John 8:31 - 38 "The Truth Will Make You Free"

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

            The Reformation was a great movement in the church and in the history of Europe.  The reformers in Germany and other countries wanted to correct abuses against teaching and the Christian way of doing things that had grown up in the church during the Middle Ages.  They called believers back to God’s word and taught that Jesus is the source of our salvation.  He wants to lift us up and bless us with abundant, fruitful lives.  With the help of two verses from this morning’s gospel, we’ll explore what the Reformation means for us.  We’ll have something to say about a few key words.  The first is “you”.

            Jesus went to Jerusalem to attend a feast, and while he was there he met with various people.  It must have gladdened his heart that his teaching inspired some of them to believe in him. The “you” in the text refers to believers in Jerusalem who had come to him.  He is not talking to the city or to the world as a whole, but to his own people, whom he invites to approach him in confidence.  You and I may include ourselves.  God comes to his people directly in Christ.  That’s one of the themes the reformers emphasized.  We enjoy personal relationships with the Savior.  He doesn’t come to us through priests or church structure.  We do not rely on grandparents who were people of great faith or on a friend who happens to be a mighty prayer warrior.  Jesus is God himself; he is the mediator between ourselves and the Heavenly Father.  We approach him directly.  This doesn’t mean we treat him like a pal or a larger version of ourselves, but it does mean we count on his friendship and his concern for us.  He knows us perfectly, better than we know ourselves.  He reaches out to us and says “you” to us, just as he said “you” to his     people in Jerusalem.

            The next word is “hold” or “continue” or “abide”, as other translations put it.  Faith is not just for special days and big occasions.  God’s grace doesn’t come to us only on Christmas or Easter or the Sunday of our confirmations.  Jesus invites us to walk with him every day.  We keep on going in faith that we will safely reach the destination he has in mind for us.  It’s human nature to let distractions get the best of us.  If we slack off or let negative thoughts rule us, we can’t claim that we’re abiding in faith, but simply going through the motions.  We need Jesus’ pardon and heaven’s gift of strength as we cope with our daily challenges.  Jesus rejoices with us when we’re happy; he steadies us in rocky times; he comforts us when we grieve or if disappointment strikes at us.  We gives us the courage to put one foot after the other.  We don’t run from him but keep on at his side.  We abide in faith, because we know that he abides with us and that he blesses us abundantly.

            Continuing in the faith can be challenging, but its basic principles aren’t mysterious or hard to understand.  We abide in Christ by holding onto his word, and this is our next term. The “Word” means several things for us Christians.  We use it to refer to Jesus himself and to the sacraments and the Bible.  We don’t expect God to speak to us directly.  He comes to us by his Word, which always brings us the same message so that we can rely on it.  God’s word brings certainty.  It is eternal and will never pass away.  The Word is powerful and full of God’s Spirit; it gives us life.  God’s promises come to us by his Word – that he will bring us into eternity, that his Holy Spirit will comfort us every day, and that the Heavenly Father calls us to live in fellowship with him.  His Word is an open door that will never shut.

            Now, as we continue in God’s Word, we are Jesus’ disciples, who follow him and learn from him.  There’s nothing glamorous about the life of a disciple and nothing out of our reach.  Discipleship involves self-denial.  We don’t let the desires of our minds and flesh lead us.  We forsake everything for Christ, and in return he gives lives that are fruitful and full of meaning.  We’re rich in faith and hope; works of love flow from our hearts.  Jesus makes us sturdy so that others may lean on us.  We don’t quit on him or the tasks he’s set out for us, because he assures us that a great prize is waiting for us.  We bear our neighbors’ burdens cheerfully; we gladly share with them the faith the Holy Spirit has put in our hearts.  We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world.  Whatever others may say, God has created a special place for his Christian people.  Are we not the apples of his eye, his beloved adopted daughters and sons?  If we ever feel neglected or discouraged, we have the privilege of remembering that our blessed Lord has included us among his chosen ones, his disciples.

            Jesus encourages us to trust that because we abide in God’s Word, we know the truth and not only with our brains but also with our hearts and souls.  When Jesus spoke to a group of believers in Jerusalem about the truth, he meant the gospel – the good news that he would give his life for all sinners – and all of us are that – and then by his resurrection he would open the gates of heaven for all believers.  Jesus’ disciples know the gospel – God’s everlasting truth and the power that sets us free.

            The church puts the gospel before us.  It’s not our good works that count, though I suspect St. Peter’s people do plenty.  What matters most is God’s grace working through the faith we receive as a gift from him.  “This is not our own doing,” Paul wrote in Ephesians, “it is the gift of God – not because of works, so that no one may boast.”  Human nature wants to put itself forward and make an impression on God.  We want him to notice how good we are.  We love to put the cart before the horse.  The gospel proclaims that we are saved because Jesus suffered and died in our place.  We respond with gratitude.  We carry out the good works that God prepared for us beforehand.

            The case of Martin Luther is a handy example.  He performed many good works in the public eye after he discovered the gospel.  You may recall something of his early years.  He had a strong feeling for God and his church even when he was a boy and went against his father’s wishes by becoming a monk.  He wasn’t satisfied, though, with being an ordinary monk.  He wanted to be the best monk possible, because he believed this was the only way to please God.  He submitted himself to a life of strenuous exertions.  The more he tried to win God’s favor, though, with prayers and fasting and numerous good works, the less certain he became of God’s good opinion of him.  He knew that heaven demands perfect righteousness and complete obedience, yet the more Luther pushed himself the further away he seemed from his goal of pleasing God.  He passed through a time of misery and frustration.  A person who exerts himself harder than other people expects to have a gold star next to his name, but Luther felt driven to the point of despair.

