Sermon for the Feast of St Matthew - Mt 9:9-13

                                                                                                            St Matthew

                                                                                                            Mt 9:9-13

                                                                                                            9/21/25

 

          Last Sunday I received a number of comments from people about how they liked seeing the red paraments, such as the chasuble that I wear.  This happens every time that we are using the red ones. People go out of their way to remark on how they like seeing the red.

          Now I guess I should not be surprised. After all, a large percentage of the members at Good Shepherd are Cardinals fans, and so are naturally inclined toward the color red. But more generally the bright color red is very striking.

          It is striking, and it is meant to be so.  It signals that we are celebrating a special day in the church year.  It is also striking because we see it so infrequently.  There are only two Sundays each year when it is certain that you will see red in church: Pentecost and the Sunday on which we celebrate the Reformation. That’s it.

          Now there are other days in the church year that have been assigned the color red. However, none of them are on a Sunday each year.  Instead they are a particular date on the calendar that eventually falls on a Sunday as the years go by. And even if they do fall on a Sunday, it doesn’t mean we will necessarily observe that day. Generally speaking, we don’t interrupt the festival half of the church year – the first half that includes, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter.

Instead, it is in the second half of the church year – the non-festival half when we do so. We are in that time of year and so last Sunday when Holy Cross Day fell on a Sunday we observed it and used red paraments. Today – a week later – the Feast of St Matthew falls on a Sunday, and so we are observing it and using red once again.  Red two Sundays in a row. Enjoy it, because it doesn’t happen very often.

Today is the Feast of St Matthew. Mathew was not just an apostle.  He was also an evangelist – the writer of the first Gospel found in the New Testament. In that Gospel he provides a narration of his own call to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.

We hear in our text, “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him.” Matthew held the position of an agent collecting taxes. He didn’t work for the Roman government. At this time Galilee was not a Roman province.  Instead, it was ruled by Herod Antipas, and was a client state of the Roman Empire.

We don’t know all that much about the specifics of Matthew’s position and the work he was doing. But two things are clear. First, like in our own day, no one liked paying taxes. Those involved in collecting taxes were not popular.  I don’t want to interact with the IRS, and people in first century Palestine didn’t want to deal with someone like Matthew.

Second, tax collectors had a reputation for being dishonest – for lining their own pockets as they did their job. This could be done in different ways such as over estimating the value of a cargo for tax assessment, and then keeping the excess money collected. 

Yet when Jesus saw Matthew at the tax collecting booth, he said to him, “Follow me.” The Lord called Mathew to follow him.  And Matthew got up and did just that. Surely this was not the first time Matthew had heard about Jesus.  Matthew tells us in chapter four, “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” We learn that Jesus’ fame spread widely, and that great  crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Next we learn, “And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.” We aren’t told explicitly that this was Matthew’s house, but that certainly seems to be the impression we are supposed to take away from the statement.

This situation was certainly noticed by the Pharisees. We learn, “And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”  The Pharisees were offended by the company that Jesus was keeping.  By eating with these people, Jesus was showing that at some level he accepted them.

We have already discussed why the Pharisees would have objected to tax collectors.  The term “sinners” surely referred to people who did engage in a publicly sinful life, like prostitutes. It is also likely that it included people who didn’t follow all of the rules that the Pharisees had added on top of the Torah itself – the law that God had given to Moses at Mt Sinai.

However, when Jesus heard what they said he responded: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Our Lord declared that he was here to save those who were sick with sin.

In our text, Matthew identifies himself with the sinners – with those who needed Jesus’ help. This is a very important point that we cannot overlook.  We live in a world that says everyone should be accepted.  “Judging others” – saying that a behavior is sinful is considered unacceptable by our world. One even finds this attitude among Christians who say that we need to promote unity by accepting people and not judging them.  After all, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.

But this is to ignore Jesus’ own preaching. Matthew says this about the beginning of the Lord’s ministry – the one that drew great crowds: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Jesus called sinners to repent.  He did not affirm people in whatever choices they wanted to make about how they lived.  He judged people by saying that there was God’s way, and that the other ways of doing things were sin.

