Sermon - Pentecost 14 - Mark 7:1-13

Messiah is well known as being a “traditional” congregation.  We offer the traditional liturgy.  We have liturgical worship, with the organ, the hymnal, and all the accoutrements. And we like it this way.  We see it as a strength, a selling point, a real positive.  We stand in contrast to many of the churches in our area, even within the LCMS, as being distinctly traditional.  It’s a big reason a lot of us are here.

But today, our Lord Jesus Christ warns us of the dangers of tradition.  Or, more specifically, of teaching as doctrine the traditions of men.  We must be crystal clear – God’s word is one thing, and human tradition is another.  And human tradition ought never overshadow or oppose the word of God.

But like all good gifts, we sinners have a tendency to misuse them.  The Pharisees certainly did so.  The particular problem came when Jesus’ disciples were not following the ritual washings prescribed by the Pharisees, and the Pharisees complained about it.  Mark tells us some background here, how the Jews used to ritually wash (or baptize) everything from their hands, to pots and pans, to their couches.  And while the Law of Moses certainly did contain some rituals and ceremonies that God commanded the Old Testament people to perform, the Pharisees took these to a much higher level, and created laws upon laws, tradition upon tradition, in their vain attempts at works righteous legalism.

But here exactly is the problem.  They set aside the law of God in their pursuit of all these man-made laws.  They may have looked outwardly pious, but inside was the rot.  “They praise me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” says the Lord.

Jesus gives them an example.  They had prescribed a work-around for the 4th commandment of honoring father and mother.  They said, “if you give money to the temple, then you’re off the hook.  You aren’t responsible for your aging parents anymore.”  But Moses taught them the command of God as such, honor your father and mother, and it cannot be annulled by a tradition of man.  

And many such things you do, Jesus said.  Might he say the same of us?

This sort of thing was a huge issue in the Reformation.  Rome had devised all sorts of human traditions that supplanted the teaching of God’s word.  Buy this indulgence and your sins will be forgiven!  Pray at this relic, and you’ll save yourself some time in purgatory.  Do these good deeds and God will reward your merit with even more grace.  They had a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish man-made traditions.

I remember something wise a certain pastor once said, “Legalists are masters of the loophole”.  And it’s so true.  By setting up man-made laws, laws that perhaps we can actually fulfill and accomplish, we let ourselves off of the true, God-given law.  If I just do so-and-so, then I don’t have to face the full measure of God’s expectations for me.  I can convince myself that I’ve satisfied the requirements.  That I’ve done enough, and done good enough, to be counted righteous.

But the divine law is not so easily set aside or sabotaged.  You don’t  get to stop honoring your parents just because to did something nice for them once.  You don’t get to divorce your wife willy nilly because you signed the right paperwork according to Moses.  You don’t get to leave your neighbor to die in a ditch because it’s the Sabbath day and you aren’t supposed to do any work.

You don’t get to switch off the commandment because you think you’ve done enough good over here in this other area to balance the scales.  The commandments aren’t suggestions, nor do they have an expiration date, nor can they be funneled or bottled or minimized or excused away.  No matter how and how much we sinners try to undermine them, the commands of the law always stand.  The word of the Lord endures forever.

Love God with all your heart.  There’s a big one.  There’s a tough one.  For even if I thought I could approach such a thing (and that would be a self-delusion anyway), that little word gets you every time:  all.  All your heart.  Not just most or some or a majority of the time.  The law demands perfection.  It leaves no wiggle room, no matter how we try to tame it with human traditions.  And love your neighbor isn’t much easier to accomplish!

This is not to say that tradition is bad, mind you!  That would be to grossly misunderstand Jesus here.  Tradition simply means what is handed over to us, or handed down to us.  Much of that is very good!  Some of that, is the very Word of God itself!  And the traditions of the past, to the extent that they serve the word of God and keep it, to the extent that they help us gladly hear and learn the word of God, then they are good traditions.  But even the best of man-made traditions is not the Word of God itself.  

Look, there are good reasons to use hymnals and liturgies and organs and candles and robes.  There are beloved and helpful traditions in our religious life and walk that serve to point us to Christ in various ways.  But they do not save us!  And they cannot take the place of Christ, or of his word.  The traditions of man must never supplant the doctrine of God.

And what pride can come, even from our good traditions!  Here is a real danger for us at a church like this, as we make a flippant comment about a church with a rock band, or contemporary worship.  As we say things that make ourselves feel better and more righteous.  Beware!  Is it a valid criticism?  Is it true and kind and helpful?  Or is it just to stroke our own spiritual egos with a sense of self-righteousness?