            No one outside his monastery would ever have heard of his struggles, though, if the Holy Spirit hadn’t stepped in and brought him a new way of understanding the scriptures he’d studied diligently.  God requires righteousness, yes, and of a kind we can never offer him.  He provides this righteousness himself, as a gift to everyone who believes in him and trusts his promises, for the sake of Jesus.  Luther came to a profound understanding of such Bible passages as this one from Psalm 31: “In you, O Lord, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me.”  And these lines from Psalm 71: “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame: in your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me!  Be to me as a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.”  Luther especially found comfort in a passage from Romans: “In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, he who is righteous through faith shall live.”

            Luther discovered that his personal struggles did not make him right with God.  We are in a hopeless situation if we try to stand before God on our own strength.  We need an advocate, a mediator, a friend to speak up for us.  This friend is Jesus, who lived a perfectly righteous life, then took our sins upon him and died in our place.  Because of Jesus’ actions and through our faith in him, the Heavenly Father sees us as perfectly righteous – just the way he wants us to be.  We receive his good opinion of us as a free gift.  He calls us saints; he claims us as his children.  He clothes us in robes of righteousness that we can’t see this morning but that God sees.  He gives as a gift for Jesus’ sake and through the means of faith what we can’t achieve on our own.

            This is the truth Jesus meant when he spoke with the believers in Jerusalem.  God is a refuge, a rock, a fortress for everyone who trusts him.  Luther’s ferocious inner battle ended in peace, certainty, and joy.  He told others about the truth to which the Holy Spirit had led him.  His discovery reverberated in the souls of million people, including yours and mine.

            To sum up, then, we rejoice that Jesus frees us from doubt and uncertainty.  He releases us from bondage to sin and the devil and the fear of death.  We are free to live as God intends.

            The passage from John reminds us that it is God’s will that we trust the truth of the gospel.  He makes it possible for us to abide in his word.  He pours his grace upon us.  He declares that by our faith in Christ, we are worthy to receive his abundant blessings.  He teaches us to hope that the insights and victories of the Reformation will continue among us.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

The peace of God.....                                             

                                                  

James 5:7 - 10 The Lord's Patience and Ours

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

This is the Sunday when the church remembers James, the brother of Jesus.  He became an important leader of the church in Jerusalem after the resurrection and the ascension of our Lord.  The one letter of his that’s included in the New Testament offers excellent suggestions for daily Christian living.  He says we should watch what we say and keep control of our tongues, because an unbridled tongue is a tool of the devil.  James also advises us to control and not to show partiality to the rich.  His letter is a kind of New Testament version of the Book of Proverbs.

It goes without saying that the world is much different now from what it was in the days of the apostles.  Experts say that ordinary people were highly attuned to God and the supernatural.  Thinking adults believed that the greatest endeavor of the mind was to seek God and eternal truth.  Many welcomed the authority of the church and the Bible.  They expected truth to come from the top down, so to speak.  Nowadays, many folks say that human beings are at the center of life, not God or else that human life has no purpose or meaning.  The majority of folks today do not long for the deepest meaning of reality, but work to understand and control the physical world and bring about earthly happiness here and now.  We rarely hear talk about the possibility of eternal truth except in the church.  Many say that the whole truth is located in material objects like wood and stone and blood cells. 

We see a great gap when we compare today’s world with the world of the Scriptures and we may ask where the believers and heroes of the faith are today, the strong and steady Christians.  The truth is, dear friends, you and I are called to be strong and sturdy children of God.  The Lord calls to us by his word through the spiritual confusions of the present to live with him in trusting faith till he returns.   The Bible gives us patterns of faith to copy, for we also are to be examples whom others may follow.  Along with other believers, we are the heirs of the first Christians whom God uses to spread his Word and to keep the church alive and vibrant.

We look at this morning’s epistle text with this background in mind.  James writes about patience and also the grumbling that can disrupt patience.   Like the prophets and apostles, we are to live patiently till Christ returns, for our own well-being and also to make a witness to others.  I’m the last person in the world who should be speaking in public about patience, but this is the way the Lord works.  He chooses unlikely people so that he may work his wonders through them.

In everyday usage, patience means the ability to wait cheerfully for good things that we want.  A patient person doesn’t reach out greedily for his or her heart’s desire.  A patient person does not whine or through a tantrum when desired objects don’t come right away.  Patient Christians bring their wishes to the Lord, trusting that he will provide what is best in his own good time.  A Christian knows how to wait and trust in God.

For God’s children, though, patience has a more profound meaning than the ability to wait for good things with serenity of mind and evenness of temper.  Christian patience is the gift God gives us to exercise restraint during the times when we face opposition or oppression.   The Bible gives us numerous examples of this kind of patience.  We may think if the patience of Joseph in Egypt falsely-accused of wrong-doing, Moses when the people of Israel rebelled against his leadership, of David under persecution by King Saul.  We pay think of the patience of Paul after the Romans imprisoned him for his faith, the patience of Mary and Joseph when they brought the infant Christ to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill him.  Above all, we keep in mind the patience of our Lord when he suffered great provocation and did not complain, all for the sake of his mission.

Christian faith is different from the ways of the world.  Christians expect criticism and reproach from worldly folks.  We assume that opponents of the faith will try to provoke us.  It stands to reason that the trends of the times will occasionally get our goat.  Abortion and euthanasia, sometimes shopping on Sunday, shrinking church attendance – all these trends are designed to irritate us.  Christians in other countries and other times have patiently endured far worse than we have.  We trust that the Lord will bless us with patience, too, the ability to stand firm because we’re sure in our hearts that Christ will return.

