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

                                 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen. 

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

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

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

                                

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

                               

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, let’s think about anger again. Jesus says: You have heard that is was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murder will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trinity IV [Luke 6:36-42] (27-June-2021)

                              

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

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

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

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.

 
 

Jesus says at the beginning of our reading today: Be merciful, even as your Father in merciful. We learn here a couple of things: first, that our heavenly Father is merciful. And also, Jesus teaches us to imitate that mercy.

Let’s, first of all, consider how God is merciful. We use all kinds of words to describe God. For example, we say that God is good, he is loving, he is gracious, he is patient and long-suffering. We also say that he is merciful. We often read in the Old Testament, where it says that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

It’s one thing to say that God is good and loving, and he is. But it’s quite another thing to say that he is gracious and merciful. The fact that God is gracious and merciful doesn’t just say something about God, but it also says something about us.

You see, in the beginning, God was so good and loving, that he decided to create human beings in his image and likeness. And this was an incredibly wonderful thing! He imprinted his own characteristics into the first people, the first man and woman, to reflect his own goodness and love back to him. We read: God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Just as God was good, so also he let everything that he had made share that goodness.

But then, the first humans fell into sin. They were tempted by Satan, the devil, the evil one, and turned against God, in such a way that they changed his word around and were deceived into thinking that God did not mean what he had said. And so, they fell into sin, and became full of sin. Their descendants were also sinners, right down to us, and we not only share in their sin, but we also add and heap up plenty of our own sin.

And so, God is not just good and loving, but he is also gracious and merciful. Because, God’s grace is his goodness towards us, even though we haven’t deserved it at all. God sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world, to make a full payment for sin, and to atone for sin, to die for sin and to lay down his life and his blood for us. And because of what Christ has done for us, God is good toward us, and shows his grace.

God is also merciful towards us. He sees us in our sin with all our problems, with all our corruption, and all the trouble that we have brought upon ourselves and such like, and he reaches out to us and saves us. And so, because of what Christ has done for us, God looks at us with his grace, with his favour, with his mercy. Even though we don’t deserve it, even though we had rejected him, even though we were full of sin of our doing, God is merciful to us. He gives us a Saviour, and he forgives us all our sin, and even promises to do so because of Christ, and for his sake, and he charges our account and all of our sin to Christ, and he takes all of our Christ’s righteousness and holiness and purity and he clothes us with it.

We Christians are God’s baptised children. We have been saved from sin, death, hell, and from the power of the devil. And now that we have become Christians, we still struggle with our sin, but God forgives us. And as we continue in our life as Christians, we need to constantly learn from God, and from his word, what a Christian life really looks like, because it is a different life from what we had before. It is not a life that comes from our own hearts, but the Christian life is a life that comes from God’s Holy Spirit, who then changes our hearts. And so, our whole life as Christians, is one of learning to put to death our sin and our old self, our old Adam, our old man, as the Scripture puts it. But also, as we do that, as we bring our sin to God in repentance, God works in us by the power of the Holy Spirit a completely new person, a completely new self, a new Adam, a new man or woman.

Now, God saves us simply through faith in Christ alone, and not because of any of our own good works. But then, God also gives us good works to do as a gift, because he wants to change our whole hearts, our whole attitudes, our whole selves, and he wants us to show and demonstrate the love which he has shown to us to other people. And this is what Jesus is teaching us in our reading today. He says: Be merciful, even as your Father in merciful.

Just as God the Father has been merciful in so many ways to you, so Jesus wants to lead you by the hand and show you how you can now live a life of thankfulness to God, in showing that same mercy to all kinds of other people who need you in their lives. God wants to create in you a clean heart, a new heart, a heart that is like his heart, a heart that burns in love, and which reaches out in mercy and compassion to other people in their need.

