Trinity XVIII [Matthew 22:34-46] (16-Oct-2022)

         

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.

The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

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 our Gospel reading comes from a part of Matthew’s Gospel which recounts to us the preaching and sermons of Jesus in the last week before death and resurrection, or as we call it, during Holy Week. Our reading, comes from Matthew chapter 22—however, in Matthew 21, we read about his entry into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, and then a few chapters later, in chapter 26, we read about his Last Supper with his disciples, and then, when he was arrested and betrayed, and led to his crucifixion.

At the beginning of our Gospel reading today, we read these words: But when the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. At that time, there were two factions, two parties, if you like, or two camps, to which different Jewish scholars and leaders belonged. You had the Pharisees and also the Sadducees. We often hear many things about the Pharisees, but then also, sometimes we read about these Sadducees. Just before our reading begins today, we read where they put to Jesus a curly question. But it says there too: The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question. The question they ask Jesus is about the resurrection, and the evangelist Matthew makes a special point for our benefit so that we know that the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection. Actually, in Acts 23, there is also an incident which relates to the Pharisees and Sadducees, and we read there: For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

So we can see the theological differences between the two parties. And so, when the Pharisees see that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, or we might say, that Jesus had “stumped” them, they also think that maybe they can put a question to Jesus.

So, we read: One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” We see in a few different places in the Gospels where people were trying to test Jesus. Of course, it’s a good thing to ask Jesus questions, but we should make sure that we have the right attitude. Of course, we know that Jesus is our wonderful Good Shepherd, and is a great teacher, and there are just so many things that we need to learn from him. But also, on the other hand, sometimes people want to go to Jesus and put a curly question to him, so that they can say, “I got you in a corner!”

Jesus says in answer to this question: 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 depend all the Law and the Prophets.

Now, notice that in the question, the lawyer asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment?” He wants Jesus to give an answer, which says: “This is it! This is the one!” And then of course, they will be able to say, “But what about this one, and this one?” If Jesus had only spoken of loving God, then they would have said, “But what about our love towards our neighbour?” If Jesus had spoken about loving our neighbours, then they would have said, “But what about our love towards God?”

And so, Jesus answers very carefully, and very wisely, and also quite truthfully. He speaks about the love towards God, but then, he says, there is a second commandment which is like it: this is the love towards our neighbour.

Now, just before we go on, it’s very important for us to talk about a doctrine in the Scripture, which is taught in our reading today. That doctrine is the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel. (Summary from Edward Koehler). The Law is the doctrine of the Bible in which God tells us how we are to be and what we are to do and not to do. For example, passages which teach us the Law, are like this: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Observe what I command you this day. These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.

On the other hand, the Gospel is that doctrine in the Bible in which God tells us the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ. For example, passages which teach us the Gospel, are like this: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that might live through him. God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

So there are many differences between the Law and the Gospel. The first difference, is who is doing the work? The Law teaches us what we are to do and not to do; the Gospel teaches us what God has done, and still does, for our salvation. Another difference is what the Law and Gospel show us. The Law shows us our sin and God’s wrath and judgment against sin, whereas the Gospel shows us our Saviour Jesus Christ and the grace of God. Another difference between the Law and the Gospel is what kind of effect it has in our hearts. The Law works in our hearts sorrow over sin and fear of punishment; but the Gospel works faith in Christ, love of God, and the hope of eternal life, and creates in us a new heart to that we have new desires to walk in God’s ways. And also, there is a difference between Law and the Gospel concerning the people to whom each must be preached to. The Law must be preached to all people, but especially to sinners who don’t repent and are unrepentant. The Gospel must be preached to sinners who are troubled in their minds because of their sins.

So, in our Gospel reading today, the Pharisees ask Jesus a question about the Law, and Jesus teaches the Law very clearly. He says: 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 depend all the Law and the Prophets.

So, let’s think for a moment about this teaching of Jesus. Jesus gives a summary of the Law. We also have another summary of the Law in the Old Testament in the Ten Commandments. Actually, the way that Jesus summarises the Law here also connects very closely to the Ten Commandments. For example, the first three commandments are: You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God [or, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain]. And, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. These three commandments speak about having God alone as our God, about the name of God, and about the worship of God. We could say that all these first three commandments have to do with what Jesus says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

The remaining seven commandments are: Honour your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. All of these things involve other people: our parents, people in general that we shouldn’t kill them, our husband and wife in the commandment against adultery, telling lies about people, and wanting to get things that are not ours which belong to our neighbour. We could also say that these seven commandments have to do with what Jesus says in our reading: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

So, you can see that Jesus is summarising the Ten Commandments. He says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. We can see here the tremendous standard that God holds us to. There should not be anything in our lives, anything in our hearts and souls and minds, right in our inmost being, that does not reflect the love of God. Now, we might ask: What’s in it for God, though? Why does he want us to love him so much, when it is so difficult for us? Why does he want our unconditional allegiance, why does he want our complete undivided attention? Isn’t it a little selfish of him to ask this of us? Well, not at all – you see, right from the beginning of creation, God created people, and he created them to flourish and prosper and to be happy and to enjoy their life. God is actually our great source of happiness and joy and enjoyment, and so, we actually always find our greatest joy in God. We have been created in such a way that things work like this.

Because of the fall into sin, our hearts are so troubled, our souls are often in great turmoil, and our minds are often not at peace. That’s because we direct our love to other places, to ourselves, to things, to the world, to other people first, but not to God. And so, we have great conflicts which rage within us. God is the joy of our heart, the satisfaction of our souls, and the peace for our minds.

And so, with every ounce of our effort, every movement and action of our heart and soul and mind, with every word and thought, we should love our wonderful and eternal God who made us. We might look at every moment we have, every second, every day, and every skill we have been given, and ask, “How can I glorify God with what he has given me?” Jesus says: 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 then he says: And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Here’s a question: Why is this commandment like the first? Why is it that loving our neighbour is like loving God? Aren’t they completely different things? Well, not at all, because you see men and women, people, human beings, are created in the image and likeness of God. Of all of God’s creatures, people are most like God, and so, to love them, is like loving God. Even Jesus when he came to his earth, didn’t actually become a snake, or a bug, or a panda bear, or a dog or a cat. He became a human being, he became a real man, he became like you and me. We were created in the likeness and image of God, but we lost that image, and that image was damaged and tarnished, in such a way that because of sin, we are now nothing like God when we compare ourselves to his purity and his holiness and his righteousness. And so, Jesus showed to us the perfect manhood, the perfect humanity. He showed us what it is to be a perfect person, a perfect human being—he showed us what a perfect human being in the likeness and image of God is really like, and because he was actually truly God, having God the Father as his own father, the perfect divinity of God shone through in everything he did, and in everything he said. We Christians are called to follow after him as his disciples, and to learn from him, and to follow in his footsteps.

So, when we demonstrate love to our neighbours, we should do it as if we are doing it to Jesus, who is both God and man in one person. And so, loving God and loving our neighbour are not two separate things. We don’t love God in such a way that we forget about the people around us—that creates self-righteousness. We don’t love people in such a way that we forget about God—that creates ungodliness, and we even start to forget what love is, because we learn it from God. We should love God, and then that love that we learn from God should pour out in love for people around us. We should think about all the time and the energy and the resources we have and ask ourselves, “How can I put these things to use, and myself to use, for God’s kingdom in serving the people around me whom he has called me to serve? If I were in their position, what would they need from me? If I were in their situation and if I were in their shoes, what would I need from them, and what would give me such great joy and happiness if I received some help or something from them? And so as Jesus says: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

Now, we have been discussing so far the doctrine of the Law. You can see that the Law is a truly wonderful thing, it is a glorious thing, it is a holy and pure thing. The way Jesus teaches the Law is also so perfect and so wonderful. He answers the Pharisees’ question in a beautiful and wonderful way.

