ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH, GARRETT, IN
  Zion Lutheran Church Garrett, Indiana
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Sermon for Trinity 19

10/26/2022

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The basis for today’s sermon is the Old Testament reading, from Genesis chapter 28, where it is written: ““How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.””
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham was on a journey, a trek that would see him transformed from the conniving trickster he was into the pious patriarch that God had planned for him to be. At the beginning of the old testament reading today, we hear simply that “10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.” A lengthy journey, this. Haran was over 500 miles away; it was far to the north. Jacob was not on a simple errand to go get a wife for himself... He was in many ways fleeing home. Why? He was the younger son, yet he had tricked his elder brother Esau into despising his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup (Gen 25:29-34), and had tricked his aging father Isaac into bestowing the blessing for the firstborn son and heir (Gen 27). Isaac and Esau were both enraged, but what was done was done. The birthright involved inheritance of property: the flocks and herds and servants and so forth… yet more importantly, this birthright blessing meant being part of the messianic line. God had promised that through them all nations of the earth would be blessed… the messiah was to be born in human nature from the house and lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and now… Jacob.
Yet even as he traveled, surely Jacob had to wonder. Now what? He’d prized cleverness, he’d gotten the inheritance, the naming rights, so to speak, but what good was that really if he had to flee in fear of Esau, and seek his fortunes and future and family so far away? What had he gotten himself into? What was this blessing and covenant from the God of his fathers?
Weary from a day’s journey, Jacob rests. Fearful of what the future held, disappointed with the inheritance. What was this blessing all about if it didn’t provide him with even the creature comforts of a pillow, a place to lay his head? “11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.” All too often this is the temptation for our own fallen flesh, to measure life in terms of creature comforts, food and shelter, wants to satisfy our fleeting fleshly needs. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. The paralyzed man in the gospel reading needed far more than a few years of healing for his body. So also in the grand scope of things, you need more than a brief respite from your poor miserable condition.
If you remember that pyramid – Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I think it’s called – the claim is that our first need is shelter in the world, then food and drink, and then all sorts of other creature comforts and finally some kind of vague self-actualization. Where would our relationship to the Lord God be? Since we know that the Lord God created heaven and earth, that He upholds it by His mighty power, that not a sparrow falls without Him knowing, our need for a right relationship with the Lord God is fundamental, even more fundamental than food or drink or shelter or even pillows on which to lay our clever little heads. If God is for us, who could be against us? Which matters more for Jacob – having wealth and property from his parents, or the continuation of the messianic line, through which the savior Christ the Lord would come.
So it is that the Lord has set this clever wretch Jacob on the long road, so that His will to save our fallen race would be done. While Jacob sleeps, God confirms and re-affirms to him the blessing of His covenant promises. Verse 12 continues: “12 And [Jacob] dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.””
This vision of the ladder serves as a reminder. Ladders are for climbing – either going up, or coming down. Yet it is not given for sinful man to climb his way up to heaven by force of our own cleverness or good intentions, as if we could even get on the first rung. Our prideful human race tried that with the tower of babel, and it failed. Our salvation does not come from building our way up to heaven, but rather in that heaven comes down to earth.
Christ Jesus the Lord came down from heaven, ‘descending’ down to take on our human nature and live among us as God incarnate. He Whose human nature is the offspring of the house and lineage of Jacob, He was raised up on the cross to atone for our sins descended into the tomb, and ascended again on the third day, raised for our justification. Yours sins are forgiven. So doing, Jesus the Messiah fulfills the promise of mercy made to our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All nations were blessed in Him. His holy precious blood is sufficient to forgive the sins of all the world, this precious gift to be received through faith in Christ alone.
The connection between heaven and earth is not shaken, because the Lord God stands on high to hold is steadfast. If you can imagine it… when we work, we usually brace the ladder from below, but in this case, the sturdier ground and the steadier hand is from above, where the Lord God holds us and all the earth steady from Heaven above. So also the certainty we have of salvation in Christ Jesus is held fast by the power and promise of the Lord God.
He is the the ladder to heaven, the way of entry to the blessed paradise by the wood of His cross. In the gospel of John, Jesus said: “7b “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. … 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (Jn 10:7,9). And again He says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
You who hope to go up to heaven, or even who have any plan to stand with any kind of uprightness here on earth, leave off the hopes of tricking God through cleverness or show. Even the most guileful or clever guys like Jacob, for all that they could fool their families, could not deceive Him. He Who knows the heart, Who knows every hair on our head and every trick up our sleeve. Wrestle with Him and His Word, praying at all times for the Holy Spirit to continue sanctifying you in the true faith.
That’s the renewal we need. Even more than Jacob, who left Beersheba and came back a changed man, we need the renewal of the Holy Spirit. We heard in the Epistle reading [from Ephesians 4] how we are being taught by the Spirit “22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” In the work of the Spirit, we can take heart, have courage, knowing that our sins are forgiven. The promise of life and joy everlasting surpasses by far whatever sorrows we have here, and in time we find that God is actively redeeming us in and through the suffering and rising of Christ Jesus for our sake.
“ 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.””
We hear later how Jacob set up a pillar in the place, and named it Beth-El, that is, “the house of God” (Gen 28:19). The physical place on the map would become a place to worship the Lord in later years. But ultimately, the “holy place” and “house of God” is where He gathers His people, to renew and re-affirm His word of command and Word of promise, where He distributes His Holy sacrament to sustain us for our journey. The “House of God is not defined by a specific place or illusions of worldly wealth, but it goes where God gathers His people to hear the Word. Whether we have many creature comforts or few, whether we face great suffering or an easy road, take heart. Do not be afraid. In the presence of Christ Jesus, especially in His sacrament, we have the house of God, the very Gate of heaven. In the name of + Jesus. Amen

