Trinity VIII [Matthew 7:15-23] (25-Jul-2021)

                                 

This sermon was prepared during lockdown, and uploaded online only.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. 

In the Lord’s Prayer, after we call upon our Father in heaven, the first thing that Christians have continually prayed for since Jesus taught this wonderful prayer to his disciples is: Hallowed be your name.

This is such a wonderful prayer, and these four little words “hallowed be your name” are probably the most difficult for people to grasp what they really mean. The word “hallowed” means “to keep something holy”, so we’re asking in the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we want to keep your name holy, let your name be holy.

Luther puts it so well in the Small Catechism: God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also. God doesn’t need us for his name to be holy. His name is already holy. But we are the ones who use God’s name, and we are the ones who call upon it. Are we going to use his name in holy way, or in an unholy way?

So Luther says: How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

This explanation is so rich. It says: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity. First of all, listen to what it says about God’s word: it has its own truth and purity. We don’t need to add our own truth and purity to God’s Word to make it true and pure. God’s word has its own truth and its own purity. And so it’s the duty of pastors and churches to teach God’s word in its truth and purity. So it says: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Teaching comes first, life comes second. We can’t live a Christian life unless we’re taught the Christian life first. No-one will believe that Jesus died for their sins unless they are taught this. No-one will live a holy life unless they are taught what a holy and godly life looks like.

Psalm 119 says: Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. 2 Peter 1 says: We have the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

Today, we need to hang on to God’s Word, and savour it, and learn it, and study it like never before, otherwise it will all be taken away from us.

Teaching comes first, life comes second. There’s no Christian life without Christian teaching. And it’s not easy to teach God’s word, and to read it clearly, because we have so many barriers in our thinking, in our conscience, in our hearts and minds which prevent us from hearing God’s word clearly. When we think God’s word is not clear, the problem’s not with the bible, the problem is with us.

And it’s not easy to live a holy life. So often we think we’re doing the right thing, and our lives make complete sense, until the Holy Spirit comes and crushes our false righteousness to bits. Isaiah says: All our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag.

And so we read: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! (We need help! We so desperately need to pray for the Holy Spirit to help us teach God’s word and to lead holy lives! Help us to do this!) But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

Do you see there in the catechism these prayers of desperation! We so desperately need to hear the word of God preached in its truth and purity, but the only people who will do this are sinful pastors! We all so desperately need to lead holy lives according to God’s Word, but the only thing we see in ourselves is our sin, how much we fail at living a holy life! (At least, if we’re honest, this is all we see!) Prayer, prayer, prayer! Hallowed be your name! Help us, heavenly Father! Have mercy on the pastors of your church! Have mercy on the people of your church! Lord Jesus, do not leave us alone, but stay with us to the close of the age, just as you have promised!

You see – in the church, there will always be someone preaching something. There will be people living some kind of life. But will the preaching be true and pure? Will the peoples’ lives be holy?

This is exactly what Jesus wants to teach us about in our reading today. He says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Jesus teaches us very clearly that in the church there will be true prophets and there will be false ones. And Jesus calls you to beware of the false ones.

You see, the Gospel brings so much peace to people. It really is a wonderful privilege to be a pastor. There are very few other people who can walk into people’s homes to be with them at a time of death or a time of tragedy and people will actually listen. There’s a certain respect that people show pastors. And then there’s a temptation for us pastors to rest on that instead of actually ministering to people with God’s word.

And so, there are also other people who don’t want to shepherd people with God’s word, but want the benefits, the trappings, the honour, the respect. In Acts chapter 8, there’s a man called Simon who asks that he might buy from Peter the power to give people the Holy Spirit. But this is not how it works.

When God’s Word is not taught, people have to teach something, they don’t teach nothing. If they don’t teach God’s word, they always, always teach a pretend, counterfeit, false word which they pass off as God’s word.

So Jesus says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

So you can see, that false prophets make an effort. They dress up in disguise. They make a show. They realise if they want to be respected, and respectable, they have to look like real prophets. They have to be dressed in sheep’s clothing.

