Forgiveness: The Beating Heart of the Church - Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
\October 5^th A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Forgiveness: The Beating Heart of the Church
Luke 17:1-10, 2^nd Timothy 1:1-14, Habakkuk 2:4

Sermon audio available HERE.

Forgive…   Forgive…   Forgive…   Forgive…   Forgive…   Forgive…   Forgive…

    That seems like a lot, no?  Forgive, spoken seven times.  And that only scratches the surface of our Lord’s teaching this morning.  Closer would be to repeat: I forgive you for what you did to me.  I forgive you for what you did to me… I …  I’ll stop. 

    Or, we could rehearse the whole scenario Jesus describes:  Your brother sins.  You rebuke him.  He turns to you, crying out: I repent!  And you must forgive him.  And then again, your brother sins, you rebuke him, He turns to you, crying out: I repent!  And you forgive…  Again, and again, and again. 

    This passage in Luke is certainly part of the basis by which Luther said what we recited for our catechetical review this morning.  From Luther’s Large Catechism, in the section on the 3^rd Article of the Creed, the Reformer says:  Everything, therefore, 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. 

    Everything?  Luther was never shy about making categorical statements.  Everything in the Church is ordered toward delivering forgiveness…  As he tried to teach the Saxon Germans the glorious, life-giving promise of Jesus and His death and resurrection for our salvation, Martin did not hold back.  He wanted people to hear, so they could believe.  Because, contrary to what the Church was teaching in the 16^th century, Luther had learned from his study of Bible that God’s salvation is not based in our works, nor in our goodness.  Salvation is not based on the works of sinners, but rather, it is based only in the forgiveness of sins won at Calvary by Jesus.  In Christ there is forgiveness sufficient for every sin of every sinful man and woman.  Forgiveness saves an individual sinner when he or she hears and believes, when my heart has faith that what Jesus did washes away my sins.  And it does! 

    Only faith in Christ’s forgiveness saves.  And so, everything in the Christian Church is ordered toward delivering Christ’s forgiveness, through the Word and signs.  By signs, Luther means Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the physical things ordained by Christ to serve as pointers to the Gospel, and which also, in a mystery, contain and deliver Christ’s forgiveness, by delivering Christ Himself to us.  In later years, Lutherans would come to call this Word and Sacraments.  In either phrasing, it means all the ways that God delivers His forgiveness to us sinners.  This is what the Church is all about.   

    Luther does not mean that literally there is nothing other than forgiveness in the Church, that all we do is walk around forgiving one another, and nothing more ever happens.  Rather, he meant that everything worthwhile that exists in the Church, like praise and thanksgiving, training in righteousness, good works done in love for the neighbor, joy, eternal life, fellowship, paraments, music, potlucks, all these good things rightly depend on and flow from the main thing, which is forgiveness. 

    With forgiveness, we have it all: holiness, heaven, glory, a good relationship with God the Father.  We have these now, not yet perfectly, but truly.  And one day soon, we will have them, fully, completely.  With forgiveness comes every good thing. 

    Without forgiveness, we are lost.  No matter how impressive she may look, a church that has lost her focus on forgiveness is, in reality, merely a house of cards, which will fall at the first gust of Satan’s resistance. 

    Except that Satan doesn’t try to destroy congregations that have lost their focus on forgiveness.  The evil one loves such congregations, full of souls who think they are staying close to God.  In reality, without repentance and forgiveness at the center, they are cutting themselves off from God, potentially forever.  Lord, protect us from such folly!        

    Seven times daily, we are to forgive the same sinner.  That seems hard to do, hard to even believe.  But it is a completed reality in Christ Jesus, a finished work, revealed to be our life and our glory, in His Resurrection.   By faith in Jesus, forgiveness and the new life it brings become reality also for us.  For the righteous shall live by faith. 

    Faith, trust of the heart in Christ Jesus and His perfect forgiveness, is mighty and powerful.  If we have faith even as small as a mustard seed, still, it gives us the power to move mountains, or to command a mulberry tree to be uprooted and throw itself into the ocean. 

    As we consider ourselves, clearly the power of faith is not found in the vessel that receives the gift.  The strength of faith is not found in us Christians.  The one who hears the Gospel and believes is simply a forgiven sinner.  Which is worth celebrating, for sure.  But the size and intensity of our faith is not the source of its power. 

    Faith is wonderful, necessary and mysterious.  As wise Christians, we seek to deepen our faith by growing in the Word.  And the Word teaches that it is not the quality and fervency of our faith that saves.  No, our hope of salvation lies in the object of our faith, the One in whom we trust.  The One who gave up His life, in order to share true life with you. 

    Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, sitting at the Father’s right hand, still bearing the scars of His self-sacrifice on the Cross, He is the object of our faith.  He alone empowers our faith to be strong, endure great trials, and do mighty things.  Faith does great things, precisely because the faithful soul receives and knows that it is righteous, that is, declared holy and just and good before God, for Jesus’ sake.  The believer is then free to live, love, serve, and rejoice, which the joy of the Gospel makes us want to do.  And we can pursue these good things, because faith means no worries.  Why should a believing Christian worry, when God Almighty has declared all baptized believers to be His own, holy, precious, eternal children?   

    Faith in Christ is a powerful, busy, wonderful thing.  So, why then would we ever be ashamed of our Christian faith?  The Apostle Paul, as he begins his second letter to his colleague, friend and student Timothy, starts with a strange theme: “Do not be ashamed of the Gospel.”  He says something similar at the beginning of Romans: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, (1:16). 

