READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Proverbs 9:1-10
1 John 3:13-18
St. Luke 14:15-24
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Blessed is he who
will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
These words of Jesus’s Gospel are given to you today, to
show you just how afraid you are of the goodness of God. It is too good. It is
so good, that you are left out. It is only in His invitation that we are
pointed to His mercy and forgiveness, which invite us in to union with God,
both in body and soul. We apply this when we encounter Him in His Word and
Sacrament.
These words and the excuses given in the Gospel, and found
in Deuteronomy 20, will be our focus today.
There is a “controversy which has arisen…concerning the
righteousness of Christ or of faith, which God credits by grace, through faith,
to poor sinners for righteousness.”
“one side has contended that the righteousness of faith,
which the apostle calls the righteousness of God, is God’s essential
righteousness, which is Christ Himself as the true, natural, and essential Son
of God, who dwells in the elect by faith and impels them to do right, and thus
is their righteousness, compared with which righteousness the sins of all men
are as a drop of water compared with the great ocean.”
Thus far from our Book of Concord, which accurately
describes what our man at the table is getting at by saying “Blessed are those
who will eat”. As if their spot at the table is a foregone conclusion. Of
course I’m going to be there. Of course my blood line will be there. No matter
what I do in this life, as long as I have the right last name, I’m in.
This is the mythical “frozen chosen” who will then go on in
the teaching of Jesus, from the Gospel reading, to make excuses, godly excuses,
as to why they are not more concerned with how they treat their neighbor today.
They think that in the details, they can catch God and get in on a technicality
or a loophole, in Jesus’s Name of course.
The other side to this controversy is that “others have held
and taught that Christ is our righteousness according to His human nature
alone.” This is the side we are most familiar with, for it deals with believing
God only gives His righteousness to those who look like they have it.
In good works and shining personalities, these men believe
God gives only human righteousness in order to work towards a godly
righteousness, eventually, sometime in the future. Regardless, your
unrighteousness can still condemn you by a technicality or loophole: “remember
that time the Body of Christ got stuck in between your teeth? Sorry.
Deal-breaker.”
In opposition to both these parties it has been unanimously
taught by the teachers of the Augsburg Confession that Christ is our
righteousness not according to His divine nature alone, nor according to His
human nature alone, but according to both natures; for He has redeemed,
justified, and saved us from our sins as God and man, through His complete
obedience; that therefore the righteousness of faith is the forgiveness of
sins, reconciliation with God, and our adoption as God’s children only on
account of the obedience of Christ, which through faith alone, out of pure
grace, is imputed for righteousness to all true believers, and on account of it
they are absolved from all their unrighteousness.” (SD III:1-4)
If this is such great news, why the anxiety? Why the
hesitation to heed this generous and perfect invitation to His own, true
Banquet? I will give two examples and maybe then, you can tell me.
First is Exodus. Everybody loves a good underdog story,
where the line between good and bad is easy to see and everyone lives,
freedom-ly ever after. God swoops in to save the day. He sends His super-man,
Moses, works His superpowers, the plagues, and even sends His people through
the Red Sea in order to free His people. God is good. God is great. I’m sure
glad He’s on our side.
Second is the Babylonian Exile. Nobody loves an Old
Testament forsaking. For years, the kings of Israel and Judah could not get a
good word from true prophets, so they murdered them. Each time they prophesied
destruction on Israel, they hardened their hearts. God was finally against
them, leveled His own Holy City, and banished His own holy people, Adam and Eve
style.
Back to the invitation: which God is the God of the
invitation? Is it the God Who believes in the tenacity and perseverance of
people, setting them free to go on to bigger and better things? Or is it the
God of Heavenly Righteousness, Who will show no mercy in the face of
disobedience or slip-ups?
So which is it, O godly man? Are you ready to plight your
troth upon the Lord? To risk your truth and all you hold true on this God Who
may or may not feel good today? Or will you hedge your bets in sin, as you
always do, and take all sides, because who knows, really.
You cast all your bets in with the immortal words of
Treebeard, who says, “I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is
altogether on my side.” (The Two Towers). Nobody cares for myself as I care for
it. I can’t go risking all my hard work on some fancy story-tellin.
