Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 22:1-14

 

Trinity 20

                                                                            Mt 22:1-14

                                                                           10/17/21

 

          Imagine the following scenario.  You are invited to the wedding of significant person in your community – a person of great influence and wealth.  The wedding is going to held in a large church.  The wedding reception will take place at a very upscale country club setting.  This is sure to be a very classy affair done with great taste and no expense spared.

          So how would you choose to dress in order to attend the wedding and the reception that follows?  Common sense tells us that we would need to dress well, and not in our normal everyday attire. We would need to dress in a way that was fitting for the occasion.

          Now imagine that you have attended the wedding and are at the wedding reception. There you see a man who is wearing cut off jeans and a tank top with the logo of a heavy metal band. What is your reaction to seeing this? Probably it is something along the lines of, “What in the world was that guy thinking when he got dressed?”  After all he is wearing something that is completely inappropriate for the occasion and setting.  In truth, dressing like that for this occasion doesn’t show much respect.

          I want you to keep this image in mind as we consider our Gospel lesson today, and walk our way through the parable that Jesus tells.  It will help provide the key to understanding what happens at the end.

          Our text takes place during Holy Week as Jesus interacts with the Jewish religious leaders who are trying to trip him up and find some reason to bring accusations against him.  This is the third of three parables that Jesus tells which are aimed at these religious leaders.

          Our Lord begins by saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 

and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.”  As you have heard from this pulpit many times in the past, the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” is simply a Jewish way of saying “kingdom of God.” And the kingdom of God in Jesus’ preaching is the reign of God that had arrived in Jesus and his ministry.

          A king giving a wedding feast for his son was a very big deal. This was the kind of event in which not only was it an honor to be included, but there was the expectation that those invited would attend.  People showed by their respect and obedience to the king by attending.  However, in this case something shocking happened: the people were unwilling to come.

          So the king sent out other servants saying, “Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”  The king again invited the people to come to the wedding feast.  He described how had prepared a lavish banquet.  Remember, meat like this was not a staple of the diet in the Mediterranean world. So the opportunity to have this kind of food was tasty luxury.

          However, the people paid no attention. Some went off to their own affairs.  Other even seized the king’s servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.  This behavior was truly shocking.  No one would act this way toward a king. And the king’s reaction in the parable is equally dramatic.  Jesus says, “The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” 

          It’s not hard to understand the meaning of the parable thus far. The king is God, and the Son is Jesus.  God the Father had sent Jesus to his people Israel as the Messiah.  He was the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament.  In Jesus, the kingdom of heaven – the reign of God had arrived.  However, the leaders had rejected Jesus, and they certainly had not encouraged people to believe in him.  In fact already in chapter twelve of the Gospel we learn, “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”

          The city that is destroyed in the parable certainly refers to Jerusalem, which happened in 70 A.D. as the Romans responded to the Jewish revolt. In Jesus’ ministry and that of his apostles, the Gospel had been offered to the nation.  Just as the Scriptures describe salvation as a great feast, God had offered this in Christ. But the leaders and the majority of the people had rejected Jesus.  In fact, the leaders would get their way.  They would use trumped up charges to get the Romans to execute Jesus on a cross.

          Jesus’ death on the cross came as no surprise to him.  Our Lord had said just as they were about to enter Jerusalem for the last time, “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 went to Jerusalem to die.  He went to die as the atoning sacrifice that has won forgiveness for you.  And then on Easter, God raised him from the dead as he defeated death.  Jesus brought the reign of God as he won the forgiveness of sins and began the resurrection that we will receive on the Last Day.

          God was acting in his grace and mercy to give salvation.  In the second half of the parable Jesus says about the king, “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

          The first guests had shown that they were not worthy by the way they had shamefully insulted the king and his son.  But the king would not have his wedding feast be empty. And so he sent out his servants to gather in all. They brought in both the bad and the good. This is a reminder that God’s grace and mercy knows no bounds. 

Though probably this describes the initial ongoing work to proclaim the Gospel to the descendants of Abraham, we can’t overlook the fact that we were later addons to the guest list of the feast of salvation. As Gentiles, we had no claim to God’s covenant with Israel. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says of the cup at the Last Supper, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  By Jesus’ death and resurrection we have been included in the new covenant. Each time we receive the Sacrament of the Altar we receive the assurance and guarantee that we are indeed part of God’s forgiven people.

By their very nature, Jesus parables often contain features that we would call hyperbole – features that are “over the top,” and grab our attention.  In this parable, people have the audacity to reject the king’s invitation, and even kill his servants. The king then responds by sending his army to destroy the city.

