READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 26:1-15
Ephesians 5:1-9
St. Luke 11:14-28
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
Outward signs. Inward communion. As Jesus and St. Jeremiah face down Temple authorities today, we are faced with a real problem. We always wonder if we are really in God’s Church or not anyway, by what we believe and do each Sunday. Today, with church authorities rejecting Jeremiah and even Jesus, we begin to wonder if we can ever be sure of our earthly membership, much less our heavenly membership.
One of the things that infuriates me is when non-Christians bad mouth Christianity in light of the actions of a few who call themselves “Christian”. Case in point, there is a quote from Ghandi that has and continues to make the internet rounds saying, “I like your Christ, but not your Christians. Your Christians are not like your Christ”, apparently disproving Christianity. Ghandi is also quoted as saying, “Half my quotes on Pinterest are fake”, but whatever.
Regardless, the words sting our hearts. First, because we know of many who say they are Christian and yet act and speak completely contrary to Christ. Are we in fellowship with them? And second, because we know we are also part of that problem, that we ourselves act less than Christ-like most of the time.
There is one way out of this situation I will give you, though it’s not our solution for today. Ghandi is disqualified from commenting on Christianity because he does not know Christianity, which means he also doesn’t know Christ, which means he has no idea what he is talking about. In fact, the best he can comment on is morality and that is exactly what he means in his quote.
But we are going to tackle this problem genuinely, not politically.
The problem is that we find such a difference between Jesus and us, His kingdom and our sinful kingdom, that when He promises certain people are in and others are out, we immediately want to find the list of requirements, not so that we love them and want to keep them, but to make sure others are worse off than us and we fly under God’s radar.
So that when we look for the Kingdom, we look for outward signs, like morals, just as the unbelievers do. We look for activity and morality. We look for propriety and novelty. We look for engagement and entertainment. And once that checkbox is filled in, we kick back and say, “Soul…relax, eat, drink, be merry” (Lk 12:19). You found it.
Yet, almost immediately, we fall back to square one, because something will happen there, that we don’t like, and we’ll blame others, cause division, and wonder if we can ever find Christ’s Church on earth. For once we admit that, “The sinner, therefore, who has been soiled with any blotch cannot be called a member of the Church of Christ, neither can he be said to be subject to Christ” (AP VII VIII:11), it appears to be a hopeless quest.
Repent. Thusly does the devil divide and conquer and so you are divided and conquered. You have worried about the opinions of man and have concluded they are of more value than the Word of God. You look on the outward appearances for the Church of Christ and only find hypocrisy and divisions and therefore, despair. You want yourself and the church of your preference to shine bright like a diamond, instead of the coal-black of sin.
This we call the Outward Fellowship. When we rely on outward signs such as morality, the Word, profession, sacraments, objects, and rites we are only dealing with how people make themselves look to the naked eye. Yes, I even said Word and Sacrament, because you can have those things around and yet still not believe in them. You can claim morality, and yet remain immoral.
One of the reasons some of this infuriates me is because, all of us, in our sin view Christ’s church the same way as the unbelievers. We want the strength to cast out demons and call that “faith”. Hear the Lord through Jeremiah, in our Old Testament, witness to such “church membership power”:
“But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears” (Jer 26:14-15).
These were Temple, Church, leaders. These were the men who had sincerely sought out God and thought they found Him. Yet, here they find themselves against God. What went wrong? Such is the extent of our “powers”, to slander and to kill, even the Lord’s prophets.
Such is the sinful world that Christ comes to commune with. But since it is full of sinners who use and abuse, what is an almighty God-man to do?
He has come to inaugurate His Kingdom and sin will not stop Him. He has come to do His will and He will do so through His Church on earth, in spite of herself. He has come to do His work and it is an alien work. Alien to us, because we would never think that a servant would accomplish more than the powerful, especially a Servant God.
So it is that, “The Church does not consist of men with respect to power, or ecclesiastical or secular dignity, because many princes and archbishops and others of lower rank have been found to have apostatized from the faith. Therefore, the Church consists of those persons in whom there is a true knowledge and confession of faith and truth” (AP VII VIII:22).
While Outward Signs are necessary, they can be imitated. That is why, along with Outward Signs our Lord gives us Inward Communion. That is, the Holy Ghost, faith, and the fear and love of God. All things we cannot see and yet all things that are promised to us by Christ alone.
When Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, He meant that we would not be able to discern its success or failure by sinful eyes. This He said right before His humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross. And yet it was exactly in that Good and Holy Work of God on the cross that produced the Kingdom on earth.
For in that work, more properly, in the Body and Blood of Christ lives the Inward Communion between God and man. In the one, Jesus Christ, both natures reside fully and at peace. There is perfect communion there. Just as the Father and the Son are one, now all those in the Son are in unity with the Triune God.
