The path of Mammon vs. the path of God

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 15

Galatians 5:25-6:10  +  Matthew 6:24-34

Picture a fork in the road, where the road divides in two directions. You can either take the road on the left or the road on the right. You have to take one. You can’t take them both. Which one do you choose? Well, it helps to know what you’ll encounter in each direction, what each road looks like, where each road leads. Jesus describes two roads, two paths for us in today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount. The road on the left is the service of Mammon. The road on the right is the service of God. The roads are very different, and they end in very different places. And you can only take one of them. Obviously, it’s the service of God that Jesus urges His disciples to follow, and He gives us many good reasons for it in our text.

First, let’s look at the context. This is from the Sermon on Mount, early in Jesus’ ministry, where He’s teaching His early disciples, with multitudes of people listening in. He’s talking to Jews who already believed in the true God and who wanted to be instructed by Jesus. That’s important to remember. He’s not talking to pagans or atheists, but to “church members.” He’s not trying to convert unbelievers to the true faith by asking them to choose to believe or not. He’s teaching believers what it means to believe and encouraging them to live a life that’s consistent with what they believe.

No one can serve two lords, He tells them. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Mammon is the Aramaic word for wealth, the abundance of material possessions. Jesus personifies it here, as if material things were a god that people served. And in a very real sense, it is! It is like a lord or a master demanding to be worshiped, honored, and served.

What does such service look like? Let’s try for a moment to put ourselves in the shoes of Jesus’ disciples, if we can. Jesus’ hearers were average Jewish citizens at that time. They weren’t rich, In fact, we would consider them poor, by our modern American standards, although “poor” back then meant something far different. These people weren’t homeless, or jobless, or beggars. But neither did they have mansions or pensions or health insurance. There was no welfare, no social safety net. Their jobs were largely dependent on how well the farms produced in a given season, or how many fish they could catch. And many of them were simply day workers, who lived off of what they earned each day, without much potential for climbing the economic ladder.

For such people, to serve Mammon was to live their lives with the goal of getting wealth, acquiring an abundance of things, even basic things like food and drink and clothing. Every day, Mammon cried out, “You need me! I will provide for you! I will give you safety and security and peace of mind! So seek me! Work to get me! Trust in me!”

What about for the average modern American?  When was the last time you worried about having enough to eat today? Or having anything to wear today? The average American has already acquired more Mammon, more abundance of possessions, than anyone before in world history. And yet, Mammon still cries out, “Not enough! Not enough! You need more to feel secure. You need more to be happy. And if your level of abundance, if your standard of living should ever drop below what it is right now, it would be the end of the world! So, you still need me! I will provide for you! I will give you safety and security and peace of mind! So seek me! Work to get me! Trust in me!” So, to serve Mammon is to live one’s life with the goal of getting more wealth, acquiring more abundance, and, just as importantly, holding onto the abundance you currently have!

Except that, if that’s your goal, then you cannot be a servant of God. No one can serve two lords. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Because each one demands your devotion. Each one demands your trust, even as each one promises to provide for you and claims to be worthy of your trust. But it’s one or the other, Jesus says. You can be devoted to and trust in God, or you can be devoted to and trust in Mammon. But you can’t serve both. As the First Commandment says, You shall have no other gods.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to illustrate the foolishness of serving Mammon and the wisdom of serving God! Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? If Mammon is your god, if you’re living your life to gain material things, even basic things like food, drink, and clothing, then your road looks like constant worry, constantly being anxious over getting those things (or keeping those things). Wealth says, “I’ll give you peace of mind if you get enough of me!” But it’s an empty promise, because there’s never enough. You get enough for today, then you worry about tomorrow. You get enough for tomorrow, then you worry about the next day, and week, and month, and year, and into old age. And what if something happens to your finances? What if something goes wrong? You need more to feel safe. You need more to feel secure.

Isn’t life more than that?, Jesus asks. More than running around after your next meal, after your next set of clothes? And, no, by “more than that,” He doesn’t mean running around after bigger things, either, like the next house, the next car, the next luxury item, the next material thing. Life is more than that, too. The word translated here as “life” is actually the same as the word for “soul.” Human beings were created to live with God forever, to contemplate and to engage in what is good and right and beautiful, and to do good with our body and soul. We’ve sinned against God and ruined much of His original design, but even in a fallen, sinful world, life is more than food and clothing and acquiring material possessions. It’s, above all, learning to know and to believe in God, who offers a far better path than service to Mammon.

