Another St. Michael Sermon

This is the sermon I preached for my SELC District Professional Church Workers Conference this week . . .

25 September 2017

St. Michael and All Angels (observed)

SELC District Professional Church Workers Conference 

Concordia Lutheran Church, Macungie, PA

Jesu Juva

“The Greatness of Little Children”

Text: Matthew 18:1-11; Revelation 12:7-12; Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

It’s easy to get greatness wrong. The disciples did. And so they got an answer they did not expect. That made them re-think everything they thought they knew. Greatness looks like a child.

If you need any proof that we tend not to think that way, check out the reaction of folks when they see a young child get in the seat behind them on an airplane. Or the next driver that goes cruising past a stopped school bus. In fact, many in our world today say that if you want to pursue greatness, you have to put off having children, or not have them at all. How different is Jesus and His ways.

And perhaps this is a particular difficulty for Professional Church Workers, as it was for the disciples. Who is the greatest? We have certain measuring sticks. But are they the right ones? Perhaps you can tell by what they do. If they make us prideful or if they make us despairing, if they make us think we are great or if they make me think I’m a failure, if they make me compare myself to my fellow church workers, if the world would agree with how we are measuring, then I’m not sure we’re getting it right.

Because the answer, I think, what Jesus is saying to us today, is that you are never so great as when you are here. That you’re not great when you’re doing great things, but when you are receiving great things. Things that make you great in God’s sight. When you humbly receive the service of Your Father.

Think about it, the service children get. Children are fed by their parents. We are fed here. Children are read to by their parents. We are read to here. Children are bathed by their parents. Here we are washed. Children are clothed by their parents. Here we are clothed with Christ. Children are born into a family, as we are here. And children are protected by their parents and so are we. And that last one - protection - is especially what St. Michael and All Angels is all about.

Coming from just outside of DC, when I think of protection I think of the Secret Service. The President gets Secret Service protection because He is great, and there is danger all around him. 

You have your own Secret Service. Angels guarding you. Angels who always see the face of the Father. They prefer not to be seen, but do not doubt that they are there, at the command of God, serving God’s great ones, His children. Divine messengers. Divine warriors. Divine protectors.

For there is danger all around us. Visible and invisible. Especially from those once holy angels now demonized, who want nothing to do with our Father, rage against Him, and only want to destroy what belongs to Him. They lost their place in heaven and were thrown down to the earth, where their raging continues. Against you. 

But don’t mess with my little ones, God says! Attack them and you’re attacking Me. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting . . . ME? Jesus says (Acts 9:4). And cause one of these little ones to sin, and there is not cement shoes, but almost - a great millstone in your future. And better to lose your hands, feet, and eyes than to sin. Serious business.

Satan doesn’t want you to believe that, of course. That sin is so serious - at least not your sin. For those words there? Nah! That’s just Jesus being like your mother when she told you that if you cross your eyes they’ll freeze like that. Or not to swim for 30 minutes after eating. It’s time to grow up, satan would have you believe. Stand on your own two feet, move out of the house, make it on your own - make a name for yourself! Be . . . great.

Don’t do it. Don’t listen to Him. That is, in fact, to leave your greatness behind. For you will never be greater - can never be greater - than you are here, as a child of God. With your head wet, your heart bowed, and on bent knee.

For here, as I said, God’s children are bathed and read to and fed and nurtured. But with what? The Body and Blood of the great one. With the Body of the one who took your millstone and hung it around His neck. With the Blood of the one who gave His own hands and feet and eyes and life in place of yours. With the one who took the fire of God’s wrath against sin on the cross - that none of that be for you. That you be drowned not in the depth of the sea but in the font. That you not give up your body parts but receive His Body and Blood. That you have the forgiveness of all your sins - including, or maybe especially, your thirst for greatness. When you want to make a name for yourself and are not content with having His.

That’s why the holy angels were so filled with joy when they got to announce the birth and the resurrection of Jesus. They knew what was happening. They knew it was all for you, the ones they are protecting and serving.

