The Justification of the Sinner

Reformation Day (observed on Pentecost 21)                     October 30, 2022

 

Romans 3:19-28

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

 

John 8:31-36

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

If a pastor were to preach only one sermon, what would it be. If only one sermon, this would be it.

 

—By the Law, no person is justified in God’s sight.

 

—By the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Not good works, not good motivation, not the power to love, by the Law, but, the knowledge of sin. The Law always accuses.

 

—But now God has manifested to us a righteousness apart from the Law.

 

—This is a righteousness not earned by the sinner, but given to the sinner by God, and which the sinner receives not by works, but by faith in Christ.

 

—So, the sinner is justified by God, pure grace, and this through the redeeming blood of Christ Jesus.

 

—This means that God is just, and in Christ Jesus, he is the justifier. He justifies the sinner, declaring the sinner righteous, and the sinner holds this by faith in God’s promise.

 

—For, to be clear, the sinner is justified by faith, apart from works of the Law.

 

That’s the sermon. If a pastor were to give just one sermon, that’s it.

 

 

But there is only one sermon.

 

If we were teachers of the Law, there would be many sermons—how to love more—for Paul reminds us that love is the summation of the Law, how to comport yourself in public, how to make up for a major sin, how to make up for a minor sin, how to give offerings, how to live ethically, how to make Christian decisions, on and on. If our Lord gave us to be teachers of the Law, the sermons would be endless, the pressure of the Law, unremitting, the guilt, inconsolable.

 

But we have only one sermon:

By the Law, no person is justified in God’s sight. By the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

 

Not good works, not good motivation, not the power to love, but, the knowledge of sin. The Law always accuses.

 

But now God has manifested to us a righteousness apart from the Law. The righteousness God gives as gift, received by the sinner by faith in Christ Jesus. So that the sinner is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. [Romans 3:28]

 

Because, as Paul writes to the Church in Corinth,

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.

[1 Corinthians 1:23]

 

We preach Christ crucified, says the Apostle. Not Christ the example, not Christ the motivator, not Christ the life-coach, not Christ the law-giver. But Christ crucified. Christ, the holy One shedding blood on the cross to atone for your sin. Christ, your Redeemer. Christ, the One justifying you before his Father in Heaven, so that by faith in Christ, you are justified.

 

 

That’s the one sermon.

 

Scripture, says Jesus, testifies of me. [John 5:39]

 

All Scripture testifies of him; all Scripture preaches Christ crucified and the justification of the sinner by faith.

 

So Adam and Eve sin; and then the Lord in mercy comes to them and gives the promise that Eve’s seed would crush Satan’s head, would justify the sinner, and by faith in that promise of the Christ, Adam and Eve are justified.

 

The promise of the seed is then preached to Cain and Abel. But Cain gives sacrifice as the way to justify himself, and by that sacrifice of self-justification, Cain is condemned. But Abel gives sacrifice as a receiving of the gift of the promise, and by faith in that promise, Abel is justified. [Hebrews 11]

 

All Scripture testifies of the justification of the sinner by the promised Christ.

 

So Abraham, a great sinner, has faith in the promise, and is justified by that faith. [Genesis 15:6]

 

Later, King David, a great sinner, heard the preaching of the promise, heard the forgiveness of his sins, and was justified by faith in that promise. [Psalm 51]

 

 

Then, the promised One, Christ Jesus comes in the flesh, and preaches the forgiveness of sins, justifying sinners throughout Galilee.

 

Then in our text this morning, John 8:36:

[Jesus said to the Jews who had faith in him,] “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

 

Free from what? In our world we know of this word freedom. It can be freedom of debt. It can be freedom from oppression, freedom from government tyranny. It can freedom to travel, or to speak, or whatever.

 

When Jesus says, “When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed”—free from what?

 

Jesus sets you free from the Law. Free from the accusation of the Law. Free from your guilt before the Law. Free from your shame. It is always, with Jesus, freedom from needing to justify yourself with works of the Law.

 

Because he, Jesus, justifies you. So that you are justified never by your works of the Law, never by your own righteousness, never by your works of love—which is the summation of the Law, but, apart from the Law, you are justified by faith in Christ Jesus.

 

That’s the sermon. The one sermon.

 

Every other sermon—a sermon on works of love, a sermon on grace, but grace mixed with works of love, a sermon on ethical living; a sermon on motivated Christian life—every other sermon is a sermon of Law, and Jesus did not need to die on the cross if we are still to live under the Law.

 

In Christ Jesus, you are free. That’s the one sermon for the Christian pastor to preach.