     In our Epistle this morning, Paul encourages Timothy with these words: Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.  Later, he declares of himself: But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard, until that Day, what has been entrusted to me.   Clearly, Paul is concerned that Christians might feel shame about the Gospel, and so change how they speak or act, in ways contrary to God’s way.  But why would we ever do this? 

    One reason is clearly suffering.  Sometimes being a Christian, maintaining the truth that Jesus revealed, will bring suffering into your life.  Satan hates the Gospel, and so seeks to persecute and injure anyone who remains faithful to it. 

    Another challenge is the fact that the starting point for the Good News of Jesus is the decidedly bad news that all have sinned, and lack the glory of God.  All people, apart from Christ, deserve God’s anger and punishment.  Unbelievers, including the unbeliever that in this life remains in each Christian, unbelievers hate this message.  The Gospel leaves no room for human pride, for taking satisfaction in ourselves.  Repeating and proclaiming such a teaching does not always win you friends.  

    So, the faithful can face direct persecution, rejection and ostracism by the world, or a struggle within ourselves, between the new creature born of the Holy Spirit and the old man who still loves sin.  All these troubles tempt us to be ashamed of the Gospel and downplay it.  Or even outright deny it.  Paul, along with the whole Bible, warns us against this temptation, and encourages us to steadfastly resist all anti-Gospel ridicule, resistance and hatred. 

    How can we hope to succeed?   By remembering in Whom we have believed, like Paul did.  Paul remembered the One in whom he believed, the One who suffered all the shame and hatred the devil and the world and His own people could dish out.  You can avoid the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel precisely because the Good News of your forgiveness rises out of the place of greatest shame.  Jesus’ death-defeating death on the Cross reverses everything, turning shame into honor, suffering into blessing, and guilt into holiness.  When once we sought to claim pride in who we are and what we have done, now our pride is Jesus, the Suffering Servant who now rules over all things.  

    Shame of the Gospel is a threat to saving faith.  As is true so often, this threat has an opposite danger.  It’s like two ditches alongside the Way.  Avoid the ditch on this side, but be careful as you guide yourself back onto the road.  Don’t overcorrect, and veer into the opposite ditch.  The opposite ditch to shame is pride of self.  This danger exists because Christian faith, even as small as a mustard seed, will lead the Christian to do good, even great things.  Christians are set free to do great things, precisely because “the righteous shall live by his faith.”  But we are not to become infatuated and puffed up by our works.  So, Jesus gives His disciples one last warning this morning, in a way that might sound strange to our ears, but which in reality sets us free from any anxiety about our salvation. 

    In Luke chapter 12, Jesus made an astounding promise.  Speaking of His final return, Jesus commands His future Apostles to endure in their calling to serve:  “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; ³⁶ and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.  ³⁷ Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he, (that is the Master, Jesus Himself), will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. (Luke 12:35-37)  In heaven, visibly, personally, face to face, God Himself will honor and serve His faithful disciples. 

    Here in Luke chapter 17, Jesus says just about the opposite:  “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? ^[8] Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? ^[9] Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?”   In the first century world, servants, or more literally slaves, were not to imagine that they merit special treatment, just for fulfilling their callings, just for doing their work.  Jesus then specifically applies this worldly reality to His future Apostles.  “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'” 

    Jesus specifically teaches His future Apostles about how they are to act in this life, on this earth, as they fulfill their special calling as the builders of Christ’s Church.  None of us are Apostles.  But these words certainly have an application for all of us, for all preachers, and hearers, for all the members of the Body of Christ.  Even when we seem to have well completed the work God has prepared for us in this life, we are to consider and call ourselves unworthy servants. 

    What are we to make of this?  Does this mean that Christians should be continually dour and down in the mouth, never taking joy in anything in this life?  That doesn’t seem right.  Jesus went to the Cross for joy, after all.  And we do find great joy in this Christian life, even amidst sorrows and difficulties. 

      Or is it that our Lord is encouraging us to become “humble braggers?”  Are we to fake humility, in order to draw more attention to how well we have performed our Christian duties?  No, of course not. 

    The righteous shall live by his faith.  Calling yourself an unworthy servant, even when you have done all things well, is Jesus’ way for Christians to celebrate the true freedom we have in the Gospel. 

   Regardless of what we achieve in the Name of Christ, our pride, our confidence, is always and only in the free forgiveness we have received by faith in Jesus.  We never have to point to or celebrate our own works, because the LORD has already done all our works for us, and this is what makes us right with God.  This is what makes our futures eternally glorious.  

   There is a great difference between the reality of life as Christians on this earth, and the perfect, pain-free, sin-free, glory-filled future that Christ has won for us in the new heavens and the new earth.  For the sake of our salvation, for the good of our neighbors, and for the sake of God’s Mission of drawing more sinners to His Son, we are called to wisdom, to work, and to patient waiting.  There is much God would do through us.  Sometimes it seems that all things go well, that our faith is moving mountains.  Sometimes it seems that we can accomplish nothing.  But our eyes, our faith, are fixed where true joys are found, on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. 

   And we keep our eyes fixed in the right place through the blessed reality that Jesus is getting ahead of Himself.  He promises that in heaven He will serve us at table, but for now, we are to serve, we are to be about our Christian work, and call ourselves unworthy servants, even when we have done everything. 