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Sermon for the Feast of St. Luke

10/20/2022

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In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
​
   Kings and people in high positions have heralds, messengers who go before them on the way, to announce the coming of the king. In 2nd Samuel 15[:1] it says how “… Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.” Again in Genesis 32[:3] “Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir…” (see also 1 Ki 1:5; Jos 7:22, etc). So too our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the very prince of peace, He sends messengers before him to prepare the way. Make straight his paths, let the rough places be made plain, be warned and be welcome, that you know the time of your visitation (Is 40:4; Luke 19:44). In Malachi chapter 3[:1] it is prophecied ““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” This refers to John the Baptist (Matt 11:10), sometimes called the ‘fore-runner’ of Christ Jesus, who we hear more about in the season of Advent. So also our Lord, in the days of His earthly ministry, had runners. Messengers. Heralds that His kingdom was come. It says in our gospel reading today: “1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” (c.f. Luke 9:52)
   Why should he have runners? Because Christ Jesus is King. His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36, 19:11), but over all the world. The second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God almighty, took on a human nature and was born among us, true God and true man. In His kingly work He goes to battle for His people, to save His people from sin and death and hell. In dying on the cross in our place under the Law, He pays in Himself every bit of what is needed to atone for, forgive our sins. In rising again He triumphs over sin and death and hell, and opens the way raise you who believe to life eternal with Him in His heavenly Kingdom. So that this righteousness and life may be obtained by us poor miserable sinners, He sends out messengers to proclaim the gospel: The good news that our King has come, His kingdom is near, that He commands repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that this righteousness is receive through faith alone (). Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How can they hear unless someone is sent? (Rom 10:14-17, etc).
   So it is that the Lord Jesus sends out messengers ahead of Him, to proclaim repentance and faith, as His kingdom is near. We ordinarily think of when Jesus sent out the 12 apostles, saying “go therefore make disciples of all nations,” and so on. Yet before that, in about the middle of His earthly ministry, He sent out the seventy-two. The 12 disciples we know – Peter and James and John and so forth – they were part of the 72. Yet along with them were 60 other people who had been following Jesus around since nearly the beginning of his ministry. We don’t know much about these others. A few of the particular people mentioned in the Epistle reading for today: Crescens, Titus, Tychicus, Carpus, and also St. Luke. St. Luke, whose feast day it is today, was likely one of those 72 who were sent out.
   Saints are holy people, made holy by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. We remember them on feast days not to worship them or anything like that, but in order to learn: 1) to be encouraged in trusting God alone to forgive and save us, 2) to give thanks that He saves and helps His people, and also 3) to learn from their example in history, how we can be faithful and loving witnesses to Jesus in our own time. ”
   God used St. Luke to proclaim the gospel. The Holy Spirit inspired him to write the ‘gospel according to Luke’ and also to write ‘the Acts of the Apostles.’ This accounts for about a third of the words the new Testament. St. Luke was the man for the job, too. He’s described as ‘our beloved physician,’ in Colossians 4[:14]. To be ‘beloved’ shows a good bedside manner, and to be a physician suggests a care for the whole person, and an attention to the details. St. Luke is usually pictured as an Ox, or with an Ox. It’s supposed to symbolize a methodical attention to detail, a diligence and thoroughness in his writing, as well as indicate the attention in St. Luke’s gospel to the character of Jesus as the sacrifice to atone for our sins. St. Luke gives details and particulars that we don’t hear about in the other gospels; He relays details from the mother of our Lord that no one else reported; has a fascination with the miracles of healing; it seems likely that he interviewed a great many of Hebrews and Greeks and Romans alike to get all the accounts put together in an impressive and orderly way.
   All this goes to say that God is good, and He made sure that we have exactly what we need in order to hear the word, believe, and be saved. God can and does work miraculously. He also can and does use particular people to accomplish His will. You are a particular person, just like Tychicus and Cresens and the rest. God can use your particular talents and abilities, that you be a herald of His kingdom which is near. It might not be that you are one to record a gospel, or serve in the pastoral office, but every one of us can bear witness to Christ Jesus. We can comfort the brokenhearted, we can use whatever particular talents or abilities we have to help those in need. You who have ears to hear and mouths to speak you can declare the glory of God and the peace we have through Jesus Christ His Son.
   No easy task, this. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” We cannot wait for someone else to share the good news with those we love. The called and ordained pastors are sent by Christ for specific responsibilities, yet it is you, in particular, who are best placed to talk to your own family and friends about Jesus. And He knows the task may be daunting, we who go out “as sheep among wolves” to proclaim the shepherd. Yet He will be with us, His rod and staff guide us and protect us. We need no special knapsack or moneybag as a protector or guide, for it is the Lord God whose peace we proclaim, and His work we do when we share God’s Word with others.
   The point of all this is peace. “5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.” Our great high King Christ Jesus has reconciled us to God in His own body on the cross. Your sins are forgiven. He has suffered and died and rose, that we might have peace before God. Peace in the resurrection. Restoration and wholeness in the Lord God Who heals all our ills. Jesus is the true physician of souls (Lk 4:23, 5:31), the king who heals His people. The 72 returned from their journey rejoicing at the power of the name of Jesus (Luke 10:17). He binds us up the brokenhearted in the forgiveness of sins. He gives us the on the medicine of immortality in the holy communion. For in this holy communion, our King is come near to us, present in body and blood. In the course of His holy rule over all the universe, He has set aside this sacrament as a gift, guarantee, and pledge of His peace. Peace be on our house, this holy house of God Christ is come near, and so too His kingdom. In + His name. Amen.






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Sermon for Trinity 18

10/16/2022

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The basis for today’s sermon is the gospel reading, from Matthew chapter 22, where it is written: “Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.””

