Reformation Day [John 8:31-32] (31-Oct-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.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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. 

The festival of the Reformation is a wonderful occasion in the church year, which we particularly celebrate in the Lutheran church, where we remember those series of events in the 1500s in Europe, and in Germany particularly, where there was a tremendous theological and spiritual revival, the effects of which changed the course of history, and which are still felt today. At the heard of these events was a rediscovery of the Gospel, as the free forgiveness of sins, which was won by Christ alone in his death and resurrection, and bestowed upon lost and condemned sinners completely free for the sake of Christ, which we then receive by faith, apart from any works, contributions or efforts that we make ourselves. As St Paul says: By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, but it is a gift of God, apart from works, so that no one may boast. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

The 31^st October was chosen for this commemoration centuries ago, because on this day in the year 1517, Martin Luther, who was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, a monk of the Augustinian order and a professor of theology at the university of Wittenberg in Germany, is reported to have nailed a document to the church door in Wittenberg, his 95 theses. This document was against a certain practice that was alive and well in the Catholic Church of Martin Luther’s day, the selling of indulgences. Although we could talk at great length about what this “selling of indulgences” is, the short version is that it was a certificate issued by the Pope in Rome to cancel the punishments in purgatory for a person’s sins. Purgatory is a Roman Catholic belief, which is not held by other churches, that there is a kind of half-way station between heaven and hell. I won’t go into all the detail now, and I could explain all this much better than I have.

What this meant in history is that this was the beginning of a great controversy where Martin Luther, as a student and teacher of the bible, came into conflict with the Pope in Rome and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. As a result, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, and many Christians throughout Europe who accepted his teaching as true and right became separate from the Roman Catholic Church, to form the Evangelical church, or as it is commonly called today, the Lutheran Church, or the Church of the Lutheran confession.

Now, on one hand, Martin Luther was a highly significant person in all of this history. On the other hand, the whole Reformation which occurred at this time was not about one man, or the teachings of one man. Rather, this whole event was about a return to the Word of God, in such a way that that the Holy Scriptures once again had pride of place in the church over and against every human word, every human tradition, every word of people, of man, every human idea.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear these wonderful words of Jesus, where he says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten our hearts and minds, as we consider this verse today, and remember the wonderful events that occurred 500 years ago at the time of the Reformation. Amen.

Now, in our sermon today, I’d like to first of all talk about what the Lutheran Reformation was, and what it wasn’t. And then secondly, I’d like to talk about the significance of the things that happened at that time for today.

Firstly, at various times and places, in history, there have been all kinds of revolutions. For example, in 1789, in France, there was the French revolution, where the executed the king of France and all the aristocracy. There was a big revolution in Russia about 100 years ago, where communism came in, and they started the USSR. And people might look back at the time of Luther, and think that it was a kind of revolution. But it wasn’t.

The Reformation was not about revolution, or rebellion. It wasn’t some kind of anti-authoritarian event where all kinds of people wanted to drag down the social structures of the day.

The Reformation did have to do with authority, but it was not against authority. It was simply against false human authority in the church, and on the other hand, a return to the true authority in the church, namely, the Holy Scripture. In the church, wherever the authority of the Word of God is lost, it always means that mere human authority can replace it, because that’s the only other authority that there is.

So, the whole of the Reformation, was essentially a call to repentance, and it is one of the most amazing calls to repentance that has ever occurred in church history. When Martin Luther wrote his 95 theses and put them on the church door in Wittenberg, 504 years ago today, the first thing he wrote was: When our Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’, he meant that the whole of a Christian life should be one of repentance. This document spread like wild-fire throughout Europe at the time, and even reached the desk of the Pope. To think that a document like that made such an impact, with such a strong call to repentance right at the top.

You might remember that in the Scripture, when John the Baptist went out and preached at the River Jordan, he called people to Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When Jesus began his ministry, after his baptism and his temptation in the wilderness, he also said the same thing. The word, ‘repent’, means to turn around, to change one’s mind, or change one’s heart. It has a picture of a person walking in one direction and then turning around going back the other way.

When we are called to repent, what are we called to turn away from? And what are called to turn ourselves to? We are always called to turn away from our sin, and also our sinful mind, our sinful flesh, our sinful heart, our own ideas, our own human opinions, our own solutions. And we are always called to turn back to God, and to his Word, as he has wonderfully and marvellously revealed it in the Holy Scriptures.

And so right at the heart of the Lutheran reformation was a renewal of the Scripture in the life of the church. It was not philosophy that should direct the church, or human reason, or human tradition, or human leaders, such as a Pope. Instead, the Word of God, as it is revealed in the Scripture, should be the thing that directs and guides the church. The Scripture is clear fountain of Israel, the clear light of God which he shines on human darkness, a lamp which shines in a dark place, the light which is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path.

Now, just as that light of Holy Scripture then shone its light on human darkness and sin and evil, so also the Holy Scripture reveals to us how lost and condemned human beings can be saved. Human beings like you and me, who carry around with us our sinful human hearts, and are corrupted in our mind and in our thinking by sin, cannot save ourselves by doing things that are tainted by that same darkness. Only Jesus, the Son of God, can save us, and we can only be saved in the way that he prescribes.

And so, in a world that was full of people performing all kinds of works and deeds in all kinds of attempts to save themselves and make themselves acceptable and pleasing to God, the Gospel came to light. That Gospel is that people cannot save themselves by their own works, by their own efforts, by their own actions, and solutions devised by their own choosing and their own thinking, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. His death on the cross alone was that wonderful event where the divine righteousness and justice and judgment of God was satisfied, where a full payment was made for each and every sin of the whole entire world, and where he defeated death, the devil and every power of darkness. His resurrection demonstrated to the world that this sacrifice and atonement that he made was acceptable to God the Father, otherwise this all would have meant nothing if Jesus was still dead and in the grave. For us, who believe in him, it means that we have the forgiveness of sins delivered to us and applied to us, not in such a way that we reach all the way back to him, but he actually comes to us. In holy Baptism, what Christ did on the cross all those many years ago is applied to us through water and the Word of God. And in the Lord’s Supper, we receive the wonderful body and blood of Christ as our food for this journey of life, until we reach our heavenly home with Christ in his kingdom. On our part, we simply receive these things freely, as a gift, without paying for them, without earning them, without working for them. We simply trust that God is faithful and that he has done these things and given them to us, and they are ours. This wonderful Gospel message was at the heart and centre of the Reformation, which was so long clouded and shrouded in all kinds of human ideas and philosophies. Still today, in many parts of the world, and even in churches, human ideas still prevail, and the Gospel still remains silent.