   But Jesus can’t quite wait to serve us.  Invisibly, hidden under simple words, and simple elements, your Lord and Savior daily girds Himself for service, and invites us to recline at table, to receive His blessings, through the Word and Signs.  What we will one day rejoice to receive in unapproachable glory and light, we now truly receive, hidden under Words, Water, Wheat and Wine.  And so we rejoice as unworthy servants, who are well served by the Master, forgiven, restored, redeemed and loved, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.   

Purple Garments - Sermon for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 28^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Purple Garments - Luke 16:19-31, 1 Timothy 6:6-19

Sermon Audio available HERE.   

This sermon uses the hymn "Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart," as a frame.  It is Lutheran Service Book 708.  

1.     Lord, Thee I love with all my heart;I pray Thee, ne'er from me depart, With tender mercy cheer me.Earth has no pleasure I would share, Yea, heav'n itself were void and bare,
If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.
And should my heart for sorrow break, My trust in Thee can nothing shake.
Thou art the portion I have sought; Thy precious blood my soul has bought.
Lord Jesus Christ, My God and Lord, my God and Lord, Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word. 

   It is not sinful to be wealthy, to have great material blessings.  But it is eternally foolish, and wicked, actually, to love your wealth more than the LORD who gave you all you have.  Likewise, it is a grave sin to love your money and comfort more than the human neighbor the LORD has given you to love and serve.  In fact, we should see the neighbor in need as among God’s greatest gifts to us.  They are, like you and me, sinners for whom Christ died.  So, the opportunity to serve them binds us into an ever deepening fellowship with them, and with God and His angels, and with His whole Church, in heaven and on earth.  True and eternal joys are found only in this fellowship with God and all His people.    

    “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” is a tremendous hymn.  Do you know it well?  I have not picked it much during my 4-1/2 years serving you as pastor; I think I unconsciously avoid it.  You see, it was one of the last hymns that I sang with my mom, in the nursing home in Forsyth, Montana, before her brain tumor took away her voice. 

    Shelee, the kids and I were visiting her in the Forsyth nursing home, sometime in 2003.  Mom still understood us fine, but she couldn’t speak well.  But she could still sing hymns, which she had always loved to do.  My sister Barb knew this, and so brought along several copies of TLH.  One hymn we chose was today’s Hymn of the Day.  My mother didn’t need a hymnal.  Ever since, singing “Lord Thee I Love…” is a bit nervy for me; I’m never sure how I’ll react.  Shortly after my mother’s death, I was back in Kramer Chapel at the seminary in Fort Wayne, and just as I was headed up for communion, we began to sing “Lord Thee I Love…” for a distribution hymn.  Well, the congregation sang it; I couldn’t sing.  Because I was weeping.  All the way up to the altar rail, while I received Christ’s Body and Blood, back to my pew, and for several more minutes.  Life in the Body of Christ is like that, from time to time.    

      “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” is the suggested Hymn of the Day for today’s readings, although the connection is not overwhelming.  When we get to the third stanza, you’ll notice why it was selected.  But on the surface, it doesn’t really seem to fit that well with the theme of today’s readings, which are very much focused on the right perspective and use of material wealth, along with the right perspective we are called to have about helping our neighbors.  But the right foundation of faith which will lead to a right use of wealth and a joyful love of neighbor is there in the first stanza:  Earth has no pleasure I would share, Yea, heav'n itself were void and bare, If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.

    Here we find the firm foundation for right Christian living: the clear understanding and hearty agreement that nothing compares to the treasure of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiving love.  Earthly wealth is really nice, and needy people can really be a bother.  It’s hard to not love your stuff too much, and it’s easy to love your neighbor too little.  Getting these two things right is impossible, really, unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus is your greatest treasure.  And He is. 

    Every good gift comes down from the Father of lights, (James 1:17).  Your nice car, all your nice things, all the money in your retirement fund, all of it comes from God.  Praise the Lord for all His benefits to us.  But even more, every perfect gift comes down from the Father as well, and THE perfect gift is Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, God in human flesh, God on the Cross, God bursting from the tomb, the God-Man Jesus, reigning on high today, for you.  He lives and reigns for your forgiveness, for your salvation, in order to have you with Himself, in glory, forever and ever. 

    By the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we love the Lord with all our hearts.  At the same time, knowing our hearts are as yet imperfect, we also pray: Lord Jesus Christ, My God and Lord, Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word.  And fear not, the Word made flesh will not forsake you!  So, reveling in this promise, this joy, this peace of the Gospel, we begin to see our wealth and our neighbors differently.    

 2.     Yea, Lord, 'twas Thy rich bounty gave, My body, soul, and all I have, In this poor life of labor.   Lord, grant that I in ev'ry place, May glorify Thy lavish grace, And help and serve my neighbor.  Let no false doctrine me beguile; And Satan not my soul defile. Give strength and patience unto me, To bear my cross and follow Thee. Lord Jesus Christ, My God and Lord, my God and Lord, In death Thy comfort still afford.

    O.k., now here we have some more obvious teaching about Christian stewardship, on the right use of material blessings, in light of the Good News of free forgiveness, given to sinners in Christ Jesus.  Yea, Lord, 'twas Thy rich bounty gave, My body, soul, and all I have, In this poor life of labor. 