Some pastors and some churches are particularly obvious and crass about this. They realise that the presence of the living and resurrected Jesus brings with it a certain atmosphere. They realise that when they walk into a real church where the word of God is taught that the people behave differently because they know they are in a holy place in the presence of a holy God. But if they don’t teach this, then they have to replicate the atmosphere: some churches will even put in flashy lights to give people the impression they’re in a night club or something. They know that Christians sing: and instead of singing texts which are full of God’s word, they sing empty repetitions that could mean anything. There are some Christian songs which are almost the same as popular love songs where you can basically take the word “baby” out and put in the word “Jesus”.

False prophets are always mimics. They want to pretend that they are a real church. They want to create the atmosphere of Jesus’ presence, they want to replicate the power that comes with God’s word, they want to replicate the energy that comes with singing the words of the Holy Spirit, but it’s always a fake atmosphere.

Now, it can be so easy to point the fingers at other churches, and other denominations. Many of us will have good friends who are members of other churches that don’t teach God’s word properly, and nevertheless despite their churches, they are faithful Christians, and people who are a pleasure to talk to about our common faith. But no church is immune from false prophets. Sometimes it seems as though some Lutheran pastors haven’t read the bible since seminary, if they ever did.

People often thank pastors for sermons they like – and it’s nice when people do. But with this then comes the temptation not to preach about subjects that people might not like. But the glory doesn’t belong to pastors, it belongs to God. It’s not the pastor’s words that people enjoy, but it’s God’s word they enjoy. We pastors can so easily forget that we must decrease and Jesus must increase, and then pastors want to take the credit for God’s word.

And so, Jesus says: Beware of false prophets, who comes to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognise them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognise them by their fruits.

Such an obvious fruit of true prophets is that they teach God’s word in its truth and purity. And in our church, this is our continual prayer, that we have these wonderful gifts at hand: God’s Word, and the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

It’s amazing how a false prophet will want to convince you that we are all basically saying the same thing. They want to give the appearance of being a good tree, whereas in actual fact they are a rotten tree. They want to give the appearance of being a grapevine, but in actual fact, they are a thornbush.

For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are an obvious example of false prophets, want to say to Christians that we believe the same thing. “You believe that Jesus is true God, but we believe that he’s God’s first creation. But let’s not fight over words!” We don’t believe the same thing! Either Jesus is true God or he’s not. If he’s not, then his blood is of no use, his death is of no use, and his prayers are of no use. We need to listen to people, what they say: are they pretending that we agree when we really don’t?

For example, often people attack Baptism in this way: They say, “You baptise babies and we don’t. But we all believe the same thing.” No we don’t. We baptise babies, because we believe that baptism is God’s work. It says so in Titus 3 and Ephesians 5, when it says: God saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: Let the little children come to me and do not stop them. We believe that “baptism saves us” because 1 Peter says: Baptism now saves you. Finished. If you don’t believe that baptism gives salvation, if you don’t believe that baptism is God’s work not a human work, then your argument is with Jesus and his apostles, not with us.

People often attack the Lord’s Supper in this way when they say that it’s not Christ’s body and blood. Well, Jesus said, “This is my body, this is my blood”. Your argument is with Jesus if you don’t believe that.

Then the false prophets take away the great comfort and the great riches that come with baptism and the Lord’s Supper and preaching, and they say: You don’t need this stuff. You need something extra that only I can give you. You need to come to our revival meetings, you need to come to receive the Holy Spirit from us, and only from us. These people don’t believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, they believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from them!

They say: “You don’t need God’s Word. You need to listen to our own prophet! Our preacher, our prophet is the only one who’s got it right! He will cast out demons. He will do many mighty works! You don’t need baptism, the Lord’s Supper, you don’t need pastors, or the bible or the creed or the liturgy”, they say.

Don’t listen to people who talk like this! They are false prophets! They want to devour you like wolves! There seems to be some new crazy church starting up every month. Jesus says: Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Jesus says: You will recognise them from their fruits. It’s difficult to recognise a false prophet from their life, whether it is holy or not, because every preacher is a sinner, even if some would like to pretend that they’re not. But you need to listen to their words, their preaching, their doctrine. Holy teaching comes before a holy life. This holy preaching, the teaching of the Word of God in its truth and purity is the will of our Father in heaven.

Jesus says: Not everyone will enter heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Teaching God’s word, and praying to God from his word.

Even St Paul says: Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

And so Jesus says to us: Beware! Beware of the false prophets. Don’t be sucked in! The Holy Spirit only proceeds from the Father and the Son, so if you want to receive the Holy Spirit you can only receive him from the words of the Father and the Son, and from no-one else’s words. If the words comes from someone else, they are the words of a false prophet.