Christian patience in times of stress isn’t simply an exercise in self-discipline.  We’re patient not only because we love our neighbors or have developed some social skills, but because we trust the Bible’s promise that Christ will come again. We don’t know when.  We don’t know how.  But we know that a glorious day is coming when Jesus will come back to earth to claim us and millions of other believers for life in the holy city that he has prepared.  The Lord asks us in the meantime to be patient with life as it comes to us.  He will wash us clean in his blood day by day.  He will pick us up and renew us.  He will give us the patience we need.

Now, James mentions an aspect of Christian patience that I hadn’t considered before.  “Don’t grumble against each other, brothers,” he says, “or you will be judged.”  The word that James uses for “grumble”, in the original Greek, doesn’t mean outspoken complaining but unexpressed secret grumbling that we don’t tell anyone about.  He means the kind of complaining that we might carry on in our own minds.  Patient Christians seek to avoid inner grumbling, for nothing affects our mental well-being and our ability to cope patiently with what comes our way like the conversations we carry on with ourselves.

Despite the vast amount of work psychologists have carried out in the past hundred years, I suspect that most of us don’t know very much about our mental processes.  We may think that thoughts move in and out of our brains as if we had no control over them.  We often think about whatever our fast-paced society brings before us.  A big news story can get us going for hours.  An advertisement can awaken a desire that wasn’t present before or we may bemoan our fate if we can’t afford a fancy car like the one our neighbor bought.  Similarly, the behavior of others, even our friends, can get our brains to working at rapid speed.  A hasty word, a joke, a misunderstood comment, especially a remark tinged with malice – any of these can set our brains whirling along a downward path – to our own hurt and possibly that of others, all because we haven’t made the effort to control our thoughts.  Maybe we think we can’t control them.

The good news is that with God’s help we have the ability to choose what we think about.  Very few like to think negative thoughts, but if someone opposes a plan we think is good, we may tell ourselves that negative thoughts are inevitable.  We may believe that we must surrender to an hour or two of grumbling, which will only exhaust us and make us feel sour about life.  The good news is that the Lord has given us a pathway away from mental grumbling.  He breaks through stirred up brains with a promise that he will return.  He opens our brains and turns grumbling to rejoicing, not because we see a person who might be giving us a hard time in a warmer light, but because the Lord has enabled us to change the subject.  He brings our thoughts away from unproductive dwelling on the problems of the day to reflect on the wonderful good things that will come when Jesus returns.  In this way, our inner grumbling stops and our minds are at ease again.

Of course, if we fail to follow the Lord’s command about grumbling and his promise that most of the time, unless we are ill, we’ll be able to rule our own thoughts, we risk falling under judgment, because Jesus’ half-brother tells us that the Judge is standing at the door.

But the story doesn’t end there, for there’s one aspect of patience we haven’t mentioned yet – the patience of God.  While he postpones his second coming, he holds out forgiveness.  Everyone has a chance to repent.  All sins are forgiven.  He is patient with the world he created.  Peter wrote:  “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.”

Our patience comes from his.  The world doesn’t know patience in the Christian sense.  God draws us out of the world to make us patient in his way.  He washes us clean of past failures and casts them out of his sight.  He gives the ability to abide times of oppression with peaceful minds, to control our inner grumbling, and to wait for the Lord’s return.  As unworthy as we seem in our own eyes, he calls us to join the company of the patient that has always existed in the church.  He sends many occasions that call for patience and equips us to rise to them in his way.  So in Jesus’ name we give thanks. AMEN.

         

          

                                                                                    

Luke 16:19 - 31 -- Lazarus and Ourselves

Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come,

            Why should we pay attention to the beggar Lazarus?  After all, he’s only a character in a parable.  First, Jesus tells the parable, and we take to heart anything he says.  Second, we ask what Lazarus’ situation illustrates for us.

            For one thing, we have a chance to reflect again about what God thinks about the differences between riches and poverty.  The Bible teaches us that laziness, love of pleasure, drunkenness and gluttony can all lead to poverty.  “A little sleep, a little slumber,” one of the proverbs says, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond and want like an armed man.”  At the same time, Scripture assures us that God cares for the poor.  The prophet Jeremiah wrote,  “Sing to the Lord...for he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.”  God insists on justice for the poor.  Here’s another proverb: “Whoever stops his ear at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself but not be heard.”  Jesus encourages kindness to the poor.  I’m sure you remember what he said to a rich young man: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.”

            But Lazarus is not only poor, he is also very ill and can’t move unless someone helps him, the sort of person who needs support and ought to receive it, but his neighbors neglect him, and so he lives on the street, begging and in pain.  He stations himself in front of the home of a rich man and people ignore him.

            Riches in themselves aren’t evil.  King Solomon wrote: “Every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and has given him the power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God.”  But riches are fleeting and deceptive.  They can be a powerful temptation to greed and to forgetfulness of God.  Riches can lead to shallowness of life and can hinder entrance into God’s kingdom.  Riches can also disappoint and bring worries.  Psalm 39 speaks of a man who heaps up wealth and doesn’t know who will gather it in.

            The rich man in Jesus’ parable lives in comfort; he has his bit of revelry every day, but his life is hollow.  He doesn’t put his earthly possessions to work in a way that pleases God.  What’s more, as an expert on the subject wrote, Jesus told his parable to the Pharisees, who believed that wealth was a special gift from God to people he highly favored.  The man in our parable was not only very rich, he was also very religious.  He knew God’s teaching about justice and kindness to the poor, but he was proud of his wealth and the life it made possible for him.  He ignored the suffering on his doorstep.

