Pentecost 7 Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“Is God Good?”

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Romans 8:18-27

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

If God is good and all powerful, why is the evil in the world?

That is a question asked by many, and asked down through the ages. And for some, the existence of evil is all the proof they need to know that God does not exist. That He is a myth. Wishful thinking. A delusion for weak people. Or if He does exist, that He’s not worth the time, for He must be either not good to let evil go on, or not very powerful if evil remains. So that’s that.

Except . . . Jesus gives another answer today to consider. Not that He owes us any answers! But Jesus is telling us today that there is evil in the world because God is both good and merciful.

That’s the meaning of the Parable of the Weeds of the Field that Jesus tells us today. Last week, a man went out to sow his seed, and he sowed it lavishly and abundantly. Good seed, for good plants, to produce a good harvest. But, turns out, he wasn’t the only one sowing seed. Another man came, after him, under the cover of night, in the darkness, and sowed bad seed. Seed intended to produce nothing - only to hurt and harm what the good sower sowed. This one sowed evil.

So, after the seeds sprouted and grew, the servants noticed all was not right. At first they thought the good sower had sowed bad seed - or at least, a mixture of good and bad. But no, the good sower does only good. Nothing wrong with his seed. An enemy did this. To undermine good. To hurt and to harm. There was no other purpose than that. Just evil. Pure evil.

Well, there’s an easy way to take care of that! Let us get rid of all those weeds, the servants said! Pull ‘em up! We’ll take care of that problem quickly and easily. We’re ready - just give the word . . .

Now, before going on, a word here about this quickness and eagerness. It’s not always good. The saying: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread is not without merit. Sophomores are “wise fools” who after just a year of learning think they know more than they really do. New pastors are often eager to go in and “fix” their congregations. But sometimes quickness and over-eagerness can cause great harm. And with regard to theology, a man named G.K. Chesterton once said that heterodoxy is always in a hurry, gotta do it now! But orthodoxy is patient, and awaits God’s time. So the servants are eager, but that’s not the best course of action here . . .

Their master, the good sower, knows more than they. So no, he says. Leave them. Don’t rush in. Why? For the sake of the good plants. To be good and merciful to them, lest while ripping out the weeds, the good get harmed in the process. The time will come, but it is not yet.

Now, that’s easy to understand when it comes to plants! But perhaps not so much when it comes to us. Because it sure does seem like this world would be a much better place if we could just get rid of them . . . those evil ones . . . you know who I mean. 

But maybe we’re being sophomores, “wise fools,” with such thinking. Maybe we don’t know as much as we think. We sang in the Introit today, Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. We need to be taught. The ways of God, the goodness of God, the mercy of God. That we may walk in it. That if He says it is good and merciful and better for the evil to remain, then as much as we might not understand it, it is - good and merciful and better. Teach me, O Lord. To understand that. To think like you. 

And while we’ll never fully get there, thinking the thoughts of God, in this world and life, with our bodies, minds, and hearts infected and affected and dragged down by sin, teach us He does, with His Word. And in Holy Baptism, too, where your Father in heaven has given you His Spirit that you may not only be His child, but that you also have the mind of Christ, that you begin to think like Christ, and grow in Him.

For the truth is that our life in this world is intertwined not just with believers and Christians, but with those who are not Christian, those who are not believers, and those who perhaps even work evil. So if all those not of good seed were to go, how would you be hurt? You don’t even know all the ways, since God is able to use the just and the unjust, believers and unbelievers, for His good. In every vocation in this world and life, there are those of good and bad seed, and yet in fulfilling their vocation, God is using them for good for you. Farmers, police, firefighters, shop keepers, soldiers, government workers, and more. How do they benefit you? So if they were all pulled now . . .

Now, there are difficulties that come with that, to be sure. Struggles in our world between right and wrong, between those who follow God’s Word and truth and those who do not. Evil isn’t idle. There will be conflict and pain and heartache. Pontius Pilate was part of a government that provided peace in the world, yet also crucified Jesus. 

And this, too: it is not always so easy to tell the difference between the weeds and the wheat, and judging too quickly could cause great harm.

For think about Paul - he looked like a weed for a long time, persecuting Christians and sending them to prison. Would you have pulled Paul?

Or what about Judas? He looked like a good plant for three years. He was one of the twelve! He preached and taught, helped to hand out food to the 5,000. Would you have left him?

