Jesus’ compassion for those who are with Him

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 7

Mark 8:1-9  +  Genesis 2:7-17  +  Romans 6:19-23

Today’s Gospel of the feeding of the 4,000 teaches us many things:  The grace and compassion of Jesus toward those who follow him; that we are right to trust to him and to spend our time hearing his Word, even when it looks like doing so will deprive us of the things we need for this life; and we also learn in this Gospel that sometimes, even those whom we consider to be the strongest Christians can completely lose their minds, or at least, stumble in their faith.

God’s compassion is one of His attributes.  He is a compassionate and merciful God.  And His compassion extends in some ways to all of His creatures.  Maybe you remember that from the last chapter of Jonah, where God teaches the Prophet Jonah how desperately He desires for the wicked people of Nineveh to repent of their wickedness so that they will not be destroyed by God’s justice. He asks Jonah, “Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

The Psalm says the same thing, The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.   Or the words we sometimes include in our table prayers from the same Psalm, The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.  As Jesus says, He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

In the same way, God’s mercy extended to all men in that Jesus died on the cross for His enemies, too, most of whom would never repent of their sin, believe in Him and be saved.  And God wants all men—even those who want nothing to do with Him, even the worst sinner you can imagine (maybe that’s you!)—God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is worth enough and the Holy Spirit’s Gospel invitation is broad enough so that if the whole world were to believe in Christ, then the whole world would taste of the tree of life in the mansions of heaven.

But the world misses out on the mercy of God through unbelief. Most people want nothing to do with the compassion of Christ.  They would prefer to go out gambling, drinking, working, sleeping, movie-watching, game playing, partying with their friends, hanging out with their family, patting themselves on the back—anything but confront their miserable condition (the same one that infects us all!); anything but repent of their sins; anything but turn to the Lord for forgiveness; anything but study and learn the Holy Scriptures; anything but spend time with Jesus and hear His Word.  Their condemnation is deserved.

But when the Holy Spirit gathers a crowd of people around Jesus’ Word; when people leave house and home and job in order to go where Jesus is and hear what Jesus says, as was the case in our Gospel, then see what special mercy and compassion Jesus showers on them.  When again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”

Isn’t this also what the Psalms say about God? The same Psalm (145) that spoke of His mercy toward all He has made speaks of this special mercy of God toward His people, His believers, His saints: The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The LORD preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.  And the Virgin Mary sang about it in her Song, And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

The 4,000 people in the crowds that Jesus fed in our Gospel were not the well-to-do people of Galilee. They left work, home, income, food. Why? Because this was their chance to see Jesus, to hear Jesus.  And they stayed with Him—three days. Now, they must have noticed their own food supply running low, and yet they stayed.  They stayed because Jesus was still willing to have them; because Jesus hadn’t yet dismissed them.

And did you notice who it was who was worried, or concerned about the fact that they had nothing to eat at this point?  The people themselves? No!  It was Jesus who saw their need, before they were concerned about it, before they could even bring it up, Jesus saw. Jesus knew.  And Jesus, in His compassion, stepped in to help, providing from 7 loaves of bread and a few fish, enough food to satisfy 4,000 people and still have seven baskets of pieces left over.

Why?  “Because they have been with me.”  Not, “because they are such good people.”  Not, “because they have done such good things.”  Not, “because they aren’t such bad sinners after all.”  No, just, “because they have been with me.”  This is what it is to live under grace, and not under the Law, to live as “slaves to righteousness,” as Paul said in the Epistle today.  Isn’t it terrible—this slavery to righteousness?  Constant love and care and compassion and forgiveness from your Slave-driver Jesus!

You see the irony, don’t you?  When you lived as slaves to sin, you fed your own sinful cravings, and what good did it do you?  Or maybe you tried to earn God’s mercy with your works of obedience, your works of righteousness living according to the law.  But in the end, you couldn’t get rid of your sin that infects everything you do.  You were slaves to sin, and the wages sin pays out is death.