But also, sometimes we forget that because the Reformation was a biblical renewal, a rediscovery of the Holy Scripture, it also had an effect on all kinds of other things. So for example, in the Roman Catholic Church back at that time, and still to this day, when it came to the next life, they believed in heaven and hell, but also purgatory. Purgatory was a kind of half way place, where a person worked off the effects of their sins before they could enter heaven. However, at the time of the Reformation, they realised that this was not a teaching of Scripture at all. In fact, in the passage about Lazarus and the rich man, it says that there is a chasm fixed between where Lazarus was in Paradise and where the rich man was in hell, such that no one could cross between. So, another thing that came from the Reformation, was a renewed understanding of heaven and hell. This is extremely important when we come to understand faith, because when Christ calls us to eternal life, he saves us from hell, from the devil, and all of that. He saves us for eternal life in heaven. He doesn’t save us from purgatory, and he doesn’t save us for purgatory, because it doesn’t exist.

Also, the Reformation brought about a renewal in the way we understand prayer. At that time, many people prayed to Mary, and all kinds of different saints. And there were all kinds of different saints that were prayed to for all kinds of different reasons. Some of these reasons were quite superstitious, for example, it you lost something, you might pray to such and such a saint. In some sense, many of the old pagan ideas about prayer, from the old religions of Greece, of ancient Rome, of the ancient Vikings, came back into Christianity. People used to pray to different gods for all kinds of different reasons, just as they do today in Hinduism. However, with the Reformation, came a renewed understanding of prayer, because they rediscovered the teaching about prayer in the Scriptures, that we pray to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone, that we pray in the name of Jesus, and all that kind of thing. Luther summarises much of this in what he taught about the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism.

But also, at that time, many people thought that living a holy life meant that you had to become a monk or a nun, that you had to go on pilgrimages to holy places, and all that kind of things. This brought about an idea that marriage and having family was a kind of dirty thing. However, the Reformation brought to light the fact that Christians, wherever we are placed in our life, whether as a husband, wife, child, or a worker, or a boss, or as a soldier, or as a ruler or leader, or whatever, that we serve God as a holy person in those callings.

So, there are many things that we could talk about that were affected by the rediscovery of the Scripture, and the authority of Scripture. Of course, at the heart and centre of it all was the bringing to light of the Gospel in all of its glory. However, it’s also useful to see where all kinds of other things were impacted, because they often have some impact on how we understand the Gospel. For example, if people believe in purgatory, they often don’t have a need for the Gospel, because they think that at the end of the day, everything will be fine for them because eventually they’ll get out of purgatory, or they despair, because they think they’ll never get out purgatory. Many people who pray to the saints, often do so because they think they are not worthy to pray to Jesus himself. Of course, no one is worthy to pray to Jesus, but through Holy Baptism and through faith, God makes us his beloved child, and he asks us and commands us to pray to him, because of what he has done for us in making us his own. This is all effected by the Gospel too. If people think that living a life as a monk or nun gives us a special kind of holiness, this can also effect the way in which we understand the Gospel. You see, the forgiveness of sins is not given to us because of the austere life we might live, or because we’re married or celibate, or because of the spiritual exercises we choose to take on. It’s given to us freely for Christ’s sake. Of course, we are called to live a holy life, and some people who are single may choose to live a certain kind of life, but it’s not the life that they choose for themselves that saves them.

So let’s come back to Jesus’ words: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. These words of Jesus have a profound significance for us, as it had for Christians at that time, and for Christians today. First of all, Jesus teaches us that those who are truly his disciples are those who abide in his word. The disciples of Jesus are never guaranteed to always be his disciples, unless they abide in the words of Jesus. Jesus does not make us join a particular church who are always guaranteed to keep the word pure. No—we must always keep returning to the Scripture, and letting that clear light of God’s Word hold sway.

People might be attracted to a particular kind of music in the church, to a certain kind of style, to a certain feeling of being new, or to a certain feeling of being old, or to a church being ancient, or a church being really modern, or all kinds of things like that. But none of this makes the church the church. The thing that makes the church is the Word of God and abiding in that word. It is the word of God that makes the church and when people are gathered around that word, there God’s church on earth grows.

However, today, we live in very strange times. Jesus says about his Word: You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. In many parts of the world, in many parts of our country, in many of our towns and cities, in many of our homes and families, the truth is not known, and as a result people are slaves, bound, captive, and are imprisoned. They are slaves to their own selves, to their own sin. And as a result they are not free.

If we want to know the truth, we must go to Jesus Christ and his Word. We know today that there are many people who don’t hold to the truth about all kinds of things. The fact that a lot of people hold to a particular opinion doesn’t make it true. There are many people, for example, that don’t believe in God at all, and who don’t believe he created the world. There are many people who don’t believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. There are many people today who believe in abortion, who don’t believe that a baby in a mother’s womb is a human life worthy of our protection. There are a growing number of people who believe in the transgender philosophy, that sex and gender are completely interchangeable, and that men and women don’t really exist. This is a powerful lie, which is causing great problems especially among young people, and young women especially. There are many people who believe in communism, that people shouldn’t be allowed to own anything, and that everything should be the possession of the state. There are many people who believe in eugenics and transhumanism, that human beings are going to get better and better, and that technology is going to turn us into a kind of super-people. All of these things are lies—powerful, destructive lies—which many people believe. But just because many people believe them doesn’t make them true. Power and numbers is not the same thing as truth.

Rather, Jesus is the Truth. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through him. Jesus will destroy ever lie and error and falsehood in his path. And every lie and error falsehood stands in direct opposition to the Gospel, because every lie is from the evil one, who is the father of lies, and he concocts every lie and falsehood, because the Gospel rescues people from himself. Of course, every lie will be directed against the Gospel.