Or what about you? Take a look at youself, your past, your worst moments. When you hurt someone, when you held a grudge and refused to forgive, when you did what you knew was wrong, when you weren’t living as a Christian. What if “the weed police” pulled you right then and there! But they didn’t. God didn’t allow it. Because God is good and merciful. To you!

Because the truth is, we’ve been plopped down in the middle of a long story, a long history, and we just don’t know the whole story. We know the here and now, and maybe a bit of history, but there’s a lot we don’t know, and we certainly don’t know the future. So how do we judge? How do we decide?

So, a little story I once read: A sculptor was once asked how he managed to take a block of stone and create beautiful pieces of art - something I certainly could never do! He said: Well, I don’t. I just cut off all that doesn’t belong, that isn’t part of the finished piece. He sees what cannot be seen by others. 

That’s how it is with God. We may want to rush in and start hacking away at the stone, start pulling the weeds, start doing what we think - but all we’re going to end up with is a mess. We just don’t know. We just can’t see as God sees. 

So our Father in heaven says, be patient. Live with the weeds for a while, because you can’t really tell the weeds and wheat apart anyway. The time will come for the harvest, and then the separation will take place, then you’ll see. But not before then. Now is the time of patience and mercy, and yes, struggle. But in the midst of the struggle, a promise - from God through the apostle Paul: the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Right now, Paul says, are the labor pains. It’s tough. It’s probably good that none of us remember that struggle of being born! But your delivery is coming. Your new life is coming. A new world, a new creation is coming, that you cannot even begin to imagine! So be patient right now, but in hope, in faith in God, and so also in love toward your neighbor.

And with this, we learn of God’s plan. That God doesn’t conquer evil by destroying evildoers. He destroys evil with forgiveness. Conquering evil by destroying evildoers is like pulling weeds without getting the roots - they’re just going to grow back again. But forgiveness goes down to the roots, and not only conquers evil, but even has the power to change bad seed into good seed, and weeds into wheat. And again, we see and learn of God’s goodness and mercy.

The goodness and mercy of a God who doesn’t just sit up in heaven as an observer to what is happening in our world but unable to do anything about it, nor as a judgmental God who just sits up in heaven zapping evildoers and squashing evil under an all-powerful fist. He is a God who in goodness and mercy came down into the midst of our evil world, to be swallowed up by evil, that He might swallow it up with the might of His atonement. With the might of His death and resurrection. With the might of His forgiveness. And He did. And He is. That’s the only reason why you’re here. The blood of Jesus, shed on the cross and poured into the ground for you, to forgive your sin and evil - all of it! Past, present, and future - and make you a good plant. His plant. 

And the blood of Jesus that continues to nourish you each day, through His Word, through His forgiveness, and through His Body and Blood that you receive here at this altar. There is no question that you and I, based on the merits, deserve to be pulled. But a good and merciful God said no. Wait. Be patient. Let them grow. Let me feed them, care for them, nurture them. And so you are who you are. Because God is merciful.

But He is merciful to all, and so now bids us to wait and be patient. The harvest is coming, but there is still time. And God, in His goodness and mercy, is working. In you, for you, through you. He gives you His Spirit who help us, Paul says. Who helps us wait and pray. Who helps us see as our Father in heaven sees. Who helps us to love and forgive as Jesus does. And to be merciful. To all. For we simply do not know what the whole story is, all that God is doing. So we do according to His Word, in faith, in hope, and in love. And trusting that He knows what we do not. And that in the end, all will be right and just.

Because God is merciful. That there is evil in the world proves that, not that He is weak or does not exist. And so we come to His Table, this Table set before us is the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23), to receive Him. And we may groan with creation for a while, under struggles and burdens and cares, and maybe things are going to get really tough. That’s okay. God is merciful. To you and to all. Lord, help us hear that and learn that. Help us see that. Help us believe that. That Your faith and hope, Your love and forgiveness, be not just in our hearts, but on our lips, and in our deeds. And help us rejoice in You even now, even in the midst of the struggle, even surrounded by evil, knowing that we will also rejoice with You in Your kingdom.

For it really is true, what we just sang - A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. . . . And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, the vict’ry has been won, the Kingdom our remaineth (LSB #656). The kingdom of our good and powerful and merciful God.

