The Pharisee and the tax collector, David, Paul, and who is righteous before God

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 11

2 Samuel 22:21-29  +  1 Corinthians 15:1-10  +  Luke 18:9-14

Our Scripture readings today all present the same fundamental truth of our religion.  You know it, and yet you can never know it well enough, because the Old Adam rages against it.  And for as complicated as theologians over the ages have made it sound, it’s really very simple.  No one, no human being has any righteousness that counts before God, because all alike are sinners.  No one can ever do enough, no one can ever be good enough to earn the approval of the righteous God.  But the righteous God has made a Way for sinners to be counted righteous.  He sent His only-begotten Son into human flesh, to be righteous, and to die for the unrighteous. The only righteousness that does count before God is that of Jesus Christ, who is both God and Man, the sinless One.  So the only way for anyone to be counted righteous before God is by means of faith in Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

You see, then, how foolish the people were in our Gospel to whom Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  It says that Jesus told this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. To trust in yourself?  To trust in your own righteousness?  To despise others because they are not as “righteous” as you?  That’s a recipe for eternal destruction. So Jesus tells this parable.

The Pharisee goes up to the Temple in Jerusalem and looks up to heaven with pride.  God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.  Here was a man who tried to stand before God with his good works as his defense.  He was confident that he had God’s favor because, while he may not have been perfect, he was a good man.

How would that sound today?  “God, I thank You and I am not like other men—murderers, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, tax cheats or IRS agents. I go to church, at least once in awhile. I have a strong faith. I try to be a good husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, cousin, friend.  I do the best I can!”

Then you have the tax collector, who, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ Here was a man who knew his faults, and didn’t make jokes about them and didn’t try to excuse them and would have done everything differently in his life, if he could go back and do it over again.  But he couldn’t.  Here was a man who knew he deserved only God’s wrath and displeasure.  He knew he had no right to approach God or come into His presence.  And yet, where is he?  He, too, has come to God’s temple.  Why?  If you have nothing to offer God and you deserve only His punishment, why come to His temple?  Why pray at all?

Because he had heard—for his whole life, probably—that this God is merciful.  He had heard that this God had an altar in Jerusalem, in the Temple, where He accepted the blood of the innocent for the blood of the guilty, where this God had promised to be propitious, where His righteous wrath was satisfied.  The tax collector went to the Temple because he trusted in God’s mercy.  Because he actually believed that he, a poor miserable sinner, would receive mercy from God.  “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

How would that sound today?  Not much different.  “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment.  But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.”

Who was right?  Who received God’s approval? The Pharisee or the tax collector?  Jesus tells us.  I tell you, this man (the tax collector) went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  He who trusts in his own works remains under God’s condemnation.  But whoever relies on God’s mercy in Christ Jesus is justified before God.  He is the Throne of Grace where God is propitious, gracious, merciful.  His is the blood that was shed, the innocent for the guilty, the Righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  Whoever trusts in Him will never be put to shame.

Now, I said at the beginning of the sermon that all of the Scripture readings today point to this truth.  Let’s take a look.

In the Old Testament reading, we heard the words of King David’s song which he composed on the day when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.  Now, listen again to the first verses of that song, and see who you think David sounds like more—the Pharisee or the tax collector:

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God. And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His eyes.

Hmm. He kind of sounds like the Pharisee here, doesn’t he?, talking about “his righteousness,” his obedience, his blamelessness.  Was David trusting in himself here, in his own righteousness?  The answer is, yes, but not before God.

In his dealings with King Saul, David had been blameless and righteous.  David loved and respected Saul, but Saul hated David without cause.  Saul tried to kill David over and over again, but instead of seeking revenge, David simply fled and lived on the run for years while Saul pursued him.  Twice during that time, God delivered Saul into David’s hands so that David had the chance to kill Saul.  But both times, David refused to harm his king.  Why?  Because he refused to sin against Saul; he trusted in the Lord to deliver him, as the Lord had promised.

So, with regard to Saul, David was blameless and righteous; he didn’t deserve Saul’s wrath and anger, and so David recognized God’s deliverance of him from Saul as a gracious reward for his righteousness before men.  But that didn’t make him righteous before God.  Even in his dealings with men, David wasn’t always so blameless, and his trust in God faltered at times, too.

So, how was David different than the Pharisee?  Listen to how David’s song continued: You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. “For You are my lamp, O Lord; The Lord shall enlighten my darkness.”  The Pharisee never got to the “humble” part.  He thought his deeds made him righteous before God, but David knew that he only stood before God because of God’s mercy.