And then with such mercy, with such blessings, you get to live as children. Always. And what a great thing that is.

For the things that amazes me about little children is how they are so different from adult me. How care-free they are. I worry, they trust. While I hold on to hard feelings and find it hard to let go, they come back 15 minutes later like nothing ever happened. They live for what is, not what was or could be. They love to help. They believe in their father and mother even when they’ve been let down so many times before. Mom and Dad says it’s going to be okay, and it is.

Imagine if we lived like that! If our Christian lives were like that. Care-free. Not worried about the things of this world, but trusting. Not holding on to grudges but forgiving. Living for what is, living for others, always doing good, eager to help, and knowing that our Father says it’s going to be okay, and it is. And that His Secret Service is on duty for you.

That’s the life your Father wants you to have and has given to you in His mercy, care, and protection. It all starts here, continues here, and it will finally end here. When the angels of God have one more job, to serve you one last time, when they get to come and carry you home to your Father who is waiting for you. To the place Jesus has gone to prepare for you. They rejoice in this service too, I’m sure. In seeing another child of God, safely home.

So Rev. President, Circuit Visitors, Pastors, Deaconnesses, Board Members, Church Leaders, Teachers, all of you - thank you for what you do. Thank you for your service. Thank you for the long hours and hard work which so often go unappreciated or even criticized. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever. 

But while that’s what you do, and it may be great, that’s not who you are and what makes you great. Don’t get confused or let that define who you are. Whether you have a big church or a little church, are well-known or unknown, have a synodical, district, or congregational office or not - you’re greater than all that. You’re wet, you’re fed, you’re angeled, you’re loved. For you are a child of God. 

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

St. Michael and All Angels Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“The Word that Fells and Raises”

Text: Luke 10:17-20; Revelation 12:7-12

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

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”

The disciples are excited. They report back to Jesus what they have been able to do. He gave them this authority and by this Word of His, the demons are subject to them. Pretty impressive, right? 

But Jesus seems unimpressed. Big deal, He seems to say. He had seen satan fall like lightning from heaven. He is no longer where he once was. He is no longer what he once was. He is a flash in the pan. He is no match for God and His Word. He and His fellow demons cannot stand against the authoritative Word of God. The Word of God which created them, and the Word of God that now subdues them.

But they seem so powerful, don’t they? I mean, look at our world and the mess it’s in! Look at the sin, at the evil, at the confusion, at the way we treat each other. It sure doesn’t seem like the Word of God is as powerful as all that. In fact, it seems like the Word of God is pretty weak compared to all that. Not powerful, but powerless. 

Maybe that’s what the disciples thought as well, at first. Until the saw the powerful authority. Until they saw what the Word of God can do. 

And powerless, not powerful, is how the Word of God looked on the cross, too. The Word of God made flesh, seemingly overcome by sin and evil. His life brutally taken from Him. Not subduing evil but subdued by it. And yet the empty tomb revealed a radically different reality. That what looked weak was really strong. That what looked like defeat was really victory. 

That’s our reality, even if we don’t or can’t see it right now. For like the disciples on that Saturday after Good Friday but before that first Easter Sunday, we are living in the time of death and tombs, of sadness and fear, awaiting the day of resurrection. Awaiting the day of Jesus’ return. And just as it came for them, just as God had said and promised, so it will for us, just as God has said and promised. We will see. And like it was for the disciples, that day will look quite different than what we see now.

But what of satan and his fellow demons now? What are we to make of them and think of them? They were thrown down from heaven; they are no longer where they once were and are no longer what they once were. They are fallen, as we are.

So maybe we give them too much credit. I was thinking about this because look at what sin has done to us and to our world. We aren’t what we once were. A world that God created perfectly and in perfect harmony is not perfect anymore. Harvey and Irma and Mexican earthquakes showed us that once again. We read in the Scriptures of men who lived over 900 years; we’re lucky these days if we get to a hundred - and that’s with all the medical advancements we’ve made in recent years. 

