Sermon for fifth mid-week Lent service - Dt 18:15-22

                                                                                                Mid-Lent 5

                                                                                                Dt 18:15-22

                                                                                                4/10/19

            To whom do you listen?  It’s not so simple anymore.  The events of the last decade have left many wondering whether they can trust anything the mainstream media has to say. There was a time when you knew that a news source might have some political inclination, but you could also assume that there were journalistic standards that kept things basically accurate.  However, those days seem to be gone.  News outlets are certainly aligned with particular worldviews and agendas, and it has become clear this trumps standards and objectivity.

            On the other hand, while there is now a very large group of other news sources on the internet, how do you know which of them you can trust? We are constantly warned about “fake news,” and it is definitely out there.  We don’t want to fall victim to this. Who can you trust?  To whom do you listen?

            Our text for tonight addresses the question of the one to whom Israel was to listen.  As Yahweh prepares Israel to enter into the promised land, he warns them that there will be many voices among the pagans that claim to have a divine authority.  Just before our text Yahweh said, “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.”

            Notice that almost all of these pagan practices involve receiving information from a source claiming to provide knowledge that goes beyond normal human understanding.  Israel would easily be drawn to these things. They were common in the Near Eastern world.  And people want knowledge that goes beyond their own experience.  We want to know what will happen in future or to have guidance in making decisions. There is a desire to communicate with loved ones who have died and are no longer with us.  However Yahweh was clear.  Moses told them, “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.”

            It was one thing to know those to whom Israel was not to listen.  On the other hand, they needed assurance that they would continue to hear from Yahweh.  Moses had been God’s spokesman.  He had delivered the word of the Lord.  But now, he was not going to be crossing over with them into the promised land.  How were they going to hear from Yahweh?

            Moses told them, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen-- just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’”  God promised that he would raise up another prophet like Moses.

            It is important to recognize why Moses had taken on his unique role in the first place.  When Yahweh entered into the covenant with Israel, he descended on Mt. Sinai. There was thunder, and lightning, and thick clouds. Then the mountain was wrapped in smoke as Yahweh descended on it in fire. The whole mountain trembled, and the sound of a trumpet grew louder and louder.

            The people found themselves in the presence of the holy God, and the author of Hebrews was not kidding when he wrote, “Our God is a consuming fire.”  It was too much for the people and they told Moses, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.”

            The book of Hebrews reminds us that God has not changed.  He is the holy God.  He is a consuming fire.  His wrath destroys sinners who sin.  In ourselves, that is exactly what we are. We are sinners in thought, word and deed. Because of the Fall we are by nature sinful and unclean. Our sin is a product of our corrupted nature – the old Adam within us.

            Yahweh granted Israel’s request.  In fact he said it was right.  And so Moses became the one who delivered Yahweh’s word to Israel.  Now, Yahweh promised that he would raise up a prophet like Moses.  He declared, “And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”

            Initially, Yahweh kept his word by providing figures like Joshua and Samuel who spoke his word to the people.  But none of them were on the same level of Moses.  In fact the last words of Deuteronomy state: “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”

            In the first century A.D. God finally did raise up the prophet like Moses, Jesus Christ.  He was raised up from Israel’s brothers as he was born to Mary. But he was more than just a man.  He was also the eternal Son of God.  As true God and true man he came to speak God’s word to his people. Though more than just a prophet, he did come as a prophet – the prophet like Moses.

            Moses was an impressive figure.  Yet in spite of this, the Israelites made his life hard.  They complained at Moses and blamed Moses for their difficulties.  On occasion they were so agitated that they were almost ready to stone Moses. As a prophet, Moses was rejected and suffered.  And he wasn’t alone.  This became the lot of prophet after prophet like Elijah and Jeremiah. Some prophets were even killed.

