Confession ends in Absolution

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51  +  Small Catechism: What is confession?

Again this year we see no ashes painted on our foreheads in the sign of a cross.  But we could use them as they have been used since Old Testament times, as a self-imposed mark of public humiliation, as an outward sign of inner repentance.  We could use them as a mark of sin and death, that these bodies will return to the dust from which our human race was first taken.  Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.  We could use ashes as a confession of the sin that still plagues us every single day, and of our faith in the One who died for our sins – past, present and future.  Ashes are a good outward symbol of confession, and confession is a God-pleasing activity.

But, ashes or no ashes, the fact is, you already wear the marks of death on your face, in every crease and wrinkle of your skin, in the glasses that help to correct your imperfect eyes, in the gray hair or the bald head, in all your frailties and infirmities, in your bent-over backs and your weak limbs.  And though your dying bodies will return to the dust because of your sin, they will not remain in the dust, because you have now been washed clean of the stain of sin and of the permanency of death.  To choose not to use ashes on this day is fine, as long as we wear them on the inside, as long as we believe, not only that we are sinners, but that God forgives us sinners and has washed us clean in the waters of Holy Baptism.  We believe in God’s absolution, God’s gift of forgiveness.

That theme – God’s Gift of Forgiveness – will be our focus during this Lenten season as we pray together and ponder the Penitential Psalms.

Our Psalm tonight, Psalm 51, embraces both aspects of “Ash” Wednesday – Confession and Absolution.  It is a Psalm of Confession – not just of sin, but of God’s goodness in forgiving sin, and those two aspects of confession have to be kept together in order for it to be Christian Confession.  That’s summarized beautifully for us, not just in Psalm 51, but also in our Small Catechism:

What is confession?

      Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

First, that we confess our sins.

You can’t miss King David’s confession in Psalm 51, can you?  It permeates the Psalm, from beginning to end.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

What transgressions? What sin?  Well, the title of the Psalm gives us a hint.  WHEN NATHAN THE PROPHET WENT TO HIM, AFTER HE HAD GONE IN TO BATHSHEBA. Adultery, lies and deception, the murder, cover-up.  Real transgressions.  Real sins against real people.

Ah, but it goes deeper than that.  When Nathan, the prophet, confronted David, this is what he said, “Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?” And so David confesses in this Psalm, Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

You get that?  For as horrible as David’s sins were against other people, his real sin, his major offense was idolatry, sin against God.  His major offense – his only real offense – was that he made his desires his god. What David wanted – Bathsheba! – that would be his, no matter who got in his way, no matter who would suffer because of it, no matter what God had to say about it.

Ah, but it goes even deeper than that.  It’s not just in these outward acts that David admits his sin.  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  David’s confessing there what we call “original sin,” that inborn corruption of our very nature, that inherited twisted shape of our very self that God created to be turned outward in love toward him and our neighbor, but that is now thoroughly and permanently (in this life) twisted and turned inward, so that we are by nature self-centered, sinful and unclean.  Actual sins are only symptoms of this inborn corruption.

Your sins, my sins – they may be different than David’s sins, but they aren’t fewer and they aren’t any better, any less offensive to God, any less deadly.  The sin in which David’s mother conceived him is the same sin in which your mother conceived you.  Your sins, my sins – they’re real transgressions, too, real sins against real people, and especially, real sins against God.

Now, David confesses all this to God, but he doesn’t do it just to get it off his chest.  He doesn’t confess because he is being forced to confess. He doesn’t confess in order to coax God into feeling sorry for him, and he doesn’t confess in order to make a plea bargain with God or to offer God something in return for his forgiveness.  David confesses because David knows this one thing:  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  David confessed his sin because David believed that God would be merciful, that God would not despise or hate or turn away from a broken and contrite heart.  David confessed his sin because he believed in God’s gift of forgiveness.

Hear him give the reason for his pleas for mercy: Have mercy on me, O God,  – why? because I deserve it?  No, but according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  David seeks mercy, cleansing, washing, the blotting out of transgression, the forgiveness of sins – where? – in God’s own attributes, in who God has revealed himself to be.  David seeks mercy from God because God is merciful.  He seeks forgiveness because God is forgiving.

But God is not up in heaven forgiving sins secretly.  God forgives sins through his humble servants.  God authorized Nathan to go to David, to accuse David in God’s name, and to forgive David’s sin in God’s name.  Before Nathan, David’s confession was very simple, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  And Nathan’s absolution was equally simple, “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.”  And there it was.  David’s sin was taken away, absolved, forgiven.

That’s the second part of “Confession.” Confession consists of two parts.  Second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

God does not call us to confession in order to humiliate us, but in order to absolve us.  That’s where he does it.

And why he does it?  For the sake of the merits of Christ Jesus who bore the sins of the world and earned God’s gift of forgiveness for us.  Because he died for sin, sins are forgiven in the absolution.  Because he rose from the dead, our death won’t last.  Where Christ is, there is God’s favor, God’s life, God’s absolution. 

