Enthusiasm [Trinity 6]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:1-17

• Romans 6:3-11

• St. Matthew 5:20-26

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Last week we talked about the voice of God and it was imperative that we understood it as external to ourselves. As in coming from God, not inside us. Today, we begin to examine our inner voice that the world continues to tell us to listen to and obey. So how do we know if its God’s voice inside us or if it’s just the Taco Bell we had for lunch?

 

“I tell you”, Jesus says. This is God’s Word, not mine, for you to hear over and over. It doesn’t change no matter how many times you read it. That you are not righteous, that you do murder your neighbor, and that unless you repent and die with Christ, you will remain unrighteous and murderous. It is the External Word that accomplishes true righteousness, and not anything internal to us. Trust, therefore, in the Lord’s Word and Sacraments to create and sustain faith in you and your neighbor.

 

So what happens when you give a spiritual law to fleshly creatures? They get confused, that’s what. Romans 7:14 tells us, “we know that the law is spiritual.” So when Jesus says, “You shall not murder”, we’re all like, “yeah, murder like, ‘murdering’ your good vibes, man.”

 

When we attempt to replace the Word with our experiences, reason, or our pleasures we become Enthusiasts. We name this grave sin, Enthusiasm, because this is what “inheres in Adam and his children from the beginning [from the first fall] to the end of the world, [its poison] having been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power [life], and strength of all heresy…It is the devil himself…[who is] extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments” (SA III:VIII:9, 11), says our Confessions.

 

Enthusiasm is the move from the certainty of God's promises to the shaky sands of one's own uncertain thoughts or feelings as to whether God is actually doing or not doing what He promises. 

 

For example: Jesus tells us to not murder, but its spiritual. That gives us spiritual license to interpret and seek its heavenly meaning, rather than a literal interpretation. We attempt to uncover God’s intentions behind His legislation. The flesh hears “you shall not murder someone”, but the “spirit” hears “be reconciled”. Its not about murder, but reconciliation.

 

Thus, in our super-spirituality, we become the judge. We keep God’s Holy Law the way we want to. He may demand righteousness and “no murder”, but what that means to me is “enhancing life”. Maybe that means, if I advocate for the redistribution of goods needed for life to endure (whatever that looks like), unmoored from moral discriminations (whatever those are), with the hope—and trust—that just maybe the wrongdoer will repent, i.e. live like me, then I’ll achieve what God really meant by, “you shall not murder”.

 

This is spiritualizing the law, or enthusiasm. Again, while the Holy Law would prohibit violence, us spiritualizing it would involve limiting the use of violence even in situations where it's technically permitted, emphasizing peace and reconciliation and, on the other hand, authorizing violence if it produces the same, life-enhancing result. 

 

Spiritualized legal systems would focus on fostering communion and cooperation between people, rather than just enforcing laws, rights, and obligations. Ha! Spiritual Growth would then mean ritualizing the law in order that you are simply involved with aligning your actions with your values and striving for a higher purpose. As long as my goal is met, the ends justify the means to get there.

 

Repent. Sounds convoluted, right? If you are above the Scriptures, you are against the Scriptures. You must reject the “fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own, if they sit unoccupied and silent in obscure places, waiting for illumination” (Ap XIII (VII):13) says our Confessions.

 

Jesus does not promise to draw all men to Himself without external means. Jesus does not promise enlightenment, justification, or salvation apart from hearing God’s Word. You may wish to wait for a heavenly revelation without preaching, but just tell me if you suffer from that and I’ll drop a Bible in your lap. (FC II:13)

 

Jesus rejects enthusiasm today, in the Gospel already heard. He does this by stating the Law, spiritualizing it until only God can be righteous enough to complete it, and then putting our neighbor in front of us. “You shall not murder” has no teeth without another person in front of us. “You shall not murder” gains a physical meaning with the spiritual when you see yourself in your neighbor.

 

Meaning, our spiritual fantasies disappear when our neighbor, whom we are not supposed to murder, stands in front of us. Same with the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. If that Righteousness were to be placed in front of us, all enthusiasm (the bad kind) would go out the window. There’d be no room for it. We’d have to deal with flesh and blood.

 

If the Law could save us or make us righteous, Jesus would not have endured the cross. If we didn’t need the spoken Word and administered Sacraments, then of what use is the Bible? 