    As we already quoted from the Epistle of James, every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.  And that last bit, “In this poor life of labor,” reminds us that Jesus calls us to be pilgrims and sojourners in this world, to hold on lightly to our earthly blessings.  For they are fleeting, and unreliable.  Whatever we might be tempted to trust and treasure most, our health, our stock portfolio, our home, all these things can disappear in the blink of an eye.   In the world you will have trouble, promises Jesus, but fear not, for I have overcome the world!  (John 16:33) 

    I am but a stranger here, heaven in my home!  And heaven, that is, life in the visible presence of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will be better than anything we could ever know in this broken world, better than we can even imagine.  Every pain relieved, every sorrow forgotten, every tear wiped away, forever and ever.  My heart faints within me! 

    Hearing and clinging to this promise, we begin to have the mind and the eyes of Christ, and so we see this world more clearly.  And the clearly most important thing in this world to Jesus is humanity.  People.  Especially the poor and humble and hurting.  Lord, grant that I in ev'ry place, May glorify Thy lavish grace, And help and serve my neighbor.  

    The rich man in Jesus’ parable today had become blinded by his blessings, by the enjoyment of his material wealth.  So, he overlooked and neglected the greater gift, which was poor, sore-covered Lazarus, lying at his doorstep.  Or, perhaps he thought he was serving Lazarus well, by allowing him to lie at his doorstep.  What better place to beg, than at that door, through which all the rich man’s similarly rich friends would have to pass, coming and going from his lavish dinners.  See how I’m helping Lazarus! 

    Not until he arrived in Hades, in Hell, did this rich fool realize his error, his foolish sin.  Too late, he understands that the treasures of the earth are a very poor trade for the final reward of eternal suffering, of being justly cut off from every good thing, forever.  Lord, protect us from such foolish greed! 

    The Apostle Paul tells Timothy, and us this morning, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Martin Schalling, our Reformation era hymnwriter, suggests that the love of money is heresy, false teaching.  Have you ever thought of greed as false teaching?  It is.  Indeed, in a sense, an ungodly affection for to material blessings is near the root of all sin, for it flows from the serpent’s first lie:  Did God really say that you may not eat from some tree in this Garden?  (Genesis 3:1)

    Satan beguiles Eve and her negligent husband with the suggestion that God was holding back His best from them.  That He forbade them to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because He didn’t want them to be as wise as He.  And the tree and its fruit were a delight to the eyes, much like the glitter of gold, or the allure of fame, or the figure of a woman who is not your wife are all temptations to us now, good gifts, twisted into forbidden objects of our sinful desires. 

    Our first parents gave in to this lie.  Don’t you fall for it.  God is not holding out on us. He has always and only sought our good.  It is the falsest of teaching to suggest otherwise.  And should we need convincing, wisdom teaches us to look once more to the Cross, and see that God gave His very best, and not for holy people who deserved His love.  Amazing grace indeed, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring us to God.  (Romans 5:8 and 1^st Peter 3:18).  Any suggestion that there could be anything more valuable in the universe is absolutely false teaching.  And so with our hymnwriter we pray to the LORD: Give strength and patience unto me, To bear my cross and follow Thee.

3.     Lord, let at last Thine angels come, To Abram's bosom bear me home, That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep, My body safe in peaceful sleep, Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end.

   “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”  Do you remember why purple cloth was a unique mark of wealth and power in the ancient world?  So much so that at different times and places, kings tried to forbid anyone but the royal family from wearing purple? 

    The reason is that in the ancient world, purple dye only came from the excretion of a certain Mediterranean sea-snail.  The coastal city of Tyre, just north of Israel, was the center of the purple dye trade.  The process of making purple dye was difficult.  Thousands of snails were needed to make just a few ounces of dye.  A pound of dye was worth half the year’s salary of a Roman soldier.  And so, only the wealthy and powerful could wear purple.     

    Do you know why Our Redeemer Lutheran Church’s funeral pall is purple?  A funeral pall is a large piece of fine fabric, made to cover the casket of a Christian during their funeral service.  The tradition is to cover the casket just before the funeral procession enters the Nave, while we recite from Romans, chapter six: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Romans 6:3-5)  

    A Christian funeral is a celebration of the completion of the dearly departed’s Holy Baptism.  The work God publicly began at the font is publicly proclaimed to be finished, as we lay the Christian’s body to rest, and rejoice that their soul already rests with Jesus.  Because of this association with Baptism, and because of John’s Revelation, where he describes the faithful in heaven as being clothed in white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb, (Revelation 7:9-17), funeral palls are normally white, often with gold decoration, a simple cross, or perhaps an image of the Lamb of God. 

    But ours at ORLC is purple.  We’ve had it for many decades.  So many that no one seems to remember how the decision was made to purchase a purple pall.  It is beautiful.  And very unique.  I’ve made a little project out of asking other pastors, professors, and, of course, funeral directors if they’ve ever heard of another Christian congregation with a purple funeral pall.  So far, no one has. 

   White is the predominant tradition, and this makes sense.  And yet, our pall is beautiful, and there is no Biblical law saying we have to make them white, or even have them at all.  So, this one is fine, and it’s useful as a visual aid today, to go with Jesus’ teaching about the rich man clad in purple, and poor Lazarus. 

   Sadly, purple fabric can be part of a rich fool’s self-destruction, cutting himself off from God forever, by worshiping money, fine clothing and rich food.  Thise rich man was eternally foolish, ignoring God, and proved his unbelief by his disdain for Lazarus, his hurting neighbor. 