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

Pentecost 6 Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“A Lavish (Foolish?) Sower”

Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23;

Isaiah 55:10-13; Romans 8:12-17

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

The neighbor behind our house has nice flower gardens, full of color. We were envious. Because at our house, we plant flowers like that and the deer come and eat them - usually the night right after we plant them! So we asked her how she did it. How she kept the deer from eating her flowers like they eat ours. She said she didn’t - she just planted more than they could eat!

It’s kind of the same with our tomato plants. We not only try to plant flowers, but vegetables, too. We can keep the deer away from them with a fence, but not the squirrels and chipmunks. So invariably, every year, just as the tomatoes are turning red and ripe and ready for picking, one of those little varmints comes and picks them, takes one or two bites, and then leaves the rest on the ground. Maybe they think they’re sharing, or it’s their way of thanking us . . . or mocking us. So now, instead of planting tomato plants that produce fewer but bigger tomatoes, we plant the ones the produce more but smaller fruit - so there is enough for the critters and us.

The parable we heard today is kind of like those stories. The man in the parable sows enough seed to get a harvest - because he knows that not all his seed is going to produce. He knows the critters are going to get some, the weeds are going to choke some, and the sun is going to sorch some. But there will also be some that grows and produces for him. So he is not stingy with his seed. He sows abundantly, generously - perhaps foolishly so - in order to get a harvest. 

It’s a simple story, really. But as often with parables, sometimes the point is still missed. Jesus Himself calls it the Parable of the Sower. That is, a parable to teach us something about the Sower. But some call it the Parable of the Soils - putting the emphasis not on the sower or on his seed, but on the soil, and therefore giving the impression that the point of the parable is to make better soil so that the seed will grow. Others think the point is better sowing of the seed - that we should be more targeted, more selective, more careful. Don’t waste seed.

But both of those interpretations of this parable put the onus on us - for you to improve the soil of your heart, or for the church to improve the techniques she uses to sow the Word in the world. Both have the same focus: How can I improve myself, or how can we get others ready, to hear the Word and grow?

Now, certainly, there is a kernal of truth in those things. For example, we can get a good night’s sleep before church so we are ready to hear the Word of God. We can set aside time and turn off our cell phones and other distractions at home to read the Word and pray. And we should do those things. There will also be times when our friends, family, and neighbors are ready to hear the Word and times when they might be more resistant. All of that’s true . . . but not the point of this parable. Because you will never do enough - can never do enough - to make the Word of God grow. There are too many things out of your control. Too many enemies of the Word.

Like the first enemy Jesus mentions - the birds that come and snatch away the seed that fell on the hard path. That’s the evil one. Always ready to swoop in and take advantage of those hard places in our hearts. Those places where maybe worldly opinion and thinking has hardened us to the truth of God’s Word. Worldly opinion regarding morality, what is really right and wrong; or science, whether all that the Scriptures say is true or not; or who is saved and how, if Jesus really is the one and only way. Or maybe where sin has hardened our hearts, making us resistant to repent and ask forgiveness for ourselves, and resistant in our willingness to forgive others. Resistant to those sins we really don’t want to stop, but hard and stubborn toward others in those same sins. Resistant to change our minds, our attitudes, our actions. Hard places in your hearts - you got ‘em. What are they, where are they, how big are they, for you?

Then there’s the second enemy Jesus mentions - the sun which scorches the seeds that quickly pop up in the rocky ground. No roots leave the new and tender plants susceptible to the intensity of the sun - as you are to the intensity of tribulation or persecution. When your joy in God’s Word and truth is slammed by opposition in the world, and either you agree with them and go along with them - or at least shut up and don’t say anything against them! - or you pay the price. You will lose a boyfriend or girlfriend, a promotion at work, maybe even a job. You’ll be mocked, won’t be invited to certain events. Say the words, bend the knee, toe the party line, or face the world’s graffiti of shame on you and their rage against you. Yes, there are places in your hearts where your faith is on rocky ground - you got ‘em. What are they, where are they, how big are they, for you?

And then there are the seeds that fall victim to the third enemy, the thorns, the choking weeds of the world. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, Jesus calls them. What are the cares and concerns filling your hearts and choking out the Word of God planted there? The wonderful promises of God that get swallowed up by . . . what? Health concerns, family problems, job worries, Covid fear, uncertainty about the future, anxiety about your kids. And your riches, too - and not just money. But whatever you’re wealthy in, or want to be wealthy in, and it’s taking over your life as you serve it and go after it, and the Word of God is suffocated in those weeds. You got ‘em, weeds, in your hearts. Maybe many, and many different kinds. What are they, how many are they for you?