However, the Law of God is so wonderful and perfect and pure and holy and good, but we have fallen so far beneath it and its glorious standard. As St Paul says: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We do not love God as we should, and we do not love our neighbours as we should. In fact, there is a bubbling fountain of poison in our hearts, in such a way that we excuse ourselves constantly for all the times and moments we haven’t loved God and our neighbours. And it’s not just the things we have or haven’t done, but it’s our entire existence: our entire existence is really for the most part turned completely in the other direction, and most of the time, we don’t even care, it doesn’t even bother us, we are completely asleep and apathetic to it. If we had the slightest inkling of the high and glorious standard of God’s law, we would completely collapse into a pile of dust and dirt at the very mention of it.

And so, you sinners, Jesus calls us to repent—each of us, you and me. But there is another message, another doctrine, the Gospel. The Gospel shows us what God has done and still does for you and for your salvation. The Gospel points you in all your helpless and hopeless to your Saviour Jesus. There is a glory that far surpasses the glory of the Law. The glory of the Law was so great that when Moses came down from Mt Sinai, he had to wear a veil over his face, because the people just couldn’t handle this glory. But there is another message, another doctrine, and greater and brighter glory, which is the light and wonder and the beauty that shines from the face of your Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so, Jesus, in the second part of our reading speaks of this glory, the glory that comes from him. He says: Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” Many people have the Law, but they don’t have Christ. They have the rules, and there is a great glory of the law, but it is only a glory of condemnation, it is such a bright light that can do nothing but blind them and curse them. But what about Christ? Whose son is he?

They said to him, “The son of David.” Jesus is the true Son of David, and was descended from the lineage of King David, it is true. But then Jesus says: 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?

Now, King David, was the writer of many psalms, including Psalm 110, which Jesus is quoting here. Jesus is David’s Son, but how is it that he is also David’s Lord? Well, I’ll tell you how! Jesus, the Son of God, even before he became a man, was there at the beginning of the world, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and created everything. The one who would become the Son of David, is actually also the Son of God, and truly God together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We sung about him even today: You alone are holy, you alone are Lord, you alone, O Christ, with the Holy Spirit, are Most High in the glory of God the Father.

And Jesus as true man and true God, atones for the sin of the world with his blood, he offers his life as a sacrifice for sin, and which is a completely sufficient and perfect offering, and acceptable to God, in such a way that Jesus enters into heaven with his wounded hands and feet at His ascension, and is seated at the right hand of God. And from this time onwards, the enemies of God, the devil and his armies and his minions have been destroyed, and all their power is completely vain, because the victory has already been won by Christ. David wrote: The Lord said to my Lord, that is, God the Father said to my Lord, the Son of God, Sit at my right hand, that is, enter into heaven and be enthroned in your human flesh, until I put your enemies under your feet, that is, until that glorious and wonderful time when the devil and death and sin will be completely defeated, and those who are covered with the blood of Christ will live with Christ in his glory together with the angels and archangels.

We read in our Gospel reading: And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. The glory of the Gospel, the glory of the person of Christ, who he is, and what he has done for us, is just too amazing to comprehend. Jesus just tears back the corner of one of the pages of the psalms, and shows us the glory of the Gospel there. Jesus says that David said this in the Spirit. We are shown a tiny glimpse of the way in which God has breathed out and inspired the Scriptures with the power of the Holy Spirit, in carrying along holy men of God.

Even today, while Jesus is at the right hand of God, he doesn’t rule there, in such a way that he is absent from us. Rather, he descends into our midst, and brings his glorious gospel of his grace into our midst, and absolves our sins, and forgives us. He sends us the Holy Spirit, and fills our ears and hearts. He baptised people into his kingdom, and makes them his own people, and claims them for himself, and makes them citizens of heaven. He feeds us with his own body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, for the forgiveness of sins, for our strength, for our health and healing in body and soul according to his blessing and his grace and his will, and for a wonderful preparation for a holy death.

And so, at the right hand of God, Jesus is constantly putting his enemies under his feet, and giving us the encouragement of his victory which he won for us on the cross, and which is manifested and revealed in such a wonderful way in his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. And we look forward to that wonderful time in the future when we shall see him with our eyes, face to face. Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.    

 

Trinity XVII [Luke 14:1-11] (9-Oct-2022)

        

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.

Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?

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 we read about an event described in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus goes to the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, and heals a man, and also tells a number of parables. The particular parable that we read about today is where Jesus speaks about taking a lower place at a wedding banquet, rather than a higher place.

Our Gospel reading begins where it says: One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

In the Gospels we are constantly coming across the Pharisees, who were the religious experts and theologians in the time of Jesus. When we hear the word Pharisee today, it usually has bad, negative connotations for us, and if someone were to call someone else a Pharisee, it would usually be an insult. However, in these times, a Pharisee was a very well-respected person. They were well educated, pious, religious people, theologians, leaders, and all that kind of thing. We might think of various people like this that we know, and we would never think of them as Pharisees. It’s not a bad thing to be educated, and educated in theology—it’s not a bad thing to be pious or religious, to be a theologian or a leader.

However, when it comes to Jesus and his teachings, there is something very special about him, because sometimes, educated people don’t understand things as clearly as the uneducated people, and such like. For example, St Paul and St Luke were both very educated people. St Paul was a Pharisee who converted to the Christian faith, but only after he had been a violent persecutor of Christians. St Luke, too, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, was a doctor, a highly-educated man. But then also, St Peter and St John and many of the other disciples were fishermen, uneducated men who worked hard for a living. So, we can see that sometimes God uses educated people and sometimes he uses uneducated people. Sometimes scientists only listen to scientists, doctors only listen to doctors, but sometimes Jesus says something that completely shatters everything we ever knew. It’s a bit like being a candlemaker who could never have imagined for a moment what it must be like to have a light-bulb, let alone invent one and make one. Sometimes we understand this in the church well: it’s not unusual for an uneducated person to express the wonderful truths and realities of the Christian faith much clearer than someone who has a PhD in theology.

In 1 Corinthians, St Paul says: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

The main thing, if people are educated, is that they always have to be careful not to use their book-smarts as a means to justify their conscience. There are many clever people who use their cleverness to cover up their sin, or their false beliefs. We always need to be careful. There’s something very special about reading about the conversion of Matthew, where it says, Jesus said to him: follow me, and he rose and followed him. That’s it! The Word and the person of Jesus had such an effect that he just stood up, left everything and went with Jesus. The same thing happened with the Ethiopian eunuch, who after a reasonably short conversation with Philip the evangelist, asked to stop his chariot and be baptised immediately.

Of course, we should think carefully about things, but when we listen to the words of Jesus, and when we are in a situation to learn from him, then we must submit our whole mind to him as if we know absolutely nothing at all, and there is nothing that we already know that could possibly be more important. Remember the passage about Mary and Martha, where Martha is fussing about in the kitchen. Jesus says: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.

So we come to our reading, where Jesus goes to the house of the ruler of the Pharisees. Here we see the Light of the world, who created light, the sun, the lightning and thunder and electricity, paying a visit, as it were, to these candlemakers! We read that they were watching him carefully. They were not watching Jesus with the attitude of learning from him and submitting their minds and hearts to their Maker and their God, but in such a way that would catch him out with something, and be able to say: “Aha! We are the experts, and we are able to solve the great problem, what is really wrong with Jesus.”

