Steadfast faith and earnest prayer against the demons

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Ember Wednesday in September

Amos 9:13-15  +  Mark 9:17-29

Today is the first time we’ve ever observed the Ember Days, as our diocese has just recently encouraged their observance. They occur four times a year, in each of the four seasons, and they place a special emphasis on repentance, prayer, fasting, charitable works, and the fundamental teachings of the Small Catechism—basically the same emphases of the seasons of Advent and Lent, which is why there’s purple on the altar. But just as with the saints’ days, we view these days mainly as an opportunity to gather around God’s Word, to hear and ponder another portion of Scripture or a particular doctrine of Scripture. So we’ll focus on the second Lesson you heard this evening from the Gospel of Mark, which will also help prepare us for next week, when we’ll celebrate the feast of St. Michael and the Scripture’s teaching about angels…and demons.

It was right after the transfiguration, the next day. A father had approached Jesus’ disciples, possibly the nine who remained behind while Jesus, Peter, James and John traveled up the mount of transfiguration. He had a son, apparently an adult son, who had been tormented by a demon since he was a child. In this case, the demon took hold of him, threw him down, and caused him to foam at the mouth, gnash his teeth, and become stiff. It sounds a lot like the neurological disease we know as epilepsy, doesn’t it? Except it wasn’t. It was something malicious, something that intended to harm the man, casting him into fire if there was fire nearby, or casting him into water to drown him. It was a demon, an unclean spirit whose goal was to make people’s life miserable here on earth.

It wasn’t only the afflicted man who was miserable. His father was, too. He came to Jesus’ disciples begging for help. They had helped people with demons in the past. Jesus had previously sent them out to preach and to perform miracles in His name, and when they came back, they were excited that even the demons submitted to them. But this one didn’t.

That prompted an argument with the scribes, who were likely accusing Jesus’ disciples (and Jesus Himself) of being imposters. That’s when Jesus showed up and asked for an explanation. So the father explained to Jesus that it was because the disciples couldn’t cast out the demon from his son. Then Jesus spoke those words of frustration, O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?

Who was showing unbelief? Practically everyone around Jesus. The scribes, to be sure, who saw the failed miracle attempt and immediately used it to prove Jesus a fake. The father, who shows how weak his faith is with his words, “If you can do anything.” Also the demon-afflicted man, whom, as far as we know from Scripture, the demon wouldn’t have been able to afflict if he had been steadfast in faith. And Jesus’ own disciples. Matthew makes that very clear. When they asked why they couldn’t cast out this demon, Jesus’ first words to them in Matthew’s Gospel were, “Because of your unbelief.”

Now, the Lord showed much patience toward sinners in their weakness. But here He shows that even the patience of God wears thin when people try to force Him over and over and over again to prove His faithfulness, to prove His own trustworthiness, to prove His ability to help. Jesus’ words should sting: How long shall I put up with you? We tempt God, we put Him to the test when we doubt His goodness and love and frantically try to make Him prove it yet again, instead of giving up, instead of unbelieving, instead of “being still” and “knowing that He is God,” as Psalm 46 says.

But Jesus didn’t refuse help just because He was surrounded by so much unbelief. Bring him to Me, He said. And then we see more evidence that this was no ordinary illness, because when the unclean spirit saw Jesus, it caused the man to fall down and go into convulsions. Jesus asked the man’s father about his condition, not because He couldn’t have accessed that information through His divinity, but because He wanted to show the care and compassion of a doctor, and also because He wanted to expose the weakness of the father’s faith, to confront and to admit his own problem, so that Jesus could heal him, too. “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us!”

Jesus identifies the issue and puts His finger on the problem: If you can…believe! All things are possible for the one who believes. Any prayer that begins, “God, if You exist…” or “God, if You can,” is a worthless prayer, because it starts from a position of doubt and unbelief. It’s just like saying, “God, I don’t know if You exist. I may be talking to the air right now. I don’t know if You can help. You may be just as powerless as I am.” As James says, Let a person ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. By nature, that father couldn’t believe in Jesus for help or salvation, but that doesn’t excuse his unbelief, just as it doesn’t excuse ours. The fact that a severely drunk person can’t drive straight doesn’t excuse his erratic driving. But Jesus’ own Spirit-filled words are powerful to coax faith out of the man, to persuade him, to change his doubt into a weak faith. All things are possible for the one who believes!