So if the point of this parable was for you to make sure the soil of your heart was good and ready to grow God’s Word and produce an abundant harvest . . . really? You’re going to do that? You’re going to be able to keep the evil one away and soften up the hard places in your hearts? You’re going to be able to remove all the rocks and rocky places from your hearts and withstand all the heat of the world? You’re going to pull all the weeds out of your hearts, and not let cares and concerns and worries and anxieties have any place there? Really? 

Truth is, the human heart, by nature, by birth, because of sin, is a terribly hostile place for the Word of God. 

And yet . . . some of that seed does grow and produce a harvest. Because the sower is abundant and generous with His seed - perhaps foolishly so - and so despite all the junk that is in your heart and life, and keeps coming into your heart and life, it grows. Miraculously, it would be accurate to say. Maybe we’re spoiled, maybe we’re just used to it, but when that Word of God is sown, and we respond: Thanks be to God! - we should mean that! Thanks be to God that He does not just sow a little of His Word, but a lot. And keeps doing so. That some of it will grow in our hearts and bear fruit in our lives.

And then as His Word grows in us, it can change our hearts. The Word can do what we are unable to do. The key to getting a nice thick lawn, I am told, is not to kill the weeds but to strengthen and thicken the good grass. Then the good chokes out the bad. And the key to sun and drought resistance is not shade, but good and deep roots. And so as the Word of God grows in you, your faith is strengthened and deepened, and the critters and the weeds and the sun . . . they’re not going away, but their job becomes much harder, and the fruits increase in your life. Thanks be to God!

And even one seed of God’s Word is able to do this. God is extremely rich and generous with His Word, but it only takes one seed to start growing . . . one seed planted in the heart . . . one seed planted in the world . . . one seed planted in . . . Bethlehem. As soon as that seed was planted, as soon as that seed was born, as soon as that seed grew and stepped out into the world, the critters, sun, and weeds came, trying to snatch it away, trying to burn it up, trying to choke it out. No sooner had Jesus heard the words from heaven in His baptism, You are my beloved Son, that satan was there in the wilderness trying to snatch that Word away: Yeah, right! If you are the Son of God . . .  No sooner had Jesus begun to preach the Word that the heat was turned up against Him by the Pharisees and Jewish authorities. They tried to choke Him with accusations of sin and mocking taunts while hanging on the cross. And when Jesus bowed His head and died, it looked as if they were successful in stamping out that seed God sowed in this world. And then it was planted in the ground in a hard, dry, place of solid rock where no seed could ever grow . . . 

Except it did! It grew. And it hasn’t stopped growing. The Word is poured, the Word is read, the Word is spoken, the Word is fed, the Word is thrown out into the world, into you, falling into all sorts of hearts and all kinds of soils. And growing. Isaiah said it in his prophecy that we heard today: The Word of God shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. That is, the Word of God made flesh will succeed - He will accomplish the salvation of the world on the cross. He will not be defeated. He will atone for your sins and the sin of the world. He will win the forgiveness of your sins. He will defeat death and the grave - life will come from the dead. He will do it. 

But so, too, will the Word that God sends now - the Word that proclaims and gives the Word made flesh. It, too, will grow and succeed. It will produce joy and peace. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle. Good plants. And the harvest will not only be in your life, but will be you yourself. That you will be among the harvest on the Last Day and brought into the kingdom. 

This is the Parable of the Sower; about Him. So if this parable doesn’t make you say Thanks be to God! you’re not hearing it right. This is a joyous Word, this parable, of God’s abundant and lavish love in the generous and abundant sowing of His seed. His seed and Word to work in our hearts, to soften the hard and stony places, to pull the weeds of sin, and to deepen the roots of faith. His Spirit, working through that Word, doing what we are unable to do. His Spirit working in us, so that as Paul said to us today, we can cry “Abba! Father!” as children of God. Rejoicing in the Baptism and the Word that was poured on us there which made us His children. Rejoicing in being able to come to our Father in repentance with the promise not of punishment or chastisement, but to hear His Word of forgiveness and have that Word again sown in our hearts. And rejoicing in the family dinner, to receive the Body and Blood, the forgiveness and life, of the Word of God made flesh. Miracle upon miracle upon miracle. Word upon Word upon Word. For you, for you, for you. 

