Sermon for Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 9:1-8

                                                                                                            Trinity 19

                                                                                                            Mt 9:1-8

                                                                                                            10/11/15

            Did you hear what that guy said just a little while ago?!?  The arrogance!  The presumption!  The hubris!  He stood there before all of you and said, “I forgive you all your sins.”  Now he wasn’t saying that some person had done something to him, and so now he was going to forgive that individual.  No, he spoke those words to all of you.

            And that means something much bigger was going on.  It means that when he said “I forgive you all your sins” he was speaking like he was God. Now let me tell you.  I know that guy, and I can tell you for certain that he is not God – not even close.  I mean have you seen him try to help his youngest son pick out clothes to wear to school?  It’s not pretty. You know, there is a difference between black and navy blue shorts.

            And now that I think about it more, what’s up with this obsession with “sin” anyway?  “Sin”?  As if there is some kind of absolute standard of right and wrong that a person keeps or violates, and some vindictive God in the sky who is just waiting to zap the poor schmuck who does something wrong.  Give me a break!  How about he get out of those weird looking clothes, and join the rest of us in the twenty first century?

            Every Sunday you hear me stand in front of you and say, “in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins.”  It is something to which you have become accustomed.  Often it is not until you bring someone with you to church who is not a Christian or who comes from a tradition outside of Lutheranism or the Roman Catholic church, that you are reminded about how radical that statement really is.  People take offense at the language of Holy Absolution.  They recognize exactly what is going on and bristle at it: “Who is he to speak like he is God?”

            The same thing happens with the very word “sin.”  Because you see, as soon as you define sin as a violation of God’s law you have said that there is indeed some kind of absolute standard.  You have said that there is right and wrong; truth and error. That puts limitations on people and means that they don’t get to do whatever they think is right.  And in doing so you have also said that there is a holy and just God who judges and punishes.  Now there’s a view of God that will raise people’s ire. Because if there is anything in today’s world that you had better not be, it’s judgmental.  So if you go and try to ascribe that to God … watch out, because you are going to hear about it.

            In today’s Gospel lesson, we see that the Gospel is indeed about forgiving sins.  It is about the forgiveness that Jesus Christ provides – the forgiveness that he gives.  This forgiveness – the way it was won and the way it is delivered – is offensive to fallen man.  And we see that actually, sin is even worse than the description of it that people find offensive.  Yet when received in faith Christ’s forgiveness is the powerful word of salvation.  And we learn that his forgiveness reaches into the grave itself.

            In our text this morning we learn that after conducting his ministry, Jesus returned to Capernaum.  Matthew tells us that

some people brought to him a paralytic who was lying on a bed. The man couldn’t walk, and because they believed that Jesus could heal him, people who cared about the man went out of their way to carry him to Jesus.

            Jesus saw their faith.  And we should certainly understand this faith to describe the paralytic as well as those bringing him.  It’s not like they were taking him to Jesus against his will! And because Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

            Now if we are honest, this probably strikes us as odd.  I mean, is our Lord dense?  They are carrying a man on a bed to him.  It is pretty obvious that they are bringing him for healing. It is pretty obvious that the paralytic wants healing.  He wants to walk!  And what does Jesus say?: “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

            What would you have been thinking if you were the paralytic?  Would you have been confused? Would have been disappointed?  Would you have been angry? 

            Actually, it’s not a hypothetical question. For you see, quite often you are the paralytic.  You come here to where God is present for you in a unique way.  You come with physical ailments that need healing.  You come with mental illness that needs healing.  You come with family and work situations that need healing. And what does Jesus say to you?: “Take heart, my son. Take heart, my daughter; your sins are forgiven.”  He doesn’t give you the thing that is foremost in your mind.  Often he doesn’t give you the thing you want.  Instead, he gives you the forgiveness of sins.

            He does this because he knows something that you do not … or rather something that you are prone to forget. Sin is your real problem.  Sin is the root cause of all that is wrong in your life.  In fact, it is the root cause of all that is wrong in the whole of creation.  People are offended to hear that sin is a violation of God’s law.  But what they don’t realize is that sin is not just about things that we do.  As fallen people sin has caused us to be turned inward on ourselves and away from God.  Sin as caused all of the issues we experience in the various relationships of our life.  Sin has caused all the things wrong with our bodies that produce pain and suffering and frustration.  Sin, you see, will kill us.