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Last week we heard Jesus settle a question of the law: “is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?” Jesus heals the man’s disease, and the apparent disagreement between the 3rd commandment and 5th commandment are reconciled in His own person. Today in the gospel we hear a similar question put to Him. This time is isn’t whether He will pick between the 3rd or 5th commandments, but rather between all of them: “which is the great commandment in the Law?” The biblical greek grammar here suggests that the word ‘commandment’ is more than a “do this” or “don’t do that,” but is a much broader word (εντολή). So they might as well have asked Him: “Which is the greatest teaching [/precept] in the bible?”1
Now everyone in the world has to have some kind of answer to a question like this. Different questions we are asked have different levels of importance. Some questions, it’s easy to have no opinion about: Who will win the high school football game between two small schools in rural Arkanas? What’s the best aftermarket stereo for a ‘97 Honda civic? Those questions only matter for a few people. Yet other questions are of such importance that every human being comes up with an answer in one way or another, whether we’re aware of it or not. One of those is: what’s the best way to live? What should we do? We all have to take action in the world, and every one of our actions interacts somehow with questions of right and wrong.
Proof of this is how people even today invoke language about ethics or right-and-wrong, whether or not they are Christians. Everyone has some kind of morality, even if it isn’t a Christian morality. Morality is a dimension of human life that cannot be ignored. It’s easy to see advertising out there that tries to sell you on something because of its moral qualities. Politicans run on platforms claiming – correctly or incorrectly – that their ideas are morally superior. Even kids squabbling over their toys make moral claims about who had what toy first, ‘that’s not fair!!’ , and so forth. It isn’t only Christians who do this, or religious people who make moral arguments, but everyone, regardless of where they think right and wrong comes from.
Nowadays all sorts of groups get preachy about their chosen ethical actions, and we have to be very careful that we don’t get taken in. Just because someone wants to shame you into acting some way, or just because there’s a claim about right and wrong – that doesn’t mean it’s the truth. As it is written in Colossians 2[:8] “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
So credit where credit is due: the Pharisees and scribes at least understand the right and wrong come from God, and is revealed to us in the holy scriptures. That’s the sort of question they put to Jesus. “which one is the great and most important command in the Law,” that is, in the scriptures. The Lord God created the heavens and the earth. He is author and judge and Lord; for any course of action to be right, it must be in harmony with His eternal will to set creation in order. Some of this He has written on our hearts, as it says in Romans chapter 2[:15], but we have His eternal will more fully revealed to us in the Word of the apostles and prophets. For anyone to make a claim to be in the right, the Christian knows that it has to be in harmony with what God has revealed to us.
Jesus doesn’t, by the way, disagree with the Pharisees on this point. He confirms it. What is the greatest commandment of the ten commandments? What’s the greatest ethical command God has given? All of them. We have to receive them all together; we aren’t in a position to pick and chose what we want or don’t want from God’s Law. We can’t excuse ourselves from the rest of the Law because we did the one important thing. The Lord’s claim over us is total: “37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Yet when it comes to “which teaching is most important in the scriptures?” Jesus has more to say. Our fallen race fails at both of these great commands of the Law: we have not loved God with our all, we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We have tried to pick and chose, we have tried to use the Law to put others down or puff ourselves up with man-made moralities that haven’t harmonized with God’s eternal will. We are poor miserable sinners. So Jesus shows the greatest teaching of the scriptures: “Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?””