Now, you might not actually think that you are all that merciful. Well, of course you’re not. At least, nobody is as merciful as God himself. But now, as a Christian, you have been baptised into God’s family, and you are one of his children. And so, he wants you to sit on his lap, and learn his characteristics, and his traits, and the things that are precious and valuable to him. Just as the world and its people are valuable and precious to God, and just as he continually shows mercy to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways, so also God wants the world and its people to be valuable and precious to you, and he wants to open your eyes, in such a way that you can see the needs of other people, and wants to give you a new heart which reaches our in mercy in all kinds of ways to them.

Now, Jesus in his sermon in Luke here today, also gives us lots of things to think about and consider when it comes to this mercy, that he wants us to learn from his Father, and show to others.

He says: Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Now, let’s think about these first two things about judging and condemning.

We need to understand this saying of Jesus very carefully. Sometimes Jesus forbids something, when he actually does permit it, in particular circumstances. For example, the Fifth Commandment says: You shall not murder. In general, human beings are forbidden from killing other human beings. So, if you want to take revenge upon someone else, you are not permitted to kill them. You are not permitted to kill someone when you think that they are no longer of any earthly use, but rather you should care for them and look after them. You are not permitted to kill a baby in its mother’s womb, and things like that. All these things come under the heading, “you shall not murder.” However, we also read in the Scripture that a policeman or a soldier is allowed to kill as part of their particular calling and vocation. St Paul writes in Romans 13: He is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carried our God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. So, for example, if there is a terrorist, who comes into a public place and starts shooting people with a gun, that is a called murder. But if a policeman or the army come along and kill that terrorist or that gunman, he is doing a good thing in protecting the citizens of the country from harm. In this case, the commandment not to kill doesn’t apply. Instead, a policeman or a soldier should be ready to kill someone for everyone’s good and safety.

Also, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, not to swear an oath. What we need to understand is that in those days, people used to swear oaths all the time, and they thought that they only needed to tell the truth if they promised or swore that they were telling the truth. If they didn’t swear, then they didn’t need to swear. Jesus says, rather, let what you say be simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

However, Jesus himself swears oaths, and actually, he does it constantly, not because when he doesn’t he’s not telling the truth, but because he wants us to be absolutely certain of what he has to day. Jesus swears oaths, when he says: Truly, truly, I say to you. He says this all the time. Also, if we’re asked to go to court, we might be asked to swear an oath. And this is a good thing, and an important thing, because telling the truth in court, in a legal case, is the most important thing, and everyone needs to be certain that what we say is true. So there’s no problem for Christians in this sense to swear, or to take an oath on the bible, or something like that. But in our every day lives, in all our normal dealings with people, there’s no need to swear an oath.

Also, in our reading today, Jesus says: Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. As a general rule, this is true. But there are some people who are called to judge and condemn in certain situations. For example, a judge, in a court! Their job is to judge and to give sentences, and things like that. Could you imagine if there’s a criminal on trial, and the judge sentences him to 20 years in prison, and he says to the judge: Judge not, and you not will not be judged! Obviously, Jesus is not talking about judges, who have a duty and vocation and calling to judge.

But also, in many places in the bible, pastors are called to speak a word of God of judgment. St Paul says to Timothy: All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. When we need to speak a word for reproof and for correction, we are called to speak a word of judgment.

Also, all Christians are called to judge a pastors’ teaching, and his sermons. It’s a right thing to do! Christians are called to discern between true and false prophets, between shepherds and wolves in sheep’s clothing. Very many times, we Christians need to hold someone to account if they have taught falsely. Also, sometimes, we are called to go alongside of someone like a brother or sister, and help them to see that what they are doing is the wrong thing, and to put them on the right path. All these things are not what Jesus is talking about when he says: Judge not. Even John the Baptist and Jesus himself spoke very sharply and harshly to the Pharisees, and called them a brood of vipers! Sometimes these things are necessary. We are called constantly to judge what is right and true, and discern who are true and false teachers.

The reality is, that God has already made a judgment in advance. We do not need to make any further judgment. God has spoken, his Word says it, and that settles it. We Christians are called to speak the truth, and to speak it in love. But the reality is that many people use these words of Jesus: “Judge not, and you will not judged”, as a way to shut people up, when they don’t want to hear the Word of God. Because you see, the Word of God does judge people. The Law of God very clearly teaches us what is right and what is wrong, how we should live, and we should not live.