Look, I’m as traditional as anyone.  I love our liturgy and so much of what we do and I can articulate pretty well why we do it.  And I think I could offer a robust critique of those churches who have left so many of these good traditions behind and turned aside to, well, other traditions, that are not as helpful, and might even be harmful.  

But we must always distinguish between the traditions of man, and the doctrine of God.  For the tradition of man does not save us.  But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation.  The traditions of man may be helpful, but they cannot assist us in keeping the law (at least not as we should).  And they cannot add a single bit to our salvation.  All that is already done in Christ.

Christ, who for his part, kept the law perfectly.  And not just the various laws of Moses, the ceremonies and customs of the Jews, but the law of God – the perfect, holy, will of God.  Jesus always loved God with all his heart.  He always loved his neighbor.  He never broke the law of God, any of the commandments, but always, always, fulfilled them perfectly.

And he, Jesus, gave the only sacrifice required.  Not some corban sacrifice to appease the traditions of man, but the perfect sacrifice of all time, to satisfy the justice of God.  Not to shirk his responsibilities to parents, but to make all who believe in him dear children of God.  

He was handed over, betrayed into the hands of men.  Handed over by the Jews to the Romans.  Handed over by Pilate to the will of the murderous mob.  Handed over to the soldiers who drove the nails, pressed the crown of thorns upon him, and hoisted his cross upright for all to see as he died for all.

If you want the perfect righteousness that comes from keeping the law, don’t think you can do it yourself.  Trust in Christ. Trust not in the traditions of men, as good and helpful as they might be.  Trust in Christ.  And don’t think that you can do some other good deed or outward work to fill in the gaps.  Trust in Christ.  Trust in the one who did it all for you.

Paul uses that language of “handed over” or “delivered” to point us to a blessed gift – Holy Communion.  

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread…” etc.

So let us come to the table today and receive the sacred tradition, the blessed handing-over, of Christ’s body and blood, in the bread and wine.  Paul received it from Christ, and the church has handed it down through the ages, and today it is handed over to us, distributed freely for repentant sinners to eat and drink and be forgiven.  Trust not in the traditions of man.  Trust in Christ, who hands himself over for you, and to you.  Amen.

Sermon - Pentecost 13 - Proverbs 9:1-10

 

Today we have an Old Testament reading from Proverbs 9.  It seems to be chosen to correlate with the “Bread of Life” discourse we’ve been hearing from John 6 these last few weeks.  Proverbs paints a picture of two women with very different kinds of bread, and with two very different approaches to doing things.

In our reading we have the example of Wisdom, personified as a woman.  And for all you women elbowing your husbands, and saying, “see, wisdom is a woman!”  I’m sorry I must point out, just a few verses later, we have the contrasting picture of Folly, also personified as a woman.

Here's what we hear about her:

13  The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. 14  She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, 15  calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, 16  “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, 17  “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

She’s loud and kind of obnoxious.  It’s foolish to think that just by being loud you will be heard, but we see it all the time, don’t we?  You get into a heated argument, and you raise your voice.  You have a group of teenagers, and they get louder and louder competing for attention.  Or the television gets louder when the commercials come on.  Doesn’t that just end up annoying everyone?

But she targets the fool.  “whoever is simple, come my way!” Fools are easy targets for foolishness. 

Folly says that stolen water is sweet.  Taking the shortcut or the easy way out, even the dishonest way, cutting corners if needed.  But it doesn’t matter that it’s not right.  And it certainly isn’t wise.

And she claims that bread eaten in secret is pleasant.  The illegitimate and dishonest ways of the world love the darkness, sin loves to hide in the shadows.  And so eating bread in secret is a poetic depiction of evil things done under cloak of darkness.

And now we can better see the contrast with Wisdom, a woman who acts just the opposite. 

She’s done the hard work.  She’s even built the house where a feast is given, a feast of her own making.  She’s not stealing bread and water, she’s mixing wine and serving it freely, and out in the open.  She’s even slaughtered beasts for the banquet. 

She, too, invites the simple.  But unlike Folly, her call to the simple is to leave behind foolish ways, and to walk in wisdom, and live.

Now, of course, anyone with any sense would choose Lady Wisdom over Lady Folly.  And also, just as obviously, we don’t always act in good sense.  Sin doesn’t make sense.  It is nonsensical.  Who would choose to die, instead of live?  Who would choose to reject the giver of all good things, and try to be like God himself?  Who thinks he can get away with evil deeds done in secret, when nothing can be hidden from the one who knows all?

But sin is foolish.  It is brash.  It is selfish.  It doesn’t care about who it hurts, what it destroys.  It is a perversion of what is good, and can only corrupt and lay waste.