The word “Christ” means “anointed one,” or the “Messiah” Whom God promised to send to save our fallen race. He is the one Who perfectly keeps the Law for us and for our salvation. Jesus asks them: “Whose son is he?” to get them thinking: Who is it that keeps the Law perfectly and saves us? Is it one of your sons? Of course we are to love as God has commanded. Yet is it a skill of our hands or a word from our mouth that will result in freeing mankind from suffering and death? All too often this is the temptation for those who do not know God.2 There is this claim that if the world will be saved, it must be the result of human action: either waiting for some heroic human being to do everything for us, or demanding concerted, collaborative action on everyone’s part.3 These are high hopes, but Psalm 146[:3] reminds us: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”
So whose son is the Christ? They say: “The son of David.” They’re not wrong, but they don’t have the full truth yet. David was a great king of old, but he was only human. God promised him in 2nd Samuel 7[:12-13] that the Christ, the king to reign forever, would come from his lineage, just as He had promised to his forefather[s] Abraham and Adam before him. This identifies that the Christ, the savior, would have a human nature.
So Jesus quotes Psalm 110 in order to expand their understanding of this most important teaching of scripture: ““How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”” Parents do not call their children ‘my Lord.’ For David to call one of his descendants ‘my Lord’ shows that there is something more to this promised Christ than the virtues of a mere human being. We are not going to be saved by the continual self-improvement of the human race. Rather, God’s promised savior is true God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. He took on human nature and did his saving work among us as true God and true man. In this sense, “Whose son is He?” should have been something along the lines of “Son of God and Son of David.” The Christ has to be truly human in order that He be able to fulfill the Law as a human being, and to suffer and die in our place on the cross. So also the Christ has to be truly God in order that He be able to fulfill the Law with perfectly godly righteousness, and rise again on the third day.
This is what we confess in the creed that every Sunday, when we say that Jesus Christ is “God of God, light of light, very god of very god.” The Christ is true God and true man at the same time, Who is crucified and died and buried, risen on the third day, and ascended into heaven for us men and our salvation. Our of perfect self-giving Love, He offered Himself up once and for all on the cross, to pay the cost for our transgressions of the Law. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus the Christ – true God and true man – is risen, and by faith in Him you are accounted righteous before God our Father in heaven.
So it is that we continually reference the work of Jesus the Christ. “Who is the Christ, and what has He done” is the center and crucial teaching of the Christian faith. We don’t have to search the scriptures for bible codes or prophecies about the stock market. That’s not the point. The Epistle reading for today emphasizes the word “Christ” several times over. The Old Testament reading repeatedly praises the LORD God for His saving work. So also we, when we bear witness to what God reveals in the scriptures. We can and ought to live in light of what God has revealed to us. We can and ought to shine the Light of God’s Law to a world that is consuming itself with ‘ethical’ mandates of one sort or another. Yet ultimately, as Christians we know the Law is completely fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus the Christ, true God and man. To Christ Jesus be the Glory, now and forever. Amen.


