Archive for September, 2008

For the 21st Sunday after Pentecost on October 5, 2008, the three readings in the 3-year lectionary are Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4b-14 and Matthew 21:33-46. Chosen to apply in the sermon is Philippians 3:6, “concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

If you ask a Christian who was the only person who could consider himself as blameless in regard to obedience of the Law, the answer would be “Jesus.” Yet in this passage from Philippians, the apostle Paul lists a number of reasons why he considered himself as blameless such as being circumcised on the eighth day, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee who was zealous enough to persecute those he believed were against God and in regard to obedience, blameless.

But two verses later he considers all such works as “rubbish.” The word can also be translated as referring to “dung” (the excrement of animals) or of things that are worthless and detestable. We are reminded of the key question at the time of the Reformation which was not, “Does sin send people to hell?” but rather, “What is the place of ‘good works’ in regard to your salvation?” The Romans said one was saved by faith plus works while the Lutherans insisted that the Bible revealed we are saved by faith alone.

That is exactly what Paul says in verse 9 that the righteousness which saves is not that from obeying the Law but from God by faith. So often the Christian only thinks of one benefit from the cross which is the forgiveness of sins. However, the Church teaches both the passive and active obedience of Jesus. The passive obedience is Jesus’ death on the cross while the active obedience is a reference to His perfect obedience while on earth.

In baptism the benefits of both the forgiveness of sins and the robe of righteousness are received by the believer. It is that to which Paul is referring to in verse 9 as the righteousness which is from God by faith. The application of the sermon is to accuse each of the members of often thinking like Paul that their works, their offerings, their prayers make a difference to God in deciding whether they go to heaven of hell. Then the Gospel needs to be applied when all hope is lost in regard to one’s works. And that hope is found at the foot of the cross.

This coming September 28, 2008 marks the 20th Sunday after Pentecost with the 3 assigned readings being Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Philippians 2:1-4, (5-13), 14-18 and Matthew 21:23-27 (29-32). Those verses in parentheses are optional. Chosen to analyze is Philippians 2:8-9 which reads, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name…”

Theology is the art of making distinctions such as those between the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the three Persons of the holy Trinity, the fact that a Christian is both a sinner and saint and the two states of Jesus. The two states of Jesus??? What does that mean? Such language refers to His state of humiliation and His state of exaltation.

However, the word “humiliation” does not mean “embarrassed” as in, “Because of what He did, He was totally humiliated.” No, both “humiliation” and “exaltation” derive from the Word of God in these verses from Philippians. “Humiliation” comes from the word “humble” which means that God, in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, humbled Himself. He did this by becoming sin for us, for becoming our servant and for taking upon Himself the punishment you and I deserved.

To help confirmands remember these two states, imagine a flight of stairs going down and then going up. The steps of His humiliation from the Apostles’ Crred are “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.” The steps of His humiliation begins with His descent into hell (a victory event indeed), rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sit at the right hand of God the Father and will return on Judgment Day.

During His state of humiliation, it is NOT that He left behind His divine attributes of knowing all things and so forth. Instead, He did not make use of them at all times. There were times that He did as, for example, the stilling of the storm and some of the miracles He did on His own power. But by and large, He did not make use of these divine attributes or else He never would have been hungry, never would have been sleepy, never would have died.

The decision of the Holy Trinity to have the second Person suffer and die for us was one made from before the foundation of the world. Compared to the cross of Christ, nothing that happens in our lives is that significant. The sermon could point out how often we tend to forget the promises connected to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ when, for example, we get a flat tire, we have trouble paying bills, our kids misbehave, we are overburdened at work, we lose our job, and the list goes on and on.

“If for this life only we have hope, we will be most miserable.” Our sure hope does not consist in what we eat, drink or wear but in our relationship with the God/man Jesus Christ Who died, so that we will never really die, and Who lives so that we will live eternally. That Jesus has again been exalted to the right hand of God at His ascension (see Revelation 5), is our assurance that He Who holds the whole world in His hands uses His divine attributes even in His humanity not only in keeping you safe from the evil one but also in knowing the number of hairs on your head!