Look at the birds of the air! They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? On the road of service to Mammon, you’re on your own. Everything depends on you, how hard you work, how cunning and clever you are, and how lucky you are. Even then, so many things are out your control that you can never have peace of mind. Contentment is forever out of reach. But on the road of service to God, there is a heavenly Father, the one who created all things and cares for His creation, the one who has adopted you through Holy Baptism and through faith in Jesus, who has taken it upon Himself to see to it that you have the things you need for this life, so that you can spend your time concentrating on more important things, like His kingdom and His righteousness—things that last beyond this life.

As proof of this, Jesus offers the example of the way our heavenly Father provides for the birds of the air, without any worry or care on their part. Not that they just sit in their nests and wait for food to drop down out of heaven. They go and get it from the ground or from the air. But God our heavenly Father sees to it that the food is there for them to get, and that they know how to get it. They’re His creatures, just as we are, except that, according to Jesus, we’re much more valuable than they. Human beings were created in God’s image, created to be like Him in true righteousness and holiness, created to live forever with Him in His kingdom. But more than that, Jesus shed His blood for us and redeemed us from sin, death, and the devil. And we should conclude from that exactly what St. Paul tells us to conclude: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Jesus also points out another reason why it’s foolish to walk the path of worry in service to Mammon: Which of you by worrying can add one foot to his stature? Or one hour to his life? Worrying won’t get you anywhere. But on the path of service to God, you have a heavenly Father who is capable of providing help for every need.

Then, as another proof that the road of serving God is better than the road of serving Mammon, Jesus offers the example of the flowers. And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. And yet I tell you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today stands and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? God cares enough about the soul-less vegetation of the earth to make it look beautiful. Learn from that, Jesus says. Learn to understand that He cares much more about you who are His children and will see to it that you have what you need to clothe your body.

You of little faith, He says. He says it, not as an angry outburst, but as a gentle rebuke of those who should know better, and yet still sometimes stray over into the path of worry in service to Mammon. Knowing that, He gives us this instruction: So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles (that is, the unbelievers of the world who don’t know God) chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. It is enough for each day to have its own trouble.

And isn’t that the truth? The path of Mammon has you gazing off into the future, wondering how you will ever get what you need down the road. The path of God has you focused on today, on your daily bread, because tomorrow doesn’t depend on your worry to figure it out. You have a heavenly Father who holds yesterday, today, and tomorrow in His hand, who is watching out for your tomorrow, just as He’s taking care of your today.

As Christians, you’ve already put your faith in the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You’ve already committed to serving Him alone. So repent for the times you’ve strayed over into the path of service to Mammon, worrying about tomorrow, as if God your heavenly Father didn’t exist, or as if He didn’t care. And recommit to God’s service. Trust in Him. Cast all your worry on Him, because He cares for you. And then, instead of worrying about your next meal, spend your thoughts and your efforts seeking His kingdom, pursuing His righteousness. Because down that road, there is true safety, and security, and peace of mind. There is the loving care of a heavenly Father. And at the end of that road is eternal life in your Father’s heavenly home. Amen.

 

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Babylon will surely fall

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 14

Revelation 18:1-24

We talked about Babylon last week. Let’s review. (Much of this will sound similar to what we talked about last week.) Babylon was the name of the actual city that persecuted the Church of Israel during Old Testament times, the city that actually conquered the people of Israel, destroyed Jerusalem, and held them captive for 70 years. Here in the Book of Revelation, “Babylon” is the symbolic name for the city of Rome, which was the actual city that persecuted the Church after the time of Christ, both from a secular angle as well as from a spiritual one.