Jesus has just been teaching about God’s way in the Sermon on the Mount.  He taught, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” He taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Jesus called sinners to repentance. He calls us to repentance. He reveals the anger, lust, and hatred in our hearts. He calls it what it is – sin. He leads us to confess it as what it is.  But this confession does not lead to despair because of the One who speaks these words. Our Lord says in our text, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus came to call sinners because he himself is God’s answer to sin. Later in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  At his baptism, Jesus the sinless One began his course to bear our sin on the cross.  On Good Friday he received the wrath of God that we deserved. He cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me” as he received God’s judgment for us. Because of this, as repentant sinners who believe in Christ, we are now forgiven sinners.

Jesus called Matthew to be a disciple. But he did more than that. He chose Matthew and eleven others out of those disciples to be apostles. In chapter ten of Matthew’s Gospel we learn, “And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.”  Matthew then gives us the names of the twelve apostles, among whom is listed, “Matthew the tax collector.”

An apostle is an authorized representative. Matthew accompanied Jesus during his ministry. He heard his teaching. He saw his miracles.  In the end, like all of the apostles, he failed Jesus as he fled and abandoned the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane.

On the way there, Jesus said, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Jesus died on the cross and was buried. But on the third day – on Easter – the women went to the tomb and found it empty. There the angel said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

Matthew tells us that he and the other eleven apostles went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. There they saw the risen Lord and worshipped him.  Jesus announced: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Christ sent Matthew as his apostle – as his authorized representative.  Matthew went as someone who was a repentant sinner.  He knew that in Christ the reign of God had entered this world to give forgiveness and life. He had been with the crucified Lord who had risen from the dead.

Matthew is significant for us because as an apostle he serves as a reminder that the Christian faith is not about something that happened, “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”  Instead, it is based on events that happened when Pontius Pilate was prefect of Judea. It is the result of things that God actually did in our world. Because of Jesus Christ, sin really has been forgiven before God. Death really has been defeated. We have salvation in Christ.

But of course, as I mentioned earlier, Matthew is not just an apostle.  He is also an evangelist – a Gospel writer.  We learn in John’s Gospel that Jesus said, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” The Lord declared that the Spirit would be means by which they would bear witness as he said: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

We were not with the Lord Jesus. But the Lord now comes to us through the inspired words of the Gospel writer – words given us by the Spirit of Christ.  Jesus Christ is true God and true man. And the word by which he comes to us is truly divine and truly human.  It is truly human in that Matthew was a real person who lived in the first century. It is truly divine in that the Spirit used Matthew as his instrument so that what he wrote is what the Spirit wanted to give us. These are Spirit provided words by which the Spirit of Christ is at work. They are the means by which the Lord comes to us as he gives forgiveness and strengthens faith.

Jesus says in our text this morning: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” The apostle Matthew knew that he was one of those sinners.  He repented and believed in Christ as he followed him on the way that led to cross of Good Friday and the resurrection of Easter.  Through the word of Scripture, God has done the same thing.  He confronts our sin and works repentance. And by the Spirit he gives faith in Christ and eternal life.

 

 

Sermon for Holy Cross Day - 1 Cor 1:18-25

                                                                                                    Holy Cross

                                                                                                    1 Cor 1:18-25

                                                                                                    9/14/25

 

I spent all the years I was in school developing skills to speak about theology at a high level. There was the process in grade school, middle school, and high school of building the vocabulary and grammar that is expected of an educated person.  In college, and then seminary, and graduate school I learned the vocabulary, the content, and history of theology. I learned how to present theological arguments in a persuasive manner.

I have spent a great deal of time and effort learning to speak about theology. I know the language to use that shows I am in general an educated person. I know the vocabulary and references to make that signal to a hearer trained in theology that I too am trained in theology and know what I am talking about.

Of course the irony of all this is that theology does not exist for its own sake. It exists for the sake of the Church – for the people who are the Church.  None of that theology does any good if you can’t communicate it to people.  And so I don’t speak to you in the same way that I do when I am with other pastors.  Now you are an educated audience and you have a good theological understanding in many areas, so it’s not like I have to dumb things down completely. But for the sake of good communication there are vocabulary, phrases, and references that I am not going to use.

In the verse just before our text St. Paul says that Christ had sent him “to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” Paul freely admitted that his language was not the kind that would impress people. He says in the next chapter, “And I, when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.”

The first century world was one in which the entire education system was built around teaching rhetoric. People learned how to create and arrange the points they were making, and to ornament their language.  There were specific rules and techniques by which this was done. Through the use of these a person could identify himself as an educated person to others who were also educated.

