There’s plenty of work to do

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Pentecost 7

Luke 10:1-12,16-20  +  1 Kings 17:1-16  +  Galatians 6:1-10,14-16

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”  That’s how Jesus saw the Judean landscape as he slowly made his way to Jerusalem to be crucified.  Not a harvest of wheat, but a harvest of souls. There was plenty of harvesting to be done, but precious few workers to do the harvesting. Jesus sent out the 72 into that harvest field, and there was plenty for them to do.  But Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, saw beyond the Judean landscape, too.  He saw the whole harvest – through the centuries, throughout the earth, and what he said then still holds true now: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  There’s plenty of work to do: for the 72, and for you.

What does Jesus mean by “the harvest”?  This isn’t the first time he’s talked about a harvest of people. Back in John 4 after Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman by a well, she went back to her village to tell the people she had met a man who might be the Christ.  As the people started streaming out of that village to go meet this man and listen to what he had to say, Jesus looked out at them and that’s when he said to his disciples, “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!”  The harvest wasn’t just anyone and everyone.  The harvest were those whom God had prepared, in one way or another, to hear the message of Christ.

Sometimes God does that through his Law, like the Ten Commandments that show us so clearly how far short we fall of God’s requirements.  Sometimes God does that through suffering – financial crisis, family crisis, health crisis. Sometimes he does it through the simple voice of the conscience that he’s implanted in the soul of all people, the voice that whispers the truth underneath all the attempts to shut it out: “You have offended the Creator. You are not what you are supposed to be. You haven’t done what you’re supposed to do. You’re going to die one day, and when you do, watch out!” People will go through their whole life sometimes trying to drown out that voice of conscience, but then God does something that causes them to see their desperate need.  There they are!  The harvest, ready to be harvested!

You were among them at one time, too. You were part of the harvest that still needed harvesting, still firmly rooted in this dying planet, still separated from God and his kingdom because of your sin. You would have been burned up with the rest of the weeds, except that God sent workers out into the field and harvested you for eternal life.

People are harvested out of this terminally sick earth and into God’s family, God’s kingdom, through the preaching of the gospel of Christ – that Christ Jesus is the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world, that Christ Jesus is the righteousness that God demands – the promise that, by faith in Christ, your sins are forgiven and God is a loving Father in heaven. 

The Lord Jesus rejoices over you who believe in him, who follow him. But he still sees a harvest out there. He still sees those whom he has chosen in eternity to hear his gospel and believe in him and be saved by him, and the workers are still relatively few.

So there’s work for you to do.  “Ask!  Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field!”  See how God involves you in his important work?  This is his field. This is what matters to him more than anything else in the universe.  This is the whole reason why Jesus lived on earth and suffered on earth and died on earth – to purchase the earth for God with his blood and to bring in a harvest through his gospel. He isn’t going to let this harvest go unharvested, whether you care about it or not. But what’s important to God is important to God’s people. And so he gives you work to do, this work of asking the Lord of the harvest to do what he already intends to do, this work of joining him in his zeal for the harvest.  Pray for the workers to be sent out with the gospel!

The Seventy-Two were instructed to ask, and then the Seventy-Two were sent to go.  They weren’t supposed to take along their own money or means of living.  They were sent out with the gospel to be supported by the gospel.  They were sent out to the homes and villages where Christ was just about to pass by on his way to Jerusalem, so the mission was urgent.  Jesus was only coming by one more time on his journey to the cross. There was no time for delay.

There was plenty of work for the Seventy-Two to do.  In each town they entered, two by two, they were to knock on some doors and proclaim peace to the houses they entered, and if a man of peace was found – one that welcomed them as messengers of Christ, they were to stay there and eat and drink there and be supported by that family until it was time to move on to another town.

That was the work of the Seventy-Two, similar in some ways to those who offer themselves to be sent out as pastors and missionaries today.  We don’t usually go to a congregation or a mission field with a lot of our own money or resources.  We don’t usually have a job on the side. We depend on the people we serve to support us as they will, trusting that those who welcome our message of Christ will also take to heart the words of Christ that “the worker deserves his wages.”

There’s plenty of work to do for you, too, in this harvest work of Christ.  You haven’t been sent to leave your homes and go and make a career of proclaiming the gospel.  Your work is to welcome those sent to you, to be people of peace, to provide for the workers the Lord of the harvest sends to you. And you’ve done that and you’re doing that even now with your offerings – generously and gladly; a salary for your pastor, a housing allowance, health insurance, transportation – and even a vacation so that he can be refreshed to serve you better.  You’re even extending that welcome and support to the missionaries sent out by our synod and to the professors who train them. That work of yours is no less important in the cause of the harvest than the work of the Seventy-Two.  There’s plenty of work to do.