Luther tried to imagine what man could have been like before sin. And, Luther thought, if man was the crown of God’s creation, the best of all creation, then his eyesight was probably better than that of an eagle, and his strength greater than that of a lion. Now I don’t know if Luther got it exactly right, but it gives you an image and an idea of the devastation caused of sin; how far we have fallen.

Well if of sinful us and our sin-subjected world, then should this not be true of the sinful angels, too? We are not what we once were, and neither are they. And so when war arose in heaven, as we heard today, yes, satan and his angels were evicted; thrown down. They were no longer any match for the good angels, the sinless angels, who are what they were created to be. 

And so yes, the demons submit to the Word of God; the authority of God the Word. Still.

But satan doesn’t want you to know that. He’s like a puffer fish who blows itself up to look bigger and badder than it really is. He’s like us when we get pushed down or proven wrong or embarrassed about something and we say: I meant to do that. He wants you to think he is what he once was, just like we want to think there’s nothing wrong with us. We deny our sin, we deny our weakness, we deny our need. We want to be strong, we want to do it ourselves. We want to know all there is to know. We don’t want to be dependent on God or trust God - we want to be God.

And thus us and our world today. Fallen from God and into sin. Fallen from life into death.

Now, make no mistake about it - satan, though fallen and sinful, is still dangerous. He is still an angel, after all, and he’s after you. You who belong to the God he hates. And how he is attacking you . . . may not be as you think. For if it is the Word of God that subdues him, then it is the Word of God that he must attack. And so we heard today that satan accuses us; he uses his word against the Word of God. He catechizes us with his word, his ways, his instruction. To listen to him, not our Father in heaven. 

And we do. Eve did. We do. And leaving the Word of God we leave that one thing that the demons are subject to. That one thing Luther wrote in A Mighty Fortress (LSB #656), that “one little word can fell him (v. 3).” 

But does it? Really? Does it work? Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! The disciples would tell you it does. Maybe we don’t think it does because we’ve been so catechized by satan and by the world to believe it doesn’t work. That we need a different word. That God is untrustworthy and His Word too old, too unreliable, too yesterday. Maybe we don’t think it does because the demons are so persistent - coming back again and again to hound us so that it seems like they never are felled; they never go away. Maybe we don’t think it does because we don’t really know it or use it. Maybe we don’t think it does because that gives us a convenient excuse: the devil made me do it.

No. No to all that. Repent of all that. And repenting, rejoice. Rejoice that that powerful blood that was shed for you on that weak-looking cross has written your name in heaven. Rejoice that that powerful blood was poured upon you in Baptism to wash away the guilt of your sin, and that that powerful blood will be poured into your mouth here to give you ears to hear and know and believe the truth. To hear and know and believe the promises of God, not the lies of satan. To hear and know and believe the forgiveness of God, not the self-absolving, self-justifying, ego-stroking, flattery of the one who only wants to drag you down into his misery. To hear and know and believe that as a child of God, though you tread on serpents and scorpions, they will not hurt you.

That doesn’t mean you won’t get bitten. That is, in fact, what happens when you tread on serpents and scorpions - they bite you and sting you and inject their life-sapping poison into you. And satan will too. Count on it. At every opportunity. But it will not hurt you  - but not because you are so great and strong, so wise and able - but because you have here the medicine, the anti-venin you need to give you life. The Word and forgiveness of God. As we heard, they have conquered him - how? - by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, John said. Yes, one little blood-stained, blood-filled word can fell him. And raise you.

Now, to be sure, you can turn away from it, choose not to use it, and die. Leave you Father, leave the Word, leave the angels who are protecting you. Or you can humble yourself and repent and receive the healing and life you need. That’s here for you.

And as you do, the angels are here, too. The angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, rejoicing in our Saviour, rejoicing in His gifts, and rejoicing in you. For the Word of God tells us this too: there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10).