We read: And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

Now, dropsy was a fluid condition, which caused terrible swelling in a person. This person was there before Jesus. And Jesus asks the lawyers and Pharisees: It is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?

Now, in the Old Testament, God had commanded the Jewish people to keep the Sabbath day holy, and in such a way that they should do no work on that day. Of course, the whole purpose of keeping the Sabbath was so that they could dedicate this day and this time to their sanctification, to being made holy. The commandment says: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And so what it is the thing that makes us holy? It is the Word of God, and so this commandment has especially to do with going to the place where people can hear the Word of God, and hear it read and preaching and expounded, and all that kind of thing.

But the Pharisees made such a big deal about not working on the Sabbath, that they became almost quite silly in their self-righteousness about what they could and couldn’t do, what do we define as “work” and what isn’t technically “work”. Even today, amongst Jewish people, I have heard that there are some people who won’t use light-switches on Saturdays, or go up in an elevator, and all kinds of things, because they think that it would come under the banner of “work”.

Now, Jesus puts this question to them: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not? When Jesus puts his hand on a person, and miraculously heals him, and takes away his debilitating medical condition, is this technically “work”? Is Jesus breaking the Sabbath?

Now, if we read the beginning of the book of Genesis, we read that God created the world in six days, and even God didn’t need to fill a whole week with his work! And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. Now, this is a great and wonderful mystery, that God should rest. But this is not to say that God was worn out and exhausted and was sapped of all his energy after a long week’s work! No—of course not! God rests on the seventh day, to manifest and show to us his great, perfect and divine peace. And when people rest on the Sabbath, and hear the Word of God, God shares his divine peace with us, and works on us through his Word, and sends us the Holy Spirit.

Every time these Pharisees had gathered together on the Sabbath in the synagogue, God was working on them to heal them and to teach them. Now, Jesus is in their midst, and there is a sick man there, and Jesus actually demonstrates to them what the Sabbath is all about, namely, it is for the benefit of our healing, our refreshment, our nourishment at God’s table. It is for drawing living water from God’s fountain, for the refreshment of our minds and our hearts and our bodies. And so, of course, Jesus is here in their midst to give this man with dropsy this wonderful gift.

So, after Jesus asks these men this question about healing on the Sabbath, we read: They remained silent. The experts have their mouths shut. Then [Jesus] took him and healed him and sent him away.

Now, Jesus asks them a further question: Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? And we read once again: And they could not reply to these things. Silence, silence, silence. It is the Sabbath and their mouths are shut. It is time for God to teach them, Jesus himself to do the talking and for them to do the listening.

They all know that if there is some terrible thing happening on the Sabbath, an accident, or a tragedy, that they will do something about it immediately. If their son, or even an ox, an animal, falls into a well, of course, they’re not going to yell down to their son, and say: “Sorry, lad. I can’t help—it’s the Sabbath. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” Of course, no one would do this! Jesus says, you wouldn’t do this to your son, and you wouldn’t even do that to one of your farm animals.

Actually, in one of my former parishes, there was a farming couple who had beef cattle on their farm. They attended church very regularly. But once or twice I remember it happening that the cows got out and were blocking the highway near their house. And so they weren’t at church that week, because they had to get their cows back in. Could you imagine if the people at church had shaken their heads, and said, “Tsk! Tsk! They should’ve been at church.” Could you imagine if the police came to assist the traffic on the road, and the couple said, “Sorry, we can’t do anything now. We have to go to church!”

Jesus is talking about precisely these situations to the Pharisees. Of course, there is some work that needs to be done on the Sabbath, but anyway, Jesus is always working on the Sabbath, he is always working on us, he is working to breathe out his Holy Spirit and to sanctify his people, to make them into living temples of his Word, and to heal and refresh them, and to share with them the perfect peace of his divine rest.

Now, in our reading there is also a parable where Jesus speaks about people at a wedding feast. We see these puffed-up Pharisees, with all their knowledge and sense of self-importance, putting themselves in the important position in the kingdom of God. We also see a man with dropsy in a low position. But Jesus exalts the man with dropsy, and heals him, whereas the Pharisees are silenced and put to shame. Jesus says at the end of the reading: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

However, instead of looking in detail at this parable, I’d like to dedicate some time in the remainder of our sermon today to a question which comes up again and again, and is important for us to consider. Why is it that Christians worship on Sundays rather than Saturdays?

In our reading we are talking about Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Today, we sometimes meet different Christians who are considering this question, and think: maybe we should all be worshipping on Saturdays instead of Sundays. After all, Jesus, being a Jew himself, worshipped on Saturdays, which is true.

There is even a group, the Seventh Day Adventists, who make a very big deal about this, and accuse Christians of breaking the commandment, by worshipping on the “wrong day”.

However, there are a couple of things we need to think about. Luther, in the Small Catechism, gives this explanation to the Third Commandment, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. He writes: We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Notice here, that nothing is really said about the day of worship, but rather about the Word of God and preaching, and about hearing it and learning it, and learning and hearing it gladly, with a joyful heart, with a willing attitude. As it says in the Psalms: I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. I will go the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs for, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.

Now, this is a really fine point that Luther makes, because in the New Testament, if we go through the Ten Commandments, and look at how the apostles teach them, we will find all of the commandments reiterated there, and taught in such a way that takes into account the life and ministry of Jesus, and his sacrifice and death on the cross. However, when it comes to the Sabbath, nowhere does it say in the New Testament that people must be diligent not to work on Saturdays. There are many passages which talk about hearing and learning the Word of God, and many examples of preaching and teaching, and of Christians gathering together. But to worship on Saturdays like the Jews is not promoted in the same way. In fact, in Colossians, St Paul writes: Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Also, we see in Acts 20, the example of the gathering on the first day of the week. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day. Also, in the beginning of the book of Revelation, St John speaks of himself in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, not the Sabbath day, the Saturday, but the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the Sunday.

So, in worshipping on Sundays, we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, following the example of the apostles. Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, he visited his disciples eight days later on Sunday, and also the Day of Pentecost with the giving of the Holy Spirit was on the Sunday too. And also, we worship on Sundays, not because there is a law about the day, but we do it out of freedom, to hear the Word of God whenever we can. Sometimes, of course, we worship on other days of the week, like on Good Friday, or whatever day of the week Christmas happens to be. Some churches even hold daily services, which is a wonderful thing, when a church is of that kind of size where people can come along on a daily basis.

Now, many people are not convinced about these things. Many people, like Seventh Day Adventists, or Jews, or even Muslims, will accuse us of changing the day of worship. There were events in history where Emperor Constantine and particular popes made a law about these things, and forbade Christians to worship on Saturdays. People say that it was their fault. No, it wasn’t their fault—they solved an ongoing dispute with heavy-handed, political methods, but that it is a completely different issue.

Sometimes, when it comes to the Scripture, we see in the Old Testament many rules and regulations about food, like eating pork, or festivals and days of worship, which we Christians today no longer follow. And so, many people accuse us of changing the law. It’s not that we changed the law, it’s that the law no longer applies now that Jesus has died and risen from the dead.

Also, sometimes in the Old Testament, there are some rules where it says, you must keep this forever. Even about the Sabbath it says in Exodus 31: The people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. Actually, there are two words for “forever” in Hebrew. One means, forever and ever, Amen. The other means, as long as the conditions are the same. For example, a husband and a wife might say, “I will be true to you forever”. What they really mean is, as long as you’re alive. Once the person is dead, the other person is quite free to marry someone else. The same goes for the day of the Sabbath. As long as we are waiting for the Messiah, the Sabbath and the food regulations remain in place. But now that the Messiah has come, and Jesus has risen from the dead, the situation is completely different.