The perfect, Inward Communion that is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, overflows into those baptized believers in Christ, even if, especially if they have been overcome by sin, death, and the devil.
So, how is it that we can tell if we are in true Communion with our Lord’s Church? That we don’t just share Outward signs, but also have the Inward Communion with the God of all things?
Faith. Faith that it is only the Good and Wholesome work of Christ, the Son of God, that purchases holiness and purity for His church, on earth as it is in heaven. Because of Christ we say, “that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered” (AC VII).
Those three things must be true of the church we align ourselves with: that “forever” bit you heard, the Gospel, and the Sacraments. “Forever” we have to leave up to Jesus, which is perfect since He is both God and man, has risen from the dead to live forever, and is our source of every grace and blessing.
The Gospel, therefore, necessarily centers on Jesus alone, excluding us, for the Gospel is none other than His solitary work of paying for sin, and defeating death and the devil for us. The Sacraments are where He includes us into His Gospel and His “forever”, proving the truth of His words. These 3 are the necessary components for God’s True Church and our inclusion.
Which makes us able to say, “And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: “One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:5-6).
For this reason, St. Jeremiah was able to remain steadfast in the Faith, because he knew that God had given him both Outward and Inward communion with Himself. Likewise, he could be sure that those who wanted to take his life, going against the commands of God, were only working within Outward signs of fellowship with the Church, and in no way reflected the Holy One of Israel (Is 47:4).
For this same reason, Jesus can shrug off the accusations made against Him and His Church. Not only do the opinions of men not matter, but they do not change what He has created with His innocent suffering and death. It does not matter that men can point out the evils acted out by men who are in the church, outwardly. All that matters is God’s promise to keep His Church holy until the end.
In this way, Faith gathers you around those promises. Faith shows you that God’s Word is true, that it teaches actual history, and that you believe it, thus you possess Outward and Inward Communion.
Faith shows you that the Sacraments are true, and you believe that what you hear, you receive. That when Jesus says “Baptize”, you believe, by water and Word, that you are saved. Likewise, when Jesus says, “Commune”, you believe, by bread and wine, Body and Blood, that you have eternal life.
Hearing all this and believing these words, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, you receive exactly what they say: the forgiveness of sins, life, light, salvation, and eternal membership in the Lord’s Church.
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely
the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
Outward signs. Inward communion. As Jesus and St. Jeremiah face down Temple authorities today, we are faced with a real problem. We always wonder if we are really in God’s Church or not anyway, by what we believe and do each Sunday. Today, with church authorities rejecting Jeremiah and even Jesus, we begin to wonder if we can ever be sure of our earthly membership, much less our heavenly membership.
One of the things that infuriates me is when non-Christians bad mouth Christianity in light of the actions of a few who call themselves “Christian”. Case in point, there is a quote from Ghandi that has and continues to make the internet rounds saying, “I like your Christ, but not your Christians. Your Christians are not like your Christ”, apparently disproving Christianity. Ghandi is also quoted as saying, “Half my quotes on Pinterest are fake”, but whatever.
Regardless, the words sting our hearts. First, because we know of many who say they are Christian and yet act and speak completely contrary to Christ. Are we in fellowship with them? And second, because we know we are also part of that problem, that we ourselves act less than Christ-like most of the time.
There is one way out of this situation I will give you, though it’s not our solution for today. Ghandi is disqualified from commenting on Christianity because he does not know Christianity, which means he also doesn’t know Christ, which means he has no idea what he is talking about. In fact, the best he can comment on is morality and that is exactly what he means in his quote.
But we are going to tackle this problem genuinely, not politically.
The problem is that we find such a difference between Jesus and us, His kingdom and our sinful kingdom, that when He promises certain people are in and others are out, we immediately want to find the list of requirements, not so that we love them and want to keep them, but to make sure others are worse off than us and we fly under God’s radar.
So that when we look for the Kingdom, we look for outward signs, like morals, just as the unbelievers do. We look for activity and morality. We look for propriety and novelty. We look for engagement and entertainment. And once that checkbox is filled in, we kick back and say, “Soul…relax, eat, drink, be merry” (Lk 12:19). You found it.
Yet, almost immediately, we fall back to square one, because something will happen there, that we don’t like, and we’ll blame others, cause division, and wonder if we can ever find Christ’s Church on earth. For once we admit that, “The sinner, therefore, who has been soiled with any blotch cannot be called a member of the Church of Christ, neither can he be said to be subject to Christ” (AP VII VIII:11), it appears to be a hopeless quest.