The same was true for the Apostle Paul. Remember, he used to be the Pharisee named Saul, much like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable. He had a certain righteousness before men.  He even holds himself up as an example of the height of human righteousness in Philippians 3:  If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But then Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus and condemned his self-righteousness and led him to repentance and faith in Christ and the waters of holy baptism.  Paul received from God what he then delivered to the Corinthians, as you heard today in the Epistle:  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.  Paul received mercy from God and forgiveness. Saul the self-righteous Pharisee became Paul, the “tax collector,” the one who rejected his own righteousness and looked to God for the righteousness of Christ.

So that passage from Philippians 3 goes on: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

And as Paul concludes in today’s Epistle: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.  As a Christian, the Apostle Paul struggled and worked hard to be righteous before men, and yet, he knew that his righteousness before God was only through faith in Christ.  He also recognized that even his works of service were not something he could claim as his own; they were God’s works.  It was the grace of God that accomplished everything.

So we come back to that fundamental truth of our religion: That there are only two possibilities: either a person relies on himself for God’s approval, like the Pharisee in the Gospel, like the Apostle Paul before his conversion; or a person relies on God’s mercy in Christ Jesus for God’s approval, like the tax collector, like David, and like the Apostle Paul after his conversion.  So God calls on all of you again today to humble yourselves before Him, and to join David, Paul, the tax collector, and all true Christians throughout history, huddled around the Throne of Grace, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, seeking God’s mercy in Him, so that you, like they, may go down to your house justified.  But you don’t have to climb up into heaven to reach this Throne of Grace.  He is here, in this ministry of the Word, in this Sacrament of the Altar.  Here you have an altar where God hands out the blood of the Innocent in order to cleanse the guilty, where God has promised to be propitious. Here is the righteousness that counts before God, for everyone who pleads, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  Amen.

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Propers for Trinity 11

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

INTROIT              Ps. 68:5b,6a,35b; Ps. 68:1

(Antiphon) God is in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families;
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people.

Let God arise, Let His enemies be scattered; Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT

Almighty and Everlasting God, always more ready to hear than we to pray and wont to give more than either we desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of Your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

OLD TESTAMENT READING          2 Samuel 22:21-29

21 “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. 24 I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. 25 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His eyes. 26 “With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; 27 With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. 28 You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. 29 “For You are my lamp, O Lord; The Lord shall enlighten my darkness. (NKJV)

GRADUAL            Ps. 28:7b,1a,2a

My heart trusted in God, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.
To You I will cry, O LORD my Rock: Do not be silent to me, Hear the voice of my supplications.

EPISTLE READING             1 Corinthians 15:1-10

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.  (NKJV) 

VERSE   Ps. 90:1

Alleluia. Alleluia. LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Alleluia.

HOLY GOSPEL    Luke 18:9-14

9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  (NKJV)

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Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and cleanses the Temple

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 10

Jeremiah 7:1-11  +  1 Corinthians 12:1-11  +  Luke 19:41-48

It’s not often in Scripture that we see Jesus weep.  In fact, only twice—at the grave of Lazarus, and in today’s Gospel as He weeps for the city of Jerusalem.  It’s not often that we see Jesus overturning tables and physically driving people out of the Temple.  Again, only twice—once at the beginning of His ministry, and again in today’s Gospel.  Two striking, and strikingly different, images of Jesus come together before us, the weeping on Palm Sunday, the driving out of money-changers on the next day.  Different images of Jesus, but both display how deeply He cares for Jerusalem, that is, for the Church, for those who have been called by the Gospel and have professed to believe in the God of Israel.  How saddened Jesus is when those who are called by His name turn away from Him in unbelief and bring destruction and condemnation upon themselves; and how zealous He is for the preaching of His Word, which is the only thing that can save anyone and bring them into the Church and keep them there.  In both parts of our Gospel there is a warning for us—a warning for the Church, and also great comfort.

First, let’s examine how and why Jesus wept over the city.