All things are possible. That doesn’t mean God will do whatever a person believes He will do. It means that God will do whatever He says He will do, and it means that God is always trustworthy and able to help in any and every situation. He can literally do anything. If there is an “if” that we should ever use, it’s the “if” that the leper once spoke, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Not, if You can, but if You are willing. That’s a good prayer.

But the father then utters a very good confession and a prayer of his own that every Christian can imitate: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” He said it “with tears.” He was desperate. He had given up on every other remedy. He had faith in Jesus, but he knew his faith was weak, and he knew he couldn’t make it stronger. Only Jesus could. And that’s always the way it is. So he asked, he prayed earnestly for that gift, and Jesus granted it. He commanded the demon to come out of his son, and the demon had to obey.

Why couldn’t we cast it out? the disciples wondered. Because of your unbelief, Jesus says, according to Matthew’s Gospel. And then Matthew and Mark both record the other reason: This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting. In other words, when they tried to cast it out, as they had done at other times successfully, but this time it didn’t work immediately, they gave up! They stopped believing in the authority Jesus had given them, and instead they relied on themselves and their own power. But this is a special kind of demon, Jesus says, one that He can cast out immediately, with a word, but one that can otherwise only be cast out by prayer and fasting. In other words, not immediately, but after setting aside time and earthly distractions to ask God for special help.

We might like to know more about the kinds of demons there are, but we shouldn’t get distracted by that. The point is that, if God’s power and help don’t appear immediately, don’t give up. Be steadfast in faith. And be earnest in prayer. And, yes, even use fasting, if necessary. The flesh grows lazy when it’s full, sluggish when it’s satisfied. And there are times when it’s necessary to set aside earthly needs and pleasures and distractions in order to give proper attention to seeking the help of the unseen God against unseen enemies, especially when that help doesn’t come right away. Prayer and fasting are required to confront certain kinds of demons.

That brings us to these Ember Days, which call us to reflect on those demons that aren’t quickly cast out or those troubles that aren’t quickly resolved, for which we are in desperate need of God’s help. That begins with our flesh, which takes a lifetime to subdue, and so denying it once in a while is a very healthy practice. The devil himself is not quickly turned away, but remains like a roaring lion, who goes around looking for someone to devour. The demons that are exerting their malicious influence on the nations and governments of the world are also not quickly cast out. In fact, it will only be the coming of the Lord Jesus that gets rid of them once and for all. But God will come to the aid of His people in all the ways we need it, either with outward deliverance, or with the inner peace and strength we need to bear up under it until His final deliverance comes. Don’t lose faith in His help! Instead, pray for it all the more. Let these Ember Days encourage you to do just that. Amen.

 

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Don’t worry. You’re going to die.

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 16

Ephesians 3:13-21  +  Luke 7:11-17

In last week’s Gospel, the Lord Christ taught us very patiently not to worry. In today’s Gospel, He teaches the same thing, except in a much more striking way. Last week, He taught us to look at the birds and how our heavenly Father provides for them. This week, He teaches us to look at the dead man being carried out of the city of Nain in a casket and how He, the Lord Jesus, took care of the problem. Don’t worry, He says. You’re going to die. But it’ll be all right in the end.

You’re going to die. Everyone is. For as much as people want to avoid it, deny it, or prevent it, no one can. Not for long, at least. Oh, they frantically take their precautions and treat anyone they view as a threat to their health as a villain who needs to be removed from society. But Moses says it plainly and truly: The days of our life are seventy years; or eighty, if we have the strength. Yet their boast is only toil and sorrow. For it passes swiftly, and we fly away. Now, some make it a little past eighty, but many don’t even make it to seventy.