However, Paul had not done that.  He hadn’t done it because he had not been trained in that way. Certainly, he was aware of some basic principles and techniques, and we can see these in his letters. But he himself freely admitted that this is not something he brought to the table.  Paul had not been able to speak in these ways, and he says that this is actually a good thing because it meant there was nothing about his speech that distracted from its central content. There could be no confusing the message with the manner in which it was delivered.

Paul identifies that message in our text as “the word of the cross.” He says in the next chapter, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  The crucifixion of Jesus – the cross – this is what Paul proclaimed in Corinth.

After two thousand years of the message of the cross, it is hard for us to understand what the proclamation of Christ crucified sounded like to Paul’s world. The cross is a universal symbol of the Christian faith. The cross, and crucifixes that include the body of Jesus on the cross, are everywhere in our life. We see it at church and in our homes. We wear it as jewelry around our neck.

But the cross in the Roman world was a symbol of weakness, shame, and suffering. The Romans used it as an instrument of terror in the provinces. Criminals died on the cross. They died in a way that was slow, painful, and public.  Even after death, the body was left on the cross to be eaten by birds as a warning to all.

But Paul had come to Corinth and proclaimed that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was actually something completely different from what it appeared to be.  Yes, he had been tortured and humiliated.  Yes, he had died as a criminal in the weakness and shame of death on a cross. 

Yet while all this was completely true and had really happened, the death of Christ was in fact God’s most powerful action to give us salvation.  In chapter fifteen, Paul describes the message that he had shared with the Corinthians. He wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Paul told the Romans that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Created for fellowship with God, we are instead people who break God’s law. We sin in thought, word, and deed.  These sins are a rejection of God. They are committed against God. As David says in the Psalms, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

Paul proclaimed that Jesus was a man who had really died on the cross. But he was more than just a man. He was the Son of God. As he told the Galatians, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman.” As the One who is true God and true man, Christ the sinless One had taken our sins as if they were his own.  He had received God’s just judgment against sin as he died on the cross. And now, through faith in Christ we are justified before God – we are forgiven and innocent. Paul told the Romans that we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

This was the word of the cross.  In our text, we see that Paul is under no illusions about what this sounded like to the world.  He says, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  The Greek word translated as folly is based on the root from which we get the word “moronic.” To the Greco-Roman world, the word of the cross was moronic.  It was idiotic. It was stupid. Yet Paul says that for those who are being saved it is the power of God.

The apostle describes in our text how the cross is God acting in foolish ways to make fools of the world that refuses to believe in him. He says, “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”

Those who believe in the folly of the cross are saved. Those who reject it are damned as sinners by God’s judgment.  Paul says, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” To the Jew, a crucified Christ – a crucified Messiah – was an oxymoron. It was by definition impossible.  To the Greek, Christ crucified was moronic.

Yet in our text Paul goes on to add, “but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  Paul had once considered Christ crucified to be a stumbling block.  He thought Jesus was a blasphemer who had been justly killed, and he sought to destroy the Church. 

But he had learned that God had vindicated Jesus and demonstrated that he had been working through the cross of Christ. God did this by raising Jesus from the dead. As he says in chapter fifteen: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

Holy Cross Day focuses our attention on the means by which God redeemed us from sin.  But the cross is not only a description of how God redeemed us.  It provides the pattern for how God continues to deal with us now. Paul says at the end of our text, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” The cross shows us how God acts in what look to be foolish and weak ways

That is what is happening right now. I am proclaiming the Gospel to you – the word of the cross. These are just words from a man. They are words that many ignore – there are far more people out there doing their own thing this morning than there are in this and all the other churches combined. They are words that even people who are congregation members can ignore as they choose not to come to church and instead to do something else this morning.  By all appearances it is foolish and weak.

That is what will happen just a little later in the service. I will take bread and wine, and speak Jesus’ words over them in the Sacrament of the Altar. The bread and wine won’t look any different. They won’t taste any different.  You won’t see droves of people coming into the church to receive it. There are congregation members who just didn’t bother be here today for it.  By all appearances it is foolish and weak.

But the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. God works in the way of the cross.  What seems to be foolish is the wisdom of God.  What seems to be weak is the power of God.  Through the preaching of the Gospel – the word of the cross – the Spirit of Christ is delivering forgiveness and sustaining faith. That is what is happening at this very moment.