 

God comes in flesh and blood so that there is no doubt what the Word is and what His Promises are. The Word is both spiritual and physical. Jesus is both God and man. He is Judge of both, He holds the authority of both, and He comes to proclaim both. He comes to give the Law and to complete it, in the flesh. He gives spiritual truths, Who just so also happens to be the third Person of the Trinity.

 

Dr. Luther speaks this way:

Our teaching is that bread and wine do not avail…Christ on the cross and all His suffering and His death do not avail, even if, as you teach, they are "acknowledged and meditated upon" with the utmost "passion, ardor, heartfeltness." 

Something else must always be there. What is it? The Word, the Word, the Word. (AE 40:212-213)

 

The solution is: the Word, the Word, the Word. Jesus shows up. The owner of the voice shows up, admits it, and gives the promise of the voice remaining with us, even if He goes away. The Word is made flesh, dwells among us, and leaves us a record of His words. Thus, our first line of defense against enthusiasm, our neighbors and our own, is His Word which endures forever.

 

“Chapter and verse”, is the direct reply to your neighbor’s enthusiasm and to yours. “Show me the chapter and verse”, you say when someone is speaking for God or from God or about God. Did God really say you get visions? Did God really say that all laws are in the shrine of your heart and whatever you decide and command in church is spirit and law, even when it is above and contrary to the Scriptures or spoken Word?

 

I don’t think so. If you are above the Scriptures, you are against the Scriptures. The Word is the antidote and we keep our noses in the Word to shield us from nonsense. And what does the Word give us?

 

The theologian, Gerhard Forde says, “In administering the sacraments, we do not merely say something. We do not merely impart information. We do something. We wash in water. We give bread and wine to those who come. We do not just explain Christ or the Gospel or describe faith or give instructions on how to get salvation. We give salvation flat out. There it is. In the mouth. There it is, on the head.” (Gerhard Forde, book "Theologies For Proclamation")

 

Hymns are useful to us in this respect, also. For we don’t just sing for singing’s sake, just because we like it. We sing difficult hymns. Difficult because we sing what it is we believe. We sing our confessions. We sing our doctrine. We sing the Son of God. So while it may seem difficult, our hymns defend us from our preferences and place us outside the box, so to speak. 

 

Enthusiasm is rejection of the External Word. Christianity is acceptance that the Truth is outside us, that we are trying to discern it, and that we live by it even at the expense of our experience, our reason, our pleasure, our popularity, and our bank accounts. 

 

Jesus may have promised to dwell in our hearts through faith (Eph 3:17), but not that He would save you there or redeem you there or have mercy on all mankind from there. He perfected that long before your heart was even formed and He will continue the same, long after.

 

The Voice of God [Trinity 5]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Kings 19:11-21

• 1 Peter 3:8-15

• St. Luke 5:1-11

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret”

 

Really known as the Calling of St. Peter, our Gospel pericope today reveals to us that God uses His voice to Call. The voice of Jesus is the voice of God. God’s Word reveals this so that we do not go off on a fruitless quest of trying to hear His Voice where He hasn’t promised it to be. This should point us to the importance of His Church, who proclaims the Voice of the Lord each time She gathers.

 

People chase after the voice of God for one reason: to be better than their neighbor. For if you hear the voice of God, then you get a book deal, you get a speaking tour, you get bragging rights. And though hearing God is part of your salvation, sin causes us to interpret what we’ve heard, before we really hear it.

 

Just before our Old Testament reading in the Bible, Elijah had just faced off against 850 false prophets, revealed God to them alone, and killed them. He ran away, because even though he had triumphed, now the state was after his head. Do you think that any of those prophets of Baal thought they had a false spirit within them, a lying spirit?

 

No. They all thought they had the truth. Especially when all the others came together with the same truth, they further solidified their belief. They were prospering. They had the favor of God’s king and queen. They were sacrificing as commanded and following God’s Law. 

 

We know the difference because we’ve been let in on the story. We know God has called Elijah and these false prophets are false. But, what if we had to live the story instead of hearing it? Would we be able to tell who was correctly hearing God’s voice?

 

The “still, small voice” is something we have probably heard our entire lives in Sunday School and from just about every “Christian” book out there. They want us to hear God's voice and they want us to believe they know how to do it. One popular way is to listen for the “still, small voice”, because that’s what Elijah did in the cave.