It was Palm Sunday, five days before Jesus was crucified.  Jesus was riding on that donkey, the king of Jerusalem riding in to save her.  The crowds were singing their Hosanna’s and rejoicing.  But while they rejoiced, Jesus wept.  He wept because He knew the city, as a whole, would reject Him as her Messiah.  No matter how much He preached, no matter how much the Apostles would preach to Jerusalem after His resurrection, the city, as a whole, would not believe.  And by not believing in Jesus, by rejecting Jesus as their King, they were sealing a most horrible fate for themselves.  Annihilation, within 40 years.  Not at the hands of Christians, mind you.  Jesus did not call on His Christians to be His agents of wrath against the Jews.  No, it would be the pagans, the Romans, whom God would use to bring this punishment on Jerusalem.  They would be besieged for months by the Roman army.  They would run out of food.  The glorious walls of Jerusalem would be demolished.  The city would be burned.  Its inhabitants would be slaughtered.  All this took place in 70 AD, 40 years after they slaughtered the Son of God.

But see!  It wasn’t slaughtering the Son of God that brought on this terrible destruction.  Jesus wasn’t weeping over the fact that Jerusalem would crucify Him.  He was weeping over the fact that even after crucifying Him, they would not repent of their crimes against God.  Even after the love of God was put on display on the cross, they would still cling to their sin and despise the Word of Christ.

Isn’t that amazing?  Killing Jesus could have been forgiven.  But rejecting the Word of Jesus in unbelief—for that, there was no forgiveness.  Why?  Because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  The wrath of God and a day of judgment is coming against all sinners.  But Jesus bore every sin of every sinner on the cross, providing a place of refuge from God’s righteous wrath, providing a place of righteousness, where sinners are forgiven and God’s wrath is already poured out and satisfied.  Christ would send His Apostles out to preach this message and to call even Jerusalem to repentance and faith in the Son of God.  Every sin that could condemn a person, even calling for the death of Jesus Himself, can be forgiven.  But forgiveness is received only through faith in Christ, and so unbelief becomes the only sin, from which all other sins flow.

Jerusalem was given every opportunity to know the truth.  Where was the Word of God preached and taught more than it was in Jerusalem?  Where did the first preaching of the resurrection of Christ take place, but in Jerusalem?  Where did the Apostles begin their ministry, where was the Church born, but in Jerusalem?  And yet, although some would certainly believe and be forgiven by God and escape the coming wrath, Jerusalem, as a whole, would not repent and believe, and so Jerusalem would be found guilty of all her sins.  And since they would refuse to trust in the payment Jesus made for their sins, they would have to suffer for them all.

And that made Jesus, not angry, but sad.  It made Him weep.  His goal, His desire was not for the destruction of Jerusalem, but for her salvation.

If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

The destruction of Jerusalem is an omen, a foreshadowing, a picture of an even greater destruction—the destruction of all the ungodly and unbelieving, and particularly the destruction of the apostate Christian Church.

The apostate Christian Church is the empty shell of Christian churches around the world that still bear the name of Christ, that still read from the Bible and still retain the appearance of being godly, but they deny the truth of God’s Word, they deny the power of godliness, they refuse to live in repentance, and their faith is a faith in a Jesus of their own creation, not the confidence in the death and resurrection of the real Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.  The apostate Church is all around us in America, where God’s Word has never been so abundantly proclaimed and made available, and yet the pure Word is despised, and people find better things to do than to hear it and learn it and believe it.

Jesus’ tears in today’s Gospel are intended to coax all of us to repentance and trust in Him who cares for sinners, even the ones who would crucify Him, even those who would never believe in Him.  If He is that kind, if He cares so much for those who will be destroyed and lost eternally, just think how much He cares for you who do trust in Him, who have been washed and justified and sanctified through faith in Him.  He still holds out His forgiveness to you today in His Word and Supper.  It isn’t too late!  But one day, it will be.

Jesus’ tears also teach us to have hearts that weep for the lost, hearts that care as Jesus cares.  And so we pray for those who are now in error, that they may come to repentance.  We pray for those who haven’t heard the Word of Christ, that they may hear and believe.  We must not grow haughty or proud here in this Christian Church, but recognize with humility that “there but by the grace of God go I.” Let us live a life of love and compassion toward our neighbor, whoever he or she may be.

Now, there is a time to think about and weep over the impending destruction of those who reject Christ.  But we shouldn’t imagine that Jesus goes around weeping all the time, or that we should, either.  There is also a time to fight against those who reject the Word of Christ so that Christ’s name can be properly taught and proclaimed and preached—to fight against them, not with swords or guns or knives, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

The day after Palm Sunday, Jesus wasn’t weeping anymore.  He was fighting.  He was turning over tables and driving out all those who were doing business in God’s Temple, both the sellers and the buyers.  He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” He didn’t harm anyone or murder anyone or destroy the temple.  But He did disrupt their godless buying and selling within God’s house of prayer.  Why?  Because they were dishonoring God? No, but because they were preventing the people from hearing God’s Word and turning to Him for help in prayer.  They were harming the people who needed to hear and take to heart, because the only salvation from judgment and condemnation comes through faith in Christ, and faith in Christ only comes through hearing.

