Thank God for St. Matthew, the tax collector

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of St. Matthew

Ephesians 4:7-14  +  Matthew 9:9-13

Today is the day when St. Matthew is commemorated as Apostle—one of the original Twelve who were sent out by Jesus as His ministers, as His ambassadors in the world, upon whom the Christian Church would be built. As Paul writes to the saints at Ephesus, “You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” Matthew is also commemorated as Evangelist, that is, a writer of one of the four Gospels, the accounts of the life of Christ. His is the first book in the New Testament and likely the first Gospel that was written, written primarily to the Jews of his day, with more Old Testament quotes than any other book of the New Testament, proving that Jesus was indeed the Christ for whom the people of Israel had been waiting since the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This evening we heard Matthew’s own account of his calling to follow Jesus. He calls himself Matthew, while Mark and Luke call him Levi—another apostle with multiple names. He was a tax collector prior to becoming an apostle, and you know what that entails. Greed. Theft. A love of Mammon. A lack of love for their fellow Jews. Matthew, like all tax collectors, was despised by his own people, and probably rightly so. He was not a “religious” person. He was a sinner. And he knew it.

But the word he had been hearing from Jesus offered hope to sinners, a way out of their justly deserved condemnation, a way into God’s good graces. What was that way? It was Jesus. The Father had sent Jesus into the world, into the midst of sinners, not to condemn sinners, but that they might be saved through Him. He didn’t come accepting their sins or tolerating their sins. He came with mercy, to call them to repent of their sins and to put their trust in the God who had sent His only-begotten Son into the world to bear the sins of sinners, to pay for them, to make atonement for them.

And Matthew believed! So when Jesus approached him, sitting as his tax collection booth, and said to him, “Follow Me!”, Matthew didn’t hesitate. He got up and left that shady career behind and became first a disciple and then, soon afterward, an apostle of Christ. In fact, when the Evangelists list the apostles, Matthew is the only one who refers to himself as “Matthew the tax collector.” That was his testimony to the world that he had been a lost and condemned sinner, that he didn’t deserve to be counted among the saints, much less among the apostles, but that the Lord had shown him mercy.

After Jesus called him to follow, Matthew did. And then Matthew threw a great feast for Jesus. (He doesn’t mention in his Gospel that he was the host of this meal, as if to give himself some sort of credit, but the other Evangelists do.) And, naturally, Matthew invited lots of his friends, who also happened to be tax collectors and other people of ill repute. He wanted his friends to meet the One who was worthy to be followed. And Jesus ate and drank with them, and talked with them, and wasn’t afraid to be seen with them.

When the Pharisees objected, Jesus had a ready answer. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Let’s unpack that a little bit.

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Jesus indicates here why He had come into the world: not to praise or congratulate people on what a great job they were doing in this world, not to seek out the good people or to remind the bad people just how bad they were. He came to heal the sick, like Matthew and the other tax collectors and infamous sinners. They weren’t sick physically, but spiritually, and He had come to heal them like a doctor does, first by diagnosing their sin and showing them the results of the tests, that they were sicker than they knew. Dying, in fact. But to those who acknowledged their sin-sickness and that they needed saving, He gave the good news. “Your situation is serious, but it isn’t hopeless. Put your faith in Me, and I will heal you, first by forgiving you your sins, and then by turning you, slowly but surely, into well people, holy people who know how to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

Then the doctor gave the Pharisees a prescription: But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ You see, the Pharisees thought they were well, thought they were healthy, and so they thought they had no need of Jesus. But He shows them their need. For all the sacrifices that they offered and the offerings they gave, of which they boasted and in which they took such pride, the Pharisees were without the main thing that God was seeking all along: they were without mercy. They looked at their fellow Israelites and didn’t care if they lived or died. In fact, if these sinners died, so much the better! How dare they! God loves those people and wants them to be saved, not condemned.

As Jesus concludes, For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. In other words, these tax collectors aren’t righteous. They’re sinners. You’re not righteous, either, you Pharisees. You’re sinners, too. I came to call them, as I came to call you to repentance. Not to go on living in sin, not to boast in your fictional righteousness, but to repentance.