Amen. 

Lord God, heavenly Father, how desperately we need your help! Our pastors need your help so that they would teach us God’s word in its truth and purity. Parents need your help that they can teach their children. And all of us need your help so that we would live according to your word. Send us the Holy Spirit, our helper, and our Comforter, in the name of Jesus, our living and resurrected Lord. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Trinity VII [Mark 8:1-9] (18-Jul-2021)

                                

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. 

How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about where Jesus fed 4000 people. You might not have realised that in the Gospels we read about two different miracles: the feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000. They are not two accounts of the same miracle, but they actually record two different miracles. In both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, both of these miracles are recorded.

When it comes to the miracles of Jesus, the comfort we derive from them is always, first of all, the fact that it happened. When we preach the Word of God in the church, and we say that the bible is without errors, and inerrant, and infallible, and all that kind of thing, we as pastors should always seek to preach the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text. When we study the bible, we study the words, the grammar, the sentences, the cross references, and all that sort of thing. But when we say in the church, that we preach the word, or we preach the text, it doesn’t mean that we’re coming up here in the pulpit to preach a whole lot of words and grammar and things like that. The most important thing is what the words in the bible actually say, and much of the time, we’re also dealing with real things that actually happened in real life in real time. So, when we preach this passage about the feeding of the 4000, the most important thing is not what nouns and verbs St Mark used, and all that kind of thing, but the fact that at a particular time, at a particular place, this thing happened, this miracle actually occurred, Jesus actually did it.

Sometimes, there’s also a tendency when it comes to interpreting the bible, to always ask the question: “What’s the point of this passage?” What message is St Mark trying to portray here? Yes, that’s a good thing to some degree, but once again, if this miracle didn’t actually happen, then there is no point. It’s just as when St Paul is talking about the resurrection, and he says: If Christ had not been raised from the dead, my preaching is in vain. Your faith is in vain, you are still in your sins. There is a point to the resurrection, and that is that Jesus defeated death, that he won the victory over death, but if he didn’t actually rise from the dead, then there is no point. Also, in the feeding of the 4000 people in our Gospel reading today, if the miracle didn’t actually happen, then there is no point. So, we should always remember, with all these passages which speak about miracles in the Gospels, to spend some time in simple, reverent awe about the fact, that the same Jesus we read about here, who is also our Saviour through baptism and faith, actually did this thing in our Gospel, and actually fed 4000 people. And that, in itself, is an amazing, wonderful, divine thing, that is totally worthy of our awe, our reverence, our wonder, our complete amazement. 

So let’s have a look at this passage in three parts: First of all, we have the people, the crowd. Secondly, we have the disciples of Jesus. And thirdly, we have Jesus, and what he says, and what he does.

In the previous chapter, chapter 7, of the Gospel of Mark, we read about Jesus giving a sermon, some teaching, about traditions and what defiles a person, and after that, we read about how the Syrophoenician woman came to him and asked him to cast a demon out of her daughter, and how Jesus also healed a man who could not speak or hear. Now, often when Jesus is teaching, or doing some healings, a crowd begins to gather, and people want to learn more, and they want to know what’s going on. And sometimes, they are so interested in what Jesus has to say, that they forget about providing themselves with food. Maybe they think: I’ll just listen to this one last teaching sermon, and then I’ll head home and have morning tea. But, you could imagine, if you were alive at that time, that what Jesus had to say must have been just so incredibly interesting, unlike anything that you’d ever heard before, and so the people just stay there, and listen.

We read at the beginning of the reading: In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”

We learn here that sometimes those who follow Christ are sometimes led into a kind of wilderness. We read at the beginning of each of the Gospels, that after Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit drove him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the evil one. We read that Jesus fasted there for 40 days. Now, in the church year, we often commemorate this event and remember it particularly during the season of Lent, which is 40 days before Easter. And sometimes, Christians devote themselves to some kind of discipline or mortification, where they might fast, or give up some food, like coffee, or chocolate, or something like that, as a kind of way to remind themselves about Jesus’ fasting, and also his suffering and death for us on the cross.

