Reformation Sunday

TEXT: Matthew 11:12-19
GOD’S KINGDOM IS NOT TAKEN BY FORCE!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting

Grace to you and peace from Him who was and who is and who is to come, and for the seven Spirits who are before His throne (that is the Holy Spirit) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead (Rev. 1:4, 5). Dear children of the Reformation; “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

If you had been alive when He walked visibly on earth, you would have noticed little difference between the Pharisees and Jesus. The Pharisees were Bible-believing teachers who had a following of disciples. Jesus was a Bible-believing teacher who had a following of disciples. They were serious and conservative of good moral values. Jesus was serious and conservative of good moral values. They were concerned with people getting into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was concerned with people getting into the kingdom of heaven.

Yet, for all their outward similarities and their common searching of the Old Testament, there was a great divide between the Pharisees and Jesus. The difference was as great as the divide between heaven and hell. The difference centered on their teaching of how God’s kingdom is entered. The Pharisees taught that it came by sincere, religious effort in keeping God’s law. Jesus taught that the kingdom came as a gift through His suffering and death and the forgiveness of sins He won.

Fast forward 1500 years to the time of the Reformation. If you had lived in Wittenberg when Dr. Martin Luther first taught there, you would have noticed little outward difference between him and many other teachers of the church. Dr. Luther was a Bible-believing pastor who was concerned with people entering the kingdom of heaven. The teachers of Rome also used the Bible and many of them were also sincerely concerned with people entering the kingdom of heaven. Yet for all their outward similarities, the contrast between Luther and the teachers of Rome centered on the very difference that separated Jesus from the Pharisees.

They differed immensely in their teaching of how God’s kingdom is entered. Luther taught that the kingdom came as a gift of God’s grace through faith in Christ, apart from works of the law. The teachings of Rome more and more centered on the good works of man as the key to heaven. There was the sale of indulgences to pry one’s way out of purgatory. There was the assignment of acts of penance to make satisfaction for sins confessed. There was trust in relics and pilgrimages and papal decrees. There was even the tragic perversion of the Lord’s Supper into a sacrifice thought to be accomplished by the priest and offered to God. Rome taught that by works of the law man could advance his standing before God. Luther taught that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Fast forward another 500 years to the religious scene of today. It may seem that there is little outward difference in the many varieties of modern-day religion. Nearly all of them advocate being good and doing good works. Many of them speak highly of God’s love and think highly of Jesus as a special example of that love. But in reality, there is an immense difference in teaching and faith if one truth is not kept absolutely clear and absolutely central.

That truth is the presence of Christ and the total forgiveness which He embodies. That truth is the gift of the kingdom of heaven through the person of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. 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. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence whenever His person and His bloody propitiation are replaced with anything else. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

That means that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence also at our hands and in our hearts. Our sinful flesh is never content with Christ’s forgiveness – it always wants to add itself. Therefore our sinful minds calculate and compare. Surely, when the day of the Lord comes and we must give an account, our lives will add up to “good enough”. Our weak flesh wonders and worries. Perhaps we haven’t done all we should, but God will surely see that our intentions are good. Dear hearers of the Word, beware of such religious reasoning. It always litters the landscape because it is the religion of man. Beware of trying to take the kingdom of God by force, even the force of good intentions.

For you see, the violence that Jesus spoke of was not the violence of those who were trying to destroy the Church. This wasn’t the aggression of communism or an immoral culture. It was rather the violence of those who believed they were pleasing God and advancing His kingdom. It is the violence of turning efforts to keep the law into a false gospel. It is the violence of substituting how-to(s) for Christ’s cry from Calvary, “It is finished”. It is aggressive spirituality that believes it can make up for its mistakes and redeem itself. It is forceful spirituality that may try to outdo the one Lord of one faith and one baptism by attempting to be re-baptized. It is the violence of human judgment overriding God’s judgment. “If God is fair and just, He will certainly welcome the soul of this kind person into heaven” even apart from faith in Jesus whom God put forward as the sacrifice of atonement through His blood.

Beloved members and students, as you mark the Reformation today please remember that it was not the start of something new! God led Luther to rediscover the way of life and the way of death. The way of death depends on man and looks outwardly impressive. It may speak much of Jesus, but it centers on the actions of man and the self-righteousness of man. It is a form of idolatry.

The way of life depends on Christ and looks quite unimpressive. It seems to be out of touch with reality, except to the eyes of faith. It centers on the presence of Christ and the gifts of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. In fact, it is all Christ. It is the eternal Gospel that must continually reform the Church.

This is what the Pharisees did not receive. They read the Old Testament diligently. What they found were rules for living and plans for a Messiah who would bring them earthly success. They read the Old Testament to find eternal life, but they missed the truth that eternal life is embodied in one person. As Jesus said to them, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me;” (John 5:39).