A sower sows His seed, lavishly, abundantly, generously - but, it turns out, not foolishly. For it does exactly what He sows it for - it grows children of God. And maybe His Word you will speak to others as well. All it takes is one seed to fall into that good soil . . . 

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

Pentecost 5 Sermon

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Jesu Juva

“Forgiveness and Freedom”

Text: Romans 7:14-25a; Zechariah 9:9-12; Matthew 11:25-30

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

In the verses we heard from Romans today, Paul doesn’t just sound like a sinner, but an addict. Someone in bondage. He sounds like the gambler who knows he shouldn’t play with the rent money. He knows what he should do, but he can’t; he can’t resist. He sounds like the alcoholic who knows he should walk past the bar and go home to his family. He knows what he should do, but he can’t; he can’t resist. He sounds like the man who neglects his family and works too much. He sounds like the child lying to her parents. He sounds like the wife compulsively shopping. He sounds like . . . us. He knows what he should do. He knows that what he is doing is wrong, BUT. But. Such a little word that is oh, so big. BUT . . .

It’s not an excuse. Doesn’t make it right. Paul knows that. We know that. He wants to do what is right. He doesn’t want to be ruled by what he knows is wrong. He tries to resist. But he is not strong enough. Something has a hold on him. And he doesn’t like it. And yet he can’t seem to get rid of it. What’s wrong with him?

But he’s not the only one. Paul’s story is Cain’s story, knowing that he should be his brother’s keeper, and yet overcome with jealousy and rage instead. Paul’s story is the story of Joseph’s brothers, who know they shouldn’t sell him into slavery but do it anyway. Paul’s story is David’s story, who knows he shouldn’t be looking at his neighbor’s wife, bathing on the roof next to him, but who keeps looking anyway, and then acts on his lust and winds up a murderer. Paul’s story is Peter’s story, who knows he shouldn’t deny Jesus, BUT . . . There’s that word again. But . . .

And Paul’s story is your story. I don’t know what Paul’s addiction was. And I don’t know what yours is. But you do. And I know my own. What is it for you? What sin, what addiction, what bondage that keeps popping up in your life, but you can’t seem to get rid of. It may be a deed, or an activity. It could also be a desire, or pride. Maybe for you it’s a person, or an achievement that has a hold on you.

It may not be illegal. In fact, it probably isn’t. It may not even be wrong in the eyes of the world. In fact, it probably isn’t. People may look at you and think: what a good person! Better than most. But you know the truth. The ugly truth. That that’s not true at all. You’re an addict. It may not be illegal, it may not even be wrong in the eyes of the world, but it has become what you love so much, what you want so much, that it displaces God in your heart and life. And so it’s an idol, making you, at times, push family aside, marriage aside, church aside, God aside, and serve yourself, your idol, instead. It’s the elephant - not in the room - but in your heart. A mammoth of sin, that keeps reappearing. What is it for you?

And it can be exhausting. Trying to serve it, trying to cover it up so no one knows, trying to fight it and overcome it. It wears you out because it’s so strong and you’re so weak. And you don’t want to be weak - you want to be strong, and that just wears you out more and makes you weaker! It’s a wicked cycle. Just the way satan has set it up for you. To keep you in its grip. To keep you in his grip. 

So finally Paul, at the end of his rope, blurts out: Ach! Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Maybe you’ve been there and know his cry. Maybe you haven’t yet - but you will. No one is immune. Wretched man that I am! Wretched man, wretched woman, wretched child that you are! Who will rescue you?

You know the answer, but let me read it for you anyway:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

   Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

behold, your king is coming to you;

   righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Now, I don’t think those are the words you were expecting to hear! But maybe they were the words Paul had in mind when he wrote his answer: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Thanks be to God, through the one who rode into Jerusalem that day, humble, lowly, and looking like anything but a conquering king. And yet that’s exactly what He was, and what He was doing. He came having salvation, Zechariah says. Your salvation. The deliverance from your bondage. The freedom from your addiction, your idols, your sin. No one less than the King Himself came to rescue you from your body of death, for no one less than the King could. 

