Sunday, March 28, 2010

Palm Sunday Sermon -- John 12:12-43 (LSB Palm Sunday C)

March 28, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


“Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in [Jesus], but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”


Just what does the glory of God look like? That is a good question for today, as the Church has entered the holiest of weeks. There is discussion about glory in the portion of John’s Gospel read this morning. It begins well: “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.’ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’” Jerusalem is full of great excitement over the appearance of Jesus at the Passover Feast. He receives accolades and adulation. He is honored and adored. Even the Pharisees admit in disgust: “Look, the whole world has gone after Him.”


But what happens when Jesus starts to talk about the time of His glorification? The Gospel Writer includes the teaching Jesus gives after His Triumphal Entry: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus makes the explicit connection between His glorification and His death. The time of His glorification has come; but the time that He speaks of is the time of His betrayal, beating, and crucifixion. Not only has that time come, but Jesus also says: “And what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” Jesus shows that this is His goal, why He is present on earth.


So how does this teaching of Jesus go over? Not well. People hear it, but they reject it. Others hear it, but they cannot comprehend it. Confusion abounds in Jerusalem. “The crowd answered Him: ‘We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can You say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’” Faced with the description of what Jesus must accomplish, including His “show[ing] by what kind of death He was going to die,” the people do not receive Him. They will not believe that this is what the Christ must undergo. They will not place their hope in a Savior who includes dying as essential to glorification.


Jesus gives a hard teaching on Palm Sunday. He identifies Himself as the Christ, but the actions that identity requires are not pleasing. Jesus’ purpose runs counter to human expectation and desire. And not only does Jesus state that His purpose in life was to be crucified, He also places demands on His disciples: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” Those who would believe and follow Jesus must be made like Him, including the requirement to make His purpose in life their purpose also.


You heard how people reacted to Jesus’ teaching: confusion, rejection, disappointment. The Gospel Writer identifies a particular group who reacts with cowardice: “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” Jesus’ teaching is hard. It is demanding. But it is the way to salvation and the way to a glory far greater than any in this world.


The apostle’s commentary on the life of Christ shows what that way looks like: “[Jesus], though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” This is the path that Jesus walked. This is how He brings salvation to the world. This is how He accomplishes His purpose.


Christ’s necessary crucifixion was humiliating. But it was not weak or powerless. For Jesus speaks about what is accomplished through His death: “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” Judgment, removal of a tyrant, attracting people: Jesus says that He accomplishes these things. There is force and strength in the midst of seeming weakness and fragility. Nothing about Christ’s death shows ability or might, yet it is precisely how sin, death, and Satan are overcome. Christ’s cross becomes the standard to which people liberated from the tyranny of sinfulness are drawn. It becomes the ensign of victory.


Through His crucifixion, Jesus shows Himself to be the promised Savior. He fulfills the prophecies that told how salvation is brought to people who need it, even how you are redeemed. Though the people in Jerusalem rejected Jesus’ teaching about the glory that comes from heaven, it is how their prayers were fulfilled. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the words of Psalm 118 rang out in the streets: “Hosanna! Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless You from the house of the Lord.” Jesus answered their prayers. He brought salvation, and it came in the way that the Lord God always delivers it—through sacrifice. The psalm declares: “The Lord is God, and He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!” And that is precisely what Jesus is, even as He was “lifted up from the earth” on Mount Calvary.


Is that bringing of salvation majestic? No, it is bloody and messy, as the Lamb of God is mangled and mauled in death. Does it involve loss? Yes, it is sacrificial. And yet, it is through sacrifice that Jesus accomplishes greatness: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The seed dies, yet it brings forth the great harvest. Jesus dies, and He brings forth the great number of believers around the world, those who are given the salvation He earned. It is how you have been made God’s people, how you have been made heirs of everlasting life.


For the way that Christ laid out does not end with crucifixion; there is more. Humiliation for Christ is always followed by exaltation. He dies, but He rises. He takes the place of a servant, but is raised to dominion over all. There is “a glory that comes from God.” The apostle wrote of it: “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus’ purpose was to come to the hour of humiliation and crucifixion, but also to come to the hour of His resurrection and exaltation—to take possession of the glory that comes from God.


Jesus’ hard teaching about following Him includes the reception of this divine glory. Recall what Jesus said about discipleship: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” Following Christ means setting aside your autonomy. It requires having Jesus as Lord, as Master, as Teacher. It includes the loss of your life. You are no longer in control. You repent and turn away from your former ways. You crucify everything that you once knew as good and right, but what is actually sinful and wrong. Your sinful natures are killed with Christ, as you are incorporated into Him, as you are united to Him and made members of His Church in Holy Baptism.