However, apart from this season of Lent, where we might take up some self-chosen suffering, sometimes God leads us into our own personal Lent, our own personal time of cross-bearing, where he leads us into the desert, or into the wilderness for a while. At the beginning of time, Adam and Eve lived in a wonderful garden, but then because of the fall, were kicked out of Eden, and only then, did they first begin to experience the world as a kind of wilderness, with its thistles and thorns. Jesus, when he lived on this earth, often went out into the wilderness, because he wants to atone for the sins of the human race which forced them out of Eden. So, Jesus’ wilderness, his desert, is a garden, a paradise for us.

So, sometimes, we go through a time in our life, where we just feel so close to God, so many things in our life are going well, we feel like it’s just so easy to pray and speak with God, and praise him. And these times in our life can be of wonderful encouragement, but they are more like lunch and recess time at school. Often children at school love recess and lunch, but it’s not really why they’re there: it’s just the break, it’s not really school. And so, the times in our lives when things are hard, when there are many temptations, those are the times when Jesus really sends us to school, and those are the times when we really grow.

And so, what kinds of things does Jesus use to lead us into the desert, into the wilderness? Sometimes, we begin to feel a sense of loneliness from others around us. The people we know that we once enjoyed their company and friendship, now turn against us, and turn their backs on us. Or sometimes, in our homes, we find ourselves having a difficult time in our marriage or in our family, where the peace of the home just isn’t what it used to be. Or, sometimes, the things we enjoyed on an everyday basis, just in terms of our daily bread, the comforts of life, are no longer there like they used to be. We might enter into a time of financial hardship, or at least, financial uncertainty. Or, sometimes, our country, or our city, or whatever, takes a bit of a turn for the worst, and life becomes a bit harder for us. Or, sometimes, things might go inward: all of a sudden we start to realise that we’re not the good people we thought we were, and the Holy Spirit starts to reveal to us our sin, in this way, or in that way.

And all these kinds of things can compound and all come together, and we can be overwhelmed, or become depressed, and start to feel like we are in a kind of wilderness. God provides us for a time with our own personal Lent, and sometimes, it can feel like there is no Easter. We start to doubt God and question his motives, or we wonder where he is, or what he’s doing, and why he let this or that happen to us.

Whatever happens, we know that God is faithful. Jesus knows exactly what is going on, and he will alleviate whatever suffering we endure at the exact time when this suffering has been of whatever benefit it has needed to be for our soul. Jesus strips something away from us, to that we can look much more clearly and much more sharply to him for everything. Jesus takes away from us some earthly comfort and earthly joy so that he can strengthen us and encourage us with his heavenly comfort and heavenly joy. After all, this life is not all there is. This earthly life is just a breath, a puff of wind, a vanity, nothing. St Paul writes: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

And so, in the meantime, Jesus leads us into the wilderness, and he teaches us all kinds of things that he knows and that we know, we really need to learn: patience under the cross, contentment with what God has given to us, humility under the mighty hand of God. St Paul writes: I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. If only we were all like Paul describes himself here! But what’s the secret to surviving the wilderness? How has St Paul learned to be content? He knows that he is not alone, but that Jesus is with him. He knows that he has a faithful Saviour. If he were by himself, he would only see his own weakness, his own helplessness, his own need. But because Jesus is with him, he can be strong, he can be content, he can do all things through him who strengthens him. And the same goes for us, and this is the reason why Jesus leads us with him into a wilderness. He wants to teach us to look to Him alone for everything. When we have taken him for granted, and forgotten that he is always with us, then he teaches us that he really is here, that he really does love us, that he really does look after us, that he really does forgive us, and that he really does provide for us.

Now, let’s have a look at the disciples. We read that they say to Jesus: How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? The funny thing about this, of course, is that that this feeding of the 4000 people happened after the feeding of the 5000. Jesus already had performed a miracle of feeding 5000 people, and then the disciples ask this question. Their memories have been so quickly plagued by doubt. Don’t they know that the answer to this question is standing right in front of them? Of course, normally if people ask themselves: “how can we feed so many people?” there really might not be an answer, because they don’t know, because normally people can’t feed so many people, if they don’t have enough food, or they are a long way from shops, or they don’t have any money. But when they’re with Jesus, the answer is completely different. All they need do is look to his hands. That’s where the answer is. 