 

The promise preached to our parents Adam and Eve, preached to Abel, preached to Abraham, to King David, to all the other sinners in the Old Testament, preached to Peter and John and the other Apostles; preached to the woman at the well, to the tax-collectors and drunks; preached to the centurion, to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law; preached to you and me and our children, the promise that the sinner is forgiven by the blood of Christ and you are justified by faith in him—that’s the one sermon:

 

Romans 3:28

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith … [and this] so that [God] might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus …

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

He Now Comes in His Body and Blood

The Day of St. James, Brother of Jesus and Martyr           October 23, 2022

(observed on the 20th Sunday after Pentecost)

 

Matthew 13:54-58

54 Coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

“Coming to his hometown”—we can contemplate what it means that Jesus had a hometown.

 

It’s a gift to us, that Jesus had a hometown.

 

There are no hometowns with false gods. Zeus, god of the Greeks, where did he grow up? Jupiter and Mars of the Romans, what town were they from, what did their father do to feed the family?

 

Ra and Isis of the Egyptians, same thing. Where’s the house they grew up in, the lake they fished in.

 

Sometimes cities were attached to the names of these gods, but no one actually thought they were born there in a certain year, under a certain king, in a particular home. Just fantasy.

 

More to the point, our own false gods.

 

Who are our false gods? The Large Catechism asks the question, “What does it mean to have a god?”

 

The Large Catechism then gives the answer, “A god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress.”

 

 

Then it continues, “Confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.”

 

So we can see what our own false gods are. Not Zeus and Hermes or Ra and Isis. But where do we place our confidence for every good gift in life?

 

We learn these things from our world. How is your self-esteem? You can’t be happy with low self-esteem, so you better work on that.

 

Or your own resources. Are you using your own resources or talents well enough? Maybe that’s why you’re not happy.

 

Do you need more stuff to be happy? More possessions, more wealth, more success at work, that’ll make me happy. There you have found your god.

 

These gods of our ours, these gods to which we will spend our hours dwelling on what we think we need to be happy, be finally content—to these gods we find ourselves giving sacrifice: the sacrifice of time, of our thoughts and dreams, we can even sacrifice our family or loved ones, as we spend our time chasing down the gods we’ve made up and confident that we’ll be happy when we’ve finally reached our goal.

 

As the Large Catechism says, “Confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.”

 

 

Matthew 13:24:

“Jesus came to his hometown and taught them in their synagogue.”

 

Made up gods don’t have a hometown. Concepts, dreams, systems, goals we concoct in our mind, they have no address on Earth. They have no hometown. We make them up, and then spend our time chasing them down.

 

Jesus is not a concept. Not a dream. Not a system made up to make things better; not a goal we are going toward so that we’ll be happy when we get there.

 

Jesus is a person, a man. Flesh and blood.

 

He grew up in a certain household, as unique and particular as every other household. He had Joseph and Mary, human parents, looking over him. He had brothers and sisters, including James.

 

And he knew people, and encountered people, not in their minds, not in their thoughts and decisions and dreams, but he encountered people on the road, or in a house with an address, or at the synagogue, or anywhere else his feet took him.

 

He walked out to the Jordan to John the Baptist and let him pour water on him and baptize him into the promise, so that upon baptizing Jesus, John then publicly announced him as the Lamb of God bearing the sins of the world. [John 1]

 

And as the Lamb of God bearing the sins of the world, Jesus touched the diseased skin of the leper and made him clean and healthy [Matthew 8]; and healed the Roman Centurion’s servant with just a word; and cast the demons out of two afflicted men who were in the countryside with the pigs; and made healthy the woman with a blood disorder; and took the dead girl by the hand and made her to stand up, alive. [Matthew 9]

 

Historical events. Not concepts in the mind, not actions of the will, not systems to bring things under control. But flesh and blood Jesus, walking through towns, encountering other flesh and blood people, people like you and me, and cleansing them, healing them, standing them up in life.

 

No one is from nowhere. We’re all from somewhere.

 

With that comes all the history, all the dirt and grime. Where were you born, where did you go to school, where to high school, where was your first job? No one is without the history.

 

Jesus had a hometown.

 

 

So when he went back to his hometown, to these people among whom he grew up,

“they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’”

[Matthew 13:55]

 

He didn’t get them from Nazareth.

 

He’s flesh and blood. And he’s Son of the Father in Heaven. True Man, True God—two natures in oneness in Christ Jesus.

 

From Heaven Jesus brings a Word foreign to Earth, foreign to sinners. The Word would not be heard on Earth, unless the Council in Heaven had it spoken on Earth.

 

It is the conversation of Heaven.

 

The conversation between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the conversation of the Father giving his Words to the Son and sending him to Earth to become flesh and blood in order to give the atoning sacrifice for all sinners.