 

How this is accomplished, they say, is by quieting both heart and mind, not running into a cave, by the way. If you are quiet, then you can listen. That makes sense, right? That same advice is given to married couples, parents, and CEOs for business, so why wouldn’t it work for God, too?

 

With that mindset, however, you may yet be silencing the voice of God. How can you tell? Voices are voices. One way to tell would be if the speaker shows up…

 

A preacher tells me, “Sit quietly. Close your eyes. Now listen for the still small voice of the Spirit in your heart.” A friend argues that a still small voice is telling him it’s time to cut ties with his girlfriend, or worse his wife, usually just before Valentine’s Day. A nature-lover says to tune into the still small voice of the universe in dancing leaves and whispering winds.

 

Repent. The counter to “God spoke to me” is “well God spoke to me too”! But where does that get you? Is Jesus going to call anyone the same way He did to the Apostles ever again?

 

And in the first place, we don’t even know what a voice is. What is its beginning? What is its ending? A voice starts as nothing and when someone stops speaking, it ends as nothing. It is a sound that touches the ear and apart from that sound, we know nothing about the nature of speech.

 

Moses says in Psalm 90:9, “all our days pass away under Your wrath; we live out our years as though they were speech”, that is they end after the shortest possible time. To keep our reason further under His thumb, our Lord also calls speech, “feet”. As we hear in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

 

“His Word runs swiftly”, from Psalm 147:15. And Psalm 91:13 reads, “You will tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and serpent you will trample underfoot.” This is not done except through the Word. For while the hearer sits quietly and receives the Word, the “feet” of the preacher run over him and crush him to see whether or not he can be made better.

 

And we will keep diving into this mystery of God’s voice, since it is so important, for the Voice has come to Elijah. Before that, Elijah had just settled in the cave and the Word of the Lord came to him there, just before our Old Testament reading (v.9). And before that, it was the Messenger, or Angel of the Lord that fed him, voicing the command, “arise and eat” (v.7).

 

That is, the Son of God, the Word, has come before Elijah to speak, to give voice to His Will. It was not, I repeat, not the wind, not the earthquake, and not the fire. This same Word ushers Abraham outside to count stars (Gen. 15). He appears to Samuel and stands before him (1 Sam. 3). Later still, he touches Jeremiah on the mouth (Jer. 1). Finally, the Word becomes flesh in St. Mary’s womb (John 1:14).

 

At Horeb the Lord shows Elijah (and us!) that He is to be found in His Voice, His Word, His Son. To seek the “still small voice” is simply to seek Jesus, to hear Him, to receive Him, to know all of God in Him. And Jesus is catching men.

 

Catching, not like fish to the slaughter, but catching alive. Alive in body and soul in front of God. And Jesus is the example. He knows the net woven for us is of sin, death, and the power of the devil. He knows that we are the little fish, taken in and led astray; led to the wages of sin. 

 

And what is that? Not doing enough hard work to hear the voice of God? “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices”, the Lord demands in Isaiah 1:11, “I have had enough of them”. 

“This is The One to whom I will look:”, continues the Lord in Isaiah 66:2, “He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

 

Jesus is the only One to Whom the Father looks and Jesus preaches the Gospel and the Gospel gives the forgiveness of sins. “And as for me, this is my covenant with them”, says the Lord in Isaiah 59:21, “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.”

 

So faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ, and the Word of Christ by pastors, stewards and apostles, Jesus being the First. The first to create, the first to speak, and the first to get caught in the net, suffer, die, and rise again. 

 

The net has been irreparably broken, because it was of the Law. The Law that demands works to prove one’s loyalty. Yet this could always be faked. Fear of God could simply be the fear of punishment. It is possible to seem “of God”, by just giving lip service.

 

The voice of God is not happy with just lip service. The Gospel preached brings the sinner to life. You want to hear the Voice of God? Listen to His Word. Let it catch you, don’t catch it. Let it change you, don’t read into it what you are already looking for. 

 

The failure of the Old Testament is our failure today, that is to fail to hear God’s voice. For through the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus has commended His words and sermons. The total righteousness of man leading to salvation depends on the Word through faith. 

 

And that Word is made flesh, has suffered, and was crucified. Much more, that Word continues among us as One Who Serves. Thus, one of the Markers of the Voice of the Lord pertains to the free justification of sinners by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith. 