But your humiliation, your sacrifice, your dying is not the end. There is that second part, just as there was for your Lord Jesus. You are humbled, but you are exalted. You sacrifice, but you are given all the good things you need. You died, but you are raised to life. This is “the glory that comes from God.” It always involves the two parts. That is what Jesus lays out for you as the way of discipleship. He means what He says: “Where I am, there will My servant be also.” You will be where Jesus is worshiped in eternity. Jesus’ words are not empty: “If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” As the Father has given dominion over all things, you who are His disciples will be in His kingdom forever, holding a place of honor over your enemies.


Is the way to “the glory that comes from God” messy? Indeed. Is it humiliating? Certainly. Is it demanding? Yes, there is a discipline that your Master gives you. But dying with Christ brings you to His resurrection. Receiving what He offers through His death and resurrection brings you salvation. The psalm states: “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.” Jesus has opened that gate to paradise and walked through it. That is where His path of humiliation and exaltation leads, the destination that is reached through the events of Holy Week. As you follow your Lord from Palm Sunday to Easter Day, you also make your entrance into divine glory. That is what Christ’s death and resurrection have accomplished for you. And where He is, there you, His servants, will be also—even for all eternity.


T In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Lent Midweek 5 Sermon -- Jonah 2:1-10; John 3:1-15

March 24, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


[Jesus said]: “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”


Descending and ascending. Dying and rising to life again. These pairs of actions are essential to the understanding of Holy Baptism. They are the actions that Jesus did to bring salvation to this sinful world. In His discourse with Nicodemus, Jesus is clear that His presence in this world was a matter of descent. That is the heart of the incarnation: the Lord God leaves His dwelling place in heaven to make a dwelling place on earth. This is what happened in the conception, birth, and life of Christ.


As the Church approaches Holy Week, the focus on the purpose of that descent increases. Why does the Son of Man descend from heaven? Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus answers that question: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” The goal of the incarnation of Christ was His crucifixion. That is what the conception and birth of Christ was meant to lead to. This is how He fulfills the message revealed by the angel: “He will save His people from their sins.”


So the Son of Man descends from heaven. Then the Son of Man is lifted up in His crucifixion. He dies and is buried. But the third day He rose again from the dead. For the One who was suspended from the cross and dropped into a tomb stands up again. He rises. But not only does He arise from the grave, He ascends into heaven. Jesus’ words stand true: “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.This is the center of the Christian faith: God descends and makes His presence among us; in humility He dies, but in glory He rises to live eternally.


But what Jesus accomplishes in His descent and ascent, in His dying and living again is not limited to Him. He is the first to do it, but He will not be the last. For what does Jesus discuss with Nicodemus? Not that He alone does so. No, Jesus speaks about entry into the kingdom of heaven for more than Himself: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [born from above] he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus’ words indicate that there will be others who enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. There is a rite of passage, a particular way of entry, but enter shall some.


So how is one “born of water and the Spirit”? How is one “born again [born from above]”? It is through the reception of Holy Baptism: “the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” This is how it happens. Something great is accomplished through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon you. You who were born of the flesh are reborn. There is an ascending, as you are lifted from simply existing in a limited, corrupt, and temporal way. Jesus speaks so: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” A greater existence is given to you, an existence that endures in life forever. For you are raised from sinfulness to righteousness, from the secular to the sacred.


But your participation in Holy Baptism also necessitated your own descent. For you to rise, you had to die. You had to die to live. You had to die in Christ. This is the way that the Scriptures speak about Holy Baptism. They are words very familiar: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Holy Baptism involves participation in the descent and ascent of Christ.


You heard from the account of Jonah the prophet this evening, as his song from the belly of the fish was read. The prophet underwent a descent and ascent. Listen again to some of his words: “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all Your waves and Your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from Your sight; yet I shall again look upon Your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet You brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.” That is quite the descent: to the belly of Sheol, to the bottom of the deep, to the roots of the mountains. And yet, the prophet says: “You brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”


Jonah’s song speaks about himself, but it also speaks about the Christ. For what Jonah does, Jesus does also. It is the promise He makes: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jonah’s song becomes Jesus’ song. The Son of Man descends to earth, then He is lifted up on the cross. The Son of Man descends to hell, then He rises to life again. Descending and ascending, dying and rising: it is the path that Jesus takes to bring you salvation.