            But God did not ignore Lazarus.  He didn’t make him rich; he didn’t heal his skin disease so that he could work; he didn’t even satisfy his longing for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  Instead, he gave him something else – saving faith, which not only provides the strength to endure the hardships of this life, but also filled Lazarus’ soul with the assurance that rest and peace would come to him in the next life.  Lazarus was like Job, who suffered unspeakable miseries and yet held on in faith; he was like Paul who suffered numerous discomforts – and without complaining – as he served the Lord.  In a physical, earthly sense, he was even like Jesus, who suffered on the cross for all of us.

            Faith in Christ works that way.  Despite all external evidence to the contrary – his abject poverty and the fact that his hunger and pain went on and on – Lazarus knew that God was on his side and would not let him down.  Jesus had wonderful things in store for him that our human imaginations can’t grasp now, and by the grace of God Lazarus was able to hold onto Christ in faith.

            The case of Lazarus reminds us that our own society is turned toward comfort.  We feel deprived if we lack one nicety or another.  When I was in a barbershop years ago, I heard another customer say in a loud voice, “The problem with people today is that they don’t know how to suffer.”  I don’t suppose that’s true, because there’s plenty of suffering in the world and lots of poverty, but the preferences of our day give suffering a bad name.  “If you suffer there must be something wrong with you,” people mistakenly say, “or else God must be mad at you.”

            Lazarus’s story reminds us that the problem was not with him but with the shallow values of a materialistic culture.  Anything inconvenient is to be pushed out of sight.  Lazarus is different.  The neglect he experienced didn’t break his spirit. He didn’t ask to die.  He asked for food instead so that he could go on living, however cramped and maimed his life may have looked to the people who passed by him day after day.  Lazarus, like God, was on the side of life, and Jesus gave him the faith to endure the horrible suffering that came to him.  Better days were coming – much better days, as the parable tells us.  A great reversal of fortune would take place.  The one who lived in heedless splendor would suffer.  He wouldn’t receive even a drop of water to relieve his torment.  And as for Lazarus – we ourselves who stick with Christ by faith will discover firsthand the blessed joys the Lord put before him after the cares of earth had ended.

            Jesus’ parable also teaches us that when God dispenses rewards and punishments he demolishes earthly expectations and man-made traditions.  The world separates into categories and classes.  God looks at the heart.  The rich man had the advantage of theological training and knowledge.  The Lord blessed Lazarus abundantly with faith of the heart.  Even in destitution, Lazarus gave a powerful testimony to God’s love.  Jesus intended that Lazarus and the rich man not be divided from each other but to work together to build and expand his kingdom, each benefitting the other and together they would spread the good news of God’s blessings to the world around them. 

            Lazarus reached out to the rich man, not only to receive some of the earthly things he needed but also to offer him the love of God, a sign of friendship from a faithful heart or even a stern warning from the law that the rich man had put himself in eternal danger.  Lazarus may have had in mind a picture of God’s community of faith, but the rich man did not.  He recognized only people like himself as worthy in God’s eyes.

            This was not what Jesus wanted, but even so he used the corrupted situation to serve his kingdom.  He raised a street person up and brought him into the comfort and rest of paradise.  He uses Lazarus to remind us of a basic Christian teaching.  The formerly rich man begged Father Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers as a messenger of warning, but Abraham, wiser, advised the man that if they failed to listen to Moses and the prophets in God’s written word, they would pay no more attention to a special ambassador from heaven.  Faith in God’s Word is the key that opens the door to his blessings – now and in eternity.  It’s one of God’s miracles that a man whose life was in crisis received the gift of faith and lived on it in trust.

            Now, one final point.  Martin Luther once wrote that every believer is a true Lazarus, for we are all of the same faith, mind, and will as he, centered in trust that salvation comes only through what the Bible teaches about Christ.  Anyone who isn’t willing to be like Lazarus will share the fate of the rich man in hell.  We are to trust in God as Lazarus did, subdue our rebellious wills and surrender ourselves to him so that he may work in us as he pleases.  Even though we don’t suffer the way Lazarus did, we should possess a mind like his, cheerfully bearing whatever fate God sends us.

            Luther said that humility of spirit like that of Lazarus may exist even in people who are rich in possessions.  Job, Abraham, and Jacob were all outwardly rich but poor in spirit in the way that pleases God.  David as king owned a lot of land and even large cities, but he said nevertheless, “I am a stranger here, a sojourner as all my fathers were.”  He saw life from a Christian point of view.  Though he was rich, he didn’t cling to earthly things.  His heart was with God.  He valued much more highly the riches he received from the Heavenly Father.  Bodily health, too, for David, was nothing compared with the health of his soul.  He would not have complained if he’d been afflicted with the sores and sickness of Lazarus.  The same is true for Abraham, Luther said, and even of ourselves, for God’s people have one and the same mind and spirit directed toward him, even though our outward circumstances and the degree of suffering that falls to each of us are different.  This is why Abraham recognized Lazarus as one of his own and received him at his side.  The suffering of his saints is precious to God.  He will reward his people in the next life.

            Extreme differences of wealth and poverty are nothing to God.  All of his people are like Lazarus in faith and the willingness to endure trials.  No matter how the times tempt us, we do not cling to dreams of riches or regret the absence of wealth we may not have.  Instead, Jesus opens our hearts and with the astonishing freedom he gives to his people, we become like Lazarus, trusting in the Lord, happy to obey his will, whatever it may be.