 

That was His will with St. Peter today, saying yes you are sinful, but no I will not depart. I will forgive you and count your hearing as righteousness. That was His will with St. Elijah. Yes, you cannot make it on your own, but I will not kill you. You will live and you will bring my Word to all who have not believed the devil’s words.

 

Do you want to hear the Voice of God in your life? Listen to the Son when He is speaking Himself, in His own Word and in His own Church. You do not have to make it up. Jesus already says what He wants to and His Church that gathers around His Promises and His means, already has the Voice of God.

 

Pit of Mercy [Trinity 4]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 50:15-21

• Romans 8:18-23

• St. Luke 6:36-42

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?”

 

God allows sin to remain in our lives in order that we never forget our Savior. For if we would be sinners no longer, we would have no need of Jesus. One of these sins is our remaining paganism. We call our 5th day of the week Thursday, but linguistically and historically it is Thor’s Day. And, as Christian history tells us, Thor’s religious symbols were lightning and a hammer.

 

But before the hammer, was the ax. Though the Vikings are known for many things, the axe is the unmistakable symbol. Thus it was in Frisia, NW Germany, as St. Boniface found it in the 8th century. A land devoid of Christ and full of murder, malice, and human sacrifice, with no order except that the strong live and the weak die.

 

St. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans, at one point in his service, took that symbol of false-god authority, the axe, and laid it at the root of another symbol of false-god authority: Thor’s oak tree, the center of their worship. He chopped it down and used the wood to build a church there. Seeing their god defeated, with no repercussions from them, many Frisians converted.

 

When you face a world, filled with unbelief, evil, and chaos Jesus wants His Words in front of you, that you may believe He has also used the world’s greatest weapons against it to defeat it. 

 

Our Gradual has already proclaimed to us this lament: “Help us, O God…why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” Especially when we must face things like floods, hurricanes, and heat. Confronting people is one thing, they can talk, reason, and be predictable when in battle. However, facing nature is God’s realm, over which we have no control.

 

Regardless, the words of Jesus in front of you are saying that the mercy won’t stop. Not your mercy. It does not say you are merciful. It is the Father Who Is Merciful. His mercy won’t stop. This is needful because the world doesn’t stop and it will never stop being empty of mercy.

 

Be merciful, because there is never enough. Forgive and give, because there is never enough. 

“You will always have the poor with you”, says Jesus (Mt 26:11). You show mercy to one and there is another waiting. You give and give and give and give and it is never enough.

 

Repent. The order between faith and good works must remain and be maintained, just as the order between justification and sanctification must be maintained” (SD III:40). First comes faith, then comes works. This means that from the depths of sin, you cannot dig yourself out. As deep as the grave is, so is the death grip sin has on us. Mercy. Forgiveness. Gifts. There are none of those things down there.

 

Go to our Old Testament reading. What was it that Joseph’s brothers did to him to which he called evil? Do you remember? Yes, they laughed at his dreams. Yes, they mistreated him, judged him, and condemned him. But what specifically was the last?

 

Genesis 37:23-24, “When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long robe with full sleeves. And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.”

 

No water, no life. No life, no mercy. Joseph’s brothers killed Joseph, buried him. Yes, they only faked his death and later sold him off, but Joseph is just a shadow. Joseph needed mercy, forgiveness, and gifts from God to get out of that grave, as he said in our Old Testament reading, “God meant it for good to save many lives.”

 

Save lives that are dead? A life is lost, we say, if they have died. There is no rational way we can say that about Camp Mystic in Texas, or North Carolina, or Palestine. The teacher teaches you to value life, because there is death. The One, True Teacher teaches you to value life, because there is life after death.

 

Water, mercy, and forgiveness is brought into the pit by God. The God Who suffers and dies, is thrown into the pit, and rises again. Jesus finds Joseph in His pit and kicks him out. “The grave only has room enough for the Son of God, not you”, He says, and Joseph lives again. Joseph lives and yet must go through years of struggle to get to Genesis chapter 50, from Genesis 37.

 

Jesus, both God and man, has descended into the pit of despair, establishing hope. Jesus dives into prison, willingly, preaching freedom to those held as slaves. The groaning of creation, from our Epistle, is the groaning of slavery. Slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil. 

 

Verse 35 of Luke’s Gospel, says this, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.”