Take the young man in today’s Gospel, the young man of Nain. Death came for him sooner than it does for most people. We may call it tragic. We may also call it tragic that he was his mother’s only son. And we may also call it tragic that she had already dealt with death; we’re told she was a widow. Her husband had already died, so that she was now left husbandless, childless, and destitute. So much tragedy and sadness!

Of course, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be a happy world, a world filled with laughter and life, a world without sickness or death, where family members were never separated from one another by death or by anything else. That’s the world God intended. That’s the world God created. That’s the world God blessed.

But you know where death came from. You know whom to blame, and it isn’t God. It’s, first, the devil, who wanted to see his Creator’s creation suffer, who tempted Eve to do the one thing that God had already told them would surely bring death on the human race. But she did it anyway. And so it’s also her fault. And Adam’s fault. And the fault of every child of theirs who has sinned, and that’s everyone—except for One. Our culture hates to admit that death is what we all deserve and the wages we’re all going to get, and so it will go to any lengths to pass the blame on to someone else. But no one can change the fact: Death comes for all of us. You’re going to die.

And so it was that death came to the young man from the city of Nain. He wasn’t the first young man to be taken too early, and he won’t be the last. Death continues its nearly perfect record of victory over the human race. But on this one occasion, for the very first time (at least, the first time recorded in the Gospels), death encountered its Destroyer in the Person of Jesus.

Jesus saw the grieving mother and went up to her and comforted her. Do not weep. Why not weep? Because Jesus had come. And death was about to be undone.

He touched the casket, and the procession halted. He spoke to the dead man, Young man, I say to you, arise! And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

It wasn’t the permanent ending of death’s march against our race. That young man would eventually die again. His mother would die. All the people of Nain would die. All the people of the world have died or are dying, quickly or slowly. It wasn’t the end of death that day. But it was a foretaste of death’s ultimate defeat.

Death is defeated in two ways. Jesus describes them both in John 5. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.

We all begin life dead already, spiritually dead in our trespasses. But the time is coming and now is when the Gospel of Christ goes out, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved! And where the Spirit works faith, that person passes from death to life, to life so real and so strong that even death can’t interrupt it, as Jesus says in John 11: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.

That’s our first consolation when we face death. For the believer, death has already been defeated. There is no death, only the temporary sleep of the body in the grave. The soul is safe with God, and very much alive, no longer fighting, no longer wrestling with the devil, the world, or the flesh, but resting in the true peace of Paradise. That is no small comfort.

But there is more. Jesus goes on in John 5, Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. That’s what we get a taste of in today’s Gospel, the actual raising of dead bodies when the voice of Jesus speaks over their graves. For those who died in unbelief, who rejected Jesus the Life-Giver, it won’t be a resurrection to life, but to condemnation. But for those who died in faith, it will be a much better life.

This is what gives believers strength to face a hostile world and a future in the world that may often appear bleak. You’re going to die, and you know it. You’ll die of COVID. You’ll die of cancer. You’ll die of stroke or heart failure or old age. You’ll die from cold. You’ll die from heat. You’ll die from an accident. You’ll die from foul play. And yet, nothing the world throws at us can interfere with the life that Jesus now gives, or with the life that He will give at the resurrection. No disease, no accident, no tyrannical oppression, no amount of hatred, no amount of danger can change the fact that Jesus has conquered death by His own resurrection from the dead, after making payment for sins of the world with His own death. Nothing can change or overturn Jesus’ promise to deliver His baptized believer from every evil of body and soul. As St. Paul writes, Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For now, it’s OK to weep when death wins yet another battle. But don’t weep as the world does, without faith and without hope, without knowing that you, united with Christ in Holy Baptism, have already won the war. The same Lord who approached the grieving widow mother approaches each grieving child of God in Word and Sacrament, to comfort and to heal and to assure you that death is about to be entirely undone. Yes, you’re going to die. But don’t worry. You’re also not going to die. You’re going to live, because God has taken this horrible thing called death and has made it work together for good to those who love Him. If you remember that now and cling to Christ continually, then you truly have nothing to worry about. Amen.