             Of course, the scribes weren’t worried about what Jesus hadn’t done.  They are angry about what he had said.  We learn that “some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’”  The scribes perceived that Jesus had spoken in a way that only God can.

            Our Lord knew their thoughts, and so he replied, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  We learn that the man then rose and went home. And when the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

            Jesus shows that he has authority to do the harder thing – to forgive sins.  He does this by doing the easier thing – he heals the man.  Jesus came to bring forgiveness. He came to bring salvation from sin.  The angel said to Joseph about Mary, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”   This forgiveness; this salvation would extend to the very depths of every way that sin has warped our life.  It would extend to death itself.

            As Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week he told his disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”  Sin is a violation of God’s law and so Jesus came to receive God’s wrath in our place.  He said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            But in his saving mission, Jesus came to bring salvation from sin all the way into the depths of the grave.  He came to bring a forgiveness of sins that defeats death. And that is exactly what he did in his resurrection on the third day.  In his resurrection Jesus Christ was the second Adam who overcame every way that sin has harmed us.  He defeated death and began the renewed humanity that is free from every single harm that sin now causes in our life.  It is this renewed humanity – this transformed resurrection body – that Jesus Christ will give to each one of us on the Last Day when he raises the dead.

            That is why when Jesus says, “I forgive you all your sins,” he has given you everything you need. True, it’s not everything we want.  Our Lord is gracious beyond measure, and according to his will he does give those things too – he gives healing, recovery, health and resolution of problems.  But no matter whether those things are his will or not, he always does for us the harder thing.  He gives us the forgiveness through which we again have fellowship with God – a life with God that is eternal and will extend into a resurrection body and the new creation.

            The events in our text occurred two thousand years ago.  The incarnation of our Lord occurred at a specific time and place.  We don’t live then.  We don’t even live there.  But Jesus’ authority is not limited by time and space.  When he had risen from the dead he said to his disciples, “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.”

            Through baptism Jesus has washed away your sins and given you forgiveness.  And he does indeed continue to be present with us in ways that reflect his own incarnation.  He continues to use located means to provide forgiveness where we are at. 

            Here at his altar he uses bread and wine to give you his true body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  He comes into our midst as he gives his body and blood into your body.  Through that gift you receive forgiveness.  Through that gift the Holy Spirit nourishes and strengthens faith.  Through that gift the risen Lord guarantees that your body will be raised and transformed to be like his.

            And our Lord still speaks his forgiveness to you.  This brings us back to the way that I began this sermon, and to our text.  Jesus does still say “Take heart, my son; take heart my daughter, your sins are forgiven.”  He does it through his Office of the Holy Ministry, and the pastor he has placed in that Office here in this place.  Jesus has given the gift of Holy Absolution to his Church. He has given authority to forgive sins.  He has promised, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” 

            It is Christ’s Office of the Holy Ministry – that’s why in Holy Absolution the pastor says “by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word.”  That is why the pastor says, “in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ.”  And therefore, it is the risen Lord who says, “I forgive you all your sins.”  He does the harder thing by giving you forgiveness of sins and salvation. And because he is the risen Lord, you know that on the Last Day he will give you everything else as well.   

           

Culture news: Migration and the Islamization of Europe

William Kilpatrick has written a piece in which he raises important questions about the religion, worldview and family structure that Europe is importing into itself through the "migrants and refugees" it is allowing to enter in large numbers.  Writing from a Roman Catholic perspective he asks:

Are the bishops trying to protect their own established narrative by emphasizing the positive aspects of immigration? In light of what is happening, it seems that they have a responsibility to do more than simply remind Catholics of their moral duty to welcome the stranger. First of all, they have a responsibility to understand Islam and the kind of culture it generates. Unfortunately, many of them seem wedded to a fantasy-based conception of Islam. In the minds of many clerics, Islam is a close cousin of Christianity—an exotic cousin to be sure, but one who shares the same essential principles.
The reality—a reality that many bishops have not yet come to terms with—is that Islam is a radically different faith with a radically different moral code. A couple of years ago, the Afghan parliament rejected a measure that would have banned child marriage. The measure also would have banned the “practice of buying or selling women to settle disputes” and would have protected rape victims from criminal charges of fornication or adultery. Opponents of the measure said that it “violated Islamic principles.”
Unless the bishops understand “Islamic principles” better than Afghan legislators, they had better take stock of what sort of culture is being introduced into Europe. It will be difficult enough to repair the damage that has already been done to the family by secular relativists. It would be folly to compound the problems families face by enabling the spread of a culture that is opposed at almost every juncture to the Christian view of family.