And for the penitent, there is forgiveness. For the penitent, there is a home with God. For the penitent, there is even a life of service to which God calls each one. It was Christ who called Matthew the tax collector to be an apostle after he was called away from the tax collector’s booth to leave that life of sin and to follow Christ. The same Christ calls each penitent believer to serve Him, to walk according to His commandments, and to carry out all your vocations for His honor and glory, for the love of your neighbor, and for the building up of His holy Church.

Give thanks to God today for Saint Matthew, the tax collector—for his faithful preaching in the early Church, for his beautiful Gospel that reveals Christ to us to clearly. But above all, give thanks for Saint Matthew, that he was called away from a life of sin to repentance, to faith, and to a life of thankful service to the Lord Jesus. In that way, may he serve as an example to us all! Amen.

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Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, September 21st

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

2 Timothy 2:1–26 (NKJV)

1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. 7 Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. 8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. 12 If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. 13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. 14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

Paul compares the Gospel ministry to warfare. There are persecutions and the false brethren’s attempt to undo the Gospel. But ultimately, Paul, Timothy, and all ministers do not wrestle against flesh and blood but spiritual enemies. The Gospel ministry is also like an athletic contest. It is a race that must be run according to certain rules. The Gospel minister is like a farmer who sows the seed of the word, waters it, and prays to God who alone gives growth. Warfare, running a race, and farming all take endurance.

The strength to endure hardship comes from the Gospel Timothy preaches, “that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead.” Believers share in Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. “If we died with Him”—that is, in Baptism, so that we then daily put to death our sinful nature—“We shall also live with Him.” “If we endure” hardship and suffering for His sake, “we shall also reign with Him.” Paul’s Gospel strengthened him to endure all things for the sake of the elect. Paul’s Gospel would strengthen Timothy with the same endurance.

Timothy will endure in this Gospel by shunning unprofitable words—profane and idle babblings that take attention away from God—and instead rightly dividing God’s Word. God’s Word is divided into Law and Gospel. The Law condemns sin in thought, word, and deed so that the hearer repents. The Gospel forgives sin and creates a new heart in the penitent. Using God’s Word, rightly divided, cleanses from the dishonor of sin and makes believers vessels of honor in God’s house, prepared for every good work. God wants all Christians to endure hardships, suffering, and temptations. By meditating on God’s Word, rightly divided, God cleanses us of our sins. By faith, the resurrected Christ dwells in us to be victorious over temptation, death, and the power of the devil and prepares us for every good work.

Let us pray: Strengthen us by Your Word, rightly divided, so that we may endure hardship as good soldiers today. Amen.

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Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, September 20th

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

2 Timothy 1:1–18 (NKJV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. 15 This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. 16 The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; 17 but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. 18 The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day—and you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.

As Paul writes this his final epistle, a sword hangs over his head. Soon he will be put to death for preaching an illegal religion—that God saves people not according to their works but by His grace given in Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. Yet he is not ashamed of the Gospel because he knows Christ and that Christ will keep the Gospel ministry going until the Last Day in spite of hardships, persecutions, and false brethren.

He is confident in Christ because he has not been given a spirit of cowardice that shrinks back, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. By faith in the Gospel he preaches, Paul’s spirit—his inner man—is a spirit of power to continue the work God gave him to do and endure hardship. His is a spirit of love by which he faces the world’s hostility and endures all things for the sake of the elect. His is a spirit of a sound mind which sees all things as God teaches him to see them through the Gospel. He reminds Timothy to keep stirring up this same gift in himself so that he may continue teaching the Gospel and holding to the pattern of sound words without shame in the midst of suffering.

Paul’s words to Timothy to keep stirring up the gift given to him are for our ears as well. Timothy is to move forward, doing the work of his office which was committed to him by ordination. All Christians are to keep stirring up the gift of faith given by God in Baptism. God the Holy Spirit gives us the same spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. He makes us powerful against temptations to sin. He fills us with love toward God and neighbor. He gives us a sound mind by filling our minds with the pattern of sound words—the Gospel.

Let us pray: Give us spirits of power, love, and a sound mind, O Lord, that we may boldly confess Christ without shame in this world. Amen.