What seems to be foolish is the wisdom of God.  What seems to be weak is the power of God.  The bread and wine are not mere bread and wine, but through the power of Christ’s word it is his true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.  Here the risen Lord is present in our midst as he gives us the very price he paid for our forgiveness and salvation.

And the cross is also the pattern for our own lives.  After Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, our Lord said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

It seems foolish and weak to accept suffering and loss in order to believe in Jesus Christ and confess him before the world. Paul told the Philippians, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.”

Because of faith in Christ we hold to God’s Word.  We seek to live according to his will. We share his will and ordering revealed in Scripture with others. We confess that this is true and that we won’t live any other way.

As we live in the world today this comes at a cost – it brings the cross. We saw this on Wednesday last week as Charlie Kirk was assassinated. We have seen it as so many people have celebrated his death.  Make no mistake. Charlie Kirk was killed because he was a faithful Christian. He confessed Christ before the world.  He said that Scripture is God’s Word and authoritative revelation. Because of God’s Word he said that abortion is sin. He rejected the entire LGBTQ agenda, and transgenderism and said that they are wrong and contrary to God’s will. He said that sexual immorality and pornography are wrong and destructive. He extolled marriage as the one flesh union of man and woman. He spoke about the complementary differences of man and woman, and emphasized the importance of family.  He was clear and direct about the threat of Islam.

People hated Charlie Kirk because of this. He was killed because of this, and people have publicly rejoiced on social media about his death. But of course, the things Kirk believed – the things I have just listed - are the same things that we as Christians believe.  And that means they hate us too.  This is not surprising.  Jesus said it would be this way.  He said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” This is the way of the cross.

But we walk this way knowing that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  In him we have already have peace with God now, and we will share in his victory before all on the Last Day. From prison, as Paul contemplated the possibility of his own death, he went on to tell the Philippians, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark's thoughts: On the assassination of Charlie Kirk

 

The assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday has shocked and deeply saddened many.  People are particularly troubled because this act of violence was carried out against a man who made it his goal to enter into public discussion with those who held different views.  Kirk was respectful of his opponents, even as he debated using his keen intellect.

I begin with Jesus’ words: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Kirk’s assassination is a reminder that this is indeed the world.  It is a fallen place of sin and death, and will continue to be until Jesus Christ returns.  But we are able take heart because in his death and resurrection Christ has overcome the world. He has conquered sin and death.  Already now we have eternal life as the children of God through Christ. In Christ’s resurrection death has been defeated, and we will share in this resurrection on the Last Day.

As we think about Kirk’s death, I begin where Kirk would have, namely his faith in Jesus Christ.  Charlie Kirk was a committed Christian who confessed his faith in the most public ways.  He did interviews with public figures who do not believe in Christ, and gave the reason for hope that was in him (1 Peter 3:15).  He confessed with his mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in his heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:8).  Because of this, we know that he is with Christ and that the Lord will raise and transform his body on the Last Day.

Kirk commented on political matters, but he is reminder that just because the world calls something “political” does not that it is so for Christians. He spoke against abortion, the LGBTQ imperialism in our culture, and transgenderism. He addressed the need to use sex within marriage, and the harm that sexual immorality and pornography are doing in our world.  He emphasized the importance of family, and the roles that man and woman play in their complementary differences created by God. He pointed out the threat of Islam.  These are not political issues. They are basic Christian views that are grounded in God’s Word. They become political because there are forces in the world that attempt to advance the opposite of this, and use the powers of government to do so. As Christians we must not only speak the truth, but also in our vocation as citizens we must seek to enact the truth in the political process. Much of Kirk’s efforts can be called political because he was engaged in this work.

Today there are individuals who are publicly celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. They do so because of their religion.  Many reject God altogether, but they have a religion. Their ideology that encompasses matters such as abortion, LGBTQ, transgenderism, etc. is their religion, and so the political enactment and advancement of those beliefs is carried out with religious fervor.  This is a religion which seeks the complete subjugation of society. It hates those who oppose it.   The reaction to Kirk’s death helps us to recognize this for what it is, and to understand how very different we are as Christians. Jesus tells us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. ’But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”

We give thanks that Charlie Kirk is with Christ, and pray that the Lord will comfort his family.  As we live in this world, we recognize it for what it is – a place of sin and death. But we live knowing that Christ has overcome it through his death and resurrection. We have that victory already now in Christ, and we will rejoice in its consummation on the Last Day. Meanwhile, we bear witness to Christ and God’s will for life. We seek in our vocation as citizens to see that we are free to live according to his will because this is what is best for society as a whole.