See what a treasure he has given us in the absolution!  This is where he takes us back to our baptism where he washed us clean and blotted out all our transgressions.  This is where Christ himself comes to you through his called servant and deals with you throughout your Christian life.  Through your pastor, Christ himself speaks and accuses you of sin, so that you may confess, and so that he may forgive you your sins. 

This is the really humbling part of the office of the holy ministry.  Because I, the pastor, am nobody special, and my words help no one.  But God has chosen to speak through nobody’s.  And you’re supposed to believe it.  You’re supposed to hear God’s voice in my preaching.  You’re supposed to hear God condemning your sin and you’re supposed to hear God announcing his forgiveness to you in my absolution.

That’s true in public, or corporate confession and absolution.  It’s particularly true – it’s intended especially for private confession and absolution, and I encourage all of you to take advantage of that opportunity, to come to me as individuals, not for my benefit but for your benefit, to confess, in private, the individual sins that trouble you, and to hear your own name as I absolve you, by name, for your particular sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord Christ has commanded me to do.

The goal of repentance, the goal of confession – the goal of Ash Wednesday – is not death, but life, not sorrow in sin but joy in the forgiveness of sins.  It’s through confession that God wants you to receive God’s gift of forgiveness, for the sake of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

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Jesus remedies blindness with faith

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Quinquagesima

Luke 18:31-43  +  Isaiah 35:3-7  +  1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Our Gospel today is full of blind people.  Did you catch it?  Did you notice how all three groups of people mentioned in the Gospel were blind in one way or another –  the twelve disciples, the beggar at the city gates of Jericho, and the crowds that were accompanying Jesus on this final leg of his final journey to Jerusalem?  All were blind in their own way, and yet the blindness of all three was remedied by Jesus, not necessarily with sight, but most definitely with faith.  What about you?  Are you seeing or are you blind? Are you like the disciples or the beggar or the crowds, or like all three?  Hear the Word of God today, and if you think you’re not blind, think again.  We’re all blind in this life, and Jesus remedies blindness – not with sight, but with faith.

First, take the twelve, Jesus’ chosen apostles.  It’s almost Holy Week.  And Jesus takes them aside and privately explains in the simplest possible language the events that would take place during that awful and blessed week. Jesus gives his disciples a play by play of the six different ways he, the Son of Man would be abused and tortured and then killed, and then gives away the ending, too, with the prophecy of his resurrection.  All of this will happen, he tells them. All of this has been planned since before the world’s foundation was laid and predicted through the Old Testament prophets.  All of this must happen, Jesus says, and all of this I go to gladly and willingly, for you.

What Jesus was describing was, very simply, exactly how he would redeem sinners by his blood.  What he was describing was how he, the Son of Man, loved sinners with the love St. Paul described in the Epistle today, 1 Cor. 13, the selfless, sacrificial love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, the love that never, ever ends.

And Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand a thing he said.  They did not grasp it.  In that sense, they were blind. Why?  Did Jesus fail to use the right words? Did he fail to teach them correctly?  No.  They didn’t understand, because it was hidden from them.  The Word of God is clear as crystal, and the message of man’s sin and God’s salvation through the substitutionary love and the substitutionary suffering of Christ is presented plain as day, even in the Old Testament.  But human nature is dull and incapable of understanding it without the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment.

Nevertheless, what did the disciples do?  Did they go home?  Did they throw up their hands and say, “Bah! We give up! We don’t understand!” No, even in the face of some very scary sayings of Jesus, they just kept following him to Jerusalem. They stayed with him.  They kept listening to him and watching him, struggling all the while with their doubts and fears.  And eventually, after the events of Holy Week were over and done, Jesus himself opened their minds, Luke says in chapter 24, so that they could understand what the prophets had written and what Jesus had said.  Even though they didn’t understand yet at this point, they trusted Jesus enough to just keep following.

There’s a lesson for us here.  This blindness of Jesus’ disciples, this failure to understand Jesus’ words and works – that’s awfully familiar to you, isn’t it?  It is to me. I’ll cut the disciples some slack.  They followed Jesus for three years.  I’ve followed him for 38, some of you have followed him longer than that.  And I’m still confused by some of the things Jesus has said in the Holy Scriptures, by some of the things Jesus has done, and still does.  I don’t fully grasp his plans for his Church on earth – why things are as messed up as they are in the world and in the Church, this Christian life of bearing the blessed cross.  Much of the time, I simply don’t get it. It’s hidden from me.  And I still can’t fathom the depth of my sin or of Jesus’ perfect love, his total commitment to the welfare of sinners, like me and like you, that led him to the cross and still leads him to show us mercy every day of our lives.  And I don’t think I’m alone in my blindness, am I?