The way I often explain it is like this. Let’s say a young woman lives by herself, and she is visited by the postman who delivers her letters. There are very strict rules about where the postman is allowed to go: he can only talk to her at the letterbox or the front door. He is not allowed to go inside the house, or help himself to food, or sit in the chairs, or go to bed there. But let’s say, years later, this postman and the young woman fall in love, and they get married. Now, the postman and the young woman share a house and a marriage and home and a family, and so the rules are completely different. It would be quite silly if the postman and his wife only spoke to each other at the front door still, because that is the law for postmen. Sure, he might still be a postman, but now the rules are different, because he is now her husband!

And so, the same goes for us as Christians. Yes, for the Jewish people, there were many rules that they followed, because God had only allowed them limited access to his presence. And so what we read in the Old Testament is as if they are only allowed to visit God at the post box and the front door. But now, that Jesus has come, and has died, and has risen, and has sent his Holy Spirit, and has given us the full forgiveness of our sins, we now have access to God’s house, and so the relationship is completely different. The old external regulations about worshipping on a Saturday, or keeping Jewish festivals, or eating certain food, no longer apply because the relationship is completely different.

Of course, we still gather as Christians to hear the Word of God. The Word of God is our living water, our life, our nourishment. We need to hear the Word and the preaching, because we need to recognise in ourselves our profound sinful condition, and our great need for Jesus. And when the Holy Spirit has broken our stony hearts, and convicted us of our sin, then we need to pointed to Jesus, our Saviour, who has offered himself in our place, and died for us, and risen for us. He forgives our sins, he has baptised us into his kingdom, and he continually works on us, to sanctify us and to share with us his perfect peace and perfect rest which surpasses all understanding. Jesus is our Shepherd, our Life, our Healing, our Health, our Teacher, our Guide, our God, the Head of the church, our fountain of life, our living water, our medicine, our doctor, who exalts the humble, and is our wonderful Encourager, and Friend, our Advocate, and Comforter. We meet him even today on the day of his resurrection, to receive from him the Holy Spirit and the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit, not simply to speak to him at the post box, but to be full members of his household, even to meet him as our beloved bridegroom, and to live with him in his house. This is our Jesus who is the Lord of the Sabbath, who breathes on us and shares with us his perfect and divine peace and rest. Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.    

 

Trinity XVI [Luke 7:11-17] (2-Oct-2022)

            

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.

And Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

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 a well-known event in the life of Jesus, where he raised from the dead a young man, who was the son of a widow from the town of Nain. Now, there are many amazing passages in the Gospels where we read about Jesus raising people from the dead, particularly this passage, but also there is the occasion where a young girl, the daughter of a man called Jairus, is raised from the dead, and also in the Gospel of John, we read a lengthy account there about the raising of a man called Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. And of course, all these events point forward to the wonderful occasion where Jesus himself raises himself from the dead.

Now, as Christians, and especially as Lutheran Christians, we derive all of our teaching from the Scripture, from the bible. And when we pastors go about the task of preaching, we should not preach anything that is not from the Bible, because it is not our word that we preach, but the word of God. Actually, Luther once wrote, that a pastor should never ask for forgiveness after he has preached, because he should not apologise to God for speaking his Word. And he also says, If you can’t say that, you shouldn’t be a preacher.

Now, when we talk about the Scripture, we confess that it is inspired, inerrant, infallible, meaning that the Holy Spirit has given to these different writers the words to speak, and has breathed out the Scripture, and also that the words of the Scripture are without mistakes and errors, and that we can always rely on it to speak to us the facts and the truth. Jesus says: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He also says: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. We also read in 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. We also read in 2 Peter 1, where it says: For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So, the Holy Scriptures are a totally unique book, and unlike any other book. Each of the books in the bible has a human author, but also because the Holy Spirit inspired them, and gave them the words, and led them along, these words are nothing less than the very Word and words of God. Now, because the Scripture is the Word of God, it also means that there is no mistakes and errors and lies contained in it, because, as Paul writes to Titus: God never lies. We read in Proverbs 30:5: Every word of God proves true. Even Jesus himself says: The Scripture cannot be broken.

However, there is something that we often forget when it comes to the Scripture. When we say that the Scripture is without errors, we also need to remember that the Scripture often recounts to us and reports to us various facts which actually happened sometime in history. And so, as a pastor, I am called to preach to you the Word of God, and sometimes it happens that we study a passage, like our Gospel reading today, and we look at the Greek, and we study it, and all that kind of thing, and then we can get into the pulpit, and say things like: “St Luke is very clever in his use of the past tense in our Gospel reading.” Then a pastor might say to himself, I’ve preached the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text. Now, sure, the grammar, and the way in which sentences are constructed, and studies about how this particular word is used here or there, is a very useful thing.

However, that’s not the main thing we’re called to preach. In our Gospel reading today, there are not just words here on a page, in the Scripture. But these words actually make a claim about history, that something actually happened, in a particular place, and at a particular time, and that particular people were involved. What do I mean? I’m saying, that in our Gospel reading, Jesus raised a man from the dead. He did it, it happened, it happened in history, people saw it, they witnessed it. That’s what happened, and that’s what we’re called to preach.

Take, for example, the Gospel reading about Easter. What does it mean to preach the text on Easter Day? It doesn’t mean that we tell people how Mark or Matthew used the present tense, or how this word in Luke is also used in a similar way by John. All that is interesting, but it’s not the true Christian preaching. The thing we pastors are called to preach on Easter Sunday is the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead.

Now, back to our Gospel reading today. Why I am making such a big point of this? Because there is a terrible thing which has infected and corrupted and is destroying many churches today, which is what we might call “liberal theology”. It is a true cancer. And what it does is separates the words of Scripture from the living and breathing work of the Holy Spirit in history. On the Day of Pentecost, we read that the apostles were filled with the Spirit, and the people say: We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Did you hear that? The mighty works of God.

And so, reading the Bible for many liberal Christians is no different from reading a fairy story, or some literature, or some plays by Shakespeare. And so, there are many theologians and scholars who know their Hebrew and the Greek very well, but they just don’t believe what the Scripture says, and they don’t believe the claims that the Scripture makes. They will protest and say, “But we take the Scripture very seriously.” Yes, yes, yes—when I was in high school too, I studied Shakespeare, and I enjoyed it, and I took it seriously. I just didn’t believe it. There is a difference between “taking the Scripture seriously”, and believing it. Yes, we should take the Scripture seriously, and we should also believe it.

Now, I’m making a big point of this, because for us in a place like Australia, or any western country like America or England or in Europe, this is our greatest obstacle culturally when it comes to reading the Bible. Many people will come to church in our country, hear it read that Jesus raised a man from the dead, but they won’t believe it. They will think: what does this passage mean for me? How is it relevant for my everyday life? How does this passage relate to me personally? And in asking these questions, they have completely missed the point, that this event happened, and that Jesus did it.

