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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The cleansing of justification and sanctification

Posted on September 5, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 14

Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

The works of the flesh are obvious, St. Paul said in today’s epistle to the Galatians. Then he listed a number of those obvious works: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, murders, drunkenness, debauchery, and things like these. These are what truly make a person unclean before God. Then the apostle adds a stern warning: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

We see those works being practiced all around us, of course. Reading that list is like reading the daily news, and you can be sure that most of the people around will not inherit the kingdom of God. But if these things are all “works of the flesh,” then we all have a problem. Because you have flesh, too. Human flesh, that is, a sinful, fallen human nature that you inherited from your parents, all the way back to fallen Adam and Eve. And your flesh is always with you. You can’t get rid of it. It’s with you until the day you die. So those filthy, fleshly works will constantly be bubbling up from your flesh, too. If they don’t erupt on the surface, they’re still infecting you within, and that means you can never be clean on your own, and that means you can’t inherit the kingdom of God on your own, either, because it’s only for clean people—clean like God alone is clean.

That sobering reality is what God was impressing on the people of Israel with the disease of the flesh called leprosy, the disease that did erupt on the surface so that it was visible to all. God gave Israel strict commandments about lepers, barring them from Jewish society. And He ordained complex rituals for lepers and priests to perform so that the lepers could reenter society, if and when they were healed. God’s teaching was embedded in their flesh, as it were: No one with unclean flesh may enter into God’s presence. You must be clean. You must be holy. Or you will perish outside of the kingdom of God.

But then along comes Jesus and finally, after some 1,500 years since the Law of Moses was written, the lesson behind leprosy is made clear, and it’s wonderful. Although the works of your flesh are filthy and ugly as can be, Jesus offers the cleansing—the forgiveness!—you need, and He offers it for free, not based on how well you’ve fixed up your life first. So seek your cleansing—seek forgiveness from Him! But also understand, the struggle against the flesh doesn’t end with that cleansing. It begins with it. There is the cleansing of justification. But then follows the cleansing of sanctification. Both are essential.

Let’s walk through the text. Jesus’ decision to travel to Jerusalem through Samaria had a purpose. The Samaritans, you recall, were technically “foreigners” to the Jews, living in that middle territory between Galilee in northern Israel and Judea in southern Israel. They had some Jewish blood but had more in common with the Gentiles than with the Jews, including their religion. But the Gospel of free-of-charge salvation through faith in Christ was just as powerful among Gentiles as among Jews. And often times, as in today’s Gospel, the Gentiles proved quicker to believe in Jesus than the Jews were.

Ten men with leprosy approached Jesus. At least one of them was a Samaritan. They all approached Jesus together. They all begged Him together, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! See what the word about Jesus had already produced in them! It may have been faith the size of a mustard seed, but it was enough for them to have faith in the mercy of Jesus, faith that He could and would help them in their uncleanness. And that faith in the heart is what led them to call upon Him with their lips for help.

And He did help them! Go and show yourselves to the priests! That’s what God’s Law required for lepers whose leprosy had been cleansed. Two long chapters in the book of Leviticus are dedicated to leprosy and the rituals for pronouncing a leper ceremonially clean, if and when his leprosy ever went away. But at the word of Jesus, all ten of these men were cleansed of their leprosy, free of charge, by the pure grace and kindness of the Lord Jesus.

Ten were cleansed, and for nine of them, that was that. Their relationship with Jesus their “Master” was over. They went on to live their lives. After their cleansing, they were done with Jesus. But the one, the Samaritan, the one the Jews would least expect to have true faith or to display genuine godliness, returned to where Jesus was to worship God in the Person of Jesus and to give thanks to Him.