Actually, the Law of God doesn’t just point us back to when Moses received the 10 Commandments with the thunder and lightening on Mt Sinai. The Law of God points us back to the Garden of Eden, before there was sin. The Law of God is actually the beautiful, perfect order of God in the world, and it is his wonderful, precious gift. However, because of sin, people hate the law because it shows us what’s wrong with us, and shows us where we’ve strayed from that perfection, from that beauty. It shows us that there is an angel with the flaming, flashing sword, preventing us from entering back into the Garden of Eden.

And so, when people hear the Law of God, it’s only to be expected that they should feel judged. But God did not just set up his Law, but he also commanded it to be preached.

Today, there are many Christians all throughout the world, who are being persecuted because they have said “no” to something. Sometimes, Christians are persecuted in their own churches, for saying “no”. Daniel, for example, said “no” to bowing down to the king’s statue in Babylon. Many Christians are learning to say “no” to modern, progressive, interpretation of the bible. Many Christians have had to say “no” to false teaching, or false teachers. Many Christians have had to say “no” in the face of all kinds of moral issues, like gay marriage, or abortion, or euthanasia. And whenever someone says “no”, people feel judged. And when they harden their heart, they throw the words of Jesus back over their shoulders, saying, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” What they really mean is: “We don’t want to hear the word of God.”

But Jesus also really does say these words to us! Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. He says these things because he wants us to take no joy in telling others that they are wrong, just so that we can be so proud of being right. We need to share the truth with people, and sometimes we need to show to people that they’re walking away from God and contrary to his word. But we do this, because we know that somewhere along the line God needed to share his truth with us first, and needed to draw us back from walking in the wrong direction. God shows his mercy to us first, so that we can show his mercy to others.

We must never speak to someone as if they are simply at fault because they are not as perfect as us. We are still struggling in this life, just as they are. Only Christ is perfect, and we strive to follow him.

And so, in all these things, when Jesus says: Judge not, condemn not, forgive, give, we always need to keep it in mind that it is only by God’s great mercy toward us in Jesus, that he does not judge, condemn or withhold his forgiveness from us. And so, we commend ourselves to Jesus, that we would learn from him, how to treat people in this way, in the way that Jesus had reached out to us and treated us.

Jesus wants to encourage us to treat people in a merciful and compassionate way, and so he says: Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Jesus is not teaching salvation by works here. He is not saying, “If you want to be forgiven by God, you have to go and forgive other people first, and only by forgiving people, can you earn God’s forgiveness.” Not at all. All he’s saying is that when you forgive people, you can take confidence in the fact that God has forgiven you. Your forgiveness has flowed from God’s forgiveness. You have shared what you have already received from him, and so you can also trust that he will forgive you again.

At the end of our reading, Jesus tells us three parables about being merciful. He says: Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? When we are merciful to others, we recognise that God rescued us from our blindness. We, because we now see clearly, can lead others into God’s light. If we think we that we are so holy, but those people are so rotten, then we are still blind. 

Jesus tells us a second parable: A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is full trained will be like his teacher. Jesus is saying here that we are constantly learning to be merciful from Jesus and from the Father. We learn from him, and we rely on him to show mercy to us, so that we can learn it in real life, in very practical ways, in order to share God’s mercy with others.

Jesus tells us a third parable: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Here we see very clearly what Jesus means, when he says: Judge not, and you will not be judged. He is not telling us that we should not judge what is right and wrong, or lead people away from what is wrong to what is right. Sometimes we do need to tell people that they are in sin. But whenever we feel that we need to do this, we should always look at our own sins first. We are in just as much need of God’s mercy as the other person. Sometimes, we are even in much greater need of God’s mercy than the other person. Sometimes, we can see a speck in someone else’s eye, but not the log in our own. So, we should always judge ourselves and our own sin before we presume to tell others about theirs.

Let’s thank God for his wonderful mercy toward us, for the wonderful compassion he constantly shows to us, and let’s ask him to teach us and to lead us to be merciful, just as he is merciful. Amen.