So Jesus has not left us alone in the fight. He is with us, His Body and Blood are with us, His Word is with us, and His angels are with us. And your fellow believers are here, too. For you, and you for them. As his gift to each other. To speak the powerful Word to one another. To encourage one another. To lift up one another. To pray for one another. That as many accusations as satan and his army blather out, there be even more Word of God spoken and proclaimed. To make the accusers flee. To subject them yet again to that Word they cannot stand but which makes us stand. Which fells them but raises us. Which condemns them but saves us.

Until that day of resurrection comes and the Word made flesh comes again, visibly, and what we do not now see we will see. We will see the truth and live with Him forever. 

That day is coming. The time is short, though it seems like it’s taking a very long time. So make the most of every opportunity (Galatians 6:10). To give and to receive. To repent and rejoice. To listen and to speak, and bless the Lord - for His mercy, for His love, for His Son, for His forgiveness, for His Word, and for His angels.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pentecost 15 Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“165,000 . . . 2,000 . . . 77 . . . and Zero”

Text: Matthew 18:21-35; Genesis 50:15-21

[Some of the thoughts and figures in this sermon taken from the study for this text in Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 27, Part 4, p 31-33.]

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

I’m going to do something today I’ve never done before and probably will never do again: I’m going to give you permission to leave and not listen to the sermon. Or, to at least fall asleep and not pay attention. But only on this condition: this offer is good only for those of you who forgive perfectly, always, completely, and abundantly. Who hold no grudges, plot no revenge, have no bitterness in your heart, never withhold anything good from someone else, and never make anyone earn their way back into your good graces. If that’s you, you may go now, fall asleep now, or turn me off now. You don’t need to hear this sermon.

But the rest of us . . .

Did the end of that parable frighten you today? So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. It should have. It’s supposed to. 

How often must we forgive? How much must we forgive? How much is too much? That’s what Peter wanted to know. And Jesus’ answer in this parable is simple: forgive as you have been forgiven. 

But simple answers are often the hardest to do. 

First, recognize the contrast between the master and the servant - not only with regard to the debt owed, but also in their attitude. Their attitude which shows what’s in their hearts. 

Ten thousand talents is an absurd debt. One talent was equal to about 17-20 years worth of labor. To work off such a debt would mean working something like 165,000 years. I don’t even know how you could amass a debt like that! But maybe that ’s the point. The debt of sin we owe God isn’t just what we accumulate in our lifetimes, by what we do - it’s greater than that. It’s debt that we have inherited, that has been passed down to us from our ancestors. Like a snowball rolling down the hill, it keeps getting larger and larger. There’s no possibility of paying it back.

One hundred denarii, however - that’s pretty standard. A denarius was about a day’s wage, so one hundred denarii would be three to four months salary. And this is the debt we accumulate against one another, by what we do. And while three to four months of salary sounds pretty big, it’s nothing compared with the debt we owe God; the debt we could never possibly repay even if we lived some 2,000 lifetimes of 80 years each.

But “I’ll pay you back!” the servant says. One of my children - I won’t tell you which one - once began saving their allowance to build us a church. I appreciated the desire; it was cute that they thought they could actually do that. And maybe the master smiled at his servant in that way; it was cute to think he could actually pay back his debt when it was so obviously impossible. So that master had pity, compassion, on him, and forgave the debt. 165,000 years to zero in the blink of an eye! Or, maybe better to say, in the simple utterance of a word.

But cute didn’t last long. That servant quickly turned ugly. Some think it’s because he didn’t really believe the master, that his debt really was cancelled. You can’t do business that way; it was too good to be true. He thought that at best, he just bought some time, delayed the punishment just a bit. So he went out and went after someone who owed him - I need this money! Pay me! Pay what you owe! And when this servant speaks the same words to him that he had spoken to his master, there is no pity, no compassion, no mercy. The attitude is quite different. This servant who perhaps did not believe his master also did not believe his fellow servant. He had in his heart only violence, anger, and perhaps we could say, murder.

Why is it so hard to forgive? What makes Peter think seven times is enough? Why is it sometimes the little things, the little debts, that we hold against each other the most, or the longest? 