And then Rome itself became symbolic of the Roman papacy and of the whole apostate Church, whether located in Rome or not. For nearly three hundred years, the Roman emperors persecuted the Christian Church, openly threatening, brutally torturing, and killing Christians by the thousands. After that, the Church got in bed with the Roman government, and for a time the outward persecutions ceased. But over the centuries the spiritual corruption and persecutions grew. And the Roman Church used the power of the Roman Empire to squash dissent, to commit every form of wickedness, to burn heretics at the stake, to silence the Gospel, and to bring a corrupted form of Christianity to the New World during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Around the same time, the Church of England was formed, outwardly in opposition to the Roman Church, but in reality it shared many of the same false doctrines and false practices. They were and are part of the apostate Church, tied to the government, and they, too, put Christians to death. Other churches began to form, supposedly in “protest” against Rome, and yet they, too, were inspired by the glory of Rome and imitated many of her false practices. (The Lutheran Church, by the way, was not immune to the false ideas of the apostate Church, but they never put dissenters to death. But they have, at times, wrongly excommunicated teachers of the truth.) The Thirty Years War was waged in Europe in the 17th century, still within the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire. And the Spanish Inquisition, which started already in the 1400’s and resulted in the torture and death of tens of thousands of people, lasted until 1834—less than two hundred years ago. Then you had other atrocities committed here in our country and in other parts of the world in the name of Christ, or under the cover of the Church, many of them committed against children. We’ve seen governments all over supposedly acting in the name of Christianity, committing atrocities, from Nazi Germany, to modern Russia, to the United States of America as it pushes abortion and LGBTQ agendas, not only here, but in foreign countries as well, all while still clinging to a veneer of Christianity, with our Roman Catholic president and most of our congress (nearly 90%!) being made up of men and women who identify as Christian.

Look at the havoc that has been wreaked in the world and the blood that has been shed in the world in the name of a false Christ as the Antichristian Church and the Antichristian government have worked hand in hand to corrupt the true Christian faith, to silence the saints, to punish those who hold to the true faith, and even to persecute unbelievers unjustly while acting in the name of Christ, thus giving a bad name to Christ and to His true Church!

What we see in tonight’s vision, very simply, is a prophecy of the imminent ruin of the apostate Church that is responsible for all this.

Just as in the previous chapter, John paints Babylon as rich, luxurious, glorious, engaged with all the nations of the earth, engaged in both politics and in business. She thinks of herself as a queen. No one can compare to her. No one can ever bring her down. She’s the envy of everyone.

That certainly fits with the Roman Church. It fits with the megachurches, too, and with the televangelists, and with all of the churches that have promised or taken pride in earthly size, wealth, prosperity, and strength.

But her plagues will come in one day. She’ll appear to be going strong until that day comes, and then she’ll receive the Lord’s judgments all at once. She’ll be burned with fire. Because strong is the Lord God who judges her…because in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.

In our time and place in history, we may not feel the weight of the apostate Church crushing us as other Christians have over the centuries. We don’t see in our modern times the burning of heretics at the stake, or the selling of indulgences, or any physical harm being done anymore by the Church, at least, not on a large scale. And the wealth that has always characterized the apostate Church isn’t as exclusive as it used to be, isn’t as drastic of a contrast as it used to be. There’s lots of wealth going around these days, especially in our country. But the harm done to souls by false doctrine and by false ideas of heaven, of hell, of the devil and his demons, of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and of what it means to be a Christian, is as great as it has ever been. And the lack of physical persecution simply lulls people into a false sense of security, as if you no longer had anything to be watchful for or leery of.

The days of casual Christianity are over, where it’s a small part of a person’s life, a background reality, a family tradition, nothing more. Our opening hymn had each of us asking ourselves the pointed question, “Am I a soldier of the cross?” You need to be! We have to be so vigilant that we don’t become part of the apostate Church, knowing God’s Word better each day. And to those who are linked to a false-teaching Church, the Lord calls out in earnest, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. And as you’re being vigilant, also rejoice, because the false Church is about to fall, and the people of God will soon be safe from all her threats, from all her tricks, and from all her temptations. Babylon will surely fall, and those who live by faith in Christ Jesus will surely stand forever. Amen.

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The importance of giving thanks to God in the right place

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 14

Galatians 5:16-24  +  Luke 17:11-19

We have another healing miracle before us today, the healing of the ten lepers. It was just two weeks ago that we considered the healing miracle of the man who was deaf and mute. And you remember what we said that every healing miracle teaches us about Jesus? First, that Jesus is the promised Christ, the Son of God, sent by God into the world, and, second, that Jesus, and therefore, our God, is not only all-powerful, but also full of compassion.