There was plenty of work to do for the Seventy-Two: “Heal the sick who are there,” Jesus told them, “and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’” That’s the same thing Jesus had been doing: healing the sick and proclaiming, “The kingdom of God is near! Repent and believe the good news!”  And what’s the kingdom of God? It’s the reign of Christ as King. How does it come near? When Christ comes near! And he was coming near to those towns. Those workers were sent forth with the Word of Christ to invite the people there to believe in him and enter his kingdom of grace.  Whoever listened to the workers, listened to Christ, as he said, “He who listens to you listens to me.”

But not everyone would listen. Not everyone would believe. Some people – entire towns, in some cases, would reject the workers of Christ.  “But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”  For those who didn’t welcome the Seventy-Two, it was the same as not welcoming Christ. “He who rejects you rejects me.”  The kingdom – the reign of Christ was still coming near. But that wasn’t good news for those who rejected Christ’s salvation.  His kingdom would come…and crush them.  But no one could say they hadn’t been warned. There was plenty of work to do for the Seventy-Two.

There’s plenty of work to do for you, too.  If you aren’t the ones sent to proclaim the kingdom of God, then be those who listen to the gospel preached by the workers of Christ and receive the gospel with believing hearts.  The Kingdom of God comes near in Word and Sacrament. Be among those who honor God’s Word by hearing it and doing it. Be among those who treasure the Sacraments – who take God at his Word and believe what he says, that in the Gospel you have Christ, with all his benefits, even forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  Don’t be among those who reject the Seventy-Two. Be among those who listen to them.

And as you listen and believe, do what the people surely did in the towns and villages where the Seventy-Two went.  Invite your neighbors to hear their message. Invite your friends, invite your family, invite your community, not just to come to your church with you, but to hear about the kingdom of God in your home with you – I would be perfectly willing to have a Bible study in any of your homes.

And as you go about your daily life, your Christian life, your Christ-centered life, see if you don’t also have the opportunity from time to time to join in the work of the Seventy-Two, to speak the simple message that the kingdom of God is near, that the kingdom of God is Christ, that now is the time to repent and believe, before his kingdom comes with crushing force and it’s too late for faith and salvation.  Christ could come at any moment.  There’s plenty of work for you to do.

And at the end of the day, when your work is done and the work of the Seventy-Two is done, the thing to get most excited about isn’t the success you see or don’t see.  Even if you had been given the power to do great and mighty miracles and cast out evil spirits, like the Seventy-Two did, the thing to get excited about wouldn’t be that.  It’s what Jesus said to the Seventy-Two, which applies just as much to you as it did to them: “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

There’s plenty of work to do: for the Seventy-Two, and for you.  God has prepared that work for you in advance.  But all the work that it took to get your name transferred from Satan’s realm to God’s – all that work was done by another, by the Lord of the harvest himself.  Let his work be your confidence. Let his work be your joy.  There’s plenty of work for you to do, but not to win for yourself a place in the harvest.  There’s plenty of work for you to do, because your place in the harvest has already been won.  Rejoice in the Lord’s zeal for his harvest.  It’s that zeal that has gathered you in and made you fit to work alongside him. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on There’s plenty of work to do

There is no, “Yes, Lord, but first…”

Posted on July 4, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Pentecost 6

Luke 9:51-62 + 1 Kings 19:14-21 + Galatians 5:1,13-25

“Yes, Dad, but first, let me…” whatever.  Parents hear it all the time.  Some direction is given, some instruction, some command to “Do this or that,” and the child responds, “Yes, but first…”  Sometimes the command isn’t that urgent and it’s OK to let them do that other thing first. Sometimes, the command is urgent.  “Come on! You’re in the middle of the parking lot. Come over here by me!” “Yes, but first…” Very dangerous.  “There’s a fire in the house! Come on! Let’s go!” “Yes, Dad, but first, let me just…” No. There’s no time for “let me just” anything.  There’s danger and death if we linger in this burning house.

Our Gospel today is full of followers of Jesus who wanted to follow him, but who also wanted to add a, “Yes, Lord, but first…” to their following.  But Jesus hammers it home to them in some pretty strong language that it doesn’t work that way in God’s Kingdom.  His call is urgent. There is no “Yes, Lord, but first…” when it comes to following Jesus.