How can we, then, be wise, and not foolish?  How can we answer the call of Lady Wisdom, and spurn the call of Lady Folly?  Or are we simply doomed to our own sinful foolishness?

Proverbs points us in the right direction.  Sandwiched here between the depiction of Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly is perhaps the best know verse in the whole book of Proverbs, verse 10: 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

      and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

And here is where we really come to Jesus, the Holy One of God.  The Lord, Yahweh, the one who embodies perfect wisdom, the very Word of God, made flesh.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  Faith is the foundation.  And that faith in Jesus Christ.

And just as Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly couldn’t be more different, so the Wisdom of Christ couldn’t be any more divergent from the wisdom of this world.

Paul adds some very helpful interpretation here, with his words in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 1:18–25

[18] For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. [19] For it is written,

               “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

                              and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart

[20] Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? [21] For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. [22] For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, [23] but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, [24] but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. [25] For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (ESV)

Salvation by Christ the crucified is foolishness to the world, but for us it is the power of God.  Christ crucified for sinners is a scandal to Jews and nonsense to Gentiles, but to Christians it is the wisdom of God.

And just as Lady Wisdom built a house and prepared a feast, and invited the simple to come and join the party…  so does Christ build his house, the church.  So does Christ prepare for us a rich feast – of his own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  So does Christ invite the simple, the foolish, the sinner, to come to him and eat and drink and live!

Sometimes people come to their pastor for advice or direction, and we are happy to help where we can.  Like any Christian, we gladly bear one another’s burdens, to the extent we can.  But my friends, I’m no therapist.  I have no other, no better wisdom for you than this. 

Believe in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your souls, and you will live eternally.  I’m no engineer or financial analyst.  I’ve got no books published under my name, and I’ve not discovered some great advance in science or technology.  But I have, and I offer to you today the wisdom of God.  That wisdom that has come to all of us in His word, the word of the cross, the good news of Jesus.  The fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One that is insight.

Like Paul, I would profess to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified.  At that is enough.  It is the wisdom of God, that is wiser than the foolishness of man.  It is the wisdom of God, and that wisdom unto eternal life.  And it washes away all the folly of sin, the blood of Christ covering all.

So come now, to the feast.  Everything is ready.  Come in repentance and faith and the fear of the Lord, and receive Jesus himself.  What could be better?  What wisdom there is, in him!

Sermon - Pentecost 12 - Ephesians 4:17-5:2

 

Ephesians 4 has often been a favorite chapter of mine, a pastor, someone who speaks for a living.  There, Paul summarizes for us, in an almost offhand comment, a wonderful way to measure our Christian speech, “Speaking the Truth in Love”.  We heard that phrase in last week’s reading, and he expounds upon it in today’s.  What does it look like to speak the truth in love?  Why and how can we speak the truth in love?

Truth and love, of course, are two ideas close to the heart of any Christian.  Truth and love are perhaps two of the most distinctive traits or attributes of God:  Jesus says, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life” and John’s letters teach us, “God is love.”  Here Paul also reminds us, “the truth is in Jesus Christ”.  That’s the way you learned it, Christians. 

Corrupt desires and corrupt talk are part of the old way, the old self, the Gentiles’ former life.  And Paul says to put that all away! Put off the old self!  Put away all falsehood!  You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.  Easier said than done, St. Paul!

For speaking the truth can be hard.  Our corrupt nature loves the truth only when it benefits us, only when it serves us and our selfish ways.  Otherwise, the lie is always an option.  We tell white lies and great lies.  We lie so much we even had different names for our lies.  We excuse them with words like, “fudging” and “stretching the truth”, “spin” and “well, that’s your truth, and this is my truth.”  But a lie is a lie all the same, and the Father of lies delights when we act like his children, and follow in his footsteps.

One of the biggest lies we can tell is when we tell ourselves – that we’re ok without God.  That we don’t need Jesus.  Or that we can live to serve our own comforts and desires, and that it doesn’t really hurt anyone else anyway.  Or if it does, they probably deserve it.  We lie to ourselves, thinking and saying we have no sin, and the truth is not in us.  We lie to others, either to cover our sinfulness or make ourselves look better than we are.  But we’re not.  A lie doesn’t really change the reality, it just lies about it.  But it cannot stand the test.  The lie crumbles when the truth shines on it.

But we don’t always do so well with the truth, either, now do we?  Sometimes telling the truth can be just as sinful as lying.  How so?  When we divorce the truth from love.  Paul indicates that truth and love go together.  But we are expert at peeling them apart.  This is the root of so much gossip.  Some of it’s false, of course, but some is true!  We’ll even say so, “well, it’s true, isn’t it?”  “Oh, the truth hurts, doesn’t it!”  And we mask our harmful truths in a disguise of concerns.  We aren’t really loving that other person, we’re not protecting their reputation and good name.  We’re dragging their dirty laundry out to help ourselves, not them.