But see!  That’s nothing new.  You don’t always have to understand.  Sometimes things will be hidden from you.  So what do you do?  Give up?  Stop trying?  Grow indifferent toward doctrine – or toward Jesus, or toward your neighbor?  No.  You keep following Jesus.  You keep hearing and listening, because while you may not understand everything, you know from the Holy Scriptures that Jesus is the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.  You know that, by faith alone in him, you have forgiveness of your sins.  If you’re a Christian, then you know that much, and it’s enough, until the Holy Spirit chooses, little by little, to unhide the rest.

Next, take the blind beggar.  We know from Mark that his name was Bartimaeus.  The fact that we know his name probably means that he continued to be a follower of Jesus for many years after this event.  He was blind in that his eyes didn’t work.  But already before his eyes were fixed, before he even cried out for help, the word of Christ had reached him.  He had heard how kind and loving Jesus was, that he was a Savior, even the promised Messiah, the Son of David, and the Holy Spirit had given him the gift of faith.

How do we know that?  Because he did exactly what a believer does.  To have faith is to know that you have a great need, to know that Jesus is the one who can help, and to want to be helped by him.  That’s faith.  And so the one who has faith calls out to Jesus for help and clings to him and won’t let him go, even in the face of opposition and adversity.  That’s what Bartimaeus did.  He kept calling out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  The crowds tried to stop him but he wouldn’t let them deter him.  His faith triumphed over their rebukes.  This was his chance!  Jesus was passing by! “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  So Jesus called for him to be brought over and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”  “Lord, I want to see!”  And at once Jesus fixed his eyes and said, “See!  Your faith has saved you.”

As we’ve seen so often in the Gospels, faith is praised as a glorious thing, not because it’s such a worthy attribute, but because it seeks mercy where God wants to give mercy.  It seeks mercy where God has promised to have mercy – in Christ Jesus.  Faith clings to Christ.  Over and over the Scriptures teach us that faith alone saves, because faith despairs of oneself, despairs of everything and everyone else and lays hold of Christ, with his help, with his mercy, with his perfect righteousness and his atoning sacrifice for sin.  And faith always, always finds a Savior in Jesus.

There’s a lesson for us here, too.  Faith is not a meritorious thing, that is, it doesn’t earn anything from God.  But neither is faith an idle thing.  If you have a great need, and you believe that Jesus is merciful, that Jesus is a good Savior, then you go to him for help.  You call out to him in prayer, Kyrie, Eleison!  Lord, have mercy!  The world will try to silence you so that you despair of his help.  But faith won’t be silenced.  So whatever mercy you need from him – whether it’s the need for forgiveness which we all have every single day, or the need for daily bread, for protection, for deliverance from some danger, for patience or courage or love or wisdom, you pray to him in faith, “Lord, I want to see!”  And you trust that he’ll help you in the best possible way.  Why?  Because he shows you in today’s Gospel that he will, and that he wants you to seek his help in faith, just like blind Bartimaeus did.

Finally, take the crowds that were following Jesus to Jerusalem.  They were leading a battle march to Jerusalem, a triumphal parade in which Jesus was the guest of honor, but they – they were his loyal followers.  They would share with him in whatever glory he would have in Jerusalem.  They had no idea he was going there to die.  In that way, they were blind.

But they were also blind in another way.  They’re so caught up in their own glory-seeking, their own self-aggrandizing that, when they hear this blind beggar calling out after Jesus for mercy, trying to slow him down – trying to slow them down on their triumphal march!, they get angry with him.  They try to shut him up and silence him.

Why would they do that?  They do that because they are blind to mercy.  They don’t see the blind beggar as their neighbor who desperately needs Jesus’ mercy right here, right now.  They don’t see that Jesus has come for the sole purpose of having mercy on blind beggars, on people whose sin has made them poor and destitute, on people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.  They don’t see their own need for Jesus’ mercy, and so they begrudge the beggar of Jesus’ mercy, too.  It’s like they want to get ahead of Jesus and leave him and his mercy behind.

But Jesus opens their eyes, too.  He forces them to stop their grand procession. He calls the blind man over and shows him mercy.  Then what?  Then Bartimaeus followed Jesus, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.  And so they all followed Jesus together to Jerusalem.

We can learn something from the blindness of the crowd, too.  Jesus did not come to this earth to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus did not call his Church into existence so that his Church should walk in glorious procession on this earth, but so that his Church might be characterized by acts of mercy and love.  The Church is to be a place of mercy all the time – a place for receiving mercy from Jesus in Word and Sacrament, and then giving out Jesus’ mercy to those who need it.  If we lose focus on Jesus mercy for us and for all sinners, if we fall into a Christian life that wants to leave mercy in the dust as we get on to “bigger and better” things, then we become blind like the crowds in their glorious procession.  So stop your glorious procession and watch Jesus heal the blind beggar.  Stop and see how good and merciful he is to all. Repent of your blindness to mercy and trust in Jesus to have mercy on you, too.  Then praise God with a joyful heart, that he has given you in Jesus such a merciful Savior.