So when we have the Gospel, what a wonderful gift it is. It is something to rejoice in, but not to brag in, and boast, and be proud, in such a way that we think we are better than the people who don’t have it. No, the people who don’t have the Gospel are living in darkness, the darkness that each and every single person was born in. The Gospel must be kept, held on to, and shared. And every error, every lie, every falsehood, must be deconstructed and destroyed.

So let’s abide in Christ’s Word, so that we may truly be his disciples, so that we may know the truth, and that the truth may set us free. Let’s thank God for the wonderful event that the Reformation was, the wonderful gift of the Gospel that it brought to us through the rediscovery of the Word of God, and also for the wonderful example that is gives to us for our times. Amen.

 

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

Trinity XX [Matthew 22:1-14] (24-Oct-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.

See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. 

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. 

Our reading today tells us of a parable of Jesus about a royal wedding banquet. And this parable is such a wonderful passage that teaches us many things about the Christian faith.

First of all, it shows us in a particularly wonderful way the Holy Trinity. In the Christian faith, we believe in one God in three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As it says in the Athanasian creed: The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three gods but one God.

In our reading today, we have a king who is throwing a wedding banquet for his son. This king in our parable today is God the Father. In fact, there many passages throughout the bible where God is called our king. Psalm 10, for example, says: The Lord is king forever and ever. And we call God our king, because he rules over the whole world. And this is a very important thing for us to confess and remind ourselves of in times such as ours which are becoming very difficult for many people. The Lord is king. God is our king. He rules the world. Psalm 24 also says: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

But then also, we see that this king is giving a wedding feast for his son. This son in our reading is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity. And just as this son in the parable is a royal son and shares his royalty with his father, who is the king, so also we believe in the Christian faith that Jesus is also true God, and shares his divinity with the Father. Both the Father and the Son are true God together.

But then, also we see in our reading, the Holy Spirit. This king sends out his servants to call those who were invited to the feast. We would often think of these servants as the prophets and apostles, and all kinds of people who call the lost people of the world to the wedding banquet. And these prophets and apostles, and pastors, and teachers, they go out, speaking the Word of God, and as being sent by God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember how on Easter Day, Jesus said to his disciples: Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father has sent me, so also I am sending you. So as these servants go out, and are sent by Jesus to invite people to the wedding banquet, they go out having received the Holy Spirit.

So we can see in our reading today a wonderful picture of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We see the Father as the king preparing the banquet, the Son as the one who is having the wedding banquet, and also the Holy Spirit working through all these messengers who are going everywhere to call people to this banquet.

Also, Jesus says: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who have a wedding feast for his son. We notice here that Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven, and he is also talking about a king. Now, we are not used to having a king, quite in the same way that people in early times had kings and queens. Of course, even today, we have the Queen of England, and although she is the head of state in the United Kingdom, and also Australia, and Canada, and some other countries, she acts in a much more restricted and limited way. She gives her royal assent, or we might say, her approval, or signature, to various laws that the government want to approve. In England, she does this herself, but in Australia, it is done through the Governor General and the state Governors.

But in the kingdom of heaven, there is no need for all these restrictions, because the king is the wonderful king of heaven and earth, God himself. Everything that we can imagine as being good, comes from him, because he is goodness itself. Everything that we can imagine as being fair and just, beautiful and lovely, honest and true, everything comes from this king, from God himself. So God does not simply sign off on laws that we make. No, he is the one who has established the world, built it, set it up, established its laws and the way it works. And for us, this means that we should be happy to have his kingdom at work among us and in us, because he is such a wonderful king. Even Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer: Your kingdom come.

And so, our reading today, shows us a bit more of what this kingdom looks like, what it’s character is, and what it looks like. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

So, first of all, we’ve spoken about how the different characters of this parable reveal the Holy Trinity, and we’ve spoken about the royal, kingly character of this parable. But let’s also consider for a moment the fact that this parable is about a wedding feast.

A number of passages in the New Testament speak about Jesus as a groom and his church as the bride. For example, Jesus tells the wonderful parable of the Ten Virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom to arrive at midnight. Also, there is a passage where people ask Jesus why John the Baptist’s disciples practised a lot of fasting, but Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast. On this occasion, Jesus spoke about himself as the bridegroom. He says: Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. Also, John the Baptist also spoke about Jesus as the bridegroom. He says: The who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.

Actually, this picture of Christ as the groom and the church as his bride is the basis of everything to do with the Christian teaching of marriage. We read in Ephesians: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Just as Adam and Eve, right at the beginning of time, enjoyed the Garden of Eden as a kind of continual wedding feast for themselves, so also in the church, our whole life as Christians, and even the next life too, when we see Christ face to face in heaven, is a kind of wedding feast. Even in the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus visited a wedding at Cana, where he turned water into wine. We read that this was the first of his signs, his first miracle. And this miracle he performed first, because he wanted to show to everyone that his own kingdom was a kind of marriage feast, a wedding banquet.

On a side note: today in our world, where there is an incredible increase of darkness and evil, and opposition to Christianity and the church, both from outside the church and within the church, this opposition to Jesus and his people often comes together with an opposition to marriage. There ends up being fewer weddings, and a redefining marriage, and attacking and destroying marriages, and also marriage in general as an institution. Jesus holds the marriage between a man and woman up to us as a wonderful, beautiful thing, to be treasured and respected, and honoured.

So, all of these things—the Holy Trinity, the fact that God is our King, the fact that he holds a wedding banquet for his son, with his bride the church—all these things form the backdrop and the setting for this parable in our reading today.

But there’s one other part of this parable that we should also consider. When the king sends out his servants, they say: Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”

The word here for “slaughtered” can also be translated as “sacrificed”. Sometimes, this word is used to just mean the animals were killed, but sometimes it refers to the way that animals might have been sacrificed, for example, in the temple, in religious ceremonies. Here it seems as though they’re just talking about the animals being killed. But in many ancient cultures, and still today, in some traditional cultures in Africa and other places around the world, many people most of the time lived as vegetarians, and didn’t eat much meat. Actually, even in the life of Jesus, he eats fish mostly on various occasions. The time to eat meat, and kill an ox or a calf, was for a special occasion. In the parable of the prodigal son, when the boy comes home after his long disappearance, then his father kills the fattened calf for him. It’s a special occasion. And because it was such a special occasion, people probably said prayers and dedicated the animal to God, offering it to him, before they killed it. Even today in many parts of Africa, they do the same. If they someone has been away for a long time, and they return home, and they have a special banquet, they would dedicate the animal to God out of thanksgiving, and then kill it, cook it up, and enjoy the feast.