NOT REVENGE FIRST

 Notice where Jesus was headed in our Gospel.  As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.  Resolutely, with his face fixed on the Holy City, still many days’ journey away – Jesus’ road was laid out for him, the road to rejection and suffering and death. The road to the cross. Remember? In last week’s Gospel he told his disciples what was coming for him and for them.

He would take his time getting there, though. Jesus still had some preaching to do in the towns and villages along the way. He was traveling with quite a crowd, and since he couldn’t call ahead and make reservations at the Samaritan hotel, he sent some messengers ahead of him to make those reservations, but, kind of like when he was born, there was no room for them in the inn.  Why not? Because Jesus, the famous Jewish preacher, was heading for the Jewish capital of Jerusalem, and the Samaritans didn’t like the Jews and the Jews didn’t like the Samaritans, and if Jesus was going to be Jerusalem’s Messiah, then the Samaritans didn’t want anything to do with him. “The people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.”

Oh, how that angered Jesus’ disciples, James and John.   There they were following Jesus, and both he – and they – were actually being rejected by someone.  (Can you believe it?) Jesus took it in stride and just kept on walking, but James and John weren’t ready to keep following just yet.  “Yes, Lord, but first, before we go on, before we follow you to Jerusalem… do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy these unbelievers?”

But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.  That’s not how it works in Jesus’ kingdom, as Jesus’ follower.  You don’t get to wait to follow him so that you can take revenge on the unbelieving world first.  You don’t get to be proud or arrogant or mean-spirited toward those who are mean to you. You put up with the rejection and with the scorn, and all the pain that goes along with it. You take up your cross and bear it as you follow him. Because Jesus isn’t slowing down to wipe out the wicked before judgment day.  And that’s a good thing for you!  He’s come to save the wicked, to die for those who reject him, to bear the cross that men impose on him.  His moving on means your salvation. So there is no, “Yes, Lord, but first, let me seek revenge” when it comes to following Jesus.

NOT COMFORT FIRST

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” That sounds like a very fine offer, but maybe a bit presumptuous.  Can you volunteer to be Jesus’ disciple, to be a subject of his kingdom?  It never works that way in Scripture.  People who start out dead in sin can’t offer to become alive.  He calls you, you don’t choose him.  But even then, “I’ll follow you wherever you go…” Jesus’ own disciples promised that, too. They said they would happily drink the cup Jesus would drink. They said they would even die with him rather than disown him. But such was not the case. They were offering to follow, without knowing where that following would lead.

In their minds, and in the mind of this man in our text, was a condition, “Yes, Lord, I’ll follow you, but first…just so you know, I’m assuming there will be happiness there for me, and comfort, that it won’t be too hard.”  But Jesus rips all that away in his response to that man, Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  If the Lord of Creation takes a detour around comfort and earthly happiness and stability on the road to the cross, then his followers shouldn’t expect those things as they follow him.  There may not always be money in the savings account, or a dependable job, or a happy home for the follower of Jesus.  He sometimes grants those things, but you don’t get to expect those things or depend on those things. He hasn’t promised any of that to his followers.  What he has promised is a life like his, a life of sacrifice. There is no, “Yes, Lord, but first, I’d like some assurances of earthly comfort and happiness” when it comes to following Jesus. 

NOT EARTHLY CARES AND WORRIES FIRST

He said to another man, “Follow me.” There’s the call!  There’s the invitation from the Son of God! But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

There he goes again, saying such harsh things to people.  This man’s father just died, apparently, probably that same day.  Now is not the time to follow Jesus. Not yet.  First, he has to mourn.  First, he has to take care of the funeral arrangements.  First, he has to tend to his earthly responsibilities. Maybe then, after that, it would be time to follow Jesus.

Notice, Jesus doesn’t tell him that those things are wrong – to mourn, to go to a funeral, to take care of your earthly obligations.  What he says to this man is that he is being called to something greater, even at this time of earthly loss.  He is being called to life in God’s kingdom, the life that conquers death, the life that comes by faith in the Son of God.  He is being called to follow the One who is just about to face death on the cross to remove the sting of death forever.  He is being called to proclaim the kingdom of God, the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ Jesus. 

That can’t wait.  The message of life can’t wait. You can’t set it aside while you first go back and tend to a dead body that’s now beyond human help.  There are others who can bury dead bodies.  There are spiritually dead people out there who don’t know Jesus and don’t follow Jesus – they have nothing to offer the world, no life to give, nothing better to do than to bury the dead, so let them do it, while you go and proclaim the word of life to the spiritually dead. 