But at the end of the parable our Lord includes something that just seems odd.  Jesus concludes the parable by saying, “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

A man is invited to the wedding.  Then he is condemned and thrown out because he isn’t wearing a wedding garment.  Now there is no evidence that guests were provided with a wedding garment by their host.  In fact, there wasn’t any such thing as a “wedding garment.”  Instead, what people wore to a wedding was a normal clean festive garment.  The man had not bothered to put on appropriate clothing you should wear to a wedding banquet.  Think back to the man at beginning of the sermon who showed up in cut offs and a heavy metal tank top.  This action was an insult to the king and his son, and it ties the man to the previous people who were condemned by the king – the people who showed themselves not to be worthy.

In Matthew’s Gospel, being “worthy” is defined by how a person stands in relation to Jesus.  When Jesus sent out the apostles in chapter ten to proclaim the kingdom of God that has arrived in Christ, a town or village was defined as worthy if they received and accepted the message.

Everything about our life is defined by Jesus Christ – it is defined by faith in the Lord and how we act because of this.  In chapter sixteen, Jesus had asked disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” After they reported the various answers such as, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets, he asked them the really important question: “But who do you say that I am?” 

Jesus addresses that same question to us through the Gospel. In faith we confess, “You are our Lord, who died for our sins and rose from the dead.” But just because we confess this today, doesn’t mean that we will confess it tomorrow or next year.  And just because we say these words, doesn’t mean that we act in ways that demonstrate the truth of this faith.

In the parable, the man was at the wedding banquet.  But the way he had dressed did not show respect toward the king and his son.  His actions showed that he was not worthy.  The experience of the man warns us that we cannot take Jesus for granted.  First, we must continue to be believe in him as our crucified and risen Lord. And second, this faith must determine the way we live.

Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Jesus’ words call us to repentance, for there have been times we put other people and things ahead of Christ.  His words draw us to his gifts of the Means of Grace.  For there the crucified and risen Lord gives us the forgiveness that he won. There the Spirit strengthens us in faith so that we can confess Jesus as Lord both in what we say, and in what we do.  Jesus words lead us to see our daily life as the setting in which we confess him as Lord by the way we live. 

God has called you to faith through the Gospel.  You have received the reign of God which arrived in Jesus Christ. Through faith and baptism you are forgiven because of Jesus’ death and resurrection for you.  God has graciously invited you to the feast of salvation.  So that we may continue to confess Jesus as Lord both in what we say and what we do, there is nothing better for us to do than to now come to the foretaste of this feast in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Here Jesus gives you his true body and blood, given and shed for you. Here you receive forgiveness.  Here you receive assurance that you are part of God’s people.  Here you receive food for the new man so that you can confess Jesus as Lord each day in what you say and do.  

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

         

 

         

      

 

Commemoration of Philip the Deacon

 

Today we remember and give thanks for Philip the Deacon.  Philip, also called the Evangelist  (Acts 21:8), was one of the seven men appointed to assist in the work of the twelve Apostles and of the rapidly growing early church by overseeing the distribution of food to the poor (6:1–6). Following the martyrdom of Stephen, Philip proclaimed the Gospel in Samaria and led Simon the Sorcerer to become a believer in Christ (8:4–13). He was also instrumental in bringing about the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26–39), through whom Philip became indirectly responsible for bringing the Good News of Jesus to the people on the continent of Africa. In the town of Caesarea he was host for several days to the Apostle Paul, who stopped there on his last journey to Jerusalem (21:8–15).

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God, we give thanks to You for Your servant Philip the Deacon.  You called him to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Samaria and Ethiopia.  Raise up in this and every land messengers of Your kingdom, that Your Church may proclaim the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

 

 

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

                                                                                Trinity 19

                                                                                Mt 9:1-8

                                                                                10/10/21

 

          Two weeks ago we had a very unusual Sunday.  In the course of the month leading up to when I was scheduled to be out of town, three different pastors who had committed to cover the services at Good Shepherd had to cancel due to personal or family health issues. With no way to find a pastor to lead the services, I am thankful that our elders stepped up.

          It was a very different Sunday because, unlike every other Sunday at Good Shepherd, we did not have the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar.  It was a different Sunday because we had guest “celebrity preacher” from the sixteenth century, as the elder read one of Martin Luther’s sermons.  And it was also a different Sunday because the service did not begin with Confession and Absolution.

          Now that fact seems very odd to us because normally, corporate Confession and Absolution begins every service.  You will probably be surprised to learn that in most Lutheran churches during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this was not the case. There was no Confession and Absolution at the start of the service, because those who were going to commune had already gone to private confession during the days leading up to the service.