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The Conclusion of the Commandments

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Small Catechism Review

The Conclusion of the Commandments

We’ve now briefly reviewed the First Chief Part of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Ten Commandments, over the last several weeks. All that remains is what Luther calls the “Conclusion” of the Commandments. Some have called it the “Close” of the Commandments, but that doesn’t capture the meaning, especially because it doesn’t come at the “close,” at the end of the commandments, but at the beginning. Right after the First Commandment, right after God has forbidden His people from having any other gods and from making carved images with which to worship those gods, He speaks the words which Luther rightly applies to all the commandments as the “conclusion” we are to draw, since the First Commandment governs all the rest:

What does God say about all these commandments? He says: “I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, who visits the sin of the fathers upon their children who hate Me, to the third and fourth generation; but to those who love Me and keep My commandments, I do good for a thousand generations.” What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments; therefore, we should fear His wrath and not disobey them. But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep them; therefore, we should also love and trust in Him, and gladly obey His commandments.

Recently someone tried to make a point about the way the government is trying to force people into getting the COVID vaccine. They cited a pastor (of course), who argued something like this. “If the government has to make you afraid and threaten you in order to get you to obey, it’s out of step with the God of the Bible. Our God is a God of persuasion, not of threats.” So I brought up the Conclusion of the Commandments with this person, because it does no one any good to misrepresent the Christian religion in the fight against government oppression. The person had to retract the statement. Because while the Gospel is all about divinely empowered persuasion, the Law is all about threats. Threats of punishment for disobedience and promises of reward for obedience.

Let’s look at the text itself. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I, the Lord, Yahweh, your God, the only true God, He Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come. I, the Lord your God, that is, the very same one who has just done wonders in Egypt, ten horrible plagues against the Egyptians, so that you could go free. I, the Lord your God, that is, the very same one who passed over your houses marked with the blood of the lamb, saving you from death and destruction. I, the Lord your God, who parted the waters of the Red Sea so that you could pass through, who has led you for 50 days through the barren wilderness, providing bread from heaven and water from a rock. I, the Lord your God, who has just commanded you not to have or worship or serve any other God—I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

Now, we normally think of jealousy as a vice, as a sinful attitude, and among us sinners it usually is. Jealousy is the anger and resentment we feel when we see someone else getting or having something that we think we deserve more. It’s usually sinful, but not necessarily so. For example, a teenager decides to do something really nice for his parents. While they’re gone, he spends the whole cleaning the house, inside and out, cleaning the yard, sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, everything. And then, when mom gets home, she praises the brother or the sister who did nothing at all. And even though the teenager tells the truth about what happened, the mom just can’t stop praising the do-nothing brother or sister. That would be a justifiable reason for jealousy on the part of the one who did it all.

So the Lord God is provoked to jealousy when His benefits are attributed to someone else, to a false god who did nothing. God provides everything for His people, even the very world we live in, the sun and the moon and the air we breathe, and men still give the credit to someone else, to false gods, including themselves, giving themselves credit for what God, in His mercy, has done. That makes Him justifiably jealous.

But He doesn’t mope in His jealousy. He punishes. He visits the sin of the fathers upon their children who hate Me, to the third and fourth generation. If the fathers hate God, and so break His commandments, chances are they teach their children to do the same. And their children teach their children, and on and on, and God’s threat follows each generation that hates Him. To the third and fourth generation, there are consequences for idolatry and godless behavior. The only thing that can end that cycle of disobedience and punishment is repentance and faith in Christ, from which flows all true obedience to God’s commandments.

And then the Lord God promises, but to those who love Me and keep My commandments, I do good for a thousand generations. The only way anyone can love God is by first knowing Him as the God whom we have offended with our sins, and as the God who gave His Son into death as the payment for our sins. The promise of the Gospel, of forgiveness to all who flee in faith to Christ, is what persuades sinners to believe in Christ. And from faith comes love, first for God, then for our neighbor.