When Jesus says, “Follow me!”, there is no “Yes, Lord, but first let me tend to life’s cares and worries.”  You can’t turn off your faith while you deal with the worries of this life and check your Christian life at the door.  Follow Jesus, even in the midst of life’s cares and worries. That’s the time to stay closest to Jesus and his Word and Sacraments. That’s just the time to trust in him and proclaim the word of life to those around you.

 

NO EARTHLY LIFE FIRST

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

But didn’t we hear Elisha make the same request of Elijah in the Old Testament lesson today?  And didn’t Elijah tell him it was OK?  Ah, but what did Elisha do when he went back to his family? He burned his plow, killed his livelihood – his oxen, and then fed the village with the meat.  He didn’t just go back to say, “Goodbye for now, I’ll see you soon!”  He went back to make sure there was no job to come back to.  His heart had already said goodbye to his family.  His going back wasn’t a, “Yes, Elijah, I’ll follow you, but first…”  Elisha’s going back was the first step of his following.

Apparently it wasn’t so in the case of the man in the Gospel today, nor is it the case with most of us.  When the man in the Gospel said, “Yes, Lord, but first,” it appears that his heart was torn, torn between following Jesus and being with his family.  He thought he could follow Jesus after saying a quick goodbye to his family, and then he’d be on his way, well, soon, I mean, when it was a convenient time to leave the family. “Oh, but, they’re asking me to stay, just a little while longer. Ummm, OK, Jesus will always be there, I guess.  Yes, Lord, I’ll follow you, but not right now. Not yet.  Someday. When I have time.”

Jesus said, “Don’t bother following me if your heart is only halfway in it, if you’re torn between following me and keeping your earthly life with family or friends or education or career or fun.  You would make an unsuitable candidate for God’s kingdom.”

He’s so demanding, isn’t he?  He just won’t let anything else come first, will he?, no matter how “important” it is.  That Jesus – he just insists on being all in all to his followers.  Your sinful nature doesn’t want Jesus to be all in all. That part of you would much rather wallow in the mud, in that whole list of sins you heard today in the reading from Galatians. And Satan tempts you to think you can say to Jesus, “Yes, I’ll follow you, but first, let me gratify the desires of my sinful nature. Let me serve myself first. Then I’ll follow you.”  But there’s danger if you wait, if you linger in that burning house.  As the Apostle Paul warned in Galatians 5, those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Instead, Jesus says, “Enough with the excuses.  Follow me! Follow me now and always!” Repent now! Change now! Because if you put something else first, then you’ll miss the first place to which he leads: to the cross where he paid for your sins. To the Gospel where he announces forgiveness to you for all the firsts you’ve put in the way of following him.  He put you first. He put your salvation first, ahead of revenge, ahead of comfort for himself, ahead of being with his Father in heaven, ahead of all heavenly or earthly ties.  He put you first because he knew you couldn’t put him first, nor did you want to.  And there is your salvation.  There is your comfort.  Repent and trust in him!

And from his cross, Jesus calls you to follow, bearing your own cross, and there’s no, “Yes, Lord, but first…” Not now.  Not now that you’ve seen what the grace of the Lord Jesus looks like.  Now everything else has to fall in line with following Jesus, instead of the examples in our Gospel where following Jesus had to fall in line with everything else.  Now he calls you to live by the Spirit, in all the Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  He calls you to break your heart away from a sin-oriented life, from an earthly-oriented life. He calls you to follow him to the mansions in heaven, by his merits alone, and to bear the cross along the way, with him there by your side.  Don’t tell him, “Yes, Lord, but first…” Just follow, and trust that he knows where he’s going. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on There is no, “Yes, Lord, but first…”

Good news! The cross is coming!

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Pentecost 5(c)

Zechariah 13:7-9  +  Galatians 3:23-29  +  Luke 9:18-24

“Cheer up!  It’s the cross!”  That was the theme of the keynote address at our AZ-CA district convention two weeks ago.  My old college professor, Pastor Dan Deustchlander gave the presentation. He just wrote a book called “The Theology of the Cross.”  Highly recommended, for pastors and for lay members alike!