  

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

Trinity III [Luke 15:1-10] (20-June-2021)

                             

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

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

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10)

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

 
 

Our Gospel reading today tells us about two parables of Jesus: the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. And these two parables are some of the favourite parables of Christians everywhere. These two parables also come from Luke chapter 15, where we also read about the parable of the prodigal son. In each of these parables, we read about something that was lost and then found: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.

Right at the beginning of the chapter, we read about the reason and the occasion why Jesus told these parables. It says: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

On the one hand, we have the Pharisees and scribes. On the other hand, we have the tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees were a Jewish sect or faction that existed at the time of Jesus, and they were particularly noted for their strict observance of the law and various traditions. Today, when we hear the word Pharisee, we often think of someone who was self-righteous or hypocritical. We often think of the Pharisees in a very bad light. But sometimes we forget that the Pharisees were very devout and pious people. The scribes too, were also very knowledgeable people who studied the Scripture, and knew it thoroughly.

So the Pharisees and the scribes had some good traits, in that they were devout and pious, and also learned in the Scriptures. But they fell into a very bad trap: they trusted in their own righteousness. They thought, because of their observance of the law and their traditions, that they were unclean people, and pure and holy in God’s sight, because of what they did.

On the other hand, we have the tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors were generally thought of quite badly in those times, and they are often singled out and mentioned. Of course, people in general don’t like paying taxes, but this isn’t why the tax collectors weren’t liked. The reason is that these were Jewish people who were collecting tax for the Romans—they were working for the other side—and also they often lined their own pockets with a bit of extra for themselves. So not only were they thought to be betraying their own people,  but also “ripping off” their own people.

We also read, that there were all kinds of sinners that were coming to Jesus. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we are told that the young son asked for his father’s inheritance, and then went and squandered his property in reckless living. When he came home, his older brother said, that this son of yours… has devoured your property with prostitutes.

And so, we read: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

The question for us today is: who are you? Are you a tax collector and a sinner, or are you a Pharisee and a scribe? You see, one of the most important things about Christ’s kingdom and his church, is that there is a huge difference between what things look like, and between what things actually are. The Pharisees and the scribes are looking at the outward appearance of things. They look at themselves and they see good, clean people, who are morally upright, and decent, and righteous. They look at the tax collectors and sinners, and they see bad, dirty people, who are morally bankrupt, and shameful, and corrupt. And they see Jesus talking to these people and eating with them, and they say: If Jesus is who he says he is, then he should be eating with clean people like us, not with the dirty people like them.

The truth of the matter is that the tax collectors, sinners, the Pharisees and the scribes, are all sinners. They are all corrupt, they all are made of the same flesh, they are all tainted, they are all sinful, they have all fallen short of the glory of God. The difference is that the Pharisees and the scribes actually think that they have something in and of themselves to offer to God. The tax collectors and sinners have nothing. But what this means is that the Pharisees and the scribes refuse to come to Jesus for his righteousness, because they already think that they have their own. They think that because they are better than those people, that they are more presentable to God.

It’s not true. In fact, salvation is not throughout own works, or piety, or sanctity, or righteousness, or sanctimoniousness. It is through Jesus Christ alone, and his righteousness alone. In John 16, Jesus teaches the disciples that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. There is one thing that saves us: faith in Jesus Christ. And there is one thing that condemns us: refusal to believe in Jesus Christ. As St Paul says in Romans: For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

Now this self-righteousness of the Pharisees is a very dangerous thing. It is very common, and we always need to be on guard that we don’t fall into this kind of self-righteousness ourselves. In fact, it is so common that in the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus talks about the self-righteous as ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Yes, we need repentance. We have nothing in and of ourselves to present to God to make us holy and righteous in his sight. In fact, we need repentance every day. Repentance is not something that we do once, and it’s done. Repentance is a daily business, a continual turning to God from all our sin, and self-righteousness. And even this repentance is not our work, but it is a result of Jesus himself having come and looked for us, and searched for us, and found us.

