Sermon for Quinquagesima - Lk 18:31-43

                                                                                    Quinquagesima

                                                                                    Lk 18:31-43

                                                                                    2/11/70

            My whole family heritage is German.  The only possible hint of anything else is found in my Grandma Surburg’s family which was from Alsace-Lorraine – an area that was traded back and forth between France and Germany during the course of history. After the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, in 1871 it became German. And since the vast majority of people there already used German as their language – like my grandma’s family - it seems fair to call it German.

            Amy’s heritage is not all German.  On her mom’s side she has Irish and Danish.  But you would never know this from her maiden name which was definitely German: “Brandenberger.”  When Amy married me, she traded one German last name for another.  The irony is that she also traded one common misspelling for its opposite.  Brandenberger is spelled at the end as “-berger.”  However people always spelled it with a “u” - “-burger.”  She became “Surburg” which is spelled at the end with a “u” - “-burg.”  And she has learned that people always misspell it with an “e” - “-berg.” She just can’t win.

            We tend to use last names to identify people.  They are used in news reports and put on the back of sports jerseys.  However, last names were not an issue among first century Jews – because nobody had one. They didn’t have last names.  Instead, there were two ways to identify a person.  The first was their father. So I would be “Mark son of Paul.”  The second was by their hometown.  So I would be “Mark of Marion” or “Mark the Marionite.”

            In our text this morning we hear Jesus identified as “Jesus of Nazareth,” or more literally, “Jesus the Nazarene.”  This is not surprising.  It is after all, typical Jewish usage.  But what is surprising is the response that this draws from a blind beggar who cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

            Our text takes place as Jesus was making his final trip to Jerusalem. We are at the end of chapter 18 and in chapter 19 Jesus will enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem for the Passover and large number of people accompanied him.

            We learn that as he approached the city of Jericho, there was a blind man sitting at the side of the rode begging.  The man had no means of making a livelihood and had to beg for money.  Jewish piety emphasized alms for the poor, and so people would give something to a person in his condition.

            The blind man could hear that a crowd was passing by.  And so he inquired of those around him what was going on. He was told, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” The man then shouted out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

            Now we are used to hearing Jesus described as the Son of David. But it’s not a small thing. It is language that identifies Jesus as the Messiah – the descendant of King David promised by God in the Old Testament who brings rescue and salvation for God’s people.  God had promised that his Spirit would be upon this One, and the Old Testament described his work as God’s end time action.

            And the thing that should really catch our attention is the fact that the blind man calls Jesus “Son of David” after being told that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by.  The village of Nazareth in Galilee had nothing to do with Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Nobody from there was going to be the Messiah.

            Of course we know from the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel that there is more to the story.  Jesus does descend from King David, and he was even born in Bethlehem, the city of David.  Yet here, for the first time in the Gospel, someone addresses Jesus as “Son of David.”  A blind man speaks these words, because in faith he sees things clearly.  He is not dissuaded by what some people choose to view as a reason not to believe.  Instead, in faith he addresses Jesus as the Son of David.  And sure enough, he is right.

             We learn that those who were at the front of the crowd were rebuking the blind man, telling him to be silent. But instead he continued crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  The man’s experience raises a question for us.  Do we allow those around us to hinder our cry of faith?  Are we open and public about our faith in Jesus Christ?  Do our actions and words demonstrate to others that we believe in Jesus?  Or do we allow the pressure of our culture which says that “polite people don’t talk about religion and keep it to themselves” to keep us quiet?

            The blind man wasn’t going to be silenced.  He cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”  “Have mercy on me” has the same meaning as when we say “Lord have mercy!”  It means, “Help me!” The man called out to Jesus for help.

            If this phrase had been spoken by the blind man to another person, the meaning would have been clear.  The blind man would have been asking for alms – for money to help him.  But he was speaking these words in faith to Jesus.    And he was looking for something only Jesus could give – something he believed Jesus could give.

            Jesus stopped and commanded the man to be brought to him. And when he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, let me recover my sight.”  The man believed in the One who spoke to him.  He now addressed Jesus as

“Lord” and he asked for more, not less.  He didn’t ask for alms.  He asked the Lord Jesus to heal him.   

            We need to ponder whether we ask Jesus for less instead of more.  I am asking you to consider the things for which you pray. Do your prayers focus on all the things summarized in the Lord’s Prayer as “daily bread”? Do your prayers center on health and material blessings?  While we certainly should pray for these things, it is important to note that when Jesus teaches us to pray he begins with petitions about the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will.  Jesus teaches us to begin with those things that relate to faith and salvation.  Are we more interested in being physically healthy than we are in being spiritually healthy?  Are we more interested in the blessings of daily bread than we are in the blessings of the daily life of faith that receives God’s kingdom – his reign?