Repent. Thusly does the devil divide and conquer and so you are divided and conquered. You have worried about the opinions of man and have concluded they are of more value than the Word of God. You look on the outward appearances for the Church of Christ and only find hypocrisy and divisions and therefore, despair. You want yourself and the church of your preference to shine bright like a diamond, instead of the coal-black of sin.
This we call the Outward Fellowship. When we rely on outward signs such as morality, the Word, profession, sacraments, objects, and rites we are only dealing with how people make themselves look to the naked eye. Yes, I even said Word and Sacrament, because you can have those things around and yet still not believe in them. You can claim morality, and yet remain immoral.
One of the reasons some of this infuriates me is because, all of us, in our sin view Christ’s church the same way as the unbelievers. We want the strength to cast out demons and call that “faith”. Hear the Lord through Jeremiah, in our Old Testament, witness to such “church membership power”:
“But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears” (Jer 26:14-15).
These were Temple, Church, leaders. These were the men who had sincerely sought out God and thought they found Him. Yet, here they find themselves against God. What went wrong? Such is the extent of our “powers”, to slander and to kill, even the Lord’s prophets.
Such is the sinful world that Christ comes to commune with. But since it is full of sinners who use and abuse, what is an almighty God-man to do?
He has come to inaugurate His Kingdom and sin will not stop Him. He has come to do His will and He will do so through His Church on earth, in spite of herself. He has come to do His work and it is an alien work. Alien to us, because we would never think that a servant would accomplish more than the powerful, especially a Servant God.
So it is that, “The Church does not consist of men with respect to power, or ecclesiastical or secular dignity, because many princes and archbishops and others of lower rank have been found to have apostatized from the faith. Therefore, the Church consists of those persons in whom there is a true knowledge and confession of faith and truth” (AP VII VIII:22).
While Outward Signs are necessary, they can be imitated. That is why, along with Outward Signs our Lord gives us Inward Communion. That is, the Holy Ghost, faith, and the fear and love of God. All things we cannot see and yet all things that are promised to us by Christ alone.
When Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, He meant that we would not be able to discern its success or failure by sinful eyes. This He said right before His humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross. And yet it was exactly in that Good and Holy Work of God on the cross that produced the Kingdom on earth.
For in that work, more properly, in the Body and Blood of Christ lives the Inward Communion between God and man. In the one, Jesus Christ, both natures reside fully and at peace. There is perfect communion there. Just as the Father and the Son are one, now all those in the Son are in unity with the Triune God.
The perfect, Inward Communion that is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, overflows into those baptized believers in Christ, even if, especially if they have been overcome by sin, death, and the devil.
So, how is it that we can tell if we are in true Communion with our Lord’s Church? That we don’t just share Outward signs, but also have the Inward Communion with the God of all things?
Faith. Faith that it is only the Good and Wholesome work of Christ, the Son of God, that purchases holiness and purity for His church, on earth as it is in heaven. Because of Christ we say, “that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered” (AC VII).
Those three things must be true of the church we align ourselves with: that “forever” bit you heard, the Gospel, and the Sacraments. “Forever” we have to leave up to Jesus, which is perfect since He is both God and man, has risen from the dead to live forever, and is our source of every grace and blessing.
The Gospel, therefore, necessarily centers on Jesus alone, excluding us, for the Gospel is none other than His solitary work of paying for sin, and defeating death and the devil for us. The Sacraments are where He includes us into His Gospel and His “forever”, proving the truth of His words. These 3 are the necessary components for God’s True Church and our inclusion.
Which makes us able to say, “And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: “One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:5-6).
For this reason, St. Jeremiah was able to remain steadfast in the Faith, because he knew that God had given him both Outward and Inward communion with Himself. Likewise, he could be sure that those who wanted to take his life, going against the commands of God, were only working within Outward signs of fellowship with the Church, and in no way reflected the Holy One of Israel (Is 47:4).
For this same reason, Jesus can shrug off the accusations made against Him and His Church. Not only do the opinions of men not matter, but they do not change what He has created with His innocent suffering and death. It does not matter that men can point out the evils acted out by men who are in the church, outwardly. All that matters is God’s promise to keep His Church holy until the end.
In this way, Faith gathers you around those promises. Faith shows you that God’s Word is true, that it teaches actual history, and that you believe it, thus you possess Outward and Inward Communion.
Faith shows you that the Sacraments are true, and you believe that what you hear, you receive. That when Jesus says “Baptize”, you believe, by water and Word, that you are saved. Likewise, when Jesus says, “Commune”, you believe, by bread and wine, Body and Blood, that you have eternal life.
Hearing all this and believing these words, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, you receive exactly what they say: the forgiveness of sins, life, light, salvation, and eternal membership in the Lord’s Church.
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