Jesus told Peter not . . . seven times, but seventy times seven. Or that could also be translated - and sometimes is translated - as seventy-seven times. And I like that better. Not because it’s a smaller number, so I have to forgive less! But because St. Augustine noticed something about that number. Seventy-seven was the number of generations from Jesus back to Adam in Luke’s geneaology (Luke 3). Now remember what I said before: that the debt we owe God is so massive it’s not just what we’ve done, what we’ve accumulated - it’s also what we inherited; the debt that has been passed down to us, from Adam. All that debt is forgiven. The forgiveness of our master is not just for the debt of sin we have done (our actual sins), but for the debt of sin we have inherited (our original sin). All of it, from the beginning of time, all seventy-seven generations, has been wiped out - not in the blink of an eye, but in the simple utterance of a word: Father, forgive them (Luke 23:34). That’s what Christ has done for you and gives to you. 

Which is pretty amazing. And only possible because He is the eternal one, whose life spans more than 2,000 lifetimes, and whose payment for our debt, for our sins, on the cross, is even greater than we need. And now for us is His merciful and compassionate word of forgiveness, spoken here by the called and ordained servant He put here just to speak these words: I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And His word does what it says. Go, you are free.

Do you believe that? 

I know that you do. But satan keeps telling us and wanting us to believe that you can’t do business like that; especially not spiritual business. You need something else. And if we think that, then the joy of our Lord’s forgiveness is taken away from us. And the forgiveness we don’t have is the forgiveness we don’t give.

Only when we realize that forgiveness really is ours, that it really is true, that it really is that abundant, that our hearts begin to change. The Spirit working in us what we need to forgive others.

Like Joseph. We heard about him in the Old Testament reading, and most of you know his story. His brothers were jealous of him and wanted to kill him. But instead they just - just! - sold him into slavery. He was taken to Egypt and lived as a slave there for awhile, but then languished in prison because of false charges brought against him. He was robbed of his family, robbed of his childhood, robbed of his freedom. His brothers pretty much took everything away from him. 

And yet in time, God remembered Joseph and raised him up to second in command of all Egypt, second only to Pharoah himself. So when his brothers came down to Egypt, looking for food because there was a severe famine, Joseph could have had his revenge. He could have done as much or worse to them as they had done to him. It would have been quite easy and, humanly speaking, he would have been completely justified in doing so.

But instead, he gives us a picture of Jesus. He speaks forgiveness. They meant evil, and they did lots of evil! And they buried Joseph under their evil. But God raised him up and used what they did for good. The Jewish leaders meant evil against Jesus too, and they buried Him, literally. But God raised Him up and now He speaks to us that same word of forgiveness. 

And it’s true. It really is true. You are absolved. You are washed. And you will receive again today the Body and Blood of the one whose death for you paid the debt you owe, now and forever. 165,000 years to zero, condemned to saved, in the utterance of a word, the splash of some water, and the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood that hung on the cross for you. For your heavenly Father does not have patience with you - He has mercy on you, and therefore forgiveness for you. 

And now says: forgive as you have been forgiven. 

We pray for that very thing in the Lord’s Prayer: forgive us our trespasses - sometimes that’s translated, making the connection even clearer, as forgive us our debts - forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us. With those words, we’re not bargaining with God; that would be pretty foolish. We’re asking that He work this very thing in us. That by His Spirit He give us the joy of forgiveness - joy in the forgiveness we receive, and joy in the forgiveness we give. And that as we cannot receive it enough, so we also not be able to give it enough. And that this really is how God’s spiritual business is done. 

So when you get the urge to hold a grudge, the next time you’re plotting revenge, when you think you’re going to make someone earn their way back into your good graces, or withhold good from someone . . . remember these numbers: 165,000 years, 2,000 lifetimes, 77 generations, and zero. 

And whatever it was that seemed so important and seemed so big, let that little drop of resentment be drowned in that really big flood of love and forgiveness.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Holy Cross Day Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“We Preach Christ Crucified”

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 12:20-33

We preach Christ crucified.

You can almost hear the complaints that caused Paul to write these words and the verses that we heard today to the folks in the Corinthian church. 