 

It is the Son on Earth speaking the Words of his Father, revealing to us sinners his pleading to his Father with his own holy blood, revealing to us his pleading on our behalf to his Father for the justification of the sinner on Earth. It is the Father hearing his Son’s intercession for the sinner, and according to his Son’s intercession, justifying the sinner.

 

It is the preaching to the sinner on Earth of that intercession of the Son to his Father in Heaven, so that the sinner has faith in the Word the Son speaks on his behalf.

 

It is the Son ascending back to Heaven after his crucifixion and resurrection on Earth, and the Father and the Son then sending the Holy Spirit to continue bringing the Words of the Son to sinners on Earth so that the sinners are justified and gathered into the Church as they hear this Gospel of the forgiveness of all sins by the atoning blood of the cross.

 

Where did Jesus get these things?, asked the people of Nazareth.

 

The Words are from Heaven.

 

They are words never possible to be spoken on Earth but that the Father sends them from Heaven to be spoken by his Son. Words forgiving sins; words justifying the sinner; words raising up the dead and making leprous skin clean. Words reconciling the sinner with God and reconciling sinners with each other.

 

 

But it’s all because Jesus came in the flesh.

 

He had a hometown. He grew up with a family, including James, one of his brothers. James who, after Jesus ascended to Heaven, was martyred, brutally thrown from the top of the Temple then bashed in the head, all because he, James, would not deny that Jesus, his brother in the flesh, was also true God who shed the atoning blood to cleanse every sinner.

 

Every sinner, including you and me at our own addresses, in our own mundane lives, with our own histories. But in our own histories, Jesus approaches us, he encounters us, in his own common, mundane ways which he has appointed.

 

Common water, common bread, common wine. A common preacher, flesh and blood along with every other sinner in the Church, a common preacher given to preach human words, but words from Heaven.

 

This is water, and bread, and wine, and flesh and blood men, in the Office of Christ, and human words, Jesus takes up into his use.

 

And his use for these common things and common people, is for the Word of Gospel to be spoken to you for the forgiveness of your sins.

 

It is for you to be gathered to his Name. For you to know that he intercedes to the Father on your behalf, to know that the Father hears his intercession, and you are justified at the Throne in Heaven.

 

It was for you that Jesus came to Nazareth as his hometown, that he then went to the cross, and that he now comes in his Body and Blood.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

What Does God Want to Do?

The 19th Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 24, c]                  October 16, 2022

 

Genesis 32:22-30

22 The same night [Jacob] arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

What does God want you to do?

 

That would make a popular sermon. Just preach about what God wants you to do, preach it in a way that makes it seem like you can do it, and wouldn’t everyone be ready to pack the pews.

 

The sermon could take off with saying that God wants you to live a more fulfilled life. Then would follow ways and methods to have a more fulfilled life, whatever that might mean. Then you would leave the pew ready to enter the week striving to accomplish the sermon.

 

Or that God wants you to be a more effective Christian, aflame, ablaze, excited for the Lord, whatever all that would mean in real life. Then would follow a sermon on pathways to improving yourself, getting better and better each day. Then you would go home ready to strive for improvement and progress.

 

Or the sermon could be that God wants you to be more spiritual. Then would follow a talk on denying all the material things in life so that your mind could drift up into the clouds to contemplate spiritual things. Whatever that might mean. And you would go out into the week striving to be more spiritual everyday until you reach some spiritual nirvana, perhaps.

 

But it all—whatever way the sermon takes off telling you what God wants you to do—it all has you striving for what you can be tomorrow, next week, next year. It’s all striving, striving, striving, but never getting there, because with the Law, you always have further to go.

 

You can never live in the day, because you’re always worried with where you are going.

 

Can you feal the anxiety? The despair over lost days? The distress of striving which never ends?

 

 

What does God want you to do?

 

Maybe we can flip it around to what God wants to do toward us.

 

He wants to make us more fulfilled. Or to make us more effective, ablaze and on fire for the Lord. Or to make us more spiritual.

 

That sounds better. Now it’s God doing the work. Surely we’re better off now.

 

If it’s going to be a sermon, or sermon series, about what God wants to do toward us, then we can title it, Jesus changes lives!

 

That sound like grace. Jesus doing the work.

 

Until we settle in and realize we’re no better off than before. For it’s about what God will do, yet I’m still left sitting right where I am right now, looking for what I don’t yet have, but which maybe God will change tomorrow. I still can’t live in the day, because I’m still concerned about what I need to be tomorrow.

 

Jesus changes lives—it’s still about putting me in motion, so that what I have today is not yet good enough, but maybe I’ll be changed into something better tomorrow!