Fast forward to the day of your death and to Judgment Day! The angel (messenger) of Revelation proclaims to every nation, tribe and language and people (and therefore to you) “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

What is it that you depend on for the hour of judgment? What is it that fuels your forgiveness of those who sin against you in this hour? What is it that moves you to give generously to advance the gospel? What is it that gives you hope when everything seems hopeless?

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Oh, the blessed separation – apart from the works of the law. Oh, the blessed forbearance of God! Oh, the blessed redemption that is in Christ Jesus! The only way that the kingdom of heaven can be entered is by the violence he Himself suffered. They called Him a glutton who is the Bread of Life. That called Him a drunkard who drank the cup of God’s wrath for us. All have sinned – except Him! All fall short of the glory of God – except Him! He is the glory of God! The law holds the whole world accountable to God and Jesus settled the account. What occurred on the cross was Judgment Day for the sins of the world. The judgment that fell against Jesus will never fall on you who are in Christ.

Dear Children of the Reformation, it was an age that looked for a link to God in the extraordinary and extreme – relics, pilgrimages, and more. But Luther pointed to the simple yet profound right in front of our eyes: to the cross, to water, to bread and wine, to the Word of God. Ours is an age of visions and dreams and nature worship and spiritual illusions. But Christ is still found in the simple and the profound that Luther pointed to, where Christ has promised to be “for you”.

Not only did He make the sea and springs of water, He made water to be a spring of new life in your Baptism. Not only did He shed His blood on Calvary, He bids you to drink of His blood today. What cannot be taken by violence, He comes to freely give you by His grace through faith.

The Reformation was not the start of something new, but the recovery of that which makes new – the eternal Gospel. God help us to hold fast to that Gospel in sincere and contrite hearts. God help us to clearly proclaim that Gospel in our corner of the world and to every nation and tribe and language and people. In the Name of Jesus, amen.

21st Sunday After Pentecost

Text: Luke 18:1-8
Vicar Roy Askins

Beloved in the Lord, grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I quote: “We must understand that God is not joking, but that he will be angry and punish us if we do not pray, just as he punishes all other kinds of disobedience.” (Large Catechism, Kolb, pg. 443 paragraph 18) Thus wrote Dr. Martin Luther in the Large Catechism. Luther contended that the failure to pray is failure to be obedient to God. Luther spoke this way to explain the necessity of prayer. We ought to pray because God has commanded it.

Is this the only reason to pray? Are there other reasons for prayer? The world around us says prayer does not serve a useful purpose. They have examined the claims; they’ve done the research. They’ve come to the conclusion that the only real benefit of prayer is that it gives you a relaxed state of mind. Prayer only results in psychological benefits, they say.
Sometimes it seems likes the only reason to pray is to use God like a candy machine. Put in a one dollar bill and get a 75 cent candy bar. Many Christians today think this way. If you pray hard enough, God will give you whatever you desire. Did you get that $100,000 job you wanted? If not, pray harder. Perhaps on the next round God will get you the job.
With all the voices of modern science and hazy spirituality floating about, it is not surprising that we often find ourselves disillusioned with prayer. We often pray half-heartedly or distractedly. We rarely offer to God thanksgiving in dinner prayer. In fact, we rarely pray except when something is going wrong. And yet the stressful times continue to plague us. So we wonder if God really answers prayer. In the end, we end up neglecting prayer.

Not, of course, as though this was any excuse. Luther’s words accuse us today just as much as when he first wrote them. God does require prayer and punishes those who do not pray. Luther explains what Christ meant in the parable when he writes that we are to “drum into [God’s] ears our prayer that he may give, preserve, and increase in us faith and the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments and remove all that stands in our way and hinders us in this regard.” (Luther, LC pg. 441, paragraph 2) This was Luther’s way of saying what Christ said at the beginning of the Gospel, “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1)

Continual prayer is modeled for us in the Scriptures. Christ himself would pray. In fact, at every major event of His time on earth He prays beforehand: His Baptism, Transfiguration, and Crucifixion. Many other times as well, Christ goes out and prays alone. He prays also with His apostles. He prays with the crowds as he did when he fed the five thousand. St. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians, “Pray without ceasing...” (1 Thes. 5:17). The Psalmist proclaims, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.” (Psalm 55:17) Prayer and crying out to God is a continual aspect of the Christian life. So Christ exhorts and exemplifies for us.

As the Psalmist proclaims in the verse above, the prayer we continually engage in is not merely a passive activity or something we do ‘on the side’ as time permits.