Some people say that certain laws shouldn’t exist, because laws don’t change hearts. For example, some say there shouldn’t be a law criminalizing abortion, because that wouldn’t change anyone’s heart. But again, the purpose of the Law isn’t to change hearts or to create faith in God. It’s to curb bad behavior and to incentivize good behavior, so that society doesn’t crumble and self-destruct in lawlessness. It’s the use of the Law we call the “Curb” or the “Club.” God does threaten and God does punish, and whenever we see the disobedient punished, we are supposed to fear God’s wrath, as Luther says, and learn not to disobey Him.

But, but, that sounds like thunder and lightning preaching! Well, remember when the Law was given, there was thunder and lightning and fire and billows of smoke at Mt. Sinai. Better to have thunder and lightning and fire in the preaching of the Law and in the threats the Law makes than to face the eternal flames of hell. As Jesus once said, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, people should be afraid to disobey God. He is the Judge, and His threats are not in vain. As the writer to the Hebrews says, It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep them; therefore, we should also love and trust in Him, and gladly obey His commandments. But, but, that sounds like bribing people! Not a bribe, but incentive for our Old Man, who needs that prodding and pushing, and hope for our New Man, who is eager to receive the rewards God promises with thanksgiving and joy, even as Jesus Himself was motivated to obedient to death on the cross because of the reward promised to Him—not the reward of His own glory, but the reward of pleasing His Father and of saving sinners.

To summarize: God threatens punishment for disobedience and promises rewards for obedience, not to change our hearts, but to control our behavior. That’s the Law’s use as Curb or Club. Its other two uses are just as important. Remember? It serves as a Mirror to show us our sins. And when we see our sins, then the Law serves as Curb again, with its threats, to make us rightfully afraid. Then the Gospel comes in and comforts the fearful and penitent: Christ has suffered for your sins. The threats of punishment against the disobedient were carried out against Jesus on the cross, so that all who take refuge in Him are no longer under wrath, but under grace, no longer condemned as lawbreakers, but justified and forgiven as righteous through faith in Christ.

Then, finally, the Law comes back in with its Third Use, as Guide, and shows us how to put love for God and our neighbor into practice, and then the Law comes back in once again as Curb, not to threaten, but to promise us extra incentives and the hope of God’s grace and every blessing when we keep His commandments. And then when the weakness of our Old Man prevents us from doing all the good we want to do, the Law comes back in as a Mirror and as a Curb and accuses, but then the Gospel comes back in and assures us that God is faithful, and that His acceptance and forgiveness depend, not on how well we obey, but on Christ alone.

The Ten Commandments are the Law, and the “Conclusion” of the Commandments is that we ought to obey God and not disobey Him. Until the Law has done its work on you, revealing your sins and bringing you to fear God’s wrath and punishment, you’re not ready for the Gospel. But once the Law has done its work and broken your heart and crushed it, the Gospel comes along to offer you God’s solution to your lawbreaking—faith in Christ, who kept the Law for you and suffered its penalties in your place. The Gospel is beautifully summarized for us in the next part of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Second Chief Part, the Apostle’s Creed. Starting in two weeks, that will be our weekly focus, too. May God grant us His blessing! Amen.

 

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Seek first the kingdom of God, not of Mammon

Posted on September 12, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

I don’t take polls. But if I were to take a poll this morning and ask, how many of you needed to hear Jesus’ word in the Gospel today to stop worrying, I’m confident that every hand would go up. I know mine would. That makes sense, because last Sunday we talked about the sinful flesh that we all still carry around with us, the original sin that corrupts our Old Man. And on Wednesday we noted that original sin includes both the lack of something and the presence of something. It includes the presence of evil, sinful desires, contrary to God’s will. And it includes the absence of true fear of God, true love for God, and true trust in God. On Wednesday we focused on the sinful desires part of original sin. But today’s Gospel focuses on the other aspect of original sin, the lack of fear, love, and trust in God. Worry and anxiety are the natural consequences of the lack of trust in God that we all suffer from by nature. We are worriers by nature, and since our natural self doesn’t trust in God, it has to go searching for something or someone else to trust in, for another god to serve. And in most cases, we can lump those things together under the term “Mammon.”