 

To live everyday as not yet good enough, but waiting, striving for a changed tomorrow, which I’ve never yet experienced but somehow hope that I might at some day in the future—can you feel the anxiety, the distress of never being able to quite get there?

 

 

What does God want you to do? Genesis 32:26:

And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

 

We start out thinking about what God wants us to do to reach a potential tomorrow, or what God is doing to improve us in the future, and we find we’re stuck in anxiety, never being able to have joy in living today.

 

We start out that way, because the Law is written on our hearts and we try to live, and progress, and improve things, according to the measurements of the Law.

 

But then we see the Lord come to Jacob, and what?

 

No instructions about how to improve yourself. No deep teachings about being more spiritual. No nonsense about how to be a Christian on fire or to have your life changed.

 

None of that. But a wrestling match.

 

A wrestling match where the Lord comes in the form of a man and puts himself in a position to be grabbed and grappled and held onto by the sinner, yet in which the Lord also leaves no confusion about who has the power.

 

The Lord has the power, not Jacob. Because after the Lord lets Jacob wrestle with him, the text tells us,

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

[Genesis 32:25]

 

If the Lord, coming on this night in the form of a man equal to Jacob, had the power to touch Jacob’s hip and put it out of joint, did the Lord not have the power to do that at the beginning of the match? Did the Lord not have the power to touch both Jacob’s hips and put them out of joint, and touch both his shoulders and put them out of joint, and both his elbows?

 

Is there anything of Jacob’s body the Lord could not have ruined by touching it? Not even by touching it. Could the Lord not have ruined Jacob’s whole body with just a word?

 

The Lord has the power. Even Jacob knows that. But Jacob won’t stop the match. He won’t let go.

 

He holds on to a man he knows is God in the flesh. Why? Does he not know God can destroy him without even a second thought?

 

Yes. Jacob knows. He’s not naïve.

 

But Jacob wants what God most wants to give. Jacob wants the blessing. Genesis 32:26:

Then [the man] said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

 

The blessing. The blessing the Lord swore to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather. And swore to Isaac, Jacob’s father. The blessing is the promise of the Savior to come in Abraham’s lineage.

 

The blessing is the promise of all sins forgiven. Of death defeated. Of the crushing of the devil. The blessing is the Word justifying the sinner, so that by faith in the promise, Abraham was justified. And this blessing goes to Abraham’s children, including Jacob. Including, along with them, you and me and our children.

 

 

What does God want to do? God wants to bless the sinner.

 

God wants to have the sinner hold onto him like a wrestler not letting go, until the blessing is given.

 

God wants the sinner not looking to some improved life later months away after much work,

the sinner not striving for more spirituality or more effectiveness or whatever other measure of more the sinner comes up with according to the measurements of the Law,

but God wants the sinner living today, living in faith, living in the confidence that he, the sinner, is clean right now before God,

is at peace in his conscience right now, is beneficiary of every good gift of grace and life right now,

not because of how the sinner has finally accomplished that, but because God, the Lord of life, the Lord who came in the flesh on that particular day to wrestle with Jacob and later came in the flesh for good, for all days, to die on the cross for all sins—the Lord of life, Jesus, blesses the sinner.

 

God wants the sinner to hear the blessing.

 

So what does God want you to do?

 

Be done with the Law and its measurements and its seeming potential to lead to an improved Christian life.

 

Be done with the Law. Hold on to the Gospel. Do not let go of the promise. When God comes in the flesh to you, say to your God, I will hold on to only you for the blessing.

 

When God comes to you and say, Take and eat, Take and drink, this is me, my body, my blood for the forgiveness of your sins, hear those words, it is God blessing you. He does not forget the blessing he swore to you.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

All Sins Forgiven

18th Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 23c]                            October 9, 2022

 

RUTH 1:1-19a

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. 6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food. 7 So [Naomi] set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. 19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

Put yourself, for a moment, in Ruth’s shoes.

 

The reason to put yourself into Ruth’s shoes is to see what the Lord is doing toward Ruth. And the reason to see what the Lord is doing toward Ruth is to see what he is doing toward you. Because he is doing the same thing toward you as he was doing toward Ruth.

 

Our details are different, of course.

 

Ruth lived in what’s now called the Mideast; you live in New Mexico, which Ruth didn’t even know about. Ruth wore sandals; you wear Nike or Adidas or something like that. And Ruth knew nothing of the Kardashians.

 

But Ruth did live in the same world as you and I.

 

The sin, the dishonesty, the politicians looking to increase power, the sickness, the death—Ruth knew that as well as you and I. And Ruth’s problem was not that she didn’t have Internet access or government healthcare or anything like that. Ruth’s problem was sin—the sin around her, her own sin, and what to do about getting herself cleansed of sin so she could live before God with a good conscience.