Rather this is a struggle, a combat, a contention in a sense. Jacob, in today’s OT reading, struggled with the Lord. He did not let the Lord pass before the Lord had given him a blessing. And though it cost him a lifelong limp, the Lord also blessed Jacob. Jacob struggled with the pre-incarnate Christ, and received the blessing and the name Israel.

The woman in the Gospel also struggled. When the judge says, “I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming...” (Luke 18:5) the word for, ‘to beat me down’ is one of physical struggle meaning ‘to strike below the eye.’ This is not a physical struggle as Jacob and the Lord struggled. This struggle wore the the judge out from continually being ‘pestered.’ She struggled with him by being persistent. The struggle of faithful prayer is the struggle to remain persistent in the face of doubt.

St. Paul writes to the Colossians about Epaphras who was “always struggling on [their] behalf in his prayers, that [they] may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” (Col. 4:12) Epaphras struggled with God on the behalf of the Colossians, that their faith might be strengthened and their knowledge of the will of God be fully assured.

Our struggle in prayer ought to follow the patterns of Epaphras, the widow and Jacob. Our pattern ought to reflect the faith they held that God would answer in due season. For their prayers did not gain them salvation; their prayers did not gain them any merit; their prayers did not raise one dead person; their prayers did not get them the million dollar job. Rather, their prayers were answered because their prayer stemmed from faith. For this reason Christ says at the end of the parable, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)

Christ did not seek abundant prayers for the sake of praying, otherwise monasticism would have redeemed the entire world by now. Christ did not seek long-winded prayers otherwise the Pharisees would have erased the need for a Savior. Christ did not seek prayers for relaxation, otherwise all we would need is psychology or Transcendental Meditation. Christ sought instead the prayers growing from faith. Christ sought the prayers of those who understand their failure to withstand the temptations and attacks of Satan. Christ sought prayers of those who pleaded for redemption from sin, renewal in the Lord’s Supper and renewal in Baptism.
This prayer Christ has bound Himself too. He must answer in the affirmative. Whenever His people cry out to Him with prayer seeking forgiveness of sins, he responds with a resounding, “Yes. You are my people. I have redeemed you.”

God is not unrighteous or reluctant. If the unrighteous judge granted the woman justice against her adversary, even though he cared nothing for her or her problems, how much more does Christ, our judge, grant us the redemption we need? Will not Christ, who suffered unjustly on our behalf, grant us the fruit of His sufferings? Christ was judged by sinful humans who had no right to judge him. He hung from a cross He did not deserve to redeem those who unjustly sacrificed him.

From this tree God wreaked vengeance on all sins and transgressions of mankind. God wreaked his vengeance on Satan. God gave justice to Christ who suffered the greatest injustice. From this place, God made Christ the judge of all mankind. Will not this judge “give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” (Luke 18:7)

He has and he will continue to do so. The delay that this judge takes is not a delay but forbearance. This judge could decide to give justice right here and now for all the sins we have committed. He could have sentenced you to eternal damnation from the moment of your conception. Yet His forbearance moved Him to delay in order that you might be brought to faith in Him and from this faith to accomplish the works He has set before you.

And so we are in a sense, the widow, who approaches the judge imploring him to grant her remission, to grant her justice against her adversary. Who is our adversary? St. Peter answers that question, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8b) This is your adversary. This is he who stirs up against you your sinful flesh and the world, to lead you into vice and shame. Against him we plead to the judge.
We cry out against Satan and all his minion with those in Revelation, “who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:9b-10) With these who were given white robes we cry out to God for justice and vengeance. We cry out for Satan to be destroyed with all his works and ways. We cry out for the strength to endure until we join this host of witnesses. This also is the struggle in our prayer.

Our prayer does not fit into the categories of science. Our prayers do not always have tangible results. For science, this doesn’t work; according to science, you must be able to duplicate the experiment in order to prove it works. Our prayers consist of more than a psychological relaxation and reorganization of the brain to face the challenges of the day.

No, our prayers are fervent pleas to the creator of the heavens and the earth. They are pleas to deliver us from the attacks of our adversary satan and to redeem us from our transgressions. God is also aware of our physical circumstances, and is concerned with them. Satan often uses our physical circumstances as means by which to turn us from God. So we also pray for our physical well being as Christ taught us in the Lord’s Prayer. And while our primary need is reconciliation with the Father, we also pray for strength to endure the struggles and hardships incorporated in our daily lives.