Once the noise died down in the Temple, it says that He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

Now, there is no longer a temple in Jerusalem that is THE house of God, the house of prayer.  Whether it’s the Israelis or the Palestinians in control of Jerusalem, both groups, for the most part, reject Jesus as the Christ and so both groups will share the fate of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  But there is a temple of God, a spiritual house, the kingdom of Christ, where the Word of Christ is preached and the Spirit of God is working—the visible Christian Church on earth.  The visible Church is divided, and has always been divided and will always be divided into believers and hypocrites.  Christians in name and in faith, and Christians in name only.  The right and pure doctrine of Christ will always be taught, and false doctrine will always be right there to threaten it and live alongside it in the larger umbrella of the Church.

What would Jesus drive out of our places of worship today, where we live?  He would drive out everything that hinders the right preaching and hearing of His Word.    All false doctrine.  All ungodly living.  All self-reliance.  All fear and cowardice.  All tweaking of His Word.  Everything that takes the focus away from Christ and puts it on man, or on something else. He would drive out anything and everything that distracts from prayer and from the teaching of the Word of Christ and from the administration of the Sacraments of Christ. Why?  Because He cares for His Church and wants His Word to have free rein in our preaching and in our lives.  That is how we will escape the coming destruction.  That is how others will hear and be brought into the kingdom of Christ. That is how we will be kept safe for time and for eternity, through hearing the Word and receiving God’s grace in the Holy Sacraments.

Let the zeal of Jesus for God’s temple move us to a renewed vigor in preaching and teaching and hearing and learning, to a renewed zeal in praying for those who have not yet heard the Word of Christ, and to live such good and upright lives among the unbelievers that they may see our good deeds and give praise to our Father in heaven.  Amen.

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It makes sense to use God’s money to help your neighbor

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 9

1 Chronicles 29:10-13  +  1 Corinthians 10:6-13  +  Luke 16:1-9

Luke chapter 15—the entire chapter—is a series of three parables about the lost.  The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  In each, Jesus goes out seeking the lost, calling sinners to repentance and faith in Him, freely forgiving them their sins, and bringing them safely home, like a sheep riding on the shoulders of a shepherd.  Luke chapter 15 focuses on God’s grace in Christ Jesus, repentance and forgiveness.

Luke chapter 16, where our Gospel begins, is a chapter about mammon—money and the use of wealth.  What a stark contrast! But it’s important to understand who Jesus is talking to here.  His words about money are not about buying your way into the kingdom of God.  His words are addressed to His disciples—to those who once were lost, but now are found; to those who once were children of disobedience, but now have been made children of light.  So as we begin to look at this Gospel, don’t imagine that Jesus is telling unbelievers what they have to do in order to get into God’s kingdom.  Those who are still lost in unbelief have much bigger problems than how they handle their wealth.  They remain under God’s wrath, no matter what they do, no matter how wisely they use their money.

No, here Jesus is talking to sinners who have been brought to repentance and faith in Him—to those who are riding back on the Shepherd’s shoulders—and compares them to stewards or managers of someone else’s possessions.   While we ride through this life to our heavenly home, our Father puts wealth into our hands, sometimes more, sometimes less.  But no matter how many possessions he places into our hands, this truth remains constant: it’s all His. It all belongs to Him.  As you heard David say in the Old Testament lesson today, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all.  Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all.

What are we, then?  We are stewards or managers of God’s things, of God’s wealth, of God’s money.  And so Jesus tells a parable about a steward of his master’s wealth—a dishonest, wasteful, unrighteous steward who doesn’t fear God or care at all for his neighbor.  But for all that the dishonest steward does wrong, he finally does something that, at least, makes sense.  He uses money to make friends for himself, and in this, Jesus says, he acts more wisely than God’s children themselves sometimes act.

Let’s take another look at the parable.  A rich man hears a bad report about his steward.  He calls him in and demands a reckoning, a report from the steward on his stewardship activities.  He doesn’t fire him on the spot.  He tells him that he will be fired, but first he insists on seeing a record of the steward’s management.