            The week ahead may have good times; it may have trials.  I hope that all of us will abide in the assurance that our sins are washed away in the blood of Christ and his promise that he will keep us through every circumstance, as he did Lazarus.  The key is to keep the Bible’s teachings about Jesus in our hearts.  Nothing then can do us permanent harm, for he is our friend and guide and savior.  In his name we give thanks.  AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.             

                                    

Psalm 51 -- Evaluating Our Walk with God

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

            We usually come in contact with Psalm 51 on Ash Wednesday, but the people who put our lectionary together must have seen that it ties in with the other readings for this day, so we’ll examine it for the next few minutes and think about where we stand in our journeys with God. 

            Every journey has an outcome and we are looking ahead to Jesus’ return and everlasting blessedness with God in heaven, but each day along the way is important.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians:  “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”  Some of the benefits of salvation come to us right now – friendship with God, the forgiveness of sins, and the hope of a better life, fellowship with other believers.  Paul meant that now is the time to take hold of God’s gifts with our minds and hearts and wills.  We don’t wait for big day on the church calendar or the hour of death to take hold of God in faith.  We do it now, since today is the day of salvation.  Each moment has its special value, each hour belongs to God, so we take a look at where we are right now.

            We’ll begin with what may look like a digression.  We look at an episode in the life of another traveler on a journey.  King David, who was very different from us in many ways, wrote Psalm 51 at a time of personal crisis.  He was a young man, strong, vigorous, and powerful.  But he lacked wisdom and let his position as king of Israel go to his head.  He thought he could do anything he wanted and have whatever pleased him.  He committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, but he didn’t get away with his misdeeds.  The prophet Nathan came to him and reproached him sternly. As a result, David recognized his sinfulness in the depths of his heart.  He turned to God in sorrow and pleaded for forgiveness.  He spoke the words of Psalm 51.  He asked God to cleanse him from sin and to restore his joy and gladness.

            God knows that King David isn’t worshipping with us this morning.  We are better behaved than he was.  Our thoughts don’t linger on adultery and murder.  Still, God and his church have appointed psalm 51 for our use and we carry on our evaluation with a reminder of what it says about penitence.

            We’ll make several points.  The first concerns the teachings of the church.  David says in verse 5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  That’s an important insight for Christians.  It teaches us that people are by nature sinful and unclean.   We inherit not just a capacity for sin but an actual state of sin from Adam and Eve.  When David sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, he was acting according to human nature.  Contrary to what some folks will tell us, Scripture and the church do not teach us that people are basically good.  The church doesn’t say that people are good 98% of the time and it’s only by accident that in the other 2% we are dreadful sinners.  I once heard someone say on the radio that the “basically good man defense” doesn’t hold up in a court of law.  Much less does it stand up before God, for whom all people are sinners.

            The church teaches us to avoid shallow optimism.  We don’t make heroes out of people who do a lot of good works.  We don’t pattern our lives after outstandingly worthy men and women.  We look to Jesus alone, who is our Saviour and the source of forgiveness and our salvation and our example of goodness. 

            We begin our evaluation, then, recalling what the Bible says about human nature.  All sinners need Christ.

            Psalm 51 reminds us, too, that God is always available to us, even when our sinfulness is most apparent to us.  Jesus did not turn away from Peter, who betrayed him.  He taught his disciples to forgive 70 times 7 times.  John wrote in his first letter:  “If anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the righteous one.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  David rediscovered the mercy of God in his time of need.

He spoke to God in confession, which is an important part of every Christian’s life.  When we confess our sins to God, we humble ourselves and accept his judgment on us.  In confession, we place ourselves so that God can lift us up and redirect us.  We ask him to spare us from the temptation to find excuses for sin.  I once saw a list of 87 reasons for not reporting to work.  There are even more excuses for sin.  The problem with trying to justify ourselves is that we cut off our communication with God.  David understood this. He wrote in another Psalm:  “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.  Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

          As we evaluate our standing with God, then, we ask ourselves – do we remember to confess our sins?  Our confession glorifies God and shows that we agree that he is truthful.  We admit that his judgments are just.  We are ready to receive his forgiveness.

           Accepting forgiveness is important.  David tells God that he is aware of his transgressions and his sin is always before him.  Later, he asks God to restore to him the joy of salvation.  David here admits that he experiences the continuing curse of sin in his own life because even though he knows that God has forgiven him and forgotten his misdeeds long ago, he himself cannot forget.  His transgressions rise up before him like ghosts that won’t go away.  This is probably a common phenomenon.  Many people suffer from overactive consciences.  Dwelling on the sins of the past, can lead to the despair of unbelief.  The cure is to do what David did – cling to the Lord day in and day out and ask him for healing.           

The question is – do we occupy our minds with thoughts of Jesus so as to silence the taunts of the devil?  I am the worst offender, but I do know that a mind that rests on Jesus is a quiet mind.

So far, we’ve talked about the Christian understanding of human nature, the benefits of confession to God, and the need to accept forgiveness.  Now supposing we already live by these basics, that we know in our hearts that we are redeemed and saved children of God, what role can sin possibly play in our lives now?  To answer this question, I looked into some writings of Martin Luther.  He said that remnants of sin dwell even in the redeemed; he mentions an impulse toward wrath, pride, gluttony, and sloth.  He said they must be rooted out of us through confession of sin and humility before God.  He cites a verse from Jeremiah, where God says, “I will correct you in judgment lest you seem innocent to yourself.”  In other words, sin remains in us and we shouldn’t slide over it lightly but bring it to God in confession.