We learn from this question from the disciples that faith is no simple, straight-forward matter. We are always forgetting everything, are we are always needing to hear the Gospel and learn it again. The mould is always creeping into our hearts, the gunge, the creep, the darkness. And we are always in need of turning to God and letting him sweep out our hearts again with his Holy Spirit, and learn the faith again.

As a pastor, sometimes there is a temptation not to preach the Gospel, and not to lay the foundations about the Scripture, about how our hearts are constantly doing battle with sin, and how Jesus has suffered and died for us, and made a full atonement for us with his blood and his sacrifice. We pastors can often think that we don’t need to keep preaching these things, because we think: everyone knows that stuff—let’s go on to other stuff. But it’s not true. Even the greatest professor in the world of theology doesn’t know the Gospel from Sunday to Sunday. He still needs to hear it afresh. He still needs the Holy Spirit’s broom to sweep him clean again. The reason is that the Gospel is always new. Jesus is always new. We are always learning something new from him, and even we think we’re learning something we’ve already heard from him before, something we think is old, we often need to learn it in a new way, and in such a way that it needs to be applied to some part of us which it hasn’t touched. To think that the disciples had already seen Jesus feed 5000 people, and as soon as they end up in a similar—almost the same—situation again, they completely forget how the problem was solved last time. In fact, the problem was not really solved. There is no solution: there is only Jesus. Jesus is not simply a solution to our problems, he is a person, he is our shepherd, and doesn’t just want to solve things for us, and plug our gaps, he wants us to depend on him for everything. He wants himself to be our everything, our all, our complete and total sufficiency.

Luther taught a wonderful thing when he spoke about God’s school as made up of prayer, meditation, and temptation. We turn to God in prayer, we meditate on his word, that is, we think about it, and churn it over, and learn from it, and study it. But then, God plunges us into the wilderness again, and we experience temptation, spiritual attack. And this in turn throws us back into prayer and the Word. This is how Jesus makes us living Christians, and makes us walk in the narrow way, behind him, and following in his footsteps.

But also, we see something else in our reading about the disciples. When Jesus took the bread and the fish, he gave to his disciples to distribute to the people. So this means that the blessings we receive from Jesus—whether it is things like our daily bread, food, money, or whatever—or spiritual blessings, comfort, and consolation, it is given to us also for the blessing of other people too. Jesus doesn’t just give us things for ourselves, but for others. St Paul writes: The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. We also read from the beginning of 2 Corinthians about how God comfort us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. So we see from the disciples, how they completely forgot the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, and how they needed to be strengthened in faith again, but also how they were then called to distribute the gifts which Christ gave them to others.

Now, let’s look at Jesus in our reading. First of all, we see his wonderful, compassionate, merciful, heart. He says: I have compassion on the crowd. And not only does he have a compassionate heart, but he is also almighty and powerful to do something about it. He takes the seven loaves and the few fish, and we read: having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.

Don’t you think that if Christ was merciful to the people then, that he will not be merciful to you now in your life?

Sometimes we have many things that we are worried about. We worry because we do not have. Sometimes, he provides for us by giving us what we need, sometimes he simply takes away the worry, and we realise that we had what we needed all along. In our reading, Jesus does both. He gives the people what they needed, but they had what they needed—seven loaves and few small fish—they had what they needed all along. All it needed was Jesus’ blessing, and it became for them everything that they needed. 

So, from this, we learn that Jesus is constantly feeding us with what we need. He gives to us our daily bread. He gives it to us Christians, and also to unbelievers, because he is merciful to them too. For us, he teaches us to receive our daily bread with thanks, because we realise that even if he hadn’t forgiven us our sin, he is still so merciful as to provide us with what we need.

But then, also, Jesus feeds us with spiritual food in this life. He feeds us with his word, just as he said when he was in the wilderness: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. He establishes us in his kingdom and sits us around his table through Holy Baptism, and he also gives us his body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper.

But then, also, Jesus feeds us with eternal food. When we die, we will be taken on angels’ wings to feed on the heavenly pastures, and enjoy the rich treasures of God’s own house. Jesus won this great banquet for us, when he suffered and died on the cross, but he also opened the door for us when he rose from the dead. He even gives us a personal invitation through Holy Baptism, and strengthens us with the food of the Lord’s Supper all along the way, until we reach his heavenly eternal supper. This is a wonderful gift, and a wonderful promise. Jesus has compassion on us, he loves us, he has promised us the gift of eternal life, and he has the power and ability to act on his own promise and to fulfil it. So let’s put our trust not in the loaves and the fishes, but in Jesus who knows what to do with them! Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Trinity VI [Matthew 5:20-26] (11-Jul-2021)

                               

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. 