We usually talk about what Jesus did for us in terms of forgiveness - and that’s certainly true. You are forgiven the guilt of all your sin. Done. But that’s not all. Jesus doesn’t forgive just to have you go back to the same sin again - but to set you free from that sin, from that burden, that bondage, from that heavy yoke of your addiction that is taking you where you do not want to go. And so give you rest. Rest from the pride that makes you try to cover it up so that no one knows. Rest from the despair that makes you wallow in it and think you’ll never be good enough. Rest from the struggle to try to overcome it yourself. Rest, to see in Jesus the only way out.

Addiction programs like AA and others often have “12 step” programs - kind of a ladder you can climb up and out of your addiction and make up for it. I’m sure you’ve heard of them; maybe even been there yourself. But for Paul, there aren’t 12 steps, but only one. But it’s a big one! The step the Son of God took, coming down from heaven and all the way down to us, to you, in the depth of your sin and addiction, to set you free. The steps He took in freeing people from disease, demons, and death. The steps He took to the cross. And then the step He would NOT take - the one down and off of the cross. He let the bonds that hold us hold Him, so that He could break them, once and for all, with His resurrection. That you be forgiven and free.

So Come to me, Jesus says, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest for us burdened by guilt, under a mountain of sin, with piles of regret, and a crushing load of failure. Look! Jesus says from the cross. It’s all on me. All of it. Every last sin, every iota of your guilt and failure. And if it’s on me, it’s not on you. 

So now take my yoke upon you, and learn from me - learn all that I have done for you! - for I am gentle and lowly in heart - like when I rode that donkey into Jerusalem - and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

So two quite different yokes. One heavy, leading you down a path you don’t want to go but are not able to resist. So it controls you and drives you. But other is light, leading you to salvation, a path you want to go down, but are not able by yourself. So your Saviour leads you and brings you with Him. Which do you think is better? Which do you want? 

And if you’re thinking that better than either of those is to have no yoke at all - to throw off all the shackles of this world and the Church and just be my on my own and be my own person . . . that’s not freedom. What you’ll wind up doing is following your own urges and desires and being a slave to them, under their yoke. And so back under the heavy yoke of addiction to sin. 

So while Paul’s story is our story, what Jesus has done is made His story our story. A better story, with a better ending. 

So when you are baptized, Jesus’ story becomes your story - you become a son of God, receive His Spirit, and die and rise with Him. So that’s where your life now is, not in an addiction that only robs you of life. 

And when you are absolved, Jesus’ story becomes your story as His words from the cross are spoken to you: Father, forgive them. So that’s where your life now is. You don’t have to feed an addiction to feel good about yourself.

And when you feed on Jesus’ Body and Blood, His story becomes your story - that’s where your life now is, that partaking of this new and greater passover, you pass over - already here and now - to a new life, a truly free life. To step over, or maybe even on, whatever it is that is addicting, holding, you.

So while Paul’s story and your story are the ugly truth, so too in receiving Jesus’ story, you have a beautiful truth, and a saving truth. That you are not defined by your sin, but by your Saviour. Not by what you do or have done, but by what He has done for you.

So I think . . . this chapter, these words, must have been really hard for Paul to write. To admit his addiction, his sin, his weakness, his failure. He had been such a strong and successful man, looked up to by all. Until he saw something different. Until he saw what was real. Experts say that to be able to identify a counterfeit, you don’t  study counterfeits - you study and know the real thing, so that when you see a fake, it sticks out like a sore thumb. So only when Paul saw the real thing, saw Christ and His life and love, did he see his life for what it really was: fake. That he was not a good man, but a wretched man. And that he needed to repent and turn away from all that he was, all that he had been doing, and rely instead on Christ.

For only after being exposed, all his efforts crushed, did Jesus’ forgiveness and freedom then taste so sweet. Paul drank of that, and rejoiced! It completely changed him. And he wants that for you. And Jesus, too, wants that for you, of course! That’s why He came. And comes now. So while its hard for us, too, to admit our addiction, our sin, our weakness, our failure, and to repent,to do so means rest from your labors; rest in Christ. So that you, too, can rejoice, and, as Zechariah put it, be a prisoner no longer of addiction, but a prisoner of hope. To the Lord who restores to you double. Both forgiveness and freedom. Both faith and love. He gives you the forgiveness and faith that gives you life, and the freedom and love to live that new life, to no longer be in bondage to serve your addiction or your sin, but to serve your neighbor in love. Like Christ. For His life is real life, and His love real love.

And on this Independence Day weekend, this weekend we celebrate our freedom, that freedom, Paul would tell you, is the freedom we need. And the greatest freedom of all.

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