 

Mark's thoughts: What I want my sons and daughter to understand about marriage, sex, and children.

 

My children are just about to go to college, are in college, or have just graduated.  They are entering into relationships that have the goal of marriage, and are beginning to think about future plans regarding life with a spouse.  As I reflected on this, I realized that I wanted to pull together what I have learned about marriage, sex, and children and share this with them. It is not as if they had never heard these things from me before.  But I wanted to provide them in an organized and cohesive fashion.  I will confess that I did not understand all of this when my wife and I entered into marriage. In my experience growing up in the Church much was not clearly explained, or not addressed at all. I wrote them a letter, and this was its content.

The place to begin is the recognition that marriage and children are inherently and intentionally linked by God.  Marriage is the one flesh union of a husband and wife (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:4-6). The one flesh union of marriage has the purpose of producing children (Gen 1:27-28; 9:7).  Scripture teaches us that we are to view children as a blessing from God, and not in any way as a liability (Psa 127:3-5; 128:3; 113:9).  In God’s design marriage is the setting for sexual intercourse (Heb 13:4). Many will recognize that celibacy is not a state in which they want to live. We learn that sex in marriage is a means by which we direct sexual desires in God pleasing ways and avoid sexual immorality. This means that husband and wife need to seek to meet the sexual needs of one another (1 Cor 7:2-5, 9).  There is to be sex in marriage, and God has ordered sex to produce children.  Marriage has family as its purpose and goal.

It is not hard to see that this biblical understanding calls into question the practice of birth control (contraception). Birth control is nothing new.  It existed in the Greco-Roman world, and some of the techniques were quite effective (see John M. Riddle, Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance).  I have learned that in the entire history of the Church until the 1960’s and the advent of oral contraceptives ("the pill"), birth control had been considered contrary to God’s will.  This is not a Roman Catholic thing. It is a Church thing.  The Lutheran church openly opposed birth control in its entire history until the 1960's which began the shift to a neutral stance.  Southern Illinois District President Heath Curtis has written about this, and I encourage you to take a look at the evidence he presents (for greater detail on the early and medieval Church, see John T. Noonan, Jr., Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists).

This is not something that I learned at the seminary.  It is not something that I learned until after my wife and I had our children.  I will confess that we entered into marriage planning to have two children just as we had experienced in our own families.  We used birth control until we had our first child with no difficulty.  Then our journey was one of miscarriage and infertility. In unexpected ways the Lord blessed us with four children instead of two.

I am thankful that the Lord gave us four children instead of what we had planned. The life of our family has been so much richer because we have had more children. I have come to understand that when God makes it possible, more children are better because each child is a blessing. I have also learned that when we ignore and reject God’s ordering it brings harm. The present struggles of the Lutheran church as numbers decline have been caused in large part by our decision to use birth control in order to limit the number of children we have.  When Christian families act in ways that are contrary to God’s will, the Church suffers.

God’s Word also teaches us that he created woman for the vocation of being a wife and mother.  He created man and woman to be different.  Eve was created from Adam as the helper who corresponded to him (Gen 2:18; 1 Cor 11:8-9). The woman was created to be different from man, and to complement him.  She is different from man not only in her ability to bear children, but also in the way she is equipped to nurture and care for them.  In God’s ordering, a woman’s primary and most important vocations are wife and mother (Prov 31:10-31; Tit 2:3-5; 1 Tim 5:4).  What we find in Scripture is not a culturally contingent description of life, but is instead God’s revelation that reflects the way he has ordered man, woman, and family.   Our culture has totally rejected this understanding, and in ever more obvious ways we see how it is burdened by the harm this has done to marriage, family, women, and children.

It is my prayer that my children will want to live according to God’s ordering, for not only is it God’s will, but as God’s ordering it is the one in which they will receive his blessings.  It is my hope that my sons will want to marry a woman who sees being a wife and mother as her primary and most important vocations. It is my hope that my daughter will view her future life and goals in this way.

This is not to say that a woman will never do anything other than being a mother.  My wife was a nurse when I met her, and has worked as a nurse and then nurse practitioner during our entire marriage. Yet while she has found this to be significant and rewarding, there has never been any doubt that being a wife and mother was the primary focus of her life – the thing she considered to be most important.  Before they went to school she only worked on Mondays, the day when I was off and could be with the children. The rest of the time she was at home with them, because that is where she wanted to be.