Were not all ten cleansed?, Jesus asked. But where are the nine? Were there none found to return and give glory to God except for this foreigner? The cleansing was free of charge, with no strings attached. But clearly the Lord Jesus was expecting His kindness to have an effect on the men. His Spirit had worked faith in their hearts, and the cleansing of their skin was symbolic of the cleansing that takes place through faith, the cleansing of forgiveness or justification. But the Spirit never stops there. He continues to tug and pull and urge and encourage the believer to walk with Him, to “walk in the Spirit,” to produce the fruit of the Spirit, which begins with thanksgiving to God for His undeserved mercy and love. That’s the natural response of faith. A thankful heart and good works are borne from faith as grapes are borne from a vine. But the faith of the nine stalled. And where faith stalls, faith dies, just as a young fruit tree that stops growing and fails to produce fruit is obviously unhealthy and will eventually die.

So it is with the whole Christian life. Our flesh is corrupt. It’s hostile to God. It’s an ally of the devil. Sometimes the works of the flesh erupt on the surface, and everyone can see how ugly we are by nature. But even when they don’t erupt on the outside, God sees the corruption on the inside, and He pronounces the sentence: No unclean thing can enter His presence. But then the Son of God took on human flesh, and His flesh was clean. Even so, He paid for the uncleanness of our flesh on the cross. And then He came to us in our filthiness, through the preaching of the Gospel, and told us the good news: “Yes, you are ugly by nature, you are sinful, you are unclean. But I will cleanse you! I will forgive you! Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins!” And the Holy Spirit brought us to believe that promise and brought us to be baptized and to be washed clean before God. That’s justification, and with it comes new birth, the birth of the New Man.

Justification is the first step of the process of sanctification, the daily putting to death of the flesh, of the Old Man, and the daily rising of the New Man to live in purity and righteousness and holiness, being renewed by the Holy Spirit day by day. Where genuine faith exists, thanksgiving will follow, along with a new life of living to please God and living to serve our neighbor, because God commands us to.

But understand, a person can be brought to genuine faith, and begin the life of sanctification, and then fail to use the means God has given us of preserving and strengthening faith—hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments. A person can stop praying for God’s help and strength against sin and against temptation. (As Jesus said, Watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.) And then, what happens? The flesh that was always there, the flesh that was struggling against the Spirit as soon as the New Man was born, begins to take over, and the works of the flesh begin to erupt on the surface. That’s why St. Paul warned the Galatians so urgently to walk in the Spirit, lest they turn back to walking according to the flesh.

As Jesus said to His disciples, By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; in this way you will be My disciples. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. And what is that fruit that the Spirit enables you to produce as Christians? St. Paul gives us several examples in the Epistle: But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Turn your thoughts to those things. Turn your prayers to asking for the Holy Spirit’s help, that you may excel in those things.

And do it, as Paul says to the Colossians, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Give thanks like the one out of ten lepers in today’s Gospel, and don’t worry that the nine remain thankless. Give thanks, not just in your heart and in your home, but here, where Jesus has promised to be present, where two or three are gathered together in His name. Give thanks in your singing and praying and confessing. Give thanks in this great Supper that we call the Eucharist, the Meal of Thanksgiving where Christ is present in a special way to receive our thanks even as He gives us again the thing for which we give thanks, the gift of His body and blood, and of the forgiveness we continually need in this life, as we continually drag around our sinful flesh. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. In other words, as long as the Spirit preserves your faith in Christ, you are justified and cleansed of the filthiness of your flesh. Your faith has saved you, Jesus said to the one. Wherever there is genuine faith, there is forgiveness, life and salvation. And there the Spirit will also be, working to sanctify you through and through, to crucify the flesh and to make your whole life a thanksgiving to God. Amen.

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The Eighth Commandment

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Small Catechism Review: The Eighth Commandment

The Sixth Commandment taught us how God forbids us to dishonor His institution of marriage with our thoughts, words, or deeds, and how He commands us to honor it. We didn’t talk about the Seventh Commandment last week, but very simply, it protects private property. When God commands, You shall not steal, He forbids us to take anything that belongs to our neighbor, which includes shady dealings or cheating him out of what belongs to him. Instead, God commands us to help our neighbor improve and protect his property and livelihood, which includes being good stewards of the property God has entrusted to us, paying our bills, paying what we owe to others.

Tonight we focus on the Eighth Commandment. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God, that we do not falsely deceive, betray, or slander our neighbor, or give him a bad reputation; but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

So we’re talking about sins of the tongue in this commandment. Now, other commandments certainly also deal with sins of the tongue, but this one is entirely about sins of the tongue—sins that, of course, begin in the heart, as all sins do. Listen to what James says about the tongue in his epistle: We all err in many ways. But if any man does not err in word, he is a perfect man and able also to control the whole body…The tongue is a little part of the body and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. The tongue is among the parts of the body, defiling the whole body, and setting the course of nature on fire, and it is set on fire by hell. All kinds of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things in the sea are tamed or have been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. So let’s pay special attention to the Eighth Commandment.

It openly and obviously forbids false testimony. Now testimony can be given formally in a courtroom setting, but it can just as well be given to parents, or pastors, or teachers, or bosses, or policemen, or to the whole world on the internet, anywhere one person can get another person in trouble by saying false things about the other person.

But, of course, the commandment forbids more than saying things that are untrue. It forbids what Luther calls “falsely deceiving” your neighbor, that is, lying to him in order to harm him. There may be some amount of “deception” involved in throwing a surprise party for someone, or saying something nice that you don’t fully believe. Those things aren’t said to harm your neighbor. But other kinds of lies are intended to harm.

Also forbidden is betraying your neighbor, that is, revealing his secrets in order to harm him. Your neighbor tells you something in confidence, or you find out something about your neighbor that paints him or her in a bad light, and then you reveal it to others. That’s betrayal, even if what you say is true.

Also forbidden is slandering your neighbor, telling lies about him. Legally, we call it “slander” if it’s spoken and “libel” if it’s written. To God, either one is a breaking the Eighth Commandment.

And also forbidden is giving your neighbor a bad name or a bad reputation, spreading rumors or gossip about him so as to give others a bad impression of him. Again, whether it’s true or false or partially true, it doesn’t matter. You’re making your neighbor look bad, and God forbids it.

Now, there are times when it is not a sin to say something negative about your neighbor. When the authorities in the various estates call upon you to “testify,” it’s proper to tell the truth, even if it damages your neighbor’s reputation. And the authorities have God’s command to publicly rebuke someone, as Jesus often had to do with the Pharisees. As Luther says in the Large Catechism, where the sin is quite public, so that the judge and everybody know about it, you can without any sin shun the offender and let him go his own way, because he has brought himself into disgrace. You may also publicly testify about him. For when a matter is public in the daylight, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying. It is like when we now rebuke the pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. Where the sin is public, the rebuke also must be public, that everyone may learn to guard against it.

What are we to do with our tongues instead of harming our neighbor’s reputation? The catechism says we are to “defend our neighbor.” Defend him with words. Defend him against others who are gossiping about him or slandering him or making fun of him. Tell them to stop. There’s a beautiful example of this on the Saturday before Holy Week began when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with that costly perfume. Judas spoke criticized her and spoke against her. “Why wasn’t this sold and the money given to the poor?” But Jesus spoke up and defended her. “Leave her alone! Why do you trouble the woman?”

We are to “speak well” of our neighbor. Jesus continued, “For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” Say something kind about your neighbor, to boost his or her reputation. Reveal something good about him instead of something bad.

And finally, we are to “put the best construction on everything,” to explain our neighbor’s words and actions in the kindest possible way. Instead of assuming the worst about your neighbor, assume the best and do your best to explain away things that at first seem offensive.

Where have you failed to keep this Eighth Commandment? Where have you spoken evil about your neighbor? Where have you lied about your neighbor? Or twisted his words or actions? Where have you spoken the truth about your neighbor when you should have remained silent? Or where have you remained silent about your neighbor when you should have defended him or her and spoken well of him or her? The tongue is truly an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. And so the Eighth Commandment, like the rest, shows us our sin and condemns us in the courtroom of God’s justice.

Which is another reason why only a fool would plead his case before God on the basis of how well he has kept the Eighth Commandment. Our only plea must be, God, have mercy on me, a sinner, for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, whose speech was blameless, who spoke only the truth and only in love, and who suffered and died for the careless, cruel, and hurtful words I have spoken! Then, clothed in Christ’s righteousness and having God’s forgiveness, let the Eighth Commandment guide you each day into the new obedience of God’s beloved children, to speak only in truth and only in love, and to use your tongue to glorify God and to build up your neighbor. Amen.

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Ready to end up like John

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Festival of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist

Jeremiah 1:17-19  +  Mark 6:17-29

You heard the account this morning of the beheading of John the Baptist. It’s a sobering account. There was nothing glamorous about it. John didn’t go out in a blaze of glory. He sat in Herod’s prison for weeks or months. And then, on Herod’s birthday, an executioner showed up to his prison cell and chopped off his head, which was then delivered on a platter to a vulgar teenage girl, who then delivered it to her victorious mother, who ended up getting the revenge she had been seeking all along. Such was the earthly end of the man about whom Jesus said, Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. How did it come to this? And why? And what does it mean for us, in our place and in our time, where it seems like those in power would gladly rid the world of people like John? We’re going to address those questions today, based on the Scripture lessons you heard. And as we do, I’d like you to ponder this question: Are you ready to end up like John?

What was it that got John thrown into Herod’s prison in the first place? Well, you know how John conducted his ministry by the Jordan river. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He applied God’s Old Testament Law to the crowds of people who came out to him, to the people in general, to tax collectors, and to soldiers alike. I think today is a fitting day to hear how St. Luke described John’s preaching:

He said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him: “Brood of vipers! Who taught you that you would escape the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance…Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages…I baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Fiery preaching, isn’t it? It’s the kind of preaching that brings some people to their knees in fear and repentance, eagerly seeking God’s forgiveness in the promised Christ and eager to amend their sinful ways. But it’s the kind of preaching that makes other people angry. How dare you judge me! How dare you say that what I’m doing is wrong! As Jesus described such people, This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

Some of the evil deeds being exposed by John belonged to King Herod, that is, Herod Antipas, tetrarch or “king” of the region of Galilee, the son of Herod the Great, who killed all those baby boys soon after Jesus was born. It was this same Herod Antipas before whom Jesus would eventually stand trial on Good Friday. This Herod had married Herodias, the ex-wife of his half-brother Herod II, also known as Herod Philip. Now, that was fine according to Roman law, and American law would certainly permit such a thing. But it was plainly forbidden by God’s Old Testament Law for an Israelite to marry his brother’s wife while his brother was still alive. So John simply and fearlessly and publicly denounced the king: It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.

That was all. John didn’t incite an insurrection or try to get Herod dethroned. He just rebuked Herod for his sin. But to publicly rebuke a ruler at that time was no harmless thing. There was no First Amendment-guaranteed free speech in Roman-occupied Israel. Didn’t John know he would be in danger for rebuking the king? Of course he knew. But unlike the average Jew, who had no call from God to publicly rebuke kings, John had been called by God to be a prophet, to speak the truth of God’s Word with divine authority, whether it was the Law that condemns sin or whether it was the Gospel that pointed penitent sinners to Christ. And as a prophet, John had the same command and the same promise from the Lord that the prophet Jeremiah had: Speak to them all that I command you. Do not be afraid of them, that I would cause you to be shattered before them. For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against her princes, against her priests, and against the people of the land. And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you, for I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.”

And the Lord did deliver John from the people, until John’s ministry was done and it was time for him to offer up his life as a witness.

His preaching made both Herod and his illegitimate wife Herodias angry. They both wanted to kill John for daring to call their sin a sin (as Matthew tells us). The difference was, while Herodias simply wanted him dead, Herod knew that, politically, that would be a mistake, because John was very popular among the people. So Herod simply threw him in prison, where he liked to visit John occasionally and even began to listen gladly to some of the things John had to say.

But then came the fateful birthday party, as you heard in the Gospel, and that almost-certainly seductive dance by Herod’s step-daughter Salome, and then the foolish oath on Herod’s part—“I’ll give you whatever you want”—and the despicable suggestion on Herodias’ part that her daughter ask for the prize of John the Baptist’s head on a platter, which Herod reluctantly granted so as not to lose face before his guests. It’s so disgusting, so vile. It seems so meaningless, almost a bad joke. It looks like God delivered John right into the hands of the wicked, and the wicked got exactly what they wanted.

So I ask you, are you ready to end up like John? Preachers have to be. You know, if we were ever to have a seminary recruitment day for our diocese, this is the day I would choose for it, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. John is the model for all Christian preachers, from his fearless and direct preaching of the Law, to his persistent and earnest pointing to Jesus as the Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, to his emphasis on a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to the ignominious ending of his earthly life for daring to speak the truth.

Now, you’ll say, I don’t know many pastors who have ended up that way! In our age, that’s true, although there have been other kinds of ignominious endings for faithful pastors—losing income, losing homes, losing family, losing friends, losing reputation and respect. When preachers don’t lose any of those things, it’s either due to a singular providence of God, or it’s due to the fact that there are few preachers anymore who walk in the footsteps of John, who say what needs to be said when they know they will pay for it dearly.

But the time is upon us when the consequences for speaking the truth, as God has commanded us to speak it, are becoming more severe. And this doesn’t apply only to pastors. Pastors are called to speak publicly, to preach against all sin and to point all penitent sinners to Christ. Not everyone has that calling. But Christians in Afghanistan know all too well that all it takes is admitting openly that you’re a Christian for the Taliban to hunt you down and execute you in cold blood.

The executions haven’t begun here yet. But you know from experience what can happen to a congregation that takes a doctrinal stand against a larger church body. And you know that, in your own vocations, expressing a Christian worldview about sex or about marriage will get you accused of hate speech. Not going along with the demonic narrative about gender will get you fired. Not going along with the demonic forcing of experimental drugs into people or face masks onto people—onto little children!—will get you a condescending lecture from society, will get you denied entrance into more and more places in our country, and may also get you fired.

So. Are you ready to end up like John? Jesus was. He knew that John was not just the forerunner who announced the coming of the Christ, but also the forerunner whose death foretold the death of the Christ. John was the first preacher of Jesus as the Christ, and his ending foreshadowed the ending of every preacher who would follow, in one way or another, and of many non-preachers, too. Why have so many been ready to end up like John? Because Jesus was. Because our God took on human flesh so that He could end up on a cross to pay for the sins of the world with His suffering and death, to earn back God’s favor for sinful mankind, giving us the right to call upon God as our Father, claiming only Christ as the reason.

That’s the message of the cross, that Christ, the Son of God, was willing to be delivered up for us on the cross so that we could be reconciled with God through faith in His atoning sacrifice. And if you’ve been reconciled with God through Christ and if you know He has a place in Paradise prepared for you, will you really cling to this life so tightly? Will you really be silent about God to save your skin, or hide your faith in God to keep from being hated, or fail to live and speak as a Christian in the world in order to escape the executioner? Oh, Satan will tempt you to be silent, to hide your faith, to go along with the godless world in order to get along with the godless world. And he’ll promise, you can keep your job if you do! You can keep your earthly life! You can keep your head on your shoulders! Maybe. But you won’t keep it for long, any of it. Soon this godless world will perish. Soon you’ll die, of this or that. And only those who have been ready to end up like John, trusting in Christ and confessing Him before men, no matter the consequence, will escape the judgment that awaits the world and will spend eternity with the Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us.

So pray today for the strength to resist the devil, to resist the temptation to shrink back from the cross. And the Lord will not disappoint you. He’s right now building up your spiritual muscles. He’s right now in the Word—and momentarily in the Sacrament—injecting you with courage, with fortitude, with the conviction you need to face whatever the world might throw at you, so that, when the time comes, you’re ready to speak, ready to confess, ready to offer up your head, because you know the One in whom you have believed, that He will not abandon you to the grave, but will reunite your body with your head and give you a much better life in the life to come. Amen.

 

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