Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity - Jer 23:16-29

                                                                                    Trinity 8

                                                                                    Jer 23:16-29

                                                                                    8/11/19

            “It shall be well with you.”  “No disaster shall come upon you.”  That’s what the false prophets were telling the people of Judah at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.  They were saying that everything was going to be just fine.

            As I considered these words, I thought about how they compare to the message we receive from politicians about the looming financial crises that face our nation and state.  We know about the enormous debt owed by the United States federal government, and the state of Illinois.  We know about the impending insolvency of Social Security.  Various communities face similar crises related to their pension commitments.

            On the whole, it seems to me that the message we hear from politicians takes one of two forms.  The first is nothing.  It is easier if the problem is just ignored.  It seems that everyone wants to go about with business as usual.  The other is that sometimes there are voices that acknowledge the problem.  However, the answers that could address the problems are too painful, and therefore politically unpopular. And so in the end they just “kick the can down the road.” So for example, during the sixteen years of Presidents Bush and Obama, the federal debt ceiling was raised eighteen times. Again, it is easier to go about with “business as usual.” 

            But I don’t think even the politicians of our day are declaring, “It shall be well with you.”  “No disaster shall come upon you,” when it comes to these issues. And remember, that’s what the false prophets were claiming was the message from Yahweh. They were telling the people that God said everything was going to be fine.

            Their message could not have been further from the truth. You didn’t need to be a prophet to see that danger threatened.  The Babylonians had replaced the Assyrians as the great power in the near eastern world. They were asserting their power over Judah.  Already twice, they had taken exiles of people from Judah back to Babylon.  In 610 B.C. they took the very elite of society like Daniel.  In 597 B.C. they took the next level, such as a priest like Ezekiel.

            King Zedekiah was now on the throne.  In the previous chapter Yahweh had sent Jeremiah to the king with this message: “Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”  The king and those in power were not acting according to God’s instruction of the Torah.  And the root cause was very simple – they were worshipping false gods instead of Yahweh. 

            Jeremiah was calling the king to repentance.  He told him that judgment would come on Jerusalem and why it would come as he said, “And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?" And they will answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.’”

            The prophets were no better. Just before our text Jeremiah said, “But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

            And it wasn’t just the prophets. The people wanted to hear this message because they had turned away from God.  Jeremiah says in our text:  “They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” 

            These were not true prophets.  Jeremiah challenged: “For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?”  The Old Testament describes the prophets as those individuals who were provided access to Yahweh surrounded by his holy angels. Because of this access, they received the real deal – the word of Yahweh.

            These false prophets had none of this and the results were disastrous.  We hear in our text:  “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.”

            False prophets exist in our own day.  No longer do they claim to speak for Yahweh – in fact most of them don’t claim to be religious at all. But they have a message about how to think and live, and they declare: “It shall be well with you.”  “No disaster shall come upon you.” 

            We hear the voice of the false prophets that begins in academia and then spreads through media and popular culture as it says there is no such thing as truth.  Instead, you need to determine your truth. That truth may include some vague version of “spirituality,” but it cannot include truth claims based on revelation from God.  The voice of the false prophets says that there is no truth - no norms or standards – for the use of sexuality. And so sex outside of marriage, living together when not married, homosexuality and the common use of pornography are all perfectly fine and beneficial. The voice of the false prophets says that the rich and full life must be filled with things, gadgets and experiences – you must have the great stuff the world offers; you must travel and have experiences to be fulfilled.

            How much are we allowing these voices to influence us? After all, even as those who are a new creation in Christ through baptism, there the old Adam is still in you that despises the word of the LORD.  He still wants stubbornly to follow his own heart.  Are we silent when we should speak? Do we live and think in the ways of the world when it comes to sexuality?  How do the views of the world impact our stewardship as we return a portion of God’s blessings back to him?

            After all, the Lord knows everything about us – our every thought, word and deed.  In our text Yahweh says, “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. 