Now, I’d like to share with you another comment by Martin Luther on verse 10 of Psalm 51:  “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”  Luther sometimes had a humorous way of writing.  He says many people do not commit sins.  They commit only good deeds.  “And yet the most subtle kind of pride alone, born of their own virtues, has soiled them.  Therefore, David does not say cleanse the hand, eyes, feet, tongue, ears, flesh, because with regard to these someone is perhaps not yet sinning but only his heart is puffed up and soiled…Some live in the spirit and mortify the flesh, but their spirit is bent and curved in on themselves for empty glory and pride…and this is the devil’s choice food, for though he is the devil himself, completely unclean, he chooses to dwell in a clean place.”

           In other words, we need to watch out for the influence of the devil.  He loves to torment Christians and bring us down.  He turns good works into occasions for pride.  We should evaluate our walk with the Lord in this respect, too, and to bring any concerns we might have to our Savior, who is the well-spring of forgiveness and renewal.

Paul wrote that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come…God reconciles us to himself through Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”  Paul continues:  “As God’s fellow workers, we urge you not to receive his grace in vain.  For he says, ‘In the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”  To put it another way, the Lord’s evaluation of our walk with him is likely to be more generous than our own.  And that’s a good place to stop, except to say that self-examination is good for us, for it keeps us close to God which is where we want to be, since today and tomorrow and the next are days of salvation. 
In Jesus’ Name we give thanks. AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.  AMEN.  

    

               

                   

                                                    

Matthew 21:33-46 New tenants of the Vineyard

Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come,

            Things that can be hard for us are easy for God.  Patience, for example.  It’s hard for a lot of people to wait for something good to happen.  We want results right away.  God is different.  The Heavenly Father knows how to wait.  This morning’s parable describes his patience.  He made a covenant – or agreement – with Abraham and Jacob and their descendants.  He loved the people of Israel and blessed them when they followed him and trusted him and obeyed his commands.  The Old Testament tells the story of many faithful people: Ruth and Boaz, King David most of the time, the prophets and a few of the kings of Judah.  Most of the people and their leaders, however, did as they pleased and served their own interests.  They oppressed the poor, they worshiped heathen gods, they offended the Heavenly Father.  But he was patient with them.  Instead of destroying them, he sent prophets to warn the majority who strayed and to encourage the ones who stuck with him.  He gave them plenty of time to turn to him and kept hoping they would take hold of his outstretched hand.  He didn’t want to believe that they were as wicked as they seemed.

            This morning’s parable illustrates the patience of God.  The owner of the vineyard kept sending his servants to collect the payment they owed him.  He didn’t give up hope.  He even sent his son, thinking that the tenants would surely respect him.  The Heavenly Father puts the best construction on actions and events.  He looks for a favorable outcome.  He trusts that his actions in the world will produce the results he wants, so he is patient.

            The parable reminds us as well that his patience is not infinite.  The tenants who kill the son end up paying a great price, for the son is ruler of everything – the cornerstone of the building – and the ones who reject him will be crushed to pieces.  The Heavenly Father provides, he nourishes.  In the words of Isaiah, he gives drink to his chosen people, the ones he formed for himself.  But he expects a return – the heartfelt devotion of his people, who proclaim his praises.  If they desert him, he will crush them.  A terrible fate in eternity is waiting for people who harden their hearts and refuse to turn to God when they have the chance.  This is a hard saying: tender minds don’t like to think about hellfire and damnation.  But the Heavenly Father who nourishes and provides and saves also has a secondary plan – eternal punishment for the hard and the cruel, flames of hell for the unjust and the faithless.  Jesus wants us to know about these things so that we have a full picture of heaven’s way of working.  Threats of hell never saved anyone, but God terrifies so that we’ll pay attention to him and he can make alive and console.  He wants us to know, besides that, that he is just and righteous.  He will punish blasphemers, the faithless, the unrepentant, those who are blood-thirsty and tyrannical, who oppress the helpless, while people who endure in faith, who persist in loyalty to God, however humble and unnoticed they may be, will receive a great reward.

            Jesus main mission, you see, is to comfort, to make alive.  He had planned a wonderful work of outreach for his Old Testament people to carry out under his guidance – to believe in the coming Savior themselves and to carry the good news of salvation t the gentile nations.  But the leaders of the day rejected God and his message.  They refused to take up the mission, but Jesus didn’t die in vain.  The Father found others to help him.  He turned the vineyard over to new tenants, who spread the Word about the hope of salvation in Christ.

            People in Mediterranean countries were in spiritual turmoil at that time.  Melancholy was widespread.  Millions had lost their trust in the old pagan religions and were hungry for a new faith, which the apostles and the disciples brought to them along the efficient roads of the Roman Empire.  Hearts awakened; spirits renewed; slumbering souls revived with the hope of new life that would last forever.  Folks who’d never heard of Abraham and Noah or King David now looked to Christ for salvation.  They head the gospel, learned what it meant for them, and held onto it.  The Lord had found new tenants for his vineyard who were willing to offer him the return of faith he wanted.

            To put it another way, the parable shows us that God defends his Word.  He takes the gospel away from people who distort it or abuse it for their own purposes and gives it to folks who will be grateful for it and will use it the way he wants.  He keeps the Bible’s message fresh and new, so that it’s as powerful today as in the time of the apostles.

            It’s important to keep in mind that God doesn’t work in obvious ways.  He brings down the proud and the great and lifts up the lowly, who will provide him with the kind of return he wants.  The parable helps us understand the Lord’s way of working and the kind of fruitfulness he creates in his vineyard and when the owner will return.