But then comes Jesus with his love and perfect righteousness and calls you out of your slavery to sin, to repent and believe in Him and the righteousness that He covers you with—His own righteousness.  He has called you into the “slavery” of the righteousness of faith, where you don’t work for God’s mercy.  You receive it as a gift.  And while the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

That’s what you get with Jesus.  Mercy and compassion and forgiveness and the gift of eternal life.  Jesus knows what you sacrifice to be with Him, even your own self, and the painful putting to death of your sinful flesh. He sees what you’ve given up. He sees the hardships you go through and the worldly comfort and security you sacrifice in order to be with Him, to listen to Him, to be faithful to Him. He sees what you lack, even before you notice, and His compassion will always step in to help in just the right way.  He showed you that compassion already with the feeding of the 5,000, but He thought it was worth confirming with the feeding of the 4,000.

Why would you ever live apart from this Jesus?  Why would you go back to gratifying the desires of your sinful nature, back to a life in which you don’t spend time with Jesus around His Word and Sacraments? Because you have, what?, a slavery to sin to pursue?  Don’t be foolish.  You don’t want to be on the receiving end when sin’s wages are paid.

Speaking of foolish, you noticed who the foolish ones were in our Gospel, didn’t you?  This time it wasn’t the crowds.  It wasn’t the congregation.  They were there with Jesus and weren’t the least bit concerned about the fact that their food supply had run out.  But Jesus’ disciples—the apostles—the pastors—they were the doubters! They were the ones who saw all those people, and only seven little loaves of bread, and didn’t have the foggiest idea how they could feed so many people.

I suppose it would be one thing, maybe, if they didn’t know that Jesus had recently fed 5,000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish.  But they did know about it.  They were all there for it. They were the ones who handed out the miracle to the people. And yet suddenly, in their minds, it’s as if it never happened. How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?

You can relate to these men, can’t you?  I know I can!  You’ve seen God’s providence throughout your life—for yourself, for other people, for the whole Christian Church for the last 2,000 years.  You’ve seen God’s mercy, God’s providence for His people in body and soul, and Jesus’ own promise fulfilled that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church. Here she still stands after countless threats and crises.

And yet a crisis comes along, whatever it may be—job loss, sickness, false doctrine or sin or strife threatening the Church—and suddenly it’s as if God didn’t exist, as if all of His promises were worthless, as if Jesus weren’t right here with His body and blood to help.  How can we deal with this?!?

But see again the compassion of Jesus in action.  He doesn’t smack His disciples upside the head.  He patiently asks, How many loaves do you have? They said, “Seven.” And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.  But seven loaves of bread and a few fish can’t feed 4,000 people!  Sure they can.  Of course they can.  Because Jesus took them and blessed them and multiplied them far beyond the people’s need.

Do you think He’ll do less for you who are with Him, for us and for our Church?  But we have such little strength, no way of providing for our needs!  I, your pastor, have such little strength—surely not enough even to take care of all these people here with all your spiritual needs, much less to deal with the problems that confront the Church at large!

Foolish.  We have Jesus with us, as really and truly as they had Him with them out in the middle of nowhere in the Galilean desert. How many loaves do you have?  A few pennies, a little food, a shamefully inadequate knowledge of the Scriptures, a couple of talents, some cracking voices and some faltering lips. Oh, and a little bread, and little wine.  But such little strength can’t sustain a congregation, or deal with the problems of the Church at large!  Sure they can.  Of course they can.  Because as we give them to Jesus, he takes them and blesses them and multiplies them far beyond anyone’s need.  He even adds His own body and blood to this bread and wine, and gives it to His disciple to distribute to you.  And where Jesus is, there nothing can be lacking.  Amen.

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Your righteousness will never be good enough

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 6

Matthew 5:20-26  +  Exodus 20:1-17  +  Romans 6:3-11

“You’re not good enough.”  No one ever likes to hear that, do they? You’re not good enough to be on the soccer team or the baseball team.  You’re not good enough to make the honor roll, to advance to the next grade, to get a certain job.  You’re not good enough to be my friend, or my spouse, or my child.  It hurts to hear that you’re not good enough.

Now, sometimes people will go to church to hear that they are good enough, just the way they are, and false churches will tell people just that.  Come right on in! You’re good enough for God, and we’ll show you how you can be even better!  It’s good marketing strategy, actually.

Jesus didn’t care about marketing strategy.  Instead, he used the worst marketing strategy known to man.  He told people the truth.  It wasn’t attractive. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t exciting.  And it surely wasn’t flattering.  But it was honest.  And in that honesty lies the only hope for mankind.