 

The Most High is kind to the unthankful and evil. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:8). Jesus does not wait for you to show mercy, before He decides to bring mercy down from heaven. Jesus does not wait for ill-begotten judgment and condemnation to improve on earth, before presenting Himself to the world.

 

And though the world judged, condemned, and rejected Him, preferring their sacred idols and their symbols, He was happy to comply and simply used their weapons against them. Just as St. Boniface toppled false belief with the ax, the symbol of the pagan’s might, so Jesus unsheathes sin to defeat sin, death to defeat death, and His divinity to defeat the devil.

 

In His Greatest Accomplishment, that is setting sinners free from sin and sorrow, Jesus throws Himself into our pit. He gives the gift of Himself in order to adopt us as sons of the Most High. Because God is merciful and because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, judgement and condemnation has fallen upon Him, but forgiveness and gifts upon us.

 

And the primary gift is Faith. Faith that plucks the log out of our eye in order that we may see the truth of this world. That there is groaning, corruption, and death, but that all of that has been judged and condemned, in Christ. Faith that unveils death’s pit and that it has been conquered in the fight. Faith that is good, that has been pressed down in scourging, shaken on the cross, and now runneth over into the whole world as the Sacrament of the Altar.

 

Thus we are presented with His trophies, His weapons of faith that neither death nor hell can overcome: the preaching of the pure Gospel, the washing of regeneration and rebirth, and the Eucharist. Here He leaves to us His signs and Gifts of Victory. 

 

Victory over death. Victory over evil. In His Church, Jesus secures those very things from heaven’s armory for us. He gives us His prayer to hurl at the darkness, to sustain and strengthen faith. For He will not show mercy to those who hate Him and persecute His beloved. They will be swept away in judgement for ever.

 

Those who believe in His mercy, His forgiveness, and His gifts, though they be swept away by the world, they will find rest in the One Who stills the wind and the waves, the One Who splits the Red Sea, the One Who gathers the waters of the Jordan in a heap, so that dry ground appears in the middle.

 

Corrupted creation groans in its death throes and the devil knows his time is short. But Jesus is leading through death. Open-eyed my grave is staring, even there I’ll rest secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising: I am baptized into Christ, I’m a child of paradise!

 

The sinful ax laid at the Root Of Jesse finds an immortal foundation, not to be destroyed even in death. The dreadful flood waters that have gone over our heads are rebuked at His Word.

 

From Psalm 93:

“The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

The floods have lifted up their voice;

The floods lift up their waves.

The Lord on [the cross] is mightier

Than the noise of many waters,

Than the mighty waves of the sea.” (v.3-4)

What is Repentance [Trinity 3]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Micah 7:18-20

• 1 Peter 5:6-11

• St. Luke 15:1-10

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you saying,

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

 

“Repent”, preaches Jesus in St. Matthew 4:17, “for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

And maybe you’ve heard this one too: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent' (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance”, the Blessed Dr. Luther from the first of his 95 Theses.

 

All of Christendom would agree, that to leave out repentance from your life is a false faith. So if all of Christendom agrees, how come all of Christendom doesn’t agree? Repentance becomes a big deal, for the Christian, and for good reason. Not only is it something that is commanded by Jesus, but it is also something that is hunted by the devil.

 

As St. Peter told us in the Epistle, “Be sober, be vigilant; for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith” (1 Pet 5:8-9). That is, the tasty meal is a Christian who truly repents.

 

So what is repentance? 

Dr. Luther goes on to say what it cannot be: “This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance [either]; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortifications of the flesh (Gal 5:24). The penalty of sin remains…till our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.”

 

The controversy arises when God’s Word presents the word “repentance” in two ways. First, it is used to refer to the entire conversion of man, which includes faith, from the kingdom of death, to the kingdom of life, as we hear in the Gospel today.

Second, repentance and faith are separated out as in Acts 20:21, “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

This led to talking past each other, indulgences and the sacrament of penance, in Dr. Luther’s day, and it leads to the same problems even today! We don’t need to wade into the Roman Catholic church to find the attempts of certain Christians to pay God or to pay Him back for His work for them. It may not be money or a piece of official paper, but you see the church signs that say, “Christ died for you, what have you done for Him?”

 

Thus, the Christian world has really not moved on. In our sin, we still are prone to believe that we can show God just how sorry we are for things and prove to be a better Christian. And you may have already come to terms with this sin. In fact, you may have an idea right now, about who needs to repent, and what they need to do. He needs to stop sleeping around. She needs to clean up her language. He needs to give his life to Jesus.