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder…” but I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today in our Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us particularly about the 5^th commandment, “You shall not murder”, and he especially applies it in talking about anger. Now, I think, it’s fair to say, that today, there is far too much anger in our community, our society, our country, our world. People burst out, fight, rage – there’s so much hatred in our world today, and very little love.

It’s easy to get angry, especially when we see so many things around us going wrong, and not how we would like them to be. But it’s often hard to stay calm, and be patient, and show gentleness and friendliness, and to be reasonable. This is a battle that Jesus calls us to fight: the fight against our own anger. It’s a very difficult fight, and in order to conquer we must know where the remedy to our anger comes from. It comes from Jesus Christ himself, and his righteousness alone.

Our reading today starts with verse 20 of chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This verse comes just at the end of a little section of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is talking about the law. He talks about the Law, then he talks here about the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and then he goes on in the next verse to talk about murder and anger. And these things all go together, actually. Let’s listen to the previous verses to hear what Jesus has to say about the Law. He says: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 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. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom od heaven. And then we read the verse, which begins our reading today: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, let’s think for a moment about the Law. Jesus says: I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

When you think of God’s Law, what do you think about? What comes to mind? Do you think about something good or something bad? God’s Law is actually all those things that God teaches us to do, or not to do. And also it includes the threat of his punishment if we don’t do what he commands, and also the promise of reward and blessing if we do do what he commands.

Actually, the Law comes all the way from the very beginning of the world. It goes right back to Garden of Eden. In fact, in the Garden of Eden, there was only the Law. There was no Gospel, because there was need for it. God created the first people in his image, and put them in the Garden, and instructed them what to do and what not to do. At this time, there was no sin in the world, and nothing wrong, and so the Law of God was Adam and Eve’s daily pleasure and delight. We read: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food… The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Here we see God’s wonderful Law at work: the beauty of his creation, the enjoyment of God’s good things, the satisfaction of work, the daily delight of enjoying the presence of God and his blessing. At that time, there was no anger, no murder, because there was no sin. There was only calmness and gentleness and enjoyment and happiness: and these things flowed from God’s own calmness and gentleness. God shared his own delight, his own calmness, and happiness with his creation.

We also read where God says to Adam: You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Here we also see God’s law at work, because he permits Adam to eat from every tree, but he also forbids Adam to eat from a specific tree, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why does God do this? Why does God prohibit something to Adam? Why doesn’t he let him enjoy everything? Here we see the law of love. Because when God establishes his law in the Garden of Eden, and orders everything beautifully, and allows Adam and Eve to enjoy it all, he also wants to teach that love is also not simply about a feeling but about a choice. Adam and Eve are called to choose the things that God allows to them, and also to avoid the things that are not allowed to them. For example, in a marriage, we are called to love our husband or wife. But also, that love means that we choose not to go after other men or women. The love of a husband for his wife means that he avoids choosing any other women to replace her. The love of a wife for her husband means that she avoids choosing any other man to replace him.

And so, when Adam and Eve, simply enjoy the things that God gives them, and avoid the things that he doesn’t give them, they show their love for God. And they enjoy his perfect peace, and his perfect calm and gentleness.

This is why Jesus says: Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. We can’t get rid of the law, because to get rid of the law is to get rid of the Garden of Eden. To get rid of the law, to relax the law, is to chip something away from God’s wonderful order and the beautiful way in which he arranged the world in the first place for his people to enjoy. To relax the law is to say I don’t want to enjoy any tree in the garden, I would rather eat from the tree that God has forbidden me to eat.

But, when we talk about the law, we have to realise that we don’t live in the Garden of Eden anymore. As we read in Genesis chapter 3, the first people were deceived by Satan into sin, in such a way that they desired to eat from the tree which God had forbidden them to eat, and they fell into sin. This meant that they didn’t just have a knowledge and an experience of what is good anymore. But they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This word, “knowledge”, in Hebrew, doesn’t just mean that they knew it in their heads, but they experienced it in their lives. The very fact that you and I even know what evil is, is because of the fall into sin. We know what evil is, because we experience evil, and we ourselves have done what is evil, thought it, desire it, even when don’t want to, are clouded by it, are messed up by it, are entrenched in it, are bound to it.