But really, “Cheer up! It’s the cross!”?  What sense does that make?  It’s what Jesus told his disciples in today’s Gospel.  It’s what Zechariah prophesied, too.  There’s a cross of suffering in store for Christ, the Shepherd, and for his sheep.  Christ, salvation, the forgiveness of sins – and suffering – the Bible ties them all together and says, “You can’t have the one without the other.”

And – that’s a good thing.  Let’s focus on that text from Zechariah today and consider what the Holy Spirit teaches us there: Good news!  The cross is coming! 1) It’s good news when the Shepherd is stricken, and 2) It’s good news when the sheep are afflicted.

IT’S GOOD NEWS WHEN THE SHEPHERD IS STRICKEN

Back in chapter 9, probably the most famous chapter in the Book of Zechariah, the prophet had predicted the Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, humble, riding on a donkey.  Now, in chapter 13, he fast forwards to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. He starts off the chapter talking about how cleansing from sin would be accomplished in a single day. And then he writes, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!” declares the Lord Almighty.  Bound up together with the prophecy about the cleansing from sin was this terrible prophecy about the striking of God’s shepherd with the sword.

You know, when you look at this parament on the altar that says, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” you should remember this prophecy from Zechariah.  God’s shepherd would be stricken by the sword – which symbolized death and execution – a symbol of the cross.  When you picture Jesus, the Good Shepherd, you should picture a man full of scars from where the wolf dug its claws into him, from where the sword slashed him and pierced him. You should remember not just Psalm 23, but also Psalm 22, as we sang this morning. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

Because, you notice where that sword – that cross – was going to come from?  Yes, men would be responsible for Christ’s execution, and Satan would be behind it, but God was the one who called upon the sword to “Awake!”  God was the one who ordained the suffering, the sword, the cross, against “the man who is close to me!” God says.  The Shepherd, Jesus, wasn’t some renegade man or some rebel who had wandered away from God’s house or from God’s flock. He was close to God. Perfectly obedient to God, in a close relationship with God. Now, just how close he was, well, who would have thought? The very Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father – that’s the one against whom God the Father would send the sword – the cross.  That’s what it meant it be the Christ.

Why?  Zechariah doesn’t say why, but Paul does in Galatians 3 – that we may be justified by faith. Faith in what?  Faith in God’s Shepherd stricken, faith in Christ crucified for our sins.

Isn’t that ironic?  God would send the cross upon the one who was closest to him, the Son whom he loved and who loved him back, in order to save those were far, far away from him, who loved him not at all.  That was Jerusalem. That’s the entire unbelieving world.  That was you and I, too.  You think your sins are minor offenses at worst?  You think it doesn’t matter how you treat your neighbor? How devoted you are to learning and living God’s Word?  How many hours during the day your thoughts are stuck on what you want, what you crave, how hard things are for you? You’re sinners. Not kinda-sorta sinners, but really bad sinners.  And so am I. We’re not good enough. We must change and become a different kind of people.

But take heart!  There is good news!  The cross is coming!, Zechariah says.  The Shepherd would be stricken. It’s the cross of Christ where God poured out his anger.    He called the sword out against the one closest to him in order to reconcile you who were far away.  See how much he loves you!  He struck down the shepherd in order to order to make you all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  See how much he loves you!  The one who was obedient, God struck down in order to pay the price for your disobedience and clothe you with Christ when you were baptized.  Without faith in him, you’re stuck having to pay for your own sins, and there’s no way you can.  But through faith in Christ, God already counts you as one person with Christ Jesus, and that means righteousness and forgiveness and eternal life with God.  It’s good news when the Shepherd is stricken, because that’s how the sheep are kept safe.

But that doesn’t mean the sheep will have an easy time of it this side of heaven, just as Jesus promised his disciples. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.”  Oh, how awful!  How dreadful!  Who could bear it? But for as awful as it seems, our text presents the suffering of the sheep as a good thing.  Good news!  The cross is coming!  It’s good news when the sheep are afflicted.

IT’S GOOD NEWS WHEN THE SHEEP ARE AFFLICTED

Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.  Jesus told his disciples that this prophecy would be fulfilled on Maundy Thursday, and it was.  When the Shepherd was stricken, the disciples scattered. They abandoned him. They all ran away.  They saw the cross coming toward Jesus and they were afraid. They saw the cross coming toward them, if they stayed with Jesus, and they wanted nothing to do with it.

They realized, after the fact, what cowards they were, and Jesus, in his mercy, restored peace to them after his resurrection from the dead.

