Getting to Work

14^th Sunday after Pentecost, September 18^th, A+D 2011

Matthew 20:1-16

     The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

     It’s great to have a group of people motivated to do a job.  In college a friend came back to the University of Idaho after finishing the Marine Officer Basic Course, and he stated emphatically that with a platoon full of Marine 2^nd Lt.’s, he would take on the world.  At the time I mostly thought he was slamming the Army, whose 2^nd Lt’s are not nearly as impressive, but over the years I have come to realize that this truth applies to many different motivated groups of workers.  It doesn’t take a bunch of strong young jarheads to accomplish things, just people who understand the work in front of them and are willing to work together to git’r done. 

     Like the ladies at St. John and the annual Yard Sale, where mountains of junk, I mean treasures, were turned into $1,600 for missions, in the space of a weekend, the mess all cleaned up and everything put back in place by Sunday morning.  Or consider Trinity’s German Meal, an event where men and women actually work together in a kitchen, with knives, and have fun, and provide a great meal to the community, all the while raising thousands for missions and charities.  Or we could talk about last Monday night at Trinity’s  Board of Directors meeting, where I, with no prior warning, announced that we needed to move all the stuff they had already moved from the wet places in the basement when the groundwater started coming in.  All of it needed to be moved again so Arnie Thiel from Johnson’s could come in and lay carpeting.  Seven men, a clear objective, short work, it was the best part of the meeting, working together to get a job done. 

     And then we have our parable today.  God has a vineyard, and He is looking for workers.  It’s very tempting for pastors to use this as a motivational text, to try to get people to do this thing or that thing for the Church.  This is particularly tempting for me today, since I have recently begun talking, to some congregational leaders, and now to you, about bringing a vicar, a seminary student on internship, to Sidney and Fairview next year.  We are in better shape financially than we have ever been in my time here, and we have received some gifts which we might consider using as part of funding a vicar, who, among other things, could help us expand our outreach to our growing community.  It’s an idea worth considering, and it would be easy to use today’s Gospel as a pre-text to try to guilt you into getting behind the idea, to suggest that Jesus in this parable is telling you to open your wallets, to do your part, so God will be able to accomplish His mission.  Doesn’t God need us to be committed if He is going to accomplish His mission?  Doesn’t the future of the kingdom depend on you, and me, on all of us, doing good work? Isn’t that what Jesus is telling us today?  

     Well, no.  That’s not what our Gospel reading is about, and that is not how the Church really works.  God does want workers, and there is work for all of us to do.  But to suggest that the growth of God’s Church depends on our efforts is false, a dangerous lie that can lead us astray from the way of Christ.  So, before I begin to encourage you toward the idea of bringing a vicar here next year, let’s first understand this parable rightly.  And the first thing to notice in this parable is the Master, who doesn’t seem too concerned about how much His employees are going to accomplish.  He seeks laborers throughout the day, even at the 11^th hour, 5 or 6 p.m., just before quitting time.  The Master then pays these late hires as if they are just as valuable as the 1^st hour workers, who toiled for 12 hours in the heat of the day.  

     There is very different from how you and I understand normal business-employee relations.  Which makes sense, because this parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven, not life in this world; why would we expect things to be the same?  God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways.  There are lots of differences, like how the businesses we know spend tremendous time, energy and money trying to find good workers.  In the kingdom of heaven, the quality of the workers being hired is not decisive, or even important, apparently.  From eager early-birds to late day slackers, the Master makes the same agreement with all of them.  And in fact, this agreement is the key part of this parable; the actual work to be done in the vineyard is never actually discussed.  The key thing in this parable is not the tasks the workers will complete, but rather the agreement that the Master makes with them. 