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Each Day in the Word, Monday, September 19th

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

1 Timothy 6:1–21 (NKJV)

1 Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. 2 And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. 6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. 17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. 20 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—21 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

The words of Jesus are sound and healthy words. For those who believe them, they convert the soul from sin, make us wise for salvation, rejoice the heart with forgiveness, and enlighten our eyes by showing us the path of righteousness. Not all believe Jesus’ words, though. Rejecting Jesus’ clear words, they would rather dispute over words to excuse their sinful behavior and present themselves as more intelligent and righteous than others. They treat godliness as a means of gain, not of money but of reputation and prestige. From such men Timothy is to withdraw himself.

There are also those who desire to be rich. Their hearts are ensnared in the temptation of discontent. Thinking little of what God has given them already they are led by their lust for money, the phantasm of worldly security, or a certain lifestyle that God hasn’t given them. Following those lusts only pierces their hearts with anxieties and eventually leads to destruction. Prestige and honor, money and riches are fleeting. Even worse, they ensnare the conscience.

“But you, O man of God, flee these things.” Flee those who want to dispute about words to increase their own authority and honor. Flee from the love of money. Timothy is to run from these things. What is he to run to? Paul writes, “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.” We flee from temptations and sin by running the course of God’s commandments. We pursue righteousness of heart, godliness in our thoughts, increased faith toward God, and love, patience, and gentleness toward others. We pursue these because by the Gospel God has forgiven our sins and declared us perfectly righteous in His sight—not of ourselves, but by faith in Christ.

Against the temptation to engage in empty disputes, we confess the wholesome, life-giving words of Jesus. Against the temptation to be discontent, we live content with what God gives today and enjoy it, working to be rich in good works instead.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, help us flee from things that are hurtful to us and pursue contentment and godliness. Amen.

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The New Man pursues a life of thanksgiving

Posted on September 18, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 14

Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

We have much to be thankful for today. Two long-time wedding anniversaries were celebrated among our members this past week. One of our long-distance members celebrates a birthday this coming week. I received a short letter this week from a family I’ve never met in Missouri, who watch our services online every single week; they included an offering in honor of a birthday they celebrated this week. And, of course, we’ll be receiving two faithful Christians into our church membership today. All of that is in addition to the literally countless blessings, both physical and spiritual, that our God has given to each and every one of us here. For all this, it’s fitting and right to give thanks to God.

One of the ten lepers who were cured in our Gospel for today set a good example for us of such thanksgiving. But the other nine didn’t. They were all healed, as if they were all “new men.” But only one of those new men returned to give thanks to Jesus. Let’s take a look at the account of the healing of the Ten Lepers this morning and learn a few of the lessons the Lord would teach us here.

Ten men with leprosy approached Jesus, but from a distance. Leprosy was a disease that infected the largest organ of the human body: the skin. It left a person’s skin spotted and discolored, often covered with sores, and sometimes infected with gangrene. Maybe worse, God commanded, in the Law of Moses, that lepers in Israel be excluded from society; they were perpetually counted as unclean, and so couldn’t live among their fellow Israelites or participate in any of the festivals or temple activities.

Why was such a burden placed on lepers? Because there’s a life-or-death lesson God wanted to drive home to Israel under that first Covenant: The unclean cannot stand before God. Now, in reality, the outward state of your body doesn’t make you spiritually unclean in God’s sight. If you get dirty, or if you’re full of sores, that doesn’t make you unable to stand before God. It’s sin that does that—evil thoughts, and words, and deeds. But leprosy was an object lesson for Israel, teaching them that it’s not just the sins you commit that place you under condemnation. It’s the disease of your flesh, your sinful nature, the corruption and the ugliness of your soul—the soul of everybody born of Adam and Eve—that makes you unable to stand before God and unwelcome in the presence of His holy people. We refer to it as Original Sin, the disease of our nature that doesn’t fear, love, or trust in the true God, and that fills us with sinful desires, with longings for things that God labels sinful. All the actual sins we commit flow from this disease of our flesh, like spots on a leper, making it obvious that the person’s flesh is diseased. As St. Paul put it in today’s Epistle: the works of the flesh are obvious: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, murders, drunkenness, debauchery, and things like these. So, to demonstrate that to the people of Israel, God caused those who were afflicted with leprosy to bear a terrible burden: they were a visible sign to everyone in Israel that all of them, by nature, looked like this to God, if not on the outside, then surely on the inside, and needed to be cleansed if they were to live in His presence.

