The Sixth Sunday
after Trinity, July 7th, A+D 2024
Our Savior's and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
The Ten Words
Exodus
20, Romans 6, St. Matthew 5
Audio of the sermon available
HERE.
The Ten Words. What we call the Ten Commandments is, from the Hebrew
Bible,
more literally translated as the Ten Words. "Word" here is used in the sense of
instructions or ideas, like when someone says, “Let me just say a word about
how this evening is going to go.”
Obviously, the summary of God’s Law, His outline of how life as freed
slaves should be lived, contains way more than 10 words: And God
spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods.
You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it
holy. Honor your father and mother. You shall not murder, ... etc. Way more than ten words.
The Small
Catechism version of the Ten Commandments, which I encourage everyone to
memorize, is abbreviated, much shorter than the full text which we heard from
Exodus 20 a few minutes ago. But whether we use the full text, or a
faithful abbreviation, the Ten Words give us a deep idea of how we
should relate, with the Lord, and with each other. The 10 Words are the
divine rule for living a Godly life.
God’s rule reveals many problems. It has always been very difficult
for us to fulfill. And once Jesus came down from heaven, became a man, and
proclaimed His authoritative interpretation, our hope to keep the 10
Commandments has been completely destroyed. Today we heard just the
beginning of Jesus heightening of the standard of these 10 Words. “You have heard that it was said to those
of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to
judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone
who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever
insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You
fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
And so, I am a
murderer, thousands of times. Jesus’ authoritative explanation of the fifth
commandment crushes me. I’m not sure I
am more prone to anger than the average man, but the average is pretty
bad. For example, just last Friday,
Shelee and I decided to take our dog Maggie hiking on a trail off Sheridan Lake
Road. It was a mixed-use trail, hikers
or mountain bikes. But no four-wheelers,
no dirt bikes. Starting from the valley
of Spring Creek, we hiked, up and up, all by ourselves, enjoying the quiet, the
wildflowers. The climb, not so much.
About an hour in, a crest we had eyeing
for a long time turned out to be a false crest, leading to only a hundred yards
of downhill, and then up again. We
decided to turn around. A few minutes
later, our precious quiet was shattered by the whine of dirt bikes. We hike with Maggie on a 20 ft. lead, so we
had to quickly pull back her 65 pounds of canine muscle, and drag her to a little
clearing off the trail. Five dirt bikers
roared by, one of them nervy enough to thank us for getting off the trail. “This trail isn’t for motorcycles,” I shouted
at a couple of them. They ignored me and
roared up the hill. I felt like killing
them. O.k., not quite, but I was really torqued. Hundreds and hundreds of designated four-wheeler
and dirt bike trails in the Black Hills.
But these idiots just had to go tear up a mountain bike and hiking
trail.
I tried to let it go, but come on,
man. I hoped against hope that they had
perhaps trailered their bikes to the access point, and I could get their
vehicle license to report to the authorities.
I tried to get back to enjoying being out in the woods, but to be
honest, I mostly fumed all the way down the hill.
Until we got down to the access point, and
looked at the signs again. Huh, look at
that. No jeeps, no four wheelers,
because this was a designated dirt bike trail. I had misread the maps, and not paid close
attention to the signs. If anyone was
where they shouldn’t have been, it was us.
My anger was entirely misplaced, stupid really. The dirt bikers probably thought I was the
idiot, and they wouldn’t have been wrong.
I have professional expectations that curb
my any tendency to angry outbursts that might lurk within my flesh. Which is a blessing, for everyone. My proclivity to fall into internal seething at
supposed injustices mostly just eats me up, and ruins my walks in
the woods. If my 5th-Commandment-breaking
anger only hurts me, that’s better than the alternative. But either way, based on my control of my
emotions, by Jesus’ standard, I’m doomed.
Jesus’ redefinition of murder makes
fulfilling the law impossible. And
that’s just the start of it. Go on in
Matthew, and read about Jesus' high standards concerning adultery of the eye
and heart, about controlling the tongue, honoring our parents and other
authorities, about not coveting.
Consider His standards for charity to beggars, and love for
enemies.
Our Lord’s standard is too high for us,
and this is a fundamental problem. Because
Jesus also said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law
or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to
you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass
from the Law until all is accomplished. And
a bit later: I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the
scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Brothers and sisters, what shall we
do? Shall we give up trying, because we
know we cannot meet the standard? God
forbid! For the sake of making this life
livable, and for being granted access to the life to come, we need these Ten
Words.
The Ten Words, the Commandments, are good and pure; they express the will of
God. The more closely we can follow them, the better for our family, our community,
country and world. What a different world this would be if most people
actively strove to obey God’s will.
Let’s just consider one commandment, and what effect taking it seriously
could have. Like, say, the 8th
Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What if our political leaders told fewer
lies, as they promoted themselves and their agendas? What if we could begin to believe the media,
because they stopped misrepresenting everything they reported? What if we stopped gossiping
about our neighbors, to make them look bad and ourselves look good? That would be an amazing start to that
wonderful world Louie Armstrong so loved to sing about.
Adultery, sexual sin, stealing,
disrespecting parents and other authorities.
If we could just get a little better at keeping the 10 Words, this life
would be better. Much better.
It should start with me, right? It
should start with us Christians. Let’s
go for it, let’s live piously, for real, and improve our lives and the
world. Very well. But ...