I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’” The false prophets’ sins were not hidden from God. And yours aren’t either.

            God knew about the sins of the false prophets. And in our text Jeremiah declares, “Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.”  Those latter days arrived in 587 B.C. when God sent the Babylonians as the instrument of his judgment.  They destroyed the temple, tore down Jerusalem’s wall and took all but the poorest of the land into exile in Babylon.

            Yet do not think that God’s anger against your sin has turned back without executing the intent of his heart.  The false prophets had not stood in the council of Yahweh.  He had not sent them. But there was one who had – who had from eternity.  The Son of God – the second person of the Trinity – as true God had stood in council of Yawheh.  And God the Father did send him.  He sent him into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  He sent Jesus as the One who spoke the true words of God to us, because he is the Son of God.

            For the true prophets sent by Yahweh, their experience was often was one of suffering.  Jeremiah himself was rejected, beaten, put in stocks, and even thrown into a well.  Jesus Christ did not come in the latter days.  Instead his presence began the Last Days.  He came as the final end times prophet who did what no human prophet could ever do.  As true God and true man, Jesus came to suffer as the sacrifice for your sins.  God’s anger against your sin was poured out on him as he suffered and died.

            But on third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.  He vindicated him as the One who had carried out the Father’s will to win your salvation.  Jesus’ resurrection has defeated death and given you the living hope.  You have shared in Jesus’ saving death in baptism. And so you will also share in his resurrection.  Ultimately, your existence can only end in one way – resurrection life with our Lord. And even if death intervenes before our Lord’s return, you who are in Christ can never be separated for Christ. To die is to be with the Lord.

            In our text today God says through Jeremiah, “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.”

            Jesus Christ has spoken the word of God to us.  Through his word he now turns us from evil ways; he turns us from evil deeds. At the end of our text God says, “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” This word of God crushes us in our sin, as God works repentance.  It is a word that the Spirit uses to repress and subdue the old Adam - that bashes him so that he doesn’t run the show.

            And as the exalted Lord who has poured forth the Spirit, Christ’s Spirit is at work through his word to lead and enable us to live in the ways of God.  We learn that the life of faith – the life of the baptized child of God – is one of love and service toward others.  It is a life that sees the blessing and goodness of God’s ordering that he has revealed in the Ten Commandments and their explanation by Jesus and the apostles. The Spirit leads us to recognize, “Yes, that’s what I want to be!” “Yes, that’s what I want do do.”

            And then the Spirit who has created the new man in us, leads and enables us to seek to live in these ways.  For sure, this happens in the midst of struggle. There is no quit in the old Adam until we die or the Last Day. That alone is when he is finally killed.  But the resurrection power of Christ is already at work in us to lead us in this struggle.  And we know that the struggle can have only one outcome - Jesus Christ will have the final word when raises us up on the Last Day.

             

               

           

           

           

  

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity - Gen 2:7-17

                                                                                                            Trinity 7

                                                                                                            Gen 2:7-17

                                                                                                            8/4/19

            When we moved into our house in 2006, Matthew and Abigail were a little over one year old.  It was, of course, a time when I was in the process of getting to know Good Shepherd.  In 2008 Michael was born, and a life that was busy with Timothy, Matthew and Abigail, became even more busy.  As the kids got a little older there was the involvement in all the various sports seasons that are part of youth life in Marion: softball and baseball, soccer, basketball, and track.

            For thirteen years we have lived in our house.  The kids have gotten older.  They have tried different activities and settled on the ones that are for them.  That has shaken out in ways so that summer has actually become a time when things aren’t that busy at our house. And in those years they have grown up and become people who can actually help us do things.

            So this summer we decided to take on a major project.  The majority of the landscaping around the front and side of our house had been covered with stone.  The bushes were things that either we didn’t like, or weren’t doing very well.  We had never liked the stone, and wanted mulch instead.  Amy and Abigail had a vision of flowers and plants that they wanted.