            Jesus Christ was the prophet like Moses promised by God.  And it was as a prophet that he was rejected, suffered and died.  During Lent we are preparing for Holy Week.  Matthew tells us in his Gospel that during Holy Week Jesus said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”

            Jesus, the prophet like Moses, was killed.  He carried out God the Father’s saving purpose for you as he bore your sins.  He was wounded for your transgressions; he was crushed for your iniquities.  The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And after he cried out, “It is finished” and died, they put his body in a tomb.

            Anyone could claim to be a prophet speaking for Yahweh.  So in our text, Moses provides two criteria by which the Israelite could discern between a true and a false prophet.  The first was if a prophet led the people toward false pagan gods.  The second was that if a prophet spoke in the name of the Lord and that thing did not happen, the Israelites would know for sure that he was no prophet.

            As Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he said to 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.” Jesus Christ said he would be crucified, and he was.  Jesus Christ also said that he would be raised up on the third day … and he was.

            By his resurrection Jesus has demonstrated that he is the true prophet like Moses.  He has received God’s judgment against your sins to win forgiveness for you.  And in his resurrection he has begun the life that will be yours on the Last Day.  He has been vindicated as the true prophet to whom we must listen.  We listen to him in faith, for his words bring us salvation and eternal life. 

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent - Judica - Jn 8:46-59

                                                                                                            Lent 5

                                                                                                            Jn 8:46-59

                                                                                                            4/7/19

            I look at Twitter because of news and sports.  It is usually the most timely source of breaking news, and the people I follow post links to interesting pieces that I would not otherwise see.  But let me tell you: Twitter is crazy.  The vitriol, snark and condemnations present there are hard to believe.

            Now I am not talking about the back and forth between Republicans and Democrats, or liberals and conservatives.  Instead, I am talking about how sports fans talk about the coach, management and players of their own team.  There is a fine line between passion and crazy, and many people cross over to crazy and then just keep on going.  The team they claim to like becomes the object of their anger and derision.

            There is certainly harsh language directed at Jesus in our Gospel lesson this morning. The Jews calls Jesus a Samaritan and say he is demon possessed.  A little earlier in this same chapter they have called him a bastard. And of course by the end of our text they are ready to move from words to action as they seek to stone Jesus. Yet the thing we have to bear in mind is that these are the same people who earlier in this chapter have been described as believing in Jesus.  These are supposed to be Jesus “fans,” and yet this is how they speak to him.

            By the time our text begins here in chapter eight, things have gone completely off the rails for the Jews who are talking to Jesus.  It didn’t start that way.  Jesus was in Jerusalem for one of the visits during his ministry that only the Gospel of John tells us about. The verses that begin this section of the Gospel say: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

            Jesus said that by abiding in his word they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free.  To express things in this way indicated that somehow apart from Jesus they were not free. This did not go over well.  They responded, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  The Jews bristled at the idea that they weren’t free. After all, they were the offspring of Abraham.

            So Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  The Jews didn’t want to hear that apart from Jesus they were slaves of sin.  But Jesus called it like it was.  He said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.”

            Our text this morning is about abiding in Jesus’ word.  These Jews had begun in the way of faith. But they had not continued on that course. They had not remained in Jesus’ word.  In our text Jesus says, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” They were not from God.  In fact, Jesus had just said to them, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.”

            Jesus continues to tell us the truth, and honestly we don’t want to hear it. We don’t want to believe that apart from Christ we are slaves of sin.  We want to think that we can use some Jesus as we need him.  We can decide how much Jesus we need.  We can decide how much of his word we need to hear.  We can decide how much we need to receive his Means of Grace.  We are free to do this because really, our sin problem is very manageable. And besides, we have other things that require our time and attention.