For the 19th Sunday after Pentecost on September 21, 2008, the three assigned readings are Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:12-14, 19-30 and Matthew 20:1-16. Chosen to preach about at Concordia Lutheran Church in Springfield, IL is Isaiah 55:8, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.”

You own a publishing company and hire 5 women to work from 8 to 5. Then you hire 5 men to work from 1 to 5. When they get paid, they find that they all have received the same amount. Not only would the women be angry; they might even file a grievance with the appropriate governmental authorities for unfair hiring practices.

While you may not hear of such blatant unfairness in today’s business world, the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 20 would have the same effect on those hearing it. For a landowner pays the same amount to those who work 1 hour as he does to those who work the full day.

The Gospel is a great example of the Old Testament’s reading that the thoughts of God and His ways are not like those of sinful human beings. The sermon provides a real opportunity to preach the radical nature of the Christian faith. In my opinion, some Lutheran sermons,while not containing any false doctrine, provide little or no unique insight into the mind of God that is totally contrary to our minds.

A pastor could recite all three ecumenical creeds in a sermon but it would not be a sermon. Why? Because the purpose of a sermon is not only to teach pure doctrine but also to apply the message from the Bible for the day in a way that is startling and radical. Tbis should not be difficult to do in light of the fact that the vast majority of the Bible is paradoxical in nature. The use of paradox is a way in which the hearer is struck with insights from the Bible that have not been considered before.

While the primary goal of every sermon is making use of the proper distinctions between Law and Gospel, I also include the purpose of saying something about the passage that is insightful and new to the hearer. Martin Luther was a natural at demonstrating the paradoxical nature of the Bible, particularly through his little-known Heidelburg Theses.

For example, the first is that though the Law is a salutary gift from God, it can not only not save anyone but can result in damnation. The apparent contradiction becomes a paradox when one understands that the Law is salutary only when used according to God’s three purposes (curb, mirror and rule) but it is damning when misused as a means of saving oneself, which is the message of every religion in the world except for Christianity!

A practice I would encourage pastors to follow is to take a recent sermon and underlines those statements within it that the most of the congregation have never heard. If there are no underlinings, then I would encourage more study of the text until you discover within it something of which you were unaware. When that becomes a focus of the sermon, people are fed not only with comfort from the Gospel but with insight from the Holy Spirit.

These three readings are filled with paradox besides the parable which constrasts how God acts in the Church with how He acts in the temporal realm. Paul paradoxically believes that while it is far better to be with Christ after one dies, he is pleased to remain here on earth for the sake of others. He also points to a strange promise that as a Christian, you will suffer for the faith.

Christianity is not a user-friendly religion as is every other man-made dreamt up religion. For the people of God to see the radical differences is not only to increase their understanding of the holy Trinity but also to prepare them to witness to others. I leave you with a few radical truths of Scripture: “There is nothing you do, say or speak on earth that makes any difference as to whether you go to heaven or to hell.” Or this one: “There is nothing you can do to to make God love you more; there is nothing you do to make God love you less.” And finally, “There is nothing you can do to increase your salvation for if you believe in Jesus Christ, right now you are fully saved!”

For the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, the three readings assigned for 9/14/08 are Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 14:1-12 and Matthew 18:21-35. The text chosen to preach on is Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

Most Christians are familiar with Romans 8:28 in which God promises that everything will work out for the good to those who love Him. However, how often do we, even as Christians in faith, sense that God is no longer keeping His promises. We may be going through a tough time; events may not be turning out as we had planned or hopes for the future seem distant if not invisibile.

Jacob has died and the sons are worried that their brother Joseph will take vengeance upon them for what they had done in selling him into slavery. Instead, he comforts them with his faith that God took the evil against himself and turned it into the saving of thousands of people from starvation as he interpreted Pharoah’s dream about the seven years of famine soon to come.