     Literally, when the Master and the workers agree on what is right, they ‘symphony’ about what is just, or righteous.  To symphony is to sound together, that is the Master and the workers sound together, saying the same thing, about what is just and righteous, and then the workers are sent into the vineyard.  What does Jesus mean?  He means that God seeks out people and speaks the truth to them, about righteousness, about how all us sinners completely lack righteousness, but how God in love has given His Son Jesus, the Christ, to be our righteousness, so that God could bring us into His vineyard.  God speaks this message, and the workers repeat it, sounding together this most important truth about righteousness.  Only after this symphony by God and sinner are workers then sent into the vineyard, because entering the vineyard means first you have been saved, and we are saved by grace, through faith, faith which comes by hearing the Word of Christ, faith which leads to confession.  For if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; you will live in God’s kingdom, forever.  The Master’s symphony is the Good News of forgiveness and new life, given in Jesus Christ.   

 

     But what about the work in the kingdom?  Aren’t there still things to do?  Oh yes.  And you are rightly moved by the generosity of the Master.  You want to do something, a Godly desire to contribute to the work of the vineyard is stirring in your heart.  Good.  There is plenty to be done.  We just need to be careful not to construct a false idea about what it means to work in the vineyard.  All Christians have tasks God puts before them that serve the advance of His Kingdom, but our accomplishment of these tasks is never the main thing, and never something we should be building our faith on.  As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.  So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.  Not even the Apostles took credit for accomplishing things in the Church.  And so also Paul says in Philippians 2, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you.  Fear and tremble, because Almighty God has taken up residence in you, to cause you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  Because God is the source of every good thing, and especially because we remain sinners in this lifetime, even after we are brought to faith, all the credit and glory for the kingdom work in which we are honored to participate, goes to God.  God is the one both giving us faith and the will to then live out our faith in good works. 

     One of the joys of working together for a common goal is the pleasure of conversation while you work, greeting the guests at the German Meal, chatting amongst the ladies at the yard sale, talking while hauling racks and boxes at last week’s BOD meeting.  When the work is progressing well, conversation amongst the workers is a great bonus.  And what do you suppose the workers in the Vineyard talk about?  To stay within the metaphor of the parable, there is work to do, grapes to be picked, wine to bottled, and so on.  But what do you suppose they talk about while they work?  In God’s vineyard, the workers talk about the Master and His symphony. 

     The best thing about being a worker in the vineyard is the agreement, the symphony, that the Master has written.  For He is most generous.  The Master Himself seeks and finds each one, telling them about His just agreement, about how He wanted to bring them into His vineyard, even though they didn’t have anything worthy to offer from their side.  Despite their sin, despite their unworthiness, the Master brought them into His vineyard. 

     Some of the workers, sadly, grumble, workers who, through the course of many hours in the vineyard, forget how good a deal for sinners God’s symphony truly is.  These workers begin to imagine that they have somehow earned the right to belong to the Master’s company, even the right to receive special honor and recognition, extra pay.  They are reminded by the Master that He has the righteous power to be as generous as He wishes, which is not to their loss, for He has given them a just wage, everything they need, far more than they deserve.  And so we learn that many who are first will be last, and the last first. 

     And here our reading ends.  Which is too bad, because maybe you are still struggling with all this symphony and just wage talk, maybe the way the Master runs His vineyard still isn’t making sense.  But do not despair; the next couple verses pull it all together.  Listen to what comes next:  And as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up." 

     Here, at the Cross and Empty Tomb, we understand the first becoming last, the very Son of God becoming the worst of sinners, becoming sin itself, so that, in Him, in His death and resurrection, the last might become first, we sinners might become the righteousness of God.  He received our wages, torture, death and the pains of hell, so that we might receive what He has earned, the favor of God, the glory of heaven, and eternal life in God’s kingdom.  This is the agreement, the symphony, that the Master sings to the sinners He seeks for His kingdom. 

     This is the topic of the workers, and, amidst all the grape picking and wine-bottling, this is also how the real kingdom work gets done, when the people of God declare the justice, the righteousness, the undeserved mercy of God, and through that Word, the Spirit reaches a symphony with yet another sinner.  This is our first task, what we do here, and what by the Spirit of God each of you does in your day to day lives, ready to give the reason for the hope that is in you, ready to tell another sinner about God’s way of hiring workers, which is all by grace, through faith, by the forgiveness of sins, in Jesus’ Name. 