Now the steward demonstrates his shrewdness, his wisdom, his talent at calculating events.  He knows his job is at and end.  He has only a little while to figure out what to do.  He still has access to the rich man’s possessions.  He can’t steal them for himself.  He can’t bargain his way out of losing his job.  He has already fallen out of favor with the rich man.  But there’s one thing he can do.  He can buy himself some friends, some friends who will then take care of him when he loses his job.  He can’t do the rich man any favors, but he can do some favors for other people, for the debtors of the rich man.

 

So he does it.  He uses the rich man’s money that he has access to and basically gives away some of it to the debtors by reducing their debt, either by a lot or by a little.  Why?  So that they will like him and appreciate him and welcome him into their homes after he loses his job.  The only thing left for him to do is to buy friends for himself using his master’s money.

Now, you would expect Jesus to say that the steward acted foolishly there.  Money can’t buy you love, after all.  But on the contrary, Jesus says that this steward was praised by his master for being so shrewd, so sensible or wise.

And then the stinging rebuke from Jesus.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. Yes, that stings doesn’t it?  The sons of this world—unbelievers—are unrighteous and immoral and faithless and hopelessly lost.  But even they know that they need friends to support them when they can no longer support themselves.  Even they know that generosity will gain them friends.  Practically every politician practices this.  And even the worst politicians who do great damage to our society are supported and welcomed home with open arms by those whose pockets they have lined, aren’t they?

The point isn’t that bribery—political or otherwise—is a good thing or a right thing.  The point is that, the people of this world, unbelievers, often make the connection better than believers do that it makes sense to use the money at your disposal to help your neighbor.

Christians can be very generous toward their neighbors.  But there’s also a stingy, selfish person at the heart of every Christian—a stingy, selfish person who threatens to devour us.  The warnings you heard the Apostle Paul issue to the Corinthians in the Epistle Lesson today were serious warnings, directed to Christians, warning us not to tempt God with willful sin, because those who do will perish.  And among those willful sins can be the idolatry of money and the misuse of wealth.

Children tend to clasp their things tightly and refuse to share, don’t they?  “That’s mine! Mine! No, you can’t have it!”  They don’t realize how ugly it looks to those around them when they do that.  They don’t realize how many more friends they would have, or how much more their own brothers and sisters would appreciate them and want to spend time with them if they were generous with their things.    Adults know stinginess, too, that tight grasping of the checkbook or the wallet, the look of pain when someone asks for help.  That is the reality of the sinful flesh that is stuck to us like glue.  Even the sons of light are slow to part with their money.

“Their money?”  Our money?  No, God’s money.  God’s possessions. The rich man is like God, the owner of all things everywhere.  His are the mountain heights and the depths of the sea and the wealth of all the gold mines in the world.  His are the heavens and the earth and all who dwell in it.  A man thinks he owns things, and, in relation to other men, he does.  But in relation to God, man owns nothing.  He is but a manager and a steward of what God has placed into his hands for a little while.

And it’s placed there, not to do with as you please, but as God pleases.  It’s placed there to be managed.  That means, not just stuffing money in your wallet and pulling it out for this or that until it’s gone.  But managing it.  Taking account of it, budgeting it (whether strictly or loosely) to be used as God demands.  And how do you know what God demands?  You find it in His Word. There God has revealed that He wants His money to be used, first, to support His Church and the ministry of the Word, but not only for that; second, and just as importantly, to support the needs of the family God has placed you in; third, and just as importantly, to pay what you owe in taxes, to the government God has placed you under; and fourth, and just as importantly, spending it to help your neighbor in need, gladly and willingly and from the heart.  And in so doing, you will not buy your way into heaven; God’s grace and favor are free, and freely given to those who don’t deserve it. But you will make friends for yourself.  You will gain favor in the eyes of your neighbor, and that’s a good thing, and important thing, Jesus says.

In the parable, the steward used the rich man’s money to help his neighbor for purely selfish reasons.  He had no love for his master, and no love for his master’s debtors.  He was looking out for himself.  And it made sense to use money to buy friends who would help him in this life.

But the children of light—we have better reasons than that, don’t we?  We do love our Master, because He first loved us and gave His Son as a sacrifice to pay for all our sins.  We do love our Lord, Jesus, who, though He was rich, yet He became poor, so that we, through His poverty, might become rich.  He has forgiven us our sins and hands out forgiveness to us today again, and so He has created us again to love both Him and our neighbor.  The New Man in you wants to be generous and do favors for your neighbor, not to help yourself as the steward in the parable, but to help your neighbor. Because that’s what love does.