          You can understand why the elder – a layman – didn’t speak the absolution you hear each Sunday because he is not a called and ordained servant of the Word.  But you may still have been surprised that there was no Confession and Absolution, because in addition to this form on the left hand side of the page, there is another form, often called the “Declaration of Grace,” on the right side of the page.

In recent history this has commonly been understood to be a form that non-ordained individuals could use. However, the reality is that this is a complete misunderstanding of its history and purpose. This absolution was also something that was only spoken by ordained pastors.  The manner in which the The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 was laid out with its “Order of Morning Service – Without Communion” and “The Order of the Holy Communion” – or “page 5” and “page 15” as we knew it - created the misunderstanding.  Therefore, we did not use it at the beginning of the service when there was no ordained minister present. And what can I say? That’s happens when your pastor learns things as he researches and writes the chapter that covers every form of confession and absolution in the hymnal for the forthcoming Lutheran Service Book Handbook – which should be out next year.

The Church has always recognized that it is an awesome thing to speak forgiveness from God to others. After all, this is not a matter of one Christian forgiving another Christian.  It is instead the declaration that sins against God are forgiven.  This is something only God can do.  Understandably, we recognize that speaking for God – speaking like God – is not something we as individual human beings take up and do on our own.

That is the basic issue that stands out in our text this morning.  In chapters eight and nine of his Gospel, Matthew tells us about the ministry of healing miracles that our Lord carried out.  This follows the Sermon on the Mount in chapters five to seven, and so in these five chapters the evangelist shows us that Jesus’ ministry was a powerful one of word and deed.

We learn that Jesus returned to Capernaum, the city that served as his base of operations in the region of Galilee.  Again and again, when people heard that Jesus was in the area, the sick came to him, or were brought to him by others. We learn that some people brought a paralytic to him lying on a bed. The family or friends of the man were willing to carry him to Jesus.  Of course, this shows their love and concern for this man. 

But it also shows something else, and our text states this explicitly with the words: “when Jesus saw their faith.”  The paralytic and the men who brought him had faith in Jesus. They believed that he could he help, and their presence showed that were willing to put their faith into action.

What happened next seems rather surprising. We learn that Jesus said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”  The paralytic had been brought for healing.  Instead, Jesus forgave his sins.  This may seem odd to us at first. But it also leads us to ponder more deeply what our real problem is. 

God had told Adam, “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.”  After Adam and Eve sinned, God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  St. Paul summarized this fact when he told the Romans, “The wages of sin is death.”

          Unless Jesus returns first, sin will bring death to every one of us.  But it’s not just that eventually we will die.  Instead, everyday we are in the process of dying.  Getting older does not mean you are getting better.  It may seem that way when you are a teenager, but it doesn’t take long to realize that age steals strength, speed, and stamina.  The illnesses and serious health concerns that arise during life simply stand out as proof that this is indeed what is happening.  It is sin that is the root cause of all of this.

          So the real issue is not health and death.  You are going to die.  What matters is whether that sin which is the source of physical death is going to cause eternal death.  Since every sin is a sin against the holy God it brings his eternal judgment.  What really matters is whether God has forgiven that sin, so that it no longer cuts us off from God and prevents eternal life with him.

          Jesus said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”    The scribes who were there said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Because they did not have faith in Jesus, it’s not hard to understand why they thought this.  All sin is sin against God. Only God can forgive this sin. Yet here was Jesus, talking like had the authority of God.

          Our Lord knew their thoughts, and he responded with one my favorite statements because it has two different meanings at the same time. He said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”  On the one hand, “it is easier to say “Your sins are forgiven,” because there is no way to verify whether it has happened.  On the other hand, it is harder to say “Your sins are forgiven,” and actually do it, because this is the root cause of every physical problem – it is the cause of the fact that we are always in the process of dying.

          Jesus had forgiven the paralytic’s sins.  Now he added, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – and then he said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  The man who had been a paralytic did in fact rise and go home.  Jesus had healed him, and in doing so demonstrated that he did have authority on earth to forgive sins. Matthew tells us, “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

          Our Lord forgives the paralytic and then heals him.  In Jesus’ healing ministry we see that he had come to bring God’s kingdom – his reign that frees us from sin and all that it causes.  The goal of this ministry was to redeem us from our every sin of thought, word, and deed.  Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that he would die.  He said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Jesus Christ died on the cross to win forgiveness before God. He received the judgment against sin that we deserved. Though sinless, the wages of sin for him was indeed death.