The words of Joseph not only tell us about his deep faith but even more so of the character of God. Had the disciple the faith of Joseph, would they have fled from the Garden of Gethsemane? No, they would have trusted Jesus and believe that what was about to happen would work out to the good of mankind. How much do we need to learn that God will take care of us as He so promises?

Yet members of the congregation continue to sin which is just another way of saying that they mistrust the promises of God. The message of this sermon is that we are often more like the brothers of Joseph rather than like Joseph. We can thank the LORD, though, that while we are like those brothers, Jesus is tenfold more majestic, merciful and gracious than Joseph as He says to you from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

The 17th Sunday after Pentecost lists the following three readings: Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:1-10 and Matthew 18:1-20. Chosen as the sermon text is Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to the neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Every person has a worldview. Our worldview comes from parents, school, friends or religion. Pollster Barna has noted that 1 out of 30 Americans have a Christian worldview. Obviously, we need to define a Christian worldview. I am not sure what Barna means by that but here is what the Bible says about it. And it comes from a Law/Gospel distinction.

A worldview can be thought of as the eyeglasses through which you interpret all your experiences. A capitalist obviously has a different worldview than a Marxist. Limiting the discussion to religious worldviews there are only two. You are either living under the Law or living under the Gospel.

To live under the Law does not mean that you live according to the Law but rather signifies your understanding that what you do makes all the difference in how life treats you and where you are going in the afterlife. Living under the Gospel means that God alone gets the credit for our salvation and our good works not only do not save us but also only take place after we are totally saved.

Every theological verse in the Bible can be understood by this Romans 6:14 paradigm of either being under the Law or under grace; that is, the Gospel. Let’s use John 3:16 as an example. Those who live under the Law interpret this verse to mean that God does His part–loving the world and sending His Son–and we do our part–believing in Him. Those who live under the Gospel interpret this verse to mean that God does both parts. Through His love He not only sends His Son but He also creates faith in the heart that receives the benefits of salvation. God gets ALL the credit!

In regard to Romans 13:10 about love being the fulfillment of the Law, again we find the difference between the Theologian of Self-Glory and the Theologian of the Cross. The Self-theologian thinks that as long as you do something out of love, you are fulfilling the Law. The Cross-theologian realizes that only when you fulfill the Law do you truly demonstrate love.

For the Self-theologian of Glory, abortion and gay marriage can’t be wrong if they are done out of love; that is, not bringing an unwanted child into the world and not forbidding two same gendered people to marry if they truly love each other. The Theologian of the Cross realizes that acts of love from God’s point of view are only those deeds, words and thoughts that are consistent with the revealed Will of God as found in holy Scripture. Therefore, regardless of the apparent motivation behind the decision to abort or commit a homosexual act, both acts are an abomination in the sight of God.

Love is not a feeling by which we measure our ethics; love is an attitude of putting God and His revelation first and foremost. One does not teach love by exhorting tolerance; one teaches love by exhorting compliance with the Truth; that is, the will of God. A Christian husband who never speaks to his unbelieving wife about Christ so as not to upset her is not showing love at all. In fact, one of the great acts of love on the part of Jesus Christ was the taking of a whip into the temple as He woke up the people to the disastrous road they were on in trying to buy their way into heaven.

Those in the congregation who get this verse confused will often measure God’s love toward them by whether or not they are living a life of positive experiences from their point of view. Such a law-oriented attitude dismisses the promises of God that He will never leave nor forsake His children and that all things work together for their good.

The two worldviews are at opposite poles. When apparently bad things happen to good people, the Theologians of Glory assume that God is angry and punishing humanity for their sin. The Theologians of the Cross conclude on the basis of the promises of the Bible that God remains in charge and sees a far bigger picture than we do who look through a set of eyeglasses darkly. Perspective is everything and it is certain that the worldview of the self-righteous results in a pessimism that is in stark contrast to the optimism and sure hope of the Gospel-focused individual who keeps his eye on the promises of Jesus connected to His cross and resurrection.