            So we undertook of the project of shoveling out and removing the stone – some thirty five wheel barrow loads of it. We dug out the bushes, which proved to be an exhausting chore.  We brought in dirt to fill what was needed, and better soil for the plants.  Abigail and Amy planted various flowers and plants.  And we brought in and spread bag after bag after bag of mulch – because, of course, you never have enough mulch.

            We are very pleased with the result – with our own little “garden of Eden.”  Amy and Abigail will tell you it’s not done – they will add more plants and flowers as the seasons and budget allow. But I will tell you that it was hard work.  The results are very nice, but there was nothing enjoyable about doing the work.  It has exhausting, hot and sweaty. 

            In our Old Testament lesson this morning, we see a completely different picture. There is a garden, and there is work to be done there, but there is nothing hard or bad about it.  Instead everything is very good.  And as we follow in Genesis chapter two just a little after our text, we learn that things just keep getting better.

            In Genesis chapter one, God gives us the “big picture” overview of his act of creation.  Simply by speaking he calls creation into existence as repeatedly he says, “Let there be." We learn that God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

            In our text, in chapter two, we get a close up look at how God created the most important part of his creation – we learn how he created man.  We are told, “God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  Chapter one described how God had made a very good world – a material and physical world.  And here we have the ultimate confirmation that God made man as a material and physical creature.  God created his body from dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He created us as the unity of body and soul. 

            Then we learn, “And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”  We are told that this was a wonderful place in which was “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.”  In addition, there were two unique trees identified as the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

            This is the setting in which the words at the end of our text occur as we hear:  “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

            We learn in our text this morning about the worship of God and about vocation. God told Adam that he could eat of every tree of the garden except for one.  By holding back the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God placed a located means for Adam by which he worshipped God.  Adam worshipped God has his Creator – he feared, loved and trusted in God – by not eating of this tree. The act of not eating was one of faith and trust in God.  It was the way that Adam acknowledged that God was God, and he was not.

            Adam was also given a vocation – a calling.  He was placed in the garden to work it and keep it. This was work that was not work as we know it.  There was nothing hard or bad about it.  Instead, it was Adam joyfully fulfilling what God had given him the privilege to do.  The closest we can get to understanding what this was like is probably when you are doing your favorite hobby or activity. You are working and doing, yet there is enjoyment and fulfillment in doing so.

            And since I have mentioned vocation I really can’t stop at verse seventeen where our text ends. For in the very next verse we learn, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’”  Adam could not be man as God intended him, without a helper who corresponded to him.  And so God created a woman from Adam.  He created Eve.  In doing so, God instituted marriage – the union of man and woman. Genesis tells us in words that our Lord Jesus later quoted: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  God created the vocation of husband and wife, and Adam and Eve lived in the blessing of perfect correspondence with one another.

            Now I hardly need to tell you that things didn’t stay that way.  You know that Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  Tempted and deceived by the devil they thought could become more than they were. They could be like God.  And in so doing they lost what they had.  The tree of the knowledge of God and evil that was to be the located means of their worship became the means of their sin.

            You live with the consequences of that sin. God told Adam that his livelihood would now be one of pain and sweat.  God said that the relationship between husband and wife would be marked by conflict.  And God said that death would be final outcome for every single person.

            Those are your experiences.  You know the vocation of our work – your job – to be exactly that. It is work.  It can be hard, and boring, and exhausting.  And so sometimes you don’t do your best.  Sometimes you just do things well enough to get by.

            You know that the vocation of marriage is a place that can be marked by conflict.  Husbands and wives say stupid things that hurt the other person. They act in selfish ways, that don’t put the well being of their spouse first.

            For some of you the death caused by sin is not an abstraction because it has already taken away the spouse you loved.  Death has taken away family and friends.  And death is the enemy that stalks us all.  Even in life, you are in the process of dying. That can be the only outcome for every one of us.  And for some of you that fact presses in on your thoughts because of the cancer or the congestive heart failure in your body.