 

Odds are you have those thoughts. And odds are that none of those you think about is you. You’ve already cleaned up your act, so you’re done with repentance. You’re already right with God. Your heart is already Jesus’s. You are living your best life now.

 

Jesus may use the word repentance in two ways, but in both cases, He expects it from you. Thus, repentance has two parts: first is contrition. That is, you are truly terrified in your “conscience”, which feels that God is angry with sin and grieves that it has sinned. This contrition takes place when sins are condemned by God’s Word.” (Apology XII (V):29)

 

This is your inner condition. You know, when you say you have faith, deep in your hearts, this is what is meant. This inner action is worked by God’s Law, when all your sins are revealed, as Psalm 38:4, 8 teaches, “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.”

 

The second part is faith, of course, for contrition and works do not obtain forgiveness and faith alone makes alive towards God. Faith reveals that the sins that terrify us are forgiven, in Christ. Without faith, there would be no repentance, for you would not feel sorry for your sins, neither would you acknowledge them. Faith both hears God speak of sins and believes He has sent His Christ.

 

True repentance is believing that we are not the man searching for the sheep, neither are we the woman searching for the coin, but the sheep and the coin itself. For the sheep and the coin are lost. And what Jesus is saying here is not that they have been placed in the Lost & Found, by some good samaritan. Neither is He saying that they are lost so they should stay where they are and wait for help.

 

This “lost”, is death. This is King Herod going after Jesus, in St. Matthew 2:14. This is the Pharisees conspiring on how to kill Him, in St. Mark 3:6. This is the Good Friday crowd asking for Barabbas and to destroy Jesus (Mt 27:20).

 

And why? Because the True Just Man has appeared. The man Who needs no repentance and needs no regard and heeds no social benefits, when He speaks or makes decisions. This Just Man is not like us. We are the truly just, in our eyes, seen by all to be good and upright. We are a friend to the world and act only as is true to our inner-self.

 

Since repentance calls that inner-self to the judgement seat, we must get rid of it. A book we can stop reading, but a man must be killed. 

 

Listen to the book of Wisdom, written 200 years before Jesus, chapter 2:

“Therefore let us lie in wait for the Righteous Man; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraids us with our offending the law, and objects to our infamy the transgressions of our education.

He professes to have the knowledge of God: and he calls himself the child of the Lord.

He was made to reprove our thoughts.

He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion.

We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstains from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounces the end of the just to be blessed, and makes his boast that God is his father.

Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.

Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.” (12-21).

 

Remember, in all of Holy Scripture, it is God alone Who is the Just Man. A regular man is called “just” only secondarily, if he has faith in God. The Just Man is that special Servant of God, Who will take upon Himself the sins of His people and by virtue of that, He will save them.

 

“Have nothing to do with that Just Man”, screams Pilate’s wife, “for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him” (Mt 27:19).

After Christ breathes His last breath, a centurion standing under the cross says: “Certainly this was a Just Man” (Luke 23:47). 

And from St. Peter: “For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18).

 

Repentance goes wrong, Luther writes, when it forgets Christ and faith (SA III:III:10–21). This happens when repentance is seen only as our works, and when it is sidetracked into debating what is right and what is wrong and believing we can work up faith inside us.

 

No, Luther writes, true repentance throws it all together and says: “Everything in us is nothing but sin.” True repentance teaches us to discern sin by saying: “We are completely lost; there is nothing good in us from head to foot; and we must become absolutely new and different people”, in Christ (SA III:III:33–37).

 

Our Lutheran Confession are unique in that they declare faith to be a part of repentance, thus directing your eyes to Jesus alone, that you may be comforted by the forgiveness freely offered to you in Jesus through faith. This teaching can set you free from doubt, giving you the confidence found in Christ alone. (Ap XII(V):4–10, 88–90).

 

Eyes focused inward, only dig up more and more dust. Repentance is God focusing us outward, in order to hear God’s judgement on sin and then to agree with His Offering of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, for us.

 

Jesus was lost to death, yet found again. You were dead in your sin, but are now raised with Christ in baptism, by faith alone (Col 3:1).

 

Dr. Luther concludes, “Christians should be exhorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, death and hell, and thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the false security of peace” (Acts 14:22).

  

 

Fear of Good [Trinity 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

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.