I began with an exhortation by Martin Luther to prayer from the Large Catechism on the Lord’s Prayer. It is fitting to conclude, then, with these words from his Lord’s Prayer hymn, verse 9 :

“Amen, that is, so shall it be.
Make strong our faith in You, that we
May doubt not but with trust believe
That what we ask we shall receive.
Thus in Your name and at Your Word
We say, ‘Amen, O hear us, Lord!’”
(LSB 766 vs. 9)

20th Sunday after Pentecost

TEXT: Luke 17:11-19
Christ Jesus Says, Rise and Journey, Your Faith Has Made You Well!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting

As Jesus journeyed up to Jerusalem, one leper out of the ten returned to praise God. With His face on the ground at the feet of Jesus, Jesus said to Him, “Rise and journey; your faith has made you well.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Are you a person of faith? That question is fashionable in today’s culture. It is acceptable to ask about “faith” and to talk about “faith”. In fact, the word “faith” is a large component of the current presidential campaigning. If one of the candidates were to begin saying, “No, I don’t have faith – I see no need for faith” poll numbers for that individual could be expected to go south in a hurry. In politics, the word “faith” is in play, whatever is meant by the word. In daily life, the word “faith” is common and considered important. In crisis circumstances you are well aware of statements such as “my faith carried me through” or “you just have to have faith”.

But faith by itself is nothing! The value, the worth, the benefit of faith comes from its object. “You have to have faith” in what, in whom? Some academics have faith in science – it is their idol. Some Hollywood sophisticates have faith in scientology and sincerely believe in aliens from outer space. Some people have faith in the pagan practice of voodoo, because it works – things happen. Some have faith in meditation – if it changes feelings or blood pressure. Some have faith in prayer wheels or prayer beads seeking help from other mediators than Christ. Some have faith in nature, the wind or trees or animals or stars. Some have faith in Allah and his prophet, Mohammed. Some have faith in God and country, whoever that god might be. Some have faith in themselves, their learning, their good works, their wealth. One major magazine said that over 90% of Americans believe in god, but that more and more of them are inclined to make up the god in whom they believe. Not so with the leper on the border between Samaria and Galilee!

The ten lepers literally shouted or screamed “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They were supposed to be yelling “Unclean! Unclean!” so that no one came too close to them. Their disease isolated them from friends and family. Their disease forecast a hopeless future and painful death. Therefore lepers were sometimes known as “walking dead men”. But instead of shouting out “unclean”, these ten cried out for mercy to be cured. They wanted to be cleansed. They wanted to be held close again by those who loved them. Word of Jesus had reached their ears even in their leper colony and somehow they had located Him.

From a distance they were yelling, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” These men were not asking for forgiveness of sins nor do we when we sing the Kyrie, “Lord have mercy upon us! Christ have mercy upon us! Lord have mercy upon us! Notice that the Kyrie today came after the Absolution in the Liturgy, not before it.

The Kyrie is not a cry for forgiveness but a cry of total need to one who has total power to help. Like the lepers we are always in a fix in this sin-poisoned world. When we pray “Lord have mercy” our prayer is as wide as the world and as deep as our need. We are asking God for help with our culture and with college and with sinful cravings and with our crumbling bodies and with the cruel pressures and with the hidden pains of life. “Lord have mercy”. We are praying for the aging and the unborn and the starving and the addicted and the sick and the dying and even for our enemies. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Dear Christians the liturgy is so rich! If we just prayed that prayer with true understanding we would never think or say, we didn’t pray about much in worship today. God give us faith to truly pray the Kyrie each week.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus didn’t touch them. He didn’t even pray for them. When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” In His mercy Jesus could have healed them on the spot, but He didn’t! The law said that those cleansed of leprosy were to have the priest make a sacrifice for them and be declared ritually clean. The priests would kill a bird over a basin of fresh water and dip cedar word, scarlet yarn, hyssop, and another live bird in the blood-stained water. The priest would then sprinkle the bloody water on the cleansed leper and release the living bird. It was testimony to a new life – a life cleansed from leprosy.

So it happened, as they went they were cleansed. Suddenly, miraculously, they were not lepers anymore! They were all healed at the same time and in the same way! Ten “walking dead men” suddenly had a whole new life open up before them. They were now as free as a bird! No imprisoning isolation in a leper colony. No imprisoning pain and decay of body. No imprisoning depression of heart and mind. Dear Christians, it is hard to overestimate the joy and the thrill as they looked at one another and saw skin that was clean and whole.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. The nine continued to journey to the temple in Jerusalem to follow a law that Jesus came to fulfill. The one returned to the Temple of Jesus’ body, a flesh and blood temple before which he fell in worship. He recognized the giver of God’s healing and cleansing! He thanked God for the mercy He had received by laying that thanks at the feet of Jesus. Dear Christians, “that is faith”!

When Jesus said, “your faith has made you well” He was not saying that the Samaritan had worked up “faith” within himself. He was not saying that this leper’s personal confidence had secured God’s help. He was not saying in some generic way, “faith works”. Rather, by Christ’s person and word, this man was given faith in the only one who can bring healing and release from leprosy of the body and from the leprosy of sin.