            This is the temptation that the devil uses to draw us away from Christ. After all, he wants us back. We used to belong to him.  As sinners, he was our lord.  But the Son of God entered into our world in the incarnation in order to change this.  In our text the Jews raise the accusation, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”  Jesus replied that he did not have a demon.  Instead he honored the Father and was not seeking his own glory.  Indeed, our Lord says in our text, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’”

            Because of our sin, the incarnate Son of God came to carry out the Father’s will.  In the season of Lent we are preparing for Holy Week and the Passion of our Lord.  During Holy Week, Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  Or as Jesus said when they had left the last supper and were walking to Gethesemane: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”

            Jesus was glorified in death because he was faithful to the Father’s will.  Out of love for the Father and love for you he offered himself on the cross.  Yet his glorification was not simply in death.  Instead this glorification was an upward movement in which he emerged from the tomb on the third day.  I was an upward movement that continued in his ascension and return to the Father.

            Through this word of God provided by the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus now says to you the same words we find in our text: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”  When the Jews heard this, they were incredulous.  They said, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

            Who do you make yourself out to be?  What was Jesus claiming?  He stood there as a man in their midst.  Yet Jesus was claiming the very thing that John says at the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

            Jesus could claim to know the Father, because as the Son he had been with the Father for all eternity.  By rejecting Jesus – by refusing to abide in his word – these Jews were showing that they did not know the Father.  Jesus says, “But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.”

            These Jews showed that they didn’t know the Father. And in truth, they didn’t even know Abraham whom they claimed as a father. Instead Jesus told them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”  When the Jews complained, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

            Jesus is the Son of God who loved us and gave himself up for us. Though the eternal Son of God, he became flesh and lived among us.  He came to serve us.  At the Last Supper, Jesus depicted this fact by washing his disciples’ feet.  He said, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

            Then, our Lord went out and served us by dying on the cross.  He gave himself into death in order to deliver us from God’s judgment.  And in his resurrection he has provided us with the source of life that has no end.

            Jesus says in our text this morning, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”  To keep Jesus’ word is to believe he is the Word become flesh.  It is to believe that he was before Abraham – that he was “in the beginning.”  He became flesh to be nailed to the cross.  And in the flesh he was raised on the third day.

            Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”  By abiding in Jesus word through faith, you have passed from death to life.  Already now you have eternal life – the life of fellowship with God that will have no end.  Because this is so, you will never see death – not even if you die.  And even if you die, the risen Lord will give life to your body on the Last Day.  As Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

 

 

Sermon for fourth mid-week Lent service - Dt 12:1-14

                                                                                    Mid-Lent 4

                                                                                    Dt 12:1-14

                                                                                    4/3/19

            As of Thursday this past week, if you are a St. Louis Cardinals or Chicago Cubs fan, it is clear where you want to be.  Baseball season has started, and so a Cardinals’ fan wants to be at Busch Stadium, and a Cubs’ fan wants to be a Wrigley Field.  Admittedly, it is better to be there on a day when a home game is actually scheduled, but you get my point.

            There is a specific location that is the epicenter for the true baseball experience for each fan.  For the Cardinals’ fan it is to be in downtown St. Louis on the Mississippi River at Busch Stadium – a new “old ballpark” festooned with decorations proclaiming National League pennants and World Championships. For the Cubs fan it is to be on the north side of Chicago on the “L” line at Wrigley Field – a now updated classic old ballpark with its ivy covered outfield wall.

            In our text from Deuteronomy tonight, Yahweh tells Israel that when they enter the promised land, he is going to choose a location to place his name.  It is there that the people are to go in order to offer their sacrifices.  In this reference to the located means of the temple, we see how God’s dealings with his Old Testament people pointed to what he has done for us in Jesus Christ, and what he continues to do now.

            As we have see in our mid-week Lent sermons, in Deuteronomy Yahweh is preparing Israel to enter into the promised land.  He urges them to keep the Torah – the instructions – that he had given to them when he took them as his covenant people.  The Gospel facts of the exodus and the covenant always stand a the basis for everything God says.  So our texts begins with the words, “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.”  Note that Yahweh is described as “the God of your fathers.”  Yahweh was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He was the One who had elected Abraham – who had chosen him as the man through whom he would raise up his own people and bless all nations.  He was the One who had elected Jacob – who had chosen him when he and his brother Esau were still in the womb.  This election – this choice was a matter of pure grace.

