Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
\October 5th
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, 2nd 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 3rd 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 16th 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.