But, there is no lasting hope in our
fulfillment of God's Law. It is good when God's people take
seriously their responsibility to follow the divine law, not only to avoid
trouble and punishment, but simply because we know it is good and right. This would make the world a
better place to live. But, we will not
create heaven on earth. Nor will we, by
our efforts, gain access to the kingdom of heaven. Earning eternal life with God is beyond our
reach. The Ten Words are good, but they
are not enough for us.
We need other Words. A different Ten Words, maybe. What could these 10 Words be?
How about literally just 10 words, perhaps
like these: “I can do all things, in Christ who strengthens me.”
St. Paul wrote that in Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things, in Christ who strengthens me.
Repeat these Ten Words with me: I can do all things, in
Christ who strengthens me. Living as a Christian is difficult,
more difficult today, as Biblical truth is less and less accepted in our
culture. I'm afraid living as a
Christian will become more difficult in the future. Increasingly, trying
to do the right thing can earn you the scorn and even the persecution of the
world. And, even when we really try, we still
fall far short.
But do not be discouraged. The key to living as a Christian is not our
effort, but rather the key is our Christ. I can do all
things, in Christ who strengthens me.
How can we do
everything in Christ? Because, when we are in Him, He
is working in us, and through us, as Paul wrote in Philippians 2. Paul explains Godly living this way: Therefore,
my beloved, … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it
is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil.
2:12-13)
We fear and tremble in our daily Christian
life, but not because God is out to get us.
Not because we have to work to earn salvation. Not because we are going to be crushed if we
make a mistake. No. God is love.
God loves to forgive. These facts
we know for certain when we fix our eyes on Jesus and His dying love.
Rather, we fear and tremble in our
Christian living because we are living in the presence of the Holy, Holy, Holy,
God. Like Moses at the burning bush,
like Simon Peter in the boat after the miraculous catch of fish, like the
saints in heaven, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea, we
too are in the presence of God, because we are in Christ. We are in Christ, and so God is in us, giving
us the will, the desire, and the energy to live according to His ways. When we actually forget ourselves and our
selfish desires, and truly do something good for others, we should realize that
God is at work in us. On our own, we
would not do these things. God is
leading us to do good works, and it’s so awesome, it makes our knees
shake.
We can only begin to fulfill
the divine law in Christ.
For the death [Christ] died he died to sin, once
for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So
you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:10-11)
And how do we know that we are in Christ? Because of
another Word, another short phrase, very blessed words, once recited over you,
although you may not remember that day: I baptize you in the Name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. (Matthew
28:19)
Paul
describes the mysterious union that God creates through the washing of Water
and the Word. For you are all
children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians
3: 26-27) Or, “do you not
know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? 4 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. (Romans 6:3-4)
Yes, through the washing with the Water
and the Word, we are all in Christ.
Not by your efforts, not by your goodness, but rather by God’s will
and righteousness, poured out on your sinful flesh. Therefore, we can all say: With
Christ I have been crucified, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me. (Galatians 2:20) Or, to put it another way, I can do
all things, in Christ, who strengthens me.
I can do all things, in Christ, who strengthens me. The two most important of this Ten Word sentence
are “in Christ,” As Paul teaches us how
Christian living works, he also remind us of our salvation, which was won by
Jesus, delivered to us by His Spirit, and is located in His Crucified and
Glorified Body. These Ten Words show us
the way to pursue good works and a Godly life, which is by focusing on Jesus,
crucified for me. These 10 Words teach
us the Way by showing us the One who is the Way, and the Truth, and the
Life. These Ten Words remind us of the
most important truth, that Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am foremost. There is no other way of salvation, and
there is no other way to live a Christian life, except in Christ.
So, we also confess with the Apostle: I
do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through
the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:21) Let’s make sure we understand and remember
this. If I begin to think my
righteousness, my goodness and acceptability before God, comes from my keeping of
the Ten Commandments, then I am saying the suffering and death of Jesus was a
waste. But that of course is not
true. Because I cannot and do not
fulfill God’s Law, Jesus did so, in my place.
In your place. We are still
sinners, and the wages of sin is death.
But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord . (Romans
6:23) And so, we can do all things, but
only in Christ, who strengthens us.
We try to keep the commandments, because we have been loved by Christ, and His
love for us creates in us a love for God, and for His Way. And, when
we honestly struggle to live by the Law of God, we are also daily reminded of
our need for a Savior, and we are led to run to Christ Jesus.
So, let us try to keep the commandments,
which will serve us with a daily reminder that we are not saved by the law, but
only by the grace of God, revealed in Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.
Let us boldly seek to live Godly
lives. And when we stumble, when we
fall, let us remember and encourage one another with Jesus’ promise, that He
comes to us daily to forgive and encourage us, again and again. This is
Divine Service. Whether it happens here
before God’s altar, or in your personal devotions, or through the consolation
of a brother or sister in Christ who reminds you of Jesus’ and His limitless
love and forgiveness, the delivery of Christ’s forgiveness is God serving us,
Divine Service, the Way of Salvation.
Jesus has fulfilled every dot and tittle,
every iota of the Law, in our place, so that, in Him, we can do all things. In
Christ we rest, rejoice, and live, in freedom and divine love, today, tomorrow,
and forever and ever, Amen.
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