In our Gospel, we see Jesus mercifully providing the external cleansing of that disease for the ten men who came to Him in faith. They had obviously heard the good word about Jesus and believed it, that He was a kind and merciful Master. So they called out to Him in faith, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And He did. Immediately. Go, show yourselves to the priests! He said. That was what the Law of Moses required for those who had been cleansed from leprosy. The priests had to examine them over the course of several days, and if they were diagnosed as being clean on the outside, then they had elaborate rituals prescribed for them, to make them officially and ceremonially clean. At last.

By healing these lepers, Jesus demonstrated that He is the one who not only heals outward corruption, but also the inward corruption of our diseased nature, our diseased soul. But the Scriptures are clear that He doesn’t heal us by getting rid of our sinful nature or by turning it in a clean nature. He heals us by forgiving us our sins and by creating a new nature within us, a clean and godly nature that lives side by side, as it were, with the sinful nature. The new nature, the “New Man,” is led by the Spirit of God and must continually choose to walk with the Spirit and to live according to the Spirit, as St. Paul wrote to the Galatians in today’s Epistle. We’ll come back to that in a moment.

But see what happens with those who believed in Jesus and were cleansed. Their cleansing happened not while they were standing there in front of Jesus but as they took Him at His word and started walking toward the priests, possibly having to go all the way to Jerusalem. As they went, they looked and realized that their leprosy was gone, and they surely rejoiced in it. But nine of the ten took that good and gracious gift that Jesus had given them and got so wrapped up in it, and in the new life they had ahead of them, that they forgot about Jesus, the source of their life, just that quickly. It no longer mattered to them that they had just had an encounter with God, who had done for them, freely, what no one else in the universe could do. They took their cleansed selves and walked away from God. When Jesus asks, Were not all ten healed? But where are the other nine? Were there none found to return and give glory to God except for this foreigner?, it was a solemn indictment of those nine men, and apparently those nine were Jews—lifelong church members—who should have known better.

That is the danger. Many have come to Jesus for healing—for the forgiveness of sins and the beginning of a new life—and many have received it and become Christians. But then many—maybe most!—end up squandering it, end up pursuing an earthly life that relegates Jesus to the background. “He’ll be there if we ever need Him again. Maybe we’ll stop by church to grace Him with our presence once in a while. But for now, we don’t need Him.” And the thought of taking time out of their important life to worship Him, to thank Him, to listen to Him doesn’t even occur to such people anymore. Their New Man gives in to the Old Man and eventually dies.

But the one leper, the Samaritan, returned to give thanks to Jesus, to “give glory to God,” as Jesus put it. The “New Man” in him remained alive! And notice, the Samaritan didn’t just fall on knees where he was along the road and say a prayer in his heart. He went to the place where God had made Himself available to the man, to the place where Jesus was. And Jesus affirmed that the man had not only been brought to faith, but had continued in the faith, which is just as important. Rise and go. Your faith has saved you. And so, yes, he would rise and leave Jesus for the moment, but he wouldn’t go back to life as usual. He would go on bearing fruit in the new life Jesus had given him. As St. Paul wrote, the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

All of you here have received new life from Jesus. You’ve heard His Gospel, repented of your sins, looked to Jesus for mercy, and had your sins washed away in Holy Baptism, including Original Sin—the filthiness of your flesh, of your nature, as you stand before God. And you were given a New Man to walk with God’s Spirit every day, to produce the fruit of the Spirit, to do the good works God has prepared in advance that you should walk in them.

Now learn the lesson from today’s Gospel. Be careful to walk as the new people God has cleansed you to be. That begins with recognizing the great gift God has given you in Christ in the waters of Baptism, recognizing that your very life is a gift from God that you didn’t deserve, because you were spotted and diseased, and you still carry around that ugly flesh that’s always at war with the Spirit and the New Man and wants to dive right back into the filth of the world. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You’ve received new life from Jesus and for Jesus’ sake, who gave His life on the cross for you, that you might no longer live in filthiness and uncleanness, but in goodness and love.

Receiving new life from Jesus doesn’t mean you’re done with Him, just as a little baby isn’t done with his mother after he’s born. No, your life depends on Him and flows from the preaching of His Word and from His Sacraments, where He promises to be present to forgive out sins, to receive our thanks, and to give us His strength. So let us give thanks to God today for all His many blessings, and let us pursue a life that’s characterized, not by thanklessness, but by thanksgiving. Amen.

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