Jesus came along in his Sermon on the Mount and announced to his hearers, including us, that we are not—and never will be—good enough to get to heaven. Your righteousness will never be good enough for God.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

You heard the first “sermon on the mount” in the Old Testament reading today as the Lord God thundered down the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai.  The “wisdom” of the day back in Jesus’ day was that those commandments were the guide for getting into the kingdom of heaven, and no one kept those commandments better than the Jewish scribes and Pharisees.  They were the good people, the righteous people, the law-keepers in everyone’s eyes, especially their own.

And here comes Jesus telling the crowds that it wasn’t good enough.  You need a better righteousness than the Scribes and Pharisees have if you ever want to get into the kingdom of heaven.  As we learn in our catechism, the Ten Commandments preach repentance.  They show us our sin and how much we need a Savior.

Jesus illustrated his point by taking just one of the Ten Commandments (in our Gospel) and opening it up to reveal to the people just what all was included in it.  It’s the one we’ve numbered the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder.”  Jesus honors Moses, the Law-giver, or in reality, God, who gave the Law through Moses.  He treats the Law as something holy.  He does what the Apostle Paul says we do as Christians.  We do not abolish the Law.  We uphold the Law.  Yes, it is a damning sin to take a person’s life through murder, homicide, abortion, or suicide.  But no, it’s not good enough to simply not kill another human being.  It’s also a damning sin to get angry with your brother, or to speak an unkind word to your brother, like “Fool!  Idiot!  SoB!”  Or something more…graphic.  It’s also a damning sin not to go and seek reconciliation with the one who has something against you, whether or not you happen to like that particular neighbor.  It’s also a damning sin to refuse to apologize to the one whom you have wronged and not to try and make up for a sin you committed against your neighbor.

Now raise your hand if you live up to the righteousness required by God in the Fifth Commandment.  No, don’t you dare raise your hand.  To all those people who hope to get to heaven because, hey, you haven’t murdered anybody or anything, Jesus reveals the truth.  Yes, you have, by God’s definition. You, too, are a murderer.

Jesus could have pulled out any of the Ten Commandments here and shown how deep each one goes, how much each one demands.  He doesn’t even bother with the commandments that have to do directly with God.  If you can’t keep the commandments that deal with your neighbor, you have no hope of keeping the commandments that have to do with God. God’s commandments don’t require this or that action or inaction.  They require you to be a holy person, inside and out.  But you’re not and you never will be till the day you die.  Your righteousness will never be good enough.

There’s only one thing to do.  You have to get off the path of the righteousness of the Law, because it ends in death.  In fact, the only way off of that path is death. The sinner must die.  You must die.  You must suffer and be crucified.  This is what Jesus is teaching in the Gospel.  But here’s how he wants you to die:  He wants you to die by crucifying your sinful flesh each and every day—not by harming your body, but by killing the sin that dwells in you. He wants you to die through repentance, and by being united with him in Holy Baptism.  Isn’t that what Paul said in Galatians 2?  I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  Isn’t that what he said also in Romans 6? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

In the Person of His Son, God has provided an alternate place for you, the sinner, to die, by causing Jesus to die for your unrighteousness and by pulling you into Jesus’ death through Holy Baptism, by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Baptism and faith in Jesus = the death God’s law demands that you die.  And righteousness—that righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees?  That’s not something you provide to God.  That’s something God provides to you.

There is only one Man whose righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees—one Man who kept the holy commandments of God, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man.  Only He has the right to enter God’s holy Temple.  Only He—the Righteous One—has the right to stand in God’s presence.  Only He can enter the kingdom of heaven.

And He did enter, by shedding His blood for the sinners of this world and opening up for you a Throne of Grace—His own blood that blots out your sins; His own righteousness that is credited to all who believe in Him.  The righteousness of the Law—of being good enough for God—ends in death.  You’ll never be good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven that way.  But the righteousness of faith in Christ begins with death—His death, and then your baptismal death—and ends in resurrection—His resurrection, and then your baptismal resurrection, and then, one day, your bodily resurrection, too.

The Law rightly proclaims that you are not good enough. That’s supposed to make you afraid.  And when it does, repent of your wickedness and run away from the Law to the Gospel of Christ, to the righteousness of faith that He gives to you, free for nothing.  Trust in God’s baptismal promise to you that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.  He who believes in the Son has eternal life.

But what else did Paul say in Romans 6? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Christ died to sin.  And you were baptized into Christ.  You died to sin.  How will you live in it any longer?  Christ rose to newness of life.  And you were baptized into Christ.  You rose to walk in newness of life.  How will you murder your neighbor?  How will you go on being angry with neighbor, or saying hurtful things or failing to help him or her in their need?