The world says that women “can have it all.” But that’s a lie because they were created by God to be wife and mother first. “Having it all” means that a career becomes a primary focus. Life decisions are guided by career, and children become something that are worked into that plan using birth control. The result is a life in which the woman juggles career, family, and children. In such an arrangement, family and children suffer. In the end, as many women are discovering, the woman suffers.

The way of the world is to have few children and for the wife to pursue her career because this provides greater wealth for the family. It yields financial resources to own the dream house and take all the vacations that a couple desires (and where the argument is framed in terms of "need," we must ask whether that need is based on our own expectations about what life should be like) . But God’s Word teaches us that contentment with the daily bread he provides should be our goal (1 Tim 6:6-8; Mat 6:25-33; Heb 13:5), as we live according to his will and ordering. This is the way – God’s way – and it is one filled with rich blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity - 2 Cor 3:4-11

                                

                                                                                          Trinity 12

                                                                                          2 Cor 3:4-11

                                                                                          9/7/25

 

         

In order to apply for a visa to enter South Sudan, I had to first obtain a letter from the Lutheran Church.  This letter described how I had been invited by the church to serve as a guest professor at their seminary in Yambio. It indicated the time period when I would be teaching. It stated that I would be accommodated at the Lutheran Guest House and that all my expenses would be covered by the church.

          This letter was necessary to receive a visa from the South Sudan Embassy in Washington, D.C.  But that was not the end of its importance. I carried that letter in my passport the entire time was in South Sudan.  I had been instructed to always have my passport and that letter on my person – I never went anywhere without them.  The passport identified me as a U.S. citizen, and the visa in the passport indicated I had entered the country legally.  The letter demonstrated and explained the reason why I was there.  Sure enough, the security officer at the Juba airport examined the letter as he prepared to allow me to enter the country.

          In much the same way, letters of recommendation – letters that introduced a person and commended them to others - were very important in the Greco-Roman world and in the early Church.  A person would receive a letter from a church in one location. He would then present that letter to a church in another place, and through the letter the first church vouched for the fact that this individual was a Christian.

          As Paul wrote the letter that we know as 2 Corinthians, he was facing a problem that had been produced by letters of recommendation. Individuals had come to Corinth from elsewhere. They had brought letters of recommendation that indicated they were respected teachers in the Church. And now they were causing problems in Corinth as they were spreading false doctrine.

          In the verses just before our text, Paul had pointed out that unlike these false teachers, he and Timothy didn’t need letters of recommendation. Instead, the Corinthians themselves were their letters of recommendation. He said, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.”

          The Corinthians believed in Jesus Christ because Paul had proclaimed the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit had worked faith. And so the apostle added, “And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

          The Spirit of God had created the Corinthians as the church of God.  And this fact gave Paul confidence. Yet he also immediately called attention to the truth that this had nothing to do with him and Timothy.  Instead, it was God’s doing. Paul says in our text, “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

          Paul sets forth a series of contrasts this morning. There is the old covenant and the new covenant. There is the letter and the Spirit. There is death and life. 

The apostle never actually uses the phrase “old covenant,” but it is inherent in what he says about the “new covenant.”  He refers to the covenant that God made with Israel at Mt Sinai. When God established this covenant, he gave Israel the Torah – God’s law.  It described how Israel was to live in this relationship that God had established.

Paul leaves no doubt that this covenant and the law were from God. It was glorious.  He says in our text that it, “came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end.” We learn in Exodus that when Moses came down from Mt Sinai with the two tables of testimony that the skin of his face shone and Aaron and all the people of Israel were afraid to come near him.  Moses had been in the presence of Yahweh, and so the glory of God was still radiating off of him.

This law that God gave to Israel was an expression of his will and ordering of life. It was good. Paul told the Romans, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” But there was a problem – one which appeared from the start and ran throughout the history of the nation. The people didn’t do the law.  Instead, they violated it and brought God’s judgment upon themselves. 

That is why Paul calls it in our text a “ministry of death” and a “ministry of condemnation.” Or as the apostle says, “the letter kills.” The problem here is not the law. Instead, we are the problem. Paul told the Romans that “all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.”  The approach to God that is based in any way on what we do will always fail. It will fail because we are fallen sinners who sin in thought, word, and deed. We love the things God has created more than we love God. We love ourselves more than we love our neighbor.