     This is what taking on a vicar next year would be about.  Many people are coming to our area for work, giving us an opportunity to also tell them about God’s vineyard.  To bring in a vicar, a seminary student worker, would be a service in the kingdom, both by giving a future pastor the chance to grow in his ability to talk about the Vineyard owner and His gifts, and also by increasing our voice in our community, all so that the Owner of the Vineyard might speak His grace to more people. 

     Think about it.  Talk about it.  But above all, remember that Jesus has earned your place in the Master’s Vineyard.  Your future is secure, so you can rejoice, and even marvel out loud about His great work, for you, and for all people, Amen. 

Broken

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 11^th, A + D 2011

Genesis 50:15-21 and Matthew 18:21-35

(Before the service, I announced that a foster child who had been with my family for a year is no longer with us.)   

     Last Sunday I talked about my resolve to deal straight up with the elephants in the room, that is to not sidestep or ignore difficult issues, but to risk addressing them, trusting God and His Word to pick us up when we fall, and bring us through in faith, to the other side.  God is faithful, He will do it.  And so here we are, a problem right before us, in this specific instance a broken relationship, and not some relationship involving people out there, absent sinners we can objectify and turn into a painless parable, but rather a broken relationship involving me, your pastor, and other people that you know and love, including a child.  Lord have mercy upon us.  

     The details of the broken relationship before us are not for public dissection, which would serve no good purpose, but would do great harm.  Nor, for the most part, do I intend to dissect them privately.  It is what it is, the outward form of the problem speaking loudly and clearly enough.  But there are some painful features that every broken relationship tends to share, realities about life under the cross, as well as the lies of Satan, and these we need to talk about, at least a bit, that God might give us understanding and peace.  Because all of us have at least seen a broken relationship, and most of us have suffered one. 

     To announce my broken relationship to you this morning and then ignore it in the sermon would not be the evangelical thing to do.  That is, it would not be the Gospel, good news thing to do, to inform you of a problem, a struggle, a great sadness, and then fail to apply God’s Word to it.  In the days following the attacks of September 11^th, 2001, preachers talked about this terrible, evil tragedy, for the sake of pointing hurting people to Christ.  And so, Lord willing, I will preach about broken relationships today, while there is one publicly before us, preaching so that the Holy Spirit might touch us and heal us, and give us strength for the coming week, as we all go back to our relationships, and try to live them out as Christians.  

     We should, and do, receive our greatest joys from our various relationships.  At the same time, we receive our greatest hurts, for there are, sadly, many damaged and broken relationships in this sinful world, like failures between husbands and wives, that take the joy out of life, and all too often end in divorce.  There are estrangements between parents and children, brothers and sisters, hurts and offenses and struggles to forgive that spoil our relationships with the people we want most to love.  Lifelong friends, business partners, next-door neighbors, politicians and constituents, pastors and parishioners, every human relationship carries the potential for failure, because sinful humans are involved in them.  And all too many of them do fail, at least by human standards. 

     Relationships fail because of human sin, and we all contribute.  Sometimes one party is overwhelmingly responsible.  Sometimes circumstances beyond our control are the determining factor.  But usually we all contribute enough selfishness, impatience, and failures to love and serve so that the responsibility for the problems in a relationship is shared by all involved. 

     Without excusing sin, it is also true that sometimes the right way forward is for a relationship to end, or change drastically.  Such a decision should not be made lightly, because relationships are gifts from God.  But it may be  a prayerful decision that has to be made, when it becomes clear that God is not laying out a path for the relationship to continue.  This is not a license for any of us to divorce our spouse or reject our friend or dump a business partner, just because we find the relationship difficult now, the other person not so pleasing as before.  We are to work at our relationships, seeking reconciliation.  But even after forgiveness wins, sometimes the relationship cannot continue, at least not in the same form as before. 