Understand, the power of Jesus’ resurrection does not help you to walk the path of the righteousness of the Law so that you become righteous enough and good enough to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  No, by your baptism and faith in Christ, you have been rescued from the path of the righteousness of the Law and have been placed onto the path of the righteousness of faith.  By faith in Christ you have already entered the kingdom of heaven.  It’s only here in God’s kingdom where anyone can begin to love his or her neighbor, to get rid of anger and bitterness and hurtful words, to seek reconciliation with one another and to forgive one another.  Because it’s here, in God’s kingdom, where we have been shown mercy, where God has forgiven all our unrighteousness and has given us the gift of eternal life.

Here in God’s House, God’s kingdom, as you seek mercy from Christ, who is the Throne of Grace, as you seek forgiveness from His body and blood, you are covered with the righteousness of Christ that surpasses the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and of the greatest saints who ever lived.  If someone ever tells you, even the devil, even your own heart, “You’re not good enough for God,” don’t argue with them.  Don’t even disagree.  You tell them, “I know I’m not good enough, and I never will be.  But Jesus—He gave Himself for me, the Righteous for the unrighteousness, to bring me to God.  My righteousness will never be good enough, but His righteousness will always be good enough, for me and for all who trust in Him.”  Amen.

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Jesus provides the catch

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 5

1 Kings 19:11-21  +  1 Peter 3:8-15  +  Luke 5:1-11

Casting a net to catch fish – that’s what Jesus is doing right now, and every Sunday from this place, and every time the net of His Gospel goes out anywhere in this world.  Jesus, the Christ, who came into the world to save lost sinners, Jesus the Son of God who died and who rose again, Jesus the Savior who got into Simon Peter’s boat that day so long ago to go fishing is still going out fishing with his Gospel net to catch men – male and female, young and old – for His kingdom.

Jesus himself cast the Gospel net on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  He preached first from the shore, and then from Peter’s boat.  He preached repentance. He preached against their sin and rebellion against God.  He opened the Scriptures to them to show them how high God’s standards were, so high that every sinner falls short.  He preached the forgiveness of sins. He preached Himself as their Redeemer who bears the sins of the world and covers them with His own righteousness.  He preached forgiveness of sins for all who trusted in Him, as he preached on other occasions, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  From his own mouth Jesus cast the Gospel net.

But it wouldn’t always be that way.  After he ascended into heaven, Jesus would still be casting his Gospel net, but he would do it through the mouths of his disciples.  It’s just that, where our Gospel today begins in Luke 5, Jesus still didn’t have any full-time disciples. So he directed Peter and his companions to row the boat out into the sea and cast their fishing net.  Peter and his companions had been up all night, working hard, trying to find the fish with their nets, but there were no fish to be found; they came up empty.  But now, at the word of Jesus they went out, they cast their nets, and you know how that turned out.

This miracle teaches the kindness and the providence of Jesus.  Do you think it’s your hard work that puts food on the table for you and your family? Do you think that, if you lost your job, God would somehow be unable or unwilling to provide for you? See how faithful Jesus is to his promises to provide for those who trust in him, to fill the nets by his miraculous power. The Psalmist says, “I have never seen the righteous begging bread.”  Those who trust in Jesus will be provided for by our gracious God, and as our Gospel shows us, it’s not because we work so hard to earn an income.  We are taught both things by God: that he wants us to work, as he called on his disciples to do the work of fishermen that day with him in the boat. But we are also taught that our work accomplishes nothing.  Faith in Christ’s presence and promise accomplishes everything, as he provides even for our bodily needs, even doing so miraculously, if necessary, if we will only trust in him to do it.  God cannot fail to keep his promise to provide for the righteous, even if he delays fulfilling that promise for a little while from time to time, so that we learn more and more to depend on him and him alone.

But this miracle reveals another way in which Jesus provides the catch. “From now on,” he said to Peter, “you will be catching men.”  Just like Jesus cast the Gospel net from his mouth, so Peter and his companions would be casting the Gospel net from their mouths.  And just as Jesus was the one who guided their nets to where the fish were, so it would always be Jesus, hidden in the background, getting them right where he wanted them, so that he could cast his Gospel net through them.