Let us pray to our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who is the true leader and Head of the church, our faithful Saviour and our God, that he may fill us with the Holy Spirit and with his gifts, so that our eyes may be opened as we read the Scriptures, and that any scales from our own presuppositions and culture would be removed, and that the precious truths of the Gospel would not be veiled from us. Rather, we ask that the Jesus would fill us with the Holy Spirit, so that our eyes and ears would be opened, in fact that our whole bodies and souls would be raised from the dead and brought out of darkness into light, and that we would be attentive and take notice of these precious things, that we would savour and treasure them, just like we had found a treasure hidden in a field, or a pearl of great price. Come Lord Jesus! Come Holy Spirit! As we say in the Gloria: You alone are holy, you alone are Lord, you alone, O Christ, with the Holy Spirit, are Most High in the glory of God the Father.

So, let’s read our text. It says: Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. Just before this passage, in the previous chapter, Jesus had chosen his twelve disciples, and ministered to a huge crowd, by healing them and casting out demons. And then he gave them a wonderful sermon, with many things a bit like the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Then after this, Jesus healed a centurion’s servant. So, in all these things that have been going on, we see that Jesus has a large crowd that is following him. There have been many wonderful things that he had been doing, and so people were interested in what he was going to do next. But also, in what he was about to do, there are already many witnesses there, many people who were going to see what Jesus would do with their own eyes.

Also, in the Gospels, when Jesus goes to a particular place, the town is often mentioned, whether it is Nazareth or Capernaum or Cana or Jerusalem. Here, the town is called Nain. It still exists today, and people can visit it. It’s always good for us to remember that these places are real places, as real and as tangible as our local shops. All of this reminds us of the fact that Jesus in his great mercy and his great love and compassion lived and walked and breathed and went around to real places at a real time and met and dealt with real people.

We read: As Jesus drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

Here we see a funeral procession, and it was a very large funeral. Now, sometimes, we see a large funeral, when there is a very important or significant person, like we saw when Queen Elizabeth died recently. However, sometimes, we also see a large funeral, when there is a particularly tragic death, for example, when someone dies young or in an accident, and people from far and near are especially moved by the whole thing, and so they decide to go to the funeral, in order to show their support for the family who remain behind. In our reading, something like this has happened, something particularly tragic. Some time before, there is this woman, who had lost her husband. And she had only one son, and now he had died. And so, this whole business is very sad indeed, because this woman had outlived both her husband and her son. Of course, this would be a very sad business in any culture, but we should also remember that in those times and in that country, widows were much more vulnerable then than they are now and in our country. Not only did they lose family members, but also her husband and her son would have been the ones who had provided for her, who would have gained an income from their work, and then looked after her. She’s lost all of that now.

And so we see just what an enemy death is. We rely on people, we need them, not just in a selfish way, but it’s a completely natural thing for us to live together and with people, and in such a way that we help each other. That’s the way God has made us for community. However, death comes to us as our wages. St Paul says: The wages of sin is death. We are all sinners, and God takes away our life, not because it is of any delight to him, but because it is what his justice requires. The life the pours forth from the heart and the mind of God is a life that is completely without sin.

We also see in our reading two crowds. There is a large crowd following Jesus, and there is a large crowd following the woman. This is the way things are in our life: we are either following after death, or we are following after Jesus. Now, of course, for us Christians, we will also die one day. But to follow Jesus means that when we die, we have nothing to fear, because we are with him. For those who don’t have Jesus, there is much to fear, because to die in our sins is a frightful and terrible thing. Even we know from the Scripture, that there is hell, an eternal judgment and punishment for those who have come to Jesus. There is a large crowd in our world today who are simply walking towards death and toward eternal death.

But Jesus has his own crowd with him. Sometimes, we often might feel as though those who follow Jesus are a small crowd. But Hebrews 12 says: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud [not just a crowd, but a cloud!] of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings to closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.

So, there have been many who have followed Jesus before. And this crowd who follow Jesus are following their Good Shepherd, who has life and every good gift in his hands. We follow after Jesus who has died in our place, and died for us, who has laid down his life for the sheep, who has paid the price for our sin with his own life and with his own blood. And not only that, but he has risen from the dead, and has baptised us into his own life, and filled us with the Holy Spirit. He continually sends to us the Holy Spirit so that we would meet him in his church, through his Word and Sacraments, so that he would lead us, and draw us after him, and pour out upon us every spiritual gift that we need. He is our wonderful Saviour, our Redeemer, our God, our life-giver, our leader, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Let’s look at the next verses in our reading. We read: And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.

First of all, we see that Jesus looked upon this woman, and that when he looked upon her, he didn’t look on her with disdain or with anger, or anything like that. He saw her and he had compassion. This is at the heart of our faith as Christians: that we trust in Jesus, the one who looks upon us, who see us, and who has compassion on us. Can we even begin to imagine how wonderful a thing it is for Jesus to look on us, to see us, to behold us, in all of our hopelessness, in all of our weakness, in all of our sin, in all of our sadness? Can we even begin to imagine what a wonderful thing it is that Jesus has had compassion on us, and continually shows his infinite and perfect and great compassion?

Jesus says to the woman, “Do not weep.” He does this because he really has it in his power to turn her sorrow into complete and total joy, and he will do it. We read: Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. To walk up to a woman in her time of grief and to say such a thing, and to touch the coffin at such a time, was an incredible thing. If Jesus had not done anything after this, he would surely have been arrested and put away as some kind of madman. At this time, everyone would have been very much confused.

Sometimes, it is like that for us too, where we hear and learn a particular word of God, but we don’t understand it, or we don’t appreciate the meaning of it, or we just don’t get it. Such a thing happened at the footwashing, where Peter didn’t understand why Jesus was doing this thing. Jesus said to him: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. So when Jesus says to the woman, “Do not weep”, he calls her and the people to wait and see what amazing thing he will do. Many times in our lives, we don’t understand what God is doing with us, why we are going through some particular hardship, why he is leading us through some darkness or confusion, but we should just trust his word, and wait to see what he will do.

And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Here now we see the amazing power of Jesus word, and what he can do, and what his words do, what they create. These are words which are filled with the Holy Spirit, and so they have the power to even raise from the dead. Even they have the power to make alive a person who is no longer alive and even no longer able to hear.

Even this is the way we are converted to Christianity: we are called to life by Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit from the dead. We were dead in our trespasses. Also, on the last day, there will also be a great resurrection from the dead, which Luther summarises very nicely in the Small Catechism: On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

Even when think of Jesus and his Word, we cannot even begin to imagine the great power and effect it has. After all, this is the same word that created the world, and said, Let there be light. This is the same Word we come to hear in the church, which we read in the Scripture, which forgives us our sin, which promises us eternal life. This is the same Word which empowers baptism in such a way as to bring people into Christ’s kingdom, and which renews people and gives them new birth by water and the Word, by water and the Spirit. This is the same Word which empowers the Lord’s Supper in such a way that we are fed with the body and blood of Christ here. Everything is through the power of Christ’s Word. And the word itself is spoken not just by anyone, but by this wonderful Jesus, who even today comes and meets us and deals with us personally, and who fills us with the Holy Spirit, in such a way that we become living temples of his Word and His Holy Spirit. Even in Romans it says: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

And so, we read at the end of our reading: Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

The passage concludes by telling us of the great fear and amazement of the people. Their mouths overflowed with praise and thanks for the wonderful things that they had seen. They glorified God in the presence of each other, they told other people what they seen, and the news spread in all kinds of directions.

In the same way, let the greatness of what Jesus did among these people truly sink in with us, and let the amazement of the whole event take root in us, that we would not just sit and let this all pass us by as if we are waiting for a bus. Jesus has done wonderful things, truly amazing things! If our hearts and minds and mouths and tongues could comprehend it, and could even express it in words, and could even describe it.