But what does this particular healing miracle add to that? Well, there’s a lesson here about thankfulness. And not just thankfulness, but thanksgiving, and not just thanksgiving, but giving thanks in the right way, in the right place. Let’s turn to the text.

Jesus was passing between the territories of Samaria and Galilee on His way down to Jerusalem. So it shouldn’t surprise us to find at least one Samaritan among that group of ten men with leprosy. Now, we talked about Samaritans a little bit last week. They were foreigners as far as the Jews were concerned, but their territory was right in between Judea and Galilee, both of which were Jewish territories. They didn’t normally interact with one another. But this group of ten men had that terrible skin-disease called leprosy, which, not unlike death, was the great equalizer. They all had to live away from society and away from the worship of God in His temple, because God’s Law demanded that they live apart.

But these ten men had heard the word about Jesus, that He had power over the human body, to heal every kind of disease. And they had heard that Jesus was merciful and compassionate and willing to help. That simple word about Jesus created faith in their hearts, at least faith that He could and would heal them of their leprosy.

That faith led them to approach Him, from a distance, and to cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” A simple but meaningful request. A request made in humility and in recognition of Jesus as Master. He was above them and above nature itself, as He was able to speak a word and nature had to obey.

He did have mercy on them. But instead of cleansing them right there on the spot, He had something to teach them, and to teach every generation after them. So He simply said, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” The Old Testament Law had some elaborate requirements for those whose leprosy went away, starting with going to the priest in Jerusalem so that he could examine them and begin the rituals and the sacrifices so that they could legally be pronounced clean and reenter society.

They clearly understood from His words that Jesus would heal them, and they believed, so off they went. And, sure enough, before they got too far away, they realized that their leprosy was gone. Their skin was restored. They were clean! All ten of them. But this is what made the one different from the other nine: The nine kept going toward Jerusalem. The one returned to where Jesus was to give praise and thanks to God.

Now, it may well be that the other nine uttered a prayer of thanksgiving to God as they kept going toward Jerusalem. It may well be that they said a silent prayer of thanks in their hearts. But Jesus expected more than that. Jesus answered, “Were not all ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there none found to return and give glory to God except for this foreigner?” You see, God is present everywhere. As the Psalm says, Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into the heavens, You are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there! And surely God hears prayers in every place, in every language, including the prayers in our hearts that don’t even make it past our lips. But at the time this miracle took place, God stood in a single place on earth, in the Person of Jesus. He made Himself available to the world in the place where Jesus was, so that a person could go to Him and receive help from Him, and so that a person could return to Him to give thanks to Him “in person.” The nine healed lepers had approached Jesus in person to ask for healing, but they neglected to thank Him in person, while the one Samaritan did, prompting Jesus’ favorable reply. Your faith has saved you.

Now, God is the Source of every good thing and has provided abundantly for all people, for which all people owe Him thanks and praise. But what good would it be to give thanks to God for daily bread and daily blessings while failing to give thanks for His greatest gift—for the gift of His Son, given to the world to die for the world’s sins, so that, through Him, sinners might be reconciled to God, turned from His enemies into His dear children, and made heirs of eternal life? If you don’t, above all, want to give to thanks for Jesus and to Jesus, then God the Father doesn’t even want your thanks for the other things. He won’t let you approach Him except through His beloved Son.

But if you do want to approach Him through Christ, if you want the healing of the forgiveness of sins earned for you by Jesus, if you want to give thanks to Jesus for His mercy and for shedding His precious blood for you, then, where do you go to find Him? The leper knew where to find Jesus. There was only one place he could go. What about you?

Well, again, God is present everywhere and hears all the prayers His children offer in Jesus’ name. It’s absolutely appropriate to give thanks to God in your heart and in your personal prayers. Jesus encourages believers to pray on their own, to pray often, and God absolutely hears and accepts those prayers. But Jesus has made Himself present on earth and expects people to seek Him where He promises to be present. And where is that? Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them…and behold, I am with you. Take, eat; this is My body. Take, drink; this is My blood. When unbelievers encounter the preaching of Christ, they encounter Christ. When Christians gather together in Jesus’ name, to hear His Word preached by the ministers He has sent, when they gather to worship Him together, to receive His Sacrament of Holy Baptism and His Sacrament of Holy Communion, He is there. He is there in a way that He isn’t there everywhere. He’s there to teach. He’s there to guide. He’s there to forgive sins. And He’s there to receive our prayers, our thanks, and our praise.