1 The parallel in Mark 12:28 asks about the “first” or “prime” or προτων commandment, hence the ‘greatest’ interpretation here.
2 For example, when I used to be employed at a local coffee shop, one of my zealous environmentalist co-workers regularly bragged about how she was ‘literally saving the world.’
3 It’s not hard to see how we tend to too much of our faith in politicians or political causes, as if this human-generated action would be the source of salvation or rescue for us here on earth.
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Sermon for Trinity 17

10/11/2022

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In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The pecking order among our poor miserable humanity can be brutal. People will go to great lengths, accomplish impressive feats or commit all sorts of immoral acts, just to get a bit closer to the top of the pile - whatever particular pile they’re on. Overattention to “status” doesn’t have to be rational. It’s easy to imagine someone boasts oh so very proudly about being the biggest fish in a tiny little pond, or someone who feels like they are useless because they’re not the ruler of a small country. Everyone has moments like this, especially when we get defensive. To some extent having an unspoken hierarchy in a group of people is natural… we have varying gifts, and differing talents show up in different ways. But all too often the temptation is to set our heart’s pride, our fear and love and trust, on our status before the people around us. That’s a different kind of idolatry – not worshipping a statue or idolizing an idea, but putting too much faith in the opinions of men. …
“1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.” In the gospel reading today [from Luke 14:1-11], we find a delicate situation over dinner. The pecking order seemed to be … the elites of Jerusalem. Some among the Pharisees felt threatened by Jesus. He didn’t play favorites [Mt 22:16b; Ac 10:34]. He didn’t seem to be impressed by how rigorously they showed off righteousness to others. Jesus had called them all – everyone really, to repentance and faith. The pharisees in particular had become increasingly antagonistic, and had recently tried to scare Him away from Jerusalem [Lk 13:31]. But He was undaunted. Rather than risk embarrassment by engaging Him in open questioning while He taught publicly, these big fish in the small city thought to invite Him to a private dinner party. They want to sort out the pecking order, but are at cross-purposes with Jesus who is here to seek and save the lost.
So Jesus asks a question: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” The man before them had an ugly disease, unpleasant to behold, painful and ultimately fatal. Jesus had the power to heal him, to do a good work according to the fifth commandment by helping and supporting his neighbor in this physical need, as it is written: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mk 12:31,et al). Yet it was also the sabbath day, and the Law commanded that no work be done on this day of rest. Exodus 20[:8-11 esv] says: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” So by asking the assembled group a question about the Law, He’s giving them a chance to distinguish themselves.
Yet they are trapped by His question, ‘is it lawful.’ They cannot recommend healing the man without also suggesting a break in the rigorous sabbath protocols they have added to distinguish themselves. And if they recommend ignoring the man, they fail to love their neighbor as themselves. 1 The answer is obvious: heal the man! But they couldn’t say anything: “5 [H]e said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.” Their motivation had been pride, using the Law to gain advantages over one another for status or pride of place. Jesus reveals how impossible this is in the end. They cannot help but fall short of one commandment or another. The Law sheds light on our poor miserable condition. It always shows what is good. It does not change, it is not taken away, and this reveals that we are sinners and that Christ Jesus alone is righteous.