 

So Ruth, she’s like us.

 

 

So let’s look at what our Lord did toward Ruth.

 

She grew up in Moab. As a Moabitess, she would’ve worshipped the Moabite god Chemosh.

 

At the altar of Chemosh, the worshippers did abominable practices, including vile acts of sex and even human sacrifice.

 

Why would’ve Ruth and her family have gone to the altar of Chemosh? That’s the god who ruled over the Moabites. At least, that’s what the prophets and priests of Moab taught them—not just Chemosh, but the other gods and goddesses with him. And these gods and goddesses were the ones who supplied the Moabites with rain and water and good crops and who defended them from sickness and from invading armies—at least that’s what the Moabite family was taught at the altar of Chemosh.

 

So the comfort Ruth and her family had with Chemosh and the other gods and goddesses of Moab was the comfort they could wrestle from the gods by buying them off with sacrifices.

 

But what did Ruth and her family not get from the altar of Chemosh?

 

At the altar of Chemosh, as they sacrificed, they heard about bloodshed and power, about conquering and victory, about riches and thrones, but they heard nothing, not one word, to forgive their sins.

 

Not one word spoken to justify the sinner. Not one word to cleanse the conscience.

 

Ruth heard nothing to reconcile her to God and to her neighbor.

 

She heard no word taking away her guilt, no word covering her shame. At that altar of Chemosh, as she grew up, even as a little girl, Ruth heard no word of grace standing her in honor at the face of God, no word giving the promise of the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

 

She heard only of gods and goddesses demanding she sacrifice so she could live another day and hopefully her family would have crops and not starve.

 

 

Then the Lord, the true God, the God who created all things and by whom all things exist, the God who speaks a promise to the sinner to redeem the sinner and claim the sinner as his own—then the Lord spoke a different word to Ruth.

 

How?

 

You would never have known it by just looking at the events in Ruth’s life. But the Lord spoke a word to her different than any other word heard in this world.

 

In Moab, Ruth was taken as bride by Mahlon.

 

Mahlon was not a Moabite, did not worship Chemosh. Mahlon and his brother Chilion and their parents Naomi and Elimelech where Israelites living in Moab.

 

So Ruth’s husband Mahlon, as an Israelite, had been circumcised into the Lord’s covenant given to Abraham. The covenant of the forgiveness of sins, the justification of the sinner, the covenant promising the Redeemer to be born in Abraham’s lineage to save all sinners. The covenant of grace and of the promise of the resurrection of the body. Mahlon belonged to that Lord.

 

And now, so did Ruth.

 

Can we see the Lord’s hand in this?

 

See how the Lord was there, working in this world of sin to freely hand out his gifts to this young Moabite woman who had been lost in the darkness of the false god Chemosh and of sacrifices and works-righteousness, which could never cleanse an unclean conscience anyway?

 

 

Then, Elimelech, Ruth’s father-in-law, dies. And Mahlon, Ruth’s husband, dies. And Chilion, Ruth’s brother-in-law, dies.

 

Leaving, three widows: Naomi, the mother-in-law; Orpah, Ruth’s sister-in-law; and, Ruth.

 

Naomi, an old woman now with no husband, packs up to return to Israel. And Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to return to their family homes. They would be more comfortable there than to follow her to the foreign land of Israel.

 

Ruth won’t stay in Moab. To stay in Moab is to return to the Chemosh altar. To say in Moab is to deal with your sins yourself; it’s to hear no word of grace, no word of mercy from the God of Israel who justifies the sinner. To stay in Moab, Ruth knows, is death.

 

So Ruth will not let Naomi leave her behind. She’s an Israelite. She married an Israelite, Mahlon, she heard the promise given to Abraham, and when Mahlon died, Ruth still belongs to the promise.

 

 

Back in Israel, Ruth is again taken as wife, this time by an Israelite named Boaz.

 

Can we yet see the Lord’s hand in all of this?

 

So let’s jump forward. Not just a little bit, but about 1,000 years.

 

The Apostle Matthew is writing of the birth of Jesus and of the lineage he came from. Matthew 1:5:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

 

In other words, for our Lord to come in the flesh to be the Lamb of God bearing the sin of the world, he comes in the flesh as the Son of David.

 

For the promise was that the Messiah, the Savior, would come in David’s line. And for our Lord to come in the flesh as the Son of David, he does it by bringing this Moabite woman, Ruth, into Israel so that from Ruth would come a grandson named David, that from David’s lineage we would be given our Lord.

 

 

Did Ruth know any of this?