But the path that Jesus travels He does not travel alone. No, you go that way, too. For what Jesus underwent is what you also experience. That is what it means for you to be joined with Him in Holy Baptism. You participate in His death and resurrection. The Spirit descends, the power of the Most High overshadows you, so that you are born from above. You are lifted up with Jesus on the cross. You descend with Him to the grave. But you also ascend with Him to life everlasting.


So you make your way to death and the grave. You are buried, but not alone; you are buried with Christ. United with Him, you make the lyrics of Jesus’ and Jonah’s song your own: “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. . . . I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet You brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.” This is your song, for you have been born from above. You have died with Christ and have descended with Him. But you also have risen with Christ and have ascended with Him. Born of water and the Spirit, you shall enter the Kingdom of heaven. believing in the Son of Man, you have life everlasting.


T In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Lent 5 Sermon -- Luke 20:9-20 (LSB Lent 5C)

March 21, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


Jesus said: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken in pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”


The parable that Jesus told against the scribes and chief priests differs greatly from the parable that we heard last week. Last Sunday, we heard all about the reconciliation of the Prodigal Son who was received by the Father into full sonship. Today’s Parable of the Wicked Tenants has no such ending. It isn’t a story that people love to hear and retell. In fact, you heard about the people’s reaction to Jesus’ parable: when confronted with the moral of the story, the people cry out: “Let it never be!” or as the ESV translation puts it: “Surely not!” But what the people do not want to see will be so. The Christ does not lie; what He says comes to pass. But He does not tell stories simply for shock value. Rather, it was to provoke such a reaction at the truth of the matter: the truth about Jesus and the authority that He bears.


Sometimes the truth is harsh. Jesus’ true story involves the history of Israel, even the sins of the fathers of the people to which He speaks. People do not like to hear about negative incidents in their family backgrounds. No one wants to have the names of their ancestors dragged through the mud, the skeletons of the family closet brought out for all to see. Yet that is what Jesus does, and the scandalous behavior of the Israelite rulers that He retells is shocking.


This is displayed in the characters of the parable. The vineyard represents the people of Israel. The owner of the vineyard is the Lord God Himself. The tenants are the priesthood and monarchy which were instituted to teach and lead the worship of the Lord’s people. And the servants of vineyard owner are the Old Testament prophets who were sent to bring the messages of the Lord to His people. They are sent to remind both rulers and commoners about the Lord God’s covenant with them and the identity that He gave them.


But what happens when the prophets are sent to Israel? What Jesus describes in the parable is not a good relationship between Israel’s rulers and the Old Testament prophets. In fact, it is a most negative relationship. What is told in story form happened to prophets like Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others in real life: “They were beaten, treated shamefully, wounded, and cast out empty-handed.” It happens all the way up to John the Baptizer and the rejection that he received. The priesthood and monarchy would not heed the message that the Lord God sent through the prophets, but “shot the messengers” instead.


Yet, the greatest injustice and scandalous behavior is not what the tenants do to the owner’s servants, but what they do to his son. Despite the knowledge of what happened to his servants, the owner decides to send his son with the same demand. His son is sent with the expectation that the tenants will not mistreat him: “I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him,” says the owner. But the son is treated worse than the servants who were sent to the tenants: “When the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”


Of course, this is more than a story. The sending and rejection of the owner’s son is also real. With His parable, Jesus is describing His rejection by the scribes and chief priests. The people entrusted with the care of the Lord God’s nation are even willing to murder His Son. They do so believing that the Son’s death will result in their full possession of the kingdom. And in their delusion, the tenants actually do it; they commit the unthinkable, crucifying the Son of the God who had done great things for them and made great promises to them. The Vineyard Owner will not endure this final insult and insolence: “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”


This is the fate of the scribes and chief priests and all who murder the Son. Their status is lost. They have the vineyard removed from their care. They are killed for what they had done and left undone. And when such a fate is described and understood, the people do not want to see it: “God forbid it!” they say. Those who heard Jesus’ parable fully understood what it meant. They know who the characters represent. They comprehend the divine wrath it depicts.


But Jesus also says: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Though the Son is murdered and the scribes and chief priests are deposed, there is good to be found in the events that happen in Jerusalem. Despite the rejection of Jesus by the leaders of Israel, there is no change in His identity. He still is the Vineyard Owner’s Son; He still is the divinely-appointed Cornerstone. Even when the Father’s Son is thrown out of the city walls and crucified, the Father also remains the Lord of His people; He still has claim to them. And He still keeps the promises that He made.