So, in the same way, in our reading, there is a kind of animal sacrifice that is part of this wedding banquet. And what does this remind you of? Well, at God’s wedding banquet, the wedding banquet held in honour of Jesus Christ and his bride the church, Jesus himself, is slaughtered, sacrificed, and offered on the cross. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He offers his life for us, and gives his life as sacrifice, as an atonement, as a offering, a payment, for sin, for all sin, for each and every single sin.

It seems strange to us that the person who is the bridegroom, the son of the King who is getting married, is also the food of the banquet, which is offered and sacrificed. This is an incredible mystery, where all of the ways in which we imagine things, and all of the pictures in the Scriptures all seem to be muddled up somewhat. But this is precisely how the book of Revelation speaks about it. On one hand in Revelation, it says: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. On the other hand, it says: Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

And so, in our reading, we also have this picture: the Lamb who is the bridegroom, and the Lamb who is the offering, who is slain. And this whole picture of things gives us a wonderful and tremendous insight into the whole character and nature of Christianity. We have a wonderful king, we have a wonderful banquet, we have a wonderful sacrifice.

Also, in the church, the Lord’s Supper also brings together all these things. We sing before we come to the Lord’s Supper: O Christ, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us. Here, in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is the bridegroom and you are his bride, and God is preparing for you this wonderful banquet, as it says in Isaiah: A feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine. And so Jesus gives his body and blood for you to eat and drink. He is the Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed—this sacrifice happened back then on Good Friday—and now he places his sacrifice on our altar, as our food. One of communion hymns, says about Jesus: Himself the victim and Himself the priest. In our reading today, we say that Christ is himself the banquet and the bridegroom.

The rest of this parable has to do mostly with the fact that the king was inviting people to attend this wedding feast. Jesus says that he send servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

First, we read that there were a group who simply would not come. Second, there were other servants sent, but we read, they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.

It has always been the task of the prophets throughout history and then later the apostles to call people to return back to God. As it says in Joel: Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. This is not just the word of the servants, the words of the prophet, or the words of an apostle, or a preacher, or pastor, or whoever, but it is the voice of the living God himself. It is the voice of the king, and invitation of the king to come to his palace and eat his banquet in his dining room. But people’s hearts are so numb, so sinful, so calloused, so bored, that they can’t be bothered listening. They don’t come, they just go about their business.

But we also read, that the invitation of God sometimes makes people angry. It says: The rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed them. We have an example of this in the book of Acts, where Stephen was preaching to the Jewish high priest and the council of the elders and scribes, and says: You stiff-necked people… you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Here is a prime example of what is mentioned in our parable, where people resist the Holy Spirit, they refuse to listen to God’s servants. And sometimes, they realise exactly what is being said, that they have to repent, and turn their hearts back to God. And if they don’t like what they hear, then they seize the servants, treat them shamefully and kill them. This is exactly what happened to Stephen—they stoned him to death.

We then read in the parable, that it says: The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. We need to realise that the lives of God’s servants who speak his word is not nothing in God’s eyes. We can’t treat God’s servants badly, or kill them, without dire consequences. We are living in a time when people don’t listen to the Gospel, don’t want to hear it, don’t want to come to his banquet. It doesn’t come without consequences. God doesn’t carry on as if nothing matters.

We read in the reading that then the servants were asked to invite as many as they could find, both bad and good. This has always been the way things have been all throughout church history with various people. For example, at first the Gospel was brought to the Jewish people in those times, but when they didn’t listen they moved on to the Gentiles. Later in history, other countries and cultures took on the Christian faith, but as they starts to reject the Gospel, the servants of God move on to other places, and invite other people.

But then at the end of the reading, it says: But when the king came into look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.

Here, we see the final judgment. And we see there that there is a man who does not have a wedding garment. There is something that this man must have which determines whether he stays in the wedding hall or is thrown out.

When we attend this wedding, we must come with the clothing of Christ’s righteousness. And this righteousness becomes ours by faith. There is nothing that we can do to earn this righteousness and purity before God. But at the same time, this righteousness must be ours, and must be received by us.

You see, sometimes, people come into the church and into the wedding hall and into the outward fellowship of the church, and they are baptised and hear the word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper, and all that kind of thing. But they don’t believe it, they don’t take it all that seriously, it doesn’t mean anything to them. No—these things are here, because they are for you, for your benefit, so that you would take the wedding garment and put it on.

Sometimes, people have said that this wedding garment is good works. And sure, Christians should do good works, which flow from faith. But we are not saved by these good works. St Peter says: Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. The wedding garment that makes us acceptable before God is the gift of faith, which trusts that the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and Christ’s righteousness is ours. It’s one thing to be called and invited, and to enter the wedding hall, but this calling and invitation is not there in such a way so that you would not wear it yourself.

So we have this wonderful parable today in our reading. Let’s listen to this invitation of God to come to the wedding banquet, and be clothed with Christ’s righteousness. Let’s come and meet the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the wedding hall, and enter into his royal kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. Let’s celebrate the wedding between Christ and his church, and partake of the wonderful banquet. Let’s enjoy the foretaste of this supper which he gives to us in the Lord’s Supper week after week. We meet here the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Lamb of God who was slain, at the marriage banquet of the Lamb. Let’s thank God for all these wonderful gifts! Amen.

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

Trinity XIX [Matthew 9:1-8] (10-Oct-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.

Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. 

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. 

Our Gospel reading today tells the history of a paralytic man who is healed by Jesus. And we read in the first verse of our reading these words: And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. The setting of our passage today is near the Sea of Galilee. In the previous chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus had been in a boat with his disciples on this big lake, and had woken up from his sleep and calmed a storm. Then they spent some time over on the other side of the lake, where there was a demon possessed man, who had many demons cast out of him into a herd of pigs that rushed down the banks of the water and were drowned.