This is where anger comes from. It comes from the fall into sin. It actually comes right from the devil’s own words to Adam and Eve: You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The devil implants this complete falsehood into their minds, this lie, this envy, this idea that God is stingy and he’s actually holding something back from us. And Adam and Eve, think, “What? God wants us to be blind? God wants us to less than our full potential? God wants us to be dumb and stupid? God wants us to be less than him? It’s not fair! I want more! I want things to be better than what they are!” And so they take the fruit and eat.

So, here’s where anger comes from. It comes from the desire to be like God, and to have things better than what God actually gives to us.

Now, on the other hand, the Scripture does speak about God’s anger. When we speak about God’s anger and his wrath, it is his anger against sin. It is a righteous anger. But there is also an anger from the devil, which is always the anger against God.

So Jesus says: I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, because of the fall, the Law of God is no longer only our daily delight, but it also comes with thunder and lightning, because it condemns our sin and finds us out for who we really are. After the Fall, God gave Moses his law again, and reinstate it in the 10 Commandments, with thunder and lightning, not with birds and trees and waterfalls, as in the Garden of Eden. The scribes and Pharisees did not keep God’s law, but they changed it, in such a way that they made it achievable by themselves. They made up all kinds of traditions and practices, and made themselves into some kind of spiritual super-stars, who were super-pious, super-devout. In fact, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus talks about is not the righteousness of God at all. It is simply self-righteousness. It is self-righteousness that is blind to the law of God, in such a way that they end up leading the charge to kill Jesus, by having him crucified.

The only righteousness that will allow us to enter into heaven is the righteousness of Christ alone. His righteousness endured this false righteousness, his righteousness was crucified by our self-righteousness, which we share with the scribes and Pharisees, because we like them always want to avoid the Law pointing its laser beam at us and finding us. Jesus on the cross does not express his anger at them, but he says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. We, because of our sinful flesh and our sinful hearts, never know what we’re doing. Only God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, knows perfectly what we’re doing, and sees the full corruption of it, and the full blindness of it. And what does Jesus pray about those who crucify us, people like us who don’t know what we’re doing? He says: Father, forgive them. The way in which Christ shares his righteousness with us is that he forgives us our sins, through the shedding of his blood on the cross, and through his glorious resurrection from the dead. We simply trust him, that his words, his sacrifice and his promises are true, and this forgiveness is ours, just as Jesus said to the thief: Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

This righteousness of Christ is the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, and through faith, this righteousness is given to us and our sin is given to Christ. Jesus gives us his righteousness, and God the Father adopts us as his own children, when he poured out the Holy Spirit on us in the waters of Holy Baptism. He gives us this gift, we trust his word, and it is ours. And Jesus continues to strengthen us in this righteousness, when he feeds us with his own body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. The self-righteousness, through which we break the law, which we share with the scribes and Pharisees, which crucified Jesus himself, Jesus endures and suffers, and then he feeds back to us as his own pure righteousness, the righteousness through which he has fulfilled the law, and then shares with us. It is just so beyond our comprehension, and beyond our understanding, and beyond our wildest thoughts and dreams what the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ really is, and just how profoundly he has suffered for us, and just how immensely he loves us.

Now, let’s think about anger again. Jesus says: You have heard that is was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murder will be liable to judgment.’ 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.

Self-righteousness, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, says: I haven’t murdered, therefore I haven’t sinned. Jesus says: but murder starts with anger. Anger is the first train station, and murder is just the destination of the train.

Now, we often think we have a right to be angry. And sometimes, we know that something is wrong, and we are angry about it. But we must know the difference between God’s anger, and the devil’s anger. Psalm 4 says: Be angry, but do not sin. St Paul writes a little comment on this verse in Ephesians, where he says: Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

I remember hearing a sermon from a pastor, many years ago, who said: At the end of the day, all of our anger is anger against God. I think this pastor was right, because we need to ask ourselves, when we get angry, aren’t we really just being angry with God who has allowed us to be in such and such a situation? Aren’t we just angry with God who hasn’t allowed things to be better for us in the world, and to be better for everyone, or to be better in general?