And, yes, in the closest way possible, Jesus is present in the Sacrament of the Altar. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? And so Christians come together, as Jesus told us to do, to do this in remembrance of Him, to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and to know and believe that He is present with us under the bread and wine, where He offers us the forgiveness of sins, and where we offer Him our humble thanksgiving, just as the leper did as he fell down at Jesus’ feet. Remember, the Church has a special name for the Lord’s Supper. It’s called the Eucharist, which means, the Thanksgiving.

Just as Jesus wanted the lepers to return to where He was to give Him thanks, so He wants His Christians to keep coming to Him, to keep coming together in His name, both to receive healing from Him and to give thanks to Him. And if the Lord hasn’t provided a faithful, orthodox pastor near where you live, if watching and listening online is the best you can do, then do that, and do it, whenever possible, with other believers, even if it’s only two or three gathered together in His name. As for those who think they can just say a little prayer in their heart and intentionally not come to where Jesus has made Himself present on earth, they will receive the same rebuke that the nine received in their absence.

So it’s fitting and right that you’ve come here today, or, if you live far away and you’re watching online, it’s fitting and right that you’ve set aside this time and gathered with others, not only to hear the Word of God, but to give thanks to God, in the right way, in the right place, where the saints are gathered in Jesus’ name, around the preaching of His Word.

But there is another way of giving thanks to God that doesn’t involve gathering together for worship. It’s the worship of the rest of your life, which is also necessary, and which actually takes up far more of your time and effort.

Paul wrote this to the Romans in chapter 12: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Not a sacrifice to pay for sins, but a sacrifice of thanksgiving, with your whole life. Or, as Paul put it to the Galatians in today’s Epistle, offer up your bodies, every day, not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, but to walk with the Spirit of God, in true righteousness and holiness. That’s your daily sacrifice of thanksgiving.

But that daily sacrifice requires fuel, if you will. It requires hearing the Word of God regularly, so that the Holy Spirit can build you up in faith, guide you in what is right, and strengthen you to do it. And so, once again, we’re back to the importance of gathering together, in Jesus’ name, to receive mercy from Him, to give thanks to Him, and to receive from Him the strength to make every day of our lives a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the One who has washed away our sins and made us clean, able to stand before God the Father with a clear conscience through faith in Christ Jesus, and worthy to inherit eternal life. Amen.

 

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The great harlot

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 13

Revelation 17:1-18

There are too many details in Revelation 17 for us to talk about in a short sermon. And, in all honesty, it may not be possible or even wise to try to explain away every detail in this chapter. Because the overarching message is clear enough, and important enough for us to focus on: The kingdoms of the world will always be the devil’s instruments to attack the true Church of Christ, and the apostate Church, led by the Antichrist within the visible assembly of the Church, will work together with the kingdoms of the world to snuff out the true religion. But they will ultimately fail.

John sees a vision of the great harlot, the great prostitute. She’s identified as “Babylon the Great” and as “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” As we talked about last week, Babylon was the great city in the Old Testament that threatened God’s people of Israel and held them captive for a time. In the New Testament era, the great city that threatened God’s people, both physically and spiritually, both from a secular government angle and from a Church angle, is the city of Rome.

There’s no doubt that Rome is being talked about here. The angel says that the woman sits on “seven mountains.” John’s readers would have had no trouble identifying that as Rome, the famous “city of the seven hills.”  And for centuries, Rome was indeed the city which reigns over the kings of the earth, again, both on the secular side in the Roman Empire and the later Holy Roman Empire, and on the spiritual side, as it eventually became (and still is!) the seat of the man who claimed to reign over all Christians everywhere, the seat of the Papacy.