Self-aggrandizing pride tries to use the Law to gain status and distinction among our neighbors. Our era is not a stranger to this temptation. Beware the temptation to broadcast your superiority; such is no different than the Pharisees. It is self-aggrandizing pride that tries to use the Law to gain status and distinction among our neighbors, whereas self-giving Love acts within the Law for the good of our neighbors. That’s what Jesus did – He took the diseased man and healed him. Jesus gives with self-giving love, keeping the commandment to protect human life, and bringing rest and restoration to the weary on the sabbath day. It is written in Romans 13[:10b]: “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Jesus Himself fulfills the law by His perfect Love. He took on human nature, laid aside His godly majesty for a time, was crucified and died and buried. He perfectly fulfilled the Sabbath by His three-day rest in the tomb, that we might have rest and peace in Him. He gave of Himself so that we poor miserable low-status sinners would receive His righteousness by faith. Your sins are forgiven. He rose again in the flesh to secure for you a place at Heaven’s high feast, and has ascended to prepare a place of perfect eternal sabbath rest for you who believe.
That’s the status that matters. Rather than put all our trust in what the world thinks of us and how we can brag about being the biggest fish in a little pond, we are most secure by being made to stand rightly before the Lord God almighty. We cannot put ourselves forward in His presence as if our good works could ever make us righteous. Rather, in repentant humility we let the Lord of the Feast put us in the place we should be. Jesus points this out with the example of the seating arrangements: “8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.” Rather than assigning yourself a place, grant that our Lord, the Host, put us where we ought to be.
This means we are free to love one another without all the baggage of self-aggrandizement. We can maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, walking together humbly because we have been called together by the same Lord: one Lord, one faith, one Baptism. We have Him in common.
At Heaven’s high feast, none are greater or lesser than another. For all of us have sinned, and yet we are brought forward to a good place by the blood of Christ Jesus, shed for us to forgive our sins. All who are brought near to Christ in the holy communion this day, who gather around this altar in common confession of faith … we kneel at the same level, humbly to receive the mercy and good place that He gives. Perfect love has fulfilled the Law. He says to you, o repentant believer: “friend, go higher.” In the name of + Jesus. Amen.




[1]  It ought to be pointed out that they seem fixated on the particularities of the Law, and so miss the purpose for each of these commandments. They focus on ‘no work’ and miss the ‘rest,’ or potentially fret about the burden of healing, and miss the ‘restoration’ that comes from finding our Sabbath Rest in the restorative Word of God. The Letter of the Law is not abolished, but neither should we ignore the purpose and spirit of it. The Letter of the Law and the Spirit of the Law are not opposed to one another. Only in Christ Jesus can the letter-particulars of the Law and the Spirit of the Law be kept.
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Sermon for Trinity 16