Jesus does this through the blessed office of the holy ministry as the Church calls men into the same apostolic office, to go and preach the Word in this place and that place, throughout the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and administering His Sacraments where he distributes the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation that he won on the cross.

Jesus is also there casting his Gospel net when parents teach their children the truth of God’s Word—when any Christian, in his or her vocation, behaves or speaks in such a way that the people around you can see that you have something the world doesn’t have—a sure hope and confidence, especially under the cross, especially when you’re suffering or persecuted or troubled.  And then they ask you about it.  And then there’s Jesus, casting the Gospel net as you carry out the Apostle Peter’s words, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”

He puts us right where he wants us.  It’s never an accident.   Jesus has arranged everything to find his elect – those whom God chose in eternity to be saved through faith in His Son.  Jesus sails out into the world with his Church, and through his Church, he will find with his Gospel every last one who is meant to be found.

That’s not to say that everyone who hears the Gospel will be caught in the net.  Far from it.  But as a Lutheran preacher put it 100 years ago, “Even though many people, most people run away from the Lord and His Word and are lost, some – a good number! – are won, converted and saved. Those who are supposed to come, they come. Those who are supposed to hear, they hear. From the number of the Elect not one is left behind.”

And when people are found by the Gospel net and are caught by it—when they hear the Gospel of Jesus’ sacrifice for sins and seek mercy from God in him—we have to understand that God’s Holy Spirit is the one who is responsible for it, not we who cast the net.

You remember how Peter and his companions worked hard all night and caught nothing?  That was no accident.  Jesus, the ruler of the seas, saw to it that their nets came up empty that night, in order to bless them with this more important lesson the following day, to teach them about fishing for the souls of men.  They had to come to grips with the fact that none of their hard work would ever catch a single fish, a single soul for Christ’s kingdom.  No bait would work.  No coaxing of the fish would help.  No mistake or weakness on their part could stand in Jesus’ way.  They had to despair of themselves and their labor and their efforts.  Jesus alone could fill the nets.  Only the Spirit of Jesus, working through the Word of Christ, can take an unbeliever and turn him or her into a believer.

The same is true today.  Jesus is the one who fills the Gospel net, who draws people in and catches them for his kingdom.  You can’t help the Holy Spirit, and you can’t hinder the Holy Spirit, either.  Where the Gospel is rightly preached and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, there the Holy Spirit will be adding souls to Christ’s kingdom.

And if you could see how the nets have filled and swelled throughout the world, throughout the centuries, if you could see all of the people in the Church who have been caught into Christ’s kingdom – you would be astonished, just as astonished as Peter and his companions were on that day of the great catch of fish.

You would be astonished, and like Peter, you would fall down at the feet of Jesus in fear, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Like Peter, you would realize that you don’t deserve to be here in the presence of this great Fisherman.  You don’t deserve to be caught in Jesus’ net and saved for all eternity while so many perish eternally. You don’t deserve it and neither do I.  You are sinners, and so am I.  Recognize that all you have, all you bring to the table is sin.  But don’t ask Jesus to go away from you because of that.  Don’t go home downtrodden and depressed because of that.  Hear the words of Jesus to Peter, because the words of Jesus to the sinner named Peter are his words to every fearful and downtrodden sinner, “Don’t be afraid!”

Don’t be afraid, because Jesus has not come to destroy you, but to save you.  You know that.  It’s why you gather here, to hear him say to you again through your pastor, “Don’t be afraid.”  Don’t be afraid. It’s no accident that you wound up here this morning.  It’s no accident that the Gospel net has found you.  Jesus had each one of you in mind, to bring you here this morning that you should be where the Gospel net is cast, so that, by the power of his Holy Spirit, you might know him as your Savior – so that you may be either caught for his kingdom or kept in his kingdom, to live eternally with him, to be a part of His holy Church, and even to become instruments through which Jesus casts and fills his Gospel net, that sinners might be saved through faith alone in Christ.  Amen.

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Some crushing quid pro quo’s

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Homily for Trinity 4

Luke 6:36-42  +  Genesis 50:15-21  +  Romans 8:18-23

You’ve heard the Latin phrase quid pro quo. Literally, something for something. You give something in order to receive something in return.  You do something for someone, in order for someone to do something for you in return.

There are a number of quid pro quo’s in our Gospel today pronounced by Jesus himself, and each one deals a crushing blow to our flesh.