Paul, all you talk about is Jesus on the cross. All you talk about is forgiveness. All you talk about is Jesus dying, Jesus in the tomb, Jesus rising. Blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard it. How about some real wisdom talk, like the Greeks in town do. They talk about all kinds of interesting things and supernatural possibilities. They discuss all the latest spiritual books that come out, and you should see the crowds they get! Or, do some signs to attrack some people, Paul. That’ll bring ‘em in! You know, give the people what they want, Paul. Especially the Jews. They keep talking about all the signs God gave them - you know, the manna and the plagues and the bronze serpent on a pole and all that. Some signs now would go a long way. So how ‘bout it, Paul? A little more wisdom, a few more signs! 

Paul could have done that. As far as wisdom goes, Paul was a student second to none. He learned from the best. He was a Pharisees’ Pharisee. Ask him a question and he knew the answer. He could debate with anyone. And signs? Paul could do those too. Luke reports in the book of Acts some of the signs he did.

And yet here, he would not. In Corinth, a very culturally and religiously diverse city, he would not rely on rhetoric, he would not satisfy the desire for signs, he would not indulge in the spiritual topic and fascination of the day. We preach Christ crucified, he insisted. In fact, just a few verses after what we read today, he said it even stronger: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). This is all you will hear from me. That may be a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, but this is the wisdom of God for the salvation of all people. Wisdom cannot save. Signs cannot save. But Christ crucified can. This message is greater than anything else I could say or do.

Though it doesn’t seem like it, right? Then, or now. People would rather discuss the latest best-selling book about someone’s spiritual speculations, even if they contradict the Scriptures. Or, see some cool and spectacular signs - healing, speaking in tongues, or even the sign of having a big church with lots of followers. But talk about Jesus on the cross? Sin? Forgiveness? Blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard it. We want something else.

But as Paul would say: there is nothing else. We preach Christ crucified. If that is not our message, we are not being the church. If that is not our message, then you are not hearing what you need to hear. If that is not our message, then we are giving you nothing but false hope. 

For you’re a sinner. You may not like to hear that, but you need to. You’re not a good person. Even if you look good on the outside, inside you’re filled with all kinds of deep, dark, I-hope-no-one-finds-out-about-these sins. Me, too.

And you need forgiveness. Not the easy kind, where you let yourself off the hook with excuses, explanations, and self-justifications, but the real kind. Someone to die the death your sins require, so that you don’t have to die for them; so that you be set free. That kind of forgiveness. Signs can’t do that. Wisdom can’t do that. Only Christ crucified can.

So we preach Christ crucified, Paul said. Because Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For Jesus on the cross wasn’t Jesus being weak - it Jesus showing His strength! The strength of His love for you, and the strength of bearing all the sin of all the world. And Jesus on the cross isn’t foolishness - it is the highest wisdom of God. For who in this world would have thought of that as the solution to the world’s sin? Who would have come up with God sending His only-begotten, perfect, dearly loved Son to be our substitute? To trade places with us? To be condemned so the condemned could be forgiven? Sounds foolish, until you know He did that for you. Not just for the world, but for you. For your sin, your guilt, your rebellion, your anger, your grudges, your lust, your pride, your temper, your ingratitude, your selfishness, your failures, your hatred, and more. A wise God knew there was no way for you to deal with all that yourself. Actually, you can’t even deal with one of them! So He sent His Son. For you. And you need to know that.

So we preach Christ crucified. And for this reason too: it is the glory of God. Monday was the 16th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. And not only were the civilian victims of the attack remembered, but so were the first responders who gave their lives trying to save others. They are remembered for their glorious self-sacrifice. How much more our heavenly Father who gave His Son. And the Son who came and laid down His life for all people. Who would not ask His Father - as we heard - to save Him from this hour, but who came to do this very thing. To die so that many could live. To die and be buried like a seed in the ground, from which He would rise and grow into a church that would last through the ages and live forever. 