But what’s this, that God will “turn his hand against the little ones. In the whole land,” declares the Lord, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish”?  Two-thirds isn’t meant to be an exact number here.  The fact is that most of Jesus’ followers abandoned him toward the end of his earthly ministry, and most of them never returned.  Most of the world still rejects Jesus and always will.  And since they don’t believe in the only one in whom an innocent verdict is found in God’s courtroom, they will die in their sins.  They will be struck down and perish eternally.

But those few, that remnant, that remaining one-third – what about them?  This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.   There’s the cross! That cross that Jesus calls upon each one who would come after him to take up daily.  A refiner’s fire. It’s hot.  And it’s painful.

What is it, this cross, this refiner’s fire?  It’s a special kind of suffering for Christians only.  How about that as an advertisement for our church? “Come join us and you’ll get to suffer, too!”  There’s lots of suffering in this world already – pain, sickness, loss and death.  Those things aren’t crosses in and of themselves.

But when the devil takes advantage of those things to tempt you to blame God for them, to tempt you to despair in your affliction, to tempt you to curse God and die, there it is!  That’s the cross! That’s the refiner’s fire.

Or, you may suffer persecution for your faith – ridicule, slander, your career ripped away from you, your friends turning their backs on you, immorality all around you, and it hurts and you mourn.  There it is!  That’s the cross! That’s the refiner’s fire.

Or, you may have temptations swirling all around you, maybe a special temptation that affects you more than others.  Sexual temptation, a difficult marriage or family situation that isn’t going to get any easier, an angry temperament that isn’t going to just go away.  You know what God wants you to do, but you see in yourself a deep desire to do the opposite, to satisfy your own self, to make your life easier or happier.  There it is! That’s the cross!  That’s the refiner’s fire.

But for as painful as it is, for as enduring as it is, God says it’s good news. It’s good news for you, because he knows that you need it.  You need these struggles. And you cry, “NO, I DON’T!” And God says, “Yes, my child. You do. You need this cross, this refiner’s fire, just like gold and silver need the fire to strip away the worthless bits.”

There’s a story of a shepherd, a badly scarred shepherd at that, who always had one little lamb practically attached to his leg. It followed him so closely that someone asked him, “Sir, why is that lamb so attached to you?”  He said, “Because I broke its leg.”  “You did what?”  “You see, this lamb would always wander away from the flock, get lost in the woods, get stuck in the thicket.  It was always in danger of being picked off by a predator because of its wandering.  So I broke its leg so that it couldn’t wander, and then set it, and then cared for it and comforted it and fed it with my own hand until it healed.  Now it knows that I am the one who cares for it, and it never leaves my side.”

There it is!  That’s the cross!  That’s the refiner’s fire.  Your Shepherd, stricken for you, knows you so well.  He knows how quickly you would wander away from him and his Word if the cross weren’t there to keep driving you back to him and his Word for comfort and strength.   That’s the 4000-year history of the Old Testament, the 2000 year history of Israel, and the experience of the whole New Testament Church.  When there was no cross, they quickly wandered.  When there was a cross, they returned to God for help.  Don’t think that you’re the great exception who doesn’t need the cross.  You do.

So even though your sinful nature hates the cross, you believers in Christ, put that sinful nature to death every day and trust in your Shepherd and the cross he sends. And give thanks for him, and give thanks for it. It’s good news when the sheep are afflicted.  See, God knows how it will turn out:  They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

And so it must be throughout this life that the sheep resemble the Shepherd, branded as we all are by the symbol of the cross.  So it must be until you shed that wandering-prone sinful nature when you die and kiss your crosses goodbye. So it must be until Christ returns and shows us how he used the cross to bring us safely into his heavenly kingdom, first his cross, and then ours.  Until then, here is his Word to sustain you.  Here is Baptism where he clothed you with himself and promised to be your life-long Shepherd.  Here is the Lord’s Supper where he feeds you with his own hand, with the strength of the one who bore the cross for you and rose again to glorious life.  You, too, shall rise after bearing the cross for a little while longer.  You may not see now the benefit of the cross you bear as a Christian.  You just have to take God’s word for it that the coming of the cross means good news for you.   You just have to trust the Shepherd when he tells you that the cross is a good thing. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on Good news! The cross is coming!

It’s all about the forgiveness of sins!

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Pentecost 4(c)

Luke 7:36-50  +  2 Chronicles 33:1-6, 10-18  +  Galatians 2:11-21

Today is a day to remember.  Two baptisms.  Two confirmations.  Amelia and Anna, you were baptized right here in this church – Amelia, 13 years ago, Anna, almost 14 years ago.  You became members of God’s family, baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You’ve had the advantage of growing up surrounded by God’s Word and God’s family, knowing him as your God, trusting in him as your Savior.