Praise him also by following him to Jerusalem.  That’s what we do during the season of Lent that begins this Wednesday.  We follow Jesus.  Take the extra time this season to hear and to watch and to learn and to pray. And see Jesus’ mercy in action every step of the way.  Whatever blindness plagues you, just keep following Jesus, and he will remedy your blindness, not with sight, but with faith.  And what a great blessing that will be!  Because we are not saved by sight of Jesus Christ, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is far better than sight.  Amen.

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Know what to expect when the seed of God’s Word is sown

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Sexagesima

Luke 8:4-15  +  Isaiah 55:10-13  +  2 Corinthians 11:19 – 12:9

You’ve heard today of the great power of God’s Word.  God’s Word – the Bible, the Holy Scriptures – is God’s perfect revelation of himself to man.  We might look around at the universe God has created, and we can certainly deduce some things about God from it, from that “natural knowledge of God.”  But nothing reveals God more clearly and more powerfully than his own words given to us through the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New, whose words all center in the message of God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and his mercy in giving his Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins and reconcile us to God. Through the words written down by the prophets and apostles, through the preaching of their words in our time, God has spoken to us and still speaks.

And when God speaks, it is always like rain and snow coming down from the heavens to water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout.  God’s Word is the seed that falls on the dead soil of human hearts and creates life where there was only death, creates faith in God’s gift of Christ’s righteousness where there was only faith in our own pitiful attempt at providing a righteousness of our own.

But here’s the thing about God’s Word.  It’s always powerful and effective, but the effects are not always the same, as Jesus reveals in the parable of the sower and the seed.

Since I’m not talking to a bunch of preachers today, I will speak to you from this Gospel in the two ways that apply directly to you: first, as the church that sends out the word to be preached – both here in this place and wherever else you send it, too; and second, as hearers yourselves of the Word, recipients of the seed, you who are the very soil in which God’s Word has been planted and is being planted right now at this very moment.  In both of these cases, know what to expect when the seed of God’s Word is sown.

As a church that sends out the Word, that has called a pastor to preach God’s Word, as Christians who go out from this place and speak the saving name of Jesus in your vocations and discuss God’s Word with the people around you, what should you expect when the seed of God’s Word is sown, when others hear the Word?

Listen to what Jesus tells you. You should expect that the seed will fall on different kinds of soil.

Some will fall on the walkway where it does not grow at all, where people trample it and birds come and steal it.  These, Jesus says, are those who hear the Word of God but don’t understand it.  Why don’t they understand it?  Because it wasn’t taught correctly?  No.  Because the devil is real, and he comes where the Word is preached and swoops in like a bird to steal the Word away wherever he can.  He does that through lies and deception, through false teaching and false teachers.  He makes God’s Word seem so difficult to understand that people stop trying.

So it should not surprise us when people hear but don’t hear, when they hear the Word of Christ and it goes in one ear and out the other.  They don’t believe it, even if they call themselves Christians.  Instead they may come to church just to socialize or to play around or to be entertained.  Or they may embrace all kinds of errors and lies and always be fighting against the simple truth of what God says.

Some of the seed will fall on rocky soil.  These, Jesus says, are people who hear the Word and are believing Christians for awhile.  They rejoice in the message of Christ for a time.  But then it gets hard. Persecution comes, and they have no roots and no moisture – no continual supply of the water of life to keep them alive.  The dear Christian cross gets too heavy.  It gets too hard to fight against the desires of the flesh, too hard to keep hearing about sin and our utter neediness before God.  It gets too hard to speak the truth in the face of opposition, too hard to keep trusting in God when bad things happen.  The Christian life just isn’t what they expected.

So it should not surprise us when Christians fall away in the face of persecution or hardship. They may stop going to church entirely. They may stop coming to our church and go out looking for a church that makes the Christian life seem easier, more fun, more enjoyable.  Or they may keep coming, but the heat of trial has withered them into bitter and disgruntled people, or into fearful cowards who will keep quiet, fly under the radar, avoid conflict, do just about anything  to keep the peace.  We can expect that to happen where the seed of God’s Word is sown.

Some of the seed will fall among the weeds.  These, Jesus says, are those who hear the Word and believe for a time, but then they don’t notice the thorns and thistles creeping up, growing right alongside them – innocently, it would seem, until the weeds choke the life out of the good plant.  The weeds are the cares, and riches and pleasures of life.

So it should not surprise us when Christians fall away on account of family problems or work schedules or other worldly concerns or pleasures.  And by “fall away,” I don’t just mean stop coming to church. They may or may not come to church once in awhile.  But once they leave the Divine Service, it’s like God stops existing until the following Sunday.  Faith becomes a mantel piece.  There’s no clinging to Christ and his Word anymore, and love for the neighbor is replaced by love for self.  We can expect that to happen where the seed of God’s Word is sown.