 

What Ruth knew is that there was a Lord in Israel who called her into his people to hear his Gospel of all sins forgiven, a Lord who called her his own, and in that, she had a Lord who took her up into his service, so that we may all give thanks that Ruth, called out of false worship, called out of works-righteousness—Ruth is our sister, and not only our sister, but a woman most honored to be a grandmother, several generations removed, to our Lord Jesus.

 

Can we see our Lord working in this?

 

For he works toward us, too.

 

He redeems us from sin, death, and the devil, and makes us his own, taking us, along with Ruth, up into his use.

 

We are brothers and sisters to Ruth, we are of her family, for we are brothers and sisters to all—to the Israelites at the time of Ruth, and to our fellow members in the church, the New Israel—we are brothers and sisters to all who are cleansed by the blood of Ruth’s greater son, Jesus, to all hearing his Gospel of all sins forgiven.

 

All sins forgiven, for he took them upon himself and bore them to the cross.

 

All sins forgiven, for that was the promise given to Abraham, later to Ruth, later to David, and also to us.

 

All sins forgiven, to Ruth, to David, to you, to me, and our families, for Jesus atoned for all in his blood on the cross, and he is our Redeemer from all sin, all guilt, all shame—our Redeemer giving us a clean conscience and taking us up into his use.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

What God is Doing Toward You With His Word

17th Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 22]               October 2, 2022

 

PSALM 62

1 For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress;

I shall not be greatly shaken.

3 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him,

like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

4 They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

They take pleasure in falsehood.

They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.    Selah

5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

6 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress;

I shall not be shaken.

7 On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

8 Trust in him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us.                                                                Selah

9 Those of low estate are but a breath;

those of high estate are a delusion;

in the balances they go up;

they are together lighter than a breath.

10 Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery;

if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

11 Once God has spoken;

twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

12 and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.

For you will render to a man according to his work.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

Find God in this world. How would you do it?

 

This world of injustice, of malice, of tearing people down, of terrible sickness coming to a little child—find God in this.

 

The Hurricane, families ripped from homes, without good water, no power, no internet, where’s God in this?

 

A worker losing his or her job not because of poor work, but for refusing to deny God’s institution of the marriage of man and woman, refusing to bow down to the prevailing ideology; a professor losing his classroom because he or she speaks truth; the liquor store owner watching the rioting mob burn his family business to the ground—find God in this.

 

We search, we use our intellect, our reason, we consider every angle to find God in all this we see around us—we find what?

 

We will find the God the world knows. We will find the God of retribution, the God angered over sin, dishing out justice in a sinful world.

 

In short, we find the God of Law.

 

That’s a problem. If he’s the God of Law, of retribution and vengeance, of what’s just, what’s right, of punishment to the sinner, then what do we do when God’s hurricane destroys the home of a family with three small children? Where’s justice in that?

 

Or when we see the rioting mob burn down a man’s liquor store because he won’t join their violent movement? Where’s justice in that? The little child suffering in the hospital. Justice?

 

When we find the God of Law and retribution by looking around our world, we will spend the rest of our days trying to explain how God works using evil when it sure doesn’t seem just to us, or how God strikes one person but not the next, when both are sinners.

 

 

Then we will find ourselves not only doing gymnastics in our brain trying to make God fit our logic, but also trying to explain how God is working in our lives.

 

 

What do you do when you’re trying to figure out how God works in your life, but all you can do is figure God out by the Law?

 

In our Old Testament reading today, we hear the answer from Habakkuk.

 

Habakkuk lives in an unjust world, too. He, too, sees innocent people suffer; sees mobs intimidating their neighbors with violence; sees politicians using violent mobs to their advantage.

 

So he speaks two words, two truths. The prophet first speaks of the problem with trying to figure God out by running God according to the Law.

 

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

[Habakkuk 1:4]

 

That’s the first Word. The Word showing how God’s Law hits our sinful world, and our sinful lives. With the Law, all we can see, as the Apostle Paul describes it in Romans 8—is a world bound in futility, in bondage to death; a world groaning as a mother suffering the pangs of birth.

 

That’s the prophet’s first Word—Law. The Law showing us the God of retribution, and the whole world sees that god—all the manmade religions, whether Muslim or Mormon, New Ager or Atheist, everyone sees the god of retribution, even if they don’t call it that.

 

So Habakkuk speaks the second Word. The Word unknown by looking around our world. The Word unknown to our reason, our rationality, our efforts to try to make sense of what we see, the Word we cannot know by just piling up more and more knowledge about God, as if God is a mathematics textbook we need to study more.