Judge not, and you will not be judged. Oh, but we’re so good at judging others.  And I don’t mean judging according to God’s Word whether something is right or wrong.  We’re called on to make those judgments.  But each one likes to play the judge by nature, to look at someone or listen to someone, whether or not you know the facts or the reasons behind the situation, and you play the judge, to decide whether what they did or said meets with your approval or not.  You do it when you watch how others drive a car. You do it when you critique how someone is dressed, the way someone talks to you or the tone of voice they use. Sometimes you may approve.  Sometimes you may disapprove.  In either case, you like to play the judge, don’t you?  But Jesus says, judge not — quid! — and you will not be judged — pro quo!  Uh oh.

Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.  Whom exactly will you condemn? Who has placed you in a position to carry out what you think is justice toward someone else?  It doesn’t have to be judicial condemnation, though. When you come across someone who doesn’t meet with your approval for some reason and you decide in your heart, “I will have nothing to do with that person. I will not associate with him or her. I will not speak kindly to him or her or defend their reputation or help them in their need. When I feel like it, I will ignore them, and I may encourage others to treat them the same way— horrible people that they are.” When you do that, you have condemned another. But Jesus says, condemn not — quid! — and you will not be condemned — pro quo!  Uh oh.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Oh, dear.  We even pray that in the Lord’s Prayer, don’t we? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Think back to how that worked in the Old Testament Lesson with Joseph.  I mean, his brothers took him, threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery to Egypt where he was further mistreated and imprisoned for awhile. They lied to his father to cover it up for years and years—until they were caught. And when they finally came to Joseph on their knees in repentance, asking for his forgiveness, he didn’t hesitate for a moment, did he?  He forgave them, comforted them, spoke kindly to them and promised to provide for them in the future. Now think about the person who has hurt you the most in your life.  Are you just waiting anxiously for that person to come to you in repentance and ask for your forgiveness so that you can forgive him, forgive her, and comfort them, just like that?  Is that how ready you are to forgive everyone who has hurt you? Jesus says, forgive — quid! — and you will be forgiven— pro quo!  Uh oh.

Finally, Jesus says, give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.  Let’s see.  With the patience you have given to others, that’s how patient God will be with you.  With the time and energy you have given to others, that’s the time and energy God will give to you.  With the generosity and love you give to others, God’s generosity and love will be given to you.

Now, tell me that sounds good to you.  Tell me a day goes by when you consider the people around you and you don’t critique how they’re dressed, how they act, and especially how they treat you. Tell me a day goes by with your heart and lips free of condemnation toward your neighbor, when your greatest desire is for the one who has hurt you most to come in repentance so that you can forgive them their sin against you and treat them kindly.

Friends, this is not good news.  These are crushing quid pro quo’s that ought to humiliate us before God.  Jesus says, if you want to criticize your neighbor for the speck in his eye, you’d better get that log removed from your own eye first.

But we can’t remove it. We’re so sick. Only God can remove it.  “O God, be merciful to me!” we cry.  Oh no! But I haven’t been merciful. In fact, when I look at myself, I see no capacity for mercy or compassion or humility.  I think I deserve to be treated better by God and by man than I am.  O God. What will I do now?

I’ll tell you what you should do now.   Go find out what mercy looks like. Run to the cross and see the amazing quid pro quo that God offered there, the blood of his Son for the salvation of sinners! The righteousness of His Son for the unrighteousness of sinners!  Forgiveness from God to sinners in return for—nothing at all from sinners to God.

All the quid pro quo’s we heard from Jesus are crushing, but go back to the first thing he said.  What was it? Be merciful, NOT so that your Father may be merciful to you.  Instead, be merciful even as your Father is merciful. Oh. You don’t need to buy his mercy with your behavior.  In fact, you dare not try. God’s mercy is always shown only to those who don’t deserve it.

So when you are crushed by the knowledge of your sin and lovelessness toward your neighbor—and you must be crushed by that every day, because it happens every day—flee to the place of God’s mercy.  Flee to the cross and seek refuge there.  But what do we mean by that?  Where do you go, really?  Do you imagine a cross in your head with an imagined Jesus hanging on it?  No!  It isn’t far to the cross.  It’s here in the Word of God.  It’s here in the body and blood of Christ.  If we really believed that this is the place where we sinners receive mercy from God, I wonder if we wouldn’t be jumping out of our seats with a spring in our step, to come running to the Sacrament or at least to wait anxiously in the aisle until it’s finally our turn to receive mercy from the hand of our Father. The mercy of God is Jesus.  Here there is forgiveness for the wicked and for the unmerciful who repent of their wickedness.