And some of the seed will fall on good soil. These, Jesus says, are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. They know their neediness and they look constantly to God’s Word to supply their need, to give them forgiveness of sins and comfort, to grow their faith and to sustain them through the heat of the day and the cold of the night.  They bear fruit “with patience,” Jesus says, because being a Christian isn’t about sudden and spectacular bursts of good deeds.  It’s about a lifetime of steadily putting faith into practice, each day, over and over, little by little, serving your neighbor humbly, selflessly, whether he thanks you for it or not, whether it’s pleasant or not.

So it should not surprise us when some hear the Word of Christ, and believe, and cling to the Word of God and can’t get enough of it.  It should not surprise us when some hear the Word of Christ and stand on it in the face of terrible trials and unjust treatment, when they say no to the career moves that might make them lots of money but would pull them away from God’s Word and would keep them from humbly serving their neighbor. We can expect that to happen where the seed of God’s Word is sown.

All of this is what you can expect when others hear the word.  So when you see all of these things happening right here in our midst, or out there in the world where the Word of God is preached, don’t be amazed. Don’t be surprised, as if something were wrong.  And don’t imagine that you can make it all better, that you should somehow remove the obstacles from the field where God’s Word is sown.  Our task isn’t to till the walkway in order to soften it, or to remove the rocks, or to weed the garden, or to go out looking for good soil.  Our task as a church – our only task! – is to scatter the seed of God’s Word.  Period.

Now, now, remember that you, too, are hearers of the Word.  Here you are, hearing it today.   As hearers, how are you to hear it? You’ve seen that the Word will face great opposition as it falls from the sower’s hand.  You’ve seen that the world will come and trample it, and the devil will pluck it away.  You’ve seen how a plant with no root stands no chance against the blazing sun of persecution.  You’ve seen the danger of the threatening thistles, and you’ve seen that there is nothing inherently good about the good soil – only that it receives the seed – it hears the Word of God and believes the Word and keeps growing in the Word.

So, as hearers of the Word, you are not to worry about what kind of soil you happen to be.  You’re not stuck being one kind of soil or the other.  There is nothing fatalistic about Jesus’ parable.

Instead, knowing that your heart is, by nature, hard like the walkway, and that men will try to trample God’s true Word with all sorts of lies and that the devil will constantly be trying to pluck God’s Word out of your ears, look to God for continual forgiveness and guidance into the truth.  Hold onto God’s Word.  Learn and study it, and pray earnestly for God to continually create a clean heart in you that will be softened by his Word and blessed.

Knowing that the heat of persecution and hardship will attack your faith and is attacking it even now, and that the only way to resist withering is to have deep roots and a constant supply of moisture, hold onto God’s Word and Sacraments.  There you will find all the sustenance your faith needs to keep bearing up under the heat.

Knowing that thorns and thistles will come, that the cares and riches and pleasures of this world will seek to distract you away from God’s Word and choke your faith to death, be watchful for these things.  How many times have I heard Christians say that this or that problem came up in their lives, this or that opportunity arose, and it required their time and attention, and they fully intended to get back to God’s Word after they dealt with the problem, after they made a bit more money, after they had a bit more “fun” – then it would be time for hearing God’s Word again.  Thistles and weeds.  When they come, don’t pretend that you can fight them off apart from God’s Word.  On the contrary, when they come, cling to God’s Word all the more.

You see, as hearers of God’s Word, you are, right now, being tended by the farmer.  Right now he is scattering the seed of his Word and calling you to repentance and faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you, and rose from the dead that he might give you repentance and life.  Right now God is giving you forgiveness of sins and his promise to care for that which he has planted.  While the soils that receive the Word are different, the Word is the same, no matter where it falls, just as powerful, just as real, just as true.  Know what to expect when the seed of God’s Word is sown – in others, and in yourself.

“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  He who has ears to hear – let him hear!  Amen.

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Not wages for the workers, but charity for the chosen

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Septuagesima

Matthew 20:1-16  +  Exodus 17:1-7  +  1 Corinthians 9:24 – 10:5

Everything is upside down in the kingdom of God.  God does things differently in his kingdom, differently than our human reason would expect; differently than our sinful nature would like.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus paints a picture of God’s kingdom in which God calls jobless men to work for him in his kingdom.  But when it comes time to pay them their wages, he does it based, not on their work, but only on his charity.  And so highly is God’s charity, or “grace,” exalted, that those who wish to be paid instead on the basis of their work – are fired and dismissed from his service.  In God’s kingdom, it’s not about wages for workers.  It’s about charity for the chosen.

Look first at the charity of the landowner in Jesus’ parable.  He goes out looking for workers in his vineyard.  They don’t come beating down his door.  He goes out to the city streets and finds them and offers them a job in his vineyard.  The ones he finds right away at 6 AM are the ones who are ready to work, ready to put in a full day’s labor – 12 hours of hard, grueling work.  OK.  He calls them, he makes a contract, a covenant with them, as it were, and promises to pay them a certain wage, to which they agree.