So the woman in this vision, the great harlot, represents the Roman Papacy, the true Antichrist, and the beast on which the woman sits represents the secular beast, the Roman Empire itself, which evolved into the so-called Holy Roman Empire. The woman is described as THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. The “harlotry” here is spiritual harlotry or unfaithfulness, also known as idolatry. It includes every form of supposedly Christian teaching that leads people to trust in man instead of in God: to trust in man’s leadership, in man’s intercessions, in man’s works, in man’s protection, in man’s teachings and traditions. It’s every form of supposedly Christian teaching that causes people to focus on human desires, human likes, human beliefs. And so, with that understanding, it certainly includes much of what’s taught under the Roman Papacy.

But it isn’t restricted to the Roman Catholic Church. I remember when we lived in Puerto Rico, where Roman Catholicism was still very popular, there were some Evangelical churches who would print flyers and plaster them all over the cars in a parking lot—flyers with the title, Rome is the great harlot! Another popular version of that is the idea that, if it’s Roman Catholic, it’s bad! Well, the Papacy may be the great harlot, but the woman is called here the “mother of harlots.” Every false version of Christianity can be traced back to Rome, because it was Rome who taught everyone to trust, not in the Scriptures, but in man, and that’s what all false doctrine does, at the end of the day. It causes people to trust, not in the actual teaching of Holy Scripture, but in made-up human doctrines. It causes people to focus on what they do for God instead of on what He has done for us in Christ. It causes people to focus on how they like to worship God instead of on how God desires to be worshiped. Such harlotry is found, not only in the Roman Church, but throughout so-called Protestantism as well.

We see the woman dressed in scarlet, just like the beast on which she sits. We see the apostate Church dressed like the world, becoming more and more like the world, in her teachings as well as in her practices. Oh, the world thinks women should be in charge of everything? Look at the church over the past many decades ordaining women as pastorettes. Oh, the world thinks homosexuality is great? Look at the church now endorsing such practices. Divorce? Fine! Sex outside of marriage? Fine! God’s Word is fallible? Agreed! And so on.

But the woman is also dressed in purple and wears fine pearls and holds out a golden cup to the world. She is a glorious Church, a big Church, as the woman sits on many waters, that is, on many nations. She appears elegant, attractive, and beautiful on the outside. Again, that applies as much to the Roman Catholic Church as it does to the Evangelical megachurch (or megasynod). But in truth, she’s a harlot. She is not faithful to God and His Word and His teaching, and she teaches the nations that her fake version of Christianity is the truth!

For a while, the unbelievers love her and join in with her! The kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. But eventually they grow of tired of her and the nations will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire as part of God’s judgment against her. And maybe we can see signs of that in our time. The nations of the world largely followed Christianity, usually in its idolatrous form—the nations have never embraced genuine Christian doctrine as a whole. There’s still a thin veneer of loyalty to the apostate Church among the rulers of the world. But in our day, it seems that most of the nations of the world, most of the rulers of the world, are beginning to reject every form of Christianity, even the antichristian forms of it.

Now, as for the heads, and the horns, and the kings that are mentioned in this vision, some have tried to connect them to specific rulers or kingdoms in history, and maybe there’s something to that, but we don’t have time to get into it here, and it’s really an insignificant thing to match up this horn to that king. It’s the overarching message that needs to get through: that the false-teaching, man-centered, man-idolizing Church is actually the greatest enemy of mankind. Because when people are introduced to a false version of who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him, it’s the worst kind of delusion. Because when the true version of Jesus is preached, people don’t bother even listening. They think they already know what Christianity is all about. Either they hate it and want nothing to do with it, or they fall in love with the false Christ they’ve been introduced to and want nothing to do with the real one.

That’s why the alliance between Christianity and the governments of the world has never been a healthy a thing, because whole societies are led away from the true Christ to a false version of Him, to a generic God who looks something like the Christian God but isn’t.

So, again, the overarching theme of this vision is that the false-teaching, man-centered, man-idolizing Church is actually the greatest enemy of mankind, and, that the false-teaching Church which has done so much damage to the true Church over the centuries, will eventually fall. The churches that have falsely represented Christ to the world and that have gloated over and persecuted the followers of the true Christ will be put to shame.

So we should be careful, shouldn’t we? We should be on guard against the false but attractive version of Christianity. We should know the Scriptures well enough that the false but attractive version of Christianity can’t move us from the truth of God’s Word. And we should take heart, because it’s not the size of the Church or the outward glory of the Church that identifies it as the true Church. It’s the church’s faithfulness to God’s Word and Sacraments, the presence of faith in Christ alone among her members, the love her members show to one another, and the Christ-like behavior of her members in the world. Let us be about those things! Amen.