      But there is certainly a good Biblical way to understand the symbolism of a purple pall.  For purple is the royal color, and Christians are royal priests, as Moses promised in Exodus, (19:6) and St. Peter declares in his first letter (2:5-9).    Purple fabric also makes proper garments for God’s chosen and beloved children.  For God’s Son, Jesus, was dressed in royal robes and mocked by Roman soldiers.  The Eternal King of the Universe was crowned with thorns, and then suffered and died.  This Christ did, in order that even His executioners, and also you and I, could be rescued from our sins and false belief.  Your good King died, so that you can take the crown He has for you, so that you can be part of the royal family of the Kingdom of God, rejoicing in every good thing, forever and ever singing at Jesus’ feet. 

    So, it is appropriate that we, in harmony and concord with Lazarus, and with all the faithful who have gone before us, should sing and pray of that blessed day when we too will join those who already rest in the nearer presence of Christ.

 Lord, let at last Thine angels come, To Abram's bosom bear me home, (just like Lazarus!)

That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep, My body safe in peaceful sleep, Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end.

 And all God’s people said: Amen. 

 

Called to Serve - Sermon for the Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
September 21st, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Called to Serve 
Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:11, Ephesian 4:7 – 16, Matthew 9:9-13

Audio of the Sermon can be found HERE. 

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

  Jim was a medical doctor, who taught himself Greek, before he sold his practice, and followed Jesus’ call. 

    Dave was a machinist turned businessman, who made precision tools and parts for the manufacturing world.  His business was very successful, employing many people, and guaranteeing Dave a comfortable future.  Instead, he sold his business, and followed Jesus’ call.

    Gifford and Len were engineers, with nuclear power backgrounds, before they left their careers behind and followed Jesus’ call. 

    Another was a funeral director, to my shame I don’t remember his name.  But he left that important vocation, and followed Jesus’ call. 

    I don’t think there were any IRS agents in the 2000 Summer Greek class at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.  No tax collectors.  But I was classmate to a bunch of men who left well-paying careers, or even highly valuable private businesses, to go back to school, late in life.  Not-so-young men, their brains less flexible, who now needed to learn two languages, that both require learning new alphabets.  Languages with way more tricky grammar than English.  My classmates included dozens of heads of households who sold homes and moved their families across the country, because somebody suggested they should consider becoming a pastor, they were moved to pursue it, and the seminary and their district president agreed.  Leaving success and financial security behind, they came to Fort Wayne to learn how to preach nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, to preach God’s truth, whether the hearers want to listen, or not. 

    At least, that’s what we were supposed to be thinking.  

    From the prophet Ezekiel this morning we learn that the LORD God Almighty has one basic expectation of His preachers: take the Word that I give you, and proclaim it.  Preach it, holding nothing back, to men and women who may like it, or may hate it.  Because it is by the preached Word, by the plainly spoken truth, sometimes whispered in inner rooms, sometimes shouted from the rooftops, by this preached Word alone, the Holy Spirit is building the Kingdom of God by filling it with forgiven sinners. 

    And so, when Paul wants to teach the Ephesian Christians about the gifts that God gives to His Church, we get this strange list:  First Apostles, then Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.  Preachers, all of them.  God’s greatest gifts to His Church did not include gold, or power, or the praise and appreciation of the world.  Quite the opposite actually.  God’s best gifts to His Bride were men called and sent by God to speak the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, for the conviction, repentance and conversion of sinners. 

    God’s strange gifts and strange Way of building His Church create challenges, for the hearers, and for the preachers.  For the hearers, it is easy to ignore, or misunderstand, or despise the preached Word.  Protect us from this, heavenly Father! 

   Christ’s teaching is often uncomfortable, and never popular with the world, nor with our sinful nature.  St. Paul, serving as a prophet, predicted the day would come when people would have itching ears, that reject the plain Word of God, desiring to have their itch scratched by a less confrontational message, (2 Timothy 4:3-4).  We live in Paul’s fulfilled prophecy.  Many contemporary ears won’t listen to the exclusive claims of Christ.  “Who are we to say that Christianity is the only way to get right with God?”  Well, we don’t say that; Jesus does.  God’s true Word proclaims: there is no other name given under heaven, by which we must be saved, except the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, (Acts 4:12).   

   Others, wounded by a world that constantly isolates and divides, just want Church to be their happy place.  To quote an 80s sitcom, we all want to go to a place “where everybody knows your name.”  And there is a sentimental half-truth in this itch; God did create us for community, for family, for close, loving relationship.  But merely having a place where everybody knows your name, whether in a dingy Boston bar, or in a cozy neighborhood church, can at best only put a temporary band-aid on our loneliness and feelings of pointlessness.  The solution to human loneliness comes only after God calls you out, by name, confronting your faults, the sins that sully the name your parents gave you, sins that fuel your isolation. 

   God through His Word, through His preachers, calls it like it is, revealing all that is wrong with our own names, in order to give us a New Name.  Only in and through His Son Jesus can we know, and be known, in a way that is free from guilt and lasts eternally.  And so, by His truth joined to water, by the power of His Word and the Baptisms of Jesus, God has given you a new name:  Beloved child, Christian, holy one.  All the believing baptized revel in the comfort of being clothed in an eternally good name, the name that washes away all the stains on your character and life, and makes you part of God’s family, forever.  