That shows the ironic part of the parable. Christ’s story is full of rejection and death, yet it is precisely in those actions that a Church is built. He becomes the Cornerstone of an institution that the chief priests and scribes will have no place in, but that many of the hearers will. The tenants are replaced, but the vineyard remains; in fact, it becomes larger. For where the Israelites and their leaders fail to recognize that Jesus is the Son of God, the Promised Christ, an entire group of nations gladly believe that truth, finding their salvation in it.


Jesus’ parable comes true in the events of Holy Week. It is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy which we heard this morning: “Behold, I am doing a new thing: I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people, the people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare My praise.” In just as picturesque words as Christ’s parable, the prophet Isaiah describes how the Lord God will be bringing a new group of people into fellowship with Him.


It is what has happened to you who were “wild beasts”: For you and your ancestors were once people content with living among the dead like jackals, sticking their heads in the ground like ostriches, ignorant of God and His way of life. But all that has changed, because the Eternal Father has expanded the boundaries of His vineyard; He has planted you in it. You have been called to believe in the Son whom the tenants rejected and murdered. You have been put under the watchful care of the new tenants: the apostles and their successors. Because you have faith in the Son’s authority and His works, you have access to all the blessings that the Lord God’s Kingdom of Grace provides.


St. Paul in the Epistle Reading described that: “For Christ’s sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” The great apostle once had been in that group of former tenants who beat the owner’s servants and killed his son. But he was called to faith in Christ and numbered among the new group of tenants. Given that new way of life, he does not find shame in calling the despised, slandered, murdered Son his Lord.


So it is for you. You find no shame in the rejection of Jesus by the chief priests and scribes, though you may wish that no one would dare so. You do not consider Christ’s reputation in the eyes of others the reason why you believe in Him. To the contrary, you find His rejection and crucifixion to be the source of your salvation, just as our Lenten midweek homilies have shown the centrality of the cross to our Christian faith.


In His death, you find life. In His rejection, you find your acceptance. It is a paradox, but something which you hold dear. That understanding will take you through Passiontide, from this Sunday through Easter Sunday. Christ’s Parable of the Wicked Tenants may not be one that is loved to be heard often. Yet, you will gladly retell and rehear the rejection of Jesus: His betrayal, arrest, punishment, death, and burial. You do so, because you know that your salvation is found in these events. They are the cornerstone of your faith, a faith based on “the stone that the builders rejected, that has become the chief cornerstone.”


So your reaction to hearing Jesus’ parable isn’t: “May it never be!” Instead, you say: “Let God’s will be done.” For the end result is that the Lord God accomplishes His “new thing,” making you “His chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.” You have been given a place in the Lord God’s Vineyard. You have become God’s people of every tribe and every nation who say: “The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. The Lord has restored our fortune.”


As members of the Lord God’s Vineyard, you have been provided tenants to care for your eternal welfare: tenants who point you to the Son who accomplished His Father’s will; tenants who exercise the authority that is found in the crucified and risen Son; tenants who deliver the Son’s gifts to you. May you remain firmly anchored on Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, never rejecting Him, never forsaking Him for anything in this world. He has given you forgiveness, life, and salvation through His own rejection, death, and condemnation. Such is the lesson of the Parable of the Wicked Tenants: the story that accuses Israel’s leaders of unfaithfulness, but also the story that tells of the Father’s faithfulness to you.


T In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Lent 4 Midweek Sermon -- 1 Kings 8:22-24, 30-40; Matthew 6:5-15

March 17, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


Solomon prayed: “Hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart You know, according to all his ways (for You, You only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind), that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.”


The great king of Israel dedicated the Temple of the Lord God in Jerusalem. As part of the dedication, Solomon offered the great intercessory prayer. He asks that it be the place where the Lord God will make Himself present for His people, so that they may approach Him in an accessible way. At the heart Solomon’s prayer is what he asks the Lord God to do, as His people come to His presence. This is found in the king’s statement: “Listen to the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place.”


But what are the pleas that the Lord God’s people will make? Solomon lists them. You heard some of them in the excerpts of his prayer read this evening: “Listen in heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear forgive. . . . Hear in heaven and act and judge Your servants. . . . Hear in heaven and forgive the sin of our people. . . . Hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants. . . . Hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart You know.” Note the common theme in these petitions: the Lord God’s people come to Him with the need for forgiveness, the need for being brought into a right relationship with Him.