But then he keeps going out throughout the day – 9 AM, Noon, 3 PM, even as late at 5 PM, knowing that the workday ends at 6.  All day long he goes out and finds jobless men in the city square, men who have no work, who have no means of income, and no unemployment check to cash.  “Come and work for me in my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.”

And what would that be?  What is the “right” wage for those who have only put in one hour of work?  Why, it’s a full day’s wage!  And for those who only worked three hours?  A full day’s wage!  For those who worked six hours, and nine hours, and twelve hours in the vineyard – the “right” wage, as decided by landowner, was a full day’s wage.  What grace!  What charity!  What generosity!

And you remember who was happy about that?  Everybody – except for the first ones hired.  The landowner saw to it that the last ones hired would be paid first, so that the ones hired first had to wait till last, had to wait and watch as their fellow workers in the vineyard got paid a full day’s wage – each one – no matter how long or how hard each one had worked.  “Oh. This is good!” they thought.  “If they’re getting a full day’s wage for only 9 or 6 or 3 or 1 hour of work – we’ll get paid even more.  Surely the landowner means to give us more than he said he would, because we worked harder and longer than all of these.

But no.  A full day’s wage for the full-day workers, just as he had promised them at the beginning of the day.  No more.  No less.  And they were angry about it.  How dare he make them equal to the ones who only worked one hour?  “Either he should pay us more or he should pay them less! But equal?  That’s so wrong!”

But the landowner had an answer for them. ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’

The end of this parable is both happy and sad – happy for all those workers who knew they were receiving so much more than they deserved from the landowner; but so sad for those first ones who hated the landowner for the generosity he showed to the others.  So sad, because all they cared about was getting reimbursed for their work, and so they missed out on the grace, on the charity of their employer.  It never occurred to them how privileged they were to work for such a good and generous man.  And since they despised his grace, he now says to them, “Take what is yours and go your way.”  “Get outta here,” he tells them.  There’s no room in his vineyard for those who despise his grace.

That’s the bitter-sweet lesson Jesus was teaching with this parable, that those who look to God for charity will receive it in spades.  But those who look to God for reimbursement for their labor – they will be dismissed from God’s kingdom, because God’s kingdom is not about wages for the workers.  It’s about charity for the chosen.

The landowner is God.  The vineyard is his kingdom, that is, his church on earth.  The workers are those whom God has called into his kingdom through his Gospel invitation.  That call went out first to the Old Testament Jews and brought them in through the covenant of circumcision.  And God promised them everything.  He promised to be their God, and that they would be his people.  He promised them that they would inherit the world.  Grace upon grace upon grace.  As a nation, they had been in God’s vineyard the longest.  They had borne the heat of the day, the weight of Law of Moses with all of its commandments and laws and restrictions.

But as time went by, God sent out his Word to others, too, to Jews who had abandoned God’s law entirely and were leading lives of sin, lives of theft and adultery – tax collectors and prostitutes.  John the Baptist and Jesus called them to repentance and to faith in Christ, and brought them into God’s vineyard through the preaching of the Gospel and through baptism.  Then, later in the day, God sent out his word to Gentiles, too, to the non-Jews of the world who hadn’t worked for God a day in their lives.  He called them into his vineyard, too.

But when the Jews who had worked so tirelessly to keep the Law of Moses saw Jesus calling tax collectors and prostitutes into his kingdom, and even Gentiles, and giving them the same love and forgiveness and promise of eternal life that they, the Jews, had been given, so many of the Jews were angry and bitter about it.  They despised God’s grace.  This is the very thing that prompted them to plot Jesus’ murder.  Because he had come in the name of God, not to reward the Jews for all their hard work, as they thought he should, but to give charity to those who didn’t deserve it – not the charity of money or clothes or social improvement, but the charity of Himself, Jesus, and all that he is and all that he has – Jesus, the charity of God.

Now, very, very late in the day, God has also called you to work in his vineyard.  He has called you into his kingdom, his church, through the preaching of the Gospel. He found you jobless, with nothing in your hand but your sin.  And the Father delivered up his Son into death in order to pay the price for your sins.  You’ve entered into Christ through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and so God has made you a laborer in his vineyard, a member of his Church, his body, a servant of the living God.  He won’t reward you according to your sins or according to your works.  It doesn’t work that way in the church of God.  He gives you charity!  He gives you Jesus.

But what happened to the Jews can just as easily happen to you. The longer you spend in the Christian church, the easier it will be for Satan to point you to all the hard work you’ve done as a Christian, to all the things you’ve suffered for being a Christian, to all the prayers you’ve prayed and all the sacrifices you’ve made.  And he will try to convince you that God now owes you something extra because of it.  “Jesus” is no longer enough.