          Yet Jesus’ death was about more than providing forgiveness.  Jesus died so that God could raise him from the dead on the third day and begin a bodily life where death is never possible again.  The message of the New Testament is that the resurrection of the Last Day began on Easter in the person of Jesus Christ.  He is the firstfruits, and on the Last Day when he returns in glory Jesus will raise and transform your bodies so that they can never die again.

          In our text, Jesus says to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”  Our Lord is saying the exact same thing to you this morning.  It happened in Holy Absolution when Jesus spoke through is called servant and said, “I forgive you all your sins.”  It is happening now as his called servant proclaims the Gospel to you – that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to give you forgiveness.  It will happen in a few moment as Jesus will give you his true body and blood, given had shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.  He will leave no doubt that this forgiveness is for you, because he will place that body and blood into your mouth.

          This forgiveness is received by faith – just as faith prompted the paralytic to be brought to Jesus.  Faith acts.  And as those who have received this forgiveness, it also means that faith acts in sharing this forgiveness with others.  Faith which has received forgiveness in Christ now forgives others.

          In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  He teaches us to ask for forgiveness, confident that as repentant sinners we will receive it on account of Christ.  But Jesus does not leave things there.  Instead he adds, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  And in case we have missed his point or are tempted to ignore it, in his very first words after the Lord’s Prayer Jesus adds, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

          Forgiving others is not an “option” in the Christian life.  If you want Christ’s forgiveness to remain with you, then it must also be passed on to others who sin against you.  Peter once tried to put a cap on this whole forgiveness thing.  He asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”  Seven times! Wow! Talk about graciousness.  But Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”  And of course Jesus was not providing the answer of four hundred and ninety.  Instead of if seven is the number of completeness, then seven times seventy indicates total completeness – completeness that knows no limit.

          This forgiveness begins in the setting of your family.  Spouses forgive one another, because God in Christ has forgiven them.  Siblings – brother and sisters - forgive one another, because God in Christ has forgiven them.  Parents and children forgive one another, because God in Christ has forgiven them. This means that we can’t knowingly continue to hold something against them.  It means that what has been forgiven is left in the past, and is never brought up again.

          It means that we forgive, even when that other person is not sorry and does not ask for forgiveness. After all, that is what God did for us. St. Paul told the Romans, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Shortly thereafter he adds that God did this “while we were enemies” as he reconciled us to himself by the death of his Son.

          We do not have the power and strength to do this.  It is only the Spirit of Christ who makes it possible.  It is only as we continue to confess our sins and receive forgiveness from Christ that we are enabled to live differently.  Today Jesus says to you, “Take heart my son. Take heart my daughter. Your sins are forgiven.” Because of our Lord’s death and resurrection you are forgiven.  Because you receive the Lord’s forgiveness, you now forgive others.  

             

         

 

 

 

              

 

Commemoration of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg - Pastor

 

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

Collect of the Day:

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

Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity - 1 Cor 1:4-9

                                                                                      Trinity 18

                                                                                1 Cor 1:4-9

                                                                                10/3/21

 

          You have been called by God.  That is a theme the resounds throughout the first nine verses of 1 Corinthians, and on into the rest of the chapter.  The apostle opens this letter by writing: “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”

          You will notice that first, Paul acknowledges that he has been called by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.  This is certainly not something that Paul ever expected. It is not something that he wanted.  He told the Galatians, “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”

          Paul was entirely satisfied in his life as an enemy of Jesus Christ.  He had purpose, meaning, and he was having success in his career. But God had called Paul by his grace and revealed his Son to him.  The apostle speaks about this in chapter fifteen of this letter as he recounts the many people who had seen the risen Lord. Finally he adds, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

          Paul’s calling was not only to believe in Christ, but also to the unique position of being an apostle of Jesus Christ – his authorized representative charged with speaking the Gospel to others.  But at the same time, the apostle stresses that each of the Corinthians - and each of you – have been called by God.  In verse two he describes the Corinthians as “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.”

          Then, in the last verse of our text he writes, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The apostle highlights the faithfulness of God, and reminds the Corinthians that it was God who called them into their present status – those who share in the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ.

          Now in our text, Paul thanks God for how he has blessed the Corinthians.  He writes, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-- even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.”  But things are not as simple here as they look, because these are actually all issues that Paul is going to address in the letter – problems that were present in the Corinthian congregation.