Now, first, what does it mean to serve a god? It means, as Luther explains in the First Commandment, to fear, love, or trust in someone or something above all things, trusting in someone or something as the ultimate source of all good, to supply you with every need, to save you from all trouble, to rescue you from all disease.

And what is Mammon? Mammon includes money and earthly wealth, but it also includes all earthly solutions, all human efforts to supply our needs and solve our problems.

What are those needs and problems? For most of human history, people lived much closer to the edge of survival than probably any of us here in this room ever has. Where is my next meal going to come from? Where will I take shelter tonight? Where will I get a single set of clothes from? People in the world still ask those questions and face those needs daily. But they’re not the questions or problems of the average American.

So what other needs of this life make people anxious, make people worried? How to avoid illness? How to find a job or keep one? How to find a spouse? How to escape government oppression? Will I have enough to live on when I’m old? What kind of world will my children grow up in? Mammon comes in many forms, offering earthly solutions to these problems—solutions other than seeking first the kingdom of God.

The Left is trying to be people’s Mammon, and many are their servants. “We’ll provide the vaccines, you be sure to take them, over and over and over, until we tell you to stop. No questions allowed! Serve us with your mask, and you can participate in society, and you’ll be safe from CV. And you may also need to turn against and snitch on your fellow citizens to be good servants of ours.” And people dutifully comply. Because they’re filled with anxiety and with worry, but they’re told, if you just serve Mammon properly, you’ll be fine. Of course, it’s all a lie. But that’s always the case. Mammon promises: if you make me your God, I’ll also be your Savior. But Mammon is always a false god, and no savior at all.

The Right has its own version of Mammon. “The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution—they’ll save us! The courts, they’ll save us! The right politicians or candidates for office! The right amount of activism. Our own might, our own strength! Our own zeal to resist the tyranny! Our guns and our determination! They’ll save us!” But those things, too, are forms of Mammon when we seek them first, instead of the kingdom of God.

There is a still more insidious form of this service of Mammon. I’ll call it the “American God.” He isn’t the God of the Bible, or the Christ who reigns in a hidden way at God’s right hand. He’s a god who holds up the Bible but doesn’t care about what it actually teaches. He holds up America as his chosen kingdom on earth. To him, “Seek first the kingdom of God” means seek first to be patriotic Americans in order to turn America into God’s kingdom on earth. He’s the god with whom many Americans believe they have made a covenant, or that they must make one. How arrogant! Man can’t make a covenant with God. Only God can make a covenant with man, and He’s only done that a few times in human history: after the Flood, then with Abraham and on Mount Sinai, in the Upper Room on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, and whenever anyone is baptized in the name of Christ, there is God making a covenant of peace. Any other supposed covenants with God are frauds in service to Mammon.

What other forms of Mammon exist? Drugs. Alcohol. Music. TV. Videos. Gaming. Porn. Wherever people turn, in their hearts, for refuge, for rescue, for salvation, for relief from their anxiety and worry. And none of it works. Not really.

And all the while, while you while away your time in worry and anxiety, there is your heavenly Father, quietly feeding the birds, quietly clothing the lilies and the flowers of the field, and calling out to you through the words of Jesus, pay attention! Pay attention!

He’s “your” heavenly Father, Jesus says to His disciples. He’s not speaking to the whole world right now. Not everyone can say he or she has God for a Father. Yes, God is the Creator of all. And He is willing to become the Father of all by adoption. But He is the loving, kind, merciful Father to those who cling to His Son, Jesus Christ. As He loves His Son Jesus, so He loves all who are united to Jesus by Baptism and by faith. So if He provides for the birds without their worry, and if He sees to it that the grass of the field is well-clothed, without its anxiety or frantic scrambling for solutions, you are to conclude, according to Jesus Himself, that your Father cares infinitely more for you, O you of little faith.

Now, when He says that to His worried people, it should smart a little. But it shouldn’t drive anyone to despair. Because that same Jesus doesn’t drive His worried disciples away. Instead, He corrects them in love. He knows the worry and anxiety that His people still struggle with. He knows we’re weak. He knows we’re flesh. He knows we get caught up in the world’s anxiety and that we’re susceptible to the temptation of Mammon, with its enticing promise to fix our earthly problems and supply our earthly needs—although it never does. (You’d think we’d learn.)