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How kind the Good Samaritan

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22  +  Luke 10:23-37

This was only the second time we sang that last hymn, “How Kind the Good Samaritan.” I found the words to it just last year, right after we celebrated the 13th Sunday after Trinity, and I liked it so much that I composed this little tune for it. We first sang it as Vespers last year. The composer of the text was John Newton, more famous for the hymn “Amazing Grace.” I was really very impressed with how well he understood today’s Gospel, which includes Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable is so poorly understood by so many people, but over 200 years ago Newton captured the main idea very well in that hymn, which depicts us, not as the Samaritan going around doing good to strangers, but as the dying man who is passed by by the teachers of the Law and rescued by the Samaritan, who represents Jesus.

You have to read this parable in context, of course, as with all of Scripture. You see, the point of this parable is to show the expert in the Law who was testing Jesus, and to show all who hear this parable, that they’re doomed if they rely on doing good to earn them a place in heaven. The Good Samaritan gives us just a glimpse, a tiny picture and example of the mercy and love God demands from each of us for our neighbor—not to even mention the love and commitment we owe to God directly! That’s the degree of love that God’s Law demands, if we are to earn a place in heaven by keeping the Law. But He hasn’t found it in us. And so each of us, like a beaten and bloodied man lying half dead on the side of the road, is in dire need of a heavenly Good Samaritan to come to our aid. Because no one else can or will, especially the Law of Moses!

An expert in the Law—that is, the Old Testament Law—stood up, not to ask an innocent question, but to test Jesus. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And right away, if you’re paying attention, you see the problem with his question. What must you do to inherit anything? An inheritance isn’t given for doing things. It’s given because of the relationship that exists between people, usually family, so that when the one dies, the other receives what the deceased has left to him as an “inheritance.”

Now, the expert in the Law was right to use the word “inheritance,” which he got from his own Law, from the book of Genesis, where, as St. Paul also makes clear in today’s Epistle, it was an inheritance that God promised to Abraham and his Seed, which is Christ. It was a Testament God made with Abraham, like a Last Will and Testament, where one party promises to give something away to another. Eternal life is part of that Testament God made with Abraham, the promise to be God to Abraham and his Seed forever, even after death. And Scripture says that Abraham didn’t “do” anything to be justified by God. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.”

But the expert in the Law got confused, as many people do. He confused the promise God made to Abraham of an inheritance, which a person can’t work to earn—it has to be simply received by faith—with the Law-covenant God made with Israel on Mount Sinai, which was established as more of a bargain, where each party agreed to “do” their part.

Jesus asked him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? Jesus was giving the man the opportunity to cite the promise God made to Abraham and his Seed in the book of Genesis. But instead, the man cited a portion of the covenant from Mt. Sinai: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. That’s a good summary of the whole moral Law. Complete and utter devotion to God, from the heart, and devotion to one’s neighbor—doing to others what you would have them do to you—has always been God’s will for mankind. And that will of God was codified, written down, and agreed upon by the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai, where they all agreed: (1) This is what is good and right, and (2) we will do it. All the other laws proclaimed by Moses were examples of putting this law of love into practice.

So, since the expert in the Law wanted to focus on God’s moral commands, and since he believed that keeping those commands was the way to inherit eternal life, Jesus went along with him. You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s your end of the bargain. That’s what you have to “do” to inherit eternal life—if you get it by “doing something.”

But if you do—if you gain eternal life by doing—then there’s always a follow-up question: “And how do I know I’ve done enough?” How do I know if I’ve loved the Lord enough, or if I’ve loved my neighbor as myself? You see, the expert in the Law was left in doubt. He understood that his own law, the law he loved so much, only made his hope of eternal life more doubtful. And so he tried to “justify himself.” He asked, “And who is my neighbor?” You see what he was getting at, don’t you? If he can narrow down the list of people he’s commanded to love as himself, maybe he can at least pretend he’s done it. But if “his neighbor” includes too many other people, he knows he’s doomed.