This is the heart of Solomon’s Prayer. It is also the heart of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus instructs His disciples how to pray. He gives a form that you know well, because as His disciples, you have committed His teaching to memory. But it is important to note what Jesus says before He gives the words of the prayer: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” The need that the Father’s children have is known. That need includes earthly provisions. But it especially is the lack of righteousness, the necessity of receiving forgiveness. It is that need which He answers.


Like Solomon, Jesus—the true Prince of Peace—gives the intercessory prayer for His people. He tells them to pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What is asked of the Father is based upon knowledge of His will. His children want it to be fulfilled, because it is good. They know this is so, because the Divine Will has been revealed. It is seen in the actions that the Lord God does. It is the same foundation that Solomon used for his prayer: “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. . . . You spoke with Your mouth, and with Your hand have fulfilled it this day.” So the Lord God’s people clamor for that will to be done.


And just what is that will? It is that the people of God would receive salvation from Him. It is the will fulfilled by Christ—the Incarnate Word of God—who offers Himself for the life of the world. He keeps the Covenant which the Lord God had made. He makes good on the promises. The divine, steadfast love is shown in the sacrifice of Christ. In Him, the kingdom of God comes to fallen sinners. In Him, the Divine Will is done on earth. And those who receive His Name are privileged to recall Christ’s actions and ask for the benefits again.


This privileged status was given to Solomon and the Old Testament believers in the Covenant made to them. So Solomon makes those petitions: “Listen in heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear forgive. . . . Hear in heaven and forgive the sin of our people. . . . Hear in heaven Your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart You know.” They can ask for what they need, and the Lord God gives it to them. The same privileged status is given to Christ’s disciples. This is why He tells them: “Your Father knows what you need before You ask Him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven. . . . Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” You can ask for what you need, and the Lord God gives it to you.


What is it that you need? That the Lord God’s will for you be done. That His forgiveness be given to you. That His favor be extended to you. This is described so very well in Luther’s explanation of the Lord’s Prayer. Speaking about the Divine Will, he writes: “God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.” Breaking and hindering the will of Satan, this world, our sinfulness is what Jesus does in His crucifixion. The death that Jesus undergoes removes you from eternal condemnation. There the covenant promises are fulfilled for you. The Lord God speaks with His mouth; He accomplishes His will with His hands.


The need for forgiveness is great. So Luther also writes: “We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and deserve nothing but punishment.” But Jesus says: “Your Father knows what you need before You ask Him.” Divine favor is extended to you. Based upon the divine promises fulfilled by Christ’s death and resurrection, you may pray as you are instructed: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Like Solomon, you may bring the petitions to the Father’s mercy seat, to the place where He is present—through Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God who died for you.


So the Eternal Son of God instructs you to pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” No other is like Him in heaven or on earth, and yet He makes Himself accessible for you. His will was fulfilled by Christ on earth, so that it is fulfilled in heaven. His kingdom has come to you through Christ’s words that make you one of its citizens. This was done for you well before you ever asked. It was prepared to be yours from before the foundation of the world. The Heavenly Father’s covenant has been kept, as His steadfast love has been shown to you in the work of His crucified Son. It is shown you again and again when you pray as the Crucified Christ has taught. Because of Christ, you are now the Father’s children who walk before Him with all your heart. A privilege has been given to you: so you may pray and know that your Father listens in His dwelling place in heaven and forgives.


T In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Lent 4 Sermon -- Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 (LSB Lent 4C)

March 14, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’”


Jesus’ parable responds to the criticism expressed about His actions: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” Jesus does not let the criticism go unanswered. He doesn’t, because his critics misunderstand His actions. They are disgusted at the company that Jesus keeps. The Pharisees and scribes do not believe that such people—“the tax collectors and sinners”—should be welcomed by a rabbi, even if it is a teacher that they don’t accept or promote.


Jesus’ story explains His actions. His parable is about the reconciliation that the Lord God desires and works to have with people who have separated themselves from Him. That reconciliation is especially desired for those who once held the faith, but who have abandoned it. The younger son represents such people. This is seen in his words and actions: “[He] said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And [the father] divided his property between them.”


Note the younger son’s action: he demanded that which he had coming. He had a claim to a portion of his father’s property because his father had so decreed it in his will. As the father’s son, he is an heir. He possesses a status as a member of the household. But in the demand for the inheritance before his father’s death, before his father’s will was to be executed, the younger son has destroyed his ties to the family. His wishes are literally against his father’s will. His desire implies disregard for his father’s being—that is, he essentially wishes that his father were dead. He has sinned against his father.


