Monday, September 11, 2023

Sermon - Pentecost 15 - Romans 13:1-10

We sinners have a problem with authority.  It’s not just the hippies from the 60’s, or the rioters a few summers ago.  It’s a natural inclination in every human heart to rebel against God, and against those who represent him in our lives.  But God’s gift of authority is a good thing, and it is meant for our good.  We see this in many ways.

 

All of our readings today touch on, in one way or another, God’s good gift of authority.  Ezekiel is set to be a prophet, one who speaks a hard word, an authoritative word, to wicked people.  And God charges him that whether they listen or not, it is still his duty to speak God’s word to them.  He speaks for God, with authority from God.

 

In Matthew 18 we have a number of topics, different aspects of sin and forgiveness.  But in verse 18 Jesus reiterates that what his representatives, his pastors, “bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven”.  He’s speaking of the authority to forgive and withhold forgiveness of sins.  A weighty authority given to his ministers, indeed.

 

These two, together, have to do with what Luther called the “Right Hand Government”, that is, how God exercises and delegates his authority in the church.  Through the preaching of the word, the forgiveness of sins, and the administration of the sacraments, God’s appointed representatives serve him by serving his people.

 

This really is another way of looking at the distinction between Law and Gospel.  God “governs” his church, as it were, by his law – showing us his expectations and also how we fall short.  And then justifying us freely by his grace in Jesus Christ. 

 

And then there is the “Left Hand Government” or kingdom, through which God governs everything in life that has to do with the earthly, the physical, the bodily.  And so earthly government, as shown in Romans 13, really functions as an agent of God.  All authorities are ultimately derived from God.  And the implications of this are huge.

 

It means that when we obey the authorities, we are really obeying God.  And when we rebel against authority, we rebel against God. 

 

And so this informs the Christian on how we regard the president, the governor, the mayor, the judge, the police, and so forth, as well as all authorities we find over us in life. 

 

From our earliest years we learn God’s good gift of authority through our parents.  They are God’s representatives to both love and protect, but also discipline us in all things.  What chaos ensues when parents shirk this authority – as we see in the crisis of missing fathers, or in parents who let the child do the parenting.  Choose your own school, choose your own religion, choose your own gender! 

 

But a good parent balances law and gospel, trains the child up in the word of the Lord, and knows that even these children of ours are not ultimately our own, they are the Lord’s.  On loan, to us, for a time.

 

Luther explains the Fourth Commandment in the Small Catechism, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

 

Easier said than done.  Especially when we figure out that the people holding those positions of authority are also sinful.

 

You see it in the teenager who rebels against parents and calls out their hypocrisy.  You see it in adults who despise their boss who they perceive treats his employees unfairly.  Or in a wife who dishonors her husband as God-given head of the household, even though he may well deserve her criticism. 

 

Other times we abuse God’s good gift of authority by taking authority for ourselves when it is not given.  We put ourselves in the place of God over against others.  We make ourselves the judge, jury and executioner of our neighbor, without recognizing and honoring those who are truly given those roles.  But just as it is sinful to rebel against proper authority, so it is sinful to arrogate authority to ourselves which God has not given.

 

Humble submission to authority is a difficult thing to do, but we are called by God to do it.  And Paul gives two reasons:  One, for fear of punishment, and two, for the sake of conscience.

 

Even the unbeliever knows better than to go around breaking the law flagrantly.  For the government does not bear the sword in vain.  Break the law and there will be consequences, punishments.  Do the crime and serve the time. 

 

This is a good gift from God, to curb sin and maintain peace and order in the world.  If it were not for government, we would have anarchy and chaos, and the strong would certainly take advantage of the weak.  The devil would run even more rampant in our world, and the church could scarcely worship in peace.

 

But this second reason, “for the sake of conscience”, Paul shows how the Christian rightly obeys the authority without coercion.  We do it because it’s the right thing to do.  We do it because we love God, and the good gift of authority he’s given. 

 

Some misguided Christians have sought to be so separate from the world that they refuse to recognize earthly authority, refuse to serve in government, or be entangled in any way with earthly powers.  But the Augsburg Confession shows how Lutherans rightly see government and earthly order:

 

AC XVI:

 

“It is taught among us that all government in the world and all established rule and laws were instituted and ordained by God for the sake of good order, and that Christians may without sin occupy civil offices and serve as princes and judges, render decisions and pass sentence according to imperial and other existing laws, punish evildoers with the sword, engage in just wars, serve as soldiers, buy and sell, take required oaths, possess property, be married, etc.”

 

But as important as God’s rule is in the left-hand kingdom, as essential as law and order, peace and good government are, the left-hand kingdom knows only of the law.  Only in his right-hand kingdom does God exercise the Gospel.  And we might observe that God is “right handed”!

 

And seated at his right hand is his son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “All authority in heaven and on earth as been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations.. baptizing and teaching..”  Jesus has received authority, according to his human nature, and he shares that authority with his disciples, sending them to make more disciples, by baptizing and teaching.

 

So does he authorize his pastors, even today, to continue exercising this authority.  The authoritative public preaching of his word, and especially of Christ crucified.  The authorization to baptize all nations, by which his Spirit promises the washing of rebirth and renewal.  And the authorization to “do this in remembrance of me”, consecrating and distributing his gift of himself in the holy sacrament of his altar.  And forgiving sins, in his name, on his behalf, and with the authority of Jesus himself.

 

Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.  Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven.  The catechism explains this idea commenting on a similar saying of Jesus from John 20:

 

“I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.”

 

And so the best reason to give thanks to God for his gift of authority is that through that authority, given to pastors, mere men…. We have the assurance of the forgiveness of our sins.  And it’s just as good and true and real as if Jesus Christ himself was standing her personally forgiving your sins. 

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