Sermon for Quinquagesima

                                                                                                Quinquagesima

                                                                                                Lk 18:31-43

                                                                                                2/15/15

           

            As most of you know, this past weekend our family was in New Orleans.  We enjoyed again taking in the unique culture and sights of the city.  We enjoyed the wonderful food – more of it than I probably should have.  And we enjoyed the parades.

            If you haven’t been there to see it, it is hard to comprehend how New Orleans does parades.  While we were there, during the three days from Friday to Sunday, there were eleven parades that went past us on St. Charles Ave.  And we are not talking about parades likes the Marion homecoming parade.  These are massive, miles long parades, filled with marching bands, riding groups, and colorul float after float from which are thrown beads, stuffed animals and toys.  Families cook out on the parade route and make a day of it.  It is a sight that you just have to see.

            What we saw was just one small portion of the Mardi Gras parades that go on in the New Orleans area in the time that leads up to Fat Tuesday.  Since we have left there have continued to be parade after parade as it builds toward the crescendo on Tuesday.

            The Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans are a sight to see.  And while we were in New Orleans I saw a very poignant news story about a boy who wanted to see them while he still could.  This boy has a degenerative condition that is causing him to go blind.  Knowing that the day will arrive in the near future when he will no longer be able to see, he has devised a visual “bucket list” – a list of places and sights that he hopes to see before he goes blind.

            The Mardi Gras parades were an item that he had included on this list after seeing a picture of them in a book.  Earlier, the New Orleans TV station had run a story about the boy.  While I was there they ran a follow up story telling about how people who had heard about his situation had donated money to help him make the trip. Several people had also offered to give him a spot to ride in a parade, on a fire truck and on one of the buggies that zoom around in groups.

            The prospect of not being able to see – of being blind – is something that most of us find hard to imagine. While advances have been made in technology that greatly assist those who are blind, it can’t take away the hardship.  If that is still the case today, it was even more true in the first century Palestine of our Gospel lesson.  In our text we meet a man who is blind.  He calls out in faith to Jesus for help.  Though blind, it becomes apparent that he sees what matters, even as the disciples demonstrate a lack of vision.

            Our text begins as Jesus makes a very detailed prediction of his passion to the disciples.  He says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” This was not the first time that Jesus had predicted his passion. But we are told that

they understood none of these things. In fact, we learn that this saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

            Something similar had happened when Jesus had predicted his passion on an earlier occasion.  In chapter nine we are told, “But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.” The disciples did not understand Jesus’ prediction of suffering.  It was concealed from them. And they also didn’t ask Jesus to explain it.  Instead they went on to an argument about which one of them was the greatest.  It becomes clear that they don’t really want to understand.

            They don’t understand that Jesus is about service to others.  Just before our text we are told that people were bringing even infants to Jesus that he might touch them. But when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. It’s not surprising.  In the ancient world, children were considered to be of little value.  They consumed resources and contributed very little. But Jesus called them to him and said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” 

            Now in our text a man who is blind calls out to Jesus for help.  Again we learn that those who were in front of Jesus’ group rebuked the man and told him to be quiet.  Like children, the blind man was of little value, and those with Jesus had no time for him.

            We must ask ourselves how often are we like the disciples.  Because really, we don’t want suffering and service either.  We don’t want faith in Christ to cause inconveniences in our life.  We don’t want the uncomfortable situation of the person rejecting what we believe about Jesus, and so we just keep it to ourselves. We don’t want to provide service because … well … it’s too much like work.  We don’t want to serve because it means putting the needs and feelings of other people before ourselves.  And really, we are totally into “me, myself and I.”

            In this, and so many other ways, sin burdens our life.  But in Jesus Christ we have the One who sets us free from sin.  He rescues us from the darkness of guilt and fear.  He frees us to live as the child of God – the one who walks in the way of Christ.

            We see this in the second half of our Gospel lesson.  After the disciples demonstrate spiritual blindness, we meet a blind man who sees Jesus in true faith.  As Jesus and those with him   drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. He heard the commotion of the large group and asked what was going on.  He was told “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And so he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

            His address of Jesus as “Son of David” is significant.  He called upon Jesus in a way that identified him as the Christ – the One in whom God’s promised salvation was present.  And he cried out for help – for deliverance – in the words, “Have mercy on me!”

            The people who were at the front of Jesus’ group were annoyed. They rebuked the man and told him to be quiet.  But that didn’t silence this man and his call of faith.  Instead we hear in our text, “But he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!”’”

            Jesus heard this cry of faith … and it stopped him in his tracks.  He commanded the blind man to be brought to him and asked what he wanted Jesus to do for him.  When the man said that he wanted to see, our Lord replied, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And we learn that immediately the man recovered his sight and began to follow Jesus, glorifying God.