They glorified God. Let us also glorify God, and say: Glory to God in the highest. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Hosanna in the highest! They said: A great prophet has arisen among us! God has visited his people! Even today, as we gather together as his church, we come into the presence of our living Lord Jesus, who is the Lord and master of life. We hear and listen and keep and hold to his words, the words of this great prophet! And we also recognise him and confess him as our God, who has visited his people. He even visits us today, and walks with us each day, and leads us, and in the midst of all things dead and dying, he speaks his living words, his words of life. Amen.

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

 

Trinity XV [Matthew 6:24-34] (25-Sept-2022)

       

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.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

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 is a very well known passage of the Gospels, that in known by both Christians and non-Christians alike, and also it is so incredibly rich. It comes to us from the passage in Matthew’s Gospel, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, which takes up the whole of chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Chapter 5 begins with the famous beatitudes, or blessing of Jesus, which he speaks. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven, and so forth. He then speaks about his disciples as salt of the earth and the light of the world. He speaks about the law, and also preaches very specifically about the law: about anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and also about loving our enemies. Jesus preaches the law in such a way that he holds it right up to people’s faces, so that we don’t run away from it and try to escape from it, but examine ourselves by it, and let the law pierce right to our hearts.

In Chapter 6, where our reading comes from today, Jesus teaches about giving to the needy, about prayer—including where he gives his disciples the Lord’s Prayer—and also fasting. He also speaks about laying up treasures in heaven.

Then we come to our reading today, where Jesus speaks about God and money, and also about not being anxious about our life.

In chapter 7, we also read about where Jesus teaches us not to judge others, to ask, seek and to knock, he teaches us about doing to others as we would wish they would do unto us, and about entering through the narrow way. He also warns us against false prophets and teaches us to build our house on the rock.

So you can see in the Sermon on the Mount, there are many well-known passages. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that the specific part of our reading that we read in church comes from a larger whole and forms part of a bigger picture. It’s worth our while sometimes to go to these chapters of Matthew, and read them in one sitting, because there often insights that we gain from doing this, and common threads that go through the whole sermon.

Anyway, let’s come to our passage today, which begins with Jesus saying the following words: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Jesus, first of all, is telling us about having two masters. Sometimes a person might work for a company that is run by two people, and these two people are completely of the same mind about how things should be done, and there’s no problem with working for two bosses. However, Jesus is talking about two masters, where they are completely opposed to each other. Imagine being in a workplace, where instead of having one boss, you have two bosses, and the two people have completely different ideas about things, completely different philosophies, completely different approaches to how things should be done. One day, you’re told to paint a wall black, the next day you’re told to paint it white. One day, you’re asked to build this thing, the next day you’re asked to tear it down. For most people, this would be a completely intolerable place to work, a terrible, frustrating, annoying work-place.

Jesus says: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. If you had a crazy place to work like this, eventually you would find that you agree with one of the bosses, and you would be happy to do some jobs, but then when the other boss asks you to do the opposite, you would be frustrated. Actually, the picture Jesus is planting is one where the two bosses are actually against each other.

And so, after painting this strange picture of working for two masters or bosses, Jesus tells us what he’s really talking about. He says: You cannot serve God and money. Actually, the word here for money is an Aramaic word, “mammon”. And mammon includes a little bit more than money, but includes possessions and things and stuff. It’s probably quite a good translation for us to say, “You cannot serve God and stuff”.

Let’s have a look at the Ten Commandments. When we talk about serving God, we’re essentially talking about the First Commandment, where it says: You shall have no other gods. Luther in the Small Catechism, gives a really helpful and simple explanation, where he says: We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. In Romans, St Paul talks about people and how they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. When it comes to having a “god”, we have to understand that no-one is really without a god. No-one on this earth really is an atheist. They might not believe in the one true God, but they believe in something. They fear, love and trust in something—they attach their heart to something. It’s just that that something is not God. St Paul says that you either serve the Creator of the world, or you end up serving the things that he has made, and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And in our reading, Jesus gives us a very strong warning about a particular thing that has a real palpable danger of standing in the way of us serving God, and that is money.

Now, on the other hand, we’re allowed to have money. In the seventh commandment, we read: You shall not steal. If we’re not allowed to steal from people, it means that people are actually allowed to have things, and have possessions, and that it’s important that we realise that these things are theirs, and not ours for the taking. Luther writes his little explanation as follows: We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbour’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.

Now, money is a very difficult thing to talk about, because depending on people’s situation in life, we sometimes have quite different views about money. Sometimes, people have been brought up during hard times, either in a time during Australia’s history where things were a lot harder than now, or from another country, where they had to learn to be quite frugal. Sometimes, people have grown up in a situation where they received government welfare. Sometimes, people have pulled themselves up “by the bootstraps”, as they say, and have gone from rags to riches. Sometimes, people are the other way, and have been wealthy, and then have found themselves in financial hardship, and have gone from being comfortable to then having to make financial sacrifices. Sometimes, people are quite comfortable in life, and have always had everything they need. Sometimes, people are very wealthy, and really have much more money than they really need, but are quite at luxury to use their money in really whatever way they please. Some people don’t really understand how money works, and some other people have a real head for money and really do understand how it works. There are people who struggle to work for a living, some people work well for a living, some people who run their own business, some people who invest their money. All these people have to deal with money, and sometimes think about it differently.

Now, you might think about these things, and think: yes, I probably fit in there or there. But no matter what our situation in life, the temptation to serve money instead of God is there for all of us. And sometimes, it looks quite different for different people. For example, poor people sometimes look to rich people and despise them for having money. Rich people sometimes look at poor people and despise them for not having money.

When we’re in need, we can often think that all our problems just have to do with money, and we forget about God, and we can forget to ask him for our daily bread. But when we’re in plenty, we can so easily relax in our comfort and forget about God, and forget to thank him for our daily bread.

We also learn from the bible some principles when it comes to money which go against the normal way that people think. For example, St Paul says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. We should remember this. Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This passage causes some despair to the disciples, who ask: Who then can be saved? Jesus says: With man this impossible, but with God all things are possible. We should really think about this passage. But then also Jesus shows his disciples other things to do with money, where, for example, when he is asked about paying a tax, he sends Peter to catch a fish and open the fishes mouth and take out a shekel, and to give it as the tax. We also have Jesus talking about tax in the temple, and says: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. We also read the passage where a poor widow puts all that she had to live on into the offering bowl at the temple. Jesus says: Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. There are many different things that Jesus teaches about money.

But what we learn here from Jesus is that it’s okay to have money, we need our daily provision, and Jesus actually teaches us to ask God for our daily bread. We shouldn’t steal from others, and this also implies that God is happy for people to have money and possessions. But Jesus says you cannot serve it. Money can serve you, but you cannot serve it. In the meantime, all of us have a tendency to serve money and mammon, and that this attitude of our heart forms a hindrance to us in serving God. So whatever we have in our life, we are called to thank God for it, and to place it into his hands. That way we serve God with out money and things, and not serve our money instead of God. But it goes against the grain, it goes against the sinful human flesh that we constantly carry around with us. So when Jesus says to us: You cannot serve God and money, these words are always a call to repentance. As long as we have to deal with money in this life, we always have the constant temptation to turn away from God. Even Jesus says: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. Anyway, money only belongs to this life. When we die, we can paint our coffin with gold like the Pharaohs in Egypt, or even papier-mache our coffin with $100 notes. Whatever we have in this life will be useless for us once we’re dead. We can’t buy our way into heaven—only faith in Jesus Christ saves us. Turn away from serving money, stop serving it, stop loving it, stop devoting yourself to it, and instead love God and be devoted to him. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Jesus is a faithful Saviour, who has died for you and paid for your sins with his blood. Trust in him, and commend yourself to him.