10/4/2022

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The basis for today’s sermon is the gospel reading, from Luke chapter seven, where it is written: “14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ” (Luke 7:11-17)
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 127 sings of the home and family as a great blessing, and human flourishing from the Lord God Himself. It says: “3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” Yet this poor widow in the gospel reading today, what does she have left to her “in the gate” of the city? Weeping. The procession goes on, with a cry and an inarticulate lament. Stricken by grief, they are left bereft of words. And why shouldn’t they wail? One loss would be enough, but two … first her husband and her only son… What more is there to say, but weep with a groan too deep for words? (c.f. Rom 8:26)
In genuine love for the boy, she might have desired to trade places with the child: That she would die so he could live and grow up. She wouldn’t be the only one to imagine a bargain like that. “Greater love has no one than this,” Jesus says in John 15, that to lay down one’s life for their beloved. She might even have prayed for it, or some other kind of miracle. Who wouldn’t? But substituting herself was not possible for this poor miserable women, and so the crowd wailed in solidarity with her, and the pallbearers marched on, relentless.
At the head of another procession, Jesus looks on. It’s not too much of a stretch to think that he sees a bit of Himself in their situation – an only-begotten son, bound for death. Our Lord has gut-wrenching compassion, that’s what the biblical greek word means that St. Luke uses here – compassion felt so deeply that it moves you to the pit-of-the-stomach. In this way God so loved the world. Out of lovingkindness,1 the Son of God laid aside His majesty for a time, took on human nature, and willingly subjected Himself to suffer the pains and pangs of our poor miserable human condition along with us.
So Jesus speaks, and tells the woman “do not weep.” Weep no more (Rev 5:5!), for there is One Who will take this boy’s place in death. There is a substitute already. Jesus reaches out to touch the grave-bound bier. Let the little children come to Him. According to the Old Testament law in Numbers 19[:11-13], a person would become ceremonially ‘unclean’ by touching a dead body. Yet someone had to do bear them; it was unavoidable in the long run. Jesus does this on purpose. He absorbs all that uncleanliness and corruption into Himself, and from Him flows life and purity. He Himself is the Source and Wellspring of holiness. In touching the bier, Jesus foreshows the great exchange: He bears our the just punishment we rightly deserve for all our sin … He bears it in His own body by His crucifixion, death, and rising. And you by faith receive His righteousness put onto us in the Word of the gospel. He united Himself to us in a bodily death like ours, so that on the last day we who are baptized into Him would be united to Him in a resurrection like His.
The bearers stood still. Death was stopped in its tracks. Jesus fulfills what is written in Psalm 146: “8b ...The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9ab The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless….” He gives the boy back to his mother, alive and well and speaking. It was a mighty miracle, far exceeding the prophets of old. The boy was restored in body and soul, given to that highest human capacity of speech and reason. For a time, the broken family was made a bit more whole. The Lord of life has come near; weep no more. They marvelled and spoke His praise.
Now, there is hope for us in this. We may not experience the same kind of miracles in this body and life, as if this sin-broken world is what matters most. But the same Lord Jesus who restores broken families and raises the dead … He is not far from you. He is moved by compassion for and your broken family. On the last day all the dead will be raised, and those who have received His salvation through faith will be reunited in the blessed life everlasting. He has not given up on our broken families in the here and now. The Lord has built the house, and He does not labor in vain. He stands near to us to ‘touch’ us in the holy communion, where His true Body and Blood is truly present to forgive our sins and renew us in His covenant of grace. He has commanded us to pray and has promised to hear your cries. It is fitting then that of all the psalms, we sang psalm 86 as an introit today: “3 Be gracious to me, | O Lord, * for to you do I cry | all the day. 5 For you, O Lord, are good and for- | giving, * abounding in steadfast love to all who call up- | on you.” (Psalm 86). Weep no more, but marvel, and speak the good news that God has visited His people. In the name + of Jesus. Amen.
1God’s will to act for us is not primarily the result of His suffering empathic compassion with our suffering, but His eternal self-giving love. The "suffering" of compassion is part of His incarnate suffering. 
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    Pulpit & Pen

    Rev. Christiansen serves as pastor at Zion Lutheran. Here are selected writings, sermons or newsletter articles. 

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