            But in his great mercy and love, God has not left us there.  Yes, by the tree in the garden Adam and Eve had plunged human beings and creation itself into sin, corruption and death. But in his first Gospel promise God told the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."  He promised a descendant of Eve who would defeat the devil.

            And then he did it by a tree.  In the fullness of time God sent his own Son into the world.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus Christ went forth as the One who had come to defeat sin, death and the devil. Though without sin, God made him to be sin on the cross.  He made him to be your sin. And there God judged and condemned your sin – your every failure in the vocation of your work; your every failure in your vocation of marriage; your every failure in every vocation where God has placed you.

            After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Peter stood before the high priest and declared, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him”

            By the tree of the cross God condemned your sin in the Christ.  But then, the Father raised him from the dead on the third day and exalted Christ to his right hand.  In repentance and faith in Christ you have forgiveness. But you also have even more that results from God’s saving action.

            It was the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead.  And now through water and the Spirit you have been born again.  The Spirit has made you a new creation in Christ. Already now, the resurrection power of Jesus is at work in you.  This means that because of Christ we forgive others in our work place.  It means that because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us, we now forgive our spouse for the wrongs he or she has done.

            Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for you; because of the work of his Spirit in you, you now look at the vocation of your work differently.  Yes it may at times be hard, and boring, and exhausting.  But in faith we now recognize that God is using us to serve others.  More than that, we recognize that in our vocation we are serving the Lord.  In fact Paul could tell slaves in the first century world: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Yes, because of the risen Lord we see things differently.

            In the vocation of marriage, the work of the Spirit of the risen Lord leads us to love and serve my spouse as Christ loved me. The Lord draws us back to see and embrace his will for marriage as the lifelong union of husband and wife.  He leads us in ever new ways to see the great blessing that God has given us in our spouse so that we love and cherish him or her.

            And in the face of the death of loves ones or the threat of death caused by sickness and disease, we have the confidence of knowing that Jesus Christ has defeated death. By the tree of the cross and his resurrection the Lord Jesus has ended death’s power to hold on to us.  The apostle Paul told the Romans, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.”

            In our text this morning, God shows us his will for human life and for his creation.  He has not allowed sin to deny this forever.  Instead, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ he has begun its restoration – a restoration that will be accomplished completely when Jesus Christ returns in glory on the Last Day.

            When he does, things will be very good once again.  God’s intention will not be thwarted.  It is not by chance that the end of book of Revelation describes this future as a kind of Garden of Eden restored.  For the apostle John declares: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 5:20-26

                                                                                    Trinity 6

                                                                                    Mt 5:20-26

                                                                                    7/28/19

            When teaching the Ten Commandments in Catechesis, I always enjoy arriving at the Fifth Commandment.  Right from the start, the First Commandment drops like a hammer: “You shall have no other gods.” Then we reflect on Luther’s explanation in the Small Catechism: “We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.”  We learn that at god is anything in which you put your trust; anything you value most; anything that gives you a sense of security and well-being. 

            The list of things that take on this role is nearly endless: money, popularity, possessions, sex, hobbies, sports … and you can go on and on.  Each person knows that this is true about him or herself – that we put all kinds of things before God and so break the First Commandment.

            Certainly, when teaching youth, they recognize that they break the Second and Third Commandments.  But when you get to the Fourth Commandment, you have another one that hits them in the face.  Of course they recognized that they don’t obey their parents all the time.  They don’t obey their parents as they should.  Luther’s explanation drives home the point that is already painfully obvious: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.”

            Then finally, we get to the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder.”  I always like to ask: “So has anyone here killed a person?”  And of course, the answer is always no. No one there has killed another human being.  And then, on cue, I like to say: “Great! Finally, a commandment that we can keep.”

            In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus takes that thought away as he teaches us about the truth depths of the Fifth Commandment.  He teaches us that God’s will includes the physical, but extends far beyond that.  It extends inside us to our heart – to our thoughts, attitudes and emotions.  In doing so Jesus shows us our sin.  There’s no doubt about it.  But is he only doing that?  Now that is something that we will have to consider as we go.