            In our text, Jesus commands that the blind man recover his sight, and he is healed.  By this action Jesus shows that he is indeed the Christ.  He is the Son of David by lineage.  Yet he is the Christ in an additional and more significant way. He is the Christ, anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism in order to bring God’s salvation.

            Jesus bring the saving reign of God that frees people from sin and every way that it impacts life.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus announces this in the synagogue in Nazareth the first time he teaches.  He quotes the words of Isaiah chapter 61 that say: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”  And then he says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

            By providing recovering of sight to this blind man, Jesus once again demonstrates that he provides release to the oppressed captives of sin.  It is the release that he has now won for us by the very means he describes in our text – his suffering, death and resurrection.

            Because of Jesus you have been released from sin. By the work of his Spirit you have received one baptism for the forgiveness of your sins.  You have been given freedom and enjoy God’s favor as his children.  Jesus paid for this freedom by his death. And in his resurrection he has begun the freedom from all the consequences of sin. He has freed you from death.  Yes your body may die, but death cannot separate you from God.  It has been defeated by Jesus.  And through baptism you have the guarantee that you will share in Jesus’ resurrection.  On the Last Day your body will be freed from all of the ways that sin currently afflicts it – all that it means for you to live as a fallen person in a fallen world.

            Like the blind man, through faith you have received the blessing of release from sin.  And now, through the work of Christ’s Spirit you do the same thing he did.  We hear in our text, “And immediately he recovered his sight and began to follow him, glorifying God.” You give thanks and praise to God as you follow in Jesus’ footsteps.  Freed by Christ from the slavery of sin, you are now free to serve others.  In baptism you have been anointed with the Spirit – you have become a “little Christ” – through whom the Lord love and cares for others. Your life of love and service to others becomes the praise that you give to God as you rejoice in the fact that these words of our Lord are true for you: “Your faith has made you well.”

                       

           

Feast of the Purication of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord

Today is The Feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord.  In Leviticus 12:1-8 the Lord instructed that when a woman gave birth to a child, she was ritually unclean for forty days.  At the end of that time she was to come to the temple and a sacrifice was to be made for her purification.  Exodus 13:11-6 also taught that the people of Israel were to redeem by sacrifice the first born male as a reminder of God’s rescue in the Passover.  Mary and Joseph faithfully live according to God’s Word and we find that even as a baby Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Torah.

This is the fortieth day since Christmas, and so we remember and give thanks to God that the Son of God entered into the world in the incarnation and fulfilled all of the Old Testament as He carried out God’s plan of salvation.  This plan included salvation for the Gentiles and so Simeon calls the child in his arms “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”  We continue to sing Simeon’s words in the canticle, the Nunc Dimittis.

This day in the Church year is also known as Candlemas.  Just as Christmas is short for “Christ Mass,” so Candlemas is short for “Candle Mass” (Mass was the medieval name for the Divine Service).  On this day the congregation processed into church carrying candles.  The light of the candles recalled Simeon’s words about the light for revelation to the Gentiles.

Scripture reading:

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:22-32).

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and ever-living God, as Your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, grant that we may be presented to You with pure and clean hearts; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Culture news: Same sex marriage debate is about children

After her parents divorced, Katy Faust was raised by her mother and her lesbian partner.  She argues that at its core, the debate about same sex marriage is about the well being of children. 

Sermon for Septuagesima

                                                                                    Septuagesima

                                                                                    Mt 20:1-16

                                                                                    2/1/15

            This month it was announced that the unemployment rate in the United States has fallen to 5.6%.  Now I think everyone will agree that is good news. The fewer people who are out of work, the better.  None of us wants to be unable to find a job, and we certainly don’t want others to be in that situation. 

            However, I have learned that the “unemployment rate” is a rather odd thing and that it can be reported in different ways.  Much of this depends on how you define an employed and unemployed person.

            During the last few years there have been several occasions when the unemployment rate has gone down.  However, the reason it has gone down is because several hundred thousand unemployed individuals became so discouraged that they gave up looking for work altogether. Because they had surrendered to unemployment and were no longer were looking for work, they no longer counted as people who were unemployed and so the unemployment rate actually went down.

            That’s probably not really the kind of improvement we want to see. There is just something bizarre about saying that unemployment got better because things are so bad people stopped trying to get jobs. That’s rather like a Chicago Cubs fans optimistically announcing that the team has only gone fifteen years in this century without winning the World Series. That’s true.  But it also means you are ignoring the ninety one years in the previous century when they didn’t win one either. 

            There are other factors as well, such as when part-time workers are counted as employed, even though they want to be working full time but can’t find that kind of job.  So, in one way of figuring unemployment the current rate is 5.6% and things are actually a little better than when the financial crisis started in the fall of 2008.  On the other, in another way of figuring unemployment that takes into account part time workers who want to have full-time work and those who have stopped looking for work but would look again if the condition of the labor market improved the rate is 11.2% which is a little worse than September 2008.  It all comes down to a question of how you define an employed and an unemployed person.