“Rise and journey, your faith has made you well”. Jesus is saying, you believed that I have the power to shower you with mercy. You trusted my word of cleansing and now you are clean. In preaching on this text Dr. Martin Luther said that we should look to God for all of our needs and know that He is our only source of help. Luther counsels patiently expecting what we pray for in God’s own time and in His own way, not doubting that God hears and answers.

“Rise and journey, your faith has made you well”. Jesus had sent the lepers off without any obvious healing of their condition. All they had to go on was His spoken word. They acted on the promise contained in Jesus’ command even though they could not initially see it. Fellow-redeemed, Jesus’ words were true all along. He didn’t cleanse them because they had enough faith. He cleansed them because He is a gracious and merciful Master and Lord.

One of them recognized His grace and mercy. One of them recognized that Jesus is the LORD. That is faith! The Samaritan recognized that there could be nothing greater in the Jerusalem temple than this merciful healer. In faith He recognized that Jesus is the Temple and the High Priest, the place where worship is to be offered and the one through whom God’s gifts are to be received. He is the flesh and blood temple conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He is the flesh and blood Temple who was Himself journeying up to Jerusalem where His body would be destroyed and rebuilt in three days. He is the flesh and blood Temple that rose from the grave on the morning of the third day and comes into your midst on the morning of this day with gifts of healing and release.

Beloved, true faith doesn’t just happen. It is the gift of God’s grace by which you trust in Jesus Christ. It comes through hearing and hearing through the speaking of Christ. It comes through water included with God’s command and combined with God’s word. And true thankfulness doesn’t just happen either. It proceeds from recognition of our need for God’s mercy and flows back to God through Jesus Christ. Where are the nine? Jesus asked. Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Jesus recognized the praise and thanksgiving laid at His feet as praise and thanksgiving to God. The nine had a whole new life as a gift from Jesus. Their list of possibilities had just exploded. But Jesus expressed disappointment that they were not thankful to God. Unlike the one, the nine did not have faith that worshipped at Jesus’ feet, faith that saved them.

Are you a person of faith? There is a reason the church has confessed the historic creeds in worship down through the ages. They lead us to confess who the one true God is and how He comes to us in Jesus Christ. Receiving Him is faith, the faith once delivered to the saints, the faith through which salvation is given to you.

The word “faith” itself can mean a thousand different things to thousands of different people. It is a fashionable word today. It is a political positive today thrown about with gusto by candidates for office. But the faith the Heavenly Father gives you through the Holy Spirit is faith in Jesus Christ and His Word. It won’t get you elected president. It won’t insulate you from the struggles of this life. But it is the God-given channel for receiving God’s gracious forgiveness and His mercy in your struggles. It is the God-given channel for eternal life.

Where are the nine? God help us to lovingly bear witness to all whom we know of Him who pierces the darkness of death in this sinful world. God help us lovingly invite them to receive the healing Jesus continues to give and to lay their thanks to God at His feet.

The value, the worth, the benefit of faith comes from its object. The object of your faith is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. As He speaks to you and feeds you and cleanses you today His word to you is the same as to the healed leper. “Rise, journey, your faith has made you well.” Or as we might also say to one another, “Rise, journey, Jesus has made you well.” Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

19th Sunday after Pentecost

TEXT: Luke 17:1-10
NO THANKS NEEDED FOR MY THANKS!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting

(Please note: As verses from the Gospel are used in the sermon, the ESV translation “increase our faith” will be read with the literal “add to us faith.” The ESV translation “If you had faith” will be read with the more possible and less pessimistic “If you have faith.”)

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord; …when you have done all that you were commanded say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’

Dear unworthy servants of the Lord; just last week Barbara and Mark and I enjoyed your gift of an entertaining and educational trip to Washington D. C. From the three of us we would like to say, thank you, thank you, thank you. We are grateful for your kind gift.

Suppose, however, after expressing appreciation for your gift our feelings got hurt because you didn’t praise us for thanking you. This example may seem far fetched, but think it through with me. 1. The gift is given. 2. The “thank you” is expressed. 3. No praise from the giver of the gift is given to the one for simply thank you. 4. That someone is upset because his “thank you” isn’t recognized.

Jesus didn’t think such a possibility was far fetched for He is really asking His disciples if they expected God to say thank you to them. “Will any of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?

It is not Jesus’ intent to picture God as a hard-hearted master with no feelings! It is Jesus’ intent to picture what kind of attitude truly serves God. That attitude could be stated in this way, NO THANKS NEEDED FOR MY THANKS! God would have all the actions of those who follow Christ proceed from gratitude for His undeserved gifts. God would have those who gratefully serve Him as apostles and in other vocations do so with no expectation of praise or recognition.