But there is invitation and forgiveness in that word, too, for those who shake their head at their own worry and anxiety. There is acceptance of the sinner, not because you’re worthy of God’s acceptance, but because Jesus is, and you’re with Him.

And then there’s direction for us from Jesus. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What does that mean? What does that look like? It means stop looking for the kingdom of God here on earth. It means stop seeking salvation from earthly sources and from human sources. More than that, it means stop focusing on your earthly problems entirely. Don’t waste your time with it, just as the birds and the flowers don’t waste their time with it. Instead, turn your attention to God’s kingdom. To the hearing and pondering and spreading of the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ. Turn to the unseen reign of Christ at God’s right hand, and to the coming of God’s kingdom at the end of this age. Turn your attention to God’s righteousness, which is your greatest need, and which He promises to provide free of charge through faith in Jesus. Focus on living a righteous life according to God’s commandments. And turn to God in prayer. As Peter writes, Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares for you.

And then there’s such a great promise here, if we would only take it to heart. And all these things will be added to you, given to you in addition to the kingdom of God. What things? Today’s provision of food. Today’s provision of clothing. Today’s provision of shelter. Divine providence, divine guidance, divine protection, divine comfort, the opening of just the right doors at just the right time. Today’s provision of whatever you need for today, because your Father will take care of it for you. It’s what we pray for every time we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We aren’t even to pray for tomorrow’s needs. Only for today. As Jesus says, Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble.

Now, Jesus’ promise here doesn’t mean you don’t go to work and work hard. It doesn’t mean you don’t do your chores at home, or study in school, or participate in society, or help your neighbor in need. It doesn’t mean you don’t tend to your health or even take a vaccine. It means you don’t rely on those things to solve your problems. You don’t do those things in order to provide what you need. You do the things that God has given you to do, in your vocations, in pursuit of His kingdom and His righteousness, and you leave the worrying, and the providing, to Him.

Those who serve Mammon are “sowing to their flesh,” as Paul said in today’s Epistle, and they will “reap corruption from the flesh.” But those who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness are the ones who “sow to the Spirit” and will reap eternal life from the Spirit. It’s hard to do that every day, to wake up and not think about all the problems you need to solve today, and all the things you need to get, to turn your thoughts instead to the things of God and to let Him take care of the rest. But the Word of Jesus and the body and blood of Jesus will give you the strength you need for today, and the Spirit of God will keep hammering away at your perspective on the world, turning it from serving the false god Mammon, who is a worthless god and no savior at all, to the true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who has made you His dear child through Holy Baptism, and who is the Savior of all, and especially of those who believe. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Ninth & Tenth Commandments

Posted on September 8, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Small Catechism Review

The Ninth & Tenth Commandments

The Eighth Commandment taught us how not to use our tongues for any false or harmful purpose, and how to use our tongues to defend and build up our neighbor. The first eight commandments all taught us not to misuse our hands or our tongues, but to use them for the purposes God commands.

Now we come to the final two commandments, the Ninth and the Tenth, both of which forbid coveting, that is, setting our hearts, setting our desires on things God has given to others, but not to us. It’s these two commandments that deal only with the heart that show us clearly that the heart is also involved in the first eight commandments.

Now, you probably know that the Reformed are the ones who renumbered the commandments from their traditional Western numbering. They combine the Ninth and Tenth Commandments into a single commandment. Even we Lutherans often treat them together, as we’re doing this evening. They’re very similar; they both forbid sinful desires of the heart. Some have suggested that the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house,” deals with inanimate objects, while the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, manservant, maidservant, animals, or anything that is his,” deals with people or living things. That’s the impression we get from Luther’s respective explanations. But the “anything that is his” at the end of the Tenth Commandment kind of points away from that distinction, doesn’t it?