Remember at the end of the book of Genesis, when Joseph’s brothers went to him. Now Joseph’s brothers had been jealous of him, and had thrown Joseph into a pit, sold him into slavery, and then pretended to their father that he had been eaten alive by animals. But instead of getting angry with them, Joseph says: Am I in the place of God? You meant evil towards me, but God meant it for good.

Many things that we are angry about, are things that we don’t understand. We don’t understand why God allowed this, or why he let this happen. Think about it: often when people are about to die, if they are unbelievers, and they convert before they die, we say: “They made their peace with God.” Why do we say this? Because the reason why people refuse to turn to God, is because they are angry with him. They wanted things to be different.

We might look at our own lives, and our own society. We might look at our marriage, or our families, and we see things there, that we wish were different, that we wish were better. Are we angry about it, do we take our anger out on other people, or do we acknowledge even when we don’t understand, that God has allowed certain things for our blessing? Jesus says: What I am doing, you do not understand, but afterwards you will understand. He says: You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice. Psalm 30 says: By your favour, O LORD, you have made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

We might look at the way that COVID has made a mess of our lives in the recent years. We might look at the way at the way in which the marriage laws, the abortion laws, and the euthanasia laws have changed in Australia in the last few years. We might look at the way in which we can no longer trust the mass media in our country to provide us with unbiased news. We might look at the way in which there is corruption at all kinds of levels of society. We might think about all kinds of terrible injustices and sick perversions: child slavery, human trafficking, the wealthy industry of pornography. We might look at the way in which wealthy people, with high levels of influence, try to manipulate governments and nations to bring about great harm to many people. We might look at the way in which communists and “wokists” seek to destroy the family and free society, and aim to corrupt young people, turning children against the parents, and seeking to shut down and cancel any contrary views. We might look at the way in which churches all throughout the world have sacrificed the truth, and exchanged their birthright for a bowl of soup like Esau, just so that they can be more accommodating to the world.

Are we angry about these things? Yes, because these things are wrong, they are tragic, they cause us to weep, to cry, to lament. They cause us great bitterness, great anguish, great heartache. But we must also realise that the future of the church is not in its anger. The future of the church is not a whole lot of angry people. Jesus says: I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

What Jesus is doing now, you do not understand, but afterwards you will understand. Isaiah 38 says: Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness, but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. In all your confusion, Jesus has given to you the peace of God which transcends and surpasses not just all human understanding, but all angelic understanding, and all the combined understanding of heaven and earth. We might have once asked God to increase our faith, and help us in our life, and instead we end up feeling our sin even more deeply than before, and our helplessness even more, and the raging of the evil one even more.

They raged against Jesus too. And he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. When we do not know what we’re doing, and in our sinful blindness we do not know what God is doing, still, we have the forgiveness of sins, we have a faithful Saviour, we have his grace, his mercy, his love, we have Baptism and his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and the promise of eternal life. Remember the anger of those people who stoned the first Christian martyr to death. Stephen prayed: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. We also pray the same prayer against our enemies too, and for all those in the world who continually take their stand on the side of evil. 

But in the meantime, when it comes to anger, the greatest fight is against our own anger. Yes, there are things that we can see that are wrong, and that are not right. But do we trust in a God whose ways are beyond our ways? Do we trust him to make things plain to us in his own time, even when we don’t understand now what he’s doing? After all, despite all that we know to be wrong in our lives, and in our world, Jesus still glorifies his Father by bestowing his grace upon us. And that is a thing more precious than anything in the world. It exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, because their righteousness—our self-righteousness—is a righteousness which goes from anger to anger to anger. The righteousness of Christ is a righteousness which has won perfect peace by his blood on the cross. It is a righteousness which cleanses us from the guilt and condemnation of sin by his blood. It is a righteousness that opens to us the gate of heaven, where an even more wonderful peace will prevail than was even there in the Garden of Eden. From this righteousness come the fruits of the Spirit, and all things good, and wonderful, and beautiful, and holy, and pure, and perfect. In this righteousness, we can look to Christ, walking on the water, with the storm raging around us and above us and within us, who says: Peace! Be still! Fear not. It is I. May God our heavenly Father send us the Holy Spirit, to root out of us our anger and our discontent, and point us to his Son, our righteousness, and our perfect peace! Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.