This goes against our sinful human nature. We generally notice what we do. We would like others to notice as well. It is good business to recognize. It is good human relations to take notice. However, this attitude of seeking recognition and desiring to receive credit is problematic before God. Yet, it doesn’t disappear in the Christian. Even where true faith is present, the devil continues to tempt us to seek recognition and claim credit before God and others in the church.

Therefore Jesus here speaks of duty. “When you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” The word for duty in Greek means, what we owe, what we ought to do. No matter what service is done for God, no matter what gift is returned to God, no matter what hardship is suffered for God, the attitude behind it is simply to be “thank you, Lord”. The controlling thought is to be, “Heavenly Father, I’ve only done my duty.”

What about just the duty Jesus sets forth here? Rather heavy, like a millstone! Temptations are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come. Dear Christian, it is your duty never to tempt anyone to sin by gossip or complaint or worry or laziness or greed or apathy for missions or lack of attention to God’s Word or forsaking weekly worship or in any way. Rather heavy, like a millstone! Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him…. Dear Christian, it is your duty to rebuke sin – sins against you and sins against others and sins against God’s Name and God’s gifts. How weird is that on a college campus or in an office or in our homes and cars? Rather heavy, like a millstone! “And if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Dear Christian, it is your duty to forgive the repentant sinner again and again and again. Without the forgiveness of sins there is no faith. Without the faith, there is no forgiveness of sins. There is to be no score keeping in the light of God’s grace. Gratefulness for the ocean of forgiveness you receive from God is to overflow in forgiveness to others.

The apostles had a problem with that, a big problem. They were utterly inadequate to carry out this command. They knew they couldn’t fulfill this duty. “You must forgive him” Jesus said to all His followers. But notice only the apostles respond to the Lord, saying “add to us faith!” The duty to rebuke sin and to forgive sin in their teaching office was overwhelming. They plead, “add to us faith!”

Notice also that Jesus doesn’t respond by offering them a seven-step plan to acquire faith or to help them forgive seven times. The request “add to us faith” can only be made by those who already have faith. It is like the man whose son Jesus healed who said, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” It is also true that at this point in the ministry of Jesus no one had faith that fully grasped who Jesus is. No one yet understood the release from sin He would accomplish in His bloody death and mighty resurrection. “(A)dd to us faith” they entreat!

Jesus responds to their request for faith with two parables – the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the unworthy servant. The parable of the mustard seed reveals that faith does accomplish the great matter of forgiveness. While this parable is often misused for a multitude of fabricated things about what faith can do, the context anchors it squarely in rebuking sin and forgiving sin. God has not commanded you to uproot a mulberry tree and toss it into the sea. God has commanded you to rebuke sin and to forgive sin. If your brother sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “add to us faith!” And the Lord said, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed…

Fellow-Redeemed, do you see it? Even though the apostles don’t realize it, in Christ they have the faith needed to do miraculous things, to forgive seven times and even seventy times seven. Like a mustard seed, the faith God gives them in Christ conceals great power. Through them Christ will absolve sin and do wonders for His kingdom.

They were sent out as workers in His vineyard. They tended His sheep in the field of this world. They were not worthy of this apostolic office to which He called them. But, this was the duty He gave them. They had no sufficiency in themselves, but as stewards of the fruits of His cross, they would do miracles! Through His authority they would absolve sin and throw it into the depths of the sea.

And so do we in our vocations today. Must we not all with the apostles therefore say to Jesus, “Add to us faith”! Add to us faith that appears as small as a mustard seed and yet receives the casting of our sins into the depths of the sea. In our offices add to us faith that rebukes sin and forgives those who repent again and again and again. Add to us faith that You our Master became our Servant. Add to us faith that when you came in from plowing with your Word and tending Your sheep in the field of this world, you did the unexpected. In the upper room, You, the Master, bid the apostles sit down at table. Instead of saying prepare supper for me and serve me while I eat and drink, You hosted the Last Supper for them and bid them to eat and drink. Only then did you go forth to eat (that is to taste death for everyone (Heb 2:9) and swallow it up forever (Is. 25: 8). Only then did you go forth to drink, that is to drink fully the cup of God’s wrath that you prayed might be removed in Gethsemane.

Add to us faith that You our Master still come among us to serve us; that this very day You prepare for us a banquet of Your own body and Your own blood. Instead of saying, “wait on Me” You our Master still serve us and say, “take and eat”, “take and drink”.