 

Habakkuk speaks the second Word, the Word we need to hear. Proclaimed in the Church, preached to the sinner, taught in our families, spoken at the hospital bedside, delivered to every person in despair, this is the Word the Lord gives us to hear.

 

It is the Lord’s Word making the promise that he will save the sinner.

 

The promise is based not upon anything of the sinner, for if the sinner could take care of it, he wouldn’t need a promise from the Lord.

 

The promise is based on the faithfulness of the Lord. The Lord puts his Name on it. For the Lord to not keep his promise to the sinner would be for the Lord to tear down his own name.

 

The sinner will never know the promise by looking out into the world to figure out how God must work, never know it by reason or rationality. The sinner will know it only as the Lord speaks it to him, as the Lord has it preached so that sinners will hear the promise and hold on to it for dear life.

 

So for this second Word, Habakkuk starts with:

I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me.

 

What he, the Lord will say to me, says Habakkuk. Not what the Lord will show me in the world, not what the Lord will let me figure out about him according to the Law, but what he will say to me.

 

Habakkuk is looking for a Word, a speaking, something the Lord will say into his ears—I need to hear a Word, Habakkuk is saying.

 

That’s the way a promise works. The promise is spoken, and the certainty of the promise depends on the one making the promise.

 

So the promise is different than what we see in our world.

 

What we see around us is the suffering, the injustice, the sin, the decay—we don’t need faith for that. You only need your eyeballs and your mind.

 

But a promise is not for eyeballs; it’s for faith:

Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

[Hebrews 11:1]

 

So the prophet Habakkuk, looking for God in this world of injustice, sin, and suffering, proclaims,

The Lord answered me [this]:

“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets, …
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.

Behold, [the unrighteous] soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

[Habakkuk 2:4]

 

That’s the promise. The righteous one lives not by sight, but by faith.

 

The righteous one is righteous not by works of the Law, but by faith in the promise.

 

The righteous one is made righteous not by being pushed and nudged and coerced into being a more righteous person, but by being declared righteous by the Word of God preached to him.

 

That is, the righteous one is made righteous by hearing.

 

As Paul says,

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ … and how are they to hear without a preacher?”

[Romans 10:17,14]

 

 

It is all by the promise. By the Gospel of all sins forgiven. By the Word of grace preached to the sinner, making him righteous. By the Word heard by ears of faith.

 

So King David, the great sinner, but the justified sinner, ends the Psalm we chanted this morning, Psalm 62:

Once God has spoken;

twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.

For you will render to a man according to his work.

 

To render to a man according to his work is rendering to the man of faith not according to his works of the sinful flesh, not his works under the Law, but according to his works lived in faith to the promise.

 

These works are not by sight, but by faith.

 

For David has extolled not his own works, which are rubbish to God’s eyes, but the Word the Lord has spoken to him through the prophet:

Once God has spoken;

twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.

[Psalm 62:12]

 

 

When you’re trying to figure out what God is doing in your life, or in this troubled world, cover your eyes—they will only show you the God of retribution, of Law.

 

Open your ears. Hear the Word preached. Hear the promise declared.

 

The Lord sealed this promise to you by putting his Name on you in Baptism—your Lord will not depart his Name.

 

Your Lord hands this promise over to you in the Testament of his Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Even in the face of your sin, especially in the face of your sin, your Lord will not break his promise.

 

Let your eyes look around at this world of Law.

 

But then let your ears hear the promise of Christ crucified for you. Faith comes by hearing your Lord speak that promise to you.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

Out of the Grave

16th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 21[c]                           September 25, 2022

 

Luke 16:19-31

19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

How does Jesus pull someone out of the jaws of death?

 

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. Not to the Pharisees only; everyone, his own disciples included, can hear the parable, but the point at dispute is with the Pharisees.

 

So to the Pharisees, Jesus preaches this strange parable.

 

It is strange. Heaven and Hell. A rich man, a poor man, Lazarus. And then throw in Abraham, and throw in Moses and the prophets. And throw in the rich man in Hell having a conversation with Abraham in Heaven. It is a parable, after all. So it’s not a narrative to give an accurate picture of Heaven and Hell. It is, rather, as the other parables, pressing a point. The parable draws a picture of Heaven and Hell and a conversation between them not to show how Heaven and Hell work—but to force the point, the big point Jesus wants to make.

 

He’s preaching to the Pharisees. What is Jesus doing to the Pharisees with his preaching?

 

The Pharisees were teachers of the Law. As Jesus says to them in the previous verses, the Pharisees wanted to use the Law to justify themselves. Luke 16:15:

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard [the words of Jesus], and they ridiculed him. And [Jesus] said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.”