Matthew, Amanda, you didn’t get to be baptized as babies.  You didn’t get to grow up surrounded by God’s Word. You didn’t get to know God as your loving Father or Jesus Christ as your Savior.  But you’re here today, now able to say, along with Amelia and Anna and most of the rest of us, “God’s own child, I gladly say it. I am baptized into Christ.”  And you will remember this day for the rest of your lives.  Amelia and Anna, you’ll remember it, too, as the day of your confirmation in the faith of the Church catholic, the faith of the confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church, as the day of your First Communion here at the Lord’s Table with the rest of your spiritual family.

One of God’s special gifts to you today, to all of you, is the Gospel you heard read a few moments ago.  Of all the Gospel accounts that could have fallen on this special day that some of you will remember for the rest of your lives, this is a really good one.  How much more clearly could the Holy Spirit emphasize to you that everything – your baptism, your confirmation, your entire Christian life, and even, one day, your Christian death – is all about one thing and one thing only: It’s all about the forgiveness of sins, the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ Jesus.

There are three main characters in this memorable story: Jesus, of course, Simon the Pharisee, and the woman who had been a career sinner.  Simon belonged to that group called the Pharisees.  Just to review, the Pharisees were the law-abiding citizens in town, the regular synagogue-goers, religious supermen. They even made laws where there were no laws, just to be on the safe side of things. To use a modern example, if the speed limit says “45 MPH,” they would drive “25 MPH” just to be safe, and they would sit behind the wheel and point at all the people going by faster than they were. “Humph!  Bunch of sinners! They’ll never get to heaven.  God sure is lucky there are people like us around!”

So Simon hears about Jesus, that he’s a teacher, a prophet. He wants to check Jesus out, so he invites him over for dinner, along with a bunch of other people.  Not that Jesus was the honored guest, though. Simon doesn’t even show him the common courtesies a host back then would show his guests.  No water for Jesus to wash his dirty, dusty feet after walking on dirt roads in sandals all day. No greeting at the door with the traditional friendly embrace and kiss on the cheek.  No olive oil poured on his jet black hair to make it shine. No, Simon wanted Jesus around, but not as anybody special, not as anybody who meant anything to him.

Then there was that woman. She had a reputation in that town, a well-known sinful woman, a career sinner.  We don’t know what her well-known sins were, and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that she, too, had heard about Jesus, maybe even heard him speak. And when she found out Jesus was at Simon’s house, she knew that’s where she needed to be, too.

What a picture! Jesus reclining at the table, as they did back then.  Then in walks this famous woman. She stands at Jesus’ feet and bursts into tears, tears that fall on Jesus’ dusty feet, tears that she then wipes up with her own hair.  She kisses Jesus’ feet and pours this expensive perfume on them – myrrh, the same spices that the Wise Men had brought to the baby Jesus some 30 years before.

You can hear the stunned reactions from the rest of the guests. “What is she doing?  Oh, how embarrassing! Get a hold of yourself, woman!  Stop groveling! Have some self-respect!”  But Simon the Pharisee wasn’t as much bothered by the sinful woman as he was by Jesus’ reaction to her.  Jesus was just letting her do all this.  He said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”  Holy men are not supposed to interact with sinners.  Jesus must not be a real prophet, because a real prophet would know what kind of reputation this woman had, Simon thought. A real prophet would send her away.

But Jesus didn’t send her away.  Instead, he let her worship him this way. And then he very patiently told Simon that little story about the two men who owed money. One of them owed 10 times more than the other. Neither could pay his debt. Incredibly, the moneylender forgave the debt of both of them.  “Tell me, Simon, which one of them will love that moneylender more?”  “The one who had the greater debt forgiven, right?”  “Right, Simon!  You’ve judged correctly!”

But before Simon the Pharisee could get too full of himself, Jesus turned that story back on Simon’s head.  “You’re the one who doesn’t love me, who isn’t devoted to me, Simon.  I wasn’t worth so much as a bit of water to you, but to this woman I was worth many tears and much humiliation.  I wasn’t worth so much as a friendly kiss on the cheek to you, Simon, but to this woman, I was worth a hundred kisses on the feet.  I wasn’t worth so much as a few penny’s worth of olive oil to you for my head, but to this sinful woman, I was worth a jar full of expensive perfume.