Dear unworthy servants, all this Jesus can do and does do because He bore the millstone of our sin around His neck and was submerged under our sentence. He never tempted anyone to sin. He faithfully rebuked sin, never looking the other way. He perfectly forgave those who sinned against Him even to His cry “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” All that stood against you has been hurled into the depths of the sea. He comes to you who repent forgiving you again and again and again, releasing you from all sin. By His sacrificial death and His glorious resurrection He abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (II Tim. 1)

So rejoice at His Word like one who finds great spoil! So follow the pattern of sound words you have heard from the Jesus and His apostles! So share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God!

The righteous shall live by his faith. By the faith Jesus gives - you will be able to grow in doing what you could not do (avoiding tempting others to sin, rebuking sin and forgiving sin). By the faith Jesus gives - your soul will not be puffed up thinking you have ever gone above and beyond the call of duty. Is it not a sign of our sin-sickness that we seek recognition and credit before God; that we turn inward and feel slighted and grow weary in God’s kingdom? Is it not the supreme sign of our salvation that our Master serves us with healing food and releases us from every single time we miss the mark?

Beloved, that’s solid, joyful reason to serve God without fear. That’s solid, joyful reason to not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, but to bear witness to others of the hope that we have. That’s solid, joyful reason to pray for one another and to thank one another for the help and encouragement we receive in this place and among this congregation of God’s people. Thank you, thank you, thank you! That’s solid, joyful reason to gratefully serve God with the attitude, NO THANKS IS NEEDED FOR MY THANKS! Before God, So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ In the Name of Jesus - Amen.

18th Sunday after Pentecost

TEXT: Luke 16:19-31
Vicar Roy Askins

So, have you fed a poor man lately? Have you, clothed in the riches and trappings of this world, taken a small sum from your budget and clothed the man down the street suffering from illness? Have you put the man whose sores ooze disgusting fluids into your car and given him a ride to the hospital?

You don’t have to look long and hard to find a charity case these days. Suffering is here and it needs someone to clean it up. So also with Lazarus who sat at the gate of the rich man, the rich man who feasted sumptuously every day! In fact, feasted so sumptuously that he has more than three meals a day. But there was still suffering there and someone needed to clean it up.

Perhaps you have fed a poor man lately. Perhaps you cracked open your wallet for the poor man on the street. If not that, maybe you added the little extra onto your donation this month for Walther Memorial. If so, congratulations, you have done your duty to humanity and now you can sleep in peace. Or can you? Do the riches you’ve given away really matter? Perhaps a better question to ask is this: are these riches even yours?

Do you think of yourself as the generous benefactor? You might wear a robe of purple, but you justify it by giving your fair share to the poor people down the street, maybe even a little more on top of that. Hence, the robe of purple is your right and you're going to wear it proudly. Is this what Jesus is saying about the rich man in this story, that he didn’t use his riches correctly and so went to Hades?

It might be that you fall on the other side of the spectrum. You are, perhaps the poor man sitting at the gate of the rich one. Blisters well up on the skin of your legs from the plastic seats of an outdated car that barely runs. Your mouth salivates whenever you drive by the fancy restaurant down the street but you go home to a frozen pizza instead. You live month to month. God shall surely, you suppose, grant you some remission from suffering because of the suffering you endured here in this life now. Isn’t that what Jesus is saying about Lazarus?

In truth, your place on the financial scales of this world are entirely inconsequential. The scales themselves are even pointless. For if you have wealth, the wealth is not yours. If you live in poverty, the meager portion of things you possess still do not belong to you. They are not yours. Your poverty does not get you one step up on the road to heaven. For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. (1 Tim. 6:7) The love of riches can snare the rich man of the world and the poor man of this world alike. The rich man ensnared in the loves of riches hordes what he has and does not give in generosity what has been graciously given. The poor man ensnared in the riches of this world pines constantly about the wealth of the rich man, and desires only to follow in the rich man’s footsteps.

Do these gifts, whether in wealth or in poverty, even belong to you? You know the answer. You have nothing to give that has not been given you. All the gifts, whether of house, family, car, steady job or whatever else you have been given are exactly that: given. They belong not to you. They belong rather to the one whose riches surpassed all riches in this world, for this world belongs to Him and everything in it. They belong to Him who could have taken these gifts for His own benefit but instead made Himself like the very beggars who sit at His gate.

For you see, even those who pretend to wear garments of purple are merely masquerading in the tattered dirty garments of their own works. They masquerade before the gates of the only truly wealthy Man in existence throwing alms to their fellow beggars, alms which amount to nothing more than dust. That is where you once were. At one time you belonged there, in the dust, destitute; devoid of any gift. Though you masqueraded in wealth or promulgated your poverty, you amounted to nothing before the man of true wealth.