     The decision about whether to keep a relationship going or let it go is to be based on your original calling to serve your neighbors in relationships.  A decision to end the relationship is rightly made with the good of the other people involved foremost in mind.  For example, the pregnant woman who is unprepared to care for her child, and so gives her baby to be adopted, is loving her child in an amazing way, even though loving her child means not continuing in their original relationship.  She’s doing the right thing, and should feel good about her decision, even though at the very same time it is difficult and painful, the pain multiplied as Satan whispers in her ear, “How could you?”  But God says, and we should echo, “Well done, you have put the good of your baby above your own wants and desires.”  “By placing for adoption, you have loved this child, this neighbor, whom God has given you to serve.”   

     This example of placing a baby for adoption is helpful, because we are reminded that the fact a relationship ends, even due in part or in whole to our sin, does not mean that the relationship did not have value, or that God did not call you to that relationship.  As a Christian, God calls you to serve your neighbors, and places you in relationships, long term and short term, so that you have neighbors to serve.  If you have a relationship which on your part is not intrinsically sinful, if the relationship you are in is not coercive or designed for evil, well then you may know that you have been called to that relationship by God, simply because you find yourself in it, for God has prepared in advance your good works, the ones He wants you to walk in. 

     There is no parent-child relationship formed outside of God’s will, every conception being His work, no coffee breaks for the Almighty, no accidental babies.  There is no neighbor moving in next door to you without God’s foreknowledge.  Likewise, if to pay your bills you have sought and been offered a job at McDonalds, you may be sure that putting on your uniform and serving up tasty fries to your customers is pleasing to God.  Sometimes the good in a calling can be hard to see, but trust that there is good, because the God who calls you is good. 

     This understanding of callings and relationships as gifts from God, given to us so that we may serve our neighbor, is called the doctrine of vocation, the teaching that God calls us into the various roles we play in life, in order that through us, God can serve the world.  A right understanding of vocation sets us free, free to live, in several ways.  First, it is very good to know that God is actively working for the good of His creation, even still today.  Even more, Christians know the God who calls them into earthly relationships is first and foremost the God who called His Son Jesus Christ into the relationship as the Savior of sinners.  Your first call from God is the call to new life in Christ, by the forgiveness of your sins.  You have been saved by grace, through faith, a free gift from God, and so now you are ready to start living out the life of good works for the neighbor which God has prepared for you.  You serve your neighbor in love not to earn God’s favor, but rather your service to your neighbor is the joyful fruit of the incredible good news that God has loved and served you by freely giving Christ, His forgiveness and His life, to you.  Freed in Christ from the need to earn God’s love, you now have Christ’s love to share, with the neighbors that God gives you, in the relationships He prepares for you. 

     This primary relationship with the Lord is what kept Joseph going, all those years.  His relationship with his brothers was all messed up, Joseph the slightly arrogant favored son never failing to irritate his brothers with his privileges, his special coat of many colors, his strange dreams, ten of his brothers eventually plotting to kill Joseph, stopping just short, selling Joseph into slavery instead.  Joseph, a slave in Egypt, sank lower and lower, became weaker and weaker.  But Joseph’s faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and his father Jacob never died, and in that faith he was always receiving new opportunities for relationship, new neighbors to serve, and serve well.  Joseph understood these opportunities were gifts from the Lord, and so he served.  Even as a slave, he served. 

     Eventually, Joseph’s excellent service to his neighbors paid off, and he was made second in command to the Pharaoh.  But when his own brothers come to him to beg for food during a famine, Joseph struggled with the desire for revenge.  But God led him to forgive his brothers, and bring his whole family to live securely in Egypt, broken relationships restored. 

     Then comes today’s reading from Genesis, years later, when Jacob their father had died.  We should understand Joseph’s brothers, for we know how hard it is to believe you are truly forgiven, that your offense is truly forgotten, especially when you’ve done something really bad to someone who now has the power to pay you back.  This doubt led Joseph’s brothers to fear revenge from Joseph after their father Jacob had died.  Perhaps now with Dad gone, Joseph would make them pay for their earlier sin.  So they made up a story to try to protect themselves.  