            Our text this morning is part of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus begins our text by saying, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’”  In this section of the sermon, six times Jesus states, “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you.”  In each case our Lord is taking up an understanding of Scripture that was present among Jews in his own day, and then explaining how it is either insufficient or just wrong.

            This way of speaking was very striking in the first century Jewish world.  There authority was based on quoting what previous authorities had said.  “Rabbi X, said that Rabbi Y said that Rabbi Z said this” was the kind of thing people were use to hearing.  Authority was to be found in the chain of authority that went back into the past. The Pharisees spoke about the “tradition of the elders” when describing their interpretation of the Torah that directed people about how they were to live.

            But Jesus didn’t do that.  In fact he did the exact opposite. Six times Jesus declares, “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you.”  Jesus was not playing the same game as everyone else. And people noticed, “Matthew tells us at the end of the sermon, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”  Jesus had authority because he was the Son of God who had come into this world.  He was God with us, telling us how things really are.

            But what he tells us is hard to hear.  Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.”

            Our Lord says that to be angry with a person is to break the Fifth Commandment and be subject to judgment. To treat another person with contempt is be subject to judgment.  And our text leaves no doubt that when Jesus speaks about judgment, he means hell – the hell of fire. 

            Now I am confident that no one here has murdered another person.  But I am also absolutely confident that every single person here has felt anger, spoken in anger, and acted in anger.  We have nourished and fed anger, cherished it and held onto it.  As fallen people, this is what we do.  Jesus said to the Pharisees later in this Gospel, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” 

            There is no getting around it.  This is Law in its most penetrating and killing form.  As we stand before the just and holy God we deserve nothing but hell. It can only lead us to confess the anger in our life, and the way it causes us to treat other people.

            Yet as we confess our sin, we need to listen to how Jesus began this sermon.  In what we often call the Beatitudes he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus began the sermon by declaring that those who are poor in spirit – those who are in need of spiritual deliverance – are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.           You are poor in spirit.  You struggle with anger in your life, and all of the things anger causes you to say and do. But Jesus says that you are blessed because the kingdom of heaven is yours now.  When our Lord speaks of the kingdom of heaven, he describes the saving reign of God that he brought into the world.  Jesus began his ministry by declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  He told the Pharisees, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

            Jesus brought the reign of heaven – the reign of God – into this world as he was sent by the Father.  He came to defeat sin, death and the devil.  He came to do that by dying on the cross.  Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for you.  His suffering and death for your sin was the cost of forgiveness for you. That is what had to happen for you to be just and holy before God.  But on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead, as he defeated death itself.  And so now through faith and baptism you are holy in God’s eyes. 

            You have received the gift of eternal life with God. Sin and death cannot take this away.  And death itself which looks so threatening is already whipped.  It cannot separate you from Christ. It has no power to hold your body. Because Jesus Christ the risen and exalted Lord has announced that he will return in glory with all the angels.  And on that day he will raise your body and transform it to be like his resurrected body that can never die again.

            Yet the words of our text this morning do more than just show us our sin when we fail.  They also show us what God has now made us to be through the work of Jesus Christ. We have seen that Jesus begins the sermon by addressing us as people who have already now received the kingdom of heaven – the reign of God. To have received the reign of God is to receive Christ’s saving work through the Spirit. The apostle Paul says in Titus that God “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

            Those who have received the reign of God – those who have received regeneration through the Spirit in baptism – are different.  You are different.  And that is why just a little before our text Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

            Jesus says that because you have received his saving reign – you are the light of the world.  He tells us to live and act in ways that let our light shine before others – ways that cause out good works to be seen by others for this give glory to God.  Our Lord says that those who have received his reign, live in ways that show his reign. Why? Because that is what his reign through the work of the Spirit does.