And so, Jesus tells us the Parable of the Lost Sheep. He says: What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? Why would a shepherd bother to go after one lost sheep, when he already has ninety-nine others? Can’t he afford to be one short? Is it just because he’s stubborn that he goes looking for the one sheep, and says: I started with 100, I’m going to finish with a 100?

Listen to Jesus’ words in John 10. He says: I am the good shepherd… The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Do you hear how much Jesus talks about the sheep recognising and hearing the voice of their shepherd? Sheep actually do this. They recognise the voice of their farmer. If you raise a lamb, it will recognise your voice, and will come to you when you call it. The same for this lost sheep. The shepherd goes after the lost sheep, because it’s his, and he loves it, and he knows this sheep by name, and this sheep matters to him, because it’s one of his, and he raised it.

In Isaiah 53, we read: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This is a wonderful passage. We see, on one hand, we the wandering sheep, going astray, going to our own way. On the other hand, we see God the Father laying our sin upon our Good Shepherd, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, he laid down his life for his sheep, and made a sacrifice for each and every sin of the whole world.

But in our reading today, we are not so much reading about the way in which Jesus died for the sins of the world, but the way in which he rescues each and every one of us individually. We read: And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

And so, this is exactly what was happening in our reading, that the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling about. Jesus found his lost sheep, and laid them on his shoulders, rejoicing. These sheep recognised that that they had failed God, that they had no hope in themselves, that they had the commandments of God but they had broken them. It’s not as if Jesus found sheep that were already saints. No, he found sinners, and they were lost and condemned by the law.

But Jesus wants to lay down his life for them. He will take their sin, and make a sacrifice for it. And so, in our reading, he welcomes them, receives them, and eats with them.

This is the wonderful message of Christianity. Sometimes we read in the bible, for example, on the day of Pentecost, that 3000 people converted all at once to the faith. But many times, we read about one person at a time. We read about a Roman centurion with a sick servant, we read about a Canaanite woman with a demon-possessed daughter, we read about a paralytic, we read about 10 lepers, but only one that thanked Jesus. What about Zacchaeus, the tax collector? What about the blind man who wanted to be washed in the pool? What about the thief on the cross? What about Paul on the road to Damascus? What about the Philippians jailer? What about the Ethiopian eunuch? What about me? And what about you? You see, Jesus converts us, and leads us to repentance, and saves us, one person at a time.

No matter who the important people in the world might be, no matter what might be happening, no matter what’s going on, when God shines the light of his grace on one sinner who repents, that person is the most important person in the world. We read: When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Jesus says, that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

But then, let’s hear the second parable of Jesus. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

There’s something very interesting about these two parables. He tells the same parable twice, but with different pictures, and with different people, and with a slightly different point. For example, in the first parable, we have a shepherd, in the second parable, a woman. In the first parable, a lost sheep, in the second parable, a lost coin.

You know, it’s always the nature of a parable that Jesus wants to relate something to people. He’s reaching out to people, to put wonderful heavenly truths in their own hands, so that they tick over in their mind, so that they can think things through in light of their own experience and their own lives. You can also imagine Jesus saying, “Now, you shepherds, let me tell you something that you can relate to.” And then he says, “Now, you ladies over there, let me tell you something that I know that you have experienced.”

And this is very interesting, because we can often look at the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and think of Jesus as the shepherd, which is true. But in the parable of the Lost Coin, Jesus compares himself to a woman, who just happens to have lost something at home.

But there’s something very special in this, because it shows to us, yes, that Jesus is our Good Shepherd who searches for us. But he tells different kinds of stories about looking for different things, because he wants to let us know that we Christians are also to be involved in the searching out for lost sheep. He will use his own people in this work, and for this purpose. So for example, in Ephesians, we read that the church is Christ’s wonderful bride. And that just as a husband and a wife are joined together in marriage in one flesh, so also Christ and his church are joined together in a spiritual way, through holy Baptism, through the water and the Word, through the water and the Spirit.