It’s the “anything that is his” that has led some to conclude that the focus of the Ninth Commandment is on tangible things or sinful desires for actual things, while the Tenth Commandment focuses on sinful desires in general, the inborn discontentment that lives in all of us, the desire for something other than what God has given us, even if we can’t put a name to it. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? That general discontentment with life then zeroes in on something—our neighbor’s house, our neighbor’s car, our neighbor’s wealth or property, our neighbor’s spouse or friends, our neighbor’s life—and then our desires settle on that thing, leaving us bitter, leaving us unhappy, leaving us disgruntled. And sometimes that unhappiness and discontentment leads us to do whatever we can to get what our neighbor has, including scheming, including deception, including manipulations of the legal system, including voting your neighbor’s rights or property away from him, so that what you did was perfectly legal, and yet in the eyes of God, your coveting and lack of love for your neighbor led you into a sin just as damning as murder.

Coveting worms its way down into every other commandment. Why do you disparage your neighbor with your tongue? Because you covet something he has, his popularity, or his acceptance, or because you covet a higher social position than you have, so you try to build yourself up by tearing him down. Why do you steal? Because you set your desires on something your neighbor possesses. Why do you commit adultery? Because you lust after someone God hasn’t given you as your spouse. (By the way, the word “lust” and the word “covet” are exactly the same word in the Greek.) Why do you murder? Again, because you covet your neighbor’s possessions or popularity or acceptance, as Cain coveted Abel’s acceptance by God. Why does a woman commit the sin of murder by abortion? Because she covets the easier or “more fulfilling” life that baby would take away from her. Why do you dishonor your father or your mother? Because you covet something they tell you you can’t have, or because you covet their authority, which was given to them, not to you. Why do you fail to sanctify the Sabbath Day? Because you covet all the other things you could have if you don’t sacrifice the time to hear and learn God’s Word. Why do you misuse God’s name? Because you covet the popularity false teaching can bring, or because you covet the knowledge only witchcraft can provide, or because you covet God’s power to curse His enemies, or because you covet the security you could have by swearing falsely. Why do you have other gods? Because you covet the very supremacy that belongs to God alone. You covet the ability to believe as you want and to do as you want. You covet being like God, as Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

Coveting leads to every other sin, because coveting is part of what makes up original sin, the corruption of our very nature, a corruption that includes both a lack of something and the presence of something—a lack of true fear of God, love for God, and trust in God, and the presence of something which we call “concupiscence,” which is just a fancy word for sinful desires or “coveting.” And so original sin, which includes coveting, is the wellspring of all actual sins.

So. Where have you failed to keep the Ninth and Tenth Commandments? Where have you coveted? Where have your desires gone astray, to long for something that someone else has, to set your heart on something you’re not supposed to have? Where has discontentment displaced contentment? Where has it led to even more sins against your neighbor in your quest to get what you were never supposed to have? And where has it led to the greatest sins of all, of seeking to rob God of the glory and honor that belong to Him, because you weren’t content with Him?

It’s helpful to put a name on those sinful desires and to recognize them as the ugly sins against the Ninth and Tenth Commandments that they are. Because in recognizing the sin, you can hear God’s call to repent and apply it to yourself. In recognizing the sin, you can now begin to appreciate God’s love for coveters like you and me in sending His Son to live a life of contentment in His Father’s care, although He had far fewer possessions and earthly things than you or I have. In recognizing the sin of coveting that always stirs in your heart, you can look away from your heart to the Savior of sinners, to Christ Jesus, whose death on the cross paid even for the ugliness of your heart and for your darkest desires, and who cleanses you of covetousness through faith. You have crucified the flesh with its lusts, as Paul wrote to the Galatians in Sunday’s Epistle. And you have been raised to new life with Christ.

So learn to recognize your discontentment and your errant desires, and then, having put on the New Man, renew the struggle each day, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to deny those desires and to set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your heart on His will. Set your longings on His coming at the end of the age. Learn to desire the things God desires, and pray for the gift of contentment. Pray with the Psalmist: Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire nothing, if I have You. My flesh and my heart may fail; but You, O God, are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen.

 

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