   The challenge for preachers is similar to the temptation we all face to treat salvation like a visit to a neighborhood watering hole.  Like Norm, waddling across the bar to get to his corner stool, everybody, including preachers, wants to be liked.  But, as we learned from Ezekiel, being liked is not on the list of the Lord’s basic requirements for His public servants.  “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them… But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted… Speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse,”(Ezekiel 3:4, 7, 11).

   That preachers be liked is not God’s priority.  Rather, the Lord wills they be faithful, and that they make themselves heard.  The Lord is not looking for impressive men, only for men who will hear and believe, and then follow and speak His Way. 

   St. Matthew is a prime example.  In the eyes of first-century Jewish culture, none of the Twelve
disciples was a likely candidate to be God’s spokesman: fishermen, uneducated country boys, a revolutionary zealot or two.  But it can’t get much worse than Matthew.  He was likely a bit more educated, and relatively well-off.  As a tax-collector for the Romans, Matthew was in a position to become quite wealthy.  But everybody who wasn’t personally benefitting from a tax collector tended to despise them.  Working for the enemy, and often enriching themselves in the process, tax collectors were seen as sick people, perverted in their priorities, self-excluded from the people of God.  Tax collectors were hardly the type of person the Jews would turn to for Godly wisdom and truth.  Would you call up your IRS auditor and ask them to tell you about the nature of God, or the way of salvation? 

   And yet, to show that everything that gets done in His Church is ultimately His work, done through unworthy servants, Jesus chooses Matthew.  And Matthew goes on to write His Gospel, a magisterial tome, that the Church has honored by placing it first in the New Testament writings, ever since the Church started gathering them into one volume.  Jesus showed mercy to Matthew, and became His sacrifice, the One who suffered in order to pay for all Matthew’s sins, and call him into important service to God’s mission. 

   The LORD seeks the sin-sick through the preaching of His Law, which condemns sin and sinners, and the preaching of His Gospel, through which He declares us righteous in His sight, by faith in Jesus.  Matthew clearly teaches us about the Office of the Ministry that Christ established.  He also proclaims the mystery that that God’s Good News of the rescue of sinners through the blood-bought forgiveness of Jesus includes that Gospel combined with Water, and with Bread and Wine.  Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching.  Take eat, take drink, my Body and Blood, for the forgiveness of sins.  (Matthew 28:19, 26:26-7)  Hidden miracles, apt to be disregarded by the world.  But do not disregard them; this strange mission approach is the only Way God has revealed for sinners to be saved. 

   The warmness of the relationship between preacher and hearer is not God’s primary concern- because whether you and I are chums has no eternal consequence.  Only the Message of Christ effects that blessed miracle of grace.  

   Now, too be sure, the goal is not for the preacher to be disliked.  When pastor and people are united in their understanding, proclamation and life together that flow from the Good News of Jesus, there is often great love felt and displayed.  Through 21 years of preaching I have been disproportionately blessed.  Not universally, but most of the time I have been blessed with congregations and members who treated me kindly, better than I deserve, for the sake of the Gospel we share.  Praise be to God. 

   The blessing of a truly happy church family flows from our collective faithfulness and connection to Christ through His Word.  Our proper shared goal is that Christ be correctly and frequently proclaimed, from this public pulpit, and in our private conversations.  This is our goal, because it is God’s goal, His chosen means to deliver His gifts to sinners.  

   Which brings us to your various roles, the ways you are called to share the Word of Christ in the callings God has given you.  The readings for the feast of St. Matthew unsurprisingly focus us on the preaching office, the call to the Holy Ministry, and on those men who have been called to publicly proclaim the Gospel in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is meet, right and salutary, for you and for me, that we have spent a few minutes reviewing the form of the ministry Christ has established, its content and its function. 

   The Bible is very clear about the problems that inevitably result when we choose to ignore God’s plan, the Way of being Church that He has ordained for us.  When we are faithful to His instruction, we can be sure that blessings will result.  God’s spoken Word does not return to Him void, without achieving the purpose for which He sent it, (Isaiah 55:11).  When the Church ignores God and insists on trying different ways that we have dreamed up ourselves, or simply aped from the world, we can expect for things to go haywire, sooner or later. 

   But public preaching is not the sum and total of God’s call to serve, in and for His Church, and in your daily lives.  Called and ordained preachers have a particular role to play, and so do all of you.  Every Christian has many contributions to make, depending on one’s various callings, and on one’s season in life. 

   You are all called to confess Christ in your daily lives, by your manner of living, and by your way of speaking.  To live unselfishly and humbly is a firm foundation for attracting people to Christ and His Church. 

   Conversely, if we Christians are seen to be harsh, greedy, mean-spirited, participating in the worst sins of the culture, then we will be an obstacle to anyone considering the faith.  But, if we are seen to care for our families, our children, our elderly parents, for everyone God has given us to love, that will speak volumes to an unbeliever, wondering about this “Christianity” thing.  Fathers and mothers are clearly called to be home-preachers to their children.  All of us are to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, and to be ready to give the reason for the hope that we have, with gentleness and respect.  And we are all called to pray for God’s mission daily. 

    There are concrete, earthly needs which enable us to gather here on Sunday to proclaim and praise Jesus: a warm, dry room is very helpful.  Bread and wine and musical instruments and hymnals all cost money.  We can think of many more things, and all of them require that everyone contribute, and some people lead.  Nobody has to serve the congregation in a special way all the time.  But all of us need to consider how we might support our shared ministry with our abilities, our time, and our financial blessings.  Just as Jesus on the afternoon before He was betrayed sent two disciples ahead of Him to prepare the Upper Room for the Passover, so also there are relatively mundane tasks that we are all called to share in, so that God’s Word can go forth in this place. 