And He did. That’s the kind of God you have. A glorious one. Not one who sits up in heaven, issuing demands and seeing who can be good enough to make it to Him. But one who comes here to you, does what you cannot, and takes you with Him to life again. 

So we preach Christ crucified. As the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus that day learned, if you want to see Jesus, you must see Him there. On the cross. You won’t understand Him otherwise. Who Jesus is and what He came to do always go together. If you have a Jesus without the cross or the cross without Jesus, you have nothing. But if you have Jesus Christ crucified for you, risen for you, living for you, forgiving you, washing you, feeding you, teaching you, and returning for you, you have a Saviour. And you have hope and life.

We preach Christ crucified. We Lift High the Cross (LSB #837). Our Tongues Sing the Glorious Battle (LSB #454). And satan will rage and some will desire something more interesting or spectacular. But through this message the Spirit will work. The Spirit who points us to our Saviour. The Spirit who is working to conform us to the image of our Saviour. That the message we proclaim in word be also the message we live in our deeds. Loving and laying down our lives for others, as Christ did for us.

We preach Christ crucified. Paul, you, and I. And may it always be so.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pentecost 14 Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“The Storm Shelter of Forgiveness”

Text: Ezekiel 33:7-9; Matthew 18:1-20

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

Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock or in a monastery without electricity, you’ve heard the warnings. Two weeks ago Harvey was coming. This week it was Irma. These storms have captured the attention and concern of the nation, have filled the newscasts, and are the topic of many conversations. For those in Florida, evacuations were ordered and all kinds of special precautions were taken ahead of these storms. All to one end: to protect and preserve life. 

But not just these past couple of weeks. Warnings are issued all the time. If you live in the midwest, you get tornado warnings. Here, in the summer time, we get severe thunderstorm warnings. We’ve had blizzard warnings in the winter. The weather service and the authorities don’t do these things just to scare us they do it so we will live. So that we don’t lose our life when the loss could have been prevented.All so that we will live and not die. 

That’s what God wants, too. Give them warning from me, God told the prophet Ezekiel. Give them warning from me of their sin, of their iniquity. Not because God and the prophets - or the Church today - just want people to obey and do what they say and be good, but so we will live. So that we will live and not die. 

This week, satellites have shown us amazing pictures of Irma and how big and threatening that storm is. Without those pictures it would be hard for us to imagine the magnitude of the storm and the havoc it could cause. Yet even with those pictures, some people choose to ignore the warnings. Some because they think they have no choice. Some because they don’t believe the warnings. Some because they think they can beat it - they think they’re strong enough and smart enough to ride out the storm. And sometimes those people do make it through; but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, sadly, they lose their lives.

Give them warning from me, God says. From where we are, perhaps we don’t see the destructive power of sin. But God does. From His throne on high He sees the magnitude of the problem and the threat to our life. The day before a storm hits may be sunny and nice. And maybe your life too. But then one day the sin comes lashing out from you against your neighbor or your neighbor against you. But even if it doesn’t, the sin in you and in your heart is doing its destructive work. Eating away at your faith toward God and eroding your love toward others. So give them warning from me, God says. So they know. That even if you can’t see it, the sin is already there; the danger is real. Give them warning from me, God says. So they will live and not die. 

Yet just as with the weather, many don’t listen. Some don’t believe the warnings. Some think there’s more important things to worry about in life than this. Some think they have no choice but to sin. Others may think the threat exaggerated, or that they’re strong enough to overcome it. But unlike with the weather, sin has a 100% success rate, a 100% casualty rate. 100% of the people in this world die because of sin. Some sooner, some later. Some younger, some older. Some suddenly, some slowly. So give them warning from me, God says. Of what I see. Of the danger they’re in. So that they live.

Warn them, Jesus would later tell His disciples, that, in fact, the danger is so real that it’s better, it’s preferable, to lose your hand, your foot, or your eye now than to lose your life for eternity. It’s better, it’s preferable, to have a great millstone fastened around [your] neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea, than to cause one of God’s little ones to sin. Clearly, if those things are better, preferable, then sin - no matter how it seems to us, no matter how many other things seem more important in our lives right now - is no small, harmless thing.