And this Man, this wealthy Man left his mansion. A mansion fit only for God, He left and took on the festering sores of mankind. In a loving gracious act, He took on the poverty of our humanity. The sickness and diseases of those who lay at the gates of the rich, he carried himself. The tattered garments of those who supposed themselves rich, He tore away from them revealing their true poverty. And in this state, this state of utter humility, He bore our iniquity. He bore the sins which we supposed were our glory. He bore them to the cross and nailed them there. He bore them to the cross and by His gracious blood, atoned for them.

Christ impoverished Himself so that by this impoverishment, you might not be found on the opposite side of the chasm, the chasm separating Lazarus and the rich man. He impoverished Himself so that you might have a place in His mansion in the bosom of Abraham, by the side of Abraham. As Lazarus who was at the side of Abraham knew, you also know that you are a son, adopted by the Father through the impoverishment of His Son, Jesus Christ. You know you are a son because you also belong by the side of Abraham, a place that has been promised to you. The rich man in Hades repeatedly called Abraham his father, but Abraham did not call him son, but rather child. The one who is at the side of Abraham is Abraham’s son, and this is the place prepared for you. Prepared for you by the Man of wealth who became the most destitute of all.

This impoverishment cost Him His life. And if He had remained dead, then our faith would have been in vain, but He did not. He is the one who rises from the dead at the end of Jesus’ story of Lazarus and the rich man. Not a mere apparition as the rich man wanted his brothers to see, hoping that they might come to believe. No, instead Christ rose bodily from the grave that you and I also might be raised with Him. This impoverished man is Christ who died and rose again that we might be united unto Him forever.

From the very beginning, God intended this humiliation, the sacrificial suffering and death of Christ. How can this be? Note what Abraham says to the rich man in regard to the rich man’s brothers. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus so that his brothers would believe. But Abraham responds, they have Moses and the prophets, if they will not believe in Moses and the prophets, then neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead. (Luke 16:29-31) Moses and the prophets speak of the same saving faith to be found in the New Testament. The Law, spoken in its terrifying severity crushed the unbelieving hearts of the Israelites, while the Gospel of the promised Messiah who would conquer the devil, the world and their sinful natures, bathed the crushed hearts of stone so that they became a living hearts, placed in the breasts of the Old Testament believers by the hand of Christ. The same God of the Old Testament also has mercy on those in the New Testament and today.

He has had mercy on us. The rich man in Hades called out to Abraham, ‘Have mercy on me!’ Or in the Greek, ‘eleison.’ Every Sunday you cry out to God with those same words. At the beginning of the service, we sing the Kyrie, the full name of which is the Kyrie Eleison, Lord have mercy. We cry out to Christ who sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father, Lord have mercy. But instead of hearing about the chasm that divides us from Him, He rather bridges the gap between us and God. He bridges the gap in a tangible way. He bridges the gap with Himself. This bridge does not exist in some spiritual dimension to be touched only with mind and spirit, though certainly this bridge affects the mind and spirit. Rather, you can also touch this bridge, this wonderful food from the table of the richest man in the world. Not merely a crumb which cascades from the counter of the rich man, not merely a tidbit from the tall table of the wealthy for which you must contend with the dogs. No, this bridge is the full meal itself, the touchable tangible gift of the body and blood of Christ. With this bridge He brings us back to the Father; He sets us by the side of Abraham.

And now we see our riches in a different light. No longer do we need to be concerned with appearing to have riches. We do not have to walk about in tattered rags pretending we have something to give. For first of all, of what value can the material riches of this world possess compared to the priceless gifts given to us by the wealthiest Man, Jesus Christ? Christ has freed us from the ensnaring riches of the world to freely give to those in need. To freely give not only the wealth we have been given by Him, but also to freely give out the wealth we are given in the Word of God preached. How can we who have been given such gifts not also go out and proclaim them from the rooftops? Our wealth is not our wealth, but Christ’s wealth. Our salvation is not our salvation, but Christ’s salvation, His redeeming act.

The rich man did not spend eternity in Hades because he possessed great wealth. Lazarus did not spend eternity in the bosom of Abraham because he possessed nothing. This is not Jesus’ point. The rich man spent eternity in Hades because his wealth was his god. Lazarus on the other hand spent eternity in heaven because his God was the God who became man, the God who impoverished Himself in order to give the manifold riches of His grace to sinful human beings. This God, this gracious God-Man, Christ Jesus, now forms the focus of our relationships with each other and those outside this church.

With our eyes on Christ, whether in life here on earth or in life eternal, our status of wealth is rendered inconsequential. “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we have brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it,” St. Paul writes. (1 Tim. 6:6-7) Rejoice now that you can share your wealth with those in need, sharing always in addition to the gifts you give of earthly wealth, the wealth given to you in this Divine Service of Word and Sacrament. To the Rich Man become poor, to the God who became man, to Christ Jesus our Lord, be all glory now and forevermore. Amen.