So Jesus answers the man’s question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest (a servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. A Levite (another servant of the Law) came along and offered no help. But then a Samaritan came by. Samaritans lived in Samaria, north of Jerusalem. They had a little Jewish blood left in them and some Jewish practices and beliefs, mixed with pagan practices and beliefs. The Jews generally despised them. But this Samaritan came along and, when he saw the injured man, went right over to help him and offered every sort of help you could think of, including caring for his wounds, taking him to an inn, caring for him there, and then paying the innkeeper to keep looking after him while he was away on his journey. How kind the good Samaritan!

Then Jesus turns to the expert in the Law and asks: Now which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Mercy, which is nothing but a form of love. Mercy and love were at the heart of all God’s commandments. And if you read the Gospels, you know that the Pharisees and experts in the Law were characteristically low on mercy. They may have kept the commandments externally and performed all the rites and rituals they were supposed to perform. But they were cruel and condescending to their fellow Israelites, not merciful. And so, with one parable, Jesus turned this man’s religion upside down, forcing him to look at what his Law really demanded of him: mercy and love toward everyone he encountered on his earthly journey.

And then Jesus spoke those terrifying words: Go and do likewise. What must you “do” to inherit eternal life? This is what the Law of God demands. If you would be saved by that Law-covenant, by doing your part to obey God’s commands, while God does His part to pay you the wages of eternal life, then you must do as the Good Samaritan did, showing genuine mercy at every turn, in every way, with every person, at every opportunity. Not just for injured strangers you come across, but for your parents, for your children, for your husband or wife, for your coworkers, for your friends and acquaintances, for your fellow citizens whom you encounter day after day after day, and also for your enemies. Mercy. Self-less love, love that’s just like the kind of love you would have others show to you. And that’s just what God’s Law requires that you do toward your neighbor. We haven’t even touched on all the things you owe to God directly, to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, to honor His name, to worship Him, and to cherish His Word above all things.

Terrifying, isn’t it? It should be, if you’re honest with yourself. And that’s the point. In fact, that was always the point of the Law, to reveal the sin that already lives inside each of us. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, “The Law was added for the sake of transgressions,” that is, that the Israelites and that all people might have God’s will spelled out for them so that they could see just how much they transgress it. Because sin is there in your heart and in your being, whether you can see it or not. The Law simply reveals it for what it is.

And then, once you’ve been beaten to a pulp by the Law, once it’s left you for dead on the side of the road, unable to lift a finger to save yourself, along comes this Samaritan—the Son of God, true God and true man, though despised by men. He comes along with the very, genuine, heartfelt mercy and compassion that He demands of us, because He made us originally in His image and wanted us to be like Him. But now, having come as a man, the Lord Jesus shows this mercy, not only as our example, but as our Substitute. He gave His life on the cross for us out of mercy, as the payment for our sins. He began to heal us through Holy Baptism, where He forgave us our sins and gave us His Holy Spirit and made us heirs of eternal life—heirs who will inherit eternal life, not by doing the right things, but by believing in the Lord Jesus, who did everything we were supposed to for us, because we couldn’t. How kind the Good Samaritan!

And then, before He ascended to heaven, He put believers into the charge of the “innkeepers,” the ministers whom He has called into His Church, to keep tending to the spiritually wounded, to keep us on the narrow path that leads to life, to spur us on to love and good works, because while we received the forgiveness of our sins in Baptism and live now under God’s grace, we are not yet what we should be, what God is healing us to become: truly good Samaritans whose hearts are as full of mercy for our neighbor as the heart of Jesus Himself was and is.

We call that aspect of healing “sanctification,” the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work of turning believers into the image of Jesus in how we think and in how we live. So the same “go and do likewise” that first was intended to strike terror into the heart of secure sinners becomes, for the believer, our marching orders, to go and be like Jesus. It begins in the heart—hearts that have been renewed and recreated by God’s mercy and grace toward us. And then it extends to our hands and to our whole life. “Go and do likewise.” Go and walk in the footsteps of Christ, with mercy toward your neighbor, toward everyone whom God places next to you on your path through life, until He determines that your time here is done, or until He returns from His “journey,” and He brings you at last into the eternal life that all who persevere in the faith will inherit, not by doing good works under the Old Testament, but by believing in Christ Jesus, who has made us coheirs with Him in the New Testament in His blood. Amen.

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