Now, I’ve devoted a lot of time so far to this one verse at the beginning of our reading, which is so important. In fact, this verse provides the basis and the foundation for everything that Jesus says next. He talks about this life. He knows that we need our daily bread, and he knows that we need money to buy things, and all that kind of thing. So if he calls us to stop worrying and serving money, what then?

Jesus says: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow not reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of your by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you nee them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

There is so much to think about in these verses, and we don’t have the time to consider it all carefully today. We pray that God will give another occasion for that! But I’ll make some more general comments.

You know: when Jesus points us away from money and mammon, and points us to God, he is pointing us away from trying to solve our problems in life ourselves. When we’re dealing with money, and we’re counting it out, we think that we’re in charge. When we’ve got clothes on our back and a roof over our head, we think that we don’t have anything to worry about. But as soon as we have some problem, we often try to solve it ourselves, and rely on our own means and our own brains to do what we think needs to be done. But then, for some reason, the problem is not solved, and we become much more anxious to solve it.

Many people in our country and our world are highly anxious at the moment. I’ve been anxious too. There are all kinds of things going on that we can’t control and can’t fix by ourselves.

There’s been great chances in our society since the Corona Virus started, and then there’s also the problems to do with civil freedoms and liberties, which have taken many people by surprise too. People ask the question: are the government and the police on our side? Do they have our best interests at heart? When will things go back to normal? Are things already back to normal, really? Many people are tired and exhausted. Many people just don’t want to think about anything, and want to put their head in the sand. Many people have realised, some for the first time in their life, that the way in which we receive our daily bread, the way in which our daily bread comes to us, is a fragile process. God preserves it, and he preserves people in various vocations and jobs to do various things, so that we are able to have what we need in this life. But when that process and that system is shaken up a bit, what then?

All of that aside, we actually have no need to be anxious in our life about anything at all whatsoever. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we don’t genuinely feel anxious, and that we don’t actually feel genuine anxiety. After all, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus knew he would be tortured and crucified the very next day, and he trembled and shook and sweated drops of blood. He was anxious too, and when we feel anxious, we should commend ourselves to him, who knows our hearts much better than we do.

But there’s a reason why we don’t need to be anxious about our life. As soon as we start to serve and be devoted to money and things, we will find ourselves being anxious about our life again. No—we have no need, because we have a faithful God, who has created us. He has sent His Son into the world, to take on a human body like ours, and to suffer, to experience all kinds of anxieties and troubles, to suffer, to die, and to pay for and atone for our sins on the cross. He has risen again from the dead, and is alive, and sends upon his church his living Holy Spirit. And this wonderful God, our wonderful heavenly Father, knows our needs. He knows what we need to live a life on this earth. He knows what your family needs. He knows what you worry about, and he cares for you. When things happen in the world that we can’t control and that rock our world and that shake our existence, we must always keep in mind the fact that God has not changed, he is still there, he is still just as much in control of things as he was before, he still holds us in his hands, he still love us, he still cares for us, and he is still leading us. So we have a very good reason and a solid basis and firm foundation why we can seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and have a firm trust that all these things will be added to you. We have a solid and firm grounding and footing in Jesus Christ, so that we don’t need to be anxious about tomorrow, because we are only here today. Jesus is already there tomorrow, before we have arrived.

In the meantime, we take our stand in the waters of baptism, where we have received the kingdom of God and the righteousness of Christ. We receive the forgiveness of sins in the words of absolution, spoke by the pastor. We receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, commending our sins and our troubles to him, our worries, our needs, our anxieties. We come to him in our weakness, and pray to him for his strength, that his strength may be made perfect in our weakness.

So let’s commend ourselves to Jesus, and ask that may shape and form us in his image by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we may love him and be devoted only to Him. Amen.

 

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

 

Trinity XIV [Luke 17:11-19] (18-Sept-2022)

      

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.

And [Jesus] said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

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 Exodus 15, we read a wonderful passage, where after God had led Moses through the Red Sea and rescued the people from the Egyptians, they come to a place called Marah, where they couldn’t drink the water. And God gave Moses a log which he placed in the water, which then made it sweet. We read that God says to the people: If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer. We read that it is God who is the giver of good health, and he is the one who heals us.

For us, God heals in two ways: either directly, or indirectly; either through means or without means. So, sometimes God heals us without means, that is, he heals us in a miraculous way, that we simply can’t explain in any other way. But also, God uses people who serve in the medical profession, doctors, nurses, surgeons, etc. who diagnose, prescribe medicine, or whatever. Even when God uses these people who serve in these vocations, it is still God who heals, because the doctors and the medicine are a gift from him, and also, the circumstances have to be just right for someone to be healed. The doctor might diagnose, the doctor might prescribe, the doctor might give a treatment, but it is God who does the healing. It is similar to a pastor, who preaches the Word of God, speaks the Word of God, but then it is God the Holy Spirit who converts people’s hearts.

But then, also, sometimes God might also grant a healing in a direct way, without a doctor, simply as a gift, that is completely unexplainable in any other way, according to his will, and according to his purpose. You might know someone this has happened to, or it might have happened to yourself. Of course, it doesn’t mean that we reject doctors or medicine, because they are a gift from God. But sometimes, God works apart from these means.

In the life of Jesus, we read about how he performed many miracles of healing, although he was not a trained doctor, and did not perform any diagnosis, or prescribe any medicine or treatment. In doing this, Jesus demonstrated that he was both true God and God’s Messiah. Just as God had said to Moses, I am the LORD, your healer, we also say the same thing about Jesus, because he is also true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as one God in three persons.

But also, in the Old Testament, we read that the Messiah will show miracles of healing. In Isaiah 35, we read: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. We also read in the book of Malachi that the Messiah will be the sun of righteousness who shall rise with healing in its wings.

There’s also a passage where John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to visit Jesus and ask him the question: Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? And Jesus replied: Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

Now, for us Christians, if we are sick or disabled, what should we do? Well, if our problem is significant enough that we need medical help, we are completely free to go and seek medical help from a doctor. We are not rejecting God if we visit a doctor, but rather we receive the doctor and their expertise as a gift from God. But also, we commend our body to Jesus for him to heal, in accordance with his will. If he grants a miracle to us in this life, then that’s a wonderful thing. But if not, then we also trust that in the next life, in the resurrection from the dead, we will be completely and totally healed of every ailment, every disease, every trouble and sickness that bothers us, when we see Jesus face to face. We look forward to this in faith, and in trust, knowing that Jesus is alive and risen from the dead, and anything else with respect to the healing of our bodies in this life that he grants us along the way is also a wonderful gift. But we leave the matter in his hands, and we commend it to him. This is the reason why each Sunday in the Prayer of the Church, we commend to God those we know who are sick. We don’t do this simply as some kind of empty ritual or tradition, expecting nothing. No—this is the church of God commending the sick to their faithful Saviour, to their true healer of body and soul.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about Jesus healing ten lepers. We read: On the way to Jerusalem [Jesus] was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

In the Old Testament, there were very strict rules about lepers. Leprosy was a skin disease, that was quite infectious. So, if there was a case of leprosy, they were examined by the priests, and declared to be unclean. They had to live separately, in a kind of quarantine, until they no longer had leprosy. When they were cleansed from the leprosy, then they had to go back to priest and offer a special offering in the tabernacle, or later the temple, and then they could be readmitted back into normal society again, and into the temple as well.