 

When Jesus looks at Pharisees, he sees teachers pressed down by the Law. They want the Law, they use the Law to justify themselves, and when Jesus sees a sinner using the Law to justify himself, he sees a dead man, and man belonging to the realm of Hell.

 

So he preaches to the Pharisees. He preaches a parable driving home the futility of living under the Law; he preaches it in order to bring them into the comfort of the Gospel.

 

There was a rich man in Hell. Rich in his own accomplishments. Rich in justifying himself in the eyes of the world. Rich, that is, in living an effective life under the Law.

 

So, he’s in Hell. To be enslaved by the Law, to be justifying yourself, that’s to belong to the realm of Hell, even while you live here on Earth.

 

 

So the rich man pleads at least for his brothers still on Earth that they would be kept from Hell.

 

Send Lazarus from the dead, the rich man pleads to Abraham. A man from the dead, that will impress his brothers. If his brothers were only to see the almighty power of God in raising a man from the dead, well, then, in the face of such pure power, then they would finally know to repent and hear the Gospel.

 

But the Gospel doesn’t come in power.

 

The Gospel—the forgiveness of sins—doesn’t come in ways to impress the world. The Gospel of the sinner justified by faith in Jesus doesn’t come in ways to bowl over his brothers with the promise of grace and life. The Gospel comes in weakness, in humility, in ways not big and impressive, but small and humble.

 

So in the parable, Abraham says to the rich man, “Let [your brothers] hear Moses and the prophets … If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

[Luke 16:31]

 

Moses and the prophets, and Abraham, they’ve always had them. If his brothers have Abraham and Moses and the prophets, they lack nothing.

 

Abraham was a sinner. But the promise was given to Abraham, the gift of the Name of the Lord was given to Abraham and his descendants.

Abraham is lowly and humble, nothing impressive in the counting of this world, nothing impressive to the counting of the Law, but he heard the promise, he had faith in the promise, and the Lord accounted it to him as justification. [Genesis 15:6]

 

Moses was a sinner. But the promise was given to Moses, and Moses preached that promise to the Israelites, and by that promise the Lord brought the Israelites into the promised land. By faith in that promise, Moses was justified, and the Israelites, this small, unimpressive tribe of people, they were justified, too.

 

The prophets, Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos, and the rest, were they not all despised by the people, tormented, sometimes thrown into jail, other times chased out of town, often even killed—but by these lowly, common, humiliated prophets, the Lord was having the promise preached to his people, and by faith in that promise, the sinful people were justified.

 

Your brothers have Moses and prophets, Abraham tells the rich man. From the words of the prophets your brothers will hear their justification.

 

 

In the parable, Jesus shows us the weakness of the Gospel.

 

The Gospel is preached to the sinner, but it’s preached in lowliness. It’s brought to the sinner in the humble means of water and the Word, of Wine and Bread and the Word, but in this weakness is the power of God unto salvation. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Church, God’s grace is sufficient for you, for his power is made complete in weakness. [2 Corinthians 12:4]

 

So it comes to us. To us and our families. Jesus has the Gospel preached.

 

Is that the way we would want it?

 

We would want some great sign of God’s presence with us. Some impressive evidence that God is with us. Something effective and awesome to the eyes of the world.

 

Is God with you? How about if God gave evidence of that by giving you success at work?

 

Is God happy with you? How about if God signaled his pleasure with you by giving you good health?

 

Is God on track with you, is your will aligned with his? How about if you could know by how you felt as you drive down the road, by your emotional state being stable and happy?

 

And the corollary would be, if you are having trouble, if you don’t feel spiritually close with God, if things just don’t seem to be clicking right, then God must not be close to you.

 

The evidence of our world, the testimony of our feelings, the effectiveness of our life—this is not the Gospel.

 

Because, it’s not the Gospel, it tells us nothing abut God’s disposition toward us. The Gospel comes in weakness. In the preaching of the promise. In the Word of the justification of the sinner.

 

They have Moses and prophets, Abraham said to the rich man. Moses and the prophets, the preaching of the promise, the Word of justification, this is God rescuing your brothers from Hell, Abraham is saying to the rich man.

 

It comes to us.

 

Moses and prophets, Paul and the Apostles, the preaching of the promise, the Word of justification into the ears of the sinner, that’s Jesus coming to you in a way weak and lowly to the world, but it is the full power of God unto the salvation of the sinner.

 

The preaching of the cross—this is Jesus pulling you out of the jaws of death into life. The Word of justification, this is Jesus releasing you from the Law, bringing you into grace.

 

It’s lowly, it’s humble in the counting of this world; this preaching seems not nearly impressive enough, but it is the crucified Christ making you his own.

 

In the Name of Jesus.