            This means that while we never cease to be fallen people –old Adam - who stumble and fall, we are also a new creation in Christ who through the work of the Spirit can live in ways that are true to God’s will. We are people who want to live in those ways.  And we are people who know what those ways look like.

            In our text Jesus says, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”  Our Lord describes the setting that existed in his time when the temple was still standing and in operation.  He says that if a person is bringing an offering to God, and remembers that there is someone with whom there is a dispute – someone with whom anger had been created and exists – he is to leave the gift at the altar.  He is stop right there and first go and be reconciled.  Only then should he follow through making his offering.

            So what does it mean to live as those who have received the reign of God, as those who are a new creation in Christ?  It means that we seek to be reconciled with others.  It means that we ask for forgiveness for Jesus sake. It means that we forgive others for Jesus’ sake. 

            Now this is not something we can do on our own.  It is only Christ’s reign that can make it possible.  It is only Christ’s Spirit who can make this possible.  Christ’s reign through his Spirit now is present for us in the Means of Grace.  He read God’s Word and hear it proclaimed to us. We received Holy Absolution. We come to the Sacrament to receive Jesus Christ’s true body and blood for forgiveness of sins and strengthening of the new man.  Here we find forgiveness for those times we fail. Here we also receive strength to live as what Christ has made us to be

             

                

 

 

           

 

               

Mark's thoughts: Are we ready?

This graffito was scratched onto the plaster wall of a room on the Palatine Hill in Rome.  Though it cannot be dated with certainty, most likely it was made around 200 A.D.   The inscription says, “Alexamenos worships [his] god.”  Alexamenos is pictured looking up in reverence and worship toward Jesus Christ, who is depicted on the cross with the head of donkey.  Alexamenos was obviously a Christian, and the creator of graffiti was mocking his faith.  The graffito says that to worship the crucified Jesus is to worship a jackass.

This graffito captures in graphic terms the offense that the cross of Christ presented to the Greco-Roman world.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).  The apostle went on to add, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). We find this same truth expressed when Paul told the Philippians about Christ: “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). 

The graffito is a reminder that Christianity in the first five centuries faced great resistance in the Greco-Roman world.  It was a “world of full of gods “and pagan worship flourished everywhere Christianity went.  This paganism was established, widespread and often possessed impressive temples.  Into this world, the Christians went forth proclaiming that a crucified Jew was the Son of God, and Savior of the world.  This message was met with public scorn and rejection by many, such as the creator of this graffito.

Most of us are old enough to recognize that a tremendous shift has occurred.  We have entered into a post-Christian world.  Where before Christianity held a privileged status in western culture, now it no longer does. Beyond this, increasingly aggressive opposition is being raised against Christian beliefs.  Powerful forces such as academia, the entertainment industry, big business, and the technology industry seek to promote a worldview that opposes God’s will, and in doing so Christians find themselves as targets.

The question then, is whether we are ready for the world in which Alexamenos lived?  Increasingly, in order to live as Christian we will be forced to confess Christ by what we do and say. This will involve cost, but we should not be surprised by this.  We read in Matthew’s Gospel:

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:24-27).

Just before this text, we learn, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21).  Jesus Christ died on the cross in the fulfillment of the saving mission given to him by the Father.  But as he told his disciples on several occasions, his death on the cross was not the end.  Instead, on the third day God raised him from the dead.  He has conquered death, and as the ascended and exalted Lord he is the One who will return in glory to vindicate his people and give us a share in his resurrection.

The apostles went into the world proclaiming Christ crucified.  They proclaimed this because they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead.  They had seen him. They had talked with him. They had touched him. They had eaten with him. They were witnesses.  Peter told Cornelius:    

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." (Acts 10:39-43)

Peter was a witness.  He was a martyr who took up his own cross as he was crucified in Rome because of faith in Jesus Christ (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, III.1.2)  Yet he did so because he knew that these words he wrote were true: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).  May the living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ strengthen each one of us to confess Jesus Christ in the days to come.