And yet, it will help you, too, to gain the favor of your neighbor, especially the favor of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Trust in Christ to enter into heaven, as if there were no such thing as money or works.  We are justified by faith, apart from works of the Law. But when it comes time to spend your money—God’s money!, spend it as if your entrance into heaven did depend on how many friends you will have waiting there to welcome you in, exclaiming, “This one was generous to me!  This one helped me!  Here is a steadfast helper and a dependable friend.  Come in!  Come in!  You helped us on earth.  Now come in, and stay with us, forever.” Amen.

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Sermon for Trinity 8, 2013

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Watch Out for False Prophets

Matthew 7:15-23

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Again, I give thanks for you who have gathered today to encourage one another in the faith, whether there be few of you or many.

Consider for just a few moments the Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 7:15-23, printed on the insert for today.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

How fitting that you have preferred to gather today as Christians without any pastor present, rather than to listen to some radio or television preacher, rather than to go to one of the churches down the road, where you can expect false doctrine to be taught.  That’s part of listening to Jesus, who says in the Gospel, “Beware of false prophets.”

Christ has given us a responsibility, a responsibility to judge the one—anyone! —who claims to bring God’s Word to you.  And you are to judge him, not by how he looks or by his sense of humor or his demeanor or his eloquence, but by the doctrine—the teaching—that he brings to you and preaches to you.  For, Jesus says, there will be many false prophets in the last days and they will deceive many.  So “Beware!” Jesus says.

Beware, because the nature of a false prophet is to appear to be a true prophet.  The nature of a false prophet is to come dressed, not like a dangerous wolf, but like a harmless sheep.  By their looks you will not know them.  By the name “Christian” or even “Lutheran” you will not know them.  By their fruits you will know them.

Their “fruits” is not a reference to how nice they are or how many outwardly good deeds they do.  Their fruits are the teachings they bring forth.  And if you are to judge them by their teachings, then the only way you can possibly carry out this commandment of Jesus is to know God’s Word for yourself, to hear it, to study it, to wrestle with it, and to then compare it, in context, with a preacher’s preaching.

What?  You haven’t read the whole Bible?  Well, what’s stopping you?  You don’t understand everything the Bible says?  Neither do I, as a sinful human being.  But what are you doing about it?  You don’t understand everything the Bible says?  That is perfectly understandable.  What is not understandable is that any Christian should then conclude, “Since I don’t understand everything the Bible says, I will be content with whatever I do know, right now, and I will not bother learning anything beyond that.”

Let that not be your response to Jesus’ words in the Gospel.  He cares for you too much to let the wolf deceive you.  He loves you too much to let you follow after a lie.  In His grace, He has given you the truth.  His Word is truth!  And you’re NOT on your own to figure it out.  He gives His Holy Spirit with that Word and in that Word to teach you and to build you up in the truth.

All of Holy Scripture is true, and anything that disagrees with Holy Scripture is false.  The center of the truth is this, that all have sinned against God and earned for themselves His wrath and punishment, but that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, was obedient unto death, even the death of a cross, that He suffered for all sins and was raised from the dead to be our Savior, to rescue sinners from sin, from death and from the devil’s grip, so that whoever repents and flees to Him in faith receives forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.  All of Holy Scripture teaches that truth, points to that truth, revolves around that truth, which is why the devil seeks to poison the well of Holy Scripture, changing it here, modifying it there, undermining its teaching at every possible place through the teachings of false prophets who bear the name “Christian” or even “Lutheran,” but who add to, subtract from, or change some point of Christ’s doctrine.

“But they talk about Jesus!  Some do miracles!  They all quote from the Bible!” So what? As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

As Jesus says, many who call Him “Lord” and who do miracles in His name will be disowned by Him on the last day and shut out of His kingdom forever.  What makes someone a true prophet is not calling himself a Christian.  It’s continuing in Jesus’ Word—all of it.

You have that Word.  It has been proclaimed to you and you have confessed it.  You have confessed it again this morning in the words of the Small Catechism.  Use the Catechism!  Use it to keep yourself grounded in the truth so that you know how to recognize error and those who would preach falsehood to you.

Next week, if the Lord is willing, I will see all of you face to face and continue to bring God’s Word to you.  And as I do, I expect you to trust me as your pastor, but not blindly.  Test my words, too, against the Scriptures and against the Lutheran confession of faith that we have all confessed to be true. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Amen.

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