Commemoration of Abraham, Patriarch

Today we remember and give thanks for Abraham, Patriarch.  Abraham (known early in his life as Abram) was called by God to become the father of a great nation (Genesis 12). At the age of 75 and in obedience to God’s command, he, his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot moved southwest from the town of Haran to the land of Canaan. There God established a covenant with Abraham (15:18), promising the land of Canaan to his descendants. At the age of 100 Abraham and Sarah were finally blessed with Isaac, the son long promised to them by God. Abraham demonstrated supreme obedience when God commanded him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. God spared the young man’s life only at the last moment and provided a ram as a substitute offering (22:1–19). Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried in the Cave of Machpelah, which he had purchased earlier as a burial site for Sarah. He is especially honored as the first of the three great Old Testament Patriarchs—and for his “righteousness before God through faith” (Romans 4:1–12).

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, You promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, You led him to the land of Canaan, and You sealed Your covenant with him by the shedding of blood.  May we see in Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, the promise of the new covenant of Your Holy Church, sealed with Jesus’ blood on the cross and given to us now in the cup of the new testament; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Commemoration of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Pastor

Today we remember and give thanks for Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Pastor.  Moving from the Old World to the New, Muhlenberg established the shape of Lutheran parishes for America during a 45-year ministry in Pennsylvania. Born at Einbeck, Germany, in 1711, he came to the American colonies in 1742. A tireless traveler, Muhlenberg helped to found many Lutheran congregations and was the guiding force behind the first American Lutheran synod, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, founded in 1748. He valued the role of music in Lutheran worship (often serving as his own organist) and was also the guiding force in preparing the first American Lutheran liturgy (also in 1748). Muhlenberg is remembered as a church leader, a journalist, a liturgist, and—above all—a pastor to the congregation in his charge. He died in 1787, leaving behind a large extended family and a lasting heritage: American Lutheranism.

Collect of the Day:

Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd of Your people, we give You thanks for Your servant Henry Melchior Muhlenburg, who was faithful in the care and nurture of the flock entrusted to his care.  So they may follow his example and the teaching of his holy life, give strength to pastors today who shepherd Your flock so that, by Your grace, Your people may grow into the fullness of life intended for them in paradise; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Concordia Theological Quarterly article explains why God is not "Mother"

It is common today for Christians to describe God as "Mother" or to use alternate terms (often feminine) for the Holy Trinity in place of Father and Son.  Christians need to be equipped to understand why such actions advocated by feminism create a false god and lose the Gospel.  An article I have written that addresses this issue is entitled God Our Mother?: Biblical and Philosophical Considerations in Feminist God Language and appears in the current issue of the Concordia Theological Quarterly.   

Sermon for Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

                                                                                                Trinity 18

                                                                                                Deut. 10:12-21

                                                                                                10/4/15

            At some point, you probably have had this frustrating experience.  You need to print up something.  Perhaps it is the receipt for an online purchase.  Perhaps it is a recipe you want to try out.  The printer swings into action, and then it begins making that annoying sound that tells you it is out of paper. You reach for where you store the extra printer paper … and then you see it. The package is empty.  You have no more paper and so you won’t be able to print anything until you buy more.  Either you have to go out then and get the paper, or you have to put your printing on hold until a time when you have been out and had an opportunity to buy some.

            The next time this happens and you are feeling frustrated, think about Moses.  When God entered into his covenant with Israel, we are told in the book of Exodus that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai “two tablets of the testimony.” The tablets had writing on both sides. And we learn that, “The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.”  God made the tablets of stone.  He wrote on them and gave them to Moses.

            When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and found Israel worshipping the golden calf that they had asked Aaron to make for them, he took the stone tablets and smashed them before the eyes of the people. This action declared that Israel had broken the covenant.  God was ready to destroy Israel and start over with Moses, but Moses interceded and God relented.