            In the parable that Jesus tells in our Gospel lesson this morning, unemployment is the problem.  And in this case there is no doubt that we are talking about people who are seeking work and want to work all day – they want to work full-time.  They are waiting around unemployed during the day hoping for work, when they get some good news.  They get hired for work, and some work is at least better than none. Yet when it comes time to get paid, they and everyone else who worked that day are in for a surprise.
            Our text this morning begins with the words, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”  The word “for” in the New Testament usually signals that the statement is providing some kind of explanation for what has just been said.  When we look at the sentence just before our text we find it says, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  In the same way, the last verse in our text says, “So the last will be first, and the first last.” It quickly becomes obvious that our text has a very close tie to the previous section in the Gospel.

            There Jesus has just said it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  In fact it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  This shocks the disciples because the common opinion of their day was that wealth was a sure sign of God’s blessing.

            Talk about wealth prompts Peter to say, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”  Now when Peter opens his mouth in the Gospel of Matthew, he usually proceeds to insert his foot in it.  However, in this case, what he says is true – even if it is a little too focused on the disciples and their benefits.  It was indeed true.  They had left everything they had known in life – their families, their homes, their jobs – in order to follow Jesus.

            Our Lord replied, “Truly, I say to you, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  Jesus said that in the new creation that he would bring on the Last Day, the apostles will have a unique status.

            But then, lest Peter and the apostles get big heads, Jesus immediately adds, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  Our Lord goes on to say that everyone who denies himself in order to follow Jesus will receive great blessings and eternal life. Those who were counted as nothing will be important, and those who were important will find that they are just part of the crowd.

            In order to help the disciples understand this better, Jesus tells the parable in our text.  He says that the way God’s reign works – his kingdom - can be compared to a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  He would have found them in the market area of the village, the place where day laborers – the poor who didn’t their own farm – would gather in hopes of being hired to work.  He agreed to pay them a denarius a day, which was the standard wage, and sent them off to work in his vineyard.

            Then the master proceeded to go out at different times during the day in order to hire more workers.  He promised to pay them what was right.  Finally he went out at the eleventh hour when there was just one more hour in the work day. He found men standing around unemployed – people who not been hired all day.  He said to them, “You go into the vineyard too.”

            When evening arrived and the work day ended, the owner of the vineyard told the foreman to pay the workers – but to do it in a particular way.  He was first to pay the workers hired last, the ones who had only worked one hour.  They were in for a shock, because the owner of the vineyard acted like a very bad businessman.  He paid each of them a full denarius!  They received a full day’s wage, even though they had worked for barely an hour.

            The laborers who had worked the full day saw this and got excited. Surely they were now going to receive more than a denarius!  But they too were in for a surprise, because when they received their wages they received a denarius.  We hear in our text, “And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’”  Yet he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’” And then our Lord concluded by saying, “So the last will be first, and the first last.”

            In the pride of sin, we all want to think that we are better than someone else.  We want to think that we are special – that we are above “those other people.”  Our world teaches us to think in this way.  We take pride in our income level; our social status; our education level.  Naturally, we don’t really want to admit that we do it.  But let’s face it, we look down on other people because we are better.

            This morning as we listen to our text, it turns out that we are the ones in for a surprise.  Because when it comes to salvation, Jesus doesn’t work that way.  When it comes to forgiveness and salvation, none of that stuff that means so much to us, counts for nothing.  Instead, all of us are equally mired in sin.  As Paul told the Romans, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  All of us have equally earned hell and damnation.

            But the good news of the Gospel is that in his grace, God has made an incredibly foolish deal.  Martin Luther called it the “Great Exchange.”  You have given Christ your sin and guilt and damnation.  By his death on the cross in your place and resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ has given you his righteousness and salvation and eternal life.

            This is the foolishness of the Gospel – the foolishness of the vineyard owner in our parable who pays workers for work they have not done. This is the blessing of the Gospel – the assurance that forgiveness and salvation is God’s gift to us. And because it is God’s gift, it is certain and sure.

            This is the blessing that we have received.  And because we have received it, it becomes the reality that now guides the way we deal with others.  Within the body of Christ, there is no room for “I am better than you.” There is no room for pride because “I have more money than you” or “I am more educated than you” or “I have a higher social status than you.”  Instead Jesus says in our text, “So the last will be first, and the first last.”  In the topsy turvy way of the Gospel, none of those things matter in Christ’s Church.  It is only sin – only the old Adam in you – that can make you think otherwise.

            And so Paul can tell the Philippians, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

            Listen to our text this morning.  Hear the good news that God gives you what you don’t deserve.  Rejoice in the forgiveness and salvation this provides.  And then also recognize what this means for your life in the Church as we deal with another, for the Lord truly does mean it when he says, “So the last will be first, and the first last.”