The rule then is this:  Speak the truth, in love.  If it’s true but it’s not loving, then keep silent.  Or say something nice instead.  If it’s true but it’s not helpful, if it doesn’t serve the neighbor, or serve the good, then keep it to yourself.

That doesn’t mean always being “nice”.  I know Momma always said, “if you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all.”  But sometimes even we sin by not saying what we should!  Sometimes our silence is borne of cowardice.  And sometimes it’s just to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, when it really is a loving thing to say.  “Don’t put your hand on the stove, you’ll burn yourself!”  It’s true, and it’s loving, but we may not make friends with our words.

Now all this takes wisdom to navigate.  It’s not always easy.  When do I speak, and when do I not?  There are some helpful checkpoints:  1. Is it true?  2. Is it kind?  3. Is it helpful?  Does it build up, as Paul puts it?  Does it fit the occasion?

And furthermore, another test of our speech, “is it my place to say this?”  We must also consider our vocation, our place in life.  It may not be your place to correct someone else’s child, even if what you say is true, loving and kind.  It may not be your place to point to someone’s sin, even though it’s true, and you have good intentions.  There’s even a time to speak the Gospel, and a time to refrain from throwing pearls before swine.  For everything a time and a season under heaven.

Speak the truth in love, dear Christians.  And pray for wisdom to do so, as sin blurs so many things and can confuse even such a simple thing.

So how does Paul finally encourage us to speak the truth in love?  With these words:

“5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Christ is our example.  He always spoke the truth in love, perfectly.  It didn’t always make him friends.  Sometimes it even offended people.  And yes, sometimes, even Christ knew it was time to be silent.  But he was always loving, always looking toward the good of his neighbor and the glory of God his Father.  Christ is the perfect example.  Be like Jesus when it comes to speaking the truth in love.

But Christ is so much more than an example.  That’s all law.  Do this, do that, do the other thing.  Speak this way and not that way.  If only we could!  We fail so often.  We must confess: the law is good, but it cannot save us.  The law is good, but it cannot motivate our good works.  We cannot end the story there.

Christ loved us.  Christ spoke the truth to us.  And Christ gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God!

It is the work of Christ for us that answers the crushing accusations of the law.  It is the truth of Christ – that he came to save sinners like you – it is the love of Christ – that he laid down his life for the sins of the world.  It is his death on the cross - the fragrant offering he made, a sweet and pleasing aroma before the throne of God in heaven.  And God was well pleased with Christ’s sacrifice.  He received his Son’s spirit.  And he vindicated him with a resurrection on the third day.

Christ’s atoning death and glorious resurrection are the foundation for our new life as Christians.  They are the greatest of truth and the greatest of love.  Christ has done it all for us, not just as example, but as substitute, as Savior.  He is the way, the only way to God.  He is the truth, the one whose word never fails, and he is the life – the foundation for our life - here in time, and there in eternity.

And it is this good news that empowers us to follow his example, to love one another, and to speak the truth in love.  Paul encourages the Ephesians, and us, to live the new life of a Christian and to put away those old pagan Gentile ways.  Because Christians are different.  Christians are changed.  Christians are in Christ!

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Christ has saved us from the wrath and anger of God.  He has been tenderhearted and forgiving toward us, and always is.  Therefore, let us reflect this to each other.  Kindness.  Tender hearts.  Forgiving one another.  Speaking the truth in love, always, for the benefit of our neighbor, and to the glory of God.  Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Sermon - Pentecost 11 - John 6:22-35

 

Today we begin a three week stretch in which our Lectionary appoints readings from John chapter 6.  John 6 is known as the “Bread of Life” discourse, in which Jesus makes extensive comments about the topic.  My plan is to address John 6 for us today, and with the next two Sundays turn to the other readings for our sermon texts.  So here we come to it – the Bread of Life!

Bread.  It seems to me that in our world bread has gotten a bad rap as of late.  It used to be the biggest category of the food pyramid, but that’s come into question.  With the popularity of low-carb, keto and carnivore diets, it seems like many people are avoiding bread these days.  Well I’m no nutritionist, and the sermon is no dietary diatribe.  But bread, at least as far as Scripture is concerned, is quite an important thing.