The longer you spend in the Christian church, the harder it will be for you to see sinners who have “gotten to” live it up in sin and “have lots of fun” living according to the flesh, coming to repentance later in life and receiving the same promises of forgiveness and salvation that you have received – you, who have spent so many years denying yourself those sinful pleasures and following Jesus.  How dare God make them equal to you!

Oh, do not despise the grace of God!  It is through God’s charity alone that you entered his kingdom in the first place.  It is God’s charity alone that keeps you here.  And it is God’s charity alone that you will receive at the end of the day – Jesus, the crucified, Jesus the risen One, Jesus, the charity of God.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  “Well,” some will say, “I don’t want anyone’s charity!  I want to earn my place in God’s kingdom!”  Well, you can’t, and  you’ll never see his kingdom if you try.

It’s true, God has called you to work in his kingdom, to keep his commandments and to love your neighbor according to them, to live in your vocation as an imitator of Christ.  But you will not be paid wages according to your works, because your works are still sin, and the wages of sin is death.  Instead you will be given charity, credit for Jesus’ works and forgiveness through Jesus’ death, if you continue to trust in him as your Reconciler with God.

What, then?  Is it better to be a latecomer to the vineyard, since you get the same reward in the end, after all, the same salvation, the same charity?  How can you even ask that question? (Well, you didn’t ask it.  I did, didn’t I?) Is it better to live outside of God’s grace?  Is it better to live without his Fatherly love, without his comfort, without his promises?  Is it better not to know Christ Jesus for most of your life?  If you think so, then, friend, you still don’t know him.

The last will be first and the first will be last.  Many are called, but few are chosen.  All of you here who have been baptized have been called as workers in God’s kingdom and God has promised his charity to all of you.  Some will despise his charity; some will never be satisfied with the “wages” God pays out at the end of the day, and that will be their fault, because he offers it to all in Christ.  But some will find great comfort and joy in the charity of God and in the wages of grace that he pays, and that is God’s doing, because God has chosen you to be included in his Son and to receive grace from him.  It’s not about wages for workers.  It’s about charity for the chosen. It’s about receiving Jesus.  And if you know Jesus, you’ll never be so foolish as to grumble against God, “Jesus isn’t enough!”  He’s more than enough!  Amen.

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The promise of seeing God’s glory at the end

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Transfiguration of Our Lord

Matthew 17:1-9  +  Exodus 34:29-35  +  2 Peter 1:16-21

Last week we learned about faith and the pattern it follows.  The Word of Christ awakens faith, the kind of faith that keeps seeking and clinging to the Word of Christ.  The Christian life isn’t about seeing.  It’s about a continual pattern of hearing and believing.

But one day it will be about seeing.  One day faith will come to an end and be replaced by sight –the sight of Christ, the Son of God in all his glory, the seeing of God face to face.

Now you heard in the First Lesson today how Moses did see some of the glory of God while he was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law from God. Moses had asked to see God’s glory, and God gave him a partial view.  Even that left Moses’ face glowing for a little while afterwards.  But the Lord told him plainly, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

1500 years later, long after Moses had died, he did see God’s face.  He was there on the Mt. of Transfiguration, together with the Prophet Elijah who had been taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, accompanied by a flaming chariot. Moses and Elijah, together with Peter, James and John, beheld the glory of God in the face of Christ – not just metaphorically, but literally! And so will you!  The Transfiguration of our Lord is God’s promise to you, the promise of seeing God’s glory at the end.

Now let’s back up a little bit, about a week before the transfiguration.  You remember what happened?  Peter confessed about Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”  And Jesus said, “Yes, Peter.  And you are blessed, for this was revealed to you by my Father in heaven.”  How was it revealed?  Through the Word of Christ.  Through the Word of Christ, Peter was enabled to know Jesus by faith as the Son of God, even though by sight, he appeared to be nothing more than a man.  That faith made Peter and the other disciples ready to follow Jesus wherever he might lead, ready to march into battle with Jesus and fight with him against the devil and all his dark forces.  They were ready to follow him anywhere – except to the cross, which is exactly where Jesus needed to go. This is when Jesus first began to explain to his disciples that the Son of Man had to be betrayed, and suffer, and die.  And then, on the third day, he had to rise from the dead.

Peter refused to believe it – that the Christ had to suffer and die.  He rebuked Jesus, and then Jesus rebuked him and explained that anyone who wanted to follow him had to walk the road of the cross, too.

It was just a week later that Jesus took three of his confused disciples aside – Peter, James and John – and took them up that mountain with him.  There, for just a moment, they got to see with their eyes what their faith had already told them was true, but was now struggling to hold on to: the face of God in a Jesus who had to suffer and die.  And they did see it – Jesus’ face, shining like the sun, his clothes changed to dazzling white like the light itself.  They got to hear him conversing with the saints – Moses and Elijah, safe from all harm and danger, a little slice of heaven on earth.

But, what was he talking about with Moses and Elijah?  Luke tells us.  He was talking about his departure at Jerusalem.  He was talking about going back down the mountain, back to Jerusalem, back to his enemies so that they could kill him.  Moses and Elijah started walking away.  It looked like this taste of heaven was coming to an end.