            The vineyard is the church which has existed for the comfort, guidance, and salvation of God’s people since Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise.  The church has had many ups and downs, but her Lord has kept her a place where weary men and women who regret their sins may find relief for troubled minds and restoration to life and favor.  The church brings us forgiveness in Christ’s blood, guidance for daily living, hope for the future, and the promise of happiness in eternity.  The church takes away our fear of death.  God’s vineyard is a place of hope and joy and love.

            The church is very simple.  It exists wherever God’s Word is preached in its purity and where the sacraments are offered according to his Word.  The church doesn’t need great buildings or a fine show.  In fact, these sometimes get in the way.  Jesus has placed his gospel here, and so St. Peter’s is as much the church as any place, and we offer our Lord the kind of return he is looking for.

            He isn’t looking for great and mighty works, but sorrow for sin, faith and trust in Jesus, the assurance that his mercy applies to us, and the good works that flow from faith in him.  Christian fruitfulness isn’t grand or imposing.  It sticks close to the earth; it doesn’t draw attention to itself.  We lead wonderfully fruitful lives simply by sticking with Jesus in gratitude for his friendship and doing the works of faith he sets out for us.

            No one’s life of faith is perfect.  We sometimes fail to repent; we let Jesus go; we give way to laziness; we can be ungrateful and selfish, like the tenant farmers in the parable.  But God has designed his vineyard specifically to increase the fruitfulness of imperfect people like ourselves, for the church is a hospital, where wounded people may find rest and confidence for the future.

            We remember, too that we aren’t here this morning because of our own actions, but because God has summoned us to St. Peter’s, so we trust that he’ll keep on pardoning us so that

awareness of our imperfections doesn’t break our spirits.  Jesus equips us with confidence that we’ll be fruitful.  How often have we felt that he’s lifted us up and carried us through some trial that we couldn’t have borne on our own.  Our gratitude is the return he’s looking for.  He commands us to trust that his blessings to us will continue, so we cling to him by the faith he gives us.

            Now, a few words about heaven’s timing.  The world is restless, always looking for something new, while God is patient, never in a hurry.  All good things come according to his plan.  He knows that the new tenants of his vineyard are waiting – for a certain blessing to reveal itself, for pilgrims to turn to the church, for Jesus’ second coming, so he gives us the patience to wait in hope, as we wait faithfully for his return in glory, when he will judge the wicked and call his beloved children to praise him in heaven.     

            God is doing a marvelous thing and he isn’t yet finished.  What may seem like delay to us is not delay to him.  Peter wrote that Jesus’ sense of time is different from ours.  A thousand years for him are the same as a day, and a day is a thousand years.  “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness,” Peter wrote, “but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that anyone should perish but that all should reach repentance.”  Our Lord postpones his second coming to give his Word a chance to spread.

            Meanwhile, in some ways, we’re like the tenants in the parable.  The world, the devil, and our flesh tempt us to stray.  How can we be sure we’ll behave better than they did?  The Lord who brings us here will keep us in his vineyard.  He protects his chosen tenants from harm.  We don’t worry.  He will guard our faith and maintain us in the kind of fruitfulness he wants.

            To sum up, then – the Lord’s Christian people are the new tenants of his vineyard.  He expects a special kind of fruitfulness from us: sorrow for our sins, reflecting minds, the humility to accept forgiveness, and the good works that flow from faith.  The Lord who brought us into his vineyard will keep us there, so we don’t chafe at what looks like heaven’s delay.  We’re patient.  We rejoice at what God has done for us and for the whole human race.  He knows our situation.  He hears our prayers.   He gives us hope that we’ll call on him as long as we live and that he’s waiting to receive us in the next life.  In Jesus’ Name.  AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.  AMEN.

                                                                                        

Philippians 2:5 - 11

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from god the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

            The epistle text from Philippians has inspired a lot of thought and devotion among Christians.  It’s one of the great passages in the Bible.  We can’t possibly exhaust its riches this morning, so we’ll settle for looking at it from two points of view – first as a commentary on Jesus’ mission, especially his suffering and death and also as a guide for Christian living, for St. Paul says that we are to have the same attitude or frame of mind as Christ.  Basically, he expands on something our Lord said during his ministry: “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.”

            Paul described Jesus in his state of humiliation.  It’s easy to follow what he wrote, step by step, because he expressed himself in a logical way.  Christ by his very nature is God, Paul said.  He didn’t have to reach out or struggle to acquire a high status.  He was already God through and through.  When he took on human flesh, he voluntarily laid aside the benefits and glory of his divine status.  Although he performed miracles to demonstrate his control over nature and gave the penitent thief who died beside him on Good Friday the promise of paradise, he didn’t for the most part act like God.  He didn’t amaze the people of Israel with his almighty power.  Instead, he took on the very nature of a servant; he performed his works for the benefit of his needy neighbors.  He didn’t seek his own advantage or ask people to serve him.  He might have lifted himself above other folks, but he didn’t.  He didn’t seek riches or power or honor.  He came to earth as an ordinary working man so that no one would feel intimidated and anyone could approach him.

            Since he was found in appearance as a man, as Paul put it, he lived as people always do, eating, working, needing rest, companionship, and communion with God.  As a man, he had the same relationship to God and society as other people.  What’s more, he humbled himself.  He made himself even lower than others so as to be a servant.  He lowered himself even to the point of giving his life.  And not only did he make himself lower than most human beings, he also put himself under the curse of the devil, sin, and death and carried them for us.  He accepted a humiliating death as a base criminal; he gave up even the respect that is due to servants and placed himself among the outcasts.  He took on those burdens, Paul pointed out, not because we are worthy of his sacrifice, but out of obedience to his Father.  The Heavenly Father had planned from eternity that his Son would suffer and die for the sins of mankind.  Jesus acted from obedience, as Paul said.

