizens, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”  The very promise of the Seed of the Woman, from Genesis 3:15, the Promised Savior who would crush the head of the serpent, this One was visibly walking on the earth.  Sadly, even God’s chosen people were mostly too proud or too afraid to welcome Him.    

    Still, Jesus did not abandon them to their fate.  Jesus did not condemn them to hell.  Jesus did not come as an Inspector General, eager to reveal and punish every error.  No, the Son of Man came not to condemn, but to save.  He came not to be feared, nor even to be served, but rather to take away our fear, by His service, which was the ultimate goal of His Visitation.  He came to serve, by giving His life as a ransom for many. 

    Certainly, Jesus revealed sin and unbelief in His ministry.  And then He took all that evil into His own body, and carried it to the Cross, to destroy it, forever.  Which He has done.  Mission accomplished.  It is finished.  This Good News is why we should all be able to visit one another without nervousness or fear: our eternal victory is guaranteed.  Our debt, all the debt of all sin is paid, 100%.  The struggle between God and Satan for the souls of mankind is over, and Christ has conquered, for us. 

    Now, we are all still sinners.  So, might a visit from the District President, or by a brother or sister in Christ, or from pastor, might visitation amongst Christians force us to admit our shortcomings, to confess and seek to amend the sin in our lives?  Yes, of course.  And God be praised.  We can deal with this, because of the Good News of free forgiveness for repentant sinners: in Christ Jesus, all our sins are washed away.  The only thing we have to fear is denying or hiding or hanging on to our sins.  Godly visitation helps set us free from such self-defeating habits. 

    Thankfully, visitation is not only, not even mostly about confronting and correcting sin.  Visitation is about the fullness of joy, about life together.  It is about training for heaven, when all the faithful will live in close quarters, enjoying perfect joy and harmony.  Visitation does deal in repentance and forgiveness, but always for the goal of peace and rejoicing.  Visitation is also about bearing one another’s burdens, and celebrating each other’s joys.  Visitation is about daring to open our hearts and our lives to each other, because Jesus has opened His heart, and has shared His perfect, glorious and forgiving life with us.  

    Visiting each other in our daily lives is a great thing, a great fruit of our life together as a congregation.  And yet, the center and hub of Christian visitation is always what we are doing, right here, right now.  We are more than 2 or 3, gathered in the Name of Jesus, and so capital “V” visitation is happening.  We are more than 2 or 3, hearing and receiving and praising Jesus.  And so, as He promised, Christ is here.  Capital “V” visitation can happen anywhere, but it most assuredly and predictably happens when God’s people gather to hear, recite, pray and sing God’s Word. 

 

   In the proclaimed Word, the Holy Spirit is always present.  And here at this altar, God visits us, in a mystery of love.  Christ is both host and meal, giving Himself for our good, and for the life of the world.  His crucified and resurrected flesh and blood, in, with, and under the bread and the wine, this is the highest Visitation.  And, like all Godly visitation, this Visitation Supper is for the forgiveness of all your sins, to give you peace and joy by connecting you more closely to your Savior, and to strengthen you in Christian love.  With pulpit and altar as the hub, God continues to visit the world, including through you, through His Church, sent back into the world as image-bearers of God, prepared to tell forth His excellencies, after we’ve received this good visit from Him.  

    Jesus was heartbroken, because His own people were ignorant of His visitation.  He knew the calamity that was coming upon them, in particular the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, that would happen in 70 A.+ D.  We all know a bit of this pain.  We have all watched someone we love pursue a path that we know will end in heartache, or worse.  We know a better way, and have prayed and tried to encourage wayward souls to follow Christ, to walk on the trail He has blazed for us.  This is one of the greatest crosses to be borne by the Christian, as loved ones reject the One who truly makes for peace. 

      Jesus was heartbroken over Jerusalem, but He did not give up hope.  He did not abandon His task.  He continued on, winning peace with God for all people, through His Cross.  So also, since Jesus is risen from the dead, we do not give up hope.  Our task is infinitely easier.  Peace and forgiveness and eternal blessing have already been won.  Our task is simply to show forth our hope.  So we gather to be cleansed, fed and renewed.  So also, we hear God’s Word through the week.  We seek to grow in our understanding, for ourselves, and so we will be prepared to tell another the reason for our hope. 

      As Zechariah sang, God has visited His people and redeemed them.  Rest and revel in this marvelous Good News, and God will use you in His ongoing Visitation, as He carries His peace to the ends of the earth, in Jesus Name, Amen.