It is not as if God was not aware of this problem. He is the God who is gracious, compassionate, and forgiving.  He provided within the law that he gave to Israel the sacrifices by which he gave forgiveness to his repentant people. As he worked through the history of Israel, he pointed forward to something new that he would do. He said through Jeremiah, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”  How would this new covenant be different? He said, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”

And how would God do this? He would do it through his Spirit. The Old Testament declares that God will pour out his Spirit as part of his end time salvation. He said through Ezekiel, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Sin has been our problem – it has been the source of every problem – since the fall of Adam and Eve.  But immediately after they sinned – before he had even described what sin had done to man – God said to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” God promised a descendant of Eve who would defeat the devil.

And then the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob began working through the history of his people to bring forth this One. He created the nation of Israel and brought it into a covenant with himself. He identified the tribe of Judah, and then said that through King David’s offspring he would bring forth the Messiah.

Jesus was the fulfillment of this promise. He was God’s answer to sin. He was the offspring of Eve – he was truly man, born of Mary. He was the Son of David – the Messiah from David’s royal line. Jesus was the One in whom the Last Days arrived. He was the Son of God in this world. He was the presence of God’s end time action worked by the Spirit. The Son of God was sent forth by the Father, as the Spirit of God caused Jesus to be conceived and born of Mary. The triune God carried out his end time action in Jesus Christ who is true God and true man.

God is the holy and just God.  Sinners who sin cannot exist in his presence. Sin must be judged and condemned. So God acted in Christ to do just that. A little later in this letter Paul says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  God did judge and condemn our sin. He did it in Christ as he bore our sins on the cross. As Paul told the Romans, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”

Since its entrance into the world through Adam, sin has brought death. But Jesus Christ has here to overcome every consequence of sin. He received the judgment of God against sin as he suffered and died to give us forgiveness.  And then on Easter God raised him from the dead as he defeated death forever.  He rose as the second Adam in whom resurrection life has begun – bodily life that can never die.

The Father sent forth the Son, as he was incarnate through the work of the Spirit. The Father raised Jesus the Son of God through the work of the Spirit. And now the Father and Jesus the Son have sent forth the Spirit to create faith and give new life. In our text Paul says, “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The Spirit of Christ gives life because he works faith in Christ by which we are justified before God – we are declared righteous and holy in his eyes. And so in our text Paul calls it a “ministry of the Spirit.” He says that it is a “ministry of righteousness.”  As the fulfillment of God’s saving action, Paul tells us that this new covenant and its ministry exceeds the first one in glory.

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The Spirit has given you life. He did it in the water of baptism as you received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit. Through the work of the Spirit you are now in Christ and have life with God. And the Spirit gives life as he leads and empowers you to live according to God’s will – his law.

This is not using God’s law as the means by which we do something – however small – to be righteous before God and have salvation. We do not in any way cooperate in our salvation. Instead, this is the work of the Spirit in our life because we already are righteous before God in Christ. It is the Spirit leading and enabling us to live according to God’s will. It is the Spirit using the law to show us what God’s will is as we seek to walk in the way of the Lord.

This life is the life of love which is a reflection of what Jesus has done for us.  It is a life that serves others. So help your husband or wife, your father or mother, your friend or co-worker in the things that need to be done.  Don’t turn a blind eye when you know that you can provide assistance.  

This life is a holy life. It is a life which is a reflection of God’s will and ordering.  So don’t have sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Don’t look at pornography in order to engage in lustful thoughts and actions. Instead, live according to God’s ordering in the one flesh union of marriage. This means that husband and wife are to have intercourse.  As Paul told the Corinthians, “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another.”

This life is a just life.  It is a reflection of our just God. So don’t show favoritism, because God shows no partiality. Treat others in a fair manner.  Do unto others, as you want them to do unto you.

The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.  If we try to deal with God on the basis of what we do – on the basis of the law – it can never be anything except a ministry of condemnation and death.  But God has carried out his end time action of salvation for us. Through the death of Jesus Christ he has condemned our sin and begun the new life of the resurrection. The Spirit of God has called you to faith in Christ and given you life.  The ministry of the Spirit is a ministry of righteousness as we live justified before God. Through the work of the Spirit we live in Christ as we act in loving, holy, and just ways.