After all, Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread.  Here, he means, of course, everything we need to support this body and life.  The Lord provided bread in the desert, Manna, every day, for the wandering children of Israel.  And, of course, bread and wine are the visible elements of the blessed sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

For a people living on a subsistence diet, like so many of the poor in Jesus’ day, you were happy to have simple bread to eat, even if that’s all you had.  Bread stands as a metaphor for all food, then, and even more, for everything we need to live.

As I mentioned, we have these 3 weeks of readings from John 6 where Jesus speaks of himself as the “Bread of Life”.  But before this, we’ve been slowly marching through the Gospel of Mark.  And after this we’ll pick up in Mark where we left off.  So why the interlude here?

A couple of weeks ago we heard from Mark about Jesus feeding the 5000.  And then last week he walked on water, which happened right after that.  Both of those evens are also described by John chapter 6, with The Bread of Life discourse as a reaction to all of that.

Alright, so that’s a lot of setup.  What is Jesus getting at here?  He is the Bread of Life.  He is the bread that comes down from heaven.  He is the bread that one must eat to have life, true life.

The crowds were seeking Jesus, but not for the right reasons.  They wanted more bread.  They had their fill at the feeding of the 5000, and now they wanted more.  Some even tried to make Jesus a king by force, a bread-king, but he would have nothing to do with that, of course.

He’s all about giving bread – but the true bread, the bread from heaven, the bread of life.  Himself.

Jesus is what we need.  We need him more than air, water, shelter and food.  He’s the only thing we ultimately need.

But we aren’t unlike those crowds.  We have different ideas of what we need.  We have strange and selfish ideas of what would make a good meal.

We’re also not unlike the crowds that followed Jesus looking for a handout.  We, like they, are all too apt to work for bread that perishes.  We, like they, are all too focused on our felt needs, the hunger of our stomach, the things of this world.  And we think far too little of the spiritual needs, the things of heaven, the eternal realities. We, like they, are often tempted to make Jesus a bread-king and nothing more, begging only for earthly morsels, and not the heavenly feast of blessings he bestows.

It all started with sinful eating.  When Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit, and ate.  They had a whole garden full of trees to eat from, each one more beautiful and luscious than the next.  Creation was very good, and God had provided for them abundantly.  They knew no need.

But the serpent came and tempted them toward that one food that was off limits, the one that would make them like God, knowing good and evil.  Only the devil’s twisted words mixed truth and lie, and cast doubt on what God did really say.  In the day you eat of it, you will die.  And so they ate.  And so they died.

Now, for Adam and all his descendants, food doesn’t come so easy.  We eat by the sweat of our brow.  We find thorns everywhere – our work is troubled in this now corrupted world.  Life is never easy again.

Even worse, now death hangs around our neck like an albatross.  And if we don’t work, we don’t eat, and if we don’t eat, we will die.  Even if we do eat, we still die.  Sin’s wages come due. 

But God is merciful.  He sends us Jesus.  The Bread from Heaven. 

The bread from heaven – the manna that God sent the wandering Israelites was only a picture, a shadow, of the fulfillment to come in Christ. 

And when it comes to working for your bread… this bread from heaven is different.  For Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”  Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

“Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

He provides.  He feeds.  He gives.   He does the work for you, so all that is left for you to do is look to him, believe, and have eternal life.  This faith that saves us is so simple, and it rests on Christ and his work alone.

Now, as you may have heard, Lutherans have argued over how best to interpret this John 6 passage – especially on how it relates to the Lord’s Supper.

Martin Luther took a very strong stand, saying this passage has nothing to do with the Lord’s Supper.  And that eating the bread of life is simply receiving Jesus by faith.  Some pastors today would follow that example.  And it’s hard to disagree with Dr. Luther.

But others have noted that it’s difficult to hear these words, especially as Lutherans, and not make the sacramental connection.  For the same Jesus who is the bread of life, who calls us to believe in him as such – to eat his flesh – is the same Jesus who gives us bread to eat and wine to drink that he says are his very body and blood. 

And so even if John 6 isn’t Jesus speaking directly about the Lord’s Supper, what Lutheran can hear these words and not think of it?  We, who have the benefit of all of Holy Scripture, know this blessed, wonderful, sacramental way in which he feeds us with himself – the Bread of Life.  Yes, he does it in a general sense, as faith comes by hearing – and our soul is nourished.  But he also now does it for us in a sacramental gift, bread that is his body, wine that is his blood, according to his simple words of promise, and for a particular purpose:  for the forgiveness of sins.

So come to the feast this day, and come often.  Be fed by Jesus.  Take and eat, take and drink, for the forgiveness of your sins.  Work for bread that does not perish.  Pray for your daily bread, and trust him to care for you, and rejoice in the living bread that comes down from heaven, the bread of life, for you, here, today.