Notice a couple of things in this whole situation. The leprosy was dealt with not by doctors, but by the priests. The matter was not simply a medical one, but also a religious one and a spiritual one. They were unclean not just in a medical sense, in such a way that they couldn’t be around other people, for risk of infection, but also they were unclean in such a way that they couldn’t enter into God’s presence in the temple.

So, Jesus sends them on their way to the priests in the temple. The reason why this was the case was that it was the priests who dealt with this matter, and if a person was cleansed from their leprosy, they had to make the offerings and sacrifices, and readmit the person back into the community and allow them to enter back into the temple. As they went, it says they were cleansed.

Now we also read: Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he saw a Samaritan. This is a very interesting thing, because this one man, being a Samaritan, wasn’t allowed to enter the temple anyway. If he had gone back to the temple, the priests wouldn’t have readmitted him back into the Jewish community, because he wasn’t a Jew. In some sense, this man had nowhere to go. So when he sees that he is cleansed, he has nowhere else to turn, and he returns to Jesus, falls on his face, and thanks him.

And Jesus says: Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” We could also translate these last words: Your faith has saved you.

The nine others return to the temple and to the priests. But this Samaritan, returns to Jesus. Jesus is both the temple and the priest. We read in John 2, a wonderful passage where the Jews say to Jesus: What sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

In the Old Testament days, people met God in the temple. Now, today, as Christians, we come together to church buildings too, but when we speak about the church, we’re not talking about a building, but we’re talking about the gathering of Christian people around their Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. Jesus promises to be present with his people in the preaching of his Word and the administration of his Sacraments according to his Word. When we’re talking about the Sacraments, we mean baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these things, Jesus builds his people into a living temple together with him, into his body. The preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments are what make the church visible on this earth, so that people can find the church and gather themselves around it, no matter how small or humble it might look to the everyday person. That’s why we believe that our little gathering here is also the temple of the living of God, the true church on earth, together with all Christians throughout the world, because we have Jesus’ Word and we come to receive his Sacraments according to his institution. We pray that Jesus would preserve his church among us, and gather it from the nations, and from far and wide, and keep his Word pure among us and the administration of the sacraments among us. It’s not that we are so special or such wonderful perfect people. In fact, we are from it. We have many struggles and many troubles and sins that we wrestle with. But the Holy Spirit calls us to cast in our lot with Jesus, who creates a living a faith in us, who leads us and guides us and encourages us each day towards a holy life. We read in St Peter’s first letter: As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So, this man, this Samaritan, who doesn’t have a temple, comes to Jesus, and receives him as his temple.

But also, this Samaritan, who doesn’t have a priest, comes to Jesus, and receives him as his High Priest. In the Old Testament, we have two kinds of priest: We have the priests that came from the family of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi. This is where the word, “Leviticus”, comes from, from the tribe of Levi. These were the priests from the Old Testament, who were from a special family, from a particular tribe, Levi, and were part of a particular genealogy, and were asked to perform the sacrifices and all kinds of duties in the temple.

But, in the Old Testament, there is also another priest, who comes even before Levi was born, or even before the book of Leviticus was written, and before Moses and Aaron. This man was called Melchizedek. In Genesis 14, we read about Abraham meeting this man. We read: And Melchizedek kind of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed [Abram] and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

In the Book of Hebrews, Jesus is called a priest, not according to the tribe of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek. We read: For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything… He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

With the normal priests in the Old Testament, everyone knew when they were born and when they died, and where they were from. But with Melchizedek, nobody really knows where he came from, who his parents were, where he was born and where he died. So, also with Jesus, he comes from Bethlehem, but also comes from heaven. He has the Virgin Mary as his mother, but also God the Father as his father. And so Jesus enters into this world as a different kind of priest, not like the Levites, who were also part of the one family, but from eternity, being sent into the world to be our Saviour. And instead of offering animal sacrifices, Jesus offers himself as the one perfect sacrifice and atonement for each and every sin of the whole world.

So, the Samaritan man in our reading, who was a leper, receives Jesus, and in doing so, he is welcomed into a new community, a community of believers around Jesus. Jesus says: Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well, your faith has saved you. But also, he is gathered to a new temple. The nine others went back to the Jewish temple that would later be destroyed. The Samaritan man here is welcomed into a temple that can never be destroyed. But also, the Samaritan gain a priest, a high priest, who will offer a true and eternal sacrifice on the cross for his cleansing and purity and righteousness. The nine others go back to the Jewish priests, from the tribe of Levi. But this man receives Jesus, the eternal son of God, and an eternal High Priest of the living God, who is a priest like Melchizedek.

But also, let’s remember the fact that the lepers were not simply healed, but the text says, they were cleansed. They were made clean.

Jesus, being true God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, when he became a human being, being born of the Virgin Mary, entered into the dirtiness of human life. We have an outward dirtiness which comes from dirt and germs, but there is also an internal dirtiness, with comes from sin. In the old Christian hymn, called the “Te Deum”, it says: When you became man to set us free you did not spurn the Virgin’s womb. It also says in the Christmas Carol, “O come all ye faithful”: Lo! He abhors not the Virgin’s Womb. What does this mean? It means that the God of the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, was not worried about getting dirty when he became a man, but he entered into this life in the normal way, just like the rest of us. He lived a human life, just like the rest of us, and experienced the same kinds of troubles that we experience.

When Jesus cleansed the lepers, he took their dirtiness upon himself and carried it to the cross. We read in Isaiah: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. In Matthew, this is translated as, He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. So when Jesus became a man, we call this the incarnation. Incarnation means that he became flesh. In Hinduism and Buddhism, they believe in reincarnation, which means the spirit of a person keeps entering into different people or animals. But in Christianity, we speak about the “incarnation” of the Son of God, which means that Jesus, being true God, entered once and for all, into human flesh, and took on a human body.

Even in the church, we still receive the blessings of that event, because Jesus has died and risen again, and is with his church in a physical way. When we pray to Jesus, we do not pray to him as being far away, but we pray to him as being right near us and in front us, not as a spirit, but as a real, living human being, because his human body is glorified in a wonderful divine way. In the church, when we hear the reading and the preaching of God’s Word, this is not simply a pastor speaking, but it is Jesus speaking. When we hear the absolution, the forgiveness of sins spoken, this is not the pastor’s personal forgiveness, but this is Jesus’ forgiveness, and the forgiveness of God the Father, which we receive simply by believing it and trusting that these words are true. In Holy Baptism, Jesus washes us with water, water that simply comes from our every day taps, and with his Word, he makes us members of his kingdom. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus descends into our midst, to give us the holy and precious gift of his true and real body and blood to eat and drink. He enters into the bread and wine, so that the bread and wine are changed and transformed into the holy vessels of Jesus’ body and blood. The Lord in all his purity and holiness and righteousness is not ashamed to enter into our midst through these things, which seem so humble. He comes to distribute his body and blood, and through these things, his forgiveness, as a true medicine for our souls, but also life and salvation, and strength and healing and health according to his mercy and will, and as it suits his purposes. The Lord’s Supper in this sense is a true medicine of immortality, as it was often called in the early church. We receive these gifts in faith, trusting that his words are true.

So, we come today to our Lord Jesus: to our true healer and doctor, who holds our bodies and souls in his hands. His blood cleanses us from all sin. We come to him as the true temple of God, and as our true High Priest. We also come to him as a true man, a true human being, just like us, who is enthroned at the right hand of God, and even today, strengthens and comforts and blesses and feeds his church. Amen.

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