No, Lord! It’s good for us to be here!  Let me put up some tents for you and Moses and Elijah!  You can understand Peter’s desire to stay, can’t you?  Who would ever want to leave?  Who would ever want to go back down the mountain to face suffering and to return to the way of the cross and death?

But Jesus didn’t have to say a word.  It was the God the Father himself who interrupted Peter and spoke from the cloud of glory that enveloped them and overshadowed them.  This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

And then, like a light switch being turned off, it was all over.  The prophets were gone.  The cloud of glory was gone.  The voice of the Father, the bright shining light – it was all gone. And they were afraid – afraid of the glory and afraid to lose the glory and return to the way of the cross.

But Jesus touched them and said, “Rise and have no fear.”  And when they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus only.

And that was the point all along.

OK, so you don’t understand how the Son of God has to suffer and die and rise from the dead?  That’s fine.  You don’t have to understand it.  Just keep your eyes on Jesus only.

You can’t fathom why God would want a wretch like you in his kingdom?  That’s OK.  Just keep your eyes on Jesus only.

You can’t imagine how you can actually keep following Jesus to the cross, how you can deny yourself and take up your own cross daily and follow him?  You can’t imagine how you can face another day on this sin-filled planet, much less many more years of it? That’s OK.  You don’t have to imagine it, or even find the strength to do it.  Just keep your eyes on Jesus only.

Or, more accurately, don’t keep your eyes on Jesus.  Keep your ears on him only. What did the Father say? “Listen to him!”  Whether you see him shining with divine glory, or whether you see him hanging on a cross, even if you don’t see him at all, listen to him!

You see, Jesus explains it all in his Word, if we’re listening, if we’re paying attention.  He explains why he, the Son of God, had to suffer and go to the cross – to make payment for your sins.  And he explains how this payment is applied to your account – by hearing the Gospel and believing in Him who bore the cross for you.  And he even explains – a little bit – why the Christian life is so hard here on earth – because you have been made like Jesus through Baptism.  You are even now considered by God to be Jesus through your Baptism, and you’re also being molded into Jesus by the Holy Spirit, which includes a heart that’s being renewed in love like his, and which also includes suffering like his.

Do you know how much this beautiful vision on the Mt. of Transfiguration helped Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James and John as Jesus walked slowly toward Jerusalem to be crucified?  Not a lick.  At the time, they didn’t understand it at all, nor did they think too much about it.  For that matter, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about it until after he rose from the dead.  But then, then it became clear to them.  The transfiguration was God’s promise to them, that it would all turn out perfectly, that they and the rest of Christ’s Church would be victorious in the end, that no matter how much suffering there would be, no matter how much the Church seemed to be falling to pieces around them, behind it all was Jesus, the beloved Son of God, the glorious King, the victorious Savior.

I wonder how it will turn out for you… Oh, wait.  I don’t have to wonder.  Because God has shown it to me, and to you.  It turns out like the Mountain of Transfiguration.  It turns out in glory on the heavenly mountain, in life and light, in peace and safety for all who trust in Jesus.  It turns out in the Father’s voice of full approval of you, His son (whether you’re a man or woman, boy or girl), because by faith you have been covered with the image of Christ, God’s beloved Son.  It turns out in seeing God face to face, just like Peter, James and John.

But if you think about it, Peter, James and John didn’t just see God’s face up on the mountain.  They saw God’s face all the time, because they had Jesus with them all the time. His face was always God’s face.  The only difference was that on the Mt. of Transfiguration, their eyes told them it was God’s face.  The rest of the time, it was Jesus’ Word showing them the glory of God in the face of Christ.

That’s the same Word that reveals Jesus to you.  Peter makes that connection in today’s Epistle, from the glory he saw in Jesus as an eyewitness up on the mountain, to the glory of Christ that is revealed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Word of Christ.  In the Word, God has given you all you need for a lifetime of faith and of cross-bearing right here in His Word and Sacrament. Here, in Word and Sacrament, you see your Lord face to face by faith.

You have the Word of all the prophets who spoke about the Christ who was coming to make atonement for the world’s sin and you have the Word of the apostles announcing that the kingdom of Christ has now come, even upon us who believe in His name.  You have the body and blood of Jesus hidden in bread and wine.  The forgiveness of sins is announced to you here. Heaven is opened to you now.  Here is the light of Christ shining on you today, revealing his glory on the Mt. of Transfiguration, God’s own guarantee of the glory that awaits you who remain believing until death, the promise of seeing God’s glory at the end.  You will stand in God’s presence on the heavenly mountain, and you will never have to go back down the mountain again. 

Here on earth, the Christian life is not about seeing, but about hearing and believing.  But there on the heavenly mountain, you will see God’s face unhidden, and faith will be forever transfigured into sight.  Amen.

 

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