And here in Christ, here in the Gospel, here, for the forgiven, there is strength to show mercy, because here you have seen what mercy looks like. Here you have found mercy for yourself. Here you find a reason to forgive the crimes of those who have hurt you, because in the cross of Christ you see the mercy of God, how the Father crushed his Son in place of crushing you, the ultimate quid pro quo that purchased our salvation.

Now, the one who is not moved by God’s compassion to have compassion on others—to judge not, to condemn not, to forgive and to give— has no part in God’s family. He is not your Father if you have no remorse for being so unlike him in your flesh, and no desire to be like him in your life.

But the one who is moved to mercy by the example of God the Father will find that much more mercy with your Father.  So when your heart condemns you for your sin, hear his Gospel and look to Christ for mercy and you will find it every time. When it comes time to interact with people or to deal with others, remember to be merciful. Remember to withhold judgment, to withhold condemnation, to be ready to forgive the ones who sin against you and to freely forgive them when they come to you for forgiveness, to give generously of your wealth, of your time, of your energy.  And you will receive from God many blessings in return, though heaven itself and the favor of your Father are already yours as a gift through faith alone in Christ.  But be aware that the blessings you receive from God—the good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over—may not be visible to you now and may not be the kind of blessings you can count off on your fingers.   No matter!  Believe Jesus’ words. He doesn’t lie to you. There is great reward in being merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.  Go and practice mercy, even as you have been shown mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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John the Baptist, Preacher of Grace

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Isaiah 40:1-5  +  Acts 13:13-26  +  Luke 1:57-80

On this Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, there are no manger scenes to be found; no lights adorning streets and houses; no trees with presents under them to remind us of the Nativity of the John.  In the same way, when John was born, there were no herald angels singing, no wise men bringing gifts from afar, no guiding star to lead anyone to his house.

And that’s the way it should be.  John the Baptist was not the Christ, as he himself freely confessed.  John was the forerunner sent by God to run ahead of Jesus and announce to the Jews that the Christ was right behind him.  And once Christ appeared, several months after John appeared, John told his disciples, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” So it’s good and right that the Nativity of Christ gets a lot more attention.

But it’s also good and right to pause today on June 24th, six months before that greater Nativity celebration, and give thanks to God for John the Baptist.  Six months before December 24th, because at the same time that the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she, a virgin, would conceive and give birth to the Son of the Most High God, Gabriel also announced to Mary that her elderly relative, Elizabeth, the wife of the priest named Zechariah, was already six months pregnant.  So John was born six months before Jesus.

You may remember how that all happened, how Gabriel appeared to Zechariah while he was ministering in the Temple and announced to him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, even though they had been unable to have children and were now old, were going to have a son who would be the prophet of the Most High God and would prepare the way for the Messiah, the Christ.  But Zechariah didn’t believe the angel, and so the angel told him that he would be unable to speak until the promised child was born.

That’s where our Gospel picks up the story. The promised child was born, and then eight days later, it was time for him to be circumcised and given his name.  The friends and relatives wanted to call the child Zechariah, after his father, but Elizabeth and Zechariah obeyed, instead, the angel’s words and gave him the name “John,” “Yo-hanan,” “The Lord—Yahweh—has been gracious.”

The people present for the celebration were amazed and asked, “What then will this child be?” But they already had their answer.  His name is “John,” the one who proclaims the grace of the Lord, John the Baptist, Preacher of Grace.

Well, didn’t all the prophets preach grace, and the apostles, too?  Of course they did.  Grace is one of those attributes of God that make up the definition of who He is, a God whose love doesn’t depend at all on a person’s worthiness or goodness, but that goes out to all, because that’s who God is.  As he said to Moses, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 

John, when he grew up, certainly did preach about that other truth about God, too, that he will by no means clear the guilty, that he visits the iniquity—the sin—of the fathers on the children.  John never minced words.  He pulled the whole people of Israel together under sin and showed them their guilt and warned them about the coming wrath of God.  “Repent!” was John’s message in the wilderness, repent, for even if you are a good and decent person compared to your neighbor, you are guilty before God, and God will by no means clear the guilty, but visits their iniquity upon them.