   St. Matthew in His Gospel shows how our God works through the things of this fallen world, in order to rescue a people, and to have them living with Him forever in the new heavens and new earth.  Jesus uses the envy and hatred of priests, Pharisees and scribes to achieve His goal of winning forgiveness for every sinner.  A few loaves and fish are used to feed a great multitude, and to point us to a heavenly feast, and the Host of that feast, who died and rose to purchase our entry.  Earthquakes and darkened sky proclaim the world changing event of Christ’s suffering and death.  And a tax collector turned disciple and Apostle shows that the love of God in Christ can grant eternal healing to any sinner, and even put them to great use in sharing the mercy of His Kingdom. 

Let us pray:  Lord Jesus Christ, we praise and thank you for rescuing Matthew from his sin-sickness, the same soul-disease that would destroy every one of us, apart from Your merciful salvation.  In Matthew’s Gospel, You have revealed for all time the form of Your Church, her mission, and the means You have ordained for expanding Your Kingdom.  Keep our ears ever open to hear and grow in Your Holy Word.  Grant us eyes to see and hearts to pursue the opportunities for service that You set before each one of us.  Help us to see all people in the same way You saw Matthew the tax-collector, as a soul redeemed by Your blood, simply in need of hearing Your merciful Good News.  Raise up faithful pastors to preach publicly, and confident people who speak of Your merciful Gospel in their day-to-day lives.  Help us to see the many ways we are privileged to share Your mercy and participate in Your Mission and Ministry.  Most of all, as You have promised, be with us to the end of the age, until that Day when we see you face to face, with the Father and Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever, Amen.               

Unexpected Glory - Sermon for Holy Cross Day, September 14th, A+D 2025

Holy Cross Day
September 14^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Unexpected Glory 
Number 21:4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 12:20-33

Audio of the Sermon can be found HERE. 

In the Name of Jesus, the Crucified One.  

   Do you have a glory problem?    

   Speaking for myself, I have at least one glory problem.  They are pretty common.  I’ve got one with church buildings.    

   The first time we lived in Spain, back in the 90s, at the request of the Marine Corps, I may have spent a lot of time visiting churches.  Shelee will attest that I could not get enough of seeing those marvelous structures, often built in tiny villages.  Hundreds of little pueblos in Spain boast tall church buildings that we simply couldn’t build today, imposing stone sanctuaries built four, five or more centuries ago, erected by a slightly-above-subsistence society, working with crude tools, lifting with block and tackle.  It was, to me, endlessly glorious to wander about and contemplate those edifices.    

 

  My mother Agnes came and visited us in Spain, and I enthusiastically dragged her to see any number of Spanish churches, including the Cathedral in Sevilla.  The Seville Cathedral is the largest Gothic style cathedral in the world, and overall one of the largest church buildings ever built, by any metric.  It is immense.  And full of gold and silver, mostly from Peru.  It is a phenomenal space, with flying buttresses, and stone pillars as thick as California Redwoods, which soar into vaulted arches.  There is jewel encrusted artwork in every corner.  I eagerly showed Mom around, pointing out the architecture, the gigantic rose windows, the statuary: quite a place.  My southern-Minnesota German Lutheran mother, with uncharacteristic quiet, patiently took in my tour.  At the end she stopped me for a moment and asked: “But don’t you think it’s a bit much?” 

   Agnes of course, was right. It is a bit much.  I am definitely not against beautiful church buildings, nor am I against the people of God investing money, even significant sums, into beautiful things to adorn the worship of Christ.  But sadly, the Cathedral in Sevilla belongs to Mary, and only secondarily to her Son.  And the Gospel in Spain, the land of the Counter Reformation, has long been and continues to be buried under layers of works righteousness and mystic superstition. 

     The Seville cathedral is filled with fantastically valuable processional crosses.  But it’s hard to argue that it truly glorified the Holy Cross of Jesus to pour out the vast sums of wealth that were spent building the Sevilla Cathedral.   Because the true Gospel is only rarely proclaimed there, if ever.  And that is the thing, really:  If we aren’t proclaiming the truth of the Holy Cross, then nothing else we do has any real value.     

   I am tempted to fall too much in love with church art and architecture.  But we here at OSLC/ORLC don’t seem likely to face the temptation of too much gold and silver coming our way, leading us to glorify ourselves in our building, and remove the true Holy Cross of Jesus from the center of our proclamation.  Still, we certainly have our own temptations to find glory in all the wrong things.  We inherited the tendency to see the wondrous things of God’s creation, or the impressive products of human innovation, and fixate on them.  We can end up worshiping these created things.  But, in Christ we are called and we are taught to rejoice in the gifts of this creation, and worship and thank the God who gave them to us.   

     It’s not that the Lord does not want us to enjoy the creation, or share in His glory.  He created us precisely to share these things with us.  But not at the expense of sharing Himself with us, which is ultimately the nub of the problem:  If we seek glory in anything else but the Lord, we are cutting ourselves off from Him. 