Now, we read that Jesus crossed back over the lake and came back to what the evangelist calls his own city. In the other Gospels, this city is named: it is Capernaum. Many people would not often think of Capernaum as Jesus’ own city. Maybe you would think of Bethlehem or Nazareth as his city. After all, he was born in Bethlehem, and he grew up in Nazareth. We often call Jesus, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Even Pontius Pilate ordered that a sign be put over Jesus when he was dying on the cross, which said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. But when Jesus was older, and after he had been baptised and been tempted by Satan in the wilderness, we read: When [Jesus] heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea. This is where Jesus was recognised as a local preacher, where he preached in the local synagogue.

So Jesus comes to Capernaum, and we read: And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” This event is also recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, and in those Gospel accounts we are actually given a lot more detail about what happened. Mark tells us: And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Luke tells us much the same thing, saying that they had to remove the roof tiles to let him down through the roof to bring him to Jesus. What an effort these people made! To think what lengths they went to! To think of all the people that must have had all kinds of needs and things to bring to Jesus, all these people pressing around, and then all of a sudden, some people start pulling the roof apart to get to Jesus.

When we come together to church, and when we meet together like this in the Divine Service, in the liturgy, we’re not coming to meet each other. Of course, it’s always nice to see each other, but that’s not the main point. We’re not a social club. But also, we’re not coming to see a particular pastor, like me. That’s not the point either. We come together to meet Jesus. I remember when I was a boy, at my home congregation, there was a little sign on the inside of the pulpit, with a verse from John chapter 12, the words of the Greeks that came to Philip, and said: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. And so, in the same way, there was this little message in the pulpit as a reminder for the pastor: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. The pastor must decrease and Jesus must increase. That’s the reason why pastors wear vestments, for example. It’s because it is to put the personality and characteristics of the pastor down, and to hide his person, and to point to the fact that it is Jesus is working through him. For example, on this chasuble that I’m wearing, there is a giant cross on the back. And I think it serves as a wonderful reminder that when the pastor speaks or does things, or whatever, it is Jesus who is doing it. The personality of the pastor is covered up by the cross.

So, this is the point of every church service we go to. We are coming to meet Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by! He makes an appointment to meet with us, and we touch his garment as he walks by. Sometimes people say, “I don’t need to come to church. I can worship God at home.” Just imagine if the paralytic man thought like that in our reading today, and said, “It’s okay. I don’t need to come and meet Jesus. I can talk to God at home.” Of course, he can talk to God at home. But that’s not the point. This is Jesus here! Aren’t you going to come and meet him? Aren’t you going to come and put your need to him?

If only people knew this. People don’t come to meet Jesus, because they don’t know their need. This paralytic man knew he was paralysed so he got his friends to bring him to the only man he knew who could help. Many people don’t know their sin, and so they don’t have a need for Jesus. Or, even if they know they have some kind of need or problem, they don’t know or don’t believe that Jesus can help them with it. Just imagine, though, if people knew these things, and if they queued up and down the street, lining up to hear the word of God, and if they still couldn’t get in to hear, they then started to tear up the roof so they could get a glimpse of Jesus and could come to get close to him.

In those days, when Jesus was visible, and people could see him, and touch him, and hear his wonderful words, it was much easier perhaps. But today, we must realise very clearly that Jesus is still here with us invisibly. And we are so cold-hearted about the whole thing, we are so numb and bored and we just come to church like a bunch of blank cows starting at a gate, like we don’t know what’s happening. Our sinful flesh is just so incredibly dull and asleep to the realities that God puts in front of us. If only we had a tiny glimpse of an idea about what happens here when we gather as Christians! Jesus said to his apostles when he sent them out to baptise and teach: I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus also said to his disciples: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. Jesus doesn’t say, “My spirit will be with you”, or “I will be with you spiritually”. No—he says: I am with you, I am there in the midst of them. So when we preach, when we baptise, and absolve, and administer the Lord’s Supper, and gather together as Christians, to pray, to praise God, to sing to him, to confess the truth about him, Jesus promises to be here. The angels know all this, and they cover their faces in awe. If we can’t get in, maybe we should start tearing apart the roof!

Now, let’s see what happens in our reading. We read: When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

Notice here, that it says: When Jesus saw their faith. We don’t know whose idea it was to lower down the paralytic. Was it the man himself, or was it his friends, or what? What we do know is that they were all in this idea together. It was a group effort! This man wanted to see Jesus, and he had good friends who wanted to help him get to see him. And Jesus is struck and moved by their faith.

Our sinful heart always works in such a way that we want to do everything ourselves, and solve all our problems on our own. But, sometimes, we need the help of friends. Sometimes, we need to tell our problems and our struggle to a fellow Christian, or Christians (plural), so that together, as a group, you can bring the matter to Jesus. We pastors are particularly bad at this, actually. We pastors like to give the impression that we’re the spiritual experts, and that all you people down there in the pews need us to look perfect. But in actual fact, we have just as many problems and struggles and temptations as you, in fact, sometimes more. The devil wants to attack pastors in the ministry. So sometimes, when we are under attack, or struggling with our faith, or are going through a hard time, or have some particular burden that we need fixed, whether it’s me or you, it’s important to share the burden so that we can come to Jesus together. Different Christians will have different ways of thinking about things. There’s the paralytic man, who might have some ideas, but then there’s other people who have the ability to carry the man, there’s other people who have the ability to take a roof apart, there’s other people who know how to lower a bed down by ropes and pullies. We shouldn’t stay paralysed by ourselves. Some people in the church can pray, some people can sing, some people can write, some people can cook, some people can support, and then, you know, some people just need to sit around and be paralysed. This is what the church and the community of the church is here for. So, let’s keep this in mind, when we see these people bring the paralytic man to Jesus, and how Jesus sees their faith, not just the paralytic man’s faith, but the faith of all these people who were involved in his life.