But what did Zechariah sing in his Spirit-inspired song?  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”  God’s wrath is being visited against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.  But God has also visited and redeemed his people and provided the shelter from his wrath in the house of his servant David. Now, John the Baptist was not from the house of David, but from the house of Levi—a priest.  Zechariah was not singing about his own son, but about the 3-month-old baby who was at that very moment growing in the virgin Mary’s womb, the virgin Mary of the house of David who was almost certainly standing right there in front of Zechariah on that day.  Scripture tells us that after Gabriel told Mary she would conceive a son, she went to stay with Elizabeth and Zechariah for about three months. That’s right when John would have been born.

So just as John’s father pointed to Jesus on the day his son was born, so his son would point to Jesus in his future ministry and preach how the grace of God had visited the Jews in the person of Jesus Christ. All of God’s goodness and promises were wrapped up in that one Person, to the point that there is no grace of God—God is not gracious anywhere else. Only in his Son Jesus.

And so Zechariah’s song continued, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This is what John would preach—that in Christ there is salvation from our enemies—salvation from sin, salvation from death, salvation from the devil.  That in Christ God has shown mercy and continues to show mercy. That this mercy was promised long ago to the people of Israel, the holy covenant he made with them. Not the covenant of the law, but the other covenant, the new covenant of grace and the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus was the bringer of that new covenant, that new testament in his blood.  God continually and fully and freely forgives all the sins of the one who is part of this new covenant. And you enter this new covenant through faith in Christ, because by his blood Jesus has paid for the sins of the world.  And so God invites all people to repent and find forgiveness of their sins in Jesus.

But God doesn’t do that inviting silently or secretly. He doesn’t do that inviting with whispers in your ear or with trumpets sounding from heaven. He calls people to faith in Jesus through the spoken word.  That’s the task to which John was appointed from birth, to be a preacher of grace, the first New Testament prophet who would point, not to the Christ coming sometime in the future, but to the Christ who is here at the door. That’s what Zechariah sang, And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.

But again, God doesn’t just throw his grace, life and forgiveness up in the air, to be scattered on the wind for us to go chasing after, trying to find it, trying to catch it.  God locates his grace, his life, his forgiveness in the spoken word, and in water that’s connected with that word.  John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Where does God forgive sins?  Where has God chosen to be gracious to people who don’t deserve it?  Not out there in the desert somewhere.  But here, in Holy Baptism! Here, where Jesus is, in Word and Sacrament.

What John started 2000 years ago is what every preacher of grace has been doing since—showing secure sinners their sins, and pointing penitent sinners to Jesus as the location of God’s grace, and bringing Jesus to sinners, with all his grace, with all his forgiveness, in the spoken word and in Holy Baptism, and now, also in this Holy Supper of the forgiveness of sins, the Meal of the New Covenant.

Now pastors are the preachers of grace God sends to His people, to walk in the footsteps of John the Baptist and point people to Christ.  John is the chief role model for every preacher, so it’s for good reason we bring him into our Divine Service each and every week. There’s the Baptist, pointing us again to our Baptism in the Invocation, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” John’s there in the Gloria where his own words are quoted, “Lord God, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us!”  He’s there directing us to Jesus’ body and blood on the altar as we sing his words again in the Agnus Dei, “O Christ, Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us!”  Eleison!  “Have mercy!”  Or another translation would be, “Be gracious to you!”  There’s John, the preacher of grace, one last time, every week, in the Benediction, “The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.”

The Lord has been gracious to you in sending His Son to redeem you and in sending John to be the forerunner of Jesus, who prepared the Jews to receive Him and still runs before Him to you in the Words of Holy Scripture.  The Lord has been gracious to you in sending preachers of grace to administer His grace to you continually from the day of your baptism to the day of your death.  Hear the Word of God from the preachers of grace whom He sends.  Like John the Baptist, we are nothing.  Christ is everything.  Don’t put your faith in us.  Put your faith in Christ.  Don’t expect us to pander to you, to schmooze you, to entertain you or to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.  If you find a preacher like that, run away as fast as you can. Instead, look to us to point you away from ourselves to Jesus…

…like John the Baptist did, whose birth was not heralded by angel choirs or wise men or guiding stars.  Instead, everything about his birth—everything about his life—pointed away from himself toward Christ, who is the Sunrise who shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Amen.

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