            God took Israel back into the covenant.  And so he needed to write out another set of the tablets of the testimony. But this time, as we learn just before the start of our text, God commanded Moses: “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain.”  It was time for God to do some printing.  But this time Moses had to supply the material. And it wouldn’t be as easy as running out to Walmart or Target to pick up a package of printer paper.  It was going to take some elbow grease as Moses had to cut the tablets out of stone.

            In our Old Testament lesson this morning, we have the words that God spoke to Israel through Moses.  The book of Deuteronomy contains a series of sermons that Moses preached to the people of Israel as they were about to enter into the promised land in order to conquer it.  The timing was about forty years after the first time they had been poised to do this.  On that occasion ten of the spies sent into the land to do reconnaissance frightened the people with the report they brought back. The people of Israel rebelled and refused to enter the land.  Once again Moses interceded for the people and God relented from destroying them.  But he declared that no one twenty years or older would ever enter the land.

            Now it was forty years later and it was once again time to go into the promised land.  However, most of the people had been born after the exodus from Egypt.  Most had not personally experienced God’s rescue. And so in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reviews what God had done.

            This morning we are thinking about the Ten Commandments.  We know, of course, that the Ten Commandments are Law.  They describe what we are to do.  But when you look at the Ten Commandments you find something surprising.  For you see, the Ten Commandment are introduced with a word of Gospel. The very first statement is this: “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Yahweh, the Creator, announced that he is their God. And then he declares that he is the One who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  He is the One who redeemed them.

            We find the same thought in our text this morning after Yahweh has just given the tablets for a second time.  First he says through Moses, “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.”

            Everything in creation belongs to God.  Yet Moses says that in his love God had chosen Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants.  The contrast is a stark one.  Yahweh is the almighty Creator who possesses everything.  And yet he had chosen Israel – something that they had not earned and certainly did not deserve.  Earlier in Deuteronomy Moses had said about this, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

            God had chosen Israel as his people out of his grace.  And then he had acted in a powerful and dramatic way to rescue them.  As we hear in our text, “He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

            The exodus is the Gospel event of the Old Testament.  In fact the word “redeem” that is used to describe God’s rescue of Israel from slavery is used by the New Testament to describe what God has done for you in rescuing you from Satan and sin.  He redeemed you. 

And he did it in a powerful and dramatic way.  First God sent his own Son into the world as he was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  God became man – one of us – and yet did not cease to be God.  Christ did this in order to take our place and bear our sin.  God the Father poured out his wrath on Jesus in our place in order give us forgiveness.  And then in a mighty act he defeated death by raising our Lord from the dead on the third day.

Now the Spirit of Christ has made you part of God’s people.  Though you did not deserve it in any way, through the water of Holy Baptism he joined you to Jesus’ saving death and caused you to be born again.  You are a child of God because God has done these great and mighty things.

In our text, Moses describes what this meant for Israel.  He says, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?”

Moses describes how they now are to live as result of all that God has done for them.  It is the life of faith. They are to fear and love God.  They are to serve him and walk in his ways. And as Moses points out, the things that Yahweh is commanding them are for their good.

The same thing is true for us.  We are to walk in faith as we seek to do God’s will.  And this will is for our good.  In the Ten Commandments God has told us about how he has ordered his creation.  He has told us about how things work and how we are to live in order to be blessed and live well.  And God knows what he is talking about – after all, he is the One set it up in the first place!

We know this.  We want to do this.  There are times when we do. But there are also times when we don’t.  In our text Moses says to Israel, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”  He calls Israel to repentance. God’s Word continues to do the same to us as well.  God’s law does show us our sin.  It leads us to confess, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  But because of Jesus Christ we know that through repentance and faith we are forgiven.  We know that we can return to the water of our baptism and there find the assurance that all our sins have been washed way.

Israel had received God’s undeserved love. Moses says in our text that this simply reflects God’s character.   He tells them, “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.”  In his love God had helped Israel when they were in the land of Egypt. And so now Moses tells them, “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Like Israel, we have received God’s underserved love in Jesus Christ.  He loved us when we were helpless.  He loved us when we were unlovable.  His sacrificial love has now brought us forgiveness and salvation. And so through his Spirit, our Lord now leads us to love others. He moves us to seek out those who need our support as we live in the various vocations of our life. He leads us to care for others who can do nothing for us in return. This is not something that we can do, but rather it is the work that Christ does through us.  It is not love that begins with us, but instead it is God’s love passed on through us.  As the apostle John wrote, “We love, because he first loved us.”