So give them warning from me, God says. So they can receive my forgiveness, be rescued from the danger, and have life.

You see, that’s what God wants. And perhaps we could even say that all God wants. He wants to keep you safe and protect you. He wants to forgive you and rescue you. He wants to give you life and have you live with Him forever. Everything that God does is for this. The commandments? For this. The apostles and prophets? For this. Church? For this. Discipline? For this. That your sin be washed in His forgiveness and your death overcome by His life. That you live.

That’s the kind of God you have. He sends angels to guard and protect you. He leaves the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one who has gone astray. He even put the millstone of your sin around the neck of His Son, who then gave His hands and feet and eyes and His very life on the cross - in your place - so that you can live. For it is not the will of God that any should perish. That’s the kind of God you have.

If you or someone that you know doesn’t know that, or doesn’t think that’s true, or doubts that or forgets that, or at times thinks of God in some other way - even long-time and life-long Christians - that’s evidence of the power and danger of sin in your heart and life. That gets you to think of God not as a life-giving Father, but whose rules and commandments are taking your life away from you. That gets you to think of God as unreasonable and demanding. Or, that gets you to think that you have to do x, y, and z to earn God’s love and and make you worthy of His forgiveness. That makes you think you have defend your life against God rather than find your life in Him.

No. More than anything else in the world, God wants to forgive you and give you His life. Everything He does is for that. That forgiveness be a way of life for you. Forgiveness received and forgiveness given. Forgiveness washed upon you, spoken to you, and eaten by you. That you live and not die. That you live not in fear of death, but that, as one of our hymns puts it: Teach me to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed (LSB #883 v.3). To live confident and secure no matter what comes in this world and life. To live confident and secure that as a child of God, you are great in the kingdom of heaven. You already are. You are great in your Father’s eyes. Or as it says elsewhere in the Scriptures, the apple of His eye (cf. Deut 32:10; Psalm 17:8).

Do you think of yourself that way? Do you think of others that way? If you did, how would that change how you think of yourself and how you think of others? Would it change how you live? Would it change how you treat others? I would say: how could it not? 

So for this reason, God made Ezekiel a watchman for the house of Israel. A watchman was someone who would stand on top of the wall of a city and cry out when an enemy was approaching, warning and sounding the alarm. But not only that - a watchman would also announce the return of the army from battle, to call the city to rejoice in a victory won. And so would Ezekiel do both, and be a watchman for forgiveness. To warn Israel of their sin, but also teach them of and point them to their forgiving God - their God who wins the victory for them and more than anything in the world wants to give that victory - His forgiveness and life - to them. Tell them that, Ezekiel! Warn them and joy them!

And in the same way has God has made pastors watchmen for their congregations. Watchmen for forgiveness. To warn against sin and point to our forgiving God - our God who more than anything in the world wants to forgive you and give you life. Who wants to wash you and feed you and speak to you and care for you. To announce His cross of life for the world. 

And so has God made you watchmen, too - in your places. In your home, among friends, wherever you are. Watchmen of forgiveness, for our God who wants more than anything in the world to forgive all people and give them His life. That might mean warning them of the enemy, the life-stealing sin in our lives; but always to give them life-giving forgiveness. To point to them to Jesus and give them Jesus. To give them their Saviour. To give them His love. To give them the joy of living as His children, the apple of His eye.

This is forgiveness as a way of life. Not something that is in our lives sometimes and not sometimes, but defines who we are, how we think, and how we live. That neither our problems nor our successes define us or change us; that neither hurricanes and stormy weather nor fair weather dictate how we live - but that we live always confident and secure in Christ. In His love and forgiveness and life. That whatever comes and goes - including hurricanes - we know He does not. He is the constant in our lives and in an ever-changing world. 

And so we live in Him and His love. And then when help is needed, we help. When warning is needed, we warn. When love is needed, we love. When prayer is needed, we pray. And when forgiveness is needed, we forgive. That’s who you are. Confident. Secure. In Christ.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.