Jesus says to him: Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. This is a wonderful, and very special word of encouragement which this man receives. But it’s also a little bit strange. The man was paralysed – why did Jesus respond to this problem by declaring to him that his sins are forgiven? Jesus teaches us here something very important about all kinds of problems in the world, about paralysis, disease, heartache, troubles, and all these things of things. They actually all come from sin. Now, with this man, who was paralysed, it is not as if his particular problem was caused by a particular sin. So, for example, it was not the case that this man had robbed a bank, and as a punishment, God had struck him with lightening and made him paralysed. Not at all. But there was a time in the world, right at the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, before the fall into sin, when there was no such thing as a paralysis, or blindness, or deafness, or pain, or any kind of suffering. When there was no sin in the world, there was no suffering. But when sin entered into the world, then death also entered the world, and everything else that we suffer is a kind of precursor to death. So in Romans, we read: Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. So because we are all descended from Adam and Eve, and are all part of this human race, from the time of the fall, we also have sin in us, and this means that we are sinners ourselves, and that we sin. It also means that we live with the consequences of sin: all kinds of sufferings and troubles. This includes the man’s paralysis.

What it also means is that when we die, not only will be free from sin, but also free from all of sins consequences too. We will be completely forgiven, and we won’t have to live with any suffering. And when we are raised from the dead, and our bodies and souls are reunited and glorified, we will also be completely free from all of our physical problems, our physical ailments, and all of our worries and sorrows. At the end of the book of Revelation we read: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Even when we receive the Lord’s Supper here in the church, we receive it as a down-payment, a guarantee, if you like, of this wonderful resurrection, but we eat and drink the resurrected and glorified body and blood of Christ. And so we receive it for our forgiveness, but also for the future glorification of our bodies. That’s why at the end of the Lord’s Supper, the pastor says: The body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy precious blood strengthen and preserve you in body and soul unto life eternal.

And so, when Jesus meets this paralysed man, he says: Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. Now, what’s interesting about this is that we know that Jesus actually came to bring forgiveness to everyone, and that he died on the cross for the sin of the whole world. We say that he is Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. But also, that wonderful forgiveness, and the wonderful atonement that Jesus acquired for us, and won for us, also needs to be applied to people individually. And in our reading, Jesus declares to this man, individually, the forgiveness of his sins. And he says to him personally: Take heart, my son. He says: Be encouraged. Let me tell you some good news for you!

Now, it is this speaking of the forgiveness of sins to this man personally that makes the scribes start to grumble. We read: And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” They would have been quite happy if Jesus had said to the man generally, that God in heaven forgives sins. But what upsets them is the fact that Jesus gives the man his own personal, private absolution in the presence of everyone.

But Jesus actually uses the whole situation not only to heal the man of his paralysis, and not just to forgive his sin, but to demonstrate to them that he really does have the power to forgive sins, and that these two things really do go together. So we read: Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—and he said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home.

You know, there are many people that don’t care much for the forgiveness of sins. When we start to feel apathetic to the forgiveness of sins, it means that we are losing sight of our need for forgiveness, and are apathetic about our own sin. But sometimes, people just want something physical, something practical and down to earth, from Jesus, but they don’t want his forgiveness. Here in this reading, the two go together. Jesus gives to the man not just healing to his paralysis, but he gives him a higher and greater gift, the forgiveness of sins. To those who don’t value forgiveness or don’t believe it, it’s easy to throw around the forgiveness of sins. It’s much harder for us to say, ‘Rise and walk’, in such a way that it cures a man who can’t walk.

Jesus says: Which is easier? The forgiveness of sins was certainly no easy task for Jesus. He walked a long road to cross, was beaten, flogged, whipped, tortured, nailed to a cross, crowned with thorns. This was what is cost Jesus to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, because he actually laid down life as a ransom for sin, and paid the price for sin, and satisfied the righteousness of God with his own sacrifice and his own blood. No—it wasn’t easy for him.

But then, Jesus also rose from the dead, and what this means is not that he was the last person to rise from the dead, but he was the first. The firstfruits, as St Paul calls it, the first of many brothers. So, when we are raised from the dead, all our paralysis and everything will also be healed. He died for our sins, and he was raised for our perfect healing.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples: Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. In Jesus’ earthly ministry, he healed various people of all kinds of diseases and disabilities, and all sorts. But he says that in the church, we will do greater works. When we speak the forgiveness of sins even here today, it gives the promise of the future healing of body and soul in the next life and in the resurrection. What begins here in the church, when you are baptised, when you receive the absolution, when you receive the Lord’s Supper, is finished in the next life and in the resurrection, when there will be no more suffering and pain.

We should remember, also, that the gift which Christ has given to his church on earth is not simply a general message that God forgives sin, or even that Jesus has died for the sins of the world. Jews also say that God forgives sin. Muslims also say that Allah is all-merciful. But in the church, we don’t just have a general forgiveness, but we have forgiveness of sins which is given and applied to you personally. This is why we are baptised. Jesus takes everything that he won on the cross, and he showers it all upon you in your baptism, so that you can point to your baptism and say, “That is the day when God made me his child, and washed me clean from all my sin.” But then also, the Lord’s Supper is given to us individually and personally for the forgiveness of our sin, and we are asked to receive this not like animals coming to a trough, but in faith, trusting that this is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We also have the absolution spoken in the church by the pastor. Even, we can ask the pastor to speak the absolution to us personally in a private situation. We call this “private confession and absolution”. It is a wonderful gift of the church from Christ himself, which we can talk about in more detail another day. On Easter Day, Jesus said to his disciples: If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. This is the wonderful gift that the forgiveness of sins is not just given in general, but to you personally, in many and various ways, for all kinds of different spiritual troubles and ailments that you might have.

At the end of our reading, we read: When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. They were amazed not simply that God forgave sins generally, but that this power had been given to real human beings on this earth, just as Jesus actually did in the reading. He says: Your sins are forgiven, and he says this with all of his wonderful authority.

Let’s glorify God also for the wonderful way in which Jesus, even today, stands in our very midst, and forgives our sins, and applies the forgiveness of sins which he won for the whole world to us individually and personally. This forgiveness is effective and valid and legitimate not just here on earth, but before God in heaven, and in a such a wonderful way that in eternity and in the resurrection from the dead, every single tear will be wiped away, and we will be completely and totally healed in body and soul from each and every single thing that is wrong with us. Amen.

 

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

Trinity XVIII [Matthew 22:34-46] (3-Oct-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 shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. 

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. 