            Israel was about to enter into the land that Yahweh had given them to possess.  This too was a matter of Gospel – of grace.  God had promised the land of Canaan as a gift.  He had rescued them from slavery in Egypt in order to bring them to this land.  He had provided for them during their time in the wilderness. Now he was about to give this land to them.  It was not something that they could take on their own.  Instead, only Yahweh could give it into their hands.

            In response to this gift and in order to continue to be blessed with this gift, Israel needed to live in faith toward Yahweh. They would do this by keeping his Torah.  A part of this involved how they were to live in response to the false gods in the land.

            God’s instruction described how they were to keep the First Commandment. He says in our text, “You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.”

            Life in the ancient world was a clash of gods.  Peoples and nations had the gods they worshipped, and when nations fought it was viewed as one set of gods versus another.  It wasn’t hard to figure out whose gods were more powerful – whoever won the battles clearly had the stronger gods.

            By giving the promised land to Israel, Yahweh was showing that he was the true God.  The Israelites were to destroy all traces of the pagan gods. This would also remove the temptation to try to “fit in” by worshipping the false gods of the Canaanites.

            This basic issue of the First Commandment recurs over and over in Deuteronomy.  God commanded, “You shall have no other gods.” Everything God said came back to this one basic point.  If they had no other gods, this is what life would look like. The same thing is true for us. The First Commandment continues to be foundational for the way we live life.  The rest of the Ten Commandments describe what different areas of life look like when we keep the First Commandment. They tell us what it means to fear, love and trust in God above all things in relation to God’s Name and his Means of Grace. They tell us what it means to

do this in relation to parents and authorities; life and sexuality; possessions and reputation.

            Israel wouldn’t do this perfectly.  That is why God had given them the sacrifices as part of the covenant. But we learn in our text that Israel was not to offer these wherever they wanted. They were not to be like the pagans who offered their worship and sacrifices on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 

            Instead Yahweh commanded them, “You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.”

            Israel was to offer sacrifices and worship at the place Yahweh chose – at the place where he would put his name and make his dwelling there.  Where Yahweh’s name was placed, there his saving presence was to be found. Our text refers to the location he later chose on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.  There the temple was built. There the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies. There the sacrifices were offered to remove sins and give forgiveness.  Israel knew where God was present for them.  They knew that at the located means of the temple on Mt. Zion they received God’s forgiveness.

            The incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, embodied all that the temple meant for God’s Old Testament people.  He was the fulfillment of the temple.  John begins his Gospel by saying, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” He tells us that all that was true of the tabernacle and temple, was true of Jesus Christ.  In the next chapter Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

            We are preparing to remember that on Good Friday they did destroy the temple which was Jesus’ body.  The sacrifices that had been offered at the temple pointed to the once and for all sacrifice that Jesus offered for our sin as he was nailed to a cross and died.  He was the lamb of God offered to take away the sins of the world.  But as Jesus predicted on multiple occasions, on the third day he was raised from the dead.  He began the new life of the resurrection that will be ours as well.

            The risen Lord has ascended into heaven.  Having fulfilled the meaning of the temple in his own body, Jesus no longer limits us in the new covenant to only one place. But the located means seen in the temple and the incarnation continue to describe how God works.  He uses means and we know where they are located – we know where they are present for us.

            At the font – in the water of Holy Baptism – God placed his Name upon us. And as Luther reminds us in the Large Catechism: “Where God’s name is, there must also be life and salvation.” Christ speaks forgiveness in Holy Absolution.  Through the pastor in his Office of the Ministry, Jesus says, “I forgive you all your sins.”  In the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus uses bread and wine to give us his true body and blood, given and shed for you.

            We continue to see our God and his forgiveness in these located means.  They are not located in only one place, but wherever they take place there we know that Christ is present giving us forgiveness.  We return to these located means, just as Israel did to the temple. And as we know the comfort and confidence of forgiveness we respond in the same way that Moses describes in our text tonight: “And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters.”