          Corinth was teh “problem child” congregation. Though Paul was the one who had first proclaimed the Gospel to them, they were now critical of the apostle. They recognized that Paul’s speech was not up to the standards that were expected of Greco-Roman rhetoric.  They thought they had knowledge that enabled them to take part in eating at pagan temples.  They were fixated on spiritual gifts and prideful about the status they believed were provided by them.

          Among these topics, I want to focus today on what Paul calls “speech,” because it is the very thing that he goes on to discuss in chapter one.  The apostle tells the Corinthians that the Lord sent him to “preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”  Later he adds, “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

          Paul’s speech was not something that the world would recognize as wise or sophisticated.  Instead he had proclaimed the cross of Christ – Christ crucified.  We are so used to the cross, that it is very difficult for us to understand how the message of Christ crucified was perceived in Judaism and the Greco-Roman world.  After all, we have crosses and crucifixes in our churches, in our homes and on our bodies as jewelry.

Among Jews, crucifixion meant that a person had been cursed by God, because the book of Deuteronomy said, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”  Of course, it meant that person could not possibly the Messiah – the Christ, because the Messiah was going to be the victorious and mighty one.  For the Greco-Roman world, the cross was the most shameful and humiliating form of death. Criminals died on the cross.  They died powerless, and in a manner meant to cause such great public suffering and shame that polite society didn’t even talk about the cross.

That is why Paul says in this chapter, “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.”  The apostle admits that to those who are perishing – to those who reject the Gospel – the world of the cross is folly.  To put the Greek into more colloquial English you could say that it is moronic.

And so Paul goes 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. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Notice again our word “called.”  Yes, the crucified Christ was a stumbling block to Jews.  Yes, the crucified Lord was folly to Gentiles.  But to those who are called – to you – Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.  He is God’s way of salvation that sounds foolish and weak, but is actually God’s wisdom and strength.

God has called you. And only God could call you.  To be sure, we sin in thought, word, and deed.  But the deeper problem of humanity is that on our own we don’t even recognize that our sin has cut us off from God and turned us against him.  Paul says in chapter two, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”  It is only the Spirit of God who can do this.  Paul says in this letter, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”  By contrast the apostle tells us that as fallen people are conceived and born in this world, they are unable to understand God and his salvation.  He says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

The cross sounds like folly.  It sounds moronic.  But through God’s calling by the Spirit, we instead recognize that it is the power and wisdom of God for our salvation. We do because we are now able to perceive our sinfulness.   We understand that our angry words, selfish actions, and lustful thoughts are sins against the holy God.  We confess these as sin, as we turn in faith to the crucified Christ.

In our text, Paul says of the Corinthians, “you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul says that the Corinthians – and you - will be guiltless.  He has already described them – and us - as “sanctified in Christ Jesus.”  This means that we have been made holy through Christ.  Now we know that in ourselves this is not what we are. But in the cross God acted to change this. 

In chapter fifteen Paul provides a summary of the Gospel he shared with the Corinthians as he says, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” Jesus’ death on the cross was not just another person dying at the hands of the Roman Empire.  Instead, it was God acting once and for all time in order remove those sins and give us forgiveness. In 2 Corinthians Paul writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Jesus Christ the sinless One took our sins as if they were his own, and received God’s judgment in our place.

Jesus Christ was crucified and buried, just like so many others across the scope and history of the Roman Empire.  And if that were it – if that was then end of the story – then Christ crucified would be nothing more than folly.  But as Paul says in our text: “you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  You don’t wait for someone who is dead to be revealed.  But the apostle Paul, the Corinthians, and we wait for it because Jesus did not stay dead. Instead, on the third day God raised him from the dead.

In chapter fifteen Paul says of the resurrection: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” And of course, he also appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.

Paul and the apostles went forth to proclaim Christ crucified.  They went forth to proclaim a message that they knew was a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles – it sounded moronic to the Greco-Roman world.  But they knew it was God’s wisdom for salvation because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. They struggled, and suffered, and even died in order to proclaim this Gospel because they knew that the risen Lord has conquered sin and death.

God has called you to faith in the crucified and risen Lord through the work of his Spirit. He has called to into the fellowship of his Son. In baptism “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  When you stumble in sin, that same baptism remains, ready to be grasped in faith, for through it you continue to receive forgiveness and the work of the Spirit who strengthens you.

Like the Corinthians, we wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our risen Lord has ascended into heaven.  He has been exalted to the right hand of God.  He intercedes for us. And he will return in glory in the Last Day – the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  On that day he will raise our bodies from the dead and transform them to be like his own. This is the hope that we have because Christ was crucified and then rose from the dead.  This is the hope that we have because God is faithful, and he has called us into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.