            The blind man who had cried out in faith all the more, asked for more than alms. He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.”     

And Jesus, the Son of David, had mercy on him. He said, "Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.”  Immediately the man recovered his sight.  He joined in following Jesus as he glorified God.”

            In our text Jesus says to the man, “Your faith has made you well.”  This translation is certainly accurate for this context, but the word used points to something deeper than mere physical healing.  Literally its says, “your faith has saved you.”  Like elsewhere when this word is used to describe healing, this points us to the saving work that Jesus is carrying out.

            When John the Baptist was in prison and he sent two disciples with the question, “Are you the coming one, or should be look for another?”, Jesus answered: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.

And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

            Jesus responded to the cry of faith by giving sight to the blind man because it was part of the salvation – the reign of God – that he was bringing to the world.  Jesus had come to provide the answer to sin and all of the ways it has impacted your life and world. In the first part of today’s Gospel lesson we learn that Jesus took the disciples aside and said, "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.”

            Each miracle performed by Jesus during his ministry pointed forward to the greatest miracle – Jesus’ death on the cross for you and his resurrection from the dead.  Jesus Christ was numbered with the transgressors in your place. He received God’s judgment against your sin in order to give you forgiveness. And his resurrection has begun the new creation in which sin and its effects no longer exist.

            This is the Jesus to whom you now cry out “Lord have mercy on us!”  He is the One who has ascended into heaven and has poured forth the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Jesus – to sustain and encourage you in faith.  This faith calls out to Jesus for help – help with spiritual matters; help with physical matters – because it is confident that Jesus is Lord.  He is the risen Lord who has defeated sin and death. 

            In our text Jesus answered the cry of faith.  He healed the man and restored his sight.  But then notice what the man did.  Our text tells us, “And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God.”  The man received healing. But he didn’t then go his own way.  He didn’t decide that now he could get on with the life he had always wanted.  Instead, just as he had called out in faith to Jesus, so now he walked in faith as he followed Jesus.

            It is the same for us.  We cry out to Jesus in faith.  He gives us forgiveness and salvation.  He says, “Your faith as saved you.”  But that doesn’t mean we then go our own way.  Instead we continue to follow Jesus as we seek where Jesus is present for us.  We follow Jesus, not by walking behind him on road but by hearing and reading the Gospel in the Scriptures.  We follow Jesus by looking in faith to what he did for us in our baptism.  We follow Jesus by coming to this altar where he is bodily present for us – in his Sacrament where he gives us his true body and blood.

            And because we know that our faith in the risen Lord has saved us, we glorify God.  We glorify God here in church as in the liturgy and in the hymns we praise our God who has loved in this amazing way.  We don’t take it for granted.  We praise God for what he has done.  We glorify God by telling others about what God has done for us. Again and again the psalmists praise God and announce that they are going to declare to others what God has done for them.  We need to do this as well. And we glorify God by what we do for others.  In love, Jesus Christ served us in order to save us.  Now we share that love with those around us because Jesus has said to us, “Your faith as saved you.”     

           

             

           

           

           

                 

Sermon for Sexagesima - Isa 55:10-13

                                                                                    Sexagesima

                                                                                    Isa 55:10-13

                                                                                    2/4/18

            We don’t really think about water.  If you want some, you go to the faucet and there it is.  If you are going to be outside doing something, you take a bottle of water.  It’s there all the time.  It’s no big deal.

            In our area, the only time we probably think about water is if we get too much of it.  When we have a period of very heavy rain, the drainage capacity in the Marion area gets pushed to the limit.  It’s not unusual to see water covering the intersection of Main and Court streets. The little creek behind church becomes swollen and fast flowing.  I am told that before major work was done on the drainage just west of Market street, the water would overflow the creek into the church parking lot and push up towards the sidewalk. Apparently on occasion it even reached the church.

            Things were very different in ancient Israel.  They thought about water all the time.  Life was based mainly on agriculture and the herding of animals.  You need water for both of those.  To the east was arid land and then desert.  Israel was inside the zone where the climate made agriculture possible – but not by all that much.  The land received sufficient water to produce, but it was also just enough.  An extended dry period could quickly become a problem.

            For this reason, Israelites were very attuned to the value and importance of water.  They paid attention to it.  And so it is not surprising that water provides important imagery and language in the Old Testament.  We hear an example of this in our Old Testament lesson today as Isaiah writes, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

            Isaiah speaks about food in our text.  In doing so, he is continuing a theme that he began at the start of the chapter. There he wrote: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”

            Yahweh calls the people to come to him and be satisfied.  He warns them against spending money and effort on that which can’t do this.  Of course, he is talking about more than just food.  He is referring to the orientation of life.  Is life going to be directed towards God and living according to his word – his Torah?  Or is it going to be turned away from God and towards other things?  Is life going to be lived in pursuit of idols of every size, shape and form? 