Our Gospel reading for today comes from a section of Matthew’s Gospel which is between two major events in Jesus’ life. In chapter 21, the chapter before our reading, we read about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. In chapter 26 and 27 a few chapters later, we read where Jesus suffers and dies. So what does that tell us about our reading today? It means that the discussions that Jesus was having with these people in our reading today happened in the few days between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, during what we call Holy Week. This discussion happened at a time when Jesus knew he going to die at the end of the week. If you knew that you would die at the end of the week, what do you think you would be doing? Jesus dedicates himself to one thing: he teaches.

And this is a wonderful example for us today, because the church of God on earth is always a teaching church. It always has something to teach, and right until the very end, this is its task.

In this chapter, we read about where Jesus tells a parable about the wedding feast, and the guest who came in without a garment. Also, he teaches them about paying taxes to Caesar. Then, we also read about where the Sadducees came to him and tried to put to him a curly question about how the resurrection would work for a lady who marries and outlives seven different husbands.

Now, we come to our reading today where we read about the Pharisees. We read: When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

Our reading here talks about the law of God, and the commandments. Now, before we go on, I think it will be a very useful thing to take a few minutes to talk about what we call in the Lutheran church, the “Law” and the “Gospel”. In the Lutheran Church, we make a very sharp distinction between these two teachings or doctrines in the Scripture, the Law and the Gospel. Actually, it is not simply a tradition of ours in the Lutheran Church, or a kind of custom, or an old favourite thing that we just happen to like to talk about. We teach this because the Scripture itself teaches these two doctrines.

So, first of all, we have the Law of God. The Law is that part of God’s word which teaches us what we should do and what we should not do, and also what God promises to do if we keep these things or threatens to do if we don’t do these things.

But then, secondly, we have the Gospel. The Gospel is that part of God’s word which teaches us what Christ has done for sinners who have broken God’s law, in shedding his blood for them, rising from the dead, and promising the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to them.

The Law never makes a person a sinner. It only finds the sinner, and shines a laser beam on them. The Gospel never finds a saint. It only makes a saint.

The Law of God shows us that we are sinners, that we have sinned, that we have fallen, and what we need. But the Gospel points us away from ourselves and shows us our Saviour.

Now, there are many things we could say about Law and Gospel. Actually, there are many good books written about this topic. Even when it comes to a pastor, and whether he teaches rightly or wrongly, whether he is an orthodox preacher, it is not enough that he simply speak the truth, but that he also separate the Law and Gospel. Actually, the proper distinction of the Law and the Gospel is the highest art that a pastor, and in fact, any Christian, learns. It is something that we continue to learn our whole life long.

When we come to the Law and the Gospel, sometimes people completely misunderstand these things. In my years as a pastor, I think the most common misunderstanding of Law and Gospel is that the Law of God is the nasty parts of the bible, and Gospel is nice parts of the bible. You would be surprised how many people think like this! Now, it is true, that the Law accuses us, shows us God’s anger, his wrath, his judgment, which causes us fear and trembling to our hearts and consciences. And it is true, that the Gospel gives us tremendous comfort, which soothes us and is a healing medicine for our souls.

However, let’s say, we’re talking about where Jesus says: Love one another. We might say, “that’s nice!” Love is a good thing! I’m happy to hear about this. But the command of God to love one another is not the Gospel, even though it’s “nice”, but it’s law.

On the other hand, let’s say we’re talking about Jesus’ blood and the nails that went through his hands and feet, and the way in which he sacrificed himself, completely and totally so that you would enter heaven to be with him. All of this history of Christ’s crucifixion is unpleasant and gory, but it is the Gospel. It is the event where Christ offered himself for the sin of the world, for you.

Now, when we talk about the Law, there are three ways in which God’s law applies to us, which we call “the three uses of the law”. The first is the fact that God simply orders the world through his law. God’s law prevents people from doing wrong and doing good in our every day lives. Second, the law of God shows us our sin, and the fact that we haven’t kept it. And this is a very important function of the law, because unless we confess that we are sinners, and know that we have not kept the law, then we have no need of Jesus. But then third, the law of God also gives us direction and guidance and instructions for us as Christians, we who have already been converted, who have been baptised, and have received the forgiveness of sins, and now shows us how we should live our lives.

In the church today, many Christians don’t like to hear the law. They think it’s all thunder and lightening, they it’s all doom and gloom, they think it’s all “thou shalt” or “thou shalt not”, and they shy away from it. In fact, when Moses received the law on Mt Sinai, the people talked exactly like this. They were afraid of the law.

Many Christians only want to hear the Gospel. And sure, the Gospel is a wonderful thing. We all need to hear the Gospel as the living word of God that opens the kingdom of heaven for us. But the Gospel is not there to make us lazy, or to give us an excuse not to do anything, or to give us a license to do whatever we like. That’s not how it works. However, what the Gospel actually does do, is takes away the condemnation of the law, in such a way that we can now live a Christian life without the accusation of it. So in Romans 8:1, it says: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so, as we live a Christian life, we are continually learning, and putting our lives up against the 10 Commandments constantly, so see where we have failed and to show us how we can do better. We are always learning, and we should always want to improve our lives, and do better than we have previously done, but not in such a way that we have to earn God’s grace. No—God’s grace and his favour and his forgiveness is already given to us.

So we read in our reading, where the lawyer from the Pharisees says: Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depends all the Law and the Prophets.

It’s strange: the lawyer wants a straight answer, he wants one commandment, which is the greatest. But Jesus gives him two commandments. And in doing so, he actually summarises the entire law. The great and first commandment is directed upwards toward God, and the second commandment which is like it is directed sideways to our neighbours and the people. First, Jesus teaches us about love towards God, and then love towards our neighbours.

In fact, this was how the Garden of Even would have been before the fall. Adam and Eve would have had a wonderful, pure, devoted, and full love towards God alone, and also a wonderful love towards each other. We, on the other hand, don’t live in that time, but we live in a sinful world, that has been infected by sin.

And so let’s listen to Jesus’ words: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. The problem for us is that our hearts, our souls and our minds are often occupied with other things. The evil one, Satan, has a very close ally in our sinful hearts, and we are often tempted to go along with him rather than walk with God. Our whole world is corrupted, and we are tempted by its things, and by its pleasures, and by its deceits, and its traps. Instead of trying in every thing to love and please God, we often simply try to please other people, most of whom care nothing for God. And the world is so full of hate, hatred toward this person, that person, this person is rubbish, this person is cancelled, this person is filth—hatred, hatred, hatred is all around us. And then the world takes its hatred and then calls it love, and then calls the true speaking the truth in love hate-speech. We Christians are always having to relearn things that we learnt wrongly, and we need to learn what God teaches about love.