     But there was no need, for Joseph had no real power to take revenge.  Joseph had plenty of earthly power, but as a believer in the God of all grace, he had gladly given up all his power to avenge himself, and out of his faith in the Lord he forgave his brothers.  Joseph knew the sin that was in him, and in his brothers, but by God’s grace He also knew that the Lord could and would overcome the sinful acts of humanity, even working through the consequences of evil for the eventual good of His people.  The terrible things done between the sons of Jacob were truly evil, but what they had meant for evil, God meant, and God used, to bring about good.  Joseph knew the character and the promises of the true God, who overcame the evil of the brothers, in order to provide for all the family.  This same God has overcome the evil of every brother, indeed every person on earth, by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

 

     God made Joseph weak, in order to work strong things through him, for the good of God’s people, and for the good of the whole world.  That’s how God works through relationships.  We in our sinfulness want to use people to make ourselves happier, stronger, richer, more popular.  We are even taught that struggles are opportunities to improve yourself, that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  But in relationships, God instead teaches Christians to be weak, to serve, to even suffer, so that people can begin to see the character of God through the struggles of Christians in service.  When I am weak, then I am strong, for then God must take over.  When you make a mistake in your relationships, do not seek to power through, do not pretend to be able to overcome sin and its consequences by your own strength.  Instead, when you fail, confess your weakness to God, and your neighbor, and learn to depend on Christ all the more. 

     The way of Christian vocation is the way of seeing your relationships as a calling from God to serve, without a guarantee of happy result in your lifetime.  We all want happiness in our lives, and we are free to seek it, and God often gives us much happiness.  But we serve one another not because we think it’s all going to work out, but rather we serve because Christ has first served us.  There is a loss of control in this, a necessary acknowledgement that the results are not in our hands.  To give up this control is scary, but it is true, and, to our surprise, it is also good news.  For we give up control because God has told us He is in control.  We dare to be weak, because God has exercised His strength from the place of greatest weakness, from a cross outside Jerusalem, where Jesus, God’s Son, was broken.  Jesus was broken, in order to heal your relationship to God, and your relationships with others, by His blood-bought forgiveness for all sin. 

     There is no salvation in our earthly relationships.  Instead, right along with our joys and hopes, also come sin and struggle, because we sinners are involved.  There is no salvation in our earthly relationships, but there is forgiveness for repenting sinners, because Jesus was called to this earth to become the Savior of sinners.  When you struggle, God may call you to keep going, or to move into a different relationship with the same person, perhaps only to pray, or to support from afar.  This is God’s call.  But His first concern is repentance and forgiveness, forgiveness for you, and for your loved one, and for you and your loved one to forgive each other.  The master really did forgive the unpayable debt of the wicked servant.  Joseph really had forgiven his brothers for trying to kill him, and selling him into slavery.  And God has this same unlimited forgiveness for your sins, forgiveness unlimited because it is based in the blood of Christ, God’s Son, who died and rose for you. 

     When you struggle in your relationships, confess your sins, those you know, those you suspect, and those you don’t even recognize.  Confess your sinfulness and ask God’s mercy, for He will forgive you, every time.  Confess your sins, and God will give you forgiveness, forgiveness for you, and forgiveness to share, in the Name of Jesus, Amen.   

Scratching the Itch

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, September 4^th, A + D 2011

Ezekiel 33:7-9 and Matthew 18:1-20

     Funny how the Holy Spirit works.  If you have received and read your newsletter already, then you may know about my ‘Seven Year Itch.’  You see, August 8^th was the 7 year anniversary of my ordination and installation as your pastor, and, perhaps due to that divinely numbered occasion, or perhaps for other, less numerological reasons, I have been feeling an itch lately.  Now, some of you may be thinking, unhappily or maybe happily, that I am referring to an itch to move, to seek new pastures, new, not greener, this Forsyth boy being unable to imagine greener pastures than the ones we’ve enjoyed this very wet year.   No, whether to your relief or disappointment, my itch has nothing to do with moving.  Truth be told, due to our experiences with the Marine Corps early in our marriage, Shelee and I actually feel an itch to move at about two and half to three years into a new place.  Living in one place for seven years is completely uncharted waters for us, more than twice our normal stay.  But still, I can tell you the itch I’m feeling isn’t about moving. 