            Then he received his reward. He set aside the form of a servant he’d taken on, and God raised him to the highest place.  Not humbled any longer, he has the name above every name.   We don’t see his exaltation now, except by faith, because our vision is obscured, but the Holy Spirit grants us faith to confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of his father.

            Jesus humbled himself, then.  We do the same.  “He who is greatest among you,” our lord said, “let him be as the least, and he that is chief, let him be as he who serves.”  Jesus calls us to serve – in our work, in our family lives, in church and our relationships with others. Christians are servants – like the Lord.  It’s easy for us to forget our callings, though, because the human mind loves to assert its own dignity.  We want to be acknowledged, lifted up, to be like God.  Jesus commands us to set aside our ambitions and imitate him.  He had a rightful claim to all the prerogatives of God, but he gave them up, while human nature, which has no right to think of itself as God, wants to be just like him in power and status.  The serpent tempted Adam and Eve to think he could make them like the Almighty, the people who built the tower of Babel wanted to assert their wills.  The violence that comes to us in the news comes from the same source – human pride that doesn’t recognize limitations.  We ask our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness for our own lack of humility and pray that he will help us set aside the pretensions and illusions the devil sets before us.  The search for humility is an excellent exercise, for when we purposely lower ourselves, we seek the truth about our situations and the truth brings joy and rest.

            God loves humility; he blesses those who have it and seek it.  “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life,” says one of the Proverbs, and another says: “A man’s pride will bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.  “Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly,” says a third Proverb, “than to divide the spoil with the proud.”   God loved the humility of Moses, whom the Book of Numbers says was very meek, above all the men who were on the face of the earth.  And Paul wrote in his Romans: “Be subject to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.”

            It’s the Christian way to seek to walk humbly before God and others, and we learn from those times when God arranges external circumstances so as to humble us.  Afflictions of all kinds bring us low – illness, personal misfortune, uncertain times.  It’s important for us to see the heavy parts of life with Christian eyes.  They’re not punishments from God, but inducements for us to turn to him.  The Lord doesn’t wish to deprive us of good things, but he insists that we look to him for all blessings and to receive our lives from him.  During times of hardship, we understand that God is developing in us the mind of Christ and after we have learned the lessons he wants to teach us, he will raise us up, not necessarily in an earthly way, but according to his plan and his time schedule. 

            Life humbles everyone in many ways.  Dreams are trimmed, opportunities reduced, egos deflated.  How often do we hear the word “cutback”?  We learn that no one is very important in the long run and that we can live without special privileges – a trip to the South Pacific, say, or the fifteen room house we may have dreamt about when we were young. 

            Even the church seems pared down these days.  We may look enviously at larger church bodies whose members seem to stream through the doors.  But we shouldn’t be depressed.  God has his reason for humbling his church, just as he has reasons for humbling you and me.         

           For one thing, there is great strength in humility.  This is one of the secrets of the Christian way.  It’s common for us to moan about things we don’t have, but we can grow weak and lax if we let whining get the best of us.  As Jesus gave up the privileges high earthly status, so do we.  We make a sacrifice to God of the things we don’t have – new appliances for the kitchen, a winter palace in the Caribbean, a high position in the community.  We turn these things over to God and allow him to dispense them as he pleases and we even turn the desire for them over to him, knowing that he will provide abundantly for our needs.  We are wise to the devil, who knows how to strike at our weak points.  We ask the Lord to bring us contentment with what we have.  He’ll answer us and make us strong in our humility, as Jesus was strong.  God puts his people in a position to thrive inwardly when times are tough.

            As well, a spirit of humility reminds us that we are servants, concerned about the welfare of others.  The details of our service are different for each of us, but in general we say that we bring the mind of Christ to the people around us.  We show concern for their well-being and pray for them. 

            It’s also wise to remember our limitations, not to overestimate our abilities.  It’s best to concentrate on only a few things.  Nothing contributes to burn-out like a pile of disconnected tasks.  We’re not called to solve everyone’s problems or stick our noses where they don’t belong.  We need to take time for ourselves to recharge our batteries with Bible reading and prayer.  Time we spend with the Lord is also service, for he loves to heal us and put us back into shape.

            What’s more, we must be sure not to set standards of perfection for ourselves.  Perfectionists always have a hard time.  They criticize themselves and they invite criticism from others, who are quick to point out chinks in other people’s armor and to find fault with those who usually do well.  Be gentle with yourself; take things easily, one step at a time.  There is only one perfect human being.  Our task is not to compete with him, but to seek his help – with humility of heart.  God forgives the imperfect.  He invites us to be still in his presence.  He transforms us gradually, but first he forgives us.  The great reward of Christian humility is rest in God’s presence, the inner delight that comes with knowing that he is available to us.

            The reward for humble Christian living, Paul suggests, is that God will exalt us – a raising up that takes place partly now and in full on the last day.  Today, as Paul urged the Philippians, we live blamelessly and innocently as children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.  Living God’s way, holding fast to the word of life,  we shine as lights in the eyes of God and also in eyes of worldly people, though they may not recognize God’s light for what it is.  Forgiven, declared innocent for the sake of our Lord, washed clean in his blood, we shine like stars.  Worldly minds never seek the kinds of rewards that Christians treasure, but we rejoice in what the Lord makes of our lives.  We cherish the light that shines through us, for it is a foretaste if the light that will shine in heaven.  May we keep on seeking the mind of Jesus and continue walking in the humble paths he shows us. In Jesus’ name we give thanks.  AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.  AMEN.