But the younger son not only receives the portion of the inheritance, he takes it and runs away from all aspects of his identity. This is seen in the description Jesus gives: “Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.” The younger son abandons every aspect of his identity. He forsakes his sonship. He travels as far away from his familial homeland as he can. While away, he wastes his inheritance. His behavior is contrary to every custom and tradition that he had received.


Jesus’ description of the younger son fits the tax collectors and sinners that He welcomes. They were members of the Lord God’s chosen people. They had a favored status. But they renounced and abandoned it. Though living in Israel, they ran away from everything that it meant to be one of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They forsook the Covenant and the life which the Lord God gave through it. Reckless living aptly describes the sexually immoral—“the sinners”. And the description of the younger son in his plight—“He went and hired himself out to the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs”—is a poetic way to speak about the tax collectors, Israelites employed by the Romans to feed the empire’s war machine and licentious extravagance.


What Jesus says about the younger son is also meant for today. It is meant for all those who have abandoned their status as Christians. They have been baptized, incorporated into the Body of Christ, adopted into the Divine Household. They were rightly called sons, rightly promised a great inheritance—life in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. But they have squandered it. They have run away from their Eternal Father. They have renounced Him and His works and His ways. Instead, they have assumed the way of death as their lifestyle. Left in that condition, they are dead and lost.


But what does Jesus also say about the younger son? “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” Jesus shows the repentance that the younger son had. “He came to himself.” His heart, soul, and mind remembered what he once was, what he once had. He is driven back to his father, back to the household. But he does not claim a place in it. No, he knows well that he is not deserving of it. Rather, he will take whatever his father would give, even the lowest of servant positions, the most meager of provision, for that is greater than he had in “the far country,” where “no one gave him anything.”


That repentance is what Jesus wants his audience to have. That is why “[He] receives sinners and eats with them.” They can hear Jesus’ words and know that they have forsaken their privileged status as children of the Heavenly Father. His welcome does not mean that nothing was wrong with “the tax collectors and sinners.” No, it was how that which was lacking in them—what they had abandoned—could be restored. For the mercy of God the Father which His Son shows is meant for them. They are to receive it, just as their forefathers had received their chosen status centuries before.


The mercy of God the Father is revealed in Jesus’ words: “But while [the younger son] was a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” The father does not seek retribution. He is not there to chide or punish. No, his actions are driven by his attitude, by what he thinks. The father sees his lost son and the condition he was in and is moved to pity. His compassion leads to action: “The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’” He restores his younger son back to the family.


What Jesus describes in the parable’s father is how God the Father thinks about his lost children. It is how He thinks about you. The compassion is what drove the sending of His Son to save that which was lost: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. . . . For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” His pity and mercy for you was shown in that great act: the Son of God was sent to redeem you, to provide salvation for you, to bring you into His household.


But God the Father’s compassion is not limited to one act. His compassion is not a one-time emotion, never felt again. No, it is constant. He feels it for all those who benefited from Christ’s sacrificial death and glorious resurrection—being brought from death to life—but who have forsaken Him. That is why there is restoration for all those who come in repentance to be restored, though they are not worthy to be called His children. That is why the Church receives back people into membership when they admit their guilt and plead for the grace of God to be shown to them. The Father continues to give the command: “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”


However, the abandoning of the Father and His works and His ways is not always so drastic as the younger son’s actions. It doesn’t always lead to people renouncing the name “Christian” or never sitting in a pew or running away to “the far country” of unbelief. It is found whenever you transgress the Divine Law, whenever you wander outside the boundaries of the Father’s will, whenever you violate the baptismal vows. But even then, God’s compassion is present. He desires you to have what He promised. This is why you have the gift of Confession and Absolution. When you sin, when you wander off the path of life, you are called back to repentance. The Holy Spirit convicts you, showing you what you had lost. Then He draws you back to the goodness of the Father.


And what does your Father do? He says to His servants: “I forgive this, My child. Put the best white robe of righteousness back on him. Place My signet ring with My name back on his finger. Wipe the dirt from the way of death from his feet and put on new sandals, so he can walk in the way of life. Prepare the feast; for My child and I will eat together. For this My child was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”


God the Father says this to you who have come in repentance, claiming no worthiness in yourselves. Your sins are forgiven. Your robes of righteousness are reissued. Your place in the household is restored. And your Father provides a banquet—not the fattened calf, but His Lamb and the bread of heaven—for you to eat. So He does, because it is fitting for His family to celebrate and be glad, for you are alive again!


T In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.