“And do you know why? You know why you love me so little and she loves me so much?  It’s all about the forgiveness of sins.  You figure that, being a Pharisee and all, your debt with God is pretty small, so when I come promising one thing and one thing only – the forgiveness of debts, the forgiveness of sins, you don’t really care.  You don’t want what I have to offer.  You love me very little, because you think you have little that needs forgiving.  This woman, however, is troubled by a multitude of sins, afflicted in her soul by a life-long career of rebellion against God, so when I come promising the forgiveness of sins, that means something to her.  I mean something to her, and she loves me much, not so that I will forgive her, but because she knows that, in me, she has the forgiveness of her many sins.”

Then Jesus turns to that woman and announces to her exactly what she trusted in him to announce to her. “Your sins are forgiven.”  The other guests were appalled that Jesus dared to announce forgiveness in the name of God, but then they didn’t know what this woman knew: that Jesus was the Christ, the Savior from sin whom God had promised to send, and the only one who could forgive her debts.  “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace!”

It’s all about the forgiveness of sins.  Simon didn’t think he needed it, didn’t have faith in Jesus for it, so he loved Jesus, the forgiver of sins, very little.  And it became a vicious circle for Simon, didn’t it?  The less he recognized his debt with God, the less he appreciated the forgiveness of sins. The less he appreciated the forgiveness of sins, the less he loved the Son of God, the forgiver of sins. The less he loved the Son of God, the more debts he had that needed forgiving, because to fail to love the Son of God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is a sin against the greatest commandment.

How do you break out of that circle?  Stop seeing yourself as Simon the Pharisee, and start seeing yourself, keep seeing yourself as the sinful woman – the career sinner who sees her sins as clear as day, but also sees in Jesus, the pledge of forgiveness.  And knowing that forgiveness, she finally begins to love God for the first time in her life and she shows it in great humility and meekness, there at the feet of Jesus.

Oh, don’t be like Simon.  Never imagine that your debts with God are tiny.  They aren’t.  Whether you’re a well-known sinner or a sinner in disguise, you’re just as unable to pay your debts to God as anyone else, because the debt incurred by our sins is costly. No payment is ever enough.

Except for one.  How does the explanation to the Second Article of the Creed go, ladies?  “Jesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sin, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent sufferings and death.”  His blood was precious enough to cancel all debts, to forgive all sins, even those deep, dark, secret sins that no one knows about except for you.

How does that redemption – the forgiveness of sins – become yours?  Through faith in Jesus as the forgiver of sins.  See how the Holy Spirit moves you to trust in him in today’s Gospel! Jesus doesn’t turn away the career sinner when she comes to him in repentance.  He welcomes her.  He announces forgiveness.  Go in peace!

So trust in him for that, for the forgiveness of sins.  Look to him for that, and not for anything else. Matthew and Amanda, why did you come to be baptized today?  Were you trying to cover all your bases, just in case?  Were you trying to show Jesus how committed you are to him?  Of course not!  Baptism is about the forgiveness of sins, the pledge of the Triune God to forgive your sins every day of your life through faith in Christ Jesus.

Young ladies being confirmed today, why will you kneel in a few moments before the baptismal font to be confirmed in the faith of your baptism?  Why will you come faithfully to the Lord’s house?  Why will you come to the Lord’s Supper today and for the rest of your lives?  It’s all about the forgiveness of sins.  When your debts to God are small, when your sins are few, then you can stay away from God’s house. Then you can stay away from the Lord’s Supper. But then you will be like Simon the Pharisee, so pray to God that never happens.

Young ladies being confirmed today, why will you make a promise in just a few moments that you will suffer all things, even death, rather than fall away from this faith?  Why will you devote your lives to serve Christ, in humility, in kindness, in obedience to his commands?  In other words, why do you love Jesus much?  Isn’t it because he’s forgiven you much? Isn’t it all about the forgiveness of sins?

The same goes for all of you who acknowledge your sins and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. What will inspire your love for the Lord Jesus and his Word and his people?  How will you get through life on this earth?  How will you face the day of your death?  It’s all about the forgiveness of sins, the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ Jesus.

So remember this day, you confirmands and all you who have been baptized.  Remember Simon the Pharisee. Remember the sinful woman. And most of all, remember the Lord Jesus, the forgiver of all sins, the forgiver of your sins, by faith in his name.  Go in peace!  Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on It’s all about the forgiveness of sins!