There is one final excuse God allows, in Deuteronomy 20:1,
5-8, and it goes like this, “When you march out to battle your enemies…The
officials will continue to address the troops, stating: ‘Is there anyone here
who is afraid and discouraged? He can leave and go back to his house;
otherwise, his comrades might lose courage just as he has.’”
Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the
kingdom, according to Christ’s divine righteousness. And, blessed is everyone
who does now eat bread in the kingdom, according to Christ’s human
righteousness.
For, according to the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, we
must reject the following:
1. That our love or good works are a merit or cause of
justification before God, either entirely or in part.
2. that by good works man must render himself worthy and
fit, that the merit of Christ may be imparted to him.
3. that our real righteousness before God is the love or
renewal which the Holy Ghost works in us, and which is in us.
4. that two things or parts belong to the righteousness of
faith before God in which it consists, namely, the gracious forgiveness of
sins, and then, secondly, renewal or sanctification.
5. that faith justifies only initially, either in part or
primarily, and that our newness or love justifies even before God, either
completely or secondarily.
6. that believers are justified before God, or are righteous
before God, both by credit and by beginning to act righteous at the same time,
or partly by the credit of Christ’s righteousness and partly by the beginning
of new obedience.
7. that the application of the promise of grace occurs both
by faith of the heart and confession of the mouth, and by other virtues.
It is incorrect when it is taught that man must be saved in
some other way or through something else than as he is justified before God,
for Christ’s sake. “blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness
apart from works”, declares Romans 4:6.
St. Paul’s basis of argument is that we obtain both,
salvation as well as righteousness, in one and the same way. Yes, when we are
justified by faith, we receive at the same time adoption and the inheritance of
eternal life and salvation; and on this account St. Paul employs and emphasizes
those words by which works and our own merits are entirely excluded, namely, by
grace, without works, as forcibly in the article concerning salvation as in the
article concerning righteousness. (SD III:53 )
Christ is your righteousness. Therefore, Deuteronomy 20,
where we find these legit excuses, begins by first saying, “Do not be
afraid”.
“When you march out to battle your enemies and you see
horses, chariots, and a fighting force larger than yours, don’t be afraid of
them, because the Lord your God, the one who brought you up from Egypt, is with
you. As you advance toward the war, the priest will come forward and will
address the troops. He will say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Right now you are
advancing to wage war against your enemies. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t be
afraid! Don’t panic! Don’t shake in fear on account of them, because the Lord
your God is going with you to fight your enemies for you and to save you.’”
(Deut 20:1-4)
Whether today God is disciplining you in your sin or He is
comforting you in the Gospel, He is one God. He is the God Who both leads out
of Egypt and into Exile, going with you to both places. He is the God Who leads
besides still waters and comforts with a rod of iron.
The Lamb Who stands as if He were slain, with seven horns
and seven eyes, and demands fealty, touches your shoulder, and is seen as the
Crucified Jesus, with His raw, imprinted palms.
Everything is made ready by His, no-excuse life in front of
the Father, for you. He has bought a field and intends to be buried in it, for
the sins of the world. He has purchased 5 yolk of oxen and preaches faith to
all who hear those 5 Books of Moses. He marries a wife and intends to purify
her with His own, true Body and Blood.
Is God angry with you today? It matters not. His Son has
risen from the grave, divorcing you from the condemning law. Is God happy with
you today? It matters not. Not even prosperity keeps Christ from the
cross.
Our faith is in the Promise made in Blood. Our hope is in
the invitation, freely given for Jesus’s sake, that whether we encounter a
flame-engulfed mountain, or a still lake, with a “God’s Table here” sign, we
say, “the man on the middle cross said I get to be here.”
For true blessedness does come out of the bread of the
kingdom of God alone and in mercy, Jesus declares, “I am the bread”.
“as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to
eat.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses did not give
you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world.‘
And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who
comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. I
am the bread which came down from heaven.” (St. John 6:31-41)
And the Banquet of the Blessed gathers around the Bread.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment