Emmanuel Lutheran Church

NOTE: The audio in today’s service has audio problems for much of the service.

Sermon for Trinity 2

1 John 3:13-18  +  Luke 14:16-24

Many people think they love God, think they want to be in the presence of God, think they want to spend eternity with Him. Until they meet Him in His Word. Until they get to know Him, and find out that He isn’t at all who they imagined Him to be. They thought He was a God who accepted people as they are. When they find out that He isn’t, they often walk away in sadness, or even disgust. Either that, or they continue to worship a god of their own delusions, one who will continue to accept them as they are. It’s why you can have “Pride month” celebrated even by people who call themselves Christians, because they’ve replaced the God of Christianity with a god who accepts homosexuals (and every other kind of impenitent sinner) just as they are.

But there’s an important difference here that we need to acknowledge. You see, the true God does call people just as they are. He doesn’t seek out the worthy or the deserving or the good. He calls everyone, He invites everyone to come into His presence and into His kingdom, no matter what sins they’ve been entangled in. He invites them to come in by grace, free of charge, without claiming any worthiness in themselves, without trying to atone for their own sins or buy their way in with their good works. He calls them as they are. But He calls them to come in as someone entirely different than they are, and that keeps many people away.

That was the great problem with the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They thought they loved God, because they thought that God wanted them to come into His kingdom just as they were, as those who deserved a place at His supper table, as those who were clean and righteous and obedient, as those who were better than the dregs of society out there who hadn’t worked nearly as hard at keeping God’s commandments as the Pharisees had. But then they met Jesus, and Jesus revealed to them a different God altogether, one who didn’t invite the worthy, but the unworthy, one who defined “coming into the kingdom” as repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. That wasn’t a God they wanted anything to do with.

And so they invited Jesus to their house for a Sabbath-day supper, not because they loved Him or believed in Him, but to watch Him and to teach Him a lesson or two. In the verse before today’s Gospel begins, one of them stood up and proclaimed his love for the God he thought he knew. He thought he would impress Jesus with his piety: Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!

So Jesus, the invited Guest at the Pharisees’ supper and the King of the kingdom of God, tells a parable about a much greater supper, to show the delusional man and all the other Pharisees how they were the very ones who were refusing to eat bread in the kingdom of God by refusing to come in as different people, refusing to repent and to rely on grace alone for their entrance.

A certain man prepared a great supper and invited many people. God prepared eternal life in His kingdom, a banquet of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, a place in His family, a home for eternity. And He wrapped up all those benefits within the Person of His Son, the promised Christ. He invited the Old Testament people of Israel, the Jews, to this supper. He told them ahead of time about the coming of the Christ, and the great sacrifice He would offer for sins, the sacrifice of His own body, and that He would rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Then, when the Christ finally came, the man sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come! All things are now ready!’ John the Baptist was the first to announce it, and Jesus and His disciples soon followed. God the Father has sent His Son down to earth to save poor sinners from their sins and to give eternal life to all who believe in Him!

“Poor sinners? We’re not so poor,” thought the Pharisees. “We thought God was coming to reward the righteous, to increase the wealth of the rich, to tell us what a good job we’ve been doing! As for believing in God’s Son, we are all sons of Abraham, and we have Moses and the Law. We already have all we need.” And so, tragically, they made excuses for why they couldn’t make it to this great supper, why they neither were willing to recognize their sins nor to trust in Jesus the Christ for forgiveness.

So the servant came and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring the poor, and the crippled, and the lame, and the blind in here.’ And the servant said, ‘Lord, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ Then the lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and make them come in, so that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited will taste my supper.’”

The master of the house, the Lord God, was angry with the excuse-makers, with the Jews who didn’t want to attend His supper through Christ Jesus. But the Lord wasn’t deterred by their refusal. His great zeal for sharing the supper of eternal life does not flow from the quality or the personality of the guests. This is vitally important. It wasn’t because the Jews were such close friends of God or such obedient children that He invited them. It was always grace, undeserved affection and love. So when they rejected His supper, He didn’t have to “settle” for others. It was His intention all along to bring the Gentiles, to bring all people into His house.

He turned to many others, to the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, to people who were obviously weak, obviously unacceptable as they were, to the people who are generally marginalized and rejected by everyone else. In other words, God calls into His kingdom the very people who are despised by the rich and the wise and the outwardly religious of this age. And He doesn’t stop with a few. He keeps sending His ministers to call more people, from the highways and the hedges, anyone and everyone, no matter who they are or what they’re like or what they’ve done. The only qualification is, they have to be unacceptable as they are. They have to be sinners. That’s the definition of grace! He keeps calling out through His ministers, calling them just as they are, until His kingdom, His Church, is full. And, of course, since God alone can see the structure of His Church, only He knows when His house is full. The fact that Jesus hasn’t yet returned for judgment means that “still there is room.”

But He won’t let them come in “as they are.” He insists on “killing” them with the Law, exposing their sins with the light of His Word, and calling them to repent, not just of this or that sin, but of the natural corruption of their whole self. Then He calls them to the new birth of Holy Baptism, where their old self is buried with Christ into death, and a new person is born and arises, so that they become entirely different people, people who still carry around a sinful flesh, people who still sin, but now as people who hate their sin and wish to be rid of it, who strive and struggle to be rid of it, now with the Holy Spirit’s help; now as people who trust in Christ Jesus, the Savior of sinners, now as people who are accepted by God only because they trust in Jesus. To come in, to enter God’s kingdom, to feast at His supper, is to repent of our sins and to trust in His promise of acceptance by grace, free of charge, through faith in Christ.

This is why so many are unwilling to come. Because they don’t want grace, that is, acceptance for the sake of Christ. They want acceptance for who they are, as they are, whether “good” or “bad.” Coming to the supper means being remade, it means denying your old self. It means the destruction of your pride, of your personal beliefs, of your personal record of works which you may think of as good, but which, apart from Christ, were only evil all the time.

You, dear Christians, have been called as you are to come to the great supper as someone else, as someone whose identity is wholly wrapped up in Christ Jesus. And having come, you have tasted how good the Lord is, how vital His continual forgiveness is. You have tasted eternal life, but just a little bit of it in this life, and even that—isn’t it worth losing your earthly life for it? You have come to know just how much strength there is in God’s Word and in His holy Sacraments, how good and pleasant and necessary it is to gather together around Word and Sacrament. You have come to know grace. You have met the true God, and you have loved Him, and you do want to spend eternity with Him, don’t you?

Now make it your first priority to keep coming to this supper, to remain in the kingdom of God by daily contrition and repentance and by using the gifts He has given, prayer and the Means of Grace. And make it your second priority to live such godly lives in the world that others may come to know God’s grace through you. The Master of the House is not yet satisfied with the number of guests. Still there is room, room for any, room for all. So show grace to people. Call them, invite them as they are, without prejudice, without hatred, without condescension. Invite them to come to the One who gave His life on the cross so that they, like you, could become different people, penitent and forgiven people, recreated by grace in the image of the God of grace. Amen.

Sermon for Trinity 1

1 John 4:16-21  +  Luke 16:19-31

The scene Jesus depicts in today’s Gospel is not uncommon: an ungodly rich person living right next to a godly poor person. In other words, a prosperous unbeliever next to a miserable believer. And contrary to the triumphalist teaching that is common in modern Christianity, their respective conditions never changed this side of eternity. The prosperous unbeliever was allowed to prosper right up until the day he died, and the miserable believer was allowed to suffer poverty, sickness, and loneliness right up until the day he died. Queue the question that so many people are prone to ask: How could a good or loving God allow such a thing?

This reminds me very much of Psalm 73, a Psalm that I turn to often, because this situation is so common, where unbelievers prosper in the world while believers suffer, where it seems like God rewards wickedness and punishes faithfulness. Let me read just a portion of it now:

Truly God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart. But as for me, my feet almost stumbled; my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious at the boastful; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death; their bodies are fat. They are not in trouble as other people; nor are they plagued like others…These are the wicked, always at ease; they increase in riches. Surely I have kept my heart pure for nothing… For all the day long I am plagued, and chastened every morning…When I thought to understand this, it was troublesome in my eyes, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely You have set them in slippery places; You have brought them down to ruin. How they come to desolation, as in a moment! They have come to an end, utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, O Lord, when You awake, You will despise their form.

You see, our perspective is so skewed. We see a person’s life from birth to death, and in our sinful pride, we assume that we know the whole story, and we would judge God’s goodness or love based on how comfortable or pleasant a person’s earthly life has been. That’s utter foolishness! This life is a single breath, a fleeting moment, when compared with the eternity that follows. We may see some signs of God’s justice here, some glimpses of God’s favor and love for His children. But we will never see true justice here or God’s perfect love for His children. But we will see it, in the end, in the next life, as today’s Gospel makes absolutely certain.

Jesus once asked, What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? The rich man’s response in today’s Gospel, right up until the day he died, was, “That’s fine! Please! Give me the whole world so that I can enjoy it! My soul matters nothing to me.” How many today would say the same thing?

Now, the rich man in today’s Gospel may not have literally gained the whole world, but he gained an awful lot in this life. That wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t wrong for him to dress well, or to feast lavishly every day. It wasn’t wrong for him to be rich. But Moses and the prophets warned the rich against abusing their wealth, about failing to help their neighbor in need, about trusting in their riches, and about showing contempt for God and His Word. Over and over again the rich are warned in the Old Testament (and the New).

But the rich man in the Gospel didn’t pay attention. He didn’t listen to Moses or the prophets. He simply went about his life, enjoying his wealth and comfort and ease. He didn’t harm anyone. He also didn’t help anyone. He broke no manmade laws. But he broke God’s commandments. And yet, even that could have been forgiven. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t forgiven, because he remained impenitent and unbelieving.

How can you tell? Well, he ended up in hell. Hell is reserved, not for sinners in general, but for impenitent and unbelieving sinners.

Here Jesus paints a terrifying picture of hell, the most descriptive picture in all of Scripture, though it resembles other descriptions, such as, the “outer darkness,” where “their worm does not die, nor is their fire quenched.” Where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It’s referred to as “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” and “the lake of fire burning with brimstone.”

Here, it’s described as a place of torment, a place where the damned “live,” if you can call it “living,” surrounded by everlasting flames, where there is no relief whatsoever, where a drop of water would be a coveted kindness. Even his hope of relief from Lazarus, after seeing him in Abraham’s bosom, is quickly dashed by Abraham, who informs the rich man that there is no crossing back and forth. Those who end up in heaven are there forever, just as those who end up in hell are there forever.

His other hope is also dashed, that maybe there’s a way for a miracle to be done, for Lazarus to be brought back from the dead, in order to warn his five brothers who are still alive on earth, so that they can avoid the torments of hell. But Abraham slams the door shut on any such hope. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them!… If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead.

Too late, the rich man learned that it would have been better to have less in this life than to have never-ending torment in hell. Too late, he realized that he had ignored the only thing that could have kept him out of the torment of hell, that is, the Word of God.

If only someone had warned him ahead of time! But, of course, they had, whenever God’s Word was read or preached in the synagogue or in the temple. If only someone would warn the rich now! And not just the rich, but rich and poor and all people, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All people are in need of repentance, and turning from the evil of our hands and of our hearts, recognizing both the evil we have done and the good we have failed to do.

And that, of course, is the purpose of this Gospel. Jesus, the One who did miraculously come back from the dead, the one who descended into hell and rose again, has sent His Evangelist Luke to record this saying and has sent pastors for the last 2,000 years to preach it. To frighten and to warn the godless, impenitent rich with the reality of hell. Yes, you may be comfortable here. You may get through your whole earthly life without any troubles. But even so, you will regret it if you failed to take God’s Word seriously, if you failed to repent urgently. Eternity is infinitely longer than your earthly life, and you will realize that 70 or 80 years of comfort and bliss on earth are like nothing when compared with the endless torment of hell.

But it isn’t all warning in this Gospel. There is some serious comfort, too, for believers whose earthly lives are full of torment and suffering. Look at poor Lazarus. He had nothing. He was poor. And not just poor. He was sickly, full of sores, unable to work. And not just sickly and unable to work. Alone. Alone, except for the street dogs who came and licked his sores. And not just alone. But within sight, within a few yards of a better life, the life of the rich man at whose gate he lay. Not that he coveted the rich man’s life or expected the rich man to switch places with him or something. He would have been satisfied with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.

To hold onto faith in such circumstances, to keep from cursing the God who would allow such suffering for a beloved son of His, is no easy thing. In fact, it’s impossible for a person to do. But God can sustain the faith of a poor man or an otherwise suffering man and keep giving him the patience he needs to keep going, without cursing God or man, without growing bitter, without seeking to end his own life. To keep going, until he draws his very last breath and closes his eyes to the pain of this world.

Lazarus demonstrated his faith in the God of Israel by his patience and perseverance, which also demonstrates the power of God’s Holy Spirit to preserve faith and to give enough strength so that a person can keep going.

And then look what happened when he died. The angels finally came and carried him home to Abraham’s bosom. And there he was comforted. No more poverty. No more sores. No more loneliness. And not just for a while. But forever, in the embrace of Abraham, the father of the faith, with whom Lazarus will spend all eternity, feasting at the table, dressed in a white robe, together with all the saints, with all believers in Christ. He finally saw the truth, the reality, that he had been loved by God all along, not unlike Job in the Old Testament, and that, as Paul wrote to the Romans, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

So if you’re living in repentance, if you’re trusting in Christ Jesus for forgiveness, and walking with the Holy Spirit in the new life of obedience and love, and you still find yourself plagued by all sorts of earthly trials and difficulties, don’t take it as a punishment from God or a sign of His disapproval, or worse, of His abandonment. Know that you’re in good company, that it has often gone this way for the saints in this life, but that it will all be well in the end.

Take with you today the closing words of Psalm 73, the Psalm we began the sermon with. Pray these words often, and mean them: Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For those who are far from You will perish; You destroy everyone who is unfaithful to You. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have taken my refuge in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works. Amen.