     No, my itch is about today’s Old Testament reading.  That’s the Holy Spirit part.  I didn’t know our reading from Ezekiel was coming up when I sent in my newsletter article.  Actually, I tried to send in this month’s Pastor’s letter at the end of July, but somehow forgot to click ‘send’ on my e-mail, leaving Pat and Mike with next to nothing for content, resulting in an August with no newsletter, an absence I hope you noticed.  Anyway, I intended, but failed to send my message at the end of July, so now my letter about my ‘Seven Year Itch’ is just coming out, just as we have this particular reading from Ezekiel before us:  "So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”

     My itch is a renewed desire to fulfill my calling to speak what God has said, without compromise, about everything, forthrightly and carefully laying out the truth of God’s Word as it relates to a number of issues which I have, from time to time over the last seven years skirted around.  Which is pretty much what the Lord tells Ezekiel not to do.  No skirting, Ezekiel is to unflinchingly speak the Lord’s Word, His warnings to Israel, every time.  If Ezekiel fails, the Lord will hold him accountable for the blood of the perishing wicked person.  If Ezekiel fulfills his calling to warn Israel, the wicked may turn from his evil way, or not, but regardless, Ezekiel will have delivered his soul.  Which makes it pretty clear why James warns: “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.”   And also we can see why the preacher who wrote the book of Hebrews begged them to “Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.” 

     God puts a heavy burden on His called public servants, the men whom, through His direct call in the case of the prophets and apostles, and through the call of His congregations in the case of pastors, God places in the position of Ezekiel, the place of one with a special responsibility to say what God has given him to say, no more, and no less, no matter the consequences.  To pursue this calling more faithfully, that’s my itch. 

     Right about now, more of you may be wishing I was feeling an itch to move instead.  I mean come on, Pastor Warner, we already practice closed communion, actually asking visitors, along with our young people, to learn and confess publicly the teaching of the Church before coming to the altar for the Lord’s Supper, a practice many people hate.  We speak up for life, which means speaking against abortion, against the supposed right to choose to end the life of an innocent unborn child.  We take a stand for traditional marriage, and against the teaching of evolution, all in the face of a culture that increasingly sees the traditional, historic Christian Church as a bunch of narrow, legalistic nut-jobs.  How much harder do you want to make life?  What unaddressed sins must we be forced to face, now? 

     All of them.  God’s will is that His warning against sin be sounded, His warning against all sin.  As Jesus told His Apostles, in a passage that echoes with Ezekiel, the temptation to sin will come, but woe to the one who causes one of the Father’s little ones to sin.  Better to have a millstone, that is a giant rock, tied around your neck and be thrown into the ocean, than to lead a believer in Jesus into sin.  The Church, that is the gathered believers in Jesus Christ, is to be cared for and protected by God’s called preachers, not led into sinning.  And that is what the preacher does who fails to teach faithfully, or who fails to speak the whole counsel of God.  The Lord is so concerned for this that He attaches a remarkable promise to His command to Ezekiel:  Speak my warning to Israel, every time, and you will deliver your soul.  It sounds like an alternate route to salvation, for the called preachers of God at least:  Unflinchingly proclaim God’s warnings to God’s people, every time, and you will deliver your soul.  So I better get busy, to deliver my own soul.  Sorry for the discomfort, but I must. 

     There’s just one problem.  I can’t do it.  I haven’t done it.  As itchy as I am to do it better, I don’t imagine that I will suddenly change so drastically.  I can, and should, pour great energy into rightly and consistently proclaiming God’s truth, both publicly and privately, but I don’t always understand God’s Word, let alone how to apply it.  Nor am I strong enough to bear up, every time, under the pressure. 