And then, many of us, as Christians, think that because we have the forgiveness of sins, that we don’t need to devote our hearts and souls and minds to God, to make any effort, or ever to take a stand, or to say no to what is wrong and yes to what is right. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day who were asking these questions—who did not have Jesus as their Saviour, and did not have the forgiveness of sins—were probably much more devoted in heart and soul and mind to God than many of us are today. Many Jews even today are constantly concerned with holiness and pleasing God in every aspect of their daily life. Many Muslims all throughout the world devote themselves to prayer five times a day.

What about us Christians? Don’t we know that when we lie down at night and get up in the morning, that our bed, our pillow, the blanket, the roof, the lampshade, the side table, the sheets, the mattress, everything is a gift of God? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every Christian would thank God for each of these things? Do we thank God for the water when we go in the shower? Do we praise him when we eat a small biscuit by ourselves in the kitchen, or have a cup of coffee? Don’t we know that Jesus has provided for us the wonderful sunshine and the rain and the clouds? Don’t we know that he has provided for us our wonderful country and the people who live in it? And what about our loved ones, our husband or wife, our children, our friends? What about just the fact that you can hear, the fact that you can see, the fact that you can talk, and walk, and smell and taste?

All these things are such wonderful gifts of God! What a wonderful thing it would be that we would dedicate ourselves to God in every minute, every hour, every part of the day! And yet, we could find ourselves quite burdened by these things, and worn out! We could easily then say a prayer, or whatever, out of a sense of duty, and be completely overwhelmed by a life of prayer and devotion to God, and it still would not be love! Jesus doesn’t just say: offer yourself to God, sacrifice yourself to God, commend yourself to God. He says: You shall love the Lord your God. This love can only come forth from our faith, when we know just what a wonderful Saviour we have, and what he has done for us in his tremendous sacrifice for us on the cross.

And then Jesus says: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. The love of God and towards the neighbour goes against ourselves. The world wants you simply to love yourself, to do what makes you comfortable, to do what makes you happy, but it doesn’t turn you outward. The world doesn’t turn you away from yourself and upwards and outwards. Jesus has sacrificed his life for us. And now, St Paul says that through baptism, you have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. So put to death the old person that you carry around with you, the old selfish person, that only looks out for number one. Give that dead body to Christ, and he will resurrect it with his own life, and give you a completely new life. The life we are called to live as Christians is a wonderful life, because it is with Christ. It is a selfless life, which is directed towards others, in service to God. Of course, it is a life that our sinful flesh hates, because it goes against the flesh. But is a wonderful life, because it is lived with the resurrected Jesus, the resurrected Christ, the resurrected Son of God. As St John says in his letters: We love because he first loved us.

Now, I don’t say all these things to burden you. Of course, the law burdens us, it always accuses us, because there is always too much that we are called to do, there is always much more expected of us in God’s law than we can possibly do. But we put to death our old selves, we lay our dead selves, our crucified selves, at the feet of Jesus. Jesus knows what to do with us, he knows how to make our dead bones live, he is far more loving that we can ever know or comprehend, and he is able and willing and powerful to train us and empower us and fill us with his love, and to lead the selfless life with him. This is our endless task that only just begins on this earth, and is fulfilled in eternity in a perfect way, when Jesus raises us to be with him so that we radiate his perfection and his glory. In the meantime, we say to him, “Jesus, I who am so unholy, teach me to be holy. Jesus, I who am so weak in faith, uphold and sustain my faith. Jesus, I who am so unloving, teach me your love, the love towards God and the love towards my neighbour.”

Now, in the second part of our reading, we read something very interesting and mysterious. Jesus doesn’t simply let the Pharisees off, just then and there. Jesus gave a good answer about the law, and they simply could have gone off thinking that Jesus answered rightly and truthfully, and now that’s it. But he says: While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

When we think about the commandments from before, to love God and our neighbour, Jesus says about the second commandment that it is like the first. Why is loving our neighbour like loving God? In some sense, we could think that they are entirely different things. However, Jesus is both. He is a human being, a neighbour, a friend, a person that people met down the street. But he is also our true God. To love God and to love our neighbour comes together in the person of Jesus.

St Paul calls love the greatest virtue. He says: Now these three remain, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. Love is a wonderful thing, but it comes from faith. The power and the quality and the actions and the workings of our love don’t save us. Love is something that we are always learning, and as we learn it more, it can accomplish great and wonderful things. But it is faith in Jesus Christ that saves us. He has offered himself on the cross for us, and he has risen from the dead for us. He has borne the load of our failed love, our cold love, our weak love, and died for it.

And so, Jesus puts a question to the Pharisees, making them think about something: how is that the Messiah, the Christ, is both the Son of David and also David’s Lord? Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the city of the David, from the family of David, as the Son of David. He is a true human being that was born of that lineage. But also, he is David’s Lord, because he created David, and Abraham, and even Adam and Eve, and even gave the law and planted the Garden of Eden.

Jesus is both our true God and our true man. And this one fact is of such tremendous comfort for us. It means that when he offered himself on the cross, that everything was real, it was real human blood, real human hands and feet that were nailed, a real human head that had a crown of thorns placed on it. But also, because Jesus is true God, it means that this sacrifice is completely and totally sufficient and perfect and nothing less than perfect. You can cling to him in faith and in love, knowing that he has done such a wonderful thing for you, and knowing that your heavenly future with him is beyond what you can possibly imagine.

So we have in our reading both the Law: the love towards God and towards our neighbour, and also the perfect person of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Without him there is no salvation, and there really isn’t any love. Without him, and without his sacrifice, and without his forgiveness, and without him completely wiping away and cancelling our guilt and condemnation, all we have is striving, grasping, and a kind of empty hope that maybe God will receive us. Jesus promises us so much more. He has bound himself to his own words, and promised that whoever believes in him will never be put to shame. So let’s put our trust in him, let’s commend our lives to him, our hearts, our minds and our souls, and learn from him each day in our every day lives that perfect love, that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and that never ends. Amen.

 

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