And so, just as Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is always searching for his sheep, so also the mission of the church, Christ’s bride, is always to reach out to the lost for the salvation of souls. Jesus tells these parables in all kinds of different ways, because he wants to show on one hand, how he works in all kinds of different ways, but also because he wants to show us how his Christian people will also work with him. That is to say, just as Christ has compassion for the lost, so also we should have compassion for the lost. Just as Christ goes out to find the lost, so also we should also go out to find the lost. But also, just as Christ deals with one lost sheep at a time, so also we should never underestimate the importance and the significance of dealing with one person at a time.

So in the parable of the coin, we read about a woman who has ten silver coins and loses one. Now, in Australia, a silver coin, like a 50c, 20c or 10c piece, is not worth very much. We might not bother too much searching our whole house for 20 cents! However, in these days, a silver coin, the drachma, was worth a day’s wage for a labourer. It might be better to think of this woman looking for a $100 note.

I remember, about 10 years ago, being once at a family’s house, and the son had just received his first pay-cheque and had lost it! You can imagine everyone was quite in a fluster about it all! Whatever value we might put on this silver coin that this woman has lost, we know that it is of great value to her. That’s the point. The missing coin is valuable!

And so, this woman, lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and seeks diligently until she finds it. She needs the light to see, but she also cleans everything else up. This is how the church works: we hold the light of Christ and his word in our hands, and look diligently for the lost coin. In fact, Christ searches together with his church, because we know that he has given his church the light of his Word to preach and to speak, and so we see here a wonderful unity of Christ and his church.

If we don’t hold the light of Christ’s Word and his Gospel in our hands, we will never be able to see. If we hold something else in our hands, and simply want to be a kind of social club, or we are looking for people simply to boost our numbers and pay a budget, then we lose our mission for the salvation of souls. When we come to Christ, we come out from the darkness, and we come into his light. We come out from being stuck behind a couch somewhere, and we are placed into the woman’s hands. We are brought from being lost, into the company of those who are found.

So we thank Christ for saving us, for baptising us, and receiving us into his kingdom, into his church, and together with him, we hold his light in our hands, looking for those who were lost, just like us. What a wonderful joy and privilege and honour it is to be part of Christ’s kingdom!

Now, let’s assume for a minute, that this woman is really desperate to find this coin. She’s planned her finances for the week, and without this one coin, she can’t pay her rent, or something like that. Sometimes, as well, someone we know and we love, who is close to us, decides to live in darkness, and we don’t know what to do about it. This person is precious to us, and we love them, and even we think about talking to them about Jesus and the faith, and the relationship between us and them just becomes worse. The joy over one sinner who repents is great, and so too the sadness and the grief over one sinner who hardens their heart is also tremendous.

Remember: Jesus is the Good Shepherd. You don’t know how Christ has used you for a person’s blessing in all of this. Don’t underestimate the value of your words and your conversation with them. Ask him to go before you, to go without you, and find his lost sheep. Ask him to go to them – remember that he went to Paul, when he was still breathing threats and murders against the Christians. Remember how after Easter, when Jesus went and met the two men on the road to Emmaus, and they recognised him. In the meantime, we Christians, Christ’s bride, hold the light of Christ’s Word in our hand, searching diligently. The church is involved in the saving of souls, but it is Christ and the Holy Spirit who saves them. We speak the Word of God, we pray, we receive people through baptism, we strengthen people with God’s heavenly food in the Lord’s Supper. However, the work of saving belongs to Christ and the Holy Spirit. As Paul says: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. At least, in our Gospel today, we are taught that the value and the significance of each individual person in the sight of God is far beyond we can imagine.

This is the reason why when we come together, we sing words which are taught to us by angels. We sing: Alleluia! Glory to God in the highest. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. The church sings these words every Sunday, because we join in with the joy of the angels who rejoice over one sinner who repents. So we say with the words of Psalm 148: Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Let’s thank our Good Shepherd, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, for his wonderful mercy, his love, his forgiveness, his compassion for us, his people, that in all your insignificance, your lowliness, he searched for you, and he found you. Amen.

 

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