     What glorious things tempt you to put them before God?  Men often are drawn to seek glory in the love of a beautiful woman, and women in the affection of a handsome man.  Both are good gifts, to be received with thanksgiving from the God who made us men and women, in order to complete, love and serve one another.  Marriage and family are glorious, when they are understood and received as one of God’s highest gifts.  But if our pursuit of such glory leads us to corrupt God’s plan for sex and marriage and family, if what God made to be the primary place of service to another we instead turn into a tool for self-serving and lust, then the glory of marriage and family can quickly turn to dust. 

   A hard-earned profit, gained by offering goods and services to others, and done to provide for one’s family and community, this is a God-pleasing pursuit.  But of course, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Rich and poor alike are prone to seek glory in wealth, and so forfeit the riches of Christ. 

    Academic success, physical prowess, beauty, style, musical talent: name the area of useful human endeavor and you can quickly identify ways we corrupt it by seeking our own glory.  High-achievers are especially at risk: the fear of failure and rejection and the lust for glory are the opposite sides of the same coin.  Do not be afraid to seek excellence, to pursue success, only do it as a wise child of God.  Pursue excellence as one who knows the Source of every good, and who wisely stays connected to that Source daily, so that you never forget where your true glory is found.    

   All of this is to say nothing of the human capacity for seeking glory in evil, in depravity, in perverting the natural order of things, and calling it good.  Finding personal satisfaction and an ugly glory in abusing, hurting and even killing others.  Such evils are the opposite of God’s glory, but that does not stop us human beings from believing in these opposites. 

    And, while the world has always worked to put such tempting evils before our eyes, our day is especially evil in that every depraved thing is constantly available to our eyes, through those screens that are never far away.  God grant us wisdom to fill our eyes and ears with good and godly things, and avoid the images of evil that constantly surround us every day.     

   For us, gathered together here today, perhaps the strangest, and most dangerous temptation to self-glory is to glory in our Chirstian piety, to seek to display our holiness and good works, as a means of convincing ourselves and others that we are pleasing to God because of all the good we have done.  Fighting against this particular false way of glory was a primary focus for Jesus when He visibly walked the earth.  He was always pointing out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and calling them, and everyone, to the way of repentance for sin, and trust in God’s grace, the true way of the Gospel.          

   It is completely and typically human to seek glory in all the wrong places, to get puffed up when things go well, and forget the God who is the Giver of every good gift.  This is normal, typical, and hard to change, so hard we may just give up and give in. 

   But the Lord doesn’t care about what is normal and typical with us.  He wants us to find glory, in Him.  He wants us to recognize our foolishness, and His strange mercy.  Why else would God declare a sculpture of a bronze snake on a pole to be the salvation of rebellious sinners, who themselves have been bitten by fiery serpents as punishment for their sins? 

   Who else would disregard, no, who else would intentionally offend the piety and the intelligence of the elite of society, in a foolish attempt to save them with a scandalous story?  Who would declare God’s glory to be found in a horrible, shameful death, a naked body nailed to a Roman cross?  Who else would cap His salvation plan by allowing Himself to be displayed as utterly degraded and defeated, , the Snake on a pole who gives eternal life?  

   Your Savior would.  And He has.  Because this is what it takes to truly love you, to love you to death, and to a new and glorious life.  God does want to give you glory, true glory, so that your sins be washed away, and your eternal death sentence be vacated, once and for all. 

   It stings to have impressive people scorn you, and we will struggle to the end of this earthly life with the natural desire to be considered great and impressive now in the eyes of the world.   But keep your eyes on the Cross of Jesus.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, dying and rising for you, by keeping your ears full of His Word.  From Genesis to Revelation, the Cross of Jesus is the heart and center of the whole Bible, because it is there that the Lord has revealed His glory.  For the Bible teaches us that God’s glory and joy is to save us from ourselves, through the shedding of His own blood.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, by kneeling at His altar, to receive the glorious fruit of His Holy Cross, His true Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. 

     This is the drama of the Holy Cross, the remarkable struggle that started the day the serpent beguiled the woman, and continues on until the Father determines that the time has come to bring His plan to its eternal conclusion. 

     You were drawn into this drama when you first heard the Word of Christ, and when you were washed in the Triune Name.  In this drama, you and I are still part of the problem, with our misguided glory seeking.  But you are also part of God’s victorious plan, for the believer in you is truly seeking good things, for the sake of God’s glory, and the good of your neighbor.  The glorious drama of the Holy Cross cuts through our lives, confronting us, redeeming us, changing us, and flowing through our lives into the lives of others. 

     The light and momentary afflictions we are called to face today do not compare with the glory of knowing that Jesus is still seeking and serving you.  The struggles of Christian life are nothing compared to the wonder and joy of having a ringside seat as the Holy Spirit recreates a sinner.  The Giver of Life does His saving work with the most unlikely story, the story of God bringing glory out of shame, and life out of death.  

     And so, since this God is for you, what can the world do to you?  Nothing, really, because you know that the uncomfortable work the Lord continues to do for unbelievers, drawing them to Jesus, He also continues to do for you, day by repentant day, bringing to completion the good work He has begun in you. 

   True joy and peace are found in this strange plan of the Lord, who took the most despicable executioner’s tool and turned it into the Holy Cross, the sign of forgiveness, life and salvation, delivered to you, by the blood of Jesus.   Rest in His glorious peace, speak about His mercy amongst yourselves every day, and be ready to give the reason for the hope that that is in you, speaking of God’s true glory, with humility and respect. to anyone who asks. 

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.