     Which puts me in a quandary.  The Lord has laid out a way for me, the called watchman of this congregation, to deliver my soul, but I can’t do it.  And oh, by the way, He has done the same for you.  As Jesus told the rich young man, keep every one of God’s commandments, every time, and you will earn eternal life.  But you don’t, do you?  You can’t, your sinful nature has defeated you before you even start. 

     I at times avoid speaking the plain truth of God’s Word for a variety of self-serving reasons, but you are often all too eager to let me off the hook, to not ask about the elephant in the room that you and I both are ignoring.  We may do it to avoid conflict, or to protect a loved one from strife.  We may even think we are helping someone, easing up on God’s truth just a little, in order to give them time to get comfortable with the Church, thinking with unfounded optimism that we will be able to correct our little spiritual fibs later.  As much as I don’t want to preach God’s whole truth to you, you don’t want to hear His truth, let alone be called to act on it.  God has set out a way for us to earn our salvation, but you and I cannot achieve it. 

     Nevertheless, I do have an itch to speak the truth more plainly, more consistently.  I don’t mean go crazy, chasing after sin like the sky is falling.  There is no need to chase after sin, it makes itself known plenty often without me beating the bushes for it.  But rather, when something is said or done in our midst that contradicts a clear Word of God, I want to speak the truth to that lie.  Why?  Not because I think I can thereby earn God’s favor, but because the Truth will set you free.  Indeed, it is only through the proclaimed Truth about our sin that you and I are made ready to hear the Good News about our true and faithful Watchman, our Savior Jesus Christ. 

     Why are preachers called to unflinchingly proclaim God’s warnings to His people?  Why are all of us individual Christians supposed to go privately to our brother who sins against us, and tell him about his sin?  It’s not to win an argument, or to get back what the sin of another has robbed from us.  If you think Jesus’ words today about confronting sin in your Christian brother or sister are about you getting paid back for your injury or loss, then please just skip over this chapter on Church discipline.  Because it’s not about getting back anything, except your sinning brother or sister.  We confront sin, as preachers or members of the body of Christ, for the purpose of turning back sinners from the path that leads to destruction.  We speak clearly and truthfully about sin in order to stop them short, to get their attention, that we might win back the sinner with the Good News of our True Watchman, Jesus, the overseer of all our souls, the Son of God who made Himself the Son of Man, for us. 

    We cannot, preacher or hearer, not Ezekiel, not Pastor Warner, not the greatest Bible student, not the  sweetest little child, none of us can win our salvation with our faithfulness to God’s Word.  But as we speak God’s Word, even ever so feebly as we may, as we speak His Truth, the Holy Spirit uses that Word to deliver the forgiveness of Christ to broken sinners, and this gift is sweet salvation.  The sweetness of the gift is the reason we are moved to speak God’s Word in the first place.  The life of sinless faithfulness that God requires, Jesus has lived, in our place.  The death of unthinkable punishment that sinners deserve, Jesus has died, in our place.  In Christ, there are no more good works required for you to earn entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus has done enough for all.  In Christ, there is no more sin to be justified, Jesus has paid for it all.  It is finished, all of it.   And it is God’s free gift, to you. 

     When, by the crushing blows of God’s warnings, we are broken from our love for sin, or separated from our prideful fantasy of self-righteousness, when we know we have no hope in ourselves to reach God’s heaven, then Jesus says “Look to me, sinner.”  “See my hands, my feet, the trophies of my victory; these are for you.”  “In my blood, you are forgiven, and filled with new life, my life, the life of God, given and shed, dead, buried and resurrected, all for you.” 

     So hear O Israel.  Hear O Church of Christ.  You have gathered in His Name, and so true to His Word, your Watchman is here.  Your true and only Savior Jesus is present with His gifts of forgiveness, life and eternal salvation, all for you.  Repent and believe the Good News, taste and see that the Lord is good, Amen.