            Martin Luther reminds us that the thing in which you put your trust is your god. The thing you value most; the thing towards which you devote the most effort; the thing that gives you purpose, meaning and security – that is your real god.

            The eighth century B.C. had been a really good century so far – and that was part of the problem.  Things were good - and Judah and Israel were pursuing everything except God.  If that sounds familiar, it should.  We live at a time of unparalleled wealth and leisure.  It defines the way we think about life.  And it creates gods – every kind of god except the true One.

            The answer to this problem was simple. God says, “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.”  Yahweh tells the people to listen to him, for to listen to God - to pay attention to him – is to come to him. 

            Isaiah extends this call by addressing it to the people as one of repentance.  Just before our text he writes: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

            God’s word through Isaiah continues to address us today.  He calls us to identify the false gods in our lives – those things we put before God.  He tells us to confess this sin; to turn away from it; and to turn towards God. The prophet announces that God will have compassion and that “he will abundantly pardon.”

            Now if we are honest, that seems surprising.  Because pardoning and forgiving is not what the world does.  It’s not even what we want to do.  Instead our natural inclination is to get pay back; to get revenge.  We want to stick it to them, just like they did to us.  We may react verbally and strike back.  Or we may look for the opportunity when we can really get them.

            But that’s not the way God works. That’s not how he does things.  Instead, he wants to pardon.  He wants to forgive.  In the verse just before our text we hear: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

            We often quote this verse when we are talking about how God’s ways are beyond our understanding.  He is God and we are not.  We can’t grasp what he is doing in the world and the way he does it.  We just have to admit this when we see things that don’t make sense to us.

            Now that is certainly true.  But here the text really has a much more specific focus. The manner in which we see that God’s thoughts and ways are not ours, and are higher than ours, is that he wants to forgive you.  He’s not just saying that, like you and I sometimes do because we know we have to.  He really does think that way.  He really does mean it.

            And he has demonstrated it by doing something.  He sent his Son into our world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Earlier we heard God speak of “my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.”  God sent the promised descendant of David - the Messiah - to offer himself on the cross in our place.  Though without sin, Jesus Christ became sin for us and received the judgment our sin deserved by his suffering and death.  And then God defeated death as he raised Jesus up on the third day.

            This is what God has done because he wants to forgive sinners.  In our text, God goes on to say why repentant sinners can be certain about this forgiveness and salvation.  He says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

            God declares that he sends forth his word to deliver forgiveness to repentant sinners and this word never fails.  The word of the Gospel always does what God wants it to do as it gives forgiveness to those who confess they need it. 

            God’s Word does not fail.  It creates and strengthens faith in the crucified and risen Lord.  It delivers the forgiveness he has won. When added to water it turns that water into the located means by which we die with Christ and receive the guarantee of sharing in his resurrection on the Last Day.  When added to bread and wine in the consecration of the Sacrament of Altar it gives us the body and blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

            And the result is joy – joy in the knowledge that we are the forgiven children of God; that we are saints. The result is peace – the peace of knowing we are justified now – the same verdict that will be spoken on the Last Day. We hear at the end of our text, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

            We go forth from this place; we go forth in life with joy because God’s ways are not our ways – he wants to forgive.  We do so because he has acted on this by giving his Son, Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for our sin.  We do so because the word that he sends forth does not fail to give forgiveness to us.

            Yet this joy in forgiveness does not stop with us. It cannot.  It surges forth from us in two ways. First, the forgiveness God has given us in Christ Jesus is the forgiveness we want all people to receive.  This Gospel is something that we share with others as we tell them what God has done in Jesus Christ to give us forgiveness and salvation.

            And second, the forgiveness God gives to us is the forgiveness we pass on to others – the forgiveness we give to others when they wrong us.  As he speaks about the forgiveness he wants to provide, God says in this chapter, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

            This is true.  But the Holy Spirit has made us a new creation in Christ.  Through the work of the Spirit we begin to think in God’s ways because of Christ.  God’s word gives us the forgiveness won by Jesus.  God word is also the means by which the Spirit transforms us so that we can forgive others even as God has forgiven us. God’s word gives us forgiveness. God’s word enables us to forgive others.  This is God’s will and purpose.  And as God says in our text today: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

  

    

             

   

  

                 

             

 

Feast of the Purification 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.